Enter the World through the Lambda Server

Moderator: Nighthand

Locked
User avatar
Senna
Awakened Player
Posts: 150
Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:28 pm

Post by Senna » Sun Jul 16, 2006 3:54 am

The group seemed to be rather self-contained, but for that she couldn’t really fault them. If nothing else, her quick little search for the one – Canti? – had told her that their leader was not lying, at least not about them being trapped in the game. And honestly, she couldn’t imagine she’d be an open person in that situation.

Heck, she wasn’t an open person even standing here, knowing she was likely the only person on this entire field who could leave The World. And to be honest, she felt she’d been a little cold to the one – Canti was it? But handling self pity, even entirely deserved and understandable self pity, was not something she’d ever been good at.

The next one who took a moment was interesting. He introduced himself as Zan, then took another moment to point out and tell her the names of several others in the group, which she appreciated. She looked at each one, repeating the names silently to herself in an attempt to burn them into her brain. Dien she remembered, but had forgotten his name. And once she was told Nall’s name, she realized he hadn’t introduced himself. Nor had….

Another startling realization, that. She filed it away to figure out later. She thanked him, but since no further answer had seemed to be required, at least not by Zan, such was the end of that interaction. Interesting, she thought. Interesting people.

As he departed, she took a moment to take stock of her spells and skills. What might be useful? She considered her water armor, but decided to keep that back unless it proved it would be useful. Items? Fairly well stocked. She also considered switching out her current weapons in favor of something a little stronger, but in the end she couldn’t do it. The Ichigou was her favorite weapon. She loved its look. And she had to admit the Critical Hit and Death skills on it didn’t hurt the decision. Like the armor, perhaps that would change given the right circumstances. And as she looked up from this brief exercise, she had seen Reinier approaching.

The reunion was not as awkward as she’d thought it might be given the circumstances. She didn’t answer all of his questions or concerns and got the feeling he was keeping his own things back as well, but she found she was glad to catch up with him again, even given the circumstances. He’d also given her quite a lot to think about. Their curse being a blessing? Zan going ‘Wolfy’? People tossing buildings around? She thought of the ruins of Mac Anu she’d only recently seen.

Yes, a lot to think about.

He seemed concerned about her being here, but that made sense. She’d only seen the skills these people all possessed from a distance, but from the look of things her in-game skills were not quite at the same level as many of them. She wondered yet again if she would be a hindrance more than a help. Maybe leaving would be the wiser course. Still, she’d given her word first to Nall, then to Reinier. It wouldn’t do to be an oathbreaker.

So thinking, she meandered a little ways across the room, to within viewing distance of the elemental plaque, which she briefly studied. Six elements. Six seemed to be a magic number in The World, for it was also the number of base classes available. And here, the six elements were set up like deities to be worshipped. And who knew. In this place, the elements were the closest thing to gods people had – unless one wanted to count the admins, and somehow, that just seemed wrong.

So she looked and contemplated, feeling vaguely guilty as she remembered doing much the same thing time and again at church. She wasn’t religious, but had gone to services with friends at college. It had seemed important to them and she was curious, but somehow she never got the sort of reverent feeling that she could sometimes get by just walking into an empty cathedral. The ceremony of it always led to her mind wandering to other things. As she was doing now, as a matter of fact.

This group was here essentially to sabotage communications, if she understood the motive correctly. It was also a bit of spywork, and from the look of outside these people were well used to a fight – eager for one in fact.

Who WERE they? The next while should tell. She could bide a little. Didn’t have a choice for a bit actually, if she intended to keep her word.

So then, she offered a prayer of sorts to the elements, the powers that be in this game… world… whatever. Please, she thought, don’t let this get too screwed up. Because from the way everyone talked and acted, screwed up was a possible if not likely way for things to go around this group.

And for some reason, that prayer made her laugh.

She was lost in these thoughts, faded smile on her face, when the group began to move again, but despite that ended up in the middle of the pack as they followed one another down the spiral stair. The thing was remarkably solid, anchored both in the center and on the sides but probably given added strength by its digital construction more than its physical one. On the bright side, the construction also kept her from freaking out about how far up they might be, especially as the stair wound on further and further.

From her position in the line, she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary in their seemingly interminable descent until the slight sound of something falling (but that wasn’t quite right, was it?) past her drew her attention. It was Zan in a strange part-bird form from the fight before, the one she wasn’t sure she’d seen right. As she watched, he waved at the group, almost cheekily, then headed for the bottom at a much more rapid pace.

So I wasn’t imagining that, she thought. And despite the solemnity that seemed to pervade this place, perhaps left over from the church-area above, she chuckled as they followed the winged one at their slower, two-legged pace.

The stairs ended in a wholly unremarkable space as far as Senna was concerned. It took some walking in a circle (she chose left, perhaps a leftover habit from watching car racing with her roommates) to see the whole thing because it was built like a donut. They’d just walked down through the central area, and apparently they would exit in the same manner, if from a different side.

They were given a warning by Nall, then left to make a decision, which took far too long in Senna’s opinion. There were six doorways. Roll a die, spin a sword then go through one and prepare yourself as best you can for whatever might lie beyond.

She listened to Zan describe what he’d sensed in each of the exits, which took a while in itself and didn’t seem to tell them much that they couldn’t have guessed. Still, she supposed there was the chance something could have been there to find. Better to check. And perhaps better to share as well. Gods, she wasn’t used to working in a group.

Since she had no real preference one way or the other and Zan’s monologue had not changed that fact, she kept away from the discussions and took another look at the elemental plaque. Even missing bits, it was pretty. The design was eye-catching, and the elemental items odd, in some ways. For instance, water was usually represented by ice, not actual water. And sand for the Gan section? Another oddity. Artistic license could certainly make for interesting visuals.

The marred artwork having gotten a second look-over, Senna returned her attention to the group. Reinier and Zan were discussing something, but shortly Zan made an announcement. Three people, he said, had chosen the Gan path. He and Reinier would have to be two, she thought. Who was the other?

An on the heels of that – did it MATTER who the third was? Of course not. Three was pretty much enough for the decision as far as she could see. Unless other people had a good reason not to go that way, any destination was better than none.

She gave the group a brief nod, showing her agreement with the choice of direction. She was eager to get under way. Reinier’s warnings of danger hadn’t gone unheeded, even if they were not remarked on, and from Nall’s talk earlier, she had to wonder if every second the group remained wasn’t just increasing the likelihood of it all going south.
Last edited by Senna on Sun Jul 16, 2006 4:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Senna, level 33 Long Arm (710 HP/180 SP)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
Click for full equipment and items
14300 (1/23)

Lord Canti
Exalted Player
Posts: 300
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 3:58 pm
Location: In da' plains of hell, natch.

Post by Lord Canti » Sun Jul 16, 2006 2:47 pm

(The inclusion of Senna appeared to have an interesting effect on the rest of the group. Or rather, if interesting was a bad word for it, how about souring instead? Yes, that could be it. It wasn't her, per se. In fact, it wasn't really about Senna at all, her presence here. It was what it suggested... A player still out in real life and not stuck in The World, one that was here of all places, was sounding rather grimly like someone that could be stuck with them in the near future. Now Canti understood how Reinier, Zan, and the others felt about him, Dien, and Zhao. Everyone seemed withdrawn into themselves, mostly. Nall waited a short while before moving them along. He had to have noticed the symbol thingy and wondered why it was there. Canti was getting sort of a dark tower feeling, even though the Demon of Fear and all that came with it was gone. Now, it was a whole new ballgame, with everything changed. Going through that door after a couple of the others, Canti was surprised to see a tight spiral staircase here. It took a while to get down there and Canti was about ready to use a Speed Charm and run down the wall...as it ended. Okay, no Speed Charm then. The room was wide and had seven ways to go, one of them looked by something similar to the symbol upstairs. Yeah, this was so obvious. A video game classic if he ever saw one. Question was...what were they basing this stuff off of? Oddworld or a Duke Nukem game? It didn't matter, really. Only one thing DID matter...)

"Well, let's pick a path and find the key. Don't try to split up though, those archways will let off a powerful spell if fewer than four people attempt to enter it."

Canti: What, really? So, we can't do this quickly and get out? Damn...

(Boobytraps... You know, this was starting to look more and more like what he said to Raine before coming here. That rats-in-a-maze feeling, with the hackers watching them and laughing... Maybe he was just paranoid, but it seemed about the right time to think in such a way. It was then that he noticed Zan...listening carefully for something. What was it? Ah! He was hearing stuff from the room, trying to figure out their dangers!)

"Alright, everyone listen up real quick. I think it's fair to say that we have to go down each and every one of these eventually. However, I did the best with what I could to figure out what we're up against and came up with a few things. Vak smells like cooked meat, I heard a waterfall in Rue, heard rustling leaves in Juk...lame, I know...a large stone moving around in Gan, a complete and total silence in Ani, and something that smelt like ozone in Rai. I know it isn't much, but I figure it's better than going into all of them completely blind. Oh, do note though that there's a chance the Elites have this place wired to throw off intrusions with even amplified senses, so we don't even really know if what I heard and smelled have anything to actually do with what lies beyond. I think it'll be best if we walk down the Gan path first. We have someone who's relatively apt in the area, whether he believes it or not, and I think it'll be a good start."

(Well, that was an eye-opener. Good thinking on the wolf-man for using his head. Vak and Rue were obviously an excess of fire and water, respectively. Ani was quiet, which could mean anything. Juk, now that... Rustling leave could mean more than just the involvement of plants, but he'd save the reasoning behind that for later. Gan sounded like something handle-able, predictable even...perhaps. And Rai...thunder and lightning galore, no doubt. As Zan went to take in the opinion of others, Canti brought up his own decision on his own. Popular reasoning was starting to arc towards the Gan path and Canti could see no reason why not. He got within vocal distance of Zan and spoke up.)

Canti: I'll go with the Gan path. Like you said, we've got the man of stone here, and besides...it sounds like a bit from Indiana Jones... Boulders might be easy to handle, 'specially if we've all seen that movie.

(Then he looked around and put out another thought, the one he had about the Juk path.)

Canti: Just a thought, Zan... The rustling sound you heard might've been some predator. Did you smell any animal scents in there?
I'll have a doozy of a sig later, I swear. It'll reflect ".hack//CODE" an' everything.

Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.

User avatar
Nighthand
Master of Games
Posts: 1265
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:23 pm
Class: Bladesmage
Location: ...Tracking...please wait...

Post by Nighthand » Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:42 pm

Nall gazed around the group, nodding to himself. He was smiling, internally and externally. Now that the group had taken the time to chat a little bit, their decision was quick. Zan's senses gave them a hint at what could be coming, and Nall's own senses gave him little clues as well. None he needed to share at the moment, though. Nothing... important.

He gestured, and the group began to meander down the hallway. It really was little more than a hallway, after all. Passing under the archway caused the runes to hum slightly with power, prepared to cast, but untriggered. There were enough people. It was soon shown that an attempt to run past the spell-arch wouldn't have turned out well, anyways. The inside of the hallway was lined with the runes. Likely no one could make it through that hallway alone without dying.

After a short while, they came upon another room. This time it wasn't rounded, but more like the temple overhead; cubic in design. The walls were made out of what looked and felt like dry dense sandstone. Solid pieces, too. Nall doubted Reinier's talents would be able to take the roof down over their head, anyways.

Eerily, it was silent save for their steps. Whatever had been causing the sounds that Zan had heard wasn't evident. The floor seemed unmarred, no scrapes where a large block would have moved.

All in all, the room was really quite bland. There were no decorations, no monsters, no portals, no items... only one thing; The object of their desire. The entire reason they came down this hallway in the first place. There, hovering in the middle of the room, was the hourglass.

Zan was nearest, after having led them into the room. It seemed natural at least, that the one with the most attuned senses would lead the way. The heavyblade made his way to the center of the room, eyes and ears alert for any traps to be triggered. Seeing nothing, hearing nothing, even smelling nothing, he shrugged and grabbed the hourglass.

