[F1-PP] A lost boy (Mason, Adhaerere)

[Mason 0]

 Mason's first jump into the world of Sword Art Online had been an easy one. The NerveGear was slightly uncomfortable for the little boy, due to the fact that it was too big for him and hurt the back of his head when he lay down with it on. He soon forgot about this as he saw the new world he had been sent to. It was almost a dream. People everywhere, floating islands outside of the Town of Beginnings, swords and daggers and other sharp things to play with. It took Mason a while to figure out how to choose his weapon and put his Skill Points into a skill that he wanted. He ended up with a One-Handed Dagger and five points in the Gatherer skill. He had gotten really excited when he (slowly) read about the skill and didn't look at anything below it before putting his points there.

 Then, as the Game Master teleported them all to the town once more and told them what was going on, Mason was scared out of his wits. He tried finding a Log Out button, because maybe the GM was lying, but he couldn't see it. He started crying soon after, and once the announcement was done, he started running as far as he could out of the town center. He ran for a few minutes, and then tripped on a cobblestone that stuck out of the pavement and scratched his knees and hands. This made him cry harder, and he ran over to a dark corner in between buildings and sat down, hugging his knees. "I want my mommy," he sobbed, thinking about what had happened. He was stuck here. He wanted to go talk to his friends and his mommy and daddy. He could DIE. He buried his face in his knees and curled up tighter. 

Edited September 5, 2016 by Mason

[Adhaerere 0]

 Adhae stepped out of her shop for the day, stretching her arms above her head and yawning. "Oh boy, this really takes it out of me." She put her hands on her back and bent backwards, trying to crack her back. She'd picked up that habit from Verus. She hadn't seen Verus in a while; she'd need to go talk to him again. Oh well. That was a topic to pursue another time. For now, she wanted to relax. 

 She started walking down the road to the left, taking a different route than she usually did to leave her shop. She hadn't explored all of the Town of Beginnings yet. This town really was huge, and Adhae felt like she should find out more about her surroundings. There were lots of shops around and she needed to get some things for her shop anyway. As she passed the different shops, she looked at the displays at each of them. Some Tailors, some Artisans, some Merchants. All very interesting but not really what she needed. They also were much too expensive, sadly. Cheap and easy was what she needed. 

 Before long, she'd turned down a few streets that she didn't recognize. That was okay though. She could keep the directions in her head, she thought. Probably. And if not, she'd message someone else and have them come save her from the maze that was the Town of Beginnings. As she walked, she turned down a street that didn't have many people on it. It was also quite quiet here. There was a little patch of grass and a tree that grew in the middle of it, the backs of the buildings around it turned towards the tiny park. There was a dark alley between the two buildings directly behind the tree. As she walked, she noticed a soft sound on top of her own footsteps. She stopped and listened; yes, she was right. It was soft crying that sounded like it was coming in the direction of the alley. Adhae decided to venture towards, it, keeping her footsteps as light as she could (which wasn't all that quiet). She peered into the alley but couldn't make out anything immediately. "Hello?"

Edited September 6, 2016 by Adhaerere

[Mason 0]

 This was all going wrong. Mason didn't want to be here. He wanted to go home. He smeared his eyes on his shirtsleeve and tried to be a little quieter, but it didn't work. He wanted to go home.

 Then, he heard a "Hello?" from the opening of the alley and turned his head quickly towards the noise. There was a woman there. A giant woman. The angle of the sun made her face hard to make out, and defined her features a lot. It was scary enough for Mason to cry out and jump up as fast as he could, pulling up his inventory and taking out his dagger, holding it up towards the woman in what he thought was a threatening manner. "S-stay away!" he said in his little boy voice, stuttering on the first word. His voice still was shaky from the crying he'd only just stopped doing, the sadness having been overpowered by fear. "Who are you?" he asked timidly. He didn't know what this woman wanted, and just wanted to be alone for a while. He wanted to go home. Tears started streaming down his face once more, though he didn't make much more noise than a loud shaky breath or two.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Mason

[Adhaerere 0]

 Startled by the shuffling in the dark, her eyes adjusted to it a little bit and she could make out a small form moving around in there. She peered closer, and was startled again by the sudden appearance of a menu. She put her hands up in a defensive way but didn't move away. "Hello there..." She could see the boy's face now. For it clearly was a boy; he stood four and a half some feet tall, quite a lot shorter than Adhae herself. He had messy brown hair and hazel eyes, and wore a blue polo shirt and darker blue shorts. He had cute little red shoes on. Adhae put her hands up to her face. Oh my he was adorable. The dagger he was holding didn't frighten her at all. He couldn't hurt her with it. 

