NIGHT

"oh yeah?" it wasn't as though she was disinterested, even if she sounded to be as such. rather, small talk like this wasn't exactly comfortable for night to handle, and behind that calmness was a mind constantly active, hard at work. most would've followed the statement up immediately with a better response, but there was a long pause before she added, "where've you been?" lackluster. night tried not to look at star when she said that, nor her accidental offense towards him. big oopsies. she only shrugged. "you're going to have to tell me more about this wizard of oz on broadway, fiyero.

not just the boss spinning any more. like a certain blue hedgehog from memory, it took off towards the outer edges of the arena and threw up a frenzied whirlwind, the force of which was enough to bluster night's coat, and... -- was sorun in the air? she'd noticed one she was tracking the boss' movements, a feat harder without her searching skill at top condition. night scowled when she began to lose her footing too, but fought against the harsh winds just to get close enough to fire an attack. cardinal's detection system for the sword arts wasn't exactly dependent on the presence of

the terra firma charged forth. like every song and dance ever, night supposed. but partway through its run did the creature pick up speed -- which was odd. night was used to it switching to it deliberately at the start of its movement before attacking rather than as part of. she watched the beast roll towards her at high speeds, and if night felt safe about this sight, it was due to the fact that she could redirect it away from sorun. so she ducked, sword sliding against the unarmored flesh of the terra firma where it had coiled up loose, but remained exposed. instead of coming to a halt

night hummed, surprised, and stumbled back once the witch had fallen. nothing but ashes -- just like the books. but given that star hadn't moved through the portal home yet, she steeled herself to pay attention: her companion was directing her upstairs. they never did explore the rest of the castle, so surely it begged the question of what it must've been for. "i never took you to be interested in exploration," she replied, arms folded. "but then again, i never took anyone else to be interested in doing more work than what was necessary, either." still, she strolled forward, taking t

an answer she wasn't capable of refuting, so she sent him the invite with her own reply. "night. nice to meet you, sorun." it wasn't a while longer that they'd reached the edge of the dustbowl. terra firma's habitat was almost like an arena, with slippery sand slopes that lead any unlucky fauna down to its heart, where they might be subjected to the beast himself... though night had always suspected the creature to be an herbivore in its ecology. "it'll move fast," she started, crouching down in preparation to slide down the dunes at the bowl's edge. "see if you can find a rocky led

"you'll be a statistic by not being careful," was the last she stated on the subject, still intentless, before starting off with the man behind her. as she talked, her hands were fiddling with the quest interface; hasty through practice, yet relaxed in performance. "so here's what we'll do: you try getting a hit on it if you can. the beast is tricky, but it'll lock you in combat even if your blow doesn't connect. let me take the bulk of its attention; just defend yourself against the storm if possible. i won't be liable for what happens if you suffer from environmental damage, so get rea

the witch had definitely changed as far as her memory was concerned. it wasn't elphaba any longer -- no green skin, and no visible broomstick-staff. the same sort of cackle, however, and goth-looking attire; placed in any modern-day street, night would've assumed it a random middle-aged goth and paid her no more attention. so when star decided to get to work, so too did night into the fray. "If you're Dorothy, does that make me the dog?" she clambered up the stairs by the side, away from the bulk of the fireballs. star's assault was her distraction -- night took advantage o

never mind. the only thing that was stopping her from assuming this conversation was part of the quest was the fact that the person in front of her was a player himself. "... are you really going to be okay in that...?" she'd started to ask. but the man continued on with a monologue, and painted a really strange picture of a novice trying his best to do anything... except he came to the fifth floor. almost five levels too early in most people's opinions, including night's own. so she blinked twice. how was her tolerance for sociability doing? somehow, despite the trial from earlier,

was there a second part to her sentence? night only heard the first bit, and wasn't sure why nari started laughing, standing in place. then again, it wasn't as though night had the headspace to come up with a response -- but it wasn't as though she knew what to add onto that, either. "er, you know... like the sport...?" she weakly added, watching lilith slither and circle the arena. when the figure lunged towards the players, night rolled and went into a counter hit with an uppercut swing. she listened to nari then, watching the boss try to get up without stumbling, especially in its decr

weakpoints of a terra firma... talk about one of the more boring jobs to do. night would've had chalked it up to chance if she'd been dealing the information as a broker, but it's exactly her distaste for discrete accuracy that pinned her as the executioner's sort, and not the judge. she held a hand over her mouth as she yawned, walking through the safe zone's borders; if there were hostile creatures around, night was half hoping fighting spirit had some sort of passive to drive them all away. there wasn't a reason for her to pick on the weak creatures if she didn't need to. the ques

night's face scrunched up. she then promptly skipped over the highlight of the answer that most people would've likely honed in on: "...the wizard of oz was on broadway?" "yeah, you're right. they missed out on a lot of the cast. i'm surprised we haven't fought any kalidahs." "gesundheit." "if they were going to skip anything, why not the tornado?" the question hung in the air on their trek, though night considered it as they made their way to the castle. once they'd entered the courtyard and alerted the first squadron of flying monkeys, she darted, stance low, past star's

"you missed the perfect chance to say 'i've a feeling we're not in kansas anymore,'" star had said. to that, night returned a wry smile. "was it in a middle-school play?" she queried him, as they started to walk. "when you played the scarecrow, i mean." the question wasn't entirely serious, but night wasn't sure when the wizard of oz would be involved in anyone else's life as something other than a story from a book. the trek up towards the castle was more a winding path up several slopes, from the route night had opted to take. short and easy. there was the choice of scaling th

