Fayetta

ID: 123806  LD: 18 - Found 4/5

Fayetta looked over his shoulder after he finished crouching over another patch of grass. The flowers nearby proved useful, and he tucked one away in his inventory with a faint smile. He spotted Oscar, the tallest blonde frame, giving a wave and turning away. Was he leaving? Fayetta frowned at the thought that they wouldn't be able to have that meal. It had been a kind offer, after all. Then again, how boring it must be to watch over a group of strangers in the middle of the Floor One fields. Fayetta's eyes drifted towards Summoner, and for a moment he wondered if she would leave, too. Maybe she and Astralin were friends, so she might stick around, he thought.

Now that he was out here, he regretted not just taking the quest alone. It wasn't hard, and looking at the boars that roamed around peacefully, it didn't seem as dangerous as he might have feared. Just then, after getting lost in his thoughts, a force from behind his knees caused them to buckle and he stumbled forward, losing his footing and falling against the grassy floor. Fayetta groaned slightly as he pushed his face off of the ground and looked behind him. It seems one of those same boars didn't appreciate him just standing around in the middle of its grazing path. The monster's long snout nosed at the ground, sniffing and snorting as it strolled forward. "Must've been in its way..." He muttered with a frown.

@Summoner @Astralin

"Oh, you have one of those player-run shops?" Fayetta inquired. Pushing surface-level conversation again. He spent a few moments trying to roll up one of his baggy sleeves, folding the cloth over itself until he felt it was bunched  up enough and pushed the whole thing up just over his elbow. His arm was just as pale as his face and rather thin. He didn't know how long it would last, but he bent his arm back and forth a couple of time and then went about his way to look for more materials.

ID: 123659  LD: 4 - Found 3/5

And for several minutes he continued coming up short. More than once he thought he saw the familiar shimmer of a lootable item nestled within the grass, only to crouch down, run his hands carefully over the surface, and realize that nothing was there for him to take. He heard Astralin chirp happily about her progress, and lowered his head before picking himself back up. He was falling behind, and he didn't want to be that guy running around trying to finish the quest while three other people stood around waiting on him. His other hand fidgeted with the edge of the sleeve that still hung around his fingers, and he turned around to take several strides farther into the fields.

@Astralin @Oscar @Summoner

ID: 123300  LD: 16 - Found 3/5

"Hmmm..." Fayetta hummed and mused to himself while the girls took turns explaining things. He unearthed a chunk of wormroot and gave the surface a firm pinch between his fingers to gauge its density before shrugging and dismissing the item to his inventory with the rest. "Makes sense." He commented absent-mindedly. Learning the fine details and mechanics of the game had been a chore since day one, and it seemed that Fayetta was less and less interested in buckling down and committing any of it to memory each time the topics came up. It just seemed to suck all the fun out of everything for him.

The heel of his shoe grazed across the grass while he straightened up and went back to pacing around the fields. Intentionally or not, he was letting the conversation die off. A glance over his shoulder and Fayetta spotted Oscar settling under a tree to close his eyes. Fayetta cocked a brow, but didn't say anything about that, either. He fidgeted nervously with his fingers underneath an oversized baggy sleeve, wondering if he should just blurt something out in the air to keep the conversation rolling.

Meanwhile, fast chattering could hardly be heard from a large brown squirrel that paced back and forth across a long branch hanging above Oscar's head. Perhaps the animal was angry with him for choosing his tree to lounge under, of all places. The squirrel finally stopped to gnaw intensely at the stem of a large apple, eventually freeing the fruit from its branch so it would fall towards the player below.

@Astralin @Oscar @Summoner

ID: 122941  LD: 13 - Found 2/5

He crouched over, having finally spotted a second herb hiding among the grass. He plucked the collectible plant from the ground and wasted no time in continuing his search, hoping that he wasn't lagging terribly far behind Astralin's progress that would cause anyone to wait on him.

Fayetta listened to Summoner read aloud from a book, but her timid nature shone through even though she was reciting the words from a page. The corner of his mouth absent-mindedly picked up into a crooked smile, but he kept his thoughts to himself. Trying to boost her confidence would only make her feel self-conscious, he thought.

Walking a wide arc from where Oscar and Summoner had settled herself and Oscar was also giving the area a search, Fayetta looked to Astralin. "MP is also like a resource, right?" He asked, only vaguely recognizing the gaming term. "And this game doesn't have that? Is that weird?" He questioned.

@Astralin @Oscar @Summoner

Fayetta wore a soft smile as the herb disappeared from between his fingers and stored itself away into his inventory. He straightened up, letting his arm fall to his side, and paused while he took sight of their surroundings. Gradually, the smile that he wore faded. He and Astralin had both found their first of five quest objectives, but his eyes were failing to spot anymore by his feet. "Hmm..." He brought a hand up to run through his hair, unsure of how far he should wander. He took a few steps farther from the town walls, keeping himself close enough to the group while scanning the grassy fields.

