ENTER: Houndras Furrer

Accepting the trade, Aggea peere3d down at her speed charm. It had faded. Aggea shared nwith Shin three of her five revives she had left. "We're not on a very good start, are we?"

shin shrugged slightly,"meh.....I've got extra revives.....so we're good...."

She laughed and pointed at Shin. "Well, we wouldn't be one less if not for a certain somebody."

frowned softly and sighed,"well....can you blame me? those things are freaken fun....."she muttered softly, not wanting to draw attention the attention of any moderators to herself. moving forward she looked back at aggea,"hmmmm so....wanna talk while we look around?"

"Sure." she giggled, "What do you wanna talk about? How you Looooooooove Lyserg?"

blushing madly in real life shin couldn't help but stutter slightly as she spoke. "look......I've told you.....we're just good friends......he's a good guy, and I totally adore the guy, but not that way....."she muttered the last part as if trying to convince herself. "a-anyways! we'd be in the dungeon entrance if you'd stop distracting me......meh got any fairy jars?? this could go alot faster if we knew the lay out of the map..."

Aggea continued to giggled. "Yeah, right. I'm all out of that fancy crap."
She knew how much Shin was lying~
She liked him.
She wanted to kisssss him.

rolling her eyes she sighed,"man....you're such a pain.......okay....I think I might have some....."shin muttered softly while searching her inventory.

"I know I am." She said with great pleasure. Aggea was brat, she always got what she wanted, one way or another. That was just by chance. "I would hope you have some. Gosh for darn it Shin, I thought you prepared for this!~"
Aggea placed one hand on her small hip, and waved to her friend with a disappointing after-tone, going, 'tk, tsk,". Just to be that guy.

shin's real growled under her breath softly, "well excuse me for being bed ridden!! I only have a few left overs from my solo adventuring....only about twenty left.....so we have to use them wisely....got it??"she asked.

"Got it."

The virtual world was not the most beautiful place in the world, but certainly one of the most wonderful. Only a fool would not recoginze that it was simpley data, but it takes more then a fool to appreciate the beauty of the landscape, the scenery, and the hard work. When it was dreay outside in the real world, it was sunny in this one.
Some people could go as far as to say that players were hiding from realitity. They were ignoring and running from the world as it was. While it was true for somepeople, mostly, that was just ignorance talking. Simpley hypocritacle. The same people who said this went to art musems on hot day to look at pictures of snow, went to threaters to be scared, and read books to feel adventurous.

"Oh, and Shin. You know, computer chair ridden, and bed ridden aren't the same thing right?"

shin huffed and nodded while putting in the command to place her character's hands behind her head and stick her nose in the air as they walked casually,"yeh well....I'm playing from my bed....I had my sister snag my laptop and things....."

"Yeah, right, I'm sure you are," Aggy breezed, "how are things at home going? Still chaotic as ever?"

shin entered in a few commands to allow her to check for things on the map."things are good....for the most part......my computer still wont run the game correctly.....it's still showing those monsters that are all fragmented and can't be beaten.....hey, have you seen the BBS?? they're saying that more people have gone missing lately. I wonder if there's some psycho on the loose who's targeting people through the game..."she muttered while studying the map some more.
stopping and pointing over to a patch of thickly overgrown vegetation that looked like a doorway leading to some cobblestone stairs going deep into the earth. "I'm guessing that way's the dungeon....which means that the quest boss will be down there...."

"If you say so Shin." Aggea peered around the enivorment, and started around, "I've heard some weird stuff alright. I don;t understand how so many can just be missing, in such a span of time.
Approaching it, Aggea shifted the vegiation, and peered down the stairs.
Hm?

sighing softly shin moved towards the vegetation and hearing the steps she made she blinked and looked at her friend. "people are just stupid..I think I prefer the way things are here than in real life..school, teachers..bullies...they're all such a bitch."she sighed while her character model paused for a moment indecating that she had moved from the key board. "it's sad that people are using this game to kill people, if they are killing. that's my guess...." taking her first steps into the dungeon. "why a video game? there are better ways of killing people.."she muttered once inside the jungle temple like dungeon. opening the fairy jar she took a look at the map, the fairies fluttered around before their twinkling lights disappeared into the darkness allowing the map to show up on this floor showing all the rooms on that single floor. "this is so heavy...so many different rooms...lets head this way."she said while moving forward down the hall to the entrance to the next room.

The next room was cleverly hidden behind the darkness. They must have turned the brightness way down for this area. If not for the clear, glimmering picture of the map, the two wouldn't even know the shape of the room. No signs of monster spawning points in the room, so Aggea leisurely looked through her inventory. "I think I've got a lamp in here somewhere."
In real life, the girl at the computer screen smiled as she spoke. She leaned over the computer desk, and watch the few items in her inventory go by. She finished her sentence with a laugh. After that laugh finished, her smile slowly slumped. A piece of paper she had be holding while playing crumpled in her hand.
In the game, her avatar held up her hand and a lamp appeared. She added oil. "About two minutes of light." She said, referring to the countdown at the corner of her screen. The room illuminated slightly.

