The beginning was always the hardest. Matters not what it is you're trying to accomplish, when it's your first roundabout behind the wheel, you're bound to crash and burn a couple of tis at least.
"You died again, Ash."
Brought a stool up to her room a couple of minutes back, figured it would be an easier ti sitting beside her than standing beside her, especially since I got my hand permanently affixed to the mouse, clicking over and over again the restart button in periodic intervals with every death.
Ash kept crashing and burning.
To my eyes, it looked as if she was deliberately trying to get herself killed. But apparently, every suicidal action ca with a defense and a reasoning as to why she does what she does. Seriously, if each death ca with a gravestone, the excuses she cos up with would be the perfect epitaphs for them.
"I forgot the block button"
"Dodge. Which button is dodge?"
"Master, I couldn't swing my sword"
She didn't even have a sword equipped on that last one, so I didn't know what the hell she was talking about there.
Her latest obituary was probably the most amusing to .
"I rely took a small leap forward," she said.
I clicked the mouse again, then turned to look at her. "Ash, you jumped off a cliff."
"I've assessed that my chances of survival would be quite high."
"It's a cliff."
"Not a tall one."
"Tall enough."
The ga loaded back in again, placing the recently deceased hero back at the latest checkpoint, overlooking the sa cliff he was deliberately sent plumting into just monts before.
Poor Dad.
Ash, still with the controller held at odd angles, turned her gaze straight and continued on with the ga.
"Noted," she muttered, heading off this ti in the total opposite direction from the cliff edge.
As I stated earlier, the beginning will always be the hardest hurdle to overco, and as fate would have it, it was going to be a long arduous first few hours.
At the start of hour one, she had asked just how far and wide the extent of my knowledge was at that point in ti. After considering briefly, I simply told her that she probably knew more than I did, really.
"Still just getting started," I said.
"Then set down the sa path," she said with absolute confidence. "Have retrace the steps you have taken."
So new ga, it was.
Made a new save, skimd through the character customization, then handed the reins back to her uneasy hands.
She stayed silent and watching as the intro cutscene played out in front of her, soaking in the narrator's gravelly solemn exposition of Asteria's harrowing plight against the forces of the all-powerful all-evil demon queen Terestra the Vile.
Right here, I expected a reaction from Ash. Sothing, anything… shock, confusion - it was Terestra after all. Everybody and their mothers knew of her, hell, even I did.
Who didn't?
Ash didn't.
Or at least, she didn't give any indication that she did. The narrator moved on past Terestra the Vile, addressing instead to the state of Asteria and establishing the many kingdoms within it.
On and on it went, relaying information we both already knew. Yet whereas Ash looked on with eyes sharp and focus, I on the other hand, just kept getting distracted by that one little thing.
Does she really not know about Terestra?
I thought about asking her about it, but I feared disturbing her concentration especially since she was so invested. So I held my tongue and instead said to myself: Later. There's always a later.
Turns out, I didn't need a later. Ash had finally reacted to sothing, and as it also turns out, it was a sothing that I didn't even consider to be a sothing.
"5314 A.E.?"
The question that broke the quiet, and also my expectations.
"Sothing wrong with the year?" I asked, imdiately reaching for the pause button.
"I had suspected sothing was amiss," said Ash. "The disembodied voice spoke of records and events that I hold no knowledge of. Just then, he spoke of a province - Lamir. I know of no Lamir."
"Lamir doesn't exist?"
"Lamir has yet to exist," explained Ash, her confusion mirroring my own. "Master, does this ga… does it speak of the future?"
I reared my head back, blinking rapidly. "Not to . Apparently… you think different. What year do you think you're from?"
"5110 A.E. in the winter months of Limim."
"You're from two centuries ago?!"
'I…" Ash furrowed her brows. "That's what I know for certain."
Silent was my reaction. Wide-open were my eyes. Gaping were my lips.
"He also ntioned a Terestra," I said slowly. "Do you know of a Terestra?"
When Ash frowned and shook her head, right then everything started making sense to again and thank God it did, I was about to lose my fucking head.
