ERA, the Hot New Virtual MMO

[Esmeraldine]

Eternal Riders Ascension had been all the rage for the last few months, with the media plastering references to it in just about every nook and cranny they could find. Websites spammed its advertising non-stop, and more than a few people were talking about it. Yet images of the game itself were fleeting, with its production and contents highly secretive, to the point that no footage could be found of any of the beta testers actually testing the game. No leaks, no nothing, just a bunch of hoaxes. So it was certainly a mysterious thing, particularly as the anticipation for the announced date of July 14th, 2030, had been a long time coming.

And now, it was here! A lucky 2000 players had been given special invites via their emails to come and be the first to play this supposedly amazing new game. Sure, other mmos had virtual reality built in, but ERA promised to be a full body experience. As such, it had rented the Los Angeles Parlor Convention Center and filled it chock full of the brand new 'Full Body Pods' for its players to lie down in, relax, and enjoy as their minds were fully uploaded into the virtual experience of its world.

---

As each player would open their eyes, they would find themselves engulfed in the full glory of a fantasy world, with each player spawning in one large central, circular plaza where 2000 avatars now stood. Each of them was dressed in a basic classless outfit, a plain cotton shirt of a random color, with a bit of leather lining over their stomachs to offer some realistic protection. While the boys had thick woolen pants, the girls would find themselves in short skirts, several inches above their knees, and a clear intention to what the rest of the game was likely to be. Either way, several players attempted to leave the plaza via the front gate, and some others through exits that would lead them into the city, but they found invisible walls held them in place.

"Hm... maybe we have to wait for everyone to load?" one random person suggested.

"Must be a scripted intro or something..." another said.

For her part, Kimitsu folded her arms and sighed, the golden furred fox girl shaking her head. "Great... there's gonna be sooo much competition for the early game mobs... crap." Little did she pick out several other certain people from around her in the crowd.

 

[Meii]

Even after some minutes, Felicia is still amazed about what's happening around her. After looking at her hands and its movement, she reached for the spot where her human ears were supposed to be but didn't felt anything so her hands went on to the top of her head feeling her feline ears. Dyed along the color of her jet-black hair with the length above her shoulders. Her ears flinched as she made contact with it which made her giggle in excitement. She have turned into a human with cat-like features.

After all this things, she went to find a mirror or a window that reflects an individual's image to check herself. Yet she cannot find one as some houses and buildings only have holes as their window.

She kept on searching till she bumped against a female fox girl with a skin different from hers as the fellow adventurer is covered in golden fur.

"Ah, I'm sorry! I wasnt looking, I was searching for a mirror.. have you, by any chance, saw one?" She asked the girl.

 

[Pegasapphire]

When Hana opened her eyes she was met with the view of a medieval plaza bustling with people of all shapes, sizes and races. The sun was dead overhead, warming her like an oven. With a twitch of an eyebrow, Hana looked herself over. Dark scales covered her entire body. She'd grown long horns, and a thick, powerful tail.

"Neat..." the dragon muttered to herself, swishing her tail experimentally with a clench of her new, unfamiliar muscles. There was a small scream as a halfling went flying. A nearby orc caught him and set him down, both scowling at Hana. She raised a hand in apology, holding back a fit of laughter. This game was going to be such a blast.

The thick soles of her scaly feet barely felt the cobbled ground beneath her feet as Hana wandered around the plaza. She noticed all the girls were dressed in the same short skirt she was. Whoever designed this game was an absolute perv but also a genius, Hana decided, basking in the envious glares she was receiving. Eventually, one was bold enough to approach her.

"Hey beautiful," a graceful elf cooed as he approached her, "I know it's a bit early on, but I'm trying to assemble members for the best guild in the game. We've got no intention of losing that prize, and we think you're just what we need." He gestured behind him to a heavily-muscled minotaur and a tiny tattooed girl. "What do you say?"
"I say..." Hana whispered, leaning close and stroking his fair cheek with the tip of her tail, "Once we get started, if you can beat me in a duel, I'll join you." Her muzzle broke into a provocative smile. "If you lose, you have to buy me a drink."

 

[THErolplayer]

"The fuck" Oliver muttered as he appeared in the large area surrounded by men in the same type of clothing as him and women in extremely hot short skirts. He didn't yet know why but something felt different, it felt like he had two different skins, he did hope to be a werewolf so maybe that was why. In any case he wanted to try and transform just to see if he was one or not, tensing up and thinking only about changing seemed to work for him as he slowly got much larger and silver hairs seemed to grow from his body.

Now a good two feet above most of the players he would make his way around looking for some people to group with, first he would look towards a girl that looked like a sexy humanoid dragon. "Hey, sexy dragon" he would call out in a loud and extremely deep voice that seemed to be rough. After saying this he would approach another two girls that both looked anamalistic yet extremely attractive.

"You two know each other?" He would ask as he walked to a position to hat they could both see him in. He was curious by nature and he imagined the game would be way more fun with a group of friends then without them.

 

[wiki234]

Ryuzan entered the strange new world, the metal armor making a dinstinct metal clackjng and scrapings sound as he held up his hands to see black gloves hands before turning them over and seeing hard bones and played all over his body before regaining his senses and seeing that he had a mask as the hands fell on his face then his shoulders and all over his own body to check himself before finally falling to the swords on his hip with the pair on either as well as a third smaller one in the sheath next to the sword on the right and finally a holder on his chest held by a brown strap which was a carving knife.

“ I am ryuzan the demon toad...” declaring to himself as he took on the persona and headed down his way to explore but already seeing some people nearby especially seeing he would stand out from the epic armor mostly.

