# Off-Topic Discussion > Entertainment > Forum RP Games > RP Games Archive >  >  .Hack RP "The World"

## Seanchaidh

*This is where the .Hack RPing takes place. However in order to take part in this RP please go to the .Hack RP sign up thread and follow the instructions.

Thank you!!!  xoxox    

*

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## JET73L

*New Player <Jechtael> Logging In*
Server: Delta
Root Town: Mac Anu
Level: 1

I move to the edge of the area around the Chaos Gate, and begin my plan of attack. First things first. Long view: Level up. Short term: Find some potions.. Holding potions. Find mana restore potions... Oh, yeah, it's SP here. I seem to have one, need yop get some more of the local currency to buy more. Finding new player zones... I hear the other day from that Ouka Sky dude (OOC: May be changed based on current .hack era) about a password for the gate... Bursting Passed over.. Something. I'll get back to that tomorrow, I've still got that email the Goblin NPC gave me.

*activates Chaos Gate, password Delta Detestable Golden Sunny Demon*
Gobin: "I'm Stehoney, the first Golden Goblin! Catch me before time runs out and win the prize! Go!" It starts running. I run directly after it, but it goes at an angle. I go after it again, and it runs the opposite way. I run at an angle to intercept... And he curves away at the last instant. With less than a minute left, I try running in arcs blocking his path... Getting closer... Closer. "Time's Up! Would you like to try again?" I say yes. Four tries later, I give up, check the forums... Other newbies have asked about the goblins, there's something about a speed charm. I guess I have to buy one of those, they're probably an equip item or a tarot card. I need money, so I may as well level up at the same time.

*Delta: Bursting Passed Over Sea of Sand*
Three goblins, eight rabbits, two health potions, and two of some sort of flying insect later, I level up. Return to town.

*Delta Root Mac Anu*
I buy some more potions, and find a speed charm in the spell shop. It's geting late, so I'll log out for the evening and see about that goblin, and tha bursting passed over field, tomorrow.

*log out*

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## Seanchaidh

_*logs into Mac Anu server*

Subaru approaches the Chaos Gate slowly her eyes fill with sadness as she enters the field name Hidden Forbidden Holyground.  

 The sad music floats upon the air as the huge ornate cathedral comes into view. Cautiously she glances around and only sees the silvery water surrounding the small island the beautiful structure rests upon. Reluctantly she walks up the steps into the building and sighs.  The expansive interior only houses six pews and the small statue of Aura wrapped in chains.  The music loudens and Subaru thinks abouts gating out.  She steps towards the statue, every footstep resounds through the hall. 
  As she reaches the statue, the tears begin to flow and Subaru collapses in front of it.  "Oh Tsukasa.." she weeps, "I'm sorry." The statues sad eyes seem to glisten also, maybe with tears too.  "Tsukasa, I failed." Her sobs and the melancholic music are the only sounds that can be heard out of the temple._

 ::angel::   ::flyaway::   ::angel::

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## JET73L

*logs onto computer*
No new messages.
*Logs onto forum*
Nothing really interesting that I can do at my level. 

*New Character Entering The World!*
-Jechtael lvl 3, Delta Server, Root Town Mac Anu-
Activates Chaos Gate: Where do you want to go?
Delta-Bursting-Passed Over-Aqua Field
*Area Invalid*

Huh, I was sure... It's a multiple-choice, not like I'm typing it in... Re-enters code...
*Area Invalid*
Suddenly, the chaos gate bursts open. Something rushes through, surrounded by a hole in the graphics. I can't see what it is, because it disappears, but it wasn't one of the character classes from the basic game.

I ask another player if they saw that. "STFU n00b! Go gain some levels on another server!" He's not listening, and nobody else was still there. Either he hadn't noticed, or it was perfectly commonplace. I decide to try moving to the Beta server.
*Player Not Authorized, Choose A Different Root Town*
That's... odd.
*Player Jechtael Logs Out*

I type an email to Altimit's help line, and no sooner did I send it than I got another e-mail.
*New Message!*
Sent: [email protected]
RE: Forget What You Saw
Message: The administrators gratefully accept your input. Please send no further messages, as our email servers are often busy and unnecessary messages can cause problems. If you observe further problems, reinstall the game with a new name and product code. Do not message us again.

That sounds suspicious.

*Welcome to the forum, Jechtael!*
I post a quick mesage on the board asking if anyone else met a non-class character using the chaos portals, or if they knew what skill cut a hole in the sky. I ased anyone who knew to meet me in the World at... delta bursting passed over sea of sand, tomorrow at 6:00PM Tokyo time. I hope the administratrors don't delete it, and that someone knows what I'm talking about, if that was who this [email protected] person represented, if they weren't just a bot, and plan to run a viruscan after logging off.
*Logs off Altimit forum*

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## Seanchaidh

_

*Opens mail sender*

*Types*

If you want to know more meet me at the omega server root town.
Come alone.

Mia

*sends email to Jechtael*
_

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## JET73L

*Welcome, User ___*
*Logs into e-mail*
*Two new messages!*
Nah, it's just a spam offer for Samurai and Lancer weapons... Mia, that's unusually... Normal. She... Knows about what was at the Chaos Gate!
*Search Engine: The World+Omega Server*
The omega server is... Huh, it's a large area in Delta. That's odd. But at least I can probably get there even with the root toiwn access blocked.
*Welcome to Mac Anu, player Jechtael!
Jechtael, Level 3, /\Server Mac Anu
*Activate Chaos Gate*
*Enter Password /\ Pulsating Worst Core*
Gyah! Never going to get used to travelling by chaos gatye, it just keeps getting weirder and weirder. um... 
[yell]Is There a player that ges by the name of Mi-
"Yes, now stop shouting across the whole game."
A purple catgirl stood in front of Jechtael.
"You're Mia? What are- erm, who are you, and what is your character? And what do you know about the... thing at the chaos gate?"
She glared. "I am a hacker, I created this avatar myself. And as for what happened, well..."

[/RP entry]

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## Seanchaidh

_Mia stood by the chaos gate, slowly getting impatient. She had sent the email an hour ago, surely he got it by now? Just then the chaos gate activated and Jechtael appeared suddenly yelling.

 "Yes, now stop yelling across the whole game." She snapped at him. Despit her impatience she was slightly amused by this user. He turned around and stared at her. "You're Mia? What are- erm, who are you, and what is your character? And what do you know about the... thing at the chaos gate?"
She glared. "I am a hacker, I created this avatar myself. And as for what happened, well..." she turned around making sure no one was listening, "it depends on what it looks like. Was it a little girl, white hair, white clothes? If it was, then that was Aura."_

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## JET73L

"No," replied Jechtael. It was this big ugly thing, like an Evangelion, but all pale and spikes. I think it was bleeding, or it had something red across its back. It disappeared before I could see it clearly."
Mia waited a moment before talking. "No. It...  I couldn't tell you what it is. But it sounds... almost... Like something I saw before."
*Ding! Request for Mia to join a group.*
*New Player in server:.....

OOC: I don't know how much Mia knows at this point, and don't want to godmod too much (which is difficult in long conversations). Leaving space for one of the two new players to join in, or an NPC, or even a messenger. Mia's response was phrased very carefully so that either Mia is lying, or she actually doesn't remember anything outright, by the way. Conversations without a DM-controlled NPC are always difficult.

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## Seanchaidh

_ooc: too true

Mia stared at Jechtael for a minute as if studying him.  She smirked a little. She leaned forward as if confiding something "You can't defeat it, not even with other people in your party. I suggest you go to Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground at the mac anu server to learn more."

She walked away from the confused boy and said, "I decline to join your party.....for now." 

*gates out*_

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## GestaltAlteration

The subtle breeze of Mac Anu washed over the young man as soon as he materialized before the Chaos Gate. Standing at nearly six feet tall, the twin blade walked, his onyx cloak snapping and waving with each firm step. The skies were as blue as always-- adorned with wispy clouds more beautiful than reality. Players of all shapes and sizes gathered along the brown shop huts, laughing and chatting with due enthusiasm. Cutting across the center of the city glimmered a beautiful river. Cannoes and gondolas carried various people across the gentle stream. Coming to an arched cobblestoned bridge, the seasoned cloaked player stopped to give a quick glance over his shoulder. _There are no game masters or crimson knights around_, he thought. _still, I promised never to do anything stupid in a root town.

_    Count, as was the user's name, strolled to the peak of the bridge and leaned against the railing. He gazed out at that river and felt a smile form on his face. Playing for more than a year didn't take the magesty out of the reality that was The World. Here he didn't have to worry about deadlines, sickness or a phone call from his boss. If he had but a single wish, he would wish The World could be reality, where love and adventure proved abundant, where every player had some greater cause than himself. Be it helping other players, or even the vulgar act of slaying others. Shaking the thoughts from his mind, Count turned his back to the river to lean his back against the bride side, casting glances at both sides to see if he recognized anyone. No such luck. It may have been a boring afternoon, but it beat the alternative of studying.

_What to do?_ he thought with the shrug of his shoulders. Perhaps he should continue his climb up the levels, or explore more of the vast jungle of servers he had yet to explore. Whatever the case, he decided it would be best to get started.

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## Seanchaidh

Having gated out from the Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground of the Mac Anu server, Subaru immediately felt her spirits lift. _Tsukasa..._ The guilt still stung her mind and she warned herself to not cry in a public place. A couple of seconds later, she got a strange email from an unknown user:

_An illegal character is traipsing around the current root town you're in. Go and find him.

[email protected]_

_Thats odd_ thought Subaru. She descended the steps to the bridge and found him gazing happily into the river's pure, flowing waters. She quietly crept up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me, I would like a word with you." She called to him in a loud tone of voice.

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## GestaltAlteration

Count woke from a state of half-sleep by a firm tap and a command from a voice he thought he recognized. Spinning around he took in the woman's features. Short azure hair with a written symbol blazon on her forehead. If that hadn't been enough to jog his memory, her tiny angel wings, blue dress and stern eyes were. Not just a Crimson Knight, but the leader of them! Everyone who visited the less than reputable message boards were informed to avoid this one.

Leaping back with the prowess of a leopard, Count balanced on the side of the bridge. His thumbs itched to withdraw the blades from his gauntlets, knowing full well it would not do any good in town. Instead, like a hawk, he narrowed his blood colored eyes and watched down on her every subtle nuance.

"My," Count said, "to what do I owe the honor of being visited by Lady Subaru?" Before she could respond he continued. "As it turns out it's a bad time, so I apologize but you cannot have a 'word' with me."

Sprinting past her, Count sped away as fast as he could. With any luck, he could escape detection...

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## JET73L

Since his meeting with Mia, Jechtael had levelled up several times, and increased his in-game wealth. He told himself it was because there might be a dungeon at the Hidden Forbidden area, but it was really because he was afraid... both of the creature from the gate, and of getting too involved in the game. He'd heard of people dying from a virus imbedded in the system, but it wasn't soemthing he'd thought about until now.
"Hey, Jet, are we going, or what?"
Brigit was a player he'd met on the Altimit forums. She was a Blademaster, the second character of a former One Sin attemptor. Jechtael had run across her trying to find more information on Delta Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground, and she knew things about the game only a veteran player would, but used a low enough level character that she could party with people new to the game. She had heard legends about the cathedral at Holy Ground, but hadn't visited recently.
*Chaos Gate: New Password: /\ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground*
The two appeared before a cathedral amidst a sea of mist. Jechtael was surprised at the detail and quality of the area, but Brigit was nonplussed. They entered the sanctuary, and...
*BATTLE MODE ON!*
A goblin appeared, and was quickly dispatched by a Tiger Claw and Vak Don from jechtael, and a single swipe from Brigit. As the battle music faded, an eerie melody filled the air.
Birgit sighed. "This place always feels so sad, as though it was made as a tribute to a lost loved one. I always used to enjoy coming to this place."
"I... don't like it. I can see how it's peaceful, but the statue..." Jechtael didn't continue. He didn't have to. THe statue of the goddess had been cast in chains, and was now covered in the accumulated dust of ages. He walked to the pedestal and tried to read it. "Keith... Magus... This is ridiculous, the text shouldn't have been painted over with tarnish. That might just mean it's unimportant."
*BATTLE MODE ON!*
A great earth turtle came flying into the sanctuary at a surprising rate. Jechtael moved to attack it, but Brigit stopped him. "It's too high a level for our avatars! Run!" They tried, but the turtle was between them and the doors. It looked bleak, until a streak of white and blue came rushing from the hall.
"Hya!*Swipe* Didn't..*slash* I...*jab* Kill..*slice* You...*slash* Before!? *STAB*
"Run, this thing can't be killed, I've tried before!"
Brigit and Jechtael tried to move to the hallway, but the newcomer was bowled over by the creature and Jechtael was attacked. He suddenly found himself in an area similar to the hole in the sky at the chaos gate, and heard a voice.
"Use the book."
An item shaped like a book flew toward him. 
*Jechtael used Book of Dusk*
A shudder ran through him. His virtual reality set was malfunctioning! He was going to die in the game! Strange glyphs pulsed through him, as waves of energy struck his body outside of the game. A ring of light, forming a crown of golden spikes, formed around his left gauntlet, and released a stream of data. It pored through the turtle, and they were returned to the sanctuary.

The other person destroyed the turte with a final sweep of his blade, and then turned on the adventurers. "You're just like _that_. Another virus-ridden _creature_, with your monsters and your 'magic arm cannon.' You don't deserve the game, and I swear on my honor as Balmung, of the Azre Sky, Descendant of Fianna, that I will one day rid The World of hackers like you!" "But-" Jechtael and brigit both began to protest, but to no avail. Brigit seemed upset. "You just associated me with hackers in the eyes of Balmung! He's my hero, and the reason I attempted the One Sin event in the first place! If I hadn't seen that you got that attack from an item in the game, I wouldn't forgive you." "jechtael tried to apologise.
"I'm sorry, the book was just there, it was the only thing I could do to-"
Brigit laughed. "I didn't say I don't forgiuve you now. Lets go to a few more areas and check out this new skill. It must be amazing if even the legendary Balmung hasn't seen it before."
*Gate Out*

OOC: So, I've decided to add another character. It's open for now, if anyone really wants to use her as their character they can PM me about it, but I'll be making an RP bio for her and submitting it to the Join the .hack// RP thread as the second of my three possible characters.
Oh, and no, this _isn't_ the Brigit that will later win a set of avatars, but it is related. There are a couple ways I could go with this, but I'm thinking I'll post a certain backstory in the RP character bio.
And no, I'm not taking the place of the .hackers. I'm either accidentally following in their footsteps, or the story will later diverge, depending on what we all do in the game. I intentionally made a loophole with Balmung's comments and the Dusk bracelet (nowhere near as powerful as the twilight bracelet in the context of this game, probably in several ways). This is so there may be a series of characters that recieve bracelets from Aura, and possibly even the Morganna. So other player characters may, in fact, finish the end game with their own data abilities.

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## slayer

*Logging In*
*Server: Delta - Loading Complete*
*Root Town - Loading Complete*

*Welcome to the world KoNeko.*

*You have no new messages.*

"What to do, what to do...I'm not really sure what I want to do." I thought to myself. "I haven't really figured out that gate thing...and last time I used it, I ended up in some weird place and was attacked by some high leveled monster. So it's probably best I stay away from that for now."

I walked around the town for awhile and looked through the shops to see what kind of items they had. Of course everything was too expensive as I had no cash on me, but I liked to see what some of the swords looked like.

I was too shy to ask anyone around me how to play to game. I had some little knowledge about "The World" and I lost my guide book on how to play it. I'd really just like to know how to use that gate thing and get some cash. I noticed a girl standing near an alley way holding a staff. She had on some white-ish silver clothes, almost like a dress you would see at a school dance or something. It was very pretty looking and attractive to the eye. She had long pink hair, and the orb in her staff matched the color of her hair.

I decided to get my courage up and ask her if she would be willing to help me. I guess she didn't see me come up to her because when I tried to get her attention, she squealed and jumped backwards a little.
"Don't scare me like that!" She said.
"Oh, I uh, I'm sorry...I was just trying to get your attention."
"W-what do you need?" She asked while putting her head down a little and clutching her wand closer.
"Well, I'm new to The World, and I was wondering if you could help me start out." I hope that I wasn't scaring her. I didn't think my character looked to scary when I made it, and I'm not trying to be scary.
"I-I can't help you. I'm also new to this game. I just started today...I was invited by a friend, but after I joined, she got into some accident and was hospitalized. Oh! I shouldn't have said that! I'm so sorry, you didn't need to know that!" She started waving her hands back and forth.
"Oh, sorry to hear that...Well, I'm sorry to bother you, I guess I'll be on my way then." As I started to walk off, she said...
"E-excuse me..."
"Hm?"
"C-can I add you to my friends? I just started this game today, and don't have any friends..." She seemed really shy to ask this, as she was staring down and twisting her foot on the ground.
"Sure! My name's KoNeko. What's yours?"
"M-my name is Lilium. You can call me Lily if you'd like..." She seemed sort of emmbarresed to say that. I wasn't sure why though, I thought it was a nice name.
"Lilium huh? That's a nice name. Well I'll catch you later then Lily. Nice meeting you!"
"It was nice meeting you too KoNeko!" She had a big smile on her face and proceeded to walk the other direction."

I headed back to the gate to log out. As I made it to the gate...

*You have one new message*
*Lilium would like to be your friend. Do you accept?*

*Accepted*

*Logs out*

OOC: How was that for my first time? Well not really my first time RPing, I've RPed a lot on games before...
I'm also going to make a new character now.

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## JET73L

Jechtael
Level-grinding, with low to moderate success. Nothing of interest occurs. Gains item: Golden Axe x32, gains item: Silver Axe x32. Sells itms: Golden Axe x30 and Silver Axe x31.

Brigit
Exp-grinding, with low success. Goes to Omega Server/Net Slum mirror. Looks at different modifications people made (lower quality than those who used to play, she thinks). An avatar of a small, pale child walks up to her.
Hello, she says. What do you want?
He stared up at her. You smell familiar, and sound the same. But you look different.
Brigit is disconcerted. Um, I dont live in Japan anymore, so I didnt know there was a beta hardware test for scent-
You sound like the girl who almost saved Her.
Who? Brigit wondered silently. I dont know what you mean, I never saved anyone, I wasnt even a PKer when it was legal.
No, said the other avatar. You died, and She was sad. Then the angel saved Her.
I- She didnt understand. The boy smiled, and began to walk away. Before leaving the visible area, he calls back to her: We hope to see you again.
*Player //random Requests Addition to Friends List*
*Player //random Added to Friends List*
*Player Brigit logs out*

OOC: I think I might try writing this out as a story after the RPG is complete, if nobody minds. Actually, I tend to write rather dry fiction, so it would be nice to work with someone else on making a .hack//Dreamviews fanfic. I know people IRL who write, but if anyone wants to get in on this, thats cool. (If anyone objects to the use of their story or character, or referencing them as contributors, please tell me in PM or on the dothack RP signup thread. I dont plan to publish it, just write it for fun, maybe send it to whoever here wants a copy.)

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## Seanchaidh

occ: Well done Slayer! Not bad for your first try. JET pm me with ideas about the fan fic, maybe I could help you a little. Also, I've never done one before and it would be cool to write one about .Hack

Subaru gave chase to the strange looking twin blade through the crowds. _This one's fast..._ she thought to herself, and he was. In an instant he was gone leaving Subaru lost amongst the crowd. "Damn it." She cursed under her breath. She walked back to the bridge, dragging her axe behind her letting it scrape the ground. _Maybe he'll be there again..._

_*email received*

 Subaru, come to the cathedral, we need to talk.

 Balmung_

 Startled by the aptness of the email Subaru ran across the wooden bridege, up the stone steps and to the chaos gate and warped directly to Hidden Forbidden Holyground. The familiar sad music floated through the air, and sad thoughts pushed to the back of her mind threatened to fight their way back. She ran to the huge, golden doors and walked through into the expansive cathedral. 
  Pale golden light filtered through the windows and landed on a figure in the middle of the hall. "Balmung!" Subaru called to him. He turned, the light gave his white hair a form of irridesence. "You came." He replied. They hugged each other, or rather Subaru hugged him, he just froze up. "So what's going on?" She asked him worriedly. He told her about the battle that had happened previously, and about Jechtael's newly aquired ability. "It's starting again. You must find Jechtael before anything bad happens." He warned. She nodded.

_  *email received*

 Subaru, I'm tracking Jechtael, meet me in the omega server pronto.

