[F3-PP] Enlightening Conversations (Worn out Welcome)

[Freya 0]

Freya wakes early in the morning. It was rolling around 5 am. Dreams of hope and what her future would look like. She knew that it was only one possibility but this was one that she really wanted to happen. Gaius had stood up to her father and she wasn't able to say much because she was unsure what to say. She touches her palm, as the memory of them holding hands just the other day. She could feel her chest warm from the thought. The unsaid words made it feel like she wanted more from him. A blush forms on her face as she quickly gets up from her sheets. Ko yawns and hops out of bed walking to the kitchen with Freya.

She prepares a few large omelets with ham inside. Right then she thinks about Freyd. The person that she could talk to without having feelings for him. It makes her very curious as to why that was but wasn't going to look too much into it. Preparing 3 egg yumminess and some more honey rolls. Setting each portion on a plate, she makes a kibble mixture for Ko and Boris. Standing in front of what she made...What did Persi like to eat... She quickly puts together another Kibble meat mixture. She would ask later what she preferred for later preparation. Wrapping the dish for Freyd and Persi she eats hers right there as Ko devours hers. Making 2 cups of coffee with Vanilla extract, she heads next door and sets the dishes on the table for Gaius and Boris. Looking up the stairs where Gaius lay sleeping she smiles. Walking out after a few wishful moments she leaves a note on the table. A simple heart colored in with her name next to it, above this Hope your day goes well. 

Walking out and grabbing the coffees she heads to floor 3 trying to keep every other day easy while still trying to level, a break of sorts. Arriving at floor 3 she sits next to the quest board she sents a message to Freyd:

To: Freyd From: Freya I have some food and coffee waiting for you if you want to join me today. Floor 3

With a chime of her HUD as the message is sent she waits for Freyd to respond yay or neh. Taking a sip of her hot coffee, Ko snuggles to her leg.

Freya | HP:700/700 | EN:68/68 | DMG:14 | MIT:12 | EVA:2 | ACC:3 | BLD:24 | REC:1

Spoiler

Freya
Level: 34
HP: 700/700
EN: 68/68

Stats:
Damage: 14
Mitigation: 12
Evasion: 2
Accuracy: 3
BLD:24
REC:1

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: Grim Reminder - Sorrow (T2/Perfect/2HBA): Damage 2, Bleed 1
Armor: Dark Embrace - Sacrifice (T2/Perfect/Light Armor): Evasion 2, Recovery 1
Misc: Bringer (Tierless/Perfect/Trinket): Accuracy 3

Skills:
Two-Handed Battle Axe [Rank 5]
Light Armor [Rank 3]

Extra Skills:
Concentration
Familiar Fighter (Pending)
Survival (No SP used yet)

Mods:
Finesse Rank 3
Ferocity
Athletics

Battle Ready Inventory:
Teleport Crystal*1
Resistance Plate - Lily (T1/Perfect/HA): Mitigation 27
Silver Band - Farore's Wind: (T1/Perfect/Trinket) Loot Dice 3

Housing Buffs:
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.
Tasty: Turn 2 identical food items into a Lesser Feast. A Lesser Feast contains 4 portions of the food items sacrificed.
Advanced Training: +2 SP to a thread. Limit one use per month [0/1]

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]

Falling through the void, Freyd flailed for anything where his grasp might find purchase.  The glitch-thingy was slain, but now he was falling through the same nothingness that had trapped him between floors in the first place, if that was truly were he'd been.  It felt a lot like using the teleportation portals, save that those were near-instantaneous in their effect.  This one was stuck in limbo.  Another glitch?  Maybe.  But how was he to escape it?

*PING*

Freya's message arrived.  Another invite to quest, and with it an offer to accept.  

"I'm going to owe her a meal, if she gets me out of this.  Or a couple of uniques."  Pressing the button took some effort and irrepeatable gymnastics.  Contorting like a pretzel, without purchase or counterweight, Freyd finally managed it.  Then his face met the ground, hard.

To Freya and other NPCs gathered in Delilah's humble village square, he looked to have been ejected from the portal like he'd dived into it from the side.  A black sword, long and sinister, trailed smoke made of shadow as it skittered across the cobblestones, sizzling slightly as its holy seal buzzed at the repeated impacts.  Freyd fell, heavily and in the most awkward of poses, settling to a stop just a few feet from Freya's.

He just groaned.

