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CLOUD v6.66 [T] [IC]

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Skymin

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    • Age 32
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    • Seen Jan 16, 2025
    OOC THREAD // IC THREAD
    [PokeCommunity.com] CLOUD v6.66 [T] [IC]


    Hello! Bonjour! Merhaba! こんにちは! Hola! Ciao! Hej! Здравствуйте! Hallo! 您好! Pozdrav! Hei! Labdien! 안녕하세요!
    Welcome to CLOUD!
    Hello! Bonjour! Merhaba! こんにちは! Hola! Ciao! Hej! Здравствуйте! Hallo! 您好! Pozdrav! Hei! Labdien! 안녕하세요!​


    The week leading up to the 21st (or the 20th, depending on what part of the world you live in) has been quite eventful; CLOUD has been bursting with energy with the pre-announcement fuelling the players' imagination drive. Even if you weren't part of that pre-announcement (which you definitely were), live recordings have been streamed everywhere. It also seems that it wasn't just those who came to pre-announcement received the keys as other members who missed it are showing them off too. Nobody knows what the keys mean, though. As far as anyone has speculated, they are an equippable, non-trading item that is unique to each individual player, though equipping them does absolutely nothing. You have your theories, yeah, but nobody is quite sure what these keys do. The announcement will reveal all, they say.
    23:59, 20TH december 2012 (JST)
    The time has come for the announcement and the entire world is sitting on the edge of their seats, waiting for that clock to tick over. The login portal was closed about twenty-four hours ago, so you can't prematurely log in (but you can still send messages and emails to go crazy with your friends, thank god). The new patch update was sent out last week after the pre-announcement so you are ready for whatever ICARUS has to offer.

    5... 4... 3... 2...

    1.​
    00:00, 21ST december 2012 (JST)
    A chime rings from your device and you are automatically logged in. Your DAEMON seems to be sitting in... actually, you don't recognise this arena at all. It's impossible to view your map or do anything except look around. The arena is massive, much larger than any other one on CLOUD, and there are so many other members. Millions, hundreds of millions, maybe every single CLOUD member registered! The lights in the dome dim and the DAEMON you recognise as ICARUS appears.

    "Greetings, CLOUD members! I am your host, ICARUS, and I officially welcome you to the THUNDER dome, the new arena located within ALTO! Today marks the tenth anniversary of CLOUD's launch. To celebrate this wondrous occasion, we have prepared for you, our members who have supported us for every single second of those ten years, a revolution."

    "CLOUD has always worked to meld the line between our online selves and reality and now, what we do behind a screen will have so much more of an impact on our lives than ever before."

    "You may recall receiving a special item last week; a silver key which is individual to your DAEMON. Your KEY is no longer just an item. It is your identity. Embedded within the coding of your KEY are your details, and not just your name and birth date. Passwords, bank accounts, social security numbers, credit card details... everything you have ever done is now recorded in one location. Just by equipping and using the KEY as a regular item, you can access all of this. And not just your own. By equipping and using another member's KEY, you are able to access their details just as easily as your own. As they are non-trading items, the only way to obtain another member's key is by killing their DAEMON."

    The crowd starts to grow a little restless and try to leave their seats but are unable to. The most they can do is shout but their words are lost under ICARUS' words.

    "Other important changes have happened in CLOUD. All levels have been reset to zero and all items aside from your KEY and decorative and wearable items have been removed and deleted from all accounts. Your DAEMON has been reset to factory settings. All restrictions have been removed from all locations which means PvP is allowed in all areas aside from the CLOUDLANDS lounge, which only allows for 10 combined hours of idling a day before you are booted back to the main area, which you must spend at least 4 hours outside of before you can return to the lounges. Also, it is now impossible to log out your DAEMON and death is no respawn. If your DAEMON dies, you have no way to reclaim your own KEY and details yourself. Your identity is lost to someone else.

    "So, which has become more important to you? Your online or offline self? Do you protect what you have or rebuild your identity from scratch?"

    "Thank-you for your time and enjoy yourselves at our tenth anniversary celebrations. Have a nice morning, day, night and evening."

    ICARUS logs out and the locks have been removed from your seats, allowing your DAEMON to move. The arena has now become chaos and it has become impossible to move. Like he said, if you try to log out, it brings up an error and you are forced back to your main interface. As characters begin to take advantage of other players' shocked states or absence by killing them to take their keys, riots form. People panic. Somebody's gotta do something.

    DAEMONs have begun to shove yours around and there's not much left you can do. You can fight your way through the digital crowds to try to escape or take advantage of the situation and join the massacre. Or maybe you can walk away from your digital world and try and find an offline solution. Whatever you do, if you idle too long, your DAEMON will die too. So hurry up and decide.​
    accepted CLOUD members​


     
    Last edited:
    Kemono Vera
    ~
    The initial reactions that ran through Kaitlyn's mind were somewhat less impressed than perhaps those of others; she knew her father would be shocked by what this ICARUS had done, and what a name he chose for a revolution, but her livelihood was based far less around the cultural obligations to technology than what most would work with; intangible concepts like stock and ownership, as opposed to the good hard soil that rested in her backyard. And really, what were a bunch of nerds going to do to raise anarchy, or use the information they acquired? It didn't particularly affect her. Though there was a twinge of sadness over what would happen to other people, who did rely on these things, her depression nulled it considerably.

    The interblag couldn't stop the sun from shining, and villains like what this ICARUS seemed to aspire to rarely wanted to destroy the world, because no more fun could be had! That was her reasoning, at least, as she immediately began clicking about the interface in preparation for the days ahead. Sleeping might be something of an issue, but that could all be solved in time, like all of the real world that slipped past the center of her universe. What was happening on screen was very real, and something that she could take advantage of, for the sake of others. Before, she'd always given away the loot she earned, to help newer players along their journey, and that could be done again. She just needed to escape the arena and get to     The Plains, for some good ol' grinding.

    Her years of being glued to the screen would pay off more than ever, and her DAEMON was more than eager to bounce about the world, just as she had before, and use her skills in brawling to rid the world of whatever stood in her speedy way. The lithe Kemonomimi dashed through the crowds, past falling titans and flying midgets that would have impeded her with combat or their corpses, and leaped across them in a blur past the screens of most gathered DAEMONS. It was a shame that people were going to such lengths for things they couldn't even use, but she expected the worst out of them anyway. Digital data could always be regained or restored, but breaking somebody's heart was a far worse crime, and something that was far too easy to accomplish...for some.

    As she weaved through the crowds, she caught a glimpse of her father's DAEMON muscling his way through a mosh pit of colors and characters. Like herself, he hadn't been interested in giant muscles or unlimited powah, and slipped through the gathered players with the wispy, elastic limbs of a solid mist-man, and the sight of him brought an issue to mind quite swiftly. He was nowhere near as competent a player as she, and would react in a far more anxious manner to losing his key and even getting into a fight than any other person would. He rarely visited any of the combat areas, and she was one of the best solo players in the game; much more fit to be a defender of the key than anyone else.

    "Sorry, dad." Kaitlyn muttered beneath her breath, for she was sure he'd be questioning her soon enough. Kemono Vera hopped atop the corpse of a recently-defeated Daemon and used it as a springboard to hurtle through the air, twisting her body into a corkscrew of momentum directed directly towards the man of solid mist, who had barely a moment to throw up a block before she tore through his torso in a flail of arms, legs, and tail that killed his character in a far swifter manner than somebody just wailing on their opponent would have done. His key jumped to her character, as per ICARUS' rules, and she continued her sprint towards escape. Not that she got much EXP for killing a level zero character in the first place.

