Peaches

"Wonderful, just wonderful work," Zackariah told Peaches. He took the potion and after a few minutes came back with a brown paper wrapped package. "Could you deliver this to Lyle Tealeaf for me? I'd be happy to provide you with some directions."

As he asked, thunder rolled and lightning flashed outside the window. She grimaced and looked back to the man. "I'd be happy to Zackariah, but is there any way I can deliver it tomorrow? It seems the storm has gotten worse."

"Of course," he replied. "There's no need to rush." He smiled at her and waved as she took the package and headed to the door. "Thank you, Miss Peaches. Take care and don't be a stranger!"

She waved back and pulled up her hood before opening the door. "No, thank you, Zackariah. I'll do my best, you take care too!" Pulling her cloak close, she exited into the downpour, heading for a nearby tea room.

Zackariah showed Peaches to the backroom he had been fumbling around in. When she entered, she gasped at the set up she saw. A large workbench was covered with all manner of instrument and tool for crafting potions, medicines, poisons, salves and the like. Mortars and pestles, calcinators, albemics, retorts, kettles, tongs, vials, bottles, and such littered the tabletop and filled many open cabinets along the walls.

Peaches listened to Zackariah's instructions carefully, asking the occasional question when she didn't quite understand something. She took a few notes down on a blank page in her handbook she had received from an info broker, just to make sure. Then she got to work.

Before long, Peaches had water boiling and a fine pink powder. She combined them and ran them through some sort of percolation device, and other more complicated steps. After a couple hours' hard work, she had a vial of faintly glowing pink liquid. She presented it to Zackariah.

Peaches stood and warmed herself by the fire, taking enjoyment in it's warmth and light. Though it was beautiful, the forest had felt very empty and quiet. Which would be nice if there also wasn't certain death skulking beneath the eaves of the trees, just waiting for her to mess up. A shiver ran down her spine. Maybe she needed to be more social, maybe she needed some friends after all. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes.

"Oh! Miss Peaches back already?" Zackariah's gruff but friendly voice ripped her away from her thoughts and gave her a small start.

"Oh!" she called, surprised. "Indeed I am. It seems there were plenty of the flowers out and about, even in the rain. I suppose we can thank spring for that." She giggled and smiled kindly. She pulled the pink flowers from her inventory and handed them to the NPC.

"Ah! Perfect," Zackariah said, eyeing them over. "Yes, come, come, I'll show you how to brew a potion from these."

Peaches cut her way through the streets, trying her best to avoid the deepest puddles. As she went, she passed a few different taverns and tea rooms, each offering refreshment and warmth, firelight pouring through their windows and doorways. As good as that sounded, and tempted though she was, she trudged on begrudgingly.

'After I get these to Zackariah, I can reward myself with a job well done,' she thought and pushed onward. Before long she began to notice a few familiar landmarks and knew she was closing in on the shop. She turned down a narrow avenue, and through the heavy rain, she could see the sign Alchemy swinging in the distance. She bowed her head against the deluge and hurried towards her destination. She bounded up the steps and threw open door, not caring if others were inside or not, but it was empty. She could hear Zackariah fumbling around in a back room, so she took refuge by the warm fire and began to dry herself out as she waited for him.

Peaches slowly trudged her way along the path, slogging through the mud and the rain. She was tired, and ready to be back inside, even if only for a few minutes. She took a cursory glance around, taking stock of how far she had to go, and seeing if there were any of the pink flowers around. Noticing the proximity of the gate, and not seeing anything of note, she set off again. Trying to speed up her pace and find some shelter.

Before long, Peaches crossed beneath the huge gate and into the Town of Beginnings. There were even fewer people out now, since the rain had become so heavy, but still the occasional person stomped past on their way to do some errand or another. She made no effort to avoid anyone now. No one would stop to bother her in this downpour. She made a bee-line for Zackariah's shop.

Before long, Peaches had made her way to the edge of the wood. She stayed underneath the canopy, though, hesitating to leave it's protection. The light rain from before had evolved into a full on downpour, and she wanted to wait a few minutes to see if it would subside. While she waited, she rummaged around in the wet undergrowth, among the moss and fungi, searching for more of the special flowers. She did this for a long while, trying to outlast the rain, but eventually the relented.

