[1/2 Prince x Legend of Sun Knight] fic: Invincible, that is the Legend - Chapter 3
Title: Invincible, that is the Legend - Chapter 3
Fandom: 1/2 Prince x The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 3,284
Summary: On their way to finish the Dictator, the Execution Squad's "invincible battleship" crashes, separating everyone, landing them on foreign soil. "Am I really...still in the game?" "Master, this is not Second Life."
Notes: Starting with this chapter, I'm trying out a different way of formatting my fics~. Namely, how I format the chapter title and my scene breaks. I've been playing around a bit with the CSS for this journal so that I can just replace the coding in the future if I want to change anything, and everything will change across fics. :) Don't mind the title of the chapter, haha. It's just a... really weird title. I don't know what I was thinking. Ridiculously long notes at the end. I mean it. Seriously ridiculous.
Previous chapter: Invincible Communication Through Food and Fighting
Chapter 3: Invincible Music; Hark! What is that beautiful tune? No, no, don't be lured by it. He's a demon!
Securing his hood so that his ears were hidden, a robed figure ambled out into the streets, harp-like instrument in hand. The townspeople paid him no mind until music started drifting to their ears. One-by-one, the busy townspeople put down what they were doing, entranced by the beautiful notes. The tune was altogether foreign, graced by an unknown language, but even though no one understood the lyrics, everyone felt the yearning that was laced through the words and notes.
They listened. A few even blinked furiously, willing their eyes to stay dry.
The robed figure, who had to be a bard, plucked at the strings of his instrument and continued to sing his melancholic tale. A small crowd had gathered around him, tossing copper coins and even a few silver ones onto the cloth he had spread before him. He gave an enigmatic smile and a nod in response to the townspeople's generosity, sending more than one of the village girls squealing in the midst of their surging empathy.
When the last note faded away, the crowd reluctantly dispersed, returning to their daily lives.
Immediately, the smile on the bard's face vanished without a trace. He gathered up the coins, tying the cloth together to form a pouch. His new earnings jingled by the side of his waist.
Leaving the plaza, he made his way over to a rickety building and pushed the door open.
"One hundred silver ducats," he said. "I would like to hire a team."
Let us backtrack to one week ago.
When Guiliastes, our bard in question, otherwise known as Min Gui Wen offline, had first woken up by the side of a cave, he had done so with a gasp, and he'd immediately noticed that he was alone. Unlike Prince, there had been no one around, and certainly no benevolent dark elf and former Sun Knight, to greet him upon his awakening.
Guiliastes, henceforth known simply as Gui, had not immediately taken to using his music to procure a means of survival for himself, for he hadn't even known where he was.
This was what he had done instead, and perhaps it was thanks to his IQ of 200 that he was able to calmly analyze his situation and come to the right conclusion, unlike the conclusion that Prince had made.
He looked around to study his surroundings, only able to discern that he hadn't ever been to this part of the world map before. It wasn't anywhere he recognized, and last he knew, he had been in the middle of the ocean, so how had he ended up here?
Then, he took stock of himself and noted his lightheadedness, but he quickly ignored that, tossing his pains to the back of his mind. An easy task, for he had quite a lot of practice with blocking off pain, considering how often he got beaten up by Prince. What was more important to Gui was finding out whether or not Prince was okay. When that thought crossed Gui's mind, he immediately tried to PM Prince.
And discovered that he couldn't. Imagine the horror that crossed Gui's face at that realization.
Has Prince logged off? Or has he died and returned to the Central Continent?
At that moment of horror, dozens of thoughts flew through Gui's mind about what could have possibly happened, almost making him panic -- no, it wasn't almost making him panic, he was panicking -- at the thought that Prince could be hurt, but he realized not a moment later that something was very off, and it wasn't just that he couldn't PM Prince.
There was no PM system.
He tried to call out his stats and found that he couldn't do that either.
The next logical step was logging off, so Gui tried to do just that. He had a feeling that it wouldn't work, and he was right.
"Am I really...still in the game?" he questioned out loud even though there was no one around to hear him. He tugged at his long tresses and looked down at his robes, his bard outfit. Then, he focused his mana, feeling his magic gather. There was no question that this was not the real world. His hair and his robes could be explained away, but magic? That he couldn't do in real life. The question that ate at him now was whether or not this was still Second Life. Was he stuck in the game, a game where the Dictator of Life had changed the rules?
Following that, Gui shivered, suddenly struck with the thought that perhaps the Dictator of Life planned on trapping all of the players within Second Life, estranging them from their physical bodies. If none of them could log off, then they were no different from NPCs. Second Life would become their only reality. Gui didn't understand why the Dictator of Life might have suddenly changed his plans when he had been so focused on chasing all the players out of Second Life, but Gui had no other explanation for his current situation.
