[PP-F1] First Time Gathering (Shin and Arabelle)

[Shin 0]

Shin was just walking through the streets with his usual expression of indifference. Ever since the first day, he had already gone out and started fighting monsters since he knew that the only way to get out was to get stronger and beat the game. Not that he really cared about his own life all that much but it was more for the sake of the other people trapped here. For that reason, he was willing to put up with what he thought would be an annoying quest to gather materials for some potion maker. Normally, this sort of thing wouldn't gain him any experience points as opposed to going out into the field and fighting monsters but this seemed to be the first of four special quests to help you level up faster so he would put up with it. Pretty soon, he had arrived at the workshop of the man known as Zackariah. And it seemed that a girl with purple hair was there as well. Her weapon of choice, an axe, was the opposite type of weapon to his rapier. "I presume you're also taking the quest?" He asked with indifference and curiosity.

[Arabelle 0]

For what seemed like the hundredth time, Arabelle reached behind her and adjusted the starter battle axe that was strapped across her back. This wasn’t the first time she’d walked around town with her weapon equipped, but the last time had been...maybe around half a year ago. Long enough to make her uncomfortable with the feeling of carrying a weapon on her back, and rightly so. The two-handed axe was easily one of the heaviest weapons in the game and carrying it around was no small feat. But at least it made her look cool, plain as it was.

A monotonous inquiry brought Arabelle out of her thoughts. “Yeah, I am,” she answered, suddenly remembering the reason why she’d equipped her axe in the first place. The purple-haired girl turned her head to the side and found herself looking up at a tall (though in her perspective, everyone was tall) blue-haired man with a rapier at his side (@Shin). His hair obstructed his right eye from view, and it kind of made him look like one of those weird emo kids she’d spotted walking around. But she didn’t want to judge, and it was--surprisingly--a nice look. Arabelle offered him a friendly smile. “Why, are you looking for a quest partner? Cause I am, too.”

[WC: 214]

Edited February 24, 2018 by Arabelle

[Shin 0]

It seemed that the girl was also taking the quest and was looking for a quest partner. Shin wasn't looking for one himself as it was just gathering materials but it seemed she was. His guess was that it'd make the quest less boring to deal with. He knew where she'd be coming from if that were the case as he thought this mission would be a pain in the butt. The only reason he was doing this was for the extra experience points. "I hadn't been planning on looking for one as it was just looking for materials." Shin said honestly, his facial expression unchanging in response to her friendly smile. He felt some kind of ulterior motive behind it anyway. To be fair though, he had trouble trusting people in general so this was nothing new. But for some reason, he felt it especially from her. "Why were you looking for a quest partner?" He asked in turn.

"Well, might as well enter the place." Shin said before walking into the workshop himself. "Excuse me, we've come here to take the quest." He said in monotone though it had a bit of politeness in it to greet the quest giver.

"Ah, welcome you two. Looks like you're ready to get started on your journey. Through your time here, you shall learn the basics of the game and hopefully that knowledge will be used to your advantage." The man named Zackariah said when he noticed the two players. As he was a tutorial NPC, or course he'd break the mold of referring to this as a game despite the other NPCs not doing so.

@Arabelle

[Arabelle 0]

Arabelle didn't allow her friendly smile to melt off from her face, though she had to admit, his unchanging facial expression and monotonous voice unsettled her a bit. And was that a small hint of suspicion in his tone? Like he was trying to see if she had some ulterior motive or something? Welp. Maybe she was just imagining it cause he didn't smile back at her. She didn't answer his question, though not by choice since he entered the quest-giver's workshop right away. Probably expected her to follow him in.

So follow him, she did. She pushed the door open and entered the NPC’s humble abode. The NPC’s home was, for lack of better term, a homely place. It was small, just big enough to hold two wooden chairs and a circular table adorned with half-filled vials and different instruments which she assumed were the stuff crafters used for potion brewing. And of course, bookshelves. Arabelle never considered herself an avid reader, but the sheer amount of books the NPC had made her feel a bit curious.

But, first things first. Arabelle stayed silent during Blue Guy and NPC's exchange, then decided to speak up as well. "You'll be teaching us material gathering, right? Tell us what to do," the purple-haired girl said, jumping straight to the point. Then, as the NPC began explaining the basics of material gathering and the details of the quest, Arabelle promptly zoned out. Having taken the profession quest earlier, she already knew how to gather materials and the quest objectives would show up in her menu anyway. NPCs, in her opinion, were boring. They weren't real people, just a bunch of code with a human appearance designed to respond to certain inquiries in certain ways. She only started paying attention once a dialogue box popped up in front of her, prompting her to accept or decline the quest.

