4097/Dropping into ALO

Dropping into ALO
Date of Scene:	11 May 2016
Location:	Alfheim Online <ALO>
Synopsis:	Tony Stark and Toph Beifong join the ALO craze with some expert help.
Cast of Characters:	Kirito, 20, 301

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Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    hings are finally set up, and it's sort of clear that the whole thing is a bit nerve-wracking for Toph. More so than she was when Kirito set up the VR thing for her, that was a whole separate thing. Not that she's afraid of being stuck in the game like they were in the other game that people have mentioned, but... well, this is different.

    It's less scary when she knows her body will be safe in Tony's workshop and she will be in a familiar environment once they log out of the game. The AmuSphere is pushed onto her head with only minor difficulties due to all of her hair, and Toph lets out a sigh as she sits down in her chair next to Tony's. "You guys better not take ages in finding me," she asides to him, "because without my bending I wouldn't count on me being able to find my way in that game. Not if it's like it was when Kirito had me try that separate thing..."

    Once Tony is ready however, she rolls her head slightly and cracks her knuckles, letting out a sigh. Okay, she's ready. "Link Start."

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony is a bit more blas� about the whole thing. This is not his first go-round with virtual reality, although he would have to admit it's his first time will full immersion type VR for the purpose of being an elf.

"I'll come and find you, you big baby," he assures Toph, teasing. "I mean, never mind that I'll be level one too. I might have to kill a lot of grass snakes on my way over there."

He waits for Toph to get herself settled before he fits the visor-like device over his own eyes, gives his neck a good crack and settles comfortably in his chair.

Dummy perks up his claw arm hopefully, and Tony nudges the AmuSphere up briefly to give him a warning glare. "I swear to god, if I'm not on /fire/..."

Dummy droops again.

Tony grunts, settles back in his seat, fits the visor more snugly and also commands, "Link start."

Kirito has posed:
LINK START!

    That dramatic phrase chanted (who designs a thing this way), reality takes a dive. Or rather, your brains do. Toph's familiar with this sensation, while Tony... who knows what kind of sensations he's gotten used to nowadays. The real world fades out, replaced with a flowing white background and a series of diagnostic checks as each Sensory I/O module loads and takes control of the body. Eyes no longer see what's in front of them, ears no longer hear what's around - except as tiny, faint background noise at best. The sensation of laying down ends too, transitioning swiftly into standing.

    With a THUD-like fanfare Toph and Tony both appear in identical instances of the same room. Cylindrical, grid patterned walls and a quick flash of...

Welcome to
ALFHEIM ONLINE

    ... hovering past their vision in midair, then disappearing. A pleasant, if boring female voice announces in Japanese that very english text, though the next thing to appear is...

    A virtual keyboard hovering in midair that responds to touch. Menus to change language settings (including the voices...) and of course, 'login or register' being the first thing they must do.

    PLAYER NAMES must be pronounceable and only use English or Romaji. Passwords obviously can be whatever. BUT THE NAME HERE is your character name...

    Once the name is chosen...

    A 'wheel of races' appears. "Select your race!" announces the voice.

    Selection is done with the provided keyboard, and each is shown with a stereotypical pregenned preview of the race's overall appearance. For Tony, he's locked to male. Toph finds all of her previews similarly female.

    There are two ways of dealing with character appearance. Going with randomized (usually works out nicely, but sometimes... not...) or paying a small fee for CUSTOMIZATION. And in the latter case, there's the typical character editing features OR the ability to load a pre-defined appearance to adapt...

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    It's a good thing that there's such a thing as a Braille mod for this game! For Toph it's a bit of an uncomfortable shock when suddenly the darkness is replaced with its direct opposite, and she closes her eyes as she reaches out. Luckily Kirito wasn't kidding, and she feels the letters underneath her fingers with a sigh of relief, beginning to read it. Login... no, that's not it. Register it is. That's how it works on websites, at least Twitter which she herself uses.

    Next up, writing up her short name is no big deal, and luckily nobody else has gone with the name. If not she would be stuck here for a short while to decide on another name. Password, that's easy... The sound of the next part though makes her blink, and she squints at the fuzzy sight before her. Races... Do any of them look like her? No, mustn't be that part of the character generation yet. She closes her eyes and then searches for the 'Gnome' option, finding it and opening her eyes again, only briefly making out what must be the colour of the race.

    Once she does find the option for customisation, she's not slow to select it. Okay, Tony told her how to do this... load pre-defined... It's part of why she wanted to play this game in the first place, so no random look for her!

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Oh no, a fee for customization! How could he possibly afford that? Tony takes a moment to get his bearings, turning his head this way and that to get a feel for the visual stimulus. He's well used to floating HUDs and menus so it only takes him a moment to orient on the registration form and put in his own name. If anyone else HAS taken it there will be words to be had. Fortunately, the world seems to be divergent enough from his own that no one has had the bright idea of masquerading as him in it.

He, too, selects the pre-defined scans that he had Jarvis take of himself and Toph the other evening. If only he wasn't locked into his own gender, he'd be tempted to use Toph's template just to mess with her. His hand hovers over the race selection, his innate feline-loving tendencies tempting him to make himself a catboy; but in the end he selects Leprechaun. It's closer to Toph's chosen starting area and the blacksmithing theme should fit his playstyle the best.

Kirito has posed:
After CUSTOMIZATION is done...

    "Good luck!" The pleasant voice chimes, sending both off.

    Everything goes white in a rush of mystical power... and it's time to say good-bye to their existing avatars. Toph and Tony BOTH appear high in the sky. A vast land spreads out beneath them, covered in snow. To the north... an infinite blue sea. Straight below? The northern half of Alfheim, the FROST AREA, covered in ice and snow. Far to the south... enormous mountains block them from seeming far, but a single tree challenges the heavens. Smack dab in the center of Alfheim, so great in size and majesty that its leaves pierce through the clouds, its trunk perhaps a kilometer across.

