just a game

JITHRILL; city of drifters; lvl 2 runner; former gamer, runner; 24 years old, taurus, not looking to date; looking for guild, looking for party. affiliated with eliesium online

[jithrill]

crunch time

[ardxnstempore]

“ Stand back. “ Picking up a discarded cloth and placing it against the card reader, Homura would fix it into place so it would hold before she took a step back. Taking hold of the rusty pipe she had managed to gather would she brute force her way into things, smashing apart the reader. The cloth was to prevent much noise being made from the combination of the metal against metal and glass and to collect everything so it made less noise. Still a bit vocal, it wasn’t anything serious. 

“ Lets hope it has what we need. “ Very carefully would Homura stand to the side of the door, giving it a light push open just in case if anything did come out, they would get the sneak on it. 

[jithrill]

“Anti-frustration features, huh?” Smashing the card reader hardly made up for burning virtually every cooking recipe available or randomly clipping through the floor, but the game wasn’t really functioning like a game anymore, now was it?

He quietly raised his tire iron and inched ahead of Homura, on the lookout for anything lurking in the shadows. They had two crawlers on the floor, gnawing on a corpse. Another was shambling against the wall.

Jil took the floor-munchers by surprise, bashing in a skull while kicking aside the other. He’d leave the third to Homura as he wrenched out his weapon.

[jiraiyagaru-deactivated20160116]

This was getting more confusing now.  They’ve both found themselves here despite being into separate countries and no where near a computer.   Yosuke’s last memories were hazy at best with the clearer ones being of goodbyes and long work shifts.  

Also, Yosuke doesn’t remember anything about an outbreak on the news.  Maybe the local news outlet didn’t find it important enough to report.  Or maybe he just didn’t pay much attention to world events.  

“I definitely watch the news, and there was nothing like that on it.  But I live in the boonies, and the local news outlets were focused on a political scandal and murder case because it was a local event that got national attention.  I’m sorry though.  That sounds rough.”

[jithrill]

“More like a living nightmare. But you do what you gotta do to survive.”

Somewhere down the road, he lost a bit of his idealism. (And maybe even his will to live.) 

“Anyway, I’m thinking about heading out on my own for a bit. Explore more of this place. Figure the game out. Message me if you need backup.”

[jithrill]

you can’t run

[caesuramermaid-deactivated20161]

The explanation is brief and succinct with no emotional investment.  For circumstances so extraordinary, it sounds as bland as any textbook when [Jithrill] speaks about it.  Regardless, it’s easy to grasp how horrible his situation must be, especially since they seem to be living through similar.

“So they just left you all there?!  Couldn’t they have done something?  That’s-”

Possibly the same thing going on here.  She remembers Saber talking about their lives being games to the unseen mods.  None of this could have happened if they didn’t do it.  Once again, it feels like forces were toying with her life.  She could have sworn she was supposed to be free from this kind of thing.  Life after death was supposed to be happier.  Then again, when were things ever actually perfect?  

“What did you end up doing?”   

[jithrill]

Her passionate reaction surprises him. It reminds him of the gravity of his situation. That it’s fucked up. That people should care. Jil smiles, wry as can be. He runs a hand through his hair (why did he pick this avatar?) and purses his lips.

“Surviving, if you could call it that. I ran around town, scavenging for supplies. We were trying to hold out until help arrived. Plenty of people figured it’d never come.”

He doesn’t say whether or not he was among those who lost hope.

[jiraiyagaru-deactivated20160116]

“I’m not sure about nothing ever coming from it.”

Yosuke can’t even pretend to share in Jil’s enthusiasm for the situation.  Not only is that answer not very helpful in determining where he is or how he got here, he’s had enough alternate dimensions for a lifetime.  He didn’t know how to deal with the one back home, so heck if he knew how to deal with this one that possibly spanned countries.  Even worse, he’s used to relying on Teddie for a way out of the TV World.  Teddie was god knows where, and he didn’t know anyone else that could perform a similar feat.    

Part of him wishes he could get excited for this like he did first time.  At least, he felt like he could do something or that this meant something.  Now he just feels tired.  

“I’ve never heard of it either, but I can’t really remember what I was doing before I got here too well.  How about you?”

[jithrill]

“Me, I was foraging for supplies. Just part of the daily grind. You don’t watch the news, do you?” Jil looked around anxiously, worried about who was listening in on their conversation. It just... rubbed him the wrong way how his town had become some sort of tragic spectacle. “Some experimental virus broke loose from the labs and made its way into Kolkata, Bangladesh. We’ve been in quarantine for months.”

[biashacker]

A NEET Encounter

[biashacker]

It really wasn’t anything particularly dangerous, and would have been fine untreated. However it seemed there were some people that were actually nice in this game. Of course, to 『 』 who only worked alone, were total outcasts, NEETs, unsocialized and virgins (the last word seemed to ring harder in the male’s mind) this was a completely abnormal situation.

