She-No-Be [P]

The unnamed large patch of forest in the Region of Astorea, quite a nice place actually. However, it was ironically more dangerous and not catered to fresh newbies compared to Brisshal even though it was in the territory of the so-called 'Player Kingdom'. Logically put, a Player Kingdom should be where players started out and thus have beginner monsters. However those weren't the case, players started out in Brisshal instead, what a curious design choice, Aria wondered if this was an error on the servers' part. Maybe they'd fix it soon enough.

Right now, however, Aria deemed herself to be at least trained in some of her masteries so... she should be okay. The green-haired Felis was trudging the forest floor, under cover of the foliages, practicing her Hunting skill. She just discovered that with increased points, the mastery expanded her Investigation Mode. She could highlight targets better, observe better, and at her current level, tracks made by various forest creatures were available to her.

"Hmm..." The Felis bent down, whisking away dead leaves to reveal a track, judging from the print... "A boar?" Yes, most likely a hog but it wasn't fresh so the animal most likely wasn't around anymore. Then, just a few feet away, she noticed another peculiar set of tracks, this one was a human's, well, a humanoid because they could be either one of the playable races. "Or an orc...". So focused on noticing other creatures, the Felis forgot about herself, the unaware huntress could be ambushed right now and to make matters worse, she wouldn't even be aware until it was too late.

@Jack

 

Jack didn't really play this game because he was competitive. He might've liked fighting games, but it was too much stress on his part to try and stay at the top, coasting along from place to place was what he was good at, regardless if it was in the waking world on in the realm of virtual reality.

To be honest, he didn't even know where he was at the present. All those roads and backdrops looked the same, but at least he could trek in the wilderness without accumulating dirty laundry. He hated have to deal with mud, the task of separating the colors and whites and soaking clothes in a custom blend of mild bleach and conditioner to help with the stubborn bits of soil that clung on after he wrestled the fabric against running water, that was just something he didn't look forward to doing.

It was while he was ruminating on the difficulties of laundry and how it must have been during those bygone ages when one needed a washing board and liberal use of hands did he notice this strange girl.

He had a hard time picking out NPC from player characters, but this one did look weird enough to be a player character. Most of them tended to look cute or dress in some edgelord fashion that used abundant layers of leather and dark cloth, others still looked like they were cosplaying. Not that he was any different. Gold hair, a tracksuit, great thing that the game didn't care he wore neon orange against black, it only cared about mastery values rather than differentiate between color gradients.

"Yo." he hollered over this other person, munching on a taco in one hand and a satchel of juice in the other. "Whassup?"

 

"Hiii?!" Spooked, her feline ears perked up and tail went rigid much like a real cat's as Aria abruptly turned around towards the unknown presence. What, how did he sneak up on her?! Somehow, someway, the blue-eyed young man with bright blonde hair managed to just casually stroll up to her. She was a Felis Ranger goddamnit! She should be ashamed of herself. Gah...

That aside, now that she knew he wasn't hostile or at least didn't look like the type to attack on sight like wild beasts, Aria relaxed a bit, green eyes examining him properly. Blonde locks, vibrant blue eyes, 'whisker'-like marks on his face, and his attire... damn, he wouldn't look out of place if this was modern day New York which meant he did stick out like a sore thumb in the Fantasy world of Terrasphere.

"Is that a taco... and a juice pack?" The Felis quirked an eyebrow, where did he even get those?! Oh wow, hold up, was this a trick? Did the Game Masters send this wacky NPC to her on purpose? Was there an event announcement she missed? "Uh... you... are you... a player or...?" She stammered, voice still wracked with disbelief.

@Jack

 

The wanna-be ninja chuckled awkwardly as he wolfed down on the taco and crushed the paper wrapping in his fist and casually discarded it over his shoulder. "There's a story behind that, but it might take too much time to explain." he scratched the back of his head, his slanted eyes so narrow it was hard to tell if he had them closed or not. "Maybe if I wrote several books, or a television series." he continued, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as ideas one after another popped up in his mind. "Maybe starring Kit Harington, that might just work."

"I don't look like a player?" he intoned somewhat ruefully. "Pretty sure I went out of my way to make myself look like anything but a local." no sane spy would use an orange jumpsuit with a black trim or not dye their bright golden hair if they were going to make a living off conducting subversive activities.

"Probably a stupid thing to ask at this point, but you're a player, no?" he eyed the girl from head to toe. Pretty enough, though that did make him suspect that she might well be a man off-screen. Still, most guys did tend to default with melon-sized assets or go all the way down to jailbait loli when they were occupying themselves with character designing. She was cute enough, but not obnoxiously so that he wasn't really sure. He could reserve judgement, that seemed like a wise choice.

"So what's up? You got a quest here or something?" he looked around, using one hand like a visor to shield his eyes from light. "That a bow?" he appraised the item shrewdly, wondering what it was worth. "I actually thought about using those, but I know next to nothing about that in real life. The most I've ever used are nerf guns. At least hand to hand, well, never got high up in the belts but I'm decent enough."