paixaorpg | Wanderlust in Vanaheim

Current Location: Vanaheim Gate

Entry tags:

Wanderlust in Vanaheim

Character(s): AndrAIa, Itachi, Marluxia, open
Content: Entrancey Stuff
Setting: Vanaheim Gate
Time: Midday
Warnings: None at this time

AndrAIa held the basic vidwindow in her hands, looking around the crowd with a dismayed expression. So far, her questions had given her only the vaguest of responses. Matrix had vanished -- they had only been just beside her! Although she wasn't concerned about the pair of them, she was definitely concerned.

It struck her suddenly to try to reboot again. This was her third attempt and her first inside the city gates. Heedless of the crowd, she paused on the sidewalk. Squaring her shoulders and planting her feet firmly on the ground, she double-clicked her icon. "Reboot!"

Glancing around, AndrAIa immediately knew that nothing had changed. Her icon chirped obediently, but it wouldn't so much as change her format from Mainframer to game sprite. And that worried her. Was Matrix also stuck? Oh, he wouldn't like that, not one bit... She had better get to him first.

Well, she might as well get some use out of this thing. It was a journal, of some sort, and also allowed for communication. That, at least, was what she had been told at the front desk. Speedily, she entered the information she had learned so far, hoping it would provide some sort of clue.

After a moment, she realized rehashing it made it make no more sense than when she had first encountered the information.

There were so many sprites -- sprites of every size and shape everywhere. Surely, they couldn't all belong to this game? She had played enough games to understand that most game sprites...

"Excuse me," she said, flagging down a young man, aka one Itachi. "What game is this?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Itachi had spent a lot of the morning wandering around the Vanaheim district, sorting out his experiences over the past few days. Amnesia and then blindness? It didn't make for a very pleasant experience. Then again, around this place, what did? Wandering seemed to be the only thing that he could do since he left the hotel. Not having other shinobi around seemed to make things rather dull.

"Excuse me. What game is this?" The words cut through Itachi's musings, bringing to the forefront ponderings on how he had ended up on the ground. He had been roaming the rooftops... Must've been too deep in thought to notice the change in altitude.

"I'm sorry," he told the girl who had hailed him. "This isn't a game. At least, not that I'm aware of." Although, wouldn't that be sickening to consider... that this was all one big game under the control of a rather sadistic creature...

"So I've been told," AndrAIa responded, a little glumly. She couldn't help but be disheartened by the lost identities of so many sprites, and all of them seemingly out of place. "And you're not a sprite either, are you?"

Expecting his response to be negative, she shook her head a little, tossing a wave of green hair over her shoulder. "As long as you're not a User... Is there anything you CAN tell me about this..." She trailed off then, suddenly finding herself at a loss as what she should call this place. "...World?" That seemed to be the going word.

Of course, SHE knew this was a game -- but for how long? The entire game seemed to be corrupted somehow...

"A sprite?" Itachi blinked at AndrAIa and raised an eyebrow. Weren't sprites supposed to be playful spirits of the forest, or something? Why would a ninja qualify in that category? "I'm no sprite.... a user of what?"

This girl was throwing out terms he wasn't familiar with. It was more than a little frustrating at the moment. Honestly, who came into Paixao thinking it was a game?

"This city is called Paixao. As for the world around it, well, who knows? No one's managed to get off the island to try and go anywhere. For all anyone knows, we're in the middle of a vast ocean that goes on for miles. Even if you got out of the city, you'd likely never find another land-form beyond the island." And that was about as talkative as he felt like being for the moment. He was a ninja. Ninjas didn't go around giving out free information... at least, not frequently.

"Probably not, then," AndrAIa allowed, with a bit of a sigh. "A User plays the game against us." Lifting her shoulders in a slight shrug, the sprite conceded defeat -- at least for the moment.

"Paixao." It didn't ring even the faintest of bells. "I don't recognize your icon..." Lifting a finger, she pointed to Itachi's headband, and added, "If you aren't a sprite, what are you? And what are you doing here?"

And so she continued with "the game," even after he had mentioned that this wasn't a game. Well, whatever.

