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Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon, -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

'I'm too late.'

Enos lay motionless atop a stalagmite, the rock jutting through his chest. Blood washed down the side of the stone structure- fresh, slick. The light had only just left his eyes before they'd arrived. Death was not an unfamiliar presence in Andrew's life. He'd been to more funerals than he cared to remember. But that was always so...sterile. A body in a casket didn't bleed. Didn't still have that look of terror and fear and regret trapped on its face. Graves had promised Andrew he'd save each and every one of these people, and he'd already failed.

A scream echoed from ahead of them, further in the room. It was Luci's.

'Not again.' Graves sucked in a breath. His body was shaking- all adrenaline, all rage, all regret. He started walking toward the door, slowing even as everyone else sprinted ahead. He reached an unsteady hand out toward where Enos lay. He was already gone now, both here in Pariah and in the real world beyond. What was his body but an empty shell of code?

An empty shell. That's all it was.

An empty shell full of blood.

It came tearing out of him in long, dancing streaks. Light glistened off it from fading torch light. The wound in Enos's chest expanded with a sickening series of snaps, opening up further avenues to drain his arteries dry. It all gathered around Graves's hand, crawled up his arm. It formed something akin to a dense gauntlet of not-quite-liquid that reached just below his shoulder.

"Sorry, pal. I'll...I'll keep the rest of 'em alive for ya. I promise." The words trembled upon his tongue. A hurricane built up in his chest. Emotion raged like torrents of rain, tore through his body like whipping winds. The enemy they faced was far greater than anything they had taken down so far. It was a demon of earth, of green, of ravenous hunger. And it had killed another man right in front of them.

Aaginim was tossed aside like a broken toy. Limp, unmoving, and covered in his own blood. He'd fallen trying to protect the rest of his party. If they'd been there even a few minutes faster...

No time to think like that. No time to think at all. So many of the others were either fallen or close to it. Kazuki was rushing in to get at Priscilla's side. Alja was all fire and fury as she charged the creature head on, even as it reached out for her-- to do to her what it had already done to Aags. She was strong- stronger than most of them- but that towering titan of stone wasn't something she could muscle her way through. Not alone.

Graves ran forward to her side, slamming his shoulder into the demon's earthen grasp. He didn't bother with his weapon; it wasn't much use against that armored hide. His hands wrapped about a pair of the creature's fingers, each of which was maybe the size of his head. And he pushed back against it. Straining, screaming, pushing with all his might. Every muscle in his arms and chest burned, straining until they threatened to break.

Enos helped him hold the line.

"Nuke it!" He bellowed at the woman beside him. "Nuke it with everything you've god damn got!"

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Once the adrenaline- the rage- had faded, Graves could barely stand. Pain washed over the whole of his body, submerging him from head to toe. It dug deep- rooting itself in the depths of his bones and refusing to leave. It took all he had not to collapse in a heap once the battle was done; he tried to hide his limping as he joined the rest of the party around Kazuki. It was a brief yet all too welcome respite. Kazuki's healing was different than Graves's. His was a warm summer's light. It was a dance through a field of flowers. The snapping of bone and the scarring of wounds hurt just the same, sure, yet it was...duller. More easily swallowed.

When Graves healed himself it hurt nearly as much as the injury itself. Like he was reliving each stab, each bite, each cut again and again.

"You play well," he muttered once Kazuki set his lyre aside. A welcome reprieve, to be sure.

Then the talk of strategy began, and it was time to work again. They could hurt each other now in a way that had never been possible. Benkei's earthen constructs, Alja's ice, Kalie's...weird shit- it was all too dangerous to use without careful planning. Graves didn't say anything. He was pissed off that he'd been hit but he knew it wasn't worth getting into. They couldn't afford to be at one another's throats when they stood on the precipice of death. One wrong move meant the end of any one of them.

He looked to Rael, who's decision to play the big damn hero had nearly caused her to plummet to her own demise. If Seele was just a second too late, if she'd ran just a little slower...Graves shuddered. He wondered what it felt like. The pain he knew, sure, but what followed? Was it the cold embrace of the void? Or would Rael have woken up on the other side just long enough to feel the peripheral tear her mind asunder?

'Do you die twice?'

Graves tried best he could to shake the thought from his mind as he stood back to his feet, slipping his armor back on. He would know soon enough himself.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Steel clanged against rusted iron as the last of the gnolls met Graves in combat, unafraid of the death that awaited it. They were each exhausted, unable to howl at the other-- all they could do was stare hateful daggers and push. It was a tug-of-war match and whoever won got to plant their weapon into the other's throat. Graves was moments from overcoming the dogman just as an arrow soared right by his ear, burying itself into the creature's eye. It died with a whimper in its throat.

