Darkness was all that could be seen. The young man standing in it just stood there, thinking. He wasn't quite sure if this was real, or if he was just dreaming. Suddenly a light burst through the void, consuming all, even the young man.
Matt woke with a terrible headache. It had been years since he last had one that bad. As he laid where he woke, he reminisced on those few bad occasions, all of them because of school. A sudden realization appeared, it might be a school day. He quickly dismissed the thought, this sort of pain was not something to go to school on. A nagging feeling inside of him told him to get up anyway and go shower.
As Matt brought himself up, he heard a moan. Glancing around, he saw the source. He recognized the man sleeping, but couldn't quite remember who it was. Searching his brain, he tried to remember that hair. He was always able to know people through their hair. It was one of two things he actually bothered paying attention to when observing others. Suddenly it hit him, that was Harris. Harris was an avatar created by one of his friends, so he quickly dismissed the idea. Still, Matt could not shake the feeling that that was Harris. Matt decided that he should wake him and find out.
"Harris, wake up. A wise man once said 'There are better places to take a nap than on the ground, you know.'" Matt saw he was waking up, and prayed that he was better in the morning than his friend.
"*groan* Oh gods, what hit me? And why do I smell grass?"
"Oh good, you're awake. And you don't seem to be wanting to punch me right now. That's a plus. Now get up, we have work to do"
"Wha- oh. Hi stranger. Why would I want to hit you? Wait, did you draw on my face while I was out or something? Cause if you did, I may have to take drastic measures."
"Hey now, let's not get hasty with the fists. Besides, you wouldn't punch a kid with glasses, would you?" Matt reached up and tried to push up the glasses he thought were there. He instead found his finger in one of his eyes. After reflecting on what he said, he winced at pulling the 'kid with glasses' thing.
"Pfft. Nice job. Did you really just pull the whole "kid with glasses" thing? You realise you don't actually have glasses right?"
Returning to a more casual stance, Matt said, "Well, uh.. you see.. I used to have them back sometime ago?" His mind quickly congratulated his real convincing tone.
"Real convincing, that is."
"STOP REPEATING MY BLOODY THOUGHTS, GODS DAMN." Matt stood wide-eyed as he realized he said that out-loud.
"Whoa there buddy, no need for the excess noise. Some people, not mentioning any names, have somewhat sensitive hearing first thing in the morning. Might disturb someone."
"... You know I would just love to make a pun out of what you've said, but your speech seems to form around preventing me. Why would you kill my puns?"
"I've got a friend who constantly makes supremely shit puns. I've evolved my methods of speech to cut those off before they begin."
Matt nods, mentally noting that avatars do indeed catch the personality of their creators. "Oh come on, he can't be that bad." Matt replied knowing full well that those puns were his, and that they were pure gold. He continued, "Maybe you just need to accept that they will happen. Come on, how bad could any one pun be?"
Harris rolls his eyes, "The dastard once made one about Lemons in fanfictions, saying that they're called such because, 'they're so juicy'."
"That's the one you remember from me?! Your memory really isn't good, huh?"
"...from you? Wha- Matt? Holy shit. You look like Quintin. That's why I felt you were familiar."
"I look like Quintin you say? Well, I guess that would be why you took so long to recognise me. Anyway, we should probably get to some town somewhere, eh?"
"I don't know about that. Most people in this universe are what one would call physically fit, and I'd look pretty out of place, what with my flabby self."
"Great news buddy, you got in the same set-up as me. Welcome to the world Harris."
Harris' eyes became roughly the size of a horse's hoof. "Ho-ly shit. So that's why my back wasn't hurting anymore. Wait, does this mean that I'm my current Harris? With limit breaker and all that, and the Wyvern?"
"Welp, I'm going to say the shoulder guard you have, along with the swords strapped to your belt, I'd say you are mercenary. Looks to be iron too, from what I can see. I'd imagine we can't be too OP to start, now can we?" Matt Quintin noted, quickly realizing the fourth wall was now gone.
"Well balls. I was really hoping we didn't have to go through that particular early game grind again. Oh gods what difficulty are we on?"
"Well, since both Quintin and Harris were on hard, we can just hope for that?"
"Gods, I certainly hope so. I've yet to make it past effing southtown on lunatic, and Lunatic+? We might as well save the capped stat risen the trouble and kill ourselves now."
"Speaking of Southtown, we should probably get going. I don't know about you, but I don't have camping supplies. Please tell me you have some sort of gold pouch on you?"
"Eh, let me check."
After some time waiting, Quintin asked, "Well? Anything? Please tell me there's something."
"Uh, let's see… Nope, no, that's most certainly not gold, Oooooh, second seal. Um, oh! Here we go. Three gold."
"Harris, we aren't even in this world for, however long we've been here, and already you are hoarding all that junk. I'm impressed, now let's move out. We should also pray three gold will get us in."
"Hey. It's not junk. It all has sentimental value. Like this rock, It's the first thing that I felt in this world, digging into my back. And this blade of grass, it's… uh… it's… particularly green?"
"... Let's just go. I feel I'll lose the need to slap you if we do that."
"Alright, alright, sheesh. No need for the violence."
The weather was pleasant to walk in. There was a slight breeze, and the sun was out. No clouds were visible, leaving little worry to rain. Harris was focused on something in his pouch, and Quintin left him to it. He was hoping to focus on looking for towns in the distance. Quintin heard a thud. Turning around to investigate, Quintin saw Harris on the ground.
