Sword Art Online (IC)

[The Jeffinator]

Eddie Morris jumped up out of his bed as his alarm went off – it was noon, one hour until the Sword Art Online servers went online. He made sure to stay up late the night before and sleep in till noon so that he would be fully rested and ready to play for many consecutive hours as soon as the game went online.

After using the bathroom and getting dressed, he ran over to the 7-11 down the street from his apartment building for a few energy drinks and hot burritos. He paused briefly to watch the Smartglass TVs on the wall, which were showing updates of a manned mission to Mars that had departed from Earth a few weeks back. It would still be months until they reached the Red Planet. Eddie reminded himself not to miss the footage of the landing and then proceeded on his way.

He was stuffing his face and chugging caffeine the whole walk back, and before he knew it, he was full, energized, and reclined back in the gamer chair in his living room. He was staring at a sixty-inch Smartglass display on his wall, which was connected to his computer and PlayStation 7. It was no longer required for people to have their own personal internet service, as lightning-fast, satellite-based wireless internet was available anywhere in the world – it was often called Global WiFi or the Global Wireless Network (GWN).

The NerveGear headset did not have any cords – it connected directly to the SAO mega-server through the GWN and only had to be synced with a computer for initial configuration and installation of the game software. Once the client was installed and ready to go, the NerveGear could be used independent of the computer, and it was equipped with 32-coil SpiralMax Self-Recharging Battery. The battery bounced electrons between the thirty-two coils in a spiral pattern, which were composed of a superconductive metallic alloy that provided minimal electrical resistance, thus allowing a single battery to last many years.

As Eddie discussed his excitement with other like-minded people in the official forums, he was counting down the minutes until the server went online. When he finally got the email update announcing that the game was active, he grabbed the NerveGear helmet, shoved it on his head, and hit the power button. Everything was dark at first, and he still felt himself sitting in his chair. But then he felt his body being lifted gently into the air as the space around him grew gradually brighter.

By the time sixty seconds had passed, he found himself floating amidst white clouds in a bright blue sky, the helmet having integrated his mind slowly into the virtual environment to prevent the shock of a sudden change. One of the clouds stretched out and turned into a slab of white marble, followed by Eddie's bare feet touching down on the cool, hard surface. He looked himself over and realized he was wearing only an ivory robe, then brought his eyes up as a system menu appeared to float in the air in front of him.

After selecting Sword Art Online and starting up the software, he found himself standing on a tiny island with the floating tower of Aincrad visible in the distance. He customized his appearance, choosing to go for an older-looking character with a gray beard, and picked an upgradable, full-body light armor set with a hooded leather coat. He equipped a one-handed longsword as his starting weapon and a Ring of Flames as his starting accessory, which granted him a few low-level, fire-based spells. He named his new character Darbin, and was teleported to the Town of Beginnings on Aincrad's bottom floor.

“Alright, time to game it up!” Eddie yelled out amongst the crowd of incoming players. He immediately ran for the fields outside the town, slaughtering as many boars and dire rats and hornets as he could, returning to the shops once he had enough gold to purchase a few backup potions.

 

[LexiAnnRose]

Lexi rolled over when the alarm went off, flailing her arm to hit the off button. She didn't get it, but it turned off anyway. Opening her eyes, her eyes met the blue eyes of her roommate, Evelyn. Evelyn smiled at her and messed up her hair before sitting up in bed.

"Good morning," Lexi murmured, looking at the time on the clock.

Nine in the morning, hour before the servers came up for the grand opening of Sword Art Online. They were both grinning, giddy at the thought of the game they had spent so much time on already finally being released. Lexi sat up in their bed, stretching her arms over her head with a yawn.

"Sleep well?" Eve asked.

Lexi nodded and slid her legs out from under the light sheets they had, bare legs swinging over the side of the bed so she could step onto the floor. Eve had already stood up and was brushing her hair, looking over at Lex. "Breakfast?" She asked.

"You know it," Lex responded, standing up and heading out to the kitchen. She opened up the fridge, pulling out a package of ham, cheese and eggs to make scrambled eggs. Placing a pan and turning on the burners for their electric stove, she pulled out a few eggs and slices of ham, cutting the ham into smaller slices. Eve came out of the bedroom and grabbed a carton of milk out of the fridge, placing a couple of mugs on the table and filling them.

Hot chocolate, of course. She poured a small package of mix into each mug before placing them in the microwave. Lex had just cracked the eggs and emptied the shells into the pan, giving them some time too cook before putting the shreds of ham and cheese into the pan as well. She felt Eve's arms slide around her and sighed.

"Almost time," she said with a small laugh.

"Almost time," Lex agreed.

Eve went to get the mugs from the microwave with a couple spoons to stir the mixture while Lex emptied the pan onto a pair of plates, then carried them over to the table of their small apartment kitchen. She took a seat at one side of the table while Eve sat at the other, handing a fork and a mug across to her. They ate quietly for the most part in companionable silence, stopping every now and again to talk about their latest projects. When they finished their breakfast a decent amount of time had passed, so they washed their dishes and went back into the bedroom where they had their NerveGear headsets and their other equipment.

They elected to just stay in their nightgowns because they were more comfortable anyway. So, they picked up their NerveGear and laid back on the bed next to each other. "Let's go," Eve murmured, and they put on their headsets and closed their eyes, laying down. Lexi's hand crept into Eve's and she gave it a reassuring squeeze. A minute passed by as they were gradually pulled in by the FullDive Technology. Suddenly they were standing next to each other, their feet touching down on a white marble pillar in the clouds. Still holding hands, they opened up the Sword Art Online software and entered the world.

