Woodcrest Side Story #4: Betrayed

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“Tiff, before we go in here, I just…want to let you know I had a lot of fun,” I sighed. “I didn’t even know you played this game and…I really like playing with you. Do you think if we lose our characters here we could still play again sometime?”

“Audrey, honey, of course we can play again, and we’re NOT going to lose our characters,” She reassured me.

“I like your optimism,” I said drearily. “But the fact is…that boss hits for one third of our health every time, and it has adds that pop every ten seconds. We could have barely made it with a full party, but with just the two of us? I’m really sorry, this has to suck.”

“Audrey, honey,” She said, her character mirroring her real life head shaking. “You have to think positive, okay? I know we’re going to get through this.”

“Okay, okay,” I said, shaking my head and squeezing my eyes shut briefly as I tried to reconcile the fact that we were about to lose years worth of progress. The sad thing is I KNEW this could happen; it’s always been an issue with epic quests like this, it’s just that in the past we’d come in with large groups, we knew the raid, and we were always on top of our game. This was so half assed I don’t even know how to begin to describe it. “Let’s do this.”

There was a ‘swish’ as Tiffany drew her rapier from its scabbard, a typical brigand weapon. I have to admit her character looked kind of hot. Maybe I could get her to dress up like a pirate in real life. Yeah, I probably shouldn’t ask that. Pursing my lips I waited for her to lead us into the room, which she did. I stayed a good distance behind her and cast a few shields, keeping my finger on the healing scrolls that I’d equipped in one of the hotbars. I was going to need them.

“Ready?” She asked.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I said, trying to stifle the desperation in my voice.

“Okay, three, two—” Suddenly, she stopped counting, and the most fucking incredible thing happened. A flash of light emanated from her rapier, blasting the boss and taking it down to 0 HP in a single blow. In the next second a less amazing thing happened, her entire outfit changed from the brigand overcoat to flowy, silky blue top and black leather pants, laced up the sides and complicated by a pair of black heeled boots. Her hair changed as well, it went from a dirty brown to a magnificent, glowing red. Finally, I noticed that her level had changed, she increased from 82 to 100, and stood there staring at me with a shit eating grin as the boss collapsed in a pile behind her.

“Um..Tiffany?” I said squeakily. “What…what just…”

“I’m sorry, Audrey,” She said, grinning again. “You did the access quest for this dungeon, it takes way too long. I needed you.”

“What are you talking about?” I demanded. As I spoke, I noticed she was inching her way to the center of the room, toward the pedestal. The Dain’s Respite, it was called. For years it had sat dormant in the game, but recently, a bard in my guild had figured out that when you stood on it, a song appeared in his hotbar. It was presumed that the spell would reveal the location of the Horn of Schar, the instrument that could be used to awaken the Dain, hidden somewhere off in a far flung portion of the game world. On other servers this presumption proved to be correct. But Tiffany was a brigand, she couldn’t…could she? I held my mouse over her character and nearly choked: her class had changed from ‘Brigand’ to ‘Bard’. Holy shit.

“I’ve been using an illusion form,” She explained. “And I’m sorry, but you and I…we’ve known eachother for a very long time, years, Audrey.”

“Wait,” I said as I checked my hotbar to make sure the ‘disruption’ spell was equipped. “You’re with the Standard of the Dain?!”

“Audrey,” She said with a slight smile. “I AM the Standard of the Dain. I formed the group years ago, during patch 7.1a. Listen, Audrey, this isn’t anything against you, but your guild has sitting on the Magelite stores for years and profiting off of everyone. The Standard of the Dain isn’t evil, we’re just going to level the playing field.”

“This is bullshit!” I shouted as she stepped onto the pedestal and began to play the song. Instantly, her body was surrounded by transparent, floating musical notes as the song reverberated through the massive chamber. “Stop, stop, stop! You’re going to change the loot tables, we won’t have the Zate armor anymore!”

“That’s right, Audrey,” She grinned. “It means you won’t be able to price gouge anymore, and everyone will stand a chance again. Look, I know change is hard sweetie, but the game is called ‘Dark Pantheon’ – eventually the Pantheon has to awaken. So it’ll be a little harder, and you’ll have to find a new way to develop your character, but is it really all bad? Change is a good thing, sweetie. Hey, I’ll be here to help you, I’ll help you figure out your stats and-“

“No!” I screamed as I rushed forward, aiming my staff at her. I quickly fired the disrupt ability, designed to interrupt her song and knock her back a good two feet, but it never landed. Somehow, even though her character was busy casting the song, another sprang forward from her lute and struck my character, sending me flying backward and reducing my health to fifty percent. What the hell? What kind of hit could do that?

