[PP-F1] A Senpai's Work is Never Done <Itzal and Birdie> Completed

[Itzal 0]

Itzal had received a message from Jonathan that he had initiated another player into the guild who was interested in a scout build.  While he was a little hurt that Jonathan didn't come to the rest of the council before hand, as that was the point of a council, he let the matter drop and focus on the issue at hand.  He had messaged Birdie that Jonathan told her about the initiation and that he, as the scout paladin, would like to meet her.  He loved meeting new people.  As he thought this he realized just how much he'd change since he entered the game.  Well, it was thanks to players that he had changed, so he wanted to be that beacon of hope for others as well.  He sat in a tree with his twilight cloak, a deep purple trench coat with a drawn hood, silver vest, and dark brown pants equipped.  The cloak gave him boosted enhancements for searching skills, which combined with his rank three search and detect skill gave him a good solid plus six to searching.  He wanted to grandmaster it soon, but he wanted to get his hands on grandmastering the sword skill first, as well as grabbing a skill called gatherer.  Then he'd master search and detect, and then shoot for picking skill.  However that took experience and he didn't have enough yet.  It was however, his goal to powerlevel so might as well get started.  In the meantime however, he would take his time to get to know this new initiate who would be training under him.  She was in his build after all.

@Birdie

Edited October 19, 2016 by Itzal

[Birdie 0]

Birdie had been lounging around her shop for most of the day, slowly but surely fulfilling a set of tasks she'd set herself earlier in the morning. "Clean the shop floor: check. Feed Glacia: check. Organise the shelves..?" Her eyes darted across the room to the messily decorated wooden shelves lining the wall. "... I'll.. do that one later."

A message notification appeared in her feed, sent from a vaguely familiar name. "Itzal... where have I heard that before?" Opening up the message revealed it's contents; an invitation from the Celestial Ascendant's scout paladin, asking for her to come and meet with him outside town. She hadn't considered greeting the members of the guild so soon, but after sending him a reply confirming she'd love to gather and introduce herself, the girl loosed a smile and prepared for the meetup.

Birdie walked roughly towards the area described by the scout leader, a set of trees a little ways from the border of Starting City. When she couldn't spot anybody on the ground she revised the message twice over, her eyebrows pulling together as mild anxiety settled in. Where could he be? Am I in the right place?

Seconds passed. "Hm.. h-hello? Scout Paladin Itzal?" she called out, sauntering along the ground besides the trees. "It's Birdie, I uhm.. I came when you asked?" Please don't let this be an initiate prank or something..

Edited September 29, 2016 by Birdie

[Itzal 0]

Itzal sat on the branch waiting for her approach and he heard the girl before he saw her.  He turned in the direction of the noise and saw her slowly approach.  Itzal wasn't a master of stealth, but he could at least keep his sound down a little bit.  He watched as she searched for him but completely failed to do so.  That was alright, she was knew to this.  It was expected that she wouldn't do well at first.  Itzal leaped from the branch and landed easily on the ground and made his way over to her.  He smiled.  "Hey there!  You must be Birdie!  Please, just call me Itzal, no need for formalities.  Jonathan told me about your initiation!  Welcome to the guild!  I just wanted to get to know you a bit is all, seeing as how I'll be the one to train you after all.  Hopefully the others will decide to discuss with me before intervening this time around."  There had been an issue with his first apprentice, Alisa, when Kasier had tricked her into a duel and pretended to be a pker simply to draw some anger out of her.  However everything was cool now and Kasier was even his girlfriend, which he did not expect to receive in this game.  "So we can either talk here or go someplace your more comfortable in.  As a scout I've trained myself to be comfortable in every area.  Well, everywhere except snowy places.  I'm uh...  Still working on that."

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

"Hey there!"

Birdie jumped in surprise of the unfamiliar voice, shifting on the spot to face the stranger. She calmed as the man made himself known to be Itzal, and a thin smile took shape on the girl's face as he explained his reasons for bringing her out here. "Thank you! It's a pleasure to meet you Itzal, Morge- uh, sorry-Jonathon told me about you and the other paladins during initiation." She could tell there was a curious story to be told from his words - 'before intervening'? Dropping it for now, she'd keep it in mind as way to ask about the rest of the paladins later.