    With her hand clasped around the Razer Naga Epic, her fingers at the keyboard, and hey eyes diligently glued to the screen, Kaitlyn and her DAEMON were prepared to fight their way through the worst of what was to come...
     
    ARAKIRA
    If it had been a cartoon movie, the sound of Arakira's jaw hitting the floor would have been echoing throughout the large mansion. As it were, this was real life and not even a game controlled by aliens or anything like that. The only thing that happened was that Arakira's mouth formed a perfect 0 shape and stayed that way for an undefined number of moments. Then a gulping noise as she swallowed hard. Her eyes barely blinked as they were focused on the screen of the laptop which sat on the table before her. Her very own living room was airy and had a lot of space; a group of sofas and comfortable chairs stood in the middle around a low table; the walls were lined with bookshelves not only holding books but many other things; there were doors leading to her bedroom, to the main hall in the eastern wing of the manor where her home lay, and to the wide balcony. The balcony door was slightly opened now because even though it was winter, Arakira couldn't stand the thick indoor air for too long. She needed to feel a fresh breeze once in a while. Especially when she spent too much time absorbed in CLOUD.

    The announcement had been nothing like she had expected. Most of all, she had one word on her mind as her fingers danced over the keyboard and steered the mouse with a relatively calm and controlled left hand: WHY? Her DAEMON did its best to stay out of fights at the back of the large arena for now, while Arakira tried to sort out her thoughts and figure out what she should really do.​


    RYUUJINX
    When ICARUS disappeared, the white dragon met the gazes of the people sitting next to her. They all looked with flustered faces at one another, asking without words: would you kill me? Would you really? Just like that? Should I kill you first? As the invisible restrictions faded away and their bodies finally could move again, Ryuujinx at first didn't. Not the people around her either. They just kept staring.

    "Hey," she began, thinking that she'd better talk before someone raised a fist out of fear. But then, screams from the other side of the arena had reached them and DAEMONS a few rows away began tearing each other apart as if there was no tomorrow.

    The DAEMON right next to Ryuujinx gave up a shout too all of a sudden and threw itself straight at Ryuujinx who didn't even have time to cover. But the pig-like DAEMON tripped on its own snout before it reached her. A black dog on two legs and with strangely large, human breasts underneath her clothing had tripped the pig over. "Now, now," she said. "Why would you do that? What's the point?" She stepped on top of the pig's head and pressed down with her foot, making the other DAEMON squeal.

    "Stop it!" Ryuujinx couldn't help herself from shouting out. Her words were as good as lost in the chaos around them thought, as people began running and almost climb on each other in order to get out. Away. Hide. The black dog heard her though, and gave her a sly stare from her purple eyes before she stepped back, leaving the pig be. A rush of DAEMONS between them obscured the dog from Ryuujinx' sight just then. She also believed that the pig DAEMON got crushed to extinction by the stampeding crowd, because she heard an incredibly loud squeal - and then nothing.

    The dragon let herself get pulled along with the crowd, tried to stay clear of any violent people and reached the back of the arena, a solid wall with some pillars to hide behind. There, she jumped out from the crowd and decided to observe. She had to sort her thoughts out. Figure out what to do. This was madness. How could the creators of CLOUD ever think this was a good idea? Normal business - business that made the world go around these days - could not be kept up with the danger of people stealing important identities being this close. Just think of it. If important politicians had an account in CLOUD and their identity got stolen... or powerful business men... like...​


    ARAKIRA
    Her family! Her father, sister, mother and cousins. Most likely, her father would be protected well by his numerous bodyguards within CLOUD. If they could find each other in all this... It wasn't that she was worried about him. But his identity, his wealth, everything he stood for. For her sister's sake.

    "HARUHI!" Arakira called out, rushing out into the corridor. Wait. She couldn't leave her DAEMON idle. Quickly, she retrieved her laptop, letting it run on battery power, and got out into the hallway again at the exact same time as her sister came out of her own room.

    "KIRA!"

    "Are you alright? Where are you?" Arakira noticed that her sister was holding her smartphone in her hand as she ran. "Oh, no, that won't do." When they reached each other, Arakira put one hand on Haruhi's shoulder and carried the laptop in her other arm, almost cradled. She threw a glance at Ryuujinx, who was hidden behind a pillar - but for how long? - while she led the sister back to her own room.

    "Start up your computer and use that instead," she said, positioning herself and her laptop in Haruhi's group of sofas which was similar to her own. "You need to be able to control your DAEMON well if you are to get out of this mess with your identity intact."

    Haruhi didn't immediately respond, she just stared flatly at Arakira. The heart of the older sister skipped a beat.

    "Did you... is Charcoat gone already?"

    "No, I'm with a water golem who is protecting several of us smaller DAEMONS..."

    Arakira sighed from relief. There were some people who still valued moral in life. That gave her some hope.

    "But is all this true? Is it not just a joke?"

    "It's not a joke," Arakira said and looked down on her screen, manuevering her DAEMON further away from the exit, close along the walls and pillars. She was not going to leave until she had found at least some of the people she knew and made sure they were safe. "We can't log out. You have to find me. I'm still in the arena too. Turn on your computer already!"

    Haruhi finally obliged and within a minute her stationary PC had booted up on her desk, with CLOUD covering the screen. Arakira's eyes switched screens for a while to try and locate her sister's whereabouts. But the arena was round. It was difficult to know where one was in relation to another.

    "Won't all the servants and... really... everyone! Won't everyone be absorbed in this game now? Because if they aren't, they might lose their job anyways? If someone comes and takes all their money on the bank or claims to be them?" Haruhi asked.

    So true. Arakira thought of all the people who worked at their manor alone, and of every employee at Osumoto Biomedicals. But they would not lose their job because of this. The Osumoto family recognized every servant or maid in the manor even if they lost their CLOUD account and everything. The Osumotos would protect everyone that worked for them. It was worse for them, they who were actually in power with no one above them to lean back on. Arakira grinned bitterly as she let Ryuujinx do a bold spurt away from the pillars and across some now empty rows of seats towards the middle of the THUNDER arena.

    "All of a sudden, it's the powerful ones who are powerless."
    ​
     

    Erika Alessandra Lombardi
    [Starflower]

    The announcement was something she didn't expect. Erika, in her nightwear, who diligently woke up just to check up on her fashion store…was probably going to do more than just her fashion designing. A war is breaking out inside the world of CLOUD. Her DAEMON, wasn't made for battle at all. Icarus mentioned that no DAEMON can idle for too long..or her offline life is at stake. Erika, tapping her fingers on her desk, and staring at her dual monitor desktop computer, tried to figure out what to do to get her DAEMON to Cloudland, the world where she hung out the most. Her levels, her achievements, her experiences were all set to zero. She was back to her 2009 self, where she had no clue on what the hell she's doing in this digital world.

    The good thing about the whole situation arising was that Erika finished her final exams, and now in winter break. Six weeks of survival? No problem. She lived by herself throughout all her years in college. She was never much of a person to go outside. Or at least, she was like that since her parents died just a few months ago. However, she wasn't aware that her friends were extremely worried about her. Very so.

