[PP - F4] Odds and Ends

[Zeke 0]

Standing on the side of one of the many snow-covered streets belonging to Snowfrost Town, a man held his hands inside of the pockets of his coat while he enjoyed the view of the falling snowflakes. The dark night sky working in tandem with the current furious blizzard was a sight to behold for the player. The atmosphere around the town he stood within was exceptional in his eyes. Cozy cottages and dim street lights made him want to go inside and sleep in this type of weather, but rarely did he ever get the chance to stand out in a storm like the one furiously coming down now. His frailty from illnesses back in the real world would keep him from doing many things, but they seemed to only be things he had wanted to do the most, even before becoming restricted from them. This male had a fondness for the cold and could easily withstand cold temperatures much longer than most of the people he used to know. This was never put through any extreme circumstances like those he was in, but the fact that temperature wasn't much of a problem in the game meant that he could stand outside all night until he looked like a snowman. Instead, he felt more like Rudolph because of his frigid nose starting to feel like it would turn red at any second, as red as the ribbon tied around one side of the hair covering the front of his right ear.

On Floor-4 was the only place he knew of so far in Sword Art Online that had snow constantly falling on it; maybe during some kind of holiday event this fact would be different, but the urge for this player to be in a freezing environment exceeded the time constraints put on any event that would come to the virtual world he now lived in. In fact, now it felt like a great time to find himself a place to permanently stay when he wanted to mess around and not be surrounded by others. He still had not enough Col even for a sword better than the beginner's one that everyone else had already thrown away, but sickness didn't feel like something that would affect him if he were to sleep outside in a snow pile. (I wonder how it feels to sleep with a blanket of snow.) He thought and began walking towards the opposite end of town from the end of it he had occupied up until now. He wanted to sense the the feeling that he was the only one out, and with the time and place of his whereabouts, he felt nobody could possibly be traversing the streets as he did. (Social creatures need socialization. They tend to like the warmth as well.) His words provided him his own conversation until he could find one those rare moments when he would happen across someone crazy enough to initiate a lasting conversation with him. Maybe if he got lucky, Santa would come visit him...

Edited August 9, 2015 by Zeke

[Thorrissia 0]

Deep in the wintry woodlands spreading outside of Snowfrost Town, a shivering figure trudged miserably through the bitter winds, her teeth chattering as the fierce combination of spitting ice shards and blustering blizzards threatened to blow her away into the unknown. The very bedraggled looking girl reached to wrap her thick crimson cloak further around her freezing form with a small, almost blue tinged hand. "Gah!" She cried in outrage as the powerful icy air pockets once again blew her hood back off her face, delivering a blast of watery wet snowflakes right into her already cold burned cheeks. Thorrissia really had picked the absolute worse time to go material hunting for her alchemy shop. Like an idiot, she'd assumed that floor four would have been a perfect place to look and she'd been caught in a blizzard and almost frozen to death.

"Thank god!" The girl murmured weakly as she began to stumble through the fringe line of trees, signalling the edge of the forest at last. Thorry planted her hand against the frost covered bark of a nearby tree for support for a moment and drew in a few deep breaths before starting to attempt the unsheltered walk back into the safety of town. This trek was even worse than braving the woodlands as there were no trees now to stop the winds from buffeting her mercilessly and the poor young warrior was already half dead, her HP being stolen by the minute by the harsh weather. Eventually the extremely dishevelled looking brunette wobbled unstably over the town line, the explosive blizzards turning into a light snowfall. If I can only get to our guilds inn then maybe I can make it. She  thought desperately, starting to half walk/half drag herself in the general direction, but exhaustion was starting to kick in and her muscles kept getting heavier and heavier by the minute. Please let me make it. Thorry prayed weakly, hoping somebody up there might be listening. She didn't care who at this point.

But fate had other ideas. The alchemist, now close to death, turned the corner to find a dark haired fellow simply enjoying the snow. "Help." Thorrissia muttered weakly before collapsing in the middle of the street as the snow continued to land lightly upon her unconscious body. It seemed that Snowfrost Town was almost trying to hide her, to keep help from arriving. 