His hand closed on empty air. Staring around in surprise, the group found themselves back at the entrance of the room. There was the hourglass, hanging in the center, just like before. One thing WAS different, though. The walls had moved; or rather, opened up. Six towering creatures emerged, floating on spindles, their ribbon-like bodies one of the more unique monsters in the game. Mu Guardians, Nall's senses told him; and untouched. They were simply regular monsters.

There WAS something odd about them, however. Their bodies shone with the tan light of a boosting spell. Ap Ganz was already cast upon them, and Nall's senses said it wouldn't fade away. It had something to do with this room, it's element.

Nall's blade was drawn, as were the others around them. The hourglass could wait, the threat was evident before them.


-----------------ooc:

Short post, yeah. Got what needed to be done, done.
Mu Guardian x6
level 28. The Ap Ganz serves to boost their spells by one level. They have access to Gan Rom and Gan Zot.

Zan
Exalted Player
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:28 pm
Contact:

Post by Zan » Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:02 am

---------------------------------------

Conner passed through the small chainlink fence of his lawn with a rusty creak as welcoming, eyes glazing over the one story, hardly-anything square feet house that he was oh-so-pleased to call home. Dead grass browned and mulched at his sides, the cracking stone pathway leading to his front door overgrown with weeds and sporting the beautiful sight of a number of trash bags that his father had told him 'time and time again' to take to the dumpster. Why do that when he could instead irritate the drunkard further? Plus, the sight of past meals spilling and overflowing from broken bags to decorate things was one he'd sorely miss. Ignoring the slurred words and usual complaints from his father when he entered the door, he drifted towards the kitchen, doing his best to steady the thoughts that had begun to crawl through the sludge of his brain. Conner had told the stranger that he wanted a rain check on whatever revelations the kid was going to offer up. After finding out that the mystery man went to his school he snatched that up as an excuse to go through whatever talks the guy felt necessary at another time. For now Conner needed some normality and his house, as crappy as it may have been, gave him just that.

The high school student did his best to tell himself that everything was okay, that soon enough he'd wake up from this incredibly lucid dream and find out that everything was still as it should be. It was for that reason alone that Conner dare not pinch himself, knowing full well that there was one hell of a chance that he couldn't like the outcome of that little test. No, instead he chose to busy his mind with taking care of the low growl in his stomach, the teen having stupidly past up the dinner offer Leo had given. Why sit at a table with people, aside from Leo of course, that gave him nothing but pitying glares and superior smirks wrapped in boxes of snide jabs at his social status? No, he rather preferred hanging around his father with the full knowledge that the man was just as big of a loser as he was. His hands trembling from the video that was still playing in his head, the video of the horrid day he had experienced, Conner gave up on calming them and instead chose to use his time searching for a cereal box that wasn't empty in the cupboard. Coming away with a half-full box of Lucky Charms, the high school student turned his efforts into finding clean dishes. That mild search resulted in a relatively clean bowl and a spoon with only a spot or two. It seemed his day was looking up.

The last piece of the puzzle, of course, was the milk that he feared he wouldn't even find. Opening up the fridge, the light inside long since broken, he fumbled his hand through the dark bowels until he withdrew his fingers to find the handle of an orange juice bottle clutched within them. No dice. Another searching intrusion came away with what he needed, any joy that would have come from such a find quickly turned to nil at an investigative sniff. The stuff must have gone sour and started curdling days ago. With his fathers snores lofted towards him, Conner not at all surprised that he had passed out again, he tossed the milk against the living room wall; ignoring the continued slumber of his father as the carton hit with a wet splash. Another night without dinner. The fact that it wasn't the first gave him some bizarre sort of comfort, the teen choosing then to hall his sluggish husk to the bathroom instead. A quick drainage of the old biological plumbing and he zipped up, Conner cranking the hot water until steam began to rise before dipping his hands forward. Scalding liquid splashed in burning streams over his hands, hands that were still shaking, hands that turned anxious rubbing into furious scratching. Only when pink began to rule the hue of the sink did he pull his hands from under the faucet, cranking the faucet off in turn.

Ever-trembling hands curled tremoring fingers into the counter edge, his head dipping forward as he fought to regulate his heart beat. He had to calm down; he had to fight the creeping cobwebs away. He was going to be okay; their hadn't been any eerily accurate psychic, there hadn't been any exorcism, and he hadn't seen some street hoodlum extract
something from a little boy. It was when those lies began to sift around in his thoughts that his hands steadied, eyes lofting to meet nothing more than a fogged over mirror. The moment his hand wiped a layer of the condensation free he leapt back at the sight that met him, his skull cracking back against the wall with the force of his start. A middle aged man looked eerily back at him, brown hair only wrapping about the sides/back of his head and the thin goatee about his lips, green eyes that clouded over with death complimented by the rather large hole in the middle of his forehead. Conner could feel the wound on the back of his head begin to stir with the stinging, self-inflicted cuts on top of his hands, his consciousness slowly sapping from him, but not before the man could get in a few syllables.

"Your eyes are open."

The last thing to meet Conner's irises was the 'C.C.C.W.B.' sewn in a light purple on his white work shirt, the teen barely able to register his confusion before black consumed him.


---------------------------------------

Zan was rather happy that his little plan was taking with such fire amongst the rest of the Freedom Fighters, the decision to walk the Gan path practically unanimous. Hiding his satisfied smile beneath a pallor look of professionalism, Zan took a single step towards the archway before him. Turning back to the person who had interrupted his movement, the lycanthrope gave Canti a simple shake of his head to answer his question before turning back to the task at hand. If there had been any such animal presence the werewolf would have sensed it the first time around. Not to say that such a thing didn't exist down Juk's corridor, simply that his nose and his ears would have picked up something the first time if there was something to be picked up with his abilities. Now was the time to concentrate at what potentially lay before them. The archway itself dulled threateningly as he entered, the glyphs he had expected only at the entrance meeting him down the entire expanse of the tunnel itself. Well, there went any hope that they could possibly split up and get this thing done any faster. Thankfully, they had Nall. Without the guy they'd probably be all perfectly crispy or equally mutilated.

The tunnel itself didn't seem that long, the image Zan had of some horror movie mock up, extending hallway shattered as the light at the end already began to greet him. The Heavy Blade had simply assumed that the Staircase That Never Ends was a precursor for what they should expect ahead. Maybe, just maybe, that agonizing experience would come only once. The lycanthrope found himself regrettably feeling pity for the lackeys of the Elites, the poor guys probably having to traverse this course time after time to get to the hub the Freedom Fighters were looking for. Or, perhaps, this was used as both a communication station and a training ground. That was possible. Shrugging it off as the inner dementia that all the Elites seemed to possess, Zan continued to take point for the rest of the group with senses called forward and constantly searching for some sign that the glowing symbols around them or the room before them was going to break into hostility. When such a thing hadn't happened and the group found themselves in a rather empty box of a room, Zan could only frown.

Great. Either his senses were starting to dull and trick him or, as he had considered before, anything involving the Elites couldn't be trusted. The lycanthrope could only hope that the others didn't blame him for the lack of moving boulders and that they realized that such a misconception wasn't his fault. Hell, maybe there had been something here before and the room had just magically cleaned itself up and readied for the onslaught that was doubtfully on its way. Maybe. The only thing of interest in the room was the hovering hourglass a little ways in front of him. Zan would have had to have been completely and totally dense to think that getting to their prize so soon was without booby traps of any kind. A small walk forward with the others and he tried to wrangle the object into his grasp, only to find his digits hitting at nothing more than air. Yup. This was going to be bad. The initial surprise that came, however, wasn't the one that he expected. Well, yea, otherwise it wouldn't be surprise. The Freedom Fighters had somehow come back to the entrance of the room with some...obvious changes having been made. Half a dozen Mu Guardians flooded forth, Zan feeling obligated to offer up a quick plan.

Damning Rayo for starting the trend of thinking, Zan spoke up. "Alright, by the look of these guys Senna, Reinier, and myself can take them on a one on one basis." Nall too, of course, but the Elite of Time seemed pressed to keep on the outside lately and Zan wasn't going to push the issue. "I'd suggest, because of your levels, that Canti and Dien...you guys work together. Watch each others backs. Double team. That way we can plow through these guys nice and quick. That said, let's do this thing."

The next thought to come to the surface of Zan's brain was how he'd deal with these guys. A look at their stats revealed a rather impressive Ap Ganz on them, their elemental preference obviously earth itself. His first instinct was to fight magic with magic, the raven already beginning to yawn through him before another option hit him. The Heavy Blade had two different Juk physical skills at his disposal, why not use those? A close of his eyes and he pushed the wolf past the crow, his muscles toning and expanding, irises taking on the orange-amber glow that honed his sight and focused his thoughts that much more. Putting all the strength he could muster into his legs, he launched himself upward, Zan whishing past a pair of attacks from two Mu Guardians before he found himself right before the third. Hefting his blade up and over, the clash of steel on steel reverberating through his arms, the lycanthrope's attack had apparently been obvious. Twin swords lofted up into an 'X' above the monster's head...thing...Zan's decent hardly noted as the Mu Guardian chased eagerly after the falling Freedom Fighter.

Whispering an Ap Corv through his veins as he fell, Zan fell neatly back onto his feet, knocking away the strike that came simultaneously upon his arrival. What he didn't have the time or the thought to block, however, was the second blade the jabbed forward, ripping a rather neat line along his upper arm. The blood that flowed forth was almost instantly slowed, his Twilight's regenerative properties beginning to show even in this form. Ducking beneath a horizontal sweep of the monster's forwards, Zan came up and back with a stab of his own, claiming a decent amount of hit points from the Mu Guardian before he yanked his blade back out. The lycanthrope had to stumble back to get away from the sweep of another Guardian, his current opponent not wasting time in making up for the gap that had formed. Zan waited, however, to make his move, playing digital chicken with the creature that was coming his way. Wolven eyes coming to slits, he halted until the monster was but a few inches in front of him before he rolled to the left and escaped the attack that had waited for him.

Coming to his feet almost as quickly, Zan spun around and put his strength into a fatal slice, cleaving the monster clear in half with data dissipating in its wake. Whatever possibility Zan had had for celebration was taken away by the sight and terrible feel of two swords protruding from his gut, blood beginning to bubble low in his throat. Falling to his knees with the weapons freed themselves from his flesh, Zan choked through past the crimson rise and held his hands over the wounds at his stomach, dropping his blade in the process. Once more he had little time to register anything before the hum of a Gan rune appeared above his head, the lycanthrope quickly downing a health drink before a storm of stone erupted around him, overtaking his senses. Crag after crag of rock collided with his form, the knock of his hands around only managing to deflect a select few boulders of the MeGan Rom. His health now dangerously low, Zan called his Horse Killer back into his inventory and swapped it for the Life Sword, an Ol Repth taking his problems away and giving him back his strategies. It was time to bust out the big guns. Once more returning the Horse Killer to his hands, the werewolf called upon the might of a Hirameki, his blade glowing with the green energy of Juk. The two initial strikes of the attack, sadly, hit only air, the Mu Guardian proving annoyingly evasive until the full circle swoop of licking emerald found its target, knocking the monster clear across the room and into the opposite wall with an audible smack.

"Take that, assh--" Gloating was met with the rising and still-live Guardian. "Damn it."

He could only hope the others were making a quicker job of this.
Last edited by Zan on Thu Jul 20, 2006 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
Wishlist
Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).

User avatar
Dien
Exalted Player
Posts: 226
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 1:59 am
Class: Blademaster
Location: The "Who's Online List," Stalking People...

Post by Dien » Thu Jul 20, 2006 6:40 am

No railings - that ruled out the option of sliding. The walls were far enough apart for maybe two of them to walk abreast, discounting any wings or other appendages. Granted, Zan had taken the initiative to power ahead of everyone, using his gliding to descend to the depths with more speed and ease than any of them could. Dien merely shrugged off any thoughts of jealousy that might have followed after him: he was too distracted on other matters as of now.

His mind was running in circles, bounding to and fro between different topics to keep him distracted from the crisis at hand. What would they find at the bottom of these stairs? Well, that would be pretty simple. Either there would be action right away, or there would be more waiting. The question wasn’t whether or not they would find more fighting, but when and where they would find it. It seemed, though, that these ‘elite hackers’ had a thing for grueling tasks. Already the blademaster could feel his head swirling dizzily about from the twisted descent, and his feet were beginning to ache from all these stairs.

