Darkoda

Someone has GM'd you two going down this road before.

I don't know what you're talking about. That was a perfectly PG-13 relationship between a Magistra and her Ministra

Dare I ask?

No. No you don't.

That said, this is probably good advice all the same

The original pvp wars begin again.....

Man, now I miss St Peter all over again.

Bullet

To the Ruins

It was a grand comedy of getting knocked around, far too many yeti like monsters, dodging traps and overall breaking an army while opening up with a large amount of combined fire but in the end, they managed to succeed and Bullet had gotten her hands on a massive haul of drops. She’d already burned through some to get her brand new bodysuit and up her gun’s badass quotient but when she gained a few levels she had plans for the rest of these lovely treasure. So many plans.

And of course because her luck was that grand, this was the time that work reared its ugly head in the worst possible way; an error stopping logouts? Joy. And where were the troubleshooters to fix this mess or send out an announcement? She brought up the support page to send a report and a stray stone from the ruins fell on her head, smarting a bit.

..wait……..

-

Revelations and Relocations

Okay, so far she knew that no one could log out, and for some reason that she didn’t want to dwell on because she didn’t like where her thoughts were headed, people could feel actual pain. That wasn’t supposed to be possible, there were a multitude of safeguards, both in the game itself and in the virtual hardware to prevent that from being possible, but so it was, she could believe that a sufficiently skilled hacker might manage to theoretically pull that off and prevent them from removing the virtual devices.

But there were some things that even that explanation didn’t cover. It was one thing to allow pain when a device that uplinked to your brain was involved, it even explained her ability to feel other sensations by the same means, but it was another to be able to bleed, bruise, to see a fully anatomically correct body beneath the armour. She knew that the game was meant to be realistic, but unlike most people here, she knew damn well that it was never coded to be quite that realistic. Literally, the coding didn’t exist for it to be that realistic. It was truly impossible.

Unless, unless…. And she was back to the train of thought that she did not like at all.

She’d also learned about the new rules in effect. The game operated mostly as before; death was more of an annoyance – although the sensation of dying couldn’t be pleasant to most. Hell, when some panicky clown went and stabbed her, she got to feel first hand just how much it sucked to get stabbed in the heart.

Not a pleasant feeling at all. If she didn’t want to get back to a city in the first place, she was quite sure that she’d have devoted far too much time to killing that particular person a few times. She needed information, and where better than Stellarelm?

-

Things quickly went from bad to worse. The shadow, that bit of the game there for the story had decided to become an actual threat. And as a few players learned the hard way, when that thing killed you, you didn’t come back right. All of this she gleaned from the panicking players in the city, while she was occupying herself with some fast planning. However this happened, whether hacker or an event she couldn’t ever explain, this was happening now and as a part of the team who made this game, she had responsibility to at least try to fix it. She could worry about the aftereffects later.

Stellarelm was her brainchild, her playground, and she found this to be the kind of situation worth abusing the hell out of that knowledge for. A few short quests, and one long ongoing one later, she’d managed to turn the city -at least as far as the npc's went - into a fortress, the mechanical defences able to at least try to fend off the shadows with no risk of anyone’s lives. It was actually working too; sure by themselves they weren't exactly the best but between the city’s guards, the capable guilds about, the rest of players getting their acts together and working as a unit, and everyone getting themselves one teleporting device to the safety of the city square, they were making actual headway. She could tell that this wouldn’t last forever though; not when the guards were destroyed a bit faster than they could be built, not when the drops and materials she needed to keep up with the demand of new armours, weapons, consumables were running out. The latter was especially concerning; she had no illusions that the bulk of the effort was on the players fighting and when they ran out of items to keep it up, sooner or later......

There were reasons that she disliked being considered one of the important people at times; It was far too heavy, the weight of expectation of her shoulders, even when she managed to find the few other scientists within the city, she was the only one who had the sheer levels to make the best stuff; the others helped but in the end, she was the last stop. Really, she didn't know how the rest of them handled that kind of pressure so well, but then having a guild filled with high levels acting as the main offense was a hell of a morale boost. Heh, under better circumstances she’d be giddy at how much attention her class was getting now, seeing the players getting mobbed for help and support but this wasn’t a simple game anymore, and the genuine desperation added a bitter taste to everything.

…And now she was itching for a cup of coffee. Bloody hell.

