The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly [Q] | Page 2

She eyed the two up and down for a moment with folded arms while watching them exchange dialogue. She furrowed her brow at mention of just quitting and going home. She needed the money from this quest entirely too much to just shrug it off and walk away. No harm in letting Masque tag along though. If nothing else, she could learn more about how NPCs behave in this game, and exactly how realistic they can be. She also supposed it wouldn't do any harm in revealing her masteries, but at the same time, did she want mask-face to know how she worked? 'The best decptions were always at least half true' she mused, Start with the obvious and undeniable fact that she fought unarmed, and used some magic as well, and go from there.

"My masteries are unarmed, Astramancy, and Smithing. I'm hoping that if I get my unarmed mastery up a good deal, i'll be able to start using fist weapons, Claws, katar, that sort of thing. Focusing on obscure builds makes gearing up easier later on, because of supply and demand. I chose magic for the mobility enhancement. figured being able to attack at range and use a blink spell would come in handy given how I'm already set up for speed and mobility anyway. Also there's the whole motif angle. Cat girl, claw weapons, nimble.. all that sort of thing. i used to play support classes a lot, but it gets old after a while, hearing the whole 'we lost because I don't know how to tank and you don't have infinite mana' thing. It gets tedious."

She turned to Masque and nodded appologetically.

"Sorry for the wait. Game talk, you know? Let's get going then!"

To emphasize her point, and put some distance between her and the sketchy fellow that she'd rather be killing right now, she did a kartwheel forward and landed it with an excited bounce and clap.

"To the Pig!"

@Aaron Marone aron

 

"That sounds acceptable for now," Aaron said to Masque when he offered to at least traverse the riverbed before they did. He listened to the girl and nodded at what she was saying. "Those sound like some powerful skills," he said, tossing a glance toward Masque. "You know, the poacher better be careful if he happens to run into us, eh, Masque? I mean, if he surrendered without a fight, we'd probably let him go, though. I'm a nice person like that."

Once Masque was far enough away, Aaron coughed. "So how much of that can you actually do?" he asked very quietly, maybe even too quiet for Dempsey to hear. He figured it'd be better to err on that side of things than the other. "Also... if you haven't noticed, I'm pretty sure this guy is the poacher... should we just call him out now, or keep up the charade?"

Regardless of her response, Aaron would put on a smile and make his way toward the riverbed. "Yeah, we're coming, sorry! I mean, can you blame a guy for wanting to stand around and talk to a girl like that?" Aaron asked, hoping the slightly wince he made involuntarily looked more like a wink, which he tried to make it appear so, and didn't give anything away. Not that he had anything against the girl, she just wasn't really his type.

"Right then, let's go find this pig so that we can keep it safe and sheltered, right everyone?" he asked cheerfully.

 

It was after a distance of walking with the two hesitantly trailing behind him that he started to sniff something odd and familiar. At first, he had no idea what it was so he continued walking, albeit at a slower pace. He hoped that the two behind him wouldn't notice it but. without his mask, it would be unlikely for them to be able to distinguish such a faint smell. Then, it clicked.

"This is where the trail ends" he said, suddenly stopping and turning around. It would be impossible for him to fight both of them in the dense forest, even if he had the tactical and territorial advantage. He was built more for stealth rather than anything else and, at this moment, he regretted the fact that he hadn't trained and conditioned his body for inevitable physical conflict earlier. The only course of action now was to flee and, considering that both of them were on their guard, it would be difficult. No matter, it was the only thing he could do and he was prepared for it.

"And, I suppose, this is where we part."

He threw several of his blades at the pair before rushing towards the Terror Boar, not looking back to see if his attack failed. He needed all the time he could get and, hopefully, the attack gave him a moment's head-start. He weaved through the trees and branches, pushing away bramble and falling leaves with startlingly familiarity and, after a several minutes of running straight through the forest, he found the Terror Boar in a an inconspicuous clearing munching on the corpse of a dead squirrel-beast.

