[OP-F1] Forgotten but not Dead [COMPLETE]

[Glow 0]

A small whistled tune made its way through a particular alleyway of the starting city, winding and writhing through the alleyways of a more run-down location within the original starting point. A beginning of hopes and hell. That particular thought brought a slightly twisted smile to Samuel's face, the whistling briefly being interrupted, before continuing again after a small chuckle. It was just rather ironic. A game that should be pioneering the future turning into a Coliseum of people against monsters. Sighing, and lying backwards, the black sunglasses he'd started with managing to prevent his sensitive eyes from the rather harsh rays beating down, Samuel continued to tap a small tune while whistling along. He might not have his guitar anymore, but any kind of music was relaxing for him, to be honest. He chose this particular area because it was away from most of the other newbies around the area - notice the 'other' used. He would gladly admit he knew nothing about the game, as of yet. The tune cuts off with that thought, as Samuel puts one hand under his chin, gently scratching over the skin. He'd been here for a while now, letting information trickle down and try to figure out how it all works, but it seemed the only real way to get anywhere was to... well, to quite literally get to places. These places being levels, in both senses. 

Then again, he wasn't suicidal enough to take his first venture into the wild on his own - as trained as he was in the real world, this was a game governed by numbers and skills, not always individual prowess. And it wasn't exactly going to be cheatable or anything; hell, it took him long enough just to get a look at his own personal file within the game, let alone manipulate it. There was only one real way through; he needed to git gud.

However, the gud only follows the gitting of the gud. And he doesn't have any gud to start from. He needs an IV drip of raw gud, that he may git. Nodding, and speaking to no one in particular, he questions "you git me?" A few passing NPCs look at him for a moment, before continuing on, and Samuel turns slightly red as he realizes he just said it out loud. Well... in a language that actually makes sense, he needed some kind of teacher. He wasn- well, he was at the start, but he's gathered himself up enough that Samuel refuses to just lay down and die. But... how in the world was he going to find a teacher on floor one of all places. All the people who know what's up are probably already past the tenth floor. Groaning quietly, he pushes his head into his hands. He could already sense this was going to be a long day.

Edited November 5, 2015 by Glow

[Teion 0]

Teion crossed her arms over her chest and gave a loud huff. She was growing annoyed with the layout of the starting city; as soon as she was under the impression that she knew where something was, she got herself mixed up and made two wrong turns. She had finally pulled herself away from her shop on the fifth floor long enough to look for some other shops for supplies. She wanted to find an Artisan player to see about finally getting a trinket or something. The girl had taken what she thought was a detour--a shortcut from the main plaza to the shopping district, but ended up in a more secluded section of town, where no one seemed to be selling anything.

She mumbled something under her breath with an annoyed tone before admitting defeat and glancing around for any figures that weren't controlled by the game. After a few moments she spotted a light-haired boy not too far away. Swallowing her pride, she uncrossed her arms and walked over to the player, approaching him and announcing her presence. "Aah... Excuse me," She started, "Do you know where the player-run shops are from here?" She asked, avoiding looking directly at him. Her tone and body language seemed to be a mixture of embarrassment, annoyance, and trying not to be rude by showing either one.

[Glow 0]

Slowly dragging his hands off his face, Samuel gives a quiet sigh, leaning backwards and onto the surface below him, lying backwards on the top of the small outcropping. Well, at least he had his trusty Starter Claws to aid him if he eventually did have to go out by himself. Wild Dance just seemed like a good weapon to start with; matched up with his current combat style, and had a decent amount of damage behind it. And it looked hella cool.

