#a weird ass zone where stuff happen seems very classic in SF

[tenrose]

Time to read about lovecraftian viscous little mass being adopted by a scavenger living off stuff found on a massive giant bear in a dystopian city.

Yes that's how Jeff Vandermeer's book Borne has been sold to me.

I'm sure it's gonna be clear and concise like mister Vandermeer's works always seems to be 🤭

I'm sure I'm not gonna end up irrationally attached to the eldritch horror and have an existential crisis...

[theglitchedworld]

Glitched - Chapter One

I woke up laying on my back and aching all over way more than I should for a virtual world. Even my hair seemed to hurt, which royally sucked. The smell of green growing things and the sounds of small animals of some kind moving through underbrush told me I was in a virtual world before I opened my eyes. If something had gone wrong with my login, I'd just have been dropped back into the orange-ish goop of the nutrient solution which definitely didn't smell anything like green growing things.

I opened my eyes to see a shockingly blue sky above me. And when I say shockingly, I mean so damn blue it looks like it's the realest thing you've ever seen in your life. God knows I've never seen a real sky look such a deep shade of blue in person before. I never spent much time looking up while I was playing before, I guessed. Must have missed out on a ton of stuff while I was rushing around to finish quests before my Suit made me log out. Yet another reason the Tank was so very worth the cost. Grinning at being so fully in The Bested World for what felt like the very first time, I reached up towards the sky like I could grab one of those puffy clouds floating so high above.

That was when the first clue that something was really damn wrong hit me.

The hand reaching up to the sky above me wasn't mine. Or, well, it was mine, but it hadn't been one I'd seen in ages. And the gloves that should have been equipped were missing. I shoved myself up from my prone position staring at my hands. My dirty hands. Like I'd been scrabbling about with something grubby for days.

And that wasn't the only problem. My arms - hell, my whole body - felt weak. Gone were the corded lines of hard earned muscle that had defined my body just yesterday, replaced by smooth skin that looked appallingly similar to my real world arms. A rough tunic and loose pants with a rope drawstring had replaced the customized gear I'd spent whole weeks clambering about for in some of the nastiest caverns The Bested World had to offer.

It felt like my heart was trying to rip itself out of my chest like one of those monster things from that old classic SF film with the space ship as what might have happened started to sink in. Everything was gone. Something had gone wrong on my login. Something had... No, it couldn't be. This was just a screw up with the server. It had to be. But still, I felt like I was going to be sick as I reached for my status menu.

The sight of my drastically reduced HP bar was like a fist to the gut. Level one. One. All the way back to the beginning. All those hours, those years, of work wasted! I blinked through the menus as fast as I could but it was all the same.

All of my stats were the miserable garbage I first rolled up when I started The Bested World and for a brief second I was almost glad I never got into any of those kiddy games that have even worse starting stats. All of my hard won gear was gone, replaced with noob crap. My skills had vanished. Even my class-

"Peasant?" I muttered, staring at the black print floating before my eyes with a frown. "What the hell kind of class is a peasant? It sounds like some sort of crappy NPC thing."

The one thing I knew for sure was that it definitely wasn't a player class in The Bested World. And the more I tried to convince myself I was wrong, the more evidence seemed to pile up that I wasn't. Wherever I was, it wasn't The Bested World. Which could only mean-

"Glitched?"

The word barely escaped my mouth it was so quiet. I felt hollow, like a plug had been pulled and everything that made me me had suddenly just drained away leaving nothing left. It wasn't possible. It just wasn't. Glitching was like winning the lottery. A freak accident. It wasn't something that happened to regular people like me.

But here I was.

I tried to log out. I could feel the switch with my mind, the familiar commands in my thoughts. But every time the rainbow swirl seemed like it was going to begin, it abruptly canceled, dropping me nauseatingly back into my avatar over and over. By the end of the sixth - or seventh, I think I lost count somewhere - try, I had to fling myself to the side of the path I was on to hurl into the bushes.

The gut churning wrench of needing to vomit, the burn of the bile in my throat, the disgusting taste in my mouth - all far from things that I had to experience when I logged in from my Suit. I chalked it up to yet another deepening experience from logging in via a Tank - not that it was a pleasant experience by any means. The other possibility didn't bear thinking on, but whatever it was, I could have done without the full reality experience of hurling my guts out on the side of a path.

I dropped back down on my ass after crawling a few feet from the muck and wiped the remains from my face with the tattered rag that passed for a sleeve with my new equipment as I tried to gather my thoughts. So I couldn't log out. That was bad. I knew that was bad. But at the same time, it was kind of exciting too.

I don't mean to sound like some kind of adrenaline seeking nutcase, but I had to admit that the trembling in my hands wasn't just from the epic purge I'd just experienced. If this really was a glitch - and I still wasn't fully ready to admit it was at that point - then I was looking at a whole new experience. Something no one had written any guides or recorded any playtest videos for. A whole new world to explore and beat. I wasn't worried about my body back in the real world - my Tank was set up to allow me to login without anyone needing to maintain it for months if necessary. And no one knew what happened to the Glitched when their real world bodies died anyway. It wasn't like anyone could find their connection's end - something that was supposed to be impossible - after all. Maybe they just became permanently part of this world.

So it was exciting. Scary exciting - definitely scary, just like anything completely unknown, right? - but still exciting. The first time logging into a new world was always exciting. This was just a terrifyingly high level of that rush. Or at least, that was what I wanted to believe. It wasn't like anyone was going to come checking on me any time soon and there had to be a logout point somewhere. This was still a virtual world, so it had been programmed by someone. All worlds had an out built in, even prison ones. You just had to find it.

