PuzzleChick
Persistent Member
Because I am the FBI and I can.[Mo0:0]
Posts: 2,890
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Post by PuzzleChick on Aug 14, 2013 15:55:37 GMT -8
@ Pluto: I think the real question is why doesn't EVERYONE draw creepy!Joans lbr.
ETA: Wait Talys if TAD is your trollfic then did you actually write smut for the trollfic or was it smut in the way that Erin wrote smut? xD;;;
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Post by Talys Alankil on Aug 15, 2013 15:38:26 GMT -8
^Um… that doesn't count because it may or may not actually be me? I mean I don't write smut in my serious works.
(and I would describe the smut in TAD as My Immortal meets a girl with a very poor understanding of metrics. Also there's a 50 Shades of grey-inspired chapter at one point)
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Tigeranne
Member
I believe![Mo0:0]
Posts: 787
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Post by Tigeranne on Aug 22, 2013 15:27:40 GMT -8
Alright, so it's got nothing to do with BL,, but you all need to see this.
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PuzzleChick
Persistent Member
Because I am the FBI and I can.[Mo0:0]
Posts: 2,890
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Post by PuzzleChick on Aug 25, 2013 15:30:25 GMT -8
Oh man, I wish I had a pony sims game. That would be so awesome.
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Graceful Lament
Member
Come the war, come the averice. Come the war, come hell.
Posts: 395
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Post by Graceful Lament on Aug 31, 2013 13:26:54 GMT -8
No Pony Sims here, I am afraid. But have a new story. It is essentially "Grave New World," but with Brian replaced by Hugo, and a whole new group of girls. Enjoy!
Prologue: Someday the Fire I Interrupt your meaningless life for this
There were times in Hugo's life when he cursed whatever fickle fate had gifted him with the surname “Smith.” Smith, so generic, well nigh pseudonymous. No woman, it seemed, wished to become Mrs. Smith, at least not in his experience. Certainly not one Miss Laura Delaney, who had unceremoniously broken off her engagement to the aforementioned Hugo Smith only weeks before his move to Hartford, Connecticut due to a transfer in his company. Hugo could very well wish to assuage his injured pride by reminding himself of his many good qualities and notable accomplishments. In truth, however, our poor Mr. Hugo was a man of average intellect, average looks, a middling education, and no great ambition. How he had been able to get anywhere in his company was a matter of judicious usage of industry jargon and trendy buzzwords in the hearing of the right people.
It quite rankled him to know that his intended had thrown him over for one Mitchell Johnson. To be discarded for the town mechanic pricked Hugo's pride more than the broken engagement itself. Mr. Johnson, Hugo was quite certain, would never be middle management material.
It was a great relief indeed to Mr. Smith that his boss had sent him to the other side of the country, to the MetLife office in Hartford. Without Laura, the sleepy town of Bellingham, Washington, held little appeal. Perhaps he could lose himself in the bustle of the city. Why not? At worst, he could always bury himself in his work.
He had sold almost all of his possessions, along with the house his parents had left him after their deaths. It was a small ranch that they had built back in the 70s, part of a then-new planned community, Sudden Valley. His mother had planted a few rose bushes along the front of the house, the house in which he had intended to raise his children. Once, they had been the envy of the neighbourhood. Once. They were now scraggly and overgrown, twisted, spiny things lacking any pretence of beauty. Perhaps the new owners would be kind and prune them back into some semblance of pulchritude; Hugo himself had no green thumb, and thus no hope of succeeding at such a task. A tragedy, to be sure.
Such thoughts left Hugo feeling bereft and homesick. He would do well to keep such traitorous sentiments at bay. To force his undisciplined fancies away, he located his battered navy blue carry-on bag and retrieved a tome-sized novel that he had purchased at the airport gift shop on a whim, the impressive size of the book belying the relative banality of its contents. He could bury himself in the adventures of the hero-protagonist with ease. A novel that required little thought from the reader was precisely the kind of story with which Hugo could feel at ease.
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Post by Traitor on Sept 4, 2013 2:24:32 GMT -8
Oooooh, interesting, GL. Traitor like. >=]
Malleus Heretica
The seas were rough around the colony tonight; the wind tore up wisps of seawater that lashed at the woman's face in counterpoint to the rain soaking her long, black dress and stout boots. Still, it didn't bother her. Very little did. The only emotions she knew were her love of the Lord and her hatred of those the Lord deemed sinful, which was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a very large category indeed. Still, she thought as she took care not to skid down the gangplank and marched into the colony, this assignment was probably a punishment. Some members of the Curia - that gaggle of nigh-heretical old cowards - took issue with her methods. Didn't they understand? The witch and the rogue and the heretic were diseases of the soul, and she was the good shepherd, easing the pain of the spirit within by transferring it to the body without. She was only dangerous to those cursed with unbelief and unrepentant sin; and everyone repented eventually. Sometimes it took days and days, but all of them did. That was her gift.
Inscribed upon her book, the only one she needed to own, was a simple phrase:
"Presented To Joan Of The Order Of The Blessed Sanctuary. Be Sure Thy Sin Will Find Thee Out."
She had taken it to heart, insofar as she could be said to have one.
The colony was godless. She could feel it in the water, for no place beloved of God could have seas this merciless. She could smell it in the strangely-scented air, no doubt a result of the peculiar plant life of this heathen land. She could almost feel the corruption reaching out to touch her soul. There was heresy here, she was sure of it. Heresy and wickedness, dancing together beneath a godless moon. That the moon was invisible tonight, thanks to the storm clouds gathered overhead like carrion birds, was lost upon her.
She walked into the inn and the room was suddenly silent. She stalked over to the bar, her footsteps soft despite hobnailed boots, and the power of her entrance was lessened only by the slow drip of water coming off her cloak. The landlord, a normally-cheery sort called Boniface, went deathly pale.
"<I seek lodgings tonight,>" she said, then realised where she was and spoke in the strange, stilted tongue of the Protestants. "I... would have... a room?"
"Er, well, marm," he said, his face already covered with sweat, "we've, er... we've not much in the way of space 'ere. 'Tis but a small inn-"
This time, she didn't need to speak. Spanish ducats did all the talking for her. The barman gaped.
"Right, marm, I'll be setting up the best room for'ee. Millicent! Prepare our best bedroom at once! I, er, I'm dreadfully sorry about the wait, marm. Would you care fer some refreshments? On the 'ouse, of course-"
"I will... give money."
"Right, right, you knows your own mind better'n I, I'm sure. Er, we've got beer, ale, some good Roman wine, brandy from the French traders-"
"Have you arrack?"
"Er, as a matter o' fact, I does. Good vintage. Came in with the supplies from England just this June past," Boniface lied. He'd been saving it for years. "I'll, I'll be off to fetch it, marm." He scampered off into the cellar, showing a surprising turn of speed for such a corpulent man. The woman perched herself upon a stool and, for the first time, relaxed. Bringing this place into the light of the Lord might be good work after all.
*******
"Who is that, Irishman? What has <Resembles-Large-Tomato> so very scared?"
Brian scowled into his beer and snuck a glance at the woman again. "I cannot really be sure, but I'd bet money on the Inquisition."
"I see. Others spoke of them before, during the harvest. <Wits-Of-A-Really-Stupid-Pebble> told me of their ways. Strange people. Their god is a biscuit."
The tall, blonde man stifled a laugh. "Well, I'm not a theologian, but the point of it is that the wafer turns into the flesh of Jesus after you've eaten it-"
"Hmm. That sounds unhealthy. My grandmother would say you would go blind from doing that. Of course, she says that a lot of things. Including us."
"That's the truth of it, right enough." This time he smiled, and the stocky, powerfully-built Chawonoc smiled along with him. "We'll be the ones who have to deal with this, Hugo, for sure."
"We will," said Huritt, marvelling at what the white men would do when faced with a name they didn't know. "We will."
---
This is the first chapter of a short series exploring what'd happen if BL was set in a certain famous colony way, way back when. Hope you like it! =]
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Graceful Lament
Member
Come the war, come the averice. Come the war, come hell.
