[Social | Open] Sick to the Stomach

[Scharden Freuden]

A lean, young man finds himself in a decaying train station, the smell of rust wafts through the air. “What is even happening here…”, Shard thought to himself. “There’s no way that can smell like my bedroom.” He slowly spins around to take in a good hard look. His beady, crimson eyes dart from the blue bright sky, to the dilapidated structures that used to make up the subway, and to the heavily corroded rails by his feet. “No… definitely not my room, unless the landlord moved me to this dump… Guy’s tweaked, I’ll give him that.” Shard looks back down at the gravel piled around and absentmindedly kicks some of the stones, dull pings echo off the rusted tracks and that’s when he noticed his pants. A large HUD window pops up above his leg and read “Starter Cloth Armor”.



“Oh… no… No. No. No.”  Shard pats down his body and feels the sword and pistol strapped by his waist. More HUD windows appeared in his vision reading “Starter Pistol” and “Starter Rapier”, Shard starts to panic internally. “This can’t be real… No way… “. Shard covers his face with both hands and begins breathing deeply, trying to calm himself. “Breathe in… Breathe out…”, He thinks to himself with every breath. He slowly moves his hands to the back of his head and feels his hair under his hands. His hands keep going until he feels his avatar’s ponytail. Shard curiously squeezed the ponytail a few times before the obvious realization dawns on him. “This definitely is my avatar...and I’m in the game...the stuff of light novels and mangas…”, he said to himself, “And I’m apparently talking to myself out loud, I’m going to be sick.”



Shard buckles forward and retches loudly. As much as he tries to induce vomit, nothing comes out except meager amount of spittle, which he wipes off with the sleeve of his clothes. “Okay… there’s definitely some kind of desync between this body and my brain… I feel sick and want to hurl, but I can’t… Wonderful.”  Shard pull himself up and throws his head back to take in one last deep breath.



“Whatever is happening here, there’s no way I can do anything and staying in these tracks aren’t going to help.”  Shard opens his eyes and squints under the bright sun. Shard walks over to side of the platform and pulls himself out with a grunt. Shard dusts himself off and took another look around the station. He saw broken glass strewn around the floor and when he looked up, he saw missing squares in the ceiling where he deduced that the glass may have come from. In the corner of his vision, he saw a HUD appear, reading “St. Pancras Station”. “Well that answers the where question.” Shard decides to explore the station, trying his best to avoid stepping on glass.

[viso]

Malcolm had been taking to the streets of Londinium since his arrival. It had been a couple of days since he had arrived, and there was no sign that they were ever getting out of here. There was no use waiting to be rescued, as this seemed to be a time where staying put until you were found was likely not to do any good. He was starting small, getting to know his bearings. That meant exploring the city. He wasn’t ready to head outside of it yet, there were plenty of things he could learn around here.

This part of the city didn’t seem like it was in use, which was an interesting discovery. He imagined that cities grew out to meet growing needs, but here, it seemed that there was more city than people here. Given the overgrowth, the city looked like it had been around for a while. So either the people here had moved into the abandoned city, or they had suffered a population loss a long time ago that they had yet to recover from. With people arriving from Earth, well, they were going to need to expand, and it looked like there was going to be plenty of room to do so.

His eyes were drawn by a beam of light piercing the sky. Seemed there was another new arrival, and it was in the middle of an abandoned area of the city. The number of them were starting to decrease, and normally he would just let someone else take care of it. But, might take a while for someone to get there, and he was closer. Granted, a giant cat was probably not the best person to explain what was happening without the other thinking it was a hallucination. The new arrival would have plenty of time to be disillusioned to that notion. Malcolm started heading toward the light.

It didn’t take too long to get to the location. It seemed to be a subway station, at least, that was what he was guessing. Somewhere kinda big, glass scattered around, vines and other plant life overtaking the building. He stepped carefully, trying not to cut himself on the glass. He really needed a good pair of boots… He found a mostly broken window, and then used his staff to clear off any remaining shards of glass from the bottom. He climbs in, taking a look around the place. Various items were scattered around the place, left behind for centuries it looked like. His eyes looked around the place, not spying anyone yet, but, there looked to be plenty of places to hide around.

“Hello? Are you still here?” The werecat called out, his voice echoing out in the large empty space. His nose twitched at a few odd smells, the cat moving further in to look around. “I know things are probably confusing right now, but, you’re not the only one in this situation.”

[Scharden Freuden]

Aside from the light clicks of Shard’s shoes echoing through the empty subway, he heard something else happening further ahead in the direction he was heading. Glass shatters faintly which causes Shard to stop in his tracks and he strains to hear if there might be someone trying to intercept him. A voice bounces off the walls of the subway, far louder than the glass breaking in comedic, clinking noises.

“Hello? Are you still there? I know probably confusing right now, but, you’re not the only one in this situation?”

Shard forced himself to suppress the urge to slink away and hide until this stranger decides to leave the area. Instead, Shard silently calms himself down by weighing possible options on how to manipulate the eventual encounter to his advantage. “This person… It could be another player…. Or maybe something worse… In either case, they might possibly trying to find me or someone else, judging by this individual’s context.”, He thinks to himself as he strokes his chin. Shard looks around him and begins to formulate a plan. He notices that there are abandoned shops lined side by side. “This might work.”