Ivory robes gave way to more revealing clothes as they customized their appearances, Lex going for a red-haired, red-eyed model and Eve going for a brunette with green eyes. Lex reached out to pull a curved blade off the wall and picked up a Ring of Restoration off the table, giving her access to low-level restorative spells. Eve went with a longsword and kite shield as her their usual setup: Healer-DPS Hybrid and Tank-DPS Hybrid. Eve whistled at Lex and she waggled her eyebrows back at Eve, running her eyes along her character's form. They stepped into the next room and chose starting armor off the one rack in the room; Lexi going for the lighter leather and Eve going for the heavier set.

When they had finished choosing gear, they set their character names: Lexi chose Rose and Eve chose Snow. A system menu came up asking them if they'd like to continue, and they chose yes. The white came rolling in and they vanished, appearing in the Town of Beginnings on the bottom floor. The system must have detected that they were right next to each other in the real world, as a prompt came up to automatically add each other to their friend lists and party up. They chose yes, obviously, and grinned at one another.

"We're back," Lexi said.

"We're back," Eve agreed.

Drawing their weapons of choice, they went into the nearby field and began pulling and killing groups at a time with ease, already familiar with the system and having no trouble aggroing groups at a time. They continued for a time, auto-completing a few quests along the way. Eve was simply a solid wall with her shield, barely taking hits and even keeping Lex from taking hits, while Lex danced around her companion to drop the mobs they had pulled, her curved blade flashing as she dropped mobs constantly.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Revielle had been much to amped up to get a good night sleep, not that he seemed to need nearly as much sleep as most people. That might have had something to do with his diet made up almost entirely of Mountain Dew, Red Bull and chocolate though. It was actually a bit strange to see him without any of those object directly on hand like he was right then.

Instead he'd gone into his regular routine, almost a ceremony, for the release of a new game. Last night he'd brushed up on every game that had used as inspiration for SAO, getting back into the mentality of close combat instead of his usual skulking sniper from the WWII inspired games he'd been playing as of late.

Once Revielle had finished that he took a long shower and once he'd finished with that he sank into his bathtub and spent almost two hours reading up on all the available literature on the game, especially the designer notes when available. It wouldn't always give him an edge but he'd found over the years that you could make a pretty good judgement on what kinds of things to expect by getting to know the designers and their various influences. Nothing quite like knowing if you found a Black Turtle and a White Tiger you should probably keep an eye out for red birds and blue dragons. That had put him nearly a week ahead of most of his peers when Dragon Tamer came out. So he read and read and read until he was as confident that he was going to be that he'd catch it when some random bar keep was named after the designers daughter.

That had come to a close a little over an hour ago. He'd spent the last hour making sure he'd be comfortable, and sketching out his character. Sure it might not be exact once he got in there but he'd seen enough of the design notes to have a pretty good idea of what he could and couldn't design and Ruby Heart looked like he would work just fine.

Once the servers went live he almost instantly had Ruby Heart, level 1 Sentinel, dual Wrist Blade Wielder, ready to go. Ruby didn't head straight to the field like so many of the players did. He knew better and headed straight to town talking to every NPC he could fine, especially the ones that seemed to be trying to draw attention to themselves.

It only took him a half hour but he found what he was looking for, a bear hunt. It was still grinding but at least it wasn't completely random like what the most of the players were up to.

The attempt went about as well as could be expected. Fifteen players started the quest. Only seven were still alive when they made it to the bear's cave. Of those seven in the fight with the Ursa Minor three survived the encounter. Four if you counted the Ursa Minor who'd stopped following them when the left the encounter area. Two if you counted the people who made it out of the forest without being picked off by hornets and bunnehs. (Yes, the pink ones with the lop ears were spelled "bunneh")

One if you counted only people who made it back into town to buy items. One with an orange cursor over his head. It was there in town where he stopped to purchase some healing potions and looked over at a new guy who just happened to catch his eye. "Hey, I know we all just started so we are all weak. I just got my ass handed to me. You look like you came out of whatever you did better than I did. Maybe we can team up for a while? I'm Ruby Heart!"

 

[LexiAnnRose]

The pair finished clearing an open field on the other side of the starting town, then decided to head back into town for a bit. Lexi knocked her shoulder into Eve's with a grin.

"Not bad for a newbie," she teased her companion.

Evelyn chuckled and wrapped her arm around Lexi's waist. She pulled their hips together and rubbed her side.

"Mmm, they're updated model feels since the last beta. Feels real now," she gently bites her lower lip.

Lexi nudges her and wraps her arm around Eve's waist as well. "I wonder if it all feels real," she mused to herself, glancing over and winking at Eve as they walked down the paved town streets.

The pair maneuvered between groups of players that were just hanging around in town, chatting or talking to NPCs and shopkeepers. There were a lot of these quests that just weren't worth doing. Took too long and didn't give enough XP to be worth it. All the good ones were on the other side of town and in the next town over, but they would be alright doing a few here before moving on. They could use a little boost to their levels before they stopped at the miniboss along the way. Big gold drop for early levels, only spawns every so often.

They stepped into a nearby market stall to grab a few potions and some food for the XP buff. The vendor food wasn't all that good, but it was better than nothing and they had more than enough money for now that they could afford it.

"So, are you doing cooking or am I?" Lexi asked.

Eve grinned over at her as she handed some coins over to the shopkeep.

"That would be all you. I'll work on blacksmithing, keep us geared while you keep us fed," she responded and nodded, slipping her potions into the pouch at her side.

"Fair enough," Lex said, and they left the little stall to head out into the open market streets again.

