[Maruem]

Zephyr shielded his eyes. It was bright, unexpectedly so, and he reached out for his keyboard to turn down the brightness. His hand passed through nothing. He looked down and there was gravel at his feet. What the hell... He though as he looked around, his eyes barely adjusted to the midday light raining down from above. It was almost overwhelming, all the sudden stimuli surrounding him. He could feel the heat of the sun burning against his face and the chill that came when clouds blocked its light, the warm breeze wrapping him in an almost ethereal hug more real than he remembered any breeze having had been before. The air itself tasted alive, a feeling all too familiar, yet not like this. It was far fresher than the air in his hometown, and the only air that that even came close was the air from deep in the woods he played in as a child, fresh and filtered by the trees. and then he realized his ears worked, and they heard things. There was some crying, some laughter, and even a scream off in the distance. He did not have time to look down at himself to see what he looked like, but as he ran toward the scream, he realized he was smiling, for all the stress of being here, wherever here was, it was not scaring him.

After a few dozen meters, he turned a corner around a crumbled and somewhat overgrown building, and saw not too far from him a small child. It was a girl, a girl with holding her eyes shut tight and her hands pressed hard against her hair... or was it. No, it was... ears? "Wait, are those.. fox ears?". As the words left his lips, it dawned on him. He knew where he was, or at least he had an idea of where he thought he might be. The last thing he remembered was creating a character, and seeing the girl with fox ears reminded him that he had considered making a faunri, but had decided to try something completely new for him and make a rather normal, if not sturdily built looking human, not too dissimilar from his real self. He pulled the rather ugly starter cloak from his shoulders, but it was caught on something. Still running toward the girl, he tugged harder and eventually it came free. He was not sure of the girl had perceived him with how shut off her eyes and ears were, but he could not let himself worry about that for now, he would explain later. He flung the cloak over her head and held it, not tightly, but enough to help drown out the harsh discord of noised and the dazzling rays of light all bursting forth from this new reality. As he held the cloak he chuckled. He had just remembered the message he had seen upon finishing his character. "Welcome to Gaia" he said with a chuckle, looking at the clouds.

Word Count: 502
Total Word Count: 502
Tags: Katarina
Notes: First post of the first rp thread, have a great start guys!

[Katarina]

Slowly, Joel opened his eyes.

‘How did I get outside?’ was the first question that came to mind.

The second question was ‘Where the hell am I?', which was probably a much more reasonable thought considering the situation.

Pushing himself off the ground, he glanced at his surroundings. Almost every building he could see was either collapsed, in ruins or just completely overgrown, nature having reclaimed them long ago. Truthfully, it matched his ideas of a post-apocalyptic world rather well. An unsettlingly large number of people dotted the city streets, all either collapsed or just regaining consciousness.

Stunned, he tried to take a step forward…

...and found himself approaching the grass below at record pace, smashing his face against the cold hard ground. He let out a startled yelp—

—what.

Nervously, he cleared his throat. “Testing.” he uttered, freezing once the sound reached his ears.

That was not his voice.

His voice wasn’t deep by any stretch of the imagination, but it definitely wasn’t high-pitched and feminine.

That was definitely not his voice.

What the hell was going on.

He didn’t have much time to find out.

Someone screamed. Joel hated that person with a burning passion. They were soon followed by another. And another. And another.

The assault on his eardrums was the only thing on his mind as all of those panicked voices were magnified and enhanced a thousandfold until they were beating relentlessly against his brain, melded into one, awful all-consuming mess of noise.

In an attempt to make all of the painful noise go away, he moved his hands to try and cover his ears. Only then did he make an extremely worrying discovery; where his ears used to be there was only bare skin. Well, that probably wasn't healthy.

He’d be more concerned about this, except he currently had more pressing matters to concern himself with.

Such as the fact the infernal noise was still there.

Someone shouted nearby, the sound a nail hammered directly into his head. Overcome by desperation, he tried covering his ears again.

Eventually, he found them. Misshapen and situated at the very top of his head, sure, but it’s a start. He’d say it’s better than no ears at all, but in his current situation? Well, no; he’d probably prefer no ears right about now.

Either way; he’s better off than he was originally.

Joel gripped his malformed (and slightly furry?) ears tightly, covering them as well as he could. It was extremely uncomfortable, but it helped ease things off slightly.

Alright. Deep breaths.

In, out. In, out. In, out.

He squeezed his eyes tight, trying to recover his equilibrium. He could feel something being pulled over him tightly. Any complaints he might have had were squashed as his pain-addled mind began to realise that whatever it was dulled his apparently hypersensitive hearing by a significant degree. Someone near him chuckled slightly, muttering something under their breath. Gee, thanks. It wasn't like he was dying over here or anything.

He sat there for a few moments, taking in the (relative) peace and quiet. It was still pretty bad, honestly, but compared to a few seconds ago it felt awfully nice. Slowly, he opened his eyes. It was pitch black.

Oh. Right. He was still completely covered. That would explain that.

Well, people were still yelling and he refused to remove the one thing preventing him from being a bawling mess right now. He cleared his throat slightly. "So," he started, grimacing as he heard the soft, feminine voice that came out of his mouth. He decided that he'd try to ignore it for the time being; this was more important. "Any idea why and how I've found myself sitting in a post-apocalyptic city with an awful case of hypersensitivity? Because this is definitely not how I was planning on spending my Sunday."

---

Word Count: 642
Total Word Count: 642
Tags: Maruem
Notes: Sheesh. It really has been a while; I need to get back into the groove of writing for RP.

[Maruem]

The fox girl began to speak to Maruem. He was surprised, but relieved that she did not perceive his wrapping her up as threatening. He snapped his attention back to her voice. It was a cute voice, rather delicate too, and with it, she asked him rather sarcastically what she was doing in Gaia.

He cleared his throat. "Well, I do not know for certain, but it seems like we are in Gaia, unless you have a different theory? Did you just make that Faunri Fox girl in character creation or am I wrong? You see, that was why I ran over here. I heard a scream, and then when I turned the corner around that building..." He took one of his hands off the cloak and pointed to the corner he had just rounded, forgetting that she could not see "...I saw you, and I felt like I should help. I considered making a faunri too, so I figured if all this stimulation was bad for me, it had to be worse than Hell for you."

He realized he had been holding the girl against him for a while now, and released the cloak rather suddenly at the embarrassment of grabbing a stranger the way he did, and a little girl at that. Letting the fox girl take the cloak in her own hands, he took a step back to give her some personal space.

He decided to introduce himself to help break the ice between them a bit, but ran into a problem almost immediately. "I am Ze... M...Maruem? I guess? I don't know? Do I go by my real name? My character's name? What is the protocol for waking up in your character's body in a video game?"

Up until then, he had been fine with waking up in a video game world like it was reality, but the realization that he did not have an identity, or at least did not know which one to take, it hit him hard. He took a deep breath, and sat down on the cool grass beneath him. He was not scared, but he was definitely confused, and a bit overwhelmed. He had never faced an identity issue like this before. Life had brought its share of challenges to him, but not even knowing what name to use? This was something new. I guess I should just go with the character's name for now... right? that makes sense I guess, at the very least it may be fun to become another person for a little while. He thought silently to himself, mulling over the new dilemma that faced him.