Footsteps slowly echo to his ears, and he slightly inclines his head towards their origin, freezing for a moment as a voice cuts through the silence before quickly relaxing again at the reasonably innocent question. Samuel pushes himself to a comfortable sitting position, and looks over at the person next to him, scanning over her form briefly. Well, at least he wouldn't have to look that far for identifying features; that purple hair certainly stood out to him. She seemed to be wearing a slightly frustrated expression, but trying to push it back - although... not particularly successfully. Holding in a chuckle that would undoubtedly set the somewhat annoyed woman off, Samuel gives a small nod. "Y-yes. I can show you the way to them, if you wish." He states, having made a mental map of the area a while ago - better to have the information and not use it than to be lacking it when needed. It's not like he had anything better to do in the meanwhile, either. May as well help someone out and... well, maybe he could always ask for some help after whatever errand she was running was completed.

[Whit 0]

Whit looked around, it was time to practice sneaking, a skill he'd deemed useless when he'd first entered the game. After all, if he wanted information, then he'd log out, make another acount, and if he got caught then he'd try again.

Of course now he couldn't, unless dying meant leaving instead of, you know, dying. He had never seen someone die anyway.

Whit shook his head, back to training. He looked around for a random target, he needed someone talking, hopefully about useless information.

Base stealth: 10

No concealment

Whit spotted a nearby pair of players, he could hear them from his distance, but understanding them was different. Whit edged his way towards a nearby vendor, it was a basic store for potions. He was more focused on eavesdropping anyway.

Edited October 29, 2015 by Whit

[Celestial 0]

Busily perusing a player-made guidebook which was on display outside a merchant's shop, Celestial stopped ever so briefly to take a careful look around. Even though the game didn't allow hurting another player inside a safe-zone, he had no way of knowing if that included stealing...if the game even included stealing at all. Come to think about it, Celestial mused, he didn't know very much about this game at all. All of the information he had to go off of so far had been gathered from other players conversations; some of whom had studied up on the game prior to its' release; unfortunately, that didn't include Celestial. He had ended up here by a cruel twist of fate and so he had to be extra studious in learning about the game now, in the early levels, lest he suffer for it later on.

Slowly eyeing the crowd, Celestial took note of the vendors in the area-there was a potions shop, the small general goods shop Celestial was currently at, an Artisan's shop, an Alchemy shop, and several other stalls run here on the market. It was certainly a very busy street at this time of day, lots of people going to and from, trading goods, and trying to get the best bargains they can. Looking up, he could see a young player near the potions shop, though he was certainly NOT shopping. The player seemed to be doing his very best (though his best was pretty terrible) at sneaking around while trying very hard to eavesdrop on a pair of nearby players.

Celestial smiled and decided that since that player was trying so hard to be sneaky, there was only one thing to do. Puffing out his chest and bringing himself up to his full 6'2" height, he walked up behind the player and grasp him on the shoulders.

"HI, THERE!", Celestial bellowed.

Whit Stealth 10
ID 36728 LD 16 - Success, spotted Whit!

Edited October 30, 2015 by Celestial

[Whit 0]

Whit was shaken by the shoulder, unphased by a certain giant's greeting. Whit's left eye began to twitch as he turned his head around. "Dude, are you freaking kidding me. That would've been the best chance to scare someone, and you wasted it on me! Look around, there's many opportunities to scare people doing things. The bloody npcs would've granted better results."

"WHYYY?"

Whit wrenched himself free of the giant's grasp, he loved seeing the reaction of scared people, and indeed loved to get scared himself, driving him to forget about his 'training' session. "Look man, you are absolutely terrifying, which is perfect, but instead of using that as a jumpscare, add that to the creepiness factor, stand in a room by yourself with like a giant axe, 'cause dude anyone can jumpscare, but not everyone can be terrifying."

Whit is no longer in stealth mode.

[Teion 0]

 A tinge of red crept over Teion's face as she grew more flustered. "Thanks," she said hurriedly. She had tried to be as self-sufficient as possible in Aincrad, but directions were certainly not her strongest sense. She exhaled in slight frustration, irked that map data had to be gathered individually. Sure, it could be traded or sold, but she could hardly justify spending her hard-earned col on a map.

