Mac Anu, as she'd heard the city called, was a rather pleasant place that held far too many people for her to feel comfortable.

Frustrated already by the amount of noise, Natalie had threatened to remove her visor to dull the sound and use the plain old speakers the computer had to hear everything. Only Dr. Greenwood's interference and stern rebuke had managed to keep her inside this stupid game and following through with that party promise she'd made with a few people on the message boards. I don't like this place, I don't like this game and I really, really don't like interacting with other people.

She ground her teeth together, shoulders hunched as she fiddled with the controller in her hand, moving her character toward the aforementioned bridge she'd mentioned in her post. Don't think about the people, think about your character. The young woman told herself sternly and opened her eyes after a moment, switching the view on her visor from first person to third person before turning the camera.

Skychild was her character's name. A semi-angelic looking girl with her eyes closed with long wavy mahogany hair nearly falling to her waist. That wasn't anything unusual, as far as she'd seen anyways.

She'd taken a bit more care in her character's appearance, dressing her in an aqua blue trimmed with gold and green off the shoulder tunic, strappy brown bohemian sandals and a pair of matching brown leggings. A braided gold and brown leather belt slipped haphazardly to one side of her hips and carried the sheath of one of her daggers while the other was perpetually held in one hand. A black choker with a flat rectangular shaped silver bar with a keyhole in the center wrapped around her throat snugly and two brown leather vambraces hugged her wrists and forearms.

I really don't want to do this. Natalie typed out in a private message to her therapist's character. He was online and had told her he'd be observing her interaction and socialization with the group she was supposed to be learning things from. At the bridge and looking around, she clumsily found the command to have her character pretend to lean against the bridge and hit it in irritation.

No matter what Dr. Greenwood was expecting, she thought to herself with a determined furrow of her brow, there was no way she was going to speak to these strangers with that silly microphone system. There was a perfectly reasonable text feature and she was going to make good use of the keyboard... right as soon as she finished figuring out the hot keys... if there were any to begin with.

And she had to wait anyway, might as well make her time useful in the long run and feel at least a little accomplished... even if no one showed up like she was expecting. People are the same in any world; they don't keep promises they bother to make and there's no difference between how they act here or in a stupid game.

Of this, she was absolutely certain.

Vlad leaned against the red brick wall in the school yard, his arms rested on his chest. His legs were crossed with the free leg tapping impatiently against the ground, as he watched his father bounce around the courtyard. His foster father was greatly more interested in the school than himself, taking the time to search out its every detail as he was led around by one of the school’s staff.

“It’s always like this,” Vlad muttered to himself under his breath. His foster father was usually a boy in a man’s .body, yet surprisingly he had the uncanny ability to mature several decades in a few seconds if the situation called for it. One of the few men that Vlad respected, well, most of the time, the change of though occurred as his father dove into a pile of leaves while the guide was fetching paperwork. Vlad could only shake his head, as he returned his gaze to the rest of the school.

It would be a big change for Vlad, who hadn’t been to school for some time after he dropped out. His new father deemed this to be unacceptable and made it clear that he was going back to school as soon as the school year started up again. Vlad didn’t mind the idea; there were worst things that his father could have asked for. He returned his gaze to his father as the older man tried to brush off leaves that covered him as the guide waited with the paperwork in his arms. Vlad had only been asked to drop by on his way home from his treatment to see the school, rather than approaching his father he made his way home.

It wasn’t long before Vlad sat in his chair with headset and pepperoni stick in hand, gnawing away at the food as he placed the headset on. He had made an appointment via a BBS post on the boards; it was another good chance to get to know some new people. Connections are important in online games, Torque hardly wanted to play alone all of the time. A double click on The World icon accompanied a final bite of his snack.

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Torque stood in the plaza for the third time, giving his usual stretch as he entered. The Heavy Axe raised his fist to the sky with a great yawn before making his way to the meeting point. His boots thumping along as he mulled over the details, he knew that one of the players would be new, while the other was a wildcard at the moment. Torque goals in this adventure were to strengthen his character more, but first and foremost he wanted to make sure that the first time player had a good experience.

