It's all fun and games until you had to hack into the gaming servers and maybe redirect some of the strain to some government servers that definitely could see better use ... ... which is something Fenelle might have attempted if dee hadn't managed to slip into the cracks of the overloaded server by sheer fortune. (But the idea lingers in der mind, wondering if this would be considered an effective cyber attack ... might be worth a try to run by superiors.)

But that's just about where their luck ends as they met up with fellow office sufferer and gamer ahpletuni. The queue to the new dungeon is packed so they resigned themselves to killing monsters and time while waiting for one of those fellow terminally online gamers to please log off, thank you. Dee is tempted to hack into gaming servers again as post-combat chatting distracts der typing fingers.

Der ingame avatar of bakingfeuille turns to der partner as der weapon is put away - a classic bow - and dee assumes a thinking stance.

Maybe ... just don't wanna waste the time waiting either, but the new loot is looking hella rad.
Also don't know if I got time tomorrow honestly, so might wanna do now... they're dragging me out for a long errand this time ........

In this virtual world, der actual Porygon is floating besides dem, but it's honestly incredibly useless in a fight. Nonetheless, Fenelle mirrors Adele with patting the top of its head. Unfortunately, with the lack of the other 5/6 of the braincell, the Porygon proves fairly useless, but still amicable company.

Which weapon do you mean?
But if we queue up, I need to switch bo
oh ****

Fenelle lags through the drawing bow animation while something comes into existence behind der team mate. The music, unbeknowst to Fenelle, only picks up sometime after the Giganatamax'ed Duraludon appears a mere feet apart from them.

Seems like they didn't even have to go to the new dungeon - part of the new update just came to them, as the game caught up to real life and introduced Kaiju-sized pokémon as rare raid drop. And, as luck would have it, they're the only ones for quite some ingame miles.

adele veronesi

a twitch of a frown curves on their lips.

fingertips stall over the keys again. they didn't know people still even used hella. "YEAH, ME TOO." enter, typing, backspace, backspace, backspace. their caps key still won't unstick. another thing to replace. also another thing that's annoying but not impossible: something to fix but at the back of their to-do list. an endless, endless to-do list. "ANOTHER ERRAND?" a harder enter, pause, then they keep typing. less accusatory, less judgmental.

dee works for a stupid company.

adele does too.

just with more government clearance checks.

their chatot preens on the perch just beside them in reality. "DIDN'T YOU JUST GET BACK?" a breathless laugh to themself as they hastily type out their next message. "THEY MIGHT AS WELL JUST STRAP YOU TO A CORVIKNIGHT AT THIS RATE. HOPING THEY AT LEAST PAY FOR TSA PRE-CHECK." complaint is easy to lapse into when they get the chance to talk as adele disregards what they can only assume is more lag until a lone message pops up on bakingfeuille's behalf: oh ****. they don't even get to turn before the game unfairly lapses back into real time and the hulking quadruped behind them takes a heavy swing.

their avatar goes flying across the map, conversation exchanged for their glaive as they catch themself mid-air but manage to do little else to stifle the blow. their health was—well, it'd be fine. a couple of powders or potions. radial menu opens and they lock into an animation, scattering orange dust to boost their defense. "REGRETTING NOT LEARNING HAMMER + AX TREE NOW TBH" it would've been one thing if they were at least fighting a hariyama or something. tanky, but not impossible. a duraludon? they wish they had their webcam on. at least they could. mouth it or something.

could dee lip read?

"DO U RMBR WEAKNESSES?"

their messages get sloppier as adele maneuvers their avatar to skirt the monster's periphery to draw its attention. they weren't really built to be a tank. but, if it got its hands on the bow user of the two of them: they might as well just log out for the day.

et09XapM

Fenelle Miller

Fenelle activates the grimacing emoji and then the nod emoji at ahpletuni's chat messages, before typing, \ene/ as replacement for the throw hands motion that still doesn't exist.

Yep. Seems like they fully forgot I'm not a sales and marketing intern at all, or they really don't do all that much planning.

Dee knows it's been meetings and more meetings that no one could afford any translation for, and dee would surely not provide any improvements either- it's not like dee hasn't specifically picked the firm for these exact reasons, but no one knows that.

