Muin
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Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 312
Trainer Class: 
Player Name: Percy Munn
OOC Username: Stells
Arena Points: 30
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Post by Muin on Mar 3, 2023 13:36:27 GMT 9
Quests and events that require interactions between players are a special kind of evil... At least in Muin's expert opinion. Why the hell is he playing an MMO if that's what he thinks, then? There's surely to be a complex answer to that, but the fact of the matter is that Muin considers himself to be almost exclusively a solo player, and while that's perfect for his UNOVR experience under most circumstances, sometimes it's—...
Bring a friend/partner/chum to fish for Ol' Blarney's brides!
Catch the fish together (awww)
Yeah, that.
Looking at the UI pop ups, Muin sighs, unable to fish despite the fact that he's standing on the pier the ferry usually departs from with his event-provided fishing rod in hand. Apparently, he needs someone else to be present no matter what, and with his Friend List consisting of one single person that isn't currently online (curse you, timezones), that sure is a bit of a problem.
Thankfully, there's often a few people at the beach, and taking a deep breath to brace himself for the interaction to come, Muin waves to get the attention of the nearest player...
{fishing code}[s][i]There's a [*Bigness][*roll range="1d100"] [*Description][*roll range="1d90"] [*Blarney][*roll range="1d100"] on the line![/i][/s] |
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Cleo
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Soldier, Poet, King
Player Character
Posts: 107
Trainer Class: 
Player Name: Olivia Rivera
OOC Username: Izzy
Arena Points: 30
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Post by Cleo on Mar 5, 2023 21:40:42 GMT 9
The beach is awfully empty for being the starting zone of a world event. The few that are here already seem to have found their matches, on their way to start their own partnered instance. The global chat is equally devoid of calls for fishing… and she's not quite in the headspace to cast her own line. The woes of trying to get into a partnered event long after the event has already started. Almost everyone's already partnered up.
But there, by the pier, there is someone. A lone wolf. Tall, icy enough to flash freeze the fish they'd be catching… Muin.
Cleo squeezes her fishing rod, gut sinking. Her eyes flit to her friends list, completely devoid of any online players. Global chat lingers in the corner. Literally anyone else. She could brave the wilds of global chat for this!
As her eyes drag back up to ponder her message, eye contact is established. She freezes. It's too late. He's waving. The Wild Grass Pokemon encounter has begun, he's got Shadow Tag and she's not found a Smoke Ball yet.
She needs this event. The completionist in her demands it.
And so she approaches, squeezing her fishing rod tight enough to near snap it. "Before you leave!" she immediately shouts out. "T-The others on the beach are already, um, they're partners already. So unless you, uh, wanna wait even longer…" |
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Muin
•
Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 312
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Percy Munn
OOC Username: Stells
Arena Points: 30
|
Post by Muin on Mar 6, 2023 3:28:24 GMT 9
To be entirely honest, most people Muin encounters in UNOVR (and most people Percy meets IRL, for that matter) tend to be... entirely insignificant to him. He's utterly terrible at remembering the names and faces of those he doesn't expect to ever see a again, to the point that it has often been a problem. However, every once in a while there comes someone who breaks this norm, someone who makes enough of an impact in him to be memorable... "Cleo." This impact is often negative, of course. Standing at an often imposing 6'4", Muin looks down at the approaching Swimmer, and when he does so, those amethyst eyes of his show no warmth or sympathy. If this were the real world, social norms would dictate he should act polite despite their mutual dislike for one another, but UNOVR is nothing like the real world, is it? Not to him, at least.However, Cleo does have a point, as much as he may hate to admit it. He wants to take part in the event, she's the only one without a partner nearby, and he doesn't want to wait for someone else to come by. Fuck. Suddenly, all this starts to remind Percy of school projects where he got stuck with partners he hated and who took credit for all his hard work. Déjà vu and what not. "Alright, but don't get in my way." He sighs, already exasperated. Turning towards the water, he's at least glad to find out that with Cleo here, he can finally cast his line. It doesn't take long for something to bite. There's a [Bigness]AuL5xthb1d100 [Description]1d90 [Blarney]1d100 on the line!
