Truth and Fiction (Cherrybomb)

[Obuzeti]

Nather Mons was intended to be the last holdover before players took on the Marble Tower, the boss zone of the West. It was a dismal little watchfort with two NPC vendors, a struggling guild named Blackguards that didn't have much creativity in naming things, evidently, and was also the gathering point for the mythic raid on the Tower. Mons itself was made of the same white marble as the Tower, a lonely white stucture jutting out over a crashing sea far below. Mists rose from it and clouded the sight of the rocky shore below. It was a romantic sight, admittedly.

Unfortunately, no one worth a damn was showing up for the raid, maybe a half dozen players with levels below the recommended, and so Lero was out of luck. He felt kind of stupid now; he'd posted the Raid call up an hour ago with his credentials (22 raid veteran, 18 successes, that wasn't bad at all), with a voice message and avvie, but no dice this time, it seemed.

From where he'd been /sitting, the Soulknife kipped up to his feet and stretched, running a hand through jet-black, short-cropped hair, eyes dark as oil assessing the area to see if anything interesting had popped up in the last ten minutes. Meanwhile, he drew the signature equip of his class, his Fang, and twirled it on his finger absently, the long, thin dagger whistling through the air as pianist's fingers, long and deft as the rest of him, spun it idly.

"Is anyone here for the raid at all?" he called, glancing around. He'd included his picture with the message, so anyone with eyes could have picked him out - a long, lean human with a dark blue scarf, the blue sigil of the Soulknives carved into the back of his leather armor. At this point, there'd never be enough for it, but at least he could maybe put together a pickup party and canvas the local zone for drops.

 

[Cherrybomb400]

"We are!" Gardenia replied as she and two other female elf's approached the human. Gardenia was a bit of a frightening looking character, but only at first glance. Her player designed her that way so that the others might take her more seriously in game. A lot of the time people thought she was a witch NPC, which she may or may not have sent people on a few false quests because of it. Actually it was what helped her obtain a few rare items (not cheating if they just give it to you!). Her character had no visible armor, just a black dress, minimal jewelry, boots on her feet, and a dagger strapped to her leg that could be seen from the slit of her dress as she walked. Obviously she was primarily a caster, which for some found hard to play because there were so many spells to learn and casting took a lot of magic.


The other two females had light pink hair, silver and gold armor that looked pretty elaborate and very different from Gardenia. They made their characters out to look pretty, nothing much else, but hanging around Gardenia helped to up them in rank.

The player of Gardenia had been playing the game for a while, her two friends joined shortly after but from looking at their stats it was clear who was the more experienced gamer. Gardenia was hoping to get more people to follow them or maybe have them join a more permanent group. Of course because they were girls, people didn't just usually let me join so easily.

Gardenia
Friend 1
Friend 2

 

[Obuzeti]

Lero habitually glanced over the newcomers; the black-dressed elf - Gardenia, by the nametag - had stats comparable to his, but the other two were underleveled. Not raid material, but zoning would be fine with them in the group, so long as they didn't wander off by themselves. The local monsters, the Marble Menagerie, were excellent at picking off lone players by blocking them into corners or walls and then beating the hell out of them there.

"Salut." he said, lackadaisical, one fist thumping over his heart. It was a habit he'd never managed to drop, even in VR. "Bad news, still not enough for a raid, even though by the grace of all goodness you brought a party. Kudos to you for that. Still, we can explore the Tower and do some mob stomping, and I can explain the bits of the raid we pass by to your friends. I'm guessing they're new to this area."

Lero tilted his head quizzically. "I mean, so long as I'm still welcome. If you're looking for a girl's night out I suppose I can butt out and go have a sausage party with the Blackguards. It's a hobby here, I understand."

"Fuck you, man." A passing paladin, armored head to toe, shot back as he trundled over to the vendor, unloading three characters' worth of loot in one go.

Lero shrugged at Gardenia with a helpless expression, as he tried to not look at that leg flickering palely behind the slit in her skirt. "They're not super thrilled about it."

 

[Cherrybomb400]

Gardenia laughed as Lero seemed to have gotten under the skin of one of the other players. "Nah, we have enough girl time outside of VR." They made the formal introductions.

"We can always wait a bit before heading out, see if anyone else wants to join us?" Gardenia offered. She was looking forward to doing a raid but it was true that her two friends could be boosted a level or two. Looking around she saw that her friends were already wondering around, either poking and NCP or flirting with other players. Gardenia rolled her eyes. She was lucky that the two of them were even interested in playing the game, but at this rate the only thing they would boost was their charisma.

"They haven't been playing as long." She said lamely, which he probably knew if he checked their stats which she was sure he did. "Echo," Gardenia snapped her fingers and what looked like a white flame appeared. "Echo, make sure those two don't get lost please." The flame was off to go keep tabs on the pink haired characters.

