Her soul rose from death again. The pocket of time that separated her third and fourth passing was much more brief than that which stood between her initial two, but she seemed to be getting a hang of it, as awful as that concept was. It was a game, after all. Mistakes were meant to happen, and re-spawns, repeated attempts, would be necessary for growth. She found herself upon the ground, with eyes peeking towards a moonlit sky. She had been investing so much time in the game lately... Her abdominal muscles tensed, pulling her torso into a seated position. With her items scattered around her, Nalla moved first for her charms. The three papers were simple enough to take into her hands, moving to slip them through the gateway into her sub-space inventory pocket. This was a place that existed just behind her right hip, appearing as just a normal pocket. But Nalla was no NPC, no. She was a player. So into the pocket, these charms slipped. Next, she moved for her 'Terrified Bunny' pet. Honestly, it had been so long since she had obtained the creature, she did not even remember how they had first met. With a sigh, she picked up the creature in both of her hands. Its quivering form gazed up at her, as if to warn her of an oncoming panic. She did not listen. It was, after all, this creature's normal behavior. To calm it, all that was required of the pyromancer was simply holding the creature in her hands. In a moment, the quivering stopped, yet a terror still lingered in its eyes, as though it saw something within its owner, that the owner did not see herself. "Alright, rabbit. In you go." She carefully moved the animal behind herself, and shuffled it into her pocket. "Now, what next?" She looked at the rest of her things. "Ah, my slippers." It was very dysfunctional, being equipped with slippers in such a combat driven world. Although, if one is going to war, perhaps it is best to do so with comfortable footwear. As she moved towards the slippers, she leaned down to pick them up. Once she was finished gathering her things, she would need to log off to sleep. Work was always a pain, after enjoying the game for a while. The real world became... Stale. Colorless. Void. But that is when something strange happened. From her sub-space pocket of inventory, the 'Terrified Bunny' squirmed to freedom. Clinging to the edge of its prison, it had managed to pull itself out, landing on the ground with a squeak. The fiery girl turned back slowly, somewhat surprised by the noise. "You escaped, huh?" She leaned down to pick the creature up, holding it once more in her hands. Burn it up and be done with it. Her purple hair waved faintly, as she shook her head, pursing her lips into a tight smile at the little entity. "Back into your spot, friend." She carried it back again, sliding it into the pocket. This time, she felt her trio of paper charms, still within the pocket. Her brows furrowed. That was strange. Retrieving her 'Terrified Bunny', allowing it to rest in the safety of her left palm for the time being, she also repossessed the charms. It was strange... They had not vanished yet? Then it came to her. The pocket had moved somehow! No wonder. The great combat against Titanius had been a mess, and in the midst of it, her settings had gotten manipulated. What a reasonable explanation for the mishap! Kneeling down onto her knees, she gently set down the animal, placing her charms just beside it. A simple fix, transitioning the location of her inventory pocket to somewhere else. It should not take any time at all, she reassured herself. Conceivably, as animals are much more astute to the rapid fluctuation of energies, the hare, in all it's horrified shaking, foresaw the madness that was to ensue. Like a mouse to a tornado, he saw disaster on the horizon. Disaster. Destruction. As the pyromancer opened her palm, the menu did not open. She was left looking into her own, empty hand. She tried again, nearly frightened for a moment. Certainly she had made a mistake. Certainly, there was an error in the system that had somehow made mistakes in her processing. Certainly-- Her blood ran cold. The vacant palms before her were symbols of horrific reality. They were oracles, foretelling the grotesque nightmare that stood before her. The ringing in her ears became clamorous and piercing, before leading into a dull hum. Her palms filled with flame. ... An unspecified amount of time later, a hooded figure, shivering with tremors, and glowing beneath her cloak, shuffled into Stokbon. This person, with their form hunched over, moved with the posture and gait of an aged woman, nearly stumbling on cracks in the road. While the city was busy, it was much too late for old