Eleanor stopped outside of a busy pub, only glancing a moment to peer towards the customers. Lively and merry, they clanged cups together and chugged down gulp after gulp of certainly alcoholic liquid. It was nearing evening, but it still baffled Eleanor just how early it seemed some of the city-goers got themselves wasted. The sun was barely beginning to set, and the occasional drunken vagrant could be witnessed, stumbling and rambling his way through the streets, cackling and shouting meaningless gurgles. "Excuse me." Stepping out of the way for a busy cart, perhaps on it's way to the market, Eleanor appeared less like the 'woman in blue' she often was, and more like a lazy intern. Having lost her blue jacket and hat during the battle with Azog, she could only sport her black pants and white, collared shirt. With the sleeves rolled up, she let one hand rest upon her hip. Usually, she had pockets where she could stick those miscellaneous limbs when they had no good function, but without her coat, such convenient functionalities were lost. She was not used to the missing piece of her outfit. Though a good shuffle of things did nicely. As she opened her palm menu, she winced, her head twitching to the side. A flashback from the plummeting into the core of that fiery beast. She remembered opening her eyes, falling face first. The memory only lasted a moment, but it had caused a physical reaction. Opening up a notepad within her palm menu, she jotted down this information. The time and date of the occurrence would be important for narrowing the process down. Certainly, there was going to be more side effects proceeding, after her demise, and she would have to organize the data to narrow them down. She only trusted the status menu so much. Tabbing through her palm menu, she decided to go through her inbox, scrolling until she reached a subject by the name of Verity. Verity, huh... She though the name sounded familiar, though, she often tried her best to keep the folders of her virtual memories and the memories of the real world very separated. Rather, they were not simply 'kept separated', but in completely different filing cabinets on completely different floors. Still, the remnants of familiarity ached in the back of her head. She had only met him during the battle, and only briefly, as he had fallen in front of her. How he had fallen, she had no idea, but she had tried to help him up and defend him, at least a little, before slipping through the portal which would eventually lead to her own self sacrifice. As the memories linked together, she winced again, twitching her face to the side once more, memories of the fall, and then the end of the world where she met Idna. In hindsight, most of those fragmented memories seemed hard to place together. It was as if some memories felt much older than others, yet they were all so recent and chronological. It didn't make sense. The self-proclaimed detective took note of this as well. She sent him a message, detailing her location, as he had mentioned to her that he would like to meet to discuss a few things. Awkwardly glancing around the street as she patiently waited for her company's arrival, she tried to stay out of the way of people and carts passing by. She had chosen a rather poor place to station herself, as it was quite busy, although she did stand out, as she usually did. Time spent dodging the incoming road traffic, Eleanor could only hope that the man who wished to meet with her would not take his time getting to her location. It had been quite a warm day, though the setting sun was much less brutal than it was while it was high in the sky. @Verity
Ever since his first World Boss battle against Azog the Prince of Fire, Verity was mentally exhausted from the fight. And it was not just the heat and the pain that he endured the whole time, but his first experience of being in a battle of life and death that made him shell-shocked from this. He always kept reminding himself that he won't die since this was just a game, but once he experienced the strong realism that Terrasphere has to offer, he completely stopped thinking about this just to survive the fight. Guess he wondered why virtual games like this one have a strong following in Japan and why it was a double-edged sword after he learned about the Sword Art Online incident. However, there was another thing that he encountered during the boss battle. Namely, the woman that he met after he landed next to her. At first, he vaguely remembered how he told her his in-game name while he tried to recover his fall and when he shouted to her and anyone nearby to kill the dwarf that was healing Azog. However, the thought about the woman's hat quickly reminded him of the same hat from the boutique in real life. The very same boutique that his former student, Niko Ebb was interested in. He didn't know whether to slap himself out of stupidity or curse to himself, but he began to regret at how he shouted at her with his strict tone. Besides, the woman who sacrificed herself to kill Azog was actually Niko. After this realization, he decided to meet up with @Eleanor Loan in order to have a little chat about this. He already gave her his name and he had a feeling that she might make a connection to his real identity very soon. Though, finding her was a little difficult since he had to find a woman in blue until he found her wearing that exact cap from before. At least that lessen his time finding her. "Hello," he said as he approached her with caution. "I'm sorry I called you out here after your self-sacrifice, but I have a lot to talk to you about. I did give you my name before, correct?"
