Azrael

Zaz gave the girl the last takoyaki and Meokka’s little face lit up happily as she ate it. “Never had them until I moved to Japan,†she told the younger girl. She felt very at ease with the younger girl at her side.

Meokka noticed where Zaz was looking and she began to pick out all the little turtle charms. She held the grouping out to Anna and the woman looked them all over. “My favorite color is blue.†She said took up the little blue charm. “What about you? Are you going to pick one out for yourself?†She asked curiously wondering what the girl would choose.  

The girl attached to her arm was just too cute for words. She was bright and happy and seemed to be unaffected by the goings on of the game. It was refreshing, and made her feel like this is how things were supposed to be: happiness, merriment, and an abundance of delicious things to eat everywhere. Anna realized she hadn’t bothered to learn the girl’s name. She looked it up on her display and found that the young person she was partied with now was Meokka. “Even her name is cute…†she thought and smiled.

Meokka dragged her about bouncing here and there. She found a vendor offering Anna’s favorite food : takoyaki. Meokka offered her a stick and Zaz took it happily. “I LOOOVE these!†Anna said and happily dug in. The little fried balls of delicious goodness and covered in sauce were magical!  

As she mowed through her stick of octopus balls, they moved on to another booth where new tradespersons were offering free charms. Anna glanced down and looked at all the little charms lined up. Even if they had no buffs or anything on them, they were still really cute. Meokka offered to pick one out for Anna and the woman grinned.

“They’re all so cute,†she admitted. Anna spotted a small sea turtle charm and she smiled. “It’s hard to choose one. You pick…†She decided, the girl had offered to find her own, so she would allow her to do so.

Anna felt a pain in her arm and she looked down to see that the wolf she’d finished off managed to land a blow. It was only a scratch, nothing to be too concerned about, not when there was another wolf to finish off. She looked around and saw the man was trying to deal with the healthy wolf. It seemed eager to get a hold of the man again, and he was doing his best not to let it. The wolf left at him, and the man managed to successfully roll away from the creature.

"Ok I'll get it's attention while you try to chip away it's HP†he shouted.

“I can do that,†Zaz said smiling confidently.

The man moved back toward her drawing the wolf’s attention; Zaz readied her weapon to strike once the animal was within reach. She stabbed at the beast and made contact with its belly. It tried to slash at her with its paw, but she moved away from the strike dodging it as she withdrew her sword from its body and hopped back. Anna’s motions were actually quite fluid, and she felt very graceful in her footwork. She readied herself for the next attack as she followed the animal’s movements with her eyes.

 

15319     2015-05-05  07:33:56

 

BD: 8 (+1 DMG weapon skill)

MD: 1

Crozeph 57/61

Azazel 16/17

Wolf 2 8/10

rolling initiative...

As the duel timer started, X took another drink from his bottle while the other player got into position. He asked the boy if he was going to get ready, and X just made a smartass comment. Zaz chuckled and shook her head. That boy was totally insane!

The challenger attacked and X smacked the weapon away knocking it out of the hands of the player who attacked.  It stuck into the ground, and everyone looked rather surprised at X’s evasion ability.

“YAY!†Anna cheered as she clapped and laughed.

It seemed she was a little more light headed from the stuff X gave her to drink than she thought. The puppy at her feet also joined in and barked as it continued to wag his tail. Her little round cheeks and nose were red from the liquor she’d been drinking.

 â€œMore!†she encouraged. As the adult in the situation she should totally not have been encouraging this sort of behavior, and yet there she was. This was not her finest moment, but it was the most fun she had in she didn’t know when. 

“It’s not a stupid thing to say,†Anna smiled softly at the girl. It was cute that the young woman was ambitious. Her ambitions would serve her well so long as she kept them in check.

They walked a bit further and then turned down another road, and found hemslves right in the middle of everything. There were vendors of every sort gathered on the street exhibiting their wears and holding demonstrations. Several food vendors offered the pair samples, and Zaz gathered two of everything. She eagerly shoved them into her mouth. “So good!†She purred. Her cheeks were full of food and puffed out a like a chipmunk gather nuts for the winter. She washed her mouthful down with a sample of tea, and grinned as the girl hadn’t noticed that Anna had already begun to help herself to things.

