MY ONE-SHOTS
Summary: A what-if that hit me when writing the next chapter of Tyria's Real!?
Chapter six: The Veil's Plot
Author's Notes:
I was writing chapter nineteen of Tyria's Real!? and this jumped out at me. Hope you enjoy!
You won't understand this unless you've read at least the first ten or so chapters of that story, and you shouldn't read it unless you've read chapter nineteen.
I will be heavily referencing Harry Potter in the beginning, just please note I do not own the Harry Potter universe or anything... or the Guild Wars universe, for that matter. Why haven't I said that yet? Oh well. I said it now.
And anything Deborah says about anything post-HoT you can ignore. I made it up.
Okay, here's the story now:
"Life." Tiffany says. "Why? Why us? Nobody else has been pulled in."
"Aaand the possibilities are endless," Fiona nods. "Once you say that, anything could have happened.
"Did you say 'pulled in'?" Deborah asks, poking her head in the door.
Tiffany freezes. Fiona freezes. "Wh-what?" Tiffany manages.
"Pulled in, as in taken out of your previous life and dumped into something else?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Tiffany says quickly. Too quickly.
"As in, you knew of this world before you came here, and then you came some years in the past? I have caught snippets of your conversation, and then you go quiet and glance around, hoping nobody heard."
Tiffany and Fiona glance at each other, panicked.
"I've been looking for somebody else," Deborah tells them. "I've been looking and looking for somebody else."
"Deborah? What are you talking about?" Fiona manages.
"How long has it been for you? It's been a year or two for me. I've dropped some hints."
"How long since what?" Tiffany asks, determined to make Deborah say it before she mentions anything.
"Since the 'pulled in'." Deborah says, coming and closing the door.
"Pulled in from where?" Tiffany asks.
"You said something," Deborah says, changing the subject - or so it seems. "When the letter from the White Mantle came. A bird brought it in. A small one. Really small. I admit, I like naming things, mentally. I named it Pigwidgeon."
"You're mental," Tiffany says, quoting Ron. "Why would you name it that? I'll not refer to it as... Pigwidgeon. I'll call it Pig."
"Tiffany?" Fiona asks warily.
"Ever heard the theory about the Veil?" Deborah presses, desperate. "That it takes people to... to alternate universes?"
"Several times," Tiffany whispers. Then, her eyes widen. "The Veil. The Veil. Fiona, a veil is made of cloth. The map was made of cloth."
"You think - ?"
"The curtain that divided my bedroom was cloth," Deborah tells the two.
"Prove it," Tiffany says, whispering still. "Prove it happened to you, too."
Deborah blows a bit of hair out of her face and thinks. "Hmm. Guild Wars 2. Arenanet. Character selection. Race selection. I bet everyone who's done this is a human, because humans are familiar. You?"
Tiffany looks at Fiona with wide eyes. "Trahearne is the Marshal of the Pact. The Commander deals the finishing blow to both Zhaitan and... and Mordremoth."
"What she's avoiding saying is that she also dealt the finishing blow to Trahearne," Fiona inserts.
"She did?" Deborah asks.
"Although we've changed things," Tiffany says, "The Hero of Shaemoor still becomes the Advocate of the Crown, and later a member of one of the Orders, before becoming Commander."
"No, I know that, but what about Fiona?"
"She... she never played that far. But she knows. She knows nearly everything I know." Tiffany explains. "She's only... we just told you the Priory and Vigil level forty quest, but Fiona's not played the level 50 one. I've only finished Heart of Thorns, plus that Glint's egg hatches as Aurene, and from the titles of the Path of Fire and Living World, I assume that both Primordus and Jormag will be fought - and perhaps killed - in those episodes or expansions."
"I found somebody," Deborah says happily. "I've been alone. None of my friends and family played before I was pulled in. I never talked much about it, since they wouldn't care."
"Hey, she's more considerate than you are, Tiffany," Fiona says. "She talks and talks and talks and the whole family knows a ton about it, even though me and her are the only ones who play very much." she glances at Tiffany, then back at Deborah. "Even our friends and extended family know she had to kill Trahearne."
"Don't mention it - not here," Tiffany says. "Please. I don't - I don't want to mess up the story that way."
"You've already messed it up a bit, I imagine," Deborah says. "What've you done?"
"Destiny's Edge," Tiffany smirks. "I quoted Caithe, Eir, and Rytlock in front of Logan."
"You what?" Deborah asks, stunned. "You quoted Rytlock in front of Logan, at this point in the storyline?"
"Yep," Tiffany says proudly. "And he doesn't know I did it on purpose. I also scolded the Order representatives about quarreling and being mean to each other. And I did not mention once about the leader of the Renegades being Almorra's son. I never liked that about my character, that part always embarrassed me."
"But they weren't real, then," Deborah whispers. "Were they?"
"To me, they were," Tiffany says, sinking to a whisper as well.
"Same here."
"I don't... entirely believe that," Fiona adds. "I believe it now, of course. I just didn't then."
