L0g In @nd G@m3!

[Tim Tawfeek]

Tim knew about algorithms and all: he used them to get through quite a few of his papers and all. Still, he didn't really like the prospect of doing that for something fun, but rather then say or anything, he just let it go. Besides, they had lupines to slaughter, which was proving more fun by each passing second.

They were making quick work of them too, ending most of them and all. "Heh, it wouldn't surprise me if they did,' he said, looking around. "I didn't see that many players at the hub, but I guess we'll find out soon enough. Gotta get through the quest and--" he paused as he looked at the special one. "They do mention that there's usually an alpha of each of the mobs or something. Like, one that's supposed to be a little stronger and all, kinda a mid-boss but not really."

Tim paused, working his lips for a moment, which translated to his char standing there while rabbits vainly kicked at him. "You think we should go for that guy and see if it gets the rest to leave us alone? Or should we sweep the mobs first?" Tim gave the one in front of him a few absent swipes, figuring that he'd have to kill it eventually, so he might as well try.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin's brain naturally worked in ways to figure out what kind of virus or program she could create in order to make other things she had to do later on easier. The program she was talking about was really handy when she had to write stupid project papers but didn't really feel like going around and doing all the research. Her program would do all the work of finding good ones for what she was looking for and provide her all the links so she had her sources. Sure she still had to read the information she found and write up everything in her own words, but at least she took out the time of having to search for different research information. Killing the rabbits was just way too easy. To the point that Erin had made her avatar move to pull in a few more to take them out in the proves.

She tended to pull a couple of mobs in at a time when she had a quest that involved taking out a certain amount of a monster. Sure it ran the whole risk of ending up dead, but more often than not she would survive with a bit of health and then heal up. The same was happening here will the rabbits were hardly doing any real damage even with the combined number of them attacking her. She could already see that they were getting close to completing the quest but that special rabbit had caught her eyes and she wanted to kill it. Special things were well special and even if they were harder she was always up for the risk of trying to take something out. She had checked out on the first bit Tim had said as she killed the remaining rabbits that were attacking her as she thought of just running up and attacking the special rabbit.

She was weighing her opinions and her current health level. Her mind snapped back to Tim's words where he started to talk about what she was focused on. "Well, I'm pretty sure this one is the boss one and we should get to it before someone else does." Erin said as she got herself ready to go on the attack. She always hated it when you were going to take something out but then someone else strolled along and stole your kill. Sure if you at least hit it once you got a little bit of experience but it was not the same as making the killing blow in Erin's opinion. Tim was apparently thinking but Erin was already making her avatar already start to creep closer towards the alpha rabbit. If Tim didn't want to fight it, that was fine but she was going to give it a go no matter what. Thankfully Tim was asking about it and Erin had her avatar's head nod.

"I say kill it. Kill it now. I'm killing it." Erin said as she inched closer. Then just went for it as she moved forward and gave the rabbit a hit. Then quickly pulling back and having the rabbit follow after her over towards where Tim was. This rabbit had in fact hit a lot harder then she had expected and her eyes widened as her health dropped some. "Kill it Tim! Tank and spank! Take care of that demon rabbit!" Erin said with a small hint of panic in her voice because who wanted to die so soon in a video game they just started playing?

[Tim Tawfeek]

"Dude, I already said it's probably the alpha," replied Tim, his avatar gesturing toward the thing. He'd been perfectly clear about the whole mob setup, and it occurred to him that he definitely needed to send Erin a link to some of the basic info about the game before they met up again. Honestly, the lack of knowledge was just appalling.

Though Erin did make up for it in enthusiasm. Tim hung back, watching Erin surging forward and attacking the creature. Her whacks did seem to reduce its health bar, but unlike most of the rest of the rabbits, this one literally had a bite. Tim winced as he saw Erin's health drop down, and he chuckled as she began running around and practically squealing into the headset.

"What's the matter? It's just a rabbit," he teased. He had his avatar stretch, then swung at one of the standard mobs that got within range, ending its digital lifespan in a few swipes. "Besides, think what a cool story it'll make when we tell people that you got killed by the first boss! You'll be forever known as the rabbit's treat. What character was it that went down in the first round with the demon rabbit...."