    The bipedal ferret DAEMON, Starflower, scoured around the floor for a way out. Erika placed all her concentration on Starflower as she turned quadruped to shove through the many panicked CLOUD members out of the way. Being a giant ferret is no playing games. Some DAEMONS she shoved were smaller than her, shorter than her, and even weaker than her. She wondered if she can be leveled up just for shoving.

    With her whiskered nose twitching up a bit, she turned 360 degrees and spotted an open way towards Cloudland. It was a clear way, and there wasn't that much time left to go. Starflower, being constantly shoved from every DAEMON passing by, she took 5 seconds to shove a random DAEMON in front of her, using her head. Without thinking, she zipped through the crowds of DAEMONs to escape the fury, finding a giant box to hide in. She wasn't used to fight. All she did was to design clothes and to...provide items and gear to the warriors who fought. So many thoughts were going through Starflower's mind...more so Erika's, who was controlling the bipedal ferret.

    *vvvvvvvvvmmmm*

    A vibration was felt from Erika's phone next to the keyboard. It was the first text message she received since the start of final exams at her university. As she glanced at her computer that Starflower is hiding inside the large box. She quickly glanced at her tablet-like phone to find an unread text message...from a certain Robert Flores. The text message quickly disappeared in the lock screen, as Erika unlocked her phone afterward.

    "Erika! Are you up for breakfast this morning?"

    Robert Flores was Erika's best friend. She had somewhat of a crush on him during her Business Marketing class, but was afraid to tell him her feelings. It was rare that he asked her out for breakfast, it was a first since Erika isolated herself from everything. Erika grabbed her phone with her right hand, and stared at that text message for a good five minutes. Then quickly realized that Starflower had idled far too long. "I can't. I just... can't." she murmured at the text. Quickly setting her phone aside, her right hand was on the mouse, and her left hand on the left side of the keyboard. She had to find a quick way to respawn and fight back.

    After a few more minutes of struggling and shoving, Robert sent her yet another text message. Erika did not respond back, and more likely won't respond...
    ​
     
    Colette Alise Faraday | Lady Raptor
    Colette's Bedroom | Thunder Arena
    stormCLOUD

    ♫

    ​

    Colette

    Colette sat there, unsure of what to do.

    What did someone do when an announcement was made that stated that anybody from anywhere in the world could steal all of the information from anyone of their entire life in one fell swoop? It was something out of a Science-Fiction movie. At this point Colette was just waiting for the aliens to swoop down and the robots to take over. It made no sense.

    Why would anyone want something like this to happen in the first place? To create total anarchy? What could that achieve? Icarus had left; he wasn't attacking any specific businessperson or someone of the like, so it seemed that he had little to no interest in attacking anyone specific for his own gain. So what did he stand to prove? Whatever it was, it was not something for Colette to ponder at this moment.

    But what did Colette have to lose? Ninety percent of her personal life took place offline. She didn't play any games other than Cloud, excluding a few console games that she had bought. Granted, there was her PlayStation Network account, but that was free and she had nothing on it that she couldn't easily replace. There was also her Gmail and her YouTube account, her Skype account and one forum account. She had no bank accounts or anything of the life. Granted, there was her Social Security number, but she had no idea what it was, what it was used for and she had hear that Social Security was ending, or something like that, so that didn't worry her. She had some movies stored on the Cloud, but those weren't life or death. Other than that, the only thing she really had on the internet was. . . .

    . . . Her music! All of her precious music! Thousands of songs, hundreds of artists and so much beauty! There was no way she get legitimately get it all back! She could download some free music app that would let her download any music, but that would be time consuming and she was pretty sure that it was illegal. Her music was her heart and soul; her everything. There was no way she was going to let anybody get their hands on it!

    "NOOOOOOOOO!" Colette yelled, her hands moving faster than the eye could see as she traced a complicated path along the keyboard. Her Daemon was right next to all of her friends' Daemons, so that gave her a bit of protection. Everyone had apparently been set back to level zero, so that put her on even footing with most of the users on Cloud.

    She could do this.

    It was a good thing that her school had let out early today, or else Colette might have mowed down a dozen or so students in her current state.    ​

    Lady Raptor

    Lady Raptor clutched the neck of her guitar, ready to fight anyone that attacked her.

    "What should we do?!" Videl's Daemon—a woman that resembled a brown-haired version of the Arkham Asylum style of the DC super villain, Poison Ivy—yelled, panic filling her voice.

    "First things first, we have to get out of here!" responded the large, muscular, anthropomorphic, bipedal, dark grey wolf belonging to Jason.

    "Then I'm just the guy you need," the slender black panther to match Jason's wolf, belonging to Wyatt, said, a devious grin crossing his face.

    "Do your thing, Wyatt," Lady Raptor said, nodding. Wyatt's Daemon had a special Pathfinder ability, allowing him to see the best suited paths for his objectives and needs.

    "I'm on it." The eyes of Wyatt's Daemon glowed a faint silver as he scanned the area, looking for an invisible trail that only he could see. Lady Raptor tracked the movement of his head, both curiosity and anxiety forcing her to do so. After a moment, his head locked in place as he seemed to spot something.

    Lady Raptor was forced to take a few steps forward as another Daemon bumped into her, the huge crowd of panicked Daemons closing in around them as everyone fled towards the exits.

    "These morons are only creating more chaos than necessary. They have no reason to attack each other, either, unless they happen to be defending themselves from a thief." Lady Raptor stated, a blank stare on her face as she scanned the millions of Daemons in the arena.

    "So is the wont of human nature, as sad as it is. Needless chaos, panic, violence, and other such faults seem to be their forté." Wyatt's Daemon said calmly as he finished deducing their best choice in path. "Follow me."

    Wyatt's Daemon ran on all fours, weaving his way through the crowd with ease. Lady Raptor and the others' Daemons followed, pushing their way through the chaos. They only made it about a thousand feet before they ran into an obstacle.

    Wyatt was at least another twenty feet in front of them, but the keen senses of his Daemon allowed him to sense the danger surrounding his comrades. Lady Raptor stopped in her tracks as an Acid Golem stepped in front of her. He had just melted a trail through the crowd of Daemons, gathering keys as he did so. He had about ten in his right fist, and he turned towards Lady Raptor in the others.

    "Greetings, kiddies. Why don't you just hand those little keys over? No? Then I'll just have to take them!" He reached out a liquid hand and tried to grab Lady Raptor, but she took a step back and avoided him. He was big and slow, and considering that he had been knocked back to level one like everyone else, he wouldn't be too difficult to take down. Likely the only reason he had gathered as many keys as he had was because he was an Acid Golem in a huge crowd of unsuspecting Daemons. Since he took the time to announce his arrival to Lady Raptor, she didn't think she would have any problems taking him down.

    "Classic psycho," Lady Raptor said.

    "Opportunistic Klepto," Videl's Daemon added.

    "Arrogant weakling," Jason's Daemon said, smirking.

    "Oblivious fool," said Wyatt's Daemon as he ran up behind the golem and leaped onto its shoulders. He extended his claws and tore at its face, blinding it for a split second.

