A Tougher Bacon Hunt [ Q / Albedo ]

Gran frowned as she was dragged away from the oncoming dream of hunky, European men. With a sigh, she opened one eye in disdain and glanced over this newcomer. Female. Flat. Abrasive. Gran wondered how best to go about this as she closed her eye again and shrugged lightly, a wry smile creeping on to her wrinkled face.

"Close enough," she muttered under her breath, not even loud enough for the new person to hear.

She opened her eyes tiredly, stretching her arms out with a groan, and then she looked this lady in the eyes and smiled warmly, sarcasm just barely audible in her voice, "Oh no, sweetie. This big hunk of metal has been such a hassle. I can barely even lift the thing without accidentally dropping it on these poor piggies' heads. And I couldn't even figure out how the character design worked when I first joined, oh dearie me."

She chuckled lightly and cocked her head at the girl, sarcasm much more apparent this time around, "Bacon? I thought I was out here to get ribs. Oh my, my medication must be making my dementia act up again. I'll have to see the doctor about that one."

Gran leaned back and then forward, practically propelling herself from the rock with a flourish. She landed in front of the girl with a sturdy thump, and put Gran puts hands on hips, looking up at the child with a serious frown. She couldn't quite get a good read on her, but Gran was sure that would remedy itself in time. For now, she sighed and resolved to get this quest done with this girl.

"Did you want in on the bacon thing, or are you just out here to make fun of little old ladies?" Gran teased the girl with a light chuckle and motioned through her menu easily. She sent the girl a party invite and motioned for the newcomer to make her decision.

"You'd be surprised how often people have been telling me that age doesn't matter here," Gran spat a little fury in with her voice, but didn't direct it at the girl specifically, "More flabbergasting is the fact that no one seems to want to fight with me because I'm old. How do those things go hand in hand?"

Gran sighed and nodded a bit as Albedo spoke. The girl reminded her a bit of her own daughter when she was younger. Amazing how many things were making her nostalgic in this game. Gran waved off the comment about not making much fun, and focused her attention on the swine that had apparently been moving towards them.

"Convenient is one word, sure." Gran pulled her mace out as the girl ran off to fight the pigs and she chortled a bit to herself, "All fight and not much dialogue, huh? Oh, I do miss those action games."

Gran followed quick behind the kid and watched mostly, almost impressed with the display. Almost. Gran laughed a delightful, almost bloodthirsty laugh, darting in right behind Albedo at the signal to switch. She brought the mace down hard on the pig's head and smiled warmly as it shattered into oblivion. And then, she shot Albedo a look.

"What's the matter, sweet cakes?" Gran almost seemed to poke the girl with just her voice, mace charging with light, "Don't know how to swing a sword twice?"

With that, Gran pivoted on one foot and swung her weapon around in a horizontal swing, bringing the head of it to crack across on charging pig's face in a bright line of green light. As the boar shattered into pieces, she turned to the other one that had been approaching and hissed at it. Growled, almost. She had learned in the real world that intimidation and making your opponent fear you were more effective than just combat. A shame she didn't have any skills to activate the intimidation.

Gran smiled at Albedo like a mother would to her child getting high marks in school. The girl had successfully killed a mob on her own, Gran was so proud! She wondered why she was being so sarcastic in her head instead of out loud. She sighed and bobbed her mace in the air a bit, shaking her head as Albedo spoke.

"Did I say I did it accidentally?" Gran gave the girl a wink and laughed, "Sometimes I forget what I mean."

She thought about how easily she had shattered one pig in a single blow and nodded thoughtfully, "I hear there's a quest to kill mobs that are just bigger pigs. I haven't done that one yet for whatever reason. If you could bear my company a little longer-..."

Gran's eyes widened quickly and she jumped forward, barely managing to not barrel into Albedo. She pushed Albedo out of the way with her shoulder, lifting the mace over her shoulder, light reflecting off it as the pig closed the gap more swiftly than she thought it had been. Her weapon swung down in a diagonal arc, making contact with the pig in tandem with the pig making contact with Gran's chest. The pig shattered and Gran was knocked backwards and directly on her rear end. She glanced up to her HP bar, which had dropped quite a bit more than she would've liked.

"As I was saying," Gran laughed up at Albedo, big toothy grin spreading on her face as if she hadn't been hurt badly, "We could go do one of those big boy quests. Those suckers have tusks and that excites me."

Gran was having the time of her life. That young boy she'd fought with earlier had been fun, but she hadn't had a lick of real danger yet. This was one of those moments she had been waiting for. Up until now it had only been a game for Gran. But now, even though these mobs posed no real threat to her normally, she felt a flicker of determination in her heart. The danger here was real for her now. For most people, that realisation was a dangerous, looming disaster. For Gran, being in danger made it better. It made her focus and make better decisions. Gran looked up at Albedo, a fire in her eyes. She grabbed Albedo's hand and pulled herself up.

"One of those beta testers, hm?" Gran nodded. It made sense looking at how the girl fought. Of course, anyone could've really gotten this far without prior knowledge. Gran cracked a smirk at the girl, "Fun to mess with, you say? If they're as dangerous as these little piggies, I'm afraid we both might die. Maybe I should teach you how to look around at your surroundings properly. That'd make it easier."

She shot Albedo a teasing wink and shook her head with a happy chuckle, "Not a single bit of that was your fault, dearie. I could have just as easily let the walking bacon violate you. I figured we needed to hurry up, though, so I took a hit, instead of you."

Gran let out a sigh and turned to the boar in the distance, pointing her mace at it, "I will, however, let you take this one. There's only so much a grandma can take, ya know?"