Best Laid Plans [Closed]

[Vulpecula]

It was okay. Bertram- Vulpecula. Vulpecula had recovered from bigger stumbles before.

There was that time where he- She quit from a particularly loathsome job by broadcasting a rather vulgar song over the PA system, just because he- SHE wanted everyone in the building to know just how much that song had drained her- HIS wait no you got it right this time never mind. She wanted to let everyone in the building know how much it drained her soul. Well, that bridge was burned, and suddenly she didn't have any references she was planning on having.

There was that time where she broke her arm during an interview for a supervisory position. That was clumsy, and really made her look bad. That, and she was laid up in a hospital. While unemployed, and missing school...

Well. Actually, those stumbles were pretty inconsequential compared to this. Vul was just trying to pull herself together. It only a few days after the Catastrophe / Apocalypse / Big Ol' Buggerup or whatever people were calling... This. It was a few days after This, and Vul was still having a bit of a panic attack.

As far as she knew, she was trapped here, without recourse. It was natural for her to be freaking out. For one, she had now spent four years in the greatest business school in London for absolutely bugger all. Her entire career plans had gone down the drain entirely. She had no idea of knowing where her friends were, if they were in here at all, and she had no way of knowing if there was any way out. There probably wasn't- Dying didn't seem to do the trick for the one guy who tried it. 

The subject of her involuntary gender reassignment was something that Vul had decided not to think about too hard. It was only thanks to her history in Shakespearean acting that she managed to put on a girly enough voice to fool most people she ran into - And by most accounts, it seemed that the transformation was complete, so as far as Vulpecula was concerned she was a girl and left it at that before she started having an identity crisis. She was Vulpecula, not Bertram. Bertram is the corpse hunched over the computer desk nope nope nope happy thoughts.

Deep breath... Nope, that was a mistake. Everyone's still lumping around the place feeling sorry about everything. Vul suspected none of these people had taken a bath in a while (including herself, vul didn't know girls could smell this awful), considering the stench of the area was about as heavy as the air of depression. She wrinkled her nose a bit and collected her thoughts again.

Vulpecula's plan hadn't changed a bit. It was just how she was going to go about doing it.

She came into this wanting - Nay, expecting to become the leader of a guild. With the help of her friends, she planned to make a powerful guild, the first to defeat the hardest dungeons and the last to go down in a fight. She wanted to make the vanguard of the UK server. She had a perfect party lined up, the kind of quintet that would be able to master any encounter before it was halfway though...

Of course, that was shot now, so the first priority was to make some new friends. People are power, and Vulpecula wasn't going to get anywhere fast without power. She turned her Purple-And-Gold cape over in her hands. It was still folded up- Inordinately fancy for someone who's still level one, and really just a cosmetic item with no merit in combat whatsoever. One of her friends on the North American server got it for her as a starting gift-  A pretty good one, considering Vul's taste in clothing. It flapped softly in the morning breeze as Vul let it unfold. It had a high collar, and a japanese-looking design featuring a nine-tailed fox standing upon a tree branch in gold, embroidered upon the deep violet of the fabric. It was perfect for her.

Exhaling sharply as she expelled all her doubts, Vulpecula put her cape on and let it flow in the wind, bringing out her hammer and hefting it over her shoulder. Her stomping stroll soundedthrough the sullen silence of the streets as Vulpecula began her search for power. Power, in the form of people who had the resolve to do something in the face of this disaster. She could use someone like that in her guild.