He unsheathed several of his throwing knives, ready to make the cut before the two could catch up. He only had a few seconds to spare here.

The Terror Boar
​

@Dempsey Fabijain

 

She responds to Aarons question with the most clueless smile she is capable of mustering and asks with faux confusion "what do you mean? Do you think I'd be out here without a weapon if I weren't an unarmed specialist? And you just watched me cast a spell a minute ago, right?" she followed up her statement by bouncing on her toes in a circle, doing her best to perpetuate the 'harmless idiot' charade. when her back was turned to the poacher, she mouthed the words 'Keep him for now, we might run into monsters' and began walking ahead with a forward wave of her hand

"c'mon guys!"

For several moments she follows along, humming tunelessly and waiting for something to happen, pushing asside branches and glancing around, still somewhat astonished by the realism of their virtual world. When Masque begins to sprint ahead, she shouts a startled "Hey!" and immedeatly follows pace. Her natural agility allows her to almost keep up, but she can't quite compensate for the practiced ease whith which the stranger moves through the forest. With an agitated grunt, she prepares her blink spell, hoping for an opportunity to blink ahead a few feet and close the gap. The opportunity doesn't present itself until it's almost too late and she sees the man readying himself to attack the miniscule Terror Pig.

In a last ditch effort, she releases the spell and appears behind himand immedeatly throws a vicious sidelong punch at the mans lower back, aiming for the liver. If successful, the man will either be incapacitated, or just plain knocked out. if not, they could still trounce the poacher and have terror pig for dinner. She was trying to think in terms of bright sides, terribly agitated at the prospect of failing her first quest.

@Aaron Marone

 

Aaron raised an eyebrow in concern at the way the girl was acting. He hoped she was still putting on an act. Cluelessness wasn't a good trait in someone for whom you were putting your life into their hands. Even if that life is just a virtual thing and you can respawn.

Aaron noticed the man draw the knives and immediately charged forward. Not even bothering to get out of the way, Aaron let the knives hit him center-mass. He grunted in pain but pressed on - looks like all those fights he'd gotten into on the streets in real life paid off somehow. If he remembered correctly, the job was about protecting the pig more than fighting the poacher, so Aaron made a beeline to get between the man and the pig. He noticed the woman using her spell to teleport and attack the man from behind. Good - that'd give him time to get where he needed to be.

"Surrender, and we won't kill you," Aaron said to the poacher. He wasn't sure if the knives sticking out of his chest made such a threat more or less intimidating.

His mind raced - he wasn't sure if he would be able to beat the poacher in a fight. The girl looked surprisingly capable... An idea came to mind. A terrible idea. A horrible idea. The best idea he had ever had.

Aaron sheathed his sword and ran toward the pig. He would throw himself upon it, much like a pig wrestler in real life would, pin the beast down, then proceed to scoop it up in his arms, hold it upside with it's legs up so that it couldn't squirm out as well, and run further into the forest.

 

"Hell!" the Poacher dropped his knife and rolled, narrowly dodging the punch that the girl had launched his way. Sweat dripped from his forehead and rolled down to his mask, glimmering in the sunlight. That was a close one and he hastily pulled out another knife from his coat and threw it straight at her before drawing another one in his other hand and turning to face the Terror Boar.

The sight he saw made him flinch. The pig hung upside down in the man's arms as it failed to struggle against the man's iron grip and—were those his knives sticking out of his chest? How was he still moving?! Still, he only had once chance to try and kill the pig before it was too risky for him to stay any longer. He only had about a dozen knives left on his person and that definitely wasn't enough if the man, Aaron, was somehow immune to flesh wounds. The girl, meanwhile...

He quickly dashed toward the girl with his blade in hand. If he couldn't hurt the man then he could definitely take his partner hostage.