Stairs: dear God how he hated stairs. It seemed that everywhere he went he was plagued with stairs. From his home to the school to the shopping malls, even here in the game the plethora of plateaus plagued him viciously. Be it dungeons, towers in the fields, or just the wrought iron fire escapes on the sides of Mac Anu’s buildings, the sloped steps relentlessly stalked him. It was like he was haunted by some kind of Stairmaster. Oh the nightmares that could produce. Quietly he laughed from his newfound position at the group’s back.

He was already in a nightmare. The more he lived of it, the more his mind began to recognize the horrid reality. He was trapped - stuck almost forever in a virtual reality created by some sorrow-filled man and a powerful worldwide corporation. Hell, if either of them caught wind of his stories, they’d probably laugh at him or shrug it off as some really bad side effect of the beta test they’d supplied. Then all the funding for that beta test would go down the drain and Mr. Furugawa would be out of a job. Now there was something ironic: a manager from CC Corp’s development division and everyone under him would find themselves out of their protection and employ. Hell, they were probably already under fire from the fact that their beta subject was now in a coma. Granted, so were thousands of other people who weren’t using that beta, but that wouldn’t stop the finger from being pointed.

Somehow he’d have to reach his parents and let them know not to interfere with the one man who could probably help him out right now. But wait, would T. Furugawa really try to help him out? Chances are he was already under scrutiny, even though it had only been a few hours. Wait, his water alarm had gone off earlier, meaning now he was dehydrated if his family hadn’t found out his games had gone sour. How would they know, though? From what he was told, when he was in-game his real body was practically comatose, the only thing setting his parents off rushing him to the hospital being a message on screen from the Corporation telling passers by not to worry, and giving them a menu of options to choose from. Was that message still there? If only there were some way to find out…

There was always the option of asking Senna if she knew anything. Then again, when he thought about it, that was probably not the wisest thing to do. Because she was still attached to the outside without a problem, that instantly gave her special status amongst the group. Chances were that someone else had already plagued her with countless questions about the outside world which she, having happened upon the same field as the Freedom Fighters rather randomly, was ill equipped to answer. Why make her go through the trouble when they were having so much fun climbing down a yet endless flight of stairs?

Truth be told he didn’t want to talk to her yet. His emotions were still too far out of his control, and giving that kind of pressure to someone he barely knew would only distance him from her and make working with her awkward at best. Or was that just what he thought? Would not talking to her now instill in him some look-but-don’t-touch thing with her, where he’d always be distanced from her for fear of burdening her with himself? No, that was silly. Of course he’d be able to talk to her later on, after he’d had a chance to sit down and sort everything out (assuming it could be done in one sitting). It wouldn’t be the first time he would’ve had to run through all the circumstances that wracked his brain and body: not by a long shot…
__________

Somewhere between being polite to the interrogation officer and giving his statement, Jed had wound up in one of the cold concrete cells in the station’s basement: no computer, no blankets on the mattress, jailhouse slop for dinner, and a cellmate across the way. Well, at least so he figured from the disinterested husk of a man that lay on the bed staring up at the blank gray ceiling. So far, the boy hadn’t tried to initiate conversation with him, figuring he was content to stare at the ceiling until his incarceration at this station was complete.

There were some perks to being in a jail cell, though. For one, he didn’t have to worry about threats of his little brother spying on him, or about the perils of interior design. Yeah, that was about it. Dull gray walls, relatively small space, barred doors, a camera on him at all times, a simple wooden bed with a plain mattress and a naked pillow, and a silent fellow criminal across the way were the only things that made up the cell. The worst part, though, would be the lack of social interaction. It had only been two hours, and already he was missing the sounds his computer played when someone hit him up with an IM.

“What’re you in for?” The silence broke with a relatively calm voice. Looking up, the hacker had to double check and make sure the man had actually acknowledged him.

“Excuse me?” he replied, “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.” The man only laughed.

“I asked you what you’re in for, kid,” came his repeated inquiry, “like, what you did to land
here of all places.”

“Oh,” Jed answered, pausing a moment to think, “I guess you could say civil disobedience.” Another laugh.

“Right,” he said, “and how did you disobey?”

“I hacked this station’s mainframe to fix a bug I heard an officer complaining about at school,” he explained, “nothing big, really, just an unresolved loop.” The man whistled, almost like he didn’t catch the last half of Jed’s statement.

“Man kid, you’ve got balls,” he commented, “me, I’m just in for petty theft.” Silence followed, Jed not interested in hearing this man’s thoughts on the matter, and the man too shocked to follow up. It was disgusting, really, how much paranoia surrounded his earned title. Was hacking really
that bad? No, of course it wasn’t. Sure, the penalties attached to the word were less than pleasing (with death being among the media’s favorite associations), but that didn’t make the act itself something to be afraid of. Hell, he was only in it to help people. Was that really so bad?

“I just thought I’d inform you,” Jed finally spoke up, “hacking isn’t something to be afraid of.”

“No,” came the man’s response, “but let me tell you, kid: you picked one hell of a dangerous hobby.”

__________

The stairs pushed on, carrying the party and Dien with them. He smirked at the memory, at the look on the man’s face and his shock at being in the same room as one who could be given the death penalty. Heavy stuff for a guy who got out the next day, he thought, wouldn’t you say Danielle? It was a habit of hers to show up after any semblance of a memory he had, or so it seemed (and she would be hard-pressed to prove otherwise).

Yes,” she responded, “although I do have one question about that experience if you don’t mind.

“You can just ask,” he replied aloud, pausing for a moment, “I’ve come to expect your appearance after my memories.”

What can I say: they’re more interesting to me than watching all of you fight your monsters,” she sat on the steps, leaning her elbows on her knees and scanning her nails for any blemishes that might have crept up in the past couple minutes, “anyway, didn’t you know you’d be caught when you hacked the police mainframe?

“Well that was kinda the point,” he replied, “besides, if I had wanted to not get caught, I wouldn’t have let them catch me.” Danielle merely laughed at the thought.

So you’re saying you outclass the police well enough for them to be able to not catch you?

“Do you doubt it?” he asked, “you know better than anyone here what I could do with the right resources.”

No, I don’t doubt it,” she acknowledged, “but that does explain why you’re having such a hard time coping here.” What?

“Explain,” Dien said, shooting her an odd look.

Well, from what I can tell, these two situations really aren’t much different,” she paused, and his glare only intensified, “I mean, look at it: you’re trapped in a place you can’t easily get out of, you have someone to talk to, and you have the ability to survive indefinitely. Both the World and that jail cell are, in essence, the same circumstance. The main difference is in planning and intent. You get what I’m saying?

“Yeah,” he nodded, looking away, “I understand what you mean.” His stare shifted to look down the winding hallway as far as his eyes could take him, and it wasn’t until he felt a hand on his arm that he looked back.

That doesn’t mean it’s not bad, though,” she said smiling, “but you’d better get going, or the rest of the group will move on without you.” He smiled, gratitude showing through him as he took the rest of the steps to the bottom two and three at a time, finally catching up with the group as they entered the inter-elemental terminal. Zan explained what he’d surveyed from the different gateways, and after some discussion they were off through the element of choice: gan. Well, it wasn’t Dien’s favorite choice, but then since when had he been the brains of the outfit?

The group passed under the archway and through a relatively short hallway, runes glowing orange as they passed and humming lowly, too eager to fire off the spells they contained. When they got into the room, the blademaster was surprised at its design: identical to the first floor. So the elites used templates for their work? Eh, he didn’t really blame them. After a while, templates became more useful than actually coding everything oneself again and again.

Their target was in view, and Zan tried plucking at it. A sudden flash and they were back at the room’s entrance with only one thing visibly different about the room: monsters. There were six in total, each one glowing with the same hue of the hall’s runes.

The room had changed. It has done so just after Zan reached out to get the hourglass and Canti shouted, a little late, “Wait! Don't do the Indiana Jones....thing.” Now, they were given to face six bizarre blade-wielding creatures, of whom were quite fast and deadly, and enhanced by spells. Zan suggested that he and Dien work together. ‘Kay...

Alright, we'll take the first straggler, keep it so we've only got one to deal with for now. Lemme lure it in first so you can sneak up on it.

“Right,” Dien said, pausing a moment to change equipment to the blademaster time artifact: Zanzamas. Its skill was called, and he quickly changed it out for Glitter - his strongest sword. Even with the Ap Do, they'd need all the help they could get against these guys.

Canti dashed off under regular speed, running low and fast un-enhanced, to find a patsy. Technically, that was all of them, but he picked one and confronted it. The Guardian merely raised its swords at the twinblade’s approach, bringing them down in a standard X-forming slash. With the grace of an Olympian athlete, the player rolled underneath the weapons, completely evading and coming into close range. Two quick slashes and he turned, running straight to Dien.

YOUR TURN!!!

The blademaster only smirked as the twinblade turned, running in a B-line straight for him. Well, he thought, it looks like things are gonna get a little more interesting around here after all. Canti was able to keep out of the Guardian's slicing range, so logic dictated to wait for the thing to be past Dien before turning around and attacking its exposed rear. A push from his foot, and he started a bounding spring, quickly falling in behind it.

“Juk Rom!” He shouted, forcing an elemental critical from the massive dualist in the form of a green tornado. In addition to that, the monster was also forced to remain stationary, opening it up wide for Dien's next attack. Blue crystals began to grow off his blade in a cool mist, and he leapt high, pulling it behind his head.

“RUE CRACK!” Came the cry, and the blade descended harshly, passing through armor and splitting the beast with its strength. Unfortunately, now it was Dien's turn to run, as the thing painfully spun about, shouting in its pain. He merely shuffled back a step, sliding his feet into a more defensive-evasive pose, waiting for thing to assume its attack. What he didn't count on, though, was the MeGan Rom that erupted from inside him, painfully rolling boulders about in circles about him. So this had been what Zan heard...

What the...? Shit!” Canti shouted. He'd forgotten about the spells, that this thing had ‘em. As soon as Canti turned around, he'd seen Dien attacking, but then as he backed off, he was brutally...spelled! Canti ran up behind the thing as it was busy watching Dien suffer, ramming his knives into its back and then kicking off. The monster turned and was about to do something when Canti shouted.

Juk Kruz!” and it got rooted on the spot while the wood-spell activated, rooted being subjected from above. Canti let out another one for good measure.

Juk Rom!” But Canti had miscalculated in the thing's speed. Even as he immediately cast again, it closed the gap and slashed at him, throwing him back against the ground as the creature got stuck again.

Now, Dien!

Dien was off before Canti could call for him, charging after the thing whose attention had turned. As soon as the boulders had stopped, he'd left that place, downing a health drink before charging into the whirlwind of foliage. Springing off his left foot, he jumped into the air, delivering a walking kick to what remained of the monster's body, throwing himself higher into the air in a backflip. His sword whipped out, and he grimaced. There was just enough SP, with none to spare for if they needed help after the attack.

“REVOLVER!” the blademaster shouted, and his body began twirling, Glitter sticking out of the rotating blur that he was and shredding the Mu Guardian's remnant parts into nothingness. Its body faded out, and Dien landed in its wake, tossing a health drink over to Canti before turning.

“Want me to lure in our victim this time?” he asked over his shoulder with a smirk. Compared to the fighting in Mac Anu, this was a joke.

Sure, that'll work for me.” Canti replied.

(Yah-ta-ta-ta dah-dah dah dah-dah!)
Image
Image|||Level 35 Blademaster (+200 EXP)
Wishlist: EXP, Ends of Earth, Armor with Status Effects

User avatar
Senna
Awakened Player
Posts: 150
Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:28 pm

Post by Senna » Sat Jul 22, 2006 12:58 am

The trip through the short hallway to the Gan section of this little dog-and-pony show left Senna more tense than anything they’d faced to this point. Nall’s warning about the spell on the entrance had her apprehensive despite that they had enough people to make the trip. Who knew how the thing worked, if it might miscount or just go haywire and decide to fry them all anyway.

