ENTER: Houndras Furrer

SENDER: aggea
TO: shin'yuuasakura

Hey shin. Havnt heard from you in a while... I thought you might of... God... I don't know what happened.
It's been so long... God two weeks? The server's been a disaster... These comas gave the police a reason to link the game to the missing persons.
I'm so glade to here from you... I'm so relieved. This has made me think....do you think we can ever meet in real life? I..

The fingers on the keyboard stopped typing. They paused, and shifted into fists for just a moment. Behind the computer, she bit the bottom of her lip, and then slammed on the backspace key.

SENDER: aggea
TO: shin'yuuasakura

MY HSBAVSV GWAD. THERE YOU ARE YOU CRAZY LADEH. I haven't heard from you in weeks <33. You timed out a couple of weeks ago after we sprung through the portal. I thought it freaked you out so much you stopped playing!!! Well to make up for your slacking, I've had to level up like crazy!!! Lets meet up~

An indication on the screen indicted that the message had sent.

sender:shin'yuuasakura
to:aggea

meet up? I can do that. I feel better talking to you in real life than here, you know after everything that's happened. when and where do you want to meet?

she pressed send and sat back. the only thing left was to wait for lyserg to message her.

sender:lysergofemerald
to:shin'yuusakura

you're alive, well at least thats good. I at least don't have to worry about you...

SENDER: aggea
TO: shinyuuasakura

For real? Hmmmm don't you like... live in the next state?? I think your... Like, two hours away from me. Where are you in the game? I'll come find you and we can make plans. You know, this'll be the first time we've met face to face! It'll be so cool!! Why haven't we done this yet anyways??? We already told each other where we live for the most part. I promise I'm not secretly a creeeeepppper.
 
Aggeas avatar closed her mail screen and heald her staff up close. She looked around to where she was. It was dark, dank, and musty, and she would rather be somewhere else anyways. With Shin back, she didnt need to finish her buisness here.

sender:shin'yuuasakura
to:aggea

I'm not in the game...I, don't think I want to log on now...not after what happened. gimme a few days before asking me to play. I'm still in the homepage screen. as for you being a creeper I didn't think that in the first place, you're no more of a creeper than lyserg is. you two were worried, but I'll explain it to you and him later, I'd rather do it face to face. besides I'm still tired, I feel like I need a burger..a big fat burger...

of course it was no secret that in real life shin loved food, the more simpler things like burgers, chicken nuggets, and noodles being her comfort food. when she was stressed or not feeling well she would eat to try and feel better.
this was usually her scale of suckiness. considering she had been in a coma she felt it only fair that she should pig out.

When the message arrived, Aggea grimmanced. It didn't take her long to read through it, because she had already guessed what her best friend's reapsonce would be. Although she hadn't come out and said it, she must have been one of the comma victums. Shin'yuu's sudden insistance to meet in real life had surpriseing news, while she had expected Shin to not be confortable playing the game, but not that she would want to see her internet friends for real.
The two of them knew where the other lived. On a small scale at least. Shin'yuu wasn't stupied enough to give out her hometown and loctation to stangers on the internet, and Lyserg like to remain an enigma in certain subjects, so she had no idea of his location. It was likewise he didn't know hers. She knew the state and county that Shin lived, and that was it. Likewise, she had shared hers. They didn't tell each other thier real names or facail features - or at least - they hadn't shared it with her. Whether they did with each other is a story that would remain unknown. That was all privae stuff, and Aggy respected it. In Shin'yuu's state, there had been two comma victums. One realsuted it vacation(s).
She didn't have any hard evidence that her very best friend in the world had been one of the two. It was a gut feeling, and circulstancual logic. But it was enough to keep her up at night.
Five days into the epidemic, the first victum died.
It had been a long nine days.
 
Aggea walked out of the ally, her avatar eyeing the passer bys. They went about thier buisness and paid no attension to her. Her newly bought cloaked worked like a charm. It hid her entier body, and made her character look so flat that no one paid any attension too her. The cloak had another purpose but...
She put her hand on her right arm and smiled slightly. No, it wasn't worth bringing up.
The contact she was waiting for finally walked past her, and a trade request window came up on the real's computer screen. She accepted, knowing exaclty what he wanted in return. The two passed each other as Aggea walked to the job board.
Since the event two weeks ago, the event board near the job boards and quest boards had been bare. Certain sections of the game had been closed off, one by one, limiting the player's access greatly. No events had been hosted since. It was amazing how nearly every player knew that something was going on, they were gamers, that didn't make them stupid. But every player that walked around today logged on knowing the risk of a comma or going missing, and felt that it was worth the conciquences. She certainly did.
 
