.hack//CONTAGION [IC]

[Noel]

[IC Thread]|[OOC Thread]|[CS Thread]

---

2008:Two years ago - CC Corp Programming and Testing Division.

Five desks were arranged in a circle within a fairly large office room, the walls a plain white and decorated with various posters, the most prominent of which were advertisement posters for The World. The hum of computers and the light tapping of controllers or keyboards filled the room. A faint morning light shone through small gaps left by window blinds. Five employees of CC Corp sat at their desks, three men and two women, FMDs mounted upon their face. They spoke to each other frequently about things that would be clearly not present within the room if any outside party had stepped in. The spoke of The World.

The group of workers were slowly moving through a field within The World. The field that spread out before the five players was an old castle suspended high in the sky, numerous stone bridges connecting a slew of inverted spires which spread down beyond the clouds. Looking down they could see a grassy field below, the terrain slowly moving by as the castle floated mysteriously though the sky.

“Man...this place makes me feel dizzy.” The character who was known as Loch, draped in blues and blacks laughed lightly while taking a glance over the edge of one of the bridges before shaking her head.

“Just shows how well the game was made.” The second woman of the group, Tessa in the real world and Soph within the game responded with a light grin. The three men responded afterwards, the group conversing casually and laughing lightly as they went about their jobs of marking down bugs and errors within the unique field.

They continued their work normally for several hours before something strange happened. One of the men stopped at the intersection of several paths, staring into the distance with squinted eyes.

“Hey, wait a minuet. Whats that over there? It looks like the visuals are bugging out.” He said pointing off into the distance at a flickering portion of the skyline. The other four members of the group turned and looked curiously while jotting down notes in the real world. In the next moment a faint chime sounded out through the field, then the crackle of static. The scenery began to jerk and shift abnormally, pieces of the textures appearing to dissolve away revealing a grid pattern behind. The testers conversed in confusion for a few moments before one of the men's sentence was abruptly cut short.

One of the grids had sprang forward and ran the character through, which fell to the ground, the character model flickering before bursting away with another harsh crackle of static. Then two more burst forth not a minuet later, running through another of the men and the character Soph. They each fell and exploded into static.

“Laine, this place is badly bugged, log out!” Hayes, or Daniel Rollins, the remaining man within the group shouted. A moment later Laine logged out of The World and removed her FMD with a perplexed expression on her face. It took a moment for her to eyes to adjust, and to notice that three of their group were laying unconscious, the sound of static coming from their headsets. She quickly stood up and moved over to Tessa who sat beside her while Daniel checked the other two men. Laine shook Tessa's shoulder then removed the FMD, but there was no response. The situation was the same with the other two men.

“Hey, Tessa, C'mon get up already...” She muttered lightly while continuing to shake her friend who laid limp against the desk before looking around the room, seeing the two others in the same state and Daniel on a phone frantically delivering information and calling for an ambulance. Laine merely continued trying to wake her friend to no avail before falling to her knees...

Present Day

Laine sprang up from her bed in a cold sweat, breath shaky, eyes wide with a faint glistening of tears near the corners. She sat up with a hand clutched to her mouth, breathing heavily before she relaxed with a heavy breath, eyes drooping down into a worn and exhausted expression she had grown all too used to wearing.

“Dreaming again, huh..” She muttered to herself before crawling out of bed and moving right over to a desk which was a mess with random papers filled with notes, notebooks and pens The small room only lit by the faint glow of lights from her computer and monitor as she sat down. On the screen was an email which had been sent several days ago which she glanced over quickly.

From:Loch
TO:XXXXX
Subject: Seeking Assistance

If you are receiving this now you've been selected at random from a list of players of The World. I'm sure everyones heard plenty of rumors going around this game, but no ones managed to find out much of anything about them. I can't confirm anything yet but something in this game isn’t what it seems, I can say I know more about some of these things then the average player, but thats all I'll say here.

Long story short, I'm looking to get to the bottom some of these things. This isn’t some prank or trap, I'm serious about this but I can't do it on my own. If anyone receiving this is interested in finding out just what these rumors are all about come to Ω Sickened Imprisoned Fallen Angel on the day of the upcoming One Sin event. Don't bother if you're not serious about this.

Turn away from the mountain and find a small cottage hidden within the storm. If you can find it, lets just say you passed the entrance exam.
-Sent two days ago at 4:39 AM

Closing the email message Laine opened The World's forums and quickly browsed over the various threads within them. Every forum was filled with threads chattering about the event which would begin in only a few hours.

Community Forum/The World

Topic:Special Event-The One Sin.
Today the Crimson Knights are helping to hose a special event on the behalf of CC Corp! We encourage all players of The World to attend for a change to earn some great prizes! Come down to the Ω Server Lia Fail and use the keywords Sickened Imprisoned Fallen Angel to travel to the event field. I'll be at the start of the field to help players out and the Knights will be all through the area assisting however they can!
-Stark, GM of the Crimson Knights.

