[PP-F21] A new Color... [Complete]

[Aereth 1]

Teion didn't even spare him one glance as she tried to get up again. She only dismissed him and hurried over to her own room again. Without any change of his facial expression, the brunette slowly closed the door again and started to think. 

"She slept outside of my room. That means she was trying to make sure I won't leave the inn without her noticing...." He had no idea what happened downstairs after he had left, and he wouldn't find out anything if Teion didn't tell him. Then he remembered the facial expression of her as she flopped inside of his room. He saw the faint tinge of pink on her face as she realized in what an embarrassing situation she had put herself. 

He chuckled. Aereth chuckled, then started to laugh. "That stupid girl...." he mused, small smile still plastered on his face, as he re-opened the door and walked out of his room, over to Teions door.

Knock, knock. "Hey girl. Just letting you know that I'll go for a walk. Will be back at around six, ok?" Wait. Was he really asking her for permission? Since when did he do something like this? He shrugged. Crazy days...

@Teion

[Teion 0]

The sound of Aereth's knuckles lightly rapping on her door caused Teion to lift her head from her hands. She stared at the floor in front of her feet as his voice carried into the room. There was a pause, and Teion quickly collected herself to respond with a simple "Okay." She didn't like the thought of him leaving the area, but she couldn't bring herself to fuss about it. 'Why am I trying to babysit him?' She asked herself despite the reason entering her mind seconds later. She didn't want to let him out of her sight because she was afraid the moment he did was the moment he died. Beatbox's death was preventable. She hadn't paid attention to him, or offered him the same love and kindness he devoted to her. Was keeping Aereth on a leash the only thing she was capable of this time around? How would such patronizing behavior possibly be of any help?

Teion shook her head, standing herself up. Cardinal was quick to remind her that she had forgone her meal last night, sending her a quick pang of hunger. She winced just slightly at the uncomfortable feeling, but was quick to brush it off. Like most days, she didn't feel like eating. She thought it almost cruel of the game to try to force such normalcies upon its players. While she didn't want to be conscious, Teion knew she wouldn't have been able to sleep if she tried, and so she occupied her time however she could think of. She pulled a few drafts of weapon designs that she had kept in her inventory, just trying to keep herself busy as she drew out a few more sketches.

When Aincrad's local time crept closer to 6 AM, Teion had vacated her room. She stood outside of the inn, her back pressed up against a large support beam with her arms crossed over her chest as she waited for the brunette to return. She had changed back to her regular combat attire: a loose-fitting, half-sleeved cloth top that fell off of her shoulders, partially covered by a simple leather bodice. Dark brown legging hugged her skin, and a handful of decorative straps of the same color looped and hung from her belt, the tops of her boots, and the edge of her bodice. With the tawny gloves back on her hands, her long violet hair was loose again, spilling over her shoulders and trailing down below her shoulderblades. The whole time, from the minutes after Aereth had disappeared from in front of her door, she had wracked her brain to try and answer the question that kept resurfacing: 'Now what?' Especially lately, Teion didn't led an exciting life in Aincrad by any means. Before she had met Beatbox, and most prominently after the discovery of his death, she was merely existing. Aereth had seemed furious at the discrepancy of her level and the floor she was on, so she was positive that he was considerably higher than her. Would it be unreasonable for her to just...follow him? 'How am I going to take responsibility for this mess...?'

[Aereth 1]

The quiet and simple "Okay." was all Aereth wanted to hear. He thought about asking her if she wanted to come with him, but decided against it. He needed some time for him. So he rushed out of the almost empty, safe for a few NPC's and headed outside. As if it was one of his most natural movements, he grabbed his hood and pulled it deep into his face before activating his hiding skill and vanishing into the dimly lit side allies. 

He walked in complete silence for a couple of minutes, changing his direction every time he managed to see a guard NPC. Navigating through the main settlement of the front line floor was pretty easy. Almost every side ally led either to more allies or one of the main roads.

After some time he managed to finally find what he was looking for. A way up. There was a simple ladder on one building that he could use to scale it without performing some flashy moves that would get him the attention of every guard in the near area.