"Oh, uhm- I'm comfortable anywhere! Just as long as it's not too hot; bird can't spread her wings too close to the sun and all," she released a quiet giggle, a faint hint of unease laced in her voice. As she took a moment to survey their surroundings, she noticed there was little in the way of.. well, anything. Trees and bushes made up the setting along with open fields that would span as far as the eye can see - curiosity as to what they'd be doing there sprouted within her. Her eyes flicked back to him, "Should we find some place to sit?"

[Itzal 0]

Itzal nodded with a smile as she replied.  "Hmm.  A good saying.  Yeah, there's a place to sit near the forest.  Right over there."  He gestured to an area a little ways to the right and as they approached she would notice that there were purple verbana flowers in the vicinity he was referring to.  Although he rarely told others, he would continue coming to this floor in order to see them.  In the real world he had an adopted sister whose favorite flower were purple Verbana flowers.  He felt he needed to keep reminding himself of her every now and then.  As they sat down he opened up his inventory to see what food he had stored.  With all his friends being cooks he rarely left with some form of delicious morsels.  "You hungry at all?  I have some food if you are.  So, I'd like to start by getting to know you a little bit.  I know your username, but I don't know much else about you.  So how about we take turns asking each other a series of questions.  If you ask me I promise I'll give you a full answer.  Deal?"  Unlike Jonathan he didn't like talking business at first.  He liked to get to know the other person first.  What Itzal didn't realize was that this was precisely how to start with another girl:  Get to know them.  If he had recalled this when he hung out with his new girlfriend maybe he'd have some luck.

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

The vibrantly coloured flowers caught Birdie's eye, the girl admiring them as Itzal sat down nearby. "Oh, uhm - sure, I'll take anything."

She took her seat beside him and listened to his proposal, giving a nod of the head at the idea. "Deal! I'll try to give the best answers that I can too, but I'd rather refrain from too many questions about the real world if that's okay?" Having only spoken to one or two people about the past pre-Aincrad, she couldn't justify letting up those details about her life without a good reason. If the question held enough meaning, she'd be liable to go through with it.

"I'll start I guess." She brought a hand to her mouth and coughed to clear her throat. "In your own words, what would you say the Celestial Ascendants are all about? What would you do to further the guild's goals?" She hadn't meant to go into full formal-interviewer mode but there was a lot to learn from a person's opinion, and gauging what a dedicated member thought of the guild was the first thing that came to mind. 

[Itzal 0]

Itzal listened to Birdie's words and he nodded.  "I don't ever ask about someone's real world experiences unless I'm asked to or I have no other choice.  People's privacy is important."  When Birdie asked her questions he had expected things like 'what's your favorite color' or 'what do you believe in'.  He wasn't upset about her questions, he just thought they'd be a bit more personal.  Still, it was no biggie.  He pulled out a pizza he had bought recently and was pleased that it was still hot.  "Celestial Ascendants was, and is, a guild meant for helping the lower level players.  I've played thousands of video games, mmo and otherwise, and I know how difficult it is for lower players to get stronger when they're being destroyed by all the high level players.  This guild allows us to help them level up, learn which direction they should take with their sp, and a couple other things.  We can also go on guild missions as well.  We hope to help the frontlines when we're strong enough as well.  Not the newer members of course until they've become strong enough.  As for furthering the guild's goals?  That can only be done by reaching out to help other players, which obviously we are doing.  The only reason I would ever think of leaving this guild would be if we stopped doing that.  I could care less if this guild didn't go on quests and such.  So long as we're helping lower players I'll stay with it to the end.  Ok, my turn for a question.  Do you think there is any true justification in killing?  If so then why?"  It was a heavy question but they were being personal here.  He took a bite of pizza and his eyes closed as he savored the amazing food.

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

Birdie found herself nodding to each of the points Itzal made, the confidence instilled within his tone furthering her belief that he was being genuine with his words. "If I wasn't one hundred percent sure about the guild before, consider me sold now." Breaching the gap between high and low level players was a hard task, though the Celestial Ascendants seemed to be making leaps and bound in that respect.

"Do I think killing can be justified? Well.. to be honest, no. Despite a person's actions, be it killing a player in cold blood or exacting revenge on a PKer, nobody deserves to have their life taken away from them. Throw them into a prison cell to live out the rest of their days, but death will never be solved with more death." She looked away for a second as if considering something, "If somebody needs to die, and I use that word heavily, then they need to have done something.. bone chilling, so terrible that even the thought of them existing makes any sane person sick to the stomach."