women to be wandering around. And so, a guard approached this figure. "Ma'am, are you alright?" The hooded stranger did not respond, halting in her fragile steps. With her slippers stationed in once place, the stones beneath her feet began to smoke and singe. The guard before her noticed none of this. "Ma'am?" After the figure did not respond from his first question, he spoke again, reaching a hand towards her. The palm, placed only momentarily upon her shoulder, made a harsh hiss, as his skin burned on contact. "P-please," The hooded woman looked up from beneath the shrouded hood, her eyes pulsating with a horrible orangeness. As the guard recoiled, gripping his singed flesh, he made eye contact with the woman, seeing a hint of her madness. "G-go." As he scampered from the scene, the pyromancer fell to her knees, cupping her hands over her ears and closing her eyes tight. Tears ran down her face, as she fell onto her knees, strings of heat beginning to spin around her, as lines of flame erupted outwards. "Help..." A single word escaped, through a horse tone. She cried, and moved a hand forward to open her palm menu, in an attempt to send a message requesting aid to one of her friend. As her flaming palm remained empty, this only deepened her internal agony, feeling it well up in her throat. Her hands quivered into fists. As citizens fled the scene, fearing for their life, hopefully one of her friends was nearby. Hopefully someone would be there. Hidden: Music @Claire Thalassa @Gwyn ap Herne @Kyupin Felnya @Rat @Cain Darlite @Seigi Respond if ya feel like it / have time, not trying to force this thread on anyone :)
At the very least, he could cut ties properly. Bowing low to the silver fox manager of the Silver Willow Tavern, Cain let out a sigh as the reality of what he had just done settled down on his shoulders. Cancelling all his gigs, huh? Now, there really wasn’t anything at all anchoring him to this shitty world. Up above, the starry sky, so much sharper in Terrasphere than on earth, shone down, his curse of bad weather not manifesting for once. Dark eyes lingered in the void between the stars, before he turned, eyes shifting slowly towards that grand clock tower on the outskirts of Stokbon. Was he going to give up so easily? On Magi and Eldhi? Was the journey worth it? Could he swear to himself that he wouldn’t be able to stop without any regrets? The midnight haired muse closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath. ‘If you are curious about what happened to Raina Raythean. Reply to this text.’ No. He wasn’t going to quit. Cain knew himself well enough for that. Right now, what he wanted most was just…a break. Some grounded reality. Something he could do in real life that had nothing to do with the grand scenarios of this illegal, dangerous game. Maybe he should get a job after all. Maybe he should go on a small road trip. Maybe, maybe, maybe… Maybe he’ll go up that clock tower, one last time. A scream, cries of alarm, and firelight running wild. Maybe he won’t. It was a job for a hydromancer, but Cain was always one for creative situations. Quick strides brought him to the epicenter of the commotion, where a hooded figure burned alive, smouldering in their own flames. Already, the cool night air was blooming with sweltering heat, the few guards stationed in the area too unsure of what was going on to take any action. From neighboring buildings, bleary-eyed children peeked out, watching the magical display through glass windows before being ushered away by their parents, while a shadow of a man had already reached the top of a guardhouse a few blocks away. With powerful pulls, a large bell was rang, the entire city alert of the pyromantic threat. But this wasn’t a monster. No, what was before him was an adventurer, the coloration of her flames familiar. Wild and orange, on the cusp of combusting into earth-shaking explosions. But wavering, losing form in a completely different way. Ah. Nalla died as well, didn’t she? Around him, the Harmonic Symphony emerged, a phantasmal orchestra that constantly purged the burns on his body as Cain stepped within the conflagration. Their forms shimmered in flame, but were not dispersed, memories whose marks were permanent upon his psyche. And what he burned with now was but candlefire compared to before. He inhaled the fuming air, taking a knee to level himself with his raidmate. ‘Hey,’ Cain mouthed, words stolen by roaring flame, ‘Mind simmering down?’ And with that, the most sinister ability of Harmonic magic displayed itself, artificial calm befalling Nalla’s mind like morphine for a lunatic, drugs that tasted like candies. He had gotten used to brainwashing, hadn’t he? @Nalla
