Ace stands over the screen in a dark room at Bragg. Dozens of names scroll past his face, until a block of them appeared.
[POSSIBLE BIRTHRIGHT COMPATIBILITY MATCHES FOUND]
"Well well well... Looks like I'm due to visit the school soon."
Blut took a step back from his latest work. Huh, kinda looks like something from a video game.
Jakob reached the top of the hill with his legs on fire, clouds of steam billowing off him as hot sweat hit cold air. He paused for a moment, panting for breath, and Mark threw an empty water bottle at him. It bounced off his head.
"Thirty four forty seven," Shelley laughed. "One more lap."
He looked at her with murder in his eyes, and she just smirked at him. He started running along the ridge again. The loop was a mile exactly, but it went up the steepest, longest hill on campus. Five minutes was the target the runners on campus shot for. Jakob was trying to beat the campus record of making seven laps in under five minutes each. He had one lap left to go, and thirteen seconds to spare.
He knew he couldn't do it. Shelley knew he couldn't do it, sitting there on the tailgate of the pickup truck with Mark. He was the head of the runner's club, and the record holder. He was there to make sure Jakob didn't cheat. Shelley was supposed to be there to cheer him on, but seemed more interested in throwing things at him and drinking Starbuck's. His legs pumped under him, and he didn't let the agony slow him down. He didn't kick back and gravity pull him down the hill, he pushed. When he got to the bottom of the hill he looked up and saw her laughing, with Mark's hand on her shoulder.
He was running his legs off and she was having a laugh with Mark. It wasn't like she was breaking any rules. Jakob and Shelley weren't dating or anything. She was just his best friend. Maybe he was a little bit in love with her, but he'd never quite found the right moment to say anything. Now, he was at the bottom of the hill and from here, it looked like she was flirting with Mark. He saw red.
"Twenty four thirty three," she said. He looked up, and caught the water bottle she lobbed him.
"That can't be right," he gasped between breaths.
"It's right," Mark said, shaking his head. "I don't know how you did it, but you ran the last mile faster than the first seven."
Jakob nodded. He'd won. He would probably be happy about it once he could breath again. He gulped down water and tried to feel happy about it.
"You guys want to grab dinner later?" Mark said. His hand was still on Shelley's back.
"Don't you have your game tonight?" Shelley said.
Jakob nodded. He won, but apparently Mark got the girl. He saw red again. He had a vision of beating Mark bloody, and anyone else who tried to take her. That wasn't the world he lived in, though. He didn't even have the guts to tell her how he felt. He turned away and started back down the hill to his dorm.
"Shower," he wheezed. It was a good out.
"Call me after the game?" Shelley called after him.
He waved without looking back.
Btw what year are you?
Blut's phone buzzes on the work bench. [New Message: Brent P.: Hey man you are still planning to stay here for the Toccoa Festival? Ace isn't here but you're still welcome]
Blut had been wondering where he was going to stay since Ace had been drafted, this was a relief.
As Jakob walked back to his room, it seemed TFC was worse that usual for its stomach turning sappy couples. At least three by the pond, two walking out of the entrance to the falls, and the usual "we're not officially dating" couples laying all over each other in the student commons.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Zoey sat in her dorm clicking away at the game on her screen. Shut down! played throughout the speakers.
"Damn, wasted flash." She signed as she got up to get a drink while she waited to respawn.
Taru sighed. The stupid GPS was useless. He'd been on his way to a major Con... the first he'd ever been to... when the GPS informed him that there had been several major wrecks on I-75. So he'd turned east, as the GPS instructed him, to avoid it. Even he could tell by looking at the map that he should have turned southwest, but it had instructed him to turn northeast at highway 19, instead of southwest. Whatever, the machine probably had plans for yet another wreck. Or something. At least he had plenty to do, and he'd left a day earlier than he'd needed to to get where he was going.
Quitting his job had been pretty easy. It was still scary though. But hopeful, at the same time. His internal monologue kept him mentally busy enough to almost wind up with a deer hood ornament as he drove down the country 'highway'. He'd wind up having to get a place to stay in... where the hell was Toccoa? He looked at the GPS with a sigh. "Busted, I guess. Like everything else usually is. Guess I'll have to find a hotel. Wait. Toccoa. That's where that Space Duck guy from the forums lives... maybe that's an option. No sense in not swinging by the campus, maybe someone knows him."
