Out to explore the world (Ended)

[Lyra]

Two years of avoiding her problems had left Lyra in a bit of a stagnant life; two years of not actually actively enjoying the game. Long ago the girl had accepted that Elder Tale was her life and there was no feasible chance of escape. She had chosen to have little to no interactions with other players and for the most part kept to herself. Though as a summoner Lyra had access to three summon companions that she called upon whenever she wished. Carbuncle had done the best in keeping her company; the little beast was always happy to see its master. Lyra was still garbed in her starter clothing; she was far too poor to afford anything else. A not so impressive looking pair of blue leggings and matching shirt with a light grey hooded cloak; all of which fitted her short form snugly. On her belt was her basic grimoire and short sword; again more gear that she had never bothered to replace after all this time. It had taken quite some convincing from Carbuncle but she was finally going to start exploring and trying to make the best of her situation. That meant wandering around the Londinium District and try and meet new people; something Lyra had plenty of experience back in the real world. At the very least it was nice to get and stretch her short legs every once and a while. With the hood down she gazed around the area with her grey eyes.

Nearly trotting on the heels of her brown boots was an adorable little creature that was a mix of a rabbit and fox. In color he was teal and had an obvious glow about it; dead center in his forehead was a shiny ruby. Carbuncle’s three tails and two rabbit ears flopped around as he tried to keep up with its master; so happy that they got the chance to spend time together. Lyra kept her pace slow enough on account of her companions short legs; occasionally she would look down and give him a reassuring smile. It was only a momentarily glance before she turned her attention back to her surroundings; there were so many adventures out and about that it was still a bit overwhelming to her. Hopefully she would be able to find people who were willing to help her out in exploring the many areas outside the safety of the starting zone. Personally she had almost no experience and trying to out on her own would be tricky; even with her companions to aid her. All the while her two hands were kept behind her back as she took in the sights; having no idea where to even start. Surely there were plenty of potential parties looking to go out and explore. Being level one of course put her at a serious disadvantage but that didn’t’ discourage her the slightest. By now the two of them were nearly in the heart of the adventurer starting zone.

“So what do you think Carbuncle?” Lyra finally spoke up as she stopped walking for just a moment. Her grey eyes looked down and fell upon her companion who was just now catching up. His ears flopping in front of its face before finally looking up with his shiny eyes. Through many hours of experimenting she knew that Carbuncle understood what she was saying; it certainly made things easier given Carbuncle could actually respond with his actions, it was better than nothing. So many choices that she would need her friends input before continuing. Her friend twisted its head side to side as it figured out how to respond; which was by wagging his tails wildly. Lyra heard in her mind as Carbuncle responded in his chipper tone of voice. While Lyra knew that Carbuncle probably didn’t have any discernible gender it was just easier to call it him a him. Carbuncle had never corrected her yet so she assumed it didn’t matter; or Carbuncle didn’t understand. Lyra giggled as she bent over and scooped Carbuncle up in her arms; gently kissing the top of his head. Finding new friends was certainly a wonderful idea to start this day.

Tagged: Akari / @dumah
Word Count: 700
Total Words: 700

[Akari]

It had been two years already, and Akari, was still annoyed about being stuck in a male body, she had not found anyone to help her find a potion of Change Appearance, she was starting slowly to get used to being a boy even tho it was a little weird standing up peeing. But none the less she did make it without saying much to people, and when she did speak she would just sound like some teenage boy instead of using her real voice due to not wanting people's attention. The "Girl" had short white hair with two bangs at the back, and sapphire blue eyes and was almost always seen in a blue shirt with white outline and a pair of long pants that did go all the way up to his upper torse where he had a short tank top, she had also gotten her hands on a cloak that she would wear to cover her face, since she was not comfortable about being a guy.

She would hide her starter plate mail under her shirt to act as if she were just a person from the land, she also had a large shield on the back and a book hanging in a chain by her side that was her grimoire which was pretty much a book with 3 pages or so it was not much more, she was a rookie level one cleric who had not tried being outside of the town yet, but what could she do?, she just wanted to get changed into a girl as fast as possible so she had to leave the city at some point, as she would be going down the street hiding under her cloak she would look around at people and soon she would bump into some young lady that was kissing her pet, Akari would fall back and land on her behind as the hood would fall off and reveal her face to the stranger, as she would look up and say "I'm Sorry about that miss, i did not see you there" as he would start to try and get up

[Deleted]

Words: 1347
Total: 1347
Music: Re_ Beautiful Morning
Tags: Akari Lyra

---

"Come on, Dumah, ya know that I need your help with this kind of thing! I can't do this without you, buddy!" The barkeep was walking sideways to keep up with his beautiful friend. "I know you don't like using your power for these kind of reasons-"

He was cut off as his friend began to speak. "No, I do not like it... It goes against my honor and integrity, Howl, and as an old friend of mine you should know how that makes me feel!"