[Zeke 0]

Even someone like him, how could he do anything else other than react in the same way as any other normal person would? To run over and check up on the person, concern wasn't exactly his motivation. He had yet to fully understand who this person was, but knew that chances were in the favor of that person being kind... or kind enough to deserve help. He wouldn't exactly be able find out while they were unconscious, would he? So his hands were tied this time, he had to be more than an observer. Falling onto his knees once he had made it to the person's side, the man had now seen this was a young girl, and younger than any other girl he had met in the game before. He couldn't imagine why someone so young would even be traveling alone in the first place, let alone in a game where living is the prize. However, he also knew that this wasn't the time to further ponder upon the questions the girl brought up, so he removed his coat and placed its length over her entire body; the coat was long enough to cover any part that was still prone to the snow landing on it. Picking her up in his arms with her head laying against his chest, and her legs bent over his right arm, he started to run towards the only hint of help he could hope upon. Moving while he thought, he lessened the time it took to get her someplace warm than if he were to stand there and question what to do with her. 

If using what little Col he had on him, paying for an Inn wouldn't worth it for her to get as warmed as quickly as she needed. The health bar over her body was like a timer for how long she had, and he was always the worst when being timed to do something; someone's life wasn't a game, though, so this would be one of those times he focused more on the the girl dying in his arms than what nerves would always show up when he raced against the clock. Thank goodness that his normally exhausted body held up in the simulation, or else they would both been passed out on the streets to die inside of an igloo. With his new-found physical limitations, the player could hold up just long enough to make it to the nearest blacksmith's in town. It was tricky to open the front door, but he somehow managed it without dropping the poor girl on her head and giving her permanent brain damage. Now that he was running past the welcoming NPC at the counter, it was now a very weird situation. The blacksmith would greet the hurried players into his store like nothing was wrong. "Welcome to my shop! If you see anything you like. Let me know!" The burly, tall, and dark-skinned man began to laugh loudly with a volume that could shake the entire cottage his shop worked from, and in true logical fashion, this only made the male player want to ignore the character even more, as he did just that.

Running around to the back of the counter and into the door leading to the back of the building, the player had finally reached what he was looking for, a fiery pit of death in the form of a giant, open-pit forge. The flames were burning ever so infinitely bright, as only it could in a game, and the touch of heat was very much felt just from standing next to it. Sitting sideways on the stone wall outlining the pit of fire, the man rested his leg diagonally, placing it in a painful way against the edge of the stone's square shape. Now with the mummified girl, he placed her backside against the roar of the flames by hooking his left arm around her back, and then tilting her towards the intense heat with the leg he had propped up onto the side of the forge; the right hand of the man was grasping the girl's right arm to make absolutely sure that he didn't accidentally let her fall in. Now, it would only make sense for the male to hate the insane temperature he was now bearing himself to for the sake of a stranger, since his love did wait outside where he could freeze himself into an ice cube... BUT with the amount of heat now practically thawing the girl in his arms, he would just love it if the insane risk he was making would help her health stop going down. In his mind, he was likely to soon end up as a primary suspect for the young one, a bounty ending up on his head for player-killers gone good.

Edited August 9, 2015 by Zeke

[Thorrissia 0]

Thorrissia was barely aware of an intense burning sensation inflaming the entirety of her skin, lighting it up like a furnace, but she was unable to move. The girl's limbs were almost frozen in place from cold. What, what's happening? Her mind was completely foggy and it was impossible to think, everything was a complete blur. Eventually a haze of fuzzy images and colours began to blur slowly back into focus, and the young and rather befuddled brunette began to drift slowly back into a conscious state. When everything was finally into focus once more, Thorry found herself rather confused. The sensation of fingers digging into the flesh of her arm was the first thing that kicked her into action. "F***!" She growled in surprise, sweeping her legs out with immense speed in an attempt to incapacitate her so called attack. Had the girl been at full strength, the kick would have swept her unsuspecting rescuer off his feet, but luckily she was not, and the blow did nothing but probably cause him some surprise at her sudden regaining of consciousness. "Unhand me this instant!" Thorrissia ordered with a surprising amount of aggression and authority for a sixteen year old girl. 

[Zeke 0]

The attempt to knock him off of his feet was incredibly weak just like the girl who was now kicking back to life, and since she was blinded by the coat on her face, he figured he would let it pass until she could at least see why someone was holding her down. "If I let you go instantly, you would instantly become ashes." He spoke to her in a calm voice so she would maybe think again before trying to kick his legs off. A certain chuckle quickly came and faded at her humorous escape.

Getting up with her still restrained at the shoulders by his hands, the man forced her to sit down with her back against the stone wall of the furnace, revealing her surroundings afterwards with a removal of his coat from her head. "Don't act so reckless next time. Look at your health, it's almost entirely depleted because you passed out in the snow outside." Putting his coat back on, he walked over to a window and opened it. It was way too hot for him inside of the room with the furnace making him sweat profusely, so maybe enough snow against his face would help. 

