The Excellent Adventures of Jane and Sunny

[Sunny]

Sunny had returned to the main area of Londinum immediately after the trudge through that haunted estate and had felt uplifted from the quest. Sure, it’d had its rocky roads, little skirmishes among the party, not to mention the frustration of having to face monsters with certain immunities, but overrall the Ritualist was pretty happy with the results. She’d gained some AP for her Exorcist class, plus a little bonus for her main class. She’d also become acquainted with some other gamers, which was always a perk. It was never a bad idea to stay on someone’s good side. You never knew when you were gonna need a helping hand at some point of the game.

At any rate, she was steadily coming down from her earlier high. Sunny was getting bored. She could always go out and fight some more monsters, but even that was starting to lose its appeal, which was annoying to say the least. Here she was, in a game where she couldn’t die, wielding fantastical powers that she could only dream of having before, and she was bored. She supposed that every novelty had its burn-out. The Swashbuckler just didn’t think it’d be so soon. Maybe a change of pace would get her fire going again, like that one night at the karaoke bar. That was pretty wild. She had so much work to accomplish by way of her demon-hunter dream. She couldn’t afford to just lose interest.

The only thing was, she was kinda at a loss for ideas. At the moment, she was just strolling the town, wandering from one edge to the next and spying on other Adventurers as they introduced themselves and offered advice to one another. The housing district was pretty abuzz at the moment. Not surprising, given the number of guilds that set-up tent in the area. Maybe joining a guild would spark her enthusiasm. Sunny always liked meeting new people. Who would take her at her current level, though? The Brazilian adjusted her headband as she glanced at the guild houses, trying to get a brief glimpse of life through one of the windows.

---

words: 356

Jane

[Jane]

Left to his own devises as often as he was, Cedric had developed more and more of an interest in some of the things in this new world around him. Alchemy was still a lottle too hard sneaking could be quite annoying despite how much fun it was, and the people were all incredibly annoying and self cantered, though maybe that last one was just him? Most of the time he just ignored people unless they got his attention, or called him out on something (which was still hard to notice sometimes, considering the whole being a girl thing). Today he was investigating the interesting topic of player houses. While they had nothing on guild houses, and many of the houses around here were well beyond what she'd be able to one day get, Jane was still trying for a better look.

The tiny guardian was more than willing to hop a fence or two so she could go press her face up against a window and try and see inside those buildings. It probably didn't help all that much considering the inside could probably look however the owner wanted it but it still gave Cedric a good idea of what he was trying to get himself into. There was no way he was going to bother with that sort of customisation when he got around to it himself, and Cedric wanted a nicer area than the city.

Maybe somewhere out in the wild? With a nice lake or river to keep it cool, with abundant shade and an easily defendable location, in case monsters could attack or something. Okay now he was thinking too far ahead. The place was nice though, and it wasn't like he could get in without permission so people probably wouldn't get confused about his intentions. Hopefully. Some people still seemed to mix the real world's rules with this new worlds, and they eventually were forced to learn the differences.

"I wonder what else there is to see around here." Jane muttered to herself, hopping down from the window and making her way back to street level. There was a large variety of external house types by the look of things but so far they all seemed to be the same inside. At least when it came to looking through the window. Cedric was the slight bit curious about what it could be like on the inside but none of the places he'd seen were exactly open to the public so far.

W: 417

[Sunny]

Mike and Ike, they think alike, or so that old saying goes. She couldn’t quite find the right words to define whatever that old adage meant; Brazil had a fair share of its old idioms. Learning foreign ones –as necessary as it may be to better fit in with her English-speaking society- was forever a pain. She decided to go for the obvious. Some people just shared common interests and ideas. For now, Sunny’s Ike was located just a few windows down, all bright and yellow and very sun-like, and it occurred to the Swashbuckler that they might have had more in-common than a current and totally innocent hobby of window-peeping. At least, innocent, as far as Sunny’s intentions were; although, she doubted any Peeping Tom would have the audacity to do his or her business in the light of day like this.

Seriously.