    As the golem tried to shake Wyatt's Daemon off, clutching its face in pain, Videl's Daemon caused vines to grow from the ground and constrict the golem. Jason's Daemon brought out his giant zweihander, but Lady Raptor beat him to the punch and jammed her guitar into the center of the golem. She strummed a few notes on the neck of the guitar and the entire instrument burst into flames, incinerating the golem from the inside out. Wyatt's Daemon leaped off it just as it evaporated into data.

    "Now that that's taken care of," Lady Raptor turned to leave, but then she realized something. She walked over to the spot that the golem had dematerialized and retrieved the dozen keys that he had dropped. Once she had done this, she turned back to her friends. "Let's go."

    Thanks to the little display, most of the nearby Daemons were now giving Lady Raptor's group a wide berth.​
    ​
     
    Katsumi​

    Katsumi frowned as ICARUS stated, "You may recall receiving a special item last week; a silver key which is individual to your DAEMON. Your KEY is no longer just an item. It is your identity. Embedded within the coding of your KEY are your details, and not just your name and birth date. Passwords, bank accounts, social security numbers, credit card details... everything you have ever done is now recorded in one location. Just by equipping and using the KEY as a regular item, you can access all of this. And not just your own. By equipping and using another member's KEY, you are able to access their details just as easily as your own. As they are non-trading items, the only way to obtain another member's key is by killing their DAEMON."

    Japan didn't have Social Security Numbers at all, although they had a National Health Insurance. She also didn't have a bank account, she didn't really trust banks and usually kept her money at home, and didn't have a credit card. The only thing that was probably important to her was her music, in which she had bought for legally via CDs, and maybe her youtube account that didn't have any videos. Really, she was only worried about health insurance and since it was her own identity, her mother's health insurance wouldn't be affected. She didn't own a car, so no drivers license, and she hadn't renewed her passport, which didn't have her address anyway.

    So, while the announcement worried everyone but her, Katsumi waited for Shi_no_Tenshi to be able to move. She was not about to steal someone's identity from them unless they directly attacked her, and even if they did steal her identity, it wasn't as if she had much to offer. She was just a high school student who was working a few jobs to try to get money for her mum's medicine.

    If people were really worried about their identities, wouldn't they not attack people? If no DAEMON died, then no one's identity would get stolen and perhaps ICARUS would cancel the event. Of course, when people are worried about things, they lose all rational thought and do only one thing: attack.

    One thing that stuck to her was, "All restrictions have been removed from all locations which means PvP is allowed in all areas aside from the CLOUDLANDS lounge, which only allows for 10 combined hours of idling a day before you are booted back to the main area, which you must spend at least 4 hours outside of before you can return to the lounges. Also, it is now impossible to log out your DAEMON and death is no respawn."

    What about school? School was very important and as was her job. School was already eight hours as it is, and her job added an extra two-four hours to that. There was also a time difference; while it was midnight in Japan, it was in the middle of the day for some people, so while she would be sleeping, people could kill her DAEMON.

    It seemed that she was going to have to stay awake the whole night in order to get the full ten hours during school. She had done so before, in fact she could go three full days without sleep before she could really feel the effects, but it was still annoying.

    When the DAEMONS could finally move, DAEMONS were slaughtering others left and right. Katsumi rolled her eyes, were people's lives really that bad to steal the identity of someone else, and managed to escape in the confusion. Shi_no_Tenshi was very small and was able to slip through the crowd without any trouble.

    She needed to find Colette and apologise for dragging her into this mess.
     
    offline cat ☠ Rachel


    Rachel tapped her keyboard restlessly as she was carefully pondering the latest announcement in complete anguish. She had just lost all her money and items for cats sake. A hard's work of pay! All gone in one felt swoop! It didn't really help that her level was reset. And the worst thing of all? Her DAEMON didn't even get to eat that lobster claw she received from the other day! It was sure becoming hell-week. In fact,she was just about to tear her cat wear apart, until she remembered it was quite inexpensive, so she remained from doing so. Instead, she took the nearest blunt object, one of her school text books, and threw it at the door, which unfortunately for her brother Matt, he happened to open her room door at the exact time she threw that text book, hitting him square on the face.

    "...Okay, I'll knock next time!" regretted Matt, as he quickly closed back her door and ran off. He was such a little kid, for someone who's 18. "Whoever said you didn't know how to throw..."

    Rachel's deep upsetness was justified though. Why would someone do this? For their own entertainment? Rachel loved her DAEMON, sort of like... a pet, or someone who's constantly on your shoulder being carried around. Even if she was blue and small with red hair, and brown boots, her DAEMON was still a cat - the only thing she had that was closest to a pet. Then again... her DAEMON was also her in a way.

    But even if that's true, what to do now? Leave her DAEMON to die, or accept herself as her inner DAEMON? She swore - Florida was way to hot to think sometimes.


    online cat ☠ LGDClaw


    LGDClaw and some of the other PIRATE members managed to escape the skirmish, although, it wasn't quite easy - there was this snake-lady DAEMON who threatened to poison each and very one of their pancakes if they didn't hand over their keys. LGDClaw punched her about 10 times where she died on the spot. Unfortunately, some of the other PIRATE members were way too greedy, and perished in battle. Well, what could one say? They were PIRATES. Greed was their middle name. In any case, LGDClaw and some of her few remaining comrades finally made it out. They've made their escape near the back alley, where few can only spot them if they looked hard enough. Fortunately, no one passed through.

    "I swear, these trash are about as smart as a dimmed light bulb. Their persistence is so wasted," LGDClaw remarked about all the other players. "It's true what they say. Fortune doesn't favor fools. Man, this whole thing was damned and a half."

    "Aye," one of her comrades, the dragon-headed Oryps agreed. "In fact, I believe I saw this in a movie once. All these kids were killed while a female was smart enough to escape to gain a great distance between all of them until she made her camp on top of the trees."

    "What was she, a bird?" another comrade of LGDClaw's, the frog headed SippieToady asked as he scratched his slimy head. "But yeah, it sucks man. I mean, if your DAEMON dies, then its you might as well hand yourself over to them, you know? It's kinda creepy..."

    "Actually kid, I was referring to our loot!" explained LGDClaw. "I mean WHAT THE HELL! We didn't even get to make that lobster from the other day, eh? I blame a certain goat-faced moron for that!"

    "Oh but hey - what do we do know that our level's been reset, and you know, that key thing?" Sippie asked. "Um, what do we do now? Hide from other people forever and ever? Or... do we kill them before they kill us?" LGDClaw quickly turned to her frog-faced friend. She was expected to be seemingly disgusted, but...

    "That would probably be unethically illogical," said Oryps. "Come now, can't we at least provide some malice? I'm sure all the other players here are heartbroken over their... recent losses."

    "You know what? That can be fun kid!" LGDClaw said after a while, then gave with a smirk. Oryps and Slippie exchanged glances. "Right now I'm thinkin' that when this crowded mess is all over, I would love to cat-slap the stuffing out of those high-leveled morons who go around calling people noobs and stuff. I mean, what are you, 5 years old? Not so tough that your level's been reset, eh?"

    "W-wait, I was just joking..." SlippieToady explained. "You know? Joking? Does hahahahahaha ring any bells?!"

    "Really kid? Now that I think about it, I kinda wasn't!" replied LGDClaw. "I mean, we're PIRATES! We do anything and everything for valuables! We write our own rules, y'know? And remember - I always strike first. Except not in this case."

    "Right," said Oryps as he rolled his eyes. "Just don't come crying to me after we have been felled by a monk that is seemingly on a vigorous rampage killing spree."

