Life After the Apocalypse

Darkness.

The confusion of a troubled sleep.

A sense of missing something. Something important but just beyond the grasp of your memory...

A voice. No. A Song. A sad, melancholy voice in the muddled darkness... No words, just a vocalization of deep sorrow...and maybe hope?

A faint, hazy light permeates the darkness.

The feel of warm wind on your face. The susurrus of leaves in the trees. The sounds of water gurgling nearby.

A sudden jerk, like a myoclonic twitch that wakes you suddenly from a deep sleep, and your eyes open into streaming sunlight and an open meadow around you...



>>>Wait! This definitely isn't where you were just a moment ago... The last thing you remember was finishing the tutorial on this quaint old MMO you and your Internet friends decided to try. You'd just clicked ACCEPT to join the main game after the tutorial and...what? Where?! How?!

>>> Everything was pretty clear in your mind up until that button click...and now?? Now you're just standing next to a gently flowing creek in the middle of nowhere and around you are four others you don't recognize. Wait, no... They do look familiar. They look like your friends' characters you were playing alongside... But that's impossible , right? Right!?!

Before...



Russell sighs heavily as he flops down on his couch. Another long day at his thankless job has come to an end. It's mind-numbing work, but it (barely) pays the rent on his one-bedroom apartment.

He thought his life's trajectory was going to be different. He thought by 38 years old, he'd have more to show for it--a family, a house, an actual career. Well, at least he has video games. He needs some escape from the daily drudgery.

Russell picks up his controller and fires up Elder Tales II. He played the game extensively in college when it first debuted twenty years ago. He was bemused by the sudden resurgence in the MMO's popularity, and curiosity about the new expansion that just dropped compelled him to install it once again.

He's immediately impressed by the graphical upgrades the past two decades have brought. The characters look nearly photo realistic. He indulges himself by using the option to scan his facial features onto his avatar, then, with a smirk, changes the character's gender to "female." There she is, a slender woman with the same brunette hair, hazel eyes, and glasses.

Russell tweaks some of the settings, giving her long hair (to compensate for his own encroaching male pattern baldness) and a full-figured build. Once satisfied with the look, he proceeds to select her class (weapon master: assassin) and starting abilities.

At last, the game begins! Or, at least the tutorial! Grouped up with a handful of other newbies, Russell familiarizes himself with the controls, combat systems, and other nuances of the game. It isn't long before the tutorial is complete, and the time has come to get into the meat and potatoes of Elder Tales II!

"Here we go," Russell says to himself.

And then, darkness claims him...

---

Now...

Russell blinks his eyes as the world comes back into focus again. He's not sure what just happened, but it was certainly weird! But it looks like the weirdness is just beginning.

The warm sunlight is a stark contrast to his dimly lit apartment. The greasy couch he was sitting on has become a grassy field. He turns his head to look around and feels something soft brushing against his cheeks. Hair. Long hair?

As he brings up his hand to brush the hair aside, he can't help but notice how small and slender it looks, covered by a black leather glove. Awareness begins to spread, and he realizes his entire body feels odd. His center of balance is lower, and there is a heavy weight on his chest. He looks down and...

"EEK!" Russell yelps, his voice decidedly a higher pitch than it ever has been before. For he now beholds his body, or more accurately, her body. The body of Raquel, the avatar he created. The curvy, female body, clad in leather armor that doesn't cover nearly as much as it should.

Russell puts her hands to her face in shock. "This isn't real. I'm dreaming. I must be," she says, her voice unfamiliar and alien. Belatedly, she notices the other newbies' characters are nearby, and they seem to be reacting in a similar fashion.

What have I gotten myself into?

"This is not what my therapist meant!" was the first thought that went through through Taylor's mind when he blinked.

"Maybe dad was right about these computer games." was his second thought. Followed immediately by an outloud, "Nah, Dad is never right."

