[F22 - PP] <<Training Your Friend>> "A Quarry-some Couple"

[Elora 0]

"Well, let's have a look around then I...guess...", Elora's voice trailed off as she noticed a skewed shadow extending from an adjacent room, its lamplight projecting a silhouette in the shape of familiar figure. He's actually here...? Right now -- ? REALLY? She didn't know whether or not she should be surprised. Freyd always seemed to somehow be everywhere at once. Her mind groaned as part of her worried about him watching her as she struggled to get Borris to behave. Yet another part of her was relieved and a little bit excited to have the chance to see him again. After all, they hadn't spoken since her and Katoka had left to visit the hot springs. 

"Raidou's Room"...that doesn't seem like the best place for them to practice.... HEY -- "There is a stage for the performers! Let's go check that out!" Before Elora could begin to lead Katoka to the room, she could feel Borris beginning to unravel from her wrist. "Wha -- NO! What are you doing?! We have to train!", she demanded as several of his smooth stones slipped through her fingers and clattered loudly onto the floor, their thuds echoing loudly throughout the hollow commons. "BORRIS!", she hissed again in a hushed tone as his pieces rolled toward the entrance of the nearby study. As Freyd stepped out to investigate the disturbance, Borris eagerly coiled himself around his calves, squeezing tightly in either an act of affection or aggression. 

"Sorry -- SORRY!", Elora greeted their friend with palms open in a cautioning gesture, "I think he must recognize you -- Borris, let go of him! DON'T MAKE ME SEPARATE YOU!", she tried to threaten.

 

 

@Freyd - The Whisper in Shadows

Spoiler

Borris has been trained!

ID#: 179439 CD9 + 1 = 10 Successfully Trained Familiar (3/3)

Edited December 23, 2020 by Elora

[Freyd 0]

Someone walked out the door, but the sight of him left Katoka and Elora gobsmacked.  The face looked like Freyd's albeit dripping in sweat and lacking any coverings save the towel suctioned to his left shoulder.  Even more remarkable was the absence of shirt and rolled up workout pants that resembled the lower half of a track suit.  Everyone knew that he was lanky and wiry, but no one that they knew of could every boast to have seen any more of him than his exposed head, and even that was rare.  Yet there he was, his hands wrapped in some kind of undyed cloth, yet tinted red in places.  His knuckles looked raw, the mesh of his avatar's fists fractured as if he'd gone a thousand rounds with a practice dummy.  

"Oh, hey ladies," he said solemnly, as if this meeting were no different than any other.  Taking a moment, as they gathered their wits, he wiped his dripping face and looked at both of them with wide red eyes.  "Is there something I can help you wi-"  Stones clattered to the floor as Borris lost his grip, Freyd having flexed a cramping calf without realizing that the little golem had attached himself.  "Well, whatever you're up to, have fun.  I have another hour of training to finish before heading out."  He offered them both a friendly nod and kicked one of Borris' stones clear of the door swing as he closed it behind him.  They caught only the briefest glimpse of an improvised dojo with training dummies and pads strewn all over the floor mats.

Stunned silence followed, as both women turned and share a single common thought:  Wait?  What? Freyd has abs?!

Spoiler

 

[Katoka 0]

Katoka stood in shock for a moment. As Elora's familiar was gripping Freyd's leg she blinked a few times before looking over at Elora and then back to the usually cowled man. He was much more toned than she would have guessed, he managed to hide it well enough. It was a sight like this that she was certain would send Elora over the edge, or at least it would have done to her if she was interested in men.

Clearing her throat she addressed Freyd, "Hey! We uh, were just stopping by because we were looking for a place to try and train our familiars." Letting out an awkward laugh she nudged her green haired companion to attempt to get some sort of confirmation from her. "I didn't know there was an," she looked into the room that Freyd had been in, "entire gym in here? Holy crap, I didn't even know you could get half of this stuff in Aincrad."

[Elora 0]

Freyd's shadow rose to cast over a gawking Elora, whose form remained frozen in a crouched position as a saturated scarlet blush began to eclipse over her expressions. 

"H-hi -- o-oh, sorry again -- let me just --", she struggled to form sentences as her finger frantically searched for and seized discombobulated fragments of her familiar's body. Borris's rocks rolled around in her palms like a disobedient child riding the high of a sugar rush. One by one, each broke free of her grasp and scattered around the the base of the door, almost as if the creature was intent on preventing Freyd from returning to privacy. Clearly flustered by how out-of-hand the whole ordeal was becoming, Elora quickly turned to Kat with a desperate expression that seemed to scream: Come up with some sort of distraction for me -- PLEASE!