1d100·1d90·1d100 |
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Cleo
•
Soldier, Poet, King
Player Character
Posts: 107
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Olivia Rivera
OOC Username: Izzy
Arena Points: 30
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Post by Cleo on Mar 6, 2023 5:36:22 GMT 9
To her credit, she merely flinches with the entire upper half of her body. A markedly better response than running away or straight up logging out and waiting some random number of hours in the hope he'd be gone by the time she logged back in. Though the option remained a tempting one. She'd have to wait and see if she needed to use this extra plan.
"Get i-in your way?" She gives her rod a few testing swings, lips pursing. "And how, exactly, can, or uh, would someone get in your way?"
Not that he needs to answer. She quickly demonstrates just that in her efforts to cast her own line. The hook sails through the air, crossing just slightly over Muin's line, then lands with a hefty plop. The shadow indicating Muin's fishing attempt swells, then starts to furiously wriggle.
"Ah!" Cleo immediately tries to pull her hook back, but the small Remoraid has glitched onto both their hooks, and her tugging tugs Muin's own line. "That's not — I, I'm! That wasn't on purpose!" |
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Muin
•
Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 312
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Percy Munn
OOC Username: Stells
Arena Points: 30
|
Post by Muin on Mar 7, 2023 1:20:36 GMT 9
She has to be doing this on purpose. There's no way someone can unintentionally be this level of annoying, right? Clearly, Cleo must have known of the glitch and deliberately triggered it just to annoy him. Her denial makes this fact even more obvious to Muin. So, how does he respond? Well, he sighs for what feels like the tenth time in these few minutes (actually it's just the third), and once this is done, he then turns his attention to their tangled lines. "Just... stay on that side and I'll stay on this one."It's not a suggestion, but as if he were refusing to acknowledge Cleo's very existence, he kneels on the pier to unhook the gucci Remoraid (what the hell does that even mean? Everything about this event is so weird to him...). Yes, there's that whole thing about finding girlfriends for Ol' Blarney which he should also probably focus on, but clearly the the best strategy here is to catch as many fish as possible in the least amount of time and then deal with all of that on his own. Can he even manage that, though?
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Cleo
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Soldier, Poet, King
Player Character
Posts: 107
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Olivia Rivera
OOC Username: Izzy
Arena Points: 30
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Post by Cleo on Mar 7, 2023 7:30:42 GMT 9
The lack of anger only intensifies the tension in her shoulders. There should be anger, right? Or… or something. Some sort of acknowledgement of the situation, right? That's the usual pattern. Something more than just that sigh, more than just… just some order in that tone she can't quite place.
But his response is an effective one, shaming Cleo into a nervous silence. Barely even a glum nod in response as she waits, patiently, for him to untangle their lines. Her small shuffle to the side is quiet, as is the careful toss of her line far, far away from him and his.
For once in Muin's existence around Cleo, it is quiet. Blissfully so.
Save for, y'know, the splashing of a fish as the UI prompt spawns, and Cleo's desperately contained struggle to reel it in without making too much noise.
There's a [Bigness]p038A0Xk1d100 [Description]1d90 [Blarney]1d100 on the line! 1d100·1d90·1d100 |
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Muin
•
Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 312
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Percy Munn
OOC Username: Stells
Arena Points: 30
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Post by Muin on Mar 8, 2023 19:44:28 GMT 9
Contrary to popular belief, silence does not always equal a peaceful moment. If Muin were all on his own, he would probably be having a great time even if Percy has never been particularly fond of fishing, based solely on the principle that in his opinion it's nice to spend some quiet time alone doing something distracting. That much is impossible with Cleo here. Truthfully, Muin is overly aware of her presence, and as a result, he feels tense even sitting on the pier like this while waiting for another bite. Why? Gods, how he wishes he knew why. It's always this way for him. There are only a few people in this world (or any world, for that matter) that don't make it as if the air were heavy with tension thanks to their mere presence. For the sake of distracting himself, Muin opens his UI and looks at the event announcement once again: "Women are like the sea. I need seven of them in my life,
and I've already got a mam and a sister."
