[F6-SP] Blood is Thicker then Rain (Gemini)

[Celeste 1]

Scanning through an abysmally hot and humid environment, that causes the armor to stick to her skin ever so slightly. "Smells like a whole bunch of steamed vegetables wrapped in dog shit." Celeste cannot help but comment with a draw of a large steel weapon with two heads. To the distance, she cleaves through the canopy causing a smattering of leaves and foliage to clear a path through. "I want this gemini, strength through facing yourself. I can see no fair opponent." She quips as she removes a bottle of deep orange liquid. Uncorking it and taking down the lot of it, a bit sour as she sees the icon of its activation trigger beneath her health bar. "But I don't fight fair, I will win this game and sit upon it all. That leaves no time for squandering on such sentiments of equal fighting. Only an idiot doesn't wish an edge." Tossing the glass vial off into the shrubs without a care if it would remain there or not. Her intentions were clear.

Celeste Consumes Immolation (T1/Unique) Thorns 10

Celeste | HP:20/20 | EN:2/2 | DMG:6 | MIT:18 | EVA:1 | ACC:3 | BLD:12 | THRNS: 10

Spoiler

Celeste - The Crimson Tide
Level: 1
HP: 20/20
EN: 2/2

Stats:
Damage: 6
Mitigation: 18
Accuracy: 3
Evasion: 1
BLD:12

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: Adrenaline Billhook [T1/2HBA/Perfect] - Damage 2, Bleed 1
Armor: Red Woven Wave - Stampede [T1/Light Armor/Perfect]: Mitigation 2, Evasion 1
Misc: Platinum Buckle [T1/Trinket/Perfect]: Accuracy 3

Skills:
Two Handed Battle Axe [Rank 1]

Battle Ready Inventory:
Spring (The Four Seasons) [T1/Support Song/Perfect] - Familiar Sight*1
Berry Crumb Bars [T1/Dessert/Perfect] - Loot Dice 3*1
Raspberry Smoothie [T1/Dessert/Perfect] - Loot Dice 3 *2
The Stars Collide [T1/Salve/Perfect] - Pheromone*1
Immolation [T1/Unique] - Thorns 10*3

 

[Celeste 1]

The sounds of it exploding as it connects with some stone outside of view, as her heels dig into the clumped moss and soft soil. It was damp from the constant rainfall of the floor, causing the whole place to stink like a wet diaper. Nearly an inch entered with every step, the sickly sucking noise as she lifts them back out with a bit of trouble. Celeste was already drawing closer and closer to irritability with each step. The hell was it that nothing could ever be a short distance? Everything had to be an ordeal, a massive waste of a good day. Longer didn't mean harder, and silently she hoped her preparation had made that true. Celeste was hoping that she would not need to make this journey twice, aiming to tackle both of what the floor had to offer at once. She'd paid good coin for the info she was using, and on the gear, she had purchased.

Edited January 8, 2021 by Celeste

[Celeste 1]

Thankfully the information she sought was rather widespread, it only took a bit of trekking around to find someone willing to sell. And the price she could hardly argue, a simple material served as payment (Imagine a single apple being enough). The goal was to walk up the side of the mountain and fight some ghost of yourself once you saw the storms begin. The thing had a notable weakness, and that was gear. The thing only matched your skills and not your equipment. That little tidbit made starting it sooner rather than later much more prolific in her plans, and the rumor was it was a huge power spike. That was why she was after this, not for some vague sense of accomplishment like some other ass hats may assume the reason this quest was made. The sheer increase in her strength as quickly as possible was all she dwelled on and strove for.

Edited January 8, 2021 by Celeste

[Celeste 1]

The girl had ambition, and her choice in battle axe wasn't a flight of fancy either. The word around town was it was the strongest option to clear huge waves of the quests available with ease, and that very prerequisite would be easier if she was the one holding the weapon. Her journey begins to become more sloped causing fatigue to build in her legs more and more with every step. Grass turns to loose stone, her footing becoming more precarious with every step as it shifts beneath her heels. "Wonder how much longer?" She asked no man, the area around her offered no more than variable winged fauna as background noise. No more than an hour in, to what seemed like almost dead silence outside her own actions in a way that was almost eerie. She had plenty of daylight left given the time and could see fine for now. 