A mail alert message Aggea accpeted it and opened it immedately.

SENDER: hyDranGA
TO: aggea

Take job 440.
 
So Aggea grabbed the paper from the board as she walked by, and accepted the window that popped up asking if she would like to accept it. When a player makes contact with a job paper, and chooses not to accpet it, it will dissaper from thier inventory and re-spawn on the board, that way no job could be accepted twice. In this case, since she accpeted the job and it moved her her "Jobs" window
Geting to the gate, Aggea requested to enter the private server 0068.
 
[Gah. Sorry to leave you in such an awakward reply spot, but madder is literlly nagging the crap out of me because she wants to go.  ]

lyserg frowned while he wandered around. having gotten shin's message he felt alittle more at ease. she was safe, tired but safe. he hadn't had much contact with aggea, but he knew she too was safe.

shin had wanted to meet, he wasn't sure that was for him. this is a girl whom he'd silently admired but he wasn't sure why she'd had a change of heart when it came to meeting people. he understood that she had been in a coma but still.

the server he had been on was bustling. frowning in game he shooed a girl away as she made advances on him. sometimes his brother could be such a pain. the younger twin enjoyed a great many things about this game but his favorite was his brotherns character. lyserg would log off after a night of dungeon crawling and his brother would log into his account. this caused a great many girls to think he was clinically insane.

the adult servers were swamped with talk of players without people behind them and how people were dying.

Server 0068 was expecailly crammped. Older players gathered around the server to scream at each other about the current issues, about whether the game should even be up anymore, which was funny because they were all sitting here now, still logged on and playing the "forbidden game". Other's argued about how these connections were curcumstansal an nothing more.
The server was in such chaos, that Aggea was accpeted into the server through manual request. No one noticed her there, none of the adults cared, and coninued to talk.
"There's no way a video game can make children fall into a coma." one said.
Here, another player responded, adding to the arguemt. "Certainly not a game that plays over the internet. If it were possible, we'd all be ing comas. the internet just doen't pick and choose who to kill."
Aggea rolled her eyes, but said nothing. Outside her own parents, Aggy hated adults.

lyserg continued on his anger boiling at this point, but he wouldn't let himself get mad at them, he just couldn't. they hadn't known much about it since only a hand full were affected. one comment caught his attention sending him over the edge.
"maybe they're all in cahoots and did it for attention. I think they all know eachother and decided to kill some of the others off. it would make sense."
oh god did he know that voice.
standing in the clearing with several women around his arms was pogyo. he had known this player through his brother, and in all honesty the way the man played was enough to piss lyserg off. he was a ruthless pker, most of the time he'd be found in the lower level fields killing off noobs for the fun of it. other times he'd be on this server boasting and bragging how he was a member of the brienie group, which is the equivalent of the mafia in game.
steping towards pogyo lyserg growled softly. "you're wrong!"
"hm? well if it isn't lysie boy! I don't see that dumb broad with you, you finally smarten up and ditch her?"
it took every thing he had not to punch his screen in anger. "no...she was one of the victims. shin wouldn't do that."
"is she now? how long have you been doting over her? and she hasn't realized how you feel? sounds fishy to me lysiewisey. if you ask me I think she's playing dumb to get what she wants. a girl like that is dangerous in her own right. besides how would you know? have you met her? for all you know she could be a man playing a female character."
"like the women you stick around with?"
"no, see there's the difference. I couldn't care less about these girls in real life. so think she'll get the full grunt of the criminal justice system? better start planning trips to the jail house lysie boy."
grinding his teeth in real life he slammed his fist on the desk. "shut up!! shin's not like that!!!" he nearly screamed causing several players to turn from their conversations and look at him. "you don't know a damn thing about her!!"
"I know the character model is one of a kind...ordered custome. I'd like to get my hands on that...oh the things I'd do...I'd make her ditch you in a heart beat."
that was the last straw summoning his crossbow from his inventory he shot at pogyo several times causing his character's life points to go down to zero and sending him back to the starting server. a red screen appeared telling him he'd broken a rule. three more strikes and his character would be deleted.
now all the people started chattering, only this time agreeing with pogyo's theory. if someone close to them was that violent then obviously covering up for the players. looking around in disbelief he screamed in frustration and got his character the hell out of there, moving instead to his character home in the slum area of the sever. this place, while just as good as the other parts of the server, was considered the slums because the houses were smaller and were subject to lag a bit more than the others. still it was quiet here, and very few players came here. most of which were going into their own homes to save some items. sitting infront of his home he grunted and hit his head against the stone of his house.

