Private Eastern Brisshal A Serpent In Shadows

[Ginevra Delaney]

Imoogi not being interesting was unfortunate, but Ginevra was not put off by it, nor did she feel awkward. She simply grinned wider, nodding and chuckling with a shrug.

Ah well, no need to be sorry! You miss every shot that you don't take, after all and you are definitely lovely enough that it would be a shame not to at least try to woo you with my many charms!

She laughed out, waving a hand to dispel any anxiety or tension that Imoogi might have felt, truly thinking nothing of the failed attempt. Besides, there would be other attempts to convince the girl to be more adventurous with her tastes, though she would probably be a little more subtle about it from now on. She didn't want to risk her next drink being poisoned, if she could avoid that being the case.

Alchemists were scary like that.

Imoogi retrieved a charred mess of meat from the fire, taking a bite out of it and seemingly enjoying the fact that it tasted bad? That was the spirit! Ginevra grinned at the excitement and the warning, before she reached for the meat, carving a thin slice off for herself, aiming to make sure that the outer edge wasn't quite as charred as Imoogi's had been.

When she brought her own slice to her mouth, she found it had something of a sweeter taste than she'd expected, similar to Venison, actually. She hummed, enjoying her slice, before swallowing it and grinning.

It's actually not all that bad at all! When you get a non-charred bit, anyway! How often is it you get to eat bear!?

@Imoogi

 

[Imoogi]

She relaxed as Ginevra waved off her approach. It wasn't as if she hadn't been asked out before, but it never got easier to refuse it. As if she would be allowed to go on a date with someone she chose...

I think my parents would kill me if I even thought about bear meat around them. Not like you can get it in the city anyway, though.

As Ginevra cooked and ate her own chunk, Imoogi took a knife to hers, cutting off a piece that was mostly raw and cool. She jammed the stick into the ground so the meat wouldn't touch the ground, though it began to tilt dangerously as soon as she let go of it. With her free hand she reached into her robes...

...and drew out a small, brightly colored snake.

She wasn't trying to be particularly stealthy about it, but she didn't draw much attention to herself either as she offered the meat to the snake and watched it began to swallow the chunk whole.

Definitely looking forward to finding out what other weird things this game has now. This is definitely way better than any other game I've played.

What are you planning next, anyway? Gotta be more than going around eating random animals, right?

@Ginevra Delaney

 

[Ginevra Delaney]

That's why it's so exciting and important that we try it out now, though! This world exists for us to do the kinds of things that we're not allowed to do in the real world! Whether that be eating animals that can't really be eaten on earth, seducing beautiful maidens or hunkalicious men, or even committing various crimes and getting away with it.

Ginevra grinned, briefly pausing her eating to throw her arms wide open, in a grand gesture as if she was gesturing to everything, the entire world and all. And in a way, she was. Of course, if her speech made Imoogi change her mind about being seduced, that would be great, but at the end of the day, Ginevra was an advocate of freedom and fun.

I think people are getting way too hung up on the downsides of this game to remember that it is, at the end of the day, just a game! All the NPC's are just ones and zeroes. It's more important, I think, to just have fun doing shit that would be impossible in the real world! Like playing with magic or getting into horrific deathmatches, slaughtering an entire field of enemies!

Her grin faded into a thoughtful smile, pondering over what her next plan was, but really she came up with nothing in particular.

I'll probably just go find whatever the next fun thing is. Maybe that's killing and eating another animal, maybe it's partaking in a fighting tournament, or maybe I'll find it in the nearest brothel. I just wanna enjoy myself and do cool, fun shit, y'know?

@Imoogi

 

[Imoogi]

Imoogi watched, enraptured by Ginevra's speech. Perhaps not by her, of course, but she couldn't help but admire someone so dedicated to the ideals of freedom. It was, after all, why she started playing this game, rumors of dangers be damned.

Fuck yeah. Games are meant to be fun. So many people running around treat it so seriously - some asshole in a blue coat kept telling me not to be 'careless', even.

She spat to the side, then let her snake slither back somewhere within her robes. She stood up herself and brushed the dirt and grass off her clothes. She gave her half-charred kebab a look, then kicked some dirt over it.

That sounds pretty cool... but I think right now I wanna go clean all this blood off. Maybe see what I can do with all these guts and blood. Besides, we gotta turn all this in for the reward, right?