"Need I remind you that you did use your power once on me for practically the exact same reason...?" Both men stopped walking, the Adventurer giving an unsatisfied glare at his Person of The Land friend before sighing.

"All right, fine! I will do it, but do not think for even a moment that I will be happy to do so." The two continued walking through the streets of Londinium, the one named Howl taking on a wide grin across his face. Though this was not his true name, and simply another one of Dumah's constantly changing nicknames for the barkeep, the Person of The Land had gotten used to this repeated name change and no longer worried about it.

"That's the spirit, pal! And once you finish all this dirty work, I can make you that sweet fruit juice mixture you love so much!" Howl threw his arm around Dumah, smiling and getting chummy with his friend. The man certainly knew how to reward his guild master...

As the two walked through the streets of Londinium, their steps echoing lightly before mixing into the cacophony of other hard soled shoes trotting along up and down the stone streets, many of which were echoing in unison with the steps of other people walking in groups together; parties heading out to the wilderness surrounding the city in search of monsters to grind, quests to complete, crafting components to utilize. Many were simply groups of friends walking about the town and conversing with one another, asking about that sweet piece of gear they found, how their dungeon run went, what kind of crafts they were working on. In short, the city was quite lively. Numerous voices echoed through the air as many merchants tried to attract business for themselves. Both Adventurers and People of The Land were trying to speak over each other to attract the most customers, and it seemed the most successful one was a duo of both a Courtesan and a Merchant. They were selling equipment; particularly metal weapons and armor for Adventurers. Despite the gear looking to be of rather sub-par quality, the items having a level of twenty or twenty five at the most, they were attracting quite a good deal of attention, even from People of The Land, despite most of them having little to no need for combat equipment. The Courtesan, with short blonde hair and deep blue eyes, gave a beautiful, soft smile to a young woman as he handed her a small blade, holding her hand from the bottom gently as he placed the dagger in her palm, gazing into her eyes the entire time. "I am honored and joyful that you would buy weaponry from our stall. To know that I can play a part in strengthening a beautiful maiden such as yourself... To know that my work could very well be that which saves your life..." The Courtesan lowered his face to the girl's hand, curling her fingers around the sheathed dagger before planting a kiss upon her knuckle. Her face glowed red as he pulled back and smiled at her, letting go of her hand and letting her walk off squealing like a high school girl being asked out to prom. Soon, another girl came up to him and paid for a dagger of her own. "I am honored and joyful that you would buy weaponry from our stall..."

Dumah sighed to himself as he looked at the Courtesan; seeing someone with his own subclass using his power for such a reason was despicable, and Dumah felt inclined to do something about this. He broke away from his Person of The Land friend to head towards the stall.

“So once we talk to them we- hey where you headin’ Dumah?” Howl was cut off mid-sentence as his friend began to walk off.

Dumah walked up to the Courtesan, calmly asking if he could see one of the swords. “I would like to examine your work, if you would not mind.”

The man smiled joyously, passing Dumah a rapier. “Why of course, my good sir! Judging by your light attire and that look in your eye, I have you figured for a Swashbuckler, am I right? Here is one of my finest pieces, a rapier! She is capable of dealing high damage in quick slashes!” As Dumah examined the blade of the rapier, many of the girls - and even some boys - surrounding the stall were infatuated with the dashing blacksmith, praising his work. Inspecting the blade of the rapier closely, Dumah noticed how peculiarly thick the blade was. He held the sword by the handle in his left hand, smacking against the pommel with his right wrist. He looked at the blade of the alleged rapier as he smacked it, noticing very minimal shaking in the blade. “Impressive craftsmanship, wouldn’t you agree? Notice how the blade always stays firm and straight; you could block a bullet and it wouldn’t move an inch! You could attack stone and it would-!” As he began to brag about the sword’s durability against stone, Dumah held the rapier in his right hand, pulling back and thrusting it into the stone wall beside the weapons stall. “W-Wait! What are you-?!” With this, the sword’s blade shattered and fell to the ground. Everyone gasped at the sight of such a ‘magnificent blade’ breaking so easily. The salesman was angry, and he ran out from behind his stall to grab Dumah by the collar. “What the hell are you thinking, destroying my wares?!”