    And in the southeast... a HUGE shape floats in the skies. Wide at the bottom but tapering in a vaguely bullet-like way near the top, a grand... castle? Whatever it is, it's HUGE, and glows from within - orange-gold lights shine through hundreds of windows and its black surface. Numerous spokes jut forth, ending in sword-monoliths.

    Floating Castle Aincrad.

    We'll be dealing with that later.

    DIRECTLY below...

    TOPH can see - assuming she can make it out - a great hole in the ground. An open pit mine? It's huge. TREMENDOUSLY huge and deep. Alcoves and tunnels are carved everywhere in the its walls, and winding ramps and stairs twist and turn down into the depths. the mine-city that the Gnome race calls home is a strange place to live indeed...

    TONY can see another area, a flattened zone full of brick buildings that spew smoke and fire from chimneys. Some of it vaguely resembles the engineering of some particularly old world foreign nations he's familiar with, but the resemblance is superficial at best.

    Right now, both are falling, head-first. An uncontrolled dive, cold winds rushing past! Cold as it comes, yet... refreshing and crisp, fresh and pure. Cleaner than one can find in any city! Down, down, DOWN they both go. Only when they're a few thousand feet up does anything chnge: of their own accord, great wings sprout from each avatar's back.

    For TOPH, they're four thin, brown, insect-like wings. Long and thin, they vibrate to extreme speeds and slow her, turn her right-side up... and bring her in for a landing in the newbie welcome zone whether she likes it or not.

    For Tony the experience is similar, yet his are a silver-white with a mechanical aesthetic - near the shoulders the solid light congeals in gear-patterns and the like. He, too, descends to the newbie zone...

    And once feet touch ground the wings vanish... and the barrage of WELCOME QUESTS start.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Surprisingly, this is not the first time Tony has found himself plummeting head first from a great height, either. His first reflex is to thrust his hands forward to counter his fall, but of course he's not wearing the Iron Man suit. And anyway he can't seem to MOVE his hands. After a moment of panic though, his brain reminds him that this is VR and this must be scripted. See, he doesn't need Jarvis to tell him everything.

And so, he just squints his eyes against the rushing virtual wind, and mutters a brief oath of relief when he finds himself on the ground and back in control of all of his limbs. He does look back with surprise as his wings vanish. Aww, he has to WALK now?

Leprechaun Tony Stark shrugs and walks toward the nearest newbie quest NPC he sees. Might as well get to killing large rats.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    ... wait, good luck with /what/ exactly?

    Toph doesn't get to ask that question as she feels the keyboard disappear under her fingertips, and she lets out another gasp as the white takes over. Her current avatar is of no concern to her as she's kept her eyes closed most of the time and hadn't even considered looking down at herself.

    What comes next is something else entirely.

    When she finds herself in the real game, so to speak, the teenager looks shocked, her eyes wide as she tries to process all of the information fed into her brain in lieu of the darkness that she thought she would forever have to keep her company. Sure, it's all fuzzy right now as her brain is still trying to adapt to the stimuli that she's only experienced briefly once before. But this time she's not sitting in the grass, able to take it all in at her own pace. Because even if the visuals are new, she's no stranger to the experience of being affected by gravity itself.

    Once she figures out what's going on... Toph lets out a long and high pitched /shriek/ that echoes throughout the area, and she desperately tries to move. Why won't her body obey her?! Fear drains the colour from her face, and she is unable to make things out. Sure, it's a game, but dammit Kirito if she survives this then he's getting one hell of a punch! Seconds feel like an eternity as the fuzzy colours shift, and she wonders when she will hit the ground. And if it will hurt as it would in real life... But then, something happens? The sprouting of wings earns a gasp, and the teenager holds her breath...! Is... is she slowing down? It feels like it, and the fuzziness is moving slower too. Being turned the right way also helps ease her worry, and then, there it is. Solid ground under her feet.

    A weak laugh of both nervousness and relief leaves Toph as she flops down on her knees, closes her eyes and reaches her hands up to her face. Then after a few seconds, she pulls them back, her eyes wide open as she for the first time in her life stares at something.

    The welcome quests will have to wait, as Toph flops down on her her butt.

Kirito has posed:
Yeah maybe Kirito should've warned Toph. He didn't quite guess she'd react so badly to falling, since she was joining a game about FLYING. Luckily for her the starting quest NPCs are quite content to ignore her. Gentle snow drifts down from the heavens, flakes landing on her every so often.

    Tony, on the other hand... the NPC he meets is tall, is dressed in glasses and armor with a white and blue motif! There are no menus... the NPC just starts talking expressively to him. Items are dropped off in his inventory - a guidebook, two crappy healing potions... the usual stuff.

    Both he and Toph may notice, now that they've a chance to really think about it, that they're wearing a weapon. A straightforward Training Blade's strapped across their back inside a scabbard that bears the color motif of their race. It may in fact be the crappiest weapon in the game. At least Tony's equipped to kill...

    Oh, as it turns out, there are NUMEROUS starting quests. Several that teach how to navigate the Leprechaun capital, some that teach about racial politics and responsibilities... he wants to go straight to combat though? Sure, there's a quest to kill... Gremlin Pilferers? And bring back five of their Insignia Cogs? Which are apparently found in a nearby mine within the city limits.

    Yet someone speaks up. A voice Tony may or may not recognize. "A warm-up couldn't hurt, but leaving her to fend for herself... not really the best idea. Yo!" Another Fairy emerges from around a building. Dressed in black. A mischevious look on his youthful face. A single sword's sheathed across his back, its scabbard being all black with a WHITE WYVERN emblem engraved and inlaid into it.

    "People aren't too hard to find when that's their avatar strategy." He notes neutrally. Well.

