[F01-PP | Aye, Bagpipes Qualify! <<EAL>>

[Quip 0]

Still fuming after her latest knock-down drag out argument with Freyd, Quip had stormed her way back to the Town of Beginnings stopping the portal at every level on the way down.  She'd assumed that touring about the different scenery might calm the thrumming of her veins and pulse, but it all just worked to piss her off even more.  

"Tha' damnable ingrate!  efter a' a've dane fur him.  He aye doesn't appreciate th' single smallest gesture.  Awa' an' bile yer heid Freyd!"

Completely lost, she found herself standing outside a music shop in some rundown narrow alley of what could only be assumed to be the seedier side of town.  Some damn fool was making a racket inside and her mood wouldn't stand for it.  Bursting into poor Landon's shop, Quip stood ready to yank his gob out and feed it to him raw if he didn't put a cork in it immediately.  Instead, the celtic dervish found herself standing mesmerized and staring open-mouthed at the outrageous display of teen rock drama playing itself out in the form a fifty year old, three hundred pound man with an oversized lute in his hands.

***

Quip | HP: 80/80 | EN: 26/26 | DMG: 6 | MIT: 6 | THRNS: 9

Spoiler

Quip
Level: 4
Paragon Level: 0
HP: 80/80
EN: 26/26

Stats:
Damage: 6
Mitigation: 6
THRNS: 9

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: Vanity Curved Sword
Armor: T1 Rare HA (Mit 1, Thrns 1)
Misc:

Skills:
Curved Sword R3

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.
 

Translation:

Spoiler

"That damnable ingrate!  After all I've done for him.  He still doesn't appreciate the single smallest gesture.  Fuck you Freyd!"

 

[Quip 0]

The crescendo nearly made her ears bleed even as her eyes twitch in time with the beat and her feet were already tapping along as an involuntary reflex.  As the man finished, his heavily calloused finger plucking the chords like a maestro, his face twisted in a rictus grin of manic intensity, he swung around and held his final note for a full minute, trying to eek every possible second out of the tune.  Quip's brain noticed that his eyes were closed, but hers were in full blown rapture.  As far as she was concerned, he was gorgeous.  And then the string snapped.  A yelp and lashed fingertip.  A gasp of awe and concern.  A guitar tossed violently.  An explosion of wood and strings against the far wall.

"Urr ye a'richt!?  did ye hurt yersel'?"

Landon whirled, not having realized that someone else had entered the shop and nearly elbowed Quip in the face.

"What the?!  Who are you, and OWWWW!"  He burst out laughing at the sheer chaos of the scene, thoroughly unconvinced that the newcomer had actually said anything sensible.  

Instantly grabbing his injured hand into hers, Quip was already fondling it with uncomfortably tender strokes, her natural brawn drawing winces of terror and confusion from the artist.  Landon, for his part, was convinced that she was some sort of molesting hooligan who'd somehow found a way around the system's rules against inappropriate touching.  Finally able to stop the room from spinning, he found himself staring into a pair of humungous, speckled green goo-goo eyes wrapped beneath the wildest and thickest blonde braids imaginable.

Translation:

Spoiler

Are you alright?!  Did you hurt yourself?

 

[Quip 0]

"Hiiiiiii," she said, swooning so hard it might cripple him if she fell. "A'm Quip.  Urr ye single?"  Thick, brushy eyebrows winked and twirled at him in a disturbingly mesmerizing fashion.

"Lan... uh... Landon?"  Some doubt crept in, uncertain that it was safe to reveal his identity to this maniac. "Single?  Yeah, I guess.  Running solo is kinda my thingm though, if that's what your asking."  His fight and flight instinct were searching for a third option, not liking either default odds in the face of the current situation.  "Can I help you with something?"  Quip blushed a deep maroon, as if her greatest wish were about to be granted, and then reality reasserted itself - hard.  Realizing where she was and how she'd manhandled the poor man, her mind reeled to find any other explanation than sure pure emotion. 

"Music.  Err.. song.  BAGPIPES!"  Landon heard the metaphorical needle rip across the record player, hammered by a total non-sequitur.  

"Bagpipes?"

"Yes!  Ye hae pipes,"  she said, ogling the man's mightily muscled arms.  "I mean: dae ye hae ony bagpipes?" 

Sensing a way out of his predicament, Landon's wits kicked into overdrive.

"Oh, shoot, you know, I think I just sold my last set..."