Eleanor, hearing footsteps behind her, turned to face the approaching party, prepared to go on a half-ninja, half-clumsy dodge hop out of the way if it was another cart. Luckily, it appeared as though she had survived the waiting mini-game that was shuffling back and forth on a street, not getting crushed, and Verity had arrived! As she prepared to begin the interaction, she moved to put her hands in her pockets, foolishly remembering again, as her hands slipped into nothingness, that she had no jacket, and thus, no pockets. The devastation was immense. "Hey!" She moved her arms in an ungainly way at her sides, swinging them just slightly for a moment, before halting their action. "It isn't a problem, you needn't apologize." She shook her head, flashing a smile towards him. Her mannerisms were much similar to how she was in the real world, though she seemed a bit more confident and comfortable to speak without fear in the virtual one. This, due to many factors, created a rather different appearing persona at first, while being quite the same person. A lot to talk about, huh? That caused Eleanor's mind to race a bit. That sounded like something her parents would say to her when they had caught her in some con or lie. She imagined the text message popping up on her phone, and her heart racing. The madness that ensued, knowing that certainly, some cruel, emotional devastation was around the corner, at the hand of a verbal beat down. Shaking her head, she brushed off those negative thoughts. What was it with her getting so pessimistic lately? She forged a mental note to scribble that down as a possible side effect later, before returning her focus to the conversation at hand. "Verity, I believe." She answered. Speaking the name aloud, another jolt of familiarity hit her. Remembering tad bits of things from the real world, she quickly dismissed them. Pushing them to the side, Eleanor didn't expect to need those bits of information at that time, though she would surely be soon mistaken. "Though, perhaps I just saw it above your head during investigation mode." She described. "A lot of that is still a bit of a blur to me." "Speaking of," As she was a bit anxious to avoid the 'lot to talk about' bit, Eleanor tried to shift the subject ab it, "I trust you and the other made it out safely, yes?" Showing concern for the others, she played mental goal keeper, shoving those memories of what had occurred to her during the incident deeper down into her mind for later. Now was not the time to get all stuttering and confused, especially when a daunting 'lot to talk about' was on the way to her. Perhaps her tactics of conversation were childish, but it wasn't often that she was confronted with such a social predicament. The anticipation for what exactly was coming was rather nerve wracking. Eleanor lived on caution, craving it like a drug. She always wanted to know what to expect from any and everything. Not knowing what was to come in their little talk only made her more stressed. The suspense truly was killing her.
"I think so. I didn't see everything when I was rescued, but I know that without them, I would have died during the chaos." He wasn't kidding. From what he can remember, he has 5 HP at that time and he barely used his remaining strength to leave the area via one of the king's platforms. Also, he did want to mention something since he guessed it's very important to her. "And while I didn't witness everything after Azog died, I managed to get a glimpse of Solaria who was one of the players that were rescued." While he wanted to tell her the aftermath, he was still focused on one topic as he needed to confirm something from @Eleanor Loan. He started just by staring at her hat and said, "Though, I'm just surprised that your hat remained in one piece even after you jumped into Azog. I can guess you really liked that hat a lot. In fact, it does remind me of the same hat that one of my former students were interested in." He can only say a few keywords as he didn't want to bluntly tell her his real identity out in the public. Besides, he already guessed that she already figure it out just by his in-game name.
