Emily sighed deeply to herself as she sat alone in her room, her real world room, idly drumming her fingers on her desktop as she was deep in thought. Hellion and Kyoto were still a fair bit salty about the results of the Factional update, and both of them had flat out declined to even come in to see her newest plan for them. Not that she could really fully blame them, considering the over half a dozen times the previous attempts had backfired one way or another. On the other hand there also were not any real lasting consequences, so wasn’t it a bit of an overreaction of them to scream when she started to tell them and then run out the door? She might have even gotten more offended at their obvious excuse that they needed to go and help some new players clear out a new aggressive anthill, if it wasn’t for the fact that they were actually following through with that, and would be busy for the rest of the day clearing tunnels.
The blonde continued to sit in silence as she glanced at her computer and headset. The more she thought about things the more she felt like the pair were blowing the whole thing out of proportion. Yes they had encountered difficulties before, but surely it could not all have been just bad luck? They had to at least partially take responsibility for what happened to them, as it strained credulity that so much could go so wrong so fast. On the other hand, upon self-reflection Emily had to admit that she might not be looking at things from the right angle. She always had her full Super Admin powers available right at her finger tips, while Kyoto and Hellion were much more limited.
“Looking at things from the right angle…” Emily quietly spoke the words out loud to herself, something about them sticking in her mind something fierce. The programmer spun the phrase around in her head several times before it came to her in a flash of insight, a way to perhaps get a better perspective on things, literally. Like lighting the girl straightened up at her desk and woke up her computer, eyes flashing as she looked over her previous work. Checking and double checking things she selected the programming for emergency reduction that had resulted in Hellion’s poolside adventure, and made some simple modifications.
This time the creation and coding process only took an hour or two, mostly because the bulk of the work had already been completed in the past by her. Emily just needed to adjust the targeting parameters and ensure all of the triggers and timers were showing the correct values. Finally her latest work was complete, a single use item that would reduce her in-game avatar down to the size of a Tinykin. This way she would be able to experience her world the same way that Hellion did, and to make the experience as authentic as possible she was going to be disabling all of her Admin abilities, immunities and powers. Of course not being an idiot she also made sure that the effect would end after two hours time had passed, or if she should happen to die.
With everything set Emily made preparations to enter the game, firing off a quick text to Lucy and McKenzie about how she was going to be busy testing things for the next few hours and to not be disturbed. The girl even prepared herself to test out the new boon for Hellion and Kyoto herself, to prove that they were blowing things out of proportion. Just before she pressed the button to enter the game a spark of insight made her freeze, and she slowly thought about what she was about to do. More specifically she thought about that upgrade, and for once followed through on assuming a worst-case scenario.
The plan had been to grant Hellion/Kyoto an in game pet, a digital cat with basic AI that would seek to help and protect Kyoto loyally. Not very powerful or capable of true combat, it was programmed to seek out Tinykin and remove them, making areas safer for Hellion to be in. The trick was she had programmed it for Hellion/Kyoto, so if she Emily was in the same area as it when it was active, it would see her as just another Tinykin and react appropriately. That would end up…messy. In fact, while it was true she had registered Hellion as one of its owners, had Emily actually put in anything about that fact that would override its reaction to Tinykin? The admin stretched her mind but realized that she actually had not. “Well…consider THAT bullet dodged…” the girl said to herself before disabling the pet and THEN pushing the button to enter the game.
Briefly Emily considered conducting her test of what it was like to be a Tinykin out in one of the guild halls, but she discarded that idea after a few minutes thought. Her reasoning was two sides of the same coin, wanting to avoid trouble and not wanting to skew her results. It was to her just common sense to not turn herself into a near helpless tiny target within range of people who had been all but Pavlovian trained to smash things like that, which raised some interesting questions regarding why Hellion did it. On that note and the reverse side she wanted to prove that if you were smart and careful you could avoid danger even at this small size, and so if she went out asking for it then it would defeat the purpose of this test. As such Emily logged into the Admin area, and walked herself over to one of the more comfortable lounges before pulling out the item.
