Disclaimer: I don't own .hack. I do, however, own Mockery.
Interlude One: The Nowhere Kid
"You shouldn't buy it. It will rot your brain and then where will you be?" Her mother's heavy Spanish accent gives the words individuality, a quality of life never used by the Americans. Before she learned to be ashamed of her heritage, she would have given anything to have that accent. But she is stuck with her father's accent, her fathers' looks; pale as death with a willowy East Coast accent to boot.
As she holds the box in front of her, examining it like a priceless heirloom, her mother clucks her tongue and shakes her head like a tree in the wind. "¿Mi hija, qué yo haré con usted?"
The girl simply smiles. "Mama, this won't rot my brain." With a fingernail painted a brilliant orange she points to the name of the product: 'The World' is displayed in large bold text. Under it is an odd picture of a holographic sphere surrounded by golden runes. On the left-hand side of the box is a slightly bloody sword. "It's just a role-play game. It won't cause me any harm."
"I still say don't buy it. You'll play it for two months and tire of this...this 'World'. You shouldn't waste your pay on such things!"
She takes her mother's advice with a grain of salt, already heading towards the counter to purchase the game. She already has a Virtual-Reality helmet at home, her brother having bought it for her for Christmas. They had been plotting this behind their parents' backs for months now, ever since The World had reached celebrity proportions. They would share the helmet, they would share the computer, and for once they would agree to share Internet time.
For 49 dollars and 99 cents, the girl has bought her ticket to another world, another dimension as real as the next one. Why, some say you could even feel pain in The World! She doesn't feel apprehension; it's a virtual game, as 'real' as ghosts and werewolves. The un-real couldn't hurt those who lived in the real.
And as her mother spouts off to her in Spanish about her throwing hard-earned money away, she grins.
~*****~
"I don't like it."
The girl blinks and gazes upward from her book as her brother throws down the controller in a quiet rage. His skin was dark like her mothers, but his eyes were blue, taking away from his almost-foreign looks. She debates whether to speak up and decides for it, "What don't you like, Blake?"
"The controls! The controls are all screwed." He runs a hand through his coal-black hair and glares at the screen as if it has insulted him. "I've died three times because of these sucky controls!"
"Maybe you're just bad at it." At her brother's evil-eye stare she sinks back into book like quicksand.
"Why don't you try it, then?" It's more of a command than a challenge. She sighs, drops the book like a heavy stone and stomps over to the computer console. In one swift motion she dons the VR Helmet and picks up the controller, looking down at Blake, "Okay, I will."
~*****~
The first time Gating In is like something she'd never want to experience again. It was the excitement of knowing there was something new ahead, something wonderful...and there was also the apprehension of what lay beyond the log-in screen.
She chose the name 'Mockery' partly out of spite towards Blake. She'd certainly make his time on The World look like a mockery. Even if she were a novice at Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, she'd beat Blake or die trying.
It turned out that she died multiple times, as she had chosen 'WaveMaster' as her class.
The other reason behind the name was the fact that she wanted to be something different, something more than the many slack-jawed idiots who had joined The World. She wanted people to be the tiniest bit frightened of her odd infatuation towards the colors blue and gray, towards keeping behind the crowds as if because of her silent apprehension.
She was a pale young thing, keeping to her real world appearance more than she'd like. Her hair was a bit longer, yes, but it was still black as night; her eyes glimmered a bit more but they were still their dull brown. Her garb, a gray dress with several navy-blue spirals at its edge was generally very plain; the sleeves looked like they had been cut off and tied to just above her elbows with blue ribbon. On her left shoulder was an odd half-triangle blue mark with a simple dot at its middle.
She kept her avatar simple, but not her fighting strategy. Mockery found that if you cast a spell on a monster, ran back about two feet, cast another spell and ran back, the creature would follow you and get nixed in the process. It was a macabre monster parade, with Repth constantly being cast. In three hours she had died nine times but gained five levels out of it.
Taking a break from the fields and parade slaughter, she sat near the murky canal of Mac Anu, noting its similarities to the famous Venice, Italy. When it came right down to it The World was just a similar copy of reality. Its blueprints, its fact and fiction were all based in the world everyone called real. It was depressing, sort of-she had purchased The World not only for her brother but also for an escape from the normalcy of reality.
There could honestly be no difference between this world and the next. It was all how you perceived it. Mockery glanced around, saved her game, and logged off.
Five days passed. It only took five days for The World as she would know it to come undone.
~*****~
I asked Mia about her real life a lot. She didn't seem to mind telling me about herself; she was a lonely 20-something with nothing to do besides get an education and play The World. She told me that she had a hacker friend in her AP English class that had given her the patch for her illegal character skin, and that if I wanted one she could get it. I declined, though I did respect her offer.
Mia said that she was majoring in Psychology with a minor in English. She said she loved to write, especially about her adventures in 'The World'. She never showed me any of her stories; I assumed she didn't want to be judged by her writings, so I didn't pry. Often she would say she had to write a paper for her Psych class and she wouldn't be logging on for a while.
How could I have known that all she told me were lies? I was devoted to her, despite our age difference. She could do no wrong.
When she started acting addle-brained, I began to doubt her life. But still, some part of me held onto the hope that a person in the real world liked me for me.
It blind-sided me.
~*****~
She wonders what it's like, this living in another world business that many players prattle on about. Mother tells her that living in two places at once is the norm for them; it's how they survive.
"It's like killing monsters and players for me, Macha. They have to or else they have no purpose. Without a purpose, people begin to forget...just like you did. If they didn't live in two realities they would have no means of survival."
Somewhere in the recesses of her mind, Mia realizes that killing her fellow players is wrong. She can't explain this to Mother of course; she'd be yelled at, forced to kill more innocent lives here in her reality. Anyway, it's a vague notion at best. Mother wants her to do player kills, and who would dare speak against Mother?
Kite would. That insolent twin blade, the one with the devil bracelet. The fur on the back of her neck stands on end and she glances around Carmina Gadelica in a panic, as if looking for him.
"Calm yourself Macha, calm. He is busy fighting your big brother! Your big, strong brother." The confidence in her voice soothes Mia though she lets out a small whimper, stepping backwards from the Chaos Gate and into the border of the bridge. "Peace, Macha, peace. Magus will not lose easily to our enemies." Though Mother seems sure of herself, Mia cannot help but feel apprehension. Something will go wrong, she isn't sure what, but something will go wrong.
Fifteen minutes pass and then it hits her; the high-pitched scream of Mother reeling in loss. Mia winces and falls to her knees, blade clattering next to her legs as she clamps her paws up to her ears. The buildings around her slowly begin to decay, looking as if they are being eaten by the zeros and ones of binary code. And Mother sobs, and sobs. The high-pitched frequency explodes within Mia, and she feels her mind unlocking memories never meant to see the light of day again.
She blacks out as Mother screams curses at the twin blade and his horrible friends who have killed Magus. The last thing she remembers are the screams.
~*****~
A/N: Dundundun... I know you're all wondering, 'What does Mockery have to do with any of this?' Don't worry. Her interludes will be explained. :D
R/R!