A New Yet Familiar World [Closed]

[Sophia]

After she got to home from dropping her son at school, Emilia sat down at her desk in her living room and booted up her computer. When her computer finally finished loading up the desktop, she drew her cursor over to the Skype shortcut icon and double tapped it. From the off her desk she picked up her headset and put it on, while the window loaded up her list of her currently online contacts. She smiled while she looked at the list, as It seemed that everyone was there. She did expected that most, if not all of them, didn't want to miss out on this meeting. She counted herself fortunate to find a day where everybody could meet up. Pretty soon another window opened up on her screen. It was a request for a voice chat. Immediately, she pressed the 'OK' button with her cursor. The window would expand into a larger one, that displayed her list of other people from her contact list who also accepted the request and the requester themselves. Adjusted the microphone that was attached to her headset, before speaking into it.

"Hello? Is everyone here?" She said, and awaited for a response. 

"Yea, everyone is here. Professor." said a masculine voice emitting from her headset.

"I'm here too! And my body is ready for this expansion!" said a another masculine voice, but more energetic.

"Mine too! I've been waiting for forever!" said a feminine and cheery sounding voice.

"Great, great!" she said smiling and nodding at her screen, "So everyone knows that we're to meet at the londinium-district?"

"Yes!" said the others almost in unison.

"Alright let's login!" Emilia said with enthusiasm, and drew her cursor over to the shortcut icon for Elder Tale. She opened up the game and it soon took her to the character select screen. There she clicked her mouse on her character model. It appeared as a young woman in plate mail and long flowing blonde hair and blue eyes. Then she moved her mouse over to the log in button. Suddenly her vision grew dark to the point she could no longer see her computer screen, nor anything else in front of her. She was surrounded by darkness. She couldn't feel her chair underneath her or her headphones, or the clothes against her skin. It was as if they didn't exist. She would later find herself waking up in the middle of a cobblestone street. In front of her she saw her arms encased in iron plates. It looked like to be a part of some armor, but with closer expectation, it was European medieval armor. She quickly grew alarmed by the suddenness of ending up in a strange place and covered in armor. She tried to get up, the armor plating on her arms scraped against the cobblestone. "W-where am I!?" She screamed, franticly looked around, seeing nothing but aged buildings covered in greenery. "What is this place?" 

---

Word Count: 491 
Tags: Steel Marshall

[Deleted]

Nothing, nothing but black. She could see what's in front of her, but nothing registered, she might as well not have a brain, blank expression, empty eyes. The very definition of a character in a Western RPG. A shell without a history, personality, or emotion. Just an avatar for the one behind the monitor. Then, all at once, this unmoving expression changed. Eyes grew wide and new animations controlled the new character in this video game.

She would have opened her eyes, had her eyes been closed. What she experienced was more like waking up from a daydream. A jolt of energy shot through her body and she was suddenly aware of the world around her. She was staring out down a road, covered in mossy chunks of concrete, but still relatively flat. To her left, a grassy park surrounded by a rusty fence and also bordered by a huge and very old building with large plain glass windows and stained glass windows that reminded her of a church. To her right, a sprawling building that was hit by the effects of time, yet didn't quite look as old as the giant church. Or maybe it was just the stone. At one corner of the large building, a clock tower jutted up over the roof, making itself known, but the arms were not moving. There were some other buildings that looked similar in colour further down the road, but her eyes were locked onto that clock tower. It was so familiar.

She thought about it for a few seconds before the cogs finally got spinning. "B-Big Ben!? Then this is... Westminster Palace!?" She took a step back, but her foot hit the ground faster than it should have, forcing her to lose her balance and fall backward onto the dirty decrepit street. Strands of hair fell into her face as she lay there looking up through them and toward the overcast sky. At least that looked fine. But where was she? Why was she laying on the ground now? Just what happened?

She sat up, lifting the strands of hair out of her face, then she pulled a lock of hair back in front of her face to look at it. "Heh, bright purple hair." She put her hands against the street to lift herself up onto her feet, nearly falling again because her feet weren't where they were supposed to be. Looking down so see what the problem was, she noticed something else that was different, aside from her new height, "Heh, I'm 12 now." She patted at her chest, as if to try to find something that was not there any longer. She ran her hands down her sides, over her hips, fully developed. She reached her hand down the waist under the skirt she was wearing, "Heh, I'm not 12 then."