"Had a bit of trouble with that missing person." She commented about the hat. Though it was a joke, she was certainly not in a joking mood, barely smiling, and not at all laughing at her own comment. As the filing cabinets rattled, their contents straining to come together, similar to pieces of a puzzle, Eleanor strained within her mind to hold them apart. But strain as she may, there was too much information that fit the pieces together. It wasn't like her trip to the mall as Niko was a common fiasco. She rarely went on those journeys, so the memories of what had occurred were still very clear in her mind. Luckily, Eleanor had not been making eye contact, but the words being spoken to her made the truth of the matter rather obvious. She cursed herself for dismissing the familiarity of the name. She had assumed that, at least, it was a different spelling as the Mister Verity that had been a teacher of hers. With a sigh, she figured that the anonymity of the matter was over, and she felt quite defenseless, as her true, weak identity was known by another. "It sounds as though you've been up to some detective work, Mister Verity." She spoke quietly, keeping her head low. The sudden shift in personality was a result of her realizing that perhaps she should be acting a whole lot less like this internet persona, and a whole lot more like 'herself'. At the very lease, the her that she was in the real world. Although, after the events of the battle with Azog, Eleanor's perception of herself an her in game person were beginning to become rather messy and unorthodox. These were complex thoughts, that her mind found hard to register in the heat of this identity dilemma. "So you know that I am Niko." Eleanor, or rather Niko, began. She figured there was no use hiding it, as both of them seemed very aware at this point of her identity. The trip to the mall, so vividly and carefully detailed in her mind, presented all the necessary evidence to link her to her character. She had been foolish and neglected her caution, and it had placed her into a situation where her anonymity had been compromised. "What is your plan of action with this information?" She chose each of her words carefully, not knowing what sort of consequences that this turn of events could entail. She had never been faced with this kind of situation, and it was rather rattling to her bones. The suspense leading up to the discovery of what was going on was much less nerve wracking than the actual thing coming out of the woodwork. She had hoped that the results would have been the opposite, but things rarely worked out as one could hope they would. Her mind raced through the possibilities. Blackmail? Possibly, but what had she to offer. In both worlds, she did not seem too prevalent of a character. She had not fame or fortune. Perhaps incarceration. She did not know exactly the rules involving the virtual reality game or equipment. There was a chance that simply by playing the game, she was committing some sort of crime that she was not aware of.
He guessed it right. At least this saved him some time from breaking Ele- No, Niko's denials, which he glad it didn't happen. "To be honest, I already guessed you might be playing Terrasphere. What I didn't know is what character are you in here. Thankfully, your curiosity of that hat from the real world somehow gave me some hints and without me in that World Boss, I would have seen that hat during the battle." In his honesty, he wasn't much good at naming, so he wanted to go with his last name as his character's. Though, he just wished he could have picked a better name that was less conspicuous. He was afraid that if one of the colleagues played Terrasphere, he would found himself in an awkward situation on trying not to break his mental mask. "Nothing. I don't want to use this to exploit you for this information or anything. Though I'm not really the type to do so." Besides, he disliked crimes and anything that would cause any adults to do stupid things like drinking and other things. And if Eleanor would hear his voice closely, his tone was very stern, which was not unlike his friendly and kind tone. "I just want lecture you regarding your reckless actions that I saw before you entered the portal. Game or not, I'm still your former professor."
While it was a relief that the information, or 'dirt', as it was referred to in Eleanor's favorite crime dramas, would not be used against her. Still, it seemed that there was some heat she was going to get for all of it. Her expression was serious, and her posture was rigid. She was even prepared to attack him if need be, as terrible as that seemed. "Lecture me?" She was caught off guard and somewhat offended, though Eleanor was much too shy and self-deprecating to have an ego to offend. "Before I stepped in the portal..." She repeated what he said, pondering over the memories of what had occurred in her head. Uncertain of what exactly he was referring to, she attempted to cover her bases a bit, merely skimming over everything that had gone down. "I did all that I could to help the effort." Shrugging, she spoke quietly. Eleanor was still surprised that the information of her true identity was not being used against her, at least not yet. Instead, it seemed her choice of game play was the thing being targeted, which seemed to her, if anything, completely innocent. Not without fault, but innocent. "I'm not sure exactly the recklessness you're referring to. There were many others much more reckless than myself." She defended. Pausing in their discussion, Eleanor excused herself from the way of a nearby cart, motioning for them to move a bit closer to the sides of the road. They were already nearly squashed against the wall, as the busy street conducted it's lively commotion, but it seemed more space had to be made, at least temporarily, for the merchants and customers meandering through. Of course, stepping into a portal blindly was a rather reckless thing to do, and accepting the burden of self sacrifice, that was pretty suicidal, but in her mind, it was the least she could do. She hadn't really contributed as much when it came to damage, as her power wasn't really too impressive during the battle. When she found out that she had the chance to possibly be of great use, in a situation where her normal abilities did not allow her to be, it was the perfect opportunity! She had managed to be of use, merely by existing. What more could anyone ask for? Approaching him back again, she opened her mouth to speak bluntly. "I did what I had to do." Her words were stern. For a shy girl, she stood her ground as firmly as she could. Naturally it wouldn't take much more than a small breeze to send the girl flying in to the air from her position, but she had mad an effort.
