Oscar

"Indeed," Oscar replied with a smile as he dropped yet another pile of weapons onto the counter. They clattered across the wooden surface, slipping and sliding and cascading to the ground along the edges. "Just got back from a big hunt. I'm gonna be here a while. This should cover your costs." Oscar capped off his delivery by plopping a comically large sack of Col atop the precarious peak formed by the mountain of weaponry. It even had a dollar sign painted on the side, even though these were not, in fact, dollars.

After Oscar's dissociative looting spree, he decided that now was a good time to get himself a weapon that enemies could actually feel. His standard weapon hadn't failed him and it was very good for tanking. But it didn't fill that niche for something with a little oomph. So it was time to brave the spiders and go to that cave that no one every looked at on the floor no one ever went to. Simmone had, until now, been his go-to. But with a haul like this, it was important to share the love. And Jackpot did not have an entire Guild that Oscar could swear was multiboxed behind him.

Skill(s) Being Dropped: Custom Skill: Veteran Mod(s)/Addon(s)/Shift(s) Being Dropped: N/A SP Refunded: 10 Cost: 10,000 Col

Skill refund request Custom Skill: Veteran - 10 SP

THREAD TRANSCRIPT

Thank u for this kindness I owe u my lif

Thread Summary Oscar | [Word Count: 13477/10 = 1347.7] * [True Tier: 9] * [Group Factor: 1]*[Exp Bonus: 0.1] = 13342 EXP, Laurel Wreath: 2001 col <<Shatter>> Tech 1,015,337 Col 502 Materials 10 Demonic Shards 34 Gleaming Scales T4 Perfect Trinket: 224487, 224488, 224570, 224639, 224661, 224671, 224726, 224750, 225534, 225535, 225547, 225606, 225608, 225657, 225681, 225682, 225694, 225883, 225926, 225934 T4 Perfect Armor/Shield IDs: 224421-1, 224421-2, 224431-1, 224431-2, 224447, 224453-1. 224453-2, 224456-1. 224456-2, 224485-1, 224485-2, 224487, 224503, 22451

“Still, it’s gonna be a hard road. A lot of people are going to have differing opinions on how you should have handled it.” “I know. But it was my fight and my mess. I should be the one to decide how it all ends up.” “True. But you need to be ready to defend yourself. But who knows? Maybe Tyson will surprise us both. Maybe he grows into the role he made for himself.” “Maybe. But I don’t think he’s realized the full scope of it all. I don’t think he ever did. Holding back Laughing Coffin? They’re going to come for him.” “And us. Need to get him ready. For everyone’s sake.”

Oscar returned to himself, standing within that dark corridor. And when he did, he saw his Twin. But unlike the other interactions, the doppelganger was smiling. “Have fun?” Oscar returned his twin’s smile, shaking his head in the process. “I’m gonna be honest, I never held much stock in vision quests or hallucinations like this. But I have to admit, it was helpful.” “Good. So you know what you have to do?” “Of course,” Oscar replied, his tone a bit more chipper. A bit more himself. “Just need to avoid fucking it up again. Easy.” “Easy,” his twin agreed. “Most difficu

But his Twin had been right. If Oscar was going to do this and try to redeem someone with a history as bloody as Tyson, he would need to approach it with the same confidence that he approached everything else. It was difficult to admit to himself, but he’d failed the kid once. He should have been there. Maybe he could have shielded him. Or, failing that, they could have undertaken Tyson’s burden together. Or maybe this was the way everything was supposed to play out. Maybe he simply needed to fail in order to eventually succeed. Because despite everything, Tyson’s goal was almost noble. Grim a

It seemed that everything was tied up with a neat little bow. Oscar, and by extension, his friends and allies, were no longer threatened by a puppetmaster and his shadowy organization. But many sacrifices had been made on this road. Oscar wasn’t so delusional as to think that he left this ordeal the same as he’d gone into it. That his relationships had survived the process. If he were being honest, he couldn’t think of a single one that had survived. Not a single relationship remained as it was. He would need to try to fix that. Oscar had his own demons to battle and his own sins to atone for.

It was decided that Tyson would take charge of custodial work in the Orphanage. Many eyes would be upon him. He wouldn’t be allowed to move freely. Quite the opposite, in fact. He would be more or less left to languish in the Town of Beginnings, running errands for the caretakers and being relentlessly bullied by the children. Oscar loved kids, but they were a handful. He wondered how long Tyson would make it before he began to wish to be suddenly struck deaf. The craftsmen and the Players that frequented the town were instructed to notify Oscar immediately if Tyson tried to leave the walls. I

It was all a pretext for keeping an eye on the kid. Oscar dared to allow himself to be optimistic. Maybe he could do better by him with this second chance. There was no undoing what he did. They couldn’t turn back the clock. But he could begin to atone. Oscar couldn’t say that the kid was irredeemable. He wasn’t yet certain. That was the key difference between Tyson and all the men Oscar had killed. Tyson had a reason. He had a purpose. He wasn’t killing for the sake of killing. And while his methods could be construed as barbaric, Oscar couldn’t say that they weren’t effective. In this and in

It hadn’t been a popular decision, sparing Tyson. It had been even less popular when Oscar expressed his willingness to take the kid back under his wing and level him up. Lessa in particular had been outraged. He couldn’t blame her. Freyd had remained largely silent, but he could tell by the man’s expression that he thought Oscar was a fool. But the reality was Tyson had them all by the balls. Assuming he wasn’t lying, the only thing keeping a group of insane Player Killers from having their way with the Players was another, slightly less crazy group of Player Killers. And Tyson was at the ce

