Making Bacon [invite]

A hiker, lumberjack or for any god reasons why a person would be in a forrest at that moment would see a person just appear into the woods or in this world. ''The realism..'' were the first words of Troy Marshal in the terra Spere game. ''helloo'' she spoke out inquiringly while she took in her surroundings, birds, insects and general life filled the sound of the forest. She was astonished taking in all the senses, kneeling down she brushed in hand into the laying foliage over the ground, leaves and dirt passed through her fingers, the feeling identical as it was real rather than 1s and 0s in a computer. Noticing herself, her hands at any rate she took in as much as herself as she can, bending this way and that. Nice ass she mused to herself then again she did sculpt it herself, strange to be moving in a body she just designed not 5 minutes ago. While admiring herself troy came across a prompt, interacting with it enlarged a status screen with her following details, health, energy, equipment, stats and stuff, she scrolled that dizzing details away and found a map with her general location on it, Brisshal.

Seeing herself and direction on the map she moved her direction left from right and could see it followed her way, just like a navigation app then she surmised, seeing what could look like a path Troy made her way to that. Finding her way to civilization would be a good start than wandering unpurposely through a unknown forest. Im playing a game to hike, fun! mumbling somewhat to herself after tracking down a well used path she came across a large looking medevil building, its construction was far from the modern designs irl. The sign above the front door read ''the dogs ear'' maybe there is a story about that, so random adventuring inside, and pushing the heavy squeaking door in to open it. A large room with alcove sitting areas sat along the left side of the room, tables and stools lined up the middle of the room and at the far end was a bar, a universal design in any generation, a worktop, some taps and a man standing behind it.

The tavern had a couple of patrons, if you looked over their should to view their bussines like troy did, some were eating simple foods like porridge and bread, these patrons replied this person invasion with uncomfortable expressions and either politely asked you if you needed anything or practically to go away. touching them for authenticity also produced more excitable responses.

Backing away to the safety of the bar, Troy leaned on it amazed, the realness of the environment to the characters around her, nps they were called. Noticing a hall off to the right of the bar she could guess the stairs and rooms for the guests were. She moved her head this way, that way and even leaned and craned over the counter, lifting her legs off the ground as a result. This got an annoyed look from the bar tender ''what can i get you?'' the man inquired giving Troy his attention with the understanding she would stand back up right. ''il have a bacardi and coke'' though this got a confused response from the man ''we don't do that here. this is what we have'' reaching behind himself he picked up a board with a single sheet attached to it, he paced over and placed it in front of troy,

@People at the bar the bar tender adds ''were late a delivery and some of the menu is unavailable at the moment'' The bar tender looks from Troy to the patrons sitting at the ''though. we have been having a bit of bother with wild boars breaking into our vegetable patch. catch one of those little porkies and il see about squareing you up for your troubles. Interested?'' A quest alert pops up infront of troy, ''neato! my first quest''

 

It wasn't exactly her very first time in the game. She had logged in multiple times to make her character, fumble with the VCR, options and possibilities. Before she got the Terra game she hadn't really been a gamer. The occasional casual game on her smartphone was nothing compared to this all sense realism. But that was the greatness of it all.


Back to the tavern she had last logged out, she appeared in the bar where most patrons were having their drink and slurping their food. Taking a seat herself, Catharina looked at her map. She could travel, maybe some quests now that she had time to devote to this game. Some skills and trying out the battle system would be fun. At the very first day, she had taken her rapier and poked the point of the sword against her thumb. The sting of pain had proven that the game hadn't lied to simulate every sense of the human body. Remarkable and delightful.


Some came, some went. By now, she already got used to how organic this world seemed to be. NPC's and players seemed to behave almost similar. Tops to the programmers, it made her wonder how nobody was hyping over the game, ignoring the warning that had come with receiving it. A player strolled into the bar, a lady hiker whom by the way she looked everywhere in a delighted fashion. New player, perhaps?


Cat snorted a laugh when she ordered a “Bacardi Coke,” a good choice though. She stood up from her chair and walked over, the good barman was flabbergasted by his newest patron but who wouldn't be. A quest popped up, hm interesting. Catharina leaned on the bar and gave a beaming smile. “I recommend a Morland Ale for next time, maybe not so great as a Bacardi Coke but I haven't found something similar yet.” She gave the hiker a once over. “Fancy some company on your first quest? I'm also new, might be fun to play around together.”