She did have a point regarding her actions back then. Reckless or not, she did care about her comrades and aiding the cause. He would try to criticize her more regarding her strategies, though. But considering her heroic sacrifice and how she mentioned that others were also reckless to their attacks, he decided to hold it off for now. "I see. The recklessness I'm talking about was regarding how you ignored your own safety just to focus on your object. But even before you decided to exchange your life to destroy Azog, I can see how you put your safety behind just so you can aid your friends in battle." But enough with Azog for a little while, Verity did want to meet @Eleanor Loan not just because of his criticisms of her strategy. Besides, there was still the manner regarding that she was also playing Terrasphere. "Though, I expected that you played this game as well. To be honest, I was hesitated to play it since it might be one of the students' pranks."
Eleanor was pleased by the response. Rather than resistance, it seemed that he spoke mostly in agreement. While she expected the lecture, as he had previously described it, to be something that she should dread and neglect, it had turned out to be much more in accord with how she had seen things. What a wonderful surprise! Due to this turn of events, she the majority of her defensive alignment fall away. Although it seemed that this man held certain political sways and balances over her, it appeared for the time being that he was not using them to harm her. Rubbing the back of her neck, she shrugged. "Wasn't really that they were my friends, as much as..." Eleanor pondered carefully her next words, "Just... some people who needed some help-- Not even, that-- I mean," She stumbled over her sentences, correcting herself, and chopping the ends of words off slightly, "There was a specific job that needed completion." She sighed, her point turning into what felt to her like a jumbled mess of a statement. "I was merely in the right place at the right time to be useful. Everyone else did all the hard parts." Truly, that is how she felt about it. She had been fortunate enough to be able to travel through the portal, and fortunate enough to even find the relic with the others. It had been a stroke of good luck that she had even managed to make the jump into the giant fire lord's maw. And all of this seemed to be things that she was praised for by the others. As if she had acted with bravery or courage. To her, that was near meaningless. At least in comparison to what she actually considered to be the difficult part, which was handling that beast in the first place. From the massive health pool, to the devastating attacks, all those down in the pit were the ones who had done all that work. For Eleanor to be so noticed for something as easy as... Dying. She shrugged it off. She wasn't a hero or anything. At the very least, she had completed the easiest job anyone could have. In her own mind, she did not deserve the credit or attention at all. "Those guys down in the pit, Alonso? Ozwin, I think? Those guys are the real heroes." They were the pair who had worked together in a sort of combo attack to deal the final blow and pry open the mandible of the great behemoth. "Not me." A moment of silence occurred, before Verity changed the subject. A somewhat comfortable subject change, as the manners of Eleanor during the previous discussion had been a bit choppy and shifty, to state it minimally. "I'm sure." She chuckled at his comment about him believing that the game might have been a prank. "I'm assuming you got the email as well, then?" Looking around the street to avoid eye-contact, it seemed that the often shy detective had somewhat changed her demeanor for the time being. After realizing she didn't really have to fear confrontation, she let her guard relax a bit, and considering she had been through quite a bit involving her own death, it was a needed rest of tensions.
Even if Niko was somehow acted like a different person in Terrasphere as @Eleanor Loan, he can tell she didn't lose her shyness from the spotlight. He did commend her for not taking the credit for taking out Azog out of honesty. "Well, I didn't say you have the credit for destroying Azog. Though now that I think about it, I was unconscious for a few minutes before you arrived for your sacrifice." Also, she did have another point. Everyone has a role to play in the battle and for him, he has many roles back there. Whether to attack Azog or use his magic to slow down the lava, he did agree that they did the difficult objectives to meet their goals. Back to the main topic at hand, he nodded to her question as he pulled out his palm menu to check his status and equipment. "Yes. I tried to delete it when I was unable to search it around the internet about the game, but I decided to give it a go when I read more about virtual reality and the technological VRMMO games." As what the old saying goes, "Curiosity kills the cat". And it was right, curiosity can be a curse as his fate can turn if he succumbed to it. Whether if he tried to ignore a raffle event or any quests that have no interest to him, he always ended up joining in due to a number of reasons. Guess that was another way for fate to manipulate to any events he didn't like. "Although, I did hesitate when I created my character since I did hear of some incidents related to the VRMMO. I might fear I will be trapped there if I do. Thankfully, that wasn't the case anymore."
