Ghost of a Chance [Q]

It was still difficult to believe that the first thing that she was going to do while in this virtual reality game was to go on some quest with some strangers. Granted she would get some rewards from this quest or something like that, but Sarah, rather Croctus, was renowned for being an early level grinder to get ahead of the game and tear through the late game easy as pie. Being her first VR-MMO, she decided to take things in another direction. Without being able to log out until the game was beaten--by her of course--she thought that there would be no issue taking this slight initial detour. It was time to experiment a bit, since she had the time.

But ghosts? Psh, what shitty programming by directors. As if anybody would actually consider it a real ghost. It's probably a programmed NPC or some gateway into unleashing ghost-based creatures into the world. If she was lucky, Croctus would deem this thing a bug in the system. Bugs were always cool to find. Speaking of cool, the forest was rather cold. It was pleasing to know that the developers didn't misname the forest. It was winter here, even though it was a mild winter anyways. Weather was a little harsher, but she could deal with it.

"Definitely feels cold," she said to herself as she didn't bring with her any particular gear to keep the cold off. The virtual reality really did feel real, and that was impressive for one of the first full dive devices in the world. Croctus was sure she was getting actual goosebumps in the real world from this. She was used to the cold, though, so it didn't bother her. Besides, her parents had always taught her that she needed to learn to deal with her environment. Maybe this coldness would serve as a proper challenge for this task.

Croctus arrived at the meeting site right outside the forest to see a boy with white hair. She offered a slight smile and nodded her head. She held out a hand and offered a greeting. "Hello. I'm Croctus. I'm assuming you're KING, the one who asked me to meet you here? Let's make this swift and thorough. I don't want any ghosts to get in the way of me ending this damn game." Clearly, her aspirations were not shallow.

PENDULUM SISUHAASTAJA.OBJ KING
★ So ready to do this!

One hand over the other, place a foot on the knot there and swing his legs upward… a small smirk appeared on his face at how easy it was to merely swing from the lower branch to upper. The branches were dusted with snow, but it felt refreshing against the healing blisters and cuts on his hands from shoveling manure. He refused to wear gloves for now, though he knew very well that he would likely get a splinter or two soon if he didn’t put them back on. Totally didn’t want to or else it would rub on his blisters and some had already popped. No, it wasn’t the best idea, but he could always warm his hand back up by shoving his hands inside his clothes. Besides whatever protection the gloves gave was totally not worth busting open a blister because of more friction. So he sat there for a bit on a high branch, kicking his feet as he rubbed more snow over the blisters, knocking the heavy powder and ice off one of the lower branches Mainly, so he could continue on into the forest, before his mother or father would even think of looking for him here of all places. It might actually be the first place they looked, he really didn’t get adult minds particularly well, seemed like they had it all backwards. Come on now, ‘Cursed Child’ and ‘Cursed Forest’ seemed to be a sound argument in adult language. Right? Right…. Yup. Whatever.

With practiced ease he swing to the next tree in the dense forest, going deeper, trying to find a good strong straight tree. Why a straight tree? Because he wasn’t stupid even though he had been struck ‘dumb’. Ha. The coyotes around here used to be more curious… but as of late they’ve become vicious creatures, not the kind you wanted on your tail. They used to regard him as some sort of strange animal that they hadn’t seen before, they had never been afraid and only began to get aggressive if he got near their territory, but they had changed. Given the desire to, they were well capable of climbing trees, but they had to have some footing to get up anywhere near the top.

Perhaps it wasn’t the most intelligent idea to be out here, but there was a simple solution, swing and climb his way to a tree on which they could get no footing. Eventually they would quit if they even noticed his presence. Yet, even though he knew it was stupid and he could get hurt because of it, he continued his visits to the frozen forest. Of course it was quite literally magical, but to him there was something more. He loved to watch the snowflakes fall down from the tallest tree… pluck of the frozen leaves and they became encased in ice, holding them up to the sun to watch them sparkle. The cold air was fresh and he felt as if he was free. Here he was quite free, until the sun went down and inevitably he would have to return to the farm… sneak back in and steal a bit of dinner or ignore the berating he was going to surely receive. Still, there was something more, the forest wasn’t right… and while to him it was beautiful, it was most certainly not a natural phenomena. He wasn’t supposedly right either, so it fit. The best part about it though? It made him feel like he belonged… and if he understood spoken words, perhaps he could say that. That and the tallest tree in the center of the forest never failed to make him feel like he was king of the forest. Not like that was hard… it wasn’t as if there were many people who went through this way. He pocketed a frozen maple leaf and put on his gloves with a mental sigh… that oak tree would open up his blisters for sure, so gloves it was. Unbeknownst to him, he might soon have company.

The snow continued to fall uninterrupted and undisturbed by his presence.

KING CROCTUS PENDULUM
★ SSSSH HE DOESN’T KNOW

She watched as the other boy seemed to walk up. He was a young boy, just like KING was, but there was something weird. Wait a minute, was she the only adult here? God damn, hopefully she wasn't going to be babysitting on this quest. Croctus decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and keep that sort of information to herself. The kids were likely just going to have some fun on this adventure. Besides, if a system let them all go on this quest so early on, then it likely was totally fine. Kids being able to handle this quest meant that a twenty-five year old would be absolutely fine.