Dumah kept a calm composure as the scene played out. “You told me I could attack stone and the sword would be fine. As such, that is what I did. Here you are selling weapons and armor to people who need it, and you are selling them shoddy pieces of gear that could very well lead to the end of their life.”

“So what?! They’re freaking Adventurers! We don’t die, I don’t care if they lose a dungeon run!” The Courtesan had forgotten about the countless people surrounding his stall, all of which reminded him of their presence with a shocked gasp. He looked around, sweating profusely as he realized what was going on. He returned his glare to Dumah, more angry than before. “Damn you…!” He spoke through gritted teeth, practically shoving Dumah away as he let go of his collar. He began to tap at the air to access the user interface and discover the identity of the man before him. He barely needed to though, and the player name that popped up in his menu merely confirmed his suspicions. “I know you, you’re that guild master, Dumah Iino! The one who bought the Cathedral and is forcing folks to join his guild!”

Dumah, who still retained an amazingly calm face, shot a slight glare at his accuser. “And where did you hear such a groundless rumor?”

“Oh come on, everyone’s heard it!” The man began to speak louder, trying to attract attention, perhaps to get back at Dumah for ruining his business. “Everyone knows you bought the Cathedral and have been limiting everyone’s respawn rights!”

The crowd started to speak amongst themselves, agreeing and nodding in response to the rumor. They grew loud, attracting the attention of everyone nearby. All the while, Howl sighed and shook his head as he spoke to himself. “Dammit kid, we just came here to use your Courtesan subclass to get me a discount on my brewing ingredients and you go and attract all this attention…”

[Lyra]

Lyra had been quite distracted by her playfulness towards Carbuncle; so of course she wouldn’t be paying attention to directly in front of her. Even though she took her attention away for just a moment it was enough to cause her to be distraught when she accidentally bumped into someone. Carbuncle picked up on it within seconds as his ears perked up more; more concerned with the well-being of his master than anyone else. Fortune was on Lyra’s side as she wasn’t knocked down by the collision, in fact she hardly budged much at all. "Oh I am so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention"; she would of course offer her apologies as soon as it happened. No one around them had really noticed the two of them goofing up like that; after all this was perhaps one of the busiest parts of the starting zone. Carbuncle was still occupying her arms and didn’t really seem content with moving as he looked down at the person who ran into Lyra. She noticed that the person underneath the hood was what she assumed to be a male adventurer; but there was the user interface if she wanted to actually confirm it. Really it was just a little harmless bump in since neither of them seemed more embarrassed than actually hurt. Lyra would flash the boy a genuine smile to let him know there were no hard feelings. "Really I do hope you are okay"; she would say again to settle the matter.

While that little moment was settling itself as the other adventurer stood up Lyra freed up one of her hands to access her user interface. It only took a few swipes to learn the person’s name and class; turns out that he was a cleric. Finally she was able to bend over just a little and offer a hand to Akari; not really paying much attention to the situation developing around them. Lyra had been so focused on her bumble that it took a moment for the heated discussions to register. Truth be told it was somewhat of a challenge to hear what was being said with so many people striking up their own conversations all around the market area. It took a moment to help the cleric up given how scrawny she was but overall it was all well. "What on earth is going on?" she asked out loud as she finally started to survey the area around them. Assuming that Akari was okay she finally started to approach the center of the commotion; it was too interesting for a naturally curious person to ignore. Her skinny stature made pressing through the growing crowd quite simple; no one really seemed to pay her any mind. Finally her grey eyes settled on what she imagined was the cause for this commotion; two adventurers Lyra confirmed with her user interface. She was interested enough to see how this was going to play out; perhaps not the best idea to get involved.

Lyra wasn’t the biggest fan of conflict but she had a good feeling that this could turn nasty if left to fester further. With a large sigh she would hang her head before shaking it a bit; her red and black hair shaking with it. "I can’t believe I am doing this" she would mutter to herself as she did her best to stand up nice and tall. So as someone as short and cute as her walking up with basically a cuddly looking animal in her arms Lyra certainly didn’t look intimidating at all. She approached the two of them and looked up at them both; she really hated being short in moments like these. 'And what in the world is going on? We already have enough troubles without causing trouble between ourselves"; she said in her best attempt of a stern voice. She got a good look at them both and it was clear that they were far more experienced than she was; but at least they couldn’t fight each other here. Carbuncle tried his best to back up his master by trying to look intimidating as well; but it was pretty much a total failure over all.

