Spring Vale Online (SAO Alternate Universe RP) [Closed]

[Dante6083]

Dante frowned, concerned, but did as she asked. He stepped back into the living room and walked to sit down with Korra. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her. He looked up at Artemis, who caught his eye and smiled. He motioned towards the kitchen and she looked over to the door.
She cocked her head to the side and then turned, rushing towards the kitchen.
She ran out and skidded to her knees in front of Kida, laughing as she picked herself up. "Hi, mommy!" She grinned, crossing her arms and resting them against Kida's legs. "Do you want to play?"
Artemis' code, the old code, still existed deep down somewhere, supressed and ready to use in the event that it was necessary, but for the most part she was a little girl.
Perhaps it was because she was once a part of a game that it had made her love to play.

[Kidagara]

Kida refrained from sighing as he left. Instead she picked up the mug again and took another sip. She felt bad for Korra, she really did, but she just couldn't face everything yet. Or maybe not ever. If it all just never happened, she'd be okay. That she could handle.

smiled as Artemis came in the room. She suspected Dante may send her in, and it was a good thing. As tough and brave as she was acting, she didn't really want to be alone.

"Hey, sweetie." Kida petted the top of Artemis' hair and put the mug back down on the table. "Of course. What would you like to play? You want to run around outside or sit here and play a board game?"

[Dante6083]

Artemis seemed to genuinely consider both options, frowning in concentration. It seemed one of the most important decisions of her life. "I do love playing outside." She admitted. "But I've never played a board game before... What's a board game like? can we play just us two?"
Her questions all ran out one after the next. Words flowed upon words like a constant stream. She, of course, didn't need to breathe, she could talk indefinitely.
Artemis' mummy and Daddy didn't need to breathe in here either, but they'd spent their lives practising and she guessed it was hard to shut that off just because you were in a virtual world.
maybe it was dangerous. they did have carbon bodies. Fleshy ones, on the outside. What if stopping breathing here meant that they would stop out there? It might hurt them! Might kill them!
"Don't try to stop breathing!" She exclaimed, initially unaware she'd had the whole conversation in her head.
She blushed, so human. "Sorry." She said, looking down at her feet. "What board games are there? Shall I search it?"

[Kidagara]

"No...what?" Kida stared at Artemis. She wasn't making any sense. She just figured the girl was thinking of something else. Not that she blamed her. Things were pretty crazy and the way Kida's mind tended to wander is was impressive she wasn't blurting out crazy random phrases as well.

"Um, ok." Kida brushed her hair behind her ear and looked down at the table. She always forgot she could just spawn things in this world. She placed her hand down and a box appeared in front of them. "Risk," she said. "It's a strategic board game. I'll show you how to play."


((Sooooo.... I got nothing. Really. Feel free to time jump. Minutes. Hours. Days. Years. I don't care. sad ))

[Dante6083]

