1 - Silver

Rowan meets an angel.

WARNING: This story will eventually contain a bisexual three-way relationship between two men and a woman.

 

*

 

"But it's my turn!"

 

The scream was loud enough to shatter glass. But Rowan Winchester had suffered it his entire life and simply bore it with gritted teeth. "I bought this visor with my own money, which means your turn is nonexistent, sis."

 

"But you let me use it before! Why are you being so mean now?"

 

Rowan's reason was singing a siren's song from his pocket. Aeon, an expansive MMORPG, was a breakthrough in VR gaming. With sensory input at 99.999%, it was as close to reality as the virtual world could be. And though he felt a bit bad about denying the little sister he loved, Rowan wanted in. Now.

 

When Karen grabbed the visor and yanked, he was taken by surprise but managed to hang on with his fingertips. Of course, he wasn’t expecting Karen to let go, so the visor hit the ground with a heart stopping crack. While Rowan gaped, his sister stomped off in that way only 12-year-olds could. Crouching down, he cradled the visor to his chest and ran the built-in self diagnostic. It came back with a clean bill of health.

 

In less than a minute, the game chip was in place, the visor was lowered over his eyes, and the door was locked. Settling back onto his bed, Rowan dialed in a 9am wake up, laid back, and slipped into another world.

 

*

 

The world was white and endless and empty.

 

Until the NPC popped out of nowhere. Rowan waved cheerfully.

 

‘I’m here to tell you about Aeon’s number one rule: You may only create one character. You cannot delete it. You cannot remake it. So take care, and have a great day!’

 

Then the NPC was gone and a selection screen took its place. Rowan tilted his head back and considered. This certainly changed things. Instead of creating a rough avatar and jumping right in, he’d have to actually think about it. And then he noticed the sliders.

 

So he had to make a one-time only character completely from scratch, without ever having played the game.

 

This was gonna take a while.

 

*

 

A while turned about to be two hours.

 

When Rowan finished, he was staring at a duplicate of himself. There was only one choice left: his race. 10 options.

 

Rowan didn’t hesitate at all. He pressed ‘Lambent Elf’ and watched the duplicate shift.

 

Oh my god, he thought. Karen is going to kill me.

 

*

 

The next time Rowan opened his eyes, he was lying in a glade.

 

Sunlight trickled through branches. The grass prickled through his clothes. Clouds drifted overhead and the breeze was cool on his skin.

 

Rowan Winchester was in love.

 

He swayed to his feet in lazy contentment, back arched in a yawn. Fingers trailed over his belt, settling on the knife and slipping in free. It was a classic starter weapon, and he twirled it easily. Then he brought up his stats with a short message.

(Name - Argent. Health - 100/100. Strength - 7/10. Agility - 10/10. Intelligence - 8/10. Charisma - 3/10. Durability - 6/10.)

 

Low charisma was a fine trade for high agility. Pleased with his stats, Rowan scanned through for the one thing that bothered.

 

(Height - 5’3”)

 

...Ah. Next time, less enthusiastic flailing, okay self?

 

*

 

After rifling through his three belt pouches and finding only a low level health potion, a few rice cakes, and a map, Rowan set off for the nearest village. He set a slow pace, because no matter how eager he'd been earlier, actually being here was something else entirely. He was hardly new to VR gaming, but every other world had felt stiff in comparison.

 

This was what real felt like. Only it was better, because no matter how far from the cities you got, they were still there, towering in the distance. Here, there were only mountains.

 

The village was as lovely as the rest. It was brown and gold and bustling, though it

did smell a bit ripe. Cows that smelled like cows!

 

A swinging sign caught Rowan's attention. The Job Description sounded like the place he needed. He walked in, smiling at the pretty NPC behind the counter. With a warm greeting, she asked what profession he'd be interested in. Rowan told her he had no idea.

 

At least, he tried.

 

*

 

Rowan sat up and pulled off his visor. There was a holophone on his bedside table, and he didn’t hesitate to dial in the VisTech number. A few seconds later, a small image flickered to life above the machine.

 

“How can I help you?”

 

“I think, no wait, I know there’s something wrong with my visor.”

 

“Can you give me the serial number? I’ll run a scan.”

 

While she did that, Rowan described what had happened.

 

“You couldn’t talk? At all?” the tech asked. Rowan watched her eyebrows vanish into a tangle of bangs.

 

“Nope. Not a sound.”

 

“That’s...ah. The scan came back. One of the data chips is shattered, a problem not big enough for the self diagnostic to pick up. The good news is, it can be fixed.”

 

“And the bad news?”

 

“Your warrantee’s expired.”

 

Rowan blinked. “Well damn.”

 

*

 

It was the next afternoon before Rowan got the chance he needed. His mother was in the kitchen, deftly chopping vegetables, frying chicken, and baking a cake all at once.

 

“Hey mom, the food coming along alright?”

 

“Mhm.”

 

“Have a good day at work?”

 

“Mhm.”

 

“Can I have a new visor?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“Ahh, mom!” Rowan hurriedly stuck on his most adorable pouty look.

 

Rowan’s mother turned to face him, wiping her hands on a towel as she did so. Unfortunately, she was completely unimpressed.

 

“I’m your mother. That makes immune to any cute things you might pull.”

 

“Shouldn’t it be the other way around? As the woman who so kindly brought me

into this world, you’re supposed to melt at your lovely son’s begging face.”

 

“No.”

 

*

 

“Hey dad…”

 

“Absolutely not.”

 

“Buh!”

 

“No.”

 

“Pouty face?”

 

“No!”

 

*

 

Any and all attempts having failed, Rowan gave up and decided being mute really

wasn’t so bad.

 

So after much delay, he was finally going to play.

 

The forest surrounding the newbie village he’d logged out of was teeming with low level monsters, mostly large worms.

 

Despite being low level, they were pretty quick to burrow into the ground at the slightest chance of attack. Rowan lost the first one, and the second, but for very different reasons. When the first had vanished as he’d leapt at it, Rowan had hidden in the undergrowth to stalk the next. A worm appeared, and he’d inched towards it, silent, before crouching into a runner’s pose and pushing forward. Instead of killing the worm, he’d ended up face-planting into a tree trunk. Rowan had

underestimated his speed.

 

Well, that’s new, he thought.

 

*

 

In every VR game he’d played before, the abilities had just been there. You chose them from a list and simply activated them by calling out the attack name. But in Aeon, it seemed that even the base abilities took some getting used to.

 

What’s it gonna be like when I learn actual spells? Will I have to train? Once again, 99.999% realism rocks all.

 

After a few practice runs, Rowan learned to lessen the speed a bit. Though he wanted to see what else he was capable of, Rowan also wanted to level. Since this game was so different, he needed to think awhile before choosing his profession.

 

Eventually, Rowan realized throwing the knife was a bit more effective, and soon he had cleared the area, heading deeper into the forest to find better prey.

 

Rowan hesitated at the edge of a clearing. Apparently elves had heightened hearing; there was a faint, almost indistinguishable rustling in the trees lining the far side. Then, with a crack and a thump, something fell onto the grass.

 

My god. Is that a player?

 

From the angle, it was impossible to see the person’s face, but the wings were certainly unmistakable. Though awkward and bloody, they were still stunningly beautiful; gold-fringed white feathers, sweeping down the being’s back and tapering to sharp tips just below the knees. Rowan hurried to (her?) side, tilting her face towards him. Slipping three health potions from his pouch, Rowan tipped them gently down her throat, and waited.