[F1 PP] <<Making Vows>> [Beat x Shield]

[Shield 0]

Spoiler

<<Making Vows>>
Recommended Level: Any
Restrictions | At least the two marrying players

James Aria

Upon approach, the priest greets you as normal. When he hears that you wish to be married he smiles warmly. "So you two wish to be married? That is wonderful to hear! We will need to discuss the details of your wedding such as location, the size of the wedding, food, as well as the wedding rings. I can also help you find someone to wed you, or I could do it myself if you'd like."

Rewards:

• 1 Additional SP
• Access to <<Saying Vows>>

Requirements:

• At least one [1] page (20 or more posts)
• Required wedding details must be declared and taxes paid
• Ring details must be declared

Outline:

Players who wish to marry must first speak with the priest James Aria, who resides in the central cathedral of Floor One. James guides the players through the different topics that must be decided on before they can finalize, pay the taxes, and move on to prepare the wedding. It is encouraged that players RP writing their vows for one another in private, however, this is not a requirement.

Wedding Plans

The Thread Summary must include the following parameters for the couples' wedding: Location, PK access, number of guests, the option of providing stat-boosting food, wedding ring abilities, and the combined cost of all taxes. The total col owed must be paid to the @Banker account before the thread can be completed.

• Private Wedding (no guests) 0 col
• Small Wedding (Few invited guests, 1-5 additional players PP) 1,000 col
• Medium Wedding (Invited guests, 1-10 additional players PP) 2,000 col
• Large Wedding (Invite only/any number guests, PP/OP, player's decision) 3,000 col
• PK Access:  1,500 col
• Snack Table* (+1 food buff, Uncommon) 1,000 col
• Feast Table* (+2 food buffs, Uncommon) 1,500 col
• Banquet Table* (+3 food buffs, Uncommon) 2,250 col

*Players may select any Cook enhancements to apply, which must be declared in the Thread Summary. Any players who eats from an enhanced table receive the listed buff(s) for a single thread they participate in afterwards within 30 days of the wedding's closure. Threads that benefit from this buff must have been started after the wedding's thread begins, and players claiming a buff must declare these buffs with a link to the wedding thread in their first post. Wedding food buffs do not stack with other food buffs.

The Rings

Players can either purchase a basic gold band (1,500 col each) or a custom ring with any appearance they desire (2,000 col each). Ring choices (appearance and ability) do not have to be identical between the two players. Each ring has one ability which must be declared in the Thread Summary. The abilities will not be active until the couple completes the <<Saying Vows>> Quest. Wedding Rings do not take up an equipment slot. Ring abilities are only active when a player is in the same thread with their spouse.

• Resolve: +(20*Tier) base health
• Driven: +(5*Tier) base energy
• Strong Will: +1 base damage
• Resilient: +(4*Tier) base mitigation
• Purity: (1) Safeguard Active at beginning of the thread (Cannot stack with Safeguard potion)
• Affectionate: Transfer 5% of your max health to your spouse (1 post cooldown)

Shield was still in a good mood from his finds in the shop. True, Beat would have far less to celebrate than he would, but he had some plans in the works that might make up for it. He was scrolling through quests, taking care to comb more thoroughly. After all, he had nearly missed the entry on the wicked witch just because he thought he had already done it. Suddenly, something caught his eye. "Did... they accidentally make a copy of the wedding event? I could have sworn that-"

He frowned. Then he grimaced. Then his stomach turned upside down entirely. "They remade it..." he thumbed through the information he had been sent from the brokers, detailing the new quests that had been released. "...and we can't afford to miss out on this one..." Reluctantly, he opened a fresh correspondence to Beat.

Quote

"@Beat,

Get down to the first floor. We have to renew our vows. It's going to be a pain, but the benefits far outweigh everything else...

PS:

I'm not wearing a dress.

PPS:

Try anything funny with the planning and I will personally see to it that you never have any gear identified by a reputable merchant again."

