[center][h1][color=fffd7a]Melody Hart[/color][/h1][/center]
[hr]

Melody pushed open the door to the Hart household. There was no greeting, as always, from within the silent, empty expanse of the two-story building. For the last five years, it had only ever had two inhabitants, and one never left his room. Melody shut the door behind her before stepping from the front hall to the living room. Melody wasn't certain how long it had been since it had last seen use; dust hadn't yet begun to cover the unnecessary couches and chairs, but they gave off a clear air of disuse. 

There was one clearly well-kept item, though: an old guitar that hung solemnly over the long-unused fireplace. Melody stepped timidly to it over the carpeted floor, tossing her heavy bag of textbooks on one of the couches. She stopped a few feet from the instrument, examining it's wooden construction. The acoustic guitar in front of her had belonged to her father before his death. It hadn't been played since, and neither had any of his other guitars. He almost kept a collection of sorts. The attic probably help several instruments of more interesting construction than this one, but none of them deserved to sit here, to seemingly greet Melody every day. No, this one had been her father's guitar, and his father's before him. It was important, if not particularly flashy. She stared at it for a few extra seconds before turning around and heading towards the stairs.

[color=fffd7a]"Not today,"[/color] she muttered as she walked up to the second floor.

Music was blaring from the first door on the left. Luckily, it was low enough that Melody couldn't hear exactly what was being blasted throug her brother's speakers today. She knocked twice, and within moments the music was silenced behind headphones, revealing the distinct, furious clacking of a mechanical keyboard. A half-bitter smile perched itself on Melody's face as she stared at the door. Everything was so close, yet maintaining an impossible distance.

She crossed the hall into the next room down, an old office that had once belonged to their mother. It was stripped of most of her documents and file cabinets shortly after the murder, leaving it relatively bare. Now, a mattress lay on the ground next to the computer desk. Melody had always preferred laying down when in VR. She took a bottle of water from a case in the corner before turning to close the door. She tossed her shoes haphazardly into the corner, her shirt soon following; It wasn't entirely necessary, but the room wasn't the most well ventilated in the house, and it could get quite warm if the VR rig was left running long enough, plus this was more comfortable. Sam wouldn't be bursting in anytime soon anyway.

Melody stretched, sighing deeply before taking a swig from the water bottle. She didn't have classes tomorrow, so she could spend long into the night in World's End Online, and she definitely planned to, having lost a few of her prime hours to hanging out with some friends after class. She would get through at least one raid tonight, even if it killed her. She put the water down by the far end of the mattress, so that there were no chances she would knock it over and end her gaming session early, and quickly kicked off her pants. Socks would be more than enough clothing for tonight's session. She decided to lock the door now, before moving over to turn on the VR machine.

She was stopped by a single post-it note on the headset.

[color=004b80]"Maintenance. Weird Shrine." [/color]

Three words, and in barely-legible handwriting that marked it as Sam's creation. Melody's brother certainly had a way with words. She tossed the note in the garbage, deciding to decipher whatever Sam probably meant AFTER she got into the game and saw it for herself. He always tended to leave those sorts of esoteric notes of where he would leave their character, and they all made so little sense that Melody had begun to disregard them entirely. She just forgot to not read this one. Oh well.

The machine booted up fast enough once she actually pressed the button. All that was left to do was put on the headset and connect it, and she'd be back in World's End. Melody smiled, letting out a soft "woo!" as she threw herself onto the mattress and slipped the headset on.

[hr]
Physical sensations disappeared; the real world, and all of Melody's worries fading from view. Slowly, they were replaced by something much better as the VR system tested itself in its boot-up sequence, confirming that she would feel the game's intended effects without any errors. It didn't take more than a few seconds, the test sensations shifting further. She felt the clothing form on her back, the cloak that had gently begun swaying around her, the shoes on her feet, and she heard the murmurings of players, the clearest sign that she was fully loaded into the game.

Nomine opened her eyes in an unfamiliar, endless expanse of white, which was stopped only by the grass beneath the feet of her and the players around her, who she slowly began to comb her eyes through, before remembering to check what item-set she had equipped. Sam hadn't switched back to Melody's gear before logging out like he usually did, probably due to that maintenance he mentioned. She decided not to bother him about it this time.

Within moments, Nomine looked like herself again, with a soft white cloak, wonderfully large hat, and moon staff. It was the most stylish combination she had on hand, mostly due to Sam deleting everything else, so it would have to do. She turned back to the crowd, finding her eyes fixated on a massive gate, inside it only darkness. It was certainly striking. Nomine was half tempted to approach it until an NPC appeared and addressed the crowd, inviting them into a new campaign. The EULA appeared in Nomine's hand while the rabbit maid spoke, which she gave a quick once-over before accepting.

A new campaign, in some new setting sure seemed exciting. It wasn't exactly a raid, but it certainly had it's advantages, especially if the devs had improved things this time around. Of course, Nomine still needed to party up. An acolyte was useless on her own. It was too bad that Nomine couldn't see any MOONPHASE members directly...