  Mia._

_With a quick hug and peck on the cheek Subaru ran out of the cathedral and then gated back to root town. Here she went to the Omega server and came face to face with the strange avatar of Mia, and the legendary hacker Helba.
Helba smiled, "We need to talk."_

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## JET73L

Jechtael
“Gyaaah!” What was thr problem with that thing? If I earned a skill, I should be able to use it!”
Jechtael had been trying for days to use his new skill. It wasn’t available in the skills list or the magic list, and the book had disappeared when he picked it up Perhaps it was a one-time use skill? Part of the event? That could have been why that Balmung player thought he was cheating. Oh, well. If it’s a one-time event, then why didn’t he get any recognition? He had gone back to the cathedral, only once in case he met another person who thought he was hacking the game, and the turtle was back. It wasn’t as green any more, and it didn’t move while Jechtael kept out of its battle mode range in the halls to the back of the cathedral, but it was there nonetheless. So maybe it was a new event? Nobody else seemed to be talking about it. He tried to call the people on his friends list, but they were all either gone or not answering. Eventually, back at the chaos gate in Mac Anu, he noticed there had been a new option since the event of the cathedral: Change Root Town. The only option was something called Dun Loireag, but it was an option, so he went.
“Hi! I’m Johnny, The Lone Grunty!” If not for the inability to do so, Jechtael would have fallen from the platforms of the city when encountering the great, ox-like muzzle. Several other players laughed, one of them said something about new players always getting scare by the grunties. While exploring the town, others of the creatures, which he found were, in fact, called Grunties, could be talked to as NPCs. There was a human NPC next to what appeared to be a baby of the species, who told him all about the creatures and even offered him the first one to raise himself. It began saying that it washungry, and after being fed a number of the formerly useless plants he had found across the server, it grew nearly a foot taller. Jechtael left, checking the chaos gate toi make sure the Mac Anu choice was still there, and logged out.

Brigit
No Entry.

Edit: OOC: Ironically, I was having all sorts of errors up top my 403rd post. This, my 404th post, was the least difficult to do all day.

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## Seanchaidh

_




			
				Edit: OOC: Ironically, I was having all sorts of errors up top my 403rd post. This, my 404th post, was the least difficult to do all day.
			
		


occ:That's happened to me a couple of times. I've no idea why you make loads of mistakes and then suddenly you don't...meh!!

  The walked towards the middle of the the root town and began having an intense discussion, or rather Helba was doing the talking and Mia and Subaru just listened. "That boy, Jechtael, faced a corrupted monster in the cathedral and then was visited by the girl AI. He installed the item. You both know what I speak of." Helba said. Mia and Subaru nodded in unison, glancing at each other worriedly. Helba's calm smile hardened slightly as she continued, "I want you both to watch over him. The problems that arised before are starting again, and the administrators will think the boy was the cause of it, as he is now in a sense a corrupted character himself now he has installed that item. I will try and gather the others together and once more we will defeat this problem. In a couple of hours lets rondezvous (occ: not sure how to spell it  ) back here." With that she gated out, leaving Mia and Subaru gazing worriedly at each other. 
   "Are you thinknig what I'm thinking?" Mia asked. Subaru nodded. She was told about Mia's predicament last time. Mia isn't actually a real life player, she is a program herself, one of the virus programs. During a confrontation with Kite and Elk, she transformed in Macha and was destroyed, but later reborn as Mia. Although the virus part of her was seemingly destroyed last time, so there shouldn't be any problems this time. "Don't worry." Subaru said as she gave her a hug. "Let's go." She whispered to her feline friend. They nodded and headed for the chaos gate and gated to Dun Loireag. There they found Jechtael at the Grunty Ranch, feeding a growing grunty. 
  "Excuse me."  Called Mia to the boy. Who turned and pointed to himself. "You, yes you." She nodded. She stopped in front of the surprised boy and looked intensely at his right wrist. "That's a unique bracelet, can I see it?" She asked lifting up his arm. Subaru stopped behind her, a worried expression covering her normally calm features. She didn't see any bracelet._

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## JET73L

“What bracelet?” Jechtael asked. “You mean the Dusk thing from the book?”
“Yes, that ‘dusk thing,’” replied Mia, with a sickly-sweet tone of voice.
“Well, I thought it was a one-time attack, it disappeared the first time I used the attack. The book’s gone, so…”
Mia was suddenly very serious, and and Jechtael stopped talking almost immediately. After a pause, she began to speak again. “Well, you must certainly be weak if you don’t even know it’s there. Well, now you know, you might even be able to understand the power it gives you. Hm, we’ll meet again. For now, just keep that bracelet safe.” She walked away.
“That was odd,” wondered Jechtael. “What a strange player.”
Subaru /whisper: “Mia? What bracelet?”

Brigit
Party defeats dungeon /\Raging Eternal Nothingness. Player Brigit receives Item: Rose Shield. Player Brigit gains a level.
“Thank you for inviting me on the dungeon raid, it was fun playing with one of my friends from back home.”
“No problem! You’re the best strategist for half the server, which more than made up for your character level.”
“Thanks, but I have to go right now. I hope to see you again soon, if only in the game.”
“Okay, we’ll see you, then.”
Player Brigit left the party.
/logout


OOC: Previous to this post, /\ was intended to be Delta. Lambda server was never referenced. From now on, /\ is Delta, and /\ is Lambda. Unless I get the file of symbols set up, in which case I'll just use whatever the actual letter is. Anyway, sorry for any confusion. If I could still edit that far back, I would.

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## Seanchaidh

_occ: I don't mind.

  As they walked away from Jechtael, Subaru kept glancing back at the confused player. No bracelet... She thought. She looked at Mia, who hadn't spoken a word for five minutes, which was unusual. Her face was calm. "Mia..?" Subaru asked the cat player. Mia seemed in a trance. "Mia!?" Subaru's voice heightened. Mia blinked, and looked blankly at the frightened girl. "Mia are you okay?" sounded the worried voice again. Mia began to speak but they were cut of by the hiss of electricity. Suddenly, a strange character shot by. The background graphics warped and there was a strange symbol, like a red cross. But as soon as it appeared, it vanished. "Oh no, not again!" Mia muttered._

----------


## JET73L

Jechtael
By the time he caught up to Mia, she was already leaving, along with at least one other person. There was no sign of whatever had made the sound, or caused the rift just visible over the edge of the buildings.
*You have received new messages*
He was glad of the recent patch allowing people in-game to know when they got an e-mail. He logged out, and checked his mail.
*You have 2 new messages*
$*#[email protected]^^a
I @^ 6&c(. *ou !i)) n&#37;t r3m4#% #e 7#is 7!m2, m7 #3dd!i9g [email protected]*^t$r n?tw!&h+t4n%ing. 9 w!ll L!5#!!!1!
End of message
“That was… odd. IIt doesn’t seem to be carrying any data, so it can’t be a virus…. Some sort of spam possibly?” The unusual message was forgotten as soon as Jechtae opened the other message.
[email protected] .us (Username Brigit)
Hey, I just got news from one of my friends who plays a Wavemaster. There’s a rumor going around that a new monster has been seen in /\ Hidden Forbidden Requiem. It’s supposed to be really hard to beat, nobody’s done it yet. I can be logged in and waiting if you reply within 45 minutes of receiving this message. Want to go? Y/N
End of Message

Brigit
*You have new mail!*
Haruna was already logged out, so she got the e-mail as soon as it arrived.
[email protected] .jp (Username Jechtael)
Yeah! That sounds awesome, and there might be another special event if we defeat this thing. Meet you at the Mac Anu chaos gate!
End of Message

Jechtael, Brigit
Jechtael was waiting at the chaos gate, when Brigit arrived with a wavemaster he hadn’t seen before. “This is Marcoh. He doesn’t play on this server often, so we won’t be seeing him much until later levels, but a rare monster would bring anyone back to the delta server.”
Jechtael introduced himself. Marcoh replied, “Pleased to meet you. Any friend of… Brigit, now, is a friend of mine. Now, what say we head to find this new creature?”
*/\ Hidden Forbidden Requiem*
The party got through the dungeon pretty easily, as it was rather straightforward and didn’t contain many dead ends. Reaching the lowest level, there was a new door in the side wall of the statue room. Quite unorthodox, the trio passed through and encountered…
*Battle Mode!*
*Enemy Morrigan- Level ????*
Jechtael was surprised. Was this black-winged, scarecrow-looking being another creature like the turtle? When he begfam to ask, Marcoh replied, “No, it’s level 78, but it shouldn’t be here! Less talk, more fight!” With that, he cast a speed spell and a series of talismans on the party. The creature, however, glowed with the effects of the same spells. Jechtael and Brigit tried attacking with skills, but every time a skill with a magic effect was used, it also hit the party. Brigit yelled, “Marcoh! We need to break this thing! You know that reflecting monster in the old Final Fantasy game, back when the PS2 was still around? Maybe we can reflect spells off of us to hurt this thing!” Alas, Marcoh had no such spell equipped. The two blade users were still attacking, but Jechtael thought… Maybe the bracelet will work now? He tried to remember how it felt when the bracelet was activated the first time… A sudden sound, and the dungeon disappeared, to be replaces by rushing lines of code. A burst of light went from his wrist through the monster, and the dungeon returned to normal.
*Party at full health! Party has zero SP! All spell effects removed!*
Brigit and Jechtael couldn’t see the level of the monster, but Marcoh started. “It just went to level 90!” The creature’s HP bar, however, had dropped to a sliver of red. In a scratchy, screeching voice, it yelled, “I’ll return, you will not stop me! You will die within my game!” It then flew through the ceiling of the room, and the three adventurers were suddenly in front of the chaos gate at Mac Anu. After some discussion, it was determined that Marcoh would look into the creature around the higher-level servers, and Jechtael and Brigit would stay on servers of their level or lower until they were strong enough to traverse the later servers, and see what else the bracelet does.
*Player Brigit logs out*
Player Jechtael logs out*
Brigit
*You have new mail!*
[email protected] .jp (no username)
Miss Kunisaki: A student of ours, Marcus Corvin, recently collapsed in our computer labs. He was wearing a virtual reality headset and gloves, and according to the computer’s log, you were the last person he contacted via e-mail and game. His condition is stable, but due to the controversy surrounding The World and recent other virtual reality systems, we thought it might be best if you could provide an account of what happened when you last saw each other. Please reply when next you can.
End Message
*End Entry*


OOC: Marcoh isn’t intended to be one of my characters. He was a one-shot thing, a plot device. I expect that’s allowed, like a guest NPC in .hack or, a better example, in FFIIIDS. If not, I can set him up as my 3rd character, but I’d still rather leave it open for now (for one thing, Marcoh is apparently comatose).

----------


## Seanchaidh

_*Subaru receives new mail*

 Hi!!!! 
 Haven't seen you in a while, Helba says we need to get together and talk.
 Hope it's nothing serious. 
 See ya!!

 Mireille._

_ Subaru glanced at the mail and smiled. Mireille was a friend of hers and someone no one could forget. She was an avid treasure hunter and always cheery, just like her mother. Subaru logged into the game and warped to Net Slum where she found Helba chatting to Mireille. Helba seemed to be exhausted, probably due to Mireille jumping about, chatting and laughing. Helba caught sight of Subaru and gave a grateful smile. 
  "Thanks for coming. We really need to talk..." Helba was cut off as Mireille screamed with delight and dove upon Subaru giving her a hug. Helba cleared her throat, clearly irritated and said, "Morganna Mode Gone." Then she gated out, leaving two stunned and silent faces gazing into space._

_ *Email sent to Jechtael*

 I am giving you access to net slum. Please come at once. 

[email protected]_

----------


## JET73L

Brigit
Mayu-chan! Brigit had been wandering the net slums, when she found another familiar face from her earlier days in The World.
What? The wavemaster looked confused. Oh, no, you knew my mom from when she played. Im Mirei, Mireille in the game.
Brigit was ecstatic. Oh, thats soooo cool! I didnt even know she was expecting, how is your mother?
Shes fine.
*Player Jechtael has arrived*
Hey, Brigit, youre here! Do you know where [email protected] is? Im supposed to meet him here.
Mireille, not Brigit, replied. Um, if youre talking about Helba, shes a girl. And she just left. Im Mireille.
Jechtael. Nice to meet you.

OOC: Do you know how many of the words for butterfly also mean either bowel or flatulence? _All of them._ Mayu (cocoon) was probably a better choice of nickname for Mayumi, Mistrals original player.

----------


## Seanchaidh

> OOC: Do you know how many of the words for butterfly also mean either bowel or flatulence? All of them. Mayu (cocoon) was probably a better choice of nickname for Mayumi, Mistrals original player.



_occ: Wow, you do learn something new everyday. Neat!

Mireille stared at the Jechtael grinning. "Hey are you the one with the bracelet?" She asked. Then she pouted, "No fair! Was there an event I missed?" She then glanced at his wrist, it began to glow an eery blue-green. 
"Hey! Wow! What's going on?" She said jumping about. The entire field of Net Slum vanished and was replaced by a strange field full of floating rocks. Then the background graphics started warping and a strange monster appeared, with a red cross. Mireille screamed, as the "BATTLE" sign appeared and the monster began to attack._

----------


## JET73L

Jechtael, Brigit, others
Oh, no! yelled Subaru. Its a phase AI!
The others didnt understand. Is that bad?
Very!
Jechtael told the others to move away. If this bracelet works like it should, I can bring it down to our level Dusk Drain!
The bracelet began to glow with visible yellow light, and a rushing sound began as it aimed itself toward the phase And stopped. Jechtael dropped to the ground, his skin and clothing flashing bright red.
*Infection at 91%. ?Data Drain failed. Party SP at zero. Party HP is halved.*
Mirielle scrabbled for an SP restore and began to heal the others, and Brigit and Subaru began to attack the phase. Jechtael activated a speed potion, and joined the other two fighters.
Why didnt it work? he asked. Nobody knew, or at least nobody could say during the fight. A sudden flash of green rose in a particulate ring about the creature, and a voice appeared:
*Protect Break active: Enemy Skeith*
Another rushing, staticky sound began, and a beam of red light shot from the peak of a nearby building. It pierced the AI, who then shattered, sending a small, lavender-glowing sphere up through the sky.
The four turned to see who had saved them, but all that could be seen was a shadowy figure silhouetted against the sky before it gated out.

----------


## Seanchaidh

_"Wow, who was that" asked Mireille, she hadn't realised the field had reverted back to Net Slum. She looked at the spot where the figure had once stood expecting him to rematerialize, but the space remained vacant. She glanced at Subaru, a strange expression crossed her face, almost like recognition and before Mireille could ask anything she muttered one word "Helba" then golden rings appeared around her and she gated out. 
  Mireille stood there facing Jechtael and his gang. An uneasy silence passed before them. Then something popped into her mind, something she had been meaning to ask for a while now, "How did you get that bracelet?" She asked Jechtael._ 

_A hand landed gently on her shoulder and a soft voice sounded, "I think he's had enough excitement for one day don't you?" She squealed with fright and spun around brandishing her staff. Helba stood smiling and answered the question that was floating around in their heads, "You'll find out soon enough" and then she handed something to Jechtael - a dungeon password. "There is a strange room there. Perhaps you'll find an answer. Go now." She then disappeared._

Subaru was flitting from server to server searching for Helba. _She knows about him!_ The instant she saw the figure she knew he it was. An image flashed into her mind: the slow moving, crystal waters of mac anu, the tranquil music flowing through the air, the hustle and bustle of commerce and the strange twin blade character standing by the bridge. _It has to be him, it has to_ She thought. However the character was no where to be found. A sigh errupted from deep in her chest and exploded into a yell. She was tired of all this. All she wanted was peace in order to play "The World", obviously impossible. Just then she heard a beeb and noticed she had a new email.

_Hihihihih! New dungeon! Treasure! Meet me quickly at Net Slum! Hurry! Yaaaaayyyyy!!! 

 Mireille  xoxoxoxo_

_She laughed at the email. The over the top - hopelessly enthusiastic hmour despite the bad circumstances always seemed to brighten up the place. She was just like her mother. Immediately Subaru gated back to Net Slum and met up with Mireille, but a strange feeling came over her. Someone else was also there._

----------


## JET73L

OOC: Yay! Welcome back, Subaru! Will post next move once I have time to write it without timing out of the forum- probably this evening, but maybe in the morning.

----------


## Seanchaidh

_occ:it's okay. Take your time. I'll be getting an internet connection at home in around eight days so I'll be able to come on this site a lot more YAY!!_  :Bliss:

----------


## JET73L

Jechtael & Brigit
Ф Cursed Despaired Paradise
There hadnt been any problems so far, as the players had explored every room of the dungeon save that behind the door filled with purple haze. Jechtael had wanted to check the room as soon as they cleared the other rooms (no rare items), but, to his surprise, Brigit was reluctant to enter. She wouldnt say why.
Eventually, there were no more excuses, and they crossed the threshold to find nothing. Nothing but a white room, empty save for a canopy bed surrounded by stuffed animal dolls.
Its so sad Jechtael was surprised at his fellow adventurers reaction. To him, it seemed more austere, a place that should have been safe But wasnt. Brigit, look at the stuffed bears!
Brigit didnt understand at first, but she soon saw what he meant. Every bear had a hole through the center of its chest, and several had missing limbs or even a slit throat. One of them, propped on the unmade bed, was staring creepily at the door and holding a small roll of parchment. Neither Jechtael nor Brigit wished to approach it, but after several minutes of no movement, Brigit used the tip of her sword to sweep the paper off of the bed.
-Coders Log: Harald, June 23, 20XX-
Ive been talking with Her. Shes not supposed to be an AI, but she seems to react more than any previous intelligent program. I cant even bring myself to refer to her program as an it any more. Shes too human. She even asked if she had a name. Morganna It sounded strange, telling someone their own name But I worry. When the ultimate AI is born Will she be nurturing, like a mother? Will she be cold, like a machine? Or I dare not say it. For now she is the most important part of the Frägment plan. May I be forgiven if Im wrong

The note faded, and the two were returned to the hall outside, the door to the white room now sealed.

OOC: I wish I could find more about Harald and the origins of Morganna. As it is, Im just hoping Im not introducing something contradicted by canon.

----------


## Seanchaidh

_occ: I don't think it is contradictory information. I think it's fine. Now, lets continue.......

  Subaru's arm ached from being pulled along the oak bridge in the centre of Mac Anu. The soft, rushing sound caused by the flowing tranquil waters washed over her but were drowned out by Mireille's incesant cheery voice._ 

_"Oh, wow! Monster! Oh you should come! Treasure! Rare item! An event! Yay!"_ 

_ Mireille had been this way since the whole event at Net Slum. After a couple of seconds they came face to face with a strange building. Mireille cheered and ran inside. Subaru justed waited outside, but a white sleeved arm reached out and yanked her inside. 
  They were in a room which was filled with rare goodies - as Mireille loved to call them. She actually began picking a large group of them and tossing them in the air, laughing. The whole room looked well furnished in traditional Japanese fashion and actually looked like a typical living room. 
   "How did you get this room?" Subaru asked bewildered. Mireille stopped dancing and stared at Subaru - for a split second Subaru felt Mirei had forgotten about her. It turns out this entire place is a rare item itself and Subaru hearing this couldn't help but laugh. Soon they were both on the floor giggling and sun light filtered through the window and landed upon the two hysterical girls. 
   They just sat there for hours talking randomly: about their families, hobbies, school. As the time passed the weather got gradually worse and worse until rain pounded upon the glass. Subaru stood up and wandered to the window, her face solemn._ 

_"What's wrong?" Mireille asked._ 

_"I'm worried about everyone. Us. We could all get in trouble with the admins - we're affiliated with an illegal character. Remember what happened to you when you hanged out with Shugo?" Subaru whispered to her friend.

  A thought flashed into Mirei's mind. Bars. Solid, metal bars. The threat of character deletion - all her rare items gone and no more Rena, Shugo, Ouka or Hotaru. The memory still made her shudder.

  Just then Subaru had a sense of foreboding. Just then the door to Mirei's hideout flew open revealing the sneering face of Kamui and her cobalt knights. And soon there they were trapped behind those familiar bars.
  Subaru heard Kamui whisper to one of her subordinates:_

"Soon, their friend will hear about this and come running. Then we'll catch him." 

_   The cackle of her laughter stung her ears and Subaru began to worry about Jechtael's safety._

----------


## JET73L

Brigit
After following the directions in an e-mail arranging a meeting, Brigit found herself entering a low-rent, almost filthy tavern in one of the mostly abandoned rest areas of The World. Aside from the bartender, an NPC- no, an AI, there was only one other person. He was sitting in the corner, with ice-blue eyes and a mark on his forehead. Are you the Sage?
He nodded. That I am, he said, now sit, and let us converse.
She did, and his next question was even more cryptic than the e-mail: What do you remember after Zaiwan Shin?
What, you mean the One Sin event? I lost. I quit the game, there was nothing left for me. Haruna had been offered her first job in North America at the time, and was suffering from bouts of depression while contemplating leaving her homeland and family. She didnt see anything worth keeping her character for, since e-mail would be as useful as online games with the time lag. I never played after that.
Ah, this Will be difficult for you, then. The Sage mimed pulling something from his satchel and appeared to twist an invisible cord into a complex pattern before reaching for Brigits forehead. This will feel unusual for a moment, but you have to know, its all real.
Whats all- she gasped. The time It wasnt dreaming. None of it had seemed real, but What was real in The World? Especially now?
The Sage smiled. I hoped that would work. You see, the game affects people, gets inside their head. Sometimes, if a character is deleted, even if its through normal means, theres a backlash. When someone is data drained Its worse. The coma victims were just part of what happened.
Brigit shuddered. Its Because of me, they
Because of you, they could escape. The important thing is that Altimit believes you still recall nothing of the events surrounding the dot hackers, and we need to keep it that way. Dont contact anyone in a way that Altimit can take note of. Do you understand?
Feeling close to tears, she replied: Yes, I Its a lot, but I can Im okay. Thank you, mister?
You dont know me, and I shouldnt be here now. Goodbye. Brigit left.

