We're not in Kansas anymore, Bloo [Closed]

[Musashi]

...what is this place?

Musashi shielded his eyes from the midday sun as he looked about, trying to get some sort of bearing as to where he was. He'd been wandering aimlessly for some time, completely and totally lost in his thoughts. This appeared to be the world of Elder Tale, but that was impossible, wasn't it? It had to be some sort of dream, yet the sun hurt his eyes and warmed his skin, the sound of birdsong could be heard in the distance, and most importantly, there were other people around looking just as lost and confused as he was.

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

If this was reality and not just some sort of insane fantasy, it only raised more questions, three of which were of the highest importance to him: One, how did he end up here; two, could they get back home; and three, where in the HELL was Azure?

Musashi sighed as he sat down on an old stump, focusing for a moment to call up the menu. Naturally, his eyes gravitated towards the still unavailable log-out button, confirming that it was still crossed out before navigating the slightly clunky interface to bring up his friends list. Luckily for them, very few people he knew had been trapped in this.. whatever this was. Azure was not amongst those lucky ones, and Musashi felt guilty about that fact. It was largely his fault that Azure was trapped, as he'd been one of the main people who pressured Azure into giving the game a try, and now, because of that, his friend might never see his children again.

Closing the menu, Musashi folded his hands in front of him and shut his eyes. He'd already contacted Azure via telepathy earlier and informed him to come to what he assumed was the Parliment building, so all he needed to do now was wait.

Notes: So rusty at this. x~x
Wordcount: 332

[Azure]

“Wh- what the fu- Ugh..”

Azure tried not to vomit as his vision swayed for a moment, the menu opening in front of his eyes as he reached out a hand to stabilise himself while he caught his footing; he tried to look around the display, but it followed his movements as he tried to back away, making his nausea rise as he struggled to get his bearings. The answer to where he was was written in plain English before his eyes; as they adjusted to bring the interface into focus he recognised all of the elements of the Heads Up Display – but how? The last thing he could remember was clicking the option to join the new English server for Elder Tale – how could he possibly be inside the game!? Was it a game? It felt far too real..

After taking a moment to adjust to his situation and new body a little, he began navigating through the menu, quickly confirming that the holograms seemed to offer some resistance as he pressed against them, and felt pretty much as he had expected – but most of all it confirmed what he had feared; the Logout function had been disabled – he was trapped here. 'Just like Sword Art Online.. Huh.. Guess all that time spent gaming and watching Anime wasn't a total waste of time..' he thought as he began familiarising himself with navigating the menu by hand, but the main question on his mind now – after how and why this happened, of course – was if he would respawn or die when his HP reached zero. This was obviously something he'd rather not figure out for himself first-hand.

'Well, I'm sure there'll be some kind of announceme-' He suddenly dropped to his knees as his thoughts came unravelled with the realisation that he may never see his children again; while that was a fear he confronted on a daily basis, this was as different a situation as there ever was – there didn't seem to be any explanation for how it could be real, but then there was no way of knowing if or when he might get out either. Then again, he wasn't entirely in this alone; although his Buddy List was empty, he had friends that he'd agreed to meet in-game, and if the has going to survive he wasn't going to do it without them.

'Whatever's going on is going on regardless – I'm not gonna figure it out just by sitting here feeling sorry for myself.' He thought as he picked himself up and dusted himself off; death game or not, he was sure of one thing: if he was going to have to survive in this place then he needed to line his pockets with the coin of the realm, and while he knew that the quickest and easiest way to get started on that was to find some low-level Mobs, it would obviously be best for him as a Tank-class to be a little more competent in this body and setting before testing himself on the field of combat. Breaking into a jog, he found that his body responded much as his own would, and before long his movements came as naturally as ever – in fact if anything he felt a little fitter than ever had.