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Wordcount: 756
Tags: U.V., @rubixcube

[Havelock]

Havelock sat on a bench, enjoying the morning sun, and grimly ate a ham and cheese sandwich. He normally wouldn't have chosen this type of food in particular, but when everything tasted the same, well... It didn't really matter what one ate. He sighed heavily to himself. If there was one thing he hated most about what left him, and everyone else, stranded in Elder Tales, it was the food. Havelock looked around at the people sitting or walking glumly through the streets. He had dealt with those personal issues a little while ago, though he supposed he probably had less to deal with. The majority of the depression probably came from the fact that everyone was now in a completely different body, and the identity crises that came with it was probably a major struggle. Havelock, having made his in-game avatar rather close to himself personally, so he grappled with that a hell of a lot easier, and had gotten over it a hell of a lot sooner. Coupled with the fact that he was already somewhat used to leaving friends behind with his habit of traveling so much, you could say that Havelock was rather well mentally prepared for the trials of this new world. Still, there was a part of him that just couldn't believe that any of this was happening... Everything felt real though. He felt pain when he was hurt, he got hungry, and thirsty, and everyone around him seemed real enough.

He sighed heavily to himself, tossing aside the sandwich, letting it fall into a patch of dirt by the street, as he stood up. He couldn't take this anymore, he needed to go do something before he drove himself insane by a mixture of over thinking things and utter boredom. He had spent much of his recent time familiarizing himself with Londonium, so he had a decent idea of where everything was, but with everyone feeling such gloom and doom, there wasn't anything to do inside the city. Maybe he'd go grind some monsters? He could always do with more cash, and the experience would help as well... He could always explore Londonium more too. He may have gotten down the major streets, that didn't mean there weren't side paths to look around, and all the buildings were now opened up as well. Aw hell, he'd just do both. Havelock began walking, taking a long way around the city as he headed towards one of the further city exits, taking the time to peek into buildings, and climb the rubble or stairs, trying to reach higher vantage points. Maybe something would happen along the way, and if not, he'd just go with his original plan.

[Word Count: 452]

[U.V.]

[/font]verything had happened exceedingly quickly. One moment she was studying at her university for an exam, the next moment she was stuck in the world she recognized as Elder Tale. Of course, the word "recognize" would be a word to use lightly since at the same time, everything was completely new to her. In truth, Clara had only recently bought this Elder Tale game and its expansion no more than a few weeks past. The poor soul just happened to incidentally walk into a hazard zone which resulted in her getting trapped in the game. And all of this occurred simply because she wanted to procrastinate and enjoy a new MMORPG instead of study. Maybe this was karma for having fun before work instead of the other way around.

Vee was sitting on a wall in the decrepit city of London. With both legs leisurely dangling off the stone structure, the petite enchantress watched the commotion happening around her. Even though it had been a good few days since this "Apocalypse" fiasco, as some people called it, there were a good number of people still in utter confusion. It would be a lie to say that Vee wasn't a member of this clueless crew, though unlike a select few she opted not to show it in chaos and panic. Instead, she adapted by taking her situation in stride and spent the last few days adjusting herself to the drastic change in body size that she was now forced to function in. Almost everything that the petite female known as Vee was, was different from the gamer Clara. There were very few attributes about her which remained the same in game and in reality, though the main one was her French accent. And that in itself had very little use to her at the moment besides maybe finding another Frenchman or Frenchwoman to commune with.

While the purple haired female observed the crowds around her she couldn't help but have her gaze gander over to a particular male with an eyepatch. It was a very unusual character design granted that every other toon in the world of Elder Tale seemed physically flawless. Was his eye really gone? If so, Vee would almost admire that aspect of him. However, what the Enchantress noticed more so than his eyepatch was the fact that he seemed to wonder aimlessly. While everyone else who had passed by her earlier all seemed to have some sort of panicked goal in mind, this man here merely meandered the streets. Lazy exploration perhaps? While she chose to focus her attention to other parts of the city from her vantage point, she always found herself noticing this brown haired male in her sights all over again no matter where she aimed her attention to. Well, since it seemed that he was walking in her direction, she'd at least say something. It gave her something else to do anyways. It was only when the taller male happened to walk within hearing distance that she spoke.  Still sitting at her high(ish) vantage point along the wall, she swung her legs casually as she called out to him.

