I'm a video game nerd. So, I felt like writing a story to convey that nerdiness. I've had the idea for a while, but, I was listening to my Mp3 player, and I felt compelled to write this finally, mainly out of nostalgia, but also out of shear boredom. It's my take on the character's from Final Fantasy XIII, if they played World of Warcraft.
Like I said, I'm a nerd. Though, I haven't played much since the new expansion came out, so I'm not gonna use it in my story. Everything will be based on WoTLK (Wrath of the Lich King for those who have lives). This will be slightly AU. Takes place after the game, but Fang and Vanille never went to sleep, so they're alive and well. Might add other characters in as time goes on. Also, 100 gil is equal to 1 dollar in our world, as there are some monetary values used that are taken into account, in this chapter at least.
K, now for the names of the characters and their class/races. I will use the character names for when they speak in-game, and I will be using a format similar to how WoW handles chat. All characters are in brackets [Character] like this, and there are other things that I will explain if you guys get lost. I'm afraid that you guys might get lost, so I'll explain in detail at the bottom AN. This one's long enough as it is…
Note: All of the protagonists play Alliance, and all the antagonists play Horde. (No antagonists as of yet, but there will be, hopefully…I'm a hordie myself) Also, only 5 characters can group up at a time, at least in a simple enough manner, so I will have the group in a guild so that they have an easier way of communicating and keeping track of each other (see bottom AN for more info).
Lightning- Stormblade- Night Elf Rogue
Snow- Steelguard- Draenei Paladin
Hope- Delesto- Human Priest
Sazh- Chocoblitz- Dwarf Hunter
Vanille- Oerbanmage- Gnome Warlock
Fang- Oerbayunfang- Night Elf Druid
Serah- Farroncutie- Gnome Mage
Yuj- Sexibaest- Gnome Rogue
Gadot- Noauthority- Draenei Warrior
Lebreau- Angrybairmaid- Dwarf Priest
Anyway, that's all for this painstakingly long A/N. I'll go ahead and write the story now.
The soldier couldn't believe what had come over her. Not only had she let herself buy this infernal game (A value of a whopping 10000 gil), but she also had to sit through a 7 hour installation, and only 2 hours of that was the actual game. Next time she saw Snow, she was going to knock him clear back to Cocoon.
Still, when Serah asked her to try the game, she couldn't say no, could she? She tried to, but Serah gave the puppy dog eyes and played the hurt little child, so Lightning reluctantly agreed to try the game.
She didn't like that she had to make the account with the company, Blizzard, as Snow had called them, nor did she like the 1500 gil a month fee to play. So, she just bought a 3000 gil, 2 month prepaid card to at least try the game. Of course, after she had done all this, she heard about the 14-day free trial from Snow.
Yeah, she was going to kill the man when she saw him next.
When she was finally given the option to play, she clicked on the icon on her desktop and opened the browser, sound on and playing from her speakers. After a cinematic she didn't care to watch, the Terms of Service popped up. She didn't read them, like most people, and only scrolled down because she had to.
As she clicked the "I Agree" button, a loud roar was heard from her speakers that nearly sent her out of her skin. She immediately shut them off, panting heavily. On the log-in screen, a skeletal dragon, or what looked like a dragon, had roared, and she made a mental note never to open the game with her sound on.
After putting in her information, she was directed to the server selection screen. Snow had given her the server to play on- Exodar, he said. She found the world near the top, with it's population saying "New Players". She clicked enter world, and was now redirected to the Create-a-Character screen.
She had been given directions to create an "Alliance" character, this word from Serah. So, looking around the screen, which was centered on an ugly, blueish green humanoid, hunched over, wearing tribal leathers, and using a shield and mace. It was over a background of a brown sky, on a large rock. "Troll Shaman" was the Race and Class. Male Troll Shaman.
"No freaking way." Lightning said shortly, clicking on the female symbol to change the gender. She could've sworn that her mind had been playing tricks on her, because what was on the screen still looked like a male. She actually gagged when she saw that she was wrong, and the "Troll" was indeed female.
"Good fuck, no way." She said disgustedly, clicking the first thing that caught her interest- A night elf. The screen paused all animations for a second, before changing to a forest scene. The female now on the screen was much more pleasing on the eyes. She was slender yet muscular, wielding two short daggers, donned in red/black leather armor.