Her attention was suddenly diverted as she heard a rumbling voice not far off. Her gaze darted to the side, curious. There were just enough of a crowd down the road that it was hard to make out the source of the voice, but she eventually spotted a particularly tall individual that she suspected to be the cause. She raised an eyebrow, intrigued, but shook her head lightly to dismiss the thought. Turning her attention back to the boy in front of her, she gave a slight wave of her hand, hoping he didn't think her to be rushing him. "Anyway, would you mind leading the way?" She tried to retain some sense of politeness as she returned her focus to her task at hand.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Teion

[Glow 0]

Samuel raises an eyebrow at the now obvious embarrassment on the person's face, but quickly shrugs it off, giving another brief nod at the reply. "No prob. Guess it's one thing I can be useful at; giving directions." He states, stuck halfway between a bitter and joking tone. Along with making a mental map of the area, he'd been down here so long that most of his map data was filled out by now. Just of the city, of course; he hadn't ventured out yet since he was still trying to find his bearings and see if there was an... easier way out of the game. Unfortunately, their firewalls were top notch; no cheeky ways to get around it. The game had to be played.

The teen flinched at a loud sound pulsing outwards, and hissed quietly before shaking his head. Couldn't people be a bit quieter? Samuel turns his head to the origin, and his grimace quickly turns into a quiet chuckle. Well, at least it was for a good cause; scaring the crud out of someone. He has to smother a full out laugh as he sees the smaller man start ranting about something to the larger of the pair. A hand passes in front of his face, and he freezes up unnaturally as it passes his eyes, before blinking a few times and giving a deep breath, turning back towards the woman. He listens to the request, and then gives a smile. "Of course." He replies, giving a brief look around the area to gain his bearings before clicking his fingers at a familiar passageway, leading past the bickering pair up ahead. "This way, m'lady." Samuel says, in a slightly cheeky tone of voice, before hopping down off the small ledge and heading forwards.

[Celestial 0]

"Haha...I will have to keep that in mind," Celestial said, barely keeping his laughter in check. Now that he was up-close, he could see this person was just a kid really, almost a full ten years younger than Celestial was. Still cognizant of the fact that they were on a busy market street, Celestial lowered his voice a bit so as to not attract undue attention. All around them, players were a mess of activity, going place to place, it was really something to see. Being the largest city known so far, the Starting City was also a city in which many players made their home, many of whom, had no desire to leave its' guaranteed safety; Celestial however, was not one of those people, there was a whole world out there, and he wanted to see every last part of it. Keeping his mind on more *local* matters however, Celestial decided to choose his next words carefully and firmly, yet softly voiced his next question. 

"Now...why don't you tell me, why exactly were you eavesdropping on their conversation?"

[Whit 0]

"Oh, I guess I lost, huh. Look I can explain."

Well you see sir, I was stalking some random couple so I could practice sneaking!

No, he'd probably just get killed if he said that, what would his friends do?

I um, oh I just was, um.

On second thought, his only friend was a extremely shy girl who would've never entered this situation.

"Look, a couple days ago I realized that if I were to go out into the field, I would probably get killed in one shot. So I thought 'Hey why don't I just sneak up on the enemy, catch them by surprise, and get a guaranteed attack.' SO I decided to practice on random people in the town of beginnings, I guess I never accounted for a random 'enemy' to attack." Whit pointed to the man as he said 'enemy', "Look I know its a huge invasion of their... hold that thought."

The people he had been testing his sneak on were walking in Whit's direction, causing him to wave to them to try and get their attention. Whit quickly headed over to the two, "Okay, so this is purely for academic purposes, but are you two heading to a wallpaper store?"

Edited October 30, 2015 by Whit

[Teion 0]

Teion followed behind the man as they set off, trailing just close enough so as not to lose him in the small crowds nearby. She considered the thought of starting small talk, but held her tongue. Her mind only had to run through the awkward scenario for her to dismiss the idea. She settled for tagging along in silence--until someone waved rather energetically nearby. Her attention was drawn to Whit for a moment before facing back forward. She was forced to do a double-take once she realized the boy was waving the get their attention, and she stopped as he approached them. She paused, taken aback at his forwardness, and her brain slowed to a crawl as the words left his mouth.