"I am Zephyr, and my avatar's name is Maruem. It is a weird thing, trying to call myself Maruem now. I don't suppose you have any experience with being trapped in a video game and losing a solid sense of identity do you?" The last line he said with an almost tired laugh. He was not enjoying himself nearly as much anymore, but the world was still pleasant. The grass under his butt was soft and cool, and tickled his hairy legs as it danced in the same cool breeze he had felt before. He lied down in the grass, and the sun began to cook his face, arms, legs, and even his chest through his shirt, quite pleasantly.

Despite the stress of the name issue, the world was still the same, and it felt so very real. Which means... Maruem is real now too he thought again. "I am sorry, I keep introducing myself." he said as he sat up, his mind more at ease now. "I guess from now on, I am Maruem. It is a pleasure to meet you Miss...?"

Word Count: 622
Total Word Count: 502+622=1124
Tags: Katarina
Notes: It's good to be back.

[Katarina]

Joel froze as the other man voiced his theory.

Sorry, but no. That was impossible, in every sense of the word. This wasn't some isekai anime; people didn't just randomly get sucked into video games. That's not how life works.

'So why does the idea worry me so much?' he thought. If it wasn't at all possible, why be concerned?

Probably because the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. This was clearly not a landscape from anywhere near where he lived; again, it looked more like something out of some post-apocalyptic fiction.

Or Gaia Reborn.

When he had briefly looked over the crowd of unconscious people earlier, they all seemed to be wearing armour or almost medieval clothing and outfits. Wouldn't have looked out of place in a renaissance fair.

Or Gaia Reborn.

Of course, the piece of evidence that was most damning was the line he heard next: "Did you just make that Faunri Fox girl in character creation or am I wrong?"

The other man continued speaking, but Joel had stopped listening. He gulped as the implications of that sentence fully sunk in. Reaching up and touching his ears once more, he realised exactly what was wrong with his body. It wasn't his. It was his avatar's. His hearing was incredibly sensitive because he, like a moron, decided that picking the race with the stupidly powerful senses was a good idea. Those were a pair of fox ears on his head.

Suddenly, the younger voice made sense.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me..." he breathed. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. It was physically impossible, with an emphasis on "impossible".

This had to be a dream. He was dreaming. Yeah. That would make sense. He was exhausted, and fell asleep at his computer chair after designing his character, and this fever dream of his was the result. That was it. That had to be it.

The ever-present throbbing headache he was currently nursing begged to differ. He groaned. Had he known that the character he made was going to be him for the foreseeable future, he probably would've made a few different choices. Like not making her prepubescent, for example. Or female. Or non-human. Actually, no, he probably just would've simply not played that day.

He sighed. Well, on the bright side, at least he got a half-answer to the how part of his question, with the additional bonus of providing a where. He was in Romalia. The starting area for new players on the Enlightened Republic server, transported via some mysterious method upon character creation.

Isn't that just swell.

Most likely realising just how long he's spent holding Joel tightly against him, the stranger released the fabric covering the Faunri's ears, letting it rest on his head. Still too nervous to remove it completely but eager to regain his ability to actually see, Joel attempted to wrap it around his head as a kind of makeshift turban. It wasn't the easiest of things to do, considering how thick the material was (was it a cloak?), but he managed in the end. It felt like the knot was going to untie itself any second and it probably looked absolutely ridiculous, but it was functional. It would do.

Blinking rapidly, his eyes adjusted to the harsh light once more. Was his eyesight better? Most likely. At the moment, he couldn't give a damn about any improved abilities he may have so long as they weren't going to send him into sensory overload. He glanced at the stranger.

'Jesus this guy is tall.' was his first reaction, before he glanced around again and, now aware of his situation, pieced together that no; this guy wasn't tall, Joel was short. Extremely short. That was probably why he wasn't able to keep his balance earlier. Everything was so big, and his legs weren't nearly as long as they used to be. Shaking his head slightly in a vain attempt to clear it (yeah, like that was going to happen with all of this insanity), he took another glance at the stranger. Apparently he had the foresight to pick a human avatar. Man, did Joel envy him right now.

The man began to introduce himself. It only took him a few seconds before his magnificent introduction broke down into stuttering, sentences trailing off into nowhere as he questioned what name he should use. Apparently that was what it took to break his eternal cool, since he froze up, questioning what the protocol was for waking up in a video game. "How the hell am I supposed to know?" Joel muttered.

'If the actual realisation of our situation is only hitting him now, and not when he ran over here to help, he reasoned, 'his new body must be relatively similar to his old one.' Lucky bastard. Joel's envy for him only grew.

Eventually, he calmed down enough to try that introduction again. Zephyr, with his avatar's name being Maruem. Zephyr. Zephyr. If you had told Joel that this man's username was Zephyr and his real name was Maruem, he probably would've believed you. Zephyr. What kind of—

—actually, that sounded kind of familiar. Where did...

...Oh, wait, hold on. He's trying his introduction yet again. Third time's the charm. He's going with Maruem. What a star.

Joel supposed he was being a little harsh, but honestly, his life has gone from "relatively average" to "isekai fanfic" in roughly five or ten minutes. Can you blame him?

'Probably.' he admitted to himself, as it was now his turn to introduce himself and he realised that he didn't know what to go with either.

Joel sighed. "First of all, you can drop the 'Miss'; as hard as it might be to believe right now, I'm a guy." he said. "Before you ask; yes, I most definitely do regret my choice of avatar. Strongly."

And now it was his turn to decide on a name. His first instinct was to shout "Joel! It's Joel!" as if to spite his past self for picking a female avatar for kicks, but he sighed as he realised just how awkward all of his conversations were going to end up being if he did that. "Katarina." he muttered reluctantly. God, he could already feel his cheeks turning red just from introducing himself with that name. Still... "We'll go with Katarina for the time being. I'm going to have to get used to it regardless, seeing as I'm pretty sure there's no way to change names in Gaia Reborn."

Katarina sighed for the umpteenth time that day. Yeah, this was definitely not how she was planning to spend her Sunday.

...Her Sunday?

He groaned, frustration only growing at the sound of the soft and distinctly feminine voice that left his (her?) mouth. No; he wasn't going to get used to that any time soon. He's been male for 18 years; he's sticking with it, thanks.

He froze. A thought occurred. This was Gaia Reborn. There are actual hostile monsters in this world.

Fuelled by that slightly terrifying idea, Joel quickly began examining his person. See what he had to work with. A set of chainmail sat over the rags he was calling a tunic. A bag hung off of his belt. It was pretty small; didn’t really seem like it could hold all that much. Was it a coin pouch or something?

That idea was shattered when he pulled out a thick, heavy tome and a decent sized magic wand from the pouch. Suddenly he felt a new wave of nausea overtake him as he witnessed the laws of physics as he knew them completely fall apart.

Hammerspace inventories. Actual magic. Riiight. That exists now. That would take some getting used to.

God, he needed a drink.

He turned his attention back to Maruem. "Nice to meet you and all, and believe me when I say you might have saved my hearing permanently with the coat," he started, "but if this really is Gaia I've got no doubt we're going to be fighting actual monsters eventually. I don't know if there's mobs in the city this expansion. I highly doubt it, but at this point? Can't hurt to be prepared. May want to take inventory—oh, what the ever loving fuck is that."

