[PP-F4] Zandra and Jomei (part 8)

[Zandra 0]

Zandra placed her right elbow in her left hand. Scratching her chin with the right hand. Her head tilted to the side so it looked like she was thinking. "Hmm... Something lazy? Or relaxing. Or maybe just something fun thats not dangerous." She said. Thou intended just to herself. But Jomei could hear her as well."Yeah right! That could be fun." She continued speaking to herself. Then she looked at Jomei."I know just the thing, wait here." She rushed to her workbench and placed a steel pot over a gas lamp to prepare it to boil. Then she headed towards one of the shelfs and picked a few jars, then to a box and grabbed something. Then another shelf to get yet another jar. She placed everything on the workbench. Then she looked at each one and mumbled something, like she was checking everything was there. She bent down under the bench and picked up a small box as well as a dozen crystal clear bottles."Hey, what you waiting for? Lets do some brewing." She paused a few moments."Together." She finished.

[Jomei 0]

Jomei watched as Zandra went around the room, grabbing different boxes and jars from various places around the room. She brought all of the contents to her workbench, and placed a larger pot to heat up. He could not tell where she was going with this, until he saw her grab handful of small clear bottles from under the bench. She then called him over to her, and she was going to have him help her brew some potions. Jomei pointed at himself, "You want me to help you?" he chuckled nervously, "I-I can't promise you'll get anything good out of it... or that I won't burn your shop down.." he walked over to her, rubbing the back of his head, "But what the hell, I'll give it a shot. Just show me what to do." he smiled and stood next to her at the workbench. 

[Zandra 0]

Zandra was realy glad Jomei joined her. She poured up about a liter of water in the pot."Well, I do have about half a hundred good potions, and hope you not is offended but I dont use any ingredients I use when brewing for work. They are kinda hard to get and I just want to do this for fun." She was taking a step back to think what potion they would try to do. She looked from ingredient to ingredient."Hmm... what about you say what kind of potion you want us to do and we will see if its possible. Maybe we could do one that tu... Ehm... what do you wish?" She said and looked at him with an exited smile.

[Jomei 0]

"No offense taken here." Jomei said with a light laugh, "I would not want to waste any of your precious materials. Being one of the best apothecaries in Aincrad, I'd hate to hinder your work." he said, turning to look at the girl. She seemed to step back and thought for a moment, and Jomei looked at her with a curious look. Speaking up, she wondered what type of potion they should make, and asked Jomei for any suggestions. "I could not tell you." he said, his brows pinching together, "I'm no master at this.. But... lets make it interesting." he said with a laugh, turning back to look at the ingredients. "How about we make something starting wiiith..... this." he said, picking up a jar of a pinkish, jelly like substance. He opened the lid and spooned a couple of drops into the pot of water. 

[Zandra 0]

Zandra nooded when Jomei picked up a jar."Yes, that could be a good start mhm." Then Jomei added a couple of drops in the boiling water. The liquid immediatly turned pick and a thin layer of skin appeared on the surface. The skin was a much darker pink the the liquid under it. Zandra quickly took a bowl from a shelf and putted a pretty large wooden spoon in Jomeis hand."You must remove the layer of skin at least once every five minutes. Otherwise the chemical reaction gonna turn the whole potion rock hard and ruin the pot. Ive throwed away many pots because of it before I realised what caused it." She then took two boxes, 10x10x10 centimeters big, and placed them closer to Jomei. In one was it dried bloodred oakleafs and the second silver looking oakleafs. She thinked for a few seconds. Then she took a third. There it was three very dark green water lilys."Here, these three have I tried with pink-wasp venom. They all make different effects. The amount does matter too. I once made two identical potions but one had twice as much giljunalo in it. I poured them on a pair of identical plants. One died in seconds and the other turned sky-blue." She then pointed at the boxes."Which one and how much?"

[Jomei 0]

Jomei took the wooden spoon in his hand and looked at Zandra and then at the liquid, which now had a thin skin-like layer covering the surface, "O-Oh okay." Using the spoon, he stirred the contents of the pot, picking up as much of the thick layer as he could and then transferred it to the extra bowl Zandra had placed out. "Gross." Jomei said with a chuckle. "Okay, whats next?" Looking over his shoulder, Zandra had gone and grabbed another couple of boxes which contained more ingredients he could use. She mentioned that they all had different types of leaves that he could use, asking which one he wanted to try out. He brought his hand to his chin, thinking which he should do. "How about.." he grabbed a leaf from each box and then crumpled them up, dropping what was left of all three ingredients into the box. "Lets see what happens with all three." 

[Zandra 0]

Zandra was just gonna stop him when he took one leaf from each box.''Nonono! Wait.'' but it was too late. The three leafs had already reached the surface of the liquid inside the pot. The potion turned to grey  and got a faint shine. Then it started to shine brighter. She should have warned him. She looked around like she was searching for something.''Here, put these on.'' she said and gave Jomei something looking like those old pilotglasses. Thou the lenses was almost black. Now the liquid was almost white and it shined even more. Since she only had one pair of those special glasses she pulled her hood down over her eyes and almost throwed herself down so she couldnt see the potion.''Get down!'' she shouted, looking at the floor. About five seconds later they herd a loud 'poof' and the complete room was filled by a white light, like from a proffesional fotografer, but ten times as bright.

