SP - F1 Quest:<<Earning a Living>>

[London 0]

It was late at night, most players returning to their homes or their rooms in one of the starting town's multiple inns. London was sitting in the dining area at the inn he was staying at. This is a lot to take in. I'm no legendary duelist, how am I suppose to be able to keep affording rooms and food at this rate? Considering how monsters rarely seem to drop col for me and it's too unstable pay. Regardless, I'm not sure how much I currently have is going to last me. Thank god Aerkkusu was so generous, otherwise I might have been thinking about all of this in an alleyway. London thought these things as he stared down at his cup of water, paired with a piece of bread next to the cup. The cup was shaking slightly, he needed to stop this. It was unlike him to be so on edge about things, well, how things turned out and the stress he dealt with before entering this death game he supposed that even the most emotionless people have their limits.

[London 0]

He took a bite out his piece of bread, usually, it'd would have long been gone by now but he seems to be savoring it as if it was some gourmea dish prepared and long awaited. He looked up and looked around, there were a couple of people occupying the room, a few npcs seemed to be setting something up on what seemed like a stage. I wonder what thats too.... he thought, the other players seemed to be around seven in number and they were all conversing, It was late at night after all, London was never one to get up early in the morning or go to bed anytime before midnight. London was seated at one of the tables near the back of the dinner in one of the darker corner, if it wasn't for the candle light illuminating parts of his face any passerby-er wouldn't have seen him at all. This is usually how it went with him, he noticed this long ago but was now pondering about it. It's strange how someone can just...disappear, turn invisible, merge into the shadows by just keeping his mouth shut. People are so concerned with spouting their opinions and thoughts out onto every single little thing that they forget to take the time to politely listen to the response. And people wonder why they don't get answers. 

[London 0]

Finally, three players seem to make their way onto the stage. "Bloody hell?..." London spoke softly to himself when he saw this, leaning forward slightly, curious as two what these three players were going to do onto the stage or why there was one in the first place. He theorized that either these people are into open mic poetry or instruments are actually a think in this game. The girl up in front of the microphone was somewhat tall and had red flowing hair that curled at the end. There were two gentlemen behind her, one to her right and the other to her left. The man on her right(to everyone observing looks like on his left) has deep blue hair, sporting a bowl cut and seems to be somewhat scrawny, sits down on a bench and hits a button on his menu and a grand piano appears before him. For the man on the left, he hits two items on his inventory and a bow appears in one hand and a beautiful wooden contrabass at his side, he seems to be somewhat taller than both of the performers but his hair is a black and an unkempt mess of curls. So they DO have instruments in this game! London thought to himself and waited for the performance to start.

[London 0]

The girl, wearing her sparklingly scarlet dress taps the mic and a popping noise can be heard, reassuring that it is on. She speaks into mic, her voice is already melodic by nature "Good night everyone. I hope everyone is enjoying their evening. Tonight we're going to perform the wonderful little tune called Peach Lady. So pull up your chair and relax, things are about to get jazzy." there is a brief pause and then the music kicks in, and it kicks in hard, with an abrupt trumpet sound and the piano, surprisingly the trumpet seems to be playing out of the speaker. Prerecorded...London thought for a moment but then continued to listen, already tapping his foot and nodding his head, enjoying the smooth swing jazz.

[London 0]

She begins to sing "A-Peach lady~ Take a peak, you're looking at me. Come to get me, you know I want you badlllly~" Her voice is mesmerizing as she continues her song "Peach lady, don't hesitate...keep moving closer to me. You will know, my lips taste like caaandy~" Her voice picks up a bit, everyone is watching fixated on this trio, the singer is extremely talented "Oh yesterday...yes I do yes I do, I feel real love...Ummm~Not for sale..." She goes off into singing notes that fit in with the piano and bass before the abrupt statement of the song, London is completely fixed on the band, leaning further in and he has his hands put together to make one fist and he puts his mouth to this, making him look like he's in deep thought as he fixates on the woman. She continues "Oh! Peach lady- Hey Boy! I knooow your lookin' at me, not again. Just both of us" Her voice crescendos "Come fall in love with me~ Peach lady uh hmh uh hmm...uh hmh. The way you're moving and dancing. Every moment. Boy you got me too~" The piano goes off into a solo as the bass backs it up with it's walking groove, this continues for a bit longer and then they finish out the song.

