[PP-F1] Archaic Conundrums (Nonon and Sinful)

[Evander 0]

Evander yawned as he walked through the fields around the Town of Beginnings. It was a fairly cloudy day, and strong winds ruffled the grass. Boars roamed before him, nibbling at the wild grasses. Birds attempted to fly in the strong winds, beating their wings furiously as they attempted to fight against the currents pushing against them. Evander stopped, and looked around warily, making sure there was no monster trying to sneak up on him. Evander looked towards the trees, the branches whipping around in the fierce gale. Evander sat, and began to think. He needed to grow stronger in order to help those who could not help themselves. He needed to contribute to the fight for freedom. Evander stood, and drew his sword. He switched the blade to his left hand, and began the arduous task of training himself to be able to fight with both arms equally. Alas, the age-old problem arose before him- how does one grow to become the best that they could ever be? Was it even possible? Evander didn't know, but he strove for the lofty goal in spite of all of his doubts.

Edited March 5, 2016 by Evander

[Nonon 0]

A feminine figure could be seen sleeping in a cardboard box, the head of the person being the only thing visible. This person apparently had bunny ears and red cheeks, probably because that person is shy. "O-Onee chan..." Nonon would dream about his sister while sleeping as if he missed her. "I... L-Love you... Onee-chan..." A couple of tears escaped this bunny eared individual eyes and landed on the grass. Even though the wind was strong, Nonon was not awoken by it.

Edited March 4, 2016 by Nonon

[Evander 0]

As Evander sat, he heard whimpering on the wind. He looked around, and saw a cardboard box with some person sleeping inside. Man, didn't this person know that benches were the way to go when one didn't have any money? Evander sighed, then stood. This was probably another person with psychological problems, just like every single other person he had met in this castle. Evander walked on over. It was some androgynous kid, likely a male. And they were wearing a bunny ear headband. And talking in Japanese. Okay, yeah, he didn't know what was going on here, or why they decided to sleep outside of a safe zone of all places, but it was obvious they had some problems, and were likely missing a family member. A maternal figure? That could explain why the little boy decided to dress like a girl. Or, they could be older. Evander didn't really know. The only thing he could tell was that this person was short. Really short. Evander kicked the box. "Hey kid, this place isn't exactly the best place to sleep, especially if you're unarmed. It'd probably be better to sleep in an inn or something, or, if you don't have money, you could sleep on a bench. That's how I got by, at least."

[Nonon 0]

"Kyaaaa!" Nonon screamed (The scream should be high pitched, like a girl's) as Evander kicked the box, his entire face becoming red. "W-What was that for?" He was shy when meeting strangers, especially when those strangers kick your bed and wake you up. "P-Please mister... C-Can I sleep in peace?" Nonon made a face that would make him look cuter than he was before. Surprisingly, Nonon had breasts (Pads) that would be hard not to notice when you look clearly at him.

[Evander 0]

"Alright, sure, if you want to go ahead and die out here in the wilderness, with almost no one knowing of your actual life, and all just regretting your useless death, then that's fine by me. If you want to never see your family again, and just die out here because of laziness or whatever, then, I guess that's your choice, isn't it?" Man, this kid was really feminine. He either had some serious problems, or some imbalance between his estrogen and testosterone levels. Evander began to walk away, then kicked himself. What was he doing? He was letting some innocent person just die out here! What happened to his resolve for helping others? Evander looked into himself, meditating, reflecting on why this could be, when he thought he found the answer. This kid, sorry, adult, was older than him. He was sure of that. And, yet, they stayed holed up, just hoping for the work of others to release them from this prison. They wanted to be pitied (hence the cardboard box and such). Evander was really disturbed by this. But, still, that was no reason to leave someone to die. Okay, whoa, those were some harsh thoughts there. He should probably give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they had a horrible life in real life? Maybe they had problems before this? It wasn't right to judge someone just off their first impression. Why was he being so judgmental? Perhaps there was something else that disturbed him. He didn't know, and that bugged him. Evander sighed, and walked back. "Okay, sorry about that. I was just... irritated about something. But seriously though, you need to go inside the city. There are monsters out here, and without any self-defense, you will die. There won't be anyone to save you."