As an Australian he knew little more than the major landmarks of London, and the overgrown ruins of the city were as foreign as the real thing, and so it wasn't wasn't until he reached the walls of the Elder Tale equivalent of Buckingham Palace before he realised that he'd been running around in random directions without much clue of how to get where he was going; he'd spawned just near Kings Cross Station – known simply as St Pancras in Elder Tale – but despite having looked over the online guides for the proposed United Kingdom map, finding his way around this unknown region in first person was much more difficult than he'd anticipated.

After noting his spawn point and this new location on his map he resumed dashing and vaulting over the ruins of a desolated London, doubling back around behind the Palace toward the Thames, which he followed toward one of the cities most iconic landmarks, Big Ben. As he rounded the base of the clocktower – which served as such an obvious beacon that he wasn't likely to admit he'd missed it – he noticed that there were a few other people gathered here and there around the Old Parliament Building, and it was only then that he realised that didn't entirely know what anyone looked like.

---

Notes: I used a pic of Riku from Kingdom Hearts in this post because he's the inspiration for the appearance, and it was an appropriate emote; sorry in advance if anyone else FCs/ed him.
I'm also sorry that my template sucks.. xD
Word Count: 780.

[Musashi]

I wonder what happens to us if we die in this world...

Would they die if they were killed? Such a thing was common in this type of story. Story... the absurdity of the fact that he was comparing his situation to a story almost made him laugh out loud. Would the villain be out at any time to make his declaration that they must clear the game to escape? It really was laughably ironic; he'd wished many a time growing up that he could live in a fantasy world of one of his favorite games or books, but this....

Be careful what you wish for, I guess..

Breaking his chain of thought, Musashi glanced upwards, checking the status windows of of everyone who entered the area. Basic information such as Name, Class, and Level was quickly displayed in front of him as he continued to swap his attention to different targets. Just as he was about give up, Musashi noticed the blue haired youth who had entered the area.

Level 1 Monk... Azure.

Musashi's face immediately lit up with a smile, glad to see that his friend was still okay.

"Yoooooooo, Azure!"
Musashi's voice rang out clearly through the area as he stood up and waved Azure over. He hoped that Azure wouldn't be too angry at him for their current situation, despite his hand in pressuring him to play. "You holding up alright?" he asked, placing his right hand in front of him to bump fists with his old friend.

Notes: ~none~
Wordcount: 252

[Azure]

As one might expect there were more people who were gathering near the highly conspicuous clocktower than most anywhere else in the city – most seemed confused and grief stricken, looking for answers, though there were also some who seemed to be embracing this odd phenomena, most of which looking to form parties to brave this new world.

Much to his luck Azure had stumbled upon the gesture to activate the display of nearby peoples names and basic information as he casually scanned the courtyard, but the ability had its limits; it wasn't until he heard his name called in a familiar voice that caused his ears to perk up on end – which was a slightly unsettling feeling that would take some getting used to – that he found anyone he knew.

“Musashi, Dood!” He called as he waved back to the blonde Kitsunemimi. Given their assumed circumstance he felt a twinge of guilt that he was so glad to see a friend as he bounded over to him, enthusiastically returning the fist bump, but he was more than relieved for some form of familiarity.

“Aye, guess so, but either someone slipped me something awesome, or there's something seriously friggin' weird going on.. or maybe the other way round..” he'd seem fairly light-hearted, or at least he might have, if anyone could keep up with him as he ran his words together with his Australian drawl shining through – a factor that he became more mindful of as he continued, seeming to become more grounded. “..but hey, Que sera, sera, right?”

---

Notes: Just noting that Ria was invited.. =3
Word Count: 264

[Ria]

LIFE IS A TRICK

and you only get one chance to learn it

Head intact? Check. Arms still attached? Check. Legs fully functional? Check.

Except that was impossible. Ria’s legs shouldn’t be able to support her weight; they were supposed to be encased in a matching pair of casts following the car accident that she had been involved in a few days ago. Broken bones didn’t just heal overnight. Of course, Ria couldn’t remember falling asleep either.

She swore that the ground seemed further away than it usually was as well and while she really enjoyed the color blue, her sergeant would completely flip out on her if she showed up to work with her hair dyed the color it was now. Ria’s clothes were also incredibly strange; she couldn’t recall ever buying chainmail before.

