[PP-F01] Out of the Frying Pan

[Blueberry 0]

Blueberry

Spoiler

Blueberry,
Level: 24
Paragon Level: 0
HP: 480/480
EN: 66/66

Stats:
Damage: 1
Mitigation: 12
Evasion: 3
Battle Healing: 24
BLD: 12
PARA
REC: 2

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: Blue Poison - T1 THFP | Bleed II, Paralyze
Armor: Blue Blazer - T1 CA: MIT II, EVA I
Misc: Blue Bangle - T1 Jewelry: REC II, EVA I

Custom Skill:


Skills:
Battle Healing R5

Active Mods:
Purify
Energize

Inactive Mods:


Addons:
Hyperactive
Field Medic

Active Extra Skills:
First Aid R5

Inactive Extra Skills:

Battle Ready Inventory:

Housing Buffs:
Hard Working: +2 EXP per crafting attempt and +1 crafting attempt per day

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

Scents of the Wild:

Wedding Ring:

The air was cool and crisp on the First Floor. It was earlier in the day, the sun hadn't even reached its peak in the sky. The back-alley's, unlike the bustling city, were much quieter. Few made their way along the stone road to reach the buildings here. All was calm...

Until suddenly, the Blueberry nation attacked. 

A noisy knock would pound on the door of the Blacksmith's shop. The door would suddenly open followed only by a trill voice filled with glee. "Oh Frying Pan Boi!~" A pink-haired player covered from head-to-toe in blue apparel would enter the shop. Flicking her hood off her head and onto her shoulders, a pair of electric blue eyes would search the scene. "I brought you some snacks!" she called out to him. "I mean, I also brought myself snacks but that's besides the point."she would mutter afterward. Frying Pan Boi's reckoning had come, the question remained: Was he prepared?

[Koga 0]

k o g a the elder wolf Spoiler notes none Koga lv.31 / 24 | HP: 700/700 | EN: 108/108 | DMG: 23 | MIT: 30 | ACC: 4 | EVA: 2 | BRN: 56 | BLT: 32/20 | FALN: 8 | REGN 13 | B.HEALING: 38/77 (SURV) equipped battle-ready inventory T4 Demonic Katana <<Tsuki no Hikari>> [ CRSED // BRN I // BLT I // FALN I ] T4 Perfect Light Armor <<Shadow Chance Coat>> [ EVA II // REGN I ] T1 Perfect Trinket <<Kashira Cable - Wolf>> [ ACC III ] none   skills Spoiler | COMBAT Mastery: Damage III | Gain 1 * Tier Damage per rank | 15 SP Battle Healing V | Recover 5% (rounded down) of your maximum HP at the start of your turn | 30 SP Emergency Recovery | When non-fatal damage would leave you with 25% or less of your maximum HP, recover 10% of your maximum HP after the attack resolves. Effect cannot occur more than once per thread.  When activated if the player has lower than 10 energy remaining, simply reduce the player's energy to 0. | 6 SP EN Cost: 10 Energist | Increase Base Energy by 5 * Tier | 8 SP Howl | Gain +2 Hate against up to 4 targets | 10 SP EN Cost: 2 EN Cooldown: 2 Posts Focused Howl | Gain +4 Hate against a single target | 5 SP EN Cost: 4 EN Cooldown: 4 Posts | WEAPON Curved Sword I | +1 DMG when equipped with a Curved Sword | 4 SP Katana V | +7 DMG when equipped with a Katana | 30 SP Stamina | Reduces the energy of all Katana attacks by 2 EN | 4 SP Ferocity | +2 DMG when using Katana Sword Arts | 4 SP | ARMOR Light Armor V | +30 MIT when equipped with Light Armor | 30 SP Meticulous | +1 DMG when equipped with Light Armor | 4 SP Resolve | +1 ACC and +10 * Tier HP when equipped with Light Armor | 6 SP | EXTRAS Familiar Master: Rending | You and your familiar attack in tandem, applying Rend [7*tier unmitigatable damage] to the target that lasts for two turns. | 10SP Cooldown: 5 Posts Survival | Increases Healing effects received from all sources by 10%. Grants immunity to all damage dealing environmental attacks/effects. buffs Spoiler Laurel Wreath | Earn Col equivalent to 15% of player’s EXP earned in thread <<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). <<Relaxed>> | Increases out of combat HP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts. <<Multipurpose>> | Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll.