After glancing over some Laine pulled the FMD over her face and logged into The World. Only a short moment later and Loch was within The World, her vision filled with the ancient scenery of the Lia Fail server. Players clamored excitedly around the chaos gate making it a chore to move through the crowd to even get to the gate. Once there she recited the keywords, Sicked Imprisoned Fallen Angel and several runed rings whisked the character off to the event field.

Upon entering the players would be immediately greeted by the harsh whipping winds of the snow storm covering the field, the map players normally had within a field becoming blanked out and unusable. Far off in the distance was a massive mountain with stairs carved into its side, spiraling up to the summit, it was the only easily noticeable landmark within the field and the nearly blinding snow storm was sure to conceal a variety of deadly monsters waiting to ambush unsuspecting players. The event field itself was even more crowded then the root town but fortunately the area was much larger. The event had not yet officially begun but players were already spreading out through the area trying to get a head start, despite the warnings of the Crimson Knights, including their leader who was doing less warning and more joking with the players who waited for the event to begin properly.

Loch only spared a quick glance at the mountain in the distance before heading off in the opposite direction to a secluded cabin which was masked by the snow storm. Entering the building she lit several lanterns which would provide a beacon for players nearing the area and then sat herself near a window, watching the outside intently.


“Now we see if anyone will make it through the storm before the footprints are covered up.” she said to herself dryly, giving a faint laugh while watching for anyone with a dull expression.

[Reialgo]

Alex pushed open the main door of his home with an impressive level of personal restrain on his part, calling out "I'm home!" into the rooms ahead. Breathing heavily from running the majority of the way from college, he slipped off his shoes with little care and shuffled into the living room to go through the usual pleasantries with his father, his mother was still away in usual returned just in time for dinner. He quickly pointed out that he'd be up in his room for they day, ensuring that he'd keep an eye on the time before darting upstairs ignore all form of exhaustion. The cause of such excitement stemmed from a certain video game known as the world, granted he was old enough to not normally get riled up over video games but today was special, and not because of the event.

"It sure would have been nice to go though" he muttered as he infront of the familiar monitor, quickly booting up the PC and logging into the BBS. Despite what had been said, he would beat himself up to no end if he had ignored that E-mail, which he now opened and mulled over it's contents one last time. He figured the crimson knights had got a special area for the whole one sin thing so how this sender had a specific location ahead of time intrigued Alex, but more than that there was the possibility of finding out the truth about the coma rumors. Text alone couldn't convince whether this was all some kind of elaborate hoax exploiting the circumstances of a special event, but even for a PK trick it seemed to be going a little further than the average player would bother to go. A quick check of the BBS confirmed that it was mostly engulfed in topics involving the one sin, no surprise there and it simply meant less time not being logged in.

Slipping the FMD over his face, Gram reopened his eyes to be greeted with the usual sweeping visual offered by this game, though he had done more than his fair share of gaping at scenery and simply moved towards the Θ Server chaos gate, flicking open the inventory menu to give his equipment a quick check. Satisfied he ported over to the lia fail, where the normally mystic ruins were instead stuffed full of player swarming there way towards the server's own gate. Gram was immediately glad that he had ported from another root town and turned to the other gate, uttering "Sicked imprisoned fallen angel", almost immediately being surrounded by glowing rings that whisked him off to this special area

Before he was even given time to take in the new surroundings, a powerful wind rushed up to greet him. He was sure if the world had a pain simulator he would be feeling something closer to a thousand tiny knives raking across his character. On the subject of his surroundings, there was not infact much to observe, it was mostly a barren, white wasteland, the only defining feature was a gigantic mountain, clearly designed to pull the attention of every player. A little off from the warp in point was what would be most accurately described as a sea of characters waiting impatiently for the event to begin, though some had taken upon themselves to try and trek into the depths of the blizzard. The crimson knights could be heard calling out frequent warning to those players, as undoubtedly monsters of unknown power lurked outside the currently extremely obscure level of vision that players now had. Gram even managed to catch sight of the famous stark, who seemed far more laid back than his fellow crimson knights and was instead passing the time was casual chatter. Not wanting to waste anymore time incase a knight suddenly saw him delving into the blizzard himself, he turned in the exact opposite direction of the mountain and began to swiftly walk in what he hoped was a straight line. The usual map was rendered useless so Gram frequently glanced back towards the mountain to try and get his bearings. It was not too long before he saw a colour that wasn't white or grey, hoping that it was the light of the cottage he picked up his pace ever so slightly. The lack of monster ambushes was both relieving and worrisome at the same time and he planned on spending as little time in the blizzard as possible less the entire known had some kind of random monster spawn system.

Shortly after the cottage fully came into view, and so did the figure of a female player leaning out of one of it's windows. Figuring that she was the "Loch" from the E-mail he gave a friendly wave, not bothering with trying to shout over the wind. Only when he stepped inside the building did he offer a casual "Good evening", flicking off bits of snow clinging to his feet ware back to where they came. He refrained from starting up questions for the time being assuming that she would wait for more arrivals before explaining herself properly, for the time being Gram made a bee line for the nearest seat, leaving the neutral looking woman to continue to scan for more players

[Psyker Landshark]

Real World

Unlocking the door to his apartment, Connor stepped inside with a bag of groceries in hand, which he proceeded to set down on his counter as he checked the time. Eh, the Crimson Knights event on The World wasn't going to start for another few hours, so he might as well cook dinner. And so he unpacked his groceries, putting some pasta on the stove to boil while he prepared some sauce. A short while later, both the pasta and sauce were ready, and Connor sat down, enjoying his dinner while checking his work emails on his phone. There wasn't anything urgent from his coworkers, so he figured he was safe for the night.