"The idea of VRMMO's..." Eleanor began, speaking almost like the first like of a documentary, "It's quite interesting, to say the least, in concept." It wasn't the first time that Eleanor allowed her mind to venture down that road, examining each and every facet of the world that she could think of that might benefit from implementation of the virtual world. Technology had become something rather surreal, had it not? With the ability to literally escape into a world that feel so real. It definitely was a step up from playing Harvest Moon on your 3ds. "Yeah," She nodded in agreement, taking not of the allusion to the SAO incident, which had resulted in... Quite a lot of disarray and discomfort regarding the idea of virtual reality. "At least, we haven't gotten trapped yet." Her ever cautious mind had to add that comment in, knowing that nothing was guaranteed, and nothing would last forever. A tragic, but realistic way to live. Perhaps that was another reason why the benefits of virtual implementation, especially within medical and criminal fields, could not be made fully real. With all new, useful things, there stood the possibility of abuse. While the possible wonders lie evident, so did the possible horrors, with the SAO incident becoming quite prominent example. It was a dangerous world, and regardless of the benefits, new forms of torture, murder, and all sorts of things would most certainly rise up from it all. It was a shame, how a few bad apples truly did ruin the rest. "Well..." She looked around the bustling street, admiring the life of the game. While the idea of therapeutic implementation was far, far into the future, the game had still served as quite a therapy of sorts for Niko herself. It fed her interaction, and it made her happier. It made her feel less lonely, and it made the world feel more real. "I'm glad I checked my spam." She chuckled. Even as organized as she lived her life, she often left that folder unattended. Perhaps by fate, she had stumbled upon the shady notification, and thus, come upon the world of Terrasphere. What a fortunate turn of events. "We should probably head to somewhere a bit less crowded." Eleanor motioned to the tavern that they stood in front of. While it was quite animated, with figures strewn all about doing this or that, it seemed the multi-story building had less than populated balconies above. "If you would like to continue this discussion that is." She did not want to pry, or guilt him into coming along. This meeting, of course, was still something that he had called for. If he had deemed the purpose of their talk to be complete, perhaps he would wish to be finished with it.
It really was a technological marvel with the VRMMOs. From what he just experienced so far, he imagined that developers and storytellers could create the world where players can be part of the story instead of just watching or reading it or playing it right in front of their TV screens. But like he thought before, the SAO incident proved that this technology can be mishandled if it fell into the wrong hands. So it can be a paradise for many players or a death sentence to unsuspecting victims. So far though, Terrasphere seemed to be a normal video game like everything else as it did help Niko (or @Eleanor Loan as she was called in this game) on her social issues. So he might agree on that fortunate event. From the look on the crowd in front of them, it might be a good idea for them to move their conversation to a private room. "Don't worry, just lead away. I do need to discuss a few more things about the game with you privately." If she head over to her intended private place, he followed her without any complaints as he watched the crowd full of players and NPCs come and go.
