i. a new tale-cont..

[Death Lotus]

WORDS TAGS NOTES LYRICS W/E ?

It had been some time since she started running, and only now did the crimson haired girl stop. She panted, doubling over and resting her hands on her knees. One would have thought she was running for her life with how quickly she moved. It may not have been so serious, but embarrassment and fear of others moved her just as quickly. As her breath returned to her, Cassiopeia observed her surroundings. She managed to enter a not so safe area, though not an area where things were incredibly threatening. She remembered using this area as a stepping stone when Elder Tale was nothing more than a game, then again, it was never a simple game for her. Elder Tale was an escape, an escape from reality, a place where she could be as strong as she imagined herself. An epic heroine, a dastardly villain, or some combination of the two. Anything she wished, she could do in Elder Tale. When did the two realities collide? "Why is this happening? What even is.... this?" She spoke aloud, trying to collect her thoughts by voicing them. Pacing back and forth, asking herself questions and answering them, Cassiopeia finally came to the understanding of what was going on. She looked around again, nodding at everything as if it all made sense. She smiled, accepting everything for what it was. "I have no idea what is going on," her smile faded and she slumped forward. "None of this makes any sense." It was a little frustrating for her to be so smart, but not have any idea what was happening. What she did know was that she was in a game world, looked like her avatar, and could access the menu through some freaky mental ability. For safety sake, she assumed everyone could do just as she could. Then a sudden idea popped into her head, if she was in the game world, able to access the menus, and looked like her avatar, maybe she could perform the actions of her game avatar. On queue, a small creature similar to a raccoon appeared. They were easily handled when playing the game, and would provide a perfect test for her idea. Cassiopeia grabbed her short dagger from her hip, grasping tightly in her right hand with the blade inverted and pointing down. "Okay I can do this," she said to herself. It felt natural to her, her body sliding into a loose stance. If this were related to the game, it would make sense that her body knew how to react, though she couldn't perform so perfectly on her own. Even with her marital arts classes in the real world, she wasn't a master or anything. She focused intensely, everything seeming to blur away aside from herself and the target. It stared her down as she did it. The feeling of being in slow motion set in, Cassiopeia taking her first step to lunge at the creature. Her eyes narrowed, as did the creatures, but her glare would become wide eyed fright. Still feeling in slow motion, her stance broke apart as she watched the creature raise a front paw. She scrambled, sliding to stop in front of it, but it was too late. The creature hopped up, slashing down over her left eye. Her vision was saved, her eyes shutting tight as she flinched. A stinging pain set in letting time return to full speed. Her and the creature stood in silence, Cassiopeia blinking a few times after opening her eyes. "I can't do this!" Once again, Cassiopeia was on the run, the creature left blinking in amazement of what it just saw.

LAIKA OF GS!

[Deleted]

ASHEN HP: 100% MP: 100%

"I am in the only place that I want to be, though we know that it ends eventually, but it's all right 'cause right now, we're frozen"

Ashen leaned from side to side, holding her arms over her head, stretching. The Fox Tail was still low level, so there wasn't any real need to be too concerned when in the zones right outside. Player Killing had become a fairly common thing, as well as the fact that the adventurers in the Unfounded Kingdom had all started at level one meant that there was plenty of catching up to do. As a level one character who hadn't done a lot of level-grinding yet, Ashen wasn't even a good target. Kinda hard to steal from someone that was effectively broke.

Taking a couple of steady steps forward, Ashen was going forward, intending to keep practicing moving properly. His old character back on the American servers had been much, much closer to his own proportions physically though there would have been a big problem with that one as well. A pair actually. In some ways Ashen was glad the avatar this time around was smaller. Less distraction possible and the change in balance with the tail and difference in height meant that the inevitable trip and fall would hurt a lot less. Not that Ashen had been designed with that in mind, it just happened to be convenient was all.

It was also as good an opportunity as possible to just wander around the beginning fields and get a feel. He knew roughly where London was in the real world, but he wasn't that good with geography and had never visited the UK before the game so he couldn't recognize any of the features laying around. Even at roughly half the scale of what it should have been, it was still a daunting prospect and a moment that they were glad to have Pathfinding as a subclass.

"I can't do this!" Ashen's ears swiveled before his head did, and the Fox Tail noted a human running away from something. She couldn't see what, but her left hand dropped down to grasp the sheath of the katana on her belt. Yes in retrospect Iaido was a good choice of starting skills, since it could help the small Fox Tail get into combat quickly and without problems with the skill menu. It'd be useful for when Ashen got more skills to chain as well.