"Well, looks like there's nothing that needs my attention. Good for me." He muttered under his breath as he finished his meal, taking the dishes he used and cleaning them before walking over to his computer. Sitting down, he booted up the system and put his FMD on, logging in to The World after doing his usual forum sweep. That email he’d received a few days ago had drawn Connor’s attention, convincing him to at least attend the One Sin event. Normally, a rare monster like that wouldn’t interest him, but even if he’d never received that strange email, he still would’ve gone. After all, there would probably be a few Subterfuge members or other PKers attending the event just to grief the Crimson Knights, and he’d simply love to fight them.

___

The World

Lantus spawned in the middle of Lumina Cloth and immediately made his way over to the Chaos Gate, first transferring to Lia Fail before entering the area words Sickened Imprisoned Fallen Angel, warping to the event field. The mountain was the first object on the field he noticed, the second being the ridiculous storm surrounding the area. Frowning, Lantus took a moment to go into his options menu to turn weather effects off, but even with that, the snowstorm's graphics were unchanged.

"Even turning down the graphics setting doesn't help? Whoever made this field really thought this through." The former Emperor muttered under his breath, before following the instructions from the email and walking in the direction opposite the mountain. His red cloak made him rather distinctive, though, and a number of players shouted in his direction, recognizing him. Looking back, Lantus smiled in anticipation as he noticed a group of players start to follow him, looking rather angry. Probably Subterfuge players he'd PKKed before, then. Walking away, he simply brushed aside the Crimson Knight that tried to warn him away from leaving as he sent a quick Whisper to Stark.

"Hope you don't mind if I take these PKs off your hands. Then again, even if you do, I don't really care." He chuckled in amusement before switching his chat back to Local and walked off a distance into the blizzard, drawing his black sword and waiting for the PKs to come to him. The red-cloaked PC didn't have to wait long before several players appeared in front of him, weapons drawn.

"Took you long enough." Lantus grinned, Calamity Bringer in hand. "Let me guess: you've got some kind of personal vendetta against me for PKKing you, blah blah blah. You punks from Subterfuge?"

"You're damn right, asshole!" One player screamed, a Wavemaster if the tome he gripped was any indication. And that'd be the one he'd target first. After all, healers deserved priority. Lantus brushed a hand aside dismissively before any of the PKs could speak further.

"Wonderful. Now let's get to fighting. Your talking's starting to bore me." And the PKK charged forward, immediately lunging at the Wavemaster's throat with his blade. To his surprise, the player didn't even react at all, and died instantly from the fatal strike. Whipping around, Lantus lashed out with Calamity Bringer, the sword claiming two more victims in one shot as the last three PKs stepped back in shock. The former Arena Emperor could only frown in disappointment, as this wasn't the challenge he'd expected it to be. "Do you guys even know how to block or dodge? You really shouldn't be dying in one hit like this..." And with a final disappointed snort, he simply walked past the last three PKs, intent on getting to the cabin and seeing if anything else could challenge him.

For their part, the PKs were more outraged that one of their most hated targets could dismiss them so easily than shocked that half their number had gone down already.

"W-wait! You don't just get to walk away like that!" A Twin Blade shouted, rushing towards him alongside his fellows. Turning around, Lantus simply looked at them coldly.

"Just go back to noob hunting and come find me again when you've learned how to actually take a hit." When the PKs continued to charge, the black-armored man just raised his sword. "There's seriously no entertainment value in this. Die." And Lantus whirled around with Calamity Bringer, ripping all three players in half with his blade. Shaking his head, he proceeded onwards for a few minutes until he finally found the cabin. The red-cloaked PC simply booted down the door with weapon in hand, noticing two PCs inside already.

"I got your email. But is this really the best you could do? Ambushing me with a bunch of idiots that couldn't even block a single attack. You going to do any better?" Lantus grinned, brandishing Calamity Bringer. Hopefully, they'd agree to battle, because he wasn't going to attack someone that wouldn't fight back.

[Radius]

Piles of paper, notepads and books were strewn atop the glass surface of a coffee table. A figure, Anna, hunched over them while holding a cup of tea in one hand, with the other planted squarely in her face, supporting the weight with her elbow. Right in front of her were statements of her monthly cash flow and apparently, with all the red figures towards the bottom, her expenses had caught up with her. A view of the scene's profile, one can easily make out the Portrait of Midlife Crisis.

"Seems like I've overspent yet again this month..." Anna managed to sigh after a rather long moment of silence. She reassessed her situation, weighed her expenditure in the various fields of necessity and luxury before letting out another drawn-out sigh.

