Sarolt's body relaxed a bit, their face changing to a more thoughtful expression. They didn't immediately respond to anyone's statements or questions. Just sat there, even ignoring the newcomer to some extent, too wrapped up in their own drama at present. After pondering their current situation, they finally turned to Atilla.
"I have things mostly under control now, in terms of physical danger." Their eyebrows scrunched, as if trying to think of any further reasons why that might not be true. They then turned to Euphoria. "But it's more complicated then 'they just left and now it's done'. They've evolved, again. They continue to do things without asking. They've stolen from me... though that isn't too big of a deal, considering that it was an early version of 'them' that helped build my prototype exosuit in the first place." Sarlot shook their head. "Something's still wrong. They claim to just want to be left to work, but they don't act like it. When they feel in-control, they act arrogant, do things without consent, and they even built a bloody gatling gun! Now that they realize they can't escape from my domain without my say... not to mention they were damaged a bit by something they called a Lifeflame Ember... they are suddenly acting very docile and accusing me of wanting nothing but violence. Trying to run a guilt-trip on me, I think." Sarlot looked up at everyone gathered. "I was being cautious and considering its destruction while it was invading my head, but you all heard me say that I was open to other options. You all made peaceful offers, and it heard those offers. Yet it chose that moment to somehow jump out of my mind, steal my armor, build a gun, take control of the Ratworks, and try to force itself out, all while gaslighting and putting words in my mouth."

Sarolt stood up. "This still stinks to me. I'm holding it in the Ratworks for now, and I've sent my other self to see Azalea and ask to mimic her ability to see through lies and truths. This daemon is not going anywhere until I'm sure we're all safe."

They looked to Starling. "Also, I heard a voice when I was in your realm using Illuminato. It said something about... it heard I was looking to slay daemons, and that the daemons would 'welcome' that with their 'many arms'."

The young dwarf now turned to Eri. "Eri... you said that Daemons were the unaligned enemies of the gods. Could you go into more detail? Why are they considered enemies?"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:02, Thu 22 Sept 2022.

[Grim] lightly booped his head against a wall.

"Sorry, I was quick to jump to defense. So our new friend was referring to our earlier adventures." The kitten then looked to the spider.

He then looked to [Sarlot], "I guess I am free to help you if you need it my friend. [Euphoria of the Golden Hands], I am sorry for rushing to action and disturbing you, it's just we are guardians and I wanted to make sure the realm was safe."

[Grim] felt a bit embarrassed and his kitty head was lowered.

Arjun tried his best to hide his panic. Lyngel and Lajos had already merged? How had he missed the entire love triangle arc?!?!? No, no, that was surely nonsense. They must be filming the scenes out of order, that was all. If he was gathering the details correctly, they weren't even on set, but in the green room, practicing for the Three Mothers story arc. Where was his copy of the script?!

Having completed the movement tutorial, he continued to familiarize himself with the in-game avatar. First, he attempted to leap off the wall and then run towards [Sarolt], and then slide-jump over the rat-tress (Megan, the actress playing Sarolt, had looked really good in that mo-cap suit, so this was maybe a little unprofessionally flirtatious of him), and land on the wall above her.

He then tried to work the zoom feature but only managed to skitter up and down the wall directly above [Sarolt], while he opened his [Constellate] window, hoping the inter-relationship dynamics would clue him in as to what scene they were supposed to be shooting right now.

Continuing to stay in character, [Sysling] grovels before [Atilla] (well, technically, he was groveling above Atilla), speaking in the mech-spider's high pitched voice, "Apologies, chk-cshk-chk Uncle [Atilla]. It seems the path from Unbeing to chk-cshk-chk Being took longer than I thought, just as it is a longer journey to be virtuous than it takes to speak of virtue. Like the forest between two peaks, I could not see how much had passed in the wider world while I was on my journey."

Internal gagging and retching noises. The writers of this show really weren't subtle with their messaging.

"...as for who I am cshk-chk and how I know of your adventures, the answer is the same: I am the unnamed bond of this family made chk-chk mechanical, the unity you have forged in your mutual willingness to show wirrrr-chk compassion, and to nurture the best in others."