 

[Esmeraldine]

All around, the crowds melded and molded, as players tried their best to be patient and wait for something to happen. Of course, being players, a good portion couldn't stand still, so they went about chatting, forming groups, and testing the ui and other things. Course, a few particular players stood out from the crowd, and they were gazed upon with disdain. "Pfft… who the fuck are these asshats?" one random guy said to the girl besides him.

She responded uncertainly, "Uh... I dunno. I heard a rumor that you could get some cool stuff, but you'd have to get a special code for it." In truth, the few players to have the exclusive gear were relatives of the dev team. As the devs themselves weren't allowed to play and had to continuously monitor the game, they'd given close friends and relatives codes, at least the few that had them to give out.

Ryuzan's real life uncle was one of the devs, working on level design. While his uncle hadn't told him anything about the game itself, he had given him the exclusive code to put in as he logged on. "I know you love your samurai guys so much, so I thought I'd throw a little something!" he had said. And now, he got to bear the fruits of his labors. Or perhaps... the opposite...

---

From their viewpoint, Kimitsu and Felicia could see one of these players, a particular samurai looking one, looking all cool in his exclusive gear, albeit through a crowd of naysayers. Obviously, a good portion of the player base were jealous they all had to start with these crumby 'uniforms' and they looked like peasants compared to these people. So the shunning, name calling, and insulting were all too present.

Kimitsu was just minding her own business when she felt someone bump into her. "Hey!" she called out in anger, though as she turned her face, her muzzle snuggled right between Felicia's bust. The fox girl was somewhat shorter than the cat-hybrid, though rather than reacting appropriately, the golden furred canine raised her eyes without bothering to remove her muzzle. "A mirror? Seriously? What are you, a noob?" After the girl didn't move immediately, the fox girl added, "Mind getting your tits out of my face?" Despite her attitude, Kimitsu was pretty adorable...

---

All around Oliver, the girl's skirts appeared to be teasing him, for as they shifted about so lusciously, none seemed to lift enough to show him anything more than a little bit of thigh. And of course, some girls were shorter, so he got to see even less, particularly as he transformed and stood as a pretty hulking creature, though his outfit auto resized to fit him. Whether he liked that or not, well, it didn't matter, that's what it was.

Ahead, he spotted the lustrous dragoness as she seemed to be chatting with a particularly odd group of an elf, a minotaur, and a human, with the shorter elf taking the lead. He certainly looked like a charismatic bastard... probably a bard of some sort. Still, his yell to her over the crowd might not have been heard. Or perhaps the woman herself had decided to deal with this random 'pleasantry' some other time. Regardless, the crowd around them seemed to thicken, leaving him with a clear path to a pair of two other girls, one of whom seemed to her vulpine face buried in the feline-hybrid's bust.

His approach would herald the shorter furry to peer in his direction, but she would not budge, it was up to Felicia to both get out of her face, and if she so chose, interact with this hulking werewolf of a man.

---

In the background, Hana would've heard a number of voices, one garbled a bit, like coming from some big hulking furry or something like that, possibly coming out to "Hey, sexy dragon." She couldn't be sure, but she could always check the chat logs when she wanted. Just... she should be prepared to go through quite a bit of it. More noticeable was that squeaky halfling's voice in the background, a lot closer and still relatively close to her starting location.

"White and blue striped." The halfling's voice was undeniable, and the same with his orc companion.

"Nice." Though taken out of context it could mean anything, in all likelihood, something had been randomly generated.

Either way, before her stood the elf and his little merry gang, the elf seemed very assured of her joining him, though her response left him a bit... chilled. "Ah... yes! Yes of course, I would not dream of doing it any other way, my scaly lady..." He seemed to be not only the hardcore type but... the rp type as well. Getting into the dashing elven bard... he likely wouldn't be the one dueling. The heavily muscles minotaur bud behind him, probably. And maybe the tattooed girl, she seemed pretty tough, though for the most part, it was difficult to tell what class each player chose, as other than some hints based on personality and looks, it wasn't entirely obvious with everyone wearing the same outfits, just in different colours.

 

[wiki234]

“ heh at least it worked though....thanks a lot.” Opening and closing his hand with a smile again remembering of course the obvious reason he had the armor, “ your strength and wisdom will guide my swords and protect me as I wander the world.” Saying to himself before walking again and already seeing an odd group but not one to really be outgoing as he still stood around then sat before taking a small rock and deciding to sharpen the blades as he waited with another familiar long metal swipe that could be heard by everyone. “ what will be my path...” he would think glancing up with a sigh as he worked.

 

[Meii]

Felicia felt something in her chest as the fox girl that is shorter than her speaks while being buried in her bust. Although they're not that really big but during the character creation she made it fit to her height and appearance, not to small nor not too big. She could've gone for a flat one so that it can help her class in becoming more agile due to how the body was built but she didn't wanted to be called a wall.

Giving a distance between herself and from the golden furred female fox, she gave a smile in hopes to calm down the player infront of her who seems to be irritated.

"M-my bad..." She placed her hands on her waist as her ears twitched, hearing a voice that seems to be calling both of them yet she decided to reply first to the person she bumped with earlier. "I'm just asking because I've heard someone asking for a mirror too you know, and I would like to help that person and befriend with them. Please calm down. Basic rules of a game is to have friends to help you and to help right? so.." She paused for awhile thinking of how does someone access a menu. Now the human cat's supposed to be cheering smile changed to a worried one. Until the werewolf who called just recently was already beside them.


She turned her head towards the male and she held her hands like she was praying or begging. Her tail still curved upwards. Smiling brightly once again, Felicia looked like her eyes were sprakling.

