#nightjack

Jack had spent most of the day in a foul mood.  Normally, he was even tempered, sweet, one of the easiest guys to get along with.  But after snapping at another low level player over a simple question, he had distanced himself from the people on his friends list (Emeline included) and stuck to solo quests.  In his mind, it was better to take it out on computer generated creatures than to lose his temper with the few people that mattered in the game.  It was like he had this raw nerve exposed, and everything seemed to aggravate it.  The later in the day it got, the worse his mood seemed to be.

He arrived at the cluster of trees north of the village.  The setting sun cast long shadows over the area.  The raucous call of crows above him confirmed he was in the right area to find this Grandfather Crow.  He looked up anticipating that the birds would begin their attack.  It didn’t happen though.  The stupid things just sat up there.  He growled, frustrated that the one time he would have welcomed a fight, the game AI didn’t want to provide it.

“Fine then.”  His canines lengthened into fangs as he activated SHIELD DRUM.  A few crows turned their beady eyes on Jack, then almost in unison swooped down on him.  He waded into the fight, following the simple stun and smash tactic that had stood him in good stead since the fire snail cave.  They didn’t fall as easily as the lower level creatures he had grown used to fighting.  The ebon feathered nuisances were fast, darting away from attacks with a swift turn of the wing, and had higher hitpoints.  He barely paid notice to it though, swept up in the moment and in the fight.  When the final crow disappeared in a flurry of pixels, his loot screen didn’t show the tail feathers needed for the damn quest.  None of the crows in that group was the one he sought.  He growled softly, then moved to the next group of crows, not paying a bit of attention to his health and stamina as he provoked them with SHIELD DRUM.  Frustration turned to anger as once again he was denied the tail feathers.  The rage bubbled over as he threw his sword.  He watched as it clattered against a tree.  The crow calls continued on above him as he had just a moment of clarity hit him.

“...why am I getting so worked up over this?”

He glanced up as the last rays of the setting sun disappeared, and it was then he found his answer.  “...oh.”

The shift, his first since joining the game, hit him in that glowing twilight.  He felt himself slipping away, swept up in the heat of what felt like a wild fire growing within him.  As sheer primal fury set in, everything became a huge blur...

The next thing Jack knew, he was curled up at the foot of a tree and dappled sunlight shown down on him.  His health bar was down by nearly 2/3.  His XP bar had filled beyond what he remembered actually slaying, and he had many more items in his inventory that he didn’t remember picking up.  Among those items were the tail feathers he had been sent to retrieve in the first place.  He groaned as he got to his feet and retrieved his discarded sword.  He stared at it for a moment, then slipped it into his scabbard and turned to head to the village.

He started to send a message to Emeline, then stopped himself.  He didn’t want her to worry anymore than she probably already was, given that her father’s whereabouts were still unknown.  Instead, he sent a tell to Taryn.

“It’s a shot in the dark, but maybe you could try with the bulletin board. It’s where NPCs put quests and stuff like that. I’m not sure if players can write on that thing, but it’s pretty public, your friends are bound to look there sooner or later.”

The information from Danathian kept rolling around in Jack's head the rest of the day, going on into the night.  His hands had been full with interacting with the players who had opted to shelter in place at the inns in the starting town.  As the hours stretched on and no hot fix in sight, just when he felt he was about to become overwhelmed, a pair of players who happened to be therapists in real life had come forward.  He was glad to step into the background.  The clusters of people in the intricately coded world around him seemed to suffocate him, and the walls just made him feel trapped.  It only made the uneasy feeling about the fate of his friends just that much worse.  He didn't have an answer as to whether or not they were fine, and that lack of an answer didn't sit well with him.

So, as players broke off to take up rooms, Jack quietly slipped outside.  The crowd that had initially flooded the main area had died out.  Either they had opted to go out adventuring, or they were waiting things out like the folks he had left back at the inn.  At least that was his best guess, anyway.  It made it easier to spy the bulletin board that Danathian had mentioned.  He approached it, giving it a healthy once over.  His focused attention caused a window to pop up in front of him.

1. Read Posts (Newest - Oldest) 2. Make A Post

He reached out, selecting to make a post, then paused for a moment as a blank page came up, with a quill floating beside it.  What the hell to say?  He suddenly found that instead of just a simple message, he wanted to say a whole lot more.  Jones and Emeline were his family, as close (if not closer) than his own parents.  They had been there for him through so much.  Finally, after a bit of reflection, he set his words to paper.

Jones and Emeline, if you're reading this, then I guess we're all in the same boat.  You guys know me best.   You know I won't be taking this thing laying down.  I'm going to do my part, figure out how to play this game, and maybe just maybe be a part of putting a stop to this.  Message me, friend request me, do whatever when you get this.  Let me know you guys are okay.

Burns aka NightJack

He confirmed the message, watched as it joined the others there on the board.

"Bold words, Burns.  Now can you make good on that?"  He started flipping through the posts on the board, finally coming to one of the quest giving ones.  "Collecting snail shells...sounds easy enough..."

With the quest accepted, he headed out.  Beyond the gates, the world seemed to sprawl out wide before him.  While the moon wasn't full, there was enough light filtering down to illuminate the area.  Or maybe that was a werewolf thing.  He wasn't entirely sure on that.