People were still just hanging around, many of them likely hadn't even left the first town yet. The air buzzed with the excitement of the new world. They recognized one or two characters from the previous beta, who nodded at the pair in silent recognition. It was an unstated rule that the beta players wouldn't acknowledge eachother as beta players, since the betas were so small and inclusive. To prevent alienating the new, fresh players, that is.

They stopped in the center of town, going through their logbooks and chatting about the quests they were going to do and what order they'd do them in. Eve "accidentally" undid one of the fastenings holding Lexi's shirt up, who proceeded to smack her hand and stop her top from falling off of her.

"Fix it, you," she chided her companion, making a tsk tsk sound.

Eve proceeded to fix it with a snicker. "Just wait until we get out of here," she whispered into Lexi's ear, giggling softly.

After consulting their logs for a few more minutes, they decided that it would be best to head south out of the town and clear up some quests in the forest there, then move along to the ocean-side town which was next in line for quests. They had a few turn-ins for there, anyway, so it would work out well for their progression. They had some time before they could get there, but it would be a nice walk through the starter forest and some easy enough quests until they could find the path through. Rumor had it that the developer had coded in randomized paths since the last beta to add a little bit of a challenge to traversing it.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Ruby Heart glanced noticed that the guy seemed to be a bit stuck in his own world doing his own thing. It wasn't all that important. He'd hoped to get the man as a traveling compainion because he looked strong, or at least like he'd managed to survive his first encounter. Probably not the same way Ruby had.

Then there were two ladies, the names seemed vaguely familiar but the truth was Ruby was a tad self centered. Names. Faces. In these sorts of games he usually didn't remember much of anybody except for the people he needed to avoid, knights, cops, bounty hunters. Every genre had something that would spend some time making his life more interesting. But it was important to keep track of them everybody else kind of got filed under-

-tits. One of the two ladies had a wardrobe malfunction. If Ruby had been thinking a bit more rationally he would have realized that was probably impossible in a video game, even one as realistic as this one. Hell ninety percent of the women's costumes and probably fifty percent of the men's costumes were clearly held on with nothing more than the power of faith. However he wasn't thinking rationally. He was thinking 'tits'.

And he still needed a companion. Two wouldn't put too large a drain on his XP gain especially not if they could take on larger prey together.

Ruby wasn't really stalking them with his hands folded behind his back. Stalking would imply a degree of stealth that he didn't care to employ at the moment. At this point in the game nobody would blame him for heading the same direction as anybody else.

When Lexi and Evelyn reached the edge of town to examine their logs that was when he sprang into action. Literally. Ruby took a bit of a running start and leapt into the air performing a flawless jumping somersault with a half twist. His shoulder length hair actually grazed Lexi's head as he passed over it. "Boing!" He made a dramatic bow. "Hello, my name is Ruby Heart and I couldn't help but notice you two fine young ladies look like your in need of adv-"

They were looking at him oddly. His eyes wandered up to the orange cursor. "Oh, that. Completely not my fault. As soon as I headed out into the fields a bunch of guys surrounded me, started making fun of my hair! There was a fight and I had to. . . defeat one of them before I could escape." He smiled and laughed. "A pair of valiant Valkyries should be more than enough to keep little ole me safe though!"

 

[LexiAnnRose]

Lexi glanced over to the side just in time to see a man jump over her. She lowered her head slightly as he had apparently decided to leap straight over her. This game had collision physics, unlike many other MMOs, and she didn't feel like being hit by some random testing the game mechanics. Some random with an amber player marker. Which means he'd -already- gotten into open-world PvP. Not exactly a very strong start trying to party up with anyone who actually knew what that amber marker meant, but he may have confused them for new players that he could prey upon out in the wilds.

They disliked open-world PvPers. PvP was for fun, not to be used a detriment to other players. That was their opinion of it, anyway.

Eve turned to follow the man, Ruby, as he landed and then started talking to them. He did have an amber cursor, but his story wasn't entirely unbelievable. Also, there really wasn't any sort of worry while it was two to one odds in their favor. Didn't mean they trusted him, but they weren't overly suspicious of him, either. If his story was true, then he was completely in the right to defend himself like that. Unfortunately, Sword Art Online's PvP system didn't differentiate from attacker and defender when it came to the amber player marker.

He was also kinda cute, which helped his case. Lexi and Eve exchanged a glance, seeming to know what each other were thinking without having to say anything. One more person to hang around with for a while wouldn't be a bad thing. They weren't in any rush anyway, they were going to log out in a couple hours for dinner. After that, they were sure he'd have moved on by the time they'd come back, anyway, so it wasn't very likely this would be an extended arrangement. Where was the harm in having a little fun, huh?

They wanted to explore the new skin sensitivities that the developers had been bragging about, as well. Apparently doing...intimate things was much more realistic now than it was last beta. This wasn't on the official patch notes, of course, but they'd heard the rumors about it. They could definitely feel their own skin brushing together as they stood side-by-side, but they hadn't explored everything else yet...

"Sure, you can hang around with us for a while." Lexi said to him. "We were just getting ready to head out east, want us to share the quests?" She then asked, swiping a finger over her menu to bring up the quest log.

The pair stepped closer to him in time with each other, arms brushing together as their eyes took him in. Eve brought up her menu and invited Ruby to their party.

"Name's Rose," Lexi introduced herself. "And this is Snow." She said with a gesture to Eve.

 

[Sean Renaud]

"Rose and Snow. Lovely!" He slipped between them throwing and arm over each ones shoulders and taking big exagerrated steps leading in the direction they'd already indicated.

He was only mildly concerned that the one he attacked would come find him again by the time it happened it would literally be his word vs theirs. Still there wasn't a reason to take any unnecessary risks just yet were there?

