[PP-F3] Worn Out Welcome - Quest

[Yamato 0]

Having completed the Secret Medicine of the Forest quest, Yamato and Avilon had watched as the NPC had made the necessary tonic for her child from the Nepent's Ovule and given it to the NPC Child. The child got better for a few moments and, after about ten minutes, the kid was immediately ill again. "I told ye, lass. It's a computer generated character. It's programmed to be sick so other players can complete the quest. That's why there was no rush," Yamato said in a low tone, shrugging his shoulders and spinning on his heel to exit from the NPC's home. Once they were back out in the street he looped his arm through one of Avilon's. The Irishman was loathe to be in such close proximity with another person, but this was the easiest way of making sure the woman and her ludicrously over-sized shield didn't go wandering off. "Now, we need to head up to the third floor prairies, Delilah Town, and pick up the next quest, Worn Out Welcome."

[Avilon 0]

Avilon merely stared down to the poor child as it took the medicine finally her eyes lighting up happily, it's face growing happy for however brief it was. As he then fell ill though her heart sunk and she quickly hopped over and began to hold them. "I-It's ok I-I will just keep getting more and more of the medicine t-till you feel better," she smiled brushing the NPC's hair as tears began to streak down her face obviously shaken by this never ending illness. She watched as he just walked away from all this she sniffled and hung her head still rocking the child before realizing staying there wouldn't do him any child.  After a few minutes she strolled out her head hung low and pink hair flowing across her eyes as sniffled and felt her arm looped through by Yamato. "I-I don't feel good ..." She whimpered merely being walked along side him partially dazed by that realization that he was gonna remain sick and suffering.

[Yamato 0]

"What's wrong now, lass," Yamato asked, gently tugging the pink haired woman along with him in the direction of the Portal Plaza in the Town of Beginnings. Their next stop would take them up to the third floor where they would run into a pair of non-player characters. A blacksmith and the blacksmith's wife. From there they would pick up the Worn Out Welcome quest which would send them off to do who knew what. But, the quest did offer the reward of a choice of armor, either heavy or light depending on the choices made by the players. It was also probable that the experience point prize that came with the quest would be enough to get Yamato another level, so the blonde man was eager to be on his way.

[Avilon 0]

Avilon normally didn't enjoy expressing herself like this in public but after the scene of the NPC child being incurable she was feeling extremely worthless at the time. As the tug pulled at her arm she shuffled forward before sniffling more and leaning her head upon his shoulder, "H-He is never going to ever know how it feels to be healthy and play with all the other NPC children in the square." The idea of a game that would cause that type of suffering was already growing unbearable to the girl, "I-I'm gonna fix this stupid game that way no more stupid quests can help benefit others off of the suffering of the weak." She murmured softly as a few more tears streamed down her cheek a rather dreary expression of emotionless sensation now taking over her as she continued to stroll beside him on his arm.

[Yamato 0]

Was this woman actually crying because an Non-Player Character was sick? As Avilon rested her head on his shoulder, Yamato shook his head slowly, but wisely didn't immediately blurt out what he was thinking. No, the best way to handle this, as they continued to make their way through the crowded streets in the Town of Beginnings, was to take a more tactful and diplomatic approach. "Ye know that the child's not a real person, right," Yamato asked at last in an Irish accent. "The lad's like a character in fiction, he's not real," the blonde man continued. "I mean, it'd be different if the lad was a real person. But the yellow cursor over his head means that it's jus' an NPC. It's not even really sick, not really. It jus' acts sick for the purpose of the quest story. I doubt its even programmed to be able to play with NPC kids, even if it did get and stay healthy."

[Avilon 0]

Her tears slowly were wiped from her face as she now wandered on their strange path through this world she wasn't sure what she wanted to keep living in this planet. "You shouldn't talk about them like that ... we are living in this world of theirs not the other way around. Have you never cried for a character that you read about after all they are suppose to make you feel something as well." She frowned looking toward the Irish man who wasn't understanding the reasons for all of this. "I-I don't care it isn't right that we all can pry on their difficulties considering how this has all been. Never mind we need to continue fighting right," She whimpered now removing her arm from the desensitized companion she was accompanied with.

[Yamato 0]

"Living is a bit of a strong way o' puttin' it, lass. We're trapped here, we're prisoners here, but is this any way o' livin'," Yamato asked as Avilon extracted her arm from his and he made no effort to loop his arm through hers a second time. Perhaps some of these other quests would offer the pink-haired woman more closure, in part because they weren't going to hang around after the completion of any of the others to watch as the NPC's got themselves into trouble all over again. "Fictional characters make me feel, sometimes. They don't make me cry, in the end it's only a story. You want to think about something tragic, think about something that had a real world impact like the Holocaust." The blonde Irishman shrugged his shoulders. "There's always more ta fight in a game like this, an' some o' the other quests will have better closure, I bet."

