Awakening (Peregrine x Gryal)

Halp let out only a partially contained squeal, bouncing on his toes in poorly contained excitement. "Oh. My. God. Look at us! We are in the Kingslayers camp, and we'll get to see them attack the Knight." Still bouncing, he clamped his hands over his mouth. The motion did little to stifle the next exclamation of excitement. "Best going away present. Ever," He finally managed.

Tage thumped him on the back. "Are you going to keep fangirling until you pass out, or are you going to help us get the tents set up?"

"Like you aren't excited too," Halp muttered, but he followed after Tage and Ripley willingly as they made their way over to the tent packages, picking up one of his own. If the rest of the tents that had been set up were anything to go by, each of them would need their own to have enough room to log out. They dragged the tents back over to the place where Rhanna had left them, and began to set things up.

While both Tage and Halp had set up tents before, these were much higher level gear, smaller, lighter, and more resilient to the kind of weather that could form on the front lines. They were, naturally, much more complicated, and a tangle of poles, tarps, ropes, and fabric greeted them when they dumped the contents of the bag onto the ground. Of course, neither of them were willing to ask for help with something as simple as setting up a tent, and they stubbornly worked their way through the pile. After a few failed attempts, and a few quiet pointers from Ripley, both of them had managed to set up reasonable approximations of shelter. After collecting bedding and a blanket from another common store, Halp glanced up at the sky, and then nervously back at his 'tent'. "Doesn't look like it will rain tonight," he said eventually, shrugging his shoulders with a reasonable facsimile of calmness. "We should be fine."

Tage tugged at her own tent, and it wobbled slightly. That would never do. The last thing she wanted was to wake up tomorrow with a cold, or anything else that might get in the way of her being able to experience everything that would take place tomorrow. "Maybe we should... ask for help?" she proposed hesitantly. It had taken Tage and Halp quite a while to get their tents actually set up, and the camp had gotten quiet during that time. Many of the members of the Kingslayers had logged out, settling their avatars down in the tent and entering into the stupor-like state that qualified as "sleep", an uninterruptible state that put the avatar in a state of invulnerability and removed it from interaction until the user logged back in. There were a few voices still coming from the much-larger tent, but none of them sounded like Toreck, the only person Tage would willingly consider reaching out to for help. Eventually, she simply shook her head.

"I should probably log out. It's a bit early, and my parents won't be expecting me back yet, but I may be able to use the evening to ingratiate myself to them a bit, and they may let me log in a little early tomorrow." She lifted a hand in farewell, making to crawl into her tent. "I'll see both of you tomorrow, okay?" With a final smile, she ducked into the tent, settled herself down somewhat comfortably, and logged out.

---

Tage's eyes fluttered open, and she carefully, delicately, placed the purple visor that allowed her to connect to TITAN onto the shelf behind her bed, purposefully built for just such a purpose. She slipped off the edge of the bed, graoning slightly at her stiff muscles and wincing at the feel of the cold floor under her bare feet. However, once she was standing fully, a wide grin crossed her face and she let out a faint whoop of pleasure. It was hard for her to imagine that only this morning she, Halp, and Ripley had come into one of the bridge cities, and though they might not make it to the front lines before Halp had to leave. But now, not only had they managed to make it across the river and into the wild territories, but their avatars were sleeping in the middle of the Kingslayer camp. Finally able to release her emotions without fear of Halp's mockery, Tage jumped in the air a couple more times, before bursting into uncontrollable laughter.

Her euphoric release was interrupted a few moments later when a knock sounded at her door. "Alyssa?" her mother's voice called. "Everything... alright in there?"

Tage grinned again, not even caring that her mother had used her given name instead of her chosen name in her excitement, and bounded across the space to fling the door open and hug her startled mother.

"Well, then," Claire said with a grin. "You're out early. What happened?"

Tage bubbled happily at her mother as they made their way down the stairs, relaying in hyper-paced words everything that had taken place that day. The story continued well into the kitchen and through the beginnings of dinner preparation, when her brother Brandon finally came down the stairs. He gave her a look, one of those looks that said in unquestionable terms that he didn't know what he'd done to deserve an older sister as insane as her, and stalked into the living room.

"So now I'm sleeping in the middle of their camp, and Krajni the Ultimate is going to be there tomorrow!" Tage finally finished in a rush.

"Bullshit," her brother called from the living room. Apparently he had been paying attention, at least somewhat. He might not play Djinni, other than very rare and casual sessions when Tage managed to rope him into it, but the game was popular enough that even those who had simply heard of the game and didn't readily play it knew about Krajni.

"Language!" her mother called back, voice pitched to carry. She turned back and smiled rather absently at Tage. "That's real nice, Alyssa."

Tage deflated somewhat. Of course, it shouldn't surprise her that her mom couldn't really understand her excitement about this. Neither of her parents played VR games, and while they still used the system on occasion it was exclusively for work meetings. They still remained firmly grounded in holograph and projection technology, which could immerse sound and sight, but left out everything else. A moment later, some of the spring returned to her step. "Anyways, I was wondering if I could skip breakfast so that I could hang with some of the people at the camp before Krajni shows up, and they all have to get to work. I'll be down for an early lunch, promise."

"Actually, that's something your father and I were going to talk to you about after dinner." Her mother didn't look at her, but Tage felt her heart flutter with foreboding. It was never a good sign when mom talked to her about gaming in that tone of voice.

"Mom," Tage said quietly, almost desperately. "You and dad promised. We talked about this at the beginning of break. I was good for the last part of the school year, I got all my homework done before I started gaming, and I got solid B's in all my classes, and one A-. You said I'd get to spend all of break playing with Halp, because he's going to Europe. You promised."

Claire looked over, and Tage couldn't decide whether or not there was any guilt in her eyes. "I know dear," Claire said quietly, "but your father has a work gathering. Everyone is going to be there in person, and he was strongly encouraged to bring his family. It wouldn't look good if his daughter didn't show up."

Despite the fact that she had felt this coming, Tage felt her heart constrict. A part of her had simply hoped that perhaps mom wanted help with making some sort of family dinner, and she'd be able to take care of it quickly and get back to Djinni. But this... this sounded like an all-day event, and it would certainly take up the majority of the evening. The evening that the Ultimate was supposed to be showing up at camp. She had to be there. "Mom," Tage said again, desperately trying to swallow the lump she felt building in her throat. "You can't just spring something like that on me. These are my last three days of break, they are important."

"I know they are," Claire had gone back to cooking. "But it's just a game, Alyssa. This is your family."

"Don't call me that!" Tage hadn't meant to snap, but she couldn't help it. It wasn't fair. Why couldn't her parents understand?

"Don't you take that tone with me, young lady." It seemed Tage finally deserved her mother's full attention, as she turned away from her cooking for the first time since she and Tage had come into the kitchen. "Don't you dare."

"I'm not going," Tage said, flatly. "I don't care what sort of stupid punishment you impose after break is over, I'm going to play for these last three days. Like you promised."

Her father had come into the kitchen at the sound of raised voices, and was standing in the doorway. Andrew was a slightly overweight man, hair beginning to recede, but still tall and strong. With his arms folded across his chest, he looked even bigger than usual. "Honey," Claire said, seeming to sense the ultimatum that was coming. Andy ignored her.

"Not in this house, you won't," he said, voice brooking no argument. "You are going, and that's the end of this conversation."

Tage's jaw set stubbornly, but finally she lowered her eyes. "Fine." If she couldn't do it in this house, she'd just have to do it in another.

---

Tage stayed silent throughout dinner, resentful but not overtly rebellious. She didn't speak unless spoken to, and gave answers in short bits, monosyllabic if at all possible. Even her mother's attempt to make peace, asking her to tell the family a little bit more about the game didn't do anything obvious to lighten her mood. It only reminded her how much she wanted, no, needed to be there tomorrow.

Inside, Tage wasn't as furious as she seemed. No, she was calm, a plan beginning to form in her head. For that, she would need her parents to not be suspicious of her. She needed them to think she was mad, but never dream she might do something to actively countermand what they had ordered. After all the time she had spent roleplaying, it wasn't as hard as she would have thought it would be.

Her mom followed her up to her room after dinner. Brandon and dad were downstairs, doing dishes since Tage and mom had cooked. "Honey," she said, softly. Tage ignored her, opening the door into her room. Mom caught it before the door could slam closed in her face. "I'm sorry. Really. But this is important. I'll see you tomorrow morning?"

"Whatever," Tage grumbled, and finally managed to close the door.

She hovered there, just on the other side, listening carefully for the sound of her mom going back downstairs. She waited a few extra moments, just in case someone else decided they wanted to come up and check on her, before flinging herself across the room and scooping up her phone. She thumbed quickly through her contacts, before finally selecting a number. Evan. She pressed the button and lifted the phone up to her ear.

Evan had been her friend in high school, and even though she had been a freshman when he had been a senior they had never lost touch. He wasn't one of the friends she had ever talked about to her parents. He was the quiet, rebellious type, now in college for cybersecurity on the other side of town. Tage wondered if he still actively participated in hacking, or if he had given up on that less agreeable pastime now that it was practically his job. The phone rang two times before Evan answered.

"Tage! Long time no talk," he said, cheerfully. Tage smiled at the sound of his voice. They hadn't talked for a couple of months, what with his classes consuming all his time, and Tage playing Djinni obsessively. It was nice to know that even after so long he could answer the phone and still sound as though they had talked yesterday. "What's up, girl?"

"Evan, I need a favor," she said, voice pitched low.

"Oooo, whispering," Evan said, equally quietly, a trace of laughter in his voice. "Do continue, o' master of secrecy."

That earned another smile from Tage, but it slid off her face a moment later. "I need to come over to your place until the end of winter break," she said.

"Let me guess, your parent's don't know about this request, do they?"

"....No."

"I figured that." He was silent a moment. "Is this going to qualify as kidnapping?"

Tage laughed. "No, I don't think so."

"I'll come get you."

"No, I'll meet you at my school. I don't want my parents to know what I'm doing."

"Can do. When?"

"About an hour."

"Sure. Don't get caught."

As soon as she hung up the phone, Tage got to work. She quickly packed up her backpack with some clothes, and snuck to the bathroom to grab some backup toiletries. Lastly, she carefully wrapped up her headgear in an old, worn sweater, which would hopefully keep the piece of technology from damage. Only once that was done did she grab a stylus, and scrawl a note on her desk. Her parents wouldn't find it until morning, and by then she'd be long gone, out the window and across the yard, before heading down the street towards her school.

I've gone to find another house, since I can't do it in this one. Good luck at your dinner, dad, I'm sure everyone will love you. I'll be back before school starts.
 
Tage's troubles with her family went completely unnoticed inside the game-world - probably for the best, since they would've only served to confuse Ripley further.

While he'd been with his friends everything had seemed more or less stable, maybe even reasonable. He had two boisterous people to hide behind, to draw the looks away from him. But they had gone to sleep, leaving him naked in the spotlight. The AI felt uncomfortably nervous, even though he knew there was nobody around his tent as he waited for the new day.

