Private Twotorial

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus opened his eyes for the first time.

Light flooded his eyes, his iris' adjusting as he blinked a few times, taking in the new world he'd just been...born into. His nose flooded with the scent of greenery, dew covered grass, and just...nature. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs for the "first" time. His heart rate quickened, oxygen pulsed through his veins awakening his newly born limbs.

He took a moment to take stock of himself. He'd spent about an hour, or well, what felt like an hour sculpting his new identity. Most of the features were...the same so to speak. He'd done his best to leave his face unchanged, same stylish bears and spikey brown hair. His eyes were a deep emerald green, slitted ever so slightly betraying his beastkin nature. He'd gone for subtle feline features, Brutus wasn't a god damn furry or anything, skipping the ears but unable to avoid the long lion tail he sported that swished naturally. His teeth ere long jagged fangs that felt odd in his mouth, though it would appear his tongue instinctively knew where to rest without getting cut.

Next, it was time to stretch. IRL he was...alright. He'd been fencing long enough to sport a nice lean physique with small but trim musculature. Here? He was built like a Greek God saw a statue of themselves and muttered the word bigger under their breath. His muscles bulged wildly under his coat, he towered over what most men would dream of being, his feet were massive, his hands were almost as big as dinnerplates. His...well actually nevermind, that's private. Needless to say, this was his first step to living his newest and most ideal life he could. He began testing some basic hand motions in order to fish out the UI, looking over several menus to get an understanding of his new situation. He took a couple ambling steps forward, marveling at how it felt, how different his gait would be, and how much...smaller things seemed to be.

With one eye trained on his UI, trying to make heads or tails of it, and the other on the world around him, he began his literal first steps in this new world.

Adventure awaited.

 

[Corsair]

It was a beautiful day in the woods. Corsair took a deep breath. There was no scent in the air, at least not to a Magia like her, but she could tell that in the real world she would be smelling fresh greenery and sunshine. Corsair sat with her back against a spreading birch, watching the sky wheel overhead. Gorgeous, sheepish clouds scudded along, and she watched them for shapes. Signs. Is this too human? She wondered. Maybe. No robot would bother enjoying nature. Perhaps it's okay because it's simulated nature? Maybe they would just appreciate the elegance of the algorithms. The clarity of the graphics. It still felt wrong, and she picked herself up and headed back to the road, walking swiftly out of town along the well-worn roads.

Travel always felt like wasted time to Corsair, and she pushed past NPC and player character alike, slipping around carts hauling fresh fruit and pairs of men carrying fallen tree trunks. There was no time to waste walking when there was so much to do! Watching the clouds had been informative, and scientific. A foray into the beauty of the world, but now it was time to get down to business.

As the path lead further into the woods she strayed, ignoring a fork the road and going straight, retreading her steps from two days prior. Through the stones, along the rives, up the hill, behind the tree and- Corsair stopped short as she ran right into a massive, towering pillar of muscle. She looked up, and up, and up, shielding her eyes and taking a step back so that she could see the stranger's face and red hair.

"Hello," she said, wary. The man was huge and she felt her interest in him growing enough to eclipse her current goal of searching for small spirits. Nobody she'd encountered had been so massive! "Who are you and why are you so large?"

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus squinted and peered down at the small woman before him. He'd been so raptly paying attention to his UI that he'd hardly seen her. With a clench if his mighty hands he crushed his menu back into his palm and have the woman a startlingly wide grin. He'd found his first encounter, though he was unsure if they were a player or not.

"Me?" He asked raising an eyebrow. "My name is BRUTUS!" He gave his chest a light smack. "Brutus Dahlgren, a pleasure it is to meet you miss...?" He squinted as he peered down to her stooling a little lower to get on her level.

"As for my size..." He was definately NOT compensating for anything, that was for sure. "I made sure to drink plenty of milk and ate my veggies as a child, couple that with a diet high in protein and excercise and well" He flexed a massive bicep. "Now Im built like a hero" The grin persisted on his face as he spoke, not in aome smug or demeaning manner, but as a ray if infectious optimism. His voice boomed, something he could get used to, but he kept it reeled in to not be yelling in her face.

"But enough about me, who might I be having the pleasure of talking to?"

 

[Corsair]

Corsair's HUD updated as the giant introduced himself. [Brutus Dahlgren] She had her doubts that milk and veggies would be enough to create such an outrageous, Herculean physique, but she was in no mood to argue. For days she had been thinking about how to improve at the game, and as she stepped back to view Brutus more fully, a smile spread across her face.

