Potter
FulgrimLives
Lucid Dreaming
Expendable
Kero
Tim the Yeti
rush99999
Fading Memory
Akantha was in a very business-like part of their guild hall. This particular location was basically a medium sized meeting room, and functioned as the guild’s strategical and tactical core. Besides the front and back door both requiring approved access, the sparsely furnished rectangle room contained an ellipsoid table, black leather chairs arranged around it, and holographic data-pads and projectors adorning the room. The latter were used primarily for organizing guild group activities (such as raids) or watching them in-action (by way of an internal stream set-up). They linked the relevant data to a cloud storage, which was used to keep various in-game recordings, consisting mainly of their annual tournaments and other remarkable PvP matches. The entertainment material, unlike the other (more sensitive) contents of the room, was accessible to pretty much every guild member, through an externally provided link.
Overall, the room truly gave the impression of having been designed by someone who had extensive experience with corporations and had thus seen their fair share of offices, was familiar in such an environment, and knew what worked and what didn’t. It went without saying that the office’s designer hadn’t been Akantha, but rather one of her Lieutenants, though she and other key-members offered their opinion and approval for the final version of the design.
“Team alpha’s going after the marked targets. There’s a freaking crowd of hunters,” Akantha commented from the head of the table.
“Team eta and epsilon are still stocking up on potions,” offered one of the Executives after consulting another member.
“Those NPCs are hilarious! Have you seen how hard they’re trying? It’s out of their hands,” enthused one of the Lieutenants.
“Focus, Pooh,” sighed another, then continued with his own report. “Zeta’s patrolling and checking out the competition,” it was apparent he wanted to continue, but was suddenly interrupted by the fore-mentioned Lieutenant leaning closer with his own live-feed, eager to show off something.
“Oooh, look, Juggernaut’s been spotted during a charge! He’s knocking ‘em over like any pro bowler could! Aw, but these poor pins are getting wrecked,” he laughed heartily.
“That is only minorly useful, Pooh,” said the unamused Lieutenant in obvious exasperation. “And I wish you didn’t interrupt my assignment,” he stressed the word.
“You’re no fun, CatZ,” replied the other with an eye-roll.
“Guys.” Akantha interrupted them mildly. “It’s a clusterfuck with those explosions. Beta, Gamma and Delta are already on their way to engage the offenders, if they can single them out,” she gestured to a trio by her side, a Lieutenant and two Executives who oversaw the named teams and had debated over the details of the situation with her.
“It will take some time to sort out,” one of the Executives began “We should–”
The conversation in the meeting room was interfered with by a loud knock on the door. Since whoever decided to bother them most likely wanted her, Akantha stood up and opened the front door, facing a violet-skinned female humanoid avatar with glowing green eyes. She was looking at Akantha with something akin to affront mixed in with frustration.
“Yes?” the guild leader drawled out the question, staring down at the other member with faux calmness.
“There’s someone from PVP PLOX? here! Again! And I’m fine with them, leader, really, but you know how some others are,” she finished with making a poor attempt at excusing her initial outburst.
Akantha sighed. “Name?” The other girl blinked at her, puzzled. Akantha rolled her eyes and repeated “What’s the person’s name?”
“Um,” the violet girl stalled. “I don’t know.”
“Fine, I’ll go check out the situation,” Akantha said, exasperated. She turned back into the meeting room, looking over the members. “Can you handle this? It’s probably Vector.”
“Sure, go greet your boyfriend, leader,” shouted Pooh. Akantha only snorted in reply.
“We’ll manage the situation and keep you informed. Will you go to the new instance yourself?” asked CatZ.
“I might,” Akantha replied. “I’ll notify you. I may pick up the last of those who wanted to go there today. But maybe I’ll just go there on my own,” she shrugged. “I trust you can co-ordinate the teams without me here,” she looked at all the members in the meeting room, but her gaze lingered particularly on the three Lieutenants present; they were her seconds-in-command and could be most counted on to keep things running smoothly.
“You know we will.”
“Got it, boss.”
“You bet we can, Akantha.”
There were several other replies, all affirmatory. Akantha left the meeting room, closing the door behind her, and the guild member who had come to fetch her trailed after her.
The path she took led her to a narrow balcony overlooking the large open-to-the-public training square, where several members were doing their own thing, but a few of them were also staring at the visitor, muttering among themselves in a discontent manner.
“Fuck’s sake,” Akantha whispered to herself, then descended to the ground level of the guild’s hall bellow. The visitor was indeed Vector, as she had thought it might be.
“People,” she proclaimed loudly, getting the attention of most of the members. “You really should know by now that Vector is my friend and the guild he’s part of is our ally,” she stressed that last part. Most members were content with that, but some remained frowning at Vector, probably just jealous of his success. Akantha stared them down until they finally returned to whatever they had been doing before.
Akantha stepped closer to Vecor. “Hey,” she greeted happily. “Long time no see. I gather you’d rather we go somewhere more secluded,” she led him outside of the hall, to a stereotypical zen garden which was technically part of their territory, as it was still on the mountain, though a NPC took care of it.
“Have you been to the new zone yet? We made a bit of a guild event out of it,” she commented.
@Thecrash20
