BlueYellow

Dissonant Steel Online

Totsurugi looked around after having landed in the sewer, spotting the slimes and taking out her staff to get ready for battle before being promptly stopped by her adventuring partner. Something about his tone didn't sit right with her, she gritted her teeth and looked forwards and back from Beardo to the slimes a few times before letting out a frustrated sigh at the explanation with a "Fine...". As they ventured forth with Beardo dispatching any gelatinous enemy with a ranged attacked, something didn't sit right with Totsu, she caught herself several times reaching her staff forth in preparations for casting a spell before retracting again and letting Beardo continue on.

The signs were more than a help; a godsend really, with the amount of turns, offshoots, dead-ends and and turns Totsu could see on their path with likely exponentially more had they followed any one of these paths they would have gotten lost within a minute of having steppe foot inside of this maze of mazes, a necessity to connect all of the various houses. "Hey.. um... what is that?" Totsu stopped and pointing down one of the hallways, a massive blob was moving through the passageways several feet away, going only a few centimeters per second but it looked much, much larger than anything they had encountered before, taking up the entirety of the hallway, "Oh. The Tsar Slime." Beardo replied, "He's a much higher level than anything else in this place, mostly just to force you to think out your path carefully if you aren't following the main quest line in here, he's slow and doesn't have any ranged attacks so he's not really a threat just, kinda makes you think before taking a path. He does drop some pretty good potion ingredients but the threat of the glitch keeps most players away from farming him anyways" He pointed towards the next guiding arrow, far from the large blob, "Thankfully he keeps away from the main quest path, we don't need to worry about him".

Totsu nodded slowly at the explanation and continued on behind her armored friend. Eventually they turned down one of the paths, only the single straight sewer leading from it. As the path continued there were some sounds that could be heard as an echo, clarifying into syllables as they got closer and then then faint aspects of a voice, sounding like someone was chanting. Totsu slowly inhaled and followed along, looking around nervously even despite being flanked by walls on both sides. "This whole places gives me the creeps, seriously" she muttered, mostly to herself. The forward path ended some distance away, a corner coming into view the closer they got, turning it, a large chamber came into view with what could only be assumed to be the Bishop standing there, chanting something over god knows what.

Totsu gasped and quickly took out her staff, the Bishop didn't react much other than just growing a broad smile as magic started to flood from it's body, the spell ready.

Space-age Sci-fi RP

I've always had a softspot for these, taking a more anime-ish approach rather than western media. More Gundam rather than either Star Trek or Wars. Giant capital ships, warmechs as heavy cavalry, space militaries, space battles, different planets, all the good stuff.

There are several different ways to go about the theme or how to start one. Including:

• A local capital ship is stopping in orbit of a planet to restock on a few different things, repair parts, fuel, maybe recruiting to replenish the ranks and train them while en route to the next battlefield.
• Already being a part of the ship's crew, maybe two or more members that are interacting for the first time, due to some movement in ranks, promotions or other shuffling around of personnel.
• After a battle of heavy casualties, two escape pods land relatively close to eachother on a nearby planets. Only trouble is, they are god knows how many miles from the nearest civilization and they are from the opposite sides, still, two people have a better chance of surviving together than just one.
• After a battle or even just spotting someone on a neutral planet, someone is taken as a prisoner of war to be interrogated on information that could help in the war effort, then go from there.

Of course you are free to suggest your own ideas if you have any, always interested in something along these themes or even new ones. It's just the space sci-fi i like.

Dissonant Steel Online

Totsu picked up a bone from a skeleton and looked towards Beardo, "Kinda weird how we see all of these weapons and things that the monster that obviously drops but the game doesn't let us use." and if by will, the bone disappeared from her hand with the rest of the corpse (if a skeleton dies does it make a corpse or a re-corpse? Anyways), "Yeah i was just testing my skills and what i can do in this game properly to fight, haven't had much of a chance to just do random stuff to figure it out, thought now was as good a time as any."

Beardo scratched his beard a bit and nodded, "Yeah, i can see why, programming it into the game would take a lot of effort, that same time could be used to make something more significant that adds more impact, like more quests or storylines or bug fixes." Totsu nodded her head slowly and walked closer to him, "Yeah, like do one big thing or twenty small things? That makes sense, i mean this is a videogame so it's whatever."

"Speaking of." Beardo went into his inventory and scrolled down on the panel, selecting an item and spawning it in his hand; a small-ish crystal, sparkling with electricity. "Here. Try this one."

Totsu received the crystal looking towards a nearby pack of skeletons, absorbing the crystal before charging up her attack and flinging a light purplish bolt towards one of the monsters, on impact it scattered and shot out a lightning bolt from the skeleton, chaining between nearby targets and stunning them for a few seconds, though not killing them so after the stun all of the monsters hit came running at once.

