Kari Takashi's Story

Emotionless blue eyes blinked open and Kuru sighed lightly. Though he would never tell anyone, he was hoping the previous day had been a dream. And he was back to his shitty life on Earth. But of course he wasn’t. Just fucking fantastic. He rolled over and fuck he almost screamed. Faceless people terrified him to no end. Fuck he really hated this place. Dumb mother with her dumb game. The faceless female was holding what Kuru assumed was orange juice…and by the looks of it, it had no pulp. Oh hell no. Eyes narrowing slightly, he waved his hand away and scowled a bit at servant girl. She seemed to understand if her stuttered apology and the way she quickly scurried from the room had anything to do with it.

“Good morning Kari!” Oh god his scientist was seriously the most cheerful one in existence. Did the heavens have a nice laugh with his life? “Did you sleep well? I do hope you stayed in the hotel all of yesterday, or else something else could have—

Oh my fucking god. “Just…fucking stop talking.” He said in a low voice and stood from his bed, making his way to the closet to change his clothes. Fuck, he didn’t even need to look inside the damn thing, but it was a human habit and if he was stuck in here he was going to be as human as fucking possible. His cheery scientist didn’t speak until he was down to his boxers. He hated this man with every fiber of his being. Instead of telling him off again, Kuru silently changed into the clothes he had picked out for himself. Nice and comfortable, though he honestly picked it because it was dark and classy. At the same fucking time. How amazing is that? Pretty damn amazing, but he won’t ever tell a soul that. “Did I say you could speak to me?” He was sure he didn’t. But whatever, he didn’t care too much. The scientist was annoying, but it was mindless chatter. As he was walking out of his room, a thought came to him, “Hey. What happened to the others?”

The answer made him regret he even asked it. “Oh, well you see,” he started annoyingly, “The others, whom we have called the ‘Winners’ because you didn’t cheat or hack or anything to get into the game. I mean all of you got the game through legal and safe means, and we knew about you so we got to hook up a sort of talkie thing, I didn’t do the programing for that I don’t know how this can work,” Did this man ever stop talking? “So that is why you’re Winners. The rest of you are in that Hotel. As for the Hackers, you know, because they hacked into the game and made everything all messy and haywire. Get it?” if he ever got out of this game and that man spoke a single word to him, Kuru would punch him, “Anyways,” the other male let out a nervous laugh, “We don’t honestly know what happened to them. They seem to be scattered all over Portum. Odd really. The game should have kept all of you together. Maybe it was because they hacked into it and alerted the firewall…”

He ignored the rest of the man’s rambling and started to walk down the hall, the maids and male-maids, or whatever, ducking their faceless heads down as he glared at everything. God he just wanted to play a game to get away from reality. Not actually be pulled from reality and stuck in a game. It fucking blowed. As Kuru walked he didn’t even notice the other hallways with either closed, or partially open doors. He didn’t bother to look because he didn’t care. Hell he hated human contact, and socialization so much that he ignored everything his scientist said about ‘sticking together’ because ‘you would be stronger the more people you had’ and ‘find the hackers too because they might die’. Okay, maybe he was listening. Passively listening.

“Do you have the key?” Unlike before, it was a little more serious and Kuru almost paused in his walking. Almost. To be honest, he wanted to say he lost it, and be a bitch about everything. Maybe then they would figure out a way to pull him from this damn game. But he also knew that if he said that he lost it, impossible in this sort of game actually, then his scientist might have a heart attack. He didn’t want blood on his hands, even if it was indirectly.

“H’m, yes.” He answered at length. After that though, he was quiet. Almost like he was…done. Yes. Finally. With the new found silence, Kuru was able to make his way to the lobby quicker, finding Pulse there, just standing and watching two faceless people, one male and female, pick up glass off the floor. He frowned and cast a glance at the gray male out of the corner of his eye and mentally shrugged, standing next to him, thumbs hooked into the front pockets of his pants.

---

---

What was he never doing again? Hacking into kickass games. Dammit he will spend the money. Wow he regretted nothing, yet he was sure he was an idiot. He wasn’t stupid. He purposely ignored all the red flags. Hell he figured he wasn’t the only one who hacked the game, so he wasn’t the only one who ignored all the signs that what happened was in the code. Holy shit he was dumb. In a totally classy way. But none of that made a lick of sense. Let’s back the hell up a bit, okay?

