Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 008 - Part 2

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If Nothing Else, Let There Be Coffee - and Bats…?

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The Enclave

Stella waved a hand in the air. “Whatever. This had better be the best coffee ever.”

“Sadly… It kinda is,” Dassah told her, looking into her cup. “‘Least mine is...

Stella “Hmm”-ed as the bat man came over with her cup and set it down in front of them.

“Americano,” he said. “Anything else?”

“If I need anything, I guarantee you’ll be the first to know,” Stella told him. A slightly disgusted smile flickered across his lips as he turned and went about his business. “Ass,” she muttered

Smiling, Dassah quietly appreciated Stella’s ability to speak Dassah’s own inner thoughts. “Mmm,” Dassah went, gulping down some of the delicious liquid. “How long did it take you to get through the tutorial in TheirWorld again?”

“Me? I took about six hours - mostly because I got caught up in some not-so-hidden special quest chain to get my magician’s abilities before graduation. Most get out of there in three hours,” Stella told her, tasting her coffee like it was poisoned. Her eyes went wide as she looked at it. “What the hell…? What sort of black magic did this guy use? Does he have some kind of coffee making mystriks? I’d almost marry him just for that!”

“Right? Though I wouldn’t go quite that far,” Dassah laughed, then tilted her head. “Wait, mystriks? Isn’t he an earar?”

Grunting on her coffee, Stella pointed in the direction of the barista, “Look by his eyes. He’s either a half kind or a special case.”

Glancing over, Dassah saw that she was right; three clear stones just barely showed from within the fur on his face. “Huh…”

A valkyrian’s mystriks weren’t just for show. They may have been traditional enhancements, but they were traditional for a reason. Granted at a coming of age ceremony, they were made from special gem stones found only on their homeworld of Yidar. Though she didn’t know all the details, there was some sort of test at the ceremony. Valkyrian children were tested from the time they were ten years old on until they resonated with certain stones, colors, shapes, and patterns. After, the stones granted those who resonated with them a special ability. It was cool - kind of like they were all super heroes - except most of them had mostly domestic abilities. It was to the point that most of them were the butt of other species’ jokes. Every now and again though, someone would emerge with powerful abilities that would ensure their futures.

As usual, Dassah didn’t understand the science of it, but she did know that the process to make the mystrick stones work was a heavily guarded secret, and was one of the very few ways you could get into big trouble with them. In order to apply to get mystricks, you had to have been sponsored by a valkyrian - which meant, more often than not - it was a sure sign of a half kind.

Maybe that’s why he’s so bitter about everything… Dassah chewed her pinky nail as she rested her chin in her hands. Not that it matters, she thought and returned to the topic of TheirWorld. “... How the hell do they get out in three hours?” she asked.

Stella shrugged. “It’s not difficult,” she said. “If you just do the minimum to complete the tutorial, it really only takes that long to sit through all the lectures. Since most people have basically decided that doing any more than minimum is just a waste of time unless you happen to find the real needle-in-a-haystack quests, the minimum is what most people do.”

“I see…”

“So?” Stella stared at her, a smile growing on her face. “You started, right? What did you think? Dish!”

“Well,” Dassah started. “It was an adventure, for sure. I enjoyed it. At least there weren’t any clowns.”

“You would say that!”

“I do find it a little disconcerting that it’s so heavily based on our personalities,” Dassah traced the lip of her coffee cup with a finger. “I mean, I don’t normally play to my… erm…. Real life character? In games like this.”

“I didn’t mind that so much myself,” Stella took a swig from her own cup. “At least it makes it harder to pretend to be something you aren’t; it can be tricky business since you are using your own face to do potentially horrible things.”

“... I can only imagine.”

“I will say, as much as I didn’t mind the personality thing, I found the trait options seriously limited. I didn’t get a few of the ones I was looking for,” Stella added. “Did you start any quest chains yet, or did you focus on the school quests?”

Shaking her head, Dassah told her, “I didn’t have a lot of time to play last night. I basically just created my character and logged into the game.”

