[Adelie]

It's been a while since she last used the boat, though. She has to shuffle through some of her spellbooks - visualized in-game as a rotation of the skills available in her HUD - before she locates the correct one. With that, her character leans down and begins to channel magic into the little paper boat.

As the first soft pink motes land on the paper, it shivers like a tightly-drawn breath, then swells. White paper spreads out, unfolding itself slightly, until she finds herself barely holding on to a little skiff, just big enough for her to fit on.

[Adelie]

Paper's not the best seafaring material; origami doesn't make for the most aerodynamic - or even the more usable - boats, considering this ship only has a sharp-ended triangular intrusion in place of a sail.

With a little magic and a few tricks, though, Ven finds herself perched at the bow, feeling - virtually - the wind in her hair and victorious salt spray in her face. It's a pity her boat can't go too much faster than the in-game ferry - there's only so much current she can summon without draining all her mana - but the benefit of sailing herself is being able to take shortcuts.

[Adelie]

For example - the ferry goes to the central island of Stormseeker's Archipelago. Located in the eye of the eternal hurricane that ebbs and flows around the island chain, it's known as one of the most picturesque locations in the game and often graces promotional images or screenshots.

On another day, she might've wanted to stop by herself; maybe pick up one of the cute animal-themed drinks from the vendor NPC who roams the beach, or just sit down under a tree and turn the graphics settings to the highest they could go.

[Adelie]

Not today, though.

Instead, she takes a sharp left at a half-hidden shoal of bleached color, skidding through a narrow gap between two cleft cliffs; behind her a frothy white wave, rendered in loving detail, crashes into the wall with a loud splash. There's no danger. She's run this course more than a few times, capsized more than a few times, and muscle memory fills in the gaps.

She hears her targets before she even sees them - loud brays, squawks and honks, exuding from her headphones with almost preternatural sharpness. Soon enough, a pebbly beach slides into view, backed by a complex network of cliffs and caves; on it, a small colony of black-and-white birds.

[Adelie]

[CLAN] Gumiho: '>g< so uh'
[CLAN] Gumiho: '>g< any idea what i'm looking for?'
[CLAN] nebu!a: '/// not sure. i didn't see anything interesting at the songbird chapel.'
[CLAN] nebu!a: '/// just anything out of the ordinary? or new?'

Upon disembarking from her ship and placing it back into her inventory, she finds herself swarmed by two-foot-high penguins. They aren't aggressive - and they're so low-level that she could probably wipe them out with a single area-of-effect attack - but whoever designed their behavior must've seriously overestimated their curiosity.

Or maybe they hadn't - Ven hadn't exactly had opportunity to experience this situation in the real world.

[Adelie]

Still, it wasn't like the penguins posed a problem or anything - they were just a little annoying, since they'd surround visitors begging for food and cause awkward object collision issues. And if you asked Ven, that's well worth it for just how cute they are.

Gently, she nudges away the penguin horde so she can reach slightly more open ground. At first glance, nothing seems to have changed since the last time she visited - there's a few more penguins, there's a new piece of driftwood on the beach, but none of it seems like a clue to any sort of overarching plotline.

[Adelie]

Just in case, though, she moves her character over to one of the rocky protrusions, using it as a springboard to hop on top of the cliff. Well, tries to - she misses the landing the first time around and sprawls on the beach, staring up into the curious eyes of bystanding penguins.

Goodness, they're adorable.

The second try's much more successful. From atop the cliff, a short scramble across a tangle of gnarled tree roots and weathered stone brings her to the highest point on the island.

[Adelie]

From here, she has an overarching view of the entire island - you could even say, a bird's-eye view of the archipelago. The island itself is a little oddly-shaped; it somewhat resembles a volcanic island, sinking in on itself in the process of becoming an atoll.

There's a ring of sheer rock cliffs surrounding a patchwork lagoon and the cave-speckled outcropping she's currently perched on; a yellow-eyebrowed penguin sits triumphantly across the top of a ruined temple, barely distinguishable from yet another hunk of guano-splattered rock.

