Arabelle

Arabelle let out a puff of cold air and tightened her black cloak around her small frame. The informant wasn't kidding when he said Floor 4 was a frozen hell. Even though she was dressed in the warmest winter clothes she could find, the bitter cold still managed to seep in, past layers of cotton and onto her skin. Heck, there were probably icicles on her face now. Self-consciously, she checked her reflection on a nearby store window. Skin a bit bluish from the cold, but otherwise she looked okay. She let out another puff of cold air and turned to the bulletin board in front of her.

Leveling progress had been a bit slow for her lately, and she'd decided earlier that it could only be solved by trying one of the harder quests. Like, quests-with-mobs-that-could-totally-one-shot-her hard. A huge risk, she knew, but even the lower-leveled quests had their risks too. Leaving the safe zone was a risk of. Sleeping in inns whose doors could be easily picked with a well-leveled lock-picking skill (if that skill was still around) was a risk. This particular quest just had higher chances of killing her than others, that's all. And she was fine with that--as long as it wasn't a 100% sure death. That would be suicide. Besides, she was pretty confident in her knowledge about the Hate mechanic, though not so much with her subpar combat skills. Which was why she was here, in front of a bulletin board. Bringing up the bulletin board's menu, she quickly typed a short message: 

Quote

Re: Avalanche Quest Help

Looking for low to mid-leveled players willing to help complete the quest <<Avalanche>>. Willing to give the quest drop in exchange for help. If interested, contact Arabelle.

PS. No need to look for an informant. I already have the field boss's coordinates.

 

With that, she pressed 'Post,' and decided to wander around Floor 4's small main settlement while waiting. Hopefully, someone would take up the request within the hour.

[WC: 333]

@Outlander @Vigilon

Arabelle's taking this with @Outlander and @Vigilon

"Well, I wouldn't consider myself a gamer," Arabelle leaned forward and propped her elbows on the table. "I mean, whenever someone says 'gamer,' I think of someone who dedicates lots of time to playing games and is real good at it. And gaming is just a thing I resort to whenever I have nothing else to do or when one of my friends want me to play a game with them. But I did try a fair amount of MMOs before this one, so I at least have some basic knowledge." 

As it always was with this café, their orders arrived after only a minute of waiting. Arabelle gratefully accepted her frappe and sipped from her cup, intently watching Spangie try out her drink. Once the other girl had taken a sip, Arabelle smiled knowingly. Because she'd invited lots of players to this place already, and maybe 99.9% of them loved the café's cold beverages. "So, what do you have to say about your drink, Miss @Spangie?" she asked in a strangely formal and uppity tone. Her playful smirk implied that she was just teasing, though.

The purple-haired player leaned back on her chair, relishing the taste of her favorite beverage. It hadn't been more than a week since she last came here but she enjoyed it as much as she did during the first time she ordered from this café. "What I've been doing? Well, the past six months, I've been trying to help the other players through crafting. Though since performers' songs don't hold as much demand as other crafts, like weapons and armor, I haven't been able to up my craft level yet. You should visit some time. I'll let you listen to a song or two."

Self-advertising at its finest. Though, to remain a bit more subtle about it, Arabelle decided to ask the blonde the same question. "And you? What have you been doing?"

[WC: 319]

[OOC Note: Ara doesn't actually have the profession yet, still need to finish the quest for that. But on her character timeline, she's been crafting for a long time already. It's more of me keeping her IC than giving her an advantage though.]

"So you came here for art purposes?" Arabelle repeated, a bit surprised at the girl's backstory. It wasn't every day she met a person who played the game for something other than...you know, gaming purposes. "That's--that's pretty cool, Spangie! I never pegged you as the artist type." Then, as if to confirm, she gave the blonde a quick once-over. "No wait, now that I know, you do look like the artistic type. You should show me your drawings sometime. And I'll play you a song in return. I'm pretty confident in my piano skills~"

Arabelle stopped walking for a bit, as if contemplating what to say. If Spangie would look back, she would notice a blank look on the girl's face, maybe even a hint of sadness. When Arabelle started speaking, though, voice was cheerful as ever. "Typical reasons," she began. "I heard about this upcoming virtual reality game from my friends and I just had to check it out. You know, SAO was a huge hype beast. Gamers everywhere wanted to try it, and I remember my friend saying a bunch of people got in to a fight over line placements...or something."

