[Athilea Majiri]

She smiled gratefully at him when he wiped the blood from her face and took her hand in his. The direction he lead her in came as a surprise, but her ability was not working as it should have been so she decided to trust him.

"This...I am worried, Mazin. Something just seems wrong." After a pause she continued, "Have you seen anyone else since we woke up?" That was really the only way she could describe it. What happened to them?

Her body was in her chair still, at her apartment. Blood ran from her nose, but Calonia knew none of this. As far as she was concerned she should be able to step out of the game at the log point. Assuming she could find it of course.

[Shenandoah]

"Not really, but I think it has to do with the time rather than the upgrade..." He made a habitual gesture of pushing up his glasses, only to rub his finger against the bridge of his nose that was decidedly narrower than his actual one. He fought the urge to groan. Why did this have to happen?

After he checked the bulletin board, he'd go to the login point and see if he could get out and get busy taking care of the crap homework he had to do. His foster mother would be furious if he didn't at least try to maintain a half-decent grade.

They reached the Inn and Mazin opened the door, giving the still unnamed Player the ability to enter ahead of him. While he wasn't the most intelligent of people, he did have a modicum of manners.

[Athilea Majiri]

She walked inside at an urdge from Mazin, chewing on her lip worriedly. "I suppose it makes sense that few people would be on." Reaching up to brush hair behind her ear and turned her head towards him, or where she thought he was at least. "Have I told you my name? I cannot remember. No matter. I am Calonia."

The woman shifted slightly from one foot to the other, wondering at how the dress moved so naturally, and the fabric felt so real. Whatever the developers had done, she had to admit that the changes were impressive. She was not certain that, once she logged out, she would log back into the game again though.

Her thoughts wandering, she was not certain how much time had passed. "Is there anything on the board?"

[Shenandoah]

Mazin had moved over to the board after acknowledging her name, temporarily leaving her side. What he saw was not the flat rectangle of a board tacked with different flyers pressed to it. Instead, it was a real bulletin board with different actual pieces of paper tacked to it slightly sticking out and shifting as he had stirred the air near them.

His heart thudded hollowly in his chest and he frowned as he looked about the bar. Everything was way too real. Mazin looked at the board again and reached out to touch the general announcements that occurred game-wide. It had the feel of actual parchment and it crackled slightly under his fingers. There was no mention of an upgrade.

Looking at the other fliers, he was suddenly approached by another. He looked up at the person, visually assessing him to be a player rather than an Inn NPC. "Are you guys looking for a quest? We could team up! I know there's some great quests near here and I'm sure you guys want to level up, too. I mean... all newbies like us want to level up, right?"

"I've already completed the quests in this area... twice," Mazin said, absently as he continued examining the fliers. The player stared at him for the longest time. "Not to mention I don't think this is the best time for either Calonia or me to be running around on quests." 'Especially considering we're trying to figure out what the hell is going on,' he thought with a grimace. Another thought occurred to him and he turned as the guy began to push at him.

"C'mon, man... I mean, if you did the quests--"

Mazin interrupted him. "Do you know of any upgrades that were to be done today?" The guy looked at him blankly. "To the game?" he asked, raising his brows at the newbie.

"No... Why?"

"What does the bulletin board look like to you?" Mazin pressed, hoping to dissipate the alarm that was beginning to get a hold of him.

The guy looked it over. "A bulletin board? Look, man, what are you on?"

Mazin resisted the urge to grind his teeth and punch the guy. Coding wouldn't allow for... fighting... His eyes widened. He shouldn't be able to reach out and mess with the other player. Not in an inn, at any rate. And he... Mazin reached out and grabbed the newbie's sleeve in horror. The action shouldn't have been possible. "What the hell?" He spun, leaving the wide eyed guy standing there staring at his back as he marched over to the blindfolded girl. "Calonia? I think we're in deep shit."

[Athilea Majiri]

Calonia waited while he checked the board, hoping that she was standing to one side of the door and not in front of it. She didn't dare move though, least she run into someone, or something. Her mind drifted, trying to figure out what the developers could have possibly done to the game and shifted uneasily from one foot to the other.

She looked towards his voice, "What do you mean? Did you see something on the board?" Her words were edged with worry, maybe even fear. Whatever had happened, there was certainly a feeling of wrongness to it all. She wanted desperately to be out of the Game, but she couldn't figure out how to do that.

"Who were you talking to?" She had heard another voice, new there was another player present. Unfortunately she had been so wrapped in her own thoughts or trying to figure out what had happened that she had heard little of what was said. The woman looked to be on the edge of wringing her hands, but managed to resist...barely.

[Shenandoah]

"More like what the board looked like. It didn't look like a bunch of pixels in the shape of a board. And I was able to touch another player in a way that shouldn't have been possible. I could feel his sleeve, no less."

Mazin felt like he was on the edge of a panic attack. "We need to find an administrator or something. We need to alert them to what's going on. What if this is a bug? And why am I hungry?" This was ridiculous... He rubbed his midsection, and was further upset by the feeling of skin and leather under his hand. This body was strange. His hair was different... none of what he was doing was even in the commands mandated by the Game.

[Athilea Majiri]

Her eyes would have been as wide open as they would go, if she could have opened them. The fact that it was not an ability she had worried her as much as the news he brought her. The woman made a small sound in her throat and nodded in hurried agreement, "Yes, we need to find someone...where though?"

