The Seeds of Friendship

When she got a message from a peculiar fellow named @Zirnistra Al-Sirrush, it had startled her more than a bit due to his use of her real name. At first, she'd thought it was a stalker- but, the longer she read the words asking to play together, she began to realize even before he'd noted who he was that this was someone she knew.

It was a bit late at night, but the time rarely mattered to the writer. She had just finished writing back to the man in a small, simple reply of where she was and how to find her, since she was snuggled up in one of the forests that dotted Brisshal, waiting for him by the trunk of a tree.

"I'm only half surprised he got an invite," The small girl mused. She was short, even a bit so for a faerin. She had her eyes closed, her hair wrapped into her lap to try to avoid dirtying it with the grass and soil.

She hummed, awaiting a familiar figure of some sort. It was a simple melody, one she knew he'd recognize. It was, after all, a song they'd talked about enjoying just recently on a separate forum, from a game made long before this one could even hope to exist. With this, hopefully he'd find her quickly, through the breeze that flew through leaves.

 

Honestly, Nic was surprised to hear that she was in this game. The two had spent a long time together bonding over old games over the internet and over live chat services, but this was the first time that she had ever mentioned something about doing an MMORPG. He had told her, during the start of their friendship, about his time on Gun Gale, but to hear her do something like this was relatively unheard of.

Still, he was glad she did. It wasn't like they were meeting up in real life, but this was as close as they were likely to get considering he had absolutely no idea of where she lived and had no desire to ask in case he looked like a creepy stalker. He had made that mistake once before, and ruined a perfectly good friendship because of it. Never again.

For all he knew, she might even be in the same city as he was and he'd never know until she chose to share that information of her own accord.

---

It took around half an hour after she sent the explanation of where she currently was for Zirn to actually arrive. That was because of what he was carrying to the place that they were meeting, and because of the fact that he currently owned no mount or fast-travel options other than walking everywhere.

However, when he did, he came bearing gifts.

Carrying a large barrel of wine over his shoulder, arm wrapped around to keep hold of the enormous thing, he slowly walked up the hill towards her. The barrel was huge, large enough to drown a Faerin in standing up, or any other race kneeling down. The fact that he was able to carry it came down to the added strength that came with Body Fighting as a mastery.

"Oi, Jay!" He called into the thicket of trees, an old nickname he had given her so that he could use her real name without identifying himself. He, for what it was worth, was called Jack, from Jakobsen.

"I really hope I didn't come all this way just to get ganked by some P.K guild." He mused openly.

 

There was a giant calling a familiar name for her, carrying what looked to be a rather large barrel over his shoulder. Jumping to her feet, the small fairy of a girl was still easily two feet shorter than the man that wandered towards her, a small arm waving in his direction, a smile on her face.

"It's been a while, Jack!" She laughed a bit, embarrassed by her size for a moment when having to strain her neck looking up at him upon his arrival. It was times like these she realized having a height complex made choosing a short race, and height in general, was really rather stupid.

Her eyes glanced up to the barrel he carried. "Strength training already? Seriously, what's with the barrel, buddy?" Though she had some experience by now in the game, it still took her time to scan the information on the item. Oh, look, alcohol. I guess that makes sense...Wait, does it? "Hosting a party or something? With all that wine, I mean, you gotta be."

She was hopeful he wouldn't drink too much, of course. Harveste knew well she couldn't handle much liquor- well, she could in the game, but she somehow always regretted it after getting offline. Adding in the fact she really didn't have that great of luck with drunks no matter where she was, she would rather not take any chances. There was only one drunk she knew she could handle, and even then, she really preferred not to.

"I'm still surprised you even looked for me. I mean, this game's already a national secret, I'd say, so just two people that talk a lot having the same option is pretty astounding, you know? Ah, and you can call me by my game name if you want. I don't mind doing the same. Just 'cause it might sound funny to people otherwise if we play more in the future."

Giggling, she added a small pun. "Plus doesn't it really make us sound a lot like that old nursery rhyme? Just replace the pail of water with a barrel of wine and we're almost set."

