Thirty Minutes Or Less (solo)

[Capsule]

"I'm so cold...and so hungry." Capsule's body trembled as she prowled the streets of London. It was nearing nighttime, but she had yet to find a place to settle in for the night. She was too poor to afford an inn room, and had no friends in the area to count on. 'Maybe I shouldn't have spent all of my money on materials or that Call of Home skill.' Having a skill that sent her to a home she lacked or materials to for crafting she didn't have a decent workshop to set up in was probably not the best move this early in the game. 'Damn it, why didn't I try looking for a home or some kind of shelter first.'

Sleeping out in the open made her uncomfortable, even though she mostly stuck to alleyways or small parks. She wasn't the only one, though. There were plenty of adventurers that were homeless by choice or circumstance. Many of them chose to live as nomads, and even dared to camp out in the wilderness. Capsule lacked that kind of grit, though. She could possibly camp out with friends, but never on her own. Even her fellow homeless peeps couldn't be fully trusted. What was to stop them from mugging her and leaving her for dead? 'The fact that you're in a safe zone, for one.' That was sort of comforting, but it wouldn't stop people from convincing or dragging her outside of London. 'It looks like I'll be sleeping outside again, or I could just stay up and try working on my crafting skill.' The night was still young, after all. As long as she got a good five or six hours of sleep, she would be rested enough to continue about her business. 'This kind of lifestyle can't go on forever, though.' This was true. She was sure she would end up needing a cauldron or pot of some sorts later. 'I don't even have a mortar and pestle, so I have to rely on the system until then.' Being poor was a real pain in the ass.

"Heeeey~! Sexy lady~!"

"...Huh? Who said that…?" It wasn't hard to find the person that owned the voice. He was taller than her and even skinnier, wearing a snug fitting, tattered robe and oversized wizard's hat. Flanking him were two other adventurers, a little dwarf playing a tune on his guitar, and a slinky looking cat-woman dancing in tune to the beat. All three of them looked beyond drunk, but sounded friendly enough.

The tall fellow in the wizard's hat sidled over to her and reached over to play with the strands of her hair, which was hanging freely tonight. "What's a street like you doing out on a gurl like this?"

Capsule wrinkled her nose in distaste as a strong smell of liquor invaded her nostrils, but did not cover her nose. She was rather used to dealing with drunks like this, as she had worked as a bartender before things went tits up. "Gurl? As in 'Guy In Real Life,' or are you just using the slang version of 'girl'?"

The man stared blankly at her for a moment, then wobbled his head around like a bobble head. "Sure, baby gurl, whatever you say." His hat flopped down over his face, obscuring everything above the mouth. It was just as ratty as his robes, and reminded her of the sorting hat from that popular book series about the boy wizard.

"Do you have any liquor left, or is it all down your gullet?"

"Out of liquor?! Me?! A Scotsman?! Heh! I've got plenty!" The man threw himself back in an attempt to make himself seem important, and threw open his robe. This time Capsule did look away, afraid that she would see something she really did not want to. Still, curiosity got the best of her. When she glanced cautiously in the man's direction, he had his robe pulled back like the neighborhood flasher, revealing a one piece cloth jumper, layered with straps and all sorts of little pouches. In these pouches were an assortment of small flasks, tubes, herbs, gems, and bits of scrap metal. "Go on! Take one! I brewed these drinks by myself, heh!"

"Thank you," she said as she plucked one of the small flasks free from a pouch strapped to the middle of his chest. 'I hope it doesn't taste like cat piss.' One sip was all it took to dismantle those thoughts. It was far from the best, but it was strong and warmed her down to her toes. "Mein Gott!" She shook her head, her eyes forming tears at the corners as she fought to keep herself from coughing. "This is rather good!"

A few sips later, Capsule was more than a little tipsy. She danced uninhibited to the tune of the dwarf's playing, first with the wizard, then the cat-woman, and finally by herself. The hours ticked by as she followed the adventurers further down the street to where an NPC run restaurant stood, and helped to raid the trash for discard food or materials to eat. This wasn't the first time she had gone dumpster diving, and likely would not be the last, so she wasn't too bothered about sifting through someone else's discarded junk for tasty little morsels. They managed to scavenge a bit of grub before a shout came from someone standing outside the alley.

