[F22 - PP] <<What We Fight For>> Shield & Calypso - The Sound of Nothing

[Shield 0]

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Searching for Chest: ID# 105876 results: Loot: 17+8=25 - Chest Found!

Just as Shield was about to reassure her further, two things happened. One, a mirror beside them shattered, and behind its frame there appeared a single, simple stone chest. However, as he examined it, Shield could see no obvious seam for a lid, or even a keyhole for that matter. Opposite the chest, the wall swung inward, the two mirrors there serving as a set of double doors. The stone scraped through the mist across the smooth floor and banged open on the walls, sending swirling wisps through the air and up the floor. The opening revealed a second hallway. This one was bordered by heavier, thicker frames, each of which clearly also a mirror. From the darkness at the far end of the hall, Shield could hear a loud crash and the sound of loose springs twanging loose. A moment later, there was a howling scream of pain in his own voice. Even though pain was a thing alien to SAO, Shield could still feel the echoes of the ache that accompanied that dreaded memory arc across his face.

His hand, which still held Callie's, tightened instinctively. However, he took one look at her and knew what needed to happen. Facing forward, he set his jaw, girding himself for what was potentially in store. With a heavy breath, Shield strode forward. On either side, memories played in their respective frames. To his left, he sat at his computer, primitive VR headset equipped, as the nearby monitor displayed an epic guild vs. guild battle in Crossreign, the game where he and Beat had first been rivals. He was locked sword against shield with his now ally, his real life body twitching and reacting as if actually present in the game. On his right, he sat behind a desk, bent over a spreadsheet of information, manipulating columns and trying to make sense of the information on display. As they walked, several more memories just like the first two were playing in the vast majority of the frames.

It took some time before there appeared one that was notably different from the first two. On the left, there appeared a scene of Shield, though unmarked there by scars and face bare of facial hair, and he top of his head actually coifed and trimmed. On one arm there swung a young girl in a light yellow sun dress and on his shoulders, an even smaller girl in dark blue corduroy overalls. Beside them walked a woman with jet black hair, her body poised and composed, though with hints of tightness at the corners of her eyes and lips. Shield's face was nothing if not relaxed and contented, looking around at the park that surrounded the little family and alternatively down at the little girl whose fingers were wrapped around his thumb. The present Shield did not look. He knew the memory even without seeing it directly. It was one that he had replayed countless times since being trapped. Beyond that, in the next frame, he was sprawled on the carpet on a bedroom floor, the two little toddlers of different sizes tearing around the room in circles around their father. In the next, he sat beside a fallen scooter with a bottle and a box of bandaids, the little girl before him scratched and disheveled, wailing out in a muted scream of pain and sorrow.

He still did not look. He couldn't bring himself to do so. Even just looking over at Calypso was too much right now. In a slight mumble, he managed to croak, "Nobody in here knows about them, except for my old friend Piera, because she caught me when I wasn't exactly composed. Not even Beat knows."

Edited September 14, 2018 by Shield

[Calypso 0]

The piercing sound caused Callie to flinch, and her hand thoughtlessly squeezed his back. Her eyes, a bit tired but now dry, widened in fear that slowly turned into realization, and her brows turned up in the concern that followed. The knot in her stomach told her that she knew what was going to happen. She knew that down that hall their roles were going to be reversed.

She felt like an intruder, walking in on someone's life. Was Shield leading her down this way because he was giving her permission? Or had he already surmised that there would be no other way out of this place, and so the choice wasn't his after all? She gnawed gently at the skin of her bottom lip, stealing glances at the memories that they passed by. For her, it was hard not to look. But when they'd gone back far enough, she felt even more unsure about whether or not she should have. Shield was a dad. Everyone had a life that they'd left behind, but his included two little girls...and a wife? The woman only appeared briefly so far, but this certainly wasn't the time nor place to wonder any such things aloud. Callie felt a small lump in her throat as she swallowed when she heard him speak. It all made sense now. The reason why she always thought he was too focused on the game, too much of a stickler for buffs and builds and mechanics, too determined to push the frontlines and get out of this place. It was because he hadn't lost sight of what was important to him back home. She'd felt selfish for not wanting to clear the game before, but the pang in her chest now was stronger than ever.

"Shield, I..." She never was good with words when it came to sensitive topics. It seemed that, up until now, Shield was always the one who was comforting her, on the few occasions that she needed it. And while she knew that he wasn't the type to take to physical reassurance, she took advantage of their hands still holding on to one another to give his a small squeeze. "I'm sorry. I never even thought--" She stopped herself, unsure of where the words were going to end up. She exhaled, and spoke again softly. "Of course I wouldn't tell anyone." She assured, addressing the matter of secrecy as the only thing he had made comment on himself.