The loud sound of the shop's front door bursting open saw Koga crashing through the back of his shop, his weapon in hand, and ready to beat some punks ass. And then he saw a familiar face he literally thought he would never see in his shop again. "Blue?" he said incredulously. And then realization dawned on him. She was trying to bribe him with food for some more gear, wasn't she..."My name isn't 'Frying Pan Boi'" he reminded her. "Now what do you want?" he asked dryly as the woman entered the shop with a bag of what apparently was snacks. He gave the bag a skeptical look, and then the girl. "Snacks?" Knowing her they were probably blueberry flavored. But what snacks. "These are poisoned, aren't they?" he asked, still trying to figure out why on God's green earth she had just randomly burst into his shop bearing gifts. This was abnormal. People? In his shop? Bringing something in. That wasn't Col. What?

Edited January 25, 2022 by Koga

[Blueberry 0]

As usual, in fact as exactly as at his party, Koga answered her the same way. To this, she would simply restate her original sentence. "Until someone wants to actually tell me what it is, you're a Frying Pan Boi." Koga seemed rather apprehensive to her visit. "What do I want? I have to visit friends every so often! If we didn't talk, we wouldn't be friends silly!" Handing him a bag with an assortment of cookies, she would slide her small behind onto the counter. As he searched through the bag, he would skeptically as her if the snacks were poisoned...

And he would receive a firm knock on his head for it. "Don't you ever disrespect dessert like that again. I didn't make these for you to go:" Scrunching her face to be as insulting as possible as she impersonated Koga, "aRe tHeSe PoIsOnEd?" Turning her head away and pouting, she would fold her arms. "I'll think twice about bringing you desserts again." 

With a sigh, she would just turn her head to Koga and say, "It's okay, I'll forgive you. I just need to train you better. Your typical friends are like little miss dark and moody huh?" That girl held the same aura that Freyd had. It was a personality type she hadn't learn to conquer yet. Someday, she would figure out to befriend them. "She seemed cool but I bet she doesn't give you snacks!" 

[Koga 0]

"It's Koga," the blacksmith replied, suddenly feeling far too exhausted for it not even being noon...actually, that was pretty normal for him, he was always exhausted. Of course, this talk of 'friends' was only making it worse. 'Wait, she thinks we're friends!?' Blueberry continued to chide Koga about something or other, as he tried to process how the girl thought they were friends despite only sharing passing words on a couple occasions.

Also, 'train him'? What?

"Blue, you can't 'train' people," he told the girl, crossing his arms. "And I'll have you know, NIGHT has cooked for me on several occasions. She's quite good, although you didn't hear that from me." Well, one of those times, Koga had just kinda burst into her home while she was...ahem, busy. And the quality of the food was more a testament to DAY, rather than NIGHT, but Blue didn't need to know any of that.

Shaking his head with a deep breath, Koga resigned himself to at least seeing where this all went. "Alright, I'll bite. Here," he said, offering the pink-haired girl a chair from behind the counter, before venturing into the back and returning with another chair for himself. "So do you randomly pop into all your friend's workplaces, bearing sugary gifts?" he asked with friendly curiosity.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Koga

[Blueberry 0]

"Koga huh... I'll try my best to remember that." She made a mental note of the name. Koga was a very simple name, but that is where it was at fault. A more... exciting name would've been easier to remember. Taking a cookie out of one of the several pockets of her jacket, she would take a bite of it. A few crumbs would inevitably fall onto the floor of the forge. "Well, good for her. I don't practice making normal food so the difference in skill from desserts is night and day." She would state this in a matter-of-fact tone. As Koga grabbed the two of them a pair of seats, Blue would kindly take the offer and sit on the chair instead. 

"So do you randomly pop into all your friend's workplaces, bearing sugary gifts?"

