[F11-PP] Through Dark Waters (Training Your Friend)

[Setsuna 0]

Among bogs and stagnant film that produced stagnancy, Setsuna was hard at work removing the obscurities that held fast the map of the floor. To remove the fog of war and map the place out for other members of the guild to utilize, her typical task on an early morning. A respite causes her to stir, a memory of the horrors since the last time she'd been alone she'd found Freya. The storm of shadows on floor 7, still racked her brain. Questioning her actions then, why the hell she bothered saving those fake children despite knowing the fact. She was more than willing to sacrifice it all for their sake, fiddling with her inventory as she allowed her stamina to recover.

A small vial in a jar, a heart in red bounced around in its proximity of chilled water. "What am I even doing?" she asked it as if it would have some answer, but was given none.

Setsuna uses Galaxial Water Snake (+1 CD while training a familiar)

Spoiler

Setsuna, Firm Anima Assassin
Level: 40
HP: 800/800
EN: 80/80

Stats:
Damage: 16
Mitigation: 12
Evasion: 3
Accuracy: 3

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: Shiva's Embrace - Ancestry T2/Perfect/Katana [Damage 3]
Armor: Cold Fabric Kunoichi Wear T1/Perfect/L.A [+3 Evasion]
Misc: Kunoichi Wrapping's T1/Perfect/Trinket [+3 Accuracy]

Skills:
One-Handed Curved Sword [Rank 1]
Katana [Rank 5]
Hiding [Rank 4]+1
Light Armor [Rank 3]

Extra Skills:
Disguise

Mods:
Finesse Rank 3
Ferocity
Athletics

Battle Ready Inventory:
Teleport Crystal*1
Vocal Augmentation - Resonation [T1/Perfect/Support/Instant] +60 HP*2
Bird Seed (T2/Rare/Snack) Vitality 2*1

Housing Buffs:
Well Rested: -1 energy cost for the first three expenditures of each combat
Squeaky Clean: The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 25% (rounded down)
Hard Working: +2 EXP per crafting attempt and +1 crafting attempt per day
Filling: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot.
Item Stash: +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot
Tasty: Turn 2 identical food items into a Lesser Feast. A Lesser Feast contains 4 portions of the food items sacrificed.
Relaxed: Increases out of combat HP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.
Skylight (Hiding): +1 Rank to the Hiding skill.
Advanced Training: +2 SP to a thread. Limit one use per month [1/1]
Multipurpose: Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll
Decor [Potted Tanabata]: This buff affects the player and their choice of up to two party members.

Guild Hall Buffs:
Lucrative: Reduce LD needed for Salvage by 5 (10+ for Alchemist crystals, 6+ for everything else). +2 EXP per craft. Rank 9 crafters receive +1 crafting attempt per day. Rank 10 crafters receive +2 crafting attempts per day.
Col Deposit: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests.

 

[Freyd 0]

"That's a good question."  Freyd's voice carried across the open water, a rickety fishing pole in his hands, dangling lazily into the fetid water as if he was actually expecting to catch something.  "I've been wondering how long it might take you to actually ask it."  His booted foot plunked into the shallow water beneath the log on which he sat.  A thick bed of moss served as a suitable cushion.  He would need one if he kept scaring away his prey by dipping footwear too close to his lure.

"Fancy meeting you here, Setsuna.  On your daily prowl, are you?"  He flicked his rod sending the hook and line skipping father into the water, holding it only in one hand while the other spanned the distance between his knee and chin, bracing to keep them apart.  He looked bored, and deliberately lost.  Freyd had come to accept that he needed to train one of the gathering skills and the mere notion of endlessly picking plants nearly caused a cerebral civil war.  So here he was, trying to remember stuff his grandfather had taught him and failing miserably at it, probably because he really didn't want to need it.

Freyd | HP:1790/1790 | EN:191/191 | DMG:20 | MIT:79 | EVA:2 | ACC:4 | VAMP OFF:179 | HLY:6 | FLN:6 | LD:5 | BH:89

Spoiler

Freyd, The Whisper in Shadows
Level: 88
HP: 1790/1790
EN: 191/191

Stats:
Damage: 20
Mitigation: 79
Evasion: 2
Accuracy: 4
BH:89
VAMP OFF:179
HLY:6
FLN:6
LD:5

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: Samael's Pride (T3-2HSS, VO 1, HOLY 1, FLN 1)
Armor: Skirmisher's Garb (T3 LA, MIT 2, EVA 1)
Misc: Night Shades (T3-Trinket, ACC 3)

