You put one hand to your ear.
"Ace, Leesh, you're both on the line, right?" And you're pretty sure you've heard the name Ace before, but you can't tell where, and it's irritating the hell out of you.
You see Alesha nod as she strides toward you, as fast as her full curiass allows.
"I hear you. Ace?"
"Here. Do we
have a plan besides 'let the colorful jellyfish cuddle us?'" Ace hefts her maul, holding it like a baseball bat. Which you're pretty sure isn't how to hold it.
You sigh. Your head hurts and you're drawing a blank on what to do -
- but that doesn't matter, because you're smart enough to know there's someone smarter than you in the room.
(+Tension)
"Warmaster Herezhade, ma'am?"
"Do not," Leesh responds, without malice but in dead earnest.
"Ace, how are you specced?"
"What?" Your fellow Vulpecian wrinkles her nose and loosens up in place. "Uh, build's Vig-Agi, Crisis, Reckless Attack -"
"Berzerker," all three of you say at once, your heart sinking. She's a newbie and she went
lolzerker, she grabbed All The Aggro and if you hadn't come along would proceed to tank the floor - and maybe -
Don't think about that. Focus on the fight.
"Okay. Hit and fade. Haste Ace, then both of you break through their line and get to where I can tank. It'll take some Heavy Breathing but with any luck, two physical DPS against three trash mob casters will be over quick enough to make it work. Understood?"
Ace nods at her instead of answering yes, and you wince, and you say "Yes, Ma'am" for the both of you.
You move a second before Ace does by mutual unspoken agreement, and you incant dog-Latin as you press your hand against Ace's bare back as you pass, granting her Zephyr's Grace, and your hand slips away and curls into a fist.
You throw yourself not
at the jellyfish but
past them, slashing wide with each broad stride, feeling your claws catch and rake with each powerful, disciplined swing, and landing behind them and close enough to Alesha that by the time they counterattack she'll have her shield up - No, one tries to shock you but you pivot in place, wheel your hand around in a combination of an outside block and a
mudra of negation, sweeping aside the crackling lightning it instictively cast at you -
- and see Ace, snarling, making wide swooping attacks with her warmaul as she rushes past and through them after you.
Missing all of them but the one that attacked you, because of course she did - but that one gets splattered and it's insides flung into the sand as she skids to a stop behind the formation, and clutching her wounded belly with a loud
"FUCK ME! I'm on the
free trial, why did I
BUY THIS!"
In that distracted moment, the survivors rear up their stinger-tentacle-thingies to send lightning coursing towards her. One bolt catches her and she grunts and crouches.
The other slides up and over Alesha's tower shield moments before the offending creature splatters against it. Alesha draws her sword, clashes it against her shield, and steps back to better cover you.
"Nice cavalry charge," you comment.
"Comes with the shining armor," she replied. Then, turning back: "Ace, do you need healing or do you want to go Critical for this?"
Ace blinks those overlarge lashes before thinking to stammer a reply to the woman that saved the both of them a lot of pain. "I uh, I'll be fine after some food? I took the perk for that, I think..."
You roll your neck and wonder where you heard her before -
- and you realize, belatedly, that it was on
Jules' laptop.
"
Oh," you say hopefully not out loud.
"Stay sharp, here comes round two," Alesha warns. You lean forward in anticipation -
- It takes you a moment to realize what happened, especially because your eyes involuntarily closed at the flash. But the heat and the blastwave makes it clear, after the fact that there was some kind of fiery explosion that went off right next to the last of the floating jellyfish. It immediately curled up and inward, falling to the ground, as someone limps by.
Someone short, with a hat half his height.
Someone with wings.
Someone who manages to gasp, "I hate all the damned slimes, oozes, and jellies in this game," before you close the distance and make sure he doesn't fall over.
----
You wince, but you don't try to move him without knowing how bad he's wounded. Or what he fought. Or how much Breath he used up. Fuck.
You do blow some Healing Wind in his face, and that gives him strength enough to stand up, and crane his neck up at Alesha and Ace's concerned faces.
"Impeccable timing, Hikaru." Alesha says, sighing relief. "We had a bit of a crisis, or we -"
Hikaru waves her off, before wincing and grabbing his side. "- or you wouldn't have put on your own mask before assisting others? Given what you knew you acted entirely appropriately. How did you link up?"
You tap your sendjewel and try not to say a goddamned word. You should have called him first. Stupid.
"Ah," he says, and it speaks volumes. He sits, levering himself down with a large black staff. "I should have tested that immediately, but I'm hardly immune to panic, I'm sad to say."
Ace offers him a hand; Hikaru hesitates, then takes it, hesitates, shakes it. Judging by her flat-eared look, she didn't know what to make of him.