"I understand. Maybe the... the Veil... only brings in people who belive that, and brought you in as well."
"Maybe."
"What are you going to do about the dragons?" Petra asks.
"I'm going to tell Trahearne - once we meet him and form the Pact and everything, of coure - well, not tell, more ask - what sort of minions Zhaitan has. Once we have all that written down, I'll glance over the list and comment how he has no air minions. No flying minions, except his champions. Trahearne's smart, he'll get it."
"And Mordremoth?"
"Oh, I'm going to remark that there can't be a one-solution-fits-all quick-kill switch for the Elder Dragons, don't you think?"
"Good. How long has it been since you came?"
"Level one, centaurs attack Shaemoor," Tiffany says. "Basic timing, you know, for the main character of a game. So, a month or two. A third of a season."
"Ooh, yeah," Deborah says. "I always liked our calendar better than the Mouvelian calendar."
"Yep."
"So you haven't had any contact with Earth for years?" Fiona asks.
"No, none. I bet you haven't, either."
"Actually..." Tiffany says. "Phillipe, Joslyn, Tangwen, Falcon, and Harrison are all our family and friends."
Deborah's eyes get wide. "Really?"
"Yep. Also Nate and Eden. We have another little sister and brother - Vinn and Laura - but they're too little to play."
"How?"
"They logged on and found us. We could see the PCs until 'level' ten," Tiffany makes quote marks in the air with her fingers on the word 'level'.
"Story-wise... hey, that was the day we finished Commander Serentine," Fiona says, realizing.
Tiffany groans and buries her head in her hands.
"What's the matter, Tiffany?" Deborah asks.
"I fricking hate how the word 'commander' keeps getting thrown in my face. I'm so used to 'Commander' being me that I have such a hard time keeping my face calm whenever it's mentioned. Dear me. With my luck, by the time I am actually a Commander I'll be used to ignoring it when the word is mentioned."
"Oh. Ouch. I'd finished everything that'd come out, and I hadn't been commander for ages when I was pulled in."
"That's one thing that's always been kinda weird for me," Fiona inserts. "Not being Commander."
"I read the wiki a little bit ahead," Tiffany explains. "In my words, they ask you if you want to be the Marshal - since Trahearne is dead and you're next in the chain of command - but it'll be a laid-back position, mostly doing stuff like paperwork since it'd terrible for morale to have another Marshal die, and you say 'nah, I'll stay on the field,' and they say 'okay, somebody else can be the Commander then.' And then you go and form Dragon's Watch."
"Pretty much," Deborah agrees.
"I also hated some things about Dragon's Watch. The wiki says you don't even invite Caithe and Zojja, and that Logan declined."
"Caithe stole the egg and ran off with it," Deborah says, as if it were obvious. "You can't trust her after that."
"Really?" Tiffany asks. "I never played LS2, but I'd never deny Caithe a chance to join Destiny's Edge 2.0. And what about Zojja?"
"You do know you're saying the name wrong, right?" Deborah asks. "It's a softer 'je' sound. Zo/je/."
"I know," Tiffany says frustratedly. "But I suppose sometime I forgot, or somthing, and took to calling her Zoga, because that's how it looks like it's pronounced from the spelling. And then I heard them say Zo/je/ in the game, and I was like 'oh no!' Oh well, Zo/je/ is too weird, I'll continue saying Zoga."
"That's crazy."
"I know it is. Zoga just sounds more like Zojja than Zo/je/ does. And guess what? There is one letter that, for the life of me, I can't write in cursive, and it's a capital Z. It looks more like a J. I can read it properly, but it's really weird. Anyway, why wasn't Zojja invited to join Dragon's Watch?"
"She's in the same condition as Logan," Deborah explains. "She can't, really."
"They never gave her a chance," Tiffany mutters. "She can make her own decision, same as Logan did."
"Why are we aruging about things that no longer matter?" Fiona asks. "We're here, and we can change it."
"Right," Tiffany says, her face lighting up. "And Eir won't die either - so there won't be any reason to make a Dragon's Watch. I never understood why we made a whole separate group when the only thing was that Eir died and we wanted more people."
"Oh, it was going to be Destiny's Edge, but then Logan declined and Caithe and Zojja weren't in, and only Rytlock of the original DE was in, so they changed the name. Even Braham wasn't in."
"Yeah, I never understood him," Tiffany says. "I mean, I probably agree with him, whatever the 'disagreement' about 'honoring the original DE' was, it was probably something like 'let's go kill Jormag first'."
"It was."
"So why the heck don't we agree with him? Isn't Jormag also awake at the time? Him and one other?"
"Because you put Jormag back to sleep again, really soon." Deborah says. "You didn't want to deal with two dragons at once."
"Why not put the other dragon back to sleep?"
"I don't know!" Deborah says, shrugging.
"It doesn't matter," Fiona sighs again.
"Right." Tiffany says. "Wait - a year or two? You were captured by bandits that whole time?"
"Yep," Deborah grimaces.
"Ouch." Fiona agrees.
