I died once. Let's Play Vacant Sky

Both husband and wife are holding their ground; they've reached an impasse, each convinced the other is being unreasonable.

So, once again against her better judgement, and without so much as being asked, Auria spoke up.



Maybe if more people had banded together, Barette might have stood a chance against the Blackguards. But one man against a group of trained mercenaries?

Even Auria had to admit that he probably wouldn't stand a chance.



Elizabeth doesn't seem to appreciate the interruption, but before Auria can mumble an apology, Kasch sighs.



Elizabeth looks at him in surprise. A moment ago it seemed there wasn't anything she could do or say to stop him.



Of course, he still intends to fight, but with a short nod he says, "I will come with you into hiding."

Kasch was aware that his wife's fears were well founded, but it seems hearing them confirmed by a stranger was enough to make him reconsider his decision. Elizabeth looks overjoyed. "Thank you, Kasch. Thank you so much."

Then she turns to Auria. "And thank you, stranger. I wish you well in your travels and that Baal guides you to a path of enlightenment."

"Um, thanks, I think." She has no idea that means. "By the way, my name is Auria. Auria Edith."

Elizabeth thanks her again, assuring Auria that she's always welcome at the Blackwood abode. To show his appreciation, Kasch gives Auria his sword. She tries to protest, but he says he'll have no use for it in the temple.

"Temple?"

It seemed the rest of the villagers were hiding in a sanctuary further in the cave. That's why Kasch had been guarding the cave rather than the village; he was standing watch over the entrance to Barette's temple.

Ah, so much relief. If he doesn't fight, they will lose all their things, and a lot of their pride, but if he does fight, although he might keep his pride, with just him, it doesn't mean he can save their things, and he will most likely lose his life, and their kid will lose their dad. I don't want that on my conscience.

Hopefully, we'll find our own way to save the village.

With all of this talk of Blackguards and the sheer amount of bandits in the area, on top of the Blackwoods' troubles, it makes Auria think that maybe there's something to Zaqris' warnings. He's still too cautious in her opinion, but better to know what they might encounter. Knowledge is power, right?

She finds Zaqris on the dock with Seri.



Well...

Awwww, but I wanted to know about you and that awesome tattoo, Za-kun~ *pouts*

There's nothing left to do in the village. Soon the mayor, the shop keepers, and the Blackwoods will join the rest of the town in hiding. In a little while Barette will be empty and the villagers would be safe. The idea of the Blackguards coming and raiding what they could from the boarded up buildings still bothers Auria, perhaps now more so than before, but there isn't anything to be done. The three of them couldn't defend the town on their own, and even if they could, Zaqris wouldn't risk putting Seri in unnecessary danger, nor would he be willing to remain and wait.

Though their stay in Barette was a little longer than he anticipated, Zaqris still fully intends to get to Ciel before nightfall. There isn't much on the road between the two towns, save for several more caves.



And what appears to be a dead body.

Zaqris kneels down to examine the young man's wounds.



Zaqris doesn't sound relieved when he says this. Instead, it's as if he's simply stating a fact.



They can't just leave him laying in the road; there are enough graves around here as it is.



But Zaqris is keeping the main objective in mind. After all, he didn't come to Banivia to save lives.



Zaqris never argued with Seri. If he did ever disapprove of any of her requests, he kept it to himself. This time was no different.



Auria has to wonder whether it was Seri's reasons that made him change his mind, or simply the fact that she had been the one to ask.

With all of the bandits around, it’s too dangerous to treat all of the young man’s wounds while out in the open --- but he’s also too injured to move. Zaqris has to heal the lacerations before they can move the young man safely.

They find a small clearing hidden away by the woods. There Zaqris attends to the rest of the young man’s wounds. As he predicted, the healing process takes the better part of the afternoon.



Seri seems relieved, and though she doesn't show it, Auria is, too.



This area is laden with bandits, as they'd already seen outside Barette. Zaqris had meant to travel the road quickly and deliver Seri safely to Ciel by the day's end.

Yet there they were, camping in the wilderness, miles from either town.



Seri tries to assuage Zaqris' concern, but he's as solemn as ever.



Auria can't help but smirk a little.



Zaqris responds in much the same way he did when Auria asked him about himself.



Which is to say: unforthcoming.

Just posted to say that at 10 o'clock this morning the Kickstarter for the third act of Vacant Sky has ended. Their goal was to raise at least $8,000; they ended up with $14,454. What does that mean? Extra features for the third game. If you're curious, check out the spoiler tag.

Thanks to everyone who checked it out and donated! And if you accidentally forgot, no worries! Download the third act (should be free), play it, send your impressions to Project BC. I'm sure feedback will help them just as much as (if not more than) a donation.

Maybe she should have been used to it by now, but receiving such a dismissive reply from Zaqris annoys Auria. She can't help but grumble a bit.



Of course, Seri immediately takes the focus off Zaqris.

"It's just a little weird," Auria admits. "I'm not used to people speaking so formally."

"Ah, forgive me," Seri says with a small apologetic smile. "Alibaas is my native language, so I sometimes struggle with Provincial."

"No, it's fine! I wouldn't have guessed it wasn't you native language."

The girls are abruptly interrupted.



Everyone's attention turns to the young man.

"He seems to be awake," Zaqris notes.

Is blond hair/green eyes a semi-common coloring for people in this game? Because I keep looking back and forth between Zaq and the new guy thinking of how they could be related even though I know it's impossible... unless the colors are weirding out on me and Zaq's hair is a really light shade of brown....

I look at Zaqris as having light brown hair and brownish-green eyes, where as Blondie is blond with light brown eyes.

Zaqris is gone by the time the stranger has really woken up. He lifts himself up, a little slowly at first. The first person he sees is Auria, then Seri. He looks understandably confused.



It's Seri who answers his question.







"I'm Rayonne de Bellemont," the young man replies.



......

Ah... So the colors are kinda weirding out on me...

There's a pause around the camp fire as Auria and Seri try to process this information.

They fail.



She can't keep the disbelief out of her voice entirely. Rayonne notices.



"Then what was a demon slayer doing lying half-dead in the middle of the road?" Auria asks, crossing her arms over her chest.

"It's not my fault!" He takes a second before adding, "The bandits snuck up on me."

Bandits? Oh, please.

"If you can't even fight off a couple bandits, then how can expect to kill demons?" Auria almost looks smug as she says this. Then she pauses for a moment to consider what she'd just said.



Once again, Rayonne looks confused.



An excellent question, and Auria has no doubt Rayonne never stopped to ask it himself until now.

"Have you ever seen one?" she asks him frankly.

"Well, no, but..."

"So, you've never seen a demon," Auria confirms, "but you claim they exist because you kill them?"

Well, that's logical.



Ray's beginning to feel a little distressed with all of Auria's questions. She notices.



And she can't help but mess with him a bit.



Neither can Seri.

Rayonne takes the focus off of himself by turning to Auria and saying,



"Me? I'm Auria."

"You've got a funny accent," he notices. "Are you from the UP?"

Compared to Seri and Zaqris, who use such proper grammar, Auria thinks her Provincial is pretty good.

What annoys her isn't so much the statement, however, but the one who said it.





That last part slipped out unintentionally, but it's not a lie.

Seri, surprised by the rude outburst, immediately intervenes.



There are times when Auria snaps back a bit too harshly, even when she isn't being insulted. Seri can accept that as a part of Auria's character, but Rayonne doesn't know that, and the remark was uncalled for regardless.

Of course, Seri tells her in the politest way possible; by not stating it outright.

Darn... And I was liking Auria, too. Not as much as Seri, because she's the sweetest, cutest thing ever, but I liked her spunk. Would not be surprised if Ray is like, "I feel sooo sympathetic to your plight."

I suppose Auria has her reasons for being despondent and kind of bitchy, but, yeah, this wasn't particularly endearing. I've seen the "despondent/angry girl used to living in the first world" thing done a lot better.

EDIT: Forgot to add, we'll be reintroduced to a character at the end of Act I who makes Auria look lovely in comparison IMO

Rayonne was caught off-guard when Auria suddenly snapped, but he isn't the sort to be easily discouraged. Of course, it helps that she seems a little calmer after Seri's gentle chiding. Besides, he's curious. Banivia's quite a bit more rustic than the United Provinces, after all.



Auria sighs and for a second Ray thinks she's upset again. But she just says, "It's kind of a long story."

Auria checks the time on her cell phone. It’s just before school gets out. She didn’t have the patience to sit through an entire day of classes today. It’s the sort of day you just skip.

Fiona has rehearsals for the school play, though, so they haven’t arranged to meet until around four thirty. Auria has a little more than an hour before then. She could head over to Fallston early and take care of the errands her mother had asked her to do. Or she could not.

It isn’t as though they’re important. Just picking up some groceries, getting a birthday present for her father, and buying a new phone charger. Well, the charger’s important. Everything else is optional as far as Auria’s concerned.

.... I still don't know my feels towards Auria.... I really don't care for girls with her personality, and she hasn't shown me much towards liking her besides convincing the couple to hide....

The old folks are beginning to get on Auria's nerves, so she ducks inside of Ned's Diner for a bit. She eats there with her friends a lot; Ned's a pretty nice guy, but his son was in her class and he's a jerk.

There aren’t many people in the diner. Since class is still in session for another ten or twenty minutes, the only other customer is an old woman drinking prune juice. They're everywhere.

Ned stands behind the counter. “Hey there, Auria.”

“Hi. How’s it going?”



“Oh, sorry to hear that,” Auria replies. “If I come by any, I'll let you know.”

“Thanks. Much appreciated.”

The two chat for a few more minutes before Auria leaves to see if there’s any belladonna at the market. It’s a long shot, but she might as well check ---- besides, she can pick up the groceries while she’s there. Maybe if Auria gets everything on the list, Mom won’t nag when she gets home.



Of course, they don’t have any belladonna. Auria isn’t exactly surprised.

But the cell phone shop is just next door around the corner. Might as well get that charger while she’s here.

When he said Belladonna, I almost freaked out, cuz I remembered it was really freaking poisonous. Then I remembered it was also a medical herb when prepared right.

Stepping inside, the first person Auria sees in a sales associate too eager to help.



"Um, yeah. The charger from my phone broke and I need a replacement."

"What model?"

"It's an Ion 121."

"That came out two years ago... you know your warranty's past expired for that, right?"

"Yeah, I know."

"Let me see if I even carry those anymore." The salesman takes a moment to check behind the counter. "I've got some left, but it's kind of pricey."

All this for a stupid charger.

"Great," Auria sighs. "How much?"

The charger sets Auria back about forty credits, but the money she'd been given to for the errands is enough to cover it.

Show that she has the charger, she needs to run home and stop off the groceries before meeting Fiona at the cafe. Just before Auria reaches the door, she hears a woman complaining in the sales room. Normally she wouldn't have paid any attention, but the voice almost sounds familiar.



When she pokes her head in, Auria realizes why the woman's voice sounded familiar: it was her neighbor, Rachael.

Apparently, she locked herself out of her phone. The salesman apologizes, but he can't let her access her messages if she doesn't know her registration number.

"I've got it right at home!" Rachael argues. As if that will help.

"Come back with your registration number and I'll gladly help you."

"But I need to pick up Charlotte at the train station in---" It's just now that Rachael notices Auria, much to the young woman's annoyance. "Hey, you're the girl that lives across the street, right?"

"Yeah. Auria."

Here it comes.



Because you can't just go do it yourself, right? Well, Auria's heading that way, anyway. "I guess."

* * *

After dropping off the groceries, Auria heads to Rachael's house to get the registration number. When she tries to open the door, it doesn't budge.



Auria checks her phone. She still has a little time left before she has to meet up with Fiona.



She's already doing Rachael a favor by grabbing the registration number when Rachael should have just memorized it instead. Auria really doesn't have time to waste going all the way back to Bellsong to ask for a key, returning back to the house to grab the card, and then back to Bellsong again to deliver the damn code.

Then again, Rachael was their only neighbor. The other two houses across the street (and directly next door to Auria and her mom) were vacant. She remembered the last family to live in one of those houses leaving on a vacation and never coming back.

We have really bad luck with neighbors.

Meh, if she couldn't be troubled to remember to give us the key then I guess she didn't want her stupid phone code that badly. Don't break in.

BREAK IN. I smell reward money. :D

Don't break in. It will help me like her more.

Break in. ALWAYS break in.

Sorry I haven't been able to update this is a while, guys. For the most part, it was because I was pretty busy, but we've also got a tie as to what Auria should do next, so I'll give that a little longer. In the meantime, there's something else you can vote on.

I was going to skip voting on this, since it's a relatively minor thing, and just have Auria's actions based on how she entered her neighbor's house, but I'm also curious about your input.

...Really? You know what, I don't care. I'm emotionally fried right now after going through all the absolute shit that is the Black Wolves Saga. *sigh* I hope you get some free time soon Keifu.

STEAL EVERYTHING.

Let's not take it! We need to go back to the lady for our *~REWARD~*, and if we steal the wallet, we can't do that without her knowing.

No worries, it's actually her watch. I don't know if I could condone Auria stealing a wallet, considering the fact that they generally hold some important information (like identification). Then again, I was pretty surprised when the option came up.

I kind of enjoy the fact that Auria's not necessarily the most pleasant person, even if she is a pissant at times. Then again, it bothers me when I'm playing an RPG and everyone in the party are totes BFFs lol. Once they've been traveling a while, sure, it'd make sense, after all the things they've gone through together (whatever that entails). But I like a little discontent at first.

Whoops! A misread! My argument still stands, though.She'll see it, and we won't get our cash money reward! :C

Oookay, probably should have updated this a while ago, but life got a bit busy and having two ties suited me just fine. It’s been almost a month since the last update, though, so time to consult RGN and settle this. I’m going to assign the choices to even or odd numbers based on what order they were voted on. So, basically

FIRST CHOICE
Don’t break in: odds
Break in: evens

SECOND CHOICE
Steal the watch: odds
Don’t steal the watch: evens

Make sense? I hope so, cause I already have the results.

You can expect an update... at some point. In which there will be another vote. If we can get three ties in a row, make a wish! :D

Auria stares at the door knob. It’d be so easy to just break the lock and get inside. Rachael probably wouldn’t be too happy about that, though. With a sigh, Auria pulls out her cell phone to send a text to Fiora.

Gonna be late

* * *

Back at the cell phone shop, Rachael’s face brightens as she sees Auria approach.

“Did you get the registration number?”

“Your door is locked,” Auria replies flatly. “I couldn’t get in.”

She can’t help being a bit annoyed by all of this. What really annoys Auria, though, is the fact that she actually agreed to this.



It took some discipline, but Auria managed to keep herself from rolling her eyes when Rachael said she didn’t even think. The “hurry!” was what really irritated her.

All of a sudden Auria found herself wishing she had broken in. She has the key now, though, and no excuse. Disgruntled, she leaves the shop and begins walking back to Holly Way.



She finds the registration card sitting on the kitchen table. Grabbing a nearby pen and notebook, she writes down the number and rips the page out.



Her immediate instinct is to leave the watch. It’s not like she really needs it. If she ever really needed to check the time, she could look at her phone. Auria knows that, yet she’s still looking at the watch.

Whether it was to get a little something for her troubles, or to spite Rachael for treating her like an errand girl, Auria wasn’t sure. It had been a moment of pure impulse. She knew she didn’t need it. She didn’t even really want it. Somehow or another, though, by the time she left the house, that expensive-looking watch was sitting in her pocket.

Back at Bellsong, Auria gives Rachael her registration number, just glad that chore is over and done.



“I’ll see if I have time.”

Even if she wasn’t supposed to go to her dad’s for the weekend tonight, Auria isn’t sure how she feels about dinner with the neighbors. Rachael seems satisfied with her answer, though. That, or she’s just happy to have access to her phone again. While she’s distracted with the salesman, Auria slips away.

Luckily, the café where she’s meeting Fiora is close to Bellsong. Inside she finds her friend waiting at a table.





She has two options.

She knew about the paper when she stepped out the door, but now we find out she didn't have anything done? *facepalm*

Meh. This day is bound to end badly for Auria anyway, so lets go big or go home. Lie about it.

Lie about it and I hope we have points in Bluff.