.hackBARON
Sometimes she just couldn't handle it. It wasn't that she regretted the live she had chosen, it was that she wished she had made better choices prior to the decision she made. Maybe things wouldn't have turned out the way they had done. Perhaps she had had a choice to react differently but wasn't aware of that. She was lost. She was ignorant. The girl wasn't taught some of the basic things about life, so she didn't know any better. But she was learning. Oh, but she was learning. Sitting at her terminal she flicked a few switches and loaded a program. As she put the VR extension over her head she hit another switch. The DOS screen glowed infront of her eyes. She placed her hands on the row keys, typing out each command.
Log in screen name?
Rydia
Pass word?
Logging into network . . .
Network connected
Server?
baron.skyward.062.04.us
Connecting to Server . . .
.l.o.g.i.n.
"Did you see the message board?" A shorter girl asked her fellow companion.
"Of course I did." the older one replied, "What about it?"
"There's a big serge of newbies coming to Baron!"
"So?"
"So . . . ? So!? That's your only reply?" She seemed a little worried about it, but the older one just sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Yeah? So what do you want me to do about it? Give them a royal hazing?"
"No, it's not that! I'm worried about Golby. You know when there's a big flow of newbies he gets all dramatic and says this big ol' long speech about how 'this'll be the fall of Baron for sure'."
"Oh gawd, tell me about it." Another voice added. They both stopped and looked up at the man. The girl blinked and her older counterpart simply yawned.
"Good evening, Ace."
"Don't you mean afternoon?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot about the time-zones. I'm about five hours later than you are."
"Gee . . Don't quiz me on the math, you two! We're here at the same time and that's all that matters!" The youngest whined, her neko ears dropping behind her head.
With a frown, Ace patted her back as they heard the usual beep of the server. This usually signified that someone was logging in. The girl lifted her head and perked her ears up so she could see who it was.
It was the newbie. The newbie in all her glory. She, herself, looked around for the girl she had met the day before.
"Is that her?" Ace whispered to the woman next to him, Koyie Rose.
"Who else would it be?" She replied cooly.
"Ryyddiaaa!" The girl jumped up from her spot and dashed all the way over to the newbie.
"Uh, hey Celestial Being . . . " Rydia smiled shyly.
"Eh, you don't have to call me by my entire screen name, ya know." she grinned back, "You can call me Celes if you want!"
"Okay, I guess."
At that moment Rydia noticed the other two eyeing her and suddenly she felt self-conscious. Reassuringly(and forceably), Celestial Being grabbed her hand and drug her across the field to meet her friends. Celes jerked to a stop having Rydia bump in behind her.
"Meet my friend, Rydia!" Celes gave a wide grin, "Say 'hello' Rydia!"
"H-He.." she blushed, looking down, hiding behind her friend, "Hel--"
"Nice to meet you. I'm Ace, this is Rose."
"My regards." Rose gave Celestial Being a questioning look of disapproval. She was always cold like that. Well, around newbies anyway.
Another loud beep sounded. Rydia jerked her head up and looked all around curiously. She still wouldn't get used to that noise.
"Oooh Rosie! My sweetie-pieee! Where aarree youuu?" A masculine voice beemed.
"Oh god," Rose's eyes widened without her even turning around. She knew who that was. "Gotta go, I'll message you."
And with that, she logged off quicker than a bat out of hell.
"Well gee, she's kind of anti-social." Rydia said, eyeing the area where Rose once stood.
"Nah, not really." Ace replied.
"Yeah, she's kinda being stalked by this other newbie." Celes sighed with a half-smile.
"Ahh.." Rydia immediately understood.
Later, they were all walking out in the field just outside of Baron. They weren't going anywhere in particular, just leveling up. There Rydia finally contronted her first group of Imps. With her companions knowing that, she felt even more intimitated. She wasn't sure she wanted to stay with these people. They probably thought she were just another annoying newbie, just like all the rest of them.
Sure, she'd form a party with a bunch of other newbies, but there was no way in hell she'd make it to level fifteen alive.
Rydia watched Ace leap up into the air and come crashing down on one of their enemies. His katana sliced straight through the Imp, as Celes attacked the bomb with a level three ice spell. Feeling left out, Rydia tried to help by casting a water spell on a flying creature. That didn't work out so well. The eagle simply flapped its wings strongly, causing Rydia to become soaked.
"You idiot!" Celes frowned, as she held up her bow and shot the eagle with ease. The newbie blushed and looked down, feeling ashamed. "Don't you know any better? You cast water on creatures with thunder attacks, not FLYING ones!"
