The Game ((Ath and Shenandoah))
 

Username: Calonia
Real Name: Alexandria O'Shay
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Background: She was not always a gamer. Once she had tried very hard to enjoy the company of other people, instead of emersing herself in a fantasy world. Rejected time and time again by the people that thought they were cool, she turned to the only thing she had. Video and Computer games. Her father being a game developer, there was no end of what they had in their house. Soon, she decided that she would do the same thing, and started to go to college for the same thing, hoping to match her fathers success.
Appearance: Her hair is short, with something of the punk rock look to it, standing up in ways that it was never meant to naturally. Behind her glasses she had blue eyes that most fail to notice, and she has several peircings in her face. Soon she will add tattoos to that. Her clothing matching the punk rock feel as well, but with an obvious hint of her gamer tendancies thrown in there.
Personality: She is shy, quiet, and keeps to herself. Once she had tried to be an extrovert, but failed to do so and decided not to go against her nature. Now she is seen as an odd girl in a small town that people try to stay away from.

Username: Mazin
Real Name: Richard "Rick" Toomey
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Background: Withdrawn into his own little world which revolves around music, books, or his own imagination. He has been a part of the system since he was five and has tried to escape the here-and-now for the past twelve years through his obsessive passions. He is almost a full adult and knows he has little to look forward to - save a minimum wage job.
Appearance: In real life, he has muddy brown hair that is usually unkempt, weak gray eyes shielded by glasses that have been broken several times, and old hand-me-down clothing. His frame is scrawny without being starved and of middle height (around 5'-6"). However, in his favorite virtual reality RPG, he looks like this and stands slightly taller than his real world self at 5'-9".
Background: He is quiet and not very open. He talks very little, is picked on quite a bit, and is otherwise someone else's rug to walk all over. He is self-effacing and is an absolute animal lover. Within his games, he has a stronger backbone, though he is still considered weak in many aspects...

---

Username: Michael the White (commonly called "Mike")
Real Name: Jasper Warren
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Background: Jasper was a big gamer when he was younger, though they usually wound up being board games, card games, or dice games when he was younger. As computer and arcade games became more available, he got interested in those. His mother wanted him to become something good and Jasper chose to become a programmer for Macintosh. Eventually he switched career paths and became a game programmer full time before becoming one of the creators of the new hit of the digital realm he now administrates along with a handful of other individuals.
Appearance: Outside the Game, he actually looks much the same, though his hair is cropped and he certainly doesn't have the musculature to carry the armor he 'totes about' within the confines of the digital universe he administrates. Not to mention, he wears glasses with rectangular frames in real life. In both the real world and in the Game, he is a solid 5'-10".

((Sure, that wont be a problem))

She leaned back in the chair. It was uncomfortable, but she could ignore that. Her studies had to be completed and she only had so much time to do that in. She had just recently discovered a game that she wanted to try badly and her work just could not be done fast enough.

The problem was that she enjoyed playing the games just a little more then she liked the thought of creating them. Still, she thought it would be the best career path for her, and so she would work hard at it.

As soon as she was done she would go to her apartment and finally play the character she had just created the night before. So intent on her work she did not notice anyone else that used the lab for their work. She did not hear the comments some of them made, and could not have cared less then she did if she had.

Rick settled down in the chair at his school's library at the computer. He was going to graduate fairly soon, but that didn't mean that he enjoyed that fact. He knew there'd be little to keep him from flipping burgers at some fast food joint. Perhaps he could get a job as a mechanic, but he knew virtually nothing of engines and stuff... nor had an inclination to know.

However, he knew there was one thing he was good at doing... and that was gaming. He would go to the Game Station later on and use their uplink to the most popular RPG ever: the virtual reality game simply called 'The Game' by most people. He knew he'd play until they closed and he was glad he was good friends with the owner of the place or else he'd have to pay out the ass for all the uplink time.

Soon, school would be out and he would be going down the road to the VR lounge.

----

Time did move quickly enough. He left his high school, his bag on his shoulder, and went south from his school on foot. Rick didn't get the privileges of going on a bus or driving a car. He lived too close to his current foster home for one and his foster parents didn't have the money to afford even a clunker for another. Which was fine with him. They didn't seem to care one way or the other when it came to his late appearances at home so long as he got there for dinner with the other foster kids.