One year later

"Still no trace of Kristie's sister." Reynolds explained to Dante, sat in his office within the FBI headquarters. "She's been surprisingly competant evading even our best trained agents."
Dante nodded, taking off his glasses and placing them down on his desk. "She would be, given her background." His expression was grave as he spoke, "We'll have to keep trying. She can't run forever, and i want my fiancée to be able to fee freedom again."
Reynolds frowned. "Her security detail is loose, she's perfectly free." She argued.
Dante nodded. "I understand. I just wish she didn't have to have one at all."
Reynolds nodded, sitting back. she eyed the glasses for a moment and frowned. "Why do you even wear those? Your eyes don't work the same way in here as they would in the real world."
Dante looked down at his glasses and smiled. he picked them up and handed them to Reynolds. "Put them on." He offered. She assented and raised them to her eyes, moving back slightly as the information hit her. "it saves me from feeling like I'm in a simulated world all the time. I don't have to use a HUD when I don't want to and they supply all the information from the FBI database I could ever need."
"Impressive. can you replicate them for other digital operatives?"
"Yes and no." He admitted. "I can re-create the code that runs them and a user can identify information and bring it up as they wish, but it's not nearly as effective in the field if the user needs information on the fly. they need a secondary mind to get the information while they focus on the events happening around them. Without someone like Artemis working with them I don't see it working."
"What about new AI?"
"Perhaps, but I've not made any progress in that direction either. Artemis is a happy accident, I've recreated her code exactly but it never works out the same way." Dante looked up at the door to his office, outside of which he knew Art was playing with Cam. He smiled. "she's special."
Reynolds chuckled slightly and nodded. "I noticed. A year ago I only saw her as ones and zeros, but now... you were right, James. She is alive."
Dante nodded. "Anyway, the informations been uploaded to Carly's server and I'm going to sign out of the FBI systems for the evening."
"Very well. have a good evening, James." She smiled, reaching up for her menu.
"Good evening, sir." He responded, nodding to her.
She logged off and Dante sighed. it'd been a year since he'd signed up to the FBI, in part because with Kida's other assailant out there she needed protection more than ever. Kida didn't talk about what happened, and he respected that. Korra had spoken to him about it, about what had happened, and so Dante understood.
Korra was doing better, but not completely herself. Some things for the better others for the worse, others still were just different. Like the fact that she now played with them. She went by the user name 'Koranova', and tonight was going to be a game night.
Dante stretched and stood up. He knew he didn't have a physical body, but stretching still helped somehow. it was all in his head.
He walked over to the door and stepped outside. He stood on a street, main street he called it. They'd built a small city around the clock tower. main street ran straight up to the clock tower and diverged into two roads around it.
Artemis and Cam sat just outside a little iced cream place down the road a little from his FBI office. On the outside it appeared to just be a small little buildign with FBI on it, but inside it was a full network of offices, of course he only used the front one, the rest were storage for files and code projects.
Dante walked over to the two girls eating iced cream. Cam now sixteen, she was growing mature quickly, despite living in a game. "So what are we playing tonight? I forget what Mondays are."
"Mommy's choice." Artemis reminded him.
"Ah yes." Dante nodded. "She should be here soon. so should Korra."

~|~

Korra stood at Coryne and Dante's door and knocked three times. She'd been coming over to their house a lot lately, every game night she'd play here. It felt more like they were playing together than if she was at her apartment.
The turned away from the door and looked up to a tree in their house' front garden. she waved up at the tree. She liked to annoy Martin by pretending she could see him, despite just knowing that that's where he would be.

[Kidagara]

Luke opened the doors for Korra and let her in. Nicole was sitting on the couch while Coryne was messing with the nervgear wires. There were three beds in the room, and James was already laying in one, hooked up to his nervgear like always. There was a bunch of high-protein snack bars as well as some diet shakes - things that would push hunger off the longest were all Coryne ever kept in the house anymore. Luke walked back over to the couch and sat down next to Nicole.

He'd come back for her, of course. The next day. He told her he left because she lied to him. He'd liked Xalia. If she'd told him, he would have been happy. But the fact that she lied upset him. She explained everything, but it had still caused a riff in thier relationship. He still loved her, but he didn't know if he could be with her. So they remained friends. Most of the time. Sometimes they got to drinking and well...he still had feelings for her after all.

Coryne looked up and smiled weakly at Korra. She didn't talk much anymore. Not in this world.

"We should be going then." Nicole stood up. It killed her to not be able to join them, but ever since the news came out, she hadn't been able to log in. She couldn't face Dante, not even after a year.

Luke got up with her. They said thier goodbyes and left out the front door. Coryne climbed up onto the closest bed and pulled the nervgear on. She figured Korra would do the same, as they usually did.

Once she was in the game, Kida smiled. She quickly found Dante and the others, and threw her arms around him. "Hey, sweetie!" She kissed him on the cheek. It felt so much more real to her now. Ever since she decided this was the real world. She patted Artemis on the head. "Hey honey."

