Open - City Encounters (open)

_____He walked not with a destination in mind, not with a urge to reach anything in a timely manner, he simply walked in search someone to speak with that was not another NPC. He had begun to learn some differences between them and other players and most of the players he had encountered so far had either dismissed him and his idea to focus more on the city rather than outside it, or ignored his existence up until now. Ezreal was no fool or someone who wished to stand out, so he chose to dress almost akin to most the NPCs in town to allow him to blend in.

_____To him he would need to achieve his goal mostly from under the nose of the city. He did not plan to take it over and rule it, he simply wished to hold a large say in the city’s development. He wanted to get enough from building parts of the city to open his own farm and later maybe introduce the game into a almost steam era. Clearly magic seemed like the route he would need to go to help cause the city to have a large boom of development and production but his character did not have such. So he was partly looking for someone who would be willing to test the limits the game allowed for freedom.

”If one can build large buildings or mills, what would stop someone from combining the crafts of magic and buildings to make more modern things like stoves or powered cranes? Why does nobody what to explore that side of the game… adventuring leads to death and who knows if you're even able to respawn or what effects it would have on your character.”

_____Ezreal lifted his hand to his chin and began to try and think a bit more on where he would need to go to find others who wished to build and not fight. Surely there was more than himself in such a game that would like to construct things right? He was willing to even just work with someone part time or pay them in gold to assist his building if the had the better build to do the work. But as he slowly walked across the crowded streets and the sun rose to noon he was having no luck so far today and would likely have to try again tomorrow or give up.

 

Dempsey strolled the streets aimlessly, in part to clear her mind and think, and also for a bit of practice as well. Yesterday afforded her plenty of time to practice her Unarmed and Astramancy skills, but she hadn't worked on her Rogue skills at all, and her character sheet was beginning to reflect that. Carefully, she wove through the crowd making an effort to move unnoticed, if not unseen. She kept a score in her mind, and counted points for and against herself as she passed by potential marks, taking opportunities to duck into alleys, dip behind cover, and otherwise make herself unseen. More than once she found herself scurrying up the sides of buildings, using lose bricks, window sills, and other miscellaneous architecture for hand and footholds. Her activity now drew more than a few confused looks, but she had no doubt in her mind that they would someday, somehow, learn how to live after watching someone climb a wall.

No doubt she looked incredibly suspicious doing all of this, but should she draw suspicious pursuers, her practice would only become that much more effective. Her mind wandered back to yesterdays fight with a poacher. The man was just a random NPC, but he seemed so lifelike that it was unnerving to a large extent. The man seemed to think, and feel. He had his own motives, morals, and ambitions. It was surreal , the kind of world this place was.

As she got a better feel for the restraints of her current skill level, her movements came more fluid, and she began to weave through the crowded streets as if she were a windblown feather, seen by all but noticed by few. as she tiptoed along the handrail of a small bridge that connected two of the cities smaller streets, she began to muse about her current situation. the only thing she had plenty of was time. Not enough money, No permanent residence, and at this point she was even beginning to wonder where her next meal would come from.

This game was difficult, to say the least. Even the beginner quests could turn deadly in a moments notice, and so far all she had to her name was the simple outfit that had been gifted to her by character generation, and a fair, but not fair enough sum of coins from yesterdays adventures. She needed to find some kind of permanent lodging, steady income, and start making better friend than Mr. "I'm too good to murder fake people" Aaron. He did well enough for a pick-up group companion, but she needed to expand her circle, and find people with whom she could develop chemistry.

She stood at the end of the rail and stretched, lifting her back leg and bending her entire body save for the leg supporting her into a backward crescent. she remained like this for a moment, simply taking in the sounds of the city at dusk, then straightened and vaulted into the air, testing her physical limits as to how high and far she could leap and land comfortably. The feeling of springing into the air and free falling to a silent, crouching landing was even more satisfying than her earlier stretch. she decided to splurge and made her way toward a small neighborhood marketplace, hoping to find street vendors selling something to suit her tastes. These people always ate too many vegetables, and especially too much rice.