 

( ooc: apologies for grammar and spelling issues, typed this on my phone )

There was a timeline, somewhere in the games plot about it being all 'old timely', though not in those exact words. maybe it would be reasonable that all her usual modern knowledge would be nonsense here. That gave her time to pause to consider the implications while a new arrival took a place beside her at the bar.

Responding to the newcomer ''i might just take you up on that and if your buying most certainly.'' Troy perked up, replying with a polite smile of her own. Now Troys focus intensified on the new girl 'she knew what i wanted' recognising that this stranger was probably a player like her possibly the drink was only available in certain superior sophisticated establishment. Taking another gander around the room again she was rather slumming it here. Giving the stranger a real soul searching stare out, her hand raised up, produced her index finger and motioned forward to prob the girl. With her other hand up to her face, she used it to block her expression from the man at the bar ''your not one of them are you?' troy voiced in a conspiratorial whisper but still got a irritable grunt and annoyed expression from the bar tender now changing his posture, crossing his arms in a irritable mood.

''Are you doing this are not?!'' the bar tender loudly voiced losing his patients, arms stretched out on either side of the bar the man waited for a reply. sliding of her bar stool to confront the bar man ''yes yes yes, fine! we will take the lousy job but we want the cash upfront" Troy snapped back! rising to the challenge "No" in a cool deadpan refusal "ok. then we want half now and th-No. the barman repeatedly, interrupting Troys proposal in that still cool manner. "ok. we will take what ever the reward is and a free lunch..." there was a breathless pause until the bar keep give the slightest nod of his head, rolled his eyes and give a grunt of confirmation. "just get out of here already" he shooed.

Troy has accepted the quest Making Bacon!

Victory! Troy inwardly fist pumped. Motioning to the door in short of a skip, Troy spun around
''im Troy by the way" she smiled, droped her head, chuckled and looking back up at cat "as you can see... i could use all the help i can get'' inspecting Cathinera ''it could be fun'' tilting her head toward the door in a gesture to follow, if she wanted. Troy corrected herself back around and exited the Tavern.

The Barman looked back to catharina ''shes a strange one'' shaking is head he continued with his Tavern's duties.

After walking out from the gloom, Troy cringed from the bright light that scolded her eyes, it was a feeling much like in real life that would soon pass though raised a following question wether sunglasses existed in this virtual world. another point crossed Troy 'were the hell do i go now?!' after a brief fumble trying to bring up the quest summary she read the request over again 'were do i get a pig. pigs live on farms don't they?! do i find old Mac Donold's farm or something'

Various areas of Brisshall are inhabited with wild boar, either previous knowledge of these areas could guide you to these areas or as the Barman explained, boars had been raiding the inn's garden, maybe a clue could put you in the right direction or otherwise surmise that some boars reside nearby.

 

Catharina gave a lopsided smile in response. ‘’Buy you a drink? I got that starters money, I suppose the best way to spend it is on drinks.’’ She pushed a wild lock of lilac hair back behind her face. A few beginning acquaintances would be nice, it could be worth the gold pieces. Perhaps she would earn them back today through the quest, or something equal in value. The girl was staring at her, bad manners but supposedly staring back would negate the wrong effect. It was only some beginner quest, Catharina wasn’t thinking about causing more potential trouble to make her life difficult. Strangers could always be a bit tricky to charm, but that was all fun and games of course. Therefore, she would not be annoyed by the girl leaning into her personal area. She would not mind the odd behavior the girl expressed. She would smile and chuckle as the girl whispered like they shared a common secret.


‘’One of who, exactly? -Oh my, no of course not. I do have a physical body beyond this game. Unfortunately, I don’t have this lovely hair color.’’ She looked pitiful at one of her bouncing hair. The game definitely had some perks that real life could improve upon.

The loud voice of the bartender made her flinch. Gosh, men in every dimension were loud and impossibly obnoxious. The other player, she was a treat to watch. Trying to upgrade their perks, of course, the bartender was not fooled by her fiery attitude. Perhaps it was due to the IA of this universe of this particular bartender was not fond of being hustled for reward money.


‘’I think- whatever the reward- it would be worth our time. Get familiar with this world, and hunting down a boar to get some pork hardly sounds like a master quest. But a nice try, nonetheless!’’ She patted the girl on the shoulder. ‘’Catharina is the name, let’s get to the quest!’’ Pumping a hand in the air she grinned. Following Troy out of the door, not before she shrugged at the bartender. ‘’Strange indeed, but that's how I like them.’’


