Quest - Mayday

With a tired sigh, Victoria entered her studio apartment and tossed her bag aside. She took a bath to freshen herself up before grabbing her VR gear. She lay down on her bed, ready to go into Terrasphere and find herself a new quest to work on. After her first world boss event, the female was even more excited to enter the virtual world.

Libitina opened her eyes to find herself in the green forest of Brisshal. She opened her menu and looked at her map to find her way into the honeyhome village.After learning the directions, she began walking, occasionally stopping to see the weak leveled creatures before continuing her journey. It took her only a few minutes to reach the entrance of the village. She took a deep breath, enjoying the smell of fresh bread that filled the air.
The amethyst eyed female decided to grab herself some snacks before going to the quest board. She bought herself chocolate filled bread, taking big bites as she made her way through the busy streets. On reaching the big brown quest board that was on the center of the village, the girl started to look on which quest to choose. 'All of them are team players. Is there not a single solo i can go for?' She wondered, beginning to wonder who all she had met in the world boss who she can invite. She let out a sigh, realising she had not interacted with many.

She was gping to turn away from the board and just spend her day roaming around when a certain paper caught her eye. She pulled the paper off the board and read it.

"Woah. This sounds so interesting "
She muttered to herself as she began looking around for someone who could join her, preferably a person without sea sickness. Even thought the girl did not like the idea of undead, her curiosity to know what happened to the ship took the best of her.

She looked around,hoping to find someone who would be willing to partner up with her.

@Rias @Rivers Asteire

 

Looking at the quest board with a sigh Rias was scanning all the available ones at the time wondering which one she should start since she was still a new player and going straight in the battle field without any experience would probably bring loads of troubles to the other party members. Not wanting to seem like a looser she choose the ones that were mostly help-the-town based and at the same time she thought it would be a good idea to get to meet new players and ask around a little bit about the game and maybe some newbie tips.
"Hmm...the names are creative at least." Muttering she found herself staring at one title that stood out the most. MayDay. Reading the details about it she found the quest rather amusing and adventurous. Not exactly what she was looking for but...that would do! Maybe there's going to be something interesting to discover and learn about the place, get familiar with the history of the town and its villagers?

Grabbing the leaflet she started walking down the path while reading a few more details about the quest. Suddenly a girls voice echoed (@Libitina Cerin) around the town asking for some help, was it related to the quest or something else? That aside, Rias still approached her and smiled. "Hey hey~ what you looking for? Could it be...this!?" As she emphasized the word she took out the same quest paper and pointed at it. No she wasn't a medium. She just saw the girl holding the same item.

 

Rivers walked to the quest board. He'd had a lot of fun with the quest he'd undergone, and was looking to try it out again. After all, a premade adventure was exactly what he'd come to Terrasphere for! Rivers neared the quest board in Honeyhome, ready to meet up with some other adventurers. Making new friends was also why he'd come to Terrasphere. Rivers held the paper in his hands. They were tasked with figuring out what'd happened to the boat with the ghosts on it? That sounded...well it sounded a little spooky. But, with some fellow adventurers, it should be fine!

As Rivers neared the board, he saw two people standing by it. They were both human females by the look of it. Though, Rivers didn't pay much attention to the races of the game. He probably should've but meh. As he approached the pair, he gave a wave to @Libitina Cerin and @Rias.

"Hi! I'm Rivers. Are you two doing the boat quest too?"

He motioned to the flyer he held in his other hand. There was always the possibility they were here for some other quest and he'd 100% just bothered them for no reason. If that was the case, he might die of embarrassment. But, hopefully that wasn't the case. As he got close enough to a better view, he saw they were both holding the same flyer. Whew, bullet dodged. Upon closer inspection, one of these people looked familiar. Rivers cocked his head in a curious manner.

"Sorry if I'm wrong, but have we met? You look really familiar."

