lina1313

Gravitas logged into Dream Online again, though it felt more like waking up from a dream rather than entering one. She scrolled through the recent announcement and patch notes, skimming as quickly as she could to get into the game, but something gave her pause. “Updates coming 07.01: all save points will be removed.” Gravitas let that one line hang in the text box, staring at it in utter confusion. “Why? A huge part of a progression-based game is the ability to save your player progress. For what reason...” The dark furred stygian sank into her thoughts as she dismissed the text box and waited for the game to update into patch 1.2. The room felt strangely spacious, Gravitas glanced around and searched her memories for the cause of the disconcerting mood. Some of the decorations and papers on the wall were missing, maybe housekeeping tidied up the room? “Well, at least my save crystal is still here.” Gravitas shook her head and pressed a hoof to the crystal, creating a new

Gravitas lounged on the bed in her room, lazily batting her save crystal in circles. She turned to the news owl perched on the windowsill, “It’s been a tough grind this past week, hasn’t it?” The owl gave a short “Hoo” in response. “There’s way too many classes to level in, so many skills to cherry pick. But hey? It was worth it, I managed to make my own kind of hybrid class by picking out all the skills I wanted. The weapons though, those were ten times worse.” The orange haired stygian grit her teeth, “Curse the gold gacha, and curse whoever thought it’d be funny to lock the really funny classes behind a paywall.” Instead of the news owl’s clipped response, a rambunctious voice called out, “HOO-HOO!” Gravitas kicked out her legs on reflex, sending the save crystal spinning across the room. She hopped off the bed and looked toward the window to see the quest owl watching her with mirth in its eyes. “I didn’t summon you. Is there something important you need me for?” She asked as

“Log in.” Gravitas mumbles to herself, clicking on the button displayed on screen. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath as the loading screen plays a catchy jingle in the background. Slowly, the jingle fades away and Gravitas opens her eyes to begin the game. “You’re finally awake.” Says an unknown voice from somewhere off to the side. Gravitas barely registers the voice, she’s almost overcome with shock. One moment she was in her home logging into Dream-Online, the next she’s opening her eyes to a misty forest and the gentle rocking of a wooden cart. She scrambled to stand and leans over the edhe of the cart railing, looking all around her for some clue of what’s going on. “Phew I thought you were gonna collapse on me, buddy.” The voice continued on, oblivious to the plight of their passenger. The orange-haired stygian sat back on her haunches and blankly nodded along as the driver of the cart, hidden behind a stack of boxes and chests, talked about heroes and a storm, then

Gumbo kept his gaze down low, watching the gentle waves wash over his feet. The beach was calm in the morning, not many people were around to distract him from his mission. The phantaling had already spent the past hour combing the beach, slowly meandering from a great sunbathing spot to a rocky outcrop with tide pools. There were so many colorful things on the beach to distract a young phantaling. Starfish and shells washed up with the tide, flickers of silver scales in the waves showed small fish darting around, and sometimes Gumbo would stop and watch as a crab scuttled across the sand. The sky was just beginning to turn blue as the sun rose higher, bringing out the best of the fine tan sand of the shoreline. But Gumbo kept retuning to his original goal after each and every distraction. He wanted to find driftwood! As Gumbo was wiggling his toes in the sand, a shadow suddenly fell over him. The phantaling turned around to meet the smiling face of a bushy-tailed pink phantagrin.

Ezzi paced back and forth at the entrance to the festival, he’d been waiting for nearly an hour for Pepper to arrive. Although he did arrive much earlier than the two had agreed on, he still didn’t like to wait around doing nothing. He was full of energy and ready to tackle each and every mini-game stall at the summer festival. Pepper was his friend, so of course he would wait, but he kept thinking that the longer he waited, the more time other kematas would have to win the cool prizes. It felt like ages, but was actually about ten minutes before Ezzi spotted Pepper trotting casually down the path. “Pepper!” Ezzi shouted, “Good morning, where have you been!” The lithe lady answered in her calm yet cheerful tone, “Had to get my fix of morning coffee, naturally. You look rested and ready to go.” Pepper smiled and began walking alongside Ezzi into the festival. “Well yeah! I love festivals, especially the ones with games!” Ezzi was fired up and ready to go, almost struggling to keep