The passage of time is a curious, mutable concept in video games. In the middle of a desperate race against time, it's perfectly acceptable to spend a week grinding, maybe do a couple sidequests, finish ticking off a couple of collectables, that kind of thing. It's especially notable in MMOs, where grinding and sidequests and repeating dungeons (which may possibly count as going
backwards in time) are a solid part of the intended content.
Thus, despite it ostensibly being horribly impolite to keep people waiting, you decide to teach the children a lesson. Whether it actually matters or not...It probably doesn't, considering this is an optional tutorial sidequest in an MMO, but...eh. Going after a couple of brats being petty jerks speaks to your inner sense of justice.
Also, combat. Y'know, that thing the game's based around.
As you make your decision, there's a sensation you can only describe as a
ping, snapping your attention to the garden outside. It's not quite a sound, nor quite a feeling, but somewhere oddly between the two. There's something
there, maybe fifty metres away. It would seem this is the evolution of the objective marker. It seems the target's still milling around. How convenient.
As you step outside, you spot them immediately. The thief and his friend, you assume. The two boys aren't quite 'street rats'; though their clothes are ragged, they aren't
that dirty. Just worn. You estimate they're in their mid to late teens, with that familiar posture of ignorant confidence. They're barely even hiding; just standing off to the side, out of direct line of sight from the door. You wonder if it's a deliberate choice to demonstrate arrogance, or purely for the sake of convenience.
The ground surrounding them is tinted black. As you approach you trigger yet another text box.
Personal Encounter
The dark circle on the ground indicates a personal encounter that can only be engaged by the person it's assigned to; you can't begin if you're currently in a party. Enter the area to trigger the event.
As you do, the first of the two boys speaks up. To describe in a word, you would use 'disposable'. With generically scruffy black hair and bland, generic 'young anime male' faces (maybe slightly sharper eyes than usual), you can barely tell them apart.
"'ey, push off, Rosary, don'tch know this 'ere's his lord's property?"
Though they both snigger at the comment (even for a deliberately unfunny comment, that was bad), you are thoroughly unamused. Especially since you're a hopeless lore nut and thus know exactly what 'Rosary' is slang for in the world of SoV. If these pricks have more backstory than 'generic jerks', you doubt they'll be painted sympathetically. More likely, they'll vanish off the face of the earth as soon as you leave the tutorial.
Return the Flowers
There's only one command available, and it's not exactly shakespeare. As you're about the press through with it, a text box suddenly appears.
Equipping Your Weapons
Use the EQUIP command to retrieve your weapon and armour from the Aether. Be warned! Doing so during a conversation may spur potential hostiles to action, but may also allow you to save time or engage on your own terms.
Ah, so
that's the 'skip cutscene' function. If they're introducing it here, you assume there's little to hear from these two, but it wouldn't be the first time you've found an interesting tidbit hidden in conversation with a random NPC.
So, test drive the
EQUIP function, or ride the conversation out?
CHOOSE ONE
[] Cut to the chase;
EQUIP immediately (+5 to Aim/Dodge for incoming encounter)
[] <Return the Flowers> (+1D10 Lore Experience)
* * * * * * * *
Welp. It's barely longer than the last. This is what happens when you split your attention between writing a story/quest about a video game and actually playing video games. Sorry about that.
For future reference, while the mechanics aren't concrete yet, at the end of each session, you'll be afforded extra time to do other stuff depending on how successful your rolls are (which, assuming you succeed, will affect how long each event takes), with time taken out for extra time spent doing stuff.