ᵐᶦʳᵃᵍᵉ ᵒᶠ ᵈᵉᶜᵉᶦᵗ

atoli would be the biggest sucker for valentines though

azureflameboy

myaquariium

amberenigma

the-terror-0f-death

blcdebrcndier

verfolgxr

sicklylcve

filiasusceptor

devoursinfinity

JESUS what a reply dump that was!

He couldn’t help but chuckle at that–it was admirable, but he had to admit he was happy for her. Atoli was finally learning to use her well-placed gift beyond the passive ability that the mirage of deceit had bestowed upon her. “You’ve suffered enough, Atoli,” Ovan replied softly, shaking his head gently. No.. there was no benefit in hurting her. 

“Questions.. I would be willing to oblige.” Knowing Yata, he probably wasn’t forthcoming about answers in the first place. Raven, was.. for a lack of a better word.. clueless ( inevitably they were always in ovan’s shadow.. but that was intentional ). The blunet finally turned to face the blonde, his posture naturally leaning towards his right as he stood idly, listening to the young woman’s question.

“–Yes, I did. Of course, he needed not to take my offer, but his desire for control was powerful indeed. Needless to say, it proved to be a very good way to test your strength as comrades,” he answered almost nonchalantly. Admittedly, he knew Sakaki would run off with the AIDA seed–especially after the coup d’etat that had failed.. he would have tried to scrounge any way to become more powerful. ..A perfect candidate, in Ovan’s eyes. “Do you wish to know anything else?” It wasn’t as if he was planning on staying very long in [The World] in the first place, either..

“A... a test? That’s what this was all about!? Y... you were testing us!?” Atoli didn’t know what to expect from Ovan, how to feel: but something about the answer was enough to get a rather rare burst of rage from the teenage girl. And then, she remembered Ovan’s words upon revealing to her the reason Haseo at first noticed her...

Was everything just a game to this man? Some elaborate plan they could never catch up to?

“Because of that, everyone at Moon Tree... me, Alkaid, Master Zelkova...!” her fists balled, taking several angry steps forward.

“What did you have to gain from this!? We’re not... we’re not like the NPCs! We have emotions! We have feelings! If you knew he’d do so many terrible things, why not just leave Sakaki be!? Our lives aren’t games!” she berated, refusing to let up for even a moment. “I want to know what you’re doing! I want to know what you’re planning! If you’re... you’re going to hurt more people, aren’t you!? Haseo deserves to know! We deserve to know!”

For a moment, Haseo flinched– crimson hues growing wide before relaxing. He almost wanted to complain at how stupid of a question it was– if it bothered him– but..when did he ever get the chance to confess his turmoil? Being strong– moving on was the thing he knew how to do. If he couldn’t pick himself back up time and time again, then he never would have made it as far as he did.

Eyelids fell shut with a sigh, silently crossing his arms as if he were seriously contemplating his next answer.

“..of course it bothered me. All of it did, but I never would have learned a damn thing if I wallowed in self pity all the time.” Haseo finally replied, gesturing outward with his hand. “..Shino, Alkaid, Ovan..there isn’t a day that goes by that it still doesn’t haunt me. Even now when they’re safe, I still worry if what I did was right– if maybe one day, AIDA or Cubia will return. Having closure won’t stop the nightmares that won’t leave me or you the hell alone. It’s just something we gotta live with.” His voice held a certain bitterness, fists curling tightly against his chest. “…you said it yourself, The World isn’t just a game..I was just too stupid at the time to realize it.”

His next words were soft, uncharacteristically sincere for the Rogue.

“..if it wasn’t for you guys, I never would have been able to live with myself.”

Atoli stayed deathly quiet as Haseo replied, nodding at his direction. It was nice to know she wasn’t the only one who had trouble comprehending all of this events that had transpired. It’s not like they could even tell anyone, either. Even if CC Corp didn’t cover it up, who would believe it?

And how could CC Corp get away with all of it, anyways? Atoli had thought it was just a normal video game company... but, she ended that train of thought and nodded at Haseo’s words. The nightmares wouldn’t leave, that was right. Hell, Atoli wondered if she’d ever be able to sleep comfortably without the fear of nightmares. But step by step, she’d just have to confront it. Just something to deal with.

But whatever she thought Haseo would say, it wasn’t that. “... Haseo...”

“... I don’t know what I’d do without all of you, either,” she admitted. “Sakaki was... my world for so long. Just him and Moon Tree,” she admitted, her eyes watering offline. “What he would have done, the person I’d still be... I never could have changed without you in my life. For the first time in my life, I feel like I don’t hate myself. I think you’re all the first real friends I’ve ever had,” she admitted.