Nodding in confirmation that her request to change their location had been approved, Eleanor set out. First, she quickly scoured the internal map that she had begun to gather of the city. Back-roads, alleys, and anything that could easily get them from point A to point B in a swift, stress-free manner. Of course, she had forgotten something. Where was this destination that she was even planning on getting to. A secluded back road, consisting of mainly the back doors of buildings. It was a simple, secluded place that not many people knew about, but Eleanor had managed to stumble upon it rather early in her exploration. It had been a rather embarrassing experience of getting lost, and searching desperately for where she was, that she had discovered the place. And in those moments, into the internal filing cabinet of information, that page was shuffled. "Alright." Off she went, hoping that Verity would manage to keep up. It was not a struggle to mimic the pace of the woman, as her graces against the flow of traffic were quite troublesome. Bumping into and nudging past people, she made it very obvious that those sorts of endeavors were not her specialty. But the pace of it all changed, upon exiting swiftly into a hidden away corridor. Barely visible through the haze of movement that was the busy road, a mere slit between structures, Eleanor vanished, waiting only briefly to glance back and make sure that her company had made it there. A few turns, as Eleanor made her way through, weaving paths together, before they had arrived. On one side, a steep incline of stone bricks marked the foundation beneath the side of a tall, long building, while on the other, the uglier backsides of shops and stores reared their heads, with peeling paints and rats skittering about. The place was void of class, but also void of population. The sun, though not very brutal, had been rather persistent that day, though the back alley shielded them with a nice bit of shade. "We may walk here." She motioned down the path. It wound and spun, mirroring the edge of the buildings that followed the busy path a ways across. Though it was thin, it was not an impossible passage for two people to traverse side by side uncomfortably. "What else was there that you wished to speak with me about?" She inquired, beginning to walk ahead of him, assuming that he would have kept up.
Looking around the edge created between the buildings, he felt a little uncomfortable at how a little cramped when they entered the back alley. However, the lack of crowds and low voices of the rats crawling through the sewers remedied his uneasiness for a while. Besides, he felt that @Eleanor Loan picked a right place to continue their conversation. As for the other topics, he liked to discuss, it might be a question that might be already answered, but he really needed to clarify some things. "Well, since you played this game for a while, how does this virtual world feel like to you? I'm actually new to video games in general, but just looking around here makes me feel like I've been transported into another world." He also wanted to mention about the NPCs, but he felt he needed to explore that once he finished this topic.
In Eleanor's choice of location, it seemed she took no qualms with a choice of standards. Instead, she had chosen a place most convenient for their conversation to be conducted in privacy. After all, it was not often that the rats told the secrets of others, but who knew. Perhaps they were listening to the whispers of the larger world. "It is quite real." She spoke first, on the topic of how the game felt to her. "Upon first inspection, I did not believe it would feel so..." Taking a deep breath into her nose, she smelled the subtle stench that lingered within the back alley. The rumbling of footsteps and carts, people venturing from point a to point b. Perhaps adventurer or merchants. The soft sounds of conversation, loud and quiet, echoed through her surroundings, reverberating off of the tight passage walls. "Alive, you know?" "Alive, and full. Thorough." Squatting down, Eleanor reached into her back pocket inventory subspace to retrieve a piece of bread. Breaking off a piece of it, she placed the crumbs into her left palm, dismissing the piece of sustenance. Placing her left hand lower towards an open entrance that appeared to be a connection to the sewers, a small rat soon meandered it's way from its grimy hideout. Crawling up towards the scent of food, it pulled itself upon Eleanor's hand, soon nibbling down pieces of the bread. With a pleased chuckle, she stood. It was such a simple task, catching the mice. In fact, it was one of the first things she had discovered during her initial ventures through the virtual world. After slipping in one of the more drab alleys, she had dropped a cup of soup. The food splattered across the rocky pathway, and in mere moments, the little creatures from all about began to gather, surrounding the formed puddle, and devouring it. Life cycles and webs seemed to ebb and flow through all segments of the technological world. The way the virtual universe seemed to react was so realistic that... Even her own death had left imprints and trauma within her mind. Regardless, the rat stayed in her palm a moment, before realizing that she had been elevated, and leaping from the palm. Safely landing, with crumbs of the bread still across it's chubby cheeks, it scampered along, burying itself back into the shadows of the sewer. Eleanor's eyes followed the little creature for as long as she could, as if a cat watching prey. She stalked it, before it disappeared, where her mind returned to the topic at hand, glaring up into a brief eye contact with @Verity. "It certainly is like another world." She nodded in agreement, eyes shifting to stare out towards the busy road outside of the alley. Idly, she waited to see if he had another question to ask her. He had spoken before that there were topics he would like to discuss with her, so she wondered what those topic might be. Eleanor hoped that they would not consist of somethings regarding her status within the real world.