"I am Corsair," she said, voice modulating with robotic speech. Her voice was deliberately synthesized to sound more robotic and small. "I arrived yesterday, and I intend to master this game's intricacies as soon as possible. I suffer no fools, and require a partner with which to complete physical objectives." She had no doubt that the man was physically capable. Without asking she knew he had at least two offensive masteries. A perfect partner. I couldn't have asked for a better match.

"I heard reports of a goblin attacking woodcutters not far from here," she said, pointing deeper into the woods, the way she'd been heading when she'd run into Brutus. "My companion and I are on the way to deal with them. Would you care to accompany us?" She tapped her bracelet, and a sphere of light rose from her backpack. Held safely inside was her frog. "This is Kim."

Spreading her palm, she opened her menu and sent a request to Brutus to party up. "If this arrangement is amenable then we shall leave now. I would rather be finished before dark." She walked deeper into the woods without waiting for a proper response.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Nice to meetcha Corsair." He have her a thumbs up and followed her as she talked. "And I suppose Kim as well!" When she said ahe didn't mince words she really fucking meant it apparantly. He kept pace easily, his stride matching hers 1 to 3 easily.

"As for goblins and company, I cant in good concience let the woodcutters go undefended, nor could I let you do it alone." He paused, then turned down to her. "No offense meant of course, but you yourself said you needed the help, so I assume you're either a squishy magician or some sort of healer. Me however," he thumped his chest and with a flick of his other hand summoned his weapon from the Ui.

A large metal rod of sorts flashed into existance and crashed into the ground with a THUNK. With both hands he hefted it up and set in high atop his shoulders. "I'm a warrior, through and through. This here canon is my problem solver. Enemies from afar? Blow em to smithereens! Enemies up close?" He smashed it into a tree, leaving a sizeable indent in the bark. "Nails meet a helluva hammer"

 

[Corsair]

The tree groaned in protest, and a squirrel leapt from the branches to scurry away. Hopefully it would find a home less prone to strongman demonstrations.

Corsair smiled. She almost laughed. How had things fallen into place so easily? "An admirable range of capabilities," she said, walking faster to try and match the pace of the giant. His steps were immense, and it was only through virtue of her leading that she remained at the front of the pair.

"I selected primarily support traits, so I find myself far from optimized for combat. My skills and body are certainly not fit for the front lines. However!" she put up her arm, which held her spirit bracelet. "With this I can summon spirits. It is my understanding that they will be able to hold an offensive role in any combat that takes place."

They passed several massive tree stumps, where the ground was still scattered with wood chips. As they reached the clearing she stopped. "That being said I am glad to have you on my team."

The woodcutters clearing was usually bustling with activity. Shouts and chants and the sound of steel biting into wood. It had been silent for two days now, and the half-sawn trees lay where they'd fallen. The one nearest to them was darkened with blood. "The notice in town said the goblin killed one of the workers, and had wounded another before they escaped." She peered through the trees, but saw no sign of the creature. "Perhaps it has taken up residence in one of the huts?"

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus' eyes darkened as he knelt down and examined the bloodied tree. His feral pupils narrowed into slits as his eyes danced to some footsteps in the grass. His ranged skill also worked on his perception, which paired with his natural feral senses made for great detective work as he was figuring. He squinted and scanned, his brow furrowing as he counted under his breath...

"One...two...three..." his eyes stopped at the bloodied tree. "...four. There were four loggers here." His hand darts upwards and points to a set of tracks in settled woodchips. "Two of them went west, another..." he pointed to a patch of disturbed grass. "He went south, the other..." he points to the tree. "Went under, though I don't know about his body. No drag marks, nothing to suggest it was moved...do you think NPCs despawn when killed?" He raised an eyebrow.

There was another problem, something that nagged at the back of his mind as he hefted his canon in both arms. "Stay behind me. I don't see their tracks, either they're smart enough to cover them, or sneaky enough not to leave them. We could be in for anything..." He would take point, carefully plodding towards the hut.

 

[Corsair]

Corsair nodded in tacit approval. Clearly she had picked more than a mountain of hardened meat as a ally. She wouldn't have minded if he had been all brawn, in fact she had expected it, so the detective skills and otherworldly senses came as an incredible boon. Like looking over a resume and finding that someone had also won a Nobel Prize. "If the ecosystems are as robust as they appear, the corpse will remain and decompose as they would in our world," she said, falling in behind him.