Posts: 395
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Post by Graceful Lament on Sept 4, 2013 9:56:22 GMT -8
Thank you ever so much, Traitor! Your story is very good, too.
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PuzzleChick
Persistent Member
Because I am the FBI and I can.[Mo0:0]
Posts: 2,890
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Post by PuzzleChick on Sept 4, 2013 17:09:57 GMT -8
NEW FICS AW YISS.
I love the premise for your fic Traitor, it's really interesting. I can't wait to read more. =D
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Post by Talys Alankil on Sept 6, 2013 1:49:31 GMT -8
New fics! Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Sorry, I had to. But yeah, Joan as an Inquisitor-like sounds like an awesome idea ^-^
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Post by Talys Alankil on Sept 8, 2013 9:59:21 GMT -8
It seems I have a habit of needing to double post when I want to update one of my fics. So, remember that fic I started for Erinversary? I sort of procrastinated on posting the next part for almost two months now. Oops ^-^ Anyway, I have named it "Virtually no Danger", and here is Chapter 1. {Virtually no Danger — Chapter 1} Chapter 1 — Tutorial
"Go faster, Dan. Faster!" Becca screamed at her brother, driving them both back home. Becca could not wait to open the package in her lap. The logo of Forks, the title of the game crossed by a golden trident, seemed to be teasing her from the front of the box. "Come on!"
"Sis, I don't make the traffic," Dan said. "I'm just trying my best to get us through it alive. And you're not helping right about now."
"But Erin has already started playing! They're gonna get ahead of us!"
Her brother chuckled. "When did you become so passionate about games? I thought you, Charlie and Erin didn't like them, that they were 'childish'. But the three of you were all about this one as soon as it was first announced." He paused. "In fact, when did you become so passionate about anything at all?" he asked, smirking.
Becca nudged him in the side. "Don't you dare suggest that I am—"
"An apathetic slob? We're beyond suggesting it by now, sis."
Becca scoffed, but did not retort anything. So what if she was not as… enthusiastic about things as Erin or Jenny? It only made being excited that much more meaningful to her. As she was excited right now, for the game. This was going to be awesome, and not just because of the game itself. Becca was fairly certain this was the first time all seven of their group had agreed to do something together on a regular basis, and while Erin had attempted to take all the credit for it, Becca knew she had been the one working in the shadows to get everyone together.
As Dan reached their driveway, Becca jumped out of the car, not even caring that her brother had not parked it yet. She rushed inside to her room, banged her keyboard to get her computer out of sleep mode, unwrapped the cellophane around the game's box, and inserted the disc in her computer.
She was opening her chat client when Dan knocked on the door. "Can I come in?" he asked, almost timidly.
Becca glared at him: he knew she didn't like it when people entered her room! "Why?"
He shrugged, showing his laptop he was carrying. "I was hoping we could start this together?"
Becca sighed. Dan had been adopted, on their mother's insistence, when he was six, and Becca was five. Since their mom had died, two years ago, a gap had formed between him and their father. Becca, in spite of her best attempts, constantly found herself siding with her dad, distancing herself from her brother too; it had been nearly a year since they had spent an afternoon in either of their room. "Okay," she said reluctantly.
Dan smiled broadly, and threw himself on Becca's bed, opening his laptop. "Have you heard from the others yet?"
Becca checked her chat client: Jenny, Erin and Tim were in a common conversation, probably playing already. No one else was online, apparently.
"Where do you think Charlie and Lana are?" Dan asked, looking at the screen over her shoulder. Becca shrugged, causing Dan to chuckle. "See? Apathetic. Slob."
"Shut up and start that game."
"All right, all right," Dan said, going back to his laptop. "I'm going to text Lana, though, and ask what's up."
Dan's relationship with Lana had always been beyond Becca's understanding: the two spent so much time with one another, playing board games or video games, and who knew what else. And yet, they had always claimed their relationship was not romantic, and would never be. Becca didn't understand; these two were such a good match!
But Becca had learned to accept she couldn't do anything about it, and move on. The installation of Forks was already complete, and she started the game, opening the character creation tool.
She made her avatar as similar to herself as she could, giving her her ebony skin, her long, frizzy black hair, her brown eyes, and her petite stature. Some would say she was being unoriginal, or even that she was thinking too highly of herself to not even try to modify her appearance in a fantasy setting, but the truth was, Becca was simply happy with the way she looked. Wasn't that enough?
In fact, her brother was the first in line to criticize, as always. "Seriously, Becca? You're not even going a little bit crazy over your design? What are you going to call her, 'Becca'?"
She glared at him. "Actually, yes, I am going to call her that. And I don't see the point in being someone else than yourself. It's useless, no matter how uninteresting I am."
Dan cast her a pitiful glance. "You shouldn't say that. You're an interesting girl."
Becca could have retorted in many ways, but she chose to elude instead. "What about yours, then? How crazy did you get?"
"Very," Dan said, grinning and turning his laptop in her direction.
Becca glanced at her brother to make sure he was still the same person. Dan had been born in Egypt; he had amber-colored skin, short dark hair, and dark, piercing eyes. He was really handsome too, to Becca's despair, and had a tall, perfectly sculpted body. Many times she had wished he wasn't her brother, or that he wouldn't cast such a large shadow on her. She didn't even know how he kept such a figure while spending so much time playing games with Lana.
The character on the screen, however, was nothing like that. They had only one thing in common: a very defined musculature. Otherwise, they were nothing alike: the character was a little on the short side, with pale, freckled skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. "Is that really supposed to be you?"
Dan shrugged. "Why not? That's the point of escapism, after all." Becca scoffed again, and got back to her own screen. "How about we race to the end of this question thing?"
"Never," Becca said. She had heard all about the character creation and would take her time answering each question. Her brother groaned, but she shrugged it off.
They both went silent while doing so. For a moment, it even looked like they were back at the time where they did this all the time: just gather in one room and both do their thing, comfortable in each other's presence. It was almost… soothing.
"Done!" Dan said.
"I told you it wasn't a race," Becca complained; but she realized she had just answered the last question too.
Dan had noticed as well. "So what did you get?"
"It's still loading."
"Hold on," he said. He got up from the bed and knelt beside her chair, placing his laptop on her desk next to her own monitor. "That way we can both see both of our results."
Coincidentally, said results showed up nearly simultaneously on both screens. Becca read them, confused and fascinated at the same time.
Dan's character was now wearing flowing, baggy clothes, and wore a bow. The screen read, 'Ravage all enemies with an impressive magical potential. You are the Formidable Mage, Brian Hahnel.'
As for her own character, she now wore a long, dark cloak, covering most of her body, with form-fitting clothes underneath. Short daggers were hidden all over her figure, and the description read, 'Hide and strike, living day by day. You are the Cynical Assassin, Becca.'
A typical tune played out in Tim's headset, announcing someone had joined his and Jenny's conversation.
"That's it, guys! I'm in the game!" It was Erin, unsurprisingly. Judging by how quickly she had joined them, Tim guessed she had skipped the intro cutscene. Because the plot of the game would not be important or anything.
"Hey again!" Jenny said, happily. "Stay where you are, we're coming to join you! What's your name?"
"You know my name, Jen," Erin said, sounding confused. "Oh! You mean my character's name, of course. I called her 'Joan St Sanctuary Louisa'. The 'Saint' is shortened, you know, S-T."
"There, you're in my friend list now," Jenny said just as Tim was adding her in his list as well. "Add us too, that way, we can see where we are at all times."
"Hold on," Erin said. "Friend list… Ah! There it is! So what're your names?"
Tim remained silent, letting Jenny answer first. He'd rather delay the inevitable as much as possible. "My character's Jane Parere. It's—"
"I know how you spell your fictional mom's name, Jenny," Erin said, sighing. "And it's still creepy, by the way."
"You also gave your character your mom's name!"
"My real mom's name! And I gave it to her as a middle name! It's not the same thing!"
Jenny scoffed. "Yeah, whatever. I'm still going to kick all your asses. Adventurous Shaman, ready for action!" Tim chuckled — Jenny was evidently very proud of her given class.
"What about you, Tim?"