With it in one hand she opened up her menu and flipped over to the new page she had made for herself, the one dictating what size she would become, for how long, and the condition that death would end it no matter how long was left on the timer. She had even given herself a backup in the form of a delayed command to grant her Admin rights again. Should she end up stuck in two hours and five minutes she would be granted Super Admin status like she already had, and it was not a toggle so getting it when she already had it would not turn it off, instead just doing nothing. Using the item was as simple as giving it a firm squeeze, and in a flash of light Emily began to glow and shrink.
Emily had purposefully made the process a little slower, and so she was able to watch as the comfortable looking room expanded all around her bit by bit, and she could not help but feel excited. She really had a major interest in shrinking and giant mundane surroundings, which was part of the reason she had made the World Online the way she had. She had of course explored the schools and their grounds a bit as a part of the game, but between bug fixes, event planning, creating the special boons for her friend and searching for a way to restore him, she had not gotten the chance to see as much of this sort of thing as she would have liked. Perhaps that was part of the reason she was even willing to try this.
At last after a minute the glow around Emily stopped, and she was able to take in the enormity of the room. It was honestly a fairly small one, just a table, two couches, a television stand and other such furniture on carpeted floors, but for her now it was a stadium. The tables legs were like monoliths, and the couches vast edifices with dark shadowy undersides. One might worry about hidden insects under them, but contrary to the rumor started by the time Hellion had gone out in the near invincible armour Emily had no intention of actually making any “small” bugs, and beyond that she made sure no hostile mobs could spawn in the Admin area.
Emily walked around a bit on the carpet, taking the chance to look around with glee. Being under a canopy of grass or the vast open sky was always a treat, but getting to see massive furniture and carpeting up to her shins was a rarity and all the more valuable for it. The girl did not put much care in her path, wandering around the room away from the furniture out in the open. The temporary Tinykin was all grins as she looked around, and voiced out loud with confidence “I really do not see what Hellion's big problem is. This is amazing, and if he was just a little more careful than nothing could possibly go wrong.” That confidence took a rather major hit a few seconds later, and her smile grew slightly more forced when suddenly the door to the Admin area opened up wide.
Striding into the room with confidence was the less than expected figure of Sabrina, the older blonde followed and then flanked by McKenzie and Lucy. Emily had not been anticipating seeing Sabrina in particular because quite aside from the woman not having the most time to spend entering and “playing” the game the last Emily had heard Sabrina had been busy dealing with a complex issue at her mothers company. Her two friends and roommates were easier to explain, as there was nothing stopping them entering the game and playing without her, and they often did so, McKenzie more often than Lucy.
The miniaturized girl’s confusion at their presence was then echo’d by McKenzie, who asked “So anyway Sabrina, what did you want to see us about?” Emily was momentarily distracted from listening to the answer, as she was a bit more focused on the trio in front of her. Emily had seen enormous girls before obviously, it was nigh impossible not to do so when not all of the various student bodies were aware of the game and even the ones that did still had to go to classes and lived on campus, yet this time was different. Emily actually knew these girls, and gazing upon them from this lower angle sent small thrills up her spine.
Obviously Sabrina was front and centre in more ways than one, the tallest of them all and standing out from the other two because of her usual lab coat and skirt instead of the Admin uniform. She had a presence about her that spoke of confidence bordering on arrogance, and her pale face framed by her light blonde hair gave her an almost divine quality. This was not to say that her friends were not fascinating to see in their own rights. McKenzie exuded a sense of energy and slight menace, while Lucy seemed more solid and imperious than ever. Plus their features that she recognized when full sized, facial expressions, bust sizes, and length of their legs just felt like “more” than she ever expected. She supposed that there was a difference between seeing someone you did not know as a massive giantess compared to a person you were familiar with.
