[F22-PP] By the Moon and the Star

[Freya 0]

Between two trees, place in view of a small body of water. Unknown heat boils beneath making a small hot spring of sorts. This was a place she had found when she had that time to think. After the raid was over, she knew it was time. A fur blanket lay upon the ground between these trees. Laying on top was a four course meal, heated spiced Sake with a few wine glasses. Something that she spend good time in making herself. A stack of steak, well seasoned with diced potatoes laced in rosemary butter. Some fruits set in a bowl to flavor the buds. A single white rose lies on the blanket. Instead of a candle lit dinner, she used the bright lighting of the stars and the moon. It was all she needed. Freyja sat against one of these trees, waiting for when Gaius would arrive home and read the note that she had placed with a giant heart cookie. She knew it was cheesy as hell, but it would catch his attention enough to see the note none the less... 

The note reads:

(The coordinates where to meet her) Meet me here, and before you say "Oh I'm too tired" or make up some dumb excuse why not to, I made food. 

This was all the note said, but it was too important of a conversation to joke around... She knew that her best chance was to mention food...

Freya | HP: 700/700 | EN: 88/88 | DMG: 23 | MIT: 20 | EVA: 3 | ACC: 5 | LD: 6 | AA | BLD: 48 | KEEN: 1 | REC: 4

Spoiler

Freya,
Level: 31
Paragon Level: 20
HP: 700/700
EN: 88/88

Stats:
Damage: 23
Mitigation: 20
Evasion: 3
Accuracy: 5
Loot Dice: 6
AA
BLD: 48
KEEN: 1
REC: 4

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: Final Calamity - Remorse (T4/Perfect/2HBA): Absolute Accuracy, Keen 1, Bleed 1
Armor: Dark Embrace - Sacrifice (T4/Perfect/Light Armor): Evasion 2, Recovery 1
Misc: Ebon Band - Truth (Tierless/Perfect/Trinket): Accuracy 3

Skills:
Axe R5
Cloth Armor R5
Charge
Energist
Searching R5

Active Mods:
Athletics
Tracking
Night Vision

Addons:
Nimble
Stamina
Precision
Ferocity

Active Extra Skills:
Survival

Housing Buffs:
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: +10% Exp to a thread. Limit one use per month [1/1]

Guild Hall Buffs:
Col Deposit: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests.

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by Freya

[Gaius 0]

Approaching with half a heart shape cookie hanging out of his gullet, a slight bit of flour stuck to his fingertips. The pets had gotten into the pantry again, and there was tiny white paw prints virtually everywhere. He managed to clean some of it up before he found the note. "What's up?" Gaius barks out before it sinks in... This uh, thing. There was a sudden bit of nerves planted pretty quickly on his face, and he slinks over and folds his legs into a butterfly. "This is sorta a super weird place to eat, you know." It seemed almost stammered and nervious. Scratching the back of his head, and looking into the stars. "I am tied in knots, I don't even know what to say. So fuck it I'll just tell you what I am feeling."

If Gaius was but one, insignificant thing under all that rough and tumble demeanor. That ego, and that moxie. Was honest.

Spoiler

Gaius, The Fulminating Storm
Level: 31
Paragon Level: 20
HP: 700/700
EN: 88/88

Stats:
Damage: 29
Mitigation: 35
Accuracy: 2
Loot Dice: 7
BLD: 48
FLN: 8
H.M.: 6
REC: 3

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: Eye of the Gale - Brionac [T4/Perfect/2HAS] - Fallen 1, Bleed 2 (8-10)
Armor: Dragoon's Mantle - Fervor [Heavy] (T3/Perfect) 1 Recovery, 2 Heavy Momentum
Misc: Boar Hide Belt [Trinket] (T1/Perfect) [+3 Loot Dice]

Custom Skill:


Skills:
Polearm R5
Heavy Armor R5
Charge
Energist
Fighting Spirit
Battle Healing R4

Active Mods:
Impetus

Inactive Mods:

Addons:
Ferocity
Stamina
Iron Skin
Hyperactive

Active Extra Skills:
First Aid R3

Inactive Extra Skills:

Battle Ready Inventory:
Teleport Crystal x1
Vocal Augmentation - Resonation [T1/Perfect/Support/Instant] +60 HP x2
Bird Seed (T2/Rare/Snack) Vitality 2 x1

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
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.
Col Stash: +5% bonus col from monster kills and treasure chests
Advanced Training: +10% Exp 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 []: 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.