"Bonjour, monsieur. Are you looking for someone?"[/font]

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OOC: Sorry for the wait.  Won't happen again ><;

Word count: 533
Player tags: Vulpecula, Havelock
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[Havelock]

Havelock quietly peeked into broken windows, looking into empty buildings. He played a game with himself, trying to guess what certain buildings were before they fell into such disuse. He wasn't too good at it to be honest. It was all kind of hard to tell without any furniture or anything inside most of them, but that's where the challenge lied, he supposed. Havelock would also occasionally pick over pieces of rubble or debris, though he never found anything valuable. Usually just more broken concrete and dirt. He sighed, and scratched the back of his head. Exploring the city was a lot more boring than the first time he did it. He put his hands on his hips for a moment, looking around for a moment the ivy covered walls and moss covered streets as he stood atop a small pile of debris, having just picked through it some. Nature had well and truly overtaken London, or Londonium he supposed it was called now. He shook his head and dusted his hands, his gauntlets rattling against each other as he brushed them, but his attention was caught when a voice called out, carrying a distinct French accent, and if the accent wasn't enough to tell, then the French words she used would probably give it away. Though, words like 'bonjour' aren't exactly hard to learn.

Havelock looked up towards the voice, his one eyebrow quirked. What he saw was a petite looking girl, seated on a wall, who had a lot of... purple, on her. Purple hair, purple eyes, and purple markings all over her body. He assumed that she was one of those Race of the Ritual kind of people, though he supposed it was possible that the markings really were just tattoos. The cloth she wore made him assume that she was a spellcaster of some kind. Havelock quickly glanced over her character information, what little of it was available to him anyways. Username of U.V., Race of Ritual, and level one enchanter. Or... Enchantress. Havelock focused his attention back to the girl. "Nah, I ain't looking for anyone in particular," Havelock said with a small shrug. "Just exploring the city right now, there's a lot to see now that we're stuck here, you know? What about you? You waiting for someone, seated up there on your throne? Or do you just make a habit out of calling out to strangers in the street?" Havelock shot the girl a friendly smile, showing that he was joking around with her.

[Word Count: 421]

[Guthbrand]

Guthbrand had been panicked the first day, while he quickly adapted to the required efforts and ways to do things in this world he was still focused more on surviving than on doing anything worthwhile, just the random tasks from the Landers, transporting goods across the city, meeting caravans coming in from the outside and escorting them to their destination in the city and acting as a guide for other players and new Landers. It wasn't much, but it was safe work that didn't require venturing out into the world, and it paid well enough to feed him and his brother which was what counted in the end. Still, he was getting restless, he wanted to be out beyond the city with others actually doing stuff. He was going having a bit of bunker fever, and it was getting to him. He didn't really socialize with other players, nor did he bother speaking much to the Landers. Today would be different though, he had taken the time to bathe and clean his dark brown padded armor and the clothes he wore over it, while he didn't have any perfume, nice smelling soap or anything of that nature he still smelled better than most of the people wondering the streets. He also taken the time to redo his ponytail, fixing it better with the ties and generally making it and him much more presentable than he had been over the previous few days. He had strung his bow, slide it across his back and hung his quiver where he could easily draw arrows from it on his hip, while at the same time not spill them all over the place if he had to move suddenly. While he stood out over some of the others around, there were already those that had taken to the woods and swamp surrounding the city and began their journey. While he wasn't sure was quite ready for that, today would be the first step in that direction at the very least.

