The Restoration Protocol

1 || an alias for paradise

It's a hard feat, convincing a timid, teenage boy to play a virtual reality game meant for adults, but not one so hard that Mariko couldn't achieve by means of an inadvertent guilt trip. I'm moving soon, Boey, she reminded him many times, and the game is only out in the US right now, so it's likely we wouldn't be able to interact when I'm in freakin' Japan in a couple months. And despite how far she was willing to stretch the truth to persuade Boey to get the game, Mariko wasn't lying about this much. Paracosia has only been out for a short time. Yet despite its record-breaking success and popularity among reviewers and fans who received early access to the game, it has yet to receive its anticipated international release date.

"Paracosia" — a revolutionary gaming experience, drawing consumers to purchase its equally revolutionary gaming console, the Dream State System, or DSS, for short. Certainly not a price tag to sneeze at, and it isn't something that is likely to be sold at discounts online for a long time — if ever. The concept of falling asleep to enter a digital dream world, where a player could conceivably live out days after days of adventures and thrills while mere minutes have passed in the waking world...what a dream in itself, the developers at Dream State Technology boasted, in a society where busy schedules rob the hard-working of their well-deserved free time.

Now admittedly, fourteen-year-old Mariko Yoshimura wouldn't say she is particularly busy or hard-working, but when you've got a wealthy, single, doting aunt who has money to burn and takes sympathy on you for your circumstances, certain "limitations" can be avoided. Her best friend Boey Steele was another story, but thanks to the boy's equally sympathetic older brother who happened to work for Dream State Technology, Boey was able to obtain a DSS as well.

All favorable conditions seeming to align perfectly for the sole cause of allowing Mariko just one...lucky break.

If only Boey would get here faster, she thinks, tapping her foot impatiently in the crowded terminal of the PIPTIA — that is, Paracosia's Interdimensional Portal Transportation and Information Agency. It's an airport, essentially. Minus the runways. And the airplanes. But there are glowing portals, which in Mariko's opinion are much cooler anyway. Seamless entryways into the heart of this fantastical country which she has only had the chance to explore so little of since the game has been in her possession. Numerous cities teeming with their own civilizations and culture and quests, yet Mariko herself has yet to set foot out of Wynsmith, Paracosia's capital.

It would be more fun to explore with someone. With Boey, specifically, if only he would get here faster...

Mariko swings her legs back and forth as she fidgets in her chair, staring mindlessly down at the golden laces of her boots. They're a special item she won in a raffle, as a matter of fact. She had been hoping for a dagger, but a bottom-tier prize is a better outcome than the dozens of people who won nothing at all. It's like a souvenir. She's just a traveler here, after all. Much like every other individual chattering and pacing about this terminal, either to gather their bearings, or perhaps for the same reason as Mariko — awaiting the moment their dear friends should take their first steps into this new world to join them.

She had been so excited just to start playing that she forgot to make sure Boey was even ready to log on. Though even the memory is hazy at this point, she's almost certain that he said he would be here soon, and that he wanted her to wait for him. And with those pleading words swimming in her head, she promised herself that she would do just that.

Mariko presses her thumb to her watch to activate the holographic game menu. She personalized her own with the Alias template, a bonus that came with the game's special release. A miniature icon of Paracosia's renowned pop star dances in the screen's corner. Mariko watches it unblinkingly. Alias is one of the main reasons she wanted to play the game in the first place. To experience a live concert. To hear in person all those songs teased in Paracosia's trailers over the past few years. To meet her. An achievement Mariko has yet to realize on account of Alias's status.