She took a couple steps forward, it was difficult to walk. She felt like she was stomping around rather than walking normally. Her mind couldn't quite get used to the ground being closer than it usually was. She held her hand up to her face and breathed into it to smell her breath. It's different. She turned to either side and smelled her arms. This scent wasn't her. "Heh, I'm possessing a midget in London." She turned back around and noticed a spear, a halberd rather. She didn't know where she was, so having a weapon would be better than walking around without. She picked it up and started to lean on it like a large walking stick. So wait, if this was London, then why was everything so run down? Why were the roads so neeped up? Why was she wearing weird clothes? She was wearing a black long-sleeved blouse and a long purple skirt, covering her legs well. But the clothes weren't normal clothes, or normal clothes like she's used to. They felt heavy and stiff, like they were made of very cheap materials. Especially the skirt. It would probably hurt to wear this for long.

Okay... she could look at her new body all day, but now is probably not the time to worry about that. Right now there's a bigger question that needs answering. "Just where exactly am I? Ah, ahhhhhh, ah ah ah ah ah~" Her voice was the same. Same Scottish accent and voice. That was the only thing that was the same about her. "Damn it, getting sidetracked again. H-hello?! Is there anyone here?" This was probably a dream, but it felt so real, there's a possibility it might not be a dream. Well, then what was it?

[Steel]

"The new expansion pack is going to be released soon, I can't wait!" Takeshi said from his room in front of the computer. He was already logged in as his avatar Steel, the character he just created a few days ago after having moved to Europe which was based off of his deceased friend's old avatar. The countdown to the expansion pack's loading was nearly complete, already in the last 10 seconds. It was then that Steel began to feel a bit weird and even tired a little. "What the, what's going on?" He said to himself before closing his eyes for a brief moment. The moment he opened his eyes, he found himself outside. That's odd, how'd I get outside? He thought to himself as he surveyed the area. It was recognizable to him as it was London, except a lot less neat than when he last saw it. Out of curiosity, he looked down on himself and saw that he was wearing a basic black leather coat and shirt as well as black leather pants and gloves. These clothes are the same as my avatar. The area looks like the game. Could it be... As a final check, Takeshi got into his dual wield drawing stance he often went into for kendo. When he reached behind his back, he found that there were two long swords, both the starter ones. As I thought, I somehow ended up in the game. I'm now Steel. I don't feel all that different, probably because I made my avatar the same as my real life body. He thought as he began to survey the people around him. Despite Takeshi now Steel remaining calm, it was not the same for everyone. He saw some panic, some get angry, some get scared, all sorts of emotions were present currently.

"H-Hello? Is there anyone there?" Steel heard a voice from behind him. There was a girl who seemed confused, possibly even scared.

A short distance away from him, he heard a woman exclaim "W-Where am I? What is this place?" Seeing that these two were nearby (I'll say about 3-5 feet away or something), Steel decided to calm the two of them down. Seeing that he wouldn't be able to calm everyone in the city down

"Calm down, both of you." Steel said to the two females. "Panicking won't help the situation."

[Sophia]

Emilia lifted herself from off the ground; the pointed edges of her armor scraped against the cobblestone surface as she struggled to move her body. When she got on both feet, looked down on her body and noticed that every inch of her frame was encased in iron plating, which also looked strangely familiar. While she tried to ponder why this armor seemed to recall to something in the past, she heard another voice, one that was close by. Not knowing if their words were being aimed at her or someone else, instinctively she turned to it.

There were two other people within a couple of meters away from her. The closest one was what appeared to be a fully figured woman who was more than over a foot shorter than herself. She heard her questioned if there was anyone present, in a thick Scottish accent. Not sure what to say, Emilia simply responded with a "Yes". The other person there, who was young man seemed to be oddly calm about this situation, he even said to her and the other woman to stay calm. Which was easier said than done. All that Emilia could think about were the questions that formed within her mind. Where is this place? Why is she here? Who or what brought her here? And many more. 

She turned to the man in the group and quickly approached him. "How can you be so calm!? Where are we? Why are we here!?" she shouted very frantically as she walked toward him. "Please! Any infomation you have can help!" As she neared him she tripped from the shorten stride in her step, as she was a couple inches shorter now. She instinctively latched onto the man's arm to keep herself from falling. "..Sorry." she said quietly to him, before letting go and adjusting her footing. She backed away a bit from here he stood and closed her eyes and breathed in and out, letting out a heavy sigh as she expelled the air from her lungs. Then she opened her eyes, looking straight at him with determination radiating from them. "I just need to go back home, I need to pick up my son from school in a couple hours. Again, If you have any information about this place, please tell me." she spoke calmly as she pleaded with him.