-

Things had gotten thoroughly desperate now. The shadow was surely gaining ground and she was basically running on empty. More than a few times she’d had to resort to using energy she really didn't have to throw someone back into the city before a shadow got them. The Firewall guild was getting beaten back and players were getting picked off one by one, each one sending a bit of pain through her - she'd run out of means to make more of those warp chips without some more drops, even as the bursts of energy in her Overdrive let her keep things running just a bit longer. She had a plan though; she knew full well that Stellarelm couldn’t hold out for much longer, but at the least she could ensure that they didn’t have a terminator style situation when the place got overrun.

It was simple but hopefully effective; a system lock on everything set to trigger after one last action, one with the combined skill of every capable person left and a limit break on her end. She couldn’t know whether or not any shadowed player had the skills needed to break an encryption that high ranked; she had no idea if becoming part of that thing meant that they still gained levels, but best case scenario, the only way any bit of tech here was becoming usable was with the access code. Worst case, it would at least stall them for a bit. As the timer started to countdown, she flipped one last switch, sending a broadcast to the city while she was at it - and she thanked the player who let her borrow his loudspeaker once again. Channelwide broadcasts were a handy thing; more than enough people sent out warnings about the shadows and where was safe, along with news of shadows and player movement (so many player killers, but knowing about what happened if the shadows got you, death by player was likely an attempt to save lives. She’d done it enough herself) so she knew where to send everyone now.

[Attention all, Stellarelm is about to fall. With this the only safe haven left is Junction City. Prepare for a city warp.]

Her last bit of work; a limit break to throw the entire city population across in a mass warp. It sounded reasonable enough. Holding back a yawn (but when was the last time she slept?) she activated the familiar skill and the world shifted.

-

Not sleeping might not have been the best idea, as necessary as it was. The others all moved out to try to find friends and whatever else met their fancy, which let her collapse against a wall. She had no real need to move right now; she at least was sure that the players she’d met before in her ruins expedition were fine with them in her friend’s list and as bad as it was, the others were just more lost souls in a growing tragedy. She could be a bit selfish at least until she recovered.

Bullet Time

Ruins of Telar

Getting paid to play a cutting edge video game; it sounded like the kind of things dreams were made of and normally, those people would get hit in the face with the reality of what being a game tester actually involved. But this time, they’d be pretty accurate. Bullet cradled her newly adjusted cannon, stroking the weapon that was almost as tall as she was. It was only a prototype, she needed some more materials to really go to town on it but she was almost there. She had laid the foundation for her class abilities to shine and now all she needed was the equipment to go with it.

That is what she’d like to do but she was supposed to be doing a job here and some random ruins that no one could quite recall coding into the game? Well that was something worth investigating. If that damn rabbit was behind this mess….

The knight program tossed her the quest, confirmed that it knew nothing about the ruins and then fed her a line about needing a party which led to her being tossed with these two random people on the way there. Well at least one was easy enough to recognise from their accessories; one Dragon. Now who was the other one?

Well she could get that after re-educating this little one about who she actually was. With a glint in her eye Bullet let her plasma cannon fully extend on her arm, turning on the fancy lightning effect to get the proper mood going. “I am no guy, little dragon; I am Bullet, mad scientist, inventor and the one who can offer quite a lot in exchange for a few favours. Whether you need an upgraded sword, or clothes that are more than barely decent, I’m your dict – I mean girl! Just bring me your drops and I can give all the inventions!”

The crackling lightning and thunder around her really did add a nice touch. She knew that splurging on that thunder elemental affinity would be worth it!

._.;

But...can't we just...hunt other dragons? Plus! How will a machinist upgrade Squishy? Squishy is a rock.

-Facepalm.- Noooooo. Nope nope nope.

You doubt the power of SCIENCE?!!!

I'll turn your rock into a miniature Companion Cube

Hey now, beating up a witch should go much better than that thing with the minotaur.

Well then mission 4 has just gone up a lot in potential interest.

Yeah finished now.

 

 

Spoiler

 

Name: Swift

 

Age: 16

 

Gender: Female

 

City of origin: Byzance

 

Location of Tattoo: Right Shoulder

 

Guild Rank: Journeyman Dragon Witch

 

History:

 

Swift doesn’t remember too much about what happened that day beyond wanting to see how high she could climb; her first clear memory was of the clouds in the sky, being cradled in massive scaly hands and feeling the wind through the gaps in the claws. Her next memory was of mountains and fields, high enough to touch the clouds, breeze always hugging at her, and toddling towards a massive dragon.