Shard quickly ducks into a nearby shop and tried to make as much noise as possible to attract the stranger. He deliberately crushes glass underneath the soles of his shoes and scrapping the scabbard of his rapier against the stonework of the shop fronts. The half-alv swashbuckler slides to a halt and continues stomping into the dimly lit room. Shard’s eyes scanning across the store, blinking a few times to allow him to adjust to the low light levels. Rusted magazine ranks and bookshelves stand up defiantly against the test of time, which seemed to get Shard to crack a rare, small smile. He muses to himself, “This might actually be a good place to hole up in...seeing as how I am basically homeless. Could use a little clean up, though.~”

Shard tips over the worn magazine racks to make it look like someone has carelessly ran past to take shelter. Bounding through the shelves, he sees a counter that once served a purpose some long age ago. Shard vaults over the counter, but due to the faint lighting, one of his feet got caught on something. Thanks to the momentum and half-alv’s hastiness, he flips over the counter and lands squarely on his buttocks. “That could have gone better.”, he grumbles to himself in a low voice, brimming with grim humility. Shard’s ears seemed to feel like they were burning as he got back to his feet and nurses his backside with a short massage. Shard looks up and notices that there was a doorway that seems to lead to an employee’s room in the back. He scrambles into the doorway and tries to hide himself in the shadow. Shard puts a hand in his pocket and consciously knocks against the wall with his rapier scabbard in a steady beat, hoping it would lead the stranger to his stage. “Welcome to my parlor said the spider to the fly.”, he quietly chuckles to himself.

[viso]

Malcolm wasn’t hearing anything at first. That wasn’t particularly encouraging. The arrival may have already left the area, in which case, he wouldn’t really know where to go. Either that, or the new person was hiding somewhere. That was definitely a possibility. He walked a little further in, looking around the place. “Hello?” He called out once more, trying to coax anyone out there out. There wasn’t any reply or sign of this new person, and well, Malcolm wasn’t any kind of saint. He had been in the neighborhood, he’d tried to be a nice guy, but he wasn’t going to stay here for hours trying to find someone who didn’t want to be found. He was planning on heading back to explore the place when his ears picked up the sound of crunching glass.

His ears twitched at the sound, head turning to look over in that direction. He didn’t move right away, just looking that way and debating what to do in his head. Whoever was there hadn’t replied to his hail, so they likely didn’t want to talk at the moment, for whatever reason. Not exactly the stealthiest individual, but Malcolm had noticed that his ears were a bit keener than they had been before. Well, if it was a new arrival…. Maybe he could coax them out, though he didn’t exactly have high hopes for that. He’d make the attempt, but if they didn’t come out, he would just leave them to their solitude.

There was a crash of something heavy falling, and the werecat began moving slowly forward, trying not to scare whoever was there away. He avoided the glass once more though, quieter than the person he was following. “There isn’t any need to be afraid…. I mean, well, not of me in any case. I know your surroundings are probably new and strange, but there’s a lot of people here in the same situation. If you just want to stay where you are and talk, just speak up, and I’ll stop trying to find you. Whatever makes you comfortable.”

He follows after the steady beat of sound that he hears, ears twitching to hone in on the location. Caution was creeping in on him though. For someone who was hiding, they sure were making a lot of sound. Could be fear and nerves, but it could be more. The cat stopped, hand tightening on his staff. Shard could likely see him now, standing beyond the counter, though the werecat had yet to notice him. Malcolm was starting to think that leaving may be the better option.

[Scharden Freuden]

Shard continues beating the wall with the tip of his scabbard. “Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!” Until he heard a concerned voice cutting through the beats. “There isn’t any need to be afraid…. I mean, well, not of me in any case. I know your surroundings are probably new and strange, but there’s a lot of people here in the same situation. If you just want to stay where you are and talk, just speak up, and I’ll stop trying to find you. Whatever makes you comfortable.”

Shard stares hard through the gloomy shadows of the decrepit book store and he saw a vaguely humanoid silhouette. Yet, something felt a little off about the figure to Shard. His eyes took a while to adjust and he saw whiskers coming out of the new guest’s face. He was even more taken aback by the unnaturally golden eyes that tried to scan through the dim lighting of the store. “Hmmm? Seems like a beastman race and a guy judging by the voice...He sounds knowledgeable about this...I guess, reality swap is the best words I can think of now...Still if he was following the sounds then I guess there’s nothing to worry about here. I recall this station being a part of the game as within the Londinium city borders...Then...this place must be able to block out monsters...or...the Guardian System is still running somehow...There’s just too many things that I don’t’ know yet...welp, time to greet the audience…”

Shard step confidently out of the back room and towards the counter, his shoes clicking against the floor. An uncontrollable smirk creeps onto Shard’s face and he unconsciously keeps his hands close to his weapons.

“Afraid, you say? You’re the one following rather suspiciously loud noises. If anyone should be worried about the other, it should be me. Do you have a habit of falling into traps?”