Katarina just stood and watched the show before him as his jaw slowly fell to the floor. These two were just transported into a fantasy world, and their first response was to...? 'Fantastic.' he thought, a bead of sweat rolling down his face. 'As if this day couldn't get any worse.'

Well, if nothing else, this really did convince him that he was trapped inside a MMO.

---

Word Count: 1,455
Total Word Count: 2,097
Tags: Maruem Axey Atlas
Notes: Goddammit.

[Axey]

Jorge had been having a pretty average day before the game launched. He and his friends had agreed to wait for each other before playing, but he couldn't resist the temptation.

"I'll just play the tutorial until I get to the point where I can group with people. Should only take 5 minutes." he thought.

He loaded up the game and went into the character creation. "God I forgot how complex the menu was. Let's see... faunri... axolotl... pink... now for the details..."
After spending over a full hour in the character creation menu, Axey was finished. A perfect recreation of the character he had been using for years in the other server. And as he hit play, all went black.



Next thing he knew, he was waking up laying on hard floor. "God I really need to stop drinking so much at parties, I don't even remember GOING to one."
As he put his hand above his head to shield his eyes from the bright light, he noticed something: his skin was pink. Not just the kind of pink you'd normally get from sleeping under the sun for hours. It was bright pink, and it didn't sting.
That realization fully woke him up and he started checking his body. He was not wearing his normal clothes either, but rather a leather armor and there was a lute lying next to him. "You've got to be kidding me..."
Axey closed his eyes and took a deep breath and slapped himself before reopening them. "This is... actually happening right now isn't it." he thought while letting out a sigh after realizing the slap hadn't woken him up.



"Alright, first off, I need to see if other people are here too. Maybe I still have my friends list form the other server... nope, doesn't look like I do. I guess I'll explore this city looking for other players... with any luck Ellie might have made a character too. She was online on Discord when I was making my character."



After a while of searching for people he finally saw a familiar face... or well, a familiar name. He played a sound as loud as he could on his lute to get the heavily armored incredibly tall lady. When she turned around and saw him her face lit up.
"Jorge! she shouted as she went to hug him. "God, I'm so glad Ellie and I aren't the only ones who got impatient and made characters right away! Have you found any of the others?" To which Axey shook his head.
After adding Atlas to his friends list, he told her via the menu's telepathy function:"I think we might be the only ones among our friends who were awake at the time. Jean was sleeping, Mary was at that Cage the Elephant concert and I haven't seen Ron be online for days."



"Why are you using telep- oh right, you're mute. We should still look around, maybe get acquainted with other players. If we're really stuck here, I'd rather be on good terms with the other people we're stuck here with."
"Yeah, good idea. By the way is your arm ok? I thought you had broken it a week ago.
"I did! But I think disabilities don't carry over. I also got cured of Elly's myopia. Actually, with any luck you might be able to speak now that you're Axey."
After several minutes of trying, Axey gave up. "It feels like I'm able to do it, but I just don't know how to do it. Kinda like if a person born without arms suddenly gains one their brain won't know how to move it at first... wait how do music skills work then? Am I unable to use them?
"Only one way to find out."

Axey cleared his throat, grabbed his lute and began playing while thinking about using Minnesong of the White Maiden, and his body moved naturally, almost on instinct and he began to sing, feeling slightly stronger and faster, the effects of the skill raising his attack and his evasion.
"We're no strangers to loooove." "Oh you motherfu-'
"You know the rules and so do I
Inside we both know what's been going on
You wouldn't get this from any other guy
I'm just trying to tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand
Never gonna give you up!" "Never gonna let you down!"
Never gonna turn around and" "Desert you!"
"Never gonna make you cry" "Never gonna say goodbye!
"Never gonna tell a lie" "And hurt you!"

"Well, that just happened... I can't believe your first words was Rick Rolling me"
Axey noticed two players nearby staring at them. They probably heard them sing. "Hello-" he began staying before having a voice crack and stopping, embarrassed. "Still not used to having vocal cords. Can you do the talking for me? he told Atlas via telepathy as he approached the two.

---

Word count: 802
Total word count: 802
Tags: Katarina Maruem Atlas

Axey color: #9b19e6
Atlas color: #ff5493

[Atlas]

If you were to list Ellie and Atlas' qualities, "patient" would not be one of them. They tried their best to wait for the others, they really did. But they just couldn't. They had been waiting to play on the new server for months and they just couldn't wait any longer. Atlas got on their computer and made her usual charatcer. Massive amazonian woman, big muscles, heavy armor, and just overall an absolute unit of a character. "Enemies can't hit the teammates behind me if I'm massive enough that my hitbox covers theirs" as she always liked to jokingly say.

After hitting "create character", they passed out. Both woke up un the grass in what seemed to be a park of some sorts with no memory of how they got there. "How did we get here" asked Ellie. "Where even IS "here"?" answered Atlas as she looked around. "Looks like Italy but everything broken.".

"Wait... Atlas... why are we wearing armor?"
"Oh shit we are. Doesn't look like it's fake armor either. Atlas said wile getting up, fighting the weight of her armor. "Oh my god we're huge! And ripped!"
"Wait... we're in the character you made! We got fucking isekai'd!"
"Looks like it. Do you think the others are here with us too?"
"Well, let's go find out."

After looking for people for hours Atlas was starting to lose hope while Ellie was trying to keep her going. That's when she heard a loud guitar-like noise and turned around. Axey was there, looking the same as he did in the old server.
"Jorge! God, I'm so glad Ellie and I aren't the only ones who got impatient and made characters right away! Have you found any of the others?

After briefly talking to each other about what happened they began to search for more people. It turns out although Jorge is mute, Axey isn't, and his very first words were the lyrics to "Never Gonna Give You Up".

Axey noticed and pointed out two other players were staring at them sing. A little girl with animal ears and an adult human. "Probably a child playing with a family member" Ellie thought as they approached them.
"Hello there! I'm guessing you two also got transported here when you made a character? I'm Atlas and this is Axey." she said with a friendly smile.

---

Word Count: 393
Total Word Count: 393
Tags: Katarina Maruem Axey
Notes: Shut up Kat, Never Gonna Give You Up was planned since the day Bard became a class
Ellie color: #f300ff
Atlas color: #ff5493

[Maruem]

Maruem sat up and then stood to his full height again as the girl began to speak. He brushed a few loose blades of grass from his tan skin, his face already adorned with its carefree smile again. Jesus Christ... I bounce back fast. Again he chuckled, it wasn't often he was baffled with himself I mean, I know that the guys used to joke about that, but holy shit... he though as he got the last blade of grass, a small one stuck to one of his calves.

As he looked down from his full height, fortunately the same as his real height, he began to appreciate that he had made his character so similar to his real self. It would have been far more difficult to life in this world trying to get used to an alien body, and far more stressful too.

He did not give himself the change to look his body over just yet, because out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash. What he had noticed was the eyes of the fox girl, glinting in the light. She was looking up at him and for the first time he got to see her eyes. "Her eyes, they are very pretty" he though, or at least he thought he had thought it, unfortunately he had also said it.