"and goodness knows, the wickeds' lives are lonely..." bright-eyed and distant, sitting perched on a tall rock just a distance away from star. she'd been watching the sky to pass the time, and though she didn't have to wait long, night had already started to get comfortable with the loneliness of their silence. in the corner of her vision was the castle, and on occasion her sights would snap to the flying monkeys' silhouettes against the cosmos. she barely heard the sounds of her companion waking, lost in thought. but once star had started to move, night cut off her humming, a glanc

"what?" the confusion only grew between them. and night fought to bite her tongue, even in between the counter-attacks as she tried to pass her active role in combat to nari. "what are you even talking about? i thought the girls you were speaking of were trying to become vampires, not actually believing they were them! of course i don't believe vampires exist?!" rage put to step. there were much better ways of channeling her effort than to get a story straight in the heat of the moment -- so night closed into lilith when she repositioned in a leap, and the extra edge that seeped out

"potions?" that sounded familiar. although she wasn't entire sure if they were meant to craft the potions. night felt she was onto something when the air around them began to bluster through the forest, but hesitated bringing her hunch up. there was something, between the forest itself and her mention of the memory, that made her realize she was about to sound like an aincrad boomer. so she finished her drink. crushed it and threw the ashes to a side. at the very least, if her guess was correct, she'd look more like a maniac than an ancient individual -- that she could live with.

night: wow sounds lame if it helped, night had been doing her best to remain enroute to star's position. the way the forest went, getting lost in it was an easy trap to fall into, and if she'd let it, the forest might've consumed her existence for the next three months or longer. so she stuck to her better judgement and avoided white rabbits she wanted to chase. night: whats the objective now it was when she got close enough to spot star's silhouette (and incidentally then, the player marker above his head) that she started to feel the wind pick up. sure, it had been chilly

"Engagement distance. I mean you know yours in the same way, pretty much, even if you're not thinking about." "yeah," night replied, unwavering, "but i wouldn't say i'm familiar with it down to the centimeter." they continued walking and talking. koga mentioned how much she'd changed since their first meet. night simply quirked a brow at that statement. "i'd still scream and run from them for the record," she continued, sights on the castle ahead, "but it's much easier and faster to kill them in one shot." "sure, they're equally as creepy as i'd known them before. arguably even

night: ? book she'd sent the intel to bistro, expecting an immediate reply with the broker's confidence behind the message. in the minute night hung around the bench, however, she got nothing back. it was only after star had sent her the approval for coffee that she got up and started walking back to the streets. night: how do u take it what little col it had cost her was nothing to consider between friends. she bounded over to the teleporter directly after, with three orders saved to her inventory. hadn't thought to change out of her fit after arriving on the twenty-second

night: sure night: which is it? she'd been on the twenty-eighth, on a bench facing a stream running through town, hiding away from people in plain sight. the floor worked to her advantage, when night wanted to be alone in theory, but not so much in practice. sure, it took some amount of dress up; the switch from sportswear to fall fashion was one she didn't appreciate, but it wasn't so overwhelming that she'd hated it, either. admittedly, it was also one of the only places in aincrad that would serve quality frappucchinos. night didn't think she'd been to the forest of memorie

the confusion only passed over to night, as the woman stalled in her assault for a moment to set her bearings straight -- and this included nari's story. "wait, so did they actually go out and find vampires or did they believe they were vampires?" she paused to think, ready to move once her companion bounced back in a retreat. "or did they 'end up getting bitten on their adventures' and now they're 'vampires' or whatever?" with the story falling apart, night dove in to close the gap nari left behind. despite the grotesque image of the monster, she could still make out where the hint

night batted her eyelids, guessing at the context in general disbelief despite knowing otherwise. she acknowledged the reality that nari had lived through, but grasped at straws at the retelling — "wouldn't the vampire be better identified as carmilla, rather than lilith — or did you mean the girls who were going out at night?" "well, it's not like it's her fault," she joked afterwards, watching their mark lunge towards nari in a retaliation attempt (and fail to connect its bite to its prey). two swings of her arm and she readied her blade. "the bible said adam and eve. it's not like i re

"believed… that vampires were real…?" confusion dotted her every word with that utterance, almost to the point where night had halted her efforts of even gunning for lilith, her head pivoting towards nari to shoot her a look of blank despair and disbelief. never mind the actual vampire in the room with them at the moment — if those friends had wanted to be accurate, they would be speaking of how real such a creature was in their virtual reality, but they likely wouldn't even have known this world was to exist one day. "you're joking, right?" there had to be some humor in the situatio

night wasn't buying the 'untargeted cast' excuse. partially because it felt too coincidental for koga to have ended up at her back when he'd executed his art, and partially because she hadn't even seen him draw his sword partway through the fall. "i have," night replied with an eye roll. the player often had training sessions alone with her arts practice in some secluded garden out on the first floor — not her fault she never wanted to look like a manic goon whilst waiting for someone in her party to show up. even if the boredom was killing her, there was always time for shuteye, or to l

a history? night tilted her head. twilight was just a book. for nari to say it had 'a history' with her implied some sort of malicious outcome derived from the experience. and night had read some bad books — but none so far as to comment so poorly as 'having a history' with it. and to smear distaste for some common trope in media about it. still, with the tip of her thumb, she pushed a lock behind her ear. "i haven't," she lied. perhaps she did once simply due to the hype, but skimmed it through enough that it wasn't enough to remain a core memory; merely so that she could tell her friend

so aincrad's calendar said it was a new year, and so much to those, right? still, the castle must've been in a celebratory mood when she stepped into the hall and found it to be slightly different, because there were gold banners strung along the surrounding pillars, forming crosses against the ceiling. the shadows, then, beneath her, seemed to trace out the light differently, too. night blinked. she was still certain no one else was present, or would be present to retrieve anything from the statues of offerings. but the presence of something new in a relatively stale environment — that c