If he was currently stuck in the game, then it was likely that everyone else was too.
His face fell, and he gulped. I have to find Prince.
Just as Gui vowed to find Prince, an elated exclamation suddenly sounded, and a flurry of wings revealed Fire Phoenix to have been scouting the area. Fire Phoenix's presence was yet another piece of evidence against this being the real world.
Still, upon seeing Fire Phoenix, relief replaced the worry that had been splayed over Gui's face. He wasn't completely alone like he had first thought. Gui conversed with Fire Phoenix, voicing his conjectures.
After he finished speaking, Fire Phoenix looked at him in apprehension, her usual haughty voice hesitant as she spoke.
"Master, this is not Second Life," she said, wings folding around herself in her landing.
Even though Gui was smart, it was really thanks to Fire Phoenix that Gui made the leap of logic. Her declaration had sent his thoughts tumbling without a net to catch them, scattered to form something completely outrageous.
Gui's strength evaporated, and he found himself leaning against the cavern wall.
He had been afraid of this. He had thought that maybe...but how...? How could this be possible? Because... If this wasn't the real world and it wasn't Second Life either, then where in the world was he?
Sadly, no one was around to explain anything to Gui. However, that wasn't going to stop Gui from finding out and making sense of things.
He certainly wasn't a professor for nothing. It was his job to learn and figure things out.
Bard and pet quickly got to work.
Despite the shocking discovery of being stranded in a completely foreign world, Gui spent very little time on being shocked. He couldn't afford to stay shocked, not when he didn't know how Prince and everyone else were faring.
Gui did not at all like not knowing Prince's wellbeing.
Thankfully, Fire Phoenix was with him and made looking for a town a simple matter. She took to the air, flying high above the sky to look for signs of intelligence other than their own. Once she located a town, they started toward that direction and continued onward the entire day, only stopping briefly for food. Wherever this was, pain felt very real and hunger felt just as real. (A wilderness expert Gui was not. His only experiences of surviving outdoors were from Second Life, so thank goodness once again that Fire Phoenix was with him. She knew how to hunt. She even easily roasted the food.)
When Gui set foot into that first town with Fire Phoenix flying by his side, Gui soon realized that although this world looked similar to the fantasy world of Second Life, it was fundamentally different in many, many ways.
Many unhelpful ways.
For one, the people would not stop staring at him. Apparently, he was somewhat of an oddity with his pointy ears and dark hair.
He knew this because Fire Phoenix had helped translate the townspeople's murmurings, and it was with a sinking heart that he observed that all of the townspeople were clearly human. No pointy ears. No furry bodies. Nothing out of the ordinary.
That brought him to his second point. Gui couldn't understand a single word the people spoke. Although the players of Second Life spoke all sorts of different languages and came from all parts of the world, the game automatically translated everything so that everyone understood each other regardless of what language they spoke. Luckily, Fire Phoenix's translation system still seemed to be in place, as she could understand and speak this world's language just fine.
The third difference, a very crucial one, was what had Gui running as if his life depended on it.
In fact, he was pretty sure his life depended on him outrunning the crowd chasing him. He really should have thought this through more, but he hadn't thought that this place that looked so much like Second Life would...
"Hmph, what a bunch of lowlifes! Trying to capture me to sell me? I only have one master!" exclaimed Fire Phoenix, haughty voice in place as she flew by Gui's side in a flaming streak of red.
...find phoenixes so rare.
Gui almost wanted to cry.
After that fiasco, Gui learned to hide his ears and to keep Fire Phoenix hidden as well. She was much more difficult to hide than his ears, and she absolutely refused to let him disguise her into some other, less flamboyant kind of bird, so Gui could only settle on leaving her outside of town during his forays there.
Since Gui couldn't bring Fire Phoenix with him and he didn't know this world's language, he had to learn the basics of the language from Fire Phoenix first.
Evening saw the two on the outskirts of another town that Fire Phoenix had located for them, deep in the middle of an impromptu language lesson. Gui tried to memorize as many vocabulary words as he could so that he could ask around in town and figure out just where in the universe they were. He also tried to learn as much as he could of the language structure so that he could at least string a few sentences together. While he gathered information in town, Fire Phoenix would stay in the wilderness to avoid inciting another round of "capture the phoenix."
"Master, you should sleep," urged Fire Phoenix after their campfire sputtered and died out late in the night. Or was it early morning already? Gui couldn't tell.
