[CENTER][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/210130/e0cb160ca3d86f8cb8540be25e5665b5.png[/img][/CENTER]
[indent][indent][indent][color=gray][sub][right][color=#98A9B1][b]Location:[/b][/color] Wayfarer’s Retreat -- The City of Thorinn, Aetheria[/right][/sub][/color]
[hr]

[i]Great.[/i] He didn’t recognize her from the past-he’d played almost completely public games and why should he remember people he attacked for not keeping their DPS up? But now here he was; given a chance. A [i]test[/i] which meant that he couldn’t simply bully other players to quit and gather a new party. No, he had to make do with the group he had right here.

He turned to Seele. 

[color=98A9B1]"Alright Seele, you're a support. What are your support abilities, and what is your DPS when you're not supporting the party?”[/color] He needed to gauge exactly what she could offer to the party; and whether she’d invested enough in magic that she could provide some small DPS bumps when they didn’t need her support magic up. If she had healing capabilities, she could support Kazuki and take the pressure off his brother. 

 [color=92278f]"Well, I've got quite a few spells up my sleeves! Plenty of defensive and offensive buffs, a fair number of stat and ability debuffs, and a healthy amount of crowd-control--oh! and shields. No damage, I'm afraid, or convention heals, but we've got Kazuki for the real stuff!”[/color]

[i]No damage.[/i] He felt the words rise up in his chest. A snide remark, a venomous barb, anything to tell this little no-nothing plebian that if she couldn’t add to the party comp in a meaningful way, she could fuck back off to the welcome center and relearn the [i]GODDAMN GAME.[/i] 

Those words didn’t come out. He felt the glances of Aaginim’s party on him. He knew he was being judged. This was his judgment, his grand trial from the gods themselves for all he’d done. And then Rael came up, spitting venom, and she had the gall to smart off to him-in their own mother tongue! He stared her down, but not out of anger; he was frozen. His heartbeat pounded, and the only thing he could hear was the staccato rhythm of his elevated heart levels. He breathed in deeper through his nose, doing everything to keep his composure. He wanted to smart back; he’d had so many insults from school where the bigger boys would push him around on the way home from school, he’d make snide remarks that would end with him getting a blackened eye or pushed down the hill towards the river. But then…[i]she relented.[/i] And he realized he had to make this party work, even if he was dealing with at least one useless player. 

[color=98A9B1]“Alja, I’m going to need you to run as a DPS for this encounter,”[/color] he said almost robotically, doing everything he could to remain at some semblance of calm. He reached into his knapsack and produced a piece of parchment, and quickly began drawing symbols onto it. The symbols represented each of the players: a spear for Rael, a sword for Graves, a bow for Alex, and so on. [color=98A9B1]“This will be our lineup. Rael will the main tank, tanking the front of the party. Her agility makes her suited for reacting to threats first, without putting the rest of the party in harm’s way. At the same time,”[/color] he muttered, drawing a long arc away from the party, [color=98A9B1]“I believe Graves’ skills as a solo DPS player would better fit giving him an entire flank to himself.”[/color] He pointed to a central location, where both his symbol and Seele’s symbol were. [color=98A9B1]“I will be off-tanking and adding support along with Seele,”[/color] he noted. [color=98A9B1]“Shields first, for Rael and Graves, then offensive boosts for everyone engaging with mobs,”[/color] he noted to her. [color=98A9B1]“This other flank will be Alja’s, but she’ll be closer to the party. And here-”[/color] he noted a symbol of a scythe that was further away from the party, [color=98A9B1]“is Kalie. With the majority of the party grouped up here, mobs will attack the aggro that I and Alja build up. That will give Kalie opportunities to use her assassin skills and increase our DPS.”[/color]  

Finally there was the backline, which made up Kazuki and Alex. [color=98A9B1]“Alex will act as ranged DPS, but also will cover our backline. You’ll need to keep awareness around you, especially of mobs that try and sneak around to flank the group. Kazuki, I need you to stay aware of this too.”[/color] he looked at his brother, nodding. [color=98A9B1]“We are the equivalent of a public party, and we have expert level players, and newbie level players. I know some of you will play high level automatically...and I have to accept some of you won’t. So the majority of the group will remain central, supporting our heavy hitter teammates and keeping them alive until we can scout out whatever bosses are waiting for us.”[/color] 

He looked among the group; since-apart from Graves-the rest had practically gathered around. [color=98A9B1]“Are there any objections to this plan?”[/color]

[/indent] [/indent] [/indent]