She breathed, Birdie wasn't a fan of adopting such a serious tone. "Alright, since you gave me such a hard one - in 100 words, tell me what it is you love and hate the most about this world." Her hands scooped up a slice of the pizza and brought it to her mouth, nibbling on the end of it as she awaited his answer.

[Itzal 0]

Itzal listened to her give her answer to his question.  He nodded.  It was a good answer he thought.  "I think the one and only reason to kill is out of self defense.  To just allow yourself to die when you can do something about it is wrong in itself."  He listened to Birdie ask him what she considered a hard question.  He thought for a moment or two before giving his answer.  "What I love about this world is that it forces us to work together and create bonds.  I never had that in the real world.  I also love the game like mechanics as I'm a gamer.  The only thing I hate was the reason for it's creation:  For someone to play God and create a world which he could rule.  Humans want to gain so much power and yet they fail to realize how futile it is."  He shook his head in sadness.  "So.  I guess it's my turn again?  Hmm."  He took another bite of pizza, wondering how he would respond.  Perhaps he could.  Yeah he'd go softer.  "Ok, how about this?  What is it you love to do more than anything?"

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

A frown appeared and disappeared as he reiterated the creator's intention for SAO all along. It was a dangerous thirst for power that lead to the deaths of thousands of innocent people; if there was one person who fulfilled her criteria for justifying killing, Kayaba was the man. "We'll all need to work together to escape this world," she said with a smile, hoping to move on from the sad tone the conversation had adopted.

Taking a bite from her slice of pizza, she brought a finger to her lip and silenced herself in thought. "Hmm... doing things to make others happy without being heralded or praised for my actions. There's nothing like the smile of somebody who doesn't expect a stranger's kindness, it actually gives me hope that they'd go and return the favour to someone else." A quiet laugh escaped her lips, "If you wanted an answer that isn't totally boring though - I loved to paint before SAO. It's part of the reason why I chose Artisan as my profession. The game simplifies the process.. a lot.. but it's still amazing fun to sit down and let a brush do the talking."

Birdie felt herself opening up, her socially anxious nature not keeping a stranglehold over their conversation. "Back to me, hm.." She remembered the pizza in her hands, smiling as an idea popped into her head. "Okay, if you could eat one food every single day for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?"

[Itzal 0]

"Oh why oh why did you feel the need to ask that question?"  He asked with a smile and with a sarcastic woe-is-me tone.  "I would never want to have just one food for the rest of my life, and there's so many good foods!........  Hmm...  If I were to choose one food to have for the rest of my life....  Well, I haven't had Kasier's cooking yet, I'm not even sure if she cooks food though.  She had a coffee shop before she closed it down.  So, I guess for now.  It would have to be quiche.  It was the one food my sister could make properly.  An interesting fact, but she made the best freaking quiche you will ever taste."  He sat there dreamily just thinking about it before taking another bite of pizza.  He stared at the slice for a moment.  "Actually, the first time I ever tasted pizza was in this game.  I never had American foods before, even if it was my-"  he stopped as he recalled his promise.  "Right, no real world stuff, sorry."  He thought for a moment.  "Ok, we'll ask one more round of questions and then I'd like to see how much you know about being a scout ok?  So here we go.  If you don't want to answer this question it's perfectly fine, I understand entirely.  Have you seen someone die before?"

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

Birdie nodded, acknowledging this as the final round before he'd evaluate her skills as a scout. However, nothing could've prepared her for Itzal's final question.

"Have I ever.. seen someone die?" A wave of nausea engulfed the girl, though she resisted the urge to react physically to the feeling. Birdie understood that she could chose to flunk out of answering the question, and she felt half inclined to, but the knowledge might be useful for the man somewhere down the line. "W-well, uhm.. I haven't witnessed a player death before, but a friend described one to me; it was horrifying, the way he described the player's demise..." She shook her head to scramble those thoughts. "I did-... I have seen death before, just.. in the real world. If it's okay with you, I'd rather not go into details.." Those memories were locked away deep within the darkest depths of her mind - she had no intention of recalling them.