From the side of Lyserg there came a giggle, and his vision darkened. It took him only a few seconds to realize that they were hands covering his eyes.

jumping slightly he frowned and looked back, "aggea, what are you doing in this server? don't you have locks set on your character?"he asked while looking away, still visably upset by pogyo and what he said.

The smile Aggea have was suppose to be half playful, an half michivous. But it came out half guilty instead. Still, she was revilved because this reaction ment that Lyserg hadn't seem her at the conversation, and grateful that Lyserg stayed looking away. "I know right! I since my player profile is under 18, I shouldn't be able to enter this server! I tried to enter another one but I got thrown into this one instead! Isn't that just crazy?!?" She said, her voice retaining its bubbly tone. "It like... I'm in the red light district now! Ohhhh scary!!" Aggea retracted her arms back into her cloak as she spoke.

chuckling he looked at her and nodded, "I see...have you heard from shin yet? I got a message from her. she tried messaging me on video chat but it didn't go through."he sighed while placing his face in his palms. "what the hell is this game coming to?"he muttered softly before looking up. "so what's up? what kind of server where you trying to get into? it wasn't one of those locked up servers?"

Her face went pale with nearvousness. She didnt have an wiser for that, she hadnt thought through the lie that far. Heck, she hadnt even checked with servers were accessible at the time. And Aggea was a terrible liar unless she was lying about her feelings. Lying about her actions, well, that was a whole differnt story. It had taken the whole walk to Lysergs house to think of that one excuse. "Um, I was trying to get to another freelance job. A party wanted to go dungening in the wasteland." She blurted suddenly.

frowning more he nodded,"I get that...they must be running maintenance again. they've been doing that a lot since they opened up more dungeons and servers to replace the broken ones. no one can really get into those without destroying their graphic drivers."lyserg said while standing up and checking his mail to see if he missed any notifications.
"no..no maintenance today. you doing anything at the moment? or would you rather wait for your party?"

"Haha! No way! I'll send them a message canceling!~" she said, opening up he mail, pretended to type some and closed it. By the shape f her cloak, it could be seen that she put her hands on her hips. So party leader, can you handle gaming without Shin~?"

"p-party leader?! I'm not much for leading a party..you two are such higher levels than me."he said softly while scratching the back of his head. "I guess I could take some time to level up. just let me get some things from my house."he said while turning to the door and sending an invite for her to enter his home.
once she accepted his request she would be allowed into his player home. the walls were daintily painted with colors of blues and greens. they were adorned with different rare items he'd obtained from shin mostly. there were some that he set to the back room, those were the best items. the ones that helped him gain power ups. to the side he had his crafting items; the oven, stove, anvil and such. wooden crates were scattered about, and drapes of see through fabric hung from the ceiling. "sorry for the mess...I just need to gather some items. you're free to take what you want. I don't use most of the things in here...just stay away from the chest in the right hand corner. that's shin's stuff...I don't even go in that. girls are so picky about their privacy...no offense."he muttered while moving into the crafting room.

Aggea looked at the shelves of items, deciding not to take any at first. It didn't feel quite right taking Lysergs items. It just wasn't the same as when she and Shin'yuu would trade. Potions, charms, recovery items, Lyserg had quiet the stash. The girl looked over to the chest. After his explosion earlier, she wonders how much he was still upset about what they said about Shin. She thought, maybe some tease from a friend would help him smile again.
"Waaaa?? She has a chest of stuff here?!? Isn't this your house?" She put a sneaky, mischievous look on her face, like a sly cat, "isn't that equivalent to having a drawer in someone else's house? Isn't that something adult girlfriends and boyfriends do?"

blushing in real life he shook his head,"n-no!! she insisted on it since we're always gaming together! b-besides she pays rent on it..it's not really that big a deal..."he shuddered while coming into the room with a pink apron with a bunny on it. not just any bunny, it was a custom bunny with a knife and blood on it. of course it was shin's but he used it to up his cooking level from time to time since shin did most of the cooking. "why...does she talk about me like that?"he asked while going into one of the crates and digging through, pushing the player home "pet" out of the way.
the bird-like griffon pig thing simply flopped over and snorted. "stupid thing...always getting in my way..."he muttered watching the npc creature get up and trot over to aggea dropping a random item at her feet. "great..he's been in my stuff again...damn it figs..."he said while going back into the crafting area to finish up.