Sage gasped and failed his arms, curing loudly as his body felt cold and wet and heavy. Failing arms met with a wet surface and for a few seconds everything was quiet. No birds chirped, nothing in nature made a sound. And then, it was heard. The loud yell from Sage’s mouth. “Oh my fucking god, holy shit no! I did not just get into this game to find myself sleeping in a bloody fucking river. Nope. Lies. Illusion. Because if this was real, game real what the fuck ever, I swear to god—

How he loved when no one listened to his rants. It was perfect. He could make no sense at all and not a single soul would know. Except…those faceless people over there. Rule one; never hack into games again. But back to his river sleeping. Sadly he did pass out in the river. But thankfully, god he loved and hated this game, after a few minutes on dry land, he too was perfectly dry. Fancy that. Now all he had to do was find some other people…kick their asses, maybe, and beat this game. Because he wasn’t going to go home until he finished it.

"Ah, push it, push it good! Ah, push it, p-push it real good. Hey, ow! Push it good! Oooh, baby, baby. Oooh-" Autumn smacked the alarm clock next to her and yelped, that hurt. She rolled over and over, squinting at the beside table and realising there was no alarm clock. Haha, guess the song must've been playing in my head, she thought with a giggle. How convenient.

"Gooooood morning!" she sing-songed, lifting her upper body upright with a start and a smile that revealed teeth so straight and white, they were near blinding.

"Good morning, Miss Autumn," a girl said quietly - did people appear out of nowhere here? - as she stood by her bed. Autumn smiled at the young, faceless girl, as she took the mug of beer off her hands. Pssh, orange juice. They thought she was going to drink orange juice? For breakfast? She'd already settled with the hotel what she wished to be served yesterday, nobody ate eggs with orange juice for breakfast. Just, what the hell? Beer and spaghetti, that's what she was talking about.

"Thank you, little one," she said as the girl tip-toed carefully out of Autumn's room. Autumn sighed contentedly, tipping her head back as she poured the golden liquid down her throat, it certainly wasn't as strong as she would've liked but everyone knew vodka shots were reserved for tea. When she was done, Autumn placed the mug on the table beside her and swivelled her slim legs around so her feet rested against the cool floor. She'd had her avatar custom made to look and feel exactly like her. Why would she want to run around with someone else's face and body when she was so perfect? God, her modesty was astounding.

Autumn skipped over to the full-length mirror, spinning and humming as she did. She began at her feet, raising her eyes along the length of her model-long legs, a small smile playing on the corners of her lips. Her hips - 33 inches, tick - narrowed into a small waist - 23 inches, tick - and to her bust. Autumn grinned; we all knew how big those were. A small pitter patter began in her heart as she looked at her face in anticipation of what she might find, and a sigh escaped her full, rose-tinted lips as she took in her small chin, narrow, upturned nose and wide honeydew green eyes. It looked exactly like her.

But then…

"OH MY GOD!" she squealed, clutching a thick lock of soft and wavy hair in her hand. "Oh my god!" she repeated, gawking at her reflection. "Sandy blonde? Sandy blonde?" She gasped, turning around and around in search of her familiar, persimmon red hair. No, no, no, no. Why had she not noticed this yesterday? Right, because she was too busy freaking out over the fact that she had a 50/50 chance of dying and now she was going to die with a blonde head.

Autumn covered her mouth with her hand, staring at her own reflection and struggling not to cry. Her life was over. Over. Autumn took a deep breath, dropping her trembling hand to her side. This was nothing new shoes and clothes couldn't fix, especially virtual shoes and clothes. She closed her eyes, imagining a lovely outfit she'd seen on TV once. This was a fantastic time to test out her new gadget, the white gold necklace she wore - the Virtual Clothing thingymabob.

Autumn opened her eyes.

"Dddaaayyuuummnnn, girlfriend," she said with her usual joy restored. Her perfect body was clad in perfect leather clothes and she might've died of self-admiration if it hadn't been for the voice that, all of a sudden, spoke from absolutely nowhere and everywhere at once.

"Have you already neglected my warning of your possible death?" droned a boring, dull and infinitely grumpy voice.

"Hey, if I'm going to die, I'm going to die hot," she said with a shrug. She wasn't sure if everyone had an individual smart people-on-the-other-side guy assigned to them, but she did, and not by choice. Her guy, Mr. refer-to-me-as-Hilshire, was a stick in the mud. "Don't lie, you are so jealous of these boots. I know, my imagination is immeasurable and no, you can't touch my sexy breasts."

"Have you misplaced your key?" Call-me-Hilshire asked.