Scratch that.

She turned to find a tall, heavily armored figure that had been standing directly behind her. He was almost twice her height, making her look like a child in comparison. She had to sort of strain to view his face, but she was able to make out a thick, dark beard, and slicked back, mid-length hair. His relatively chiseled features made it clear that his character was at least somewhat customized, but the broad nose and wide eyes had a semblance of realness to them. Or maybe he had just told her that those were the real parts of his character's design in a conversation she half remembered. She did recall talking to him before, and he was definitely a member of MOONPHASE, with the Weird Hat on his head. It blinked at her as she tried to recall his name.

Cygnus, right. His username was CygnusDaGreat420, an unfortunate result of late night bad decisions, from what Nomine could tell. He was a relatively early member of the guild, often considered one of its best members. Of course, considering that MOONPHASE was a role-playing guild based around worshiping a single user, that often only involved putting on a persona, and not actually playing the game well. From what Nomine knew though, Cygnus was an accomplished PVP player, at least on his alts.

[color=fffd7a]"Afternoon Cyggy, how's the weather up there?"[/color] She half yelled at the giant. It was always strange to Melody how Nomine's voice always seemed slightly brighter, and even more feminine than her own, which was amusing due to Sam being the one who chose the specific voice modulation settings for the character. Cygnus stepped back a few feet, kneeled, placed his fist in the dirt, and pointed his head down whilst closing his eyes.

[color=f7976a]"Praise be Nomine, the great goddess of the moon, light of the hereafter, and keeper of us mere mortals! Oh thank thee for the blessing that is your voice and presence!"[/color] He completed the obligatory saying, and brought his head back up, steel kneeling so that they were on a slightly more even height level. Nomine had long since learned that telling the MOONPHASE members to tone down their role-playing was pointless. They didn't often care about the stares their strange actions got. Even other RP guilds would laugh at them on occasion.

[color=fffd7a]"Anyone else around? I want to get a party together for this new campaign,"[/color] Nomine was almost bouncing with energy. She didn't want to be standing around all day. Though, it certainly made her look even more like some sort of hyperactive child.

[color=f7976a]"Your Holiness, I regret to inform you that most of your knights have not logged in on this day,"[/color] he lowered his voice to a near-whisper before adding "and those that are decided to use their alts instead." Oh well. Nomine couldn't really get MOONPHASE members using their alternate accounts involved, it was best to keep those as far removed as possible. It was kind of funny that as devoted as people could act, and as obvious as some users' reasons for joining were, namely following Nomine around everywhere, they were impossibly afraid of actually being connected to MOONPHASE.

[color=fffd7a]"Random party it is then!"[/color] Nomine declared, before turning from Cygnus to the crowd of random users around the pitch-black gate. "Oh yea, Cyggy," Nomine added, turning her head back to the gargantuan warrior, [color=fffd7a]"I forgot to ask if you'll be partying with me, sorry. Will you?"[/color]

[color=f7976a]"I'll just follow you tonight, your Holiness."[/color] He explained that he had finished three hours of PVP before the maintenance had started, and that had only ended a few minutes prior. Cygnus would act as some sort of half-bodyguard, half-tourist, Nomine guessed. It wasn't like she was in any real danger, but either way, MOONPHASE took their role-playing quite seriously.

Nomine glanced around the area. She saw a few parties beginning to form. There were two major ones that she could see: One near the portal, consisting of two players who had run straight into and bounced off of it, and two others; and a party consisting of a guy floating in a water orb, a goat man, and two more normal looking players. She considered her options for a moment, even thinking about searching around to see if any other groups were forming, before eventually settling on the group with the water orb.

Nomine darted over, though as she approached, the goat man and the floating merman had split off towards the portal. It didn't seem like the party had split up, not exactly, but that made things slightly more annoying. Oh well. Nomine continued towards the two members of the party that hadn't run off, though she was surprised when Cygnus overtook her, stopping in front of the two players and folding one arm behind his back, the other splayed out in a show of ridiculous theatrics common only to MOONPHASE, as Nomine came to a stop.

[color=f7976a]"BEHOLD!"[/color] The giant of a man bellowed his lines, unphased by the fact that he was clearly interrupting a conversation [color=f7976a]"before you now stands Her Holiness, the moon goddess Nomine! Praise be for she is the guide to the hereafter, the keeper of mortal lives, and she who leads us into victory! By her divine wisdom, you mortals have been-"[/color] He was cut off with a sudden look of surprise. He glanced down to see Nomine holding her staff like some sort of bat, having just whacked her loyal follower in the palm of the hand to shut him up. He would survive.

[color=fffd7a]"Don't mind Cyggy, he gets a bit too invested, sometimes. Mind if I party up with you and your friends?"[/color] She glanced towards the two who were now standing over by the portal, an idiotic grin plastered on her face.