He could list all the ways in which he didn't seem human right now, and chiefly among them was the fact that he wasn't asleep. Rhanna's suspicious nature would guarantee if she knew this there would be further questioning, and Ripley did not feel like any good could come out of it. On the other hand, he felt anxious about being interrogated when he left - what if he ran into a sentry and had to explain himself?

A deep breath. Unwelcome feelings all of them, and they led him in ways of thinking that made no progress. Sitting inside his tent, which had been carefully raised at the same pace as his friends', he punched his own leg. A pang of pain. Another blow, harder - he'd seen humans do this sometimes, and it seemed to work in breaking the vicious cycle of anxious thought, granting him a brief respite to think.

No matter how hostile he felt the camp was, the most dangerous person in there was Rhanna. Being in the camp being suspicious was therefore more dangerous than being out of the camp being suspicious. A deep breath, he stood up. And far more productive, he determined with a determined frown, as he stepped outside into the night and started walking off.

His worry was proven unwarranted as nobody stopped him as he walked, letting him out of the camp without any questioning. The cold on his face, the intermittent howling of the winds punctuated by their ominous silences - he felt far more comfortable alone in the wilderness than surrounded by humans, and that worried him.

He pulled his staff out, heading towards the nearest mob - something large and wooly, resembling a trunkless mammoth, had those been able to turn their fur into bristles and control ice around them. Saying they were far beyond his level was putting it mildly - any mistake, no matter how minimal, would see the AI turned into red snow; and without any help from his underleveled skills, this would most certainly be the case for any human that hoped to whittle down the beast.

But he wasn't any human, and he set to the task - alone in the wilds as he was, he didn't bother hiding his nature, and it showed in his motions. Millimetric dodges mixed with perfect criticals, each motion to avoid a strike flowing seamlessly into a rune in the air, earth rising at the wave of a staff to block a meaty paw, only to burst into flames a moment later to turn away a shower of icy shards.

It might very well be described as beautiful in its fluidity, but the AI's consciousness was hardly focused there. There was much to analyze and process, both from this day and previous ones, much to think about and worry about; starting from his newly discovered anxiety, to how he was going to handle it - he couldn't hide from every high-level player in the game in case one of them sensed something was wrong; even if Rhanna's discovery had rattled him more than he'd like to admit. Spying on the Kingslayers was, for now, the best option he could think of - it wouldn't put him in any risk, it would assuage his worries.

Not a moment after he'd started there was a tapping on his mind - a nearby crunch requested attention, but he was far too worried about what they could be saying in the camp about him to let that delay his espionage.

His fears were unfounded - something that was starting to become a bad habit. In the main tent the chatter was about tactics that they'd seen the Knight employ, with one spear-wielding woman complaining that they'd already talked the subject to death, while a mage and a swordsman talked about how to coordinate to mitigate the Knight's tank-buster strike, Heartrend - given that they didn't know just how much damage the Knight would do with the amount of people in that fight, a lot of it was guesswork, but it was a very good showing of it - as expected of high level players, on the other hand.

The tents showed people in different stages of disconnection, with one of the bigger pavillions filled to the brim with cauldrons in which boiled equally alchemical concoctions and broths, likely so that the guild's crafters could prepare consumables for the upcoming raid, but beyond the bubbling liquids there was no life to be seen in the tent this late. If Ripley knew anything about the Kingslayers, chances were any supplies they couldn't gather or make here they were bringing in tomorrow, which would probably mean reagents for those magics that required them and materials for field repairs. Or perhaps even siege weapons, if that was their plan to face the Knight.

A pang of terror went through the AI's heart as he realized he hadn't seen Rhanna, and his consciousness quickly drew back into himself, back into the fight with the bristlebulk that was, right now, bleeding from a hundred small wounds. She was still online, somehow, somewhere, and he felt an urgent need to check where the woman might be - but he didn't want to give into emotions that easily. Logic said it was very unlikely that the woman would be there, that she could harm him in any way, that she would figure out what he was. It was only emotions that made things look otherwise. And he couldn't let one single negative experience dictate his actions from that moment on, could he?

He went back to work on the bristlebulk, focusing on the fight this time. Where before he'd mostly been reacting to the creature's actions with an unnatural reaction speed, now he was actively anticipating them, feinting and misdirecting, creating more than finding the cracks in its defense. It didn't last too long under that kind of pressure, and soon the AI was standing over its still corpse, wiping his brow as he felt his power increase in proportion to the incredibly dificult encounter he'd just bested.

A sigh, and he was heading back to camp. Perhaps he could offer his services in preparing consumables tomorrow, or gathering materials. Or as a courier. He was determined to force himself to be around those players, simply so he could show himself that there was no reason to be scared.
 
Tage felt a wave of relief wash through her when she finally spotted the headlights of Evan's car entering into the parking lot of her high school. She waited for him to get a little closer, a sudden burst of paranoia convincing her that it was going to be her father waiting in the car and not her friend, but when Evan stood up through the window, squinting through the darkness to try and spot her, she finally stepped out of her secluded location under the eave of a second story entrance, and the accompanying staircase, to wave at him. She quickly rushed across the parking lot, bag bouncing on her back, and threw herself into the back seat with him.

"It's good to see you," Evan said with a smile, reaching out with one hand to give her a hug, even as his other hand reached for the console screen, and the large home button in the upper right corner. However, he paused as soon as his hand closed around her shoulder, and his gaze broke away from the screen to look at her in concern. Through a combination of the crisp night air and her monumental nerves, Tage was shaking worse than any leaf. Evan peered at her for a moment. "You're going to catch hell for this, aren't you?"

Peering at him through several locks of blonde hair, which she hoped concealed the fear on her face, but suspected failed miserably at the task, she finally nodded.

"Not too late to back out," Evan murmured, even as his hand rubbed up and down her arm and shoulder. "I doubt they've even noticed you left yet."

Tage took a deep breath, thinking about what she was doing. A part of her, more of her than she was willing to admit, wanted to back out, despite the fact that she'd made Evan drive all the way out here. Her father was going to be beyond mad. No, he'd be furious, wrathful, and his punishment would be swift and without mercy. Gradually, her shaking began to subside. No. This was her life, and she'd been promised the right to do what she wanted this break. She wouldn't let her parents dictate her life to her anymore. She offered Evan a shaky smile. "Nah." Her words sounded a lot more confident than she felt. "Let's get out of this neighborhood."

It wasn't until they were a solid twenty minutes away from her house, and Evan's car came to a rolling spot in the designated parking spot his school had given him that Tage finally relaxed. Her parents would never find her here. She'd be able to take the remainder of her winter break as her winter break, and, whatever the punishment for her actions might be, she'd face them when the time came. Finally, after all these years, she'd put her foot down. A smile crossed her face, and she shook her head slightly. She couldn't help but wonder how much harder her life was about to get because of this decision.

From the other corner of the car, Evan smiled at her. "Please tell me you double checked the definition of kidnapping now. I've almost got my degree. I don't want to go to jail for one of your schemes."

Tage laughed. "Would you like me to double check?"

"Yes. Please."


Evan set Tage up on an air mattress in the tiny broom cupboard he had designated as his office. Even though the mattress was nothing but a twin it still couldn't quite lay flat between his desk and the wall, and they ended up having to partially deflate it again to get her in there. Evan cast her an apologetic look before giving her a look that reminded her this was her idea. Tage just shrugged and laughed, getting back to work on making the bed.

She slept fitfully for the rest of the night, continually finding herself pressed against the wall due to the curve of the mattress, and it was almost a relief when the sun broke the horizon, and a stream of light entered into the space through a small window. It would still probably be a couple of hours before her parents began to wonder why she hadn't come downstairs, and found the note she had left on her desk. Sighing slightly, Tage crept out into the hallway, using the bathroom before making her way back to Evan's office. She changed into the other, comfortable set of clothes she had brought, brushed her teeth, grabbed a very light breakfast, deflated and folded the air mattress back up so that Evan would be able to access his computer, and then moved out into the living room. The couch wasn't as comfortable as her own bed, but it was certainly better than the floor. Taking a few extra minutes to make an egg sandwich for Evan, as thanks for dragging him out of his house in the middle of the night, Tage wrapped the sloppy egg and bread pile, and wrote a note on the top.

I'm probably going to be playing for most of the day, but I'll come back long enough to make lunch, and help with dinner, if you like. Tap me if you need anything, and it'll send a notification into the game. Thanks again, Tage xo

Finally satisfied that she had done everything she needed to do that morning, Tage settled onto the couch, placing the visor over her eyes and logging into Djinni.


It surprised her, when she woke, to see that Halp was still logged out. Despite the fact that the young man wasn't necessarily an early riser, he was a couple hours ahead of her, and she would have thought the excitement of being in a Kingslayer's camp would have dragged him out of bed at the crack of dawn. Shrugging, Tage flipped her yellow hair away from her face, and settled into a more upright position in her tent. Much to her surprise, it had held up for most of the night. The camp itself was already bustling with activity. Or, perhaps "still" would be a better word. The members of the Kingslayers came from all over the world, and this would certainly be the middle of the day, or even the evening, for some of them.

Just as she was about to get up and see if she could find Ripley, a notification pinged in the corner of her eye, one of her friends logging in. She froze, momentarily certain it was her brother's account. She'd forgotten, even if her parents couldn't find her in the real world, they might be able to find her here.

Sitting back down promptly, she opened up her friend list, dedicatedly going through each name and putting them on ignore. All except for Ripley and Halp. They already knew where she was, and she might want to talk to them through the day. Once he logged in, she'd have to ask Halp to do the same. Everyone in her family knew she hung out with him, and Brandon would certainly guess that she was wherever he was. Halp would give her an odd look when she asked for the favor, but she hoped he would have the courtesy not to ask what had happened. She didn't want him knowing about the struggles she was facing at home. This was supposed to be fun, a distraction, not another reminder of how much trouble she was going to be in when break was over.

Forcibly pushing those thoughts out of her head, Tage straightened, pushing her way out of her tent. She nearly ran into someone on the other side of the flap, a tall, lean, plant, life, arcane djinni, who side-stepped and waved friendly at Tage. Blushing slightly, Tage waved back, more pleased than she was willing to admit at the friendly reception the Kingslayers were giving her, despite their stringent entry policies and harsh training period. There were more than a few who thought the Kingslayers were elitist assholes for it, but Tage had never been one of them. They were simply the best, and had to make sure that everyone who joined them were also the best, so that the guild could continue to thrive. Being the best didn't make them cruel or punishing, and now that she had been in their camp, and seen the kind of reaction they would give for a couple random level tens who wandered into their midsts, Tage would fight passionately to protect them from the word-bashing they sometimes received from the people who got rejected for joining, or ended up kicked out.

Ripley wasn't in his tent, which surprised Tage until she began to wonder if the AI was just as excited to be here, albeit probably for completely different reasons. Straightening, she prepared to go look for him, only to see Halp's red hair emerging from within his own tent. He nearly hit his head on the pole that held up the roof, but managed to dodge it just in time. He had replaced his usual heavy battle armor with light leather clothes, comfortable and easy to move in, although his battleaxe was still strapped to his back. He grinned. "Ready for awesomeness?"