Beardo raised an eyebrow, seemingly expecting the crystal to kill the skeletons outright, he took a few steps in front of Totsu before lifting his axe"[/color] "[Monstrous Cleave]!" Beardo swung his axe in a wide horizontal arc, taking all of the monsters down in front of them once they reached the pair. "Sorry for that, i thought that would kill them... We might need to upgrade your gear, you're still wearing just what you started with, right?" to which Totsu nodded, answering in the affirmative, "We might take care of that back in the city when we get there, silly that these quests don't give you more gear, given the XP they give."

Totsu just smiled, "Thank you. Your gear like affects like all of the numbers associated right? I'm assuming that's how you get more health or defense or damage and all that, right?" seeing Beardo confirm she nodded back, "So, shall we continue on with the quests? I think that's.... Three out of five done? Two left?"

Beardo nodded slowly and pointed towards a direction, "I think so, the tent should be over there some place" Totsu nodded and started to walk back with him, leaning her head back and thinking while they slowly made their way over to the next quest. They made it back to the tent in relative silence.

"Tea Party District. Sounds like they had it good here before whatever happened took place" She grinned as she accepted the new quest, "There was also talk on some sort of magic spell, do you think it is something that I could learn?".

Dissonant Steel Online

Kick - Pull - Slash - Lunge. The problem wasn't the attacks so much but it was the order of which they came, initially they didn't seem to have any rhyme or reason towards them. It took a fair bit of time to realize that Totsu was getting pulled back to the middle every time and he seemed to fight better while he was in the middle. Though getting any time to charge up an attack while stood off to the side of the arena proved a rather frustrating challenge. The best she could manage was to whittle down his health and chug one of the health potions she got in a totally fair and just manner for full price.

It took her longer than anticipated considering her stellar performance in her last trials, her attention never holding for long and having to readjust herself to her surroundings which caused a lot of interrupted spells and moving around but finally. Finally the smarmy butthole lay defeated.

Laig, not deserving of the honor of being called Ser if you'd ask some, fell down to one knee finally, "Huzzah! A Worthy Squire!" he continued speaking but it all just went in one ear and out of the other. She slumped down onto the ground and leaned back, looking towards the sky. "I'll be on later today... I'm going to rest for a moment" she spoke up before bringing up her menu and pressing "Log Out", her character soon disappearing.

Lifting the gear off of his head, a young man lay there with messy hair that hadn't been trimmed in a while. Resting in an inclined bed wearing a blue buttoned up shirt, his bottom half under the covers. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes even though the lighting within the room was remarkably soft, groaning a bit before reaching for two things on his nightstand; a pair of glasses and a tablet that was charging. He slid his glasses on and opened his messenger app, tapping on "Usernames" before sending, "Sorry for logging off so abruptly. That guy was really getting on my nerves. Plus I have to be somewhere in twenty minutes, I'll likely be on after dinner"

Closing it before moving to another app, tapping the cover image of a book he had been reading, letting out a sigh as he started to relax for the moment he could afford. The serene silence was finally broken by a series of knocks at the door, "Enter" he spoke. A man somewhat older than him, late twenties maybe entered and smiled, "Good Afternoon Shun" the older man said as he closed the door behind him.

"Finally done with the 'Sir'?"

"Well you have stated your dislike for it. Even though i don't agree with you"

"See. It's not so hard." The bedridden boy smiled, "I jest. Thank you Jessy"

Jessy nodded his head, taking a wheelchair from the against the wall and pushing it up against the bed, engaging it's breaks, "How'd you like the Impulse? It was your first time yeah?"

"Yeah. A friend of mine is heavy into Dissonant Steel i think the name was. He was helping me through it" he responded with a nod, pulling the covers off her lower section, his pants matching this top, pajamas or the like most likely. He pushed himself with his hands a bit forward on the bed a bit before raising his hands in the other's direction, placing his hands on his shoulders as he was lifted up and placed down into the chair, grabbing his legs and lifting them to fit properly on the leg rest.

"Oh yeah? I don't think I've played that one. I've heard about it a bit though, it's like an MMO, yeah? Would you recommend it?" he asked after helping him in, unlatching the breaks and starting to push him out of the room.

Shun looked behind himself, raising an eyebrow "You have a system like this? Oh... and thanks for fitting it in here, I know how much trouble you had to go through. Otherwise, yeah, it's fine the few hours i played of it, some of the non-player characters i guess you could call them can be real annoying but. The game is fun so far"

"Oh, no not currently, it's a bit over my budget but, one can always save up yeah? And don't worry about it, your.... er... yeah, don't worry about it" he said, walking down the hall, various people making their way hither and thither, most dressed in long white coats or scrubs.

