Disclaimers for all chapters are the same.
-kills the buggy html editor that has tab indentations which refuse to work correctly-Aylara is mine, Xziss is the name of a friend's character, and Aikido is an actual lizard monk character owned by my friend in EQ.
Vocab:
Bank: Server-side storage for a player's items and money.
Patch: A downloaded pack of files for a program that can either fix bugs, add additional files/zones/items/monsters, or take away such things. Usually done weekly or bi-weekly on a regular basis for most online games. Unexpected patches happen if there is a major bug released with the latest patch that needs immediate attention (ie character deletion or something).
TokaGe: A race of lizardmen. Their scales are all shades of gray, and their swimming skill starts off higher than the other races.
Deathloop: First off, these suck. When a character dies, they lose experience, and if they lose enough experience, they can lose a level (Which in higher levels, remember, take longer to gain. It'd be like losing your latest fanfic chapter completely without having had a chance to upload it.). In this game, you have to retrieve your corpse after you die, in order to get all of your equipment back. If you wait too long, the corpse decays, and you lose everything (which had taken a substantial amount of time to gain as well). The loop is where a character continuously dies on their journey to retrieve their first corpse, or if their respawn point was set in a dangerous place, and they die there over and over again. The looping of death results in a major setback. (I've seen players quit games before because of this factor).
:::WARNING:::
The consumption of alcohol is bad! Hanging around people like Ryuuji Otogi can really get someone into trouble, so I don't recommend it (even if he is one awesome bishie).
--------------
Patch Release Notes: v01.01.04
-Fixed a bug in the Inferno Timbers which caused a player to immediately crash to their desktop if they attacked an NPC.
-Added in several new tradeskills! Check your local NPC merchants for recipes, patterns, molds, and other various materials! Now players can bake their own food, and create their own armor. Many quests involving crafting or tradeskills have also been added. Please use the /bug command in the game if you stumble upon any problems.
-Removed the quest for the Energy Ring. The item was overpowered and had the potential to cause class inbalancement.
-Added in several goodies to enhance the online community. Classes with the forage ability will now be able to pick flowers for their friends, and players with a lot of money, or a high crafting skill, can create personalized jewelry for no reason whatsoever. Anything else is up to you players to find! =)
"It's a good thing that we finished that quest that night!" Jounouchi told Nymphe as soon as he popped online. He stretched his fingers, ready to level passed fifty with Nymphe. Tomorrow was the day of the big raid, and he and Nymphe were already level fifty, equal to Otogi and Xiin. Bakura was fifty-two, and was actually the highest level dark knight on the server. Post fifty, the levels became harder to gain, and only one person was beyond fifty-five. Everyone else in the guild was forty-three. That is, all except Anzu…
Nymphe tells you, 'We have a problem.'
Immediately, Jou took his character to the guildhall in Laen that they had bought from an NPC. Everyone was there, including the new players that they had just invited in, Aylara, Xziss, and Aikido.
Aylara was a half-elf, much to everyone's surprise. She was a level forty-eight archer, wearing the classic half-elven silver chainmail, with layered black hair and brown eyes. The other two were TokaGe. Xziss was level forty-five, and an oracle. His tribal markings were red, matching his red eyes. His armor was decorated like that of an ancient witchdoctor. Aikido had black markings, and black eyes, which suited his class well. He was a monk, and only fought with martial arts. This only allowed him to wear minimal cloth armor, or possibly a lightweight robe. He opted for dark green garment. He was level forty-nine.
"I want to quit!" Anzu cried out. Jou ran up to the group, which was circled around Teani, and gave Nymphe a quick hug.
"What's going on?" the blonde asked, staring at Anzu's character. Teani was sitting on the floor of their guildhall, in absolutely nothing. Her character was only clad in what was considered the 'underwear' of elves; a tight green top and short green…shorts.
Nymphe tells you, 'Check her level.'
Jounouchi did as told, and saw that Teani checked in at level forty. She was level forty-three the night before.
"Teani got caught in a deathloop. Her body fell into a lavapit while she was grouped with Renga and Zoerb earlier," Xiin declared.
"It was right near a monster spawn, so we killed the monster, so she could be close enough in range of summoning the corpse out of the lava," Honda added, "But the monster's respawn rate was so quick, that every time she got close to it, the monster would spawn, and attack her, since she was the weakest." It was no wonder to Jou how Honda did so poorly in language classes.