To: [email protected] Altimitmail. net
From: [email protected] triggerpower. online
RE: Ask Mayumi-San: The new online game search engine
Miri-chan, this is important. If you remember, Im the one who mistook you for your mom a few days ago. The company may be scanning yours and certain other players email for names and words, but could you ask your mom if the name Sylph means anything to her? If it does, have her use a different email host to contact me at MaShinSaga .us. My ID is crescendo. Hope to see everyone soon, in the meantime, have fun!

OOC: If someone wants to handle Mistrals side of the conversation, go ahead. My plan, however, is to leave Mistrals responses unvoiced, and just have Brigit/Haruna/Crescendos e-mails posted. If Subaru wants to play Mireilles character as being controlled by Mistral/Mayumi occasionally, I have no problem if nobody else does. (Im not suggesting it, just saying I consider in-game characters played by more than one person to always be the same character. For all it matters, Mistrals player could set up a new account with a level 1 axmaster.) Oh, I just remembered Mireille was captured by the cobalt knights I guess the assumption could be made that Mayumi and Miri share Mistrals old e-mail account.

Jechtael
Sir! Your friends need you!
Jechtael had been spending another uneventful day leveling up, and was suddenly accosted by a small boy dressed In white.What do you mean? Who are you? Worry crept into his mind that it was the Morrigan, or another Phase monster.
Im Random, sir, your friend knows me. But Mireille and Subaru are in trouble! The blue knights have them!
The blue Police? Theyve been arrested?
Random paused a moment, seemingly in thought. Um You could say that. But in the game. Its a trap, sir. You cant try to spring them from the poke without help.
Huh I can only think of two people strong enough to fight an entire digital police force. One is Balmung, and he wont be any help The other Well, maybe, three, if [email protected] can fight, but whoever killed Skeith might be willing to help. Random, you found me in a field zone, can you find Brigit, Mia, Marcoh, and [email protected], and tell them to meet me in the net slum, due east of the main area? And Balmung, while youre at it.
Yes, sir. At least, I can find Brigit, Mia, and Balmung of the Azure Sky. I dont know about the others, or if I can ask anything of Balmung of the Azure Sky.
Jechtael nodded. Thanks. Random, any help will be appreciated. Random gated out with an unusual mosaic pattern, and Jechtael left to return to the net slum, wait, and plan.

OOC: Fun Fact: Jechtael still thinks Helbas name is actually spelled [email protected], pronounced Hellbat. Also, this is getting quite interesting, and depending on how the other players handle things, I have a couple of possibilities for who (or what) killed Skieth, who they work for and why, and how many Phases are left (along with, possibly, the fate of The World). Although it will be quite interesting to see how this story turns out with the ideas of the other players. Always the best part of a DM-less RPG.

----------


## Seanchaidh

occ: I agree, also I was wondering if you'd be willing to tell me those ideas?

  Subaru paced back and forward in her cell. The bleak stone walls didn't even dent when she struck them with her weapon - neither did the bars. She was looking for a way out - a glitch, something, anything! Only there was none. 
  She glanced over into the cell facing hers and found Mireille sitting on the stone floor, hugging her knees and rockiing back and forth. Subaur was close to cracking too, but she had to remain strong for both her, and Mireille's sakes. Her thoughts kept springing back to Jechtael. _I hope he isn't dumb enough to fall for the trap_ she thought. 
  The main door opened and Kamui entered regally with a smile upon her face. She glanced from Subaru to Mirei and then back again and laughed, 

"You're friends are coming to help you. Such a pitiful little force. When they get here, I'll personally delete all of you." 

_Mirei began howling and Kamui began to walk back out but Subaru yelled after her, "Who do you think you are? You can't do this! We'll stop..." Kamui cut her off:_

"Oh, you'll find I can. People like you have spoiled this game and I will never forgive the likes of you for doing so!" She whispered, her voice full of venom.

_Just then one of her subordinates burst in, "They're here!"_

----------


## JET73L

A Twin Blade, a Blademaster, and a purple catgirl burst in and ripped straight through the subordinate guards. Kamui was furious. Fools! These arent the hackers, theyre AIs! Destroy them! With that, she leapt forward, brandishing her spear as though it were the ultimate weapon. She struck down the green twin blade and the silver blademaster, but as she reached the purple cat avatar, a pulse of light from its gauntlet shattered her spear. No-!
It reached forward, pressing its other hand against the center of Kamuis chest. Im not done with these people. And, just for your information, these arent AIs. Theyre shells. How youre head of the Cobalt Knights, Ill never know. The avatar started glowing, fracturing, and Kamui still couldnt move. Finally, with a great noise, the avatar and the cobalt knight shattered in a burst of corrupted data. The cell opened, allowing Mireille and Subaru free passage from the holding cell.

----------


## Seanchaidh

_Subaru ran to the fallen players and helped them to their feet. She looked around the cell. "Huh! Where'd Mia disappear to?" She asked. Mireille's voice broke in, squeaking with fright, "She didn't." Subaru glanced at her wavemaster friend and saw the frightened glaze of her eyes. She spun round and noticed the entire cell had transformed into a desolate floating island, in the middle of which rested this large, cream sphere which began to unfold and a cat like creature appeared from within it. "Oh no! Macha!" Mirei shrieked. Macha seemed to smile as the "BATTLE" sign lit up the screen._

----------


## JET73L

It looked as though the two were doomed, but Jechtael ran in, and tossed Subaru her confiscated axe. Mirei! Keep us healed! And dont worry, I brought plenty of status items! The battle raged, Jechtael and Subaru attacking and Mireille healing for damage. The tide had almost turned in Machas favor as Mirielle was Charmed, but a status restore item took care of that. Subaru finally protect broke Macha, but it reared up, brandishing a bracelet on its left wrist: I grew to love you humans, and then you betrayed me, ripping out my heart for your precious friend! Well, NO MORE! [DATA DRAIN]
The party began stumbling about, poisoned, confused, and less half their HP. Mistral shook it off first, and then Data Drain! Jechtael activated his bracelet, moving into the data drain screen and absorbing Machas corrupted data. In its place was a small cat wearing a pointy hat, asleep. From it shot a purple sphere, up through the sky like when Skeith had been killed, and the battle mode was deactivated. Are you two okay? Jechtael asked the two just-escaped prisoners.
Were Were fine. Subaru wondered, though. How did you know Machas powers?
Jechtael looked at Mireille quizzically for a moment, and then replied: Actually, it was Mireis mother. She was with the original dothackers, when they took down some of the phases. I got an email from here through a first person shooter system, of all thinks. Thank her, Mireille, as soon as you log off.
My mommy saved us? I knew she was a hero in the World! Illl definitely say thanks!
Jechtael turned solemn. However, I havent yet heard from Brigit or Helbat, all I know is that we need to get out of here. Ready to go?
The others replied in unison, Ready! and gated out.

Net Slum
A slender female blademaster with silver armor was talking to a cloaked figure.
This is bad. Very bad. You knew what would happen if you tried to get rid of Aura, but
We didnt know. We hoped _She_ would have been powerless after the phases were incapacitated, but shes back now, and getting stronger.
You always were a bunch of fools, thinking since you were gods, the humans couldnt destroy you Ever heard of Neitsche?
Yes. I look back on how we used to be And pity myself, and those who are no longer here. Whats past is past, though-
And whats present must be confronted. It was nice, seeing you again.
Same here. One last thing, though Can you leave?
The blademaster hesitated No.
And walked away.

----------


## Seanchaidh

_OCC: I like. I like. 

       Nice work with the "Net Slum" part; introducing mysterious characters.  
       Well done.

RP:_

Kurokawa Household

Mirei stood in her bedroom just taking in what had happened just previously. _Wow! Mommy's a dot hacker!_She thought excitedly. She ran into the living room and hugged Mayumi (her mother). "Arigato mommy." She whispered. Mayumi nodded, relieved that her daughter was safe and then they both sat down and had waffles with strawberry sauce.

"The World"

_Subaru tried and tried again to get back to that field but she knew her efforts were futile. "I'm sorry Mia." She muttered sadly and then gated to Mac Anu and from there to ΔHidden Forbidden Holyground - which is where Subaru always went to pay her respects. As Subaru walked towards the ornate cathedral she couldn't help have the feeling she was being watched. 
As she got to the gate everything warped and she was suddenly in Net Slum standing next to Helba. "Hel..?" She began but Helba cut her off with a finger raised to her violet lips and a soft "ssh." sound. She then motioned with her head to a spot within the center of the town.
  Characters she had never seen before were muttering to each other and looking shifty. "Why can't they see us?" Enquired Subaru as she and Helba were standing next to a piece of rubble a few feet away from the group. 
Helba chuckled, "I'm running a concealing program which shields our avatars from other players." She whispered. One of them, a female blademaster began walking away. Helba leaned forward towards Subaru and whispered in her ear, "Follow her." 
  Subaru's face creased in puzzlement, "Why?" She asked spinning around, but was met only with empty space. She looked around for Helba, but she must have gated out. She then looked for the blademaster and then began following._

----------


## JET73L

Brigit! Calling Brigit on Server Σ! No answer. Jechtael had been trying to find Brigit for the past three days, to no avail. Nobody had seen her recently in the net slums, and she didnt show up on the message list for the other servers. Without answering her email, it was unlikely that she would just drop out of the world when something so important was happening. He turned to leave, but an AI appeared, a young girl holding a teddy bear with an orange hat and green face markings.
You smell like Shugo did when he had Mommys bracelet. Do you know a person named Brigit?
Erm.. Yes, Jechtael replied. I was just looking for her. Do you know where she is?
The AI shook her head. No, but she says shes okay, and not to worry. Shell be back once she takes care of a few things.
Okay. Um Can I ask you your name?
Yeah, answered the AI, but with an impish grin continued: But I wont tell you. She laughed and ran off.
Jechtael thought, what strange people must program these intelligences. Ah, well, Brigits okay, thats all that matters until we find the next Phase. I may as well get some level-gringing in, maybe try that grunty racing game Ive been hearing about

Brigit sat in a field of aromatic grass, crying. Mia Im sorry we couldnt save you, I know I could have done more to help She picked up a stalk and let it flutter away in the wind. I was hoping you might have been here, I know how much this grass reminds you of Tsukasa I wonder, could you smell the aroma of the foxtail grass? What did it smell like?... Oh, Im being stupid-
If youd give me a millisecond to answer, I would remind you that everything in the digital world has its own unique digital scent.
Mia!? Mia! Briget jumped up and hugged the catlike avatar. I thought you were gone, along with Macha!
Mia huffed in annoyance. How many times must I remind you? Its been a long time since Macha and I were the same person. Just because I still have our old memories...
Its great to see youre okay. Do the others know youre okay?
No. Its only coincidence you were here, I was going to reflect on things for a while. Well, if theyre that worried, I think I can go see the group.
Thanks, Mia. That would be nice.
Mia hesitated. Um Youre welcome?
Suddenly, Brigit jumped up. I have to be going anyway! Im glad to see you are back! Her voice faded in the distance.
Hmm, muttered Mia. Humans are still so illogical Then again, who am I to judge?

----------


## Seanchaidh

_"The World"

Mireille looked at the map of the dungeon she was currently exploring, "Hmm, if I go left it will be dead end, but if I go right I can get to the gotte statue and get my treasure, but would have to fight monsters." She murmered to herself. As she entered into the right room the graphics flickered. It happened so fast Mireille wasn't even sure what had happened. Pretty soon, she defeated the level eighty monsters and walked towards the gotte statue room. 
However, a strange purple light blocked the door way and a loud boom of static exploded in Mireille's ears. She turned around and came face to face with a small pink and white cat in strange clothes. Before she could respond, a large flash of light errupted from the cat and struck Mireille in the chest. Mireille slumped to the ground and images began floating past her eyes: the time when she first joined the world; her friends Shugo, Rena, Ouka and Hotaru; Subaru and her giggling at her hideout. Everything started going dark and the last thing she saw was her and her mother hugging and telling each other how much they loved each other._

_Kurokawa Household

When Mayumi woke up from her afternoon nap she was surprised to find the house quiet. Normally it would be filled with laughter as Mirei played on "The World". She walked upstairs and into her daughter's room to find her lying unconscious on the floor. Mayumi screamed with terror and wept as she clutched her comatose daughter._

----------


## GestaltAlteration

OOC: Hm, I'd like to join in with this again, but I'm lost as far as where y'all are in the story. Any ideas how to get me in?  :tongue2:

----------


## Seanchaidh

Welcome back Gestalt!  ::hug:: 

Hmm, let me think...oh wait this may help it's a summary so far of what we've done. 

This is part 1:

*New Player <Jechtael> Logging In*
Server: Delta
Root Town: Mac Anu
Level: 1
J___ had just joined The World, an online virtual reality game where players could be their favorite type of hero class, or even become a villain among the people. A world where monsters roamed the fields and labyrinths, and order reigned only in the towns and where bands of wandering heroes had passed. For the past three years, peace had encompassed The World, since the legendary dothackers had found the secret behind the realm. Now, a new generation of players was online, and another legend was soon to begin
His character Jechtael was a Twin Blade, clad in forest green and wielding two daggers. Quickly learning about the game, Jechtael had looked through his recent emails and the Altimit forums, from the people who designed and moderated The World. There was not much of interest to such a new player, though a couple of low-level challenges such as tag with a goblin did exist. After wandering a bit through the root town of Mac Anu in the Delta Server, he had gathered a bit of information.
For one thing, buying items before starting any significant quests would be a necessity. Also, there existed some fields specifically for low-level people to practice. One such field was in the Bursting-Passed Over-??? keyword combination, though there were three passwords for each field on each server, so it would have to wait for later. He decided to search the Chaos Gate transport system for a good low-level field or two, and trained there until he got the feel of the game, even defeating the first goblin in the Goblin Tag games. A good day for gaming, he thought, as he logged out.

A girl dressed in a blue dancers costume approaches the Mac Anu chaos gate. Her name is Subaru, and her eyes fill with sadness as she types in the code for Δ Hidden-Forbidden-Holy Ground.
The sad music floats upon the air as the huge ornate cathedral comes into view. Cautiously she glances around and only sees the silvery water surrounding the small island the beautiful structure rests upon. Reluctantly she walks up the steps into the building and sighs. The expansive interior only houses six pews and the small statue of Aura wrapped in chains. The music becomes louder, and Subaru thinks about gating out. She steps towards the statue, every footstep resounds through the hall.
As she reaches the statue, the tears begin to flow and Subaru collapses in front of it. "Oh Tsukasa.." she weeps, "I'm sorry." The statues sad eyes seem to glisten also, maybe with tears too. "Tsukasa, I failed." Her sobs and the melancholic music are the only sounds that can be heard out of the temple.

Trying to find the new player area he heard of yesterday, Jechtael is finding the chaos gate to be uncooperative.The code isnt working for Δ Bursting-Passed Over-Aqua Field.
*Area Invalid*
Suddenly, the chaos gate burst open. Something rushed through, surrounded by a hole in the graphics. He can't see what it was, because it disappeared, but it wasn't one of the character classes from the basic game. It seemed to be a large, not unnoticeable monster, but when he asked the others around the square, they just insulted him for his new player status. He tries moving to the β Server, but gets an error message: *Player Not Authorized, Please Choose a Different Root Town* Jechtael logs out.
He sends a message to the e-mail help line at Altimit, and no sooner is it sent than he receives a reply.
__________________________________________________ _______________________
Sent: [email protected]
RE: Forget What You Saw
Message: The administrators gratefully accept your input. Please send no further messages, as our email servers are often busy and unnecessary messages can cause problems. If you observe further problems, reinstall the game with a new name and product code. Do not message us again.
This [email protected] seems suspicious, so he went back online and asked anyone with relevant information to meet him at Δ Bursting-Passed Over-Sea of Sand the next day at 6:00 P.M., being careful not to leave any keywords that this [email protected] or other moderators might be scanning for. Then he runs a virus scan, just in case the person wasnt with Altimit.

Mia opened the e-mail composer, and began a letter.
If you want to know more meet me at the omega server root town.
Come alone.

Mia
And she sent the e-mail to Jechtael.

The next day, having found the message from this mysterious Mia, Jechtael looked up what others had said about the omega server. It was a server created for hackers and wandering AIs, to escape the prying eyes of the system moderators. It could be found at Δ Pulsating Worst Core.
He made it there, though the trip through the Chaos Gate was stranger than ever. He called out, Is there a player here that goes by the name of Mi- A purple catgirl cut him off. Yes, she said. Now stop yelling across the entire game.
"You're Mia? Jechtael had never seen such a character before. What are- erm, who are you, and what is your character? And what do you know about the... thing at the chaos gate?"
She glared. "I am a hacker, I created this avatar myself. And as for what happened, well... she turned around making sure no one was listening, "it depends on what it looks like. Was it a little girl, white hair, white clothes? If it was, then that was Aura."
"No," replied Jechtael. It was this big ugly thing, like an Evangelion, but all pale and spikes. I think it was bleeding, or it had something red across its back. It disappeared before I could see it clearly."
Mia waited a moment before talking. "No. It... I couldn't tell you what it is. But it sounds... almost... Like something I saw before."
*Ding! Request for Mia to join a group.*
A new player had just arrived.
Mia stared at Jechtael for a minute as if studying him. She smirked a little. She leaned forward as if confiding something "You can't defeat it, not even with other people in your party. I suggest you go to Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground at the Mac Anu server to learn more."
She walked away from the confused boy and said, "I decline to join your party.....for now," and gated out.

The subtle breeze of Mac Anu washed over the young man as soon as he materialized before the Chaos Gate. Standing at nearly six feet tall, the twin blade walked, his onyx cloak snapping and waving with each firm step. The skies were as blue as always-- adorned with wispy clouds more beautiful than reality. Players of all shapes and sizes gathered along the brown shop huts, laughing and chatting with due enthusiasm. Cutting across the center of the city glimmered a beautiful river. Cannoes and gondolas carried various people across the gentle stream. Coming to an arched cobblestoned bridge, the seasoned cloaked player stopped to give a quick glance over his shoulder. There are no game masters or crimson knights around, he thought. still, I promised never to do anything stupid in a root town.

Count, as was the user's name, strolled to the peak of the bridge and leaned against the railing. He gazed out at that river and felt a smile form on his face. Playing for more than a year didn't take the magesty out of the reality that was The World. Here he didn't have to worry about deadlines, sickness or a phone call from his boss. If he had but a single wish, he would wish The World could be reality, where love and adventure proved abundant, where every player had some greater cause than himself. Be it helping other players, or even the vulgar act of slaying others. Shaking the thoughts from his mind, Count turned his back to the river to lean his back against the bride side, casting glances at both sides to see if he recognized anyone. No such luck. It may have been a boring afternoon, but it beat the alternative of studying.

What to do? he thought with the shrug of his shoulders. Perhaps he should continue his climb up the levels, or explore more of the vast jungle of servers he had yet to explore. Whatever the case, he decided it would be best to get started.


Having gated out from the Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground of the Mac Anu server, Subaru immediately felt her spirits lift. Tsukasa... The guilt still stung her mind and she warned herself to not cry in a public place. A couple of seconds later, she got a strange email from an unknown user:

An illegal character is traipsing around the current root town you're in. Go and find him.

[email protected]

Thats odd, thought Subaru. She descended the steps to the bridge and found him gazing happily into the river's pure, flowing waters. She quietly crept up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me; I would like a word with you." She called to him in a loud tone of voice.

Count woke from a state of half-sleep by a firm tap and a command from a voice he thought he recognized. Spinning around he took in the woman's features. Short azure hair with a written symbol blazon on her forehead. If that hadn't been enough to jog his memory, her tiny angel wings, blue dress and stern eyes were. Not just a Crimson Knight, but the leader of them! Everyone who visited the less than reputable message boards were informed to avoid this one.

Leaping back with the prowess of a leopard, Count balanced on the side of the bridge. His thumbs itched to withdraw the blades from his gauntlets, knowing full well it would not do any good in town. Instead, like a hawk, he narrowed his blood colored eyes and watched down on her every subtle nuance.