    Not that Kirito - Kirigaya Kazuto - can talk.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    This is... something else. The blind girl... wait, she's not blind here, is she? looks at her hands which turn slightly less fuzzy. Then there's something not-dark hitting her hands, and the cold feeling takes her by slight surprise. Slowly she raises her head, turning her gaze skywards, even as the snowflakes gently lands on her. Is... this what snow looks like? It's too light, and it seems to be falling too slow to be rain? This... isn't too bad. As she sits there, Toph can't help but smile slightly, even as she blinks her eyes and tries to make things out.

    After a minute though she reaches her hand up to her ear after a snowflake lands on it. Oh right, fairies have long ears, don't they? This feels weird. But still not as weird as the sensation of having wings. Where did they go? Her hand moves to her back, not finding any wings, but hey, there's a sword at least? Maybe it's a good thing that D took time way back to teach her how to swing a sword, it ought to make things somewhat easier. Though... who are those weird people?

    Perhaps she didn't notice them before because they were standing still, but when she does, she turns towards one of the fuzzy silhouettes in the near distance, swallows nervously before she speaks up carefully. "... Goldie?" Only to blink in confusion when the NPC begins talking about something else now that he's been acknowledged.

    And then there's the rush of notices of new quests being accepted, new items gotten...

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
"Wasn't trying to hide," Tony replies dryly. "I also wasn't planning on leaving anyone to fend for themselves; just picking up my newbie gear." He flips through the guidebook. "Is there a map in this thing? Where's Gnomeland at? And what happened to my wings, I thought we could all fly in this game."

Typical clueless noob demands. At least he isn't begging for gold.

Kirito has posed:
"They're there." Answers the Spriggan, rather simply. His own, at the moment... are not. So what does he mean?

    "There's an easy mode and a hard mode for flight controls. Hold out your left hand like this..." Kirito demonstrates, reaching forward with his left but keeping it near waist level, and gripping the air... fruitlessly? No, something materializes in a faint flash of light. Looks kind of like a Wii nunchuk attachment without the cord....

    And at the same time his wings appear, dim light flowing from his shoulders and flowing down to form the black dragonfly-like Spriggan wings. They literally glitter and sparkle, casting short-lived motes of light into the wind. Geeze. "How you move this controller..." Much like a joystick, he pulls it back and up, towards him... and the wings come to life. UP he goes, clearing the ground and flying about ten meters up in no time. "Decides where you go! Towards you to ascend. Forwards to descend. You can pull off other manuevers with other directions. The button's accelerate." And it's easily reached with one's thumb, and comfortable.

    But Kirito lands and releases the controller. It, and his wings, both vanish in the same faint lightshow.

    "It's a start, but pros use direct flight. Pardon me for a sec!" Kirito simply...

    LEAPS.

    And lands behind Tony. Without further ado he puts a hand on Tony's back. The pressure's definitely noticeable... and Kirito's got his finger somewhere between the shoulderblades, tracing across a few muscles.

    "This one's tricky. Wing control works with your real muscle control. Try to imagine... virtual bone and muscle spreading out from here, through your back muscles. I'm warning you though... you're probably better off taking THAT one slow. Landings are tricky... and even if nothing here can kill you? Going from full speed to nothing's not a great way to start off playing."

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
"Thanks," Tony states, sounding a bit uncertain about the whole 'imaginary muscles' thing. "I think I'll stick with the joystick for now. Little more like what I'm used to." And less chance of him forgetting himself and reflexively trying to thrust with his hands and feet instead of his wings in the middle of action.

He copies Kirito's original hand movement and pulls back slightly to ascend, just a few feet. From there he tries to get a feel for the nunchuk, tilting it this way and that and shifting himself rather jerkily from one side to the other. "Ugh, this is weird," he complains. He supposes it might be less weird and more exhilirating if he wasn't so used to his own method of flight. "Okay, got it. So where's Toph at?"

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Just how long is this guy going to prattle on and on? At this point Toph has closed her eyes where she stands, twirling her sword in her hands as the NPC discusses the Gnome starting area, telling her about the map function, how to open her inventory and so on. Right now she's only halfway listening... oh, so that's how you open the menu? Might as well read it while she waits.

Kirito has posed:
"Good choice." The Spriggan warmly states, relieved. He's not about to have n00bs go crashing into trees or buildings... like he did... that would be all kinds of bad judgement on his part.

    "Weird? Oh... right. You have that awesome robot armor with the feet thrusters!" Yep, very different control scheme. Though Kirito looks ponderous for a moment as he rises up on his own wings to stay a decent distance from Tony. Respectful of personal space under most circumstances, he is. And uh.

    He kinda doesn't want Tony to make some random movement and end up being in headbutt range or something.

    So he's watching him carefully. "The control scheme for that's hard to imagine without a mental interface. Wonder if AmuSphere technology could be used that way..." He is, after all, studying robotics and new ways of using FullDive Tech!

    Neural interface POWER ARMOR? Huh.

    "From here it'll be a few minutes of flight due west! She's in the Gnome home town. One big open pit mine, lots of tunnels. Probably her type of place! Ready to go?"

    He rises up further, arms folded, and pointing the way. Indeed, faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar off in the distance, the Gnome capital zone's edge is visible....

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Bored with reading the menu for now, Toph has taken off her boots after finding a nearby rock to sit on. Never mind the snow, it's not real. So this is what feet look like... All in all, Toph doesn't look too graceful and poised where she sits, holding up her right as she leans close, her nose only a few inches away from her toes. Okay, things are easier to make out now, sharper somehow.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
"Sure," Tony agrees easily. He might not be used to this particular method of flying but he's definitely not squeamish about it. Maybe if he just pretends Jarvis is carrying him with one of the Iron Legion suits it won't be so weird.

Who is he kidding, he's an elf right now. It's weird.

Looks like Toph's starting area is a fair distance off, so he decides to see what the wings can do, and starts easing on the accelerator once he's up to cruising altitude near Kirito.

"--hey we're not going to run into monsters up here are we?" he thinks to ask far later than it would have been prudent to do so.

Kirito has posed:
AS IT TURNS OUT, acceleration is pressure-dependent. The more one presses that button on the controller... the faster you go. And at maximum depression, speed keeps increasing up to a point.