“Az?†Anna said curiously. She hadn’t been called that before, but she didn’t mind. “Try this!†Zaz said and grabbed another sample of the last thing she had shoved in her mouth. “It’s amazing!â€

There was music and people dancing merrily. The girl next to her clapped along happily; it was very cute how she was getting into the spirit of things. Anna shook her head and laughed, and then joined in. When in Rome…

“Don’t worry, we’ll just go check out everything, you don’t have to make a decision today.†The girl linked her arm around Anna’s and said it was so she didn’t lose Anna to the crowd. The lady just smiled. She had never walked with anyone like this and even though the girl was all up in her space, she didn’t mind, not all that much.

“I don’t mind,†she said, “So where would you like to go first?†She asked.

The air grew colder and something rustled behind the rows of dead trees. Zaz’s heart started to pound loud enough to ring her ears. She swallowed hard as the sounds drew ever closer. Life pulled his sword and she did the same. The young man yelled at those hiding within the wood to draw them out. Suddenly, a shadow appeared and began to move around them. She slowly kept backing away until she felt something bump up behind her; it was Life, or so she hoped.  Zaz turned around and sitting at her feet was Life staring up at a shadowy figure. It spoke causing Anna to jump back and tighten her grip on her rapier. “What the hell is going on?†she said aloud.

The figure moved and explained the details of the quest. It mentioned something called the monument stone, and her eyes grew wide. So there was such a thing. The NPC continued over to a group of trees and opened up a door that was hidden within one of them. The passageway dark and Zaz did not get a good feeling about this. Life put his weapon away and looked at her hopefully as he spoke. “I have no idea,†She replied, “If you want to go, then that’s what we’ll do,†she assured him. There was no way should could abandon the young man now, not when he could be lost to a place like this.

Anna drew a deep breath. Were they really going to do this? By the look on Life’s face, it would seem so. He turned to her and told her that he did not know her name. “Do I look like a Zac?†she laughed, “It’s Azazel. They call me Zaz for short.†She said as she placed her rapier back into its sheath. “So… are you ready to go see if this thing is for real?†Anna smiled.

Zaz wandered around the town aimlessly with a teenage boy and his puppy wondering how exactly she got herself in the situation she presently found herself. As she pondered such deep thoughts the pair finally ran into a group of other players. X was still ahead of her still stumbling about.

"Hey watch this..." he slurred in her direction and then proceeded to approach the other players.

Anna cocked her head and followed behind trying to figure out what in hell the boy was going to do. “This can’t be good…†She said and shook her head.

X walked along and stopped suddenly, another player hadn’t noticed the younger boy standing in the way and knocked into X. The player apologized, but the feisty boy wasn’t having it. He proceeded to accost the player egging him on into a fight. A duel request was issued and the boy

“Oh for the love of God…†Zaz groaned as she looked down at Maruchan. “Is he always like this?†She asked the little dog who stood at her feet wagging his tail, his little pick tongue lolling from his mouth. The puppy barked. “Yeah I thought so,†she sighed.

“Damn it X, are you trying to get yourself killed?†she shouted at the dumb boy. He just looked over to where she and his dog were standing and smirked. She cocked her head to the side. Was he confident he’d win?

Anna started to walk back down the road, but noticed the girl had not followed. Did she not want to find the blacksmith? A screen popped up asking her to party and she accepted the request. The girl told her that there was some event in town where professionals were showing off their skills like some sort of expo. This was the first Zaz had heard of it, but it might have been worth it to check out, especially if the girl wasn’t sure what she really wanted to be.

“Oh, sure, that’s actually a good idea,†Azazel told her. In the real world Anna had conducted many career counseling sessions during her years of teaching, so maybe she could help the girl figure out what profession might be best for her. The girl mentioned wanting a house, but Zaz knew housing in the game was ridiculously expensive.

 â€œOh I don’t know about that…†she trailed off wondering if she wanted a home of her own. She had not had one before so she knew no real value in having something like that. “I’ve been enjoying sleeping under the stars…†Zaz was enamored with the freedom the game allowed her. 

“Stupid cotton picking!†Zaz complained after half an hour of finding no usable materials to collect. “This has GOT to be rigged,†she carried on.