"Oh, really?" He looked over his shoulder to spot Summoner's rapier glowing while it jabbed forward into the air. He continued with polite conversation, "I've used those once or twice. But my level is still pretty low that I run out of energy no matter what." He admitted with a small shrug.

ID: 122616 LD: 6 - Found 1/5

@Astralin @Summoner @Oscar (Sorry for the wait!)

After looking between Astralin hurriedly sliding into Zachariah's shop and Oscar and Summoner taking on more precautionary roles, Fayetta awkwardly shuffled into the store before he could catch what Summoner was trying to say to their fourth member pushing ahead. The sounds of the streets of Beginnings disappeared as his senses were assaulted with the smells of herbs, the sound of soft bubbling liquids, and the sight of bottles upon vials upon books. If there was a dictionary definition for "Fantasy Alchemist", Zachariah fit the bill.

Fayetta listened to the exchange in silence until his recollections prompted him to speak up. "Oh, I've heard about this stuff. There are some player shops mixed into all the game ones here in town, but yeah, you can learn a crafting skill and make your own items. Think you'll pick up alchemy?" He asked after Astralin's enthusiasm.

The two of them had accepted the quest easily and would make their way back out to catch up with Summoner and Oscar. His times outside of the safe zone were few, but having others nearby left him just a bit more at ease. "Okay, so..." He started, pulling up his menus once they'd had a chance to breathe outside of the city walls. "I guess we just have to collect some items for that guy?" He summarized, hovering a finger over the quest text that stood in front of him.

ID: 122366  LD: 16 - Found 1/5

"Oh." Looking just past his menu where the last of the quest description was written out on the semi-transparent window, Fayetta's eyes finally caught sight of something right in front of his feet. He waved his hand until the menus slid away and dismissed from view so he could crouch down and reach towards a green plant that looked just a bit different against the grass around it. Before his fingers made contact, a small dialogue appeared that read 'Wild Herb - Ingredient'. He smiled with satisfaction, plucking the plant from the ground. "Hey! Found one already."

@Astralin @Summoner @Oscar

As introductions were stammered out, Fayetta found himself wearing a crooked smile. Kind and straightforward, Astralin stumbled over her names until she got out an explanation, and the other girl dressed in white seemed to be forcing almost every word out while she kept her face hidden away. Fayetta's shoulders fell as he relaxed slightly, taking solace in the fact that he wasn't the only awkward, introverted individual among them. So, breathing in a gulp of bravery, he smiled more genuinely towards the other players and pulled a hand away from his cup to poke an index finger at the party invitation that appeared before him.

Astralin, Summoner, and Oscar. He recited the names once in his head when they stacked themselves in the upper corner of his vision. "Call me Faye." He smiled to hide the embarrassment. He disliked how feminine even the shortened version of his username still sounded to him, but it was as good as he was going to get. Fayetta tilted his head back to finish off the last of his tea and pressed a few buttons on his own menus to deposit the copper mug back into his inventory and free up his hands again.

"A feast?" He echoed, straining his ears to hear Summoner's soft suggestion otherwise. Fayetta rubbed at the back of his neck, an oversized sleeve drooping down his forearm. "Maybe we could all get something to eat after the quest?" He suggested, oblivious to Oscar's intent to provide them with a mechanical boon.

Another glance over his shoulder, and then it happened. Fayetta spotted a pair of girls making their way towards him and caught direct eye contact. His eyes snapped back forward to the window where he could still see Zachariah mixing potions and grinding herbs in a never-ending loop, but before he could pretend to mind his own business and let them be on their way, the girl with bright blonde hair addressed him quickly. His lips pursed and his free hand moved to the side of the cup that he still held onto, using the dark liquid as a crutch in conversation. "Oh, well, I was just looking around, sort of."

He immediately thought about how straight-forward the woman was to ask if he was looking for help, which made him feel a twinge of embarrassment at the same time as he swallowed the small lump of his pride that had gotten stuck in his throat. "I... Well, yeah, I was just thinking that it might not be a great idea to do any of this stuff alone." He admitted, finding his voice. No sense in squandering her kind approach, he thought.

Before they'd all had a chance to introduce themselves, a fourth figure spoke up to address them all. Fayetta turned a bit so he wouldn't still have his back to anyone, and the moment he did so he was suddenly aware of how much taller this other man was than the rest of them. Fayetta was barely taller than the first two women who had approached, and this third stranger practically loomed over them all. "Oh... Uh, were we?" He felt stuck, compelled to take up an offer Astralin hadn't actually put out now that the four of them found themselves all lingering in front of the quest-giver's shop. 'Is this how you team up with people for stuff like this?' He kept the question to himself and brought the mug of lukewarm tea to his lips. 'I'm not gonna be good at this whole 'party' thing anytime soon.' He inwardly grumbled.

@Astralin @Summoner @Oscar

"Nnnnn..." Fayetta let out a tiny groan as he stood outside of the NPC alchemist shop. He held a copper mug in his hand, a drink of bitter tea half-full in front of him while he frowned to himself. He shook his free hand past an over-sized sleeve and brought his fingers up to ruffle through his messy cerulean hair.

