[F1-PP] Freyd edges of memory (TFLAF)

[Nisahime 0]

Finding her way back having faced all that would take her image, within her bosom a myriad of faces that mimicked her own. The town seemed ripe with activity with many a frame wandering about with no sense of direction, she understood what it was like. Still, no purpose held within her, she'd been piecing together what this place was with compliance given by the very same that could not harm her. A glimmered flash of white in her eyes as the Gemini flares in her head. "Perhaps the quest board should be your first course of action." it guides her, Morrighan sees what it was drawing her toward. "Wave your hand in front of it from left to right." As she does it responds and a pile of text jumps to bite her, lost looking at the list she'd have no bearing on what to take next for this was all a new experience for her.

Mochi - LD used for +3 LD

Nisa | HP:20/20 | EN:2/2 | DMG:1 | MIT:9 | ACC:3 | LD:6 | THRNS:9

Spoiler

Level:
1

Gear:
Metal Regalia (T1/Heavy/Rare): 9 THRN/9 MIT
Soul Tether (T1/Trinket/Perfect): LD III
Soul Bonding (T1/Trinket/Perfect):  ACC III

Skills:
N/a

[Freyd 0]

Freyd was enjoying a quiet morning coffee, chatting with Marv the Guard at the Town of Beginning's main gate.  It had become a bit of a ritual with him, and after his recent debates with Chase over the status and treatment of mobs in the game, he felt compelled to repeat it.  He'd been doing this since he first worked up the nerve to leave the confines of the safe zone.  Marv had never said a word, and never moved, save to repeat his pre-programmed yawn ever 60 seconds or so.  It didn't matter.  This was the closest Freyd felt to being 'normal' with anyone.  It was also a good way to keep an eye on happenings in the starting zone.  Few new players were starting out anymore, but late emergence was still possible.  He'd lingered here for years, himself, living under a cloud of fear that the system was out to get him.  He'd since confirmed that it was basically out to get everyone - not just him - which offered some marginal level of peace of mind.

His chosen vantage carried the quite deliberate benefit of a good view of the quest boards, where he currently spied a tall, white-haired woman.  Her manner of dress was unorthodox, to say the least, and therefore immediately piqued his interest.  But she seemed to be struggling with the interface, which was also odd.  All of Aincrad's players had been trapped here an equal amount of time, and the quest board was nearly the most user-friendly interface in the game.  How was she struggling?

"Sorry Marv," he said, halting his previous diatribe on the oddities of distance and dimension in the game. "It looks like someone might need a bit of help.  We'll pick this up next time I'm in town.  Say hi to the missus for me, will you?"  Marv just yawned, right on schedule.

Most newer players tended to react to his appearance with a certain trepidation and fear, which he found amusing.  Freyd's gear was chosen for function, which mainly involved being unobstrusive.  But, in daylight, he knew he looked more like a brigand or goon, especially with his cowl up.  If nothing else, their reactions told him something about them.  Hands in his pockets, but cowl still in place, he wandered over with a light smile on his face.

"You seem to be struggling.  Do you require assistance?"

Vanity Tag: @ChaseR

[Nisahime 0]

Sliding through and finding nothing that pertained to her specifically, it seems there was more at play here than a simple encyclopedia that would lead her to her. The struggle continues when a voice seems aimed at her directly, shifting softly casting the white hair on her head to glide over her shoulder. "You seem to be struggling.  Do you require assistance?" The voice asked of her to which she'd feign a smile as was customary of such an exchange. "Guided here under the pretense that this, these should offer me assistance. They show no such rights, no path to take other than what seems to be simple chores." Looking the male over he'd play the part of a villain in a tale rightly. "Your words hold not the cloth on your back, pity still you'll find no free penance in me if that is what you seek." The words soft spoken and graceful, a threat veiled well enough that to most it would seem a compliment.

Edited August 28, 2020 by Nisahime

[Freyd 0]

"Oooookay... yeah.  Simple chores they may be, but they're the best place to start.  As to penance, I'm all full up, but thanks for not offering." 

He took a moment to scroll up to the top of the list on the quest board.

