A Reality of a Different Color

[X] Go to the coffee shop safe zone with Kaius and The Boulder.
[X] [Contacts] Ask for contact info from everyone.

"I'm not doing so great in the health department, either," you admit. "In the game, I mean. And I could use a coffee." An iced coffee. It'll do double duty as caffeine source and ice pack.

"Sounds good! It'd be kind of weird for an adult to be hanging around school, anyway…." Jade looks sheepish. "But hey, maybe we'll run into each other again. We can swap Spiritualist tips!"

It would be a good idea to keep in touch with the only other player in the same class you've seen so far. But asking her for her phone number would just be weird.

Asking everyone for contact info, on the other hand… "Hey, why don't we all swap contact info? The four of us are still really new and this game likes being way too cryptic."

"The Boulder approves of this!" The green Martialist pulls her phone out of her pocket - a weird visual, since her game outfit doesn't have any. "She will request all of you for her friend list!"

"Oh yeah! I forgot about that!" Jade pulls out her own phone and nudges Shadowninja with an elbow. "Come on, you two get in on this too."

You kind of want to ask how the friend list works, but you're pretty tired of being the newbie asking all the questions, so you just take out your phone, tapping your MRD to turn of the floating HUD so it's less distracting, and flip on the screen.

To your surprise, the Chromata app looks completely different from the 'MRD Connected' screen you had before. The app's UI has turned the same violet hue as the HUD, and there's a row of icons in a menu at the bottom. If the visuals are anything to go by, the icons are Notifications, Inventory, Shop, Contacts, and Settings.

The current screen is apparently your notifications, and you have three of them. Looks like the newest ones are at the top.

It looks like your earlier assumption that the game was only using the MRD interface was completely wrong. There's a ton of stuff in here! The game must've been waiting for you to finish character creation and the tutorial monologue before activating the full app.

You're going to have to look into this in more detail when you get to the coffee shop. Right now, however, your phone is buzzing at you and there are more notifications popping up.

You glance over at Kaius, who is watching the whole thing like he's regretting all of his life choices that led him to this point. A quiet buzzing comes from his direction and he notices you looking. You raise your eyebrows at him, trying not to look as amused as you are, and he takes his phone out in ill grace.

He's a classic antisocial college boy nerd, but at least he's not a jerk about it.

This was originally your idea, so you accept all of the requests. You also set the picnic area beacon as your active Beacon while you're at it, because why not?

"Can we go now, before something else tries to set me on fire?" Shadow-a.k.a.-Drew is looking impatient. "Or hits me with lightning, or rocks, or—"

"Okay okay, we get it." Jordan pats Shadow's shoulder, then grabs his hand. "Come on, ninja boy."

"See you later, Annabelle!" Jade waves as she and the other two teens head out across the park again.

You wave back, of course, standing up again to stretch. Dammit, your shins hurt, too.

"The coffee shop is over there." Kaius points in a different direction. "Just past the edge of the park. I'm still out of AP, so I won't be any use on the way."

"The Boulder has one point left," adds The Boulder. She's still sporting the crystalline white armor. "But one point is all The Boulder needs to bury her enemies."

The Boulder is really playing hard on her source material. You thought it was obnoxious at first, but it's starting to grow on you.

"I have three…." They all need Nebula to be out, of course. You tap your earpiece to turn the HUD back on, then summon Nebula again. It appears in the same flurry of violet sparkles as before, chiming happily at you. It also looks like it got back one of its health points while you had it desummoned and is now sitting at eight out of ten.

Kaius sighs. "I burned more energy on that last fight, too. None of us would survive a single hit, at this point…. I think we just have to run it and hope for the best."

"Doesn't this game have healing potions or something? There's game currency, right?"

"It does, but they're expensive." Kaius swipes at his phone a few times, then holds it out so you can see the screen. His UI is a light golden orange, instead of your violet.

The display is showing an item details screen for an Energy Capsule. You skim over the information, then your attention grinds to a halt at the price tag.