[Avilon 0]

Avilon's face waned into a rather depressing sight for others to view as she let out a small mew like that of a upset house cat. "I-I know that is why I'm upset, most every fictional story if you think of it has some basis of truth ... where else would the narrators get their inspiration or ideas from?" She sighed showing amazing insight as she was at least partially literate and well read upon the novels that she had to go through for her current education. Perhaps that was why she remained locked into the sciences so she wouldn't have to know about any of the other horrid issues the world faced. "I-I hate sad stories ... I don't see an upside any more in SAO even if I can see to many people are suffering for that miracle."

[Yamato 0]

"All the more reason to fight then," Yamato replied in an almost business-like, and very military, tone. "Ye mus' be the change ye wish to see, lass," the Irishman continued, still leading the pair of them through the Town of Beginnings as they were just reaching the very outskirts of the town's main plaza which housed the Portal Plaza for the first floor. "If ye want to do somethin' worth while, an if ye want ta help them that's trapped here, then ye need ta get strong enough to properly take a place on the Front Lines an' to help clear the floors. The sooner we clear the final floor, the sooner we all get to go home."

[Avilon 0]

The girl frowned and nodded as she walked back closer to Yamato and planting her head upon his shoulder once more supposing he was right. "I still don't like the idea of you treating the NPC's like they aren't real ... they feel real to me ... and they look just like us which makes it worse. I never have seen anything like this and now that I know how people look when they are sick and miserable ... I-I realize all of those people I met in the real world who felt like that. Right,"  She said calmly now looking back up and brushing her hair with her left arm that wasn't hooked with his.  "I promise to get stronger and help protect those children that I was caring for on the first floor no matter what the cost. I will join the front lines and make this prison en-" She yelped tripping and stabilizing herself with Yamato now thankfully having hooked herself back in with him.

[Yamato 0]

"What do ye mean by seen people that are sick, ye've never seen that in the real world," the blonde man asked, quirking an eyebrow at Avilon as he wrapped an arm momentarily around her slender waist to help her steady herself once more. "People get sick all the time, it's not fun. But, it is life an' ye can hate it all ye like, but it won' make it any less true," the Irishman continued, speaking in a very pragmatic tone and shrugging his shoulders. "If ye want ta do somethin' about that, ye need ta be smarter than I am with the whole science thing. Not that it would take much," he concluded, shrugging his shoulders. "Otherwise, ye accept that what is simply is an' there's nothin' ye can do about it. If ye constantly worry an' fret about things ye can have no effect on ye'll give yerself ulcers, or a heart attack."

[Avilon 0]

Avilon blinked as well now watching him look at her rather shocked as she began wrap her brain around their previous conversation wondering if she had never mentioned  the unfortunate truth that would face her when this game was over. "Oh have I not told you, I'm blind in the real world." She said with rather fluttered laughter backing it up realizing she probably was a bit busy running through the emotional ups and downs she was faced with. "I've never and seen another human's face till this whole fiasco took place, or even seen how gorgeous a tree is in the snow or the smile upon another person's face. I've felt a few thinks like smiles but that isn't anything compared to seeing it for the first time in my life. I was actually conducting an experiment with a group of students by joining this game to see how the visual aspects effect someone with my condition, sadly I don't know any of the results."

[Yamato 0]

"Conducting a test, eh," Yamato asked, raising both of his eyebrows as he considered that information. It was an interesting fact that Avilon was blind in the real world, but that simply went back to what he had said moments ago. There was nothing he could do in the real world to fix or address the fact that she was blind, he was neither a doctor, nor a scientist, nor even an optometrist. "I'm a guard at the Irish Embassy in Tokyo, though I guess I've probably been moved to a medical facility by now," the Irishman said, shrugging his shoulders. "You must be good at that science stuff."

[Avilon 0]

"Yep, I'm a scientist I think I mentioned that I wasn't a gamer right? Or was that to someone else," she spoke now not entirely certain as she was terrible of keeping people straight in her mind. "Oh you are a guard? That's so cool I bet you meet all types of interesting people and make all the people around you proud of your great work," she smiled giving him a thumbs up. "Ahhh wait is that why you are in a hurry so people are depending upon you back at home aren't they?" She stated now  connection the dots like a constellation as she felt a bit proud of her break through. "I'm ok at science I suppose, I mean I have gotten all A's in every science class I have taken. I stick to the biological, physical and chemical sciences thought. Still working on the Computer side as I don't completely know how this device works yet. That was part of my research hoping to make this stuff work for blind people to see the real world."

