Chapter Two

Disclaimer

I don't own Mabinogi nor any NPC's connected. Either Devcat or Nexon does.

A/N

Well I bet many of you are wondering what craziness is in stored for our hero in this chapter. Oh and I see I have not named the main character in the last chapter. That is on purpose. I am want to see if anyone can recognize just who it is. I know some already know but I wonder if anyone else can. Oh and since I do not have permission from anyone other player I know to use their character's name in this story I will be making them up as well as the guild name. I have to come up with something cool sounding and simple though. Sheesh…


When I got to the Tir town square, what I saw halted me. I saw 'Danster', the leader of the guild I was in, Hellcats. At one time the Hellcats guild was the leading guild of Mabinogi NA. It is also one of the oldest guilds. It started almost since the very beginning. Danster was always the leader and as such he is well known.

I on the other hand tend to keep out of the public sight. I like to take care of the stuff behind the scenes. I tend to make players like Danster look good even if they don't realize it or not. Danster though did not need my help looking good. He works very hard on his own and is friendly to everyone.

One other thing that made him popular is that he cares about everyone and goes out of his way if he thinks someone is in trouble. This is why he is here today. I am sure of it. I always answer him when he directly tries to contact him. I knew he would come looking for me since I could not answer him earlier. I just figured it would be sometime later before he found me. I am aware how differently time passes for me than to him now.

Danster noticed me and came over. I was both dreading this and hoping for this to happen. On one hand I still can't communicate with the other militants (players) yet. On the other hand Dan is very smart, I am betting he is just as smart as I am so maybe I can somehow get thru to him my plight. As he came over I read the caption box above him, "Geez, I been searching for you everywhere. I was surprised to see your old toon on the guild membership roster especially since you told me you deleted it by mistake. I know I did not authorize it back in yet so something is up. I wanted to know if you knew something."

I again tried everything in my power to communicate with him but to no avail. I felt anguish and suddenly to my surprise I was doing the gesture for anguish. My gesture also surprised Daniel who knew me not to do many gestures.

Suddenly Dan's prized horse pops up and he mounts it, "Well I can see you are not going to answer me soon. Call me when you figure it out."

No! He can't leave here like this. I needed his help to figure some of this stuff out. I only reacted at this point. I grabbed one of the daggers on my hips and threw it literally at his head. I did it without thinking and it took me by surprise for knife throwing was not programmed into Mabinogi as I know of.

Danster was surprised to but for a different reason. He did not see the knife toss. He saw the dagger embed itself into the tree in front of him. As I mentioned, Dan has been in the game as long as I have been which is almost from the very beginning. He knows a lot more of the game than I do since I tend to create new characters just to experience the first three storylines. He only has three characters, his human, elf, and giant. He got the elf and giant when the Iria update went into effect. Technically, he made his elf the leader of the guild so others will not know when he is online. Over the years, he got sick and tired of the many interruptions when someone PM him. At times he got so many his screen got filled up with nothing but PM's.

I know how he feels. When I started playing, I was popular as well. I would be in a dungeon run with a close friend when I get about 5 PM's all at once. I would have to stop and answer them just to be nice. My comrade with me in the dungeon would chuckle irritably knowing why I stopped and just wait for me to work thru the PM's. It got worse when I started a guild of my own before joining Hellcats. I was not a good leader but a better friend. The guild did not last long.

Anyways like I said Dan is very smart and knows the game inside and out so he know my throwing the dagger and is embedding itself into the sacred tree near Duncan is impossible. He got off his mount and cancelled the summons. Then he looked from me to the dagger in the tree and back again, before speaking, "OK that got my attention. I take it it's not that you will not answer me it's that you can't figure out how to answer me. I saw you do a gesture before. If you can do the gesture then wave if I am correct."

I thought about the gesture he mentioned, the one for anguish. I did do that but had no idea how. Then it hit me, it was my emotion that triggered it. I then tried to wave using the emotion I feel whenever I wave in the real world. It worked, I waved.

"Ok, for whatever reason your typing interface with the game is disconnected. Let's use the gestures for now. Can you bow?"

Again I had to think about it and suddenly I bowed after which I waved to him. "Good now let's test this in sequence to make sure you can do these whenever you wish without thinking."

We must have spent about an hour on the exercise before I got down pat. "Excellent! Now use the gesture for wave as yes and bow for no. Are you physically stuck in this game like in those animes we discussed earlier?"

'My god. He knows. He knows. He knows what happened to me,' I thought to myself before I waved.

"I really need to have your side of things before I can figure out a way to maybe help you." I saw his avatar went still which was evident that he was thinking in the real world. Suddenly his caption bubble above read, "I am going to try the Skype interface. It might work as your old avatar you deleted suddenly reappeared on the membership roster alerting me. Maybe your old Skype account you deleted is suddenly back up well. I know you did not have a microphone but maybe you won't need one."

I had not thought about that. I hope it works. I told you Dan was smart. A minute later, I heard a voice, "Hello? Jack? Do you hear me?"

Elated, I waved like maniac, which he chuckled at. "Ok I was correct about your old Skype account being here. You told me you deleted it too. Now try to speak aloud to see if I can hear you."

I used the words that first came to mind, "Testing one two three."

Dan laughed, "I hear you loud and clear. Now tell me what is going on."

For the few hours I told him about my plight of waking up here and finding I was now living inside the Mabinogi game and for all purposes this world is not the Mabinogi he knows. Well it may be for him but for me it is vastly different. I told him how time works for me here and I told him how I can't use any of my skills. I then told him I can call my horse but riding him was something else entirely.

When I was done, Dan was quiet. I knew what I had was hard to swallow but how else do you explain what all I have said. Then, the dagger that was in the tree disappeared and reappeared back on my hip.

"It makes sense now. But you said that time passes differently for you here than it does for me?"

"Yes and your point being Dan?"

"Well we been together for about 3 hours now and I know I have seen the sun rise and set about nine times already meaning nine game days has passed for us."

Come to think of it I saw that but did not pay close attention to it since I was talking to Danster.

"But I clearly know how the game hour felt to me!" I exclaimed.

Dan thought carefully for a second, "Were you with another player at the time?"

I thought for a second myself. Up until now, I was not actively engaged with another player. I observed them yes but not engaged in conversation with them or actively playing with them. It dawned on me that was the difference and that Dan knows it. When I am alone, game time is different for me than when I am participating in game play with another player. For all purposes, I became a highly advanced NPC. That thought scared me.

Dan must have known what I was thinking for his next statement jolted me into my new reality. "You are not an NPC. However, you are no longer a Player either. You seem more than that. I do know whatever force made you like this wanted us to be able communicate with each other. How else do you explain you being on the guild roster suddenly as well you old Skype account reactivated?"

"Well unfortunately I have to log out for a while. You mentioned you have to go see Tarlach as he might have the answers you seek. It's almost 6pm game time and time for you should slow after I leave. You should have enough time to get to moongate and use it to get to him by 6. Good Luck and I look forward to hearing what Tarlach has told you."

Danster logged off after that.


A/N

Well this has been an interesting chapter as this story has been interesting for me write so far. I don't rightly know which direction I will take with this (bad guy that is) but it will be fun finding out.

Do anyone bells been ringing in their heads as to whom I may be or about anything else for that matter?

Please comment/review.

Edit: Shortly after getting my internet back up after some months of it being down I found out rather sadly that Mabinogi had advanced so far that it left my poor computer in the dust. I am no longer able to log into the game as my comrades are still able to. Oh well the dream was great while it lasted. Luckily one of my other games still allows me to play but it is not the same as Mabinogi. Nothing will ever be : ( .