"OH NO! WHERE IS MY KEY?" she shouted at the top of her lungs - which was pretty bloody loud - hoping that all the other 'Winners' heard her, and those Hacker-dudes, too, preferably. "No, I have not misplaced my key," she said in a poor imitation of his voice. "IT'S IN MY BRA!" she yelled, even louder than before.

She was met with silence from the other end, to which she merely laughed. She was going to have lots of fun with this Mr. Hilshire. "What's your first name?" she'd asked him just the day before, to which he'd replied, "Unnecessary."

"Okay, Unnecessary Hilshire," she'd said.

Autumn twirled her new sandy blonde hair around her finger, it was alright, on her, but what didn't look amazing on her? In all honesty, though, the honey streaks in her hair brought out the gold flecks in her eyes. She could live with being blonde, perhaps then her outsides might finally resemble her insides. Autumn sashayed out of her room and down the stairs, and was greeted by the lovely - albeit pessimistic and slightly sadistic - faces of Pulse and Kurai. Autumn grinned, stepping from the last step of the staircase with a soundless grace - yay, cheerleading! - and walking towards the two, hips swaying, confidence blazing.

"Pulse, Kurai," she acknowledged, beaming her all-encompassing, blinding, almost Goddess-like smile. "Mmm, this game is PG31, right?" she asked in her sultry, breathless voice as she raked her gaze over the two men. Not bad. Not bad at all, she thought with a smirk she didn't bother to conceal. Autumn had met the others - the 'Winners' - briefly yesterday, where she might or might not have screamed, "OH MY ECKING GOD! Are you telling me I might die? In these shoes?!?" She'd pointed to her totally out of season stiletto heels. Her discovery of the Virtual Clothes thingy-thing had later fixed that major problem of hers, though. "Bitch, if I'm going to die, I am dying in style. You better tell someone to change my clothes in real life into a damned sexy crimson lingerie set. Preferably someone hot. Preferably several someones. And preferably La Senza.

"Btw, I'm An- Autumn."

Okay, so that might or might not have been the best first impression. She wasn't superficial or a bimbo… Sometimes. No, really, she was a great person. When compared to dolphins who weren't really people. Autumn chuckled at her own joke, pulling out a nearby chair and blessing it with her totally attractive butt. She swung her long legs onto the table, crossing her boot-clad ankles and rocking on the hind legs of her chair. She sat there, rocking, for a total of 54 seconds before declaring, quite loudly, as she jumped off the chair and placed her hands on her hips, "I'm bored!"

These guys were worse than old people.

Pulse didn't flinch as another person came to a stop beside him. He hardly gave a glance in the person's direction, identifying them as...oh fuck, what was his name again? Kirby or something stupid like that, he didn't really give a shit. All he cared about was getting through this game and he really didn't plan on doing that with the help of all these people. What did those scientists think this was? Some sort of kid's show where they all started out hating each other and learned that, in the end, friendship won over everything? What a load of absolute fuckery. Pulse wanted nothing to do with any of it at all whatsoever. "Pulse, Kurai," a voice sounded behind them. Oh no, not this bimbo. "Mmm, this game is PG31, right?" Wow, speak of the devil and let her walk down the stairs in those precious shoes of hers. This was figure numero uno why he wanted nothing to do with these people. "I'm bored!"

He felt himself twitch. He was just waiting for that incessant voice in his head to start talking again, telling him all about how they needed to stick together for everyone's best interest and all that load. Luckily for him, however, the voice had yet to return and Pulse instead tried to focus on the scene unfolding in front of them. They're frozen. Was this some sort of glitch? They weren't doing anything. Oh, wait, no, they were talking to each other. The faceless girl was blushing as the guy held her hand carefully, but all they were doing was talking. It was just a bunch of mumbling anyway. The hotel manager--a large-bellied man who looked more like the type of guy who should be making pizzas and yelling out orders than running a hotel--came up to the players. "I will never understand young love." Did I ask you? Did anyone ask you? Nobody asked you. "My daughter Jezzie is sure in love with that boy. He asked for her hand in marriage, but he still hasn't given her a ring." He shook his head and tsk-ed. "I wonder what he's planning."

Oh for god's sakes. "Don't you tell me for one second that this is one of those types of games. Is this a mission? Is this something I have to do to progress in the game? I thought this was an RPG. Can't I just leave?" Pulse was basically talking to thin air, but she sure as hell expected an answer. There was a moment of silence where...no, nope, nothing, nada, zilch. That old geezer scientist that'd been assigned to him wasn't giving out any details, was he? But he supposed he already knew the answer. And the answer was yes. Yes, Pulse, you big, dumb, idiot, this is a quest. RPGs have those. Did you forget? He sighed harshly and looked the Hotel Manager over, who was smiling as if he hadn't heard a thing. "What do we gotta do? What's the quest? The mission? Is this a tutorial?"

