#quest.

[cosmicsmackdown-blog]

QUEST! Quest? Q U E S T .

[domitorbix]

❤ Party!: Xanthe

☆ You're back on the homeplanet, giving you the opportunity to invite people safely.You don't really understand why Xanthe, out of all god forsaken people, came to mind. Maybe because you were fiddling with the wooden friendship bracelet you had gotten from him. Yeah, probably.You make a face.He's not stupid enough to get anywhere near you yet. Reckless maybe, not very smart, but sadly too smart yet.You continue playing with the bracelet. At least THAT wasn't taken from you by the M!A.

[littleghost-ellie]

Fashion Forward || Solo;

Fashion in the world of Naxis is a vastly different than the real world. It mimics medieval aspects and mixes it with strong, powerful armor - each bit of armor helps a player out in terms of defense. The higher the level of a player, the more options there are out there; if you’re not quite as high of a level, you have a minimal option set. However, every bit counts, even those stupid capes.

Fashion, Ellie decided, was stupid.

Granted, it had been worse back home. Designers cut holes in a sweater and sold it for thousands, and practicality seemed to be the last priority on people's minds. She'd known one girl at her school who seemed to be trying to get away with wearing as little as she could, every day. Once she had to be taken to hospital for hypothermia. Why people couldn't just wear whatever worked best she'd never know. Ellie had gotten by with shirts and jeans, and no-one had cared.

Now she stood in the markets at Swynden, and cursed her luck that she'd managed to come across a dilemma involving fashion of all things. Fighting off a bat that morning, the claws of the stupid creature had ripped part of the tunic she wore. It was the basic starter armor, and not something she'd expected to last for long, but right about now she was considering turning back the way she'd come and making do. But the logical part of her brain disagreed, and so she made her way towards the armour shops and vendors. 

Lanterns bobbing in the little alcoves they sat in, cut straight into the rock, made the lighting somewhat sporadic, and there were multiple times she had to push an overexcited NPC away from her as they jumped out of the darkness to sell her something. Ellie started wishing some sort of violent bat boss would rampage through the market, just to get them out of the way for a while. 

After half an hour of searching, since apparently JMat had found a way to make the amount of time it took to shop much more realistic, Ellie stopped to lean against a rock wall. So much seemed to be out of her price range, and what she could afford wasn't that much better than what she was already wearing. With a sigh, she pushed herself up, intending to walk back to one of the vendors who had seemed to have the best prices. As she slid past a group of players, a table covered in gaudy fabrics caught her eye. 

Turning to have a look, Ellie lifted up a heavy piece. Immediately she could see that they weren't made for fighting- it looked like a long, flowing dress, a strange mix of fantasy style archetypes and medieval costumes. And, on some level, she thought it was beautiful. At that moment, there was nothing more she wanted than to buy it, ignoring all sensibility of how to store it or when she was going to actually use it, but the price quickly dragged her back to earth. It was worth more than everything she was wearing, carrying and using combined, and she replaced it on the table with a hurried smile. 

Stepping back out onto the road, a heavy shoulder collided with hers and Ellie fell back, slamming hard into a wall and the dusty ground. Scraping her hair out of her face, she watched and glared as the group of players- all clearly much higher levelled than she was, with strong armour and powerful weapons- strolled past, their callous laughter grating on every nerve she had. Covered in dust, she stood up after a minute, brushing herself off with carefully controlled calm. She paused for a second, before pulling up the hood of her threadbare cloak and following them. Would she be able to take them on? No. But she was good at getting into places, and there wasn't a jar of ants in her pack for no reason. Fixing her clothes could wait. 

[littleghost-ellie]

Dear Diary || Solo;

The longer you spend in the game, the more you feel a disconnect from the life you lived outside of here. Some players have slowly but surely started to forget what was reality and what is virtual reality. One should never let themselves forget, now should they?

One of the first things Ellie had splurged on was a tiny leatherbound notebook and a pen of sorts. It seemed inconsequential, but she'd always been an organised person, and she knew that having somewhere to jot down reminders or sketch more detailed maps might be helpful eventually. Thanking the NPC, even though she didn't really need to, she perched herself on a stack of empty crates in a corner and started to write.

I refuse to start this with 'Dear Diary' because I'm not eight any more and it's a waste of my time. This might be the only time I write about the real world in here anyway, so no point using up space. 

I don't want to go back. I made my mind up the second we were told we couldn't leave. I guess I should probably be thanking JMat. There will be things I think I'll miss, though. Apple pie for one. What I'd do for a huge slice with ice-cream right now. Lord of the Rings too. And concerts and skydiving and visiting Logan him. 

But there's too much that I won't miss. I don't want to pay taxes and have to worry about politics. This, here, is the way life should be. Your own strength can take you anywhere. Is that selfish? Wanting to stay when other people leave for the ones they love?

It's funny; I don't want to forget what it was like but I'd rather not remember. Maybe my opinion will change if I get to level 100. 

Ellie x.

She snapped the book shut, stowing it away somewhere safe, and pushed all thoughts of reality to the back of her head. That was the kind of thinking that got you killed. 

[littleghost-ellie]

And We'll Be Counting Stars || Solo;

The stars in Naxis always seem so beautiful. Sometimes, even more beautiful than the views some are accustomed to in the world outside. There are nights when those stars look so close, so tangible and so enchanting that players forget they are trapped in the land of Naxis.

Space, Ellie thought, had always been one of the greatest things about the real world. Games could be beautiful, with their floating cities or underwater metropolises, but they somehow failed to capture the sheer scale and power of the glittering stars- how infinitesimally small they made you feel. She'd always had a shortcut on the desktop of her computer straight to the Hubble telescope site, and she'd often while away hours staring at the colourful, almost painting-like images. 

Of course, she'd never really seen anything like that. Even on the outskirts of the city, even in the depths of the night, it was too light to see more than the occasional twinkle. Did astronauts see that sort of thing, she sometimes wondered, or was space really just the void people talked about? She knew she'd never be considered smart enough to get out of the planet, not in her lifetime. So Ellie made do with pixels and her imagination, for little could rival the latter.

Naxis was nothing short of incredible. It was more real than she could have imagined, and that was one thing, but the night sky was another. As soon as the sun drifted over the horizon, the darkness started to sparkle with countless points of light, clustered in streaks across the vista and shining alone. That was what really separated this world and home, Ellie thought. Sometimes reality and Naxis weren't dissimilar- there was currency and trading and exploration and learning- but never once had she seen a sky like this, not even when she and Logan had once camped out in the middle of nowhere to watch a meteor shower. 

She'd only camped outside of Aelbourne tonight because some louse ground squirrel had taken most of her CRZ, but even if it was more dangerous it here, it was also occasionally worth it. There was a certain sense of safety in tucking oneself against a big old tree with the stars shining down- like they weren't just burning balls of gas, or projected pixels. Like they were something tangible and real. 

[tanukihero]

I just realized that I have not been on Tumblr for days. All because I have made it my new life's mission to watch all the episodes of South Park by the end of April. I am on a quest people. Now if only the website I was using hadn't crashed...