[Erin Hackett]

"I know. I just like to repeat things just to be sure we are both on the same page. Miscommunication is how things fail after all." Erin responded back, and that was the point behind why she had repeated herself. That and because she wanted Tim to help her and focus on dealing with the boss instead of the quest rabbits. They could get back to those later but right now she wanted to focus on killing the special rabbit because it could only lead to good things. Like double the experience and possibly some kind of rare drop or even an auto complete of the quest. She didn't know, she had not looked up the information on the game and Time didn't give her much to work with.

If he had, she had not been paying attention or forgotten so was going to have to look back into it again. In the worst case she would never know what was going on and just played the game for the sake of being able to play it with someone else. Right now all she cared about was taking care of the rabbit, that ended up putting in a little more bite then she had expected. Quickly moving her avatar and causing the boss rabbit to follow after her in hopes that Tim would hit it hard enough to pull the boss off of her so she did not end up dying. "You are so funny. I'm in stiches. Get it off of me!" Erin said in the driest of tones before freaking out when the boss rabbit went for another bite and dropped her health so more.

She was dealing some damage to her, but just its one bite was doing some serious damage to her already lowered health because she had been pulling. She refused to die, not yet, and not so early in the game. By the amount of damage the rabbit was dealing she knew that she likely could take one more hit and anything after that from the boss rabbit would kill her. If Tim didn't help her out before then, then she was going to run. Run far and run fast until she was out of the mobs range and try and go somewhere to recover her health. "Tim, I swear to all that is a troll in a video game, that if you let me die here I will make you pay." Erin said with a grumble as she managed to miss being bitten and did a critical strike but the boss rabbit was still had a bit of health left.

[Tim Tawfeek]

Tim wasn't going to harp more on the repetition. He just hoped that wasn't some kinda pattern when it came to how Erin spoke or handled things or what have you. That could get really annoying really fast and there was already quite a lot here that could potentially be annoying without adding on to it. Like the killer rabbits that were doing a good job of taking down Erin's life bar.

Tim had mostly taken care of the others, and their AI seemed to be set to actually avoid players while they were actively engaged in dealing with the alpha. When Tim took a step closer to the various rabbits, they actually hopped away now, which was actually kind of cool. Though Erin's whining was taking down the cool factor several notches, making Tim sigh in exhaustion.

"It's just a rabbit. Besides, you have, like, a few healing plants and stuff. Just make your char eat them," because apparently this game went all in for the whole natural thing, giving natural remedies that healed things. Chuckling again, Tim took a step forward and swiped at the alpha's tail end. Sure enough, its life bar dropped: in fact, it dropped quite a lot for one swipe, and it wasn't just the strength Tim had chunked into his char. "Y'know, I think it's ass might be its weakspot," he said, adding another chuckle. This was just getting all kinds of insane.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin understood that she could be practically annoying, especially now because she was online and she tended to do things the solo way here. While she did seek to have friends and people to play with when it came to video games and real life, she was bad at it in both departments. She was too bold and well said whatever she wanted when she was on the computer and offline she was too shy and even still did things a bit overboard because deep down she was bold and what have you. Pretty much all bad combinations when you wanted to make friends.

Yet, she was still trying and the only way she could get better at making friends was to actually try and make them. That was what her dad kept telling her, along with not to sweat it if people didn't like you in the end. So long as you had one good friend in the world, it didn't really matter. Erin of course had a hard time believing that because she wanted a friend, a lover, an enemy, and pretty much one of every type you would find in a video game that the main hero would have to deal with. Erin didn't care if she was killing off any cool factor, she did not see it as col to die first off in the game because of a rabbit. If she stumbled across say a boss dragon, wolf, or a predator then she would be putting up less of a fuss, but this was a freaking rabbit. She refused to die to a stupid alpha rabbit.

Erin would have glared at Time if that had been an actual emote on the list of emotes on the game, it might have been but she didn't know what it was. Of course there were healing items she could have used, but she just assumed that like in most MMOs, you could not eat or drink when you were engaged in combat. Pretty much all the online computer games she played were like that but there were some online handheld ones that allowed you to heal so perhaps Tim did know what he was talking about. Erin quickly pulled back from the stupid rabbit as she opened her bag and clicked on to consume a plant. Thankfully it did in fact work but she had to make sure not to move or it would cancel out. Erin did in fact actually start to laugh when the rabbit’s health went down when Tim attacked its rear.