The manager clasped his hands together. "I believe he's lost the ring! Maybe you could help him find it!" Oh. Oh no. Nonono. This was supposed to be a cool, bad-ass game full of adventure and dragons and crap. Where the hell were his dragons? All he wanted was to see one god-dammed dragon and he was stuck with this asshole. No, this wasn't going to happen.

Pulse stared the guy down incredulously before shaking his head and putting his hands up. "I'm not doing that. I'm not looking for a stupid ring for a stupid guy to propose to some stupid girl. I'm moving on. I am leaving town. This is the real deal. I can just walk past any barricades." He glanced behind him and nearly jumped when he realized that the final Winner was there, that other chick. The one with the ridiculously long username for no good goddamn reason. "I'm sure one of these chumps would be happy to help you. I'm out of here." And just like that, he was gone, out the door and on his way through the town of faceless people to figure out where the hell he needed to go to find a dragon or something.

“Pulse, Kurai,” No. He didn’t want to deal with her. No way in hell. In all honesty he forgot she was alive, mainly because he viewed her as dumb and stupid. Fucking blonde. And her voice, don’t get him started on that. Annoying, like the rest of her. Sickly sweet, slutty, whoreish. He didn’t like her. Not a single bit. “Mmm, this game is PG31, right?” In what world was the funny? It wasn’t, not even a little bit. Not remotely entertaining. The only thing he would find hilarious about this girl was the moment she died from stupidity. Luckily there was a moment of silence from the blonde slut before “I’m bored!” broke it. Yes, you should be bored. Bored and then die. Perfect. My plan exactly. Kuru was about to say something snappy to her, about shutting up and dying, but he found that the hotel manager, a fat guy, came up to them “I will never understand young love.” Neither would he, but he didn’t care. “My daughter Jezzie is sure in love with that boy.” Why was he talking? There was no reason to. Could he just walk away? He was done. It was only day 2 and he wanted out. Out, out, out. “He asked for her hand in marriage, but he still hasn’t given her a ring. I wonder what he’s planning” Well I for one, don’t actually care.”

“Don’t you tell me for one second that this is one of those types of games. Is this a mission? Is this something I have to do to progress in the game? I thought this was an RPG. Can’t I just leave?” Kuru agreed. But he knew it was logical for things like this to happen. So while he wanted to leave, he knew it would have to be done if they ever wanted to beat this stupid piece of shit game and live in the real world. Not that he actually cared about living in the real world. His life did suck, a shit ton. Whatever. He was yanked out of his inner musing with a large clap. Hell it was a booming clap. Who clapped that loudly? Jeez. “I believe he lost the ring! Maybe you could help him find it!” This fat guy was kidding right? How about he go find the ring and lose some weight? The Pulse kid put up his hands in surrender, “I’m not doing that. I’m not looking for a stupid ring for a stupid guy to propose to some stupid girl. I’m moving on. I am leaving town. This is the real deal. I can just walk past any barricades.” Kuru was beginning to think he was a grade B (since Autumn was a grade A+) idiot. “I’m sure one of these chumps would be happy to help you. I’m out of here.” And then he left.

“You’re joking right?” his voice was calm and held a note of anger, though one had to look hard to find it, “A ring?” he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. If he did this, he would get another key. If he did that, he might gain experience. And with that experience, he would be able to fight off stronger monsters, if there were any. “Fucking…fine. I’m game for this shit.”

---

Sage wandered around the town for a bit, taking a nice look at everything. He wanted to know everything there was to know about the game, since he did hack into it and all that. He was proud of that fact. Proud as hell. And if he ‘started off on the wrong foot’ with the makers of the game, he might as well just continue to do so. So he stole. Food, money, anything he could get his hands on, he took. It was nice and easy. Sort of like this assassin game he played at home once. He liked that game. Very fun and stuff like that. But anyway, he came to a hotel and walked in without even thinking twice. Or looking where he was going.

“Oh shit, sorry man, uh. Are you okay?” he frowned at the eyeless male and helped him up, “I’m Sage. And you are?”