But, thank the powers that be, the spell held its peace and allowed their group to walk through with little more than a bristling of light and color, as the hall sought to remind them that they were only okay as long as they played by its rules.

The room beyond was a simple trap, but well-conceived enough. The hourglass was hanging there in mid-air. They needed that hourglass to move on. Therefore, even knowing it could not ever be that easy in something as convoluted as this, they had to take the next step. A forced move in a strange chess game.

And then it all started again, only this time for real. This time there were monsters glaring at them, eyes glittering with that dangerous deadness that the data-manifestations of the world possessed.

Zan stepped up yet again. He seemed a defacto leader when Nall was keeping back. Another bit of information to remember, she thought as Zan said, "Alright, by the look of these guys Senna, Reinier, and myself can take them on a one on one basis." The unspoken but obvious ending to that comment was “so do so.”

In low tones, she cast Ap Do on herself. The spell was a bit addictive. Once you got used to the rush of fighting at high speed, it was hard to tone it back down to regular speed, especially when facing a tough enemy – and she had no doubt this would be a tough enemy. As she started moving, her hands were performing an unconscious dance of their own, swapping out the Ichigou for the Sleipnir, her least-used weapon. The haft of it felt rough and unfamiliar against her palms.

Starting forward, she ducked past one, her eyes intent on the one behind it. This one seemed unsure where to start, turning from one target to another as the players went to work. As she approached, it turned to face her, its movements seeming almost ponderous thanks to her enhanced speed. She tried to pull up, to face off against the monster with her wood-based weapon.

Unfortunately, her enhanced speed was not all rainbows and happiness. It had a downside as well, and that downside manifested itself now as she overshot the position she was gunning for, stumbling beyond it and almost overbalancing. It was the spear that saved her from actually spilling onto the ground, as she dug the bladed end into the floor sharply and used that as a kind of crutch to both stop and prop herself up.

Great starting gambit to show these people you can fight alongside them, she thought. As soon as she was sure of her balance she started to turn, bringing her weapon up, only to have it stopped rather abruptly as it came into contact with the first sword of the monster. It had turned while she caught her balance, she thought with something between irritation and desperation. And a moment later, another sword made a sharp cut in from her left side, cutting into her unprotected torso. Senna’s lip curled a little in pain and most assuredly frustration with herself. Eyeing the creature to get a feel for distance, she targeted it and triggered, “Juk Repulse.

The green aura the Sleipnir already had intensified and a small growth of vines with needle-like thorns on them grew from and wrapped around the weapon, further signifying the addition of the elemental magic to the attack power of the weapon. Then it was off, and Senna was just hanging on as the spear wove its patterns back and forth so fast the glow became an almost sheet-like blur. The monster shuddered and tried to draw back under the attack, making some of the strikes miss, but several hit, for a good amount of damage. If nothing else, Senna was getting a small feeling of self-satisfaction from having hurt it back.

But this wasn’t the time to be getting all smug, she had to take this thing down, do her part to lower the odds and get this battle over with. She could hear the sounds of battle from all quarters. Okay. Time to bring this thing down. She could do it. She could do it.

Juk Rom.

She cast the spell a little ahead of the monster – just about where she was standing, actually – then used that cover to pull back a little, out of range. The creature advanced, following her as she moved and walking directly into the freshening spell, whittling away its HP by its own action. It was hurting now, limping a little in a manner of speaking. Senna crouched, watching it, then feinted to the left. The monster swiped at where it thought she would be with one sword, but kept the other close to itself to guard. So, it wasn’t a completely stupid AI. Excellent.

She tried a couple more tentative motions with the weapon, and each time the monster moved one weapon to attack and the other to defend. It reminded her a little of a dog however – no matter how many times she did the same feint, it still expected she was actually going to move, much the way a person could fool a dog over and over again by pretending to throw a toy or treat.

She didn’t notice the start of the spell glyph – like the others, she hadn’t really remembered they could cast. But as she eventually saw it begin to paint its warning on the ground, she started to move. Not nearly enough to get completely clear, but in moments like this, enhanced speed certainly helped. She got mostly clear, but not completely, and for a moment the world was nothing but rocks and dust and a sound like a dozen thunderclaps piling atop one another. Her HP took a plummet, and she reached for the only healing spell she had currently equipped, La Repth. It cost more SP, but she didn’t want to waste the time to change her equipment at the moment and figured there might be others in the group who could use a quick heal.

The heal didn’t put her completely to rights, but it eased the persistent ache in her side from the monster’s first hit. As the dust cleared, Senna made a snap decision, oriented on the creature and moved forward at a full run, leading with the point of her spear. As she got into range, she pulled it slightly back, then drove the weapon home with all of her strength.

Her enhanced speed allowed her to close before the monster had fully prepared. It was raising its weapons to deal with her as her spear cut into it, disappearing a good way into the creature’s body. As it brought a sword down again into her shoulder, she put her weight into dragging the spear free. That was apparently enough. The sword in her arm slackened a little, then disappeared as the rest of the monster followed suit, becoming so much data and dust.

Sadly, there was no time to relish the victory. She took a brief moment to swipe at her forehead with one sleeve, then turned to see who she could help, ready to launch herself at another before the last few moments of her speed up wore out..
Senna, level 33 Long Arm (710 HP/180 SP)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
Click for full equipment and items
14300 (1/23)

Zan
Exalted Player
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:28 pm
Contact:

Post by Zan » Sat Jul 22, 2006 3:28 am

-------------------------------------------

Conner stabbed the leather-tough meat on his plate time and time again, a zombified look having overtaken his expression since he woke up bleeding on the bathroom floor. His father had slept through all of the noise, of course, and the high school student was lucky that the injury on his head was this side of superficial instead of the concussion he had initially assumed it to be. His old man had probably stirred and mumbled in his sleep at his fall the night before before drifting back off into a drunken dreamland. The visage of the man in the mirror haunted Conner for a reason he couldn't quite pin down, an eerie connection felt when he stared into the figure's dead, clouded eyes. The moment Conner had gotten to school he had sought out the same kid that had saved his ass back in the exorcism-gone-wrong and questioned his hallucination. Oddly enough, the kid didn't try and convince him of his insanity or anything along the lines of his mind simply playing tricks on him. Instead he had been asked to wait for him at lunch and so, scowling at the cafeteria food, that's exactly what Conner was doing. A shuffle of sneakers through grass caught the student's attention, his gaze averted from the plague of his food to the sight of best friend.

"Oh...hey Leo." Conner attempted to hide the disappointment in his voice but seemed to fail.

"Expecting someone else dude? Got a girlfriend I should know about?" Leo's laughter was met only with a weak, false smile on Conner's behalf.

"No, uh, I was just-" He started, words interrupted as someone took a seat in front of him on the green plastic benches, a smile offered up.

"There you are. This school is too damn big, I swear." The kid paused, squinting away the sunlight to nod in Leo's direction. "Did I interrupt something?"

A pause from Leo then, suspicious eyes leaning between the two back and forth. "Who's that, Conner?"

"This is..." Conner paused, realizing only then that he didn't know the kid's name. Luckily for him, said kid filled in.

"Dustin, but my friends call me Dust. Why? They're pricks." Dustin's attempt at humor failed, his offered hand ignored.

"I guess I'll see you after school." And with that he drifted away, spite bringing him over to the wealthy group they had rejected the day before.

Conner added that to the growing list of reasons he should have gone right, that he should have gone home. If hadn't been for Leo's damn insistence on the reading in the first place than the high school student wouldn't have tried to play hero and save the little boy that, in the end, Conner needed protection against. Things were progressively getting worse; mirages brought on my anxiety, paranoia that the next time he turned around that the freak child would be lunging at his throat, and now the scorning of his best and only friend. The only thing keeping Conner from going bat shit was that he wasn't alone in the madness, that he knew someone who could set things straight in his mind. A look to Dustin revealed a kid unaware of the awkwardness he had induced, oblivious to his actions with only a steady smile on his face to prove his ignorance. That or, of course, he just didn't give a damn. Either way Conner was annoyed and the conversation he needed to have with the kid was made a touch more difficult. Taking a breath, searching his mind for the right words to get this thing off the ground, the high school student glanced up the kid in front of him with a similar plate of shitty school food and failed to udder even a syllable.

Once again, Dustin broke the shaky air. "So, you saw someone you said? Someone dead in your bathroom mirror?"

Conner only nodded at first, nervous eyes cast back to his food, meat once again prodded with the white plastic fork. "Yea."

"Well, I could give the mundane reasoning first. But I'm sure you've already thought through a million different scenarios on how fucked up in the head you could be, that you could be seeing things. So what I'm going to do is offer you a possibility from the world I've gotten used to." It was Dustin's turn to search for words, the kid seeming to decide on a few as he continued. "When people see things like you did last night...sometimes it makes something, I don't know, click in their heads. You know that thing that told you, when you were a little kid, that something was lurking in your closet or under your bed?"

When he didn't move on, Conner figured he wanted a response and reluctantly gave one. "Uh huh."

"Your parents told you there was nothing to be afraid of, that it was all in your head. Well, hate to tell you, your rents were fucking wrong. That thing in your head that told you all that stuff was right and that's the thing that woke up in your brain last night. A lot of people see things the first few days after the Click. I know my grandmother wouldn't stop yapping at me for the first week and I saw that bitch get hit by a car. D.O.A." Dustin's otherwise pleasant demeanor grew static for a moment at the memory.

"What, so I'm like that little boy in
The Sixth Sense now?" Though the sentence was spoken with jest, Conner feared his reply, one that was started with a shrug.

"Some turn out that way. Your first few days, what you see, they won't tell you squat about what's happened to you. That was the last time I saw my grandmother after that week, let alone any other overly anxious...spirit?...thing. Whatever she was. After that you'll start to see what's really become of you." A menacing stab of meat was taken off Conner's plate by the kid, the chunk swallowed and apparently enjoyed. "Yum. You gonna eat that?"

"Enjoy." He said, sliding the tray over to Dustin. "And what are you?"

"Me? I'm a Zilch. A Nada. Really clever nicknames given to the ones that get shit out of it deal, aside from the general awareness of those who
are different. None of the others can." Bitterness was present in his voice, in each and every word.

"So that's how you knew where to go last night? That's how you came in when you did?" A piece of the puzzle solved.

"Right. The priest got their before I did. A lot of the times the clergy can exorcise whatever was in that kid. But, if they can't and I'm nearby, I take over. I may not have any little talent, but you give me a Ljai and I can play my part." When Conner opened his mouth about the Ljai Dustin held up his hand, nodding. "Right, what I had on my hand."

Another question found its way in Conner's skull, finding his lips in turn. "Play your part in what, though? What shit am I in?"

When the man began talking, began explaining, Conner found the sound beginning to become nothing more than background noise as his attention was grabbed by the sight of the man from the night before, words jumbling through the air, confused and melded until a single phrase erupted from the man's throat.

"NOT IN FRONT OF MY FAMILY!" And as soon was he was there he was gone, nothing left but a whisper of wind and the sound of Dustin's continued speech.


-------------------------------------------

Zan watched, stance framed and ready, as the injured Guardian continued its approach. It didn't move with any logical tactic the lycanthrope could follow, its actions too routine and almost too predictable to continue to pose a challenge. Then again, the things had impaled him and knocked him around with big rocks thus far so perhaps, just perhaps, he shouldn't take such light stock of the situation. The churning of battle and clashing sounds about him were ignored as he readied his Horse Killer for the next attack to come, weight shifting from his heels to the balls of his feet. When the blue light fell around his form, restoring the last of the HP he had lost, Zan chanced an injury to find a source of the spell. Senna's voice was pinned as the caster and, offering her a nod to indicate his appreciation, the Heavy Blade shifted his attention back at the threat in time to throw his strength into a diagonal swing. With the muscle put behind it one of the two blades broke in half, the other visibly cracked and the monster unphased. Sometimes, rarely of course, a lack of intelligence seemed to help his opponents.

