that was you.

What kind of things lurked in a mine and attacked miners, anyway?

Catharsis wasn't really sure where to hang around, but a quest was a quest and rewards were good. He couldn't help but find himself hoping that kobolds weren't what was going to be thrown at them. That was, if an attack occurred while he was there, but with his luck that would need to happen for the quest to complete. He inhaled and almost immediately regretted it; why did the virtual reality have to extend to smell, really? He didn't ask for this. He was a good person. He didn't deserve any of this.

At the very least, he could not be here alone. He glanced around, eyes landing on some guy in a uniform. Huh. That seemed vaguely familiar, but he approached anyway with a smile and a wave. It wasn't until he got close enough to recognize him as someone from the absolute mess that was the spider raid, but he didn't falter. It took a moment longer for Cat to remember that he'd actually healed the guy. "Hey!"

That meant it wouldn't be bad if the other man recognized him, at least. Right?


kingrex 1/12

that was you.

The empath slowed in his gait as he neared, not sure what to think of the stranger. After all, it wasn't like he'd been in the position to talk the last time Catharsis had seen him. They hadn't exactly met, not really. When the man recognized him, the usual bright smile found its place on Ridley's face as he eased. It didn't falter when the man chirped at him for leaving. It wasn't exactly anything he hadn't told himself, after all. Instead, he shrugged, sitting nearby but not too close. "You're welcome."

As for leaving, he didn't feel the need to explain himself, instead glancing towards the cave for a moment while he listened. He laughed at the accusation. "Hey man, death is a commitment." After all, he loved himself. He wasn't about to run head first into a battle he knew he couldn't win. He glanced at the other guy, gaze flashing over him in a quick once over. "Let me guess; you're disappointed nothing's shown up yet." He didn't know how long the guy had been waiting, but he couldn't fault him for being bored as fuck. Just the other day Cat had felt like watching a movie only to be left peeling the layered irony in the problem with that desire.

"I'm Catharsis. Or Cat." He added, leaving it to hang in the air while he looked away. "How about you?"

kingrex 2/12

that was you.

Catharsis paused at the mention of griffins. Of course griffins would exist in the game. They didn't particularly frighten him, but somehow he was surprised they were a part of the game. Just how many different species existed in this BWO? It seemed pretty expansive, which was what had been advertised now that he thought about it. He shifted to watch the attacker again as he spoke, not really wanting to miss what he said.

The moment his name was called gay, Cat's eyes lit up and a laugh left him more genuinely that one had in a while. Wow, that was so negative. Nice. Hopefully, there was more where that came from. He faltered some when Carlo told him his real name. It seemed ... soft. Almost vulnerable? Catharsis' eyes shone for a moment. This guy was probably a veritable gold mine as far as energy was concerned.

He glanced after the npc interaction. For a moment, he considered that it probably hinted at some kind of buildup, if anything did. Especially with Carlo's comment that it was the most exciting thing to happen the entire time he'd been there. It didn't really catch his attention, though. His smile twisted into a bit of a smirk when the near stranger pressed the issue. "If I didn't know any better I'd think you were worried about me, Carlo." Laughter curled around a tone that ran a little too sharp. It didn't take long, however, for him to relent and roll his eyes, glancing down at the mine again as he breathed out an answer. "Used to have one."

A frown touched his face as he glanced down into the mine the npcs were pouring into like water circling a drain. "We're not supposed to go after them, are we?" He asked. If he could, he'd rather fight things he could see. Catharsis had absolutely zero confidence in the lighting down in the mines past the immediate entrance, but then he was a pessimist. Always had been.

kingrex 3/12

that was you.

Catharsis believed, without a hint of irony, that he was a good person who did good things ... or, at least, only ever inflicted negligible harm. It was because of this that, when the tremors struck, his first thought was I don't deserve this. He just wanted to be able to play a game without worrying about dying, okay, that would be nice. Even just a day off from this shit would be nice. Sure, he could camp out in origin town, but the problem with that was that he was bound to get stir crazy. For a moment, he was tempted to spout something about how strong he'd have to be to spawn disasters whenever he wanted to, but it sounded pathetic and whiny even in his head so he kept it to himself.

The empath scrambled back from the ledge, wondering in that moment why he'd even thought that would've been a good idea to sit there in the first place and unable to come up with an answer. He didn't bother to try to get up when the earth was shaking, and once it had cleared he was being pulled up by the attacker who had apparently latched onto him. He blinked once, but that made sense. It was good to keep a healer close, so it'd be mutually beneficial. "Yeah, sure, lead the way."

He paused at the sight of the rope but tried to tell himself that rope burn wouldn't be something that the devs would think to implement in the game just to get himself to follow the man's lead. It was with relief that he found out he was right, but he was more focused on keeping up with the attacker, fairly confident in this complete stranger's ability to not die as long as they weren't facing another overgrown spider with hundreds of children.

Then again, he wasn't exactly sure how small something that could literally cause tremors could be. The moment they were inside, he listened to the echo on some npc's screams, trying to gauge from it just how far down the destination of their enemy was.

Who was he kidding? This was going to suck.

kingrex 4/12

that was you.