"My," Count said, "to what do I owe the honor of being visited by Lady Subaru?" Before she could respond he continued. "As it turns out it's a bad time, so I apologize but you cannot have a 'word' with me."

Sprinting past her, Count sped away as fast as he could. With any luck, he could escape detection...


Since his meeting with Mia, Jechtael had levelled up several times, and increased his in-game wealth. He told himself it was because there might be a dungeon at the Hidden Forbidden area, but it was really because he was afraid... both of the creature from the gate, and of getting too involved in the game. He'd heard of people dying from a virus imbedded in the system, but it wasn't soemthing he'd thought about until now.
"Hey, Jet, are we going, or what?"
Brigit was a player he'd met on the Altimit forums. She was a Blademaster, the second character of a former One Sin attemptor. Jechtael had run across her trying to find more information on Delta Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground, and she knew things about the game only a veteran player would, but used a low enough level character that she could party with people new to the game. She had heard legends about the cathedral at Holy Ground, but hadn't visited recently.
*Chaos Gate: New Password: /\ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground*
The two appeared before a cathedral amidst a sea of mist. Jechtael was surprised at the detail and quality of the area, but Brigit was nonplussed. They entered the sanctuary, and...
*BATTLE MODE ON!*
A goblin appeared, and was quickly dispatched by a Tiger Claw and Vak Don from jechtael, and a single swipe from Brigit. As the battle music faded, an eerie melody filled the air.
Birgit sighed. "This place always feels so sad, as though it was made as a tribute to a lost loved one. I always used to enjoy coming to this place."
"I... don't like it. I can see how it's peaceful, but the statue..." Jechtael didn't continue. He didn't have to. THe statue of the goddess had been cast in chains, and was now covered in the accumulated dust of ages. He walked to the pedestal and tried to read it. "Keith... Magus... This is ridiculous, the text shouldn't have been painted over with tarnish. That might just mean it's unimportant."
*BATTLE MODE ON!*
A great earth turtle came flying into the sanctuary at a surprising rate. Jechtael moved to attack it, but Brigit stopped him. "It's too high a level for our avatars! Run!" They tried, but the turtle was between them and the doors. It looked bleak, until a streak of white and blue came rushing from the hall.
"Hya!*Swipe* Didn't..*slash* I...*jab* Kill..*slice* You...*slash* Before!? *STAB*
"Run, this thing can't be killed, I've tried before!"
Brigit and Jechtael tried to move to the hallway, but the newcomer was bowled over by the creature and Jechtael was attacked. He suddenly found himself in an area similar to the hole in the sky at the chaos gate, and heard a voice.
"Use the book."
An item shaped like a book flew toward him.
*Jechtael used Book of Dusk*
A shudder ran through him. His virtual reality set was malfunctioning! He was going to die in the game! Strange glyphs pulsed through him, as waves of energy struck his body outside of the game. A ring of light, forming a crown of golden spikes, formed around his left gauntlet, and released a stream of data. It pored through the turtle, and they were returned to the sanctuary.

The other person destroyed the turte with a final sweep of his blade, and then turned on the adventurers. "You're just like that. Another virus-ridden creature, with your monsters and your 'magic arm cannon.' You don't deserve the game, and I swear on my honor as Balmung, of the Azre Sky, Descendant of Fianna, that I will one day rid The World of hackers like you!" "But-" Jechtael and brigit both began to protest, but to no avail. Brigit seemed upset. "You just associated me with hackers in the eyes of Balmung! He's my hero, and the reason I attempted the One Sin event in the first place! If I hadn't seen that you got that attack from an item in the game, I wouldn't forgive you." "jechtael tried to apologise.
"I'm sorry, the book was just there, it was the only thing I could do to-"
Brigit laughed. "I didn't say I don't forgiuve you now. Lets go to a few more areas and check out this new skill. It must be amazing if even the legendary Balmung hasn't seen it before."
With that, they gated out.

*Logging In*
*Server: Delta - Loading Complete*
*Root Town - Loading Complete*

*Welcome to the world KoNeko.*

*You have no new messages.*

"What to do, what to do...I'm not really sure what I want to do." I thought to myself. "I haven't really figured out that gate thing...and last time I used it, I ended up in some weird place and was attacked by some high leveled monster. So it's probably best I stay away from that for now."

I walked around the town for awhile and looked through the shops to see what kind of items they had. Of course everything was too expensive as I had no cash on me, but I liked to see what some of the swords looked like.

I was too shy to ask anyone around me how to play to game. I had some little knowledge about "The World" and I lost my guide book on how to play it. I'd really just like to know how to use that gate thing and get some cash. I noticed a girl standing near an alley way holding a staff. She had on some white-ish silver clothes, almost like a dress you would see at a school dance or something. It was very pretty looking and attractive to the eye. She had long pink hair, and the orb in her staff matched the color of her hair.

I decided to get my courage up and ask her if she would be willing to help me. I guess she didn't see me come up to her because when I tried to get her attention, she squealed and jumped backwards a little.
"Don't scare me like that!" She said.
"Oh, I uh, I'm sorry...I was just trying to get your attention."
"W-what do you need?" She asked while putting her head down a little and clutching her wand closer.
"Well, I'm new to The World, and I was wondering if you could help me start out." I hope that I wasn't scaring her. I didn't think my character looked to scary when I made it, and I'm not trying to be scary.
"I-I can't help you. I'm also new to this game. I just started today...I was invited by a friend, but after I joined, she got into some accident and was hospitalized. Oh! I shouldn't have said that! I'm so sorry, you didn't need to know that!" She started waving her hands back and forth.
"Oh, sorry to hear that...Well, I'm sorry to bother you, I guess I'll be on my way then." As I started to walk off, she said...
"E-excuse me..."
"Hm?"
"C-can I add you to my friends? I just started this game today, and don't have any friends..." She seemed really shy to ask this, as she was staring down and twisting her foot on the ground.
"Sure! My name's KoNeko. What's yours?"
"M-my name is Lilium. You can call me Lily if you'd like..." She seemed sort of emmbarresed to say that. I wasn't sure why though, I thought it was a nice name.
"Lilium huh? That's a nice name. Well I'll catch you later then Lily. Nice meeting you!"
"It was nice meeting you too KoNeko!" She had a big smile on her face and proceeded to walk the other direction."

I headed back to the gate to log out. As I made it to the gate...

*You have one new message*
*Lilium would like to be your friend. Do you accept?*

*Accepted*

*Logs out*

Brigit was experience-grinding, with low success. She went to the Omega Server/Net Slum mirror to looks at different modifications people made (lower quality than those who used to play, she thinks). An avatar of a small, pale child walks up to her.
Hello, she says. What do you want?
He stared up at her. You smell familiar, and sound the same. But you look different.
Brigit is disconcerted. Um, I dont live in Japan anymore, so I didnt know there was a beta hardware test for scent-
You sound like the girl who almost saved Her.
Who? Brigit wondered silently. I dont know what you mean, I never saved anyone, I wasnt even a PKer when it was legal.
No, said the other avatar. You died, and She was sad. Then the angel saved Her.
I- She didnt understand. The boy smiled, and began to walk away. Before leaving the visible area, he calls back to her: We hope to see you again.
*Player //random Requests Addition to Friends List*
*Player //random Added to Friends List*
*Player Brigit logs out*

----------


## Seanchaidh

This is part 2:

Subaru gave chase to the strange looking twin blade through the crowds. This one's fast... she thought to herself, and he was. In an instant he was gone leaving Subaru lost amongst the crowd. "Damn it." She cursed under her breath. She walked back to the bridge, dragging her axe behind her letting it scrape the ground. Maybe he'll be there again...

*email received*

Subaru, come to the cathedral, we need to talk.

Balmung

Startled by the aptness of the email Subaru ran across the wooden bridege, up the stone steps and to the chaos gate and warped directly to Hidden Forbidden Holyground. The familiar sad music floated through the air, and sad thoughts pushed to the back of her mind threatened to fight their way back. She ran to the huge, golden doors and walked through into the expansive cathedral.
Pale golden light filtered through the windows and landed on a figure in the middle of the hall. "Balmung!" Subaru called to him. He turned, the light gave his white hair a form of irridesence. "You came." He replied. They hugged each other, or rather Subaru hugged him, he just froze up. "So what's going on?" She asked him worriedly. He told her about the battle that had happened previously, and about Jechtael's newly aquired ability. "It's starting again. You must find Jechtael before anything bad happens." He warned. She nodded.

*email received*

Subaru, I'm tracking Jechtael, meet me in the omega server pronto.

Mia.

With a quick hug and peck on the cheek Subaru ran out of the cathedral and then gated back to root town. Here she went to the Omega server and came face to face with the strange avatar of Mia, and the legendary hacker Helba.
Helba smiled, "We need to talk."


Gyaaah! What was thr problem with that thing? If I earned a skill, I should be able to use it!
Jechtael had been trying for days to use his new skill. It wasnt available in the skills list or the magic list, and the book had disappeared when he picked it up Perhaps it was a one-time use skill? Part of the event? That could have been why that Balmung player thought he was cheating. Oh, well. If its a one-time event, then why didnt he get any recognition? He had gone back to the cathedral, only once in case he met another person who thought he was hacking the game, and the turtle was back. It wasnt as green any more, and it didnt move while Jechtael kept out of its battle mode range in the halls to the back of the cathedral, but it was there nonetheless. So maybe it was a new event? Nobody else seemed to be talking about it. He tried to call the people on his friends list, but they were all either gone or not answering. Eventually, back at the chaos gate in Mac Anu, he noticed there had been a new option since the event of the cathedral: Change Root Town. The only option was something called Dun Loireag, but it was an option, so he went.
Hi! Im Johnny, The Lone Grunty! If not for the inability to do so, Jechtael would have fallen from the platforms of the city when encountering the great, ox-like muzzle. Several other players laughed, one of them said something about new players always getting scare by the grunties. While exploring the town, others of the creatures, which he found were, in fact, called Grunties, could be talked to as NPCs. There was a human NPC next to what appeared to be a baby of the species, who told him all about the creatures and even offered him the first one to raise himself. It began saying that it washungry, and after being fed a number of the formerly useless plants he had found across the server, it grew nearly a foot taller. Jechtael left, checking the chaos gate toi make sure the Mac Anu choice was still there, and logged out.

The walked towards the middle of the the root town and began having an intense discussion, or rather Helba was doing the talking and Mia and Subaru just listened. "That boy, Jechtael, faced a corrupted monster in the cathedral and then was visited by the girl AI. He installed the item. You both know what I speak of." Helba said. Mia and Subaru nodded in unison, glancing at each other worriedly. Helba's calm smile hardened slightly as she continued, "I want you both to watch over him. The problems that arised before are starting again, and the administrators will think the boy was the cause of it, as he is now in a sense a corrupted character himself now he has installed that item. I will try and gather the others together and once more we will defeat this problem. In a couple of hours lets rendezvous back here." With that she gated out, leaving Mia and Subaru gazing worriedly at each other.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Mia asked. Subaru nodded. She was told about Mia's predicament last time. Mia isn't actually a real life player, she is a program herself, one of the virus programs. During a confrontation with Kite and Elk, she transformed in Macha and was destroyed, but later reborn as Mia. Although the virus part of her was seemingly destroyed last time, so there shouldn't be any problems this time. "Don't worry." Subaru said as she gave her a hug. "Let's go." She whispered to her feline friend. They nodded and headed for the chaos gate and gated to Dun Loireag. There they found Jechtael at the Grunty Ranch, feeding a growing grunty.
"Excuse me," called Mia to the boy, who turned and pointed to himself. "You, yes you." She nodded. She stopped in front of the surprised boy and looked intensely at his right wrist. "That's a unique bracelet, can I see it?" She asked lifting up his arm. Subaru stopped behind her, a worried expression covering her normally calm features. She didn't see any bracelet.

What bracelet? Jechtael asked. You mean the Dusk thing from the book?
Yes, that dusk thing, replied Mia, with a sickly-sweet tone of voice.
Well, I thought it was a one-time attack, it disappeared the first time I used the attack. The books gone, so
Mia was suddenly very serious, and and Jechtael stopped talking almost immediately. After a pause, she began to speak again. Well, you must certainly be weak if you dont even know its there. Well, now you know, you might even be able to understand the power it gives you. Hm, well meet again. For now, just keep that bracelet safe. She walked away.
That was odd, wondered Jechtael. What a strange player.
Subaru /whisper: Mia? What bracelet?

Party defeats dungeon /\Raging Eternal Nothingness. Player Brigit receives Item: Rose Shield. Player Brigit gains a level.
Thank you for inviting me on the dungeon raid, it was fun playing with one of my friends from back home.
No problem! Youre the best strategist for half the server, which more than made up for your character level.
Thanks, but I have to go right now. I hope to see you again soon, if only in the game.
Okay, well see you, then.
Player Brigit left the party.
Player Brigit logs out.

As they walked away from Jechtael, Subaru kept glancing back at the confused player. No bracelet... She thought. She looked at Mia, who hadn't spoken a word for five minutes, which was unusual. Her face was calm. "Mia..?" Subaru asked the cat player. Mia seemed in a trance. "Mia!?" Subaru's voice heightened. Mia blinked, and looked blankly at the frightened girl. "Mia are you okay?" sounded the worried voice again. Mia began to speak but they were cut of by the hiss of electricity. Suddenly, a strange character shot by. The background graphics warped and there was a strange symbol, like a red cross. But as soon as it appeared, it vanished. "Oh no, not again!" Mia muttered.

By the time he caught up to Mia, she was already leaving, along with at least one other person. There was no sign of whatever had made the sound, or caused the rift just visible over the edge of the buildings.
*You have received new messages*
He was glad of the recent patch allowing people in-game to know when they got an e-mail. He logged out, and checked his mail.
*You have 2 new messages*
$*#[email protected]^^a
I @^ 6&c(. *ou !i)) n%t r3m4#% #e 7#is 7!m2, m7 #3dd!i9g [email protected]*^t$r n?tw!&h+t4n%ing. 9 w!ll L!5#!!!1!
End of message
That was odd. IIt doesnt seem to be carrying any data, so it cant be a virus. Some sort of spam possibly? The unusual message was forgotten as soon as Jechtae opened the other message.
[email protected] .us (Username Brigit)
Hey, I just got news from one of my friends who plays a Wavemaster. Theres a rumor going around that a new monster has been seen in /\ Hidden Forbidden Requiem. Its supposed to be really hard to beat, nobodys done it yet. I can be logged in and waiting if you reply within 45 minutes of receiving this message. Want to go? Y/N
End of Message

By the time he caught up to Mia, she was already leaving, along with at least one other person. There was no sign of whatever had made the sound, or caused the rift just visible over the edge of the buildings.
*You have received new messages*
He was glad of the recent patch allowing people in-game to know when they got an e-mail. He logged out, and checked his mail.
*You have 2 new messages*
$*#[email protected]^^a
I @^ 6&c(. *ou !i)) n%t r3m4#% #e 7#is 7!m2, m7 #3dd!i9g [email protected]*^t$r n?tw!&h+t4n%ing. 9 w!ll L!5#!!!1!
End of message
That was odd. IIt doesnt seem to be carrying any data, so it cant be a virus. Some sort of spam possibly? The unusual message was forgotten as soon as Jechtae opened the other message.
[email protected] .us (Username Brigit)
Hey, I just got news from one of my friends who plays a Wavemaster. Theres a rumor going around that a new monster has been seen in /\ Hidden Forbidden Requiem. Its supposed to be really hard to beat, nobodys done it yet. I can be logged in and waiting if you reply within 45 minutes of receiving this message. Want to go? Y/N
End of Message

Jechtael was waiting at the chaos gate, when Brigit arrived with a wavemaster he hadnt seen before. This is Marcoh. He doesnt play on this server often, so we wont be seeing him much until later levels, but a rare monster would bring anyone back to the delta server.
Jechtael introduced himself. Marcoh replied, Pleased to meet you. Any friend of Brigit, now, is a friend of mine. Now, what say we head to find this new creature?
*/\ Hidden Forbidden Requiem*
The party got through the dungeon pretty easily, as it was rather straightforward and didnt contain many dead ends. Reaching the lowest level, there was a new door in the side wall of the statue room. Quite unorthodox, the trio passed through and encountered
*Battle Mode!*
*Enemy Morrigan- Level ????*
Jechtael was surprised. Was this black-winged, scarecrow-looking being another creature like the turtle? When he begfam to ask, Marcoh replied, No, its level 78, but it shouldnt be here! Less talk, more fight! With that, he cast a speed spell and a series of talismans on the party. The creature, however, glowed with the effects of the same spells. Jechtael and Brigit tried attacking with skills, but every time a skill with a magic effect was used, it also hit the party. Brigit yelled, Marcoh! We need to break this thing! You know that reflecting monster in the old Final Fantasy game, back when the PS2 was still around? Maybe we can reflect spells off of us to hurt this thing! Alas, Marcoh had no such spell equipped. The two blade users were still attacking, but Jechtael thought Maybe the bracelet will work now? He tried to remember how it felt when the bracelet was activated the first time A sudden sound, and the dungeon disappeared, to be replaces by rushing lines of code. A burst of light went from his wrist through the monster, and the dungeon returned to normal.
*Party at full health! Party has zero SP! All spell effects removed!*
Brigit and Jechtael couldnt see the level of the monster, but Marcoh started. It just went to level 90! The creatures HP bar, however, had dropped to a sliver of red. In a scratchy, screeching voice, it yelled, Ill return, you will not stop me! You will die within my game! It then flew through the ceiling of the room, and the three adventurers were suddenly in front of the chaos gate at Mac Anu. After some discussion, it was determined that Marcoh would look into the creature around the higher-level servers, and Jechtael and Brigit would stay on servers of their level or lower until they were strong enough to traverse the later servers, and see what else the bracelet does.
*Player Brigit logs out*
Player Jechtael logs out*

*You have new mail!*
[email protected] .jp (no username)
Miss Kunisaki: A student of ours, Marcus Corvin, recently collapsed in our computer labs. He was wearing a virtual reality headset and gloves, and according to the computers log, you were the last person he contacted via e-mail and game. His condition is stable, but due to the controversy surrounding The World and recent other virtual reality systems, we thought it might be best if you could provide an account of what happened when you last saw each other. Please reply when next you can.
End Message

*Subaru receives new mail*

Hi!!!!
Haven't seen you in a while, Helba says we need to get together and talk.
Hope it's nothing serious.
See ya!!

Mireille.

Subaru glanced at the mail and smiled. Mireille was a friend of hers and someone no one could forget. She was an avid treasure hunter and always cheery, just like her mother. Subaru logged into the game and warped to Net Slum where she found Helba chatting to Mireille. Helba seemed to be exhausted, probably due to Mireille jumping about, chatting and laughing. Helba caught sight of Subaru and gave a grateful smile.
"Thanks for coming. We really need to talk..." Helba was cut off as Mireille screamed with delight and dove upon Subaru giving her a hug. Helba cleared her throat, clearly irritated and said, "Morganna Mode Gone." Then she gated out, leaving two stunned and silent faces gazing into space.

*Email sent to Jechtael*

I am giving you access to net slum. Please come at once.

[email protected]

Mayu-chan! Brigit had been wandering the net slums, when she found another familiar face from her earlier days in The World.
What? The wavemaster looked confused. Oh, no, you knew my mom from when she played. Im Mirei, Mireille in the game.
Brigit was ecstatic. Oh, thats soooo cool! I didnt even know she was expecting, how is your mother?
Shes fine.
*Player Jechtael has arrived*
Hey, Brigit, youre here! Do you know where [email protected] is? Im supposed to meet him here.
Mireille, not Brigit, replied. Um, if youre talking about Helba, shes a girl. And she just left. Im Mireille.
Jechtael. Nice to meet you.

Mireille stared at Jechtael grinning. "Hey are you the one with the bracelet?" She asked. Then she pouted, "No fair! Was there an event I missed?" She then glanced at his wrist, it began to glow an eery blue-green.
"Hey! Wow! What's going on?" She said jumping about. The entire field of Net Slum vanished and was replaced by a strange field full of floating rocks. Then the background graphics started warping and a strange monster appeared, with a red cross. Mireille screamed, as the "BATTLE" sign appeared and the monster began to attack.

Oh, no! yelled Subaru. Its a phase AI!
The others didnt understand. Is that bad?
Very!
Jechtael told the others to move away. If this bracelet works like it should, I can bring it down to our level Dusk Drain!
The bracelet began to glow with visible yellow light, and a rushing sound began as it aimed itself toward the phase And stopped. Jechtael dropped to the ground, his skin and clothing flashing bright red.
*Infection at 91%. ?Data Drain failed. Party SP at zero. Party HP is halved.*
Mirielle scrabbled for an SP restore and began to heal the others, and Brigit and Subaru began to attack the phase. Jechtael activated a speed potion, and joined the other two fighters.
Why didnt it work? he asked. Nobody knew, or at least nobody could say during the fight. A sudden flash of green rose in a particulate ring about the creature, and a voice appeared:
*Protect Break active: Enemy Skeith*
Another rushing, staticky sound began, and a beam of red light shot from the peak of a nearby building. It pierced the AI, who then shattered, sending a small, lavender-glowing sphere up through the sky.
The four turned to see who had saved them, but all that could be seen was a shadowy figure silhouetted against the sky before it gated out.

