Chapter Text
A mechanical keyboard clicked monotonously and singularly throughout an otherwise silent room. Their rhythm synced to the countdowns on a digital screen casting a lone figure in pale, sickly artificial light. It was the only light in that cramped space; dark curtains kept what little moonlight might have filtered in otherwise at bay.
"Come on," the figure said, hunching forward under their pile of blankets, "we've done this before."
Muffled voices answered them—her?—through her headphones, but she wasn't going to accept whatever they were saying.
"It's just a siege. Literally day one stuff. The tower's already at the wall, you just have to keep pushing."
More voices, most of them assenting. She didn't really care what most of them had to say; she wasn't even supposed to be the one leading this thing.
"Thanks, Evelyn." her guild captain whispered through their off-game voice chat.
"Mm."
Normally, she'd have more to say to this person in particular, but her focus was elsewhere. On her screen, dozens of virtual soldiers in shining chainmail and plate rush onto the crenelated walls of an enemy kingdom's castle. Evelyn was at the forefront. Hers was an avatar clad in shining steel from her sabatons to the plumed point of her hound-faced helm and it led the charge into the mass of gathered opponents braced to stop their assault.
The actual conflict was brief. Less than an hour for them to overwhelm the enemy's defenses and paint another section of the world map in their kingdom's colors. They'd been on a slow crawl across it in the last few months, slowly taking it all in anticipation of the game's closure. It'd been their goal to conquer it all before the final day, but with one last holdout somewhere in the distant north, they'd accepted that it probably wasn't possible.
Still, they celebrated. The Kingdom of Ardelaine had been the largest of Avalon's player-run factions, and nearly every member showed for the final hurrah in their new castle's courtyard as the clock ticked towards shutdown. Evelyn skipped out on it. Despite the festive atmosphere, there was something depressing about it that she just couldn't stick around for.
It wasn't like it was the last that she'd see of Ardelaine anyways.
«Goodnight.» She posted in their faction chat, giving no one real time to reply before she logged out of Avalon for the last time.
The only other application on her screen then was the chat client she'd had open to communicate with her guild captain during the siege. Well, more than just her guild captain.
"You should have at least tried to hang out." the very familiar voice chided her.
"I just don't get it, Hani. I mean—why make a big deal out of it? Like 80% of them are going to be starting the kingdom over again in the new game, so it's not even really a goodbye."
"Come on; you know why."
And she did, sort of. It was the feeling that'd been gnawing at her all day long, even before she'd gotten home however many hours ago and booted up the game. Even if it wasn't goodbye to the people, it was the end of something that they'd spent real, actual years of their life putting together, from the start of Ardelaine until now. Evelyn had been dragged in after its formation, but she'd been no less important a member than any other. Hani had been the one drag her into it.
She'd worked night-shift then and while chipping away at the coursework for her degree when Hani had brought it up to her. Curious, and tickled with the pedant's urge to correct a "failed" depiction of history... as well as wanting to spend yet more time with Hani, she'd signed up.
"I know." Evelyn relented. She sighed, shedding the blankets she wore during these late-night sessions so that she could push herself away from her desk and start her night—day—time routine. Wireless headphones let her keep chatting. "I just don't feel like I belong there still. I guess I like the people well enough, but…"
"They like you as much as they do me, Evelyn. They don't just keep you around because you're my girlfriend."
"Mm."
"You've been in the vanguard for all the sieges, and you help train the newbies, aaaand you're a pretty okay leader, aaaand—"
"And you're still the one they made guild captain." Evelyn shook her head, even if Hani couldn't see. "It's fine. Whatever. I hope the party's going well. But, did you get it yet?"
It was what Evelyn had been working overtime for for the last few months to afford for the both of them. It was already pricy for her, but for Hani exchange rates made the idea of it almost impossible. However, with just a little hard work she'd bought what they needed to keep their gaming life going together: the next-generation of VR headset, the Synaps. Avalon wasn't just shutting down for any dire reason, it was moving there, to its next iteration in the world of full-dive virtual reality. Revival of Avalon: The Thousand-Year Siege.
A bit of a mouthful, but every bit of promotional press had made it look like the game of the future, like a real, second level of reality where she'd be able to live out her childhood fantasies as more than just a third-party observer to a virtual avatar. And a way to be closer to Hani.
"Yes!" Hani practically chirped in answer, "Yes. It got here today, actually. I was going to surprise you later with a picture of it on my desk, buuut."
