Application: Cyd "Codex" Sherman, "The Guild"

[codex_of_good]

She had not left her house in a week.

This was not entirely unusual--mild agoraphobia was just one of the reasons she had gone to a therapist for years. Until the break-up. How many people had their therapists break up with them? It wasn't good for self esteem. And while Codex had been doing so much better lately (she had hosted a party

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[arrogantmage]

Lezard Valeth did not swish into the Sorting Room. His cloak did some swishing, admittedly. Utterly ignorant of music videos, he'd never grasped that a magically fluttering cloak stirred by no palpable wind was no longer what might be called an impressive visual effect.

One of these days he was going to coax mystical fog to rise from the very stones of Hogwarts' floors, and some sassy Muggle would finally tell him about fog machines. (Still, you couldn't rent teleportation from a party store. They couldn't take that away from him! Only ... most wizards of legal age could Apparate ...)

In any event, he did not swish, though his cloak swished. No, he strode in manful fashion, bedecked in his usual LARPtastic ensemble. Stray locks of hair flopped over the rims of his glasses. He could really use a haircut.

"Well met, fair maid," he said in his Smoove B cultivated voice. The one he somehow taught himself between the first and second Valkyrie Profile games. It took a speedy reader to get through the millions of pages of

[codex_of_good]

"Oh god."

There was a guy talking to her. A reasonably attractive strange guy. Who just called her "fair maid."

This was not at all normal.

But talk of levels and dungeons were right up her alley, and she smiled stiffly and awkwardly back at him. "Yeah, the grind sucked. But I had some good people to play with--mostly--and once we actually got ourselves organized and back on schedule, the instances and raids weren't so bad. There was lots of new gear in this expansion, too. I'm working on getting an epic priest staff! I'm still wearing a blue, even if it's one of the new drops, and I want to replace it with a purple so bad."

[arrogantmage]

The color-coding of healers' accoutrements mattered little to an alchemist-turned-necromancer; the blue and purple business Lezard did not care to inquire about. Mages of Midgard had, when last he visited, all used staves equipped with a Blue Bludgeon Rune, but that had not been the case during the period of time in which Lezard came of age (which had actually been some centuries later). What interested Lezard here was the girl's appreciation for epic weaponry.

"For the right staff, any amount of tedium is not too much." With an odd admixture of shyness and pride, he offered: "I have the Wand of Apocalypse, if you should care to see it. That, and the Holy Wand of Telos." And Monster Manifesto, though he alone could equip that wand-turned-book.

[codex_of_good]

Codex's eyes widened. The Wand of the Apocalypse sounded more like a warlock's weapon, but the Holy Wand of Telos sounded like it would be fitting for a priest. Come on, it was right there in the name! Holy.

"The second one," she stammered, expecting to see a laptop or iPhone app linking the weapon from the online armory. "Which MMO are you playing, because that one doesn't sound like the ones that I looked up a couple of weeks ago. Ooh, or are you on a test server and got one from the new patch?"

[fr_ickingbig]

((I hate HTML and the lack of an edit button.))

The very large, silver horse didn't do human expressions very well due to his equine facial structure. But Francium was pretty clearly thinking something like 'Wait, what?'

"Could you...slow down and explain?" The horse asked, and bent his front legs to get a better look at the nervous person. "Frankly, I don't understand a word you're saying, human." The black Fr on his side rippled. If this woman thought she was mad, a giant talking silver horse would kind of confirm it.

[codex_of_good]

((Gotta love it.))

For nearly a minute, Codex did not say anything. Or even move. She just kind of... stared, trying to make her eyes and ears and brain understand each other. The connection was just not being made. First off, despite having four different colored horse mounts in-game (she even had a pink one from doing the Valentine's Day quest line!) she had never actually seen a horse in person. She was reasonably sure that silver horses with letters on their side was not a common color. And she was entirely sure that they did not talk.

"Pardon?" she finally squeaked.

[fr_ickingbig]

For that minute, Francium just scraped at the ground, distracted by a ladybug that had somehow gotten inside. Copper-colored!

Finally, at the squeak, the horse glanced back at the human. "You didn't make any sense when you were talking to the feather," the silver horse elucidated, then raised his front right hoof when the ladybug crawled on it. "I have to show this to the others..." he mused. They didn't have these pretty insects in Science.

