Private Providence Snow White and the Art of Kicking Your Ass

[Harveste]

The mountainous region of Providence. It was a quieter area than most of the places Harveste frequented, but she liked the silence that tended to fill the still air in the mountains. It was also a good place to train and quest- she'd gotten a request from a Lander to find a mysterious flower that only grows in the wild of the mountain, and was rare for a mountain plant at that.

"Damnit!" she shouted, punching a wall with all her might. Her knuckles hurt from the strain as the stone wall she'd punched crumbled. A deep sigh left her lips. "I'm glad that building wasn't occupied... Man I needed that..."

Climbing on top of the wall's remainder, the small Faerin began to walk along it like a tightrope, singing a marching tune she'd heard in one of her favorite games before. The song had an unusual side effect: not only did it make the plants grow a bit more readily, but it seemed to be attracting wild animals to the scene. Harveste had no clue what she was doing to them, though- she was just singing, unhinged.

Stopping short, she knelt down to pet a rabbit that had come close to her. "Did you like my song, little guy? Seeing all of you enjoying my song makes it worth the effort... I wish this plant I need would just show itself already, though. Do any of you know where I can find it?" She tried to describe the rare flower, but the animals did not respond. Instead, they begged her to sing some more.

"Fine, fine." She sighed and began her song anew. The animals were enjoying it. What else could she do?

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

Unbeknownst to Harveste building she had just punched was, in fact, not empty. After having spent most of the night wandering a slaying the odd lower level mob he'd come across, Yu had decided to lie down inside this random building he'd come upon (after checking to make sure nothing was going to jump out and kill him in his sleep). Laying down beneath the wall that would later become dust, Yu had closed his and gone to sleep, grateful that sleeping in-game was a sufficient substitute for sleeping in real life.

And so, as you can imagine, having a wall falling on your face was not a very fun way to be woken up. Even less so when the one responsible started walking over your hardly conscious body without a single care in the world. As soon as the fog of a probable concussion had cleared enough for Yu to gather his wits, the man bolted upright, bricks and stone flying in all directions as he shouted, "What the fuck do you think you're doing!? You could've killed me!"

@Harveste

 

[Harveste]

The small woman was startled to hear a voice shouting at her. "Wait, I don't have spirit magic... Who was that!?" Rushing into the rubble to find the voice's source, Harveste found a tall man (well, tall didn't mean much coming from a 4'2" shrimpy Faerin). Clearing the debris around him, she hugged onto the man. "I'm so sorry! I was told it was uninhabited!"

Singing a sweet yet sad song, she grew some vines that wrapped around the stranger before melting into his skin, providing healing for any wounds the debris might have caused. When she sang, the animals nearby came to hang out with her again, but she waved to them when she finished, telling them it was okay to go home.

"I'm really, really sorry. I went based on what I was told and didn't check myself. Also, I put way too much strength into that punch. Do you still hurt anywhere? I tried to heal everything but healing can only do so much..."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

In a mad scramble to apologize, Yu's assaulter practically leapt at him, wrapping her arms around his entire torso, sending him into a frantic, confused frenzy. "W-what are you doing!?" the man shouted, his arms flailing around him as wines sprang from between the cracks in the rubble, wrapping around his arms, glowing and then...melting into his body. Pain faded away from his body, and the unseen bruises beneath his clothes faded away, replaced with a sense of relief.

"Heh?" What in the fuck was going on?

"Uh, I'm fine," the man said, now certain that any imminent danger had passed. "Do you mind letting me go?" Yu requested, still a mite annoyed with this girl's antics. "What in the hell are you doing punching walls anyways?" Yu asked after being released, rising to his feet and dusting his clothes free of the copious amounts of dust that had buried him.

@Harveste

 

[Harveste]

Letting go rapidly as he requested, Harveste got back to her feet as well. It was then that she really noticed his height compared to hers. She had to look quite far up at him, hurting her neck slightly to reach his eye level. "I'm the reason you got hurt, so the least I can do is heal any wounds you had, whether from me or somewhere else." She smiled brightly. "Nature Magic is pretty handy, you know?"

