Opening Notes: So guys, I usually don't do an opener, and I want to avoid doing them. But please read the afternotes section at the bottom of this page once you are finished reading. It has a lot of important information that you guys need to know. Thanks guys! Enjoy the content. :D
A Daring Frontier
Chapter 3: One Month
It was truly beautiful. The more I looked at this world, the harder it was to believe it wasn't real, and that this was all in a virtual game. The warm summer wind was something I could actually feel move across the hairs on my arms. As Fern and I traveled west along the road towards Origin Village, we found a bridge that crossed a small river. I decided to take a small break from walking and let her play in the forest stream, giving me time to sit near the bank and watched her happily splashing, a few of the stray water drops landing on my legs. It felt just like real water, cool and refreshing.
"Hey-oh!" a voice called from the bridge, snapping me out of my daze and stopping Fern's splashing. I glanced up at the bridge, where a girl was leaning against the railing looking at us, smiling and waving. A Chikorita was beside them on the wooden railing. "Are you another player too?" they asked.
I stood up as Fern scampered out of the water and up to her usual resting place on my shoulder. "Yeah, we just joined a little over thirty minutes ago. We're on our way to Origin Village!" I said smiling back.
"That's great! I've been worried I was heading the wrong way! Anyways, I'm Sephi," the girl said as she walked across the rest of the bridge to greet us on the riverbank.
"Dare," I said my name to her as I shook her hand.
Sephi seemed to be about my age, a college student. She had long, blonde hair that fell about halfway down her back, and wore the default clothes the girls spawned with: khaki shorts with a blue button down shirt. Her real beauty came from her face, however. She had a fine and delicate look to her eyes and nose, with an inviting smile. With this first human interaction, it made me realize I hadn't yet seen my own physical appearance, since avatar generation was random.
I noticed the Chikorita was still sitting on the wooden railing. "What's wrong with your Chikorita? Doesn't she follow you?"
Sephi looked back at Chikorita on the bridge. "For some reason she's a little shy, I guess. I think it might have to do with her nature," she said walking back towards the grass-type Pokémon.
"Nature?" I raised my eyebrow at her. "Like mother nature? Is that specific to grass-types?"
She laughed. "You don't know what nature is? It's specific to your Pokémon. It affects their strengths and weaknesses, but I heard it also affects how they act in this game, since the Pokémon actually have personalities here. There's twenty-five different natures, and I have a suspicion Chikorita is Timid," Sephi said as she picked up the Chikorita carefully and cradled it in her arms. "She was a little frightened of me when I released her from the pokéball in my spawn area."
As Sephi walked closer with her Chikorita in her arms, the Leaf Pokémon pressed itself against her chest to avoid getting closer to Fern and me. I laughed, and held my hand out for the Chikorita to touch, with a friendly smile to show I didn't mean any harm. It took a few moments of the grass-type scowling at my hand before it finally decided to cautiously lay its leaf on my hand. Sephi smiled as I gained Chikorita's trust. Fern decided to hop off my shoulder and called out to Chikorita a few times, persuading Chikorita to jump out of her own trainer's arms as they went to go play in the river again.
"Do you know what nature my Chimchar is then?" I asked as I watched over the two Pokémon playing together.
Sephi looked at Chikorita and Fern splashing and thought hard for a second. "I honestly wouldn't know. It could be Impish, judging by how it's playing in the water and likes sitting on your shoulder. There's probably a way to check their natures, but I don't know how to yet."
"Hm. Oh well, any information is helpful," I said. "So what do you say we head to Origin Village together?"
Sephi laughed. "Well of course, there's only one way there from here and we've just become friends. It'd be dumb and pointless to decline."
"Good," I smiled. "Fern, we're leaving! We're getting on the road again."
"Chim!" she said happily as her and Chikorita ran over to Sephi and me, and our small group began walking west again. Fern and Chikorita played with each other as we walked, and Sephi decided to start up a conversation.
"So you didn't know what natures were…" Sephi started. "You're not much of a battler are you?"
I laughed at her remark. "Well, I've played a few Pokémon games, but I never got into the competitive side of things. Why?"
"Well it's just that's some of the most basic information in the competitive world of Pokémon. I used to actually go to tournaments a few years ago, and competed for trophies and what not," she replied. "It's fine that you didn't know what the natures were, it just means I'll have to work on you a bit," Sephi teased as she punched me in the arm.
"Whoa," I said surprised as I grabbed my arm, expecting pain.
Sephi burst out laughing at my reaction. "You really haven't played a virtual reality game before! You expected that to hurt?" She held her stomach as her laughing just increased further.
I laughed as well, considering it should have been common sense. "Well excuse me for being the total noob over here, we've all gotta start somewhere!"
Sephi regained her proud posture. "Yeah, well, like I said, I plan on working on you for the next while until you know the ins and outs of battling. Besides, I've always enjoyed teaching others about it."
"Thanks," I said with a smile.
"It doesn't come free, Dare. I expect you to buy me a drink sometime," she said plainly. I couldn't tell if she was serious or joking or what.