---

Word Count: 394
Tags: Steel Grandeur @nothaveld

[Deleted]

 Luvinia had already been through the whole 'panicking' phase, it was short lived when one looked at the bright side of things. Then again she didn't know who these other people were or what responsibilities they had in real life or anything of that nature. She didn't see the sense in panicking or accusing anyone, since neither of those options would exactly do anything. She looked to herself, frowning a little, her clothing was simply atrocious, she really must find a tailor and hound them for something better. She'd look around a bit and then watches the three of them interact with one another, wondering if that's how she looked when she panicked. Sure it was only a few minutes ago but she guessed she just liked the idea of being stuck in a game better than most. She'd dust herself off, check her curls and then adjust her cloak about herself, she was dressed all in white.

"In the game." She'd respond to the armored woman's question. Luvinia would make her way towards the group "Or I should say what 'used' to be the game. Right now it seems as if we're stuck here for an undetermined amount of time. Staying calm would be suggested but I cannot force you to settle down." Luvinia then stopped just a few feet from them, looking them over. A tank, a damage deal and a support type, they basically had the trinity right there. She, herself, had rolled up a healer with some CC/DPS on the side, times like this though she wishes she would have picked a sorcerer or something akin to that. She'd look everyone over as she then smiled "Well since we're calming down, I believe introductions are in order?" She'd look between all of them and simply press on regardless.

"I am Regina?...Huh if I would have known I would have gotten stuck in a game, I would have chosen my own name." She snickered to herself as she then looks to the rest of them "Though my real name is Luvinia. Nice to meet you everyone." She'd smile and then look around slightly, wondering if any other people would soon be joining them. At this moment she'd have a quick scope around the area. Just aged buildings, some needing repair asap and others standing there as if time hadn't touched them at all. She'd look down to the ground and rubs her heel into the dirt, the 'ground' actually feeling like dirt. These games always came out looking rather 'cheesy' with the environment effects, though she supposed they looked different when you were actually IN the game, as opposed to being outside of it looking in.

She would wait for them all to begin to introduce themselves, panic, freak out or scream, the one thing she couldn't really handle right now was silence, silence was loneliness and being alone here in this strange new world that was a little familiar to her due to her years of playing MMO's prior. Before this, she was just chilling in her room after work, just about to enjoy the rest of the day in lazy bliss, then this happened, again not exactly a horrifying situation, but not an ideal one. Though truth be told she always had a dream like this would happen, nothing to worry about with her real body since there wasn't anything she could do about that now and worrying about it only would lead her down some depressing route.

---

Word Count: 583

[Deleted]

Leah looked around and heard the voice of a woman in full plate armour respond to her question with a simple yes. Then a man joined in, who seemed to be thinking that Leah was panicking. Well she was, but trying to hide it, was she that expressive with this body? Or perhaps she just comes across as someone who would panic? This whole experience was surreal. Well, aside from the plate armour being worn by the woman and the leather armour being worn by the man, they seemed normal enough.

Leah slowly made her way toward the two, taking slow steps to try to get used to her feet being closer to her head, still leaning on the weapon she was given, the halberd. That inanimate object seemed to be the only thing she could trust in this world at the moment. It was just a wood pole with a sharpened point and an axe head attached to it. But the strength of the wood supported her small frame and the metal could be used to protect if things got hairy, which they very easily could. The blonde girl was becoming restless. She was now grabbing onto the man.

That's when another party made herself known to the gathering group. A taller woman with a crazy purple hair style and pointed ears. Just seeing that hair made Nothaveld clasp her hand to her face and stifle a laugh. In a game, huh? Well, if she were to offer a guess, it would have to be Elder Tale, the only game Leah ever really played. The city design was reminiscent of that. So this was post-expansion Londinium, huh? She had been to Londinium on many occasion while on the Scandinavian server, but with the UK getting its own server, the game devs really went all out.

"Oh god, her hair bounces when she walks." It was getting harder to hold in her laughter, her face turning red and her eyes closed tightly trying to take her mind off the hair. The harder she tried to forget about it, the funnier it got to her. She started to drop to a squat, both hands on the shaft of her halberd as it stood straight up. She just looked at the ground while her shoulders heaved while she was trying to get control of her laughter, not making a sound. Perhaps to those around her it looked like she was sobbing.