The black-Brazilian looked away, turning her focus back to her mission at-hand, and only glimpsed back when she got bored and realized that no self-respecting guild would invite someone based on a high level of Nosiness. “Ike” had lost interest as well, as she was back on the streets again, walking in a way that gave Sunny an impression that she was currently looking for something but hadn’t quite found it herself.

Hmmm. . .

Curious, the Ritualist stepped away from the house and tried waving down the other girl, meandering towards her as she did so. “Yo,” she grinned. “Checking out the local guilds as well?”

---

words: 251

Jane

[Jane]

One thing could be said about Cedric, when he wasn't paying attention things made him jump easily. So focused was Jane on the different types of houses she'd seen so far, that when Sunny suddenly appeared in front of her the tiny guardian almost jumped out of her boots.

"Who? What? No!"

Scampering back half a step or two, Jane slipped an unruly strand of hair back behind her ear and glanced at the girl who'd spoken to her. The startled deer act wasn't something Jane normally did so she probably looked a little desperate while she composed herself. She had to do a stop check for a moment there as she was about to suffer from the 'not racist butt'. It wasn't that often Cedric had seen someone of colour outside of a convention or some sort of get together with friends from outside of Whales.

"I'm checking the different types of houses that the guilds have got." Jane explained once she'd composed herself, glancing back at the window she'd just been hanging off of. "I want to get a place of my own soon, I've been saving since we got here you see, and I want to check out the different houses you can get. I don't want any of these city ones the guilds are all using but something would be nice."

For a moment the small girl stared off into the middle-distance and signed. "I'm really looking forward to getting an Alchemist lab or something in it, I have no idea what I'm doing with this darn class and no one really has the patience to explain. I figure once I have my own workplace it'll just come to me, you know?"

Jane signed and shook her head to herself, not even sure what she was going on about. "I don't even know, so why would you even know?" she grumbled softly to herself, trying not to be too apparently silly to the unlucky individual who had decided to speak to her.

W: 336

[Sunny]

Sunny’s eyes widened at the wild display, hands heaved to her hips as she waited for the other girl to gather herself. She ran a hand sheepishly over her head, smoothing the wrinkles in her headband in some busy notion, and tried not to laugh; although, the deepening dimples on her face were probably indication enough that she thought the scenario was straight-up hilarious. “I'm sorry.” There was also that hint of light-hearted laughter in her accented voice. “I thought you saw me.” True that, but it now occurred to the Brazilian that Jane probably had been deep in thought when she approached her, hence the verbal flailing and startled expression.

When Jane finally managed to collect her thoughts and explain herself, the Swashbuckler found it wonderfully coincidental that they were both on the same train of thought, so to speak. They kind of split off when the other girl mentioned that she was house hunting for a place of her own. No small task. Extremely time-consuming too.

But what really got Sunny’s attention was when she mentioned being an Alchemist, another common bond shared between the pair. This was too weird. “You’re an Alchemist too, huh? I haven’t really taken the time to work on it, but yeah, I get what you mean. A quiet space is probably all you need.” Sunny wasn’t even sure of all the things the subclass could accomplish. She was aiming to create magical bullets to help her take-out supernatural monsters whenever she came across them, but she honestly didn’t know how to go about it. Too bad there weren’t any instruction manuals laying around. That’d be super helpful. “If you ever want to bounce ideas off of anyone, you could always look me up. I wouldn’t mind helping, and the practice would be perfect.” If Jane even felt comfortable with that. So far, they were nothing more than a pair of strangers that happened to share some similarities.

“I’m Sunny,” she introduced, holding out her in hand to be shook. “House hunting then? . . .How's that working out for you?"

---

words: 348

Jane

[Jane]

"Don't worry about it." Jane waved off the Swashbuckler's apology, trying her best to smile at how silly she'd just been. "I wasn't paying enough attention to be walking along like this, would have been better if I was sitting. Out of the way. Much easier to think like that. Less likely to get in anyone's way and.. stuff."

