<F1-PP> Trial by Fire

[Embers 0]

Embers made her way back to the 1st floor, and found herself in a certain field surrounded by boars. She had opted to come, here of all places, due to a set of memories. Specifically, linked to a certain person who she was meeting. While Embers often actively avoided being sentimental, given she saw Telrenya as a little sister of sorts, she couldn't help but have it infect her heart. Part of her hated it, part of her wondered if that had always been a part of her. 

She had organised to catch up with Tel on the floor,  it had been some time since she'd seen the other girl and couldn't not be curious about her progress. She had heard a lot, and all of it was good. Tel was powering up quickly, a lot quicker than herself at any rate, and had gotten into one of the stronger guilds. She found herself smiling at that knowledge, although it did mean she had to keep her distance for now. All of people, she knew her emotions and how quickly they could flare up. She wouldn't damn Telrenya because of them. 

The girl sat herself down, unequiping her armour. Her clothes were a simple shirt, camo pants and boots. Her typical 'hiking' gear back in the real world, plus it felt a lot more comfortable to just relax in than her damn stuffy armour. Stuff did its job on the battle, but to relax? Urgh. 

@Telrenya @Jomei

[Telrenya 0]

It had been a while, but Telrenya always seemed to find herself coming back to the Town of Beginnings for one reason or another. The city was almost nostalgic in itself, being the longest-standing landscape in Aincrad for players to grow accustomed to. She'd met a lot of people on this floor, and assumed that she would meet many more before their collective adventure would finally be over. Stretching her arms over her head, the blonde stepped down from the teleport plaza in the center of town, giving the front of her pleated white skirt a couple of of quick brushes to needlessly smooth the material. She wore a smile of excitement, one that she had been holding onto ever since she received Embers' message earlier that morning. It had been too long since she had spent some time with the fiery redhead who had helped her so long ago. Keeping in touch was all well and good, and the game's messaging system left them just a few keystrokes away from conversation, but Telrenya felt that a meet-up was long overdue.

Having let Jomei know of her plans to catch up with her friend, her eyes naturally flickered to the top-left of her vision at the thought of the Irishman. They landed on his username, and the familiar green bar that represented his health in her party display. She wondered if the man would spend his time relaxing at home, or if he would make other plans while she was out. A softer smile graced her lips at the hint of curiosity, and the thought of inquiring about her fiance's day as they might enjoy a meal together later caused it to stretch a little wider.

Telrenya passed through the gates that led to the first floor's wilderness, the rolling plains giving her an impressive and unobscured view of the landscape. It seemed there weren't many players that spent their time farming the lowest-level of monsters down here anymore, as she could only spot a figure or two in the distance, slashing at boars and wolves that roamed the fields. Spotting an unmistakable head of vibrant red, Telrenya perked and pushed herself forward to close the distance between herself and Embers. Giving the woman a wave once she was sure the other player would have seen her approaching, she called out. "Hey Embers! Aahhh, it's really been too long, how have you been? Are you doing alright?"

[Embers 0]

Embers attempted to turn her mind off, to simple sit where she was without some stupid thought going through her head. Annoyingly, it proved useless. Damn Hestia has really gotten into her skull recently, making her think about stuff. Not about her conscious, but making her awefully aware of how different she was to people. She thought she was used to that thought, yet it ate away at her while she was stuck in silence, and a silent rage burned through her chest.

“Damn girl, gunna have to kick her teeth in…” She muttered as she glanced up. Perched on the branch above her was Rowan, Embers’ Familiar. The White-Tailed Hawk was watching around, and spotted Telrenya long before Embers dd. The bird let out a squak, which made Embers look up. Spotting Telrenya, Embers face formed a smile. She stood up, 6 feet as she clicked her tongue. Rowan, with a single flap of his wings, hopped onto Embers shoulder as she walked forwards to greet Telrenya.

“T!” She called out, putting her hand out to quickly slap the other girls hand “Too long indeed. It’s goin’ well. Been spendin’ time with that guild person of yours, Hestia. She’s….” Embers paused to try find the right word “…annoyingly talkative sometimes, even if she does mean well…” Embers tilted her head at the other girl “What about you T? Surely, in that big guild of yours, something’ has happened to ya?”

[Telrenya 0]

A chuckle bubbled up from Telrenya's chest when she was met with Embers' enthusiastic greeting. She was a touch surprised to hear a familiar name brought up so quickly, but her chocolate eyes drifted upwards as a thoughtful expression took over. She had few experiences with Hestia, despite the woman being one of her guildmates. In fact, most of her encounters with the raven-haired tank had been while Telrenya wasn't necessarily considered 'herself'. Bringing her hand to the nape of her neck, her lips curled into a pursed smile. "Hmm, yeah, I suppose I can see that." She mused with another half-chuckle.