The young man had been standing in front of Zachariah's building for a few minutes now, and each time the NPC quest-giver spotted him through the window and gave him a beckoning wave, Fayetta tensed up and gave an awkward look to one side or another before remaining firmly glued to his position. This last time, he could hear a muffled, "You there! I could use an adventurer's help. Please, come this way!" from the old man. Zachariah quickly went back to his cycle of motion and Fayetta let out the breath he had been holding. One more time, he gave a quick look around him, realizing just how awkward he looked and felt. "I wonder if anyone would bother to do this quest with me...?" He muttered under his breath.

"Gah!" Fayetta jumped back, nearly tripping over himself as he spun to face a pair of their attackers. Had Spencer not dove in, they would have likely each gotten hits in before he had managed to distance himself. "Yeesh..." Fayetta breathed out a small sigh of relief. He had yet to experience taking damage from a monster, and he certainly wasn't looking forward to it. The longer he avoided getting hit, the better. "Hey, thanks for having my back!" He chuckled in response to Spencer's sheepish apology. "Trust me, I'm not any kind of...glory-seeker." He paused to search for the word. Just a moment later he swiped with his dagger out of reflex, arm swinging in a wide arc while he shifted another two paces back the way he'd came. A lone Nepent still crawled toward them, ripping up the soil beneath it while vines flung around wildly and crashed against a nearby tree.

@Spencer

ID: 108966 BD: 3 - Miss

Spencer: [HP: 435] [ENG: 36] [DMG: 4] [Thorns: 14 DMG] [MIT: 47] [REC: 1] [REG: 1]  Hate: [0|0|0|0]
Fayetta: [HP: 20] [ENG: 0/2] [DMG: 2] [MIT: 9]  Hate: [4|0|0|0]

"Okayokayokay," Fayetta murmured the words so closely together that they melded into one. Cyan eyes darted across the battlefield, from the Nepent that fell flat in front of him back to Spencer and the creatures that surrounded him to the health bar that hovered next to the man's shoulder. His gaze stuck there for a second, watching worriedly until he realized it wasn't budging an inch. His lips pursed with an expression that was both surprised and impressed, but his head turned back to the Nepent that used its long roots to dig into the ground and push the rest of its body back upright. "That shield of yours is no joke!" He called over his shoulder.

The initial nerves of running into a stranger in the woods had finally settled. With a couple of swings in on either side as the waves of Nepents marched towards them to be cut down, Fayetta felt comfortable with dagger in hand again. 'Just like any other low-level monster out here.' He reassured himself. The sole of his shoe packed the dirt beneath him as he shot forward again. He took the creature head-on, bringing his left hand in to cup the pommel of his weapon right before he drove it into the Nepent's pod-like flesh. The second critical hit filled him with a rush of adrenaline and he grinned as he used his off hand to bury the steel a bit further. It lurched over, letting out a small squeal of pain and Fayetta had to jerk back with a grimace to avoid the viscous golden fluid that spilled from its massive set of lips. "Oh, gross." He muttered, taking an extra step back while the Nepent fell forward and burst into pixels.

@Spencer

ID: 108936 BD: 9 - Critical Hit

Spencer: [HP: 436] [ENG: 37] [DMG: 4] [Thorns: 14 DMG] [MIT: 47] [REC: 1] [REG: 1]  Hate: [0|0|0|0]
Fayetta: [HP: 20] [ENG: 0/2] [DMG: 2] [MIT: 9]  Hate: [4|0|0|0]

Fayetta's eyes grew a centimeter wider. He watched, clutching his dagger as Spencer's spiked mace crashed into the bottom of the Nepent's oversized lips. A quick combination of strikes, and the unsightly creature was quickly felled. He felt a wave of relief wash over him, and naturally chuckled at Spencer's apology. "Hey man, no worries." His embarrassment was fading, more thankful for the man's help than anything else now.

Their peace was short-lived, as even more Nepents slunk closer to them, pulling themselves through the ground by their roots. Fayetta swallowed. Without a scratch on him, and with how easily his new acquaintance wiped the monsters out, the blue-haired man mustered his courage. He quickly switched his grip on his dagger, curling his fingers around the hilt where the blade now stood perpendicular to his arm. "Alright, let's go!" His confidence swelled for just the few moments he needed it to while he announced his intention to rush forward at one of the approaching creatures. He bent his torso, leaning forward into the run he broke into, and dashed to one of the Nepent's sides. His right arm shot forward and dragged across in the motion of a hooked punch, allowing the short blade to slash across its body covered in vines. Fayetta spun around on his heel after the attack had landed, watching at its HP bar drained past the half-way mark with an excited grin.

