Scene #3983: A Human of a different color

Owner	Pose
Twilight Sparkle	Another lovely day in the capital city Aarun! Plenty of players are milling about, and plenty more NPCs are trying to sell items to those players, or offering to guide them, or other such things that NPCs do. Among those players milling about is a certain purple pony turned purple-green haired avatar. A Puca, if Kain can tell such things. Right now, she is at a musical instrument vendor, looking through the various options. A proper instrument is important to a Puca, right? ...Twilight (or Azuresong as she is known in this world) doesn't really know. She hasn't had much time to research this game, but sometimes hooves-on...er..hands-on research is good. "So, this lyre is appropriate for a low-level Puca?" Azuresong is asking the NPC equipment seller.
Kain	"Not gonna work too well asking like that." Jumping off the top of a nearby tree and flipping to just behind the Puca lands a red-clad Salamander with a Rapier at the hip. The Salamander smiles. "The NPCs are a little too simple. Your best bet is just looking at the item stats." He gave the Puca a cursory once-over curiously. "Are you new to the game or something?" Not that he had anything to say in that regard... his gear was all low-level as well... but the way he carried himself and his acrobatic ability certainly showed otherwise. "If so, welcome to Alfheim Online." That smile again.
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight blinks as the Salamander lands behind her. She turns to face him, then smiles. He might notice that her posture is...a little off. She is standing with her legs slightly bent, balanced on her tiptoes, and is holding the lyre in a way that might remind Kain of a cat holding something. She is really holding it more between her hands and her forearms by clamping her hands over it than just holding it in her hands. "I am still quite new to Alfheim Online, yes." she says, nodding. "When I first visited, my friends were in a bit of a hurry, so I was only able to get the most basic of equipment. I am told equipment is quite important to your success here, so I thought I would inspect the options." At the suggestion of checking the stats, the Puca blinks. "And...um...how would I do that?" she asks sheepishly.
Kain	The Salamander just chuckles a bit, seeing how the puca looked and stood and held the Lyre. "You tap the item with your right index." He pulled out the Rapier at his side and tapped it with his right index finger to demonstrate, a menu popup erupting out of the weapon and displaying basic stats. "Also... equipment's important and all... but you could have top of the line gear and still be rather lacking in ability if you don't have the skill. Take me, for example. I'm in low level gear, but that's because I just haven't really been bothered to buy upgrades. My gear works just fine for me." He gestures to the Puca. "Well, go on. Let's see the stats on that Lyre."
Twilight Sparkle	Azuresong nods at the instruction, then holds out the lyre and starts to try to knock on it with a fist. Then, she pauses before her tongue sticks out the corner of her mouth as if she is concentrating. A moment later, her right index finger extends. "There we go..." she says before she pokes the lyre. The display pops up and she blinks before looking it over. "Hmm...I'm afraid I do not know what is considered 'good' stats. But, if what you say is true, perhaps that is not what I should be focused on. What do you think?" The display shows fairly average stats for gear of Azuresong's level. "Oh! I am T-..ah...Azuresong! It is nice to meet you!" she says cheerfully before holding out a fist...which eventually opens into an outstretched hand.
Kain	The Salamander just raises an eyebrow at the Puca as she... seems to have troubles commanding her body... in actual, her hands... like she's never had hands before... weird. He just shrugged and took the offered hand, shaking it. "Nice to meet you, Azure. I'm Kain." Now for the stats. He looked at the stats on the Lyre, then pointed to something on the info screen. "As long as you know what level you are, this should be the only thing important right now." He's pointing to the Minimum Level Requirement number. "As long as your level is higher than this number on any gear you find, you're good to go." Okay, now he was curious... "By the way... the way your body is acting... are you missing your hands IRL?" He'd know the feeling of missing a limb as he absentmindedly grips his right leg, as if to reassure himself that it's still there.
Twilight Sparkle	The Puca smiles as she shakes Kain's hand. Her grip quite strong despite the seeming trouble, but that strength is obviously not because her character is strong. It is because she is squeezing overly hard. When asked about her hands, Azuresong blinks, then giggles and smiles. "Oh! No, not at all." she says, then pauses. "..well, I suppose in a way..." she adds, bringing a fist up to rub her chin in a thinking gesture. She shakes her head after a moment, then smiles again. "Are you familiar with the Multiverse?"
