[Athilea Majiri]

((Sorry it took so long. Been on a super cleaning spree that has left me exhausted.))

Calonia nodded and, before she fell over, stood to take the remainder of her food to the table. She had only eaten the apple and the bread. As she walked her feet would stretch out slowly to feel the floor before her before she took the step. It was apparent that she preferred not asking for help unless it was necessary.

When that was done she went back to the bed and laid down, "You will get no argument from me." She flashed the two a smile and to Mazin, "Rest well, or as well as this place is likely to let us." With that she curled on the bed, not bothering with the covers, and attempted to sleep. After a few minutes her breath came steadily enough that it was likely she had done just that.

In her motions to get comfortable her blindfold had slipped up, up slightly to reveal one of her eyes. It was sewn shut and horrible scarred. The way the lid rested over it, it looked as though the eye actually be missing.

[Shenandoah]

((It's perfectly okay. I totally understand.))

Mazin, as he began to settle down himself, glanced over and started when he saw the eye. "What th...!" His startled exclamation was cut off by Mike's hand.

"Let her sleep. And you sleep, too," Mike whispered so low, it was almost like he mouthed it.

"But!"

"In the morning," Mike quietly snarled, backing away and settling down in his own chosen corner. It was his only coping technique at the moment, insuring the children were okay. However, that responsibility ceased the moment Calonia was asleep and Mazin stilled. Then, the lack of having the interaction made way for having his own personal anxiety attack. He fought to keep quiet as to not wake them, working to strangle the whines in the back of his throat. He was completely out of his element here.

Unknown to him, Mazin was also having his own variety of a panic attack before he suddenly stilled completely at a single thought. 'I don't have to be worried about a shitty life anymore, he thought. 'Why do I need to try and get out? It's better here.' With his own attack quelled, Mazin was forced to listen to the odd sounds coming from Mike's direction as he watched the moonlight accented darkness before his still wide open eyes. He wasn't sure how long it was, but he soon fell asleep listening to those strangled sounds.

[Athilea Majiri]

((Thank you for understanding. And I had thought I already replied to this. -_-))

She tossed and turned more then a few times in her sleep. Her dreams took an unexpected turn and she felt trapped. As trapped as she was in The Game. Her mind returned to the moment they were trapped the pain that she felt before she collapsed.

Only a short time after she lay down the girl shot straight up in her bed. Had her eyes not been sewn shut they would have been wide opened. At first she did not realize where she was, but then the dreams proved themselves true when her memories rushed back in. The first thing she had on her mind was what they remembered, and if they felt that same pain.

Quietly, she ventured to talk. If they were asleep, she did not want to wake them, but she also felt a certain urgency in knowing the answer. "Are either of you still awake?"

[Shenandoah]

Mike started slightly when Calonia started upright, bumping against the wall slightly as she spoke. "I am," he responded, hearing the odd tone in her voice. On the floor, Mazin slept on oblivious to what was going on around him. The older man lifted himself up and came over to the young woman on the bed. "What's wrong?"

((Sorry the post is so short. I'm on my phone.))

[Athilea Majiri]

((It's okay hun. ^^))

She turned her head towards Mike's voice. "What do you remember...before you became trapped like us? The last thing you remember." Calonia did not explain further, not yet. She had to know what his answer was, to see if her suspicions were right. If they were, then perhaps that shared experience could bring them a step closer to finding out how they got trapped in the first place.

[Shenandoah]

Mike thought about it, settling onto the bed next to her. "I remember pain," he said slowly. He shook his head and backpedaled slightly. "I was working at my office, running diagnostics as per usual and you two came up. Mazin touched me and that was when the pain came."

He paused in his thoughts once more as more memory came to him. "After that it's a blur, but I think I saw something for an instant. It looked like a face, but it wasn't one I recognized. It was static-y looking, like a badly tuned in television. I don't remember any of the details, but..." He shuddered slightly. "Something tells me that whatever it was wasn't something I designed."

[Athilea Majiri]

((I am so sorry about this. I have been really sick the past couple of weeks. I've looked at the website, but I have had no energy to actually do anything.))