"Wha--uh... Excuse me?" She got the words out, thoroughly confused with his question. 'Is...there wallpaper in this game?' The gears in her head slowly started turning again. 'I guess there is player housing on the higher floors, right? I wonder if they're that customizable...' Her thoughts began to trail off.

[Glow 0]

Whistling quietly, Samuel - or should he call himself Glow? Lots of people kept referring to themselves as their username, from what he'd experienced so far. 'Probably easier to use my username, to be searched up or seen easily. Then again, that's a problem in itself...' He muses, but shrugs to himself and continues walking, taking in the quiet and zoning out a little. At the break of footsteps behind him, he pauses, and turns to the woman before following her gaze in turn to the strange couple from before. He waited as the smaller man walks over to them, and asks about... wallpaper.

He... had heard right, right?

"Uh... not... specifically? But we're heading towards the general shopping area, if you can find your way from there?" Samuel murmurs, tilting his head to the side as he muses over the strange question. Wallpaper? He didn't even know if there was a specific store for the things. There was definitely a few more all-purpose housing stores, although he'd never had a real reason to go inside apart from adding them to his map.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Glow

[Whit 0]

Jesus, I'm getting sick of having to explain this, Whit mentally face palmed himself, This may have been a bad idea.

"Look I'm sorry, I may or may not have used you as, well, I guess you could say practice for my training in using stealth. Look I'm sorry, I kind of got involved in your private matters, I was just trying to practice on anyone and I thought you said 'Hey can you take me to a wall paper store' and I thought 'that doesn't sound right, I should ask them so I can grade myself on this.'

Whit stabbed himself mentally, he was supposed to be slightly chaotic, not apologizing for trying to get better at surviving. He silently blamed his friend for making him nice, Unfortunately, I'm unable to get mad at her, she's too freaking nice.

[Teion 0]

Teion listened patiently to the boy's explanation, curious as to what would have prompted such an odd question. When he finished speaking Teion covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. "Err, no, sorry," She said with a smile. "That's not what we were talking about." The purple-haired girl tried her best to stay polite, glancing over to her guide as he was now involved in the situation as well. "Ah! If you're interested, a friend of mine runs a guild that's all rogue-like." She suddenly remembered The Dapper Rogues, turning back to Whit. She thought he might be interested, since he was practicing stealth against other players in the Town of Beginnings. "I'm sure he's still recruiting, if stealth and the like is more your playstyle."

As if she had forgotten, Teion looked back to Glow with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I got carried away," Not wanting to hold the man up after he had agreed to help her, she nodded slightly. "We can get going if you want."

Edited November 2, 2015 by Teion

[Glow 0]

Watching the interaction with amusement, Samuel decides to let the two continue talking for a while and runs through the predicament in his head. Then again... his username was always just floating right there, visible to see. In the end, it was probably for the best to use his username as - well, his name. "Glow." he murmurs quietly, face twisting slightly before settling on his previous, neutral expression. Huh. Never really... hit home that things had really changed into something else. A small twitch of his arm is quickly stilled through the movement of the other over it. He'll just make the best of what he has here, which is...

Well, it's a starter pair of claws. Wohoo.

Hearing an apology from Teion, Glow moves his back up and takes a look at the woman, before shrugging it off with a gentle smile. "It's fine, don't worry about it. Always good to see people helping each other." He states, before giving a click of his fingers in reply. "Right. Yea. Uh... this way!" Appearing to quickly push himself out of his more somber mood, Glow carries on down the previous path, flicking open his map as a reference for the winding alleyways ahead. Not exactly the most elegant or pretty way to travel, but neither were they anything bad compared to any real-life city, and they were sure as hell a lot more quick from here to the shops. This particular one should pop about behind the potion shop in just a few minutes, as far as he remembered. 