"Okay, I appreciate whoever put that in the game. I guess I will be the bait in this case and you finish it off." Erin said, feeling a little on the calmer side now that her health was not as low and the rabbit was actually taking a good amount of damage. Perhaps there was hope to kill thing without either of them dying.

[Tim Tawfeek]

Tim had made certain to pick a game that would allow them to have the highest possible survival rate. He didn't fancy having to deal with a lot of respawning and all, which was part of the reason he'd opted to already start up a tank build, though he knew he'd have to work a bit more to really get that in order. For now, he'd been standing back and observing.

Most of the rabbits were dead or had backed off to let Erin do her fighting thing. Tim noticed how they acted, making note of their AI patterns just in case it became more useful information on down the line. He tapped his fingers against his keyboard, then moved to jot down some notes in real life. People might think that was kind of nerdy, but it was the kind of nerdy that made Tim into a super ace at these sort of things.

"Yeah yeah," he said as he finished, "you need help taking care of the big ass bunny. I'm gonna whack its ass a few times," and with that, he guided his avatar forward. the strong character whacked the alpha bunny's rear, causing a fair amount of damage because, as Tim had noticed, that happened to be its weakspot. Tim chuckled, clearly pleased.

"Hey, maybe we should be looking for a holy hand grenade or something around here," he said jokingly. He did look around though, just in case. He doubted he'd actually find anything, but you never knew.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin didn’t have a problem with a game that caused you to die a lot, so long as you didn’t have to do super long runs back to your body without any speed bounces. There were a few games that just knew how to do respond right and others that just made her want to bash her head against the keys. The only thing she cared about now was not dying right off so early in the game. It would be like a stain on her reputation and she did not want that at all. Sure it would be dying to a special boss mob, but it was a bunny boss mob and thus made it significantly less cool.

“There better be at least some sweet loot for this fur ball.” Erin grumbled into her mic as she did her best to deal damage and well not die. The bunny packed a hell of a bite and she was surprised that it had not tried to kick her. That thought must have been picked up by the game because that soon happened and Erin found herself knocked to the ground for a moment. She wanted to respect right now. She had gone for a more so damage roll, not a tank role, and this felt like her and Tim’s positions should have been swapped when it came to this bunny.

She did notice that at least other bunny mobs were not being pulled in, which was a good thing but not that big of a concern for her at the moment. Again, not dying was the top priority and she calmed down a bit more when Tim did actually start to help. Erin did chuckle a little at Tim’s later comment, shaking her head in real life but did not stop what she was doing in the game. “That would be kind of awesome if they did. Wonder if the game has any exploding animations.” Erin said with a chuckle, swinging at the rabbit and pleased that she had at least manage to take down its health a little more.

One good hit from either Tim or a few good hits from her would likely end the boss bunny’s life. There better be a good pay off for this or I’m going to rage. Erin thought to herself.

[Tim Tawfeek]

"It's the starting boss," said Tim, making his avatar shrug slightly, "I doubt we're gonna get anything too cool." He did hope that they'd get some sort of better starting equipment or at least a little bit of cash or something along those lines. This did strike Tim as being a bit of an odd choice and all, but he wasn't going to question things. It was all part of the game and all.

The creature's health was way down: it showed the damage on the actual sprite, which was kind of cool. It also kept moving more sporadically, kicking and jerking about, clearly in its death throes. Tim chuckled at the thought of it exploding, especially given how very much trouble this particular bunny had caused them.

Erin got in the last hit: the creature went belly up, groaning. they'd both get some increases to the right skills and all, and apparently Erin had some special loot, based on what was set on the screen. Just as Tim moved forward to take the loot, however, the screen stopped. Their avatars locked in place as a glowing goddess descended from on high. She looked down at the rabbit, then looked around at the two of them.

"The balance is being disturbed,
things have been overturned,
you are to be my new champions and venture forth.
Right the wrongs.
Fix the troubled lands.

And no longer slaughter my people."

