Aeterna - IC

[Major Mario]

Unknown 'Health' Room (@Wonder)

A bandage over his nose and cheek irritated the merchant's skin to the point where he began to stir atop his gurney. Soon, light came back to the merchant. He groaned and opened his eyes, now clean and free from blood. His hands were once again his to use, but when he raised one of them to examine it, he realized that there were more bandages than usual. With a sigh, he laid back, knowing that his burn wounds would cause a lot of discomfort if he pushed his luck using his hands. Who the hell suffered from burn wounds, he thought to himself. Lollygags like me, probably.

Eric could feel more bandages on his body, and he could also feel a breeze on his skin. A quick glance revealed that whoever had worked on him had to take off his clothes to operate. This meant that his treasured pack was nowhere to be found. Cursing under his breath, Eric propped himself up and looked around. The room looked like some kind of infirmary chamber. It was a sterile environment filled with all manner of medical equipment. That soldier was true to his word, he thought as he laid back down.

For the moment, the merchant passed the time gauging his situation and making small plans.

[Pandre]

Adhibe - Pandre's Cove
Pandre sat on her bed deep in thought. Her eyes fogged with the memories of the past. The boy laid on the tatami mat, sprawled on his back. Occasionally muttering some stuff about herbs. Hyo napped on his stomach. From his books, Pandre gathered that he was a wood mage. Pandre leaned back on her bed, looking at her rainbow wind chime suspended above her, tinkling when the briny air blew in from the mouth of the cove. Pandre got up and left her cove, her feet scraping against the rocks. Soon the rocks turned to pebbles, than sand and soon Pandre was facing the ocean.Pandre closed her eyes, and focused on the water. The shimmering orb of water rose in the air, floating with Pandre's power. Pandre focused on the orb, releasing her rage and urges in it. Suddenly, there was an loud pop as the pressure inside reached the peak. And the orb was no more. Pandre sighed, as the tide receded once more

[bookdragon2000]

Adhibe-pandre's cove

Yomi woke and felt an uncomfortable weight resting on his stomach. He reached up a hand to push it off and jumped up like he was electrocuted when his hand brushed fur. A black cat leapt off him with a loud yowl, surprised by his sudden movement. Before he could even do anything like chase after the cat or walk out of what appeared to be a small cove, his legs collapsed. He suppressed his pain and lifted up his pants legs and groaned at the sight of the cuts. Some had scabbed over, but some others had become infected, probably due to his earlier track through the forest.

Yomi was looking around for his pack, grimoire and huthvirn so that he could heal his legs when he heard footsteps coming from the direction of the entrance of the cove. He looked up and saw a girl coming around a corner, the pebbles crunching under her bare feet. Yomi supposed that she looked a bit cute although he had not had much to judge by. She wore a white dress, with a black cloak around her shoulders, the hood pulled down.

"erm......Hi, is this your home? where are my things? I need to attend to my legs..." yomi gestured towards his legs.

[Katrix]

Regius Prison - Otori's cell

Sidna walked away from the map for now. Otori had just arrived and she wanted to ask him a few questions.
("Hopefully HM haven't been so stupid to tell him what type of mage I am.
Judging by his stupidity he probably have.")

After some walking Sidna reached the prison.
She wated to scare him a little so she found a small flamable ball, added some materials to it at set it on fire.
She then entered the cell with the fireball glowing a bright white color levitating in her hands.

"Hello. I suppose you are Otori. I want you to tell me everything that happened im the forest. Don't try to hide anything.
We already got search groips out. If there is anything to find they will find it. So tell me or I'll burn your face off"

[Tewi_Inaba]

Fissure

The flesh on Seki’s cheeks turned light pink. It seemed she was embarrassed about the scars she had. Most of her wounds had healed without leaving embarrassing scars but she had a few on her body where no one would have looked. And of cores this new one on her chest that would hopefully heal in time. “Aww… I thought most of them had healed already.” She said in a somewhat pouty tone as she began washing herself as well. “Oh well. At least we destroyed the mineshaft. I wonder what our next target will be! Hehe"

[Kilelicus]

Cavern | Outside Kris's Outpost - 9:32 AM

"I see... so you're like me, huh?" Phenom said as he stared up at the cave ceiling as he sank deeper into the water.

He dunked his head quickly under the water, running his hands roughly through his hair and shaking his head when he came back up. He scrubbed his hair until he could feel the caked blood starting to break off and leaned his head over the stones so that none of the blood would fall in the water. He sighed and began to speak again.

