A Stitch in Time

A stitch in time saves nine. The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Two wrongs don't make a right. Alpha recited several idioms and sayings inside her mind, sitting on the clearing that bordered Pormont and Dunnstads. She had expected to meet Nalani and Aaron here five minutes ago and, while she was admittedly three minutes late, Alpha was not happy with waiting those other two minutes thinking about colloquialisms. There was, however, nothing left to do.

"A dog is a man's best friend...A wolf in sheep's clothing..." she continued, dully droning on each syllable.

The three of them had discussed plans of wolf hunting after Alpha had reached Novice-level on her beast-taming skill. It would be nice to find an animal to tame since she had been primarily using her shins and elbows to ward off beasts so far. She briefly entertained the idea of finding an animal companion before groaning. The excitement bubbling within her was slowly being covered by a sheet of boredom as she waited and the restlessness began to grow apparent in her intonation.

"A dime a dozen..." she rolled out. She could wait. After all, this was just the calm before the storm.

@Nalani Rosa @Aaron Marone

(OOC: 2tired2domore)

 

Aaron cursed under his breath. Somehow, he had gotten roped into helping two young girls do... something. How that had happened, he wasn't entirely sure. He had bumped into them shortly after logging in for the very first time, and had been too occupied trying to figure out the basic functions of the game to really pay attention to what they were saying, but by the end of the conversation he realized that he had agreed to assist with something or another, and that he was supposed to be in this general area at this general time. There were a number of problems with that - for one, a general area was rather large, and Aaron had no clue where the two girls might be. Two, a general time is rather poor for a meeting time, and he had no clue if he was late or early, and so didn't know if he should risk wandering around or not. Three, he wasn't entirely sure of what the girls were named, so he couldn't call out their names and say he was here. Four, he wasn't sure what exactly he was going to be helping with, so he couldn't call out that he was here to help with that specific task. He hoped it wasn't anything too weird or dangerous - after all, he had no equipment and no skills to his name. He'd be essentially committing suicide if there was any danger involved. Though since he hadn't interacted with any NPCs yet, he supposed that wasn't too big of a deal. "Hullo?" he called out. "I'm here for... the thing. With the people. Am I in the right general place?" he cursed under his breath again. "I'm terribly sorry, I don't actually remember what I agreed to or what the names of the people I agreed to help were, I really wasn't paying attention at the time, but I think this is where I'm supposed to be and I'd like to keep my word, if possible..." he shouted, trailing off.

Aaron rubbed his head. He figured he was probably in the right place, and that it was probably the right time. He looked up as he thought he heard a noise that sounded vaguely like talking. "That must be one of them!" he said to himself, and made off toward the source of the noise.

 

Alpha's ears perked up and she shot up to her feet like a bloodhound which scented its prey. She looked around, searching for the voice with glinting eyes and a wolfish grin. She turned around to see a blonde-haired man approach the area. Aaron Marone, a very tall male specimen, who she roped into helping her catch a pet wolf. Hair shadowed her eyes as she cackled. Finally, after waiting so long!

"Woohoo, over here!" she called, her happiness practically blazing around her.

She waved her arm to make sure that he could spot her, practically jumping and hopping in place. Yet another moment she regretted making her character impossibly short. Still, she continued despite the precarious feeling of the egg in her pouch rocking to and fro in unison with her jumps. The egg will survive. She can't say the same about her own life if she stood here waiting another second.

So, deciding on her next plan of action, she jumped off the ledge and onto the grassy floor beneath, practically skipping along in direction of the voice that had penetrated through the surroundings earlier. If Nalani was taking forever then she can wait for Aaron and her to finish.

"Aaron!" she cried upon seeing his figure, rushing forward with her arms outstretched and ready to hug the life out of him.

@Aaron Marone

 

Aaron looked up with a start as he heard someone shouting. He saw a tiny, young girl jumping up and down on a ledge of sorts, and waving. "H-hey, be careful! You might fall and hurt yourself!" He was fairly certain that girl was the one who he had agreed to help. He also thought he vaguely remembered something, that she wanted to tame a wolf or something like that, which concerned him because she was definitely younger than he originally thought. Then again, this was just a game, so even if she did get hurt, she'd just respawn - right?