And so, he made his way to the campus, being a bit more careful, and parking at the edge thereof. He locked up everything, grabbing his overnight bag out of the back. He slipped to the trunk and pulled out a few new manga to read... new in that he'd only read them once, before, before closing the trunk full of random comic merchandise. His entire life savings was sitting in that car, and with luck... he'd be able to turn a profit from it.
He triple-checked that everything was locked, as he headed onto the campus, bag, and books in hand.
Enemy Double kill! Rings out. On the chat you recognize my roommate, who just died with you.
[NuclearToenails: Damn. Killed by Warwick. Maybe it's foreshadowing... Muahahaha! btw you should come by and Level your character before Carrion Crown tomorrow. :)]
Zoey sat back down to continue the game.
[Darkraven1: Aye, what time? ]
Rogues don't take that long to level any way so there wasn't a real rush.
As Taru Walks through Campus, he spies the student lounge, and upon further investigation happens across two people at a table strewn with Pathfinder books and character sheets, A tall, skinny guy with dark hair and a Deadpool shirt, and a shorter, broader guy with way too much product in his hair. The shorter guy notices and asks, "Hey man, you look lost, can I help you?"
[NuclearToenails: I'm gonna have my stuff in the Student center with Brad most of the afternoon, Just drop by whenever.]
Taru nods slowly. "A bit, yeah. I was planning to head to Atlanta for a small Con, then elsewhere for a few other Cons... but wound up here when my GPS got messed. Maybe one of you know..." he frowns slightly, "Space Duck..?" He said the latter quite tentatively, assuming most people would think him stupid for asking something like that. "I figured I could drop by since I was out this way, if he wasn't too busy."
Fracking sweet! Thanks man. I will be there shortly.
Both men frown for a moment, then the skinny one speaks up. "You mean from the Pathfinder website? Yeah he used to be my roommate until he was drafted a couple months back. Hey I've got a couple of guys staying at my apartment tonight anyway, and we could use a fill in for our Pathfinder game tonight if you wanna stick around, Atlanta's about Two hours away before the roadblocks, but I can tell ya a good way in tomorrow.
Settling in at Brent's apartment, Blut finds himself with little to do before the festival that weekend, which he had already registered his booth at without issue.
"Hey man, don't suppose you wanna come play Pathfinder on campus with us tonight? Beats sitting around here twiddling your thumbs."
"Hm. I've got a dozen different character ideas I can play with. This isn't something that has to be... mechanically fine-tuned, right? I'm terrible at doing anything aside from making a character memorable. What's the group need?"
(You mean knowledge: Nope, right?)
Sure, Brent. If you don't mind dealing with a newb.
Zoey entered the student center with her pathfinder books finding the table her DM was at she'd sit down and begin arranging her papers to level her character.
As you all make it to the Pathfinder Game that night, everything seems normal, perhaps even oddly quiet around campus. Brent has you all meeting in the basement of Forrest Hall in a conference room. He explains why he has invited extra people tonight, a little idea he had for running a section with certain spirits being bound to the PC's.
Taru had wound up using a ranger concept, who went sword and board, and focused on using ample combat-reflexes opportunities to shore up her ally's defenses whenever she was nearby and they were attacked... oh, how he dreamed of going Mythic with that particular build. Making yourself the only target that was even remotely reasonable would be fun... but alas.
Ary, the Iomedean Ranger was a favorite from a campaign that had failed to launch. Maybe one day she'd find a real home.
Blut has only read the books. I imagine he wants to do something complicated, but gets talked in to a simpler blaster wizard. He probably asks a lot of questions.
Zoey would have set up her own little area on the table with her books and sheets, she would look over her class and rules rather than talk unless someone spoke to her.
"So... what's everyone's major, and why?" Taru asked from behind a small stack of graphic novels, ticking off his damage taken on a pair of d10s that he kept on top of the books to keep himself from accidentally rolling them, to show the damage he'd just taken.
Zoey was still looking over her notes while she answered.
"Graphic Design, Getting paid to draw seems like a dream job."