 

The long haired female watched as a girl approached her and was easily able to start a conversation with her. 'Very cheerful.' She thought, taking a small involuntarily step back. It was not that Libitina found that sort of personality repulsive. She was just caught off by the girl's excitement. @Rias

She looked at the quest sheet the girl was carrying and nodded. She did not ask about how she knew. For all Libitina knew,It could be that it was a mere coincidence or the girl had already seen the paper in her hand. Heck, she could also be a NPC. 'Maybe the system saw I was having trouble with getting a partner and decided to send me a NPC. Ha, even the system doesn't believe I can get a partner without help. Either way, it was good for me' the female thought. "Yes. That's the one. It seems we both will be working on this together."

Her expression showed no hint of amusement. One could describe her tone to be monotone. It was just the way she was. Before she could introduce herself to her new partner, a male approached them @Rivers Asteire

"Yes we are. I presume you got interested in the case too?"

The girl felt pleased to see that she managed to have two people on board with this new quest. It did not come off as a surprise that their new found acquaintance knew Rias because of the recent world boss evet where everyone stayed in a monster's stomach together. She herself could have sworn she saw those two around but made no attempt to point that out.

"My name is Libitina Cerin. I am still fairly new in taking these quests. It is nice to meet you two. I hope we can solve this mystery together and that the answer we are trying to find is not unsatisfying "

 

Her head tilted to the side as a new member joined the conversation, hmm...he looked rather familiar but for the time being she couldn't recognise him, in the past few days she met so many people that it was hard to remember everyone and the girl was starting to feel a little bit nervous that she might offend him if she didn't remember quick. "Uh yeah~?" She asked with a smile trying to hide her bad memory and quickly make her braid work before she completely messed up. "Yeah we must have met, maybe around town or at the curry place or-..." World Boss? Was that the guy?

"OH!" a sudden wave of excitement burst from her aura opening her eyes wider as she remembered him. "You're that guy! Who helped me when I was low on HP! World Boss event? Remember? Yes?" She asked jumping low on her feet awaiting for him to proceed her words and hopefully understand what she was talking about. Barely anyone helped her during the fight except two people so she was happy to remember him and now was the time to show her gratitude. "Thank you so much for the help. My HP would of been waayyy lower then and...who know maybe I would have died as well." Giving him a bow she then pushed herself up and showed him a smile, cheerful as always.

"Now! I am Rias, nice to meet you guys and I am glad that...well we are more than one on this quest. Seems a little bit dangerous, doesn't it? Go into some creepy location in the middle of the sea, have someone eat you, a Kraken or sirens...I am not ready to die. BUT! Fuck that let's go!" Storming the words out of her mouth she started walking at the direction she was facing with big and proud steps. It took her a little while to realise that she was going the wrong way and that she was going alone most importantly. "Ah...right. Do we know where to go?" She then turned back and looked a little bit embarrassed. Rias was good at making herself look stupid in front of other people, here's the proof.

 

The shorter girl replied that they were indeed both here for the boat quest. She introduced herself as Libitina. That was an odd name but then again, Rivers wasn't a very common name either. Everyone had a unique name here in Terrasphere. "Pleased to meet you," he responded politely. Hopefully everyone would get along! This was the first quest he'd undertaken where he didn't have a friend with him. Surely they would, these people both looked reasonable. And neither of them had tried to hack his head off yet. Good start!

The girl seemed to not recognize him at first and fiddled with her hair. That was alright. The world boss fight had had a lot of people scrambling about in the chaos. Rivers only recalled her because he'd healed her, it would make sense if she didn't remember him. However, like flipping a switch it came to her and she got very excited. The ranger jumped excitedly. Wow, she was really excited. She confirmed how they knew each other, and Rivers nodded. "Yeah that was me. I couldn't tell if you'd remember me or not." She then gave him a low bow. Wow she was...really into it. Rivers scratched his head nervously. How was he supposed to respond? "It was nothing. Don't worry about it." He really didn't want her to feel pressured to keep thanking him. That had to be an inconvenience. Hopefully, him telling her it wasn't an issue would be enough.