"Well my story is somewhat similar to yours, only I don't have parents waiting for me to log out. Mine were killed four years ago. My sister, Lachesis (That's Luh-chess-ee, as opposed to the actual Latch-eh-sis) and I were 9 and 15. And unfortunately, most of our relatives are up on the Mars colony... We wouldn't let anyone else take us in, so we stayed in our home alone. Being the older sibling, I had to take responsibility for both of us. I became the cook and the main source of income for the two of us by doing odd jobs around the community while she escaped our lonely reality through the Hive. It was the only place she could really be happy, living out her own imaginations of having a full family, you know? I preferred to keep my perception of reality more accurate. I didn't indulge in her fantasies, as much as I would have liked to. It would have made leaving Hive more and more difficult. Now I'm trapped anyway.

"During our time in the HiveNET, Lachesis and I were effective inseparable. I was the only form of safety she knew anymore besides those of her own imaginations, so she always wanted me to go with her anywhere, and I refused to let her out of my sight unless I was logging off to fulfill my real world responsibilities. Then Aeterna became a thing and we explored like crazy. It was a place we could start over fresh, if nothing else. We found a little town called Fortuna and settled down there for awhile. Then Tyruss came into power and began raiding towns at random. Fortuna's population was slaughtered and those who didn't fight back were lined up. As they went down the line, they saw Lachesis clinging to me for dear life. They tore her from me and went straight to beating her right in front of my eyes... Then they slit her throat. I'd never seen anyone die in the HiveNET before so I didn't know what happened when you died here. So I... snapped. My body released every single restraint and I went berserk. I moved quickly. More quickly than I imagined possible. Everything was a blur and all I remember is feeling a sword I had taken from a soldier slicing cleanly through flesh and the pelting of blood on my face. When I snapped out of it, I was surrounded by a pile of bodies. I could hear soldiers running to where I was and I fled, running as fast as I could on my exhausted legs. I don't exactly know how I got away, but it wasn't long until I found out that those killed here went into some void due to being unable to log out or in thanks to Tyruss's hijacking of the system. So my sister's waiting for me to fix everything. Waiting for big brother Phenom to save her. Sounds like you and I are two peas in a pod, aye?"

[wonderweiss]

Otori looked at her for a long time, then sighed.

"First of all, you're a wind mage, aren't you? I can tell. You're making a fire ball float. So boo if you were trying to disguise it. Secondly, what a low level fire ball. You, being a wind mage, should be creative. There are certain airs that are flammable when under the right conditions. Of course, that would mean burning the place down, so good on the thinking or terrible on imagination. Thirdly, what should I know? I just happened to be there. Unless I do know something. Knock it up on the creativity and I may or may not consider telling you."

HM could not help but laugh at the scene. He walked in.

"Hahahahahaaa, that was hilarious! That was the best interrogation by far! Write that down on the records! Oh, but Sidna, is that all you've got? The way you're doing it, it's as if you were interrogating your child. Minus the fire ball, of course. What you need to do is be gentle. And if they don't cooperate," he said as he smashed the lightning rods on the table. "Then make 'em cooperate. Ya know, good cop bad cop. Especially around people like him. But why? It's simple. The nicer you seem, the more they're terrified when they find out how scary you are. You just seem like a thug, and believe me, he's dealt with plenty of those back in the day. Now then, Sidna, try again. But this time, realize the difference between threaten and scare."

HM walked back out, picking his rods up again. Otori looked at Sidna.

"... well, hate to admit it, but he's right. Now then, ain't ya gonna get some answers from me?"

Meanwhile, a nurse noticed the merchant waking up.

"Oh, you're awake. How are you feeling?"

[Kristia]

Cavern | Outside Kris's Outpost

Kris chuckled at the girlīs embarrasment "Donīt worry about the scar, the worst scenario would be a thin red line, just exercise without too much stress, ok? she said looking at the rock ceiling and stalagtites

"Knowing our luck, the target will come to us, I just hope we are out of this cavern when we find any bandit or attacker, so yeah we are like bandit magnets Seki" Kris said getting out of the water and drying her body with the one of the cloths for it and finally putting her robes with care to not touch her scars with force

[Tewi_Inaba]

Cavern | Outside Kris's Outpost

Seki looked on with relief from what the huntress said finding that fate acceptable. However the fire finally returned to her eyes when she heard Kris say the next attack would be against them rather than the other way around. She suddenly gained a much more serious tone as the water from the spring got hotter and began creating more and more steam. “NO!... That will never WORK!! I fought against them at my home. Battle after battle and killed countless soldiers both magical and non.” Seki was finally able to create a flame again since some of her mana had seemed to return to her after her spunk returned. She created a colorful orb of fire in the palm of her hand but didn’t get burnt somehow. “In this war. We cannot win by defending alone. NO! To win WE HAVE TO ATTACK!!” As she yelled one final time she crushed the orb of fire in her hand and caused it combust slightly out through her fingertips into a quickly rising and then fading flame. Seki however made no hostel movements towards Kris. It seemed Seki liked her, she was just feeling very excited/passionate all of the sudden.