Rick knew they were simply in it for the money. Most were, unfortunately, in his experience. Quite frankly, he didn't care. His time was almost up anyway and he should have left by now except for the fact that the one saving grace from having his roof yanked from him was that he was still in school despite being a legal adult.

It did not take as long as she had anticipated before she was done with the work she needed to do. Saving the information to a small, green flash drive that she then hooked onto her belt loop for her class the next day, she left the room.

Her heavy backpack was slung over one shoulder and she had stuffed her purse into it so that she would not have to be bothered with the thing. Alexandria's small apartment was not far from the campus, so she used the opportunity to get a little bit of exercise before she spent the evening playing games. Even walking, though, she could not resist playing her handheld system, only barely paying attention to where she was going.

Angry curses, and insults followed her as she mumbled apologies to the couple of people she actually ran into. It was amazing that the girl didn't walk out into the road as involved in the game she played as she was. She managed to keep herself alive, though, time an again. When would that luck run out?

He got to the Game Station, nodded to Rex (the guy that ran the place), went to his favorite station in the back that was luckily free today, and dropped his bag. Logging on as Mazin, he smiled. His character was one that he liked quite a bit. He was a mage and his favorite spells were always offensive rather than defensive. He liked his character quite a bit and no one that saw him in the game could ever connect him with real life.

Some, he had seen, tended to make their characters look much like themselves to give it a bit more 'realism'. However, Rick didn't like his real self, so he fabricated his ideal self. Granted, his character was perhaps a touch 'pretty boy', but he always had plenty of girl characters interested in him despite his shyness... in fact, it tended to drawn them in more when he began stuttering it seemed. He didn't understand that at all. Didn't girls like guys with strong backbones?

The game loading screen popped up on the monitor and he picked up the VR headset. Settling it over his eyes, the VR headset was slightly heavy but not uncomfortably so. It covered his ears and was very top of the line. The game finished loading as he picked up the controller on instinct.

It was time to play.

As soon as she was home she shut her DS off and set her things down. The Flash Drive was unhooked from her belt loop and sat on top of her entertainment center and she sat down in a comfortable, overstuffed armchair with a matching stool. This is where she preferred to play any game. The chair was perfect.

Finally she slipped the VR on and found herself in a new and inviting world. She did not think about the fact that she should probably have eaten something. She was to excited about the game she'd been hearing so much about. It would, of course, take some getting used to. Perhaps she could find someone that could help her.

----
Within the game she was pretty enough, though she was impaired. The blindfold around her eyes prevented her from being able to see as others might, but she had talents that helped her to work around that disability. Most would be surprised to find that the eyes were actually damaged, and that the cloth was not just transparent and for show.

Rick settled into the role of Mazin, the Mage. Sending his digital self forward, he crossed through the town of Belara, a way-station that saw many newbies on this server as most didn't go too far from the beginning towns initially. And this was the beginner's town for this particular server. This was where most logged into... where most respawned in the initial stages of the game. He whipped his head around as he glanced up a side street, the silver flick of his thin braids digitally tucked behind his left ear flipping before his face momentarily.

Disregarding the people up the street, he went towards the log-in station, a huge revolving series of graphics that were golden orange. Mazin had no real name to describe it other than that it could be one of those strange gizmo things that sat on desks that had various rings that spun around inside each other.

What he did not expect to see on the way to the log in point was what appeared to be a blind player. He knew there were those that wore blindfolds to pretend a greater sense of mysticism though he always sort of thought that to be retarded. Instead of going up to the blindfolded player, he turned and approached the booth nearby the point to gather up some supplies, moving through the crowd with some ease as he knew how to push through to get where he needed to go.

There were a few appreciative glances his way, though he ignored them. Why anyone would want to 'feel up' pixels, he had no clue... Rick only wanted to have fun and forget the shit life of high school and his immediate demise.

It took a few moments for her to become accustomed to her new, blind status. For a short time she simply stand in the same place, unmoving, until she was able to adjust to being sightless. Once she did, she was no longer Alexandria, but instead fell into the role of Calonia. She was a healer, a priest, and she was determined to be the best in the realm.