First impressions were rather important, with that in mind he stopped before making the final corner that would bring him into the last stretch before the meeting point,. He adjusted his armour and ran a gauntleted hand through his messy hair in order to make it look more presentable. The tangled locks hanging down in front of his eyes even after he groomed showed that his attempt had been fruitless.

The Heavy Axe tapped his boots against the ground; the dull thud of the leather on stone calmed his nerves. Torque never consisted himself adept at meeting new people, but he wasn’t one to back down from a promise. He turned the corner and headed towards the meeting point, searching for the visual id of the players who he was supposed to meet with. As the id brought up the name Skychild, Torque stopped and gave a bow as he introduced himself.

“Hello Skychild, I am Torque. I hope I haven’t kept you waiting.”

((OOC: Continued from Nervous Laughter ))

The blood that had found corridors between her teeth congealed above her bottom lip and poured from the corners of her mouth onto her all ready blood-stained chin. Her wrist remained suspended before the blademaster until the much taller man lifted his own wrist to his mouth, as if stifling vomit. He looked at her over the top of his arm like she was a spook. Mumbling a few quick words of haste, the character backed up slowly and then ran away, not looking back, with his companion hot on the trail.

Katie had no opinion on this. Her psyche was buried so deep within herself that it resembled floating underwater with a blindfold on. Devoid of all sensations, including thought.

Dispirited's rose was bleeding on full. That last interaction saw the last of the sun. Only a few stars poked out of the gray blanket of the sky, but more were sure to come. No moon tonight.

The last of the blood poured over her lips as her smile sagged shut. Dark ecstasy clouded the empty cavity that was Katie's mind. Dispirited's blank expression followed her all the way to the chaos gate.

She stopped. Dead stopped. Her flower dropped from her hand as the circles and sphere of the chaos gate spun and blinked in her vision. The unfeeling bitch started to convulse and fell to the floor. During the day, the bright light had no effect. Bright day, bright light. In this darkness, the pulsing light of the Gate brought the character to conflicting spasms of interest. Dispy threatened to escape, bubbling on the surface of cold and heartlessness.

"Rawwwwlll – s-STOP – RAWWWWWWWWWWLLLLL!!!!" She hissed and screamed at the ground like a velociraptor before falling unconscious.

Five minutes passed. A little green “<AFK>” icon appeared followed by a kicking feature designed to help The World's servers. Dispirited's body dematerialized in that violent, but still, position on the floor of the plaza.

~~

SHLLLLWHAP! Katie's mother pulled open the shades of her room with a quick downward motion from both of her arms with the level of uncaring and ruthlessness only a mother can have on a school day morning. Katie's head and upper-body flinched towards the ceiling from its previous resting place, face down on the keyboard. She fell over sideways, chair and all, away from the sudden influx of light and onto the carpet floor.

“Katie, I don't like you falling asleep with a computer plastered to your skull! Lord knows you need your sleep and - ” The one-sided conversation continued for a few more lines before her mom stepped over her body obstructing the door. “Now get up and eat some breakfast.”

I'm free.

Katie's hand touched Katie's face. Skin. Hands to touch it. Nerves to feel the touch...nerves...nerves.

I am about to have so much fun! Katie's body gathered itself into a ball before jumping towards the ceiling and landing in a stance that screamed: “I'm here world! Watch out!” She skipped out of the room and made the short trip to the kitchen. Her mother stood in front of the stove and craned her neck to view upon her child of 17 skipping around towards her.

Katie's body stopped a few feet from the woman and gathered itself into a ball, hugging its knees with its arms – the eye level the character was used to seeing from. "Are you my mommy?" Katie's face turned into wonderment. "You must be my mommy, cause you are making me eggies!" Her mouth opened wide for a smile as the grown, beautiful, and fully developed girl latched onto her mother's calf like a there-year-old.

Her mother only had one thought: Drugs.

"Can I eats the eggies now, mommy? Can I?" Doggie eyes accompanied the enthusiastic smile.