Croctus followed her "leader," she guessed, into the forest. He made some ramblings of the ghost likely being in the trees if it was a boy, however he admitted that he wouldn't know where to look if it was a girl. He turned to the red head and asked if she had any insights about that. "You're asking the wrong girl, bud," she stated looking up into the trees like he suggested. She was mildly mesmerized by the falling white twirling down and the snow gathering on the tree branches. If a ghost was hiding up there, he probably had damn good footwork. Those branches probably had a - 60% friction rating. It wasn't quite ice, but snow wasn't good either.

"I was always a girl to stay inside and play video games. So your guess is as good as mine." She looked back at the other kid, the one with black hair. Wait, what was his name? Did he ever give it, or did they know each other before hand, the white haired one and the black haired one, and thus forget to do introductions? Oh well, now was the time I guess. She felt a slight chill as a winter gust blew through the trees, shaking some of the snow off the branches. "Didn't catch your name, kid," she said in reference to the black haired one.

PENDULUM SISUHAASTAJA.OBJ KING
★ She's literally at least 11 years older than everyone here

Yeowch! One of the blister broke anyway, despite his best efforts not to. The gloves were coming off again, they were just making this more painful then it needed to be. Vertti took a bit more of the snow off the frozen leaves and applied it directly to the popped blister, though it didn’t really feel like it was doing much in terms of well… mitigating the pain. It did feel nice as he tried to clean out the fluid, because he remembered how he wound up with more blisters the last time one popped and he didn’t take care of it. He half rolled his eyes at the thought of it, ugh more blisters were just not appreciated… and it wasn’t like they were even calluses, which meant something. He looked down from the pine that he was now sitting in with its icicle needles shaking a bit under his weight. Well the whole branch was, but fortunately for him he was light enough that the branch itself didn’t break under his weight, yeah no… that wasn’t going to be pleasant. It wasn’t like he was actually looking, in fact he was most just looking for another tree to jump to, because it was pretty clear that he’d have to drop down a branch if he wanted to get any further. He was a bit shocked if he were to be honest with himself as he raised an eyebrow at the two spots of color north of him if he had his bearings right. Blinking, he realized that those spots were people and they were moving towards his general direction. Spots, dots, whatever, they were running or at least moving towards him. That was really the only thing that mattered.

Oh damn.
Did the adults actually use that twisted sense of logic?

Know what? He didn’t care, at all. Not one bit. One would think that coming to a forest covered in ice, snow that was also the home of coyotes would be a clear indication that he really presently didn’t want company. He was enjoying himself, just challenging himself to find new routes throughout the forest and just… enjoying the forest in general. These two bums were likely just bumbling around and if they weren’t careful, they might just wander into coyote territory… actually that was a good idea. If they were mildly intelligent, they would clearly not go towards the coyotes. That and he knew well enough how to avoid them himself, though it did disturb him a bit… how violent they had become as of late. It almost made him wonder if these folks were being morons and not respecting large seventy pound bags of muscle that hunted in packs. Alright so he did wonder, but the point was, it wasn’t his forest, but that didn’t mean he went traipsing through it like he owned the place. Actually really, he had no idea why they were here in the first place, most people tended to avoid the possibly cursed forest, with the exception of him for that very reason. So maybe it wasn’t a good idea to go through coyote territory, if other humans were being butts and disturbing the forest… but, that wasn’t necessarily the only reason why they could be here he figured as he adeptly dropped to a lower branch and felt it bend as he spread his weight by moving his feet outwards, standing efficiently on the tree. It wasn’t just a hop to reach the next branch and he swung himself upward onto another oak, biting his tongue as the diamond bark of the heavy branch dug into his blister, before pulling himself up.

Piece of cake. Hah.
Or something, he just needed a direction to veer towards… and he started towards the edge of coyote territory, his arms latching onto another branch which he used to pull himself up on and onto another tree.

And if they followed him, well he had an inkling of why they had come here in the first place and it would be their own fault. As in, listening to his mother, or perhaps his father. Maybe they were even promised a small reward for getting him back home before the sun settled for once in his life. Worse comes to worse he could indeed duck into coyote territory if that was the case, and if they followed him, he could pelt ice at them from above for being such brazen butt faces. Otherwise, he’d just led them on a merry chase throughout the forest until he lost them. He went back when he wanted to, it was just as simple as that. Especially not with some goons that his parents hired to go and fetch him. Besides this could be rather hilarious if they were so stupid to keep trundling along in the forest. There was a passing pang of guilt that did just that… passed. That, it could become more than a game if these butts didn’t know when to quit. Whatever, it would be their own faults then. It wasn’t as if anyone came to his rescue when he fell out of the trees. They would have to deal if that was the case. Obviously, one just has to accept that there was a degree of risk, and they did that if they were intending on going into the forest. Now he just had to reach out and grab that next branch….

The pain of his blisters was promptly forgotten.

KING CROCTUS PENDULUM
★ THE BEST LAID PLANS GO AWRY