Curious George walked through the forest. The evening sun tipped in through the tall tree line and gave sparse light for him to work with. It was rare for Curious George to be out in these woods without a specific goal in mind, and indeed he was still here for a reason, but today it was simply checking what kind of wood he could gather for his potential job. Between all the work he submerged himself in to build up understanding of the world. Curious George placed his hand on a thick tree. The bark was red and George was pretty sure even if there were five of him he still wouldn’t be able to completely chain himself around the trunk. He looked upward to try and see the top, and found even a strained stare up couldn’t let him completely see the top. He took a few steps back and squinted. He could barely make out the pointed edge of the top. This tree was known as a Redwood tree, one of the types of trees listed to him as ‘easy to use’ in his Artisan mastery notes. Before he had reached this point of the woods, he had run across Cedar trees, Fir trees and a few Pines as well. He even stumbled across a few oak trees as well. All of them in a mix of forestry and alignment he wasn’t quite sure was realistic with natural forests. Then again, there were a lot of things Curious George did not know about nature and how she worked until he logged into this game. Curious George knocked his knuckles against the tree a few times and smiled. He had originally thought the game would have forced him to fight more for things, or run across monsters or anything of the sort. His enemy encounter has been marginal, and the few times he had run across a monster Curious George waited them out or tried to outrun them. Surprisingly, he could manage it by burning through all his stamina from 100%. It was a little pathetic, but as long as he could escape from the big, scary wolves and snakes and a giant Rhinoceros beetle as big as he was once, Curious George called it a victory. It certainly helped that he tried to keep the edge of the forest typically where he could run into a village too. But Curious George knew he would need to hunt for meat and fish eventually to cook, or just buy the materials from ranches, but right now gathering was all he could focus on (and afford). He moved on knocking his fist from tree to tree. Unlike the last segment of this forest, the place seemed to be all Redwood trees. That was good. Redwood provided a soft, but solid kind of wood to work with. It was probably one of the most ‘advanced’ easy types of wood Curious George could work with. This was out of the mundane kinds of woods, and from what he read off the notes later types would be more supernatural and ‘special kinds’ of wood he could get through events or boss drops. It was the kind of mark that made George scratch his head, being the kind of gentleman that did not dive into elves and magic fantasy as a child. Or many games, for that matter. He would cross that bridge when he came to it. Right now, he just wanted to enjoy his walk through the woods and the remaining light in game. Thoughts drifted to trying to convince his wife to join him in game, walking with him like this, seeing these sights. Maybe even get his daughter to walk with this. It would be…nice. And something he had not gotten to enjoy in a while. Good old family time together.
The forest clearing was relatively quiet this time of the day. Most of the people who had actual jobs to get to in the morning had left the simulation already, and very few NPCs were around at this time of day. Besides, even if they were, they likely wouldn't go this deep into the forest, whether it be because of local superstitions or because of the fact that there were nocturnal creatures out at this time of night, like wolves and bears. This was, after all, modeled on what real woods would be like at this time of night in the olden days. There was a reason why almost every legend involving a witch took place in the woods at night, and it wasn't because they were naturomancers like Zirn. But that was the entire reason why he was here. He had recently started playing the game, and thus his masteries were woefully under-leveled. He wanted to become stronger, to be competent enough to be called a hero, to be able to walk through villages and be recognized by the NPCs the same way they might if he was the Ashen One or the Witcher. Well, maybe not the latter: He actually wanted to be liked instead of feared. That was why he was out here: Training. Naturomancers were supposed to be able to manipulate nature, and where else would one go to be around nature than to the woods? Plus, he wanted this quiet time of day. He didn't want to be disturbed by any villagers, people who may learn that he was so new to adventuring that he needed to train even these basics. Other players he couldn't give less of a toss about, but he needed to protect his legacy. However, as he walked further and further into the woods to ensure that he was seen by no villagers, he found himself surprised by hearing knocking. It was like someone was repeatedly punching wood... but that wasn't the case, right? That was something you'd see in Minecraft, but not something like this. There were axes one could get, surely? Maybe it was a woodpecker, but he didn't think any woodpeckers did it at this time of night. It was almost always in the early mornings if his childhood watching nature documentaries was anything to go by. Following the sound, Zirn found himself staring at.... a big ugly thin guy. A quick evaluation gave him the information that this was some player known as Curious George. Unfortunately, this was when Zirn gave his location away. He laughed. "You mean like... the monkey?" He asked, calling out to the man. "What sort of a username is that anyway? All of the villagers are going to know you're a player if you call yourself something that outlandishly weird."
