[center][h1][b]Nova[/b][/h1][/center][hr][hr]
After a long day at the university, shopping for food, and getting some stretching in before her planned gaming binge, Akira was more than ready to flop into the chair before her computer. She had her water, snack, and comfy pajamas all ready, computed booted up, Emerald Odyssey ready to play.

She clicked on the game’s icon, and took out her phone. She checked to see if there were any in-game videos of the newest update, but it seemed like people were too keen to try it out all to have made any yet. Not too unexpected, given that it was launch day, and that the update had gone live within the last hour or so.

Akira tapped on her phone mindlessly as she waited for the game to load. She expected a significant wait when she clicked into one of the servers, but oddly, there was no waiting queue. Setting the phone aside, she readied her fingers at the keyboard and mouse, but then–

A blinding white light enveloped her.

One minute, she’d been in her room, and the next…She was standing in front of very familiar city gates. Aluvera. The city was distinct and familiar, and she recognized it immediately. She’d seen it often enough for one, and for another, it had been only a few days ago that she’d left her character her the last time she’d played.

Right. Her character. Could it be…? Akira looked down, and saw the familiar fashion, as well as the katana sheathed at her hip. Amazed, she touched the clothing, the hilt, the scabbard…It was immaculate, truly.

Making a final check, she pinched her cheek, and her eyes slightly watered. Well. It felt real enough, huh. But Isekai wasn’t supposed to exist outside of stories…

Looking around, the choice of whether to wander farther away into the wide stretch of grassland or to enter the safety of the city was an easy one to make.

As she passed through the gates, she caught sight of some guards, and approached. “Hey!” she greeted somewhat forcefully, and walked closer. They shifted slightly, and one of them nodded in invitation. “Do you know how I came to be here?” she asked.

“I…am unsure what you are asking, miss,” one replied. The guards glanced at each other, apparently deeming her as a weirdo. 
“You must have travelled here,” another pitched in with a shrug.

Akira exhaled forcefully, brushing a hand through her hair. Even this minor gesture revealed something new – her wolf ears. She touched them cautiously, trying to look up to see, which was of course impossible. 

“Ahh, I’d forgotten about this,” she muttered, removing the hand from her head, and looking round at her rump. A wide sweeping tail was there to meet her, black furred and swinging from side to side. These additions had been so natural, she’d not felt them at all till now. Also, her mind her been honestly too preoccupied by this whole situation to also remember that she wasn’t exactly human anymore.

“Miss?” one guard questioned, and Akira realized he’d been saying something while she was absorbed in her inspection. Seeing he’d caught her attention, he added, “Perhaps you should go see a healer. You do, er, seem to be…suffering from some memory loss, perhaps?” he suggested warily.

Akira scratched her – Nova’s? – ear ruefully. “Yeah, alright. Thanks for the help, mister.”

Then, she departed, weaving through the crowd as she walked briskly towards the town square. She saw plenty of players, all as confused as she was, trying to log out, or find people they knew…she could be doing that too, she thought, but there was one thing prior to that she wanted to accomplish.

Once at the town square, she approached the fountain, and peered into her reflection. “So, it is Nova,” she stated, unsurprised. She’d already concluded as much. [i]Should I go by Nova rather than Akira, at least while I’m stuck here? [/i]

On the one hand, there were people who might recognize her by her real name rather than her game name, but the vice versa also held true. Regardless, her intuition said to go by Nova. Maybe it’d make it easier on her while she had to be in this world, too. And yeah, she was pretty sure there was no easy way out.

Still, she began trying to access the menu. “Options…log out…character select…exit…friends list...” she muttered a variety of ingame functions, starting with those that had enabled her to exit the game in the past, and proceeding to those one would expect to find in a game, such as the world chat window, inventory, or the skills menu.