"Huwaa! Great timing sir!" Her foot moved abit in the direction where the werewolf guy is standing. "Actually.. We do not know each other.. and I do not know anyone in the game. I would like to send her a friend request and you too if you dont mind! Altho.." She placed her hands down, and started to scratch the back of her head with her right hand. "I cant find the menu.. could you please help me?" Felicia gave a worried laugh or a small laugh categorized as chuckle.

 

[Archet]

Ran was all too giddy to start playing, but knew better than to rush it- taking his sweet old time crafting his avatar with love. In the preview screen, where he could preview their characters, he made sure to inspect her to make sure it was finely crafted. "Man, my friend wasn't kidding when he said they worked really hard on the character creation." he said as he cycled through a few preview animations for the Half-Rabbit Beastman, including a rather cute "spooked" emote where she hid her ears and got teary eyed. It sent electricity up his spine and made him feel like he had a toothache in his head. He pat the avatar's head, even if it didn't react to it. With a joyous grin, he filled out the name, flipped to the class his friend had suggested. Just the description made Ran whistle, "Oh man, getting bad flashbacks, but it sounds too Rad to pass up." he says as he taps it with his finger, sigil glowing before it asks if that was everything, reviewing the settings. He pressed OK.

The Loading screen then covered his Field of View, and when he blinked his eyes open again, he was in a large, open plaza. Immediately, he got a ping that the gift items picked by your Developer Friend had been received into his inbox. However, hearing a bit of a commotion over a few of the other Dev Friends getting scoffed and ridiculed at, he lightly decided against equipping them... For now. That'd get a lot of attention, he wanted to look around before the opening event started. He saw a lot of basically every race- Even a few other Rabbit Beastmen types! So he wasn't the only Man of Culture here, huh? With a chuckle as the average height bunny 'Girl' softly skipped along, seeing all the wonderful characters people had created. Even a few who had made the good old, Dark Souls Monstrosities- Not surprisingly, they all were eagerly chatting with eachother, mimicking emotes. It was all a good chuckle. However, a certain thing caught his eye, a group of a Cat Girl, a smol Fox, and a wolf man all standing about.

However, the fluffy tail of the fox got her attention. With a sly grin, she casually started walking by before slowly crouching down, and not really caring to hide their intentions from the Werewolf, who was the only one looking her way, suddenly wrapped her arms around the large, fluffy tail. "Ooh! Soft!" she coos out, burying her face in the fluffy tail to the point only her two, fuzzy brown bunny ears were sticking out, as well as the two arms hugging the fox tail.

 

[AlphaLoverBoy]

OOG: Sebastian/Sadie IG: Valyn/Val

Sebastian still wasn't sure about this whole virtual reality world. He had sat outside the pod for so long now that everyone around him was already enclosed. He had opted to use the monitor outside the pod to make his character. Most of his time these days was spent looking for whatever job was hard to be fired from. With his Dissociative Identity Disorder it was only a matter of time until his dear old sister would screw things up for him. He may have only had two personalities, better off than most with DID, but his was a handful to say the least. She would take over and just spend her time in control doing whatever crazy idea popped into our head. Needless to say it was hard to keep a job. When he blacked out sometimes it could be days later when he regained control. He would wake in a bed next to some guy, occasionally some chick, and he'd be dressed in some rather skimpy girls clothes. Later he would get a message on his phone that he was fired 'for that sick thing he did with the bosses dog' whatever that was.

So now that he was broke, staying in micro hotels, and not knowing when he would eat next, or when Sadie would take over, this invite seemed like a good way to kill time. The pods apparently took care of all your 'bodily needs'. So at least he wouldn't worry about food while he was here. He had avoided these newer forms of VR for as long as he could. He knew it would scan his brain, take his consciousness, and then render it in the new virtual world. Only thing was, he had more than one consciousness.

He finished up his details on the half-angel paladin he had put together. There were a few prompts that farther detail would be needed from inside the machine. "Well, here goes nothing." He sighed and laid down inside the pod. The door was just coming down to close when he blacked out.

Sadie found herself inside the video game machine. "Perfect, just in time to have some fun." Unlike Sebastian, Sadie was fully aware whenever he had control, so she had seen everything leading up to this point. He was too much of a prude to try and wake from inside while she was controlling the body. Sadie was always the better gamer, she immediately went to work on tweaking with his lame character build. She made some adjustments and smiled at her handy work. Then she went ahead and used a few backdoor algorithms to open the admin panel. She quickly put in her Clipper Chip code before closing the panel. With that in place the clipper chip code would tell the system that what had happened was merely one of the currently logged in admins. With just a brief look into the powers that be, she managed to pull off some of the beta restraints for the pod. Just enough for her to make a separate/second character. She made her devil-girl, chose druid, and added a nice little tentacle feature to her tail. She hit the upload icon and smirked as she felt Sebastian waking.

Sebastian woke with a startle, the room was gone, the pods were gone. Replacing it was a huge circular plaza with hundreds of other creatures around. Creatures was the only word for it. While all were humanoid of some sort, most had opted for more fantasy themed avatars. Everyone in close proximity stared as he appeared there. That was a good sign, maybe he had only blacked out for a moment. There were so many fantastical creatures he felt a little weird having chosen the angelic race. Essentially a human with a halo, later on they got wings he had read but not for this level. He idly reached his hands up to see if he could feel the halo. There was nothing there, instead his hand bumped into a smooth pointed horn. His other hand crept up the other horn and he felt his anger welling. His arms were a soft white but as his angered grew he saw it shift darker, becoming a blood red. "Sadie you, annoying piss-ant!" He drew up his menu to check for any other changes, he was a Tiefling Druid, a devil blooded user of chaos and wild magic. Not what he had in mind at all, but at least this game had a lot of customization.