As he finally reached the roof, Aereth took a deep breath and started to look around. His little stroll through the allies took him almost to the southeastern exit of the settlement. "That spot will do...." he thought as he sat down on the roof and fetched his food from the inventory. Aereth still felt the tightness around him due to this floor being underground, but he felt much more at ease than in his room.

"What am I actually doing here..." he asked himself mentally, as he started to eat. Aereth knew, or at least he thought he knew, why Teion was doing what she did. And it made perfectly sense, but for how long would she want to keep this up? Following him, and taking care that he wouldn't get himself killed... Maybe it was some kind of therapy that helped her to cope with her own loss... Not that he knew anything about her story though. At least not more than he could guess from the things she said in that dungeon. But one thing Aereth knew was, that everybody in Aincrad had his or her story...

Aereth thought and thought, and time flew by faster than he had thought because when he looked at his HUD it was already 0554. With shock he jumped up. "Sh*t. I'll be late." and dropped to the ground. Due to him rushing towards their inn, he was able to make it there in only 15 minutes, still about ten minutes too late though.

"Morning Purple. Sorry, got carried away." he said with a weak smile on his face. "Look, I was thinking a whole lot this morning and I think we should spl..."

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion's anxiety began to flare up again as soon as the man became late. Her cobalt eyes scanned the area the whole time she waited, and once they finally fell upon the brunette's frame hurrying towards her, another sensation of relief washed over her. She looked up at the man with a blank expression as he approached, offering her a short greeting. She uncrossed her arms just as he was starting to continue with a different topic. The woman strode past him, uninterested in what Aereth had to say, while her hand once again grabbed onto his to pull him along with her. She felt a twinge of regret immediately after cutting him off, but pushed herself to ignore it soon after.

She dragged him along through the city, being mindful to avoid the scripted paths of the guards and shooting a deadly glare towards any players whose unfavorable gazes would linger on them as she passed. It seemed as though her foul mood from the restaurant the night before had persisted, though it was unclear if her temper had actually shortened any more than it already was. Once the pair had left the safe zone, Teion released her grasp on him and shifted her weight as she came to a stop. She had suggested hunting monsters, or searching for materials, as was the woman's original purpose for being on the floor in the first place. The brunette had agreed, although somewhat reluctantly, and so Teion issued a party invitation and the pair spent much of the day simply training.

As the day drew to an end, Teion and Aereth had eventually moved down to the 17th floor and had just begun setting up a small camp among an area of rather secluded ruins a generous distance from any settlement. She didn't protest the idea of sleeping outside of the safe zones; after last night, she couldn't blame Aereth for preferring to do so. The violet-haired woman had offered very little in the way of conversation throughout the day, still dwelling on her thoughts of the early morning. A small campfire crackled between them, and Teion sat cross-legged with a semi-transparent menu hovering in front of her. She held up a hand to lazily scroll through to her inventory, looking over some items and then moving to a different section of the interface. She hesitated after selecting her friends list, her eyes trailing over the four names listed neatly in Cardinal's display.

[Aereth 1]

Thankfully Teion didn't demand to search for an inn this day. Somehow there seemed to be a mutual understanding between the two players. Teion didn't even loose one word about the incident in the restaurant for which Aereth was very grateful. 

At the beginning Aereth had thought that Teion would just leave at some point of the day if he would just do mob grinding, but it turned out that Purple was pretty stubborn in her attempt to keep an eye over him. 

They hadn't talked much over the course of the day and now they were also just sitting in silence. Suddenly Aereth remembered the things he said to Teion in the dungeon. That she wanted to understand, and that he would tell her. Maybe this was also a thing that fueled her determination to stay with him. Currently he was calm. The constant mob grinding over the course of today helped him in letting out some bottled up steam, which caused his troubled mind to settle down again.

"It was about two months into this game...." Aereth started. "... where my precious person was taken from me." the fire crackled between them as she spoke. "Laughing Coffin. Those bastards made me watch how they killed her." His voice was trembling, filled with hate, and blood lust, but at the same time sounded weak and shaky. There was only one thing that he hated and feared more than the man that imprisoned them in here. And this was Laughing Coffin. "Even today I still don't know why...."