Oh my poor Katie. An all-night trip too, it must have been. She didn't have time to shoot-up or whatever kids are doing nowadays. Oh my poor Katie. Her thought process paused as the unthinkable entered her mind. I need to call the police. She wasn't going to let history repeat itself.

“Yes sweetie, you can have...the eggies.” Talking to her nearly-gothic daughter like that scared her more than death itself. She reached for the kitchen phone and dialed the magic number.

A cool, but efficient voice answered. “Hello, police department, what is your emergency?”

Her mother's voice was not so confident. “H-hi. I'm calling because I think...I think my daughter is into something bad and I want someone to come down to...help her.” Finding the right words was easy. Saying them out loud for her own ears to hear wasn't. Drugs. Take her away...make my baby better...Oh God make my baby better...

"Who ya talkin' to, mommy?" Katie looked up from her mother's calf and eyed the frighteningly worried adult with a cute smile. Her mother wished that this could be the best day of her life, but she knew it was the worst. The day that Katie finally came around had come. It had come.

Her mother couldn't help it. She reached down and stroked her Katie's head for what could be the last sign of affection she could ever show her daughter. Visions of Russel Crowe going through electro-shock therapy clouded her view of her child. My poor Katie...what have I done...

She should have moved out after her husband...left them. She had no reason to stay. She could be a waitress anywhere. Why stay in New York City? Heck. Why stay in New York? They could have gone wherever she wanted, but they stayed where the drugs were. Where Katie's drugs were. Oh my baby...

“We'll send someone right away.” She had forgotten about the phone.

Each new thought that entered her mother's mind brought the truth closer and closer to reality, but nothing like that sentence. Action was happening. People were coming...Katie was going. It must have shown on her face.

"What's wrong, mommy?"

“Oh, nothing dear...” She lost it. Tears swam through the defined caverns of a bunched, crying face as she knelt down to her daughter's level and embraced her. She cried into Katie's jacket until a knock on the door made both of them flinch.

The solid thud of the back of a fist against wood thumped around the inside of the tiny apartment. “It's unlocked!” her mother called to the stranger.

The door was stiff in its frame. A hulking, six-foot-four, behemoth of a man dressed in the black, blue, and gold of an officer, stepped through the frame of the door with a deep authority to his gaze. The deep throat guttural of years of smoking echoed around the small apartment. “What seems to be the problem.” His boots clicked against the wooden floor of the small foyer.

“My daughter needs help - ”

“No need to panic, ma'am.” He'd been informed of the issue. “I'll take her now.”

A chill went through the large officer's arm as he reached back for his handcuffs and latched the metal hoops around the wooden back bars of the kitchen chair. Katie watched the man like a magician performing a magic trick. Her mother looked worried, still holding onto the shoulders of her daughter.

“Come with me...” the police officer crooned the chair as he dragged it out of the kitchen and through the door. He shut the door behind himself, then braced and slammed it shut with the weight of his upper body. Katie looked up at her mother.

"That was a strange man." Her mother looked down like the Tinman after a downpour, her neck aching with rusty joints, and her eyes stuck in a surprised expression."Mommy told me never to talk to strangers so that's why I didn't talk, mommy. Did I do good?"

“Yes, you did very well, sweetie.” Her mother pet her head and smoothed away some of her own tears in her little girl's hair. “I need to go say 'hi' to a friend now, okay? I'll be back in a few minutes – think you can watch over the house for me?”

Katie let go of her mother's leg and stood up, adding three feet to her previous height and meeting eye-level with her mother's. Her mother gasped, not expecting her daughter's strangely happy expression to meet her in the face.

"I can, I can, mommy! I'll be in my room being a good girl, okay?" Her mother merely nodded, gathered her keys, and burst out the door, not bothering to lock it.

~~

Welcome to The World.

