(Open) Crash Course

[Kaytina]

Makayla's eyes shot open and she sat up very quickly clutching at her throat, "GAAHHUUUUHH!" She took a very deep breath as if she had never breathed before, followed by a small fit of coughing, eyes clenched shut as she tried to stabilize herself. All she could feel was the chill of whatever surface she was sitting on. Hard like stone and cold just as if she had just been placed here, no time for her body heat to warm the stone. Her coughing, echoed throughout where ever she was. The smell, musty and riddled with mould. That probably didn't help her with her coughing, but after about thirty seconds she managed to get it under control. She inhaled deeply through her nose and swallowed a thick ball of phlegm before opening her eyes again.

She was in an enormous cathedral! The roof went on high above and the exit was a good walk away as well. The walls were lined with immaculate frames that shined of gold covering windows, a few of which were broken. High above that were huge windows of stained glass and heavy pillars of stone that appear to have cracked in several place but not enough to break completely. Pews lined the walls and were the source of the mould smell. Several broken down and covered in a green filth. The marble slab table she was sitting on was the only part of the cathedral that seemed to be perfectly clean.

She lifted herself up and onto her feet. This was her first long glimpse at her body. She was wearing a black top of some kind, she had never seen a top like this before. It was made of a thick cloth with heavy seams. The neckline stopped just below her collarbone, sleeves stopped and were very tight around the middle of her upper arms, and the hem ended where her trousers began. The top was tight, but the trousers were very baggy and torn in several places. A single, what looked like nylon, belt held the trousers onto her waist enough so they wouldn't just fall down. The bottom of the trouser legs were ratty and torn, her calves visible. She gave herself a quick pat down, mainly checking the trousers for revealing holes since they were so torn up. Mainly just holes on the legs, nothing up near the important bits. Strapped onto the belt were two knifes in sheathes each with 10 centimeter blades, a cord-wrapped handle, and a ring at the end. At least she was wearing shoes, or more like boots that were just as worn as the trousers. That was it, no handbag or wallet on her or anything else, did she get kidnapped?

The first steps she took were heavy, she was still groggy. She walked over to one of the pews that weren't completely covered in mossy crap and sat down to think. The last thing she remembered was playing that computer game she was told to play, but she couldn't get the hang of the controls and ended up dying in the game, that was it. It was in the afternoon when she was playing that, what time was it now? She didn't even have her phone on her to check the time.

SPOILER: Click to show

{OOC: Thread Description}This is set shortly after the Apocalypse, maybe four or five hours after everyone wakes up and sees they're in the game world. Kaytina had died while the game was still a computer game, which wasn't long, so her waking up is a resurrection in the cathedral. This is meant to be a social thread which can perhaps continue into fighting low-level mobs. Other new players preferred for this thread unless you want to pretend you're level 1-5 for the sake of continuity.

[Kouri]

Kouri walked steadily towards the cathedral, running his hands through his hair as he thought. He had just started playing the game that day, and it had been a few weeks since…well, he had been intending to escape from the real world, and it had worked. This place was so expansive, so detailed, it felt real but better than real, and Kouri was eager to explore it. It had taken some time to get used to the controls, but after practicing his healing spell a few times and trying out his sword it had begun to feel more natural.

His starting outfit consisted of a thin, long sleeved shirt with a tall collar which hung about halfway down his legs and was fastened at the waist with a brown belt. The shirt had alternating shades of blue in different places, except the very sides which were white. His pants were a plain brown material which was somewhat thicker than the shirt he had on, and his brown boots came about halfway up his shins, covering the bottom part of the pants he had. There was a brown satchel over his shoulder to hold crafting materials, and a scabbard on his belt for his sword, but overall everything was very basic.

Even now he could see other players with better gear, but they were no longer standing and chatting casually. Now everyone was swarming in a mass panic. By now everyone had realized they were trapped, and as was expected they were afraid. Kouri wished he could help them all, but it would be too unmanageable even for him, so he resigned himself to going to the cathedral while the panic died down. Kouri himself was alright with this, for a number of reasons, so he didn’t feel afraid or panicky as of yet.

Letting out a sigh, Kouri sat in one of the benches in the front row in front of the stone slab and opened his menu. At least now he had a second to hotkey his skills and check his stats, but there wasn’t much to do as he had just begun the game. When a body appeared over the stone slab and yelped, Kouri jumped up, startled. She seemed disoriented and groggy, and Kouri watched her stumble to a nearby pew and sit. Without a moment’s hesitation, he approached her and stood by the bench, gripping his item bag tightly.

“Are you all right, Miss?” Kouri asked, his soft voice laced with worry, “Were you killed in the riot outside over being trapped?” It hadn’t really occurred to him that maybe she hadn’t heard about it yet, as it seemed like by now every player had gotten the news, so of course she would have as well. Right?

[Kaytina]

Her mind was starting to clear as she was trying to remember what happened. Try as she might, the last thing she remembered was that computer screen. She thought back further, the installing of the game, that took several hours. Further back she had gotten home from school, that didn't seem important now, though. Where was she? Clearly a Cathedral, but it definitely wasn't the Manchester Cathedral.

Some boy with blue hair approached her, was he her captor? She looked up at him as he stood in front of her, a wood wall about waist high separated them. Weird hair, he's weird, "Riots? Is that your story or did some dipshit cop shoot a kid again?" Her voice started out raspy, but recovered after a few words. Something about being killed? Not too bright in the head this one. "What did you do to m- Actually, I don't want to know. Where am I and why did you bring me here?" She kicked the wood wall separating them and a loud snap echoed throughout the hall, but the wall help upright. She stood up and walked back toward the marble table she woke up on. He was between her and the exit of this place and she wanted to give him as wide of berth as possible.

Her strength was returning, it wasn't a struggle to walk as it had been as soon as she woke up. Whatever had kept her groggy wore off quickly. She was able to get a better look at the cathedral. It wasn't a pew she was sat at, it was the quire booths. "This… this is Westminster Abbey! What the hell happened to it?!" She shouted, the stone echoing a bit. She visited the Abbey when she was in primary school, there's no way it could have fallen to such disrepair since then. How long had she been out?

[Hadrian]

Alex couldn’t help but be woken up by whoever decided it was a good idea to scream in the cathedral. Funny fact about any cathedral, they tended to be built to maximize harmonics. Obviously the voice of a rather confused woman he simply continued to lay on one of the many benches near the back that formed row after row of the interior. An over active mind was met with great resistance in an attempt to fight the curiosity which began to swell within.

The tone of the unknown female’s voice was evident enough that she probably just realized they were in the game. A few hours in and it was a sound anyone could recognize. Not that his reaction was any better, though it had certainly not been as loud. True panic came in the form of the riot when mass terror set in. Perhaps a better man might have tried to calm the situation which spawned from fear and the unknown. A better man maybe, the smart man found a place to lay low while things died down. A once well-constructed cathedral had been seen as the perfect spot. The thick gothic doors acted as a perfect shield for the chaos that had occurred only a short while ago.

“Nothing…” his sentence interrupted by a large yawn as the groggy Wolf Hair sat upright on the bench. “It was programmed to look this way.” There was a good chance the female would reject his comment, naturally it was difficult to believe they were trapped in a game. A slight itch in his right eye was rubbed as the image of the unknown female came into view. Along with the image of an unidentified male. A quick glance allowed him to gleam that the male’s body language was calmer than the female’s, an indication that acceptance or some sort of understanding had been in the works.

“You just waking up I take it?” he asked in a friendly tone of voice despite the irritation of being brought back into virtual reality. A white t-shirt covered his chest while the grey short sleeved jacket he had used as a pillow was draped over black hair. Each arm rested comfortably along the back of the bench to reveal red forearm wraps that extended from elbow to wrist. From the distance between where the male and female were to his bench only the blue in his eyes could be seen with clarity.

