A Whole New World

Work went about as smoothly as it could. The usually depressing patients at the end of Dave's day simply couldn't dampen his mood even though they carried on as usual. Dave had the day off tomorrow as he found it useful to have a day in the middle of the week to run his errands. He had decided that he would 'Groundhog Day' a few Wednesdays with the save/load feature and take a break to get used to his new abilities.

With his loose plan in mind Dave went to hand his note over to Valerie at the front desk. When he entered the lobby he saw Valerie and Pete having a leisurely chat.

"G'day!"

"Hey man, what's up? How were the heartsinks?" Pete winked at Dave with a grin filled with schadenfreude.

"Haha no worries man! Since when have I ever let it get to me?"

"Since always you grumpy bastard. Now that I think of it you do seem unusually chipper today..." remarked Pete in his lightly Canadianised Aussie accent.

"He was even here early this morning." chimed in Valerie.

"Holy fuck man!? Seriously?? Did the sun rise in the west?"

"Humph... 'A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.' I'm just that magical." Dave snorted as he channeled Peter Jackson's Gandalf.

"Hahaha well how about you come with me to the pub and 'magically' disappear a few beers then? Jaime said he might call in later if he can get away from the wife."

"Hmm..." Dave contemplated for a while as he had driven to work and would have to leave the car overnight. Now that he had CoC, however, those worries were unnecessary. "Sure. Let me grab my coat. Valerie, wanna join us?"

"Oh you wouldn't want to get me drunk now, would you?" replied Valerie flirtatiously.

"You're right. I wouldn't, Val. Who knows what you'd do to me??"

"Hahaha go on and enjoy yourselves! I'll lock this place up. See you Thursday."

"See you then!"

Dave and Pete bade farewell to Valerie and walked to the subway station. The TTC was pretty crowded at this time of the day so they had to stand, packed like sardines, until they arrived at Bathurst station.

"Remind me why we decided to get off at Bathurst again?" Dave asked.

"Snooker buddy. You owe me a rematch!"

"You're just gonna end up depressed... Don't expect me to go easy on you man. The first round's on you by the way."

"Yeah right... I've decided: I'm going to pot at least one ball this time!"

"Just be honest man... You're here for the beer and the hot Asian chicks that play pool."

"Don't act like you aren't looking forward to it too!"

"I'm not. I am!"

Dave really enjoyed the random banter with Pete. Even when the pilot was in control, Pete would pick Dave's sloppy drunk ass up and carry him home if need be. That's the best kind of friend a man can get.

A few rounds later the pair had given up on trying to play snooker and had migrated back into the seating area to concentrate on drinking.

"No sign of Jaime?"

"Nope." Pete checked his phone. "Oh wait, yes actually... He can't make it. Bella is awake and apparently being a pain."

"Well, that's the downside to having a child. Your social life is completely at their mercy when they're young. You'll be experiencing that yourself sometime soon I'd imagine... I bet Mrs. McGeown's ovaries are ticking louder every day, right?"

"Oh God! Yeah... I don't want to think about that right now though. It's a big commitment..."

"Dude, you're already married. That should be the biggest commitment you'll ever have to make. I know you'd already discussed kids before so what's the big deal?"

"I like sleep. And sex."

"Ah, fair point well made!"

Dave and Pete drank together until they were rather tipsy before Pete announced that he had to get home. Steph wouldn't be happy with him if he stayed out too late again. They drank up their beers and went outside to hail a cab for Pete. Dave had his own plans on getting home but couldn't just vanish right out in the open when it wasn't that busy. Once Pete had left he decided to walk down a quiet alley to the south of Bloor Street before hopping into the console.

*~* [help home 4] *return*

Dave hadn't been thinking too clearly due to the many beers he had sunk back at the billiard hall so he just searched for 'home'. To his surprise the console actually came through for him.

[----VIEWER STRINGS NOT AVAILABLE--------

----OTHER FORMS-----------------

LOC: (000070052FC0023500F811B) "77MavetyAveTorontoExterior"

LOC: (000070052FC0023500F811C) "77MavetyAveTorontoGroundFloorInterior"

LOC: (000070052FC0023500F811D) "77MavetyAveToronto1stFloorInterior"

LOC: (002079031EF0012BC0B8135) "KamisLookoutPlazaExterior"

LOC: (002079031EF0012BC0B8136) "KamisLookoutHTCInterior"

LOC: (010055053AC0123600A110B) "BreezehomeExterior"

...

