Jantiva- It's all but a game

[mcstringer]

Alexander smelled the freshness of the savanah through his avatar, Excalibur,. It still boggled his mind how the creator's of Jantiva could do such a thing. He was taking classes in computer this and thats, but he was no where near this level. He mentally decided that he had to apply for a job in this company when he graduates from college.

Returning to game reality, Excalibur checked the resent completed quest; he maked double sure that all he needed to do was turn the quest in to complete it. It was amazing to him that the low level quests he was on never bored him. He found a alchemy shop in Lorinth that would make potions out of the materials he gathered from dead Faolan in Tapelle.

Excalibur heard the whistle of the train.

"Welp, the only way to find out is to try and try again."

Excalibur did not have a Travel Pass for the train, but did not want to run all the way to Lorinth either. Therefore, he wanted to test the freedom of Jantiva by jumping onto a moving train. When the time was nearer, Excalibur ran to a nearby outcrop of rock and waited for the train to pass under him.

"It's now our never."

He jumped on top of the, and landec onto the train, but nearly slid right off of it. Excalibur latched onto a hand for his dear life and pulled himself up to safety.

"Sweet, it works, Lornith hear I come."

[Lacey]

Lisa leaned her head into her hands, elbows propped up on the hard desk. The window is one of the most horrible things to put in a school. It reminds the students that they’re in a cage and they can’t be out there in the sun or wind. The clock went ever slower throughout the day, seconds taking something closer to years than the small amount of time they boasted. Her index finger tapped to the beat of a song that had been stuck in her head recently. It was an absolutely horrendous song, but there it was. In her head until it faded or something better came along.

The bell rang and Lisa sprang out of her seat, grabbing her books and heading out of the school once she’d put them in her locker. She wasn’t hurrying home because there was anyone waiting for her, in fact that wasn’t true at all. Her parents were both at work and she had no siblings. It was the game that was making her walk so quickly, one earbud in her ear as she tried desperately to get the song out of her head. No matter what song she listened to, that wretched tune was always in the back of her head.

Why would someone let that out on the market? Lisa shook her head and pulled apart the trick welcome mat. Inside was a key and she quickly took it and opened the door, then putting the key back in it’s place. The house was quiet as she kicked off her shoes and closed the door behind her.

She went to her room, throwing her two notebooks on her bed. The teachers had been extra kind today and only given homework that she could finish before class had ended. So she could play right away.

Lisa sunk down into a chair and placed the pads on their correct places at the monotone command. Everything faded into darkness. She smiled as everything came back in a way that she adored. There was the sound of a rattling train and she opened her eyes.

She was now Alek, a her avatar. His legs were longer than hers and she quickly adjusted to his senses. Looking down at her right wrist, she silently admired the slave bracelet. She could feel the power from it ebbing through Alek’s veins. At a word, or if he was really concentrating, a thought, she could do things that no one could do in her world.

In Alek’s left hand, a bag hung from a strong leather string. She knew the contents by heart and thought about them now with fondness. Inside was a flute that she played when she wasn’t particularly doing anything, just living in this world that she loved so much. Beside that was a small leather book she’d acquired. In it were lists and sketches of animals she’d see and their strengths and weaknesses along with random notes she felt would be useful if she wanted Alek to shift for a particular purpose. A few parchments telling her of quests were between the pages simply because if they weren’t, they would get lost. Then of course was a pouch full of Alek’s money.

Without looking around, Lisa knew were Alek was. They’d just gotten off a train in Lornith when she’d been forced to sign off. Three bags, one empty, of different colors hung from Alek’s belt. The two with something in them were dark blue and crimson. The blue held her shifting bracelet. It was by far her favorite because, with time and concentration, Alek could become whatever she wanted. The red held the elemental bracelet. It was the most powerful that Alek possessed and she only brought it out when she was practicing or if her situation was dire.

The one Alek wore now was usually enough to take care of most problems but sometimes the problem arose that it could not handle.

Lisa didn’t want to start on the quests in her pack at the moment, though they were fresh in her mind because she though of little else, so she started wandering throughout Lorinth.

The cloak swirled around Alek’s ankles and she was glad for its constant protection. Then she heard yelling.

Curious, she moved stood at the wall of a building and watched a girl throw a chicken and covered Alek’s mouth before she started laughing. She was about to step in when some guy showed up and settled things quite easily.

Shrugging, she continued, enjoying Alek’s long strides. It was so much faster when one had long legs.

Hmm…maybe I should get going on those quests. The ones I picked were rather easy though, and now that I’m in Lorinth, it’ll only take me a few minutes to get that one trinket someone was too lazy to come and get themselves. Lifting up Alek’s left arm, she looked at the PDA, wondering if any of her contacts were online.

[Volkov]

Quartz held her arms around her sides laughing with Obsidian as the Berserker ran away tail between his legs. then she stood up clapping her hands with a big smile "Your so cool Obsidian~!"

Her little giggles landing her a NPC chicken flying and sitting on top of her head which made her furrow her brow again.

Even in the game Quartz admired her friend's Avatar, an over the top gorgeous and strong willed long blonde haired warrior specialized in being a lancer...even if Obsidian had some bad rumors circulating about him and hurting other players...she absolutely ignored those rumors. as much as she knew they were true and she had witnessed them in occasion. every time he was accused of it unless the person ran in fear. when they turned eye to Quartz she just denied it had happened....and then casually just told Obsidian to maybe tone it down a little. but she believes he never listened since the rumors of a powerful player-killer never seemed to stall.

Of course....
Quartz questions the "Powerful" part of the rumors just as much as anything else.