• WC: 410

[Tobin]

Word Count: 629

Entering into a whole new world was not something most people did in their lives. The closest to that in recorded history was the Luna moon landing in 1969, where Neil Armstrong touched down on a significant Luna body that was devoid of anything but endless fields of dust and craters, yet captivated the audiences at home. Thus the experience of moving from a comfortable room in Liverpool, sat at the computer with a mug of tea after a long day at work, to the desolate streets of a familiar, yet the perversion of the city of London, beset by corruption by the invasion of the green legion left Gavin gobsmacked. For a time the fellow stood still, unable to comprehend the change in scenery to the extent that he was unaware of the fact that he was a great deal shorter than most of the adventurers. Then, with a deep breath, the fellow finally spoke to himself.

“Bugger me, did I die or something? I was just signing in to see the updates.”

For most of those reading, this was the Dwarf before he became aware of the fact he was dwarf, before he had taken on the mantle of the comedian Tobin Strider. Standing at a grand height of 4 foot 11 inches, he was a foot and an inch shorter then he was in real life. The fellow reached up and felt a thick beard upon his face, and further up he had course, braided hair. Both he felt with a sense of wonder and trepidation.

“I hadn’t had hair like this since I was 17- Wait, when did my hands get this big” There was a sigh as his blue eyes were fixated on the broad, hairy mit. A sense of panic erupted within him, though that’s contained within firm features. The spire that stretched before him drew his eye, “Heh, tis must be a dream. I’ll just go in thure, talk ta a few people and everything will be fine, I’ll wake up to a cup of cold tea and a very sore backside.”

The walk was probably one of the longest he had ever made, not because of the distance.but that his frame was much broader and stockier then expected despite him being relatively lean lightly clad, only in a set of fancy monk overalls with a yellow sash. And lean compared to other members of the dwarf species. The other reason was that the hordes of panicing gamers kept getting in his way, people seemed so tall that he flinched from every passing person. Thus by the time the squat had made it to the temple, sweat had visibly formed on his brow as he walked, took a glance at the nearest group of relatively calm people. Naturally it consisted of an armoured male with grey hair, a tanned woman with a oriental hue and another male in causal attire, that suggested that they were in a game. Being a self conscious fellow, he decided

“I know ya probableh wonderin’ about where you are, and wha’ ta meaning of life is, but I need a moment of ya time for something.” His bushy brows quaked up as he glanced between them, would he have their attention? Truth be told he didn’t care, the avatar of Tobin Strider needed to know something now. “Look, be honest width me, wha’ do I look like?

If anyone told him he was a dwarf, his immediate response would be to look up at each of them, right into the eye and comment one, singular sentence.

“Ah shit I spawned as a midget, so much for being heroic figure in my own dreams. Gahahahaha!”

Then the stocky fellow plonked himself down, a sigh errupted from his lips. His second life felt over before it had even begun.

(OOC: Howdy! Just so you know I am kind of busy with 2 events, so if you need to skip over me, do so. Just I had never reacted to the real world swap over before, so thought this would be a good time to cover that. XD

Also yeah, I do purposely misspell words in his sentences when he speaks. It’s the accent.)

[Kouri]

So this girl really didn’t know what had happened, and she thought he had…oh, OH, that’s why she was acting so suspicious. “D-don’t worry! I didn’t kidnap you or anything, you resurrected here. It’s uh…well, we’re sorta trapped in this game, see, and apparently a lot of people got transferred in and they’re panicking. It all happened pretty quickly.” Kouri hoped she wouldn’t freak out too badly, but based on her previous reactions he wasn’t sure that would be the most likely thing to hope for. The other resident in the cathedral had spoken up about the programming in a calm tone, which meant that at least meant they weren’t panicking as well.

The effect of seeing only the piercing blue of the male’s eyes with clarity was eerie, and reminded Kouri a bit of a cat, watching and waiting to make a move. Kouri was about to speak when a voice sounded from below. It was gruff, and deep, and as Kouri turned slowly he saw…a dwarf. A dwarf who was asking what he looked like. It was such a break from the tension in the room that Kouri had to hold his hand to his mouth to hold back a laugh.

“You look like a dwarf. Except a really confused one because you’re in monk’s robes. Don’t people usually choose a brawler type class if they’re going to choose that race?” Kouri asked quizzically, running a hand through his hair as he thought. Then again, he had chosen a healing class as a race that usually was chosen by offensive magic users. That was the beauty of the game, you could mix and match as much as you liked with complete freedom. Kouri looked around at the other three people in the room, thinking about what they could do next.

They could stay here for a few days until everything died down, but that seemed like a rubbish plan. The four of them could go their separate ways now and hope for the best, but what could be gained from that? Kouri let out a sigh and smiled warmly, “All right, I think proper introductions are in order. I’m Kouri, a cleric and exorcist. It’s nice to meet you all.” He greeted with a small wave. He hoped the others weren’t too suspicious. Especially the girl who thought he had kidnapped her. Although Kouri couldn’t really blame her, if he had been in her shoes he probably would’ve thought the same.

Kouri felt bad for the players outside. He had spent several minutes consoling a young girl who had just started that day, and had done his best to try and calm down everyone in the immediate area, but it was impossible. Once he had calmed one person and moved to another, the previous would begin to panic about something new and the cycle would repeat. It would be best to wait until things began to die down before soothing them again. It would take some time, but Kouri was willing to do whatever was needed in order to keep people from hysteria. Until then, maybe he could go try and level up a bit, after all, what else was there to do?

[Kaytina]

Part of Makayla didn't want to believe that she had somehow been sucked into some kind of game world. It was ridiculous. But the rest of her knew that there really wasn't a much better explanation, other than her dreaming this whole thing up. And if it was a dream, then it was the most realistic dream she had ever had. No, this was real. This was really Westminster Abbey. The decrepit state of it suggests it was either abandoned for a few decades or someone built this copy some place else so it would look like this. The former can't be true because she was still very much 17 years old. If she was in a coma or something for 20 years, she would still have aged. So someone built this. Programmed it, as the other man, who popped up letting everyone know he was here, said. There was one more obvious reason that this was a game, though. As Makayla focused on the man who had spoken up, something popped up next to his head that stated his name as "Marcellus Hadrianus," under that was a green bar with the letters HP. Two possibilities, now. One, this really was a game. Two, she was unconcious and dreaming this all up, which means she still might have been drugged and kidnapped, or just fell asleep. Nothing she can do about either of those right now, though.

So blue-haired boy wasn't her kidnapper. She wasn't going to apologise for accusing him, though. He might be a kidnapper for all she knew, but he wasn't the one who kidnapped her. Makayla didn't have time to say anything further to her not-kidnapper before another man entered the Abbey. A chunky short guy with long hair, a thick beard, and facial tattoos. She had never seen a midget before, so she took a bit of an interest in him. Like with the other guy, a name and green bar appeared next to the midget's head, too. "Tobin Orgoglio Strider." Were these all their screen names?

While her not-kidnapper was talking to the midget, she turned to her left and walked toward the south end of the Abbey, curious to see just how detailed the designers were when making the building. A few broken statues on the wall and some illegible words on what are supposed to be grave markers and monuments. She wondered if there were actual bodies buried there or if the designers left out that little detail. Is this world bound by the same rules as most games? She hasn't played many computer games in her life, but she knew that for something to happen in a game, it has to be designed to happen first. Does that mean this game was made to suck people into it's game world now? That's a possibility, it's also stupid because that's an impossible possibility. Yet, here she was, and here they were, provided they're real people like her to begin with...

She walked back to the middle of the Abbey, where the marble table was, and while walking she heard her not-kidnapper introduce himself. She did the same, "Just call me Kay," but didn't stop walking and continued to the North end of the Abbey to look at the state of the other graves, memorials, and statues. Unsurprisingly, nothing much different than in the South end. She looked up, even the chandeliers were badly damaged, most of the light came in through the windows.

[Hadrian]

Alex nodded in agreement with the Half-Alv. If there was ever a quintessential way that a Dwarf looked, that guy was certainly it. “Yup, defiantly a Dwarf” he added casually to give the surprised newcomer enough certainty so there was little need to question the fact. It was rather understandable to be surprised at an appearance so radically different than what someone was used to looking like in the mirror. At least the two Wolf Hairs and the Half-Alv looked somewhat akin to humans. So when the Dwarf seemed to take the new appearance in stride Alex couldn’t help but laugh along with the guy.