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
Vanish
Vengeful Riposte
Surprise Attack (Assassin)

Inactive Mods:
Night Vision
Untraceable
Tracking

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:

 

[Freya 0]

Seeing this Freya gets quickly to her feet and helps Freyd at least sit up. She could see townspeople hovering and whispering. Freya glares in their direction and says "Ko take care of them." At first, seeing Ko walk up to them with her tiny growl, "Ah she is so cute," Ko right then turns into her largest form with a burst of fire charring a small surface area around her doing no damage to anything around. Ko is a full-sized 3 by 3 foot Sabor tooth Cat now. Two teeth hang past her jaw as she growls one last time in every direction that there was staring, baring her other teeth beneath the two. The NPC's scatter quickly with fear in their eyes from what they just watched.

Freya grins a bit and sets a hand on his shoulder. "Would you like to tell me what the hell that was now that we are alone..." She reaches a few feet from them where she was sitting and grabs his coffee. Handing it carefully to him, she sits on her knees. Moving his hair from his face so that she could see his eyes she wonders what hell Freyd has been going through since they last spoke. Ko paces around them in a walk that Freya never saw till now. She almost looked like she was protecting them.

[Freyd 0]

Picking himself off the floor, Freyd looked frazzled, which was saying something.  The Whisper wasn't easily dismayed, yet that was precisely how he looked.  Gloved hands pawed at the ground, as if testing to confirm its existence.  

"I... uh..."  Concerned eyes scan their surroundings, as if looking for something.  Relief followed as he failed to find it.

"Okay.  This place looks like 'real fake', as opposed to 'in-between, bizarro fake-fake.'" A certain tone carried in his voice, that might have read to some as if he wasn't all there.  But Freya knew Freyd, and his quirks of speech personality were easily misinterpreted.  There was real concern in his voice.  Surprisingly, his hands were perfectly still as he took the coffee offered to him.  Steam rolled over his eyes as he closed them, momentarily, just to re-center himself.  Awareness congealed around him again and she caught two pools of red glancing over tilted porcelain towards the oversized saber cat at her side.  Re-collected, he was back to himself in an instant, as if whatever trigger had affected him was just as quickly set aside.  

"I fell into a glitch, I think."  

Spoken matter-of-factly, he seemed to think he'd just explained everything.

[Freya 0]

Freya was trying so hard to hold back a laugh which ultimately wasn't hard. She knew deep down that Freyd was fucked up somehow but dam... Freya also knew that trying to explain what she thought was impossible was hard to. "Okay uh get yourself together and then we will talk about what the hell just happened cause whatever the fuck just came from your mouth was not English." Getting to her feet she takes the coffee from his hands and sets it on the ground. She moves behind him places both arms under his and drags Freyd to the quest board pole for back support, something to lean against while he regains function. Grabbing his coffee from the ground she sits next to him, grabbing his right wrist in her hand and placing the drink back in his hand.  "Here eat this, maybe it will help..." she unwraps the omelet she made for him and places the plate on his lap with a fork. 

Ko walks over now still in large form after everyone around had stopped staring and lays next to Freyd seemingly knowing that something wasn't right either. Freya watches him with concerned eyes wondering what had happened in the few days that they hadn't talked... 

[Freyd 0]

"Hey!  What the... I'm dazed, not helpless!" 

Ornery as he was, his limbs simply refused to function.  Something cracked in his left shoulder as he tried to disentangle himself.  Turning to look, his protests fell silent.  Instead of the common orange mesh-like patterning that appeared on the forms of players and mobs alike when they suffered damage, he found a jagged, crackling field of bluish-white light.  It changed shape as he watched, undulating slowly along its edges and strangely reminiscent of water sloshing around a bowl.  Fortunately, it also seemed to be closing, albeit slowly.  Blinking at it didn't seem to help.

"Damn.  They tagged me harder than I thought."  His health bar was back in the green and slowly regenerating, but it was a rare thing for him to have taken this much damage in the first place - and it hurt.  That wasn't supposed to happen in Aincrad, but the glitches' attacks nullified the pain suppression algorithms that kept them acting all heroic while getting beaten to a pulp.  

Spotting Freya's offering, he reached up to grab it.  Lips parted to offer thanks, but chose other, more appropriate words instead. 

"Oww."

[Freya 0]

"Just shut ip and let me help you..." she says as she starts cutting the Omlete in smaller pieces realizing that he was not in a position to speak at the moment. "You have helped me more times than I can count, it is my turn to do just that for you my friend." She wanted to inform him with a up date of what was going on with her, but somehow this thing that Freyd came from was just as interesting. She wanted to know more but wasn't going to push at this very second. She would let him relax and regain his strength before she bombed him with questions. 