"If anything, this is a jolly good time to start following the dietary guidelines brochures I've collected for the past few months!" Rising in a sudden movement with both hands raised and balled into fists, Anna stated as a matter-of-factly. As this is how things are since she started living on her own, she must be plenty used to it by now. She started the habit to record her expenses for the monthly statements, hoping to cull her habit of spontaneous purchases of items categorized under Luxury. Instead, it served to demotivate her further as her habit persists through the hard-fought battles to control it. Somewhat like her optimism.

That train of thoughts somewhat led Anna to think of what she would call The Best Time of the Day - her personal free time to delve into The World. The thoughts of the newest model of FMD and gamepad she bought on her way home today set a wide grin onto her face, wiping her of monetary and other worldly worries. Through that, she was reminded of an e-mail she received a few days back. A peculiar mail from one Loch requesting assistance, perhaps for the upcoming in-game event, from a group of players, herself included. It did specify a meeting place for the receivers which she came to forget. Rather than tiring herself before then, she slipped into her bedroom, thinking of naught but the potential rewards to reap.

Securing herself on the seat, Anna turned on her PC and stared intently at the screen. Barely able to contain her excitement in regards of the upcoming event, the OS took seeming forever to load and as the ALTIMIT logo finally showed itself, Anna had finished browsing the BBS for the juicy bits of information and speculations on her smart phone. She put on her shiny new FMD and held tightly onto her gamepad as she felt the world spinning. Her vision dives into the game world of The World. Right after the lengthy loading screen, Anna, now Melfette found herself right in front of the Chaos Gate of the capital city for the Omega Server, Lia Fail.

The weathered city of stones and pillars would normally be bustling with activity at that time. The unusual sight of an nearly deserted central area made Melfette prompt her in-game clock function to ensure that she's not totally off the schedule. The time was right, fortunately, and the majority of the people was ahead of her, prepped and ready to attend the event in the designated zone. The zone made especially for the event, which was...

"Sickened. Imprisoned. Fallen Angel!" Shouted an excited Melfette as she entered those keywords into the terminal of the Chaos Gate. Its circular surface began to shine, signifying the gate's activation. Casting another glance at her inventory, Melfette leaped into the Chaos Gate gleefully. Things soon turn sour as she was greeted by the harsh winter environment on the other side. The map function was locked, which meant that a nonchalant navigation would be met with a swift end. A quick scan around the zone revealed nothing spectacular, except an intimidating mountain directly to the north of the zone's entrance. The south was similarly dull and dark, but amidst the dark blue sky and white, grey snow, a spot of contrasting yellow and orange was found. Tracing a pathway leading to the light source led Melfette's eyes to the prints left in the snow by those before her. A huge amount of converged trails led north while a small number deviated south towards the light.

The observation told Melfette a tale of what happened at the place before her arrival. Trusting in her instinct as a Rare Hunter, she began her strode south, directly opposite of the mountain to the north. "Might as well enjoy the scenery while I'm here..." Remarked a visibly shaking Melfette who ended her phrase with a slight brrrr. Closing into the source of light revealed that it was in fact a cottage in the middle of nowhere. There, right in front of the door stood a huge man holding a huge sword who seemed like he was about to kick it open... Which he did. The action compelled Melfette to dash forward into a leap which had her landing slightly next to the towering man. She balanced and stopped with the unwarranted help of the man's sturdy leg and the door frame.

"Reporting for duty!" Melfette cried out loud without noticing the awkward silence preceding her interruption. A glance to the participants made her realize that the situation wasn't as she had thought. A rare moment of embarrassment came over her as she jolted back onto her bottom in the snow at the glare of the towering man. Her ears drooping low as she started to imagine what might have happened to her then.

I wonder if I have prepared adequately the materials for my next class - the only thought to surface in the fearful mind of a Rare Hunter faced with her possible death in a video game.

[Lucius Cypher]

Donny Kain

The sound of crying could be heard as Donny was shifting through a set of knives. Tried to a chair, bloodied and bruised, sat a boy around his teens. "Boy, you shouldn't have even think that you could skimp out on your job. You let one of them go, but that's nothing new. Every now and then, a little victim's spared... Cause she smiled, cos he's got freckles, cos they begged. And that's how you live with yourself, that's how you slaughter millions, because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction, you happen to be kind."" Donny stabbed a knife into the boy's shoulder, then jerked it out. Blood shot out and the boy tried to scream, but his mouth was sewn shut. "Well kindness ain't gunna do shit if it means you brought danger to my family. By little sister got a bullet in her leg, and who do we got to thank for that? You motherfucker. Cause you thought that little bitch you spared weren't going to do anything." Donny raised the knife and slashed him across the face, opening up his cheek. Then he placed his hand on the teen's face, pushing him to the ground. "Well here's what's gunna happen. You're going to die. Simple. As simple as the order's we gave to you to waste that girl. Unlike you, I'm going to follow through with it." Donny stabbed the knife into the teen's crotch, and then brought over a bucket. In it was his homemade napalm. Pouring the flammable solution over the teen, Donny took out a match and lit it. He tired it to a peice of string above the boy, and then began to burn one side. Eventually, the fire would burn the string, and the match would fall onto the boy dosed in napalm. "Well, technically, I didn't have to kill you. Just show you that what you did was very bad. But you cut into my game time. So there's that." Donny walked away from the scene, coming out from a basement. Soon screaming could be heard, but Donny was long gone by then. He was riding his bike home, occasionally getting a few "yo" and "wussup" from passerby.