It was a nice feeling to laugh, the first time he could remember doing so since everything got all twilight zone. Even if it was only for a moment it did bring a brief reminder that something other than the madness outside could be found in the game. Alex removed the jacket from his head and slipped it back on, since he wasn’t going to go back to sleep at this point anyway. “Strength can be found in diversity” he responded to the Half-Alv in regards to the Dwarfs class. “All depends on how you play it right?” It wasn’t his intention to give a lecture or even debate the topic further. What he wanted was to not have to answer questions later about his own class race combination.

As Kouri began introductions, Alex’s eyes moved back and forth to watch the woman meander around the place. It was obvious she wanted to get a better understanding of the situation that they were all in. Her own introduction was short and sweet and she moved around almost as a phantom, both apart of their new world and stuck in her own at the same time. “Nice to meet us… I can’t argue that” he jested since it was rather nice to meet a few people that hadn’t decided terrorizing the city and people of the land was a good response to being unable to cope with their new realities.

“I’m Marcellus Hadrianus, but you all can call me Marc or Hadrian.” His introduction accompanied the slow rise of a lethargic body off the bench. A loud persistent scratching sound echoed through the abbey until a claymore rose from behind a bench and then was casually fastened to Alex’s back. “Sorcerer and Scholar, good to meet other adventurers that are still calm…” he quickly looked at the Dwarf and then the other Wolf Hair, “well mostly calm.” Alex smiled and walked over to be closer to the group. On some level introductions were rather useless. All it took was a quick glance at a screen and an adventurer’s name, class, and subclasses popped up. Kouri was right though, it was important to keep a part of who they were intact. Which meant basic social formalities. From what he saw so long as everyone managed to get along well enough they were an Enchanter or Bard away from a group that could do well enough outside the safety of the city. Given the way people acted inside the city he was sure some adventurers had already taken to PKing outside of Londinium.

• WC: 535

[Tobin]

(OOC: I believe NPC guards automatically restrain anyone trying to start combat in the city. Though it probably doesn't stop people from freaking out. XD The dwarf is in ramble mode atm.)

Word count: 675

The stocky bipeds mouth dropped as the first reply came and as as though stuck the dwarf dropped to his knees, his gaze fix upon the panes of glass that remained. The truth was a vicious mistress that took as much as she gave; right now she was tearing into his back with a salt encrusted whip!

"This can't be- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooo! I HAD to draw the frigging SHORT, STRAWWWWWWWW."

The squat started to punch the floor with his face as the bellow carried the shattered dreams of being a dashing, regal feller of maidens! Or at least a dignified appearance. A silence followed as the dwarf panted loudly, it was only after a deep breath that he abruptly regained his composure as a grin was forced upon his features as he forced himself to rise to his feet once more. Already this new world seemed a rather uninviting place to be and for better or for worse he had to deal with this dream for the time being.

"Oh well, So much for havin' a decent social life." The dwarf gave an shrug to accompany the geasture, already resided to his fate of a secondary character in somebody else’s tale. "I guess monk and Dwarf is a queer combination, though from wha' I remember there is two good reasons ta dwarf. One, ta have absurd HP, two for the extra universal magic resistance. Though I donno whether tha' is worth bein' a shit brick though."

A rumbling chuckle followed the last sentence. It was immediately apparent that the dwarf had quite a strong Irish accent to accompany his voice already when he spoke more causally, though his displeasure in the situation was perfectly evoked within the last sentence. At his the dwarf began to let his feet wander, his bulk shifted unevenly on his wide frame as he attempted to adjust to his altered proportions. For him the entire idea of being drawn into the new world seemed plausible, after all how could he explain being in an entirely different body in a location familiar, but eroded by the passage of time? Logically being 23 he would have died and he certainly wouldn't lose an entire foot and a inch from anything else. Thus he must have either died and reincarnated, in a dream or had somehow otherwise had left his body and entered that of a fantasy creature. In any case, it seemed unlikely that he would figure out the answer any time soon so his attention turned towards the other members of this improvised party.

-Well, I will just have to endure this nightmare by now.-

That being said, there was a curious combination of people gathered at this time. The cleric, first to speak to him took the appearance of the kindly young male. The monk of foreign origin seemed withdrawn, though in the city of Liverpool people from the east were hardly an uncommon occurrence, the last was a sorcery who liked to write, though his weapon of choice was curiously enough a massive claymore. The Dwarf let a eyebrow rise, a curious gathering of people though then again appearances could be deceiving since he looked nothing like the tallm pale stranger he once knew.

"I am- Eermm, Tobin Strider, I get people pissed and I like to fist." The man let a another rumble errupt from his throat, before a cough stiffled it. Real mature, dwarf. "Well, according to my class choices anyway. Wait, animal tamer? Why the frig did I pick that? 'n' dun't tell mah ta keep calm, ya would be ticked too if ya were short enough ta be someone’s stool."

This time he gave a louder laugh followed by an accompanying sigh, his gaze flickered past him as more people started appearing on the slabs with a shimmer of white light.

"In any case, I dun't think stayin' 'ere would be a good idea. Wha' ya say we go fa a stroll? Either to a pub or outside the city, just till thing's blow over. Aye?"

[Kouri]

Kouri watched the girl, Kay, as she walked around the cathedral examining the architecture. He took a moment to do the same, admiring the incredible amount of detail the programmers had put into creating the surrounding space. It had been created to look old and decrepit, most likely for the aesthetic when you respawned there. That was really the sole purpose of the chapel, to provide a place for all players to return to upon death. Of course, player killing could have already started outside of the city, as morals would be different now that death wasn’t permanent.

When the sorcerer spoke up, Kouri snapped out of his thoughts, nodding at his point about strength in diversity. He laughed at the wolf-hair’s joke, liking his companions more and more as the minutes went on. So his name was Marc, which should be easy to remember. Kouri didn’t want to rely too strongly on the game’s identification feature to provide names. It was a nice feeling to naturally remember the names of his companions, almost like an essential part of forming a friendship. “All right, we have Kay and Marc, and what about y—“ He was cut off by the dwarf moaning unhappily.

Startled, Kouri was about to try and calm the man down when his demeanor suddenly changed to one of lighthearted acceptance. Well, that would be hard to get used to. He tried his hardest to keep up with Tobin’s rant, but he just moved so fast. “All right, so let me get this straight, you’re a dwarf, monk, and animal trainer? You just couldn’t make up your mind could you?” Kouri chuckled softly, placing his hands behind his back and shifting most of his weight to his right foot. This particular group of people would definitely have some interesting misadventures.

With a shimmer, a woman respawned at the stone slab, shook her head, cursed, and rushed out the large doorway. Soon, more people began appearing, looking either confused, angry or scared. Most ran by before Kouri could speak to any of them, but one regenerated much like Kay had, a bit dizzy and disoriented. Kouri helped him up carefully, walking with him towards the door slowly so the man didn’t fall. It was then that his fears were confirmed, some people had already started player-killing, even this early in the game, and it would be dangerous to go out alone.

Tobin’s suggestion to go out now seemed much more appealing. “It would be smart to level up some together so we can defend ourselves better when we’re alone. Kay? Marc? What do you think?” Kouri clasped his hands to his chest with a smile, “I’m still a first level player, but I’ll do my best to make sure none of you die out there, especially after Kay showed me how awful it feels.” He pledged, looking to Kay and Marc expectantly. This would be a nice little party, diverse and capable, especially with Tobin’s odd combination and Marc’s odd weapon choice. Kay seemed strong as well, they would do fine out there.

“Do any of you know how to form a party?” Kouri asked, bringing up his menu and looking around at everyone. He hadn’t met any sane players yet, so there had been no reason to form a party with anyone. Tobin’s clever combination had granted him high HP and resistance, so Kouri was fairly sure he wouldn’t need to worry about him, Kay and Marc would probably be okay as well, so overall he wouldn’t need to heal them too much unless they ended up fighting non-magic using monsters of a higher level.