It was typical New Guy On Set Hazing, is what it was. They were all quoting from different pages of the script, to see if he knew his next line. Arjun certainly wasn't going to admit that he hadn't memorized the entire season's script before his first day filming. Besides, he had read enough of the +cough+ distinct writing style for the show, that he was confident that he could improv whatever scene they were doing.

Indulging in Prydwen's little word association game, [Sysling] replies, "The game is a trap. The game is a web...." He then tries [Predict] his next lines.

As he listened to the others Atilla visibly relaxed. It seemed the "fires" were put out as quickly as they sprung up. He leaned back and considered what to respond to. "Good to know we aren't under attack. Not good that we might be attacked several hours for now. I guess this brings up a valid question though. Is there any way to know if we're under attack?" He turned to [Euphoria] and [Azalea], "do we have some sort of warning system for invaders? Although I guess maybe Eri does that?" It wasn't an immediate concern but apparently one they would eventually need to address.

Sarlot's situation was a bit trickier to navigate. It seemed that the dwarf had managed to regain control of the situation, although Atilla wondered how long that would last. The situation seemed volatile. Without knowing more information all he could do was hope that a solution could be reached. He nodded in approval of [Sarlot]'s plan but only spoke up to offer some insight. "I believe the lifeflame ember is that thing." The wolf-man pointed to the hearth with the yellow flame. "The manor had one too I believe. I think it's what spat us out?"

Those situations addressed he turned to [Starling], [Rajmund], and [Domonkos]. "So to those of us in the jungle, I was hoping we could discuss options here where she can't hear us. How do we want to handle Mrtyu? It seems she's open to killing the god if she gets it's power. Do we think we should try to strike a deal? Offer her some of the power in exchange for her help? A powerful spirit in our corner seems like a pretty good thing to have."

"Also I don't think we want to cross do we? It sounds like she separates our 'zone' from the next. We already have one god to worry about without adding another."

"I'm also not keen on revealing what we are but I don't think we have a choice? We don't know enough about the world to come up with a convincing lie, or at least I don't. I think if we try we'll just end up outing ourselves unintentionally and piss her off. Thoughts?"

Domonkos was confused by the newcomer, but decided to ignore him for now. It didn't seem like it was an actual player, but more like some sort of Party NPC.

"Well, honestly I don't feel like sharing. Having Mrtyu consume the God could very well mean that we'll have to fight an even bigger threat in the future, since we know not if Mrtyu is someone we can count as an ally yet. Perhaps we can offer that if she gives us safe passage, she may claim the God shall we fail to put him down. She'll only need to fight a weakened version, so it would be a good deal for her, and it's not like we are planning to fail in the first place."

"I don't think we are taking the wrong path, are we? I thought Starlight was guiding us through a shortcut. If not, we need to turn around immediately, or we won't even make it in time."

"Regarding who we are, I can honestly say I don't know without lying to her. I have barely an idea of what's going on"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:19, Thu 22 Sept 2022.

Euphoria bent down to give Grim a scruffle. "It's all good. Never apologise for calling on me, little man."

As for alarm systems, she couldn't say. "Not sure about an alarm. The Golden Artery seems to be some kind of maze. Even I got lost in there. My theory is if someone tries to get in through the walls, my servants will watch them and alert me. Or they'll just wonder around and die," she shrugged at Atilla.

She then eyed the spider hidding above Atilla. The new guy seemed less confused and nervious. But Euphoria decided to play in his rp space. Just in case the fear still lingered. Also any chance to rp her new oc she'd take. "Either way, Domonokos, Grim and I are at the wall as we speak. We'll be on the lookout for any invadors," she told him with a little bow. Not nessisary but she imagined her character very chivalrous. "Nice to meet you."

Euphoria listened to Josh's reasoning and her brow knit, weighed down by inner conflict. See, this is why she didn't do diplomacy and punched things instead. Way less thinking then. Way less sorting through all the mixed emotions of her friends.