"That being said," she continued, voice lowering as they entered the camp, "I am far from an expert. Perhaps he respawns in town after some time." They approached the hut. "In which case, it would be unwise for bodies not to despawn at the same time or beforehand. I am told that the NPCs in this game are quite smart, and stumbling upon your own corpse would likely come as quite a shock," she finished, mouth snapping shut just as they reached the tree.

The body was gone, and there were deep, bloody cuts in the ground, as if someone had cut the corpse to chunks. Corsair put a hand over her mouth, instinctively, though her body made no moves to expel her earlier meal. She knew there would be a stench in the air, and though her robotic form had no sense of smell Brutus would certainly pick it up.

She tapped Brutus on his mid-torso, and he would feel a slight hum as she placed a magitech construction on him. It was a frog, made of metal and magic, and the coin-sized construct climbed up to sit on his shoulder. "Healing," she whispered, by way of explanation.

The hut's door was wide open, and the inside was a mess. What wooden furniture the woodcutters had set up had been torn apart, chewed on, and tossed in a great pile in the center of the room. Splintered chairs and mattress stuffing all crammed together in a grubby little nest. And curled up, like a dog in a bed, was the goblin.

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus did his best not to retch. Luckily, he'd yet to manage to eat anything in this world so there was nothing TOO expel, but the urge to was incredible. The smell of blood and shit was so thick in the air he was certain he could cut it with a knife. He didn't respond to her verbally, though he did nod along. Unlike her, he was fairly certain he couldn't speak in over a low roar, and the last thing he needed to do was alert their prey to his presence.

Each step felt like he was stomping on gravel with how big his boots were. He struggled to keep slow and steady breaths, rolling each step from heel to toe. His pace slowed to a crawl as he saw the goblin curled into the bed. His brow furrowed. It couldn't be this easy, there was no way it could be this easy. He put an arm out, stopping his ally before he slowly backed away from the door. His eyes scanned the treeline, the shack, the stumps, the woodstacks. Any of them could be a hiding place, any of them could hide a deadly foe. He took a deep breath and retreated further back from the house yet. Once he had about ten or so feet from the nearest potential threat, and about as much a scale of the scope of the field of combat as he could muster he took a deep breath and whispered. "It cant be as easy as strolling in there and crushing his skull, and my canon can't fight up close in tight quarters like that...I'm going to draw them out. Watch my back and let me know if any come from behind."

Taking a deep breath, he raised the canon up to forty five degrees, and let of a loud BOOM as he shot into the forest. The sleeping goblin's eyes shot open, flinging itself out the door. Two other goblins hopped out from their hidden spot from either side of the door, and another popped out from a pile of sawdust not thirty feet away. They sprinted at the duo with reckless abandon whilst Brutus shoved another ball wrapped in powder into his canon and blasted another shot, pelting one goblin in the face and sending it flying backwards. The other three charged forward, and Brutus met them with lumbering steps as he clumsily swung his canon like a bat, hoping to catch all three in one wide arc.

 

[Corsair]

Corsair covered her ears at the sound of the cannon blast. Brutus had sensed something fishy, and his blast had sprung the trap made by the goblins. Did they hear us coming? she wondered, stepping back just as Brutus launched himself forward. BOOM! One goblin gone, but the rest came on fast.

His swing connected with two of the green creatures, snapping one in half but just clipping the other. The third had the presence of mind to duck. It popped up part way through Brutus' backswing and, seeing the remains of its comrades, chose to rush Corsair instead of tangle with the giant.

Corsair stepped back, scowling at the knife-wielding creature. "Go away!" she yelled, stumbling as the goblin slashed at her. She didn't have the presence of mind to fight back with any weapons or magic, nor the experience to be truly worried, so when the creature slashed her arm with the blade she cried out.

Even with her Pain Limiter ON there was a flash of red, and she saw her HP drop. Her arm ached, and the goblin wasted no time in lunging at her again. Dulled pain flared in her side and she lashed out, slapping it across the face with a satisfying, meaty sound as metal met flesh. The goblin's health dropped a sliver. "Brutus! Help me!"

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"CORSAIR" Brutus howled. One goblin was gone, flying off into the distance. The one he'd hit with opening fire was a smoldering pile of meat and gore, he had one injured that had been flung back a distance and was realing whilst the other had ignored him and gone straight for his squishy. His pulse quickened as she screamed, and his vision filled with red. He turned on a dime, swinging his hammer wide as he NAILED the goblin across the side of the head sending it flying across the clearing to land with a meaty THWAP against a tree. He wasn't sure if it was dead, but he didn't care as sparks danced across his fingers as he let go of the canon with one hand and palmed a ball of flame forward, sending it arcing forward and incinerating the corpse of the creature.