She switched gears again, introduced herself as Rias, then decided to head towards their objective. Wait...was that the right way? Surely she had a plan, Rivers turned to Libitina. "Guess we're heading out then." He started to follow Rias before she turned around and asked if the others knew where to go. O-oh. Well, they should probably head for the docks, right? They needed to check out those strange ships. "I can lead us to the docks, if that's alright."

Rivers pointed the way to the docks and started walking. If no one stopped him, he'd continue walking until the trio arrived. The salty sea air filled his nose as Rivers looked out over the horizon. "Okay, so I guess we should find some kind of boat or raft to get us out to the canoes. Any ideas?"

 

"It was the world boss. Everyone is expecred to help each other out, whether you hate them of love them but I understand you feel grateful towards him. How about you just treat him to some meal and call it an even? She suggested to the brown haired female before turning to the male. "Does that sound good?"
She moved a bit closer to River and said in a soft voice, so their female team mate did not hear. "If you do not agree, she will just feel the constant need to pay you back so you should just let her"

She watched as Rias walked merrily forward and tilted her head slightly in confusion. Their mission involved the sea, it would make sense if they headed to the docks right? Or was it that Rias wanted to go somewhere else? like perhaps a shop to buy something for the trip.

She nodded at Rivers and began walking along with her fellow team mates when the girl stopped and asked where to go. She sighed at the Rias's excitement. 'I hope this does not turn out to be an issue later on' she thought.

In the time she spent of terrasphere, she learned a few things. Slimy things are not fun to play with, when something explodes and some liquid comes out make sure to keep your mouth closed, tentacles are not fun and should not be fantasied and the directions to places ,but seeing as River had already offered to lead them, she followed without complaint.

"The waves look calm. I think it is a perfect day to start this mission" The amethyst eyed female pointed out to the sea. She heard Rivers asking how to get a boat. "I say we threaten a fisherman into giving us their boat. "

She had said it as a joke. The best way to get close to people were by fooling around, at least that's what she heard. But her tone sounded so serious that one might think she was actually going to go through with than plan and end up beating a poor man in the process of getting a boat. "I was just kidding of course. It is, however, best to ask around to see if someone is willing to lend us their boat. If no one agrees, then finding a rental shop would be our best bet"
She looked around to see any men who had some sort of raft that they could use. She noticed one old man bringing his boat to the shore. He seemed to be in a cheerful mood, making him the perfect man to ask for a boat and she did not want to ruin it. Libitina knew there was a possibility she would come off as being too demanding or rude. She turned to Rias and stared at her. 'She is happy and sweet. If anyone, I think she would easily be able to ask the man for his boat

"Rias. Can you go and ask the man if we can borrow his boat? We will be by your side ,of course"
She requested her team mate.

 

Rias rushed behind Rivers who seemed to know the right way to the docks and it would make sense why they choose to go there! They need a boat maybe even a ship so that someone could lead them to their destination, of course the quest had all the information given about the place but if they didn't know where it was then it wasn't much of a help. She definitely didn't know the location of the island since she was still new to the game. "Anyone knows where is that Dkuur island? We could certainly ask for direction but I am very bad at orientation in the sea..." she muttered knowing that as a hunter it was easier finding tracks on land than pure water where it's impossible to track where you're supposed to head.

Approaching the port Libitina seemed to have noticed their victim. An old man who just came back from fishing or trading. "Eehhh? The boat? Three people. We are gonna die you know..." she pouted crossing her arms as she started shaking her head denying to accept a small boat. "No no...we need something bigger. I don't want Kraken to grab me so easily." Despite her words she still approached the old man and slide her hands behind her back when she spoke to him.
"Mister fisherman! Do you know any ships for rent~? Or maybe a team that's sailing out to the Dkuur Island?" The smile on her lips didn't seem to impress the man when he heard the name of their destination. He would put down his nets and slowly ger off the boat stepping on the wooden floor heavily, he was troubled and looked behind Rias to notice the other two adventurers.
"Children...what kind of jokes are you..." he sighed stopping his sentence. It wasn't hard to see that they were a young team ready for a journey and possible a fight. "Dkuur is not a place for young people like you, it's far and very dangerous. You must not play with your lives like this. Let us, olders take care of this situation while you go to school and enjoy playing outside." He answered dry, clear and a little bit disappointed seeing how this problems wasn't fixed by other people yet as a result get youngsters like those take the challenge.