Tagged: Akari / @dumah
Word Count: 700
Total Words: 1400
Posting Order: Lyra, Akari, Dumah

[Akari]

Akari was happy the girl was unharmed cause what would she do if she had hurt such a lovely young lady, but she had to hide the blush cause of the girl looking so cute, Akari was mostly into females and not much males, he felt mostly safe around other girls, but in this body it was hard to get any friends since they all were sure she was actually a guy, and yeah there were quite a lot of noise around them, but she did not really as she would get up standing and look at the pet that the lady were holding it was quite cute even tho it looked a little weird and demon like, she would move her hand to open the interface to figure out the persons name to remember her better.

She had only just opened the interface and figured out the name as Lyra would start moving towards a large crowd, Akari was a little confused if she should follow or not, cause what if she did get forced to talk to stop something terrible?, but then again she liked helping people so she felt it as a kind of duty to go stop what ever was going on and not least to make sure Lyra did not get hit by a random bully cause it could be anything over there since there were so many people gathered.

Akari would pull her cloak back over her head to hide the white hair as she would start walking towards the crowd, as she would reach the crowd she would turn around and push backwards with her shield that were on her back while whispering "Sorry, coming trough" with a low voice that she knew no one would hear, and finally get out on the other side of the crowd as she would stand with her back towards what was going on, and only a second before bumping into Lyra again she would turn around and put a hand on Lyra's shoulder and smile to her, as the Boy would walk over beside the two people arguing and look at the two a little confused and lost on how to stop that fight, cause those two seemed quite strong compared to her, she was still a level one shrimp after all not much she could do but she had to do something to stop this cause it was causing too much attention in the streets, so she did deiced to pull out her shield and move it between the two to stop there vision of each other and focus on something else.

Akari was a little scared and i was easy to see due to how much the shield was shaking but she did her best to try keep it between the two to in a way of taunting them to get there aggro so they could stop arguing about something stupid and make a cluster in the middle of the street.

[Deleted]

Words: 530
Total: 1877
Music: Re_ Beautiful Morning
Tags: Lyra Akari

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It was not very long before the crowd grew much larger, a massive group of people all surrounding the two Courtesans and making a loud ruckus. People were cheering for the Bard as he berated the Swashbuckler who had interrupted his fine business day. “Kick his ass, Jareth!” “Give him hell, Jareth!” “Show this bastard who’s boss, Jareth!” “Take back the Cathedral, Jareth!” Everyone began chanting his name in unison, hoping to see this argument devolve into a mindless brawl. “Jareth! Jareth! Jareth! Jareth!”

Before the crowd could get their desired outcome and witness a rousing battle, a girl walked forth, carrying a Carbuncle in her arms. She stood tall and proud, and by her stature, one would not have her figured for a level one Adventurer. She protested the fight, asking what was going on. Jareth spoke up, pointing a finger at Dumah. “This bugger has been a blight on this town! He bought the Cathedral for his ‘guild’ and has been limiting everyone’s respawn rights, forcing people to join his guild!” The boy pulled out a microphone from his inventory, holding it up in the sky as he pointed to Dumah. “I am here to stand up for the people of this city! We will not stand idly as you threaten us like this!” The crowd cheered louder in response, like a flame that was fueled by bellows. He lowered his microphone to his face, snapping along to a beat that could be heard playing. He began singing an old song from the old world. “Let’s dance! Put on your red shoes and da-!” As he began singing however, he was interrupted by another Adventurer trying to disrupt the argument, a young boy carrying a shield, who lodged himself between the two Courtesans and aimed the shield up towards the singing Jareth. Dumah had barely done anything aside from breaking the sword and proving how much of a scam Jareth’s shop was, and yet here he was being attacked by everyone for barely any reason. Jareth was angry at the boy who forced himself between the two Courtesans at the center of the crowd. “Hey! I was in the middle of a song!” In response, the crowd started booing the Cleric, tossing a few stones at him.

“Get off the stage!” One witness shouted; “Let him sing!” “Stop interrupting!” “Just sing, Jareth!” “Jareth! Jareth! Jareth!” The crowd was once again getting excited, chanting for the Bard’s performance. As stones flew through the air towards the young Cleric, Dumah quickly stepped in the way between Akari and the crowd, throwing his arms open towards the crowd to shield the boy from any harm. As the stones hit the victim of this whole scenario, he stood firm. An assault from mere pebbles was nothing to someone of Dumah’s level, and he barely noticed the streak of blood until it went down from his forehead over his left eye, all the way to his chin. Nevertheless, the only reaction the crowd got was Dumah closing his left eye as the blood trickled down his face, opening it again once it had passed so he would not have blood in his eye.