She took a few steps, managing to dodge around other players that were rather rude, and move with the confidence of someone that had perfect eyesight. Her back was straight and her chin up. Of course, she did not see Mazin, even when he took a passing glance at her. Her abilities allowed her to function well enough, but it still was not perfect. It would take practice, take time for her to function as though she had no disability.

With that thought she set about her tasks. Calonia found things she would need to do for almost anyone that needed help, and she did them to the best of her ability. Her progress was a bit slower then others, but she managed well enough with little help.

((Might as well move this along.))

Soon, he was finished with gathering his initial supplies, ready to take and go into the wilds around the town in order to get to another town. He had in mind to try and complete a quest today, however long it needed to take. He passed the blindfolded player as he walked.

It happened quickly, and in real life Rick clutched his gut, the controller falling to the floor as a wave of nauseous pain filled his midsection. He clapped a hand over his mouth, the VR controller staying in place as he fought to keep the school lunch where it belonged.

Unaware of what was going on in the Game, he had no idea his digital self was copying his motions, only he was doubled over and had slowly slumped to the ground.

But that was only the beginning. Richard suddenly felt a blinding pain stab into his head and he had the fleeting thought of wondering if this was what a migraine was like before he passed out... both in reality... and in the Game.

Mazin rolled onto his side in the Game, his eyes shut and his face betraying the pain that he had felt before he had lost consciousness. Players around him pointed and looked, but did nothing. If he was injured enough, he would re-spawn later at the log in point. It wasn't their concern and to spend either mana or potions on a player in a town is stupid.

She could hear the gasps and mummers of those around her as they pointed to Mazin. Her head turned towards him, and she carefully moved forward. Other players told her not to bother with him. The woman ignored them as she knelt by his side. This is where things were a bit trickier for her. She could find the body easy enough, but figuring out what had happened was a bit harder.

Quickly she worked, letting her hands hover over him and slowly trying to find where the pain had come. It was difficult. She started to think that it was not something that had happened within the game. The question was, then, if she could help him at all. Even so, she tried to heal the man that lay on the ground before proceeding to find out where he had logged in from.

Maybe someone else was there, maybe they were not...then...just as suddenly. She screamed out and fell to the ground herself. Her movements had not changed much in the chair she was sitting on. Her fingers gripped the arms, nails nearly tearing into the leather. Pain shot through her. She managed to think that this might be a short, a problem in the game. Perhaps she could fix it. Then, darkness took her.

Calonia lay in a heap next to Mazin. Her own face painted with pain. Aside from the in game breeze rustling through along her skirts, and through her hair, there was no movement from her.

He had no idea how long it was before he awoke with his cheek pressed into gritty cobblestone. Groggily, he pushed himself up and blinked at hands that weren't his bedecked with rings. His clothes pulled strangely and there were two thin silver braids falling in front of his face glinting in the light of a nearby torch fastened to the wall. It was dark and the details he could see were not all that great, but what details he could see startled him.

He could see. Mazin looked around only to have his eyes fall on the heap that was the blind girl from the log in point. She was unconscious much as he was and he immediately thought of grabbing a revitalizing potion for her.

There were few on the server at this point as most did not log in at this time of night except for the hard-core players or the absolute losers. It made him wonder why Rex hadn't come to kick him out of the booth. Little did he know that his controller that he instinctively grabbed for was on the floor as his true body in the real world was being taken to the hospital as it was now comatose and completely unresponsive.

Rick, now trapped in the form of Mazin, searched for the controller and panicked when he couldn't find it. However, he did manage to find a couple potion vials in his pocket, much tinier than he would have expected and they glowed faint mana green instead of the faint electric blue of a Restore Potion. All of his supplies didn't seem to exist at the moment but at least there was a pouch tied to his belt containing a good deal of the gold he had acquired. He thought that perhaps he should use a spell, but he had no spells on the caliber that would be required to revive someone. And he didn't want to leave her when it was obvious she had been hurt and something was wrong if she (nor he, for that matter) hadn't re-spawned if the injuries were critical enough to have knocked her unconscious.

So, he settled for the next best thing. He reached down, hesitated for a long moment, and then decided to shake her shoulder as he knelt on surprisingly hard cobblestone. If this was an upgrade... it was very unsettling and he didn't want to have any of it.