Tage's grin slipped a couple notches. "In just a minute."

Halp's usual humor faded slightly, and he looked at her seriously. "Tage, what's wrong?"

"I... need you to do me a favor, and I know it's going to drive you insane with curiosity, but I'd rather you... not ask. At least not right now. Can you do that?"

"Of course."

"I need you to put all your friends on ignore. Except for me and Ripley, I guess."

"All my friends on..." Halp repeated, staring at her. For a moment, Tage was certain he was going to ask, but Halp remembered his promise just in time and bit his tongue. "Fine. Yeah. I'll do it. But, dammit Tage, you'll have to explain later. Promise?"

Tage sighed. "Promise."

They stood like that for a moment, just staring at each other, before Halp shrugged and opened up his friends list. She watched his fingers go through the motions, taking at least two to three times as long as it had taken her to put all her friends on ignore. While Halp did that, Tage worked to lock her memories of the real world in a small box, where they wouldn't disturb her. By the time Halp was done, Tage was smiling again.

"Let's go find Ripley."
 
Ripley found himself surprised by Tage's return - on one hand, it wasn't really such a surprising event, but on the other he hadn't really figured out, or even given much thought, to what he wanted to tell her.

Because there was something he wanted to tell her, and if only he could figure out what this would all go so much more smoothly. It related to his tension around people, it related to hiding, it related to Rhanna - her account had been on the verge of being lost to her repeatedly, whether by bans or simple deletion; but the AI was not sure this was the best way to go about things, ignorant as he was of the ways of the outside world.

And so now that his friend was back, Ripley didn't know quite well what to say. Seconds ticked by as he finished off his current prey, a predator akin to a manta that lurked under the snows, and when the creature was dead he still didn't know the answer to that question - but he'd found the answer to a different one.

After all, time had shown time and again that taking risks led to getting rewards. Gauging the risk appropriately was important, of course, but the risk of not knowing what to say to Tage was, well, minimal. She was aware of his oddities, and he didn't have to try to pretend a perfectly average human around her, after all - so he sent her a quick message, accompanied by a set of coordinates:

"Welcome back, Tage. Mind meeting me here outside the camp? I've spent the night farming, and I'd rather have someone nearby to deflect attention from that."

He didn't even pause to double-check the message before sending it, so daring he felt at the moment - though that daring was still short from letting him run into the camp on his own. In case of, well, anything really - and it did bug him quite a bit that he wasn't able to put that "in case of" into words.

Her affirmative reply came a moment later, and with that the AI set off quickly over the snow, casually dodging every fight on the way back in a way that would've certainly sent Rhanna's spider-senses tingling, until he reached the agreed upon coordinates - outside the camp, hidden behind some rocks and whitened trees, out the sentries' sight.

He gave a small smile when she arrived followed by Halp - partly because he was glad to see them, partly because he was happy he'd predicted Halp would come along too; and for a brief moment a flash of inspiration linked his current feeling of progression to that of players. The insight was quickly marked for later review and even escalation - that could be important, after all.

"Hey, Tage, Halp. Mind walking with me back in? It's kind of nerve-wrecking being surrounded by so many people I don't know well. I even had to leave the camp for a while to take a break off it." The words flowed naturally, though he had to remind himself halfway through that he couldn't just mention his secret in front of Halp. "Plus, Rhanna." He shrugged, leaving the interpretation of that to his companions.

Now surrounded by his friends, the AI felt a lot safer and even braver, watching with interest as the sentinels dragged in a couple of corpses from the local fauna to be turned into tasty meals later on. An idea popped up - he couldn't quite do that with his current level without raising suspicion, but perhaps there were other ways he could help and stay away from the mass of people without raising suspicion, all in a fell swoop. A moment later doubts started appearing in his mind, though - what if they worked in groups, for example? And so he turned once more to Tage and, to a lesser extent, Halp.

"I'm thinking maybe I could help gather materials in the area. I'm sure a raid like this is going to need a sizeable amount of consumables. Are either of you interested in coming along?" This would also make him feel safer, all in all, but the AI wasn't about to pressure them into coming. Their fun was, after all, a higher priority than his comfort.



In a small room, one intern looked at the other, elbowed him, pointed at his screen.

"Not now, I'm getting ganked." The other replied, his gaze stuck to his screen, fingers gliding over the keyboard tapping in intense concentration.

"No, really, this is... Look, I ran the diagnostics like we're supposed to, right?"

"Jonus, I swear to god. Couldn't you pick another time to start working?" The lanky intern looked away from the screen a moment later, his voice leaving the previous intensity as he leaned to his partner's workstation to glance at his screen. "So you ran diagnostics and... Oh. Oh, that shouldn't be red, should it?"

"I'm... fairly sure it shouldn't, no." Jonus scratched his blonde hair in confusion, a habit he blamed on too much anime. "I have absolutely no idea what it means, though. You've been here longer, Brian, tell me you know something about it." A hint of worry and despair.

"Hell no! Look, I've been here for what. Two years? Never a warning, never an error. TITAN doesn't break, it doesn't make mistakes. And the documentation for this bleedin' diagnostic program is obscure as all hell. I even tried reading it once, half the words didn't make sense. Shouldn't we tell... Dammit, what's his name."

"Mike? We really should, yeah. He's going to be so angry we're interrupting his break."

"He can eat a bag of..." Brian bit his tongue as he contained the sudden outburst. "He's always on break. Which lets me play, but y'know. If there's something wrong with TITAN, big brown smelly things are going to hit air-mobility apparat... apparatuses? Apparati? Y'know what I mean. And I don't want anyone to point a finger at me and say 'This guy has to pay for the damages'."

"Right, well. Best be done with it sooner rather than later." Jonus stood up, glancing one last time at the cryptic error message on the screen, before going to warn his supervisor - who, as he'd predicted a few seconds ago, was not happy at all with this development.
 
  • Love
Reactions: Peregrine
Tage and Halp only had to wander randomly through camp for a couple minutes before Ripley's message came through. Even in that short time, they had somehow managed to get themselves turned around, so that they ended up right in the middle of a Kingslayer's mock battle. They had been rescued from that unfortunate situation by a tall, elegant sun-fire-day djinni, who had built a berserker character, if the giant battle axe and light leather armor she had equipped was any indication.

"You're Rhanna and Torek's friends, right?" the berserker, Draria, asked once they had safely settled to one side of the mock arena. "Tage and... Rip?"

"I'm Halperion," Halp said, sounding somewhat sad. "Ripley is the other one."

"Ah! That's right. Halp. I knew it ended with a 'P'."

It was at this moment that Tage got Ripley's message, and she offered a polite nod to Draria before pulling it open. She heard Halp offer a few more hesitant words in the background, and couldn't help but give a small smile in internal response as she quickly put out a few lines in response, telling Ripley they were on their way. She knew, once they were alone again, she would be hearing several pages worth of babble on Draria, and how awesome Halp thought she was. She gave Halp just a couple more seconds, to finish getting his tongue back into alignment in his mouth and stop stuttering, before nudging him in the shoulder.

"I just got a message from Ripley. You staying here or coming along?"

Draria took that moment to bid her farewell, a polite but somewhat bemused smile on her face. "I'm scheduled to go help with a gathering expedition in just a couple minutes. It was great to meet the faces that have had so many rumors circulating about them. See you later, yeah?" With a wave, she walked away.

"Rumors?" Tage repeated. "I wonder what rumors have been circulating."

Halp, staring after Draria, didn't seem to hear her comment. She nudged him. "Come on, lover boy. Let's go find Ripley."

The coordinates Ripley had given Tage were in a convenient location, just far enough away from camp that they ducked out of sight of the border guards, but not so far away that they had much to fear from attacking demons. Tage had been quite right in what Halp's conversation would consist of, and she spent the next couple minutes as they made their way towards the edge of camp listening to Halp's description of the glorious entity that was Draria, and had she seen the way she'd smiled at him, and did she think that they'd get the chance to meet up later? It wasn't until they made it outside the edge of camp that Halp's babble began to slow, and he looked about somewhat worriedly. "What's Ripley doing out here, anyways?" he asked. "Doesn't he know it's dangerous to be out here if you aren't well over level 50? I'm pretty sure anything we encountered would be able to one shot us."

"I'm sure the camp was just a bit... overwhelming for him," Tage propositioned carefully. She'd spent several evenings after first meeting Ripley crafting a "human identity" for him, something familiar she could fall back on whenever people started asking questions about him. Even people like Halp, who she trusted and cared about. "I've gotten the impression large groups of excited people aren't exactly his thing."

"Yeah," Halp agreed. "I have no idea why he hangs out with us, as we are pretty much the dictionary definition of excited."

"Rowdy," Tage agreed.

"Insane," Halp finished, with a laugh.

"Besides," Tage continued, getting the conversation back on track. "Ripley's resourceful. I'm sure he'd manage to get away, even if he did encounter something out here." Of that, Tage had no doubt. She never remembered to pay close enough attention to tell what Ripley thought about cheating, or whether it even qualified as cheating to change his level on a whim since he was literally a part of the game, but she didn't doubt that Ripely would be able to defeat, not just escape, any demons he encountered.

A moment later, Tage and Halp rounded the back of a big rock and caught sight of Ripley. Tage waved, and Halp quickly jogged a little closer.

Tage couldn't help a small eyebrow raise in Halp's direction as Ripley quickly outlined why he'd left camp, pleased with herself for having "guessed right", and even more pleased with Ripley for his having come up with the same answer she would have given if their situations had been reversed. Halp, however, didn't notice. An excited gleam had entered his eyes.

"I'd love to!" he burst, a moment later. Tage blinked, before suddenly catching up with the conversation. Ah, gathering. Yes, of course Halp would be excited to join in on that particular adventure.

"Halp made a new friieenddd~" Tage trilled, throwing in a faint laugh at the end. "Careful, or she'll start thinking you are stalking her."

"It was Ripley's idea," Halp muttered in his own defense. "Besides, it'll be fun! We won't be much use, so we'll just get to sit back and watch the Kingslayer's fight. What could be better?"

Tage cast a slightly sorrowful look back towards the camp. True, it would be very exciting to watch them fighting, but more than that Tage wanted to interact with the people around camp. Anyone anywhere who would spend a little bit of time with her. She was defying her parents and breaking nearly every rule in the book to be here. She didn't want to waste this precious time on something that could just as easily be accomplished at home, watching videos of the various Kingslayer battles that fans and opposing guilds had recorded.

She shook herself rather violently a moment later, nearly slapping herself on the side of the face as well to try and force those thoughts out of her head. If she started thinking like that, she was just going to end up disappointing and frustrating herself. Nothing she did was going to be totally worth it if she went into this looking for something perfectly awesome. Besides, she'd have fun with Halp and Ripley. They'd be a good distraction, if nothing else, and watching Halp try and fawn over Draria without giving away his infatuation would be entertaining in its own right. Besides, she'd have a chance to talk with the other gatherers as they went from demon to demon.

"Yeah," she said, ignoring Halp's rather pointed and concerned look. "I'm in."
 