"And I kept falling in! Plus, I had bound myself right there so I wouldn't have to keep running back! I thought it was the smart thing to do…" Anzu sobbed, "I won't be able to raid with you guys tomorrow. Everything, EVERYTHING! It's all gone! It took forever!"
"I'll return shortly," Nymphe stated in the middle of Anzu's rant. She left the guildhall without a word to Jou, which bothered him. After debating for a few moments, he decided to follow her.
When he finally caught up to her, she was in the Laen Bank, trading with a very obese ogre in red armor. He looked to her and questioned, "Hey, what was that all about?" She turned her head slightly to face him, then walked out of the bank. Jou followed her again, wondering why she didn't answer him at all, and they ended up back at the guildhall.
"Out for a little elf lovin', eh Joukatsu?" Otogi teased, trying to lighten the overall mood at the blonde's expense.
Nymphe tells you, 'That would be interesting.'
Jounouchi fell out of his chair at the dirty insinuation. He got back up in time to see Nymphe handing Anzu's character a bunch of things out of her bags.
"Wow! Where did you get all of this?" Anzu cried.
"Some of them have been in my bank forever. The robe and the staff I just bought from an ogre that was sending me messages," Nymphe paused a moment, "With items like that, your statistics will be boosted enough that you'll seem like level forty eight. The only thing missing is the spells that you would get with the levels."
The guild was speechless. The items that Nymphe had just handed over without hesitation were items that other players would kill to have. Although auctioning the items online for en was a violation of the Electronic Users License Agreement, people around Japan would put up offers for such things. Jounouchi, of course, was touched by the whole thing. How had he managed to stumble upon such a fine woman, who liked him, no less? He had thought that the world was full of Kaiba's, previous to meeting her.
Perhaps he really was in love.
Nymphe healed a nearly dead Honda, and then Jou. That ring was paying off, and Jounouchi was glad that he had stayed up all night with her to get it.
"Fire Ghoul add," Yugi announced, while blasting ice spells away at the fire-breathing creature they had come to slay.
"On it!" Anzu declared, casting a dazzle spell on the lanky red monster. Brilliant particles surrounded the ghoul and stopped it in its tracks. It glowered at the enchanter dubiously.
Radiant Eclipse was in the Magma Temple. The final room of the temple was the lair of the mythical creature, known as the High Priest of Flame Itor. The room was mostly filled with lava, and looked more like a cave with all of the stalactites and stalagmites. There were various small stepping stones from the actual temple to the fighting area, which was a small rocky surface in the center of the lava pool. Taking up most of the walking space was a very large humanoid creature, which seemed to be completely ablaze in its own flames.
"Zoerb, get closer to him!" Otogi commanded, "Your spells are causing too much aggro and he will move from his spot to attack you. Everything will be thrown off!"
"Okay," Yugi said, moving his dark robed wizard closer to everyone else.
"I need a.." Honda began to say, as Nymphe's healing spell landed on him, "..Heal." He swung his two handed sword at the knee of the monster.
"He's almost dead!" Jounouchi shouted. The lifebar of the creature was down to fourteen percent, but it kept attacking strong.
Teani re-dazzled the ghoul, and Bakura swiped his reaver at the large beast. Xiin was furiously backstabbing, while the fighters tried their hardest to keep the monster facing the right way. Xziss and Otogi had the jobs of protecting the adventurers, because the monster's flames were causing everyone's health to gradually decrease, in addition to the various other spells and attacks.
"Nice job, Nymphe!" Honda commended, "It's like you never run out of magic energy!"
"That's almost true," the cleric informed him.
"Yeah!" Jounouchi shouted loudly as the monster fell.
You have slain High Priest of Flame Itor!
You gain party experience!
"Kill shot!" he typed excitedly to his guildmates.
"Congratulations, everyone," Otogi smiled, his character strumming a group regeneration song on the lute, "We've just set a new record! I hope that everyone was taking screenshots to post on the message boards."
"We haven't hung out together in a long time, and this seemed like the perfect occasion!" Otogi clicked his glass together with Bakura's. The gang was in Otogi's place, the one right above his store, having a party to celebrate how well their guild was doing.