 

“Well now child, aren’t you afraid of me? Heh, interesting....and you look like you'll at least be a cute one....”

 

As if she’d be afraid, especially with how good the winds felt….

 

Wait thinking about it, that part probably happened first. The first one was more impressive as far as she was concerned though; flying was awesome. As so began her first meeting with who she later learned to be the dragon Brigale. She didn’t need to be told to keep this meeting a secret; this was one thing that she wasn’t going to share ever. Meeting a dragon was filled with awesome; she had someone to talk to, someone who was really good with homework and even taught her how to use magic! They told her that she didn’t have enough mana to use magic but Brigale did it anyway!

 

But then that was part of why she loved spending so much time with her in the first place; Brigale was the only person she had met who was truly free. Not wrapped up in traditions, not trying to force everyone into a predestined role and definitely not going on about some nonsense about her greatest joy being finding a way to serve the Emperor. If anyone else preferred living like that, all the power to them but it grated against her from the moment she was old enough to notice it, which did explain just why she spent her time wandering so close to the mountain ranges in the first place.

 

Brigale also taught her lots of life’s important things, like how to go about beating up annoying people, how to pick your battles, why knowing how to read a map was a good thing, the real birds and bees lecture (she didn’t know how Brigale made the diagrams or where she got the pictures) and that when you had epic healing and the power of a dragon, you could get away with a lot of fun habits that lesser folks would collapse under.

 

As the years passed, eventually Brigale saw it fit to give Swift a test of her abilities; she sent her protégé out into the world to wander and learn, considering the test passed if Swift managed to find her way back to Brigale and prove how much she had grown. This was something that was going to be easier said than done given that Brigale never did get around to letting Swift know exactly where she lived when not with her in the first place, though she dropped enough hints to give the impression that it was somewhere pretty hazardous to non-dragons, leaving out the proving her growth to Brigale part; this was the dragon that proudly showed off battle wounds from fighting all kinds of things and considered a good brawl to be a friendly greeting. She needed to become awesome enough to still be fun to her cool aunt when they met again. Sounded easy enough, and she’d have all kinds of stories to share once she won too!

 

Besides, no matter how it ended, the important part was that it was her own tale to write without anyone trying to tell her where she should fit in, which is a lot more than she was looking forward too if she stayed in Byzance. And hey, she already had a lead on a good place to start; anyplace named after the best and awesomest element ever had to have some cool points going for it.

 

 

Personality: Swift is the kind of person who takes things as they come, drifting along in the wind with sporadic bursts of intensity as things interest her. She despises practically all forms of being chained down by tradition, customs or the notion that people can be slotted into positions in life on the whim of others, and is about as free spirited as her element, though that trait isn't the most noticeable given how mellow she is most of the time, but Brigale's habits have rubbed off on her quite a lot; she is not one to turn down a fight and has a persistent habit of playing snuggle-bunny with various women, clothing optional. As fickle as she might be though she will look out for those that she likes and she can be counted on to fix up the many injuries that come about in guild life.

 

Magic: Sky Dragon Slayer - A type of Magic which grants the user various characteristics belonging to a Sky Dragon, allowing them to incorporate the element of air into their body. However, unlike other types of Dragon Slayer Magic, Sky Dragon Slayer Magic is geared more towards healing and support rather than offense. Still quite capable of offense though; wind can hurt.

 

Inventory: The eyes of Moe: When Swift fully opens her eyes, the revealed sight completely the package of pure adorable so powerful that many have fallen to the cute and ended up treating her like a stuffed toy made for hugging (not that she minds if certain people do it) this power - oh wait you meant actual magic stuff? Nope.

 

Stats:

 

Personal stats: 

You get 25 points to spend. 

• STR: 5
• DEX: 5
• END: 5.
• MAG: 10

 

Skill Stats:

[Scrapper] – When you spend practically all of your time hanging out in the wilds, you pick up quite a few tricks for thriving on your own.

• Skill Technique: 1
• Skill Power: 8
• Skill Speed: 8
• Skill Endurance: 8

 

Dance of the Gales – Scrappy, hard to hit, harder to counter, Swift’s hand to hand style is fast and relentless like a storm.