 

When Zirn finally saw the girl waving her hand (or, more accurately, her arm) to signal that she was here, he at first smiled and then recoiled when he realized something. She... was a faerin. She was a faerin. Why was she a faerin? She looked like a child wearing that thing, and it was weird to look at her like that. They had been friends for almost a year at this point, ever since Gun Gale went down, and he suddenly felt like someone that Chris Hansen might want to sit down.

"Indeed it has, dear, indeed it has." It had been several weeks at least since he had last been on that live chat service, his time eaten by either getting this game ready or working in McDonalds. With that new girl starting, he had been stuck doing her training for the last little while. At least he got more money for it, working overtime as he was, but it was still a nuisance that he wouldn't have chosen to deal with if he wouldn't have lost his job elsewise.

Moving towards her, he quickly crossed the distance and stood before her. As he did, he realized two very important things. First of all, the barrel of Wine was larger than she was. Second of all, her height meant that she was right about face-level with his groin. He was going to need to sit down for this. But first, an explanation was in order.

"Oh, this? Well, I figured, we're both adults, we're both friends, we should have a drink. However, the salesman went on and on, complaining about how nobody was buying his largest wares and how he was going to have to throw them all out and how they were going to cost him a fortune..." He said, trailing off in embarrassment as he realized the truth. He'd been had.

".... I think he conned me into buying way more than we need." His cheeks turned a crimson red that contrasted perfectly with his blue hair and robe. "Not to worry though, it's not like wine actually goes off. I'm pretty sure I can tap from this bastard for weeks. Or at least until the flies get into it."

Nikolai, outside of the game, was used to making things last. He worked minimum wage in an economy where the minimum wage wasn't even a living wage, so he knew how to stretch things out. He was never the type to throw something out just cos it was past its sell-by date. He was no Hase, who had once cut off the moldy crust of a piece of toast and eaten the inside of it, but he was a penny-pincher.

Pulling the cork out of the bottle and letting it aerate for a few moments before setting in, he pulled out a pair of metal glasses from his cloak's pockets. However, in doing so, he showed the fact that he was currently wearing no shirt. His body was ripped, muscular and handsome in a way that only those with a melee mastery were, but it was still embarrassing to be seen this way by someone he had been friends with for so long.

"Don't be - I never get to see you bastards any more, so I put everyone from the old gang into the search bar. Susie, Lucy, Kachi, even Midori. You were the only one who came up. So I figured I had to come see you."

He shrugged a little dismissively as if it was no big deal. It was a shame none of the others was around, but getting to hang out with Jaluna was a big deal for him. He took a seat opposite her, clearly having no conniptions about sitting in the dirt. He was, after all, a naturomancer.

"Ya know, funny story about that nursery rhyme. It's actually based on Bishop Tarbes and Cardinal Wolsey, who arranged the marriage of Mary Tudor and King Louis XII. So, in other words, the only way it would be like that is if we were to get married."

Only after saying that did he realise what he just said and lit up pink. "Uh, not that we would. Obviously." A pause. "Not that you're not beautiful, because you are. Well, I'm sure you are in real life, obviously not as a faerin because you look like a child. Not that there's anything wrong with lolis if you're into that, I just prefer my women mature. Not like MILFs, but..." he was caving in on himself.

There was no doubt about it; This really was Jack. Nobody else could put their foot in their mouth quite like him.

 

When he joined her and agreed about the timing, she couldn't help a smile. What made it brighter, however, was his note that they were both adults. Even when someone knew she was older than she looked, it was rare they actually treated her such. The last time she went to drink with someone that knew her age- even when she was legally able to drink in her current form, too- the girl was treated to milk like a kid. "It's nice getting to do something like an adult tat isn't paperwork," she mused in reaction, laughing at the memories.

"Yeah...Definitely sounds like a hoax. But, at least you won't go without liquids for a while, right? Just make sure you drink enough water to go with it. My grandma's a nurse, y'know. She basically forced me at an early age to drink a glass of water for any sweet drink as an example."

There was something endearing about seeing a friend, whether really them or not, blushing. It was especially entertaining when it was someone she'd consider a giant, and it really did contrast well with his unique features. She struggled not to giggle as she wondered how they'd even drink it. Well, surely he had a plan, right?

"Well, this game is pretty secret. I found it by fluke. That others don't know about it doesn't surprise me all that much, though it'd be fun if we could've all played together."