Taylor's parents were conspiracy theorists who believed in everything from gay chemicals in chemtrails to cellphone signals implanting microchips. Of course it was their belief in government codes that made taxes optional that brought the law down. It was their disbelief in doctors that got Taylor into foster care. (Broken legs sucked.)

Taylor's new state-assigned therapist had suggested he try a multiplayer game to help acclimate to 'modern life' and this Elder Tales II had come pre-installed in his equally new computer.

Learning to even control the computer enough to play the game had been a bit of a challenge. It had taken him almost an hour (and a lot of random re-rolls) before he landed on a look he liked. That it was a girl that both his father and mother would have hated was just a bonus.

Now it seemed things were a little more real than the make-believe he (she?) was supposed to try out.

Just another day sculpting and painting miniatures. What better way to vent some steam by tiring more his eyes on a computer screen, Jim thought amusingly. He changed desks by dragging his chair to the one with the PC. The other one where his workshop was, was a mess. Figurines, putty, paints, tools, everything looked like it was thrown randomly on the desk but he knew where everything was. When his girlfriend protested to clean the workshop he always said to her "Order through disorder". Anyway, it was a tiring day and he was ahead of schedule to deliver the last sculpt to the client. Some hours in his favourite game were the best compensation. He stopped the music and loaded Elder Tales II.

In truth he never got bored this game, he had made so many characters just for fun but never really played them. In all those years he had not reached the endgame, he was too busy playing the side quests and immersing himself in the game world. But this time he was determined to play the character to its fullest. He started tweaking him. "Yeah, sure, let’s go with a fox." thought playfully, finalised the character and played the intro. "Hm, nothing new so far, I wonder what the fuss is about the new release…" he thought as the tutorial ended.

…

"What is this?"
He covered his eyes from the sun. He was in a meadow next to a creek. He could hear the water running and the soft wind. He could smell the moisture and the grass.
"Wait a minute...is this real?" he thought and touched the grass. Yes it felt real. Then he saw his arms. They had red and black fur. He checked his clothes, those were not his clothes, those are what his game avatar wore. He touched his nose, or more likely his snout.
"Wait...what...how is this possible?" he thought and looked around. There were other people there, that looked as lost as him. And something was behind him...a fox tail?


concept art

A jolt woke Clara from her sleep.

Warm sunlight streamed through her eyelids, revealing a scene straight out of a fantasy painting. Towering trees, their leaves a vibrant green, formed a canopy overhead. This was not the familiar beige walls of her bedroom.

Clara reached up to rub her eyes, but her face was met with soft fur. No more calloused fingers from years of lab work, but nimble, fluffy paws that looked suspiciously similar to her cat Cinnamon. She knew she was a little sleep-deprived, but it could not have been so bad to the point of hallucinating, could it?

Clara tried to remember what happened before she fell asleep. Lately, time had blurred into a monotonous flow. After three intense years at a research lab with a lot of overtime and weekend work, Clara had finally finished her contract. Exhausted and disillusioned, she had decided to take a break to figure out what to do next for her career. Being back home, surrounded by the well-meaning but stifling routine of her family, felt strange after years of independence. The constant hum of the fridge and the tick-tock of the clock seemed amplified, a stark contrast to the always busy life she led from early school all the way through work after university graduation. Days bled into weeks, filled with half-hearted attempts at job applications and long walks with her beloved calico, Cinnamon.

The truth was, science was not Clara's true passion. Yes, it was interesting, but it was the path her family chose for her, with their emphasis on stability and "practicality". Clara dutifully followed her parents' aspirations, excelling in school and landing a good position in a renowned research group right out of university. But the thrill of discovery she had as a child was lost somewhere amidst test tubes and beakers, never truly materialised.

Ever since she was a kid, she loved burying her nose in fantasy fiction, escaping into worlds filled with magic and wonder. It was during a lazy afternoon browsing the web that she stumbled upon an ad for the launch of the highly anticipated MMORPG, Elder Tales II. She was no stranger to video games. Despite her strict upbringing, she would always be able to sneak some gaming here and there to destress, but she was a novice to the MMO world. She did some research about the game, finding so many praises about its prequel. The trailer for the new game was very captivating. Plus, the soundtracks were exactly her cup of tea. Full of curiousity, Clara signed up for the launch.