"Rose and Snow." He repeated a little slower. "I like the way they feel on the tongue don't you?"

 

[LexiAnnRose]

Rose gives him a sideways look as he moves between the two of them, throwing his arms around their bare shoulders. They exchange another glance with a playful roll of the eyes as they heard the innuendo on the end of his last statement. Rose winks at Snow before looking down to Ruby.

"I don't know, I think I like the way that Ruby feels on the tongue," she responds with a smirk.

As they walk off in the direction of the quests, they couldn't help but notice more than just a few guys looking at Ruby with some form of envy. To add to that, since they enjoyed making others jealous to an extent, they added an extra sway to their hips as they walked to accentuate their figures. Rose was first to start, then Snow followed after a few moments. One of many things they'd already talked about.

In a game as large as this, what were the odds they'd be seeing most of these people again anyway, right? It was alright if they were a little flirty here and there. Besides, you never know who might just be an asset later with a little buttering up, so to speak.

"Ruuuby," The pair repeated slowly in a low voice, practically whispering in his ear.

A pair of soft laughs came from the two women before they pointed at the forest ahead of them.

"That would be where we're going. Have a few quests in there before the chain that leads us into the next town on the other side," Snow started to explain. "Shouldn't be very many people, there are safer and less rewarding paths and towns down here."

The forest was dark and brooding, but it was only the first floor so it couldn't be too bad. Still good to be safe and stick close, which it seemed Ruby would have no problem with judging from his behavior so far.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Ruby smiled happily to himself, these two were definitely quite the pair. He occasionally smiled but he was practically marching through the town. It was a true testament to the self centered way that Ruby viewed the world that he didn't notice girls putting on a show at all. When he saw people staring it was at them. It was at him. The super cool Ruby Heart, Twin blade!

He was actually a bit oblivious to the fact that the two weren't entirely rejecting his advances either. Sure he'd seen the lines on movies before but using them generally resulted in at best a mild eye roll and at worst. . .well he avoided a lot of slaps to the face with great reflexes.

When they whispered in his ears though melted and not just from the sultry tones. It was also the fantastic feeling of their breath upon his ears. "Wow." Ruby shivered and each time they said it again he tensed up just slightly. "This Ner. . . I want to try something."

As they reached the edge of the forest he stepped back lightly running his index finger down each of their spines. "Can you feel that?" He canted his head slightly to the side thinking he heard something off in the distance but he found his attention nearly immediately drawn back to the pair.

 

[LexiAnnRose]

Rose smiled at the effect they seemed to be having on him. They whispered his name again as they came up on the outskirts of the forest. And then it was their turn to shiver as his finger lightly ran down both of their spines slowly. The feeling was so surreal because the previous betas were nothing like this. Before this you couldn't feel anything so sensitively. There was the pressure of the touch, sure, otherwise the combat system wouldn't work as well, but now you could actually feel the textures.

Especially the soft and smooth textures of skin.

"Can definitely feel that," Snow said while Rose just nodded. "It's amazing what they managed to do with the sensors in NerveGear," Snow continued.

They tensed up slightly and shivered again as his finger trailed lower and lower still before stepping away and turning to face him. The way Rose's top was actually exposed her midsection from just under her breasts to her waist, meaning that his finger had been trailing down bare skin.

"Easy there, Ruby," Rose chided him. "Doesn't exactly seem proper for you to be feeling up a pair of ladies you don't even know, don't you think?" But that was just out here in public. In the dense shadows of the forest, who knew what might happen?

She gave him a small small and a wink before looking past him at the sound of a scream. Snow tilts her head at the sound, unable to tell if it was in distress or otherwise. Listen skill was too low, no doubt, for the distance. Didn't sound like distress, but you never know. Probably best to just move on to the forest, it was too early for those kind of screams to actually matter enough for them to go running.

 

[Sean Renaud]

He definitely liked the way his name sounded on their lips, it was mildly intoxicating. Ruby would have let the pair go on indefinitely if they hadn't reached their destination.

"Sorry." He quickly looked away. "I just. . .you started it!" He finally blurted unable to think of what any of his idols would have done in that scenario. Probably because they wouldn't have been in that scenario.

That and he wasn't asexual or gay or anything like that but he really didn't put over much thought into women. He was here to slay a dragon and gotten very, very sidetracked. Pleasantly sidetracked but every bit of studying he'd done over the last day was focused around knowing how to differentiate between a Manticore and a Sphinx. Not a bit of thought had gone in how to separate a maiden from her virtue.

When Rose winked it just made him blush hotter, something he hoped like hell didn't show up in the virtual world. Bad ass manly men didn't blush! They smirked, said something awesome and-there was a scream.

Oh thank God. Something or someone was under attack. Whatever it was it was a more than welcome distraction from the two women who intentionally or not were giving him a lot of awkward feelings.

"We should probably check that out or avoid it. If some one is in over there head we might not be able to do much to help. But-" He was mildly aware that he was babbling but what else was he going to do? Ruby wasn't going to act like a coward in front of these ladies even if what he was really doing was running from something he had no skill points in, real life or otherwise, to something he was literally built from the ground up to do.

 

[LexiAnnRose]

Rose winked at him again, just to see that blush of his intensify. The blush that -definitely- carried through to the game world. Snow turned towards where the scream came from and set off towards it off the beaten path. Sticking to the path was the key rule for new players in pretty much every game, it was likely they just stumbled onto something a little too much for them to handle. Rose turned to follow at her side, all sense of play seeming to just melt away from their figures as they came closer and closer to the source of the scream, solid focus replacing their demeanor from before.