    It may not be whatever ridiculous Mach levels Tony might be able to get with that suit of his, but it's easily eclipsing racecar speeds. ZOOM! Possibly around 120 miles per hour! Really would help to have some kind of speed indicator, wouldn't it?

    And this isn't top speed. It is, in fact, kind of tough operating at those speeds. While common sense for reality says that going so fast while watching where you're going means the wind in your eyes will STING... it doesn't. But the rushing wind all across your body and the G forces ARE

    But Tony's question is answered with a SHRIEK, a huge white... owl-like creature with a horribly ugly face swooping in from above. For an 'owl' it isn't too quiet - the resemblance is vague at best. There's a green bar above it, along with a name: 'Sky Talon'

    "-I'd FORGOTTEN ABOUT THAT!" Screams Kirito, the creature slamming into him and going into a dive for the Tundra below.

    Well. At least there's only one of them. And it's quite focused on the bigger threat.

    Kirito's going down, but his thrashing is actually doing considerable damage to the thing - all thanks to his Martial Arts skill being maxed.

    Tony has a really good shot at its back if he wants to go for it. If not, Kirito'll be free soon.

    The good news is, they're only another minute or so out from Gnome town!

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
"Shit," Tony exclaims, and alas that there is no Captain America to scold him for it. "Uh..." he checks his inventory. Does he have a bow or something? Well, there's this shitty ass noob sword. He shrugs, draws it and tests its heft in a two-fisted grip. Wait, shit, no, he needs one hand to pilot. He shifts the sword into his right hand and dives after the owl-thing, sweeping the weapon in a great cleaving arc that would surely look impressive if he'd had any sword training at all.

This is probably stupid. Seeing as how Kirito has to be way higher level than he is, and he seems to be flailing helplessly against the thing. But Tony Stark is a hero and this is what heroes do. Even if it's just a game.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    With her toes plucked, Toph has put her boots back on. Instead she's grabbed onto the neck of her shirt, staring down at her chest. Nope, she still doesn't get why guys find them so appealing.

    Letting go of her shirt, Toph closes her eyes again and then draws the sword from her back, practicing a few swings with it. Hmm, seems lighter than the sword that D gave her, so this shouldn't be hard... hopefully.

Kirito has posed:
Well. Kirito's definitely top-grade, but the flailing happens to be because THE CREATURE HAS ITS TALONS ON HIS SWORD, making it hard to draw the damned thing before he can hit the ground! The Black Swordsman is reduced to a Black Thrasher without a weapon, and all he can do is get in grazing blows while yelling at how RIDICULOUS this turn of events is. What the heck!

    But in comes Tony!

    Sure his weapon is kind of crap and his Skill Level with it - both as a sword fighter and as a Leprechaun avatar - are not very refined. BUT the creature's back is exposed and the blade bites deep.

    It's a strange sensation, a virtual weapon biting into virtual flesh and bone. It does feel mostly like trying to cut through ballistics gel. Yet instead of sprays of blood or other viscerals... red pixels are shot from a glowing red GOUGE drawn in the thing's back along the injury, the sword popping free at the end of the strike. Not QUITE how real swordsmanship works, but the principle's REALLY similar.

    What DOES matter is that this solid blow was to the creature's WEAK POINT. It halts in midair, wings spreading and thus air braking pretty hard. And it TURNS AROUND, shrieking and screeching with a nasty flesh-tearing beak snapping open and around towards Tony. This thing's color cursor isn't RED like a normal monster to him. It's PURPLE - pure murder. But...

    Just as it's readying for a counter-strike, the creature's health PLUMMETS. A nearly full health bar bottoms out within two seconds.

    The creature, twice the size of a man, hovers frozen in midair. Its form ripples, flickers, glows white... then EXPLODES into a shower of pretty blue-green voxels that quickly fade.

    Kirito's right behind it, heaving a sigh as dregs of crimson light fade from his sword.

    "uweh... that was more than a little embarassing."

    Disgusted, he swings the blade back and forth as though to cast blood from it, then sheathes it across his back.

    But Tony gets a grin. "Nice save!"

    About then, windows pop-up showing LOO and experience. There's some feathers and talons and beaks and other monster parts, a currency that's called... Yrd? A few thousand Yrd.

    There IS no experience meter for Levels, but this does seem to have marginally increased a skill called One-Handed Swords towards level 2!

    "Onwards!"

    And onwards it is. WHOOOSH, Kirito's off with an actual shockwave of his wings kicking into gear. Just to get a LITTLE distance on Stark so he can clear his embarassment.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
"Sweet, bird parts!" Tony exclaims, to cover the fact he nearly pissed himself when the thing turned on him with murderous intent after he scratched it. Well, now he has a gift for Toph when he finds her. He wonders if that's a LOT of money. It's weird not knowing he can buy anything he wants in this frame.

Tony lets Kirito zoom on ahead, more because he's checking out his skill bar progress than because he recognizes the young man's need to recover from his gaffe. But quickly enough he turns to follow him, depressing the accelerator as he angles downward toward the Gnome area. The simulated wind on his face is an interesting sensation he doesn't usually get from flight.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Something seems to be similar for all games; all the starting quests are ridiculously easy.

    While waiting for Tony and Kirito (those slowpokes), Toph has opted to try one of these starting quests, which seems to be striking some training dummies. Easy enough, nothing scary, and plus she can do it with her eyes closed for most of the time. Her sight is still adjusting, and she wouldn't want to tire herself out and make the impending headache any worse than it needs to be.

    Still, she is a bit clumsy as she repeats the strikes, but judging from the sound and the Braille text that describes the meters. Who knows if there's a skill set for earth magic too?

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
"Beating on helpless training dummies, huh?" Tony calls out as he swoops in from above. He doesn't quite stick the landing, coming in too hard and fast since that's the way he's used to landing in the suit, and he stumbles and catches himself up against one of the dummies before he comes to a full stop, but he pretends he meant to do that. "I killed a giant owl already. Saved Kirito's life. He was pretty embarrassed. I guess I'm just really good at the game."