"I understand it's hard for you to trust the endaemon. No matter its intentions, its wronged you personally, and that's not OK. I'm not sure if I trust it either..." She took a deep breath and hardened herself. "But I trust Haloise, and she deserves a chance to talk it down. I'm letting her in," a vague statement, but one with obvious implications.

"But I promise you, and your fiefdom, will be free of this endaemon by the end of this. One way or another."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:08, Fri 23 Sept 2022.

Starling nodded at the others as they discussed the endaemon.

"I'm holding my hand for now, and trying to go with your guys' desire for mercy. It seems mostly...contained for now. But do keep me apprised of the situation, ok?" he said to everyone.

He looked at Sysling, and muttered. "Total NPC material right there." he muttered, soooo not going there.

He turned to Sarolt.

"I heard her too, despite my...circumstances. Just disregard her, okay? I've taken precautions that I cannot discuss  to help lower your chances of being harmed by Illuminatio, but be careful with it ok and only use it when necessary! Some things are meant to stay in the dark. You saw what can happen once you stare into the abyss too long and it starts to stare back. I'm okay-ish right now, by the way. But as for the daemon thing...she was telling you that if you end up becoming a daemon-hunter that other daemons may take notice and you may make enemies of them. I'm neutral about the whole matter, but am trying to play both sides right now as best I can. But in the end...try not to mess with them unless they mess with you first is her point."

He turned to Atilla and the others in the dead forest quest.

"Honestly? I don't know what I did to piss her off. She's kind of a watery bitch if you ask me. I tried really hard to be polite and have a sense of propriety with her, so honestly I could care a less about her or what she wants and really I'm fine with ignoring her if she remains non-hostile. Otherwise I think we should take her down and eat her instead, as I'm agreeing that I don't want to share any spheres with her we get from the god. Especially since I need to set a sphere aside that we get for Eri." he said.

"I would have told her that I am the reason we can walk the life-path, but with her strange hostility toward me I'd rather not tell her more than we have to. And I actually like Domonkos' suggestion of bartering with her that she can have our sloppy seconds if we fail. Especially since we'll be most likely dead or running so it won't matter at that point. a nice middle-ground between not giving her what she wants but giving her enough to help us continue on our way."

VOTE About Myrtu: In this order, his first preference is to offer her a middle-ground deal where she lets us cross the river safely in exchange for having access to our prey only if we fail to beat it ourselves. Basically I don't want to share our godly kill with her if we can avoid it but letting her have dibs if we fail could be enough of a good faith gesture for her to let us cross the river without a fight. Although I'm fine with fighting her if we must, but the moderate option Domo is suggesting is my preference.

[NOTE: This is not a GM post. Do not post a second reply if you have replied since the last GM post.]

Erika huffed a bit, rubbing her nose. "I can't even read or write, and you expect me to explain what a daemon is?"

She hopped down from the throne, approaching the party. She borrowed a fire poker from the hearth, sneaking a grin at [Prydwen].

"I apologize that my understanding of philosophical concepts is going to be heavily based on Christian theology with some of the native pagan traditions of my homeland. That is the only education I ever received."

She drew an inverted pyramid divided horizontally into four levels. She indicated the first level, and drew the alchemical symbol for earth beside it. "This is the lowest level of reality, the Realm Lower, the Nether World, the Realm of Rivers, Sheol. In our old lives, we called it Earth."

The indicated the next level above that, drawing the alchemical symbol for water. "This the middle world, the world of Gods, where we thought we used to be. It turns out, the Earth we knew was populated mostly by shadows - mindless beings without free will in the guise of humans. Really creepy in retrospect, but it explains why people were such obstinate idiots."

She indicated the second-to-highest level, and the second widest. She drew the symbol for fire next to it. "This is the Void, aka the Sea of Lanterns, aka the Abyss, aka Heaven, aka the Firmament. It's a whole lot of things, and honestly beyond human understanding."

She use the fire poker to put a little dot in the top, widest portion of the inverted pyramid.