"Gods damn it, I just got here and ALREADY I'M TRIPPING ON SHIT?! I'd have thought the new body would have fixed that particular pro-Oh my gods it's squishy. Why is the thing I tripped on squishy? Quintin, Quintin what the hell did I trip on?!"
"Well, judging from how awfully human this woman is, I'm going to say you tripped on a girl. That probably won't go over well if she wakes up."
The woman Harris tripped on started moving. She seemed troubled that she was just woken up by someone tripping on her. Quintin found her very familiar, similar to the feeling he had when he found Harris. Sitting up, Quintin found her state quite adorable, actually.
"Well I know guys just naturally fall for me, but this is a whole new level."
Quintin suppressed his laughter as Harris groaned.
"Oh gods, not another one. I get enough puns already thank-you-very-much."
Unphased by him, the woman just smiles and bows.
"Why thank you my good man, I do quite think myself a pun-master. Name's Rebecca, by the way."
Quintin suddenly remembers. Rebecca, his first female avatar I made. Long, orange hair, slight build, and a gentle looking face. Me then realized that he just called a female version of himself adorable. Yay narcissism?
"Well hello Rebecca." Quintin searched for the words to say to… himself? "Uh.. care to join us on our grand quest?"
Harris facepalms off to the side, "Real smooth casanova, You've known her for all of what, four minutes and you're already asking her to join us. And what makes you think the girl- I mean, Rebecca, sorry, doesn't have something she needs to do?"
"Uh.. well, I don't really have-"
"shhh, I'm trying to berate him."
"Rebecca, will you just excuse us for one moment." Quintin pulls Harris away and half-whispers to him, "Harris, you do know that she is basically a female me, right? Casanova, really?! Are you trying to say that I would flirt with myself?"
"Yes. To both."
"Well, I'll tell you this now, please, please just don't romance her in anyway. That would get too strange too fast."
"Well, we did talk about what would happen in our old universe if suddenly your body would be replaced by hers. But I guess I can reign in my libido just this once."
"Fantastic, I think. That didn't sound too convincing, but eh." turning back to Rebecca, "Alright Rebecca, shall we hit the road?"
"Ok, just let me grab my stuff."
Rebecca went to pack her things away. Her many, many things. Quintin was actually impressed with the sheer amount of stuff she had. Her collection may even rival Harris'.
"Gods, I think Lydia put up more resistance to joining. Oh well, onward to… wherever we were going!"
Thus, the three adventures left to find some cheap place they could find to stay a night, or even a town for that matter. Not long in the journey, a town was spotted by Quintin. The three rush into town to find a place. Turning to Rebecca, Quintin asks "So, is it safe to assume every town has some form of an inn around here?"
"I… have not the faintest clue. I don't even know where we are at." Rebecca replies after some hesitation
"Well, due to the geography and climate, combined with how the people look, I'd assume we're in Ylisse, as Plegia is more desert-ish, and I've not the slightest clue what Valm looks like, but I'm sure it's less hilly" Harris adds.
"Hey guys! I found an inn, not a terrible name either. Goes by the name of 'Dragon's Roost' and from what I could tell, it was fairly cheap." Quintin runs off in the direction of an older building.
"Heh, 'Dragon's Roost'. I wonder if there'll be any Manaketes?"
The Dragon's Roost was a fairly standard inn, if maybe a little old. There was the innkeeper, manning something that looked similar to a bar, people sitting around at tables, and a few hallways leading into various rooms. As the three walked up, the man at the counter perks up and greets them with a friendly, "What can I fix you with?" Harris snorts, causing a confused look from Rebecca.
Holding back his own chuckle, Quintin replies with, "Well… uh.. we'd like to know the price of two rooms please."
At this the keep nods, "That'll be fifty gold, sir."
"Holy shit." yells the peanut gallery (just Harris).
"Uh, I meant for one night, sorry if I made myself unclear." Quintin replies after recovering.
"Oh I understood good sirs, it's just that we have to be sure only the highest quality of guests stay at our inn." The innkeeper replies, almost as if it was scripted.
At this point, Rebecca walks up. "We'll take it."
Harris and Quintin both jump back, suddenly noticing the rather fat gold purse Rebecca whips out. Turning to the two, Rebecca states, "Oh and by the way, you two are fully paying me back for this."
"Oh of course, thank you Rebecca." Quintin produces an exaggerated bow, then watches as the keeper leads Rebecca to the rooms. He turns to Harris once he was sure Rebecca was out of earshot. "So, you didn't happen to notice what class she was, did you?"
"Not really, I didn't see any defining traits, but I'm going to assume, based on the way she acts, that she'd end up a trickster. I'll go with thief for now, until we get any more evidence."
"Well, that certainly explains that fat sack of gold she was carrying. How about we head in for the night, and we'll make some form of a plan tomorrow, eh?"
"Sounds like a plan. Let's hope we don't get robbed in our sleep, eh?"
"HEY I HEARD THAT!" The two jump at the sound of Rebecca's voice.
"Think she heard the whole thing Harris?"
"Most likely Quintin."
"Beautiful."
With that, all three go to their beds, and pass out.
Harris: If you want a more accurate representation of what the three of us look like, go to my account,(Quintin: the link to his profile is on my profile. He refused to give me the actual link to the characters ) for a link to an imgur gallery containing pictures of us, taken with my super shit res phone camera.