"Like in the real world? I'm only twenty…plus we barely met…" I said unsure of myself.
"God, you take me so seriously! It's kind of cute," she laughed again. "But no, I meant in-game. I'm twenty-one, but I choose not to drink."
"Wait, in-game? You can do that?" I raised my eyebrow.
Sephi got an excited look as I brought this up. "Well, since this is your first virtual reality game, I'll explain. There's actually a lot you can do in virtual reality that's just like real life. However there are some differences."
"Sounds complicated…" I said, feeling like I was in school.
"Oh shut up, it's not that bad. When I punched you earlier, it didn't have any pain, did it?" she asked.
I rubbed my arm again where she punched me a few minutes ago. "No, not really. It just felt like a pat."
"Exactly. That's because this isn't a fighting game. Some games turn up the pain sensitivity, but since this is a game many younger kids can play, they turned the pain receptors to the lowest setting," Sephi explained. "But there's more. It started off with adventure games, where you had to eat in-game food every now and then to keep your stats up."
"And they carried the concept over to other games?"
"Correct, again," Sephi smiled. "At first, the food in the games didn't have flavor, and didn't fill you up since it wasn't real food. Well, it still doesn't fill you up physically, for obvious reasons, but the idea of eating flavorless food got old fast. After awhile, the developers of the TechSens decided to make a flavor database that was universal to every virtual reality game. Then, like you said, it became so popular that they added foods and drinks to games that didn't even require eating, like Pokémon Frontier."
I was quiet for a second as I thought about everything she'd said. "How do you know so much about this?"
"Just been playing games for awhile, I guess. It comes in handy to know this stuff," Sephi replied.
"Fair enough. Well, if you insist, I will buy you a drink some time in the future, then," I laughed.
"I'll hold you to it," she said happily as if she was a little girl getting her way. "Hey, I think I see the town up ahead…"
Sure enough, about fifty meters ahead of us, the forest thinned out a bit and a few cabins with a faint orange glow of lanterns could be seen.
"Race you to it!" I said as I began sprinting towards the village.
"Not fair! You have to let me know before you start!" Sephi laughed as she struggled to catch up, Fern and Chikorita right behind her.
As we neared the front of the village, we slowed our pace down to a walk again. Our faces lit up as we took in everything around us.
Origin Village was a welcoming sight, with medium-sized log cabins and oil street lamps all around gave the town a humbling feeling. The town was decent sized, but it wasn't big by any means. There was a small fountain in the middle of the village, with a sculpture of Celebi in the middle, and a few flower beds held in wooden planters surrounded the path and fountain. The road we had followed had turned into a stone paved path, instead of the beaten dirt we had walked previously. A couple spruce trees were spread out between the cabins here and there as a final touch. Several players could be seen around, each with their starter Pokémon near them. There was laughter and happiness all around, practically radiating from the area.
"This place is gorgeous, and it's only a beginning town," I said as Fern helped herself up to my shoulder to get a better view of everything.
"Seeing this just makes me even more excited to explore the rest of this world to see what other towns are like," Sephi added as we neared the fountain in the middle of Origin Village. "I don't even know where to begin here."
"I already know!" I excitedly said as I ran over to one of the windows of the cabins. I wasn't interested in what was actually inside the cabin, though. Then I saw it.
My reflection staring back at me in the glass. All I wanted was to see how I looked now, with the random avatar generation.
I had dark hair, almost black, yet it had a small hint of blue, and it fell to about an inch above my eyebrows, which were the same color. I raised my hand up to touch my forehead, then up to feel my new hair. It felt thick, and was a mix between straight and wavy. It was just how I had my hair in real life. My eyes were a deep blue, and looked fierce, yet inviting at the same time. They weren't the eyes I was used to looking back at me in the mirror at home. My nose was still the slightly larger nose that I had in real life.
Altogether, I was happy with my character. I smiled with content, still looking at myself in the reflection.
"Is that really what I look like?" Sephi said to herself next to me, as she was also looking at her reflection.
I laughed. "Is that a problem? You look great. At least you have a natural hair color."
She laughed as well. "It's not a bad thing, I just look somewhat similar to how I do in real life."
"Really?" I asked. "A lot of my features are the same to my real body, too…"
Sephi turned and raised her eyebrow mockingly. "Okay, Mr. blue hair," she said, teasing.
"Whatever, I'm happy with the way I look," I said happily. "So what should we do first here? Visit a shop?"
"Actually, I have to log off here for the night… I have finals tomorrow, so I need to get some sleep since it's already late here," she said sadly. "But hey, add me as a friend? We can meet up tomorrow, about 12:00 PM Eastern?"
"Sure thing," I smiled as I pressed the mail icon on my HUD near the bottom left corner. I typed out her name and selected the option to send a friend request, and pressed the send button.
I watched her as she pressed the invisible buttons on her own HUD, and I got a notification saying she'd accepted the friend request a few moments later.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye for now," Sephi said. "Remember, 12pm. Don't be late!"