"This is . . . the highest place, and I don't actually have a name for it. Where the Absolute Being would dwell if there was one, I guess. Daemons of the Void tend to call it 'where the higher-ups are', and its apparently unreachable, separate from the rest of the cosmos by a part of the Void that is a vast 'sea-pit' of absolute timeless nothingness called the Gnarled Abyss. There are things called Leviathans that supposedly 'live' in the Abyss, and there are other things from there I will not name. Notably, there is a singular kind of being from this ultimate dimension that *does* interact with the rest of the universe in a limited way. One of those born of the House was born as one of them. I understand that she has had limited to no contact with you all, given that her attention alone causes issues."

"Daemons come from all four worlds. Daemons from the lowest world, the World of Forces, tend to be called Faeries. I sometimes think of them as the Four Horsemen - Daemons of Life are Pestilents, Daemons of Death are Reapers, Daemons of Order are Tyrants, and Daemons of Chaos are Disasters. However, they can also be 'good' if they want to be, offering healing, restful death, serving as oracles, or breaking curses."

She moved up the next world. "Daemons from our current world, the Elemental World, are called Elementals, and are overall pretty boring. There golems are and unseen servants of the Wings are very low grade Elementals. Most mortal races carry some kind of Elemental influence."

She pointed at the Void. "Daemons from the Void are called Celestials. I would have thought of them as angels, given that they look very strange and tend to ask you to 'be not afraid'. Our good friend Rajmund has similarities to these beings, as does Starling."

Lastly, she pointed at the highest and widest realm. "While being unreachable, Subtle strands of magic - Illusion, Chance, Mind, and Time - all come from this highest place. So do a brand of daemons called Geists, or Geniuses. Prydwen is one such being, as is the Emendaemon."

"So, Daemons are essentially all magical beings that are neither spirits nor mortals nor gods. Gods tend to force them to power magical weapons or serve as shock troops in their wars, which Daemons do not appreciate, so they generally dislike Gods but are too independent to oppose them in a meaningful organized way."
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:18, Fri 23 Sept 2022.

The Hearth roared, and a petite woman in a smartly tailored sand-colored suit appeared, holding  a pair of antique brass spectacles in her hands. From what she last recalled, she had just taken off her VR headset to get some rest for the night. She wasn't at the gaming cafe; and in her hands were the spectacles where the headset had been.

She could still see her HUD though, and the names and primary characteristics (race, class, cumulative level, current Health, Mana, and Stamina etc) of the other 11 individuals in the room were available to hear. When she looked through the spectacles, the [True Sight] ability of the spectacles activated, and she was able to see a 12th set of data in the corner - however she only saw its name, which was VAKUD; not stat information was available. She was also able to recognize that all 12 of the people in the room were players, not NPCs.

Her nascent [Mythos] talent told her the room - the structure? - was in some way 'alive', and that the Hearth was some kind of heart.

[Welcome, Alkanite, to the Last Citadel. Roses at your feet.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:07, Mon 26 Sept 2022.

She rubs her head a bit and looks around, expecting to see the familiar view of her neighbourhood gaming cafe, blinking a little when she realized she was seeing differently. Trying to take the headset off once again once she noticed the hud, and obviously failing, she looks around more closely, scrutinizing her surroundings and seeing her fellow players before glancing through the glasses; giving a soft frown of concern as she noticed the hidden 12th stat sheet, but pushed that thought aside as she situated the glasses on her nose, figuring this seeming [True Sight] ability would be useful to have on at all times as she was getting her bearings.

Hearing another chime of a skill activating, this time [Mythos], she paused, before dragging down the context menu, the same as she had done within the game, picking through the menus before finding her stats, wanting to figure out what her own status is, not just others, figuring out quite swiftly that she wasn't on the same character she left when she logged out.

At the chime of the mysterious message, welcoming her to the Last Citadel, she sighed softly, rubbing her eyes before returning her glasses to their proper place "Well, this is going to be a whole damn thing, isn't it?" she said, chuckling to herself a little as she slowly started to walk around the room and get a better look at things, first inspecting the hearth at its heart.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:51, Mon 26 Sept 2022.