"Hey, hey! Get out of here, you bums!"

Giggling like mad, they grabbed as much of their findings as they could carry, and ran away. Capsule found herself being split up from the others during the chaos, and when she finally came to she was in St. Pancras Station. 'How did I end up here,' she thought as she scanned the surrounding area.

The area she stood in belonged to an old, broken down railroad station. Surrounding it were a few buildings and some stalls, like a sort of open market. A few people were sticking closely to these stalls, either tinkering with things or getting ready to settle in for the night. Capsule brought her flask to her lips and tilted her head back, but could only suck on the dry air within. 'Damn it.' She thought about throwing down the small glass flask in frustration, but rethought this when she considered it still had its use, but as a container for future medicines or ingredients. She pocketed the flask and turned away from the corroded railway tracks. 'I should look for a place to sleep.' Eating the bland tasting food and the run that followed had sobered her up enough for clear thoughts to pass through her somewhat addled mind.

Words:1120

Muse:Playgirl

Notes:This solo will mostly focus on the Courier subclass.

Tags:Capsule

made by benetnasch of ET

[Capsule]

Breaking into a building wasn't the first time Capsule had broken a law, but it was a first for her in the Unfounded Kingdom. In her mind, it was rundown and practically neglected by all but the dedicated crafters that had set up shop here, and many of the buildings were still vacant and condemned. Plus, she was tired and wanted to rest. She could worry about the consequences later. 'What are they going to do? Lock me up or throw me out?'

The building she broke into was located furthest from the small cluster of stalls, so there were fewer witnesses around to see her sneak around back and slowly work her way up a pipe onto the second floor. From there she smashed in a window with her elbow, and then cleared away the glass so she could safely climb in. Once inside, she immediately made her way to the other side of the room, where a dilapidated door hung. This fell down when she brushed against it, and a flurry of wild rats rushed past her into the room. "Ugh…" She wrinkled her nose in disgust at the vermin, and stooped down to seize the fallen door and hoist it back to the window. She stood it up and braced it against the window to block out unwanted eyes or weather, and stood back to admire her "handiwork". That door would probably fall if someone gave it a hard knock, but it would have to do for now.

'Now to find a place to crash. I can worry about the mess when I'm awake' Luckily for Capsule, she did not have to search long before finding some moldy, empty sacks to lie on. They reeked of dust and rat shit, but that became less of an issue once you flapped them around and flipped them over to a cleaner side. 'If I were a prouder woman, I would rather sleep in the streets than this shoddy little hovel.' Her consciousness was lost to dreams as she settled down and shut her eyes. Within minutes she was snoring softly, her limbs twitching ever so slightly as she dreamt.

Waking up was something short of a nightmare, and she had no liquor to quell the nervousness she felt when a big, black rat was the first thing she saw. "Eh. Eeeh…" The rat was perched on her chest, right between her small breasts. Capsule pressed her lips together and made a low whimper of fear. She held back the urge to scream and knock it off of her, knowing rationally that it shouldn't be able to harm her, but feeling unnerved nonetheless. "Fuuuuck~!"

The rat tilted its head to its side as it regarded her with wide eyed curiosity, then sat up and began grooming its face with its crooked little paws. Capsule just laid there, sobbing internally as she watched the rat work. When it was done, it turned around and casually made its way down to her lap. The redhead was unable to budge as she waited for the rat to leave and carry on with its business, but it was content to just sit there for almost ten minutes, doing nothing but wave its nose around in the air. Almost after what felt like an eternity, Capsule could feel the rat scurrying down her leg and launching itself off her foot. 'Oh thank God,' she thought in relief.

She jumped up after a few seconds, swatting at her body as she danced around in place. Little puffs of dust flew into the air with every step, but she was far too absorbed with her own terror to notice or care. When it was all over, Capsule leaned against the ragtag wall to catch her breath. 'I see that I'm going to have to do some picking up around here.' She didn't know for sure if someone lived here or not, but it may as well be her home. '...It wouldn't hurt to double check, of course.' For all she knew, there could be something much larger and worrisome than a bunch of rats. 'I should probably do something about the rats, too.' Even though the day had just begun, the woman could tell that she was going to be sprucing the place up for possibly two days or more.