Edited March 4, 2016 by Evander

[Nonon 0]

Evander's words reached deep into Nonon's head, reminding him of his teenage years. In seconds he broke down in tears uncontrollably as he tried to wipe away the ocean of tears. "I'm sorry!" His voice sounded pitiful as onlookers came by.  "Why is she crying? No way, that guy must be a jerk to make a cutie like her cry!"  The onlookers stopped and stared at Evander while shouting. "Hey, you jerk! Leave that poor girl alone, bully! Pick on someone your own size!" They were enraged as a fiery passion of something called 'White knight' awakened in their hearts.

[Evander 0]

Okay then, he thought he had scouted out the area and made sure no one was there, but apparently a whole mob of people just showed up. Were they fans of the kid or something? And, whoa, they thought the boy was a girl. And they were calling Evander a jerk. Okay then. They were great at reading situations. "Hey, how about you learn about what's going on before you take sides, huh? I could be depressed or something, and maybe I shared my sorry sob story with this kid! You don't know! You don't know anything about what's going on, because obviously your research skills are not up to par! In fact, I just apologized! I was trying to convince them to sleep in the town so they wouldn't die out here. Also, this person right here in the cardboard box is a guy, not a girl. You can go ahead and ask him, but I'm 99.99% sure in my discernment! You want to fight, buddy? You want to kill an innocent man for doing nothing? I'm not sure about you, but I don't want the blood of my fellow humans on my hands when we all need to work hard to try and free us all!" Evander took a few breaths to calm himself down. He needed to think logically here. He didn't think they would do it, but if they actually became blood-thirsty, he would likely die. Evander whispered to the kid. "Hey, could you help me out here a little? I'm pretty weak, and even though I'm pretty sure these guys don't have weapons, if they rush me, I'm going to die. Also, I really do not want to kill anyone, if I can help it." Ugh, that was one of his major irritation points- an innocent being blamed for a crime. Well, he wasn't exactly innocent, but he had apologized, and they were blowing this up far out of proportion. He was just trying to get the kid to stay alive.

Edited March 5, 2016 by Evander

[Nonon 0]

Nonon continues crying and covered his eyes completely. The group of players looked in shock, "How dare you! You monster!" All of them opened their HUD and equipped their best gear, all perfect items. They went up to Evander and looked him in the eye and then looked at Nonon. "Um, are you sure this is a guy? She has breasts." The mob went from angry to confused, they didn't unequip their weapons but kept them drawn and left the scene looking back occasionally to see if he was doing funny things. Nonon wiped his tears and then looked at Evander's again, "I-I'm sorry!" Another shower came as Evander provided him with no comfort at all.

[Evander 0]

All right, it appeared he had not gotten the point across to these people. Ah, the woes of a mob mentality. Okay, now he had been demoted from a bully, who was still human on some level, to nothing more than a mere monster. This was not good, as it implied that he was no longer seen as human, as a fellow being, and instead was like all of these other beasts roaming the floors. This also meant they would have no qualms with killing him on the spot. This was further evidenced by the fact that they all just drew their weapons. Well, it was a good life he had had, he supposed, but the sad thing was that his death would be meaningless. He would not be dying in order to protect another, or dying on his mission to free the people, but instead would be killed by his fellow man, and for what? For mistaken beliefs and the lack of understanding and logic. Mankind was far too fallible, too easily controlled by a mob of fools. Evander spread his arms, embracing death. If he ran, they would catch him- nay, it was far better to die courageously, standing and accepting fate, rather than die on his knees as a coward. Evander sighed. Though he wanted to, he would make no attempt to defend himself. He did not want the blood of his fellow man on his hands for useless reasons. Even if he managed to kill one, though even that was unlikely, two more would surge forth and kill him in turn. And the end result would be that another life would be wasted, and his soul would forever be tarnished by causing the death of another, even for entirely justifiable reasons. Whenever anyone kills anyone else, for whatever reason, they will be irrevocably changed. Also, he didn't think he had it in him to kill another. Thus, Evander would die an unknown martyr, standing alone and dying for nothing. Evander closed his eyes, and tried to find peace in his life before it would be so brutally ended. His only regret was that he had contributed nothing towards helping others free themselves. Evander waited for death to overtake him. He could see his life, flashing before his eyes, every single mistake and victory shown side by side. Evander found himself at peace. And... now they were asking if the person in the box was really a guy. Why did they have to prolong this? Why couldn't it be over? Evander cracked open an eye. They were walking away. Wow. And he had made such an inspiring speech for nothing. Not that anyone even heard it. Wait, what? Did he just lament the fact that he didn't die? Evander sighed in relief, his common sense finally returning to him. He had survived.