Catharina kept a hand above her eyes as she walked outside into the glaring sun. She gave her eyes a few minutes to adjust to the new brightness before she opened the menu to read the quest summary. She folded her arms over each other and clucked her tongue. ‘’Want to check the garden first? If we don’t find any traces there, we might just wander around the wild area’s of the Inn until the bounce on a boar. Whataya think?’’

 

A ping followed by a notification poped up for troy ‘Catharina has joined your quest!' Even if it was a virtual experience Troy was glad to have the company, it was also comforting to know that at least one of them has some experience and know how of this world. On a personal note shes got a nice ass too Troy noticed, peaked or observed innocently when her new acquaintance crossed her view. Hardly a traditional first date, going into the woods to find porky pig and then bag him back for the morning’s breakfast. Indicating the tavern behind her ‘this will be getting a piss poor review on Trivago now’ Troy grinned.

‘Yes! Lets stay upbeat about this. The hell with that bar guy. I wouldn’t have come back if I got that advance’’ troy laughed in good humor and continued around the back with Catharina’s plan. Following her idea she couldn't think what they would find there, how great would it be if one little piggy was snorting merrily just around the corner. ‘’yep, looks like a garden’’ troy summarized, a section of earth was arranged with what troy could guess were vegetables growing out from the dirt, closer inspection or just uprooting those plants entirely was the whole extent of Troys agricultural knowledge to discern the plant, even that was being hopeful. It was just as well this was a hunting quest, her interactions with farming was the end process, still a vital if most important task, purchasing those vegetables from the market.

A wild hedge ringed around the outskirts of the mended plot of earth, a bare patch was hollowed through the base of the hedge, it was large enough for a small child to crawl in and out of or some animals to travel in and out as they like. It didn’t take a terribly keen intellect such as the like of Sherlock and Watson to crack this quest, it was a beginners quest after all. Even with one of her masterys was ‘hunter’ it was rather wasted here when animal prints were visible in the gardens soil. The prints traced from the hedge, around the garden and back out through the hedge again. ‘’i guess we just follow those prints.’’ Troy suggested simply. Turning to cat, her expression changed suspiciously ‘’Unless you think it deliberately planted those prints to throw us off its real objective..’’ she began teasing cat, even though making herself out to be a oddball though it was Troy just messing with her.

 

‘’Oh hell yeah! Didn’t even have bacon for the morning, that has to be told to the people. How dare they.’’ She chuckled as she turned to Troy. Crossing her arms, she judgingly looked at the garden. ‘’I think looked is the better tense in this situation. Those beasts really are gluttons.’’ She sniffed as she looked at the trampled plants. Eaten, flattened and prints were everywhere. Just not the hungry culprit at the scene.

The garden wasn’t even that big, just enough to sustain the place. Vegetables and some herbs, stuff that she would never be able to grow in the real world. Mainly because plants were kind of boring, she liked flowers. Those needy little plants that needed so much water and an amount of sunlight but once they got it they bloomed beautifully in nice colors. It was satisfying. Roses and orchids were absolutely adorable in her room. Still, this garden looked very sad after being plundered of its growth.

Troy turned suddenly towards her, in the strange way her eyes seemed to be intensely focused. Which would be great if it was quest related but it was focused on her. Asking about..conspiracies? ‘’Uhm..’’ Cath blinked very slowly as she tried to find a response. She found her mind drawing a slow blank. She looked around them, everything was empty. Muffled sounds of conversation, laughter, and some music came through the walls of the bar. ‘’I wasn’t inform you this early but-’’ Catharina put her hand on Troy’s shoulder and smirked. ‘’But I think the boars are actually starving transformed lizard people.’’ She gave Troy a gentle squeeze as she looked very seriously in her eyes. Then retracted herself with a grin.

‘’But if you’re cool with that, let’s go find those thieves.’’ She gave a happy whoop and started to walk through the bushes. The broken twigs and scratched bark on the trees left a fairly easy trail. It helped the ground had been a bit moist, the prints had dried somewhat into the ground. She looked around, the leaves and greenery were obscuring their sight but she was pretty sure she could hear snorting not too far from where they were. ‘’You hear that too?’’ She whispered under her breath to Troy. Maybe they were closer to the problem source than they thought. Catharina checked on her beginner rapier, it was as good as a damn stick but at least it could hit hard. She doubted it would slice like an actual proper rapier. Gold was of the essence, the first purchase would be a better weapon.