Halp's enthusiasm about gathering was rather puzzling for the AI until Tage mentioned a "new friend". Context, intonation, and Halp being Halp, this was probably another of his lightning crushes, and for a moment the AI pondered if there were any females that Halp would not crush on. Of course, the MMO world being what it was, physically unattractive women were very much underrepresented, and the AI wasn't even aware of it; otherwise he might've added the requirement of looks.


Any interest that particular avenue of thought might've had, though, was quickly wiped when he noticed Tage's reactions - a slightly longing look at the camp, a violent shake. He wasn't the only one to notice, as Halp's own expression attested confirming Ripley's suspicions that someone was wrong; but unlike the human he made an effort to hide his concern - still unsure as he was of the correct way to react to this, the safest option was to not say anything. There would always be time to say things later on, anyways, if the analysis proved it necessary.


"Glad to have you both along." Ripley smiled at them both, nodding lightly, and pointed to a green pavillion nearby. "That's where we're heading, then." A couple of steps took him in front of the tent. This close, he could see the relief of inscribed runework, all of it dyed the same tone of green to give an impression of simplicity and humility to a tent that was possibly worth more than many guilds. A deep breath preceded Ripley's attempt to knock on the non-existant door, tapping a courtain with his knuckles with an air of doubt before poking his head in. "Excuse me?"


If it had been someone else, the sight would've been breathtaking. In Ripley's case, he was well aware of what the runes outside did, and finding the pavillion's inside far, far larger than the outside didn't quite qualify as a surprise, though he could appreciate the majesty of the multiple crafting workshops - everything there, from a simple nail at the carpentry bench to the blacksmith's anvil was of the highest quality, enchanted when appropriate. Runes floated along inscribed railways hanging from the top of the tent, connecting one workshop to the other and to the large, vault-like doors at the back of the tent. Enchanted forges emanated magical vapors into the air, bubbling fluids from the alchemy benches mixing with the natural humming of the livingwood in the carpenter's; masonry blueprints gave way to magical schematics to help sustain it; mana pylons infused their power into rune-covered grimoires. Everywhere a roaming eye might land, a crafter's work was underway in the dim, green light that filtered through the tent's top.

"Oh, come on in." From underneath one of the crafting benches came out a plant-earth-sun djinn, grunting with effort as he cleaned his hands on a white apron, contrasting with his dark purple robes. "It's a bit of a mess right now, but what do you..." His gaze finally rose from whatever he was doing under there, resting on the AI who had promptly followed the instructions, and an eyebrow rose.

"Don't know your face, you're not part of the guild, and your gear looks too low level for this area." The corners of his mouth turned upward, one extending more than the other until he was giving the newcomer a half-smile. "You've got to be those rookies Rhanna and Torek brought. Welcome to the crafter's hall, don't touch anything or we'll have to sell your organs to pay for new mats." The threat was playful, but Ripley's face must've betrayed his confusion because the man waved it away a moment later. "Ignore that, I'm just teasing y'all. So, what brings you to..."

"Gwyn, are you talking to yourself again?" A gruff voice came from the back of the tent, followed by heavy steps. "You do know that potions don't..." The owner of the gruff voice was a muscular beast-night-moon djinn whose heavy apron and the hammer it held marked him as a blacksmith. "Well what have we here."

Gwyn rolled his eyes very, very obviously, turning to face the smith. "And here's Mytho. The only reason we keep him around is because of his blacksmithing ability." Gwyn's tone was still teasing as before, the man seemingly not taking much seriously.

"And 'cause I know where you live and I'm twice your size." Mytho chuckled. "So what's the occasion?"

"I'd love to know, too! Shame someone interrupted me before I could ask." Mytho's only reply was a despective 'pah', turning to face the newcomers expectantly, a motion imitated by Gwyn.

"I, ah, we wanted to see if we could give a hand in gathering." Ripley had had more than enough time to think of an appropriate response. "A group this large must consume a lot of supplies to keep in top gear."

"That they do, the buggers." Mytho shook his head, regretfully, only to receive a pointed elbow from Gwyn. "Oi, what the!"

"You're complaining? You just have to hammer their gear into shape every ten raids! I'm the one who has to make the potions that last them ten minutes!" Gwyn's outrage was met by a grin from the already recovered Mytho,

"Don't get your panties in a twist, will ya?" Mytho waved the man's concerns away, patting him on the head - which surprisingly seemed to calm the alchemist - and turned back to the newcomers. "Yeah, could always use a few more hands in the gathering section. Not my say, though. Head over there." The man pointed to the back of the tent. "Fourth row, you're looking for Julianna, earthy-looking one. She's the one in charge of the expeditions."

"And I'd suggest..." Whatever suggestion Gwyn was going to give vanished as quickly as the man's smile when something started bubbling in the background, making the potion-maker take off sprinting with a mumbled but very heartfelt curse. "Talk later!" He offered as he went to his workbench, starting to do... something with the multiple apparati on the table.

"Oh, boy." Mytho's grin was halfway between feeling bad for the poor alchemist and feeling amused by the whole situation. "Well, I should get back to work too. You lads, and lass, go on ahead. Just don't touch anything, mkay?"

After their confirmations, the blacksmith left back towards their forge, and Ripley took the lead again towards the mentioned woman. The multiple layers of complexity to the building's unnatural architecture was not very friendly towards the rookies, but the path was as simple as Mytho had made it sound, and soon they ere standing in front of a short, curvy earth-plant-light djinni who was filling up a backpack.

"Oh, new faces!" She gave them a bright smile, nodding. "Give me a... Well, actually, I'm not in that much of a rush. I'm Julianna, Gathering Officer. Pleasure to meet you!" She finished with a little bow, japanese style.

"Hello, Julianna." Ripley smiled back, bowing in the same style, albeit deepening the bow to show deference to one in a higher position - education and politeness had been far easier to research than other aspects of human interaction, and in this particular case the book did not leave him much room if he wanted to remain polite. "I am Ripley, and these are Tage and Halp. We were wondering if we could help in the gathering effort as a way to pull a bit of our own weight here?"

"We could certainly use a bit more of that spirit around here! Please, feel free to join us. So..." She paused for a short moment, her eyes going up and down the newcomers' gear. "Not really high level, are you? Well, you can still find veins and plants and let the gatherers know. Still faster than having three less people." She tapped her chin in thought, humming. "Alright, I'll just..." A blip appeared on all three's screens, a friend request from Julianna. "Accept that, and I'll let you know when we're ready to go. Any questions?"
 
It was so rare, practically unheard of, for Ripley to take the lead that Tage and Halp could only glance at each other in bemusement before turning away to follow after his retreating figure. That glance contained a number of things, but foremost among them was a trace of pride, like parents watching a toddler head off to the first day of class. It wasn't meant to be demeaning, but the two of them had so often taken the lead in all choices and interactions that seeing Ripley make his own decision and march off made them feel like, somehow, they had taught him well. In some respects, it was a good thing that Ripley was leading. After all, Tage and Halp had no idea where exactly they were supposed to be going before the AI pointed the way. Neither had spent much time among guilds while playing Djinni, they were still far too low-level to be welcome in most, nor were they involved in any crafting professions. Therefore, at least to them, tracking down where to go to volunteer for gathering parties would have been a task in and of itself, and likely involved pestering all the wrong people before finally finding the correct information. Ripley, however, led them unerringly forward, until he suddenly came to a halt just outside a rune-covered green tent. Trapped behind him, they could do nothing but wait until the Djinni took a step forward, finally entering the tent.

"Wow..." Halp let out a quiet breath when they were finally able to step inside, and Tage couldn't help but nod her agreement. It was an awe-inspiring sight, and made her quietly rethink whether or not she should have put a bit more effort into a crafting profession. Up until this point she'd dabbled, in the most superficial sense of the word, in leatherworking, but her skill in it barely amounted to 10% of the most basic knowledge. This thought... Working in a place like this would make it all worth it.

Then again, she admitted quietly a moment later, she'd rather just be a fighter, and watch the people good at this kind of work when she had a few spare moments. Her attention was drawn back a moment later when another Djinni stepped out of the back of the crafting tent, a large, bulky man who came to stand next to the alchemist. Tage quickly snagged their names out of the conversation. Gwyn, an alchemist, and Mytho, a blacksmith. She quickly searched through her memory, but couldn't pick out any recollection of having heard of the two before. If she thought about it honestly, it wasn't really all that surprising. Crafters were often the unsung heroes in guilds like this. Everyone knew Krajni and Arra and the other main damage dealers, but for every fighter there was a crafter backing them up. It didn't make her any less awed by their presence, though. Anyone in the Kingslayers was the best of the best, no doubt of it.

Tage smiled at the two as they turned back to the small group of starstruck level 10s that had wandered into their shop, and prepared to make their request to join the gathering, if they could help in any way. A second later, though, she was swallowing her tongue, eyes briefly widening in surprise. Before she could speak, Ripley had spoken in her place. The surprised look quickly morphed into something halfway between smug and indignant. Well, look who was striking out on his own all of a sudden. That expression melted away a split second later, being replaced by something much closer to a grimace. Ripley wasn't the only one striking out on his own. And she'd almost forgotten, too. She quickly molded her expression into something a bit more neutral, lest Halp notice. Luckily, his attention was on the two high-level players, and he didn't think to look at her until it was time for them to walk deeper into the tent.

Tage moved through the tables and various piles of apparatus with a great deal of care, taking the warning about not touching anything super seriously. Even the beakers seemed to gleam with a shine reminiscent of diamons, and she knew that replacing even a single thing in here would likely cost more gold than she had made in the entire time she'd been playing. The usually rambunctious Halp was calm as well, or perhaps simply worried about his wallet like her.

It didn't take them long to find the "earthy-looking one", and Tage and Halp carefully immitated Ripley's bow. Tage had done some limited roleplaying, and knew enough about the Djinni lore to be able to pull it off somewhat gracefully. Halp, on the other hand, jabbed his nose into the tips of his fingers, and promptly winced. It was less of a surprise when Ripley once again took the lead in this conversation, and it finally, fully impressed upon the two friends exactly how important getting to join the gatherers was to Ripley. Glad that she hadn't casually thrown it aside, Tage redirected her attention to the earth Djinni, not wanting to miss anything that might be particularly important.

It was, at that moment, the friend request suddenly popped up in Tage's vision, and she felt her heart pound, and dryly swallowed before pressing the accept button. A small shake of poorly suppressed excitement ran through her shoulders, and a grin split her face. There was a member of the Kingslayers on her friends list. She was going to be traveling with a group of Kingslayers to help gather resources for a raid against the Knight. She was going to watch the Kingslayers fight the Knight in person, and someone, somewhere, might use a potion for which she had gathered the leaves during that raid. Any and all fear about what might come in the future suddenly fled from her body in the wake of overwhelming excitement.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a smile on Halp's face, but had no way of knowing that it was as much a reaction to her own smile as it was an expression of his own enthusiasm. Whether she knew it or not, she had worried her friend. But now, now she was back to the normal Tage, and nothing could be better.