[Yamato 0]

"Interestin'," Yamato said in answer to Avilon's declaration that she was a scientist working on a study to see if the Nerve Gear might be something that could be used in helping the blind to see. Why not, right? After all, the system had to stimulate all the correct centers of the brain so why not try it out to see if it might be able to provide some sort of artificial sight to the blind in the real world. "I'm terrible at science an' my job lets me travel, but it's really pretty dull on the whole. Check people in, check people out, travel with the Ambassador from time to time. That's it in a nut shell," he concluded, disentangling his arm from Avilon's and jogging up the handful of steps to the top of the platform steps where the portal was located. "Jus' step into the portal an' say 'Teleport: Delilah,'" the Irishman said, suiting action to words and disappearing.

[Avilon 0]

Nodding she hopped down watching him disappear into the vastness of Aincrad, she then walked into the portal area and spoke up. "Teleport Delilah." As the words were spoken she disappeared and nearly instantaneously found herself on the third floor now smiling and waving as she had done this a few times now and was quite use to it. "Well then time to wear out our welcome on this floor I suppose?" She stated making a joke based upon the name of the mission they were taking before looking to the blond companion wondering if he thought it was as amusing as she felt it was.

[Yamato 0]

OOC: Pick up the quest in this post, spawn the mob in my next one.

"Wear out our welcome? No, I think we're the heroes in this quest, lass," the Irishman replied as Avilon emerged from the portal on the third floor. "From here we just need to head over to Griswold's forge an' pick up the quest from him," Yamato continued, suiting action to words as he set off through Delilah, which was a considerably smaller town than the Town of Beginnings. Within a few moments the pair of them moved into Griswold's shop. Yamato and the gruff smith exchanged pleasantries and, a few moments later they were back out in the sunshine of the third floor. "Shouldn' be too hard to spot a Dark Elf here," he muttered, his blue eyes already scanning for the quest mob.

[Avilon 0]

Avilon appeared and then was hit with a question and answer to her previous remark, whatever that may have been, her mind had already traveled onto other thoughts leaving that in the wake. As he stated the quest wasn't to far away from accepting she clapped her hands happily skipping off in the right direction for the first time in her life. "Well come on slow poke we don't want to be lat now do we." As they entered the shop Avilon merely let her gaze wander over the various supplies he had her hands also quite eager to touch as she was fiercely yelled at by the shopkeeper to stop touching.

[Yamato 0]

ID: 58751
BD: 3 (2+1)
MD: 4 (Miss)
Dark Elf: 12/12
Yamato: 16/16 2/4
Avilon: ?/?

Having moved back outside of the blacksmith's shop, Yamato's ice blue eyes scanned the town of Delilah. "There," he announced, pointing a finger in the direction of a retreating figure that was heading for the gates of the town to return to the prairies beyond. "He's got pointed ears, so that's our lad," the Irishman continued, heading off through the crowd to follow the thief and trusting that Avilon would keep up. For several minutes the pair of fighters followed the thief until he had just passed beyond the final boundary of the safe zone, out into an area where he could be dealt with. A silently as possible, the axe man readied his weapon and slipped up behind the Dark Elf. But, just as he attacked the elf ducked and the bladed head of the tomahawk went sailing over the mob's head. In turn the Dark Elf produced a dagger and lashed out with it, but Yamato was quick to leap clear of the attack. "Avilon, you're up!"

Edited May 11, 2016 by Yamato

[Avilon 0]

Dark Elf: 9/12 3 damage
Yamato: 16/16 2/4
Avilon: 28/28 6/7 1x1x3

ID: 58754

LD: 3

BD: 9

MD: 8

Avilon charged after Yamato. Now if it had been her option she would have been starting the fights but it didn't matter she raced forward pass her blue eyed companion and stabbed her sword into the pointed ear fellow. "S-sorry it's just that the job told us that you were doing bad things so I guess you have to get defeated?" She mewling sadly toward the dark elf who winced and stumbled back in pain. Her own pace still keeping up with the two but she had to admit she wasn't all that great with the cardio even if it was a game she mentally felt exhausted after the work out as her blade cleaved the gash through the foe.

 

Edited May 11, 2016 by Avilon