And now the kid was crying in his cardboard box and apologizing for inscrutable reasons. Great. Now he had to comfort this psychologically damaged person. At this rate, he would become the professional psychologist-psychiatrist of Aincrad, treating everyone's mental problems, a modern Sigmund Freud. "Okay kid, I have no idea why you're crying, or why you're sorry. I mean, you could've, you know, helped keep me from dying by, I don't know, defending me, but that's all blown over by now, and you have no other reason to be sorry." Wow, this kid probably had self-esteem issues, and he wasn't really helping much by pointing out what they could've done. Now they were likely going to feel even worse and only focus on their own imperfections. Great job, Evander, great job. "So, uh, you have no need to be sorry. So, let's just start this conversation over." Evander extended his hand for a handshake. "My name is Evander. What's yours? Also, you're a guy, right?" Maybe the mob was actually right, and Evander was just being a stubborn idiot. He had no idea. Oh yeah, and he still needed to remind the kid to relocate. "Also, like I said earlier, you should probably go back inside the city, where you can't just randomly die from a passing monster. It's safer and warmer in there too, and you can get some food from random people if you don't have money. It's actually pretty nice in there. Have you tried to sleep on any benches? They're actually quite comfortable." And there was his obsession with benches coming out again. He really had no idea why he liked benches so much, but at least he was able to get his point that the kid should go back inside the city across clearly.

[Sinful 0]

"What's this?" Sinful was out foraging on his first day of work as a material gatherer, trying to get as many as possible to turn into food for the wandering children of Aincrad. "Oh? A girl in a cardboard box with a boy..." This didn't look very well for Sinful, he approached the two and began questioning them. "Hey, so are you two dating or something? Or is something serious going on like a breakup?" Sinful looked confused, in his mind he was formulating many possible predictions of how the future will go along with several possible methods to squeeze the truth out of them. "W-Wait... Is she in a cardboard box?" He looked at her with pity in his eyes, a tear shedding from one of them. "Are you lost? I could lead you to an orphanage if you'd like."

[Evander 0]

Alright, and now a new guy was joining in this awkward, messed up social interaction. And he thought the kid was a girl as well. Man, maybe Evander really was mistaken? He still had not gotten a clear answer from the kid, and pretty much the only thing he was basing this off of was that the first thing he saw about the kid was that they had short hair, which some girls had too, and the fact that he was really, really stubborn once he got his mind set on something, which wasn't really a reason at all. Agh, why couldn't things just be clear? And this new guy thought he was breaking off a romantic relationship with this kid. Well, first of all, Evander was heterosexual, and he was still stubbornly believing that this kid was a boy, second of all, he just met the person, third of all, Evander wasn't even sure if he was ready for any romantic relationship of any kind yet, as he would likely not be able to reciprocate since he always tried to be emotionless, and finally, even if all of the above was resolved, he wasn't sure if he really even liked the personality of the person. Something about them just irritated Evander. Perhaps he only liked people that had strength, or people who could take care of themselves without having to rely on others? Perhaps he only wanted a relationship where they both could grow to become better people? He hadn't really thought about the subject much, nor did he particularly want to. And, yes, the person was in a cardboard box, though Evander was trying hard to get them to realize that benches were the way to go, and Evander was pretty sure that at least half the people in here deserved to be in an orphanage because they weren't of age. "Oh, greetings. My name is Evander, and I have not yet learned the name of this person. Yet. As you can see, I actually just met this person, so we're obviously not in any relationship, and I think that they're a guy, though I'm probably wrong, and I haven't really gotten any confirmation one way or the other. I'm actually trying to get them to move inside the city, where they won't die, but some interesting things happened, I almost died, et cetera et cetera, and I haven't been able to convince them yet. What's your name? And, also, person in box, what is your name and gender?" Alright, that was awkward. Whatever. At least he got the important tidbits out.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Evander

