Cheryl Gilliam was - as usual - a little bored. The house was spotless; the aroma of curry from the slow-cooker spread through it. She knew her husband loved curry.
She knew it would be hours before he got home from his job at the TV station, though, so she sat down at her computer, and launched "The World", a game she often played in her spare time.
It was a familiar feeling to her, being outside her body...
She logged in as her newly-created Wavemaster, Amaranth. As a low-levelled, but still quite experienced, character, she was in a perfect position to help other players who were just starting out once she got the hang of her own class.
Knowing her starting equipment was going to be enough for now, she walked towards the Chaos Gate, which would take her to... just about anywhere.
But when she activated it, she noticed something odd - there was a short burst of "snow" that she had never heard in the game before, like a TV picking up only noise. The image of the city Mac Anu rippled and pulsed, distorting in her eyes.
And then, for a short time, there was nothing.
Cheryl's body slumped, nearly lifeless, in the chair. She was alive, but unresponsive.
Several hours later, she lay in a hospital bed, visor still on - the doctors had learned she would die if they were to remove it.
edited 27th Aug '11 6:26:36 PM by AweStriker
"Only now, after being besieged by a flock of talking ponies, did he really understand what he'd lost. "Micheal Volkov wakes up at precisely 7:00AM in the morning, shaking his head after sitting up.
"Another boring day..."
After washing his face and changing into casual apparel, the former Ghost then walked out of his rather spartan house made of metal containers and looked at the distance, towards the tower where he had nearly met his end.
"If only my 'allies' were much more competent, then I would be living in a less crappy place than this."
After that little rant, the Ghost then got on a mountain bike and pedaled towards a small town not too far away.
Shameless Self-promotion ho!Eridanus II, Friday March 24, 2530
Dean was on his headset, to his commander. He and Sora were what you could call trapped in the garage. The only exit faced a Wraith "You sure about that? Right, guess we'd better do it then."
He loaded his shotgun and cocked it. He turned to the other SPARTAN.
"No other way out, no armed vehicles. I'd call it a bad situation right now, but I've seen worse."
Curse the ill fortune that led you to me."You tell me. I've got nothing."
The idea pinged. Drive, faster than the Covenant could track them. They were in a garage after all.
Curse the ill fortune that led you to me.Sheila Athlon jumped out her tree and landed on both feet.
They're here. I can sense them. Gripping her wooden spoon tighter, she tiptoed forwards and hid behind another tree. She adjusted the pan on her head, took a deep breath, and jumped out of her hiding place.
Nothing.
There was nothing in the clearing, no angels, no demons. Nothing.
Sheila looked up to see the sky turn black as rain clouds began gathering. Sighing, she returned to her tree and began climbing up it. She got into her treehouse just as the first splashes of rain began to fall. As she watched the rain fall, she thought to herself I'll get you demons... You will pay. Oh yes, you will pay.
edited 31st Aug '11 10:25:29 AM by ToolsOfDestruction
A top the ruined buildings of what was once the glorious city of New York, Ravindra stood his ground against Shao Khan's most deadliest enforcers, the Shokan Sheeva and the Tarkatan leader Baraka. Rumors had spread that they both had been killed in the battle of the Pyramid of Argus, but clearly they had gotten better.
The Hindu Monk gripped his three section staff tightly assuming a defensive Kalarippayattu stance, his bare feet sliding across the cracked pavement of the building's roof whilst his attackers flanked him; Baraka to his left and Sheeva to his right.
This had been a desperate attack of the resistance to close the portal that connected Earthrealm to Outworld, but it hadn't gone as planned and now Ravindra found himself trapped between the Emperor's enforcers and a portal leading to Outworld.
"Time to die, human!!" Hissed Baraka and sharpened his blades with each other, sparks flying as metal struck metal.
"Isn't this the part where you tell me to surrender and you'll let met live?" Ravindra gave a nervous grin, he would rather die than betray Earthrealm, but he was trying to buy time to think of a means of escape.