"Whoa, whoa, whoah!" Ashen called out to the fleeing redhead. "What's going on?" Keeping watch on the area behind the fleeing player, Ashen relaxed a little bit. It didn't look like anything too big had been aggro'd. With a sigh of relief, Ashen's pose straightened. It was too soon to fully relax, but it wasn't like there was an army of goblins on this player's heels so it was okay to loosen up some and keep from worrying. Holding out a hand and making motions for the fleeing redhead to calm and slow down, Ashen stood there. "Hey, are you okay?".

OOC NOTES: I delayed posting this so long orz
WORD COUNT: 483

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[Death Lotus]

WORDS TAGS NOTES LYRICS W/E ?

Cassiopeia heard someone calling out much sooner than she realized that they were directly in front of her. She slammed on the brakes, digging her heels into the dirt under her. Her body tilted, leaning backwards to further aid in her sudden stop. A small dust cloud kicked up around her as she managed to stop just in front of the one who had been calling out. Her emerald green eyes quickly scanned the person, noticing that they were another player in the world of Elder Tale. At least she assumed they were another player due to their appearance. A sword on their waist, and most notably the fox ears and tail, she had to be one of the animal based races players could choose from. When she made Death Lotus, she almost created her as one of the fox girls, but felt she wanted to look closer to herself in the end. "Uh, hi," she said nervously. There was an awkward silence between them, the red head turning around to see if she had been followed. The creature had left her alone, but the stinging slash still burned over her eye. She rose her left hand, tapping gingerly under her left eye to feel the slash. She flinched at the pain, realizing just how lasting being hit was in the world. It really was their new reality, and that meant everything and anything could injure them. Pain was very real, and maybe even death. Cassiopeia didn't want to die. "I'm uh, I'm fine." Her hand fell back to her side naturally, turning back to face the fox girl. Cassiopeia expected the girl to make fun of her, ridicule her for being so weak and helpless, though it was possible that she knew of her alias from the time when Elder Tale was just a game. Death Lotus was a skilled assassin, able to do many things on her own. There were those that wanted her assistance for different things, but she often refused to build a reputation for herself. While that may have been the reason she convinced herself of to explain her denial, she truly denied anyone that asked to use voice chat with her. The game let her open up, but not so much to be willing to talk to others easily. Very similar to how she acted then, although this time she was more rattled, she began walking away from the fox girl without giving another word. There wasn't anywhere she was headed in particular, nor did she mean to offend the girl, simply her inability to hold conversations with others shown through. As she walked, her mind wandered about how the game world translated to real world things. If the creature could injure her, did that mean she could get stronger by felling the creatures? It was called grinding in the game, something she did for hours when she first started the game. She couldn't travel through many of the higher level areas easily due to her dislike of grouping, so she needed to get strong enough on her own to reach the newer places. She looked through her menu, checking to see how much damage the slash did to her. It wasn't too much, but it did scare her to think what would happen if her health reached zero. She needed to learn how to handle herself like she did the game avatar.

LAIKA OF GS!

[Deleted]

ASHEN HP: 100% MP: 100%

"I am in the only place that I want to be, though we know that it ends eventually, but it's all right 'cause right now, we're frozen"

Ashen braced herself as the fleeing player managed to skid to a stop before the two collided. It would have been a funny collision in Ashen's opinion though. He was still figuring out the blend of balance issues with an actual tail to operate as well as the fact that Ashen was 8 inches shorter than Alex was in real life. "Are you doing alright there?" As Ashen filled the gap of silence with some soothing conversation, the Fox Tail looked more closely at the player. It looked like there was a cut over one eye. Fresh. So there's cosmetic damage in the game? Ashen mused to herself silently. I'm not sure that's something that's going to be all that exciting...

The Fox Tail made a couple of blinks and opened up the menus, also letting him take a look at health bars. It didn't seem like the player in front of her was all that injured. They'd probably only taken one or two attacks. "Death Lotus?" Ashen asked, seeing if he'd gotten that right. Either way it was kinda a little rude to basically pry into names without making an attempt at introducing themself. "I'm Ashen."

Again taking a look around the area for mobs, Ashen finally took her left hand off of her sheath. "Did you get surprised by a mob?" Motioning towards the injury on the player's face Ashen continued. "I don't have a class or subclass that can do anything about that, but the HP should come back pretty quick if you just sit down and rest or return to town for a while."

The player started walking and Ashen tilted her head to one side, her tail flicking once contemplatively. Must not be much of a conversationalist... Ashen figured if it was just walking that they could keep up easily enough. He needed to figure out the proper pacing and everything for this new body anyways. "You know running around like that could give people a scare you know?" Ashen teased. When this was a game, he probably wouldn't have spared the time of day when leveling to interact with someone who was fleeing aggro range, but... was this even a game anymore? Everything felt so real, and by Ashen's guess from what they'd experienced so far everything was real. Nothing seemed too out of place. More accurately nothing was really out of place from what the game's base setting had been.