Her author wondered the same thing considering the last 4 rolls went in the pattern of: 13, 10, 13, 10. There had to be something not very random about the random number generator if it keeps repeating itself. BUT there was nothing Anna could do. It was either pick cotton, or fail the quest, and the second option was just not happening.

 

Quoteception!

The afternoon sun beat down upon Zaz causing her small, round face to get red. Even though she was of Latin decent, she tended to get beet red from too much sun exposure. Even though the sunlight and the warmth she felt we’re real, she could still feel herself flush. It was these small in game details that were so surprising to her. The game makers truly went for realism.

Her health bar was still steadily building back up which meant she would still be picking cotton. The last five minutes of searching proved to be fruitless, but it was fine really. In the end she’d get all the pieces she needed because she wouldn't stop until she did.  

 

15294     2015-05-04  12:26:26

LD: 13

Off in the distance, Azazel could hear voices. Outside of town, the woman had learned to be weary of unknown players. There were player killers all through the game. They weren’t allowed in town, so they stayed on the roads leading to and from towns, picking off easy pray and looting the corpses. Zaz was one of these easy pickings as she hardly had any skills to speak of, and was at such a low level. She ducked down in the row of cotton and waited, listening as the sounds of voices grew louder and then softer one more. Just to be sure the other players had gone; she continued to wait at least another ten minutes before finally coming out of hiding. One could never be too careful if they wanted to live, and Anna wanted to live.

Everything was free and clear once more. Zaz got back to work clicking on plants and still failing to find any of the material she required.

 

15293     2015-05-04   12:10:35

 

LD: 10

The pickings were slim in the cotton field. She had cleared at least three rows but there was nothing there. She was starting to think the field might be bugged, or the settings were set at some ridiculous setting so that it made finding materials near impossible. Instead of clicking the plants one at a time, Anna would walk down the line and hit the maximum number of gathers that she could. She would go back down the row checking to see if anything was produced, but her odds had not improved by this method. 

 

15292     12:06:06

 

LD:13

Zaz was feeling hungry. She had bread and water in her inventory, but she didn't want to take a break.  She was going to finish this quest in one afternoon. There was no way she would come back out here a second day to look for cotton.  She took her mind off of food by clicking another plant. Sadly, there was no cotton for her to be had. Her health bar was steadily climbing however and it wouldn't be long before she could go back to fighting. 

 

15291     2015-05-04  12:001:01

 

LD:1

As before, one plant would produce a piece of cotton, and the next several would not. This did not trouble Anna very much now. She was only biding her time until her health bar was full and she could go back to the field of Watacco and proceed to slaughter the fluffy heard of cute but nasty little animals. She clicked in the next plant in the progression and shrugged when there was nothing for her to collect.

It was times like these that Azazel missed music. In the real world, she would wander around everywhere with ear buds in each ear, and her music playing at a volume where the rest of the world was drowned out. It was her shield; a border between her and other people that most dare not bothered to cross as headphones were always a sign that a person was not interested in conversation. If she had a prettier voice she would just sing aloud to herself, but Azazel did not; she was quite tone deaf. Instead, the lady hummed softly as she worked to make the time pass by all the more quickly.

 

15288      2015-0504  09:38:53

 

LD: 5

Azazel: 9/17

7/20 Cotton

Azazel had no questions and the pair slipped off into the deep, dark, creepy wood. He took the lead, and she stayed several steps behind him making sure nothing came up from behind them. The mist got thicker with every step they took, and soon it was hard to make out Life’s form even just a few steps ahead of her. For the most part, everything was eerily silent, nothing but the sound of her softly padding steps could be heard. She had a really bad feeling about things, but the young man had every intention on finding the stone, and Zaz would go along with him. She would not leave him to his own devices. A way’s into the wood a rustling sound startled Anna. Life drew his blade and stabbed in through a thicket killing whatever hid behind it with ease and then continued along as if nothing had occurred.

The rest of their journey was rather uneventful. On occasion, Life stopped a couple time to make sure they were still heading in the right direction, but other than that, nothing remotely exciting or dangerous happened. Eventually they came to a small clearing. She was about to ask him if they were near the stone, but he spoke.

"I knew this was too good to be true... why did I get my hopes up..." 