[London 0]

There is a moment of silence before the crowd explodes into applause. London sits back smiling, clapping along. Damn they were good....Not shortly after they performers leave the stage and a good amount of people rush over to the singer and the pianist with ecstatic praise and questions, the bassist is tending to his own things behind them with the speakers. London gets up and walks over to the man "Excuse me?" He asks, the man turns his man and stands up and faces London, looking down at him he says "Yeah?" London replys "You played great up there, may I ask where you got the contra bass and bow and what exactly I need to do to play it." The man smiles "Thanks! As for my stuff, I got it on floor 4, you don't really need to do any quests to try and get the skill to use it I guess, just gotta perform. They'll even let you keep the first instrument for free! That and what's really cool is that you don't need to play the instrument irl to be able to do it here. So anything goes for the most part if you got enough understanding on how to actually play what you want to play." London raises an eyebrow "That's cool, but I wonder how that works...nevermind, thanks for your help." The man replies "No problem" and with that, London makes his way out of the inn and too the center of town so he can teleport to the floor where he can receive his instrument.

[London 0]

The streets were quiet at night, barren, not a sign of life around, at least, none that can be seen. London walked with hands in his pockets for a good while, his shoes tapping on the stone road. He began to turn corners and go through the occasional shortcut through an alleyway. London begins to think to himself I wonder if they have bass guitar rather than contra bass....It certainly would be nice but if I have to make ends meet with the double base I won't hesitate. He made his way, finally to center plaza of the starting city and found the little platform from which he sees several players warping back and forth, currently, it is just as deserted as the rest of the city's streets. He walks onto it and warps away.

[London 0]

London reappears on floor 4, already he is assulted with the harsh cold of the floor, he pushes his hands deeper into his pocket to try and obtain warmth although he already know it's not going to  do much so he sighs and his breath is visible before him and he takes out a hand from his pocket and swipes downward, the menu drops down and he clicks the map to try and find his way to were the music shop could be.

[London 0]

The map shows that the music store is on a street down the plaza a bit. Seeing this he begins to rush in that direction. God damn this cold, I wish I had my jacket he then swears softly to himself as he continues to run throughout the floor, not taking the time to actually appreciate it as he did with the first floor but the first floor wasn't 20 degrees outside either. He turns a corner and begins to head down another path.

[London 0]

This path is rather long, unlike the first floor, this floor is tinging with life, even during the night. Street lights shine bright and tall trees seeming to line all the way down in the center of the street, the shops bright lights shine outside their windows to display an assortment of items, a few of the shops don't have windows but all of them have a looming wooden sign hanging above the door for everyone to see. London begins to almost sprint down the street to try and find the music store, he would generally be taking a normal stroll and enjoy the beautiful night this floor offers but there's not much time and not enough warmth for him to be able to do so, being raised in 80 degree weather all his life, seeing snow was new to him, that and such frigid weathers that he's only experienced once or twice before. Needless to say, he was ill prepared for this little trip.

[London 0]

The sign of the music store is finally in sight, when London saw this began a full sprint to try and get out of the cold as soon as possible, he quickly climbed the tree steps that led up to the door of the shop and thought for a moment I swear to god if this door is locked...However, it was not locked and he almost ripped opened the door and walked in, closing it behind him. He rubs his hands together and exhales into them, attempting to warm his hand since he couple generally play all that well or all that fast while his fingers were cold. The shop was relatively a small to medium size, guitars, violins, cellos, A couple basses, and a piano filled the room. Luckily, he seemed to have found the strings shop, which was wonderful for him, if he had to run out into that frigid weather again without so much as a jacket he'd probably get super pissed for a while as he ran. However he did not need to do any of these things for obvious reasons.

[London 0]

The storekeeper was bent over, cleaning his counter with a rag as if he was a bartender. He seemed a bit old, having wrinkles. He was also bald but had a bushy grey mustache and skeptical on his cheery visage. He seemed to have a fixed welcoming smile on his face. This cherry old man stood there, waiting for new customers, not even noticing London's prescience.

[London 0]

London approached the old man "Excuse me, sir?" The man turns looks up at the customer "Oh! Hello there, lad! What brings ya here? And why aren't you wearin' a jacket? Don't you know it's a bit chilly outside?" The man chuckles to himself. London became slightly irritated at this, not at the man's cheeriness but at such a obvious question, even if it was a joke."Hmm...yes I do know. I'm newer to the game and I don't have a coat. I'm here to purchase. Do you have any bass guitars in stock?" he inquired.

[London 0]

The old man rubbed his chin as he thought for a moment "Bass guitars....I don't believe we do have any in stock, no. We do have some double basses over there" The man pointed over to a section of the store full of contra basses. "Here let me show ya." He said this with a smile, as he moved from out of his counter, his friendliness was something that you don't see much of anymore. He brandished a walking cane, it was a chocolate brown hickory cane. The man didn't hunch over, it almost seemed as if the cane was just for aesthetics. "Here is my best basses to offer, made them myself!" He seemed quite proud of himself and he should be, the basses were wonderfully made, however, all of them were made of wood. This might not sound strange but in this fantasy death game, it's certainly not impossible for a instrument could be made out of strange materials.