The two girls arrived at the café, and luckily, there weren't much players around. Arabelle skipped toward her usual seat, a table for two beside the store window, and sat down. "Caramel frappe. Non coffee-based," she recited right after the waitress asked for her order. Then she absent-mindedly flipped through the menu (which she had all but memorized already. which was weird, since if she could barely remember directions, then why could she remember three-page menus?) as Spangie gave her order.

@Spangie

Spangie mentioned something about a tight budget and Arabelle found herself grinning. "Same here!" she said. "Though most of it was me spending a bit too much on lodgings and food. And yeah, if you were gonna ask, I'm that type of person."

Then the blonde-haired girl offered to bring her a café, and Arabelle, being the sociable person she was, jumped at the opportunity. Maybe this would be an enjoyable day, after all. Sure, she'd talked to people a lot, but met none as bright and cheerful as the girl standing before her now. It was like a breath of fresh air, compared to the depressed faces she'd seen standing around. "Sounds good to me," Arabelle replied, doing a slight bounce on her heels in excitement. She was evidently a lot different from her bored and somewhat tired self earlier. "I actually know a nice café nearby. Cheap prices, but good stuff. Follow me!"

With that, she turned and walked in the direction of the café with her newfound friend following her. Arabelle opened her map and set a green marker on the destination, letting it hover in front of her for a minute before dismissing it. Granted, she'd been to that café quite a few times, but she could never be too sure with her severe lack of directional ability. The purple-haired girl turned to her companion and started up a conversation. "So, Spangie. What brought you to SAO?"

@Spangie

The cheerful blonde was looking for equipment shops. Something Arabelle didn't have much intimate knowledge in, since she hadn't even bought enhanced equipment for herself yet. One more thing to add to her ever-expanding checklist of things to do. Gosh, she wished she'd started levelling earlier so she wouldn't be rushing everything now. "Shops...huh?" Arabelle brought her index finger to her lips and allowed her gaze to wander. NPC stalls, more NPC stalls, and more NPC stalls. And NPCs didn't even sell stuff that were half as good as player crafters. "Well, if you're looking for really good equipment, don't rely on NPC merchants. They're expensive, and you could get better stuff from players."

Then she paused and her cheeks turned a bit pink at the girl's compliment. "No...not really!" Arabelle said with a nervous laugh. She was good at taking compliments, only if they actually applied to her. "In fact I'm only level 1 as of now. I've been avoiding the outside for too long, I suppose."

Then, having gathered her thoughts, she continued speaking in a more serious, informed tone. "I haven't checked these shops myself, but the good ones seem to be a smithy owned by a guy named Macradon, a shop for light armor owned by another player named Hei, and an artisan shop owned by someone named Domarus," she said with a grin. "Oh, and also, I think the first two offer discounts for players under level 15. Pretty neat, don't you think?"

She allowed for Spangie to take all the information in, and repeated it to the girl if needed, before speaking again. "My turn to ask a question!" she piped up cheerfully. "If you wanna buy from them, can I come with you? I kind of want to check out those shops, too."

It was a nice, sunny day and Arabelle was definitely not wasting it on quests unless something with good rewards came her way. Which, actually, had a pretty low possibility of happening. Most quests were player-initiated, but she did hear of some that just...randomly happened without any warning. That was reserved for the higher floors, though. Hopefully. Because the purple-haired girl was pretty adamant with just slacking off for today.

Dressed in casual clothes that consisted of a long-sleeved cream colored blouse and brown denim shorts, she wandered around the busy streets of the Town of Beginnings, looking for something fun to do. She found herself standing in front of an NPC merchant's stall at some point, but fled quickly before it could start offering her stuff she might end up buying. Her wallet had already suffered enough as it is. Arabelle was just about to move to a different--quieter--part of the town, when an opportunity to socialize presented it to her.

In the form of a blonde-haired girl who tripped on her feet as she approached. Arabelle mirrored the clumsy girl's bright smile. "That's alright~" she reassured. If this were one of her friends, no doubt she would be teasing them about their clumsiness already. But...stranger boundaries. "My name's Arabelle!" she offered, also mirroring the blonde girl's cheerful tone. While she was a bit clumsy, Spangie seemed like a person she could easily get along with. "Oh, but since my name's a bit long, you can just call me Ara. Or Belle. Or Da--ahem." Gosh, she almost let her real name slip back there. She looked at Spangie, a bit sheepishly, knowing the other girl would probably have noticed her near-mistake. "Were you going to ask me something?"