"Hey! We uh, were just stopping by because we were looking for a place to try and train our familiars."

THANK GOD!, praised Elora as she fashioned her hand into a shovel, then flung the straggling stones across the room and out of the way. After the series of consequent clunking sounds subsided, Elora sprang to her feet and tried to reintegrate herself into the conversation. 

"Haha, Yeah! That's a lot of -- um -- stuff!" 

Freyd cracked a confirmative smirk that seemed to sympathize with her awkward ordeal before bidding them farewell and returning to his exercises.

Stray strands of frazzled hair sprang from Elora's emerald head while others stuck fixed to her sweating face. "D-did you see that?", she whispered in disbelief to Katoka. It was unclear whether or not she was referring to the equipment they had both seen or the result of using it. Either way, Elora found herself wishing she could have Freyd instruct her through completing a similar kind workout routine. 

[Katoka 0]

As the two left Freyd to his workout Katoka stepped quietly alongside Elora for a few moments before she finally spoke, "Now only if he would get some sun, he'd look less like the ghost of a workout junkie." After a beat Kat began to laugh at her own stupid joke and the ridiculousness of the situation. The echo of laughter ringing through the halls making the building seem a bit more alive than it had when they first entered.

"I suppose since Muscles McWashboard back there is busy we should find a different spot to shill huh?" the samurai said as she watched Hanami dart around above them. The small dragon kept within eyesight of Kat but made it seem like she was going off on her own. As the two rounded a corner they managed to find what looked like an unused room. The door had been left open and there wasn't much inside save for what looked like wooden crates that may have been used for moving.

"Maybe we can hang out in here?" she said stepping inside to get a better look.

 

Spoiler

Katoka ID# 181275 CD: 2 + 1 = 3 FAILURE | (2/3)

 

[Elora 0]

"Now only if he would get some sun, he'd look less like the ghost of a workout junkie."

"That's no problem...I'm sure that I could, like, ask him to take me on some sort of swimming quest, or something. -- They have those, right?", Elora found herself rambling, her blush painted on her cheeks like a violent sun burn as she recalled their time frolicking with fisherman Pete. And no, not like that. She found herself nodding at Katoka's suggestion to relocated, since it proved a suitable distraction from her wandering thoughts. "Yeah, somewhere more private might not be a bad idea"

"Maybe we can hang out in here?", her friend offered as they happened upon a vacant room.

"In a storage closet?", Elora scoffed at the idea until she realized that Kat was actually seriously considering it. She cleared her throat before correcting, "Uhh -- yeah! That's not a bad idea! I mean -- people train in places like these all the time in shows, don't they? Like the weird janitor characters that are actually martial artists!" Her glowing enthusiasm was stifled as realization that she was going on a tangent dawned upon her. "Eh -- nevermind! What do you think is even in all of these boxes anyway? Were they programmed to be here or are they actually full of stuff for the guild?"

[Katoka 0]

"Hmmm, something tells me that these probably aren't here for just show." Katoka stepped up to one of the crates and tapped her finger just above the lid bringing up a small menu. "Storage Crate: Full" she read aloud. "Alright, so that didn't yield as much information I would have hoped." She grinned and looked at Elora, "I wonder if Freyd keeps his spare cowls in here." the giggled and lifted the wooden lid to have a peek.

Inside was an assortment of glass vials and bottles, set into individual sections so they wouldn't bump into one another. Various shapes and sizes filled the space but they all seemed just the right fit in their holes. "Huh. I guess this is some crafting storage? Looks like a bunch of potion bottles. We should probably steer clear of this stock just in case." Closing he lid she made her way deeper into the room she saw a few wooden mannequins lined up against the wall.

"Aww yeah, this is what we came here for." a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she inspected them.

[Elora 0]

"Steer clear? Are you kidding? I had no idea that Raidou had such a stockpile of these things -- I could totally use them for making potions!", piped up Elora as she reopened the crate, "I think I'll just take a few for good measure, in case he'd be upset if he noticed. I don't know how particular that guy is about his inventory. It'd just be good to have some on hand for when I get around to practicing...Alchemy" Elora's speech drifted off as she began to recall her first attempt, well, failure at creating a potion. Had that been when she was still at level one? Her mission with Jackpot felt like ages ago, so why...why hadn't she tried to pursue her profession any further, since that day? Because I know that I'll mess it up again...

