InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Snape is better than you."

Ito Keiichi (伊藤慶一) (keiito) wrote in disappear_rpg,
@ 2010-01-17 14:50:00

Entry tags:

keiichi, renju, toru

WHO: Renju, Toru, and Keiichi
WHAT: Teaching Renju how to play Matsuri Online
WHERE: THE INTERNETZ
WHEN: Post-Obon
WHY: Because Renju's a n00blet.

Sitting in his room, Keiichi found himself logging into Matsuri Online. He had sent Renju an email with the basics of character creation, so ideally, he'd be able to find her in game. Checking his character list, he found one of his level one Templars who hadn't been leveled (or had much done beyond creating) yet. "Why not this one," he mused, double-clicking the character.

Now, to see if either Renju or Toru were about.

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2dbeauty
2010-01-17 09:21 pm UTC (link)

Hour 4: he had started another new character earlier that week, but knew he had a duty to fulfill. Toru logged in as Kurama Tengu for the first time in weeks (there was only so much he could do, having hit the level cap months ago) in order to be more readily identifiable for his upperclassmen. It was mere moments until he reached the first town new characters spawned in, and sat down right next to where they would theoretically appear. The pause in his travels was heralded by a cacophony of comments by the lower-level players around him. It was almost amusing. One, a Templar, caught his attention. That username was... unusual. A Tungsten Chef reference, if he wasn't mistaken.

[Kurama Tengu: Hey, is that you, K1?]

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keiito
2010-01-17 09:33 pm UTC (link)

[Chairman Gaga: Yes, it's me. Thanks for logging on. Sonozaki-san and I really appreciate it. This is a new toon for me. My other Templar's stuck at level 44 and I really don't want to grind on diseased elk to get to 45 for a while.]

Keiichi looked at the monitor for a moment, and then continued.

[Chairman Gaga: Sonozaki-san should be here soon. How are things? I don't think I've spoken to you since...the dungeon.]

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2dbeauty
2010-01-17 09:41 pm UTC (link)

[Kurama Tengu: Thought so! I don't see many Tungsten Chef fans in this game, so there were some decent odds of it being you.]

He inadvertently smiled at the monitor, then remembered that Keiichi couldn't see it.

[Kurama Tengu: We can wait for her here, I guess! It'll give us time to catch up, after all. Though, it's not like I've been doing much other than games this summer... or ever. How have you been?]

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keiito
2010-01-17 09:48 pm UTC (link)

[Chairman Gaga: Usually other sorts of references, I agree. I was in a guild for a while though called , but it didn't last too long, really.]

Keiichi was trying very hard not to be jealous of Toru's uber-sweet phat l00tz. Even so, it was obvious from the circling motion of the Chairman around Kuruma that Keiichi was observing the gear.

[Chairman Gaga: Nice stuff. You must have been in Reptiletemple Cave for ages to get all of that. But yeah...it's been a slow summer. Mostly cooking and baking. Only been trying to get out the past few weeks to see people. Played a bit of this here and there too. Nothing too exciting.]

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2dbeauty
2010-01-17 11:15 pm UTC (link)

Toru's avatar remained motionless as Chairman Gaga examined him. After all, it was a sign of his status that even his equips were awe-inspiring.

[Kurama Tengu: Thanks! It took me a long time, but that's really nothing, all things considered. I must spend more time on this game than the majority of casual players combined...]

He typed in a command to make a little sweat drop appear next to Kurama Tengu's head.

[Kurama Tengu: Well, y'know. I guess this has been a dull summer, except for that thing with Sonozaki-senpai...]

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keiito
2010-01-17 11:55 pm UTC (link)

[Chairman Gaga: That was...not the most pleasant thing we've done yet, really. It makes me wonder if there's worse to come.]

Keiichi's avatar sweatdropped, and sat down, drinking a tasty poultice to recover his mana to full.

[Chairman Gaga: I'm playing Suburb of Spandex a bit too in my spare time. Dad bought me a copy. Apparently he loves it. It's fun, but it's cutting into my Matsuri time, combined with everything else.]

Looking at the screen, Keiichi realized how nice these moments of entertainment were, particularly how stressful his life generally was.

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lotus_beyond
2010-01-18 12:14 am UTC (link)

Matsuri being a rather popular game, there was a fairly steady flow of new players and alts at the spawn point. Most of them knew what they were doing, and were fairly quick to wander off and explore; one of the few that hung around was a female wizard with short dark hair that bore an uncanny resemblance to Renju without her glasses. As if to make it abundantly obvious, the kanji in her name, "Hasudama Akane", resembled "Renju" when put together.