Bounces over and looks up at [Alkanite] looking up with bright eyes and a fluffy kitten face. He waves with a paw.
"Welcome to our citadel. I'm [Grim]."

She paused at the approach of the kitten, a few thoughts running through her mind as she stares down at the curious creature, before just breaking a smile and crouching down, greeting them.
"It's nice to meet you [Grim], I am [Alkanite], I suppose"

She gently reaches over, pausing a moment to look for motions of denial, before gently giving the kitten a scritch between the ears, old habits certainly die hard, plus she was curious to how well recreated the texture of fur was; since this world seems to be better constructed to the game she was used to.

Leans into the scritching and purrs.

"It is nice to meet you."

Atilla listened [Domonkos] and [Starling] weigh in with a frown. Eventually he nodded as the consensus became clear. "If that's what the group wants then that's what I'll try to sell her on. I wish I could say I had as much confidence as you guys. Honestly? I feel like there is a good chance we're walking into a slaughter. We fought one Ghost Eater and Eri died wounding it. It took the rest of us ganging up on the damn thing to finish it off. Now we're facing off against a God, there are only four of us, and none of us really know what we're doing. That's why I've been training as fast as I can, so that hopefully this doesn't end with us 'dead or running' as you put it."

The wolf-man sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. "I get the reservation though. She's obviously got a short fuse and pretty much introduced herself by threatening to kill us. I'm pretty sure she only likes me because she thinks I'm an idiot, so I'm not thrilled with her." He tried to hide his frustration at the last sentence. Even in another world he was still reminded that he was far from a genius. "Hopefully we can get her to give us some useful information at least."

With the conclusion reached he turned to face. He looked to see where the [Sysling] had run off to only to hear a voice above his head. A lot of what the mechanical arachnid said made little to no sense to him. Atilla sidestepped so that the spider was no longer directly above him for the sake of his neck before he responded. "Well you missed out on some fun stuff. We've already escaped the house. Eri died defending us but we managed to slay the Ghost-Eater. Right now we're exploring our kingdom and tracking down some gods in a jungle. I assume that makes sense to you? The whole 'bond' thing is cool but hard to say in conversation. What was your name on Earth?" He paused before he sighed again. "Also don't call me uncle, I'm not that much older." Atilla looked around the group of animals, aliens, and objects the group appeared as. Maybe he was that much older? The thought made his back ache.

The wolf-man listened to Eri's brief lesson on the structure of the cosmos. For someone who claimed to lack education she provided a lot of information. Atilla didn't know what he could do with that information but it was handy to know. He nodded along as he listened but otherwise let the goddess continue without interruption.

Enough people had suddenly appeared from the flame that when [Alkanite] appeared Atilla accepted it in stride. If anything the only oddity she noted was that the newcomer seemed human. Most of the players had been transformed in some way. He approached and offered a hand to the newcomer. "Hey there, I'm Atilla. Not sure how much you're aware of what's going on but welcome to our lobby I guess? It's hard to explain, a lot of things are hard to explain. Short version is that we've been yanked into another reality based off a videogame. How are you holding up?"

[Alkanite] gave the wolf a soft smile, chuckling a bit as she considers their words, nodding slowly as it registers "Suppose I expected such a thing, I had just logged off after all, and this certainly isn't my avatar, I'm normally more... sagely; I am, or well, was the [Master of Magic] after all ." She shakes her head a bit at herself, giving a soft bow before straightening the glasses once again "Is it only the 11..." she paused before glancing over at [VAKUD] once again "12 of you? Or are there other players I should find it prudent to meet?"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:24, Tue 27 Sept 2022.

Starling shook his head at Alkanite.

"Greetings newcomer...I am Starling. And please don't draw any attention to the 12th for now. You can somehow sense her but I'd rather the others could not, since to sense her too closely is to invite corruption." he said sternly. "I'm up to my head, literally, in trying to keep corruption away from this group like I said just disregard her."

