ENTER: Houndras Furrer

"well, well, well. doth I say, our merry band of misfits should head back, bounty in tow. it is getting late and the bandits enjoy frolicking at night." smiling bach chuckled as he watched shin tackle the creature known as parka into the water with a splash. "we must get moving before the wet dog smell does ensue."
"can we ditch him?! he's got a mouth on him you wouldn't believe!"shin yelled while sitting up out of the water looking like a soggy rat.
looming over her parka dragged himself heavily out of the water looking worse off then shin.

"It's too bad we can't stay to enjoy this..." Aggea thought out loud, her eyes difting over the play ful beast in the shadow of the colored sky. "You know, if not for the monster spawners and stuff.

sender:p@rk@
to:aggea

oh, are you lot leaving so soon? here I had hoped for some interactions of the pleasant persuasion. would it be alright if I added you to my data banks for later conversation or even for a quick meet up?

back to being pleasantly polite he shook his heavy fur out. glancing over at shin who waded out of the water with a huff . "we should gate out soon...what're we gonna do with the fur ball? if he causes effects in the real world we can't just let him go."
"are you implying I can't take care of myself? besides my effects only last a short while, had you been affected by my brothren and the effects would be lasting."

"Yes" both girls said simultaneously, but in very different ways. Aggy's response was cheerful and positive, a bit of excitement in her voice.

shin glanced at aggea, for a brief moment she wondered what her excitement was all about. however parka's fur puffed up and ignoring shin's previous comment on how he couldn't handle being on his own turned his attentions to the other topic at hand. "I hardly think that taking me is such a good idea...I may have been able to stray from one area to the next but crowded places make me...uncomfortable." the beast muttered while examining his claws with a huff.
"I really don't care what you want at this point, you're coming with us...you have a choice...you can pretend to be a pet AI or you can manage your own way."
"I'd rather not do either...but if I must I suppose I'll do the first option. since I don't have a choice in the matter it doesn't matter."

"so...we're going?" bach chimed in awkwardly. "if so I can offer the teleport command and get us out of here."
it was clear that the silence was bothering him, even more so then the initial contact with this beast.

"yeah, lets do that."

Bach teleported the group, and thier one fuzzy edition, back to the edges of the caves. This area, as it was before the caves, was monster and player free despite the fact that night was quickly approaching . The group gated out and marched their way back to the shop in general silence, save for a the occaisional party banter.

sender: p@rk@
to:aggea

pardon the random message...the other one seems less likely to respond to me, and to be honest simpler answers would be appreciated.

huffing slightly the creature kept close to aggea, acting as sort of pet/gaurdian npc AI. of course he knew how they'd act, at one point in the game he had one of his own, however his was much different from the selection players could obtain in today's version of the game.
every so often he'd catch the looks of a player that still dared to roam the streets of the area and he'd look away or keep his eyes cast to the ground.

Aggea opened her message screen while walking. Seeing the creature's message, she glanced at him from the side. The group was soon to reach their destination, so she would wait to answer him until then.
They approached Bach's home, and as the group prepared to enter, the younger girl spoke up to the group, a bubbly tone about her. "You guys go in! I'm gonna check my inventory!" she fibbed. "The fluffy thing will stay with me, since he looks like my pet!"

the fox girl paused for a moment, looking over towards the pure white fuzz ball then towards aggea. "well okay.."she muttered quelling any gentle protests coming from bach. "just make sure to stay in the area...I know people aren't allowed to pk here, but it still happens, so just be careful and stay out of sight when talking to that thing."

parka rolled his eyes slightly at the comment. aggea couldn't be sure but a comment was made towards shin that caused her to look at the beast disdainfully.

shrugging it off she turned and left into the house followed closely by bach whom was whining about not wanting to separate and split the group up before they knew too much about the beast.

sender: p@rk@
to: aggea

she certainly is a peach...do you put up with her often? or is this just a one time ordeal? I'd hate to see how she treats other players...