"I might have some...I don't go into misc alot...only to sell things, the light is nice though. now we can see what we're looking for..."she muttered while walking forward her hand on her blade. the rogue studied the map, which kept growing on her screen. "this dungeon looks like a pretty flat area...there are no stairs so far. it's more like a maze. there's several monster spawners up ahead, lets take it slow and not mess things up."she said while activating anothher speed charm, she had only done so for the attack capabilities. the faster she hit meant more attacks per second which meant more critical hits.

Aggea heald up her staff in the other hand. The lamp would get in the way of her attacks only slightly. As long as she had one hand of the staff she could still cast spells. "So, get through the maze to get to the riddle. That sounds blecky! How far away are the spawners?"
She thought about what spells she could use in such a confined area. That was the thing about underground dungeons. No wind, no water, and one sure as heck doesn't wat to smoke the whole confined space. She tried that once. It didn't work out.
She checker though her skill list. Suddleny, a message appeared, indicationg that she had new mail. One of her freelance ad jobs must have processed through with another player. The message had the "High Alert" Logo next to it, and was beeping wildly.
"Wha?" She breathed.

shin never looked away from the map on her screen, they're not that far...the problem is that they are bundled together. if we activate one and get too close to another then it'll activate. normally I'd say go around them but this map is specifically made to screw us over. nice to know the creators give a sh it."she muttered while her real lent away from her screen, lazily pushing her character forward.
"if we take this route and move slowly we can take the path with less spawners. the thing is there might be more traps." looking back at her companion she blinked "something wrong?"
perhaps she had mail, shin waited for her response. shin idly wondered if turning her alerts off was such a good idea. a sinking feeling in her belly told her she'd be sorry for it later. not that it mattered now.

Aggea blinked, "I've just got some mail. Sorry Shin."
Her avater lifeted up her hand and the small mail screen appeared in the virtual setting, but only for a moment before the girl put he hand down and peered past the transparent screen. Before Shin could ponder how her friend had checked her mail so fast, Aggy was already blurting out questions. "Hold on. Hey Shin...you do have "Player Location" turned on you're map settings, don't you?" Her face looked as if she had just thought of this, and was puzzled by the thought.
[ hgkfvg hey Shin. I just realized what this reminds me of]

blinking in real life she tilted her head to the side to look back at her friend while softly musing. "mmmh...yeah my settings have that on auto, though I doubt there will be very many players here. why do you ask?" she said as she got an indecation telling her the fairies could no longer finish their search of the map. this in its self was strange, but not totally unheard of. it was most likely a glitch.

"It nothing." The other breathes quietly. The lamp continued to flicker light through out the room. "I just... I understand there not being many people here... But there's no one as far as the map has loaded. Not a soul. You don't find that the least bit odd?"

shrugging she thought for a bit, "it is...the players are safe here, from eachother at least."she said while a small ping entered the maps line of sight. "oh! see there's a party! they're going this way, we can ask if they saw anyone else." she smiled while leading aggea down the halls towards the little blue dot on her screen.
it had taken a while before they reached the group which was just standing in the middle of one of the bigger open areas. "yo! you guys find the riddle? this place is huge huh?" shin smiled while her character reached out to touch the player closest to her, not noticing how each one was showing distorted pixels every now and again. making contact a small jolt of electricity ran through her arm irl. "ow! peetinkle..."

Aggea had stopped fallowing Shin as they approched the party. Shin'yuu usually did most of the talking and negotiating. She would only get in the way. Proably spout out something stupid on impluse. She opened up her mail screen again, the blue tined rectangle hung static to it's spot in the air. Her vitrual hand moved up and touched the screen, making it ripple just tad. She sleceted the message and the sender info came up, as well as the subject matter. The "Open" command waite eagarly on the right for her to confirm the mail and open the contents.
The girl looked at the sender information before opening. Not something most people do on a norm, but this being a high alert message, Aggea made the exception. It would be important to clearly note who was calling for work. She even saw in her scan that this had a subject matter. It wasn't rquired to use a subject when sending a message-and most players didn't do it unless they were just meeting or had something important to say.
That's when she saw.
The mail was from System Administrators.
She was aware that Shin was talking to the others, and that she should catch up so Shin wouldn't have to relay all the information, so Aggy opened the mail and began to scan it.
 
SENDER: Houndras_Furrer
TO: <universalplayerlist>

SUBJECT: Event - Riddle of the Forest Caverns - Cancelled until further notice. Area 1101 "Forest Caverns" Temporaryly Closed t-
 
"ow! peetinkle..."
 
Shin's voice interupted her read. She quickly closed the mail window and looked back to where Shin'yuu and the other party was. "Shin?"