Emily was shaken out of her slightly dazed musings by two things, the first of which was Sabrina’s reply and the second was the fact that the three were still walking into the room and she happened to be in the middle of the floor between them and the table. Feeling a rush of energy and thrill entering her body Emily instinctively teleported away, or rather she tried to. That feature was tied to her admin status and so since she did not have that currently it resulted in her just standing there. Emily looked up to see Sabrina step on top of her, only she was between the womans low heel and the sole so while it was very close, the darker blonde survived. Above she heard the older woman say as she stepped down and then past her “I was able to resolve a bit of a complex issue at work, confidential so I can’t give you details sorry, and decided to celebrate a little. It’s a shame that Emily is busy, I would have invited her too. At least I talked to you two first so I didn’t bother her.”
Emily was left alone on the floor as the three giantesses walked past her, and looking forwards then back she could clearly see the imprint of the woman’s shoeprint in the carpet, slowly rising back up into place as if it never existed. Turning her attention back to them and catching solid glimpses of their underwear and rears, the tiny girl could only have one reaction. “That was AMAZING!” Emily was slightly flushed from the experience, her adrenaline running strong and lightly reveling in the rush of the close shave. Unlike Hellion or to an extent Kyoto who would have been feeling dread or fear, Emily was a bit different, and it was only making her more excited.
Still, for all that her judgement might have been slightly clouded by the excitement Emily was also self-aware enough to realize that her experiences and reactions might not match up with other peoples. She could at least see how Hellion might not have enjoyed what had just happened as much as she had, and after taking a moment she calmed down slightly and moved on. Logically the best course of action now would be to keep out of the trio’s way, and much as she would like to bask a little more in their enormity she did like to think of herself as better than that. On the other hand this was an opportunity, and so moving towards one of the couches Emily hurriedly scaled up the front side of it until she reached the top on one cushion.
Standing on one side of the couch, Emily looked around and enjoyed the view from this slightly elevated position. The trio of other females in the room were just as fascinating to watch and observe as they had been from below, and Emily planned to keep out of the way a little bit while keeping a close eye on them. She even made sure to stay away from the side of the couch Sabrina was nearer to, just in case. Of course this perfectly good plan of action was more or less thrown out the window when Sabrina said “Alright then, so let's get this celebration STARTED!”
Too late did Emily see the open holographic screen in front of Sabrina, as she pushed the last few buttons. Within the space of seconds the entire room changed in a ripple outwards from Sabrina’s location, foodstuffs appearing on the table, some streamers hung across the ceiling, music playing a touch loudly from materializing speakers, and shreds of digital confetti drifting down through the air towards the ground. The main programmer realized that Sabrina had co-opted one of her own special programs, a minor birthday celebration for Hellion actually, but at least he and Kyoto were not here to see it and ruin the surprise.
However that was quite distinctly a secondary concern at the moment, as the three women began to move around the room to enjoy it, Sabrina moving to take a seat on the couch, Lucy grabbing some food, and critically McKenzie wanting to dance to the music. Sabrina suddenly dropping onto the couch caught her off guard, and she was sent flying off of the furniture as the far side of the cushion she was on was consumed under Sabrina’s ass. The tiny girl was flung through the air towards the open space by the door, and as she got up she felt the thundering approach of McKenzie.
The orange haired girl moved deceptively fast, and Emily had to move quickly to get out of her way. Then the little girl had to keep moving quickly, as unfortunately the song playing was a fast one and McKenzie’s feet were more than up to the task at hand of keeping up. The entire portion of carpet where she was standing was rapidly trampled down, and while Emily was not a coward she also did not want her experience and fun to end early. At one point Emily thought that she was far enough away, only for the booted foot of McKenzie to smash down not all that far from the tiny’s position and prompt her to keep going.
Her unplanned dash ended up bringing her closer to Lucy and Sabrina, the blonde woman in particular. Perhaps it had been a more instinctive choice, either out of genuine interest or just subconsciously thinking that boots were more dangerous than heels, but that was how things worked out. Emily found herself panting a little bit as she slowed down near the couch, a little surprised at how much the running had taken out of her. She realized that before she was almost always just walking when she was out questing in the game, and that was when she was not cooped up in the lab working on things. Frankly if it wasn’t for her somewhat infrequent baseball practice she might even be worse off. Even the couple of times when greater speed might have been desired when a student came around while she was out of the guild halls she had usually just accepted the death and let herself respawn.