"I would de-scale the Splashmother herself if it meant finding true love(s)."
"Variety is the spice of life.
Which is why I need one wife for each of the spices!"Those are supposed to be their clues to catch the appropiate fish, but Muin can't make heads or tails of them. "Bloody hell, what's all this supposed to mean..." He muses out loud, forgetting about Cleo's presence for a single second and only just that. He remembers as soon as his line tenses up, and as a result, he also does as much. There's a [Bigness]GnChE1kL1d100 [Description]1d90 [Blarney]1d100 on the line!
1d100·1d90·1d100 |
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Cleo
•
Soldier, Poet, King
Player Character
Posts: 107
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Olivia Rivera
OOC Username: Izzy
Arena Points: 30
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Post by Cleo on Mar 9, 2023 6:59:02 GMT 9
Oh. The Mareanie's kinda cute. Though… stretchy? She resists the urge to test out how accurate that descriptor is and shoves the water pokemon into the ether of her event inventory.
After a beat, she casts her line again.
The silence is terrible. She's trying her best to be quiet, to not bother him, but every noise is amplified. The distant laughter of a pair having so much more fun further down the beach. The hush of the waves rolling against the shore. The pounding of her heart and the rush of blood in her ears so distinct he must be hearing it and judging her for it. And… and Muin's voice, mumbling, maybe not to her but breaching the unspoken contract of silence nonetheless.
"Um. If you're… meaning the thoughts… they don't make much sense to me either." Talking about the event must be safe, right? How can he be mad at that? He's clearly confused, and she's confused too, and they're just… they can relate and bond over this. And so the rambling begins, mouth moving a mile a minute while her eyes stay steadfastly focused on the very fascinating water.
"E-Especially the categories! Or well, some of them make sense I guess. But, but what's ginger meant to mean? And baby? Why does he want a baby kinda fish? But.. I mean, even if we don't… or, sorry, I,"—she doesn't want to accidentally assume things about him again—"even if I don't get it, I'm just gonna try to catch as many as I can. Kinda like a,"—she takes her hand off the rod to make a splaying gesture, though she immediately has to put it back on to deal with the tug on her line—"buckshot kinda deal. I… don't think there's any penalty for submitting options that don't win."
There's a [Bigness]dL70pysM1d100 [Description]1d90 [Blarney]1d100 on the line! 1d100·1d90·1d100 |
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Muin
•
Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 312
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Percy Munn
OOC Username: Stells
Arena Points: 30
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Post by Muin on Mar 11, 2023 16:42:35 GMT 9
The silence is broken, and immediately, Cleo rants on and on and on. As much as she may generally exasperate the hell out of him, Percy understands it: it's not that he's a particularly quiet guy, it's that talking to most people is fucking stressful. This is stressful too, but... "Hmm...Those categories..." His next catch takes some effort to reel in, and the reason why becomes obvious the moment it peeks through the surface: it's the biggest Tatsugiri Percy has ever seen (although that may not be saying much, given that he didn't care much for them when playing Pokémon Scarlet recently). The UI pop-up at least lists this one as committed, and even though he's not sure if that is making the catch anymore difficult, eventually it gives in and he can throw it into the confines of his inventory. With this done, Muin catches his breath, gesturing to scroll through the event page until finding the section where the potential categories for 'mate' submissions are listed: Sporty/Posh/Baby/Ginger/Scary"Oh."Cue five seconds of feeling like the worst British person in all of history. Cue another second to remember that British history is chock-full of the worst people ever."...It's the Spice Girls. Hmm... Well, I suppose they do say Blarney is old."Is that a joke? It's dry sarcasm, if anything. Spoken with yet another sigh as he casts his line once more. However... this does give them some understanding on what the event is asking them to do, no? Or, at least it would, if Percy knew anything about the Spice Girls other than their nicknames and the fact that Victoria Beckham was one of them. Maybe Cleo will know more... He doesn't ask. Instead, he focuses on the way his line tenses after a moment. There's a [Bigness]DFoJbJ5W1d100 [Description]1d90 [Blarney]1d100 on the line!
