"I like the flower," she admitted. "It's a little different but I mean, this world has fairies that look like tiny elves and people with cat ears and who knows what else?" she shot a big friendly grin towards her new friend. "Besides I bet animals like plants too. Maybe it'll help your beast taming?" Who was she to say aesthetic choices like that wouldn't affect anything? At one point in video game history, as she'd learned, races affected stats and things. She might have done a lot of research on mmo's and such while she was supposed to be listening at school. "Hmm..." she stopped and brought up her palm menu thing again, this time looking for a friends list sort of thing. "Ah, here we go." she sent a request to Luna. She was pretty sure she'd set her stuff yesterday so that 'friends' could see some basic info, mostly that she was a girl in the real world since it discouraged too much more. "Yay!" she didn't even wait for Luna to press anything. She lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Luna's right forearm, hugging it to herself. "Now we're officially friends!"
"I-I mean, I guess that could be the case, maybe? It might make them see me as less threatening. O-or tasty." She giggled slightly at her own joke, hiding her mouth behind her right hand as she did so. She wasn't trying to be more classy than she was normally, but it kind of felt like she had to be at least a little more dignified in a body like Luna's. She was way taller, way better filled out and way more mature sounding than ever before. At first it'd been an almost alien feeling. She almost froze when the girl suddenly wrapped her arms around her arm, before looking down at her left hand to see a friend request pop up in her menu. She struggled to move her right hand, before tapping the accept button and smiling. It was nice to have an officially recognized friend, at any rate, even if she was very touch happy. She smiled, raising hand to point forward. "Look, there's the village..." She said, her voice still relatively quite compared to the way that Angel spoke. Still, there was the entrance to the village, along with a certain woman and her daughter, waving the two girls over to them.
Angel just giggled to herself at the young woman's response to her friendly assault. It wasn't a big response but it had obviously surprised her. Which was fun. She'd have to make a note not to do that too often though, at least when she wasn't expecting it. What friend liked to be surprised constantly? "Oh hey, I do like visiting villages," she answered Luna in turn. She did let go so no one just saw her hanging on her new friend's arm like a weirdo clingy person. "You know what's really strange?" she asked. "How realistic the NPC's are, you know? They act like really normal people. I can't imagine being someone who was mean to them or something." Angel was one hundred percent a total softy. "That one we're looking for seemed genuinely scared, like she needed help from those slimey things. Which, by the way, were much less cute than the pet kind."
"So you've, um, visited a couple of villages already have you?" She inquired, looking around as they slowly got closer to the village entrance, taking in the sights of the village once again. It was pretty nice, seeing a community like this working together, keeping their village alive and thriving out where they were. It wasn't a particularly bad area, but the predatory animals weren't exactly the most friendly creatures around, due to the fact that, as far as she could tell, prey creatures got killed off a lot. Whether by the players or by the villagers for food, she didn't know. "Ah, uh, yes I did wonder about that..." She coughed, fiddling with her hands and looking around. She felt kind of awkward talking about AI whilst they were heading to a village full of them, but it did sometimes confuse her. "They um, they certainly are advanced. Ahead of their time, I-I'd say." She smiled, shrugging, though she did suddenly take note of what Angel said, blinking. "Wait, you can get slimes as p-pets? I thought they were...you know, dangerous?"
"My first day here," Angel started, grinning widely as she remembered the large but small fairy girl. That description would probably confuse someone if she tried to say it out loud... oh well. "I met this really cute fairy girl who has been playing for awhile. She kind of showed me around a little and we talked and she showed me a little pet slime. It was totally gross to touch but it was kind of fun just because it acted so happy when you did," she flexed both hands as if they were covered in goo at the memory. "I'd kill for one of those!" She chuckled. "Okay, not really. I kind of feel bad even killing the bad monsters, but I know if I don't they'd just hurt someone so it's sort of different right?" she shrugged to herself and hopped a couple of steps forward so she could turn around to watch her new companion. "I'll be totally jealous if you find one first," she admitted, "But at the same time I'm bad at being properly jealous so I'd probably be happy for you as long as I could pet it."
"A c-c-cute fairy girl?" Luna swallowed, blushing slightly, though she turned away slightly to hide it as best she could. She'd not really paid much attention to the other races in the game, but she remembered there being a fairy-esque race that were small and typically could be described as cute. And Angel had met one? That wasn't fair at all, there weren't many around these parts, so she'd have thought that anybody playing a different race would be just a little easier to find, yet so far she'd only run into humans and nothing else. As for the pet slime, she had to admit that it did sound pretty cute. Could she tame actual slimes with her Beast Taming Mastery? Or were they simple event gifts or something along those lines? Maybe a rare drop? "Y-yeah, I'd also feel pretty bad killing things that weren't hurting other people." She ducked her head, flinching ever so slightly when the other girl suddenly pulled ahead without warning, all but expecting to be grabbed from behind or something just as bad. She was still coming down from the adrenaline of the fight, it seemed. "W-well if I do ever, you know, find one, I'll be sure to let you play with it. But, um, I'm sure you'll find one for yourself one day."