Still not everything was bad about this, as with Sabrina seated Emily felt safer approaching her heels and getting a closer look. Striding closer to the other female, now so close that she could not see her face or upper body due to the couch being in the way, Emily was able to marvel at the appearance of the shoe writ large. The tanned girl could see every minor imperfection, few as there were in the surface of the shoe, small bumps and micro-scratches only barely taking away from the overall smooth surface. The black leather was polished to a near mirror shine, and in fact once she got close enough Emily was indeed able to see a faint and distorted but visibly present reflection of her face. This was to say nothing of the size of it all, seeing it from this close made it seem even larger than it really was, and if she listened closely the girl could hear the low sounds of the leather flexing or nylon strands stretching.
Emily was so smitten and focused on the majesty of the heel that she failed to pay it due heed or give it ample space, and so in hindsight what happened next was honestly her own fault. Getting comfortable Sabrina lightly crossed one foot over the other after she picked up a drink, and in the process the tip of her shoe hit Emily and launched her away, sending her flying under the table. The little girl was winded but fine as she came for a rolling landing, however as she stopped and looked up she saw that she was not out of the woods just yet. She had landed just to the side of Lucy who was still munching away, and then the glasses-clad girl turned slightly to the side to see and greet McKenzie as she walked over. The formerly dancing girl asked her “So what is good in the spread?” and retrieved her own plate to start loading up.
Below Emily found herself between all four of their feet as they faced each other, and not direction seemed to be safe as they shifted their positions and stances to reach for various items on the table next to them. Emily was left scrambling around a bit in front of their boots, and this lasted a minute or two before Lucy bit into something a little stronger than expected. Her sudden cough and full body shudder made her relax her grip on her plate just a little, and a few things fell down to join the confetti and Emily on the floor. In particular a glob of thick dip dropped down and landed on Emily’s head, burying her in it and briefly rendering her stunned and immobile.
Luckily for the now tasty girl Lucy was not the type to reach down and eat off of the floor, and while McKenzie might have been a bit of a proponent of the 5-second rule she wasn’t going to do it in front of her friend, especially when it was not her food to begin with. This did not mean Emily was not at risk though, as the viscous goop was sticky and difficult to escape from, which was not idea when you were on the ground between a quartet of booted feet. Still Emily gave her very best of it, even as the sounds of crunchier snacks turning into crumbs under treads filled the air around her, and she noted to herself that the dip could use a little less onion.
Finally after several close calls including one moment where the edge of McKenzie’s tread touched the opposite side of the drop before sliding away in the opposite direction Emily managed to free herself. Again out of habit she tried to will herself clean, but once more that was an admin power that she did not currently possess. As such she had to make her own way out of the splash zone, feeling heavy and just a little smelly from the lingering dip soaking her clothes. Another thing she had to note Hellion needed to deal with more often than not, at least for her it was just dip and not something worse.
Having had enough near-death experiences for the hour Emily made her way under the nearest couch, chosen both for its close proximity and also because it was not the one currently being sat upon by Sabrina. It took another minute but the girl made it, only to discover the unfortunate results when one entered a notably dusty environment when one was covered in something sticky. In short order Emily resembled not much more than a mobile dust bunny, mostly because she had dripped over a tiny rock and landed face first in the dust. Holding back a sneeze or five the girl turned around and looked out at the group, who seemed to be winding down a bit from the revelry.
Sabrina laughed as she walked around the side of the table, grabbing one last drink off it and downing it. The simulated world really was something else in her opinion, able to do things like make a soda that tasted perfect while remaining cold and just the right amount of carbonated. She might not have moved much from her spot on the couch, but that was fine as the two young women sharing the little celebration with her were energetic enough for all three of them. Plus after the running around she needed to do at the company, getting the chance to just sit back and relax really was her idea of a good time at the moment. Besides, it was fun to watch the two girls interact and telling stories about various subjects including the missing Emily did not require standing.