Edited January 8, 2021 by Celeste

[Celeste 1]

But the question as to how much longer it would last for it would be robbed away in an instant. The moment the weather changed it would be taken, the darkened cloud and rainfall would blot out the skies. Celeste was fully aware of the seven patterns of weather that occurred through conversation, not research. An ode to the tavern on floor 3, to which a whole bunch of fully edgy anime characters sat in booths drinking nondescript liquor that would always fail to get them drunk. For no reason sitting around doing nothing and wasting more money, they were earning in a dirty hole on the outskirts of town. Because it was a living and that made any sense financially, instead of ringing the pain train and swinging a weapon once and making enough money to buy a house. This however Celeste was not yet aware of as a possibility.

Edited January 8, 2021 by Celeste

[Celeste 1]

It was nothing more than a tale for the future when the chick could nuke an entire wave of goons for sick gains, but that was not now. This was now: A boring book of monologue explaining in a short novel how one could take figurative hours to walk up the side of a cliff in somehow different words any time without any real meat and potatoes to compose the rest of the journey. Sure I could make up something about a long lost labyrinth, or a twisted tomb. Hell two kobolds fighting over a flank of meat, but it would be nothing more than a background affair to what was really going on. Somehow I would have to fire sprinkles out of my butt and make it somehow cohesively link to somehow ending up on the side of a mountain in broad daylight, and at the end working toward the peak of the mountain for calming the soul. So nope Celeste is walking, the ground is made of squishy wet toilet paper. Your welcome.

[Celeste 1]

Unhinging her boots from her feet ever so slightly with each removed footprint, causing it to shift before a descending footfall resecures it back to her heel. The loose debris like shards of grey was becoming more prevalent the more and more she pressed on, as the wet and sticky mud become less frequent. A rumble above her red-clad head showed a coming storm waiting eagerly on the horizon for a catalyst for it to begin, like an audience waiting patiently for the red curtain to raise. The very wind began to stink of salt to mix with the damp and wet smell that lingered on it, a further ode to the pressing weather as it began to gain pace. This shows her she was getting close, why else would the cardinal be bringing about such theatrics? Rolling carefully placed steps across an ever increasing incline, she was making an excellent distance toward an objective with no clear end.

[Celeste 1]

The trek was becoming more treacherous with every passing moment. The very ground she was trying to cling to kept shifting and sliding beneath her. A few obtuse splits and rapid lunges bring her to almost do the splits given she was anything but deft as of yet. A rumble above causes a soft patter of rain to begin, leaving small dark dots around without reason. Using both of her arms to brace herself every time her feet try to give out. "This was a very pain in the ass decision." She barks visibly distraught and aggressive with flailing, a deliberate obstacle course for no reason out of difficulty for the sake of it. Why the Gemini had to be perched on the side of a damn mountain? Well, that was simple, because it's thematic and edgy. It was almost a video gaming cliché to do things in an almost predictable edgelord way, especially with the player was some foundation it was scaled to. 

Edited January 9, 2021 by Celeste

[Celeste 1]

Raking the cliff face, causing a few of the loose stones to tumble down the place behind her. The moisture was beginning to build, causing the thick and dark almost black ichor of mud to cling to the skin on her hands. She was getting positively filthy, but it seemed to be centralized on her appendages. Her hair became rather soaked, and as a result, started to form cables that suctioned the pieces to her face. Celeste was cold, wet, and alone out here. A bit of an omen for what was to come of her entire trip through the birth of aincrad if there ever was one. She was so headstrong that she refused to accept help, a huge battle axe was to be her only friend. The storm above scatters in electricity to a boom of thunder. The whole place seemed to be trying to cast her from this place as if she was a virus in a body.

[Celeste 1]

A single crash of lightning rocks just off of her location, causing the entire place to swell with light and energy. The sheer change causes her eyes to lose focus, becoming blind for a moment as she shakes her head and continues to press on. She could feel the power as it connected, through the stone, she was latched to and using to propel herself upward. It was becoming thick, the weather trying to discourage her from continuing it seemed. One carefully predicted lunge causes her to move from anchor to anchor, the girl was still less than proficient with her given hand and does a bit of a trickled scraping on the surface of her skin as a result. The damage is nothing more than superficial, quickly regenerating but was a way to see that one failed attempt could be rather problematic. Quite a bit could be sustained if she were to tumble the length of the face.

