Ashrosaliera and Tanya met eyes.
On one side was a cute little human girl with a white ponytail. She was wearing round glasses bigger than her face, a black beret with a pink bowtie, and she hugged a book with one arm while wearing a cute, simple book bag on her back.
On the other side was a below-average-looking guy with normal black hair, unkempt hair, and actual glasses. He wasn't anything special at all and would get lost in a crowd; the only thing he carried was an umbrella and a grocery bag of sorts. At first glance, anyone would probably assume he hit a jackpot just having a chance to talk to the other girl.
Then, Tanya Nrägèjmul began to laugh; he tried lowering his head into his fist and covered up his mouth.
"Pfft…"
"Wh- What's the matter, Tanya?" Ash said, trying to sound as cute as possible.
"WAHAHAHAHA!" Tanya burst into laughter. Unable to keep up with Ash's act, his hands pressing his stomach, "You can't be serious!"
===
Ongoing Quest: Date Gone Right [1]
Detail: Make Tanya Nrägèjmul smile
Reward: 0.03 System Points
Status: FINISHED
===
"Alright, screw this!"
After finishing the quest, Ashrosaliera immediately removed her beret, removed the hair tie, and put them all in the book bag alongside the romance novel.
"I just wanted to accommodate you, but you're acting like a jerk! You're just gonna be laughing at people's hard work like that? I don't like acting like a cute nerdy girl anyway! Let's get today over with Blehh" she stuck her tongue out at Tanya in mockery.
After Ashrosaliera said that, Tanya suddenly stopped all laughter unprompted, he stood up straight again, looking over at her with serious eyes, those comparable to her mom's whenever she was about to get spanked, which made Ash worried a bit.
"I apologize," Tanya spoke in a sincere yet professional tone, his hand on his chest. "I did not mean to anger you; I thought you were cute and overreacted inappropriately by laughing. Please forgive me for this once. I will not repeat that again, and I promise."
Ashrosaliera was pleasantly surprised; she stood there in awe because no one had ever apologized to her like that before. Too stunned to speak and blushing from feeling guilty, the girl started scratching her hair and stuttered:
"Oh… Uh… Thank you, you're welcome. I don't mind?"
She picked the only three acceptable social interaction phrases and threw them on a whim.
"I'm glad I got your forgiveness. What do you say we walk around the place for a minute?" Tanya asked.
"Do we need to join hands?" Ash asked with one eyebrow raised, having flashbacks about Luciana.
"Only if you want to," Tanya answered.
"Then no, thanks." Ash sighed in relief.
They walked silently through the stone trail in the park and observed many students hanging about. Some were having a nice picnic to their left on the grass pad, and on their right was a group of friends just standing around chatting.
Ash sometimes got impatient and bored, so she skipped ahead of Tanya and waved for him to catch up. She'd detoured to pull a cool-looking leaf out of a tree, then ran right back and gave it to the guy.
Or maybe she'll see some birds chirping in the tree and try to compete with them to see who has a better chirping voice.
"Ashrosaliera, may I call you Ash?" Tanya asked out of the blue while Ash squatted down with some ducklings near the pond.
"Yeah, almost everyone does that." She answered.
"Ash, let's sit down on this bench, and let's feed the ducks."
Tanya pulled out of his grocery-like bag half a loaf of bread. Attracting multiple loud "quacks quacks quacks quacks quacks" coming from hungry locals.
===
Ongoing Quest: Date Gone Right [2]
Detail: Feed The Ducks
Reward: 0.03 System Points
Status: Ongoing
===
'This quest is giving me free points for doing nothing! This is great!' Ash thought with a bright smile.
"We should do this more." Ash enthusiastically said.
"I don't think it should be me that you should spend time with." Tanya said, "Is there someone you should apologize to?"
"What do you mean?"
Ashrosaliera rummaged through her mind…
Pushia: checked
Roshia: checked
Zofia: checked
Dad: checked
"I don't think so…" She said, "But I think I'll invite Tarnisha if you can't make it! Maybe I'll learn more about her power and how she got into A-Class! I actually haven't asked her about her second attribute yet."
Tanya stared at Ash in silence.
A really, really, really long silence.
Ash stood there staring back at him, blinking whilst he didn't. Ducks started jumping up his body, chomping his hand for the bread, yet he didn't move a muscle.
It was an awkward silence of judgment.
"Hello?" Ash finally said.
"Oh, sorry, I zoned out." Tanya laughed it off, "Here, sit down, you can have that half, I'll use this half."
Tanya broke his loaf of bread into two and gave Ash half of it.
He meticulously shredded them into smaller pieces and spread them on his palms, on the bench they're sitting on, on his thigh, on his shoulders,... Inviting ducklings to start and climb all over his body to feast.
Tanya was gone in less than five seconds, swarmed, buried, and replaced by Duck-Man. A horde of ducks was shaped like a man because no one could see him inside anymore.
"Wow! Let me try!"
Ash broke off some bread from her loaf, placed it in her hand, and placed it near a duckling who was looking at her.
"Here, cutie cutie cute~ Eat from mine!"
That duckling seemed to sense a great evil within Ash and sprinted away, hiding behind the Duck-Man Tanya Nrägèjmul.
She was frustrated, but she turned over to another duckling.
"Eat, or be eaten." She smiled and threatened with bread.
The thing bit Ash's hand instead.
"Why you little! Don't make me choke you! SUBMIT!"
It ran away, too.
Defeated, Ash placed the entire loaf on the bench and looked away. That was when the ducklings finally trusted her and came chomping on the bread. This opened up some breathing space for Tanya.
"Ash?" Tanya said.
"Yeah?" She pouted, looking away, all frustrated.
"How long has our date been?"
"I don't know, like, ten minutes?"
"Do you want to head to the stadium next?" Tanya said in a monotone.
"Don't you mean…?" Ash gasped.
"Yes, let us fight. I am satisfied."
===
Ongoing Quest: Date Gone Right [2]
Detail: Feed The Ducks
Reward: 0.03 System Points
Status: FINISHED
Ongoing Quest: Eccentric Circumstances
Details: Entertain Tanya Nrägèjmul
Reward: 0.10
Failure: Removal of [The Long Way] extra reward
Status: FINISHED
Unallocated System Point:̶ 0̶.̶1̶5̶ 0.31
===