"Here," he added bluntly.  "You'll want to start with the first lessons.  It's tedious as sh-... it's rather tedious, but the design is meant to gradually ease new players into the game mechanics."  He'd had to interrupt himself on the off change that she was actually younger than she looked.  Despite Kayaba's initial mirror-revelation trick, some people had learned to alter their appearance.  Others simply never looked their age.  Many took him to be seventeen, by his appearance, despite him being among the older population in the game.  The confusion worked in his interest, so he rarely corrected it.

He was about to turn back and finish his chat with Marv, but something about the woman's odd cadence of speech and choice of words had caught his ear.  

"You look a little lost.  Would you like me to accompany you on this quest... mission... thing?"  He pointed at the line on the display board, not being sure how best to describe it to her.

[Nisahime 0]

"A start." she'd tap the screen and with it a responsibility as it alters and fixes itself to her eyes. "Dreary or not, A step and a pluck of a string I am no stranger. Aincrad..." She'd whisper dragging her hand upon the wood just to feel the grain. "Lost, no more accurate expression. If you shall be my messenger, then I do the fabric no justice by denying your offer." Morrighan places a hand to her chest. "I am N..." she catches herself and corrects it, the change still fresh like a hastily removed bandage it was hard not to notice the sting. "Morrighan." she'd lean slightly forward with a bow. "So dear courier, thyne name be?" she'd stare back with an intense gaze, peering into his darkened cowl in search of eyes. What she sees was nothing more than a cover of intentional obscurity, one that she could yet break through.

[Freyd 0]

She sounds like a fragmented program.  Wait...

Freyd looked up above her head, staring at her green icon for a moment and waiting to see if it might flicker or give some other sign of falsehood or glitch.  Doing so exposed his plain and unassuming features beneath his cowl, including simple brown eyes and tussled, unruly hair.  Ever since he'd encountered the strange phenomenon of self-aware mobs with the capability of carrying memories into their next spawn, he'd also wondered at the possibility of them entering the game as player-entities themselves.  It would take countless iterations, nearly beyond measure, but if it was possible...

"Thyne?  Oh, mine?  Mine name be Freyd."  He quickly shared a part invite and instructed her on its acceptance.  "This will share some of the data you seek and allow us to more accurately view some of each other's metrics."  

Who was this chick?  Because she is definitely and odd duck.  Freyd's fascination was in overdrive.

[Nisahime 0]

She'd receive a notification prompt as the man she'd coined a prophet was revealed. A darkened brown locks in a scattered disheveling, proving him as human as those that surround him. "Freyd, then it shall hold its place upon my tongue." as she'd fake a smile as a form of happiness with a tap of acceptance, adding his name below hers on the left. She'd curtsy and look to the side of her HUD, unknowing and intensely gaining a deeper pull of what was to come. "Gladly kind sir, that garb betrays you. Ask away at any metrics you seek, I am concerned naught for I believe in the name you've provided is ample even if it were a falsehood." spoken from the woman for she cared not if the name he had given was not his own. "I must gather foliage, and return to this Zackariah. I will not question your scheme." She'd speak inspecting the side, leaving Freyd to read away.

[Freyd 0]

Translation matrix fried or something?  Maybe she set of initial configs wrong?

Freyd had never heard of anything like this happening to anyone, not that he was an expert in picking apart game settings from the inside.  If it persisted, it would seriously mess up her ability to navigate the game, communicate with others and quite possibly put a significant downward trend on her odds of survival.  The technical challenge alone had already garnered his interest.

"My garb betrays what now?"  Everyone's a critic, it seems.  "False name?  Oh, the avatar title.  Yeah, I guess we've all come to take them for granted.  It gives people a certain degree of identity protection, I suppose, not that it matter much while we're all stuck in here.  Wait.  You said your name was Morrighan, but your ID tag says Nisahime.  Looks like you're the one with the double-false name, unless Morrighan is your real ID.  Let's use Nisahime, nor 'Nissa' for short, unless there's a reason you prefer the other?"

He tilted his head like a confused puppy.  This girl was barely understandable, but she was also a puzzle, and Freyd struggled not to feel compelled to solve those.