Edited January 9, 2021 by Celeste

[Celeste 1]

That surge still forces her nerves on edge, although it was not fear but the possibility of being forced to retract. She didn't want to get hit by the damn storm simply because it would be a major setback. Celeste wasn't stupid enough to continue with a huge amount of her health missing, no matter how brash she was. Another cupped stone beneath bent and strained fingers that were taxed and burned. She was barely only twenty or so feet from the base of the incline, this was clearly much more difficult than she thought it would be.  Not discouraged in the slightest she forces her fibers to press on, her stamina draining and refilling with every pause. Taking a moment's respite between, allowing each to have her full bar to move before she does. A simple tact that wasn't commonplace but somewhere during she'd understood the gravity of what she faced.

[Celeste 1]

"This sucks ass." Celeste mutters beneath her breath, the winds causing her wet and clingy hair to shift slightly against her brow. The trees that ringed the bottom swelled and twist beneath the current, screaming leaves as clumps of them displace and are tossed away. A boot gets clutched within two stones as others slide and knock against them, forcing her to yank it free with enough force to remove black tights clad foot from within. "Damn you." Celeste barks out and hovering the unsheltered foot as she hobbled, pressing her back against the cliff and shuffling and fighting rips it clean. The stone that held it roll and fall down, clattering and bouncing their way down the front. With her butt pressed to the side, she slides it back on with a thunk. Pulling straps tight as an honest effort to avoid it happening again, she still had quite a way to go.

Edited January 9, 2021 by Celeste

[Celeste 1]

Lifting a recently lewd foot up, she weeble wobbles her way back to solid footing. The whole place was ringing like the inside of a blender, a scattering of leaves like broccoli in an infomercial produced for basic cable. Sure the thing cuts up these vegetables, but no one eats that crap. Do it right, show people cutting up random shit just to see what it could cut up. Then maybe you'd sell your weird products. Else only old people want to buy the magic bullet, but you show it cutting up nuts and bolts and crap. I'd buy it, just to see how many other weird objects I could grind into a powder. Imagine having a jar full of metal shavings as an in-home defense system, complete with a tripwire. One wrong step and you get blasted in the face with tiny shrapnel like a scene from home alone. I'd buy that. Celeste won't because she's a naughty girl with a naked foot.

Edited January 9, 2021 by Celeste

[Celeste 1]

Pushing through the coming storm, making it nothing more than a few more feet up because of reasons. The ground was a wet blanket of moisture, ever moist and difficult to latch on to. A single scattering of feigned and false electricity overhead, causing the whole place to strobe out like a midnight rave club. Each scattering of light causes her skin to illuminate, she was looking something close to a wet rat, with stringy hair and soaked head to toe. That's it though, no grand scheme or alternative motive. Just a total noob trying to scale the side of a stone slip and slide. Somewhere else there was someone probably doing something more interesting, maybe Katoka and Sam were boning. Maybe Elora was building a janga tower out of familiar pieces. Or Lessa was eating another hamburger or staring intensely at a piece of grass for a few hours. Who knew? certainly not this brand new seagull trapped in a net.

[Celeste 1]

Finally reaching near the peak the girl was finally getting into the bread and butter, after what felt like hours of pushing up a climbing wall. The storm above kept playing its rampaging techno concert that casts a very edgy and subtle cinema over the playing field. Amongst the shadows was a figure in black get up and raising up Celeste's eyes through the flashing and rising light and dark.

"You supposed to be me?"

"Yeah Kinda, want to find out?"

Drawing the axe from thin air, the one made by the only punctual crafter she'd found so far it seemed. Steel riddled with rain drops as a grin forms on the face beneath the cowl. A single step forward causes the tapestry adorning the thing to shatter, revealing a mirror copy of the girl in question. "Not quite one to take a moment to see what kind of mess we're in." As its gaze peers toward the stars and the thunder.