Rias lowered her head, she could understand the worries of the old man but he didn't know that they were just players...if the other two were that is...and if anything happened they would still be revived after a few seconds. "Hmm I understand but...I am older than I look. I am 30 and the man over there is my husband with his sister so we decided to..." leaning closer so that it would be hard to hear her words from the other two members of her party Rias simple nodded and started coming up with a random story. "Ah! I see, I see. In that case my lady. The blue ship over there is what you're looking for." As if nothing had happened the old man pointed at one of the ships tied to the dock and smiled. "I am glad that they finally sent someone to deal with this monster. I was starting to think that this would never stop. Thank you, thank you very much."

"And that's how it's done ladies and gentlemen. Let's go tell those guys we're in!"

 

Rivers turned to @Libitina Cerin who suggested @Rias by him dinner to pay him back, else Rias will always feel indebted to him. Dinner?! That sounded an awful lot like a d-d-date. Rivers felt his face get a bit warm at the prospect. Nononononononono. Rivers couldn't ask for that. Well...he could. But he shouldn't! He had a job to do! They had a job to do! This wasn't the time. Luckily, Rias seemed to ignore her. Whew. He'd have time to compose himself before anything like that came up again. When they approached the harbor, Libitina recommended they threaten someone to use a boat. That sounded very unheroic, Rivers gave her a look of confusion.

"Please tell me you're -"

She quickly confirmed his suspicions that she was just joking. Rivers sighed in relief. He didn't want to have to commit any petty crimes for this mission. But, if Libitina had insisted, he likely would've gone along with it. After all, who was he to question his teammate's decision like that? He was still just a newbie with next to no experience! Libitina asked for Rias to ask a local man if his boat could be borrowed. That would be good. Rias seemed like she could handle such a thing, given her excitability. It was easy to get on her side. She should have no problem convincing this man to let some adventurers borrow the boat.

"Good call Libitina. Rias can handle this lickity split, I'm sure."

Things...got off to a rocky start. The man seemed, reasonably, unwilling to lend his boat a group of what seemed to be children. Did he not recognize that the trio were adventurers who were likely capable of fixing this problem? Well, perhaps even if he did, he would be reluctant to loan out his boat. That boat was likely his livelihood, and any damage to it pretty negatively impacted his life. Rias told the man that Rivers was her husband and Libitina was Rivers's sister. All pretty rea-

WAIT WHAT?! Nononono. Forget a date, this was marriage? Since when?! Rivers had met Rias twice, and once was just to heal her. Oh...was that some kind of weird proposal ritual in TS? If a stranger healed you, was it akin to a marriage proposal? Noooooooo. He hadn't intended that. Rivers wasn't ready for the responsibility of marriage. Entangling finances sound like such a hass-

Oh. She was just lying. Rias'd said that Libitina was his sister, which was just a lie. So this was just deception. Ah yes, deception. Classic RPG hijinks. After some more haggling, Rias turned and said that things were handled and they were ready to clear up the problem. "Good job Rias!" Thanking was a thing husbands said right? God, being an actor was so stressful. But, he wouldn't inconvenience his friends by breaking Rias's lie.

Rivers walked past the man and planted a friendly pat on the shoulder of Rias. Surely that would establish their intimacy and not call their stage marriage into question. Fantastic work Rivers. The boat Rias'd acquired was small, really just a rowboat. Rivers carefully stepped into the boat first, assuming the position of someone who would row.

"I'll row if that's alright. I'm pretty sturdy, and I took Heroic Strength. Uh, do either of you know how to get there?"