"The uh... 'foliage', is this way.  We might as well walk and talk."

He waved to the guard with whom he'd been conversing.

"Later, Marv.  Keep smiling, bud."

Marv, who had never smiled in the entirety of his existence, continued not doing so.

[Nisahime 0]

Imparted with a cold approach on paper white skin, her emotions slip from her face leaving nothing more than an intense and locked stare. "With a mask worn, you would play the part of a crook. But such thieves prosper little from those without wealth. Curious, a majesty seen beside a coin that glitters gold?" She'd comment to his appearance, it did not show a lick of who he seemed to be through his words. "The shadow with my visage that becomes me, knew more of who I be than I had. My name scattered to the tempo returned through the exchange. She's at rest now within my core. The moniker" she'd hesitate on it "Was that which was given without my hand, a contract signed beside myself." plain as day without concealment she'd answer his inquiry, watching his head tilt in perplexity. "Lead the front, Freyd and I shall span your wake." she'd wave an upturned hand, handing him the reigns.

[Freyd 0]

"My mask serves a different purpose than you assume," Freyd replied bluntly.  If this woman had no filter, then he would converse in the same manner.

"The shadow with my visage that becomes me, knew more of who I be than I had. My name scattered to the tempo returned through the exchange. She's at rest now within my core. The moniker"

"The shadow with my visage..." he repeated, trying to decipher.  "Your Gemini?  ...within your core.  You killed it, I gather?"  Freyd vividly recalled recently regurgitating his own Gemini and watching it walk off into ash-covered woods.  The implication that it knew more about her than she knew about herself did not surprise him.  Not after his own experience, but the fact that she was so incoherent was concerning.  Could Cardinal be trying to hack a player?  He could not let her out of his sight until he knew.  The potential ramifications of such an attack could be devastating.

"Wait.... Did you kill it or make a deal with it?  Or Both?   Something is definitely getting lost in translation."  Shaking his head, he hoped that the context of a simple gathering action might help provide some added clarity and walked them out to the fields.

"Here.  You'll need to search for materials and gather them.  Like this."  His eyes kept scanning the area for signs of monitoring devices, sensors or spies., but there were none to find.

Spoiler

Found 1x T1 material.

 

Edited August 29, 2020 by Freyd - The Whisper in Shadows

[Nisahime 0]

Averting her eyes as Freyd took steps. "Than it isn't for display, but function. We should all be so fortunate." She'd listen as she walked with an outstretched hand, drug upon the walls and signposts to feel the world. "Gemini, Duplicate, Replica. All on point for what it was, but self no truer a title. We shared words, she shared answers and she lies within and offers me strength." She'd offer him no guise, with a flare in her eyes as she blinked them they'd be lit bright white. Leaning deep in emulation of Freyd in particular, she'd take to the ground. A gentle hand shows a prompt on her HUD, as it pulls exactly what she needed before any real exertion was shown. "One trivial chore down, if this is all that is required then this should proceed smoothly." she speaks to her escort, letting him feel his fingers to the vein and know where they stood.

ID# 166620 results: Loot: 6+6=12, Success 1*Quest Material

Edited August 29, 2020 by Nisahime

[Freyd 0]

Trivial chores indeed.  Something about this woman felt strangely... familiar?  She reminded him of his own unfiltered thoughts.  How refreshing.  Could he actually try turning them off... what could happen?

"Everything is governed by function - always, and especially here.  That which seems not to be is either distraction or deliberate falsehood."  He stared coldly at the pastoral landscape, mentally graphing yield potentials where others would see beauty.  It was the way he truly saw the world, but was compelled to pretend otherwise for the sake of those who could not understand.  The effort could prove exhausting, when prolonged, making solitude a necessary respite.

"Do not underestimate the value of these tasks.  They are simple, but provide considerable reward for minimal effort.  It is a balance to be mastered in this place.  Pacing is critical to performance and success, though this may depend on other factors."

Reaching down beneath several shrubs, he thought he'd seen a glinting stone, but found nothing.