The fox girl turned her attention to their surrounding, seemingly taking in where they were once more, with hopefully better adjusted eyes. She had taken his cloak and folded it into an odd clump of fabric on her head, not entirely unlike a turban. After looking around and giving herself time to think, she let out a sigh and after a few moments, began to speak in that soft voice of hers. Maruem listened intently. His eyes widened a bit at hearing that 'she' was in fact a 'he', and yet had still that 'he' was going by the name Katarina, which he muttered so quietly, Maruem barely heard him the first time. "I don't think so, it there is a way to change names, I am not the right guy to ask, cause I don't know it."

Katarina had looked contemplative while he spoke, and then a sudden flash of fear lit her eyes. She examined herself and reached into a small pouch, and to Maruem's amazement, she pulled out a large tome and a wand. "Wowowow! Everything alright? We're in city limits so unless something has changed we should be safe, and is something comes, don't worry, I'll die before I let anything happen to you child. But you're a spellcaster huh? What kind are you?"

After what she said to him, about being grateful for saving her hearing, about the possibility of hostile mobs in the area, and about how maybe being prepared for that possibility could not hurt him, he gave himself the chance to check his body out for the first time since entering this world.

He started with his head. His hair felt soft, thick like he remembered it, but also softer, more smooth. He pulled a few strands in front of his face, and it was definitely as long as he remembered making it, and the same rich brown he had worked tirelessly to get just right. He rubbed his cheeks and felt his beard, a familiar and somehow calming feeling.

Reaching for his nose, he found his black-rimmed glasses. He took them off, and his vision was perfect, even without them. His eyes opened wide at the realization, and he let out something between a gasp and a sigh. By no means was his vision horrible back in the real world, back when he was Zephyr, but the idea of not needing glasses was a welcome one. He would definitely keep them, but knowing that he could read signs and billboards even if he forgot them was a welcome realization.

Putting his glasses back on, he looked over his clothes. The words that came to mind when describing them to himself in his head were "simple, plain, unappealing". His armor did not look awful, but like any beginner gear he had a feeling that it was made to function as the bare minimum and was expected to be replaced soon. Disregarding the clothes, he looked his body over. He felt his neck, his arms and forearms, his chest, his belly, his thighs, his calves. All of it was toned and unyielding like before, just like he remembered. He reached back and grabbed his ass for a moment. Yep, still firm, just the way I like it.

One last thing came to mind. He looked at Katarina, and fortunately she seemed distracted looking at some pink thing off in the distance singing with a giant woman. He stealthily pulled forward his trousers just a bit. "Oh gods what a relief!" He said with a loud sign, like a weight had been lifted from his chest. Fuck... that definitely will not raise any questions from her, why did you have to sigh so loud...

With the self physical examination done, he reached into his pouch and though of the dagger he had taken as a side arm. They were in town, he rationalized, they probably would not need a big lance, and besides, even if they did, he could always just pull that out too. For now he wanted at least one hand free. He slipped the starter dagger into his belt.

Maruem saw movement in the direction Katarina had been looking. The giant woman spoke first, introducing herself and her companion. Maruem did not feel threatened, per say, by these strangers, but his protective instincts did get the better of him. For the first time since he had awakening in Gaia Reborn, he also stood in his more sturdy posture. With the situation being what it was, he had let himself relax around the young girl, or boy, or whatever he was. Now that new people had come into the picture, he fell into his more firm and hardy posture, not stiff with anxiety or fear, nor puffing his chest in an effort to be intimidating, just not as relaxed any more.

He stepped in front of Katarina. Whether she was a little girl or a little boy, it did not really matter, one way or another he was a child. He, She, this is going to take some getting used to it seems, who would have thought that picking to play the opposite sex could carry so many difficulties with it. He though silently, but very quickly, to himself as he sized up the two strangers.

Looking at the first one, the only word that came to mind at first was "pink". His skin, his weird frilly neck things, his eyes, his hair, and even his tadpole like tail, all of it was pink. His clothes looked not too dissimilar from Maruem's own clothing, and he wore the same brigandine. The Lute and singing were a dead giveaway on what his class had to be. He had to be a bard, which was probably a good thing, Maruem liked bards in most games he had played with them.

Maruem's attention shifted to the woman. She was a giant, standing at probably over 7ft. He wasn't sure which of them was stronger, but he also wasn't sure he wanted to find out. She was wearing thick plates of iron, with leather padding visible between and beneath them. He had no idea what class she was, there were several with Heavy Armor proficiency, but he was not sure it mattered at this point, whether they had been imposing or looked helpless, he had no intention of getting in a fight so early on.

"I'm Maruem" he finally said, now with much more confidence than he had when he introduced himself three times to Katarina. "This here is Katarina." He was not sure he should speak for the girl too much, so he decided from there he would only speak for himself. "I am pleased to meet you, Atlas, Axey." He gave a nod to each of them respectively as he spoke. "I must say Axey, I'm fascinated by how pink you managed to make your character, I know faunri were customizable, but i had no idea it was to that degree."

"And you, Atlas was it? What a fitting name. You are indeed very large." He paused for a second, realizing that that may have sounded rude. "Ah fuck, I'm sorry. I just meant that as in you are very tall and strong looking, hopefully I did not offend." Well, this is a good start to the game he though as he still stood between them and Katarina.

Maruem thought for a moment. "So, you've realized that we're in Gaia Reborn as well then have you? I don't suppose you have any inkling of an idea s to the how of that, do you?" He felt like pushing the topic of being trapped would probably only stress the child behind him out, so after that, he decided to switch topics to some helpful information for all of them, on the off chance that they really did run into enemies like Katarina had feared.

He spoke again; "Like I said I am Maruem, I am a Gladiator, and I have played Gaia for a few years, so I have some experience with the game here and there, I don't know how much any of you have played. Back in the real world, I used to be a lumberjack, so the Talent Class of Carpenter seemed fitting enough, and I also enjoyed HEMA practice at the club not too far from my home. I suppose aside from that, it's my first time actually living an Isekai anime." The last bit was not tactically helpful, but he figured a bit of an icebreaker between the two pairs of strangers could not hurt. As he finished saying all that he had to say, he looked away from them back at Katarina, the little girl/boy had very quickly become someone he had some strange pull to protect. Back on earth Zephyr loved kids, and had been told he was very good with them many times. It only stood to reason that seeing one in such a strange and potentially dangerous world would evoke such feelings, right?

Word Count: 1734
Total Word Count: 1124+1734=2858
Tags: Katarina , Axey , Atlas
Notes: Not what I expected, but then... it never is.

[Katarina]

All the Faunri could really do was just stand back and stare in absolute bafflement about the fact that two people have actually decided that their best course of action upon finding themselves inside a videogame was to sing "Never Gonna Give You Up" as a duet. I mean, could you really blame him?

He turned to face Maruem. "Are you hear—oh."

His disbelief for the two newcomers was long forgotten as he noticed Maruem was extremely invested in the contents of his pants, letting out a contented sigh. In public? Seriously? He wasn't one to kinkshame, but you had to draw a line somewhere. Though, that said he couldn't blame the guy for feeling the need to check his goods; truthfully Katarina was still far too terrified of what he'd find to check in his. He could already feel that certain familiar weight missing. Goodbye, old friend.

Suddenly his envy for Maruem skyrocketed.