It should come as no surprise that the fire magician, enveloped in her own deadly creation, did not expect someone to venture between the flames, as though they were nothing but blades of grass. With her head hung down, she did not hear the noise of entrance, as another plunged into her palace of flame. The digits of her clenched fists twitched into spasm, shivering in an emotional anguish. The affliction was not one of the flesh, not one to be cured with magics of healing, but carried upon the form of the approaching figure, there was a noise that threatened to silence the torment. YOU BROUGHT THIS ON YOURSELF! Her eyes clenched tighter shut, as the inferno blazed brighter. PATHETIC, PATHETIC, PATHETIC! ON YOUR FEET-- FACE IT! Her mouth opened to choke out a sound of significant distress, without breath or strength to speak just yet. Hush, just breathe. You'll make it. Reason knocked on hellfire's door. DON'T BE SO Pit-i-ful... The voice fade into a whisper, and new noise came over, a wave that dispersed the crackling of flame below its melody. The radio chatter of charring earth that lingered in the background had been replaced with the sound of something calmer. It was so, pushing back the curtain of devouring embers, came a familiar face. With the entrance, he spoke to her, and breath returned to her strangled lungs, the flame no longer consuming all that she could try to reach. As her focus shifted upon something of less drastic dismay, the wavering of the holocaust of destruction around her began. Roaring blazes became smaller, but not without form completely. "Y-you're a player!" She managed to speak. She opened her palm, commencing the gesture that had once commenced the formation her palm menu. Now, nothing came but fire. "Like me, I-I-I'm a player! It's..." A ripping came from her chest. Pathetic. A whisper echoed in her skull. "It wasn't worth it, it wasn't worth it, it... Wasn't worth... It wasn't worth..." She muttered, her head hanging. "I'm stuck, I'm..." Her words repeated like a broken record, as though her consciousness could not yet acknowledge the reality. As though she was required to continue reminding herself of the nightmare. "I'm stuck, stuck, stuck, stuck!" She looked back up at @Cain Darlite, fire threatening to rise again. Somewhere in her eyes, she felt a pulsing that could not be seen. It ached like a migraine and burned like a bee sting. Bringing her hands up to her eyes, she pushed with her palms, hoping to somehow squeeze out this feeling. "I-I made her like me!" She reached her hands up, fingers running through her purple hair, as her fingers dug at her scalp.
She wasn’t calming down, but the flames dissipated around, his own symphony shifting into nothingness as it did. The panic was still clear, the incomprehension and the desperation melting together into a self destructive madness, and Cain grasped Nalla’s wrists, forcing them away. Her flesh was feverish, maddeningly so, and he bit back a hiss as angry red marks emerged on his palms. But he didn’t back off, didn’t let go, as the midnight haired muse pulled the pyromancer’s hands apart and drove his head into her own. THUMP! Starlight burst into his vision as two equally hard foreheads collided, a moment of pain clearing away the noose that stole his words from him. Nalla was stuck. So was Ashiore. So was Seigi. And there must have been so many others as well, paralyzed by the fact that their reality, their sanctuary from this lethal world had been stolen from them. Maybe calming down…maybe calming down wasn’t possible now. But…wasn’t worth it? Did she not here? Did she not know? Fucking Roland. Fucking Astorea. Fucking everyone involved who was in power and knew, but decided not to share this information freely to the adventurers that were involved. Magi, comatose. Seigi, dead. “It is worth it,” Cain hissed, dropping her wrists to grab both sides of her face, “Look around you, everything is fine!” Deep breaths. He took deep breathes, holding her gaze with the same intensity that he did in any fight he had on this virtual, illicit plane of existence. “Nalla, you’re stuck here, but so are lotsa others And because we managed to vanquish Titanius, this place is a safe world for you to live in for extended periods of time as well! We’re safe now! Safe enough that we can all calm down and wait for a proper solution to come into place.” She was dead, both in game and in real life. “There’s no way at all that the government wouldn’t be aware of this. No way at all that they won’t be working extra hard to try to fix this situation. So just take deep breaths with me, alright? If Seigi and Ashiore can do it, so can you!” She was dead, long before she had fought Titanius. “Think of as a vacation, yeah? And look forward to the massive amount of compensation you’ll get once this whole situation gets fixed. You’re strong, right? A Flaming Demi God who stared down a four thousand year old eldritich bitch? C’mon, Nalla, stand up!” He smiled, forcefully, encouragingly. “Nothing will change if you don’t get up and get moving.” He let go of her face, pale flesh an angry, pulsating red. “You may be stuck, but you’re still alive.” Not if she’s an AI. @Nalla