Skills:
2H Straight Sword [Rank 5]
Light Armor [Rank 5]
Searching [Rank 4]
Battle Healing [Rank 5]
Parry [Obtained]
Energist [Obtained]
Charge [Rank 5]
Extended Mod Limit R3 [Obtained]
Hiding [Rank 5]
Martial Arts [Rank 5]
Quick Change [Obtained]

Extra Skills:
Disguise
Familiar Mastery: Fighter 3
Survival
Meditation

Active Mods:
Precision - 2HSS
Finesse - Rank 3
LA Athletics
Ferocity - 2HSS
LA Sprint and Acrobatics
Night Vision
Untraceable
Tracking

Inactive Mods:
Vanish
Vengeful Riposte
Surprise Attack (Assassin)

Battle Ready Inventory:
Teleport Crystals*5
Gungnir Shard: Haniel's Modesty (T3 Perfect HP Rec [Instant]*5
Flash of Rejuvenation (Mass HP Rec [Instant] (+30*Tier HP)*5
Fruit-Infused Tea (T3 HP Recovery)*5
Imugi's Inspiration (T3 Mass HP Recovery)*5
Mega-Duper... Sauce (Antidote 3)*5
Grave Injustice (T3-2HSS, ACC 1, Keen 1, Abs. ACC)*1

Housing Buffs:
Rested: -1 energy cost for the first two expenditures of each combat
Clean: The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 20% (rounded down)
Hard Working: +2 EXP per crafting attempt and +1 crafting attempt per day
Filling: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot.
Item Stash: +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot
Delicious: Turn 3 identical food items (same quality, tier, & enhancements) into a Feast. A Feast contains 6 portions of the food items sacrificed.
Relaxed: Increases out of combat HP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.
Skylight (Searching): +1 Rank to the Searching skill.
Angler: +1 material gained when fishing
Advanced Training: +2 SP to a thread. Limit one use per month [0/1]
Multipurpose: Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll
Decor [Potted Tanabata Bamboo Tree]: This buff affects the player and their choice of up to two party members.

Guild Hall Buffs:
Lucrative: Reduce LD needed for Salvage by 5 (10+ for Alchemist crystals, 6+ for everything else). +2 EXP per craft. Rank 9 crafters receive +1 crafting attempt per day. Rank 10 crafters receive +2 crafting attempts per day.
Col Deposit: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests.

Scents of the Wild:
Kumatetsu Statue: +1 Base Damage for a thread

Wedding Ring: n/a

 

[Setsuna 0]

To her masters side, she took a seat. Holding aloft the small bottle with glimmering slush within it. It was with Freyd that she found this small object, unsure what it was and had neglected it in her haste to power. "I was fighting so strongly for NPC, and I cannot begin to fathom why." Her voice still cold, but lacked the same bite it usually held. More then likely due to her confusion as she eyed the glass and the waves of the stagnant pole, tracing the fishing line to where it fell. "Mapping is proceeding according to specifications." She muttered with a twist of her face, fully lost in her own devices.

"Am I forgetting what I am supposed to be doing?" Setsuna asked the whisper, assuming that perhaps he would have the answer. As of late she'd been allowing herself distractions, to aid the blonde a quest, to val halla with Gaius. All of those small things that were not what she was tasked to do, it was obviously slowing down progress to O&I affairs.

[Freyd 0]

"People change with their circumstances.  It's an axiom, if I've ever heard one."  The bobber wobbled for a second, as if something were taking an interest, and then decided otherwise.  "You have a keen mind and stoic spirit, Setsuna.  I admire that, but it comes with some whopping blind spots that I've only just begun to explore myself.  Our world is not as black and white as we would sometimes like it to be."  The last line was truly meant for her. Freyd had long since lived in the grey between light and dark - where shadows dwelled.  

Listening to her tone, and words, gauging the fragility of whatever might be thawing inside.  She was vulnerable.

"I see that you brought your familiar.  Have you trained it yet?  If not, perhaps that would be a suitable task to help you refocus yourself.  We did the first part together.  Why not do the same with the second?"

Freyd?  Are you actually acting like a real human being?

Montjoy's taunt went unanswered.

[Setsuna 0]

"I did not consider myself capable of any change." Setsuna spoke honestly, a racking pain flushed her chest as she tried to swallow it. It was as if she was forgetting her desire and purpose. She should have abandoned the NPC, struck at the heart and not let herself be bought a distraction. The girl could have ended it if she wasn't attached to the deadweight that they represented.