Jounouchi was wearing his usual, a boring blue tee shirt with boring blue jeans. Honda at least altered his clothing a bit; he was in a brown knit sweater and black jeans. Anzu was still in her usual tank top with a mini skirt, despite the cold weather. Yugi, well, Jou had no idea what his friend was trying to pull, or when he had bought such a weird shirt. It was black, of course, and had two leather belts that criss-crossed in the center. The shirt had a huge chrome zipper right up the front, and black mesh sleeves, and all of this was accompanied by his usual pants and wacky accessories.
Bakura, he was a completely different person. He was becoming influenced by Otogi, that was sure. The black eyeliner was only one of the dead giveaways. He started wearing tight black clothing, and buying biker bracelets. Jou wondered why kids often went through such drastic changes sometimes. Was it a cry for attention? Or was he really into that style, just like Yugi? At any rate, he matched his boyfriend almost exactly, aside from the hairstyle. They both had on long sleeved tees and pleather pants. Jou stared at them for a while, for no apparent reason.
"It's been treating us a lot better than Duel Monsters did," Honda exclaimed. Jounouchi floated back into his own body, and noticed that everyone seemed to be a bit tipsy. Yugi and Anzu were giggling like schoolgirls over a celebrity. Bakura wasn't the least bit reserved. It was all very suspicious. The blonde stared into his own drink, having not taken a single sip of it yet, and tapped the sides of the glass, causing ripples to form.
He set it down on the coffee table, and tapped on Otogi's shoulder to get his attention away from Bakura. The albino took that as some sort of cue to start annoying Honda. He started poking at the brunette's cheek and was doing everything but groping him, causing Honda to be nervous. The outgoing boy quirked an eyebrow, and Jou whispered in his ear, "Okay, Ryuuji, what is everyone drinking?"
The boy stared at him with an intensity that made the blonde blush. There was something about him that made him so desirable, disregarding the fact that he was one cocky bastard. Otogi grinned, and answered, "It's a special drink to celebrate our teamwork, Katsuya…" Knowing that he made Jou nervous, he nuzzled the underside of the boy's chin with his fingers. Jounouchi's dream came flashing back into his head.
"Uhmm…" Jou swallowed, "You should tell people what they are drinking…Honda and I could handle it, and I'm sure you can too, but the others…" He glanced over to Anzu, who was attempting to show Yugi some dance moves. She looked like she was having a seizure.
"Maybe you should have some," Otogi licked his lips, bringing his face dangerously close to Jou's.
"Uhh…" Jounouchi mentally freaked out. Was his friend really about to kiss him, right in front of everybody? Especially his own boyfriend? This wasn't the way that he wanted to come out, but then again, would anyone but the two of them remember, or even care? Honda might tease them about it the next day. He opened his mouth to speak, taking in the taste of alcohol on Otogi's breath, and quietly protested, "I don't want to kiss in front of everyone!"
"You're not my type anyway," Otogi said, dropping Jounouchi coldly before walking over to pry his boyfriend off of Honda.
Jou got up off of the floor, his face still as red as ever. He walked over to Yugi, grabbed him by the arm, then turned to Honda to say, "You're in charge of Anzu. I'm taking Yugi home before he has too much." He led Yugi out of Otogi's place, and they walked home, or at least attempted to, in Yugi's case.
The next day, Honda and Jounouchi found themselves back at Otogi's place. They were accompanied by two very pale and queasy friends; Anzu and Yugi. It was about noon, which was relatively early for the late-night gaming blonde. The two sick ones were dressed relatively normal and warm, while Jou and Honda on the other hand went for jeans and a tee shirt. One would have thought that they had called each other before leaving for the oversized gaming shop.
"What's up guys?" Otogi asked as they entered his living room. His hair was down and messy, and he was just wearing black pajama pants and a black tee. It looked like he had just woken up. He stood behind a chair in the room, straightening his hair with his fingers, waiting for an answer. The semi-ill ones sat meekly on the sofa, but Jou and Honda seemed to be too angry to take a seat.
"You jerk! Do you have any idea what we went through last night?" Jou asked with his voice raised.
"Probably not as nice as what I went through," Otogi smirked.
"You got everyone here drunk!" Honda accused, "I thought that you were better than that, at least!"
"Stop yelling," Yugi requested, holding his palm to his forehead.