“Nope, can’t let you off yourself either. You said it yourself. Your Guild is holding back the other, worse guilds. The devil you know and all that. I’ll tell you what though. You get strong enough to kill me and if you still want me dead by then, go for it. But just know Freyd over here is going to put you down shortly thereafter.” Oscar felt bad volunteering Freyd like that. But at the same time, he imagined that he would be a natural progression of things. Oscar could trust that if he went down, Freyd would make certain that whoever got the better of him didn’t continue breathing for m

“Killing you would be too easy,” Oscar said. “And I’m not gonna let anyone say I’m running around killing low-level Players. That kinda goes against everything I’m about. You got two choices. We can drag you back to the Town of Beginnings and lock you up somewhere. You get to spend the rest of your time in this game looking at the same four walls. No food, no drink. Nothing. Or, you can put your boots on the ground and start running your Guild like a proper Guildmaster. You say you’re at odds with Laughing Coffin? What are you gonna do when they come knocking?” Tyson tried to opt for door

“You literally wanted me dead. You tried to kill me and my friends so many times. Can’t whine about sour grapes now that you’ve lost. It’s pathetic. You’re pathetic. It’s a disgrace to their memory.” Oscar wasn’t above kicking the kid while he was down. Literally. He drove his boot into Tyson’s gut, dropping his health into the red with a third telling blow. “You know how long I’ve been waiting for this Tyson? I’ve dreamed about what I would do when I finally caught up with you,” Oscar said as he drove his sword into the ground near Tyson’s head. He bent down low, getting his face a

It seemed that everything ended about as well as it could have. Though, Oscar was hesitant to go with the group to turn the Quest in. The System had a tendency to automatically start the next in the chain. And if his hunch was correct, Freyd had the right of it. They simply didn't have the numbers to raid a quest - no matter how low level. And Freyd was clearly not at his best, which further complicated things. Oscar was completely confident in his own abilities and Elora had put up an impressive showing as well. But the Whisper looked like he'd seen a ghost. Oscar was tempted to ask, but this

“You fucker,” Tyson spat, pulling out his sword and driving it back into Oscar’s chest. “Why can’t you just fuck off and die?” Oscar was torn. He knew how Tyson felt seeing people that he cared about die like that - and from his reaction it was apparent he did, in fact, care.. But he also knew that Tyson would have killed everyone Oscar cared about if left unchecked. It was hard for him to feel sorry for the kid. Impossible even. The more Tyson raged against him, the hotter Oscar’s temper flared. Eventually, after the fourth or fifth stab, Oscar had had about enough. He drove his fist int

Oscar returned the attack. A simple basic strike. His blade cut through Tyson’s arm, taking almost a quarter of his health in the process. Oscar blinked as the gears began to turn in his head. His eyes flicked from Tyson to Freyd to Tyson’s Health Bar. He blinked. Once, then twice. Then several times in rapid succession. “You’re still level one,” Oscar said slowly. “You did all of this at level one. Fucking how?” Of all the things he’d not expected, he hadn’t expected this the most. He fully assumed that Tyson was the baddest mother fucker in his own Guild. But he wasn’t. Tyson hadn’

“We done now?” Oscar asked breathlessly. He knew he wasn’t physically tired, but that didn’t mean that the fight wasn’t taxing on him. More stressful than it was anything else. But stress had a tendency to affect the physical. He had to wonder whether his heart rate spiked back in the real world. Certainly he was in a hospital, attached to machines and tubes. He could only imagine the looks of horror on those nurses faces as his heart rate spiked out of nowhere. “You finished?” Oscar was ready to get it over with. Surely Tyson was out of plays now. But as the youth rushed forward, po

Oscar and Freyd said nothing to one another. There would be time enough for conversation once the enemy was dealt with. And deal with him they did. They wasted no time, treating Rell to the same pain that he had inflicted upon Oscar. It didn’t seem quite so fun being on the other side of insurmountable odds. And they were certain insurmountable. Rell was skilled. That much was apparent. But there were few Players that would be able to deal with Freyd and Oscar moving in tandem as they were. Hell, there weren’t a whole lot of Players that could contend with any two Frontliners tag-teaming them.

It was almost as if thinking it had willed it into existence. Sure enough, Lenore had managed to land a stun on him. Rell wound up to capitalize on Oscar’s immobility. But Oscar was nothing if not lucky. That wasn’t quite right. He simply had the best companions. Once more pushed to the brink and once more his allies came to his aid. The Whisper had appeared silently. With a clash of steel, he blocked the attack, allowing Oscar a moment to breathe. He quickly activated Forgotten King’s Authority, purging himself of his stun. He’d kept it in his back pocket, hoping - or perhaps expecting - Frey

Of course, it didn’t remain a two-on-one for long. Lessa had been the first to arrive and the first to leave. But Oscar held out hope that miracles came in pairs. So he committed himself, focused himself, to dodging and blocking the incoming flurry of attacks. He was mostly successful. But the ones that landed almost seemed to ignore his damage reduction entirely. He had almost been thankful for the fact that Janus had been the one to get caught unawares. Paralysis, or even a stun, would be a death sentence. And as far as he knew right now, these Players didn’t have access to a means to paraly

Lessa and Owen had both opened their mouths to argue. “I do not have time to fight about it right now,” Oscar said as he whirled around and parried an incoming attack by Lenore. She struck harder than she had previously. Seeing her comrade die had clearly flipped a switch. Rell was similarly vicious, trying to sneak past Oscar’s guard once more only to take a boot to the face. “Go! They’ll keep coming after the kids so long as they’re here! I can’t fight and protect them at the same time so get the fuck out!” He came off a bit more harshly than he wanted to. But it was difficul