Shun blew out his nose in amusement, "Smooth Jessy. Real smooth" before shortly hearing behind himself, "Well maybe i should schedule you for a therapist judging by the disdain you hold every time i mention your father.. Shun looked behind himself and frowned, "That's not funny"

The pair arrived at an elevator, Jessy pushed the call button while waiting in front of the door, "I'm not joking. All I know of him is what he's put into the media and knowing people like him, people have a vested interest in speaking favorably. And yes, that includes myself".

"Scared of costing your job that donation are you" he blew out of his nose again, "It's whatever. What's for dinner?"

Jessy smiled and walked the pair into the elevator, pressing the button for the fourth floor, "And you're calling me smooth with a topic change like that huh? The kitchen is making Indian Curry and Tomato Soup as the alternative" The boy sitting in front of him nodded just slowly and kept silent for the rest of the journey, being pushed out of the elevator and into a large open room with shiny, waxed floors, mattresses strewn about, some pushed up against the wall, with various racks of sports equipment laying around.

"Remind me again why i have to do this. I never did well in P.E. and never felt like i should have" Shun said, taking the weights handed to him.

"Because your legs are built for getting you around, not your hands. You don't want to get dead tired after pushing your chair for five minutes do you? You're going to be using your hands for most things for the time being at least. You'd have to be independent sometime."

Shun sighed and nodded in acknowledgement to that, "Fair" he said slowly, starting the exercise routine as laid out.

---

A few hours passed without incident, dinner was finished and the day's obligations had passed. Shun was back in the bed, starting the machine again.

Blinking a few times and looking over their elfish form, taking a few steps forward and backwards, looking around, leaving the area now that the objective had been completed. Opening the messaging system before sending sending [Usernames] a message "I'm back until bedtime. I'll be around the area" before looking about, something catching their eye. Something that had somehow escaped their notice before; even here in this dead land there was still growth, the most hardy ones to be sure but still growth, mushrooms and fungal growth could be found on the ground or some buildings, moss creeping up the walls.

Totsurugi walked towards one of the walls, placing her hand on the moss and speaking [Probe]. She nodded her head twice before taking out her notebook and scribbling into it, "Deadlands = Necrotic and Poison effect. Local monsters likely immune given lack of blood for poison and lack of 'life' to turn necrotic" before closing it and setting out to test that hypothesis. [Absorb]. The moss beneath her palm fading away. It didn't take long to find one of the hunchback skeletons Beardo has so quickly cleaved down before before taking aim at one of them, chanting [Adaptive Bolt] and firing off a dark green bolt of energy, only for two numbers to pop up, one in the normal, plain text notifying the damage from the bolt, and a sickly green [Immune] confirming her suspicions. She flung off several more bolts until the skeleton fell down dead... or whatever the term was called when the dead re-died.

"That reminds me..." Totsu mumbled to herself, looking up her spell list and hovering over her new one, grayed out. She read the tooltip again before nodding and kneeling down when she got to a small patch of mushrooms, holding her hand over it before chanting [Parasite], a glint of light shone under it, the effect looking similar to that of her signature skill except instead of flowing into her hand, it all flowed towards a central point, the glint of light that started to grow steadily, once it had absorbed it's target all that was left was a near-translucent crystal. Gathering a few more she finally found another skeleton that was isolated enough before holding her staff in front of her and chanting [Nature's Reclamation]!

As she cast the skill she felt an alien feeling, at once feeling five separate and distinct examples of strength, yet somehow she understood it how powerful she wanted her spell to be based on how many crystals she was ready to consume. Mentally focusing on the first level, there was a short flash of light from her bag before roots started to grow from the wood of her staff, crawling up her hands, down her body and down her feet, rooting her in place as the roots spread in all directions, with the one Skeleton being the one living thing in range the roots found it and started to climb up it's form, rooting it's legs down to the ground before starting to syphon the magical life form out of it. What felt like an eternity to Totsurugi's mind was probably no more than ten seconds before the skeleton crumbled and a pulse of energy traveled across the root-like vines, back to Totsu and filling out a portion of her Temporary MP bar.

She continued on experimenting little by little, collecting various growth she could find, seeing what she could absorb and what not, jutting down in her book when something felt off and killing the occasion skeleton here and there, mostly just passing time until Beardo came back.

Dissonant Steel Online

Beardo's words rang clear in Totsu's mind as the windbag went on and on with his spiel, the more drivel oozed out of his tongue-flaps the more she started to understand just how true his sentence was, and why he talked like he tried to kill him before. What arose even greater suspicion about his first trial is just how inanely simple it sounded, sure he sounded annoying but nothing that would bring one to bring up arms against him, maybe it was a running joke or something she missed.

