Chapter 2: Of Wings and Babies
A window appeared before Jenna with a lot of unfamiliar names and pictures.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Choose one.”
The AI, who was apparently losing patience with Jenna, snapped.
“Okay! Okay! Alright! Calm down would you!?”
Ignoring the racial features and description she browsed through the images and chose the one she liked the most.
So pretty…
*Sigh* “You have to actually pick something to proceed.”
Realizing she’d been zoning out, she just looked at the image that captivated her at first sight. A beautiful woman with white wings and golden hair. A true image of imposing beauty and elegance.
“That one” Jenna finally said while pointing at the window in front of her.
*Grumble* “Triangulating trajectory of pointing finger. Comparing data with Subject Four’s height, body proportion and window position...You have chosen Half-Celestial. You may now alter your appearance”
A perfect third dimensional replica of the painting appeared in front of Jenna's eyes. Only this time it was her face looking back from those lovely blue eyes. Looking at it she realized it looked perfect. Every strand of bright golden hair, every follicle, she could see them all. Such detail went completely outside of what she knew movies were capable of.
Slowly making a circle around the avatar Jenna found herself staring at the wings. They looked so angelically perfect she couldn't resist the urge to touch one. It felt softer than rabbit’s fur, but Jenna couldn’t get over the fact that she could literally feel the wings. Everything felt real, and yet in her mind she knew she must still be laying in that coffin.
“You may now alter your appe…”
“Alter it? But she’s perfect! I don’t want to change a thing!”
“Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing royal road. Your starting location has been determined for you. Welcome to Royal Road.”
“Wait, what?
“Welcome to Royal Road.”
“Yeah, I got you the first time, question is though. What is it?”
“What is what?”
“Royal Road!” Jenna practically screamed in desperation, things just kept on getting weirder by the minute.
“How have you not figured it out by now? Its a virtual reality game.”
“But I…”
*Growl*
“Did you just freaking growl at me?”
*FLASH.*
Jenna blinked and found herself in the strangest of places. The voice told her this was game, and the sight before her seemed to both support and contradict that statement.
On one hand, she was standing in the town square of a medieval town, people of some of the races she saw back in the empty room milling about and going around their business.Not to mention the bars and numbers that blocked the corners of her eyesight. On the other everything looked normal: Disturbingly so. Mud stained roads and horses, wind ruffled hairs and clothes and wings.
She kicked the dirt road beneath her and watched in fascination as a tiny cloud of dust rose and settled. Everything looked real, if she ignored the obvious, out-of-reality facts like the elf lady selling fruit or the ugly looking dwarf hammering away at a forge. Not that she could particularly name them as such. Not human was the best she could do.
This is supposed to be a game? Bullshit. hat crazy professor probably injected me with something.
Despite her arguable but rational explanation for what she was now experiencing she had her doubts. Deep down, in some instinctual part of her she knew this was something else. Even the most deranged drug could not conjure such images from within her mind, at least not with such incalculable detail.
As she slowly convinced herself that she was indeed, somehow, within a game, Jenna noticed something that stopped her train of thought. For every five people she saw one of the had that incredible blond hair and fantastic wings that so drew her in the first time. Her hands immediately went to her back as she twisted her neck to the limit to try and look behind her. The result. Nothing.
“What the-Ouch. Where are my wings! And what is that bulge on my back. It freaking hurts!”
People walking around the plaza slowly started to give her a bigger berth, until she visibly parted the heavy marquet traffic like Moses did the sea. She just couldn't stop touching her back and screaming.
I have a hump! That bitch tricked me!
“Give me my beautiful wings, you bloody wanker!”
Ignoring the looks she received from people around the plaza she continued to yell at the empty air before her until a thought interrupted her tirade. Concerned that the woman may have changed something else from the beautiful model Jenna saw, she ran towards the water fountain in the middle of the plaza and almost jumped head first into it. What she saw was a girl who reminded her a little too much of her real appearance and not at all of the angelic being she was supposed to be.
Her long hair had an ambiguous color to it. Too brown to be blonde and too blonde to be brown. It was a rat’s nest and it hung down across her face in clumps. Her face was made up of bland features, none striking enough to stand out from what was the sea of her face.
As she was lost in thought looking at her miserable reflection Jenna’s thought were a maelstrom of chaos.
“Arghhhh”
Why, why did that decrepit old bastard [put me in this place. Forty pounds, forty pounds. And what’s with the useless voice at the start of this so called ‘game’ Arghhhhhh. Forty pounds, forty pounds. Bloody hell, why does my back hurt so damned much!, . Forty pounds. How do I get out of here. Forty Pounds. And more importantly “...WHY THE HELL AM I UGLY!”
“Arghhhh”
Her last thoughts burst out of her in a scream of fury, further empting the area around her until people only marginally walked along the edges of the plaza. As Jenna took a deep breath to start cursing both her employer and the voice at the start of the game a translucent rectangle filled her view, appearing with a *Ding* sound and making her yelp in surprise. But not as much surprise as what she got when she started reading what was in it, and realized that someone or something had answered her question.
