Open - Day One

4:50 AM. It was a quiet day, partially because the sun was only now beginning to rise, and partially because it was simply one of those days. Capernaum suspected that this would change, though; it was a Saturday, after all, and Saturday meant most people had free time. But Saturday was also the reason she was here, so she really shouldn't judge others, or else she'd be a hypocrite.

It was a rainy day. This was a good thing, despite what people might think-- after all, fish don't quite eat or see in the same way people do, so a fisher didn't need to worry about the light outside, or drops of rain hitting the ocean water. Instead, rain was often a blessing, while fishing. The fish consider it to be nighttime, and thus, safer to swim near the shores, where they won't get caught by any fishermen. It's why more experienced fishing boats come out very early in the morning.

Of course, it was somewhat nighttime, come to think of it. Oh well. In the twilight between night-day, while the rain poured, Capernaum sat under a coastline tree and cast her line into the great beyond.

 

5:08 am Ozwin logged into the game after getting off from work as the night manager of his uncle's hotel. Ozwin stared out at the fishing boats on the water and sighed, he didn't manage to get a job on those ships either yesterday. A flask of rum on his hip, a copper trident on his back, and dressed up in sailing leathers, the young man stared out onto the rainy sea. It wasn't a heavy rain and the winds were still agreeable. Wasn't fantastic weather for a ship to set sail in but it was manageable. The lighthouse was doing its job and bringing light onto the possible dangers so close to shore.

Ozwin himself was sitting alone on the porch of an inn. From his position he looked out onto the docks before his eyes settled on a rather small figure fishing. A faerin? No... a small human? It was a bit hard to tell actually not that he treated those two types of people much different than the other. Ozwin tried not to let himself mind it... a kid sitting by themselves in the rain... It was good fishing weather after all, of course in this world's society there would be kids out working and taking care of themselves... There was no need for him to worry about kids that probably knew more than enough about how to take care of themselves...

A few minutes later Ozwin unceremoniously placed his leather sailing coat over the head of who he now knew for sure was a human youngster. "You should eat something hot," he told her simply as he placed a covered basket with freshly baked cod and bread between them. He didn't look at the girl mostly because he was still embarrassed from how much the kitchen staff at the inn teased him when he said why he wanted the food, and instead stared out at the sea while grumpily taking swings from his flask. Ah what he would do to be out on a ship himself right now trying to hunt sea monsters with his trident...

 

A man approached her and offered food in the rain. Capernaum supposed it to be similar to the old parables of Christianity, dividing bread and fish along the coast. She didn't quite consider herself a fisher of men, but that was simply a stray thought. The girl bowed curtly to the stranger, her eyes still on her line, where they must be, if she ever wished to keep track of her catch. "Thank you, sir."

Sir. The closest thing to 오빠; oppa. The seniority term of her original language. One of the things she enjoyed of this game was the translation setting, which so many people did not consider. Not only did it translate language, but it also removed any unwieldy accents; her heavy, very diluted Korean accent was replaced by a manageable, lighter one, which still existed, but didn't harm her ability to speak.

But she went off on a tangent once more. Taking a piece of bread into her mouth, Capernaum appreciated the warm embrace of an early hot breakfast. Her eyes watched for her bait in the water as she chewed, experienced hands feeling a slight tug from the water below. Slowly, Capernaum reeled in, not enough to make the fish realize it was caught, but enough to bring it closer when the struggle inevitably begun. In the meantime, she spoke.

"What brings you here at this hour, sir?"

@Ozwin Ahab

 

Ozwin harrumphed as he now watched the fishing line with some interest. "I'm not a sir to anyone... The name is Ozwin Ahab."

He pulled his trident in front of him where he began to polish it... not that such needed to be done really, but he liked to take care of his things real or virtual. "You never know when a captain might be looking for last minute crew so I tend to walk about early... the sea is also quite nice to look at in these early hours... How much weight does it feel like you have on the line there? It has a nice shadow." Ozwin eyed the creature in the water with interest. Poor thing didn't even know it was being pulled to its doom, its head soon destined to be stuffed with bread or such... that sounds quite good actually, he thought as he pulled a bite of bread off for himself to eat.

 

"The weight of the first catch doesn't matter, really; I use it as bait for the next, which is guaranteed to be bigger." Once the struggle begun, Capernaum kept a calm mind and a steady hand, pulling and giving way in intervals. Soon, the fish would tire out, and she could reel it in. And-- ah, it had already stopped struggling. Video games truly did pander to the impatient, with how they coded these types of things to take less time. Or it might be her imagination, she didn't know.