Once he got home, Donny was greeted by a girl dressed in a sexy outfit. She was one of his older sister's hookers, though since she was here, Donny assumed that she had just finished taking to his sister. Or something. Donny snapped his fingers and pointed at her, and she smiled a back, but otherwise the two walked away without any further conversation. Donny headed up stairs, but before he went to his room, he went to his little sister's room. She was sitting on her bed, tapping away at her Ipad. "Hey chitlins, how you feeling?" Donny's sister looked at him, a faint but sad smile on her face. She told Donny that her leg stilled hurt, and Donny informed her that he made sure to punish everyone who caused her to be hurt like that. She didn't say anything for a little while, and Donny asked her if he could get anything for her. She just shook her head, and tear going down her face. "Hey now, don't cry. You'd a strong girl, you know. I mean, you got shot, and the first thing you did was slap that bitch who put the bullet in you. Most girls you be crying or dying. Hey, I'll be back a little bit later, kay? Rest well." Donny kissed his sister on the forehead and walked out of her room, heading strait to his. Once inside, he locked the door, took off excess clothes, and went strait to his computer. "Aright, let's see what's going on in Za Waldo." Fitting his FMD over his head, Donny dived into the game.

---The World---

Kain opened his eyes to see the Omega Server. He had been here his last play through, spreading visual glitches around the server just to mess with people. But because he forgot to activate his hacking program, he would have to play legitimately, at least until he decides to activate them. But before he went to go play around, he received an E-mail from someone called Loch. She wanted help, over at the One Sin event. Kain didn't bother to read through the whole E-mail, and eagerly jumped at the opportunity to go on an adventure. Before he left, he sold most of the loot her had on him, brought some potions and scrolls, and headed to the Chaos Gate. Uttering the words "Ω Sickened Imprisoned Fallen Angel", Kain was warped away though runed rings, sent to the event field.

Once he hit the field, Kain felt the blistering blizzard whip across his face. He flinched, but after a few seconds, he was able to tolerate it. He remembered the destination of the meeting, towards the moutains, but no doubt many monsters and Chaos Gates would be in the way. Cracking his knuckles, Kain took out a scroll. "Ap Do!" A circle appeared underneath Kain, as his body was granted a speed boost. Occasionally, he would run into a stray player or wondering monster, and had to either flee or runaway. So long as they didn't have a magical immunity, he easily circled around them, bombarding them with spells and letting them walk into his traps. Otherwise he simply fled. Soon enough, he found a cabin of sorts, with footprints that were fading away. He didn't enter immediately, however, seeing that there were already three players there. If this was a trap, he wasn't about to go without setting up some of his own. Seeing someone at the door, Kain knew who he was immediately. The PKKer, Former Arena Champion, Armsmaster, Lantus. Kain was a bit hesitant, but then again, what does he have to be afraid of? Lantus wouldn't know a nobody like Kain. Seeing that Lantus was more interested in people inside the cabin, Kain consumed a Artisan Soul, and headed around the cabine to set up traps for all of them.

[Lucius Cypher]

Ringo Riovas

Ringo opened her eyes when her alarm went off. She sat up in her bed and reached for one of her cats and a cigarette. She lit it up and smoked as she petted her cat, and hacked her lungs after a few puffs. After finishing her cig, she got off her bed, taking her crutch. She hobbled to her kitchen, making herself a bowl of cereal. No lights were on in her house, as it was illuminated only by the sunlight through her windows. She sat at her table eating her food, occasionally letting one of her cats come by and eat a few bites. Ringo then took her bowl to the sink after she was done eating, cleaned it, and put it in a shelf. Ringo used the bathroom, smoked another cigarette, and strummed her guitar a bit. She laid on her bed as she looked at her ceiling, poking and touching her missing eye. Sometimes her cat would come up and lick the stump that was her left leg, but eventually Ringo got back up, and headed to her computer. "Let's see... Should I?" A few days ago, Ringo received a E-Mail from someone called Loch. She didn't know the name, but knew that he was looking for help. He was investigating a rumor or some such, in the same place as the One-Sin Event. Ringo just figured that it was just another event gimmick, though she would take it a bit more seriously if it was legitimate. Fitting the FMD over her head, Ringo entered The World.

---The World---

Mad Apple was in Mac Anu. She only has two day's worth of gaming, which while it may seem to be a lot, she's been playing The World for at least a month now. Comparatively, other players who had started around the same time have already become decent players, some even gaining much more renown. While she wasn't a slouch either, she's a bit underleveled to go somewhere like the Omega server. "But whatever! I was called for help, and help I shall!" Mad Apple went to the Elf Haven and withdrew the essentials consumables, equipping gear that should be able to give her some defense in Sickened Imprisoned Fallen Angel. She knew it was a snow field, so she equipped water-defense armor and took fire scroll spells. Once she was adequately prepared, she switched to the Omega Server, Relic City Lia Fail.