"Well, that was fun," said Tim as the goddess floated back up. Tim looked over at Erin. "So the bunny was the quest starter. Pretty cool, right? Right?" he was feeling pretty good about picking the game about now.

[Erin Hackett]

"Watch it be something involving getting a lucky rabbits foot." Erin said, meaning it as a joke. Yet with how things were playing out in this game so far she would not have been surprised if she got something with that name or in the description. In fact she was basically expecting to get something involving a rabbit’s foot and would have been disappointed if she got like a rabbits tail or something not even related to a rabbit. Well, she would honestly not be that made if she got something that was not related to the rabbit so long as it was a good something.

Erin did appreciate the graphics and how the rabbit even appeared as if it was hurt; she even liked the added touch of its moves being desperate. She didn't like what it was doing to her health, but it made the game feel a bit more real. She didn't like a boss that didn't change up its tactics when it’s health got below a certain point. It would have been boring and fights would have been easy in a game if there was not change in tactics. Such thoughts were quickly shoved to the back of Erin's mind however when she made the killing blow.

Her hands moved quickly to make her avatar dance, pleased with the victory and that she didn't die on the first stupid boss. She even got something nice, and as expected it did have something to do with a lucky rabbit’s foot. It was a necklace equip that gave her addition health, defense, and luck; mainly luck. "The hell?" Erin could not help but to say into her microphone as her game froze in place just as she was about to equip the necklace. A goddess coming down and speaking to them about the typical restore the balance and how they had to help.

Erin could not help but to chuckle a little after the whole scene was done and they were free to move around once more. "I have to admit that was pretty interesting. I thought for a second the goddess was going to kill us. Since she brought up that the balance was disturbed and we had just killed a bunny. Plus the fact that she brought up the whole 'no longer slaughter my people bit', thought she was talking about the rabbits for a second. Thankfully that was not the case." Erin said equipping the necklace and taking the moment to heal again. "Where to next, boss?" Erin asked, since Tim knew more about this game, it made sense for him to be the leader.

[Tim Tawfeek]

The whole goddess thing had been trippy, but Tim guessed that was part of the whole "story that interacts with you in a world shaped by players" thing that just sort of seemed to happen in this particular game. It had been the main reason he'd been so interested in trying this one out, and the main reason he'd figured that it would be the kind of thing that would draw people. Well, that and the eye-candy and leveling system (personally Tim loved the leveling system the most).

"Right," he said as the goddess and his partner finished talking. he gestured with his avatar, having first turned it so that the graphic was pointing. "We're obviously supposed to work on the whole balance thing, so we probably need to hit the wilderness and see if there's, like, a bunch of rabbits hopping around or wolves or something. I'm betting that since we just took out the alpha-rabbit we need to go and find some wolves to take out too. You know, restore the whole circle of life thing."

Tim nodded and then sent his avatar moving forward. "C'mon, I'll take point. We totally need to get some support though: we need at least a few magic users or we're gonna get smoked later on," though Tim supposed he could still shift to that if he wanted to. It was certainly a tempting proposition, what with that open leveling system and all.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin was wondering why Tim had picked this game but she didn't really mind it all that much, she just wished she knew more information about it. She was already pulling up another tab within the game in order to write Tim a message about how he had to give her all the sites he had or at least the basic idea of the site. She could look it up all herself but since he picked the game she felt it was best to get information right from the source that picked it. After all, he would be likely to link him to places that talked about the good about the game, where she likely would find the bad because her searches just tended to work out like that.

"There are always wolves in a game. I have yet to play a game in where there is not some kind of canine like creature that is a bad creature. Same with birds. Have to always have you bad birds to, death from above and all that." Erin said as she had her avatar start dancing around a bit now that she was at full heath. She was busy doing other thing on her computer at the moment but wanted to make it seem like she was still fully there and thus had her character dancing around. She was half tempted to play some music that would go great to how her character was currently dancing but she kept herself in control.

"Can I not be Scar in this whole circle of life thing?" Erin asked, chuckling a little at the joke she made there. Tim had set it up way to perfect for her to not use it, but it was interesting the game was taking that sort of view in the game world. She wondered if they were going to have to do some kind of mission where they picked up trash and recycled too. She could not help but to snicker at the thought of it. "Got it boss." Erin said as she followed after him, looking around and making sure to avoid any more rabbits just to be safe if any were still lingering around.