Where the lycanthrope had expected a retreat or some sort of strategic considerations, all the Mu Guardian did was bring down the blade it still had intact to reverberate in a second clash with the Horse Killer. The impact numbed Zan's hands but the former college student was still able to enjoy the sight of the Guardian's second weapon breaking away. Rather than continue its assault with blunted weapons, the Mu Guardian summoned another deadly rune above his head, the lycanthrope clumsily stumbling away from the swirl of rock and dirt that erupted behind him. Luckily for him none of them hit their mark aside form the occasional scrape and irritating ding. Though the monster's HP was low from the Juk skill Zan had implemented, it didn't seem to register it and kept on plowing through like nothing was wrong, like was simply a loop of code in its programming that it needed to complete. Hell, maybe that's all he was to the thing. With a momentary flip over the creature, one that turned in the air, and a lop of its head from its shoulders, the Freedom Fighters were four Mu Guardians down. The last two that remained were only a few feet from him, busy in their own searches for a target. Going to the one that approached to his left, leaving the other one to the Senna and Reinier or whoever else might chime in, Zan once more called on the forest for assistance.

"Hirameki!" Emerald energy claimed the six foot surface of the Horse Killer.

The hit, critical or not, embedded his blade halfway through the monster's torso, forcing Zan to simply stand there as he tried to free his weapon from the Guardian's innards. A swipe to his head was unavoidable, light bubbling up in his eyes as he staggered and pulled his weapon to liberation, doing his best to right the waver of his balance. It was like being overwhelmed with vertigo, nausea churning at the feel of his brain smacking sideways against his skull. A groan continued to filter past his lips as his vision cleared and the Mu Guardian's approach continued. The mild injury was patched up by the time blade met blades; a similair 'X' defense used by this one like it had been used by the other. Even the monsters' combat programming was proving to be freakishly similar. What were the Elites doing with normal monsters like this in one of their communication holds? Was this to throw him and the others off balance? If that was the plan than they were doing one hell of a job. All Zan could do not to sit down and scratch his head in contemplation was continue the violent dance, meeting the monster strike for strike.

Only when its defenses opened up a fraction did the lycanthrope even attempt an offensive maneuver, more than aware of the monster's ability to skewer him if it wanted to. Windmilling a slash of its twin swords, Zan dug the Horse Killer into its back, dragging the steel to the floor and opening up a wound that even the most impressive monster could not recover from. Well, that may not be true, but the gash was impressive enough to down the critter, freeing up his party from all but one bugger. The same monster he had expected to be busy with the others had either been knocked back or moved back for one reason or another, Zan suddenly the closest target and the closest thing to hit. The werewolf's usual swipe-to-decapitate move was foiled by the tiring 'X' cross of sword against sword. For the third time he had been denied the foreign HP by the damn Guardians and it was beginning to grate what few nerves he had left. Fine, Zan could play that game too. If the monsters wanted to do a move three times than so would he.

Hirameki hit the air only a microsecond before his attack was launched, annoyance showing in worry lines along his brow as his weapon was buried through the Mu Guardian's gut and out its back. This time, luckily, it didn't stay to snuggly nap and came smoothly out with a jerk of his arms. Sadly, as Zan had become accustomed to, the creature refused to be hindered by any injuries that the lycanthrope might apply. It seemed genuinely unaware of the threat the werewolf posed and simply pressed on to complete its mission, blades hissing this way and that, claiming only short-lasting scratches in Zan's retreat. It wasn't fleeing, no, but simply a search for an advantage again. He could stay and fight the thing head on but that risked death and the use of Resurrects that never exactly seemed to be handy with anyone. Executing the close-range dive roll that Zan had used on the first of his kills saved him from a duel-stab and brought him once more to eye the unprotected back of his adversary. Instead of cleaving the creature in half, however, the lycanthrope hopped up and buried the Horse Killer down through the top of its scalp (did the thing have one?) and continued to swerve the sword about until the Mu Guardian stopped being squirrelly and disappeared into code.

With all of them now gone Zan leaned against a nearby wall, using his six foot weapon as a support as he attempted to get his breath back. It seemed wrong to him, but Zan could have sword those things had been harder than the two more sophisticated Temple Guardians that had met them out front. More sophisticated...no. That wasn't right. Stronger. Perhaps that was because of his ranged tactics. That...or level three ice spells aided by an Ap of the same type were much stronger than he had previously taken into account. Shrugging a touch, he followed Senna's previous lead and called out a use of his own La Repth, attempting to heal the rest of the group of any remaining gashes or bruises that the Long Arm's previous spell hadn't covered, if any at all. His heart slowing down, his mind playing the last few events and the mild chaos around him in his mind, he smiled at the tactics showed by Canti and Dien's team work. Impressive. Those two together had been just as effective, if not more so, than Zan and Senna alone. A 'good job' smile was offered to the group as he pulled his hood back, eyes scanning the room for Nall.

Maybe he'd know what to do next.

-------------------

OOC: All dead, yo ho ho. Thumbs up to those who posted. >.>
Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
Wishlist
Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).

Lord Canti
Exalted Player
Posts: 300
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 3:58 pm
Location: In da' plains of hell, natch.

Post by Lord Canti » Sat Jul 22, 2006 6:54 am

(There were times when, just when you hoped that maybe one day you'd be alright, youy couldn't be. That was how it had to be, because the best of life was not the human life. They existed in hellish forms under thin skin before burning eternally under the blood-red sun. The boy had lost one parent, then the other. It had done things to him, given him terrible crippling depression and nightmares. His life could've been over, if not for one thing...)

"Now, kid, I want you to pay attention for a minute."

Damon: What is it?

(He was in a doctor's office for a prescription on something that'd hopefully make his life easier. He didn't buy into that stuff about clinical depression, but in his case, it may as well have been. There was no way around his abominable mind. He woke up in cold sweats over terrible nightmares. Worse...he could swear that a few had actually fortold to him that the things that happened to him...could. It scared the shit out of him and he wanted it gone.)

"Well, there's a technical name for it, but we call it Nephilim. It's a new drug out in the industry which is both an anti-depression and a suppressant of subconscious activity."

Damon: Huh?

"It suppresses dreams."

Damon: Oh.

(A science-whiz, he was not, but he soon understood Nephilim alot. Damon had a rare condition, one that defied the power of normal drugs. His mind was in a real sorry state. This medication, however, was the key to his stability and safety...so long as he had it...)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(During the insanity of this massive monster pile-up, the actions of Canti and Dien were quite ingeniously played, or at least to a point that if they weren't considered that, they'd be good enough as the case may be. In which case, after the first monster died, the next was to follow. Dien offered to lure this one in himself instead of the dark Twin Blade, so he just pretty much stood there and waited. Dien darted forward, charging at the one remaining Mu Guardian. These things were dropping like flies... In a single action, before anyone else could claim it, he released a Juk Rom on it, simultaneously leaping high into the air and stepping off a prepped X-slashy into a somersault, landing on the other side and spinning quickly on the ground. His sword extended and made contact with the shoes of the beast which exploded in a twirl of green.

"Canti! Now!"

Canti: Okay...

(While he had been waiting, Canti casted Ap Do on himself with a Speed Charm, awaiting his turn like an upright corpse, totally unmoving. Then, he was off like a shot and took on the Guardian just as it noticed him. Using the same technique as before with the Temple Knight outside, Canti stopped the blades with his prong-like knives and pushed out to hoist himself up in front of the creature.)

Canti: Fancy meeting you here.

(Suddenly, his feet went out in rapid kicks and then he ran up the beast to vault himself into the air. THIS TIME, he wasn't going to fall flat on his feet. He was gonna FLY...sort of. No, what Canti did was spin himself, and his Bloody Twin, around like a yo-yo buzzsaw deal, his knives collecting and draining HP from its stock. Canti landed in a roll and stood near Dien for a second, muttering to him.)

Canti: Let's just Juk it to death.

"Juk it once and then finish it at the same time."

Canti: I don't have a wood technique, but whatever.

(Then, he noticed that the Mu Guardian was turning to cast a spell on them. Dien already beat him to it by letting loose a Juk Rom spell. Canti then provided sort of a drive-by hit before running rings around the monster, literally, just to piss it off. It kept trying to slash at him, but failed to catch his now super-speedy form. Finally, he jumped and kicked off an arm before shouting "Juk Kruz" and getting the creature missled with branches from all around. This attained a critical, which made it possible to finish it. Dien had a point. Too much spell dependancy made them easier targets. Best to move around...)

Canti: Okay, now blindside him and we'll get him in the crossfire!

"No problem! Rue Crack!"

Canti: Twin Darkness!

(Technically, since Dien was a bit closer, it got diverted from Canti by him first, but the Guardian was a goner once Canti struck the finishing blow with his darkness technique. The light and flowing movement of the creature faded out, and soon it did too. He and Dien looked around now, but...there were no more monsters.)

Canti: How 'bout that. We beat 'em all.

"They were only monsters, after all."

Canti: True that. Well, now that the trap's been sprung, it SHOULD be okay to snag the artifact, right?

"Perhaps..."

Canti: Here, I'll do it real quick-like.

(So say...Canti sped over to the hourglass and reached for it, hopefully before their unseen foes could do anything else, or before another deadly program could slide into position. He wanted to be able to handle this whole ordeal and get that Hub smashed NOW.)
I'll have a doozy of a sig later, I swear. It'll reflect ".hack//CODE" an' everything.

Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.

User avatar
Nighthand
Master of Games
Posts: 1265
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:23 pm
Class: Bladesmage
Location: ...Tracking...please wait...

Post by Nighthand » Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:37 pm

Nall, again, found himself doing little more than watching. Part of him was irritated about it. After all, he was the leader of this group, wasn't he? Shouldn't he be up there in the front, taking out monsters, getting the group where they needed to be?

But no. Sure, he was the leader. No doubt he'd have to face combat sooner or later, anyways. For now, though... these people had to fight. How could they be effective members of his team if they never saw combat? He sighed. He still found it pretty boring, standing in the back and watching.

Canti lunged for the hourglass, hoping to take it off-guard and snatch it before it's spacial-resetting could come into effect. Nall smiled a bit. Despite the possibility of yet more monsters, the twinblade didn't hesitate.

Whether it was the twinblade's speed, the fact that they had defeated all the monsters, or something to do with passing a test, Canti seemed to have done the trick. The hallway they had entered through suddenly pulsed with light and color. The runes they had all noticed, the very things that threatened them with a spell-related death, had all activated.

Rather than cast spells, however, they all shot beams of light. Oddly missing everyone, despite several of them standing in the way, the beams connected with the Hourglass. It began to glow itself, shining with a light both inner and outer, the energy shaking Canti's hands. Still, the twinblade couldn't have dropped it even if he wanted to.

For a moment, perhaps his thoughts flicked to death. Perhaps. Nothing of the sort happened, however. The light died down and three things were noticeably different. The first was that the room had been reset once again. This time they had been left where they stood, but the walls had returned to their sealed-up state. The second change was in the hallway they had entered through. The runes were no longer filled with light; in fact, it was probably safe now to walk down the path one at a time without even setting off a spell. All the energy seemed to have gone into the hourglass itself, which was the evidence of the third change. Rather than being a static item, the sand within the hourglass now flowed. It didn't seemed to ever diminish, however, and flipping it over would exhibit the same behavior. No doubt Canti would play with it on the way back to the main room.

Nall grinned boyishly at the group. ”The first room is down, guys! And girl, I keep forgetting we have one of you again. Good job, let's go pick the second!”

Some members of the group might be a little put-off by Nall's sudden exuberance. Only a few of the older members would recognize this as him in a good mood. After all, since he had returned from the dead, most of his time had been spent angry, wounded, or separated from the group. His rare moments of happiness came in fits and starts. So in many ways, it was a good thing that he was happy finally. He was satisfied, if not impressed, with the way the group was handling things. If the fact that Senna would, in all likelihood, soon be a trapped and cursed member of their group from now until the end... if that bothered him, he didn't show it. Then again, he HAD personally cursed a number of these people, both by directly leading people into the arms of the hackers, or by calling them to the field beforehand. Some people, taking a most pessimistic attitude, could call him one of the most heartless people present.