Aggea grinned after reading, turning her head to Parka. "You think this is 'swell', you should see her on a bad day! She goes from a peach to a whole bowl of fruit!" The girl giggled as she spoke, hopin he would get the play on words.

parka chuffed slightly to indecate a sort of laughter before pausing and then sending aggea another message, this time sending it with a gentle look of frustration, or maybe it was a look of seriousness?

sender: p@rk@
to:aggea

well color me surprised! I wouldn't have taken her to be a sweet as that. anyways, it seems I've been out of the loop for quite some time...I suppose five years will do that to you though. the players are so different from the lot that I'm familiar with...

"Huh?!" Aggea unintentionally shouted, surprised at the words she was reading. Realizing what she had done, Aggea threw her hands over her mouth with a flush, look quite guiltily at Parka. She looked to the side and few times to see if anyone had heard her. As the coast seemed clear, she squatted down next to the digital beast and covered her mouth on one side by her hand. Then, she prominently whispered, "Five years?!"

the beast nodded his head and looked down at her quizically as she squatted next to him. coming up to her forearms on all fours he blinked at the sudden movement to his height.

sender: p@rk@
to:aggea

of course...shouldn't my username have given it away? specialized characters aren't allowed in today's username. I've been here for five years, which is when the betas for the game was just being tested. my brothren and myself all make up those in the beta testers group. I thought you lot knew all of this...was I mistaken?

pausing he stopped to try and remember if it had indeed been five years. either way it was a massive amount of time and he had at times felt like it had been longer then that. how many years had it been since he had spoken to someone like this? merra dissapeared around a year and a half after the initial tragedy...then there was that boy that found him before...that was two and a half years ago if he remembered right. or was this all out of whack? his old mind was playing tricks on him again, which was nothing new.

sender:p@rk@
to:aggea

though...I'm not sure the company would just announce our disappearance from your plane of existance. but yes...I was a normal boy at one point. I believe I was 16 around the time I was trapped here.

twitching slightly he answered a question she hadn't exactly answered as he waited for a response from the girl.

She grimaced in response. The conversation was begging to make the girl a little antsy, so she looked back to make sure Shin hadn't come back out for them. To this day, Aggea's habits since the incident had been less than advertised. Shin, Lyserg, Ryo, none of them knew. Aggy's freelance position had.... shifted with the game.
It was no longer the innocent item gathering business that she had once intended for. The prizes turned from rare items and meaningless online friendship, to information, connections, and debts. The girl let out a breath.
"Honestly, I was hoping there was something wrong with your user..." she whispered, pushing back her strands of hair. Her already whispering voice had dropped further, straining to be as quiet as possible and hoping he could still hear her. "The story of the beta users are quite the horror story right now. You know. Its like talking about an epidemic in a hospital. But it's only been... a kind of myth..."

sender:p@rk@
to:aggea

there has always been bits of truth in myths...it wasn't as bad as some of the boards make it out to be. at the time we didn't feel anything until some of us started dying. technically there is something wrong with me, the reason I can't speak is a slight corruption in my data. my brothren are all capable of speach. the inability to communicate with others is also a corruption that's rendered me helpless. you can imagine it's hard to get something back when the thing you need to get it back is stolen as well.

ears twitching now he sat on his haunches and huffed. idly digging at the digital ground he paused and looked up at her. studying her silently parka lowered his head and scratched at his billowing mane before running his hand-like paws up to his ears. the action was similar to a human rubbing their neck or head in thought of frustration.

if one cared to look close enough alot of his gestures were human like in origin. although aggea had only seen him stand on two legs once he was totally capable of walking upright on two legs and using his paws as hands. had it not been more convienent to keep his tail behind him on all fours instead of draging on the ground on two legs he would walk on two legs all the time. the way he looked around, while almost animalistic he also had a tendency to stare off with a studying look much like a human would. hell he even stared down at his paws and feet when the awkward silence occured.

"Is that how you knew, when we first met?" She asked, "That I was...you know...a corrupted model?"

pausing he grunted to show the answer was in the negative.

sender:p@rk@
to:aggea

to be honest that was a gamble on my part. without getting a sample of your data I can't tell. my messages come through as random jumbles of words most of the time to normal players, sometimes my messages will even be samples from previous messages. the more common the reply the more likely they are to be mistaken for someone else speaking to the player. the fact that I could see you responded told me enough.

stopping he pulled up a data screen and displayed a message sent to lyserg from him. when aggea looked at it she could see it was from shin'yuu.