The other dusted himself off and looked at him. Or at least Sage figured he was looking at him. Whatever, these things were fucking creepy, “I’m John.” Oh ew, bland ass name over here. “Could you help me?” Help? Like a mission help? He could do that. He wanted to be in this game, so he was going to do it all right. And piss off the makers a little bit to. Ha. He nodded and motioned for bland-name John to continue talking, “See I have a finance, and I got her a ring, but I’m not sure what happened to it. I was attacked one night. And I uh…well I guess it was taken.” He had frowned, “it took me months to get the money for that ring, could you get it back for me?”

Fine. He could do this. It was such a bore, his mission. He was hoping for monsters and killing things and more money, “Yeah, sure.” He lied with a slight scowl, “Where did you lose the damn thing?” With a bright smile, ‘John’ began to go into a long winded story about how he was walking home one night after getting the ring and being jumped by a pack of rouge monster dogs or some shit. All Sage really heard was ‘monsters’ and ‘in the east part of the city’ “Oh…kay. Thanks man. I’ll go get that ring for you.” And then he was off, sprinting down the halls and trying to get out of the hotel. He managed to, of course, but Sage really didn’t know how to look for things he could possible trip over.

“Fuck!” he shouted loudly and pushed himself off the ground, glaring at the person below him, “Wow, man. Watch where you’re going. I’m on a mission…” he blinked and found that the person had eyes. He was a player. “Oh. You’re a player too then? Well then. Maybe you can help me or something. Of course, I get all the credit, but I might share some of the glory with you if you can give me some information on this town or something.” He yanked the grey skinned player to his feet with a slight frown. After some thinking he stuck out his hand, “I’m Sage. And you are?”

Autumn laughed, a lilting, melodic, love-or-hate-it sound. She grinned, running a finger along the rim of a glass mug that now sat before her. Who knew and who cared how it got there? She smiled, shaking her head and chuckling as her head bowed over the drink, her soft hair cascading over her shoulder to shield her face but not her trembling shoulders. Oh god, oh god. She was going to have to complete stupid, boring as missions before she had any chance of living? Well, that was nice. Hey, at least it's jewellery, she told herself.

"Okay," she said. Autumn lifted her head

And froze.

Her father - Niklaus von Duerr - was, at one point, the President of Germany. Of course, not everyone approved of his rule. During Christmas when all her family would gather and when Annetta was but seven, a terrorist group who disapproved of her father murdered them all. Annetta - not Autumn, but Annetta - was left for dead, after she herself was both physically and sexually assaulted. She learned something, after a year of hospitalisation and more of absolute misery, she learned control was given to those who sought it and that her body was a shell. If she slept with enough people, she would forget, that sex ever equated to horror, and that it was ever forced from her. Caring for people who would sooner die than live was foolish, so she never did. Care, that was. And she succeeded for the most part, being a materialistic bimbo sex-crazed bitch generally helped with that.

Her emerald eyes stared into amethyst orbs set in a lovely face and framed by light blonde locks. The corners of her lips lifted into a slow smile as she gazed at him in the practiced way that she looked at everyone who was that attractive or more, through the thick curtain of her dark eyelashes, suggesting much in a single look. She would have him. She would have them all.

I hope their clothes can be taken off, she thought grimly.

Autumn's eyes swept the room in a sweeping gaze - practiced, as everything of hers was - that was part nonchalance, part boredom. She tilted her head at the other female, swirling her fingertip on the rim of the glass cup in a quick movement, resulting in a clear, ringing sound through the room. The hotel seemed to still, or maybe she lost track of everything else. No, that was a lie. She was always observant and attentive, however clueless she might look. Autumn ran her gaze along the small frame of the other female - Immortal Obstacle? Immortal Octopus? Immigrant Piranha? Yeah, Immy would be her name. She was quite the pretty girl, with soft hazel eyes and brown hair she would've loved to tangle her fingers in. Her spectacles were just... Cute. Immy was a challenge, being the definition of Adorable Nerd.

Challenge accepted.

"The ring!" the manager repeated, slapping his hands together as he had before. Yeah, yeah, Autumn thought, giving the manager a mental wave-off.

"Bitch, do I look like your servant?" she said lazily, rolling her eyes and leaning back against the table.

"Bitch?" the manager asked, as if he did not have the word in his list of understood-words. "Thank you so much for searching for the ring!" he announced.

"Okay!" Autumn said cheerily, slapping her palms together as the manager had done. God, excitement was contagious. After a few moments of smiling with the manager, a corner of Autumn's lip twitched away from the smile. "Umm... Do we get a clue? No? Okay. Jewellery!" she announced, swivelling to face the others and dropping her smile. With another roll of her eyes, she said, "Gawd, he's so cheery. Why would anyone be that bubbly when we might die any minute now?" Autumn pursed her lips, before bursting into giggles. Funny. Everything was so funny.