 

[Freya 0]

Freyja chuckles a bit, seeing him so nerve rack was new but somehow pleasant. "Then don't speak, just listen." This entire thing was a bit overwhelming for her too but she pushes through. Repositioning herself on her knees, she looks to the starry sky. The sun was just setting as the orange engolfes on the horizon. "You asked me a question that I was longing to hear but couldn't answer at the time." A pause as she looks at the meal she had set out. Starting to set things out on a plate for him, she continues. "Since the day that we first met, you drove me up a wall almost literally." Pushing a plate toward him a small chuckle comes out. "In that time I had to think, I kept trying to come up with why I shouldn't be with you. I came up with only one thing that can easily be fixed." She pours a cup of spiced Sake. Taking a swig, she swallows hard and sticks out her tongue making a weird face. "Dam, I thought if I spiced it, it would taste better. What a waste..." She tosses the liquid out on the grass beside her. Taking a deep breath and breathes out in a small huff. "We know nothing about one another. So we are going to sit here and play 20 questions till we do... For starters, my real name is Freyja Maruri... Go head and make fun of it if it makes you feel better..." Eyes raise up to see Gaius face now.

[Gaius 0]

Listening on as Freya choked on some crap she brought, he'd never tried sake, so he'd leave her to that shit. "Fair enough." Gaius stared into the night sky, lost in it and feeling almost so small. A sudden plate, he instinctually plucks up. It looked alright, but it was clear that Freya still wasn't quite on his level. The chicken was a little dry, but for once he couldn't bring himself to complain about it. Taking a bite as he listened to her lay it all out, she liked to talk a ton when she was nervous. Gaius knew it.

"Not a lot of room in this thing to learn anything about anyone." his attentions shift back to the blonde, a strange seriousness in his usually relaxed and nonchalant demeanor. "Gerrard Aigus." He just dropped his own real name like a bag of stones for her to take in. Peeling open his menu and producing a bottle, of red glass and opaque. His first experiment, a demonic quality wine brewed in a rapid aging cask he'd spent far too much col on. It took Simmone quite some time to track down such a weird oddity, but he now had it, and he was curious if it worked.

"Try this on for size." Gaius remarked, peeling up one of the glasses, and allowing the blood-red liquid to peel out of the bottle into a bell on a glass stem.

[Freya 0]

Freyja raises a brow, not crazy comment. Just a completely serious Gaius. Her heart skips a beat listen to him speak in such a different tone. Taking the red liquid now, her eyes never leave his face. Taking a sip, her eyes widen. It tasted so heavenly... Scooting a bit closer to him, on her butt with her legs crossed in pretzel. Setting the glass down on a flat surface she takes his left hand. Freyja pulls out a ring that she found, she would replace it later with something more unique, slipping it onto his ring finger with a soft smile. Taking out the ring that Gaius got her, she puts it on her finger. "It is worth a try until we get out of here." Giving him a soft smile before picking the glass back up.

She was a bit hesitant to share who she was before this... She wasn't really an idolized citizen in others eyes. She was afraid that he wouldn't like her if he knew what she was really like, but it was all gonna come out regardless... "I was the trouble child. Snuck out a lot to party with my friends or see a movie even when I was told I couldn't. But it didn't seem like my mother really actually cared about us girls." Baby steps... Little bits at a time. Maybe then she would get it all out. It was sorta rough to think about the past because she knew very well that who she was then, was not who she was now.

[Gaius 0]

"Somehow I knew that one." Gaius remarked, and it seemed almost like his typical jest, and yet it wasn't. Freya was clearly defiant and filled with her own decision-making, so it made sense that she'd be the one to carve her own way and do what she liked. Glancing to the ring now held around his left hand, a simple platinum band that meant more than the sum of its parts. He manages to catch the girl slipping his own on her finger, and a burning kiln in his chest helped cement that it was real. A soft nip in the air worked to stabilize and ground that which was fleeting into a dream. Pouring himself a cup of the wine in his own glass, and taking a slight sip. "Need to change the dial, but it's about damn near ideal. Just a little acidic." he responds, looking into the cup, something obviously playing back in his head as he does.

"I was a rather standard kid, other than getting into more fights than I can remember. But my dad didn't really give a crap, actually he enjoyed a tough son." Another bit of that wine, and another bite of the chicken just to reminisce about a past that seemed so distant. 