Gradually she moved her focus onto her surroundings. A dilapidated old building sat not too far away and it seemed incredibly familiar. It took her a moment to recognize it as the iconic Parliament building. Few other buildings were even halfway recognizable. It was almost as if London had been abandoned for centuries.

Ria tugged on her too-long hair. Had a great amount of time passed since her last memory? That would partially explain things, but if enough time had passed so London had become both abandoned and overgrown, her hair would probably have grown more than a few inches. There had to be some other explanation.

Maybe this wasn’t London, merely someplace like an amusement park that was designed to look like the city. Still, that wouldn’t explain how she had ended up here. Perhaps she had been abducted, but kidnappers generally didn’t grab people, stuff them into costumes, and leave them somewhere. Besides, there didn’t seem to any evidence that she had either been hit over the head or knocked out with some sort of chemical. Instead, it seemed as if the opposite had happened. What sort of kidnapper would fix up their victim? Or provide them with armor and a pair of swords? Which, Ria noted, were pretty cool.

Glancing around again, Ria noted that she wasn’t alone. There were several other people milling about, all dressed similarly to herself and looking rather confused. Clearly this wasn’t something that had happened only to her.

Something about their clothing niggled something in the back of her mind. Ria looked back at her own outfit and realized that she had seen it before. Scrunching up her forehead as she thought, her mind landed on the last memory she’d had before finding herself here, wherever that was.

Ria had decided to try that one game, Elder something or other, that her brother had insisted she try out. She’d made a character that-wait. That was right. She’d made a character with long blue hair, one that was a bit taller than she was normally. But that was impossible. While Ria didn’t exactly follow games, she was rather certain that virtual reality technology had not advanced to this stage. Not to mention that she’d not purchased any sort of specialized equipment.

The idea that she was in the game was completely absurd, but for some reason she couldn’t get it out of her head. It would sort of make sense, if one looked past the absurdity of it all. Ria shook her head and decided that she wasn’t really getting anywhere standing around and thinking about it. It would be better to just see if she could find anyone who might have a better idea of what was going on. At least whatever was happening didn’t seem to be immediately dangerous, but Ria still wished that she had her Taser.

With that in mind, Ria started forwards, keeping a watch out for someone who didn’t look quite so lost. After walking for about a minute, two guys caught her attention. She guessed from the fist-bump that they had known each other prior to whatever happened, though her ears picked up that one was clearly Australian while the other sounded American. Regardless, Ria decided they would be as good of place as any to start figuring out what was going on.

“Hey!” she called out as she drew closer, her distinctive Irish lilt immediately apparent, “Do either of you have any clue just what’s going on? I just sort of found myself here. Was it the same for you two?” Ria grinned crookedly before adding, “Of course, I might have just gotten lost in thought. It’s unfamiliar territory.” Inwardly she winced, though her smile didn’t waver. That was an awful joke, even for her.

Word Count: 753
Notes:
Tags: Azure, Musashi

[Musashi]

"Whatever will be, will be, huh? I suppose that's true enough. It may be crappy, but I guess there's not much we can do about it for now other than see how deep the rabbit hole goes."

Musashi adjusted his glasses, pushing them farther up his face as he turned his head to look off into the distance. In a way, this place had a surreal beauty; sure, it looked like the apocalypse had happened and that city had fallen to ruin, but the the whole "ancient ruins" look was one that kindled his desire to explore. If he was going to be stuck here for a while, he might as well enjoy it. Keeping that in mind, he weighed their options on what to do next. Azure had little experience with MMO systems and would need help adjusting to combat, yet at the same time, he himself wasn't sure how well he could fight in this situation. It was one thing to fight a monster from a third-person perspective, where you have complete awareness of everything around you and your positioning, but fighting with an extremely limited field of view that comes with first-person was an entirely different beast. Had this been a normal game, he wouldn't have cared so much, but the idea of actually dying scared him.