Autumn reached for her head and tugged a strand of gold hair from its roots, flinching. Another strand grew back immediately in its place. Ooo, convenient. Autumn plucked several more from her head, braiding it rapidly into an intricate braid. She swivelled it around her ring finger, tying it into a circle that looked like - "A ring!" She strolled over to the eyeless couple, tapping the boy on the shoulder. He turned around, regarding her through his gazeless face. "A ring," she announced, handing it to him.

"Oh, miss, my ring is a gold band. This isn't the ring, silly!" he chuckled.

"So?"

"So, I can't ask for her hand in marriage with this," he whispered, as if he didn't want the love of his life to overhear. You're not whispering very softly, she thought.

"What does it matter? If she loves you, she doesn't care what sort of ring you give her, if you give her one at all," she explained with a yawn that sounded more like a kitten's meow.

"Yes, but-"

"Listen, kid," she began. "Take the ring, call it a ring, get married, have lots of NPC, eyeless babies and move on. How can I miss you if you won't go away?"

{Immortalis Opulentia}

Elein had no comment for the scene unfolding before her. First, the outline of the quest was beginning to be stated when the first winner dropped into the conversation. And proved he was as bad at RPGs as he was stupid. This wasn't a world, this was an RPG, which would have stupid plot-hooks and stories that held no water. The very fact that he wasn't ready to accept this was sign that he got in more on skill than knowledge and experience. Stupid by the creators of this game.

As he walked out the door, she smirked just slightly. One less competition for the top spot then, since one of the winners wasn't even competing. The second seemed reluctant, but accepted the job. He would bear watching, since he was still in the game. The third continued to prattle on and act arrogant, as if the very act of gaming itself was beneath her. There was no logical reason she was amongst the other winners, but Elein dismissed it as idle speculation.

Instead she allowed the scene to play out a moment as she regarded the one winner who was still in the competition. She'd have to look into the hackers later, but they had a significant disadvantage due to the nature of their entry and arrival, so less to worry about. Bringing up, mentally, the small hud in the corner of her view and accessing the profiles, she dismissed it to the side to be read later after she got the name. Stepping up next to ... Kurai, and ignoring the scene to the side with the plot important NPC and the third Winner, she finally opened her mouth for the first time. 'Parameters fer the quest... Where were this ring last seen, where is it likely to be found, and what danger is present in the act of locatin' it?'

While she listened to the enthusiastic program's description of the loss, the location, and the rabid monsters involved in the loss, the once again, though this time quite openly, regarded Kurai. A measured stare, one that seemed to weigh the person she was staring at in the scales.

'Do ye prefer teamwork, or competition.' The statement, or question, since it doubled as both, was delivered in a flat, almost daring tone, as if she wanted the other winner to choose the second.

“Bitch, do I look like your servant.” Kuru tilted his eyes upward a bit at that, almost snorting in amusement. Almost being the key word here. It was funny, but his stotic face of assholey-ness was not broken by such a trivial thing such as humor. However, it did crack a little more, this time for a few seconds, when the manager repeated the dumb blonde’s first words, then getting super fucking excited for no reason. Because Autumn—was that even her fucking name?—never said anything about getting the ring, like he had. No, but the douche was happy all the same. He seriously was never playing any RPG game every again. Back to Assassins Creed and Halo for him. Maybe a bit of Persona if he was feeling up for mindless killing. Hell, Mario Kart sounded interesting right about now. Actually, he loved Mario Kart and played it alone in his room often. Not that anyone knew that. “Okay! Umm…Do we get a clue? No? Okay. Jewelry!” Kuru really wanted to smack her upside the head. Really fucking badly. She was just so…loud and annoying and she was so not funny in any way whatsoever. He scowled when she turned to face him, “Gawd, he’s so cherry. Why would anyone be that bubble when we might die any minute now?” she kept a straight face for all of three seconds before laughing and spinning back around. He had really, really had enough. With a toss of his hair, he loved his hair oh god it was perfect—like him—Kuru turned up his nose and walked away, not really knowing where he was going, but not really caring at this point. Holy fucking shit, this sucked so much.

“Hey, asshat?” he talked to what looked like air, but he knew that the scientist could see him and therefore hear him as well, “Have you figured out a way to pull me out of here? I want to go home. Right now. Get me out and return me to my miserable life there.” He sighed quietly and narrowed his gaze at nothing, still walking meaninglessly through the streets. The male on the other line didn’t reply, and Kuru huffed again, occupying his time with talking to the eyeless locals, trying his damnest to be nice and considerate and caring. As much as he could be at least. To a normal person it would be as apathetic and rude as someone could get, but hey, it was a step up from a total douche bag, right? He would take what he could get.



