altimit | (no subject)

["A little". Yeah, sure, okay. Just a "little".]

The GP from that worm not a big enough reward for you? But there should at least be that stupid book we need to bring back.

[You know, the whole reason they're in this dungeon. The quest. They need to get the quest items.

He's disappointed when he sees the Sky Fish, hoping the last fight would be a bit more climactic then just some neutral enemies that he's sure Matoba will turn into a crisp in an instant.

Still, Owen is still sort of playing along, readying another cast of La Corma to buff their magic output.]

It would be embarrassing if you died now.

[god but he hopes he does...]

[Wow Owen do you want to be dommed???]

That's right, that book for Hien-kun......... Well, it was only 1k, though. [Chump change!! ...Just how much GP does Matoba have?] But then again, I wonder how many times this dungeon can be rerun? An event dungeon with a guaranteed gold drop is pretty nice, even if it's limited to once per day, or something like that.

Might be worth coming back. Without you.

[The poor feesh are done away with between the buff and Matoba's queued spells, an anticlimactic ending for the dungeon. Oh, well- the spawns were randomized, probably? Maybe he ought to send some feedback about guaranteeing the toughest spawns at the end of an event dungeon......]

[That's right, so now the prizes should be just ahead of them. Sure enough, a chest lies in wait. What will be their reward.........!?]

[He would rather die then let someone dom him.]

I don't know if it's a lot or not when there's nowhere to spend it.

[No in-game shops just yet... Maybe it'll make them super rich! Probably not, but you never know!

Anyways, time to open the chest and grab this book. Only gives it only a cursory glance, reading the blurb to see there's something about like... sworn brothers and drama and things he doesn't care about, and then holds it out to Matoba.]

This might be very informative for you, Okoto.

I suppose so. Ah, the crane games in Lumina Cloth are quite fun, though! Have you not played them?

[Matoba glances at the book that Owen pulls out, and realized upon being handed it that-- ah. Yes, this feels right. He pulls up the menu for his grimoire selection and.....]

[Equips it!! No more tattooed human skin blood tome, yay!]

Oya, oya.... This is quite the fun little item, isn't it? [He flips through the newly-skinned skin tome, glancing through the text on the pages.... Wow, there seems to be some saucy content in here.......]

Shall I read it for you before I return to deliver it to Hien-kun? A little preview. I'm told my narrating voice can be very soothing. [Suwabe fuck,]

Haven't had the time.

[Which is true, in a sense? He doesn't spend a lot of his time in Fragment on the idle distractions, because he has too much he wants to (or has to) do in the real world. He's not some shut in like most of the playerbase!]

But maybe I'll try them out, if I run out of more entertaining things to do.

[How can he waste his time on crane games when he has people to harass?

Matoba, please. They need to turn that in, you can't just steal it for yourself!]

I'll pass.

[He doesn't want to admit Matoba has a nice voice, so he will just ignore that "soothing" comment.]

Struggling with grinding? Tsk, don't go falling behind...

[Or do, actually. Maybe then he can get ahead of you, so he can bully you in PVP. Matoba raises an eyebrow at one of the pages he finds while reading through, turning pages, before finally tearing his attention away again.]

Suit yourself! [He shuts his grimoire again with a snap. They can turn it innnnn, but the skin is his prize!! He's going to keep it to read later. Seems spicy and fun.] Shall we complete the dungeon and turn in the quest?

[(How long will it take Matoba to finally get to read this to Hien??? We may yet see..........)]

I wouldn't say it's grinding I'm struggling with...

[Even if this is before he desecrated the guild hall. Probably. The timeline is fuzzy.]

Let's get this over with. You want to get the rewards and go off and have your sad, perverse fun, don't you?

[And Owen just wants to log off and go take his dogs for a walk. They're way better company.]

[Can't believe you made cultist grunty watch with its own eyes (also having just looked at the dungeon run again, probably way before but who's counting)]

I do! Thanks for asking. Are you going to go talk to more perverts on the internet for money?

[Some of them might even be Matoba!!]

[Not me, that’s who.]

Why do you want to know? Do you want to be one of the perverts I talk to, Okoto?

Not in the slightest.

[He doesn't want to be. But unfortunately, Matoba has to do a great many things he would rather not. That's the responsibility of retaining power, of being a leader, after all.]

It's been fun, Owen-kun. Let's get out of here.

[Doubt…

Matoba, stop lying to yourself. It’s pathetic.]

Fun? Well, I suppose it wasn’t as agonizing as talking to you usually is.

[A fruity little wave.]

See you around, Okoto.

[ A few days later, the two of them will receive a message from their inbox from an "Anonymous", encouraging them to go investigate an Area with the keywords Θ Hidden Forbidden Hades.

Will they go? ]

[Of course they're going, Owen isn't a coward.]

[also replying here in case you need the confirmation but HELL YEAH let's go to HELL]

[ By inputting the keywords, Owen and Matoba will find themselves in Indieglut Lugh (aka hell tree), particularly its lake. The two will warp in and find themselves underwater in the lake with no warning, where they will feel a pull that leads them deeper inside... ]

[Can they... breathe...? Wuh-oh.]

[Matoba glances up with a squint at the light funneling in from the tree and above them, although the deep darkness is quickly swallowing that all up. Under the water, he's a swirling mass of hair and robes.]

[Bubble bubble. If he can talk under here,]

--Oh, this is--

[So there was something else here!! He knew he'd felt that pull. Hien you lying bastard. (..Haha, how embarrassing, he thinks after a moment. He hopes nothing is in here to have seen all that!)]

[Well, at least Owen doesn't recognize the tree. He's never felt much need to go investigate the weird places everyone talks about, so hell tree? Who cares?