[Celeste 1]

"Nope." Celeste quips taking a step closer to her double, unfazed by its existence with a reform of her grip on the axe. "No patience, no tact, and not a care in the world." It preaches as it reads what the girl's issues are back to her as if they were going to slow her down. "Yeah." She smiles and a shade of crimson paints the head of her axe, eager to get this show on the road. She wanted this idiot's head on a platter. But something catches, and it causes her to pause for a moment. There was some truth in it, and it did bother her slightly. "Quick to anger, quick to lose to anger." It's face twists in an unholy grin that causes Celeste to raise an eyebrow. "Right, so that's supposed to scare me?" As she gave a shrug in a dismissal of what the copy was saying. 

[Celeste 1]

"We are one and the same." It had finally gotten to the point as if this was supposed to change anything. "That it then?" Celeste barks washed in a red glow from her right side, the sword art charged and lit like a lantern. "That's it." It remarks lifting a hand and manifesting the blade of its own. "Good, and so what. You didn't really think I'd go through all this trouble. And even if there are two of me. It doesn't matter, because there can only be one."

A single spark, a single exchange, and a single knee collide with the stone. The duplicate loses as quickly as it rose to meet her. "That's all you've got?" Celeste barks back as she lords over it, a held aloft axe placed on its shoulders like a headsman's. "Cheated." It barks with its own fire, knowing full well the steps she took against it.

ID# 181242 results: MOB: 6+3+1 {Disguise}-1=9, Hit vs. Celeste dealing 5-18=1 DMG, Sustains 10 from Thorns. Is Spared!

Players:
Celeste | HP:20/20 | EN:2/2 | DMG:6 | MIT:18 | EVA:1 | ACC:3 | BLD:12 | THRNS: 10

Boss:
Gemini | HP:1/10 | DMG:5 | MIT:1 | EVA:1 | ACC:3 | PARA:1 [Spared!]

Edited January 10, 2021 by Celeste

[Celeste 1]

"Oh really, for being me you sure are a whiner." Celeste taps the axe head on its shoulder, inching it closer to the slightly reshaded hair that dangled from its scalp. "I simply did what I had to do to win, without question. You should get that. So don't be crying about it." The Gemini smiles and latches a hand to the axe near its head. "You would accept me? and assume my strengths?"

"Sure why not, if it makes me stronger." She reciprocates that cocky grin back, reaching out and grabbing her duplicate by the neck. A gasp as it reaches for her wrist. "You are my reward? Then fine. I told you there could only be one, even if that means I have to do this." Slamming her face against the other as it struggled, a lock of lips and a flare of red. Twins become a single, a flicker in crimson.

[Concentration Obtained]

Edited January 10, 2021 by Celeste

[Celeste 1]

The storm above rumbles, the axe the duplicate had wielded shatters and sprays into the ether. A toss of her weapon up causes it to vanish in red. She looks on as her level skyrockets, and a new skill is rewarded. "A lot more like it, Zackariah could learn a thing or two about a half decent reward." Celeste comments as her feet begin to move, she was yet done and despite being soaked to the bone she wasn't going to leave. Cresting the hill and taking in her surroundings, this was the place. She was told there was a second quest, calming the soul and it was best to do them both at once. Given the location, and the obvious trailing water spraying all over the place. The redhead runs hands through her hair, kicking some of the moisture out and removing the knots throughout her weave. "Alright, what now?"

[Celeste 1]

Flipping her menu open and reading just enough to understand what the hell she had to do, she ushers closer to the water. Taking a seat on the flat stone that was obvious the trigger point, cardinal not being too clever at concealing these things like most games. "Let's get this shit started." Celeste barks trying to force the newly acquired skill to trigger. The roar of the falls forms a white noise, the spray of moisture casting a spectrum of color. Struggling to utilize the brand new skill, enough to get her blood to start to boil. "Figured it wouldn't be easy would it." She comments rhetorically to her surroundings, visibly miffed at the unneeded turbulence.

When she receives a response, from somewhere with no origin. Color bleeds from her skin and flickers up, a burning red as concentration triggers and to who would see her she was stuck in a trance.

"Isn't it though?"

Quest Complete:
5*SP (1 Thread Closure, 1 Event Bonus, 3 Quest Reward)
1000*Col (400 Thread Closure, 600 Quest Reward)
[Concentration Obtained]

Edited January 29, 2021 by Celeste