SEARCH PARTY [O]

"Uweh." He sputtered as a giant mob of players rushed by him. For a beta, things were pretty hectic. The tense atmosphere of the official launch was making players all sorts of jittery. To be the first to do things was something pretty cool to brag about. Then again, there was no one around to fact check you most of the time.

As the crowd moved on and left him standing in the middle of the domain that was know as Tolbana, King fixed himself. It was weird for him to be there. Most of his buddies were offline, catching some Zs and counting sheep, while others wandered the world by their lonesome. And there he was: by himself.

That was until a little girl tugged on the cuff of his sleeve, the saddened look on her face as if she had lost her parents. In a crowd like that, he wouldn't have been surprised.

That was until a slight screen flashed upon his screen and a light chirp whistled in his ear. It was a quest.

The Korean gentleman knelt down to eye level. "Alright. You stay here and I'll find it for you, okay?" A slight pat and rub on her head, he stood tall and looked around for any potential aids in this quest of his.

"Woh! You!" He called over to a fairly armored fellow.

ARETO

The girl had wandered off to go find his counterpart. It was a very short walk to the other gentleman that was partaking in the quest. The 29-year-old looked over the blonde once, twice, thrice. They seemed like they knew what they were doing. Jeong Ho felt as though he was in the company of greatness and he felt the experience humbling him. Out in the real world he was someone, but in here, he was at the bottom of the food chain.

Nonetheless, that gave him a bit of motivation to get to the same level that guy was, literally and figuratively.

The blonde introduced himself and King was obviously a decent human being and approached his partner. His hand extended now to offer and quick exchange of palm sweat, he held a smile on his face.

"The name's King!" With the smile still on his face, he nodded once in respect to the clearly higher-leveled toon. "Areto's a good name. Unique. 'You' is pretty rude."

Going back to the man's question, King rocked his head forward slightly in a nod. "Yes!" The man exclaimed with the confidence of a champion before his demeanor slunk away in a nervous laugh.

"But I'm pretty new to this game so I'm not sure where to go." Rubbing the back of his head, he could feel the figurative drop of sweat break the plane of his front-most hairline.

ARETO

With the sighting of a new player, Areto must have thought this guy was a 'newbie' to the realm of video games. It wasn't so much the mechanics he was trying to get a hang of. It was more so the fact that he had no idea where anything was.

"Mhm. I did read the manual but you look like you know your way around." King wiped the virtual drops of nervousness against his pant leg.

"I really don't know how to navigate around this game. Like, I remember that big town square in the beginning, but that's about it." Shrugging his shoulders, it was evident that he was as lost as a puppy and Areto was unfortunate enough to get this bugger to latch onto him.

King placed his hands on his hips. He knew better than to disturb people when it felt like they didn't want to be. He had a knack for reading the mood. Or so he thought. All those years in school really took a toll on his social awareness.

"If it's too much trouble, I can figure it out on my own." Waving his hand as if he were trying to dismiss Areto, he secretly wanted someone to talk to and quest with for once.

ARETO

It was nice to meet a friendly soul in a video game. His experiences with MOBAs and MMOs usually involved individuals with elitist mentalities. Not to say he didn't have one, but his wasn't as prevalent as others. This encounter, however, was a pleasant one.

Areto dismissed King's offer of leaving him to figure it out on his own. King felt like a burden, but he knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth. He was presented with an opportunity to be social and acclimate himself to the game. He was going to take it.

"Thanks. I appreciate the help." A small smile curled up on the corner of his mouth before he crossed his arms and shifted his weight over to one leg, somewhat mirroring Areto's posture.

King swiped into the air, bringing up the user interface. "Did you want to wait a bit more or do you want to head out now?" The quest details said the creek was near the Town of Beginnings. It was a bit of a walk, but more company would have been nice. If it ever showed up.

ARETO

Areto brought up good points. It was rather funny how he was now finding himself tailing another person in his life. Being a doctor out in the real world required long hours playing scribe to the doctors of a hospital. Those long hours translated into an actual job and that job translated into money. Now he was doing the same, but he was working towards experience and Col. It was an exciting experience considering he was brand new to the game and he was this player's dog, essentially.

"I'm pretty new, I think. I just booted up the game. It's pretty hard to find any downtime in my field of work." King paced quickly to walk up to Areto's left. As a companion, it was an untold rule that the superior led from the right side. "So I've been walking around and trying to get used to things."

Areto had this very lax atmosphere around him. It was a comforting feeling and it reminded King of the patients that really saw the silver lining in things. It made him smile knowing that there were some people who were positive in attitude, or at least not a Debbie Downer.

"How about you? How long have you been playing? You got that big old cloak over your shoulders like you're trying to hide something."

ARETO

After a few hours of playing in the game, Eve felt pretty comfortable in her body. She wasn't prone to tripping over her overly large feet anymore and her depth perception was getting better too. All in all, the woman was liking her new identity in this virtual world. More so when it was easier to socialize with others. Girls did a lot more talking and the guys did a lot more joking around.

However, her time in the game was currently in the beta phase and Eve was determined to try and help out a little bit. She had found herself in another beginner town - Tolbana. Like in the Town of Beginnings there were a ton of players milling about and mobbing whatever NPC was around. Quests and all.

Just as she was about to join one of the bigger groups, a little girl grabbed hold of her sleeve and immediately a quest popped out for her. Eve quickly scanned through the objectives and hit the accept button, and was about to stand around to wait for someone else to show up. However, the same petite NPC was tugging her in a direction and pointing towards two figures walking away.

Was she meant to follow them?

The woman should have probably asked the girl to double check, but one of them seemed familiar. "Heey!" She hoped her shout was loud enough to garner their attention. As luck would have it though, her new legs and extreme boost in height had her catching up to them in no time.

"Ah... Sorry for interrupting, but are you guys also going for the little girl's quest by the creek?" A nervous chuckle escaped her, hoping that she wasn't wrong.

-------
TAGS: ARETO + KING
NOTES: Hope y'all don't mind me dropping in.