Catharsis scoffed, keeping a close tail on Carlo. "Oh, trust me, I have no plans on charging in gung-ho." He sighed, hearing it echo into the cave. Damn, the simulation work was good. In a way, that was a relief considering they were all stuck in BWO. If the experience was sub par, that'd really be awful. "Just keep in mind that I need to be close to you to babysit your health properly. You go off without me, and we're both fucked."

He hummed under his breath, but it wasn't a light-hearted sound. "Something's bothering me." He said, glancing at the areas Rex's flashlight lit up. He almost wanted the guy to point it upwards, but he didn't know why. Remembering the other man's earlier comment about what he said causing things, though, he regretted mentioning it. "No, you know what, nevermind." He's seen this movie. He didn't want to be that character.

Still, the miners had said monster. Singular. So, one thing had made that tremor? He didn't like the sound of that, not for only having one attacker and no defender at all. "Maybe it was the miners that caused the tremor. Dug too deep, you know?" His tone was light, hopeful. Something he'd learned how to convincingly force a long time ago. That was something that happened, right? Of course, it'd mean that they'd subsequently released whatever solitary monster had caused everyone to run, which didn't make Cat any happier with the options his mind was presenting to him in the dark.

Up ahead, there was a sound he didn't recognize as anything beyond 'roar,' and the ground shook again with a series of crashes. Well, there went that idea. Cat jumped when an npc was thrown into the line of sight, crashing against the wall and slumping down. He barely was able to suppress the sound, annoyed at himself and hoping any noise he'd made had been drowned out by the cacophony erupting from the room below. "Fantastic," He griped, sarcasm lacing the word like poison.

kingrex 5/12

that was you.

It was really, really hard to stifle the laugh over Rex's reaction to his catty comment, but the scenery sure helped. Ever since the npc body was thrown at him, he was a bit quiet. The moment his companion nudged his head towards the part of the tunnel the body had come from, Cat frowned but went on ahead following him. This was a bad idea. If the soldier had agreed, he would've gone ahead and left right then and there. Player lives over npcs and even, painfully enough, loot and all that jazz.

But, no, Cat's life could never be that easy, could it? Not once. Not even in a game.

Normally, he'd play it cool, valuing his life over getting lost in emotions and finding strategy to be better than anything. But something had been itching at him ever since he'd entered the cavern, hiking up his sense of anger or fear ever since they'd started investigating. Who knew. Maybe the party member's own state of mind was rubbing off on the Empath, or maybe he was just worn down by the entire situation.

When he actually saw into the cavern that had been opened up, Catharsis just frowned and squinted. Whatever Rex had said was drowned out by the boiling rage that sizzled over, and not at all getting the memo that whispering might have been a good idea, the guy just rolled his eyes and hissed, "What the fuck's this?" Waving with his free hand to the scenery and then the monster, Catharsis scoffed. "What absolute neckbeard actually took the time out of his life to come up with-"

Apparently, he was being loud enough that he caught the attention of whatever that ugly ass thing was supposed to be called, he didn't actually know or care given that they were going to kill it. He honestly wasn't actually done talking, pointing directly at the thing and starting some kind of sentence with an, "And you-" But whatever point he was about to try to make was shortly drowned out when the thing stood to its full height and started roaring at him - fuckin rude - but to anyone with observation skills that ... hadn't actually stopped Catharsis from talking even if nothing he said could actually be heard.

kingrex 6/12

that was you.

Carlo's hitting him in the arm with a rifle just might have snapped Catharsis out of most of his rage, but looking at the monster as it lumbered into the light still made him angry enough that the companion's own fear and anger didn't really overtake him. That said, the distraction from his tirade probably got the man to pay enough attention to remember that, yes, in this game he should probably think to dodge. It mattered, and so on and so forth.

That didn't mean just looking at the monstrosity didn't fill him with rage. He barely got out of the thing's way in time, stumbling and nearly topping into one of those oozing pools. Disgusting trash design, that's what it was. Anyone could take away eyes and just add on more arms. It occurred to him that someone probably got paid for that design, and he just got angry all over again. Please.

At least the rage ate away some at nausea and the fear, so Catharsis didn't really do anything to dissuade the feelings of absolute hatred as he backed up to keep within the vicinity of the partner who was probably pissed at him. He could care about putting up with the aftermath - probably in the form of Who's Fault is it Anyway - later. Y'know, if they both lived. For now, he stumbled to find his footing as one of the monstrosity's many arms was shot right off. Well, at least that was one less thing to worry about, but the problem was that his only real attacks were close range. He looked at the thing a little closer than he would have liked for the whole second that he considered it. Yeah, no thanks.

On the bright side, he had been left with plenty of fuel for healing. As the thing rose (somehow, considering the anatomical inaccuracies Cat was more accurately aware of than he'd like to be) and turned towards them, he wasn't sure it would be enough. "My bad." Catharsis finally said through the closest thing he could currently reach to calm in that moment, still a bundle of nerves and irritation. It was probably the closest Carlo was going to get as far as an apology, to be honest. It might just be the closest Cat had been to an apology that year.

kingrex 7/12