Still she only had so much time to spare, and standing before the two girls she said “Thank you so much for joining me, this has been wonderful. However I do sort of have to go, but its been nice seeing you both. Tell Emily I said hi.” Based on the conversation that McKenzie and Lucy were having they agreed that since it was just the three of them the half-hour party was good enough, and that they should get going too. However there was still the issue of the spilled food, confetti everywhere, and general light disarray of the room to deal with, but Sabrina was prepared.
Emily breathed a small sigh of relief as she heard the trio getting ready to leave, and then coughed once or twice from nearly inhaling more dust. Still, the miniature university student figured that despite this hiccup, things were not all bad. Once the three were far enough away she dashed out towards the table, thinking it would be safe out in the open now seeing as no one else was nearby. “They are leaving, so I will be left alone here amid the remains of the party safe and sound. Maybe I can even snag some of the dropped food? I mean the worst is behind me surely.” As she finished speaking Emily heard the sound of Sabrina talking above, and what the woman said had Emily cursing herself out about “Me and my big mouth…”
“Alright, let’s head out now. Don’t worry about the mess, I activated the cleaners.” Sabrina was satisfied as she started to head towards the door, prompting the other two to follow in mild confusion as to what she meant. They were answered when the door to the room opened up, and a quartet of NPC Maids walked into the room carrying or pushing cleaning supplies, and as one they all curtsied in greeting. “Excellent. Okay ladies, I want you to give the room a good cleaning top to bottom.” Command given the blonde walked out the door, followed by the other two girls leaving the maids to their work. As she turned towards the log out panel Sabrina thought that it was a real shame Emily could not have joined them, it would have been nice to see her.
Back in the room Emily was feeling a number of different things, some mild interest in seeing the maids she had designed like this combined with worry regarding what was going to come and finally a sense of mild annoyance that she was not going to be getting any food. Turning to run the little blonde haired girl only barely managed to get away in time, as while the maids spread out one headed straight towards the table. Brandishing a cloth she began to wipe off the top of the table, sending more crumbs and such falling to the floor around Emily. On top of that the loafers the maid wore as part of her uniform came far too close to Emily for her liking, although the chance to glance upwards up the skirt before she was too far away was a minor upside.
Emily might have liked to return to the cover under the couch, but that was not an option as one of the other maids moved to the couch to adjust and neaten up the cushions. Her legs were carrying her all around the front of the couch as she made adjustments here and there making everything perfect, and brave as she might be Emily did not want to risk that particular guessing game. Instead the temporary Tinykin was left running away from the door and most of the furniture, realizing just a minute too late that there also was not any particularly good cover in this direction. Hearing the sounds of a third maid moving off to the side the girl looked that way wondering if she might have already been spotted, or if she was about to enter an impromptu game of Red Light, Green Light. Neither was the case, but that was because the truth was arguably worse.
The maid had just finished moving a machine towards the corner of the room, and now that she and it were in place turned around and turned it on, starting her particular cleaning task. To Emily’s silent horror, she watched as the maid turned in her direction brandishing a large upright vacuum cleaner that roared louder than a hurricane. Naturally the girl turned and bolted straight away, but it was no use. The strides of the maid moved her and the vacuum at a solid pace, and tiny little Emily found she was slowed down thanks to a mixture of the heavy dip and the shin high carpet. Covered in dirt the way she was, Emily was dismissed by the maid as a simple dust ball, destined to be tidied up. The cleaning woman even could tell where she had and had not been due to the confetti being eaten by the machine.
Emily gave it her all in her run, she truly did, but right now she was brought face to face with the fact that at this scale even moving your fastest was sometimes just plain not fast enough. The edge of the vacuum nearly caught up to her, and Emily felt the wind start to pull her back before the machine was pulled away. It then came back and she had only moved so much forwards, and this time the suction was enough to bring her to a stop and pulled her feet out from under her before it left. Emily never got the chance to even get back up off her knees before the vacuum was pressed forwards for the last time, and feeling like a leaf in a tornado the girl was yanked off the ground and up into the dark interior of the vacuum.