"I had that one-" He started to snarl, turning to face Alex just as the incident on the bridge reached its crescendo. Seele was screaming, Rael was following into the abyss's dark embrace and a heap of broken Dire Bat was moments from turning Graves and Alex into a pair of DPS-shaped skid marks. It was a lot to take in. A swirl of emotion, of fear and panic and rage, replaced the ecstasy of combat.

A quick look around and Graves took a dive toward the nearest bit of cover: those spikes Benkei had stuck him with earlier. What had been his bane would soon save his life. The bat tumbled, wing over heel, bouncing off the ground like a stone across water. It reached its apex when it impaled itself upon that spiky field. The beast's massive body lurched with pain. Blood spurted from its innumerable wounds. And yet, despite that, it raged on. All screams and howls of violent defiance.

Its unwillingness to die would've been something to admire under other circumstances. For now, Graves was busy pulling himself out from under its heaping mass, crawling along his belly until he was safely able to rise. It snapped its teeth toward him. If he'd been even an inch closer it may've gotten hold of him.

The killing stroke was quick, precise, but far from clean. Gore sprayed like a fountain all over Graves and anyone else in the splash zone, catching him in its innards. The thing went into its death throes, tossing and turning until it snapped the spikes inside of it and began to wiggle loose. He stumbled backward onto his ass to avoid catching one of those claws in his chest.

The Bat went still a few moments later.

And Graves was back on his feet, sword left in the dirt as he ran toward where Seele was laying near the chasm's edge. He saw Rael laying over her chest. He didn't see her moving. "Nonono you tiny moron, don't tell me you played hero and..." His voice trailed off, something else playing in the back of his mind.

'Don't fuck it up.'

The panic died in his throat once he was close enough to see Rael was still breathing. Just as he came to stand above her and Seele, Rael stirred awake from the daze.

“Did we—Did we get it?”

His shoulders sank a foot as he sighed out his response: "No thanks to you."

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Packs of laughing dogmen came streaming into the chamber. Stumbling, leaping, crawling over one another to grab their next meal. All their beady, ravenous eyes were locked on the two smallest party members at the back-- Seele and Kazuki. Weak, vulnerable; easy prey. The gnolls bounded forward with such ferocious speed and singular intent that it was already too late. They were just too fast. They'd be tearing into their quarry before anyone could peel away from the dire bat. A perfect ambush, save for one, fatal flaw:

The screaming locomotive of muscle and steel charging right back at them.

"Come on!" Graves's sword sang as it left its sheathe, meeting flesh and bone. One of the laughing dog's went silent, the contents of its throat spilling onto the stone. Two more ran over its falling corpse to get at its attacker. Pickaxes flew. The first was hacked off at its haft but the second found purchase in Graves's thigh. The man roared, grabbing the back of the gnoll's head and jamming its face into the other end of the it's own weapon. Adrenaline kept Graves moving as he pulled the pickaxe out, tossing it aside just as another group of gnolls joined the fray.

One of them pounced on his back, claws burrowing into his shoulders to keep it there. Graves kept swinging at its friends, nodachi twisting through the air in wide, deadly arcs. The beast climbed along his back-- leaving long cuts along the flesh as it did-- until it was close enough to lean down and bury its teeth into Graves's throat. The man's wordless bellows sputtered out into wheezed coughing, and his sword slowed in its swings long enough for the rest of the gnolls to rush him. They clamped down on his arms and began to wail away at his chest, peeling apart his armor like a tin can to get at the meat inside.

Kazuki shouted some nonsense and a spell erupted around Graves's body, flinging his attackers in every direction. He stumbled backward onto a knee, shooting the support a crazed, furious look-- don't get in my way.

His palm hit the ground, channeling arcane magic into the pools of fresh blood laid out around him. It came crawling through the air toward him, rushing into his open wounds, his finger nails and his pores to get at his bloodstream. Seconds went by before his wounds began to stitch themselves closed. An ugly, painful experience, where new flesh burst forth from the old and slithered across his skin to fit itself into Graves's injuries. It took the longest to repair the bite in his neck.

"Fuck!" Graves coughed up blood, rising to his feet. "Come on, come on, AGAIN!"

Seele was quick to follow up on Kazuki's spell, launching some kind of purple energy through the air. It hit each of the gnolls one by one, slowing them down. What were once rockets of mangled fur became sluggish, tired-- easy to kill.