After cutting the eggs she says "Eat... Regain your strength then we will talk..." Turning she sets her back against the pole as well and thinks about Simmone and the shadow, her Gemini that was giving her so many issues, finally showing himself to her. She was deeming herself not so crazy now that people actually saw this figure... I might actually make what she knew easier to explain sort of. She was still confused as hell but she was beginning to understand slowly...

[Freyd 0]

"I'll do the eating while you do the talking, deal?"  Ever the negotiator, he took the plate with a nod of thanks and sealing the pact with their exchange.  It hurt to hold the plate, so he set it down in his lap and managed as best he could with one hand.  A few minutes of healing would do the trick, and Freya's cooking was an added perk.

"You might wallop Gaius around all you want, but I'd whoop his ass in a stubborn contest.  Word is that he's finally getting his act together too.  Fill me in.  Did he finally come to his senses or did it require a traumatic brain injury?"  A forkful of food stuffed his face, but only partially hid his smile.  People like to think that a plugged pie hole grants them immunity to accountability for their words.  He thought he'd give it a shot and nudged her back with his elbow, urging her to get on with her story.

[Freya 0]

"Oh my god, yes," her initial statement fell through her mind as she turns her butt around to face Freyd and with a small chuckle as she gets nudged a bit. "He was so amazing our last quest together. He has a new perspective on moving forward here. I got hit and hard by this Ugzeke troll thing and he seemed genuinely concerned which of course made me happy. He took a while to charge an attack, during that time I was kicking the creature's ass, but the moment Gaius hit... It pretty much died right there... It was pinned to the ground, it was comical." Freya was excited about what she saw during that battle and what she brought to the damage pool. She was getting a lot stronger and she was super happy about that. Then she thought of what happened next...

Freya glances to the ground now fiddling with the cap of her coffee. "He showed himself...Like, everyone, I was with could see him... Tuatha..." Taking a deep breath now her mind tries to contemplate what she saw and still was confused that Simmone knew him...She wasn't going to tell Freyd that yet though. One thing at a time...

[Freyd 0]

"Mwuatta?"  He really needed to stop talking with his mouth full, but the comment had definitely caught his attention.  A quick coughing fit wracked him as he nearly choked in the process.  Wincing eyes confirmed that the wounds he'd suffered were still affecting him, though they seemed to be mending faster now.  Freyd gestured to her to keep going, clearly interested in both stories and eager to hear more.  Sparing a moment to wipe a bit of something from his chin, he managed to recover his breath.

"I'm glad to hear that he's finally pulling things together.  Sounds like he's working on an HM build."  An apologetic look flashed across his face.  "Sorry.  Merchant.  Thinking of these things is an occupational hazard."

Nice recovery.

Thanks, and shut up.  Montjoy's only response was a low, self-indulgent chuckle.

A gloved hand found purchase on her shoulder and gave her a little shake as he beamed her a prideful smile.  She was doing better than he had hoped, and her progress was a welcome ray of light amidst all of the other chaos whirling in the wind around him at the moment.

"Please, continue."

[Freya 0]

The excitement that Freyd was in made her a bit more upbeat now. Her experience wasn't all bad. "He told me that he was please about how I was growing in strength and that I should not fear him. His strength has been mine all this time..." She bites her bottom lip now as something she was starting to realizing something. "I have realized that my concentration skill is strickly connected to him. The black mist from myself and my weapon is him well me... Combining our strengths to connect to the target at the time. The thing that really blows my mind was that this time when he made himself known, he came from me like actually from inside me as a shadowed figure at the blond I saw that one time... When he vanished it was my concentration skill again as he re-entered me. Freyd he is actually me... Somehow though he knows Simmone, he was her brother from what I understand but he died long ago..." 

Her mind collides back to Gaius. "Yea Gaius is getting better at what he is doing and seems to be taking everything more seriously,  including me..." This makes her blush. "Freyd you mentioned HM what is that?" Freya was still getting to know the mechanics of the game and she had not a clue what HM was...

[Freyd 0]

It actually made a weird sort of sense, kinda.  The bit about being linked to her use of the concentration skill was straightforward game mechanics at work.  He'd taken the opposite route and wielded Montjoy in effectively the same manner.  Freyd also knew full well that his shadow's voice in his head was really just him talking to himself.  He'd had so many facets of himself debating each other in there, over the years, that it had become commonplace.  It even had his voice, which came as no surprise.  Who talks to themselves with the expectation of their own thoughts responding in a different voice?!  That would just be crazy-talk.  Noting that he was doing it again, he promised himself to stow the mental self-assessment for the time being.