She made a small sound when he shook her away and then tried to open her eyes. Alexandria was surprised to find that she could not. Her eyelids would not move. When she reached for the controller all she found was the cloth that covered her eyes.

Hurriedly, she squirmed away from the hands on her shoulders. Worry, and fear was painted on her face. "What..what happened?" The voice that came out was not her own. It was the voice she used for Calonia. She was still in the game? Why couldn't she find the controller...why couldn't she open her eyes?

Out loud, the next question she asked was, "Who are you?" The priestess could not hear any other footsteps near them, though she was certain that the guards would be around soon. It didn't matter though. She found herself having trouble concentrating on the person that had woke her up.

"I don't know. And I'm Mazin," he told her as she pulled away, automatically using his user name rather than his real one. "Do you know of any upgrades that were supposed to happen? Because..." He drew in a breath and noted the non-VR Lounge smells that invaded his nose. Rather, he smelled dusty stone, smoke from the torches, and many other things that had no scent of sweat-and-body-oil-inundated plastic and vinyl or soda-sticky surfaces.

Didn't matter how hard Rex tried... he could never completely keep the VR Lounge free of mess.

"Can you get up? We probably should go to an inn... see if we can find a bulletin board. I can't access my user control panel, so we have to do the next best thing, I guess." Bulletin boards contained a few things: Quests that were free-for-all, ads for players by players, ads from companies trying to sell something, and a home for general announcements. As most people frequented an inn at least once per visit due to the fee you pay in order to heal up your HP and MP instantly, it was an ideal place to put such notices.

She shook her head slightly, "I am not aware of any patches." The priestess pushed herself to her feet after a moment, and turned her head as though she was trying to look around before cursing. An ability of hers that had allowed her to know her surroundings, even without eyes, was not working properly. Blindfolded eyes were turned in the direction she thought Mazin was in.

"It seems that something must have been changed though. Eyeless Sight is not working as it should be." She frowned before she continued, "I suppose the only thing we can do is go to the inn."

With that she took a step in the direction she thought the in was in, but that single step found her flat on the cobblestone road again. Calonia let out a groan and rolled onto her back, checking her nose. It was bloody and the cooked appearance of it showed that it was, in fact, broken.

She sat up, legs crossed beneath skirts that seemed to have more appearance of being cloth then they ever had before, and managed to work on of the healing spells she had. Within minutes the bleeding had stopped and, if her nose wasn't straight, it did not have the same stomach churning look as before.

It was proof her Eyeless Sight ability was not working very well. She had looked slightly off to the left of him before turning and going South instead of East, which was where the inn was located... He watched in surprise as he lunged forward, though he was still incapable of catching her as she did a rather spectacular nosedive into the cobblestones.

"Well, I guess magic still works," he said solemnly, snatching a bit of fabric from a nearby used-to-be-there-for-appearance clothesline. He dabbed away the remainder of the blood from under her nose. It certainly wasn't the bloody mess it was before, but the sight of that blood was making him a bit queasy. If this upgrade allowed one to be disfigured and bloodied, it meant that they were in loads of trouble. Pain was evidently something that could happen and if that happened, what would happen if they were killed?

"And I guess I'll guide you as your Sight thing doesn't work." He held out a hand to her after he stood, realized she wouldn't be able to see it, and then took one of the delicate hands in his to hoist her up. He did not yet pull at her arm, not wanting to be rude. "C'mon."

She smiled gratefully at him when he wiped the blood from her face and took her hand in his. The direction he lead her in came as a surprise, but her ability was not working as it should have been so she decided to trust him.

"This...I am worried, Mazin. Something just seems wrong." After a pause she continued, "Have you seen anyone else since we woke up?" That was really the only way she could describe it. What happened to them?

Her body was in her chair still, at her apartment. Blood ran from her nose, but Calonia knew none of this. As far as she was concerned she should be able to step out of the game at the log point. Assuming she could find it of course.

"Not really, but I think it has to do with the time rather than the upgrade..." He made a habitual gesture of pushing up his glasses, only to rub his finger against the bridge of his nose that was decidedly narrower than his actual one. He fought the urge to groan. Why did this have to happen?