ID: 103213 BD: 10 - Critical Hit

Spencer: [HP: 436] [ENG: 38] [DMG: 4] [Thorns: 14 DMG] [MIT: 47] [REC: 1] [REG: 1]  Hate: |0|0|0|0|
Fayetta: [HP: 20] [ENG: 0/2] [DMG: 2] [MIT: 9]  Hate: |2|0|0|0|

Vines whipped through the air, cracking against the metal of Spencer's shield as he stood over Fayetta. The blue-haired man's cheeks burned brightly with embarrassment, though he kept his head down to keep his protector from seeing the shame on his dirt-covered face. Fayetta pushed himself to his knees with his dagger still clutched in his right hand. "Yeah, I'm fine." He replied, bringing his opposite hand up to wipe away what filth he could with his baggy sleeve. A second later, he felt Spencer's arm hook under his own to help pull him to his feet, and while he was grateful for the man's immediate help, he could feel just how hot his cheeks had become. He took one more motion to rub at his face and ruffle the dirt from his hair, avoiding Spencer's eyes all the while. He nodded again to confirm his health and recovery from his own clumsy blunder. "Mm, I just tripped. I'm okay." He admitted with a touch of hesitance.

Just as the danger seemed to die down, the sound of crawling roots drew closer again. While Fayetta could still see the figures of plenty more Nepents slinking through the forest all around them, he turned alongside Spencer to see the stronger creature pulling itself towards them. It seemed to smile, then grinned at them as it spat more thick mucus from the oversized lips that made up its face. Fayetta grimaced at the sight, feeling his virtual stomach turn. At his side, his hand gripped his dagger tightly, but he stood frozen in place. 'I don't want to hide behind him. I don't want him to have to worry and protect me. Why even is he so worried?' He was kicking himself now, gnawing at the inside of his cheek while Spencer raised his shield against the more menacing Nepent. 'Are these things really that much harder than all the boars I've killed on my own?'

ID: 102825 BD: 3 - Miss

HP: 15
Mitigation: 5
Damage: 10
Nepent Variant ignores armor mitigation on a natural roll of 10

Spencer: [HP: 437] [ENG: 40] [DMG: 4] [Thorns: 14 DMG] [MIT: 47] [REC: 1] [REG: 1]  Hate: |0|0|0|0|
Fayetta: [HP: 20] [ENG: 0/2] [DMG: 2] [MIT: 9]  Hate: |0|0|0|0|

Dogu was just as rational as always, causing a small smile to pick the corner of Fayetta's mouth up ever-so-slightly. Her personality was familiar in this otherwise alien world, and as strange as it might sound the simple conversation he found himself apart of was both relaxing and comforting from the stress and hopelessness he'd been feeling up until now. His chin tilted up while he leaned back in his seat. Each of the women gave their opinion on playing the game--leveling up, doing what you can, what you're good at, or just whatever you're willing to do in order to help out. Even if it was all part of a game, Fayetta didn't see himself as a fighter. He didn't see the graceful Amethyst or the sensible Dogu as fighters, either, but here they were. If they didn't fight, they would have to rely on other skills to get by. Maybe learning a craft, scouting and resource gathering, or simply bartering. With each option that entered his mind, he had a hard time picturing himself doing any of it, let alone being 'good' or 'helpful'.

He sighed, lightly enough to not be considered dramatic or too terribly disheartened by the response. "Yeah, you're right." He replied while staring straight ahead. It wasn't clear which one of them he was addressing, or what exactly about their words he agreed with. Perhaps he was seeing all of their points, and nodding along as he tried to broaden his viewpoints. Finding someone to talk to had helped, or at least he preferred this over sitting alone in his thoughts any longer. His eyes turned to Amethyst, his chin turning just enough to properly look at the woman sitting beside him. "Have you guys been outside much, or worked on leveling up?" He responded to Amethyst's commentary on battling the monsters that roamed outside of the safe zone, but addressed them both. He turned back to look at Kataware on his other side. "Maybe we could all give it a shot, find something to do that'll give us some good experience or items." He suggested with a smile that he tried to keep from looking weak. He wanted to get up, get out there, do something. The thought of milling about in town for the rest of his days sounded downright miserable, but being alone out there was what scared him into inaction in the first place.

ID: 102698 BD: 1 (Critical Miss)

"Yikes..." Fayetta held his dagger square in front of him, much like when he had first encountered Spencer and his tiny familiar. The large cuffs of his sleeves hugged against the hilt while his bright blue eyes danced between the crawling plants that worked their way towards the two players. Meanwhile, the man at his side was faster to move with more certainty, flaunting a shield on his arm and mace in one hand while he took up a defensive position. Fayetta swallowed, sparing quick glances over each shoulder. From the corner of his vision, he could see more movement, and what he thought were even more of those nasty creatures wandering their way. "R-right, yeah." He responded when Spencer gave him instruction. 'Does he know I'm a really low level? Gah, of course he does. Is it really that obvious?' He got caught up in his internal ramblings just until the Nepents in front of them shuddered, their root-legs churning and digging into the earth to carry them forward fast. They charged at Spencer, but Fayetta found himself dumbstruck as three out of four attackers were reduced to shining pixels without so much as a swing from the blonde's spiked mace. He stared in awe, mouth agape as he simultaneously wanted to ask Spencer how in the world he did that, and also not make a fool of himself over what must have been some simple attack, or mechanic, or something.