"Not a kinch! Ah will git ye some mats 'n' ye kin whip up some mair in a jiffy!"  Before he could say another word, the blonde hurricane had hurtled back out the door, leaving the stunned musician wondering who and what had actually just happened.

Translation:

Spoiler

"Hiiii.  I'm Quip.  Are you single?"

"Yes!  You have pipes,"  "I mean: do you have any bagpipes?"

"Not a problem!  I'll get you some mats and you can whip up some more in a jiffy!" 

 

Edited July 16, 2023 by Quip

[Quip 0]

"Hey, YOU!"  The same booming, barking voice that regularly scared her brother out of his second storey hammock wreaked havoc on the nerves the poor, random player she'd chosen to accost in the lonely alley. "Where dae ah git stuff tae mak' instruments?" 

"Where do you what?"  The accent was causing some problems, but Cardinal's best efforts were only able to achieve so much.  "Materials?  Is that what you want?  You'll either have to trade for them or go gather them in the wilds yourself."  The poor man was about to make some smartass comment about how much of a newb she had to be to ask such a stupid questions. The crazed intensity and her eyes and fact that she was thicker and wider than he was made him think twice.  Quip's build was rather stocky, which she normally concealed beneath her comfy peasant clothes and leather apron, but those were presently off limits.  She was on a quest to do... something.  Truth be told, she had no idea what, but it had to be something certain to annoy Freyd.  Learning to play the bagpipes seemed absolutely perfect.

Translation:

Spoiler

"Where do I get stuff to make instruments?"

 

[Quip 0]

Harassing every local on the streets quickly proved unsuccessful.  Most were just terrified of her, and the rest were threatening to duel her if she didn't get the hell away from them.

"Prissy bunch o' jackasses!  A' a'm waantin' is a handful o' mats.  Howfur solid kin that mibeez aye, mibeez naw be? Freyd hud thoosans o' th' bloody thing laying aroond a' ower th' place."  Memories of her failed and aborted sorting session only riled her temper even more and she soon stomped out the main gates to continue her search.  Accustomed to the wide variety of goods that Freyd frequently brought back from his adventures and dumped onto her lap, Quip knew that they could be just about anything.  Unfortunate, she'd never actually had to find any herself, and her patience was having a decidedly 'off' day. Wandering into the fields, she simply walked up to the nearest wandering boar.  A quick slice of her sword split the poor, harmless critter in half, while also depositing a handful of leather into her Quip's inventory.  

"Pffft..."  He guffawed incredulously at the ease of the whole affair. "And he aye made sic a bloody muckle deal tae mak' it oot lik' this wis some sort o' hardship.  Lightweight!"   Her fist clenched about the sword, she shook both threateningly as the sky ceiling. "Do ye hear that, Freyd?!  Ye'r a daft lightweight!" 

***

ID 213298  | Gathering | LD 15 (mat found!)

Translation:

Spoiler

"Prissy bunch of jackasses!  All I want is a handful of mats.  How hard can that possibly be?  Freyd had thousands of the bloody thing laying around all over the place." 

"And he always made such a bloody big deal to make it out like this was some sort of hardship.  Lightweight!"  "Do you hear that, Freyd?!  You're a daft lightweight!"

 

Edited July 16, 2023 by Quip

[Quip 0]

Landon's brain nearly short-circuited when Quip returned, a full sheepskin in her arms and partially obscuring her gleaming green eyes poking out behind it.

"There!"

He looked confused.

"There what?"

"There's th' material ye wantit tae mak' th' bagpipes."  

He'd already completely forgotten.  

"Oh!  Right.  Those.  See, the thing is, what I actually need are crystals.  It's how the whole performer profession thing worked."  Quip's eager expression had already turned to whatever most befits the gathering of thunderclouds under a tornado watch with a touch of air raid sirens.

"Ye said mats.  Ah git mats.  We hud a deal, pal. Mak' wi' th' bagpipes 'n' teaching, or ah will see tae it that ye'll ne'er be able tae wear a kilt wi'oot th' dread o' eternally shaming yer ain manhood." Whatever Quip currently thought of her spoopy former landlord, the time she'd spent in his shop had taught her a lot of valuable things about haggling, notably include when to rip out the other party's gullet.  'Killer instinct' didn't quite seem to capture her aggressive style.  "Ahem," she added, switching back to a sickly sweet tone undermined by the psycho in her batting eye lashes.  "Please."

Translation:

Spoiler

"There's the material you needed to make the bagpipes." 