1d100·1d90·1d100 |
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Cleo
•
Soldier, Poet, King
Player Character
Posts: 107
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Olivia Rivera
OOC Username: Izzy
Arena Points: 30
|
Post by Cleo on Mar 13, 2023 23:06:40 GMT 9
"The Spice Girls?" It takes her a moment to place the familiarity of the name. "Like, 'tell me what you want, what you really, really want' Spice Girls?" She casts Muin a furrowed glance, studying him. But the bite at the end of her line demands her attention, hefty as it is.
So her attention she gives it, gritting her teeth and yanking with force. The instant that hard shell breaches the water, however, she regrets it all.
The Minty Clamperl is an unwelcome addition to the already overwhelming mix of smells. Rotting wood and salty ocean and pungent fish… and mint, over all of that. Cleo wrinkles her nose, immediately shoving the large clam into her inventory. And though the ether of inventory space swallows it whole, it cannot dispel the scent that remains.
She tries to engage her other senses, to focus on sound and sight rather than smell and clammy touch. "So then, um, he wants fish that are like… each of them, right? I don’t know… they're not my kind of… um. Music. Do you? Know about them? Since you know their names and all?"
There's a [Bigness]lyX4uIYB1d100 [Description]1d90 [Blarney]1d100 on the line! 1d100·1d90·1d100 |
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Muin
•
Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 312
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Percy Munn
OOC Username: Stells
Arena Points: 30
|
Post by Muin on Mar 13, 2023 23:50:24 GMT 9
While Cleo busies herself with recalling the lyrics to the Spice Girls' most famous song and reeling in her catch, Muin has his own fishing line to deal with, which at the moment is tense and threatening to snap at any moment. He pulls, reeling in, and then pauses, waiting until some of the tension eases up to continue reeling. The culprit is a huge Poliwag that jumps onto the pier, having been left with no other choice. Thankfully it's this and not its evolutions, because Percy has always hated those. Still, he sends it to his inventory without a second thought. "I'm not much for pop music, I simply know of them because everyone knows of the Spice Girls." There shouldn't be a need to explain, but he does so anyway, annoyance mixing perfectly with that oh-so-terribly posh British lilt of his. Seriously, who in the world doesn't know about the Spice Girls?! Then again, everything Percy happened to learn about them over the years is minimal and vague... He casts his line. "The Spice Girl names being categories is a helpful clue, I suppose."By that logic, Sporty would be active and athletic, Posh would be... well, posh, Baby would be innocent (ew?), and so on. Muin tries to make sense of it all and assign categories to his different catches when the line tenses up once more, and soon enough, he finds himself reeling it yet another fish... There's a [Bigness]l2oD32w31d100 [Description]1d90 [Blarney]1d100 on the line!
1d100·1d90·1d100 |
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Cleo
•
Soldier, Poet, King
Player Character
Posts: 107
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Olivia Rivera
OOC Username: Izzy
Arena Points: 30
|
Post by Cleo on Mar 14, 2023 8:11:46 GMT 9
The pier trembles under Poliwag's mighty weight, planks still rattling long after its swallowed into Muin's inventory. Some of the planks creak and crack, weakened by rot and the unfortunate gravity of heavy, heavy Pokemon.
Cleo remains blissfully unaware of the danger, instead entirely focused on the Mantyke fighting against her line. Unlike Muin, who seems to have figured out the rhythm of fishing, Cleo seems to be fighting a losing battle. She tugs when the line goes taut, relaxes when it slackens, and over all… it's just far too exhausting. Where are the little meter indicators telling her when to mash a button? The quick time events? Why must she guess at this unpredictable pattern that changes with each and every catch? Though she can't figure out this delicate dance, brute force seems to work more than not.