[Lyra]

Lyra hadn’t intended for this situation to get out of hand; hell she had wanted it to just diffuse on its own. The girl hardly noticed as Akari bumped into her again; Lyra had the feeling that things were going to get far worse before they get better. Despite all that however she knew it was better to stay strong instead of showing weakness. While it was true that she was only a level one summoner her actions spoke louder than her words. Out of the corner of her eyes it was quite apparent that the crowd was only growing larger as things escalated further. Most of the crowd was cheering on the bard who Lyra assumed was making a mountain out of a molehill. After hearing the accusations against who Lyra identified as Dumah; Lyra had to take a moment to process it. It seemed outrageous that someone would buy the cathedral to force people to join a guild. She just shook her head a little; causing some of her black hair to cover her eyes for just a moment. Carbuncle reacted by wiggling in her arms in a panic fashion; he could tell that things were not well. The bard was clearly working the crowd and pulled out a microphone and was ready to sing; at least until Akari popped up between the two of them and stopped him mid-song. Lyra hoped that would be the end of it but she knew better; this was far from over.

Lyra huffed a little as Jareth only used the situation to rile the crowd up even more, to the point where they even started to resort to physical violence. The potent sounds of a booing crowd hit Lyra’s ears as they started to throw rocks at them. She braced for the impact of rocks against her skin but a moment passed and she was unharmed. Slowly opening one of her grey colored eyes she noticed that Dumah was simply standing in front of them both; shrugging the rocks off like it was nothing. It didn’t shock her given how much higher a level he was, but the crowd wasn’t done with them just yet. Lyra responded by squeezing Carbuncle tighter as he tried to duck his head down to avoid any stray rocks. All of this was utter nonsense was getting them nowhere fast. The beginner level summoner racked her mind at a rapid pace in the hopes to find some sort of solution to their current dilemma. Finally she opened up her eyes and looked up at Dumah; but her angle was off so she missed the blood that stained on his face as the rocks struck him relentlessly. “Maybe we should just leave, I don’t think that stooping down to their level will help”; she muttered so that the booing crowd wouldn’t hear her words. Carbuncle had enough of it as well and started to glow an even brighter shade of teal; something that his master couldn’t miss.

Dumah had sustained virtually no damage from the rocks but her companion’s healing magic was able to remove all the blood from his face. Lyra did her best to stand firm but as a level one character there was only so much she could do. Her attention would turn to Akari who seemed to be a bit of a shuttering mess; at least he had tried to make this situation better through his own efforts. Lyra would reach over and pat his shoulder; rubbing it softly in an attempt to reassure him the best she could. There was still a discernable look of concern on her face. There were still a few rocks that people were tossing at Dumah but the crowd was perhaps deciding if they want to do something else. She really wanted to go deck Jareth in the face for starting this mess but that would have been a poor choice on her part. Violence was never the solution to violence but that concept seemed lost with the mob mentality; like things weren’t hard enough for adventurers as is. Two years being stuck in this game had given her some much needed perspective; something they all needed.

Tagged: Akari / @dumah
Word Count: 700
Total Words: 2100
Posting Order: Lyra, Akari, Dumah

[Akari]

Akari had seen how Dumah would take notice of him, Akari might be shy but he had too good a heart to stand back when people were fighting or arguing same went in the real world. It had made Akari used to a few scratches here and there for doing stupid things, he would look a little confused when Dumah went infront of the two to protect em from the crowds stone throwing, and by seeing that he would smile, and soon Lyra would come over and pat him on the shoulder as if it was best to leave.

Akari would look at the higher level guy and say "Come on mister, were leaving, this crowd does really not like you, and talking reason with em won't work at all" Akari would say before smiling towards Lyra and then started walking ignoring the remaining few stones they were throwing his way by blocking em with his shield, but the Crowd did not seem as if they would move aside to let him get past, it did annoyed him a little as he would move over beside Dumah and try and protect him with his shield to prevent him getting hit in the head too many times.

"Any Ideas on how to get out of this mess mister?" the Jareth guy kept on talking in the back and being annoyed over how Akari had stopped him mid song, even tho Akari did not really care if the guy was a fraud he had no doing on the streets.