First steps in Elder Tale [Inori, Witch and Rubix]

[Inori]

The softness of the forest green moss, the slight cooling wind of spring, the warmth of the celestial body; our sun, the smell of warm asphalt and the feeling of anxiety in her breast. Roughly a day had gone by since the catastrophe had taken place and Inori was lying on the moss at the spot she'd first woken up on in this world. It wasn't really anywhere especially noteworthy of sorts, just on another roof out of all the buildings modelled after London itself. She had always loved Elder Tale, ever since she found it that day a few years ago. Like many other dreamers, she'd dream of coming into the world itself and experience it in first person. It's a whole other matter when you actually experience what you once daydreamed about. If one were to ask her if she was happy, then it'd be an obvious yes, without any worries? Clearly not. There are other things to consider before you can look on its bright side. Like... Will she ever meet her parents again? What will happen if she were to die in this world? What if she couldn't handle her social life in this world? There was not really any games that she could run to when reality were to smite her here... In other words: She HAD to make herself successful at such areas in this world.

But she couldn't just lie around doing nothing. Therefore, she pulled herself up on her feet, and dusted herself of a bit before she went towards the door going downstairs. Senses, thoughs, emotions and game mechanics were all put into one messy pot in this world. Which probably would mean that she'd start to get hungry sooner or later. The sooner she got herself active into quests and other events around, the more contacts and money she'd make in order to survive. If anything, she refused to die of something like hunger. She took an aimless stroll through the poor conditioned city and observed the countless of people that just sat around, with their own despair acting as their shackles. She started to wonder how long they would be sitting there until they'd realise that pitying themselves wont be doing any good until there's actually someone there to listen to them. Well, that wont be herself. At least it'll be that way for now...

She wanted to separate herself from all the tall buildings for a while. She walked into what would seem to be an overgrown park. When she looked up what park she was going into, it seemed to be Hyde Park. She had taken a look at it before she arrived in England. It was the first park that had come up on the screen when she had simply searched on "London Parks". It was kind of overwhelming how different it was in this world, overgrown to an extent that you don't realise it's true origin. It didn't stop her from going inside and taking a look though. She continued to walk inwards the park until she found herself a few yards away from a round pond. It seemed to be a perfect spot for a small break. Luckily none seemed to be around either, so she took of her white socks and her wooden getas before she took a seat on the edge, dipping her feet into the cool water. Her questioning feelings about her current situation slowly started to sip away, she even started to gently kick her feet around in the pond, a slight smile started to make its way upwards on her pale cheeks and she started humming on a song from home.

[Words: 612]

[Havelock]

His face hurt... After waking up inside the game of Elder Tales, Havelock, or Lawrence if you wanted to go by his real name, had been running a number of tests to make sure that this wasn't all just one giant hallucination. So far, he'd smashed a couple of windows, inspected the entirety of his meagre inventory which simply consisted his starting equipment and a little bit of money, played around with his menu screen, nearly incurred the wrath of the Royal Guards that appear to stop PKing within city limits, and most recently, hit himself several times. In particular, slapping himself in the face. He sighed quietly to himself and rubbed his face, trying to soothe the stinging pain. He leaned back against the wall he was sitting against, looking up at the sun and the clouds. Just a few hours earlier he was having small identity crises, focused around who he was. After all, he wasn't in his body anymore...

That didn't matter. The issue on who he was had been settled by himself already, and rather simply to be honest. Lawrence was still Lawrence, and nothing was going to change that. Unless he'd been brainwashed or something... Still, the sheer number of people, or Adventurers, around lent some credence to the idea that he really was simply stuck in a game. They all remembered the real world as well, and surely not everyone at once could be wrong. Still, he'd have to get used to being called Havelock rather than his real name now... After all, a person's username was pretty much the first thing people noticed in a game.

Havelock's mind wandered back to his life before the... Catastrophe, was it called? Back before he Catastrophe happened. He had come to England in order to simply sight see, and along the way, he'd met an old friend of his who was studying in London. His friend had agreed to let him say over for a few days, but then days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. Havelock had been enjoying himself greatly in his friend's company. In fact, it was his friend who had shown him Elder Tales. It didn't seem he was logged on at the time of the Catastrophe though, and even if he was, Havelock had no idea where he would be. This was a brand new character, and his friends list was utterly empty. Havelock clicked his tongue. There was no point in dwelling on the negatives. There was an entire new world before him, or... Half a world he supposed, seeing as Elder Tales had halved all the distances. He smiled lightly to himself. Yea... A whole new world. He had left his home in order to have an adventure, and now he had one. Yea... This was the opportunity he'd always dreamed about.