"Think you saved us a lot of pain, shrimp," she says, and you cringe.
Hikaru, for his part, smirked back. "I think you'll find the term here is
potato. Also, you -" he winced. "-seem to have me at a disadvantage; I know the others, and they you, but I would have, uh, remembered a face like yours."
Ace took half a second to process that, a second you took
to very audibly facepalm, before she laughs. "If it's this
face you're remembering I think maybe
you're the real ace around here."
You drag your hand down your face.
"Granted," Hikaru says very slowly, "but I'd like to point out that purple eyes with slits, especially ones that large, aren't common even in this kind of game."
"Why don't you introduce yourselves," Alesha interjects.
"I go by Ace Striker. Here." Ace said, Hikaru struggling to maintain his neutral expression.
After a moment, she adds, "...that was the joke."
"The LPer on Castr?" you ask, if only to prevent more tasting of shoe leather.
At that, her expression gets a little wistful. "That's the last time I let any of my fans talk me into playing
anything."
"Such as the elegant, tasteful avatar?" Alesha says, almost succeeding at not smiling.
Fortunately, Ace laughs. "No, that was me doing a bit. I set out to make the most ludicrous anime tittymonster the sliders would allow...
and I succeeded."
Her gesturing as she says that makes it hard
not to stare at her, but you manage to look at your wounded patient in Hikaru instead. For his part, he seems amused.
But then, he would be.
"Don't tell me this was your first time playing?" you asked, hoping your voice came off as concerned rather than... chirpy.
She sighed, dropping her shoulders. "Hadn't even shelled out for a sub. Probably wasn't going to, before -"
Ace indicated the beach, the interior of the island, the corpse of the crab and of the jellies. Hikaru nodded.
"Bad luck," he said. "I'll do what I can to help you. We -" he cleared his throat, wincing again (as you did too in sympathy), "- happen to be a progression guild, high level players... if not presently high level characters. We'll help you survive this."
Alesha put a gloved, gauntleted hand on her shoulder. "If there's a way, we'll get you home."
You sighed, and tried to smile. "Promise. I won't leave you hanging.
We won't," you corrected.
"Thanks," she said, flopping down. "Didn't expect to meet a fan here; I don't... usually go in for VRMMOs."
"I'm not so much," you say, chuckling. "But I recognized you from my roommate's rotation of Castrs, and -"
The bottom drops out of your voice.
"I'm so
stupid," you groan. "We need to head out,
now."
Ace, of all people, grabbed you by the shoulder and looked you in the eye. "They're here?" she said, very quietly.
You nodded. She turned to Alesha and Hikaru. "You know them?"
Hikaru nodded, slowly. "Sekhmet Clanclan," he said, "is a Rogue with Survival, Stealth, and the Boons of Flamma - meaning additional potions and the means to make more, among other things. If she can use that, she can avoid combat and be fine. If she can't..."
He shrugged - and hissed as he clutched his side. You flinched toward him.
"Considering the amount of panic to go around," Hikaru said, "it would be wise to locate her and
make sure."
"Not while we have wounded," Alesha said. "You, and Ace both. We need rest and
you need potions, maybe a night's worth."
Ace folded her arms. "During which time Deedee's roommate could get a ticket to the Crab Rave?"
"At least an hour if not more," Alesha insisted. "If you and Deedee want to go off and look for her, I can heal Hikaru. But I wouldn't recommend it."
It occurs to you that you might be able to patch Hikaru up faster. But that would, uh, involve breaking out the oil and anointing the hell out of him, a literal laying on of hands, and your brain has decided
everything is innuendos right now and that
isn't helping but...
----
You're going to contact Sekhmet regardless.
Plans
[] Go with Ace - alone - to find Sekhmet. -
Alesha and Hikaru will be unavailable, but get to heal. You and Ace won't have that luxury.
[] Take a Short Rest of 1 hour then go out to find her together. -
Everyone gains some stamina and some healing. Hikaru will still be seriously wounded.
[] Take a Short Rest, tending to Hikaru's wounds. -
You won't gain any stamina and this is going to be awkward and tense, but Hikaru will heal very quickly. Also, maybe you want sexual tension with him.
[] Set up camp for the night, and give Sekhmet directions to it. -
The safest choice, for everyone but Sekhmet, who is your roommate IRL. She might be able to avoid combat with her skills and be fine, but she might not.
Voting opens at midnight. I want to hear you talk before then.
Also, while Deedee thinks she fucked up by letting Hikaru get hurt, I know better and you should too. This was very well done, and most of you voted for what I considered the best tactical decisions, i
ncluding most of the people who didn't vote for what won.
