Complete Private Eastern Brisshal Awakening

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

It seemed that the decision would be made for Yu, as the players ahead of him began to literally talk about him, in front of him, at a volume he could very clearly hear. Christ, it was like these people had never heard of a whisper before not that Yu had any room to speak. Before the man could even take a step towards them to introduce himself, however, the smallest of the group, the faerin, began to bounce her way over towards him...only to immediately almost faceplant.

Well...this was a start...

"Uh, you okay there?" Yu asked the girl, still on her hands and knees as he offered her a hand up. After helping the girl to her feet, and confirming that she was relatively unharmed, the dark-haired man explained: "I actually haven't been playing that long. Couple weeks maybe. You guys have clearly just dropped in though," the man said, his eyes scanning over each of them, stopping at the elf, who stood several inches taller than him. "And relax, I'm not about to hurt you guys. Don't really care for PvP."

Taking a step back, the man's hands retreated to his pockets just as two other players made their appearance. The first, was a woman who seemed far beyond his own level, and with a softer touch of his own. Nodding to her as she approached, the man eyed her curiously for a moment. No motion to threaten or harm anyone. She was alright in his book so far.

The second, well...she practically squeaked as soon as she saw the now rather large group gathered here. Yu had only heard rumor and supposition so far of the game's apparent legality, and governments around the world attempting to sequester it. But hearing other players actually acknowledge it? The rumors probably rang true. "Don't worry about it," Yu said to the girl, nonetheless. "I guess we got a party going on over here now if you'd care to join."

Five newbies, an amateur, and a vet. Sounded like the start up to one of those 'walked into a bar' jokes. "So, where you all headed?" Yu asked the players, wondering if they already had some inkling of where they needed to be already.

 

[Siondhe]

It had started out with one. One single, other new player. Now, there were so many that Kyra was beginning to worry that she'd lose count if she didn't start keeping track. First, the anterled woman - who had just recently introduced herself as Zhulong. Katelyn, the fae folk who seemed more than happy to light up the area with her words - regardless of how noisy they may be. Something that Kyra's own ears had regretted at first, before she'd adjusted to the overwhelming noise.

The man who still stood at a distance, eyeing up the group hadn't come any closer, but the female counterpart - also an experienced player as far as Kyra could tell - had welcomed the new group with warm words, or at least the intent of warm words. And now there was this...Vashti. Kyra couldn't help but shake her head in response, wondering what could possibly drop into their little group next.

She wasn't entirely sure what to answer first, and as she glanced between each of the different members of this newly formed group - she said the first thing that came to mind.

"There's an awful lot of us here now, isn't there? Maybe we should...take a moment to go over names again, uhm...just in case anyone missed it. Or wasn't paying attention, or y'know...missed it. I'm Kyra, Kyra Vashtana..."

She glanced to each of the others, wondering if they'd follow suit, or just ignore her idea entirely. She could feel that feeling in her chest suddenly, the one she always tried to ignore. There was no ignoring it now, though.

"I can't speak for everyone else, but I could certainly use some help. This place drops you here with nothing, which means I could use...well, a weapon to start with. Something basic, and the free-er, the better. Any ideas where we could find something like that?"

 

[Ornthalas]

Ornthalas was a bit taken aback by the sudden surge of new people. There was five other people other than themselves, and they hadn't been in the game for anywhere near an hour, maybe fifteen minutes at most. Was it common for groups of players to meet here? Was there some sort of indicator that let old players know that new ones were arriving? He wasn't sure, but the small bubbly girl had tripped and fallen on her way towards the young man, which didn't surprise him all that much, she seemed to have a lot of energy.

But as the conversation of the game being illegal was close to closure, another voice chimed in, saying that it was apparently a government cover up. He jumped a bit as she appeared, and apologized for her blurt. So, apparently he was right, especially if world governments were trying to make sure no one knew about the game. Maybe he needed to invest some money into a VPN when he logs out, it could save him a lot of trouble. For now, he would cast that concern aside and turn to all of them.

"Well, best we keep our identities secret then, no offense but any of you could be some wackjob with the government, trying to find real people. For the time being, at least." He gave the eye contact towards the man back to him, eyeing him up and down. He seemed to have some good gear, and he definitely seemed a tad more experienced. He would have to keep his eye on him.