"Workplaces? No, I just go where I can find them. I'm terrible at looking for things. Especially people! I have a friend from the real world and I haven't seen here since almost the start!" A nervous chuckle broke her character for a moment, but a chipper voice would quickly pick back up the slack. "But I bring all my friends snacks! It makes them happy so it makes me happy. I've made quite a few friends in Aincrad: but several of them only once. If I bring food to a place, they'll be more likely to stay and be my friend. I've met so many people at various parties and I never see them again. It's nice to have found the spot where a person comes back to." 

Finishing another cookie, Blue would be the next to ask a question. "Is your NIGHT a nice person?" 

 

[Koga 0]

Koga let out a sigh. Of exasperation? Relief? One couldn't really know. All it really was was the audible sound of a man who hoped that he wouldn't be called 'Frying Pan Boi' anymore. He was more than just frying pans after all! Like the fact that was the only frying pan he's ever crafted. Koga was like an onion. Or a parfait. Everyone loves parfait. No one loves Koga though.

The slightest amount of tension in one side of his jaw was the only indicator of what Koga was thinking. Sure it was a big game, and they had started out with, what, ten thousand players? It wasn't exactly an impossibility that Blue hadn't seen her friend yet. Hell, he's known people who have disappeared for years, and he'd even done the same but...The cynic in Koga was sure of the worst.

Now wasn't the time to address that though. Instead, Koga picked up one of the cookies offered in friendship, and gave it a curious look. Just what flavor was it? Were blueberry cookies even a thing? "So you're trying to bribe me into being your friend," Koga said in a teasing manner, his eyes drifting over to Blue's before he took a bite. How she managed to make blueberries and cookies play nice, Koga didn't know. The man shrugged, "Hmm, not bad," he commented.

"NIGHT? Yeah, she's...okay, well, nice might be a bit of a stretch. But she's not mean," Koga struggled to find the right way to describe the woman. "She's kinda distant usually. But, she's always been there when I needed her, and, honestly, that's enough. Not everyone is that way."

[Blueberry 0]

As Koga would tease her, she would ignore it and answer honestly. "I'm not bribing you to be my friend, I'm giving you food so you stay." She would roll her eyes after the word to show how obvious that should have been. Seriously, this guy was a little air-headed but she couldn't berate her friends. He would tell her that the dessert was not bad, and she would nod approvingly. Her desserts needed to be the best. It was obvious to her that Koga wasn't a sweets person, the first time they had met he hadn't taken too much of the sweets she brought. Now... airship boi with glasses? He's took a lot. There was no worries about keeping him around. 

As the nighttime girl became the topic, Koga would assure her that while she wasn't necessarily friendly she was a good person." She reminded me of someone else... my boss. They just had the same look to their eyes. I wasn't able to make bossman my friend and it was obvious that NIGHT didn't like me either." Twiddling a strand of strawberry hair around her finger, her eyes wouldn't meet Koga's. Instead, her gaze was off and appeared distracted. "I wanna be friends with everyone, but I just never met anyone like them in the real world. I don't know how to act around them to make them like me." Blue's acting abilities were unnatural, but if she didn't know how to act then it was pointless. Blue would then open into her menu and pull out two items. A bottle of water and a small white piece of plastic. Upon further inspection, it would resemble that of a Kool-Aid flavoring dispenser. The liquid inside blue, the flavoring rather obvious. Adding the flavor to the drink, she would take a sip before placing the cap back on. 

 

[Koga 0]

'Sounds like a bribe to me,' Koga thought to himself, as he nibbled at the sweet confectionary. Not that he would complain too much, food was food and Koga was lazy. Maybe he'd finally grow a sweet tooth if Blue decided to keep bringing him random pastries.

"Your boss?" Koga questioned, unsure if she meant her real world boss, or some kind of guild leader here in-game. At the end of the day, it didn't really matter though, because what Blueberry said next troubled Koga. He gave the woman a serious look as he leaned forward a little, his cookie-grasping hands resting on the wooden counter top as she took a sip of a presumably blueberry flavored drink. "Blue, do you really wanna be friends with someone who doesn't appreciate you for being you?" the man asked. "I mean if you have to act to begin with, just to get them to like you, then they're not really friends with you. Just someone you're pretending to be."