She swayed side to side for a moment checking her quest logs then looked back at Obsidion
"Anything you had in mind for today? a majority of my quests are finished since we plowed through them yesterday... though I didn't see anything interesting on the quest boards before I had to log-out last night...lots of stuff about robberies. bandits. ...something about wild animals and...um...."

She looked tilted her head to try and remember rolling her staff in her hands
"Oh! right...Xexilia's stealing Non player character children...kinda weird...
If you can't think of anything we could always just clear out a random dungeon and....grind for experience and items..."

[roan]

The bell finally rang and Odette let out a small prayer for the school day was finally over. She hated school, hated being here surrounded by ugly people. Not of feature but of character. Maybe she just did care to take the time to get to know anyone… or maybe no one took the time to know her? Odette had always distanced herself from the general populous, because she felt she belong their.

Before all the other students flooded the halls Odette slipped out easily into the student parking lot, walking fast to her rust covered Chevy pick-up. With a hard twist of the key she opened the door with a loud groan and hopped in. The engine took a good minute to turn over but when it did she was one of the first to drive away from Humika High.

Once home Odette parked and walked up the few steps to her tiny trailer, unlocking the door. She was greeted by a large brindle pit bull, its tail banging hard against the ugly paneling of the living room wall. “Hey, Roux.” Giving him a rub on his wide head Odette tossed her tattered back pack next to the TV and plopped into her father’s old recliner, bringing her cordless headset with her. After kicking off her shoes she turned on the game console with a big toe before bringing her feet under her bottom, leaning back comfortable while she transported into the game.

- - -

“Would I like to buy or trade? Hmm.” Stone blue eyes that followed her from the real world gazed at the displayed bracers. She had enough money to purchase either the ones that would increase her stamina or charisma. Decisions, decisions. Finally the girl with green and blue hair picked the charisma set, changing the color to match her purple outfit, covered in pink stones. After exchanging money she donned them on her forearms, expecting them thoroughly before moving along within the city of Lorinth. This was a game, why not dress in such a fashion she would never wear in the real world. No one from school would recognize her with her short leather skirt, revealing long slender legs. No one would understand it was Odette Winchester with her formfitting vest that held her amble bosom in an almost raunchy display of flesh. She could be whoever she wanted to be here. Anyone, and it was this freedom that she played the game so ceremonially. Escaping the real world and all its ugliness was the best feeling.

[Honey]

Shawnty swore viciously and flipped backwards in an effort to avoid being surrounded by the swarm of Xexilia. Pausing in her retreat she gathered a palm sized ball of yellow energy in her hand and tossed it into the cloud of bat like creatures, before tossing her hands up to create a wall of purple energy.

“HA!” The shout came quickly after the loud explosion that took out most of her foe. Creating a few smaller white balls in her hand she sent them winging after the remaining creatures before plopping down on her butt to regain some lost energy. Taking a few relaxing breaths she dug a potion out of her pouch to help speed her recovery, the creatures had come up on her quickly and quietly, surprising her enough that she’d had to fight for sometime before being able to get off a good magic attack.

With a soft sigh Shawnty checked her PDA again, muttering when she saw no one had logged on. She pushed to her feet, the potion having done its job and once more started towards the town. She was more interested in restocking her potion supply and looking for a new quest than anything else, though she’d probably browse the shops for a bit. Her mind continued to wander as she moved, though she was more aware of her surroundings this time around.

[DB.]

Dante was already way out of the city limits. The calming feeling he had when his swords were by his side was back, and that feeling was something that freaked him out. Right now he was supposed to clear out an abandoned mine which had just been purchased but was overrun by Faolan or something.

"The entrance to the mine should be around here somewhere, shouldn't there be a road or something leading here? At least a half-assed one," he thought while looking at the marker he put on his map.

Dante slowly scanned the area around him but saw nothing other than trees. He started walking forward when his foot got snagged in something, making him lose his balance and fall over. It quickly pulled him up until he was hanging upside down.

"Fuck," he whispered in an angry tone. Unsheathing both of his swords he was just as he was going to cut himself loose a fire ball came from behind one of the trees, barely missing him.

Dante swung both of his swords at the rope, cutting himself loose. He rolled as soon as he hit the ground and was quickly on his feet again. "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap," his mind kept repeating while sprinted towards the source of the magic, trying to dodge anything coming towards him.

Another two magic balls came towards him. He jumped to the side, dodging both, and now able see the caster in-front of him. He kept running towards him and the mage casted a lightning blast at him. Seeing that Dante closed his eyes and brought his arms in-front of him. The lighting hit him, losing most of his HP but he was already close enough to the mage to use his tornado slash. Bringing up both of his swords he slashed them both outwards. Wind quickly started to build up and a small tornado formed. It quickly moved towards the mage, fully enveloping him.

The wind was fast enough to slice like blades across the target. It died down n a few seconds and before the mage could do anything Dante slashed the mage a few more times and "killed" him. His body laying on the floor for a few seconds before disappearing to see if any items would be taken.

Dante sheathed his swords and was about to walk away when his PDA rang. He brought it up and opened a new message he received from the Jantiva staff, It read:

"To all Players

We are starting a world wide event featuring our new continent that is in it's final developing stages.

The event consists of many smaller parts which will narrow down our pool of candidates and reveal our winners.

The winners will receive special legendary weapons, a permanent x4 increase to all Exp earned, a mount, fame, and last but not least unrestricted access to the beta of the new continent.

To sign up or for more information, go to the bar in Auxville port. Any trains leading to or from the harbor are temporally free."

"Eh, why not," he thought while heading back towards Lorinth.