 

Aaron mused through the city. With the funds from his previous mission with the poacher, he was planning on buying himself some armor. Finally, he would actually be able to defend himself, and not have to run around carrying pigs while he had three knives sticking out of his chest and then tying the pigs up with a vine. Well, actually he hoped none of that had to happen again. He breathed a heavy sigh.

Suddenly, Aaron noticed someone jumping off of a rail as if they were in a parkour arena. He squinted. Was that...? Well, think of the devil. "You know, doing stuff like that could be easier in an area built specifically for that kind of stuff. Does this game have a city construction side of things? That'd be so cool," he said as he approached Dempsey with a friendly wave.

He had specifically come to this area of town specifically to explore and get a mental map made of everywhere that might become a potential place of interest - food shops, inns, weapon and armor shops, NPCs who might give him quests, those sorts of things. Likewise, he was also curious about player housing. He knew it was possible, but to what extent? If he had the funds and the desire, could he build a castle right outside the city walls, or even, around the city itself, set himself up as the righteous protector of the NPCs who lived there, and for his protection, ask only that they give him enough to survive in this world, and arm himself for his many adventures? Okay, he was going to be completely honest - if he did find himself in a situation like that, he probably would take more than he needed, but not too much more! Just a little bit more...

"So how have you been? Rescued any more pigs?" He asked with a laugh. Out of the corner of Aaron's eye, he thought he saw another player in the crowd of NPCs, but he wasn't completely sure.

 

A familiar voice stopped her in her tracks, and she turned to see none other than Aaron, from yesterday. she returned his wave casually, then tapped at her palm UI to send the man a friends list invite.

"If you're going to stalk me, We might as well make it easier on both of us, hm? and no. No more pigs yet, though I am looking for something to eat, and some pork skewers does sound pretty good. If I'd known about the prices here in Stokbon, i'd have stolen a lot more food from the beginners banquet tent."

She nodded, prompting him to join her, then stopped as quickly as she'd started walking.

"Hey, know any cheap flop houses around? I'm saving for some armor that actually fits my uh.. Lady parts." she glanced down to her chest to eliminate any confusion.

"Point being, I had to sleep outside last night. I'm not too good to spend the night in a tent if i actually had one, but that's just too dangerous to be a viable long term strategy."

she paused for a moment, waiting fro his reply.

 

Aaron sighed. "I'm not stalking you, I promise. This is a common area, it's completely logical for people to bump into one another here..." he accepted the friend request anyway. "Ah, man, I could totally go for a BLT or something myself..." he grimaced slightly about her mention of stealing. "Well, I mean, the food was free, so it wouldn't really have been stealing," he said, more to himself than her.

Aaron went red when she asked about armor, specifically for such a design to accommodate her body shape. "Uh... I mean, the common store, you can order custom made stuff, I imagine..."

"As for a place to stay, I'd figured just logging out at night was enough... is that not the case?" He asked. "Like, do our characters just stand around and can be targeted by PKers while we're logged out?" He asked. "If so, that's not too good, though I suppose it would be the reason why anyone should consider looking into getting property..."

 

She clucked her tongue, then executed a deft spinning sidestep, positioning herself at his left side with her right palm raised and her best 'trying not to sound bitchy' expression.

"Here. Look."

She brought up the palm menu and tapped into her character sheet, making a point of pausing on her recently elevated masteries before swiping a page over to her basic needs sheet.

"See here? Besides health and mana, we have food, water, and sleep that we need to take care of. We're not specifically vulnerable to attack WHILE we're logged off, but we need a safe place to sleep, so we don't wake up with a nine pound centipede in our lap when we wake up. Make sense?"

She stepped away and dismissed the menu with a flick of her hand.

"I suppose then that you're not going to be much help finding lodgings for the night. And get some sleep soon, or you're going to have some massive stat penalties. don't quote me on this either, but in a lot of games you gain EXP faster if you're well rested and fed. Maybe that translates into mastery points here?"

She pauses and waits for his reply with her head cocked slightly to the side, and a helpful expression on her face.