Conversation is cut short at the sudden appearance of one of the new raid bosses, which technically should only spawn when there were at least ten players around. Well, this could be another bug report - or an opportunity. bakingfeuille is flung across the map, but gladly still lands somewhat close to der team mate, giving Fenelle some time to think and type.

fire. water too prbly. if it's like irl.

Fenelle boosts speed instead of defense, retreating behind der more tanky team mate. Dee opens the menu, picking out der water splash arrows and lining up a shot-

Too late.

It's a truly horrifying sight to have your entire screen be covered silver, as the impossibly large asset moves across the screen with slow, but massive movements.

we need hide

adele veronesi

boss vs bakingfeuille
4erdd_TF

fire and water? great, so it would be their luck that they have neither of those weapons on hand.

did they even have the phials for their—well, it'd have to do. it was their mistake for having brought something specialized for flying-specialized moves when they could've just as easily have wielded something a bit hardier. maybe even having a few barrel bombs would've been useful for blast damage. fireworks, if they'd kept any from the last event, to distract it—the earth rumbles beneath them as the duraludon lurches forward, the shine of the game's virtual sun gleaming off of the glossy windowpanes that composed its body.

silver comes in a gasp, the sound of the steel beast thrumming with energy as the blast skirts the field and sends bakingfeuille aback again, arrow nocked but not flying even as their avatar holds their position.

the warning to hide is lost in the motion, adele locked into their attack animation as glaive strikes the ground and volleys them through the air. the duraludon howls as its gaze tries to follow where it cannot. clouds of colored smoke appear and damage numbers flash: small, negligible. 30. 40. 41. 23. the beast swings in search of its would-be assailant, its head swinging to graze them just as their attack lands.

their avatar hits the ground, a little worse for the wear but pathetically less than their newfound opponent.

they glance only then at the messages.

"too late" they hastily type back, watching to see if the ground lights up with any precursor to a larger, more dangerous move. "barely made a dent can you hold it off while i switch weapons"

bwOtyAYL

Fenelle Miller

Maybe they should go into a voice chat for the text-to-speech option - dee has enough screens and keyboards to run that technically without having to leave the game and juggling weirdly. However, dee generally prefers what dee can also verify, and ... dee would actually need to look up if you can have TTS and mute activated because dee is not about to have background noise dee won't realise in the background.

... but that's all later thoughts as this raid boss is kicking their ass hard.

**** *** ***** **** *** ***** ******

Der flurry of swears is swiftly censored, and dee would need to chase that backlog later to delete it from the system - can't have dem be banned on account of swearing. However, right now, dee focuses, nodding at ahpletuni's messages and giving the quickest thumbs-up.

b

With der speed boosted, dee moves way faster than before, being able to actually fire an arrow this time. It pierces one of the glass windows, and dee sees the faintest splash ... inside. Hopefully this had done anything. Dee quickly follows that up with more arrows, now having them arranged in a volley just to distract the boss. And sure enough, it would lock on der avatar.

That's a goddamn terrifying sight.

And it's even more terrifying to see your avatar actually squished as dee pulls every control to escape as quickly as possible - that looks like a wipe.

adele veronesi
boss vs. bakingfeuille
4xuC9a4d vs.

when dee gives them the go ahead, they send off a signaling flare and their avatar catches onto a passing corviknight by a swinging hook.

once they disappear back to camp, adele quickly switches through their loadouts in search of something—heavier. something with water? fire? that's what dee said. they wish they had anything even close.

blast might've been their only option. ( not even an actual pokemon type, which is hilarious. actually. )

outloud, adele curses that they didn't spend more time preparing their weapons and armor for the update, given what they knew. but, this'd been a glitch from as far as they could tell: it wasn't supposed to be here anymore than either of them were supposed to be fighting it.

didn't change that they were going to anyway.

hopefully, at least, as long as dee didn't get flattened like a pancake before they got back to the map.

they watch the health bars with a cautious eye and their heart catches in their throat when they see bakingfeuille's slide back just slightly while theirs steadily recovers. potions are swiftly gathered, skills changed out, bombs acquired: adele hastens back to the newfound arena as the creature remains fixated on dem. as it works to crush the archer, they load into an animation only to fail at the last second when the duraludon moves out of the way. its hitbox, along with it.

another hurried message:

"do u have any ideas"

"this isnt working"

"iddr if any traps around"

C1Vtvg8l

Fenelle Miller