Zandra pushed herself up and pulled back the hood. She blinked a few times and then turned to Jomei.''Youre alright?'' she said with a worrying voice.

[Jomei 0]

Jomei quickly turned to Zandra when she shouted out at him, "W-What?!" He then quickly turned his head back to look at the contents of the pot. The color of the liquid shifted to a grayish color, but increasingly began to shine whiter and brighter. Jomei looked in the pot, confused at what was going on. He then felt Zandra hand him something, telling him to put them on. Looking down at the object, he saw that they were a pair of goggles, the lenses completely darkened. Some sort of eye-shielding glasses. He looked back at Zandra, who had shielded her eyes with her hood and ducked to the ground. Jomei quickly fumbled to get the goggles on his head, which he did so haphazardly. However, in the state of panic, he did not have enough time to duck from the blast. The pot erupted with bright light and a poof noise, which caused Jomei to simply stumble backwards, tripping over one of the benches the girl had placed in her shop. Both the bench and Jomei fell on their backs. "Ngh.. yeah.. I'm ok.. Sorry about that." 

[Zandra 0]

Zandra brushed his hair from the face and stood on toes, so she could take a closer look at his eyes. She losened the leather stripe on the back and put it on the workbench. When she saw his eye gasp."Oh no." She grabbed one of her hands and led him to the armchair he had been sitting in."Please sit down." She said. Then she pushed the other armchair opposite close to each other. She went to a shelf and took down a jar with a white thick substance.

She placed it on the table beside the armchair and grabbed a chunk with her left hand while she sat on her knees on the other. She brushed the chunk with her right hand so she got a thin layer on her fingertips and gently worked it on his skin with soft circle moves. When they got dru she picked a little more from the chunk and continued to work.

[Jomei 0]

Jomei pushed himself up from the fallen over bench, ruffling his hair that was blown back slightly from the explosion, or whatever you would call it. He brought his hands up to the goggles that were placed over his eyes and lifted them off of his head. "Everything alright?"  Zandra then walked up to Jomei and moved the hair out from his face to look at his eyes, letting out a worried gasp. "W-Wha..." What had happened to his eyes? He did not really feel any pain.. and the irritation he felt he thought was just from the goggled squeezing at his head. He sat down when Zandra guided him, and she quickly grabbed a jar of some sort of ointment, applying it to Jomei's face. "So what happened to my eyes? Am I okay?" 

[Zandra 0]

Zandra continued massaging the white substance at Jomeis face. After awhile he asked what was happened to his eyes. She stopped and took a look. She was satisfied now. She stil had some of the substance left. She wiped it off on the arm off the armchair and tried to hide her action so Jomei didnt saw it. Thou she failed on that thing.''Nothing is wrong with your eyes. Its the area of your face that wasnt covered that got effected. That shine makes your skin like eczema. If you not takes care of it shortly after the effect it can spread.'' She brushed her hair back and turned her head to the side, folding down the upper tip off her ear so Jomei could see. There the skin had a red tone and alot of small white flakes of dry, dead skin.''Like this.'' then she took away her hand and shaked her head so the long black hair covered the wound.''That was from one of my first experiment with this kind of combination. Now you understand why I took care of your face asap right?'' she said and smiled at her boyfriend with his face covered of white creme she also let out a giggle and handed over a mirror to him.

[Jomei 0]

Jomei's face got slightly worried when Zandra told him just what had happened to him. It was ,in fact, not his eyes that were effected, but his entire face excluding the eyes that were covered by the goggles. Apparently it caused his skin to become dry and flaky, as if covered by some sort of rash, or eczema to be exact. "O-oh.. is it permanent? Or will this stuff make it go away.." Jomei was worried that his careless mistake would cause this redness to stay on his face for the rest of his time in SAO.. however long that would be. It worried him even more when Zandra showed him that she had a small patch behind her ear. The girl began to giggle at Jomei, handing him a mirror to look at himself. He picked up the mirror and looked at the reflection, to see that all the red spots were covered by a thick white cream. He then looked up at Zandra, giving her a playful dirty look for laughing at him.. "At least it'll help." he said with a heavy sigh, placing the mirror on the arm of the chair. 

[Zandra 0]

Zandra leaned to one of the sides of the armchair, her legs still bent and slightly sitting on them. She placed both her elbows on the arm and lened her cheek on the hands, looking at Jomei.''You now, something struck my mind just that far ago I havent realy thinked about asking you. Or maybe I have, but then Ive forgot.'' she paused.''Back in the real world, people used to call me Sandra.'' she looked at his reaction with kind of worrying smile.''If you not mind, do you want to tell me yours? I completly understand if you dont want to thou.'' actually she wouldnt understand if he didnt told her his name, but she had a habbit to always give the ones she says questions to to give them the choice to just ignore the question and move on with the talking about other stuffs.

