1. Name of Character in The World: Danriel [ Danri for short. Just put here in case I type Danri from time to time. ^^; ]
2. Name of Real World Player: Zoey Smith
3. Age: 17
4. Class: Twin Blade.
5. Clothing: Danriel wears a simple dark blue jacket with three-quarter sleeves overtop of a light blue skin-tight shirt. On the cuffs and the zipper of her jacket there is a gold trim. The jacket has a sleeve on the left side, but the right is cut away, exposing her shoulder and arm. On the back of her visible shoulder is a tattoo of a dragon's wing. The tattoo also goes down her arm. It would look highly realistic, were it not two-dimensional. The part of the wing that extends down her right arm is covered partially by a nondescript black glove. Naturally, its matching counterpart is on her left hand. The light blue shirt Danriel wears underneath the half-sleeveless jacket falls to just above her belly button. Her belly button also has an intricate tattoo surrounding it. Underneath her tattoo, her jacket is zipped around her hips. Below that is a very simple black belt that keeps her blades secured at either hip. Danriel also wears a light blue skirt (the same color as her shirt) with dark grey leggings underneath. The leggings go down to a few inches below her knees where they are covered by a pair of white boots with gold clasps.
[ if that's unclear, I have a reference pic I need to finish inking and coloring. ]
6. Eye color: Grey.
7. Height: 5'8"
8. Hair color: Danriel's hair is razored and falls to just past her shoulders. The hair near her face is cut quite short so that it does not get in her way while she fights. It gradually gets longer until it reaches full length at her shoulders. There is one short layer that is goes to her eyes, but the rest of her hair is not styled in layers. The base color of her hair is a dark chocolate brown, however it is obvious that Zoey was feeling somewhat creative when designing her character's hair. Amid Danriel's primarily brown hair (resembling Zoey's own hair in real life) are streaks of bright, neon pink.
9. Personality: There isn't truly a single word or phrase to define Zoey's personality. How she acts generally depends on how she is feeling that day, so her range of emotions is very complex. On a normal day (when she is feeling content) Zoey is calm, sociable, and quick to laugh. However, agitation can rear its ugly head in many forms, so she is more known for her snappishness and arguments than her halcyon and joking nature. On the other hand, if her day is going badly, Zoey is quiet and moody. Typically on bad days, she won't really talk to people unless she needs to, and she exerts an aura that sends the message that she would rather be left alone. More often than not, however, Zoey is to be found contented. Just like in law where a person is innocent before proven guilty, Zoey is happy before becoming sad. Despite being quite sociable, there are only certain people she considers her close friends. These are the people who she gives her full trust and loyalty to. Everyone else has a barrier between them and the inner workings of Zoey Smith. She was never really hurt in the past, but she is slightly paranoid about it happening in the future. Other than slight guardedness, she is able keep to her fear hidden and under the guise of a smile and a joke. Another aspect of Zoey's personality is that she loves to be challenged. She enjoys testing her boundaries and seeing how far she can push herself. Sometimes, she'll read into stuff that is not there just to have a goal in mind.
10.
a. Weapon: Steel Blades (Tiger Claws)
b. Armor: Head – Bandanna (Repth)
Arm – Wristbands (Juk Rom)
Body – Leather Coat (Gan Zot)
Feet – Sandals
11. Sample:
I love the snow; it's so pretty. Snowflakes fell in a flurry of sparkling whiteness outside the school window -- the first snow of the season. That was odd enough in itself, for that day was the last day of school before Christmas break, but it was not unheard of. When a large lake was positioned due north of a town, lake-effect rain -- or in that case, snow -- could hit said town at any time. At least it chose to hit now. I would hate to have my last Christmas here before college be a green one.
A girl in her late teens was sitting in the desk beside a large window that also functioned as a wall of the classroom, and she was noticeably paying more attention to the dancing snowflakes than to her teacher. Her eyes were shining with a light nothing but the beauty of nature could bring forth, and a tranquil smile was upon her lips. She had her chin propped in her left hand, while her right made doodles upon a scrap piece of paper before her. As she watched the snow fall, the pen in her hand moved of its own accord, dancing across the paper with deliberate strokes. Naturally, her mind was as far from the World History class going on around her as was physically possible.
It's not like I can't catch up later, she thought dreamily, mesmerized by the movement of the snow flakes. A few moments later, her right hand stopped moving. With slight interest, she tore her gaze from the snow and looked down at the paper. Zoey Smith, 12/16 was jotted at the top of the paper, as though she were filling out a page to give to her teacher. Underneath her header, however, was a picture of a person. The artistry was quite well, considering only a quarter of her mind had truly been focused on what her hand was doing. The person was female and vaguely resembled Zoey. She had shoulder-length hair which was colored brightly with her high lighter pens. She appeared to be tall and lithe.