Though, as he began to have an awkward moment of sputtering and trying to retrace his words to feel less off, she couldn't hold any laughter back. She burst into a fit of giggles, falling back slightly and almost hitting her head on the tree she was using as a backrest. "You really worry too much Jack, and that's coming from me! I didn't think you were saying anything strange from the get go, you know? And I mean, we never did a video chat, so it's not like you can say whether I look my age in reality or not either. Just relax. I'm not planning to marry anytime soon anyway. I need to give myself a long time being near someone to think of it."

 

Was it that surprising that he would treat her like an adult? Despite the fact that the two of them were sitting here in the digital reality, wearing their avatars and drinking a drink that was in reality nothing more than a series of particularly detailed ones and zeros, he didn't see the girl opposite him as Harveste. He saw her as Jay. Actually, as far as Nik was aware, she was older than he was so if anything he should be treating her like his "senpai" as the Japanese would call it. Besides, not that he would admit it, but she was someone that he respected a great amount. Something he had read once whilst on his History Degree at Princeton seemed to embody the reason why he respected her so much: Kindness was the domain of the strong.

Unlike Zirn who was a two-faced bastard, someone who was more than aware of his own hypocrisy and selfishness but had no intent to do anything about it any time soon, Harveste was a legitimately kind person who seemed to be able to see the good in most situations. Was it strange that someone who wanted to be liked and wanted to be able to make people like him in turn would find someone like that amazing? The fact that she seemed like she could take whatever the world threw at her and either laugh at it or use it as a way to bond over it was something that made him love her. Well, not love her romantically, but idolize her.

"I don't know about 1 for 1, but yeah. Certainly drinking water wouldn't be a bad idea, especially considering this place's attention to detail." He said, pulling one last object out of his cloak's pockets - What appeared to be a particularly long silver ladle. It was something clearly designed to ladle out servings of the alcohol so that they wouldn't get the outside of the cups wet.

"Interesting fact: During the time period this is closest to being based on, they had just invented the cork and so they made super-distilled wine that's as strong as vodka. In other words, try not to drink too much of this or you might end up running naked through town center."

Acting under the assumption that this was long enough to aerate it (being absolutely the furthest thing from a wine connoisseur it was physically possible to be), he took the ladle and slipped it into the barrel via the top hole and took a sample. Pouring it into his own glass to avoid drinking from the ladle itself like some sort of unhygienic monster, he took a sip.... and then another.

"Ya know, they might have conned me about the size, but the taste certainly isn't a con. For what I payed, it's pretty excellent. Here, to your health." He quickly poured an equal amount into both of the iron cups, before passing one to the Faerin girl. He wondered, just for a quick moment, whether it was a good idea for her to drink something so strong at her size - The game had a lot of amazing attention to detail, and he knew for a fact that those with smaller bodies tended to have a lot less alcohol tolerance. Considering she was around the size of a child right now, she might have a child's tolerance.

Now that they had a drink, Zirn took the moment to evaluate his friend's sheet. Huh, she had put 200 in nearly everything except for Seafaring. Really? He knew some people wanted to be all-rounders, but who in their right mind actually put points into Wellness? Maybe the alcohol wouldn't affect her all that badly after all...

Wait, There, on her specific chosen masteries... Naturamancy.

"So, you're a mage too, huh?" he asked, swigging from his cup, letting the warmth of the alcohol quickly seep into his body. It was a relatively cool night with a southerly wind, so having something to keep him warm wasn't a bad idea. "What made you choose this life over, say, being a tank? You know we ranged DPSers are probably a pound a dozen, who knows if we'll ever be wanted in a proper Boss Raid."

 

"You're assuming I can get drunk here, buddy. I'm horrible with alcohol, but not in that way." Laughing, she took a sip of the drink he'd offered her after it was poured, having watched his intricate eye for detail and listening closely to his explanation of the past. The taste did seem to fit what he'd stated- and, as she had taken a bit more of a sip than she meant to, the girl found herself coughing from the surprise. 'Strong' was putting this stuff lightly!


Taking part in his little toast, she pouted, adding in, "To BOTH our health! Don't you dare go forgetting yourself there, my friend."