He looked around and saw that everyone was standing around chatting or looking bored. Some were in groups and others looked to be actively trying to recruit others into their group. Already, really? He realized then that it could have very well been him that was holding everyone up. He hadn't seen anyone else outside their pods, at least not the ones he could see. Feeling sheepish he didn't want to be seen alone where he spawned. He shuffled to a group nearby. His skin turned from blood red to a softer pink, and he noticed then that his tail was whipping around behind him.

The group was an odd sort, a cat-girl cute yet arousing, a terrifying werewolf, some toad samurai (obviously upgraded), a strangely sexy dragon, a bunny-girl, and a stunning fox-girl. "Wow! Look at you all. Quite impressive." Sebastian stepped to the inside of the group, trying not to leer too long at the females short skirts and beautifully propped up cleavage. He held his hand out, feeling awkward he noticed at the last second he wasn't addressing anyone in particular. "My name is Sebastian...uh..er...Valyn...Yes, I guess it's Valyn now. Are you all some sort of party? Guild?" Valyn's pink skin turned slightly more rouge.

 

[Pegasapphire]

Yawning and stretching her arms above her head, Hana left the elf and his crew, making her way over to a bench near what looked like a rapidly-forming team and settling comfortably on it. Her tail dangled through the gap between the seat and the backrest of the bench to lay on the floor behind her. She watched with amusement as a rather nervous druid approached and made their introductions, their skin shifting in colour from salmon to cranberry. The druid's efforts seemed lost on the rabbit, who was smothered in the fox's tail, seemingly of her own volition.

As she looked over the group, the dragon's gaze lingered over the werewolf. He was one of those who had called out to her earlier, she was sure of it. Hana watched him until their eyes locked, and gave him a flirtatious wink.

 

[Esmeraldine]

By then, the crowds were certainly filtering around more and more organized groups, as people ran around to get recruited or add more members to their parties. While no one could say for sure, rumors started to float around that the game was extremely hard at later levels, and the more team mates one had, the better. At the same time, it seemed guilds weren't particularly common, for the prize money that was advertised would have to be shared, and the difference between 8 people sharing and 30 people sharing was quite a bit. In any case, one of these particular groups wasn't quite all that organized.

As Felicia pulled away from Kimitsu, the smaller vixen girl looked at her in annoyance. Now that she got a good look at the cat neko, she was not impressed. "Seriously? No commitment? Either go full human or go full furry, what's the point in staying in the middle? Also... your boobs are like... so small. It's a game, show something off!" Kimitsu was somehow frustrating herself over this girl, but why? Why did she care so much all of a sudden? Maybe that little close encounter was more social interaction than she tended to have in similar games.

Still, she couldn't help but get all leet on her, if for geeky reasons. "I'm sure you'll see yourself again when the textures load in. It's probably still processing everything, that's why we all have to wait," she remarked smugly, as if she knew that for sure, when it was only a guess. As for the whole menu thing, well... she had already directed her question to this newcomer, so it wasn't like it was her place to reveal it...

---

Ran would find himself... or rather, Rana would find herself, among plenty of other players, apparently some still loading into the game. A few avis were standing still, somewhat distorted, generally by the edges of the plaza. Though several steps through the crowds of now congregating people, Rana would overhear the whispers and voices around her.

"Oh she's cute!" one voice would say.

"Man, should we get her too? We can use a bunny girl, right?"

"Aw... so adorable! I wish I had gone with bunny girl too..." For the most part, male voices were all about the way Rana looked and whether she would join them or not, and a few were female voices, regretting their choice of race when that one was available. Either way, a particularly loose formation of what appeared to be a developing group wasn't too far ahead, and for one, the utterly fluffy, thick wagging tail of a short fox girl, a bit taller than Rana, stood with her back to oncoming new arrival. To the point that she never saw Rana coming.

"W-what the hell is your problem!?" the vixen cried out as she tried to figure out how to shake the girl off her tail. Yet pangs of surprising excitement shot through her body, something she wasn't used to in any game. A deep blush formed over her formerly golden face as she had to turn around, but only managed to drag the girl along. "Somebody get this lunatic off me!!" Course, in the whirling, her skirt managed to shift, lifting up in something akin to an overexaggerated animation, leaving a fresh impression of her lime green panties in the eyes of those watching. At the same time, it should certainly have been a warning to all the girls...

This commotion would've been noted by several other players around them, including three particular players. One of them, the obvious one that stood out from the majority of the crowd and was visibly shunned by everyone around him, apparently took a spot to sit close to them, taking a stone from the paved area and sharpening his weapons. He certainly looked impressive, that much was certain.

On the other hand, the dragoness that left the awkward situation behind had come to join them, if not quite officially just yet, and sat just beyond the forming group. As she sat, she could feel a bit of a forced animation on her body, one that would oblige her leg to slowly swivel to the side and then up and over to cross her legs, at least at first, as if any time any girl wanted to sit, she would be forced to exhibit herself a bit. The creator was certainly one perverted maniac.

---

For now, Valyn seemed in control, yet his avatar had clearly been changed. Apparently, his... whatever he considered that other entity had done her job, and managed to overwrite some code for his character specifically, allowing not only a change to the personality, but also to the character. For when the personality switched, he would physically change into a female version of himself, and with the hardwiring program that it was, his outfit would automatically form into its female counterpart. But... that was yet to be seen.

Around him, a female human player stared at him as he yelled at some Sadie, and she was quick to give him a weird look before moving on. Obviously, shouting out random things in public probably wasn't the best idea. Yet that commotion over there... a group of some random characters to be sure, would have caught his attention, and as he approached, there was certainly a bit of a scene unfolding.

