Work Text:
Anna dropped her work bag on the table. Groaning as she stretched, feeling her muscles ache with the exertion. Another week over, with the grace of the weekend looming over her head. The weekend. After five days of grueling work and socialization she wanted nothing more then to relax. To do what she wanted to do without chores, responsibilities or other people to tell her what to do.
If Anna wanted to powergame twenty-four hours straight that was her problem.
She ran into the kitchen, tossing together a sandwich as she shoved a bottle of water under her arm. There was an alarm clock she set, to remind her to eat later, and she was in her room looking at her game rig. Lately she had been invested in an online game, a fantasy RPG. She had only found the game after a friend or two recommended it. At first she had only hesitatingly tried the demo. Again at her friend's insistence. Her usual shtick was shoot'em ups, something straightforward.
But she had fallen in love with the storyline. With the idea of saving a kingdom and dare she say it, the fairytale aspects. However she had been reluctant to give it a go even with all that. It was one of those co-op games, where you had to have a partner to get anywhere. Again a friend saved the game, you had to do a ridiculous set of sidequests, but you could get an NPC companion. She had stumbled through them, failing more times then she had wanted to admit, but it was worth it.
She played for herself, not scored on a leaderboard.
Plus the way the side quests worked they randomly chose a NPC companion for you. ANd after all that effort she really really wanted to see what she got.
And what she got was Elsa.
Long after the story had started to wane she had kept on playing for Elsa. Which was weird, but there you have it. Elsa’s addition to the story was wicked cool and as an ice mage she helped a lot. Pun intended. Even if the game was still hard, it was nice to share her burdens with a digital character.
She had almost finished her sandwich when she heard the system finish its boot up sequence. Leaving the sandwich in her mouth she picked up the headset. It was an older version, but hooking up was easy.The game wasn't a full fangled immersion game but it did have connections for a VR set.
Settling the goggles over her eyes she saw the load up screen, ready for her password and log in. Laying back she finished off her sandwich as she waited for the game to boot up. After that it was simply a matter of clicking through the ‘Venture Chronicles’ screen and logging in.
As the world settled around her the first thing she heard was a smooth and dare she say it, happy voice greeting her, "Hello Anna.”
It took her a moment to get a grip on her surroundings. They were in Snowplace, a very remote barely a village set up. She smiled as she naturally moved her head to locate the speaker, the visual tracking moving the display. To her left leaning against the banister of the tavern was the ice mage Elsa herself.
“What’s up Els?”
“Nothing much, waiting for you to log on.” It sounded off to have a NPC act so meta, but with the last update Elsa had been quite the inquisitive character. Plus whatever learning function they had installed kept Elsa’s dialogue from becoming dull. Even better, since the last update Elsa now said her real name correctly.
Anna brought up her quest log, her view going unfocused for a moment before the menu disappeared.
“Alright, on to the fortress to rescue your true love!” The smile Elsa had wilted a little bit and Anna continued. “Trust me, he has to still be alive. I’m sure of it.”
"Yeah, surely he... is." Anna didn't notice the way Elsa's face fell. Only rushing forward, her mind already calculating how to manage the fortress.