Pulling the fish (it resembled an atlantic croaker, specifically,) above water and taking it off the hook, Capernaum reached for a fist-sized rock and grabbed it firmly, holding the twitching fish down with her free hand. She then snapped the fish's spine by hammering it with the rock, any remaining life dying away instantaneously. Blood and various tissue spilled onto her hands and the ground. Capernaum put the fish on her hook once more and cast her line again, the water reddening, sure to attract any predators.

Washing her left hand in the seawater, leaving only a trace of blood on her wrist, Capernaum reached into the basket and ate more bread. It was delicious. "Do you fish often? It seems you treat your spear well."

@Ozwin Ahab

 

He didn't even blink at the bloody death of the fish. "Closer to whaling if I had to say, and not as often as I would wish. Few crews that hunt sea monsters are willing to take on strangers. Typically want a crewman to make the introduction." He laid sideways on the dock with his head next to the food basket and took a sip from his flask.

"As for actual fish on occasion, though I normally just go with the first edible thing I get a stab into... or just getting close is enough most of the time." He muttered an aeromancy incantation which caused an arc of electricity to dance between the trident's prongs just as a demonstration. He finished the unnecessary maintenance on his trident and yawned a bit. Not minding the rain pouring down his own face he lazily watched the bait wondering what the girl was going to catch next.

"So do you fish for a living? Just as a hobby? Or do you rely on it for your lunch?" Honestly he was just trying to figure out if this was one of the many way too convincing NPC of this game or a player at this point since there was no real way of telling them apart visually unless if a player themselves got a bit too eccentric.

 

Capernaum could understand the thrill of hunting sea monsters. Many people enjoyed hunting big game in this world, partly because there's no worry for endangerment or extinction. She, herself, approved of the substitute; if coded animals were hunted here, they could be replaced, unlike those in reality.

She personally disapproved of using magic to make catches, however. It was like using dynamite or any other substitute to traditional, ethical fishing. The excess hunting wasn't a problem here, but she still found it to be morally wrong. "Mm. Try avoiding the use of magic; it will force your aim to become better, and thus help you in times when magic cannot." A similar philosophy was applied to firearms worldwide; using training gear before actually handling weaponry; so why not fishing?

Capernaum let the sound of the waves wash over her, healing a creak in her back through a placebo effect. It was quite soothing. Of course, her eyes always stayed on her bait. "I fish for the sake of fishing. I could easily cast a net, to sell whole schools for money, or take a basket to a stream to catch a week's worth of meals. But..."

A clap of thunder echoed in the distance. Capernaum revered it, and silently thanked it for it's help-- the sound would scare the fishes to her location, now. "...I do it as a lifestyle, more or less. To find peace, and to help strangers in need. And you? Why do you seek adventure?"

 

Ozwin grinned but shook his head at the comment on reserving the use of magic, "Perhaps if I fished for hobby or sport I would take that into more consideration but if I am fishing it is simply for a meal I don't have the time to waste on that which wouldn't be better spent training in actual combat... The same actually goes for the monsters out there, though in a far different manner. I am too weak as it is not to throw everything I have at them if I don't want to die, and I have yet to face anything considered particularly serious as much as it irks me. For now my practice of not using magic when I fight is a luxury I can only afford against beast weaker than I... of which I would say are few and mostly exclusive to the land. Though I admit I have thought of practicing catching fish while treading water just in case if I every find myself in the situation where I am knocked into the sea while fighting a monster... though should that happen I am more than likely a dead man. As for why I seek adventure..."

Ozwin had a sort of expression on his face as if he were searching for the right word, he was really just trying to think of a Npc friendly way of speaking since if this was one he didn't want her screeching at him for talking about the real world "Nothing particularly noble, I like the ocean, sailing... I have the freedom to do so... and well I sympathize with those people out there." He nodded towards the fishing boats.

"The people on the sea don't really have that many adventurers rushing to help them, not that there are too many things that can be helped... Monsters and the occasional pirate or raider though... I can help out there. The people on those ships have families and such that will have a hard time if they die so better if I try an intercept a few of those troubles."

Ozwin patiently sat around watching the girl's line, head resting in his crooked arm's hand and occasionally a glow in his eyes shone as he took peaks with his hunting enhanced investigation mode.