He shook his head and rubbed his tired eyes. "I can't. I can't waste time. I have to master this. Prince is still out there!"
Gui hated with a passion how long it was taking him to learn the language. Every second he spent on stumbling over his words was another wasted moment when he should have already been in town, conversing with the townspeople.
"Master, sleep will help you retain what you are currently learning better," Fire Phoenix said. If she had been talking to anyone else, Gui was sure that what she would have said instead was: "You are utterly failing at grasping the fine details of this language, so go to sleep already before I peck your eyes out."
Coffee. Where was coffee when he needed it? With it, he could have pulled an all-nighter without a problem, as he often did when he had endless exams and papers to correct, or whenever he came upon a particularly interesting literature piece that would keep him up through the night...
Alas, since there was no coffee to be had, and since he was utterly failing at retaining what he was learning, he admitted that perhaps Fire Phoenix was right. He should sleep. He would be more efficient after a short nap.
With that thought in mind, Gui reluctantly let sleep claim him, eyes drifting shut.
He hoped that he would dream of Prince, but instead he dreamed entirely of jumbled words and incomprehensible speech. In his dream, Fire Phoenix squawked indignantly at him and did indeed peck his eyes out.
However, it didn't hurt at all, and merely added on to his frustration.
It turned out that Fire Phoenix was right. Their lesson went much more smoothly upon his awakening, and now that it was daytime, there were actually people going about their business in town. People that Gui could talk to. He rearranged his robes to hide his ears, and then he headed into town.
His talks basically went like so:
"Where?"
He would listen to the strangers ramble off, only able to understand a little of what he was being told. He would memorize the rest so that he could repeat it to Fire Phoenix later on.
"Kissinger?" Gui asked, just to make sure he had the word right. The current stranger in front of him nodded and continued to spew a bunch of words, though not without giving Gui the side-eye. Gui didn't need to understand the man completely to know that he was thinking this: "Just what rock have you been hiding under?"
Gui did his best to memorize it all. And to ignore the strange glances caused by his questions.
He nodded to express his thanks. After he asked a few more people, he left town and repeated nearly word-for-word what he had heard in town to Fire Phoenix. Fire Phoenix then translated everything for him. Together, they managed to figure out most of what they needed to know.
They were in a place called the Kingdom of Kissinger. It was one of the three kingdoms that governed this continent, and the people of Kissinger believed in a god called the Shadow God. The two other kingdoms, both far from his current location, were the Kingdom of Moon Orchid, whose people mostly followed the God of War, and the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound, whose people mostly followed the God of Light.
Religion, apparently, was very prominent here.
"Strange world," Gui concluded after Fire Phoenix finished translating for him. "Very medieval. Must be fascinating for history majors. I'm interested myself in learning about how these religions came about, but now's not the time for that. I still don't know where any of the others are."
He also concluded that he had not ended up in the past. This was either a different game world, or he was in a parallel universe altogether, though in that case, he was still somehow stuck in his Second Life body as Guiliastes and was not Min Gui Wen (but then, what did that mean in regards to his physical body, the one wearing the game helmet?). Either scenario opened up a multitude of possibilities that almost made him wish he had chosen to specialize in something other than literature. Scientists would have had a kick out of his current situation... but well, Gui was a genius, so even though he was a literature professor and not anyone you'd normally think would be suitable to study parallel universes and virtual realities becoming real, the genius part really balanced everything out. He was very well read, and that was an understatement.
He puzzled through the possibilities.
At night, Gui once again had Fire Phoenix teach him more of the language, and Fire Phoenix once again urged her master to take a break when it became obvious to her that he didn't plan on resting. Again.
Fire Phoenix snorted. Her master could be such a pain.
The next time Gui went into town, he asked about how he might go about searching for certain people he wanted to find.
The warrior he asked explained to him about the Adventurers' Guild. If he wanted to search for someone and needed help doing that, he could make use of the Adventurers' Guild and create a mission for others to claim. All he needed was the ability to pay the adventurer teams.
That wasn't a bad idea. It wasn't ideal, making his companions' presence known when they were all so out-of-the-ordinary, but he needed to find them somehow.
Now, he just needed money to do it.
Gui assessed himself, looking down at his instrument that he was still carrying, immediately knowing just how he was going to go about earning money.
They kept on the move, traveling from town-to-town. At each town, Gui would perform, singing tales of his estranged love, of his yearning for his Prince. He created everything, from the tune to the lyrics, thankful that he had some practice from his time holding concerts with Prince in Second Life. At first, reactions to his songs were lukewarm, but Gui poured all of his emotion into his singing and his playing, crisp notes gripping the air, burrowing deep into his listeners' hearts. He could tell when his passionate longing shook them and touched them, finally affecting them and garnering him sympathy and compassion.
