The First Day ~ Serious Paladin & Carefree Gamer
|| Location โฆ Daertalmos Online - Bale Forest ||
|| Location โฆ Daertalmos Online - Bale Forest ||
Aoife stared at the man in green, the road momentarily silent as she pointed at him, and he gazed casually back, not seeming to take much note of her obvious indignation. She stared. He stared back.
Then, he grinned, breaking out in laughter and saying something about how he wasn't crazy. Had he not been listening? She had just told him he was crazy. Why did he take that as evidence he wasn't? That was something only a crazy person would do. But, since he was crazy, she supposed that made sense. She sighed piteously, shaking her head in consternation. This one might be past helping, but it was her duty as a Paladin, nevertheless, to try.
Oh, right, he also mentioned something about cat ears. He was still going on about that nonsense? She was about to chastise him for continuing to pursue such a futile obsession, but, to her surprise, he began moving without delay, walking right up to her...
...And then right past her, circling about several times and giving her a very intense stare, like someone appreciating a fine artwork. The paladin couldn't help but be a little put off by this, as she was ill used to being gawked at in such a manner. It was a bit creepy, honestly, but when he announced his conclusion, she supposed she could let the matter slide. At least he achknowledged the shortcomings of his prior verdict.
"Yes, yes. I do really enjoy the overall design. You sure made effective use of absolute territory, so I give you some extra points for that, and overall the armor, to me, manages to be very appealing to the eye without being revealing. I assume it's specifically a light armor?" The Paladin, pleased at having her work so highly praised, gave a single emphatic nod.
"The inner layer, gloves, and headpiece are all meant as light armor, with the other pieces of the set covering the most important spots with medium platemail," She explained. "Although the 'dress' is somewhat inaccurately named, since a skirt would have offered less protection and gotten in the way in battle, not even to mention the difficulties of maintaining personal modesty in such attire, it still doesn't sacrifice either practicality or the overall aesthetic due to the appeal of thigh-high boots. With braids in place of ponytails, that makes my absolute territory a natural grade S!" Aoife declared proudly, raising a single finger in a matter-of-fact manner, only to realize a moment later exactly what it was she'd just said. Her cheeks colored rapidly, and she quickly averted her gaze and looked away, clearing her throat rather loudly.
"Er, right... all that aside," She stammered, quickly trying to change the subject. "You still haven't said why you're here," She pointed out.
To his credit, he did answer her question without further delay. That should have alleviated some of the awkwardness she felt at having her assumed character inadvertently shattered. However, considering his answer began by utterly butchering her name and ended with him somehow finding it proper to chastise her for being rude, she found her mood little improved for her effort.
"EE-FAH," She said firmly. "You pronounce it ee-fah," She repeated, crossing her arms in frustration. "And I will have you know that I do not 'insult' people. I merely state facts as I see them. For example, you have a very silly hat. That is not an insult. That is merely me stating that the pointy green object currently sitting atop your head is laughable regardless of whether it is viewed either as a fashion statement or a means of protection." She nodded sagely, before clapping a fist into her opened palm and giving a sly grin, looking as though she had just unraveled one of the great mysteries of the universe. "Hmm, I think I may have an idea how you might be able to improve it, though. Maybe..." Her smirk broadened to the point that one could practically see the little lightbulb flicking on over her head. "You could try putting cat ears on it!"
About three things Licht was absolutely positive. First, Aoife was a nerd. Second, there was a part of her-and he didn't know how potent said part might be-that thirsted for appreciation for her costume. And third, he was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with how easy it would be to mess with her.
While his earlier assessment or her personal armor was not a falsified one, it certainly was not expected to flatter or otherwise make her feel as though he would vote for her rather than the cat-ening. It was simply said as a restatement that if it weren't for that particular set of armor, then she would have won Licht's vote for sure. Irregardless, she brightened up like a star and then chose that moment to lapse into a self-assessment of the armor and why, for whichever reasons, it could be considered S-rank in the absolute territory department. That was unfortunate and perhaps maybe fortunate at the same time, as Licht was secretly a hard-M rank.
"I see." the young man nodded with closed eyes, probably mimicking a number of characters in a majority of different shows at once. "You certainly do deserve praise in that regard. But it is regretful that I must mention that I have a preference to cat-ears, as you have already guessed by now. Absolute territory falls just below that. At least you tried, however. Some of the other competitors I was forced to look at tried to make due with the least amount of clothing possible. They did not understand the importance of how each piece works with each other to collaborate as one piece of artwork." Licht slowly opened his eyes once he finished his small rant (and it certainly was small compared to what he would have liked to say on the matter), sighing. "Again, you deserved at least second place."
Sadly, his attempt at finally stating what needed to be said was met with the worst kind of insult he had ever heard in recent history, that had nothing to do with cat-ears. She had decided, in her infinite cruelty, to bring up the subject of that one piece of his well-deserved beta testing gear, which he had earned for HELPING THE GAME BE BETTER (actually mostly screwing around and laughing at some of the bugs). She had more or less declared war by insulting his precious cap.
