..."Deck of Ovid." After clicking on the button, its synopsis pops up. "Long ago, Ovid the poet wrote his magnum opus, The Metamorphoses. Within the pages of his greatest book, are stories where man and god alike were transformed into something different. But before he wrote those tales together, Ovid had them written down on special cards. These cards were blessed by the gods so that people could see the myths for themselves, even being in the myths themselves. You can fly in the sky like Daedalus, swim in the sea with the dolphin from Bacchus, and even be a tree to hide from Apollo like Daphne. Alas, Ovid only has one deck of cards for people to play around with. As such, the Deck of Ovid has disappeared, along with the myth surrounding them. Until today.
With the power of VR, you too can play 'Deck of Ovid' by yourself or with a player 2. The goal of the game is to get more cards than your opponent. Some cards allow you to grab even more cards, some allow you to trade cards, and there are cards that you lose cards. Whoever gets to 25 cards, wins."
While my mythology is a little rusty, I still love to play these card video games. So I pressed the "Play" button below the synopsis and the game took over the main menu of the VR set. For a moment, all I see is darkness. And then, a flame appeared in front of me. I can feel the little heat coming through the gauntlet of my hand like I am really close to an open flame. Then the flame zoomed past me and landed on a candle behind me. This candle lit up a table and chair that was made for me, there were even some parchments of paper and a pen for me to write with on the table.
Seeing how there wasn't anything else to do in the void, I approached the table and chair and "clicked" on it. The chair moved away from me and then made me sit in it. But unlike a regular VR game, I can feel the chair underneath me. I'm sure that if anyone is looking at me, they will see me sitting down on an invisible chair just like a mime. The parchment has the same text on it as in every game; the name of the game, a new save file and an open save file (must be the professor's file), and the options and credits underneath it all.
I grabbed the pen beside the paper (I could feel a pen-like item in my hand) and wrote my name on the "New save file" line. Then the paper rolled itself up and rolled away into the darkness. The pen in my hand went poof since it was no longer needed and then the flame of the candle went out by itself. I looked around the darkness to see if there was a game to play, thinking to myself that of course, I picked the bugged-out game. Then I saw a door opening in front of me, sending rays of sunlight into the area I was in. I got out of my seat and approached the doorway that led to the main game.
Even if I was still in a basement lab, where there were no windows to be seen, the vista before me was breathtaking. Not only I can see the sea that stretches out toward the horizon and I can hear the gulls crying out while flying above me, but I can also feel the winds blowing past me along with the smell of the sea filling up my nose too. Truly, the professor has outdone himself with this VR tech. When I looked down, I was wearing a toga that draped over me in such a beautiful design. It was like I was in the Mediterranean, with the crystal clear waters by the shoreline and the seagulls flying in the sky. The reason I know that I was in the Mediterranean was that the building that I exited from was painted white with blue domes like in those travel images. That and that there was a god sitting in front of me.
At least, I think it is a god. He looked like he was slightly older than me, maybe 18 or 19 years old. His curly, brown hair partially covered his dark eyes that looked down at the table in front of him. The reason why I wonder if he was a god is that he is wearing a Grecian toga that shows off his toned torso. When I approached him, the boy looked up at me and got up to introduce himself. "Yasso, hello, and welcome to Crete. My name is Bacchus, but you can call me B if it makes it easier," B said in his baritone voice through my speakers. If he wasn't a character in a video game, he would be my boyfriend.
"Now then filos, friend, is this your first time playing 'Deck of Ovid'?" B asked me once I let go of his hand. "Y-yes, this is my first time," I stumble the words out after daydreaming about me and B being together. B smiled at me with those pearly, white teeth and said, "Then I will go easy on you for your first time and let you go first." I took my seat and looked down at the table after tearing my eyes away from the boy of my dreams. There is just a deck of playing cards facedown with the back saying "Deck of Ovid" in a Diogenes font style.
"So we just keep pulling cards until one of us wins?" I asked B to make sure I understood the rules. "Nai, yes. But we must also follow what the cards tell us, no matter what. Are you ready to play agapitos, dear?" "I am ready Bacchus," and I grab the first card on top of the deck. On the card was a painting of a goddess, getting dressed by figures flying by her. The text underneath it said, "There rises Venus, the goddess of love and beauty; fully grown when she left the blue sea." When I put my card back down, this time facing up, I can feel something going wrong.
While I don't know what is happening on the outside of the VR, I can feel myself changing in the game. My limbs were getting stretched longer and my POV was rising as well. The hair on my head and my developing body grew out even more than before while still being clothed in the toga. What was left of my baby fats was now used up, leaving me much thinner than before. Well, except for my womanly curves that grew out of me. Not as impressive as my mother's figure, but very close to it.
"What happened to me? Did I get older?" I spoke out loud in my new adult voice, which is very seductive as compared to before. "Like I said before my kyria, my lady. We have to follow the cards," and B picks another card. I didn't get to see what he got, but when he put it down, green vines grew around him. "What did you get Bacchus?" "I'm not telling you. This is my card to keep and we keep on getting more cards until one of us wins." The god of madness and alcohol just gestured toward the cursed cards, "Your turn."