He strode through the near empty streets, watching the other players lounge about or move in small groups, mostly with their head down and just being depressed. "Had I been like that these past few days? That's pathetic." he thought to himself as he continued on his way, none really stood out to him with their basic starter gear and depressed attitudes, well some smelled worse than others but that just meant he wanted even less to do with them than the others. If they couldn't be bothered to bathe regularly, even in this world, then they were likely not to be the best of company to keep. At least that is what he had thought before he rounded the corner and almost ran into a tall leather clad woman, with a great hammer resting on her shoulder and a exceptionally fancy cloak of purple and gold with an elaborate a multi-tailed fox standing on a tree branch done up in gold. While he side stepped gracefully enough to avoid running into her and be on his way if he wanted he paused instead, the cloak catching his attention and letting him dismiss that she was otherwise wearing the same type of gear he was. "That must be a rare-drop from some mobs in the woods." Having looked her over well enough for what he wanted, Guthbrand decided he would see what she was marching off to do. "Pardon, didn't mean to almost run you over there." He offered his hand to the caped warrior, "I'm Guthbrand, nice cloak you've got there. Heading out on a quest?" He asked in his gruff baritone his american accent clear, "This is still a game after all, even if they were actually living in it instead of playing it."





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Word Count: 632
Vulpecula
Havelock
U.V.

Note, italics are thoughts. 

[Vulpecula]

Wandering the streets aimlessly proved to be largely fruitless for Vulpecula. Wandering through London's- Er, Londonium's most popular thoroughfares only brought her the sight of more people wallowing in their own worthlessness. She couldn't begrudge them for their despair, but nonetheless Vulpecula found herself pitying these poor souls, and found herself frustrated at the lack of agency any of them had. It took her a while, but Vul had at least decided to do something, even if it wasn't anything particularly well thought-out.

Thinking wasn't her friend right now anyway. She needed something to occupy herself with, and people-watching seemed to fit the bill for the moment. Vul strode along, looking among the few people scattered about for someone who stuck out. Preferably, someone who looked like they were fed up with this whole despair business.

Not paying attention to where she was going, Vul found herself nearly having run into someone as she rounded a corner- Luckily, they stepped aside in time to avoid a collision. Looking up reflexively, Vul was surprised to find that the person she nearly ran into was actually taller than her- something she had to get un-used to in this taller body. Right now, though, the reflex proved beneficial, because this guy was positively a mountain of a man, Six-foot something and made of muscle. Her ears twitched as she quickly examined him.

Vul briefly wondered if he was from Brussels, but as he spoke his American accent made it clear that he was not from a land down under.

In any case, this guy was more or less a walking wall of meat. The short-cropped hair and the wide build suggested that he was a Tank of some sort, and at the very least it was clear it wasn't a samurai or a guardian- He was not wearing nearly enough armor for that. The bow slung around his shoulder was huge, and Vulpecula wasn't positively sure she could even draw a bow made for a guy that size. Never mind that she lugged around a great big hammer, but she hadn't really tried using that on anything more intimidating than citrus yet. He seemed to be a lot better-groomed than most of the other adventurers, as well (For example, he didn't reek of sweat and filth) and seemed to be more or less in one piece, mentally.

He'd do nicely.

"I suppose you could say I'm on a quest," She said. "Though I haven't really seen any of the People of the Land give out any of the proper tutorial quests since we got here. So instead, I made up my own quest." Vulpecula turned her head skywards, looking at the clouds. "I'm looking for the stars in my constellation." She looked back at the big guy- Guthbrand, it was- and cracked a big grin. "Or, to be less cryptic, I'm looking for my friends. I got separated from them during the apocalypse, and now I don't really know if anyone I used to know is even on the same planet as me anymore. So, I've decided to make some friends."

Vul grabbed Guthbrand's hand and gave it a firm shake, flashing a wide grin as she hefted her hammer off her shoulder and let the head rest on the ground. "I'm Vulpecula. Nice to meet you, Guthbrand. You can call me Vul if you'd like."

Withdrawing her hand, Vul leaned slightly on her hammer as if it were a cane. "I'm looking to get out of this dump and out into the wilds, too. Get some experience, start doing what the game's supposed to be about, yeah? It's way too depressing in here. It's more a matter of sanity than anything else that people start getting out there and stoving goblins' heads in rather than each others', don't you agree?"

