[center][h1][color=orangered][u]R e d s k y[/u][/color][/h1][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][hr][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]  • Tʜᴇ Dᴜɴɢᴇᴏɴ • [/center][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][hr][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]
The descent into the depths of the dungeon was silent save for Red's constant humming. She was never one to be quiet, especially when it was a good idea considering she could be rousing anything in the darkness. But hum she did, even as the jittery mechanism of the gate gave way behind them. She hummed until the ghost appeared. Then she lost her appetite for humming.

Reality came crashing down like a searing knife. It wasn't possible. It was a game, a game her father's company had done back-end work on it, the systems were flawless. There wasn't a chance in the world that it could have been compromised. In a moment, that cruel demon, doubt, crept into her thoughts and she found herself staggering, eyebrows forming a frown. Her mind ticked over every detail, every flare of emotion the admin displayed. It couldn't be a trick, it would be a PR disaster if there was even a slight hint of technical failure in the VR device. And so, within a few moments her hope had been eaten away and she came to realise that this wasn't just a game anymore.

Her mind would have wandered further had it not been for Landon and his explosives. She didn't even think. Breathing fire into her hands, she lit his fuse and watched with eager eyes as fire engulfed the metal frame of the gate... and left it untarnished.

Her hands felt like lead, her feet like concrete blocks pulling her deeper and deeper under the waves of torment lashing at her. She had only put him to bed an hour before logging on, he was probably still asleep now, blissfully unaware. The strangest thing happened then - she laughed. She laughed because there was not much else she could do. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she laughed.

All he would remember would be her voice, her quiet reassurances. He would grow up an orphan and he would curse her to the day he died for dying in a stupid game. She eventually stopped laughing and resigned to leaning against a wall, her eyes staring off to some distant object. Sky couldn't leave him, not alone to face the world. He was everything to her and if she didn't at least try to get back to him then she wasn't a true mother. Her resolve hardened, her tears stopped and she let her nails dig into her the skin of her palms to bring herself back around. If the gate didn't work then they weren't about to just sit around and wait until something came to kill them. There was only one way out.

[color=orangered]"There's only one real option and you all know that. If they're smart then we'll just have to be smarter. We're all high level players, the chanc..."[/color] She quieted and lowered her head and for a moment, it was Skylar in that dark dungeon. People didn't want to hear about chances or how good they were. They needed the truth. [color=orangered]"Listen, I know a lot of us are here because we didn't like our lot in life. We were outcasts or we fucked up and we came here. But there's something out there for all of us, something that stops us from just giving up and staying here forever, something real. So isn't it worth a shot just trying to get back to that real thing?"[/color] She frowned once more but this time she looked determined. It was a bad situation but she had every intention of beating it and it just so happened she needed everyone around her to beat it as well.