Just as Benkei reached his side, Graves was running forward again, bellowing and hollowing. Blinded to the pain. Blinded to whatever was going on around him. The only thing he was tunneled in on were the next group of gnolls standing in front of him. Then he was on top of them, nodachi ready to sing through the air again...

And giant bolts of sharpened rock came crashing through the ground, impaling the beasts around him. Graves tried as best he could to avoid the sudden eruptions, but they were numerous and all targeted at the gnolls-- the gnolls he'd put himself right in the center of. Pain kissed his side, his leg, his arm. He yanked himself off the spikes and called more blood up to him.

He'd never felt more alive.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

“If I pushed you, I don’t think I’d hear the splat.”

That great, terrible canyon stretched down for what felt like eternity-- so far down that the rock Rael had kicked never seemed to hit the bottom. It made bile rise up in the back of his throat. Heights were something he got a lot of back home in Nowhereseville, Indiana. The tallest point of the town was a hill right up from the church; some genius a long time ago had decided it was the best place for the graveyard. Andrew still remembered how badly his legs had ached after they'd buried his father.

"Think we found somewhere to fit all that ego." He grunted. Try as he might, he couldn't hide how nervous he was. He hadn't been able to compose himself since the Glitch. Every little sound, every sudden movement, made his blood pressure spike. His hand kept finding its way to the hilt of his blade, like a child reaching out for his comfort blanket. What was he goin' to do if he fell, exactly? Stab the fall to death?

It'd worked on those trolls back there, at least. Blood still lingered along the edge from where he'd lopped one'a those massive arms off. Fatigue still lingered in his muscles, too, as it never had before. All of the visceral aspects of Pariah's combat that Graves had loved had been cranked up to eleven now, n'...it scared him how much he was enjoying it. Sure, he was terrified of every blow he had to tank. It hurt to all hell, too. But the fucking rush he'd gotten killing those things was better than any high he'd ever experienced.

'Least there's nothing to feel guilty for,' he mused to himself, watching the rest of the party deliberate about how they'd get across this gap. Graves turned from the edge at Rael's request-- giving her a sly wink as he did-- and jogged to the back of the party to keep an eye out. 'S' not like they're actually alive.'

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

There was work to be done. The party wouldn't get another respite until the dungeon's end, so it was best they prepared for what challenges lay ahead. Their fearless leader, Benkei, was working with Rael to account for all the supplies they had to work with. They'd gotten to work mere moments after the attendant left-- were they just putting on a brave face? Or did a chance encounter with death really not scare them?

"Could use a snack." He cleared his throat on approach, burying his shame for another day. He hadn't expended much energy thus far, but he was still peckish. It was weird. He didn't get nearly so hungry so quickly in the real world. Was it all the extra muscle he'd put on in the game? An odd thing to mull over as he reached down and collected a sizeable bit of food. After a moment's thought and a glance over his shoulder he picked up a second share.

Then his eyes went to the collection of special items and potions they'd laid out. Graves hadn't taken the time to drop by the alchemist in Thorinn before the raid, stupidly enough. He'd gotten cocky, excepted to run through this no problem. "I could use one'a them ironskins too." He reached down and plucked one up, slipping it into a specially made loop in his belt. There was another vial hanging next to it that he pulled from its string. "Don't like takin' without offerin' anything back," he said, tossing it to Rael. "Extracted straight from a basilisk's fang. The guy said the poison's so potent it'll burn you just by lookin' at it too long."

Graves winced just at the memory of it, a hand moving up to rub his shoulder. "Think I believe him, too."

That single, concentrated extract was worth almost a quarter of the kill by itself. It would've made for a hell of a hunting tool in his arsenal if the world hadn't gone to shit. Now, all he could hope was that it saved a couple'a lives before the day was done. "Maybe hand it over to the archer. Can only imagine what a shot of that shit through the eye would feel like. But, y'know," he shrugged, "I trust your judgement any which way."

With a final, over-exaggerated bow, he turned away and was off.

His path brought him over to where Seele was "helping" the much larger Alja to her feet. Evidently they'd managed to work through her panic attack together. That brought some comfort, he had to admit. Alja was good at what she did and they needed her help if they were going to get through this. She might not be back to her usual, chipper self for awhile, but this would have to do. Seele'd done good.

"Here." Graves offered the second serving of food he'd taken over to Alja, plopping down on the ground where she'd once been to scarf down his own meal. "Goshta keep yer shtrengthh up." He sloshed out between chunks of jerky and dried out fruit.