With one Nepent still standing directly in front of them, Fayetta's lips met and the grip on his dagger tightened. 'He said they're kind of strong... Would I even be able to scratch these things? Boars are pretty easy by now, but... Arrghh, I don't want to just stand here and do nothing!' His inner battle waged more violently than the real one in front of him. Gritting his teeth, he urged his body to move. Fayetta leaned forward, aiming to dash at the Nepent and drive his dagger right into the side of its wriggling, plant-like body. Before he had taken two whole steps, the sole of his left shoe slid against the grass, slick from what must have been the viscous mucus that seeped from their opponents' mouths. Friction was lost to him, and Fayetta fell forward, promptly landing face-first on the ground.

"Pfft!" Fayetta couldn't stop another muffled laugh as he brought his sleeved hand up to his mouth. Spencer had given it a bit of thought, but eventually admitted that he didn't know anyone to direct him to when it came to experience in a certain build. Fayetta simply shrugged, not having expected anything to come from it. "Hey, no problem." He thought about continuing, making some kind of joke about not having to harass someone else for advice, or poking fun at his lack of knowledge and experience, but he couldn't find the right words and so he kept his mouth shut. Spencer was nice, but that didn't make his insecurities less embarrassing to talk about. As if on cue, the blonde's offer for help, whatever it could be, caused him to smile. "Yeah, that's alright. Even though we've been here a while, I'm still pretty new to all this. Definitely not one of those hardcore players." He ended up admitting, bringing his hand behind his head. His fingers poked out and ran through his colored hair before trailing down to the nape of his neck.

The conversation shifted again, and at first Fayetta was grateful. But when the subject matter clicked into place in his mind, he suddenly wasn't sure how to react. It was obvious what Spencer meant. The only time someone used that term was in a romantic context. 'Oh God, why would he want to know something like that, of all things? I wasn't expecting that, ahh what do I say?' He paused for a moment, unable to get his messy thoughts in order. Of course he wasn't involved with anyone in that way, inside of this closed-off world or out. He'd been on a date before, at least. Like, once. And to say that it went well would have been generous. Regardless of how clear Spencer's question was, Fayetta responded in the only way he could think to: feigning ignorance. "Oh, uh, you mean, seeing someone, like--" Before he had the chance to finish, the sound of movement caused the man to freeze up. He snapped to attention and almost immediately the source made itself known. Crawling through the forest, a group of Nepents weaved the roots that served as their legs through the dirt to pull themselves forward in the players' direction. The monstrous plants looked disgusting, and unlike anything Fayetta has ever seen. Cloudy liquids dripped from the pair of wide red lips that formed the majority of its 'head' as the creatures drooled all over the forest floor. Spotting the red-tinted crystals hovering above them, Fayetta fumbled for a moment while he reached for his dagger, embarrassing thoughts replaced with fresh nerves and fear. "What--what the hell? These things are monsters?"

While he listened, Fayetta's eyes naturally drifted down and spotted the wrapped handle that rested at Spencer's waist. He registered that the item hanging at his side was, in fact, a mace, and for a brief moment he realized that he could have gotten the answer to his question by just being a bit more observant. But, that would have taken the fun out of the conversation now, wouldn't it? "Tanking..." Fayetta echoed in a mumble. A couple of seconds into the explanation, and the blue-haired man almost began to internally panic until he realized Spencer's choice of words made it just easy enough to follow along and understood what his terms meant. A ripple of relief washed over him when he heard the blonde admit he was a low level. Despite 'low' being relative, he suddenly felt less alienated, like Spencer was that much more relatable as a person because he wasn't one of the high-level elites. 'Lord help me if I run into someone like that.' A fleeting thought.

"Pfft!" The end of Spencer's explanation caught him off-guard, and Fayetta let out a chuckle alongside the other man's laughter that was much more genuine than his earlier nervous habit. "Aww! He didn't have anything to offer besides the sympathetic gesture, but luckily Spencer took the opportunity to move the conversation along. Unluckily, he turned the question back on Fayetta. Again, his choice of words were plain and gave him an idea of what they might entail, despite not knowing anything about what went into them for certain. "Oh, hmm..." He hummed aloud, bringing the tips of his first two fingers to his chin and idly tapping. "Those sound good..." He mused after a moment of thought, trying to imagine himself in each type of role. "Yeahh, I don't really know what kind of, umm, play style I like. Or what I'm good or bad at." He admitted, skirting around the topic of his inexperience with video games as a whole. He thought about revealing how he hadn't been spending the skill points he had earned, simply because he didn't know what he wanted to invest in, and the game's skill system seemed pretty close to unforgiving if he were to make a mistake or change his mind. He stopped himself though, not wanting to risk the embarrassment. At least not so quickly. "Oh, do you know anyone who does that kind of stuff?" He asked without thinking.