...

Well, this was interesting! The console had assisted him based not on what he typed but rather by the intent behind his search. This changed everything! The other things of note were the other listings. Dave was a bit confused at first but then he realized that he had a mod that added Kami's Lookout from Dragonball to his game. The help command actually found and listed it as Dave's home. This was too surreal. What would happen if he actually tried to teleport there? Maybe that was a question better suited to sober Dave.

[coc 77MavetyAveToronto1stFloorInterior] *return*

Dave found himself standing in his upstairs hallway.

*~*

He was feeling tired. It was time to go to bed and and get some sleep. He could think about the console again in the morning.

********************

Dave's waking thoughts were of the console output from last night. Had he somehow gotten drunk enough to start hallucinating?

*~*

Nope, when he checked the console and scrolled up it was still there. Dave could hardly believe it but before he did anything else he remembered to save.

[save "362019"] *return* *~*

Dave hopped out of the console, showered, and then dressed in some casual clothes. He thought about how to work out if the fantasy places in his console were actually places he could go. The only answer he came to was that he had to try it. After brushing his teeth and mentally preparing himself, Dave decided to take the plunge.

"Well, here goes..."

*~* [coc Whiterun] *return*

Dave found himself standing on a bridge overlooking the unmistakable walls of Whiterun.

"No fucking way! I'm in Skyrim! Okay... Calm down and think. If I can teleport to Skyrim which is completely fictional then what about other fictional places?"

Dave scanned his memory for other places from novels and movies.

"Hmmm... This one seems like a good choice."

[help "SevenSwordSect" 4] *return*

Dave just searched while hoping that the console would fill in the blanks for him and, once again, it worked.

[----VIEWER STRINGS NOT AVAILABLE--------

----OTHER FORMS-----------------

LOC: (023090356FC0013900B5BBC) "SevenSwordSectSwordPeakTrainingFieldExterior"

...

...

[coc SevenSwordSectSwordPeakTrainingFieldExterior] *return*

Dave stood overlooking what seemed to be a martial arts training field. Many youths were paired off and engaging in combat with one another. Others were practicing archery at a range. Some were wielding spears, swords, sabres, pole arms, and war hammers. It was a very lively sight even though it was currently paused. Dave shivered at the thought that the evidence around him suggested that he had indeed traveled to a world that was straight out of the Wuxia novels that his silent pilot had so enjoyed reading. Honestly, Dave also enjoyed reading them. The sense of escape from reality provided by the novels probably had a great deal to do with why he liked them. Unfortunately, he couldn't exit the console right now as he was obviously an outsider and, at least in the novels, outsiders weren't welcome in sects.

[save Wuxia362019] *return*

*~* *m*

Dave only would have spent around a picosecond outside of the paused state of his console and map function but he couldn't know if that wasn't enough time for the scary strong "old monsters" of the sect (if they had them) to notice him. If they did notice him, Dave would probably be dead before he could even open the console.

Looking at the map, Dave saw that there were few villages close to the sect. There was what appeared to be a town to the east. Dave wanted to go there and gather some information about this world. The map indicated that there was a grove just south of the town and that seemed like a good place to teleport to.

Dave opened the console and shortly after appeared in a quiet grove. The town to the north was recorded as Tianzhu on the map. Dave carefully began to walk in that direction. As soon as he saw a native he would adjust his clothing to match the style. As he was now he would most definitely stand out from the crowd so he would need to find a way to make himself look a little more like the locals.

When he reached the edge of the treeline he noticed a merchant caravan heading towards the southern gate of the town. Opening the console, Dave selected one of the guards and used the 'openactorcontainer' command to sneak a peek at the guard's possessions. Dave made himself a something like a shopping list and then used the help command to track down the items of clothing. He noticed that the currency used seemed to be copper and silver coins so, going against his normal policy of not spawning currency, Dave spawned a few of each coin. He assumed he'd need some to enter the town.

With his preparations complete he walked back onto the road out of sight from the town walls and then headed for the southern gate. As he approached the queue to enter the town Dave realized that nothing in life came easily. The language was completely unintelligible to him. Thankfully he watched the people ahead of him enter without any issue. All they did was place two silver coins in the boxes by the guards. Dave decided to imitate them and luckily it worked. Once he was safely past the guards, Dave opened the console and saved again.

*~* [save Tianzhu362019] *return* *~*

Now it was time to look around!