Tim gulped nervously. The fateful moment was there. "Hold on…" he said, opening his status screen, as if he had forgotten his own character's name. The short presentation sentence was still there, the same as during character creation: 'Was set a task and will not give up on it. You are the Relentless Hero…' "My character's name is Hugo Smith," he said.
There was a moment of silence. "You named your character after my dad?" Erin said, shocked.
"Just the first name," he argued, "and it's not really after your dad. I just like Hugo as a name, okay?" That was not completely true: Tim loved Erin's father, probably more than even his daughter did. Someone had to love the man, since Erin herself certainly wouldn't.
"What is wrong with my friends?" Erin mumbled, fuming. "Well, I guess it's too late to change now. Where do we meet?"
There was a short moment of silence, during which Tim was almost going to find an excuse to not meet Erin right away. However, Jenny cut him short. "Don't move, we're coming. You should see us on your mini-map already."
Sighing, Tim followed Jenny to meet Erin in the starter area, where all new characters appeared upon creation. It was to the side of the first town of the game, called the City of Lush Lands; right after a fork in the road, with both paths going out of town, respectively to the north and to the south, there was a small, round patch of grass surrounded by a fence. That was where Erin's character stood. Surprisingly enough, there was no other new character for the moment.
"You even modeled your character after my dad!" Erin nearly yelled. Tim couldn't deny it: he had given his character the same fluffy brown hair and hazel eyes as Erin's dad, as well as the same tall and lean figure. Of course, his character was younger: player characters were apparently stuck in their early twenties. It was almost disappointing, considering all the hype around the character creation tool.
He ignored Erin instead. "Don't forget to take your quest from the guy in there before we go." Tim was sure he heard Jenny chuckling in her mic, but Erin didn't react to it, so he decided to ignore it too.
"So what's our goal?" Erin asked.
Tim groaned mentally; she had probably not read the character's dialogue either, had she? "It's at the top right of your screen. The golden text is your main quest. It's supposed to be different for everyone, so I can't tell you what it is."
"Oh! Okay, I didn't know," Erin said. "Apparently the local lord wants to meet me." She sighed. "Why is it a lord? Why can't I talk to the bishop or something instead?"
"Girl, they're probably not Christian in a fantasy game," Jenny said, as if it was a joking matter. Tim knew it wasn't; not to Erin. And Jenny should have known too.
"Why not? Why does no game ever do some bold move like that? I want my religion to be represented!" Her remarks were met with stark silence from both Jenny and Tim alike. Erin's religious views were a bit too extreme for even her friends, most of the time. Thankfully, she was no longer blathering on about them as she used to as a teenager, but every once in a while, she would still start ranting on the subject.
Tim tuned her out, heading towards the castle. As he did, a notification appeared in the top right corner of his screen, under his main quest, and a woman in the game ran up to him, asking for help. "Here it goes," he said. "There's something going down here!"
"Coming!" Jenny answered immediately, leaving a confused Erin behind.
One of the most hyped things about Forks was its system of living quests, which appeared dynamically, and were supposedly never the same, using a new, state-of-the-art technology of artificial intelligence to always come up with new scenarios, which any player could participate in. In this particular case, the low level quest asked heroes to help rescue children from a burning orphanage, and catch the culprits responsible for the arson.
Erin, of course, argued that "Good Christians should help people, not exact revenge!" and started taking care of the children. It did fit her abilities, though; from what Tim gathered watching her, Joan, as the Highborn Knight was very capable at rescuing others. She barely even used her lance, except at one point, holding it out to a girl, who grabbed it, encouraging her to walk across a set of fragile floorboards and join Joan. It was surprising, actually, to see Erin so dedicated to helping, even if it was just her avatar.
Jenny's character, Jane, followed her along. Her character was holding a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, but for the moment, the Adventurous Shaman mostly used the latter in a series of rituals, summoning protections over Joan, Tim's character Hugo, as well as the children, helping them resist the heat longer.
As a matter of fact, Hugo seemed like the one with less helpful skills in the domain. Even though his class was supposed to be a 'Relentless Hero', Tim was failing to see how his current skill set could help him be heroic. It looked more like a jumble of everything and anything; out of them, there was only one mildly supportive ability, which allowed Hugo to take no damage for a brief time, but it was not usable for long enough to make a real impact.
As they were progressing to the third floor of the orphanage, Tim noticed a man escaping through a window on a low roof nearby. Seeing the girls had the situation in hand there, he decided to jump after him, his sword and shield ready.
Hugo was agile enough to follow the man with little to no trouble, and seemed to have an endless stamina. He had nearly caught up when the stranger jumped down into the street. Slightly reluctant, Tim pinged his position to his friends, letting them know he could use some help, and Hugo jumped after the man.
He ended up in the back court of some inn, and found himself surrounded by four brigands.
"Trying to play hero, boy?" one of them said with a mischievous grin, grabbing an axe laying against the wall.
Hugo rolled away from the man, who lost his axe, carried by his own momentum. Before he could recover it, Hugo knocked the weapon back with his sword, before bashing the man against the wall with his shield, knocking him out.
The other three had barely had time to react, but they were ready to fight too, now. The one Hugo had followed tried to stab him with his dagger, but before Hugo could attempt to stop the attack, another bandit, overconfident, shot an arrow through his partner's heart. Hugo protected himself from the next arrow with his shield, then rushed towards the man, evading the other brigand slashing at him with a short sword, and struck at the man's bow, breaking it in half.
The other bandit had come behind Hugo, but the hero evaded the blow by rolling to the side. He recovered and faced both of his opponents, safe with the knowledge that the wall was now at his back.
Both bandits drew swords and came at Hugo at the same time, forcing him to be more defensive. Their partner's death seemed to have made them more careful too, as there was no exploitable flaw in their forms that would provide with an opportunity to strike. One of the managed to cut Hugo's arm, and the other took the opportunity to knock his shield away too. Before they could strike again, however, ethereal chains pushed the brigands backwards; one of them fell down, and the other ended up strangled by Jane's spell. Moments later, Joan jumped down from the roof, and ended the last one's life with her spear.
"Thanks," Tim said.
"No problem," Jenny replied. "After all, that's the point of playing together."
"I thought I said 'no revenge'!" Erin whined.
"I wasn't looking for revenge, I was investigating," Tim retorted. "This one's still alive. I think he was their leader?"
Soldiers arrived moments later, and thanked the three of them for finding the brigands. The leader was taken away, and the quest ended, with a public message announcing that Tim's group would receive an extra reward for catching one of the culprits alive.
"Whoa, cool!" Erin said. "Look how good we are! First quest, and already extra credit!" Tim sighed, amused and annoyed at the same time, unwilling to point out she was complaining moments before. "So, are we going to do my quest now?"
"Well, Jenny and I completed our first mission, and apparently the second is in the same area, outside of town. I guess it's the same for everyone, to allow people to play together. So why not?"
"Great! You guys are the best!"
Tim could probably agree with that. Being Erin's friends had to be a good indicator of it: only the best would survive it.
A/N: So here's the deal of how this fic is going to work: every month and a half, I plan to post a full story arc over the course of a few days. Each story arc will have one PoV section for each protagonist, and thus, should last three or four chapters. In this case, three, plus the prologue I have already posted (which is also part of the first story arc). I'm already working on the second arc, but I think a month and a half is a good delay so I don't get overwhelmed by it.
The fact that most of the players and their avatars have different names allow me to treat them like different characters in the narration, like I did in Hugo's fight scene, which I am pretty satisfied with :3 Tell me what you think, though! ^-^
And don't worry about Broodingverse, it's also coming! I'm done with editing my novel, so hopefully this week I'll have some time to edit the next chapter and post it. After that… well, I may have some classes that start next week, so we'll see :/
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PuzzleChick
Persistent Member
Because I am the FBI and I can.[Mo0:0]
Posts: 2,890
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Post by PuzzleChick on Sept 8, 2013 11:54:37 GMT -8
AS IF I DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TO DO TODAY haha jk you know I drop-kicked all my other responsibilities into the future when I saw an update. xD (Except then I had to actually do the chores before I could comment. u_u)
This is really interesting. It's hard to predict where this story will go, right now the plot's a bit murky, but that's cool. I think I'll stop trying to make guesses and just wait to see how it will play out. (I assume the avatars aren't going to gain sapience, but even that I'm not sure about. xP)
All these people deserve medals for putting up with Erin. Including her character. xD
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Post by Echo Five Seven on Sept 9, 2013 5:19:04 GMT -8
Good lord, is all this still going?