After he checked the bulletin board, he'd go to the login point and see if he could get out and get busy taking care of the crap homework he had to do. His foster mother would be furious if he didn't at least try to maintain a half-decent grade.

They reached the Inn and Mazin opened the door, giving the still unnamed Player the ability to enter ahead of him. While he wasn't the most intelligent of people, he did have a modicum of manners.

She walked inside at an urdge from Mazin, chewing on her lip worriedly. "I suppose it makes sense that few people would be on." Reaching up to brush hair behind her ear and turned her head towards him, or where she thought he was at least. "Have I told you my name? I cannot remember. No matter. I am Calonia."

The woman shifted slightly from one foot to the other, wondering at how the dress moved so naturally, and the fabric felt so real. Whatever the developers had done, she had to admit that the changes were impressive. She was not certain that, once she logged out, she would log back into the game again though.

Her thoughts wandering, she was not certain how much time had passed. "Is there anything on the board?"

Mazin had moved over to the board after acknowledging her name, temporarily leaving her side. What he saw was not the flat rectangle of a board tacked with different flyers pressed to it. Instead, it was a real bulletin board with different actual pieces of paper tacked to it slightly sticking out and shifting as he had stirred the air near them.

His heart thudded hollowly in his chest and he frowned as he looked about the bar. Everything was way too real. Mazin looked at the board again and reached out to touch the general announcements that occurred game-wide. It had the feel of actual parchment and it crackled slightly under his fingers. There was no mention of an upgrade.

Looking at the other fliers, he was suddenly approached by another. He looked up at the person, visually assessing him to be a player rather than an Inn NPC. "Are you guys looking for a quest? We could team up! I know there's some great quests near here and I'm sure you guys want to level up, too. I mean... all newbies like us want to level up, right?"

"I've already completed the quests in this area... twice," Mazin said, absently as he continued examining the fliers. The player stared at him for the longest time. "Not to mention I don't think this is the best time for either Calonia or me to be running around on quests." 'Especially considering we're trying to figure out what the hell is going on,' he thought with a grimace. Another thought occurred to him and he turned as the guy began to push at him.

"C'mon, man... I mean, if you did the quests--"

Mazin interrupted him. "Do you know of any upgrades that were to be done today?" The guy looked at him blankly. "To the game?" he asked, raising his brows at the newbie.

"No... Why?"

"What does the bulletin board look like to you?" Mazin pressed, hoping to dissipate the alarm that was beginning to get a hold of him.

The guy looked it over. "A bulletin board? Look, man, what are you on?"

Mazin resisted the urge to grind his teeth and punch the guy. Coding wouldn't allow for... fighting... His eyes widened. He shouldn't be able to reach out and mess with the other player. Not in an inn, at any rate. And he... Mazin reached out and grabbed the newbie's sleeve in horror. The action shouldn't have been possible. "What the hell?" He spun, leaving the wide eyed guy standing there staring at his back as he marched over to the blindfolded girl. "Calonia? I think we're in deep shit."

Calonia waited while he checked the board, hoping that she was standing to one side of the door and not in front of it. She didn't dare move though, least she run into someone, or something. Her mind drifted, trying to figure out what the developers could have possibly done to the game and shifted uneasily from one foot to the other.

She looked towards his voice, "What do you mean? Did you see something on the board?" Her words were edged with worry, maybe even fear. Whatever had happened, there was certainly a feeling of wrongness to it all. She wanted desperately to be out of the Game, but she couldn't figure out how to do that.

"Who were you talking to?" She had heard another voice, new there was another player present. Unfortunately she had been so wrapped in her own thoughts or trying to figure out what had happened that she had heard little of what was said. The woman looked to be on the edge of wringing her hands, but managed to resist...barely.

"More like what the board looked like. It didn't look like a bunch of pixels in the shape of a board. And I was able to touch another player in a way that shouldn't have been possible. I could feel his sleeve, no less."

Mazin felt like he was on the edge of a panic attack. "We need to find an administrator or something. We need to alert them to what's going on. What if this is a bug? And why am I hungry?" This was ridiculous... He rubbed his midsection, and was further upset by the feeling of skin and leather under his hand. This body was strange. His hair was different... none of what he was doing was even in the commands mandated by the Game.

