◎ Act 1

[greaterspeed]

[in the room where the Chaos Gate is situated crouches a young, blue Twin Blade. He's far enough to one side to be out of the way, but not enough to be easily ignored. See, Sonic liked to be at the center of attention, it feeds that ego of his and well... He just liked to be social whenever fancy struck him.

What he didn't like was the idea of not being able to defend himself.

The fact that he was still a low level Twin Blade certainly did not help with the whole 'independent' thing. Which has led him to the boy crouching by himself moaning about the indignity of it all]

AAAAAAAUGH! I'm not made for RPGs! I can't do this level thing, got knocked out by a goblin. A MOOK! How does that even happen?? I've taken down giant death robots, angry water Gods, gigantic lasers, more killer robots and even more angry Gods and what happens?

[he throws his hands up in the air in exasperation. A few NPCs take this as a cue to exit the stage] A stupid Goblin knocks me out for an hour!

[silence.

...

...

Then Sonic just covers his face with his hands with a whine, ears folded against his head in embarrassment. In a small, muffled voice;]

I'm sorry, I promise to never do this RPG thing again now can I please go back to being able to beat things up just by jumping on them?

Comments

[tank_sniper]

We've all been put at level 1 according to the game, so almost everyone is weaker than they're used to. You can't just rush into battle expecting it to go well just because you've done something like this before.

[greaterspeed]

['I never had a problem with it in the Arabian Nights'

'You're one of those kids that liked playing PSO, aren't ya?']

It's not the fighting getting to me, it's the fact that I'm still level 1 when I've been here a while. I mean, my proficiency went up waaaaaay faster than this when I was in Camelot.

[tank_sniper]

[Try Gun Gale Online and nothing else.]

...That is true. I leveled up a lot faster when I played a different MMO.

And... "Camelot"? Is that another fantasy game?

[greaterspeed]

See? This place is weird! If they were gonna change they rules for something like this, you'd think they'd at least give us a heads up, yea?

[blinks. He can already imagine Sharah's chagrin at the fact that someone couldn't recognize old legends... Or maybe it had something to do with alternate universes. Sonic isn't really sure]

No! Wrong wrong! I mean Camelot! The story with knights in shining armor and wizards and magic and dragons. The story!

[tank_sniper]

...

[He can't be serious...]

Are you trying to say you were in a story?

[greaterspeed]

Two, actually. [holds up two fingers to emphasize]

Would you believe me if I said those weren't the strangest things that's happened to me? ... This place excluded.

[tank_sniper]

[She... doesn't respond immediately. A lot of weird people have said weird things to her lately, and that wasn't even getting into the whole stuck in an MMO thing.

But.

Being in a story? Really?]

Which stories were they?

[greaterspeed]

[Sonic grins] The Arabian Nights and the Legend of King Arthur. You should give them a read!

Especially the Arabian Nights. I went through some pretty awful things for those stories.

[like getting shot through the heart in the chest with a burning arrow]

[tank_sniper]

I already did.

[These things happen when you're the student in charge of the library.]

Which of the stories in Arabian Nights did you go through?

[greaterspeed]

Uuuuh...

The Lost Prologue, Sand Oasis... Met Ali Baba and Sinbad- [he snorts for a second then continues on dramatically] Sinbad of the Seven Seas! Adventurer of Adventurers.

Or something ridiculous like that. [laugh]

[tank_sniper]

[She raises an eyebrow at those first two, but she knows the story of Ali Baba and Sinbad well enough.

...She still can't quite bring herself to believe him, though. So have a noncommittal answer:]

...Really.

[greaterspeed]

Yea! It was awesome, running through the sands and stuff....

Though I gotta ask because I can't really remember. Were there dinosaurs in that storybook?

[he read it like... once. And this isn't including the time he was running through it]

[tank_sniper]

[Um.]

No, there weren't. Why would there be dinosaurs in a piece of classical literature like the Arabian Nights?

[greaterspeed]

[Sonic shrugs]

Hey, I just run through these things. Shahra said something about imagination not being as good so everytime someone reads 'giant lizard' without the word 'dragon' tacked onto it, they think of dinosaurs.

And then VIOLA!! Here there be Tyrannasaurus Rex. [it's amazing how he can say things like this with a straight face]

Though the dragons of Camelot were pretty awesome too... [happy nostalgic face]

[tank_sniper]

[She crosses her arms, looking fairly unimpressed.]

So basically, imagination keeps changing the stories.

[R i g h t.]

[greaterspeed]

Yea, because they're just words. So people can make of them what they want-

[waitaminute, he recognizes this look]

Hey! I'm not making this up!

[tank_sniper]

Of course not.

Anyway, I have other places to be.

[Because really, anywhere is better than listening to someone who is clearly wrapped up in his own fantasy.

...Even if they are all technically in another world which would make it somewhat plausible. It's just too weird!]

[greaterspeed]

[a slight puff of air]

Stranger things have happened. [he doesn't seem that offended]

If you're heading out to the fields, don't forget to pack a potion or whatever they're called here. [he gives her a jaunty little wave before hopping to his feet and heading off at a brisk jog.

... Which was still pretty fast for a jog]