Deciding the rain wasn't going anywhere, Peaches wrapped her cloak tight about her and broke from the treeline. Her booted feet stomped along the muddy path through the fields of tall grass a flowers, occasionally getting sucked it a bit, causing her to have to use her spear as a walking stick. She kept her head down, doing her best to shield her face from the cold rain.

Peaches stopped and turned, taking the beautiful flower from behind her ear, she set it on the gently flowing stream and let it fade away out of sight. She pulled her hood up against the drops that were now occasionally dripping their way down from the canopy above and made her way back around the wide bend and away from the stream.

The light in the wood was beginning to dim, and Peaches instinctively began to keep a sharper eye out. Something told her that if she was caught in the dark and unaware in the wood by a monster, or even an untrustworthy player, she could be in real trouble. After a couple minutes of walking, she came upon the fallen log dotted with toadstools again. She peeked behind the log, just in case, and to her surprise, another pink colored flower had appeared. She plucked and stowed it before taking off again.

Peaches followed the path back towards the bridge, watching as a few more lilies floated downstream, now passing her as she went. She had been searching for the pink flowers for awhile now, and perhaps her brain was still trained on finding them; she saw another coral colored flower not far from the path and near the bridge. It was just beginning to bloom.

'Well,' she thought. 'I suppose it wouldn't hurt to gather extra. Maybe I can even figure out how to use them for myself.' She walked the few feet from the path in the thick, damp moss and undergrowth to where the flower grew. She picked it, and stashed it away, but kept it separate from the ones she had picked for Zackariah.

Returning to the path, Peaches made her way over the bridge and back the way she had come originally. As she went, she could hear the sound of the rain picking up, and a few drops pierced their way through the canopy.

Peaches began making her way toward the edge of the wood where she had entered the field of flowers. As she approached the treeline, the sight of another of the coral colored blooms caught her eye. It was on the other side of one of the trees she had entered between. This field had provided both the final flowers she needed to take back to Zackariah. She picked the last of the pink flowers, and then stepped between the trees that had been her makeshift gate.

Peaches turned and peered back into the glade. The whole of the forest had felt somewhat otherworldly, but the clearing of colorful blooms seemed truly empyrean. 'It must be of some other importance,' she thought to herself as she admired its beauty. 'Perhaps someday I will be able to discover what that might be.'

And with that she turned back towards the path and began the trek back towards the Town of Beginnings.

"Oh my!" Peaches gasped when her eyes crossed a blur of color in the gap between a couple of trees and she crept towards it. As she neared, she saw a small clearing in the dim light of the gray sky. A light rain had started up again, drops of water dripping and misting from the sky among flowers of every color and hue that filled the glade. In the center of the ocean of color and fragrance, a large star-shaped light pink bloom stood a few inches taller than the rest of the flowers. She hated to pervert the beauty of the field before her, but she had a job to so. So, with a bit of regret, she donned her cloak and waded her way through the efflorescence out to where the pink flower stood. She plucked it from it's place and put it away with the others.

"Only one to go for Zackariah."

Peaches followed the path around a wide curve through the trees, where it suddenly came upon the stream she could hear bubbling it's way through the wood. The path crossed over the current with a quaint little bridge and then followed along it's banks for at least as far as she could see. She stood on the bridge for a few moments, taking in the sounds and sights of the stream. A few fish meandered underneath it, opening and closing their gaping mouths and staring with empty eyes upstream. 

She skipped from the bridge and made her way further down the path, following the stream as it went. A few water lilies floated along gently with beautiful white blooms bobbing their way downstream keeping pace with Peaches as she walked. Seeing the blooms brought her mind back to the task at hand and she began to peer around hoping that by chance, she'd stumble onto another one of the flowers she sought.

Peaches began to scour the immediate area, hoping that there might be one or two more of the precious blooms nearby. She poured over the log and around the trees close by, keeping her focus sharp and doing her best to be thorough. Her booted feet sank in the moist moss and earth, and her hands groped at a couple of things that turned out to not be the flowers.