"And the game?"
"Already pre-loaded. So I'll be ready to go tomorrow as soon as it unlocks."
Evelyn was silent for a second—brushing her teeth. Spit. Rinse. Mouthwash. Pills. She still hadn't figured out dry swallowing.
"Great. I was a little worried if it'd get there or not, but you know I'd wait until we could get you in there, too, before I played it."
"I know. Even if you'd totally miss out on playing knights and brigands for a little while."
She would, but…
"Yeah, but I want my first steps there to be with you, so…"
"Yeah."
There was a brief lull between them again while Evelyn changed into her bed clothes. A peek outside her curtains showed the sun was just starting to rise.
"How do you think it will feel?" Hani asked after awhile.
"One sec."
Evelyn dropped her headphones onto her desk, switching their call over to her phone as she crawled into bed.
"Back. Phone now." Wrapped in blankets, she rest her head and phone on a pillow. "I don't know. I think it'll feel… normal? I mean, that's how it's supposed to work. It'd better, as much setup as it takes."
"Not that part, I just meant… Mmh. Nevermind. I'm overthinking things again! Why don't you tell me how your day was before we started playing? I think we got too caught up in the siege prep and all to actually talk much."
"Well—"
And they talked until it was well past time for Evelyn to sleep. When she did sleep, Hani stayed in the call to listen to her calmed breathing until it was time for her, too, to sleep. Both needed their rest for tomorrow.
"Welcome back."
Already almost morning. The first thing that Evelyn did when she got home from work—as she always did—was call Hani.
"And good evening to you. Sorry for making you wait; I swear I've got the rest of the week off after this."
As soon as she passed the threshold of her little apartment, she shed her outside clothes and crawled into something comfortable. She made a beeline to her desk chair. Today was the day. She'd cleared her schedule, brushed off any attempts at coworkers and colleagues trying to hang out, and scheduled a couple meals to be delivered so she'd be forced to actually return to reality for awhile.
"It's fine." Hani said. "I had a few things to wrap up before we started playing anyways; family asking about me, trying to get me to go mosque, the usual; told my clients they'd have to wait a little longer." she paused for a second. There was some distant rustling in the background before she spoke again. "So, Evie. Are you ready?
Evelyn had picked up her VR headset while she listened, turning it around in her hands. Her thumbs grazed over the smooth, matte black surface of the strikingly ugly piece of gaming hardware. Some kind of messed-up looking barbute, she thought, or else a chunky helmet you might put on a toddler learning to ride a bike. Most people would probably think the latter. The interior was messier, with plates meant to press against the wearer's temples and straps for adjusting fit. The black visor might have made it seem sinister if it weren't so goofy.
Full-dive virtual reality had only existed for a few years now. While the initial intent had been for corporate work productivity and failed metaverse initiatives, it was quickly adopted for more recreational purposes. Among those, video games. It'd taken off quickly, a boom starting with sports and military simulators and expanded quickly into other niches where that sort of immersive fantasy drew in countless crowds seeking the best escapism possible.
Revival of Avalon, or just Revival among most former players of Avalon, was another of those niche worlds of escapism. Modeled after the same semi-historical fantasy land that'd been built in its old incarnation, it boasted a fully-immersive world inhabited by countless non-player characters, a player-driven economy, a classless skill system, and the same attention to detail that'd drawn it so many enthusiastic fans before. The graphics were par for the course with full-dive games—the dangers of which were described in-depth in the EULA and other fine-print no one read.
What really drew Evelyn to the game in the first place was the setting; she'd gone to school pursuing a degree in medieval studies and Avalon was the closest thing to a faithful recreation of the late Medieval period ever made. The colorful apparel, the shining armor, the towns, villages, landscapes, the castles. But, especially the armor. Knights had been something of a fixation for her, and finally having the opportunity to play at it in something so real, well—she couldn't pass it up.
"I'm ready."
Evelyn checked the cables hooked into the side of her headset, her connection, the locks on her door, and did her bedtime routine one last time: brush, floss, mouthwash, pills. When she laid in bed this time, though, it wasn't to sleep.
"I'm going to have to end the call now, since I won't really be able to hear you once I'm in there. We should be able to meet at the starting town and party up from there. And then—then…"
"Yeah." Hani answered. Both of their voices barely hid their excitement; this was about more than just getting to play the game.
