3581/Grinding the Morning Away

Grinding the Morning Away
Date of Scene:	29 December 2015
Location:	Alfheim Online <ALO>
Synopsis:	Alden wanders into ALO. Reker, meanwhile, has a cunning scheme.
Cast of Characters:	Kirito, 631, 649, 930

---

Kirito has posed:
    ALFHEIM.
    SYLPH TERRITORY.
    The ANCIENT FOREST's northernmost edge, bordering on CAIT SITH territory.
    Not all that far from a town called Tildear - an unusual town that's made in the upper reaches of the forest, a series of walkways and treehouses and odd constructions indeed.
    Down on the forest floor...

    "Haha! I thought this would be over quickly. How many of these things do we have to BEAT?!" Kirito exclaims in wild, sort of bemused exasperation as he CLEAVES DOWN through a huge plant monster ambling across the forest floor with a downward chop, sword all-aglow. A Sword Skill, 'Vertical,' one of the most basic yet formidable techniques for One Handed Swords.

    The Spriggan, dressed all in black, stands up straight as the slashed monster glows, derezzes, then bursts into countless colorful voxels that vanish within a few seconds.

    Following some information from Argo about some special materials needed to Enhance Sinon's bow, Kirito ended up taking a quest from Tildear that had him and his newest friend hunting...

    One of the UGLIEST plant monsters imaginable.

    It's a good thing Silica isn't here.

    

    The GREAT WESTERN NEPENT. Seven feet tall of ambular pitcher plant with a horrifying toothy maw and rank, irritating smell. It crawls around on comically tiny roots that don't look capable of supporting its great height, and two animate stalks that end in huge leaves serve as its arms... of a sort.

    As the quest goes, these things have been eating up all of a local delicacy and would someone PLEASE whittle down a few dozen of them to give fine dining a chance?

    Among the monster's drops is said to be a special, rare VINE that's used for strengthening bows...

    One might have to question whether it's going to be worth all the hassle though, as three more GREAT WESTERN NEPENTS around 50 meters away, wandering through the forest, unleash rattling, gurgling noises and sweet yet rotting smells from those AWFUL-looking mouths...

Sinon (649) has posed:
    "A better question is, what kind of person names a town 'tl;dr'?"

    Sinon's ever so slightly beginning to regret this. As a Cait Sith- the class she took in Alfheim Online for decidedly off-meta reasons- her eyesight and aiming skill has a bonus which makes her skill with a ranged weapon above average. On the other hand, this means that she can see an even sharper image of these ... ... ... things.

    At least she doesn't have an enhanced sense of smell, huh?

    However, proving that strange minds think alike, she is in fact thinking of the same thing about Silica.

    "How many more are there?" she asks from some distance behind Kirito, activating a spread-shot type skill. Knowing Sinon, she'll be able to land a hit on all three of the recently revealed monsters at once.

Alden (930) has posed:
Alden was amazed at bumping into a place that felt so similar to his home world, yet at the same time... different!. He appeared in a relatively calm spot, and decided to roam a bit, spotting some random critters, and noticing a very special detail about this particular place, "Is that... a name tag?". He stares at teh bunny for a moment, approaching it.
     It was then when he started to run into weirder, and more aggressive creatures!. He decided to avoid them for now, and started to move on a random direction, shifting into his next level form to make the travel faster!.
"I should find a safe spot and think what..."
That's when the scent hits him like a ton of bricks, "Ugh!" making him wish he did not have such a great sense of smell right now! The scent was distracting him enough he did not spot the sword using Spriggan just blasting one of the many awful smelling plant things near him, just trying to get away from the smell. (and the trees were not helping him either).
He most likely appears as another random wolf monster to anyone around, a wolf! if a rather odd looking one, that is growling as well, shaking his head now and then as he tries to get away from the rotting plants.

Kirito has posed:
    It is indeed a name tag, Alden! Look hard enough at a monster and see, there, look over its head! A tiny, spinning yellow diamond, the COLOR CURSOR. Under that, 'Forest Rabbit' in gray script. Weird indeed.

    Those of the plant monsters are red.

    Some distance away, Kirito pauses his advance towards the next Nepent... for Sinon's comment has gotten him snickering and chuckling. Yeah, it does kinda come off like that, doesn't it? What a town name.