@Dempsey Fabijain

 

Irritated at her attack failing, she backpedaled and straightened into a proper fighting stance. Cotton did very little to protect one from knife attacks, and she wasn't terribly interested in being disemboweled but she saw little option besides facing off against the poacher. At least she bought them some time to take control of the situation. All she had to do was hold the poacher off long enough for Aaron to do whatever it was he planed on doing with the tiny pig now in his custody. Stalling was also in her best interest because she'd expended almost all of her mana casting her blink spell. Facing off against an armed adversary was going to be dangerous if she didn't have her projection spell available. She paused for an instant at a safe distance to shout to Aaron

"Get that thing somewhere safe and get back here so we can kill this guy! we can find it again later if we have to!"

She was a bit annoyed with being left to fend for herself, but understood that it was necessary in order to accomplish their greater goal. Now all she had to do was not get killed and they could chalk this up to a win. She circled and stalled for time with a series of feints and footwork, careful to be aware of her surroundings so she didn't back herself into a corner or trip over a rock or any of the countless idiotic things that could go wrong and get her killed.

She exhaled deeply and watched her opponent. If he was going to attack her, he'd have to leave himself open to some kind of counterattack, and that's when she'd have the advantage. Her ruse had seemed to have been effective, and it seemed to her that she was being underestimated.

@Aaron Marone

 

Aaron ran into the woods further, grateful that Dempsey seemed to understand what he was trying to do and wasn't too upset at him for it. The pig squirmed on his arms and squealed angrily at him. "Yeah, yeah, I know, I don't have any skills for taming animals. Get over yourself, it's for your own good, baconator junior."

Once he was out of sight, Aaron looked around for anything he could use to safely immobile the pig. "Gods, I never expected that this would be a part of my life," he said, ripping a vine from a tree. Aaron hogtied the pig and shoved the poor thing in a bush. "Look, I'm really terribly sorry about this. But at least you'll survive, right?"

The pig safely tucked away and immobilized so it couldn't go get itself into trouble, Aaron made his way back to the fight. He drew his sword and began to chant as he approached the poacher. "Est quia omnis metallum!" He chanted. His sword began to glow with light from his illumancy - if he understood correctly, this spell would cause his physical attacks to do extra holy damage to their target.

With that, Aaron raised his glowing sword high. "You have been judged, poacher, and the light finds you wanting!" He shouted, before slamming his sword down toward his foe.

 

The Poacher felt his eye twitch as he chased after the nimble girl who kept dodging the swipes of his knives. The girl seemed to be waiting for a chance to counter his attacks and, well, he was sure not to give it to her. He managed to give her a small, meager cut on her arm, barely cutting through the cloth of her clothes and shedding as much blood as a paper cut. He felt his eye twitch, irked. "Would you please just hold still?" he sighed, stopping for a moment to regain his breath.

Then, as he eyed the girl warily, he heard chanting behind him. Panicked, he twirled around, eyes wide at the sight of the sword lifted high above his head. He froze like a dear in headlights, seeing his life flash before his eyes as cliche as that sounded. Idly, he couldn't help but wonder if the little cats he fed and kept company back at his home were okay. Perhaps they would look for another idiot to feed them and that thought made him feel at peace.

The gleaming light seemed to blind him as the sword was brought down, slashing his body in half. One last memory flitted in the corners of his mind. As he fell and bled out on the green and brown earth below, he felt his lips form a true, real smile for once.

​

@Dempsey Fabijain


Objectives:

• Protect the Terror Boar. [COMPLETE]
• Escort the Terror Boar. [IN PROGRESS]
• Defeat the Poacher. [COMPLETE]

 

She did her best to not get stabbed to death, so in that matter she was quite successful. She saw Aaron drawing closer from the corner of her eye, and redoubled her efforts. Her only injuries from the melee so far was a small flesh wound that would likely heal nicely in a day or so. She was a bit annoyed that her already ratty clothing had been further damaged, but a small price to pay for desperately needed funds.