Not that you'd see that in him as he walked down the hallways back to the main room, proudly leading the group, confident that they were as-yet undetected. A boyish energy filled his steps, and he could occasionally be seen to skip a few paces before he remembered that this was serious; at least to the rest of them. They had no way of knowing unless he told them that, as far as he could tell, they were still unnoticed. Despite the massive presence of Twilight that he personally represented... and the completion of one leg of this puzzle... whatever guardians were below hadn't yet noticed them. Or rather, if they had, they paid little mind and less attention, trusting the traps to deal with them.

Arriving back at the central room, Nall gestured for Canti to place the hourglass. Since there was only one place for it, it wasn't much of a puzzle, and the task was completed quickly enough. Another pulse of earthen-tinted light and the Hourglass was set, fused, and unmovable.

A heavy rumbling sound filled the room, and the earthen hallway was closed. Only an arched pattern of dully-glowing runes showed there was ever even a doorway there.

”Well, here we are again. Where to next?” Since they had seemed effective enough in picking the first pathway... Why not the rest?

-----------------------ooc:
Here we are, picking the path once more. Second verse, same as the first. Cant' go down earth again... Oh and uh, if you want to pick the order we'd do them all in, that's fine as well. Saves us from having to do a selection-round every time.

And you can always make changes, so long as you inform me before we get to that point. >.>

User avatar
Senna
Awakened Player
Posts: 150
Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 10:28 pm

Post by Senna » Sun Jul 23, 2006 2:35 pm

Watching the completion of the brief, violent battle was somewhat satisfying for Senna in just the observance of teamwork in action. She admired people who seemed able to work together so effortlessly. It was a skill as much as anything else, and one that seemed to come much more naturally to some people than others.

But in the end, they ground down their enemies - Senna herself playing a smaller part in that than perhaps she should have, but that was the drawback of her spending so much time learning to think as a healer instead of a fighter in other games. Her first instinct was often still to avoid contact and battle, and when she did get into battle she would underestimate her own ability and strength and would not pay as good attention as she should, allowing her opponent more openings than a more careful fighter might have.

Still, they had completed the challenge, and Canti ran forward to grab the little hourglass icon before it could play any more tricks on them. Senna planted her spear (no pun intended, considering its element) and leaned on it. Now that the threat of danger had passed for the moment, there was less need to stand as though waiting for where the next strike would come from.

The sudden pulse of light from the room’s entrance almost made her rethink that particular logic, but thankfully, it was not dangerous, merely blinding. She squinted, then brought an arm up again, trying to keep the light from doing too much damage to her vision. As it was, when the lights faded and Canti was once again easily visible, he was also partially obscured by the dancing green afterimages that a dose of unhealthily bright light will leave. However, he also seemed to have the object they’d come in here after in the first place. A success, all things considered, and a fairly quick one if she was any judge of what a group of players their levels should be expected to do against a horde of higher-level monsters.

Nall addressed them all then, saying, “The first room is down, guys! And girl, I keep forgetting we have one of you again. Good job, let's go pick the second!

Senna wasn’t picky about adjectives, and made little notice of his correction to the little speech. She just started moving back out toward the hallway as everyone else did, Nall in the lead. She thought she saw him make a… was that a little skip or caper? Raising one eyebrow was all the question she would make about it, but she had to wonder... did he ALWAYS do things like that? It seemed a little off-kilter. Either that or he was having mood swings like a woman. She wasn’t sure which one was more amusing for her to consider.

As they left, she dropped to the back of the group. She still felt decidedly like an outsider. It was hard not to, no matter how nice everyone else was, and it didn’t bother Senna in the least. It was just something of which she was aware. They all shared a common bond that she did not.

Senna didn’t consider herself in overly much danger of becoming like the rest of them. This was not a belief that came as the result of conscious thought. It was more that such a fate was something that happened to Other People. Comas happening to gamers in The World were things which, until a very short time ago, she thought didn’t happen. But now that she found out otherwise, even knowing some of those trapped, it was a fate that befell others. She was here to help as another weapon, another fighter. Unlike some others in the group, it quite honestly never occurred to her that there was a danger of that.

So she fell to the back and watched the rest of them, the group. She knew she should probably do something to try to make herself more… well, a part of thing, but that just seemed forced and silly, and the middle of a dungeon crawl of sorts wasn’t a good time for chatting. Anyways, they were interesting to observe. She’d always been a people watcher.

The hallway seemed quiescent as they followed it back out to the main room, but as the last of them made it through the final arch, the program closed the exit behind them in a rather spectacular fashion. Whatever code was used to seal it off set the whole room to shaking as though a fault line ran right under their feet. When the shaking subsided, there was only a mock-arch where the hallway once stood. Ahead there were five more, and the marked group set to face the challenges that might lie at the end of each.

Again, as always, it was not a song but a poem which filtered into her head. Why should a man desire in any way to vary from the kindly race of men, or pass beyond the goal of ordinance where all should pause, as is most meet for all.

A marked group. They had the opposite situation of poor, doomed Tithonus, about whom Lord Tennyson’s words spoke. He had been doomed to an eternal life without eternal youth, growing old while his beloved Aurora stayed young as goddess of the dawn, and he lamented that he had ever dared ask for such a gift as eternal life from Zeus. These people, trapped as they were, in digital form as they were, would probably not show age even as their bodies passed days, months, years in the outside world. And if those bodies died… what then? It was a chilling thought, and Senna unconsciously rubbed one hand over the other arm in an attempt to smooth the sudden onset of goosebumps. Would they just disappear? Or would they be stuck in here endlessly until the servers themselves were destroyed?

Well, that was what they were fighting, she guessed. Eventually to break out of here. It was impossible to find fault with that.

As she’d been pondering this rather strange train of thought, the hourglass had been replaced, and it was Nall speaking which reminded her how very far they still had to go to pass this challenge. ”Well, here we are again. Where to next?

She considered. They had at least a feel for what they might encounter now. Zan had suggested Gan because they had someone “relatively adept” in that area, suggesting to Senna’s mind that the person with the strongest elemental affinity leaned that way. An assumption, but eh, they’d have to choose all halls eventually. So if the strongest element was Gan, Juk might prove the most difficult. She tried to remember what Zan had said he sensed down there. Leaves was it?

Well, whatever. It was about time she tried to contribute. “Juk, perhaps?
Senna, level 33 Long Arm (710 HP/180 SP)
Most common kit: Ichigou, Racoon Earcaps, Air Bracer, Snow Panther, Winter Coat, Graceful Book
Spells/Skills: (Critical Hit/Death) Repulse Cage, Ap Corv, Ap Vorv, Rai Rom, Rue Zot, La Repth
Click for full equipment and items
14300 (1/23)

Zan
Exalted Player
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:28 pm
Contact:

Post by Zan » Sun Jul 23, 2006 8:15 pm

Once the battle had come to a stand still and the room took on a calm, this one much less false than the other, Zan caught sight of Canti's motion and his successful snatch of an item the lycanthrope had tried to round up a few minutes before. Well, as long as someone managed to get the damn thing. Like before, the room rumbled and flashed with change with some notable differences from the last transition; the main one being that they hadn't actually moved. The walls about them had shifted back to a docile normality and, luckily, the clashing beams of Gan light had solidified the hourglass into something that the Freedom Fighters could actually put to use. While the others began to shuffle out, Zan stood still, eardrums focused for any surprise churning within the walls, any deceit that might spring up and bite everyone in the ass when they weren't looking. However, as the rest of his group made their exit and the room, for all intents and purposes, became fruitless and harmless, the lycanthrope took up the back and left.

Curious eyes followed Canti as walked up to the unfinished mural, the hourglass slot seeming to whisper for completion. When such a thing was given to it, the piece clicking it without fault, it seemed to meld and fuse with the mural as a whole until one could never really tell it had ever been gone. Neat. An earthen grumble pulled Zan's eyes back to the Gan Archway that had hosted their departure. One moment it was simply as it had been, a blink alone seeming to fill it in with the very rock that the element represented. One down, five to go. A look back to the events that had unfolded with the hourglass and the Mu Guardians and Zan couldn't help but feel like there was something missing. Next to the war in Mac Anu that had been...well...nothing. The monsters didn't even seem to possess any remote form of intelligence or tactical formation abilities. Mind you, the lycanthrope wasn't necessarily going to complain about the easy job being made of this whole hub deal, but as the cliché goes, it was almost too easy. Either this place was going to get much more difficult with time or the Elites really didn't think to fortify this place. Arrogance is always a poison.

Like before the Freedom Fighters found themselves in a position of choice, something that Zan wasn't really used to being given in the first place. For the most part it had always been 'follow Nall, kill shit, follow Nighthand, kill more shit.' That he was able to choose where he was going to kill various digital nuisances was a nice change in pace. Where though? That was the question he was trying to solve. Eventually they would have to go in all of them. Zan knew that much. The fact that it was still a difficult choice even with that inserted in his stream of thoughts was bothersome. Senna was the first to speak up, the first to initiate a direction this time around. Well, she had been just as willing to follow his idea into the Gan Archway the time before. Why not give her ideas some backing? Shrugging a touch to himself, body leaned against the exit of the stairway, he lofted his voice and made sure his agreement with her opinion was known. Hell, Reinier could probably unleash some rather impressive elemental criticals in a place like the Juk room. That inwardly noted and another annoyance of his surfacing, he decided to make sure they wouldn't have to simply wallow and wonder their next decision each time they came back to the main room.

"Juk seems good. For the sake of not having to have this conversation each and every time, why don't we just come to an agreement on the order we'll do these in now, hmm?" Giving everyone a moment to get their own mental cylinders firing on the subject, he paused a second before continuing. "I'm thinking Juk next, like Senna said, followed up by Ani, Rai, Vak, and Rue to cap it off. Everyone else okay with that?" Again he left them to their own devices, deciding once more to give the place a roundup of his personal sensory tools.

One by one he walked about the room, listening in, inhaling the clues offered up, and doing his damndest to pierce the blackness of each tunnel with his eyes. The last little notch in that trio of attempts always proved to be a failure. Like before, all the clues the rooms had given him were the same, nothing else able to be gleamed from the noises and scents coming from the various tunnels. The one thing that bothered him now, as it had when it first occurred, was the fact that there hadn't been any grinding stone in the last room. Either he had heard it wrong, the Elites purposefully fucked with what he'd hear, or the grinding sounds came from the shifting walls that had released the Mu Guardians in the first place. Hmm. With no real way to discern any of it, Zan figured he'd simply have to ignore whatever distant hints his senses might offer up and go with the flow. In the end that's all he had done in the Gan room and that had gone rather smoothly in its own right. Senses drawn back to the norm, for the gazillionth time the lycanthrope felt suddenly blinded and deafened. How did any of the others function on the level of sight and sound that they did? Zan couldn't fathom having lived that way...ever, really.

Stopping before Juk, Zan turned to the others, curious to see how close they were to coming to their decisions. When the pain in his gut churned he had little time to compensate for it with a mere gritting of his teeth, the Heavy Blade doubling over with a groan, fingers clenched tightly to his stomach as he fought to stabilize it. The edges of his vision blurred, the boil of his inhuman blood becoming too much as he leaned against the archway and slid to the floor in a steady descent. What in the hell was going on? Without warning his senses revved into overdrive, even the slightest shuffle of the Freedom Fighters' footsteps pounding into the inside of his skull like a jackhammer. Opening his eyes introduced him to a world of blinding light, his cornea suddenly aflame with agony. Slamming his lids to a shut almost immediately, the pain only slowly resided, replaced soon with an overwhelming nausea as the scents of the room, of everyone and everything in it hitting him with a magnetism he had never experienced before. Unable to just stop himself from breathing, the lycanthrope began to regulate breaths with dry heaves. All of his weight was set on his knees and on a single palm on the floor while his other hand gripped at his churning abdomen, mouth expelling nothing but air.