<<Arabelle has accepted the quest>>

[WC: 320]

@Shin

[Shin 0]

Shin already got the gist of gathering from before and had only reacted when it was time for him to accept the quest. He clicked on the accept button and had left the home shortly afterward. Now the two of them were headed towards the fields outside of town. In a virtual reality world like this, you'd think they wouldn't need to explain how to pick up something... He couldn't help but think this to himself as he found the idea of it somewhat irritating. 

"That was rather boring. It seems like you also zoned out." Shin said to Arabelle in a tone that sounded more like observance rather than judging. "With such a boring yet easy quest, why did you feel the need to do it with somebody?" He had come back to that question from earlier before they walked into Zachariah's home.

"I'm Shin by the way." He said rather curtly but he thought it'd be a pain to be called other things because he didn't make his name clear.

@Arabelle

 

Edited March 7, 2018 by Shin

[Arabelle 0]

Even though they hadn't come to a verbal agreement on anything yet, the two found themselves walking towards the town gates together. Though Arabelle supposed it was only because they were both taking the fastest route, and decided to stick together since they were heading for the same destination anyway. Her not-quest partner didn't seem like a very chatty person, so she just walked on, silently. With all her love for socializing, she'd almost forgotten that being quiet and mulling over things was nice, too. 

Unexpectedly, @Shin voiced an opinion about the NPC's long material-gathering explanation. Arabelle turned her head in his direction for a few moments, before looking back down at the ground, focusing on a pebble she'd been nudging forward with her foot as they walked. "Yeah, I did," she admitted. "I took the profession quest before this, so I didn't need to hear the gathering explanation all over again." Then he brought up the question he had asked earlier--the question she hadn't gotten a chance to answer. Arabelle looked at him briefly again, and seeing the unchanging neutral expression on his face, returned her attention to the pebble once again. She couldn't dismiss the feeling that he was suspicious of her, for some odd reason. She hadn't been acting weird, had she?

"It's not a 'need,' per se. Truth be told, I wasn't looking for a quest partner 'til you brought it up. But, have you heard the rumors lately?" Arabelle looked up from the pebble to fix him with a serious I-mean-business expression. Gosh, he should consider himself really lucky. She very rarely takes conversations this seriously. "PK guilds on the rise. Lots of low-leveled players dying while out in the field. Most of them, while they were alone. I heard they even got the jump on a front-liner or something." The purple-haired girl returned her attention to the pebble and accidentally nudged it into a gap in the cement. Well, dammit. Having lost her source of entertainment, she lifted her gaze to watch the players passing by them in the streets. "So, while you're probably just as low-leveled as me, sticking together gives a better chance of surviving in case we both encounter a player killer. They tend to target players that are alone, you know? Just in case the other one sees their face and somehow gets away."

She remained silent for a bit, waiting for Blue Guy to absorb everything she'd said. Then, as if she hadn't just been talking about the overwhelming possibilities of being player killed, she introduced herself with a sweet, friendly smile. "I'm Arabelle. Call me Ara. Or Belle. Whichever you prefer."

[WC: 443]

Edited March 11, 2018 by Arabelle

[Shin 0]

"I see." Shin replied simply, his facial expression unchanging as he accepted her answer. "Honestly, they should have just said to go out and gather the materials. We can move these bodies as if they're our own so we could just find it and pick it up. What a waste of energy." He knew this sort of thing was a staple in games but when you could just go out and pick it up yourself, a tutorial about it seemed redundant and irritating to Shin who disliked wasting energy unnecessarily.

."Makes sense." Shin could see the logic behind her explanation though he felt some slight condescension in her tone. Though he preferred to work alone, he wasn't so inflexible that he wouldn't put up with working with others, especially if the situation called for it which it kinda did. The other half of it was one of his remaining emotions to protect others. If there was a chance of an attack, he would do his utmost to protect. "Fair enough, I will go along with it." As he said this, his hand had rested on his rapier. "We'll watch each other's backs I suppose."

"Nice to meet you then Arabelle." Shin said in response, opting for the more formal route rather than using the nicknames she had brought up. They didn't know each other all that well after all. She seems to be able to shift gears quickly. He noted to himself.