Katie gasped awake like she'd nearly drowned, but managed to meet the surface of the ocean right before it was too late. Dispirited's maroon dress panted up and down as the girl gripped her knees and wretched out a lunch the digital character had never eaten. Oh my God what the hell happened. The teenager's psyche had surfaced again, back in the world that had submerged her for...how long? The small, cartoonish, but dimented character looked up at the sky. Dead noon. How long was I out? Mom would have awoken me if I had slept through my alarm...right? She felt a strange urge for her mother's touch, and it frightened her. That doesn't explain the time difference...The last thing I remember was during the night...then darkness... Deep, suffocating darkness that robbed the very air you were struggling to breath.

The girl raised her arms to lift the helmet from her head, but merely watched Dispirited's pale, skinny arms meet her ears and push up air. What the heck? It didn't feel like a keyboard in front of her either. Whatever ghost or spirit that was controlling her blocked out the sensations of the keyboard or the desk chair that must be so uncomfortable after all these hours. Katie was tired of being afraid. Cool.

She sifted through a few menus the game provided and answered the first message she could find. Some random group doing some stereotypical quest. She could use some normal right about now.

The bridge. Her most memorable spot in the port city of Mac Anu. It was one of her last memories, and it was located in a spot even new players could identify – if they only wandered around long enough. Her Mary Jane's clopped onto the wooden planks of the Mac Anu Bridge, and Katie decided to get into character, even after all of the fright this had caused. Even after being buried alive alive by her own mind. Even after...Fishies!

EDIT: OOC: Sorry this took so long, and sorry it's not my best. Last time I was writing for this character was sometime in February and I'm afraid some of the spark I acquired from writing for her so often needs to be reattained. I hope you guys can forgive me for those two things - but I hope that we can get this quest moving with as much vigor as ever, even more! Huzzah! Onward! High-Ho Silver! - and all that jazz :P.

EDIT EDIT: holy crap - I did it again. I'm SO MAD AT MYSELF RIGHT NOW i COULD JUMP OFF OF SOMETHING!!! GAH. I edited this post in my word processor and then hit "submit" before copy-pasting my revised and fixed version back over here. I bet that looked like extra crap. Thanks Uruvei for noticing my lack of proofreading. Ugh this gets me so mad. Sorry for the people that read this before the edit... ;_;

The character with the gamertag "Gear" appeared in Mac Anu for the first time, and immediately walked into a wall.

"Dammit!" Ana muttered, but Gear's mouth remained closed and silent, since Ana didn't have a microphone. The Russian girl struggled with the controls, the only thing visible on the screen being the stone wall that her character was face-first against. Finally, she manged to switch to 3rd-person mode, and then awkwardly direct Gear to an empty corner, where fewer people would witness her embarrassing attempts at learning to game.

"Ugh, this is so lame. I can't get the character to do what I want."

Ana pounded the keyboard in frustration, and succeeded in hitting three hotkeys at once. Gear promptly sad down, then hopped up to do a silly dance, while her face contorted to resembled the emoticon "8D". Panicked, Ana hit some more keys, causing a flurry of random actions and expressions. Finally, she just gave up and waited for Gear to stop waving and going TT^TT with her face. That's when she heard it.

"Heheheh... need some help there?" Ana manged to get the camera to pan out, so that she could see the little crowd her character's antics had gathered. Most of them were laughing (there had been a hotkey for that emotion), and what was worse, it wasn't just faces in a game. There was real laughter coming through the headphones, from real people on the other side of those digital faces. The one who had spoken was a slender young woman with long, wavy lavender hair. She had a sword strapped to her side, and functional, yet tastefully-rendered clothing in navy blue and cream. The face she had chosen for her character was a kind one, almost motherly, and probably reflected the person playing it. But, all Gear could see was the merriment in her eyes.

Oh, God. I must look like such an idiot to all of them...

Ana's face burned in shame, but she didn't dare try to find the key for the "embarrassment" emotion. Gear's face stayed blank.

"Don't worry, everyone tries out the hotkeys when they first start playing. If you need any help figuring out what buttons do what, just let me know. My name's Celest." The kind-faced blademistress held out her hand. Ana shifted uncomfortably. She should shake it, but...