"Two energy points? For a thousand coins?! I only started off with twenty!"

"The Boulder has no need of health potions." The Boulder jabs herself in the sternum with a thumb. "They really are stupidly expensive," she adds, in a break of character that catches you completely off guard.

"Come on, let's just go. The coffee shop closes at eight." Kaius starts off across the grass at a fast walk.

You walk in silence with the other two, prodding gingerly at your smashed face and wondering whether you're going to get black eyes out of it too. The three of you make it about two thirds of the way to the edge of the park when there's an orange flash of light about ten feet in front of you, revealing a sleek lizard-monster the size of a large dog.

"Oh, goddamn it," Kaius yells, exasperated.


[] Flee! Run for the edge of the park.
[] Decoy! Have Nebula distract the Drake while the rest of you run.
[] Attack! It's only five levels higher than you, you can take it.

QM note: Sorry for the delay! I'm gonna avoid overexplaining and say "my life ate me" and leave it at that. More regular updates should be resuming now.

[x] Decoy! Have Nebula distract the Drake while the rest of you run.

None of you are in any shape to be beating anything, so far as you can tell. But Nebula still has most of its health; if you can just get it to act as a decoy…

You remember how badly it worked the last time you told Nebula to go over to a monster. (As in, it didn't work. At all.) So that's a non-starter. You do have another action point you can spend, though, so you take a quick look at your abilities. Swap is useless for this. Flare would be good… except for the part where it costs three EP and you only have three EP left. Which leaves you with Attack.

Can Nebula even attack without any AP of its own? Well, it looks like you're going to find out. You tap on Attack.

Nebula flits its wings with a confused chime, then darts over to the Drake and… kicks it in the nose.

"Come on, let's get out of here," you tell the other two players and break into a run for the edge of the park.

"The Boulder will take up the rear guard!" the Boulder declares. You assume Kaius is following as well, if the Martialist is following you all, but you don't spare a glance back.

Nebula's EP circle drains down to 2.

"Cross the street, turn left," Kaius calls out behind you. "It's called the Freaky Bean."

You give him a thumbs up over your shoulder, following the directions.

Nebula's EP circle goes to 0. Either you successfully outran it, or it's about to chase you, but whichever it is, you're on a sidewalk with other people now and are forced to slow to a walk. There's a coffee shop half a block down the street, and you're pretty sure it's the one.

Kaius and The Boulder come up next to you, dodging around the foot traffic.

"I hope we don't have to fight it here," Kaius mutters. "There's people everywhere. The Boulder here'll wind up punching someone in the face."

"The Boulder is not so careless that she would cause civilian casualties," the Martialist protests. "Besides, it's right there."

You panic for a brief moment until you realize she means the coffee shop, not the Drake. Which isn't even on your HUD anymore, come to think of it. You must have successfully gotten out of range.

Suddenly, there's an earth-shaking roar, and a shadow passes over the street.

"Oh no." The Boulder's persona abruptly drops. "Go, go, come on," she grabs each of your hands and drags you at a speed-walk down the last stretch of sidewalk.

"What—"

"World boss," Kaius mutters. A glance over at him shows he's looking intently up at the sky. "They—"

"Explain it in the safe zone!" The Boulder yanks both of you forward into a jog, then shoves open the door to the coffee shop and hurries in. You follow, Kaius behind you.

There's a quiet chime in your ear and your EP circle starts glowing a little brighter as The Boulder sighs in relief. "We made it! You two find a seat, I'll treat you to drinks for the rescue."

"The rescue?"

"You know, when I kited the mobs over to the beacon for back-up?" She smiles broadly. "Go on. The Boulder has this one."

[] [Coffee] Accept the free coffee.
[] [Coffee] Accept, but only if you can pay it back later.
[] [Coffee] Politely refuse the free coffee.

[] [Seat] Sit by the window
[] [Seat] Sit by the counter
[] [Seat] Let Kaius pick a table