Humming softly for a minute, she explained her rather horrible reasoning. "I was told this building was due to be demolished. Since I was really, really frustrated... I thought I'd help do it in advance?" She let out a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of her neck. "I tried to hold back on my strength a bit, but I must not have done it well enough. I really do apologize. If I'd known someone was in there, I'd have avoided it and punched something else." Sighing, she held a hand out to him, in case he'd agree to a handshake. She was sure he wouldn't, though.

"You're a starcalled too, right? I just get that vibe looking at you. I'm Harveste. May I ask your name too, sir?"

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

"Mm, yeah it would appear so," Yu would reply to woman's comment about nature magic. His hemomancy might stop wounds from getting any worse, but actually healing was something that was just a bit beyond what he could do, frustratingly enough.

'Wait, there are public services in Terrasphere?' This game never ceased to surprise. "You sure pack one hell of a punch for such a small woman," Yu said, curtly shaking the woman's offered hand. "Yeah, I am. Name's Yu," he introduced himself. "So...do you just going around punching to-be-demolished walls on a daily business or is this a new development?" the man asked. "What are you doing out here? Oh, wait, you nature types like to just wander around outdoors, right?" If Lucy had been any indication, that was true. Or that particular Fae was just really strange. To be completely, honest, either one was a possibility...

@Harveste

 

[Harveste]

Harveste laughed a little when told her punch was surprising. "I don't do it normally, I'm just on a really frustrating quest. An old lady asked me to find a rare blooming flower. It's hard to find in the wild as is, but they bloom at night only. Trying to find them by smell is proving difficult, so... Sorry again for my outburst."

Scratching the back of her neck, she said, "Have you heard of Night-Blooming Cereus? It's a rare plant a bit like them. They bloom once a year, for one night. They grow on shrubs, but... No one has told me how to recognize a Cereus shrub, and I was hoping to see them before they bloom too. Flowers change their scent sometimes between bud and bloom. But here's the kicker... The flowers I need grow in the mountain."

Jumping on top of a nearby piece of broken wall, the girl turned to him with a grin, purple hair dancing around her as she moved. "I also wanted to try making them bloom with magic, but... That's a secret between us, okay?"

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

Ah, fetch quests. The bane of any and all adventurer who so foolishly lower themselves to take on such a challenge. "Too bad there isn't a quest marker to help you out with that," Yu said, "I can't say I know what they look like either, sorry." Hell, Yu had enough trouble figuring out the difference between a tulip and a chrysanthemum without a label to distinguish them.

"Your secret's safe with me," the man swore, crossing an 'X' over his heart. "Uh, question, what are you gonna do if you can't find this thing if it only blooms once a year like you said. Kinda screwed, aincha?" I mean, what was she going to do? Wait around for a whole other year. Was she even certain that they bloomed tonight anyways? Would she be able to make it happen with magic if not? There seemed to be a lot of holes in this plan of hers.

@Harveste

 

[Harveste]

What Yu didn't realize was there was no 'plan'. Harveste had simply taken on the quest and rushed into it with a curious mind. They were flowers she was asked for by a Lander... But she also just wanted to see them with her own eyes. Part of what she loved about this game was the exploration- and her ability to smell working. As long as she could try new things and learn, she didn't really care about her logic. At least not right now.

"If I can't find them or they don't bloom, I'll apologize," she said with a sad smile. "I really want to see them, so it'll be disappointing if I fail, but... Hard quests sometimes are failures. It's my own fault for agreeing to do it. If I fail, that's on me, not the Lander."

Shrugging it off, she took out a notebook of poor plant drawings. "I use plants a lot as symbolism and stuff in my writing... So I've been taking notes and drawing all the interesting plants I come across here to help me remember them offline. I was excited to add this one to the list. Did you know there's a flower that smells like chocolate when it blooms?"

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

Yu himself wasn't the kind to submit himself to flights of whimsy. It just wasn't his thing. He was a man of objectivity. He had a goal, he planned the shortest and most effective path to that goal, and then he executed that plan.

But that didn't mean he didn't respect of understand those who did act on their heart's desires.

"Fair enough," the man said. "Well, if you want I can lend a hand," he offered. "I wouldn't mind see this rare flower for myself if I'm being honest." If it looked like some kind of weird tentacled monstrosity though, the man was going to burn this whole mountain to the fucking ground.