"It's F4." Celest whispered. Ana pressed the key, and Gear's right arm came up smoothly and clasped Celest's in a friendly handshake. The blademistress grinned.

"See, not so hard. Here, I'll send you my Member Address, and we can party up and go to an easy field to get you sorted out. It should pop up in the corner of your vision... just press X or Enter to accept it, depending - are you using a controller, or just the keyboard?"

A little box popped up on the screen with a picture of Celest's face, her name, and her level and class. It said she was level 8 - a reasonably experienced player. It said "Celest would like to trade Member Addresses. Accept? [Yes] No" Ana hit Enter, as instructed, and the window disappeared with a cheerful chime. Ana opened her mouth to reply to the friendly woman's question, but remembered that nobody in the game could hear her. She really ought to get a microphone... in the meantime, how to communicate?

Ana searched the contents of the screen for an answer. There wasn't a lot; a couple of colored bars in one corner, a little icon in another, and along the bottom... Ah! A box with text occasionally scrolling past. She felt a little bit proud of herself for figuring this part out for herself.

[im using a keyboard] she typed. A word balloon appeared over her head, with the words inside.

"Mm, and no microphone?" Celest asked at once.

[ya]

"Well, that's okay, then. Back in the day, text was the only way to communicate in games like these. I should know; I've been a gamer for years!"

Ana envied the way this older player could get her digital avatar to so closely match with action and expression the emotions in her voice. She's really good at this... As for Gear, she wasn't even sure if she could get the character to walk in the direction she wanted.

"Alright, how about we go to a low-level field and I'll show you the ropes?"

The rest of the crowd had dispersed now, leaving just the two women. Ana was about to type a glad agreement, when she remembered something from earlier.

[um i was sposed to meet sumbody.
from the bbs?]

"Hmm..." Celest was oddly quiet, the body going still for several seconds. Ana fidgeted again, even daring to move the mouse a bit. Gear stumbled forward, looking rather drunk, then almost falling at Ana's reactionary jerk backward. She left the mouse alone again, and waited for Celest to get back from wherever she was.

"I found it! Your post on the BBS. Three other newer players. They said to meet on the bridge, so I'll walk you there, and then maybe--" The woman went still again. When she returned, the face curved into an expression of regret. "Looks like that's all I'll be able to do today. I have to go pretty soon. Come on, I'll see you to the bridge, and we can meet up some other time."

The blademistress started to walk away, making Ana panicky again. She desperately swung the mouse around after the retreating figure, and succeeded in making Gear do a half-pirouette. Celest turned back, and the suppressed laughter was obvious in her voice.

"Just hold the mouse over where you want your character to go. If it's in the center of the screen, your character will move forward. If you angle it to the side, she'll turn. The arrow keys control the camera. Third person view is easier for beginners, if you're not in it already."

Ana's cheeks were crimson, but she focused on the instructions, and soon had Gear walking a straight line, at least. Celest started moving again, too, and Gear followed.

At least I figured out third person view for myself.
Actually, she wasn't sure she could remember how to switch back, but she had no intention of doing so.

"You're doing good! Got the hang of it now?" the friendly voice cut into her defensive thoughts.

[ya]

A pause.

[thnx]

"No problem." The kind smile looked perfectly natural.

~~A few close calls with walls and other players later...~~

"There they are!" There were two players on the bridge that looked as though they'd just met. Gear wondered how Celest was so sure it was the group she was looking for, but she didn't doubt the wisdom of this experienced player. "Okay, Gear, I must be off. Message me sometime - or I'll flashmail you if I see you online. Good luck!" Three golden rings surrounded the woman, and she started to dissolve into blue sparkles. Ana was surprised by this strange exit, but she actually remembered the key that would make Gear wave goodbye. She saw Celest's delighted smile at this action light her face in the second before she disappeared completely. Feeling suddenly very alone, Gear turned towards the two on the bridge.

The two characters that she might be questing with were rather... different from each other. One was a man who looked to be in his prime - a bit older than most of the characters she'd seen so far. He was completely covered in armor, except for his face, which was covered in messy blond hair. Ana wasn't sure what to think of him. Overall, she found his hulking character rather alarming, intimidating.