Upon entering the Omega Server, Mad Apple was aghast. Compared to Mac Anu, the players around Lia Fail were much better armed and armored. She felt overwhelmed at being outmatched by everyone here, gripping Gore Buster for safety. But now taht she was here, she would have to head to the even field. "One Sin... I wonder if I can defeat it." She read a bit about it, knowing that she can only harm it during it's attack, and only by using an opposing element. In preparation, she brought scrolls for each element, but she was unsure how much damage she could cause with just scrolls alone. But Mad Apple didn't let doubt hold her for long, and soon after arriving, she left. "Ara! Go go go! Sickened Imprisoned Fallen Angel!" Raising her weapon into the air, Mad Apple was warped to the event field.

Upon arriving, Mad Apple was greeted by some Crimson Knights. They knew her and greeted her warmly, though they questioned if she was strong enough to handle the monsters around here. "Hey, no problem. I didn't come here unprepared, you know! Observe!" Mad Apple took out something from her pack; a Grunty Flute. The Crimson Knights laughed and congratulated Mad Apple for her ingenuity, but warned her that she can't use Grunties in Dungeons, and not against One Sin. "S'okay. I'm just going to look around for a bit, so you know, keep ouy those trouble makers, yeah? Bye!" Mad Apple summoned a grunty, her Rocker Grunty, who she calls "King". "Alright! Let's go King, to that mountain!" Mad Apple and King raced towards the mountain, outrunning any mosnter they came across. Occasionally, she spotted a PKer harassing other players, and she would start firing upon them before getting close enough to gore them, dragging them far away. Then she drops them off, typically near a powerful looking monster.

After messing around in the field for a while, Mad Apple eventually found a cabin opposite of the mountain. During her little crusade, she leveled up twice, and found high level Twin Blades called "Ice Sickles". She trotted up to the cabin, but saw that other people have arrived before her. "Yahoo! Anyone home? Loch?"

[Seltak]

AJ Scrubbed away at a dirty pan as he listened to his sister scribble away at her homework. It was a daily routine. Hailey cooked, AJ cleaned while she did any homework she might have, and then they said their good nights. He was wiping down the last plate when his sister kissed him on the cheek and walked into her bedroom. Yawning a bit himself, he put the dish away in the cabinet, walked to the computer and powered it on. He watched as the screen loaded, until it was at his desktop. It showed a picture of his family at the beach, about a two years ago. Gazing at it for a moment, he booted The World up, put on his headset, and jumped straight into the game.

----

Seltak watched as people gathered around the gate, trying their best to get into the event before it started. It was almost comical. It was like someone threw cash into the air, and everyone and their mother was trying to get their fair share. To be honest, it wasn't like The World hosted many of these events, and it had been talked up by anyone who had a mouth or a keyboard. Deciding to see what all the fuss was about, Seltak moved quietly through the crowd, until he was close enough to enter the keywords and port to the event.

Seltak's hair was immediately a mess as the wind kicked at him. Even with the hundreds of people crowding around, the wind was still fierce. He imagined that the event couldn't have been at a paradise. He got a few angry glances from some of the Crimson Knights at his arrival, and he knew what they were thinking. It didn't bother him in the slightest, and he ignored them all the same. He had his reasons for leaving, and some of them understood. What they couldn't understand was his blind rage, and why he completely rid himself of their ideals, in favor of their arch enemies.

Watching the outskirts, he watched as several members of his guild stalked beyond the control of the Crimson Knights. Sure, they could protect you while you where in their domain, but out in the storm, you were anyone's game. The world hadn't been set up for rules against PKers, and neither would any event they sanctioned outside of a root town. Most of his clan ran in groups, making it easier to prey off the weak. Seltak preferred a one on one fight, liking the challenge. He almost never ganged up on weaker players, unless it was a really bad day.

After a minute of walking around, he spotted Gram walking towards the outer bounds of the event, away from the mountain and towards the storm. The man had gotten the drop on Seltak the last time they met, and he was a good fighter in his own right. Maybe today would be a little fun after all. Walking after him, he was stopped suddenly by a Crimson Knight. He was about to push past him when he recognized the name.

"Hello Dex, it has been a while, hasn't it?"

Dex was a heavy arms player with the Crimson Knights, and a former partner of Seltak. When he left, Dex took it as a personal insult that he went straight into player killing, after all the justice they had given other players.

"Making your way out to prey on some innocent fool are we? Can't say I'm surprised, though you sure are taking your time today." He wasn't happy, that was for sure.

"Well, you know what they say, patience is a virtue." Seltak was standing beside Dex now, facing the other direction. He could almost feel the tension between the two.

"Well, I know you have soo much work to do, keeping an eye on your little county fair, and I really must be going." Seltak started walking off before Dex's hand reached out and grabbed his own. They two players starred at each other, for what seemed like forever, before Dex finally let go. Smirking, Seltak walked off into the storm.

"Do say hello to everyone for me, won't you pal?" Waving behind him, he disappeared into the snow.