After a few more moments the clear sounds of combat could be heard. Snow's shield slid down her shoulder and onto her arm as the dual slither of drawn blades were heard from Rose and Snow. Snow started off at a jog with Rose by her side, footsteps falling quieter than before. As they came over the top of the hill and looked down the other side, it was clear that the sounds were definitely not good ones.

A small group of five had been surrounded by a larger group of lizard-men native to the woods here. Higher-level lizard men. The group had unknowingly started the event here and were severely outnumbered. One of them was laying on the ground, his health bar blinking red and almost depleted while the rest of the group were in the mid-range of yellow and orange.

Snow raised her shield, set her feet and ran towards them without even a hint of fear at the numbers and levels of the mobs. She made it to them without being spotted by them, practically dancing into the circle of them between the players and the mobs, intercepting a pair of strikes on her sword and shield. With a slide cry as she leapt into the air, Rose delivered a quick, sweeping three hit combo to the pair Snow had distracted before rolling into the group and deflecting a swing aimed at Snow's back.

Snow finished off the pair with one more combo, knocking aside blade and mace to deliver the killing blows. That left seven. Six if you don't count the one Rose just decapitated with a skill-empowered strike. Snow caught another strike with a -thud- against her wooden shield, lowering herself as Rose jumped over her and impaled the lizard through the neck, swinging off of him as Snow cleaved head from shoulders. Which left five, who had taken the chance to reposition themselves to deal with the new threat.

Again, Snow intercepted a pair of strikes meant for the weakened players while Rose covered her flank. Rose also took the chance the stabilize the nearly-dead player, murmuring a few words and pointing her hand at him to direct the white light emanating from it and restoring his health slowly.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Ruby definitely blushed brighter at the wink. He still wasn't sure if the girls could see it but he definitely felt it an that was more than enough. "Quit it!" He blurted a little before realizing that a manly man would have just dragged the ladies off to some private area and had his way. He wasn't so lost that he didn't realize he'd already screwed up though.

The sounds of combat were a godsend. Somehow Snow was ahead of him though and Rose. . .she may as well have been an extra limb. They were both a step past him and Ruby was annoyed. Not because he didn't prefer to follow, especially women so shapely but he preferred it to be his choice and he was following in the tree tops as they ran.

Running from branch to branch actually took more energy than he'd expected. Without the auto target system in so many game he had to actually expend effort but it was worth it when the girls engaged and he was free to show up unexpected.

One of them was down from a backstab before they even realized he was there and he and Snow shared a second shortly after. "So, is this what you two do for foreplay?" That was a smooth line he thought. Either way there wasn't a lot of time to banter. Talking wasn't a free move in this game.

"So shall we bring the snow fall?" Ruby asked turning toward Snow. She actually did the work, he was just dancing around but that brought the number down to three. "Aww, three on three." Ruby wiped the oddly real sweat from his brow. It was hot in the forest but he wasn't feeling that right?

 

[LexiAnnRose]

Ah, there he is, Rose thought to herself as Ruby finally entered the fray. She gave one last pulse of light to the man to bring him up to full before turning over towards the few remaining mobs. She smirked at Ruby's words. That was a very smooth line, easily his best so far. Following along with the pace of combat, she stepped over and advanced towards the far left reptile. A quick pair of sidesteps brought her into range. She dropped to her knees, just under the blade as it went through the air she had just been in, then was deflected off her blade planted in the ground.

"Foreplay? This? No, our foreplay is much hotter and much more fun," she responded to him while holding her and the reptile's blades together. A small, circular flick of the wrist brought the flats of their blades together and one more quick motion cleared the weapon from the beast's hand, leaving him weaponless as it landed several feet away in the grass.

"No, we're just getting started!" She called out with a laugh, piercing its chest and killing it.

Meanwhile, Snow had advanced on the other pair and was trading blows with them, easily matching them even two to one as the odds were. Angling her shield downwards with a block deflected a sword towards the ground, followed by a hammer blow from her own sword buried it in the dirt. She followed it up with a thundering side kick to throw the reptile off tumbling in the grass a few feet away. Turning and bracing her blade just off her back, she caught the other's blade against hers.

"You know, your other line was much wittier," she remarked with a grin, referring to the snow fall line, and then breaking the grapple by twisting, shoving the other blade to the side and bringing her shield around to crash into its head, knocking it to the dirt and stunning it. A simple coup de grace finished that little engagement, though they did look to see what Ruby was up to at this point. Snow moved towards Rose as she healed up the other players and they waited for the rewards screen to come up from that event.

"Not a fair fight at all," Rose commented after healing up the remainder of the other group. The rewards screen came up with fairly generous rewards considering the level of the zone. They each picked up a new sword, Rose picking up an upgrade for her healing ring while Snow got a new shield. Not to mention the gold they received as well.

 

[Sean Renaud]

"I'm sorry my lines aren't all great, most of the ones I have written down are about my sword is bigger than theirs." He flicked his wrist and his blades both vanished into his wrists guards. The ladies seemed to have the last few wrapped up and he got experience just for being near by so there wasn't a whole lot of incentive for him to dash in and do anything. Besides watching them he wasn't really going to be doing them any favors.

He looked at the drop and shrugged. None of it particularly interested him and he'd heard that the game was programmed to drop more frequently the less gear you had so he wasn't taking things that weren't in his particular build.

When Snow came to heal him he smiled. There was a conscious effort to stop from telling her heal him a bit lower but so far they hadn't slapped him, or laughed, or told him to get lost. Even if they were just stringing him along which experience said they must have been doing they were certainly taking their time and there was no reason to rush things. This was fun.