He pushed himself up to his feet, the pain in his face forgotten entirely now. Looking around, he realized that he didn't know anything about the lay out of the wilderness outside Londonium, or even of Londonium itself. Sure, he had a map while inside the city, but everything had suddenly opened up. All the old buildings that were once simply props in the background were now opened up, and things were different now that he couldn't see the city from above like when he simply played the game. Everything was restricted to first person view now, his own eyes... That's right... Eyes... He had them both again, though one eye had been covered up by an eyepatch again, simply because he had grown so used to it. It'd almost been a part of him, missing an eye...

Havelock shook his head of such thoughts and pushed forward, wandering the city, trying to put all the major locations down to memory. Sure he recognized a few landmarks here and there, but... It was all so strange seeing everything rundown and empty. Sure there NPCs and Adventurers around, but the city itself still seemed dead. He walked the streets for a while, eventually turning into a park. He walked inside and looked around. The park was overgrown, just like everything else it seemed. Havelock was about to turn and leave before he heard a quiet tune... Humming, he thought. His curiosity piqued, Havelock ventured into the park, following the song and he eventually came upon a fox tail with long straight hair that was a kind of bleached blonde color, sitting with her feet dipped inside a pond. Havelock watched for a moment at a distance, before he began to approach, purposefully giving his steps a little more force than necessary, crunching on leaves and twigs, and letting his armor clang against itself. "Come here often?" Havelock asked, his brow quirked.

[Words: 795]

[Inori]

The fox tails animal ears twitched as they reacted to the incoming sounds, of another person closed in upon her. They clearly had no plans on sneaking upon her. The clanking of platened armour and the rustle of leaves made it clear as day that someone was there after all. Due to this, Inori didn't really pay any attention to the nearby stranger, they could be there for a bit of exploring like herself as far as she knew. Just because they were there, it didn't mean that they were there for her. Well... That logic was proven wrong, as the person closed in far enough towards her, and spoke up. What surprised her even more though, was what the male voice had asked her. Wasn't it obvious that she didn't come here often? They had just gotten themselves stuck in this world for gods sake! Now, now... Ofcourse he could have meant it in some other way too. Like a cheap pickup line for example... But Inori would probably not sink that low, to think of it as the correct reason of the strangers choice of words. Frankly, she had no idea what to answer him at the moment. "Could he possibly mean in real life?" She thought questioningly to herself. Well, she had just moved to England, so she hadn't gotten the chance to visit this place before now anyways.

Inori let a small laugh leave her nose as she kicked away some of the water which of her pale bare foot were dipped in. Obviously, for the sake of good manners, she couldn't continue to talk without properly showing her own face to the stranger. So with a light smile, for good impression, she turned around and took a good look on the tall guardian. She couldn't really tell which of them who were tallest by looks alone, but it was most likely him. He was a male after all. Though maybe that didn't matter anymore, they were inside of a game now after all. But overall, the person looked rather normal actually. People with black hair had rarely other eye colors than brown, if you were to look at the general population around the world. If there was something that Inori would like to point out, was why the stranger had an eyepatch over his eye. It was not like "adventurers" got scars in this world, or at least she didn't think so. Well, maybe it was one of the many options in the games complex creation system that allowed them to do so. If he really had a non-working eye because of that, then he must've been really unlucky, she thought. Well... There was still a chance that there actually was a fully working eye under that patch, but that he was roleplaying as if it wasn't. Whichever what option was correct, she wasn't rude enought to ask that as her first words to another person. If she got to know him long enough, maybe then she'd have the guts to actually ask and get to know something like that.

"Hello there to you too." Inori answered the man jokingly. He had neither greeted her or introduced himself to her after all. "Hmm..." She pondered a bit before him. "I suppose you mean if i frequently visit this place in real life, correct? Because we haven't been in the game long enough for me to visit this place." She returned her vision towards the crystal clear water and enjoyed the cool feeling of her feet moving around in it, creating a whole lot of ripples upon it's surface in the process. "This is actually my first visit to this wonderfully calm place. I just moved in here recently, so I haven't been able to visit anything anywhere in this city yet. Though I probably doubt it was this calm and lonely in this park out in the real world." She smirked a bit as she let out those last words. "Ohh right!" She suddenly uttered out. "Is it allowed to dipp ones feet into this pond normaly? Not really that it matters now but..." She was currently just spewing out nonsense everywhere. This person was the first she had talked to since she entered this world of Elder Tale. Hell, he was probably the first person that she had talked to since she even entered England! No wonder that she was a bit nervous. How could she get the conversation going? The stranger hadn't even said a word since his first question. Was it possibly that he wasn't satisfied with her answer? "To hell with it." She then thought. It was better than nothing. "So what is your name?" Inori asked, still looking down into the shallow pond.