"A-ah!" Aaron said with a start when he realized the girl was coming to hug him. He wasn't against hugs, he enjoyed them, but he certainly wasn't expecting one. He also wasn't entirely sure how to respond, and so he awkwardly patted the girl's back. "Ah, y-yeah, that's me. I'm Aaron. Uh... slightly problem though... I'm gonna be completely honest, I was super distracted figuring out the game's menu and stuff when we met and I agreed to help with this, so I'm actually not one hundred percent sure what exactly we're doing, or even... I totally don't remember your name, I am so sorry!" Aaron said. "But, I'm here to help, to the best of my abilities, limited as those may or may not be, in the service of truth, justice, the American way, and all that... stuff... and also because it's the right thing to do, and such. Gah, I'm really sorry, we're not supposed to be in character with other players for this, are we? I don't remember seeing that anywhere on the rules, so I'm trying really hard but it doesn't really come naturally to me yet."

He examined the girl, as best as he could. Dark hair, brown he was pretty sure. Young, fourteen at the oldest, twelve at the youngest. He was slightly concerned at how trusting she seemed to be, running up to him immediately. He hoped no one would have a chance to take advantage of that with bad intentions. At that thought, he decided - he was gonna adopt this girl as his little sister, unofficially, and make it his job to keep an eye on her as best as he could and as well as she let him. That was something a paladin would do, right?

He also noticed the girl didn't seem to have any weapons or equipment either. "So, I assume we're not doing anything too dangerous, since neither of us have weapons. That's a bit of a relief... I thought I remembered something about a wolf, so I'm really glad I was wrong about that..."

(Can't really do colored text for speech on mobile :/ )

 

Alpha couldn't help but give a small snicker upon hearing the older man's words as his hesitation and relief was transparent in his speech. The man, despite being much older than her, was really endearing and Alpha thought that she could get used to this. At the moment, she entertained with the idea of adopting him as a pseudo-younger brother of sorts (he might be older than her but she had a proclivity to hoarding people and things and, once you own something, you have to protect your things, right?).

"Haha, no worries!" she smiled, trying to reassure him. "The wolves around here aren't that big, actually. Merkaba and I, she's a friend by the way, fought some off just a while ago with nothing but our shins and elbows!"

Finally, she released him out of the bear hug and swirled around, not really interested in seeing his expression. Regardless of how he felt, Alpha was much too excited by the prospect of a dangerous, thrilling adventure to back out. Sure, she had been terrified out of her wits the first time she had been approached by the wolves but some things just took time to get used to and, sometimes, you can only truly enjoy something after getting over a fear or two.

She flicked open her game screen and switched to her mastery menu, selecting the tab that stated 'Beast-Tamer' and scrolled down. The descriptor text scrolled, showing her the basics of her skill:

100 - Trained: You can finally tame a creature that is about the size of a wolf.

"Relax, Aaron! I don't think we'll be fighting at all, hopefully. It'll be nice and peaceful!"

And Alpha truly meant it. Hopefully the skittish blonde wouldn't have to fight a thing but, should it happen, Alpha was pretty sure that her beast-taming skill could (hopefully) avoid any sort of conflict.

@Aaron Marone

 

"That sounds both really dangerous, but also somewhat reassuring," he said after the girl's admission that she and her friend had apparently fought a group of wolves off with just their bare hands. After the girl let him out of the hug, Aaron opened his own menu and stared at his masteries, all clearly marked with a seemingly mocking "0". He sighed. "I really hope you're right about this," he muttered under his breath, too quiet for the girl to hear, or at least he hoped.

After her reassurance it'd be fine and for him to relax, Aaron chuckled. He cracked his knuckles and took a step forward, rolling his shoulders back and putting on a more collected and brace air. In the real world, such an air wouldn't suit him at all, but here it seemed right at place. "Well then, I think the two of us should be more then fine on our own, if it's as you said. I think the other girl must have gotten caught up in something, which is why she's late. It should be fine if we start without her, and if she is able to catch up, that's fine. Does that sound good to you?" He asked with a smile.

"I think, after this, I'm gonna try to find a little shop and buy myself a sword. Even if I can't really use it yet, I think it'd be better to have it than nothing at all. Not much of a paladin without a sword, now am I?" He laughed. "Right then, lets go find us some wolves, shall we? Uh- I still haven't gotten your name, again..." he trailed off as he got distracted by his settings again. Apparently, there were different levels affecting how much pain attack would cause him. The one level would reduce the pain, but take control of his character to a limited extent. The other would allow more control, but not reduce the pain as much. He mused over the two, and decided it would be better for him to have more control to avoid as many hits as he could. Surely that would cause him less pain in the long run. He flipped the setting and closed his menu.