Zoey frowned. It was true, the person looked like her. And yet... there was something different (aside from the highlighted hair) that Zoey could not place her finger on. I probably saw her in a video game somewhere, she decided. As the afternoon announcements crackled on, Zoey hastily folded the paper and put it in her pocket. At the front of the room, she saw a white board full of notes.
"...Essay on the Trojan War due by January. Three pages, single spaced, typed. Size 12, Times New Roman font," the teacher announced. He clapped his hands to signal being finished with the final lesson before Christmas. In an instant, the class began to chatter.
Two words: The Iliad, Zoey thought brightly. That particular piece of literature had been assigned to her for summer reading. She had found it interesting, and remembered most of it. It doesn't even matter that I didn't pay attention since I know most it from summer reading.
The bell rang. Zoey hung back to let the stampede beat her through the door. They had all filtered out to their various locker locations by the time Zoey exited the classroom. She took a right and set off toward the front of the building. The school had given her a coveted "near the entrance" locker, which was useful since she beat the bus rush almost every day. Today, she was particularly thankful; getting to her car amid students hurrying home for vacation was always brutal.
As Zoey finished cramming her homework assignments into her book bag and began to pull on her fur-lined winter jacket, she felt her pocket vibrate. Gotta love cell phones, she thought wryly, tugging the small, black phone out. "Hello?"
"Zoey!" It was her best friend, Mandy Johnson. "You just got out of school, right? Well come over here fast. I have something amazing to show you!"
"How did you get home so quickly?" Zoey asked.
"I faked sick. I had an email sent to my phone from my computer when it finished downloading this program -- you have to come and see." Mandy sounded excited.
"Okay, okay, I'm walking out of the school now." It was true. Zoey was currently jogging across the snow-covered parking lot toward her car. "I'll drive over to your place."
"Okay. See you here!" Click. Whatever it was must have been important for Mandy to skip school. Anxious to see whatever it was Mandy had to show her, Zoey pulled out of the parking lot and drove off toward her friend's house. Neither of her parents were at home so she did not have to worry about upsetting them by being out without leaving a message. Besides, Zoey was seventeen; she was old enough to be out for a bit by herself.
Mandy did not live too far away. Zoey had played through one song on her CD before pulling into her friend's driveway. Taped to the front door was a note that read- 'Zoey, the door's open. Come in. I'm in my room. - Mandy' Zoey laughed before pushing open the door and entering, kicking her boots off so as not to trail water through Mandy's house.
As she reached Mandy's room, Zoey found her friend glued to the computer screen as a three-dimensional model of a character floated as well as input boxes. "Check it out, Zoe," Mandy said without looking up. "It's The World, that MMORPG everyone's talking about."
"You got a copy?" Zoey asked, impressed.
"Not really," Mandy said impishly. "I present to you my completely costless and virus-free copy of The World! I was up all night hacking it off the internet, but it took forever to download. I decided to go to school while the files were sent to my computer. It sent my cell phone a message so I knew when to come home. This game is supposed to be super amazing. I can't wait to play it!" Zoey grinned. Mandy did not look the part of a computer hacker -- she was tanned, blonde, wore makeup, and had a hip-hop song playing in the background. But she was smarter than most, and could have easily worked out how to pirate a copy.
"Congrats," Zoey said warmly. "You'll have to tell me about it."
"That's part of the reason I invited you over," Mandy said slowly, as though this was the point she had been waiting for, and did not want to rush it. "I want you to come on adventures with me in the game. What do you think? I know what I'm doing now so I can have it ready for you by tomorrow morning. And it'll be completely safe for you, just like it was for me. What d'you think?" She sounded excited, but Zoey felt a sense of wariness.
"Thanks, but no thanks," Zoey replied, not unkindly. "I'd rather buy my copy." Mandy shrugged.
"Always honest to a fault, aren't you? Suit yourself. But it costs up near $100, if you can find a copy. My offer still stands if you ever want the game." Zoey nodded and exited the room, an unspoken farewell having been reached between the two friends. She strode out through the thin veil of snow to her car. There still isn't enough to need the brush yet, she thought wistfully. Her town was known for bad weather, and Zoey loved it. Why did this year have to be so off?
She sighed and pulled into the road, driving absently toward the mall. Something about Mandy's words had sparked a challenge in Zoey's mind. "... costs up near $100, if you can find a copy..." She wanted to find a copy; one-hundred dollars was not a problem given her birthday and early Christmas money. As Mandy had put it, the challenge was in finding the game.
I'll have a copy before I go home, Zoey vowed as she pulled into the mall's parking lot and exited her car. She did not know where the game stores were (since stores like Pac Sun and Hollister interested her more) but the useful directory proved to be an asset. It pointed to three gaming stores that looked promising, all in the same general area. "No wonder I've never seen them," she mused aloud. "They're all clustered together, and nowhere near the clothing stores..."