She loosed a breath, calming down in an instant. "Last question, we'll end on a high vote: you're trapped on an island for 31 days. What three objects do you bring with you in order to survive?"

Edited October 1, 2016 by Birdie

[Itzal 0]

Itzal listened to Birdie and understood her reluctance.  It could be hard to handle death, especially having it been described to you.  He sighed.  "At the age of six I watched my parent's get killed in cold blood right in front of me.  I won't say any more on the matter but that started me on the road to where I am now.  There are three reactions to death, but let's avoid that topic for now shall we?  Three objects eh?  Hmm...  I could probably make a weapon out of something on the island...  So I think something that leaks out the water from trees...  Ax and something to entertain myself.  Thus I can collect as much wood I need, keep hydrated, make some weapons to get food and defend myself, and finally keep myself sane, assuming I'm alone on the island that is.  So yeah, that's my answer.  So now that we've gotten to know each other just a little bit more, we can start talking about your build.  What has Jonathan told you about scouts?  I want to uproot anything false pretty quickly and give you the right answers.  I love the guy but he isn't exactly the best at the role," he finished with a chuckle.

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

Birdie fell silent out of respect for Itzal's story. To hear him admit so bluntly such a terrible memory had the girl in a state of alarmed surprise, though thankfully the topic seemed to pass as soon as it came. Frankly, Birdie was glad for it.

She couldn't suppress a smile as he asked her to recite what Jonathon had said about the scout role. "That's a little harsh," she spoke in a humorous tone, "but sure thing - he said a thing or two that I didn't quite think was optimal myself. He mentioned that we're the ones who go out and uncover hidden dungeons, especially when it comes to locating the boss room in the floor's main dungeon. We should have a lot of evasion to keep us quick on our feet in battle and learn to move swiftly, should we need to run away from a threat. As for my build, he said that he'd recommend building some damage first and then getting into light armour, putting SP into Search & Detect when it feels like we're good on all other fronts first." She paused for a moment. "That's the part I'm not sure I agree with - how long should we be waiting to put points into the Searching skill?"

Edited October 1, 2016 by Birdie

[Itzal 0]

Itzal shook his head in respect of his friend's ignorance.  "Yeah, your right to disagree with him.  All he seems to think about is combat and nothing else.  The point on your weapon skill will depend on this:  Do you intend to fight often?  If you don't intend on fighting alone then you don't need to worry about fighting as much if you partner up with someone strong enough.  Plus if you get a weapon with status damage from the start you could use that while waiting for your sword skill to go up.  If you intend to solo combat from time to time like I have then you will need to work on sword skills first.  However if you decide to do that then I would recommend getting up to rank three or four with your sword skill, and then get to rank three search and detect.  This unlocks a modification you can get that makes finding dungeons and players easier.  It's very helpful.  Only after you get that do I think you could completely grandmaster your sword.  That's what I'm going to be doing soon actually.  After you've grandmastered sword, grandmaster search and detect, then get gatherer.  Gatherer is a great thing to have as a scout because if you get loads of materials, you can easily sell them to other players.  After that I'd recommend getting the lock picking skill since chests can be found now.  It's a long journey but that's just it:  Each build has a long journey.  Jonathan just fails to realize that it's not a combat orientated build.  You don't have to choose evasion if you want to, he just says that because it's what I chose.  I made the mistake of getting the first rank of light armor instead of investing elsewhere so it's taking me a while to work back the sp but I think light armor can be worth it.  Especially once you grandmaster it and get the mod for it."

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

"I thought his logic seemed a little.. combat-oriented, when I talked with him." The girl paused for a moment, was that a mean thing to say? "You can't blame him though, he said he was using a DPS build before switching it up to be a Tank, so fighting in SAO would naturally come as the priority for him."

The advice was clarifying for the new scout; she figured grabbing Search & Detect earlier would hold far more benefits than maxing out a combat skill, she wasn't even sure she'd be running head first into combat - not for a while at least. "I uh, I've already skilled into Light Armour but I'll keep it at the first rank. At least until I have SP to waste.. Grandmastering my weapon skill probably isn't very beneficial either, I don't plan to solo many monsters or bosses at all." There was so much more she wanted to ask him about, it was almost overwhelming.

"Hey, you mentioned dungeons? What do you actually get from clearing those out? High level players have told me about how good they are and it's like, I can't even find one.."