Kirito has posed:
At the moment, ONE HANDED SWORDS is the only Skill that Tony Stark seems to have. Same with Toph. Going through the skill menu, he has a number of SLOTS that can be filled with skills, and there's a list of skills available he could activate and assign to these slots. Doing so would've probably been part of one of the newbie quests, but...

    Oh well, it's all there in the manual.

    Kirito manages to land near Toph and Tony. Kirito's landing is pretty high-speed, but he sort of SKIDS across the ground on his heels for a good five meters before he comes to a halt, hands in his coat pockets. He's still looking a little sour... but he shakes his head quickly enough and turns about.

    "Yo! Sorry we're a few minutes late."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Upon hearing that familiar voice Toph instantly tenses a bit where she stands, then she slowly lowers her sword and withdraws her left hand from the menus. Perhaps it would have been amusing if she had seen the way he lands, though she does hear him moving quickly across the ground and coming to a stop near her in what sounds like a rather rough manner. Even as he speaks about his adventures so far in the game, Toph quietly sheathes her sword without saying a single word, not even to Kirito, all before she walks on over to Tony, who might not be /too/ confused when he gets a pair of familiar hands up in his face. It's something Toph has done several times before; when they first met, when she's needed some referencing for when she's bended statues and such of him... and now to make sure of one thing.

    Then the girl opens her eyes, and instead of those milky green eyes that Tony might be used to be seeing, it appears that Toph's avatar has vibrant green eyes. The moment she looks up at Tony her pupils constrict, and to say she looks surprised is only the beginning of it. Her fingers halt their movement, resting on his cheekbones before she hesitantly withdraws her hands, blinking twice. And simply /stares/.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony grins. "Hi. Yeah, I know, it can be a little overwhelming, seeing me in person for the first time. But yeah, it's me, and yes I really AM just a devilishly handsome guy." He winks, which would be the first time she's seen him do THAT too. "The scans are pretty good. You look pretty much the way you do in the real world, so I assume mine's pretty accurate too. Except for the ears. Those are weird."

Tony lunges at one of the dummies with a quick one-two barehanded strike, much as he'd attack one of his wooden sparring dummies at home. He's curious to see if his real world martial skills translate at all here. He also might be feeling just a tiny bit awkward about the way Toph is staring at him, as his bluster would reveal to anyone who knows him really well. As Toph does.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Somehow Toph looks even more startled when Tony talks, how his face moves, how the skin wrinkles when he grins... His face felt the same, so... that's really what he looks like.

    The comment about the ears does seem to break Toph out of her startled surprise though, and she smiles a bit, blinking her eyes several times with a nod. "If you had that big ears in real life then Pepper wouldn't have to repeat herself so much..." she jabs as he strikes at the training dummy. Yes, she can tell that he's feeling a bit awkward about the staring. Though part of her wonders why, he should be used to it, considering how much he brags about his looks and how the ladies love watching him.

    Perhaps it's a relief for him when Toph finally seems to pay notice of Kirito... The teenager turns her head, then cants it as she walks up to him, squinting her eyes a bit as she stares up at him too. "You... are a lot less fuzzy today." Unfortunately for him, it appears she is getting a bit up in his personal space too, just like she did when he first introduced her to VR.

Kirito has posed:
The Training dummy does have some give to it when struck with unarmed moves! It's TOUGH though, and the registered damage from the punch is... far less than what the sword inflicted on the bird. Or will inflict on the dummy if he tests.

    "There's a Skill for martial arts," Kirito notes! "You'll need that if you want to up the damage and access special techniques!" Seems he was watching Tony. "At least it's way easier in ALO than SAO. There isn't any special quest now, you just start learning it in the menu." Which Tony probably hasn't learned to invoke himself yet.

    Kirito demonstrates idly - he brings the index and middle fingers of his left hand together and downstrokes the air. Of course nothing seems to happen, but that's because menus are hidden so that only the player they belong to can see by default.

    But then up comes Toph, getting him blinking and gulping nervously. "Ohhhh. You're getting used to it?" Just a bit nervous from this invasion of personal space! He's way more touchy about it than Tony it seems.

    Just enough to lean back a little!

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "Yeah... though it was fuzzy at first and took me several minutes before I got used to it," Toph comments, not upset that Kirito is leaning away from her. There /is/ something else she is upset about though. Which is evident as she punches out towards Kirito's chest with a stern look on her face. "Unlike that goddamn freefall in the beginning! I mean, what the crud?! You could have freaking warned me, I thought I was going to die or whatever you do in this game!" she snaps, her voice going slightly squeaky from her irritation. Even as the game notes that she just earned some martial arts experience. Seems somebody did manage to figure something out on the menu earlier while she was waiting for them!

    "I figured out how to do the menu," Toph comments, as if she just forgot she was upset at Kirito for not warning her. "The Braille mod seems to be working, I can read everything and I did figure out some of the settings I think..."

Kirito has posed:
THWOMPF!! Kirito finds himself speed-punched, clocked right in the kisser! "Hwaugh--" He goes tumbling backwards and topples over into the training dummies, a glowing fist mark embedded on his face and slowly fading. The attack shaved off about 5 percent of his health meter, but it's quickly refilling. Hurt his pride more than anything else, probably.

    And knocked him for a loop in other ways.

    "Crruuuuuel," Kirito sigh-whines, only to flip to his feet a moment later and give Toph a chagrined smile. "It's a game about flying! Why wouldn't it start off about it?" Sheesh.

    He's gotten so used to this, he's forgotten what's normal and not. Just a little.

    "Ohhhh... it's working that well? Glad to hear it!"