    "Ohoho, but you see, we have to be smart!" explained LGDClaw with a smile. "See, all we gotta do is jump some lone sucker, yeah? Their loot will be good as ours - it's 3 on 1! Or if you want more help, don't worry, we gotta wait for more guild members to come back alive too, y'know? I'm sure they want their share of the silver loot we're gonna pile up. Come now, chin up - have I ever scared you wrong?"

    "Uh..."

    "That's what I thought!"
     
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    pepperton // phillippa watson
    thunder arena // new york city, usa    ​
    At the first word of losing her life savings, Phillippa had already pulled out her microphone and snapped it on her head, regardless of the fact she was in her cubicle at work. Others in the workspace had also thrown the 'no speaking' or whatever rule off the table, loud chatter had begun. And the announcement wasn't even over yet.

    When ICARUS disappeared, shouting had started between her boss another one of her co-workers. Phillippa didn't dare take her eyes off the screen to see who, manouvering her DAEMON out of the THUNDER arena being her main priority at the moment. Where would the safest place to be? CLOUDLANDS would be the obvious pick, but she would only be able to leave her DAEMON alone until nine o'clock tonight. Then, she'd have to play until one in the morning and come back at eleven. If she didn't have a job, it would be a cake walk to stay alive. Of course, she could just not go to work but working in media would be the best thing for her to try and make sense of what was going on. She had to worry about that later though.

    "Move out of the way!" Phillippa shouted into her headset. Pepperton's seat was wedged between two, much larger members who were fighting with the members beside them. She couldn't do much but jump down the seats and try to make her way into the actual arena itself as the grandstand doors were blocked with people trying to get out.

    "Ms. Watson?" a voice from behind Phillipa boomed, verbally putting his hands on his hips. It was very obvious who it was; anyone could feel his powerful presence, being the supervior of Phillippa's sector at the New York Times. Even though Phillippa was part of the obituaries, every boss took their job seriously here. "Are you playing video games at work?"

    "This isn't a video game, Mr. Johnson," Phillippa didn't bother to turn around to talk to him, which only annoyed him more. "When was the last time you checked your CLOUD account?"

    "Excuse me?"

    "CLOUD just self destructed. I'd suggest you might want to go check your DAEMON otherwise you might have your identity stolen."

    The silence behind her told her that he was either growing more furious or was trying to understand what she was saying.

    "What?" the latter, then.

    "Go check your account. You'll see," there was another moment of silence and Mr Johnson strode off, muttering something to himself.

    Back in CLOUD, Pepperton had already scaled down most of the steps. A glowing light pulsed in the centre of the arena, obviously where ICARUS had escaped through. It was a teleport crystal light, though when Pepperton finally made it to the last hundred or so rows, the colour of the light shifted from green to blue. Any light like that always meant a teleport back to Cirrus. That was an easy way out and it would save a whole lot of time than manually walking to the capital.

    Her dreams were shattered when RAIN leveled monsters were suddenly spawned around the light, maybe ten or so of them. Usually, this would be something that Pepperton could do unequipped with her eyes closed but because all of her levels and skills and items had been reset, she had nothing. Two at once would kill her and then her key was free for the taking. There was only one real way of dealing with it, as much as she really didn't want to.

    "Party up, party up!!" she said, trying to catch anyone's attention, though most were distracted by the riots.

    Party up! Party up!​
     
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    W-w-what?!

    NightlyWind

    Turning around to block a square punch in the face, Wind still couldn't believe what he was seeing.

    Crap... I'm screwed. The best thing to do now would be to get to the CLOUDLANDS lounge, even if it means taking some keys... perhaps I can use someone elses credit card number to get cash that could be used for something in-game? Hmmmm... he thought, still brawling this large dog thing.

    It seemed like it was a new player. No matter. Wind swerved back; although all of his stuff was reset to level zero and his purple wings were now incapable of flight- or of anything for that matter- he still was very light and quick due not only to his reflexes but also the small amount of stuff he had on him. Planting not one, not two, but three attacks on the person's face, he stepped back, then unleashing a flurry of punches. Thank goodness that he had learned every single button press on the system and the nuances of almost every item; he would've been toast if he hadn't selected the speediest armor over the bulkier, more expensive ones. After the dog's key had rattled and fell on the floor, sticking like a magnet to the Daemon, he grabbed it, placing it in the inventory and going out of his way to get around all the fighting. If only he still had his Plasma Blade... all the trouble he went to get it...

    It wasn't until he saw RAIN leveled monsters piling up in the arena that he noticed what was at stake.

    Hikoru (1st person)

    Scanning the screen, checking my ears, making sure I had heard this correctly; this key was apparently helluva lot important. Skyflare was probably going to run his mouth about teamwork within the guild and soon abandon it himself; but I'm only part of this guild in technicality- and now, the weak would need mercenaries more than ever- but I needed to take care of myself first. Adjusting my hand to better feel on the mouse, I thought it wasn't much; probably just a practical joke, especially considering how the Mayan calendar or whatever ended today. Kiko began to whine, though; maybe I should get her some food... but I can't stay idle for long. After defeating mister dog thing and picking up the key (it read Moniker_24... what a strange name), I looked towards the center of the arena, stroking my dog's fur quietly. And then....

    Ah, crap.

    NightlyWind

    So much was at stake, not only because of his Daemon's imminent death but the more troubling fact that... suddenly... more than just a computer sprite was on the line. Everything was. Credit cards, debit cards, all of that... and he had been sadistic and selfish enough to take another's life. Of course, he still had to protect himself... but taking someone else's identity? Their life, in a sense? What am I doing? WHY WORLD, WHY?

    Woah, woah, woah, slow down there, partner. Wind wiped his green visor with a small cloth. He had to continue, for his sake. Hikoru, at that moment, grabbed his necklace, it being warm to the touch. Wind, looking around at the monsters, saw the portal to CIRRUS in front of him, and decided he'd have to get to it. No matter what happened. Making sure his red, nearly metallic gloves were in place, he looked around, where he saw someone yelling.

    "Party up! Party up!"

    That may have just been a good idea, he thought, running over to the chinchilla/lioness/thing. "I'll help in whatever way I can," he said, " as long as we can get to that teleport. I'm very quick, if that helps with anything...." he sighed. "Normally, I could fly over there and kick some ass, but that's not happening today without any equipment."
     
    Kemono Vera
    ~
    Kaitlyn rested her chin on her palm, as she clicked about the screen and avoided all the other primitive screwheads that would try to suckerpunch her character in the dubious event that they might be able to make use of her identity. Yeah, they could take her prescription, but nothing she knew of could stop her from starting anew and stomping on them at a later date, which was a rather good idea, actually. If she could bother to find the energy for vengeance on somebody that would end up with a prescription for anti-depression meds. Still, dancing through the Daemons was a rather fun activity, until she realized that it would take her far too long to get to the Plains. A few hours of straight clicking would be especially dull, given the fact that all of her neat toys were taken away.

    It was perhaps by sheer luck, then, that somebody was seeking allies in a rare moment of clarity, and the words that popped up on the corner of her screen helpfully directed her to the pillar of light that sat in the center of this arena. Clearly a challenge presented by ICARUS for the smart or foolhardy, because anything could have waited on the opposite side of those chunks of XP. A boss of some sort was the most likely option, and there was the challenge of having to fight through the horde or seeing through the chaos to find the yelling DAEMON. Whether they could have done so was yet to be seen, but she had, and changed her direction with a swift click of the Razer.