[Kaytina]

Kay turned to rejoin the group of three talking, though she just leaned against the northwest pillar not really adding much to the conversation until everyone started to bring up what they were. Monk, sorcerer, cleric, she didn't know what these meant, like jobs? She knew what they were, monks and clerics were religious things but sorcerer was right out of Harry Potter for all she knew. This got her to wondering just what she was now. She really didn't pay much attention in the start screen, mainly because she thought she wouldn't really take this game as seriously as her friend probably had wanted her to. No choice now. "Uhh, what am I?" She raised her hand after her not-kidnapper asked about becoming a party, another word she wasn't too familiar with. As if on cue, everything dimmed slightly and something appeared right in front of her, scarring her. She lost her balance and fell on her left, but the hologram screen stayed hovering in front of her. There was a teal diamond with a fist in the middle of the holograms surrounded by four words, 'skills', 'quests', 'equipment', and 'items'.

She lifted herself up a bit, then just sat cross-legged on the ground looking at the different buttons. "Location: Londinium?" So unoriginal. In the top right was a picture of what she looked like, she guessed. She tried to get it to look as much like herself as she could in the character creation screen, but it wasn't perfect. That's her new face, though. And her new name is... "Kaytina..." Why did she pick such a stupid name? It was a mix of her full name and she couldn't be arsed to think up anything original. MaKayla Tala Shiochi Manalastas. The name she gave them for was her proper nickname, guess it works here too. "Okay, so I guess I'm a wolf-hair monk... That explains why my hair is so much thicker now." She dug her fingers through her hair, she'll probably need to get a good comb for this if she's gonna stop it from matting. "What's a monk do? Stay in a church all day singing hymns and praying to god?"

She looked up at her not-kidnapper and the hologram things disappeared. She looked back down, thought about them, and they reappeared. Back up to not-kidnapper, disappeared. Back down, think, reappear. Okay, that was straightforward enough. She started poking at the buttons and hit the log out button. No good. That would have been too easy. At least there was a little X next to it to hide the button. Friends list was empty. World info gave information in words she was unfamiliar with. She didn't have anything in her items except for an empty bag. Equipment was her clothes and weapons. Quests was empty. She pressed the hologram with her face, class, and level on it and it expanded to show more info about herself. Stats, random numbers she didn't care about. Subclass levels... looks like her active subclasses were pharmacist and hunter. It was going to take her a long while to get used to this mess...

Hadrian

[Hadrian]

Tobin seemed like the type of guy that could turn any party into a good time. The guy was more honest than most in speech and action. He mostly just tried to hold back any laughter than stemmed from the Dawrf’s rather amusing choice of words. Except for the pub, Alex hoped that a trip to the pub would help pass the time. Good food and drink were sure to ease tensions and put a few worries away. It wasn’t until then Alex wondered if alcohol even had the same effect in the game. Or if food would be as good. Did any of them have the need to eat the same way as they did before?

Though with the looks of it, as people showed up to the Abbey Alex wondered how smart it would be for all of them to venture to far beyond the safety of the city. It was true that Tobin would have decent DPS and with that Dwarven HP could take a good amount of hits. Kaytna would push out a bit more dps at the cost of lower HP but the two tanks could certainly hold their own. Since Kouri was a pure healer then the mana cost should be reduced with two tanks. If there was a weak point in the group it was a lack of ranged attacks, something if Alex had a second chance he would have been.

Even then it seemed that there was a bigger issue at hand. “You’re a class that helps to keep monsters off the rest of the party. Specifically you have a high health and evasion stat. Good amount of DPS for a tank as well.” Alex began to move his hands to get through the windows as he spoke. “You and Tobin could share details on the specifics I’m sure.” Kaytina’s unfamiliarity with her class was not his concern either. He had a steep learning curve as well, somewhat more familiar with the classes admittedly but a learning curve none the less.

Once the right menu was accessed Alex sent a group request to the three adventurers. It took slightly longer to find than normal since it had always been easier to use keyboard shortcuts to accomplish trivial matters. “Just wondering” he said curiously as he waited for the three others to accept the request “did any of you play Elder Tale before? Any MMMORPG experience?” His major concern was the sheer lack of experience there seemed to be. Tobin and Kaytina seemed to be uncertain about class, sublass, or both. Kouri seemed to have his head on straight but not knowing how to form a party seemed off. “I played ET before but not as a Sorcerer.”

Alex hadn’t asked the questions to be rude or place any doubts on whatever skill any of them may have. It was more to know the details of the party that would be formed. Just because an adventure could be revived didn’t mean he had a desire to die. Worse than any monster would be if they were attacked by PKers.

WC: 516
Tobin

[Tobin]

Word Count: 1194

“Well Kouri, let me be puttin’ tis way I probably had a theme in mind when I were makin’ tis character. Drunk, and ridin’ beasts every day. I remember makin’ tis one for the new update, nevar thought tis would happen.”

Of course that was accompanied by his usual jovial laughter. The dwarf's eyebrows flickered up at the question of partying up with a shrug of the shoulders as if the concept was a foreign idea. Not that it was a bad idea but rather he didn't know how that was possible.

"Makin' parties? Errmm... Well, I hav' not much idea. I mean, wher's ta inventory when ya- OH CHRIST WHAT IS THAT!"

Casual explanation turned to shock as a blue ray flickered up before him, the startled brick hopped backwards and toppled onto his backside. The flicker of light disappeared as soon as it came, though as the dwarf once again concentrated on the subject matter subject matter a menu flickered up with a hazy blue light with a stream of options, a blue diamond that included "Members, Message, Party, Guilds Options, and a crossed out Quit below. Once again the dwarf lifted a eyebrow as he concentrated on party, the menu shrank and displayed a new message "No current party members", with a small message under it stated "Invite!". Upon concentrating on that the box expanded into a vast catalogue of around 30k names, though in addition to that the people within the room also had faint blue borders highlighted around them, with a click upon Kouri a simple notification flashed up entitled "invite sent", the same result being repeated for Kaytina and Hidian. It was around this point that by the time Tobin had navigated around the interphase in childlike wonderment, the latter most member had already sent all the invites out so the fellow shrugged and joined that party instead, the invites he had sent became inert.

"Well, tis is si-fi. Apprently ya can manipulate the menu with thoughts. I hope et don't reveal too much 'bout me thoughts! Bahahah!"

The causal chuckle accompanied that as the dwarf rolled back onto his stubby legs. Briefly the dwarf glanced in a equipment section and saw a little hologram of his rotating body with slots, before he shrugged. At level 1 there wasn't all that much need to be worried about that and manipulating the interphase was already gave the fellow a migraine. That and the beard were really taking some getting used to. In the meantime Hideion had been explaining various things. In all honesty, dwarf had played tank before- though perhaps not one clad in the equivalent of paper armour.

"Well, I guess if we monks were meant ta be prayin’, I guess mah god would hav’ been ta budda. Bahahahah!” A gentle rumble accompanied that, though the fellow turned his attention to Hideins question. "I've a little experience at tha' game, was only causal back when I was life but I followed et enough.” At this point the dwarf turned his gaze to meet Kay, it was unfortunate that she hadn't played the game at all prior to this mess, though in all honesty that wasn't much of a disadvantage, considering the current situation- Even the most veteran players were having to start over. Of course Tobin gave that description in way that would appeal directly to the newbie. "I were a guardian though think I follow monks enough ta help us get some understanding, annoying buggers ta fight. Ya see aside from tanking, unlike most classes we don't tend to use weapons but our entire body as our weapon. Punches, kicks, grapples, ya can dodge and weave ‘n’ walk on walls, all tha’ fun stuff ya see in martial arts movies!"

As the dwarf concentrated on skills, the menu flicked open just to reveal three in a column. -Wyvern Kick-, -Tiger Echo Fist- and -Iron Body-. With a chuckle the selected the latter skill and almost instantly his body turned a metallic shade of grey, as the dwarf scratched at his arm and immediately liked the feel of it, almost as if he was a chopping board, a living chopping board. The mana started to trickle down, though such things bothered him little.

