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Mari Kougami


Kagura's immediate... Well, groveling... Was... Quite... Sudden, if anything. Certainly not the reaction Mari had expected. No, certainly not. Of all the ways to react, freaking out and bending her back to her own will...?
Was there something that happened in this girl's childhood that could've messed with her that badly to cause this? A byproduct of her personality? Something entirely different?

Well, either way, she had to diffuse the situation fast, before her partner had a complete nervous breakdown.

"N-nonono. it's fine, it's fine. You don't have to go out of your way to accommodate me, after all. It wouldn't sit well with me." Mari said quickly shaking her head in disapproval. "But, honestly, there's no need to act the way you are right now. I just suggested that we let the relationship develop naturally than force i-"

...
Oh.
Well.
That statement might have been a mistake.
Should I be waiting for Mutton rn?
Melia

With a pile of wolf corpses at her feet, Melia let out a huge sigh and wiped the few sweat drops that had formed off of her forehead. It was likely just a pack of wolves that had attacked her, but the fact that they were roaming close to the city probably meant that something more was amiss about this whole situation than she entirely anticipated. After Araldyne had moved up from a trading post into a town, players left and right had worked to clear out the area and deal with the mobs as the NPCs did their thing. That also meant setting up guards to patrol the area. So then why...?

"...This is too strange," she said to herself quietly as she flicked the blood off her katana (was there ever blood in the game? She didn't think so...) and sheathed it back into its scabbard before looking around. The chaos in Araldyne seemed like it would persist a while longer, which meant that, more likely than not, she would be better off looking elsewhere for the moment for relatively-calm people.

"Now, where could I go for that, though...?"

Pulling up the minimap with a few motions of her hand, Melia glanced at the area from above. She was just outside the western gate, which was a few miles off from the base of Rolu Mountain. The journey would take a while, and since she wasn't sure if this was a 'death game' or not, decided against heading there straight away. After all, throwing her life away in a situation like that would be... Incredibly stupid.

Off to the side, though, there was one location that piqued her interest; that little inn, the 'Wagon Wheel' or whatever it was called. If there was any place just as reliable to gather information from in RPGs when compared to bars, it'd have to be inns. Of course, that was assuming the NPCs didn't just spew stock phrases in her face, but at this point she'd take all the knowledge she could get.


The walk over had taken about fifteen minutes, mainly because Melia had figured out how to use her 'Flash Step' skill after the first ten attempts or so had resulted with her face-first in the ground (thank GOD nobody was watching). The inn, rustic as it was, seemed to be relatively lively even at this hour. Whether it was from panic or actual joviality, well... She'd find out soon enough.

Carefully opening the door, Melia was relieved to find that the inn/bar (how convenient! Two bird with one stone!) was simply lively. Though most of the people there seemed to be NPCs given their clothing of choice, there was one person that caught her attention; she had seen him many a time on the various endgame raids during her last few months of play. Swiftly moving to take a seat near him, Melia flagged down the barkeep for a simple cup of water with ice before turning to the man clad in armor. Though she usually wasn't one to be proactive, now was a good a time as ever to start.

"...Lorand, right?" she asked, looking him over. "That armor seems... A lot more intimidating in person."
Oh geez, 1AM? That's gonna be a problem.

I'll make a post momentarily.
*shakes @OneStoryToMany awake for a post*
Mari Kougami


"...Ah?"

Though he should have seen it coming, Kagura's question caught Mari off-guard. 'Of course she would ask that!' Mari scolded herself internally before nodding in agreement towards her partner.

"Though I feel it's a bit sudden for the usual formalities to be tossed away so quickly, that suggestion is fine. In truth, I still feel a bit apprehensive about referring to you by a first-name basis, but..." she trailed off before shaking her head.

"No, it's fine. And if you have a map, then the problem may as well not exist."