"My icon?" It took Itachi a moment to realize that she was pointing to his hitai-ate. Of course she wouldn't recognize the symbol. It was blatantly clear that she wasn't from Konoha, or, for that matter, the Shinobi Continent. Then again, most of the people here seemed to be from somewhere other than the Continent... "..It's the symbol of my village, Konohagakure no Sato."

This girl's questions were so weird... He could understand that one couldn't tell by glance that he was a shinobi, but surely she knew he was human? "I'm a shinobi. And I'm here because I ended up here. Hell if I know how I got here or why."

"Shinobi?" AndrAIa was beginning to sound like Hack and Slash, and she knew it. With a sigh, she explained, "I'm sorry. I have no idea what that means. What's your function?"

His icon made some sort of sense, at least... It looked nothing like the icons she was accustomed to, but if this was a new sort of game, why should it?

"And can you recall anything about how you got here, anything at all?"

Itachi schooled his features to mask his confusion. The technical terms that AndrAIa threw out were taking him a moment to decipher. He wasn't used to having them used in such a context. And he had to consider for a moment what he should actually tell her.

"I don't really know how to explain it," he admitted, or pretended to. Truth be told, the Uchiha had never had to tell someone else what a shinobi did, and it was kind of difficult to explain. There was so much more to it than the killing people part...

"All I really remember about arriving here was a flash of white light, and then being in front of the gate. I can't really tell you any more than that."

AndrAIa shrugged a bit. No, that did not sound at all familiar -- and it did not give her any clues as to what was going on here!

"I'm AndrAIa," she said, gracefully placing her fingertips on her chest, just beneath her collarbone. "I'm a sprite from the system Mainframe. I entered this game with a friend of mine. But I haven't seen him here yet. Someone told me I might not find him at all."

Itachi regarded AndrAIa for a moment before actually deciding on a course of action for the present situation.

"Uchiha Itachi." He inclined his head, the briefest trace of a bow. "I don't know how likely it is that you'll find your friend here, but it won't hurt to keep an eye open for him."

Well now, hanging around with this... sprite... was going to be interesting, to say the least. Itachi had a feeling that it couldn't be anything but. And he was going to learn quite a bit, he was sure.

"Well, he'll certainly stand out, if he's here," she answered with a sad sort of smile. Already, she missed Matrix...and if she was here, where was he?

"Uchicha," she repeated, smile widening into one of friendly acceptance. "It's a pleasure. You didn't tell me what your function is, though. I'm..." She used to call herself a warrior, when that was her sole function. It took her a moment to realize her function hadn't changed much in all these cycles. "A warrior," she finished, grinning.

"Uchiha," Itachi corrected almost immediately. It was just one of those things that was automatic when someone pronounced his name wrong.

"I didn't?" Itachi adopted a surprised, almost puzzled look. "I suppose you could consider me a tracker, if you want." It was one of the things that he did as an ANBU, after all. It just wasn't everything that he did. But really, who kept tally? "What does it matter, though? This place pretty much turns all of the outsiders into layabouts."

"Laybouts?" AndrAIa repeated, confused. If she took the meaning of the word correctly, it meant...idle. The thought rather disturbed the sprite.

"But that's impossible. Everyone has a function. If no one performs their function, the system just shuts down..."

A world of idle sprites -- it was terrifying, particularly given AndrAIa's recent run-in with Daemon. That was what she had done...

"This isn't a system," Itachi replied. "It's a city. And it seems to be working just fine with all of the visitors around. The people who actually live here still work and do their jobs. It's the guests, the outsiders like us, who do nothing.

"The people here don't offer jobs to anyone, either. What else are the guests supposed to do? Besides, regardless of what a person's job might be, they can't do it if they don't have the opportunity." After all, an ANBU was nothing without his missions.

AndrAIa thought over his words, frowning. Her function was a warrior -- to enter the games and beat the User. If she couldn't do that, what would she do?

A slow smile appeared after a long moment, and AndrAIa shook her head a little. Now they had HER thinking this wasn't a game!

"The objective is to get out. That's something we can work on."

Itachi snorted. So many people were trying to get out of here that it wasn't even funny. It was kind of interesting to see how people were trying in any way they could to get out of here. "People have been trying for months now to do that. I've been here for a good long while now, and no one's figured that one out yet.