So why couldn't she do it

Uncorking the bottle and allowing it to shutter with the exposure to air, it offered her little in the way of a response. It was as expected, it was nothing more than a trinket cluttering her inventory. But even still she held on to it, perhaps it gave the girl focus on what she wanted to do with its presence. She never saw it as anything more than that, something to remind her of her weakness so she may break it loose. "I haven't even looked at it since that day." Setsuna mutters eyeing it through the glass betwixt two pale white hands.

ID# 181791 results: Craft: 1+1=2, Hell No

Training Successes: [0/3]

Edited January 31, 2021 by Setsuna

[Freyd 0]

"We are all capable of change, given the proper stimulus.  Even the unmovable rock can be worn down over time."  Gazing down at the thing in her tiny, deadly hands, Freyd wondered what it truly was.  That it had called to her didn't surprise him.  Her heart seemed cast in ice as much as his own was forged by shadow, and yet.  

"What happened to you, out here, while we were fighting Shadow?"  He'd heard rumors, but still hadn't fully grasped all of the details of what went on. The raid had affected him more deeply than he had ever assumed it could, and he had entered with considerable concerns already flagged.  Puzzle pieces from the 'storm of shadows' were trickier to put together, and more diverse.  Everyone had stories, but there were no explanations.   The boss' taunts clung to the back of his mind.  Were those who survived still here, or were these merely proxies fabricated by Cardinal to replace the appearance of the fallen.

Damn you, Cardinal.

Damn you, Cardinal.

[Setsuna 0]

A pause in her mental reflection as she allows what Freyd was saying to sink in. Was he right? A single twist of the vial and a pour of a bit of the permafrost within it forces some of the murky water to freeze solid. She found its function to be the most literal personification of how she felt, trapped within stasis of cold. Setsuna found shelter in it, but it could very well be the reason why she couldn't grow. That instance had enforced something on her. "It was nothing more than another hunt at first, Hugo died by my hand shortly after Freya was consumed by it. I have yet to confirm if she is truly gone. But I carved her name in that bastard's corpse." The words were a soft recall until the end where it begins to become more racked with bite, her signature. A push of a dangling foot against the solid ice, it was thick enough to support her weight as it began to wobble and bend. As it turns out this small piece wasn't enough to support her alone.

[Freyd 0]

"An accounting is already underway, despite chaos in the aftermath.  We will find all our members."  The emphasis and tone of his words was absolute.  Freyd did not take threats against Firm Anima lightly, yet the oddity of him sitting and fishing seemed at odds with his stated intent.  Nothing the Whisper did was random, though it might be obfuscated to appear that way.  A slow clicking permeated their otherwise silent venue as he reeled in his line.  Ambient birdcalls and the whistle of wind remained.  He simply discounted them.  

"You should see what that thing can do," he added, pointing at the lump of frost.  "If it can be more than a lump, then it seems to follow that you should be capable of being more than a weapon.  But, have you ever wanted to be anything else? Or is that what this place made you?  Weapons are plentiful, Setsuna, though few as talented as yourself.   If you ever wish to be better, you must learn that a blade as other, more subtle uses, besides just carving up a foe."

[Setsuna 0]

"If our members are out there." Setsuna paused for a moment choosing the words "Then there will be nothing to stop them being freed from whatever cage that Hugo thought to place them in." As a form of confirmation of Freyd's words as a tool to his hand "I'll make sure of it." A flare of spite and disgust, an edge with purpose. As the whisper eludes to the thing in her clutches, she could not help but follow his intentions and look back to it. "I don't know where to begin." Setsuna quipped rounding the opening with a thumb.

The bitter chill producing a white fog about its entrance. "I have never thought about it, I knew what I wanted. I know what I want and it is that bastard's head and everyone who holds the same marker the same. I am a husk and a weapon, it keeps me moving." Her words were true through demeanor and body language, it was the only way she could escape the pain that claimed her sleep. Setsuna hadn't slept since excluding a small loss of consciousness at random.

[Freyd 0]

"I was the same, not long ago.  So much has changed."  His gaze remained locked on the water, as if it had consumed his thoughts and dreams, and he was seeking to fish them back out again, having found that force of arms would yield nothing but sorrows.  "I have my own bones to pick with any number of player-killers.  What makes you hate them, so much?  What drives the cold wind?"