It was time to get this over with, Totsu put her staff on her back and walked to the weapon rack before lofting one of the spears and taking it to a position in front of the torches, waiting for the command to start the first trial.

"Start!" the haughty knight commanded, soon after giving his commands. "Green! Red! Yellow!" the first set was easy enough, run to the first, then the second, then the third, nothing glamorous or even that much fun but probably needed to take the next quest on. "Red Green Yellow!" came the second one a bit faster, again rather easy and completely post-haste. "YellowRedGreen!" even faster still. Totsu again ran to the designated torches but by the look on Beardo's face she had only just begun.

"Yellow! Green!" a slow pace but only two this time, raising an eyebrow and running to the first two destinations, stopping at the yellow one before she heart a disdainful scoff coming from the asshole working to earn his certification in general cuntery. "Another brain-dead squire who can only follow orders and not think logically for themselves, typical. What will you do in a field of battle when communications with your commander is cut off? Sit on your ass an invite death? Get out of my sight and call someone worthwhile"

QUEST FAILED

Restart from checkpoint?

[YES/NO]

Looking back at Beardo with an incredulous expression, he just shrugged with a look upon his face which meant "Told you so" in every language known to man and beast. She just inhaled deeply and groaned, using her menu indicator to confirm the "Yes" button. There was a brief animation in front of her, akin to common visualizations of traveling through wormholes before she appeared back at the gate and much to her horror, there stood a man in Onyx armor, battling some training dummies until she approached just a foot before letting out his rather flashy attack and destroying it. He repeated his entire spiel, verbatim, the condescending tone, the three trials so seemingly simple but made Herculian by this glorified middle manager with standards set unreasonably high.

The raised the pillar again, he placed down the queer gem, put the torches into place... But for some mercy the order of the torches wasn't randomized so following them this time was even easier. "Yellow! Green!" The command came again, this time she managed to do it properly, running to the Yellow, then the Green and by the magic of inference and logical deduction, running to the Red next.

"YellowRedGreenRedGreenYellowGreenRedYellowRedGreen"

Totsurugi blinked a few times before starting to run, Yellow, Red, Green... ah Red and Green again. By some miracle or will of the gods she didn't make a single mistake during that part. She dropped the lance and groaned, "What a b-I suppose that is adequate" she was cut off, "Communications over great distance is not always possible, as such a squire should always be able to remember a long list of commands should they not be able to receive them once their mission starts".

The petite elf stood up again and shook her head, "Please tell me there is a like a save point or whatever in this..." she muttered before she heard a voice behind her "Don't worry, there is a checkpoint after each section... after enough protests from the players" her head snapped by at that with her eyes wide, Beardo just shrugged, "Didn't make it any better that he took so long to respawn after... I... uh. Well I am glad they fixed it for the new players"

"Good. You pass this section." Sir Laig commented before walking over before snapping his fingers, the light on each torch going on before they 'dissolved' and despawned. "Now, to pass this next step you will have to answer me my three questions. There is no one correct answer but you will be judged on your ability to respond reasonably" after the explanation he held up finger and his voice took a turn towards the dramatic

"What. Does it mean to be a knight"

Totsu blinked a a few times as she made it back to her feet after her short bout of rest and thought, chances are it was something dramatic and overly vague like one would read about in a cheesy novel, "Uh... To act with honor, duty and a sense of justice" she tried and hoped that the correct answer wasn't horribly specific one would need a series of logical jumps to understand. The man in front of her stayed silent for a few seconds before holding up a second finger; the look of relief plain to see on the elf-girl's face.

"What. Does it means to be a squire"

Since the first one had worked then it likely had something to do with anything similar to her last answer, trying her hand at a blind, vague jump once more, "To serve a knight faithfully to the best of one's ability" and to that question the third finger was raised, making Totsurugi question for a moment whether she had gotten lucky or if the answer was really just that easy, though the logic of how one could check for such an answer in the videogame flew right above her head.

"What." Laig stopped for dramatic effect for a few seconds, looking directly at Totsu, "Is the meaning of Justice"

This time she was stumped however, thinking it over for a moment but feeling compelled to answer, feeling like she was on a timer even though there was none visible. "To... uh..." she raced to form some sentence in her mind, "To set wrongs right and give victims a sense of closure" she pulled practically out of her ass. The time it took him to parse was likely not more than a few seconds but Totsu looked visibly uncomfortable doing it, not exactly relishing the thought of having to re-do this part of it with some new answers even though these questions barely made sense to her to begin with.

"Well at least maggots haven't rotted your brain already, you may pass to the next stage. Place your hand on the gem" Laig responded, stretching out his hand in a gesturing motion for her to come forward and complete the last task of the second portion.