The worst part is he's stuck here with Matoba, but he just shoots him a look. Logic would dictate they should swim towards the surface, but seeing as there is that odd pull downwards and it's all very spooky and mysterious...

Owen starts swimming down, fully ready to just leave Matoba behind.]

[ Should they follow the pull that leads them further into the lake, they will fall onto the only bit of accessible land in the Wailing Capitol.

The Wailing Capitol is the land that exists below Indieglut Lugh, and where the god of death themself resides. The castle itself is attached to the center of the platform that looks like a hollowed out spinning top that hangs upside down in the air, leaving everything suspended on the wrong side up. Sheets of water cascade down in specific points of the platform, raining down into the murky clouds below. You basically got this huge upside down spinning top with a hollowed out inside with the castle stuck right in the middle of that hollowed out space with water running down the top-shaped platform. Fun. Also, clouds. You might as well be high in the sky.

The castle itself is slowly falling apart, being beaten by the wind that blows mercilessly throughout the Area. But all you can do as the castle slowly but surely falls apart is watch, for the platform connecting where you are to the castle has partially fallen, the stones that do remain crumbling and unsteady. They cannot get to the castle.

What stands behind you are imposing walls of what seems like the outside of a fortress. There is no entrance to the fortress and cannot be entered, but a foreboding feeling comes from beyond the walls anyway.

But Wailing Capital is an apt name, because some of those strong winds sure sound like… screams. The screams contain the words that both characters least want to hear from their past. They cannot hear what the other character hears. ]

[Oof. Matoba lands on the little island and picks himself up eventually, grumbling at the soaking wet of his robes and resetting them in his menu to dry himself off. Thank goodness that's a thing you can do!]

[The wailing winds give Matoba pause as he hears a familiar death shout at one moment, and one of bitter, jealous anger the next- but he fixes any inflection of surprise in his expression before he glances to the side at Owen to see how the other man was reacting. The both of them liked to play at being untouchable and aloof, didn't they. But they were, after all, human.]

Watch your step. Would be a nasty slip, wouldn't it? [He smiles, calling across to his companion. He steps forward to examine the fortress walls, hands running along them tentatively. No doors? No handholds...? It seems like it would be too slippery to climb, anyway. Matoba thinks for a moment, if there was any magic he might be able to use to make things easier.]

Wings would have been nice right about now, [He tsks.]

[Well, he wasn't expecting that landing. At least they landed somewhere, and didn't just topple off into the void.

Owen pushes to his feet, looking more annoyed and frustrated with anything else. That could very well just be because of the drop and having wet hair as the winds buffet them about, and not any sort of mysterious screaming going on.]

I would have loved to seen you get blown about in this wind. What a shame.

[He looks over the edge of their platform, to see if there's anything below them at all. The presence of the fortress is heavy, and he's certain there's mysteries laying inside, but... He's more curious about the castle crumbling in front of them.]

[ The screams intensify the longer they're ignored, because they start turning very nasty. The screams start spouting some very terrible things that your characters do not want to hear the most from their pasts.

Perhaps Owen will get his wish, because the winds starts intensifying little by little. ]

Haha, well, we're not all such useless twigs...

[Says the guy who is actively shorter and really no less twiggier, but hey, you can't say Matoba lacks in self-confidence. Owen peers over the platform and Matoba glances over to him, a dark thought crossing his mind before he scoffs and glances away again.]

[That would be pointless in their current location, wouldn't it. And besides- despite how annoying the man is, there was also the reluctant admission that they worked quite well together. Regardless of personal feelings, they were guildmates for a reason, huh?]

[Tch.]

[Although it's awfully difficult to think clearly like that, with the words being howled into his ears right now. Well what do you expect from oathbreaking Matoba dogs--]

That lake was supposed to be some sort of entrance to the underworld, right? [He speaks over the voices, not looking at Owen.] I guess that would make this Hell.

[The irony speaks for itself!]

Yes, some of us are even more useless then others.

[Twig? Rude. Not exactly inaccurate, but why do people keep commenting on how thin he is…

Whatever. There’s more important things to deal with, like the wind he has to brace against. He feels like it would be much easier to fall into the abyss then continue this conversation.]

Interesting imagining of hell. Less fire and torture then I would expect.

[It’s an interesting choice.

That thing is a monster! Get it away from me!

His eyes narrow, and he crouched down - it doesn’t make the view down any clearer, but it does make it easier to handle the wind.

He doesn’t turn back towards Matoba.]

I wonder how many of these places are intentional.

[ The wind persists. It grows stronger and stronger until it feels like they're yelling in your ear, right next to you. It will keep trying and trying, wanting a reaction, a stronger one, as if it's trying to tell the intruders to leave--

Then a piercing wail rings in their ears. It will cause a migraine that persists for the next 24 hours in real life. Hey, maybe it would be a good idea to log out...? ]

Edited 2023-09-03 02:14 (UTC)

Less torture than you imagined? ... Ah, well thinking about it--

[He's about to reconsider and agree, but the wailing sound cuts him off. Teeth gnashing together, even Matoba can't quite shut it all out, having already been nearly shouting over the noise of it.] If this is intentional, then it's probably--

[Is this what "Hell" is, according to this game? According to what the AI thinks Hell is? Matoba can't help the silent chuckle rattling his chest as his hands raise to his ears, grinning despite himself.]

[Can't really critique it too harshly. It wasn't exactly pleasant.]

Is that what you want? [He asks aloud, not caring even if Owen can hear it-- has Owen spoken to it? Can it even hear them, down here??] You want to know our limits!?

[He'll log out if he doesn't get a response- but he's waiting to see Owen's reaction first. (Or in b4 they play logout chicken??)]

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