There is a bit more to the story, but I'm sure after reading these, you'll be able  to get the gist of everything again. 

  You should thank JET73L as he's the one that made these summary's.

----------


## JET73L

OOC: I mostly just took the text from the thread and adjjusted it from an RP format to a short novel format. I'll be editing for continuity and readability once the RP gets to an end.

Brigit! Youre back!
Yeah, Im sorry it took me so long. Is there anything I missed while I was gone?
Brigit had returned to find Jechtael and Subaru elated at her reappearance. The two had asked about where she had been, but no details were forthcoming, so they ended up filling their reunion with small talk, enjoying the partys reunion.
That reminds me, Subaru, Jechtael, have you seen Mirei-chan?
Jechtael shrugged, and Subaru answered: No, but early this morning she was planning to do a dungeon run for some randomly spawned rare item, so if shes not still there shes probably logged off to get some rest.
Brigit laughed. Mirei-chan is just like her mother, always wanting the coolest new rare items. I guess I can wait to see her. So, Jechtael, youve leveled up quite a bit in my absence, and the poison grunty is new as well. You however, Subaru Youve been pretty quiet, anything interesting happen since the fight with Macha- oh. Seeing Subarus fac, she realized they hadnt yet met up with their other absentee friend. I take it you havent seen Mia yet?
Subaru was glum for a moment, before realizing Wait, yet? Mias alive?
Yeah, I thought shed already have reminded you Im not Macha any more, quit being a weepy baka, why so sentimental? This revalation lightened the tone of the meeting even more, leaving Subaru to answer Brigits question of what shed been doing since the appearance of the Eighth Phase.

----------


## Seanchaidh

*Subaru receives new mail*

  Meet me in net slum immediately.

  Helba


_That's peculiar... thought Subaru to herself, as she gated to Net Slum.
She looked around but the entire place was deserted - not even any of the AI players were roaming absent - mindedly around anymore. Subaru walked into the center of town hoping to find Helba but was met with emptiness. Every couple of seconds the graphics would flicker. 

  "Hello!" Subaru called out, her voice reverberating from the tall buildings. The flicker rate was slowly increasing and now Subaru's avatar began warping as a result. Just then everything relaxed and she looked up - she notcied a strange object floating in the sky.

  "Huh? A leaf?" She muttered. Her eyes widened when she saw the_ "BATTLE ON" _sign lighting up the screen. "Oh no, not again." She cried as the strange object slowly descended upon her._

----------


## JET73L

Brigit and Jechtael debated going after Subaru, but eventually decided not to. One reason was that she would be long gone, and difficult to track. The other was the burst of static accompanied by a Battle Mode On sign. The two prepared for yet another Phase battle, but The Morrigan appeared instead.
Brigit groaned. I thought wed already gotten rid of you!
No, children- nay, fools even, how could you get rid of me? I am irreplaceable. This is just an avatar of my power, my true self, as were those filthy AIs I cooked up in your image.
You! Jechtael raged. You sent those creatures! Why are you trying to destroy our friends!?
Not because _they_ pose any threat, certainly. You bother me, and you are trying to bring back that awful thing I was forced to raise. Why do you think I gave you that bracelet?
Jechtael gasped, and Brigit rushed forward, attacking wildly. You lie! Aura gave him that bracelet! The Morrigan  just laughed, raised a hand to disintegrate Brigits sword, and answered in a condescending tone: Oh, did I say that out loud? I suppose you can think what you want. Ah, well, goodbye. It seems my intent carrid through moiré easily than I thought. It faded away, leaving Jechtael stunned and Brigit raging.
Jechtael, can you gate hack?
Jechtael recovered a bit, not not much. I Think so
Good. Brigit began her gate to the root town. Were going to find Subaru.

----------


## Seanchaidh

_Subaru was tiring from her fight with Magus. Her health was dangerously low, she had mp left and had run out of items. Also to make matters worse her attacks seemed to have no effect on this strange monster - its health was still infinite. Subaru lowered her axe, I'm going to be one of the lost ones She thought sadly to herself. 

  "Subaru don't give up, I believe in you." She heard a faint voice whisper - Tsukasa's. How? How is that possible? She thought to herself. Then her face hardened. She picked up her axe and launched a downward strike at Magus. For you Tsukasa She thought. 

   However Magus whacked her away. She fell to the ground with a grunt and when she glanced up at the monster, she gasped. A bright blue ring of light was forming in front of it. "Oh no!" She cried, "Data Drain!"_

----------


## JET73L

She closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable, feeling the projectiles of fragmented data pulse through her avatar- until the creature started screaming. She looked again; it was writhing and shrinking, before Brigit swept her sword through it in a killing blow. Jechtael had data drained the creature itself, before rushing to Subaru’s aid. She could hardly take in everything at once, and decided to focus on the most unimportant detail in the scene:
“Um.  Brigit, why did you re-equip to a level 3 sword?”
“Long story. For now, it should suffice that I lost the old one.” She and Jechtael continued at the same time: “Are you okay?”
“I-” Subaru stuttered. “I think so.” She tried to stand, but her avatar’s legs collapsed beneath her, and she gaped in shock. Brigit mentioned that it’s unprecedented for one data drain to be interrupted by another, so there could be any range of side effects, and Jechtael tried to be consoling. Subaru broke down in tears before telling them the whole story of why she loved The World so much, after which the others were nearly heartbroken with sympathy. As in real life, Subaru’s avatar in the world would not walk on her own again.

OOC: I can have a _sick_ sense of irony sometimes. This does, however, turn the poison grunty introduced earlier into a retconned Checkhov's Gun. I expect that could help her get around until something else is rigged up that can go in dungeons.
Oh, and you may recall that although Elk was the subject of an interrupted data drain, that was from being pulled out of the way. So this is unprecedented. (I didn't think it would be good for too many characters to turn up in comas, considering Marcoh and Mireille already. A delayed coma could still occur, if I ruined anything. Or this might not even have happened, all a data-drain induced nightmare.)

----------


## GestaltAlteration

OOC: Thanks for the review JET73L and for posting it, Subaru. While still a bit lost I'll get into the swing of things soon enough.

Net Slum, an anomalous land hidden deep within the world, existing everywhere yet nowhere. Count emerged from a green, static chaos gate and glanced around to take in the sight for the first time. The land's two moons partially hidden behind sickly clouds watched down on partially damaged skyscrapers along a junkyard outskirt. In the center stood better constructed structures of black, though their appearance was marred from trashy fragments of construction lying over the arid ground. In the distance Count saw a mountain of sorts. It flickered and warped indicating something in the "server" wasn't right.

_is it always like this here?_ Thought the man. _Are those voices I hear? Hm...

_Count proceeded towards the closest skyscraper, the dark cape of his cloak-armor swaying from side to side. When he was sure he heard something odd the man pressed the trigger on his gauntlets extending both shining blades. Fortunate for him he'd leveled up a dozen times since his encounter with the Crimson Knight leader. In addition he ran a couple programs he filched that enabled slight speed and status boosts. In regular circumstances he would not dare take such chances, but in coming to Net Slum he was fairly certain no one from CC Corp or otherwise would catch him.

Count came to an alleyway and crept through with the caution of a thief. This time he was certain he heard voices just up ahead. Removing the coarse black hair from his eyes Count picked up his pace closing in on his target. 

He came before the others, speechless.

----------


## JET73L

While glad Subaru had survived, Jechtael was worried. Data Drains could have unusual effects on the users, and her condition could deteriorate at any time. Brigit had gone to see Mistral, or Mayumi considering that Mistral no longer existed except as Mireille, to see if there was any sort of precedent. She also wanted to check on Mirei-chan, in case she wasnt feeling well enough to go online. He stressed because the only thing he could do to better his avatar was wiping out mid-level monsters for exp, even though a character of any level could be data drained into a coma if the Phase so wished.
Jechtael! Brigits voice rang out. He turned to see her running toward him, and she seemed troubled.
Whats wrong? Is the data drain going to cause more problems?
No, its- Brigit sobbed. Its happened before, to a wavemaster named Elk. He was pulled out of the way, but fell into a- a Mirei-chan was attacked by a phase! Shes in a coma! She shuddered, then calmed visibly, her face assuming a stoic expression.
Brigit, shes going to be okay, we just need to stop the Morganna. Weve got the bracelet, most of the phases seem to be gone, and Helba has a plan to-
Brigit interrupted. Its not going to be enough. She took Marcoh, she took Mireille, she tried to take Subaru We fight back now. We have the bracelet, but we cant  win just with the power of the dothackers. We need a system cracker, and Ive heard of one hiding in the World who still hasnt been caught.

----------


## Seanchaidh

_OCC: WOOHOO!!! Gestalt's back!   I like what you've done with Count, I wonder how Subaru will react?  ^^

      Jet, nice work so far. I like that bit about Brigit how she can be emotional one second and then totally revert the next. Also, is it Helba or Count that you were referring to and the end of the post? I guess I'll have to wait....>_<

     Oh Jet, I'll try and put what we talked about in the pms into the rp - you know to help Subaru._


_ RP

    Subaru remained sitting on the ground with the other's talking around her. She just stared at her legs. Oh god, I can practically see the wheelchair. She thought sadly. When she first logged into "The World" she was overjoyed as she could walk; compared with her real self who was paraplegic. Her eyes glistened at the thought of never walking again here. She tried pushing herself back up but she fell back down again. She felt an angry growl develop deep in her throat and she suddenly yelled, "Helba! Come here please!" The strange wavemaster appeared before them and laughed softly,_ 

_"No need to shout. What's wrong?"_ _She asked._ 

_She helped Subaru to her feet and was surprised to see her drop again. Helba grimaced,_

_"I see. Do you want me to help?"_ _She asked Subaru.

  Subaru nodded and Helba gated out for a minute or two. Then when she came back she held out the white-ringed end of her staff towards Helba._

_"Hold out your hand Subaru."_ _She commanded gently.

 Subaru did as she asked and found her avatar slowly begin to float until her dress was a couple of inches off the ground. Subaru laughed with joy and hugged Helba. Helba only looked grave._

_"This effect will only last until the Wave is wiped out for good. As it was the Wave that did this to you. I'm sorry."_ _She muttered softly and then gated out._

----------


## JET73L

An elderly man with silver hair and a sigil on the center of his brow was enjoying a nice cup of tea when  the portal slammed open. A thin, armored girl walked in, and dropped her sword on- and partially through- the edge of the table.
Okay, Sage. You knew who I was, you know whats happening, now I request that you give me the location of this new system cracker whos been hanging around the net slums.
With a brief wave of the Sages hand, the edge of the table repaired itself. Hello, Brigit. What may I help you with today?
Brigit paused, thrown off by his seeming non-sequitur, but then remembered who he was. Sir, I request, if you can tell me, where I might find this Count referenced in rumors throughout the Net Slum?
Much more polite, but no. I can, however, tell you how you might meet him

OOC: I just figured out Haruna's character previous to Brigit. (Not part of the existing series, or at least not on the .hack wiki characters page). Just have to think of how to utilize this with the story properly, if it's even used at all.

----------


## GestaltAlteration

Count became quickly aware that there were those seeking to find him. He didn't know, however, if these meetings would lead to good or to ill. His avatar materialized by Mac Anu's chaos gate with all of his hacks and programs turned off. The soothing wind blew the dark hair from his eyes and the chatter of men and women filled his ears. Walking by the side of the canal where the waters from time to time crashed against the stony shelves, Count thought about the incident.

_I saw lady Subaru, leader of the Crimson Knights, crippled and in distress. In a breeding ground for hacker activity of all things. Then she floated! What could that mean?

_     Of course he knew a thing or two about Helba, though assumed she wasn't the type to show herself so easily. Climbing up onto the cobblestone bridge like he had all those days before, he rested on the railing and gazed up at the endless blue, whispy sky. A pair of wavemasters holding traditional staffs walked by ignoring him. Count knew they were speaking in private chat, something on normal occasions he could hear. But not today.

"Alright, I'm where I always go," he breathed. "If anyone happens to know I was there, now's the time to approch..."

Thirty minutes passed without incident. Growing increasingly bored Count sat down and juggled two potions between hands, then three. After tiring with this he laid flat on his back as if to take a nap. Thirty more minutes passed in this fashion when the young man stood back up and yelled as loud as he could, "I'm here! Someone inform me what the hell's going on!"

He had grown quite the audience of onlookers giving him stares that indicated he was mentally unwell. With one hand Count wrapped his cloak around his armor, and with the other shoo'd the crowd away with a blunt, "go". This furthered their curiosity, some laughing and others saying how newbies always do the strangest things. By the time the onlookers did disperse to go their own ways Count sat down again.

He waited.

----------


## Seanchaidh

_Mia wandered through a lush, green field of aromatic grass. Taking in it's fragrant smell she lay down in it and stared at the azure sky. White,cotton candy clouds waltzed idly by. I'm finally free she thought with glee and giggled. Macha was finally gone for good - separated from Mia's programming, and Mia was now free to roam about without worry of Macha taking over her. A faint breeze had picked up and it made the tall strands of aromatic grass brush against each causing them to whisper. Tsukasa... she thought sadly. 
  She sat up and picked a small bunch of the grass and held it close to her nose. The smell reminding her of her love. She was sitting atop a hill and looked out over the small valley down below - a small crystal lake shimmered in the light of the perpetual sunset that was characteristic of this field. She walked down the gently sloping side of the hill and plopped herself down on the bank of the lake. She dangled her right paw in the water - it's cold temperature excited her skin and as she lifted it she let the water trickle through her claws and saw it had matted her purple fur._

_  *Email received*

   Hello Mia. I'm glad you're alright. Please come to Netslum if you're not busy.

   Subaru_

_Mia face lit up with a subtle smile as she read it. She gated out and gated it into Netslum. She was standing in the middle of the gate when she saw flashes of blue streak by. She wasn't sure but she was positive it was a person. She took a step forward and the streak collided with her. She crumpled to the ground with Subaru who hadn't quite got used to her new floating ability. Mia and Subaru just laughed. They laughed and laughed until they had tears in their eyes. They hugged each other saying they were glad each other was safe._

----------


## JET73L

Hello. Count opened his eyes to see a green-clad twin blade staring down from the bridge railing. What are you doing?
Waiting.
For us. Jechtael, this is the character we wanted to meet.
Hmph. You are the ones who wanted to see me? A perfectly normal if low-level blademaster, and what I can only assume is either an AI or a moron? Not very impressive.
Jechtael started to react, but Brigit interrupted. Just follow us to a battle area, and I can not only explain, but possibly make things interesting enough for you to help us.

Later, at Delta Lonely Silent Great Seal, Count was laughing. Are you trying to tell me something about the Parasite Dragon? That glitch is a myth, every player has tried to invoke it without success.
Um Actually Jechtael rushed straight into the battle mode area of the dragon. Keep watching!
He raised his arm, and suddenly the world shattered into the characters, the dragon, and a burst of static. Projectiles of corrupt data flew from the crystalline bracelet now visible around his wrist, and pierced the Dragons core. Returning to the bracelet, the background faded back to the field, and the dragon had been replaced by a small lizard, dispatched with one attack from Jechtael. That good enough?
You idiots! Youll have the admins on us in no time! Before Count could gate out, Brigit told him to wait.
They arent going to notice, look closer. He did, and exclaimed 
Its part of The World! Not a separate program!
Jechtael replied this time. It seems to be the legendary Kites bracelet, or something close to it. Weve been calling it the Dusk Bracelet, for clarity and so the administrator bugs dont notice. Now would you like to hear our story, and why we need your help?
Count nodded. Im listening

----------


## Seanchaidh

_Mia and Subaru sat down on the ground talking to each other. They mostly just talked about their past such as battles and such. Subaru informed Mia about how she got the ability to float. Half way through the conversation Mia became thoughtful. Subaru looked at her friend and asked what's wrong._

_"Something's been bothering me. When Kite got his bracelet it was originally a "Twilight Bracelet - Daybreak" and didn't have a shadow. Yet, after defeating the phases it developed one - Cubia." She said her voice worried._

_Subaru nodded in agreement, "And you're wondering about Jechtael's bracelet?" She asked._

_Mia nodded. "I'm afraid in case Cubia comes back, but there has been no encounter with him. Helba would have told me." She replied._

_  Subaru became the thougtful one. "Actually the bracelet he has is called the "Twilight Bracelet - Dusk". Which would mean it already had a shadow when he recieved it also hinting it had been used already." Subaru murmered._

_Mia looked surprised at this. Then she raised an eyebrow, "Didn't Aura give him the bracelet?" She asked Subaru._ 

_Subaru shrugged her shoulders, her face creased with confusion. "Probably. But that wouldn't make sense as Aura never uses data drain. I think it may have been Morti. Which is strange considering how Shugo data drained her a while back. Maybe Michi made her again?" She asked Mia._

_ Mia shook her head. "No way. Helba's been keeping an eye on user traffic and she hasn't noticed Michi's name anywhere in the CC Corps user databases." She replied._

_  "I thought Michi was a hacker?..." Subaru asked and then Mia stared at her with half-open eyes. "Oh right. Dumb question. Helba's the best." She smiled.

  But she stopped after a few seconds. 

  Who had used the Dusk Bracelet before Jechtael?_

----------


## JET73L

Kyah- so I- Hya! think that Count might-kyaaah-actually joins us! Healing potion!
Really? Vak Don! I got the impression that- Tiger Claws! he just wants to find out more about SP Potion!- the Bracelet!
Yeah, he- GiVak Slash! probably does. Your point? Heal me!
Healing potion! We need a wave- Ha! master next run.
Youre telling- The Death! Me! Anyway- The Moon! I was wondering about your bracelet anyway! Kya!
Tiger Claws! What about it? Tiger Claws!
Well Vak Slash! Mayumi was telling me about Kites bracelet, and- Hya! one thing really stood out- Vak Slash!
Yeah? Tiger Claws! Whats that? Tiger Claws!
The monster dead, battle mode exited and both Brigit and Jechtael leveled up.
Well For one thing The bracelets got shadow throughout it, right? It glows, but its still got dark between the bits?
Yeah And?
Well, are you sure it was Aura who gave you the bracelet?
No. But it was a girl in a white dress, long white hair, who else would she be?
Did you see her face?
No.
Hmmm. Well, Id just be even more careful about using that bracelet from now on, okay? We dont know what it could do, just use it when were going after the  Okay?
Okay.

Meanwhile, in the depths of the World, something stirred. Yes, child. Keep using that against my phases. You will get your- due. And I- I will have surpassed that wretched daughter. Someday, you will love me like her, I can be just as alive as that was Or that brat Zephie, or even as alive as a real human. The disembodied head of a teddy bear hit the darkened, shadowy floor, and the rest of the light faded from the room.

----------


## Seanchaidh

_  Subaru was flitting about θ Soft Solitary Tri-Pansy and admiring the lush wild life that frolicked here. What a lovely place.. she thought wistfully and listened as the tall tropical trees whispered amongst themselves. There had been several monsters of course but only the low levelled one - none posing as any threat. I wonder if Gardenia still wanders about here? She thought, but remembered Gardenia had left after she helped the .Hackers stop Morganna the first time. 
  The sun shone gently on the soft green grounda and glittered on the surface of a small pond Subaru came across. She tried to back away but wasn't fast enough. Just then she found herself wet and chest high in water.
"Ugh!" She cried and clambered out of the pond and shook herself dry. Just then she thought she heard someone calling her name. She noticed a small girl in white run deep into the dungeon. "Hey wait!" Subaru said and gave chase. She had no idea why she was going after her, only that she felt like she should._

----------


## JET73L

Jechtael decided to waste some time messaging Subaru from each root town, to see if she would like to run a higher-level dungeon, but in every town the result was the same: Player is unavailable on server. Perhaps it might be time to find a wavemaster? Not to replace Mirei, certainly not, but it could help them rescue her. Jechtael logged out and entered the system boards, LFG subforum

im sorry, marcoh, mirei, i really wish i had been there to help, i miss both of you, but I want you to know, were doing the best we can. until the hacker decides between helping us or not, or the next phase appears, theres nothing i can do. just wait for me, okay? oh, if mia were here, shed berate me for stealing her moping spot, since players cant even smell foxtail grass in the world. well, id better go anyway i swear to rescue you soon, and anyone else whose live were stolen by morganna and the cursed wave i promise
Brigit wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, half-heartedly cursed the increasing realism of The World, and gated out.

(OOC: I would have preferred to leave the last sentence off, but that would make it unclear as to whose internal monologue it is.)