“Also they use a lot of abilities that enhance their body, with iron body Now I’m well ‘ard! Defence and power increase, slight loss in agility. In any case, a little action speaks one thousand words, no? Lets be joinin’ ta parteh, punch throu’ ta somewhere quieter, get ta a pub ‘n’ wait fa it all ta blow ovar!”

With that the stocky biped strode over awkwardly and forced open the door, the sight that greeted him twanged sharp pain within the squats chest. By now most adventurers that had looked to flee had done already done so, the minority crowd that hung around, around 20 to 30 adventurers, were looking to earn their prestige in “this dream” by hacking away at the immediate area, landers and other adventurers alike. In particular there was one brute of a guardian that was close to them wielding a gigantic broadsword, the crimson haired wolf hair drew a swashbuckler and several landers, working class man and a young lass in using Anchor Lock, driving the wedge of the blunted blade through the head of the crippled adventurer, scatting blood and grey matter before he disappeared into dust. The anger that the fellow could see was rising

“Peh, tis is ridiculous.” The dwarf gave a grunt, manipulating the interphase to select the skill –Wyvern kick-, and for a brief moment, a shimmering heat seemed to gather around the dwarf’s leading leg, before a bound sent the dwarf flying through the air in a specular jump kickmore elegant then he could have ever intended.

“Bahahahah! I’m level 2 already, with these Landers, I’ll almost be ki- GAHHHH”

The generic evil monolog 101 was cut short as the kick collided with the brutes head that toppled him to the ground with screech of metal, the bystanders scattered as the dwarf landed solidly, a rumbling chuckle echoed from his throat as the adrenalin rush burned within

“Ya bastard, ya murderin’ blade an’t no match fa mah Asian magic!” There was a momentary pause as the stocky fellow froze and glanced back glanced back to his fellow monk with a nervious glance, so much for being politically correct in this post. The fellow opened his mouth wordlessly before he gave a deep sigh, a shrug with a despairing shake of the head, there was no words at his disposal to explain this one. “Gahh- Just pick a skill, whale on ta bastard and lets gut out oaf ‘ere.”

The mutter was accompanied by hand wave towards guardian, by now he had managed to rise with blood trickling from his nose and mouth. Needless to say members of the small crowd were starting to take notice of the latest party to enter this melee, the dwarf took notice of this killing intent and gave a slight smile and a raised eyebrow as the first combatants approched.

“Oh, ‘ello, didn’t see ya fellas ther’.”

(OOC: Generic action post ahoy! It’s important to state that the lander guards will probably arrive around the next time I post, and they will probably butcher/arrest everyone in the area. Naturally speaking we will be fighting our way through the crowd to avoid that fate, fighting not to defeat every single one, but fighting to get the hell out of dodge.

Oh, btw I am fine with you guys assuming I will back up/tank hits. Just Dwarf won’t be dying for anyone. He’s not quite that gold hearted.)

[Kouri]

Kouri watched Kay rejoin their little group out of the corner of his eye. She didn’t really add much to the conversation, and it was obvious she was even less familiar with everything than he was. The menu itself seemed to really startle her, and he winced when she fell, about to ask if she was all right but she pulled herself up quickly. She examined her menu like he had earlier, asking what a monk did. Kouri didn’t really know, he only knew about the cleric and bard classes, as those were the two he had taken forever choosing between.

Luckily, Hadrian seemed to have a good handle on things. He explained the monk class to Kay and Kouri made sure to remember the information just in case it came up later in the game. At the question Kouri shook his head, “No, but I picked up the battle controls pretty quickly, so you won’t need to worry about that. I played on back when there wasn’t full immersion but…that was definitely much different.” Kouri waved his menu away just as the invite showed up, which he accepted with a push of the button.

A party menu came up and Kouri frowned at it, reading up on the skills the other had. They seemed like they could all hold their own in a fight, so Kouri waved that menu away as well and turned his attention back to the dwarf, running his fingers through his hair. The man’s accent was so thick, Kouri was surprised he could follow the fast pace of the conversation with him there. This had admittedly happened in a short span of time, but they needed to make allies quickly in order to survive through the initial chaos that was probably happening outside.

“Well, it looks like we’re pretty well prepared then, the only way to learn is with practice, right?” Kouri said brightly, a cheery expression on his face. This could definitely work, they just needed to find an archer or something similar, but Hadrian likely had an offensive ranged attack or two. If not, he’d just have to work double time to heal his allies, a duty Kouri was happy to uphold. Holding up a finger, Kouri frowned, “We might wanna for some sort of a plan before we go out there. After all, we don’t know what kind of m—“

Tobin had already pushed open the door and begun to rush into battle. “T-Tobin! Hey, Tobin! What are you—“ The dwarf was off, using a skill on a large tank. Under his breath Kouri muttered “This really is a really awful place to battle, right next to the spawn point…” before running after Tobin. Over his shoulder, Kouri shouted “Kay! Hadrian! C’mon!” and drew his sword, leaving his left hand free for magic. Tobin was already getting them noticed, and Kouri gave him an exasperated look when he reached the man’s side.

“God, Tobin, not all of us are champion fighters y’know.” With a small smile, he looked towards the exit they would be fighting for, “Try not to get too damaged, I’m only a first level healer.” He laughed softly, falling back a bit to cover the back, readying his knockback skill. Sure enough, the party was rushed by quite a few players and Kouri held out his hand and cast Holy Rampage. A wave of mana shot out violently from all sides and knocked down the closest players, who were quickly taken down further by other, more ruthless players. Kouri shook off the aftereffects of the spell just in time to begin a one-on-one swordfight with a first level girl.

Kouri gritted his teeth and pushed her blade back, taking the lapse to shout “If you need a quick heal, let me know!” and swinging the sword into her side several times, effectively reducing her HP to 0. Kouri winced and kept moving towards the exit with his party, continuing to have little skirmishes with people but never for long enough to kill them again.

[Kaytina]

Kaytina listened to the dwarf, but didn't look at him. She picked herself off the ground and patted the ratty trousers she was wearing, dust flying off them. She took dwarf what the had to say to heart, though, and thinking about skills brought her own menu up. She had iron body as well. But she also had an equipment mastery for swords, which included daggers. She slipped the kunai daggers off her belt with her index fingers and inspected them. "I don't know much about these skills, but I am actually trained to use knives similar to these. If this monk thing doesn't restrict me too much, I shouldn't need any of these. They will only get in my way. These things Chinese or something?" She spun the knives skilfully around her hands before sheathing them. The knives she was trained to use were karambits, Indonesian daggers that she collected. She also collected other knives as well, basically anything she could legally, or illegally, get into her possession.

She was starting to warm up to the group. The dwarf with a booming laughter, the experienced American, and her not-kidnapper. She accepted the party request from Hadrian, then let the menus disappear. As everyone was still talking, Kay started stretching. Arms up over her head, then to each side, bending over, then lifting both her legs up with her hands behind her. Not in any particular order, just moving her joints enough to hear audible pops. She wasn't good at the keyboard controls when this was a game. But as long as she had full reign over her body in this world, she was confident enough in her ability to survive it. At least when the enemies were at her level. Levels were the biggest bullshit here in the game. She'll have to work around that if the time comes, though. That time was not now, though. The dwarf had opened the door to hell. Players fighting amongst themselves and killing NPCs while a titan in heavy armour focused on only one of them. Th dwarf immediately attacked a player. This was her time to move.

