ENTER: Houndras Furrer

She skipped around, happy to have avoided his qustion and turn this to a much more intersting subject. "Oh? But you know Shin enough, or you know her in real life? Did you go to school together? Did she save you from being trapped a locker or something?"

"what? no...I'm the student body president. no one trapped me in a locker." with that he rolled his eyes in real life. this girl had an imagination on her. "if you must know I live about three states away. so no, I don't know shin."he sighed as the two of them entered the castle.

"what about you? do you know her?? not that I expect you to."

As they entered, she scanned the wall. There didn't appear to be any push traps, or floor traps. I guess it would be too discouaging to put them this close to the begining. She would have to keep an eye out later. "Nope, I live one state away from her, but only like, two, three, maybe four hours. I dunno really. I live on the boarder to my state, and she lives boarder ish on hers."
While they were talking about Shin'yuu, a thought occured to her that she'd been meaning to ask Lyserg. "Say, has she said some sruff to you about meeting in real life?"

looking at her he shook his head. "no, I mean she did at first but then she told me that it'd be too much of a worry and she'd try to get her web cam working again so we could talk that way."lyserg admitted while sighing softly. "why did she talk to you about meeting??"

She stopped and looked to the other side. "Mm..Yeah. She did, because she said she wanted to talk to someone not over the game. But you know, I kind of liked the idea, but it didn't feel right to meet just then. I think if we saw Shin'yuu disheaveld for the first time, I don't think that she'd ever be able to live it down. She got too much pride, you know. But someday..." she paused and took a breath, "maybe when all this is back to normal I want to actually meet. Face to face. Wheneverthing is all over."
Though Lyserg couldn't see it, she was holding her arm tightly under her cloak. That senstion was spreading, one way to her hand and another to her shoulder. She just shook her head and smiled.

he could only nod in agreement. "I guess so. has she ever spoken about any friends to you before?"he asked, the question jolted by a sudden realization. they didn't know shin in real life and the only time she spoke about her life was when she would complain to him about it.
"I know it's wrong to assume but she never speaks of any friends...it makes me worry alittle. even I have friends in real life. I just hope she's not one of those players who plays because she wants to escape reality.

another ping alerted him yet again.

sender:shin'yuuasakura
to:lysergofemerald

hey, you two together? you're not at your house.

the message caught him off gaurd causing him to stop moving his character and to type out a response. the soft clicking of keys could be heard through his microphone.

sender:lysergofemerald
to:shin'yuuasakura

yeah, we're together. you shouldn't be on so soon...you need to recover.

"she's online...."he muttered while looking to aggea.

"Whhhhhhhhaaaaat?!"
Aggea looked back and forth to the area and Lyserg frantically. They were jsut about to go in! But Shin was on! Was Shin going to come here?! Or were they going to get her?! Instead of asking Lyserg these questions, she frantically, made her own desion, and started rushing to the gate. "I thought she was taking a break!?! But shes not! We can't stay here, this place is WAY to easy for her! Come one slow poke!!"
Aggy's heart was all fluttery, even her real smiled wildly from behind the screen.
That was when she saw Lyserg's face and that flutter died down. Her smile melted away, and she stopped just a few feet away from him. "T..thats not a good thing... is it..? We're not to get her, are we?"

"she was in a coma aggea, because of this game. why is she online??"he asked her softly while looking away again. "we can go get her if you want, but I just don't know why she would want to get onto the game." he said noticing her icon would go from inactive to active several times with in the span of seconds. "she's at the house, I'll let her know where we are, but if she doesn't want to come she doesn't have to. I think she might just be looking for someone to talk to. let's just leave her to relax." he said while sending her their location.

"I understand..." the other said a quiet voice. "So what, we procced then?"

nodding he kept going, ignoring the stream of messages being sent now. after seeing the first few pop up in the corner of his screen, he felt an increased sense that something was very very wrong. both the spam and the messages from shin increased each one sounding and looking more and more sprawled out than before. "are you getting the same messages?" he asked while entering a room, only to poke his head back out. "nothing in here." he'd confirm before joining her again.

"Messages?" the other breathed.
As soon as her words dirifted from her lips, a flash of purple appeared, indicating that a low level monster spawner had awakened. The ground shook vilantly as the spawner virulaized itself, and Aggy grabbed onto ther compaion for support. Monster spawns weren't usally this dramatic, unless they had been planted at that moment. This type of this wasn't nessarly unheard of, but still unexpected and shook Aggy balance. Even the castle around them shook, the older parts showing it's unstable rubble falling. The purple spawner quickly spawned a beast, which let out it's programmed  battle cry.

"a monster so soon?" lyserg managed to say with a blink this whole thing seeming strange, but nothing that sparked his interest. "you okay? you looked like a frightened animal." he chuckled while pulling out his heavy crossbow. it was a gift from shin, he always did admire the designs of the bronze weapons used by the goblins in the game. she'd spent hours going from dungeon to dungeon trying to find it in time for his birthday. when she showed up at his house all she did was offer a trade and left without accepting anything.
a slight smile crossed his face at the memory.