"It really wasn't a fair fight for them. I mean there were two of them for every one of us. They should have brought more." He shrugged and scratched the back of his head offering a cheesy grin.

"So." His gaze lingered, mostly unintentionally on the two ladies as he was kind of like a dog with a car. He'd caught it but. . .the hell do you do once you've caught it?! "I think we cleared the region. We should probably search around see if they had lair or anything because they might have booty. . .treasure. They might have treasure." He was blushing again and still hoping that the Nerve Gear didn't translate that.

"And once we're sure we're safe and all alone. . ." Crap! There was a line that went here but he had no clue what the hell it was so he just let it hang and started kicking around in the bushes.

 

[LexiAnnRose]

Rose stepped over to Ruby and placed a hand on his shoulder, healing up the few points of health he'd lost. She didn't see him get hit, so it was probably from his branch-running shenanigans. She let her hand trail down his arm when she was finished and, as she stepped past him, the front of her form just barely brushed against his arm. She shivered -just- slightly at the feeling on the tips of a pair of somethings she didn't think that the devs had actually programmed into the game's new sensory system.

Well, they had. Rose stepped back over to Snow, who had sent the other group on their way back to a lower-level area in the zone so they could catch up properly. The pair turned back to the forest. "We've cleared outside the forest, but you're probably spot-on with the lair comment. I'll bet there's some great booty to be found in there," Rose said with a wink.

The two moved off towards the nearby forest path where the lizardmen likely came from, leaving just enough room between them for Ruby to squeeze in. They added an extra sway to their hips and Snow turned to look at him over her shoulder.

"You might get to see what we'll do when we're all safe and...alone once we clear out that lair," she called back to him with a wink, looking forward again. She and Rose exchanged a look and a small giggle. There was a high chance that Rose's top would "accidentally" come a little loose once they were further into the forest and away from prying eyes. More than a few things would "accidentally" happen once they had a little sense of privacy. They were still curious about the extent of the new sensory systems, after all. They could feel their clothes clinging to their skin already from the heat, and it would only get hotter once they entered the forest.

The only thing they had that was lighter than their current outfit was their underclothing...which left very little to the imagination from what they remember.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Ruby's eyes moved to follow Rose's slender digits. They were just on his shoulder, but he could feel them and watched them glide down over his arm making the hairs stand on end. Why did he even have hairs? He certainly hadn't put those there on purpose. It was only for a moment but when she brushed up against him Ruby felt a sudden sensation that he hadn't expected at all.

Ruby was so completely distracted by those sensations that he didn't notice that Snow and Ruby were letting those helpless punks get away with only their heartfelt thank yous as reward! It was a bit late to complain though when he noticed that they weren't getting paid. He glanced at their HP and considered giving chase for a second, they probably had some treasure.

Before he had time to let that thought rattle daround his head too much though the two were back at it. He really needed to learn to choose his words a little better. While terrified didn't quite cover the feeling the two ladies gave him he saw that invitation and and slid back between them this time with his hand around each waist pulling them against him.

It wasn't hard for the two of them to find the lizardman's lair. Which predictably wasn't completely devoid of lizardmen. "Looks like we missed a few earlier." Ruby said stepping away from the two ladies, wrists blades sliding into view. Ruby's boast was cut short when a shadow passed over head. He hadn't fully appeciated that he could feel the sun on his shoulders until it was gone. What covered up the sun? Ruby's eyes wandered up just in time to see a simply enormous lizard man descending from above. He had just enough time to shove the girls away and leap back himself.

Or less heroically they were between him and the first direction he tried to move. Hopefully that wasn't obvious. "Well aren't you a biggun?" Ruby teased. "Thoughts, plans, aw the heck with it." Ruby darted in ducking beneath the long blade of the Lizard Chief and stabbed it twice before catching a blow that sent him sprawling.

That hurt. A lot. Not so much that he couldn't get up but. . .pain. Even after how much they'd boasted about it pain was still surprising. The display over his head said he was still at about seventy percent health more than enough, he'd just have to be careful and realized that the Nerve Gear didn't just translate the pleasant feelings.

 

[LexiAnnRose]

So it seemed that the lair was fairly close to where they first entered. After about ten minutes of walking they found it right along the barely-traveled path with somewhere around a dozen lizardmen hanging around. They spotted the trio on the road and a chorus of hissing met them while they rushed to arm themselves. When Ruby stepped forward Rose and Snow drew their blades, an ever-present shield sliding down Snow's arm and Rose's hand glowing with a snap of the fingers. They stepped forward only to feel a shadow pass over them, blocking out the faint rays of the sun. When Ruby shoved them forward -towards- all the other mobs they felt the air rush past them and the ground shakes as the lizard chief touched down on the ground.

Snow turned and advanced back towards the chief, getting there just as Ruby was about to take his second hit, sliding in front of him with her arm stretched out, shield making a very audible thud as the massive blade impacted against it. A solid fire burned behind her eyes. -This- was what they were here for. The mobs here had red tags, meaning they were much higher level than they currently were. Snow turned to fully face the chieftain, who proceeded to roar at the interference.

"No, I'm your target!" Snow shouted, clashing her sword and shield together to cause a pulse of white light to erupt from her form as she activated her taunt. The chieftain seemed to agree and immediately engaged her, assaulting furiously. Snow didn't have time to counter-attack between his own attacks because the taunt seemed to have activated his enrage ability. She changed up her stance, going full defense. Her shield constantly blocked his hits while her blade deflected the attacks coming from that side.