She almost ripped the kunai out of their sheathes and darted straight toward into fray. She would back up Tobin. A tall woman in leather armour with a short sword was targeting Tobin. Kay ran past Kouri, by Hadrian, and jumped foot-first into the woman's gut before she could connect with Tobin. It sent her flying back from the surprise attack. The woman's identifier popped up and said she was an assassin. It turned into a 1-on-1 fight with an assassin and a monk. Somewhere between noticing the riot outside of the church and kicking the woman in the gut, Kay had grown dark brown canine ears on her head and a black bushy tail out of her spine. She bared her teeth as she looked at the woman she just kicked trying to recover. "Heeeeeeeey, Kouuuuuuuuuri~!" This was the first time she actually referred to him by his name. "Is it all right if we kill these fools?" She wasn't sure why she called out to him in her adrenalin fuelled state.

"Just try it you mangy bitch!" The assassin barked, darting toward Kay for an attack. She rushed toward Kay with her sword stretched out in an attempt to skewer her. Kay easily sidestepped the attack and used the assassin's own momentum to her disadvantage, positioning her left kunai right in the path of her neck. She damn nearly took her head clean off with that.

"Well, I guess I am a bitch now ain't I?" She craned her head back and let out a playful howl, just to mock the girl she just killed further. "AAAAOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH~!" Her body was much more reactive than it used to be. Perfect reflexes and her strength, she could feel her skin tighten as she flexed. "Alllll talk. Sorry I didn't wait for you to answer, Kouuuuuri~ These's idiots answered for you." She was teasing him now, intentionally drawing out the U in his name to try to get a reaction. She turned quickly to disable a man in what she could only describe as wood armour. He was swinging a katana so he was probably a ninja wannabe. She dodged his katana, then used her kunai to rip through the gaps in his armour to cut clean through the tendons behind his knees. She was glad that real life injuries had the same affect in this game, for now at least. The ninja wouldn't be a problem until he either bled out or someone healed him. "Hadrian! Is this what the game was like before this? I should have played sooner! My brother has an old Oculus Rift!"

Hadrian

[Hadrian]

It seemed that much like himself, Tobin and Kouri had experience in the game but with other classes. So when Tobin began to explain the strengths and weaknesses of the Monk to Kay it was heavily appreciated. Being that the four decided to help each other out it was good of Tobin to take on a mentor role of sorts. Even though Kouri brought up a point that had to be of great concern, it evened the playing field. Kay might not have played Elder Tale before but that could be her greatest strength. Unlike the others, Kay wouldn’t be hampered with information of how combat used to be. Her mind was free to accept the new reality of the game as it is, rather than deal with how it was.

So when Kay mentioned daggers Alex was rather interested in what exactly she meant by 'trained to use something similar'. Real life combat experience was sure to turn the tides of a fight but to what extent was still unknown. Despite Kouri’s attempt at a plan, which Alex would have preferred since it made a good amount of sense, it seemed that the group would have to improvise. Alex was in utter shock that Tobin ran off out of the abbey and into a fight. “Typical Dwarf I guess” he commented silently with the slight shrug of his shoulders. One after the other each of his party members decided to jump into the fray.

Perhaps it was the fact that Alex knew exactly what would show up in the next minute or two, giant enforcers impossible to defeat, maybe it was the sheer number of adventurers involved, but Alex really wished they had an enchanter. It just wasn’t possible to punch and slash their way through the others with ease. He took a few seconds to watch the fight, Tobin seemed to be doing a good job as their tank, Kouri wasn’t to shabby at combat either, though what really impressed him was Kay’s use of the Daggers to fight off an assassin. “So that’s what she meant” he realized as her combat prowess and comment earlier now made sense.

The difference between his three companions and himself was that it was rather suicidal for him to just into the fray the way they did. Even with his chain mail and racial bonuses a sorcerer in the middle of a bunch of melee classes would just get a whooping. In the hopes that no one would freak out Alex opened telepathic links to each companion so they could at least not need to shout at each other in combat. “Tobin we need an exit, can you use Tiger Echo Fist to blast a hole through? I’ll cover your cast time.” Still within the abbey Alex made two calculated risks. Both of the spells he was about to cast were usually reserved for his own uses.

He had yet to cast them on someone else since it left him with little ability. Blue light began to radiate from his body as energy swirled around “Serpent Bolt!” he claimed the spell and casted it on Tobin. “It only lasts for 30 seconds but every 3 seconds will AOE damage and stun around you” he telepathically told the rambunctious dwarf. Immediately after the blue light had turned red and burned violently around “Inferno Stirke!” the words resulted almost immediately in Kay’s daggers being engulfed in flames. Telepathically he called out to Kay “The fire will increase your daggers damage and last for 300 seconds.”

Just to cast both spells in immediate succession Alex had lost his only two offensive spells. Even then a total of six seconds had been wasted and he was already tired. It seemed to take a good more effort to chain magic casts when the game was this real. "Not at all Kay... not at all" he telepathically responded almost surprised with how much she seemed to be enjoying the fight. Once he entered the fray there was no chance he could cast either spell again without getting hit. A slight sigh followed as the next and only move left to him was to join the madness. God how he didn’t want to enter into the cluster of calamity that was their apparent escape route. Alex gripped his claymore with both hands tightly and ran out of the abbey to fight at Kouri’s side. Somehow only managing to get a few scratches here and there Alex eventually ended up back to back with their group’s cleric. “Was this part of the plan Kouri?” he joked telepathically since the cleric never did finish an explanation of the proposed plan.

Attributes of his race quickly became apparent once he had entered combat, eyes of amber and two rather adorable ears protruded out if he did say so. Even though some players had a clear intent to kill Alex did his best to mostly play defense and avoid any sort of killing blow. Small skirmishes and agility were his best friends at the moment.

Tag: Tobin
WC: 843

[Tobin]

(OOC: Sorry if it's a tad sloppy, not had much time to self today.)

Word count: 966

The dwarf arched an eyebrow at the knives, though after some thought he gave a chuckle. Considering the number of hand to hand combos, knives actually made sense, though for some reason the Dwarf would never think about adopting it’s use in his long career before stepping out the door.

“Ahh cool, whatever works fa ya Kay.”

Naturally, since Tobin had been first to take the big stride (or was it a small stride? Even he wasn't sure.) out into the great big melee, he had found himself beset by random sense of violence. His body bobbed and weaved around the blows, many of these from rusted swords, though due to his lacking height many of those adventurers had great difficulty in hitting the squat monk and were rewarded with a firm fist to the stomach. Due to his great long arms, the dwarf had little trouble in hitting people back, the Guardian from before charged back into the fray with a bellow, soon to be stunned with a swift kick to the nods and a punch to the jaw to send him toppling into more of the hustle. The only thing possibly louder than the havoc and the screams made by the light cuts, amassed by near misses, was that of Kouri shouting across the din of the battle at him.

"KOURI STOP FRIGGING WNINGING DOWN MY EARHOLE, tis was ya that suggested we go somewhere so if ya got a better idea on how ta make an egg without breaking an omlet, let me know!”

The dwarf bellowed as he dodged a pair of knives and ducked a kick from another that sent the scrawny assassin off. Sure he had been reckless, but it wasn't as if everyone was going to sit down for a scone and a cup of tea, was it? Though it was just as well Key hadn't been close by fighting more than her fair share, without the second monk whirling around with the knives he would have been overwhelmed much sooner. Though some had a longer than any martial class on the field, a -Orb of Lava- bounced into his face, temporally blinding one of his eyes as the smell of burnt hair filled the air, and the orb continued to ping around heedless of friend or foe. Even with his racial magical defence, that bloody hurt!

"Oi ya yellow bellied bastard! Gut ovar 'ere! GAH."

A cold shiver cut into his back that twisted the dwarf around, bringing him around to a young looking human with a pair of rusted knives, the dwarf lashed out at this fellow to, though the fellow was quick and try as he might Tobin couldn't muster an attack quicker than one second. A firm punch to the ribs yielded a soft crack though a the blades whipped at his chest, it was only when an aura erupted from the dwarfs frame, stunning the fellow long enough to brutally kick him in teh shin and curb stomp on his head as he fell. Hadien's voice echoed through his head and though he struggled to keep his composure about this mess, he appreciated the fellow giving good sensible advice. All these fellows needed a good fisting!

"Alright I hear ya! Kay, cover me, I'mma going in."

