.HACK//Sandbox [Semi-DM'd, Explanation Inside]

[Roland Karloseth]

Chaos charged and slashed at the behemoths knee, and was surprised when the attack missed. "What the... I've NEVER missed an attack on an ogre! This things gotta be glitched." He then watched the thing grab Blank. That's when he noticed it. "What's the deal with that things head? it's... bigger than it should be... IT'S PROBABLY GLITCHED." Chaos then ran in and jabbed at the beast's stomach, sword piercing the flesh and going in, and was satisfied to see an electric current run into the beast.  

[Roland Karloseth]

((Sorry about the double post again, but I'm getting a headache and Pisces has already gone to bed, giving me permission to play his character))

Eventually, after all the attacks, the beast fell and dissipated. In its place was left a pile of glitched items, and another bracelet chunk, which caused the screen to go funky for everyone. "Well Blank, looks like it's your lucky day. Lynx and I have already got a piece, looks like it was meant for you." Chaos said.

Blank picked up the bracelet piece and inspected it, muttering "Lucky me. Alright, I'm getting really tired guys, I'm heading out. Later." He said as he logged out.

"I'm getting a headache, I think I'm gonna head out too. Later Lynx. Just... make sure you keep that bracelet piece, alright? Don't throw it out or anything, it's important to know who has the pieces. Later." Chaos said as he logged out as well.

David exited 'The World' and went to his bead to lay down and sleep. He was asleep before his head even hit the pillow.

Eric looked at his screen. "Such disturbing information... Comas... stuff admin can't handle... Hrm. Something is amiss, and I WILL see it through to the end and come out smiling, as will my friends..." Eric mumbled to himself as he laid down. He held friends in a high position, equal if not higher than family. His family was so dysfunctional, it wasn't even funny. Perhaps that's why he always cared for his friends so much...

Eric's sleep was troubled. The bracelet had even made its way into his mind, he was dreaming about it and the entire odd situation...  

[Erverain]

Since the others decided to leave the pile of items, Lynx decided to help himself.
Hmm, once I get these debugged I might be able to pawn them for a decent price.
Gating out back to Mac Anu, Lynx wandered over to the Crimson Knight outpost. The line looked like it had grown in size over the last couple of hours, and now stretched for quite a bit. Working his way along, Lynx finally reached the head of the line. After dropping off the buggy items, he decided to log out for a bit. That Long Arm hadn't told him anything after all, but his actions did hint that these bracelet pieces were important.
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Alex removed his visor and stared at the computer screen for a while, lost in thought.
So, something big is going to happen after all... I should probably take care of any work before diving in, shouldn't I.

Status: Offline  

[Kerrigan_dragon]

Gabrielle had been going about and getting Roc more comfortable with her home. She'd bought a laptop for him yesterday, and wrapped it up as a gift for him. If she really stopped to think, it didn't make much sense that she had taken this man in and was supporting his living here. But she was always one to listen to her heart before her head; and her heart said that this man needed help, needed friendly human contact, needed to be taken care of, and would not hurt her. She left the present on the kitchen table with a big tag that said "For Roc =)" She hadn't really seen him much, she'd been going about shopping and he'd been lurking around the house, doing his own thing, but it seemed to work. Gabrielle hummed happily this morning as she ate, then went upstairs and logged onto the World.

Fable checked her messages, and found one from Chaos. She read it quickly, her brow furrowed. "Weird.... I guess I'll hold onto the bracelet piece then. I wonder who it is that has the other piece... and where he got this new information from..." Deciding to leave Aqua City, she began to wander around. Many of the monsters she encountered were buggy; stronger and faster than normal. It was disturbing that the normal monsters were starting to become the minority. After fighting two huge lizard creature with three bladed tails and four arms, having teamed up with several newbies and a few experienced players and still all of them almost got killed, she decided to log off for now. She quickly sent a message to Chaos before she went.

Message from Fable_Goldentongue@theWorld

Hey Eric,

I've been wandering around in this server, and I've been experiencing a lot of weird stuff. Don't worry, I'm not going to throw away the bracelet piece. FYI normal monsters are becoming extinct. At some point I think I'd like to hear this disturbing information you've learned. Right from the source, preferrably. I have a lot of work to do today, so I don't know if I'll log on again for a couple days, but you can always email me, or even call me. (Yes, telephones still exist, I know you thought they were mythical beasts, but just look around, they still work! xD) Talk to you later, and stay safe!