Edited September 20, 2021 by Gaius

[Freya 0]

Thinking about the past a bit, something came to mind that made her cheeks red. "I am... still in high school... Well, sort of. Years have passed in this game right... So I'm 20??" She says this as a question as she had not a clue how time passed in here. Time in her mind was completely obsolete because more than half the time in this game she was sleeping... Looking to the sky again as she melts inside, this was a date, something real in what seemed as a dream. In a way this was as real as it was ever going to get, at least for now. "Gaius, how old are you??" He didn't seem much older than her right?, but the question was still racking her brain.

Suddenly, a shooting star flies above them. Taking another sip of her glass, she looks to Gaius with a smile, "Make a wish, I can't because I have everything I'll ever want right here." Placing a hand on his knee... Looking back up to the stars...  

[Gaius 0]

"Been a while, I gotta be like 24 by now using that math. But I don't really care." He continued to watch the stars, lifting a hand to peer at them through his fingers. It was a bit weird, sure, but Freya acted much older than a number. It explained Griswold's hang up a bit, but she was more than a child by now. Through that extended hand, he catches the glancing scatter of a single star rushing across the inky blackness. "My wish?..." He pauses, putting a bit of thought into it as a warm mitt finds his kneecap.

"You know, I could wish for anything. But the one thing I really want these days." Gaius looks down at Freya, getting sucked into those emerald eyes of hers for a moment. He drops the hand atop hers and twines fingers between hers. The skin tones were so blatantly in contrast, he looked like leather on linen. "I wish that no matter what happens in here, I'll be man enough to get you through the finish line. That, and your old man will finally realize that I'd give everything for you."

[Freya 0]

Gazing into those eyes that matched hers, she felt like she could just melt when his hand interlocked with hers. "What made you realize you wanted to try with me..." Thinking for a moment she rephrased the question, "What made me special enough to get your attention." Looking down at the dry meat, "I sure it was not my cooking..." That made a smile peer on her face. She knew that her cooking was not great, but she was always trying harder than last time to make a perfect meal. Glancing to their hands, "For me it was that first real conversation we had. It made me realize that regardless of my actions or what I said, you would always be straight with me. No bullshit..." Her chest was pounding a million miles a second, this was a new feeling. She in many more ways than just one felt safe. Gaius was her safety net... With Eruda or Freyd it was different... They would protect and lay their lives on the line for everyone... With Gaius, though, it was just her. He would move the world for her if he could... Freyja couldn't bring herself to look back up, so she just stared at the rings letting everything sink in... 

[Gaius 0]

"I dunno, I don't really think I need a reason. I just want to, and that is enough." Gaius didn't really know how to put it to words, the guy wasn't quite a thinker. "No bullshit" Gaius stares into the side of her head, allowing her the respite, but he was too resolute to avoid his own. "I still am not convinced I am doing anything right, but I feel like, out of any of my fuck ups. Out of all the mistakes and times I stuck my own foot in my ass, That out of it all." His vision twists to look into the starscape above. "If I've done one thing right my entire life, it was you." That simple breeze that played through the grass slid softly through blades of grass, making them bend ever so slightly with its glance. "So keep asking your questions. Keep talking, and I'll keep listening."

[Freya 0]

Freyja was the one thing he'd done right. This makes her curious as to what his life was like before this. Taking a small inhale, he would listen... She knew that digging into the past could be very dangerous, but if they were to be a true couple, she wanted to know everything, good and bad. Same the other way around, regardless of how hard it might have been to get out. Taking her glass in hand, staring at that now as she swished the liquid around gently. "What is the one regret you have in your life." This was a question that pained her a bit. "Mine is hating my father so long without knowing the true reason we left..." That hate redirected to her mother though, she felt abandoned by both parties even though it was not Griswold fault. It was the one thing that made the biggest impact in her early years. Maybe also one of the reasons she didn't really talk to him hardly, again though, not his fault...