 

[Beat 0]

Beat could be found near his home, enjoying the steaming waters of the hot springs that acted as a local attraction near the more popular safe zone on the floor. He had dozed off with a towel over his eyes as the rushing sounds of water and the heat had made it impossible to stay awake. His HUD pinged him with Shield's message for ten minutes before it had finally roused him enough to convince him to wake up and check it. 

From Shield? Bet he found another quest...

Beat's assumption was right, but his face grimaced at the prospect of another wedding. The first one had been an ordeal without the embarrassment. His antics at the Valentines dance would prove as useful preparation for more charades as a real could with Shield. Beat smiled at the postscript and sent a simple reply:  ;)

With his reply sent, he quickly changed and headed there, making his way into town to travel to the first floor. 

[Shield 0]

Shield buried his face in his hands and forcefully combed his fingers back through his hair. The reply from Beat had not been a helpful one. It had taken Beat most of the night on Valentine's Day to figure out that he had gone too far. He did not look forward to being the center of attention again, especially if this was going to be another opportunity to be the butt of someone's jokes.

Regardless of what the wedding was going to have in store for him, there were benefits that couldn't be overlooked. With the floor raid coming up, the catering would be an opportunity to give the front-liners some much needed buffs, and the effects of the rings were going to be incredibly useful, especially considering that they did not themselves occupy an active item slot. He set out as well, his feet carrying him the safe routes that he had found on the eleventh floor completely by muscle memory at this point.

"Town of beginnings!" he called out to the teleportation plaza. With a flash of light, he was whisked away to the lowest floor of Aincrad. He did not wait up for Beat. After the snide message he had received, he was not much in the mood to exchange many pleasantries. The details were all there in the information they shared that was a product of all of the info brokers they associated with. He would be able to find the priest just fine on his own.

"Why are all of my marriages such disasters?" he groaned to himself as he knocked on the priest's door.

Edited March 10, 2018 by Shield

[Beat 0]

Beat arrived at the settlement and stepped onto the platform, "Town of Beginnings!" He was quickly whisked away to the all too familiar starting city of the first floor. It had been some time since he had been on the first floor, let alone in the starting settlement. The hustle and bustle was greater than he was used to, but he didn't mind in the least. He looked to the sky and was relieved to not see the server message warnings in the sky. 

I don't think anyone can forget that day...

After taking a moment to curse Kyaba's name silently, he opened his map and headed towards Shield's icon. As he approached, he stifled a smile as he wondered what Shield had thought of his reply. He had left it vague for a reason, though in truth, Beat had no desire to put Shield through a repeat of the valentines ordeal again. He slapped the tank's shoulder as he stopped next to him, "Hey strong and surly. This the priest's place?"

[Shield 0]

Shield stood with his forehead pressed against the door, not even bothering to turn to address Beat. "No, Beat. I just enjoy banging my head on random doors in the Town of Beginnings. It's like trick-or-treating, but without the candy."

At this point, the door finally opened. Shield recovered his balance, but not before stepping entirely too close to the man who had greeted them. His hand was already being shaken by the time he had registered that there was another person in front of him.

"Welcome, welcome," chirped the bright voice of the slight young priest who stood before him. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Shield grit his teeth, not bothering to hide his resentment from the NPC. "We're here to set up a wedding ceremony." He gestures to Beat with his thumb, avoiding everyone's gaze in the process and pretending to be very interested in the decor, which was unfortunate because the room was barely furnished to begin with.

[Beat 0]

"I dunno, I figured you finally popped a blood vessel in that surly head of yours." Beat joked before the priest opened the door. The younger player was happy to leave Shield alone if the surly man was going to make himself miserable throughout the process.

And after I decided to leave you alone this time...poor guy...

The priest looked at the two of them and beamed at Shield, clapping his hands together as he spoke, "Wonderful! Wonderful! the bond of marriage is a sacred one and is the purest gesture of commitment to each other." 