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Tags: Guthbrand, Havelock, U.V.
Word Count: 640

[U.V.]

[/font]Violet eyes gazed down at the guardian in the same way he looked up at her. Both were scoping the other out, taking in all they could from the other's demeanor and HUD. That seemed like the common practice for people now - to thirstily drink in as much information as they could from outside sources before introducing ones self. Thank goodness it was only the username, level, and class which appeared within a user's HUD whenever prompted. Imagine how awkward it would have been had Facebook links been a requirement when registering Elder Tales accounts.

When Havelock addressed the female, she merely scoffed in return.

"You think I waste my time with just any stranger?" She asked while feigning an air of hauteur then flipped some of her purple tresses over her shoulder, "Do not insult me with your insolence. I only address those who dare tread before my Iron Throne." A cruel smirk graced her lips as she crossed her legs and looked down at the male in scrutiny. Her slender fingers drummed against the stone wall she sat upon as if she was debating what to do with this…bourgeoisie pig. Of course, her pretend facade of Queen was instantly broken the moment a genuine smile spread across her features and she lightly laughed. No, Vee wasn't the type to be unnecessarily abrasive unless the situation called for it. She was merely playing along with the whole "Royalty" thing.  Perhaps it did not help that her perception of an interesting queen was from whatever she saw in Game of Thrones.  In truth she actually felt a little tinge of guilt when she pretended to be "mean". She had long since decided that for her, acting the stoic, silent, 2 kool 4 skool type, was more effort than it was worth.

"Well…It's more like Stone Throne if you ask me," she said with a slight grin and glanced once more at the wall she sat on before returning her attention to Havelock. "You are the only person in the past hour who doesn't have a look of complete defeat on their face. Nice to meet someone else who isn't still wallowing in depression or panic," she explained before sliding down from her perch, "it's refreshing". The slender enchantress fell through the air and landed lithely on her feet then walked over to the stranger. With her staff strapped diagonally to her back, she did not have to worry about constantly carrying the weapon in hand. The closer she got to the male the more she realized his true hight. He was a lot taller than she originally thought. Vee felt a small twang of regret having been reminded that her current body now was so much shorter than her real one in reality. It was still a strange sensation for her having to look up at certain people's faces when before she would have addressed them eye-to-eye. Whelp, there was no use dwelling on the past. Whatever this was now seemed to be the present, so she might as well learn to accept it.

"My name is Vee," she said and held out her hand, "I overheard from passing conversations that some Landers at the square are sending Adventurers on low-level quests. Since neither of us are waiting for someone, or have nothing else to do presumably, perhaps we can explore that area together?"
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OOC: 

Word count: 564
Player tags: Vulpecula, Havelock
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[Havelock]

Havelock's smile turned into a smirk as he watched the girl in front of him assume a haughty air, and began speaking in a more regal tone. She did it rather well, he thought to himself. Perhaps it was because she looked so delicate that she could pull off an attempt at royalty, or, hell, maybe he was dealing with actual royalty. Havelock chuckled to himself at that. At the very least the girl had a sense of humor, which really couldn't be said about anyone else in the city right now. Too busy moping to make any jokes.

He stepped forward with one foot, and bent down, one hand on his stomach, and his other hand sweeping the air behind him as he bowed before the enchanter. "Forgive me, great and noble queen!", he cried out dramatically, "In my ignorance, I did not recognize someone who bore such power such as you..." Havelock remained hunched over in how bowed position as he clasped his hands together and shook them in a begging motion, turning his head up to look U.V. in the eyes, a smirk on his face the entire time. "Please, forgive me..."