    In practically no time at all, for those who didn't know how to exploit the pathfinding, Kemono Vera had arrived near the furry DAEMON and another fellow claiming to be quick. She wasn't used to teamwork in any activity, really, and hadn't played anything but solo in many years, so she decided to type her proficiencies, as she'd heard somewhere that leaders knew how to best make use of mixed skills. "Used to solo. Unarmed, quick, acrobatic. Plan?"
     
    RYUUJINX
    Before Ryuujinx had reached the center of the arena, she noticed a pillar of light flashing there. It became a strange, blue hue reaching upwards. From nowhere, some large monsters spawned just nearby the pillar. Darn it. She had planned to go there to more easily locate Charcoat, Haruhi's blue Charmander DAEMON who usually wore a cool little coat and fedora. But now it would be just as dangerous to go to the middle as to stay in the-

    A tail of some sort smacked into Ryuujinx' face and slammed her to the floor between the rows of seats. She blinked and frenetically waved her arms and claws around to try and get the thick tail away. A snake's face came slithering into the air above her own, smiling cleverly. "It's just a game," the snake DAEMON's human hissed through his mic. It was not much more than a whisper, but he was close enough for CLOUD to relate the sound well enough to Ryuujinx.

    No way. The white dragon narrowed her eyes and whipped her own, rather long tail against the body of the snake. That distracted it and let Ryuujinx use her sharp teeth to bite down into the snake's tail that was holding her against the floor. The snake's health bar went down a bit - having a mouth with teeth gave a DAEMON the innate ability to bite inside of CLOUD, even though you would have to train and earn skill upgrades to really make it an efficient battle technique. Ryuujinx had not used it at all much before but now she would surely reconsider putting some effort into earning this skill. When she began rising in levels anew. She had no intention to get killed already.

    The snake shuddered from getting damaged unexpectedly, which allowed Ryuujinx to squirm away. She jumped up and clawed the snake in its face, but earned another slap from the tail in return, sending her down into a seat. Luckily, even though she might have wanted to take on this snake on her own just to make it learn its place, another DAEMON took advantage of the situation and jumped the snake behind all of a sudden. It was some sort of purple bear who used its biting skill too. But the bear had clearly bitten more DAEMONS than Ryuujinx had already since the reset; it actually did damage and soon enough the snake evaporized and the bear was left with its key to control. By then, Ryuujinx was gone from the spot though.

    "Charcoat, Charcoat..." she muttered when she jumped the last rows near the center of the arena. She could not spot Haruhi's DAEMON nor the golem that supposedly protected her anywhere. But near the middle, there were some other DAEMONS that didn't seem eager to attack each other blindly at least. Instinctively, Ryuujinx put her back towards them and concentrated on fending off any less rational DAEMONS that had until now been behind her. She just hoped that she had guessed right about the mentality of the DAEMONS that were now behind her. It could be unpleasant within a few seconds, otherwise.

    When she heard one of them shout "Party up, party up!" she let out a sigh of relief though, and closed in on the one who had shouted. The pillar of light was in front of them - but in between, several ugly monsters were. And more highly leveled than them, for sure... Ryuujinx was still at the bottom of the reset. But yeah, the exits were still crowded to infinity with crazy players. The blue light was a much better guess; it was surely a teleport gate.

    "Party up!" the white, pink and turquoise and whatnot dragon echoed. "How high are the levels of those monsters? We're..." She had been about to say that they were weak now but her pride and all the effort she used to put into training with her guild when she had finally escaped the chains of business that her father used to put on her... She just couldn't call herself weak, even though she knew she probably was now. An ugly snake had just slammed her to the floor, goddammit.

    "Uh, I'm ready," she just said instead. Then she turned to the DAEMON who had just announced in text form that she was used to going solo. "Plan?" She could think of a plan. She wasn't stupid, her work had forced her to be a planner even though she really loved being spontaneous rather. "Let's pick one monster. Anyone who feels confident in fighting close up, since we've got no real skills or weapons now, can take it on in a group. The rest can try to keep the other monsters at bay until the first one is slain, and then we switch monster to focus on and so on... Also, no trying to kill each other instead because that's just horrible. What do you think?"

    She hoped she had talked loud enough into the mic for CLOUD to transmit her voice to everyone that she had meant to reach. Those who didn't have sound turned on probably saw a translated text message instead and that could have reached more people in this chaos. Dammit, maybe she should have just written it to begin with; sound wasn't a sound way of communicating in this mess. Pun intended.
    ​
     

    Erika Alessandra Lombardi
    [Starflower]

    After one solid hour of playing, Erika was able to get Starflower out of the danger zones and into safety. But at the same time she wanted to join in the chaotic fights and regain her levels. Hoping to regain her strength and power, even though she had zero experience in fighting with other monsters. The fight would be risky, though. Starflower had no weapons, no powers, nothing to attack with but her long ferret tail and her four short legs. All of them weren't even made for fighting. Her ability to extend her geranium tail was taken away...she would use it, but it would break in half.

    Erika felt exhausted, dizzy, after gluing her eyes on her dual monitor screens during one solid hour. Robert's text, the one she got earlier, was never responded to. He had already sent her another message just five minutes ago. For that one, she refused to read it as well. Every five minutes that gone by, her phone would vibrate...reminding her of her text messages being unread.

    "I reeeeeally don't want to eat breakfast with you, Robert! Please." She shouted at her phone. It distracted her a bit, afterwards, she continued with her gameplay as Starflower finally came out of hiding. "I can't take this anymore. I gotta go fight!"

    Bipedal, the ferret DAEMON walked slowly to catch an eye on the chaotic monsters that were creating this whole thing, creating this chaotic distress with the other DAEMONs. She turned around, right behind her, a brown dragon DAEMON was completely eliminated by one of the monsters. Poor dragon...

    But there was something on the floor. Starflower was curious to see what it was. The black monster DAEMON faced Starflower and flapped its wings slowly. It was more than ready to attack her, and possibly eliminate her off the face of this virtual world, and Erika's vital information would be lost. That would double the keys for the monster facing Starflower.

    "You want my information? Come and get it!"

    The black colored monster DAEMON flew swiftly towards Starflower, as she dropped down as a quadruped, missing the dragon's potentially deadly attack. Then she kicked him in the groin with her hind legs and tail. The DAEMON was launched up high, but the power was not enough for her to eliminate him. The monster roared. Starflower turned around, laying on the ground with her back, she flipped back...standing on her two feet again and slammed the monster with her bare head. She took substantial damage from that hit, but the monster was pushed back far away from her. She didn't completely eliminate the monster yet, but she was interested in doing so.

    Erika's heart pounded...like a human percussionist was inside of her slamming it.