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Aereth's voice snapped her back to reality, as Teion's eyes had been fixated on the names hovering in front of her, each accompanied by a floor and the name of a general location to indicate where the player currently was. Her gaze flickered up to him as the dancing light of the fire reflected in his brown eyes. She listened in patient silence as he offered a brief recount of his loss. Though her expression remained the same, she felt a tightness in her chest as her gaze dropped again. She looked at the first name in the list, or more specifically how the name 'Beatbox' no longer existed in that place. The name that stared back at her instead--'Emerath', written in the game's normal stylized text--only brought her another twinge of regret. If she had been there... If she had to watch as Beatbox was cut down in front of her... Her jaw clenched at the thought and her finger quickly moved to swipe the menus away. Not even Shield would have been able to help her then.

A silence lingered between them, only the light crackle of the flames sounding for a long minute. Teion's hands rested against her ankles, and her fingers began to fidget amongst themselves as she took in a short breath. "Five months ago... I met him. A charismatic frontliner who only wanted to help people..." She let out a dry chuckle as she recalled their first meeting. "God, I don't know what he ever saw in me." She mumbled out before taking another sharp breath to continue. "He died just over a month ago." She said flatly, staring at the flickering light of the fire as the deadpan expression returned to her features. "He was hunting someone. Someone he only had a slim chance to beat. I think he knew that, though." Her mind drifted to the items he had left behind to her--the recording crystal where he had offered her his farewell.

The woman took in yet another breath, lacing her fingers together to stop their incessant fidgeting. "Anyway." She couldn't bring herself to look back up to Aereth, and so her gaze remained on the charring pieces of wood stoking the flames. "I'm sorry to hear about your girl." She wished she knew how to empathize with the man sitting across from her. If she could just inherently know how to comfort a broken soul, perhaps the aura of uncertainty that existed between them would lessen.

[Aereth 1]

Aereth also remained quiet as Teion was telling him about how she lost. Unlike when Aereth told his story, there was no burning hatred or any signs of revenge in her voice. Not yet... Just an endless sadness that she didn't manage to hide. Her wounds were still fresh, only one month... That was almost nothing. 

"He was hunting someone. Someone he only had a slim chance to beat. I think he knew that, though." Thinking about it, Aereth came to to conclusion that he was pretty much doing the same thing. "Like trying to bring down the strongest and most dangerous PK guild in the game?" Aereth heard his inner self say. And most probably he would end up the same way as Teion boyfriend. 

"Same. I'm really sorry for you. Your wounds are still fresh. But time will help. Just take care with what you use to fill that hole in your heart. Don't make the same mistake as I." Aereth answered.

Then he remembered something. About a month ago a friend and former guild mate of his died as well. "Another friend and ex guildmate of mine died as well about a month ago. Just a couple of days before he asked me if I would join him in fighting the Laughing Coffin..." Aereth opened his menu and fetched the Dimensional Shift from his battle ready slot. The sword materialized in his hands and he looked at it in melancholic way. "Only left me this phase sword..."

@Teion

[Teion 0]

The corner of Teion's lips curled into a wry smile as the man across from her offered her more advice. She wasn't sure what she had been filling her hollow frame with since Beatbox's death. Distractions? Uninspired sketches? Either way, she still felt empty. He spoke up again, catching her attention with a brief explanation of someone he knew that had also died around the same time. The brunette scrolled through a menu and a sword appeared in his hands. As Teion's gaze dropped and ran along the straightsword before she felt her eyes widen in recognition. A tightness formed in her chest and she stared at the blade for what felt like several minutes before she took in a sharp breath through her nose, tearing her gaze away and opening her own menus again.

Her voice came out strained while she navigated to her sorted inventory, her finger hovering over the first item for a few seconds. "Looks like we've got at least one common thread, then." She pressed down and a gold and obsidian straightsword materialized in her own hands. Her gaze lingered on Dimensional Shift resting in Aereth's grasp before lowering to Shi's Talon displayed across her lap. She hadn't examined the blade in a long while--not since she had found it laying on the counter in her shop.

