Setsuna-the-fallen

The beautifully queer garden began to distort in Adrastea’s vision and suddenly it was as though she had been spinning in circles too quickly for too long. Thoughts began to scramble and she felt herself slipping away. Her arms and legs started to feel heavy and stiff and from what little she could make out she was slowly becoming encased in crystal. Normally such a thought might make her laugh or feel excited at the prospect of being coated in candy, but only fear filled her mind now. “No..” She whimpered and began trying to struggle weakly. She searched around for the two treats who had followed her on her on her journey but they were nowhere to be found. There was no one here to help her and she did not have the strength to break herself out. Perhaps she would become a statue in the crystal garden, locked there forever without any hope of escape or freedom. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes as she thought of all that she would miss should her story come to an end

Adrastea hummed a merry little tune as she stooped to pick up yet another marble that her treat friend had dropped along the way. It was really a shame that such an ominous feeling hung over an otherwise beautiful city. It was so full of color and twinkled like a rainbow infused night sky. It was enough to make her want to stay forever to explore it. Though she was certain the presence of her adorable companion was lending greatly to the sense of ease that had come over her. A sense of ease that was banished when a dark shape with burning teal eyes jumped in front of them. The companion, who she had been calling Rosie up to this point, skittered back a few steps and crashed into her legs with a frightened cry. Adrastea bent to scoop her up but stopped mid motion when she noticed that this small beasty was, in fact, another treat. Pewter colored fur stood on end which gave the treat a rather puffed and menacing look and it chittered angrily at them. She could not quite

Watery eyes big as saucers stared pitifully up at Adrastea and all thoughts of the creepy figure from before completely vanished from her thoughts. The treat looked famished, as though it had not eaten for days and immediately the little creature’s plight tugged at her heartstrings. Though there was still an air of danger about the place she dismissed any misgivings she might have had and pulled a bit of food from her satchel and extended it toward the treat, cooing softly. “There there now little one, all is well! Come, fill your tummy with some of the nummy cookies I baked!” She beamed a smile at the little thing and waited patiently for it to respond. It made no move initially, just a shudder of it’s dusty rose colored fur and an owlish blink of it’s eyes. It was not until it blinked up at her with such uncertainty that she realized it had two different colored eyes, one a light blue and the other a deep almost magenta purple hue. Cocking her head she kept her smile and

Vulcan stared dubiously at the neatly wrapped package in his hands and fidgeted, nerves that were not there before washing over him now that he stood before Frost’s door. He had spent weeks working on this gift and plotting out all of the details, had practiced what he was going to say and how he would dress when presenting it, yet still he felt unprepared. Even as his tightly balled fist hovered above the wooden door with the intent to knock he began to question whether he ought to turn right around and march back home through all of the snow. Would probably be the smarter idea if he was being honest with himself. Still, the very thought of that door being swung open by a brightly beaming face immediately before he was pulled into a bone crunching hug was enough to keep his feet firmly planted. Even though he had not yet said it aloud, Frost was his everything. He had tried so many times to talk himself out of it. To rationalize and distance himself, but it had never worked. He

Cobwebs that had not been there the night before covered Adrastea’s rose garden in a thin film of shimmering, milky threads and upon them sat round, dark bodies sprouting eight spindly legs. It was enough to leave her standing there gaping for a few moments before she realized that something was off. The spiders weren’t moving and the cobwebs looked rather...unorganized to have been placed intentionally by something as careful and crafty as a spider. “My goodness…” She said, startling herself some with her own voice and causing a laugh to bubble up within her throat. “My goodness!” She repeated with a louder laugh, finally approaching her poor rose bushes. It was only then that she noticed the rest of the decorations spattered throughout the surrounding area. Jack o'lanterns that were most definitely out of season, fake skulls and bats hovering in unusual places and, of course, candy wrappers scattered haphazardly over the ground. For a moment she wondered if she had

Adrastea very much wanted to embrace the little Stygian who had run up to her crying and begging for help with finding the treats that had escaped. She loved this game but if there was one thing she would have to put down as a slight negative, it was that it always knew exactly how to pull at her heartstrings! So many times she had gotten attached to the NPC’s but always hit that wall where she could never truly be their friend. She’d been told numerous times that they weren’t real but that didn’t dissuade her in the least from trying her best to be kind to them. “Of course I’ll help you!” She replied even knowing the scripting wouldn’t accept her answer but rather needed her to select from the chat. “I’ll get them all so don’t you worry about a thing!” Executing a highly cheerful thumbs up to the little NPC who, of course, wouldn’t respond, she squared her shoulders and made her way deeper into the town. There were many places she wanted to stop and take a closer look at

Ink quickly scribbled down a few components of the potions he’d been reading about on a piece of parchment and rolled it up neatly before stashing it in his satchel. He had really only ever intended to check out Dream-Online for the writing as well as the reading materials but had quickly gotten sucked into the overall immersive and expansive world. The libraries here contained so many interesting tomes that related to this fantasy world and each one made him instantly want to go out and explore some more! Usually while tightly gripping Pyre’s hand and dragging him along for the ride. Only recently he had stumbled upon a book on alchemy and it had held his interests for days now. Listing out interesting plants that, when combined, would create various potions that could be used for innumerable things. It truly was incredible and it had made him desperately want to try his hand at it as well. C’mon, potion making! How cool was that?! Pulling up the world map he plotted his

Mae stared in frustration at the heap of failed swords she’d spent the last 24 hours working on. Aside from enjoying the battles Dream-Online had to offer she had also decided to try her hand at smithing in order to cultivate the ability to make stronger weapons for herself however, it hadn’t been going well thus far. Either the flames were too cool and the sword wouldn’t set right or they were too hot and she would end up with a molten mess complete with some nasty burns that the haptics of her VR gear happily replicated the feeling of. “Dammit…” She hissed as yet another sword shattered under the hammer and a hot piece of metal struck her arm. While she had infinite patience on the battlefield it seemed that she may have met her match in the forge. Tossing the fractured hunk of metal onto the ‘junk’ pile she lobbed her hammer across the room and clenched and unclenched her fists angrily. She knew enough about swords that she should’ve excelled at this. She knew everything

Albion’s smile grew immeasurably as he took in the sight of all of the various fabrics and accessories lining numerous crates stashed within the tent. His heart had already begun to race at the mere mention of a fashion show but now that he was observing the resources that were at his disposal he was positive it would beat out of his chest. If there was one thing the butterfly winged Stygian knew, it was beauty and fashion. Ever since he was little it had been a hobby of his to patch things together in order to catch something truly eye grabbing. Dream-Online hadn’t initially held much interest for him but when one of his friends had mentioned that there was a seamstress job one could acquire he had been all in. It may not be the same as creating clothes and accessories in the real world but it sure was a lot of fun! And it gave him more freedom and options than he ever could have imagined considering that fabrics and gems that never existed in the real world existed here. He

Beckett had all but lost his fuzzy little mind the moment he discovered that mining in Dream-Online was a thing. Digging had always been his passion in the real world and to discover that he could do it in the virtual one as well had been a dream come true. In the real world you were never guaranteed to find anything which, admittedly, was part of the fine for him but in the virtual you would almost always walk away with something. Sure it may not always be a precious stone or lump of ore that would raise the stats of your armor and sell for a good price but even the less than exciting finds were a true joy to him. In fact, he spent more time mining in game than actually exploring. It also just so happened that his mate Castor was incredibly talented in the art of crafting so he inevitably ended up making out like a bandit whenever he presented his goods to his favorite inventor/crafter. All in all it was one of the main reasons that he would come home after a day of mining in