Thesula

Unto the rift!

"Huh?" Tamara Lyon peered over to the screen to her left, having been working on updating her computer's software to make sure the specs were top-notch in case a developer contacted her to test another game. A new e-mail sat there at the top of the queue from the online forum for testers, it said there was a new play request waiting in the topic of virtual reality. Cherry wood coloured hair fell into her eyes as she read, "a VR game that requires a special headset? What's wrong with the ones now?"

I'm writing you to ask if you'd help me beta testa new VR MMO I've been working on. It will require a specialtyheadset to access the full range of the features in the game. Ipromise you, it will be like nothing you have ever testedbefore.

Okay, thatcaught her attention. She'd tested almost the entire spectrum ofgames out there, had a hand in polishing up the sniper AIs for a fewof the top selling shooters on market, and even the versatility ofprotocols for MMO mobs in a few popular tiles. Something she'd nevertested before seemed a bit far-fetched, but Tamara had to see if itwas or not. Which meant she sent him her address for the headset andhashed out a deal for payment. 

Whichbrings the story to five-to-eight business days later, Tamara peeredat the device in her hands, turning it over to see everything. It hadthe usual view screen and headphones, but it was designed to coverthe head completely, with metal studs showing intermittently inside.Perhaps some sort of scanner? It didn't come with any type ofcontroller either, the developer said it didn't require one, that thecontrols were one of a kind. Oh well. After getting things ready, sheslid the device on, and was standing in front of a mirror with thegeneric female character template eyeing her back from it's surface.As they both raised a brow, she muttered, "oh yeah. Lady in an MMO,time to change that."

Ittook a while to get comfortable with the gestures of choosing theappearance options, her offline body kept knocking things over. Untilshe figured out she should just imagine her body making the motionsinstead. What weirded her out then, was the fact that her offlinebody's muscles tensed like they were the ones doing the work, but herbody didn't actually move. Score one for that cheesy meta-workoutweirdo she'd met online. In the end, a fairly attractively built manwith mussy raven blue hair was the one eyeing her back in the mirrorbefore nodding in approval. With one more gesture, she was swept intothe land of Thesula. 

Assoon as she spawned, text floated in front of her face, naming thestarting town of Isea. The fist day of the closed beta was juststarting, a few other testers milling around the spawn point andobserving the layout. Probably still trying to get used to thecontrols and the surroundings, as an option to skip tutorials showedfor the newcomers. Tamara chose to skip it, as most gamers tend to dothe same thing, her first part of testing was how easy a game was tograsp without those aids. A name in the crowd made her stop and smilebefore bee-lineing over to the avatar. Hax was a name used by the oneand only Clarke Burlesk, a guy who programmed the sniper AIs aftershe'd pointed out the flaws and improvements. "Hey Hax, I waswondering if you'd like to make a party with me. New game, never knowwhat the mobs will hold."

"Surething buddy. Uh, Jean-Luc, nice character name. But I have to say,Kirk is my man when it comes down to it. But to each their own,"the blonde avatar smiled at her, uh him. Just outside the spawn room,another notification popped up in front of the two making their wayto the exit of the town. 'You may choose three classes and switchbetween them at will. However, a short cool-down will initiate afterchanging. Choose now,' it stated with a list of classes available.Tamara went straight for the rogue class, her avatar becoming clad ina simple designed leather outfit, two generic daggers at her hips.The dark animal hide covered the avatar's chest and legs, but themidriff was exposed, it's abs being shown off for all to see. Firsttask, finding something that actually shielded the character. Theexperience was basic enough, aside from the oddness that she couldactually feel the leather molding to her body. Not just the avatar's,her own physical body. The next two on her list were warlock andguardian to round things off. While Tamara, AKA Jean-Luc was makingtheir decision, Hax made a snap decision of cleric. Every team neededone, and honestly, he'd had enough of the idiots who went for healerclasses not being able to do the job right. Then a mage to back upJean-Luc's guardian, and an archer to keep mobs off of his warlock.Every choice made to suit the needs of the party, after all, nothaving the right plans for a game gets players killed. As soon as thelast choice was made, a commotion near the town's wall made bothmembers look up in confusion.