"Yup, she was pretty cute. She looked like she was like... ten or something, but apparently she's some adult in real life," she chuckled. "I guess you really can be anyone in these things. Buuuut I'm sorta just myself with different looks," she stuck out her tongue slightly and twirled to walk beside Luna once she caught up properly. "Yeah hopefully I find a pet thing. I can't master any beasts. It felt weird to pick that when I was making Angel. I mean, I've never been allowed to own a pet before. Apartments back home are really picky about that stuff when you rent." she shrugged at her own information as if saying 'oh well.' "Oh, so it turns out people get mad when you try to enter their homes and search through their rooms for things in this game," she mused as they passed a couple of NPC's who didn't look like who they were looking for. "I didn't do it, but I saw someone getting chased out while the lady threw things at them. It was pretty great. I guess you can do anything here but things still react normally, at least if they're part of the game."
"Y-yeah, though I um, I kinda think it's kinda cool, that you can just be anybody. I-it makes things unique and, y'know, interesting?" Maybe she wasn't phrasing it the right way, it was hard to tell for certain, but she did think it was pretty neat that you could choose to be yourself or somebody different, but you didn't have to be forced into picking one or the other. It was nice little things like those that made the game feel a whole lot more fun and alive as a whole, it was probably what would keep her coming back for way longer than she'd ever stuck to any game before. "Yeah, I-I'm not allowed to keep pets at home either. I-It's kind of why I um, chose Beast Taming to begin with, p-plus I kind of wanted a partner..." She was hesitant to admit that the thought of fighting alone was more than just a slightly scary one, there was no doubt in her mind that she would've lost to the slimes without Angel there to assist her. Even just having somebody beside her made her feel far better about fighting than she would've been by herself. So Angel had seen somebody trying to steal from an npc, only to be caught and be chased out of the store by said npc. Well honestly, as mean as it kind of sounded, it served them right. Surely the npc's also suffered when they weren't able to eat or feed their families, just like any player character would. "That's j-just mean! Why w-would anybody just steal, even if t-this is a game?" It hit just a little closer to home since her parents were store owners IRL, so something like that would've had a profound affect on her, if it happened.
Angel definitely agreed that the free, real world-esque nature of this fantasy place was what made it so interesting. It just allowed people to be whomever they wanted to be in a more dangerous and pretty world. She kept waiting to get some sort of quest or something that would force her to do things, and well, that hadn't happened - just like people she'd met had claimed. The bad news was, that meant these realistic NPC's could be hurt by mean players - the ones that didn't see them as people in this world. Angel almost wanted to cry thinking about it, but instead she gave a big, reassuring grin again. She ven held up her fingers in a V shape. "I'm sure there's a lot more nice people like us around here anyway, you know? And people who want to be nice people wouldn't just let stuff like that happen if they saw it." Admittedly she'd done nothing, but she'd been busy gawking in amazement. "Oh hey is that the lady?" Angel spotted a familiar woman with a little girl holding her hand and talking. "And... her daughter?" Aww so they did have npc relationships. So cute!
More good people like them? "Ah, I hope so." She smiled slightly, looking into the village and trying to spot the mother and her daughter, before shaking her head. "I'd c-certainly hate for most players to be so....cold and um, ruthless like that." The thought of her parents being robbed because some people thought things didn't matter was a rather unsettling one. How many of the npc's here had come across a player that wasn't nice, or would rather exploit npc's to their advantage? In older games, it was considered tactical to use npc's to aggro an enemy, in order to kill it without taking much damage. How many people had carried that sort of mindset over? "B-but even so, it's all so amazing. H-how the npc's feel so real is unbelievable. W-whatever AI they use must be amazing, e-especially since they're all randomly generated I think." She left out what she'd learned about the conception mechanic for now, mostly because it was both awkward to talk about and something that she didn't quite have the greatest understanding of herself. And there was no way she was ever going to try it out! Absolutely not! "A-ah, I'm glad they're safe." She was glad that Angel had spotted the girl and her mother, having been rather worried about their wellbeing herself. It was so surreal to watch beings that she knew were completely digital have realistic relationships with each other. They were indistinguishable from a real mother and daughter combo, it was uncanny. It made her think, what sort of genius even created the game to begin with? How did they get everything so perfect? "D-d-do you think we should go over and, um, say hello?"