After the pair of ladies stepped into the boat with him and pointed him in the right direction, Rivers began rowing. He rowed quickly but steadily. This was really cathartic. "Y'know, rowing is pretty calming. Also, Rias, what did you tell that man to let us take the boat?"

 

On hearing @Rias complaint,Libitina sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder.

'Rias. If we get a large ship and it ends up wreaking. We won't be able to pay for the damage, even if we all chipped in. Besides, larger boat means we need more people to sail the boat, meaning we would either have to find other members or pay people and neither of them sound desirable. So let's go with a small ship or something okay? Do not worry about dying either. We all will have each others backs. If one dies, you best believe all of us Will "She tried to convince the girl before letting the girl do her charm. She turned to @Rivers Asteire and nodded.

"Not many have the talent to be a cheerful,social butterfly. If we need help, we need to be more open looking and amongst us three, Rias is the best." She stated. A frown formed on her face when she noticed the man calling them kids and dismissing them. Before libitina could join in and help Rias, she noticed her brown haired companion working her charm, making up a lie, on the spot, with no hesitation in her voice. 'At least I'm not their child or anything ' she thought, not once going into their conversation.

Instead, she walked away to one of the stores to buy two compasses,one to keep just in case, a marker and a map that had their destination. She quickly circled that area they were to investigate and went out of the store to see Rivers already making a spot on the row boat.

"Heroic strength huh? That's a nice mastery to choose. As for directions,I have us covered. I bought a map and compass although I admit, It will be difficult to read the map and compass together. Will you be able to handle it Rias?" She asked handing her s compass from the small brown pouch she got for carrying her recently purchased items.

She opened the map and pointed at the direction they were to go. "If you ever get tired, we shall switch places. All of us needs to conserve our energy so don't go around taking the burden on yourself alone" she warned Rivers, setting the map aside as she walked to the other edge of the boat and looked around the sea.

She would never cease to be amazed by the beautiful sceneries the creators had made. She raised her hands and made a finger with her box, a type of action one would see a movie director or a photographer make when they are about to take a scene or photo. It was an instinct reaction from her which could be blamed onto her university that kept making them do assignments, not that she minded.

When she realised just what she was doing. She let her hands fall to her side as she went and sat on the side seats of the boat, pretending that she did absolutely nothing.

 

"Thank you again mister~" she waved at the fisherman as they took off from the docks and she was handed the compass and map. Yes! It was a good idea to get one! She knew where was South and East, West and North. Easy. "I'll handle this then." She nodded at Libitinas request. "Also Rivers, don't think I haven't heard what Libitina said. I am taking you on a thank-you-dinner...Also related to what I told the old man, let's just say I mentioned that we are under cover agents in a more old fashioned way who used magic to change our appearance...confusing but good enough to stop the man from further questions!" she said with her head hang down to examine the map that the female bought for them.

She gave direction to the two since they would be pushing the boat first meanwhile making sure she got anything useful in her bag before they sailed too far.
"So what do you guys think about this quest? Are you scared? I wasn't planning to go on this one after killing the world boss because I thought it would be too much...ended up grabbing it though if I would find more people to join me. Which I did and I'm glad it's you guys~" Rias planned to starts a conversation between the party members to get to know each other better and have a good cooperation in the quest but also to meet new friends if they needed one like her...

 

@Libitina Cerin agreed with him that Rias was the best suited to handle such a social interaction. Of course, by this time, @Rias had mentioned that Rivers was her husband. So...obviously he had to respond to this in character. He needed to treat Libitina as his sister, Rias as his wife, and act like he was thirty. This was going to be okay; he just needed to focus on his character's motivations. That's what actors did right? Get into the headspace of their characters? Okay...what did thirty year old Rivers want other than adventure? What did thirty year olds want? Well, he and Rias didn't have any apparent children, which would probably depress a thirty year old. Yeah! That's what he'd do.