Tracking Gram wasn't easy, but he soon came to see a small light in the distance. Seeing how that could have been the only thing Gram would have gone to, he started for it. He wondered if this could be a trap, to lure in potential PKers. Gram was sly, but he doubted he was that sly. As he got closer, he watched as a small man was running around placing traps on the ground. He smiled, pulled out his weapon and knelt to the ground, keeping his silhouette almost no-existent, especially in this storm while wearing almost all white.

"No this is a party..."

[Zigsquiddly]

Real World

Lloyd Stretched his arms, stepping back from his desk as he looked around for a sense of time. The clock showed 12:42 pm. Lloyd guessed that he had been asleep for about 4 hours, having spent the entire night before getting himself prepped for today’s events. besides his desk, a board was plastered with images of Ω SICKENED IMPRISONED FALLEN ANGEL he gathered from the net, alongside his own area maps. Along the side were lists and depictions of creature types and spawn points he expected to see at the event. He had taken the liberty of marking a few locations where he could expect this Cabin area to be on map. I can’t believe I didn’t think to check that direction. I wonder how this player was able to find it so easily in that storm condition...

He bent over to reached a mini fridge by his desk-occasionally-turned-bed, and pulled out the last of his colas; he had been saving the last burst of caffeine for this evening. Lloyd cracked it open as he sat down at his desk, waking the comp from sleep mode as he talked to himself.

“So unfortunate to be missing today’’s actual event. The new revisions are going to go unmarked on my layouts. . .I’ll have to wait until afterwards to get the info.”

He grabbed his FMD off of its metallic holder, and slipped it over his head, taking one last look at the board before he Logged in.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE WORLD

Cyro appeared in Mac Anu, where he had traded off last years One Sin data to the nearby Midgard Venue before he logged out last night. He took a brief stroll over to the edge of one of the canals, reaching his hand as if to touch the water. Cyro had always like the layout of this city, and the attention to detail was astonishing, even by his standards. Well, I should get to the event early, I don't know how hard it will be to find the meeting place.

Transferring to the Omega Server, he found himself in the empty starting area of Lia Fail. Wow, Two hours early, and still I am beat here by most of the players. Stark and the knights really went all out promoting the event this year.

With the only crowd of players by the chaos gate, Cyro could make out the full circles of the courtyard floors, the cracked tiles showing good use of the latest bump map coding. He made no rush to head over to the crowded gate, stopping for a moment to review his inventory. When everything seemed in place, Lloyd fumbled around RL on his desk, locating the pad and pen he kept for note taking during the game. It was a skill that even a year later, he still had difficulties keeping up with in game actions. but with an email like the one sent to him by this Loch player, he knew he wouldn’t want to forget anything. This might well be the first solid lead of information that Odyssey had in the last three months.

He finally made over to the chaos gate, and opted to type in the gate keys over the traditional voice option. No need to point out the obvious today. The screen flashed in a flurry of white, as the gale winds of Ω Sickened Imprisoned Fallen Angel greeted him once again. He took a few moments to watch the other players. Many eager parties had already set off, and Cyro Shook his head. He counted them off as one by one, each team descended into the preset monster spawns, and were pushed back or sent packing as the high challenge creatures attacked in force. He saw the Crimson knights’ station, and heading there first. Stark was being his usual self, keeping the upper level contenders occupied while the rest of the knights tracked down the foolhardy players who were trying to head off ahead. As he looked in the direction the message indicated, Cyro was surprised to see a substantial amount of footprints leading off away from the Event Mountain. How many people did this message get sent to? He sighed, maybe this wasn’t going to be the excitement he was hoping for. He pulled over a nearby knight,

“Excuse me, but what is off in that direction?” Cyro asked, pointing toward the tracks.

“Nothing is in that area,” the knight informed, “just some early-start players walking toward an early end. You're not thinking of heading out too I hope? The event doesn't kick off for another 20 minutes.”

Cyro replied “I’m not here for the event today sadly, I have my guild duties to map out the Field, and I wouldn’t want to miss out on the chance of a secret area.”

“Suit yourself, just be sure to watch out, quite a few PK today only here for the item loaded loners such as yourself.” The knight cautioned, before heading after toward the start area as the event countdown timer displayed.

Cyro looked toward the set of tracks: One direction had far too many going at once, and was likely PK’ers. Another set were a bit wandering, heading toward a dim light source, and seemed a bit obvious. Cyro chose to follow the straight set, which had almost faded completely in the snow. It took a few minutes of walking, but he found himself nearing the light source, which upon closer inspection was a small cabin with a single light source. So the lead wasn’t a Trifle rumor mill after all. He took 10 minutes, AFK in the snow, while he charted the course he had taken on his RL notebook. A quick note to his Guild Leader “FOUND DESTINATION, HEADING TO CABIN TO INVESTIGATE” and Cyro made the final steps to the cabin door. He stopped as he saw the faded recognizable markings of a trap set, a sight all too common in low visibility maps like these. Someone is having a bit of fun.... He took a slow steady path, looking for the routes the player had not accounted for. His route found him near a side door, which he went to rather than chance an encounter at the front doorstep.