Her eyes would have been as wide open as they would go, if she could have opened them. The fact that it was not an ability she had worried her as much as the news he brought her. The woman made a small sound in her throat and nodded in hurried agreement, "Yes, we need to find someone...where though?"

Her head turned first one way and then another, as she tried to activate her ability again and again. It did not work though. She could not see. Calonia wanted to growl in frustration as she raked her fingers through her hair. "Should we still try the log point? Maybe...maybe we can figure something out there." Of course she knew it would be him discovering most of their information. She was of little help in her state, but she would continue to try her ability until it would work, at least a little, and she could offer help.

"Login point... right. Maybe we can get out of this mess and not worry about finding an admin immediately." He considered even as he opened the door to admit them back into the night. "An admin or at least a moderator should be on at this time of night even if it is more for their own amusement. A shame we don't get people from other timezones than the four in the Americas."

He frowned as he took Calonia's arm to guide her, registering the feeling of soft fabric and a rounded woman's arm. Mazin's willowy form seemed suddenly stronger than hers at the moment, but he needed to work on his mage skills before he dared leaving this town. It was like being a beginner all over again.

She nodded, "Yes, someone must be on. There must be a way to...to figure this out." Calonia was worried, though she did not like to show it. The woman shifted from one for to another when she heard the door open, and smiled gratefully at him when he took his arm.

Then she hesitated. "This...this is not right." She rested a hand over his, curious and wanted to scream. "Why do you feel real? Why...why do I feel more real then I should?" He didn't know the answers, he was just another player stuck in some horribly realistic update.

She rested a hand on his again, this time her finger trailing along his for a moment almost wonderingly. The expression on her face very much like that of a child discovering something. Calonia whispered, disbelief and fear filling her voice, "You are warm...how could an update make your skin warm?"

"I... I don't know..." Mazin mumbled in response to the rhetoric questions. His face flushed slightly at the exploratory contact. Even though this wasn't his hand or his body, he could almost feel the nerves firing off in rapid succession as she ran her finger along his hand. Not only was he unused to female contact, he was also a teenage boy with hormones that went haywire with little provocation.

He guided her through the streets towards the login point, saying little though his mind was racing. Those few words she spoke had made him notice a myriad of other things, and quite a few of them were about her. How her skin was warm. How it was soft. How he could feel her arm through the soft and apparently homespun fabric while performing an action that shouldn't be possible. It went on and on and on.

He also felt a nighttime breeze on his skin, the cobblestones through his shoes, and knew he shouldn't be able to. There was nothing that would contribute to this upgrade currently available. There was VR headsets, but nothing like the holodecks one saw on Star Trek.

When they arrived at the point, he sighed in relief when he saw the form of a well-known administrator for this particular server. The administrator had the username of 'Michael the White', but most players called him simply 'Mike'. He had a semi-archangel appearance to go with his title with all white and gold regalia. The avatar had every representation of a holy knight ready to do battle. When he turned at the sound of footsteps, he frowned at the strange interaction between the two players.

"What are you two doing on at this time of night?" asked Michael with a small frown on his face, recognizing Mazin and knowing he was a minor from previous encounters. He did not recognize Calonia, though, but assumed she was a similar age.

"Mike, was there an update?" Mazin blurted out, his face worried.

"No... Why?"

Calonia shook her head, "No...no, that can't be." That was said mostly under her voice, and she gripped Mazin a little more tightly then she had been before she realized it. Then, she started to gesture with the hand that was holding his, "How can we do this then?!"

She licked her lips and then stopped letting out a small, frustrated sound. "How can I lick my lips, and why does my tongue feel moist. I shouldn't be able to do that!" She released Mazins hand after realizing just how hard she was starting to squeeze his hands.

Mazin massaged the pain out of his digits once they were freed from Calonia's grasp. "Um, I think something's seriously wrong. Everything looks different." Michael stepped forward but did not reach out for them like they could towards him. The administrator was obviously concerned as that was one of the (supposed to be) few real life things that were translated into the game as the headsets recognized and translated certain facial expressions.

His eyes narrowed after a moment and his frown deepened into disapproval. "That's impossible. It'd be better if you two did not lie."