She could only stare wide eyed as her assailant was split down the middle, and couldn't help but be reminded of a wood cutter splitting logs. She didn't even mind so much that she'd been thoroughly doused in poacher blood, and possibly some bile too. With an exuberant cry, she wiped her face clean-ish with her forearm and stepped forward to congratulate Aaron.

"That was GREAT!"

She was a little dissappointed that she hadn't landed a single blow during the course of the fight, but without armor or hand protection, there was little she could to without risking almost certian death, or at least injury. Her celebration continued for several more moments.

 

Aaron's eyes widened as his weight and momentum carried him into a killing blow against the poacher, who seemed to make no move to avoid the attack. When his feet touched the ground, Aaron dropped his sword and fell backward in shock. "N-no! I - I didn't mean to kill him!" Aaron gasped. He quickly lunged forward, pulling up his spell menu and rapidly slamming the button for his heal spell, focusing it at the poacher's body. He would do this until the majority of his mana was spent, not knowing if it could possibly do any good. "No, no, don't die... don't die..." Aaron muttered.

When his mana was spent, Aaron stumbled backward. He turned around and fell into a bush. His stomach churned and he heaved, vomit pushing itself up out of his stomach and into the world of Terrasphere. He would spend several moments doing this, even after his body no longer had anything inside it to remove, he still heaved, forcing out air.

Tears stained Aaron's face. He wasn't sure why he was crying - was it the fact he'd killed? Was it a reaction to what his body was doing? He wasn't sure. He didn't know if he cared. He spat, trying to get the taste of vomit out of his mouth.

He turned toward Dempsey, his eyes wide and hollow. "I... I didn't mean to... I don't... I don't know if he was a person... Did... Do they count as people? Are they real?" His hand reached toward the body - he couldn't call it a corpse. "I'm sorry..."

He dried heaved again, his head pounding and spinning. What had he done? Sure, the man had attacked them first. But the players could respawn, so that meant nothing, right? Was the man aware of that? If not, should be be judged by his intent or the actions himself. The man had only been trying to make sure he had a meal that night, right? Had that truly been worth his life?

Aaron moaned, a mixture of physical and emotional pain washing over him. Was this what it meant to be some kind of hero? Would he have to grow to become cold and callous to things like this? If he ever faced someone who he knew for certain was evil, he knew he would be able to kill that person. But what about people he knew were only doing what they thought they needed to in order to survive? What should he do about those who he could make a point to not kill? What sin was he guilty of here? Was he guilty of murder? Just manslaughter? Or was it a justified act of self defense? The world seemed to slowly darken around him.

Aaron inhaled sharply, realizing he had been holding his breath this entire time. He looked down at his hands. His entire body was shaking terribly, like a human shaped tower of cards balanced delicately on a table that had just been struck by a falling corpse, cleaved in half by someone trying to be a hero. His first act involving another person's life, and it was to take it, not save it. Did that make him a villain? Did not all villains start with dreams of being a hero, or at least doing what they thought was right? Was Aaron on the path to become there very thing he had joined this world in order to finally fight against?

Aaron pushed himself up, slowly. He picked his sword up, but let the tip rest in the ground for a moment that seemed to stretch on far longer than any clock would say it did. Finally, he raised his sword enough to sheath it, fumbling as he tried to force the sword away. He felt like his sword was trying to stay out, trying to let itself be used once again. Could it be? He let his head hang as low as its weight pulled it.

"I left the pig... over here..." he said, his voice hollow and lifeless. He turned and began to walk into the woods, slowly. He didn't raise his feet, so much as drag them both over the ground. He pushed through bushes, tree branches, and underbrush without concern for the cuts and scrapes he was acquiring, only applying extra effort when he got caught or snagged on something.

Finally, he reached where the pig had been left. It was still tied up, scrambling and fighting in the bush to be free. "Could you take it?" Aaron asked. "I... I don't want to touch it... I don't want to risk... killing it...." he said. He stared at the creature. Was its life worth the life he took from the poacher? It didn't matter, Aaron supposed. It had been done. Now it was up to the two of them to make sure that it was not for nothing, at least.