What he said was plain enough, and displaying the pulled the idea together in a nice little bow. Still, she shook her head. It was difficult to gather her thoughts. Why in the world would he have been sending them messages? Did that mean he had his eye on their group? But why.
No, Aggea mentally paused, I'm getting ahead of myself. One question at a time.
"So why did you help us? You didn't know about me, and unless Lyserg has been doing some special work I didn't know about, he was anything noteworty ether." the female reluctantly choose a question, thinking that her answers were probably more limited than her questions.

the question was simple enough but even that took him back some. had he rubbed off as a creep? surely five years in isolation hadn't hindered that portion of his social knowledge.

tilting his head his tail flicked slightly before he finally sent his response

sender:p@rk@
to:aggea

no....at that point I had wanted to avoid human confrontation. you had simply stumbled into the area I had been living in for the past few months at an inopportune time. however if it helps the boy has been snooping around in my hidden files. if you see him again let him know he's free to ask me what he likes...it feels violating to know someone's in your personal file. asside from that it makes him a target for servrin, and I don't think any more of your group need contact with him.

Lyserg was doing what? Severin? Anymore? What does he mean anymore contact? Again, the questions were blaring off in her head like sirens. The girl rubbed her temples, trying to calm her thoughts down. She used both hands, surprisingly enough, exposing her corruption underneath the cloak. But for the first time in a few weeks, it didn't bother her. In fact, for that moment, she had all but forgotten about it, feeling completely comfortable in front of the former beta tester.
"Lyserg too? Ayah... We're involved in some deep crap, aren't we?"

[ =w= I don't know about you, but that sounds like a good note to scene skip a bit]

The group awoke in Bach's shop with thoughts weighing heavy on their shoulders. Each avatar was lost in his or her own mind after a night's sleep. Bach and the girls had logged off for the night, promising to be back as soon as possible the next day. It would have made sense for Shin'yuu and Aggea to also log out, but neither could bring themselves to leave the game. While nighttime ticked away in the real world, two virtual females chatted about miscellaneous things and uneasily wasted the hours away. Various points of the conversation were engaging. One would go so far as to say fun, as if in those moments they forgot everything else but their companionship.
However, those were the high points of the evening. The talking would fade in and out as morning approached, and by witching hour it had stopped all together both lost in their own worries. Both fell asleep, still logged in, fading away restlessly at their screens. A couple hours later, Shin'yuu made signs of stirring. Her avatar had gone AFK laying on the couch, head cushioned by her arms legs crossed across the length of the sofa. The first thing her real looked for as soon as her avatar opened it's amethyst eyes was for Aggea.
Shin hopped that maybe she had logged out and was resting comfortably in her bed, but a wish to no avail. The other's avatar was curled up in one of the corners, entire body bundled in that raggedy cape. The only part of her that could be seen was her nose and rabbit ears popping out of the bundle, the rest a pile of brown. Beside her, Parka was curled up, not quite nuzzled, but closer then one would expect.

sitting up and examining the massive beast the real rubbed the sleep from her eyes before focusing on the game. shin stood, and got her bearings.
things still felt weird to her. the simple aches and pains of waking ravaged her body, but not in the way you'd think. it was like there were two of her pulling on her being, unwanting to wake and begin her day. it was the usual for her as of late though.
frowing she looked closer at the beast and girl. "pfft, well aren't you two buddy buddy..peetinkle..I suppose I need to eat soon..."

sender:p@rk@
to:shin'yuu

jealous? I picked the place where I was sure you wouldn't throw something at me.

shin imagined the reply to be stale and in a matter of factly way. how was he even responding?
upon closer inspection his eyes were open and he was looking in shin's direction. she wasn't sure if aggea was up and alert though.