----------


## Seanchaidh

occ: I like the last sentence it really gives a sentimental feel to the whole post. Great work Jet!!


  Subaru floated slowly through out the dungeon looking for the white girl. It was dark and no monsters were in any of the rooms which was quite peculiar. _Where is everything?_ Subaru thought. Surely a monster was supposed to have spawned by now. Also what had happened to the girl? Subaru hadn't been that far behind. Then again the rooms did look alike and the whole dungeon felt like a maze. In fact Subaru felt like she was roaming around in circles. What made the matter even worse was that Subaru neither had a "Fairy's Orb" or a "Sprite Ocarina" so she coudln't teleport out the dungeon or create a map of it. 

  "Hello!" She called out. As her voice echoed off the walls an image suddenly leapt into her mind. She was back in Net Slum and then Magus suddenly appeared and tried to destroy her. She shivered at the thought of another phase attack and began zooming through room after room. She evenutally made it to a big white room. "Huh?" Subaru cried. In the middle of it was a small girl with white hair and in a white dress. Suddenly opera-like music filled the room. "Aura!" Subaru exclaimed. The small girl walked slowly toward Subaru and reached out for her arm. Subaru held out her hand and Aura took it smiling at her. Just then the graphics warped and went black. Subaru then woke up somewhere within Wailing Capital Wald Uberlisterin at Θ Hidden Forbidden Hades. She was lying on the ground and looked around. There was a large castle a few feet to her left and it was surrounded by a large forest cast in darkness. "Oh no," Subaru began, "the Forest of Everlasting Darkness." 

 Subaru stood up and gated out. However when she tried it sent up a message saying she couldn't use that function. She was trapped within the forest. 

  "Help me!" Subaru called out into the perpetually dark forest as several crows took flight into the night sky. No one responded to her cry.

----------


## JET73L

Brigit laughed when she saw Jechtael. Interviewing for a wavemaster to join the group, he had gone all out with equipping the novelty items: He had the Greenvisor cross-class helmet, a Spectacles accessory, and the 3rd-party Clipboard application that replaced ones weapon while equipped, adding an additional pop-up screen for typing notes. The clipboard was obvious, and the glasses granted the ability to read certain stats on monsters and PCs, but the visor _had_ to be just for fun.
You look ridiculous.
Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries. You find anyone decent?
No. Brigit hadnt even looked. The only wavemasters she knew were her old friends from her earlier days in The World, and didnt want anyone involved that didnt have to be.
Jechtael sighed. Well, Ive been having Random running around the upper-level battle zones, seeing if he can find any magic users in solo-battle, but so far everyone of a high enough level that answered my notice are somehow complete tactical dunces.
(From the background: Hey! Jechtael shouted: You were too low a level! ...then whispered to Brigit, and cant sling a spell to save his life.)
For the moment, Brigit was dazed in contemplation. Random?
Um, yes, you know, little wavemaster AI, keeps showing up every... oh.
Yeah.
O-kay... I dont know if hes even been programmed with Wavemaster powers, but I can ask. de-equipping all but the glasses, Jechtael switched to /call chatmode. Random!
The AI appeared in under a second. Yessir?
I dont know if . You use a Wavemaster avatar, right? It doesnt just look like one?
Random looked down at his hands. No, Im pretty sure Im a basic Wavemaster avatar frame. I dont know what I can do in battle, Ive never tried fighting.
Jechtael grinned. Brigit, I think you may have found our wavemaster. Come on, I know the perfect place to see if you have any skill.

OOC: Sorry I was gone for so long, really sick over the break. Feeling better, though. Anyway, this can resume in at least two ways: That... Was... AWESOME! and Lets never bring an AI into battle again. It depends on how the story goes, and if the Random character bio is accepted. It may even be put off until further notice.
And, Subaru, Im not ignoring your characters peril. Im just not 100% sure shes about to encounter a phase, and bursting in may ruin whatever youve got planned and anyway, you can fight; you can fly; you can.... type. If you get it down to a data break, there are at least 2, if not three or more characters with both means and motive to drain a data broken Phase. Not all of them necessarily friendly. *drama DUHN-duhn dunnn*

----------


## Seanchaidh

_ooc: I haven't really thought of the reason Subaru was brought into that field. But still welcome back!_ 

_ Subaru walked around the strange field. She kept glancing into the forests dark interior positive that she felt someone's eyes on her. She wasn't exactly keen on going into the castle either. The bold and dark building seemed threatening and scary even to look at._ 

_ After a while however she edged closer to the castle and after summoning some courage eventually entered it._

----------


## JET73L

Jechtael, Brigit, and Random had gated back to the Net Slum, and were enjoying a celebratory round of simdrinks. An idea abandoned by the World administrators, the items caused a player’s headset to emit pleasure-inducing sound frequencies, and had recently gained much popularity in the Net Slums.
“That... was... AWESOME! Brigit, you were totally right. Random, want to join our team as an official, full-time wavemaster?”
Random smiled brightly. “Of course! It would be nice to do something more helpful than delivering messages... though I’ll still help when the World chat system isn’t secure enough.”
“Actually, Random, I’ve been meaning to ask...” Brigit tried to think of a way to tactfully phrase the question. “What exactly is it... like, using magic, or even battling, as an AI?”
“Well, I’ve seen how player characters use a menu, but since I’m not actually part of the game, and I can interact directly with code, I just... activate the animations and target effects. It’s probably easier for me than for a human with a game controller, except for causing status effects. I’m sure I can get used to that quickly.”
Brigit continued the questioning. “That brings up some interesting points. Do you see us as data and as a visual construct? And these drinks aren’t even having an effect on you, are they?”
“To answer your most recent question first, quite the opposite. You have your headsets and your programmed responses to stimuli, I just get the information directly from the code. About ten minutes ago, I added an adjustment that means I find this particular object to be a somewhat positive experience, on a scale ranging from ‘pain,’ like death, that must be avoided at almost all cost, to addictive ‘pleasure.’ Nothing on that end of the scale, or I could never focus on anything else. It’s not an exact explanation, but verbal language wasn’t made to explain much more than food or boundaries... sorry.” 
“Don’t worry about it.”
Random continued: “As to your first question, well, that’s even harder to explain. I can’t really see or hear, or even smell in any way analogous to a human. It’s just  that AI tend to use words like ‘see’ for ‘within range of sense’, and ‘smell’ for identification, though it is easier to tell player characters apart by recognizing their speech. Some of my memories are philosophical writings, a number of which say that even different humans may not decode sensory input in the same way as each other. I hadn’t understood that until now.”
For the first time in this portion of the conversation, Jechtael spoke. “So is that why you thought I was Kite? You knew what a twin blade with the Bracelet would... appear as, and that’s the description I fit.”
“Pretty much.” Random looked genuinely proud of getting the ideas across.
“You’ve seemed more expressive, and much more talkative today than before.”
“That’s a question?” Random was getting better at reading the nuances of verbal conversation, but it still helped to have punctuation makes things more clear. “I’ve updated more memories, and received more information on which to base conjecture, in the last two hours than I had in the previous month. It’s actually a very positive experience for me, and all I ask in return for answering any of your questions about AIs is that you answer any of my questions about humans and your viewpoint.”
Brigit and Jechtael both answered. “It’s a deal.” “That’ll be great.” Jechtael mentioned that he would have to go, considering how long he’d been in the game conducting interviews, and gated out. Brigit continued the conversation with Random for a while after.

OOC: will most likely be edited to speed up the pacing a bit in the final compilation, it depends on how it flows with other entries. And the idea would probably have been dropped by CC Corp to avoid comparisons to the Twilight incident.
Edit: This looks awful in fori=um post format. It had much less of a headache-inducing effect in MSWord.

----------


## Seanchaidh

_occ: I don't mind._ 

 Subaru wandered around the castle's dark interior. Odd portraits hanged upon the cold, brick walls. Portraits of people with missing heads. One of the paintings in particular caught her attention - it was of a green hill with a tall tree with amber leaves fluttering down upon the lush, verdent grass. There was a woman with a long black dress holding a parasol of the same color and a golden sunset behind her. The only strange thing about the portrait was, again, she did not have a head. She walked up to it and read the title - embossed upon its golden frame. _Emma_ it said. The name danced around Subaru's mind, _Emma, Emma_ she then realized it was the name of Harald's - the creator of "The World" - love and the "mother" of Aura.

  She walked down a few more hallways before reaching a large oak door. She pushed it open and entered a white room with strange panels floating around a wooden chair. Above the chair there was a large rock with writing engraved upon it. Subaru gasped, "Oh my god...Harald." She said. Just then everything began warping and she stood in front of a large creature which resembled the legendary creature Cubia. "What do you want with me?" She yelled, "I can not harm you". Just then a large blast of light blasted from it's mouth and struck Subaru sending her flying. She landed on the ground and lay there unconscious and within the same field as Cubia. 

  A strange lavender and white cat appeared beside her and smiled. It looked up at Cubia and held out a hand is if motioning it to stop. Then the cat disappeared.

----------


## JET73L

If you wanted to gain information on the more legitimate parts of The World, the Net Slums were a poor place to go for information... Unless you knew those who traded, rather than in data, in _knowledge_. There were stores of information ranging from vast libraries of information, to small facts so valuable that they couldnt be kept online. The weaknesses of the Morganna, the program they now knew to be in charge of the Phases, had to be one of them. With Brigits contacts, Randoms inherent knowledge of The World and the Net Slums, and Jechtaels connection to the dotHackers via the bracelet, there would be nothing they couldnt find out... That is, had anyone actually cared about the Phases and their creation for more than just purposes of lore.
I cant believe _nobody_ has ever bothered with this! Jechtael was frustrated at having gone through so much work for nothing.
Be reasonable, the phases have only shown up, what, twice before? If they even were the real Cursed Wave the second time. Im sure Mayu-chan could help, but not only does she have her own things to deal with, I havent been able to contact her in a while.
If only we knew where the original dotHackers were...
Brigit, thats it! Jechtael looked so pleased with himself that Brigit was almost sorry to point out the inherent flaw in his plan.
Thats the point, we _dont_ know-
Not the original dot hackers, your niece and nephew! They knew Mireille, and Balmung! They might even know more, or even how to contact Aura!
Brigit was stunned by how much she had underestimated Jechtael, and by how easily she had overlooked such an obvious idea herself. Well, Rena doesnt even play online games any more, but I could check with her and Shugo, see if they remember anything.

----------


## Seanchaidh

Subaru awoke in a strange field. She was kneeling beside a huge waterfall. "Arche Koeln Waterfall?" she said quietly and gazed about. It was a beautiful spot, much prettier than the previous one. But why was she moved. Was it because of Cubia? She wandered around and tried gating out but couldn't. _Perhaps I'm meant to learn something here_ she thought. She wandered around the field looking for whatever it is she was supposed to be looking for and her thoughts couldn't help turning back to Jechtael. She couldn't help but think that something bad was going to happen to him and that the reason she was kept here was so she couldn't help him.

----------


## JET73L

Brigit ran into Mireilles hideout, that the team had been sharing since shed joined.
Jechtael! You need to know- She stopped. Something was wrong. Not only was Jechtael wearing that Twin Blade cap hed always degraded, but his sleeves- no, his clothing was the wrong color. He turned around in the swivel chair.
Hello.
Brigit cursed, turned to run, but it was too late. Behind her, she heard the voice intone:
data drain.

OOC: Before you freak out, Brigit is not comatose. I have plans, and it involves the beginning of the G.U. games, and why Haseos not dead. She may be unconscious, so it really doesnt matter to me if your characters freak out (or, well, act all nonchalant, in the case of Count), but... Well, this will probably go well no matter what happens. Not for the characters, necessarily, but for the RP. Oh, you have no idea how happy excellent I find this turn of events. Any one (or more) of three people might be bait for any of half the cast, so many things Brigit may have found out depending on what information might be rendered important (or useless)... Im arching my fingers and doing a villain laugh just thinking about it!
Oh, and Im thinking of using different typefaces for certain characters, to denote... certain things of interest. If it is decided that it remain in the final draft of the compilation, I shall go back and edit instances in which characters with font-IDd voices talk.
Oh, and sorry it took me so long to respond the last time. Ive been sick, or stressed to where it feels like Im unwell, and its messed with both my sense of time and my dream frequency, so I though it had been less time since Id last been here.
Huh, my OOC message is about twice as long as the RP entry. Interesting. Or not. Anyway, to the continuation of the RP!

----------


## Seanchaidh

_occ: I use different fonts and stuff for different characters in the RP, so I think it's okay if you do that too. Shee-eesh! It's been a while since I've last posted here. Anyway, I'm back. Hi. Now, let's continue...


RP

  The waterfall cascaded down a beautiful ornate cliff and reminded her of the sound of the wind through a pine forest. She floated over to the banks of it and gazed at the crystalline surface. Oh how I wish I could see the real world again... she thought morosely. Hey! Wait a minute! she thought suddenly, If I can't log out, does that mean I'm comatose in the real world? She tried fumbling around for the headset on her head and shivered when she only pulled her avatar's blue hair. Oh no.....she thought, Hey! If I'm comatose, then why can I still remember? 

  Just then a rainbow colored portal opened up over the waterfall and a specter appeared. Subaru sighed and lifted her axe. A grueling bout of fighting happened and Subaru fell to her knees after defeating it - having only 10 HP left. Just then everything warped and it resurrected and had creepy, bright green markings on it. Subaru panted, "..data bug..." It's HP was infinite.

 It suddenly made it's way towards Subaru and Subaru began panicking. "If I'm not in a coma now, I'm going to be after this..." she thought sadly._

----------


## JET73L

Jechtael had arrived back at the hideout to find much of it in ruins, though not one rare item was stolen; however, neither Brigit, Subaru, nor the still-elusive Mia were to be found,  and there was, in the chair in the center of the room, a stuffed bear. He left for the field with Haralds Room, preparing for any possible trap.

Running the trace, Random looked up at nothing in particular. Whispering, though Subaru couldnt hear even had he shouted: Found you.

OOC: Not my best work, but it'll do for now. May need some adjustment in the final draft. Shouldn't change anything important.

----------


## Seanchaidh

_OCC: Don't worry about it ^^ I create crap posts all the time._

*RP*

_Subaru took off through the field with the data bug in hot pursuit. It launched a couple of attacks at her but she managed to dodge them. However her luck ran out when she became cornered at the bottom of a cliff. 
Subaru began panicking as the specter edged closer, away to finish her off._

_Mia was feeding a grunty at Dun Loireag when she suddenly got the feeling that something was wrong. She ran to the chaos gate and gated to a field in which she felt this feeling the strongest and she came across an unknown field. However, when she tried to enter it she was bounced back and it turned out this was a protected field. She sighed and began searching for Jechtael. A group of giggly shadow warlocks told her they had saw a character like him head to Mac Anu. After arriving there she went to Mireille's hideout and found him stanind there staring at the remains of the destroyed hide out. "Jechtael, I need the power of your bracelet." She said._

----------


## JET73L

Mia, I... Welcome back.
Did you hear me? the catlike blademaster was obviously in a hurry.
Yes, you... Know about... where Brigit is? Or Subaru?
Yes, but we have to hurry. It could be too late.
Okay, then lets go.

Random stood at the gate, focusing on the codes for the different fields. The string of data at which he knew Subaru was had been locked, but there were ways around it. The simplest way would be the gate core skill that came with Auras bracelets, but he might be able to work through it... in time. Fortunately, Jechtael and Mia arrived. Come with us, she said, youll be useful.

OOC: Sorry it took so long to get back to where I could post.

----------


## Seanchaidh

OCC: No problemo. I'm just happy I've got someone to RP with.


_Subaru saw an opening through one of it's attacks and leapt out the way. 
She was tiring fast and she knew she could not keep dodging and running forever. Well it doesn't really matter, I'm already in a coma she thought. Then she decided to just stand her ground._

_Mia stood beside Jechtael and Random getting impatient. That feeling of dread she had got even worse. "Jechtael please hurry. Gate hack now." She urged him._

----------


## JET73L

OOC: Sorry, I just wasn’t sure what your plans were. It seems pretty obvious by now that we;re supposed to be rescuing Subaru, but I hadn’t previously wanted to do something in case it ruined your plans. That’s one thing about RPs that have GM responsibilities spread amongst the players. Again, will adjust for edited draft.

Jechtael entered the area code, pressing the hand with the bracelet into the chaos gate, and the bottom of the universe fell out from under them. There were two data cores missing, both of which he had collected while training... It seemed like years ago, but was it really only a matter of days? The chaos gate opened up, pulling the three through into a stream of data.

Subaru opened her eyes to see Random casting a healing spell on her, and Mia and Jechtael had already tackled the phase head-on. “Are you okay, Lady Subaru?”
“Yes, I’m... How did you... Mia! Jechtael! Protect Break it!” The former cobalt knight moved to help them, though still worn from the earlier fight, as they continued to attack it, hoping for the lucky break that would signify an opening to data drain.

OOC: Sorry, I logged into the thread, and typed this in a text file while going through the forum, but forgot I hadn’t posted it yet when I logged off.

----------


## Seanchaidh

occ: To be perfectly honest whenever I create an RP I barely plan anything. 
        I  just go with the flow.


 Subaru looked back at Random and smiled at him mouthing "Thank you" as Mia suddenly jumped into the air and landed a vertical strike onto the specter as Subaru landed a horizontal one below. The "PROTECT BREAK" sign suddenly blared at them and Mia, Subaru and Random all said to Jechtael "Now!".

----------


## JET73L

Activating the Bracelet, Jechtael felt the familiar sensation of data streaming by, tearing through the monsters shell and bringing back the corrupt data. The green glow disappeared, and Jechtael collapsed to his knees: Corruption at 85%. The entire party was poisoned, but Mia quickly defeated the data bug, Random easily healing them with a single spell. He and Subaru rushed to help, but Jechtael insisted he was fine.
I didnt know. I thought it was a phase, and I really couldnt deal with that right now.
Subaru tried to comfort him. Its okay, you got here. Were safe for now. She tried to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Mia stopped her.
He filled me in on something that happened on the way here. Brigits gone, and its probably Morgana.
Oh. Subaru looked over toward the twin blade. It was surprising for her, but they had rarely been separate while in The World, and seemed almost like an abandoned puppy.
I think I can find her. The three turned toward Random. I found you, Lady Subaru, just before Mia had us come here.
Random... Jechtael nodded. Please do that.

OOC: I really thought this was going to be a phase. I didnt know how to handle that, narratively, especially since nobody mentioned which it was, but then noticed that it had been referred to by the specific term data bug in an earlier post. So yeah. And this actually works well with the earlier "filler" posts. Always nice when it turns out you can use something that had been originally complete fluff, thrown in to fill a half hour, or a few pages.
And isnt it just chilling when you can see exactly which bits of you use for your characters? Especially when one of those characters has been weighed, measured, and found wanting, to paraphrase a quote from a most excellent film.

----------


## Seanchaidh

_  Ever since she heard Brigit was gone, possibly due to Morganna, the whole event where Subaru saw Cubia kept repeating itself in her mind. Why was she spared from him? It made no sense. As she kept pondering over it, an image kept becoming clearer and clearer in her mind. As she was passing out she could have sworn she saw a purple cat there as well. Subaru closed her eyes and tried to think what the cat looked like - pointy hat, strange clothes, red eyes. "Om my god! Macha!" She eclaimed. She suddenly remembered where she was as everyone turned around to look at her - Mia gave her a strange stare. 
  "I was just thinking..." Subaru said, "what makes us all think that Morganna was ever defeated by the .Hackers? Who says she wasn't just biding her time and trying to figure out a perfect way of getting what she wanted." The others continued to stare. "Maybe Morganna was gaining power during the fight with the .Hackers and afterwards. Whenever she uses data drain the vicitms data is rewritten. Maybe Morganna can also copy your data and make it her own?" The others blinked at her response and she continued "My point is, maybe we can't defeat her now."

 occ: Finally I managed to post. It's nuts over here. Got lots of school stuff to do. Whew! Still, it's nice to see ya again. Ciao._

----------


## JET73L

OOC: That’s cool. Nice ta see you on the RP again.

“The Morrigan!” Jechtael exclaimed. “A creature we fought, it seemed almost like a cross between an AI and an incredibly powerful monster... If she was more than a pawn, or a shadow, and Morgana is truly unbeatable...”
“We may need to completely destroy the system.”
In shock, every human present stared agape at Mia. “I suggested nothing, I was merely stating what you seemed hesitant to say.”
Subaru shook her head. “Mia, you know what this means, if The World is gone, you...” She choked, trying to verbalize that one of their closest friends would be gone forever, and Jechtael reminded her of another factor to consider:
“You’re stuck in the game, Subaru, it’s not just Mia. It’s you, too, and all the AIs, anyone who’s stuck in the game. For now, you’re safe, and we need to focus on finding Brigit and making sure none of us are in danger before worrying about Morganna.”
“Found her, by the way.” Random had stopped staring vaguely into the distance, now looking toward the direction of the Chaos Gate. “It’s a place called ‘Harald’s Room.’”
“That explains the stuffed bear.”
“Stuffed bear?”
“I’ll explain on the way. Ready?”
Mia and Random nodded. Subaru replied: “Let’s go!”