Has Erin even been doing anything or have you guys taken her dungpile and made a self-sustaining universe out of it?
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PuzzleChick
Persistent Member
Because I am the FBI and I can.[Mo0:0]
Posts: 2,890
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Post by PuzzleChick on Sept 9, 2013 6:10:30 GMT -8
We made a self-sustaining universe out of it. Erin was being useless so we had to take matters into our own hands. u_u
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Post by Talys Alankil on Sept 9, 2013 6:39:22 GMT -8
At this point the Brewdening Love Expanded Universe is… well, self-expanding. It has been a while since Erin's last been active. Actually… I made a journal entry on Nov 30, 2013, and she was already inactive for a year and five days. I don't think she's been back since. Which means that it's almost two years now AS IF I DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TO DO TODAY haha jk you know I drop-kicked all my other responsibilities into the future when I saw an update. xD (Except then I had to actually do the chores before I could comment. u_u) This is really interesting. It's hard to predict where this story will go, right now the plot's a bit murky, but that's cool. I think I'll stop trying to make guesses and just wait to see how it will play out. (I assume the avatars aren't going to gain sapience, but even that I'm not sure about. xP) All these people deserve medals for putting up with Erin. Including her character. xD Well, the first arc will mostly introduce the protagonists, the plot will kick in at the end of chapter 3, basically. And you can make all the guesses you want but my virtual lips will stay shut u_u
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Graceful Lament
Member
Come the war, come the averice. Come the war, come hell.
Posts: 395
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Post by Graceful Lament on Sept 9, 2013 8:31:21 GMT -8
@echo Five Seven, the Brewdening Love Expanded Universe, or BLEU, has been a self-sustaining entity for a while now. Erin has been inactive for almost two years.
@ Talys, I find your story quite interesting so far. As much as I would like to hate Erin/Joan, I actually agree with her trying to help the NPCs in the game, as I myself would do such a thing were I to play the game. Also, if I had created such a thing, Hugo's title would be the Corporate Enthusiast, but that is just me.
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Post by Talys Alankil on Sept 9, 2013 8:50:35 GMT -8
^Hehe, I can see why you would pick such a title. Unfortunately those aren't completely random and I was bound by the medieval-fantasy setting of the game. Anyway, here is chapter 2. {Virtually no Danger — Chapter 2} Chapter 2 — Friend list The ringtone of an incoming text message woke Charlie up. Except it wasn't the one he'd chosen for his own phone. Half buried underneath him, Lana groaned. "Oh God, what now?" Charlie sighed. "Don't use the Lord's name in vain." The girl groaned once more, then pushed him away, making him fall from the bed. She reached out to grab her phone. "Oh crap," she said, suddenly completely awake. Charlie, stunned by his fall, grabbed his briefs in a hurry. He wasn't exactly comfortable with being naked in someone else's home, where anyone could catch him in this embarrassing state. "What is it?" he said as he put them on. Lana stared at him, her hazel eyes strangely annoyed. "It is that we forgot Erin's birthday." Well, that would explain the annoyance — she and Erin did not have the easiest relationship. "Oh. Wait, no, we didn't," Charlie said. "I gave both our presents to her dad last night, before I came here." Lana groaned. "Not that, you idiot. The game! We forgot about the game!" "Oh. That," Charlie said. "Yeah, we need to move, then." "Damn straight we do!" Lana erupted, causing Charlie to wince at her language again. "Go on, put your clothes on, faster!" she said, getting out of her bed herself. In spite of her invective, Charlie was transfixed for a moment, admiring her. Contrarily to him, Lana did not seem particularly uncomfortable with being naked, and walked to her closet like she owned the place. Which, technically, she did: the room was hers, and half of the house was to her name, and the other half, to her brother's. The sun shone through the window, playing with her dark olive skin and casting bluish reflections in her long, jet-black hair. Their relationship was a secret in their group of friends, and Charlie hoped it would stay this way. Surely, Erin at least would never talk to him again if she learned he wasn't pure anymore, and Charlie did not want to lose his best friend. Besides, it was not very serious between him and Lana. Charlie was still not completely convinced that Lana didn't hate him. Lana groaned again. "Charlie Swan. I said. Get. Dressed!" He blinked. "Right. Sorry." He reflexively passed a hand through his red hair, looking around to find his clothes. Once clothed, they rushed downstairs, passing by Dani, Lana's brother. He was older than her by six whole years, but was slightly shorter than her; his skin and hair were also lighter than hers. His dark eyes reflected his age all on their own, however, and showed all the authority of a man who had had to become the legal guardian of his sister when he was sixteen. Dani glanced at them as they passed him by, smirking at their haste. "Good morning, you two. Well, good afternoon." Charlie nodded timidly, unable to greet him back. Dani had always intimidated him, especially since things had started between him and Lana. "Hey, bro," Lana said. "I'm taking the car, we have an errand to run quick. Hopefully it's not too late," she added to herself. "You're gonna get Forks, right?" Dani said. "Don't worry, I've called for you so they'd keep copies for you. By the way, could you take mine while you're at it?" Lana stared back. "Are you sure you don't have to work on your thesis?" Dani had graduated from law school a couple years ago, and was now working on a doctorate. "I'll be fine. I don't plan on getting addicted to the game, just play it with my baby sister every once in a while. Well… 'baby sister', that's a figure of speech, of course," he said, grinning at Charlie, who started to blush furiously, causing Dani to laugh. "Go on. I'm gonna order some pizza, do I need to take for two or three?" "No, Charlie's gonna go home," Lana said. Charlie glanced at her — he hadn't really decided anything like that — but her stare told him not to argue. "All right. Bye Charlie, then," Dani said, winking at him. "Bye," Charlie managed to mutter in return.