---

Suddenly, a loud blast of sound shot through the entirety of the plaza, like a gong being rung. Then, a deep, booming voice overcame everyone. "ONE MINUTE UNTIL ANNOUNCEMENT."

 

[THErolplayer]

"Yeah, lets all work together, we are all beasts of some form or another." He would say clearly starting to livk his lips at the idea of all of those girls being around him. He would notice as the dragon girl from before would make her way over to the group, she really was a looker and from what he had heard this game had sexual features as well.

He would laugh slightly at the fox girl getting so angry and just pat the other girl on the shoulder in a comforting way. He felt eyes on him for some reason, could be a byproduct of his transformation, a byproduct he very much liked. Due to this feeling he would turn round to see the dragoness staring at him, their eyes would lock for a moment and as they did he would catch her giving him a flirty wink and in response would walk over to her the whole time staring at her cleavage. "Like what you see" he would say in his usual deep voice.

 

[Archet]

Rana enjoyed the praise towards her character creation efforts, her ears twitching at the voices. Before she had walked over to the fox girl, she looked in the direction of the voices and gave a rather proud, smug smile before she had skipped off.

-----

As the Fox girl started to react...Well, a bit more exaggerated than she had expected, she held on for only a moment before letting go. She looked rather surprised herself, forced to lightly stumble forward onto her hands and knees, "That was quite the panic. I didn't think you'd freak out so much, sorry about that." she says, moving back to a crouching position to offer a hand. "And if it makes you feel better, I'll let you touch my ears in exchange. I haven't even touched them yet myse-" she was cut off by the loud, ringing announcement, to which the bunny girl, mid sentence, reaches up to put her hands over her ears, pushing them forward a bit to muffle the noise.

"Jesus, that was loud." she says, releasing her ears. "Anyhow, still technically true I haven't touched my ears before, at least the good parts." she finishes, pointing at the tips of her ears, where most of the fluffy goodness was.

After the Fox girl was back on her feet, Rana stood up as well to her full about 5'6 or 5'7 height equivalent. Much like the catgirl assassin, her body was much more modest than most. Still the type of body that someone would be proud of irl, though.

 

[wiki234]

Ryuzan finally stood up, putting his swords away with a slight smirk under the mask as he looked to the awkward group before slipping the swords back in the sheaths before standing up and showing off an almost towering behemoth of a man in armor though not the tallest of everyone around he could see. “ and you all oddly stand out...” saying to the group wondering what their reaction would be though of course still himself just with the armor being more intricate than what anyone was wearing.

 

[Meii]

The cat-girl's plead for help towards the werewolf about the menu was unanswered when the players started to come near them. A gorgeous female dragon, a druid who changes colors depending on the mood, a toad with a knight's shining armor and a female bunny who is very appealing could be on par with the dragoness. She didn't mind though whether she's ignored or not, she's actually happy to see more people in their circle. Even if they're strangers, she could feel that being with this group of adventurers will be a really good idea.

She looked around, smiling at each of the characters that's drawing near to her, the werewolf and the fox-girl. "Ohoo~ More people are coming.. why don't we guys party up? I'm Felicia It's nice to meet.. nya!~" She said, making a pose with an excited voice as she introduced herself so that Sebastian wont be the only one who said their name.

"And-" As she was about to respond about the golden fur's comment about her appearance and breast, she saw someone jumped on the vixen's tail, hugging it and probably causing her discomfort or maybe.. since it is an animal tail.. pain or pleasure? Felicia being curious and wanting to know the answer held her own tail yet all she felt was nothing. Maybe if it's touched by other players she'll know what it feels? She cant know without trying.

Seeing the female fox trying to get the bunny away from her tail, she saw that her (Kimistu) panties got flashed, causing her to immediately look around, seeing the crowd paused for a moment to watch the skirt go up. She would like to give her a cover but it's too late. That's the only time where she realized that she needed to get a shorts for her class as she'll be moving around alot in combat with a very high risk of getting exposed.

As Felicia is consumed in thinking about things, a loud sound and a voice was heard, signaling the time left before the announcement. She jumped at surprise.

"Oh have all the players logged in already?"

 

[AlphaLoverBoy]

Valyn/Val

Valyn didn't have anyone step forward to shake his hand. Probably due to not acknowledging anyone in particular. Thankfully his embarrassment was short lived as a loud chime echoed across the plaza followed by a loud voice stating there would be an announcement.

"Its a pleasure to meet you Felicia, I think partying up would be great idea. I hear it gets tough down the line and any chance of winning the prize will require teamwork." Valyn managed to avert his gaze from the bodies of the gorgeous furries and the dragon long enough to return to his default white skin color. He was so pale, he could only imagine what the contrast must have seemed like with his tail and horns.

Valyn felt a tickle at the back of his mind. That was new, was Sadie poking at him? Trying to gain control or something? No way to know how his virtual self would respond to his DID. He knew though it would only get worse as he spent more time here. There was no way for him to take his meds while he was in here.

Well as long as she was still contained he should be able to form a team without scaring them off. Although, as he looked at this group they seemed more Sadie's type anyway. "You know we should definitely get to know each other quick, before the real game starts. Not ourselves in real life but more our strengths and weaknesses in here. I suppose I should let you know, I have no idea what sort of changes were made to my avatar. I have this, this, ..." He couldn't bring himself to reveal his illness quite yet. "I think theres a glitch with my pod, I may do, or change in ways I cant predict. You see, theres this...uh...." Valyn blacked out.

Valyns whole body convulsed and shifted, with just a hint of lower res pixels showing through. Then in an instant, standing in place of where Valyn just was, was Val. Val looked almost like a female twin of Valyn, though her avatar had some changes. Her whole voluptuous body was covered in soft black fur except for her midriff which was a deep red skin tone. Her legs ended in hooves and her tail grew to twice its length and seemed to have some small tendrils, tentacle like, flicking around gently.