"Your pattern of speech is very different than that to which I am accustomed.  It sounds like broken metaphors.  Why is that?"

Spoiler

No materials found.

 

Edited August 29, 2020 by Freyd - The Whisper in Shadows

[Nisahime 0]

"Then we stand unopposed, from the same side of this flowing river. Worrisome that there would be those who enjoy the pretty but worthless bobble, ever lusting and yearning over a speck in the dust that shines." Her attention shift in tow with his, looking to see what it was that he had. A pleasant scene of crops and wood structure, carved by man but lacking imperfection. This place lacked those small flaws that proved it was real, shown upon her face in a trance as she seemed to stare leagues. "Value, though is simply to the beholder. For I need no such reward for never a beggar nor lender I be. Those that would find comforts in strength find themselves complacent, a crown upon their brow may breed amenity. But no sooner taken should they find a greedy lust for more. It is to those that potential finds first that remain, those that forsake such a throne."

ID# 166624 results: Loot: 1+6=7, Failure!

"It is simply how my thoughts pass, why should I feign some language for the sake of another. If they naught understand, then the folly is theirs. A trifle fool that cannot understand me has not earned the right." she'd speak kneeling and squatting on her risen heels. Lifting up a piece of the ground in decayed brown. "They have no place upon the tapestry of the world." it scatters to data and flickers off on the wind.

Edited August 29, 2020 by Nisahime

[Freyd 0]

"You would create unnecessary peril and hardship for the sake of ego."  Freyd's voice was uncharacteristically harsh.  Actually, it wasn't really.  Everything was normally quite sharp in tone inside his head.  He'd learned, over many years and failures, to temper its inflections and delivery.  Now, a whisper could achieve what crying from hilltop could not.  He had learned the game, and tamed a weakness.  Aincrad was just another setting.

"Pride is a flaw.  The absence of humility is pride.  Why inflict a flaw upon yourself?  Find and know your strengths and weaknesses.  Adapt to them.  Use them as and how you can.  No one is everything, for some things cannot coexist.  You must find those strengths which compliment your flaws."  Freyd had found his, in many people and places.  It was not a monolithic task, but one with many facets and dimensions.  They were also always changing. 

"Amidst chaos, the stagnant will inevitably fall, even if crafted of utmost perfection."

Spoiler

LD 12 + 3 (Searching) = 15.  1x T1 material found.

 

Edited August 29, 2020 by Freyd - The Whisper in Shadows

[Nisahime 0]

"Ego, hardly but the sentiment I understand deeply kind sir." she remarks, and to those that would listen close enough a tinge of sarcasm in her tone. "Inflated heads aside, I'd not waste my time with such rabble. There is heel to break as well, should you cater and dawdle attempting to reduce yourself to those around you. I take no pride in it, but I simply cannot afford offer." she'd smile, looking to what he had wrought from the ground. "Forcing one to bind a cuff to a corpse, dragging it for eternity. You do it no favors, give it a reason to walk on its own and It just may." She'd keep her hunched position, digging away at the soil all the same. A sway to every motion it was flowed and gentle, akin to a waltz. "I'd fret not over my weakness my dear messenger, for I have been forthright with them. This empathy you feel, that is all that is missing. I would not misdirect you with a muted lie, there is no persona here you must see past. There may be those that would mislead you, cry tears or show pity. These things are not within my grasp." she'd mutter with that same almost dark smile upon her lips.

ID# 166626 results: Loot: 19+6=25, Success 2*Quest Materials

Edited August 29, 2020 by Nisahime

[Freyd 0]

"Weakness if a temporary state between moments of strength - or the inverse is true, depending on your perspective.  I confess that, if true, the lack of clutter in your perception is... refreshing."  He looked her over again, trying to assess her potential more than her current strength.  Freyd knew full well that the true measure of a player lay well beyond mere well-arrayed statistics.  Those were simply building blocks to be arranged in a configuration of your choice, and with care by the clever.  If what she said was true, and he understood it correctly, her strength could be as magnificent as it would be callous.  Others would fear what that could mean.  He smiled genuinely at the possibility.