By some miracle Emily survived bouncing around the interior hoses of the machine, and she ended up inside of the canister hopper. Her every thought was nearly drowned out by the roar of the winds of the machine, and she felt like she was being beaten by countless rocks as the dust and everything else swirled around. By some stroke of luck she managed to end up landing in a small recess, and managed to wedge herself there so at least she was not flung around any more. However Emily could tell that this was only a minor upgrade, as more and more dust filled the air, and she just knew based on the spilled food and the underside of the couches holding so much dust that this place was going to fill up quickly.
As she began to contemplate how the remainder of her hour before her admin privileges came back would go, if she even lasted that long that is, Emily also went over everything that had happened since the idea to try this had occurred to her. Her idea regarding the pet cat in hindsight also would have had flaws that eventually would backfire on Hellon, just like every other time. She had shrunk herself down in a safe place, only for Sabrina, Lucy and McKenzie to unexpectedly enter said space. She had only narrowly avoided doom several times at their feet and other parts, more luck than anything. Then once she had thought the danger had passed an entirely new threat had emerged, trapping her in this position. She had been more or less careful, and yet everything had spiralled out of control and barely let up on her for a moment.
It was a bitter pill to swallow, but as a scrap of confetti whipped through the air and briefly wrapped around her head, and she felt the dust build up starting to consume her feet, Emily came to a conclusion. “Okay, maybe Hellion DOES have a point about how dangerous things are at this size, and that it isn’t all his fault.” The next moment the girl was even more glad that she had merely thought that realization and not spoken it, as in that time the maid moved the vacuum over the spot where the food had fallen, and she ended up getting another glob of dip smacking into the back of her head.
This whole process continued for another quarter hour, more and more dust and debris piling up in the machine and slowly forcing Emily to crawl upwards to avoid becoming fully buried in dust and dirt. Just as she began to worry that she might end up running out of room and ending up suffocating the roar of the winds died down, and everything at last calmed down. Emily did not breathe an actual sigh of relief as the settling debris were still nearly chocking the air and she was almost up to her armpits in the dirt anyway, but the intention was there. The girl then felt the contraption be shifted upright, and a few seconds after that the hopper was pulled out of it. Then Emily felt the maid start to walk with it, obviously intending to head towards the nearest disposal area.
Perhaps thankfully while there were a few trash bins in the Admin area none were particularly big, and as such were never meant for dumping a full vacuum load into. As such the maid left the admin area to one of the guild houses, in this particular case Byakko. The female NPC walked with a steady gait towards the main trash receptacle, where upon being dumped it it would all be deleted and removed from the game. Thankfully before that happened the predicable movement patterns gave Emily an opportunity. Grabbing some of the longer and more sturdy bits of trash she was able to construct a makeshift ramp/tower to get to the top of the nearly full canister and jump out the side.
The miniature person's fall was not the most pleasant but was also serviceable, the corridor at the moment being mostly empty and her leap to the side bringing her away from the pounding footsteps of the maid. Instead she landed mostly safely on the carpet out of the way, and watched as the NPC continued to stroll away not knowing anything was wrong. Taking this opportunity Emily checked herself over, and was less than pleased at her current state.
Her entire body was covered in gunk and dust, loose hairs lightly wrapped around her limbs, dirt staining her entire body splotchy colors, and perhaps most devastated was her hair. Normally in moderate control and a vibrant blonde, after everything it had gone through her tresses were in complete disarray, strands poking out in every direction, clumps half-fused together by slowly drying dip, and most of it rendered a sort of moulted grey and black from everything all over it. Finally she checked the time, and saw she had just passed the half hour remaining mark until she could put this whole experiment behind her.
As she finished seeing this, the tiny girl became aware of a set of approaching footsteps. Bracing herself and turning towards the source, Emily was ready to start running if she confirmed it was an NPC or player. However she was pleasantly surprised to see that the person approaching was Kyoto. The only person right now with access to the heightened Admin senses needed to see and hear her clearly, the mech was a sight for sore eyes and so Emily started to approach her, waving her arm above her head to garner her attention. This seemed a good course of action, as the girl was even seeming to be scanning the ground. Perhaps Hellion had gotten lost, and she was looking for him? If so that was perhaps just as good, as it would be nice to Hellion at the same size again.