She sat in silence, simply taking in the presence of the two blades. She idly ran her thumb along the dark metal, lost in thought, before the not-so-familiar ring of a system alert chimed in her ears. The woman blinked in surprise, her eyes drawn to the icon hovering in front of her body in the shape of a closed envelope. She stared at it in disbelief, as if the contents might somehow be from the blonde swordsman himself. She hesitantly lifted her hand, urging herself to poke at the icon and expand another semi-transparent window with a message scrawled out:

Quote

 

TO: Teion
FROM: Piera
SUBJECT:  trick or treat?

Hey Tei Tei~ Lee and I are actually getting off our butts and going out. I'm sure you've guessed where by now. The usual Halloween party. Used to be my favorite holiday. Thought I'd try to revive some of my holiday spirit. Wana join our pirate crew? If ya do, I sent you an outfit! I'm sorry I haven't been very chatty lately. I should've been there for you more. I hope you can forgive me eventually. It would be really nice to see you again in person.

 

'Sophie...' An odd knot of emotion formed in her stomach when her eyes fell upon the sender's name. They slid back and forth along the written lines, the smallest hint of sorrow and guilt worked into her otherwise dull expression. When she reached the bottom of the message, she spotted the attached item, and she brought her index finger down to hover over the outfit's icon. Her interface referred to the item as 'Cutthroat Captain', and a small breath left through her nostrils in a half-chuckle. For more than a moment, she thought about ignoring the message. She wondered if Sophie--or Piera--would be angry, or disappointed with her for not showing up or responding. Then her cobalt eyes flickered up to the brunette sitting across from her. She considered another option, wondering what the man might say to such a ridiculous offer. "Hey... Off-topic, but how are you with parties?" She asked, wearing half a smirk.

[Aereth 1]

Slowly it was dawning on Aereth. "A charismatic frontliner who only wanted to help people..." No way. And this sword. Aereth never saw it in real, but he heard about it. "Shi's Talon...." he mumbled. His info brokers informed him about the absolute accuracy item of Beatbox. 

"Beatbox...." Aereth said in a low voice. So the boy left back a girl.... And he sighed again. 

"He was a good guy. Always trusted me. Even with that orange cursor. I was pretty shocked when I heard from his passing. But who am I talking to... Sorry..." Aereth said as he looked at both swords. It really seemed like these were his farewell gifts. But Aereth didn't want to see them in that way. A wave of guilt washed over him. "I shouldn't have this..." he said as he looked at the blade for one more time before standing up and offering it to Teion.

"You should take it. He gave it to me in order to help him fight the evil of this world. But in the end I couldn't help him...."

Suddenly Teion got a message, and asked him if he liked parties. Confused, Aereth simply answered with a. "Depends on what kind of party..." Thinking of the valentines party that backfired into an event boss fight...

@Teion

[Teion 0]

She was both surprised and not to hear that Aereth had a close connection with the deceased swordsman. It seemed Beatbox had known a variety of players, having many different connections that she knew nothing about. Still, she wasn't expecting to feel a small sense of relief to know that he had put his trust in the brunette sitting across from her. She hadn't a reason to fear or condemn him as others had, but perhaps knowing that the man closest to her had his own faith in Aereth served to ease her mind a bit further.

His movement caught her attention, her eyes trailing upwards to his hand holding out the blade to her. Teion's bottom lip twitched into an unsavory frown, and she quickly dropped her gaze away from the weapon. "No." She responded plainly, wondering shortly after if he would try to be stubborn about pushing the item to her. "Leave it in the dirt if you want," Her choice of words was harsh, but only in an attempt to make her point clear. "He chose to leave it with you." Her hand trailed back to the obsidian sword resting in her lap. She tapped against the metal to bring up a small menu, dismissing the item back to her own inventory. "Don't you worry, I've got my own momentos to hold onto." Despite her efforts, her tone held a touch of bitterness. She would be lying if she said she didn't resent the man, just the slightest bit. With Dimensional Shift on display in front of her, Beatbox had obviously made his rounds before heading to his death. It was so very...planned. The recording crystal he left with her, practically akin to a suicide note.

