The Wave Gear was a gift, meant to occupy the many empty hours between lessons and mealtimes. Unlike most of the other gifts which Aster had been given for that purpose; (fine clothing, jewelry, vacations, and other luxuries) this promised to keep delivering on its promised intent for months to come. The dark-haired girl smiled to herself as she fumbled slightly for the bulky helmet. This was it. She would finally be blessed with the chance to experience what she had only dreamed of in her wildest, most recurring fantasies. Here's hoping that it worked as well as her father had promised it would.

The helmet fit. That was all that could be said about it. It wasn't terribly comfortable, but it didn't poke anywhere, and Aster supposed that she could put up with wearing it for a couple of hours. In fact, now that she thought of it, it probably didn't matter; the helmet was supposed to block all sensory signals, from physical touch, to auditory input, to sight.

As the device powered on, Aster gasped involuntarily at the sudden, incredible [i]light[/i]. It was disorienting at first, taking in so much, and she hadn't even started the game itself. She allowed herself what felt like an eternity to adjust to the helmet's unique functions. An inviting menu was displayed, and she went through the steps of logging in and creating her character. [i]Let's see... How about Artemis as a name? It's taken already? Well, I'm not going to be going around in a near-IRL world with a name like "Artemis25". I'll just use Aster, I doubt anyone else has a name like that, or would willingly choose anything so silly as their official gamer tag.[/i] Character creation was a whole new adventure. [i]Oh, I can't rush through this. This is how people will see me whenever I'm in the game. Well... I'll go with a more petite-featured avatar, something a bit dainty. With blonde, curly hair![/i] Had she not been immersed in the virtual world, she would have giggled with excitement, a mannerism quite distinctly foreign to her normal way of acting.

Finally pulling herself back together, Aster finished up the character, a tall, yet dainty, unassuming-looking girl with a rosy complexion and big, round blue eyes. [i]With the time I put into this, someone had better appreciate it... Now then. Enough stalling.[/i] "Link... START!"
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If the startup screen had been a lightbulb, the game world was the sun. Aster gasped at the incredible colors before her, the vibrantly green grass, the endless vault of blue sky, the small, colorful dots of flowers or birds... It was at once awe-inspiring and humbling. Here before her was a world as real as the one she had come from, with a faint breeze that cooled her skin just slightly against the warmth of the sun on her face. If this wasn't the real world, it didn't matter. It was more beautiful than anything she could ever remember seeing.

As pleasant as her admiration of the scenery was, it wasn't doing her much good in terms of game progress. As such, she hesitantly began her exploration, one hand shading her eyes against the beautiful, brilliant sun. It seemed she could move with all of the agility of real life, or at least nearly so. She tried a quick sprint, and found that she could place each foot perfectly, visual cues matching perfectly with the physical terrain. It was a well-designed game, there was n doubt about that. And this was barely scratching the surface... there was still combat, guilds, competitions, dungeons... the list was nearly as exciting as entering the game itself had been. Her thoughts never strayed close to the thought of logging out, overwhelming though the game was becoming.
[hr]
The sensation of being snapped into Genesis City was unnerving, but not terribly so. For the most part, it was the suddenness of the transition which was most off-putting. She had gone from being lone on a hill to being surrounded by thousands of other players, milling about, eyes fixed on the spectacle up in the sky.

Said spectacle was something else indeed. The imposing figure at the center of the formation was both terrifying and impressive, and as he spoke, Aster found herself listening closely, filing away every word. She was interrupted in her careful observation by the sudden gasps of those around her. The thousands of attractive twenty-somethings had become ten thousand... normal-looking people. Some were still quite the lookers, but most were disappointingly average. As she brought one hand up to her own face, she was startled slightly by the sight of her fingers [i]right there[/i] in her vision. It was an unnerving sight, quite unlike what she'd expected. As she ran her slim fingers over her face, they met her long-hanging hair, held back only by a crimson ribbon. Her face certainly felt like her own; smooth, natural, just like the real world. She almost forgot about the increasing gravity of the situation as her frustration at the half-hour or so spent customizing her character ended up being for naught.

The specter above the players didn't stop speaking simply because one player was feeling frustrated. Indeed, as he talked, and killed, all of the other thoughts were banished from Aster's mind. This wasn't just realistic- no, it was real. More real than anything she'd ever experienced before, by far. She tried the logout button, and was met with the same result as the fearful masses around her. As she put some distance between herself and the crowd, though, she realized something that made her question the nature of the game. This was the most alive she'd felt in a long, long time, and the game had barely started. She wasn't sure that she wanted to leave...

She shook herself out of such thoughts. For the moment, survival was the goal. She hurried to the shops, and purchased what she considered to be the necessities; a katana (because it looked cool), decent-quality clothes, a canteen, a knife, and a bit of food. That used every coin she had, but it made her feel far safer, now that she could at least defend herself, if it came to that. Having stocked up on supplies, she desperately hoped that inns didn't require payment, though a nagging at the back of her mind assured her that they would. Either way, for the moment, she would have to find someone who had more experience than she at gaming, and hope that her lack of experience wouldn't be the death knell. In hopes of finding more players, and hopefully resting a bit to process all of the new information, she sat down hard on a stone bench in the central meeting area, where several thousand still milled about.