[Shield 0]

Shield shook his head. "I didn't expect you would. It's just something I can't have people holding over me. Having any amount of prominence in the game can make you serious enemies, and I'm sure I've made a few. Last thing I need is a vendetta following me into the real world and-" to the right, a screen displayed him in a hospital smock and mask, having a small infant placed into his arms. He quickened his pace. Again, from ahead, the crash and twang of taut metal followed by the unearthly wailing howl of pain. College, high school, elementary school, a childhood raced by on either side. He needed to get this over with. Finally, they reached another pair or double doors with mirrors on either one. The scenes were foggy, the echoes of memory from early childhood that almost had no substance left to them - sitting on a carpet floor in a yellow sweater with no other form or context, eating vegetables in a kitchen he barely remembered - playing out in parallel with blurry faces and windows devoid of any imagery beyond. With a lurch, the doors cracked ajar, inching their way to their full open position to reveal another rotunda, surrounded on all sides by mirrors. He stepped inside, tugging Callie along with him.

Directly in front of them, mirror Shield stood opposite the same woman from before, but bits of hair were hanging in her face and the tightness that had been hidden in her lips and eyes was now in her neck, her veins popping as she put her face directly in front of his. "For god's sake, be a man already!" she shrieked, more hair shaking loose from the tight bun that had once been tidy. "Where do you get off being so passive and leaving all of the decisions up to me!?" The clean shaven Shield went to open his mouth, but it was closed by a hand that came across his cheek hard. His face did not move. It only bore the same impassive look that had become his means of placating someone who could be set off by a smile or a frown at the wrong moment. "You're no father, and you're barely a husband! I have better things to do with my life than spend it here with you!" The woman wrenched something off of a finger and threw it at Shield's face. He flinched, and in his hesitation, she pivoted and made for the door, grabbing her keys off of the counter and a hand of each of the little girls who had been hiding around the corner of the counter. The younger girl shrieked, her curly mop of jet black hair that she had inherited from her mother shaking back and forth as she tried to refuse. The older's straight brown hair bounced with heavy, reluctant steps as she looked back at her father.

The dark brown eyes of past Shield came to life, realizing that his wife was taking the kids with her. He reached forward, calling out, "Wait, stop, you ca-" Without missing a beat, the woman wheeled about, releasing the hand of the younger child who collapsed onto her knees bawling. The woman grabbed the toaster that was still cooking slices of bread for the family's breakfast. With a powerful swing from the shoulder, she hauled it back. With the cord forced out of the wall, the mechanism inside released the bread, sending the slices flying back behind her. She then hurled the toaster at Shield's head, the outer plastic cracking with a snap, and a loud twanging of metal sounding as the hot springs inside of the appliance broke free from their brackets and whipped across his face. He stumbled back, his eyes clenched and flailing in all directions, both to feel for his surroundings and to defend from any other incoming attacks. There was a sharp snap of a door closing and Shield let out a roar of rage and pain, collapsing onto his knees and elbows as the wail persisted, fading to silence as the memory swirled away into nothing.

On one mirror beside the first, Shield with stood a bandaged face at the hospital, the clerk on the other side of the desk holding up the shared credit card and shrugging apologetically. The well meaning woman pointed him down the hall to the financial office where they could discuss other methods of payment. In the mirror on the other side, Shield and the now fully composed and triumphant woman from before stood before a judge, a very clean-cut, well groomed lawyer in an expensive three-piece suit beside her, and a wispy old man in a moth-eaten blazer beside Shield. The judge banged his gavel and the fine lawyer hired by draining the joint bank account shook his now ex-wife's hand. Shield hung his head, both in the mirror and in front of the mirror. Actual Shield grit his teeth hard, his eyes clenched shut in an instinctive attempt to block up the flow of tears. There were not many that escaped, but he felt each one of them and hated them. They fell onto the floor, lost in the mist with slight divots marking their passage before the surface gave way to the soft ebb and flow of the surrounding vapors. His fingers bit down into Callie's palm as he forced his breath to a standstill, not permitting the sob that had been building to escape. The first scene began again, and again the horror show began to play out before them.

Edited September 15, 2018 by Shield

[Calypso 0]

Callie hadn't even realized she was holding her breath until she felt the puff of air hitting her fingers again. Her hand had traveled back up to her mouth, trying to hide how it hung slightly agape at the scenes that played out before them. All kinds of regret and guilt and empathy twisted around to form a knot in her stomach that held her attention up until Shield's grip on her hand tightened. Not so much a gesture to her, or a request for support as a reaction to keep himself from crumbling. Callie's expression was first troubled, her brows turned up as she caught a glimpse of Shield's head hanging down beside her. Her head turned. Just like the first chamber, this labyrinth didn't show them any obvious means to exit, so trying to pull off the band-aid in a hurry wasn't likely. And really, she'd had enough of running away and avoiding things by now.

