This thread is for Hiroko-Kun and Myself.
Read if you'd like.

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Lacey was nearly jumping out of her shoes when she saw the package in front of her apartment. It was finally here. First blade. The first VR game anyone would play in this world and she had gotten to do this because she was one of the biggest fans of the game. There had been a regular version of it out and now they were beta testing the VR part of it. Snatching up the package, she ran into her apartment and started shoving things out of her way in her haste to open the package. The headset was in there and all of the components she needed to attach to her laptop. Grabbing it she booted it up and set the game up as quickly as possibly. Sitting on her comfy couch she slipped the headset on and smiled at the title screen.

An assassin on the left and a Templar on the right. She decided that the assasin's were better anyway and had always played as one. Designing the character to look just like her she entered the name Rae Mortaletti. Smiling she waited for the screen to change. It went black and then she was standing in the middle of a city that looked similar to an ancient Rome. Standing on the top of a dome-like building she peered down into the crowd and then jumped down into a near by alleyway. Her hood covered her face and her hidden blade was strapped to her wrist just like in the original game. Except everything in here felt real.

Taking a breath she scanned her surroundings and stopped when a beginners manual popped up in front of her. It had brief explanations and pictures of each person in the game and how they might act if they figured out who she was. For now Templar's were her only problem. The menu closed and she headed the way the assassin's guild was. If she wasn't mistaken then this game would be similar to the other one and she'd have to get her jobs from assassin's who were higher up than her. The first Npc she reached asked her if she wanted to take a job. "Yes I would like a job." She replied to him. His name was Fredric. He wanted her to deliver a couple of letters around the city. Accepting the job she turned around.

Thinking for a minute she turned her thoughts on the maps she remembered following. After continually coming up with blanks she looked around for the men dressed in mostly armor and went up to one of them. "Excuse me, do you know where the capital building is?" She asked currently staring at the man's back. She didn't lift her eyes so that she wouldn't be found out. As far as she knew this guy was supposed to know all the directions.

Olivier wasn't used to actually having to have fun to do his job. But, he wasn't going to complain. Nope. If his boss wanted him to spend hours playing in a virtual reality world he'd wanted to get into and use for years, then so be it. He'd do it, and do it with pride. And the usual dorky attentiveness that he gave every video game he worked on or played with. It was what he was used to, and that was going to change just because he was being paid to do it. Instead, he had double the enthusiasm to do this!

In First Blade though, he wasn't the hyper pervert that he was normally. Nope, he tried to be suave and handsome. He wasn't pale, instead he was tanned. Black hair? Nope, it was straight and blond. He figured it was what women wanted seeing how nobody liked to talk to him. Maybe it was because he wore glasses? But they weren't thick ones! They were normal, thin, black glasses that he thought made him look better. Nonetheless, women obviously wanted the blond he-man and he figured that was what a Templar would look like anyways. So, he logged into the game and started up right where he'd saved, at the nearest inn.

He walked outside, greeting one of the NPC guards as he walked by. He may be run by a computer, but he was real enough and knew how to interact with players. He liked that he could be alone and around people at the same time. There were only the beta testers on right now, the few lucky people who'd managed to snag their prototype systems. Then there were the people like Olivier, or rather, Adir. A grin spread across the man's tanned face as he turned to speak with another guard who gave him daily updates on the assassin's movements.

When he heard a voice speaking to him, he turned his head and saw a girl speaking with him. A player, obviously. He couldn't see the username because they'd turned that off to make it seem more real, but who else would ask for directions? Though, he could tell they were a new player. And they were looking for the capital building? That was the first mission for the assassin's. Hmmm, he could easily take this girl in. Or, have fun and seduce her to jail. It was a hard choice. "Well, miss," he said, turning fully around to eye her. Cute, so much so he felt his heart racing despite being in the game. "I don't think you want to be asking me for any help." A sly grin appeared on his lips as he leaned down, grasping her arm and pulling her towards him. "Templars are the enemy, don't you know?"

Lacey noticed a little to late that he wasn't the Npc she was looking for and her eyes roved over him for a moment. The man had a lot of armor on and he looked almost exactly the same as the picture she'd seen a few moments ago when the game showed her the Npc's. Lacey scowled as he grabbed her arm. No doubt she'd be arrested or something similar to that. Luckily she'd been given some rusty but usable weapons when she logged on. Then she thought better of it. Fighting here would draw attention to her and she had just started. As she thought she experimentally pulled her arm trying to get away from him.