Compared to the real world there was a lot that was out of place, and Ashen herself would be one of those things. That wasn't here or there though. "It's always easier going through mobs if you've got someone to watch your back," Ashen continued, undeterred by the redhead leafing through menus. "Especially now that everything's changed up. It's almost like playing with the camera dialed close enough so that its first-person. At least we still have peripheral vision, that's gotta be a bonus, right?"

OOC NOTES: yay posts
WORD COUNT: 492

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[Death Lotus]

WORDS TAGS NOTES LYRICS W/E ?

Just her luck, the girl she had bumped into wanted to follow her around. Cassiopeia wasn't unaware of her surroundings while reading in the real world. There may have been times that she ignored everything outside of her books, but she knew they were there. While she searched a little more through her menus, she could hear the girl walking and chatting it up with her. Apparently the girl cared about Cassiopeia wandering around in the world by herself. Although it may have seemed like that, Cassiopeia wasn't so trusting of the girl's motives. "You don't have to follow me," she said as she exited her menus and looked over her shoulder. "I'll be just fine on my own." Her voice was a weird mix of a tough standoff person, and that of a little girl trying not to cry when pressured. She managed to stay more on the side of a tough standoff assassin, but if the fox girl pay close enough attention, she could see the other side. Cassiopeia wouldn't run, though her pace did quicken. She'd already been accustomed to moving in her body, it wasn't much different from her normal self after all. At first it went unnoticeable as she continued talking to the fox girl following her. "I can handle mobs on my own, so don't you worry. If you can't, I'm sure you can find people in town that want to travel with you." Cassiopeia returned her gaze forward, now moving in a slight jog. She'd been seconds away from taking off into a full sprint, but abruptly came to a stop in front of another creature. Her face was filled with fright upon seeing it as the same creature from earlier. Now it should have been obvious that there were many creatures that looked the same, many mobs being created from the same template was a mmo standard. However, Cassiopeia didn't give it the second thought, only that it was the thing that slashed her face. She nervously reached down to for her dagger, realizing that she never let it out of her hand after running from the first creature. It made more sense why the fox girl said she could scare a person running like that. With dagger in hand, she entered her stance slowly, more so to protect herself than anything. It was then that she realized the fox girl was still behind her, the one that Cassiopeia told she could take of herself. If she didn't prove it right now, she would look really bad, and knowing how quickly news traveled in this world and the real world, she didn't want to let her image fall before she could really build it up. I'm going to have to fight it... she thought to herself. It's okay, I can do this.... I can...

LAIKA OF GS!

[Deleted]

ASHEN HP: 100% MP: 100%

"I am in the only place that I want to be, though we know that it ends eventually, but it's all right 'cause right now, we're frozen"

This entire situation was just plain disorienting really. Bad enough that Alex had been cast into his smaller, female avatar's body but getting used to the combat was something else. Previously he'd played a Shaman on the American servers and had even done some raiding so he understood the fundamentals of being able to devote a blend of attention to his own cooldowns on his abilities as well as the party's status and at least being able to worry about his own positioning some. But now on Britain's server he was in an unfamiliar class at an early level, and stuck doing the combat himself and in first person. It was definitely disorienting, but again Alex was used to splitting his attention several directions.

What would it be like for new players? It was that reason that he kept himself moving forward in Ashen's body even though ordinarily he wouldn't have bothered with another playing fleeing mobs. This world was different though, and surviving it alone was definitely not the way to go. At the very least it would make things more dangerous and needlessly difficult. Even just having other people nearby lent creedence to safety in numbers.

Ashen gave a shrug and stretched her arms over her head and ears. "I was heading out to grind some too, don't sweat it." Right now, Alex knew that getting levels would be key. Advancing cautiously could only work for so long and it was a fresh, new, untapped server. There was bound to be thing that lay in wait that he couldn't even begin to expect from his time playing on his home server in the U.S. No, having levels meant that even if something threw him for a loop, Ashen could still survive at least long enough to flee if necessary.

And of course there was the concern for the other player near him. Since the samurai was intending to fight some mobs now as well in order to eek out a little bit more experience, Ashen's continued presence could be excused a little. It made them feel a bit easier for certain.

It looked like there were raccoons judging by what the Pathfinding skill was telling the samurai as they approached a few mobs. Nothing at all challenging either guessing by their level and starter areas usually didn't give regular run-of-the-mill animals things like diseases and poisons. Ashen planned at least on watching long enough to make sure that the player could handle themself before moving on to the next mob over and starting to hack and slash.

OOC NOTES: nothin much
WORD COUNT: 429

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[Death Lotus]

WORDS TAGS NOTES LYRICS W/E ?