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "It's a game about fighting and fairies, I didn't expect it to start in a freaking fall without a cruddy tutorial!" Toph retorts with a huff, crossing her arms across her chest as she turns back to Tony.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
"I wouldn't call the way it started out 'flying' exactly," Tony states dryly, shifting his weight and striking at the dummy again with a swift elbow before he turns back to face his companions. "That was plummeting. I'm familiar with the difference. But seeing as how there was no /actual/ chance I'd end up splattered on the pavement it wasn't so bad." He gives Toph a teasing smirk. "Some of us just aren't natural flyers," he sighs in a singsong voice.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    When Tony comments on the opening sequence, Toph lets out a huff, closing her eyes where she stands, a clear pout on her face. "Well, /I/ didn't know that! All I knew was that I was falling, I couldn't move, and my eyes were hurting and trying to focus on stuff but it was all a fuzzy blur around me," she responds. The sing song though does earn a response in the form of Toph reaching out to punch out at Tony's arm, though she misses. Which earns a grumble as she opens her eyes again and looks down at her fist. "... damnit, I gotta get my aim back, it's harder without my bending," she mutters. "And woah, I'm /not/ a natural flyer? Alert the presses!" She rolls her eyes in a typical teenager fashion, then makes a face and closes her eyes again. "This is getting weirder and weirder."

    Okay, time to focus on the good things. "At leas the Braille menu works, I can read it without problem. And I did some of the opening quests, got some skills set and I got some crap in my bags. Is this where we go and start killing rats?" she asks of Kirito. Because that seems to be what Tony assumes the game is about anyway.

Kirito has posed:
"Aheheh... rats? Kobolds or angry boars maybe to start with. Or giant bees or little wyvern-like creatures. Starting out with a goal helps though. What do you want to become down the road? A fistfighter? A homeowner? There's no 'win condition' in an MMO. It's all about doing what you want to do! ... while surrounded with plenty of monsters," he adds on quickly with a cheeky smile.

    "Hunting's a good start."

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony grins, draws his sword and chunks the tip of it into the ground, leaning on it casually. "I'm just here to protect her," he declares. "You wanna go hunting giant bees? Sure." He hesitates a moment. "Uh, well maybe not /bees/, at least until I have some armor." He's not sure how damage and death get translated to his brain but in any case he's pretty sure he doesn't want to get impaled on giant stingers. "Shouldn't we be getting quests or something to do this stuff? The guy at my starting area wanted me to collect badges or something."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    So you can decide what you want to do out of this game? Toph arches an eyebrow at that as she considers this. There's that girl who is an animal trainer, other people enjoy fighting, Kirito seems to enjoy dragging people into the game and explaining the ropes, others get to be cat people and all that... homeowner? Nah, she's got enough money in real life, she'll get her own house sooner or later anyway. This game is supposed to be about fun, right?

    "Well, I want to be awesome, of course. Which means that I want to fight, it's the thing I like the most. Is there a way to fight with earth magic in this game?" That's one of the reasons she picked a Gnome, after all. Because they are supposedly the race who's the greatest at earth magic. So why not see if her earthbending knowledge can be useful for this? "And I wanna do trash talking and piss off morons!" she adds with a big grin, looking up at Kirito. Well, for a Gnome she is rather small, considering she paid extra to look just like her real life self. Then again, size has never been something that has bothered Toph. So why should it do so now?

    Though Tony is right... maybe the starting quests aren't a bad idea? "We do need to get better at our skills... and we need cool armour, yeah. Like some spiky stuff!"

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony can't help but laugh at Toph's declaration of what she /really/ wants to do. "Yeah, we're basically just big trolls," he concedes with a smirk. "Is there PvP in this game? We should like, be an arena team or whatever they have here." They could call it #teamIronMan.

Kirito has posed:
"Magic." Kirito echoes dispiritedly. He doesn't really like magic. But he nods at Tony. "Yeah. Starting quests are where it's at for newbies! You've played MMos before, huh? And both of you are used to fighting already so the shift to VR won't be THAT jarring... plenty of people get tripped up by this. It's one thing to have a giant monster on a screen snarling at you... pretty different when it's as close to reality as it can get without being so." Yep. Some people freak out and just RUN. Or fumble.

    "Earth magic... should be easy to access for a Gnome. Have a look at the menu? There's some basic spells in there. Gonna warn you, be ready to learn the spell language. Flub a word and it'll blow up in your face. Not really a fan of magic, but it packs a punch. Earth magic attacks are things like conjuring rocks to shoot at people or defensive walls. Aaaand..."

    Kirito SMILES at Tony. A challenged smile. "PVP's definitely a thing. There's a big competition between the different races if that's your thing."

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony shrugs, wobbling a little bit as his noob sword shifts under his leaning weight. "Nope. Never played one before. Why pretend to be someone else when I'm already... me?" He waits a beat for maximum impact of his implied awesomeness, and then continues. "I play Call of Battle sometimes though. And Toph helps me." She's the best at riling up the 13 year olds on voice chat. Jarvis used to do it for him but Toph's piping voice just seems to work so much better.

He looks around the Gnome starting area. "So even though I'm a different kind of fairy, can we both do the same quests here? Toph wants to hide behind me for a while before we start whooping on other players."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Hey, she's just being honest here! "Trolling is part of the fun! How much you wanna bet people don't believe you're really you?" Toph smirks, then turns to look up at Tony. PvP? Oh right, player against player. "Maybe we should get better first... or at least I should get more used to this," Toph says with a sigh. "Maybe we could do quests around here? That guy over there," she says and points to a nearby NPC, "asked me to go into some tunnels nearby and pick up some gems."

    Oh right, the menu. Toph nods, closing her eyes again as she raises her left hand and behinds flipping through the menu. And she looks confused. "Wait, I gotta say words to do this? Ugh. Bending really is way better and simpler," she snorts. Just do a quick movement of your hands, and then voila. "With all the reading involved in this game then this should count as my reading lessons..." she mutters.

    After looking through the menu she furrows her brow, reading over something...

