A young man stood frozen in the centre of Akihabara, one arm extended awkwardly. His train of thought, thoroughly derailed as it was, ran as thus; [i]Where is my sake? I paid ¥700 for a double shot, so what kind of evil bastard took my drink?[/i] Somehow, something didn't quite match up... Whether it was the sudden brightness around him, the leather glove on his hand or the mysterious disappearance of the drink he had been about to pick up drink, he couldn't decide... As the thought ran through to it's logical conclusion, or in this case lack of one, the young man straightened slowly and cast a long, slow look around. Broken-down, moss-covered cars, half-collapsed buildings and a scattering of people in fantasy outfits, most looking as confused as he... To his dismay, surveying the scene only baffled him more.

He took a seat at the side of the street and had a good long think about the situation; the longer he sat, the more little details he began to notice. There were two kinds of people around him, some in various forms of armour with a floating name above their heads of all things and others that looked like medieval peasants. While the latter were quite calm, the former were all having panic attacks of their own; in the same situation as him perhaps? The floating names gave him an idea and he looked up; to his amazement, it wasn't just his name he found, but a full HUD around the periphery of his vision, including the name Ragnar. The young man stood up suddenly, pounding one fist into his other hand emphatically. [b]'Ah, I see.',[/b] he chuckled. [b]'I'm in Elder Tale, the game. That makes perfect sense. Obviously!'[/b] [i]Either I'm completely wasted or I'm tripping some serious balls...[/i]

Since this was clearly a delusion, he decided he might as well play the part of Ragnar and enjoy his time here; Hell, for all he knew he might be passed out in an alley right now and this was basically like playing the game for free, with upgraded graphics to boot. Why waste it? And so Ragnar took off to have a look around the city, exploring his HUD as he went. His subconscious was quite through; he even had a friends list and guild tab... A few of his guildmates were online too. He paused by a market stall, apparently run by the People of the Land, Elder Tale's NPCs, considering whether to contact one of his friends. Or the version of his friends that his drug-addled brain had thought up at any rate.