[h1][center][color=orangered]Marie O'Hare Queen Morag[/color][/center][/h1] [hr] Marie couldn't have been the only one stuck with a blank, dumbstruck look on her face as the surprisingly well-spoken English words of Rift Warriors series director Ryuichi Masada bore their way into her mind. Not only would X be the final entry, but it would only have five copies distributed to the top five ranked players online. She thought about her own rank, which was a decent number, but not even in the double digits as of then. And yet...mystery called to her. She had to know what was so special about X that only five copies were being made. Despite the ease with which she could fall into a competitive mindset during friendly activities or gym class, she'd never actually entered into a competition with an actual prize on offer. She'd been content just living at home, doing well in school, getting a work-from-home customer service job, and supporting her parents. She looked at the poster of her favourite character tacked onto the wall over her bed. Queen Morag, the kind of woman who took every opportunity available to grasp victory. Perhaps, this was an opportunity for Marie to do the same... [hr] Marie couldn't help the wide grin that forced the corners of her mouth apart. She'd never really given the fact that people she didn't know knew of her much thought until that moment, as she looked at the phone screen displaying the tweet she'd made just a few hours ago. The E3 livestream that had announced Rift Warriors X had only been a month ago. She'd managed to attend her first handful of tournaments between that time and now, and it was her first tweet using the screen name she used in Rift Warriors IX (a name she had thankfully made an account with back when she first started meeting people at tournaments, worried that being social at streamed events and becoming friends with well-known creators would eventually lead to someone trying to impersonate her online given she used a completely different screen name outside Rift Warriors). Even so, it had done quite good numbers. "One of those copies of #RiftWarriorsX is @ForTheRedQueen." Naturally, the replies had plenty of other well known players of RWIX accepting the challenge, including the likes of HellfireRider and ClawsOfTheLioness, as well as plenty of fans rooting for her. Apparently, being famous felt pretty good. With the supercharge of energy she'd received from both the friendly competition and overwhelming support brewing in her notifications, she immediately took to Rift Warriors IX's online mode on her gamepad-supporting PC to continue sharpening up her skills and raise her leaderboard placement as high as she could that night. She had already almost made it into the double digits. [hr] It was a struggle to both obtain and hold onto the fifth top spot, especially considering her main, Queen Morag, was a slow, armored, heavy hitter, where most of the higher tier characters were faster rushdown types or zoners, and she herself had only been playing truly competitively since the announcement of Rift Warriors X, but she only had a few more days to go until the anniversary of the first entry. That was the deadline Masada had set during the livestream several months ago. She just had to make sure nobody stole that spot from her in her sleep. To that end, she unloaded the several cans of energy drinks she'd bought from the shopping bag onto the floor next to the desk her gaming PC sat atop. [hr] Marie's hand trembled in excitement, the jewel case containing what she'd been working her ass off for the last several months nearly slipping from her fingers. It was right there. In her hands. Rift Warriors X. [color=orangered]"Yeeeeeheeeeheaaaaa!!! YEEAAAH!!! Fourth best player in the world, you sons of bitches! Eat it! Haha, yeah! Eeeeeeeeheeheehee!"[/color] Marie's parents weren't startled by the sudden shouts of excitement coming from Marie's room; she'd warned them they might hear her. Instead they smiled and shared a laugh, happy for their hardworking daughter. Queen Morag might have been somewhat taken aback by the item being shoved in her face, had she been a living person and not a poster on a young woman's wall. Once she was finished showing off to Morag, Marie dropped rear-first onto her bed and bounced to standing on the floor, turned around and fell into her computer chair, which rolled backward until it collided with the computer desk. Marie turned it 180[sup]o[/sup] with her feet, then spent the next minute trying to claw her way through the corner of the plastic wrapping with her fingernail, having failed to foresee the need for scissors and too embarrassed to look her parents in the eye after her earlier squeals of elation. Finally, after that minute, she succeeded in opening the case, removing the disc, and inserting it within her PC's disc drive. What greeted her, after the installation, opening cinematic, dialogue box asking if she had Rift Warriors IX save data to import, and the title screen, was the character select screen which was...strangely barren. Rather than the two or three dozen characters most entries in Rift Warriors had, there was only one available to her: her main, Queen Morag, according to the text. And even stranger, her portrait was missing, leaving an empty box. She hadn't even been given the main menu yet. A quiet [color=orangered]"...Whoa..."[/color] was the only sound Marie could make, overwhelmed by the further mysteries presented by the game she thought would answer all the questions and speculation she and many other members of the community had discussed online in the recent months. Before she could explore further, the screen began shooting up in brightness, quickly forcing her to cover her eyes to avoid being blinded. The light engulfed not only her, but her entire bedroom, before the screen went black, leaving her bedroom devoid of its previous occupant. Marie gasped loudly as she came to. She wasn't sure how long she'd been out, but it mustn't have been that long; she felt as though she hadn't taken a breath since her computer monitor shone that wicked light. Taking panting breaths, Marie looked around, and immediately realized she recognized the location: The Hall of the Messenger, the place most introductory cutscenes in the Rift Warriors series took place, usually at the start of the story mode/each newly introduced characters' arcade mode. [color=orangered]"Diiiiiiiid I just get killed by a videogame?"[/color] Marie asked aloud, motioning to take a step as her natural curiosity took over and compelled her to begin wandering and looking around. Upon hearing the clunk of her plate armor boot on the floor, she looked down, and realized she was wearing the outfit of her main, Queen Morag herself. She could somewhat see herself in the shine of the grey chestplate, and realized it wasn't just her outfit that changed: the bright orange mess she called her hair was gone, replaced by an equally frizzy and untamed mess of stark black. She still had her glasses and freckles, though. She could also somewhat make out the scar across her lip, helped by the lipstick making it stand out. [color=orangered]"Duuuuuuuude..."[/color]