*click... click... click*

"Place it here," he said, directing her to hold the hunk of frost against her heart.  "Tell me which is the colder: it or you."  There was no malice in Freyd's words.  He felt sympathy for the girl. 

The bob did its thing.  He reeled it in a little faster, gripping the rod firmly.  Some fish were wily and would try to tug away, even at risk of self-injury.  It was a delicate thing to steer a cold-blooded creature towards the flame.  Maybe Freya would cook up what he caught?  The salmon she'd made had been sublime, and drew forth distant dreams of a life long gone and preferably forgotten, except for rare and meaningful moments.  

"The end of the PK-hunter's road is invariably to face their own sword.  Are you prepared for that?  Is it what you want?"

[Setsuna 0]

The subtle click of a reel was the only sound that permeated the place excluding the words shared. Pressing the vial against her chest, she could feel the sting of the cold but it was almost comforting in its presence. Soothing like to a burn. "What makes me hate them so much, captain." She paused and did a course correction choosing to let formalities fall but for a moment. "What makes me hate them so much, Freyd." A flicker of disguise causing a film of white fog in low opacity to fall from her shoulders.

An unwilling activation of the skill, a memory that was the burn

"They took everything from me, in an instant. In a blink of an eye, they slaughtered my friends right in front of me." Her voice choked, her stomach churned and the pain was ripe. That little jar in front of her helped make the pain easier. "I could lie to you and say that I was prepared for that, that I was willing to face my own sword to exact vengeance on those that have wronged me. But the truth is..." She looked to him like a will o wisp, a cyan blue glow in tired and scarred eyes that could allow no more tears. "I would have to still be alive."

ID# 181825 results: Craft: 2 (JUST NOT GETTING IT)

Edited February 1, 2021 by Setsuna

[Freyd 0]

"So, you've reached that point, have you?" Something tugged more vigorously at his line.  He kept it taught, but turned the reel no further.  Too much stress could snap the wire and waste the effort, leaving naught but an injured fish.  Freyd took more careful approach, as his grandfather would have urged him.

Freyd sighed.

"I face it myself, shortly after Tanabata and the Battle of the Cratered Lake.  There was no feeling in anything anymore.  A stranger had invited me over for tea and the question blurted out: am I even human anymore?"  Red eyes turned, half-closed, and caught her gaze.  "Look at us.  Look at what this world has made us.  Look at what we have made ourselves. Raidou saw it the moment that we met: the will to see through any action.  It can only be achieved if you care about nothing save your goal."  He smiled.  "I had this same conversation with Freya, not too long ago."  

So much had happened since then.

"You had friends to lose.  That means that you once had passions to lose, and that they can be rekindled.  So long as you draw breath, Setsuna, you are alive - even here.  Even if stilled for a while, life and the need to feel are remarkably persistent and resilient.  I know, first hand.  If those who murdered your friends are still here, we will hunt them down, together, and exact wrath and justice is full measure.  I don't care if we have to shake the very foundations of Aincrad to achieve it.  But, there has to be a limit.  There has to be an end, or you become the very thing you hate."

His line creaked, as if near a limit of its own.

[Setsuna 0]

A relax, that flare dies with the temper that drove it. There was no catalyst to such aggression, the memory fades away and is stored in its box of the same shape. An ever tight cable in the whispers hand becomes lax as if the fish on the other end began to become tired. A muttered word and look away averting her eyes to maintain a strong aura, but she couldn't be weaker. "It's all I ever feel, regret, remorse, and failure. During the Tanabata I could barely write those wishes without being crushed under them. Our goals here are the only thing keeping us going, the only things that keep us human. The very thing that chooses if we are monsters or men." Spoken as Setsuna looked back to Freyd wondering what it was he would have written, dull wetness turning to flakes on her face.

"It wasn't this world that did this to us, it was the monsters that forced it upon us. They were given the tools and chose to use them." She looked to the katana on her hip, and reaching for the saya she slides it from the sash. "This tool, the very same I use. I am the very thing I hate, I became it the moment Shiroe died. A wolf, but with prey in a difference. I am not above knowing that I am like the creatures I hunt. The difference..."

She places the katana horizontal across her lap. "Is that my goal has an end. Once it is finished, I don't know what I'll be doing. Am I truly alive if it's all I breathe?"

