[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/190215/9c4a692905beeb766edf23457c4c4905.png[/img] [color=6ecff6]01101001011011100110011001 10100101101100011101000111 00100110000101110100011011 1101110010[/color] [/center] [color=6ecff6][:: The Universe >> Legion of Lions War Room ::] [:: user: Blake ::][/color] “Kasumi, are you in yet?” “I'm in.” Her low voice, almost to the point of a whisper, acknowledged after a momentary pause. It was supposed to be simple enough. Going through the path of least resistance wasn't anything new to her, and slipping in and out undetected proved to be much more fun. So much so, she held one of the highest scores for non-lethal run throughs in several tactical and stealth-based games within The Universe. Taking that route also helped her to gain a few extra bonus points each time, moving her further up the leaderboards and helping to elevate her clan, Legion of Lions. Blake despised violence quite honestly, in and out of the game, and so those values fashioned her avatar into decent infiltration unit, getting as far away from full-frontal combat as possible. However, the girl could still hold her own if it came down to fisticuffs. “Alright, once you find the main control, then- “ “Yes, yes, I know, Rex.” She calmly interrupted. “This isn't my first power grid penetration.” “This is true, K” The other chuckled. “But just remember the two-second on the panels motion detector.” “Taken care of.” “What?” There was a pause before Kasumi allowed a slight sigh to escape her lips. “The motion was disabled, Rex. Would you just chill and let me do my job?...” Even when interruptions from fellow clan mates and incessant comm chatter could annoy the woman to no end, she still tried to be polite while maintaining a professional attitude and focus on the job at hand. “Please?” During the battle, as usual, chaos ensued on all sides, and the Fists of Omega put up a hell of a good fight. For her part, Kasumi, made sure [i]debuffs[/i] were a-plenty, and Omega's turrets and tracking systems were disabled long enough for Legion to sweep up the remaining threats. And while she made the task seem easy enough, it took a lot of planning on her users end to make sure each mission was executed with precision and efficiency. Besides, Blake wouldn't have it any other way. In the War Room, everyone was counting the credits won, some more than twice out of sheer boredom perhaps. Of course, what was on the mind and hearts of all players was the “Challenge of the Gods” given two months ago, with no winners in sight as of yet. But even after so many years of being apart of the gaming community and having played within so many of the various games and worlds, the developers still managed to keep content fresh and everyone on the edge of their proverbial seats. It was really the only way to keep a lot of those trying to live a life outside of TU, from going absolutely mad. Tucked away across the War Room, Kasumi generally sat alone, especially after long raids and clan battles, just to reflect, and do a bit of personal inventory. Eventually she wanted to sell some of the higher tier items acquired over the last few months, upgrade her avatar’s gear, and perhaps even take advantage of real-world gadgets and goodies thanks to conversion and liquidation of assets within The Universe. There was also a few minutes of downtime for Blake -her avatar in sort of an “AFK” mode- as she had to take a mental break after so many hours of being jacked in, and there were times where her joints felt sore. Of course, ever since the accident that rendered her unable to walk again, everything tended to hurt in some capacity. She hated being stuck in a wheelchair, and while it may be state-of-the-art courtesy of her father’s rank and influence within Hiroshi Technologies, it was still simply a crutch and a reminder of just how much of a useless human being she was outside of the virtual world. Sure, she had her intelligence, technical skills, and a myriad of other work-related assets that made her quite valuable within the company. But was that all she was? The girl couldn’t even look at herself in the mirror without seeing a scarred, handicapped, monster. Kasumi took over once again after about ten minutes of hang time, and she glanced across the room with a cheesy smirk, passed the gathering of her clan mates, to where Nao was casually sitting on the couch doing her best impression of “proud black female badass extraordinaire”. For all of Michael’s faults, he still managed to make her laugh in and out of the workplace.