Havelock stood tall once more as the enchantress dropped the act, resting his hands on his hips while she leapt down from her seat of power. "Well, it's nice to know that I stand out from the crowd. You're a breath of fresh air yourself for the same reason, you know?", Havelock remarked back at her next statement about himself being 'refreshing', stepping down from his little stack of rubble and accepted the girl's hand in a strong handshake as she introduced herself. "Good to meet you. I suppose it's only polite of me to introduce myself if we're going to be doing proper introductions. My name's Havelock, though I'm sure you already know." He waved one hand over his head for a moment for emphasis. He honestly wasn't quite sure where the little box with his information would appear on the girl's... screen? No one really used screens anymore, he supposed. It was all by sight now, wasn't it? Was it all just a natural ability for them now? Maybe they just stuck in some sort of simulation. He shook his head, quickly dismissing such thoughts. He was somewhat confident that the girl, Vee as she introduced herself as, would get his meaning. "A quest, huh? Well I don't see why not. It's a damn sight more exciting than what I was doing just now. Lead the way!"

[Word Count: 424]

[U.V.]

[/font]he enchantress flashed the male a lopsided grin as Havelock waved his hands above his head in gesture of his status bar. Although Vee could see the bar when she prompted it to appear, it was clear that the male couldn't see it, as his attempts at swatting it was off mark. He was missing it by a good foot to the left. It was a clever joke though. She had never thought about trying to touch her own HUD, and found the entire ordeal fairly amusing. Maybe it was too soon to make "look we're trapped in a game" jokes, since the Catastrophe was still considered a fresh wound to be licked by most adventurers. But to hell with all of that. Nobody got anywhere my moping. So jokes were a good fallback to uncertainty.[/font]

She returned his handshake with a nod and pointed over in the direction of the town square. She had walked back and forth from there many times in boredom after concluding that the Log-Out button was not going to work any time soon. If anything, she had spent a good chunk of time at least exploring the city of "New London" as she nicknamed it, so she wouldn't get lost. It was one thing to be new and confused. But to be new, confused, and lost would have been just embarrassing. "The square is over in that direction. Maybe we can get lucky and find a quest for two, yes?" The idea of a joint quest was always far more fun than trying to solo. Soloing was also a fairly useless thing for Vee to do unless her assignment was a simple fetch quest which required going from one side of town to the other. In terms of fighting, with her class being an enchanter, finding a party was an immediate requirement if the female had even the slightest interest in combat. It was either that, or get her butt kicked by a feral piglet and end up meandering down the walk of shame at the Cathedral. She had already seen quite a few adventurers appear from that church, so she knew that death for fellow gamers weren't permanent…for now. One never knew that the future could hold, so she would prefer to not jump into the deep-end wildly without at first making sure she was working on a buddy system.

Vee escorted her fellow adventurer around the neighborhoods and around a few of the buildings. As the two neared the center of town, buildings seemed to become larger and more "urbanized" for what they were worth. They were clearly leaving the suburbs and entering downtown. This was also where a larger number of miserable adventurers were. For the most part people seemed to have gathered into small groups based on either interest or from the sheer fact that they all wanted to commiserate together. That wasn't surprising at all. A few of these adventurers looked at Vee and Havelock as they passed by, but other then that made no motion towards addressing the two. When Vee approached what she recognized as the town square, she turned to Havelock. Weight shifted to the side, and with one hand lazily placed on her hip, she gestured the open space with her free hand.

"I welcome you to the town square," she announced in a way not as enthusiastic as she could have. Although there were a lot of people in the area, the sight could have been a lot more exciting if there happened to be a little bit more action happening around them. Besides the appearance of a few landers selling their soggy-cracker goods, everything seemed more or less the same save for extra space and cobblestone pavement.  Sure the area could have been described with the word "lackluster", but the petite female was fairly certain that the two of them could find something to do if they asked around.
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OOC: So I'm going to officially declare this thread inactive XD.  I'd be down to start another thread with just the two of us though when you find the time.  Shoot me a PM and we can work out the details!  I purposely left my post open so it can smoothly transition into a new thread if need be.

Word count: 656
Player tags: Havelock
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