With a giggle and a deep breath, she took another sip. She was getting more at ease with it, able to handle the strong flavor. "I'm really bad with alcohol. I'm better with it in game than offline, but...I still have the same reaction when I get too much in me: instant hangover. It's really annoying, but at least I don't tend to do anything too stupid." Well, unless you counted crawling into a ball in the middle of a floor somewhere stupid. Fetal position wasn't exactly the 'smartest' appearance one could have.

Her eyes stayed on him as he looked through her chosen skillset. She had quite a few now, and was working hard on all of them. In MMOs it wasn't as common, but for Harveste, she played every game the same: trying to keep herself well rounded with whatever she chose to be able to do. Seafaring was just under the threshold, but would eventually get to catch up, she was sure.

"You'd be surprised! Naturamancy gives you more than just DPS skills, you know. You can do support in a boss raid too. I was in one recently...I admit, I'm not the best at the job, but I did try my hardest, and with a lot of people there...It was just really amazing! Scary 'cause it was surrounded by lava and a real ton of people, but amazing!"

She took the moment to take a peek at his chosen skills as well. Hunting, body contact...and naturamancy? He'd chosen the same magic skill, but with hunting and body contact...How did one use those in conjunction with magic, anyway?

"Say...How are you planning to use your magic? You don't have a skill that can help you cast spells really, and you can't use magic tools as you are right now. Won't you be at a disadvantage? Though I have to admit, it otherwise does seem very much like you...I bet you can guess what I was going for!"

 

That WAS something that Nik had wondered about, in all honesty. There were a tonne of things that transferred from in-game to out-of-game, from being able to be realistically pregnant if you so desired to being able to realistically feel the pain your character would be going through. So, did status effects get transferred? Did you feel drunk once you got out of the game if you drank heavily in game? He didn't know, but he considered this to be as good a time as any to test such things out.

"I think my health's a little far gone to be prayed for at this point, lass, but thanks for your concern." He joked, finishing his cup in two swigs. Realizing that he probably hadn't explained his health issue with his companion, he considered momentarily telling her what he meant by that little comment, but then thought better of it. Truthfully, it was probably better to let her imagination wander than to confirm the truth of his multiple health issues.

"It sounds like you might be allergic." He said, with an idle shrug. "I mean, it's not actually that uncommon from what I hear. But if you're not... Well, I had a friend back in University who would get the most intense migraines after drinking because it didn't agree with his asthma medicine. There's a million and one reasons why that might be happening, so if I were you I might wanna check that out."

Whether the truth was an allergy or something else entirely, it didn't matter for now. If she wasn't drinking, then he'd have to drink for the two of them. There had been a time when he didn't handle alcohol well at all, but after three years of living with Hase he was somewhat of a heavy-weight (which was especially ironic considering his actual weight), so this was nothing to him.

However, what she said next was the bit that interested him the most. In fact, it was so shocking to him that he swallowed the mouthful of wine that he had taken and felt it go down the wrong pipe. Coughing and spluttering, trying to get a mouthful of air through a wind-pipe filled with strong wine, it took about thirty seconds before he was finally able to speak.

"You were in a boss raid?!" Zirn had only joined recently so something like that sounded amazing to him. If Harveste repaid his curiosity with her own, she would see that he had literally 0 in every Mastery. He was far too new to the game for something like that, he would need to grind himself crazy. Yes, he decided, he was going to spend a long time grinding until he was someone that even other players who had been around for a while looked up to as a pillar of the community. Their support might not matter as much as the NPCs, but he wasn't just going to let some smug bastard across America look down on him.

"I've never been in one myself; Gun Gale was all PvP and NPCs weren't really a part of it. All of my PvE games are single player so to hear that you've been in something like that already... well, it makes me amazed to be honest. I bet you were amazing!"

And that was when she started criticizing his mastery choices.

"O-Oi!" He said, attempting to defend himself from her criticism. "You're not really one to talk, now are you?! What good does Rogue do when it comes to casting magic? All you've got over me is Magical Tools, and maybe I intend to get that as my fourth spec? Whaddya think about that, eh?"