She paused, then tilted her head with grin. This woman had dreams, and was exactly the sort of star Imoogi would hitch her wagon to.

How 'bout we swap friend codes? Next time you go do something crazy, I'd definitely be in to join you. Maybe next time I can even show my stuff in a fight.

@Ginevra Delaney

 

[Ginevra Delaney]

Hearing that somebody was apparently wandering around telling people not to be careless or something rubbed Ginevra the wrong way. People really were looking at the game all wrong, if they were going around and being so serious about it. It was ridiculous!

That asshole sounds dumb as fuck, if you ask me. What's the point in playing a game if you're gonna get bogged down by things like being careful or having to watch everything you say and do? If I wanted to be policed on everything I did, I'd go outside IRL and touch grass or something.

Imoogi put the snake away having finished doing...whatever it was she'd been doing. Ginevra hadn't paid much attention, too focused on her speech and on delicious, unseasoned and flame roasted bear meat. Turning their kill in for the reward was a good point, though carrying the bear's carcass was going to be a huge pain.

Swapping friend codes, on the other hand, sounded like a great idea.

Sounds good to me. I'll hit you up and you can maybe get a chance to kill something, next time!

Her hand snapped out, opening her menu and shooting a friend request to Imoogi.

@Imoogi

 

[Imoogi]

Imoogi nodded, relieved that at least someone agreed that the bluecoat had been stupid. There'd been more than one person out there that seemed to think that this game was something dangerous. It had been enough to make her wonder if they had a point...

Now she could be confident in ignoring those people.

They're the ones that need to be touching grass, if you ask me.

She happily accepted the friend request. Ginevra's name was spelled about as oddly as it sounded. Imoogi wondered if she typed something wrong and decided to run with it. It was a little disappointing that her last name wasn't literally "the White Shadow", but... eh.

Cool, thanks. I'll do the same for you - if there's some quest that could use the sort of woman who can kill a bear in one hit, I'll send you a message.

She examined the bear. It was huge, and it would be a pain to drag. She attempted to shunt it into her inventory, but she just got an error about it being too heavy. She hissed her frustration, paused at the fact that she had just hissed, then moved past it.

Do you have enough inventory space for this? Maybe we can cut it up here and carry it back, or... I don't know. Get a big rope somewhere...

@Ginevra Delaney

 

[Ginevra Delaney]

That was correct. She was glad that they both agreed that the morons that ran around being all serious about things really just needed to chill out and take a breather. Some people really did need to learn to enjoy things in life, especially something as good and fun as this game! What was the point of a whole new world, free of consequences, if one wasn't about to abuse the shit out of it? The way Ginevra saw it, she could die two whole times before she needed to even think about being careful!

In real life, she couldn't even die once!

Sounds good to me. I'm sure I can prove my dark powers even more to you in the future. Hehe, perhaps after a full demonstration, you won't be able to protect your heart from my magnificent and dark charms?

She grinned, giving Imoogi a wink, though it was more playful and teasing than actually sultry. Of course, should Imoogi change her mind about that kind of thing, Ginevra wouldn't complain. But she could still turn her flirting into a joke, rather than be awkward about it.

Though cutting up the bear and carrying it would be something to solve. She hefted her greatsword, before she began to hack the bear into bloody chunks, storing them one by one in her inventory. Boy would it be fun to dump all of this gore in front of the farmer.

Hey, do you think the farmer will faint when we show him what's left of the bear?

@Imoogi

 

[Imoogi]

Imoogi laughed. At some point the "flirtations" had ceased to bother her - it seemed like Ginevra wasn't going to push it beyond that. It wasn't like she was her parents or anything.

Who knows! It's the sort of game where anything could happen, after all.

She stored a few bits of the bear in her own inventory, mostly the bits involving organs. She vaguely recalled something about bear gallbladders being valuable, and while she had no idea what a gallbladder looked like, she could take all of this stuff and figure out what was worth it later.

Oh, that would be hilarious if he did. It would serve him right though, making other people do the dirty work for him. But I guess that's what NPCs do, right?

It was funny - at the beginning of all this, she'd been resentful of the idea of having to work with someone else. Meeting Ginevra, however, had made her reconsider that. It wasn't often she found a kindred spirit like her.

Maybe playing co-op wasn't so bad...

(Exit!)
@Ginevra Delaney