 

Grinning back at Catharina's reply ''yea, lizard mutant people makes alot more sense!'' Troy exclaimed in mock surprise. ''they probably came out from a sewer somewhere all green, wearing shells and proberly had some crazy ninja skills as well.'' nodding her head knowingly. She laughed momentarily after their imaginative designs. ah, well she has a sense of humor she was pleased to find, finding good company and beginning to enjoy herself maybe this game could have some good qualities to it after all. ''yea, we should get on with that'' Brought back to the reality of their quest, Troy and Catharina followed the piggy tracks to the start of the forest. Bringing up her masteries, Troy examined her 'Hunter' skill, the description detailed it to have tracking abilities, though for the moment following paw prints in the dirt she obviously didn't need to be a detective to guess were they could lead, unless mutant lizards were really behind this. Following foot prints was enough of a clue for the scooby gang to track down the villain, though she considered the moment when there may not be foot prints and how her skill would affect her then. ''hey, do you know anything about the hunter mastery? I mean, i have the skill though but i don't know how it works. Or does it need activated or something?!'' Disappointment and confusion laced her words and expression as she walked along Catharina.

Lifting her head up from her palm and closing the 'Hunter' information from the systems menu, she breathed out exasperated ''i mean their has to be more a hunter can do than follow paw prints. In that case your doing well all by yourself. Hell, im following you!'' she laughed while producing a thumbs up at Catherina to show she was doing a good job.

''I smell bacon'' Troy replied when Cat mentioned the animal sounds. Troy crouched hesitantly while not entirely sure what action to take, it felt like a stealthy approach would be best to sneak up on the piggy though not entirely sure if this action would count or help in this virtual world. She crouched down awkwardly, aware of her awful stealth inexperience and somewhat embarrassed for doing so yep, i'm pretty bad at this. She hoped cat wouldn't realize this and notice the creeping blush on her cheeks. Her movements were rather awkward when creeping through the forest towards the noise, a few times she lost her balance and fell backwards on her butt, to the side each way and once nearly into Catherina. Troy laughed each time, the scene could be familiar as a drunk trying to stealthily navigate. It was amusing, just the whole situation of in the woods and hunting down a pig, it was a experience she never got up to in the real world.

As miracles go Troys failing stealth did not scare of the pig or rather pigs, a heard of pigs milled about in the distanced though could be viewed from the area troy and Cat reached. Troy in her strange not so stealthy crouch ,she waddled up behind a tree and placed a finger to her lips and pointed to the pig area. looking back a questionable look and in a whisper ''alright. how do we go about this?'' she looked around and snatched up a stone as if to use it as a weapon ''do we just run out at them'' she suggested. Her eyes gazed at cat and then at the stone in her hand, her eyes zipped between the two interests. Idiot she thought to herself, realizing her stupid behavior she dropped the stone and helpfully offered up ''i have Naturamancy magic i can use. I dabbled a bit'' she added with some doubt.

 

(OOC: Sorry for the late reply, RL held me up)

Troy was an odd duck, but not necessarily a bad odd duck. Catharina glanced to the side where Troy was walking. She wondered how the girl would fight against monsters. So far, she had kept herself on the safe paths in between her trip to the sea and back to the city. Fortunately, the city was filled with little secrets, interesting streets and people to watch. She saw the screen of information, curious Catharina looked at the Hunter description. For herself, he had maybe chosen unwisely for her masteries, but she kind of liked rapiers. They had looked awesome in the movies, maybe not the strongest or even fastest weapon. But it was the kind of weapon you had to master with grace, finesse and precision. Pierce through the weak spot of an enemy, through the hollow of someone’s throat. Yes, she liked her decision for one-handed piercing weapons. Perhaps she would upgrade something like dual wielding later on in the game. That would be amazing.

‘’Uhm, not really. I mainly looked at the masteries that really interested me. It was hard to choose, so many awesome things but you could only pick three. I was seriously doubting between Music and Muse.’’ She gave a little smile and shrugged. ‘’Picked Music in the end. I like to be able to play even without it having any big effects. Maybe I can combine it with something. But I think you can activate it through moves and buttons. Wasn’t there something in the guide about it? Maybe it works like how we can do cool moves and jumps by just starting it.’’ Catharina did a cartwheel and dusted her hands off from her clothes. ‘’Something like that I suppose. But I can do cartwheels in real life too, so maybe not the best example.’’ She snorted a laugh. ‘’We have to upgrade our masteries. Right now we are lucky if we don’t follow bear paw prints or something.’’ Catharina pouted as she poked her beginner weapon. ‘’Gotta upgrade this thing and find someone to make me something decent once I have the money. I’m sure next time we have to chase boars, I’ll be following you.’’