At one point while doing this he spotted a far too skinny brat behind them a distance staring at the food basket, couldn't be older than 9. Ozwin checked inside the basket and saw there was some bread left but instead of offering it to the kid he placed gold in their hands and pointed the now flabbergasted kid to the inn. "Take this to the lady with the flowered cloth on her head and ask her for a large fresh loaf of bread which you will bring back here and for her to make you a bag of food to take home. Close that gaping mouth of yours, you will scare the fish away. And get moving." He had already turned his head away from the kid and was watching the water again. After hearing the footsteps run off he merely muttered, "hope the kid doesn't do anything stupid like trying to keep the change, more likely someone will take it to spend on booze or something," before sipping more rum himself.

"And you? Just fishing or do you fight titans and save the realms in your nine to five?"

 

"I take classes during the weekdays at Queens College. I log in to fish whenever I get the chance." Capernaum casually dropped, popping another piece of bread into her mouth. She already had a feeling this guy wasn't an NPC, which was confirmed when he started speaking of "beasts weaker than I"-- nothing that lived within this universe actually categorized power levels. There wasn't a level difference between an angry boar and a barracuda to them, other than one being on the land, the other in the sea. Nor does anyone actually consider hero quests to be daily occurrences; that was a clear indication of a real person.

"Since we're both player characters, we can die fairly easily. Painlessly, too if you die in the right way. Dying is a good experience. It teaches you to rely on your skills as a human, rather than on your in-game abilities." She droned mindlessly, constantly watching her line. The waves had a distinct shape to the left of her bait-- she knew this to mean a bigger fish, who was approaching on her bait. "For example, I learned through starvation that instead of a spear, a net is better to catch fish for food. Also, I can already tell you that there is a large catch, around four to five feet in length, approaching my line. This is without my investigation mode. And it will bite... now."

Her hook started unreeling itself at breakneck pace, and the fourteen year old's slim, toned biceps bulged as she took control of her line, getting onto her feet within moments. Planting them firmly on the ground, Capernaum begun to struggle at angles with the fish-- not directly, or else her line would break, but not with the fish, or else it wouldn't tire out. In the meantime, she spoke again, this time through gritted teeth, this time as she pushed and pulled with the ocean, so as to kill this fish through fatigue. This time, however, it was less philosophical, and more blathering as a result of multitasking.

"Mind, I'd also rather not use magic simply because it ruins the taste. Electricity in saltwater causes chloride to separate-- salt being NaCl, and thus partly chloride-- and create chloride gas. Chloride is actually poisonous to the human body; it's a halogen, and thus a highly reactive chemical. Though using electricity to kill may be safe, lacking control or using too much magic may make it dangerous, not to mention--" Capernaum yanked, and blood started staining the water, painting the angry, frantic struggle the fish was currently suffering, "the unknowns of using magic, in and of itself. That, and not making accurate shots results in using up more of your magical reserves than you need to, which is actually more dangerous than practicing to have good aim."

All this she was doing without the use of any investigation mode. It was clear through her twitchy, reactive movements that this wasn't the game's autopilot, either; she was actually fishing manually, rather than relying on the programmed muscle memory given to her character. "I never actually expected the developers to account for realistic chemistry, but they did, which is surprising. Of course, chloride isn't nearly as dangerous as it is in real life, but it does leave a disgusting, artificial taste. Like sushi from the value aisle, if I had to compare it."

@Ozwin Ahab

 

"What's the point of dying painlessly? Sure the graphics and physics of this game seem almost perfect but it is the physical sensations that really can make you forget that all this isn't real." Ozwin sighed dropping all pretense now. "Sure if you are about to die you can try to make it as quick and as painless for yourself as possible if you put in the effort and skill, but all things considered you are better off using that effort to at least cause a lasting injury to whatever you are fighting or if you are just dying of sickness or poison just go along for the ride to find out what it is like. You ever have your leg gored by a blade with pain set on realistic and the sense of satisfaction that follows when you return the damage with interest? Take part in a tavern brawl as the one unarmed fool trying not to kill anyone because you yourself won't really die? Break bones by practicing falling off a building over and over again until you start getting it right? 'Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.' We are in a world that won't punish our recklessness with permanent death so why not just accept all the other things as realistic as they can get?" He laughed under his breath as he watched the water. Besides by not using a skill in combination with your others whenever possible you were merely hindering the development of synergy and exploring what you were capable of in this environment.

