001 [] Video :: Arrival

[swordsaintseta]

-ah!

[The feed shows nothing more than the street, but whomever the user is, they seem to have stopped abruptly from their walk. A hand lingers at the edge of the image, then hesitantly pokes at the air.]

Oh, this isn't like the regular status menus at all... I guess it really isn't the same. ...then that must not have been a dream either.

[His finger continues to swipe and prod at the air in front of him, Soujirou himself being oblivious as to how silly he might appear by either perspective. Finally his hand withdraws, the view shifting downwards as he lowers his head with a thoughtful sigh, and one can now catch a glimpse of folded arms and the length of a violet-brown hakama. Someone seems to be dressed a bit traditionally, in any case.]

Hmmm.....

Comments

[teddious]

[Teddie was making his first attempts with the camera. This wasn't a very insightful feed that is shown to him. That was a... mister, right? And a hakama... the only conclusion here would be...!]

Mister, are you a samurai?

Visual

[unbroken_chain]

And then a cheerful teenager with ridiculous hair appears in the video feed.

"Hi! Welcome to Hinoto-Ri!"

[swordsaintseta]

[He's not sure what to make of the image that comes up in front of him then, but since the figure (?) seems to be addressing him, it's only fair to respond accordingly. ...even if he probably can't even really be seen since his glasses won't show his face.

The image lifts up towards the street again as Souji lifts his head, and he can't help but smile to himself. He supposes he's still his game-self, here.]

I guess you can say that, heh! And what are you supposed to be?

[swordsaintseta]

[That's definitely surprising! He jerks his head back with a start.]

-oh! Um, thanks? Hinoto-Ri, huh...

[Video]

[aurathread]

You're not in the game anymore.

[Video]

[swordsaintseta]

I was starting to assume as much... It really doesn't look a thing like Akiba, after all.

Ah, were you in Elder Tale too, then?

[teddious]

Wow, a real samurai! Like in the movies.

[Teddie definitely hadn't expected that. This world seems to be quite fascinating as well.

That question, however, throws him a little off-guard.]

Can't you tell? I'm a bear, obviously!

[swordsaintseta]

[He's not sure how he'd explain Elder Tale, so he leaves Teddie's words at that.

The image tilts to the side as Soujirou cocks his head.]

A bear..? Ah! I see now!

[unbroken_chain]

"My name's Kotoha, nice to meet you! Did you just arrive?"

[swordsaintseta]

It's nice to meet you too, Kotoha-san. I'm Soujirou! ...and I guess you can say that. Mn, I've never been here before, so I arrived some how.

[unbroken_chain]

"Okay, hold on a second - I'm about to send you a text file..."

BEEP BOOP BEEP COMPUTER NOISES

"That has the basics; feel free to read it through - I can wait."

[Video]

[aurathread]

I... huh? No, The World.

[What the hell is 'Elder Tale'? :T ]

[swordsaintseta]

Huh? Oh! Thank you! Umm....

[He brings up the file and glances it over.]

...mind lasers?

[Scroll, scroll, scroll.]

Wow, that's interesting... A Persona, huh. So can you not fight demons with weapons other than a Persona?

[Video]

[swordsaintseta]

Eh?

[For a moment he wonders if it's some other expansion, but he's preeetty sure he's never heard of one called "The World."]

[unbroken_chain]

"Well, I have a stun baton and a BB pistol I use, and I've teamed up with people that use other weapons too, but most of the time I just use my Persona."

Slight pause.

"And my Pokemon, but those are kind of a limited commodity around here."

[swordsaintseta]

I see...

Well, otherwise, I guess on the whole it doesn't sound too different from what I would be doing in the last place I was!

[unbroken_chain]

"Oh cool, it's always nice to have someone experienced show up! If you want, you can give me your full name and I can find out what apartment you were assigned?"

[Video]

[aurathread]

[... Okay clearly he comes from some different world.]

The World. I'm guessing you must come from a different place from me. There's people from all kinds of worlds here. The World is pretty much the only MMO where I'm from. I'm guessing 'Elder Tale' is the big MMO where you're from?

[swordsaintseta]

I have an apartment too? Ah, it's Seta. Soujirou Seta.

[Video]

[swordsaintseta]

Heh, I guess so... That's kind of amazing to think about though...

Elder Tale is pretty popular worldwide- where I'm from, I mean. It's been around for twenty years now! Although...

...you weren't stuck inside the game too, were you?

[Video]

[aurathread]

The World's only been going for three years, but there's someone here from a later version of the game I think... seven years on from when I am?

But yeah, I was stuck in the game for six months. I think. That's what I was told.

[Video]

[swordsaintseta]

So people can be here from different times too?

[That's...confusing. But what Tsukasa says next is something of an eyeopener.]

That long...? I don't think it's even been a month since the Apocalypse happened. That's when we found out we were in the world of Elder Tale.

[Video]

[aurathread]

Yeah.

... Apocalypse in the game or out of it? And I kind of had a... weird case.

[Video]

[swordsaintseta]

In... That's what we've started to call it. It was the day that the newest expansion was supposed to be released. I'm not even sure how many people were logged in at the time, but the Japanese server alone has always had a lot of people.

...what sort of weird case?

[Video]

[aurathread]

Yeah, but it's not like the world outside is destroyed, right?

[He weighs the benefits of telling him, but it's not really like it can do any harm.]

One of the AIs in the game basically connected me to an AI that was being... 'born', for lack of a better word. Keeping me there and keeping me miserable kept the new AI from being born.

[He's still not terribly clear how, but still.]