“Audrey dear,” She said as the song commenced. “We’re in a perma-death zone, I don’t want to fight you. Use some common sense, you don’t want to lose your character. Listen, the change is going to be rough but you’re going to like yourself a LOT more. You won’t be relying on old equipment to protect you, you can move forward, you can make progress. Just lay there and let me do this.”

There was absolutely no way I was going to tell Mason or the rest of my guild that I had just sat here and let Tiffany reveal the horn’s location. Absolutely no way. I pressed X to bring my character to a standing position and cast a healing scroll on myself. I watched as an orb of green light fired into the air and exploded, sprinkling healing magic onto my avatar and filling my health bar. But it was too late. The song finished, and to my horror, a splash of text appeared at the top of my screen:

‘The Land is Silent for a Moment as Audri and GreyGirl Reveal the Location of the Horn of Schar’

“Jesus Christ, Tiffany!” I shrieked as my teleport spells lit up, once again becoming available. She must have noticed, she began to port out immediately.

“Listen, Audrey,” She said as her character began to fade out. “I meant everything I said. You can still call on me if you need me. I’ll help you. We’re enemies in the game, but this doesn’t carry over into real life.”

“I’m having a hard time accepting that,” I growled.

“Hey,” She said, smiling. “Once you’re out of the Tri Pi house, let’s go out to dinner somewhere, okay? Just as friends. Look, it’s been leading up to this for years. Remember when we fought on Mount. Barthatus? Or that time you ambushed me in the Mire of Resolve? We’ve been fighting for years hon, nothing’s changed.”

“I…okay,” I said, watching world chat as thousands of players cursed my name, having seen the notice. She was gone. Her character had faded out. I probably needed to get out of here too. As I hit the home button, I heard the door to the room open in real life. I turned away from the computer and saw Chisaki walk in accompanied by two other girls.

“Heya Audrey,” She said. “How are things going?”

“Um…” I swallowed a bit and glanced back at the screen briefly before looking back at her. “I think I just met my soulmate.”

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Comments

Interesting

I realise that Tiffany has issues, I just hope Audrey's emotions aren't too misplaced.

Audrey & Tiffany?!

Samantha Heart's picture

Thats unreal. I thought shecwas going with Aleigha's bosses son? But does Tiff REALLY feel the same way for Aurdy. What a TWIST!

Love Samantha Renée Heart.

I have a serious problem with this.......

D. Eden's picture

Namely, your soulmate doesn’t lie to you, doesn’t cheat you, and certainly doesn’t use you to achieve a goal you don’t want.

Not to mention leaving you holding the bag for doing something that everyone else will hate you for.

That’s truly f’d up.

D. Eden

Dum Vivimus, Vivamus

It was

Audrissa's picture

Something that Audrey blurted out in the heat of the moment - it doesn't actually mean she's interested in Tiffany. It's something you say in sarcasm or ironically. Namely it was because Tiffany started a war - not a small conflict, an actual war and Audrey was, at some level, very amused because it's something she would have done as well if it benefited her. It's how PVP MMO's work.

Tiffany

Said "FRIEND" audrey, FRIEND. She did invite her on a date though, that's a bit strange... Tiff you are playing a dangerous game, you're being courted by some rich bastard you really think he's just going to let this go?

I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D

Wow

Athena N's picture

Tiffany knows she has recently caused an irreconcilable break between Audrey and her girlfriend, as well as major emotional trauma. That was by mistake, but it looked like she understood what she'd done. Now, though, she's very deliberately doing something that benefits herself significantly but also causes a break between Audrey and the friends she has left, while arty the same time claiming she likes her. Can't say I have a very high opinion of her right now, even though it's clear she has issues of her own.

Umm

What she did was correct. Audrey's guild was shady as fudge and was doing some very messed up things. The player base was being scammed by them, and by her doing this she made it so they'd have to adapt to create that mess of a market again. Like Audrey and her guild were screwing players and they were NOT the good guys. I've seen MMOs rise and fall because of the market and players like Audrey and her guild cause a game to stagnate. If a game stagnates it dies, sure the market looks good for a while but it will slowly dwindle till it shuts down. Tiffany did what was necessary to cause her game she loved, that she played since beta, to have a chance at growth and to take down the corruption within.

I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D

From whose view point?

Jamie Lee's picture

From what happen in the game it would appear Tiffany is rather two faced. However, people are often different in these type games than they are in the real world.

If Audrey's group was doing what Tiffany said, then it was good she did what she did. But if what she said was true, why didn't other groups try to do the same?

Tiffany does separate her game self and her real life self, but can Audrey? Todd was Audrey in the game because it was his dream in the real world. And now that Audrey is out will she be able to separate her game self and her real life self?

And if others wanted to level the playing field, wouldn't only those groups profiting from the mine be angry? And not everyone?

Others have feelings too.