Beat doubled over silently, making sure to hang back a bit as they were led inside by the enthusiastic priest. The decor was plain and minimal. A desk and some chairs could be found at the end of the room and pictures of old priests lined the walls. Aside from a couple of drawers and a small kitchenette, there was nothing to the place. The priest led them to the desk and took the somewhat nicer chair opposite of the pair intended for the couples to sit in. Beat quickly took a seat and bit his lip, waiting for the priest to speak again. 

"So," the priest started, his eyes dancing between the two players eagerly, "tell me how you two first met."

Edited March 10, 2018 by Beat

[Shield 0]

"It was actually in the last online game we played," Shield said, taking a deep breath and doing his best to swallow his resentment. The harder he fought it, the worse it would be for him. "We were actually-"

"Ah! Of course!" the priest said, clapping his hands together and standing quickly back up onto his feet. "Love blossoms over the internet, and then in Aincrad, you are actually see each other face to face, well in a manner of speaking. You know, this reminds me of..."

Shields eyes glazed over and his head slowly shook back and forth as he watched the priest prattle on and on about this couple this and that couple that. After a few minutes, the priest finally sat himself back down. "Forgive me. I do get so worked up over these things. Now, tell me, were you friends first, or did you start out dating?"

"We were actually rivals-" Shield began, but before he could even get his sentence out, the priest was back up on his feet sharing about yet another one of his favorite couples. He looked over at Beat with an expression that shouted 'can you believe this guy,' gesturing at the priest's back with his thumb.

[Beat 0]

Beat seemed to replicate Shield's expression as he rolled his eyes, holding his hand up and flapping his fingers together, mimicking the opening and closing of a mouth. He entertained himself this way for a few seconds before letting out a loud groan that did nothing to stop the priest's rambling about a couple who had apparently spent over a million col on their ceremony. 

"OKAY!" Beat said slightly louder than he had intended, though his desired effect had been achieved, the priest looked at him in shock at the idea that someone would not completely enjoy his rant about "amazing" couples. 

"What do we need to do to prepare for this? Are invitations a thing? What's the plan?" He said, gesturing with his hands to beg for actual information rather than conversation. Beat didn't enjoy the idea of this any more than Shield and he had tired of rolling with the punches on this one. 

[Shield 0]

Shield cleared his throat, spring-boarding off of Beat's question before the priest had time to get lost down another one of his matrimonial rabbit holes. "Well, since we plan on inviting the whole boss raid, so we should go with the largest possible wedding. We can easily cover the costs of-"

"Oh~~~~~~~ I do love big weddings!" burst the priest, immediately standing up and flapping his arms around enthusiastically. n his clerical garb, iIt was not entirely unlike watching an overly large penguin waddling about. "The last time we had a big wedding like this-"

"Yes, well," Shield interrupted, throwing an arm around the priest and steering him back into his seat. "In any case, our guest list may change as we learn of more people who are going to be attending the boss raid."

The priest stared blankly back as if he was unable to see how those two things could possibly be related. Shield sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. This was going to be a long meeting.

[Beat 0]

Beat puffed out his cheeks as stared at the priest and then to the agitated Shield. It was clear that this quest was less of an interactive event and more of an annoying waste of time, even by Beat's standards. He decided enough was enough and threw his hands up, looking at the various objects strewn across the priest's desk. Most of them appeared to be mundane items, but all the same, he was determined to mess with the priest.

If I can't mess with Shield, this guy will do just fine. 

Beat looked to the priest, "Oh no, please go on about everything but our wedding." He said as he proceeded to take the magnifying glass and stare at the man who seemed to perk up, "OH! That couple I mentioned? That magnifying glass was a thank you gift from them for overseeing their wedding! Let me tell you..." 

Edited March 11, 2018 by Beat

[Shield 0]

The pinching grip that Shield had on the bridge of his nose intensified and Beat continued to encourage the priest in his ramblings. At first, he did not even notice anything that Beat was taking due to his eyes being firmly shut.