That thought held firmly in the forefront of my mind, I got to my feet and tried to knock the worst of the dirt and grime off my body. All I had to do was find the world's log out point and everything would go back to normal. It couldn't be that hard, right? Even for noob gear, my equipment was pretty obviously for some kind of fantasy world, so at least I wasn't completely in over my head. The Bested World was one of the biggest fantasy TVRMMOs out there and I had years of experience in that world that had to correlate somehow to this one.

Looking at my skill page again made me groan though. Zero ranks in everything. At least the basic skills were still on my list. Trying to figure out how to find a trainer to learn how to defend myself before I got attacked by something would have royally sucked. The zero beside Botany would make things harder since I didn't want to risk a status effect gathering food, so I'd have to hunt and hope for the best until I figured out where I was.

I rezzed up the only weapon in my inventory, catching it the moment it fully synchronized with the game world and dropped out of the air. It felt light and easy in my hand, the leather wrapped grip comfortable and familiar, but the blade made me grimace. It was chipped and almost completely dull but the worst part had to be the length. I didn't have a ruler with me, but the pitiful length looked shorter than the big blade on my multifunction pocket knife back in the real world. Even if I could run one down - which I doubted in my current crappy stat state - I doubted I could even kill this world's version of a rabbit with it. If I had to go up against anything bigger, I'd almost definitely hit derezz before I could do any real damage. Not that I knew what would happen if I did hit derezz. God only knew where the respawn in this area was.

Not that I had time to worry about that. I was in the middle of who knew where with crappy gear - I didn't even have a decent pair of boots for crying out loud! - and a shit weapon. If there were safe zones in this world, this probably wasn't one of them. So I needed a weapon. Well, I needed a better weapon. And in the middle of a forest the most obvious thing had to be a club. If I could find a good stick and actually make one anyway.

Hearing a larger rustle in the underbrush than earlier made me swallow hard and look around the ground at my feet. A rock would also be good. I liked rocks. Nice heavy rocks that could brain big bad wolves were awesome. Or even a bunch of pebbles to convince whatever the hell made that noise that I wasn't as tasty as I probably looked.

The branches closest to the road moved visibly and so did I, scrambling towards the middle of the path so quick I tripped over my own feet and sat down hard. When they actually parted and I caught a glimpse of something pale coming through, I hate to admit it, but I screamed. I possibly also covered my head with one arm while waving my pathetic dagger at whatever was about to eat me with the other, but I'm not going to admit that.

"What are you even doing?"

The cool soprano washed over my ears brought an absurd amount of relief and I peeked out to see a tall woman in mottled green and blue leathers standing over me. Auburn hair slicked back from her face so hard it had to have been either pulled back in a crazy tight ponytail or braid or else held down with a lot of product and her eyes were a weird color that I couldn't tell if was grey or maybe green in the dim forest light. The upper arm of some kind of bow peeked over her shoulder, but I was more interested in the spear she was leaning on as she glared at me.

"You deaf or something?" she asked again, her eyes narrowing. "Or just stupid?"

"W-what?" Not my best response, I admit.

She sighed and shook her head. "Just stupid, I guess. What are you doing out here? Trying to get yourself drafted into King Radani's little army?"

"Who?" I frowned up at her. Wait. Radani? Didn't I know that name?

"Wow. You really are stupid." Her frown deepened. "Radani's the asshole who claims this area. And your ass is on his road. Unless you want to get drafted, you might want to get off it before his army blunders their way over here." She glared at me for a long moment before sighing and holding out her hand. "I just know I'm gonna regret this, but come on."

"What?" I shook my head before she could respond, her brows drawing down like thunderclouds. "Sorry, I just... Radani? Are you serious?"

"Do I look like I'm joking? If you don't get off your ass and start moving in the next five tics, I'm going to leave you here and you can figure it out for yourself."

"No! No, I'm coming, I just-" I shook my head and started pushing myself up to my feet. "I never thought I'd hear that name again."

"Did you hit your head or something?" she asked, cocking her head to the side and peering at me through narrowed eyes. "Radani took over years ago. Treats people like shit, but you're the first person I've come across claiming to have forgotten him."

I held up my hands, shrugging with an awkward smile. She had to be an NPC, so I couldn't break character too much without risking throwing off the AI. Not that I was sure what character I was supposed to be. "Sorry. I just... yeah, must have gotten cracked in the head with something. I woke up out here and, well-" I let my words trail off, not sure how to explain how I got out here, given that I didn't actually know how I had in the first place.

The growing irritation of her expression seemed to fade with my half-assed explanation. "Damn. Someone must really hate you." She turned her head, glaring up the road at a faint sound I could only barely pick up. It almost sounded like someone playing with a thin metal chain, rattling it between their fingers. "If you want to take your chances in that death brigade be my guest, but I'm getting out of here."

"Wait!" I scrambled after her, almost falling over myself again as she passed me headed for the opposite side of the road. Thanks to my crappy dexterity stat, I tripped over a rock on the edge of the road and fell headlong into the brush. "Shit!" The rough branches scrapped over my clothes, tearing the fabric and drawing long red welts on my skin. The sudden jolt of pain made me curl around myself defensively with an indrawn hiss. It also made me miss the heavy tread on the path that had joined the clinking rattle of chain sound.

The feeling of something grabbing the collar of my shirt and dragging me bodily backwards pulled a scream out of me, but it was muffled by the leather gloved hand clamped over my mouth.

"Shut. Up." The rapidly growing familiar soprano hissed in my ear, her breath hot against my cheek as she spoke each word so staccato they seemed like separate sentences instead of a single phrase. Startled and overwhelmed, I did what any red-blooded woman would do in that moment.

I froze.