It's just a game. Don't worry about it, she told herself.

The other character was a tall, slender woman. Ana found her face and her long, brown hair quite beautiful, although admittedly a bit cliche in this place. Her tunic, too, was nothing particularly special, although it did fit her quite attractively. The only thing that really stood out about this female was her height and the fact that she was wearing less armor than most of the characters running around - however, the even greater height and excessive armor of the male seemed to even the odds. The woman had her eyes closed, which was a bit strange - was she away from her character the way Celest had been while looking at the BBS? Ana found herself nervous about approaching. What if it wasn't the right people?

Once she got quite close, Gear finally figured out how Celest had known who these people were. The auto-targeting feature locked onto the woman, Skychild. That was the same name from the BBS, so these were probably the ones she was looking for. Surely there was a way to shift from one target to another, but Gear didn't know what it was. However, she realized now that on the BBS, a the little avatar next to someone's post was the face of their character, just like the face from the Member Address. The blond guy was definitely Torque, and she couldn't remember the name of the missing third person, but the face had been female, with dark hair. Feeling a bit more confident, Gear stopped next to the pair and "spoke".

[hi.
i'm ana
nice 2 meet u]

All the players were present and accounted for, Natalie thought to herself as she stared at each of the individuals on her screen. Certainly, they made a rather... eclectic and colorful group... perhaps too much so.

One was a little girl dressed in dark clothing and rather startlingly pale skin holding a wand or scepter of some sort, one of the magic users, if she recalled correctly. She'll need to be guarded carefully in any combat situation. She thought to herself, taking the time to study her and found that, while it definitely wasn't an outfit she would have chosen or thought of, it seemed to suit a "darkly cute" character type.

Another was a rather intimidating figure wearing white, black and silver armor and clothing. The bird upon his breastplate intrigued her for the moment, but didn't hold her attention for too long. There isn't much I can tell about this one from appearances, perhaps he is going for one of those 'in shining armor' character types? Whatever it may have been that he was planning with his character, Natalie believed that the rather gigantic axe he held in his hands was something to be cautious about.

The third and final member of her group was... perhaps the most colorful of them all. Yellow, brown, green and coral seemed to make up her color scheme and, quite simply, fascinated her at the same time she felt her right eye twitch. Yellow wasn't a color she liked in the least, it hurt her eyes to even look at in the mild shades. Perhaps she just liked the way it complimented or contrasted. I don't quite know. Eccentric as her outfit was, Natalie found herself admiring the details on the belt and the little charms attached to it. The axe in her hands also intrigued her, who knew that even females could wield such an enormously heavy looking weapon?

Turning with some difficulty, perhaps using the controller would be easier, to face the male Heavy Axe- as she thought they were called- Natalie responded by ignoring the mic placed in front of her by Dr. Greenwood and typing in her response. "I have not been waiting long, do not concern yourself with such matters."

Okay, fine. She would use that stupid controller. Gritting her teeth and wiping her hands on faded jeans, Natalie forced herself to plug in the smooth plastic device and settled her fingers on the appropriate joysticks to test out her movements.

Unfortunately, the controls were much smoother and easier for her than using the keyboard's hotkeys. This annoys me greatly. She thought to herself with a slight narrowing of her eyes and returned her focus to the game before the desire to throw the controller across the room became too much.

"I am pleased to meet all of you and wish that we cooperate nicely on today's adventure." So far so good, at least, so she thought. "I am still rather new to this game, does anyone have a suggestion for a dungeon?"

Skychild's hands fell to her sides as she performed a little half-bow, half-curtesy at the end of her question before standing straight with her hands folded in front of her.