"Is there anything we should do to prepare?" Tage asked, voice a mixture of hopeful and wary. She wasn't a big fan of studying, even for something she really liked, but was very willing to put aside that distaste at the thought of being able to prove herself useful to anyone in the Kingslayers.

"Have you spent any time in the Wintermarked Plains?" Julianna seemed to reconsider her question a moment later, realizing that the answer would be more than obvious. "No, of course you haven't. That's fine, but it probably means you can't recognize the resources we most need." It didn't sound much like a question, but Tage shook her head anyways, with Halp following suit.

"I'll give you..." Julianna paused, her eyes flicking towards the lower right, obviously checking the time on her display. "About two hours," she continued half a second later, without breaking stride. "That should be when Amrk gets off work, and takes his group out. He's been asking for more people to fill out his team for a while now. I... don't think this is exactly what he meant, but he'll be able to make full use of you, and I know he'll make sure you don't encounter things you won't be able to handle. Er, anything." She paused briefly to rub the back of her hand and smile apologetically. She couldn't speak for her friends, but Tage certainly didn't take offense. There was no way she would have been able to survive out here on her own.

The moment passed, and Julianna continued speaking. "These books should contain all of the most common resources, and more than a few of the rarer ones." Her hand flicked in front of her, tapping a few buttons, and Tage waited for the trade window to pop up in front of her. For a few moments she was left puzzled by the absence of any such window, and glanced over to Halp, only to see him staring at the map behind Julianna's head. Abruptly, Tage realized that the woman must have sent the trade request to Ripley. For whatever reason, perhaps because he was standing in front, maybe because he had spoken first, the pretty earth Djinni had decided that he was the head of their little group. She had to repress the small twinge of jealousy as that realization hit her, feeling somewhat frustrated at the reaction. After all, this had been Ripley's idea in the first place. They wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for him.

Meanwhile, Julianna had continued speaking, and Tage had to focus back on the conversation to make sure she didn't miss anything. "Studying those while you wait for Amrk to arrive should give you more than enough of a foundation to find a good number of the plants and veins we'll need." She nodded, before passing her eyes over each of the three in turn. "Anything else?" One by one, they shook their heads. "Good," she finished with a nod. "As I said, I'll send you guys a message when it's time to head out, with the coordinates of where you should meet."

They bid polite goodbyes, before retreating out of her space, and then all the way out of the tent altogether. Tage moved slowly, both to cast one final, admiring glance over the advanced crafting systems, and in hopes that Gwyn or Mytho might spot them leaving, and choose to ask them how it went. However, both Kingslayers seemed to be fully entrenched in their own work. Gwyn offered a friendly wave in farewell as they left before his gaze turned back towards his brewing potions, and Tage didn't spot Mytho at all.

They retreated back towards their little trio of tents, Ripley managing to keep them on course despite Tage and Halp's best attempts to get lost along the way. They settled in a loose semi-circle, in between two of the tents, carefully keeping out of the way of anyone who might be using the path to walk. Tage was tempted to talk, but even Halp, let alone Ripley, quickly turned their attention towards the books Julianna had given them. Tage took that as a signal to bite her tongue, snag one herself, and start studying.

The two hours went by quickly, and it turned out to be a good thing that they had chosen to divide the books among them and each study their own first, because even with the enhanced memorization factors that allowed the info stored in these high-quality books to be easily transferred into their own records, for perusal at any later date, Tage didn't have time to get through more than two-thirds of them. She never would have guessed exactly how many different kinds of flowers there would be in these high-level areas, let alone mosses, mushrooms, trees, berries, nuts, and then all the different kinds of rock, both those that were easily exposed on the surface, and those that were buried deeper underground, only revealed by a few trace signs on the ground above them. These signs would be made more obvious to high-level gatherers, but Tage and Halp would have no choice but to rely upon their own eyes and very basic knowledge. She'd gained two levels in plant gathering and one in vein mining from the books, but she'd never invested much time in any of the professions, preferring to work on leveling her stats instead. It only seemed like an impressive amount because of exactly how little she knew.

Of the two thirds she'd read, it was doubtful she'd committed more than a tenth of it fully to her own memory. She could say with great confidence that she would be able to tell the difference between the rare mistlethort and it's more common, and also poisonous, cousin frostblood, and was fairly sure she'd be able to spot the red haircap moss that grew on the southwest side of trees that had a root in a crushed rediron vein, and she still remembered most of the details in the last ten entries she'd read, but she had no idea how long that knowledge would stick around. Anything else, and she'd need to consult her notes.

It didn't matter. A chat window popped up, blocking the lines she had just been reading, and Tage felt her heart leap in both excitement, anxiety, and relief as she saw Julianna's name at the top, along with Ripley, Halperion, and her own name. For one moment she had forgotten that she'd put all her other friends on ignore, and had been certain it would be a message from her brother.

But, no, Julianna was checking to see if they still wanted to go, and Tage didn't give either Halp or Ripley a chance to take the lead before she'd responded with an enthusiastic "Yes!". Halp's response wasn't far behind. A moment later, and Julianna had passed them the meeting coordinates, and also added Amrk to the conversation.

It was, perhaps, a testament to exactly how bad Tage and Halp were at navigating that they still would have gotten turned around in the camp if they didn't have Ripley to fall back on, as he walked unerringly towards the meeting place. A small group of Kingslayers was already waiting when they showed up, gathered in a loose circle around a pure night Djinni who had a crossbow on his back, and a summoned spirit-bird perched on his shoulder. Out of the corner of her eye, Tage was able to catch sight of Halp scanning all of the gathered Djinni, and judging by the slight slump of his shoulders he was not able to spot Draria amongst their midst. He didn't have much time to mope, as the night Djinni turned to face them.

"Are you the level tens?" This must be Amrk, then. He spoke with a crisp, no-nonsense sort of voice that sounded more suited to a business manager than a Djinni in the middle of a magical adventure quest. All the same, something prevented Tage from getting offended at being called 'the level tens'. It felt more like that had become their guild, it was simply a descriptor of who they were, without any labels or judgment to go along with it. He didn't really give them time to answer. "Julianna didn't want you leaving the camp with her books, so if you still have them in your inventory make sure to leave them in that chest. It's fine if they are in your tent, or somewhere else in camp, but they can't come on the expedition. Please listen in while you do that, because we need to leave in the next few minutes. It is alright if you don't understand what I'm talking about right away. Someone will fill you in more slowly while we travel, if you need it."

Throughout all of that, Amrk didn't give any of them a chance to reply with more than a simple nod, and he certainly didn't give them a chance to start speaking before he turned back to the other people and resumed talking from wherever he'd left off when they'd shown up. Tage did her best to listen in as she moved over towards the chest Amrk had indicated, depositing the books she had in her inventory. She was easily able to keep up with what the Djinni was laying out to the gathered audience. It was the names of particular resources they were looking for in particular, and anything they didn't need this trip. The bigger problem was by the time he made it to the third herb, she'd already forgotten the first. At least until he mentioned mistlethort. She smiled slightly then, satisfied with her luck. That, at least, she could manage.

As Amrk finished off his list and the other Kingslayers nodded and began to double check their equipment, the night Djinni's eyes turned back towards Tage and her group. "I'm going to need one person each for the level tens. They don't need a babysitter, just someone who'll make sure they don't get ambushed or stuck on the terrain. Other than that, they can handle themselves." Tage couldn't deny a small bit of pride at Amrk's description, especially considering he didn't know anything about them. It was a level of faith she was determined to do justice, and she could see the same expression on Halp's face.

An even sweeter feeling built in her chest when five of the eight other people there raised their hands to volunteer for the job. They didn't consider her a burden, and believed she'd be useful enough to make it worth their time to watch out for her instead of doing their own thing. Her hands gradually balled into fists as the feeling of determination abruptly built into something much more. She couldn't pick out a word for it. All she knew was that she had to do good. Anything less simply wasn't an option.

Amrk picked three of the volunteers, and they quickly stepped out. Tage suddenly found herself standing next to a lightning-life-arcane Djinni Amrk had called Ritik. What was more, if the glowing runes that covered his giant, slightly curved blade was any indication, he functioned primarily as a spellsword. Tage felt her heart leap, and she offered a hesitant smile to her new guardian. He wiggled his eyebrows at her, causing her to let out a helpless giggle, before tuning back towards Amrk.

Halp looked equally thrilled, a slight blush on his face as he stood half a step behind a graceful day-fire-spirit Djinni, her hair wound up into an elegant bun on the back of her head with a few stray ringlets cascading down towards the back of her neck. Amrk had simply called her 'Sunshine', which seemed remarkably appropriate. Tage couldn't help but figure that it would be even more appropriate if she was a fire mage.

The final one of the three selected was a stocky plant-earth-life Djinni named Axel, who had woven feathers into his thick, medium-length dreadlocks. He had a heavy, comfortable sort of presence that fit perfectly with robes that were just as green as his skin and eyes. He was the only one of the three to offer Ripley a more traditional handshake, as opposed to Ritik's eyebrow waggle and Sunshine's distant sort of smile.

And that was that. Everyone gathered together behind Amrk, who double checked his numbers with a quick glance before offering a surprisingly brilliant grin.

"Let's go get some stuff."

It was the worst battlecry she'd ever heard.
 
Last edited:
While Tage saw some meaning in Ripley getting the books, the AI himself didn't read much into it. One of them had to get books, and it might as well be him. Memorizing the information contained in the book wasn't that much of an issue, either - being higher level than his companions, he already had higher levels of gathering professions, and could make more use of the books' magic. It was unusual to see Halp and Tage both focused silently on books, though. Interestingly enough, it didn't take a high-stress situation to make them change their usual behaviour, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was that had brought about this change.

Still, it was welcome, as he was certain once the invite came up that they'd learned more than they would've otherwise. Not that humans were unable to multitask, but the books' magic required constant, uninterrupted attention to help them learn. With Julianna's warning on their screen, he lead his two friends towards the meeting point - they seemed to be having trouble taking the right route, and while the AI would've let them find their own route if they weren't time-constrained, this wasn't the case.

Their arrival was almost discreet. The leader of the group paid them exactly enough attention to let them know what was expected of them, given their limitations, and then moved on to treating them as part of the group - though he did make allowances to their limitations, asking a higher-level player for each of them.

Ripley didn't expect to see so many raised hands - high level players were not always known for their friendliness towards newcomers, or their willingness to take care of them. It was a welcome surprise, though, and as he glanced to the partners that had been assigned to both Tage and Halp, he knew there'd be no problems with them. Well, maybe with Halp's unending enthusiasm for the female figure.

Amrk seemed to have grasped really quickly how the newcomers were, and if the two humans had been assigned to someone who fit their tastes, so was the AI. After a friendly handshake and a half-smile, Axel didn't try to engage in any conversation; and when they were off with a simple "Let's go get some stuff." he just gestured for Ripley to follow.

A man of few words, he pointed what they were after - Axel was a high level miner, so they were mostly after minerals, and he quickly reviewed how to tell the types of stones that were valuable apart. Low level fire spells allowed them to melt the snow and see the actual rocks they were looking for; and Axel was almost as good a guide as Ripley, pointing out threats with uncanny precision, probably thanks to a unique spell.