"I'm fine...the stupid keyboard shocked me...I just got this stupid thing fixed." she muttered while she rubbed her sore hand in real life.
"have to get out." the player closest to her said as he turned around. the eyes were all black and [4filter] with flex of pixilization running through them. the raccon mage stood there looking at shin.
"excuse me?"
"it's dark and cold here. we can't get out." the player muttered while reaching a glitched hand out to her making contact with her yet again. "you're so warm." it said while a hand firmly clamped down on her arm. jesus did it hurt! wait, this was a game, why did it hurt like this?
tugging on his grip she grunted, " let go weirdo!" she said paniced that the increasingly tight grip stung worse now. calling up a scroll she blasted the player with a flame spell creating a gaping hole of pixilazation in the side of hisface causing him to let go and implode in a flurry of broken pixels.

The noise it's implosion caused was a loud crack through the headphones. Aggea's real ripped her set off after hearing it. "Ahh! What the..?!" She rubbed her ears, and hesitantly put the phones back on, knowing that they were her only communication.
"Shin, what the heck did you do?!"
Her avatar rushed forward, readying her staff and spell commands.

"me?! the freak show attacked me..hold on I'll port us out." the rouge said slightly frazzled, her arm hurt like a b*tch. this wasn't good. she had to get aggea out of here. a wave of nausea hit her hard when she pulled the traveler gem from her inventory and used it, bringing the two to the entrance of the dungeon. instead of lush green forests there were broken codes of numbers and bits of pixels everywhere. the screen occasionally would break into a fit of multi colored static lasting only a few seconds. several players were in the field either running for the gate or being attacked by players like the ones before. one not too far away had his health drop to zero, where the model's colors inverted and the same crack could be heard from before as they disappeared. "we have to get out of here!" she cried while looking to her friend to make sure she was okay

A force was pulling them backwards, dragging the players away from the gate. It felt like wind but pulled like a magnet.  The Dungeon had dissapered  completely, leaving the space behind all the players nothing but a flatland of dark colors.
That flatland was diss appearing as well, shattering into pixels. Soon, the land the two were struggling on would also be swallowed.
Aggea didn't say anything to her companion. She pondered rapidly Admins mail, and wished she had finished it. Her feet stood uncertainly against the force, unknowing what to do next.
So she threw herself on her knees with her staff out. As a sage it was Aggeas job to act as support. She had to do something, a spell any spell! she could try...quiet words escaped from her lips, speaking the name of her move, as silently as possible.
The tension around them changed slightly. Underneath the spot where the two stood, a green dimond appeared in the quickly fading ground. "Hang on to me!" She yelled. Even there voices were beginning to corrupt.

the sudden rush of it all caused the nausea to bubble up again. feeling uneasy about this whole thing shin clung to aggea, wanting nothing more than to wake up from this nightmare.
various players that surrounded them began to be swallowed by the darkness, each one shattering and adding to the noise of static. "they're wiping the area!"shin mutter to her self more than anyone else. this too added to the static.
at this point it was almost ear splitting. she wanted to tear her headset off and throw her laptop away but she couldn't. in real life she sat there frozen, typing something into a message screen, but she wasn't sure what she was even typing. maybe she was trying to get ahold of an admin, to ask them what was going on.
she wouldn't know as a strange sharp pain shot through her head. as the darkness reached them it grew more and more unbearable. soon the two of them were swallowed too. the screen was black save for the soft green glow of the spell. it wasn't long after that that shin lost consciousness in real life.

"this just in, the thirty two people whom had fallen into a comatose state have seen sudden activity. in the past two days five of them have died due to unforeseen circumstances and two have woken up. it is unclear why the victims have fallen ill, but the sudden deaths have sparked an interest in general public. more on this at ten."

the sounds of a tv woke her up, god she felt like she'd been sleeping for ages. why was her tv on? opening her eyes slowly visions of white attacked her line of sight.
as her vision became less blurry she saw she was in a hospital room, with wires and such attached to her body. several alarms went off when she went to tug on one.
in a sudden moment various nurses and doctors rushed in yelling about how another one had woken up. this was all alittle unnerving to say the least.

thirty two people had fallen into a coma last time she had played houndras furrer. that had been two weeks ago and already five had died. as shin was released the press stayed away oddly enough. she supposed they didn't want to report someone waking up and then have them disappear from stress.

once home and in her own room her laptop lay on the desk, open and with the "ether" company message screen displayed. this was how players communicated, it was like e-mail but for the game.
biting her lip she walked over to it and looked at the messages.

sender:lysergofemerald
to:shin'yuuasakura

are you okay?! I heard on the news! aggea hasn't been on! please answer me when you get this!

sender:lysergofemerald
to:shin'yuuasakura

aggea is okay, she got on not too long ago, please answer me.

sender:lysergofemerald
to:shin'yuuasakura

I should have gone with you two...please answer me shin. I'm worried.

the messages ended there. they spanned within the time she was comatose. frowning she thought for a minute. at least aggea was fine, that was a plus. why had she been the only one to have gon into a coma? reaching forward she began typing out her message, first to aggea then to lyserg.

sender:shin'yuuasakura
to:aggea

what the hell happened. are you okay?

stupid question. aggea should be the one to ask that.

sender:shin'yuuasakura
to:lysergofemerald

I'm fine. not really, that's a lie. I was just released from the hospital, but I'm alive so that's a plus.