OOC: Sorry if I've represented either of your characters differently from the way they would normally act. I think I got Mia's personality down properly, but it's been a while, so 'm a bit unsure if I wrote Subaru's part close enough.

----------


## Seanchaidh

occ: Your doing great. Mia's personality is extremely similar to the one shown in the series - along with Subaru's. I'm sure about the created characters - that's up to you ^^


_  As they entered the room Mia stood there thinking about everything that had ever happened in this game and everything because of this game - sure, being an AI, her knowledge on the latter was very limited but she had picked up pieces about events such as Pluto's kiss where the outside world was almost destroyed. Even though some of the events such as "Pluto's Kiss" was not caused by the game she still felt that it was this games fault. Only if Harald had not created this game. Still, if he hadn't, then many relationships created because of it wouldn't have happened - like Tsukasa and Subaru's one. Mia turned to Subaru, "So how is Tsukasa?" She asked. Subaru turned around and smiled, "She's fine. We're thinking about finding a place together - which is a problem because of my legs...." She trailed off and began blinking furiously. "I just hope I'm not worrying her, being in a coma and all." She said looking depressed._
_   The room itself was entirely white with just a chair in the middle. Mia walked forward and tripped over something. Subaru looked down and noticed a book labelled - "The Epitaph of the Twilight". "Oh my god...." she said._

----------


## JET73L

OOC: I keep forgetting Tsukasa had the female player, not Elk.

Not having the background of the other players, Jechtael had no idea why Subaru reacted the way she did. What is it? 
The Epitaph of the Twilight. Its a poem written by W.B. Yeats about The World, and its supposed to be one of the secrets of The World. Not even the original dotHackers ever found it.
...Yeats?
Pen name, not the original. But this is amazing! Subaru picked up the book. Ive got to see it!
Mia leapt forward. It could be a trap! 
But Subaru and Jechtael had already opened it.
Its... Jechtael was looking at the pages of the book over Subarus shoulder. Its empty.
And then a light flared from the book, engulfing the room.

OOC: You couldnt save, print, or copy the original _Epitaph_ from Emma Weilants website, but what stopped people from writing it down, then transcribing it to another computer, or a... whatever portable data carrier they would have had, CD-R maybe? I would think all the extra security measures would just be reason to try and get around the cannot copy, cannot print restrictions. Sort of why hackers like more complex security systems... or so I heard. (I don;t hack computers without express permission from the owner, and never remotely. A computerless improsonment would not be fun.)
PS: Were in deep lore here, almost uncharted territory. I don;t know much about the _Epitaph_, so... Yeah, Ill just let what happens happen. Could be a trap, an upgrade, a message, could be the _Epitaph_ itself, whatever that does.

----------


## Seanchaidh

_occ: I have read every fragment there is on "The Epitaph of the Twilight" and I really like it - even going as far enough to try and come up with my own version - wow....that sounds so sad XD. Anyway, I've tried hacking into computers (nothing bad, I'm an ethical hacker) but still am a long way off from ever doing it. You're probably right about someone writing it down somewhere. I have this theory: maybe it was Helba. She seems to know a lot about Harald and the epitaph. Maybe he and her were friends. Also it would make sense because in the games whenever you hear Emma's voice it is also the same voice as Helba. Yeah, Tsukasa was female alright and her and Subaru became lovers in the real world after she became free from the game._


RP

 As the light engulfed the room a strange scene materialized. They were standing in a strange field where the skies were lit an amber color as the sun seemed to be in a permanent sunset. They stood at the bottom of a green hill which had a tree at the top. It's golden leaves fell like tears to the grassy surface below. Two figures where sitting with their backs to the party and facing the sunset. They appeared to be a man and a woman. Suddenly the man and woman spoke up in perfect unison,


_"Yet to return, the shadowed one._ _Who quests for the Twilight Dragon_ _Rumbles the Dark Hearth,_ _And Helba, Queen of the Dark,_ _has raised finally her army._ _Apeiron, King of Light beckons._ _At the base of the rainbow do they meet_ _Against the abominable Wave,_ _together they fight._ _Alba's lake boils._ _Light's great tree doth fall._ _Power- now all to droplets turned_ _in the temple of Arche Koeln._ _Returns to nothing,_ _this world of shadowless ones._ _Never to return, the shadowed one,_ _Who quests for the Twilight Dragon_

_Unknown where the Cursed Wave was born…_ _After the stars doth cross the heavens,_ _The sky in the East doth darken and air doth fill with mourning._ _From the chosen land beyond the forest, a sign of the wave comes._ _Riding the wake is Skeith, the Shadow of Death, to drown all that stands._ _Mirage of Deceit, Innis, Betray all with the flawed image, and did aid the Wave._ _And by the Power of Magus, a drop from the Wave doth reach the heavens, and creates a new Wave._ _With the Wave, Fidchell, the power to tell the dark future, hope darkens, sadness and despair rule._ _Gorre schemes when swallowed by the Cursed Wave._ _Macha seduces with the sweet trap._ _Wave reaches the Pinnacle, and escape none can. Tarvos still remains with more cruelty to punish and destroy._ _And with the turbulent destruction after the Wave. Only a void remains. From deep within the void arrives Corbenik._ _Perhaps then the Wave is just a beginning as well._

_Shunning the field broken by Wave._ _The shadowed girl whispers,_ _"Surely, I will return."_ _Alas, the truth unbeknownst._ _Awaiting her at journey's end;_ _Eternal mourning for her land._ 

_When the finger points to the_ _yonder moon,_ _The fool will look at the fingertip._ 

_The whole cannot be changed._ _We have already lost that chance._ _Because the time left to us was short,_ _We were mistaken in our path._ _But now do we realize,_ _We should change not the whole,_ _But the parts._  

_Wave soars and shrouds the eyes._ _No means to fight an omnipresent force,_ _The shadowless ones just grieve._ _Why must it be a Wave?_ _Divide, if it would just..._ _Then retaliate, we may._  

_Over the Keel Mountains,_ _Meets an ape with human speech._ _The ape asks,_ _"What clings to you?_ _Bear it—you cannot._ _Accept it—you cannot._ _But hidden—it is from you._ _Recite its name."_ 

_Like a frenzied horse that is driven._ _An unseen wind of plague shrieks across the border._ _Pandemonium, wailing, and stench of carnage fills the air._ _There is no place to run. No hope of escape._ _Those who are mourned will never return._ _The hands of time cannot be turned back._  

_The Keel Mountains traversed at last,_ _we met a dragon that spoke thus:_ _"Sheraton am I, who interprets the signs._ _An answer to my question, give._ _If you can, complete my role will be,_ _and I will leave this land._ _Though equally it exists before everyone's eyes,_ _grasp it not one person can._ _Tell me—what is it?"_  

_Plaird of the Seven Sisters,_ _falling in love with a human,_ _Became a Shadowed One and was exiled from the Dark._ _Hence, her name came to be called Plaird the Fallen._ _At her wanderings end,_ _she settled in seclusion in Arche Haokar._ _However, those days may not last._ _A reunion may come, or may not._ _Plaird's form vanishes at the coming of the sign of the Wave."_ 

With that the couple stopped talking and the scene faded leaving the party standing there in the white room. Mia looked confused, "What just happened?" She asked. Subaru shook her head and looked at the other party members to see if they knew what had happened. 

 "Those were the known fragments of the orginal epitaph." Came a voice behind them. 

Everyone screamed and turned around to see Helba standing there smiling at them. "It wont be long now." She said mysteriously. Subaru asked her what she meant but Helba just gated out. "Well that wasn't rude!" Mia exclaimed annoyed. Just then a little lavender and white cat appeared on the chair in the center of the room and waved at them. Then it disappeared through a strange warp in the graphics. It began to close.

  "Come on lets follow it." Mia said, as she ran towards it. Subaru had a bad feeling about this but followed her friend and motioned for the others to do the same.

----------


## JET73L

The sides of the passage shown bright, patches of raw data stitched together with lines of code. “Mia? Subaru? What’s-“
“Just be quiet and follow the little purple cat.”
At Helba’s admonishment, Jechtael fell back to run even with Random. “Do you know what’s going on?” he whispered.
“No. It’s a way to travel without using chaos gates, but other than that, no.”
“Okay. I guess it was too much to hope that it was some famous AI.” Jechtael lapsed into silence, glancing between Mia and the new being that they were following.
Random faced him, still running “You miss her, don’t you?”
Brigit? Yeah. I’m sure she could tell what was happening. You’re getting better at reading human emotion, by the way.”
Ahead, a light was quickly growing, the narrow passage ending. The cat disappeared through it, followed by the rest.

OOC: That is _really_ cool. I’d like to see your theoretical _Epitaph of Twilight_ summary draft sometime, if you don’t mind. (Wasn’t the original something like 78 pages? That’s probably why they didn’t try to write a full version.)

----------


## Seanchaidh

occ: I don't know. Probably. After Emma's site was closed the poem was lost and pieces of it began resurfacing but they were only fragments and some were incorrect. Harald and Helba were the only people who probably know the poem. Which would make sense as Aina was supposed to have found a book containing the entire poem within "The World". I don't really know what it was like. As I've said I tried creating my own version but it sucked XD



RP

  Subaru stepped out into the light and onto a strange field full of roses. Suddenly the cat turned and smiled and was enveloped in a flower bud as the entire field warped and the portal closed shut. The others just made it through into the field just in time. All of the other flower buds disintegrated leaving the large one cotaining the cat. Suddenly it opened revealing a strange creature in it's place. "Macha!" they all called out in unison. Macha started singing and a strange pink light surrounded her and everyone in the party as she waved her arms about exotically.  Subaru fell to the floor and turned to a ghost after being struck down my Mia who was in a charmed state. She then took down Random and began striking Jechtael. Subaru and Random, now ghosts, could only watch as Jechtael and Mia both, charmed from Macha's "Suspicous Seduction", began attacking each other. 
   Macha laughed as she drew closer to the pair and pointed her hand at them - a blue bracelet began forming around her wrist and the pair kept fighting each other - still suffering from the charm ability.

----------


## JET73L

OOC: I actually meant why the writers of .hack never wrote the full _Epitaph_  ::D: , not why it never showed up in-story.

_Ive got to protect Macha, these creatures... They want to destroy her, that girl, the cat... Shell destroy Macha. Macha is... Ive got to kill this creature, this... she hurt Ma.. Mia- no! I... I lo... Save Macha, I lo... lov..._  NO!
Jechtael pulled his blades away, was impaled upon Mias sword. Mia, her last hit points blinking red, changed expression as her pink-clouded eyes cleared, from rage to horror. Hearing brief snippets of voice- _Im dead!  What... Where am I? Kite, Heal Me NOW!_- he took a healing potion from his items pouch, cracked it open, and splashed the contents onto Mia. Macha roared with rage, about to strike the down, but Mia dodged aside, presses a Stop tag to Jechtaels forehead to put him in Stasis, and used a revive on Subarus body. While Mia hurled herself at the shadow of the phase, Subaru healed Random, and the three of them continued attacking.
Why are we doing this? yelled Subaru. We cant Data Drain without the bracelet!
You dont need to Drain it, its not a real phase! The familiar voice rang out over the battlefield, from one of the cliffs above. Macha screamed, withering and fading as Mia struck the final blow. The purple core didnt appearing like the other defeated phases, or Macha in the battle before. Everyone looked up, to the cliffs above the waterfall, to see two figures: someone in orange, and...
Brigit!
The character in the orange uniform pushed her over the edge and the three moved to catch her, Random succeeding. We dont need her any more, now that youre trapped on this mirror sever.
Trapped! You- Trying to find a way to rush him, Mia found nothing.
Nice. Weve only got three phases to go, and thanks to me, youre useless! A portal opened behind him, and he stepped through, sealing what could be their only means of escape.

OOC: I know thats not how Stop spells actually work in .hack, but since when has since when has Gameplay and Story Segregation ever mattered (in anything besides Final Fantasy VII)?
Oh, and just in case I hadnt made it blatant enough, the orange-clad twin blade is Kites avatar, or at least a copy of it. Probably a copy of it. Not even Azure Flame was that cocky. Whatever he is, his personality core seems to be glitchy.

----------


## Seanchaidh

occ: Quite interesting, your post. I like it. Anyway, I don't know why the 
.Hack creators didn't create the entire poem probably to make it enigmatic and make the story behind it more appealing. I wonder if they actually did create the entire poem but just never released it? If they did they're probably planning to sell it to some avid fans for a high price ^^ 

 RP

  Mia walked slowly around in a circle with her hands resting on the back of her head as she stared at the sky. The others were asking Brigit what had happened to her - though to Mia it seemed more like interrogating - none of them pleased with the answers the confused girl gave them and constantly asking more questions. The field they were on still hadn't returned to it's normal "flowery" state. Instead it was just a desolate wasteland. That strange character clad in orange gave off a bad vibe that made Mia's fur stand on edge. What did he mean that she wasn't a real phase? 
  Mia turned around and saw Subaru and Random help Brigit to her feet. Jechtael was looking up at the cliff curiously. What had the strange figure meant when he said that they were now trapped in here? Mia asked Jechtael to try and gate out but nothing happened. He tried again and again and again but still no difference. Subaru looked really concerned and asked him to try his bracelet - to see if he could gate hack but he pointed out it only works when he is standing over a chaos gate and clearly there wasn't one around. 
  "Well there has got to be a way out of here..." Mia muttered. An eerie wind picked up scattering small rose petals across the dry ground. Mia stood on the sight where Macha was and she grew worried. If the thing they had just fought wasn't the real Macha then where was she? Well unfortunately for them they couldn't get out of this field to find out. Or maybe they could. Mia turned around to face the rest of the group. 
   "Maybe there is a way out after all." She started and everyone looked at her dubiously. "In theory several of us are AIs and so we are just programming and that should be enough for us to by-pass the restricted access barrier..." she said but was cut off by Subaru when she pointed out that the barriers could be made to specifically target players and that they are all players depsite the fact several of them weren't human. Brigit suddenly spoke up, "Well maybe we could change that. Or rather maybe you could change that Jechtael." She said facing his way. Jechtael looked at her unable to think where she was going with this. So she continued. "The bracelet you wield has the power to manipulate data anyway it chooses. If you use it on one of us then maybe it could alter that person's data just enough to allow that person to be disregarded by the barrier requirements and slip through it. Then that person could find Helba and she should be able to get rid of the barrier." She finished and looked at the shocked eyes of her team mates.
    "You're crazy. The bracelet could kill us." Mia said. Brigit nodded but her became serious, "It is our only way out of here. Do you have a better idea?"
she challenged Mia who looked away, clearly frustrated. Mia faced the group, "I'll do it. I only exist in this world and so have basically nothing to lose. " She said the others looked at her clearly saddened by the possibility of losing a friend but at seeing the determined look in her eyes they knew they would be able to talk her out of it. 
    Jechtael nodded and pointed his hand towards her as the bracelet opened and illuminated. Mia closed her eyes and let the white light wash over her. Subaru, Brigit and Random stood there wide eyed, their eyes sparkling with tears. As the data connectors struck Mia she smiled and felt the data in her change. As quickly as it had happened the light faded and the others stood staring at Mia who seemed unchanged. Subaru stepped forwards, "Mia...?" she began and Mia stood up from where she had fallen. Her purple fur was now covered in wave symbols and her yellow eyes seemed brighter. These effects glitched showing they were only temporary. 
   "Mia, hurry. Those effects wont last long. See if you can gate out and find Helba." Brigit said her voice tight with panic. Mia nodded and disappeared in a blaze of golden light. They all stared in disbelief. It had worked. Now hopefully she could find Helba.

----------


## JET73L

OOC: By familiar voice rang out, I meant Brigit. I thought familiar female voice would be a bit too blunt, and too alliterative. Im cool with it, though. If it works out that its important the Twin Blade said it, I can change it to mocking voice in the later draft.  If it doesnt matter, I can see whether clarification either way makes it better. Incidentally, do you mean what did he mean Macha wasnt a real phase or what did he mean Mia wasnt a real phase? (On a similar but unrelated note, I always though Machas miniature cat-person-mage form was male, and her other two forms were female. At least, as far as ahumanoid computer programs can conform to human gender.)
Oh, I know this is going to end in tears. I mean, uploading all the AIs into the wetware inside legally brain-dead people would really be too much of a contrived happy ending. Maybe a couple of offline computers (but that could be difficult considering everyones stuck in the game), but it just wouldnt be .hack wothout a bittersweet ending.

What seemed like hours later, the remaining four had exhausted their ideas for time-wasting games. tic-tac-toe was impossible when marks in the sand faded in under a second, shiritori was impossible to play against an AI who could search a dictionarys worth of word memory, and rock-paper-scissors wasnt that interesting even with the exaggerated hand sign bluffs. Eventually, it came down to finding handholds to scale the cliffs, and finally guessing when Mia would return with Helba.
Sudenly from the cliff face next to Jechtael, Mia appeared, still bathed in a golden light. He jumped, and Brigit and Subaru were also mildly startled.
I was able to contact Helba, but she cant follow us here. I did see something with about the same structure as a chaos portal, but it looks like something really big is there. It may be one of the three phases that PC was talking about.
The players conferred amongst themselves, and decided to go for it. It was probably a trap, but they knew what was there, so it might be caught off guard. Using handholds they had found earlier, everyone climbed from the hollow, and ventured in the direction of the portal that Mia had found, beyond the fading point of the horizon.

OOC: I m thinking about changing Jechtaels player name. Maybe just the last name, since it just sounds unwieldy, and doesnt mean anything (phonetic reference). Miura might be useable, and the meaning is interesting, since it roughly translates to spearman, and there havent been any lancers in the story so far.
Just to remind you:
List of defeated Phases:
-Skeith (emotion and reaction to death)
-Macha (affection from unrequited love)
-Magus (urge to procreate)

Phases yet to appear:
-Innis (reactions to deceit)
-Fidchell (concept of fate)
-Gorre (cruelty) May already have been reabsorbed
-Tarvos (jealousy, revenge, etc.) Has probably already been reabsorbed
-Corbenik (life, death, purity of heart) Has most certainly not been reabsorbed yet

And this is kind of interesting, that Macha was defeated just before Morganna went _really_ bonkers, and Magus was defeated just before the copies started showing up. Im thinking Corbeniks .hack//xxxx (non-canon) human form might show up for the final battle (maybe even sacrifice himself), but that could just be wishful thinking. It would be really cool in theory, but not very doable in practice. Well see (or not, like I said, it would be a terrible idea, and horribly clichéd unless it were done just right.)

