Chapter Text
“Oh, finally!”
The outburst was followed up by the thud of my backpack, keys, work apron, anything on my person, really, that didn’t need to held dropping to the floor as I stepped over it all in my eagerness to reach my computer. A computer that, for the last day or so (thanks internet speed) had been dutifully downloading the game I’d been looking forward to playing for actual years, that was finally now within reach.
Final Fantasy XIV.
As long as the launcher was telling me correctly, anyway, there’d been some stop-and-go thanks to the few times I’d had to close the computer for transport or times I’d just plain fallen asleep before I’d reset the conditions for shutting off…
Anyway, it was done; I hadn’t even played it yet and I already knew that starting payments for this new laptop were way, way worth it. As much as I wanted to dive right in, I did sit and run up discord from the tray, popping into the group chat and rapidly typing a status update for the few who were on. Hitting send, it was seen pretty quickly and the notices started flying.
-
Gamekorner
#general
-Ariadoney
Ti’s donnnnnne
*it’s I’m so excited
-Dyewg
YAAAAAAAAAY
-Sweetycake
what what is
-Ryushishi
FINALY GOD UR SO SLOW
-Ariadoney
FFXIV
-Sweetycake
Ohh yeah
NO YOU SAID YOU’D WOW W ME
OWO
-Ariadoney
but i’m not;;;; really interested in that game now;;;;
anyway I p much got this new laptop to play FFXIV not gonna lie so that’s what I’m gonna do
-Dyewg
wait u didn’t make your chara yet did u
-Ariadoney
I downloaded all my other games but
No not yet
Been thinking… Viera samurai…
-Dyewg
lol bun bun
u don’t unlock samurai until lvl 50 tho :(
-Ryushishi
did you get shadowbringers???
-Ariadoney
It was on sale on steam so I got bought like all the expansions I think??
Aw man really
-Ryushishi
nice
you picked the right time tbh they just did a new patch that like cuts down on a lot of quest stuff
like people were getting scared off by the amount of fetch quest you had to do
-Ariadoney
really
aw I like lore tho
-Ryushishi
I don’t think lore has anything to do with it lol but trust me you’ll get lore;
Like
what do you know already btw
how blind are you going into this, because
-Ariadoney
DO NOT
TELL ME A THING
I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING AND I’M PRETTY SURE
I’VE SEEN ENOUGH RESIDUAL OUT OF CONTEST SPOILERS OVER TIME BY NOW;
CONTEXT
-Ryushishi
hheheheh like what
-Ariadoney
Not gonna say because you’ll probably know exactly which ones they mean and you’ll keep bringing up
At least the distant worlds orchestra was vague on the xiv stuff
I think… I hope it’s not a ‘I’ll recognize when I get to it and it’ll spoil the whole plot’ thing
God there’s so much content to get through isn’t there
-Ryushishi
you have SO much to get through
-Ariadoney
YESSSS
-Ryushishi
just, don’t get discouraged if you can’t blitz it bc heavansward takes longer to get to than u think
how do you spell
Wait
heavans…
-Dyewg
do you mean uhhhhh Heavens
-Ryushishi
Omg is that how
Have you been letting me mispell that this whole time I s2g
-Sweetycake
*misspell
-Ryushishi
NO
-Dyewg
cakes play with us
we can have a free company! :D
-Sweetycake
idk i already pay for wow
-Ryushishi
the day i played ffxiv was the day i uninstalled wow and never looked back
-Sweetycake
wut that’s mean :v
-Dyewg
Hey Ariadoney
ariadoney
are you playing the now-playing thing just popped up
lol is she ignoring us
-Ryushishi
WAIT PICK THE RIGHT WORLD
CRYSTAL PICK CRYSTAL
AAAAA
-Dyewg
honestly I have enough alts that she can start wherever and I’ll just jump into that
--
The pop ups were ringing in at a rapid pace. I’d had enough delaying and only gave them a skim as they flashed by in the corner of the screen, because I had a game to play, damnit. Just sitting here, mouse poised, headphones over my ears, I couldn’t help but feel the thrill of it sending an actual shiver through my body and goosebumps up my arms. Maybe that was weird, but, just… yes, I had waited actual years to play this. Years in which the game had gone a complete 180 and gone from one of the worst mmo’s to one the best, and the accolades just kept climbing with Shadowbringers being relatively new still. To me, at least. Ha ha, I really did have a ton of content to catch up on…
I guess that was also part of the thrill. I was going in all but blind. I didn’t follow the right people online to have been majorly spoiled, I was only vaguely aware that things happened and that was it. And— I was excited to play something new, excited to feel excited. This was something I hoped would catch my attention. Something new I could… invest in, I guess.