 "Hey... Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Adhae, or Mallory. You can call me whatever you want. Mal works, or you can even call me by my full username, Adhaerere. But that's a mouthful. What's your name big guy?" She didn't make the mistake of walking towards him. Smiling and tilting her head would do the trick. "You've got a pretty knife there, huh? Where'd you get it?" She leaned forward a little as if to look at it. "Hmm, and I really like your outfit. It's very manly," she said, keeping the smile down in her voice. He really was a cute kid. 

[Mason 0]

 As she spoke, Mason stiffened slightly, but soon relaxed as she didn't come closer to him. She seemed nice. As she told him her name, he laughed a little. "Add-hay-raaray," he sounded out, starting to giggle. The hand holding the dagger dropped a little. "That's a funny name. I'll call you Mal," he decided, drawing his chest up and puffing it out, proud of himself for choosing that. "My name is Mason." As she asked about his dagger, he put it up to show it to her. "I got it when I joined the game. I like knifes and thiefs," he said. He touched the handle of it with his other hand, bringing it down in front of him. He was no longer worried about holding it up towards Adhae; he'd already forgotten that she was scary. When the topic switched to his clothes, she put away his knife because it was in the way. He pulled at the collar of his shirt. "My mom chose it for me. She's really nice, and gives me a lot of clothes." Then his eyes welled with tears, remembering that he wouldn't see his mom again. It was too much for the child to handle. He'd been forcefully taken away from his parents less than an hour ago.

[Adhaerere 0]

 Adhae nodded along to his comments until he got to the part about his parents. She had started smiling, but when she realized he was crying she frowned and quickly went forward, kneeling down and wrapping her arms around him in a hug. "Shhh, it's okay Mason. You'll be okay," she cooed, trying to soothe the poor boy. She could never stand it when little kids cried. It was the most heart-wrenching thing. So, she tried her very best to keep them from crying or tried to cheer them up when she could. She patted his back and rocked gently, whispering more little things to him. "You'll see them later, okay? I promise you. You'll see your parents again. And I'll play the game with you until you do. Is that okay?" She pulled her head back to look at the boy's face, meeting his eyes and smiling once she did. "Actually, I have something else that will cheer you up," she realized. Letting go of him, she swiped up her inventory and pulled out the lollipop she'd made earlier that day. It had been burned a little and she decided not to sell it. This was a perfect opportunity to cheer a child up and not have to give the item to someone who didn't want it. She grabbed the red treat from her inventory and held it out to him. "Here you go. I made it just for you. It's cherry flavoured." 

Spoiler

Name: Dark Lollipop
Profession: Cook
Rank: 2
ID: #66925
Roll: 5
Item Type: Snack 
Quality: Bad
Tier: 1
Enhancements: None
Description: This red lollipop is quite dark and sort of brown, and would smell and taste just the tiniest bit burned. The white-spotted red ribbon that wraps around the stick adds to the colour and makes it look especially cute with the bow it sports.

-Dark Lollipop

[Mason 0]

 Mason wrapped his arms around Adhae's neck, falling into her hug and pressing his face into her shoulder. Her shirt would have gotten slightly wet from his tears. Though he was sad, he still nodded when she said she'd play with him. "Okay," he whispered. 

 He pulled away from her when she let go, and looked quite a bit happier as she brought out the lollipop. He loved those. And it was his favourite flavour. He reached out for it and looked at the thing, ni awe of how it looked. It was so perfect. He had to remind himself that he was inside a video game, and that was how everything looked flawless. Even the town, which was supposed to look medieval, looked too nice. "Thank you Mal," he said quietly, wiping his face of tears. He hesitated for a second before giving the lollipop a big lick, not even noticing the slight burned taste. He smiled, and though his eyes were still puffy he looked happy.

+Dark Lollipop

Edited September 7, 2016 by Mason

[Adhaerere 0]

 She smiled wide at him. "Is it good? I can make some more for you if you want. I'm a Cook, so I can make a bunch of different desserts. I haven't had anyone buy things from my shop yet but I'm hoping that will happen soon. My shop is too nice for people to not look at it!" She waved at him, beckoning him towards her. She started walking out of the alley. "Let's get out of this dark alley. I want to show you around." As soon as she saw the boy was with her, she started walking out of the little garden area.