'Later.' he decided. 'I can mourn my lost manhood later.' Trying his hardest to forget that somewhat disturbing sight, he turned his attention back towards the other worry in the area. The two apparent memelords have seem to have stopped singing 80s pop music. That's good. What wasn't as good was the fact that they were approaching the duo at a rapid pace. Great. He definitely needed more insanity in his life right now.

Maruem clearly wasn't all too impressed by their intrusion either, tensing slightly. Considering the fact he was slightly... preoccupied during their little artistic display earlier, it definitely wasn't due to that. It's entirely possible he felt slightly threatened by one of them; the girl was... well, to say she was completely ripped was an understatement. He gulped as she moved closer and he realised that she was almost double his height. Body language looked fairly nonthreatening, but goddamn.

"HEllo—" Holy mother of all voice cracks, that was not a sound he was expecting to hear.

His attention turned to the culprit; an extremely pink Bard standing next to the amazon; presumably the one responsible for causing that travesty from earlier. All of the confidence he previously had seems to have left him upon making that extremely dignified introduction.

That wasn't important. What was important was the fact that this Bard was a Faunri who apparently wasn't having any trouble whatsoever dealing with his new and improved senses. Honestly, Katarina couldn't place the animal he had based his design around. A pink, tadpole-like tail and a set of what seemed to be gills attached to his earlobe and running all the way behind the ears themselves. So he didn't have to deal with animal ears, sure, but he was still a Faunri. He would have the same racial ability that Katarina did. By all rights, <Animal Instincts> should be affecting him exactly the same as it was affecting the fox Faunri, regardless of the differences in animal species.

Maybe he just wasn't nearby during the absolute chaos of the last hour. Maybe his pain tolerance was a lot higher than Katarina's, who knows. That said, the noise had died down quite a bit since his initial awakening. He could still hear way too much, but at the very least it's getting closer to the initial peace and quiet he had in his first few minutes.

Testing the waters, he slowly began to untie the makeshift turban and moved the cloak off of his ears slightly. He winced at the noise, but it was a hell of a lot better than it was before. He sighed. Screw it. Worst case scenario, he has to deal with a little pain for a bit and then wraps the cloak around his head once again. Not ideal, but...

Carefully, he completely removed the cloak, shuddering slightly as he felt the breeze on his exposed ears. Well, so far so good. So long as nobody starts yelling he should be fine.

Yeah, no. He wasn't taking that risk. 'I'll give it back later, but for the time being, I'm going to keep this on hand.' he decided, pushing it into his bag. It fit without an issue.

Man, he wasn't ever going to get used to that.

Alright, now that that was sorted, what was...?

Oh. He had completely missed their introductions, didn't he?

Brilliant. That's just perfect.

Katarina glanced at Maruem pleadingly. Whether he noticed his distress or not he wasn't entirely sure, but the fact he proceeded to drop the names the two strangers while exchanging pleasantries and introducing himself was definitely something that the Faunri was grateful for. So, Axey and Atlas then. The two seemed relatively close, with Atlas speaking for the Bard with the voice issues. Presumably they knew each other before this mess then. Well, they seemed friendly enough at the very least.

"What a fitting name. You are indeed very large."

Well now, it looks like Maruem was planning on changing that posthaste. Good job. Saved Katarina from the noise only to proceed to get him shishkebobed by an angry buff amazon. Not the way he was expecting to go out, if he was being honest. It seemed that Maruem realised exactly how grave an error he had made, as he quickly backpedaled and showered her in compliments. "Excellent work, Casanova." Katarina snarked. "Any other lines you want to try out? I can guarantee you it won't go worse than your last attempt."

He'd snark to Atlas as well regarding her choice of avatar, but frankly he was still extremely intimidated by the fact that she could probably snap him like a twig with just her index finger.

Thankfully, she's more reasonable than Katarina gave her credit for. Nobody was maimed. He was expecting at least one maiming.

Unfortunately though, it didn't seem like they had any idea of how they were trapped here either. "I still don't understand how any of this is even possible." he muttered under his breath. Truthfully, he highly doubted that he'd ever fully understand. This seemed like one of those things that was well beyond human comprehension.

Maruem then proceeded to introduce himself again.

Why, you ask? That's a good question. Maybe it's his hobby.

At any rate, he decided to elaborate a decent amount. Apparently he's a semi-experienced Gaia Reborn player, which is nice to know. That said, it was doubtful how much of his (and Joel's for that matter) expertise would help in this scenario. Knowing how combat is supposed to flow is helpful, but they won't be behind the safety of a computer monitor this time around if they god forbid ever get into combat. He was hoping to avoid that outcome if at all possible, though he knew that it was most likely going to be unavoidable. All he could hope was that the respawn system was still a thing in this new reality of theirs.

Maruem glanced back at Katarina. Damn. Looks like he's not getting out of an introduction after all. "Well, I guess it's my turn, then." he muttered, before sighing. Was he really going to stick with Katarina? Of all names? He already (apparently) looked cute and feminine as-is; going by that name is definitely going to cause a lot of annoyance, but he was still pretty confident that unless something was added in the patch that he missed there was no way to actually change it. Plus, using Joel would just be awkward...

Whatever. All eyes were on him; he had to go with something.

"I'm Kat." is what he went with in the end. It sounded just a tad more masculine than the full name. At least, that's what he told himself anyway. Whatever stops him from dying of embarrassment then and there. He paused before adding a terse "Male."

May as well get all the confusion out of the way early.

"I've been playing Gaia for a good number of years now, though I'll admit to not typically running support and generally never Cleric either. I have zero idea how to use either of these," he presented his grimoire and his wand with little fanfare, "though once I figure out how casting actually works in here I should be a decent amount of help. That said, I'd like to avoid combat if at all possible. We don't know if respawning is a thing, and I sure as hell don't want to be the poor schmuck that finds out." Stuffing the two weapons back into hammerspace for the time being, he glanced at the party once more. Presumably Maruem was a DPS class of some kind judging by his equipment, Atlas was very obviously a tank with her heavy plate armour, and Axey was a Bard. Add in himself, and they've got a tank, a DPS and two supports. All things considered, he could think of worse parties that he could've ended up with in this situation. "Pleasure to meet you."

---

Word Count: 1,487
Total Word Count: 3,584
Tags: Maruem Axey Atlas
Notes: If the quality of this post is worse than the last one, I apologise. Wrote it out in class and I had to sort of pay attention to the lesson.

[Axey]

The moment Axey's greeting left his lips his pride took a hit. Noticing the little girl flinch and cover her ears, he decided it was best to not keep speaking. She's either afraid of me or her ears are sensitive, either way I'd better let Ellie's motherly aura deal with this one.

As he was thinking about it he realized the man was complimenting him and that he didn't get his name.
"I'm fascinated by how pink you managed to make your character"
Fuck fuck fuck I have to reply to that "Thanks." he replied briefly and not very loudly, doing is best to not have another voice crack, letting a small sigh of relief after succeeding.

"I still don't understand how any of this is even possible."
You and I both, buddy.

Well, at least it seemed like both of them were experienced Gaia Reborn players. That means they'll at least have an idea how to handle themselves if they got assualted by mobs. They also both seemed to be pretty nice judging by the first impressions they gave.