I smiled. "Deal. Thanks for helping me, Seph. You're actually pretty cool."
She smiled back at my words. "You're welcome, and you're not too bad yourself, kiddo. I'll catch you tomorrow," she said as she pressed a few more buttons on her HUD and her avatar started vanishing with bright white pixels as she logged out.
I looked at my reflection again as I was now alone, and smiled at Fern who was also looking at me in the reflection from my shoulder. I smiled at her. "Alright Fern, I've gotta log off here too. We're going to go on an adventure tomorrow."
"Chimchar?" she questioned, as if not understanding.
"I've gotta go for now! I'll be back tomorrow, but I need some actual sleep in the real world," I explained. "But don't worry, I promise I'll be here tomorrow."
Fern put on a toothy grin and nodded. I let her hop off my shoulder and I smiled down at her as I navigated my HUD to find the logout button. "Until tomorrow, Fern."
Everything was black, as the logout finished, and I could feel that I'd returned back to real life. I checked the digital clock sitting on my desk. 1:17 AM.
'Crazy to think that was all only an hour or two,' I thought as I laid on my bed in the real world and took the TechSens off my head, setting the headset next to the clock on the desk, and turned off the console for the TechSens.
"Darren, you in there?" a girl's voice called from the other room. None other than my older sister, Estée. She was only older by two years, but felt she always needed to prove to me she was smarter and how I needed to grow up.
We'd lived together for a few years, since I wasn't ever truly happy at home with our parents. She moved out for college three years ago when she was eighteen, and decided to take me with her. Our parents weren't mean or anything, they were actually very loving. I had always been close to my sister, regardless of her annoying attitude, and wanted to go with her.
"Yeah, I'll be there in a sec," I called back, standing up and heading out to the kitchen. "What's up?"
Estée was sitting on the couch across the room from the kitchen. As usual, with all her makeup and what not, giving her the classic look of college prep girl.
"Well, we need to talk. You need to pick it up around here, go out and get a job, go to school, or something. I can't keep working for the both of us so you can sit home and play video games all day," she said with her arms folded. "You've been graduated for a little over a year now, and still haven't even looked at colleges."
I sighed and looked at the floor as I tried to hide rolling my eyes. "I know, I'm sorry, I'll go out and get a job soon. Okay?"
"I expect you to get one by the end of the month," she said.
"Estée! Not many places around here are even hiring right now!" I complained as I looked back up at her.
"I've cut you enough slack, Darren. You need to be thinking about your future and taking care of yourself," Estée replied. "The first step is making an effort. You need to be a least doing that, and then I'll be at least a little satisfied and won't get on your back as much about it."
"I'll try…" I said. She wasn't done yet, I don't think.
"Onto the next subject," she continued.
Yup, there it is.
"Have you heard about these virtual reality games they've been coming out with?" she said.
"Yeah, why?" I asked cautiously.
She took a sip of her lemon water in front of her and set it back down on the table. "Well, don't play them. I know you enjoy video games a lot, and those are addicting as is. A virtual reality can suck you in and feel like a real world, almost even replacing the real world. It makes you feel like it's real, when it's not."
Definitely wasn't going to mention I'd been playing Pokémon Frontier for the last while… "Alright, I'll avoid them," I said bitterly.
"Good," she said, content with herself. "Remember, a month for me to see improvement. That room could be used for someone in college who needs a place to stay and will actually help contribute to the bills."
"I know," I said. I didn't fully like it, but I understood where she was coming from.
"All right, you may go now. I'm going to bed," she said, getting up and taking down her hair as she walked off to her bedroom. "Love you."
"You, too," I replied as I began pulling out a pot to start making myself some ramen.
It was going to be a long month.
Afternotes: YAY LONG AFTERNOTE TIME! Thanks for all the feedback from the last chapter! It's totally renewed my interest in continuing this. In fact, totally got me to make a whole notebook with dedicated to helping me organize this. Information on the world in where Pokémon Frontier is set, character backgrounds, full plot planning, etc. Maybe I will eventually make a blog site for posting all this information that I'm putting together, if that would be something people want.
A few of you left very good reviews, but there was one that gave me a lot of constructive criticism, which I wholeheartedly support. So OneFineDaze, thanks for that review. They suggested I try to find a way to describe the world and the virtual reality aspect of things a bit differently, as they might be a little confusing right now and hard to understand. I'll be trying to add in a few elements or change up some things with my writing style for this in the next coming weeks/months. Hopefully the results are good.
Recently, one of my readers has private messaged me and offered to make me a cover image for A Daring Frontier. I don't want to give any names out until it's a for sure thing, but I'm super excited any of you would even offer to do this for me, especially so early in the writing, and it's one of the reasons why I'm now trying so hard to make sure this is the hardest I've tried when it comes to writing.
Anyways, thanks again to everyone who has supported me in writing this. I hope to continue to please you readers. If you have any tips for what I could work or improve on, please leave a review! It only takes a minute and makes my day knowing people are reading my content. YOU are who I write for, and I crave your feedback. Thanks for reading!
