Forest of Foxes [4/4] (Full)

[Rook]

The bigger picture, the broader view was full of chaos. Rook barely had time to wince at her sleep being broken before the tide was turned, music and magic and a sudden rain of arrows.

Her part in the play had passed, everything was cooling off. All she could do was hold up the light and hope the next surprise didn't pierce her instead of the monsters.

And then it was over, except that it wasn't. Rook felt the tragedy of that moment keenly, and she was petrified. She would not raise her grimoire against the survivor. Perhaps the creatures didn't have mind enough to experience the horror, but she did, and it stayed with her long after their bodies faded.

Rook looked away missing her skill beats and took a moment to regain her composure. She promised herself, she would process this later in a more suitable environment.

With the light right there on her shoulder, it was hard to spot the newcomer. In fact, she was certain if they hadn't spoken she wouldn't have even known their direction. Trusting Shuwen to do what needed to be done to the monster, she watched Avalon’s tree for signs of good will or menace.

“Hello… Thank You.“ She said cautiously to the tree, it was the polite thing to do. She refreshed her light as it came up so that they didn’t lose each other in the darkness.
Then it occurred to her, they weren't out of the woods yet, literally.

---

Skill Used: Enchanter:Magic Light
Word Count: 250
Tagged: Shuwen Avalon LuLu

[Shuwen]

Words: 591

Despite her condition, LuLu didn’t seem interested in Using Call of Home. He didn’t know if she had a reason to be in the forest, something like her condition was preventing her from doing so, or if she was simply being stubborn. Either way, it irritated Shuwen somewhat. Do people like to get off on ignoring my advice or something? He made an effort to not let his annoyance show on his face, but he wasn’t sure if he succeeded or not. Once she was healed, Lulu stood up, introduced herself, and mentioned she was being chased. “You don’t say.” Shuwen replied as he used Hearing Aptitude to detected several somethings coming towards them through the bushes.

Shuwen probably couldn’t have taken on all three of them alone; as soon as they managed to get in a proper formation and act within the roles that best suited them, he’d probably end up getting steamrolled. Had he been alone, Shuwen never would have engaged them in the first place if he could help it. However, he wasn’t alone this time. He had Rook the Enchanter and Lulu the bard giving him support in some fashion, which was probably more then enough to tip the scales. Lulu used an idol skill that he’d seen once before; it was one Zyrune had used to draw attention to himself during a memorably awkward conversation who’s subtler implications were still beyond him. That it would serve a similar function in combat didn’t particularly surprise him. Idol skill, hmm? Well, I guess it makes sense, seeing how she’s a bard. “That’s fine!” He shouted. Since he was facing forward while she was behind him when he did, he wasn’t sure if she’d hear him correctly, but it wasn’t worth turning around and taking his eyes of their enemies for; they could always clarify after the fight was over. She also used a ranged skill that she said would increase the damage it took the next time it was hit. Shuwen made a thumbs up over his shoulder so she’d know he heard.

He took a few steps back, and was about to follow up with another offensive skill, when abruptly, the fight was ended for him. Another player, presumably the one who they’d heard fighting some distance away earlier, attacked with an area of effect skill, raining projectiles down on the monsters, and depleting them of their remaining health. The tanuki and one fox was killed more or less instantly, while the tanuki’s health bar was reduced to a sliver. But for some reason she didn’t follow up to finish it off. Instead choosing to follow up with some cliché villain dialogue. Shuwen couldn’t get a very good look at the assassin due to the angle, but he was close enough to see her status bar, and her name was one he recognized. She was the assassin who’d participated in the Miasma Recolonization quest. However, the way she’d acted then and the way she was acting now was a painful contrast, one that quickly made him want to forget their previous association.

“Piss off Avalon.” He growled. Kill-stealing and being a sadistic jerk about it? Was she trying to pick a fight with them? Drawing a throwing knife from his belt, he tossed it at the remaining fox, killing it as quickly as he could. For some reason, Rook greeted the newcomer and thanked her politely. Shuwen wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it, but it seemed she was misinterpreting the situation by a significant margin.