Squatting down until her butt touched her heels, Catharina hid behind the bush. She clapped her hands before her mouth as she tried to keep her snickering soft and unnoticed. Troy had fallen right on her butt when she tried to be stealthy, it was pure comedy. Her laugh was quite infectious too. This was probably the most horrible stealth mission ever seen in Terrasphere. The corners of her mouth hurt from keeping the smile down, Troy looked almost like a three legged crab trying to move forward instead of to the sides.

‘’Hmm, I have my Pierce and Phantasmia. Both are downright level Pure Sadness, but I could try for the offensive if you think you have more luck with your Naturamancy.’’ She shrugged as she whispered. ‘’We can always change tactics, with you in the offensive running after our breakfast and me trying to confuse the running bacon.’’

 

(( ooc: don't worry about it. I know RL stuff can be bothersome. Take your time and such. ))

Genuine interest turned to curiosity ''music. That could be a fun mastery.'' She considered wether the game had a set of standard music tones you had to follow or maybe the game just made you sound good whatever instrument you plucked or beated. ''Maybe in a month or so i will be buying your album from the local blacksmiths or something.'' troy playfully teased, she held it for a moment before her expression cracked into a smile ''Rember me when you get famous rockstar. You can sign my battle axe'' finishing she put her hands up in some apology ''ok. il quite with the bad jokes. its probably scaring of the bacon.'' She peared out from the tree to the small open area the boars were milling around, content with their exsistance.

Her insight probed Troy motivation to look over the games manuals but damn was there alot of information in this one game. considering the issue her expression change along with her thoughts, if she was in a kids cartoon a bright light bulb would have appeared above her head. She settled herself in a rather better mood when she came with the simple answer of letting her brother found out the answer for her, he was a technical type of guy like that and because he worked with computers, She and the rest of her family took it for granted he could solve all their technological issues.

Cartharina's cartwheel action got a standing ovation and a small hoot from Troy. She was mostly sure if she tried that she would most likely failed, she probably hadn't tried to cartwheel in years, maybe while she was drunk but apart from that she was probably a kid when she attempted such a move. this was strange but oddly nice doing cartwheels in the woods with a stranger had put her off guard, what ever crazy nonsense she came out with Cartarina went with it or matched her. She was sure catharina was in the lead though, no one was seeing her doing cartwheels in the bushes. Smiling with a easy snicker ''if i start jumping around looking as im pressing buttons, il likely be commited'' She considered wether mental health facilities were in this age ''or they would just tie me to a stake and burn the witch''.

focusing on the little piggies, her mood changed to a sombre point ''i actually feel a bit bad that we are going to kill these poor animals'' this feeling was short until her merry self revved back up ''but people need to eat'' its was just a game after all, she reminded herself. Well they both maybe of low levels Troy tried to express this ''my my skills arn't any better, they are at basic nothings and they could be equal or further sad than your abilties. we can both be a couple of saddos in the woods together...ugh. that sounded better in my head'' that was stupid, just hopefully move on from this embaressing note she mouthed 'sorry' with a troubled expression.

Considering their options she opened up her mastery abilties '' i reckon i can lay down a few traps...'' Her words somewhat unconfident while glancing down into her palm were she operated her ingame mechanics. Her fingers waved back and forth, the gestures would be obviously familiar to anyone who has operated a mobile phone. ''well, the skills say i can, at any rate. one sec'' her focus peered back up from her palm to studying the field. Using her right hand she selected the trap skill 'ensnaring roots' with her vision she was able to see a small glowing radius were her spell would be targeted. She cast a trap in the middle distance from the pigs to them. While Catharina was in her party, she could also see the target areas of troys trap spells. When cast her spell made a short animation of a cluster of roots under the surface of her trap, when a enemy ventured over the area the trap would activate and the roots would lash up out of the ground and entangle the enemy in crushing tree roots for a small period of time. After seeing how her first trap hadn't reacted the pigs Troy considered what she would do with her second trap spell, she considered, unsure of the spells actual effects and limits she targeted a pig.

The trap spell sprung immediately, obviously because it was resting under their target, though now seeing the spells effects first hand she was impressed to see that one of their little piggies was aready bound for them to collect. the creatures shrieked and squealed though couldn't shift from its root chains. The rest of the heard was alerted and some began taking off into the trees, ''oh. sorry about that. i didn't think it would have that kind of effect'' seeing the creatures flee Troy rose up behind her cover and jog out into the open field. ''at least we have one pig wraped up and bag for us'' she began apologetically. While not all the pigs flee, some of the more aggressive sort remained on field to confront their attackers.