With that the dwarf darted in the crowd, pushing aside other adventurers to arrive next to the blooded guardian that had lay down to avoid the melee

"What the hell is wrong with you! Leave me along midget!"

With a quick fiddle with the menu, Tobin raised his fist high as it erupted into flame and he gave a wink to the fellow, probably the last thing he would see in his current life as the tiger echo fist came thundering down.

"Bite the pillow fella, I'M GOING IN DRY!"

Like a hand grenade the shockwave ripped through the adventurers and created a huge gap in the melee, further compounded by the bodies of the adventurers that spiralled further out to hit others, the graphic bloody fragments of the guardian was exploding into gold sparkles amidst the crowds like firework sparklers! It was mayhem, beautiful mayhem! Most importantly of all there was now a clear way through, as the combatants were slow to recover from this attack.

In the confusion however, the dwarf could see that a continent of guards had started to advance, chad in helmets of iron and swords and an array of armaments. In the face of this law enforcement that gathered adventurers started to rally together, though due to many of them being wounded, underequipped and under levelled, the it was clear that from the moment the platoon clashed with the mob, that law and order would return quickly to the streets. The initial wave of resistances was struck down with the flash of steel; those adventurers that fell to their blades didn't appear to respawn within this area at least.

"Rite! Tis time we weren't here, quickly!"

The biped started to run away from the mayhem, down the main street before cutting into an alley. The idea of a more permanent end seemed to motivate the dwarf enough to run properly, though chances are most could run a good deal faster than this stunted biped at this point.

"I guess we realleh are dogs oaf war. So where ta next"

The Dwarf gave a sharp laugh at his own joke, whether any joined him in that was their choice, before with a glance at his hud he noticed his health bar was at 32%, with a large barrage of gashes, brusing and burns. Upon noticing the dwarf gave a soft, awkward laugh as pain started to set in.

“Kouri, ‘bout ta healin’, I seem ta hav’ a few flesh wounds that need addressin’“

[Kouri]

Kay’s question about killing them made Kouri frown, “Ah…actually Kay, could you tr—“ It was too late, she was in a frenzy now. He had dealt with people like this before, and telling them to calm down would only make it worse, especially since she would probably get distracted if he tried reasoning with her. The way she was stretching out his name made Kouri smile nostalgically. His friends used to do that when they wanted to get his attention, Anna was the one who did it the most though. She always did love to tease him…

This lapse in concentration caused Kouri to get hit hard with a rusty sword, and he was jarred sharply back into combat. His HP didn’t suffer too much, but the fact that his class wasn’t meant for fighting made this battle extremely difficult for him. He noticed a nearby healer attempting a healing spell on a comrade, and Kouri responded by casting an Anima-Siphoning Sphere to leech off of it with his free hand. He was vaguely aware of Hadrian casting support spells, but Kouri was too focused on keeping up with the fight and protecting the hand with the sphere to really comment on this.

Hadrian’s voice in his head made Kouri jump, letting his guard down enough to be hit hard with…a wooden staff? Really? There was a magic user fighting in the front rank? Nevertheless, Kouri hit him out of the way and responded with ”Yes, Marc. I really wanted to be in the middle of a battle as a level one cleric. Just let me live my dream, mood killer!” He joked. Despite the fact that he was still able to find things humorous, Kouri’s patience was…wearing thin. Normally it was extremely hard to agitate him, but everything that had happened today was beginning to make him want to snap. The sphere flashed a few times and Kouri quickly cast it on Kay so he had the hand free for balance again.

A male swordmaster began to whale on him, and Kouri did his best to keep up but this guy was a higher level and managed to get some hits in. “Please, just calm down!” Block. “C’mon, you don’t need to do this!” Clang. “This is just mob mentality!” Shove. “Really, what point is there to this!?” Hit by a sword. “Agh, please! What good with come of joining in this fight!?” Narrow dodge. “Are you even listening? Just get out before the guards come!” Hit.

Kouri’s eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. His posture tensed as well. People very rarely saw Kouri angry. This would be a first in years. Clang. “…” Pant, hit, clang, dodge… “LISTEN YOU WORTHLESS SACK OF SHIT! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS CRAP! GET!” Swing. “OUT!” Swing. “OF!” Jab. “MY!” Hit hit hit hit hit hithithithithithithit. “WAY!” Kouri panted, facing yet another wave after the one he was just among had moved back. Kouri tightened his grip on his sword, “I SWEAR TO ARES IF YOU DON’T MOVE I WILL CUT EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU DOWN!” His voice was loud, powerful, and his glare could cut steel.

They backed off just barely enough for Kouri to follow Tobin down the alley, finally calming down with a sigh. Tobin’s health did look quite low, and Kouri frowned, “Ah, sorry Tobin, I meant to back you up back there.” Kouri’s voice was back to its usual soft, calming tone, he sheathed his sword. Raising a hand, Kouri cast Healing Light, showering Tobin with the bright health restoring skill. It took about a third of Kouri’s mana to fully heal the dwarf, and he lowered his hand after this, leaning against the wall.

“We should probably leave the city, try and level up a little bit; I’ve got enough mana to heal you all for a while, so long as we don’t encounter any players. Even then we can take them if we’re not in a huge mob.” With a carefree smile, Kouri stretched his arms up. “Anyone else need an HP boost before we head out?” He asked warmly. With an awkward grin, Kouri rubbed the back of his neck, "Sorry I can't do very much damage with my sword, I just got lucky with that first girl...I hope you two weren't badly hurt as well!"

[Kaytina]

In the middle of Kay's howl, something had snapped in her involuntarily. Something subconsciously. Her party members who were paying attention to her information screen, under the active statuses, they would see an icon indicating the buff Hadrian had given her, and next to it was an icon indicating the skill "Beatdown" had been toggled. After defeating the katana-wielder with wood armour, her strength and speed were buffed partially. At these lower levels it might not have made much of a difference with just one defeat.

She turned her attention to another person in tight armour with a short sword. These people had no experience with weapons, they were relying on whatever experience the game world was giving them. What Kaytina was doing was something unique to her, never before seen in Elder Tale, at least in this form. Those more learned in the game might be able to compare her movements to that of the silat martial arts form, which is the monk counterpart in the Indonesian server. But what she was performing was a westernised bastardization of the form, focussing solely on the abilities of the knives in her hands and fast movement of her arms. As he tried to jump her, she darted out of the way, then performed a sweeping kick to knock him off balance as his feet hit the ground. Before his back could hit the ground, Kay trusted her knife up and right through his neck in a very dirty slash. The knife went through his neck, then the assassin burst into flames as his limp body hit the ground. And Kaytina grew slightly stronger and slightly faster.

She didn't notice that at some point she had ended up connected telepathically to the men in the party, she could hardly hear herself think with all the shouting going on around her. She did hear the dwarf call her name, so she quickly spotted him in the worst of it all. She rushed toward him, cutting cleanly through the thin cloth and through the gut of a mage who was targeting Tobin while she was on the way, causing him to light on fire as well. Every vital kill gave her a little bit more strength and she couldn't understand why. Was it because of her racial traits? Because part of her skin and clothes were covered in a thin layer of blood? No time to think on it too much, though. She rammed her head into the chest of an elf in rags, but wielding two rapiers. He was fast with those things, though. Kaytina barely managed to get away, but not before suffering deep cuts down her back and down her thigh. She steeled herself so as to numb herself to the pain, then tried to rush him again, aiming for his legs. She suffered another cut through her shoulder before she could jump away again. This guy knew what he was doing. He was like her, trained to used the rapiers in real life. He had a clear advantage over her, and he knew it. He had reach, she had strength. They both had speed.

Then Tobin shouted. She didn't even notice how close the dwarf was to her. Before she could register what was happening with the dwarf, an explosion blasted out from where he was. Kay took advantage of this sudden confusing and booked it out of there. She had no way of killing that rapier user. She ran east, but not back into the abbey, along the south side of the building. The river. If she could get to the river, she should be safe, right? As long as she got away from the rapier elf guy, she'll be fine. She ran across a decrepit road and kept southeast, past the large Westminster Palace, through the park, and she stopped right at the edge of the Thames. Her slightly enhanced strength and speed were gone. The fire on her knives had gone out. She pulled up the status screen, she was at 70% health.