[LuLu]

The Darker of Two Evils

Well, that's annoying. Lillian had been annoyed by the irritated look that Shuwen was doing a horrible job at desperately trying to hide. He didn't necessarily accept her skill even, not by her standards. Just yelling out that it was fine. She had heard him, loud and clear, but had nothing to say back to him, but the most annoying part about the entire situation was the barrage of arrows that came sliding down from the trees and killing every foe, except for one who literally had an inch of it's life left. Then to finish off the annoyance, Shuwen took it out with a knife, one measly knife. He could have at least done her the favor, being the lowest level amongst the four and let her take the kill, but of course not. She hadn't expected chivalry in a game world, not that she even expected the game world itself. Now, as it were, Rook was thanking whom ever it was in the tree while Shuwen was telling, uh, Avalon, to piss off. Yup, real gentleman. She figured by the name that it was a woman, though the night and the trees hid her well. Judging by her attack and the fact that she kept herself concealed, she was probably an assassin class.

She wouldn't admit it, but the mysterious Avalon was quite the character. Her show had been spectacular and would have gotten thanks from Lillian as well, had she not been who she was. She was the type of girl that really fit her role. Stubborn, rude, narcissistic and only cared for herself and furthering advancing, well, herself. She didn't have time for friends, or anyone else really and she hated that she had made the choice to depend on the lowly beings, but she couldn't very well run away. It just wasn't her. Despite the display of each and every person, well, minus Rook, who had really just stood there, she just couldn't bring herself to be thankful for their help. Perhaps once she knew she was safe and had a bed to sleep on and her tummy full of food, perhaps then, she would be grateful. On second thought, that was probably more than impossible to happen. She just wasn't that person who owned up to being helped and she wasn't normally the person to even help at all, which was why when she chose the Bard's class, she had chosen to make it so that she didn't have to rely on others, she could solo. Really, she had only even cast the two skills to help her own cause so that she didn't seem useless, even at her level. The last thing she needed was for Shuwen to force her away. No, no, he would warm up to her, she would make sure of it.

With that thought, she batted her eyes and put on her helpless damsel act, surprisingly still not thanking anyone for their help. "Wow Shuwen, those were some great moves. It's too bad you were interrupted," her voice was a small call as she flashed her eyes to the trees and narrowed her eyes on the hidden assailant. "I would have liked to see more of what a strong monk like you could do." Ugh, every time she used her womanly charm on a man to get her way, she cringed on the inside. She wanted to vomit all over the place as she spoke, but she kept her act up, putting on her charming smile. She should have chosen the courtesan class as her RP subclass, but she much preferred the name of Idol. That is, after all, what she was in her previous, life? She still wasn't sure what to call it, even after the time she had been here. Other world, real world, home world? She just wasn't sure, though she was getting used to referring to it as "that other place" or her "previous world" and now the added "life" onto previous, she liked it. It had a nice ring to it. Yes, that's what it was, after all. Her previous life. She acted the same for the most part, but lately she had been soft, too soft, she needed to get her act together and she needed to get it together soon. She didn't want to be like the blonde fox tail she had spotted sitting in the flower fields one day. No, she didn't want to end up being like that at all.

HP 100%

MP 86%

- Equipment -
Starter Leather Armor

- Weapons -
Starter Trident
Starter Tambourine

- Words -
750

- Tags -
Shuwen, Rook, Avalon

- Skills Used -
---

- Notes -
---

Decorated By KittyGrey<3

[Avalon]

tagged: Shuwen Rook LuLu words: 954 add-on: easter charm [+10%] armor: ouroboros [32] weapon: archangel [40] notes:idc