    "Hmmmm. The quest says we've got to beat 15 more, but we might need to keep going for the mat--"

    The Spriggan falls silent rather suddenly and peers out into the forest, eyes drawn towards a very unusual creature that does NOT have a Color Cursor. In just a few moments his mouth gapes open, eyes widen... well, all in all, he looks comically dumbstruck like any curious gamer would be by this development.

    "Yui...?"

    The little Navigation Pixie has been hiding in Kirito's coat pocket! Probably sheltering from that AWFUL SMELL. But now she lifts up the pocket flap like someone coming out of a storm shelter and makes a quizzical expression of her own. "I don't know, papa! There's no data on that creature."

    So of course, Kirito turns this dumbstruck, 'what the heck now?' expression Sinon's way.

Sinon (649) has posed:
    At least fifteen? Sinon'll be seeing these things in her dreams tonight, she supposes.

<strikethrough>Like Silica</strikethrough> no, you used that joke in your last pose

    Things get kind of - well, sort of complicated when Kirito becomes aware of Alden entering the picture. Rather than also notice him, Sinon notices Kirito noticing him, which is enough for her to begin with.

    As someone who has had to deal with situations in Gun Gale Online where oppurtunistic players would enter other peoples' gunfights from sudden and surprising angles, and not having to worry about things like IFFs, she is quick to factor Alden into her targetting- or lack thereof.

    And because she's been out in the big universe for some time, the idea of a large sentient wolf is not an incredibly foreign idea to her either...

    "If you're capable of understanding us, you should be wary," she shouts out, continuing to snipe at the Nepents from a distance. "These things are hostile, and more of them could appear at any moment."

Alden (930) has posed:
Alden has to stop, and shakes his head, letting out a soft whine as he rubs his snout with one forepaw, behold, the mighty wolf defeated by stench!. Thankfully, neither player attacked him, and he has the chance to look around for the source of the noise, blinking once.

     Sinon's suspicions about sentience seems to be true as he speaks, "Oh thank the Sovereigns, people." he mumbles and begins to approach. At the comment about them being hostile he nods, "I noticed... and they smell real bad." he grumbles, suddenly turning to face one, "I should burn them, but they seem too many for that.".

He finally stops a few feet from teh pair, noticing the tiny fairy looking at him as well. "Hello, I'm alden." he offers, "What... is this place?".

Kirito has posed:
    Kirito's weirded out look deepens briefly, but he brings a hand thoughtfully to his chin. There's a dozen possibilities of why Sinon's call could have grabbed the creature's attention. First and foremost, this wolf might be a special Quest NPC. The lack of a cursor and name is just the same as with Rudolph a few days ago.

    Just WHAT is happening in Alfheim Online?

    Well, it's not the only possibility, but the Spriggan does believe it's the most likely one.

    Yui emerges from Kirito's pocket fully, taking a perch on his head while the Spriggan twirls his sword expertly and sheathes it across his back, only to then stuff both hands in his pockets. "Kirito the Spriggan. You're in the Northern Ancient Forest near Tildear. Alfheim. Do you need any help?"

    The approach is carefully calculated. If Alden is a person... which Kirito's figuring is a fifty-fifty chance... that's not a bad greeting. If he's a Quest NPC, it should trigger whatever speech is coming up!

    Yui, however, decides to wave cheerily from her perch. "My name is Yui!" The little fairy offers, adjusting her floral dress.

Sinon (649) has posed:
For a moment, Sinon considers the implications of Alden doing so, but just as quickly dismisses it. She never heard any real reprocussions from the use of all the 'outside system skills' during GGO's Bullet of Bullets, and Staren was more concerned about the ethics than the legality of doing so last week, so he probably wouldn't trip any real security measures here.

    Strangely enough, if her and Kirito were to compare their initial thoughts later, she would confess that she actually didn't think he was a quest NPC- perhaps because mentally she's not used enough yet to the idea of nonhuman ones. On the other hand, 'he's talking and he's not attacking us' may just fulfil the minimum amount of proof for her to not make him into an additional target.

    "And I'm Sinon. Kirito, do you intend to talk while I handle all of the quest monsters?"