Kagura's preparedness was, at least to some degree, relaxing to Mari. She had seen many a student without any items on their person, which, in all honesty, could quite easily backfire. Though her partner's reaction was relatively normal, Mari made sure to not judge any further than from what had been 'given' to her, so to speak. Life was always full of surprises, after all...
@Bigg Slamm, @OneStoryToMany:
Your time to shine, guys. We're kicking this thing off!
Melia

The transition felt so quick that it felt as if nothing had changed. But, as Airi could quite clearly see, everything had. No longer was she sitting in her computer chair, anticipating the loading screen to reach the end, when suddenly...

"...You know, I might be more surprised if Michael didn't force me to read those older series..." she trailed off, glancing at her outfit before bringing her hair closer to her face. A light blonde. Okay. She got the idea of what just happened to her, and though she wasn't panicking, a small sweat drop seemed to form at the side of her forehead.

"...But I still can't help but freak out just a little."

Biting her lip to prevent herself from letting out any sort of noise, Airi--no, Melia--took a deep breath to calm herself.

Okay. She was her character now. Last she checked, she was in Araldyne, relaxing in the town square on a small bench before the maintenance hit as she was busy discussing with people online about what Lucent Co. Ltd., would be adding the next morning. To be fair, she should have seen it coming, but the possibility of it all happening was so far-fetched that she hadn't even considered the possibility. But even then--!

"AAAAAAH!"

Melia immediately jumped backwards, an instinctive reaction if anything else, when the scream broke out. She (and many others; some NPCs, some not) turned to the source to find a female character crouched over in a fetal position. Well. That took a lot less time than she expected.

"...Well. That didn't take very long." Melia mused to herself as more and more people seemed to be popping up by the second. "I should... Probably leave before this place gets loud enough to summon a demon looking for some fresh souls or something. Though, given the amount of people, it shouldn't be too hard to take out..."

With that in mind, Melia gripped the scabbard of her katana firmly in her left hand as she left the town square, the grin seeming to stay constant as she moved further and further away.




It didn't take long for her to leave the center of the town, and thankfully enough the people on the outskirts of town seemed to be taking the news with a bit more dignity, and even a few with glee. Melia's mental state was shaken, yes, but not to the point of temporary mental instability. Maybe it had something to do with her Willpower skill; she assumed that was the case, else she might be just as much of a mess as that first girl.

"Okay, first and foremost..." Melia trailed off, testing around randomly for something that might give her information. Waving her right hand around in seemingly random directions, she managed to catch something to pull up a sort of... Interface from the bottom right corner of her field of view. So it was like those conceptual VR games before they were a thing...?

Scanning through all the menus (stats, skills, inventory, friends list, and map) in front of her, Melia let out a sigh of relief; at least something here was somewhat familiar. She was always used to viewing the city from above, after all; a map would come very much in handy from here on out. With the map to guide her, Melia followed the streets towards the city's western gates. Her destination, of course, was easy to pinpoint; Rolu Mountain. After all, it had been inaccessible before the patch went live; it didn't hurt to check what was actually up there... Assuming she could, of course.



The outskirts of the city were, as expected, barren of players. It was likely that the panic in Araldyne was engulfing the city at the moment, but as she was right now, Melia would likely be unable to quell the chaos on her own. Even if other players weren't as crazed as those were, calming the entire city as more and more people jumped in would easily consume the next few days.

That wasn't good. They needed information about the world right now; what threats there were, the state of the world, how similar it was to UE... And the only way to do that was to be proactive.
...
So why was she here, bisecting the wild wolves that were prowling around the outskirts of the town? She could just as easily avoid them, but at the same time...

"...It just feels so... natural using this. What the heck? I've never even held a baseball bat in my hand, much less a sword!" she cried out in confusion as another wolf fell victim to her blade. "Not to mention... WHERE ARE ALL THESE WOLVES COMING FROM?! The spawn rate here was miserably low after this place got upgraded from a trading post!"
@TDzilla: Hey! You've arrived.
Luckily, since it was a collaboration to work on that form, you're basically good to go since I was reviewing and editing as we worked. Accepted.
Chars tab whenever mate. First IC post to follow.
It never ends.
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