She stood back up suddenly, eyes closed, facing toward the pointy-eared woman, taking a deep breath. The woman already introduced herself, so Leah would do the same. "My name is..." She opened her eyes, big mistake. She clenched her lips together, but air shot out between her lips making the sound of a short raspberry before she looked back down at the ground, her head against the halberd pole, laughing without a voice, more like squeaking laughter. She took a deep breath again, without looking up, and just said, "your hair... is neeping ridiculous!" She laughed a bit more. "I believe you, we're in a game now. That's too much for real life!" Nevermind the ears, the hair was what made her believe this was a game. She held her teeth tight to try to stop laughing, she just kept looking at the ground. "My name is Leah. I can't think straight to remember what my display name is. I'm sorry! I need a moment..."

After she had a good laugh, her thoughts were coming back to her and the hair wasn't as funny as it was when she first saw it. Still ridiculous, but not quite as funny. She keeps taking deep breaths, then she looks back up at the three around her. "Uh, how do we check our names?" And just thinking about it brought up a status menu in front of her. "Oh, there it is. Nothaveld. Not my most prettiest of names. Dwarf..." Well that explained it. "bard. I guess just call me Notha."

Steel

[Steel]

"We're currently in the Londinium District of the London server of Elder Tale." Steel said calmly in response. "Although we don't know how we got here. That fact remains unchanged. Don't take this as offensive or anything but for now, we should get some information rather than getting mad at each other or be worried about the outer world. If my guess is right, we'll be able to activate skills using the toggle stuff like before or through voice command. That's how it was when I played on the Japan server. Anyway, my name is Takeshi Kurogane and my username is Steel. Nice to meet you."

[Deleted]

Luvinia blinked as the dwarf began to snicker and tried to, but failed horribly, to hide her laughter. She blinks, almost wanting to take a look at herself, perhaps she had a glitch or something that made something appear out of shape or place? She'd then watch her swing around and try to compose herself. She'd give the bard the benefit of the doubt and allow her a chance to compose herself in the manner of-

"your hair... is neeping ridiculous!"

FROWN! Luvinia was not happy now, she would grumble a bit and look quite flustered, her face looking a bit red as a cross between blushing and just getting annoyed! "You think 'I' look silly, coming from the girl who could be confused for a heavyset middle schooler!" She hmphs and turns her head to the side, her curls bouncing as turned her nose up at the dwarf. She had taken loving pride in creating her looks, she thought the curls were elegant, balanced and damn cute. Now here's this...this midget telling her that 'she' looks ridiculous? The nerve! Then the bard began to explain that she was basically a 'newbie' not so much by actually saying it, but asking about the name look up. Luvinia had read the instruction manual, as she always did with games, tutorial or not she liked to know things in advance. She would wonder about the others though, were they 'newbies' as well? Or did they have prior experience? She'd think Please tell me that I'm not the only one who knows something about this game!

"Bard. I guess just call me Notha."

Luvinia moved her hands to her hips, she wiggled them around a little, seems everything 'felt' real enough, she wondered if she could feel pain or cold or anything of that nature, surely whatever was keeping them here was able to read their brains or what have you, but could it actually let them 'feel' things? Luvinia looked around and then back to the dwarf. Ooooooh, if she wasn't a nice person she'd nickname her Speck! She blinked and wondered if the whole Dwarf vs Elf rivalry was always like this? Heck they were both human but here she was already looking down (HA, not that she had a choice BUT to look down) at the bard, she might be one of the only people she sees in this whole world, speaking of which...

"Does anyone know exactly where we are?" She asks, looking around, it was quite.. open.. and there did seem to be a lot of buildings around, though she couldn't tell if there were any others around. Why did they get put here, why did they get yanked into the game and WHY the hell did she have to get stuck with a backwards dwarf who wouldn't know style if it bit her in the backside?! She knew she'd have to keep her temper under control around the dwarf, in-fighting certainly wouldn't help them if monsters or bandits were to show up and it's better having an annoying party member than nothing. She would then look to the other two, waiting for their introductions, so that everyone could get at least some what familiar with one another.

She'd then see someone step up and then explain to them that exact question. Well that was good to know, she thought. She would look around and then looks to the others "So I take it you all were in the midst of playing this game too correct?"