That might not necessarily be an admonishment, but you can never quite tell with her.

Alden (930) has posed:
Alden was so relieved to get away from those rotting flower things he did not realize at first the couple was armed!. He does notice when the sword is sheated and he lets out a sigh of relief, the wolf settling on his rump, looking sorta cute.

"Hi Yui!" he barks to the happy fairy creature, before managing a smile of sorts to Kirito, "Hello Kirito, I am Alden."

The name of the place does not seem to ring a bell "Alfheim..." he says, but he welcomes the offer for help!, "I do, I just want to get to a safe spot, away from those flowers and calm down a bit, I kind of got lost while exploring... does the word multiverse mean anything to you?" he asks curiously, before finally turns towards Sinon,

"What are you two doing here, hunting for monsters?" he asks softly. "I can help you two, perhaps."

Kirito has posed:
    "Eh?" Kirito turns his head to Sinon. Yui holds on to some hair for stability!

    The fact that Sinon had been shooting a few of the monsters without help from Kirito quickly becomes apparent, since, well, THREE OF THEM ARE RAPIDLY CLOSING IN ON THE GANG.

    "Uwaaaaaagh! I'm the front! You shouldn't aggro them without warning!" Kirito flusteredly sputters, flailing a hand!

    Things have gotten a bit out of control here.

    Three of the rotting, stinking plant monsters flail their vine-leaf arms and come charging in - very predictable motions, really.

    Calming himself, Kirito brings a hand up to his sheathed sword. "Yui, keep an eye open for any more surprises!"

    "Got it, papa!" The little pixie floats up on her tiny wings above Alden, snapping a salute!

    With a raspy noise of metal on metal, Kirito draws his black blade, Vox Unitas, and drops into a deep stance with the blade held horizontally. It glows green, gathers whirling winds... "Sonic Leap should do it...!"

    And just like that... FWOOOOOSH!

    Kirito's an emerald blur drawing a straight flashing line through the distance. He 'reappears' just past one of the Nepents... and it promptly shatters. About 2 seconds later, he swings around and slashes both the others to draw their ire!

    "Once we deal with these we'll get you to Tildear and explain!" He yells over to Alden!

    Of course Kirito's strategy is pretty straightforward here.

    Get the nepents to turn their backs on Sinon and Alden.

    The Black Swordsman weaves back and forth, parrying the leaf-strikes and ducking away from bites and acid spit pretty easily. Pretty hard to counter attack like that though...

Sinon (649) has posed:
    Ah, yes. Although Sinon has been doing this for... a little while, she has still not got the finer points of pulling aggro in a game with multiple people. It's not really her fault! Something something goddess of death, something something PVP, something, solo player, et cetera et cetera PLANTS /EVERYWHERE/.

    Of course, she's not the kind of person who would admit her mistake when she makes one, and especially not to Kirito. As such, although she mildly says "Just keeping you on your toes..." she's almost definitely going to look for a guide on how this all works on ALOHead when she logs off. Or ask Argo.

    "Short answer: yes, long answer: yes if you've got attacks with less AoE they might be useful here," she adds with a sideways look at Alden. Then, mirroring Kirito on the other side of the monsters, she aims to make short work of them- or at least enough that they can push through- with arrows in the back!

Alden (930) has posed:
Alden nods a few times, while he is not that experienced in combat, he knows a fight when he sees one, and clearly the plant things are not going to wait for them to finish their talk. He quickly jumps back, looking far more fierce now that he was paying attention, even if he wrinkled his snout a bit,

"Stupid plants." he growls, moving aside, watching the black swordman fight.

"I do!" he growls, shifting to a flanking position, "Howling blaster!" he yells, for some reason, before opening his muzzle wide, a stream of bright blue flames shooting from his mouth towards one of the plant creatures. Thankfully for Kirito, the attack seems fairly focused, despite how hot the flames look, hitting the plant creature on the side, it is basically a focused flamethrower, a rather high temperature one at that!. He is careful to stop the attack after a few moments, both to check how much damage it did, and to avoid accidentally overdoing it, and hitting Kirito or Sinon.

Kirito has posed:
    Well.