Wait, "male"? Oh wow the possibility of people playing different gender characters and becoming them never even crossed my mind.

After a bit of introductions Axey got tired of having to stay silent.

"Hey, Atlas, can you ask them to accept my friend request and use the voice chat function. That way I can talk to them without worrying about sounding like a teenager. Plus I can try to explain how using Skills works to Kat."

---

Word Count: 256
Total Word Count: 802+256 = 1058
Tags: Katarina Maruem Atlas

[Atlas]

Atlas was slightly relieved at the response from the two people. They seemed to be friendly enough.

"And you, Atlas was it? What a fitting name. You are indeed very large." Maruem told her before realizing what he just said.

Most girls would have been at least slightly offended by that, but not Atlas. She just couldn't hold her laugh in "Haha, thanks." she replied while giving him a friendly slap on the back. "My teammates can't be attacked if my hitbox is so large it completely covers theirs am I right?" Again with that joke. You really never get tired of it do you.

After laughing that awkward moment off the girl, or well, boy, introduced himself as Kat and mentioned being a cleric.
"Nice! I'm a Paladin myself, our classes often work well together. As you can probably tell by how he was singing and playing an instrument, Axey is a Bard. We both used to play a lot on the old server. We were hoping we'd find someone else from our group somewhere but we've been at it for a while now. Not sure if I should be glad they're not stuck here or sad they're not with us."

After the introductions were out of the way she heard Axey speak telepathically again. God I'll never get used to having people talk to us directly into our head.
Well, you got used to me doing it.
That's not the same, you've been there since for as long as I can recall. Anyway, Axey does have a point, he's kinda left out of the conversaiton right now.

"Say, would you guys mind accepting our friend requests and continuing this conversation over the menu's voice chat? Axey here isn't used to having vocal chords so it'll be easier on him if we talk that way. And Axey can also explain to Katarina how casting spells work."

---

Word Count: 317
Total Word Count: 393+317 = 710
Tags: Katarina Maruem Axey

[Cat]

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Had the day finally come? It was not uncommon for people with interests such as Vincent's - namely the dual-deal package of games and anime - to ponder what it would be like to actually be in the situations that games put you in. Isekai were one of those.

His eyes squinted against the unfamiliarly bright sun, whereas just now he was inside his own room. All around him was the sight and sound of a thousand humanoids freaking out and panicking, with varying amounts of composure. Sights, sounds, and smells all unfamiliar to Vincent were hitting him all at once whilst he mulled the possibility through in his head.

Fuck, fuck. Fuck?

While his eyes were blinking heavily and scanning the plaza he found himself in, he was trying to pinch himself. The keyword was trying, because his much longer and lankier arms promptly overshot his own forearm, and he instead snapped his fingers shut in the air. He had to actually look down and look like a retard of some sort as he took great interest in accurately pinching his own unfamiliar arm, his long platinum hair falling over his peripheral vision and arm at the same time. This definitely was the body of his avatar, he could clearly feel the pain, and the senses hit him with incredible realism.

This was actually happening, wasn't it?
And oh gods, where the hell was Flavio?

His gaze shifted around the plaza once more, looking over the throngs of dumbfounded humanoids with ears, tails, horns, fangs and the likes, so that he could look for Flavio. Or rather, Wolf, because certainly Flavio wasn't going to look like his real self - but rather, a massive burly man with horns. Speaking of, it was a world of change to be able to peer out over the heads of so many people in a crowd. He would yell for Flavio, but Vincent's mild fear of crowds - especially ones in disarray like this - and the unfamiliarity with his new voice, as well as the loud commotion already present, would render it moot.

Instead, he turned his body to-

Twack!

-wince in pain, as he promptly bitch-slapped some poor bystander with his brand-new massive wings. He would apologize, but instead only uttered a faint "Fff-" between his teeth. Who'd have thought these massive things were actually sensitive when you'd hit the essentially feather-over-bone contraptions against something with enough force?

Eyes still watering, and this time with his hands reaching up behind him to feel up those massive attachments, he looked like a moron trying to find his brother and wading through the crowd equally awkwardly like about 3/4th of the populace.

He eventually came to a stop next to a motley crew of people whom were actively engaging in conversation with each other rather than screaming various alterations on "the end has come", and turned his attention towards them.

"Hi.. You've seen, uh.. Antas? A very big one? Eyepatch, black hair.. Sorry?" Vincent wasn't exactly making a great first impression or speech, with most of his nerves and stress overtaking him and gripping his vocal chords. Even despite that, he sounded so.. divine? His Enoch voice had a very gentle and mellow tint to it, almost dreamy. Quite pleasant to the ears.

---

WC: 553

Tags: Katarina Axey Atlas Maruem

Notes: New Enoch who dis

[Maruem]

Maruem laughed at Atlas's joke. She seemed like a kind person. It was a good laugh, and Maruem felt some of the tension he had first felt at the sudden arrival of the strangers disappear. He did not change his body pose, but he was more willing to accept these strangers as potential friends. He though about how he wasn't usually so doubtful of people, even strangers, and that he tended to try to see the good in everyone. However, at the same time, having something to defend, like for example in this case the small child he had found and already protected once, he felt justified in being more on the defensive.

While Maruem was busy mulling all of this over in his mind and thinking of where to take the conversation, a sweet little voice piped up from behind him. Katarina finally revealed her class, both to him and to these others, Axey and Atlas. So she's a cleric, that is very good to know, not to take advantage, but i will almost certainly need healing considering some of my gladiator skills take away from my HP. He contemplated as she continued to give her brief introduction.

Atlas revealed that she was a paladin and that they would likely have good synergy tactically. Along with Maruem and Katarina, both Atlas and Axey were apparently both also experienced Gaia players as well.

Maruem opened the menu and accepted the two friend requests from the large muscly woman and small pink boy, who apparently did not have vocal chords in the real world? No wonder he had been so quiet. On top of adding those two, he also added Kat, feeling like if nothing else, having the first person he'd met was probably a good idea

Before talking on the new telepathic link with his 3 new friends, Axey's comment about teaching Kat how to cast spells gave Maruem an idea. "Just a sec, I want to try something quickly." he said as he stepped away from the group just a bit. He clombed up onto a crumbled wall not too far from the group and decided to practice his only spell. He waved his hand in front of his chest and at the same time whispered <Frigid Blade>. A few inches away from where he waved his hand, a blade of ice began to materialize. He reached out quickly and before it flew off he grabbed it. after a second or two it gave a tug as if a magical force were trying to propel it forward, but he held tight and the blade eventually calmed down enough for him to control it freely. "...wow... cool." He held the blade up and inspected it, it was very simple, but sharp. well, it is pretty hot out right now, so might as well enjoy it before it melts and he took a bite from the ice blade.

He hopped off the bricks, and a few fell of the loose ones fell to the ground behind him. Climbing up onto the wall had been a twofold precaution. for one, if he fucked up royally, any potential explosion probably wouldn't hit the others, and two, if he did not manage to grab the blade, it would just fly off at a high altitude, making it far less likely to hit someone. "So, that was actually pretty straight forward, good to know." He took another bite and let the slowly melting ice dance over his tongue, and threw the rest of the blade to the ground.