Totsu looked behind herself towards Beardo, this one challenge was a completely black box as far as she was concerned, he didn't give much of a reaction to indicate it was something excessively hard so she strode towards the gem and closing her eyes as she placed her hand upon the gem, almost soon she felt her sense shift subtly, the smell hanging in the air changed from damp to one of lacquered wood and the aroma of food and the air went from slightly chilly to rather quite warm. She opened her eyes and gasped a bit, she was stood inside of a large and lavish room, dressed in a formal dress that reached down to her ankles, looking fit to attend a royal banquet by the looks of the room and her clothes.

"You have proven you won't embarrass me in the field, now demonstrate proper etiquette to not sully my honor in front of honored guests" a familiar voice came from her side; Sir Laig, dressed in his evening finest. He headed towards the door and opened it, standing by the side and motioning her to walk first. The next room away from the one they were in was was even larger still, with a long table filled with a myriad of foods. Plates, cutlery and glasses lined the table each next to a chair, it seemed like seating arrangements were a part of the plan too.

Totsu walked to the chair on the side, the one nearest to the end and pulled it back and waited there as Laig stood next to it, slow but heavy-set footfalls were heard as a rather fat man walked down the hall, dressed in whites, purples and gold accents, signifying his rank of royalty, followed by a servant who, too, pulled the chair out and allowed the regal gentleman to sit before pushing the chair in, followed by Laig sitting down and Totsu repeating the process the other servant had done, pushing Laig's chair in before taking a seat herself, first sitting on her dress before looking down and standing up half way and brushing the dress from under it so it didn't bundle up under her.

The two men started to talk, about something that Totsurugi honestly just zoned out on for a while before she heard the low voice of the man sitting at the end of the table say "What about you, squire. What is your opinion on Sir Laig?"

Totsu bit her teeth together and rolled her eyes before mouthing "not here too..." silently before inhaling and speaking up, "I think he's a Knight of great honor and a man admiration, it is a privilege to serve under him" to which the royal smiled and nodded, she was sure he said something next but it went in through one ear and out the other. From there it didn't take long for Totsu to open her eyes and inhale sharply, "User... Can we just please kill this little sh-The gem glows green, the enchantment is satisfied with your performance. Only one trial remains before you may be qualified by call yourself my squire."

Dissonant Steel Online

Totsu recoiled a bit at the sound that the stunt she just pulled could lead her into a hole she couldn't climb her way out of again, biting her lip and nodding her head timidly, "I... I understand" she said before packing away her quest item into her bag and started to head out, listening attentively to her travel companion.

"Well I don't know much about programming other than like simple stuff I've read on forums. I went to school for economics and business management..." She responded after his explanation before adding "Not like I had a choice" before sighing and looking up at the larger of their duo, "You're too hard on yourself, things will work out, they always do in some way. Maybe the cynicism is setting in with your gray hair" she smirked teasingly, making their way back to the tent that served as a sort of operations base, or at least that is where they had picked up the quests for far. She turned in the item to the facsimile of a bishop they had met earlier and with that got the message flashing on their screen that was familiar to her by now.

Quest Complete

LEVEL UP (7)

Naturalist Leveled up. Skill -Nature's Reclamation learned

She looked down at her skill bar and saw her new skill grayed out, "Huh... Why is it grayed out... I can't use it?" she mused to herself out-loud before inspecting the skill, opening a dialogue window for it. <Requires Crystals> served as her explanation, being reminded of the last skill she acquired which generated something of that ilk. She looked up at Beardo and smiled a bit, "I'm sorry I can't really help you on the concept stage too much, maybe I can like... uh.. playtest? Play the part of the impartial bystander that isn't ingrained in the community and culture? The view of a new player as it were?" she offered before thinking, "I don't know how else I could help you, I don't think classes of economic theory that were drilled into me would be of much use..."

She pulled up the next quest on the line, helpfully marked [3], by the description looking like it took place on the practice grounds, accepting it before looking towards the exit of the tent, "Care to lead the way to the next objective while we talk?"

Dissonant Steel Online

"Oh, no worries, were I not doing this I'd probably be sitting in bed, reading or re-reading a book or something. I'd take spending time with friend over any timewaster that I'm doing by myself" She explaining reassuringly as they walked down the streets, her eyes following the rock as it shot through the air and got stuck in something, spinning in the air-non stop likely until the game despawned it.

Beardo starting speaking up again, this time with a question, she thought for a bit before nodding along with what he was saying, "Oh, probably something similar. I only have one class now but I saw that you have... a few. I think I might get lost in trying many of them out or trying to find stuff, y'know?"