[Jomei 0]

Jomei, his face white with the ointment, turned to look at Zandra as she looked at him curiously from the side of the arm chair. She started off, mentioning she wanted to ask him something, something she might have asked earlier, but had forgotten if she had. "Whats up Zan?" he looked at her, wondering just what it was she had on her mind. It took Jomei slightly by surprise what she said to him, not because he did not expect it, more so he had completely forgotten about their names in the real world.. In fact, he planned on asking Zandra at some point, but it slipped his mind. "Sandra.." he said once, smiling at how similar it was to her current SAO name. He laughed lightly, "I guess that makes it easy to remember.. Sandra and Zandra.. Its.. a beautiful name. You know.. sometimes I forget about our names in the real world, when this one becomes so realistic.. But out there, my name is Nick." He laughed, "Not as similar to Jomei, though." 

[Zandra 0]

Zandras eyes looked sligthly upwards, so it loked like she was thinking.''Hmm... Nick.'' she said to herself.''Nick. I like it.'' her eyes turned back to Nick.''Well, something they have in common. They both have an 'i' in it right? That would make it easy to remember.'' she said and winked at him.''Also, it seems like its very rare that players name themself with names that exist back in the real world. Like Lowenthal, the Calrex and Teayre couple, Ebony and Manta Goul. And that so weird and strange name Jomei.'' she paused.''Wait, didnt Jomei meant something in irish wasnt it?'' she suddenly remebered something he had said when they left that cave if she didnt remebred wrong. It felt like it have passed years since then.

[Jomei 0]

Jomei laughed, "No actually. Jomei is a Japanese name.. not an Irish name." he smiled at the girl. "It means to spread light... I forgot where I got the name from.. or where I found it." he placed his hand on his chin, then quickly pulled it away, forgetting the ointment was still there. "Er.." he wiped the ointment back onto his face, "Maybe it was Adere's name. Since it was supposed to be Adare.. but I misspelled it when entering it." he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "I think her name means of the forked oak.. or something like that." He sat back in the chair, letting his hand slide along the chair to Zadra's arm, gently taking her hand in his own. "Yeah, there are a couple of strange names.. None from any languages I can recognize." 

[Zandra 0]

Zandra followed Jomeis action and leaned back as well, holding his hand in a gently grip. She looked at the dancing flames in her fireplace. She appreciated the game that she didnt had to gather wood, nor guard the fire so it didnt fade out."Also thats something that feels different compared to swedish name. Everyone seems to know what their name means. Every name has a second meaning. In Sweden Ive never, honestly never herd someone say what their name means. Only exception is when that specifik subject is talked about." She thougth about all those seedish names that sounded so funny when added in an english sentence. She giggled."Ive got my first nickname today."she paused and smiled at Jomei."Zan."

[Jomei 0]

"Well.. if it makes you feel any better, I don't think Nick means anything special." he laughed lightly. "Or maybe it does.. and I just don't really mind whatever it is." He closed his eyes and smiled softly, feeling the warmth of the fire on his skin, Zandra's hand in his own, and feeling the rash on his face slowly disappear from the ointment Zandra gave him. He opened his eyes and turned to look at her when she commented that she finally had a nickname, "You say that as if I haven't been calling you that for the past month." he said, smiling. He then chuckled, "Whenever we are alone like this, just the two of us.. Would you prefer I still call you Zandra? Or would you prefer Sandra?" his chuckle became a light laugh, realizing again just how similar the two names are. 

[Zandra 0]

Zandra listen when he tells her that Nick dosent mean anything, as he knew."Well, then I decide the meaning of Nick is." She straighten her back and cougth, like when you shall hold a speach or say something very important."The meaning of Nick is..." she talks with a deep voice."...gonna be Hot handsome kind man of epic awesomeness." She fonished and winked.

"I know you have, I just havent comment it. Guess it was time." He asked what she wanted to be call when they was alone like this."Anything is fine. Zandra, Sandra, Zan, sweetie," she blushed."or whatever you want. There is just one word I dont want to be called."there was tone of seriousness in her voice."Never call me a Lying-something or Lyer."

[Jomei 0]

Jomei smiled softly and blushed when Zandra gave meaning to his name, and in a way that complimented him. He nodded his head, "Epic awesomeness huh? Alright sure.. If you think so." He raised his eyebrows and looked over at the girl, "Only if Sandra could mean, 'girl of immense beauty'" he laughed afterwards at his cheesy attempt to flirt with Zandra. He rested his head back and let it slouch slightly to the side, letting out a long sigh of relief. In reply to Jomei's question about what she preferred to be called by, she mentioned she did not mind, giving him a variety of names, including sweetie. He opened his eyes and looked at the girl wit h a smile. She then continued in a slightly more serious tone, which caught Jomei's attention. She asked him never to call her a liar, or anything to do with her lying. Jomei sat up and looked at her, "Of course I won't. I can't stand people who lie anyway.. Its probably one of the biggest things that puts me in a fit of rage."