As he got back to the group a beautiful man with quite large wings came up to them and asked if they had seen a very big Antas with black hair and an eyepatch. "I'm sorry, but no I have not, i don't know about the others, but myself and Kat here" He indicated to the small child with his hand "have been in this area since we woke up, so it's possible she saw something I didn't? You're welcome to join us and wait for him if you'd like. If you want a better view that rubble is not too hard to climb and would give you a better vantage point." He gave a friendly smile to the stranger. "Oh, and I'm Maruem by the way." Odd... calling himself that was starting to feel natural.

Word Count: 738
Total Word Count:2858+738=3596
Tags: Katarina , Atlas , Axey , Cat
Notes: Welcome Cat

[Katarina]

Well, at the very least on the off chance they get into combat Kat likes his odds a lot better than he initially did. While Maruem was still an unknown when it came to his class, Atlas outed herself as, like he expected, a tank. As it turns out, the strange Bard and Paladin duo also have a great deal of pre-isekai Gaia Reborn experience.

Axey glanced at Atlas meaningfully, his gaze followed by a short moment of silence from the two. Nodding her head slightly, Atlas suggested that the party send each other friend requests so that they could communicate via voice chat. In truth, the idea that they might have access to proper MMO-style menus and game mechanics completely slipped by Kat. The request was followed by a casual remark that Axey wasn't used to having vocal chords, which opened up a whole other can of worms in itself.

'So, Axey was mute before this?' It would explain why he's stayed so quiet during this discussion outside of exactly two remarks, but the repercussions from something like this were huge. It made perfect logical sense; new bodies means no handicaps from your old ones. Kat had attributed his apparently now perfect vision to his <Animal Instincts> skill, but maybe it was more simple than that (or just a combination of both the skill and the new body).

That revelation was promptly followed by another; Axey had already figured out how to use skills. Ah. So that was what the singing was about earlier. Presumably he had activated one of his Bard skills, and since music skills would require him to, well, play music, the system (or whatever magical entities controlled this world's functions; he had to stop thinking of it as just a simple game) made him sing whatever song first came to mind.

Or something. Truthfully, Kat just wanted some kind of explanation for the random rickroll no matter how flaky it was.

At any rate, he wasn't going to lie; he was pretty excited to learn how to cast actual magic. Unfortunately, it was only after the two sent him the friend requests that he realised something kind of important; he still hadn't figured out how to open the menu. Pleadingly, he looked over to Maruem once again.

Well, no help there. He was already deep in menus hitting accept buttons. Damn.

Trial and error it is then. He could most likely rule out voice control; it was pretty well established at this point that his hearing was more than superhuman, and he hadn't heard anything along the lines of "open menu" from Maruem. His first thought was hand motions. This was almost like a VR experience, right? Just better. Much better. Hopefully the same rules still apply.

Swipe up? No, nothing. Down then? Still nothing. Left? Right? Other hand?

...This was going poorly. Suddenly, a thought occurred. Considering this was just a god awful isekai at this point, it couldn't hurt to try...

No, right index finger and thumb together in a downwards motion didn't do it either. Damn. 'Aincrad has failed me.'

Okay, clearly there was something he was missing. Everybody else just opened it without any fanfare whatsoever, and unless Maruem had used the menu before Kat suffered the migraine from hell this was his first time opening it as well. He had zero issues, so it must be something obvious.

He paused. 'What if...'

Closing his eyes, Kat thought about the Gaia Reborn menu and just how badly he needed the damn thing open. He was sure that at least one person in the group had noticed his problems by now; he just needed to get this damn menu open before anybody else looked.

Sure enough, upon opening his eyes he came face-to-face with the user interface in all its glory. Bingo. He was probably a little too proud that he had accomplished something as basic as opening the goddamn menu, but hey. Baby steps.

From there, he was easily able to find and accept the rest of the group's friend requests. Alright, sweet. Easy.

His ears perked up slightly as he heard Maruem whisper <Frigid Blade>. Closing the menu and turning around to face him, he was met with the flattering image of his saviour sitting atop a crumbled wall, happily chomping away at a magical dagger made of ice. Well, that was certainly something.

Still though, that did prove one thing. Skills could be activated via voice commands. Seeing as the menus of Gaia were roughly the same as he remembered them, he could presumably activate skills by tapping them on his skill list as well. Still though, there was a slight problem.

Anybody could see how wasting time navigating menus while in combat would get you killed; hotkeys existed for a reason. Voice commands, while much, much better were still kind of inconvenient in that you presumably had to say the whole skill name in order for the skill to parse. Sure, it wouldn't matter for skills with short or simple names, but in other circumstances that could add on several seconds to the cast time.

Well, if thought alone was all it took to open the menu, maybe the same principle could apply to casting skills?

Couldn't hurt to try. Thinking about the (admittedly extremely few) skills he had access to, Kat thought about casting the one skill he had unlocked which didn't specify a target: <Arcane Alphabet>. The only reason he had picked it up was because it came with the Scribe talent, but maybe here it could be useful. Sure enough, he saw a small RGB slider materialise in the corner of his vision. Picking out a nice shade of magenta and walking towards the wall Maruem was currently perched atop of, he traced along the bricks, eyes lighting up once he saw the word Test graffitied across it. Nice. So that did work how he expected. Well, that almost made up for the menu issues from earlier.

"So, that was actually pretty straight forward, good to know." Maruem commented, jumping back down the wall. Kat agreed with him. Surprisingly simple once you stop overthinking it.

Speaking of Maruem, his class was still an unknown. Opening up his menu, Kat navigated over to his friends list and tapped on "Maruem". Sure enough, his profile appeared before the Faunri's eyes, username, class and talents sitting to the right of a headshot of his avatar. So he was a Gladiator then. Great. Well, he's probably going to be priority number one for heals in that case assuming that Gladiator still had access to skills with HP costs in this expansion. At any rate, good to know. He moved to close the menu.

...Kat's eyes lingered on Maruem's profile image.

...did he dare check his own?

He wasn't sure if he was ready. Just the knowledge of his current predicament was bad enough; he wasn't sure if he could handle seeing the actual evidence. He played with a strand of his hair, bringing it into his vision. Purple, fading to white further up. The colours were appealing, sure, he chose them himself, but it was very much not his hair colour.

Toying with the idea for a few moments longer, he sighed. No use trying to avoid it, and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't curious about how he turned out.

Alright then. He navigated back through the menus, finger hovering over the profile button. It wasn't too late. He could back out.

Urgh. Screw it.

Tapping on the button, he froze.

Well, there she was. Katarina. She was adorable, really. Absolutely, positively adorable. Her extraordinarily long hair framed her cherubic facial features, and innocent deep blue eyes peered out at him. Two large white fox ears sat atop her head, presumably mid-twitch looking at the picture. To pick out a singular word to describe her appearance, the avatar was cute.

Joel wanted to throw up.

There was no denying anything now.

Ugh.

Closing the menu in defeat, Kat glanced halfheartedly at the new arrival. A tall man with a large pair of wings. He was looking for someone or something. Black hair and an eyepatch, or something along those lines. Maruem introduced himself yet again. Frankly, Kat didn't care.

'My beloved masculinity has shattered.'

