Oscar

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Oscar made no effort to brace against the attack. He wouldn't show any opponent the disrespect of not taking them seriously. No, he would treat them just as he would any other human opponent. It would be a disservice to the both of them if he feigned pain or fear at the end of another's blade. And so, as his opponent managed to push through their triggered trap, he casually leaned to the side at the final moment. The maneuver allowed him to avoid the brunt of the attack, only barely scraping by with a slight amount of damage. A smile crept onto his face as <<Divine Rancor>> manifes

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“Well let me rephrase,” Oscar said when she finished speaking. It was important that she did. While it was certainly appearing to be an impromptu therapy session, Oscar would never begrudge anyone the opportunity to speak honestly. Maybe it was a habit from his actual profession, the one he was educated and trained for. But a conversation such as this would beget understanding. Had she ever been this open with anyone? It had been her own words, after all. I'm surrounded by people who think they know best. And even if Oscar was as dumb as he wanted people to think he was, he wouldn't

Oscar made his way back to the quest giver after handling Burlock. Much to his relief, Abellio was waiting for him. "You got fucked up dude," Oscar said with a wave. "But that was some damn fine tanking. Up until the end. Where you almost died." Oscar smiled at Abellio, beginning the end dialogue with the pirate. Again, Oscar kept his NPC hand strong and skipped the dialogue with a sharp slap across the face. The Pirate, skipping his dialogue, simply disappeared and left Oscar and Abellio with their rewards. Oscar beckoned for Abellio to follow, calling his weapon back to his hand to

Burlock did none of that. He followed his programming. Sneering and snarling and pretending to be what the System thought that a pirate should be. They had reached the uncanny valley. The point where things became too human that it was easy to sense that something was wrong. The reactions were hollow, if there even was one. Even as Oscar plunged his blade into the Quartermaster's chest. Even as he ripped it out and delivered another slice from shoulder to hip. Even as he relieved the NPC of its own head. No reaction. Nothing except for the wild death throes that were again, just programming. T

A swing and a miss. Oscar really needed to focus up. But, there wasn't really any hurry. Abellio was safely out of danger and every second he spent here was more time for the poison to wear off and the man's health to refill. Burlock wasn't having much luck either. It was poetic, though. Watching the Blight slowly drain the boss's health bar was cathartic. Ironic. A small dose of revenge for the jump scare both Abellio and Oscar had to suffer through. Oscar took a beat, watching the boss for a time. This was why he didn't take NPCs seriously anymore. They weren't emotive. Blank facsimiles of h

Oscar exhaled a heavy sigh as Abellio disappeared. That was way too fucking close for comfort. And it ticked him off. Oscar wouldn't say that he and Abellio were super close. More of a mentor/mentee relationship. Or a Carry/Noob situation. Either way you sliced it, Oscar felt a certain sense of responsibility for getting the dude home alive. And Burlock had made the mistake of putting that whole arrangement in jeopardy. Oscar tossed away his shitty weapon, using Quick Change to call Divine Rancor back to his hand. Lady Luck was the skill name. He'd seen it. He'd clocked it. And now it was

"Yeah sure," Oscar replied as he casually swung his weapon at the boss. More specifically, as he casually swung and missed his attack on the boss. "Or not..." Well this wasn't good. Abellio was at the top of the Hate Chart, which meant that... "Oh no," Oscar said mournfully. Burlock reared back and drove his cutlass into Abellio's chest. Much to his credit, Abellio took it like a champ. Not a flash of fear or a surge of panic. Though, this was one of those times to worry about it. Oscar quickly grabbed his Teleportation Crystal from his inventory and handed it off to Abellio.

Oscar followed suit and claimed his own weapon of the seas. Oscar pulled the blade from the radiance, giving it a few swings to test its weight. He held it in front of his face, frowning when he realized that it didn't hold a candle to any single one of the blades in his collection. But, given what he had heard from the Info Brokers, Oscar was required to use it at least for a little while. But he didn't have to like it. He reckoned all that he needed to do was tag the boss with the weapon a couple times and switch back to his good shit. By all reports, all that needed to happen was to see the

"It feels real, but it isn't Abellio," Oscar said as he recovered from his previous attack. He could tell, even if he was barely focused on the fiery-haired man that this first instance of actually tanking was doing a number on him. "It's still just a game. There's barely any feedback when they hit you right?" Oscar wheeled around, throwing himself into the throng of enemies with another powerful AOE strike. "Trust me, if you were actually being stabbed, you wouldn't just be standing there." He followed through, carving through the remaining pirates and reducing them all to glass-like crystall

Maybe Oscar had been wrong. Abellio was being an excellent meat shield. He was able to keep the minions busy, which allowed Oscar the freedom to choose his angle of attack. And choose he did. Targeting both of the minibosses - alongside two of the minions - Oscar kept up his combo from before. One of the boatswains exploded into shards immediately. The other was a touch more durable, but it wasn't anything that Oscar couldn't deal with next round. The unfortunate circumstance was that he couldn't target all of the deckhands in one go. So Abellio, stunned as he was, had to suffer through anothe

"Oh fuck off, dude," Oscar said with a half smile. "You're not that much shorter than me." A lie. Oscar stood almost a full head taller than most Players. Abellio wasn't short by any stretch of the imagination, but Oscar still towered over him. He chuckled and beckoned for Abellio to follow. Ill Man's Cove was clearly marked in their interfaces. It would have been a straight shot if not for the fact that Abellio was still so low-level that he aggroed pretty much everything in his general area. It was rough going, having to carve through every NPC and monster. And even if Abellio had a wea

Oscar exhaled a slight laugh. Of course he didn't. It didn't matter too much. If memory served, it wasn't like a Level 10 Player was going to do much in this quest. He might make an adequate meatshield, but that was probably about the extent of it. Though, Oscar wasn't certain if Abellio was quite ready to be tanking much of anything either. He was throwing the young man to the sharks, literally and figuratively. But before he could question it much further, the quest NPC started yapping in his ear. Oscar let him get a few words out before delivering a sharp slap across the face. "Skip,"

Oscar truly had been sleeping on his quests. Once he had reached the Frontlines, they had never seemed to be necessary. But, it seemed Cardinal was feeling nostalgic and wanted to add some new prizes to quests he had already completed. So much the better, he needed to get out more. Between dealing the Tyson’s rehabilitation and Laughing Coffin, it was really difficult to get out and do much of anything to progress his character more. Where he had prided himself on being about as strong as he could be - unlocked most everything that he possibly could have - that clearly wasn’t the case anymore.

"CRAB!" As they were still in the planning phase, walking and talking, Oscar hadn't realized that they had arrived at the Crab Shack. Seeing the hulking behemoth, Oscar's call served two purposes: grabbing Hate with Howl and notifying his companions that they were about to catch smoke. It was difficult to contain his excitement. He truly wanted to see if he could cook a boss. His mind was awash with the possibilities, swimming with potential. Just going by the sheer scale of the beast, Oscar realized that even if it were possible, he would definitely have his work cut out for him. Was the

ph Initiative - ID: 241598 | LD: 9

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