"You said mats.  I got mats.  We had a deal, mate.  Make with the bagpipes and teaching, or I'll see to it that you'll never be able to wear a kilt without the dread of eternally shaming your own manhood."

 

 

[Quip 0]

"Whoa!  Lady.  Easy!"  Landon instantly backed off and got to work, thanking the stars that the system would simply manifest the required recipe.  He didn't actually have a clue how bagpipes were really made and now would never want to learn for fear of revisiting this trauma.  It took a while, and Quip hovering at his side fawning over him and asking a million unintelligible questions didn't help.  He just smiled and nodded a lot, instantly reversing his reactions if her mood appeared to sour.  By late evening, the Wee Beast, as she'd taken to calling it, was ready.  The cacophonous hell that followed made everything up until this point seem like sheer bliss.

"Hey!  Ye'r nae getting rid o' me that easy.  Ye made it, noo ye kin teach me howfur tae speil it."

Landon, who looked more haggard than the Time Forgotten King, struggled to keep his jaw from fumbling around on the floor.  She was dead serious.  And he was dead if he didn't.

Translation:

Spoiler

"Hey!  You're not getting rid of me that easy.  You made it, now you can teach me how to play it."

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by Quip

[Freyd 0]

It had been days since Freyd had forced the confrontation with Quip as a way to try to get out on her own.  Elora's invitation and all that followed kept him busy enough to keep from following up on his pet project, as did keeping Dingo awake and in some semblant state of productivity.  The boy made sloths look industrious.  Catching up on myriad matters after the brief and welcome distractions, the Whisper soon caught wind of some disturbance in the slums of the Town of Beginnings.  According to reports, some raving madwoman was terrorizing the locals with some form of sonic weapon that circumvented Cardinal's actionable offense rules.  The local guards were completely unresponsive, possibly even debilitated.

Freyd sighed.

"Dingo!"  He bellowed for the sake of consistency, having found that one habit of hers to be endlessly amusing.  The inevitable startled yelp and crash followed as the boy fell out of whatever improvised mattress he'd setup this time.  "I'm heading to sort out your sister.  Mind the store.  If you find that turquoise demonic shard I mentioned, you can have the next week off."  There was no such shard, but Dingo didn't know that.

***

Freyd sends the following items to Quip by proxy messenger, pretending they are from Dingo:

Berry Crumb Bars (Snack) | LOOT DIE 3 195132-4
Small Konpeito Sack | TIER 1 DEMONIC TRINKET | LOOT DIE III, QUALITY I
A small cloth pouch of Konpeito; albeit, the candy inside isn't actually edible. Crafting ID: #185195

Vanity Tag: @Elora

Freyd | HP: 1140/1140 | EN: 148/148 | DMG: 23 | MIT: 103 | EVA: 2 | ACC: 4 | BH: 62 | LD: 5 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | REC: 8

Spoiler

Freyd, The Whisper in Shadow
Level: 32
Paragon Level: 115
HP: 1140/1140
EN: 148/148

Stats:
Damage: 23
Mitigation: 103
Evasion: 2
Accuracy: 4
Battle Healing: 62
Loot Dice: 5
FLN: 16
HLY: 16
REC: 8

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: Samael's Pride (T4 MA | HLY 2 | FLN 2)
Armor: Fallen Angel Garb (T4 LA | Mit 2 | Rec 2)
Misc: Fight O'er Flight (T3 Trinket | ACC 2 | EVA 2)

Skills:
Martial Arts R5
Battle Healing R5
Light Armor R5
Searching R4
Charge
Energist
Quick Change
Extended Mod Limit
Fighting Spirit

Active Mods:
Night Vision
Tracking
Meticulous
Untraceable
Vanish
Surprise Attack (Assassin)

Addons:
Ferocity
Precision
Resolve
Reveal
Stamina

Active Extra Skills:
Disguise
Survival
Hiding R5
Brawler

Inactive Extra Skills:
Meditation
Forgotten King’s Authority
Photosynthesize
Frozen Hide

Battle Ready Inventory:
Teleport Crystals x7
Mass HP Rec [Inst] (+30*T HP) x7
Mass HP Rec [Inst] (+30*T HP) x7
Crystal of Divine Light (Reusable) x1
Rhino's Horn (Reusable) x1
Hmr.Pk: The Thing Behind All Lies (T4 Demonic WH, AA, Blight, Static, Para.Ven (Off)) x1

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)
Working: +2 EXP per crafting attempt
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: +10% Exp 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 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:
Tanos Statue: +25 Mitigation for a thread.