As impact struck her forehead, and the angle of her skull tilted back, eyes glazed in brief emptiness, perhaps there was a part of Nalla that agreed with what @Cain Darlite spoke of. A piece of her inner mechanism that could be content with optimism. To see this virtual plane as a thing other than purgatory. But most of her was severely convinced that everything was most definitely not fine. Before her limbs could venture upwards to cater to the discomfort above her eyes, her cheeks were captured. Certain words spoken to her stung into her brain, as though they were being branded. As she heard the term 'stuck', her mouth took the configuration to recreate it, though no noise came from her. The broken record played once again. Vacation... Something her mother once said, before she escaped Japan on a one way flight to New York. It was just like a vacation. She was pursuing something, but soon enough... She had not the will to leave that city. It had swallowed her, and the previous world, the one of her home and family, had kept spinning without her. Would this be the same story? Would the world spin without her? "T-There are others stuck too?" Her mind latched. Her eyes opened wide, as she stared at him. "They've learned how to get out then out?! Hah, of course!" She stammered, following this statement with another, not waiting but a single half second for reply. "I need to get out, I need to go home, I have work in the morning. If I miss work two days in a row, they'll call my parents, and my parents, they'll f-fly in and they don't h-have the money." Her voice cracked and wobbled, balancing between breathlessness and distress. "My b-brother looks up to me, and I argued with them. I need to go back. I need to go back. I have to get out." Quiet. I'm tracking a lead. A moment later, her eyes ventured elsewhere, seeing the visage of Eleanor standing amidst the flame. "I made her like me. S-She has my face! SHE HAS MY FACE!" This image stood in the blaze, shifting with the slightest wind, covered in a blue radiance. "MY FACE!" Nalla stumbled to her feet, with hands out reached towards the image, "MY--" As she approached, so swept the current of flame behind her, burning away this image in a moment. OUR FACES OUR GONE, YOU ARE MY FACE! So spoke the fire, and so sobbed it's wielder. "I'm alive, but I can't stay. I have to go, I have to go, I have to. I have to go." The record repeated, hoping that if she were to say it enough times, maybe the way out would become clear. "It's so loud in my head, I can't. I can't, I can't. It hurts."
Was this how it looked? From the outside, looking in? What it was like to be the one that could only watch as someone else self destructed, writhing and agonizing internally? Words melted away. Magic turned to ash. Worries of reality crashed down upon Nalla as the escape she sought in-game became a prison in and of itself. Not an AI. She couldn’t be an AI. Not with thoughts that ran this deep, this chaotically. And there wasn’t anything Cain could say to help. All the miracles in this virtual world couldn’t be used to bring back the log out button, for all the power he wielded was still restricted by in game mechanics. Binary was the true language of God, and with servers set in an unknown location, patches set up by a nameless organization, there was no way for him to change this. He couldn’t leave Nalla alone like this, couldn’t allow her to recklessly fall apart like Seigi or Ashiore. What could he do? … He could still leave. “…give me your name.” That was too weak. What happened to the confidence before, the command, the posture as he faced the Core of the Ancient Dissonance and sang in front of it? What happened there?! “Give me your name, Nalla! Your real name, the one that your real parents gave you, that your brother calls you by! Your face is gone, but your name persists still, so give it to me! Even if this world conspires to dissolve your past identity, even if all the people of this world calls you by your username, I will remember your true self.” Brighter, bolder. Carve it away and show her exactly how she can help. “I am Danielle Song, a high school graduate from Providence, Rhode Island. I don’t