[PP-F1] The Sound of Adventure

[Aster 0]

"Stop! Thief!" The words rang out through the Starting City's shopping district, barked out by a man as he burst through the doors of his shop into the busy streets. A hooded figure swiftly weaved through the crowds, leaving the shopkeeper at a loss as he was quickly out of sight. The thief in question looked to be a teenager, any prominent features kept hidden by plain leather armor and a hood to cover their face. The player seemed to know what they were doing, and their movements indicated this wasn't the first time they've made off from the shopping district with sticky fingers.

As the figure continued down the winding pathways, they had just nearly reached a clearing when another body suddenly cut in front of their path. Unable to react in time, the thief collided with an orange-haired girl and they both let out cries as they fell harshly to the cobblestone floor.

Aster rubbed her head as the world stopped spinning around her, looking for the body that had practically run her over. Pushing herself up to her knees, the girl laid eyes on another person who seemed a bit disoriented, along with a brown satchel laying on the ground between them. Aster's expression clearly showed her annoyance, but the girl reached for the bag, only to retract her hand as it was quickly snatched away. Shifting her gaze upward, her amber eyes fell upon a girl, seemingly around her age, with messy, short sandy hair and striking green eyes. The mystery girl was breathing a bit heavily, and the scene before Aster caused her to blink with confusion. Scowling, the thief quickly pulled her fallen hood back over her head and sprung to her feet, turning and dashing away. "W-wait!" Aster called out almost instinctively, pushing herself to her feet and starting after the girl.

"Tch," The thief glanced behind her, taking her attention away from her path for a split second. As she faced forward again, the girl quickly dashed to the side to avoid colliding with another person, this time a dark-haired man much taller than her. She didn't make it completely out of the way, and stumbled a moment as her shoulder rammed into the man. Without a word, she quickly regained her footing and darted off towards the closest alleyway. Behind her still, Aster attempted to give chase.

[Talo 0]

Talo was having an okay time today. He was walking around, taking everything in. Only just yesterday had he fully realized the way his ears actually work again, and he was pretty comfortable with the whole hearing thing now. The only problem he really had was the annoying tick in his voice from not being able to hear it all those years. Gave him a weird, breathy, or nasally, he couldn't really decide, it being all new to him and all. While he was taking this walk, a thief, that is what he suspected anyways, came colliding into his shoulder, sending him almost falling to the ground, but he was able to catch himself in time. The thief, in question, ran as fast as they could. Before he could question this strange thing, another player, a red haired girl, came running after this cloaked player, telling them to stop. "Are you-" He tried to ask if she was okay, but that wasn't going to happen, she was already gone. "Here we go I guess." He mumbled to himself and started to run after the two. He didn't really know why he was involving himself with these two, but something to do was something to do after all.

[Aster 0]

The mysterious thief was undoubtedly more nimble than Aster. Weaving through loose crowds, the girl had ducked into an alleyway and disappeared from sight. Slowing to a stop at the entrance, Aster pressed a hand against the wall as she attempted to catch her breath. In her mind she knew that physical activity in SAO wasn't actually taxing on her body, but her lack of athleticism seemed to carry over to her mental state as well. The orange-haired girl scowled down the empty alleyway, annoyed at the mystery girl that had escaped.

The sound of nearby footsteps soon caught her attention, and Aster looked over from where she came to see a tall man approaching, as if he had followed her path. Registering his appearance, Aster vaguely recognized him as someone the thief had nearly knocked over as well. Regaining her composure a bit, the girl nudged her glasses up. "Oh, sorry. I suppose you got caught up in that, too." She said simply, feeling a bit at a loss. The other girl was long gone by now, and Aster had an awkward social encounter on her hands.

[Talo 0]

Talo did not like to do anything athletic, he is skinny, but metabolism is the only thing pushing that, no activity what so ever. Talo stopped walking, noticing the girl in front of him had also stopped, the third figure now out of sight. The red haired woman turned around and pushed up her glasses, looking up the Talo. She commented on the fact that he got dragged into all of that, all he did was shrug."Hey, made my day a little more exciting than it was, I mean all I was doing is wasting time walking around." Talo said and looked around for the hooded figure that ran into the two of them." Oh I'm Talo, and did you see where the person went?" Talo stated and asked, spinning in a circle to look for the person.

[Aster 0]

Aster grew visibly uncomfortable, as if holding a conversation was more of a strain for her than it was pursuing a thief. "Down this alley." The girl held up a finger to point down the narrow path beside her. "With how fast she was moving, she's likely on the other side of the city by now." Aster's tone showed a tinge of annoyance that the person who had caused a ruckus had very effectively disappeared. Only now realizing that the man had given her his name, the feeling of obligation tugged at her. "Aster." She spoke up again, before then realizing that her words were all out of order. "is my name." She hurriedly tacked on, glancing awkwardly to the side.

[Talo 0]

Talo noticed the girl get physically uncomfortable, and Talo felt bad for putting her in such a difficult predicament. "Yeah she could be, all we know is that she is in a cloak." Talo muttered and looked around, looking for something to give the two a lead. "Hi Aster, and hey I'm sorry, I know how difficult conversations can be. I mean hey, I was Deaf for 11 years, my voice sounds weird, I get it. If you would like me ot leave you alone, hey, no hard feelings." Talo said, a tinge of blush coming over him as he mentioned his voice and all that, knowing the girl would become aware of the sound now. Talo turned and spotted something, a shred of cloth on the ground. "Wait, look at this." Talo said and help it up, the cloth being black like the cloak.

[Aster 0]

The girl's head cocked to the side in slight interest as the man casually mentioned his real-world disability. Now that he pointed it out, she could detect how slightly off his voice sounded. It hadn't necessarily bothered her or caught her interest earlier, but now she had something to attribute it to. Aster managed to pick up on his subtle change in demeanor, and as it occurred to her that the situation might have now become embarrassing to him, she felt a relief when something else caught Talo's attention.

"Hm?" The girl moved a step closer to inspect the scrap of cloth. She studied it for only a moment before blinking in realization. "That belonged to the girl." She said matter-of-factly, frowning slightly. She brought a hand up to her chin, deep in thought. Now, her only objective seemed to be finding a way to catch that thief, or at least track her down again. Perhaps her motivation was just the boredom of another slow day, or she felt a bit of excitement from getting out of her cramped alchemy shop for a change. Either way, Aster's eyebrows narrowed in frustrated contemplation. "But how can we use this...?" The words came out in a small mumbled through her fingers. Another moment passed before she looked back up to study the shred of a lead. "The only thing I can think of is checking with a few local Tailors. I don't have any kind of tracking ability, but maybe they would recognize the item's cloth and we could track down a name." She explained more audibly, despite the far-fetched idea. As if remembering something, the girl became a tad flustered again, quickly adding on, "Ah, I mean, you don't have to involve yourself with all this. If you have something to do, I would just ask to have that," The girl motioned to the scrap of cloth in his hand.