That was something Koga simply couldn't abide by. He never had, and likely never would. If you couldn't appreciate someone for who they really were, you weren't really friends, it was that simple. Regardless of whether or not Koga considered Blueberry his friend yet, simply because they hadn't interacted much as of yet, he did think she was a genuinely nice person, and wouldn't mind getting to know her. But if she was just donning some metaphorical mask, well...that felt hollow.

Edited January 27, 2022 by Koga

[Blueberry 0]

Setting her drink down on the table, she would take another bite of her pastry. As Koga questioned her boss, she would nod. "Yep, bossman. He came to see me once and made me come with him to fight a snake. I almost died and he seemed upset with me afterwards." Her words spoken distastefully. Freyd and her didn't get along well at all. She listened to him to keep him from coming back and forcing her on another unwanted adventure. However, if she could figure out how to work this NIGHT person... maybe she could figure out how Freyd worked. 

"I'm not pretending, I'm just acting differently. Most people are fine with me acting normally, but others prefer someone quieter or just someone who will listen. I've been doing this for as long as I can remember and it hasn't been a problem before. It's not a problem to me at all, I just like that I can be friendly back with me. If you don't think they're friends with me because of that than you must not have that many friends." Taking another drink, she would continue to casually explain her thoughts. "Friend's choose you because they like your personality. So if they don't like me, I can just change it." 

 

[Koga 0]

Who was this bossman, and why was he upset with Blue after she almost died? Koga was getting more questions than answers at this point, so he decided to drop the subject, but he made a mental note to avoid whoever Blue's 'boss' was, lest he get dragged out for more boss killing...which, tended to happen frequently anyways, so it wouldn't be that big of a change, but the man was lazy.

Koga felt slightly surprised with himself when Blue mentioned he probably didn't have many friends. What probably should have been taken as a bit of an insult was met with amusement instead. "I've got a few," he replied wryly, not mentioning the fact that most of his friends had all died or gone missing by now. That was conversation for another time. But, he still had NIGHT around, probably one of the few constants in his life since entering Aincrad. There was Tala and Yuki and Alkor. There were those he occasionally ran into by some strange hand of fate like Lessa or Astralin. And more recently there was Kasumi...

Koga sighed a little at Blue's next couple sentences. She was missing the mark entirely. In fact, Koga was pretty certain she was confusing the target with the gun. "Blue, that's not your personality though, if you're changing it. Right? Like, let's say I'm hammering an ingot in my forge. It turns into a sword, 'cause that's what I want it to do. It's not an ingot anymore. Right? You're the ingot in that metaphor." A bad metaphor. And one that was probably gonna fall flat on its face, but at least Koga tried.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Koga

[Blueberry 0]

It looked like Koga was having trouble understanding the basics of making friends. He kept stubbornly kept arguing his point. "You just explained it to yourself. You hammered the ingot into the sword because the sword wouldn't do the job." Beginning to swing her feet in her chair, she would take another bite of dessert. Quietly, the girl would nibble on her food. "What's the problem? I just wanna make friends. I would be happier if I could be friends with everyone." It was a stubborn trait of hers, foolish, and perhaps even toxic but it was plain at face value. 

"I don't want to hurt anyone, that's why all I can do is heal." She omitted the part where Freyd didn't seem to like that idea, but she didn't know of a way she could fight without hurting anything. She knew that the monsters weren't real, but what if they could feel some sort of pain? None of them would know. If she didn't heal, how would she be able to save her friends if they needed it? What if she lost one of them? "I also like baking, its pretty fun. I started doing it because I liked eating but cooking is alright. Do you like being a blacksmith dude? Are you a blacksmith cause' you think its fun?" 

[Koga 0]

Koga began to rub his temples in exasperation. He was the one who didn't get it? Koga knew he wasn't exactly the best at socializing, but he was not that bad at it. "Blue, have you ever considered that you simply can't be friends with everyone. No matter hard you try. Like, sometimes it just doesn't work, like oil and water. They don't mix. Besides, what if someone was only going to be friends with you on the condition you compromise one of your core values! What are you gonna do then?"