Staring at the newcomer with widened eyes, they scooted away on all fours backwards, like spiders, and clung to each other. Even in MMOs, it was common for other players to avoid them do to the legend  『 』 held.

“N-nii… someone’s… helping… us”

“No! No Shiro my sister don’t be taken in, he’s clearly just trying to trick us! He wants something, that’s the only reason someone would come up to us in any game! Ah, quick, gather all the gold before he steals it when we aren’t looking!”

And so, in cartoon style dust cloud, the two siblings gathered all that they had dropped, once again ready to use the cha*s emeralds to go into Super mode. And again, they scooted back more, until the thump of a tree ended their escape.

[jithrill]

Sheesh. When was the last time someone had reacted to him like--? Oh. Not too long ago, zombie apocalypse and all. Kindness didn’t get you very far in a dog-eat-dog world. Jil retracted the vial in his outstretched hand and sighed. Whatever.

“It’s not like I can’t just gather that much gold myself. Why would I want to rob you two?” To him, the siblings were squabbling over a petty sum. Chump change, even. “Never mind. Don’t actually answer that. I’m afraid to know what kind of excuse you’ll shove in my mouth.”

Hands on his hips, he cocked his head to the side and pouted. How to approach this... “Anyway, the name’s Jibril. Most people just call me Jil. You two are...?”

[sanctummilitis]

Horizon

[sanctummilitis]

Veterans? Hardly; she herself had only just now arrived, though as for the remainder of the players, it was a difficult matter to determine. The length of their participation within the game.

“For me, you are. You and the others are those which came before me, who presumably would be followed in order to understand the game, it’s territory, the rules.

If this is a beta and there was an alpha prior, as you say… do you believe we, too, shall be replaced by a third wave of players? A game such as this, it seems quite cruel to impose itself on those within it, lacking consent to determine where they live”.

[jithrill]

Such a stern way of looking at things. Hah. Spoken like a true knight, wedded to one’s duty. Jil clicked his tongue and murmured, “It’s not that bad... I mean, it’s fun isn’t it? I guess I shouldn’t be praising something that’s cutting into our responsibilities and stuff, but...”

It’s easier to feel needed in a game than in real life, ironically enough.

[jithrill]

crunch time

[ardxnstempore]

How good-hearted of him. That only made her wonder just how well he was taking care of himself. Was he leaving portions of survival gear for himself instead of handing it out to others blindly? It made her curious if he was going to be like this the entire time. 

“ I see. In that case we’d best find as much as we can. However, we also need to leave some for ourselves. It doesn’t help us if we end up going down as well. “ Looking back around to her surroundings would she lower her pipe. 

“ Be on your guard and find locked doors. In times of panic I don’t quite think anyone would have a calm enough mind to try and use a key or break down a door. Those might be our best chance. “ 

[jithrill]

He wasn’t so selfless that he’d forget about his own needs; Jil wasn’t that desperate to make friends, lonely as he’d been even before the apocalypse hit his hometown. She needn’t worry about him like some sort of incompetent bleeding heart.

Jil nodded. Sound advice. Anything that wasn’t broken meant that no one had passed through it yet. Granted, there were doors tied to ID card readers, sophisticated tech that mindlessly ran in spite of their hectic times, which would be likely yield better bounties. The question was which corpse or shambling body contained the card they needed.

“Huh... This looks like a storage room.” Jil scratched at the back of his head. (Still not used to the lack of hair.) “Needs a card, though. Should we bother hunting it down?”

[kigennomajo]

“Uu-uu!” Maria clasps her hands together, staring excitedly at her new ‘friend’. “Dunno! Yogurt? Is that a food, even…” The child looks away, thinking. “Probably… Uu. What do you think?” The place seemed to be mostly fun and games, and the monsters weren’t too hard to beat. Could this be Maria’s idea of a paradise? Maybe. She just needed Sakutaro to complete the picture. 

[jithrill]

“Of course it’s a food, silly! Where do you think yogurt goes? On your eyes? Nooo, it goes in your tummy!” And while Jil couldn’t make yogurt from scratch, he knew a place where you could buy it, easy peasy. The fantasy get-up of Sanctorum didn’t bar it from carrying items with a more modern flair. The fact that NPCs traded between, err, genres(?) helped with finding whatever you needed regardless of your favorite hub. “C’mon, c’mon~ Follow me!”

[vagranttactics]

“ I never quite thought of it like that.. I suppose because it’s not on paper I hadn’t realized it.. “ Rubbing his chin at the thought would he look rather thoughtful on the matter. 