"I think it might be best if you lead, since you have the taming skill. At least, I assume. You do actually have a skill for this, and you're not just going to try to pet it, right?"

 

Alpha found herself nodding and confident affirmation as he asked her question after question. She could tell that he was quite the caring individual (and if she was older or, maybe, if he was younger she would've chased after whatever was inside that pair of pants) but it was getting awfully repetitive and was such a delay when she was just in such a rush to get a pet or something. The egg in her pouch did not constitute as a pet (well, until it hatched) and she was eager for a little companion. She really did love cuddly creatures and she had always wanted a dog since she was little.

"Alpha, or Alphabet Chocolate," she responded with a bright and eager look on her face, excitement bubbling right underneath her skin. As he asked him to lead, he face brightened even further (if that was even possible).

She stretched out her hand and took Aaron's arm into her sturdy grip and, although he was much heavier, she attempted to get him to budge from the spot and try to drag him back into the depths of the thicket.

"The wolves are in there, Aaron! C'mon, we gotta go!"

She then let go of his arm, deciding it was too much trouble to pull him along and simple ran into the forest herself, laughing maniacally. Finally! She was too wrapped up in her own 'what-ifs' to even check back to see if Aaron was tailing her.

 

"Alphabet Chocolate, huh? Ha! I'm gonna call you ABC then," he said with a smile. He figured Alphabet Chocolate couldn't be the girl's real name. He grimaced a bit over the fact that he had used his real name for his character, and hoped such an action wouldn't turn around to bite him in the ass.

He noticed the pouch the girl had, and thought he noticed an egg in it. "We're gonna have to be careful not to let that get damage," he said, nodding toward it. "If you want, I can hold on to it for you since you'll be trying to tame the wolves. I understand if not. Things like that tend to imprint and bond, and it could be problematic if it imprints on me instead of you."

Aaron smiled when the girl grabbed his hand and laughed. This was gonna be fun, he decided. He held his ground for a momentary second to make her put some effort into moving him, but then he'd follow along, matching her pace exactly.

He panicked briefly when she rushed off, letting go of his hand. "Hey! It could be a trap or something, don't run off alone! Also, wolves? Plural? Not just one?" He asked, running after her. He really wished he had a sword right now. He shook his head, hearing her maniacal laughter. Kids these days. Oh well, it was just a game, after all, so what was the worse that could happen? Then again, she was young, and a bad experience at her age could cause lasting psychological trauma for life. "Oh shit," Aaron said, and picked up his pace. "Hey, hey! Wait for me!"

 

His panic amused Alpha even more than her new nickname (ABC, huh? Why didn't she think of that?) and she cackled even more as she sped up, amused by this new game of tag they were playing. The egg in her pouch rocked back and forth and she had to slow down a bit to make sure it didn't fall out, but she was enjoying her little lapse into mischief.

"Catch me if you can!" she shouted back before turning her head to look in front of her. And--oh shoot!

She narrowly dodged the tree and she sighed in relief. That was a very close call to learning all about a tree's biological and physical structure. Then she turned back and found that Aaron had picked up his pace and the distance between them was closing fast. An amused twinkle shimmered in her eyes as she swiftly slid through the muddy ground, gliding down a hill and tracking mud all over her clothes. Her grin, however, was unaffected by the mess and, despite the dirt covering her face, she seemed to be brighter than ever. She would never doubt the usefulness of her Rogue mastery ever again.

Then, she heard a growl when she reached the bottom of the hill; a very familiar snarl and grinding of the teeth. She looked around and her grin fell a bit as she let out a nervous chuckle. "Good wolf, good wolf," she looked back and didn't see a speck of yellow hair contrasting the green scenery. Maybe running away from Aaron wasn't the best idea.

She lowered her voice to a gentle, wavering tone. "It's okay baby wolf, it's okay..." she tried to placate them. She had to weapon and she wouldn't be able to get up on time if they lunged for her. Suddenly, however, one of the wolves gave out a whine and circled her before charging.