"You guys just seemed like you needed to have a little fun," the unreserved boy explained, "So we had some fun." The boy shrugged and flung his long hair behind his shoulders. His indifference made Jounouchi even angrier.
"Yeah, but then I was sick all night," Anzu muttered.
"Uhhn…" a quiet yet cute voice groaned. The group looked toward its origin and saw a very white Ryou Bakura standing in a doorway which seemed to lead to Otogi's bedroom. Jou noticed that he was even paler than normal, and in nothing but a pair of baby blue boxers. His hair was messy and untamed, like he had just crawled out of bed.
"What's with you?" Otogi turned to ask him. His question had an annoyed tone to it, as if he thought that the Bakura was about to start whining. Jou twitched a bit.
"I don't feel very well…and you are all being quite loud," the pallid kid answered.
"So go make yourself some coffee or something," Otogi rudely suggested, turning his back on Bakura. Jou clenched his hands up into fists. How could that guy treat his boyfriend so coldly?
The white-haired boy suddenly made a mad dash across the room, heading for the toilet. The tension in the room raised at the action. Jounouchi wanted to lunge forward and smack the nonchalant person in front of him.
"Great," Otogi complained upon hearing a retching sound, "I'll probably have to go and hold the guy's hair for him."
"That's the least you could do for the kid after getting' him drunk!" Jounouchi yelled, lowering his voice at his last word when he noticed Anzu and Yugi cringe at the volume.
"I can assure you that he enjoyed it, Katsuya," Otogi remarked. He hesitantly began to walk toward the direction of the horrid sounds, but Honda stopped him.
"I'll go take of it for you," he said sternly, leaving the room.
"Good. I really can't stand all of that pukey stuff anyway," Otogi informed everyone.
"Gah!" Jou let out, "I can't stand that attitude of yours anymore!" He charged toward Otogi and punched him in his left cheekbone. Unprepared for the attack, the victim was knocked on his rear end. Anzu gasped at the sight.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Otogi shouted. He rubbed his face where a bruise was already beginning to appear. He stood up, not waiting for an answer, and shoved the infuriated blonde into the wall behind him. Otogi exhaled deeply and said, "You're making a big deal out of nothing." His eyebrows flinched as he heard more gagging.
"What's wrong with me is that you did something to your friends against their own will!" Jounouchi shouted. Still hostile about the situation and the recent shoving, Jou attacked Otogi again. The boy could not block it in time, since he was in the process of cowering away. Jou landed that hit in the boy's left eye, sending him backwards, but not to the floor again. Each punch left him feeling satisfied that Otogi was paying for what he did.
"Stop it Jounouchi!" Yugi protested as the blonde pummeled Otogi right there in the living room.
"What's going on in here?" Honda asked, having rushed back into the room with Bakura at all the commotion. The brunette immediately witnessed the terrible fight ensuing in front of him and dashed to pull Jounouchi off of Otogi.
"Honda!" Jou objected, "Lemme go!" He struggled to get his arms out of Honda's grasp.
"No!" Honda replied, "I know ya, Jounouchi. You're so angry that you could really hurt him!" Jou glanced over at the beaten boy on the floor. Otogi placed his hand on a nearby chair to brace himself up to his feet. He used the back of his other hand to wipe away the blood that trickled out of the side of his mouth.
So what if he hurt him? Anzu, Yugi, and Bakura had all gotten sick from his little stunt. Who knows what the weird dice kid was referring to when he talked about his boyfriend. It was despicable, to say the least.
"Get out," Otogi uttered, turning his back away from the group. Bakura slowly dragged himself over to his bruised boyfriend, not realizing the extent of his words.
"You too," Otogi scathed, "Everyone, get the hell out." He gave the undressed boy a nasty look out of the corner of his eyes. He walked back into his bedroom and tossed a heap of black clothing into the room, then slammed the door.
"I almost thought that you wouldn't be on at all today," Seto said to Jou, "You haven't been on in two days."
"Well, let me explain," the warrior said as he walked alongside the girl. They were heading in no particular direction; just aimlessly meandering around Laen.
"Go ahead, I'm curious," Seto replied. Curious? No, more like upset. He hadn't seen Joukatsu since he logged off after that raid. A few of his other guildmates had been online, but he wasn't all that anxious to see them. He couldn't bring himself to group with any of them unless Jou was around.