 

She paused mid celebration and simply stared at Aaron with naked confusion. her spirits were a tad dampened at watching the man work through some kind of internal crisis, and she couldn't quite get her head around the concept of feeling genuine remorse for killing a purely virtual character, whom by the way, was extremely interested in murdering them both just moments before. Even more concerning was that killing the poacher was mentioned word for word in the quest description, which means that whatever brought this panic attack on was unexpected for Aaron, and not something he had dealt with and worked through previously.

"I uh... Um... Sure. It's just up the path in the direction you came from... I'll uh. i'll just go ahead and get it then. You OK man?"

She slowly crossed the small clearing and hopped over the river still wearing a confused and concerned expression. She hoped that the games realism wasn't getting to Aaron too much, and had to admit that this was reason for concern in general. until now, she had been viewing this place as just another game world, albeit an incredibly immersive and realistic one. She felt little remorse for the death of the man that had earlier tried to deceive and murder her, but one had to stop and consider the bigger picture as well.

The pig was still bound to the tree, exactly where he said it would be, and she carefully loosened the bindings, lifting the tiny thing in both hands until it was level with her eyes so she could inspect the miserable little thing more closely.

She mumbled "Damn... It Does smell like bacon" as the hapless creature squirmed, fruitlessly attempting to escape her grasp. She shrugged dismissively and wandered back to Aaron, ready to remind him that they still had to take this thing to the reserve. She decided along the way that if she had to do that too, she was going to demand at least a 60/40 split of the quest reward, for doing most of the work. Now wasn't the time though. Aaron seemed to be genuinely distraught, and he still had a sword, and kill-people-with-magic-sword spells at his disposal. She decided to humor his empathy for NPC lives, and throw in a dash of tough love to boot.

"Listen. Aaron. That guy was going to kill both of us. He's probably killed before, and he probably would have killed again if we hadn't stopped him. I can't tell you how to feel about that, but this isn't the sort of world for people who want to solve all their problems with songs and hugs. Get your shit together, and let's get this over with."

She stood a few feet behind him, trying to look as stern but understanding as one could with a struggling pig in her arms.

@Aaron Marone

 

Aaron's world seemed to sharpen and haze, back and forth, as he waited for Dempsey to come back. His mind raced, but eventually he found that his breathing had found a steady pattern. With that, he had something to focus on, something to ground him to both this world and the one beyond it, outside of it, around it. He sat down upon the ground in a meditative sitting position and closed his eyes. He allowed a shiver to pass through his body. Using a tiny bit more of his mana, he decided to try something. He pulled up his menu and made his way to the spells list, operating entirely by the solid mental picture he had formed in his mind, as well as muscle memory from the times he had already done this. He hit the button to begin his healing spell, and he focused on himself. Specifically on his own mind.

He felt himself chanting. It was a strange feeling, to find yourself saying words that you didn't make yourself say in one sense, but you knew you had made yourself say in a completely different sense. For a moment, it made the world feel less real.

Whether it was the effect of the spell or simply of his own mind calming down, and returning to a state of decent operation, he found himself rationally thinking out what had happened. He had given the poacher every opportunity he could have to surrender. The man had tried to kill him. The man had tried to kill Dempsey. The man had no remorse for attempting to take a life. For that, the man was evil. Perhaps not too far gone to be saved, but evil nonetheless. He had refused to be saved, his own choices brought about his death. Aaron had simply been fate's tool, guided by the divine hand that is consequence.

Aaron opened his eyes as Dempsey returned. He nodded at her words and stood. "You're right. I apologize for the way I reacted. I... I've never taken a life before, not even one belonging to an evil man. I... I know that when something like that occurs, it is the duty of the good with power to put an end to the evil with power. That is what I did. Come on, then. Let's get that pig back to where it needs to be. No one is making bacon out of him tonight, at least."