    Then she reads up a series of short words, strange runes appearing in front of her... Toph opens her eyes, just in time to see... a small earthen spike shooting up in front of her. The earthbender looks surprised, then /pouts/. "... that's /it/?! It better look more impressive when I do my bending!"

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
"I'll count it as your reading lesson for /today/," Tony concedes. "Once you know what everything says already though, it's just review." He puts up both hands, leaving his sword lodged in the ground, to forestall protest. "Even I can't bullshit THAT much past Pepper."

He tugs his sword out of the earth and wipes the dirt off the tip on the side of his boot before re-sheathing it. "Let's go get some gems, then. Can you share the quest or do I need to talk to the guy first?"

Kirito has posed:
"Form a party and the leader's quests become your quests." Kirito assures Tony. "Just be sure to not piss off any Gnomes while in their Capital. ... It's a safe zone for them, they're invulnerable here. Not for anyone else. And there's always goingg to be some jerk who just does whatever...."

    He plants a hand on his hip while answering Toph, "Yeah, welcome to being level 1 again. High level stuff is way more impressive. Doubt it'll match up to what you can do... on the good side you can try elements you have NO real world talent in. Might be fun!"

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony nods. "Okay. Invite me to your party, Toph. When we DO get into PvP, us being different races isn't gonna be a problem is it? Can we, like, build up our reputations with each other's home areas?"

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Of course there's a slight whine coming from Toph, and she tilts her head a bit as she looks up at Tony with big eyes. "Just how long do I need to take reading lessons anyway?" Yes. This is the first time Toph is able to give Tony the puppy eyed look.

    Though it does seem that going into a party is the best for now, so Toph nods, going into the menu again and sends out invites for both Tony and Kirito. "Okay... I think I got it!" she says. "And being different races better not be a problem, I mean, some morons whine about that in real life too." Dunderheads. Getting up the map, Toph narrows her eyes. Yes, thinking in 2D is weird.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
"Ask your mom," Tony replies evasively, frowning a little at the unexpected effectiveness of the puppy eyes. He's usually on the other side of that play. Shit, if his spawn inherits his abilities he might be in trouble. "...Maybe she'll have you do a book report or something to prove your skills. Or," he offers cheerfully, "maybe she'll just start having Jarvis assign specific books to quiz you on."

Kirito has posed:
Kirito presses the virtual button that hovers before him, selecting, 'OK'. His name appears on the shared HUD up in the top left corner. Just 'Kirito' with a green and blue bar, nothing fancy about it!

    "If I join in the fights it'll be no contest. I'll hang back and give advice... or jump in if it goes bad."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "/You/ are the one who told me to start reading in the first place," Toph says, looking a bit confused. Is he... frowning? Expressions are kinda weird to look at. "And I'll do a book report, just as long as I can get some time off this summer for other stuff." Other people get summer vacation, so why not her?

    Okay, stuff has been decided, so Toph grins and reaches out to hold onto Tony's arm. "You lead the way while I rest my eyes until we get there," she orders. "Combat doesn't seem /that/ hard, even though it's easier to fight in real life I think."

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony gallantly allows Toph to take his arm, though he has to drop his shoulder a bit to make it comfortable for her to walk alongside him. He brings up his own HUD after a couple of tries to get the air-swipe correct -- it's just different enough from his home controls for Jarvis that it throws him off -- and finds his minimap and quest indicator to find the way. "So I assume we're not just picking up gems off the ground. What are we going to be fighting in here?"

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Once she's gotten a proper hold of Tony's arm Toph closes her eyes, trusting that he won't lead her off a cliff side or something. As for the quest? She uses her free hand to read over the quest log. "Hmmm. Says that there are bats and worms in there. So I guess that I can stomp on the worms, you keep an eye out for bats?" she suggests as they head into the caverns.

    And sure enough, once inside it shouldn't be too hard to spot that there are some gems scattered along the ground, leading a trail further into the darkness. Luckily there are torches along the wall. Toph opens her eyes briefly, then frowns. "/This/ is what you guys struggle with when we go underground and into caves?" she asks, then reaches a hand up to draw her sword. Just in case. She can't see any worms or bats, but... better be safe.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
"You got it," Tony agrees, as they come up to the cave entrance. It's not exactly Avengers level tactics planning, but he's pretty sure he can handle it. He draws his sword and gives it a few practice swipes to get a feel for it. At least he can use both hands now since he's not flying. "Okay, eyes on the ground," he advises, and ventures into the dreaded newbie dungeon.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Time to do this seeing thing again, Toph guesses, and she lets go of Tony's arm and holds her sword with both hands. "I got my eyes ready I think... ugh, how the crud do you tell depth with these?" she mutters, then reaches down to pick up a gem. Okay, one of twenty gathered!

    Suddenly there's a sound from above... and a bat flies at Tony's head! And behind it, two more are flapping around, though they don't seem to have been aggroed yet. Toph in the meanwhile gets a surprise as a worm suddenly burrows out of the ground. Except it's not exactly normal size, more the size of a small dog as it squirms towards her. "EW!" she gasps, then swings her sword, managing to strike the slow enemy, a red line appearing on it's back. It's not enough to kill it though, and Toph keeps on hacking at it. "This is freaking disgusting!" she exclaims.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony the Leprechaun bravely steps forward to tank the incoming bat as Toph fights her deadly foe. He swings his sword in a forehand batter's arc, striking the bat with what he judges to be enough force to send it reeling into one of the cave walls; but instead there's just a flash of red and some damage numbers and the thing keeps flapping at him. "You're the one who wanted to see slimy worms in all their glory," he quips back as he hacks at the bat again, which seems to phase out of the way to dodge. "Ugh, I'm not used to sucking," he complains. On his next try he manages to deflect the bat's attack with an elbow block and gets his sword back in play as it backs up, and it dies in a shower of pixels. The LOOT seems to be a bat wing. "I know what SOMEONE's getting for Christmas!" he declares cheerfully as he swipes his hand to move it into his inventory.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "I didn't start playing this game so I could see /worms/," Toph points out, slashing at the worm again, who adds to the pixel explosion. "And ugh, you can only see the stuff that's right in front of you too!" Another worm comes crawling down the tunnel towards them, and one of the bats seem to have noticed Tony as it comes flying.