Before he could finish his train of thought, a distinctively feminine voice with an accent, Irish if he wasn't mistaken, pulled him back to the real world. Glancing over in her direction, he appraised the young woman as she approached, subconsciously wagging his tail in approval. Overall, she was fairly pretty; her thin build and long hair lending itself well to the way she carried herself. She seemed.... noble, in a way, like a female knight.

That was, at least, until she cracked one of the one of the more awful "dad jokes" that he'd heard in a while. It was actually so bad that it made him snicker for a second just from being caught off guard by it.

"Yeah, thought it something I get lost in a lot, unfortunately. As for how we got here..." he paused for a moment to think, the fox-ears on his head twitching as he thought, "the last thing I can remember before I woke up here was logging into Elder Tale. Since this place looks like the proper setting, if I had to venture a guess I'd say that we're in that world. By any chance, are you familiar with the area? This should be roughly the London area that we're in, but I'm not even on the right continent for places that I'm used to driving around."

"Oh, I almost forgot! I'm Musashi, and this tall guy next to me is Azure. I'm from the United States, while Azure is rockin' that Aussie accent from the land down under, as I'm sure you've noticed."

Notes: ~none~
Wordcount: 483

[Azure]

Just as he was about to suggest they go find out, Azures' ears perked once again, this time toward the sound of an appealing Irish lilt; he brushed them back down down in an attempt at seeming like he was trying to fix his hair as the striking young woman strode up to them - as it was they were probably only an eye-bulge and a wolf-whistle away from a cartoon cliché, and for the first time since realising he was now stuck in the body of a “Wolf Hair” he was both glad and kinda saddened that his tail was not visible outside of combat.

He waved to the approaching stranger – at least until he became self conscious about not being issued a shirt – wondering if he knew her; a thought occurred to him that he could check her name with the menu feature, but it didn't seem like something that would be considered a decent etiquette to adopt given that this may now be their new reality. He took her pun in stride – it was bad, to be sure, but it took him a while to notice, and he didn't want to seem slow – but the comment about his height caught him off guard; he'd made his character his own height, and he had never thought himself tall, but as he looked from one to the other he realised that there was merit to his words.

“Aye, last thing I remember's loggin' in, and next thing I knew I was standing by a sign that said St. Pancras Station just up north a bit; it only took a couple minutes to get here, and I didn't really take the time to explore on the way, but it looks like it's mostly ruins inside the city walls.”

---

Notes: Sorry for the wait.. orz
Word Count: Three Oh Three.

[Ria]

LIFE IS A TRICK

and you only get one chance to learn it

Ria crossed her arms, but despite her confusion she was sure to maintain her smile. Despite the laugh she’d received from her horrible pun, she couldn’t bring herself to feel pleased about it. The blond guy had come to the conclusion that she was reluctant to make. That they were actually inside a video game.

Okay, she could easily accept that this mess had something to do with Elder Tale. If everyone who had wound up here had been playing the game and the last thing they could remember was logging in, well, that led to the obvious conclusion that the players had been targeted. However, the logistics were impossible; how could anyone manage to abduct so many people and then why would they dump them in the middle of an imitation London and leave? How could they change everyone’s appearances so dramatically anyway? And who would bother going to all this trouble in the first place.

Unless of course Ria’s reluctant thoughts and the blond fellow’s conclusion were actually correct. But that was simply impossible, unless perhaps something supernatural was at work. Ria dismissed that thought outright; such an idea was simply absurd. Of course, this whole situation was crazy regardless of the cause.

When one of the guys introduced themselves, Ria blinked for a moment. Musashi and Azure weren’t exactly typical names. It took her a second before she realized that the fellow must have used their in game names. Figuring it would be a little awkward to introduce herself with her real name, Ria decided to follow suit. “I’m Ria then, nice to meet you both. Too bad it couldn’t be under better circumstances.”

Ria had to admit that Azure was a rather tall guy, especially compared to his friend. However, he didn’t seem to be that much taller than her. A rebellious thought whispered that she had made her character taller than she was and any process that added several inches to her height would really hurt under normal circumstances, but she did her best to dismiss it.