"Oh, wha? No, you're fine." He answered the graceful woman's apology. God, did he really look like that much of a mess? Probably. His attention was now dancing between the struggle of interacting with a new face, and the disbelief of encountering a familiar one all at the same time. He took in a deep breath, staring out into the crowd for a moment while he processed until Kataware's question of names reached his ears. "Oh, ah, right. Um, Faye is fine." He replied with a weak smile, turning his head and giving a small nod to the girl with seafoam hair to extend his introduction to her. He paused a moment, waiting for her reply, before turning back to the player on his other side. "What about you? What did you pick for a username?" He asked his friend, clearly not paying attention when she had taken the time to offer it to their new acquaintance.

Fayetta kept his back pressed against the bench, bringing his right hand up towards his face. His fingers reached past the cuff of his sleeve and curled, his index finger left extended to lightly scratch at the skin of his cheek, as if in thought. Kataware was going on about how long they had been trapped thus far, and bringing to light how grim there circumstances currently were. He sat in silence for a few moments, mulling it over along with giving Amethyst a chance to speak, before he sighed. "Yeah. I've been to the fields outside a few times, but... Well, I don't know how to play these games 'right' like a lot of people here." He admitted. There was a tightness in his chest as he exposed his own shortcomings, and if his company was only the gentle Amethyst he likely wouldn't have said anything. But with Kataware's lead, expressing his self-doubt actually made room for a bit of relief. "I think I would just get in the way if I tried to fight a boss." He ended with a chuckle, half born of nervousness. His head turned back to meet golden eyes and extend their conversation, "What about you? Is this your first time playing these kinds of games?"

With his foot freed from  beneath the little penguin, Fayetta followed after Spencer's lead with little hesitation. He was surprised to meet anyone out here, let alone have an interaction that consisted of anything more than a brief smile or nod in greeting before they would go on their separate ways. Another mental reminder that the blonde man seemed nicer and friendlier than most, he pushed the incredulous thought that someone would want to get to know him aside, trotting along a couple of steps so that he didn't fall too far behind. "Oh, hmm," He considered the question posed to him. 'Man, of course we have to be similar in that regard.' He thought, wracking his brain for the most appropriate topic of conversation. This person was still a stranger, and so every time a question or statement came to mind he found himself second-guessing before he could air it.

'What did you do before this? No, all that real-life stuff might be sensitive. How old are you... Maybe that's too personal? Why did you pick a penguin for a pet? Well if the answer is just because he likes penguins, that would just be dumb. What kind of build are you going--Ahh, no, he probably knows way more than me about games, I'll just get lost after my own question.' Fayetta was walking with one arm crossed over his torso while the curled knuckles of the other behind his sleeve pressed against his lips through the fabric. He was deep in thought--probably much deeper than he needed to be--when something finally, and suddenly, came to him. "Ah!" He pulled his hand away, exclaiming a bit more enthusiastically than he had meant to. "Which kind of weapon do you use?" Perhaps not the most riveting conversation-starter, but something so specific might give him a leg to stand on, and wouldn't run the risk of prying into unwelcome territory. As long as Spencer wasn't a number-crunching elitist, that should work. "I picked Dagger cause it just seemed like the one I'd be the best at using. I don't like the idea of a big, heavy weapon, and I like to move around a lot, heh."

The woman stood up while his eyes were still transfixed on her. And then, 'Oh no.' Their eyes met. She was looking straight at him. She was coming this way! Fayetta froze up, but as such he couldn't bring himself to look away. She probably thought he was a creep for staring at her. But as the stranger closed the distance between them, she wore a smile rather than a scowl, and her face looked pleasant rather than perturbed. Her words snapped him back to reality, and his spine straightened a bit as he let out a chuckle that was made primarily from his nerves. He always seemed to laugh when he was nervous.

"O-oh, me? A ghost? Haha, of course not, I was just, umm," He paused, dropping his gaze while he tried to think of how to admit that he thought her hair was amazing and beautiful without sounding like a total weirdo. Just as he had decided that such a feat was impossible, she spoke up again. His brows raised, curious and confused by her words, but he quickly remembered what manners were, and motioned with a half-covered hand to the empty space at his right.

All of a sudden, just as he opened his mouth to explain that she was welcome to sit with him, a presence on his other side caused him to jump in his own seat. Not to mention a name that he hadn't heard in a short while now. His head whipped back to the direction of the voice, and his eyes landed on none other than the brown-haired girl he had spotted earlier. He blinked. 'Wait, there's no way...'

"Dogu?!" He hissed the name in a hushed voice, the incredulous tone slipping through despite keeping his voice down while he confirmed the girl's identity. "You're--how--I, I didn't expect to see you here!" He admitted, forcing through his loss for words. His eyes were wide, and he leaned back until he hit the rest of the bench behind him. He hadn't expected anyone he actually knew to be stuck here with him. His parents had no interest or time for games. His friends from school were too busy, too broke, or both to get their hands on the equipment the game needed by the time it released. And for a moment, he felt a small sense of joy, like he wasn't really alone in this virtual prison. But that was quickly replaced by the wave of regret and despair. Someone he knew was forced to live here, too, away from their family and friends, and everything they knew. He bit down on his bottom lip before his attention snapped back to the woman in front of them that Dogu moved to greet. "Oh, r-right, yeah, please take a seat." He answered her initial question almost as if he were on auto-pilot.