As her cool down waned down and heart beat regained it's steady rhythm once again, she adjusted her honeyed sharp eyes on who would take the initiative to deal the final blow to the last nasty beast while she caught her breath. Unlike battling monsters safely through a computer, fighting those beastly monster spirits that had unexpectedly ambushed her had tired her body out by the constant strained muscles. It took focus and concentration to keep up with the momentum from those damn spirits that annoyingly beckoned for reinforcements after she had assumed they were out for the count. Her lips curved downward in a frown and sighed at the adventurer who took the chance to defeat the fox spirit before it escaped from their grasp. Unsurprisingly, it was the cobalt haired monk that swiftly finished the fox spirits that was poorly hanging on to dear life and now burst into bubbles of anima. Her eyes were momentarily dazzled by the pretty sight of glistening bubbles floating in the wind. It was interesting that an enemy utterly defeated would cause such a pleasant sight to gaze upon. Still, she had hoped that the male monk would offer the final blow to one of the female adventurers since they were of a lower level and of course girl power. This dangerous world could use more strong women to showcase their power in a game that seemed to be dominated by men. Leaning against a tree branch and in the canopy of the shadows above the adventurers, it gave her a sense of relaxation and comfortableness. It was a safety net for now. One of the few times she had exposed as a hunter a few months ago caused her to experience terror and desperately clinging onto a hope to survive against a hit man who pursed her for far too long than she would have wanted and she had innocently tried to negotiate with the male adventurer. He called her the weak little birdie that he considered her a dainty easy target to player kill. But no more was the low level female assassin who relied always on escaping and learned that sometimes there was no room for hesitation. Being much too kind was something people could easily take advantage of and use her for their own purposes so she had changed over time to adapt to that realization. Suddenly, a feminine tone of voice spoke out to her from down above giving her thanks of gratitude. Her keen violet eyes gazed at the curvaceous auburn haired young woman who was a ritual race based on the description but interestingly, she wouldn't be able to tell that she was of that race. Were the tattoos hidden from sight? Based on the ritual race adventurers that she had passed by a few times, she could easily see their tattoos flowing along their whole body. She wondered if the tattoos plastered on their bodies were customizable. "No problem, I was in the area anyway," she responded with the corners of her lips curved upwards in a wide grin. She continued after a short pause, "A bit winded though, was jumped by at least five nasty beasties. Defeating them was a bitch," with a slight shrug. Unexpectedly, the cobalt haired monk angrily told her to 'piss off' and even knew her name with that said. Wait, spiky blue hair and a bit on the short side. In the thicket of the darkness, she slightly twitch in annoyance and narrowed her eyes at the normally hurtful words that the had directed at her. What was his problem? She took a short breath to relax and recompose herself on those biting. It didn't mean anything. Being called weak many times in this strange and dangerous world, she gradually developed a thick hide and treated most things light heartedly outwardly. Avalon leaped down gracefully onto the grassy ground, "That you Shuwen?" and paused, "After all this time, didn't expect to be greeted with such contempt in front of these pretty ladies" with eyes gleaming in curiosity and foxy grin on her face. To be honest, she wasn't sure herself what was his problem with her. "And here I was, going to thank you for finishing it off for me," she continued with a deadpanned look. A fuchsia haired young woman made her presence known and addressed the male monk in flirtatious manner. She had a slender figure and held an air of elegance in the way she had carried herself. Avalon's body loosened comfortably as she was not in the spotlight anymore and could just enjoy the scene. Her eyes glimmered in amusement at the young woman displaying a facade of flirting with the monk and seemingly playing a damsel in distress being interested in his strength. She could vaguely remember how much times back in the real world she used such a plot to escape from getting into trouble and getting what she wanted for herself. It seemed almost like a distant memory so far away from grasp. Avalon swore that she was beginning to forget those memories over time and it was odd. Being in this world, these landers that originally didn't display any sense of emotion since they were NPCs before--showed her unconditional kindness she had no expected at all. Now instead of using those ploys so often, she wanted to prove she was better than that and only used those feminine charms if she needed to or just for her amusement not for anything less than those reasons. Besides, she still held a sense of wariness she honed from a young child growing up in a manipulative environment so she eventually had to adapt to her upbringing.