[Dante6083]

Dante wrapped his arms around Kida and lifted her up, kissing her back and squeezing her tiht to him before dropping her back down in front of Artemis. No matter how many times she left and came back, no matter how long or short a time she spent away he always missed her, and was always excited to have her back.
"How are you, sweetie?" He asked, allowing his fingers to trace down her spine as she stepped away.
She turned to Artemis and patted her on the head, at the same time Korra logged in behind her and Dante turned to her. He smiled and stepped over, hugging her and kissing her on the cheek. "Hey, little sis." Dante smiled, She hugged him back and returned the kiss to the cheek before turning to find Artemis.
"How've you been?" She asked, bending over to hug Artemis briefly.
"Good enough." Dante shrugged, smiling. "Excited to get started."
Korra smiled and nodded, turning to Kida. "So! What do you want to play?" She asked as she turned then to Cam. "Dante been behaving himself?" She asked, smiling at her friend.
Cam smiled, almost laughing. "Yes he has. he hasn't even remotely put my life in danger for weeks now."
"That's good to know. got any new projects on the go?"
Cam considered for a moment and shrugged. "I was thinking about building a theme park, then I was thinking about building the tools to allow people to easily make their own theme park. I saw a retro game called Theme Park where it simulated building and operating a park, when I was a kid and it was really fun. not seen anything like that since."

[Kidagara]

Kida laughed and smiled as Dante kissed her welcome. It was nice to see him so enthusiastic and happy to see her. She always was happy to log in and be with him, but his reaction always made it even more desirable.

"I want to play..." She tapped her cheek a few times with her finger in thought. She already knew what she wanted to do, but she was debating on whether or not it was what others wanted to do. Sure, the idea of switch off was so people could pick what they really wanted, but Kida always had a hard time with that.

In the end, she decided to go with it anyway. "Secret Societies." She nodded her head.

[Dante6083]

"Awesome. I've been thinking I need to train up my Emberfox a bit since we got caught in that fight with the zombie eating zombie." Cam noted. "After I lost my Surfephant to the virus... Ugh I can't believe i got to find another Surfephant and start all over again." She sighed.
"Yup, gotta be careful with the partners you like." Dante smiled and nodded, turning slightly and reaching up and pulling open his menu. He selected party and added everyone in his world to a group. He then selected games and scrolled down to secret societies.
He hit it and the world shifted.
A moment later he found himself standing in the police station parking lot of a twenty first century new England town.
Artemis stood on one side of him and a great wolf with blue streaks running down it stood on his other side. He smiled at Artemis and she smiled back spinning once and transforming into a small dark blue crow that flew up and perched on his shoulder.
In this game, like most others they played now, she was a navigation and advise drone, or at least thats how the game classified her. She was far more sophisticated than others, but it allowed her to remain, which is all Dante cared about.
A moment later Cam spawned in, her flaming red fox dropping down beside her as Korra stepped out of the police station with a yellow and brown falcon on her shoulder, electricity crackling across it's feathers.
He turned to find Kida and her partner, smiled and asked the obvious; "Story, levelling, materials, Hunting for new partners, a raid? What do you think?"
"Well I need to level Emberfox, but I think I can do that on the story missions, same with the raid, so long as you don't mind carrying me."
"I woudn't mind hunting. my falcon's good but I think the fire types work best against the zombie horde, right?"
"Taming around here's pretty slim." Artemis noted. "It'd mean going back to one of the non-story areas.
"Tell you what; I'll go do that and I'll meet up with you guys later." Korra offered. "Cam's emberfox is already behind on the levels anyway and if she's going to be doing that rather than using Fenris I can't see you guys getting very far ahead of me while i'm getting some more monsters."
Dante shrugged. "If you want." he offered. "send me a PM when you have what you need."
"Oh I'll stay in guild so you can contact me if you need me."
Cam nodded. "Cool."
"So! what should we do?"

[Kidagara]

Kida landed in the parking lot just a bit behind Dante. Next to her was Velcro, a black velociraptor with a kitsune mask and a purple ghostly glow. Velcro sniffed the air and Kida pet it's back. She turned back to Dante and the group.

"I'm okay with whatever." She shrugged. If Korra's was going to go off to hunt, that left them to vomiting the story, which wasn't a bad idea. "We could go back to the church and see if there are anymore story missions there. That should help level Cam decently."