"Yeah, I started to smith 'cause I enjoyed it. Aside from the fact that RNGesus apparently hates me, it's a lot of fun," Koga explained. "I've always had a thing for making things. Anything really, but I was always fascinated with the process of forging when I was younger. I mean, you essentially take a lump of rock, and turn it into some kinda piece of art. I love it."

[Blueberry 0]

Koga continued to slowly infuriate Blue. Cracks were forming, what would escape? A foot would stamp the ground, the sound echoing through the forge like the beating of steel. "You don't know that! I've been doing it forever and I'll keep doing it! What do you even know, you only talk to people because your sister makes you!" Her voice had raised almost to the point of yelling at the man. Beginning to breath heavier, her eyes would begin to sound warning out for the boy. He was pushing this way too far. Looking down, she would notice that she was no longer sitting on the chair. Taking a breath, the pink-haired girl would close her eyes. For some unknown reason, a stinging pain burned her neck. As she began to calm down, the pain would cease. 

"I... I'm sorry. I don't really want to talk about this anymore. I'll find some other way anyway, I always have." Her eyes adverted and once again she would attempt to avert the conversation. "It was... apple pie you liked? Maybe I can try to make that a time or two. Don't complain if it isn't as good though." Pulling her pink hair, she would let it fall over to cover her exposed skin. 

[Koga 0]

As Blue got angrier, Koga leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. It probably wasn't quite his place to critique the girl on how she went about making friends to begin with, but what he had said wasn't without it's truths. She tried to shift to a different conversation. Apple pie.

"I do know," he said softly, ignoring the change in subject. "I used to do the same thing." His voice had lost the exasperated edge it'd carried all this time, replaced with a passive, perhaps sympathetic tone. "I did everything I could, for years, to change who I was for others, so that they'd like me, be friends with me." For a long time, that had been the only thing Koga had really known. For a time, he'd hardly even remembered what it was like just to be himself. "And it worked. I had people who acted like they were friends with me. But ya know what happened at the end of it all, Blue?" Koga's crimson eyes flicked to her azure ones. "I was unhappy. I was unhappy because I lost sight of who I was, and the things I cared about. And at the end of the day, those people who I thought were my friends left me behind without a second thought." Koga let out a long breath as he picked up the cookie again and took another bite. Honestly, it was a little too sweet for his tastes. "I'll drop the topic now, but the last thing I have to say is this: your real friends are the ones who you can be authentic with, and the one's who'll stick with you through thick and thin. If you want to put on a mask every time you see someone, that's your business. But with me, do me the courtesy of not lying to my face."

Koga set the cookie down on the counter, half-eaten, and content with not having anymore. "Apple pie, yeah. That's my favorite. You don't have to bake it if you don't want to though."

Edited January 31, 2022 by Koga

[Blueberry 0]

Koga didn't take Blue's hint to change the subject. Trying to put them in the same shoes? What was that supposed to even accomplish. They weren't the same person at all, why would it make any sense for her to fail as he had? Her teeth began to grit together as she began to grit her teeth. What was wrong with her wanting to be friends with everyone? 

 "But with me, do me the courtesy of not lying to my face."

Taking a breath, Blue made no hesitation in answering. "Of course!" 

She watched him put down his cookie and the smile she had given him faded. Of course, not for the reason the man would most likely assume. "You want a whole Apple Pie, but you can't even finish some cookies? Weak." There was a hint of a joke at the tip of her words. Though, in her mind she only could focus on what he had called her. A liar. Was it really lying? No matter how she acted it was still her. Who was he calling a liar? Concealing her feelings, she would continue to speak to the boy as normal. "Maybe I can try to bring you some apple pie next time I stop by here." Her eyes fell onto the uneated cookie. "You better eat it all." 

[Koga 0]

Koga sighed inwardly as Blue responded to his request far to quickly and energetically to have actually given it any thought. Although he didn't show beyond the smallest twitch of his jaw as teeth ground against each other, he felt a slight sense of displeasure with the girl in that moment. It wasn't a subject worth pushing any further for the moment, but the man knew he wouldn't be able to trust the girl until she could be honest with him, let alone count her as friend.