The tall redhead soon turned the question back to her, and while Telrenya had a slew of questions she wanted to ask in the thought of catching up with the woman, she simply couldn't suppress one topic that that seemed to be burning up inside of her. Her cheeks burned a faint pink as her eyes darted to one side, bashfulness taking over her for a moment as she tried to figure out a way to broach the topic that she wanted to rush into. "O-oh, well, you know..." She caught herself stammering, and a small laugh of tangled nerves spilled out of her. The blonde gave a quick clear of her throat before trying again. "Uhm... I've told you about my guild leader, right?" She recalled the few messages she'd exchanged with Embers in the past when her guild was first created, and it wasn't until just now that Telrenya hoped that she didn't sound too suspicious when describing her encounters with the Irishman so many months ago. "Well, we've, kind of been seeing each other for a while now." The realization that she was revealing the beginning of the relationship between herself and Jomei all the way up to the point they had reached now in a single exchange finally hit her, and she felt an odd twinge of guilt and embarrassment at the reveal that she had been so excited for moments ago. Even so, the girlish enthusiasm inside of her was enough to overpower any second thoughts, and she impatiently skipped ahead in her story, picking up her other hand to show Embers where she was going with the topic.

With her fingers lightly curled, she held out her hand to display the rose gold piece of jewelry that sat on her left ring finger. Her eyes finally landed back on Embers' face, watching her features to gauge what sort of reaction her friend might have to the news while she unwittingly held her breath in a moment of anticipation.

[Embers 0]

Embers noticed it almost instantly. T was acting differently, or at least, odd. One thing that Embers had noticed about the other girl was that she often didn’t break eye contact. And yet, T was doing it over and over. Suspicion started to mount within Embers, namely curious about why this was the case. A small part of her brain put her on alert for an attack, right as she dismissed the idea as stupid. This was Telrenya after all, what was basically her little sister. Even if Embers wouldn’t ever admit those words to anyone, it felt right to admit to herself.

“Leader….Jomie?” She asked hearing Tel mention the leader. She’d heard bits and pieces about him from Tel, mostly positive about him being nice and accepting. But their conversations hadn’t covered him a huge amount, partly because Embers didn’t see a point talking about someone she’d never meet, nor cared too as of when they had been chatting. However, that opinion shifted drastically hearing the news. Seeing each other, and.. Embers eyes instantly zeroed in on the ring. A ring. Embers didn’t care for marriage, hadn’t ever properly understood relationships and emotional support as she had never felt the desire nor need. Yet here was, what was to her, a little sister, committed to someone.

Embers face had made several expressions, a frown, slight smirk. “Is he hot?” was the first thing to come out of her mouth. It was around the ‘nicest’ things that would come from her. Embers didn’t like marriage, hated the idea of it. Yet she could see the happiness on Telrenyas face and she didn’t want to make fun of it. She wanted to support her, but not what she did. She took a step forwards, and regardless of how Telrenya reacted, pulled the shorter girl into a tight hug.

 

 

[Jomei 0]

The pressure that built up in Jomei's nose came unexpectedly. The slight tickle in Jomei's nostril's was finally relieved when he let out a sneeze that started his avian companion, who sat perched on the opposite side of the room. The sneeze was just a surprise to Jomei, being getting sick in this world was not a thing. Bringing his hand up to his face, Jomei scratched at the side of his nose with an extended pointer finger, "Sorry Adere, didn't see that one coming. Guess someone, somewhere, must be talking about me." the Irish man said with a small laugh, poking fun at the old superstition. After the owl recovered from the small start, it hopped off of its wooden perch and glided over to where the man sat on the couch, landing on his thigh. With a soft smile, Jomei brushed the brown owl's feathers back with his hand, "Guess its just you and me today girl, at least until Stel gets home."

Letting his head fall back to rest on the back edge of his couch, the ginger closed his eyes and took in a long breath, "Guess I could use the day to just relax.." he said in a soft voice as he exhaled. The sudden feeling of eyes peering at him caused him to lift his head again and look down. Poking through his chest was the ethereal figure that was Willow, Telrenya's familiar, with large eyes looking at the man. "Gah!" Jomei shouted, startled at the sight of the small ghost. "W-why are you here? I thought you would have been with Stel.." he spoke to the small ghost as he pat his, hoping it would help his heart rate go down. Despite only having two balls as eyes on its head, Jomei could feel the mischievous, mouth-less smile looking up to him. With a slowly growing smirk on his own lips, Jomei reached out a hand from his chest and tried to lay it on Willow's head. Jomei's palm went right through the ghost's head, and the small figure disappeared just as quickly. "Heh, still playing the shy game huh.." 