Kain	Kain nods to Azure. "Of course. Things haven't been the same since we all wound up in it. Lots of weird things happened because of it." He thinks about it a bit. "Well... more people have been affected by it than some. Me... mmmnot so much." He looked curiously at Azure. "Why do you ask? Are you from a world where hands don't exist or something?" He chuckled a bit. "Like, you're normally a dog or something playing a video game? Gotta admit, it sounds kinda cool when I say it out loud." He snickers a bit. "Kinda funny, too... but then again, dogs can't seriously play video games. At least, not the ones I know."
Twilight Sparkle	Azure giggles at the conjecture. "Not a dog. I'm usually, and technically still, a pony. So, I am not used to having hands. And this Amusphere equipment does not automatically adjust for my non-humanoid natural impulses like my transformation spell does. I even have a bit of trouble balancing on two legs since I don't usually wa-" About that time, some other player brushes past them, and Azure yelps before her arms flail. Her hands clench into fists again and she wobbles before suddenly falling forward onto all fours, landing on her fists and with her feet beneath her rather than on hands and knees. She blinks afterword, then sighs. "...walk on two legs." she finishes. She takes a deep breath, then steadily rises back to stand on her feet again, though her legs maintain that curious posture of bent knees and tippy toes. "Anyway...yes, I am from the Multiverse, and none of my species has hands normally."
Kain	Kain just... blinks at that. Blinks so much at that... it couldn't be... but... pony... transformation spell... Puca being the primarily magic class... no, it couldn't be... but... what if she was...? Kain looks curiously at Azure, chuckling a bit. "So... a pony... so you choosing a puca, you're a Unicorn or something?" He chuckled nervously... just... ohhh, if this were true...
Twilight Sparkle	Azuresong is starting to look self-conscious before Kain finally speaks again. But, when he does, she smiles. "Well, that wasn't the only factor. But, yes. I chose the Puca because it is a primarily magical class, and it invokes its magic with music much of the time. As a unicorn pony from Equestria, both things come quite naturally to me. So, it seemed natural to choose the Puca class in Alfheim Online." She pauses after that, then looks at Kain curiously. "Are you alright? You were blinking a bit excessively earlier. Did you get something in your eye?" She pauses again. "...is this interface so realistic that if you get something in your eye here in the game you react in real life?"
Kain	Kain doesn't hear anything else after that point! All he heard there was 'Equestria' and he went nuts! "EEEEEEEE!" Dancing on his tiptoes and gleefully smiling... was this human male behaviour? It looked more like how maybe Rainbow Dash would act if she were inducted into the Wonderbolts... Kain suddenly zips up to Azure, pretty up-in-her-face about it. "You're an honest-to-goodness pony from Equestria?! Equestria exists in the Multiverse?! OH MY GOD, this is awesome! You have no idea how much I've wanted Equestria to be real!" He backs up and does that same tip-toe dance and squeal again... if there was any doubt before... Kain takes a bit longer to calm down... but once he does, he looks at the Puca curiously. "So... I wanna learn everything there is to learn about Equestria! Pretty pretty please?" He actually is down on his knees, hands clasped together in a begging position, looking up at Azure with pleading eyes.
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight is left staring a bit as Kain starts dancing about. And when he suddenly zips up to her, right up in her face, she loses her balance again and falls back, landing on her rear with her arms folded against her chest like a horse would fold its forelegs if it were on its back. Which puts her in a perfect position when he suddenly lands on his knees, hands clasped together and begging her. Azure blushes a bit and stares a little more. "Um...it might take a while to learn everything about Equestria." she says, then smiles gently. "But, I would be happy to teach you. I actually live in a library, so all the information we would need would be right at hoof. Er...hand."
Kain	Kain blinks a little bit, then gasps, standing up to help the Puca up! "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to knock you off-balance like that! It's just... I-I've... well, like I said, I've always wanted to meet a pony from Equestria... I mean, the only way you exist in my world is a-" What she'd said then towards the end there finally clicked in his mind... "Wait... Unicorn... living in a library..." Now why did THAT sound familiar... he gulps a bit. "I-I know... that it's really bad manners to ask about IRL... but... you wouldn't happen to be..." He gulps again... if he was wrong about this, he was gonna look like such a weirdo... "T-Twilight Sparkle... would you?" He awaited her answer with absolutely baited breath...
Twilight Sparkle	The Puca is helped up easily enough, then dusts herself off a bit before smiling to Kain. She blinks in confusion as he starts to say that ponies exist in his world, but as he asks her identity she blinks again in surprise. "Oh! You've heard of me? I suppose I do speak on the faction channel fairly often. Wait...are you part of the factions?" she says, then hmms. "And...did you say ponies exist in some form on your world? From what I have seen ponies such as myself only exist in my and other Equestrias."
