stained_glass_threads and Peter
Discovery Town, Central Plaza
Affected RPers:

Laura squinted, scrutinizing the Adventurer Team Job Request Board. Her options were limited, true, but she still didn't want to screw up her first mission. To her knowledge it wouldn't have adverse effects, just losing her nonexistent money stash and a few items she didn't currently possess(so basically, nothing really), but it still seemed embarrassing to her. She wasn't the best of competitive battlers, her usual strategy in tougher dungeons is trying again and again and again as her level increased bit by bit until she finally was strong enough to brute force her way through the dungeon.

She finally picked out a request, turning to Peter and smiling at him as she handed it to him so he could check it out as well. "How 'bout this one? Get to the end of Static Savannah, and fight the boss there. Gives me a pretty good advantage, so it should be a breeze!"

Peter nodded. "Sounds good, you ready?"

Laura nodded, and the two headed towards the path to the Mystery Dungeons, only for the cubone to pause when she heard concerned muttering from other players. Curiosity pricked at her, and she checked the usernames and team name of a nearby worried team as she approached them: Team Sharpwind, composed of Strikestorm the scyther, and Charcold the torchic.

"Eh, hi there," Laura spoke up as the two looked at her. "I'm stained_glass_threads, but if you want you can call me Glass-- is there something I missed?"

Charcold seemed to be calmer and more composed than his partner, and therefore spoke up. "There seems to have been a-- a bug in the system, or something. Not many people noticed it at first, but," he thought for a second on how to phrase what he wanted to say, before slowly and deliberately speaking "No one seems to be able how to log off."

Laura blinked.

"That's simple! Check the Khangaskhan Rock outside the Keep to Save and log off," Peter said, automatically.

Charcold squinted at Peter, before identifying the charmander as an NPC and sighing. "Many people have tried that. No one's seen it. And before you ask, the menu's not working either."

Laura blinked, starting to feel her heart in her ears. No log out. That meant no way off. That meant, that meant--

She dropped her bone, placing her hands over her forehead and shutting her eyes. No. No meltdowns, no panic attacks. She couldn't do that here, she couldn't do that couldn't couldn't--

She flinched away when she felt someone touch her, only so see Charcold had tried putting his stubby wing on her in an attempt to calm him down. She flashed him a strained smile. "I'm fine," she muttered. "I-- um... Is there, uh... Did they tell someone? I mean... What does that even mean, can't log out? Can't I just-- just take off my headset? Can't I just turn off the game? I--i can stand t-taking the quiz again, not like anyone here's made a lot of progress! Right? J-just a game, even if they did!"

Laura noticed Strikestorm was close to tears. That made her feel a bit better, oddly enough. She wasn't the only one close to flipping out.

Charcold sighed. "You're new to this, aren't you?"

"I'm not a noob! I've played all the PMD games before this one," Laura said.

"No. Sorry if I came off sounding... Uh-- I meant new to this technology. It's not that simple. In order to turn the power off, you need to log out, which brings you to the game selection and power switches. And just taking the headset off... Well, you can't really move your body around in games, because if you do you might accidentally fall down a flight of stairs while trying to move your character, and end up in a lawsuit with Nintendo. So that's out of question."

Laura closed her eyes. Breathe in through your nose, hold, out through your mouth. For sixteen beats.

"...They're going to fix this, right? They've got to notice, they've... they've got to, they've got to--"

She cut herself off. Breathe. In, hold, out.

"It's hard not to notice people not waking up," Charcold assured her.

"I... In the meantime... I guess we've got a lot to distract ourselves with..." Laura muttered. Distracting herself always helped improve her mood, and she had a whole new game to get lost in.

"They'll figure it out," the torchic assured her.

Laura nodded. She turned to Peter, opening her eyes. "...Um. Could we... just wait ten minutes before that mission? We can try exploring the town again..." she said.

Peter frowned. "I-- if you're nervous... I was excited about my first mission on a real adventurer team, but if you're not feeling up to it yet that's fine too!" A cocky grin returned to his face. "I've waited until now, I can definitely wait a little longer! Come on!"