It seemed he didn't plan on letting her go. And he was tall. Not regular tall, more like she was a little house and he was the tower sitting next to the little house. Scowling she looked him over again. Blond and blue eyed, he looked like some guy that wanted to be with the skinny model girls. "I'm not an idiot." She growled at him. Already deciding she was never going to ask for directions again. Though all the npc's around them seemed to ignore them she was sure they would start interacting with the players if trouble started brewing. The trouble she was stuck in now was almost laughable. Almost.

"So, Mr. Super model what are you going to do with a girl like me?" she asked him questionably her eyes narrowing on the hand that gripped her arm. At the moment her only wish was that she could get free and actually act like an assassin instead of a new player. Obviously he was either a really well built Npc or a person. She was leaning towards person at the moment because a lot of the Npc's had slight accents and so far he didn't. "Oh, and I believe your correct, I don't want to ask you for help, and I won't make that mistake again." Lacey added the last part of her statement as a whisper to herself.

She took in a look of her surroundings trying to notice people in similar clothes to hers. If she could find other assassins then she'd be able to get away from the Templar without many problems she was sure.

Adir's blue eyes narrowed at the girl. She could say she wasn't an idiot, but he was an obvious, high ranking Templar. He was wearing all steel armor with the white tunic over it. The red cross on the front was a blaring beacon to every assassin to stay away. The girl was obviously reading the NPC list wrong. It did show a guard like his character, but he was wearing a green cross to show he was used for help purposes. It was probably a good idea to make them more distinguished from the Templars, but they worked together and wouldn't want to be that way. The only difference was that he, as a Templar, worked for the church directly instead of the ruling family of the city.

"You certainly aren't an idiot for speaking with a Templar," he said, a grin on his lips as he laughed. He could be an ass, but he was at least allowed to enjoy the sights in front of him. "And while flattering, zhis iz just a game character. Hardly supermodel material. But, I'll be sure to let Karl know you enjoy the art. Meanwhile, you will wish you didn't run into me as a new player." A hint of his French accent came out, something he wasn't used to trying to hide. But, Karl had wanted voice chat to be the player's real voice, not a simulated one. Easier to catch those freaks who play the opposite gender.

Tugging her arm, Adir turned around and headed towards the jail. You got more money and experience if you killed them, but he felt like being nice to the girl. Being new and all. So, he instead just went ahead and started to take her towards the jail. He was high enough level from playing the Beta for weeks. "Now, what iz your name? I wonder if it so fits the cuteness of your character."

Lacey bit her lip to keep from yelling at him. He was laughing at her literally laughing and he wasn't trying to hide it. Lacey's Irish accent was quite clear in her speech when she decided to start yelling at him. It hadn't been like she'd been trying to hide it before but it came out a lot more when she was angry. "Don't laugh at me! And I'm not flattering you! Blond supermodels suck! They cheat on all kinds of woman just, because they can." While Lacey hadn't been in a lot of relationships she had been in one where she'd been the top jock's girlfriend in high school.

The only reason he had even asked her out was because she was different than almost all of the other girls in school. She hadn't pulled down her pants for every guy that walked her way. When he said that he'd talk to someone outside of the game she gaped at him. He was a human. Then she back tracked again. He sounded french or at least a little. It was like he was trying to hide his accent. Why? "Why are you hiding your accent?" She asked him anger dripping from the words. Lacey never liked it when people tried to hide something that was a part of them. And yet she was a hypocrite, Lacey would never tell him her name.

When he started tugging her forward she tried to pull back. Unfortunately females were naturally weaker than men. Something that irritated her greatly. The fact that all he had to do was grab her arm and drag her to the nearest jail only made her dislike him more. "Rae Moratelli." She answered without even thinking about it. "Wait, that's not the important part!" Bringing her head up she looked him in the eye. "Fight me, If I win I go free, if not you can haul me to jail or where ever else you want to take me." Her voice lowered a bit at the end so that she wouldn't draw everyone's attention.

Adir raised one perfect eyebrow at the girl, wondering just what had gotten her panties in a bunch. Or, rather, lack thereof. They didn't have panties during this time period, and they'd programmed it to be as real as possible. So, even he was running around with a severe lack of undergarments. Not that he minded. Nobody else would wear his armor or clothing. Still, for this woman to say that blond supermodels cheat was rather judgmental. He'd known a brunette one that had cheated all the same. "Blond's aren't the only ones who cheat," he snapped. "And I am hardly a real blond."

His formed shimmered a bit, growing a little shorter and changing completely. He was completely the opposite now, with short black hair that curled like crazy, pale skin that would probably glow in the darkness, and blue eyes changed to green. He narrowed said green eyes, and smirked. "Zhis better? And you too would hide your accent if you were a man, living in America, talking like zhis." He turned his head, continuing to drag the girl. She was trying to get herself free, and it wasn't working out that easily. Besides, the assassin's base stats weren't put into strength. They were more in agility and things of that nature.