---

Word Count: 576

[Deleted]

(So should we skip Sophia? Or do you guys want to wait another day? It's been about three days now though.)

[Deleted]

Dumah had been watching this scene unfold a bit. He had not seen it in its entirety, and began watching with Steel, or Takeshi, introducing himself. Dumah walked up to Steel with a disarming smile. "Mind if I call you Steel? It is the name you chose to inherit in this world after all, is it not?" Dumah bowed cordially to Steel and extended his right hand, his left hand resting on the pommel and handle of the long sword he had kept sheathed in its scabbard on his left hip. "I am Dumah Iino, Swashbuckler. Pleasure to meet you, sir." He seemed friendly in his manner of speaking.

[Steel]

"Nice to meet you Dumah." Steel replied as he returned the hand shake but for some reason, he couldn't help but feel unease. He was never really good with extremely polite or gentlemanly characters. In fact, he almost reached behind his back for one of his swords by instinct. Fortunately, he was able to hold back that instinct. He decided to mainly refocus his attention to the others. "Anyway, we should try to get used to the system and our situation. Should we try hunting in the fields?"

OOC: Should we close the thread/ make it private instead of making it open before we get too many people here?

[Deleted]

((Sure, if you want.)) Dumah nodded. "A bit of hunting would be a good way to learn of our capabilities. Let us give it a shot at least."

[Deleted]

(No offense to Sophia, but tomorrow, if there's still no word I suggest we continue on without her, this waiting around is horribly boring.)

[Sophia]

"W-what!?" Emilia shouted with a tremble in her voice, after she listened the young man's reply. She felt a twinge of anger inside of herself as she thought of how absurd his words were. She was about to scold him, believing that he was lying, or was playing some cruel joke on her, until she saw something in the corner of her vision. she stopped and took a look at what looked like an icon with some bars underneath to her left said. "What is this?" she said to herself as she instinctively raised her hand over to the icon. When she brushed her hand against it, a drop down menu appeared in front of her. Her eyes widened, surprised by how the menu just 'popped' in her face. She then curiously studied that selections that were presented to her. She could tell they looked like the same menu options from Elder Tale. Realizing that, Emilia shook her head in disbelief as she begun to suspect that maybe the young man wasn't lying. As she read through the list of options, one of them caught her eye, that said 'Character Info'. Instead of using her whole hand like before, she used her index finger to try ad open it.

Upon pressing it a new window popped out and displayed on it was a name and various kind information. "N-no!" she cried when she saw that the name on top of the window was 'Sophia' and the icon next to it was the Guardian symbol. There was nothing she could say, as she couldn't find the words. She had on sorrowful expression as she closed the window and turned to the young man, whom called himself steel. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to believe you, but you're right." She released a heavy sign. "There has to be some way out of here?" she looked over at steel with some hope lingering in her voice.

Word Count: 323

[Steel]

"Unfortunately, I don't know how to get out of here or how we got here in the first place." Steel replied in a serious tone as he manipulated his own menu. When he pressed the Log Out button, the system said it wasn't allowed. "As I expected, we can't leave via normal log out. We have three options right now. One, try to find an in game GM who could help us out. However, we don't know who is a GM and there is a possibility they don't have their administrative powers in this situation. Two, we wait around for someone else to find the solution. However, we won't know how long that will take. And three, we get used to this world and its systems. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm not worried about our predicament but if we can't calm down and think, we'll just be a jumbled emotional mess. At the very least, we have some time. Remember, two hours in the real world equals one day here."

[Deleted]

Dumah smiled at Sophia. "Why don't you stick with us for the time being, miss? We're all stuck in this together, and I'm sure that it would be best to have friends with you, at least until we're used to this change." Dumah smiled brighter than before as he extended his hand to Sophia. "Dumah Iino. Half-Alv Swashbuckler. It's a pleasure to meet you."

[Steel]

"For now, let's stop with the introductions and actually try hunting and figuring things out about this game. It's best to try this before sundown when the monsters aren't as powerful." Steel said as he sent a party request to everyone. "Let's do our best to get to know each other and work together as a party. I'll be counting on you all." Steel's goal was to at least help this group of people to get used to their current predicament. Once they were able to get used to it and calm down, then they could try to figure out a way home if possible.

OOC: Just wanted to get this back up

Grandeur
@dumah
Sophia
@nothaveld