.Hack//NPF IC Thread 1
 

((For those who want to sign up, do so here and wait for me to give you the okay. The OOC Board will also serve as "The World's" message board.))

Real Life
Kyle sighed as he closed up shop. It had been another one of those days, where there were few customers and all they had wanted were "the hip, latest anime." There were even a couple of perverts looking for hentai. But no one cared about the older stuff, or the manga. Kyle sometimes wondered why he even bothered having a manga section, considering it didn't sell well. He shrugged, then turned the key in the lock. He headed home, where he would be able to sit down and play the only MMORPG left on the globe, "The World."

Kyle threw off his jacket as he walked into his apartment. He got a TV dinner out of the freezer and threw it in the microwave. He signed in and browsed the message board while he waited for his dinner to get done, as he hated getting out of his seat during play. Once his dinner was ready, he sat it on his desk next to his keyboard and prepared to play.

The World
Otaku appeared by the Chaos Gate of Aqua Capital Mac Anu. The Crimson Knight stood out among the other people, with his tan body armor and helmet, a helmet with two spikes an red eyes. His silver hair sticking out from under the helmet gave him away from the other Crimson Knights, however.

"Hey, Otaku," some people would say as he walked among them. "Wanna explore?" And Otaku would tell them he was looking for new traveling companions.

Others would run from Otaku, as he was a Crimson Knight, but they did not know Otaku was different from the other Crimson Knights.

Either way, Otaku continued his business in Mac Anu, going to the shops and looking for some fresh people to travel with.

The World

Schadwe gated into Mac Anu and started walking around looking for anybody interesting to team up with. He wanted to go and fight so his character could level up, but he needed a team to tackle the area he was aiming to conquer.

Unfortunately, the people he would normally go adventuring with were sort of...not online anymore. "Oh well," he said with a sigh, "That just means I have to find some new people to hang out now.

"How...troublesome."

Real Life
After a boring day at school, Scott realized he didn't have to work this evening. "Thank God...to The World, then." After a short walk home he sat down, gave his math homework the 10 minutes it deserved he logged on to The World.

The World
Mac Anu faded into existance before Arenis's eyes as he logged on. He really enjoyed this time of day, since it's not too buisy due to a fair number of people not yet home from work/school. After about an hour of checking the shops for new items and doing some minor dungeon crawls, he noticed a Heavy Blade wearing some dark colored garb wandering around. Too good of equipment to be a confused newbie. Must be looking for a party. Arenis approached him. "Are you looking for a party?"

The wind whistled through the grass slipping through the emerald stalks like a soft wave of cool water. Most of the critics said that this added to the realism of The World. They were completely and utterly wrong. Have you ever actually been in field when the breeze is anything beyond the gentlest of pushes? Here's some advice, even on a warm day, it's bloody cold. There's nothing remotely pleasant about it.

Not that Noyes was one to care about realism, as he brushed back his long auburn hair (one of the cooler emotes included with the last patch) all he really cared about was that the level he had found looked exceptionally scenic (which was what the aforesaid ecstatic critics were getting at anyway) the perfect arena for a sword-slinging scoundrel such as himself.

A new player teleported in, a twin blade. As he took his first steps into the level, Noyes noted the telltale silver trail of a rare weapon streaming from the new arrivals blades, and from the hitpont score floating above his head, he was of a roughly similar level to Noyes. The highwayman grinned to himself, finally an opponent of both sufficient challenge and wealth for him to test his mettle. (Three other players had logged on prior to this, the first two were of pitifully low level, the monsters of this server would be sufficient to finish them off, while the third was too quick, he'd gated out before Noyes had a chance to lock him in battle mode.) Grinning, Noyes sent out his signature call.

"Stand and deliver!"

"Wassup?" The Twin blade, m@x@ssi+00d (he deserved to be done in with a name like that) "W@nt 2 Party?"

"Nothing would give me greater pleasure sir I assure you, however I must confess to somewhat darker intentions. You see, I'm rather strapped for both cash and equipment, and your blades would greatly aid my quest. Give them to me."

"*&^* off, n00b" such vulgar behaviour... Noyes lamented.

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. Look, I don't really know how to put this sir but... Your money or your life!"

"1@M3r PKer" was all the twin blade could manage as a retort. Shrugging (Zach loved these new emotes, but it still erked him that there still wasn't one for sighing dramatically) Noyes drew his blade.

"I take no pleasure in this..." Noyes declared (a blatant lie. Behind the monitor, Zach was grinning like a madman). "Now draw!"

The game locked into battle mode and the Twin Blade, realising he had no other option, drew his blades. Noyes struck first, launching off a three hit combo. The first two blows hit true, chopping off a sizable chunk his opponents HP, but the third slash clanged against m@x@ssi+00d's flesh with a metallic thud. Obviously, one of the Twin blade’s items gave him the Zero Damage enhancement.