[London 0]

London picked up one of the double basses and plucks a couple of strings to check it's tuning, turning a couple of the tuning pegs to get it back into perfect standard tuning. "You're a luthier?" London questioned. The old man smiled and nodded "Yes, yes I am." London thought for half a moment Excellent....I know where I'll be headed for my instruments and strings. London speaks up once more "Do you have any bows I could use?" The old man continued beaming and said "Yes, I do, give me a moment." and he began to make his way to the back of his counter to get a bow for the young man.

[London 0]

As the man begins to wonder off, London begins to play the contra bass, playing several rock tunes but eventually going into some improvisational jazz, creating some grooves. He taps his foot as he plays. After a bit of player he goes two the two highest strings(D & G) and begins to play a melodic melody, the notes are in quick succession but the overall pace is slow, it's almost like a lullaby but not quite. London closes his eyes and continues to play, beginning to drift into the music and after a couple of riffs of this, he slows down the final notes...they ping as they hit, hitting deep still, filling the room the notes grow slower and softer still until he hits the last open string that is still very audible but it comes out almost as a whisper and he reopens his eyes.

[London 0]

The old man is sitting on a stool across from London. That cheery smile is gone. He silently holds the bow out for London in silence. London grasps it and holds it at his side, matching the mans silence for a moment and then finally the old man breaks the silent short after. "That was lovely..." The man says, his voice sounding slightly weak. "It reminds me of someone I once knew. Who made that?" He implored. "I made it up myself..." London responded, a bit curious. "You made that....yourself?" the man asked almost in disbelief. "Yes, I did." London replied. "Do you enjoy what you do? Do you want to do this for a living?" The old man asked. "I would like to yes. That or become a writer or poet." London continued to answer the man's barrage of questions. But who was he to complain? He did the same all the time. London thought he should humor the old man and answer whatever questions he has, although he was curious why the old man was asking him so many questions. There must be more to this.

[London 0]

"Then I have an offer for you." The old man said. London cocked an eyebrow naturally, "And this offer is?" he said, slightly suspicious. The old man smiled a bit again "I will let you keep the bass and even pay you if you go play out in the plaza for everyone to hear." London was surprised for the offer for one simple performance, there had to be a catch, there always was to something this generous. "I take it this isn't all you want me to do. What's the catch." London question, it almost sounded demanding. The old man smiled again, becoming his cheery self again "There's no catch, just go outside to the plaza and go play for all those nice people to hear. Make sure you play what you just played for me and maybe a holiday song or two." London was a a bit skeptical, "Is there anything else? How long do I have to play, or does it matter?" London inquired. "Nope, just play. I'll be there and when you're done just come on back and I'll ring you and that bass up. Just head out when you're ready." London still a bit surprised It's funny how so many people are settling down in this game. Almost as they are accepting that they are stuck here. Some or fighting to leave but still. The kindness of some people in this game is astonishing to say the least...Why are they helping me so? I haven't earned any of this and I don't deserve it. Do they think I'm going to end up doing some great good? I doubt it....

[London 0]

London spoke up "I'll do it." as he extended it. The old man smiles warmly as he shakes it. "I'll be out there in a moment, go set up. And here, borrow this, you'll catch a coat out there." He scolded as if he was a grandfather and tossed London brown overcoat to provide some warmth instead of his thin cloth armor. "Thank you." London said as he puts it on and collects the bass and bow to go set up in the town square. "Anytime. Now get going" the old man said as he got ready, he seemed slightly irritable in his look for a his winter clothing. "Now where did I put my hat..." he muttered to himself as London picked up the bass and started to move towards the door, setting it down to open it and then down the steps again, being greeted with bitter cold winds as the door slams behind him, the bell on top of the door jingling. He would have put the item in his inventory and made it reappear if he could but since he didn't technically own the bass and bow yet, he was unable to do so. He rushed, still cautiously as to not fall in this snowy and somewhat slippery ground to the center plaza to try and not freeze in this weather. Some of the players see this almost comical display and begin to follow London out of sheer curiosity and perhaps some music.

[London 0]

London turns a corner and finds his way back to the center plaza. He places the bass down in front of the center of the plaza and puts it on the crevice of his leg and plucks a couple of strings to check it's tuning once more and to test how it sounds, he bows a string and luckily it rings out as usual, not needing rosin. He taps his bow against the hard wood frame of the bass and the people following him catch up with him and stand a distance ready to see what he begins to play. London spins the bass and then puts his bow to his string and after a moment starts to bow viciously against the string, starting to play what seems like to be a punk rock version of Jingle bells. London seems to be certainly enjoying himself, his accents are clear and his body shows this as well as he dances around as he plays, his foot bouncing. The audience seems to be very pleasantly surprised by this dynamic shift of energy from what seemed like an aloof teenager. The cold obviously isn't phasing him at the moment. He continues to bow the strings as he rounds the chorus of jingle bells once more and after that he finishes out with a fast and hard down bow, the sound ringing out.