Wedding Ring: n/a

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Freyd

[Quip 0]

"Hey, ah think a'm finally getting th' haun o' this." As horrible an ordeal as the last few days had been, Landon actually had to agree, mostly because he was sure she'd put him in a headlock again if he didn't.  A knock on the shop door nearly caused his frazzled nerves to break, launching him into the rafter.  Opening it but a crack, he found a small boy with a neatly wrapped parcel under his arm.  

"Package for Quip, Sir.  I was told to get it here right away.  It's from her brother."  Uncertain what to make of it, but tired of being held hostage in his own home and receiving an increasing number of daily death threats, he needed to do something to get her out.  Something slipped out from the string on the underside of the goods.  It was a small folded note addressed to him.  Glancing surreptitiously at it, he didn't recognize the writing.

Rumour has it Quip is driving the entire city insane.  Tell her what she wants to hear and send to fetch materials for recording crystals.  These will help.  ~A friend.  P.S.  Eat me.  She's nosy as fuck.

Staring in silence, Landon couldn't even guess who might have sent this, but he was desperate enough to accept anything.

"Hey!  Landon.  Git yer butt back 'ere! a've git anither tune tae huv a go oot oan you."

She never asked him what he was chewing on when he returned.

***

Quip receives and consumes: Berry Crumb Bars (Snack) | LOOT DIE 3 195132-4

Quip receives and equips: 
Small Konpeito Sack | TIER 1 DEMONIC TRINKET | LOOT DIE III, QUALITY I
A small cloth pouch of Konpeito; albeit, the candy inside isn't actually edible. Crafting ID: #185195

Updated stats:
Quip | HP: 80/80 | EN: 26/26 | DMG: 6 | MIT: 6 | THRNS: 9 | LD: 6 | Quality I

Translation:

Spoiler

"Hey, I think I'm finally getting the hand of this." 

"Hey!  Landon.  Get your butt back here!  I've got another tune to try out on you."

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Quip

[Freyd 0]

It took ridiculously little effort for the Whisper in Shadow to blend in with the rest of those players still lingering around the Town of Beginning, wandering the fields and watching as Quip barreled through them in search of materials she'd need for her quest.  He could only imagine how Landon was likely celebrating these precious moments of silence.  At least Quip wouldn't be hard to follow.  Sprinkling materials in her way might be a little too obvious, even for her, and was unlikely to qualify for quest requirement fulfillment.

Crafting a neutral and unremarkable appearance, something perfectly forgettable, he could move about town without drawing attention.  He'd also known Quip long enough to know her tastes and ensure that his persona was well outside those bounds.  It was a more difficult task than might be expected.  She was a total horn dog, fawning over nearly anything male that wandered into line of sight.  Honestly, the whole 'boob' thing was a bit disconcerting, as he'd never been very good at imitating his opposing gender.  

Oh well, the things we do for friends...

[Quip 0]

"Get ower 'ere ye lousy piece o' self-propelled future bacon!  Ye'r aff tae be a song!"  Quip still hadn't quite grasped the concept of gathering being a murder-free activity.  As far as she was concerned, death creates mats and mats create everything else, therefore death creates everything else.  It didn't quite work that way.  Fortune and a hand in shadow arranged that she would trip over the appropriate gathering node along the way.  This exercise would require a staggering amount of premeditated stumbling, but it had to be done.  It already took a considerable effort not to laugh, just watching her rage across the fields in her musical crusade.  There was a Von Trapp meme in there somewhere, but Freyd was too busy to develop the thought any further.  

As headstrong as Quip could be, she still had a wibbly-wobbly centre.  She kept the world at bay with volume and attitude, but it didn't mean she'd gotten over the death of her sister.  Maeve's name was still hard to hear.

***

ID 213322  | Gathering | LD 17+6=23 (Mat found 2/5)

Translation:

Spoiler

"Get over here you lousy piece of self-propelled future bacon!  You're going to be a song!" 