[Freyd 0]

"Make a vow," he suggested, so suddenly that the idea seemed to surprise him too.  "Make a promise to yourself of what will come after.  Even a blade can hang on a wall and become a symbol or a legacy, once its original purpose has been fulfilled.  Remember that you have friends in the guild, but you must accept them as such.  I count myself among them."  His stare left no margin for debate.  Firm Anima's hierarchy was informal and carried responsibility without authority.  Careful application of the velvet glove was what instilled and maintained loyalty, not the whip.  She'd told him to prove himself, the day that they collected the frost she cradled now.  Leadership was a never-ending test.  This was just another page.  He accepted that.

Give them hope.

Pursing his lips with resolve, Freyd tapped a few keys summoned from thin air, manifesting a screen filled with simple notes.  Gently, he spun it around so that she could see its contents.

"It's all just as true today as it was then."

Tanabata Wishes: 1. What would you wish for the rest of your stay in Aincrad? Answer: To spare others the pain of loss and grant peace and comfort to those who must already endure it. 2. What would you wish for the better of people around you? Answer: The peaceful sleep of an unburdened soul, every night. 3. What would you wish for someone you care about? Answer: That they learn to embrace confidence without fear or the fickle sting of pride and bitterness. 4. What would you wish for someone you would like to know better? Answer: That they have the courage to share their pain, trials and tribulation, for such things addressed alone can only lead to suffering in darkness. 5. What would you wish for yourself? Answer:  To learn what it means to feel again, and how to appreciate the simple pleasures in life.

 

[Setsuna 0]

She stops and twists, the weapon on her legs sliding to the dock with a clatter. These felt almost too personal to share, so why would he? Setsuna looked past the screen to him, through the opacity as the words on it formed almost a barrier between them. Echoing words from her own lips as well as her tutor racking around in her mind as she looked upon what it said:

I am already a shell, what remains is if this husk should be of use to those who survive me. How many will be saved by the swing of this weapon, is the only thing that drives me forward. Take solace in the fact, that should a dagger find your back my blade will be at theirs. Teach me to use this sword, so I may strike down the betrayers.

You cannot wield a katana like a normal blade. Every movement is a motion with conviction, every motion has a purpose.

A weapon is simply the designation to kill, a tool to an end

I will protect my allies and the innocent from what I have experienced

She pauses for a moment, reading it through and finding that what Freyd had written was a precise as it was painful. If she didn't know better she'd assume they were almost aimed at her. "Make a vow..." she looked down to the katana, knowing that the vow taken upon its unsheathing was the only thing that allowed it to be drawn. "My master first, even still you prove your wisdom." The words are formal, clear that they were held with respect unmatched to most. Reaching for the katana to see if a new oath would be accepted by the tool of destruction. A thought to Mari and to Hidden, the ones offered safety by both captains.

She didn't understand why, but perhaps they were innocent?

The notion was painful as it was true. Clutching the handle of the embrace "My decree, that once my foes are driven to a grave of their own design. That I will stand as the shield in the shadows, to all that wish to escape will succeed. And any tool that aims to inflict the pain I suffer will need to pass through my steel first." A solid tug and the katana accepts her path, drawing clean and without resistance to a thickened fog that billows forcing the air to freeze on its contact.

The heart in the vial begins to stir...

Edited February 1, 2021 by Setsuna

[Freyd 0]

His thrashing catch froze instantly, mid-wriggle, and perfectly preserved upon the line.  When had he drawn it from the water?  Freyd seemed serene as he watched her redefine herself, impressed by her dedication to the blade.  It was truly part of her.  The same could be said of so many in SAO - that their weapons matched their personalities in the same manner that people's pets often reflected their own features.  This went so much beyond such superficial nonsense.  There was a bond between Setsuna and her weapon, far more intense than mere affection or affect of vanity.  The blade was truly part of her identity.  He respected that.  Perhaps that was why she seemed to respect him?  Takeshi had always been a thinker, but a mentor?  The very notion surprised him, yet not uncomfortably.  It was humbling.

Freyd nodded in thanks at her praise.  The gesture seemed far more akin to a bow, given their exchange, but it was not inappropriate.  Dismissing his translucent displays, he focused on the thing in the vessel.  It seemed to reacted to her as much as to the blade.   Something fascinating was simmering to a boil, and he suspected that it might be the very substance of the crucible through which she had just placed herself.  Words unbidden seemed to roll off his tongue without forethought.

"Good for you, Setsuna.  I am proud of you."