[Nonon 0]

"M-My name? I-It's N-Nonon... I'm a girl..." He still sniffled and had a few tears coming down from his eyes, in his mind he was a girl and nothing could change that. "W-Why do you want to k-know?"  Nonon's cheeks were becoming redder by the minute, now two other boys were surrounding him and his shyness kicked it. He curled up in a ball back inside the cardboard box and started crying again. "D-Don't look at me!"

[Sinful 0]

Sinful felt the embarrassment that Nonon had, "Oh, poor girl, she must be sad..." He looked in his inventory and pulled out a bunny plush, setting it inside the cardboard box Nonon was in. "Please don't cry, I'll wipe those tears away for you." With that, he put another plush toy inside the cardboard box, this time it was a carrot, and turned over to Evander. "I'm leaving you to this, I hope you can comfort her in any way you can." Sinful then took off and left with a smile. He mouthed the words' Good luck' and dissappeared.

-Sinful left the thread (Good luck pal)

[Evander 0]

Well, great. Evander was a stupid, little, stubborn idiot that likely made this girl's self-confidence go way down. By a whole lot. Man, someone mistaking you for what you weren't? Evander just experienced that with the mob, and he did it to this girl. There was always the slim chance that the whole thing was a lie, or that this person had serious issues, but that was just being stubborn and paranoid. He bowed his head in shame. The kind young man wiped away her tears and left him with a 'good luck'. Shoot! Evander was horrible at comforting. Sure, he could psychologically analyze many people, or have long and winded debates about philosophy, but he was no comforter. Whatever he said would probably make this worse. But, he had to try, at least for her sake. Evander knelt next to the cardboard box. He began to rub the girl's back (people did that, right?) and tried to apologize. "Hey, I'm sorry for thinking you were a boy, okay? It's okay, I'm not trying to hurt you, but if I did, I'm really sorry." Ugh, couldn't he find any other words to express his apology asides from 'sorry'? "This was all just a big misunderstanding, okay? Now, let's go and move back into the city and get ourselves a hot meal." He didn't want to sound like he was making advances on her, partially because he didn't want her to feel threatened and partially because some stubborn part of his mind kept screaming that this person was male (hush up in there, okay?), but normal people comforted others by getting them something to eat, right? It distracted them from the situation at hand, right? Man, why didn't his psychology class come with any pointers on how to comfort someone? "You can choose where to go eat, okay?" And now he was sounding like a mother or something with all of his 'okay?'s. Blech, being reassuring wasn't really his thing, and he sounded really, really fake right now. "It's okay, " Another 'okay'! "You don't have to cry. Also, I can get you a room at the inn so you don't have to sleep in a cardboard box anymore, deal?" Man, he was really reaching now. Evander didn't think he could take another attempt at being reassuring. He wasn't cut out to be some emotional and caring counselor, he was just a regular old Joe. A Joe that was particularly bad at being a comforting maternal figure and was more cut out to be a stern paternal one. Yeah, nope, no more attempts at that comforting thing. Evander took his hand off the girl's back. He stood, and put his hand out for the girl to take. "Come on, let's go to the city." Finally, he didn't have to suffer through anymore of that awkward bumbling.