The Voyagers of Duonia: A Medieval Fantasy RP

---

"Nobody'll rob you if you don't have anything worth taking." Chip mused aloud as he beat the snow out of his dirty cloak. A mangy, old thing, cut from polar bear fur and sewn onto patchwork leathers. The only thing on his person worth snatching was the coin purse tucked into his belt, but that rarely saw the light of day-- too buried in furs to ever attract any attention. It was stupid to walk around in a place so wretchedly poor as this all wrapped up in silks and wearing gold on your fingers. Even somebody as big as Dular couldn't protect Entyrea from the truly desperate.

And anybody cursed to live in this frozen hellscape was desperate from the start.

"Thanks for the help, Mister Temfarrow! We'll see ya soon enough. Off to the tavern, then." He waved goodbye over his shoulder, trudging along in the direction of the tavern. Dular was more or less leading the way, since she'd traveled these streets before, but Chip was getting a feel for the town already: its streets and alleys were not unlike the game trails and world roads he'd spent so much of his life following. If the pattern of fresh prints on the ground were any indication, most folks tended to go in this direction...and their feet tended to drag more snow than others going elsewhere. Better a clue than nothing, he supposed.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Graves didn't get up. He felt a hand grasp his shoulder and gentle words reach his ears but he couldn't hear them. The ringing was all there was. A loud, constant screeching, accompanied by a blood-pounding headache. His eyes snapped shut. It was quiet here. Dark. A place he'd often visit when he needed a moment of reprieve. Andrew was usually alone in this place.

Not this time.

'We're goin to die, aren't we?'

Probably. Dungeons like this one were meant to challenge top tier players. It wasn't strange for a group to wipe several times trying to complete one. Only this time they wouldn't get up, he supposed.

'Doesn't that scare you?'

No shit! Andrew'd have to be certifiably nuts to not be frightened by a thing like that. It was only human, after all. Still, it was something he'd thought long and hard about for a long time, even before today: what'd it be like to die? He wasn't much of a religious person anymore. Odds were the only thing waiting for him was the void. That was a bit scary, he had to admit. Nothingness wasn't a concept he could wrap his head around.

'Its too soon. We're s'posed to have the rest of our lives head of us...'

Not much of a life worth living for, Andrew laughed. It was a scornful, hateful little sound. He'd had two short decades on this earth and what'd he waste them on? Shuffling through every day like a zombie? Playing games when other people were actually, y'know, succeeding in life? He'd gotten good at this last one. He was proud of that-- proud of this fake life he'd built for himself. It was more effort than he'd ever put into the other one.

'You never gave yourself the chance to, you fuckin' idiot. And now its gone!'

Maybe so. There were other around him, though- others who had actually used the time they'd been allotted. Alja must've had people that loved her waiting back home. Kalie wanted to be a teacher. Wasn't that something! How many lives would she go on to impact for the better if she got out of here? We have a chance to do some good here. A real chance. All that work you put into swinging a fake sword around and now you might be able to do something with it.

'...'

You're better at this than any of them, aren't you?

'Yeah.'

I didn't save up every penny I'd ever earned on a scalped video game so you can throw this one, solitary opportunity to not be a complete fuck-up away. So get up. Get up and kick some ass for me before you turn my brain to mush.

And with that Graves turned away, walking out of the dark and back into the humid corridor in the middle of a dungeon. His eyes slipped open. He could feel his heartrate slowing back to normal. The ringing in his ears faded into dull background noise. The headache lingered; that one was manageable, at least. He stood up, looking to the people around him- actually taking the time to see them.

To see them scared outta their minds See them being brave for the others around them. See them setting aside their differences to help however they could. See them taking charge, or offering up supplies, or even just giving words of encouragement when they had nothing else to offer.

They were a motley group of weirdos who never should've had to go through this.

Graves took a breath. "Don't fuck it up."

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

Anger burned in Graves' chest even as the group caught a moment's rest. They were collapsing along the corridor around him, exhausted and harried. He paced between them all, unable to keep still. Rael asked him if he was alright and he could only give her a nod. Graves was sure if he tried to speak he'd only end up yelling, and he knew that wouldn't be fair to her. He still had so much energy-- it infuriated him. One little misstep had taken him out of the action damn near immediately, forcing everyone else to pull his weight for him. His incompetence had almost killed Seele; how could he be so stupid? So reckless? Why'd a little pain cause him to run like a fucking coward?