"You dare mock my fine piece of Haberdashery! Do you even realize how much time and effort went into designing this masterpiece? The elven people would be proud to see such a piece of headwear being displayed for all to see. IT IS THE VERY PRIDE OF THEIR RACE THAT I WEAR ATOP MY HEAD, GIVEN PHYSICAL FORM!" taking a deep, long breath in, he exhaled and apparently seemed to calm down.
"Really?" The Paladin asked skeptically, cocking her head inquisitively to the side. "That seems like a stereotype, if you ask me..."
"Elves don't even own stereos, so your point is invalid," He replied with a smug look on his face.
"You can't prove a blanket statement like that," Aoife protested earnestly, seeming to ponder the question intently before presenting her counterargument. "I mean, can you really say with certainty that what you just said applies to all Elves? It sounds to me like you're just being racist."
"...."
Had he been out-memed? Was this it? What is life, even? Many questions like these circled Licht's head as he tried to come up with a proper response towards this allegations. There was a noticeable pause before he had managed to finally decide on what he wished to say.
"....Yes. I can confidently say that elves do not own stereos. That is not racist, it's a 'fact'. And you said that you enjoyed stating 'facts' just earlier, did you not?"
Checkmate.
Aoife seemed taken aback, thinking about this statement for a moment. She placed a single finger to her chin, emitting a low "hmm" sound, like a computer processor being pushed to its limits. At last, her gaze returned to Licht, and she gave her reply.
"My most sincere apologies," She said, giving a humble bow. "I did not mean to sound discriminatory towards men in pointy green hats. As a matter of fact, I was unaware of the existence of such a subculture. I will do my best to keep it in mind from now on."
It was a genuine response that Licht gave to Aoife. One that involved a raised eyebrow and a clear look of confusion to follow. Normally one would take this particular action as some form of sarcasm, but Aoife seemed to get oddly serious about this and it did managed to confuse the not-elf. "Err, okay, you can stop that. It's weird. I'm sure nobody could really bother to care about a cap like that..."
He was being out-memed for sure. This was odd, very much so. Licht did not take well to people who took things literally, it would seem. But nevertheless, he would endeavor to become the Meme Master, a person worthy of the meme gods. Or something.
"So..." he kinda just stared at the girl until she raised her head again. "I think I should go or something.... I need to kill things for, uh, reasons? Though I guess I won't get past the rumored boss until I form a party, so I'll be waiting for a while, huh?" shaking his head as he realized he was beginning to mumble to himself, he sighed.
"Well, I can perhaps help you level if you want. I doubt they did much about powerleveling since the beta. Or I can just watch and wait. Listen. And see a young apprentice grow into a slightly bigger apprentice of the meme."
"Actually, I don't think increasing one's combat ability affects your physical size, either..." Aoife chimed in sheepishly, seeming almost sad at having to correct him so frequently. "Still, I have been told the woods ahead are dangerous, and given the number of enemies I must no doubt face to traverse the road ahead, any and all help I might be able to get would be most appreciated. If you are willing to assist me, then I shall accept your offer with gratitude." She gave another sincere bow, as though she were a knight entrusting her life to a liege.
She was doing this on purpose, wasn't she? I make one, no, two jokes about elves and stereos and now I am punished for it.
Narrowing his eyes, Licht opted not to respond to that comment. Instead he began once more walking to Bale Forest as he waved an arm as her cue to follow him, walking past the bowed 'knight' with seemingly little interest of the gesture. "We best be off, then. No telling how many people are steailng all the EXP," he said. He took a few more steps before suddenly remembering something important. "Oh, yeah. Parties. Those are a thing. If you would like to benefit at all from my slaughtering things, then we need to be in one."
Licht took this moment to open his menu, scroll down to 'Parties' and tap that particular button. When he was in that tab, he scrolled over to the 'Start Party' button and selected that, followed by the 'Invite' button. Since Aoife was right here, all he had to do was to highlight her and select her, which would then send a message containing her invite.
Alternatively, he could have simply highlighted her and scrolled to an "Invite to Party" button and pressed that, but he was too lazy to do the least amount of effort in this case.
Giving another of her very serious nods, Aoife opened her own player menu with a casual swipe of her hand, searching for the window she expected to see popping up at any moment. It didn't take long to highlight the transparent screen that had appeared in front of her reading "Join Licht's party?" and to hit "Accept." Appearing beside the red and green HP and SP bars visible only to herself in the corner of her vision materialized a second set of bars, with the other player's username displayed prominently over them. To her surprise, though, unlike her own name, which was quickly followed with "Level 1 Longarms," he was instead listed as a level 15 Blademaster. She raised an eyebrow. How had he gotten to such a level within half an hour of the start of the game? He'd mentioned the beta earlier... Huh. Maybe she'd lucked out in meeting this person who she'd only initially thought of as an annoyance. Regardless, his help would make things infinitely easier. Opening her own quest menu, she selected the only one that was listed there, pushing a button labeled "Share Objective" so that Licht could see her goals and her progress at completing them. After that, she turned about, nodding to the blonde swordsman and then turning her gaze to the forest beyond.
"Now that that matter is settled, I am prepared to depart with all haste," She said firmly, knocking her right hand to her breastplate in a sort of salute. "I look forward to fighting alongside you!" She declared, shouldering her spear and continuing her march towards the forest, with her new teammate in tow.