"Hardly." Sheeva, ever the warrior poet responded "Warriors are supposed to fight to the death. We'll grant you the honor to perish while defending yourself."
"And then we'll eat you!!" Announced Baraka being less a warrior poet and more of a crazy psychopath monster.
Ravindra kept his grin and inched backwards "You're too kind" He said sarcastically realizing his time had ran out when both Baraka and Sheeva rushed him and quickly decided that he rather take his chances in Outworld than get obliterated in kombat with these two.
"Coward!" Sheeva yelled after him flinging a fireball to the monk as soon as he jumped in. The energies of the Earthrealmer entering the tear between the realms and the Shokan's fireball disrupted the flow of time and space causing the portal to regurgitate and spit the monk somewhere random in existence.
With a grunt, Ravindra fell at the steppes of the ruined city of the Ether, a very similar sight to the one he just had fled from. White eyes opened and he looked around, keeping his sanjiegun close to him as he examined his surroundings.
He was definitely not in Kansas anymore.
edited 31st Aug '11 5:02:05 PM by CienCaras
Just then, Sheila heard a boom.
Looking down from her tree, she saw what looked to be a portal on the floor. Curious as to what it could be, Sheila jumped off her tree. And straight into the portal.
Darkness.
All she saw darkness.
Until she felt herself slam onto hard, cold rock.
Looking up and rubbing her head, she looked at her new surroundings. She was in a city, an old ruined city.
And she was alone.
With no way of getting back.
She was stuck.
@Cien: The city hasn't yet been named at this point; the Ether is the dimension it (and by extension, Ravindra, Shiela, and Amaranth) exists in.
When Amaranth came to, she was lying in a strange place.
She'd heard various rumors about "Lost Grounds" before, but never had any intention of going to one - anomalous, unique areas with no clear purpose wasn't quite what she was interested in.
One of them, the Inverted City Megin Fi, had escaped the grasp of even the players most dedicated to discovering it. But from the description, she seemed to have stumbled right onto it - a long-destroyed city that by some accounts hung in the air.
As she stood up and looked around, the area's Chaos Gate was nowhere to be found. Furthermore, she discovered that when she tried to return to town via shortcut, nothing happened. She was trapped in a place she had never seen, on the verge of virtual tears.
She walks around, hoping to find... anything and anyone.
edited 31st Aug '11 4:23:08 PM by AweStriker
"Only now, after being besieged by a flock of talking ponies, did he really understand what he'd lost. "Heroic Sacrifices aren't all they're cracked up to be. Just ask Brad. He ate a live grenade to save his allies. It's a long story, suffice to say it didn't help much.
They left him. They thought he was dead. They should've known better.
They failed.
Kyo still lived and at this moment was finding new entities to "play with."
But that wasn't important now. Brad was more concerned with the knife that was poking into his back. In fact, he didn't even remember his first trip here.
"C'mon! You gotta have something! Your clothes are clean!" A hand reached down into Brad's hip pocket and began rifling through it.
Bad idea.
The pocket grew two rows of razor-sharp teeth and snapped the hand clean off. The highwayman reeled back in terror. "My...My hand! What the hell?!"
Brad slowly turned and stared down his former attacker. The predator had just become the prey. As he slowly stalked toward the handless highwayman, he spoke slowly and calmly. "Run. Run if you value your life."
The highwayman said nothing, he just stared at the stump that used to be his hand. In a few moments, the rest of his body joined his hand in Brad's digestive system. His appetite satisfied, Brad crested a nearby hill and his stomach sank. I feel like I've been here before.
But why...?
He traveled down the hill toward the delapidated buildings.
edited 1st Sep '11 7:07:36 PM by KarlKadaver
Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.Sheila walked around the empty ruins, gripping hold of her spoon tightly.
"Hello?! Anyone here?!"
She had looked for the portal, but found it to have disappeared. Her only hope now was that she found someone else in this deserted city.
Even though she was alone and lost, she refused to cry, refused to give up. She was going to sort it out, no matter how long it took.