The first one was a no-go from the second she walked in. A notice above the counter announced that The World was sold out and there was a two-week waiting list. There are still two more, Zoey thought optimistically as she strode to the next game store down. The first thing she noticed was a display stating The World was sold out.
"You won't find a copy of it around here at all," a voice commented behind her. Zoey jumped and turned to see a young man following her gaze to the sign. "If one store is sold out, we all are, usually." Zoey sighed, but the salesman smirked. "Usually," he repeated. He lowered his voice. "I've got a few copies in the back. I don't normally mention it unless I'm sure the person can pay for it. It's such a pain to have little kids screaming through the mall, and attracting attention." He led her to the counter. "People ask to be put on hold and never return. The copies never get sold. So I just don't mention them until I'm sure it's a deal."
"And you're allowed to do that?" Zoey asked, impressed. "Your boss isn't angry about you withholding possibly the most popular game in the market from customers?"
"He doesn't know," the boy admitted. "But he doesn't expect copies to sell much, since most people who come here are adolescent boys who don't carry $100 at all times. Between your boots, jacket, and jeans, though, you're wearing more than $100 alone." Zoey let out an appreciative laugh as he quickly rang up the game and flashed the price tag of $106. Time to use that last mall gift card, she thought, somewhat sadly. Pulling out the card and a ten, she handed them over. He put four dollars in her bag as change and handed her the game.
"Have a good day," he said with a wink as Zoey left the store. Mission accomplished.
Zoey practically ran through the mall and outside to her car. She certainly pushed the speed limit as she drove home, parking the car dangerously close to the back of the garage, and dashing into the house. Her computer was on, and the disk was in the drive within minutes. A pleasant, pale blue screen shone with the phrase 'Welcome to The World.
Loading... ... ...'
She flipped rapidly through the instruction booklet. She skipped the installation, for she knew the steps already (Mandy may be the hacker, but Zoey knew computers quite well, too) from the many other programs she had put into her laptop. What really interested her was the controls and character creation pages. She removed the controller and the VR Helmet and examined the various buttons and knobs, comparing them to the book's diagrams until she was sure she knew them well enough to proceed.
'Loading... ... ...'
Zoey thumbed through the pages once more until she came to the page that was labelled 'Character Creation.' On it were several diagrams of face-less and feature-less beings that were a uniform blue in color. The text to the side said that this character was one-hundred percent customizable. In between reading, she would occasionally click a dialogue box that would open until a welcoming jingle turned her attention fully to the computer. Here we go, she thought excitedly as a new page greeted her. It was still a soft blue, but there was more white text than before.
"Welcome to The World," she read aloud. "In the next few minutes, you will create your character and get familiarized with the controls." The next step told her to enter a character name and create a password.
Username: Danriel
Password: *******
Danriel did have a nice ring to it, Zoey decided. She enjoyed its sound and how unique the name was. Satisfied, Zoey clicked the next button and was greeted with a nondescript model such as the one she had seen in the manuel. "Please take time to create your character and select a class." Zoey was struck with an idea, as she stared bleakly at the daunting blank slate before her. Pulling out the doodle of a person, Zoey began to replicate her on the game screen. She gave her character medium-length brown hair that resembled her own, but added in the bright pink streaks she had highlighted on the picture (it was a fantasy game, after all) and grey eyes. She dressed Danriel in simple clothes that displayed her femininity. Tattoos on her shoulder, and on her belly button completed her look.
Finally, she ran through the various classes. Blademaster and Twin Blade seemed the most appealing to Zoey. Wavemaster seemed too latent for her style of gaming, whereas Heavy Blade and Heavy Axe did not suit Danriel's slight build. She preferred swords to spears, which ruled Long Arm out. Two small swords have the advantage of speed, Zoey decided. She knew her weakness was leaving herself unguarded in between attacks. Plenty of lightning-fast moves, therefore, seemed the perfect solution to that problem.
After clicking the 'apply' button and verifying this was what she wanted, Zoey was treated to another wait, though not quite as long. She put on the VR Helmet to start her adventures as her new Twin Blade character, Danriel. A message flashed on the screen before her: 'Welcome to The World, Danriel.'
Only three complaints: 1) Snow doesn't generally sparkle - I'm not sure if you're from a snowy area, but the only time snow sparkles is if there is sunlight filtering through it. Typically, though, if it's snowing, it's a bit dark and completely overcast. Good job describing its mesmerizing effects, though. 2) Your parenthetical note should have been, "may have been" instead of "may be." 3) Games don't have Manuels. I actually know several Manuels. Actually, only one, and he and I kinda don't get along that well...
Mind you, none of this actually keeps you from getting in. I actually had to look really hard to find these. Your registration is very well-written, as I was able to get through the whole thing without being too distracted. Good job. ^_^
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