When those finally ceased, when a moment of peace was given to him, he had only a second to attempt to steady himself before the heaves picked up once more. Instead of just air this time, however, splashes of blood coagulated in his throat and found the main room floor with a wet splatter until it had seemed half of the crimson substance in his body had been upchucked. Mumbled obscenities slipping from his lips, Zan whiped his mouth with the sleeve of his coat and once more leaned his sitting body against the wall, doing his best to ignore the sensation of boiling acid surfing through his veins. Had the Mu Guardians infected him? Had the false acquirement of the hourglass fucked with his data? Using the wall as a crutch of sorts, he slowly slid back up to his feet, his hood back, his eyes only willing to half-open in their blood-shot state. A glance at his hands and Zan knew he had taken on a sickly pale and pallor complexion. As much as he wanted to simply lay down back in the Hideout, he was needed there. Waving away any voiced concerns or offers to help him, Zan would give only a murmured "I'm fine," in response as he balanced himself away from the wall's support. Though he still felt like he was having the flu-hangover combo from hell, standing seemed easier.

Motioning slowly to the Juk Archway, unaware of the decisions the others might have made in his mildly delusional state, he spoke up. "Shall we?"
Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
Wishlist
Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).

User avatar
Dien
Exalted Player
Posts: 226
Joined: Fri May 12, 2006 1:59 am
Class: Blademaster
Location: The "Who's Online List," Stalking People...

Post by Dien » Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:44 am

It was something he’d barely known in his time in the World. This being Dien’s longest single session in the game, it made sense that the reality of fatigue would begin to set in. He could feel his muscles starting to complain about being overused, his legs favoring one spot on the earth over any form of movement. Still, they weren’t beyond control yet. One step after another he coaxed his body into yet more movement, promises of actual sleep later enabling him to go on ‘til the dungeon cleared. Granted, he didn’t know how long that could be, and at any time his body could find a loophole in their oh-so-frail contract and make a bee-line for the floor. Yeah, that would be good. He just hoped for a quick resolution to this quest before his mind gave way.

In the real world, he’d been able to go days on end without sleep. Yes, there was coffee involved, but in just about every case, the bitter fuel had been well worth the added hours it gave. Here there was no coffee, no way for him to stay awake save sheer determination and will-power. He smiled, exiting the tunnel in the midst of this group behind their newly jovial leader. Perhaps Raine could create a coffee brewer and solve all their troubles. A coffee brewer, coffee beans, a grinder, filters, water, and travel mugs so they could take the stuff with them - that would be perfect. Hell, she might’ve already done it, in which case he’d have to take advantage of it next time he was in their fortress.

There were other little things about the real world he was beginning to miss. For one, none of his applets were still enabled, meaning he couldn’t even peruse the codes of the field or other players if he was bored. His clock was also gone, along with sensitivity compressors, proximity sensors, and all sorts of other little things he’d made. He also missed the periodic action of waking from his slumber to refill his water supply and grab a bite to eat, and finding the family cat, Sprinkles, asleep on his lap. Most of all, Dien was homesick. It wasn’t the kind of homesick he’d get on a vacation either - the one where after a few days away from home he became unduly bored and wished for a few lines of code to toy around with. No, this was the homesick he imagined college students felt sleeping their first night in the dorms across the country from home: the kind of homesick that he could only get from knowing he wouldn’t be going back for a really long time.

“So it finally set in, did it?” he asked quietly to himself, sniffling and pulling his arm up to wipe the tears into the denim of his sleeve. The smile from before was still present, and he laughed himself through the situation’s irony, probably unnoticed by everyone else. Here he was, wrapped up in a game he’d used to escape reality, and reality was now collapsing in on him with the force of a category 5 hurricane, eliciting both humor and sorrow in the same foul swoop.

Nall spoke, then Senna and Zan, and he only nodded in approval with everything said. His yet inexperienced voice wasn’t needed in this discussion: everyone else had more experience than he did in this realm, so he would just shut up and follow the leader. If he had a say, he’d want to get the harder stuff out of the way first so he could take it as easy as possible later on, and hopefully trick his body into even five minutes more of compliance.

Zan departed, making the rounds from archway to archway and scanning them for any kind of sign, any change that might be heard or scent that might be caught - there was none. About the second door, Dien stopped paying attention to him, instead taking a seat against the thick central column that was the staircase and facing the door they’d probably be going through next: the green hippie’s paradise of Juk. His head leaned back as far as it could against the hard stone, temporarily shutting his muscles off in favor of taking advantage of this little respite.
__________

All forms of murmuring and chatter were instantly silenced as the bailiff’s voice rang out, heralding the arrival of Judge Meredith Palano. The room stood to its feet, reverently greeting the petite woman as she approached her place at its front. Four words, and the entire assembly sank into their chairs. To her left, the District Attorney unfolded his laptop, neatly typing notes and occasionally glancing about the room. To her right was a young boy no older than sixteen in a suit and tie, and with him an older man, sitting with a briefcase next to him and a legal pad with some extra leaflets of paper in a stack on the table in front of him. It was a strange demographic alignment, to say the least, but that wasn’t the issue for now.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” she said, addressing the rather large crowd that had gathered, “I’m sure we all know why we are here, but for the record, let it be said that this trial is to decide the guilt and/or innocence of a Mr. O’Brein in the matter of O’Brein versus the City of Philadelphia. Mr. Attorney, if you would, please state the charges being brought against Mr. O’Brein.” The man stood, spinning the screen of his laptop and quickly bringing it shut to cover the keyboard.

“Jedediah O’Brein, age fourteen, is charged with hacking in the first degree, hacking with malicious intent, and hacking without a license.” He returned to his chair, and the judge turned to face Jed, whose complexion remained stoic as ever.

“And how do you plead, Mr. O’Brein?” she asked, and the older man stood.

“To the count of hacking in the first degree, and hacking without a license, my client pleads guilty. However, to hacking with malicious intent, my client pleads innocent, Your Honor.” The lawyer resumed his seat, taking out a pen and setting it next to the legal pad.

“Very well,” the woman concluded after sifting through her own documents for a moment, “then I guess the only thing we’re really here to find out is whether or not Mr. O’Brein was intending to do damage when he hacked. Mr. Attorney, you may present your opening statement to the jury.”

His trial had begun.

__________

The cool brown hue of the floor slowly began to fill his vision as the blademaster’s eyes crept open, consciousness overtaking him like a shadow. He’d fallen asleep? So all that coaxing of his body had been for nothing? In honesty, he had to laugh at it, in spite of how depressed he was. Even in a virtual body, he still had basically no control over his own consciousness. A chuckle passed Dien’s lips, and he pulled his head up, leaning back against the wide path of their descent. He half expected Danielle to appear again after that dream; the continuation of the story of his past, but no such character appeared. For a moment he thought nothing of it.

“Danielle, you around?” his query called, breaking the quiet that had seemed to overtake the room, aside from Zan’s dry heaves and the groups lacking debate on where to go. There was no answer, and he puzzled for a moment, glancing around in an effort to spot her avatar. She wasn’t…there? It was odd, to say the least, and troubling. Don’t hide, he tried, I know you’re around.

No answer.

Zan motioned to the door beckoning the group onward and Dien stood, slowly walking in that direction, noting the paleness of his friend’s skin and the deathly ill appearance he wore. There wasn’t anything too big to worry about, really, as he was a werewolf. Still, a sympathetic glance was shot toward him, with something of a smile crossing the blademaster’s lips. He couldn’t say he knew what this man was going through, but if it was Twilight, there was nothing to trying to helping him: his own infection had taught him that much. That, and he did know what it felt like to feel like crap.

“Let’s get this train-wreck a-rollin’!” he mockingly stated, joining in the mob as they slowly moved in the direction of the realm of trees.
Last edited by Dien on Sat Jul 29, 2006 6:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Image|||Level 35 Blademaster (+200 EXP)
Wishlist: EXP, Ends of Earth, Armor with Status Effects

Lord Canti
Exalted Player
Posts: 300
Joined: Sat May 13, 2006 3:58 pm
Location: In da' plains of hell, natch.

Post by Lord Canti » Thu Jul 27, 2006 3:57 am

(To be honest, he wasn't quite sure why he was really dashing for it. Something just seemed to tell him to make haste before something went wrong. They say that hast makes waste, but dropping the ball throws the game entirely, and this was one ball that could not be allowed to falter. It didn't matter that it was worthless, this action. The point was that he was ON that ball, he was keeping that score, and things were getting DONE. Anyway, he reached for the hourglass, made contact, and got it in his hands. No longer was it an illusion! Excellent! And now...what the hell...? No sooner had he picked up the thing than there was a reaction of some kind. A trap? Canti watched as the runes in the hallway began to glow, and then a number of lightning bolts came streaking past everyone, straight towards him, and...)

Canti: OHHH SHIIIIIT!!!

(For some reason, though, his reaction was premature, because it was at that moment that the unexpected happened: He wasn't fried. The energy seemed to pulse its way into the hourglass itself and then dissipate as if it were nothing. Truth be told, it had all gone in there, contained by the device it was apparently suppose to flow into as per the completion of this bit of the quest. And then, before he could say anything, the lights died down. For Canti, they were off just a bit longer...)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(The World was haze in his mind for a brief time, the lights lowering and changing and transmutating into this....this....surreal environment. The wounded, bloody crow staked out this territory, wondering what it was that he kept finding here? A four-legged shape with pointed ears was now watching him. He wanted to know what was going on, but he stopped himself when he realized that he could move his wings a little. The shape was a fox, and she had made sure the wings would mend properly at some point.)

"The crow shall drink of what was given unto him at birth. He shall not burn his tongue or lose sight any longer. Ours is the perception beyond life and death."


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

(He returned to normal and saw that the room had again changed, though not his position this time. The walls were closed up again and the trap that they had avoided triggering in the group they were in was inactive. It was only that one, but it was done just the same. The hourglass was now a working item, but it seemed to have all eternity stuck within it. Interesting... No matter which way he pulled it, he couldn't find a way to empty it. How strange... Even stranger was Nall's cheerfulness. From what he'd seen so far, Nall was not a cheerful guy. Furthermore, it bothered Canti in specific because it reminded him of Suraisu, whom this guy had had to battle and probably kill. Nevermind that now. Nall wanted him to place the hourglass in the appropriate spot. He did as such, and watched it fuse to the puzzle while closing the door they just came through. This left them to pick another door... Senna wondered about this aloud, suggesting Juk. It seemed as if that idea appealed to the wolf in the fold, remembering what he'd sensed before.)

"Juk seems good. For the sake of not having to have this conversation each and every time, why don't we just come to an agreement on the order we'll do these in now, hmm? I'm thinking Juk next, like Senna said, followed up by Ani, Rai, Vak, and Rue to cap it off. Everyone else okay with that?"

(Canti was about to respond, but a little voice in his head spoke first, to him only.)

Burn, crow...and fly!

Canti: What in the hell is going on? Uh, yeah... That order works fine for me. They're all even out and stuff.

(There was something wrong, though, and he wasn't the only one of it. It was Zan. He suddenly bent himself over in pain by the doorway to the Juk area. He looked sick, or half-dead. Something got to him, but what? He motioned the rest of them away for some kind of reassurance as he stood up. It was not working. That wasn't natural for Zan. Every instinct said that that should not had happened, and there was no fooling HIM about it. He didn't say anything for now, but if it happened again...)

"Shall we?"

Canti: Indeed...

(...he would find out for sure.)
I'll have a doozy of a sig later, I swear. It'll reflect ".hack//CODE" an' everything.

Hey look! A profile! It's got items and stats and things! Cool! If it isn't fully up to date, it will be, so don't worry 'bout it.

User avatar
Nighthand
Master of Games
Posts: 1265
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 9:23 pm
Class: Bladesmage
Location: ...Tracking...please wait...

Post by Nighthand » Tue Aug 01, 2006 6:38 pm

”Alright then, the order is decided. Wood, Darkness, Thunder, Fire, and Water. Off we go.” Nall's voice was cordial. He didn't sense anything major anywhere nearby, so there was nothing to be afraid of.

There WAS something to be wary of, however, and he would keep his eyes trained on it. When they had taken the hourglass from it's place, it had sucked in a large amount of energy... but it had also given off some. The energy at the end of each corridor was greater than it was before. Not by much, but it was.