Seeing an opening the Twin blade retorted with an offensive of his own, launching into Noyes with a flurry of blows. Noyes was blasted back, unable to mount a successful defence against the myriad blows coming in from all directions. Noyes attempted to parry an overhead slash, and was promptly skewed by a thrust from underneath, followed on by another slash the moment he lowered his blade to compensate. Noyes hated to admit it, but this guy’s technique was good, and there was no way he could match blow for blow an opponent possessing two weapons.

The Highwayman's HP bar began to descend at a worrying rate, and behind the monitor Zach panicked for a second, before regaining his composure: These Haxor types were all the same, the minute they thought they had an advantage...

Noyes saw it, m@x@ssi+00d's blades began to hum with a strange energy, the mark of a special technique. Reacting with stunning quickness for a heavy-blade, Noyes leapt back just as the twinblade yelled out "TIGER CLAWS!". The first blow of the potentially devastating combo clipped Noyes's coat as he leapt back, but he managed to dodge the attack. The twinblade tried to move forward to compensate, but was stunned as his feet merely clipped the green earth like he was running on water, seemingly unaware that the game had locked him in place while he performed his technique.

The combo-attack only lasted for a few seconds, but a few seconds was enough for Noyes to counter with a magical attack of his own. Holding out his open palm to the sky, Noyes crushed it into a fist and brought it down with a cry of "Gan Don!” His fist-swipe was reflected on the field by a comet crashing down from the sky, crushing the twinblade, reducing his hitpoints and, more importantly, dazing him for a few seconds.

Noyes's pressed in, launching another three hits in rapid succession. The first was nullified by No Damage, the second hit true, but the third clinched the deal as Noyes own passive ability kicked in. m@x@ssi+00d's sprite went tumbling down as the words 'critical hit' flashed satisfyingly across the screen, followed by a reassuringly three-digit hit count.

"1@M3r" Was all the twinblade could manage before his corpse dissolved into a stream of sparkling purple lights, which scattered beautifully across the field, heralding Noyes's victory.

The Highwayman grinned, another challenge met, albeit barely. Giving it a few minutes to avoid a reunion with his prey, Noyes gated back to Aqua Capital, to make ready for another adventure...

Real Life:
Mark walked back into his apparment. He set down his guitar by the door and got right onto his computer. His practice had gone really well and his band was about to make another track. This one may finally break us through. In a better then usual mood, he logged onto the World in hopes for some fun.

The World
Orion appeared just inside Mac Anu. He noticed that the place was a but lighter then normal, but it was fine with him. He passed by a few shops, but found nothing that interested him. He walked up to the side of a building and leaned againt it, watching the people that passed by. He started to hum a little tune. He noticed some people gathering together for a group and run off. I wonder if I would be able to meet a solid party to join up with. Just as he thought this, he noticed a Crimson Knight walking by. He noticed the long hair to be Otaku's and walked up to him. "Hey Otaku, my name is Orion, care to party up?"

((Ah, FYI, character names don't appear above heads like they do in normal MMORPGs, so technically your character shouldn't know mine's name. But, you already stated how your character knows it's Otaku.))

Otaku came to a halt where he was, hearing someone speak to him. He turned to face a Long Arm, and quirked a brow(not that it could be seen under his helmet). This was a Long Arm he had not seen before.

"I do not know you; how do you know my name?" Otaku asked. Then he remembered. "Oh, I see. You could tell by my hair. I see my reputation preceeds me." Otaku scratched his head. "Well, at the moment I'm browsing the shops. If you'll be around for a while, then perhaps I'll come back in a moment."

Wit that, Otaku nodded and returned to his window shopping. He knew he needed some Healing Potions and some Scrolls, a couple of Fortune Wires, and a lot of Restoratives. So, he weaved his way through the people—or they gave way to him— to the shops.

((I believe they do, at least in the games, the name of a person appears when you target them, or strike a blow against them in combat. Um anyway, I'd better stop with OOC posts before I disrupt anything.))

Real Life

"Hmm. Not as troublesome as I'd thought it'd be."

The World

Schadwe immediately decided that the greenish wavemaster was not a newbie, and after measuring up the other character decided that Arenis was of some use. "Yes," he said with a grin. "I'm looking for a party. You wanna join up with me?"

"Time is not a problem. I'll be around somewhere." Orion watched Otaku walk away and then turned around to go back to the spot that he was leaning against. There are always others too. He went back to humming to himself as more people just passed by.

After about ten minutes Orion pushed himself back off of the wall and decided to walk around a little bit to see what everyone was talking about. Nothing too out of the ordinary was passing around the rumor mill. He procedded to a few shops, he walked up and purchased a few Health Drinks along with a Sprite Ocarina. After buying these, he walked back through the people to his spot.

The World

"Certainly. I dont exactly have a destination in mind, so I'm open to suggestions as to where we'd go...I've got a lot more spells in the status category than I do damage spells, so maybe our party might be more effective with one more combatiant, if you don't mind if we sought another."