@Spangie

The purple-haired girl frowned at the map hovering in front of her. For maybe a few minutes, she had thought she was following the right directions, but apparently, navigating the starting city's many streets was harder than expected. She looked around, her face assuming a neutral expression (that had maybe a bunch of players fooled into thinking she wasn't a total noob who, even with the assistance of a map, still got lost), and tried to determine where exactly she'd ended up in. 

Arabelle had landed herself in one of the many dead end streets in the starting city. Thankfully, it wasn't one of the shadier parts of the town, but was a part she had at least visited a few times while running errands for the inn. She looked down at her map once again. "Go straight, turn right at the second corner, go straight for two more..." she paused as she registered the presence of another player near her.

Unlike the other players, who were going about their own business, this guy looked pretty chill. He was flipping through what looked like a diary--no, a journal, guys hated calling them diaries--and maybe even looked a bit bored. And, well, he looked pretty knowledgeable. Since he was...holding a notebook (Arabelle logic). Looking at him for a few minutes, a wonderful idea popped up in her head.

She approached the boy and offered him a friendly smile. "Hey mister," she greeted with a small wave. Though it felt a bit awkward, cause she was the one looking down this time. Due to her height, it was always her who had to look up at a person. "Are you busy today? I need someone to help me on a quest."

The last part was a half-truth. She was pretty confident in her material gathering abilities to solo the quest. Not so much on her directional abilities, though.

The purple-haired axe-wielder propped her arms against an NPC merchant’s counter, scrutinizing the pack of birdseed it had placed before her with narrowed eyes. Floating in front of her was a notification window, prompting her to accept or decline a quest called <<Feeding the Enemy>>, something that would supposedly grant her a familiar as a reward. Her amber gaze shifted to the NPC. “Sorry, I honestly just came here on an errand for the inn,” she began, momentarily forgetting that she was just speaking to maybe a hundred lines of code with the appearance of a human. “And I’m not really that interested in getting a pet--”

“But they’re not just pets!” the annoyingly-persistent NPC interrupted, also leaning forward on the counter. “Familiars offer adventurers different bonuses that can help them as they traverse the floors of Aincrad. For example, some types of familiars have the ability to assist adventurers with combat, some can assist with healing and crafting, and--”

The NPC stopped talking as Arabelle tapped the <<Accept Quest>> button, and transferred some Col over to the merchant. Letting herself be won over by some pre-programmed lines of dialogue. This virtual world sure was making her weak. “You had me convinced at the combat part,” she said with a smirk, taking note of the NPC’s surprised face. It’s not every day you get to see a surprised expression on an NPC. “Turns out I’m pretty horrible at it, so I guess I’ll need all the help I can get.”

With that, Arabelle turned and left the store before the merchant could convince her to buy anything else.

@Macradon

[WC: 268]

Arabelle hummed to herself distractedly as she studied the semi-transparent screen hovering in front of her, displaying a map of the first floor’s Town of Beginnings. Her right hand moved across her room’s wooden desk, soundlessly gliding over the keys of an imaginary piano, as she mimed playing the notes of Paul de Senneville’s Mariage d’amour. “A lovely piano piece,” Arabelle remembered one of her friends saying. They had both shared a love for playing the musical instrument, and she missed having her around. “The name suggests that it was composed for a wedding, but the piece itself has hints of sadness.”

She agreed. Her gaze wandered from the map to her hand, then back to the map. A green cursor marked her destination for the day: the studio of an NPC who offered the quest that rewarded players with the Performer profession. She stopped pretend-playing and stretched, the map disappearing as her hands passed through it. It’s been quite a long time since the game started and progress was slow. She wanted to pitch in, somehow...and the easiest way for a low-leveled player to help was to take up a craft.

Sighing, she stood up and made for the Performer NPC’s studio.

[WC: 203]

@Pinball

For what seemed like the hundredth time, Arabelle reached behind her and adjusted the starter battle axe that was strapped across her back. This wasn’t the first time she’d walked around town with her weapon equipped, but the last time had been...maybe around half a year ago. Long enough to make her uncomfortable with the feeling of carrying a weapon on her back, and rightly so. The two-handed axe was easily one of the heaviest weapons in the game and carrying it around was no small feat. But at least it made her look cool, plain as it was.