have a car and I don’t have a job and I don’t have enough to pay for post secondary, but I can grab a train ticket and go anywhere I want in the US. You’re stuck now, but I’m here, the Herald of Messages from the Beyond. Give me your name, give me your parents’ phone numbers, and I will make sure they know exactly what’s going on. I’ll make sure the police know, I’ll make sure the media know, I’ll make sure that this entirely bullshit incidence will be known to everyone.” So grand. So righteous. Even after he had spent a good three hours drowning in violence and emptying his mind of everything regarding Seigi. “Nalla, it’s 2026,” Cain smiled, reassuredly, “And Terrasphere is a game that anyone with a VR set can access. If need be, I’ll convince your parents and your brother to jump into the game and meet up with you. The world’s not isolated enough that a busted log in button will seal you off from the outside world.” God, he hoped he could. @Nalla
"My name..." She looked at her hands, the still image of her face swept away. She begged fate to return player function to her, the agony wrenching more agonized tears from her, as every breath came and went without change. Your name is Nalla. Really, what is your name, but a sticker to your chest? An image, tied to your face, a visage now lost. What was her name now, but a lost artifact. A piece of what was. You are fire, and fire begets ash. But this name, this new name. This Nalla, a face born in a infernal cocoon... This name had a face. A continence not lost to time, with power unbound by mortality! Her mind repeated again and again, stuck in an endless cycle. You are the phoenix from this flame. Rise. Burn. Avenge yourself. Your name is gone... She grit her teeth, the vacuum of lacking tugging at her core. The resemblance of composure, that sneaked towards her, was shone light upon again, and dissipated, like a despised vagrant in the night. Her hands gripped at her throat. The voice repeated, a litany of pressimism, destroying hope. It even combatted the fiery vengeance within. A battle waged within her conscience. Yet amidst it all, there was a voice of reason. A voice of hope, perhaps in place of the vanished cat. The vanished Eleanor. And in this voice, consistency, security could be found. "Y-you'll find me?" She stuttered. Her first thought had been to dismiss this gesture, not believing or trusting this stranger, but she had not the breath to fight this generosity. That strength had been long since stripped from her. "My name is Niko." She nodded her head. "Niko Ebb. I live in New York, I--" She choked, bringing her hands to her head. Of course you forgot. DON'T SPEAK! Calm down. "I-I, I..." Go on? SILENCE! You have nothing. "I don't have phone numbers... They're... Just contacts on my phone." The voices blended together into once raging scream, tearing at each other's throats. One whispered knives, another seared its words with a brand, and the last spoke softly. Together, it was discord. "I'm sorry..." She muttered, trying her best to speak, as the yelling continued within her skull, "I can't remember." She feared. Was this just the beginning of her forgetfulness. The beginning of a bad dream. Thank you, Danielle Song. A lost cat whispered in the wind. "Thank you. T-thank you... F-find me, please."
Niko Ebb. New York. Wendy. Boston. This kept happening. A population of 8.5 million. A needle in a haystack. A far cry from the mere 0.6 million of Boston, but…of course he’ll do it. Whether in game or outside, Danielle will succeed where miracles failed, through tenacity, gusto, and an excess of free time alone. Confidence. Always just confidence. “I will,” Cain said, gently pressing his forehead against Nalla’s, no, Niko’s. “I swear upon my mother’s name. And if I can’t bring you out, I will bring them in, so that you can at least talk to them here.” Dangerous. Another dangerous proposition. It would be terrible if the same UI lockout happened to Niko’s parents and brother as well. Was this possibility something he could bear the weight of? Of course. No hesitation. No fear. Just action. “Stay in Stokbon. I can’t find you if you go elsewhere. There’s a place called the Silver Willow Pub. Tell him I sent you there. He can set you up with a good room for now.” A sigh, a breath, a smile, as he pulled his burning forehead away from her’s, opting for a quick hug. “Make it fast though. I’d rather find you at the pub rather than jail next. Only gonna be a while longer before the guards come back, ye?” He retracted from her, the lingering warmth clinging to his desecrated suit. "I'll see you soon, Niko." At least he didn't have voices in his head, trying to scour away his memories.