"There are several more quests linked in series after this one.  Your circumstance intrigues me.  I will accompany you as you perform them, and to ensure your protection."

This flower must be allowed to bloom.

[Nisahime 0]

That darkened smile continued as she rose, looking deeply into the male's emboldened ruby eye as if a reflection with her cold blue before it took in what she may be made of with a glance. "What a question to which an answer does not flow easily, but if a cycle then where would one stand should they not be locked inside such a rhythm. A rejuvenation? which begets that perhaps I stand outside looking in." her attention shift to her hand, upon it a small lotus in white, unsure if it would suffice for whatever this NPC needed it to be. But it was adequate and flawless in ivory. "My circumstances are odd yes, and I appreciate the offering. But I need not protection but guidance. You seem a compendium of what this figment has in store, that very knowledge may just give me what I seek." she'd tilt her head, and pet one of the petals of the flower in her hand with an index finger, almost in a trance.

ID# 166629 results: Loot: 16+6=22, Success 3*Quest Materials

Edited August 29, 2020 by Nisahime

[Freyd 0]

Did she just read my mind, or is coincidence just being a bitch again today?

Freyd's eyes rose to meet hers - those cold and serene pools of ice framed by wisps of white hair, the colour of her lips glaring in contrast in the shape of a smile he knew all too well.  His mind smiled in the same way, all the time.  On the outside, the red in his eyes glimmered more brightly.  Emotions had been cluttering his actions of late.  It was as infectious as those damnable red crystals.

They will misunderstand her completely, and she will steamroll over them in the process.  This will be fun to watch.  No - to help make happen.

"Yes," he whispered in that tone that could only hold truth.  "You don't need that kind of help at all, do you?  Excellent.  I will help you with what knowledge I possess.  Tell me though: what is your intended goal, in the longer term?"  He meant for Aincrad as a whole, but expected that her answer would meander towards the abstract.  It was how she thought and saw the world, he was learning.

Edited August 29, 2020 by Freyd - The Whisper in Shadows

[Nisahime 0]

Plucking one of the ivory petals into her grasp, to get a feel for how it would respond. "A goal, such a paltry little thing. I would want which all would. To remember. Imagine being roused from slumber, with nothing more than a name hung loosely over your head like a carrot. Attempting to grasp at it, and it pulls away but you know it belongs to you. Those strands that dangle oh so close, but just out of reach." She'd place the petal down on her palm and clamp onto another of the flower.

ID# 166630 results: Loot: 14+6=20, Success 4*Quest Materials

One more pull pries free this one as the first, she'd look at as if it were a new experience. "My memory has leaked from me, either through the passage of time or poached. I'd see them returned, I have my given right returned. What more would this malicious faint of color have left to give? Whoever penned and painted this canvas, missed one crucial detail: a signature."

Edited August 29, 2020 by Nisahime

[Freyd 0]

"Amnesia?" he replied with feigned curiosity, still internally skeptical.  "That would explain quite a lot."

She's met her Gemini, but is only just getting to the first lessons...

"What are your first memories?  Where did you awaken?  What has happened since?  How did you meet your Gemini?  This data may prove essential to unlocking the mystery of your missing memories.  I have my suspicions as to the cause, but they require verification."

CARDINAL!  Cardinal did it.  Cardinal ALWAYS does it!  Bloody stupid byte-hoarding bastard of a program!  He shook his mental fist at the sky.  The lotus flower metaphor seemed apt - a symbol of purity, enlightenment, self-regeneration and rebirth.  All applied in his case.  One petal missing.  How apt.  He needed to build a framework, collect the evidence, discard the irrelevant and find a kernel of essential truth.  Everything else would germinate and grow from that seed. 

She had a point.  How do you set any other goal without first understanding yourself and your context?  Freyd remembered the moment of his own epiphany, with his hands wrapped murderously around another boy's throat.  His eyes glazed over as he recalled every detail of the experience, emotion draining completely from his face and posture as he glared emptily beyond the horizon.  What would it have led to if he'd clung on just a few seconds longer?

Edited August 29, 2020 by Freyd - The Whisper in Shadows