 Since she was in fact lost, she hesitated for a moment before choosing a random direction and heading down it. She had to slow her pace to get down to Mason's level, due to him being a lot smaller and slower than she was. His legs were maybe half the size of hers. It was crazy, he was so tiny. Adhae loved tiny people. "We're going to go check out the outside of the Town of Beginnings. The plains look really beautiful, along with all the floating islands. Have you been out there yet? Maybe we can see a little monster." She smiled at him, looking down at his little head as they walked. They were approaching the busy streets once more.

[Mason 0]

 His face brightened as she spoke about giving him more treats. If she was a cook, then she would make good things to eat. Mason always loved getting treats from his parents, and wanted to have some more of em now. They would cheer him up. Mason didn't like being sad, and was glad to stay with this woman if she would continue to make him happy. He nodded along to her comments about the land outside of the Town of Beginnings.

 "I went out there before we got teleported to the town. The islands are really pretty," he said thoughtfully, taking another lick of his lollipop. He perked up even more when she asked about going out to see a monster. "Ooh, can we can we? I want to use this knife!" He almost dropped his lollipop as he pulled out his weapon again, waving it around.

 Mason was more than excited to get back into the game, and didn't dwell on his sad feelings. Children had a way of jumping between happy and sad and back again very quickly. Adhae's presence and gift made him a lot happier, and if she could continue to distract him from the fact that he was isolated here, he would be even happier.

[Adhaerere 0]

 Adhae laughed as he pulled his knife out of his inventory. Holding her hands up defensively, she said, "Hey, don't hit me with that thing! I don't have my armour on!" though she laughed while she spoke. She had no doubts that the little thing couldn't hurt a fly. He looked so defenseless like that, and her heart warmed when she thought of how she was now his protector. A self-assigned protector, no doubt, but with her treats he wouldn't go far from her. She missed a step when she realized how horrible that sounded in her head, and resolved to never think like that again. 

 "We can go see a mob, but they've gotta be pretty tough in order to get any loot from them. We can try to find a mob that's very small and won't drop anything, though." She smiled at him and then they pushed into the busy main street of the town.

 Adhae grabbed Mason's hand to keep him close to her and walked with the flow of the crowd, glancing back at the boy every so often to make sure he was keeping up. She had to remind herself to walk slower. 

Edited September 25, 2016 by Adhaerere

[Mason 0]

 Mason giggled and pointed the knife at her, though he tried his best to not poke her with it or anything. He had no desire to hurt this woman. She'd shown him kindness so far, and he didn't make a habit of hurting his friends. He considered her a friend now, because she gave him a present and said she'd show him around. That's what he really needed now; a friend to give him direction. He'd probably have shut down and given up if he couldn't figure out a mechanic in the game. He wasn't too great at problem solving alone.

 "That's okay. I want to use it anyway. Eventually, I want to be the best Dagger user in the game!" He held the item triumphantly above his head and stuck his lollipop in his mouth to put the weapon back into his inventory, not wanting to drop it again. "And if we can kill a baby animal, maybe I can keep something from it. What can we kill around here?" He tilted his head up to look at Adhae as they walked.

 Then, they reached the busy street, and he clung onto her extended hand. There were a lotta people, so he had to keep his eyes on his feet and who was in front of him. He stepped on someone's foot once, but quickly caught up to Adhae to avoid the person he'd victimized seeing their attacker. He felt bad.

[Adhaerere 0]

 She looked down at him as he asked the question about things they could kill. He was so curious, it was adorable. "There are mostly boars on the first floor. We could find some wolves maybe. I fought a few of those with Verus," she said, smiling.

 Then, they reached the front gate of the Town of Beginnings. She looked up at the tall thing and took a deep breath, realizing they were about to step out of safety and into a world that she couldn't always protect Mason in. Giving a little shrug, she pulled up her menu and equipped her two pieces of armour and her battleaxe. The two pieces of equipment shone and gave her a looming look. She seemed like, quite literally, a knight in shining armour. All she needed was a shield and one-handed straight sword. But she preferred the large battleaxe that she currently rested on the ground. It could hit things a lot harder, and her armour did all the work when she got hit with things, so she didn't need a shield. She looked at Mason, and then stepped outside of the town. 

"Here we go."

 As she left the town, she looked back at him. "Another thing you can do is look for materials out here. I use those to make my baked goods." She pointed at a bush she'd spotted. "Looking through those could give you some berries or other ingredients."

ID: 68538
  LD: 14 (so close!)