[Gaius 0]

A clatter of the bottle's rim rubbing against the glass, a bit more of that slightly translucent red finding the interior. He'd give it a few seconds of honest pouring, before setting the redware bottle down. There was something so, real here. These two players almost insignificant under the star scape that dwarfed them, like ants in a tornado. "Your dad isn't a bad guy, no one that's protective of anything is." The smith almost tore his ass open on more than one occasion so far, and it probably wouldn't be the last time, neither. "Regrets, I try not to think about it. I figure instead of trying to decide what was my biggest fuck up, I'll just keep moving forward and do better next time. But I've been in so many fights, all because of my temper and my refusal to back down. Hell, you were there for one." Gaius recalled the vocal altercation in the guild hall between him and Kiluia.

"Before SAO, what did you wanna become? What did you wanna do with your life? It's a tough thought, but what would have you been?" Looking to a spear at his side in the grass, he knew the answer to his own question, at least with regard to himself.

[Freya 0]

A very small chuckle release as she remembers punching him. Drinking the remaining liquid in her glass, she set it down. She sorta wished it worked like it was suppose to though, it would have really helped right about now. "Yea, sorry about that by the way. Somehow I thought it was the only way to snap you out of it and I knew you wouldn't hurt me so I just went with it..." Gripping his hand tighter, the fighting, major temper, and refusal to back down didn't surprise her in the least. Just being around this man helped her stay calm so she hoped that she could do the same for him. Learning from his fuck ups was something that was rubbing off on Freyja too. It was a nice feeling...

The question is asked was a bit harder for her... "Now thinking about it, I was pretty aimless. My only goal was to piss my mother off as much as I possibly could. Was failing in school on purpose just so I could get a reaction from her, hell any reaction..." Nothing had worked, a failed attempt and royaly fucked up her life with nothing to gain from any of it... "Being in this game though for so long and everything that has happened to me, I kinda wanna teach." She thinks about this statement for a moment. "To help kids not feel as defenseless as I did feel. Give them hope in knowing that there is another option you know..." She smiles at this, she had only just started thinking about this recently. Once her brain had calmed from all the randomness, it was finally nice to have a clear head... "What about you?" Gazing into his eyes now, interested in what he would have been in the other reality.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Freya

[Gaius 0]

"I deserved it, to be honest. I can always count on you to keep me in check." Gaius laughed, ruffling his hair on the back of his head. It was her he thought about when he got into it with Raidou and Freyd, the first time he backed down. It was for the better, and he found himself thinking more than he had ever. As she'd grip his hand tighter, it helped provide something solid he could focus on. This moment felt so fleeting, so imaginary, that it helped provide some tangibility to it.

"A teacher, yeah, I could see it. Just be ready, kids can be assholes." he reciprocated a past, with an honesty. A glance down to the now half empty wine bottle, still tied in knots. He'd never been in this sort of situation, and it showed with his inexperience. Slightly uncomfortable and yet welcoming it. "I always wanted to be a monk, don't laugh. But when I was young I saw some festival of traveling dudes in tiny clothes waving around these glaives with red flags on the end. I knew then and there that I wanted to do that, dazzle people with style and skill."

[Freya 0]

"Yes you can," commenting on the check thing. It was a nice feeling that he felt that. She was not going anywhere. Her hand that wasn't being held went to her face trying so hard not to laugh. After a moment she clears her throat. "A monk, aren't they like the idealized stature of a calm nature?" She raised a brow at him, she never thought of him wanting something like that but there was still a lot of things she didn't know about him. "Well, if that is something that you want to still try doing, we have some work to do, don't we." She has noticed that he got loads better at the whole calm aspect. She could see it in nearly everything they did together. Hell, he even helped her to focus that bad energy elsewhere.

With this she bends forward and kisses him on the cheek, gets to her feet and opens her HUD menu. With the touch of an inventory item her clothing had switched. A yellow two piece bathing suit,  a small skirt and a tiny green bow with laces hanging down where the top connected in the front. Walking around Gaius she sits on the ledge and gently dips herself into the warm water. She was unable to touch the bottom, good thing she could swim. She had been wanting to get in since she found it the first time, but waited for this specific event before she did. Backstroking from the ledge now, she goes under the water for only a moment before coming back up. Moving her hair from her face, "What made you come into SAO," swishing her feet back and forth, keeping herself afloat, "I needed a change, I was tired of being the bad twin. I needed something new..." the moonlight glimmered against the water's top, it was beautiful... 

