Pinball

Nope, wrong. Incorrect. He'd made a bad play, and wasted his Vanish. He'd done it out of reflex, following his usual combat rotation, but he wasn't fighting alone anymore. It wouldn't be of the same benefit to him if he only refreshed a select few DoTs when the whole raid had their own as well. He had to be a team player. Pinball (begrudgingly) emerged from stealth, his expression sour and his blades in hand. He didn't run up to the boss. Too crowded. He hung back and flung a pair of knives into it for some more chip damage and retrieved another crytal -- this time a Perpetuate -- to hold alof

He'd experienced boss fights twice now (three times?) and each time, there was a whole bunch of people who would shout out threats and quirky one liners. Why? It couldn't understand you. Not in the same way that a person could. He couldn't wrap his head around it. Was it something they did because they were scared? Stupid? Did it make them feel better? Sometimes he couldn't help but feel that people forgot they were trapped in a game. Wasn't that a funny thought? Whatever. It wasn't hurting him, and it wasn't his place to comment on it. He emerged from the shadows like an animal from an

They'd made it through the first attack squad well enough, and they weren't at all in bad shape in terms of health and energy. That was a good thing. The soldiers seemed much more concerned with breaking through the town's defenses and razing it to the ground than actually fighting back against them. That was also a good thing? Regardless, hey were doing a good job of keeping the soldiers incapacitated. Stunned, paralyzed, frozen; whatever worked. He was thankful that the army opted to attack in waves instead of deploying in full force. Another one of reality's reminders, undoubtedly. Had they

"You wouldn't be," he assured her. His mind was already made up on the matter; but he'd let it rest. They linked arms and vanished in a pillar of light. Glyndebourne. Pinball had never been. There had never been a reason for him to. The floor was certainly pretty, but he'd stopped visiting places for the views alone. He mostly kept to himself, wandering the dark stone halls of Green Garden and working his way through the sometimes admittedly boring tomes collecting dust in his library. He left to quest, occasionally, and not for much else. But there was something about the city that seem

"Huh?" Whatever trance-like state he'd found himself lost in, Bahr's voice snapped him out of. Pinball hadn't noticed Bahr's approach at all; when had that ever happened? He grimaced. Shook his head. "Sorry." Despite the quiet surrounding the entrance of the boss room, he couldn't help but feel as though Bahr was thinking the same things he was. Pinball wasn't sure what he was doing, or why he was doing it; and more importantly, it bothered him to no end that he was allowed to. An orange cursor helping out on the frontlines. What a joke. Pinball exhaled sharply. Bahr reminded him that he

He was placed on Team Four. He didn't know their tank, Jomei, except by name; but the others he knew fairly well. Bahr, Lessa, Arabelle, and Cordelia -- though his relationship with the latter two was underdeveloped (for lack of a better word) compared to the former, he was at least thankful to be placed in a team full of familiar faces. Pinball was able to pick out the members of his group conversing among the other frontliners. He had no interest in joining them. He went off to linger by himself, working his way through his consumables and getting his Battle Ready Inventory organized. In his

accepting everything

yoinking luminous ty

The last minute prep was real. He was able to track Demian down again, thankfully, and found him on a floor different than the other two(? three?) times he'd found him before. Pinball was only after one thing this time, however. He found the Overhealth consumable that he was after and paid for it quickly. He didn't want to take up too much of the young man's time, and similarly, Pinball didn't have the time to waste. He accepted the presumably tasteless Beef Stew, paid his dues, and disappeared back to where Pinball had come. All that was left were the Antidotes. He could visit Oz for that. He

It was late. Really late. The raid was today, and was slated to start in just a few hours; it was under this context that Pinball slipped into Bahr's shop, his eyes darting from corner to darkened corner. "Ring, ring," he called. Was anyone home? He spotted the man, hopefully not on his way out the door. He was surprised. He expected him to have been at the raid already. Maybe he was also making last minute preparations. "Sorry," he apologized. "I need these items fused. I've got the scale and shard for you." Pinball sent them over quickly. Time was of the essence. "Into the cloak,

yoink!

tossing this to @Morningstar [228814] Unidentified T4 Perfect Armor/Shield with one guaranteed Unique Enhancement

<<THREAD SUMMARY>> Pinball Receives: Pinball | [Word Count: 6903/10 = 690.3] * [True Tier: 8] * [Group Factor: 1] = 5522 + 2880 (Dungeon Reward) = 8,402 EXP TOTAL COL: 432304 + 828 (Laurel Wreath) = 433,132 COL MATERIALS: 220 Materials And all this shit:

He was trying to get prepared for the boss fight. Had the fight been announced sooner than he'd expected? Yes. Should he have started his preparation a lot sooner anyways? Also yes. But he hadn't, and now he was scurrying around at the last possible minute trying to get his gear situation fixed. He hadn't joined a frontline fight in a long time. His set was woefully outdated. Pinball slid into The Evening Star, the only place he knew where he might be able to get a fusion done quickly. "These two need to be fused," he said. He left them with her. He'd be back as soon as possible for them

thank you so much!