Although he always had his ears covered now, his appearance half hidden, he still caught many women staring at him, their hearts most likely aching for him. Perhaps his secretive nature made him all the more alluring. He always made sure to smile at them.
"Thank you," he murmured in their language, having practiced this line. He wanted everyone to know just who he was singing about, why he was doing this. "You bring me one step closer to my Prince."
That sent the women giggling, and it made Gui smile a genuine smile.
I'll find you. Gui promised. I'll definitely find you.
Before he knew it, one week had passed, and he had finally earned himself a reasonable amount of money, as well as a lot of fame. That was a side benefit that Gui had only considered in passing in the beginning, but now he actually dared to hope.
He dared to hope that perhaps...perhaps he would be able to bring enough attention to himself that even his companions would hear about him. If he couldn't find them, then the next best thing would be to make enough noise so that they could find him instead.
In any case, Gui felt he now had enough money to hire teams to help him in his search. That was why he was currently standing in the Adventurers' Guild, drafting up a mission.
"Reward, one hundred silver ducats for locating a young man with white hair, pointy ears, and red eyes, paid only when said young man is found. Fifty silver ducats will be paid if any of the following members are found: a young girl with pigtails..."
"A young man with white hair and pointy ears?" asked a cleric behind Gui. He thought that was what the cleric had said. Gui was still learning and hadn't caught the tail-end of what the cleric had said. The cleric also had quite a soft voice, especially considering the fact that he was a guy. The cleric turned to someone beside him, "Wasn't someone like that caught in the City of Everglade?"
"Huh, I think I heard something like that, Kylie," the warrior replied gruffly. "But I bet he's dead already! Would serve him right, heh!"
"May the God of Light have mercy..." murmured the cleric. "Please don't speak of death so easily, no matter the race of the person in question."
Gui dropped his bag of money out of shock. When Kylie picked it up and tried to hand it back, Gui gripped the man's wrist and held his eyes with an intense gaze.
"Tell me more," Gui breathed. "Please."
Please be safe, Prince, please.
to be continued
Oh gosh, this chapter was so hard to write. The POV just about slayed me. Gui also wasn't very silly in this, which made me sad because I wanted to write more humorous happenings, but nope, he was super focused and a little angst-y. He really does need Prince around for his goofy side to show up. ): Someone guessed that maybe this chapter would be from Prince's POV, which I did consider for a bit, but that would mean continuing right from where we left off in the previous chapter (which I could have done. It would have turned out fairly humorous because playing Prince off Neo and Aldrizzt is just so much fun)... However, that pacing felt a little too slow. I wanted things to move already! So no Prince POV for this part of the story, not until we find out more about what happened to the other characters. We'll be getting a ton of different POVs in this story. Hopefully things don't turn out feeling too disjointed!
...you know, I'd planned on having characters separated from each other in groups. Yet...Prince and Gui, why are you both completely alone, without any of the other 1/2 Prince characters except for your pets?!
Halfway through writing this chapter, I wondered if I was even writing a crossover anymore because this chapter barely featured any LSK characters. OTL (When am I going to get around to the Twelve Holy Knights?!!) Aaaand when an LSK character finally showed up in this chapter, it's such a minor character!! Kylie, anyone remember him?
...he's from v4c2. Let me tell you, I don't think he ever shows up again in the novels. XD; Anyway, I've hoisted Gui onto this nearly unknown adventurer team. I'm having a lot of trouble with naming the warrior and with naming towns and cities, so if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to toss them at me. :)
Kylie's team includes the following:
Kylie - cleric
?? - very rude warrior
?? - archer
?? - rogue
Towns and cities in the Kingdom of Moon Orchid will be named after flowers. Feel free to toss flower names at me~
Towns and cities in the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound will mostly be named after leaves. (Since we have Leaf Bud City, Forest Leaf Town, Leaf Edge City, etc, in the novels themselves). I wonder what other combinations with "Leaf" I can come up with...
Towns and cities in the Kingdom of Kissinger... I'm not too sure what to use for the naming scheme. So far I have one city named Everglade, after swamps. Uh... trying to go for a darker image? Perhaps I can use types of plants here?
I'm also still trying to decide on a name for Neo's team... Ugh, so much naming in this fic! *dies*
I'll be working on Bittersweet Sweetness next. And then drawing up a map for this story, because it's going to get very complicated, with everyone all over the place. XD Bah, pining 1/2 Prince characters... Fairsky is going to be even worse... XD
Next chapter: Invincible Days of Retirement; After All, it's not Every Day that Strangers Fall in Front of Your House from the Sky.