It was such a pathetic excuse and Cedric new it. He'd been so much better at first impressions back when he had been himself. Now that he was Jane instead he often found himself flustered when trying to talk to people he'd normally put on his smoother persona with. It was probably just a side effect of the whole being someone else thing that he and maybe a few others had to experience as part of this new world, but that didn't make it any easier.

"It's so annoying!" Jane cried out after Sunny mentioned not having had time to work on being an Alchemist, "Half the stuff we can do requires we do other stuff first, and even that stuff is probably really hard to do or higher level or something. The best I can figure out to do at the moment is those mana crystal things, and they just disappear into nothing if I so much as touch them so there isn't much I can do with them right now. I would love to just make things work but it's just... urg!"

Another sigh escaped the tiny guardian's mouth. "I'm sorry, you don't need to hear that. I'm really getting worked up randomly today. Maybe I do need someone to bounce ideas off or something though, it'd probably help."

"Jane." she replied after a moment, holding her hand out to shake Sunny's. "Honestly? I don't know what I'm doing. It's not like real world house hunting, you get what you get and there isn't anyone sprucing the place up to try and convince you to buy it. I'm not even sure if I care enough about the size of the places as long as I have a place to rest. I'm just not the kind of person to do things half assed. Hence the research and looking around."

W: 369

[Sunny]

At Jane’s outburst, the Ritualist blinks, head rearing back just a moment as if blown-back by the Guardian’s words. She smiled then, nodding sympathetically at her acquaintances’ dilemma. Based on what she’d heard from other Adventurers, you either loved crafting or you absolutely dreaded it. On one hand, it unlocked hidden items and weapons that could make adventuring that much more fun and awesome! Annnd on the other hand, it tended to be super time-consuming depending on which Crafting Class you picked.

Chef was probably one of the easier classes. All things considered, cooking was something just about everyone knew how to do, and if not that, then you could at least put together a sandwich. With Alchemy . . . Well, how do you shoot web? Sunny knew what she wanted out of the class –holy bullets- but it was just a matter of taking the time to learn how to climb those steps to get to her goal.

Maybe it’d make things easier if she did pair up with another Alchemist. At least it wouldn’t feel quite so intimidating. Mana Crystals, huh? She scratched her head as she thought about some of the advice she’d been giving regarding Alchemy. Those are the ones you use to make other recipes, ey? A single eyebrow quirked at the next spoken thought. It’s weird that they’d be so . . . what’s the word? . . . Volatile? Perhaps it was a mistake to take-up that particular crafting class. It’d seemed like a good idea at the time; she wouldn’t have to track-down a level Alchemist. Just level herself and make her own items. Now, uh, it sounded like more trouble than it was worth.

Hands were shaken and names exchanged. “Jane” sounded so much better than “Ike”. Nice and feminine. If only Sunny knew . . . Hearing her speak about house hunting was something that kept the Swashbuckler’s interest. Having lived with her parents until she moved into a dorm room, she’d never had to go looking for a home. “Ah?” She grinned. “You’ve done this before then, huh?”

---

words: 350

Jane

[Jane]

"Huh?" Jane replied, only half following along with the side of the conversation she really should have been paying attention to, "Oh, sort of. I live with my rhieni, that's parents in Welsh. I was starting to look for a place to call my own shortly before we were all pulled in here. I haven't really had much reason to move out and even now it's more because I feel like I'm just a guy living there rather than family. It's weird how you can drift apart from people you live every day with, right?"

Cedric hardly noticed his little slip of the tongue when explaining the situation, so it was unlikely he would say anything unless Sunny pulled him up on it. It wasn't like he was keeping his real gender a secret from people though, if they really asked and pressed he would admit to it. If the other Adventurers were willing to accept what they saw instead, then who was he to tell them otherwise?

"I think the main thing to remember about houses is as long as they are just houses, you get what you see in most cases. But if someone were to turn it into a big guild hall then you're going to have the potential to have something else on the inside. Or maybe that's just the main guild hall that does that? I mean I've seen some places that do it, I'm just not sure what the rules are. Do you have any idea?"