Dan and Becca joined the others on the common chatroom after creating their characters. "You guys are the best!" Erin said as they arrived. Grinning to himself, Dan could not help but answer, "Yeah, I already know that. But please do tell me why you think so." He grabbed his laptop back and lay down on his sister's bed. Becca, sitting at her desk, scoffed at him. "What Dan means is: sorry we're so late, he wouldn't drive faster." "Becca!" Erin squealed. "We just did a quest so well, the game gave us extra credit!" "To be fair," Jenny said, "Tim was the one who had the good impulse." "Thanks, Jenny," Tim said, although his voice was nearly drown out by Erin's complaints. Dan had a sympathetic smile for the guy — Erin tended to think her crush on him should be expressed in the most abusive ways. Obviously, it also meant he still didn't have a clue; but of course, Dan wouldn't know either if it weren't for Becca. "I don't doubt this was all really cool," Dan said, interrupting Erin, "but how about we do an even better quest now that Becca and I are there?" "Sure!" Jenny said. "I'll invite you to our party. What are your names?" "Becca," Becca said. "I mean, in the game." "It is her name in the game," Dan said. "My sister has decided to go in as herself." "Well, isn't that what guest stars do?" Jenny retorted. Dan laughed. "Good point. My character's Brian Hahnel. With two Hs around the A." The party invitations came moments later. "Can you join us?" Jenny asked. "Sure thing," Becca said quickly, glancing at her brother. Dan nodded; he could indeed see the others on his map. "All right. Erin has this main quest thing here, so we'll be unavailable for a moment. Maybe do yours, and then we can go out and explore together?" "Will do," Dan answered. He muted his mic, and said to Becca. "I guess you'll want my help?" His sister glared at him, but after a short moment, she nodded. "Please?" Dan smiled. "Of course. So what's your objective?" Getting a grasp on the user interface was easy enough for a veteran gamer like him, and he showed her where to look. Strangely enough, Dan and Becca's characters seemed to share the same quest. It even required them to find someone to cooperate with, and to meet in a seedy tavern in town. They went together, and a cutscene started immediately. Brian, the mage, and Becca, the assassin, were approached by a man wearing the uniform of the city watch, who told them a few bandits had just been killed in the back court of this inn. Their leader had been captured, and he had given information to the watch, telling them where to meet his employer. Since soldiers could not meet that mysterious employer themselves, the man asked them to do it for him, telling them where to go: in another tavern not far from there. Brian would have to meet their target, acting as a bait for Becca to follow them or eliminate them, if need be. The concept was simple enough, and Becca seemed to have all the skills necessary for the task. As for Brian, Dan could only find offensive spells in his current arsenal, which might not be very helpful; but he supposed there would not be much combat for him on this mission. Dan took the lead nonetheless, guiding Becca by telling her the best itinerary to follow him from the roofs and be unnoticed. Her character's agility was simply impressive; Dan was surprised an MMORPG had implemented such developed movement mechanics. Brian entered the inn, and automatically found his target: the game told Dan that she was called Lady Esmeralda. "Excellent work at the orphanage," she said. "Your help will be duly rewarded, as planned." She presented him with a purse full of coins, then gracefully left the inn. Dan could, of course, follow her movements on his mini-map, as well as Becca's, who was following the lady. His current objective was to 'be prepared to help your partner', which was frankly unhelpful, especially since he couldn't leave the inn without risking being seen by Lady Esmeralda. It soon made sense, however. "Look at that, Dan," Becca called out, and he looked over to her screen to see Esmeralda commanding another group of brigands to prepare to raid a high-class mansion. Esmeralda noticed Becca in the cutscene, and vanished in a series of sparkles, leaving the bandits to deal with her. Dan rushed to his own computer to get Brian to join her: when he arrived, Becca had dealt with one of the bandits thanks to the effect of surprise, but was busy with avoiding the others' attacks. "Let me handle this," Dan said. Now Brian's series of destructive spells would be useful. He started by raining fire upon his opponents, taking a couple of them out, and followed immediately with a series of fireballs. Taken by surprise by Brian's sudden arrival, the bandits were confused, unsure whom to fight first of Becca and Brian. The girl took the opportunity to throw a couple poisoned darts at her opponents, paralyzing them and leaving them open for her to strike with her daggers. Brian was quickly out of energy to cast spells, and pulled out his bow to keep attacking; between his arrows and Becca's daggers, the rest of the bandits were soon taken out, ending the quest. Dan noticed he still had Esmeralda's purse in his inventory, and opened it, gaining a substantial sum of money in the process. "All right!" Becca said, reactivating her microphone. "How are you guys advancing?" "We're just done," Tim answered. "How about we meet outside of town and go on with our adventure?" "Hold on," Erin said. She went silent for a moment, then added, "It's my dad. Apparently we're coming over to your place, Jenny?" "Yep!" the girl answered. "It is your birthday after all, we couldn't just play all day. Becca will be there too, so we're gonna have to leave you guys alone. Don't be naughty while we're gone." "I wouldn't think about it!" Dan said, pretending to be offended. "Have fun," Tim added.
Everyone exchanged farewells, and Becca, Jenny and Erin finally logged out of the game and the chatroom. Dan, now alone online with Tim, moved to his own room. "So… just us, then. What do you have in mind?" "Did you— did you hear from Lana and Charlie? It's almost night and they still haven't played." "I texted Lana a while back, actually. She didn't answer, though. As for Charlie… Well you know he and I aren't the best friends." "Right," Tim said, chuckling. "Oh well. I guess it wouldn't be very nice of us to progress in our main quest without them, would it?" "We could go out and explore," Dan suggested. "Do some of those living quests. I still didn't get to try those." "Okay. I need to make some money, too. I've been toying with the crafting system earlier today, but I was stuck because I had no money left." Dan eyed at his own, currently full, wallet. "I can help you with that," he said with a large smile to himself. They met up at the crafting hub of the City of Lush Lands: a large marketplace, with various stations for each crafting discipline. Tim had apparently decided to try them all, and did not seem like he was about to give up; faced with his friend's enthusiasm, Dan was more than happy to provide him with his recently earned money. With it, they bought a lot more supplies than Dan thought either of them should be able to have at their level, and Hugo went to work, producing upgraded pieces of equipment for the two of them. Dan was mostly looking on as Tim did all that work, a smile growing on his lips. Strangely enough, Tim was not the as assiduous a gamer as Dan was, but he had always had this way of analyzing and cataloguing everything about the games he played, just like Lana. Even when he was just trying out recipes, he was geeking out in an adorable manner. With his hands free for the moment, Dan grabbed his phone, sending another text to Lana. 'Everything OK? Where are you?' 'Yes, I am perfectly fine. I was trapped by a few brotherly obligations.' 'Haha I get that. Come to play?' 'I intend to very shortly, yes.' 'Cool I'm just with tim rn.' 'Oooh. Wouldn't want to come in between you guys ' Dan snorted at the message. Lana had recently come up with the maybe not so insane theory that Tim was closeted. 'Lol get your ass to your computer.' 'I said: very shortly.' "Do you think that would be appropriate?" Tim's voice called Dan's attention away from his phone. "I mean, it is her birthday… And it's not that big a gesture. I gave you a whole new set of stuff" "That I paid for," Dans said automatically. He looked at the screen: Tim had crafted some piece of jewelry. For Erin's character, most likely. "But hey, I guess you can give that to her. Better not let it go to waste." "Yeah, I guess so." There was a muffled voice coming from Tim's end of the conversation, then he added, "I'll have to get going soon. You want the rest of your money?" "No, keep it. That way I'll guilt-trip you into buying me things later," Dan teased. Tim chuckled. "Sounds like a plan. And Dan… we should do this more often." "What, me looking at you craft stuff?" "No, I mean… doing something, just the two of us, like how we played right now." "You can hardly call it playing," Dan said, smirking. "You get what I mean. I feel like we never get to talk to each other, but shouldn't we? We're the only guys in the group. Well, aside from Charlie." "Yes, aside from Charlie," Dan said. He wondered why Tim was excluding him — he hadn't heard of any bad blood between the two. "You know, if you want to hang out more, you just need to ask. You know where to find me." "That'd be great," Tim said. "I really gotta go now. Talk to you tomorrow, probably." "All right. Try to get your brain some rest, I can hear you writing an encyclopedia in your mind from here." "That would be a great idea! Oh, I gotta found the wiki for this game!" Dan burst out laughing. "See, this is exactly what you shouldn't be doing." "Shut up! I'll just create it today, I promise I won't work on it!" "Well, if you promise, then…" "There, done! I'm leaving now. Good night!" "Good night, Tim." A/N: Oh, look, more cuties. All the cuties. Can you tell which of these characters are my favorite yet? Okay, maybe not ^^ Anyway… loads and loads of setup. I like setup, can't you tell? All the big, shady plans. Maybe you're already seeing parts of it? You can already guess which characters will be PoV for the next chapters, since there are only two protagonists who haven't had one yet And um… that's really all I have to say for now ^^
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PuzzleChick
Persistent Member
Because I am the FBI and I can.[Mo0:0]
Posts: 2,890
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Post by PuzzleChick on Sept 10, 2013 6:11:27 GMT -8
Ahahaha, do I spy a ship tease? No complaints here.
Tim is such a frickken cutie all the time I cannot. =3=
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Post by Talys Alankil on Sept 11, 2013 11:59:24 GMT -8
Mayyyybe? (And yes Tim's a cutie ^-^). Anyway, here's the last chapter for this story arc.