"We're not lying, Mike... See?" Mazin reached out to Michael and touched the man on the chest. Cool metal radiated it's chill into Mazin's hand and Michael's eyes widened once more as he stepped back hastily out of reach before reaching for his sword as the administrator in real life moved the cursor on his control to the 'Attack' command.

"What's the deal?" exclaimed Mazin, stepping back, his eyes wide.

"I don't know who you two are, or what you are, but you are obviously not Players!"

"We are!"

She responded to the sound of Mazins voice, "What's going on? I'm a college student. I'll tell you where I live if that will help. We are players though. How can we prove it?" Everything came out in a rush, she didn't even take a breath until the last of it was said. Her hands gripped her skirts tightly, and her head was turned towards him, but she did not make a move towards or away from the administrator.

((He didn't actually select the command, so all he is is 'ready'.))

((Alright, guess I was a bit confused there. I fixed my post though.))

Mike's eyes narrowed but they quickly widened again as his breath hitched and the pupils, which would stay frozen normally when nothing more than pixels, blew wide.

Mazin took a step back when Michael lurched forward slightly before crumpling on the cobblestones. The NPC nearby did not move from his post as a gauntlet covered hand fisted futilely against the stones as the other hand curled around his armored gut. "Wh... What?" gasped the man even as Mazin realized what was happening and fell to the stone next to him, immediately focusing on a healing spell to help numb whatever Michael was feeling.

"Calonia!" he said to her. "He's hurt... I think it's what happened to us!" Seconds later, he pulled his hands back. "And this sucks that I'm more a summoner and black mage than a white mage!"

She gasped and moved towards Mazins voice, dropping to her knees next to him. Her hands found Mikes body and she worked the small talent of healing she could still access since their dilemma started. "I...I don't know if what I'm doing is helping him or not, Mazin."

Calonia hoped that she could at least ease some of the pain she remembered feeling. The problem was, she did not know if it was pain through the character, or physical pain to her body. "Please, tell me if it looks like I'm helping."

Mazin looked at her with a frown as light emanated from her hands. "I'm not sure..." Even as he spoke, Mike passed out. "But if it is what's wrong with him... we have no luck to take and move him anywhere else. I can just look at that armor and tell we're too weak to pick all that metal up."

((Mini-fast foward...))

In the end, they were able to slowly haul the unconscious form of the administrator off to one side of the square where the login point was. Mazin sat against the wall of a nearby house, dozing as he waited and trying to ignore the numbness that was where his butt used to be.

Michael chose to awaken as the dawn spread through the sky. "Ugh..." he groaned, shifting and causing a loud grinding sound to be heard. "Where... am I?"

"You're still logged in, Mike," Mazin said, having stirred when Mike woke up. "Or something..." His eyes were sleepy and his voice was dull. "We haven't figured it out yet... You okay?" Mike sat up and his eyes widened as he looked at the differences from just a while ago for him. The administrator was stunned into silence for a very long moment.

Calonia was slumped against the wall, on the verge of sleep. At least until Mike woke up. The grinding sound of metal on cobblestone made her wince and whimper. For a moment she panicked when she realized that she could not see. Then she remembered what had happened and she looked towards Mikes voice first and then Mazins.

"We don't know what has happened. That is why we came to you, we thought there was some sort of upgrade or something." The woman shifted slightly to relieve the stiffness in one of her legs. "How ar-" She stopped speaking before she finished the sentence, realizing that she would just be repeating Mazins question.

Mike looked at them with wide eyes, his blonde hair falling in his face and making him jerk back, his green eyes widening in shock. "What the hell?!" He clambered to his feet, a clatter of metal on metal filling their ears. The administrator stood, his cape falling in a swirl around his feet and he stumbled slightly under the weight of the plate only to sag to the ground. He couldn't even stand under the weight of his own armor.

Grunting, he struggled to stand even as Mazin shot to his feet and went to him. "Okay, there's got to be buckles somewhere in here..." he muttered, knowing a bit about armor from some of the stuff he had read once upon a time on a lark.

"Get your hands off me!" growled Mike. "What the hell did you do to me?!" He was scared, obviously so. And he had no clue how to react to this situation.