"I'm Kat." she muttered under her breath. She'd like to say it was for the newcomer's benefit, but truthfully it was closer to her admitting defeat against Gaia Reborn. The fact that Maruem had seemingly decided that he was going to stick to using "she" didn't really help. For the umpteenth time that day, she shook her head as if to clear it. Unsurprisingly, that didn't work. She sighed once more. "I haven't seen anybody that matches that description, but I've kind of been preoccupied with my own issues. I'll admit to not having paid much attention." she offered, before returning to moping.

Her life was a goddamn mess.

---

Word Count: 1,497
Total Word Count: 5,081
Tags: Maruem Axey Atlas Cat
Notes: I'm really, really sorry about the hold up with this one. As of posting its been about 20 hours since Klide's last post, and I've only just now had the time to write this one out.

[Axey]

Axey and Atlas sent the friend requests and waited for the two players to accept them. The first one to do it was Maruem. Kat, in the meantime didn't seem to be opening her menu and was just staring at him. Did I... offend him somehow? he began to wonder before Maruem joined the private discussion through his menu.

"There we go. As I wanted to say earlier, hi, I'm Axey, nice to meet you." chimed the Bard while shaking Maruem's hand. "And yeah, my character is quite pink. It's the default color for axolotl faunri."
"And I'm Ellie. Long story short, I'm a second voice inside Atlas' head."
"About using skills. You just need to think really hard about what your character looked like in the game when you used it and try to imitate it. To quote a certain turtle, 'you have to go with the floooow maaaaan'."
"I seriously can't tell what's funnier. The fact you referenced a Disney movie in order to teach someone to use magic or the fact that you referenced THAT movie in particular out of all the Disney movies there are."
"Would you prefer if I sang Let It Go?"
"I will fucking strangle you if you do."

While the group bickered, Maruem was already casting Frigid Blade only to catch it in midair and eat it like a popsicle.
"Dude, isn't that like, hella cold on your hand?" Atlas asked out loud while Kat accepted the friend request and made a smug expression before closing his menu without joining the voice chat.
Shit, I totally must have done something to upset him if he doesn't even want to talk to me. He's a faunri too, maybe Animal Instincts gives faunri actual animalistic insincts? Would make sense for a fox to not be friendly towards most other animals. God I really hope I don't have to live in constant fear of literally any carnivorous faunri... no, wait, that doesn't make sense, I'm not thinking differently than I normally do... at least it doesn't seem that way... wait would I even notice if I started thinking differently? Would it be like how I don't realize how dumb an idea is while drunk only to realize I'm a dumbass the morning after? No, wait, if I was thinking the way an axolotl does I wouldn't be overthinking this so much, so the only conclusion is Animal Instincts still does what the skill says it does and doesn't give faunri actual animal instincts. God that's a relief.
Axey let out a sigh of relief after coming to that conclusion. As he focused back on what was going on around him he saw Kat was able to use one of his skills by copying Maruem. He's totally doing it to say 'I don't need your help', isn't he.

Axey's train of thoughts was interrupted by Maruem messaging them, 
"Axey, Atlas, ...Ellie, I'm very sorry for doing this, but there's something I'd like to talk to Katarina about in private, so I apologize, but I'm going to have to disconnect for a bit."
"It's alright, sounds likt it's important. Talk to you later."
"Yeah, you seem like we could get along really well."
Atlas got closer to Muarem and whispered "And just between us, you're totally Axey's type by the way. Don't tell him I said that though."

Once Muarem had left the voice chat, Axey asked Ellie "Hey, you're pretty good at reading people. Do you think Kat dislikes me for some reason?"
"Not really, no, why do you think that?"
"I don't know, that's just the kind of vibes I got from him. When I sent an invite to the voice chat he made a smug face and closed the menu without joining, and when I offered to help him figure out how skills work he just ignored the offer and copied what Muarem did."
"Well, maybe he had some reason to. Could be related to why Muarem wanted to talk to him in private. You could just ask him later. He accepted your friend request so you can message him some other time."
"I guess you're right."

A few moments later, someone else showed up, seemingly looking for someone and panicking. "An antas with an eyepatch? He's gonna need to be more specific, that's literally the go to appearance someone with the name tag 'xX_DemonSlayer_Xx' would pick. And my god there's bound to be a lot of those."

"Try to calm down and describe them in better detail so we can help you, there's no need to be in such a Big Time Rush"
Seeing his chance, Axey couldn't help himself and activated Minnesong of the White Maiden with a grin and started singing the theme to that old Nickelodeon series.
"Oh oh oh ohhhh
Make it count
Play it straight
Don't look back don't hesitate
When you go big time!"
After those 10 seconds, the song skill ended and he stopped playing. "...sorry." he said, doing his best to avoid another voice crack and barely succeeding.

---

Word count: 842
Total word count: 1058 + 842 = 1900
Tags: Katarina Maruem Atlas Cat
Notes: gonna start alternating posts between Atlas and Axey instead of posting with both each time, so Cat, go ahead.

[Cat]

"Mm." Vincent squinted slightly in a mixture of disappointment, which he honestly expected, and awkward disapproval when the hot-pink axolotl suddenly started singing the opening to Big Time Rush. Immediately, like some sort of ear worm, he recalled the episodes about the vending machine and the turd song. Memories from long, long ago.

He considered turning around and going to another group of people to ask for details, but unlike the real world - where people want to finish their business with you ASAP if you are a stranger - these people took the liberty of introducing themselves to him, thus binding him under what was known as "Societal convention." Ah right, phineas and ferb. Why the fuck were these cartoons suddenly coming up? Damn axolotl.

With apparent awkwardness, unlike the two humans and the pink faunri, he shifted his pose to at least be comfortable for conversation now. His massive wings, a mixture between silvery platinum and snowy white, awkwardly stretched and relaxed on his back with the flexing of muscles he couldn't fully control yet. Said movement of his wings prompted people to walk around Vincent in a wide berth lest they eat a faceful of feathers, and fluttered up his long hair of the same color.

"Ah, hi, I'm Vincent." To him, it was natural to call himself by his real name rather than the one of his avatar, whose body he was now walking in. Prompted by the massive manwoman, he furrowed his brow to resume talking as he thoroughly looked over the entire group. "Ah, his hair is about midway-back length. He has four ornaments on one horn, two on the other. He put himself at 2 meter.. 43? Pirate class, so he should be walking around with a grappling hook too."

This was the part where he realized there's no way a group of strangers that were a two-minute walk away from his starting location would have seen him if he himself didn't, though. But just wading through crowds and throngs of panicking people wasn't really his thing either, and these people already introduced themselves and seemed to have come to terms. Might as well just.. Hang around them, then, like some kind of lost puppy. Vincent looked awkward, but that wasn't really out-of-place when 80% of the population was screaming fire and murder as he stood next to some goliath woman, Hanzo with a sword, a walking gay parade animal and some kind of fox-eared loli.

"This is absolutely, without a doubt, the most realistic case of Isekai I've known. I don't believe for a second that actual Isekai wouldn't have people running around as characters from other forms of media or living memes." With a silent scoff, Vincent sighed and crossed his arms to stare the faunri out of the tree while the motley bunch of.. people conversed.

---

Word Count: 476

Total: 1.029

Tags: Maruem Katarina Axey

Notes: It's canon Vince totally hates Zephyr for looking like goddamn Hanzo and judges Joel as a lolicon.