{Virtually no Danger — Chapter 3} Chapter 3 — Controls After her guests left, late at night, Jenny logged back into the game. She didn't expect Erin or Becca to do the same, but hoped that Dan, and maybe Tim, were still there. She was right about the former, but Tim was offline. On the other hand, two other people were chatting with Dan: Charlie and Lana. Surprised, Jenny joined their conversation "Hey guys!" she said cheerfully. "Where were you today? We've been wondering what happened to you!" "Nothing happened to us," Charlie said, sounding more than a little annoyed. "Well, we did go get the game together," Lana interjected, "but our respective families were what prevented us from playing." "Sorry to hear," Jenny said, trying to hide her surprise. Charlie's parents were overbearing and a bit controlling of their son, but Lana lived with only her brother, who was a very cool guy, and usually embraced his sister's interests. In fact, Jenny had thought Dani would be playing with her. "So how was dinner with Joan?" Dan asked. Jenny sighed unwittingly. "A lot of fun," she said. She was not very convincing, and Dan did not fall for it. "Spill." "No, it was fun, but… Erin decided today was the day to remind us all of her Twilight fan fiction from a few years ago. She still thinks it's pretty good, the grammar and spelling notwithstanding." They all knew what she was referring to: a very hateful story that Erin had once published in the Internet. Jenny was fairly certain people were still talking about it online — and not in a good way. "It all went down from there." "Yeah, that's one subject she is particularly… disagreeable on," Charlie said. "Even I can't talk to her about it." "At least you weren't in the thing," Jenny said. "Anyway, can we not talk about the-story-that-shall-not-be-named? I just want to play a little bit." "Charlie and I are working on our main quests," Lana said. "and Dan's helping me. But once that's done, we can all team up, right?" "All right. Let me log in and I'll be right there." As Jenny was waiting for the others to finish, a living quest popped up in town: the city watch had declared a manhunt on any servant of some noblewoman, Lady Esmeralda. All players could participate to identify and capture those servants, and, living up to her title of ' Adventurous Shaman', Jane joined the hunt. At first, Jane roamed the city randomly, on her own, trying to find one of these targets; but she soon realized that would not work. Another group of players showed up, and Jane joined them, helping them by calling upon a "spirit of perception" that she hadn't really noticed in her skill set. Teaming up proved to be much more effective: their large pack was scaring the culprits away, but at the same time, shepherding them to a specific location; three of the players then detached themselves from the group to catch the servants as they ran away. Jenny, starting to understand her character was more of a supportive archetype, decided to stay with the main group, but managed to increase the other three's speed before they ran off. Her contribution, however small, was apparently sufficient to get her rewarded for the quest. At the same time, Dan told her that he and Lana were done with their mission, and suggested they finally leave town and explore the outskirts. Jenny happily agreed, and the three of them made their way east, Charlie soon joining them as well. There, Jenny saw their characters for the first time. Lana was playing as a man, Lucian Harving, who looked like some Greek deity with olive skin, jet black hair, and a perfectly sculpted body. He also rode on a magnificent black horse, strangely enough: Jenny hadn't heard mounts were even in the game, but she supposed it was connected to Lucian's class. Charlie's choice was a little more discomforting to Jenny, if unsurprising: his character was named James Holden, after the priest of their local church, who was Erin and Charlie's mentor of sorts. James was older than the other characters, and looked like the priest himself: stocky, of medium height, with black eyes. The only difference came with the character's hair, which was blond and reached the man's shoulders, instead of the real man's short brown hair. "So what are you guys's classes?" Jenny asked. Charlie groaned. "'Ambitious Priest'. It says I, and I quote, 'ascended from a noble family into a spiritual force'." "That sounds cool," Jenny said, confused by his apparent discontent. "I'm not ambitious. Being a priest isn't even about being a force of any kind, but about guiding and helping people! Those game designers are stupid." "Wait, are you going to become a priest?" Dan said, teasing. "Because you can tell us about it. We love you no matter what." Jenny was pretty certain that the phrasing, identical to Charlie's words when Dan had told them he thought he was pansexual, was intentional. Back then, even though Charlie had said the words, his tone and eventual course of actions, leading to not only Erin, but also Dan's dad, finding out, had told a different story. Charlie had probably understood the veiled insult as well, as he sounded like he was choking on something. "Shut up, boys," Lana said. She was the only one still able to mediate between Dan and Charlie, and even she wasn't always successful. This time, however, she was; the conversation suddenly went quiet. "Let's play this game." Jenny sighed, and led the way outside. East of the City of Lush Lands was the lowest-level area of Forks: the Free-falling Forest. Although, from the looks of it, it was a regular forest; nothing was flying in the air. It was, in fact, very dense, and the trees looked very old, reaching far above Jane's head, and masking the sun to bask the forest in a golden-green light. Jenny even spotted a few wild animals running away from their group. The place looked simply majestic. "Okay, gotta give some credit to the level designer here," Lana said. "If that's the tutorial area, then I can't wait for the endgame." "What are we waiting for?" Dan said. "We've got a whole new place to explore." They spent an hour roaming the western part of the Free-falling Forest, before they started to encounter enemies that were slightly too strong for them. Night had fallen, in game as well as outside of it, and it seemed most of the game's denizens were sleeping, which prevented living quests from appearing. There wasn't much to do; eventually, Charlie left them to go to sleep, and Jenny soon followed. She wished her dad good night, then went straight to bed. Through the window, she could have sworn she saw an inhuman figure in the dark, outside; but it was immediately gone, and Jenny guessed it was just due to sleepiness.
"So, how are you and Charlie doing?" Dan asked Lana as soon as they were alone on the chat. Lana frowned. Where did that question come from? "I— I don't know what you're talking about." "Damn right you do. I've had my suspicions for a while now, but you just both happen to oversleep today, and go buy the game together? Yeah, sounds certain enough to me now." "How about you actually say what's on your mind?" Lana said. "You're a couple," he said. "And that's fine, you know. I don't like the guy, but it's your choice. I just wished you'd told me." Lana sighed. So he had guessed. "It's not exactly that," she said. "We're having sex, but that's it. No couple. Certainly no love." "Then… why even bother?" "I don't really know," she said. "It's a strange experience, sleeping with someone you despise, and I think it's rather addictive to me." "I'm not sure that's very healthy, Lana." Of course Dan would immediately worry. "Just because you have the same first name, doesn't mean you can act like you're my brother, Daniel." Dan did not let that quip stop him. "What does Dani think of it?" "He's cool with it, just as you should be. I'm a grown-up." "I guess," Dans said, but he didn't sound convinced. "I should probably go to bed too. Talk to you tomorrow." "Good night, Dan." Lana had no intention of going to sleep just yet, however. She had finally gotten her hands on that game, and she was not going to stop for a while. Sleep was overrated anyway. Forks had this strange way of preventing the player from creating alternate characters, which had always seemed like a bad idea to Lana. She loved creating several characters, and playing all of them — weaving them into a single story, even. But that game was depriving her of that pleasure. Well, officially. Lana rushed out of her room to make sure her brother was sleeping, then came back, logged off from her own account, and in to her brother's. Of course she knew her brother's password. As the login screen appeared, Lana smiled as she noticed with nostalgia that Dani had created the character that Lana had designed for him long ago: Dani Harving, Lucian's — her own character's — brother. She used both for many of her role playing games, and sometimes, Dani had played with her as his namesake. But it had been a while, and Lana was surprised to see he was using it. Surprised, and very touched. Strangely enough, their classes were perfect for the story Lana had given those characters: Lucian was a Lively Commander, described as someone who 'Inspires others to never make the wrong choice', and Dani was a Powering Brute who 'Possesses an inner potential with no equal'. In their backstory, Lucian was usually a soldier, a competent officer who led armies to victory, and Dani was more of a lone wolf, unable to cooperate with anyone but his brother. She played alternatively with both characters for a few hours, mostly doing random quests. She had promised to wait for her friends to progress Lucian's main story, and wouldn't deprive her brother from the fun of progressing his own. Tim had sent her a message about his new wiki, and she took the opportunity to gather data for it, analyzing enemies, skills, and damage outputs with both her characters. Every information could be useful, even if it didn't make sense to her on the fly; years of practice had taught her that. Exhaustion caught up with her a mere two hours before sunrise, and Lana shut down her computer, deciding to take a well-earned rest.