W: 252

[Sunny]

“I can’t say that I do,” Sunny commented with a sheepish grin. “I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing the insides of a guild house, but I hear they can be . . . I don’ know?” What was that word again? “ You know, busy and fancy? AH!” She clapped her hands as the right word came to mind. “EXTRAVAGANT!”

God, English had too many words. . .

Against her will, Sunny’s mind began to replay what Jane had said earlier. There was something amiss about it, but the Swashbuckler couldn’t –for the life of her- figure out what her brain was obsessing over at the moment. Maybe it was that foreign word –Welsh, did she say? - that kept hanging over her.

And then it hit her. “Wait . . . So you’re a dude in real life then?” Subconsciously, the Ritualist felt her body lean, as if her eyes were wanting to get a better look despite the fact that that it wouldn’t help, like, at all. Virtual bodies and all. Truth be known, she wasn’t all that shocked at this revelation. It wasn’t unusual for people to design characters that were the opposite gender. Folks tended to get an image in their heads of their fantasy avatar. Gender was just part of the design.

Of course, that was all before the players got stuck in these bodies. All Sunny was required to do was get used to her bouncier hairstyle. She couldn’t imagine the struggle of getting used to new . . . accessories, for lack of a better term. She had to know.

“If you don’t mind me askin’. . .What’s it like, y’know?”

---

words: 278
Jane
ooc: xD I wonder how many times Jane gets asked this question.

[Jane]

Jane shook her head after Sunny figured out what word she was looking for. "That's the thing. I always hear what other people have heard about. It's like people aren't allowed to say anything if they've actually seen it. Though that is probably just me being silly there. I probably just don't know anyone who'd actually know."

The next words the Swashbuckler spoke made the tiny guardian visibly flinch, though it wasn't exactly a look of guilt that crossed her face, but rather one of annoyance. That wasn't a fact Cedric had let slip before and he wasn't really sure how people around him were going to take it. There had been story of the one or two people found out like this that had been attacked, verbally and physically, because of the fact they'd made a female character when they weren't and were now stuck as that. Thankfully this didn't seem to be the case with Sunny, but that didn't stop the thoughts crossing his mind.

"Yeah, not exactly something I like to shout from the rooftops you know? People are really weird about it."

The following question got an awkward head tilt in reply as Cedric did his best to actually think it through. Eventually she just shrugged and gestured up and down at Sunny's body. "Probably not as different for you really, how different is this body from your real one? You'd have had to get used to it even if it only differed in height. Everything was weird for the first few days but then after a while it's hard to really remember feeling any different when all you've got to feel now is what you've got."

The little girl signed wistfully for a moment and glanced off into the distance. "I'd love to go back one day but that's not on the cards right now. I'd also have to get used to it again too and honestly, that's as scary a concept as the original change."

W: 331

[Sunny]

In all honesty, the Brazilian was sort of surprised to hear Jane’s account. Adjusting to height or extra hair was one thing, but all the . . .extra things that came with a sex-change? She would’ve thought that the adjustments would’ve been more . . .demanding? Was that the right way to put it? Sunny tilted her head, lips pursing as she rolled Jane’s words around in her head and considered a solution to her acquaintant’s dilemma; although, she was sure that the small Guardian had already considered all the available options. She’d –he’d-. . .he’d said something about it not being in the cards right now. Sunny wondered what he’d meant by that but wasn’t sure if she was in the right to keep asking about it. She did anyway. . .

“Have you ever thought about using a potion? With Alchemy, I bet you could put something together to fix it. . .” And then, she became fully aware –or maybe paranoid- that she was riding this topic for a bit too long. “Ah! I’m sorry,” the Ritualist said, hands shooting to the space in front of her chest. She had to resist the urge to play with her hair, a nervous habit to relieve the awkwardness. Her cheeks darkened. “You probably get hounded about it all the time, huh?”

It was definitely time for a change in topic, at least as far as Sunny could tell. She wasn’t too keen on making this guy anymore uncomfortable than he already, possibly was.

---

words: 254
Jane

[Jane]

Jane just nodded at Sunny's questions, she wasn't too sure how accurate the information she'd been given on the topic was but considering the question it was worth at least explaining her position.