"Give her a break," Ace broke in. Rydia looked up at him, wondering what he had to say. "She's new and inexperienced. You don't know, she may have gotten the flying creatures mixed up with the electric--or, better yet, she didn't know the difference. Did you think of that, Celes?"
"Bah," she grumbled, "newbies."
After a few fights, Rydia became better than what Celestial Being thought she would be. Not that Celes didn't like her, it's just that people who didn't know anything just happen to annoy her sometimes. Sure they'd make good roleplaying buddies, but when it came to battling boss monsters, she didn't want Rydia to be in her party.
Okay," Celes announced, "Level check!"
"Level check?" Rydia looked confused.
"You don't know what level check is?" Celes almost fell over.
"Level check is when you check eachother's levels."
Rydia still looked confused.
"If someone in your party has "scan" in their spells list, they can use it to see peoples, and monsters', weak points and what level they're at. Plus, how much HP they have."
"Oh," she sounded disappointed. How embarrassing! Not only did they see she was inexperienced, now they were going to see how weak she was too!
"You first!" Celes grinned, "Say cheese!"
With that, she made several different hand movements, casting her spell.
"Scan, now!"
Rydia of the Myst:
Level - 16
HP - 257/320
MP - 112/230
Weak Vs. Weapons
Strong Vs. Magic
"Hey! That's not half bad MP for a level fifteen." Celes commented, though still had to hack her down to size. "But I had almost four hundred HP at that level."
"Oh . . "
"Yyyour turn!"
Ace of the Caracal
Level - 26
HP - 870/1150
MP - 00/000
Weak Vs. Catnip
Strong Vs. Hand-to-Hand
"Haa...!" Celes laughed, reading his stats to him. "Now you do me."
She faced Rydia, readying for the spell to be cast.
"Um.."
"I'm waiting!"
"I. . "
"Mm?"
"I don't know any white spells."
She looked at Rydia, raised a brow at Ace, then returned to Rydia. "You mean to tell me you're a summoner, yet you don't know any white spells??"
"It really depends on when she picked her class."
"Whaddya mean picked her class?!"
"What do you mean, 'picked my class?'"
Another login beep sounded off. Ace turned away from the girls to see Rose walking toward them.
"It's obviously over your heads." She commented.
Off in the distance Rydia caught something coming toward them. Squinting, she placed her hand over her eyes to see what was coming. The wind blew in her face, forcing her green bangs away from her hand.
"What's that?" she asked, catching their attention.
"Greetings!" someone yelled in the distance.
"Oh goodie." Rose said sarcastically, "More mortals to deal with."
"Mortals?"
"Look! Their coming this way!" Celes giggled, walking past Ace, with a hand over her eyes as well. Riding up to them was a Chocobo Knight and a man who apparently was Prince. Rydia blushed, taking her hand down.
"Greetings." Ace smiled, standing the tallest against the chocobo.
"I have good news from the castle."
"It burned down?" Rose asked hopefully.
"No, but we've finally achieved semi-independence."
"Semi-independence?" Celes asked cooly.
"Why yes. We have achieved semi-independence thanks to our wonderful, great, greatful, great great, wonderful, ass-kicking, Baron-running, King Cecil himself. If it were not for him we would not have achieved semi-independence and without semi-independence we would not be able to proclaim ourselves as a semi-independent nation. And without that semi-independence my mother and father wouldn't have their own private room in which they can make whoopie. And without whoopie they wouldn't have been able to create me, but thankfully at one time they did have their own private room in which they did create me thanks to their private room. In case you didn't know, we have a semi-independent nation now. And without a private room I wouldn't exist. And without my existence my parents wouldn't be inspired to have their own semi-independent nation. And without their semi-independent nation, they wouldn't have anyone to brag to about it, and without me, they wouldn't have an extension bragger who likes to brag lots about this new semi-independent nation. And without braggers like me, the Prince of Random, people like you, wouldn't know about Random's existence. And without you knowing about Random's existence, you wouldn't be able to spread the joyous word and you would be stuck out here leveling up without knowing about the joyous existence of Random in its own state. And without my parents making whoopie, they wouldn't have me bragging to you about this new Kingdom, and without me bragging about this new nation, you wouldn't have a know or care about the nation. ...Ya know what I mean?"
"Hoh?" Rydia blinked, staring up at him dumbfounded.
"I still don't care." Rose commented.
"..Now I know what they mean by "Random"." Celes drooled, her eyes swirls.