Her head turned first one way and then another, as she tried to activate her ability again and again. It did not work though. She could not see. Calonia wanted to growl in frustration as she raked her fingers through her hair. "Should we still try the log point? Maybe...maybe we can figure something out there." Of course she knew it would be him discovering most of their information. She was of little help in her state, but she would continue to try her ability until it would work, at least a little, and she could offer help.

[Shenandoah]

"Login point... right. Maybe we can get out of this mess and not worry about finding an admin immediately." He considered even as he opened the door to admit them back into the night. "An admin or at least a moderator should be on at this time of night even if it is more for their own amusement. A shame we don't get people from other timezones than the four in the Americas."

He frowned as he took Calonia's arm to guide her, registering the feeling of soft fabric and a rounded woman's arm. Mazin's willowy form seemed suddenly stronger than hers at the moment, but he needed to work on his mage skills before he dared leaving this town. It was like being a beginner all over again.

[Athilea Majiri]

She nodded, "Yes, someone must be on. There must be a way to...to figure this out." Calonia was worried, though she did not like to show it. The woman shifted from one for to another when she heard the door open, and smiled gratefully at him when he took his arm.

Then she hesitated. "This...this is not right." She rested a hand over his, curious and wanted to scream. "Why do you feel real? Why...why do I feel more real then I should?" He didn't know the answers, he was just another player stuck in some horribly realistic update.

She rested a hand on his again, this time her finger trailing along his for a moment almost wonderingly. The expression on her face very much like that of a child discovering something. Calonia whispered, disbelief and fear filling her voice, "You are warm...how could an update make your skin warm?"

[Shenandoah]

"I... I don't know..." Mazin mumbled in response to the rhetoric questions. His face flushed slightly at the exploratory contact. Even though this wasn't his hand or his body, he could almost feel the nerves firing off in rapid succession as she ran her finger along his hand. Not only was he unused to female contact, he was also a teenage boy with hormones that went haywire with little provocation.

He guided her through the streets towards the login point, saying little though his mind was racing. Those few words she spoke had made him notice a myriad of other things, and quite a few of them were about her. How her skin was warm. How it was soft. How he could feel her arm through the soft and apparently homespun fabric while performing an action that shouldn't be possible. It went on and on and on.

He also felt a nighttime breeze on his skin, the cobblestones through his shoes, and knew he shouldn't be able to. There was nothing that would contribute to this upgrade currently available. There was VR headsets, but nothing like the holodecks one saw on Star Trek.

When they arrived at the point, he sighed in relief when he saw the form of a well-known administrator for this particular server. The administrator had the username of 'Michael the White', but most players called him simply 'Mike'. He had a semi-archangel appearance to go with his title with all white and gold regalia. The avatar had every representation of a holy knight ready to do battle. When he turned at the sound of footsteps, he frowned at the strange interaction between the two players.

"What are you two doing on at this time of night?" asked Michael with a small frown on his face, recognizing Mazin and knowing he was a minor from previous encounters. He did not recognize Calonia, though, but assumed she was a similar age.

"Mike, was there an update?" Mazin blurted out, his face worried.

"No... Why?"

[Athilea Majiri]

Calonia shook her head, "No...no, that can't be." That was said mostly under her voice, and she gripped Mazin a little more tightly then she had been before she realized it. Then, she started to gesture with the hand that was holding his, "How can we do this then?!"

She licked her lips and then stopped letting out a small, frustrated sound. "How can I lick my lips, and why does my tongue feel moist. I shouldn't be able to do that!" She released Mazins hand after realizing just how hard she was starting to squeeze his hands.

[Shenandoah]

Mazin massaged the pain out of his digits once they were freed from Calonia's grasp. "Um, I think something's seriously wrong. Everything looks different." Michael stepped forward but did not reach out for them like they could towards him. The administrator was obviously concerned as that was one of the (supposed to be) few real life things that were translated into the game as the headsets recognized and translated certain facial expressions.

His eyes narrowed after a moment and his frown deepened into disapproval. "That's impossible. It'd be better if you two did not lie."

"We're not lying, Mike... See?" Mazin reached out to Michael and touched the man on the chest. Cool metal radiated it's chill into Mazin's hand and Michael's eyes widened once more as he stepped back hastily out of reach before reaching for his sword as the administrator in real life moved the cursor on his control to the 'Attack' command.

"What's the deal?" exclaimed Mazin, stepping back, his eyes wide.

"I don't know who you two are, or what you are, but you are obviously not Players!"

"We are!"

[Athilea Majiri]

She responded to the sound of Mazins voice, "What's going on? I'm a college student. I'll tell you where I live if that will help. We are players though. How can we prove it?" Everything came out in a rush, she didn't even take a breath until the last of it was said. Her hands gripped her skirts tightly, and her head was turned towards him, but she did not make a move towards or away from the administrator.

[Shenandoah]

((He didn't actually select the command, so all he is is 'ready'.))

[Athilea Majiri]

((Alright, guess I was a bit confused there. I fixed my post though.))

[Shenandoah]

Mike's eyes narrowed but they quickly widened again as his breath hitched and the pupils, which would stay frozen normally when nothing more than pixels, blew wide.

Mazin took a step back when Michael lurched forward slightly before crumpling on the cobblestones. The NPC nearby did not move from his post as a gauntlet covered hand fisted futilely against the stones as the other hand curled around his armored gut. "Wh... What?" gasped the man even as Mazin realized what was happening and fell to the stone next to him, immediately focusing on a healing spell to help numb whatever Michael was feeling.

"Calonia!" he said to her. "He's hurt... I think it's what happened to us!" Seconds later, he pulled his hands back. "And this sucks that I'm more a summoner and black mage than a white mage!"