Fandom: 1/2 Prince x The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 3,284
Summary: On their way to finish the Dictator, the Execution Squad's "invincible battleship" crashes, separating everyone, landing them on foreign soil. "Am I really...still in the game?" "Master, this is not Second Life."
Notes: Starting with this chapter, I'm trying out a different way of formatting my fics~. Namely, how I format the chapter title and my scene breaks. I've been playing around a bit with the CSS for this journal so that I can just replace the coding in the future if I want to change anything, and everything will change across fics. :) Don't mind the title of the chapter, haha. It's just a... really weird title. I don't know what I was thinking. Ridiculously long notes at the end. I mean it. Seriously ridiculous.
Previous chapter: Invincible Communication Through Food and Fighting
Chapter 3: Invincible Music; Hark! What is that beautiful tune? No, no, don't be lured by it. He's a demon!
Securing his hood so that his ears were hidden, a robed figure ambled out into the streets, harp-like instrument in hand. The townspeople paid him no mind until music started drifting to their ears. One-by-one, the busy townspeople put down what they were doing, entranced by the beautiful notes. The tune was altogether foreign, graced by an unknown language, but even though no one understood the lyrics, everyone felt the yearning that was laced through the words and notes.
They listened. A few even blinked furiously, willing their eyes to stay dry.
The robed figure, who had to be a bard, plucked at the strings of his instrument and continued to sing his melancholic tale. A small crowd had gathered around him, tossing copper coins and even a few silver ones onto the cloth he had spread before him. He gave an enigmatic smile and a nod in response to the townspeople's generosity, sending more than one of the village girls squealing in the midst of their surging empathy.
When the last note faded away, the crowd reluctantly dispersed, returning to their daily lives.
Immediately, the smile on the bard's face vanished without a trace. He gathered up the coins, tying the cloth together to form a pouch. His new earnings jingled by the side of his waist.
Leaving the plaza, he made his way over to a rickety building and pushed the door open.
"One hundred silver ducats," he said. "I would like to hire a team."
Let us backtrack to one week ago.
When Guiliastes, our bard in question, otherwise known as Min Gui Wen offline, had first woken up by the side of a cave, he had done so with a gasp, and he'd immediately noticed that he was alone. Unlike Prince, there had been no one around, and certainly no benevolent dark elf and former Sun Knight, to greet him upon his awakening.
Guiliastes, henceforth known simply as Gui, had not immediately taken to using his music to procure a means of survival for himself, for he hadn't even known where he was.
This was what he had done instead, and perhaps it was thanks to his IQ of 200 that he was able to calmly analyze his situation and come to the right conclusion, unlike the conclusion that Prince had made.
He looked around to study his surroundings, only able to discern that he hadn't ever been to this part of the world map before. It wasn't anywhere he recognized, and last he knew, he had been in the middle of the ocean, so how had he ended up here?
Then, he took stock of himself and noted his lightheadedness, but he quickly ignored that, tossing his pains to the back of his mind. An easy task, for he had quite a lot of practice with blocking off pain, considering how often he got beaten up by Prince. What was more important to Gui was finding out whether or not Prince was okay. When that thought crossed Gui's mind, he immediately tried to PM Prince.
And discovered that he couldn't. Imagine the horror that crossed Gui's face at that realization.
Has Prince logged off? Or has he died and returned to the Central Continent?
At that moment of horror, dozens of thoughts flew through Gui's mind about what could have possibly happened, almost making him panic -- no, it wasn't almost making him panic, he was panicking -- at the thought that Prince could be hurt, but he realized not a moment later that something was very off, and it wasn't just that he couldn't PM Prince.
There was no PM system.
He tried to call out his stats and found that he couldn't do that either.
The next logical step was logging off, so Gui tried to do just that. He had a feeling that it wouldn't work, and he was right.
"Am I really...still in the game?" he questioned out loud even though there was no one around to hear him. He tugged at his long tresses and looked down at his robes, his bard outfit. Then, he focused his mana, feeling his magic gather. There was no question that this was not the real world. His hair and his robes could be explained away, but magic? That he couldn't do in real life. The question that ate at him now was whether or not this was still Second Life. Was he stuck in the game, a game where the Dictator of Life had changed the rules?
Following that, Gui shivered, suddenly struck with the thought that perhaps the Dictator of Life planned on trapping all of the players within Second Life, estranging them from their physical bodies. If none of them could log off, then they were no different from NPCs. Second Life would become their only reality. Gui didn't understand why the Dictator of Life might have suddenly changed his plans when he had been so focused on chasing all the players out of Second Life, but Gui had no other explanation for his current situation.