As Peaches searched, she noticed the green glow of the forest begin to dim a bit. She imagined the rain might start up again soon, so she returned to the path and made her way a little deeper into the forest. After only a couple minutes of walking, she heard the soft sounds of a stream nearby, but the path seemed to be making it's way closer to it, so she stayed the course, keeping out a weather eye for the pink flowers.

Peaches worked her way along the winding path as the woods grew more dense and the trees grew thicker and taller. A soft, light green moss became more and more prevalent and she began to notice different kinds of fungi littering the ground and trees alike. Lit by the bright green light, the woods seemed to have an otherworldly feel; like some sacred place where the fey would dwell, where the trees would come alive and pixies and dryads would dance and frolic. She felt like she had entered some sort of storybook or legend of knights and maidens, where a dragon or centaur would come trotting along to meet her.

She felt such awe at the sight of such alien beauty that she almost missed the small pink flower that stuck from out of the moss and mushrooms behind a fallen log.

"Oof. I better pay closer attention," she murmured to herself, but feeling strange about having broken the silence of this place.

With two found so quickly, Peaches hesitated entering the wooded area and decided to spend a bit of time walking among the tall grass and wild flowers. She searched among them for awhile, taking her time and enjoying the beautiful day that had broken through the rain. She found so many beautiful flowers, some budding some in full bloom. There were puffy white ones, bright yellow ones with broad petals shaped like dog ears, deep royal blue ones shaped like stars, full bodied purple and orange ones that looked similar to roses. But no blooms of the pinkish, coral hue that she was looking for. She plucked one flower, it reminded her of Friso Lillies -- star shaped with white petals and a rosy red center, and stuck it behind her ear.

Peaches giggled, and still feeling confident made her way back to the path and headed into the woods. A bright green glow lighted this new area as sunlight streamed through the leaves of the canopy and steam rose from the wet earth within.

'What luck!' Peaches thought to herself. 'Perhaps this task won't be particularly difficult after all.'

She stood straight and took a deep breath as she stretched, the smell of spring rain and wet earth bringing a calmness to her. She took in the beauty at with which Aincrad was crafted. If it weren't a terrifying death trap, it would have been the greatest game ever created, or at least so she thought. At this distance, she could see the wide expanse of forest she was heading towards, off to the right of it, the reflection of the sun sparkled off the surface of a wide blue-green lake. And to the left, craggy highlands faded into the distance, with purple-gray mountains looming over them.

With her confidence raised and a new appreciation for her surroundings, she set out again at a quick pace. As she neared the woodland, a few lone trees began to dot the fields of tall grass here and there. At the base of one of these trees, a soft pinkish glow caught her eye. She hurried to where the flower sprouted from between two roots of the young tree and stashed it with the other she had found.

Peaches strolled casually towards one of the main gates of the Town of Beginnings after she departed from Zackariah's shop. As she did so, the rain ceased and the clouds broke, allowing rays of bright sunshine to pierce through and light up the world around her. She stashed her cloak and smiled at the beautiful blue sky that was beginning to reveal itself. She passed through the gate before too long and out into the fields beyond the starting town.

She walked along the path towards a wooded area she could see in the distance. Tall grass grew along the borders of the path and brightly colored wild flowers had begun to blossom as Spring was settling into it's full beauty. She kept an eye on the flowers, looking for the light pink blooms Zackariah had told her about. She hadn't been walking for more than a few minutes when she stumbled on one growing right next to the path.

"Hello!" called Zackariah, the friendly old NPC who ran the shop. "I suppose you've come in answer to the ad I posted."

"Uhm, yes. I did," Peaches pulled her hood down and shyly answered the man. She lingered near the fire, enjoying it's warmth and the brief respite from the rain as Zackariah explained the quest to her.

"- in summation, bring the blooms back to me and I can reward you," he finished. "Think you could give an old man a hand?" He smiled warmly, and Peaches knew it was just a program but she enjoyed the friendly demeanor. Not all of the players she had met treated her quite so kindly.