Surprised, she let out a scream. "Oh my god, Aaron!" she cried, the sound piercing through the forest and sending several flocks of birds flying. Then, however, instead of a bloody mess and the scene of her jugular getting torn, the wolf merely nuzzled its mane on her shoulder and gave her a tentative lick.

She couldn't help but smile. "Oh," she said simply. She couldn't help but giggle a bit at her previous fear when her heart beat managed to calm down. She gave a gentle pat and scratched the wolf's chin, the canine's tail thumping against the floor and its eyes sparkling and, well, adorable.

"You're a good boy, aren't you? Yes you are!" she cooed and the other wolves sat in place, calm and content. Alpha smiled at the wolf that decided to sit on her lap, kissing the mud off her face. "I'm gonna keep you, you know? I'll name you...something!"

@Aaron Marone

 

Aaron winced as the girl nearly ran face first into a tree. "See? That's almost exactly what I'm talking about!" he called after her. He cursed when the girl then proceeded to disappear from view, causing him to pick up the pace and run even faster. However, he wasn't as good at moving through the woods as she was, and it was hardly three steps before his foot got caught in an exposed root and he tripped and fell. Scrambling up and not looking where he was going, Aaron ran head first into the trunk of a large tree. "Ah, fuck fuck fuck!" he growled and spun. He rubbed his head, thankful at least that ABC wouldn't have seen that happen. He now completely understood why people would use the reduced pain setting, that hurt!

He stood up, a little shaky. He took a deep breath. He got a little turned around dealing with his pain and wasn't entirely sure which way he needed to go now, which wasn't good. Suddenly, he heard Alphabet's voice cry out in panic. He turned toward the source, just a bit off from where he was expecting, and bolted faster than ever.

When he was halfway down the hill, he saw Alpha playing and laughing with the wolf and he sighed heavily with relief. She must have been expecting it to attack, or she'd scared it at first, or something, and then realized it was a false alarm. He panted for breath as he slowly, but urgently, approached. "You scared the hell out of me, gave me a heart attack nearly! Are you alright?" he asked.

He looked toward the wolf. It was pretty cute, reminded him almost exactly of a puppy. "Well hey there, little guy. Aren't you just the most ferocious little hunter?" he smiled. He wanted to pet it, but he wasn't sure how well it'd respond to such an attempt while it was still getting used to people, so he decided not to, especially since he had no animal handling skills. "You thought of a name for the little hunter yet?" he asked Alphabet, before sitting down in the grass beside her.

Aaron let out a heavy breath. "You know, when I was really young, my family had a pet dog. A half-husky, half German shepherd mix. That mutt was adorable, probably my best friend in the whole world. Unfortunately, it died my freshmen year of high school. My dad was an old nerd, wanted to name it Terrasque when they first got it, after an old monster from an RPG he played in college. I shortened it to Terra, because that was all I could pronounce when I was younger." Aaron laughed. "Ah man, such good memories."

Aaron pulled open his menu and stared at his empty mastery points. "So hey, I'm not the best at games like this... how do we increase our mastery points and what not?" he asked. "I'm used to old tabletops, you know? You just scratch it in the box on the paper with a pencil, tell the DM, and keep rolling your dice."

 

Alpha smiled and greeted Aaron as he appeared in the clearing. Well, she tried. The wolf had pretty much nibbled on her hand insistently until she had to stop waving to her friend and return to petting the tame creature. "Oh, I can't think of a name for him yet!" she beamed at him as he sat down next to her. They sat in silence for a bit, enjoying the moment, before Aaron spoke.

He told her the adorable story of his little mutt and Alpha couldn't help but endear herself to the image that popped in her mind—a silly looking dog with over-sized features playing with a younger, cuter Aaron— and her face couldn't help but fall when the man mentioned his dog's death. Dimly, she noted the dog's name and faintly made a promise to herself not to forget such a sweet dog.

Then the topic changed and Alpha had to shake her head to clear herself of her thoughts to answer his question. "Oh, uhm, I'm actually not sure! I, uh, I remember fighting some wolves with Merkaba when we were on our way to some kind of ruins— we had to make a detour to get me a weapon later, which I lost (she chuckled at this)— and, uh, next time I checked I had some mastery points to distribute!"

She scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry about that Aaron."