Lana was exploring a forest. Not just a forest, she realized: the Free-falling Forest of the game. And yet… that didn't make sense. She wasn't a character in Forks, she was a real person! How could that happen? Was this a dream? Lana felt too conscious for it to be a dream, but that had to be it. Some sort of lucid dream. She navigated the forest, reaching a clearing that she reminded visiting in the game soon before going to sleep. In fact, this was very close to the place she'd logged off from. She recognized the place: she had defeated a boss there just before logging out — as a matter of fact, its remnants were still visible on the ground. Lana inspected the place for a moment, until a noise behind her made her turn around, startled. Its source was a young man, about Lana's age. He was tall and lanky, with reddish brown hair and jarring golden eyes that seemed inhabited by their own light. Two sword handles were visible behind his shoulders, and he wore a long, dark red coat. "Who are you?" Lana asked "Well, same as you. A player of this game." Lana stared at him. Why was she dreaming about other players she'd never even met? Unless he was one of those she'd briefly teamed up with during her hours of gameplay? She didn't think so, though. "This is a weird dream…" she muttered to herself. The newcomer chuckled, and Lana realized he was probably a bit younger than he looked. "One way to put it." "What do you mean?" The boy stared at her in disbelief. "Have you even looked at yourself?" Confused, Lana looked down her own body. She noticed her flat, muscular chest, and large hands, the different tone of her skin. She finally recognized the armor she was wearing. "I'm… Lucian? I'm my character? Okay, this is definitely a dream then." "It really isn't," the boy said. "You'll never wake up from this. Not without help." Lana frowned — that made no sense at all. It had to be a dream. "Don't tell me, your help? This sounds like the oldest trick in the book. Tell me I'm trapped, make me agree to something, and then let me realize I wasn't trapped at all." The boy smiled. "Actually, the help you need would come from your friends. I'm not going to ask anything of you. And while you are correct that I could help you by sharing all my knowledge of this game with you, it would be foolish to assume I can help you leave." His smile vanished. "After all, I myself am still here." A/N: And that's it for Arc One. The plot thickens And some more character establishing moments, too. That's important.
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PuzzleChick
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Because I am the FBI and I can.[Mo0:0]
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Post by PuzzleChick on Sept 11, 2013 16:33:18 GMT -8
Ahaha, this is turning into the Yugioh virtual world arc and I am a-okay with it. xDD
Though I am a little confused why Lana is there and nobody else...unless she did something to trigger it (played past midnight, played alone, went to a certain location...) that nobody else did yet. Ah well, presumably all questions will be answered in time.
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Post by Talys Alankil on Sept 12, 2013 15:22:25 GMT -8
^Presumably.
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PuzzleChick
Persistent Member
Because I am the FBI and I can.[Mo0:0]
Posts: 2,890
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Post by PuzzleChick on Sept 12, 2013 18:34:15 GMT -8
So I was reading a rather sad article about a library that threw away thousands of books, (it reminded me so much of when Borders had to throw away all their books after Hurricane Wilma's flood down here ;_; ) and there were some pictures of the piles in dumpsters, when something about one of the photos stood out to me. Does the title of that circled book look like it says Fireworks and the FBI (or maybe Fireworks with the FBI) to anyone else besides me?? I've tried so hard and yet that's all I can see. EDIT: IT'S A REAL BOOK. Fireworks AT the FBI. I think we know who to blame for this.
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Post by Talys Alankil on Sept 13, 2013 1:45:29 GMT -8
Oh my God (BNGGCTBSFOS). Brian struck again.
…I'm just surprised he resisted the temptation to burn the building to the ground too.
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PuzzleChick
Persistent Member
Because I am the FBI and I can.[Mo0:0]
Posts: 2,890
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Post by PuzzleChick on Sept 13, 2013 6:24:34 GMT -8
Well, it is the FBI building. Maybe he wanted to ensure he'd still have a job?
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Post by Talys Alankil on Sept 13, 2013 16:34:03 GMT -8
Hehe, probably ^-^
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Graceful Lament
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Come the war, come the averice. Come the war, come hell.
Posts: 395
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Post by Graceful Lament on Sept 14, 2013 8:40:16 GMT -8
Why would he have to worry about a little thing like that? He is the FBI, after all.
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Post by Talys Alankil on Sept 19, 2013 12:50:57 GMT -8
Guess what time it is? That's right, it's Broodingverse time! {Brooding Brothers — Chapter 3} Chapter 3 — Trial and Execution Alex gulped, nervous, as the vampire was coming back into the living room, staring at his arsenal. "Well?" Damon pressed him. "I—" Could he tell Damon the truth? Was his control over the vampire's mind strong enough that he would not betray his secrets? Most importantly, what had happened to Alex's training, that had taught him how to come up with the perfect lie on the fly? "I'm part of a brotherhood of Assassins," he ended up admitting. The bond's effect was strong as ever, though, forming a warm and comforting presence in the back of Alex's mind. Damon blinked twice, then smiled. "Really? That's nice," he said, absent-minded. Alex was perplexed; he had never tried the potion before, but he had never heard it could have such a massive effect in altering someone's judgment. Was it related to Damon being a mixed-breed vampire? Or would Damon just naturally have accepted this? "You're not— mad that I hid it from you?" he asked, uncertain. "Of course not. I couldn't be mad at someone as pretty as you," Damon replied as he moved closer to Alex, his gaze suddenly soft and charming. Alex felt like he could get lost in that gaze. "What does that mean?" "It means that I didn't kill you for a reason," he said; and just like that, he was all over Alex, kissing him, holding him, both pressing him closer and keeping him in place. Alex did not bother trying to resist; he had fallen for the vampire the moment he had laid eyes on him, and this was just too much to fight. After what felt like hours, Damon finally let go of him. "I love you, Alex," he said, too earnestly to be true. Alex could not care less about that, about the potion, or anything. "I love you too," he replied immediately. "Come on," the vampire said in a needy voice, "let's go to your bedroom." Alex felt nervous at that offer. He was scared of not being ready for… that… yet. It was one of the problems that came with living as a recluse in a sect of assassins; he lacked experience in that regard. He found the perfect strategy to escape Damon's solicitations, and said, "I'm sorry; I have to go to school!" It was part of his disguise; blend in with all the other teenagers. Damon looked alarmed. "Oh, shit," he said, as if missing school was the worst thing that could happen to Alex. "I'll drive you to school, come on! We'll discuss this when you come back." "Okay," Alex said. He kissed Damon once more, then headed outside.
As he sat down for his first class, Alex's attention was immediately caught by a handsome boy: muscular and tan, he sported short black hair and had mysterious dark grey eyes. He must have noticed Alex's staring at him, because he went to sit down right next to him. "Hi, I'm Derek," he said. "You new here?" Alex nodded. "My name's Alex. I arrived in town today." "Welcome to hell, then. New guys aren't very well greeted around here," he said, grimacing. Alex guessed he had not arrived here too long ago, either. "I can tell you about everyone, if you want," he offered, as the classroom was filling up with students. "All right, why not?" Gossip, so long as it was taken with a grain of salt, could be a good way to learn surprisingly accurate information. Derek spent the entirety of the period telling him about everyone: Elena, the school's queen bee and Stefan's girlfriend; her best friend Bonnie, who was rumored to be a witch; Caroline, Elena's friend-slash-rival and her boyfriend Matt, who was also Elena's ex; and the jocks, led by Tyler Lockwood. Derek seemed to particularly dislike the latter, but he didn't seem willing to explain why. The information was interesting, though: in particular, Bonnie being a witch was important. Ms Borgia has been very clear to Alex that Sulpicia Volturi surrounded herself with witches to use their power as her own; Bonnie could be her target, or even her ally. As for Elena, any girl who dated a vampire was probably hiding something. At the end of the period, Elena whispered a few words in Tyler's ear, and he walked up to Derek and Alex, followed by a few friends of his. Tyler was quite dashing, Alex had to admit; he had dark hair and eyes, and was positively ripped. However, his attitude was much less pleasant: he looked at Alex and Derek like a wolf looking at his prey. "Hello, new boy," he said, smirking. "I see you're making friends with the rejects already? Learning your place?" "What the hell, Tyler," Derek replied angrily. "Leave us alone." "What, do you think I'll hurt your boyfriend's feelings or something?" The quip made Alex's blood boil. "Whatever, you're just a homophobic loser. I bet you're closeted yourself," he sneered, then walked outside the classroom. The sound of footsteps came from behind, and Alex was shoved in the opposite wall of the hallway. When he turned back, he found Tyler glaring at him. "You don't know anything," he spat. "I was just teasing, you know." Alex felt his head pounding from the impact, and Derek insisted he go to the nurse's office. Since it meant skipping classes, Alex was not going to complain, even though he doubted there was any real damage.