He watched her slink against a wall, too hurt and too drained to even stand. She was ragged. The skin around her fingers had been sundered, her cheeks were still wet with blood leaking from her face and there was that black shit still running through her veins. It must've been the feedback from expending too much arcane energy- it wasn't something Graves had experienced personally, but he was vaguely aware of the mechanic. He'd never heard of it doing that to a person, though.

The distance closed between the two of them before he fully knew what he was doing. "Sit," he demanded, waving her down until she complied. Crouching next to her, Graves started peeling back her sleeves to get a better look at the damage she'd done to herself. It was...extreme. He could only imagine how excruciating it must've been. It'd take quite a lot out of him to fix, but it was the least he could do. Graves began undoing the straps on his own gauntlet.

With his other hand, he slid the nodachi from its scabbard and stood it up with its tip stuck in the floor. He moved the bare flesh of his arm against the edge. The steel was cold to the touch, damn near freezing compared to how humid it was in there. He sucked air between his teeth as he braced himself for the pain, then he cut. Two horizontal slashes, right next to each other. Blood began to flow immediately, so he was forced to release the sword and put pressure on the wound.

'Count to ten,' he told himself. 'That oughtta be enough.'

Once he reached ten he pulled his palm from his wrist: the two cuts were scarred over, and a large amount of blood was gathered in his open hand. "Keep still. This'll feel weird as hell." He warned. Then Graves took her hand in his. The pooled blood sprung to life, surrounded by arcane energy, and slithered inside her pores. It burned through her nervous system like a purging fire, destroying the corrupting substance in her bloodstream and repairing what physical damage it could find. The fatigue wasn't something he could fix, but he hoped this made up for earlier.

The process was nearly wrapped up when a bright light filled the room. He turned to look, and saw the familiar uniform of one of the game's attendants. It was about damn time somebody said something. What kind of sick freaks would just throw all these horrible new things in without saying something first?

But then the man began to speak, and Graves felt a terrible lump rising in his throat. It turned out this wasn't just a content update. This wasn't even the game glitching out. Everything that was happening-- the pain, the hunger, the gore-- it was being done to them. And that wasn't even the worst of it. That disk plugged into Andrew's temple was apparently wired to fry his brain if he ever died in the game. How close had some of them come to dying in there without knowing about this? How lucky were they to be alive?

The devs didn't seem to know why this was happening, or even who was behind it, but they'd apparently been unable to take control of Pariah back. "Hours?" Graves repeated. His voice was quiet, shaken. "You knew about this for hours and you didn't say anything?" He knew the man behind the hologram couldn't hear him. Knew that this message was going out to everyone. And yet he felt like he was standing in the room with one of those developers he'd met all those months ago at a 'con. He felt like one of those awkward but enthusiastic men who'd made a game he adored had just drove a dagger into his stomach.

What if they'd been told back when they were prepping for the raid? How many people would've been saved if they'd known to just not go in?

Graves turned suddenly, throwing all his weight behind his hand as he punched the wall. He wanted to scream. Sixteen people were trapped in this dungeon until they completed it-- the only way out was always at the other end. They'd have to run through this death trap-- he'd have to watch real people die-- and none of it had to happen.

Would anyone notice if he went? He lived alone...the only one he'd seen in months were his co-workers and his landlord.

Would anyone care?

He dropped to his knees, silent.

Pariah Online: A Voyage into the Intangible Aether

Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria

---

They had to move. Their path to escape came grinding open just as the barrier that held up the ceiling began to flicker and fail. With all those holes torn into it it looked like it should've fallen much earlier, yet Seele kept it up all the same. She'd poured her all into protecting them and it was tearing her apart, literally. Kazuki was shouting at her to flee. Her strength was failing-- her body crumbling-- yet she insisted everyone else get to safety first. She was the only one that could hold it. Benkei said to hell with that.

A sword slammed into stone, cracking it. Magic ran through the shifting dirt like lightning in a thunderstorm: sharp, jagged and wickedly quick. It reached the stone underneath and willed it upward, tearing up from the tiles in the center of the room to meet the falling roof. Its shape was not unlike its caster's fist. His earthen construct would hold; not for long, but it would hold.

That was the signal to put their asses into gear. Graves reached down to wrap an arm under hers, taking her weight onto his shoulder. "Ya did good, kid. Time to go." The two of them were off, moving as quickly as Seele could manage. He had to pick her back up more than once on their jog across the room,making sure to keep his head down to avoid getting a last minute haircut.