[Telrenya 0]

Telrenya's cheeks turned pink, her expression blank for a moment when Embers' first reaction was to question her fiance's level of attractiveness. "W-wha-- Before she could laugh and ask the redhead what kind of question that was as a response, she was pulled into a tight embrace. And once again, she was taken aback. The older woman was protective and passionate when it came to anything she bothered to care about, but affectionate or physically expressive were not ways that Telrenya would describe her in the slightest. Even so, after the shock wore off Telreyna was able to chuckle and bring her arms around to Embers' back. She returned the hug, giving her an excited squeeze before they'd part and she'd continue to wear a bashful smile. "Well, if that's what you're so concerned about... I think he's quite handsome, yes." Her mouth twisted into something akin to a pout as she muttered the words. While it must have been a girlish past-time, gushing about a crush, partner, or apparently even fiance wasn't something that Telrenya was used to.

Her right hand picked up, and she navigated her menus until she picked something out of her inventory. She and Jomei had taken plenty of 'pictures' together, using the game's screenshot feature on those occasions when they'd stumbled upon something particularly interesting, or even just when the thought struck them. Her finger stopped, hovering over one item that was dated December 25th. Her smile widened, turning into one of nostalgia, and she selected the item to allow the picture to generate between her fingers. She turned, bringing herself behind Embers to show her an image of herself and several other players, as if she had been holding a camera out in front of her to capture all of their images. A red-and-white Santa's hat sat atop her blonde head, and Jomei stood beside her in a forest-green sweater, his messy ginger hair obscuring his right eye as it always did. Telrenya would pass her index finger over the different faces, listing off the members of her guild that had gotten together for their little Christmas party. "Spencer saved my life when we first met." She chuckled, pointing out the tall, sandy blonde, "And Hestia and Kimi are super sweet. They're Performers like Jomei, and they all make such beautiful music. Ahh, y'know, Ruby kind of reminds me of you." She explained with a grin as she turned her eyes back to the redhead. "She's not afraid to speak her mind, but she's a sweetheart when you dig reeeeaal deep."

[Embers 0]

Handsome? Well, it was the best Embers was gunna get out of Tel if she was honest with herself. As the other girl flipped through her inventory, clearly hunting for something, Embers allowed her mind to roam, and found a question for herself. Would she ever find someone to fall in love with? To stay with, look after as they looked after her? She had to stop herself from laughing at herself. What a stupid thought to have.

‘Damn games getting inside my head. Me settle down, rather get a brand and seer my damn skin with a nazi-sign’ she mentally yelled to herself as Tel flipped an image around. It caught her by surprise, not that it was a photo of a guild gathering, but rather, how many of them Embers could actually put a name to. Hestia, Kimi, even Ruby. A smile emerged on Embers face, although not for happiness in that Tel had friends. Rather, Embers knew, Tel would be safe no matter what.

Hestia, Kimi and Ruby. They were reliable, to a degree. They would ensure Telranya was protected, or Embers would kill them for their failures.

The smile that was on Embers face grew as she took a deep breath “It seems you’ve really moved up eh T? High rankin’ guild, hell you’re so much stronger than when we met, and I ain’t talkin’ about your levels” In a private way, Embers found herself somewhat envying Tel’s life. Surrounded by people. “Still, that lot of yours, they’re good people. Gotta be if you’re hanging around them” Embers gently rested a hand on the other girls shoulder “We both know I don’t like trustin’ people I haven’t met. But honestly, I’m just happy you’ve found a place to come alive. Still remember first time we met, you were stuttering constantly. Now, well, i see a wolf, not some sheep”

[Jomei 0]

Jomei let out a small sigh, a bit saddened by Willow's shy antics towards him. Coming from the kitchen, the man heard a slight 'wooshing' sound, almost like a swirling, wind gust. Turning his attention towards the noise, he saw two, small orbs for eyes rise above the island counter top, playfully glancing at the ginger before hiding again behind the half wall. Raising a single brow, the man smirked, "So that's how its going to be huh?" Placing a hand on either side of the couch, Jomei slowly pushed himself up to a standing position and began to almost silently walk towards the kitchen. Then, moving all at once, Jomei lunged forward, placing both palms on the counter and leaning over to look past the wall "Gotcha!" he shouted, before realizing the ghost had disappeared, yet again. 

Another swirling of wind caught his hear from behind him, followed by a noise that almost sounded like a taunting giggle. Turning his chin to look over his shoulder, Jomei saw Willow's tiny head poking from the ceiling above the couch. "Ya know.. that's just cheating." he said with a chuckle, to which Willow responded with smiling eyes and floated from the ceiling to a spot in the center of the room, flipping right side up. Hoping to catch the ghost off guard, Jomei shot forward with his hands extended, nearly forgetting that Willow was, in fact, an etheral being and did not have a solid body. The ginger passed right through the familiar, trying to throw his arms around it in an embrace, and hit the ground with a thud after losing his footing.