@Arabelle

Edited March 10, 2018 by Shin

[Arabelle 0]

"Hrm," the small axe-wielder looked at @Shin from the corner of her eye. After her explanation, he didn't seem to be suspicious anymore...but it was kinda hard to tell. He didn't put much emotion to his words, Arabelle observed. Didn't ever seem to change his facial expression either. A thoughtful frown or a condescending glare would've been better, kind of. A part of her wanted to run up in front of the man, shake his shoulders, and yell 'Are you a robot, man?!' Cause honestly, it was a bit disconcerting. She was used to people having...more reactions, she supposed. They were easier to read that way. 

But at least she got him to go with her. Arabelle wasn't sure which part appealed to him: her logic regarding the player killings, or the fact that she proved she wasn't some dumb thot (some of the more-judgmental players actually thought she was one! geez, people nowadays). And maybe, just maybe, she'd learn a bit more about him. Not in the silly romantic way, but she couldn't deny that he got her feeling curious. With the somewhat unfeeling personality and stuff. Part of her wanted to ask 'What made you this way?' but that was extremely rude. And because if she got someone like him to talk, she could probably get anyone to talk. And that would be a big life achievement.

They reached the town gates--time really passed when you're focused on other things--and Arabelle turned to him. "You ready? Need to equip anything?" As for her, the only thing in her inventory worth equipping was her beginner axe, which was already resting on her back.

[WC: 274]

[Shin 0]

She probably thinks I'm some odd animal or robot... Shin thought to himself as he noticed what appeared to be her trying to figure him out. While he could explain, he felt there was no need to explain things to her at the moment as it wasn't as if they were friends nor was she involved with it. Also, it would have been a big pain in the butt and a waste of energy to deal with questions that would come afterwards. He felt that he did owe an explanation to Kanaria but that was because of her relation to his past. He had forgotten to ask for her in game name so that would make things more annoying to find her.

"I don't believe we will be required to deal with combat but I have my rapier which I believe will be sufficient." Shin tapped his rapier which was at his hip. "Let's get this done and over with." A few steps after they had left the gates, he had already found one of the materials he needed for the quest. "Found one." He said though bored. "We need five of them or something right?"

ID# 98442

LD: 20

Material Found

Materials: 1

@Arabelle

(OOC: Didn't expect one so soon XD)

Edited March 11, 2018 by Shin

[Arabelle 0]

They'd barely left the town gates when @Shin found a material. It was basically just lying on the grass, waiting to be gathered. He picked up the round, glowing object and proceeded to store it in his inventory. "Lucky," Arabelle commented, her tone suggesting she was focused on something else--specifically, material gathering. She looked around too, but her search didn't yield similar results. Well, chances of finding materials were really low if they were this close to the safe zone. They don't take that long to respawn, but players leaving the safe zone often stop to gather them, thereby exhausting the nearby fields of the materials.

"Five materials," Arabelle confirmed in response to Shin's question. She wasn't sure if he really was confirming it with her, or he was bored and looking to start a conversation. Probably the former. "No luck on my end." She admitted, surveying the immediate areas a bit more. Gosh, this was going to be a boring day. "Should we go further?"

Spoiler

ID: 98443 | LD: 1 (fail)

Quest Materials: 0/5

 

[WC: 166]

Edited March 11, 2018 by Arabelle

[Shin 0]

"I found another one." Shin replied in a bored tone not too long after Arabelle answered his question about the amount of materials needed to finish the quest. He wondered how he got such luck, finding two out of the five he needed already and in an area normally barren of materials due to being so close to the safe zone. He decided not to question it, especially out loud. Though he tended to piss people just by speaking, he didn't actively try to piss people off so he thought to not talk about it much more.

Arabelle had suggested going further along the path to have a better chance of finding the materials. "That's fine with me." Shin said in response and followed after Arabelle towards another location. "Need conversation to help manage your boredom?" He asked, knowing that both of them were bored as heck. This wouldn't be easy on the mind without something to distract them.