“I like the books, Friend.” Curious George wheeled around on a heel, not because he was fearful of the stranger doing something or because he was in a particular need to quickly greet the new arrival, but because his avatar seemed to encourage someone could say awkward actions in doing basic movements. When George served around his hands had gone up briefly, like he was excited about something, and returned to his side just as quickly. Curious George’s mouth stretched into a, in his own mind, friendly smile for the new arrival. “I used to read them all the time for my kids.” Well, one of them. Now she is all grown up and doesn’t want to spend time with him anymore. George gave the man a one over. Matching robes and blue hair stood out as the singular identifier for Curious George. For others, the man was the more typically designed MMO player that knew what they wanted to be in the game. George was the exact opposite, in that regard. Curious George walked in and turned his avatar into something cartoony and fun (to him) and the fantasy aspect fell flat against his dense noggin. He spent more time trying to patch roofs for the NPCs than he did trying to fight monsters or learn spells! “Ah, are you new to the game?” Curious George asked at the new arrival’s statement. He looked left, then right, then leaned in with his hand up to talk conspicuously with the man who, surprisingly, was as tall as he was in game. That was a first. “The NPCs don’t recognize us as players. We are just adventurers or special people to them.” He whispered, even though the two of them were basically alone out in the wilderness. It had not occurred to Curious George at all that maybe the man was just messing with him. Curious George had given it an examination once with an NPC man he had done work for a few times. He tried to explain the real world. About Maine, about his home port town, about his wife and kids. About a world of jet fighters and nations at war, and concrete skyscrapers in massive cities. What Curious George got was a confused stare until he mentioned his family, which made the NPC lift his eyebrows and wrinkle his mustache, ’Ah yes, family is important! Could I help you back to them sir?’ It was the first time in a long time Curious George had been treated as an insane man. He leaned back and offered and hand to the man, clearing his throat. “You already know, but I’m Curious George.” George was always taught to provide a proper, polite greeting with others even if they already knew his name. He glanced up at the information above the player’s head to see the name Zirnistra Al-Sirrush. “It’s good to meet you.”
Part of Nikolai made him still want to make fun of the guy for having such a ridiculous name, but... actually? In truth, there was something about this guy that he envied. Having spent most of his youth in a boarding school, he had never really had a lot of time to bond with his parents. He saw them every summer, but every summer they seemed to grow more and more distant. He couldn't even remember the last time he had hugged one of them. They spoke often enough, to be sure, but it was always over the phone since they were on the opposite sides of the planet. They were back home in Whitby and he was stuck in New Jersey working as a wage-slave for that shitty company. Thus, when he said that he named his avatar after the books he read for his kid growing up, Zirn's laughter died in his throat. "... Oh." He suddenly felt like the world's biggest dick. "Ya know what? That's sweet. I don't really know if it's appropriate, considering we're supposed to blend in with the populace, but there ain't no doubting that its sweet." Zirn wandered closer, deciding that judging a book by its cover once today was enough times for him. The man looked weird, but that was just his choice of avatar. Maybe he had some sort of illness in real life and was looking to represent that in his character. Or maybe he was making a reference to some old hero that he always wanted to look like. Or maybe he just had weird tastes. He wasn't going to insult before knowing better. "No, no, I know that. But they know we're strange. They know we're otherworldly even if they don't know why. Me? I choose to use that to make myself look like a hero, to make myself interesting to them. With a name like yours, they're probably just going to think you're weird." He paused, before adding. "Considering this is based off of Fantasy, what do you think the run of the mill villagers would do to someone that they thought was weird?" Probably something related to burning. Burning or crucifying, one or the other. He didn't have the greatest amount of faith in the good nature of these NPCs, even if he did want to be liked by them. The blue-haired mage proffered a hand in the traditional peace offering style, as he introduced himself. "Nice to meet ya, George. I'm Zirnistra Al-Sirrush, but you can call me Zirn. I figure my name's a might-bit more fantastical but reasonable than yours, but I'm sure we're both weirdos in our own right."
“Once again, Zirn, it’s good to meet you.” Curious George gave a firm handshake to the younger man. Or assumingly younger man. Avatars could make you look like anything, apparently. Not that George should be surprised given how he looked in the game. “And all the NPCs have given me is jobs to do or an odd stare. I’ve yet to see any of them outright reject me over the name!” After letting his hand go, Curious George continued. “Some of them, in fact, the chiefs of a few villages I’ve been too, have asked me if it was an alias for something.” Curious George admitted. “It turns out some adventurers take aliases over their ‘real’ names, or at least that’s how the NPCs see it.” It was kind of clever how they programmed in that loop around. Have a silly name for the game? Treated like it is your work name instead of a real one. Probably to keep them from killing a man in this fantasy world over his name, though from what he remembered from what little he remembered with medieval times that was one of many ways to incite torches and pitch forks against you. “And a hero, you say?” Curious George gave a hearty laugh. Or rather, he tried to give a laugh and it came out as wisps and gasps of sounds reminiscent of someone trying to suck in air desperately. He was not sure if it was the avatar design or his lack of stamina that was keeping him from filling the air with his laughter, but Curious George had to accept it. “I have a great love for heroes myself. I used to want to be them all the time as a child.” Curious George would have said ‘I used to be a vigilante hero when I was younger’ but his wife had beaten him into to not bring that up anymore. But the idea of being a hero in game hadn’t occurred to him until Zirn mentioned it. What a missed opportunity! “So friend,” Curious George placed a hand on the redwood tree he was next to. “What brings you into these parts of the woods? Hoping to get some practice with your avatar’s masteries?” It was why he was out here, after all. Even though all he really planned to do was try to gather up materials for use later when he was practicing.