The actual night elf herself was blue. She had silver, glowing eyes, occasionally dimmed as she blinked. She had shoulder length white hair, which was perfectly straight. She had some tribal markings on her face that Lightning didn't like too much. She looked under appearance, seeing the different options. The bottom one said "Markings". She cycled through until she saw one she liked- It was like she was wearing thick eyeshadow, though it looked a lot more attractive on her than ungodly amounts of eyeshadow.
She was pleased with the character, which bounced up and down, much like something Vanille would do if she stayed still too long. Pleased with her work, Lightning hit the Accept button, only to get a pop up. "Please enter a name." It said. Lightning frowned, hitting the Randomize button once, pulling up the name "Ghie". Has a nice ring to it. Lightning thought, clicking the Accept button once again.
"Name is currently unavailable."
"Son of Etro…" Lightning cursed, backspacing the 4 letters when she had to chance to. She tapped the keyboard impatiently as she tried to think of a name, or give it at least a half-hearted attempt. She randomly typed in "Stormblade" into the box, hitting the Accept button a third time. This time, she went to a character select screen, with a box that said, "Stormblade, Level 1 Night Elf Rogue, Teldrassil"
She hit enter world, and saw a large picture depicting several races, as she had assumed, looking like they were in conflict, over what looked like a map. She was confused as she appeared behind her character, standing before a man with a large, yellow '!' over his head. Around her were several other people like her, killing pigs and cats, and kneeling down before their corpses.
Then, she saw a name, or so she thought, of one of the players, that stuck out just over her character. It wasn't her name, but it was familiar. "Oerbayunfang" it said, and Lightning had to struggle to read the whole thing properly. Then, realization hit her.
She typed the word "Fang?" into her keyboard, which only caused her look to her left. She tried again when the name didn't go through, and, the chat box moved, displaying the simple question-
[Stormblade] says: Fang?
A few seconds went by before the person in question asked back.
[Oerbayunfang] says: How do you know my name?
Lightning scoffed, typing on her keyboard her response.
[Stormblade] says: Other than the fact that your name is your name, it's Lightning.
Fang must've hit some button on her end, because she saw, in orange lettering. "Oerbayunfang places her face in her hand"
[Oerbayunfang] says: Oh, I forgot you were gonna play too.
A few seconds went by as Lightning typed, interrupted by another sentence.
[Oerbayunfang] says: Why'd you pick a rogue?
Lightning stopped what she had been typing to read this. Now that she thought back, she didn't even touch any classes, just randomly hitting the Accept key when she finally could.
[Stormblade] says: I just took the first one that popped up.
Lightning swore she could hear the chuckle Fang let out, as she typed in 3 simple letters.
[Oerbayunfang] says: lol
Fang's character also laughed, because Lightning saw movement underneath her character, that inferred that the night elf was, indeed, laughing. Lightning gave a scowl that was unseen b anyone.
[Stormblade] says: I didn't want to play this game anyway. Serah and Snow made me do it.
A few seconds went by before another player walked up to the two, though she paid no mind to the two. Instead, she was talking, as it looked like, to the man in front of her, with the '!' over his head.
Fang's character moved forward, and Lightning's cursor went over the character.
"Oerbayunfang, Level 1 Night Elf Druid" was attached to the hand that was her cursor. Lightning sighed.
[Stormblade] says: What's a druid?
Fang again "lol"'d, causing her character to laugh, obviously at Lightning. And, once again, Lightning gave an unseen scowl.
[Oerbayunfang] says: It's a shape shifting class. From what I've heard, I can become a cat, a bear, a tree or a moonkin, whatever that is.
Lightning thought on it, then realized that the class suited Fang well. Not only was her name "Fang", associated with animals, but Fang was a very feral fighter in combat. Lightning had even been on the receiving end of a Fang attack one time. Still, she had to ask.
[Stormblade] says: A tree?
Fang, who had turned around to face the man with the '!' over his head, stopped as she typed.
[Oerbayunfang] says: I have no ******* idea.
Lighting looked at the words carefully, making sure that she wasn't losing her mind. Did Fang just use asterisks? Then Fang typed in more.
Oerbayunfang] says: Forgot to turn off swearing filter.
Lightning wasn't even going to ask.
Then, a pop-up displayed on her screen, causing an uncharacteristic flinch from the soldier.