Thinking back to their passage from the first memory chamber to this second, Callie did the only thing she could think of by mirroring Shield's earlier action. She kept a firm grip on his hand as she turned back towards the more narrow tunnel of mirrors they had emerged from, pulling him along to the mouth of the room. Of course the sounds of the scenes that played on repeat behind them weren't entirely gone, but the distance helped them to fade into something more like background noise as Callie turned to face him again. She wanted to say something, but for a second decided against it. Instead she paused, gathering her thoughts until she forced them outwards, her eyes pointed at the blank space on the edge of a mirror beside them. "I'm sorry for being so hard on you. I never said it out loud, but I always wanted to groan or complain when I'd see how focused on the game you were. Everything was about stats and numbers. The only reason I haven't been so worried about you being on the frontlines is because I've never seen more than a scratch on you." The corner of her mouth picked up into something like a fond, reminiscent smile as her eyes briefly turned his way before she continued. 

"I was trying to forget about the real world, but you," Without thinking, her other hand reached forward to take his as well, and she found the courage to continue facing him. "You have something that you're fighting for, and that's incredible."

[Shield 0]

Shield was vaguely aware of of Callie's words, but he could not make himself hear them. It was something he would likely look back on and regret considering how difficult he knew it was for her to show any vulnerability, but every ounce of focus he had was dedicated to choking back everything that was inside of him. He had been putting so much of it out of sight, only focusing on the goal of getting another chance to raise his daughters again. However, at the fringes of that drive were the memories of what had separated them in the first place. His free hand came up and covered his scar. It throbbed with the dull memory of the pain that had once practically blinded him.

He had forgotten how much he hated that mark.

The hallway swam in front of him as he tried to see through the tears that were still forcing to make their way out into the air. He closed his eyes again. In the room behind, he could hear the muffled sound of his wife and daughters. He did not need to hear them distinctly to know exactly what they were saying. The words were already etched into him, like a scar all on their own, textured onto his soul like braille that his fingers had been trying to forget were there. He remembered now. He heard the crash and the slam of the door, and his stomach gave a lurch, causing him to double over slightly. He dropped to his knees, and as his memory self howled, so too did he, his artificial lungs empowered by the in-game howling mechanic. The mist on the floor parted and was swept down the hall. His mouth gaped, baring his teeth as sound and more sound poured from his lungs until there was nothing left but their echoes ringing down the corridor. The arm that was free from Callie's grip went to the ground, hiding the top of his head as he pulled in a full breath, the intake interrupted by an unruly diaphragm that caused his breath to sputter and half-way choke on the way in.

The floodgates were open now, and it was impossible to tell what was running from his eyes and from his nostrils as both made a mess of the front of his face. He shook with silent sobs that racked his whole body. He had tried his best to keep it all in, but all it had done all this time was build up. He sat hunched over the floor, his back heaving from the breaths that could not manage to enter his lungs steadily no matter how much he tried to control them.

[Calypso 0]

Callie blinked in surprise. She shouldn't have, but the reaction escaped her. She kept her hold on Shield's hand, almost instinctively, as his frame fell closer to the floor. A silly, ineffective attempt to keep him steady on his feet. The full weight of everything only now began to press down on her shoulders while it threatened to crush Shield across from her, and the only thing she could think to do was to press the palm of her hand against the back of the gauntlet that covered his. She bit on the inside of her bottom lip, eyebrows knit together and turned upwards while her eyes rested on him. He had always been stoic. Not cold, but usually closed off. Not detached, but sometimes distant. Keeping all of this baggage to himself for so long, it was a wonder that he was still sane. That is, until these memory mirrors worked to dredge up all the unwanted scenes of his past. Maybe subconsciously, she had wanted to forget about her old life, and maybe Shield had tried to block out some of his. But the pictures of those two little girls were left running through her mind--the brief scenes of his younger face filled with joy and love when he was with them that she had never seen before. He'd lost them twice now.

She could always tell that physical expressions of comfort or support were not something that Shield was very comfortable with. Even his initiative to take her by the hand and guide her away from her own set of haunting mirrors came as a bit of a surprise. But as the words she had mustered out had little to no impact, she felt lost for options. Now wasn't the time to worry about crossing boundaries, she thought. Callie dropped herself to a knee. She slipped her hands away from his, severing their connection for just a second while she moved her arms past his shoulders. Leaning forward, she carefully pulled him a bit closer to meet halfway. She stopped herself from gnawing on the skin of her lip while her chin rested on his armored shoulder. She stayed there, hands pressing lightly against his back, content to ride out the waves of emotion.