He let out half a chuckle, his nervousness draining just a bit as the conversation progressed. He had yet to meet anyone that was downright terrible, and Spencer seemed even friendlier than most of the down-trodden faces he saw milling about on the first floor. He froze up for a third time, for just a moment, when the infantile penguin hopped up onto his shoe. Should he move, should he stay still? He opted for the latter, the corner of his mouth picking up into a crooked smile at how downright adorable the small creature was, looking up and waving to him. All the while, he listened to Spencer's explanation and nodded in understanding. "Ohhh, that's pretty cool." He thought aloud in response.

"Oh, ahh, um," He suddenly found himself wondering the same question that Spencer had posed to him. Why was he all the way out here on his own? His hand traveled upward and the large cuff of his sleeve slid halfway down his forearm while he rubbed gently at the back of his neck. "Just, y'know, getting out of town for a bit. Kind of the same as you, I guess." He said that, but he didn't know how much of that was actually true. He was bored, sure, and walking circles around the Town of Beginnings again just sounded like a chore. But he didn't have a pet to bond with. He understood what he meant, more or less, by the last bit, but he hardly had any friends or anyone in the game he could regularly socialize with if he wanted to. Sure, he considered himself an introvert, but that didn't mean he didn't like people.

And with the topic of friendship, or the lack thereof, fresh in his mind, Fayetta's eyes moved back up to meet Spencer's. The man seemed plenty nice, but based on his last statement would he prefer to keep their meeting brief? Then again, he was the one who was primarily moving the conversation along. 'Nah nah, you're reading way too much into all this.' He told himself. With a small shake of his head, he dropped his hand back to his side. "So! Well, if you want we could stick around for a bit? I haven't found anything cool out here, but I can't think of anything better to do." He ended with another small laugh that bubbled up from a fresh wave of nerves at his lackluster suggestion.

Fayetta's fingers were idly tapping on the handle of his dagger, still resting in its sheathe at his hip. Outside of his rambunctious streaks in his early childhood, Fayetta was terribly unfond of violence. But something about life in a fantasy game just made the idea of flourishing a deadly blade on the battlefield sound rather cool. In reality, he surely looked more like an inexperienced child waving around a kitchen knife than a skilled assassin, but maybe the impressive moves and fancy footwork would just come with a bit of practice.

Just as Fayetta's head was stuck in the middle of fighting for his life, the sound of something small scurrying about to his right caused him to freeze up. Was it another wild boar? A wolf, or a snake? His instincts finally kicked in, and Fayetta's hand wrapped around the dagger's hilt as he pulled the weapon free. He took half a step back from the direction the noise came from, and brought both arms in front of him as he held his weapon in front of his waist. He froze up again when his eyes finally found and made sense of what it was that was approaching him. A small, baby penguin, and a player with a green cursor spinning over his head.

His face turned to one of confusion rather than fear as he stared blankly at the taller man who offered him an apology. Fayetta just blinked, dropping his sight to the black-and-white bundle of feathers when the stranger named Spencer introduced them both. The situation hit him all at once, and Fayetta hurriedly moved to return his dagger to its sheathe. "Oh! Oh, oh my God, sorry! He shot back, realizing that he had just pulled a knife on the person and his pet. He chuckled nervously, a faint brush of pink tinting his cheeks. "O-oh, heh, Spencer?" He repeated the name, immediately wondering whether the man was giving him a username or a real given name. "I'm, Faye." He said with a moment's hesitation. He was already embarrassed enough that coming forth with a username like 'Fayetta' just sounded like a terrible idea. "What's a, err, familiar?" He quickly asked to try and change the subject.

"Ohhh myyy Godddd." A muffled groan passed through the fabric of Fayetta's baggy sleeve as he held the hand hiding inside of it over his mouth. The young man had been loitering about outside of the first floor's main settlement for some time now, with little other reason for doing so than to keep himself from loitering around inside of it. Which would undoubtedly lead to apathy, and later sulking as he realized he wasn't doing anything productive, which would remind himself of how far behind in levels he was compared to all of the people that were working to seek out the next floor bosses, and that would surely bring to mind how daunting and intimidating the concept of being a frontline player was, and by comparison he was just lazy, dead weight by comparison.

But, despite his attempts to curb such thoughts by getting out of town, enjoying some 'fresh air', and slaying a few of the most basic mobs in the game an attempt to boost his suffering ego, Fayetta was having a miserable time keeping those thoughts out of mind anymore. Mainly due to the fact that he had been wandering around through trees and fields, blindly trying to navigate his way back to town after having strayed way too far past the Town of Beginning's borders. "How the hell could I lose a city that big...?" He asked himself aloud, dragging his hand away from his mouth to fall back to his side. It picked up again, just a bit, for the tips of his fingers to touch the hilt of his dagger. Luckily, the monsters he had encountered thus far had been trivial on their own, but Fayetta shuddered to think how he might fare against a whole pack of rabid wolves.