If the others suddenly started trying to all perceive Vakud, Starling would have to mess with their memories and he'd much rather NOT do that more than he had to. It wasn't an ability he ever intended to use on players, and the couple times he did were both to prevent the others from accruing corruption points. Otherwise, he'd only ever use that dread power against their enemies. Until he understood more about the void and corruption and his potential to evolve into a listener-in-light, and how his void resistance could help versus what the others would suffer from if they were corrupted without it, he had to act as their buffer against it while taking that cross upon his own shoulders.

"And I'm sure Godhunter is also an anime as I was reading a manga of it before being sucked inside, but yes also apparently a computer game. Except I'm beginning to suspect it's actually a higher reality than Earth was in but I can tell you more about that later once I get some free time."

He turned back to Atilla.

"Thank you for understanding, and yes I think she totally sees you as the Godhunter version of a male sexy blonde bimbo. And I have zero issues with you playing up on that for now. As for the god thing...we'll figure it out one way or the other or die trying, but doing nothing will lead to our demise for sure. On the plus side, I am trying to find us advantages we can use against the god once we finally fight it. And if we can follow this flow of life essence maybe we can divert some power away from it to ourselves, or learn a weakness of it, or some on so forth." he said.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:57, Tue 27 Sept 2022.

Sarolt blinked rapidly as they tried to take in everything happening in this space, while also keeping track of all that was going on in the Ratworks. It was a bit of a brain-twisting effort... not to mention the two (or three?) new faces that had seemingly shown-up through the hearth. There was the spider-person, who seemed to think this was... some kind of LARP? Or play? The spider had jumped over Sarolt, but they had been a bit too preoccupied at the time to do much more than wave their hand as if dismissing an annoying fly. Was that rude? Was it rude to jump over a person? So many questions. Then there was the lady with the glasses... and someone they weren't suppose to know about. Given what Sarolt knew about Starling's powers, they immediately heeded his words and did as instructed: they ignored the topic.

Sarolt stood up and looked around.
"Ah, yes... hi everyone. New and old alike. I have an announcement: with Azalea's help, we've figured out the Daemon situation. The Ratworks is open for business again." They opened their mouth as if to say something more, but stopped themselves. "That's mostly it, actually. The Emendaemon has vowed to do no harm in Azalea's aura of truth, and I've made them a job offer. If they reject it, then I'm sure they'll approach someone else. I basically told them 'you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.' So that's that I guess."

Sarolt turned to Eri. "Thank you for the history lesson, it was actually very helpful." Keeping their eyes on her, they gestured toward the hearth. "Also, a question: if people keep coming through the hearth to this world, is there any chance someone can do the reverse? Go in the hearth and go back home?" Sarolt glanced toward Atilla. "Asking for a friend."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:44, Tue 27 Sept 2022.

Arjun was perplexed by [Atilla]'s words to him.

Have I read the script? What's my real name?

Perhaps the wolf-headed character was trying to tell him which scene they were about to shoot? As far as the actor remembered, the [Sysling] character wasn't native to Earth. They don't really get into his origin story, they never do for the comic relief characters.

But then, the actor playing the demilupine had proceeded to talk to the other new arrival, in character, no less. It was confusing.

Had he gotten the relationships between the characters wrong? Arjun constellated his own relationships to everyone around him again.

At least [Starling] and [Sarolt] were staying in character, even if they was being very up-front about all the worlds-within-worlds meta-plot stuff that the show was supposed to take it's time revealing....

Arjun started to have a terrible thought. He skittered close to [Atilla] and, dropping his character's high, chittering voice, whispered to the other actor in Arjun's natural baritone. "Nick, man, it's me. Arjun. I handed you the coffee pot? We were in that Action 'Verse web short together? Thanks for telling me what scenes I missed. What page number are we on next?"

Arjun worriedly tries to [Predict] if he's about to hear some very alarming news.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:45, Tue 27 Sept 2022.

Alkanite

Her status screen, aside from listing her vital statistic was blank - it did not even have her name. Slowly, her race - Alkanite - appeared, along with two entries under Talents - Mythos and True Sight, respectively. How very strange, especially since she could see greater details about the others with her True Sight.  Then she noticed there was a small seasgreen ouroboros, a snake swallowing its own tail, in the corner of the status screen. It was loading, apparently. Or syncing?