[Shield 0]

Shield felt the arm creep cross his back and the slight weight come to rest on his shoulder. Although he was still mired deep in the middle of the maelstrom, he felt Callie's touch. It was not enough to calm the tumult, but the storm did not feel as out of control. In the midst of it all, someone had thrown out the anchor. Without even being entirely aware of it, he leaned into her slight weight. Only a little bit. The tears continued to flow, but his sobs fell silent, only colored by the heaving breaths that fueled them. His back shook under Calypso's arm, but the power behind his quakes grew weaker and weaker as the once proud man slowly cried himself out.

As he came out of the worst of it, he became more and more aware of how unfamiliar the sensation of touch had become to him. His daughters had once hung all over him, swinging from his arms and climbing on him every time he sat still long enough for them to catch up to him. Now, this touch was entirely alien. But it was not unwelcome. With a slight hesitation, he lifted his hand and placed it between Calypso's shoulder blades, leaning into her partial embrace properly for a few brief moments before pulling back, drawing his lightly armored wrist across his nose with an unsightly sniff, trying his best to dry his face and his now bloodshot eyes. He sat back on his rear, his wrists resting on his knees. He wasn't quite ready to look at Callie yet, but he managed to croak out a few words.

"Sorry... Thank you."

He was not sure of those which he meant. Before he could figure it out, behind them, the sound of arguing picked up once again. Entirely by instinct, Shield threw his arms forward and rose to his feet, beating a quick retreat from the memory that had already plumbed out the depths of him like a bilge pump. His heavy feet thudded unevenly down he hall as his breath struggled to return to a somewhat normal cadence, which his sudden speed-walking was in no way helping.

[Calypso 0]

Her slight smile was forced, but Shield wasn't looking at it either way. Callie's brows were still turned up, her face displaying her desire to help--that strange but genuine want to ease a pain that she could hardly comprehend--but also her own misdirection. They had separated, and she was content to kneel in silence while Shield took the time he needed to compose himself before they thought about moving again. Somehow managing to slip from her mind, the yelling rang out again and spurred her partner to action. She flinched, though she couldn't tell if it was from the echoing memory jumping back to its beginning or Shield's sudden movement to put himself elsewhere. He moved past her, quite possibly on autopilot back down the long hallway of mirrors, and Callie hurried to rise back to her feet and take wide strides to keep up.

She opened her mouth to call out for him, perhaps ask him to wait or slow down, but she stopped herself before any sound escaped. Luckily it didn't take long for the sounds from the large chamber to fade away, but the stifling silence that they were left in was hardly any more desirable. Their footsteps were loud, that and their breathing the only thing to fill the eerie void. A glance to her left and Callie could see several copies of them hurrying down the long passageway. The dream-like visions of their past selves no longer populated the walls, and so the mirrors simply bounced their reflections back and forth. Her mouth tightened as she tried to catch sight of even half of his expression, watching the back of his head nervously when the attempt failed. Finally, after picking up into a jog for just a couple of paces, she spoke up. "I'm sorry." She hated those words, but she struggled to force anything else out at first. For a tortuously long moment all she felt was frustration. She always thought she was garbage at empathizing or emotionally connecting with others. She had preferred staying aloof. Knowing everyone on the surface was always good enough. But now that she had delved deeper, words failed. "I, uhm," She tried anyway. "I understand if it's, something you didn't want to share. But, well, what you said earlier..." She felt the tightness of her throat as she swallowed, and her eyes dropped to focus on the smooth stone floor between them as she had to actively fight back the tells that the emotional stability she had forced back together earlier was growing shaky. "I feel the same way. I mean, it doesn't change anything."

[Shield 0]

There were few things that needed to be said following Calypso's words of comfort. She may not have been particularly eloquent, but Shield didn't need eloquence. Callie had seen the worst of his worst and had treated him with care and understanding. That was more than he had known for quite some time. He attempted to swallow the lump that was in his throat. It did not budge. He sighed silently and lifted his eyes long enough to give Calypso a slow nod. He glanced around, still only partially aware that his feet had carried him so far so quickly. They were back to the fork in the tunnel where his own branch had split off from the first. To his left stood the empty frame behind which there still rested the locked chest.

Shield squinted towards the front of it, blinking away the last of the blurriness that the tears had left behind. Something was different. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the chest that had once been seamless and without keyhole now had both. A distinct lid rested on top of the body of the box, separated by a clear crack that ran all the way around it, and below it in the front was a large hole, clearly meant for some kind of key. His fingers dashed through the air, summoning up his character menu, and with a few taps, a single golden key manifested itself in his fingers. He held the key to the hole, and it vanished in a puff of gold dust. The lid popped open of its own accord and a display screen showed the contents of the chest.

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Using Golden Key & Opening Chest:

ID# 108496 results: Loot: 1+7=8

1,875 Col, 3 x T3 materials, 2 x rare consumables

Total Loot:

Col: 1,875
T3 Materials: 3
Rare Consumables: [108496a] [108496b]

Shield tapped the 'collect all' option, but the chest did not shatter as it normally would after being depleted of its contents. His brow furrowed, and he reached out, lifting the lid the rest of the way by hand to look down inside. In the bottom was a flat, rectangular something, or rather it had once been rectangular. A corner was missing. Given what Calypso had found after her own ordeal, he could guess what the item was.