"Huh.  Figures, I guess.  Not really sure how the connection to Simmone is possible.  Are you two related in any way?  I'm not up to speed on neuroscience and the related physiological stuff, but..."  He shrugged.  "Hey, if it's working out, I'd suggest going with it for the time being."

It wasn't like there were really any other options, and if this 'Tuatha' was playing nice, all the better.  The only way he knew of to pull a Gemini back out of someone was considerably less than pleasant, and Mari would have his hide if he even proposed it.

"HM?  Heavy momentum.  It's an armor thing.  Lets you charge up your damage every time you miss with an attack.  Say, didn't your invite mention something about beating something up.  I could really go for that right now."

[Freya 0]

"Oh...That explains why he gets so happy when he misses and the large damage output he has." Freyd mentions the quest that Freya took. "Hell yeah I did but then you came falling out through some black hole thing saying words that were not English. In my mind that made it way more interesting than a quest." She finishes her coffee as it turns to data in her hands. Getting to her feet now she holds out a hand to help Freyd up to his feet. "We will walk and talk but it is your turn to explain...What the fuck was that black hole and why were you in it and what the heck is a glitch?" 

Freya thinks of his first words saying "Right now I am just winging it until I can fully talk to her about it. I am not even sure that he is her brother. My brain just went to the family conclusion because it's the only thing that made sense to me. Simmone did seem very disoriented though about the whole thing." She would talk to Simmone when she was alone. She didn't want the entire guild to know her weird unexplainable thing...

[Freyd 0]

Taking her hand, Freyd rises back to his feet, nodding as she described her guesses and intentions.  It was hardly like he had anything more to add.  If Tuatha turned out to be less more benevolent than originally suspected, all the better.  He'd still keep an eye on her, in fulfillment of his promise to help.  

Once they'd finished their snack and Freya has summarized the last of her update, Freyd paused as if still processing much of what had happened to him.  Guesswork was required there, too, and he didn't have much information to even make those.

"The game froze, or at least one particular mob did.  Then it winked out of existence, but not with the usual pixel puff proc that they always do.  This felt more like a deletion, or a localized reset, only it pulled me along and dumped me in some strange place I'd never seen before."  He went on to describe a vast and seemingly infinite hall of stone columns and the strange player he'd encountered, being chased by a pack of unusual mobs.

"They glowed with some sort of strange blue light that seemed to act like stitching, holding together bits of skin or texture, like it had been ripped off of other mobs and then grafted onto them.  Honestly, it felt kinda like Frankenstein's monsters meets the zombie apocalypse." He paused.  "I'm pretty sure that the textures they had were taken from other mobs, or maybe even players.  It was the creepiest damned thing I've ever seen."

They walked in silence for a minute as he structured how best to cobble the rest together in his head.  Freya could tell that he wasn't trying to hide anything, just understand it.

"I met another player in this place, which really felt like some sort of unfinished void between other game levels.  The last mob we fought was a lot stronger than the others, and literally ripped a hole in the mesh reality of the level, sucking us into someplace I can only describe as nowhere.  It was kinda like being trapped in wherever we go when we travel through portals.  A buffer, maybe?  I don't know."  A furrowed brow signaled how hard his brain was working at piecing it all together, like the memory itself was fragmented.

"All I know is, I probably would have been stuck there if your invite hadn't come when it did, so... thanks."

[Freya 0]

Listening to Freyd trying to explain to the best of his ability whatever this was, the only thing that she could pop of with was "Wow this fucking game is broken. It's almost like they put this game out for others to play without really looking into the issues that would follow behind it." She wasn't sure that she could do anything to help but he thanked her for bringing him out of it. "Your welcome, but that shit sound freaky. If you want I can start sending you random messages and invites to keep you out of it till we can figure out what is going on."

They eventually make their way toward the smith's place. Freya walks in and has a conversation with the lovely couple. Coming back out she gives Freyd a smile. "I will be here for you if you need help with anything, it's the least I can do for all the help that you've done for me." She sets a hand on his shoulder with sincere eyes looking back at him. "So tell me Freyd is there anything that I can do for you?" They start walking toward the destination as they talk.

[Freyd 0]

"Actually, that's not a bad idea.  Send me a daily party invite, around this time, until I can figure out what's going on.  I'll do the same for you, as a precaution.  I don't know if this is tied to the dragon hunter anthology quest line, or if others have been impacted, but it's a good idea to be safe."  Freyd's mind had been racing so fast since being launched out of the portal that he hadn't even realized where they were, or what they were doing.