The Thames... she had never seen its waters so clear. So blue, a stark contrast to the green foliage and beige stone of the rest of the city. She stood up straight, and let her body topple into the river's water. The water was cold, it stung her wounds, but it was enough to refresh her and rinse some of the blood off her body. She considered drinking it, but decided not to. The last thing she wanted to do was drink the water in a strange new place. She flipped over in the water, it was slowly carrying her body east. She started to kick and backstroke to keep her in place relative to the shore. When she was satisfied, she swam back to shore to drip dry. The ratty trousers were probably think enough to air dry on her body, but the black top was too thick. She casually took it off and wrung it out. She might have been embarrassed if she had done this back home. But this wasn't her body. These weren't her breasts. Or is it normal to be embarrassed if you look down and you're bare regardless if this was the body you were born with? She made quick work of wringing out as much water as she could from the shirt before anyone noticed her and put the shirt back on, it was still damp, but not sopping wet. Her face was hot from the little ordeal she stupidly subjected herself to.

She sat on the dirty shore, looking out over the river, then remembered her party's existence. The UI popped up at the thought of them, showing the status of all three. "Marc, Tobin, Kouri, you three manage to get out alive?" She listened to their replies through the telepathy thing. "I'm on the shore of the Thames, just south of the Palace. There's no one else here. I guess most of the fighting was right on the streets. So what's next?"

"You stand up and face me, dog!" The familiar voice sounded behind Kay, but she wasn't fast enough to dodge the incoming strike, clean down her back, splitting her skin open from her left shoulder blade to the rib at the bottom over her ribcage. Fresh blood spilled out of the wound and her health dropped from a manageable 70% clear down to 35%.

"Arrrgh!" Kay jumped to attention and darted from her original spot, staring at the tall woman assassin who was Kaytina's first kill. She was back and took a huge chunk out of her health.

"God, you monks are neeping monsters. That attack should have killed you."

Kay's knives were already in her hands, but she was losing blood fast. Her ears and tail emerged again, she didn't even remember when they disappeared. They were obviously tied to her emotions, though. She grit her teeth through the pain and kept her eyes on the tall woman in leather armour.

"The guards are alllll busy in the city fighting off the lunatics. No one should disturb us."

"You should join them. You'd fit in quite nicely," she barked. neep, what should she do now, fight through the pain? She could barely think with that sharp pain through her back. How the hell did this woman even find Kay again?

The woman started taking steps toward Kay, then it turned into a quick run. Kay was significantly slower now, but still fast enough to dodge another attack from an inexperienced fighter. This woman wasn't always like this, she couldn't have been. She was probably just a victim of this game, pulled into this world, confused and scared. Lashing out at anything in her fear. She was a shell of a person. And not even death was an escape for her. What could Kay do for such a person. The woman turned on her heal and slashed at where Kay was, Kay knocking the sword back with her daggers. But she was ready for that, bringing the sword back for another swing and right through Kay's left arm, severing it just below the shoulder. It brought her health bar down to 8%.

"AAAAARRRRRRGGHHHHHHHH!" Kay's pained shout turned into adrenaline-filled rage. She lurched forward and tackled the assassin, pinning her down under her weight. Kay started beating the assassin with her remaining arm, having at some point dropped the kunai. Punch, punch, punch, punch, punch, each punch taking 5% off the woman's health bar. Kay's eyes were bloodshot, with either tears or sweat making glistening streaks down her cheeks. The assassin tried to swing the short sword at Kay's head, but Kay caught it between her teeth and clamped down like a vice, pained roars escaping between her teeth and the sword as she continued to wail on the assassin. Punch, punch, punch, punch, punch, punch, punch, punch, punch, punch! The assassin's face was bloodied, but she could still see Kay's face and her unbridled rage. It was a scene out of a horror movie, like the victim finally getting the edge on the serial killer. And the assassin has seen this exact expression before. This exact rage before. She'd been the subject of it several times in the past.

Between punches, the assassin called out, "KAYLA!" And Kay froze, the assassin at 15% health. "MaKayla... Tala..." The assassin whimpered through a disfigured jaw, tears streaming from her eyes.

Kay's fist was still, her eyes wide open, letting the sword drop from her mouth. "J-J-Jocelyn?!" It took half a minute for everything to click in Kay's head, then she was angry again, "YOU IDIOT!" And she punched the assassin again.

"STOP! If you hit me again I'm gonna die!"

"Why they hell did you attack me! This shit isn't funny, it neeping hurts, you cunt!" Kay raised her head up and headbutted her, bringing them both down to 5% health. Kay laid down on the woman, wrapping her remaining arm under the woman's neck and started to cry over her shoulder into the dirt.

The assassin wrapped her arms around Kay and just said, "I'm sorry..."

Jocelyn was the one who pressured Kay to play this game with her. And of course they wouldn't have recognised each other immediately, their faces were different and Jocelyn was much taller than she was in real life. They had unwittingly turned on each other. Perhaps Jocelyn should have recognised Kay sooner, especially since she was using Kunai like karambits, but Jocelyn's mental state had been off ever since the Apocalypse had occurred.

Hadrian

SPOILER: Click to show

{(OOC)}Whew, that was fun to write. Sorry I wrote so much, I didn't want to stop when I had that idea pop into my head.

[Hadrian]

Alex had little experience with a sword in such a situation. For the most part he tried to stay by Kouri’s side but with the mash up of adventurers it proved a rather difficult task. Surrounded mostly by melee class adventurers with the occasional caster there was little he could do other than survive. An occasional hit on an opponent and then the inevitable need to play defense or switch off to someone new. Out of the four of them he had to be the most careful. Kay seemed to fly from opponent to opponent with little effort while Tobin was akin to the berserkers of old lore. The true challenge would be for him and Kouri to make it through.

Like any good party it was usually the job of at least one of the DPS to keep an eye out for the healer. Despite the role reversal, since he used to be the healer back on the American server, Alex tried his best to do just that. What advantage he had in combat was his knowledge of what a cleric needed to help keep agro that broke away from the tank off. Unfortunately in the rather chaotic cluster of stupidity they had entered it was near impossible to do just that. So far Alex managed to stop an assassin from engaging the group’s cleric which was far more of a self-sacrifice than he would have preferred.

In the crowded sea of people Alex had little chance to win against melee DPS other than to shift targets. Every so often he would use BLINK, his former opponent would miss their attack but manage to hit someone else, and such was his tactic. To bring some manner of control to the chaos. Even then the continual use of this tactic over and over again was a drain on his mana. So when Tobin’s attack cleared a path out it was a welcomed sight. From where he was the location of all three party members was not apparent. While he could guess Tobin’s, from the mass of bodies that had been sent up into the air, he couldn’t tell where Kay had gotten off to.

Last he saw of Kouri, the Half-Alv had been in Tobin’s general vicinity. That path for him however had recently been blocked by a guardian that swooped into the battle and snatched up two players. For now the best option was to take advantage of their presence and book it. With the last few bursts of his mana he used BLINK a few more times to make it far enough from the rumble to not get caught by a guardian. “Too close for comfort…” he thought after one look at his status bar indicated 12% health and 2% mana left.

After his claymore had been sheathed Alex walked into a random storefront that happened to sell basic starter equipment. Starter health and mana potions, crafting tools, and other miscellaneous items for the level one adventurer. It was then that he could hear Tobin, Kouri and Kay’s voices. “It would take me a while but I could hoof it over to the Thames. Guardians seem to have things under control so a heal would be appreciated once we regroup.” A small smirk crossed his lips at the thought that each party member survived the encounter.

Tag: Tobin
WC: 558

SPOILER: Click to show

{OOC}SOOOOOO sorry for not doing this sooner. Had a small issue with my internet which I and Verizon finally worked out. Hurray for being jacked in! Wrote this real quick to get things moving.