The Ga established that Terestra was a threat that only recently had arisen, ravaging the lands for only but a decade long. So it made sense that Ash knew absolutely nothing about her, she's from two centuries ago!
Question is - why was she from two centuries ago?
That's a question that neither of us knew the answer to. Speculating about it would take ti, ti that Ash would rather spend unearthing her digital pandora's box.
So with shrugged shoulders, I promptly resud the cutscene.
Hour two was perhaps the most grueling. No narrations, no more exposition, now she was tossed into the ga, tossed into the world, and was given no restrictions to her venture. She was free to explore as she saw fit.
Actually, that wasn't exactly accurate. There was actually a tutorial quest, a bright bold marker pointing her towards the direction for it… that oughta be her first priority, really. But yeah, she ignored that.
I couldn't even bla her for it. This was Asteria.
Her ho.
And she was back… two centuries later.
Now those who were new at the ga wouldn't even be able to tell from their left to their right. Getting lost in the ga was inevitable, even I got lost my first ti through.
Not Ash though, certainly not her.
She knew those mountains off into the distance, familiar with the flora that swayed in the distant landscapes, recognized every forest, every rock, to every flower that blood.
And it pained her that she did.
"This is Asteria. This is Asteria."
I'd hear her mutter under her breath over and over again in denial, in defiance, then slowly as the minutes passed, in acceptance… quiet, defeated acceptance.
The ga entered the paused screen yet I didn't press a single button. Ash placed the controller down and silently just sat there… contemplating.
I'd have loved to say sothing right then, find the right words, ford the perfect sentence to comfort her in her ti of great need.
Turns out I wasn't much of an expert in comforting that I originally thought… words just don't co as easy to .
"Does he have a na?" Ash suddenly muttered. "The character on screen. Does he?"
Going to the tutorial quest would have answered that question for her. But I realized that she was in no mood to continue forging on just yet, so there I took the mantle of exposition dumper.
'He does." I said. "His na is Leonardo. A legendary hero from the past, summoned forward to this year to take up arms against Terestra and get rid of her once and for all. Do you know him?"
Another frown, another shake of the head.
"His na escapes ," she said. "There exist many heroes of legends and many evils of old. I fear my mory may be muddled with far too many."
"That's fine. You'll learn more about him as the gam - the uhh, story continues."
Ash nodded her blanky. Don't even think she was actually paying attention to with that far-away stare of hers.
It was then that I tried offering a bit of reprieve. "Do you… do you want to stop here for now?"
Should have known by then that Ash would never have given herself such rcy.
"Kindness," she gave a weak, fleeting smile. "It's okay, Master. I'm okay. Let's… let's resu, shall we? Tell where I should proceed."
The rest of hour two played out as I've described earlier. Crash and burn. Trial and error. Cliff diving and dying.
The beginning was always the hardest.
But then sothing magical happened - Ash got good.
Deaths weren't as frequent, combat scenarios didn't devolve into just mindless button mashing, and the controller in her hands was finally angled right.
Exactly as stated, Ash replicated my every step. Every quest I ever did, every NPC I ever interacted with, she went and done it all. Sotis in bouts of intense action, I've even caught glimpses of excitent glittering in her wide-open eyes.
Ash was having fun, in spite of everything. Video gas are ant to be fun, after all.
If only I could share in her fervor… if only I could joke and laugh and offer so witty remarks. If only…
But the prologue was coming to an end… so part of wished I didn't know exactly what cos directly after.
Sure enough, she and her archer companion were inford about an attack in a village nearby, orchestrated by a devoted follower of the demon queen Terestra.
And sure enough, Ash readily agreed to offer her aid and imdiately spurred towards the direction of the village.
Night was falling. Demons were arising… and Ash… oh Ash just had to ask the question.
"Master, I've been thinking," she said. "Those cosplayers from before, their knowledge of Asteria stems from here too, yes?"
"Yeah..."
"One was dressed in my image."
"She was."
"Do I… " Hesitation, brief hesitation. "Does that an that I appear here, as well?"
There was no later to fall back on this ti, no excuses to give, what would co will co… and I just couldn't bring myself to lie.
"Yes, you do."
The third hour has begun.
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