Gabrielle smile

Having finished this, Fable logged off the World. Gabrielle took off her goggles, and went over to her other desk, and started to work on her neglected homework.  

[Roland Karloseth]

Eric slammed his refrigerator door shut and went back to his desk with soda in tow. "Alright, you OBVIOUSLY don't know who your dealing with fool. You've got to be either incredibly stupid or oblivious to send ME a virus." He said. He re-opened the email that was sent with the bogus download and set to work getting the IP address from the sender. After he got it, he put the IP address into a program labeled "Remote Computer" and was able to grab the virus senders computer. He forwarded the email back to the sender, and then opened it on his computer. He sat back and watched the virus do it's work, wiping the hard drive. Eric then shut his computer down and put a spare hard drive in. He would have to load the other one back up with his settings, but that could be done gradually. Eric was in no mood to game though, so he just went to watch some TV for a while.  

[Sentama Lin]

Reiyaku sighed and tapped his pencil on his clipboard, waiting for his client to describe what kind of outfit he wanted. It's just standard martial arts gear, he thought, as he jotted down notes for himself on how to make the outfit. In reality, he could get it done in an hour, but he figured he'd be respectful and actually make it seem like he's working.

His mind drifted back to "The World" and the things happening in it. He hasn't logged on in a long while, particularly because of the glitch items he had in possession. At the moment the Crimson Knights confiscated the Sword item he got, but nothing really else. It was strange to him to put all this security up for a game, and it finally occurred to him that this entire thing could be way too big to be an event. Still, he couldn't think about that now.

"Mr. Yamanokoto... Did you get everything?" The client asked. Reiyaku kind of nodded absentmindedly, then replied with a "...yes? Oh! Right. Yes. I did. I'll have your outfit done in a few days."

Showing the client out with respect, he decided to sit down at his desk and open up his Instant Messenger.

Status: Offline.  

[Sentama Lin]

"Nobody on... Nobody..." Reiyaku sighed to himself, closing the Instant Messenger and heading out the door. He turned on his Cell Phone and kept the communication channels open so he could receive messages while he was out on the town. But he needed a break.

"Hrmm... Oh! The HELIOS Lines are open now!" He said to himself with a smile as he walked into one of the new stations. It was a bit creepy, for the entire place was un-manned. But it had a sophisticated and futuristic aire though. Even the vehicles seemed out of this world. With a wave of his credit card at the machine he boarded one of the trains. He decided he'd visit the downtown area.

"I do hope there's something there. At least these trains are very fast..."

Status: Offline.  

[Red Glacier]

Roc had been sleeping in his room the past few days catching up on rest he never really got to have, he took a few showers here and there thinking about things, he always forgot to put the curtains up because he was so used to public showering. He realized he hadn't talk to Gabrielle much and felt kind of bothered by the fact he wasn't talking to the person who was housing him at the moment. he comes out of his room and sees a gift on the kitchen table, he walked over and saw a tag that said "For Roc =)" on it. his shoulders sank and he smiled and then looked around to see if Gabrielle was anywhere around. he sits down and unwraps the gift and with awe he saw that it was a laptop.

"A laptop?....A laptop for me?" he looked at it and it was very new "Who knew one could be so generous? Shes rich but does she really have this much to just throw around? I feel unworthy......but, she'd want me to have it so I guess I will" he opens it up and starts plugging things in, he began installing everything and getting the laptop working but it seemed so odd to him "After 3 years of not having a computer its odd to see the top market brand........These things get more and more complex don't they?" he talked to himself as he he kept at it and soon had everything up and running. The internet was working which was great and a few media programs were there too. Music and photo manipulation were his prime items for the core of any computer he owned. "She really did this..." he still couldn't believe she went so far as to do this for him. Roc began skimming through sites to see how the computer would function, it was working great

Status: Offline  

[Kerrigan_dragon]

Gabrielle had had a crummy day at school. Not that anything particularly bad happened, but... she sighed. She just didn't feel happy. She came home and didn't bother to call out that she was home, just crept upstairs and threw her backpack on the bed. Deciding her sugar levels were probably low, she went to the kitchen to make a sandwich for herself or something. As soon as she walked in, however, her energy and happiness went right up as she saw Roc on the computer. "Oh, you got it? I'm so happy! Do you like it? I got everything under the sun I could think of on it. You can even charge it in the sun, it has some new fancy hidden solar panel technology." She hugged him tightly, happy because he seemed to be happy with it. "I think I'm gonna go on The World for a bit, alright?" She scurried up the stairs, in a much better mood, and logged on.