“ I guess I can get into this game a lot more like that, then..! If I think about this game like that then this should be a lot more enjoyable. I just have to think of myself as the hero of the story I suppose..! “ 

[jithrill]

“There you go. That’s the spirit~” he chimed in that sing-song voice of his which never quite seemed to take anything too seriously. Jil walked up to Morgan and slung his arm around the young man’s shoulders, pulling him in for a word of advice: “You can take your time with these things no matter how urgent the quest-giver comes off ‘cause it’s just a game. No pressure, all the heroics. Pretty sweet, huh?”

[guardianxwitch-blog]

the man, [ jithrill ], looks a little bored with her.  she wonders if he’s actually busy at the moment.  maybe she shouldn’t bother him?  but if he didn’t want to be bothered he would say so.  unless he was the type to insist they were not bothered when they really were.  and she couldn’t be bothered with those sorts of people.

“ you look tired.  i shouldn’t keep you from rest.  come to think of it, where do you sleep, anyways? ”  then she realized what two sentences she just put next to each other and groaned.  “ i, uh… i apologize.  again. ”  what a lovely first impression she was giving.  better stop fucking up so much from now on lest he think… odd of her.

[jithrill]

“Hmm? Oh, there are plenty of inns in town. Hotels, too, if you’re into something a little more modern. I mean, there’s always the guild housing, but I haven’t really bothered checking that place out-- there’s no furniture.” He gave a shrug, hoping he didn’t sound too spoiled over not wanting to sleep on the cold hard floor.

It didn’t even occur to him that the woman was a little odd. She kept tripping over her words, sure, but Jil didn’t find anything to point out in what she was saying. Poor lady was probably just nervous and unused to all this game stuff.

[jithrill]

crunch time

[ardxnstempore]

The plethora of corpses around her feet wasn’t quite enough to phase her, but the scent and sight of the more worse for wear bodies would put her off considerably. In this situation, she had to have a strong head and a stronger stomach, and to make sure she could stand doing some rather unholy things if it meant getting what she needed.

In this case, ripping the keys from a dead doctor’s hands in order to get to a cabinet. Looking at her hip, all she had really managed to come across was an officer’s hand pistol. But the thing only had four shots last she checked. Poor guy must’ve went out fighting. For most of this, she had to rely on a rusty pipe. Beating something down to death was.. new for her. 

At the first sound of someone approaching would she turn her head with the pipe, expecting an attack but eyes widened at who it was. 

“ What are you doing here? I wouldn’t think anyone would try to roam these streets alone. “ 

[jithrill]

Homura.

Thoughts raced through his mind. The girl was a capable fighter but managing to keep her cool in a situation like this revealed plenty despite her quiet demeanor. Truth be told, it rubbed Jil the wrong way, but he didn’t make a fuss over it. Whatever reason there was for her cold and calculating disposition, it was none of his business.

In answer to her question, Jil explained, “I’m keeping an eye on survivors. They need medicine. You’ve noticed, right? Resting doesn’t do a lick of good. You have to actually pop pills before your health goes back up.”

[jiraiyagaru-deactivated20160116]

Finding yourself in an alternate dimension where the normal laws of reality didn’t seem to apply.  That’s incredibly familiar.  It could be that this was bizarre extension of the Midnight Channel. People who got thrown inside never seemed to remember how they got there, and they never found the killer.  However, there’s nothing similar between this place to the TV World besides possibly being alternate dimensions.  Summoning Jiraiya didn’t even feel quite the same.  

He tries to find a good way to ask about alternate dimensions within TVs and computers without sounding crazy.  Unfortunately, it comes out awkward.  “Haha.  Yeah.  So where you’re from, you don’t happen to have rumors about people showing up on blank screens or falling inside, do you?”

There’s not really a sane-sounding way to ask something like that after all.

[jithrill]

“Like urban myths or things like that? We get similar stories rolling around the high schools or online forums, sure, but nothing’s ever come of them, you know what I mean? I’ve never heard of Eliesium Online before - none of us really have - so there’s that...”

Not that the mystery bothers him all that much. He’s not planning on leaving anytime soon. This is like a dream come true.

[jithrill]

let me impress upon you

[ardxnstempore]

“ I’ve been called both. “ She’d look to the side a bit in contemplative thought. She hadn’t remembered being addressed like that. In particular, she remembered being addressed by ‘Homura-chan’ by someone.. much closer she thought she was with. The thought of them put a twinge in her mind once more as to her concerns in this place an what she was trying to remember but.. nothing. Just the occasional migraine. 

“ I’d prefer if you only referred to me as that through party chats or private messages. Personal reasons. “ 

[jithrill]

He understood her concerns. Your actual name carried with it a lot of weight. Though he doubted anyone was out to steal their private information (if they were this advanced, why bother with them?), Jil could respect her caution.