Teion closed her eyes, trying not to dwell on the negative feelings. When the topic had shifted and Piera's message hovered in front of her, she offered a small smirk at Aereth's hesitant question. "Sounds like Halloween. I guess it's that time of year, huh?" She leaned back, placing her palms against the ground while her chin tilted up to face the night sky. In stark contrast to the cave ceilings of the twenty-first floor, hanging over them tonight was a cloudless, starry sky. It was something she wasn't so used to seeing, despite being artificial. There was always too much light polluting the night in the city she lived in back in the real world. "A...friend invited me." She hesitated before using the word, as if it was foreign to her. It had been months since she ran into, and last spoke with, Piera. And even longer still since she'd interacted with the people she had previously considered the closest to her. "She even sent me a costume." She mumbled into the air with another half-chuckle.

[Aereth 1]

"I...." Aereth averted his gaze, and looked at the sword. This could become one of the most powerful weapons in the entire games if he managed to complete it. Only few wielded the Phase enhancement. And this wasn't even locked to some other useless enhancements. It was free. Ready to get shaped by the will of its wielder.  Aereth looked back into Teion's eyes. "It isn't even complete yet.... Then I will keep it..." the brunette said and stored it away into his inventory. 

"A Halloween party?" Aereth asked with a raised eyebrow. Usually he liked parties, but currently...

But when he heard that a friend of Teion invited her, he once again pushed the depression away and said. "When does it start, and where is it? You're going." Something in her voice told him that there was some awkward tension when she talked about that friend. "She needs everybody she can get..."

Then a chuckle escaped the brunette, as she told him that that friend even sent a costume. "Show. Me. Now." he demanded, a smirk plastered on his face.

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion blinked at his sudden change in attitude. She hadn't expected such a firmness from him, and as her chin tilted back down to look at his face, she frowned.  'Ahh, maybe I shouldn't have used that word...' The thought of facing Piera again filled her with mixture of anxiety and dread, but the woman simply let out a sigh of defeat. "Tomorrow night, on Floor ten." She offered him the details available to her with a small shrug. For some reason, though she had been the one to bring up the topic and had essentially extended the invitation to him, she was less than enthused at the thought of actually attending.

His next words caused another look of disbelief to coat her expression. She looked at him again, taking in the devilish smirk that he wore, and her brow narrowed with an unamused stare. "Huh?" She asked flatly. "And why are you so interested?"

After a big of verbal prodding on Aereth's part and a clear intention that he wasn't going to drop it until she showed him the costume Piera had sent her, Teion let out an exaggerated, irritated sigh. "Alright, alright, fine." She grumbled, uncrossing her legs and pushing herself to her feet beside the fire. After demanding that the man turn his back, and with a glare that seemed to say she might very well kill him herself if he so much as thought about letting his eyes wander, Teion held a look of reluctance and irritation on her face. She had dragged the attached clothing to an empty slot of her inventory space before dismissing Piera's message and pulling up her equipment menu. A small wave of discomfort ran through her as she poked at the menus to dismiss her clothing. Quickly panning back to her inventory, she selected the Cutthroat Captain outfit and the garment materialized over her form. She exhaled and looked down at the outfit, feeling the wide-brimmed hat that had appeared over her violet locks. Her hair spilled over her shoulders, looking rather messy as it fell over the busy pirate-themed attire, and Teion began to tuck the strands behind her ears and pull her hair into a neat ponytail. "You can turn around now." She mumbled, her hands busy securing the hairstyle behind her.

[Aereth 1]

The smirk grew bigger as Teion mentioned all the details of the event. Oh, how she would be going there. And maybe he could use the opportunity to finally get her to leave him. She was invited by some friends and Aereth would make her go there. 

"Good. Like I said, you will go there. Meet with you friends, have a good time. Will be good for you. And why I am interested in you costume? I'll tell you after I saw it." Aereth said in a serious voice.

When she demanded that he should go and turn around, Aereth simply let himself drop to the floor, laid on his back, and watched the night sky so he couldn't see her anymore. While she changed her clothes, Aereth mused. "You know... Back in the real world I almost never paid attention to things like the night sky. Not that I would have managed to see anything from it in the city I lived, but still.... Now I would give anything just to wake up from this cruel nightmare to see a real night sky. With real stars...." After that he closed his eyes. "Aaah. Sorry for rambling around..."