"There's a flower that smells like chocolate?" Yu repeated, a look of confusion on his face. That was new to him. And he'd seen how chocolate was made, so he knew it wasn't a chocolate flower or something like that. "I...didn't know that, actually. Wait, so what does it taste like?" yeah, he used to put everything in his mouth as a kid, don't judge him

@Harveste

 

[Harveste]

When the man offered to lend her a helping hand, she smiled. "Thank you so much! I'm sure it'll be easier to find with two people than one." Her toothy grin was a bit goofy, but she honestly didn't care. She was happy to have help, especially from someone she accidentally harmed. To be helped by someone that could easily hate her was refreshing.

"It's a rare flower called a chocolate cosmos. They're called that because of their scent and the color of their petals." She put her hands on her hips, glad she'd recently researched unusual blooms for a book she was writing. When asked what they tasted like, she paled, before finally confessing. "I've only read about them in books and stuff. I wouldn't know even if I found them in the other world."

After all, she couldn't smell in the other world. The only reason she knew chocolate's scent was Terrasphere taught her it. She wouldn't get into that now though. It was a complicated matter, and this situation was already complicated enough. "So... Any recommendations for how to start our search, Yu?"

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

"Huh," Yu muttered at the mention of the flower. "Never heard of it before. I'll have to check it out later," the man said, pulling out his journal and making a quick note before tucking it away again.

As to how to start their search..."Uh, well what do we know about where they grow?" Yu asked, trying to come up with some kind of methodology for hunting down this flower of theirs. "And when, exactly, they're supposed to start blooming. I'd say our best bet is gonna be to check out area that have a likely hood of having the flowers. Beyond that," Yu shrugged, "I got no idea." As much as Yu loved plants, he knew precious little about how to find or care for them. Hell, the man killed his succulents and his bamboo...and somehow, his orchid was still alive...He was going to be fairly useless as anything more than an extra set of eyes.

@Harveste

 

[Harveste]

Harveste smiled. The man sure seemed interested in the topic- he was even taking notes! Somehow, she was glad to have run into (and almost killed) him. With his help, she might actually finish the quest!

"The old lady showed me a picture of them growing on a high ridge of the mountains. They grow on bushes, so we don't need to look for anything other than shrubs that might have very thin, long bulbs." She was explaining it fairly well, she thought, but her details were limited to say the least. "The lady said they start blooming late evening until sunrise. I'm not sure why they hate the sun so much, but after this one night, there's no chance to find them for another year..."

Would Terrasphere's second act even remain available for another year? After losing it suddenly for so long, the little Faerin had her concerns. That's why, with whatever help she could get from her own abilities and this strange man, she was going to find that flower for the old woman. Who knew if she'd ever have a chance again?

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

"That...actually gives us a lot to go off of." Yu had expected the quest details to be absolutely useless, but these were fairly detailed. Sure, they weren't exact coordinates, or a waypoint marker, but this was pretty good.

"Alright, so I guess we go up." Yu said, looking up the mountain side, eyes scanning for any obvious ridges, which was made difficult thanks to the copse of trees he had to peer through to even see the high peaks. "Uh, what about the flowers themselves? What do those look like?" Yu asked as he just started walking, figuring they could correct course later if they needed to. Although, they were just walking up. Not a lot of correction needed for that one. "Like what color are they? That would be a good start, I think." The long bulbs though were also helpful. Distinctive, but Yu had a feeling he wouldn't notice that for one reason or the other.

@Harveste

 

[Harveste]

"Surprising, right? Normally these kinds of quests are so... Blandly given. No info at all. But this old lady really gave me a lot." Her grin covered her face brightly as she began to walk alongside him. She had to move a little faster to keep up with him thanks to her short legs, but that was fine. She had much more energy and capacity for movement in this world, after all.

Thinking about the flowers now, she laughed nervously. "She didn't tell me the color, but I'm guessing white. The flowers I mentioned knowing of earlier- the ones related to these, not the chocolate cosmos- they're white. But to be honest, that was one piece of info I didn't get... So I'm possibly grasping at straws or making assumptions that don't fit."