"And of course," the priest went on, embellishing his gestures as he neared what Shield was sure to be the climax of whatever yarn he was spinning about weddings that had no bearing on the current situation, "when the sandal fell off, the groom was knocked LITERALLY head over heels right over the back of the banquet table-"

"Banquet table!" Shield blurted out, finally seeing an opportunity to interject with a relevant issue. "As far as the food accommodations, Beat and I will be splurging and going for the mitigation focused banquet table, what with all of the guests that will be attending."

"Say no more," the priest said, clapping his hands excitedly. The sound brought Shield back to the moment, and he finally glanced over the priest's shoulder just as Beat stowed his ill gotten gains. Shield waited until the NPC was occupied elsewhere, which took the space of half a breath, and he frantically and silently gestured for Beat to put it back. The priest turned back to him as he continued elaborating on his story. Shield made a big show out of smiling and nodding, his eyes continually darting to Beat and back to see if he had even noticed Shield's silent message.

[Beat 0]

Beat's brow furrowed as Shield appeared to tell him to put the magnifying glass back. He silently asked him if he wanted the magnifying handing it to him and putting it in front of his eyes and then bringing it back to his own and staring at the irritated Shield. The priest had pulled out a stack of papers and had begun writing furiously, "Okay so the defensive food package! That comes with your choice of vegetarian and meat entrees..." 

Beat looked over at the priest, his left eye appearing gigantic in the magnifying glass, "Steak and let's see...um, oh yeah...Steak." He said before tucking the object into his armor and immediately began looking for another object as he elaborated, "Salads are for lizards and I don't have any lizard friends."

The priest blinked at the younger player before collecting his wits and writing Beat's response down, "Alright...fair enough. Lots...of...steak..."

 

[Shield 0]

Shield was about to object to Beat's close-minded attitude, but the thought did occur to him that in SAO, none of the meat they were actually eating came from actual animals, so a vegetarian would not be as likely to have a moral qualm about some steak. Still, he did not feel like steak and nothing else would be as appetizing to some as Beat seemed to think it might be. "I'd like to do some sides of potatoes if nothing else."

Shield could see that Beat was not going to be cooperative, so he decided that his best bet was to make the meeting shorter rather than more tolerable. "I suppose that the last order of business is the rings." If there was anything in this whole conversation that might get Beat's attention it was this. This was the reason they were there.

"Ahhh..." sighed the priest, swooning slightly with his hands clasped beside his cheek. "The symbol of one's love, ever adorning their true love's finger."

Shield stared blankly at him for a long moment. "...yeah, sure. That."

[Beat 0]

Beat snorted at the priest's words and Shield's response. The surly player was about as far from the 'lovey dovey' type as Beat figured was humanly possible, so it was always entertaining to hear him having to deal with statements and situations like these. The priest had begun looking through his stack of papers, finally falling upon the one he wanted. He pulled it off of the stack and placed it in front of the two players along with a pen, "Alright, simply make your selections in pen there and sign you names at the bottom." He said excitedly, clearly very interested in their selections. 

Beat peered at the parchments and his eye brow rose at the options. According to the form, you could have your made entirely of gemstone as well as various metal and gem combinations. Beat smiled as he selected the emerald band choice and wrote his signature on the bottom line before sliding it to Shield. He looked to the older player, "Easily the coolest part of this quest so far."

[Shield 0]

Shield nodded, agreeing with Beat's assessment of this being the most interesting so far. He looked through the options, finding a heavier looking ring design. The band was shaped like a serpent, which he thought was appropriate with his familiar. On either side facing outward, the snake's coils were wrapped around a traditional heater style shield. Among the stones, eyeing a particularly attractive black opal with flecks of red and green, which he thought fit nicely with his defensive damage types, flame and venom. He made marks beside each, also noting that the enhancement should be to mitigation before sliding the sheet back over to the priest.

"Oooo~" exclaimed the NPC, hand on cheek. "Some bold choices. Looks like we have some polar opposites on enhancements. I guess opposites really can attract."

Shield snorted at the word 'opposite.' He then wiped his nose, trying to mask the true nature of his reaction.