"Yes, I believe I can handle that," she said kindly. "I'll see what I can get for you and return shortly, Zackariah, thank you." Peaches smiled and made her way towards the door as the NPC called a friendly farewell towards her, she threw up a peace sign and exited the shop.

A light rain blanketed the Town of Beginnings as Peaches made her way through the mostly empty streets, the sound of her boots on stone drowned out by the light pitter patter of the drizzle. Her cloak was pulled tight about her, hood up, doing it's best to keep the cool wetness of the rain at bay. She avoided others as best she could, straying from one side of the cobblestone street to the other and occasionally taking the odd street to avoid the sparse crowds.

Peering through the light shower, she caught sight of what she was looking for. A quaint wooden sign painted with the word Alchemy in deep green poked out from above a doorway, and light from a fire streamed out through the windows. She made her way to the door and peeked in, seeing it was empty save for the NPC she had been seeking. She opened the door with and creak and stepped into the warm shop.

« WALLET »

2,500 Col

10 T1 Mats

« TRANSACTION HISTORY »

« SKILLS »

(5/5 Skill Points Spent)

Searching Rank 1 || +1 LD. +1 Stealth Detection.

« INVENTORY »

Bronze Spear (Uncommon || 1HAS +ACC)

Bronze Plate (Uncommon Heavy Armor || + THORNS)

5 Starter Healing Potions (Heals 50 HP)

« RELATIONSHIPS »

||

« ROLEPLAYS »

||

« PEACHES »

Francesca Onishi

(21→) 23

Female

Francesca Onishi, known globally by the username Peaches, is a well known and successful professional gamer, streamer, and e-sports participant. Her mother is a French florist who moved to Japan during college, where she met Francesca's father. He is Japanese man who owns an entertainment store selling electronics, books, games, and movies. Francesca was a shy child, preferring books and video games to the company of others. As a young child, she began to notice patterns in video games, and with her scholarly and bookish traits, soon found ways to exploit these patterns and glitches. By ten years old, she had set world records for several platforming game speed runs.

Francesca originally began professionally gaming at 16, first joining the team Nautilus, a MOBA oriented team with several sets of players and rotating rosters. Then, at 19, she left Nautilus when the team when through a large shift in it's playerbase. She started a simple streaming channel, playing old-school JRPG's and story oriented games, and did that for a year before being offered a position at a burgeoning e-sports group called NORSCA. When she began working there, she was group lead for their first string RTS team. Her popularity grew, and the big wigs at NORSCA wanted Francesca to become more of a "face" for the company, so she was moved into VRMMO's. She was NORSCA's first pick to head up their live-streaming of SAO.

Virtues and Flaws

• Professional - Francesca played video games professionally for five years before SAO's launch. And she had long been playing and being recognized on a global level before that. She was a ruthless player in-game, and is well known for her ability to exploit system timing, spacing, hit boxes, ratios, flaws, glitches, etc. 

• Self-doubt - Though she is a talented and experienced gamer, Francesca is very unsure of herself in SAO. She has played in other VRMMO's and was even in a principal raiding guild in the last one she played seriously. Despite this, she has never had to risk her life in a game, and with her life on the line she doubts her abilities greatly.

• Methodical - Francesca tends to be very analytical. She has a great eye for detail, as evidenced by her gaming history, and tends to pay very close attention to the little things. She is slow to act, and always follows instructions and procedure as best she can.

• Reserved - Ever since she was a young child, Francesca has been restrained of word and action. She feels hyper aware that her deeds and the things she says can have very real consequences, and prefers to remain reticent. One of her favorite things about video gaming before SAO was that she could act impulsively and it wasn't the end of the world.

• Brainy - Francesca has always been intelligent, she took to learning and scholarly arts very easily. The only reason she didn't pursue schooling further was the success she found in pro-gaming. She is resourceful, quick-witted, and has high reading comprehension and memory retention.

• Sensitive - One of the primary reasons for Francesca being reserved and shy is that she is afraid to hurt the feelings of others. This fear stems from her own emotional fragility, she gets hurt easily and is delicate. She tries very hard to keep this in check, reminding herself that most people have good intentions.