"From what I've been told by some of the players who used to play on other servers, the Appearance Change potion was an event only item that was handed out ages ago. We never had a chance to get it so there isn't even a chance to find someone who is willing to trade a stupid amount of money for it." she started, "And while I've heard the idea of Alchemy theoretically being able to reproduce it, what with Alchemy being the study of changing one thing to another, it's not the kind of potion that's normally created. Either no one knows how to make it at the moment, or someone does and they're keeping it all to themselves."

Jane couldn't help but tilt her head at Sunny's worried exclamation, a knowing smirk crossing the tiny Guardian's face. "Honestly, most people are so blind to things they don't want to know about that people rarely notice. I put on a cute voice like I would for a character in a D&D setting and no one's the wiser. Other than my friend who knew me before this, you're the only one who has really picked up on it. If anyone else has they haven't said a word to me so they really don't count."

With an over exaggerated shrug she added "It's not like this is permanent anyway. Once everything is fixed up and we all get out of here I'll be back to normal. Might as well enjoy being my character while I can, though I guess figuring out Alchemy myself could help if it gets annoying later on."

W: 302

[Sunny]

Aww man! That was a downer! Event items were unlikely to ever be seen again once they were gone in-game. The thing was, though, there were those rumors going around that gamers weren’t actually in the game at all but transported to another world altogether. Sunny wasn’t sure if those rumors had any basis to them whatsoever, but she was a sucker for good gossip. If that were true and they really were walking around in real bodies –by this world’s standards at any rate- would that mean that even items like the Appearance Changing Potion were no longer unobtainable by special means?

That. . .would be something to find out. Maybe Jane was onto something. Maybe there really was someone out there who already had the knowledge to create the potion or –oooorr- any other kind of special item. How cool would that be?!

“How would that be, being the few of the many to know how to make it? People never stayed satisfied with their avatars. We’d be rich!” Something akin to greed flashed in her yellow eyes as she grinned. “You’d be able to buy any house you’d like, my friend.” The Swashbuckler moved to elbow her acquaintance in the arm.

“Y’know, you’re really very good with that thing. . .I couldn’t even tell.” She chuckled at this fact. It was fascinating, voice acting and all that. She wasn’t sure how old Jane really was, but for a grown man to be able to fake the voice of a younger girl was impressive. “Have you ever thought about going into voice acting?”

---

words: 265

Jane
ooc- Sorry for the wait, man! 

[Jane]

You could almost see the little gears turning in Jane's head as she considered Sunny's idea, eyes suddenly lighting up and a big smile growing on her face, before she frowned and shook her head. While it was a good thing to try and work towards in the future, Cedric wasn't the selfish type and was probably more likely to try and sell them with enough to make up for the time and effort that went into the crafting. He was too kind for his own good sometimes, being reasonable in business was something he would have to learn if it came to that.

"I'm not sure people are that flaky on things like their appearance, after all a lot of people make their perfect person when they do MMO characters, though a lot also make their perfect love interest too so I guess it might cause them issue." Jane tapped at her chin for a moment as she thought, "I'd probably stick to covering my costs and upgrading my equipment to get better at it or something, unless the cost to create it is stupidly high or the material is extremely rare it shouldn't be too difficult. Though if it is..."

The small guardian shrugged off the thought, not wanting to have to entertain it any longer than she already had. It would be curious to find out what sort of interesting things she could do with Alchemy and considering how advanced that potion probably was, it could wait until later.

When Sunny complimented his voice acting Cedric couldn't help but feel a little smug, he was about to go on about how great he was and how awesome such a skill was to have when she just had to throw in that one bur in his side. "Well yeah but..." dropping back into his normal voice for the first time in a while Cedric continued quietly so that others wouldn't overhear. "I can't shake my accent. No matter what it is, young girly voice, deep, gruff manly voice or what have you, I always sound so welsh. There isn't much need for a welsh accented voice actor for most thins sadly, and they already have people who can do a wider range to cover the few that exist to be made."