Aggea remained still, not yet squirming awake. However, her nose scrunched in her sleep, indicating that her avatar was no longer in its still AFK state. However, that could mean anything from she was conscious to she was squirming in her sleep and the game censor was picking that up. With eyes covered by her bangs, it was hard to tell one way or another.
Parka shifted and shuffled away, shaking himself off. He stretched casually.

"you're literally the worst, you know that right?" shin spoke softly while examining her character's claws, "why are you still here? I'm sure you could be off finding what ever it is you were looking for."
the canine girl was unusually bitter, but that could be from the restless sleep she had just woken up from. all in all though, it didn't seem to bother her new found companion who found a spot to sit where the sunlight came through the windows. what was he a cat or something?
"I figured it'd be a point of interest for you lot. I could be wrong though..." he purred softly while scratching behind his ear.
"right...and I'm sure you can tell us so much."
"well not you. you're rude. if you asked nicely I might consider it though, I'm sure you can be nice if you try."
shin grunted while scratching her head and huffed. "yeah what ever, like I'd want to get any information from you."
"play it your way...you know I'm not here to be your enemy. I'm staying because I want to help, and maybe you can help me. there's someone that was taken from me a while back, and I need to find the person who took them so I can get my voice back and fix everything."

"Are you guys arguing again?" the third voice suddenly cut through the room, sleepy and tone and playful in manner. "Hm..."

the two of them stared at where the voice had come from. parka looked uncomfortable about the whole situation while shin seemed comfortable and at home.
it would seem the two were as different as night and day, if only in the way they carried themselves. personality wise they seemed pretty close, and maybe that's why they didn't get along so well.

"nothing too big. fluffy over here was just telling me how he planned on saving us all and making things right. truely he is the chosen one and-"shin started before she was cut off by a sharp growl of a bark that made her jump out of her skin. "right, my bad. you're totally right. we should take this seriously. I'd just like to know where we go from here, I'm honestly at a loss."

the silence in the room the followed told her all she needed to know, neither of her companions knew what to do at this point. there was little to no chance that the gangs would go back to the caves (if there even were caves left) now that people were snooping around and trying to get information. but it seemed that last night's fiasco was enough to calm what ever war was supposed to be waged, or at the very least made it smaller.

The bustling of the outside made that apparent. Voices of ordinary players chattering on the exterior mixed together and formed one white noise of normalcy. Like wild animals, it seemed as if the players sensed the passing and regrouped to bring life back to the Aquatic town. The war was returning back to it's slumber, and should the issue reawaken, it certainly wouldn't be here, and certainly wouldn't be today.
And while this meant that Bach and the others could take a breather, it left Shin'yuu and Aggea in the spot they had been the day before, no more damaged but no wiser. Except, of course, Parka, should he choose to stay, added one more mystery to the list. In fact, they were deeper into the pool than they were before. Parka added more then one problem to the puzzle, and brought with him his own separate goals.
Maybe that was the issue, the female pondered. They couldn't piece together the next step due to the lack of goals. Or, more specifically, the lack of a untied goal. Everyone had their own individual desires which they kept to themselves. This wasn't a party fighting the same quest, it was a group of players who happen to be fighting near each other. In fact the only thing in common with the paths was the one thing they all weren't. No one was here to play.
Aggea stretched the best she could while remaining bundled and then lazily got up and trotted over to Parka. She cleared her throat, "We could poke around a little." It was a silly idea, but they had to start somewhere. The brown haired rabbit ran her hand down Parka's fur suddenly and without warning. "Good morning Parka! Did you sleep well?" Aggea purred, with no mindset or concept of the creature's personal space.

the beast blinked slightly before leaning into her touch, seemingly enjoying the greeting. grunting slightly he eyed shin'yuu to see a response, however when she failed to respond he took charge, moving to the side to face aggea and giving a grin of sorts...or at least tried to immitate what he thought one would look like in this form.

sender:parka
to:aggea

better then I have in a long while. I must admit player homes are much cozier then the ones back when I had played. I wouldn't mind heading out and seeing what I missed, I've been staying in isolated places and rips in codes for a while now...I'm curious to see what advances you all have made!