Something I could use to escape…
Ugh. I shook myself out of whatever zone I’d been falling into. My login credentials were already in, and with a click, the ready button was, well, at the ready. There was no reason to hesitate, not anymore. So, with an eager smile, and the knowledge that I had a few blissfully free, uninterrupted hours ahead of me, I clicked start.
The screen went black.
...
After a few seconds my smile dropped because it quickly became apparent that this wasn’t the startup screen I was looking for. There was no music, no title screen… wasn’t there an opening movie? Did I not even get an opening movie??
“Oh, come on,” I wailed, throwing my head back and shaking a fist at the injustice of it all. “Stupid game, don’t you dare glitch on me!”
Was it the stop-and-go installation I’d had to do? Had playing through Steam gummed it up or something? Aw man, was it… was it my laptop? But it was brand new. I eyed it doubtfully anyway. I’m pretty sure the internet wasn’t out either, all the bars were there and I don’t think logging in would have worked if it couldn’t connect to the server.
Well… what was another few minutes of troubleshooting compared to, as I’d said, actual years of waiting? I sighed, and clicked a little uselessly around the screen. No boxes, the task bar was covered up… unfortunately, the window key didn’t work. Or the escape. Okay then. Guess more drastic measures were needed here.
I was considering the power button a little wearily, contemplating the action of the force restart, when it happened.
The hum. The rising of the hairs along my arms, the back of my neck, a spine-crawling sensation of… something in the room with me—
I reacted— didn’t even think it through, just reacted, by spinning around and finding absolutely nothing behind me. And why would there be? I was in my own room, with the door closed, and the front door locked. It was just me. There’s no way I’d not notice, I don’t know, someone else sneaking in when I could see all the points of entrance right there around me.
So… why was my heart beating so fast? Why was my fight-or-flight response suddenly in such high gear?
I thought about sitting again, because in my blind spin I’d leapt up from my stool, but I didn’t. The screen was still black. And… everything was quiet.
…Everything? I didn’t hear anything in my room… or anything beyond it. No cars. No trees or birds. No soft rush of wind from the windy day.
Hear.
I shrieked, as a voice suddenly resonated around my room, resonated through me, through my entire body, a single word filled with weight and power that was not coming from the headphones currently slung around my neck where they’d slipped.
“What the f—”
Feel.
Once more, one more word, pulsing out from some singular point I couldn’t see. It knocked me to my knees this time from the pure force. My chair was knocked aside in a clatter; I flailed out, grabbing for the edge of my desk. My computer was there, screen still black, but the black was now a void, a square of inky darkness swallowing all the light around it, radiating some kind of force now all on its own as… I…
…continued to sink below my desk.
The floor of my room had dissolved into a roiling mass of shadow.
I screamed; lashed out, kicking back to save myself somehow, desperately wondering where the floorboards had even gone, but it didn’t work. It wasn’t water. It felt like… syrup, trapping my limbs, slowing the movements and sapping my strength the more I struggled. Past my knees, now— then waist— creeping up my torso, and when the tendrils crossed over my shoulders and pried my grip from the edge of my desk, I threw out a hand for someone, anyway—
But no one was here. I was alone.
Think.
The darkness swallowed me whole.
A pair of headphones fell to the ground with a clatter, and all was quiet. The floors were usual. Birds sang in a distant tree beyond the blinds shuttering the windows. With a faint whirr of activity, the computer screen blinked on to the usual desktop, the launcher having seemingly closed. A ping. Messages played in boxes in the corner of the screen, unheard and unread.
Gamekorner
#general
-Dyewg
oh
she stopped
-Ryushishi
I thought she was gonna stream character creation
Hey
Ariadoney
Hey
-Sweetycake
ariaaaaaaaaa
-Dyewg
why did u stop I thought u were done with work :(
-Ryushishi
ariaaaaaaaaaa
ariadoney?
…
Ryushishi
?
…
Ryushishi
where did u go??