Edited September 25, 2016 by Adhaerere

[Mason 0]

 He nodded happily. "I'd like to see a baby wolf. And who's Verus?" He was confused by this part, because she'd brought up a name that was unfamiliar to him. Who could this Verus be?

 He watched her put on all of her items, and his jaw fell open. Holy cow, that was a lot of gear. He walked up to her and touched the bottom of her chestplate, running his little fingers along the cool surface of it. He left a tiny smudge on accident and gasped. He put his shoulder up to it to use his shirt to wipe it off. How could he smudge something as shiny as that? "Sorry Mal."

 He listened as she spoke about the materials gathering, and followed her out of the city. He wasn't as afraid as she was. His goal was to get stronger, and how could he do that if he sat around in the beginning town? He was excited to get out and do something. Materials gathering seemed to be a perfect chance for him to do this. He ran over to the bush and looked at it, trying to spot a berry or something, like she'd said.

ID: #68541
  LD: 18

 He did see something... He reached out and plucked it, and saw that it was a blackberry. He held it up in triumph, showing his prize to Adhae.

+1 Material

Edited September 25, 2016 by Mason

[Adhaerere 0]

 "Oh, don't worry about it," she laughed as he wiped the smudge off of her chestplate. "This thing can handle it." She patted the top of his head, and then they were off.

 She beamed with pride as he showed her his item. Maybe the kid had a knack at finding items. This would result well for her shop; if she could get all of his materials, she could make the best items for her customers. That was her only struggle. She didn't have enough items to make any orders. Hopefully he'd be generous enough to give her those. He probably would. The child seemed like he was kind enough to see the good in giving away his own items. And after all, she would continue to make him treats to suck on. 

 "Wow, good job! Can you keep looking for them? I'll walk around a little bit and see if I can find a baby wolf or baby boar."

ID: #68543
   LD: 10

 Before she did, however, she cast another glance over the bush. Maybe she could see a blackberry there that she hadn't spotted before. Finding nothing, she turned to look for a creature on the horizon. She tried not to get too far away from the child as she wandered.

Edited September 25, 2016 by Adhaerere

[Mason 0]

 Mason nodded, happy to stay in place as he looked for his materials. He wanted to see those mobs but needed these materials more. He wanted to help out Adhae as much as he could. She was so nice to him. She almost reminded him of his own mom, a little. They both were very kind. Oh, he missed his mom... He sucked on his lollipop as his eyes welled up with tears. This wasn't good. He needed materials. Right.

ID: 68543
 LD: 17

 He spotted another blackberry in the bush, and quickly grabbed it. He'd been lucky with finding them, and seeing this material cheered him up. He wiped off his eyes and looked around for Adhae, seeing her a few meters off. He went to show her what he'd gotten.

 "I found another one. Did you see any baby mobs?" His excited face tilted up at her.

+1 Material

Edited September 25, 2016 by Mason

[Adhaerere 0]

 Adhae had stood at the crest of the hill, scouting out the surrounding area to try to spot a beast. She didn't see anything... Oh, there. She saw movement down in the flat plains below, and smiled wide. She'd tell Mason and then they'd finally get to kill a monster. It looked like there was a small one down there. It probably wouldn't drop any items, but it would be a good experience for the boy. 

 As she turned back to point it out to him, he appeared besides her. "Oh, awesome Mason. I think I saw one down there." She pointed down to the plains. "Let's go." 

 She set off walking down the closest path she could see, watching the rolling grass dance as if brushed with invisible hands. She'd always loved that picture; the blue sky, spotted with clouds, touching the horizon of endlessly expanding fields of long grass. Being able to see it in as real of a world as this was bliss. She hadn't had the opportunity to see anything like this in real life. She searched for something edible on the ground just in case, always in search of something she could use in her shop. Desperate for materials, she was lacking what she needed to keep the business running. 

ID: 68591
  LD: 13

Edited September 26, 2016 by Adhaerere

[Mason 0]

 Mason looked up at her and smiled. All of his previous sadness had been forgotten. He was content focusing on the exciting things happening right now. It was time to fight his first mob! In the few games he'd played in the past, he'd always struggled to kill higher levelled creatures, but the first floor or level 1 mobs always were fun to kill nonstop. He was looking forwards to that chance now with these mobs. He'd work his way up to the highest level soon! As he walked, he copied what Adhae did, searching for any materials on the ground. He was proud of himself for learning how to do this and decided to keep the skill he was good at up.