If he was currently stuck in the game, then it was likely that everyone else was too.
His face fell, and he gulped. I have to find Prince.
Just as Gui vowed to find Prince, an elated exclamation suddenly sounded, and a flurry of wings revealed Fire Phoenix to have been scouting the area. Fire Phoenix's presence was yet another piece of evidence against this being the real world.
Still, upon seeing Fire Phoenix, relief replaced the worry that had been splayed over Gui's face. He wasn't completely alone like he had first thought. Gui conversed with Fire Phoenix, voicing his conjectures.
After he finished speaking, Fire Phoenix looked at him in apprehension, her usual haughty voice hesitant as she spoke.
"Master, this is not Second Life," she said, wings folding around herself in her landing.
Even though Gui was smart, it was really thanks to Fire Phoenix that Gui made the leap of logic. Her declaration had sent his thoughts tumbling without a net to catch them, scattered to form something completely outrageous.
Gui's strength evaporated, and he found himself leaning against the cavern wall.
He had been afraid of this. He had thought that maybe...but how...? How could this be possible? Because... If this wasn't the real world and it wasn't Second Life either, then where in the world was he?
Sadly, no one was around to explain anything to Gui. However, that wasn't going to stop Gui from finding out and making sense of things.
He certainly wasn't a professor for nothing. It was his job to learn and figure things out.
Bard and pet quickly got to work.
Despite the shocking discovery of being stranded in a completely foreign world, Gui spent very little time on being shocked. He couldn't afford to stay shocked, not when he didn't know how Prince and everyone else were faring.
Gui did not at all like not knowing Prince's wellbeing.
Thankfully, Fire Phoenix was with him and made looking for a town a simple matter. She took to the air, flying high above the sky to look for signs of intelligence other than their own. Once she located a town, they started toward that direction and continued onward the entire day, only stopping briefly for food. Wherever this was, pain felt very real and hunger felt just as real. (A wilderness expert Gui was not. His only experiences of surviving outdoors were from Second Life, so thank goodness once again that Fire Phoenix was with him. She knew how to hunt. She even easily roasted the food.)
When Gui set foot into that first town with Fire Phoenix flying by his side, Gui soon realized that although this world looked similar to the fantasy world of Second Life, it was fundamentally different in many, many ways.
Many unhelpful ways.
For one, the people would not stop staring at him. Apparently, he was somewhat of an oddity with his pointy ears and dark hair.
He knew this because Fire Phoenix had helped translate the townspeople's murmurings, and it was with a sinking heart that he observed that all of the townspeople were clearly human. No pointy ears. No furry bodies. Nothing out of the ordinary.
That brought him to his second point. Gui couldn't understand a single word the people spoke. Although the players of Second Life spoke all sorts of different languages and came from all parts of the world, the game automatically translated everything so that everyone understood each other regardless of what language they spoke. Luckily, Fire Phoenix's translation system still seemed to be in place, as she could understand and speak this world's language just fine.
The third difference, a very crucial one, was what had Gui running as if his life depended on it.
In fact, he was pretty sure his life depended on him outrunning the crowd chasing him. He really should have thought this through more, but he hadn't thought that this place that looked so much like Second Life would...
"Hmph, what a bunch of lowlifes! Trying to capture me to sell me? I only have one master!" exclaimed Fire Phoenix, haughty voice in place as she flew by Gui's side in a flaming streak of red.
...find phoenixes so rare.
Gui almost wanted to cry.
After that fiasco, Gui learned to hide his ears and to keep Fire Phoenix hidden as well. She was much more difficult to hide than his ears, and she absolutely refused to let him disguise her into some other, less flamboyant kind of bird, so Gui could only settle on leaving her outside of town during his forays there.
Since Gui couldn't bring Fire Phoenix with him and he didn't know this world's language, he had to learn the basics of the language from Fire Phoenix first.
Evening saw the two on the outskirts of another town that Fire Phoenix had located for them, deep in the middle of an impromptu language lesson. Gui tried to memorize as many vocabulary words as he could so that he could ask around in town and figure out just where in the universe they were. He also tried to learn as much as he could of the language structure so that he could at least string a few sentences together. While he gathered information in town, Fire Phoenix would stay in the wilderness to avoid inciting another round of "capture the phoenix."
"Master, you should sleep," urged Fire Phoenix after their campfire sputtered and died out late in the night. Or was it early morning already? Gui couldn't tell.
He shook his head and rubbed his tired eyes. "I can't. I can't waste time. I have to master this. Prince is still out there!"