He reached down with shaky fingers, peeling up the photograph and turning it over. His body gave a slight lurch, the lump in his throat threatening to come uncorked and let out more of his bottled up emotion. He swallowed it back down, blinking once again to clear his eyes as he looked down at the photograph. It was from his younger daughter's first day of school, where the whole little family posed outside of the school building. The girl of the hour rode atop Shields shoulders. Down below, Shield's hands rested on the taller shoulders of their oldest. The girls' mother stood beside them, though her face was missing, ripped away with the rest of the missing corner.

He stood admiring the picture, his eyes red and exhausted from unleashing the torrent from before, but still dry. "This was one of my favorite pictures back in the real world," he strained, trying to speak clearly through the lump that still clogged his throat. "And I actually did tear away that corner. It was hard to do, because I didn't want to damage it, but at the same time, I couldn't look at her face. It was too much. Too many bad memories creeping in to overtake the good."

Edited November 6, 2018 by Shield

[Calypso 0]

Callie's brows were still turned up when she came to a stop beside Shield. She peered over his shoulder with half-interest at first while he automatically pulled the spoils from the lone chest. Of course the slip of cardstock still sitting at the bottom caught both of their eyes, and she stood in apprehensive silence until Shield came forward with small, strained words. Callie fixated on the photograph for a short time, and though her expression still bore plenty of concern after the whole emotional ordeal, the corners of her mouth pulled up into a soft smile at the sight of Shield happily posing with the two girls. Her eyes were of course drawn to what was left of the fourth person standing in frame, but after his short explanation she settled back onto the smaller girl's grinning face. "Yeah," She started in understanding. "I never really, resented my parents," She had paused for half a second in order to pick out a suitable word, "But my brother was always like my best friend, especially after we were all grown up." She had to resist the urge to pull up her inventory and retrieve the image of her own family. There would be plenty of time to reminisce later, she told herself.

"They're adorable, by the way." She shifted the topic, still studying the smiling faces in the picture while her own grew a bit more genuine. She turned and shot a glance up to Shield and then gave a small nod of her head in the other direction to start herself walking again. She led the way this time but kept a relaxed pace now that the memory chambers no longer tortured them. The silence was still stiff, their reflections bouncing back and forth off of the mirrors standing the length of each wall beside them as they worked down the long tunnel that Callie hoped would lead them back to the staircase to the misty forest. "What's the hardest part, do you think? Of being a parent." She wondered aloud to keep the quiet from overtaking them. 

[Shield 0]

Shield let out a little half snort at Callie's comment. "You think I don't know it?" he jabbed, his breathing still a little unsteady, his chest not quite sure whether it was time to laugh or time to cry. He coughed to try to recenter himself. "The hardest part?" he thought aloud, though he did not have to think for long before the answer came to him. Still, it took him a few moments longer to come up with the words for what had always only been a dull, persistent ache before. "It's knowing that every moment they live is another moment you won't get back." His lungs were steady now, his breaths slow and even as the familiar feeling bathed his body, conjured at its mention and memory. "It's easy to think of changing diapers or tending to sick children, but those aren't reasons that parenting is hard. Those are the reasons that parenting is so important and so worth doing. What hurts... is the passage of time and seeing those moments slip away from you. It was true even before SAO. And now..." He did not feel he needed to finish the thought.

As they walked, he subconsciously clutched the picture closer to his chest, his eyes still far ahead of them. Even as they translated their vision into information he needed to continue walking without incident, his mind was not on the things before him. They were on the things he had left behind. As he shifted his weight to his right foot, he bumped his shoulder with Calypsos. The contact jarred him back to reality. He hadn't even been aware that they were walking so closely together. He set his eyes back ahead of them, not bothering to step further away. He didn't mind the proximity so much. It was... reassuring.

Ahead of them, the smooth stone doors stood as an obstacle. When they were only a few paces away, two spaces lit up on the faces of the doors, one in front of Shield and one in front of Callie. The device was not an unfamiliar one, and even without the extra clue, it would not have been hard to connect the dots, but as it happened, the patch in front of Shield had one corner missing. He nodded, holding out his photograph and pressing it to the shape in front of him, eclipsing the pale blue glow.

