OrchidCrowns.
Sterling Spearhead.
Discovery Town Spawn Area.
Affected RPers: None.

Getting your hands on Challengers of Fate was supposed to be borderline impossible, but Haruka had managed it. She was incredibly thankful that she'd had the money and good sense to preorder a copy or she would have been out of luck - every store in Kyoto had been packed to the brim on the game’s launch date. Given how ridiculously good the game was supposed to be, that wasn't a surprise. Haruka felt herself grinning as she tore open the plastic encasing the game.

A chirping noise sounded near Haruka’s leg - her cellphone, reporting a message from Tiff. “you finally get your copy yet?” the message read. For Haruka, it was still pretty early in the morning, but for Tiff it would have been much later in the evening.

Haruka quickly replied, “Yes, and I am about to log in. Are you ready?”

“oooooh yeaaaaah!!! :D” came Tiff's answer. Haruka smiled. Hands trembling with excitement, Haruka slipped on her headset and quiz began.

It took a little while. Haruka wanted to answer honestly, but she also didn't want to get stuck as a Koffing or Magikarp or Yungoos or some Pokemon she hated. Pre-release information was of precious little help, so Haruka had no clue what Pokemon she might be in the game-world. When it was over, she found herself in a crowded city square. There were Pokemon everywhere - so real-looking and huge. She herself was positively tiny - a little winged Pokemon with tan, green, and white feathers, one of the shortest creatures in the crowd. She looked herself over and noticed that she had green plumage on her chest in the shape of a bow tie - she was a Rowlet!

Eager and impatient, she stood on tip-toe - tip-claw? - and began looking for the tag Wulfenite. It didn't even occur to her to pull up her menu and find Tiff that way; she was too excited -

“Boo!” someone shouted, and a pair of big blue arms grabbed Haruka from behind.

Wulfenite.
Sterling Spearhead.
Discovery Town Spawn Area.
Affected RPers: None.

“you finally get your copy yet?” Tiff knew she was being a bit impatient, texting Haruka so soon, but she was dying to get started. She wanted to wait until Haruka was ready, but having a best friend on the other side of the globe had its downsides.

Almost immediately, her phone beeped in response. “Yes, and I am about to log in. Are you ready?”

“oooooh yeaaaaah!!! :D” Tiff texted back, her hands moving so fast she just about replied in gibberish.

“That your girlfriend texting you?” Tiff whirled to scowl at her sixteen-year-old sister, who was leaning in the doorway of her room. “That chick from Japan?”

Tiff rolled her eyes. “Knock it off, Jenny, she said. Jenny opened her mouth to say something, but Tiff put her headset on immediately, shutting out the obnoxious sibling banter before it could begin.

The quiz only took a few minutes. Before long, Tiff found herself standing in a big crowd, her dark skin replaced by black and blue fur and her face lengthened to a ridiculous snout. “Riolu! Awesome!” she said to no one in particular.

She pulled up the menu with a movement of her hand-paw thing, searching the online list for OrchidCrowns. The proper username was there - as was a label next to it that said [INTRODUCTION]. Tiff pouted; how long was the quiz gonna take?

While she waited, she began setting up the Sterling Spearhead adventure team, something she and Haruka had already sorted before coming here. Haruka would have to visit the Oricorio at the desk in order to sign onto the team, but everything else was done, including Tiff picking out a nice scarf and a decent save point at the Adventure Guild.

A few minutes later, [INTRODUCTION] changed to [DISCOVERY TOWN]. Tiff wasted no time, charging out of the Arcane Something Or Other and racing back to town. She quickly spotted the name “OrchidCrowns” floating above a Rowlet, who she grabbed in an enthusiastic tackle-hug.

“Eep!” Haruka squealed in surprise and flapped her wings frantically until Tiff let her go. Haruka turned, feathers ruffled, and squawked, “Hey! Who do you think you are!?”

Tiff felt her ears lowering. “Shoot, sorry, Crowns,” she said. “I got so excited to be finally meeting you in person… though I'm not sure how ‘person’ this counts as.”

Haruka appeared slightly mollified - though it was slightly hard to read bird expressions. “Apology accepted,” she said. “So I take it you got in before me?”

A proud grin appeared on Tiff’s muzzle. “Yup,” she said. “Got our team named and everything at the big building over there.” She gestured to the Keep offhandedly. “All that's left is for you to get registered to the team and then we can start!”

Getting Haruka set up was a quick process, for which Tiff was extremely grateful. The two hurried over to the Adventure Guild’s bulletin board, where several missions were listed, including an expedition to one Cartographer’s Cove that was explicitly recommended for beginner teams. Compared to the other Adventurer dungeons, the Cove wasn't terribly far off. Furthermore, rumor had it that a large collection of low-end Entercards had been found there, and the Adventure Guild would allow their teams to keep any Entercards they found - which meant that they would have Magnagate access they’d need for later missions.

“Let’s head out,” Tiff said, and Haruka nodded. “I’ve only got a few hours before I need to log off and go to sleep before my mom gets after me.”