 

[Obuzeti]

Lero eyed the two elves now chatting up the locals. The pink-haired one, Sumia, was leaning lightly against the shoulder of a Brigand, her eyes trailing all over the bare barrel-chest that was the calling card of the class. The poor guy in question looked like he had absolutely no idea what to do about it, but was still chatting her up reasonably well considering that she was giving him a straight eyeshot down into her voluminous cleavage.

"Yeah, I think they'll be busy awhile." he said finally, giving up on it as a lost cause. The other elf, Varawin, was exhausting the vendor's dialogue, and looked entertained enough that he didn't feel the need to invite her too. "There's a cafe/cafeteria in the back, c'mon. I'll treat if you promise not to turn me into flambe."

Waving a hand for Bosslady Elf to follow, he about-faced and heads into the center of the watchfort, into - what else - a marble dining room. Claiming a chair for his own and perching backwards on it, he flicked out his inventory and purchased a pair of blueberry tarts. "My bad about the poor turnout, I should have known no one would be on during a weekday afternoon. I just wanted to avoid the kiddies. Babysitting frustrates me. I mean - you'd know, wouldn't you?"

A sliver of a quick, teasing smile darted across Lero's face, fading back into that general amused smirk afterwards, less bright and more sardonic.

 

[Cherrybomb400]

Gardenia laughed as she accepted one of the tarts. Shame it was virtual and not real food. The game and technology allowed for people to taste, touch, smell, but of course it didn't provide real sustenance. If she hadn't already eaten she would swear that her stomach was straining with hunger pains. "Oh yeah, I get that. Those two are already a handful." She gestured back over to where they left her friends.

"You don't have any IRL friends that play? I thought that's what guys did, form parties with their buddies." Gardenia paused as she realized, "I'm sorry, I'm assuming you are a guy because of your character! Nice stats by the way. Been playing since the game came out?" She wasn't too far behind him which she was pretty chuffed about. Sadie (the player) hadn't started it until she heard her brother talk about it offhandedly. Normally this wasn't the kind of game she would play but it peeked her interest and once she started, she was hooked.

"It's hard finding friends who want to play. Most of my friends are not big into gaming. They only just joined in after I showed them how you can create a character." It was pretty stereotypical, but her friends fit the bill.

She looked over Lero again. He did really well at creating his character. Handsome, but not to the point of trying to draw attention to himself.

 

[Obuzeti]

Lero just looked amused. "Yes, most guys do." he acknowledged with a nod, crossing his legs comfortably. "I've always been a bit of a loner, though, and I don't think I've used the word 'buddies' seriously even once in my lifetime. I'm not a social kind of creature, honestly."

It was truth; he was absolutely devoted to the people he decided were worth it, which numbered maybe four in all the world, and everyone else was insignificant, treated with a mixture of impersonal, informal courtesy and mockery. It hadn't proven a popular attitude with everyone else, but to those people he was bedrock reliable.

Okay, so he was complicated.

"Yes, I'm a guy, to confirm that, and yeah, I've been playing since, like, two days after launch," Lero confirmed. "I actually bought a physical copy mail-order, like a sap, otherwise it would have been since launch. One of the benefits of being an OG player is my rep is solid enough to raid with anyone - professionalism in the gaming world, don'tcha know."

He shrugged, grin sliding across his face like a cloud across the moon, dark and swift. "But that's professional business, so to speak. Friends are different. Friends are people that shove you off boats and stiff you on lunch bills, then jump into bar fights for you or drive you to the hospital at three times the speed limit. I don't do this sliding scale business."

A pause.

Lero's face clouded over as he recounted his own words and found himself lost. "I'm sorry, what were we talking about? I went off on some random fucking philosophical tangent there. You can ignore that."

 

[Cherrybomb400]

Gardenia couldn't help but to let out a laugh and a genuine smile that softened the features of her her character's face. "I'm actually pretty use to that, reminds me of someone I know." She was referring to her brother, who as far as she knew didn't know she played this game. If they ever crossed paths, she would never know since they didn't exchange gamer tags.

Though she was never particularly close with her older brother, they still go along like most siblings. The occasional argument, sibling rivalry, teasing, etc. Gardenia imagined that if they did know each other in the game it probably wouldn't be as much fun for her because then it would be a constant struggle, trying to do each other or just playing pranks on each other. At least for her it would start to get old really quick.

"Doesn't matter, you answered my question." Before Gardenia could ask another question, a message from one of her friends popped up. Upon opening it, it contained what she suspected. The two of them were wondering off with the other two players they found, "Well I saw that happening..." Shortly after closing the message, Echo returned and Gardenia dismissed the flame sprite.

"And it looks like it is just down to you and I. That is if you would like the company."