Going through the menu wasn't going to help her here, she simply had to do the movements. She was an assassin, highly skilled in... assassinations.... That meant she was a killer, and small raccoon creatures shouldn't prove any problem to her. These were the thoughts she continued to play over and over as she inched closer to the raccoon. Cassiopeia couldn't turn back now, not with the fox girl seemingly deciding to stay around. Here goes nothing... she thought first. "Accel Dance," she called out the name of her ability. It wasn't as if she knew that calling it out would activate it, but saying what she wanted to do helped her to concentrate. Jumping forward faster than she felt possible for her, she moved pass the right side of the raccoon, slashing it with her dagger. It didn't seem to hurt the creature too much, her strikes were never too heavy to begin with, but the ability Accel Dance, lower her damage output even further. However, it came with a trade off that was very well worth it. After the first strike that was already executed at a high speed, Cassiopeia pushed herself further. Her body turned on the way by, dashing pass the creature again as it turned to face her. Its gaze would never fall on her again, another slash landing on the creature. One after another, she landed clean hits in a bit of blur around the creature. Literally leaving the creatures head spinning until it fell over, exploding into small bubbles that faded away. Cassiopeia stopped moving, unable to believe that she could manage to move like that. It felt like her bod was on auto pilot once she started moving. She looked down at her dagger, then to where the creature stood, then began giggling with glee. Having forgotten that the fox girl was there, Cassiopeia began to jump around and praise herself for her skills. "Oh yeah, I am the best. Totally the strongest assassin ever, just like when I played the game. I can take on anything. Yosh," she gave a little fist pump and placed her dagger back on her hip. As she did so, she turned to see the fox girl still behind her. Cassiopeia's face began glowing as brightly red as the hair on her head. Dancing around like that was something she did in the comfort of her room. Nobody cared to congratulate her on things, so she often did it herself. Kinda awkward to do around others, and even more so when doing something that was supposed to be simple. Anyone could have taken on the little raccoon creature, nothing to boast over. "Uh... well, uh.... So..." Cassiopeia couldn't think of anything to say to explain herself, everything just made things more awkward. "Took care of it," she said lamely with a sheepish grin. Not waiting to hear a response, Cassiopeia took off into a full sprint again, vanishing in the blink of an eye. The trademark dust cloud was left in her wake, lingering for moments after her disappearance, and fading shortly after.

LAIKA OF GS!

[Deleted]

ASHEN HP: 100% MP: 100%

"I am in the only place that I want to be, though we know that it ends eventually, but it's all right 'cause right now, we're frozen"

Ashen watched quietly as the assassin finally extract themself from menus and go on. Was it maybe a little bit jerkish to have Ashen basically force herself on the assassin? Probably, but with this Alex's conciousness was appeased. Right now the world was still and unknown and the unknown could be dangerous if you didn't have the right mixture of guts and caution to take those first steps. As the assassin started to fight a raccoon, Ashen gave a little bit of a sigh, and stepped off towards another one of the little creatures, placing her left hand on the sheath of her katana.

In a beginner area this close to town nothing should really aggro, which meant that it should be really easy to take out mobs quickly. Ashen's early level skills were going to be focused around quick fights. Mobs didn't usually last too long at early levels and so anything that could do damage quickly and early was a priority until somewhere around the mid levels. Dropping her right hand to the katana's hilt, Ashen stepped forward towards the mob while drawing the blade in a fluid motion.

Again Alex had to marvel from within the body of the Fox-Tail. While balance was still an issue at times for him in a smaller body with a tail, the body knew the motions to go through with combat. The American had never had real world experience with swords, but it was easy enough to fight things here. This close it was easy to watch the health bars go down, and Ashen nodded, satisfied with the strength of the first attack.

While the Fox-Tail lacked the raw attack speed of the assassin near them, Ashen definitely made up for it with the strength of the blows, especially wielding the katana in two hands, with the exception of the opening strike. Of course, not having the same attack speed meant that it would be inevitable for Ashen to avoid taking damage, but between the relatively relatively high defense amongst the three warrior classes in general, combined with platemail the scratches left by the raccoon were next to nothing.

Giving a small chuckle at hearing the assassin, Ashen turned from the dissipating mob while sheathing the katana once more. Right now the samurai didn't have any active skills which meant that for the best efficiency, he had to keep a close track of when he could take advantage of the passives. "Sure did," Ashen said with a friendly smile. The assassin made a hasty exit though and Ashen turned back again, whisking a stray bang out of the samurai's face. "Maybe I was worrying a bit too much." There were a few more mobs and Ashen's health was perfectly fine, so the Fox-Tail grinned widely. Might as well get some more grinding done!

OOC NOTES: nothin much
WORD COUNT: 472

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.