Varin's Story

The only audible sound coming from her room was the rhythmic beats as Chiri tapped on a book in her lap. Lazily leaning far back in her desk chair, feet on desk, eyes closed as it fell even further back. A set of earphones clogged her ears from the outside world as she put herself in seclusion. She was often up before the rest of the house, simply sitting around listening to her music. It became more or less a daily routine for the past couple of years, and even better, she generally was not interrupted until breakfast had already been finished. However, on rare occurrences like today, "Chiri" her mother's voice rang out as the right phone was lifted.

Chiri, before responding went on ahead and took off the earphones before sitting up normally to look at her mother. "Yes mom?" Her voice held a tone of annoyance, like anyone would have once interrupted by a parent. "How about you come learn to cook breakfast with me today?", she smiled at her daughter. "Uh, no?" Her mother had tried this a few times, probably hoping that it would get her to take up more girlish things like cooking or something. She began to pull back up her earphones before pausing mid-way, remembering something of minor importance, "Hey mom, can I go to that rock concert with the guys later?". By 'with the guys' she of course meant her brothers. They often tried to sneak her out to do activities with them, however they were normally caught in the process and stopped.

"Oh please, you don't want to go to something as silly as that," Her mother responded lightly, while Chiri could only think otherwise, "How about we enroll you in dance classes hmm?". Chiri shook her head, "I'll pass on that...". Her mother frowned slightly, "Then can you at least join us for breakfast this time?". Chiri put on the earphones, not very interested in listening anymore, "I might come down later, I am not hungry at the moment." She moved to look against the wall, but kept her eyes on her mother, somewhat saddened that she was coursed away so easily. "Sorry little Derry, seems I can't go with you guys.." She muttered, thinking of her little 13 year old brother that kept talking about the concert for the past week.

"Whatever... Since that is out of the way I might as well check out that game..." Leaning forward, she grabs the visor from the top of her desk.




<Varin has logged into Phantasy World>

"Wow.." The growl-like voice broke his ears first as the buildings came to load. "Built in default voices for the races in voice chat, huh?" The deep-ish tone couldn't help but make him grin. As well, the layout of the city just from start point seemed like a great place to try and parkour. Though his mind set could not stick to the architecture for long. Characters were walking about in abundance, that or the NPCs were actually hard to figure out. A grim chuckle broke as he stared at each of them. "Just wait, after I grind for awhile, I will be back to break you all." His voice was muttered, as he began proceeding towards the starting gate.

"Now let's see how easy the little level one NPC's are to obliterate shall we?" The deep, animalistic voice could only make him feel sure of himself. A somewhat cocky, overpowering attitude took to his voice before even trying to fight the first monster.

Beta Tester - Jack
Class: Lvl. 20 Bandit (knife)
HP: 1050/1050
SP: 504/630

EXP: 2/5
Gold: 2

Jack breathed inwardly as the arabian city of Gardenia came into his clearing vision, his eyes absorbing the scenes before him. The warmth and ambient sound created by the city's traffic was almost surreal. An abundance of different people, all doing different things, where going about their daily activities. This area was surprisingly active, and there was little doubt that Gardenia's first impression to many of those newcomers would be that of a chaotic mess. A wide grin appeared on the pale man's face as he tipped his hat in the direction of the sun. "Gardenia....It's been quite a while since i've spent time amongst the new characters" He commented, his view falling on many of the players before him. Curiosity took hold of him instinctively as he began to wander the streets aimlessly, his intentions unclear to those observing.

His avatar rounded a corner, entering an empty alleyway whose sole source of light was a single dimly lit lightpost. He scanned the area before him, clearly checking to ensure he was alone, before his shadow began to grow abruptly. Like an insidious monster out of a horror novel, Jack's shadow seemed to enlarge behind him. Its figure then distorted, mutating and thrusting wildly before finally calming after several final stutters. Suddenly, someone stepped out of the shadow like a magician. A tall, ambiguous figure in simple leather armor carrying a sword and shield, an entirely different person in apperance. This clone would be his doll, his eyes and ears while he worked from behind the scenes.

This was his odd habit. Using his shadow clone to interact with others that is. He'd been doing so almost since when he'd first started this game as a beta tester and as a result, few people knew him well. He emerged again from the alleyway to join the main street, but this time it was only his clone. Just then, a random comment caught his clones attention. He walked closer to discover a beast man fully clad in armor, his two handed sword immediately identifying him as a warrior. Sighing heavily, his clone stepped forwards and tapped the warrior on his shoulder casually.

"Good day fair sir! You're a new player right?" His clone smiled in a jokingly fashion, "I'm sorry to interrupt but, i just wanted to ask something. You wouldn't have happened to have recieved any messages from a GM lately would you? Something along the lines of...taking back this world?"

Varin grinned widely as he approached the gate, knowingly full well that no game started until it's first fight. He was going to finally take the first step in becoming the ultimate warrior. "Tha-", a tap came to his shoulder, interrupting his own train of thought. Partially annoyed he slowly turned around to glare at the man. It seemed to be one of the higher level players greeting him, in a rather peculiar way. He was not even intent on listening until word of a message came from the man's lips, a message of taking back this world. Varin now stared awkwardly at this man, partially confused as to why a GM would even need to take back a world.