ID# 98451

LD: 20

Material Found

Materials: 2

@Arabelle

Edited March 12, 2018 by Shin

[Arabelle 0]

"How...?" Arabelle didn't want to complete the question. She watched, in bewilderment, as @Shin somehow managed to find another material. It was probably just right beneath his feet this time, given his luck. Or it spawned right in front of him. She looked around again, making sure to really look hard this time, but there was nothing aside from the unending fields of grass. And a group of players heading out to the west. The purple-haired girl grinned and waved at the group, and one of them shyly waved back at her while the others stared curiously. They were probably wondering if they'd met her before, which they didn't. Arabelle was just a friendly person who liked making people's days better. Was she really?

She turned and led Shin to another, completely random location. No, really. She had no idea where she was heading, or if that place was even abundant in materials. Arabelle literally just turned in a random direction and started walking in a straight line, pretending she knew where she was heading to. Maybe she even had Shin fooled. "Mm, a conversation would be nice," Arabelle replied, stopping to look for materials again. Nothing. Maybe she wasn't looking hard enough? But how does one look hard enough? "Didn't really expect that coming from you though, no offense. So," a smile--no, was more of a mischievous smirk--formed on her face. This was an opportunity to learn more about Blue Guy, and it basically presented itself to her! She'd be stupid not to take advantage of it. "Any particular reason why you named yourself Shin?"

Spoiler

ID: 98596 | LD: 3 (fail)

Quest Materials: 0/5

 

[WC: 266]

Edited March 12, 2018 by Arabelle

[Shin 0]

She has no idea where she's going. Shin thought with an inner sigh as he noticed the slight moment in hesitation before she turned towards a certain direction and just went with it. Well, he had no reason to call her out on it so he let it be, keeping on a face of indifference. Arabelle seemed to be rather eager to ask him stuff as shown from her mischievous smile and it sort of put him on guard though he didn't show it. She had simply asked him why he used the username of Shin, perhaps as a way to bring in follow up questions. Well, it wasn't as if there was anything that would be informative in his answer so he went along with it.

"I merely took a random kanji and put it in a name generator before choosing one that would sound normal." He explained simply without much change in his expression. It's not as if he took inspiration from his own name or somebody else's. He was just lazy and decided to let the name generator make some names for him. He then noticed another potion ingredient, picking that up shortly after giving his answer. "Found another one." He said in monotone. He decided to ask his own question. "Why are you in Japan? You're definitely a foreigner from your looks and that accent tells me you aren't from here. Did you really come to a different country and learn a new language just to play a game? What a hardcore gamer." Though he said this in his normally emotionless tone, this was the closest to teasing he'll get.

 

ID# 98598

LD: 11

Material Found

Materials: 3

(OOC: Thank goodness for the dice requirements going down to 11 for this quest lol)

(OOC 2: And I didn't know what you had in mind for Arabelle's nationality/home country as it wasn't in the journal so I just listed her as a foreigner in Japan due to SAO being there. If she is from Japan, I'll correct it.)

@Arabelle

Edited March 12, 2018 by Shin

[Arabelle 0]

A name generator. Boring, and somewhat unexpected answer. But Arabelle had to admit that her player name's origin was quite boring as well. No awesome backstory or anything, either. "Hm, as for me...I took my player name from a song," she shared with a sheepish expression on her face. "Have you ever heard a song titled 'Arabella'? By Arctic Monkeys? I don't relate to the song's lyrics or anything," It was one of her favorite songs, but if she did relate to the lyrics that would be totally unlike her. "But, the song title had a nice ring to it, and I've been using it as a username ever since I learned about that song."

@Shin found a material and Arabelle quickly looked around, too. "Oh, found one too!" she exclaimed, pointing to a glowing material just slightly obscured by the grass. She went over and picked it up, then jogged back to Shin once she was done. "Finallyyy...four more to go," she sighed, already looking for more. Arabelle was so excited over her little 'victory' that she almost missed Shin's question. She smirked at his remark about her being a 'hardcore gamer'. She went pretty far to get this game, but not that far. "I didn't move to Japan to buy the game. Some business people, I think, bought some copies of the game and sold it to people in other countries for higher prices. For profit and stuff. The interfaces are all in English anyway, so the game can work outside of Japan. I actually bought this copy from an online auction. With my pocket money," Arabelle said the last statement with a hint of pride. "Also, if it sounds like I'm speaking in fluent Japanese, turn your translator off. It's a pretty neat feature, don't you think?"

Spoiler

ID: 98868 | LD: 15 (success)

Quest Materials: 1/5

 

[WC: 300]

Edited March 27, 2018 by Arabelle

[Shin 0]

-rolling-