Mystic Falls was a very socially active town, it seemed: they took every opportunity to celebrate. And, from what Mrs Flowers had told Jenny, a lot of those activities were at least somewhat connected to the local high school. Since a good chuck of them team were teenagers, they agreed that some of them should enroll, and Jenny and Tim had volunteered. They were told that they would actually start school the next day, and as such, were free to roam around the campus for the day. Jenny was mostly interested in gathering information from students, however, and went straight to the school's stadium with Tim. Inevitably, someone was practicing there: namely, the school's cheer squad. They both sat down, waiting for them to finish. It was the first time Jenny was alone with the boy since they had met in Westerville. Tim had lived in Forks, and had left around the time when Jenny had learned the truth about the Cullens. They had never been very close, especially since he had rejected her best friend at the time, Joan, a year before that. But Jenny felt that she should get to know every one of those people she had dragged along in her crusade. She didn't really know how to start, but she felt like they needed to talk. And as her father had once told her jokingly: when in doubt, go for self-deprecation. "You still don't regret embarking on my vendetta?" she asked. Tim eyed her, looking puzzled. "It hasn't really been your vendetta for a while now, you know. I knew what I was getting myself into — my mom even tried to stop me, if you remember." "Right." "Besides," Tim said, grinning, "I would never have found out I was a magical child who could kick ass with all sort of medieval weaponry otherwise." He held up the quarterstaff he had taken to carrying around; even if the bow was still his favorite weapon, this was more practical, and less conspicuous. "You know," he added more seriously, "I think you're being too hard on yourself. Constantly taking the blame for everything and all. You shouldn't do that." "But I am to blame—" "It's all a matter of point of view. Emmet was killed by Aro, and we all decided to come with you on our own accord. And I don't even know the details what happened to Joan, but both you and Hugo seem like you have trouble getting over it." That was partly true, although Jenny knew for a fact that Hugo took it much worse than she did. "So you want me to just move on?" she asked, the words strangely echoing her argument with Jacob from the night before. "I don't really know. At least make a step in that direction?" Jenny remained silent for a moment. "I'll think about it." She paused again, then asked, "Is that how you dealt with your dad?" "My dad was an entirely different matter. I saw the Cullens kill him and my boyfriend, Nick. Nick was shooting a vlog when it happened, and I guess the Cullens didn't notice. Or maybe they just didn't care about discretion anymore; I gathered they brought an entire army to Forks only a couple weeks later." He shrugged. "Anyway, I never really blamed myself for it. But making a step towards moving on did help, yes. For me, it was moving to Ohio. I can't tell you what it'll be for you, though." Jenny studied the boy for a moment. "Did you share that with anyone?" "My mom, obviously. Mark knows what happened, but not all the details — he doesn't know about the vlog — so I guess that makes you the only other one," he admitted, blushing. "I see. Thank you for your trust, Tim." Jenny could do with more trust, right now. "Hold on, what're they doing?" Tim said, looking at the cheerleaders. Jenny reported her attention to them. While they were talking, a boy had approached them. One of the girls was writhing in pain on the floor, and Jenny could see that another of the squad had used a spell to do that. "One of them's a witch," Jenny said out loud for Tim's sake. She was still unsure just how perceptive Tim was to magic; as a witch's son, he had some affinity to it, but they had never had time to test it extensively. They both got up from their seats and started in the squad's direction, but before they reached them, the boy leaped on one of the girls. She gasped, her eyes opening wide in pain, and when the boy walked back, Jenny noticed a wound in her belly. Most of the cheer squad dispersed when they noticed as well. "What the hell?" Jenny said, forming a spell as she ran. She tried to immobilize the boy, but her spell seemed blocked by an invisible sphere around him. He took the cheerleader who had been victim of her peer's spell and left, not even glancing at Jenny. "Tim! Can you follow them?" The boy nodded. "Be careful," she added as he left. Jenny then reported her attention to the wounded girl. She was an Afro-American, about Jenny's age and size, but not as athletic, which was odd for a cheerleader. Now that she was so close, Jenny could not ignore her Talent telling her that girl was a witch, presumably the one who had cast the spell to harm the other girl. Still, Jenny could not leave another witch hanging, especially since she knew nothing about the situation. Only one other cheerleader had remained, a girl with brown hair and dark eyes, who had immediately cut off part of her uniform in an attempt to stop the bleeding. She looked more determined than she was scared or surprised by the turn of events. "Let me handle this," Jenny said. Over the last few days, she and Cassie had had some time for the woman to teach Jenny her healing spells, and Jenny had become rather good at it, after some initial issues. She wove the spells with ease, first diagnosing the severity of the wound. It was not a very large cut, but the witch had been stabbed deeply, and several organs had been perforated. She then worked as fast as she could, suturing those organs, then the flesh and skin above them, until the wound was closed. When she was done, Jenny sat down on the grass, not caring about the blood that was probably all over her now. Healing was such an exhausting process! "You're a witch too," the brunette said. So she knew about her friend, then? That was helpful, Jenny guessed. "Yes. I'm Jenny." "Elena. And this is Bonnie." The witch — Bonnie — had lost consciousness at some point while Jenny was healing her, but her breathing was reassuringly regular. "What happened? Who was that girl?" "Girl? The one who stabbed her was a boy named Alex." "I mean who was the girl that Bonnie assaulted with a spell," Jenny said adamantly. "A vampire, some girl named Amelia," Elena said. "An empath. She didn't seem aware that her silver eyes would be a dead giveaway. A lot of vampires come to Mystic Falls, so Bonnie and I recognized it immediately." "All right," Jenny said. "Do you treat all new vampires in town like this?" "Of course not!" Elena's anger seemed to indicate the idea was particularly revolting to her. "In fact, I'm not sure Bonnie really wanted to harm her. Amelia feeds on anger, and tried to manipulate us all so she could feed on us." "But it backfired," Jenny guessed. "What about this Alex guy?" "He's just arrived in town too, but I didn't think they knew each other. His deal is a little more… peculiar." Jenny waited for Elena to tell her more, but she didn't. Eventually, she got up. "I should go find my friend. Hopefully he didn't get caught." "You really should. They're both dangerous." Jenny grinned. "Oh, I'm not afraid for Tim," she said, laughing. "I'd just like them to still be able to talk. I'll be sure to see you around, Elena." A/N: Well look at that, the plot is sort of there at last So yeah, it's actually a whole lot of TAD events and I can't really get out of there just yet, but don't worry. Starting next chapter I'm full Broodingfy mode (okay, not really, but more or less ^-^) Also, for the record, even though I am a TVD fan, I'm not trying to keep the characters consistent with the canon any more than I did with Twilight characters. Just so we're clear.
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PiedPiperPluto
Member
do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior daenerys targaryen
Posts: 393
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Post by PiedPiperPluto on Sept 19, 2013 15:57:36 GMT -8
Woo, new Brooding!!
I know I said it on tumblr, but I think it bears repeating: Tim's mention of being a "magical child" totally means he falls under the Magical Girl trope umbrella. u_u
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PuzzleChick
Persistent Member
Because I am the FBI and I can.[Mo0:0]
Posts: 2,890
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Post by PuzzleChick on Sept 19, 2013 17:28:16 GMT -8
Not sure if Alex is just a typical shallow Sue who falls for anyone hawt, or if he's had a thrall put on him, because that was pretty abrupt. xD I like these witch chicks though, they seem cool.
Broodingfy? I hope it goes better than a brewdeningfy. 8D
I am a-okay with Tim being a Magical Boy. Cute outfits for everyone! I'll make them even!
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PiedPiperPluto
Member
do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior daenerys targaryen
Posts: 393
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Post by PiedPiperPluto on Sept 30, 2013 18:53:36 GMT -8
So the other day the Sequential Art Society had a thing where everyone had to draw a one-page comic in an hour. I ended up doing a rather slapdash test-page type thing for Edenverse, if anyone wants to see? {the adventures of Off Model Brian}
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Post by Traitor on Oct 1, 2013 2:51:15 GMT -8
So cute! =D
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