In between meetings and business, he had actually taken up blacksmithing. Seto found a few quests that rewarded components to create really high level cleric armor, so he'd been doing that for two days. If Joukatsu wasn't around, he'd have to be powerful enough to play by himself, though the thought of doing so made him want to uninstall the game itself.
"Well, I went to this party at my friend's place after that raid. My friends got real drunk and didn't know it, so I had to take one of 'em home. He can't handle himself too good, so he was sick all night, even though he didn't drink a lot." It still boggled Seto's mind as to why high school kids even got involved in such things. He listened to Jou continue.
"The next day I took care of him, and tried to explain what happened. All my friends ended up getting into a huge fight, which we finally fixed today," he sighed, "It was horrible. I'm so exhausted. I actually ended up giving one of 'em a black eye."
"The one that gave everyone the alcohol?"
"Yeah, no way I would just go around hittin' everyone." Jou let out a small laugh.
Seto relaxed in his chair, and checked the clock. It was one thirty in the morning. He wondered why he even bothered waiting up all day for Jou, when he could have had a good rest and taken care of some loose ends. Jou would have told him tomorrow, or the next day. It was no big deal, was it?
"You waited for me all day, didn't ya?"
Seto blinked. Does telepathy work through the internet? Of course not, that would be illogical.
"You said that you thought I would never show. You've been waiting around, haven't you?"
"Yes," he admitted, "However, I took up smithing to pass the time."
"Impy…" Joukatsu gave Nymphe a kiss, "That's so sweet of you, but you should get your rest if you need to."
It was only the second kiss that they had ever shared, even though it was just a silly animation of two digitized characters. The thought of that saddened Seto. It wasn't real, and it never could be real. Once school started again, he wouldn't have time for the game. The realization crushed him; it was entirely his fault to begin with.
He was the one who chose to play the game. He was the one who chose to play a female character, in order to hide his identity. How would Joukatsu react when he discovered that Nymphe was actually a boy? Jou would probably feel so betrayed that he would never speak to him again. Perhaps it was Karma that had gotten him into this mess.
"Impy?"
"Yes?" Seto replied, having wiped the small amount of tears that had trickled down his face with the back of his hand.
"You're silent, and you've stopped walking. Do you want to go into the guildhall and talk?"
"Sure," he replied, barely able to use the arrow keys to follow his friend to the building.
"Impy?"
"Joukatsu," Seto began, having a difficult time typing for the first time in life, "We aren't real characters. The only things that we know about each other are imaginary and made up."
"That's only a half-truth, Nymphe," Jou hugged the girl, "We know our personalities, which is all that matters."
"It isn't," Seto spat back.
"You're right," the human admitted, "I want to hold you, but I can't. It hurts, but there isn't anything that we can really do about it, unless we were to really meet."
That sparked an idea in Seto's head. Of course they could meet! He had the money to go anywhere in Japan. There was just one problem, though.
"The truth is, I do want to meet you. I think that I'm in love with you, Impy."
Seto held his breath as he reread the chat screen nearly fifty times over. He began to get dizzy, from both the lack of oxygen and the shock of Jou's confession.
This was it. Joukatsu had to know before it went any further. He couldn't admit his own feelings until he was certain that the warrior wouldn't run away from him. He was ready to be with a man, even if he had to hide it for the sake of Kaiba Corporation. Seto shook his head. Forget that. He would have nothing to hide if Joukatsu had the ability to look past his gender.
"There's something that I need to tell you, Jou," Seto informed him.
"What is it?"
"I'm…not who you think that I am," Seto swallowed his stomach, "I'm a man."
Thanks to all who have reviewed thus far. The fans of the story are becoming too long to list! I really appreciate all of the feedback so far...and I can assure you, your concerns and questions will all be answered in time. Remember, the story is already written ;), I'm just holding out because I can. It'll be a nice surprise for those of you who have anticipated certain parts. I must say though, that the suggestion to have Kaiba Corp. buy the game from the company is certainly an interesting one.
When all chapters are up and posted, I'm thinking of making some side stories if I have time to in between working on my other four stories between here and fictionpress (if ya like violence I recommend Agent X3 or Virei Xi).
Hope you enjoyed this chapter (and its evil cliffie).
Zelia Theb