Rae? Cute. Probably not real though. "Adir de Beaumont," he answered. "And why should I fight you when I already have you?" That would just end up making her mad. Her stats were so low, they would hinder her fighting. And he had a real doubt that she'd ever actually trained in combat of any sort. Olivier, however, had once trained in karate. He wasn't good, but anything had to be better than whatever training she'd had. If he'd use weapons, she'd also get skewered. Playing this game for the time he had so far had taught him enough about sword fighting that he could easily best her. He thought so, anyways. "Now, come quietly and zhis will be all over and quickly. I wouldn't want to hurt a pretty face."

She opened her mouth again to attack him verbally and then his form changed. It sort of shimmered out of view and then came back into view. Her breath caught in her throat. How could he think that a blond supermodel was as good as this. Rae clenched her teeth to keep her jaw from dropping wide open. She realized to late she'd sucked in a surprised breath and that she could feel her own eyes eating him up. Looking away from him she blushed. Her mind had went to really bad places after his form changed. Was this the real him? If so she didn't understand why he'd looked the other way. It hadn't fit him at all.

Then she wanted to smack him. "Yes that's better." She said her anger sparking to life again. "And no I wouldn't hide, because if I did it wouldn't be me." Her voice was raising higher and higher as she spoke. Generally she hated losing her temper, but he was pushing her over a cliff! Seriously he couldn't make the situation much worse unless he killed her character! "I didn't ask for your name! Let me go! Right now!" she said giving up not attracting attention. If she had to get out of this by drawing several people into it then she would.

Thinking of the self defense moves she learned in one of her college classes she rammed her foot into his. Without seeing if it affected him she rammed her hand into his elbow trying to free her own arm. "Quietly!" She started a string of gaelic calling him any number of names that he probably wouldn't understand. Rae understood this and still continued to curse him to eternal damnation anyway. A ton of the Npc's were staring at them and Rae didn't take in not a one of their horrified, or excited expressions. She was trying to get away from Adir and his infuriating ways.

Adir raised one perfect little black eyebrow, looking curious at the girl. Why, if he didn't know any better, he'd say Rae was admiring him. That was a new one. Most people looked at him and looked away quickly. Then again, he wore glasses in reality because of staring at screens for most of his working life and childhood. Without the glasses, he guessed he looked better. Or at least good enough for a pretty girl to stare at him.

She'd been pretty, up until she opened her mouth to yell again. Was this just her favorite past time or something? No woman had ever yelled at him this much. Scratch that, his mother yelled at him this much. While she was happy to yell about it not being her if she hid something, the girl was obviously not walking in his shoes. He worked on games for a living, looked more girlish than he liked to admit, and talked in an accent that sent all the girls he'd attempted to talk with into a fit of giggles. The men were just as bad! If he hadn't taken speech lessons, he wouldn't be able to pretend he was American. While she was proud of her accent, he wasn't so much the same.

"No, but it iz polite to give your name when given another person's. Now, would you quit trying to hurt me! I'm in full armor and you, ma chère, are not. And pleaz speak English! I cannot understand a word you're trying to tell me." Adir glared, hating it when he couldn't understand something. He'd mastered two languages, and even computer coding. It bothered him when he couldn't understand another language at all. His green eyes glanced to the side, noticing that he guard NPC he'd been speaking with had an amused look on his face. "You are not allowed to speak," he warned, earning him a hearty chuckle from the man. NPC or not, it wasn't easy to tell by the way he interacted with Adir. Shaking the girl's arm, he turned to face her again and huffed. "Stop it! Thiz iz madness and futile!"

Neither her verbal abuse nor her physical, although not that effective, attacks hadn't done much, but make him yell had her pausing. "I'm not trying to speak to you in gaelic! Besides if your trying to get a date this is a really bad way of going about it! This is not how you treat a woman!" Her indignant screech had probably been heard for miles. Biting her lip she felt her face heat up even more as people glanced their way. They were computers, that's it they wouldn't remember this since they were Npc's. She'd played games long enough to know that they generally never knew what was going on. They just gave advice and missions and such.

"This is so not right." She grumbled now dragging her feet as they walked through the city. "Hot men are not supposed to treat woman like this." Her words were directed more at herself. "Especially hot men with sexy eyes." She growled at herself. The moment she noticed she was speaking out loud her hand flew over the top of her mouth and she stared at the ground now instantly interested in the bits of dust that seemed to come off of the ground while they walked. Lacey really hated they way she spewed information sometimes. It was never relevant information more of her secret inner thoughts information.