Words:723

Muse:Distress Signal

Notes:Still setting up the story.

Tags:Capsule

made by benetnasch of ET

[Capsule]

Capsule found her descent down the stairs to be prematurely cut off by stacks of rotting cardboard boxes. 'Tch.' Knocking them down to get to the bottom of the stairs would have been a pain and taken a good portion of the day just to do, so she decided to leave it for a later time and sort out what was to be her living area. This turned out to be a bit easier, especially since she could just chuck garbage out of one of the windows. Was it bad for the environment? Maybe. Did she care about polluting what she was still convinced was a virtual world? Not at all.

The redhead waltzed through the room, longing for some music to clean to. 'I should hunt down a mechanic later when I have the funds or items to compensate them for their time. I'm sure they could make me a simple music box.' A record player would be even better, but were such things possible to craft here? To make up for the lack of music, she did the best she could with bits and pieces of random songs that popped into her mind. "And the truth is you can't hide from the truth. And the truth hurts because the truth is all there is. I realized some time ago that I would have to let you go~." These were lyrics to some song an American had told her was one of those "Hip Hop" songs. Not being too familiar with the genre, she could hardly dispute his claim. It was a nice enough song, though.

"Baby I don't die without you by my side, as long as you return into these arms that burn. Baby I won't die just take a look inside, into these eyes that burn, come to these arms that yearn~." The rest of the lyrics were lost to her, especially when the rapping began. She just continued humming along until she got tired of singing in English, and decided to hunt down a source of water.

The source she found was in a small bathroom with a stained tub and toilet. The tub she did her best to ignore, since it was crawling with little rats and other filth. "Ew~." The sink seemed like a safe enough option, even though she had to wait a good twenty minutes for the water to clear up. She found a bucket in what appeared to be a small broom closet further down the hall, and after securing a moth eaten mop and filling the bucket, went about cleaning the floors. The dust and other debris had been cleaned up as best as she could manage, making it easier to drag the ready to fall apart mop around. She lacked cleaning materials, though, so it was little more than spreading water over a somewhat dirty floor.

What she accomplished in the end was a mostly clean, if not obviously a still falling apart living quarters. "It wouldn't win any awards, but it's one step above unneeping livable. Now I just need a tailor, woodcrafter, and maybe an artisan to help me make it look…" A support beam down the hall fell. "Presentable." With a small sigh, Capsule dragged a chair she had found in a room that looked like a personal study to one of the windows that had previously been boarded up. She sat in her chair and leaned her body against the window, which was soon fogged up by her breath as she dozed off.

At any rate, her slumber did not feel like it lasted long at all. Maybe this had something to do with her being awakened right in the middle of a good dream, or the fact that the person shaking her was a stranger and sounded very pissed off. "...UWHA?!" She flailed around nervously, not really defending herself so much as trying to throw the person away. In her panic, Capsule tried using her Inversion skill to redirect the person's position. There was a masculine yelp as the man was spun around, but a second jumped in to grab her by the shoulders.

The woman was lifted clean off her feet and dangled in the air by a large, muscular man that was a good foot taller than she was. "Let me go! Let me go!" She kicked her legs, but it mattered little. The man that held her was too strong to notice or didn't care about her pitiful attempts to struggle.

"So you're the one who made that ruckus last night. I knew that was too much for a bunch of rats to accomplish."

Had she neeped up big? Yes, yes she had.

"I just wanted a place to stay at night," she squeaked out.

"More like squat in an owned building."

As much as she would have liked to dispute the man's ownership of the building, she was in a very bad position to be doing so. The other man was now sitting in her seat, glaring up at her from his position. Capsule was carried out into the middle of the room and lightly placed on the tip of her toes, but the man did not release her. "We could take you out and rough you up a little, or if you'd prefer to do this the easy way…" The man paused to glance over at his companion.

"Does the easy way involve pain?"

"Naw. It involves deliveries."

Words:910

Muse:Starlight

Notes:And it begins~.