"It's about time for them to log on," Tiffany says. "To Shaemoor."
Three puffs of blue.
"You know, I'm just so glad the waypointing system stayed," Tiffany remarks.
"Oh, yes," Fiona agrees fervently. "Oh, and Deborah, do you know if Tyrians have sandpaper?"
"Sandpaper?" Deborah echoes. "Sure. The bandits used it a lot."
"Darn it," Tiffany facepalms. "All that trouble to avoid mentioning it..."
"Now that is a story I simply must hear," Deborah says, amused.
"Later. Look, there's Falcon." Tiffany points.
"Falcon!" Fiona shouts.
Then, Tangwen appears in a puff of blue. "Hey, Tiff, Fi, Deborah. Phillipe and Joslyn will be here in a minute. They're kept late in Ebonhawke."
"Good cover story, by the way, Tiffany," Deborah tells her.
"Tiffany?" Tangwen asks.
"Deborah's like us!" Fiona says. "She got pulled in, too."
"Really? When did that happen?"
"Years ago. We have been, apparently, dropping a couple hints."
"Nothing that would get noticed by somebody who hadn't been pulled in," Deborah assures them. "Just things like how you seemed to know all about that White Mantle stuff, you know?"
"Ah. Oh did you play a human back then?"
"Yep. Ironic, isn't it. I chose the 'lost sister' option, and then I become the lost sister."
"Oh, wow," Fiona says.
"I know, right?"
"I wonder who else is out there that we haven't found."
"Probably more minor characters," Deborah says.
"Why were we chosen to be the player, then?" Fiona asks.
"Perhaps there is also 'players' for the other races, as well."
"They would have come to the Destiny's Edge meeting," Tiffany says.
"They had that already?"
"Yeah, the day we met Forgal and Sieran," Fiona nods. "Logan took Tiffany's quotes and made them something awesome.
"He only accused Rytlock of anything once, near the middle when Rytlock wasn't listening. And he brought up the 'Snaff wouldn't have wanted this' trump card. It even seemed to help Zojja."
"That's how it happened originally," Deborah says. "Now, I believe we're ignoring your friends and family."
"Okay, let me introduce them properly," Tiffany says. "This is Tangwen, our best friend and neighbor. That is Falcon, my little brother. Oh, and here are my parents, and Harrison, who's the next little brother, and Nate, who's the next little brother. Is Eden coming?"
"Tiffany," Joslyn says, glancing at Deborah.
"Hint!" Deborah says. "You always glance at me whenever you suddenly stop talking, before starting again."
"We'll cut down on that," Tiffany says. "Can't let others see that."
"She's seeing it," Joslyn says nervously.
"She got pulled in to, a couple years ago."
"Oh. Phillipe is helping Eden, she's having connection problems," Joslyn says, addressing the original question. "If you notice, Phillipe isn't moving. He's standing here like a rock."
"I see," Deborah says. "I wonder what anomalies you can get up to as players that we can't."
"We can walk through each other," Harrison says, running through Joslyn.
Tiffany, Fiona, and Deborah wince. "That looks too creepy," Deborah says. "Seriously, that is weird."
"You haven't experienced weird around me yet?" Tiffany asks incredulously.
"She has, she just doesn't classify it as weird anymore. She's used to it, and moved up her bar for weird."
"Aw, man!" Tiffany grumbles. "Oh, do any of you mind looking up Deborah's family? They might have an ad out looking for her or something. You could tell them to log on if they want to see her."
"It's been years, don't bother," Deborah says. "My family now is Andrew, Petra, and you two."
"You sure?" Tiffany asks. "I sure would be devastated if we didn't have our family here."
"You left out Tangwen," Deborah points out.
"Pffft. She's pretty much family. She's like the only one who's not family to show up to the birthday parties, and I always include her in my definition of 'family'."
"That's nice." Deborah says.
"It's a fact," Tiffany says. "Not to mention I've known her since I was, like, one. Anyway, the point is, I'd be devastated if they weren't here. I'm already twitching to see Laura and Vinn, I haven't seen them in a month or two. It's not like even if they do log on I'll recognize them, you can't create a baby character."
"I could have them talk into the microphone," Phillipe suggests as Eden appears. "Er..." he says, glancing at Deborah.
"It's alright, she got pulled in, too." Tiffany says.
"Oh, neat."
"That would be wonderful, if we could hear them," Fiona beams.
"Okay, I'll get Laura, she's right here." Joslyn says. "Hey Laura, you want to make some baby noises? ... Fuun!"
"Oh wow, that is weird." Tiffany says. "Two voices coming out of one person. Especially when said person looks like Mom with Laura's voice coming out."
"Hii!" says Phillipe.
"Oh, that's so cool, they're both learning to talk," Fiona says delightedly.
Author's Notes:
How do you like it? It won't happen in the original story - that would just be too much of a headache - but it wrote itself and I wanted to post it.
And I really do say 'Zojja' wrong. Rofl.
Review if you want something like this to actually happen.
Read and review!