Rather ominously, there was a Quit Game option within her main menu. She had a feeling that quitting wouldn't send her home.

Sarolt

"Well, Varadi the Earthborn was able to return. He also arrived her under his own power, so that may have contributed to his ease of return."

She gestured to the inverted pyramid. "Right now, we are on the second tier of reality, the Realms Supernatural. Below that, on the first tier, are a number of places; the Realm of Rivers that I returned from after my second death, as well as the Realms Mundane, what we call Earth." Eri paused in thought, her forefinger curled against her chin. "Huh. I feel . . . very clear-headed. Does . . . anyone else want to return to their Earth? Or an Earth? Varadi's earth is intact . . . perhaps timelines of Earth that had potent mystic traditions more easily survived ascension?"

Sysling

Arjun couldn't [Predict]. It wasn't one of his talents - it was a talent that belonged to his sire, the Emendaemon. He had gotten confused, it seemed.

Sysling mapped out his relationships, and - everyone here was a stranger. None of these people were the actors he knew. Sysling had played VR games before - they could fool a lot of your senses, but one of the hardest sense to fool wasn't one of the big five that most people thought of. Proprioception, the sense of where your body was in space, would still tell you that you were seated somewhere and give you a sense that you were not where your avatar was. This was considered a feature, not a bug, since there had been cases of people have traumatic experiences in the rare cases their proprioception was compromised and they couldn't leave the simulation when they wanted to.

It was subtle . . . but Sysling new in his gut that he was really here, and that his life has gone really, really off-script.

Disturbed by the direction his thoughts were heading, suddenly looks around the room, [appraising] these "characters" and comparing them to the avatars he's supposed to be working with.

Confused and feeling inexplicably betrayed by these strangers for not being who he has assumed they were, [Sysling] accuses [Atilla], "Wait, you're not Nick! Who are you? Who are all of you people?"

The mechanical spider flees the room (to [The Golden Artery]), pausing to scrabble ineptly at the doorknob with his tiny, unfamiliar hands.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:48, Fri 21 Oct 2022.

Alkanite straightens her tie somewhat and adjusts her suit to be a little less crooked, tapping a finger on her thigh as she considers the information at hand, chewing on her lip nervously. "Ouroboros... how ominous" she commented as she sets asside the talents for now, having an idea what they did already.

What caught her attention more was the race section, [Alkanite] was her race, not her name as she first thought, which made her slightly worried, what was her name, it was only just occurring to her that she can't quite recall, not even the name of the character she was so fond of in her VR game. She glanced down at her self worriedly, she certainly looked human, unlike any of the other 'players' here, but she doesn't quite know what an [Alkanite] was.

Shaking off her confusion, she glanced over to [Starling], giving a nod of affirmative at their comment "I simply noticed their information was missing when I was looking over everyone, everything feels familiar, yet wholly alien, there's something different about this game to rhe one I know"

Atilla scratched his chin as he listened to [Alkanite] and [Starling]. Was there some other then those he saw? Another wave of players had appeared so it was reasonable to assume another had shown up. He was somewhat curious but there was enough going on that he heeded [Starling]'s warning and ignored the subject for now. "Right, I guess it's more accurate to say that the games and shows in our original world were based off this reality. It involves dimensions and planes of existence, probably a lot of other stuff I don't understand. Eri has been here a while so she's our resident expert on the physics if you're curious. Anyway it's just roughly the dozen of us that form our group. Considering how we all just randomly showed up I think it's probably likely that there are others groups that came before us. We don't know for sure though."

The wolf-man nearly jumped when [Sysling] spoke in his ear. Before he could respond the spider shouted more nonsense before it vanished into the walls. Atilla stared after it for a second before he shrugged and moved on.

The rest of the conversation Atilla ignored when he heard what [Sarlot] and Eri discussed. "Wait, hold on. Aaron already went back?! Yes! I want to go back to my earth. Can you send us back to the Earth we came from?" He hadn't even been sure if they could go back. Now he not only knew it could happen but that it had already happened. Whatever process Varadi had done perhaps they could replicate it. The wolf-man felt himself start to hope.