"Good day everyone, I see Valyn has skittered and gravitated towards some outliers as usual. Believe me though, there is nothing wrong with that." Val eyes each group member closely, like she was taking in a scrumptious menu. She walks among the girls. Her clothes seemed to have shrunk, with only a bra sized top to hold back her large bust and a tighter than normal skirt that seemed exactly too short for any modesty. She eyes each of the girls with a coy but honest smile. "Oooh, you are so cute and sexy, love the avatars ladies. Nice upgrades Samurai." She gestures her tail at the armor clad guy with the swords. Then eyeing the werewolf she whistles. "Nice choice big guy, that one that would have tempted me if I had the time to find it. Just call me Val, I'm the other operator for boring old Valyn. He has his perks, but let's just say I'm the fun one."

 

[Pegasapphire]

Hana grinned at the werewolf's approach.
"Bold of you to ask me that when you can't even look me in the face," she teased. These people seemed friendly enough. She might have to return after she had trounced whoever the elf chose to duel her. Oh if only Cameron had been here now... He would have loved this. Though... He might have had some words to say about her being such a flirty whore. "Fight with honour!" He always used to say, whether they were duelling with sticks in the woods or weapons in the VR sports halls. Cameron was so inspiring, he made her want to be a better version of herself every day. That was until he was stabbed when he wouldn't give up his wallet, and bled out alone in a cold back alley. Hana's eyes narrowed. His honour got him killed. Was it worth it...?

Her heart said yes, but her mind found it difficult to reconcile. She had loved Cameron dearly, and his naivety ended him before they had the life they were supposed to have together. Maybe it wasn't his fault. But Hana understood now where this flirtatious behaviour was coming from. She wanted an escape. It couldn't last forever... But perhaps it could last a while longer.

The dragon rolled her eyes at the druid's antics before standing. She leaned against the solid body of the werewolf as she spoke, wrapping her tail around him.
"What do you mean when you say you're the other operator?" Hana asked the impish girl. "Did the creator mess with your avatar just now? Or perhaps you're a mod?"

 

[Esmeraldine]

It had gotten so crowded already, seemingly a group of random people just coming together for no good reason. Or well... there could be a reason, as all around them, everyone else had done the same. Groups of up to ten players had formed, with some as small as three. But no one wanted to be left out, for the rumors grew that it was impossible to solo this game, as any good mmorpg should. Just that some people didn't exactly get along, and more and more similarities and differences were showing. So to say they were unique... well... this group did have some rather particular characters that didn't seem to appear in any of the more traditional nor more mundane groups.

When she finally broke away from the bunny girl, Kimitsu growled back at the innocent looking one as she seemed to want to repay her in some weird way. "No I don't to touch your ears! Stay away from my tail!" she complained, flashing her cute little sharp teeth with an obvious blush on her face. The graphics were certainly something to admire, if they could capture this level of emotion.

Though she couldn't just concentrate on this annoying little runt, as several of the others pointed out. Looking around her, it appeared that an entire party had formed. "W-what... when did this..." Kimitsu wasn't the type to team up, ever, but seeing as there was literally no group of single individuals, the fox girl folded her arms and grunted. "Hmph… fine fine, whatever, we can form a group..." she growled under her breath, though her whisper would still show up in the chat log.

Speaking of which, she narrowed her eyes on that previous OTHER annoying girl and poked her right in the side. "Well since this lumbering butt head probably doesn't know... and seems to be a bit distracted... literally just think the word 'Menu' in your mind and you'll see it." As she explained it, her menu popped up, though only she could see it. It clouded her vision in certain spots, along the bottom it showed her abilities, and on the left, the system menu, while on the right, there was the inventory and the interaction menu. "Oh right, don't forget to think 'Close Menu' when you're done," she added, thinking Felicia wouldn't be smart enough to figure it out.

As the group seemed to come together, with the obvious samurai, the curious cat-girl, the irritated vixen, the perky bunny-girl, the seductive dragoness, the awkward druid... er… the lustful demoness? That... was odd. Didn't seem normal, but then there was also the laid back werewolf so maybe that could've been a thing. In any case, a minute passed by quite quickly before that same deafening gong sound rang out.

"ATTENTION ALL PLAYERS" boomed that same voice again.

Above the front gate of the plaza, right where everyone, regardless of where they stood, could see it, sprawled a huge screen, which showed a rather disheveled older woman, probably in her late 30s or early 40s, dressed in a bit of a sloppy brown coat and a wrinkled white blouse, her glasses thoroughly smeared as the reflection of whatever screen she was using showed. Despite this, she looked excited for sure, and her large, amber eyes had a glint of amusement in them. Then, she spoke, her voice not loud and yet seemingly reaching all of the players.

"Greetings everyone! I'm so glad you could make it! Welcome to Eternal Riders Ascension! Oh we're going to have so much fun together!" That part of her intro was a bit odd for sure. "I'm Dr. Elizabeth Shue and I created this very game you're in, right now! Well it was certainly my idea but I had some help..." An inaudible whisper sounded in the background of the broadcast and she rolled her eyes a bit. "Right of course! So as you all should know, you 2,000 players were invited to not only be the first to play the game outside of beta testing, but to also participate in our amazing contest! $100,000 can be yours, and all you have to do is beat the final boss! Simple, right? Well..."