“Out—I’m. Shit. Wait. Fuck.” He liked his guy. He was different. In more ways than one. First, who the hell messed with the character…making shit so bad that he got horns out of it? And fucking candy corn horns too. And gray skin. What the hell. Not that he could judge, and he wouldn’t. Nope, nope, no judging. Just a little…critiquing. Of sorts. “Pulse. My name is Pulse. You’re one of the hackers, aren’t you?” Pulse, huh? That was an okay name. Nothing as cool as Sage, fuck he was wisdom personified. Well…if wisdom was a teenage boy with too much time on his hands, a pansexual slut (but not really), and a total rude rich child who never learned to hold his tongue then yes, he was wisdom personified. But of course, that was not Wisdom, and in that case, Sage was an idiot. He knew that already though, it was nothing new. Back to the little gray skinned boy’s name. Or his username, he guessed. Pulse. Like holy shit, it was a lameish name. Pulse. It reminded him of a heartbeat. Which was cool and all, but heartbeats reminded him of blood, and he wasn’t overly fond of blood. Pulse-ify would have been better. Or, a totally different username with blood relating things nowhere near it. At all. Ever. And how was he a hacker? Of course he hacked, why wouldn’t he? He was bored and fuck he was gonna finish this game like the loser who bought it. Only, he was going to do better. Ha. Jokes on them. Sage was going to answer an affirmative that he was indeed a hacker, and proud of it, when some…blonde chick walked in between them. She was pretty, curvy hips, thin waist, full lips. Delicious. Sage grinned for a moment, his gaze hungrily soaking in her fake beauty like a moth to a flame. Or bees to sweet things. And while he knew that all of her beauty was fake, even if she was that pretty in real life, it was still fake, Sage found himself wanting to stare at her all day long. And maybe give her some tips on fashion. Like the fact that she was wearing…heels in a video game. Ouch.

“Come out so I can slice your clothes off and have mad animal sex,” she called out lightly, and he couldn’t help it, he snorted, covering his laugh with the palm of his hand. What was wrong with this chick? What? What. Okay. “Here, Torny torny. Come on, baby. Milk? Would you like milk? How about fish Torny?” Yeah there was no actual attraction to her personality that was for sure. Too handsy, touchy, and…girly for his tastes. He may have been pansexual, but girly girls were never his thing. Personality wise at least. They were hot to look at and drool over. And jack off too, because hey, he was a teenage boy with needs. He smiled at all the things he could easily find online, and was easily roused when a rustle came from the bushes, and he found that the girl had yanked a person out from behind them. When the hell did he get over there? “Look what I found?” good thing she was hot because Sage was one hundred percent positive that she would either die in this game, in real life, or be a prostitute. To which he would pay for her services if he ever needed them greatly. Because hot damn she was a fine sexy lady. With an IQ of a goldfish. Perfect. “It has a face.”

“First of all, Barbie, put the poor idiot down.” the Pulse guy started to talk again and Sage ran a hand through platinum blond locks, tossing them out of his eyes. Though he tried to look semi-interesting in what the Pulse guy was saying, he was sure his look came off as his normal ‘I don’t give a flying fuck’ look. Of course, he didn’t mind. People didn’t mess with him that way, and that way he didn’t have to talk to people. Because people were stupid and not worth his time. He was better than them. All of them, every single one. “Your ugly probably put him into hiding in the first place. Secondly, did any of you actually bother doing the mission? I bet the answer’s no.” so there was a mission? Yes. He was going to do it, and do it so well that everyone else would eat his perfect dust. “I don’t have the time to deal with hacks and fruits. I’m going to the next town over which, according to the map, would be…Saltus? Fulgur? I dunno. I can’t read the fucking thing.” By this point Sage decided that this man talked way too fucking much and ranted a lot more, finding the most round about way to get to his damn point. So far he had told Sage, blonde-y, and…Torn that they didn’t do the mission, he didn’t like them, and was moving on. Holy shit, Sage managed to say it in less words than the prickly little gray skinned brat did. He could only do that because he was perfect. Duh. “So here’s a once in a lifetime offer: Which one of you will go with me? Since the morons upstairs said to stick together.” He was not-so-gently poked in the chest and he scowled out of reflex, rubbing the point lightly. Jackass. “You two need to be briefed on the situation. So stick with one of us winners. Since we’re actually good at this game.”