[Adelie]

[CLAN] Gumiho: '>g< nothing at the penguin island'
[CLAN] Gumiho: '>g< do i have to do the waifu miniquest?'
[CLAN] Chi Squared: '[^2] Eh.'
[CLAN] Chi Squared: '[^2] I doubt that's related?'
[CLAN] Chi Squared: '[^2] We can do runs and minis after we check the areas first, I guess.'
[CLAN] Gumiho: '>g< okies!'

Careful investigation reveals nothing out of the ordinary. It's to be expected, she supposes; this is only one of many locations that fit the bill of 'bird's abode,' and it's unlikely that she'd find whatever they're looking for on the first try.

Well, on to the next one. It's surprisingly dark, she suddenly notices - the game's day-night cycle must've moved faster than she'd thought.

[Adelie]

Next on her list - Dragon's Demise.

Getting out of Stormseeker's Archipelago is easy; it's getting there that was the difficult part. Travelling to Dragon's Demise is simply a matter of pulling up her map, finding the correct waypoint, and clicking on it - and then waiting for the loading screen as she transfers to a new area.

Well - almost that simple. Dragon's Demise is just a few remote fjords, extending out into the sea like the rocky teeth of some long-defeated titanic dragon; it's not known for much besides being the starting point of a few commonly-completed and fairly rewarding runs.

[Adelie]

As a result, the area's not big enough to have a waypoint of its very own. Instead, Ven teleports to the nearest one - Heartbreaker's Citadel, a small zone away - and follows the forest road towards the sea.

There's quite a few other players along on the route; many of them are in standard low-level armor, as if they haven't learned how to customize their avatars or just haven't found the right cosmetic items yet. Ven guesses they're probably heading to the dungeon with the half-dragon twins; that one commonly shows up in levelling guides because it gives impressive experience for a relatively short dungeon and often drops highly demanded materials.

[Adelie]

[WHISPER] Glax Gamma: 'lfg? witch's lament 7/8, have lockpicking'
[WHISPER] Gumiho: 'no ty!'

Ever since she joined Cat Mafia, she's gotten far more random players inviting her on runs. It's the name recognition, she supposes - even the most casual of players might flip through the dungeon completion rankings occasionally or see the global announcement when a new run was completed for the first time.

Even if she wasn't one of the individually infamous members of the clan, even if she didn't have anything special going for her - just having that little tag displayed by her name was enough to attract attention.

[Adelie]

Of course, much as she wouldn't mind joining in on a Witch's Lament run - she really wants one of the rare cosmetic drops from it and one hasn't come up on the market for ages - that's not what she's here for.

Instead, she dismisses whispers as politely as she can, and as she reaches Dragon's Demise proper, she veers off the main path and out-of-sight. There's no real reason she has to be here when her target isn't really a part of the main area, either.

[Adelie]

Cloudsong Staircase is a difficult climb, at best; there's six or seven different Youtube videos, all with thousands of views, illustrating how best to land the different jumps. Ven doesn't like to admit she's watched all of them and still has a hard time not missing the cliff by a hair at the end.

In fact, let's just skip over the part where she feels a looming dread as she leaves the ground, then looming panic as she realizes mid-flight that she's not going to make it, then looming hysteria as she flails at the rock face as she plummets to the ground, then looming embarrassment as she lands flat on her face in front of another player.

[Adelie]

At least, that player's only here because they failed the jump, too; the embarrassment is mutual. She picks herself off the ground, makes sure she emotes a smile at the other player in apology for their having to witness her disappointing failure, and then tries again.

Second time's the charm. Landing safely on the rock ledge, she looks around - and is promptly greeted by the feathered head and fist-sized yellow eyes of an enormous bird, staring directly at her, its hooked beak partially open.

Her character's a bit on the small side - but even if she weren't, this bird would be big enough to swallow her whole.