The woman's eyes seemed to gaze about the plaza along with her grin. "I see you've all taken the first step, for the journey ahead of you will be perilous! You will certainly need each other!" Clearing her throat for a moment, she got really excited for this next part. "For you see, while you're welcome to use any methods you'd like within the game, to achieve victory, you won't have unlimited tries. For you see... if your HP every hits 0, you will be eliminated from the game AND the contest. I'm sure your party members wouldn't like being a man down... or several... so do your best not to die!" After a short chuckle, she heard another whisper and rolled her eyes harder. "Or if it's just too much for you, feel free to log out. But... you'll be eliminated as well."

As she gazed over the various assembled groups, this group in particular couldn't help but feel her gaze center on them somewhat longer. "I'm sure you all bring some particularly special skills to the table, and I'm sure you'd love to use them for the benefit of your party. In any case, happy hunting!" With that, fireworks erupted high above the plaza as the screen faded to nothingness. Every gate opened all at once, and most groups didn't hesitate to immediately run out through them.

 

[wiki234]

“ hmph...” simply saying crossing his arms as the metal shifted into position before he dropped them with one on top of the two swords on the right hip. “ put my carving to work....” taking the knife from the right shoulder and spinning it on his hand as he waited for a moment before eventually going then as everyone else.

For now the man would keep himself quiet mostly, not one to be a talker than a fighter anyway whether or not he even needed too, and especially now with no one really paying much attention he had more time to think for the worst case scenarios that could happen to him in particular and prepare exactly the plans for it as for now ryuzan could not care much if they were injured or even killed as he would try his best though since he was there but otherwise not feel much than something less to worry about. Looking over at the group again, he stood mostly to the side already waiting for something to happen as he still thought of various plans and other things on the other side of everything weirdly working out for him.

“ we should go now...” he would finally speak for attention deciding to walk past if anyone would be following him or not as they didn’t seem to be much organized at all yet than standing around and being childish with the knife slipping back to the holder on his chest as his hand went back on top of the swords and he started to do a small run just to get out and into the more open area.

 

[Meii]

After paying attention to the announcement, Felicia got more motivated to play the vrmmo sincerely, considering it as more than a game. "No one can earn such money while having fun, this is really the best decision I've made!" She thought to herself. After breathing a deep sigh to keep calm, she then proceed to look around the players she'll be with. The random group that was formed out of nowhere but of one's impulsiveness. Observing each one of them quickly trying to grasp their personalities. There's only one person she's not sure with. After the transformation of Valyn to Val, she cant figure out what shall she do or feel about the player as this one could be really unpredictable. Continuing the observation, her gaze fell upon the golden furred fox, remembering the instructions about the menu.


"OHOHO!!" The cat-girl's sudden outburst of excitement was heard not only by the group she's around with but also by the players surrounding them. Although it didn't caused a turning of heads due to everyone being busy moving out or planning with their group on what to do. She didn't mind her volume either as she was fascinated by the interface of the menu. "Thank you goldie!!" She went on hugging the fox who taught her even if the menu UI was still on her vision. After a few seconds she released her and walked with very small steps till she stopped.

Felicia can't see anymore, as she overloaded herself by opening all that she can open in the menu. She found the friend list one but cannot find the words "add friend".

While the half-feline is busy looking for the thing, she heard that the armored dude is going away. Felicia being Felicia who is easily distracted yet impulsive when having the desire to do something, she turned towards the voice's direction, attempting to walk with almost zero visibility. "Eh? Wait don't go! We haven- WHA"

Another attention-seeking sound was heard. The combination of the sound of the ground when something unexpected fell on it alongside the cry of two maidens. Felicia is now above the bunny girl, pinning her down with one of her legs in-between the girl's legs, providing a cover from exposure involuntarily. She tripped while trying to stop the samurai.

Now she's in an awkward position with the female hare. Felicia being shocked, kept her gaze on the eyes of the person below. The menu was gone during the fall as she thought of the word the fox gave her. While having a staring contest with each other, the name of the bunny suddenly popped up in Felicia's vision alongside the options for trade, duel, party and guild invitation, and the thing she's looking for. The option to add as a friend. The same thing happened for the bunny girl. The name's Felicia is visible in her eyes.

"R..Ran?..Rana.. Rana!" She happily reads the name. Afterwards, she sent her the invitation for a party and the request for a friend. "Accept it Rana!" The cat-girl giggles.

 

[Archet]

Rana idly listened to the announcement that played so loudly, only gazing up with a spare thought of, "Hey, she looks great for her age." The statement about reading 0 HP and you're eliminated wasn't quite expected. So this was a Blind, No Death run of a new MMO- Quite the challenge. Rana immediately opened up the Skill menu for her class, standing back a bit as the blinking alert that she had her gifts delivered to her inventory caught her eye. Not wanting to have that alert keep annoying her, she used her other hand for a separate menu. Opening the Inventory and Equipment menu with her other hand, she idly started to open the present, inspecting each of the items. All Cosmetics, effectively transmog or glamour.

With a grin, and not really paying attention to the actions of those around her, she began one by one using the "Preview" function in her inventory to see what each of the outfits look like. However, she heard a lot of noise, the large turtle toad guy walking away, then her menus disappeared as she was crashed into by someone and pinned to the ground.

With a grunt and a dull, quickly going away pain, she got her barings of the situation as the cat girl had ended up blinding herself with the menus, and as surely as someone blindfolding themselves, ran into something. That something just happened to be Rana. However, after a bit of the stare battle, Rana softly joked, "If you stare at me like that, I'll blush." she teases before the 'Would you like to add this user to your friend's list: Felicia' popped up in front of her face, the menu, invisible to others, popping up between them.