    "And in game gifts don't count as real gifts!" she adds, just in case Tony has gotten any stupid ideas. Which is a possibility.

    Though she does continue on to the next worm, slashing at it too and gradually geeting a bit better at aiming, all while the skill bar slowly creeps upwards.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
"Hey, I spent TIME and EFFORT getting that bat wing for you," Tony pretends to be wounded, stepping up to intercept the second bat with a thrust that the game decides is a 'glancing blow' and does barely any damage. "That's worth something, if you ask the underground gold selling market. --Hey, could I just buy a bunch of in game currency to gear us up?"

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "Well, then I spent lots of time and effort in getting this hunk of goo that just popped into my inventory!" Toph teases back. It does take several swings of her sword before the second worm finally explodes as well, and she halts one moment to look back at Tony. "I dunno... wouldn't that kinda be like cheating if we don't earn it ourselves though?" she asks.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony sighs. "Of all the times for you to develop a conscience," he teases. "Fine, we'll grind it up the hard way. Oh hey, I want some goo!" he declares and pounces on the next worm before Toph can get to it. "I'm stealing your kills!" he declares merrily.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "I've always had a conscience!" Toph responds, looting the worm. "Fine, you can get /this/ goo right here if you wan-- HEY!" When Tony runs ahead to kill the next worm, Toph pouts. Then she instead raises her head... swings her sword at one of the bats. "Then I'm taking /your/ kills!" If she can reach it that is, her short height doesn't make it easy, and she finds herself jumping in effort to reach it. "Ah! NO FAIR!" Well, Tony /is/ helping her play the game, so... why not?

    The not-so-blind girl turns, then runs towards Tony, leaping onto his back while he is leaning down to take care of the worm. This way she can reach one of the batts flying around overhead!

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
And so, eventually Tony and Toph stumble back out of the cave, muddy and gooey but possessed of the 20 quest gems and some more skill points. "I hope I can buy a better weapon with the quest reward," Tony complains. "This is like swinging a two by four. Too bad the exercise we get here won't do us any good in the real world."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "We can always throw some ball around later," Toph points out, "And instead of eating ice cream in real life we can do that here since it doesn't count." Kirito did tell her that, and he should know how this game works better than most people.

    "I do think one of the quest rewards is some new gear... yeah, we get new chest pieces! Sweet! I think I'm going to work on my shield skill, then I can be a bit more defensive in this game... are you going to focus swords?" All in all, doing the quests wasn't too bad. Plus, it's something new and totally counts as family time. If Pepper wants to join them for the game later, then it would be even more fun! For now though Toph grabs onto Tony's arm again, closes her eyes and looks over the quest log as they make their way back to Kirito. "Maybe we can try some harder quests the next time? I... kinda think that it might be best to take a break here. My head did hurt a fair bit after Kirito and I tried the simulation thing the first time."

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony shrugs. "I dunno. I'll have to see what other kinds of weapons are available. Or what I can make. Maybe I'll be, like, a chainsaw fairy."

His brow wrinkles slightly as he peers down at Toph, trying to judge her physical condition by the look of her avatar. Probably not very effective. "Yeah, I'm all for tackling something bigger... next time," he agrees. "For now, how about we get back to the NPC, get our rewards and -- I'm assuming it's safe to log out here."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    A snicker leaves the teenager when Tony considers modern weapons. "Okay, THAT would be pretty cruddin' awesome," she grins. As she's got her eyes closed now and lets Tony steer her in the right way, she's unaware of him looking down at her. All in all she looks rather relaxed, though she's walking a bit unsecure. Probably because she's got her eyes closed and she's without her bending. "I dunno how these things work, you probably know better," Toph says with a shrug.

    Turning in all of the quests is the easy part, and with some new stuff that is slightly better than their starter items, it's enough for a first session into the game. Once all that's cleared Toph finds herself a place to sit down. "Maybe I'll check out how to use the wings the next time we log in too," she says. Perhaps it will be better when she's actually in control and not falling through the sky. As she opens the menu, she does raise her head and looks over at Tony, staring like she did earlier. But it's just a few seconds, then she smiles and closes her eyes, letting her fingers find the 'log out' option before she presses it.

    Back in Malibu, Toph stirrs in her chair, letting out a pained groan as she reaches up, fumbling with the AmuSphere to get the thing off of her head.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony stretches in his chair, suddenly feeling all at once the hours he's sat there unmoving. "Ngh. Have to design a massage chair for this," he mutters to himself as he peels the visor off his head and blinks, rubbing his eyes.

Dummy almost seems to startle awake, swinging the fire extinguisher in his master's direction hopefully--

"Ah ah ah!" Stark cries, stabbing a finger at the bot. Dummy sags.

Tony rolls out of his chair and shuffles over to help Toph get disconnected if she needs any assistance. "How's the headache?" he asks. He has a bit of one himself, evidenced by the way he rubs at his temple with two fingers.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    There's only a little bit of fumbling before Toph manages to get the AmuSphere off, and she blinks her eyes a few times before she pushes herself up, getting her feet on the floor. There's no direct answer at first, though she winces and rubs at her forehead with her left hand. "... worse than the first time I tried it," she mutters, just sitting still for a moment. "But... less than when I tried that Elvish wine," she adds. Just so he won't get too worried. "Not feeling like I'm going to throw up is also a plus."

    It seems like the house is still standing too, and Dummy hasn't sprayed them with the fire extinguisher either, so that's good. "I... think I'll be going early to bed," she finally seems to decide. It does look like she's in pain, but at least she doesn't seem to be too bad off. Her breathing is normal, and while she does look a little pale her movements are normal as she gets to her feet, still rubbing her head.