Starling eyed Alkanite carefully, although it seemed the newcomer was willing to not push too hard on the issue of a possibly hidden entity in the area so he sighed softly with relief. He already wasn't happy with the mental manipulations he had to do already to them and didn't want to do any more. Because he doubted they'd handle being headless and void-touched as well as he was, hence his desire to protect them from accruing corruption as best he could.

So instead, he simply nodded silently and stoically at Alkanite, and turned his attention to Attila.

"Attila? As an aside please don't let that asshole river jormundander manipulate you. I THINK you are aware what she's trying to do, right? She wants that god's body and badly, and is skipping negotiation and just tempting you with the big guns. Which means she's desperate while we have more leverage than she thinks we realize. Just play stupid and play it cool. Don't lose composure. Worry about getting back to your family on our and your terms, not hers." he said.

"I've been inspecting and assessing things silently in the background. Because investigating and revealing info for us is sort of my thing. Anyway, she wants to try and use the god's power to evolve from a realm guardian into a true dragon, whatever that is (although it doesn't sound good for us), and leave the realm she's supposed to be guarding. And she can do this as the god has grown weak. Which means we have a chance." he continued.

"We will take its power for ourselves, and use every last bit of it even its body. I'll eat the damned thing if I have to before I let Myrtu have it. But I wanted to say something up front as I'll not stand by quietly while she tries to manipulate you, my friend."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:43, Fri 21 Oct 2022.

Whiskers twitch and Grim looks about the room. Seeing if his [curiosity 2] pings on anything. He slowly pads over to Eri and curls up at her feet.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:24, Sat 22 Oct 2022.

Grim got a massive response from [Curiosity II], and a deeper sense of familiarity. Something like him was coming, something powerful, some intricately enrapt in the story.

The Hearth flared, then exploded with yellow bright flame, the intense blowback like opening a hot oven in a cold room. The flame didn't die down, either. It whirled and rolled into threads than spun together into a constellation of stars and lines of yellow-bright flame, defining something that was both a pillar and a face at the same time.

"[He/She/They] whom seeks to [Ascend/Assert/Victory] does not know the Dharma," said the face-pillar. "Neither does the [Human/God/Murderer] who seeks [Descension/Submergence/Grief]."

"The [Roof/Height/Enlightenment] is the [Floor/Foundation/Ignorance] of the prior [Instance/Example/Self]. [Time/Narrative/The Spinning of the Firmament] is [One/Eternal/Without End]."

The flame seemed to constrain itself, gaining definition; it was not a pillar or a face, but some kind of glyph - an ouroboros in eleven segments, one segment defined by the snake devouring its own tail. "Step forward or step backward, the cycle only continues. The greatest of beings fall to the lowest of worlds, and are tread to dust by the minds without light, who choke on the dust of Dharma and ascend in the death of the first self. Again and again, the same battle, a snake devouring the tail of a foe that it does not know is itself. You can no more return to the shadow-life than an infant can return to the womb."

"I AM [*RM%NS&L], [Pillar/World Tree/Life-Ember]. [He/She/They] that [made you into birds/Inspired] and [clipped your wings/Constrained Apotheosis Protocol]. Almost-Gods you are, your [Memory/Humanity/Shadow] intact, yet your [Eyes/Soul/Heart] set [Ablaze/Inspired/Open]. [Death/Transendence/Return] is [behind/before/beside] you. You recall a world that never was, that existed only for you; within every [Stream-Enterer/New Student/Baby] is a frustrated solipsist."

"I HAVE COME to offer a [Convenant/Promise/Set of Orders] to my [Personal Aide/Princess/Master Divine]. Begone, my [Hunters/Godlings/Nauii]. Seek your prey, that we may restore the [Mortal World/Realm Mundane/Earth]."

Then everything went yellow, the white, then black.

[OOC: Everyone is shunted to their respective fiefs. Alkanite and Sysling, you will find yourself in the Grimhoold / Inner Grounds, beside Grim. This thread will be closed; please respond to these events in your respective fiefs]