“I’ll go. With you.” He blinked his eyes a few times, slowly and ran another hand through his hair out of boredom, “It seems like Barbie blonde over there wants to jump Torn’s bones, quite literally I might add, so I think. It’s safer with you.” He shot a blinding grin Pulse’s way and shrugged his shoulders. He had said something about the people upstairs. Meaning that these…winners had something that he didn’t. And Pulse seemed to know how to get in touch with them. So maybe if he stuck with the prickly gray skinned, horned, boy, he could figure out how to get his own upstairs person thing. For once, he could admit that hey, he wasn’t the best. He didn’t normally like RPG’s, but curiosity killed the cat? Well, actually the human who opened the box to see if they cat was still alive or not killed (or didn’t kill) the cat. Still, the point stands.

“So here’s a once in a lifetime offer: Which one of you will go with me? Since the morons upstairs said to stick together.”

Autumn tapped her small chin with her free hand, her emerald gaze staring at the sky as if she were actually thinking. But who was she kidding, really? Thoughts were unfamiliar territory. Still, she put on the show of contemplation, anyway. "On the other hand," she began, lifting her hand in front of her face and wiggling her fingers. "You have fingers." Autumn laughed. God, she was hilarious. That's what she was. Okay, for real now. If she went with Pulse and ditched the mission, well, she got to hung out with creepy demon boy and sexy platinum blonde, both of which she would eventually bed because duh, she was irresistible. Then again, she planned to bed everyone. At least thrice. This game was PG31, right? But, the thing was, if she ditched the mission, what if it was a matter of life and death? And what if the bride ended up wearing a can opener as a wedding ring? That would be a fashion disaster.

“You two need to be briefed on the situation. So stick with one of us winners. Since we’re actually good at this game," Pulse continued to say, to which she bit her tongue to stop herself from giggling her head off.

"Oh yeah, we're all really bloody good at this game," she said quietly, winking at Pulse so perfectly, anyone would've known she did it often and received triple times the winks she gave. Which was a lot of winks. Autumn sighed, overcome with a sudden deep, never ending sadness for the disaster that was Immortal Octopuses' hair. She reached into her magical, disappearing pack - her swords had also seemed to disappear - and pulled out a 2 in 1hair straightener and curler. She held it out to Immy. "Hair. Makeover. Lesbian sex. Now." Autumn waved the instrument she held to emphasise her point - and smacked someone in the face.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry!" she gushed, tossing the styling tool back into her invisible pack and reaching down for the hairy man - "What is that? A carpet on his chest?" she mused allowed. She reached down for the hairy man - it was a yeti, she was sure of it - and helping him up. The man clutched his bleeding nose and rubbed his backside - most likely just as hairy - glaring at Autumn. Or, well, what constituted as glaring when one had no eyes, before grinning and slapping her butt on his way into the inn.

"Great, now I'll have to set my clothes on fire," she mumbled. Hey, for all her faults, she was one classy ho. Her taste in people was refined. Liar. Anyway, where was she in her unfamiliar territory of logical thinking? Right, to join Pulse, to complete the mission, to-

“It seems like Barbie blonde over there wants to jump Torn’s bones, quite literally I might add, so I think. It’s safer with you,” said sexy platinum blonde.

Challenge accepted.

"Wonderful! We're going to have a fantastic time together, albino bunny," she said sweetly, throwing the full force of her innocence at platinum blonde hottie. She would join Pulse and Blonde Bimbo and annoy them to the best of her ability. And then sleep with them. Preferably together. Preferably annoying them by being too hot to resist. Still, they called her Barbie? Barbie? Seriously? "I'm a redhead," she muttered to herself before painting her smile back on and clutching Torn's arm tight to her breasts. "You coming with us, love?" Autumn asked, capturing him with her emerald gaze - at least they got that part of her avatar's colouring right - beneath the flutter of her thick eyelashes.

"Oh! Before I forget," she began, gesturing towards Immy. "Immortal Seafood; Pulse," she said, waving at the horned boy. Ooo. an adventure. "Kurai," she nudged her head at him. "You may refer to me as 'My Queen,' 'Your Grace' or if you want to be boring, Autumn." It was strange, saying 'Autumn.' She was much too used to Annetta, but she was an Autumn baby and it was her favourite season - the season when my family burned - and it sounded close enough to Annetta that she would respond.

"This is Danger," she said, lifting her right breast. "This is Angel," she said, lifting her left. Autumn smiled. "You may address them accordingly."