"I'll see you in there, Hani. Try not to make me wait for too long."
"It's not my fault character creation takes so long! There's too many options!"
Evelyn smiled. "See you soon, Hani."
"I love you."
"Love you, too."
And then Evelyn put on her headset and entered Avalon.
She couldn't pinpoint the moment that she lost feeling to her body. One second she was there, and the next…. There was just pins and needles where her body had been once before, a phantom presence lingering below where her head—her disembodied consciousness—floated in total, endless darkness. Then there was nothing and for the briefest moment she was nothing and nowhere.
Initializing…
White text faded in before her eyes. She had eyes again. A body was materializing around her, featureless and smooth like a clay doll, devoid of any sensation outside of being there. The world around her was starting to appear, too. The darkness was slowly dispelled by a soft white light filtered through a fog bank that rose up from the ground—the impression of ground, though nothing was there but the light and fog's reflection—and cast onto nothing more than her blank body.
A voice echoed around her, emanating from nowhere and everywhere. Feminine, distant.
Thou wilt soon embark upon a quest foretold in prophecy of olde. When thou set forth unto Avalon, who shall the world behold?
Water rose up around her on all sides, showing her a rippled and distorted form of herself until the ring of waves smoothed into a vertical, still pool and cast a perfect reflection of her body. Her body. Of course it defaulted to whatever it scanned of your physical self, but it was still… disorienting. It was her and it wasn't. She couldn't feel it the same way, but she could move again, and her own touch against her skin was like experiencing it through a thick layer of gauze: dulled, muted, faint.
When she looked back up there were menus floating in front of her. Papyrus-hued and with tattered edges, they were styled to look like weathered parchment, though the font that lettered them was very modern; probably some kind of Serif.
It was pretty standard stuff: sliders, the most extensive selection of hair options and adjustments that she'd ever seen, preset faces and then a disturbingly in-depth amount of ways to manipulate them. This was always the worst part of starting a new roleplaying game. She always ended up doing a bit of the same in all of them, though she wasn't always able to get something satisfactory. Working off of her own body, though…
That was easier. She was already tall, so she didn't mess with that much. Her hair, long and blonde, didn't take much fiddling either… though she did make it even longer; she'd always been a fan of the 'Rapunzel' look. Lower back was long enough. Her figure… She wasn't quite gangly, though she bordered on it, and certainly not the most muscular even if she'd tried to keep fit. If she was going to do what she wanted to, here… A drag of her finger along a few sets of sliders gave her a bit of toning and some muscle that gave her an overall lean and athletic shape.
She flexed at the still waters around her to appraise her new musculature and almost snorted. Then the rest of her body. She hadn't realized how pale she was until just then. It'd been a few years since she'd started working at night, but even before then, how much had she actually been out under the sun? A little nudge on that scale to give a bit more life to her skin, and then she was satisfied.
Her face…? Somewhat angular, long, her nose slightly hooked, thinner lips… Mnh. No reason to change it.
Evelyn pressed her palm against the hand-sized ACCEPT button. A second passed, and then the menus burned away in a quick flash of fire. That distant voice came again, rippling the watery mirror.
In what trappings shall you be adorned? Doest thee bear the heart of a warrior? The passionate fire of the artisan? The soul of a poet?
New menus. This time, Class selection.
Avalon didn't actually have any real classes, of course. Instead you chose a package at character creation that determined your starting skills and equipment. Most people went for one of the martial ones; Squire, Soldier, or Levy. Similar enough, though each focused on different weapons and social skills. Just as she'd done in the previous Avalon, Evelyn didn't hesitate at picking out Squire from the options listed. She knew was missing a part of the game for it, but she'd honestly never even really looked at the crafting or social packages. Oh well.
Her bare figure was clothed almost instantly in her starter equipment: braises and hose, shoes, a lengthy arming doublet, belt, and—the only starter package that got one—a longsword sheathed at her hip. It wasn't particularly high quality and very simple in design, but it would do.
Are you prepared, Squire, to face the trials of Avalon and embark upon your Quest?
One last floating sheet of parchment asked her if she was sure of her choices. After one last thorough look at herself, she nodded and placed her hand over the calligraphed YES on her left side. She was ready; ready to play, ready to see Avalon, ready to see Hani.
Then the fog bank dispersed and the light faded until she was once more fully immersed in darkness.
Welcome.
To Avalon.