"Oerbayunfang" invites you to join a group"
Deciding to just go with it, she hit the accept button, and was given a small portrait of Fang's character, with her name and other info, on her left side, underneath her own info.
But, there was two other character's in the group. One was "Farroncutie", so it was most likely Serah. The other was "Steelguard", so Lightning assumed it was Snow.
[Party Leader] [Steelguard]: Hey, Lightning!
[Stormblade] says: What?
[Oerbayunfang] says: You know, you gotta typed /p first, then you can talk to him.
Lightning felt a sudden urge to slap the Oerban, who was most likely laughing at her right now. Thankfully, she didn't say it into the chat that Snow was in.
[Party Leader] [Steelguard]: You there, Light?
[Party] [Stormblade]: What, Snow?
[Oerbanmage] has joined the party.
[Party] [Oerbanmage]: Hey guys!
Lightning wanted to ask who had just joined, but Serah answered for her.
[Party] [Farroncutie]: Hi Vanille!
[Party Leader] [Steelguard]: So, Light, you made a rogue?
[Party Leader] [Stormblade]: No, the game made the rogue. I just clicked the accept button.
[Party] [Oerbanmage]: lol
Lightning glared at the character portrait of Vanille.
[Party] [Oerbayunfang]: Now, now, Van. Play nice.
[Party] [Oerbanmage]: Okay.
A few seconds of silence, or at least, no text, went by, before Snow broke it.
[Party Leader] [Steelguard]: So, you guys want to meet up somewhere?
[Party] [Oerbanmage]: Sure.
[Party] [Oerbayunfang]: Where to, then?
[Party Leader] [Steelguard]: You guys know where Stormwind City is or how to get there?
[Party] [Stormblade]: No
[Party] [Oerbanmage]: Yeah
[Party] [Oerbayunfang]: Yep.
[Party Leader] [Steelguard]: Okay. Fang, you can lead Lightning to Stormwind. We'll meet you there.
[Party] [Oerbayunfang]: Gotcha.
Lightning followed Fang for a very long time, running through a city named "Darnassus", and running through a weird portal that she thought was just a veil of some kind. Though, she had to admit, the whole area was lovely, and looked a lot like Gran Pulse at times.
After waiting for a boat to arrive (which took a few minutes), they got a loading screen, similar to but different than the one Lightning got when she first made her character.
[Party] [Stormblade]: Did Hope make a character?
[Party Leader] [Steelguard]: Yeah, he's here with me and Serah right now. Can only have 5 characters in a party at a time.
[Party] [Stormblade]: Oh.
They arrived in Stormwind City, which was a stark contrast to the natural beauty of Darnassus. This looked like a fortress, with cobblestones, stone walls, and tall watchtowers. It looked very nice, though.
She again followed Fang to the rendezvous point: The park. It looked more like where she was just recently, with fountains and a lot of green. She saw what she assumed to be Snow's character, as it had his name over it.
He was big, just like the man, but purple/blue, not like Snow (Unless you count the time Lightning caught him peeping at her while she bathed in Sulyya Springs during their journey). He was taller than Light's character by a little bit, wearing blue armor that matched his skin. He had no hair, but had two, flesh tone (his flesh tone, that is) horns that looked like a devil's head. She hovered her cursor over his character.
"Steelguard, Level 3 Draenei Paladin"
Next to him, almost impossible to see due to their shortness, were 2 female characters. They both had pink hair, though they had different styles. The one that said "Oerbanmage" had a small, black creature following her, with green fire dancing around it. It's name was "Zepnam", and Lightning thought Vanille must've just hit random buttons to make his name.
"Oerbanmage. Level 2 Gnome Warlock"
The other one was Serah. She had her hair in a tall bun that looked more like a spiral horn than a hairstyle. She was sitting, barely coming up to Snow's knee, even with her hair.
"Farroncutie, level 4 Gnome Mage"
Finally, there was who Lightning assumed was Hope. His character looked like a normal person, with very light skin and even lighter hair. He had on white/blue robes, and he too was sitting.
"Delesto, level 2 Human Priest"
[Delesto] says: Hey Light, Fang.
[Stormblade] says: Hi, Hope.
[Steelguard] says: Okay, now that we are all here, we need to discuss something.
[Oerbayunfang] says: What? (Light could see Fang's eyebrow raise in question)
[Steelguard] says: We're going to make a guild, the ten of us.