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Quip

[Freyd 0]

Freyd had always admired her passion, even when it had a tendency to bubble over to excess and scald anything within a surprisingly extensive splash zone.  It's what confirmed that she was ready.  Gone were her dejected days when Maeve's death preyed upon her every waking thought.  He honestly wasn't sure if she'd come back from it, but Quip's spirit was irrepressible.  Leaning against the Town of Beginning iconic bastion walls, he sucked on a piece of grass while dressed as a newb player.  Squatting in the tall grass, broad rimmed straw hat dipped low, he simply watched from afar as she rampaged around the fields like an agent of calamity.  The wildlife were deliberately created dumb in the starter zone and stood idly by while she hacked them to bits.  Parts of him wondered whether she might run afoul of Bacon Bits, his boar nemesis from his earliest forays in these very same fields.

[Quip 0]

By this point, Quip had given up trying to get mats from pure slaughter.  Not that she wasn't capable.  The sheer sparkle factors glittering across the fields demonstrated her prowess.  The mobs were all just too low level to be worth anything, even at her meager rank.  

"Come oan! Yin o' ye mist be worth something toward making this happen."   Gasping for breath more out of the expectation that she should than because it was actually required, Quip leaned against a solitary oak growing proud and tall in the middle of the grasslands.  A small rise at its base gave way to a pocket or niche below where Freyd recalled having found one of his first treasure chests.  It all seemed trivial now, but its magnificence was unparalleled at the time.

"Nothing bit damned hollows, either in th' ground or oan four feet!"   Stomping back into the grasslands, she surveyed for other potential options.

***

ID 213363  | Gathering | LD 4+6=10 (Mat found 2/5)

Translation:

Spoiler

"Come on!  One of you must be worth something toward making this happen." 

"Nothing but damned hollows, either in the ground or on four feet!"

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by Quip

[Freyd 0]

'Too bad there isn't a decent fishing spot around here,' he thought to himself.  Burbles taunted him from the nearby brook, but it was too small to offer any worthwhile rewards.  Fond memories of sitting by his metaphorical right hand gazing into still waters while she pondered her own struggles.  What had Setsuna been up to, he wondered?  How unlike him not to have checked, though he could scrape together a guess.  The answer was always the same.  Consistent as a glacier that one, and just as inevitable was its consequence if it blocked your ship's path.  Kasumi had also been distant and silence.  Freyd wished her happiness and the luxury of innocence this world could never truly afford to anyone. 

'Quip needs help first.'  Triage.  Endless, unforgiving triage.  Had the routine finally broken them all?  Were they so afflicted with malaise that apathy would be their executioner.  

"How f-ing sad would that be?"

Edited July 18, 2023 by Freyd

[Quip 0]

"YOU!"  Pudgy fingers pointed accusingly at a nearby sheep, the critter remaining completely oblivious to its impending doom.  "I'm gonnae rip yer innards oot 'n' uise thaim as a poke. Noo git ower 'ere 'n' intae mah pocket sae ah kin git back tae Landon 'n' be dane wi' this bloody chore."   Grabbing the fluffy beast by the scruff, she shook it madly like it might somehow shed its skin and morph into precisely needed, even though she'd already forgotten whatever it was she'd been sent to fetch.  Big on passion.  Short on attention span.  It had taken her nearly a week of painstaking effort to arrange the garbage heap that Freyd pretended was his shop.  That was likely the true cause of her meltdown, she finally realized, halting her sheep shakedown at the epiphany, its scrambled braying bringing her back to reality.

"What an ass," she fumed, silently admitting how thoroughly he excelled at getting under her skin.

***

ID 213364  | Gathering | LD 20+6=26 (Mat found 3/5)

Translation:

Spoiler

"I'm gonna rip your innards out and use them as a bag.  Now get over here and into my pocket so I can get back to Landon and be done with this bloody chore."

 

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by Quip

[Freyd 0]

"Come on Quip, you can do it."  He watched her sheep-handling from afar, gauging her pauses, the pacing of her outbursts and the variable tension across her shoulders.  She was nearly there.  Just a little more until the penny dropped.  You couldn't force Quip to do, well.. anything.  Nothing she didn't already want to do, at least.  Freyd had figured out long ago that the best way to overcome her stubbornness was to turn it against itself, then get out of the blast zone while it worked itself out. 

Pushing her to the brink at the shop had been the nuclear option.  There was always the risk that it might backfire, but stagnation was death in this world and its power had swelled in recent months.  He'd kick everyone in the pants as many times as necessary to keep it from dominating, and fake hating it every time if he had to.

 

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Freyd

[Quip 0]

"RAAAAAAAAGH!"  

There is was: the quintessential breaking point.  Rage spent and catharsis achieved.  Sheep launched into orbit in a vain effort to find solace in animal projectiles.  Poor thing.