Tags:Capsule

made by benetnasch of ET

[Capsule]

It was by mere coincidence that the men had demanded she supply delivery services as "rent" for living above their soon to be shop. Hilariously enough, the large adventurer turned out to be a chef and farmer, while the smaller man was a brewer and housekeeper. They looked less hostile in light of this information, and even spoke gentler to her once she had revealed her main and subclasses. The fact that she wasn't putting up a fight and was the prime example of obedience also helped. 'I wonder if they'd go easier on me if they knew I was a girl.'

So far they just thought she was a young boy, a guise that was helped by the rag she had tied around her head to keep dust out. 'Would they let me go altogether, or demand sexual favors?' Was it even possible to do such things here? 'Not like I have any intention of finding out.' The thought alone always made her uncomfortable, and she had almost knocked some boy's head off when he had tried to kiss her. The knuckles on her left hand were still scarred from tearing when her fist struck his hard jawline, which her father had loudly proclaimed as proof of his daughter's "mean southpaw."

She'd done her best to pass as male when around them, and had never been glad to be a B cup in her life. The men were thankfully too focused on cleaning up the bottom floor of the building to study her too closely. They had done a good job of cleaning this floor, and had apparently commissioned help from a woodworker and tailor. The second floor had apparently been blocked off with the intention of the trapping the rats until they could be dealt with at a later time, but Capsule's thumping around had made them take action earlier than planned.

As expected, the rats had come flooding downstairs and were promptly dealt with. A third adventurer was called in to handle them, though Capsule wasn't permitted to watch so she had no idea what became of them. All that mattered was that she finished paying off her current "debt" so that she could get her free time back. She would pretty much be forced to work for them if she wished to continue using the floor above as a makeshift home, and as there were no others, she could hardly argue. Plus, she would be making money by way of tips, and regularly raising her Courier level. The only downside was that maintenance of her little apartment was her sole responsibility, but that would no longer be a problem once she pulled help from elsewhere.

After about an hour or so of cooking, the men were ready for her. Capsule padded in, nose twitching unstoppably as she caught a whiff of a familiar scent. 'Is that pizza I smell? And is that...Chinese food?' Her stomach rumbled in anticipation as she was led to the counter and a large, square box was placed in her hands. "Is this real food? Or is it that menu cooked stuff?"

The chef was indignant that Capsule would compare his hard work to pretty slop that was made in a few minutes. "Don't you know that food prepared by hand tastes like the real thing? If you don't believe me, here - try this."

A triangular piece of bread, cheese and tomato sauce was shoved into her mouth. "Umph?! Ummph!!" As someone who had lived primarily off of ingredients and the occasional bland hunk of bread, she did not expect for the cooked food here to get any better. As it turns out, she was completely wrong. The piece of pizza she was slowly working down her throat was a combination of all those ingredients she had sufficed on, cooked into a crust that was crispy and tasted faintly of grease. "So...good."

"Exactly! This is why we need our little Courier to go out and make deliveries for us. We've got too many customers that want their food to be brought to them, and they're expecting it to be in thirty minutes, or it's free. If you fail, you lose access to the floor above, capicé?"

'That wasn't part of the deal!' She glowered up at him, but didn't dare to express her thoughts. "Alright. Where do I start -"

She was given a new quest with the odd name of "...Or It's Free" to complete, the first part of which would take her thirty minutes to do. '...How convenient.' She accepted the quest regardless, and was given several more stacks of pizza to deliver. "Oof. Can I at least have a bag or something to carry these in?"

"You don't have your own?"

"...No."

"Well, there you have it! Get to work, little pizza delivery boy!"

Words:806

Muse:Ayla part II

Notes:Ayla~.

Tags:Capsule

made by benetnasch of ET

[Capsule]

Without a map, Capsule would have to rely mostly on her Checkpoint skill and minimum knowledge of the area to get by. 'Easier said than done,' she thought glumly as she trotted out of the building and onto the streets that surrounded the St. Pancras Station. She placed the hot stacks of pizza onto what appeared to be a broken mailbox, and used her Checkpoint skill to find her current customers. Several pillars of light lit up the sky, some coming from buildings, others from the currently small stall area. The ones in the buildings were a lot closer than the ones from the stalls, so she made her way to the former instead.