[Stormblade] says: I only count 6.
[Chocoblitz] says: Don't forget me, soldier. (Lightning guessed it was Sazh.)
[Steelguard] says: That's Sazh. And, the guys from NORA are here as well.
[Sexibaest] says: Yuj here!
[Angrybarmaid] says: Lebreau
[Noauthority] says: It's Gadot.
[Steelguard] says: Okay, I'm gonna ask you guys to sign this charter, and then I'll turn it in and we'll be a guild.
[Stormblade] says: Okay…
[Steelguard] says: It'll have a name that will go under ours in , and we'll be able to see when each other are on and talk to them without joining a party.
[Stormblade] says: Right…
[Farroncutie] says: Lightning, you're no fun!
[Steelguard] says: Anyways, here we go.
A popup again appeared.
"Guild charter for THE FORMER LCIE"
Lightning clicked the sign button, and, when everyone signed it, Snow took off.
A minute later, a small notice appeared in the chat log.
"You are now a member of the guild THE FORMER LCIE."
[Guild] [Steelguard]: Now, we're gonna split into 2 parties and go level up our characters now.
[Guild] [Steelguard]: Now, here are the groups…
Chapter one finished. It's actually hard to explain this to someone, despite being in-game almost everyday for 5 months. I'm a true nerd, huh?
Okay, now, for those who have lives, let me explain the chat system.
The channel the person is speaking in, unless it's Say chat or a whisper, is in brackets before the person's name. There are several channels to learn.
[General]- This is the channel that's supposed to be used for general discussion (It never is, unless you're not in a city, and even then, it's used rarely, only as a way to ask for help on something.)
[Trade] (Cities only)- This is the chat that is supposed to be used for in-game trading, but it isn't, really. Sure, people use it for this reason. However, most people in cities use it for random discussion. It's the channel most used in WoW.
[Local Defense]- Never really used. Supposed to be used for when your faction is under attack by a player (or players) from the other faction, but, at least at this point in the game, no one takes note of this. Most people who use this use it to be different, that's all.
[Guild Recruitment] (Cities only)- Self explanatory. Used to recruit people hoping to join a guild. Most guilds do what is called "raiding", which will be explored in later chapters.
[Party]- Used only when you are in a party. The Party Leaded appears with [Party Leader] before their name. Only people in the party can see party text, and only for that particular party. You can only be in one party at a time.
[Guild]- By typing in /g, you enter the Guild channel. Like the party channel, this can only be used if you are in a guild. Guilds are groups of people who are either friends, people raiding together on a regular basis, or just looking for people to talk to while they play. The guild leader can't be told from his entries, only by looking at the ranks in the guild pane. You can still group up with people while in a guild, and they don't need to be in your guild to do so.
[Raid]- Entered while in a raid and you type in /r. A form of a party, but it is larger. A raid is usually considered a raid when 10 people group up, though a technical raid can be 2 people. Raids have an 8 group limit, meaning 40 people at the most. The party leader needs to make his group a raid before he can add more than the first group. You need 2 people in a party to make a raid, though the other can be offline, as long as the party isn't disbanded. [Raid Leader] shows who's the raid leader. Not as useful as a group for everyday questing and leveling, as you can only do raid quests in a raid group, and you get a large reduction of experience when you are in a raid. As such, you only raid to do raid dungeons. Again, this will be explore in depth in later chapters.
[Raid Warning]- Activated when you typed in /rw. A raid warning is displayed to the entire raid, appearing not only on their chat box, but also on the actual screen, taking up a fairly good amount of space. Used to make sure the raid gets information that is vital (Works on people who pay attention, at least…)
Finally, there are whispers. Whispers are sent to a person when you type /w [character name], and are only visible to the sender and the receiver. You can reply to a whisper by typing in /r or just hitting the r key. Also, you can send a whisper to a person by right clicking on a a person name in the chat box. Used mainly between friends who aren't in a group, or someone who you are doing something for and need to find them.
Good lord, I've gone on too long. Uh…guess I'll stop here. I'll answer any questions you guys have if you ask me in your review. Felt like I had to explain the chat system for fear of losing some people.
Next Chapter will be more oriented towards gameplay and basic interactions. Also, I'm gonna change the perspectives every now and then. Next chapter will be in someone else's PoV. Don't know who's yet.
R&R!