She took it up in her cloak. "I think its cute." She nuzzled the npc. "He just wants some love from ya~. You know what they say, give some love get some love...or something. I just kind of made it up actually. Nice pink by the way."
She noticed the item dropped, and bent down still holding the fig. It was like noting she had ever seen before, not on the market or in the catalog. It was rusted, cracked, but small. Yet she couldn't exactly tell what it was. Aggea heald it between her fingers, me mesmerized by the item.

blushing again he finished crafting and hung the apron on the display rack on the wall of his home. "it's shin's...she'll never admit it but if you throw enough blood on pink things she'll adore them. this is one of her special items.."he admitted while going in and picking a few cross bows and a set of throwing knives, "I'm ready to go. where are we heading off to?"he asked while offering a trade of half the items he had made which consisted of fifteen revives, ten cures, three healing spells, and twenty potions.

Special item went into Aggys inventory when Lyserg was still looking the other way. There was something inside we that nagged to do it, like the item was some kind of omen. She did it quickly, not saying a word to the man. Instead, she said bye to the pet and gave it a big cuddly kiss before letting it go.

walking over to the door lyserg cocked an eye brow as the house pet trotted over to him and wagged it's bird like behind at him while looking up at him with it's pig face. "no. stay."he muttered while kicking it to the side gently as it again just flopped to the side with that wide eyed expression. "you hear me aggs? I asked where we're heading off to?"

"H-huh? Oh yeah right, you did say something like that, didnt you! So we need to pick an area where little old you can level up. Don't want to go anywhere too hard, I don't wanna waste my revives! I had to do that with Shin once when she ran into a tree when on like, a gazzilon speed charms.
"Anyways, what was I saying? Ah, right! I remember! So I think we should just go leveling up without grabbing a quest or a job. In that case we proably wanna stay out of the the areas that are being used for quests and jobs. I don't feel like running into and pvp players cause that would be pffffttttty. Pvp levelers are so mean.. Ya know? I mean I know you get the most exp from pvps... But that's doesn't mean everyone wants to do so! So we--
"Hey!!! Lyserg wait!!! Why are you walking out the door without me!!! Lyserg waaaaiiiiittttt!!!"

[and further more, domdelalala  ]

chuckling softly he nodded while looking back at her and nudging figs out of the way again then walking out the door, waiting outside for her to follow.

They made it over to the gate portal, with minimal conversation. Aggea let out a signauter giggle every now and then. When they got the gate, Lyserg was nudged closer to it by his compaion. "Okay party leader, how about the Northern Castle. There's a lot of cover in that area, but not too much that well get jumped."

nodding slightly he pulled up the transport panel on his screen and entered the code to teleport them to the area they wanted. once there he couldn't help but wonder why aggea had stayed in the server when she got there. he understood that she had gotten there by accident but normally when shin would pull a prank on her and put up a summon for her to join her aggea would freak out and leave right away.
"hey aggea?"he asked softly, still not sure that he should say anything at all.

"Yeah, wassup buddo?" she smiled, looking not at Lyserg,or even taking note of his tone, but at the peice of archtectiure that stood before them. There, to the right she spoted the enterance. They could enter from there, or they could scale up to the balcony. Going dtraight to the balcony, they would experince higher level monsters, howver the enterance would have more traps. If she had paided attensionn to the way he spoke, maybe she wouldn't have answered, had pretended she didn't hear him. Maybe.

"why didn't you...why didn't you quit playing like the other survivors? I mean...shin..she might not ever want to play anymore."lyserg muttered, deciding against his original question. sooner or later he'd get back to it but not now.
moving towards the entrance with his knives equipped he frowned more, this was seriously bothering him. it was only until a ping alerted him that he had a message.

sender:?3$%2$
to:Lysergofemerald

D*^'T Go !h@Re

ugh, more spam. he had been getting more and more of this since the event that caused everyone to go comatose. he tended to ignore it, since it was just jumbles of letters and symbols. he didn't really care that someone was sending him this, he just wished they'd at least come out and say 'hey got you! that was a good joke.' how did they get his number? only people who accept your contact request can do that. the only ones he'd gotten are from his brother, shin, and aggea.

This question made Aggy shake her head. "Oh? Well I could be asking you the same thing! Whats the point of coming around without Shin, I never see you parting with anyone else but her." Then she brightened, remembering the tease she had thought about using just two weeks ago. "You liiike her, you think she's preeetttty. You wannna kisss her~."

"ugh, not that again. we all know I like to try and level up on my own. sometimes my brother does it for me. I accept temporary invites, those only last until the dungeon bottom is reached then you disband. I don't want my contact list to be filled with people I don't even know." he said trying to explain away how he felt. it's not that he enjoyed doing so, he just didn't feel like admitting anything just yet. especially since shin never spoke about her romantic life. she could be beautiful for all he knew.