Nauhkyra spoke up, seeming a bit nervous but reintroduced herself to the new people as- Kyra? Wait, that's not what he told him. "Wait, I thought your name was Nauhkyra. It's just Kyra? Why..." He then realized that she had probably jumbled words together, maybe she had almost used her real name. A small blush appeared on his cheeks from embarrassment, and looked away from them, hiding his face.

"What a way to give a first impression." He glumly thought.

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

Looking up at the man who’s offered her a hand, Kate smiles happily and takes it, hopping back upright with a beaming grin to hide her embarrassment. “Yeee, I’m okay, thank you!” she commented before looking around at the others. An elf, three beastfolk, two humans, and a Faerin walk into a bar. The others had mentioned how unexpected the crowd was, but Katelyn honestly saw this as reminiscent of older MMOs that she’d played when she was younger. Although, the first person perspective was definitely different and… well… intimidating.

Taking Yugam’s question into consideration, the Faerin rolled back and forth on the ball and heel of her feet. “Not sure if I speak for all of us, buuuuuut I hadn’t really given much thought to where we’d go next,” she replied. “I’m guessing it’s a pretty big map, soooooo…”

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

The girl took his hand and hoisted herself up with bubbly confirmation that she was okay. So bubbly in fact, Yu had to suppress the involuntary urge to lift an eyebrow of concern. She was certainly...a strange one. The catgirl, however, looked even more concerned (or perhaps it was simply overwhelmed) than Yu felt, asking for everyone to introduce themselves for the first or second time. "You can call me Yu," the man said to the others, "Welcome to Terrasphere."

Looking towards the blue-haired vets, said, "You probably have a better idea of where to take them for all this. I got sucked into Red Fever when I dropped, so different experience. Any suggestions?" At least in Yu's case, Lion's Arm had stumbled across him and guided him towards where they were gathering all the new players and prepping them for an 'introductory' expedition. Introductory his ass, but at least Yu had gotten his footing there, even if it had been through trial by fire.

@Magdalyn

 

[Magdalyn]

Magdalyn studied Zhulong for a beat, considering the woman's words, and how best to respond to them. "I honestly haven't given it much thought," she admitted finally. "The game is banned, yeah, but I sort of figured it was illegal the way jay-walking is. You may get a slap on the wrist if you do it right in front of a cop, but that risk isn't enough to discourage most people. I'd assume most people still do it anyway. And if you're careful, it isn't hurting anyone."

She loosed a quick, one-shouldered shrug. Then she turned to the excitable Vashti. "I've been playing for a long time, and I've never felt any real danger from the government. That's not to say there isn't a risk, I guess. Just that it hasn't affected me at all." She concluded with, "So I'll keep jay-walking until I'm explicitly told to stop. Or, at the very least, until someone explains to me why I shouldn't play. I'd need a better reason than 'the government has no control over it,' which is the only excuse I've actually heard." With a small smile, she added, "I probably sound like some wild, right-wing revolutionary or something. I promise I'm not. I just don't like being told what to do without evidence to back it up." Like my entire time as a teacher.

On that sobering note, Magdalyn turned to the plum-haired newbie. "My name is Magdalyn, but most people call me Mags. It's nice to meet you, Kyra. And you too, Zhulong, Vashti, and Yu." She looked at each person's face in turn, a memorization tactic she'd perfected in the classroom.

At Yu's mention of the Red Fever event, Mags' eyebrows lifted. "I kind of thought you looked familiar," she confessed. "I was there too. I hope you made it out relatively unscathed."

"I figure Honeyhome is the best place to bring newcomers," she continued, now addressing the whole group. "They have a shop, a place to get food, that sort of thing. And it's all very newbie-friendly, to help you get your bearings. I can show you the way, if you want."

