An unexpected bite from the small beak disturbed the thoughts of the giant man, an uncomfortable numbness slithering up his spine to educate him of this world's pain.
There was an irritation in his gesture as he unfolded his arms and pushed the owners of the beaks away, though the chickens and their young did not seem daunted by this action. If anything they seemed more excited. A gentle breeze distracted his mind from the chicks, pushing lightly against his statuesque and unmoving form in the center of the chicken coop. He knew that the people he waited for were not coming, and yet Ohka continued to wait. Despite the annoyances of the beaked inhabitants of this fenced-in community and the knowledge of his futile endeavors, he still held onto a vain hope that he was wrong.
So he sat there and waited, watching as the sea of wheat outside the feathered prison swayed softly in the light wind.
Ohka sighed wearily, and then as if in response...
...the fields whistled...
...Guiding her. Calling to her. To Kanami.
It urged her forward as she followed the wind carved path, eager to break from the golden maze that she had so carelessly found herself in. Her steps quickly gathered momentum, her vision blurred as the wheat spun around her. Then it stopped. The silence vanished as voices flooded the air. The musical choir of society. Each note was of a different scale. Each step, a different note. Each soul, a different step. Then she heard the chirping. Kanami’s mind grounded as her senses receded inwards and her focus changed accordingly.
She found herself staring at the large man before her, flocked by a sea of yellow cotton balls. His eyes met hers as the breeze hushed the air around them once more.
'A NPC?' He wondered. 'No, she doesn't look like she lives here; her outfit is similar to mine. A player. But why is she here?' he quickly remembered that he was sitting in the middle of a chicken coop and promptly rose, a few small yellow balls raining down from his lap and retreating to the larger hens.
"I'm... waiting, for someone," his gruff voice escaped involuntarily,
"A friend, he... I mean, he probably isn't coming but I was just-" He clenched his jaw to keep it from opening again. After a brief moment he cleared his throat and, regaining his composure, started over,
"This is where my friends and I met in when we played other MMO games. It... It's a habit now."She watched as he struggled to contain what his embarrassment, his striking features softened by his sudden stutters and gentle surroundings. It was absurd. Absurd how he felt the need to explain himself, how he seemed to desire for her to simply move along and ignore everything that slipped out of his mouth. She burst out into laughter, causing him to cringe. He was an idiot, she giggled in her mind. A fool. A clown!
"Why? W-why would you do this?" choking with laughter, the Nobelle planted herself against the wall. He looked like he was going to say something, but instead grunted and looked away.
"So...really," she continued, her fit ending,
"What are you doing here?""I told you already. I am- was waiting for a friend," he reiterated irritatably. Ah, that's no good. He remembered that his usual attitude left him alone or banned from previous MMO games. What was all that practicing in the mirror before if he wasn't going to use it? Exhaling to calm himself, he forced a strained smile and tried returning her question,
"What are you doing here?""The wind blew in this direction," she stated casually, eyeing the figure before her cautiously. He was struggling to contain his anger, she thought. He was a bomb that was afraid of blowing up.
"So I just tagged along."As repulsive as the smile made him look, it intrigued Kanami. It felt strangely familiar.
Regardless, she still felt as awkward looking at his forged smile as he felt keeping it on his face. A chill ran down her spine as she looked away from the figure before waving her hand at him as if dispeling a foul odor.
"Put that away before you hurt someone! You should really considering fixing the way you express your anger you know!"His pitiful smile immediately flipped into an angry grimace upon hearing those words, and though he wanted to say otherwise he knew she was not mistaken. His hands balled up into trembling fists, an action that lit up her eyes as she watched him. She felt as if there was a beauty in his stuggle of control, a primitive joy that toyed with her thoughts. He was infuriated when he thought of the time that he wasted waiting for friends that would not show, of how some girl he just encountered revealed his pitiful attempts to hide his flaws so blatantly, and of how easily he was seen through! He wondered why he waited here in the first place when he knew that his friend had already started playing without him.
"What... a... waste of time!" he snarled angrily, an action to which Kanami watched with bated breath. Their feathered company scattered in terror at the man's rage-filled growl, launching away from the small coop and anywhere else that meant away from the towering human. Unlike the chickens however, she was not as phased by his outburst. In place of that fear, there was interest. An entire wheat fields supply of it.
"Forgive me... " she spoke softly as a sea of feathers rained around,
"I-I didn't wish to upset you.""Then you shouldn't-!" he started, but quickly cut himself off. Watch your temper, he warned himself mentally, or else this'll just be a repeat of before.
"It's fine," he exhaled as he forced himself to relax. Kanami smiled.
"Just... watch yourself, alright? Don't bother people for no reason." The inhabitants of the chicken coop dodged his feet as leapt over its small fence. Surprised, she flinched as he turned away from her and headed towards the town center.
"Just go back to doing what you came here to do." A sense adrenaline seized her. Like an addict stripped of her drug Kanami reached out, desperately trying to salvage the relationship with the oaf of a man. It wasn't a need for her to communicate with the brute, but rather an intense desire.
"I'm not sure what to do!" the girl managed, her neon blue eyes charged daggers as her hand firmly set itself on the oaf's shoulder, stopping him.
"I wasn't really up to anything besides..."Her uncertainty embarassed her, even Naomi was always decisive in her actions regardless of how the scenario presented itself. He silently waited for her to finish.
"Well...wandering around.""O-oh. Well, most of us are just wandering around. It is a new game, right? Just like any other RPG or MMO," he said as he carefully removed her hand, a little confused as to why she had a problem with it.
"Anyways... You can try a quest if you are totally lost. They're probably a few just in town." Not knowing of what else to say, he waved and continued walking away from her, a little brisker this time.
The distance grew between the two.
"I-I've never played a video game before!" she confessed boldly, stopping him in his tracks.
She froze.
And as he began to turn around, the girl quickly bent over to caress a chicklet that had followed the two daringly, eager to avoid facing whatever response the man had in store for her.
"Never- never played," he repeated to himself in confusion. Recalling that he wasn't alone, he cleared his throat distractedly and questioned,
"You've never played any game before? None at all?"Having already embarrassed herself by revealing the answer to his question, steam seemed to visibly rise from the small hunched over figure.
"I-I've played games before!" she declared harshly as he crossed his arms,
"Just not video games..."He wondered for a moment why she was playing Threshold of Kakophonia if she didn't even have any experience in non-VR MMO or RPG games, but people have to start somewhere. An idea of redemption crawled into his mind, something to make up for all his PKing and bans from prevous MMO experiences. Using a fake cough to regain her attention from the chick, he offered her help.