[i]The events of this post have been coordianted with pre-approved by the GM.  It most likely involves everyone at the guild hall, but I'm Mentioning several who are most directly concerned[/i]

[hr]

[@Rune_Alchemist][@Hammerman][@BurningDaisies]

So the time had finally come.  A woman with Egyptian-styled 'clothing' and a bust of nothing less than titanic proportions, having elevated herself upon a prominent table, called attention to herself.  Only scant seconds remained on the clock, visible in the upper-right corner of the HUD where Emile had sequestered it.  Opening his eyes, the Comet Chaser thought it only fair to target the voluptuous lady as she made her little announcement, which in turn made his character's head face her as he drifted down to the ground.  Of course, it also proc'd his Sylphic Visor, causing her level and HP to appear in his private chat channel.  [i]95, naturally.[/i]  In the briefest of moments that were left, the woman uttered a few words and then gestured to the guild hall's physical clock.  Its ever-moving hands counted down the instants left.  [i]Five.[/i]  In the end, Emile was glad that Yggdrasil was going out with a little bang after all, rather than a depressing slide to nothingness.  [i]Four.[/i]  He quickly unlocked his target and looked around to find his niece.  [i]Three[/i].  There she was, standing near a few female characters by the bar.  Had she decided to try drinking now, of all times?  [i]Two[/i].  Quickly he turned back to the clock, watching the big hand like a hawk as it moved for the final time.  [i]How's this gonna work, anyway?  Black screen with a popup, maybe?[/i]

[i]One[/i]

Everything became a blur.  Bewildered, disoriented, and with his head ringing Emile felt as though he'd gotten drunk and in his stupor started spinning, though he could make out one thing through the haze: the sensation of falling backward.  A second later, his back hit the ground hard, and the impact both drove the wind out of his lungs and seemingly kickstarted his senses back into gear.  While everything was still fuzzy, Emile gave a groan, thinking that the feedback from the game's sudden shutdown had caused him to fall back in his recliner.  [color=5D8AA8]”Jesus Christ...”[/color] he muttered, blinking.  The instant his eyes cleared and he beheld a vaulted stone ceiling, he jolted awake.  [i]I'm still in the game?  What the hell happened?  Botched shutdown...[/i]  But something was off.  He sat up, and found his consciousness bombarded by a series of realizations in short order.

The first thing that he noticed -that his vision appeared to have a slight yellow-green tint- slipped his mind when his eyes landed on the ample lady from before, still atop her table, and a little holographic readout blinked into existence in his peripherals.  Still not understanding, he read the stylized font.  

[right][i]POWER : EXTREME
CONDITION : UNTOUCHED[/i][/right]

It wasn't unlike the PM sent by his Visor whenever he targeted someone, demonstrated only moments before, but instead of numbers it used description, as well as appearing somewhere else.  Come to think of it, he could sense the weight of the visor on his head, and the clothes on his body.  Somewhat dumbfounded, he could only mutter, [color=5D8AA8]”Weird...”[/color]  Compelled more by instinct than reason, he reached toward his face and, without any issue, undid and removed his helmet.  The tint disappeared, and he turned the crested helmet around in his gloved hands to look at the front.  The visor implanted over the eyes was clearly visible, one lens emerald-green and the other citrine-yellow.  [i]None of this makes sense.[/i]  In Yggrasil, one didn't do any of it that way.  For starters, characters always landed on their feet after a fall, taking fall damage if they had no preventative measures but otherwise able to move just fine.   Players de-equipped items by bringing up their inventory tabs using hand motions.  [i]On second thought, this makes too much sense.  Everything feels...freaky real...[/i]  His thoughts were swept away as if by a cyclone as something clicked in his mind.

Emile stared at his right lower leg.  There was nothing odd about it, other than that it was [i]there.[/i]  He could feel the texture of his boot and the ground beneath the heel as if it had never been lost.  Now thoroughly shocked, he reached out with a shaking hand and touched it, then after confirming its existence gingerly tried to stand to his feet, moving just as he might in real life.  He turned his head to look around, the material of his coat and collar stretching and straining just as one might were it not a data-construct in a game, and Emile reached his own conclusion.  Taking a deep breath, he reached up and ran his gloves hand across his head.  The surface was soft and smooth.  A strange mixture of excitement and horror surged through Emile's veins as he reached down to his waist and drew one of his swords halfway.

In the reflection of the perfectly-polished blade was the face of an owl, staring back at him with lustrous golden eyes.

[color=5D8AA8]”Whoa.”[/color]  The mirrored beak opened and closed, and Emile felt his own mouth move.  [color=5D8AA8]”Whoa!  Okay...okay.”[/color]  Even his voice was different.  Had no clue how, or why, or anything really, but faced with all this evidence he had to accept it: fiction had become reality.

On the heels of that ultimate realization came a nagging thought.  He attempted to open a menu, and nothing happened.  [i]I can't quit.  Oh God, what's happened to the real me?  And where's...?”[/i]  He whipped his head around, not noticing that he was able to crane his neck much farther to the side than usual.  By the bar he spotted a familiar shape, and even from here he could tell she was trembling badly.  [i]Liana.[/i]  Putting all thoughts of the real world out of his head, he turned her way and started to move.  At first he limped, not trusting the leg that had been nothing more than phantom pain for over a decade, but by the time he reached his niece's side he was running normally.

With a sobbing sound the Shoggoth threw her arms around the Strigiforme, and he wrapped his own around her in a comforting hug.  His helmet bounced on the floor and rolled next to the leg of December, but Emile didn't notice.  The bizarre texture of Liana's exterior almost made him recoil, but he controlled the impulse and instead murmured, [color=5D8AA8]”Shush, baby.  I'm here.  I'm here for you.  Just stay calm.  Don't you worry about nothin'.”[/color]  

Liana's body shook with another sob, and in a gargled voice almost as frightening as it was frightened she whispered, [color=E2725B]“Un-uncle what's, what's happenin', I feel...I feel naked, everything's...movin', I can't feel my legs, only [i]things[/i] twistin' around oh my God please, Uncle E, what'd goin' on!?"[/color]

Slowly, Emile shook his head.  [color=5D8AA8]”Hush, baby girl.  It's gonna be alright.  Don't need be scared, everything's fine, just try an'...relax.”[/color]

[color=E2725B]“I feel...so h-horrible...like a m-monster....!”[/color]

About half a minute passed before something splattered onto the tile only a few feet away.  Emile glanced at it on reflex, seeing the congealed blood and mucus melting only a short ways away from a village girl, a demoness, and a beastkin.  With a gulp, he glanced upward.

A couple stories ahead floated the Beholder that Liana had summoned only a few minutes ago, except this wasn't the palette-swapped monster Emile remembered.  It was a disgusting, nightmarish conglomeration of mangled flesh and protruding pig body parts, with writhing tentacles flailing in every direction from the central body that held its one enormous, blood-red eye.  A hair-raising noise resounded through the guild hall, like nothing else they'd ever heard before.

[b][i]vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV![/i][/b]

The abomination's eye lit up like a red sun, and from the gargantuan peeper issued an equally gigantic scarlet laser.  The beam tore through the guild building's wall, obliterating the medium-quality masonry hastily purchased for Apocalypse Now's construction.  As the monster turned, its beam traveled from the wall to the floor, destroying furniture and item alike with its raw power.

Liana screamed, burying her head in Emile's chest -the teeth on her headdress deflected by his Windbreaker- and the two hunkered down as debris began to fall from the decimated wall and ceiling.