Even if it wasn’t the information she’d been hoping for, at least Azure and Musashi had given her something to think about. “So what you could see of the city was messed up like this?” Ria mused, “And yeah, I do know my way around. I lived not too far from here for a couple of years.” Though honestly, she wasn’t totally confident in her ability to navigate the city when it looked so unfamiliar and felt so alien. “This is definitely London though, or at least it’s based off London. That’s Parliament over there,” she said, motioning to the massive building that was nearby, “Though it looks as though they’ve been getting less done than they normally do.”

She paused for a moment before continuing on. “Listen, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not totally convinced about this stuck in a game thing just yet. I want to take a look around the city a bit more first. Do either of you want to come? Otherwise, if you’ve got another destination in mind I’ll do my best to tell you how to get there.”

Word Count: 529
Notes:
Tags:

[Musashi]

So this is London after all~

Well, at least he was right on his guess. He'd only really seen pictures of the London area, as he wasn't much of a traveler in real life. He rubbed his chin as the girl continued, unsure of how to respond. Following Ria around would be a pain, sure, but it wasn't like he had any place that he desperately needed to be, either.

“s'not like I have anything better to do,” Musashi shrugged, replying honesty. Being unfamiliar with the area, it'd be best to get some info from somebody who knew their way around better than he did. “Anything in particular you have in mind, though? I was pretty well convinced by the fact that I have a giant fluffy tail and fox ears.”

The kitsunemimi grabbed his tail, waving it in front of him, a wry smile crossing his face. Having his tail touched sent shivers down his spine, as it was a completely foreign feeling. Something like this didn't seem possible for modern medicine, and even if it was... it just struck him as excessive for some kind of a trick, especially when combined with the fact that he was able to open the game menu still.

Now that he thought about it, what would the world outside this city be like? The biggest question would be if monsters exist or not. If they did, there would be little room for doubt as to where they were.

Notes: ~none~
Wordcount: 246

[Azure]

Azure was quite glad to hear that Ria had lived in the London area before this strange incident, but while she seemed to be taking it well he didn't want to impose on her and ask for a tour of a place that looked like her home in ruins. Despite feeling bad for wanting to take advantage of her knowledge of the local areas, he still held his carefree mask in place, and even chuckled at the remark she had made about the Parliament, but another troublesome though had crossed his mind that for a city of its size, with such large defensive walls and room for development, this version of London didn't seem to have many buildings that looked to be in use, and there wasn't really much sign of any active leadership, civilisation, or social order at all.

He had to agree with his friend that their appearance was quite a compelling factor, and his access to the game menu, and the useless log out option -for what it was worth- was proof enough for him that they were at least in the game world of Elder Tale, but there was something just a little off about the whole thing... it was all far too real to be a dream, hallucination, or a virtual render, in fact everything he had touched had felt and reacted quite realistically, and he had even lost his footing and stumbled a few times, acquiring a few scuff and bruises on his way there – which he noted had already healed without a trace.

'Odd..' he thought, '..but if this is a game, then where are – or rather, which ones are the NPCs? Don't they usually run and maintain the major cities in games like this, and aren't the starting cities usually in better shape? How many other players are stuck here like us? Did everyone find themselves in London, or is this just a small portion of us?'

Azure looked back up at the decrepit clock-tower looming over them, resisting the urge to touch the fluffy tail as he returned to the heart of the matter. “Yeah, sure – I'm up for a spot of sightseeing..” he replied somewhat enthusiastically, “..I always wanted to check out the Homeland.” Looking back to the others jogged his mind to a game mechanic that he thought he deserved some inquiry. “So then, should we party up?” he asked, gesturing to open the menu - taking a moment to ponder if they could see each others menu as he stared at the slightly confusing clusters of pop-ups before dragging each of their names first onto the Party icon, and then to that for his Buddy List.

---

Notes: I'm just going to assume that this is how you start a party.. xD
Word Count: 452.