“Fair’s fair. I’ll expect the same from you, then~”

[vagranttactics]

“ Although I feel its a bit odd. If this is supposed to be a game, you would think we would not need rest like this. It almost seems as if we’re still living our normal lives but.. not in a game. I think? “ This was all still rather new to the boy, give him a bit.

“ It just feels funny how we’re doing things like eating and sleeping! It makes me think of this as just how things are. “ 

[jithrill]

“Well, sophisticated games allow you to escape from your own personal reality. The more believable it is, the easier it is to get sucked into it. It’s like a mega-book.”

To be fair, this game in particular takes a hell of a lot more work than the others.

[jithrill]

you can’t run

[caesuramermaid-deactivated20161]

From the response, Sayaka figures that she isn’t the first to ask that question.  However, she was one of the last people to end up hearing about it.  It’s really not much of a surprise that people would defer to him and ask him questions though.  While plenty of people had experience fighting various things, [Jithrill] seemed to be the only one with experience fighting zombies.    

“Sorry.  Someone else mentioned it, and I was curious.  I’ve never seen a zombie outside of a movie before, so I’m not really used to this.  Do you mind if I ask about it?”

As curious as she is, she won’t badger him for details if he doesn’t feel like giving them.  She’s not trying to make [Jithrill] exasperated after all, especially since they’re supposed to be scavenging stuff together.  Besides, if there was anything relevant for her to know, she trusts that he’d probably share that information.

[jithrill]

It’s not so much that her asking after it bothers him as it is just about everything reminds him of his brushes with death. But that’s no fault of hers. That’s on him. That’s on whatever he did before he wound up in this magical and forgiving place, never mind their current predicament.

Jil scratches at the back of his head - forgets he has short hair now - and lets out a sigh.

“Of course you’d be curious. Who wouldn’t want to know more? We didn’t get any warning about the outbreak. It just started at various seeds in town - like the farmer’s market or the electronics store, and next thing you know, we’ve got undead shambling around. The government put us on lockdown and began to airdrop supplies instead of, you know, evacuating people.”

The way he spoke of it sounds as if it’s someone else’s tale instead of his own. The detachment and distancing somehow makes it all easier to swallow and recall.

[sanctummilitis]

Horizon

[sanctummilitis]

Thinking further ahead; it might have been practical, albeit a tad presumptuous - still yet were there various beginning hurdles to conquer. And the fact of the batter was she’d just arrived, this was her first interaction with another player of this supposed game.

“It would be wiser to focus on getting to such a position, I understand.

Anyone who might join us later, I only wish to grant a place to turn if they require assistance. With us all in the same boat, I presume they would plan the same. No-one need feel adrift from becoming a part of this world later than the current population”. It wasn’t about brownie points, but a need not to abandon any voice, no matter how small.

[jithrill]

She had put a lot of thought into this, hadn’t she? It was all over her face from what Jil could tell. Had something happened in her past for her resolve to have strengthened like this? Obviously, he didn’t want to pry...

“You’re saying we’re like the veterans of this game, huh? True... it is in beta--unless they did alpha testing. But maybe those people aren’t around anymore.”

[jithrill]

you can’t run

[caesuramermaid-deactivated20161]

“Yeah.  It didn’t really seem like it would be this kind of game when I first got here.  And it’s not much like what I’m used to either.”     

Sayaka’s not sure if it’s more frightening than fighting witches or demons though.  It’s just different.  Less disorienting, and more gorey.  Maybe not even more gorey since she’s seen her fair share of blood.  

“It’s really tiring.”

This was constant and inescapable.  You eventually left labyrinth, assuming you survived.  Any fear was more the slow-developing.  Hopelessness over the current situation as time grew on.  What would happen if she lost hope here?  Would she be lost forever?  Madoka would have told her not to give up.  After all, things went well today.  Besides, she was already dead, and her loved ones were somewhere in the real world.  There’s not much the monsters outside could do to hurt her except physically.    

She can’t tell if [Jithrill] actually finds this frightening though or is just saying that for her benefit.  Someone told her that he’d dealt with this before, so maybe this was normal for him.  He seems to be handling everything decently.

“Back home for you, was it always like this?”           

[jithrill]

So there are rumors spinning around. (Not that you can really call the truth a rumor.) Jil pinches the bridge of his nose and lets out a wheezing snort of annoyance. (Not at her. Just at whoever opened their big mouth.) He doesn’t want to turn into some kind of zombie-killing superstar.

“No, it wasn’t. My city wasn’t always infected with zombies. But there came a time when we were placed under quarantine and my life became a nightmare. I learned how to adapt for the sake of survival.”

It’s the most serious he’s been since he’s started playing Eliesium.

Jil shrugs to himself before scratching at the back of his head. He’s still not used to how short his hair is. It feels weird. That and the lack of contacts or rims... It sure makes fighting easier, though.