Like the fact that she thought the man lugging her to jail had the sexiest green eyes she had ever seen. "Oh my god, I'm crazy." she muttered to herself. She didn't even know if he looked like that. Her legs felt like jello beneath her as she peeked at him and then quickly looked back at the ground. "Is that what you actually look like?" She asked him curiously. "I mean do you actually look like that in real life?" She asked him resisting the urge to touch his hair and run her hands through it. "You know what never mind just get me to the slammer already I'm becoming delirious." She muttered. "Maybe I'm not at home and this is a dream, Oh Anna's going to kill me." Lacey moaned.

Try to get a date? He hadn't thought about that. She was an assassin, but a cute one. And the last time he'd been on a date, real or not, had been so long ago he couldn't remember who the girl had even been. Or if it was a girl. He wasn't so sure most of the time if his friends were straight or not since a lot seemed to like asking him to hang out. With nobody else with them.

Adir kept working, but when he heard Rae, he stopped dead in his tracks. Sexy? Hot? Oh, he liked those adjectives. It had been years since he'd heard that from someone who wasn't obligated by friendship to tell him it. He turned his head, the green eyes in question looking over the girl as she muttered to herself and looked to be attempting to hide. Sure, the girl was talking to herself, but who didn't do that? In his life, Olivier had to have done that more than was probably good for him. "Do I?" he repeated, keeping a grip on her arm as his free hand moved to his face, fingers running over his lower lip in thought. He was just playing with her, like a cat did a mouse before devouring it.

"Well, I do, but it iz not completely me. I must wear glasses. I have worked in front of screens all my life and, alas, it has ruined me." He shrugged like it was nothing dramatic, and he instead went ahead and leaned down, putting his face close to the girl's. "Do you look like zhis? And who iz zhis Anna?" Adir was asking a lot of questions, but then again, he was curious. And, he didn't really care to listen when it came to things like privacy. Besides, he could easily take her to jail in a few minutes. Interested in this meant he wasn't going anywhere just yet.

Lacey ran straight into him when he stopped walking because she hadn't been paying attention. Pulling away from him she froze when he said two words. It was a question and she did not want to answer it. If she could see her own face right now she'd say that she was probably showing him her deer in the headlights stare. She knew her mouth was hanging open and that she was now staring at him while her face turned as red as her own hair. "I...I....You...." The words she was going to say or even wanted to say didn't come out. The only thought she was currently having was that she must look like an idiot blubbering in front of this hot man.

He was in no way perfect but she liked just about everything she saw and when he started running his finger over his bottom lip she started imagining very bad things. Shaking her head she closed her mouth and figured angry was better than stupid, staring, stalker-like person. "Stop that!" She whispered fiercely. Lacey figured she was acting this way because no man with all four limbs attached to him wanted to come within ten feet of a hot-tempered red head. Especially her. Her temper was well known even though she tried her best to hold herself back all the time.

She felt her face heat up even more when he told her that he wore glasses. Glasses made guys adorable and that only made her like him more. Getting a boyfriend would be on the top of her priority list after a couple hours playing this game. When he leaned towards her she felt her heart pick up speed and her breath hitch. "Yes I look like this...." She said a little nervous at how close he was. Lacey could feel his breath as it traveled over her skin. She shivered and then her mind registered the second part of the question. "My boss." The statement was said rather breathlessly as she tried to hold her more basic urges. Boy did she need a man.

Olivier watched her, finger still skirting over his lips. This wasn't very easy. But, it was extremely amusing to witness. The girl was trying her best to be defensive, but this couldn't be more fun to watch. The girl was determined to look fierce despite being caught mumbling about how hot he was. This was just delightful! It was better than he could have thought this would be. "Why should I stop?" he mused, finger still moving over his lower lip as he watched the girl. She looked so mad about this. Did she not fall for people's looks? If not, he could work with it. He was used to being called a pervert and a geek, but he was at least sure he could win with this. The girl liked how he looked, so why couldn't he work on his personality so that she would approve?

Wow, she looked like this? She looked this delectable? With her fiery red hair and beautiful, shining eyes. With emotions always playing on her face so that you could read her like a book? This, he liked. Olivier wanted to kiss her too, his eyes focusing on her lips. They were so luscious and tempting. What he wouldn't give to touch those lips daily because they were his and all his. To never have any other man touch them. "Delightful," he purred, a smile curling into place as he pulled away. So, she worried over her boss killing her? She must being doing something she wasn't supposed to be. Naughty, wasn't she? He liked that. He wanted to do a lot of naughty things to this little assassin himself. Sadly, it was still jail time for her. Maybe he could be her guard and talk to her more? This was all so interesting.

Turning, he pulled her gently along with him, grinning. This was so much fun, he couldn't help but continue it. "Now, do you have any questions for moi?"