 

Aaron watched as the girl made a point of "accidentally" showing him her masteries - were those supposed to impress him? His were just as high, or a bit higher. What he was mainly interested in was the second part of the girl's show - the reveal of all the stats.

"Oh man, I had wondered what those were!" He said. "I'm sorry, I'm really bad at games like this. Alright... yeah, okay, yeah, sounds like I do need to start looking for a place to sleep, I suppose." Aaron looked at his stats. His sleep meter did seem to be a little low... he had been eating and drinking regularly, everything in this world tasted so good! But sleep was the one thing he hadn't let his character do. "Alright, well, I think I've got a bit more time. But yeah, I'll make sure to have my character sleep before I log off this time," Aaron said with a laugh.

"Oh man, that could have been bad if I hadn't have found that out until later, huh? Man, what if I'd just passed out in the middle of a battle, that'd be terrible!"

Aaron bit the inside of his mouth. He needed to do a better job of figuring this world out. So far, he'd been relying on the kindness of strangers to teach him core and simple things, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep going on things like that.

Aaron closed his own menu as well, not wanting to display how much his character needed sleep. He stifled a yawn. He figured he had a bit of time left, maybe an hour, two at the most.

 

She gave him a concerned look and nodded.

"You're fine. Nobody ever figures out a new game in a day. All I did yesterday was run in circles and queue up for that quest we did together. Also, i punched a tree, but it WAS a big tree."

She offered a half smile before continuing

"So since you have more pressing matters to attend to, I'll be on my way. I still need to eat and find a bath house. We can instant message each other too now, since we're on one anothers friends list. let me know if you find somewhere to crash, and I'll do the same for you, deal?"

She bounces on her toes a few times once she's done speaking, unsure of whether she should say more, or was he leaving?

 

Aaron smiled, grateful to the girl. "Oh man, yeah, I guess that's true. I just figure, you know, like, since this all feels so real, it's more important to figure out, you know?" He asked.

He nodded at the girl's offer. "Yeah, okay. Yeah, deal. Sounds good," he said. He wasn't sure if he was going to find an actual place or not, though. "Thank you so much for your help," he told her.

She looked like she was ready for them to go their seperate ways, so Aaron raised his hand in a wave and began to walk away.

So where exactly would one look for an inn or tent, anyway? He wondered. He also briefly considered just laying down on the ground somewhere relatively dry and letting his character sleep there, but that didn't seem like the best idea, everything said and done. He shrugged. He would figure it out, sooner or later.

 

With that taken care of, she returned to her original goal of finding food, a bath, and lodging for the night, all hopefully in that order. Continuing through the alley way, she entered the more open marketplace and paused to take it all in. The sounds of a busy crowd at market, the smells of a hundred different wares on display, and the sight of the bustling center of commerce forced her to smile. The small cut on her arm wasn't looking too bad, but she'd applied a simple bandage to it nonetheless. wouldn't do to get some weird infection and be bedridden for a month on her third day, now would it?

She decided to act like a normal person instead of creeping and climbing through the market, lest she draw unwanted attention of the local law enforcement, and instead choose to browse the stalls and shops one by one, making mental notes of things she might want to come back for later when she had more money to spend. For now, she settled on the purchase of two pastries, stuffed with cooked onion and ground meat. the first was spirited away to her inventory for later, and the second she ate as soon as she found a suitable place away from the bustle to sit and enjoy herself and ruminate on her other problems.

Long term shelter was going to quickly become an issue if she had to risk getting killed just to pay fora bed for the night. there was probably more mundane work available, but that would cut deeply into time she would much rather spend training or just plain not working. she resolved to take a look around town before it got too dark; she was sure there was somewhere she could set up a semi-permanent residence. She was all for living under a bridge, or squatting in an abandoned building, but she wasn't entirely sure if that was actually feasible. 'Better to try it now when I have pretty much nothing to lose, right?' she thought to herself.

With her thoughts in order, and her dinner eaten, she hopped down from her perch and set out to find the bath houses. 'Might as well be nice and clean for her night of squatting in the slums' she mused.

 

((Exists thread super late))