Fable stretched as she appeared in The World, happy to be back. "It's been a little while," she thought aloud. She decided to wander around Aqua City for anything interesting.

Status: Online  

[xDarkPisces]

David swung open the door to his apartment with a smile on his face. The smile didn't belong, and he wasn't used to it, but today had been an eventful and profitable one. After two weeks of job searching he had received a call from an old friend who just happened to be opening a coffee bar down the street a few blocks. David had spoken with him for over an hour, postulating and planning, until finally they had settled on an agreement and a partnership. After a quick meeting for lunch, they had spent the afternoon gathering supplies and information, grants and bills, materials and stock, or arranging for some combination of such.

They had called it a night, leaving David feeling quite pleased both with himself and the work they had accomplished on the coffee bar. In his hands he held bags of groceries, which also didn't seem to belong. Having lived off of ramen and sandwiches for over a month now, he felt awkward almost as he shoved item after item into the tiny fridge.

After he finished, he popped the cap on an IBC Root Beer, sat at his computer, and logged on to 'The World', finally feeling as if he had earned this time off.

Blank Luck stepped forward from the chaos gate, brushing the dust from his pants. He reached in his pack and produced a health potion, downing it in a few gulps to replenish his strength from the battle with the ogre. 'Jeez, what a fight... That thing was way beyond normal...' Suddenly, remembering the bracelet piece, he took off towards a nearby alley, slipping in and behind a cranny in the wall of a building.

He pulled the bracelet chunk from his pack and turned it over in his hands, noting the weight and intricacy of its design; the exact design of the other chunks. Pocketing the chunk once more, he walked out of the alley and towards the great bridge... 'Now to wait... for someone to log on, I suppose.'  

[Kerrigan_dragon]

Fable was singing with her eyes closed, walking along the great bridge, just using her ears to determine where she was going... when she slammed right into someone, and fell flat on her butt. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, opening her eyes to see a Polearm. "Ouch," she murmured, rubbing her bruised rump. "That's what I get for not looking at where I'm going. Are you ok?"  

[Red Glacier]

"Yeah its great" he said happily but she was already gone "hmm." he went upstairs and got his helmet and put it on and logged onto the world. he stalked Fable in Aqua city and as soon as she fell down he scooped her up and brought her to her feet.

"Careful now, and...the laptop works great...Fable" he said smiling at her and gave her a tight hug "You didn't have to though." he said nervously  

[xDarkPisces]

Taken aback by the sudden impact and appearance of two strangers, both Wavemasters, Blank simply chuckled easily and smiled. "It's nothing at all, really... I wasn't really paying attention either, was I? Or maybe I would've seen you." Having only been knocked a bit off balance, he stood from his knee to his feet again and extended a hand in greeting. "Name's Blank Luck. Sorry we had to meet under such... painful circumstances." He chuckled again, nodding to the male Wavemaster behind her. "I see you two know each other."  

[Kerrigan_dragon]

Fable looked blankly at Ra, having never met him before, and not knowing it was Roc. "Um, thank you for picking me up, I could have helped myself though.." she began, talking over his comment about the laptop a bit. She took Blank Luck's hand a shook it. "A pleasure. I'm Fable, Fable Goldentongue. It's nice to meet you." She handed him her usercard. "And I guess the blame falls equally then." She looked at Ra for a bit. "Actually I don't believe I've met you..." She thought back, and realized what he meant about the laptop. "Oh, wait! I have met you! Just never met online before. And it's very nice to meet you, Blank Luck. I'm so sorry to have bumped into you. Perhaps I could treat us all to a stay at a tavern to compensate? Its' always best to drink with good company."  

[xDarkPisces]

Blank nodded to Fable, smiling pleasantly, "That sounds like a fitting plan. I've had a troubled mind of late and could use relaxing company." He looked up at the sky, shivering a bit, though the air around him was warm. The entire situation with the bracelet still irked him. Though he did not fully remember the details of the story from the last bracelet, the last time, he knew that, in the end, it had been an overall loss. People had lost their lives to a game. This game. And now it was starting again with him at its helm.
"Hmm..." he hummed softly to himself as he set off in the direction of the tavern.