Kid, you have no idea.

[Beat 0]

The love for gaming Shield and Beat shared was not exactly where their similarities ended, but they certainly had very different perspectives on most things. The age gap between them was likely the greatest source of those differences, but they likely had vastly different backgrounds that caused them to approach life in very different ways. Beat smirked and nodded at the priest, "Our differences give us strength though. We're more or less on the same page where it counts." 

Despite their differences, the two of them had developed a camaraderie and their two very different, but very essential builds had afforded them much of the success they had been able to enjoy throughout their time in SAO. Their views on morality were also not so different, though their approaches to escaping the death game they all played was somewhat opposed. Still, Beat would never truly feel like Shield's company was unwelcome and he truly couldn't see himself wanting a better traveling companion.  

[Shield 0]

"Right, so... we're done here, right?" Shield asked, gesturing to the paperwork the priest had in hand.

"Well... I suppose those are some of the general details taken care of," he replied, looking confusedly back and forth between Beat and Shield, as if he could not understand in the least why they might want to be done. "But we haven't talked at all about the design for the cake, or the flower arrangements. Not to mention whether either of you wanted to wear a dress-"

"Aaand we're done here!" Shield said, standing up very quickly and making for the door. "We'll be in touch. Don't call us. We'll call you!"

He grabbed Beat by the elbow, dragging the younger player to the door and pulling it open so forcefully that had it not opened freely, he might have torn it clear off its hinges. He wasted no time in exiting, pulling to close the door behind the two of them.

"But-" blurted the priest just before the door snapped shut.

Edited March 11, 2018 by Shield

[Beat 0]

Beat chuckled, "Yeah Shield, the cake needs a design and-" 

He was already being dragged out of the house before he could finish and before he knew it, they were walking back towards the teleportation pad. Beat freed his arm from Shields grip and began walking along on his own as Horus took off from a nearby roof, keeping pace high in the sky as he normally did. 

"You have to admit, that could have gone worse." He said, glancing at the older player as he held his arm out for Horus to land as they reached the center of town where the teleporter was. He looked up and smiled at his falcon familiar as he continued, "and rings will be awesome as well. It's good to know that they will look good while providing those bonuses. I just can't believe they stack."

He stepped onto the teleporter and turned to face Shield, "Floor twenty One!" 

[Shield 0]

Quote

Searching for Materials:

ID# 98432 results: Loot: 14+11=25 - +1 T3 Material

[1 Total]

Shield nodded, not really having much to add in response to both the comments on both the meeting and the relief that the rings were customizable. He followed Beat to the plaza, feeling like wandering around the twenty first floor would be a good way to clear his head. The two wandered out of Tomoika, crossing one of the many rope bridges that lead from the main cavern out into one of the many mines that branch out from there.

Along the way, Shield noticed a faint glow cast by his own earring, indicating that something of worth was nearby. He searched the floors and then the walls, eventually spotting a small, somewhat removable chunk of light purple crystal. He tapped it and found that an item menu appeared for him. He selected the option to store the item away, straightening up and dusting himself off.

"This is a much more bearable way to spend a day."

Edited March 11, 2018 by Shield

[Beat 0]

Spoiler

ID# 98434- LD: 17 + 5 = 23 = 1 T3 mat found (2 Total) 

"I agree. I really don't enjoy those sorts of situations any more than you do. I do get creative when I find ways to make it bearable though." He admitted with a chuckle, "Though you'll notice I barely involved you in that this time." 

Beat had silently decided that the Valentines ball had been the final time he would go out of his way to really mess with Shield's social comfort zone. In front of an NPC, he didn't feel like it would have been nearly as terrible for the older player, but Beat wasn't prepared to push that envelope again just yet. Beat's loot find ring began to warm as they walked and a quick glance around revealed a bright blue and black spotted mushroom. He stooped down to retrieve the itme and stowed into his inventory with a smile, "About time I actually found something edible. Heaven forbid it makes sense." 

Edited March 11, 2018 by Beat