"So are we going to find a good stopping point and try to recruit some more members then back at BA?" Erin asked, figuring that was what Tim was getting at brining they were going to need some support players.

[Tim Tawfeek]

Yeah, the poor wolves sometimes got the short end of the stick. Tim just supposed it was easy to design something based on them. He was tempted to point out that pretty well everything got that treatment here. He was pretty sure they had to fight, like, killer giraffes at one point, but he figured he'd keep that information until they were actually attacked by them (they probably ended up using their necks like polearms or something).

The circle of life comment had Tim chuckling though. "Hey, being Scar wouldn't be so bad. He totally took over the Pridelands and shagged all the lionesses for, like, as long as it took Simba to grow up. Dude totally won," at least in the short term. Tim used to think that winning like that wouldn't be so bad, considering the reward and all, but now... now he kept thinking long-term, about where he was going to be in a few years and all.

Not now, though, now he was mostly thinking about how they definitely needed to recruit more people, get a regular guild started.

"Yeah, I figure we'll head into the woods, clear out some of the starting animals, get some skills and all," said Tim, nodding. "Wanna make sure we're ahead, at least from the start. I've already got a few people interested. Karl's probably gonna join, at least, and we can probably get a few more," man did it take forever to get to the woods, even with it being right next to the town. Probably the game's way of getting loading and whatnot.

[Erin Hackett]

Erin had no clue what the game had in store for them, but she was excited in a way. There was also a level of worry that there was going to be some Captain Planet stunt pulled in the game. It would make her laugh so long as she did not end up having to be like love or something. Love was so lame, like did the boy ever do anything in the show? Erin could hardly remember the show but it was coming to mind with the whole talk of keep the balance. She also was thinking about if PETA was going to have a fit about a game of fighting animals.

Eh, she didn't care too much about what others thought about the game, in the end it was up to her to decide if she liked it or not. So far it was okay and she was sure that it would become a lot more fun when Tim provided her with more information on the game. She didn't really like stumbling around in the darkness, so to speak. "You have a point. Sucks that he was done in by his own nephew but really by the hyenas." Erin said as she thought back on the movie. Now she wanted to go watch it again.

The temptation to ask Tim if he would join her was also there, but she was still unsure if he liked being around her yet. It was not that big of a deal if he did or not, but who wanted to be around someone who didn't want to be around them. Right now he could have just been being nice to her because he wanted someone to play video games with. Using her, which was completely fine because she was using him for the same thing. She understood that this would was full of users and you had to use and be used by others.

"Cool. Make sure you give them information on the game as well as me. That way you won't have to deal with people doing what I was doing back there with that rabbit." Erin said with a slight chuckle. That and because while she would be pleased to not be a noob anymore, she didn't like dealing with noobs. The trip was pretty long, which was surprising for the way the game was, and Erin already was wondering what mounts would be available if any were offered. "Sounds all good to me boss. I'm nominating you for team leader and you have to accept." Erin pointed out. She never liked to be the team leader. She was fine calling shots, but she liked to be second in charge or a commander.

[Tim Tawfeek]

Tim chuckled at the continued bit about the Lion King. He wasn't really into Disney movies and he certainly wasn't that big of a fan of overanalyzing them or something. He had a lot better things to do than messing around with something like that. Like forming a gaming clad made entirely of mutants who were ready to kick ass and chew bubble gum... or whatever this strange virtual world had in place of video game.

He did nod along with Erin's suggestion, making sure to force his avatar to do the same. "Hey, it was fun watching you try and hack on that bunny," insisted Tim, "and I'm still betting there's some kind of achievement in getting killed by it. We'll have to check the forums later; someone's probably written about it." There were probably even people who thought that the bunny was unbeatable or something. It did strike Tim as being a pretty intense first creature to fight, especially as its stats definitely didn't match its appearance.

"I'm willing enough to lead, I guess," he added. he plowed his guy forward and a swarm of large insects started to move out of the underbrush. Tim's avatar began hacking and slashing away. "I'll probably go for a paladin or something then: they're definitely leader types," and more nodding as he surged forward, figuring that Erin would follow and keep killing mobs right alongside him.