One Cupcake

[stubbornskeptic]

[Jane tiptoes around the gate, eyeing it like it’s about to jump out and attack her. With all her ties to her various allies (and potential murderers) cut, she’s feeling a little off-kilter. Whether this is the thing that brought her here or the thing that will get her out, she doesn’t feel like jumping into it will have any bearing on her tight-assery. After all, it’d be just ludicrous to jump headfirst into it when she doesn't know what it does.

Unless her dad’s in there.

Oh shit, what if her dad’s in there?!

Jane grips her cheeks (the ones on her face, geez!), groaning a little. Whatever is she meant to do now?]

Comments

[hoperaider]

[Jake's on his way to the Chaos Gate for another bout of dungeon exploring. He doesn't care about leveling so much as he does getting a good look around at all the areas and dungeons with every possible word combination.

It's when he's entering the room that he spots a Harvest Cleric who looks strikingly familiar. Jake gets a little closer, and he grins when he sees that it really is Jane.]

Jane!

[TACKLE-HUG]

[stubbornskeptic]

[Jane's attention was so locked on the gate that she didn't even hear anyone come in-- and then they were hugging her and she was half convinced this was a monster attack and oh, oh, no, it's Jake.]

J-Jake! I guess you got in too? That's fast! Hoo hoo!

[hoperaider]

Yes sirree! Dirk's here, too, along with a younger version of his brother and a younger version of Roxy's mom! Ah, your Poppop used to be here, too, but we can't find him anywhere. None of us are sure where he skedaddled off to.

[Which sucks because he was so looking forward to those two reuniting and stuff.]

Ohhh, right, this isn't Sburb, by the way. It's something called "The World," but it still has game-like elements to it. We've got a new class, for one!

[stubbornskeptic]

I, um, what? Why aren't we in Sburb? Did something go wrong?

[Jane blushes, breaking out of Jake's hug to get a look at him.]

Golly if it isn't good to see you, though!

[hoperaider]

Er, well...it's sort of hard to believe, but we've apparently been taken from wherever we were and plopped right into here. People from other universes have even been dragged into playing this game! The others I've talked to can't fathom why it would do that, so I can't really answer the "why" of it.

[He shrugs and grins.]

I second that! We were worried you'd be in trouble without us, honestly. Dirk and I have been here for a little over a month by now. The only one missing from our number is Roxy.

[cawcawmthrfckrs]

[Davesprite has just come out of a dungeon and most likely careens into Jane on accident. Whoops. Tangled heap on the floor y/n?]

[stubbornskeptic]

[Jane shrieks, going into full-on defensive mode. That tail is going down! Punchpunchpunch! (She wishes she had her Bowlbuster!) ]

[cawcawmthrfckrs]

[OH GOD jfdskalhjksdvfa Davesprite backs the fuck up to get out of that whirlwind of punches.]

Whoa, holy shit!

[stubbornskeptic]

[Blink.]

Wait, are you a person? Oh no! Oh no, oh my, I'm dreadfully sorry! I thought you were one of those dastardly in-game monsters!

[eightofseven]

[Rather than step through, a white-haired man simply appears next to it in some sort of a light show.]

...What is this power within you, child of life?

[stubbornskeptic]

[Jane blinks, surprised at that magical display. Huh! Again, not quite what she was expecting with Sburb.]

Uh, um. That's "Maid". Maid of Life. But I tend to prefer Jane, actually!

[eightofseven]

[It is rather hard to step through a bunch of spinning solid rings.]

Were you called something else, would you still be the Maid?

[stubbornskeptic]

I-- I guess so? It seems as if the title has been mine since before birth, after all!

/slides in

[splinterself]

[After a long nap, Di-

Actually? Let's cut to the chase. Dirk spots Jane. And says as much.]

Jane?

[It can't be, but it appears like it is. Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. Jesus H Dick. He's both relieved (because seriously, last he knew she was being helped into the game by his shades while he was being jeered at by an alien with a boner) and prepared to be annoyed if the reason why she was here was because his responder fucked up.

(Not that here was all too bad, but dude. Plans. Totally off the rails. The only way things could get better/worse was if he got back to discover that someone or another had unleashed some attack which would decimate their session and destroy all of reality. And where the fuck was Roxy?)]

Hey. [Anybody they know watching?]

[stubbornskeptic]

[Jane, having been filled in earlier by Jake, squeals a little and hurries over, her arms flinging around Dirk easily.]

Dirk, it's so good to see you! I'm just pleased as punch that you're here too!

[splinterself]

[And you know what he's going to do? He's going to, after the slightest of hesitations because what are hugs, hug back. There's a few reasons for this. The first being that someone had worn down his resistance to hugs as of late. (Just saying, bro, just saying.) More importantly, though, he had spent the last whatever worrying about what if he fucking trapped Jane on some desolate planet, absconded with Jake to some MMO, and was just fucking about here while she was trapped there, and he's damned glad that ain't the case. He was used to it, Jake was used to it, Roxy...shit, Roxy...Roxy was used to it. Jane wasn't. Jane actually had a neighborhood. And as the only normal member of the group he really didn't want her to get used to it.]

Glad to see you made it. I take it you saw Jake?

[stubbornskeptic]

Mmhm! And a few others too, including your bro with wings! I guess that whole meeting up with our predecessors thing came true after all, huh? I wonder if this is where we were meant to end up in the first place.

[She leans back and looks him over.]

It's so good to see you safe and sound...

[In fact, it's so good that she's almost entirely forgotten how she was slightly annoyed with him only a little while ago.]

[brightfuture]

[ Step through the gate, train for a while and look for treasures in hopes of finally finding at least one - these were his plans for today. Were. Maybe it's the ridiculous sounds she makes, or the fact she's a fellow Cleric... either way, Hope finds it difficult to ignore the scene. ]

Looking for something?

[stubbornskeptic]

Oh, just. Trying to figure this place out. I'm Jane. What's your name?

[brightfuture]

[ he nods. ] Hope.

... Um, if you're new, you might want to check out the town first. The gate will only lead you to the open field. Or dungeons.

[stubbornskeptic]

Oh. Um. Yes, I am new! To be frank, I wasn't expecting any of this so I wasn't sure where to start! I've lost all my contacts to my friends so...It's all awfully confusing!

[shiningascent]

[A little to the left Jane might spot this winged boy making a similar face at the gate, though he seems more frustrated than anything.]

Gaaaah, none of these level names make any sense! I don't even know what some of these meeeaaa-aaa-aaan...

[stubbornskeptic]

[Jane turns and smiles a little.]

Maybe they aren't meant to mean anything? Sometimes video games are just silly, and there's nothing wrong with a little silliness!

[shiningascent]

I like silliness as much as anybody else, but I don't think I can even pronounce these ones. I wonder if harder words means harder levels...?

[Pit grins sheepishly, wings fluttering]

eep sorry, i missed this!

[stubbornskeptic]

Hmmm. That might make sense! Maybe we can level up our intelligence while we're here! We'll be regular geniuses by the end, if that is in fact the case!