They got to the area where Totsurugi started to search, opening one cabinet drawer after another, though strangely some drawers were... a special kind of empty, at least to her mind, there seemed to be a near-flat texture in it with files, doccuments and books, almost like someone painted a picture of this drawer being full but none of them were interactable, probably to give a sense of the world being live-in rather than to have it empty. The further down they went the more it became like that, sometimes an actual envelope or folder between the blank textures.

Her attention turned back to Beardo as he asked a rather valid question, did she know she was looking for, closing her eyes for a moment she nodded hesitantly, "So... These are toys magically brought to life or something yeah? This is a patent office, so it would stand to reason that we are trying to find the... uh... either the patent manual for the toys or an instruction for it that it would list to us the conditions of victory or how the game it supposed to be played? I mean, since they are alive it probably wouldn't be One-to-One but since this is a videogame and that is our objective, stands to reason that we are trying to find a manual on how we can kill the king?" She thought for a moment before looking down at her currently open drawer, one envelope sitting in it that she'd already checked out, listing the way on how to make an Abacus used in a competitive counting game.

She ran her fingers gains the flat texture, feeling a bump where the folder was and a distinctly different feeling as her hand grazed upon the envelope. She looked, her eyes scanning the environment, "That actually gives me an idea..." she said, walking to where two cabinets met but there was a bit of a gap between them, a bit smaller than the thickness of her fingers, "You mentioned that everything glitches sooner or later? I got an idea" she pushed her hand into the crevice which at first seemed to not go anywhere, being stuck in the small space until suddenly it fell in... no... through. Her hand was inside of the cabinet now, she chuckled a bit and moved her hand back and forth.

She moved her hand through the cabinet and to the next one, checking all of the shelves by moving her hand down it's length before moving on to the next one, then next one, able to check each and every cabinet rapidly like that until her hand finally hit something, the one thing that wasn't a part of this room as the world was created but was only put there by the quest, the one thing that was different in here; the quest objective.

Totsu pulled her hand from the cabinet and flexed her fingers a bit, still not wholly used to the cognitive dissonance the videogame world afforded, she opened the drawer and pulled the folder out, titled "A re-imagining of Chess: A tactical progression game"

Totsurugi listened to her friend talk before turning to face him, "You're doing it again. Focus, one problem at a time yeah, you have a bad habit of Spiraling you know" She held the folder close to her for know before listening to the rest of what he had to say, nodding her head towards him slowly before she got patted on the back, grunting a bit and stumbling forward at the unexpected force but just chuckling it off, it most likely wasn't intentional.

She packed the folder away in her bag for the moment before walking up to him, "Hey, listen. We all go through stressful times sometimes, I could use the distraction myself after..." her voice trailed off slowly before just shaking her head, "One problem at a time. I always liked talking to you, spending time in a videogame is no different. Things will work out, we just need to get the worries out of our heads for long enough to focus on fixing the problem and we'll come out okay"

She patted him on the back in turn though likely not nearly with the same impact as he had done before, "If you like my input maybe I can hear about this project you have going on."

Dissonant Steel Online

Totsurugi sat on the ground for a few moments, wiggling her feet back and forth, her gaze fixated at them. She leaned back and stretching out, simply just enjoying some rest. She spotted her friend coming back a few moments later, luckily the wait between her finishing the quest and him clearing the way before practically non-existent. She stood up and stowed staff away by hanging it on her back and jumped off the chess board to meet him.

"Oh, no you're right on time, I was just finishing up. The next quest is... Yeah the one in the town square, right?" she responded, looking around before looking up into the corner of her screen to check the time, "Sure, I got some time left before I need to go. Will be about... hm... maybe an hour-ish before I can return, then I can stay until dinner time, we could maybe clear this area by then" she added, smiling softly.

Just as Beardo had said, the route towards the next quest in their line was rather barren, she could spot some enemies in the distance that they would have to go out of their way to defeat but decided that it would just be a waste of time to take such a detour for little to no benefit. The path stretched on for a while but they eventually reached their destination in front of the building where their quest marker pointed to. A large house with a placard reading "Shelian Archival and Patent Office"

Walking into the front door and past the reception desk; a a long wooden piece of furniture that looked chipped and stained, a toppled chair laying on the floor behind hit. She walked into the door labeled "Archives". Past there doors where rows upon rows of cabinets, arranged by functions. Toys were in one section, tools in another, furniture or toys the size of furniture in yet another. Turning up into the Toy section in the very first isle, marked "A-F"

Heading down the row and pulling a random drawer open, taking a random envelope and rifling through it, half skimming this application and diagram on "Bone Flute that causes rice to stand on end", raising an eyebrow and just chuckling, placing it back before looking at her travel companion and figuring that at least some small talk might ease the pain of bureaucracy. "We haven't really just talked in a while have we... How've you been? I think you mentioned something last time about... some frustration with work? Or?".