"Nu!! Do n-ot!!! Neh!" She studdered slightly, regaing her posture. Her staff came out from under her cloak, it being heald with one hand. Underneath showed a suprising sight, as Aggea's outfit was much unlike her. While she usally shopped and quested for cute clothes, Aggea's outfit looked like it had been modified from another. There were signs of patchwork all around it - tear marks at the ends of peices of cloth, awakard thread lines, the work was all over unusally soppy. "I just lost my balance is all!"
Her skirt was white, a tad dirty of a white, but white none the less. This was one of the fabrics that looked like it was torn, ripped at lower thigh. This was a tad shorter then her usal outfits, her limit being right above the knee cap. Any shorter she usally said, wasn't cute at all.Her wait was tightly woven together with a midivel brown corset top with white strings - or at least that what it looked like from the little that could be seen from it. Becasue over that corset she had a brown shawl of sorts, that drapped over her right shoulder, and the res of her waist. While the left side of her body stayed hidden from sight under the cloak, it could be assumed that it had symmertical patchwork.
It was customary for the higher level to take the first swing at a monster durning training, so the girl readied her staff to do her duty. However, rather then cast a spell, Aggea lept into the air at the monster. A surprising move for a sage. She could quiet see it's shape hidden in the shadows. Whatever it was sound large, so Aggy took her changes at creature, coming down from abover to attack it's head.

observing her for a bit he frowned. he was a ranged character so his attacks wouldn't change no matter how close he got. backing up slightly he loaded his weapon with poison rounds hoping to do more damage. this thing was way bigger than anything in this area.
shrugging it off he would wait for her to attack before pulling a combo and using a meteor scroll and attaching it to his weapon.

Aggea's staff made contact with the creature as its upper body was flung down my momentum. As soon as her feet hit the ground, Aggea backdashed, chancing a glance at Lyserg. His body looked like it was in the stance to attack - so she lept further back, hoping to get out of his range. Meanwhile the creature regaining it's composure in the shadows.

once she was away he shot a few rounds before equipping his status checker to watch the damage being done. once contact was made the poisoned rounds exploded in massive displays of light. "we're not doing a whole lot of damage here aggea! what the hell is a monster like this doing here?? is this a special event?!"he called while using several more enchantments to enhance his shots.

The beast gave out another cry. It sound as if it was angry and annoyed. Finally, the monster counter attacked, a club came down from the shadows down over where Lyserg stood.

he braced himself for the impact expecting to revive in the starter are but that didn't come. a blur of white blazed by shoving him out of the way, a sudden rush of warmth errupted on his side in real life causing lyserg to gasp softly. he could only catch a glimpse of what pushed him out of the way, specificly a pair of glowing orange eyes lined with blackwhere the whites of the eyes should be. that and white fur, and lots of it.
he couldn't see much else aside from the fact that this thing ran on all fours, and was faster than any character or monster he'd ever seen.
what also drew his attention was the aquatic clicks and soft whale like noises this thing made.
looking to aggea he half expected her to have summoned it.

By her face showed just as much confusion as Lyserg had, not someone who had just save her party member.
"Lyserg?!" She yelled, running towards her compaion and the mysetery creautre. The moster lifted it's club again, and struck the spot she had stood a few moments ago. It made the same crater type explosion it had before, and the forcue from the blast sent Aggea flying a few feet away from the scene. After roling a couple of times, she got onto her knees with a wince and looked at the darkness.
With his attack unsucessful, the monster came out from the shadows, stepping twords the group. It's face was contorted with pixels, the cheek, neck, all not messes of blocks. Aside from that and it's obsurely large size, it was a fairly recoginzable creature - one of the Oger catagory of monsters, a monster that wasn't programmed to spawn in this area. The distinct cracks in the body and dark tan color made it apparent that this was a rock oger, a monster that was only suppose to spawn in the dryer areas of the game.
It's face pixlation shifted as it cried out again, the mouth of the regular skin being unscaved by the distortion. The oger went to lift it's weapon again, and as it did exposed the side of it's back, under the armpitt.
Her eyes wided. That was the weak point of the rock over, if she remembered correctly. "LYserg! It's a rock oger, we need to go for the armpitt!" she yelled, getting up on her feet.
No reaponse. What is he doing over there with that ball of fluff? she wondered frantically, but not daring to look away from the battle. She hadn't the foggist idea if that was an AI, or pet, or summon of Lyserg's (could his class even summon?!) or a new mystery player's she couldn't forget that they were in the middle of a fight. If it was an enemy, she would have heard Lyserg fighting it by now.

lyserg sat there staring at the creature as he hear aggea call to him. the glowing set of eyes were torn from him and gazed at aggea as it hoisted itself up on it's hind legs and standing upright. this thing was totally beastial unlike the player models in the game, which were more like partial animals.a long curved snout lead to a massive canine head covered in long fur that lead to am mane that meshed with it's tail.
it looked back to the monster then to them before darting to the monster's weak spot, touching it briefly before jumping away, bringing the health down to a managable number. once landed the creature took the time to type out a message to the corrupted aggea.

sender:P@rto:aggea

you should have run.