[Setsuna 0]

A swell of the heart in its container, it rattles and falls to one side. A twist of the small red sphere within it, the tiny globule of light in a faint luminosity. It slides quickly from one side to the other, bringing with it the pool of liquid to which it was contained. It draws across her steel, leaving the weapon well below the cold it normally held. Faintly blue, the air around it cascades as it becomes so cold it's too heavy to stay where it lingered. "A vow the same, that once your goal has been met you take another." Setsuna asked him with a placid face, almost expectantly of him.

She was not so blind as to not see that he was speaking from experience. The last wish lingered in her mind. "You wish to enjoy the simple pleasures, to live and thrive. I have met Elora." The girl whisked it out bluntly, she was not one to sugarcoat or dance the issue. "You mean quite a lot to her, enough that she would seek me out where I live. Enter a building that looked like a crypt and despite her fear wait for your clothes to be repaired."

"I would say that you are important to her. You would wish me not to suffer in the darkness of my own making. With respect, my master. You should do the same."

Her heart had escaped its confinement

Vanity Tag: @Elora

ID# 181845 results: Craft: 10+1=11, Success [1/3]

Edited February 1, 2021 by Setsuna

[Freyd 0]

Realization dawned as Setsuna revealed the source of his cloak's repair, now given back to Elora once more.  Creases crowed at the edges of his eyes, born of joy and sadness, and the uncertainty that lays between them.  She was right.  It was just that simple.  And in that simplicity, it was also infinitely complex.  He'd figured that much out, at least.  

"I would very much like to do that, Setsuna, but I once made a vow as well." 

Freyd left it at that, choosing not to provide any further explanation or details, and deferring attention to the clinking crack of the frosted heart in its transparent vessel.  Something was happening.  Could it actually have been triggered by their conversation?  The prospect was both intriguing and bizarre.  But feelings were like that, weren't they?  A memory of green hair and shivering shoulders intruded, and a darkness staring from inside him.  He'd felt Shadow reach within him during the raid, and their efforts to free Orgoth.  Something lingered from the experience, in a hollow somehow left behind when the light returned.  Maybe it was already there?  He buried it, because he knew how, and focused instead on Setsuna's gift come to life.

[Setsuna 0]

A twist of the held aloft steel causes the newly formed film to disperse as if something was not quite ready, the heart still hovers there. A kite on the absent wind it just looms, shapeless and without purpose. Her attention had merely shifted elsewhere. "I will not overstep my bounds and attempt to corral your motives, my master." Setsuna's eyes advert to the lake, dwelling on the strange oddity that was Freyd fishing. She had assumed him above such things, more pressing matters to which to attend.

"So easily my vow has been changed, and perhaps your's will." Setsuna spoke toward the open water, dwelling on what it might mean. "It is easy to dismiss one's feelings for safety. Like an exposed nerve, the ability to feel can also bring pain. I have felt it, dwelled in it. The girl would mourn your loss I am convinced." Setsuna shifts forward dipping the point of the blade within the waters, forcing it to slightly freeze in lines around it as it ripples. "It is a weakness that exposure, one that I have attempted to cut out. I watched Freya be consumed by the darkness, and although I did not know her. It stung more than any blade. Hugo believed that it would see me broken, slowed. But the opposite was true, through the removal of my weakness. He had sealed his fate."

A glance back to Freyd, curiosity and a slight flare as her very image flickered and fizzled. An obvious tell to whirling emotion causing the cardinal to attempt and force a skill to trigger as a response.

"I would ask you, my master, are you willing to make that sacrifice?"

Edited February 2, 2021 by Setsuna

[Freyd 0]

"I already did, long ago.  Now I'm facing the consequences of that choice." 

Removing the fish from his hook, the thrashing creature vanished and was added to some invisible tally.  Freyd mused on.

"What happens when you find love after having shut your emotions off?  Or think that you have, but discover that some immature dreg of them survived enough to connect to another person?  How do you love when you have never felt it?  Can a fish dream of driving a car, or climbing a mountain?  It knows only water.  I feel simultaneously blind and childish, yet also yearning to explore the prospect of a thing I've never truly fathomed.  It's daunting and enticing, all at once, but my nature cannot help but to consider the possible cost."

Freyd watched the chilling blade dipping in and out of the water.  Then cast his hook back out, causing rippling rings to appear, matching the state of serene disturbance that afflicted him.

"I want to pay that cost, Setsuna.  And I very much suspect that I might, at the expense of others.  Would that make me as bad as those you hate?  Would I deserve the same fate?  Maybe I don't care, which is ironic.  That's my struggle.  Plus, I need the damned mats granted by this skill."

The bobber jeered out in the water, as if nodding confirmation.