----------


## Seanchaidh

ooc: *note to self - it is ooc not occ. XD* Anyway, I like the idea of the humanoid corbenik to be the last boss and something happening to him that would end it all. I have this theory as to why the things in "The World" keep happening (e.g. phases showing up that sort of thing). The phases are in effect Morganna herself and one of the phases Corbenik has the power to constantly come back again and again no matter what, and seeing as it is a part of Morganna she could just tap into that and constantly keep creating trouble again and again. It would have to be the bad part of Morganna - the Morganna Mode Gone part (it sounds wierd for a computer programme to have a good and bad conscious but I remember reading about Morganna and the way she is able to contradict herself and change her decisions and so forth put her on par with human level intelligence and so in theory she could also have a human like mind - emotions, memory, id, ego, super ego etc.) Jesus! This OOC is the biggest one yet >_<  I wonder how big the RP would be if all the OOCs were cut out? ^^

RP

As the group followed Mia to the portal she had found. The closer they got the more the graphics warped and flickered. "There is definitely something there!" Subaru called out as the flickering became so bad that their avatars started becoming effected. "This is ridiculous. By the time we get there our characters will be damaged." Subaru called again. The others nodded in unison but they all kept going forward. Subaru looked around and saw breaks within the graphics, actually showing the binary code behind them. She wasn't sure if it was due to the damage she was receiving or something else but she could have sworn she saw eyes hiding within the breaks. She shuddered. "Almost there!" Mia called over the crackle of the warping graphics.
   As they reached the gate everything turned black. Soon the darkness faded and they were suddenly back to where they started, back where they had fought the, apparently, fake Macha phase. "Huh?" They all called out in surprise. They all looked around wondering what had happened. "What's going on here." Subaru wondered. They climbed back out of the hollow and began walking towards the gate again but exactly the same thing happened again. 
"This is wierd..." Jechtael muttered, "What's going on?" 
"There's your answer!" Subaru's voiced picked up, tight with fright.
 Just then the field they were on began warping again and a lot of eyes appeared. They all suddenly merged together to form a strange looking piece of wall. "Innis!" They all said. 
   Subaru suddenly realized that Innis had caused an illusion of sorts which stopped them from escaping this field. She raised her axe as the phase began attacking. 
   This phase seemed a lot tougher than the one fought by the .Hackers as it seemed to cast very realistic illusions that affected the fields themselves than just a single player. Innis disappeared and three monsters appeared - three red dragons and were thrown at Subaru killing her instantly. She stood there as a ghost for a moment just trying to take in what had happened. _That attack isn't supposed to be that strong,_ she thought as Random ressurected her and she continued fighting. Innis multiplied into two and they both disappeared suddenly the two of them slammed into Jechtael - sandwiching him between them. The other innis disappeared as Jechtael fell to the gorund and became a ghost. Subaru used ressurect and looked at the phase they were fighting. 
   Magical attacks did not work what-so-ever against it and physical attacks barely did anything, or did they? Perhaps everything so far had been illusions - the incredible strength of his attacks, the damage inflicted upon them, them dying and the fact that attacks barely did anything. Innis disappeared again and in his place appeared doubles of the entire team. "No way!" Mia exclaimed, "How can he do that?" Subaru wondered the same thing. This phase's illusions were very good. However they didn't have time to wonder about the illusions as their doubles attacked.
   The doubles went down easily and Innis appeared again but this time summoned the doubles again. The doubles did not go down so easily this time. It seemed they only acted as some sort of recorder allowing Innis or maybe them to learn the Team's moves and abilities. After a grueling battle the doubles were defeated. Innis seemed to get slower - perhaps they were wounding him badly. Just then the protect break barrier showed up and Jet used his bracelet to destroy Innis. As he did the entire field disappeared and they were standing a couple of meters away from a chaos portal. 
   "What is the point of creating an illusion when Innis could have just fought us here?" Mia called out annoyed, the markings on her had disappeared.
Subaru thought about it, "Maybe we were here all along. It could have been an illusion to make us thing we were stuck in this field. Or maybe its job was to make us think we had defeated Macha - by creating an illusion of her. However as we drew closer to the portal maybe he began worrying about his hold over us weakening and decided, instead of possibly letting that thing happen, he would fight us himself. Who knows?" She said and the others let what she had said sink in for a moment before walking to the chaos portal. A small monster appeared and they beat it easily and Mia picked up the treasure left behind. A pair of flags with a smiley face on them - a rare item. Mia looked sad, "We should keep this, for Mireille." she whispered and the others nodded remembering their fallen comrade.

----------


## JET73L

OOC: 35 pages in 11.3pt average font size.

Activating the portal, the team found themselves in the net slum, and headed back to Mireis hideout to clean it up and recuperate. Brigit tried to explain what had happened, but since she was unconscious most of the time, it wasn;t much.
Really, all I know is that hes probably working for the scarecrow we fought.
There was a series of near-simultaneous chimes, and each character found a message from Helba:
Weve got a lead, but things just got dangerous.
If the situation had only just gotten dangerous, how bad could it possibly become?

OOC: Are you planning anything for Macha? My intent was that she [Macha The Temptress] be defeated with the first battle, with the cat and the purple sphere, or at most dormant (with Mias existence preserving her). If you have something planned, thats fine, but things like make us think wed defeated Macha make it sound like Macha [again, MachaTheTemptress, not Macha{cat}] is still out there, and you have specific plans. Considering were half-writing /half co-DMing, it might be a good idea to not work against each other on that.
Waugh! I just realized, I meant Cubia! Not Corbinik! I keep confusing them, thinking Cubia is the eighth phase (and the dark twin blade in x4), although Corbenik (I keep trying to spell it Corbein??) might actually work (since Cubia has no place in this, there already is a mirror character with a Bracelet (the orange-clad Twin Blade), and he has at least three forms (more than any other phase, unless you count Macha{Cat} and Mia as forms of the phase Macha). Wouldnt it be cool if he had some sort of Raven motif? Referencing his original name, *Corven*ik, and the Morrigan?)
Oh, and sorry I was away for so long with just this update. I worked something out, but forgot to type it up, and I had to finish it soon or give up entirely. Most of what I would be able to say while this wirn out would be garbage anyway, so I tried not to do anything that could irrevocably mess up the story. I left it on the note I did so that some discussion or travel time can take care of the next post, or, if someone has a definite idea of what they want to do, go right ahead.

----------


## Seanchaidh

occ: Hmm......:3 I've got an idea: -


 !INTERMISSION!
.Hack RP - next part; 
coming soon to a forum
near you.
 
How's that? XD Now we can chat about what we want to plan without RPing for a day or so - just until we can figure out what comes next. Also - it ends this part on a perfect cliffhanger:





> "If the situation had only just gotten dangerous, how bad could it possibly become?"
> 
>     - _Jechtael_



 What do you think? Maybe we can create a new thread just to keep up appearances? You know like a new volume.

----------


## JET73L

I don't know, it might be a good idea to keep it all in one thread for now, and separate it into volumes later, if necessary. (and I was hoping not to have to make a big deal about that last post, so whatever happens, we can decide if it is canon or not before the end of the break).

Thanks for the intermission. I don;t really have anything to discuss right now, since I'm kind of sleepy and short on time, but yeah, discussing what comes next might be a good idea.

So, do you have any plans for Macha, as mentioned in the last post?

----------


## Seanchaidh

Hmm....let's see....I was thinking that maybe something could happen to Mia perhaps as she used to be Macha. I know - in one of the earlier posts - that I said that the macha part of Mia got deleted or something but perhaps there is still a part of her connected to Macha? Maybe if Macha is defeated once and for all then Mia would disappear or something.

  Do you have any ideas?

----------


## JET73L

That's cool, I'm thinking that Mia probably ends up "dead" after the final battle.
I also plan to write a companion paper on the phases as they're woken up and experimented on and choose their hosts for G.U., so I'll have to see how the Macha GU thing relates to Mia.
I know Mia's not surviving. Backing her up to an offline computer would make the victory seem hollow. The same probably goes for Random.

Anyway, I'm thinking the Twin Blade fights us in a 3-way battle against the second to last phase, then completely snaps ("My name's... Not... KITE!") and just becomes a liability that turns the tide as it fights anyone and everyone during the final battle against Corbenik (crow form?) and Morganna. Mia distracts Corbenik and Morgana, maybe attacking Morganna and Casting from Hit Points (below 0 HP sort of thing), Corbenik and Azure Flame protect-broken, Jechtael data drains all of the above through the slowly degrading Azure Flame, big flash of everything going bye, then a news flash of the World collapsing and the few people who were comatose waking up. Heartwarming scenes from everyone, a "wake" for Mia and Random, that sort of thing.

Before the second-to-last battle, there is some sort of thing where we flash back over the last couple of days, Brigit explaining stuff and coming clean about her involvement with the original Altimit stuff, some stuff being explained by Mistral and whatever characters you have that might know something, that sort of thing.

Anything your characters or Helba might know about the whole Second Pluto-Aura-Ultimate AI-Morganna-dotHackers thing? just skeleton details, so we can see what fits and flesh it out for the restart of the RP?
If you have any ideas for the final battle, or any problems with my idea for it, please tell me.

----------


## Seanchaidh

......

That sounds pretty damn good. I couldn't have thought up better if I tried. 

I was just thinking - how are they going to beat Morganna for good as she *is* the game itself? Maybe once they have beat her, then that is definitely the end of the series as the game would be too corrupted for it to load properly...

Or maybe, Aura would be able to fix it somehow. As she is basically a much more advanced form of AI than Morganna. So when Morganna is gone, the entire system begins to crash and break down but Aura takes over and seeing as part of her code includes some of Morganna's characteristics then she would probably be able to incorporate the game code into her own code (as Morganna's biggest attribute is being able to incorporate the game data into her own). 

Of course Aura may have difficulty with this so she would need help by some programmers possibly (which include system administrators and hackers i.e. Helba). Also during the fight maybe Helba's mask gets knocked off alluding to .Hack//XXXX where you actually get to see what her avatar's face looks like without the mask on. 

Any other ideas?

----------


## JET73L

It';s the End of the World. Aura disappeared on Christmas Eve, she's not coming back.
I had planned for it to be that our defeat of Aura coincided with Project G.U. (supposedly) crashing The World v1, but I double-checked the dates. We're at most to February, so there'll have to be a timeskip of a couple months, then a much shorter timeskip between the last and second-to last battles.

And yeah, i think it might be good for Helba's mask to get knocked off, but only if something majorly bad happens, like Morganna attacking her, or a rogue Data Drain from Azure Flame.

Got it. Azure Flame regains just a little bit of control, starts fervently trying to data drain the characters and Morganna and hits Helba, she falls and her mask falls off her face, broken, that's Jechtael's cue to go Cold Fury and data drain Corbenik, Morganna, and Heroic Sacrifice Mia through Azure Flame.

And just to remind you, I'm counting Azure Flame as the date for Kite that Morganna is using, that eventually becomes the rogue Tri-Edge.

if you have any background information that your characters or Helba might choose to share with the new .hackers (possibly along with a former admin or two, *cough* Balmung *cough*), go ahead and PM it to me so i can try and finish compiling the events of the timeskip. then we can work out some chapters for individual characters. Since, y'know, this kind of isn't really an RP any more.

Edit: i just got an idea for how to justify the timeskip. Some ex-admin knew about Project G.U. before quitting, and we will be waiting for the epitaph project to activate so we can attack while Morganna's occupied. The first timeskip will be random attacks by morganna and Azure Flame before we get a trace on the second-to-last pjhase. (I expect during the timeskip that multiple real-world characters will have visited Miirei and Mistral IRL, and able to get information without having to send it over the net.)

----------


## Seanchaidh

Oh yeah I forgot about Aura's disappearance. It makes you wonder what happened to her....

Anyway, I did have in mind the idea of Balmung lending them a hand, so don't worry too much about that. Also, I like the idea of the time skip. I'm just trying to think how the Azure Flame would go about data draining Morganna? 

Also, I'm just thinking if we can fictionalize some of the background details of the characters. I mean then maybe we could answer some of the things about the characters (e.g. some of their identities i.e. Helba).

What do you think?

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## JET73L

Yeah, that's great. Only thing I have to say about it is to be careful not to contradict canon.

And I don't expect Azure Flame to actually try data draining Morganna, just random blasts of (a really underpowered) data drain as it tries to attack everyone in the battle royale.

You want to discuss this via MSN so it doesn't take forever? I can post the discussion here (with your name changed to your username if you want), just PM me with what times during the next week or few days you might have a couple of hours free, if you want to discuss this on instant message.

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## Seanchaidh

Ooooooh yay! That would be great. Sure thing. Catch ya on MSN then!

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## JET73L

So, anyway, before I forget, I'm thinking that we go after Tarvos at Omega Cruel Vindictive Field, as a trap to catch Azure Flame, since Tarvos might still be "trapped" there. It fails, Azure Flame data drains Tarvos or it escapes and Jechtael has to drain it.
I had a few other ideas, and really should start keeping a small journal on me so I can write these things down.

I'm thinking another of the companion documents I hope to write might be a short story from the point of view of Marcoh.

Edit: Oh, yeah, I was thinking about detailing the end of the Golden Age of The World, and how Aura had negated the need for any system debuggers anywhere on the internet, so The World has been falling into disrepair, and likely Morganna with it.

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## Seanchaidh

You should definitely write down a short story about it or something. Hey, then you could maybe post it on this site or the Booksie website which I should you a while back.

I wonder if the wiki people have accepted my idea for the HackRP wiki....?

I'll get back to you....

Ciao!

 ::D:  ::D:  ::D:  ::D:  ::D:  ::D:

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## JET73L

I think I've got most of the very end planned out, and the restart from the timeskip. Just got to fill in the events in between.

I'll make sure to keep an eye out for the wiki! One thing, though, what are we naming this arc? I'm thinking The Fall of The World, since the End of The World is already taken, and every other decent title I could think of had morganna;s name (or .hack//After Aura), and the titles don't have character names in.

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## Seanchaidh

I really like the "Fall of the World" name.

I don't know why but it reminds me of the term "Pluto's Kiss"...

anyway great news! They accepted it. Here's the link - :D

I'm hopeless at this sort of thing so I was wondering are you good at inputting posts and stuff on the wiki page? As you can see by the opening quote this is true.

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## JET73L

ool, thanks.

And that's good, I've been working on updates for the wiki. I'll start posting soon.


Here's the update for starting back up. I couldn't find your post over on booksie, but I don't think it'll require any adjustment for continuity. And, i just remembered that Subaru was the other real, non-comatose person. I added a quick handwave to this, but I'm going to do a rewrite to include her, see if it's worth changing.

And do you know if Tsukasa's player went back to The World or anything? I think I should add Elk somewhere, like, visiting Mirei and Mayumi with a portable computer as Mia's proxy (he seemed like the type to have a mobile permanently logged into The World, so he wouldn't be more than a couple of minutes away from Mia at any given time). It would be too much of a stretch to say he was data drained and then never mention it again. He could mention that he knew Mia was getting distant for some reason, hiding something, but he hadn't gotten her to explain until after the Innis event.

What are your opinions on this? Any suggestions?









Here's the intro. It's not yet canon to the story, because it's going to at least need the rewrite for Subaru (I can't believe I forgot her, I mean, that's your name!), so... yeah.

The Golden Age of the world: that was what they called the ten-year period in which Aura presided over the net. Not only was she the ultimate A.I., but she was also the ultimate debugger, clearing the data and able to make sure that everything throughout the The World and the rest of the net were in working order. Ten years passed, and the skills required for upkeep of the internet fell into disuse, only practiced by hackers for fun. Then, on the day of Second Pluto, Christmas Eve 2014, she was gone. Nobody noticed at first, but for the reappearance of date bugs. Over the next few months, The World would gradually fall apart, the Altimit programmers unable to keep up with the sudden increase in debugging. Graphics became patchy, and even broken, and the Data Bugs attacked: glowing, green-patterned monsters with infinite HP. Rumors even circulated that players were falling comatose, but nothing could be proven, or even verified. Something had to be done, but no one knew what.
-Marcus Corvin, Between Worlds

“Brigit? Er, Haruna, I mean?”
The sixteen-year old boy had found the hospital room, and a young woman was sitting outside. “Yes. Jechtael, I presume?”
Yeah. He sat down next to her. “It’s nice to see you.”
Haruna laughed sadly. “I know. It would be nice, if we were all meeting under different circumstances.”
“And your friend, Marcoh, he’s still...” J___ couldn’t bring himself to say it.
“No improvement. I hate what this is doing, you know. Azama-san has it worse than any of us. Her own daughter...”
“I know, I miss Mirei, too.” J___ stood and asked if Haruna would mind going in with him, and she shook her head. They opened the door to reveal an older woman, who looked like she had been crying for a long time, sitting next to a young girl in a hospital bed, thin and pale from the time spent inside on an IV.
“Hi, Haru-chan. This is Jechtael?” Haruna nodded. “Thanks for coming. It’s probably making Mirei very happy to hear her friends caring so much.”
“I’m sure she’s going to be okay, just as soon as we get this fixed.”
“She does move her eyes, sometimes. The doctors say it’s unusual in a coma patient,but not unheard of, so I know my daughter’s awake in there. Somewhere. I'm sorry you missed Subaru, she was here this morning.” She glanced to a vase of flowers on the bedside table, signed _From Mia and Elk_. "Kaoru was here, too, for Mia, but I expect you wouldn't know him."
“Yeah.” J___ didn’t have anything else to say, so Haruna handed over the water bottle, telling Mayumi to keep hydrated.
“It won’t be good if Mirei wakes up and you’re all cried out.”
Mayumi smiled weakly, but her eyes betrayed the lack of mirth. “Thanks. I’m glad you’re both here.”

Back in The World, Jechtael and Brigit were told to meet Helba, she had someone to introduce them to in the Φ Root Town.
When Brigit caught sight of the white coat, hair, and feathers: “B-b-Balmung!?”
He turned to look at them, a serious expression on his face. “I have to apologize for the way I treated you two back at Hulle Granz. I thought you were just two hackers, who wanted to imitate kite and BlackRose. I now know how mistaken I was.” He held out his hand. “Forgiven?”
First Brigit shook the extended hand, then Jechtael. “I’m not going to be able to stay for long, but Helba wanted us to be on good terms if I’m to help with the latest outbreak of the Cursed Wave. Helba? I’ll call you when I know more.”
He gated out, and Brigit grinned for the first time since Marcoh and Mireille had been data drained. “It looks like you’re off the hook, Jechtael.”
Jechtael looked at her, confused, and then laughed.

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## Seanchaidh

Wow, that is really good. Touching and it has a subtle yet sweet, sympathetic tone to it. 

I would think that Tsukasa would have logged back into the world (most likely at the insistence of Subaru) and also I know Subaru would have logged back in as I'm playing as the character and also the reason she started playing "The World" was because she could get to walk around by herself and not rely on her wheelchair. Also, I think Elk probably would visit Mirei though I think it would be more realistic if you included something like a vase of roses with Elk's name on the card beside her ward bed as it shows he visited but also shows that he didn't stay long as he wanted to be with Mia too.

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## JET73L

Changed. Thanks for the suggestion. I don't know if it halts the flow of the conversation too much, though, if Mistral would really be talking that much at a time in this situation. Then again, it could be in character.

I really need to start checking on the timeline again. It was seven years between The Birth of Aura and The End of The World, and the End of The World was ten years after Pluto's Kiss, right? Some sources seem confused.

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## JET73L

Sorry for double-posting, but I forgot to post this conversation like I said, and the edit button disappeared from the above post already.





> So, for the battle with Innis, I'm thinking that Morganna is laying low while Project G.U. is happening, but then Azure Flame goes after Innis (considering that was probably why Morgana originally took over his data.)
> Subaru says:
> That sounds good.
> Then what?
> JET73L says:
> We try to use it to trap him, since he's worse than a data bug, maybe as bad as a phase, and somehow innis gets drained or released.
> Subaru says:
> That would be bad if Innis is released.
> I like it.
> ...







> Subaru says:
> Well maybe we could start with the problem that the team are facing, then we go from there. The problem being the whole Morganna thing.
> Thanks.
> What do you want to happen at the very end anyway?
> JET73L says:
> I'll send you what I'm planning on, going into trhe story after the timeskip with an overview of how the Golden Age of The World is definitely ending since Aura disappeared, but if you wanted to suggest anything...
> At the very end, I would like everyone meeting in real life, with Mirei and everyone else awake, to hold a sort of wake or tremembrance for the AIs. Not just Mia and Random, but all of them in The World, and then a biit of inspirational yet wistful "looking toward the future."
> Subaru says:
> That's so sweet. I think that would be the perfect ending to the series.
> ...

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## Seanchaidh

Nice with the our conversation by the way ^^

Anyway, I have noticed that too - how several sources seem conflicted in their content - makes it annoying when you are trying to read up about it. 
It makes you wonder what ones are right.

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## JET73L

Yeah, I know. Best I can tell, Mireille is about seven (I just realized some interesting metaphors for Aura/Zephie), and Elk is 20, or just under. Brigit and Jechtael are cool, since they're new characters (mostly), and Mia and presumably Random don't age. I'm still not really sure about how old Subaru is right now, and _nobody_ knows how old helba is. I don't think Balmung matters.

As to the subject of Tsukasa, I think his player probably stayed away from The World mostly, since it would be weird after Mia attached herself to Elk. She might play as a different character, along with Subaru when she's not on official business, but considering the issue has never been brought up in any canon source, I doubt Tsukasa ever really returned.

So, any comments? Things that have been bothering you, like plot holes, or any comments?

(I still think it would be cool for Elk to have a handheld computer to log in if he ever gets a message from Mia, considering she only exists in the World. Especially considering the AIDA events.)

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## Seanchaidh

I do think Elk would have a hand held computer or PDA but I was just remembered something - doesn't Mia actually get deleted? I remember reading somewhere - .Hack wiki I think - that the administrators tracked her down and basically destroyed her data and used the Macha part of her in their AIDA project or something. Then wasn't it shortly afterwards that Elk changed his character to Endrance and the Macha AIDA attached itself to him.

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## Raiu

[Is this topic still alive?]

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## Raiu

Oh. I just read through the topic and well, when is the 2nd part comeing? Its already been 3 months. Hopefuly its not postponed.

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## Seanchaidh

My, my. It's been a while since someone's responded to this. 

I'm sorry but Jet and myself are in the middle of trying to come up with a second arc to the story. So unfortunately, it is postponed until further notice.

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## Raiu

Dont worry I can wait a while. Im on plenty of forums so ill check every so often. Good luck.

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## Seanchaidh

See you soon hopefully.

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## Raiu

God willing. If you need help on it just send me a copy. I have an idea door jammed open for this rp and I [somewhat] know the plot of the .hack series

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## Seanchaidh

I will seriously keep that in mind. Thank you. However I feel it will be back up in no time.

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## Raiu

Alright. The offer will stand untill then. Good luck.

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