[Celestial 0]

Seeing several of them dart off to continue their shopping, Celestial couldn't help but remember the reason he had come down to the market himself. Returning to shopping, he moved back down towards a shop and browsed their wares. What had just transpired had been pretty silly really, a break in routine from his usual stoic character. Looking at a fine set of arms and armors brought his attention back to shopping however. They would do their thing, and Celestial would do his...

 

test.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Celestial

[Whit 0]

"Hmm, sounds interesting, I'll look into it." Whit turned around and began to walk off, "hopefully I'll see you some other day." He turned his head to face them, my name's Whit, see ya!" Whit continued along, no destination in mind, turning down an empty alley way. Whit leaned against the wall, looking down at the ground. "So I guess I really-" Whit stopped as his body went hot, "sicken myself by being nice."

Whit looked up, "think'll head to the fourth floor, cool off a bit."

Edited November 3, 2015 by Whit

[Teion 0]

Teion gave a friendly wave goodbye as Whit turned to take his leave. She then turned and hurriedly continued following Glow, making sure not to lose him and try her best to remember the path at the same time. The dimly-lit alleyways were definitely more barren than the bustling city streets, despite the somewhat creepy atmosphere. It certainly was faster, though--it only a few minutes it seemed like they had crossed through half of the massive city. Their path's exit did indeed leave them outside of a handful of player shops, right between an alchemist's and an artisan's shops. She smiled, hoping she'd be able to find the trinkets she was looking for. As they'd reached their destination, Teion suddenly felt a bit awkward, but gave Glow a small, polite bow. "Thanks for leading me all this way." She hoped she hadn't interrupted the boy with her sudden request, although she was glad he had been willing to help her. "Oh, my name's Teion." She stated with a soft smile, realizing she hadn't introduced herself. She searched for her next words. "If you need anything...feel free to send me a message. I'd be happy to return the favor." She was unsure of how to properly thank him, hoping that he didn't mind an IOU.

[Glow 0]

Concentrating on mapping out the winding paths, Glow remained quiet during the small journey through the alleyways, mostly ignoring the somewhat darker atmosphere - to him, it was just a bit more shade away from the harsh sunlight. He narrows his eyes at the exit up ahead, then grins as it turns out it was the right route to take. Nice. Turning around to Teion, he gives a small gesture with his hand. "We have arrived at your destination. Please mind the gap." The grin on his face widens a little, but catches as she seems to fumble around for a moment before... bowing? 

"Ah, ah, none of that." He states firmly, but kindly, gently stopping her from continuing with the gesture. "All I did was help you get somewhere, there's no need for anything like that." Smiling, Glow gives a thankful nod. "Nice to meet you, Teion. I'm Sa- I mean... I'm Glow." He murmurs, catching himself on his name and looking down at his feet for a second. He quickly moves his vision back up at the offer, and puts one finger to his chin before replying. "Uh, well, if it wouldn't be too much of a bother... could you show me how to fight in this game when you have some time?" He questions slowly. While he was a good fighter outside of Sword Art Online... he had no idea how the combat system worked yet, and he didn't want to die to a Boar of all things.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Glow

[Teion 0]

Teion was a bit surprised as Glow discouraged her formalities. After a moment, another smile grew on her lips and her stance became more casual. "Well, I couldn't say no to some leveling." She sounded excited at the idea. She looked up to the sky; the digital sun was shining with clear skies overhead, and she assumed it to be around late morning. "The soonest I'm free is once I'm finished shopping here. Or later this afternoon, some other day..." She suddenly realized she hardly considered herself busy living in Aincrad. It was both refreshing and incredibly boring after a while.

She shrugged lamely, pulling up her menu and typing in the name he told her. She sent him a friend request, figuring that would be the easiest way to keep in touch. "Anyway, if you're bored today, that sounds fun. Otherwise, shoot me a message whenever." She smiled.

((If you want to wrap things up and end the thread, I'm good with this being my last post :D))