Switching back to the now familiar and easy to use girly voice that he had attributed to Jane, Cedric continued. "So you see, I just sort of use it to entertain people or make up characters for games. It really puts your players into the situation if you can make different voices for different characters, it really keeps them entertained too."

W: 444

[Sunny]

For that moment, Sunny thought she had Jane going. While it had been a game at one point of time, the fact of the matter was that the world of Elder Tale was very much real for the gamers. Survival was surely key, but luxury would be ice-cream on the pie, or some phrase like that. That being said, the Guardian surprised the Ritualist by bringing up some rather valid, albeit aggravating points that she hadn’t quite considered in her money-grubbing state-of-mind. The expenses would probably out-weigh the profits. But. . .just. . .There were bound to be plenty of gamers out there who couldn’t fit into their current bodies, so to speak.

There was also something else that made the Swashbuckler wonder as she considered her acquaintance’s words. What had been the guy’s inspiration for such an avatar? Sunny’s had been a conglomeration of her love for colors and her desire to look fearsome and mysterious in battle. The runes on her face and trailing along her limbs served that purpose enough; although, people tended to give her weird looks once they realized that she’d picked Swashbuckler to go along with her fragile Race.

She had to admit that she almost had to do a double-take when a man’s voice emerged from that petite, feminine body. Sunny blinked and then grinned, finding herself all the more impressed by the Guardian’s abilities. How he managed was beyond her. Voice acting was a fascinating skill. It was indeed a shame as Jane spoke of his woes. Sunny nodded her head slightly in sympathy. Accents were hard to shake. Her own was gradually watering down the longer she spent time amongst her English peers, but it was still a very obvious thing.

“It sucks that they don’t have more use for different accents. They give game worlds depth, and yours is especially interesting. What was the name of that game again that you mentioned before? Are any of your friends from that playing here?”

---

words: 332
Jane
ooc- Hey, Jeet, with that crafting event going on, do you want to give Alchemy a crack while we're threading together?

[Jane]

"You mean D&D?" Jane asked uncertainly, Cedric trying to cast his mind back to try and remember if he'd mentioned anything else. "Dungeons and Dragons, the original tabletop role-playing game. At least, that's what I've heard it called. Not sure if it can legitimately claim that title." Jane laughed lightly, not trying to make it sound like she was a know-it-all but still enjoying the conversation none the less. "Are you familiar with those sorts of games? I was usually the person running the world for a group of four to six people. As you can guess running the world means playing all the characters in it so the many voices I can do really helped."

"I do have one person I know in the game, though I haven't seen him around for a couple of days. He really took to this situation. I wouldn't be surprised if he's off slaying monsters, making all sorts of items and theorising some sort of crazy new ability that we could use with the new freedoms we've found when it comes to creating things." Jane let off a wistful sigh, "I think the only reason he never took over my job in those games was because he was terrible with people. I knew how to draw someone in and tell the story, but he had so many more amazing ideas than me."

The tiny guardian looked around a bit and tilted her head in thought for a moment. "Do you want to go someplace a bit les in-the-middle-of-the-road-y?" she asked Sunny, not wanting to sound too forward but getting a little annoyed at the openness around them. "Even just walking along as we chat would be a bit more comfortable. Standing in one place like this feels weird."

W:295

OOC: I wouldn't mind it, not really sure how to slot it in or anything but at least it would give us something more to do.

[Sunny]

Sunny could admit to having at least heard of Dungeons and Dragons. It was apparently an extremely popular game; although, that was about as far as her knowledge of the game extended, so the Brazilian shook her head at Jane’s question. She didn’t even know what a table top RPG was, let alone how one played something like that. Up until recently, she wasn’t exactly an avid gamer. Her little brother had been the one to get her into MMORPGs, and when she did, she’d become obsessed with them.

“Bahaha! Your friend sounds like quite a gamer,” she barked, somehow finding the situation amusing. It was probably because she would’ve done the same thing had she not been taken aback by having her levels lowered all the way to 1. That had totally killed it for her for several weeks.