“Arghhhh”
Half-Celestials are not born with the divine purity of celestials and as such they are subject to the influence of the mortal world. This influence can be seen in the hatching of their wings, which occurs after they have had an impact upon the mortal realm.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
How a Half-Celestial chooses to act decides the coloring of it’s future wings. Most strive towards the pure white that identifies their divine brethren, and tend to be inclined heavily towards acts of good.
Some however, relish in soiling their celestial heritage by dedicating themselves to evil, which results in pitch black wings to emerge from their backs, marking their dedication and allegiance towards evil clear for the world to see.
Other colors exist apart from this two extremes, and they are said to represent a Half-Celestial’s personality. This colors are too varied to have been properly documented, but accounts exist of almost every color having manifested in the race.
“Arghhhh”
You have gained a new quest.
Actions have consequences. In your case they have an influence on your future. Like all half-celestials before you the divine part of your heritage will judge your actions.
All actions partaken until reaching level 100 will be used as a measure of your personality and used to determine the future color of your wings, not to mention your standing among half-celestials.
Only actions that have a direct influence upon the mortal realm are taken into consideration.
Levels until hatching: 99
Actions measured: 0
This quest cannot be canceled.
This is a racial quest and as such it does not count towards your allotted quest slots.
“I FUCKING SAID, ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”
The ear splitting scream finally made Jenna notice the woman that had been screaming on the other side of the fountain, trying to get her attention for the last ten minutes. It was a chubby woman who was laying on the edge of the fountain and had a grimace of pain on her red face. As she walked towards her Jenna realized that the woman was pregnant, but from the look of things, not for much longer...
Before she could think about what she was doing, she was hurling herself towards the woman. She hadn’t gotten far when she realized she was only going to reach the woman by tomorrow if she went through the unobliging crowd. Sighting the woman, she jumped into the fountain and ran her way to the other side. In her mind she had seen herself running through the water in slow motion, and heroic music playing in the background, in reality… it was damn cold.
When she finally made it to the woman’s side, Jenna realized the futility of her actions since most of the crowd she sought to avoid seemed to disappear as the woman continued screaming. Her skirts/pants were wet and clinging to her body, sucking her body heat from her. She tried to ignore her own discomfort and gripped the woman’s hand… she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be doing but from what she had seen on TV there was always someone holding the woman’s hand.
Apparently it was the wrong thing to do because the laboring woman immediately shrugged off her touch… as if she were infected or something and glared at her.
“Don't just stand there and gawk you ugly thing! DO SOMETHING!”
The hate and vileness in the woman’s voice caused Jenna to recoil.Taking a step backwards she finally took the time to look at the pregnant woman before her. It was a miserable sight. Dirty and used clothes that screamed of poverty barely seemed to contain what had to be the ugliest woman Jenna had ever seen. But what really shocked Jenna was the look on the woman’s face. Instead of pain, eagerness or perhaps a pleading look the woman looked pissed. Pissed and violent.
Now Jenna understood why people avoided the woman, and looking at the ring of curious bystanders that blatantly ignored the pregnant if hateful woman Jenna felt a bit out of place.
“What? Another Celestial too good to associate with the lower races? Or is it that the gossip around town has already reached you? Do you believe I consort with demons? That I’m carrying demon-spawn? Leave then. I don’t need you. ANY OF YOU!!”
Jenna would have attributed the woman’s… extreme behaviors to her pregnancy and was about to dismiss anything she had said when she noticed that the crowd around her had gone silent and the space around her larger. Where the space had been once only two meters… she guessed that there were now at least five meters between her and any of the other people. Celestials or not.
‘Demons? You have got to be kidding me....’
Shocked at the revelation Jenna was trying to think about something to do, but her mind was a jumble of nerves and confusion. Everything in this game up to this point had been one strange experience after another, and Jenna had pretty much rolled with it. If only for the forty pounds an hour the mad scientist offered her. But the addition of demons, though not surprising when compared to the other things she’d seen, caused something to revel in Jenna.
Just as she was reaching a decision of whether or not to believe the rumors and help the woman when something slammed into her. At first she thought that the mob had finally decided to lynch the woman, but one of those strange translucent windows told her the truth.
You have been attacked by Arak of the Black Widow Gang.
You have lost 74%of your hitpoints.
Just as Jenna was recoiling from the pain and surprise she heard a woman with a surprisingly british accent scream across the plaza.
“Thief!! Stop him! Go over the abomination if you have to.”
In that instant everything that was happening caught up to Jenna. The pregnant woman lying on the floor with the possible demonic child about to be born, the thief who had, as near as Jenna could tell, almost killed her, the mob of onlookers and the extremely posh woman who screamed of royalty and was offering what appeared to be an obscene reward for the both the stolen jewelry and the thief. Dead or alive.
A mild panic attack and more adrenaline that Jenna had ever felt causer to see and feel everything in slow motion. She even had time to distinguish a group of guards at the edge of the plaza, a couple of winged celestials taking flight and a couple of greedy mercenaries making a move towards the thief.
A/N:
Sorry for the ridiculously long delay…
You have 24 hours to read and vote. Starting now :P
Happy Voting. {[999baw}]
(Do it fast! We wanna write the next one already!)
So many yummy choices.
P.S. You only got one vote. And you can't change. And you can only do it once. Think about it :P