[Gaius 0]

"I guess, I just wanted to wave a spear around like a badass. I don't really buy into the whole 'let peace solve everything'. Sounds like a good way to let everyone walk all over you." As Freya strips down to her skivvies and hops into a waterhole. Looking to the girl who now resembled an otter, her hair becoming almost knotted up from the moisture. He raises an eyebrow at her question, "I mean it was a way for me to practice, learn and train without getting tired. It's basically an audiobook for school that you can learn to fight to your heart's content. What's not to love, excluding the bear trap 'It'll kill you now' fuckery. It's not like I was some dude strapped to the side of a computer, staring at half naked women waving around swords far too big to lift."

He let her reply sink in. "That's just it, you're not Eruda. How could you be? Just because you share the same face or sisters doesn't mean that you need to be compared to her. You can only be the best you, stop worrying about what Eruda does. Be yourself, and don't worry about which one of you is better. I bet your dad can easily tell you apart, and is just as proud of you as I am."

[Freya 0]

"Hmm, well, we you can say that you toss that spear around rather well. The way you fling into the air doing just that, it's rather attractive." Swimming to edge, folding her arms on the limited ground. "I couldn't agree more, and its sorta a relief to hear. Not that I thought anything like that." The next thing caught her a bit off guard. Comparing herself to her sister is something she had not done in a very long time. In here she became something that was better than she was before and even though she was the same hyper unpredictable girl, she has rather grown up a lot. Made her stop and think about her actions. "I don't think about that anymore, we are so night and day from one another, it's easy to tell us apart. I like it to stay that way. To be honest, I did idealize her for a time, but I sorta grew into myself." Be herself, it's all she was doing these days. Scooting herself a bit she takes the bottle and takes a drink straight from it. She always did the same back home from a juice jug or milk carton. Gaius would soon know who she was, and if he stuck around with knowing even the tiny flaws, it was all that mattered. Setting the bottle down, taking a deep breath, "Do you have any family besides your father? Besides Eruda, I have a little sister that I don't remember much of..." Looking at the plate of food she takes a small piece of the chicken. Dam it was really dry...  

[Gaius 0]

A raised eyebrow, he noticed a pattern in Freya, but didn't really have anything concrete before now. She has a habit of flirting instinctually when things get a little too serious. Watching her just guzzle wine like a man was something else, and Gaius couldn't really understand how outside the mold she was for a girl. "Good, no way to live life in someone else's shoes." He kneels down, pressing his belly to the ring of the water, staring Freya at eye level. Shoving his head in and plucking it out, letting the water just dribble from his bangs. He unlike the girl did not bring a bathing suit, so this would have to suffice. God forbid, the water might make all this walking down memory lane a bit easier. "Father, a mother. Some cousins, but I am an only child. Its just me. What's it like having siblings? I always imagined it to be pretty damn cool to have some blood to always have your back when things get hairy."

Another burning star scatters in the air above, painting further a picture of serenity and the time between the chaos. That this world had a way of pausing and letting one catch one's breath from time to time.

[Freya 0]

Mere inches from his face as their eyes locked. Resting her head on one arm as she lifts the other. Brushing a dripping bang as she places her small hand against his face. In a soft voice, "I was always that for Eruda behind the scenes. It almost felt like..." Pausing biting her bottom lip softly while she thought for a moment. "It felt like I had grasp on something I knew I could control. Being her strength when I knew she couldn't herself at the time. She was such a fragile flower that didn't speak, when I saw she was getting picked on, I sorta got violent... Eventually a few broken noses made people back off. It felt amazing." There was another story to add to that, but it was better left unsaid for now... Regardless, it did feel good to protect someone you loved. "Tell me something that you've never told another living soul." She knew that this was a loaded question of sorts, she would have to answer on her side too but she would wait for his response. It might make what she wanted to say a bit easier...  

[Gaius 0]

"I don't like fighting, but if I don't people will walk all over me." Gaius admitted for the first time he'd ever, and it was the first time he'd ever considered the idea. The sisters seemed so different despite sharing the same face, and even when he first met the pair, he was confused by them. "When you stand up for what you believe, what you want and yourself, some people just don't like it. Not wanting to fight and being forced to are two completely different things. It's probably how I do it, and I know that but fuck if I am going to let people bad mouth what I care about." His mind raced back to the guild hall, where he almost got into it with Kiluia. Where they both were willing to come to blows for what they believed in. Kiluia defending his own child, and Gaius defending the kid that was basically him but younger. It was so easy to become opposed when you were walking the divide, and at the end of that whole fight. They were both right.