"Katie?...Katie?" Her mother shook her shoulder with the desperation of one thousand cowardly soldiers. She'd be damned if she'd leave her daughter alone after what her mother knew she had done. Monica was with her. Monica from next store.
_________________
Katie's mother had grabbed her keys out of habit and burst out the door without the faintest idea of where she was going. It was too painful back there. She had to get out. Gripping the keys and having them dangle at her side in that familiar, jangly way calmed the woman of habit a bit. She stopped down the stairs and gripped the keys to her face as her own conscious ate itself. You're a good mother. You can't run from your cub no matter what. You can't run like he ran. You can't give up. Get Monica.

The last thought was only errant. Monica was an artist. Many days, Kimberly, Katie's mother, had passed Monica's front door on the way to her own, hearing gay laughter and smelling a funk fit for a closed-off stairwell of a high school. Kimberly knew that Monica smoked while she painted, sculpted, played guitar.

They were coffee buddies. Sometimes Kim would hop over to Monica's place in the morning and Monica would put on a pot. Sometimes she would even smoke one while Kim was there, but Kim didn't mind too much. She had grown up in the sixties. They say if you can remember the sixties, you weren't really there. In Kim's case, that wasn't quite true. She had managed to stay out of the dangerous stuff, but dabbled with this or that here or there depending on the company. But that was different. Katie was her child, and she can't trust her child to stay out of the bad stuff. Better to stay away from it all. Kimberly wasn't a hypocrit, just cautious. Right?

Monica always left her door ajar. There was no issue when her next-door neighbor popped in. Monica had no hours. She chose her hours or the hours chose her. She was an animal of instinct and muse, allowing life to wisp her away to wherever it would go and close her eyes as the magic washed over her body. She wasn't a famous artist in any of her trades, but she managed to pay the rent and feed her slim figure of 105 lbs. She had dark brown hair with darker eyes that always seemed to be looking through you, or just past, into something vaguely more interesting behind. Her skin was white, with a yellowish tint from smoke and indifference. She would know what to do. Right?

Still shaking with anxiety, knuckles rapped her neighbor's door, causing it to swing open more than it had been. Monica answered the door with as much surprise as she was capable, blowing the hair out of her hidden eyes and looking down her own jawline at the frantic mother in front of her. "Whatcha need, girl?" Monica said. She chewed bubble gum between the words.

"Something has happened to my daughter and I need you to come quick." Kim was a little embarrassed.

"Oh yeahh? Help with what?" Monica said in her thick Long Island accent.

Kimberly was glad they were friends. "I think Katie got into some drugs and I need you to help me." She changed the subject fast to not offend her oddly matched friend, even though Monica couldn't be. "A policeman came earlier, but...he dragged a chair out instead of my poor daughter!" Saying it out loud was even more surprising than witnessing it. A dream come to life.

Monica raised her eyebrow. "Ehh...come again? - " Katie's mother grabbed her by the wrist as her last stred of patience wore off. She tromped the ten feet to her door before turning the handle and shoving with all the frustration of a contestant in some sick SAW scene trying to get his key out of a pickle jar. She reeled back and kicked at handle level, still gripping her friend's wrist uncomfortably. Monica's head bobbed around as a crazed smile danced on her face. Totally out of it.
______________________
Kimberly shook her daughter's shoulder firmly again. "Katie DeFault, ge - " Her voice was cut short by Katie's own.

"Hi! I'm Dispirited, but my friends call me Katie!" Katie's cat-like smile brought a chill to her mother's bones. Her child's eyes were blocked by the visor. "You guys can call me Katie." Her fingers danced across the keyboard. A skeleton playing a xylophone would have frighted her mother less. Monica stood in the doorway and giggled a low-pitched laugh before letting her neck go limp, swinging her head around, and stopping on a view of the ceiling. Trippiest freaking ceiling ever, man.

Monica did step in when Kimberly began to get rough. Whatever this woman was going through, it was too much. She needed to relax. Needed to chill. Take a chill-pill, man...chill pill. "Hey, heyyyy, Kimmy Kimmehh..." Monica rested her hand on her neighbor. "You need to string out, man." She began to massage her shoulder slightly. "Here, I've got just the thing." The artist revealed a joint in her ungripped hand. She held it just out of Kim's peripheral vision, tip facing out. "Here."

