James was both surprised and relieved that the encounter with Sasha had gone off without a hitch. Even the pauses didn't feel too awkward despite how much time apart they'd spent. He felt rather bad about leaving, but they'd been out longer than planned and the night felt like it was reaching an end anyway. Not to mention, he had some good scores to get on Endless Realms tonight. Nathan was staying at James's parents' house, so he had the weekend to himself. The engineer had a great set-up for his gaming. He had a small study area in his flat. It wasn't his own room, but it was separated from the parlour by an open wall. His computer rig was hooked up on the desk in front of him, as were his headset and VR console. He let out a comforted sigh as he sat down and leaned back, clicking the device on. ----- Spectre was greeted with the new forum announcement for the Summer's End Quest. He read through the rules, nodded, and swiped the notification away after putting himself into the registry. With a shrug, he gave a quick glance to his surroundings. Yeming, a small city in the Fantasy Zone. Out here, there were few mods and even fewer negative-alignment players. The houses were inexpensive and the goods were low and mid-level crafted items. The Mechanic had a tendency to move through towns like this one, often on the Fantasy side of the world. He had no regrets about his starting class choice, but he quite liked the thrill of blending in over here. He wore little armour, as it provided stealth boosts, and it was made of red leather. Over his shoulders he wore a dark grey cloak with a white 'X' crossed over the back. The hood was pulled up over his head as he walked down the road. Most of the player shops were closed - many were getting to bed. However, it wasn't so late, a few souls wandered the streets with him. Some were shady like him, but others were just at their shops. It wasn't like the town was busy during high-traffic times either, but their goods wouldn't fetch a good price in the major cities. This zone was for the people who played in this level range, so the goods would sell best around here. Checking the roads north and south, he slipped between a pair of buildings and started checking one particularly for windows. His alignment, while not publicly visible, was mostly Chaotic. It was hard to really put much more of a label on it, as his playstyle was far from consistent. Finally, he found a good spot and pulled out a couple of tools from his inventory, starting to pick at it. As soon as it popped open, he grinned. "Score!" Over the following couple of weeks, James waited to get his partner and kept in touch with Sasha. Nathan was getting ready for school; the boy was rather autonomous, all things considered, and James was shocked daily by Matt's ability to have raised the child. Levels in Endless Realms moved incredibly slowly, so he actually hadn't advanced much thanks to how little time he had and how much work the game required. Finally, the day came. The registered users were all paired up and James furrowed his brow, "Hm... Fracture? Interesting name. Nice get..." He muttered to himself, dismissing the message. He'd touch base later. Meanwhile, as he walked through the streets of Whispering Village, he sized up the other players around him. While walking through the throngs of people, Spectre would wait for the right, low-level character to pass by before sticking a hand into their pocket. Simultaneously, he would bump into them and just as he walked away from the aghast fellow player, the coin would transfer to his own stash. It wasn't much at all, but to be honest, it gave him a different kind of thrill. Were he caught, it was likely that he'd have all eyes from those around him. He got caught once and they took half the cash he had on him all at once for reparation. It was still pretty god damned fun. [i]Ding![/i] The little notification rang out and he looked to the upper corner of his screen. A message? From whom? Checking the message, Spectre read it and rubbed his chin. "How nice..." He muttered, furrowing his brow. At first, he'd assumed "Fracture" was a male player, but... based on the mail, there was no way. Finding a seat, Spectre pulled up the interactive keyboard and starting typing away. [Indent][b]To:[/b] Fracture [b]Subject:[/b] Re: Hello new friend and partner! [b]Content:[/b] Nice to meet you. I'm not too worried about placement, either, but I'd like to at least aim for a ranking of some kind. I'll add you as soon as I get this sent out and sure, I can be in Neutral City. Meet me in a shop called [i]Bogarted Blues[/i] - it doesn't see too much business, so it'll be a good meeting spot. -Spectre Sabre Soldier 212 Overview LN, Blue Harbor Residential District After clicking 'send,' Spectre felt satisfied. It wasn't exactly long-winded, but it got to the point. Bogarted Blues was his store, it wasn't big and it wasn't popular, but it was locked down fairly tightly. It was how he fenced a lot of the little trinkets. He kept it in Neutral City because he didn't want to keep it in the same place which he lived, so Neutral City brought the most business. Sometimes, Spectre got a good score, but mostly it was just some extra goods which were marked way down. The shady origin of the store is why it didn't see many customers, but in all honesty they would face no penalty for the fenced goods.