As Cyro entered it turned out his caution was correct, as a large Arena Player had his weapon drawn, and behind him a small, eared player was plopped back in the snow. Cyro approached the group, holding his hands up as he grinned. Things today we're definitely going to be interesting.

[Noel]

Back at the start of the field Stark received a message from a player who he only managed to catch a glimpse of before they rushed off into snowstorm. It was one of many but the leader of the Crimson Knights made it a point to respond to every message he received.

”Self defense if self defense, and if they can dish it out they can take it. Just don't go picking on anyone who doesn’t deserve it or I might have to come pick on you!” Was the message Stark replied to the whisper with, coupled with a casual laugh before he went back to conversing with other players and directing the Knights which doled out instructions to the masses of excited players.

Meanwhile at the cabin Loch watched idly as the first player to respond to the email approached and stepped into the cabin. A polite enough player, the blind folded woman nodded to acknowledge his presence before going back to watch for new arrivals. The man didn't bother to say anything more or to introduce himself and she in turn did the same. It would be fairly obvious who she was to anyone arriving at the secluded little cabin anyway after all. Not too long after another player cloaked in red burst into the room in a fashion she deemed unnecessarily showy.

Loch casually turned to look at the man as he spoke, her eyes would have been drilling into the man with a mix of faint annoyance and apathy if they hadn’t been covered by the dull bandages across her face. Being a former information dealer herself it didn't take long to recognize the player as a former arena champion, one who was itching for a fight evident by the way they held their weapon. Loch stood up from the chair she sat in beside the window with a sigh, stepping up to the red clad player.

“Is that how you come into someones home? I'm not here to pick fights you dolt, anyone coming here can see the tons for players here for this event, are you really full of it enough to think I'd bother hiring some two bit PK to off you?” Loch spoke plainly, her voice carrying a bit of a tired tone as she addressed the player. A moment later she caught a glimpse of a player sneaking around the perimeter of the cabin Soon two female PCs approached the cabin, each of them seeming far more enthusiastic then the two men who had arrived. Though the red cloaked arena champion could be considered enthusiastic depending on how you thought of it.

Distracted by the boisterous players who had entered through the front door and the presence of someone sneaking around the area Loch only barely noticed the creak of a side door opening. In a swift movement Loch span around, drawing her sword and pointing it in the direction of the player who had entered through the side door. She let out a light breath seeing the player already raising his hands cautiously. She lowered her weapon then looked between the group of players that had gathered.

“Alright...” She began, turning back toward Lantus. “If you're so interested in a fight why don't you go deal with whoevers sneaking around out there. I'd rather not have someone spying and have this become yet another rumor.” She said while patting the man on the shoulder, he seemed more out for a fight then anything else so why not use that to an advantage? Having some muscle never hurt after all. Loch couldn’t help but spread a faint grin at the though.

“As for the rest of you, I wouldn't be surprised if you don't believe any of what I tell you here but I'm sure as not hell taking the trouble to do this for a prank.” She paused for a moment and sat back down in the chair by the window, crossing her legs and leaning an elbow against the window sill. “But if you're going to help me with this I don't want you talking about anything I tell you to anyone outside of this group unless I say so. I want to keep this out of public eye.” She took a glance out the window and gave another light sigh.

“Unreasonable? Maybe, but thats what I need. Some people I can trust to help and not spread the situation like random gossip.” The woman gave a dry laugh and shook her head, almost as if she could barely believe the situation herself. “Its up to each of you if you want to stay and hear me out, if you don't want to you can leave and you'll never hear from me again.”

[Lucius Cypher]

Donny Kain

Kain finished messing around the cabin. He scattered multiple low level traps around for perspective players to spot. This would distract them from the actually more lethal traps, which were hidden close to the cabin and a bit away from it as well. After using up most of his mana to set up his tricks, he infiltrated the cabin. He saw the person inside, who he assumed to be Loch, seem rather jumpy at the sudden arrival of multiple players. Kain regretted not having his hax activated, as he would have a field day screwing around with Loch. But for now, he would just pretend that he’s just some random player who stumbled by. He sat on the roof near the chimney, listening in on Loch. What ever she wanted them to do, it was quite hush-hush. Kain wouldn’t make any promises to that, but for his own interest, he might be willing to keep it under wraps. Taking out his lute, Deaf Death, Kain played the BGM.

Ringo Riovas

Mad Apple dismissed her grunty, stepping out of the blizzard and into the cabin. She recognized a few faces in the cabin. There was Lantus the former Arena Champion and Melfett the Mirage Seeker. Both were rather well known in The World, Lantus especially. Some people boast about being close to attaining the title of Arena Champion. Lantus has had that title more then once. ”Wow, quite a group.” Mad Apple stood by the corner of the room, observing everyone and listening to Loch. Mad Apple’s original enthusiastic grin soon faded as the situation became a bit darker. No doubt this has to do something about those glitches everyone’s been affected by, and though Ringo herself could care less, as Mad Apple she felt it was her duty to do something to help. ”You have my word, Loch, I won’t tell anyone outside this cabin. Though if I may ask… What exactly have you gathered us here for specifically? You E-mail wasn’t very specific, and while I’m willing to help you, I’d like to know what I’m about to head into.”