Francis was wandering throught the ruined city. He looked up towards the sky and used one of his hands to protect his eyes from he sun. "Goddamn Sun." He muttered quietly for himself. He had been in this world for a very long time now and he had been here both during the time the city was created and when it fell. He also remembered that it was here that he got thrown into this world. However after that he couldn't remember anything, except for the great feeling of anger towards someone and something. If he just could figure out who it was towards./ The Vampires sensitive senses suddenly picked up a voice from not too far away. He could specify that it was a she, and not too old./ Francis let his curiosity take the upper hand and he begun to travel towards the location from which the voice originated. The "Sword" he carried on his back did however slow him down due to the sun shining upon him and not giving him access to his full power
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Ravindra had long lost faith in the Eldergods and did not pray for assistance despite his nature as a monk. He had long realized they cared not for the plight of the realms and existed only to satisfy their own pleasures. Nowadays the only true deity that would care to listen was ironically, Shao Kahn and he would be damned if he ever found himself begging for his assistance.
Instead, in times of need like this, he took action instead of wasting time praying to uncaring deities and thus set on forward to see if he could make sense of the place he was now in. Somehow he always thought that Outworld would be more...foreboding, this ruined city was more melancholic than anything and therefore concluded that he was indeed not in the Emperor's home realm.
As he continued walking by sheer luck his path converged with that of a girl with a pot on her head, just in time to see the incoming Vampire with a sword approach her. It was easy to spot such a being from a far thanks to his enhanced monk senses and putting two and two together he decided that the meeting with the girl and the vampire couldn't be friendly.
With his sanjiegun resting on his sash; the Hindu monk advanced directly towards Francis, fully intending to intercept him before he could reach Sheila. His facial features turned grim when he mentally readied himself for Kombat.
Francis stopped and examined the monk who approached him "What do you want? And how is it obvious I'm a vampire?" He asked but as seeing that both of the humans, including the silly girl was seemingly hostile Francis just snickered and unfastened the belt that held the humungus sword to his back. Causing it to fall down unto the ground with a loud crash "I might not be in full strengh during the day but I do believe I can at least take on you two." He then realised something "Wait a minute, where did you come from? No matter, you can tell me after I kicked your ass!"
"I wasn't sure until you told me" Was the first thing that Ravindra said to the Vampire when he confronted him, unsure how he managed to deduce that the monk had..well.. deduced his identity.
He frowned the sword was dropped watched how his actions caused the girl with the wooden spoon to make a run for the ruins. He made no attempt to follow as running away was a good idea when confronting an undead if you weren't trained, the last thing he needed after all was an innocent bystander getting in the middle of his kombat.
The warrior monk brushed his nose with his thumb and watched Francis closely, not liking his attitude "You'll have to get through me first creature." Said he and got into a kalaripayattu fighting stance, not bothering just yet to go for his three section staff. His hands where open and slightly crossed over his body, protecting his face with the right and mid section with his left, most of his weight resting on the back leg.
"Come..." Muttered the monk. "I challenge you to Mortal Kombat!"

The last group. There were ponies, elite soldiers, vampires, ghosts, mecha - every kind of person you could think of.
And they failed. Some of them were returned to their homeworlds with no memory of the event. Some remain in the Ether to this day. They have dissolved into history as nothing but another failed group of adventurers.
Since the first journey, little had changed, but since the last, disasters had been occurring left, right and center. Someone with power had been upset, and it was letting it's gentle space of the multiverse know.
And now, a new group is being 'recruited'. It is time to face the Ether again.
Sat in exactly the same place as before - what had before been the most peaxeful and, most importantly, safe part of the Ether was a sprawling city. Or was a city. What was actually left was half-demolished building husks, no building rising above two stories, even though some had obviously been much, much higher when they were in one place.
The most noticable part of this landscape was, however, the city in one place. Rebuilding had begun, as cranes towered above the lanscape, the shine of the newer buildings stood defiant of the disaster zone it once was.
edited 27th Aug '11 10:20:16 AM by Plumbum
Curse the ill fortune that led you to me.