"Um... probably... it was your like, quest thing wasn't it?" Angel didn't even know if you got rewards for this kind of stuff. Or maybe it was just for the experience (not the kind that filled a level meter here, obviously). She blinked and tilted her head. "I'll come with you of course! I want to know how the lady person is doing, plus we're friends and talking to strangers is kind of strange." Which, of course she said despite doing it all the time here. She was outgoing but in real life she didn't just talk to everyone. She wasn't -that- weird. Heck, here she'd seen plenty of people she hadn't said hi to. Especially since she was a bit awkward about this whole 'role playing' thing where you pretend your'e actually talking to someone. She knew the npc's weren't real people even if they looked, acted, and sounded real.
"Uh....I don't know, really. The woman's daughter just kind of....um, g-grabbed my clothes and begged me to help her mommy." She smiled, shaking her head at the thought of how she'd barely been able to speak to a little girl who she knew wasn't really real, as far as all things were considered. This was all a game, after all. "And, uh, well how could I say no to somebody like her?" She'd have never been able to reject the request of such a young girl, one who was only worried about her mother. That would have made her almost like the villain of her own story. "B-but, if you'd c-come with me, I'd appreciate it a lot..." She poked her fingers together, playing with them nervously before making her way slowly over to the mother and daughter, hoping beyond anything that Angel was following after her. She really didn't know how she'd be able to talk to the pair, especially after such a surreal and dangerous situation that had involved them. She'd even dragged the woman's daughter to danger with her, technically. "Ah! It's the nice lady! Thank you for saving my mommy!" The little girl called towards them, waving her free hand excitedly in the air, pulling her mother to meet Luna and Angel halfway. Luna gulped, her breathing starting to quicken as the nerves quickly sunk back into her skin again. How did she deal with this? "Um....uh..." She wasn't the smoothest, heck, she didn't even have any idea of what to say at all. She nudged Angel in the side, turning a pleading eye to the girl. "S-say something please? I-I can't...." She pleaded in a whispering voice, fighting for control of her breathing.
"Awww~" If it wasn't obvious before it was probably obvious to anyone looking that Angel was either a pretty girly girl or an extremely un-manly guy at this point; she was practically coo'ing at how cute the little girl's hero worship was. Though, Luna did interrupt her gawking with a plea for help, so sh couldn't just ignore it. "You're welcome, Miss," she held up her hand with a thumbs-up gesture. "Don't you two lose track of each other, okay?" And with an enthusiastic nod, the two took off to do... whatever NPC mother and daughter did. Heck, Angel wasn't sure what real mothers and daughters did, now that she thought of it. "See? I guess if we just act heroic and stuff people will like us?" she giggled. "I dunno, it'll be hard for me to act too heroic.. I'm told I'm a bit too hyper to be... dignified..."
"Y-yes please do try to keep an eye on e-each other, alright?" She added onto the end of Angel's quick message to the little girl, trying her absolute best to emulate the girl's pluckier mannerisms and confident way of speaking. Chances were that she didn't do all that well at it, considering the way her stutter still managed to shine through and ruin any attempt at looking cool. Sometimes she felt a little envious of the people that were braver than her when dealing with people. "A-acting heroic, huh? I-I guess I'll need some, um, practice at that..." She sighed, looking down at her hands that were clasped in front of her, an ever so slight frown on her face as she thought. How could she be the hero of her own story if she was stuttering and mumbling whenever anybody tried to talk to her? Wasn't Luna Avalbane supposed to be a more perfect version of herself, free of her nervousness and shy personality? All she'd done is be a nervous wreck in front of people...and save a woman. And make a friend. Well, maybe things weren't going all that bad, if she tried to think of them from a more positive angle. Sure, she wasn't quite as outgoing and bubbly as she'd wanted to be, but she'd accomplished a little bit more than most people would have expected. For once, things weren't going in a way that was bad for her. "W-well I think h-heroes don't always need to be dignified...you know...?"
"Oh, they don't?" Angel looked around. Everyone else was definitely being more dignified than her. "I mean, I guess not," she decided. "That's good though, because I have a hard time sitting still, you know? Like, even in this world my brain tells me I need to run around and do things and stuff." She was basically just standing there talking to Luna at this point. "Like, even when I played non uh... immersive or whatever games I'd dance around with my controller all the time. Dad said I needed to have less energy because I made him tired just watching."