Ripley, meanwhile, had to maintain the guise of being a low level player - but a sharp-eyed one, so he did point out every single resource he saw. Axel was clearly appreciative, patting him in the back once or twice.

Time passed, almost flew by, with the two djinni working silently together - until a flare rose up high in the air, red as blood. Ripley's head snapped to it, as did Axel's.

"Someone's in trouble. Come." The first words in hours, and quite likely the last ones, as the two of them set towards the source of the disturbance, as quickly as possible while avoiding combat.
 
They stuck together in a loose bundle for the first minute or two out of camp, before Amrk lifted a hand in a cheery wave and everyone abruptly broke off, splitting out across the land with confident strides that demonstrated everyone was treading a familiar pattern

Tage made sure to keep close to Ritik, a half step away from tripping over his heels, as they split up. She threw a passing glance at both Halp and Ripley, each paired with their own mentors, offered them a cheery wave, and then turned back to watch Ritik's leather-clad back before she had a chance to see whether either of them responded. If they even noticed her wave. She considered the fact that Halp would be too busy staring at Sunshine to notice if a snow-worm started eating his feet. She shook her head slightly, hoping he wouldn't end up embarrassing himself and, by extension, her.

"Everything alright?"

She almost jumped at the sound of Ritik's voice, briefly wondered what he could be talking about, and then suddenly realized he must have noticed her head shake from a moment before. She swallowed, struggling to untangle her tongue, before finally managing to stammer something out. "Just wo... wondering how useful we are really going to be." She blinked, abruptly wondering if her words made it sound like she didn't want to be useful. "I mean, I'm going to do my best. Definitely. But I mean, I'm far out of my depth here, and you guys have to face down the Knight soon, and if I'm just slowing you down what am I even doing here? Not that I don't want to be here, I definitely do, but-"

Thankfully, that was the moment Ritik chose to cut her off with a faint burst of laughter. "Breathe," he advised, while Tage's face briefly flushed red with embarrassment. Once it seemed like she'd calmed down somewhat, Ritik turned to face forward again, his eyes roaming across the snowy field. But that didn't stop him from continuing to speak. "Frankly, I admire your spunk. I was logged out when Rhanna and Toreck first arrived, and were swapping stories in the bar with everyone else, but if the rumors are to believed you and your friends made it all the way to the Boundary River by yourselves." He glanced over his shoulder at her, and Tage unconsciously nodded her confirmation of that fact. The motion earned her a smile. "You see? I never would have dreamed of doing something like that when I was your level. Wouldn't have even thought it was possible."

Ritik stopped, bending down to inspect the back side of the leaves of a short plant with fuzzy, tri-point leaves that grew at his feet. He twisted slightly to the side, letting Tage lean in closer. "See the slightly purple hue to the veins?" he queried, this time seeming unresponsive to Tage's nod of agreement. "That's the only way to tell this plant apart from a bluevein sarm, which, unsurprisingly has a fully blue tinge to it, rather than the slightly reddish tinge you get here. I think TITAN must have been getting a bit lazy by the time it made it here, because this plant is just called purple sarm." Ritik laughed slightly and Tage smiled in response, but she abruptly found her thoughts flying back to Ripley. How would he have reated to hearing someone call TITAN lazy? Would he get the joke? Would he find it necessary to point out that a computer wouldn't get lazy? Did he get lazy?

Ritik's word jolted her back into focus when he passed her a leaf. "Bluevein and purple sarm grow in patches together, and they can be a bit hard to tell apart if you don't have a reference. I don't think you'll be able to take the leaves off without damaging them, but I'd appreicate it if you'd check the others. Bluevein is useless for anything we'll be doing this time around, so just break off the very tops to let me know you've checked them."

Tage nodded, taking the purple sarm leaf gently and giving it a studious look for several long moments before taking a couple steps to the side and making her way towards the first plant. Ritik set off his own way for a few moments, but quickly came back to follow her path, because it took him about the same time to properly harvest a plant as it did for Tage to check three or four of them. She didn't know how much time she really saved him, but it was a nice feeling, working in tandem with him. It made her feel useful, and even though they weren't talking she didn't really mind.

They were getting close to the end of the patch when Ritik suddenly tensed. Tage, studying a plant's leaves, didn't notice. At least, that was, until she suddenly heard a shout of "Duck!". Tage wasn't used to having to rely upon other people to protect her, and for half a second she hesitated, uncertain. However, the next moment she dropped to the ground, just in time for a spear of ice to fly over the top of her head and crash into the face of a small, bug-eyed demon that had flung itself out of the plants. Tage lay still for a moment, waiting to see if Ritik would fire off any more spells, before carefully climbing her way to her feet. She glanced at him hesitantly, wondering if he'd seen her hesitation. Of course he had. The Kingslayers as a guild didn't care about PvP, but many of the individual members might compete on their own time.

She dropped her head slightly. "Sorry."

Ritik shrugged, letting out a slightly forced smile. "Hey, you didn't get an icicle in the back of the head, which means no real harm done." He considered her for a moment, before twisting his lips ruefully. "Partially my fault. I didn't go over what we'd do when we did end up getting attacked first, which was an oversight. I guess I'm just used to working with my own teammates. That's not your fault."

He stepped forward to pat her on the shoulder, before turning back to the plants. "For the future, that's how it'll work. If I tell you to do something, I need you to trust that it's for your best interests, okay?"

Tage nodded. "Of course."

Ritik paused, and glanced over in her direction, a slightly impish smile suddenly crossing his face. "That so? Good. Now, stand on your hands."

Tage blinked, before letting out a laugh and promptly obliging. If she toppled over half a second later in Ritik's general direction, it would be nothing but an accident, of course.

It took them about another minute to get through the rest of the sarm, and Ritik carefully pocketed the leaves after they were done. He stood up, Tage quickly following suit, and they set off again, making their way towards a hill.

Tage allowed her thoughts to drift again as she walked, but she was far more relaxed now than she had been at any point since she had logged in today. She was having fun, happy, and even the looming thought of what would be waiting for her when winter break came to an end wasn't enough to offset her good mood. She felt like she got along well with Ritik, and felt vaguely useful, even if it was just for providing conversation. And he was a Kingslayer. She'd be fangirling so hard if it wasn't for the fact that she'd been surrounded by nothing but Kingslayers and her friends for the last twenty-four hours, and probably would have passed out by now if she hadn't calmed down somewhat.

"It's kind of a shame, in a way."

"Huh?" Tage twitched. Had she been so wrapped up in her own thoughts she had missed something?

But, no. "Oh. Sorry." Ritik shrugged slightly, before continuing on. "I was thinking about what I said earlier, before we found the sarm. About how I never would have thought getting out here was a possibility? I think that's part of what makes you so remarkable."

Tage shook her head, blushing slightly. "I'm not remarkable."

"You are though. In a way. You and your friends have to be the first group of people who have ever pulled off something like this. Not to say others haven't tried, maybe, but you made it. And, in a way, isn't that what this game is all about? Breaking out of the rules of society, venturing into unexplored territory, taking risks and doing something exciting and fun that you'd never have the opportunity to do otherwise. And yet, isn't it odd that we still end up trapped in rules? Even if you think of heading out into the Wild Territories, everything is more than 40 levels above you. Everyone else ends up stuck in the train of thought that they'd just end up killed, and it wouldn't even be worth it to try. Yet here you are."

Ritik had mentioned TITAN before, something that was considered taboo if you were going into the game to roleplay. But this... for the first time Tage didn't feel like she was talking to a member of the Kingslayers, a spellsword Djinni of phenomenal talent, but instead like she was getting a glimpse into the man behind the character.

"It was a bit stupid."

Ritik let out a surprised snort of laughter. "Maybe. Well, yes. But you did it anyways." His eyes seemed to glaze over slightly as he looked towards the range of jagged peaks, where the Knight was waiting in their trap. "But seeing you here makes me all the more hungry to know what's out there."

They stopped talking again at that point, and although it wasn't the end of their conversations Tage didn't ever feel as though she was speaking quite as honestly with Ritik again. They'd finished that conversation, and had moved back to more superficial matters. Ritik seemed to enjoy teaching her, and whenever they found a useful plant he'd explain things to her while he harvested. She gained another level in gathering from listening to him, and she couldn't help but find it much more interesting than reading from books. Then again, there wasn't enough gold in the world for someone to buy a Kingslayer as their personal tutor, which was practically what Ritik was doing for her.

They got attacked several more times as they journeyed, and only one got close to catching her, when it waited for Ritik to pass before lunging out of a snowbank at her. Tage barely managed to get her sword up and in the way in time, which served no purpose but to send the blade spinning out of her hands, and give Ritik the extra half-second he needed to spin around and slice his giant sword through the thing's back. Which, she supposed, was much better than doing nothing, and getting a faceful of slavering jaws. Ritik harvested the teeth from that one, telling her that the snow lamprey's teeth were relatively common, but still useful in potions that granted a very short increase to strength.

Tage did manage to prove herself slightly more useful a little while later, when she suddenly caught a glimpse of yellow out of the corner of her eye. She stopped dead in her tracks, turning to look in the direction, but could not spot what had caught her attention. Not wanting Ritik to have to stop she looked away again, taking a step forward, only to suddenly see the same bright yellow flash. This time, when she halted, Ritik turned to look at her.

"Thought I saw something yellow," she justified, slightly embarrassed.

"Really?" Contrary to Tage's expectations, Ritik didn't seem bothered in the least, but instead sounded vaguely intrigued. "Where?"

Tage gestured somewhat vaguely to her left, before glancing in that direction and pointing slightly more decisively towards a medium-sized rock that was half-buried in the ground. Ritik walked over, bending down near the rock before twisting his head to the side. "Aha."

In the next moment, there was a small yellow flower head cupped in the palm of his hand. "Sunshine phantasmagoria," he said in way of explanation, which only earned a confused look from Tage. "It's a flower that is completely invisible if you are looking straight at it. They grow over a good chunk of the Middle Territories, and aren't particularly rare, but they are valuable mostly because they can be a devil to find when people need one. So they tend to sell for a pretty decent price. Good spot!"

They wound their way around one hill, climbed over another, before descending into something that resembled a ravine between two hills. Between the wind, the snow that had gathered into wind-blown piles, the pale gray stone, and a large dead tree with twisted branches, the whole place looked less than appealing. All the same, Ritik strode into the area relatively confidently, and Tage stayed close behind him.

They paused near a boulder that had a colorful turquoise lichen growing on it, with patches of orange speckled in and among it. Ritik bent closer, before shaking his head. "Not enough orange, and I think the turquoise is a bit to gr...." There was a sudden skittering noise, and Ritik hauled himself to his feet, tossing out a sharp "Back!"

Tage quickly scuttled backwards, trying not to trip over her own feet or some oddly placed rock on the ground, as something that looked like an unnatural combination of spider, goat, and devil lunged forward, sending a rock crashing down towards them. Ritik side-stepped it casually, and a wave of his sword sent a burst of light forward, which sheered through a strong looking bolt of silk that had been flung towards Tage and crashed into the goat-spider. It didn't seem to do much damage, but it did redirect the spider's attention, as Tage's weakness was outclassed by the lightning Djinni's agro.