The avatar didn't move, or even speak, as if the one behind it were AFK.

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keiito
2010-01-19 03:01 am UTC (link)

[Chairman Gaga: One sec. That girl over there, sorta looks like Renju. I'll go scope out the situation. BRB.]

Keiichi skillfully moves his character over to the possible Renju, noticing the distinct poker face the avatar seems to have.

[Chairman Gaga: Hello! It's me, K1. Are you Renju?]

Seeing no immediate response, Keiichi decides to do what he usually does when bored.

Just /dance.

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	lotus_beyond 2010-01-19 03:09 am UTC (link)
	After a few minutes, there finally came a response. [Hasudama Akane: Yes. I'm reading the /help files.] There was a fairly lengthy pause before the next comment. Still no motion from the avatar, either. [Hasudama Akane: What are you doing?] (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

keiito
2010-01-19 03:28 am UTC (link)

[Chairman Gaga: It's one of the commands in game. "/dance" does it. But yes, come with me. Ishinomori-san agreed to help you out. I'll do the best I can, but he knows this game better than anyone. We should get out of here, though. The starting area is notorious for cybering and bad romance. People might get the wrong idea.]

And with that, the avatar started walking back off in the distance, slow enough so that Renju's could follow.

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2dbeauty
2010-01-19 05:38 pm UTC (link)

Toru had been distracted by a private chat with an in-game friend, but finally noticed that "Chairman Gaga" had gone off to converse with the newbie mage. After scrolling through the chatlogs, Toru concluded that it was, in fact, Renju. Moving Kurama Tengu forward, he caught up with the avatars of the second-years.

[Kurama Tengu: Oh, you found her? Hi, senpai! We'll be taking a whirlwind tour of lower-level dungeons today, so be prepared.]

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keiito
2010-01-19 08:29 pm UTC (link)

[Chairman Gaga: I'm ready to heal. Though, I imagine I'll be mostly on Renju healing detail. I'll try to keep her away from your path of destruction. ^_^]

Keiichi avatar turned to Renju, and /nodded.

[Chairman Gaga: Tengu here's the most geared character on the server. Just stay back and let him kill things. If you want to cast at things it should be fine, unlikely you'll pull aggro. But stay back. You're low level, so your aggro range is going to be pretty big.]

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lotus_beyond
2010-01-19 10:14 pm UTC (link)

Renju had gotten the basics of moving her avatar around fairly quickly, and chatting was obviously in her repertoire of skills. At her desk, while she'd been reading and conversing with Keiichi, she'd jotted down a personal quicksheet of necessary terms and commands that she'd taped to her monitor for ease of reference.

There were, however, a few things that were beyond her as yet. Quite a few, actually, judging by the terms they were tossing around (and she suppressed an inward wince at the term 'dungeon'; maybe this was where the team had picked it up from?). Well, better to settle it sooner than later.

[Hasudama Akane: I'm sorry, but I think I missed some of these terms in the help. What is 'pulling aggro'?]

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2dbeauty
2010-01-19 10:23 pm UTC (link)

On the other side of the internet, Toru smiled almost condescendingly. He couldn't be cruel to a newbie. Perhaps someday she'd be as good as he was. They all deserved a fair chance.

[Kurama Tengu: He means attracting the attacks of monsters. Depending on your level and where you are, monsters will behave differently. Some will go ahead and attack you without provocation, some will only fight if you attack first, and some will even run from you if you're powerful enough. If you're in a group like this, the goal is to keep it attacking the toughest one around. Y'know, the "tank." We'll be careful so you don't get mauled or anything.]

Taking the lead, he began to walk out towards the first field area in the game.

[Kurama Tengu: I'll start us up a team to all be in. Please accept the invitation!]

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keiito
2010-01-21 03:04 pm UTC (link)

Keiichi clicked on the "join" button, and Toru's avatar appeared on the top of the screen, in a head portrait.

[Chairman Gaga: Sonozaki-san, I'll stay back and heal you in case the creatures come after you. I'm in heavy armor, so I can take damage better than you. Try to kill the stray ones if you can, if I die I've got to go run back, and it'll probably mean you're dead too.]

Talking about death in videogames took on a whole new meaning now that they were living through Paradise.

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lotus_beyond
2010-01-22 12:51 am UTC (link)

[Hasudama Akane: Understood.]

It seemed that Renju was quite possibly less talkative here than in real life--quite a feat, really. She looked at her inventory screen, looked at her shortcut bar, looked at her inventory screen, swapped a few things around more or less arbitrarily, remembered that she actually had to do something to join a party, accepted the invitation, and started reading over her command list again. There was so much to try and remember in such a short period of time...

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