"Are you making fun of me?" He growled, seeing this as some kind of joke. Whether it be this guy was mocking the fact that some new players might not know how to check their in game messages, or testing their knowledge on what the game is even about. There was always a player or two that liked picking on new players, so it was very plausible that this was one of them. "If only I could crush them right now.. Stupid level difference.." Varin could not help but think of grinding this 'kid' to dust. "I have no time for jokes..." He tries to brush off what they said, however it only kept coming back and plaguing his thoughts.

Glory, wouldn't that be the prize that would come from helping GMs? Let alone, if he could do it by himself, then he could prove to be the single strongest player. The thoughts of self-glorification were to great, he started dumping the idea of it being a simple prank. "Now listen here, with the power I am to grow, I would be the first to know, and last to join. Why? Because I will one day prove I am mightier than any player including the GMs. Even if I am lacking in level for now, I shall one day rise above all others." His laughter rang out as he turned away. "Just sit back and watch the show of my power."



From sunset, to sunrise, Vivi was used to the lack of players walking this world. It was within that time, she generally walked around the area to interact with the various NPC. However, this time she simply spent the entire night sitting on the walls of E'dellon Castle, looking out into the world with her blind eyes. She quietly waited, listening to the different sounds of the night within Phantasy World. For the other GMs this place may have been like their second home, however to Vivi is was practically her only home. A world that had changed far too much in the short time she walked upon it. Changed to the point, that her and the others needed to stand against an NPC. This is what echoed in her mind throughout the night, the fact they were going to take it all back.

Morning came far quicker than she had expected for both worlds. She could sense the drastic change of players logging into the world to continue their simple 'game'. The wind was blowing now, the gentle breeze every now and again comforting Vivi as she sat in wait. And when a familiar scent took to the air, she would finally stand, blankly looking down into the castle courtyard. "Oshiva has logged into Phantasy World" She muttered, almost acting like an ambience to the normal greeting of the game. When she first entered this world, it scared her. Player's scents would randomly disappear, and after a while, she learned they were simply logging off. Something she could not do.

Vivi had learned the layout of this castle quite well, so much infact, that even though she was blind she could walk about without any errors in direction. Drawing in one last breath, Vivi fell back off the wall, falling towards the courtyard. Her breath softly pushed out, as her mind counted the seconds. She pushed herself into position with her feet brushing the wall, twisting herself around to face towards the ground. The archway's curved edge portruding from the wall quickly approached. Sliding down, she pushed off just before the edge, tucking into a roll before hitting the ground. Forcefully she tried to stop herself, and once she did she extended out her hand, touching the wall. "Minor miscalculation in landing range... Reduce preparation for roll by .27 seconds. " The way she talked, indeed seemed like something robotic. Perhaps this was simply because she didn't need the useless scraps of a sentence when she was communicating .

She quietly walked along the halls, the open doorway allowing the wind to enter in a small breeze. She continued following the scent, searching for Oshiva, knowing that by the strength of it, she had in fact logged on. "Oshiva?" She spoke out, turning the last corner in the hall. "I wonder if the beta-testers are on…", a voice almost silent broke. Either her voice was further away from her microphone, or perhaps she was still a little ways away. Either way, as Vivi closed in closer to the scent, she poked her head into a room. "Oshiva?" She called again before entering, almost sure that she was looking directly at her.

"The plan becomes started today, right?" Vivi tried to smile, her speech pattern somewhat awkward as she tried to fill in the the sentence with uneeded words like most other players. "Anything I can perhaps be of use doing?" Again, her speech pattern was structured awkwardly. However, she knew that she could not simply send messages to other players so easily. The fact that she was blind kept her from written subjects, and since she could not have access to the outside world at will, she couldn't even type. In other words, it was impossible for Vivi to work as a normal player. Her own way, was to track down players by scent, if she can even catch wind of it.

Beta Tester - Jack
Class: Lvl. 20 Bandit (knife)
HP: 1050/1050
SP: 504/630

EXP: 3/5
Gold: 4

Jack's clone frowned at Varin's odd reaction as the warrior turned to walk away. First the warrior had suspected him, then he pronouced his strength as if he where the hero from a prophecy. Abruptly, the clone burst out into laughter, as if the absurdity of the warrior's speech had only just sunk in. "You're a stupidly bold person to say that" the clone giggled in short spurts at first before the hysteria took hold of him in full. In truth, the warrior's reaction had been so unexpected that his reponse had threw him. The clone covered his mouth before regaining its composure and stepping back alongside Varin. Its eyes seemed to gaze away from Varin for the moment, as if another simple glance could cause another episode of hysterics. Suddenly, with a smile crawling across the clones face, Jack strode around Varin casually, looking the warrior up and down as if he where performing some sort of inspection. Tapping the bottom of his chin, the clone came up face to face with Varin before his grin opened up fully into a smile.

"Just then you thought something like, 'I'll grind this stupid kid into the dust', right?" his clone teased, wagging a corrective a finger, "It was written pretty obviously on your face, but you know, i didn't mean to insult you or anything..."

His clone sniffed suddenly as his emotions where flipped around like a coin. "What a terrifying person, to think that you can't even ask a question without being suspected by the youth of today" He sobbed, feigning sadness. His clone staggered infront of Varin several steps before its cheeky grin seemed to return. "You don't know much about the situation of this world though do you? So heres a free tip for being so funny. If you value your gaming experience here, stay away from the king" The shadow clone bowed before disappearing amidst the crowd.

Jack had been observing from afar and started as the shadow clone returned to him. "Nothing yet, so we'll keep searching"