Edited November 6, 2018 by Shield

[Calypso 0]

Her eyes glanced to the side once when she felt the sudden contact, but paid it no mind. Hers was elsewhere, reflecting on his response. "I understand. A little bit, at least." She smiled wryly after his sentence hung in the air. There were only two years between her brother and herself, but she had often puffed out her chest as she took on the role of 'big sister'. More often than not her protective habits, nagging, and advice were surely more of an annoyance to the pre-teen boy that was just trying to grow up on his own, but there were fonder memories scattered forward and back that brought a smile to her face: smearing disinfectant on a scraped knee, and even his bright-red cheeks when she grilled him about his first date. They had grown up together, but nothing was stranger than realizing she couldn't lift him up on her back anymore and she'd never have to drive him to school again.

They came to a stop and when Shield presented his photograph to the soft glow of the double-doors Callie's eyes widened slightly. Her hand moved to a pouch at her belt where she had tucked the item away and retrieved her own memento. For a minute she didn't want to hold it forward. She stared back at her brother's stupid, grinning face and feared that the mechanism would [censored] the image away from her, and so she studied it, etching his features back into her immediate memory. Still, knowing that their progress was halted, she urged herself to extend her arm and held the photo up to her respective 'keyhole' of sorts.

The mostly-obscured lights pulsed once and the stone slabs in front of the shuddered. The color dimmed and the earth slowly dragged itself to either side, audibly scraping against the rest of what held it in place as the stairway was revealed to them once again. Much to her relief, Cardinal seemed to want nothing else from their pictures other than proof that they'd been obtained. The lighted squares disappeared before the rest of the stone doors slid into the tunnel beside them, and the pair was left alone with their prizes. Callie released a breath and started to climb back to the floor's surface.

The distant sky, which had shone bright blue with traces of pluming white clouds, was colored a beautiful muted orange that signaled the approach of sunset. The trees of the forest that surrounded them were still thick enough to prevent much of a view, but the thick, eerie fog that had hugged their trunks had thinned considerably since their descent. "Guess we were gone for a while." She thought out loud, absentmindedly fidgeting with the corner of her photograph before carefully tucking it away again.

[Shield 0]

Shield followed suit, tapping his own picture and stowing it in his inventory for fear of actual damage. He stood at the top of the steps for a moment, letting the spell of the dungeon slowly ebb away. He took in a long breath and then another, each time letting he cool air bring him a little closer to his right state of mind. Before long, it was like nothing happened at all. Or almost like that. Looking over at Calypso, he knew that not everything was as it had been before. He saw her in a new light, despite his claim that he did not see her any differently. Or perhaps it was best to say that he did not see her as any less. She was more real, more tangible somehow. If he were to reach out his hand, he almost felt that he would feel something other than a simulated sensation of skin or cloth. Somehow, she almost seemed more solid.

As he thought to himself about sensations of touch, he felt something touch the bare skin of his calf and he practically jumped all the way out of it. "Lilith!" he hollered, half dancing on one foot as he tried to shake off the sensation of the discomfort at having something scaly and cold-blooded touch him directly on non-exposed skin. "For the love of god, warn me before you do that!" At his ankle, her tail was just vanishing up the cuff of his pant leg. He shuddered with a discomfort that he was very glad not to have to describe as she moved up past his legs and finally came to rest in his sleeve. "I think she missed me," he groaned, forcing himself to be calm now that she was still. "Why do I keep ending up with such weird pets?"

Edited November 7, 2018 by Shield

[Calypso 0]

Callie jumped, almost as surprised by Shield's sudden exclamation as the man himself, and turned to catch him shifting uncomfortably while his familiar made herself comfortable. In a short moment of comic relief she chuckled, welcoming the viper's distraction from the heavy hearts that the memory chambers had left them with. "Aww, cute. Speaking of--" She had just turned her head to survey the area for her own animal companion when Danesh reached her. Having snaked through the air at her waist, the half-dragon's paws landed on her clothing and tiny claws dug into her to serve as his holds while he scurried around, up her back, across her shoulders, and even up her seafoam hair to perch most of his long body atop her head. The sensation of the squirrelly creature scampering over her and the little pricks of his nails caused Callie to squirm, turning a full circle in place while she tried to catch Danesh with her eyes. "Hey--Dani! Gah, what's gotten into you?" Once still, he held his head high at alert while his beady onyx eyes stared intently at Shield's avatar. It wasn't until he must have spotted the flick of Lilith's tongue whipping through the air between the cuff of his sleeve that Danesh relaxed, laying his head down and nestling into the crook of his own half-curled body.

Callie let out a huff of air, shoulders dropping in slight relaxation. She gave half a smirk in Shield's direction. "Okay, I deserved that." A hand reached up to lazily stroke the tail that spilled down along the back of her head. As glad as she was that both Danesh and Lilith were fine and back in their possession, she took a moment to realize that she was equally glad they hadn't been accompanied to whatever rooms and hallways covered in strange mirrors down there. A melancholy hung over her, and she wasn't sure if she should embrace the reflection of the whole ordeal or push it away. A quick, almost nervous glance in Shield's direction and she was hit with a pang of guilt that told her she had already been doing the latter for long enough. Callie gave a quick clear of her throat, in part to commit to getting words out after. "Well, should we head back to town? We might even catch the sunset on the way back. Maybe take a minute to unwind." She suggested in half-sentences, attention focused on the spaces between the trees to their side rather than Shield himself.