"Hey, I didn't say I wanted a whole pie," Koga replied leaning forward in his chair as he did so, a stiff lipped smile crossing his face. "But I'm also not gonna say no if you're offering." He sat back again before looking at her curiously. Everything with her was about blueberry's and sweets. "So why do you like sweets so much?" he asked. "And more to the point, why is it always blueberries? I mean you named yourself after them, so I get that you like them a lot, but why?"

[Blueberry 0]

"Hey, I didn't say I wanted a whole pie." 

Blue frowned, her expression revealing exasperation. "So you want me to make a single slice? You get all or nothing!" This man didn't understand friendship or sweets? Koga and her were just completely different types of people. That was okay, but there wasn't anyway she would change the way she acted around him. It annoyed her though, she had really wanted information on how she could have befriended that 'NIGHT' person. That could have helped unlock many avenue's for her and even find a way to wrap Freyd in there as well. Well, there would be other opportunities. Surely, Koga wasn't the only one she had spoken to who was friends with this girl. 

"So why do you like sweets so much?"

Blueberry seemed to almost short-circuit for a moment. Who didn't like sweets? This wasn't something she had been asked before. "I guess because they make me happy." Her eyes took themselves off of Koga and plastered to the floor. "My grandma used to make me a lot of sweets and she liked blueberries a lot. She really liked me because I'm the only one in the family that inherited her eyes. It skipped two generations and both of my siblings." Unconsciously, Blue would twirl her hair around a finger. "So yeah, I like dessert. I can eat as much as I want here without worrying about gaining weight." 

[Koga 0]

"Ya know, you could try sharing it with other too. It's not like you have to share all of it with me," came Koga's reply as he gave the a look that said he was seriously questioning her train of thought. Actually, he'd been questioning it for a while now, but that was besides the point.

A curious shift occurred in Blue though, once she started talking about her grandmother and the way she'd used to make her a lot of sweets. Koga tilted his head, and gave the girl a piercing look as he listened to her. He didn't know how much of this was her being a little more honest with him, and how much was just her doing whatever it was she usually did, but the answer had caught him a little off guard. "I take it you two were close?" the man asked, ignoring the comment about her weight. It was more so health she needed to worry about when it came to the metric shit tons of sugar she must be consuming in here.

[Blueberry 0]

"Ya know, you could try sharing it with other too. It's not like you have to share all of it with me,"

A sideways glance and the girl would reply, "I'm not going to make apple pie for everything. If I do that they will start making requests. Then I have to start making things I don't want to." Standing from her chair, she would nod, returning her bag of cookies into her pocket. The conversation with Koga was getting tiresome. He asked... too many questions. It was uncomfortable. "We were close." Her words held no cheer. Bringing her hood over her head, she would offer a smile and wave. 

"I'm going to head out now, still have a few more things to do. Better finish that cookie or no pie." Moving towards the door, she would look back for a moment and study Koga. He definitely was different than she had originally taken him. It seemed he was a quiet and easy person, but it went a little father than that. Koga was more dangerous than he would let on. She could tell he held a strong sense of loyalty. If she wasn't careful, that could cause her a problem. 

[Koga 0]

Koga cocked his head to side, his gaze meeting hers again. "I thought you were trying to make friends," he said simply. A knowing jab at the way her methods conflicted with each other. Willing to don an entirely new personality to gain a new name in her friends list, and yet, unwilling to take baking requests. How interesting.

Her answer to his question was curt. Short, and quickly transitioned to making a swift exit. Koga gave the girl a small wave as she turned away and started to head for his door. "I'll see you around, Blue," he bade good bye as the bell hanging above the portal rang as the door was pulled open, and then again as it closed behind her.

Koga wasn't entirely sure how he'd felt about the entire interaction. He doubted he'd gotten through to Blue. And he was certain even this 'honest' self of hers was some mask in its own right. Close, but not quite the real thing. The man stood from his seat, the wooden legs scarping across the floor with an ear splitting screech. Time would tell if she'd ever show him her true colors.