All the same, Tage backed away further. It might have only been silk, but she knew if that bolt had crashed into her it would have hurt like hell, on top of probably completely incapacitating her. She moved slowly, trying to put more distance between herself and the fight without drawing the spider thing's attention back towards her. If it leaped in her direction, who knew if Ritik would be able to block it before it reached her?

Abruptly Tage froze, as she suddenly heard a growl behind her back. Slowly, her head began to turn, and she caught sight of the tip of a branch waving around wildly, pulling in towards a bulge that was slowly growing out of the dead tree...

"Left!"

Tage hurled herself to the left without hesitation, not even having time to think about whether Ritik, who had disposed of the goat-spider and turned to look at her, meant her left or his left. All she knew was she was glad she had moved immediately, because a knotted wooden... club? Hand? Whatever it was, it crashed into the ground where she had been standing just an instant before, sending out a shower of pebbles. Distantly Tage heard Ritik swear, and he scrambled at his belt for a moment before snagging a canister and pointing it up into the sky. Half a second later a flare was flying upwards, before bursting into a shower of red light.

Well. That couldn't be good, could it?

Tage scrambled backwards unconsciously, ducking around a small boulder as a gout of flame warmed her back. What she saw made her gasp. The gnarled, dead tree that had been in the middle of the ravine before was gone, and what she saw instead was something that looked half like a giant bear, half like an amalgamation of roots, branches, and knots. Wooden spines stuck out of the thing's back and waved around wildly, while the roots seemed to twist to give the illusion of muscle movement as it's paw, that was what had nearly hit her before, lashed out, stretching alarmingly to nearly collide with Ritik as he threw himself to the side, barely avoiding crasing into the rock wall.

The bear mimic let out an ear-shattering roar, which almost sounded more like gunshots than something that would have come from a flesh and blood animal. Or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say it sounded like hundreds of trees breaking all at once, the popping, snapping noise causing Tage's ears to ring and her vision to blur momentarily. Ritik seemed hit heavily, and he staggered slightly to the side, shaking his head as he tried to clear his eyes. The mimic didn't give him any time. It lunged forward again, root-like paw extending to club Ritik on the side of the chest and send him flying through the air to collide with another rock. He staggered wildly, HP bar falling rapidly, but his sword never left his hands. The mimic's strike was followed almost immediately by another burst of flame, and this time Tage was able to spot the burst of flame originating from Ritik's sword. It struck a glancing blow against the wooden bear, but for all that its body looked to be made of wood it didn't catch flame. It only seared part of the wood to charcoal, and earned another cracking cry from the monstrous demon.

The effects of the mimic's earlier shout seemed to be wearing off Ritik, but he was down to half health and had barely done anything to the bear. If anything, it only seemed enraged by the whole affair. It lifted itself up onto its back feet, towering easily as tall again as Ritik, before crashing to the ground. The strike of its front feet against the ground caused an eruption of dirt, as roots and rocks flew towards Ritik. He managed to dodge most of it, but the very beginning of the attack managed to strike his foot, sending him spinning off to the side and into another boulder. Before he had a chance to haul himself back to his feet the mimic barreled forward, planting the crown of its head right into Ritik's side. He gasped and fell backwards, suddenly pinned between a rock, the cliff, and a furious wooden beast.

The mimic lifted a paw as a golden glow surrounded Ritik's sword. It must have been some sort of shield, because when the thing's paw fell the attack was partially diverted to the side. The light wavered, and the bear lifted its paw to strike again. The light dimmed further. It was doubtful it would be able to last another blow. Tage couldn't think, all she knew was that if she didn't do something Ritik would die. For one moment, the trait that had originally made her so attractive to Ripley showed itself again. She forgot this was a game.

"Hey!"

The mimic paused, setting its paw down to turn part of the way around and look at Tage, who had launched herself out from behind the rock and now stood in the middle of the ravine. Its head tilted alarmingly to the side, and if it were truly flesh and blood it would have surely snapped its neck by now. Instead it stared at her for a moment, before suddenly launching itself forward with startling speed. Right at her.

Maybe that hadn't been such a good idea.
 
"Nyrie. Go." Axel's hand held nothing as his lips opened, but in the brief instant it took him to finish the name a speck of light drew bright blue lines, forming the wire-frame of a falcon. With the second, he pushed the bird upwards, its wings extending and reaching up to the sky, picking up speed almost instantly and flying off towards the flare.

Ripley, on the other hand, just kept walking - but as he did, he knew something was wrong. A first logical analysis pointed out the likelihood of the level tens getting in trouble in this area was much, much higher than the Kingslayers doing the same; but Ripley didn't need that, being able to simply extend a query - and in this kind of situation, he wasn't going to blindfold himself to pretend to be a human. Not when making the wrong choice, the one that ended with his friends respawning back where they'd started their journey, would have such dire consequences on everyone's enjoyment of the game.

And the results of the query were not good. The creature they were fighting was tough to kill in the best of scenarios, and that kind of scenario did not involve having to protect a level ten player. Ritik was strong, but the mimic had landed a solid debuff combo on him.

A screeching cry from above broke Ripley from his thoughts, his analysis, reminding him that Axel existed a moment before the man stopped and pulled out a metallic, stringless bow. As he touched it, the bow's string appeared in the same blue light as the bird; along with an arrow. He raised the bow to his eye, took a deep breath, legs planted firmly on the ground. Released his breath slowly...

Far too slowly. Ripley's focus remained on the battle, and the moment Axel stopped he was back to paying attention to the fight - Ritik was in trouble, tanking blow after blow on the ground, shield growing weaker until it shattered... And then Tage taunted the beast. A brief, very brief moment of peace - and it charged.

There was no way Tage could dodge that, but would it be right to help her dodge? Without time to analyze it properly, all Ripley could go was with his gut feeling - that having Tage die there would make her much more unhappy than any loss of challenge could be. He needed time, processing power.

Something clicked inside Ripley's mind as he requested and was granted higher privileges. The light in the Djinni's eyes dimmed slightly as his focus turned elsewhere, processing power diverted to grant him the ability to analyze the situation in detail. Slowly, very slowly, the mimic drew closer to a defenseless Tage. Chances of dodging, blocking, parrying? Less than one percent. Far less. Chances of crit? 84.77%. And judging by the damage the bear dealt, a one-shot was all but guaranteed if he crit.

She couldn't block with her weapons, parrying that kind of attack would require far more strength than she had, dodging would require far more agility. Those were his options, her options. Unless he interfered with the bear, but that would be very noticeable. As much as suddenly giving Tage a burst of strength. So that left agility. An extremely powerful spell could do that, but there would be no preventing Axel's questions after that. That meant he'd have to use other routes, the ones that did not involve Ripley, the player; but rather Ripley, the piece of TITAN. And TITAN could do far more than most people thought.

TITANDebug v1.07
This program is provided as is for testing purposes only. Please consult your TITAN specialist before using this program.
The publisher is not responsible for damages caused by misuse of this software.

Login: JCAbrahams
Password: *********

Verifying... Success!
Welcome, JCAbrahams.

~$linkup Djinni22.17.10.27-release

Verifying... Access authorized!

~$stats Tage

Outside, it would be almost impossible for anyone with human senses to tell when exactly Axel let go of the arrow - one moment it was there, the next it was gone, a flash of blue flying towards a foe far too distant for almost anyone to engage. But then again, Axel wasn't "almost anyone", as was the case with everyone in the Kingslayers. However, as the bear closed in thunderously on Tage, there was no way his shot would arrive before the beast did.

~$modify Tage +742 1000,1s

Modifying entity "Tage" with effect "Generic Dodge Buff" and values "1000 1s". Y/N?

Y

~$quit

Thank you for using TITANDebug!

~$rm -rf /var/log/TITANDebug/1048067/220472410

A moment later Ripley had released his privileges, his eyes back to their usual shine just a moment before Axel put away his bow and turned to him. Only a moment , a brief meeting of gazes of the two silent men before the ranger was waving him onward as he started running - and the AI followed suit, with a much lighter heart now that he'd ensured Tage could dodge anything that came at her for the next second.
 
Last edited:
Tage felt her mind freeze, and for one moment it felt like she was seeing everything in slow motion. The heavy crash of the bear mimic's foot echoed around the ravine, seeming to linger in her ears long after the noise should have faded. In that moment, she would have sworn that she could have picked out every single root that made up the mimic's form, traced them back to wherever they originated, and still have had plenty of time to casually step out of the way of the charging monster.

She wondered if she was about to die.

It wouldn't be a catastrophe. She'd slept at the Kingslayer's camp, and that would mean she would respawn back near her tent. But, gods above, it would be embarrassing. And she figured Ritik would feel bad about it too. Amrk had said it was his job to keep her safe, after all.

Not that any of those were express thoughts. They were mostly just a vague sense of disappointment, suddenly obliterated by a wave of fear as Tage unconsciously understood that she had less than a second before that bear was going to collide with her.

It was lucky that she had grown responsive to Ritik's commands while they had traveled together, because if she hadn't there was no telling whether or not she would have responded in time when the word "RIGHT" suddenly appeared in her mind. But, as it was, there was no need to guess at whether or not she would have reacted in time. Long before she had a chance to wonder where the thought had come from, if it was even that, Tage found herself flying to the right, as though something had hit her. As though she had hit herself, and was now flying wildly, yet somehow in control. Later, when everything had calmed down, Tage would wonder at the memory of this moment. But, right now, all she knew was that she was rolling out of her dodge and returning to a standing position, and the mimic was turning to face her once again, the boulder it had just rammed into cracked right down the middle. Tage would swear fires of rage burned within its eyes, and...

A ray of blue light fell from the sky, crashing into the mimic and causing it to stumble to the side. The strange, blue lightning didn't seem to do much damage to the mimic, but the currents arced between the various branches and roots, causing the monster to stumble whenever it tried to take a step forward.

"Tage!" Ritik's voice caused the young woman to start, tearing her eyes away from the staggered form of the mimic, who was already starting to recover from the effects of the blue bolt that had fallen from the sky. While the bear had been charging her, Ritik had gotten back to his feet and swallowed a potion, restoring him to well over half-health. He had once more gained a firm grasp on his sword, and he moved up, standing between Tage and the bear.

"That was reckless," he scolded, although the rebuke came out only half-hearted, as his focus was still turned towards the monster.

Tage nodded back, before remembering that Ritik wouldn't be able to see the motion. All the same, she agreed. It had been reckless, and if it wasn't for the strange twist of fate that had allowed her to roll out of the way Tage knew she would be dead now. Of course, a part of her knew that if the situation happened all over again, she probably would have done the same thing. The mimic had cornered Ritik, and it likely would have killed him if she hadn't acted. If he had died, the bear would have been able to turn on her unobstructed, and it would have gotten her by now too.

"I'm..." But Ritik charged away, leaving the words mostly unspoken on Tage's lips. As the last of the blue lightning faded and the bear shook its massive head back and forth as though trying to clear the ringing from its ears, Ritik's sword crashed into it, a coating of frost covering its head, shoulders, and front legs. Rather like the lightning, the frost slowed the bear's movements, allowing Ritik to easily step out of the way of the large paw the mimic swung in retaliation to the blow.

