Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“It still feels odd to have a Valentines themed update coming out in late February…“

“Rumor has it they had trouble implementing some of the features, so they had to push it back.” Risa’s voice crackled a bit over the call—Kaede really needed to replace her phone one of these days. “But then they had to make sure the new ‘Relationship Skills’ were implemented with enough time for players to figure them out and level them up before the new map and challenges are added.”

“I guess so!” Kaede said before cheerfully adding, “Even if it’s not the next full Stratum or event, the ‘White Zone’ map and the challenges and activities they’ve teased sound fun, so that should make up for the devs being weird and still celebrating White Day separately.”

“Yeah…I don’t think I’ve gotten anything for White Day since someone decided that ghosts and skeletons being white meant clearance sale Halloween decorations would make a good joke gift,” Risa said, glaring.

“Heh-heh-heh, you were the one who started the prank war that year,” Kaede responded, giggling, “and I made sure to give you them at home so no one else saw you freak out.”

Risa sighed. “And I’m sure it was a complete coincidence that my mom just happened to have her phone handy to take pictures?” Getting her blush back under control, Risa changed the subject to ward off more teasing. “Anyway, at least they made it clear that the skills aren’t just for romantic stuff, so even ‘Maple' and 'Sally’ should be able to get some skills. Same for the rest of the guild, for that matter.”

Kaede hummed thoughtfully. “I wonder if there will be a mentor-type skill, for us and the twins…“

“There should be… heh-heh-heh, think I’ll get one for mentoring you?” Risa, of course, was just fine with starting up the teasing again if it wasn’t her being targeted.

“H-Hey now! We’re supposed to be talking about Maple Tree, not teasing Kaede!” Kaede said, spluttering as she searched for a way out of the line of fire. “Uhhh… oh! I meant to double check with you…that EULA that they added for the update process…is that normal?”

Risa shot Kaede a look that, even over a video call, clearly expressed her complete satisfaction at winning their latest battle of teasing and willpower. ”Well, it’s not… common, but it’s not unheard of. Sometimes game devs just don’t think to track certain actions or events until they realize they could be used for achievements or skill conditions, and then they’re kinda stuck. Either they disappoint players who have done those tasks many times over before the update, or they have to figure out a way to reward players retroactively. I think Nintendogs VR 4 was the first game to use the Memory Replay System, so by now it’s pretty mature tech.”

The Memory Replay System combined the time dilation options that were used during many events with the same systems that let players control spells and abilities with more precision than kinetic and verbal control systems allowed. Depending on how many hours a player had spent in the game, they’d spend anywhere from a few minutes to two or three hours of real time sleeping in game while the system checked over their memories of gameplay and tallied up all the new event flags and conditions that had been added. Without that, you could only retroactively gain skills for which the game already tracked relevant information, like who you teamed up with for events or boss battles.

“Okay. Though I’m glad it lets us choose where and when to do that in game.” Kaede blushed slightly. “I know we’ll be asleep for it, but I still don’t think I’d like being all alone while they go through my brain like that…”

Risa struck an over-the-top confident pose. “Heh-heh-heh, don’t worry Kaede! Even asleep, Sally will be able to serve as a protective mentor for Maple!”

“RIIIISAAAA!!!”

Several hours of chatting and a break for dinner later, Sally and Maple materialized inside of Maple Tree’s Second Stratum guild house in a display of light. Kasumi was already asleep with a progress bar floating above her head when they reached the Sleepover Room (which Maple had bullied the rest of them into converting one of the storage rooms into months ago), so they quickly divided up their preparations. Sally made a quick lap of the building to check if any of the other members were there—they weren’t, though Kuromu was marked as online—while Maple wrote up a message for Kasumi and anyone else that came by while they were out. Oboro and Syrup had the most important job: deciding which of the bunk beds they wanted to use.

A few minutes later, Maple pouted down at Syrup as the little turtle resisted—for the first time!—her psychokinesis skill, instead burrowing under Sally’s covers in the bottom bunk. Sally opened her mouth to add some teasing to her smug look, only to be interrupted as Oboro jumped off her head to keep Maple company. A few minutes after that, the girls finished making faces and sticking their tongues out at each other. Instead, they settled down, each pulling up the Memory Replay System prompt and hitting confirm.

Flashes of memory streamed through their thoughts, from nearly a year of playing New World Online. Snippets and scenes of time spent playing together were joined by interactions with their guild, and even with their friends and rivals in other guilds…

Sally woke up to an unusual sight: a type of notification she’d never seen before.

“Morning, sleepy head.” Sally looked away from the notification to find Iz sipping tea near the door. “You just missed Kasumi; she forgot to use the bathroom before doing this, so she had to log out and take care of that.”

“Oh, were you waiting for us to finish before you took your turn with the MRS?” Sally said while she carefully placed the still sleeping Syrup on top of Maple and gave some scritches to Oboro—who was awake, but far too comfortable to get up it seemed. “Maple started playing before me, but she shouldn’t have too much more playtime than me, so she should be done soon.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Iz said, “it’s not just based on how many hours you’ve spent, after all. I’ve got more playtime than Kuromu by a wide margin, but the system took almost as long to process his memories as it did mine. We both got it out of the way right after the update dropped.“

“Fair enough. Maple and I couldn’t get free until now, not when we had to plan for the worst and assume it’d take 3 hours. You get any good skills? My log is apparently full of notifications, but the organization is terrible,” Sally said, scrolling through list after list of truncated notifications. “Half of these look like debug info, and the rest have all the details hidden behind the ellipses.“

“Yeah, it’s pretty bad. It’s much easier to look at the Relationship Summary window for the other player in question, see?” Iz said, pulling up an information screen and turning it towards Sally.

“Senpai and Kouhai? Really?“ Sally scoffed.

“The summary titles are a bit odd at times,” Iz said, “but it seems like those are the defaults for players in the same guild that don’t meet any of the more specific relationship types—or I suppose ‘paths’—that they have defined.“

“Wait, but if this is based on the guild… I have more seniority than you, so I should be the Senpai!” Sally said, spluttering, “and w-wait, what’s this about wise and cute, huh?”

Iz giggled. “Luckily for me, the game goes off of age and playtime, since we both started before the Guild update… and it’s because I wisely made the rest of you cute outfits—I even got a skill that boosts the stats on any gear I make for someone marked as a ‘Muse’ for me.”

“…So the twins are going to be stuck being your dolls for dress-up again?” Sally said sardonically.

“Heh-heh-heh, not everyone has to be badgered to change up their looks, Sally,” Iz said, still giggling, “and don’t think I won’t send Maple after you to get you to try on some new cute clothes.”

“H-hey, speaking of Maple, I should…see what skills and bonuses we’ve got, right?” Sally said, hiding a blush, “So we’ll have to table this discussion for now, right? Heh…”

Iz’s eyes danced with amusement. “You won’t get to see the final numbers until she’s done too, but it should put up a preliminary summary, if you can get past the disclaimers about it not being finalized.“

“Well, let’s see what they’ve got with just my memories,” Sally muttered before turning towards the top bunk and selecting the ’View Relationship Summary’ button on Maple’s profile.

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“EHHH??????”