So with a grunt, she gives her rod a ferocious yank, finally tearing the family-sized, full-time Mantyke out of the water. As opposed to a part-time one…? What…? It lands in her arms with a heavy thump, pushing her back a step or two. It flails, angry, apparently eager to get back to whatever full-time position it had. Cleo's quick to shove it into her inventory. It could be full-time quest fodder.
"So if, um, if not Spice Girls music, what do you like? To listen to," she asks once she's finally caught her breath. She checks the rod, winds it up, and then steps and throws and—
"AH!"
Her foot cracks clean through rotting wood, toes skimming the water beneath and thigh trapped in the small gap. "Ow…" One hand manages to keep hold of her rod, which tugs ferociously at yet another bite, while the other pushes fruitlessly at the pier now trapping her. "Um—shit. Can you, ugh, can… if you take… please…"
She looks helplessly at her quest partner. He wouldn't just like, up and leave, would he? Consider the job done now that he's caught a bunch of fish?
There's a [Bigness]I4esdDRg1d100 [Description]1d90 [Blarney]1d100 on the line! 1d100·1d90·1d100 |
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Muin
•
Lone Wolf
Mythstar
Posts: 312
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Percy Munn
OOC Username: Stells
Arena Points: 30
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Post by Muin on Mar 15, 2023 2:59:36 GMT 9
"Me? Well, I—..."He doesn't get to finish his response. Not even close. Two words in and he's suddenly interrupted by the sound of rotting wood snapping under pressure. The kind of sound Percy could recognize anywhere thanks to a childhood of playing in forests and climbing tall trees. This is no tree, though. This is an old pier over the ocean and Cleo is its victim. Ugh. Muin would probably still be able to keep fishing with her stuck there, he was already in the process of reeling in a huge Basculin, but her complaints would make it so nothing about this is enjoyable for him. So, reluctantly, he decides to help... only after the Basculin is sent to his inventory (he won't lose his catch for her, are you kidding?). "Here. Hold onto me."He grabs onto her forearm, his grip tight, helping her out of the growing hole on the pier while his fishing rod is set aside on the planks. Unbeknownst to Muin, his line makes it back in the water, and even though there is no bait, the game seems to think that's enough for the fishing mechanic to be triggered: There's a [Bigness]V8C1CE8q1d100 [Description]1d90 [Blarney]1d100 on the line!"We should probably go somewhere else. This place is falling a—... Shit." The fishing rod is pulled towards the edge, and he only manages to step on it before it falls into the sea. Quickly, Muin lets go off Cleo, turning his attention to grabbing the fishing rod and reeling in.
1d100·1d90·1d100 |
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Cleo
•
Soldier, Poet, King
Player Character
Posts: 107
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Olivia Rivera
OOC Username: Izzy
Arena Points: 30
|
Post by Cleo on Mar 15, 2023 18:41:23 GMT 9
There's a none too brief moment of fear that Muin would be heartless enough to just leave her there, each splash of the struggling Basculin matching to the thud of her sinking heart. She keeps a death grip on her fishing rod and wriggles helplessly, unable to get the leverage she needs to get out alone. She can feel it. Dread, hurt, anger all building up, an echo chamber of negativity pounding in her mind.
Right until he's got his hand around her arm and is pulling her out. "Thanks." The emotions swirl anxiously in her pit of a belly, butting heads against her relief. She finds her balance on some solid-looking planks, standing tall even as he lets go to step on the rod. A brief vision of him falling through the pier and her getting to make him wait as she reels in the giant Wishiwashi still on her line fills her with equal parts smug delight and guilt. Alas. They both reel in their catches, avoiding any more of the rotting planks.
"We can probably get some catches just by the shore." A flash of UI in her vision, however, says otherwise. Catching period closing in 1 minute! She doesn't even think about it, throwing her line out for one last, desperate attempt.
There's a [Bigness]oWX2xWB|1d100 [Description]1d90 [Blarney]1d100 on the line! 1d100·1d90·1d100 |
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