 

Edited October 2, 2016 by Birdie

[Itzal 0]

Itzal nodded to her comment about Jonathan.  "Oh no, combat is important in this game, but he needs to open his mind to a more broader view, or else he's going to miss out on a lot.  And yeah, I have rank one light armor too that sits there doing nothing.  Don't worry your not alone in that.  As for dungeons, they can be difficult to find at first, but when you get reveal and grandmaster your search and detect, it should go a lot smoother.  Dungeons have a few monsters and a mini boss at the end so don't go alone.  The reward is a lot of col and...  Something else.  I forget though.  Its been a while since Jonathan and I did that dungeon.  Man that realm was cool.  I need to go there again."  He observed her carefully.  He recognized that face.  The face one has when they have so many questions they're about to explode.  Sometimes literally.  Maybe...  "Say, how do you want to go about training?  We could do it one of two ways.  The first being you come to me only when you need to learn something, which allows any of the paladins to walk in and try to assist you or teach you...  Or you could become my apprentice.  I would spend most of my time teaching you what I know as long as you are interested in it.  I can teach you how to search, scout, mapdrawing, tracking, a bit of combat if you wanted.  I could even teach you parkour if you were interested.  You don't have to it's just a suggestion."

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

Birdie blinked. "Training? W-well I was hoping to learn from you, you being the scout leader and all." Her eyebrows pulled together, debating the benefits of either option in her mind. It'd be nice to keep my options open and maybe learn a thing or two from the other Paladins.. though I've only met Jonathon and he's the tank leader. I doubt he'll be able to train me about becoming a scout much. And from the way he put it, it sounds like I'll get a chance to meet the DPS and Healer Paladins eventually. Hmm..

After a moment spent lost in her own little world, she snapped out of it and turned to Itzal. "If it's okay with you, I'd like to become your apprentice. Parkour sounds like it could be.. fun? I did gymnastics in school, if that means anything." She thought back to earlier, when she tried and struggled to find Itzal near the trees. Wait, was he hiding out in the branches? He climbed up there then..

"But uhm, out of curiosity, what would happen if I wanted to switch roles after apprenticing with you?"

[Itzal 0]

Itzal nodded after she gave her reply.  "Alright then, if that's what you want you can be my apprentice.  As for gymnastics, I never really took them so I'm not sure if that will help or not.  You might need to give a demonstration or two.  As for switching roles that's the biggie isn't it?  Well, at least it's a biggie if what you want contradicts your current role.  Scouts can technically be a dps too, but the dps part usually comes much much later.  I may be close to grand mastering my sword skill, but there are mods that increase damage as well, things you need to figure out, and other mods on other skills that will help you out there.  Healers have it easier.  Once they've grand mastered healing they usually go for a tank-ish build next.  But again that requires mastering healing first.  As for actual conversion, as of right now it's not possible to remove a skill once you've purchased it.  It stays with you the rest of the game.  Kind of stupid if you think about it but that's how the rules were set.  No use complaining about it.  I'll be grandmastering my sword, then S&D, grab the gatherer skill, get the mods for S&D, work on my light armor, and then I figured I might as well try grabbing skills after those.  So, how about you show me what you can do ok?  We'll start with material gathering, then you and I could spar for a bit, not a duel, just want to see how you fight is all.  And then you can show me those gymnastic skills eh?"

@Birdie

[Birdie 0]

Birdie looked to Itzal, her expression somewhat surprised. "You have your whole build planned out, huh?" She'd known that S&D would play a crucial role as a scout but couldn't for the life of her figure out what else she was meant to pour SP in to. Defending herself from danger was definitely one of her main priorities so she could see herself following a build similar to Itzal's - just with less focus on the armour side of things.

"Could you go easy on the sparring when it comes to it? My fighting skills aren't exactly the best, even less so against an intelligent enemy.." Her unrefined style of swordplay was bound to turn up unimpressive results, though learning from a player with far superior combat prowess could only lead to improvement. "I can do gathering though! You might have to get the materials in the trees, unless you were planning to teach me how to climb one right away." A quiet laugh escaped her lips, though she realised that might not entirely be an impossibility. "Where should we go look? The forest isn't usually a bad place to start."

Edited October 4, 2016 by Birdie