Then, as if remembering something, she changed the topic. "Your dog was named Terra, right? I was thinking, since I don't know what to name this little guy yet, is it alright if I named him Terry? In honor of your puppy?" she asked hesitantly. She didn't want to bring up bad memories but she couldn't find any other way to remember such a brilliant pup that had been Aaron's best friend. Terra may not live on Earth but, in this game, perhaps the pup could live on in this little wolf.

@Aaron Marone

 

"It's fine," Aaron shrugged when she told him she wasn't really sure about the mastery points. "I guess I'll just figure it out on my own sooner or later," he said with a laugh. "Ah man, I think I like this game. This world seems pretty great."

Aaron beamed when ABC offered to name the wolf Terry, after Terra. "I think Terra would like that. He was a super protective dog, I think he'd be happy that, in spirit, he'd still be looking out for someone."

Aaron closed his eyes and let himself feel the nature of this game. It felt so real. He had to keep reminding himself that it was a game, that he was actually in a chair, in his tiny living room, with a swollen black eye and a VR headset around his head. He reached up and touched where his eye should hurt, but it felt completely fine here. The only pain he really had was his head still throbbed from running into that tree.

"I'm glad we were able to find this guy, he seems to really like you!" Aaron said. "And it's always good to have a friend, two legs or four." Aaron sat back up. "Does this game have a friend or messaging system? We should add each other, and keep in touch, so we can do stuff like this more often. It was fun, even if you definitely gave me a scare once or twice. In the future, I think I'll actually be useful in a fight, so that if anything happens I can actually help protect you." Aaron turned toward the wolf. "You keep those eyes on her while I'm not around, alright?"

 

Alpha gave a small giggle at Aaron's antics and the recently-baptized Terry gave a happy yip in response. She felt a bit somber upon realizing that Aaron was giving a definite goodbye, however. Still, she understood his sentiments. She always knew, in the back of her head, that they'd have to part sooner or later; there was no such thing as permanency.

Sighing, she swiftly opened her hand and sent him a friend-request, giving him one last sad smile. Terry gave a sad bark as well, somehow sensing his new friend and owner's melancholic mood. "You're silly if you think you're going to protect me," she tried to grin. She at least wanted their initial farewell to be a happy one; they'll definitely be seeing each other again, after all, so there wasn't any reason to be so sad. "I'm definitely going to have to make sure you stay safe you bumbling idiot! Look, you hit yourself against a tree!" she began to chastise, trying her best to distract herself.

She gave Terry a gentle nudge and the wolf reluctantly got off her lap. Alpha stood up, patting her clothes dry from all the grime that stuck onto her. She looked away from Aaron. If they were going to say goodbye, might as well make it cool and memorable, right? With her back turned, she began to walk away with Terry trailing behind her.

"Call me later!" she happily yelled before running full-sprint ahead. This was definitely the cheesiest and weirdest goodbye ever but at least the embarrassment will fade and Aaron would almost certainly not forget this—he would definitely not forget to at least send her a small message back later. And, at that thought, she happily sped away without a worry because she knew he'd be back.

Terry barked behind her with a goofy look on his face and his tongue lolling out on the side. She wouldn't be that lonely without Merkaba and Aaron either, with her new friend here.

Distantly, she felt as if she forgot something. Probably a person whose name was...Na...la...who? Whatever, some things are probably left forgotten!

@Aaron Marone

 

Aaron smiled when he saw the friend request notification and quickly accepted it. "Awesome!" he said and laughed, but that laughter turned embarrassed when she called him out on running into a tree. "How'd you know that?" he asked sheepishly and rubbed his head. He sighed. "I was panicking and worrying about you, you can't blame me too much for that, right?"

Aaron had a moment of confusion when the girl suddenly just started walking off. His eyes widened as he realized he must have given the implication he wanted to be done. He quickly scrambled up, looking where he was going this time, and ran after her. "Hey, ABC! Wait!" he called out, trying to catch up with her. "I don't know the way back to town!"

In the back of his mind, he also vaguely felt like he had forgotten something or someone. He figured it was probably just the fact of not remembering the way back to town. Or was there a third person? Ah! "Oh crap," Aaron muttered. Oh well, the other girl would probably be able to take care of herself.

Realizing how far he was still behind Alphabet, Aaron began to run. As he ran, he laughed. This world would be an amazing place - he'd already made a friend!