As she quelled her nervous laughter, she began to hum a quiet melody. It seemed to perk her right up, but also caught the attention of the animals scurrying on higher ground. Noticing her audience, she blushed slightly and stopped for a moment. "Jeez, I'm so bad at controlling my voice..."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

"Yeah, for real," Yu replied to the girl as she kept pace with him, "I mean, it's definitely not as god as like a waypoint or a quest marker, but with how little Terrasphere actually gives us in terms of UI and quest guidance, that's super nice."

Yu did have to frown a little though about the fact that they didn't have any info about the flowers appearance. "Hmm. Well, at least we know that their stems are long and grow from shrubs and bushes. I mean, that's pretty distinctive, I think we should be able to work with that, right?"

Her nervous laughter caused some animals in the brush to rustle and scurry away. "Nah, animals are just skittish," the man said with a shrug. "It's not like we're out here hunting deer, ya know?" Then she might be loud. Looking for flowers? The sneaking around was less than necessary, dangerous even.

@Harveste

 

[Harveste]

Harveste giggled a bit as he spoke. "I know, right? There's no minimap in sight either- I had to buy a real one. And I'm horrible with directions, generally..." Her laughter turned nervous as she rubbed the back of her neck idly, continuing to keep his pace as best she could.

When Yu frowned, she frowned too, feeling a bit empathetic and mimicking his facial expressions for no apparent reason. She had a reason, of course- she felt bad she'd made him feel bad. But she wasn't going to keep dwelling on that- so she smiled again soon after. "Yep! We know a lot more about it than we would normally, in reality. It's pretty convenient, all points considered. I doubt there's many bushes with long flower stems like it!"

"I know they're skittish, but they usually like me," The Faerin chimed with a greater grin. "I'm a nature sprite, after all. Or that was my goal..." Her cheeks reddened deeper upon admitting her childish fantasy. "But um... Does that mean it's okay to hum? It might affect the local plants a bit if I'm not careful, but I will be, so..."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

The man chuckled at the mention of a lack of a mini-map. "Yeah, I didn't know there was no mini-map when I first started the game," the man said, laughing at himself for his early day stupidity. "So I pretty much played the first few days thinking I just missed a setting and wound up asking everyone for directions." Thank god Lucy had actually thought to inform him that he needed to buy a map. Everyone else just kinda went along with it.

The question of whether or not her humming would affect the wildlife around them was a question that Yugam was not qualified in anyway to answer. He knew next to nothing about nature magic, but hey, maybe Harveste would be a regular Disney princess. "Couldn't tell you," he answered back honestly, "but I don't see the harm in trying. Right?"

@Harveste

 

[Harveste]

"Is this your first time in this world, perhaps?" Harveste asked, skipping ahead for a moment before twirling to look up at him. She bent at her hips with her hands behind her back, a smile on her face. "I've been playing Terrasphere since the early days... Meaning before it ended four years ago. I feel bad because I know a good bit about how things work here because of that. More than many other players, anyway."

Her mind wandered to her first time playing Terrasphere four or five years ago. She couldn't remember it as well as she'd like, but she remembered there were many good memories- and it was her first time smelling the roses for real.

With his permission, she began to hum. Her voice seemed to echo slightly towards the wildlife and flora, but she managed to avoid doing much to change them, besides a few wildflowers by the roadside blooming. The animals seemed to like the sound, as well. "Hehe, I've always liked singing... That's why I chose to learn Harmonic Magic. It has a lot of uses for me, actually. When I mix it with martial arts, I can do some really cool moves, too. Do you have any skills you're particularly fond of?"

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Per Aspera

Ad Astra

Yu didn't even hear Harveste's first question, or the ones that followed. His mind latched on to what she said immediately after. "You were one of the original players?" Yu asked. "D-did you know a uhm...fuck, hold on," suddenly full of a nervous, anxious energy, the man fumbled in his coat pockets, struggling to procure a small leather bound notebook, which he began to flip through the pages of, stopping only when he'd found what he was looking for. "Right, uh, would've been a woman, in a, uh, red and white dress with pauldrons, kinda shaped like, um, lions. She had long dark hair, usually in a ponytail, I think?" The man looked almost frantic, perhaps even desperate for information on whoever this woman was that he was asking about. But what were the chances that she had ever met this mystery woman? One he didn't even know the name of.

@Harveste