[Rook]

Rook was a little surprised by it all. Shuwen’s response, Lulu’s affection, Avalon’s reply.

She assumed Shuwen had thought things were well in hand, and wanted to show off or something like that, or perhaps the two had a past. As long as she didn’t die over it, it was really none of her concern.

Lulu’s charms were fully focused on Shuwen. For that, Rook was both concerned and thankful. She was quite sure that such an attack would muddle her own thinking if it were directed her way. Still, with the clarity of distance she could tell it was just an act, internally she decided not to trust Lulu. Was it then by extension that she could trust Shuwen? He was a jerk, but a genuine one.

No, now was not the time to get tangled in the social web.

Rook assessed the situation, if anybody had lost hit points, she would heal them. Start the rhythm, prioritise the low levels and then go by percentage. Somehow her sense of rhythm was better now, shaper, perhaps for the danger or perhaps because somebody here was a bard. She couldn’t really tell.

Since Avalon had politely not impaled her with arrows, Rook provided Avalon with a Keen Edge buff. She provided one to Lulu afterwards.

She refreshed her Magic Light and entered a Mana Trance to refresh herself as much as possible before they started moving again. Her magic light took on a look of beatific zen.

Silently, she watched.

---

Skill Used: Enchanter: Heal, Keen Edge, Magic Light and Mana Trance
Word Count: 250
Tagged: Shuwen Avalon LuLu

[Shuwen]

Words: 657

Like most party-based mmos, Elder Tale used a party experience mechanic to ensure everyone in a group was able to level up. Normally, only the person who struck the finishing blow would gain experience points, with the exception of boss level monsters, who generally required a large number of people to defeat. To ensure that non damage dealers would gain their fair share of experience, if someone was in a party, the experience gained by someone in the party who killed a monster would instead by shared amongst the entire party, including those who didn’t do much in the way of damage. This mechanic was implemented with the purpose of keeping things fair for support-type units, and to avoid in-fighting amongst parties over who struck the finishing blow in a fight. Part of Shuwen’s irritation at Avalon was that as she wasn’t in their party, so she essentially stole experience points and items they would have obtained from finishing the fight. What Shuwen hadn’t considered was that they hadn’t had the opportunity to formally add Lulu to their party, so Shuwen’s decision to finish off the fox prevented Lulu from obtaining anything from the fight whatsoever. In his own haste and irritation, the Monk had accidentally committed a similar error, albeit a lesser one. Too bad the lack of communication and mutual awareness was probably going to exacerbate the issue far more then it ought to.

“And I didn’t expect to get kill-stolen. I guess that makes us both unexpected.” Rook might have mistook Avalon’s interference as an act of kindness, but considering they weren’t really having any trouble with the monsters to begin with, Avalon had essentially done little more then stolen the material rewards for winning the fight. It was one thing to help someone who’d gotten in over their head, like Lulu had been, but this was a different matter. She proceeded move closer to them so they could see her face, then smile and joke about thanking him for finishing off the last monster. The Monk wasn’t amused. “Very funny. Now, what do I need to do to get you to le-” However, his sentence was interrupted by an unexpected interruption. LuLu’s attitude underwent a sudden and confusing change. She suddenly started complimenting “his moves” and commented that she would like to see more of it.

“Um, what?” He replied, looking puzzled. To be honest, he wasn’t sure what she was talking about. Those had been normal, commonly used Monk class skills that anyone who’d picked the class and bothered to level up could perform. It wasn’t a particularly rare class, so there wasn’t anything special about them. While he did have other tricks up his sleeve that most players probably didn’t, the usefulness of those tricks was more conditional, and he hadn’t bothered making use of them in this particular fight. So directly such compliments at him directly merely confused him.