Running with a large stack of pizzas was probably not a wise idea, but Capsule somehow managed to juggle holding onto them and checking her path for signs of upcoming traffic (in the form of careless adventurers) and navigating. A few of said adventurers (mostly those of the beast variety) edged closer to her path, their noses twitching ever so slightly at the smell of food. "Back! Get back, you vultures!"

One of them, a short cat-woman snorted derisively at her. "Don't worry, sweetie. No one wants your shoddy excuse of "grub.""

'Except it's actually real food, and not made by the menu.' She could have argued, but was sure the feline would demand proof in the form of a taste of the confines of Capsule's pizza boxes. That was something she could not allow, since not only would it slow her down further, but cost her a pizza as well. "Excuse me!" She darted nimbly around the feline player and towards where the first pillar of light had shone.

The building she found herself in was inhabited by mostly humans, none of whom looked like they could use with a warm, slice of pizza. The building itself looked relatively new, though Capsule was sure that this had been renovated like the first floor of her building. The inhabitants were all dressed smartly, much like lawyers or accountants, and too engulfed with their own work to pay her any mind - all but one.

The adventurer that intercepted her was a stocky wolf-hair, looking very out of place despite the finely tailored suit he wore. "And what do we have here~? What business do you…" He wrinkled his nose in distaste as he reached out to flick her poorly put together starter armor. "Here?"

Capsule flinched at his touch. "I have a pizza to deliver to a mister...IC Weiner?" She hadn't checked the list of names of the people she was supposed to be delivering to beforehand, but doing so now made her wonder if she had just been "prank called."

"Aha~! Double pepperoni, pineapple, gorgonzola cheese and banana peppers?"

'Oh God...that sounds absolutely horrible.' It looked just as bad as she imagined, but the wolf-hair seemed pleased. "Alles in Ordnung."

"Excellent. IC! Your pizza is here."

A portly looking man appeared by the wolf-hair's side and snatched the pizza out of Capsule's hands. He promptly yanked the lid open and tore out a slice of pizza, quietly studying it for a moment before placing one corner in his mouth. Both Capsule and the wolf-hair stared imploringly at the man, who did not disappoint them. He gobbled down the slice in two large bites, and was well onto his third one before he acknowledged Capsule's presence. "It ain't 'alf bad. You wan' some -" The wolf-hair quickly refused, claiming that he was on a "diet." "Oh well. Suit yo'self." He then glanced at Capsule and tossed a handful of sticky, gold coins onto her top pizza box. "There ya go, kid."

'Five coins? What in blazes am I supposed to do with this?' It wasn't enough to purchase anything of worth, nor was it proper "pocket change". 'It's better than nothing, I guess,' she thought dejectedly as she vacated the building. That was five minutes gone, and she still needed to deliver four more pizzas before her time was up. 'I never knew that delivery boys had it this bad. Even delivering papers was never as horrible as this.' That was what she thought, at least. Her experience was sure to get better as she went along.

She used her Checkpoint skill yet again, to gauge the distance of the second delivery place she would need to visit. A fresh pillar of light descended from the sky to light up a building further down the street. It would take her roughly around the same amount of time to deliver her second pizza, assuming she ran the entire way and did not stop for idle chit chat. 'Lets do this,' she thought as she began jogging down the street with her lighter burden.

Words:796

Muse:Land Of The Wolves

Notes:4/5 Pizzas delivered.

Tags:Capsule

made by benetnasch of ET

[Capsule]

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[attr="class","benetbar"]

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As hoped, Capsule's next delivery went rather smoothly. She didn't jostle or drop any of her pizza boxes, and did not run into any snooty werecats or sharply dressed wolf-hairs. Sure, she passed a few milling humans on her way, but none of them bothered to flag her down or stop her. "Heh. What was I worried about? This is a piece of cake~.' The only true obstacle was a small dog, which yipped and yapped as it followed at her heels. She refrained from kicking it, though. The little guy was just curious, and it was far too small to be of any real threat to her.