The first inkling that things were not going to go to plan was when Emily noticed that Kyoto seemed to be talking softly to herself. Her voice was low that most people would not be able to overhear what she was saying, but Emily could hear it just fine due to the lower volume. Thank goodness she had never programmed in temporary deafness due to loud noises, otherwise the vacuum would certainly have qualified. Once the taller girl came closer, Emily was able to make out “-est is cleared out, we might as well plug away at a few other Quests. I agree, we do have a few outstanding ones to work on. What about the one for the Cafeteria Matron? Ugg, you know I don't like doing those...but I suppose we might as well.”
This odd method of speech and even slight alterations to her voice and cadence between sentences confused Emily, until she realized what was happening. Clearly Hellion was not out and about but instead inside of Kyoto in her command centre, and they were just talking directly to each other. Perhaps Hellion had left the transmit button on, or just felt like being heard out loud. Regardless it did tell the admin what they were doing here, but some of their conversation was still a little cryptic. Why would Hellion have a problem with any of her quests, and why was he scanning the floor with Kyoto's eyes?
The reasoning hit Emily all at once from three different directions, facts coming together to smash into her like a train. Hellion was not a fan of quests that might put him in danger beyond the usual amount going out and killing bugs, and only one type of quest filled that criteria. Emily had made a number of different quests for the game, but the Cafeteria Matron always had a particular type as a repeatable task. Finally they were talking about a quest while scanning the ground, inside the guild house where only one type of mob could spawn. The duo were talking about Tinykin squishing, and wouldn't you know it here she was in front of them and the correct size.
Still Emily had a little hope as she called out and waved her arms in the air, and as she watched the eyes of Kyoto flicked over and locked onto her. Yes this looked a little bad, and she could feel the metaphysical weight of the gaze upon her firmly in a way being ignored never had, but she had confidence. She was dressed in the Admin uniform and her blonde hair was fairly distinctive, she should be just fine. Then as she waved a dark strand drifted across her vision, and unintentionally her eyes focused on it. It was several strands of her hair, grey with picked up dirt. Rapidly Emily recalled her previous inspection of herself just a minute ago, her uniform and hair in such a state of filth that the details she had just been banking on for identification were utterly obscured.
Emily's growing worry was confirmed as Kyoto spoke, and the former blonde was so briefly shaken that she was not sure if it was Kyoto or Hellion who said “Ah, there is one. That should make 9.” Abandoning the idea of identification quickly as the giantess lifted her boot and turned slightly to aim towards her, Emily turned and started to run down the hallway, Kyoto and Hellion in hot pursuit. At least, it was a hot pursuit for for Emily, for the mech it was closer to a slightly fast walk.
Sprinting full tilt as the booms of the bootsteps became louder and louder behind her, Emily reflected on how this might very well be karma. Hellion had expressed disapproval of her questlines involving killing Tinykin, but she had dismissed him mostly out of hand. She had admitted that he did have a vested interest in the subject, but in her opinion he always respawned so it was no big deal. Besides, he had only been hunted down and squashed by players two dozen times, and only three of them had been at her own hands/boots. The number of such events had even gone down the past few months, so it was no longer a big issue. (In fact the actual numbers were closer to fifty and fifteen respectively, and had never slowed down, Hellion just had stopped bothering to tell her).
At last the events of the past hour and a half caught up to Emily, along with Hellion speeding things up a little bit as he did not want to play with his “prey.” The shadow of Kyoto fell over Emily, and she stumbled in exhaustion just enough for the last few steps needed. Nervous but also a little curious Emily turned her head back and up, gazing upon the full length of Kyoto's body before the view was blocked out by her boot. The treads were deep and detailed, but Emily could see it moving into a position where there would be no escaping. The last thing she heard before the sole came down and introduced her head, torso, arms, legs and pelvis to her feet was Kyoto/Hellion saying “Sorry little guy, if you want to blame anyone, blame Emily for making this quest.” As she blacked out before the respawn and restoration of her Admin Powers, Emily could not help but appreciate the irony.