God I need a hit. She coughed after sucking through the cheap filter much too vigorously. Suddenly maybe it was her that was having issues this morning. She hadn't slept well. Maybe it was all a dream...? Maybe there's just...too much stress...I don't give...a damn...not...a...damn...

She was kneeling beside her daughter now, leaning over her bud like a cat hiding its catch.

Monica broke the silence. "C'mon, lets go over to my place. I think there's a new tradition in order...tradition...yeah baby." Katie's feet wagged forwards and backwards in her chair like a little girl. The two women left the room, huddled over the swag with their arms over each other's backs.
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Dispy had spotted the fish swimming in the stream flowing beneath her favorite bridge, before she met with her future party. Her legs dangled over the side in their usual way, alternating, as she spied each squirming, slippery squiggle with eyes of discovery. Katie felt a familiar strange force making this much more fun than it should have been. Why was this fun? It was fun though. Why should she fight the fun? Last time she had fought with herself - she didn't think about that. Wouldn't. What mattered was that she was happy, it didn't matter why, and she wouldn't do anything to intentionally stop it. There was room enough in her mind for both. Yes.

Katie was so afraid, she dared not be.

Steps clopped onto the bridge continuously behind her, but a few starting and stopping at the same time gave her the air that she was being watched. Maybe it was the group she had been waiting for? She would certainly check!

She leaned onto her back - certainly a foolish thing to do in the middle of the byway - and forced transversing characters to step over her. Some were annoyed, but most cheered up and apologized for themselves for no reason when they saw her smiling face beneath. Her character was so innocent-looking that even a woman wearing a dress stepped over her, not thinking twice of voyerism. Dispy looked up at her brow and spotted a gathering group with the same display names as the BBS posts. They're here!

She got up and introduced herself in her usual way as her mother shook her violently in the real world. Katie felt nothing.

Two of the players were actually typing. It surprised the character to see that, since she had only encountered players with voice communications. Katie's rig had come with the headset all ready attached, so she had assumed that all players had one built in. Why not use it? Katie's thoughts of shrugging the matter off were overruled by a playful, curious tone that reached her free hand up and touched the cheek of a taller player after the character had asked about a dungeon choice.

"Why don't you talk missus lady?" Dispy rubbed the twin blade's cheek with a pudgey finger as if she were finger painting a circle over and over again. With her free hand, she held the strikingly white rose near the player's nose and put on a cute, wanting face. "Do you want to smell my rose, missus lady? It smells really good this time of day." The edges of her mouth drew up like a bow.

((OOC: Actually, Dispirited only holds her wand while in battle x.x. Sorry, there's no way you could have known since it's not in my profile. Her rose turns into her wand when she's in battle.))

There was something decidedly strange about the girl currently waving a rose in her character's face, Natalie thought with a frown, her brow furrowing as she watched the antics of the other player from her chair. Not even the slightest concept of personal space either, her caretakers must have neglected to educate her on such matters. Quite nosy about information that should otherwise be none of her concern, maybe some people just didn't get their proper social education these days, she decided and gritted her teeth at the feeling of her fingers on the controller.

Skychild's hand moved up, long, delicate looking fingers capturing the smaller, child-like girl's wrist in a gentle hold before moving her hand away from her face. “I will examine your rose in a moment, young one.” The command for a very slight smile was entered in as she released the girl's wrist and leaned down a little to give the pretenses of smelling the rose. “It is indeed very pretty, where did you find it?”

She refused to answer the other question, though the inquisitive eyes of her therapist were boring into the back of her head, and settled back into her chair, the controller left in front of the keyboard as she idly rubbed her palms on her faded jeans to try and erase the uncomfortable sensation left behind by the controller. Dr. Greenwood was going to have to find something more suitable for her, or at least allow her to wear something over her hands so she wouldn't feel the disgusting curve of the joystick against the pad of her thumbs.

The sooner we get this done, the sooner he can just leave me to my window in peace. Natalie was determined to get that man off her back about this whole video game thing. Such things had no point to them and she was intensely annoyed at having to do things that wasted her time.