[Words 796]

[Havelock]

Havelock smiled in response as the girl spoke back, turning to look at him. He got a good look at her face, something that was hidden earlier due to the fact that she had been facing away. Honestly, this was the first conversation he'd had in a little while, and... It was nice. His smile slowly faded though, as he blinked back in surprise. He didn't think that she would take his comment that seriously. It had simply been meant as kind of a joke and an ice breaker to start a conversation. Now here she was going into detail about if she'd ever come here to the park in the real world, and how she had just moved to London. Sure, he supposed that counted as conversation, but it wasn't what he was expecting. Maybe she was nervous instead? He should probably work on calming her down a little.

He put his hands up and patted the air in a placating motion. "Woah, there" Havelock said, attempting to give a friendly smile to show that he wasn't serious about it all. "It was just joke. I didn't actually mean for you to go in-depth about it all. As for sticking your feet inside the pond? Yea, it's probably okay. I think I've done it a few times before, and most people don't seem to mind." He walked forwards by her, and kneeled down in the grass, looking into the pond, then up to the park around them. "I will admit though, you chose a nice place to sit by. I don't think you'd find too many places like this. Or, maybe you would now... I really don't know, I haven't seen the city in its entirety quite yet."

Havelock turned back to look at the girl's face as she asked for his name. "My name? Well can't you see it already? We've all got those little boxes with our information right?" As if to demonstrate, Havelock popped open his HUD, showing the fox-tail's name and class, though it wasn't like she could see any of it. Her name was Inori apparently, and she was a level one shaman. "Well, I suppose a proper introduction can't ever be replaced with name tags though. My username's Havelock," he said, pointing a thumb at himself. "If you want my real name, it's Lawrence, but calling me Havelock might be easier in this world, and I think it sounds cooler too. So, now that I've introduced myself, I think it's your turn. What's your name?"

[Word Count: 422]

[Inori]

"Wha-" Inori started. It took a bit of her time to process what the man, or "Havelock/Lawrence" just told her. He wasn't serious about it?! Then what had she spent those moments thinking so hard about?! She had been really satisfied with her answer too... Actually got the feeling like she nailed the "lady" like attitude and atmosphere. But now she was just embarrassed with herself. A silly pout had started to form on her face and she didn't hesitate a single second before she hid it by looking into the other direction.

Inori had a quite confused first impression on the human sitting close by to her... She was weighting the man as either one of those unbearable know it alls or that he was just one of those people with a real goofy personality, saying things without a second thought. Whatever the case... She had to regain herself from the frustration and embarrassment that she built up. At least she wasn't that nervous anymore. Even though she didn't really like the tune and attitude he treated her with when it came to names, she guessed that she should tell him his name too... She had totaly forgot about the HUDs that existed in the game, it seems like some of realitys petty details still remained in her. Which was good she guessed? "My character name, as you have probably seen already, is Inori and I'd prefer you to use that name too. My real name is... Uhm... Rei ..." Her last word, mentioning her name, barely even came out as a whisper. She'd actually prefered to keep that for herself but... The guardian had mentioned his and she thought that she should do the same out of sheer politeness. A short moment of silence went by before she remembered what other things Havelock had mentioned.

"I guess this place is one of the good ones in London, I don't really like the large houses all that much." She had moved from Tokyo to London after all, houses wasn't really all that interesting anymore. Or ever for that matter... "But there should probably be even better places than this I think. Hyde park was Londons most famous park right? There are still ones like St. James Park which is known for being the prettiest one. I just hope that it hasn't been totally overrun with weeds and groves." Inori said quite indifferently. It had been a good idea to take a rest in this park... The heat radiated her to such an extent that she didn't really care about the other parks at the moment. It was a good thing that she had the pond to cool down herself with, even though only her feet was actually submerged in it. "By the way Mr. Havelock... Isn't it hot in that thick armour of yours? Might I offer you to join me with your feet in the pond? It's rather refreshing in this weather and it cools you down more than you'd imagine." Well... The guardian might have actually known that now that she were thinking about it... According to him, he'd done so before after all. But an invitation could probably not hurt in this situation either.

[Words: 539]