    Two ranged attackers make short work of those Nepents! Sinon's hail of arrows and a BLUE FLAME LASER blast are easily enough to overwhelm the pair of remaining creatures. Their HP meters are depleted within a few seconds... and then? They glow, briefly flicker, and burst into colorful shards. No more Nepents.

    Kirito, again, habitually swings his sword about a few times as if cleaning off goo and sheathes it across his back. Now Sinon knows where one curious habit he had with a beam saber comes from!

    Hands at his side, he tromps on back towards the others. Sinon gets a window showing all of the drops... including one ANCIENT VINE. But they still need to kill 12 more of these things for the quest... if they want some nice special recipes for Asuna anyways...

    "Phew. That take care of that. Multiverse, huh?" Kirito's breathing evenly, but it's somewhat forced. Trying to relax for Alden's sake despite the rapid change of pace. "You managed to wander into a pretty dangerous place. The nearest safe place is Tildear, just southeast by a kilometer or so. You've wandered into a VRMMO. This is a game world. How did THAT happen? I thought this mostly happened the other way around...?"

Sinon (649) has posed:
    Normally you'd expect that you'd need a lot of additional fuel or at least for the plants to be drier for this to have much of an effect, but typically speaking in most JRPGs plants are weak to being set on fire despite the small logic errors. So this'll probably work out well for Alden. And hey, he manages to put himself on the flank so that we've got another attack angle! She likes this guy already.

    "Ah, we got what I needed," she notes. It's not a particularly low drop rate but she hadn't expected to pick it up that soon. Although, this will probably make it seem a little shameful when she proceeds to say:

    "We should probably abandon the quest for now and get him somewhere safe, or at least somewhere we can explain this without being so busy. We'll just have to redo it from the beginning later today."

Alden (930) has posed:
Alden lets out a sneeze after the monsters fade, "Darn stench." he mumbles, apparently not enterily shocked at seeing a creature just... break appart. Perhaps this isn't the first time it happened around him?.

The wolfish creature focuses on Kirito, "Are you ok?" he asks, seeming a bit concerned, if anything, the digimon seems to find the small fight entertaining!.

The questions catch his attention, tilting his head to the left, "Game?, oh!, this is a computer generated world?" he asks softly, "That's why it felt familiar..." he mumbles softly.

Of course, he quickly focuses on answering the questions, "Well, as to how I can be in here, it might be because I am a digimon... a creature made of data." he explains softly. "As for why?, i was exploring, found another portal, decided to follow it... the portal closed behind me, and I was here." he says softly.

The mention about having to restart everything for his sake makes his ears splay, "I can stick around and help you finish faster, I don't mind." he says, "It is the least I can do."

Kirito has posed:
    Kirito gestures in response to the question - he points... straight up. But well, if anyone stares at him, then his HP meter becomes visible along with the green Color Cursor. It's rapidly refilling!

    But a moment later he flinches, realies how silly that answer is to someone from outside ALO, and stutters out, "O-oh, yeah. Those enemies aren't THAT strong. Just as long as you don't attack one with a fruit hanging from its head." His expression turns distant throught he end of this phrase, like someone dwelling on bad memories.

    Yui drifts out in front of him. "... Papa?"

    This shakes him out of whatever minor funk THAT was though. "Congratulations, Sinon. See? Told you we'd get it eventually. Next stop after Tildear is Lisbeth's Smithy?" As a gamer, he is TOTALLY ENTHUSED about seeing just how BOW ENHANCEMENT WORKS.

    Even if he swears off ranged weapons himself...

    The young man nods! "Right, let's head back. ... thanks for the offer, but the problem is.. things could get really complicated if some other hunting party stumbled on us out here. You might be mistaken for a monster. THAT would be trouble."

Sinon (649) has posed:
    Sinon nods in assent. As usual, Kirito takes the words right out of her mouth- it gives her a bit of a fuzzy feeling whenever that happens. She puts it aside fairly quickly, but still. "Good thing you found us first."

    But that's usually the way things tend to work, isn't it? Also, that's clearly another trauma from Kirito's past that she notices. Usually whenever Kirito brings up something like that, she is quickly beginning to realize it's shorthand for 'he's seen someone die for real because it happened'.

    s i g h

    Come to think of it, it's going to be kind of strange when people see them coming into town, but... oh, she has an idea.