Gui hated with a passion how long it was taking him to learn the language. Every second he spent on stumbling over his words was another wasted moment when he should have already been in town, conversing with the townspeople.
"Master, sleep will help you retain what you are currently learning better," Fire Phoenix said. If she had been talking to anyone else, Gui was sure that what she would have said instead was: "You are utterly failing at grasping the fine details of this language, so go to sleep already before I peck your eyes out."
Coffee. Where was coffee when he needed it? With it, he could have pulled an all-nighter without a problem, as he often did when he had endless exams and papers to correct, or whenever he came upon a particularly interesting literature piece that would keep him up through the night...
Alas, since there was no coffee to be had, and since he was utterly failing at retaining what he was learning, he admitted that perhaps Fire Phoenix was right. He should sleep. He would be more efficient after a short nap.
With that thought in mind, Gui reluctantly let sleep claim him, eyes drifting shut.
He hoped that he would dream of Prince, but instead he dreamed entirely of jumbled words and incomprehensible speech. In his dream, Fire Phoenix squawked indignantly at him and did indeed peck his eyes out.
However, it didn't hurt at all, and merely added on to his frustration.
It turned out that Fire Phoenix was right. Their lesson went much more smoothly upon his awakening, and now that it was daytime, there were actually people going about their business in town. People that Gui could talk to. He rearranged his robes to hide his ears, and then he headed into town.
His talks basically went like so:
"Where?"
He would listen to the strangers ramble off, only able to understand a little of what he was being told. He would memorize the rest so that he could repeat it to Fire Phoenix later on.
"Kissinger?" Gui asked, just to make sure he had the word right. The current stranger in front of him nodded and continued to spew a bunch of words, though not without giving Gui the side-eye. Gui didn't need to understand the man completely to know that he was thinking this: "Just what rock have you been hiding under?"
Gui did his best to memorize it all. And to ignore the strange glances caused by his questions.
He nodded to express his thanks. After he asked a few more people, he left town and repeated nearly word-for-word what he had heard in town to Fire Phoenix. Fire Phoenix then translated everything for him. Together, they managed to figure out most of what they needed to know.
They were in a place called the Kingdom of Kissinger. It was one of the three kingdoms that governed this continent, and the people of Kissinger believed in a god called the Shadow God. The two other kingdoms, both far from his current location, were the Kingdom of Moon Orchid, whose people mostly followed the God of War, and the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound, whose people mostly followed the God of Light.
Religion, apparently, was very prominent here.
"Strange world," Gui concluded after Fire Phoenix finished translating for him. "Very medieval. Must be fascinating for history majors. I'm interested myself in learning about how these religions came about, but now's not the time for that. I still don't know where any of the others are."
He also concluded that he had not ended up in the past. This was either a different game world, or he was in a parallel universe altogether, though in that case, he was still somehow stuck in his Second Life body as Guiliastes and was not Min Gui Wen (but then, what did that mean in regards to his physical body, the one wearing the game helmet?). Either scenario opened up a multitude of possibilities that almost made him wish he had chosen to specialize in something other than literature. Scientists would have had a kick out of his current situation... but well, Gui was a genius, so even though he was a literature professor and not anyone you'd normally think would be suitable to study parallel universes and virtual realities becoming real, the genius part really balanced everything out. He was very well read, and that was an understatement.
He puzzled through the possibilities.
At night, Gui once again had Fire Phoenix teach him more of the language, and Fire Phoenix once again urged her master to take a break when it became obvious to her that he didn't plan on resting. Again.
Fire Phoenix snorted. Her master could be such a pain.
The next time Gui went into town, he asked about how he might go about searching for certain people he wanted to find.
The warrior he asked explained to him about the Adventurers' Guild. If he wanted to search for someone and needed help doing that, he could make use of the Adventurers' Guild and create a mission for others to claim. All he needed was the ability to pay the adventurer teams.
That wasn't a bad idea. It wasn't ideal, making his companions' presence known when they were all so out-of-the-ordinary, but he needed to find them somehow.
Now, he just needed money to do it.
Gui assessed himself, looking down at his instrument that he was still carrying, immediately knowing just how he was going to go about earning money.
They kept on the move, traveling from town-to-town. At each town, Gui would perform, singing tales of his estranged love, of his yearning for his Prince. He created everything, from the tune to the lyrics, thankful that he had some practice from his time holding concerts with Prince in Second Life. At first, reactions to his songs were lukewarm, but Gui poured all of his emotion into his singing and his playing, crisp notes gripping the air, burrowing deep into his listeners' hearts. He could tell when his passionate longing shook them and touched them, finally affecting them and garnering him sympathy and compassion.