Kain	Once again, Kain hears nothing of it and just... quietly squeals, a big grin on his face. It's not long after that though that he did hear Twilight's question... and... he blushes a little bit at it. "Umm... w-well... I-I don't... I mean... th-that is to say... umm..." He just... he... he sighs. It'll be found out at some point... "You exist in my world... as a cartoon show on television..." Thinking about it, he rephrased it. "A fictional story about your adventures..." He looked really downtrodden having said that... almost like he was the one who was told that he was fictional...
Twilight Sparkle	Azuresong (or Twilight Sparkle if Kain prefers), looks rather surprised to hear that she is in a cartoon somewhere. "...what?" she says, and it might sound like she is getting upset. But then...she giggles. "Well, that is rather an interesting coincidence. Although I suppose with such a massive Multiverse out there it is inevitable that somewhere my friends and I are fictional characters in a show." she says. She shakes her head a bit and giggles again. "I wonder how close it is to our actual adventures? And how accurate they are when depicting us?" The analytical Twilight starts considering the possibilities.
Kain	Kain just looks a little confused towards Twilight at that. "Wait... you're not upset about that?" He sighed in relief. "That's a relief... here I thought you'd end up depressed or something because of learning you didn't actually exist in my world... but I mean, of course you exist because well... you're here. Well... as 'here' as you can be in a Virtual world." He chuckled a little bit, less nervous but still so. Now he didn't know exactly what to really say about the show... did he reveal how many seasons... important things in the seasons... was it safe to mention stuff like that... would it break some sort of temporal whatchamacallit? "I... well, a part of me doesn't really want to say too much... spoilers, and everything... I mean, not that this is a thing in the show... but you wouldn't like learning that your Library blew up or something, right? Not that it would ever happen, at least..." He sounded sure of himself on that front... "But learning stuff like that would change how you acted around what you learned... and it would change quite a bit about if that certain thing happened or not... you understand? I hope so, because I just gave myself a headache trying to get it straight..."
Twilight Sparkle	Azuresong giggles at that first part. "Why would I? Of course there are worlds where I do not exist. There are plenty of worlds like that for everyone in the Multiverse. You also do not exist in my world. It is nothing to be upset about. It is merely a reality of the Multiverse." she says. After that second part, Azuresong raises a fist to her lip again. "Hmm...yes. If there is any factual information contained in your world's show...it might be better to keep it a secret. Like time travel, it could cause unfortunate splits in how the future of my world is supposed to develop." she says, then smiles. "It is good to hear that even players in a game like this one are concerned about such things! Do they cover temporal anomalies in your world's schools?"
Kain	Kain just chuckles nervously. "Maybe... I don't know... all I know is I saw that on TV as well..." Yay for Back To The Future... "Anyway... so... you're Twilight Sparkle... are your friends also here too? I mean, not just in ALO, but in general?" He then stopped himself, his features going slack... typical behavior of someone having an emergency logoff. It's short-lived, as he's back in less than half a minute. "Sorry about that... dinner's actually done, then I've gotta do homework..." He groans a little bit at that. "But if you're around sometime, I'd like to hang out and possibly learn more about your world. And maybe I'll tell you more about mine." He makes a gesture with his first two fingers on his left hand, pulling up the radial menu and entering commands. A friend request pops up on Azure's side from Kain.
Twilight Sparkle	Azuresong nods at the question. "Of course my friends are here!" She doesn't elaborate on which friends, so it could be anyone. She blinks in surprise when he suddenly goes slack. She hasn't experienced the emergency logoff before, so she is a bit startled. She starts to wave a hand in front of Kain's face, then eeks! and leaps back as he starts moving and talking again suddenly. "Uh...sure!" She giggles, recovering from being startled. The pony player blinks again when that request pops up. She reaches up, then hesitates a moment in curiousity before she pushes the accept button. "Oh, and just to let you know, I do not often log in to this game. I can only log in from my special somepony's house, and with all my studies and handling things in Equestria I rarely have a chance to play a game like this one. But, I believe you can use your avatar to visit our world. You might ask around. I think you need some sort of special skill to be able to leave the game as your avatar."
Kain	Kain nodded to that. "I've heard about it. I know a couple people I could ask about it. Thank you very much!" He smiles and gives the Puca a bow! "I hope to see you again, soon! Take care, Twilight Sparkle!" With that, he dragged the menu down again, pressing a couple of buttons and disappearing from full Logoff. In real life, the player pulled off the Nervegear he was wearing, smiling brightly and could hardly contain himself! "Equestria is real! I can't believe it!" He said this quietly before setting the headset down and heading downstairs to dinner.