[h1][center][color=orangered]Marie O'Hare
Queen Morag[/color][/center][/h1]
[hr]

[color=silver]"Sorry to interrupt, but if you both have a moment, I was wondering if you guys happened to open a copy of Rift Warriors X only to be greeted by a blank character portrait?"[/color] 

Marie pulled her eyes away from the unclear reflection in her armor and looked forward as two figures that had previously escaped her notice approached. She blinked once as astonishment washed over her. [color=orangered][i]Sitra and...HellfireRider in Jesse cosplay? Wait...[/i][/color]

[color=orangered]"ClawsOfTheLioness? And--"[/color]

[color=silver]"I'm sorry, I guess I should have introduced myself first. I'm Thomas or you may know my screen name HellfireRider. Based on your outfits, I can only assume you are ForTheRedQueen, and you...You must be that rookie player who came out of nowhere in the last few months? Sorry if I can't remember your screen name. Rather impressive feat regardless."[/color] 

Marie nodded her head at Thomas. She'd met him and ClawsOfTheLioness a few times at tournaments. Thomas in particular seemed personable enough for the handful of time she'd met him, and had helped her with a few of her hurdles. It was reassuring to have him along for whatever kind of ride this was going to be.

[color=pink]“Ohmigosh, hi! I’ve heard of you! Yeah, uh… that’s me… I’m a filthy casual as they say… Um… I never expected to make it this far, I’m shocked as everyone else… Uh, my username is TwinkleStar. Um… I-I-I know it doesn’t go with the whole Spartan thing. It’s a username I made up when I was younger and I kind of use it for everything… Um… you know what… just… just… call me Danny…”[/color]

[color=orangered][i]"Filthy casual," he says after giving me so many problems.[/i][/color] The Spartan was a particularly annoying character to fight against, what with all the special effects and ailments his kit could inflict, and this Danny had proven to be enough of an expert at exploiting that annoyance to almost take the fourth spot from her, and the player who'd ended up in the sixth spot had been no pushover, either. [color=orangered][i]To think it'd turn out to be a kid even worse at personing than me. Huh.[/i][/color]

[color=silver]"So if four of us are here, that can only mean we're waiting on one last player to arrive."[/color]

[color=9D1E2F]"...And the devil shall appear. I'm Ren."[/color]

Now this was a guy who was even more of a mystery than Marie tried to be. He was fairly personable to interact with, and he'd been a good enough sport to give her advice during the couple times she'd met him at tournaments, but their interactions never really went beyond that. She'd be tempted to call Thomas a friend, but this guy was definitely still in "acquaintance" territory. 

[color=pink]“Hello to you too. I think Aster Wilde is really cute! Oh gosh, I’m sorry if that made you uncomfortable… Um… You know what I’m just going to stop talking now…”[/color]

[color=orangered]"Good, that means I can start,"[/color] Marie announced, stepping between Ren and Danny halberd-first. [color=orangered]"ANYWAY, that's right, I'm RedQueen, though Lioness and Heckrider know me as Marie. And yeah, I saw the blank character portrait on the select screen of ten, too. Soooooo, we all put in our copy, saw a character select screen with only our main on it, and now we're in Rift Warriors itself and dressed as our character? Why? Did Masada agree to sacrifice us to the elder god he made a pact with in exchange for his game dev skills?"[/color]