"Excuse me, coming through! Watch out!" Capsule skidded to a stop into the building that hosted the second client. The room she found herself in was dark and dreary, unlike the office of accountants that was clean and well-lit. A chemical scent permeated the air, one that smelled more of boiled herbs than cleaning supplies. 'I wonder if the person who ordered the food is a pharmacist or alchemist.' It was likely the former, but she wouldn't know that until she actually talked to said person.

A barefoot woman in harem pants and a series of clinking necklaces covering her chest stepped out from the shadows, and tossed a little sack of coins to Capsule. Cap caught it and extended the woman's box out, which was gingerly taken. The customer bowed her head in Capsule's direction in a silent thank you, and disappeared back from whence she came. The woman seemed a bit strange, but Capsule couldn't say that she would prefer a rude customer like the first. People were far easier to deal with when they were calm and courteous. 'They're also less likely to threaten me with violence.'

She trotted out of the small building, now humming to herself as a small tendril up hope wove its way into her heart. That hope came crashing down a few moments later, when the use of her Checkpoint skill showed her that it would take at least ten minutes to reach the third customer. That would leave her with roughly ten minutes or so to deliver the rest of the pizzas. "Urk…" How the hell was she supposed to deliver three more pizzas in twenty minutes?! 'You sure as hell better try, if you don't want to be out on the streets again!' It was a dump, but it was her dump. 'Time to run my legs ragged, I suppose.' Her job would have been so much easier if she had a form of transportation.

As Capsule was streaking down the street like a bat out of hell, she saw something curious. There was an adventurer riding a small horse just a few paces away. The horse was pulling a small cart loaded with some vegetables and other ingredients. 'Aha! If I can just get myself onto the back of that cart…' That was probably a lot easier said than done, but Capsule wasn't going to give up so easily.

So she waited for the horse to come to a slow to let some pedestrians by, and hopped into the back of the cart while the adventurer flirted with a girl. Fortunately for Capsule's time limit, the man was given the brush off and brought his horse to a quick gait to escape the soft chuckles from onlookers. He was so distracted by his own embarrassment that he failed to notice the redhead riding amongst his cabbages. 'I'll be taking a few of these,' Capsule thought with a smirk as she picked up a few of the cabbages and relocated them into her own inventory. She wouldn't be able to cook any of it, of course, but food was food, even if it was raw.

The adventurer wasn't aware of Capsule's presence until she was sprinting away from the cart, and even then he just stared blankly in confusion, either unaware that she had just hopped out of his cart, or shocked that someone had actually stolen a ride without him knowing. 'Please don't give chase. Please don't give chase. Please don't give chase.' These were the words she chanted in her head as she ran, only having lost six or seven minutes while she had stowed away. 'A few minutes can make a surprising difference.'

Capsule was out of breath by the time she reached the designated stall, but the kid that took his box of pizza didn't seem to care either way. He tipped the woman with a fist full of coins and two apples. 'Coin, apples, it doesn't matter as long as one or the other keeps me from starving.' Could people even starve to death here? It wasn't something she was eager to try, like those people who had committed suicide or prompted fights just to test the ability to die in this world and failed. Even if she could be revived, she sure as hell did not want to tempt fate. The threat of pain scared Capsule dearly.

Feeling especially fatigued now, Capsule toggled on her Checkpoint skill for hopefully the last time, and saw two tall pillars materialize only a few feet away from where she stood. 'Just two more. You've got this. Just give them the pizza and run back as fast as you can.' She had a somewhat trickier time navigating through the thickening crowd of people, but by sheer force of will she was able to hop over some kids drawing on the pavement, skillfully slip through two round twins before their fat bulges could collide, and ducked under the outstretched arm of a would be pizza snatcher.

The elderly looking woman was cut off in the middle of thanking Capsule, who hastily took the proffered tip and bade her farewell before stumbling after the fox-tail child that was waiting for her. "Thirty minutes...or it's free," Capsule forced out as she dropped to her knees before the kid. "Please enjoy...your meal." If there was a skill that helped to accelerate an adventurer's speed, Capsule would surely grab it the second she could. The redhead wanted to curl up into a ball and cry, knowing that her work day was far from over. 'What have I gotten myself into now?'

Words:1046

Muse:Cats On Mars

Notes:Pew.

Tags:Capsule

made by benetnasch of ET