    Adrenaline rushed through her during those last several minutes. She knew that she was just getting started. She became curious of the item on the floor before she got distracted by the monster. Erika finally surrendered, no longer holding in anymore from the fighting. This was war. Starflower was no longer the fashion designer for CLOUD, she had begun her transition to warrior.
    ​
     
    Sora Yamanoto | Umi_no_Uta​
    Sora's Apartment (Tokyo, Japan) | ALTO, Thunder Arena​
    The announcement was more of a nuisance to Sora and it annoyed him more than it angered him. The only way he would truly be affected was he might have to quit his job which was nothing in comparison to if he was unable to use CLOUD as his primary source of income, the world of CLOUD would be more aggressive towards most other people, and if he lost, he would be unable to play again, assuming this announcement isn't some kind of scam or the work of some mastermind hacker. Sora patiently tapped his foot, putting more and more force behind it the more the announcement stretched out. For one thing, he definitely had to make sure this new update wasn't a sham although if it were true, he would have to make sure he didn't put himself at risk.

    When ICARUS disappeared and Umi_no_Uta regained mobility, Sora immediately departed from the arena, due to the fact that since millions of DAEMON were there and it was an arena, present companies reaction would not be pretty or safe for that matter. Sora's DAEMON shoved others forcefully out of his way before most could react although as soon as Umi neared one of the exits of the area, different DAEMON in the area began to slaughter each other, making the area appear like some kind of super sudden death mosh-pit but this did serve once purpose: it showed that this announcement was not a loud of hogwash.

    One thing that was for sure to Sora, he would have to be able to center his character on combat be at the same time, he would have to be able to maintain his prosperity in trade. One thing that he feared most was the fact that trade might be nothing more than a distant dream now that people were reacting in such a chaotic manner. He was afraid for, not only not being able to play CLOUD, but also having to work under the employment of someone else for a living. He disliked the feeling of someone else having dominance over him or even control in the slightest.

    Would he have to be protective of Umi_no_Uta for the rest of his life or will ICARUS soon put a restriction in the distant future. The results of this would be catastrophic and Sora knew that he would have to make some sort of plan. Some people would probably betray others who they were comrades with but Sora wouldn't do anything of the sort. He knew he would only kill in self-defense and even then, his conscience would bother him afterwards about it. Sora didn't want to admit that he felt an obligation to maintaining at least a neutral morality even to himself but he also knew that companionship would be either a valuable asset or an unforeseen downfall. If push came to shove, Sora might have to form an alliance or at least a pact with someone so he could have an advantage over solo players. Time would be a commodity and he could not waste his 10 hours of downtime but maybe in the CLOUDLANDS lounge, instead of being idle he could speak to someone to form a party. Also if his computer crashed in a hostile environment, he would be screwed for sure. All of these thoughts raced through Sora's mind as he made his way out of the THUNDER dome and as he finally found an uninhabited area in RAIN, just outside of SHOWER.

    "Wait a minute." Sora said to himself in a condescending tone, his foot-tapping coming to a halt.

    A thought came to him. Maybe he could try to kill ICARUS, who was probably either a hacker or a CLOUD administrator, and use him and his key to stop the PvP conflict.
     
    pepperton // phillippa watson
    thunder arena // new york city, usa    ​
    "I'll help in whatever way I can, as long as we can get to that teleport. I'm very quick, if that helps with anything... Normally, I could fly over there and kick some ass, but that's not happening today without any equipment."

    "Used to solo. Unarmed, quick, acrobatic. Plan?"

    "Party up! How high are the levels of those monsters? We're..."

    "Yeah sure, I'm up for it."

    Four other DAEMONs answered Pepperton's cry for help; a normal person (ugh, boring), a cat girl, japanese dragon, and a monkey. Philippa sighed, blowing her fringe upwards. She could have pooped better teammates but it was far better than soloing this. Of course, Philippa had to remember that unequipped and unskilled DAEMONS were the norm and that she couldn't judge anyone for being underleveled since level 1 was the average level.

    Plan?" the dragon started to organise something. "Let's pick one monster. Anyone who feels confident in fighting close up, since we've got no real skills or weapons now, can take it on in a group. The rest can try to keep the other monsters at bay until the first one is slain, and then we switch monster to focus on and so on... Also, no trying to kill each other instead because that's just horrible. What do you think?"

    "Teamwork is the only way at the moment," the monkey sighed, sounding a little irritated as if it was the obvious answer. Well, it was the obvious answer but he didn't have to be rude about it. "Why don't we just team rush it all?"

    "Because that's stupid. You'll die being careless like that," Pepperton shook her head. "I like," Philippa quickly checked the dragon's username, "Ryuujinx's idea. But switching in and out as much as possible to avoid any kind of breaks in between where they can attack us. These monsters should drop low level loot. Equip it as soon as you can. Sound good?"

    "Whatever you say, boss," the monkey (who, by username, was uncreatively called MonkeiBoy_89) shrugged. Pepperton shot him a look. His apathetic attitude was fast growing old, especially in a dire situation like this.

    "... Good. Everyone else?"​
     
    Kemono Vera
    ~
    Kaitlyn's lip curled slightly at the sight of the crying DAEMON using the emotes to interact with the world and DAEMONs around her, some things that she'd never taken the time to learn or use in her solo explorations and random loot drops in The Plains. There hadn't been any point to it before, though giving context for her stated words would probably prove useful. Otherwise, she could be taken as some kind of bot. Though, thinking to herself, having some bots to aid the makeshift party would prove very useful, if she could borrow more CPUs and download the programs.

    But those were for another time; Ryuujinx had came up with a plan that Vera would be useful for, considering her many years spent exploiting evasion and timing, which would allow her to both fight the enemy and switch between other attacking foes for stunlocking. That would probably require some crits, which she unfortunately didn't have the loot for. Yet, anyway, as the crying DAEMON seemed to think that plenty of loot would be dropped. Not that she'd have minded sharing it with the others, but lacking basic equipment was quite the detriment.

    "Sounds good." Vera said, a second passing after the message popped up before the DAEMON's head nodded in response. "Can fight first, if no volunteers." She'd learned to ignore trolls, leaving the space where the monkey stood as a practical blank spot on her screen.
     
    NightlyWind

    "Sounds fine to me... I volunteer as tribute, I guess, would be the thing to say ATM."

    Wind cracked his knuckles. It was going to be a long day, at this rate. Looking through his green visor, he saw the RAIN leveled monsters surrounding the teleport. "I guess the only way around this is by working together, although a team rush would be reckless right now. Ryuujinx's idea works fine. Let's just get to CLOUDLANDS; because... I could really use doing something in... the physical world right now. And I'm sure everyone else does too..." except for MonkeyBoi_89, of course. Looking down at the corner of the screen, Wind noticed something he'd rather not confront now.

    Oh hell no...

    Hikoru

    Skyflare X would like to talk to you.

    No. Not now.

    "What the hell do you want?!"

    "I need backup." Skyflare was straight and to the point. "ASAP. I sent an SOS to everyone. Help, please, my credit card is on the line."

    "No. So is my credit card."

    "But I'm the leader of your freaking guild! Get over here NOW!"

    "I could truly care less. I have things to do; more important than you. People who actually have logic are on the line over here, and I don't give a crud what happens to you. You're on your own, tyrant." Well of course, besides one of these people, but whatever.

    I closed the chat with Skyflare, waiting for anyone else.

    I began to look around at more important things. Like the clock, for example. It was getting late. If this was any other day, I'd be going to the university. I no longer have the time now. The A Train could run without me today. I smelled myself... the sooner I get out of here, the better, I thought... cause I smell really bad.

    I spoke over my headset, my normal, cheery voice (but still with a hint of seriousness) setting in.

    "Are you guys ready to rumble?"
     