He turned back just in time to watch the one goblin he'd left standing swipe it's knife across his calf, drawing blood as he hissed. His vision flashed red and pain trailed up his leg like nothing he'd ever experienced before in his life. It felt like his calf had been sliced open, and fire was trailing up his body.

Because his calf had been slashed open.

He roared batting the goblin away with one hand, and with the other hand stuffed another canonball into his gun. The creature reared back and hissed at him, only to have the barrel stuffed into its face.

BOOM.

The creature was left a smoking headless mess, and the goliath turned back to his healer a worried expression painted over his face as he hobbled over to her, each step sending flairs of pain across his body. "Shit, I didn't think one would make it past me...are you alright?" he would ask looking her over as he dropped to one knee to get a better look at her wound.

 

[Corsair]

"It's fine," Corsair said, rubbing her ears. "I'll need some earplugs, and we'll both need some better armor, but for now what we have is passable." She looked around at the smoking piles of greenish meat, all that remained of the goblins. "There are several other things to work on too, like our timing, general strategy, and my reactions under pressure, but you performed admirably. Thank you." She nodded her head slightly.

As she talked, her magitech frog crawled down Brutus' back, down to his injured calf. The little construct sticky-footed its way across the wound, stitching it together with healing energy and leaving a pale line in its wake. When it'd finished healing, it hopped back to her, and performed the same healing climb across her metallic skin. Diodes and silica-metal molded back together, and in moments she was as good as new.

With the goblins obliterated, their task was gone. "We should report back to the village and let them know that the goblins are gone," Corsair said, immediately back to business. She put the magitech back in her pocket. "I'll show you where Homeyhome is. That will be our base of operations while we grow stronger." She started off towards the village. "Once we're settled in we should head to the dungeon nearby. I heard some players talking about it. It's a beginner dungeon called Travelers Gate."

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Homeyhome?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do they sleep in beddybeds? Eat at Tablytables on Plateyplates?" He joked, trying to force a grin through his grit teeth to diffuse what he perceived as tension in the air. Her healing was a wonder, and the pain slowly ebbed away and it was as if he'd never been sliced at all. Like she'd never been sliced at all, it was like...magic. Still, it didn't make him feel any less guilty. He's dropped the ball- er, goblin? And she'd gotten hurt. She didn't seem upset, but he wasn't quite sure if she would even betray that emotion with that stoic face of hers. All he had to go on was her word, which sounded cold and analytical but also...perhaps hopeful?

They way she spoke her plans aloud, claiming about earplugs and armor, implied that she intended to do this again, adventuring together, that was. The prospect seemed...exciting. It was day one and he'd made his first...party member? Partner? Who knew what the future had in store, perhaps this was the start of a lifelong friendship, or maybe they would turn into bitter enemies because her greed roll got the super cool mount and he got shafted with a shitty drop? Would they go on to found a guild? Or would she ghost him and become a fond memory every time he looked at his friends list and saw "Last online, 693 days ago."

He honestly didn't know, and that scared and excited him. Today was a first step, his first log on, his first adventure, his first partner, his first kill, his first mistake. He imagined many more first lay before him, an endless ocean of them all waiting to be stumbled upon. He took a deep breath, grinned for real this time, and followed after the short robot.

"Lead the way then, to town and this...gate. I'm sure whatever it is, we can take it on."

 

[Corsair]

Corsair smiled at the joke, and the tension of the fight faded away as easily as her pain. The name of the town had stuck in her head as being strange too, but she's simply put it down to lazy naming. "It's a nice town," she conceded, "if a little odd. The rooves are very red. Easy to see through the trees."

They left the clearing and were soon back on the worn path into town. "And this is the roadyroad," she said, a wry smile pulling at her lips. Corsair could joke too, when she wanted to, and as relief replaced the adrenaline in her system she found herself chatting, too. "They even have a cafe, though I've never eaten there. I just met someone who was some spirit caller. A strange man, but you can thank him for the spirit that lives in that frog now."

As the bright red tiles of the town's rooves came into sight, Corsair spotted the hand-painted sign she'd spotted when coming into town last night. <Honeyhome>. She frowned as her good cheer evaporated. "Hmm," she said, lips pursed. "They must have changed it."