"A face? I..well I did not see anything like that." She chewed on her lower lip a bit before she spoke again. "I was just wondering if we all experienced the same thing and I distinctly remember pain."

Calonia fiddled with the fabric of her skirt some, still not quite able to believe that it felt so real. "I wonder what they are thinking, the doctors...our families? I wonder if they even expect us to wake up, and what our brain scans look like."

[Shenandoah]

((It's okay. I don't mind. And I'm trying to give this story some focus and a goal to work to other than 'let's get out of the game'.))

"I do remember quite a bit of pain... perhaps since you were blind in the game before anything happened, you didn't see this... face... or perhaps I am just imagining it," Mike said as he thought. "I wonder as well... I'm certain that they are more than perplexed. We did sort of go comatose without warning..." He grimaced. "I really do not want to know what they've done to our bodies while we're not mentally present." Oh, was he ever grateful that he was not conscious to worry about having a catheter inserted. That was painful from what he understood.

[Athilea Majiri]

She absently raked her fingers through her hair, "I don't think I want to know either. Of course I am sure they will tell us when...if we do ever wake up." The girl chewed on her lip for a moment before she continued, "Have there been any glitches in the game? Any odd anomalies in the programming recently?"

She was, after all, going to school for this sort of thing. Calonia wracked her brain trying to think of anything that could cause something like this to happen. Perhaps it was just how submersive the game itself was. If it was just her then she would think that it was just a hallucination of some sort. It could still be, but she didn't really think so.

[Shenandoah]

"Nothing beyond the usual infrequent issues. Mostly gold granting problems and trade issues. The biggest issues are usually user based or the headset of the user is malfunctioning or incorrectly hooked up," Michael said absently, searching his memories. Something popped up randomly. "There was this one incident not too long ago. A glitch, I suppose, though it never came up again. Apparently during an event being held in this beginner's town turned slightly crazy when monsters appeared in town, but didn't attack anyone and no one could attack them. They were low level, though, and didn't do much more than wander through the town, freaking people out. We didn't hear about it until after they had vanished. They hadn't reappeared again, so..." He shrugged. "We're keeping an eye out and we checked the code, but there was no record of the monsters appearing in this town. If I hadn't have had several playbacks of diligent players recording their progress remotely, I wouldn't have believed it."

[Athilea Majiri]

"I doubt that has anything to do with this, it is something that we should probably keep in mind though." She shrugs, "If something like that happens again then the result may not be the same for us because we aren't following the same rules anymore."

She leaned back against the headboard, still amazed by how real everything felt. Her head turned towards the breathing she could hear coming from Mazin. "I wonder if I could count this towards working experience if we figure out what happened? Assuming anyone believes us."

[Shenandoah]

Mike listened to her words. "I certainly hope not. I don't want to be an 'expert' when it comes to getting trapped in video games," he said with a snort. The panic attack from earlier was soothed back in his mind. At least with interaction from Calonia, he didn't have to worry about falling prey to his own fears. He could distract himself. Granted, she should be sleeping, but he was feeling a bit selfish at the moment and he didn't really want her to try to go to sleep again, if only for a little while.

"I just hope we don't come across more glitches to my system. If what happened a couple weeks ago is an indication of system failure, then we're really screwed... and possibly others are as well." A sudden thought occurred to him. "What if, with me going out of it, they close down the game?" he blurted out in sudden horror. "Three people losing consciousness, people will probably want the game shut down until it's safe... What would that mean for us?"

[Athilea Majiri]

She gasped audibly. Clearly she had not thought of this possibility. "I...I don't know. That would probably be bad news for us though." Calonia shook her head slowly, "That would likely be very bad for us. If we get trapped in the game while it's been shut off. I don't know that I want to think of that possibility."

[Shenandoah]

Mike nodded and sighed before looking out the window. "Sunrise," he murmured, seeing the noticeable lightening of the sky. "And we're not going to be very good at operating today thanks to being up all night." He had not had any sleep and, as a result, his eyes felt gritty. But after those disturbing thoughts, he wasn't sure if he wanted to sleep and have nightmares come to him.