'I can't take this anymore--' Just when the thought entered his mind, a voice that was closer, more clear than any that provided the idle chatter, shouts, and musings around him caught his attention. Someone seemed to have roughly the same thought as him: wondering, and estimating just how long it might take for them to escape.

He couldn't help it. His eyes flicked to his left side, where he stole a glance at the source of the feminine voice. A player was mirroring him, sitting alone on another bench aside him. She looked...plain, Fayetta thought, if he were to put it bluntly. Dark chestnut hair that sat rather short above her shoulders. Basic equipment and clothing--perhaps even cosmetic items that didn't provide any stats like his own oversized track sweater and dark pants. She seemed 'normal', like him. His right hand shifted, moving from his cheek to the back of his collar where he rubbed gently at the fabric that separated his hand from the nape of his neck. He had stolen one, and then two more glances since his first, and he started to worry that the girl might look back at him and his suspicious behavior. Something about her seemed familiar, but Fayetta could hardly concentrate long enough to make sense of the weird feeling.

He thought about standing up, but immediately questioned where he would go. He suddenly felt the weight of the dagger sitting in its sheathe on his hip. He could probably handle himself outside of the safe zone if he wanted to go grind out a level or two. After all, he had been out there a handful of times already since the game began. But surely there would be a lot of other players vying for the best places to kill monsters, and he had heard the rumors floating around that spoke of how many players had already died after leaving the city. It wasn't safe, and it was never going to be. And Fayetta had never felt more suffocatingly alone each time he realized that.

His bright aqua eyes ran over the crowd for what must have been the hundredth time since he sat himself down. The fanciful avatars that everyone had designed when they first logged in--including his own--had been erased. He stood back at his full height, his hair was short and a bit messy again. Most notably, his body was back to his real-life counterpart. The username that he picked had nicely suited the rosy-cheeked strawberry blonde girl that he had designed to play as: the VR embodiment of a character of his own creation that must have been a few years old by now. But the experience was terribly short-lived, and now he was a bit grateful that he hadn't befriended anyone in the time of his girlish guise.

Though they had been forced back to their real-world appearances since the Announcement, Fayetta could see a couple of figures among the crowds who had clung to the chances to customize their appearances in what ways they still could. His augmented blue eyes landed on a woman who held her eyes closed, as if she were trying to relax among the busy city streets. Like him, her hair was tinted a shade of blue, though hers was much more like seafoam, or a pale sky. What caught his interest even more was the length. It ran well past her shoulders, down her back, past her hips even. He was staring, entranced for a moment while he was left to wonder if the color had been the only thing the stranger had modified about her silky hair.

The main plaza of the Town of Beginnings was as busy as it always was, as it had been for the past three weeks, as it likely would long after the boss residing in the labyrinth of this floor was found and defeated. Fayetta sat, alone at first, in one of several wooden benches that lined the streets while fighting to keep his head from hanging. His fingers fidgeted underneath the long, oversized sleeves that concealed his hands, and his jaw rocked back and forth as he started and stopped himself from gnawing softly on his bottom lip, over and over. It was getting harder and harder for the young man to stay positive, and just at a glance many other players seemed to share his overwhelming apprehension.

"It's already been twenty-three days..." He muttered under his breath, talking to himself as his mind worked. "Assuming this floor is cleared in a month... Is that even realistic? Then a month per floor at least, and one-hundred floors..." His half-sensical rambling slipped out with every other thought, each one filling him and compounding the sense of dread that had been building up. He went silent, picking his chin up again and looking around at the people around him. Over a hundred different faces were visible, from the huge plaza to what he could see of the streets that led to the merchants' alley and other such districts of the massive sprawling city across from him. Fayetta had never been much of a people-watcher, but perhaps he was grasping now. Looking for something in the expressions of others that would distract him, or keeping from thinking just how impossible their situation was. He would spot a couple of refreshing faces. Players that laughed among friends or guildmates caused a twinge of jealousy at their abilities to form bonds so quickly, but caused a flicker of a smile to reflect their own to brighten his expression for just a moment. Then there were those who looked considerably worse-off than his troubled self. A girl in particular caught his cerulean eye, and he felt his stomach twist as he saw the tears flow down her cheeks while a sympathetic player sat beside her to rub her back in an attempt to soothe her.

Fayetta let out a sigh, one that was a bit louder than he had intended while he leaned forward in his seat. His elbows propped themselves onto his legs and the sleeves of his baggy blue track jacket slid halfway down his arms to expose the hands that his cheeks fell into. He sat, still troubled and worried, with his motivation waning as the minutes ticked by. "Unnnhh, who knows if we'll ever get out of here..." He thought aloud with a small groan.

@Kataware @Amethyst