---

    When they get back to Tl;dr, which is now, she's going to be telling anyone they run across that she finally learned beast taming. And really lucked out.

    shhhhhhh kirito nobody needs to knoooow

Alden (930) has posed:
Alden looks at Kirito curiously, tilting his head when he goes silent, but relaxes when he reacts again. Headmits he did not think he was in danger of being attacked by other people, but after Kirito and Sinon mention it, he nods a few times.

"But, isn't going to the town risky then? I mean other players might be there." Still, guess I am safer back in town, right?.

Kirito has posed:
    TILDEAR. A town in the treetops. Or... just below the treetops, really. It's comprised of treehouses and walkways and rope bridges between the trees and clearly meant to be navigated by Fairies, who can fly and don't need to worry about swaying bridges. Alden, unless he can climb a tree, is HOISTED up to the town via a rope lift supposedly used for handling cargo, but the NPCs manning it let people ride it if they want.

    "Nah. For that, there'd have to BE a lot of players. I bet there wouldn't be more than ten and none will be thinking of attacking anything in a town. They're Safe Zones." Kirito had exclaimed. Although this didn't mean he wouldnt' be seen as odd, and possibly investigated.

    Some cover story might be needed.

    But Kirito's aiming to take everyone to a treetop restaurant because CHAIRS.

Sinon (649) has posed:
    So yeah, if anyone asks, that's Sinon's story and she's sticking to it. And if someone, yes, has the sheer stupidity to attack either of them-

    "If they do, then I'll shoot them full of arrows without mercy. Simple."

    Sinon's kind of scary when she says that kind of thing without batting an eyelid!

    Presuming Alden has a smaller size that can sit in a chair, anyway. She's going to have to give both of them a slight 'did you think this through' glance when they reach this place.

    "You're buying, I assume, of course," she mentions to Kirito, also without batting an eyelid.

        She's so mean sometimes.

Alden (930) has posed:
Alden is actually a good climber!, but he is also feeling kind of lazy, and if there is an easier way up, he will take it gladly, looking around now and then, perhaps a bit nervous, since he was finally aware he looked kind of like a monster for other people to kill.

Suddenly, the largeish wolfbeast seems to have an idea, "Wait, guess it might be better if I did not look so dangerous, right?" he says, his tail giving a wag or two, giving Sinon a curious glance at the mention of shooting aggressive players. "I don't think it will come to that."

"One second." he growls, and steps away, closing his eyes. There is a bright flash, adn the large wolf seems to dissipate not unlike the monsters they were fighting earlier, leaving in it's place a far smaller, harmless looking creature!. It seems like an odd bipedal thing, wearing a wolf pelt over it's back and head. "There, this should be easier for everyone, and I can sit on chairs now.".

Kirito has posed:
    "hwgkh?" How ruthless, Sinon. Kirito barely hides an exasperated sigh. "Sure, sure...." She is. SO mean. And sometimes scary.

    Alden SHAPESHIFTING into a much simpler form gets some oohs and aahs from Kirito. He's wide-eyed and intrigued by it. "That's a cool trick!" And it does the job. A few people in the treetop city look and gesture and whisper, but they make it to the restaurant unmolested!

    The restaurant is handled by NPCs, who can actually be mostly ignored if one wants since the menus have a touch interface that can place orders.

    "Alright, out of danger! So you managed to get in here from the Multiverse, Alden?"

Sinon (649) has posed:
    Sinon just smiles, and then pays for her own food. She's just trolling you, Kirito. After all, he helped her get the item she needed, she would have to just be meanspirited to do something like that afterwards. Of course, Alden also helped, so she's willing to let him pay for the... now-smaller stranger. "That is quite an interesting trick. You could fit in here after all," thinking of... that skill that lets you transform into a monster whose name she can't recall offhand and her player can't google because her browser is being annoying.

    "I did hear that there's a region of the multiverse where lots of cyberspace worlds connect to," she says to Kirito. "But this is the first I've heard of someone from outside the game just wandering in without a purpose."