Anna frowned; it was as she feared. There was no stone; no way to communicate with the dead. She felt awful, not only because he was so distressed, but because she had no idea how to comfort him. Zaz bit her bottom lip and reached a hand out to place it onto his shoulder, but she withdrew it at the last moment. Her stomach turned sourly as she tried to figure out what she could do; the powerlessness of this situation was far too overwhelming for her to want to deal with. Did he need a hug? To talk? To fight and kill things? To drown his sorrows in alcohol? Anna would have tried anything if she thought it might work to console him.

“It wasn’t wrong to have hope…†she said finally, unable to do anything else. She felt so useless.

The woman got quiet and carefully watched their surroundings as she gave Life a moment to reconcile with the fact that there was no way for him to say goodbye to his fallen friend. It was then that Anna because aware that this all could have been a PK trap. Knowing that there were those who could not accept the loss of one they held dear, these individuals would make the perfect target for schemes such as this. After coming all this way and finding nothing, she could see how easy it would be for a player killer to finish off someone whom, even momentarily, would have lost the will to fight.

“We should not stay here much longer,†Anna said feeling a sense of overpowering dread. “Let’s at least get out of this damn mist… hmmm?†She said gently. 

X got up from the table and Anna followed suit. He was tossed a couple of bottles of booze to go, and handed one to her. She caught the bottle and carried it in hand as the boy lead them out of the café and back out into the street to places unknown.

It had already gotten dark, but there were torches and lamps to light the pathway they now strolled down.  Zaz walked along looking up at the stars twinkling overhead just admiring the pretty view. X and his little puppy walked ahead of her. The boy was a bit wobbly on his feet, for whatever reason the drink seemed to be affecting him more than it ought to have, but for all she knew, the boy was just playing the part. There were many role players who took their “characters†very seriously, and X could have been one of them.

"Alright let's just keep going until adventure hits us." He called out to her. She watched him hit his bottle again.

“Alright…lets,†Anna replied and opened her bottle. She took a long swig and then placed it in her inventory. She would save drinking for later. She had a feeling that the young boy was about to lead her straight into trouble. 

Zaz smiled. “Yeah… I finished my quest recently, but where we go depends on what you want to do…†she explained. The girl looked at her and told her that she wanted to become a blacksmith so that the girl might survive. “You’ll still make a pretty good living from it if you can get your skills high enough, “Azazel assured the girl. “I know where you need to go… come on, I’ll show you.† She turned back around started back down the way she came.

Anna was pleased with herself. She actually knew enough to be helpful to another player. She was glad that she took the time to learn where key NPC’s were and what missions they provided. “I found this NPC by chance one day when I was trying to figure out what profession I should take up,†She said, “A Blacksmith will be very handy for someone like you.†Zaz eyed the spear the girl had with her, “Weapon repairs can get really expensive.â€

((I left things vague so that you could put in the detail as you like since this is your quest XD ))

I'll play!

My journal is in my signature, but I know you've seen it before.

Ummm..favorite RP? None yet, but I'll link you to something that's very Zaz-like XD 

http://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/7184-ppf1-all-journeys-begin-with-a-single-step-dervish/

Azazel was only able to move back a pace before everything went askew. The wolves charge, as did the man who rushed up from behind her. He wrapped an arm around her waist and spun around easily and drawing his weapon.  He apologized to Anna and before she could think as to what he might be sorry for, she quickly found out.  The man tossed her aside to keep her out of harms reach. She was tumbled back and hit the ground, rolling a couple of times through the grass. Zaz rolled over in time to see the combatants collide.

Everything happened in a matter of seconds. The man drew his katana and slashed at the first wolf causing quite bit of damage to the animal. Zaz got to her feet as the second wolf grabbed onto the man’s shoulder and bit down. He tried to pin the creature down, but it broke free from his grasp. He yelled at her to stay back, but she couldn’t just idly sit by and do nothing. Anna pulled her rapier from its sheath and charged at the pair of wolves. She took aim at the already injured wolf, and made contact with it. It was too late for her to run now, she was in this fight, and if she wanted to live, Zaz was going to have to win.

It was as simple as that. 