[codex_of_good]

"I--I don't--"

She gulped, suddenly short of breath. Oh god. Anxiety attack imminent. This was why she didn't like leaving the apartment. "I'm sorry? I was kind of talking a lot about my MMO, so I guess... I mean, I don't think horses play MMOs. That's a, um, computer game. And you don't have fingers, so..." Way to be rude, Codex. "Sorry! I'm not good at talking with people--anyone! Not that I'm saying that you're not people, because you can talk, and..." She blew out a puff of air in frustration, messing up her bangs. "I want to go home," she said miserably.

[ringo_raver]

"Heheheh." Just because Ryuk was a human right now doesn't mean he can't fuck with people's heads. "I can't wait until I'm back in my normal body so I can see your name. It probably is Cyd. I will have so much fun calling you that."

[codex_of_good]

Codex blinked a few times at the new weird guy. "That's just fine," she said. "I mean, my real name is Cyd. It's just that there aren't many people who call me that. I don't really care."

[ringo_raver]

Ryuk looked visibly disappointed. "Aww, you're no fun." He stood up straight. "Ooh, I should go find Mello and poke fun at him! He'd be all 'hey, who's the stranger who knows my real name?'."

Never mind that since Ryuk was now temporarily human, he could now be hurt.

[codex_of_good]

"Why would it bug someone if you know their real name? Unless it's a funny one. Like 'Zamfir' or 'Apple.'" She giggled. "Honestly, who names their kids that?"

[junotechsupport]

"I think that's why a few of my teammates know Dia spells. So they're never caught up short when they need to be healed. And then Minato can switch Personas at will, so he helps out too. Even I can sometimes heal, a little bit. I can't fully control that, though." Stupid Juno, reducing us to one HP/one SP. Jerk.

[codex_of_good]

"...is that from a JRPG or something? I pretty much just stick to MMOs. I never got the hang of a lot of the control schemes in other games. Oh, and FPS games make me kind of nauseous." She shuddered, remembering the one time she had tried to play Halo with Stupid Tall Hot Girl Riley. Ugh. Major vertigo.

[junotechsupport]

"JRPG?" Fuuka asked. "No, I mean for real. I'm part of a group of people that fight creatures known as Shadows."

[codex_of_good]

"Oh. Um. I fight orcs. And trolls. And sometimes the occasional fish person." She smiled awkwardly. "Nice to meet you. I'm Codex. And you have really pretty hair."

[mello_n_choco]

God, I haven't heard so much talk of HP and crap since Matt found the joys of MMORPG.

"Living your life around a game is ridiculous," I say. "Shows a lack of control and social intelligence. None of your HP is going to correct that."

[codex_of_good]

"I have plenty of control!" she said, wilting despite that. It really wasn't an argument she hadn't heard before--many times, from everyone to her therapist to her mom, and even a few customers at the restaurant--and pre-Zaboo invasion she might have just ran off and cried in a corner. But at least her near psychotic break had given her a measure of confidence. "And I can confidently tell you that I'm just fine socially." Despite all evidence to the contrary, and there was a lot of that. "MMOs are great for social interaction. And also, is it any worse than people who get really wrapped up in fantasy football?"

Oh god. Anxiety attack. Too many words at once to somebody she'd never met before. Codex was suddenly very green and very short of breath.

[mello_n_choco]

I raise an eyebrow. "Plenty of control? Confident? Social? Then why are you hyperventilating? That is hardly a controlled, confident, or socially adjusted reaction to someone talking to you." I cross my arms. "Socializing only via electronic communication is not social interaction. There is a distinction." And what the hell is fantasy football?

"Tell me," I prod, just because I want to see how long it takes for her to really break, "what is the difference between reality and fantasy?"

[codex_of_good]

Confident. Be confident. Take deep breaths. Think of a happy place.

"I think it's an understandable reaction when talking to a strange person in a strange place, when all I wanted to do was go get groceries," she squeaked. Not confident. Bad Codex! Let's try that again. "And, um. Reality hurts more than fantasy." GAH. Yeah, real good answer there.