"Wha... where?  Oh, right.  I remember this one.  Don't sneeze too hard, or you'll kill the mob too quickly and wipe out half the floor in the process."

Taking a few moments, while Freya was inside having a chat and meeting the quest requirements, he made a few arrangements of his own.  If multiple quests were involved, they too could fall into glitch-world.  A contingency had to be implemented against the possibility.

[Freya 0]

"I would be happy to do just that. Let try keeping you out of that place. Is there a warning or something that you feel before getting thrown in or is it just a -Oh I'm here now- type thing," she says as they walk into the clearing. "I would gladly wipe out half the mods on the floor if it helped the lower level players," she says with a smirk toward Freyd. She looks around the forest like area and sees something in a small distance away. "Hold that thought..." she says as she takes her Scythe out and walks toward the Dark Elf. It starts to scream at her before a black oozed mist surrounds her and her weapon as she face checks her weapon against what would be flesh if it was real. The Elf upon contact smash against a tree nearby and just explodes into data. The tree falls over upon contact. Freya smiles and picks up the material for the quest. Walking back to Freyd now, "Let's get this thing done..." as she starts walking back to the smith's place. 

Using Concentration, Explode Catapult -13 EN [14-3 (Finesse) + 2 (Hits 1)], Concentration CD [0/3]

ID# 182275 results: Battle: 4+4=8, Hits! vs Dark Elf Dealing 14*14=196 DMG, Killing it!

Players:
Freya | HP:700/700 | EN:68/68 | DMG:14 | MIT:12 | EVA:2 | ACC:3 | BLD:24 | REC:1

Enemy:
Dark Elf | HP:12/12 | DMG:9

Edited February 8, 2021 by Freya

[Freyd 0]

"Honestly," Freyd marveled, as he watched her decimate the mob and the tree that went down with him.  "This has to be the easiest quest in the game.  I had a harder time getting through the intro quests than with this one.  I've mowed through areas before, trying to keep things clear for the lower level players, but there are just too many mobs.  We can't be everywhere, and camping any one area means someone else is getting hassled.  At worst, you can even hamper players' progress by denying them access to the mobs they need."

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he walked side by side with Freya back towards the shop.  Complaining wasn't his intention.  She'd already done him a huge favour by providing the tether that got him out of his previous mess.  "And, yeah, it was just kinda like... *FZZZT*... and then you drop down into their really weird in-between space."

[Freya 0]

"If only we could split ourselves in half," she gives Freyd a grin before walking into the smith's place and giving him what he and his wife desired. That of which she said was so ironic it was sorta funny in its own way. Walking back out after a few minutes, as after receiving the reward from the couple she stashes it away. Continuing the conversation with Freyd she says "Well what were you doing before you just vamped out. There has to be some connection with something that makes this even possible. Maybe a trigger word or something specific that you were doing..." Freya was intrigued by this newfound problem. She was at the very edge of her issues and she thought it would be sorta fun to help Freyd figure this out. Given though how Freyd came out of this thing only from a message and invite from her, she couldn't help that there was something more to this... "Well whatever the case may be, You can expect a message from me daily. It's the least that I can do and I actually like hanging out with you. Thank you Freyd for helping me out..." Freya was really happy that she had a friend that she could actually trust. She had never had anyone like that besides her sister but even then it never felt right...This did... 

[Freyd 0]

"Uh... dragon slaying?"  Freyd poked the tip of his sword into a nearby mushroom cap, as if to demonstrate his technique.  "You just have to imagine the mushroom freezing in place as it explodes."  Freyd dismissed the blade, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he spun and leaned against the building.  His mind was still pre-occupied by what he'd seen.  Freya's words stunned him out of his reverie.

"...I actually like hanging out with you. Thank you Freyd for helping me out..."

He blinked, head turning to face her and realizing what she had just said, but processing at about half his usual speed.

"I...um.  Thanks, Freya.  Me too.  Sorry, I'm not very good at this sort of thing, but I appreciate it and your help.  If I can figure this out, I'll let you know.  Showing me a way out was already a huge help." 

Turning his gaze to the shadow at his feet, Freyd knew full well that he could split himself in half.  That was the easy part.  Pulling himself together, afterwards, usually proved to be the bigger challenge.

*** 

Thread Summary:

Freya Receives:

4 SP (1 page, +1 event, +2 Quest)
400 col
Leather Coat (T1 Uncommon Light Armor - 1 standard enhancement of choice)

Freyd Receives:

2 SP (1 page, +1 event)