Aggea starred at the message screen, and then back at the creature, a shock in her eyes. The message had foruced its way through, and foruced its way open

you should have run.

The message was so straight forward, so as a matter of fact. Theres was just something about it...as if it was a warning by someone far more experinced then her. No. Not a warning. A fact.

The oger's attack came down so quickly, she didn't notice. The ominous message was still running through her head. That thing. That that long furred mess of animal, now she couldn't take eye off of that thing.

the creature seemed to grunt softly and raised the ground around aggea so not to damaged her and to cause the hit to slide away from the girl's form.

sender:P@rK@
to:aggea

move to the side. they'll try to flush me out of my home soon, when they do they'll trace you. you need to leave this place.


the message was ordered. the last thing he wanted was the vacation(s) of more players. turning his head away from the battle the fur on the back of the creature bristled softly.
in a quick motion he flicked his billowing tail around at the monster shooting needle-like lights at it bringing it's health down lower.

sender:p@rK@
to:aggea

do not come back to this place...you should stop playing before they get you too. this is all I can say on the matter for your own good. do not mention these messages to the green haired boy...his state prevents me from speaking to him like I can with corrupted or bound players. I will keep you in my data banks for further speculation. do not attempt to message me. I cannot receive them. take your friend and run.

again the orders were sent, this time though they were more scattered as if they were coming from a worn down individual.

Fearfully, she nodded, the message pieces coming in rapidly. There would be no more time to cover herself from attacks. ANd even more then that, to be quite frank, she was scarred. Something was giving her instructions, forucing her messages open like a chat box, and it knew about her... Problem.
Aggea turned to Lyserg, hoping to get away before another attack, and rushed as fast as she could through the gate portal, grabbing her companions arm along the way.

he watched them almost sadly. it had felt like years since his last contact with another player, and as unsavory as said encounter was he did miss the contact with the other players.

on the other end, once they were out of the danger and now safe, lyserg snapped out of his daze. "wh-what the hell was that?! that thing...what was it?! why did it feel warm when it touched me?!" at this point he was frantic and being frantic and attracting some attention, but not alot as it was late.

Aggea put her hands on his shoulders, then plopped down onto the ground. Being afraid was such a draining feeling. "It's okay Lyserg... I dunno either... There's some crazy stuff going on in this game...gee willy, I'm tried after that whole thing, aren't you..?" She had hoped the casual words would be a comfort of Lyserg, he needed to relax. Get stuck on that kind of craziness is what'll leave players into an unhealthy obsession. He didnt need that.
She looked up at him then past to the virtual night sky. The virtual sky was always as beautiful as it had ever been, stars littered across the sky like someone had dumped a bucket of them out. This was the sky she could share with her friends, it may not be the sky that the reals sat under, but it was the sky that people could look at with those closest too them, even if that is a person they will never see. And somewhere, she just knew, that sky was deterrerating.

frowning lyserg sucked in a breath. yelling could me heard on his end. "my brother's home....I have to go....sounds like he's drunk again. I'll talk to you later." he muttered while looking away from her. "and hey, thanks for today. I was having some problems with the rumors and I sort of lost it earlier."he added while smiling over at the girl.
"maybe we'll get to talk to shin later. I sort of want to go back there again and figure out what happened."he explained. "I'm sure she'd find that interesting. anyways night." he said as he entered aggea as a primary key holder for his house so she could get in when ever then he logged out.

"Ah!! No wait, Lyserg!!" She muttered, but too late. The ding in her contacts list went off, indicating his log out. Sitting there for a while, Aggea took in the moments of silence to fallowed, letting each minute go by staley.
Takeing advantage of having key access, she made her way to Lyserg house, scooping up the house pet that greeted her. Lyserg had plenty of floor space, so she laid down and sprawled out, letting out into the open the thing that's she had been hiding all day, all yesterday, and the day before that. Her other arm what extremely distorted by pixels at th elbow of her avatar, to the point where some of her arm was just plain missing. "How did it know..."
".... That I was corrupt...?"

in only a few days time the real life shin found her way back onto the game. it was stupid of her to think that the game itself sent her into a coma. looking at her messages, and taking the first few steps into the world where confusing.
her friend had even sent her a pair of the new head sets his company made. she couldn't just let it sit unused, these things were damn expensive.
needless to say steping into the game again with the virtual goggles was mindblowing. she could actually feel the wind, smell the scents this game had to offer. it was strange.

sender:shin'yuuasakura
to:aggea and lysergofemerald

hey losers. ;P you two online?

sender:shin'yuuasakura
to:aggea

ugh, that's so boring. well since you're not on I'll just go out on my own. by the way, were you two high? there are a crap ton of messages in my inbox. thanks for the concern though

sending off the message she headed off to the house, hoping to drop off some items she got from a promotional e-mail.