RPG event - Quest NPC Contact

[thalassino]

◣ Quest NPC Contact ◢

Below is a place to thread out quick little conversations with the NPCs that aren't worth an entire log. Vatheon's staple NPCs will have postings here, and all the other new quest NPCs will simply be listed under the "Quest NPCs" comment header. Please put in the subject line which quest you're talking with an NPC about!

Comments

[bethehugejerk]

[When the curse first started up and Karkat saw that he was a cleric in a somewhat silly outfit, he was mad. Healer classes are boring as hell, and how's he supposed to beat up monsters like this? (Let others do it and heal them, but shh.)]

[Still, an RPG curse means quests. He hunted down the quest board, made himself a list of things ranked between what he could conceivably do on his own and what would take help (meatshields), and what would take priority among them. First off, why not go and do the cleric quest to get a helpful ability? Sounds stupid not to, even if the idea of a quest about faith is weird to him.]

[That's why he's hunted down this white-robed woman, staff in mittened hand, and the usual grumpy look present on his face.]

Hey. You're the person for the cleric quest, right?

[thalassino]

[Karkat isn't the only battle-impotent magikarp cleric who's fed up here. The woman eyes him critically.]

No, of course not. I'm just standing around here waiting for nothing.

[Yes, she's the cleric skill master.]

[bethehugejerk]

[Karkat scowls, mouth digging down at the corners. You've done it, white-robed woman.]

My deepest apologies for wanting a little confirmation. There are only a jillion other people wandering around for this, so god forbid I don't know the right woman in the right robes the first instant I see her. What if who I found was the woman in off white robes, or cream, or eggshell, or whatever other pretentious shade of white you can come up with.

[The mini-speech is accompanied by little gestures and taps of his staff on the cobbles.]

But if you're the one for the quest, then get to it, and spare me the awful human sarcasm.

[thalassino]

You've got some anger problems, don't you? I'm not sure you're suited to this job, kid.

[Even someone who starts out all sunshine and cupcakes will become like her eventually. Oh sure, at first helping people is fabulous! But it starts to wear on a person. After many calls of "HEALS PLZ", constantly being blamed for warriors running off into massive groups of monsters without waiting for her mp to regenerate and then predictably dying, and being literally unable to function without anyone else when everyone else is a total idiot, she's a little touchy.

Even so, she's a cleric. She can't stop helping, as much as she wants to let everyone run off into danger without her and see how they like it sometimes.]

All right, I'll help you out. You're gonna need it. So here it is: the key to being a good cleric. Faith.

[He gets it, right? She doesn't have to explain more than that? No, she probably will have to.]

[bethehugejerk]

My anger is a mechanism wholly under my control. I just have more of it than the rest of you, and rightfully so. This job wasn't my choice in the first place - I would have been a warrior or something if I had my pick.

[Grumble grumble lousy scientists screwing things up for him. While he may be new to the role, though, he is a kindred spirit in the base understanding. Being a leader, trying to organize a herd of morons to complete a task in a fashion that isn't globes out fucking stupid? Yeah. Like herding cats. And one of his team was raised by one! He'll learn the unique contempt of an underappreciated cleric in time, though, just wait.]

What about faith? I know what it is, and I've met literal gods and prayed to one to practical result in the past, but you're going to have to be clearer. What do I do with it?

[Religion: not his strong point.]

[thalassino]

Oh, you don't choose to be a cleric. It just happens. Clerics are the people that every idiot around them depends on, the people that still somehow retain empathy for said idiots despite watching them screw up time and time again. Sound like you, kid?

[Oh, who's she kidding? Of course it sounds like him, otherwise he wouldn't be a cleric!]

I mean faith. The belief that things will turn out even when it looks like everything is so far gone that you have to wonder if it was ever there in the first place. At that moment you look at the people screaming around you, then you look deep down inside yourself, and you pull your shit together. That's faith.

[And strangely enough, via the magic of rpg mechanics, Karkat would feel like he can actually use the skill she's talking about now.]

[bethehugejerk]

[She... really hit it on the head, didn't she? Karkat's head tips forward as his hand rises up, until face meets mitten in holy union.]

Fuck me with the gaudy end of my own staff. I really am a cleric, aren't I? I am that pathetic asshole that loves his team even when I wish I could strangle them with their own severed brain stems.

[But what she says--it makes sense. And sure, Karkat has more than his share of moments where the doubt is ridiculous in its consuming nature, but he keeps coming back, for the team, for the people he cares about.]

Because if you give up you're going to die like the sorriest cullbait to ever fetch up outside the caverns, right? Just go with me on that, it's a troll thing. But if that's the thing you call faith, then--yeah, I can manage that. If I have to pull it out my own ass I will find it somewhere.

Is that everything? And don't do the sarcasm thing again.

[thalassino]

[Oh, brain stems, nice one. She won't do the sarcasm thing again, she kind of likes Karkat now.]

That's everything. The rest is just you keeping your head. Oh, and from one cleric to another?

[She leans forward.]

If you level up enough, you might be able to show them what for eventually. Keep at it.

[bethehugejerk]

[It's not like they're using them, the way it seems sometimes.]

[He nods to the first answer, but the second draws a raise of an eyebrow.]

Got it. I would have kept at it anyway - I'm not questing just for shits and giggles - but the goal should help the motivation department.

And I'll give you one back. From one idiot-herder to another, try not to give into the urge to let your party do each other in through their own terminal cases of dipshittery. They're better use to you alive, and not just for keeping you from dying too.

But with my patience for emotional truths expressed through RPGs exhausted for time being, I'm out. Good luck with the healer gig.

[He waves, and turns to leave.]

[thalassino]

[There might be some hope for new blood among healers yet, most she meets now break down crying once they realize what their job entails. She actually bothers to wave as he leaves.]