Elora shook her head and closed the container, "Probably be best to ask permission first...", she decided before hastily following Katoka to the back of the room. I should focus on helping Kat see this through.

 

Vanity tag: @Jackpot

Edited February 12, 2021 by Elora

[Katoka 0]

"Oh? I had no idea you had taken up Alchemy! I've been meaning to get started on my quest as well." Kat said as she thought about what profession she'd take up. "How is Alchemy? I like dealing with plants and things so I thought I'd give it a go myself." inspecting the mannequins, she stood it upright and stepped back. It seemed sturdy enough to take a hit or two if she tried. "Maybe this can get Hanami to focus. Having a target might be a bit better."

Looking around for her companion she saw the dragon perched on a shelf nearby watching her and Elora with interest. "Hey," Katoka called and pointed at the mannequin, "attack this!" the dragon tilted it's head to she side confused. Sighing she said, "Attack, you know, hit it!" the dragon tilted it's head the other direction. The samurai placed a hand on her face and let out an exacerbated groan and turned to the target. "Like this you goof." she drew her sword in a swift motion and slashed at her stationary opponent. "See? Attack!" she went to do the motion again but this time tripped over a stack of books and crashed on the floor.

"I'm going to turn her into a purse I swear..."

[Elora 0]

"How is Alchemy? I like dealing with plants and things so I thought I'd give it a go myself."

"It's not all that great, really --", insisted Elora as a flurry of insecurity rushed through her chest, "It's just about finding random shit in the wild and smashing it together until it turns into something consumable. There's not any skill to it at all, so I'd suggest looking for something different if you're expecting a challenge--!" The green-haired woman took a sharp inhale of air, then paused as she seemed to reflect on her reactive advice. With a hesitant sigh, she relinquished, "Well...I guess that's not necessarily true...it can be pretty difficult to master the technique of crafting the potions....It's just --", she spared a fleeting glance at Katoka, "Don't get your hopes up if you decide to do it and it doesn't work out."

'I often wonder whether or not perusing Alchemy was actually the right decision for me.', she stopped herself from adding as her friend began to instruct Hanami. It's not about what you want right now. This is Katoka's choice to make. Support that.

"Don't worry about it. I know that you'd make a great Alchemist.", offered Elora as she spectated the discordant pair with crossed arms and the hint of a smirk.

Edited February 21, 2021 by Elora

[Katoka 0]

Kat brushed herself off as she stood back up and smiled, "I'm sure there's a finesse to it that everyone does differently. I mean I'm sure that depending on the person and their equipment, there are different results and concoctions that they can make." Taking a few steps back over to her original position she looked up at Hanami again, taking an attack stance. "I liked gardening with my mother and little sister, taking care of the plants in our garden at home. Growing herbs and things to use for cooking. It all reminds me of that I suppose. Getting into the grit and dirt to find the ingredients, I don't know it just feels so nostalgic."

As she mimed swinging her sword she looked up at her familiar again, "See? Attack." Hanami watched and hovered down from her perch, now floating a few feet from Katoka. Excitement spread across her face and her held her sword at the ready, "Good good! Now attack!" Lunging forward one last time she slashed at the mannequin, but this time Hanami shot forward in a flash of light, striking Katoka's right arm mid swing. The samurai's strike rang true and after a slight pause the mannequin split in twain, from shoulder to hip.

Katoka looked shocked, "I uh, didn't even put my full force into that..." Looking to Elora and then to where Hanami had been she saw that the dragon was gone. "Uhhh, Hanami?" she asked looking around confused. She felt a warm pulse on her arm and looked down to see a tattoo of her familiar, wrapped around her arm. It was beautiful work that shocked the samurai, gasping she began to panic, "What?! When did I get a-- Wait I neve got-- Elora?!" she pointed at her marking as words failed to form in her mouth.

A flash of light interrupted the panic as the tattoo disappeared and Hanami wrapped herself around her master's neck, purring loudly into her ears. "Elora." Kat said after a moment of shocked silence. "I think we finally bonded."

Spoiler

Katoka ID# 181810 CD: 6 + 1 = 7 Success | (3/3) COMPLETE

Thread Summary:

Elora Receives: 3 SP (1 Quest, 1 Page, 1 Event), 200 Col, Familiar mastery skill unlocked

Katoka Receives: 3 SP (1 Quest, 1 Page, 1 Event), 200 Col, Familiar mastery skill unlocked

Edited February 22, 2021 by Arabelle