Rose, meanwhile, was left with the dozen-some odd lizardmen while the others played with the big guy. She didn't miss a beat, darting to the nearest one to drop him with a pair of thrust before he could arm himself and doing the same to the next. By that time the other mobs had armed themselves and Rose had to stay on her toes to avoid being flanked, doing her best to avoid open combat and stick to skirmishing with the other mobs, all the while throwing heals towards Snow when she needed it.

"Go help her, I've got this one!" Snow called out to Ruby as she continued to hold off the chieftain, fending off the enraged miniboss. Had it not been for Rose's heals, her health would've slowly depleted itself.

 

[Sean Renaud]

"But?" There wasn't a lot in the way of time to argue with her but he would much rather have been fighting against the Cheiftan than the mobs. Sure the big guy hit hard, but at the end of the day he was just one guy and. . .

-And the lady gave him a fucking order. Those Red tags meant they should be in a fair amount of trouble but there was good news. Those tags were really there for the noobs and Ruby wasn't a noob. He was a Beta and this was still an early mob.

Ruby was probably taking too long as he sauntered back into the fray. "Rose, go help Now, by which I mean stay out of reach but see if you can taunt that think like she did." Before she could comment he rolled forward driving his blade into the gut of one of the lizard men then turned spinning like a top and taking out another pair with a grin.

He left out the part of his plan where he was fairly certain roughly half the group would tromp after her, that's what they'd done in the earlier versions and he could just attack at will. Two wrist mounted blades were not designed for long defensive fights, he was supposed to slip in and-

Another lizard took it's eye off him long enough to find out that there is only one result of turning your back on Ruby Heart.

 

[LexiAnnRose]

Rose looked over to Ruby as he took the advantage to get some backstab criticals off. That would make this easier. She batted aside a blade with her own and stabbed the lizardman twice in the chest, dropping it and then turning to lead the others around in a circle. They hadn't seemed to even noticed Ruby yet, so this could work well enough.

She didn't have a taunt skill, though, like Snow did. "I'm a healer, not a tank!" She shouted at him from the other side of the group of mobs chasing after her. There were only seven left, which wasn't bad at all. Things were going much better than expected, but not as well as hoped.

She paused a moment to clash blades with the closest, disarming it and dropping it with a pair of combo slashes across the chest. Down to six. There were few enough that she could stand her ground and fight them, so that's just what she did: She turned and leapt at the two nearest to her, noticing that the pair in the back had turned to finally notice Ruby. She dueled with the two for several paces, matching them strike for strike before she raised her other hand and released a flash of light, offsetting the pair and dazing them.

She took a moment to stab them both in the chest several times before moving back towards Snow, certain for some reason that Ruby had taken care of the remainder.

Snow continued fending off the chieftain, hoping that the enrage effect would wear off soon so she could actually get some hits in before she had to resume the defense. Rose entered the fray with a shout, jumping with a massive thrust into the beast's back, who proceeded to turn and smash the hilt of his blade into her side, throwing her several meters and taking a quarter of her health meter.

That hurts, she thought to herself. More so than it did in beta. She got an eerie feeling about it, but didn't have the time to think as she needed to roll aside to avoid the coup de grace from the chieftain. Snow stepped into the arc, intercepting the next hit on her shield and finally getting a return strike, her blade leaving a streak of blue behind it as she empowered the strike. Another pulse of white rushed out of her and the chieftain locked onto her once again. Rose healed up Snow and Ruby before healing herself up, ensuring that no surprise attacks would take more health than expected.

 

[Sean Renaud]

"Not a tank she says." Ruby mused, the majority of the lizard men did exactly what he'd expected and tried to follow behind her and one by one they fell until only a pair were left, unfortunatly that last pair were fully aware that he was there which made things a lot more complicated.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that the Chieftain was still pressuring Snow a lot. The fact that there wasn't anything preventing his escape did cross his mind but not as much as the fact that the Chieftain had made two fatal mistakes. First it had hurt him and second it had forgotten about him.

"Sorry, maybe another time." Ruby quipped wishing he'd written down more one liners before he leaped forward with one foot on one of the lizardmen's shoulders and launched himself into the air. He landed on the Lizard Chieftains shoulders sinking his blades in with a very satisfying thunk bringing it down. "Sorry I missed a pair." He flashed a smile and the last two tried to blindside him but he rolled back beneath their blades taking them out as well.

"Well after that I could definitely use a rest on a bed of roses." YESSSSS, super smooth line. Except you forgot snow. James Bond never has to deal with this. Crap. "And a cold compress?"

 

[LexiAnnRose]

Rose and Snow continued dueling with the chieftain for a time, each of them chipping away at the beast's health until it was in the execute threshold. Before either of them could bring it down, Ruby jumped in for the execute bonus to end that fight, then proceeded to finish off the demoralized pair of mobs left over. With that fight seemingly over, the two of them relaxed and gave the area one last look over. The victory screen came up and they checked out the rewards. Some new pieces of armor and a new sword for each of them, but the swords were a couple levels too high for them to use. Figures.

"Nice rewards from this one, probably because we were so underleveled," Rose said to the other two.

She proceeded to run a hand down Snow's arm to heal her back up to full, then walked over to Ruby to do the same, her fingers lingering on him for a few moments before she and Snow stepped over towards the small village the lizardmen came from, blades still out and at the ready.

Damn if Ruby's line wasn't smooth, though. He ruined it a bit at the end.

"Come on, Rube, let's make sure there aren't any more of them around," Snow called back to Ruby, shortening his name for convenience.

"We'll see if we can find a snowy bed of roses for you while we're at it," Rose teased, winking at him before walking forward.