[Dante6083]

"Cool, sounds like a plan." Dante agreed, patting frost on the head.
Korra nodded and placed a hand on the falcon's feet. the falcon opened it's wingspan and they both vanished. Dante waited for her to leave and then turned to Cam. You good to go?
She nodded, watching the Emberfox chasing it's tail around her legs.
"Then lets go." He said, taking Kida's hand and starting out of the parking lot. "Frost, keep ahead of us." He commanded. The blue and black wolf barked and moved ahead, taking point as they stepped out into the zombie infested town of Kingsmouth.
As soon as they stepped out a small horde attacked. "Frost; freeze breath." He commanded. It was a good tactic that they'd used before. Frost's freeze attacks didn't do a lot of damage, but it opened up the shatter effect for Velcro's physical attacks, or Frosts if he was ever on his own, but Velcro taking the second attack could happen the instant after Frost froze the zombies. Frost could never be that fast.
Dante watched as the first group was frozen solid and he smiled, looking to Kida for her part.

[Kidagara]

"Velcro, by me." Kida commanded as Korra vanished. She smiled as Dante took her hand and they started to walk off together. Even after so much time, it still felt great to just hold his hand.

The moment was interrupted as a horde came in. Dante sent out Frost to freeze, and while he was ordering that, Kida sent Velcro to attack. As soon as the zombie were frozen, the raptor whipped through the horde, slashing at them. The zombies were a much lower level, so it didn't take much to kill them.

The horde vanished after a second and Kida turned to Dante. "Hopefully the quests will give more experience for Cam. If we just take out everything quickly, it won't help her level much." It was an obvious statement, and she knew Dante already knew it, but she felt like saying it would get across the fact that she didn't want Cam to feel left out.

[Dante6083]

Dante nodded his agreement."maybe you should take the lead, cam, just till we get down to the church. It's only down the road after all." He offered.
"What if they're too much for me?" Can asked, looking down at her fire element fox.
"We'll be right here." Dante assured her. Pulling Kida closer to him and smiling. "These are pretty low level remember. Your emberfox should Indra-kill them with its fire attacks."
"But frost is way higher level than Spark, and he barely damaged them with his attack." She argued, frowning at the next closest group of zombies.
"Freeze breath isn't supposed to damage." He sighed, releasing Kida's hand and rolling his eyes. He walked over to her and grabbed Cam by the shoulders, turning her to the direction of thechurch."March." He ordered her.
She sighed and agreed, taking a breath and moving on.
Losing animal partners was difficult for Cam. After being with Fenris for so long she took each defeat and loss of a partner as if she were losing a part of herself, so she was naturally scared, especially the way the game worked.
Should your partner fall to the enemy it would become undead and turn on you. If you had no other partners as back up it would attack you and you would die. You'd go back to square one. Some suggested your nerve gear would be locked out but that seemed unlikely.
There was a strategy to it. You never risked your main partner, your strongest you always kept in reserve, and you always kept it at a significantly higher level than any of your others. If you lost your best it might be able to destroy your others.
In fact it was likely, so you had to keep it safe. Or at least that's how Dante played, that's how Cam played.
Fenris was just waiting in the wings for when he was necessary.

[Kidagara]

After Dante (gently) pushed Cam towards the church, Kida retook his hand. It was strange to think that short walks through a zombie infested town were becoming thier ideal date scenarios, but truth was it made her happy. Of course she'd prefer time alone, but this was still good. This was still fun. Anytime with him was good time.

The past year has been...odd. She loved him, and in here she pretended nothing out there happened. If he asked about what she did, of course Kida would tell him, but she never brought it up. In her mind, that barrier was there to protect her. If she ever thought about what happened....

"Hopefully the church has a discovery mission." Kida said. "It can help you gain experience without having to fight much."

[Dante6083]

"That works." Dante agreed, squeezing his fiance's hand. It always annoyed him very slightly that he still had to consider her his fiance. After everything that happened they simply hadn't been able to do it again. Hadn't had the courage to remind themselves what had happened last time.
Sometimes Dante wondered if their lack of marriage was the thing that had helped to fix Kida's relationship with her brother, if only a bit.

Still; he never dwelt on it for long. he still had the love of his life at his side as much as was possible.
He watched Cam up ahead with her ember fox, incinerating hordes of zombies left and right. the fox was pretty strong, even at it's low level. Fire against zombies was always a good combination of course.
Still, she had to think about what comes next. Dante knew that the next area of the game had water monsters that would kick a fire partner to the curb.

"So how was your day?" Dante asked, smiling as they walked along behind cam, the flashes of light were oddly romantic.