"Goddamn it, Freyd!  How do ye aye guide tae git under mah skin?"    Much kicking of dirt clods, pulling of braids and gnashing of teeth promptly followed.  Even the doltish mobs were finally starting to get the clue that being around this woman was a bad idea and cleared out.

"Because you're as thick-headed as an iron plated mule."  Quip's green eyes shot out at the figure standing twenty paces away, even other digital thing having been driven out of earshot.  "The very fact that you cared enough to storm out tells me that you needed to go, Quip."  A solitary orbital sheep crashed into a nearby meadow, exploding into a mushroom cloud of motes like a Final Fantasy finale. 

"I'm sorry that I had to do it, but you were too settled and too comfortable.  That's not you.  And it's not what this world and your friends need you to be."

***

ID 213365  | Gathering | LD 4+6=10 (Mat found 3/5)

Translation:

Spoiler

"Goddamn it Freyd!  How do you always manage to get under my skin?" 

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Quip

[Freyd 0]

Quip just stood, mouth agog and features flushed a fairly fuchsia hue while Freyd revealed his machinations.  Berate him as she might, there was a caring core within her that comported itself according to strict and practical principles.  She just kept it clad in celtic highland dramatics most of the time.  Orchestrating a peeling of those layers had taken time and a fair bit of gambling on his part.  

"You cuid juist friggin blether tae me, ye know?!" 

Freyd just frowned.  Why on Earth would be possibly do that.  People did that.  Not him.  Besides, this was much more effective and also amusing.  It was his own personal payback for all the daily nonsense she imposed upon him with her endless smothering and mothering.  He swore she'd want to dress him, if he let her, and that just wasn't going to happen.

"Can we just settle on the fact I probably really can't?" 

Translation:

Spoiler

"You could just friggin talk to me, you know?!"

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Freyd

[Quip 0]

"Are ye trying tae con me intae thinking that ye bein' a complete 'n' tot jobby is a guid thing?!"  The twitch over her right eye was back.  "You ur th' maist aggravating human bein' oan th' planet.  'n' th' gey fact that ye ken it ainlie mak's it that muckle worse."   Pinching the bridge of her nose, Quip wondered whether it was possible to trigger an aneurism.  No.  She wouldn't give him the satisfaction.  If he thought he could kill people with sheer annoyance the man would become unstoppable.  "Fine.  Braw! Ah will... Ah will shift oot 'n' git mah ain steid. Somewhere the lenth o' maybee aye awa' fae ye, juist sae that ah kin control th' overwhelming urge tae throttle yer scrawny neck." 

Freyd risked a little smile, his illusory appearance fading back to truth.

"Isn't that adorable.  Even after everything we've been through, you still think of me as human."

***

ID 213366  | Gathering | LD 12+6=18 (Mat found 4/5)

Translation:

Spoiler

"Are you trying to con me into thinking that you being a complete and total shit is a good thing?!" 

"You are the most aggravating human being on the planet.  And the very fact that you know it only makes it that much worse."

"Fine.  Fine!  I'll... I'll move out and get my own place.  Somewhere as far as possible away from you, just so that I can control the overwhelming urge to throttle your scrawny neck."

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Quip

[Freyd 0]

If looks could kill...

He'd done it again, and she hated him for it, but also knew that it was his own twisted way of showing his friends that he cared.  

"You've git aishans, Freyd."  Exhaustion was finally claiming a win, her anger spent on futile efforts to do whatever it was Landon had sent her out here for in the first place.  

"Oh, I've got reams of those," he added, chuckling to himself.  "I think we can all acknowledge that and move on.  The point, my dear Quip, is that you don't need to hold on to yours quite so tightly anymore.  If you're ready to face off against me, then the rest of Aincrad had better run scared."  Summoning a small, blue translucent screen at his side, he scrolled through various menus, submenus, hidden caches and password-protected troves and finally selected something from his seemingly endless stockpiles.  "Give this to Landon when you return.  It should help him make what he needs." 

With that, he bent low and placed the humming white crystalline lattice in the hollow of the oak tree.  

"I can't give it to you, or the system won't acknowledge your completion of the quest requirements."  He kicked scarcely a handful of dirt into the hole with his boot.  "Good luck, kiddo."

Stuffing his hands into hidden pockets, he turned and walked behind the tree, somehow disappearing before reaching the other side of its slender trunk.

Translation:

Spoiler

"You've got issues, Freyd."

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Freyd