Absorbed in their conversation, the Swashbuckler had forgotten that the pair was standing in the middle of the market, so to speak. Newly enlightened to this fact, Sunny nodded, laughed, “Aha, sure!”, and began to float along the walkway, supposing that Jane would remain close by.

As they moved, Sunny became aware of the conversations taking place along the roadside. All amounts of kindled friendships, bets, and consultations were currently circulating. One such exchange had captured the Ritualist’s attention. She bent an ear as she passed the group of Adventurers who were currently heading for the door to a tavern.

“Yeah . . . apparently there’s a worldwide quest taking place for crafters.”

The Ritualist paused then, elbowing Jane to see if he were getting in on it as well.

“Crafting quest? How’s that gonna work?”

“Some big-wig NPC is hosting a banquet and wants crafters to help put it together.”

“What’s the guy asking for?” The group was disappearing into the building, the door closing behind them. Sunny, hanging on their words, headed for the door and then stopped to see if Jane was interested in coming along.

“Did you hear that?”

---

words: 330
Jane

[Jane]

Jane couldn't help but smile at Sunny's observation, the Swashbuckler probably didn't realise how accurate her commentary was when it came to Jane's friend Jacoben. "He's the one who dragged me into this mess. I'm not much of a MMO gamer personally but it seemed like something we'd be able to do between work or school and just catch up together when we could. I totally blame him for this whole mess, though he seems to be enjoying himself anyway. I can't blame him, it is pretty fun."

Glad to be off the road, Jane just walked in step next to Sunny for a bit, not really sure what else there was to say to her strange new acquaintance. It was one thing to drag someone into a conversation to get them over nervousness with common ground, but impromptu conversation with a stranger he knew nothing about? That was a bit beyond Cedric at the best of times, and this wasn't really one of those best times. Thankfully the conversation stalling didn't seem to cause any issue, as not too far into the walk they came across a few people chatting about something that would save the whole situation, and teach them both about Alchemy along the way.

"Sure did! About time some quests started being handed out again if you ask me." Jane stood on her toes for a moment and tried to get a better look around, trying to see if there was a giant exclamation mark or something showing them where to go. "Where do you think we'll find out more details about this one? I haven't seen a quest in ages, and I have no idea what they'd want from Alchemists. I don't want to randomly make something and find out it was pointless and a waste of resources or anything..."

The little guardian got down from her toes and humph-ed at the lack of input the game was giving her, the playability and enjoy-ability had gone right up with the strange transition into the game world, but NPCs, quests and other key aspects seemed to have gone kaput. Why the NPCs had to go around and start acting so human was beyond Cedric, but he'd learnt to live with the weir behaviour for a while now so he just shrugged it off and did his best to roll with it.

"I know you're not much taller, but can you see anything from up there?"

W: 409

[Sunny]

Jane’s enthusiasm was electric, reaching out and charging Sunny. As the tiny Guardian stretched on his toes in search of some sort announcement in regards to the event, the Swashbuckler simply considered following the group she’d been eavesdropping on into the tavern for a friendly round of Q and A. The only thing was that now that she thought about it, there were gamers out there unwilling to help anyone outside of their party. T’was all a part of the competitive nature of the game.

Besides, she’d learn a time or two not to take everything heard by way of the mouth all that seriously. Girl had stumbled on more than enough awkward misunderstandings because of her love for the grapevine. She definitely didn’t want that to happen again, and especially since she had someone along for the ride.

So, she looked around for a bit too, searching around and over the passersby for a clue. Again, more and more Adventurer parties walked by, and Sunny could hear them drop the words “event” and “crafting”. WHERE WERE THEY GETTING ALL THIS INFORMATION!??!

She shook her head when Jane asked if she could see anything. “Mmm no.” Hand on her hip, the Ritualist pursed her lips, thinking. They needed something more official than woor-of-mouth, but what? Suddenly, Sunny’s eyes lit-up as something crossed her mind. Without hesitation, she began to head in one direction, waving her arm for Jane to follow.

“Come on. Maybe they have something up at the News building.”