“Those school quests are super helpful,” she said. “Boring, but good. There are the other quests running around that make up for that boredom; I recommend spending extra time there to get a feel for things and start getting faction credit, if nothing else. I’ve never seen much about it on the forums, but there are lots of faction locked quests I ran into after graduation.”

Faction quests? Dassah frowned. She knew they were out there, but she hadn’t heard much about having to build them so early on. She made a mental note as she finished off her coffee. Regardless, she intended on seeing what the spirit quest was up to at the very least.

“What clan did you end up joining?” she asked her doe eyed coworker.

“The noble Clan,” Stella answered as if to add ‘of course’ on to the end of the statement. “You?”

“Mist.”

Scrunching her nose, Stella muttered, “Mist?” in a neutral tone. “... I can see it fitting you, but I feel like they are supposed to be super weak as a clan. The forums were saying some stuff about having quite a few disadvantages at the start of the game.”

“They do fit me though,” Dassah pointed out with a shrug. “Plus, I may have found a decent quest chain for a class that fits me just as well.”

Eyes lighting up, Stella went, “Oh? What’s that about?”

Dassah went ahead and gave a short explanation of what she had run into while playing - though she glossed over some of it. “Who knows what it will actually end up being, but it’s rather interesting, don’t you think?”

“Indeed,” the short haired girl nodded seriously, then clicked her tongue as she flicked her head sharply to her right.. “Hey. Have you noticed that that bat bastard has been watching us?”

“... Who should be telling who to be politically correct now?” Dassah asked, looking at the earar behind the counter from the corner of her eye. She shook her head. “... I’m sure he’s mostly harmless. Earar have some ridiculous sense of hearing anyway; probably can’t help himself.”

“What? ‘Cause stunning ladies like ourselves are too interesting for him?” Stella made a face as she swirled her cup around like it was a glass of wine. “Seriously; I’m not sure what excuse one can make, in this case,” she grumbled, then grinned mischievously. “Either way, it’s still rude. Rude, rude, rude - and I shall never expect him to be any better in the future.”

“...In the future?” Dassah questioned, a sense of amused dread filling her.

“Of course!” Stella exclaimed. “He’s so interested in us we must come more often! Grace him with our presence!”

Chuckling, Dassah crossed her arms. “At the very least,” she decided to throw in with a shrug. “He’s just a poor, antisocial, misanthropic child who doesn’t know how to deal with people.”

Stella snorted, “Isn’t that a better description of you?”

“Hey!” Dassah glared, then the two shared a laugh. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the bat man smirking - but once he noticed her looking, he put on a disinterested and yawned widely. So, not such an ass after all? Now that she looked at him closer, Stella was right. He was on the cute side.

“So. What do you think? This place, same time tomorrow?” Stella asked.

“We have a meeting with Bahena tomorrow at this time,” Dassah scrunched her nose.

“That’s right! I forgot! Well, why don’t we bring Bahena here tomorrow, too?”

Dassah groaned, “Stella…”

“I know, I know,” the doe eyed girl raised her hands, then put them on her hips. “But just think how good it will be for you! Coffee shops make you feel more comfortable, right? It’s the perfect place to feel at ease and just have a good conversation! You may even like it.” Dassah gave her coworker a face, but Stella shook her head. “Nope. Besides, you agreed.”

“I know I did…” Dassah mumbled, tracing the lip of her empty coffee cup with her finger.

“On that note, my dear,” Stella went, looking at her watch. “I have a date, so this is where I will leave you!”

“With whom?”

“Secret!” Stella bopped Dassah’s nose and collected her things. “You should get back to TheirWorld and speed through that tutorial so we can play together! Maybe this weekend?”

“We’ll see,” Dassah told her, waving her off. “Go, play with your little boy toys.”

“Oh, I will!” Stella waved, then looked at the earar leaning coolly behind the counter. “See you tomorrow, bat boy!”

“Joy,” he answered lifelessly. She laughed and ran out the door. Dassah shook her head and looked over at him with a pitying look as she grabbed her things. “Congratulations,” he said to her, his voice flat. “Of the two of you bottom feeders, you are arguably the less annoying one.”

Dassah fought the urge to throw her shoe at him as she turned and left the building with a false smile frozen on her face.