The man took notice of the woman as she approached, his face remaining stoic as usual. She was a friend of Haseo’s and the others, so he didn’t hold any ill will towards her. But he was a little surprised when she actually initiated the conversation; which wasn’t a strong point of his either to be fair.

“Yeah. Just us it seems.”

She almost reminded him of himself back in The World R:1, when he was a simple Wavemaster. This earned a small smile on his face as he remembered those days, back when he was just as unsure.

“Hmm…” He took a moment to mull it over. “Sure, why not. I don’t have any plans really.”

“R-really? That’s wonderful!” She... didn’t actually expect him to take her up on the offer, to be honest. “That’s wonderful! I found a field around our levels: just a little higher so we might be able to level up!” Atoli shared, quickly sending out an invitation to join her party.

It felt almost weird to her: being the head of the party. It was almost always Sakaki and Haseo who invited her to join their parties, never the other way around. “Get the Symbol Fragments, get the reward!” she felt unusually energetic: she didn’t know if it was the idea of being the team’s lead or just wanting to get on Endrance’s good side, but she had high hopes about this mission.

“Umm, excuse me! I wanted to ask, how did you get those wings?

Even though it was just a video game, she couldn’t help but sometimes feel a bit nervous about approaching new people. But, those wings! Chigusa had incorporated wings into Atoli’s design, but the ones on this player were something else! She was confident she hadn’t seen them in character creation: were they event locked, paid, even hacked?

Well, she didn’t have a lot of money to spend and she didn’t want to risk her account being banned: but it never hurt to ask, right?

[Starter for: @submissivetragedy ]

The red twin blade sat in the grass, humming a tune to himself as he played with a blade of grass. There was something peaceful about relaxing in The World. Maybe it was the soft background music of the clear fields, or the somewhat numbing sensation the bracelet provided him when it was given a chance to sync with its surroundings, replacing real sensations Riku experienced with the virtual ones of Kite himself. After all, the warm, spring-like weather of The World was much more enjoyable than the chilly storm raging outside his apartment. Instead he chose to have his rest in the perpetual twilight of a field, the setting sun warm but not too bright.

Kite stretched, a soft crack sounding from his back before he laid back with a content sigh and closed his eyes. Nearby, he could ear a roaming chimchim chirp and coo at nothing in particular, the young man laying so still the little creature didn’t even bother to run. Not that Kite had plans to disturb it; It was just going about its day just as he was. 

In the back of his mind he wondered how silly he would look to other players….Oh well, he was relaxed and that’s what mattered. If they wanted to think he was roleplaying a lazy bum then so be it.

Always, The World was a thousand times more beautiful to Atoli than the real world that laid right outside her window. What The World lacked in smell and touch it made up for in perfectly programmed beauty. The music gently flowing to her ears, to the virtual birds flying in the sky...

Perhaps it was because of the escape this world gave from the real one? To Atoli it didn’t matter: in The World, all flowers were flowers, all birds were birds. And the kindness between players was also true kindness.

Even if there were... problems, this AIDA and everything that came with it, it was still a beautiful world to her. One worth protecting and safeguarding. For Moon Tree, for the players, and now for Haseo.

Atoli smiled at noticing another player just taking a moment to relax, take it all in.

@submissivetragedy 

“Atoli!” Silabus smiled, waving a little as he finished closing up shop Acorn for the day. They’d sold everything, a surprise and even had a few requests for particular items. He’d have to work on acquiring those for tomorrow.

 “How are you today?” 

@submissivetragedy​

🔪 the immortal humanoid found themself just sort of… wandering around aimlessly. they didn’t really want to go home. they may have liked being alone, but even they had their limits. just then, they unconsciously bumped into someone.

“oh… excuse… me… i wasn’t exactly… paying attention…”

I wonder if Haseo would be willing to do a quest? Chigusa thought to herself, checking her phone once more. The World had become... a strange place. AIDA, Epitaphs, so on and so forth... it all seemed like something made up, honestly. The World was a video game, but it felt like the lines between reality and online were blurring all the time. But sometimes, when she played the game like any other player, everything could feel right again: if only for the briefest time.

It wasn’t like her life was already complicated enough, after all. She tugged at her sleeve, frowning. This uniform was a bit shorter than her usual one: if she wasn’t careful, the scars might show...

“Oof!”

And, of course, being as engrossed in her phone as she was, Chigusa naturally bumped into somebody else.