"Good luck trying, though." As far as Itachi knew, there was no way off of this island. He hadn't bothered to try yet, but he couldn't see trying to water-walk across that ocean.

"It's better than doing nothing," she replied, a little curtly. Frowning at her harshness immediately though she added, "Don't you have anything at home to get back to?" Her head cocked a little to the side, a curious gesture. "Or anybody?"

Itachi regarded AndrAIa, considering the question she asked. What to tell her, how to answer...

"Home? Heh. I have no guarantees of going back to my own time, let alone back to home." He shook his head. "I have a younger brother that I was looking after, but I'm not really interested in going back to the rest of the family."

AndrAIa's face softened. And she had Matrix. To think she might never see him again -- but love conquered all. Somehow, he would find her -- or she would win this game and send it away. And Mainframe would be there, waiting.

"Matrix and I compiled together," she said, smiling. "We've never been apart for very long. He'll tear down this game to find me. But I want to win it before he has the chance."

Strengthened by the thought of her lover and friend, AndrAIa pursed her lips in thought. "The question is, where do we begin?"

Itachi frowned for a moment. He had assured AndrAIa several times now that this wasn't some game. However, he supposed that you really couldn't get someone to see something any way but how they wanted to see it. How disappointing that was, but that had to be the way things worked at times. After all, you couldn't stop a shinobi from ninjaing. Why try to stop someone else from doing and saying what they knew and felt to be true?

"We begin at the beginning," Itachi replied, a moment of philosophical thought. "The only problem to be encountered is finding the beginning, woven and tangled as it is within the mess that is Paixao. I don't think anyone has found it yet, but I don't know how many people are actively looking, either. A good many of the people here seem to be more interested in bickering amongst themselves than they are in banding together to get out."

"You're very poetic, Mr. Uchiha," AndrAIa replied with a little laugh. "You remind me of our Command.com, Phong. Except he can't decipher his own advice."

But Phong wasn't here to help her now. She would just have to figure this out on her own -- with Mr. Uchiha's help, that is. "As for everyone else... I've noticed that sprites usually need some encouragement to work together. I've been to systems on the verge of a complete crash, and no one will do anything to stop it, because they're all blaming each other or fighting. It's just programming." And it was a shame, too. How many systems could have been saved if people would just work together?

"Well, you've been here much longer than I have," AndrAIa said at last. "I've seen very little of Paixao. What would you suggest as a possible beginning?"

It was annoying to be pulled away from greater concerns of his, but business was business and he went where he was told to go. There were some benefits to entering this place--so many people with so many expectations and all so confused--but the question of whether or not they'd outweigh the faults was one that still needed to be answered.

Marluxia had gotten the entrance procedures finished as soon as possible. After a quick glance through the journals, he'd found that some of the fools had made themselves a bit too well known. Larxene he'd expected, but some of the others' actions were outright careless. This coat wasn't going to do if he was going to be interacting with anyone. He needed to blend in as much as possible if he was to gain anyone's trust.

He was considering leaving for now and returning in more proper attire when two people caught his eye. He thought he had seen her enter when he had arrived, so it would be likely he wouldn't be discovered should he start to talk. The other one was more of a gamble, but even if this person knew, he wasn't likely to have too much effect on the malleability of the blue-haired woman. Marluxia was perfectly capable of defending himself, after all.

He walked at a slow, casual pace in the two's direction, stopping to admire the scenery at times to make the show complete. "Have you just arrived here as well?" he finally asked once he had found himself close enough.

Poetic? Itachi had to keep himself from snerking. No one had called him poetic before, and he supposed that no one would in the future. After all, that wasn't the kind of thing that you called a cold-blooded killer of men. In fact, that was about as far from it as you could get.

"Would that I knew," the Uchiha commented, watching the newcomer that had come through the gates. The man's pink hair alone was enough to make him stand out, and the coat... well, if he was intending to stay, he'd certainly be changing that wardrobe.

"My friend here has," Itachi told Marluxia. "I, on the other hand, have been here for quite a while."