Teions voice snapped him out of his trance though. He raised his upper body to get a good look of the purple haired pirate. She looked cute. Her violet colored hair in a ponytail. The small vanity dagger on her leg....

When he didn't say anything for a couple of moments and noticed the stare of Teion, which was almost saying. "For f*cks sake, tell me why you were so interested in seeing it." 

Aereth put on a serious expression and started to elaborate. "Well... Seeing that outfit is of major relevance and very important for me, due to being a tailor but..." Aereth paused a few moments. "...but mainly I just like to see cute girls in cute outfits. Looks good on you." He added with a smug grin on his face. What was even more interesting for him that seeing her in the actual costume, was how she would react to his explanation. 

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Her hands fell to her sides once her long hair was secured behind her. The woman shifted her weight, placing a hand on her hip as she stared at Aereth with the same unamused expression as he looked over her form. His own features shifted, and he started going on about something as if he wanted to study the piece of equipment as some kind of research. She took on a skeptical look, about to open her mouth to criticize his reasoning when he continued with a cheeky comment, insinuating that she was--or at least looked--cute. His words caught her off-guard, and the impish grin he wore caused her lips to purse. Her chest rose with an inhale as she glared at him, unable to prevent the light pink shade that crawled over her cheeks. Rather than yell or snap at the man, she simply ignored his 'compliment', closing her eyes with a furrowed brow as the air left her lungs in a huff.

"That's it. If I'm going, you're going. And you're dressing up, too." She demanded, folding her arms over her chest. She would have changed her outfit back immediately, if Aereth hadn't been propped up to face her with a sly grin plastered on his face. She pulled the hat from her head, letting the captain's garb drop to the ground beside her as she took her seat once again, cross-legged beside the fire. "So I hope your extensive Tailor knowledge is good for something." She placed an elbow on her knee and set her chin in her palm, staring expectantly back at the man.

[Aereth 1]

There it was. The thing he was looking for. The faint pink blush on Teions face. And he even managed not to get slapped in the face, which was also nice. When the purple haired pirate then demanded that he had to go with her, his amusement turned quickly turned into fear. He wanted to use the party to vanish from her side, and now she wanted to take him with her? 

"No way. I can't go to that party. One: I'm not even invited. Two: I don't even have a costume." Aereth said in protest as he took a seat at Teions left. Oh no, he wasn't going to loose this argument. His decision was made. 

"I mean, I could still go as a hangman, right?" Aereth joked halfheartedly as he stared back at the woman. 

Suddenly he felt the temperature drop and a deadly aura worked its way to his bones. He didn't need a clue to know what was causing him to feel these things. "Too early?" he almost whispered.

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Her fingers were curled and pressed into her cheek, the color of embarrassment faded and gone by now. He was suddenly grasping for reasons that he "couldn't" go along with her. She simply stared at the man as he sat down beside her, cocking an eyebrow at his lame excuses. "One: You're my plus one. Two: You're a Tailor, remember? Suck it up and take the two seconds to craft yourself one. " She didn't hesitate to shoot through his flimsy arguments. "Besides, I thought you liked parties." The blacksmith said casually, knowing full well that he hadn't actually admitted so.

He made another remark, and it took a moment for the weight of it to seep into the air. Here they were, one day after a very real attempted suicide, and he was making a joke about it? Teion practically began to seethe as her jaw tightened. Her shoulders turned to face the brunette beside her and her right arm raised into the air. She brought her bare hand across Aereth's cheek with a resounding slap, knocking a couple of points from his HP bar. Her chest puffing while she glowered at him, maintaining her gaze for a few long seconds. Eventually, she turned back towards the fire and rested her arms against her knees, letting out the breath that mixed with a tiny scowl. "Yes." She answered simply and flatly.

[Aereth 1]

Suddenly Aereth felt a tingling sensation on his cheek and his health points dropped a little bit. Aereth huffed. "Too early... But you're lucky that I'm orange, girl...."

"Yes I am a tailor, but I'm no magician. Even the best tailor in Aincrad would need more than one day to craft a whole Halloween costume. And besides that, Players like me aren't very welcome at such parties, for... obvious reasons..." the brunette said in defense. 