"My name is Zeke, ferocious." He spoke loud enough to where he was sure she could hear him, despite his body being turned away from her and his head sticking out of the window. You could tell he was strange if you knew him well enough, for he trusted her not to do anything funny while he had his back turned, but also not enough to give her a last name. Excluding a last name would be normal for anyone else, but he almost always spoke his full name when introducing himself to anyone else, unsure if anyone from his past even caught on to this strange detail. A reason for the exclusion would probably be that he was deeply uncertain as to what this girl's mindset could cause her to do, having never met someone like her as someone he would talk to up front. 

Just as he turned around from cooling off, the blacksmith came into the room with a piece of metal in his hands, it could easily be presumed that this was the next creation of the famous unnamed blacksmith: 'tall man with dark skin and a full beard.' Since the NPC was dense as all heck, the giant man did not have the intelligence to know when a girl was right in his way. In what would be an hilarious result, the NPC stood uncomfortably close to the strange girl, only acknowledging her existence when his programming required that he avoid colliding with players. 

 

Edited August 13, 2015 by Zeke

[Thorrissia 0]

"If I let you go instantly, you would instantly become ashes." Replied a voice, calm and collected despite her best efforts to sabotage his limbs. Thorrissia was enraged, every muscle in her body tensing to extreme levels in case this guy was some sort of freak, but she did not struggle against him, least he decide to  drop her into the furnace, or whatever the hell sort of fire she was being held over. A low and almost feral growl ripped from her throat as Thorry felt the man's grip tighten around her shoulders as he placed her against a cool stone surface. 

"Gah!" The sudden light burned her eyes and the girl's hand instantly shot up to shield herself from the violent transition from darkness to brightness. "Don't act so reckless next time. Look at your health, it's almost entirely depleted because you passed out in the snow outside." Thorrissia felt nothing but confusion. She thought this guy had been intent on roasting her. Eventually however, the fragmented images of somebody rushing over to help her began to return... Had this fellow saved her?

"Look, I uh, I'm sorry for uh, y'know, trying to kick your legs in." The brunette began awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm not particularly used to waking up blind, and um, I'm a little paranoid so..." She trailed off, feeling exceptionally stupid and embarrassed. She wasn't too good at apologising for things, but considering she'd just tried to attack her rescuer, Thorrissia figured it would be no bad thing to say a simple sorry. The girl turned her attention to the man at the window, wondering why he'd let in the draft from outside. Maybe he was hot stupid. Not everyones ok with being a human marshmallow. 

The sudden appearance of an imposing scraggly bearded man caused her to start a little, but the alchemist relaxed a little upon realising that this man was in fact an NPC, not a thug with a crow bar. The young warrior gazed up at the towering fellow in confusion, feeling a little awkward that he was basically standing on top of her. "Um, can I help you?" She asked with a raised eyebrow and a slightly weirded out expression. The NPC said nothing, simply motioning towards the furnace anxiously. "Ohhhhhhh right, sorry." Thorry responded with a slightly laugh, realising what he was after. They were in a smithing shop. Of course, it all made sense. The girl quickly bum shuffled out of the way and scooted out of the blacksmith's path. 

[Zeke 0]

Zeke thought about what the girl had said while staring out of the window. (I think I might be able to grasp your personality. You're young, but to be so reckless and still alive? You probably make more friends with a brash attitude, but I hope you don't let them sacrifice too much of themselves for you.) He turned around from the view of the snow to say something in response to the girl's words, but her uncomfortable encounter with the blacksmith had left him wanting to laugh a bit. In order to keep up appearances that he was more mature than the girl he had saved, Zeke stayed quiet about what he had seen. Choosing to ignore it, he instead went on to say what he had originally intended to. "You're right. I should've thought ahead in the moment and I didn't. I apologize to if I came across as rude to you when I said what I did. I can imagine what I would have thought in your position, and I would have likely done the same thing."

Heading over near the downed girl, Zeke sat with his back upon the stone wall of the furnace, relaxing on the opposite side of the blacksmith from where the girl was. "Can you please give me some sort of name for me to call you? I don't want to have to keep referring to you as 'her, or girl' in my head. Anything is fine, even if it's a nickname, that way you won't have to worry about me knowing your real name." Very soon after he had finished asking his question, the blacksmith NPC had given him the same treatment as he had earlier given the girl, by basically tea-bagging him with the position he stood in. Indifferent to the man-crotch in his face, Zeke pretended as if it were not two inches from his face and proceeded to yawn. The towering character would soon move, but it was a sight to behold from a certain angle. 

 

Edited August 28, 2015 by Zeke