"Haha, good point Sis," he lightly clasped her shoulder. "Yes, my wife has always been good at negotiations. Too good. That's how she keeps talking me out of retiring and starting a family. Hahaha." Actors guild, you seeing this? Get this man a star. Libitina left. Ah, that was some good acting. Of course a sister would be embarrassed to hear her brother talk like that. Wow. Rivers thought he'd been good, but Libitina was doing some next level acting. It was like they were really adult siblings. Like they only saw each other twice a year on holiday and were making a mental list of what they'd want when the first parent died. God this was stressful. Being thirty sounded stressful. Having siblings sounded stressful. Rivers wore a smile but inside he was cracking up.

Rias mentioned to him that she had heard Libitina's call about a thank you dinner, and that she planned on doing it. Rivers blushed. "Oh...heh. You don't have to do that. But I guess if you insist, it's a date. But not like a date date, just an idiom. Well, the gathering's not an idiom, but what I said was an idiom. An-and...we have a mission to do, let's talk about this later. I have a boat to row." Nailed it.

Once the party got in the boat, Libitina delegated jobs. "Haha, good call Sister. My wife has an excellent sense of direction I'm sure she'll navi-" Wait no. They didn't have to pretend anymore. He could quit. Rivers chuckled and breathed a sigh of relief, finally free of the burden of being an actor. "I'm sorry. I got really into my role. Acting is stressful." With that behind him, Rivers turned his attention to rowing. God this was so much easier than acting. And it wasn't fighting wolves, so that was an upshoot from most of his prior adventures!

Libitina warned him not to take on all the burden himself, that they should all conserve energy. This was quite the conundrum for Rivers. He didn't want to inconvenience anyone by asking them to take over rowing duty. But, if he exhausted himself then that would inconvenience them later. Oh god. It was a lose-lose. Was this a trap? Was this all an elaborate trap by Libitina to get him to inconvenience her?!?! No, of course not. Calm down. Rivers watched her make a picture frame with her hands as she stared out at the picture-esque view. She quickly pretended like nothing happened, so he decided not to bring it up. Instead, he took Rias's attempt to make small talk and ran with it.

"Yeah, I think it shouldn't be too rough. It seems a lot more direct than the last quest I took on, but I'm sure it'll be fine with you guys here with me! Honestly, I think the hard part might've been getting the boat." Rivers scanned the horizon. "Is it just me, or are we getting close?"

 

The purple eyed girl gave a confused look as Rivers mentioned her as a sister. She couldn't help but sigh at his poor acting skills. 'He is not intimidating and gets embarrassed way too easily...the cherry on top is his terrible skill of lying. Pretty sure he'd be the type who was taken advantaged by others in real life, that is, if he isn't a NPC.' the girl thought.

"First of all,You do realise one can refer to their sibling and spouse by given names instead of the roles they play in your life? Second of all, if you keep referring to your younger siblings as "sisters" , one would either know you are bluffing or that you are some sort of perverted sis-con" She said it how she saw it, not even bothering to sugar coat her sentences.

She raised an eyebrow at Rias's question. "You really are amazing at starting conversations." She spoke, not even realising she had said what she did until she noticed the group went silent. "It's a useful skill to have"She added as she directed her attention towards the brown bag that still had something inside it. She rummaged through the bag and took out three sandwiches, tossing one to each of her teammates. She unwrapped hrt sandwich from the plastic sheet and took a large bite out of it, chewing as she heard Rivers reasoning on taking part in the quest.

"I was actually looking for some solo quests, which apparently are not something you can find. I was about to give up and spend my time relaxing until this quest caught my eye. I guess one could say it was just my curiosity that got me interested in this job. Although, I won't be pleased if this has to do something with ghosts. Getting caught off guard isn't something I'm too happy with" She had said. It was not that she did not like being caught off guard but it was that things like spirits, ghosts, the undead, spooked her out but of course, she wouldn't admit that.

On hearing Rivers talk about getting closer, Libitina reopened her map, her eyes widening in suprise. "What the hell.." she muttered. She calmed herself down before turning to Rias and Rivers with a monotonic expression, showing them the paper that did not have any sigh of the map's outline. The only thing that was present on the map was the circle she had made to point out their destination. "The map is gone" She pointed out the obvious.