 

Magic Stats:

Sky Dragon Slayer – Eh she eats air and white mage’s everyone.

• Magic Technique: 5
• Magic Power: 8
• Magic Speed: 5
• Magic Endurance: 7

 

Spring Breeze: Swift releases a burst of healing breeze, healing and restoring stamina to those she wants in range. Which is pretty close to her so those wanting healing better stay by her.

 

Sky Dragon’s Scales: A constant and hard to notice swirling wind all around Swift’s body that works wonders at deflecting and pushing away attacks.

 

Sky Dragon’s Claw: Swift fires a quick burst of wind from a limb which seriously speeds up the motion of said limb. A lot. The swirling winds don’t hurt either – well not Swift anyway.

 

Gale Wing: Swift wraps two limbs this time in miniature twisters that she swings around like whips to smack things.

 

Winds of Change: This burst of magic takes someone and makes them bigger, better, faster, stronger. Again, limited range so stay close for casting. 

 

 

And that's fixed.

It was a normal night in her bar, which was basically the same as saying that reality was behaving in very strange ways. Not that anyone had a problem with that; given the sheer amount of supernatural beings in the building of very ill-defined and fluctuating size, if everything worked normally, well that would be the weird occurrence. She was just happy that she thought to make the place clean up after itself since no one would want to clean up after some of the people in here.

Everyone needed a hobby to take their mind off work and despite what others would think, making the new members of the coven work here and experience the wild side of things in as controlled environment as it ever would get helped the newbies adjust much faster. Nothing like seeing a bunch of people casually distort reality to let things really sink in and it would take some magic to actually keep on top of things working here anyway.

She really did love her new family members, which was why the messages that just passed in her bar were so concerning. Someone running around with a dagger that could harm angels just murdered a magic related family for a demonic ritual, and there was someone running around with a weapon that sounded a lot like something one would use to kill an angel. While she didn’t actually care about anyone out to gut that asshole god’s servants, the whole demonic ritual thing…..if this was another of those idiots who associated her witches with that devil….

“Well, time for work. You girls man the bar while I’m gone. Hey Robin, I think I know who has your doom item, if you want a ride, hop on the tele-train!”

Yes, a tele-train, the one that was in the corner of the room. Yes, that new corner that wasn’t there before with the train tracks and shining red train. Fortunately, a certain loud mouth deity also gave her the exact location of the scene so she didn’t have to catch a cab. Nope, she was arriving in style! In an excellent and stylish apartment, complete with fresh red paint! The decorators might want to use something just a bit better than blood next time though.

That and get rid of the annoying pest. “Really now, if I didn’t know better, one would suspect that you were the crazy murderer trying to get rid of evidence, fair child. Give it a rest already.” She hopped off her vanishing train, hovering just a bit above one of the fresher blood splatters, scooping a bit up on the blade on her scythe as she took in the rest of graffiti.

“Really now, they kill a couple people for a demonic ritual and they don’t even have the decency to spell the names right? Belzebab? And I’m not sure whether to be offended, or extremely offended that ‘Bephmet’ is there.” Definitely one of those idiots who associate her with Lucy. Damnit.

“Normally I’d leave this to you investigators but I seem to have some personal interest here. Don’t mind me though; whoever finds the person, as long as it’s done quickly~”

And if whoever it was didn’t clean their murder weapon properly, she shouldn’t have much trouble finding them with all this blood for a scrying. Really, people should know better than to leave so much of themselves lying around. The only real problem would be finding someone without all this interference from the actual bodies. So inconvenient.

"Well I guess the first question here is what happened to the kid? Kidnapped, killer or just ran for his life, might help to find him." That was a nice picture of him though. The benefits of glass frames, blood doesn't stain it nearly as easily.

"And the second; just what brought everyone here? And then there's the obvious questions on evidence; would help so much if one of these two got a bit of their attacker." It would certainly make it a lot less work to get pointed in the right general direction. Her furry claw hands shifted into a pair of surgical gloves, curiously enough with five normal fingers holding a bunch of cotton swabs. "Maybe its best for the actual investigator types to go fishing for evidence though. Just make sure I get a sample~" 

Darkoda here, following tradition of taking years after reading manga to make an account.

How's it going?