She rifled through some more documents while waiting for an answer, this one listed as "Cycltronic bicycle" detailing the construction and making of a bicycle which was made from two large circles, one which was in contact with the ground and you sat inside of and the second slanted at an 90% angle, seemingly so you could ride along walls as well and seemlessily transition between the two modes of transportation.

Dissonant Steel Online

Totsu gazed at the menacing forest in front of her, thinking it would be better to collect odds and ends on the way, a sprout of odd looking grass here, some reeds there, seeds or roots from hither and flowers from thither, sticking them all in her bag. It wasn't a viable storage solution for the long term, they would surely wilt by the day's end but for a quest that wouldn't take more than a few hours she figured that it was better to have some supplies since by the looks of it life was sparse in the rapidly approaching miserable looking thicket of dead trees

As they walked towards the forest and spotting there a hooded figure whom had laid in wait, promptly starting to explaining away his situation and making his plea and as if it was on queue, which it likely was, a popup appeared, giving Totsu the next quest in the line which would lead them deeper into the woods which all but the darkest gods had abandoned.

Walking through the forest with their guide, Totsu couldn't help but get interested and wondering if her picked class could get some use out of these dead flora all around her. Walking up to a tree she passed she put her hand against it and spoke [Absorb] but nothing appeared to happen, maybe she was still too weak to absorb entire trees to use as ammunition, maybe it was because the tree was entirely void of life, either way she put it in the back of her mind before following with a few paces of a brisk jog to catch up on the ground she had lost with their short experiment.

Totsurugi's legs stopped by no force of it's own, rooting her to the ground as something caught Chelvric's attention, it felt quite unreal though strangely not unsettling to be a passenger in your one's own virtual body. This small animal looking like something either long extinct or from the imagination of a bored artist; more likely the latter rather than the former. It limped sluggishly through the barren ground, probably looking for something to eat. It however reached foul sorcery so as soon as it's paw touched a faint magic circle on the ground, it suddenly lit up and barbed thorns shot out, wrapping the pitiful animal around it's leg and pulling it in closer, a second thorn shooting it and doing the same, pulling it in to the center where several other thorned vines wrapped itself around it's neck, body and hind legs, forcing it to the ground before a flash of light exploded, emanating from the creature itself.

Totsu's senses lit up like the candles of a centennial's birthday cake. Not a sense they had been keenly aware of before, an inkling or a nudge before while now it was more like walking from an air conditioned house into the horridly hot and humid air outside as if the air was a wall. It was not a sense they could easily describe, similar to the way your thoracic cavity vibrates to loud music or a tingling sensation of goosebumps, maybe a bit of both. Elves had the ability to sense magic and with such a gush of it in front of herself made her keenly aware of her sense.

Totsu took a deep breath as they walked forward, avoid the traps the best they could, occasionally facing against a monster which was done in by a single large swipe of the bearded man-mountain's axe. They continued onward, ever deeper into the defiled forest until they reached the board made of eight by eight with caricatures of chess pieces on each side. The white pieces would rather uncharacteristically dispatch of the opposing force with the use of firearms. The black pieces meanwhile would charge with uncanny dexterity and flexibility not possible of stone nor material, thus they were locked in what looked an eternal stalemate. Totsu was entranced by this macabre display unraveling before her, only to be snapped out of it at the unknown voice behind them.

The person, if you could still call them that, was standing in front of the group, a rather horrifying yet still fitting the theme of this place. The large caricature of a Bishop, assumably belonging to the chessboard. She seemed to know their errant tour guide by the way they talked, by their conversation it was evident this was his long lost wife. Totsu felt rather weird to just stand there while the non-player characters talked to each other, she felt like she should be some part of the conversation considering her role within this story but their lack of humanity gave her pause, if they were just programming could they even response or just give a pre-programmed response. Deciding to stay silent, the band of less than merry wanderers were lead towards the tent where a war table sat in from of them.

Totsu started to tap her fingers on her thigh rhythmically as they stood in front of the table, looking almost like she was playing a tune. Eyes scanning over the war table, looking over the quests texts of the various quests before deciding to pick up the first one, appearing like a normal kill quest like they had gotten before, except with lurid living chest pieces instead of rodents. Taking steady, deep breathes, Totsu closed her eyes and tried to maintain some semblance of composure, sure the things in here weren't that bad and there was a degree of separation, knowing this was fiction, there was still effort on her part to categorize these never-before seen things.

"Alright, let's go. Best to take first things first no?" She reasoned right before turning heel and walking back out of the tent, making her way towards the checkered field of eight by eight, filled with the combatants. "Hey so. Quick tip. Red is dead, stay out of the red zones" advised her bearded mentor quickly.