ID: 68592
  LD: 15

 He saw a lot of grass, and then a plant that looked leafy and like something he'd eaten before. He bent down to rip it out of the ground and stuck it in his pocket for safekeeping. When he looked back up, he saw the mobs that Adhae had mentioned not long before. There were two of them; one was a large boar, with terrifyingly big tusks, and the other was a boar that looked like it could be killed if you stepped on it. Mason smiled wide.

 "This'll be easy peasy!" He equipped his knife and was about ready to run into combat.

+1 Material

Edited September 26, 2016 by Mason

[Adhaerere 0]

 She saw Mason stop and pick up something from the ground out of the corner of her eye, and glanced at what he was doing. Oh, a material. She stopped and went over to where he had found the.. It looked like rosemary, and tried to spot another tiny bush of it. 

ID: 68593
  LD: 20

 She found one and grabbed it, putting it away in her inventory and then smiling at Mason. She continued on with him, and laughed softly as he equipped his knife. She set her hand on his shoulder to prevent him from running directly into the middle of the mother boar and her baby. 

 "Whoa there tiger. Let me explain a few things. First, you don't tackle a beast that you know you can't handle. That big one," she pointed to it, "is too much for you to deal with on your own. It looks like something I might be better suited to fighting. What you need to do is wait for the small one to wander away, and then only agro that one. I can help you with that. My job is to take all of the hits while you go after it and stab it with that knife of yours. Let me go after it first." 

 She decided to go after the beast and just hit it with her hands. Right then, the bigger boar wandered far enough away that it was out of agro range of the smaller one. Perfect. She advanced on the small creature after putting away her axe and prepared to smack it once she got close enough. 

ID: 68594 
  BD: 5  MD: 5

 She walked towards it and once she was close enough she swung her fist at it but missed. There goes that plan. It charged her, giving her just enough time to sidestep it and avoid getting hit herself. She probably needed some skill to land a hit like that anyways. "Now it's your turn, Mason. Go ahead and swing at it."

Combat Results
Adhae : (200-0=)200 HP - 18 Energy
Boar: (4-0=)4 HP - 10 DMG

+1 Material

Edited September 26, 2016 by Adhaerere

[Mason 0]

 He listened to her instructions, nodding along to it even though he was impatient to fight the boar. "Yeah, yeah. Yes Mal. I'll be careful." His mind turned back to the fight then, watching her go after the creature. He started edging forwards after she went towards it and held his knife tightly, keeping his eyes on the prize. This would be his first victory.

ID: 68595
 BD: 7

 As the creature charged passed Adhae, he prepared his arm and struck out at it. He managed to graze the side of the boar as it streaked passed, the creature skidding to a stop behind him. He raised his hands in triumph. "Yes! I got it Adhae, I got it!" However, he hadn't killed the boar. It was still alive behind him and only was barely half its health down. If Mason had looked back, he would have seen the boar get angry and start to charge after the boy.

Combat Results
Mason : (20-0=)20 HP - 1 Energy
Boar: (4-1=)3 HP - 10 DMG

Edited September 26, 2016 by Mason

[Adhaerere 0]

 Adhae smiled wide as he managed to land a hit on the boar. "Yay, good job! I'm so proud of you." She'd expected him to finish off the boar, and saw only at the last second that it wasn't dead. She ran forwards and quickly equipped her battleaxe, holding it tight in both of her hands. She saw the boar begin to charge and panicked, stepping sideways to avoid Mason and swinging her axe downwards at the boar to try to prevent it from hitting him.

ID: 68596
 BD: 8  MD: 4

 She had swung just in time. Landing the hit on the boar's side, it flew sideways with the force of her swing, freezing and exploding into a mass of red pixels. She set her axe down and leaned on it. Breathing easier now, she looked at Mason. "You need to be more careful, okay? Get out of the way and get behind me if you ever don't kill a mob. I can protect you." She smiled at him, and then looked at where the creature had fallen. She saw no rewards appearing, and assumed she'd guessed right. The mob was too small to give them any items or Col. 

Combat Results
Adhae : (200-0=)200 HP - 18 Energy
Boar: (3-4=)0 HP - 10 DMG

 She looked at Mason and walked closer to him, smiling and putting away her items. "Well, what'd you think? That was your first combat. I think we should head back to town now, I want to show you my shop. I have more lollipops there." And with that, they began to head back up the hill towards the Town of Beginnings. She glanced along the ground as they walked to search for any materials. She spotted another rosemary sprig and plucked it.

ID: 68597
  LD: 15

+1 Material

Edited September 26, 2016 by Adhaerere