 

[Zhulong]

lost. both the fresh faces involved (herself included) and the veterans (seemingly?) about the state of the game. context bounced from one faction to the other, and zhulong simmered in the unusual actions of governments. the more she heard of it, the more disinclined she was to believe in its truth. a global scheme to prevent the public from participating in an online game? it sounded like a conspiracy. unlikely, given how games had always seemed to be regulated by their audience and the media alike. and if the government had a hand in it, then damn, what a waste of taxpayer money.

her sights shifted from vashti to magdalyn, before the player nodded in consensus. "alright. thank you so much for explaining that to me. it's nice to meet you all, too." between the myriad of bodies that had shown, she could barely remember names. and suddenly an invitation was dropped, for them to head somewhere.

not like zhulong knew of any place better to go. and besides, travelling in a crowd would be safer than wandering around alone. despite knowing she could experiment on her own, she figured it was better to play the observer, as she usually did. the same person if only in a different body.

a palm raised, offered horizontally. "i'd be happy to be in your care. though i'm not too sure about the rest of the group." eyes flitted to the other strangers, names still missing from the tip of her tongue. "i imagine she can be trusted."

 

[Siondhe]

They had a path forward, at least. Her eyes shifted towards each member of the newly formed group as they spoke, trying to keep up with the conversation, and the amount of people who had suddenly appeared. There'd been mention of a nearby safe zone, which seemed to be the expected destination. Kyra wasn't entirely sure, but she figured that standing around in the middle of the forest likely wasn't the safest thing to do - especially with the majority of the group being weaponless.

"It's very kind of you to lead us towards a safe zone, especially considering that most of us likely can't repay you anytime soon! Although, if you do ever need anything, please do feel free to reach out to me. If there's anything I can do to help, I'll certainly try!"

She twitched her ears, trying to figure out how best to suggest that they move onwards. Although she was enjoying meeting all the new people, she figured there was likely a best practice not to remain in one place for too long.

The sudden thought came to her as she was glancing at the others, before realising there was one other thing she could do. Bringing up her HUD again, she pulsed through the options before finding the requests, sending the Friend Requests out to the individuals in front of her, before smiling at each of them.

 

[Ornthalas]

Aside from his utter embarrassment of getting the young fox lady's name wrong, Orn was glad that he had found such a large group of people, at least a little bit. When he had first logged in he had been initially worried that he would be an outcast and not gain any allies other than those who would hire him for his healing capabilities. But he felt that at least one or two of these people would be friends and allies for the foreseeable future. They all seemed friendly, even if he had thought they were after his neck.

"Thank you for offering to take us to a town, HoneyHome sounds lovely and I'm sure we'll fit in nicely." He said with a smile. He received a friend request from Kyra, and he accepted with a nod of satisfaction. One friend, he started this game with one friend. That was the best feeling for him, and he definitely felt he had accomplished something today, even if it wasn't a day of adventure, it was a day of friendship.

 

[Katelyn the Bewildered]

Smiling at all of the people surrounding her, she couldn’t hide the amount of excitement that had begun to bubble up inside of her. Quickly doing the same as Kyra, the faerin too had began to take down everyone’s names, rapidly sending out friend requests to everyone in the circle. “This is gonna be AWESOME!” she called out with excitement, flinging her hands in the air.

As she did, a silvery spark of energy whipped out of her right hand’s fingers, and shot past the players at a tree. Instead of hitting the tree, however, it had hit a falling leaf, and the speed at which the leaf was falling was now slowed to an almost indeterminable extent. Looking at her hand in shock and awe, she quickly opened up her player settings, and changed the sensitivity of magic casting simulation to prevent that from accidentally happening again. Giggling nervously, she itches her hand and looked at the others. “That’s never happened before, I swear,” she quipped, feeling like unexpected double entendre humor would lighten the atmosphere even more.

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

One by one, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, everyone agreed with Magdalyn's suggested destination, capping it off with Katelyn jumping into the air with excitement, only for a small, crackling bolt of magic shot from her fingertips, forcing Yu to duck as it flew over his head, somehow striking a falling leaf...that was...not falling anymore.

"What the fu-"

"That's never happened before, I swear," Katelyn said far too cheerily as Yu just looked at her with a concerned and confused look on his face.

Ding!

One by one, friend requests began to appear before everyone, the sender's name displaying as Kyra. Perfect, a distraction from whatever fucking weirdness was going on now. Pressing the accept button, Yu turned to Magdalyn again. "Well, I suppose you're the leader here now. Lead the way," he said, gesturing down the path. "I'll bring up the rear just in case we lose anybody." And by 'anybody' he meant the airhead of the group.

@Magdalyn