[Shield 0]

"Unwinding sounds nice," Shield answered, pulling his sleeve open a little further. "What do you think, Lilith?" The little serpent stared blankly back at him and gave a little flick of her tongue. "Looks like a yes to me," he said, motioning for Calypso to follow. He led them out of the forest, beyond the reaches of the last remaining wisps of the fog that had been their constant companion through the trials below ground. The meadow where Shield had waited for Callie sat empty, the slight breeze sending crisp waves through the standing grass as the virtual sun sank lower over the horizon. Shield wandered over to the hill where they had sat before and leaned forward, bending his knees and settling his backside down onto the grassy hill.

"This was... a lot," he said, his voice showing some of the toll that the last few hours had taken on him. His tears were dried and his voice was steady, but it was beginning to sound raw, as if he had used it a little too heavily. He was not looking at Calypso. His eyes were elsewhere. Although they were pointed towards the horizon and the sleepy little town of Coral, they were not seeing any of what was in front of them. Down by his wrist, Lilith slithered free and moved up onto his knee, curling up and angling herself to catch as many of the sun's rays as she could before it sank out of view. "I'm glad I wasn't alone for it. It was... embarrassing... but it would have still been much harder if it was just me in there facing those demons. I might still be slumped in front of those mirrors." He did not explain which ones he meant. It was obvious enough that he did not need to say more, nor did he wish to. Lilith's slitted eyes turned up towards his own and she continued tasting the air, her forked tongue darting in and out of her mouth and swishing silently through the air.

In his head, Shield was trying to muster up the words 'thank you,' but his pride was already severely bruised. Further admitting the need for help in his moment of weakness was going to be a challenge. He would get to it. Eventually. For now, he was not upset about the idea of silence, at least for a time.

[Calypso 0]

She embraced the quiet during their short journey back to the open fields, for there was not nearly as much tension looming in the air as there had been before. As Shield bent his legs and took a seat in the grass, Callie followed suit. She left an arm's length between them and pulled her knees loosely inward while she brought her hands to rest over bare shins. With all the movement Danesh finally abandoned his post at the top of her head and climbed down her shoulder to hop to the earth below. He circled in place a couple of times, curling up for a short nap at Callie's side while the two recovered from the day's ordeals.

Her lips pursed slightly, a tightness that meant that she wanted to say something meaningful, but couldn't. It was such an unproductive feeling; the extension of another person's sadness, and the small ripple of helplessness at not being able to ease the pain. "Me too. I mean, I'm glad you were there to talk some sense into me." She at least acknowledged her own gratitude out loud. A minute or two of quiet passed them by, a soft breeze rolling through the little hills and ruffling the grass as well as their hair. The sunlight was starting to disappear, and the colors in the sky very gradually shifted from hues of orange and pink to muted grays before the darkness of night would take over. "It was about eight years before this game, I think. So I've had a while to get used to it, but... Relationships were never easy. I got into games and online communities because I could connect with people without that barrier." Talking felt nice. It was a needless explanation, throwing bits of her life beyond Aincrad out into the air, but that didn't matter. If he would listen, opening up on her own terms was comforting. "I haven't wanted to leave the game for a while. It wasn't until I was threatened that I felt any sense of urgency to level up--pad my numbers so I could survive--and that's about when we met. But I always figured, if and when we got out of here, it's all going to be shut down. VR games might still be a thing, but any this full-dive stuff probably lost any hope of funding the day after we all got stuck in here. That's all I was thinking about, anyway.

"It was selfish, and I'm both sorry and not sorry." A short pause, and she wasn't sure how to continue. It felt as though there was nothing else for her to say, and yet she didn't want to fall silent just there. She gave another quick clear of her throat to clear away the hint of awkwardness, though it only really served to point it out. "But thank you, for listening. It's making the whole, internal conflict thing a little bit easier."

[Shield 0]

Shield gave a slight nod, acknowledging her thanks. He took a breath and forced out his own in kind. "You don't need to thank me. If anything I should be thanking you. I was out of it - gone," he admitted. "I wasn't ready for all of that, no matter how much I was aware that it was coming and how much I tried to be prepared." The silence fell between them again. On his knee, Lilith lost her patience with the lack of sunlight and slithered down into the grass and up onto Danesh. She dug her way into her favortie snowy white napping spot, curling up once again to try to absorb and conserve as much heat as she could.