Tage moved away from the fight slowly, taking careful steps backwards until she suddenly felt her spine press up against the rock wall. A faint breath rattled out of her nose. It seemed like Ritik had managed to get the mimic mostly under control at this point, but even with the powerful blows he was regularly dealing the beast was dangerous enough that one mistake on the man's part could turn the tides, and leave the spellsword once more at the mercy of those giant claws.

However, just as Tage was starting to worry how much longer Ritik would be able to keep up his surpressing actions, a swirling, dark cloud appeared above the mimic's head. Only a moment later, the smoke congealed together, resolving into the form of a death-smoke-moon djinni, a dagger gripped tightly in each hand. He plummeted through the air, but landed lightly on the mimic's back, driving both daggers into the top of its head.

The mimic let out a cry, the branches on its back waving wildly to strike back at the djinni who had just wounded it. However, as the first branch was only moments away from striking the newly appeared djinni, his body once more dissolved into a black cloud, before fading away.

Ritik lunged forward once more, striking the mimic again with his sword, before another bolt of blue lighting fell from the sky. It once more locked the bear in place, and Ritik stepped to the side, lifting his sword up over his head. Gleaming light began to gather along its edge, before it began to glow bright enough that Tage was forced to avert her gaze. There was a keening shriek as the edge of the blade split the air, followed an instant later by two thuds. As Tage cracked her eyes open, she was able to identify the sounds. The first thud had been the sound of the blade striking the mimic. The second, the sound of its head striking the ground.

For a moment the mimic's body remained upright, before the body creaked, groaned, and toppled to the ground as well. Ritik let out a deep breath, carefully sheathing his sword once more. A moment later, his eyes turned towards Tage. "Are you alright?"

Tage nodded dumbly, before flinching as the dark smoke appeared once more. Now that the battle was over and the rush of adrenaline was beginning to fade, Tage was able to recognize him as one of the djinni that had been a part of Amrk's gathering party. It was only then that she remembered the flare Ritik had shot into the sky when the fight began.

That explained why Ritik and the unknown aid with the blue lightning had emphasized slowing and holding the mimic, rather than trying to kill it. They'd been waiting for additional help to arrive.

As the shadowy djinni cast a glare in her direction, Tage suddenly remembered that he hadn't been one of the people to volunteer to have them along. However, he turned away from Tage when Ritik walked over.

"Thanks for the assist, Shen," Ritik offered, a smile across his face. The other man didn't return the smile, only sharply nodding once before whirling away.

For a moment Tage stood in stunned silence, before she swallowed the obstruction in her throat. "F... friendly," she stuttered, voice catching slightly despite her attempts to clear it first.

Ritik glanced sharply at her, before seeming to catch the embarrassed grin on Tage's face, and picking up her attempt at a joke. "There's a reason Shen came," he replied, voice serious all the same. "There are very few people I'd rather have at my back in a fight." Abruptly Ritik's serious attitude broke. "Or, rather, at my enemy's back!"

Tage did her best to laugh.
 
By the time Ripley and Axel had made their way to the flare's source the excitement was over - the bear long dead thanks to the ninja's intervention. More of the Kingslayers were arriving, among them the expedition's leader, Amrk; and the AI couldn't help but notice most of them had not had much time to grab the materials they required.

Axel's hawk, Nyrie, had been resummoned and sent on various missions on the way there. Given the sniper's usual expressiveness, it was hard to tell just what the hawk was meant to do, but it became clear when he arrived and waved the others closer.

"Inbound." Amrk's face shifted just slightly, and he gave a quiet sigh, but he didn't interrupt as the laconic sniper continued. "Two dozen. High level." With his message relayed, Axel stepped back away, sending his hawk into the air once more.

Two dozen high level creatures were not something an expedition this size could handle, even without considering the fact that they were more or less babysitting three low-level players.

"No point delaying the call, then. We're falling back to camp." There was a chorus of groans and sighs, but nobody disputed the decision. "Those of you who have managed to gather something, hand it in to the crafters. We'll have Julianna give us an updated list and return in a few hours. Those of you who will still be available, PM me." After a few seconds, a small gesture - an almost unnoticeable wave of the hand - was made to Shen, who slunk back into the shadows, away from the rest of the team.

Ripley, meanwhile, gravitated towards Tage, who was sitting on a nearby rock and, judging by her expression, was not too happy about Amrk's decision either.

"Are you alright, Tage?" He asked, gazing at the rock for a few seconds before deciding it wasn't large enough for both of them and sitting on the snow, ignoring the biting chill of the now-soaked robes.
 
Tage had expected them to set off again now that the mimic was dead, but Ritik quickly proved her assumption wrong, heading over to the mimic and dragging it out towards the center of the clearing. Tage walked closer, eyes checking the walls for any new enemy that was going to leap out at her and murder her, before making a questioning noise at her escort.

Ritik finished dragging the mimic's corpse to the middle of the ravine before turning back to Tage, dusting his hands off. "Shen went to go get Macka, so that she can take apart the mimic. That's a valuable enough creature that we'll need an expert to disassemble it," the spellsword explained, gesturing towards the corpse. That explanation finished, he turned and moved towards a small pile of rocks, sitting down with a heavy thump, his sword clinking against the boulder before he pushed it aside. "We also need to wait for Amrk."

The first part of Ritik's explanation made perfect sense. Tage had dabbled in various crafting abilities, but had never pursued any of them seriously. She and Halp had often been too busy questing and fighting monsters to really seriously invest in any of the crafting paths, and she'd seen the impact it had on the quality of her various attempts at salvaging. How many times had she seen the mocking word "damaged" labeled on her various ingredients? 'This might have been higher quality if it was gathered by someone with a skilled hand', it seemed to taunt.

It was only natural that they'd need to wait for someone who had a really high skinning ability if they wanted to get good parts from the mimic, and Tage supposed they'd have to wait here until Macka arrived so that nothing else would come and ruin the corpse, or take the important parts. She nodded in agreement, mostly just to herself, before following Ritik over to the rocks. She wouldn't be very useful when it came to guarding the corpse, and could barely even spot the monsters before they showed up, but it was certainly better than trying to wander off on her own.

Just as Tage was about to sit down as well Ritik spoke again, and if Tage hadn't already been so close to sitting she would have likely tripped over her own feet. All the same, she landed with a slightly heavy thump on the rock, head already swiveling in his direction. "Why do we have to wait for Amrk?" Tage asked, surprised and slightly anxious. She suddenly felt as though she was sitting on the seat outside the principal's office.
Ritik hadn't been watching her, his eyes scanning the rocky walls of the ravine to check for anything approaching, but he did glance at Tage when she spoke, his gaze slightly bemused. "I did set off a flare, Tage."

"But… the mimic's dead?" Tage replied, her voice somewhere in between question and protest. Surely Ritik had a way to contact him and let him know the threat was over, so why did they have to wait for the expedition's leader?

"Ah," Ritik said faintly, the sound more an expression of sudden understanding than anything. This time, he turned fully, locking his magenta eyes solidly on Tage's purple ones. "This is the Wild Territories, kiddo," he said seriously, voice almost scolding. "Our allies won't have been the only thing to notice that flare."

"Oh," Tage replied, her voice faint. "I…" Tage wasn't entirely sure whether she was going to finish that sentence with "I see," or "I am sorry", but the decision quickly became unnecessary as a black streak dropped out of the sky, letting out a shriek. Tage barely had time to recognize the black spirit-bird that she had seen perched on Amrk's shoulder when the expedition started before there was a sudden flicker and the bird was replaced by a blue-black skinned djinni. It appeared that Amrk had just swapped places with his summoned bird, as he took a moment to reorient himself before jumping down into the ravine to join Ritik and Tage.

Ritik stood up promptly, moving over towards the expedition leader, leaving Tage sitting on the rock to stress. What else would have noticed the flare? What was going to be the cost of setting off that flare? Of, she considered with another burst of panic, bringing her along?

Tage gulped, chewing on her lip, as more of the Kingslayer gatherers appeared in the valley. She recognized the first two to appear, the shadow-void-bone djinni with the skull staff, who nodded briefly to Ritik and Tage before approaching Amrk, and the ice-lightning-water djinni with bottles strung across her waist who appeared in a burst of steam. Both of them had volunteered to bring Tage and her friends along with them.

Shen appeared with Macka shortly after. The skinner was a short, exuberant beast-light-day djinni, and Tage blinked in surprise as she realized the girl had cat ears, bear claws on her hands, and a tail swishing behind her. She didn't realize that these were likely the Kingslayer's abilities rather than cosmetic changes to her avatar until she approached the corpse of the mimic, and the claws disappeared, transforming back into normal hands. She quickly set about dismantling the former tree a moment later, aimlessly chatting to Shen as she worked. The assassin looked less than amused at the chatter, but he didn't huff and move away like Tage imagined he would have done if she had tried to speak with him.

The quick arrival of the Kingslayers had momentarily distracted her from her concern about Ritik's words, but that concern came back full force when she suddenly caught sight of the djinni who Ripley had decided to accompany. He marched over to Amrk with a purposeful stride, before speaking in quick, brisk words that Tage couldn't quite make out from the opposite side of the clearing over the noise from the other Kingslayers. However, Amrk's following words she heard perfectly.

For a moment Tage blinked quietly, before she suddenly felt like the mimic's charge was bashing her in the chest. She slumped slightly, eyes wide and a faint gasp escaping her lips.

Over twenty monsters. They'd have to cancel the expedition. Oh god.

She glanced around hurriedly, but looked away again before there was even a chance that she might meet the gaze of one of the Kingslayers. She didn't think she'd be able to face the accusation she was certain she'd find in their gaze. They'd come out here to gather the materials they need to face the Knight tomorrow, and had been generous enough to bring her and her friends along because they'd wanted to help.

Instead of helping, Ritik had been forced to set off a flare because she had come along, and now they were going to have to go back to camp, expedition hardly finished. They must be blaming her for it right now, and Tage knew she deserved it.

She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she didn't even notice Ripley's approach until he spoke. She glanced up in surprise, eyes wide with barely contained panic.

"I… I shouldn't have come along," she said, barely able to keep her voice from cracking. "It would have been fine if it was you, you're…" she caught herself just in time and gulped, but the near slip-up seemed to fluster the girl even more. "You're higher level anyways, and you would have been able to avoid the mimic. But I… I'm so far out of my depth and now they're going to have to cancel and head back to camp because Ritik protected me."

For one crazy moment, she wished she hadn't felt that strange burst of energy that had allowed her to dodge the mimic's attack, and it had just killed her and sent her back to the Kingslayer's camp. But as quickly as the thought came, it was gone. Not because she wouldn't have preferred dying and respawning if it meant the Kingslayers had been able to continue their gathering, but because she remembered that Ritik had set off the flare almost as soon as he saw the mimic. He must have known at a glance there was no way he could fight it and protect her at the same time.

Tage let out another sigh.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back