Their stances loosened up the more they walked until they sheathed their blades, certain that the village had been emptied, and they proceeded to swing their hips again, going out of their way to give Ruby a show of their curves. No extra loot in any of the buildings, of course. There was, however, a small hot spring around the back of the chieftain's hut, hidden behind some trees and bushes. It was pretty far off the beaten path and secluded, so they had quite a bit of privacy. Rose and Snow exchanged a glance as they stepped up to the edge of it. The water was misty from the heat, but forms could still be made out vaguely through the fog in the water.

"This must be that hidden XP pool we heard about back in town," Rose mused.

"Care for a warm little dip? We've been itching to swim in ruby waters," Snow asked him with a wink.

The two giggled and drew their blades, planting them in the ground next to the spring, followed by Snow's shield. They started to take off their gloves, looking over at Ruby expectantly.

"Oh, come on, just a little. You can just dip your toe in if you want," Snow continued. "Even just the tip," Rose added with a purr.

 

[Sean Renaud]

A snowy bed of roses! Gah why didn't I think of that?! Ruby silently cursed his luck following behind the girls more because he liked the view than because he was actually upset that he couldn't figure out the right things to say at the right times.

The village was empty unfortunately, he'd been hoping they'd find something but fortunately there weren't any more lizardmen left. Ruby wasn't really in the mood for any more combat just yet, as much as he was enjoying showing off that battle had been a bit much. Hell, without that pair this encounter would have turned out no better than the bear.

Speaking of bare the two had found a hot tub and were in the middle of stripping down while he watched. Ruby swallowed hard. He knew they were teasing but that didn't actually make the situation a whole lot better for him. "I'm not scared." That was true, there were definitely better words for it. Terrified. Petrified. Mortified.

He eyed the water then the girls kicking off his boots and pulling the bandana out of his hair letting it fall to it's full shoulder length shaking it loose with a smile. "What?"

 

[LexiAnnRose]

Rose cocked an eyebrow at his response. He may say that he wasn't, but his face certainly betrayed that thought.

"That's a lot of hair for a guy," Snow commented, bending over at the waist to begin undoing her knee-high boots, giving Ruby an excellent profile of her body. Rose, meanwhile, stretched her arms high above her head, a satisfied sound coming from her lips as she got ready to start taking off her clothes as well, starting with untying the fastenings on the front of her top. She stopped when a fair amount of cleavage was showing.

Rose helped Snow loosen her top with a giggle, slowly undoing the knots on the back of it. She looked over to Ruby, feigning shock.

"Well, turn around! It's improper for a man to watch a woman undress," she teased him.

Whether or not he turned around at that point, though she expected him to be red from ear to ear, they began to slide off their gear and pile it neatly next to their weapons until they were left in nothing but their strapless bras and barely-there panties, which really did leave little to the imagination. Their assets were practically spilling out of their underclothes. Must have been a male designer, Rose thought to herself.

They decided to leave those on, though, not wanting to get -completely- naked in front of him just yet. He wouldn't be able to tell once they were inside the water, anyway, which was the next thing they did. The pair slowly eased themselves into the water, letting out deep, content sighs as the hot water eased the pain in their bodies from the fight with the chieftain. Surprisingly enough, it felt so very much...real. As if they were sitting in that hot spring in their real bodies.

They settled next to each other with just enough room for Ruby to squeeze in if he was brave enough to do so.

"Alright, you can turn around now," Snow said to him with a laugh. "And you know, your cheeks look just like your name sometimes," she added with a smile on her lips. Ruby red.

When he turned around it would look exactly like they were naked laying in the hot spring, the swells of their breasts just rising out of the misty waters. Rose raised a long, smooth and very bare leg out of the water and Snow rubbed it foot with her hand. Rose gently bit her lip as Snow worked out the kinks for a minute. Lowering it slowly back into the water, Rose sighed again and looked up at Ruby.

"Come on in, the water feels amazing," she invited him with a purr. Snow nodded in agreement and leaned back against the edge, closing her eyes with a smile.

 

[Sean Renaud]

"It is a lot of hair, the designers were funny that way. If I wanted to look super cool I had to pick a style with a lot of hair, but you know normally you don't see it all because hair band and. . ." he realized mid way through the statement that they probably couldn't care less about the design choices that he'd made. But he was almost getting comfortable.

All the way until Rose looked at him and chided him for trying to sneak a peak. Well not so much sneak, he was oggling until they told him to turn and then he did with the grace of a ballet dancer. Ruby briefly considered seeing if his blades were shiny enough to see reflections in. He'd have to make a note to try that again sometime but not now.

His brain wasn't functioning particularly well while he was blushing, yet again. He could actually feel it, he could feel the heat under his collar and all throughout his face and his heart racing more from the two ladies than it had from the Lizard Chieftain. For a moment he wished that thing was back. He understood exactly how to deal with a mob, how to deal with ladies. He wasn't at all certain what to even try there.

He would probably have stood there all day staring off at a particularly interesting leaf if Snow hadn't told him he could turn around. Even then he was more turning around in reflex to her voice.

The sight of the two seemingly nude ladies though was enough to renew the blush that hadn't even really faded yet. He found something on the horizon to focus on walked to the edge of the water sitting down cross legged.

Brave enough to slide between the two ladies? He didn't even have the testicular fortitude to get into the water, not so much as a single toe. After a moment he laced his fingers behind his head crossed his ankles and stared upward, no chance of accidentally catching a glimpse of something he wasn't supposed to see then.

"So I forgot, where were we headed before those noobs so rudely interrupted us by getting their asses kicked?" He brought up his inventory casually thumbing through the loot they'd gathered. Mostly as a something to keep his eyes busy, every time they cooed, sighed, giggled, or took a deep enough breath he found his eyes darting over in their general direction.