Nik had never been one to deal well with other people's criticism. He was someone who needed attention, to be liked and respected, so someone doing the opposite to him was obviously not something he was very good at tolerating. Constructive criticism was one thing, but plain criticism was something he was not a fan of in the slightest.

"The way I reckon it, all I got's ta do is play like a Druid. Specialize in manipulating animals as a weapon, rather than being a normal mage. I can track them, possess them, make them fight among themselves and just sit somewhere safe reaping the rewards without having to even get near them.

Besides," he said, with a smile that was just a little too proud. ", the way I reckon it? The human body, or faerin body or Yladian body or whatever, is fundamentally the same as a beast body, right? So whilst I might not be able to possess a villager or something, I should be able to fundamentally alter my own body through Naturamancy.

Think of it like this... I have the ability to manipulate life energy, and I have Body fighting. All I need to do is find a spell that makes my hair spiky and blonde, and I'm a Super Saiyan." Likely to Harveste's embarrassment, he laughed at his own joke. Dragonball might have come out first in the 1990s, but considering Super came out just over a decade ago and showed no signs of slowing down perhaps it was still a relevant comment to make.

 

Being told his health was far gone, she began to notice that there were quite a number of things they'd never really talked about before. Of their friends on the retro forum, Harveste had always felt closest to 'Jack'. But what did she really know about him, anyway?

"You may say that about your own health, but I'm still going to pray for it. I feel the same about mine anyway. Not that my eating habits help." Her words were said with a burst of laughter, a short burst that she calmed fairly quickly. She took another sip of the wine, hoping it'd heal her internal conflicts, knowing well it was no bandage for her mind but wanting to pretend it could be. "I'm pretty sure I've told you before, Jack, but my grandmother has a better spine than me. If your health's far-gone, what's my health that's already worse than someone in their eighties?"

She relaxed herself soon after, no longer blabbering as much as she had. Sure, she knew he was used to it- they'd had voice conversations (much to her own shock, since she usually hated talking to people or hearing sound). Surely he'd seen her fluctuations between talking nonstop and not saying a word.

The conversation soon turned to the boss raid, which seemed to leave the man in a moment of wonder and childish excitement. "Um, yep. It was a battle with a beastly king of the volcano and fire. Funny I went, isn't it? I mean, I HATE fire. But I wanted to try it at least once. I wasn't very useful in the end...I healed people once or twice, maybe a buff or two, but I think I honestly spent most of my time hiding behind tall folk. They were really nice and didn't mind it, though. I actually did an arena party too recently. I think I preferred that...Less people, not much fire. I wasn't that helpful there either, but I think it was good practice, and we did manage to have some good teamwork. Pretty sure the guy in our group was a vet, honestly, so that helped a ton."

There she went blabbering again. It was starting to embarrass her as her breath hitched, holding a hand to her chest for a moment and taking another gulp of air into her diaphragm with great care. "I...really need to learn moderation, don't I? But...If I play games like this and try all sorts of things, I'll be able to understand lots more things, won't I? And it's fun that I can finally smell things, good and bad." Her words actually led her to scooting closer to the man, her nose snuggling close to his arm that was nearby. She gave a good sniff, laughing.

"I wonder if this is really what men smell like? I haven't tried it before now. You don't really have a distinct scent to me...I was sure it'd be more unique and definitive. I mean, girls normally are really interested in their boyfriend's clothes because it 'smells like them' aren't they? That's what I read..."

Well, that was a waste of a moment, but she didn't mind too much even if her face was still a bit beet red. She curled back up by the tree, looking at the leaves. "Well, when I made my character, the masteries you get automatically were different. I chose rogue so I'd have better movement range, and because it felt a lot like a 'nature fairy' that way. Movement wasn't a stat a month ago- they altered some stuff in a patch. It used to be different armor masteries, of what you could handle. Now that's not an issue anymore. I chose naturamancy with magic tools so I could better use the nature magic... I didn't know what it meant when they mentioned working with animals at the time, and I'm still learning that part of the skill. I wonder if I can merge with a squirrel? That'd be super fun!"

The callback to an old anime lead her to laughing again, though calmer than usual so far. "I don't know if there's such thing as a spell like that, but if you do, I bet you'll be the coolest Saiyan yet!"