But looking at Purples face, made a wave of guilt wash over over him, so he sighed. "Women... Eyes... Guilt... Cute... Purple..." he whined as he threw his hands over his head.

"Fine. I'm coming with you. But I choose my costume..." It was always the same. As soon as a woman was wanting something from him and looked at him with those eyes, it was over. He hated nothing more than cute and beautiful faces with sad expressions.

"You don't have something like a scythe you don't need anymore, lying around somewhere?"

@Teion

[Teion 0]

"Tch, very lucky." She scoffed under her breath. She wondered for a moment if she would've taken the punishment of a temporary orange cursor she he been green when she struck him. Quite possibly.

She cocked an eyebrow once again when he told her the it would take anyone a generous amount of time to craft a costume. "Really?" The word wasn't really a question, but rather an expression of her skepticism. If she was expecting stats on it, she could see his argument. It sometimes took her several tries over several days to get a piece of metal into the right rarity and with the right enhancements she wanted. But vanity pieces she could make without much effort, as long as she had a design in mind. And for Teion, she never seemed to have a shortage of sketches for all types of weapons, armors, and shields.

While she might've been a skilled blacksmith, she didn't know the first thing about tailoring. She didn't push the point any further, and a twinge of guilt struck her when he mentioned the attitude other players had towards him. Before she could mull it over and change her mind, however, Aereth seemed to give in first. She was surprised to hear him agree, and when he inquired about a scythe she shot him a sideways glance that held the smallest bit of intrigue before casting her gaze back to the campfire. "Yeah, I've got a few basic versions of the one I use now." Since she hadn't wielded or even equipped her weapon before meeting Aereth, and so she didn't expect him to know anything about her build, profession, or other points outside of the level she had told him yesterday. "We can swing by my shop tomorrow morning." She straightened her spine, placing her palms on her knees before shifting and standing herself up. "Now turn around so I can get back to some normal clothes."

[Aereth 1]

Aereth sighed as Teion mentioned how she was very lucky that he was orange and thought back a couple of weeks when he met another certain blonde with a temporary orange cursor. "You have no idea how sh*tty it is to walk around with an orange cursor if you aren't used to it. I had to grandmaster a whole f*cking skill in order to be able to switch floors without walking through the labyrinth all the time."

"Yeah. Just this one time. And now stop looking like that, its making me wanna cry." Aereth said to Teion while she still wore that sad expression. "Don't worry I'll find something that will work." he said with a dark chuckle. Yeah it was easy to make some vanity items real easy, but Aereth had no ideas on what to make. The only thing that came to his mind was something almost as equally morbid as his first suggestion, but not as obvious...

"And awesome. I just need to borrow one for tonight, I'll give it back to you afterwards. You fight with a scythe? I didn't even know this was a thing in here. What skill are you using for it?" Aereth asked curiously after he heard that Purple was a scythe user.

@Teion

[Teion 0]

"Mm, yeah." She answered simply, bringing her up menus and scrolling over to her equipped items once again. The woman dismissed the pirate-themed costume and panned over to the same basic clothing items she had worn at the inn the night before: a pair of dark brown leggings and a green loose knit top. Before she was finished, Teion selected an item that was sorted with her combat equipment. She pulled Waning Crescent from her inventory, the large scythe with an ivory handle and hooked blade. With accents of black and a tendril-like design along half of the metal blade, she flipped the weapon upside down so that the heavy bladed end rested against the dirt floor. The small blue gemstones spread along the weapon's design emitted a soft, pulsing glow, and Teion would release her grasp on the handle if Aereth had wished to inspect the item.

"I use two-handed battle axe, but I wanted to try getting creative." She shrugged, running a hand through her long hair a couple of times while she pulled the locked in front of her right shoulder. Once Aereth no longer seemed interested in the item, she returned it to her inventory and turned her attention back to tying her hair. Just as the night before, she went through the familiar motions to twist together a loose side-braid that she tied off with a navy blue ribbon. She sat herself back down, eyes flickering to the bottom corner of her vision to check the time. It was getting late, though for whatever reason the feeling of exhaustion hadn't caught up to her. She really wasn't looking forward to another restless night.