Alden (930) has posed:
Alden has no funds of his own, or he'd pay for his own meal!. For now, he is delighted to be away from those awful smelling plant monsters, climbing onto a chair and relaxing. He is pleased to the reaction of the couple to his ability to change shapes.

"Thanks, I can turn into stronger forms, but that is a bit harder." he says with a grin. The question and comments from the pair makes him think for a moment.

"I wish I was able to explain it... I am pretty new to this multiverse thing... I kind of stumbled into a new portal, and figured checking inside might be harmless... but the portal dissapeared behind me." he says. "So this is a cyberspace, right?, that explains why it feels somewhat like my home world."

He reaches towards the belt he was wearing, and picks up an odd handheld device, "I'm a digimon... I am made of data basically." he shows them the screen of the device after fiddling with some buttons, it seems to show some stats of him, presenting his stats, an estimate of his health and weight, and his species name as 'Gabumon'. It looked a lot like well, a status screen for most rpgs, or perhaps a virtual pet.

"When the portal vanished I kind of freaked out, and did not want to cause trouble by agitating the monsters, so I tried to slip away, and ran into you two."

Kirito has posed:
    "The Cyber Core region's weird. The way I heard it explained, reality itself works on digital laws and rules instead of the ones our world's scientists know. Somehow our internet and the data on computers manifests as a region out there. You've seen how that can be weird. ... Ooooh, Digimon."

    Kirito's attention snaps to Alden quickly. "That explains a few things! You're not the first Digimon I've run across... you're all just so different from each other." Rubbin his chin, Kirito takes a moment toe xamine the device's display. His eyes do widen curiously at it! "RPG stats...? Well... there's a warp gate in here, we can get you back wherever you want to go. Have to trek across the forest. ... But if you're that small we could probably fly it." He's mostly thinking out loud, by the look of it.

Sinon (649) has posed:
    Sinon eats some virtual food. More taste, less filling.

    "This's a first for me," she replies. She doesn't really have a lot to contribute to the conversation here: Kirito is the more technically-minded and experienced of the two of them, so she's just going to pick at this sundae until she can offer anything. And she's also going to rearrange her item stash a little.

Alden (930) has posed:
Alden decides to try the food, since he was being offered!, nodding to Kirito's explanation and smiling, as far as he can at least, "Yeah, we are a very diverse lot, haha." he says with a grin, before tilting his head at the mention of the gate.

"Well, I am not in a real rush to return, this virtual world seems like a great place to train and spar." he says, "But if you think the best idea is for me to go back, you are the expert of this area."

Kirito has posed:
    The food is normally pretty meaningless. It tastes good, but for people logged in for FullDive it just triggers taste reception and fools the brain into feeling satiated for a bit. ... For Digimon though? The story's probably different.

    "Suit yourself. But you'd better not wander too far from the warp gate. If a hunting party came across you? That could get painful. Rumors... all kinds of things would start spreading from that!"

Sinon (649) has posed:
Sinon nods. "The problem is, people in this world- boy, ok, wow, this feels weird to say- people in this world are only familiar with people like you as... well. Beasts and monsters without intelligence in games like these. Even NPCs with their limited AI aren't really 'people'. So in all likelihood, people would probably think you were just a really convincingly programmed quest enemy."

    Slow chew. "Which is unfortunate, but our world isn't very well exposed to the multiverse."

Alden (930) has posed:
Alden listens closely to their explanations, and lets out a little sigh, "I guess that might make sense... back at home people thought we were all monsters trying to kill them..." he forgets to mentino that in that case, most of the monsters that got out to the human world weren't exactly nice.

He finally nods, "Fair enough, guess I will leave as soon as I can. It's a shame, this is a nice place, I'd like to visit, but I don't want to end up being hunted by a dozen people."

Kirito has posed:
    Thank heavens Sinon found the right way of explaining it! Kirito sighs in relief. Very quietly. But he smiles a bit at Alden. "It is a great place. And I bet we can figure out some ways to make visiting possible without any drama! ... Just not without any warning." He smiles a bit mischeviously.

Sinon (649) has posed:
    "Oh, yeah," Sinon concurs. "You just need to find a way to have fun here with a couple precautions... easiest way would be to make a character. Uh, presuming you can interface with an Amusphere... but, I don't think that should be a problem." If he's a digital life form, he should just be able to literally interface with the program rather than wearing the hardware, right?