The street leading to the head quarters was increasingly populated with other Adventurers, most of whom were talking about the event. Apparently, Jane and Sunny were headed in the right direction. As the building came into view, an exclaimation point could be seen hanging near the front wall of HQ. Beneath it were two sheets of paper, one that advertised the event while the other provided a list of items requested by the Chef. A crowd was gathered there but diminished little-by-little as gamers walked away. It was still a tight squeeze, though.

“You think you can wiggle your way through there?” Jane certainly wasn’t obligated to. Sunny was willing to do it if needed. They could probably wait for the crowd to get less dense, but there were other Adventurers finding their way to the HQ at that moment as well.

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Jane

[Jane]

Jane almost wanted to growl in frustration at her own shortness. It didn't help that people all around them were chatting and talking about the quest as though it were common knowledge by now. "I always seem to find out about this sort of thing last." Cedric mused, before glancing up at Sunny again and correcting himself. "Almost last. There are bound to be a few people out there yet to find out. Sunny found out about the same time as me so at least I'm not on my own this time around."

Jane visibly perked up a bit when she found out her height, or lack thereof, wasn't the cause of her missing something for once. Not that she often let it get the better of her. Climbing things or people tended to clear that issue right up. Not that people tended to let her do that, but it was fun to try anyway.

Lost in the thought of getting a piggyback for no good reason, the little guardian almost missed Sunny's sudden departure. Thankfully the ritualist thought to wave her arm wide enough to get her attention again and Jane scampered after the other adventurer in an effort to keep up.

"News building?" Jane asked, confused for a moment as she tried to think of ever walking past a place like that. Cedric had immediately thought of a TV news building and it took him a few moments to drag his mind away from that reality and back to the current one. "Oh, you mean that place were players put up requests for ingredients and things like that? I guess that sort of a place makes sense. Never really thought of it as a news building though." she admit sheepishly, still following after Sunny.

Jane was admittedly distressed as they approached the building. As soon as she saw how big the crowd was, the chibi guardian considered the positives and negatives of turning around and giving up for the day. This quest wasn't what she'd set out to do for today, and part of her really wanted to avoid pushing through that crowd. She could go back to looking for house designs, bother some random person for alchemy tips, or just curl up somewhere and nap. Bothering someone never seemed to work though, so Cedric steeled himself and considered scenario before him.

"I probably could." she admit to Sunny, a mischievous grin spreading across her adorable little face as the guardian started stretching her arms and body out as though she were about to do something athletic, "But I've got a better idea."

Glancing up at the wall of adventurers before her Jane flexed her fingers, judging the distance she'd have to jump to reach the first back before suddenly flinging herself into the air and latching onto some poor mage's back. She clung there for a second, waiting for the protesting robed figure to calm down before transferring herself onto the back of someone else. From unsuspecting caster to unsuspecting warrior to weary support, Jane would hop backs and equipment as she moved from the back of the group all the way to the front in a stupidly entertaining fashion. It wouldn't take her long before she was at the front and reading the sheets.

"You know." she exclaimed to the adventurer besides her after reading the contends of the page, a tall man rubbing his back where she'd just been hanging moments before, "This would be a lot easier if we had a scribe to copy the note and post it around down. This is a really stupid setup!."

Jane left then, pushing her way back through the crowd, receiving more than one exclamation of distain at her presence there, and returned to Sunny's side. Already talk about copying the quest notes out to had started but it wasn't like anyone was acting on it just yet.

"Alright, good news and bad news." Jane announced to her fellow alchemist. "The good news is, we have something to craft for the quest! The bad news is, its mana ice crystals. From what I read they're pretty much the same as normal mana crystals but instead they're created so that they're aspected to the ice element. I'm not really sure how this works but we don't need anything special to make them."

A thoughtful look crossed Jane's face for a moment as she tried to figure out what their best plan of attack was. "I know you can create mana crystals when you use abilities with mana but I don't think either of us are going to have an ice type ability to use for this. Maybe we need to think and focus on cool thoughts or something as we go? We could go claim a crafting station somewhere and give it a go at least. Maybe when we have the equipment in front of us Alchemy will make a bit more sense?"

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