As they approached the field the human pieces took a few steps back. "Thank'ye kindly... We need but a moments rest, you truly are life savers" one of the pieces said, stepping off the field and sitting down against nearby tree, what remained of one at least.

The assault of the pawns that had thus far charged forward stopped, the larger piece by the back center of the board, protected by a forcefield and presumably the king turned it's gaze towards the offending elf before turning towards his head towards the side. One of the knights; a centaur wielding a glaive, jumped over the line of pawns and slowly strode towards Totsurugi.

Second Knight

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Second Knight

Both it's name and a what appeared to be a health bar appeared over it's head. It's eyes fixated on Totsu, a red glowing cone shaped field appearing under her feet. It took her several moments until the warning rang out in her mind again, don't stand in the red. Just as she made it out of the field the centaur leapt up and swung it's massive glaive, it's weapon covering the entirety of the lit-up area. A marker of the attack area she reckoned, it stood still for a moment after that, turning it's head towards the elf and gripping it's weapon tightly.

Reaching into her satchel and pulling the first thing her fingers touched out, some sort of ivy. When she absorbed it she gained some sort of a poison buff, launching her first projectile into it, landing square into it and dipping it's health bar but with a concerning IMMUNE also appearing with her own damage number... right, stone can't be poisoned, makes sense really. The knight lifted it's glaive up and reared on it's two hind legs, a red circle appearing around it, followed

Running away to a safe distance and grabbing something else from her pouch, this time a flower with a bell or a cup shape, trying that this time around. The bolt landed and this time did a good chunk more than she'd expect, not only from the extra damage not being blocked by what appeared to be a + alongside the damage number too, it would appear that the stone was weak to Acid damage. It took a while, at least to Totsu's focused mind while the battle itself couldn't have gone on for more than five minutes, dodging the various attacks; diagonal strikes, jumping sweeps, lunges, and others. Finally the last sliver of health it had had disappeared and the knight fell down and disappeared in a grand puff of smoke.

Breathing a sigh of relief and looking towards the axe wielding friend, which only smiled and gave a directed nod, seeming to direct her attention back to the battlefield. This time, the piece occupying the position of bishop moved. It grabbed it's staff and disappeared in a shimmer, appearing right in front of the slack-jawed, staring elf. It's name and health bar quickly appearing.

Second Bishop

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Second Bishop

"Oh... Great" came out of Totsurugi's mouth as the creature raised it's staff as red areas lit up again, except this time targeting all of the black spaces on the chessboard excluding the one it was standing on which soon were all hit by a bolt of lightning. It's attacks seemed different, being magic based in nature so rather than a predictable weapon swinging somewhere it could create magical affects nearly anywhere. In a toroid around it so the safe zones were really close or really far, diagonal lines away from it as well as seemingly random fields.

It took a good while but when it's health reached it's half way point it teleported away from it's position and re-appeared on a black space close to the center and extended it's hands away from itself, it's staff floating in front of it. The King and Queen raised up one of their hands, on apposite sides away from each other and closer to their respective edges, both firing a projectile diagonally that moved only along the sides of their opposite colors, a sphere of white followed black spaces in a diagonal pattern, bouncing off and changing directions each time it hit an edge while the black sphere did vice versa.

The fight became just that bit harder, not only avoiding the areas of death but making sure that she wasn't standing in a collision path with the spheres that were slow moving but deceptively so, creeping up on the space you thought was safe before you knew it. Perhaps by overly focusing on never being in danger, calculating the path of the spheres and standing a space she knew was safe and only then attacking, sure it did elongate the fight by a rather significant margin but in due time and a great deal of patience the bishop lay dead.

Totsurugi slumped to the ground and groaned, "That was harder than I thought It'd be." she huffed a bit before leaning back, "That was fun though, I can already imagine doing that with way more people in a way harder fight. I'd look forward to that"

A fluffy yaoi romance

First with the dealbreakers in spirit of saving you time. I mostly do my roleplays on discord. It would be rather hard to convince me to do it on here but not impossible. And as a side note, i do not intend for this to turn mature.

I cannot get this thought out of my head, it's been several years since i first started to look for these kind of roleplays but here is the gist of it.

Artsy shy kid X Jock/Popular person.

Sure open to more depth and detail than that but that is the bases of it. The character i had in mind for this, and the setting in general. Would be of the shy kid. It would most likely happen in a slightly more upscale highschool or college (Highschool has uniforms so that's a point up for me, open for debate though). I really like the theme of societal expectation VS personal wants and needs, someone being made to fill a box they don't fit.

Personally i'd love to play the Artsy kid, the shy one in the back that doesn't make an effort to hang out with other people and isn't exactly the best in social situations. Send me a PM if this sort of thing interests you.