The journey down the green-tinged corridor was almost exactly like that of the earth corridor. The difference, however, came in Zan's senses. Rather than being lied to, this time, they were correct. Exiting the corridor, they found themselves on a forested path, having emerged from a cave.

This was odd in and of itself, since they were several stories underground. Having not seen the sudden cliff that would make this sort of thing physically possible, they could only assume this whole forest was underground as well.

Seeing nothing among the trees, the group continued on along the path, coming to a large clearing. This, it seemed, would be where the fight would take place. One giant tree stood in the center, a great face carved on it's bark. It was a model of the ThousandTrees enemy, only... easily three times it's size.

With a rustling, two more trees emerged from the woods. These were more normal-looking thousandtrees, and more moblie than the large one seemed.

It appeared obvious that the group would have to take out these three, to be able to find the leaf-like artifact they searched for. Not too hard a task, right?


-------------------------ooc:

2x Wood Stock
Level 27, 2210 HP
RaJuk Rom (level 3 spell)

Yggdrasil, King Tree
Level 40, 4400 HP
RaJuk Rom, OrJuk Zot (level 3), Krake Ch (level 2)

As with the other group, I'm trying something a little different. I'll be posting more often, with reactions from the monster, as opposed to just posting once everything is done. As a result, the posts will be somewhat shorter than “normal”, but that's okay.

Zan
Exalted Player
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:28 pm
Contact:

Post by Zan » Wed Aug 02, 2006 1:53 am

----------------------------------------

"Where?" A nod given against the cellphone. "Do we know what it is?" A pause. Laughter through Conner's lips. "Ljai? I'll be fine Dust. I don't need one." Another pause, frown forming on a confident expression. "I've handled more before." The teen held the cell from his face, counting to ten before it came to his cheek once more. "Yea, I'm still here. I can handle a group of Downers, alright? I don't care what part of town they're in." Continued shouts from the phone and Conner snapped it to a close, sliding it into his pocket without another thought.

The high school student, a junior, slid from the wearing comforts of his bed and united his feet with the floor. Kicking paper plates and crumpled soda cans, his vice of choice, away from his closet, he slid the door open and fumbled in the blackness of his room for something to wear. Wearing boxers alone to a Downer hunt didn't seem too practical. By the time he had slid on something warm, he snagged up his sunglasses from his desk and emerged into the darkness of the hallway lit solely by the eerie blue light cast from the living room's television. Clad in black boots that rose to meet green cargo pants matched in turn with the black of his shirt and the blue hooded sweatshirt tugged over that, he was almost ready to go. Noiseless as he managed to make his walk, his father still stirred in his sleep, mumbling some sort of dissatisfaction or another before turning back the other way. Slipping on his shades to hide bloodshot eyes rather than protect himself from the not-so-bright street lights of a New York City night, he was almost out the door before he rethought his outfit. Still too cold. A second later and he was closing the door behind him, a green cloth, dirty looking coat that fell just past his knees added to the ensemble. A quick pull of the sweatshirt's hood over his head and he was off.

The heavy weight of a flashlight hung in one of the green coat's pockets, giving him the only tool he'd need for that night. The fog pluming from each of his exhalations was the only thing to keep him company as he drifted down the cold concrete streets. The occasional acknowledgements from other late-night waltzers like himself, most of them lounging on apartment stoops, were met with half hearted waves and idle grunts. Conner had a job to do and he had to get in the right mind space to do it. Leo had ceased to ask questions about his hangover attitudes in the morning after hunts, a thing becoming all too frequent as of late. Be able to yank out 'lings with a few words and a touch and suddenly you're working overtime. What did that have to do with putting a few Downers in their place? Absolutely nothing. But if you run into enough of them and show your new friends you have a knack for beating the shit out of them and suddenly you're some late night enforcer. Enforcer. The thought made Conner laugh, the sound breaking the silence of the night for but a second. Put the junior against any corn-fed, good 'ol American kid, or any other kid for that matter, and he'd get his ass beat into the ground. Put him against a few Downers and suddenly he was something else. Here here.

Conner wasn't a fan of this new life style and Leo could only agree. The rich kid only knew that Conner had new late night activities, but that's where the teen had drawn the knowledge line. Leo needed to believe he was safe under his covers. Everyone did. Conner and the rest of the people (known as the Stable in New York City and the Grounded in others) who mediated the underground, the veil of ignorant bullshit, got to be terrified to close their eyes so few others had to. Was it noble? Hell no. The high school student would have been just as happy to curl up in oblivion. Only his conscience kept him doing this day after day after God damn day. You see enough bad shit go down and know you can help stop it and suddenly your choices begin to dribble down to obligations. Conner would have liked to believe in the two odd years he'd been involved in it all that he'd be somebody, something important, but in reality he was metaphysical muscle and not much more. You knock on the wrong door in Dust's neighborhood? You got a visit from Conner. The teen had been told by enough people before he rearranged their faces that he was nothing more than a lackey, a goon of sorts, that he had begun to believe them. The only thing that kept him going, that kept him doing what he did, was Dust wasn't a monster. Conner never had to kill anyone. Mediation law was that a Downer kills an Upper, that Downer dies and vice versa. Luckily enough, Conner wasn't the one Dust called for that. So, in the teen's blissfully denial-drudged mind, it didn't happen.

As the street sign he had been looking for came into view, Conner took in a breath. He may be restricted from killing
them, but Downers always seemed so eager to rend him into pieces when he came with a 'message.'

Joy.


----------------------------------------

Zan allowed his daydreaming to cease with Nall's O.K. to move forward, the lycanthrope happy that all had, more or less, respected his inward wishes and hadn't questioned his odd behavior. Thing was, really, he couldn't have given them answers anyway. Whatever was wrong with him was as new and confounding to him as it would be to the others. All the werewolf could hope for was personal preservation until they could make it back to the Hideout and once more he could contact Lowen. She'd be able to help him. Zan stopped at that thought, blinking away a moment of confusion. Why her? How could she possibly know what was the matter with him? One of the leaders of the Freedom Fighters were more likely to hold the key to whatever cure he needed. That thought, that known, something at this core pointed him to Lowen. She'd know. The only thing that kept him from contacting her now was his persisting fear that down there, in the dungeon, this place of communications would pick up his thoughts and give away the location of the Freedom Fighters within the field.

In all likelihood, the Elites or their henchmen would already now with the hourglass's binding that something was amiss. Doing his best to toss aside the paranoia such a thing induced, Zan focused on the tunnel around him as the group walked, wary as always of the threatening pulse of green runes covering the walls. If their programming hiccupped, for even a moment, they'd all be toast. With no one to bring their ghosts back to the living world, they'd be effectively screwed. Twice. Sideways. Upside down. Glancing past the fog of looming danger in his skull, Zan smiled at the forest before him. His Beast yawned and stretched within his flesh, reaching out to the trees, embracing them with thought and an odd sense of comfort. The lycanthrope knew that his Beast wanted nothing more than to run through the foileage and hunt, kill, feed and howl with blood dribbling down his muzzle. That was his inner animal's true desire. Shifting into his Garou form warped that Beast into something of a weapon, a machine crafted and built for death and inflicting pain. There was nothing cherishable about who he became in such a state. But now, human, his Beast still nuzzled his heart with thoughts of only love and serenity. It truly was a union of human and wolf. Zan undersood it, it understood him. Intelligence in the eyes of what some saw as a monster.

It was then the Heavy Blade understood something that he had long thought to be different. Zan had, as of late, come to accept that him and his Beast were one and the same; that him and his Beast existed on the same level of existance but simply shared a different depth of mental use. Now he understood that, though such a philosophy was closer than his initial ideal that a creature had overtaken him, it wasn't quite right. Though Zan was himself, though he didn't share his body with any other mind, he shared it with the memory of something else. The digitalized wolf that had been compacted into code, stripped of its individuality, and infused into a program that the lycanthrope's Twilight had snatched during his infection lay deep in his marrow. A faint inward smile indulged, Zan coaxed that memory, whispered his thanks for the life that it had never lived and had instead been given up to him as a tool. As much as he wanted to further delve into this revelation, only a few moments of mindless walking through the forest had led the Freedom Fighters to a clearing hosting a single, massive version of the ThousandTrees monster. Not good.

When two more joined up, a plan quickly assembled in the lycanthrope's head. "I'm going to make a quick suggestion. Dien and Canti, you guys worked great as a team last time and I'm going to ask that, if possible, you work together again and take on one of the smaller ones. Senna, I'm sure you're more than capable of taking on one of the smaller ones on your own. Reinier and I can work together to take out Fatso." He paused, quickly pulling together words to help sate any egos that might be hurt by his suggestion. "It's not that we don't need your guys' help with Big Boy, I'm just trying to disperse our numbers by our levels so we can get this done as quickly as possible. Take the advise or leave it. Either way, good lu--"

Zan's words were ceased by the fall of a branch over him by the big tree that had, more likely than not, grown weary of his talk. Only a last moment side jump saved him from the would-be fatal attack, putting him next to Reinier. A nod given to his companion, he turned to his attacker and whispered a 'Dek Ganz' under his breath. Using whatever moment it offered him, he breathed the raven through him, sighing at the feel of sudden connectivity to everything around him. Refusing to be overwhelmed as he had been before, he swallowed the immensity of it and focused that nonspecific energy into his eyes, nudging it towards the Gan Echo that existed on any plane, in any room in The World. Hair like the ends of a crow's feather, such feathers tattooing themselves along his arms in black ink, the last edge to his look came with a rich clay brown on the outermost ring of his iris, centered further by a ring of simple soil brown, and ended with the final and smallest ring of color, orange, around his pupil. The forest of trees around him, aside from the three monsters, withered away in a storm of sand and dirt, becoming nothing more than cracked and husked vegetation in his eyes. The ground itself withered and cracked.

For a moment Zan was overjoyed, happy beyond happy that he could see so clearly into the world of Gan in a room so overpowered by Juk. And that was, of course, when weeds began to crawl from the cracks, flowers of the all colors capping them off in some twisted versions of nature. The trees that had withered with age seemed to pick up health, but beyond that the Gan persisted it's control. The two were blatantly trying to take prevalence in his eyes, the Juk Echo giggling at the edges. It was okay, he only needed this for a moment. A glance around and he found a pulse of the orange energy on the ground. Hunching over it after a quick dart to the side and away from another branches lash. A frantic sketch of his hand along the ground, a neon copper formation of foreign glyphs appearing in the wake of his fingers' sketches. A slam of his palm on the ground and a shout of "Amp Ganz! Ap Ganz!" and his body was throttled with strong, grounded energy. Now he could fight. Now he could show these overgrown trees.

"GiGan Zot!" Zan shouted, a rumble issuing beneathe the 'feet' of the monsters.

Lofting himself into the air, greeting the straining feel of nothing but air around him, the lycanthrope spun around another flailed branch. Distancing himself further from the creatures, he launched another GiGan Zot focused solely on the largest one, hoping to keep it distracted and hurting while the others did what they needed to do. His airodynamics wouldn't last forever. Not wanting to be drained too quickly because of it, Zan began to switch up between ground and air evasion, setting that up as his tactical groundwork. Spamming the central, biggest tree creature with another GiGan Zot, Zan continued his determination to stay at the very fringes of range. The tree was too big to stay unable to hit him for long, but the lycanthrope did his best to adjust his placement, dodging the fall of branches and the hiss of wind-whipped leaves. Arrogance began to bubble in his gut, a smirk finding its way onto Zan's face as he launched yet another GiGan Zot at the big tree; his fourth total. Of course, as usual with Zan's luck, the realization of the tree's other abilities, those of the magical sort, came a little late with the arrival of a large Juk rune above his head. Shit.
Lv. 50 Heavy Blade
Wishlist
Special: Levels, GR Sendai, PL Sakai, Darklore.
W: Tonosama Sword, Mineuchi, Jundachi.
A: Samurai Helm, Able Hands, Rare Greaves.
I: Holy Sap, Treebane, Cooked Bile, Nightbane.
EX: Elemental Summon (Lv. 2), Overdrive (Lv.1), Elemental Attacks (Lv. 2), Enhance Dark, Elemental Breath (Lv. 2).

Locked