"I understand why some players don't want out," he admitted with a sigh. He rested his elbows on his kneecaps and leaned forward with arms folded. "The world isn't a kind place, and to those with extreme difficulties this is... a second chance. It's a fresh start where we all came in as starting characters at the same time. There's a lot of appeal to that." He looked up into the gathering dark. The brightest of the pinprick points of starlight were just emerging in the early night sky. "But I that luxury isn't something I care about anymore. Every moment is one I can't get back. Hell, once I get out, I'll still be too atrophied to even lift my daughters. Then again... it's going to be a fight just to see them again. My wife took full custody, and while I may not be disallowed from seeing them, if I know her, she's going to do everything in her power to make that difficult for me."

He was beginning to get worked up again. The pulse was beginning to throb in his ears, and he had to take a moment to stop and breathe before he went on. "In any case, like you said, it's made getting out a little bit of an obsession. But that doesn't mean I'm in a hurry to get away from the people I know in here." His dark eyes shifted over to Callie and he gave a very brief little twist of the corner of his mouth. From deep inside Danesh's tangle of hair, he saw a little tongue flicker out into the air and then retract, and he could almost feel Lilith's judgmental eyes on him. He looked away, hiding a slightly sour look on his face.

Smart-ass snake...

[Calypso 0]

Callie nodded along, following and agreeing with his understanding. As he continued and she kept her eyes focused on the shifts in color on the horizon as the sun disappeared from view altogether, her expression changed first into a frown. Assuming they made it out of here alive, Shield's battle would be far from over. Each and every survivor would likely need months of physical therapy, if not more than that. Minors will have lost what could be years of coming into the world, set back on their studies and unable to enter most job markets. The world itself will have changed, and they'll struggle to catch up and secure a grip back on the normalcies of life. It was depressing, and demoralizing. Callie pursed her lips, trying to put together the right words to say when he started again and she felt his eyes on her. She looked over and briefly met them, catching the look on his face.

It was unfair to say that Shield never smiled, but it was not wrong to say that it was rare to find him in a position of exchanging heartfelt sentiments. She found herself smiling back, unaware at first and quickly facing back forward and lowering her gaze while the upturned corners of her mouth held their position. She felt almost bashful for a moment with the short exchange, but found her senses quickly enough and shifted herself slightly, pressing her open palms into the grass behind her and leaning her weight back. It took a second, but she found the courage more quickly than she would have thought. "Yeah... I can't say there's anyone else I've met here that, well, I wouldn't mind seeing again when it's all over with."

[Shield 0]

"That sounds nice," Shield said, slumping back onto the grass, arms outstretched.  His back began to slowly relax as it released tension he was not even aware he had been holding onto. A sudden wave of exhaustion began washing over him. It was as if his body had been wrung out in the dungeon, and only now in the calm and there gathering dark would it admit how drained it was. His eyelids felt heavy. "Hey, Callie?" he said, his voice struggling to remain at audible levels. "Can you wake me in like... five minutes?  I think I just need to close my eyes for a second. The trip back home seems so far, and even so, I think I'd rather not be left by myself just yet."

His mouth was on autopilot for the last half a sentence, and by the time he had finished it, he was already breathing deeper. His chest rose and fell steadily, and his eyes were closed. Lilith slithered off of Danesh and draped herself and her thick coils over Shield's throat, acting as a little living scarf and perhaps even an extra layer of protection. It was unusual, both for him to be so trusting and for him to let his guard down in public like this. Were he more alert, he might have thought better of it, but he was too far gone for all that.

Edited December 10, 2018 by Shield

[Calypso 0]

"Hm?" She hummed lightly when her name was called, gaze drifting over to Shield while he sleepily spoke. His exhaustion came as a bit of a surprise, though she couldn't say she didn't share in the feeling. As she watched him finish his thought and was left to wonder whether he'd really fallen asleep so quickly, a small smile grew on her lips the longer he lay still. She looked at him fondly even after Lilith had made her way back over and settled herself on his avatar, letting out a sigh and carefully repositioning herself on the grassy field. She scooted just a bit closer, leaning back onto her hands and looking back up to the starry sky now that the orange glow of sunset had given way to the deep blue of night.

"What a day..." She muttered to herself. "What do you think we should do now, Dani?" She spoke quietly, dipping her chin back down to glance to her own familiar as she felt him crawling up onto her lap. His head raised, and beady black eyes looked back up at her for a second before his mouth opened into a wide yawn. "Okay, but after that." She chuckled softly with a shake of her head. "I guess... We get back to it, huh? I'm not exactly frontliner material, though." The more she dwelled on the thought of big monsters and boss fights, the tighter the knot growing in her stomach became.

Five minutes turned to ten, then twenty. When Callie finally felt her head lull forward with the heaviness of her own eyelids, she conceded the fight and turned to Shield beside her. She hesitated at first, but went on to gently prod his arm. "Shield? Hey, wake up, we should really get back to town or something." She said, fighting back a yawn.