“Uh, never mind that. They’ve been taken care of,” the Monk began, gesturing in the direction the mobs had come from. He wasn't sure what Lulu was trying to do, but more primal part of his brain told him it was best to change the subject as quickly as possible. “So what do you want to do now? Rook and I are headed out of the forest so you can jo- err....” He’d been about to offer to let her join the party, but belatedly realized the Bard wasn’t the first person he needed to ask. He spun on one heel until he was facing Rook. “Would you be okay with her joining us? The Bard class isn’t geared towards soloing either.” Even if he was the nominal leader of the group, which he wasn’t sure he was, it was a pretty bad idea to invite someone else in without getting the okay from those who were already in the group. There was enough bad etiquette going around since Avalon appeared.

[LuLu]

The Darker of Two Evils

Lillian felt her eyes widen. She watched the monk as he threw her a confused look and she felt her head tilt, her cheeks brimming with pink and she let out a breath, calming the rage inside of her that had begun to build up. She had never, ever experienced something like Shuwen's actions. He had literally blown her off and changed the subject. She looked at the other two girls and then shrugged her shoulders. It seemed as though her 'school girl' tactics weren't going to work with him and she supposed it was for the best. She was exhausted and didn't necessarily think she could keep up with an act like that for much longer, even if she wanted too. It just wasn't her to begin with. She was starting to think that maybe she should just be herself, though that would probably lead to her being cut off from having someone take her out of the woods or back stab her. She wasn't a nice person, even her smile was a facade and if she showed her true self to these people, what would they do to her, she wondered.

She felt her fists clench and she narrowed her eyes at the wolf haired monk. She could feel her blood rising. She was lucky he was now facing Rook, because the look on her face could have probably killed him if he had looked at her. She shot out a huff of air at his back and clenched her teeth, and her fists. She wanted to suddenly punch him, but instead, she took another breath, focusing on easing her mind and let out a small cough, unfurling her fists from the rage that was spewing from her. She hoped no one could feel her aura, because if they could, they'd either attack or run for the hills, or they would have if this were the real world and she wasn't a lowly level one bard. "Actually, most bards aren't geared for solo playing because they one, don't want to be or two, they don't know how to put the class together. I, however, have made my class to be a solo player. Unfortunately, the levels in this area are far too high for it." She turned to Rook and lowered her head in a small bow. "If you'll have me, I only need help out of this forest. I can take care of myself afterwards." She swallowed hard. She felt like she was grovelling and she hated every second of it. It made her stomach swirl with sickness and her mind race with wanting to attack. But she couldn't attack these people.. Not at her current level anyways, so she held her thoughts and her rage in as she stood back up.

With her mind focused once again, she stood before all of them. There was no smile on her face, no anticipation, in fact, there was no emotion at all. She just stood, waiting for the answer of the girl, her eyes nearly dead and her pale face flat. She could feel that the girl didn't trust her, but she didn't care. She just wanted to the next town and then they could turn their backs on her and she on them and they could never see each other again. Though, her eyes flashed to Avalon. She wouldn't mind keeping this girl close, if only for her bow skills. She could see herself actually, kind of wanting to be friends with her, which made her want to vomit. She didn't want to make friends, but being in this kind of world, with no one, it would get annoying. She couldn't fight high leveled beings by herself, no one could. Most needed at least three, maybe even four adventurers of different classes. If she could find a few good players as she leveled up and continued on her journey, people she could connect with, even on a small, insignificant level, then she knew she would be okay to do boss battles. She smirked and then looked away from her, her eyes focusing once again on the two in front of her. The second she got to this new town, it was new clothes, food and sleep. That's all she wanted. She didn't want to be around anyone or anything other than sheets and a blanket. She just prayed that she had enough money to afford everything. She really didn't even know how she had accumulated the amount she had in the first place as she hadn't spent any time fighting, just walking around. Yup, she was becoming way to soft. She needed to snap out of it..

HP 100%

MP 86%

- Equipment -
Starter Leather Armor

- Weapons -
Starter Trident
Starter Tambourine

- Words -
780

- Tags -
Shuwen, Rook, Avalon

- Skills Used -
---

- Notes -
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Decorated By KittyGrey<3