Just as those words left her lips, the boat entered a fog, which was unusual because there was no signs of fog until now. "Something tells me we reached our destination. Rias, is the compass working?" She inquired.

 

Rias was staring at Rivers as he tried to awkwardly escape the situation he was put in, she could tell he wasn't good with people...maybe just girls in general but that would have to be something she'll find out as they grow closer! Her eyes then turned to Libitina who gave him a lecture about his acting, the archer would smile placing a hand over her mouth at the sight because the feeling they were creating around them was very similar to a family...a conversation between sibling, hahah...

"Waaah! Sandwiches!" Rias caught the piece in her hand and looked up at the girl with shiny eyes. If you look closely you might even notice some ears and a tail moving happily behind her which obviously didn't exist...she was a human class anyway. "I also made us some food! Well...I didn't know how many we would be so I ended up preparing quite a few pieces of pie but I'm sure we will find it some use." Biting into the sandwich Rias savoured the taste for as long as she could before a worried call came from the party members side. "Hmm...the compass." Looking at the compass the arrow was going crazy, it wasn't pointing anywhere because of how fast it moved so they were basically lost now with no map or directions. "I guess now we know why all ships were lost, because they couldn't find their way back. That is one of the reasons..." her tone was giving away a sense of worry and confusion as the sudden outcomes didn't make any sense to her...was it a curse of some sort?

 

Rivers continued to row while @Libitina Cerin explained that she had originally sought out a solo quest. Huh, that was strange. Why would you want to go on a solo quest? Wasn't the whole idea of a MMO to meet people and go on adventures? Rivers looked Libitina over in confusion. Did she not like people? Oh no! If she didn't like then he was probably being quite the nuisance. He should apologize. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. Sorry there weren't any solo quests either." Boom. That was a sufficient explanation for everything that he'd wanted to say. Talking to people was easy.

Both the girls got out some food. Damn, that was a good idea. Libitina tossed him a sandwich. Master had given Dobby a sock! Rivers took a break from rowing to begin to eat his sandwich. "Thank you Libitina, this is delicious." Of course, Rivers had stopped calling her Sis; she'd made it clear she didn't like that. If Rivers was one thing, it was a nerd. But, if he was two things he was a nerd and considerate. Then @Rias, his fake wife, mentioned some pie. Oh man oh man. This was great. Going on a quest with some nice people and eat some food they'd made. Terrasphere was awesome! As Rivers finished gobbling down his sandwich, the boat began to rock. Huh, that was weird. He wasn't rowing or anything.

Libitina mentioned the map was wrong. That wasn't good. Definitely not good. Rivers heard Rias speaking, but didn't comprehend what she was saying. His attention was fixated on the ominous boats that were rolling in, bringing in choppy waters with them. Rivers wasn't a proper sailor, but he tried his best to keep the glorified rowboat upright. It was a losing battle though. "We might wanna get out of the boat. Like now." Rivers tried to keep the boat steady so his partners could bail out easily. But if they weren't quick, the waters caused the boat to capsize taking Rivers for a swim. Rivers knew how to swim, but he wasn't fantastic at it. He let himself float to the surface.

"RIAS! LIBITINA!" It was hard to call with the water this fierce. Rivers looked around for his friends but couldn't see them. The ominous looking boats didn't seem to have any trouble staying afloat. If he got on one of those, he could see his friends and flag them over to him. That was a plan. Run towards the danger! Swim towards the danger! With a bit of hassle, Rivers swam his way over to the boat and began to board it. Coming out of water was never fun. But even as he hoisted himself up, the boat didn't rock. That was cooky spooks. Finally, he stood and looked around.

He was drenched and his clothes stuck to his body, but he waved his arms around to make himself visible for his friends. "The boats don't rock! You're safe on them."

"Get. Off."

Oh shit.