[S121]

Cavern | Outside Kris's Outpost

"I suppose.", Jason said as he returned the tiny whirlpool's speed back to normal, causing it to disappear.

All of a sudden, Phenom's words finally began to sink in, especially the part where he said that people don't die, at least not in reality.

"W-wait! What!?", Jason exclaimed as he sat up.

Jason could barely believe what Phenom had said. Many different thoughts surged through Jason's mind, but the strongest of all was that his father was still alive.

"People don't die!? They don't die-die, as in a reality death!?", Jason asked Phenom in a completely surprised manner.

[Kristia]

Cavern | Outside Kris's Outpost

The huntress looked at the fire magicianīs little show and smiled ("Well, she does has iniciative and inspiration, she just needs to build her path") she thought and threw a cloth for Seki to get ready

"If you want to go on a fight, just be patient since there will be a lot, mostly because of phenom and Jasonīs ideas, but let me tell you that if an enemy gives up and surrenders, we mustnīt attack him or her. Some people may fight in this war, but they are in it because they are controlled" Kris explained and then got an idea

"Why not we practice your fire magic to get back on track? I can give you your targets" Kris suggested coating a piece of rock with her ice

[Tewi_Inaba]

Cavern | Outside Kris's Outpost

Seki caught he clothe and dried herself off as she followed the huntress out of the spring. She was still very fired up. She could almost taste the enemy’s blood. “ehehehe training, targets. Fire, burning, death…. No. Jason is the one who needs training. You and that smelly stinky ugly guy from before are experienced enough in battle. To prepare Jason for war…” Seki smiled with a somewhat sadistic grin as she got an idea. It was dangerous, but it would help Jason improve very quickly if he managed to survive. “I’m going to hunt him!”

[Kilelicus]

Cavern | Outside Kris's Outpost - 9:34 AM

"Well, yeah. Apparently, people used to kill each other all the time in like... combat simulation before Tyruss. The only thing that happens is you get stuck between log out and log in. Apparently all that happens is your conscious and mind and such are uploaded to the Hive. I mean... it's not like a brain dump, more like treating your brain as an actual computer. The thing we DO have to worry about, however, is dying in the real world. But when you die here, you're put in a simulation of death. Just.... nothingness. Can't log in, can't log out."

[S121]

(Note: ~ means that you extend the phonetic sound before it. Alone + ~ = Alo~ne = Alooooone.)

Cavern | Outside Kris's Outpost

The very moment Phenom finished explaining death in Aeterna, Jason had what looked to be tears welling up in his eyes. Instead of tears of sorrow, they were tears of joy.

"I.. I don't know what to say. Thank god my dad's still alive! I thought he died., Jason said as he wiped his eyes with his hands.

"Hahaha! I would hug you right now, but that would be ve~ry awkward., Jason said to Phenom as he laughed.

Jason was relieved that his father was still alive. He may be stuck in The Void, but at least he was not dead forever.

[Kilelicus]

Cavern | Outside Kris's Outpost - 9:35 AM

Phenom waved his hand dismissively, "You're not out of the woods yet. You don't know if he died in the real world yet. Keep in mind, not all of us are in hospitals. Now, I'm sure neighbors would start noticing a lack of activity, but A LOT of people got trapped in here. In fact, the archer and the firecracker down there could be dead and we wouldn't even know. My sister and I might even be dead, and we won't ever know. If you ask me, HiveNET is an answer to mortality. Even if your body dies, as long as you're logged in to the 'NET, you're technically immortal. Your persona doesn't really age since it's a construct of your body when it's in its historical prime."

He started waving his hands as he continued to tell Jason what he has learned.

"That's not to say the persona doesn't age. It just ages with you until your body has reached its prime. BUT OF COURSE, there are still people who prefer their persona to match their true body, so you end up with elderly here. I digress, the HiveNET effectively preserves your life."