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    Sora Yamanoto | Umi_no_Uta​
    Sora's Apartment (Tokyo, Japan) | ALTO, Thunder Arena​
    Sora guided his Daemon along a nearby river until he found a point, shaded by trees and was secluded, although close to Shower. He decided to try to grind in the area, using his bare fists, until he had gained enough in-game currency to purchase some equipment. He didn't remember what types of monsters were in the area, maybe warthogs or fish. He wanted to remain aware of everything in the area so he wouldn't get attacked off-guard. As almost near silence prevailed, the river water didn't rush nearly fast enough to be loud and it was calming to Sora throughout his headset. Sora yawned and stood up for a moment, feeling too relaxed by the sound of the water. Sora minimized his Cloud window and began a music playlist of loud rock music, the volume was loud enough for him to be able to sit down and not sleep.

    When he reopened his Cloud window, there was a flying fish springing out of the water to attack him from behind. It was an extremely weak monster although they usually travel in mobs. Fear and something of instinct caused him to react and his Daemon pivoted to seize the fish immediately in both hands. Angry at the fact it attacked him while he had his window minimized, he chucked the fish into a nearby tree, causing it to lose HP upon impact. To finish it off, Sora ran at the Daemon clumsily and leaped in the air over the fish, landing on it and then curb stomping it into the ground with nothing but intent to kill it. On the thirteenth time he brought his foot down, the fish shattered into pieces and no sooner than that, a level up prompt appeared to Sora. Before he could read it, he turned to see a cloud of the fish, soaring out of the water, possibly to avenge their fellow fish.​
     
    RYUUJINX
    "Alright then," Ryuujinx said, getting into it as she used to do when they were about to enter a dungeon in the times when CLOUD wasn't as real as now. She began moving closer to the monsters, hoping that the others would follow. They were all low leveled now so it wouldn't matter if she stayed in the background or chose the front. So she chose the front. She took out her dragon claws, but then realized that without the proper skill that she wouldn't possess on level 1, she couldn't use them in battle. So... what could she do? Kick and punch? Yeah. That would have to do. But she really didn't want to go at this alone, she really didn't want her identity to be stolen by the first DAEMON who happened to step on her key if a monster ripped her apart. Maybe she should have taken her time to assess the trustworthiness of the DAEMONS around her now, before she stepped into battle...
    ​


    ARAKIRA
    "Where's Charcoat? I didn't see her anywhere and I'm about to battle now..."

    "What?"

    Haruhi's devastated reply made Arakira look up from her laptop for a moment. Her little sister was staring at her from her chair at the desktop.

    "Are you going to kill another avatar? I never thought you would do that!"

    "No! No, no. If you look at the middle of the arena, you'll see a portal and some monsters. Do you see a group of daemons? I'm right there! Ryuujinx is-"

    "I'm not in the arena anymore..."

    Arakira looked up again. Haruhi had turned back to her screen and the older sister could see Charcoat's blue body run in a rainy landscape alongside some other tiny daemons. The larger daemon was still there, seemingly protecting them. So she was safe... for the time being.

    "How did you escape?"

    "We just went out one of the entrances. There were many and we're small so."

    "Just..." Arakira bit her lip. "Be careful."

    "I will," Haruhi still didn't turn around, but carefully maneuvered her daemon through the landscape. A lot of others were running around there as well. "You too."

    Arakira nodded even though it went unseen. Then she went back into the game. Ryuujinx threw herself at the nearest monster, something looking like a large, muscular and brown chicken, and let out an emote that would translate inside the game into a dragonlike roar. Arakira didn't feel like roaring into the mic by herself right now.​


    ((OOC: Let's rumble!))
     
    pepperton // phillippa watson
    thunder arena // new york city, usa    ​
    Ryuujinx was first into the fray, Pepperton following close behind, taking on the next monster. It didn't seem too hard to take down these low leveled monsters, just tedious. She started to form a pattern that avoided her losing any HP; hit, hit, combo, dodge. It was boring, repetitive and Pepperton would never have taken on any kind of enemies this way but it had to be done. She hated not having a real stratergy and hated not being able to move all around the battle field. Still, it was way better than being bankrupt and nameless.

    "Hyaaah!" MonkeiBoi_89 came hurtling in, delivering a jump kick from above. Though, without any skill points or it being an actual skill, it did barely any damage. "Oh, that usually works better."

    "Stop monkeyin..." she physically had to stop herself from finishing her sentence. How could that have been her immediate automatic response? A pun!? "Stop messing around!"

    "Whatevs," he took over from Pepperton, slowly dwindling down the monster's HP to halfway. She stepped back, moving away to safety away from

    "Ms. Watson?" Mr. Johnson's voice returned from the world outside of CLOUD, though Philippa didn't even bother turning around or acknowledging his existance. He continued anyway. "Ms. Watson, what do I do now?" Philippa didn't bother muting her mic.

    "What?"

    "What do I do?"

    "Every second you spend away from a computer and asking me dumb questions is a second closer to your losing you identity. Figure it out," Philippa felt Mr. Johnson's presence stayed a few moments before hurrying off again.

    Back in the CLOUD universe, a mis-calculated dodge by MonkeiBoi_89 sent him flying back, losing a fifth of his health.

    "Help! Help!! Switch in, switch innnnn!"

    "Useless," Pepperton took back over, falling back into her pattern. A few well aimed combo jabs and a punch square in the heart resulted in a critical hit and the monster evaporated into pixels, leaving behind an item and EXP.

    The EXP was shared throughout the party, though wasn't enough for a level up. What was most interesting though was the drop. Was that... it was! A welcome kit! Dungeon Master Welcome Kits were extremely handy for any new member, as it contained a few, low-level healing items and five, default class packs, including Soldier, Ranger, Theif, Black Mage and White Mage. Of course, CLOUD didn't have specific classes and many members would hybrid various different battle stratergies into one character. But these class kits would do. At least it would protect them and get through these monsters faster.

    Pepperton dropped all five class kits on the ground, choosing to hang on to the healing items for now.

    "Quick, grab one and equip it!"​
     
    Kemono Vera
    ~
    Kaitlyn's little DAEMON danced rapidly around the screen, though she didn't seem to follow a particular pattern besides slightly stuttering around one of the amazingly bulky monsters presented before her, occasionally jumping away from it entirely to switch out with whoever needed the most help. Though the furry seemed to be handling the monkey's issues quite effectively, the girl at the computer only really noticed the fact tangentially, as the beat softly coming from her headphones allowed her to time each click almost perfectly. If she moved a certain distance, she could finish the final frame of her attack before the dubious creature could begin its in, though being able to move faster would have allowed her some comfort in the act. And some genuine empathy for the people around her, like the monkey that just got his butt dropped. He allowed himself to take even one hit, so he'd probably be a burden in the future.

    With her whittling down the mob allowing Kemono Vera to see most of their battlefield at once, it was easy to catch the tell-tale glow of dropped loot, along with the text that came up with another declaration of the Pepperton DAEMON's success in defeating one of them. She swiftly came by, breaking apart from her current opponent to grab a set of Thief gear and have most of it equipped, before the content little DAEMON dashed away from the pile again to duck between a creature's legs and elbow-kab it in the back of the knee, with tiny text popping up beside Kemono Vera. "Thanks." She left the daggers behind, in case somebody else would need them.
     
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