 

15284     2015-05-04  05:14:26

 

BD: 7 (+1 DMG weapon skill)

MD: 8

Crozeph 57/61

 Azazel 16/17

Wolf 1 0/10 DEAD

Wolf 2 10/10

((edited for mob attack... forgot to add it since I killed it XD!))

Azazel lay in the tall grass panting exhaustedly with a huge grin on her face. She had fought something, and had won her first fight. Granted, she had only killed a small fluffy thing, but it was a lot tougher than it appeared to be, and gave Anna quite a run for her money.  The other Watacco bounced unaware of the fact that there was one less of their number, and soon to be even fewer. That was the thing of nonaggressive mobs; they went about their way carefree and unaware of anything going on around them. From the suns’ position she could tell it was sometime in the early afternoon. There were still plenty of hours of daylight left to complete her quest.

She sat up after a time. She opened her character panel and saw that her health bar had slowly ticked up one more. It would be a little while before she could fight another monster again.  She decided that she would just have to rotate between gathering and fighting. This would be the most efficient use of her time and could in theory make her work go by more quickly. Zaz got up onto her feet and began to walk down the path back toward the cotton patch.

All was well in the little community near the cotton field, and there was no danger in sight. She was glad as she could not battle a boar at this time and expect to live. She reached the cotton field and tapped on the closest plant, starting her searching process all over again. After that tiring fight, she was glad to do something less-exertive.

 

15286      2015-05-04  09:30:38

 

LD: 15

It seemed the game gods were being kind and allowed her to find another piece of cotton.If she was lucky it would only be a little longer that she need to do this in order to finish her quest.

Azazel: 8/17

7/20 Cotton

It was a Mexican standoff. Both she and the Watacco had reached their limit. Only one of them would make it. The pair stood there just waiting for the other to make their move. Moments passed and both the lady and the wee beastie sped toward each other ready for the final showdown.

 

15265     2015-05-03  19:20:18

 

BD: 7

MD: 8

 

LD: 7

The Watacco thought it would be sneaky and zoom around Anna and strike, but she saw through the creature’s attack.  The Watacco moved in close and scratched at her cheek. As it went to leap away, Anna thrust her weapon forward and jabbed the rapier into the back of the animal’s skull. It let out a death cry and pixelized; the little particles floated off. The only thing left behind of the Watacco was its little cotton head fluff. It didn’t drop anything else.

“Good for nothing little monster!† She spat as she kicked at the fluff of cotton. She frowned and then picked it, up and dusted it off and then added it to her inventory. That was a whole lot of work for just one piece of cotton.

“I’m not even half way there with my quota,†she lamented and she closed her inventory and flopped down into the grass.

This was going to be a very loooooong quest. 

Azazel was not the only one who was worn out. The Watacco flew at her, but both she and the creature fell short of their attacks. The yellow puffball tumbled across the ground and when Anna went to pierce it with her sword tip; she stumbled and grazed the dirt instead. She quickly regained her footing and looked about hoping no one noticed her spectacular fail. Thankfully, there was no one there but her and a bunch of Watacco, and they would not tell anyone of what just happened. 

 

15263     2015-05-03  19:14:36

BD: 1

MD: 3

Azazel was fading fast. Battling, even at just the first level was exhausting. Fighting in this capacity was so much different than it was when she could hide behind her keyboard and punch keys to attack; that she could do for hours. This was almost like actually fighting herself, and Anna had not been this active since she was a kid. This was probably why so many of the younger players made battle and leveling look so easy: they had the stamina to do it.

 

15260     2015-05-03  19:05:56

 

BD: 6

MD: 9

She attacked once more, and landed another hit. The Watacco wanted to show her it also meant business by landing another nasty scratch on the woman.  Its health meter was low, and animals that knew they were done for were always at their most dangerous. Zaz was going to have to be careful she wouldn’t get seriously injured when she went in for the kill. The Watacco was looking to take her with it.

Zaz checked her health bar, and she saw that it was starting to get lower than she wanted it to. Grimacing, she tightened her grip around the hilt of her rapier determined to give that little monster a taste of her steel.

 

15259      2015-05-03  18:44:43

 

BD:7

MD:6

She landed her hit, but the Watacco did as well. At least this round was a draw. If she could just keep this up a little longer she could finish the mob up and the go pick more cotton and wait for her health points to regenerate before trying again.