Although he always had his ears covered now, his appearance half hidden, he still caught many women staring at him, their hearts most likely aching for him. Perhaps his secretive nature made him all the more alluring. He always made sure to smile at them.
"Thank you," he murmured in their language, having practiced this line. He wanted everyone to know just who he was singing about, why he was doing this. "You bring me one step closer to my Prince."
That sent the women giggling, and it made Gui smile a genuine smile.
I'll find you. Gui promised. I'll definitely find you.
Before he knew it, one week had passed, and he had finally earned himself a reasonable amount of money, as well as a lot of fame. That was a side benefit that Gui had only considered in passing in the beginning, but now he actually dared to hope.
He dared to hope that perhaps...perhaps he would be able to bring enough attention to himself that even his companions would hear about him. If he couldn't find them, then the next best thing would be to make enough noise so that they could find him instead.
In any case, Gui felt he now had enough money to hire teams to help him in his search. That was why he was currently standing in the Adventurers' Guild, drafting up a mission.
"Reward, one hundred silver ducats for locating a young man with white hair, pointy ears, and red eyes, paid only when said young man is found. Fifty silver ducats will be paid if any of the following members are found: a young girl with pigtails..."
"A young man with white hair and pointy ears?" asked a cleric behind Gui. He thought that was what the cleric had said. Gui was still learning and hadn't caught the tail-end of what the cleric had said. The cleric also had quite a soft voice, especially considering the fact that he was a guy. The cleric turned to someone beside him, "Wasn't someone like that caught in the City of Everglade?"
"Huh, I think I heard something like that, Kylie," the warrior replied gruffly. "But I bet he's dead already! Would serve him right, heh!"
"May the God of Light have mercy..." murmured the cleric. "Please don't speak of death so easily, no matter the race of the person in question."
Gui dropped his bag of money out of shock. When Kylie picked it up and tried to hand it back, Gui gripped the man's wrist and held his eyes with an intense gaze.
"Tell me more," Gui breathed. "Please."
Please be safe, Prince, please.
to be continued
Oh gosh, this chapter was so hard to write. The POV just about slayed me. Gui also wasn't very silly in this, which made me sad because I wanted to write more humorous happenings, but nope, he was super focused and a little angst-y. He really does need Prince around for his goofy side to show up. ): Someone guessed that maybe this chapter would be from Prince's POV, which I did consider for a bit, but that would mean continuing right from where we left off in the previous chapter (which I could have done. It would have turned out fairly humorous because playing Prince off Neo and Aldrizzt is just so much fun)... However, that pacing felt a little too slow. I wanted things to move already! So no Prince POV for this part of the story, not until we find out more about what happened to the other characters. We'll be getting a ton of different POVs in this story. Hopefully things don't turn out feeling too disjointed!
...you know, I'd planned on having characters separated from each other in groups. Yet...Prince and Gui, why are you both completely alone, without any of the other 1/2 Prince characters except for your pets?!
Halfway through writing this chapter, I wondered if I was even writing a crossover anymore because this chapter barely featured any LSK characters. OTL (When am I going to get around to the Twelve Holy Knights?!!) Aaaand when an LSK character finally showed up in this chapter, it's such a minor character!! Kylie, anyone remember him?
...he's from v4c2. Let me tell you, I don't think he ever shows up again in the novels. XD; Anyway, I've hoisted Gui onto this nearly unknown adventurer team. I'm having a lot of trouble with naming the warrior and with naming towns and cities, so if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to toss them at me. :)
Kylie's team includes the following:
Kylie - cleric
?? - very rude warrior
?? - archer
?? - rogue
Towns and cities in the Kingdom of Moon Orchid will be named after flowers. Feel free to toss flower names at me~
Towns and cities in the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound will mostly be named after leaves. (Since we have Leaf Bud City, Forest Leaf Town, Leaf Edge City, etc, in the novels themselves). I wonder what other combinations with "Leaf" I can come up with...
Towns and cities in the Kingdom of Kissinger... I'm not too sure what to use for the naming scheme. So far I have one city named Everglade, after swamps. Uh... trying to go for a darker image? Perhaps I can use types of plants here?
I'm also still trying to decide on a name for Neo's team... Ugh, so much naming in this fic! *dies*
I'll be working on Bittersweet Sweetness next. And then drawing up a map for this story, because it's going to get very complicated, with everyone all over the place. XD Bah, pining 1/2 Prince characters... Fairsky is going to be even worse... XD
Next chapter: Invincible Days of Retirement; After All, it's not Every Day that Strangers Fall in Front of Your House from the Sky.