When she opened the character creation interface for the first time, she was in awe. The system seemed very detailed, with many interesting races and character options to choose from. She was being overwhelmed with what she wanted her character to be, when Cinnamon flopped down on her keyboard, begging for attention. This gave her an idea.

After crafting an almost 1:1 copy of Cinnamon, she named it Calico Calamity. "This is to honour all the havoc you cause around the house." Clara said as she rubbed Cinnamon's belly. The cat gazed up at her with the most innocent eyes, as she often did when scolded.

With a press of a button, Clara confirmed her character. She could not tell what happened after, just that now, she found herself as the in-game copy of her cat, standing in a world far stranger than any experiment she'd ever conducted.

>>>Wind ripples through the tall grass in the wild fields just beyond the wood line where you all find yourselves suddenly thrust into an alien, yet familiar, world. Your bodies feel like ill-fitting clothing in ways you can't quite describe...or maybe there's just no term or turn of phrase to quantify the sensation.
>>>As if the situation wasn't weird enough, strange and unsettling cries echo from deeper in the woods. They don't sound too close but they also don't sound like anything you recognize from Earth either... But then again, gamers aren't well known for their experience with 'The Great Outdoors'.

Russell focuses on her breathing, taking several deep, steadying breaths and doing her best to ignore the strange weight on her chest. It looks like those around her are experiencing the same sense of shock that she's feeling, so at least she's not alone. As she tries to calm herself, she scans her surroundings...

"So, I'm new to this whole...computer thing." Taylor states slowly. "But I'm guessing this is not normal?"

Clara turns around to see her new friends, and her neck hurts. Everyone is much taller than she is. Or rather, she is very, very short in her cat body. She is not exactly the tallest person in real life, but to be this tiny surely is a bizarre feeling.

"Last time I checked, virtual reality hasn't advanced this far." Clara answers the red-haired girl's question. Surprisingly, her voice still sounds like her own, probably because Cinnamon, the cat that inspired this character, cannot speak.

She looks to the direction the eerie echoes came from, her whiskers twitching. It is a weird sensation. It almost feels like... she can detect vibrations in the air.

Fren closes to the others. He feels the body moving natural, although a bit stiff. "Is this normal? No it isn't." he answers. He turns to Calico, that cat looks familiar somehow.

>>> Unfamiliar sensations set Raquel and Calamity on edge but for no discernable reason. The new bodies of the Assassin and Pirate follow reflexes wholly alien to the people inhabiting them. Hands move to sheathed weapons in practiced ways, stances shift and muscles tense.
>>>Moments later the sounds of something moving fast in the woods behind become noticable. Something is charging headlong through the brush seemingly heading your way...

---

>>>Crashing through the scrub and into the small clearing by the stream, a plainly dressed burly young human flies headlong at a full run. He stumbled, trying to arrest his forward momentum, backpedaling and falling backwards instead. His eyes were wide and panicked, flickering between you all in turn before yelling, "Run!" and trying to scramble to his feet.
>>>Behind him, the brush quaked with whatever followed the boy...

Russell's sword is in her hands before she even realizes what she is doing. The katana's blade gleams in the sunlight as the young man stumbles into the field. Acting on instinct, she steps forward to confront whatever might be pursuing him, her own bizarre situation temporarily forgotten...

Fren draws his sword, the silver Jian straight blade gleaming on the sun and gets on a Chūdan-no-kamae defensive stance. How he had the sword equipped and how he knows all those things? He does not know but it works.

Calamity's fur stands on end. Her pupils dilate as she scans the surroundings for danger.

Taylor snaps to. "Eh, I know how to throw fists, but something tells me this is going to be different."