Four left. The last of the bears. The final countdown. Pinball cut through the rest of them. He stabbed, sliced, and gutted them to his heart's content. He enjoyed it to the fullest; not the act of killing them. Grinding mobs had lost its charms what felt like years ago. But there was something still very satisfying about completing a task, or about finishing the job. He was happy, knowing that his yard would once again be cleared, and his garden would once again be quiet. He looked forward to walking back into Green Garden and resting his head for a nap. He killed the remaining four with ruth

Eight left. He could see it now. The clearing was clear, in a way that it hadn't been for a good long while. Pinball cut through the remaining four of them in rapid succession. He got close. Still, even though they had all the room in the world, and he was very obviously mowing through their siblings, cousins, friends, whatever; the bears did not react. They kept huffing and trampling the grass and being otherwise fat and annoying bears, and Pinball wanted them gone. He cut through them, one by one. His knives flash and the blades glowed violently. How long had he been at it? Maybe an hour, ma

He didn't stop. He didn't slow. The bears kept grunting and ambling around aimlessly, and Pinball kept killing them. There were only a few left, now, and he was getting rather eager to see the last of them gone. All this fighting had made him a little tired, though of course not physically, and he was looking forward to going back inside and taking a nap without any bears outside his window trampling the flowers and being loud and obnoxious. Pinball cut through another group. They were shattered, scattered, destroyed, and like clockwork, Pinball set his eyes on the next group of them. How many

There were not man left now. Pinball had cleared an entire army of the bears, he felt like, and then some. He was glad that destroying the dungeon had confirmed his suspicions. He wasn't sure how a dungeon had spawned so close to his home. He figured it had something to do with the fact that his player home was not located in a safe zone. Dungeons could spawn anywhere, he supposed, however annoying that may be. He could only hope that later, while he was resting, that it did not respawn. Or that another one spawned at a later date and he'd have to deal with it all over again. That would probab

How many groups were there remaining? Five, six, seven of four? Or even less? It was hard to tell when they were all clumped up together; all fat, fur, and muscles, they blended together like one giant brown, fuzzy lump. A fuzzy lump that Pinball was rather desperate at this point to take away from his home. Pinball's blades flashed with color, one Sword Art seamlessly blending in with the other. He wasn't slowing down, and he wasn't showing any signs of stopping. Pinball cut through the bears one after the other. There were only so many ways to slice a bear, he realized. Cut them, gut them, s

Pinball was hesitant, but he took her at her word. "Alright. But tell me." They slowed to a stop. Pinball snorted. Another laugh? "No, it's not the water. It's a housing buff. Makes you heal and recover energy faster out of combat." He looked at her. A little quieter, he added, "I could get you one, if you'd like. I've got the rooms to spare." He shrugged, wanting suddenly to drive home the impression that it would be no big deal at all. He had the money, he had the rooms; what he didn't want was for her to feel pressured by it. "Your choice, of course. Let me know." Pi

He shredded through the group of bears without a shred of mercy remaining. Pinball wasn't there for mercy, anyways. They were all going to die; Pinball was the judge, the jury, and the executioner, and they were all guilty of the capital offense of being annoying. His blades cut through the bears like hot knives through butter. Each slash was the death of another grizzly. Pinball couldn't help but notice that since he'd sprang back into the thick of it, the group of bears was looking thinner and thinner by the moment, and it wasn't just because he was killing all of them that quickly. Were the

The realization that there were not many of the bears remaining invigorated him in a way not much else could. Pinball cut through the horde of bears with a completely renewed vigor, his blades flashing different colors as he chained sword arts to properly dispatch the grizzly bears at his door step. Pinball had had enough of the huffing, the puffing, and the stomping, to say nothing of the grass being ruined and the plants being trampled. The scenery around Green Garden was really the only thing that he had to look forward to when he came back from whatever it was that he was doing all day. Gr

With his energy recovered, Pinball was free to get back to work slaughtering the rest of the grizzly bears. He flicked the blades of grass aside and pushed himself to his feet. He retrieved a pair of knives and walked -- didn't ran -- over to the group of passive bears. He stood there for a moment. He was curious if he just spent a few moments in their proximity, if they would show more signs of aggression. That didn't seem to be the case. The giant mobs went about their day peacefully, sniffing the earth and grunting, pawing at herbs, foraging for berries. Pinball sighed. It made it easier fo

From what little that he understood, AI could just be weird like that. Maybe if it ran out of things to do it would start mashing together random events, spitting out something completely nonsensical? It would make sense, given how long they'd been in the game. Or how long, at least, it felt as though they'd been stuck in the game. Pinball absentmindedly plucked out a few strands of grass and rolled them between his fingers. If Cardinal was really just shitting the bed, would that make sense? He thought about it. Maybe, he decided, but he had the feeling that wherever Kayaba was, he was keepin