"Yes," AndrAIa confirmed, her eyes looking the man up and down. Someone, she couldn't quite recall who, had warned her about people in long black coats. The man didn't seem openly hostile, but AndrAIa would keep an eye on him, just the same. She was all-too accustomed to dealing with viruses.

With a smile, she gestured to the gate with a fine hand, keeping her suspicions to herself. "I came through that gate as well, just before we stumbled across each other. What system are you from? And how, if I might ask, did you get here?"

It was interesting than a virus had only just arrived as well. The so-called Organization of viruses was working in concert with each other. If they had control over this game, that could explain quite a lot...

Their suspicious looks didn't go unnoticed. Perhaps it would've been better after all to take those few extra minutes to go change into a different set of clothes. Still, he was hoping to play it off as coincidence.

He closed his eyes for a moment, pretending to think. "The circumstances surrounding it are hazy, but there was a flash of light and then I woke up here." It was generic and probably filled with a little too many holes, but those could be patched up well enough. "System?"

He had an idea what the woman meant, but her explanation would buy him time to flesh things out.

Itachi couldn't help the raised eyebrow at Marluxia's comment. As a shinobi, and being good at looking underneath the underneath, he was almost certain that the statement left out pertinent information, if it wasn't false all-together. Time, and questions, would certainly tell the truth of the matter. All it took was the right kind of prying.

"Your story isn't too different from most," the Uchiha stated simply. "Where are you from?" It was a simple question, but if he was lucky, it would reveal far more than Marluxia had already offered. Besides, with the role he had already taken in this city, it would be unwise to be anything other than simply curious about random, seemingly useless facts. He did wonder about how much this newcomer worked with Larxene. She was, after all, the only one that he knew within the Organization. And if her receptions were any indication, the Organization as a whole was one for being well received around here.

"System," AndrAIa repeated, then looked to Uchiha and nodded. Extending a hand towards the shinobi, palm up, she explained, "Where are you from? What I call systems are called 'worlds' here." It was a term she wasn't entirely familiar with yet, and so she used it with a brief hesitation. "So, I suppose, the correct inquiry command is: which world are you from?"

Cocking her head slightly curiously, AndrAIa paused with her hand on her hip to hear the response. It was an animal-like gesture and one AndrAIa could not help but make. "I'm from Mainframe," she offered. Although she didn't trust this sprite, she saw no harm in sharing the name of her home-system...

"It doesn't have a name. Or, if it does, I've never heard it said," Marluxia lied, though no trace of the it showed on his face. He was too practiced to let it show. "My name is Michael, by the way."

The blue-haired one was interesting. He had thought she meant something along the lines of planetary systems before, but now it seemed more as though the meaning was closer to something in a computer. At least, that's what the second term, "inquiry command," seemed to indicate. That was an interesting development indeed.

The boy seemed somewhat familiar now that he thought on it. He must have shown up on the message boards a few times when he had been skimming through.

Itachi nodded, taking in the information offered as it was handed to him. Michael, eh? It was a strange name, surely. At least, from his perspective it was. Then again, living where names are often syllabic tended to make any name that wasn't such very strange indeed.

"Some know their home, some don't," Itachi shrugged. Who was to say if Marluxia was lying, anyway? He wasn't Ibiki, to know how to extract information from a person through methods and measures, and any means he did know was more than a bit... excessive, to say the least.

If there was one thing that Itachi wanted right now, it was a confirmation on the thought that this newcomer was connected to Larxene. However, there didn't seem to be a way to go about this without being excessively forward about it. Such was the problem with being a shinobi. He'd have to sort himself out soon if he wanted any answers.

"Well," AndrAIa replied with an easy smile. "We are compiling ideas of how to get out of here," she explained, adding, "Wherever or whatever here is. If this is a game, all we have to do is win it -- if we can figure out how."

AndrAIa didn't have to trust either of these sprites to recognize that they could help her. After all...

"As I see it, we all seem to have a common goal. I, for one, want to go home -- at least, there's nothing to stay for here." At least, she hoped they had a common goal. "But we seem to be having some trouble decoding the beginning." Her eyes slid to Uchiha, and she grinned. It was his idea; he could try to explain it to Michael, if he asked.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 2

Wanderlust in Vanaheim

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject