2 Questionable questing 1
Quest Alert!!
Gwen's happy day
Main objective: make sure Gwen's day is fulfilling and happy.
Bonus objective: Impress Gwen.
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Main objective reward: +0.5 affection points with Gwen, 2.5 points to level
Bonus objective reward: + 0.1 affection points with Gwen, skill "Observe", 2.5 points to level
(Accept)—(refuse)
Doubtfully I mentally 'pressed' the accept button and the screen abruptly disappeared.
And so we were on our way to the museum to meet up with grandpa who said that he had a 'surprise' for us when Gwen started speaking after a few moments of sulking.
"Ugh why are we even walking all the way to the museum when we have a perfectly capable vehicle"
It was more of a rant than a question but weirdly enough I wasn't feeling shy or antisocial and had managed to form a coherent comeback to entertain her.
"Because he said quote unquote that we need to move our lazy bums for a bit or else we will melt from how much we have been spending on said perfectly capable vehicle lately"
Gwen seemed about to give a retort but something else seemed on her mind so she turned to me and gave me a curious look with those pretty green eyes.
"Hey I've been meaning to ask but what is up with you today, I mean where's my rowdy and stupid cousin and since when do you say quote-unquote"
It seemed she noticed that I wasn't the 'normal' ben but I wasn't really worried of being noticed as just the assumption that I was someone else inside Ben's body was absurd to think of and I was currently ten which is the period of time in which most children started to change so it wouldn't be too suspicious if I seemed different to them as they could just reason that I was starting the rebellious teenager phase.
Of course, the changes shouldn't be too apparent as if I am a different person ....
"You see Gwen when you grow up you start feeling different about yourself and start getting curious about the other gend..." "You know that's not what I meant!!" she cut me off with a glare but was that a blush I saw there.
Alright, no birds and bees jokes.
"Oh okay but I really don't understand what else you would mean"
She looked at me for a few seconds with a hint of suspicion in her green eyes but eventually seemed to let go of the issue.
"I don't know I guess I am just over sensitive lately."
Thankfully I had enough logic to not make a joke about her being "oversensitive" lately no matter how hilarious it l sounded in my head. Huh that shouldn't sound hilarious to me….
*ding* for thinking before acting you have earned 0.1 points in social ability*
...okay this is getting a bit freaky now...
….
While I may not have been too abrupt in my 'change' it required someone truly observant to notice these little changes so it was no wonder my young cousin was a straight-A student.
After a few more moments of awkward silence, she looked at me again and seemed uncomfortable for a bit but said.
"Listen, If you don't want to go you can play around in the mall across the museum. I am not selfish enough to force you to go somewhere you don't like on your vacation"
Hearing her speak I blinked a bit before I smiled at her and said.
"No, it's okay I want to see what you're so excited about"
*ding* you have gained +0.1 affection points with Gwen.*
Woah…
Whatever that was it seemed to break the dam as Gwen smiled as well and started telling me a few things she read about in this Museum and what she wants to see there.
After barely talking a bit we reached the meeting point with grandpa and saw him in a discussion that seemed friendly with another elderly person in a brown suit.
Staying quiet I allowed Gwen to head the greeting
"Hey grandpa sorry, we are a little late."
Hearing her voice grandpa appeared to finally notice us and smiled at us.
"Hey, Gwen you're right on time. Here's the surprise I was talking about; meet Professor Harry Fair, an old friend of mine, and we were just talking about you and your curiosity towards history and so he offered to give us a personal tour."
Upon hearing Professor and a personal tour, Gwen instantly became excited but still introduced us politely.
"Hi professor Harry my name is Gwen Tenisson and this is my cousin Ben and we are very thankful that you're taking the precious time out of your day to give us a personal tour."
Professor Harry just smiled and waved her off.
"Haha, what a polite child you are. Don't you worry child I have some time before a party I am invited to and so I have no problem spending it to share my knowledge with the younger generation ."
Gwen instantly beamed at the compliment, teacher's pet much? … okay what the hell is wrong with my thoughts today… since when am i so snarcky?
Ignorant of my thoughts Harry clapped his hands and said
"Well, no time like the present so why don't we start our tour now."
And we walked towards the museum entrance and what greeted my sight was a building akin to a school, just on a smaller case.
We moved on, and My mind came back to the 'quest' I had received earlier and was determined that by the end of the day I will figure out what the hell is going on with me..
...…
As we progressed through the place Gwen wasn't the Gwen I had in my memories because it seemed like all the excitement she hasn't expressed in her life has been saved for this tour alone as she kept asking questions about the various things in the museum.
The whole tour honestly just felt bland to me and time just flew by as I was still thinking about my ability.
I noticed that we were beginning to slow down as we approached the end of our tour.
Professor Harry presented to us the grand piece that is in this museum or at least the grand piece that is available for public viewing.
"Ok Gwen my dear this is our final piece for the day can you make an educated guess on what this is?"
Professor Harry seemed to have taken a liking to my lovely cousin enough to call her 'dear'.
"Erm… I….I am not sure Professor Harry could you give me some time. I might be able to remember something…"
Oh! Gwin didn't actually know this one ... maybe this is my chance to complete my bonus objective and finally decide if this is actually real…..or if I am going to have to accept that i am hallucinating on top of everything in this weird day.
Professor Harry chuckled before he seemed to have some sort of eureka moment.
"Take your time my dear...huh! In fact, if you are able to clear this challenge of mine I have a reward that you are definitely going to love!"
He took grandpa and went far enough away from us to be out of earshot.
"So… Do you have any idea of what this might be?" I asked with a tone that revealed a normal ratio of boredom and curiosity for a normal 10-year-old.
Unfortunately, that seemed to muck things up a bit as Gwen irritatedly glanced at me.
"What? I am just curious about the one thing you don't know since all my life I have known you as the smartest person in the room, this is news to me!"
Her evil eye seemed to soften a bit but it was still a glare that seemed to speak to me saying 'shut up, I am trying to concentrate!'.
Now to test out how useful my supposed 2.5 points in mental ability and if I truly am 2.5 times smarter than an average human or just a quarter as smart as one.
The fabled grand piece of the museum was actually a black statue of a man with a blurred face, whether due to time or intentional was not clear for me.
The man had a beard that left his chin for gravity and it was a decently long beard, not merlin long but wise person long, bushy enough for it to fill his lower face.
In his hand, a long trident that screamed might to me.
Surprisingly enough the whole statue was made from some time of black stone but the trident … seems to actually be made of gold but if so they wouldn't put such a valuable object in a museum that was so unguarded right?
*ding* for reaching a reasonable conclusion you have gained 0.1 points in mental ability.*
Yes, that makes more sense I suppose.
But it said reasonable which is not necessarily correct.
*ding*for another reasonable deduction you have gained 0.1 points in mental ability*
Oh wow, I can already feel my thoughts coming more easily and rapidly even by a bit, so this thing is definitely not a hallucination, that's a relief.
Hmm, the statue itself was impressive not only on the details in it but also as a statue of a man since the statue had a very impressive upper body even more so than any bodybuilder I have seen.
For the lower body, the man wore stone scale-like pants that had a weird pattern that I had no way of deciphering.
Okay...hmm this is interesting because this speaks loudly to my inner nerd.
"Hey, gwen...oh don't give me that look I am actually trying to help for once okay?" Cue female eye roll
"... oh c'mon I don't deserve that eye roll…" maybe the previous ben did " you know what we're getting off track I think that this thing is related to Atlantis or something!"
Her only answer was disbelief and annoyance in her eyes at my interruption.
"No I am serious, you see that trident?..those scales? That just screams merman to me but he has legs so I am not sure but that is at least a feasible conjuncture right?"
Her annoyance seemed to increase as she answered
"Look ben I am not sure what to be surprised about, you saying a big word for once, or actually being observant but let me tell you something."
Her brows were furrowed as she spoke.
"This isn't comic con! This is a museum! Do you understand? because Atlantis is a myth...no actually it's more fictional than anything so I highly doubt that a respected professor would believe in something like Atlantis!"
.....Wow, that kinda hurts, I was really just trying to help…
"Ok whatever I was just trying to help, you don't have such a jerk about it…"
She faltered a bit at my reply and hesitated but before she replied the professor and grandpa came back.
"So.. have you been able to guess my dear?"
Whatever Gwen wanted to say to me was swallowed as she turned and gave a strained smile to the professor
"N...no professor… I can't seem to think of anything sorry"
she hangs her head down in sadness that shouldn't affect me but it does and my heart goes out for the girl…
"Are you sure Gwen? You don't even want to give out a random guess? Come on where's your sense of adventure"
Gwen hesitated while looking at me even more
"Well…if I was to make a guess ….doesithasanyrelationtoatlantis?"
She spoke really quickly but I caught the word Atlantis and so did the professor as he chuckled and said
"You Gwen actually believe in Atlantis?"
His chuckle turned into a happy laugh but Gwen missed the meaning of the laugh and her eyes teared up a bit and she glared at me for ...oh she seems to think I ruined this on purpose for her.
*ding*For deducing someone's thoughts correctly from their facial expression you have gained 0.1 points in social ability*
*ding*for seemingly embarrassing gwen on purpose you lost 0.5 affection points with gwen*
"Well Gwen my dear you are actually correct!!"
She stumbled a bit and the tears her eyes were building up disappeared.
She turned to look at the professor but not before I saw a guilty glance towards me in her eyes.
*ding*gwen realised her mistake so you have gained 0.7 affection points with gwen*
*ding bonus objective achieved rewards will be given when the main quest is achieved*
"Oh you don't know how happy I am right now to see someone so knowledgeable yet still believes in what the rest of the world calls as myth and refuses to acknowledge as more than fiction"
His words seemed to hit her physically because she subtly flinched at the words 'myth' and 'fiction'.
"Okay fair is fair, pun unintended, because you pass my little challenge. Not only can you attend the party I am invited to in a bit, but you can also bring your cousin and grandpa with you!"
Oh this day just keeps getting longer...