A monotonous inquiry brought Arabelle out of her thoughts. “Yeah, I am,” she answered, suddenly remembering the reason why she’d equipped her axe in the first place. The purple-haired girl turned her head to the side and found herself looking up at a tall (though in her perspective, everyone was tall) blue-haired man with a rapier at his side (@Shin). His hair obstructed his right eye from view, and it kind of made him look like one of those weird emo kids she’d spotted walking around. But she didn’t want to judge, and it was--surprisingly--a nice look. Arabelle offered him a friendly smile. “Why, are you looking for a quest partner? Cause I am, too.”

[WC: 214]

ARABELLE

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Spoiler

 

"—i'll still love you, even if you've fallen into the deepest circles of hell."

█████ ████  ||  ██ -> ██ (██)   ||   female / heterosexual   ||   5'7"   ||   no affiliation.

███ gave her everything.  [without ███, you are f-cking worthless; a mere speck of dust.] and she was █████ angel descended on earth. born to a wonderful god-fearing family who only wanted what was best for her, ████████ ████ received only the finest of upbringings. every day was lived in prayer, and to prayer, her talent in music and her sweet precocious nature was attributed. tutors of high esteem—they were known for writing their own books—arrived at their doorstep on weekdays; her parents were most proud when she told one of them her favorite book was the █████. she never wanted to leave their humble abode even in her early years, when children are said to be the most adventurous. [so fall to your knees. spew prayers of thanksgiving.] but she delighted whenever she went to a place where everyone loved her every day. singing, playing the organ; their admiration for the humble little family of three, their affection. pure, virtuous, thoughtful, never once known a man. she was a beautiful young woman loved by all. [enduretheblood,endurethesuffocation,hidethescars.pray.forgivethemoftheirsins.thisisyourearthlytrial.youarenothing,youarelovely,youarevirtuous.] i never felt a greater rush than in the moment i slit her throat. [will burning the world down be enough to finally feel a shred of warmth?]

- - -

+ charming. What else would you expect from Aincrad's resident sweetheart? Arabelle has a way with appearances. There never seems to be a dull side to her; she's sociable, affectionate, and perhaps a little bit of a tease. Everything from her words and her fashion choices, down to the smallest subtleties, is tailored to win just about anyone's trust — and she certainly wouldn't mind if her charms carried your opinion of her just a little further beyond. + quick-witted. Once lauded for her brilliance at a young age, Arabelle hasn't lost any of her fire. Neither fear nor pressure can weigh down on her shoulders heavily enough to interfere with her decisions, and this prideful young woman is nothing less than confident when faced with a new challenge. She's quick to analyze a situation, adapt, and take what she could learn from the outcome. Trust her to get you out of a pickle, with a few lighthearted remarks to liven up the process. + meticulous. Yet another one of the many things she doesn't often speak of: Arabelle is quite fond of detail-oriented work. One might notice how she can identify exquisitely-made crafts with ease and voice her approval on them — and the harsh criticism she rains upon individuals who are a little too ignorant for her liking. She's very particular about the process behind the things she does and her appearance, though if there is one thing she's most proud of, it's her skills with observation. Few things can escape her notice.  ♝

♗ - detached. But who ever finds the cold truths beneath the loveliest of facades? Only when the show's over and she's curtsying to an audience devoid of applause. Never quite a friend, never quite a lover; Arabelle's wanderlust extends to her personal relationships. For a young woman who delights herself in being surrounded by people who like her, she doesn't hesitate to cut strings and discard at her own whims and convenience. Who knows? You might have gotten a little boring, or you might have gotten on her nerves a little, or you might have seen something... you weren't supposed to. Whichever the reason, you'll find her the next afternoon enjoying a nice cup of tea as if nothing ever happened. - hedonistic. Tell her the poisoned apple is sweet and she might just bite into it. Life is meaningless without pleasure. Life's only meaning might be pleasure. Every day is haunted by a search for something to entertain her, to satisfy her — to remind her during the rush, that this was one of the things she's lived so long for. Really though, Arabelle tries not to think about it too hard. - unpredictable. Well, isn't there anything more fun than leading them in circles...? With her true feelings and intentions wrapped in a neat little bundle and jettisoned to the furthest depths of the maze she's strung all around her, and a propensity for toggling through moods like a bored viewer switching channels on TV, Arabelle's every bit like a crazy fox. So don't tell her she's entirely lacking in rhyme or reason; she'll be a little miffed at the charge. Whatever the situation, she still has her own precious well-being at the forefront of her mind.