"Michael... we're as stuck as you right now," Mazin calmly explained. "As Calonia said, we came looking for help and I don't know what's happening or why we're like this. And please hold still!" Mike stilled long enough for Mazin to pop a buckle and loosen up a part of the armor before accessing other parts of the armor with ease.

"I'm honestly surprised there were buckles. I didn't think fantasy armor had that."

Michael looked at him for a long moment, stunned by the different shadows falling over the two player's faces and the sudden realism in the movement of clothing and bodies. No matter how much rendering was done, a regular movement through a game scene had a certain amount of stiffness. Mostly because if it didn't have some simplicity when it came to loading, rendering masses of people would suddenly overtax any number of servers and send them crashing.

But they looked real. Green eyes focused on Calonia. "You two... I guess you two are the players that were hospitalized." Slender fingers stilled before swiftly retracting and grabbing at the broach that held the cloak in place.

"What do you mean, hospitalized?!" yelped Mazin, suddenly panicked.

"They haven't released any names or anything to the public, but as I'm a designer of the game and I need to know these things... A pair of young adults, completely unrelated to each other except for playing at the same time, lost consciousness and haven't woken up yet."

"What's their names?"

"O'Shay and Tooney," responded Mike. He was granted the vision of the color leaving Mazin's face rapidly as horror spread across the almost feminine features.

Calonia sat while she heard what was happening. She knew that Mazin must have been helping with Mikes armor after asking him to remain still, but did not move to help. She would only get in the way as she was. When she heard him speak of someone being hospitalized she gasped.

Her name..O'Shay. She felt sick to her stomach. If she'd had anything to eat she likely would have lost it. Mixed with that was relief though. "At least someone found me." She muttered. What would have happened had no one happened upon her? The woman shuddered to think. "I..I am really Alexandria O'Shay, and I am lucky that anyone found my.." She swallowed, "my body, because I live alone."

She pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them to herself. Worry and fear was written on her face when she rested her forehead on her knees. There had to be something they could do to get out of the game. Some way to fix whatever caused them to be trapped.

"I'm... Shit, Rex musta found me, then..." Mazin was still pale as his fingers left the cloak and began fiddling with the straps on the armor in a mechanical and very absent fashion. He wasn't really seeing what was going on in front of him, nor could he really hear beyond the disturbing rush of blood in his ears. The top part of the armor slid free with a loud crash on the ground, though he didn't hardly flinch. "I'm Rick Toomey. Why are we in the hospital?" Mazin stepped back away from Michael, afraid of the answer.

The older man frowned as he levered himself up onto his feet. "I don't know all the details... but... You two are comatose. How you're here, I've no clue."

Mazin looked at him with a haunted expression. "I think you're in the same boat now, Michael." He turned to Calonia, now identified to him as Alexandria O'Shay. Her lost expression and posture had him kneeling down next to her. "Calonia?" he asked, not bothering with querying if she was okay as it was obvious she wasn't. His own emotions were whirling away within him, and he had no idea when all of this would click as it would be something of an explosion when it finally did.

Her muscles twitched at the sound of the breast plate hitting the stones, but she gave no other reaction, and she didn't seem to notice when Mazin knelt next to her for a long time. When she finally spoke it became obvious that her emotions were only barely kept in check. She did not lift her head to look at them either. "I just need," She paused before continuing on, "I just need a few minutes."

Even so, she trembled a little. Calonia never liked it when someone saw her upset, much less when that someone was virtually a stranger. She did not know how long she could keep a lid on the emotions that left her feeling nauseous.

Mazin flushed slightly even as he backed up. "Okay," he mumbled, casting a look over at Mike who was still in denial on his own circumstances.

Michael looked about at the sudden realism of the game that he had helped design. It was obvious that what he had done was not this complex or detailed. It was obvious to him he'd gone outside the parameters by taking off his breastplate. He knew he didn't engineer straps into his character's armor design.

Jasper... or rather 'Michael the White' approached one of the windows as the streets became more populated as more people logged on. He saw his own face, the one he woke up to every morning and shaved... however this was the face of his avatar with long hair and a beard.

"This is ludicrous..." he mumbled, kneeling down next to his breastplate still laying on the ground. One hand reached down and grasped the edge of it and he started slightly when he was greeted by various players walking by.