"Though by some RNG witchcraft I haven't actually died yet... Anyway, I have been doing my best to explore THIS world's real. I haven't opened up my spell menu since the last time I got a new spell and needed to memorize the incantation, I've set everything to as real the game can get, turned off auto aim and auto combat skills etc... Though if you see me try to cook for myself, know if I try anything more complex than roasting the thing over a fire for a while it will be poisonous anyway. I'm no good at preparing sushi either. I typically take the coin from hunting monsters to get people to do the fishing and kitchen work for me. Still you are right in that I need to be more careful of what can make me sick even if we are pretty much immortal... or at the very least take good notes of the experience. Actually that is far more useful in the long run. I mean those unknown factors are precisely why you should test it in every possible situation isn’t it? I would hate to leave the task and risks of discovery to some poor NPC who would die for good. Before knowledge reached our textbooks, mad fools had to play with lightning, throw themselves into space in giant exploding death traps and poison themselves with goodness knows what. The most genuine of study is trial and error, testing to see if common wisdom is indeed wisdom and making new discoveries, and here we are as beings who can make all the errors we could ever want."

The fish on the girl's line was starting to put up a fight and he laughed a bit more heartily and then grinned at the kid who seemed to be putting too much stock into philosophy. She was much better off sticking to hard sciences and fishing. "As for the rest, isn't it common sense that the net will catch more fish than the spear? You don't need to starve to death to know that different tools are meant for different jobs despite their versatility... or perhaps in spite of their versatility would be more on the nose. Same goes with people. Those fishermen out there have their trade and they are doing it well. They can feed themselves, their families, and sell to people in need of food to make a living. But just because they could make shelter for themselves, make their own clothing, train their bodies in combat to defend themselves from pirates and monsters... in this great thing called civilization it would merely detract from their lives to try and cover all of their own needs." It would also prevent them from helping society meet all of its needs but that isn’t the focus here.

"Sure being able to at least make rough versions of shelter and clothing, and having healthy bodies than can run or fight are important but trying to make one thing or one person fit too many tasks is a waste in itself. I CAN fish but only do so when there isn't someone around to handle the job for me, just like the spear can be used to fish when you don't have a net. But you are going to need a really impressive net when pirates are flooding onto the deck. It is technically doable but I am willing to bet my coat that at least 95 out of 100 would really be wishing they had a spear of even mundane craftsmanship instead. Of course when a school of fish are swimming on by, I can only look at my trident like the stick it is and wish I could have a bountiful meal... Though I suppose the analogy breaks down a bit when you say a person should just carry around a net and a spear. And it isn’t like people or tools can’t be exceptional in multiple roles either… It’s just… Best when there is synergy. The farmer will find more uses for learning how to hunt than learning how to sail. A person only has the time to learn how to master so many things after all, best to make sure it helps with your other work. Good to hear you are in school though, you seem like a smart kid… Well it occurs to me you probably are not as young as you look.” He gazed a bit dispassionately at the spot where the fish was struggling.

Good to hear you are in school… Says the guy who turned down his grandfather buying him admission to Harvard for the simple life of a hotel manager and being the black sheep of the family. If anyone wanted a real answer as for why he was playing this game, it was because in the real world he had no interest in having anything but a simple life with simple problems. In here no one looked down on him for wasting all that prep school education and tutors and all else that he was forced into. His grandfather had wanted him to go to law school and then get into politics like he was. Politics! The mere thought made him squirm.

 

Capernaum actually tuned him out for most of it, too busy concentrating on her big catch to talk any more chemistry. Halfway in there, she actually had no idea what he was saying-- she lost him when he started laughing heartily. His words turned into rambling as they hit her ears, all her other senses busy on the catch. Another roar of thunder boomed. She thanked it once more, for instilling fear in the fish, as well as giving her a respectable reason to not be listening to him.

(Of course, she wasn't completely against tuning people out, especially with long-winded speeches. After all, the bag wants flour.)

"Heave-ho." She deadpanned, reeling the fish in. It was a fairly large grouper; almost comically large, with how it could reach her waistline from the ground, in length. Pinning it down on the ground by sitting on it, the fish between her legs, Capernaum took a dagger and buried it in it's spinal cord, letting it bleed out. The fish slowly stopped twitching, a bit like a dying chicken.

 

Ozwin yawned once more and began to wonder if the kid he sent after bread was going to be keeping that as well. He watched the girl pull in the grouper, wondering what they fed the fish around here. He peeked inside his flask to take an estimate of his inventory and then returned his attention to the fish's bloody death. He originally came out here because he was worried about some kid sitting around in the rain right? He looked at the kid in question and was starting to wonder why he had let himself fuss about such a thing.

"So is this one bait for something even larger or are you keeping it?" He had come to the conclusion that the kid seemed alright even if it seemed they might be a bit plain and cheeky... Rather it made him want to tease them if he thought it would pass through an ear and not on out the other... He began to wonder what sort of facial expressions this kid could make... Angry? Frustated? Embarrassed? Ah this wasn't good, he was feeling tempted to prank this stoic faced chibi.