Alden (930) has posed:
Alden nods again, "Well, I wonder if that means I will end up as a human then?" he says, certainly intrigued, "I do admit it sounds like a good idea, but I honestly have no clue how to do that." he says, rubbing his chin.

Reker (631) has posed:
    Well that's somewhat of an odd sight. There appears to be several low level players crowded around something nearby. A large yellow ? is visible above them, though it appears that someone is holding it in their hand.

    "Hey, hey now. Get in a nice orderly line and I'll give you all your quests." Kirito (and probably Sinon) should recognize the voice of the Cait Sith holding the mark above his head, "Okay so, your quest is to go out to the fields nearby and kill thirty manbearpigs." He says to the first of the newbies, making a motion for him to go, "Your quest.." He says to the second one, "Is to go get me lunch. I want a turkey sandwich, no tomatoes. Made by at least a level 15 chef."

Kirito has posed:
    Well, this way of treating newbies is somewhat effective! A few of them are bound to brush him off. A few of them are just intimidated and decide to go about it!

    Kirito, who gets a look at what's happening through the window...

    Just jawdrops.

    He's never seen the like of it before!

    "M-maybe?" Kirito offers, lamely. Very distracted by this.

Sinon (649) has posed:
    "Yeah, you'd be able to pick a class between..." Sinon counts off on her hands. "Cait Sith, Gnome, Puca, Imp, Leprechaun, Salamander, Spriggan, Sylph and Undine, but they're all winged humans. Although I did hear that someone in our group the other day is a Pony irl, so it's hardly a unique circumstance."

    She absolutely does not comment on what Reker is doing. Giving him attention for this would only make him prouder of himself.

Alden (930) has posed:
Alden nods a few times, "I think that sounds interesting!" he chirps happily, finishing his dessert, before he notices the conmotion and spots Reker.

Now, Alden is not too familiar with the game, but he is at least 60& sure that question mark thing is not genuine, "Is that a sign with a question mark on it?" he asks, also surprised at it, and how it seems to work. "Maybe I should get one of those." he muses.

Reker (631) has posed:
    A lot of the people around him don't seem to be buying into it, but a few do. Of course pretty soon Reker spots a group of Sylph players known for being, well, less than friendly towards players of other species. He quickly folds up his question mark sign and grabs a bag with some of the things he has aquired, "Sorry kids, shop's closed up. Ya'll go out and have adventures. Be good!"

    He ducks through the crowd and then pops up inside where Kirito, Sinon and Alden are. Spotting Kirito and Sinon, he gives a big wave and then moves over to their group, "Hey, fancy seeing you guys here." He grabs a chair from another table and turns it around so he can lean against the back, "Who's the new guy?" He asks, motioning to Alden.

Kirito has posed:
    Kirito grins Reker's way. "Alden. He's not from around here. Yo, Reker--" Just as Kirito's talking, there's a beep. The young man blinks, fingers his menu interface... and frowns a little.

    "At this time?! ... Arghkh... Sugu needs me to do some emergency shopping or there won't be any dinner today. Sinon, Reker... can you two make sure this works out alright? I gotta bail." And this is important stuff, getting Alden out clean and alright.

    But he trusts these two players.

Sinon (649) has posed:
    "Huh, guess we wouldn't have been able to finish that quest after all." Sinon fistbumps Kirito before he leaves.

    "I am quite sure I have no idea what you're talking about, as acknowledging that ludicrous going-on would be more than he deserves," she says to Alden, even as Reker walks over. Doesn't miss a beat.

    "This little guy wandered in from outside of ALO," she says sotto voice to Reker. "We're thinking of getting him a character set up so people don't think he's a quest monster."

Alden (930) has posed:
Alden nods slowly to Sinon and manages to pat Kirito's side, "Take care." he says, before seeing the character just pup out!. The introductions come in the way of Kirito mentioning the name, which makes him do a cute little bow.

"Hi Reker, nice to meet you." he says, tail giving a little wag, now and then peeking to see if other people were paying attentino to him or not. "Yeah, that and maybe coming with me to find the portal out, but Kirito told me where it was already."