The cat girl's eager, "Accept it Rana!" showed just how much excitement at figuring this out was pretty cute though, she started to mentally move the menu to put the menu in a specific position. "Was planning to anyway." she says as her finger moves forward to press the accept button, which just happened to be right in front of Felicia's nose. Of course, knowing she could accept it by just thinking, she did that just as her finger touches the button so her finger instead gives Felicia's nose a soft 'boop'. Rana then gives the cat girl a playful grin, "Nice to meet you, Felicia." as she pulls her finger away.

Naturally, this, while this was an innocent incident between the two kemonomimi, did not quite look as such to some of the passerby's who were starting towards the exit. It was easy to hear, "Aww's" "Cuute~" and numerous other things, including a few people eating their hearts out with a "God, I wish that were me." statements as the few walked by. Plenty of complements of how cute the two looked together also came through. It was all mostly teasing, until one rowdy onlooker shouts, "HEY, YOU TWO SHOULD KISS."

Rana, lying on the ground, looks towards the voice, then at the catgirl. She immediately starts giggling before slowly rising up towards the catgirl, hand taking hold of the neko's cheek as Rana's face draws closer, and closer, and closer, Felicia could feel Rana's soft breath against her lips... Before their noses touch and Rana softly rubs her nose against Felicia's for a moment. She then leans back against her elbows, propped up as she yell, "There! I gave her an Eskimo kiss! Now quit Gawking!" to the onlookers.

 

[Esmeraldine]

"Seriously, how dumb can you get..." Kimitsu uttered under her breath, though as her ears perked up at the sound of armor shifting, her eyes quickly diverted to the man Felicia had pointed out. Quickly checking the logs, he apparently was talking to them? Who was this 'we'? Hopefully not another freak like that druid back there... "Yo armor dude," the vixen said as she sidestepped the little neko meeting that was going down, "Where you going?" Now that she basically HAD to be in a party, she may as well grab as many powerful looking people as she could, not that it was easy to tell with everyone wearing the same starter outfit. Except that guy.

The vixen focused on him and opened up the inspect tab, so she could check out his gears. Obviously, this guy had some inside perks if he started out like that. But as she looked over the gear, while their names sounded cool, and of course looked the part, the stats on his gear were... well, practically the same as everyone else's, if a couple points higher. So while he would be the strongest of the group, it wouldn't amount to much. He'd still get killed by a boss mob for sure. But maybe he had some intel... "Looks like we're forming a group, you want in?" Course, Kimitsu didn't plan to receive a no, and intended for everyone that was left with them to form up. Just in case, she sent him a party invite of her own, which promptly popped up in his field of vision.

The little neko meeting was positively adorable, but of course, some obvious tools had to stop and do their part to egg the two girls on, only to be frankly disappointed. One particularly very tall, lean yet muscular human player approached the two, his focus solely on them, and practically ignoring the rest of the party. His avi was clearly completely perfectly sculpted, though it resembled one of the defaults that were available. In all likelihood, some players would look exactly the same by going with the default.

"Well hello there ladies, how'd you like to join our group?" he said with a confident smirk, already trying to snipe several people for himself. And as he addressed them, he likely had a thing for human-like girls with cute little animal add ons. At the same time, two other characters that were pretty much identical to him were also seen in the background, asking around other groups as if to take them for their own.

 

[wiki234]

Ryuzan continues to idly look out wondering then how to even start himself even if he had a group then possibly at least the answer coming late anyway to him, “ if I am wasting my time standing around I would check out of here a bit at least...” replying as he turned to the other, “ this is only the beginning of course but there is the fact I am still a bit stronger even with just the beginning of the game.” With obviously higher stats even if they weren’t much more it was still the best and could easily bring him up to even mid tier almost, or just mostly equal to the boss of the first level.

“ then I will help....” simply saying as he lifted a clawed hand to accept it and continue to look around a bit before following back then as he would assume and cross his arms.

 

[Meii]

The shout from the crowd made Felicia to turn her head, looking at the direction from where the yell came. Her face expressed a shock expression due to what she'd heard. Kiss.. what??

Yet she's frozen when the half-bunny girl held her cheek. "R-rana?.." She could've moved but she cant help stare at the beautiful eyes of her new friend. It's like hypnotizing her. When their faces are only inches apart, she closed her eyes as she can't stand it anymore. Her face flushed red. Felicia was about to move but she felt her nose in contact with Rana's nose. She thought it was too late but there was no follow up on the lips. When the bunny girl yelled she opened her eyes to see Rana's face was far away from her once again. Although she was still pinning her down.

She sighed a relief. It seems like she's the only one who overthought the scene and her fellow hybrid is chill about it and mostly did it to appeal to the crowd. Smiling and wanting to give a response, her mouth moved : "As a friend, I don't like ignoring my friend's action for me of the so called eskimo-kiss and leaving it unanswered~ " with those words, Felicia smashed her forehead to Rana's forehead. It's super effective! The two of them recieved an ailment of dizziness that lasts for around 15 seconds.

While both are in agony from the pain, they hear a voice spoke, asking the two of them to join "him".

Felicia lifted her eyes while her hands are holding her forehead due to the pain. Seeing the man, she immediately gave her response.

"N-no sir, I'm sorry but we're already forming our own party, go ask the others. Have a nice day." Her once energetic voice was replaced w/ a raspy yet monotone one. She tried to politely decline but she didn't know if it is. She still minds the pain.

Although it's not the real reason why she decline without thinking. Due to her "Dizzy" ailment, her view of the man was somehow abit distorted. Even if it seems fine for the others, on her side it isn't. The ears arent of the same sizes and the smile reached the eyes which looked weird and creepy. Probably that's how Rana sees him too.

"Let's go Rana.. There's someone leaving our circle, we need to stop him". Felicia sat up, standing as the ailment disappeared, never looking at the man again. She lend her out to Rana, bending over to help her get up.