[SP-F03] Meaning, Revisited <<Captured>>

[Freyd 0]

...killed by Faultwarren bandit

Ghostly embers of two other names hovered over the same spot on the hated monument: Wulfrin's and his own.  Both had nearly adorned its blasphemously pristine white surface.  Both were saved by inexplicable quirks of fate.  Now one named after a goddess of the same vein found herself affixed in their stead.  'It should have been me....' Wulfrin's words, muttered near silence in the raid's aftermath had not and could never be forgotten.  But, where his friend had made an error, Freyd had made a choice - one he should not have survived.

He'd come to the plaza, as he once regularly did: to pay his tribute and respects.  Twice he appeared already as cause; two idiot players who'd threatened Astraya and Koko as they exited the cave. Cut down like dogs, without mercy or hetitation.  They deserved to die, laying in ambush within the bounds of a low level quest, assuming weaker prey would be there in abundance.  They wouldn't even gain any EXP.  No strength.  No items.  It was all about a sick thrill, and had cost them their lives in summary judgment.

Then why did it bother me?

At first his visits were educational: he needed to learn what was going on in a wider world he was still to afraid to explore.  Eventually they became fact-finding and confirmation.  The monument serves as a tool to identify threats and targets.  Then the book made its way into his hands, with every damnable invisible stain it carried and cast upon its bearer.  Its pages were a slurry of blood and immaculate manipulation woven together by a lattice of fear and adamant resolve.  It belonged to another, but matched his own will in its intensity.  Part of him admired what it represented, and would likely have done the same, though perhaps with colder heart and purpose than even Raidou had required.  How cold could one soul possibly be?  Freyd knew.  It was what had brought him back here every time, staring at those names to confront the gnawing alien sensation inside that had only just kept the machine from winning.

Big words and big ideals.  Deep thoughts and grand philosophies.  What had they accomplished?  A good woman was still dead in his place.  Rightly or wrongly, it made him seethe.  Faultwarren bandit.  Did the mob even have a name, or sense of identity beyond some randomly generated minimally aware rudimentary AI?  Was it more than just a digital tag?  Was it just another digital puppet strung along Cardinal's strings and cast against them with murderous intent?  Did it even understand what it had done?  Did it care?

It should  He needed it to. 

Hissing intake of breath brought awareness of clenched teeth and tensing muscles, his right hand clenching upon the hilt of a blade there was no point in drawing here.

No.  Not here. But maybe... elsewhere...

***

Note: CS (Shades of the Gemini) and CSA (Beckon the Void) are in use.  If any other player objects to these, please state in first post and it will be considered inactive.
Note: Freyd has previously completed this quest.
Note: Mega Slime Farm Activated!

Freyd consumes:

Gungir’s Shard (Untradeable/Unique/Reusable Consumable): Smokin' Hot Honey Bun Tray | ACC 2 | EVA 2 | Feast (6/6) + [ACC filled]

Freyd | HP: 1300/1300 | EN: 162/162 | DMG: 21 | MIT:152 | ACC: 7 | F-SPIRIT | EVA: 4 | BH:72 | VAMP-D: 72 | FLN: 16 | HLY: 16 | LD:5

Spoiler

Name: Freyd, Kuro bara no kishi
True Tier: 18
Level: 34
Paragon Level: 143
HP: 1300/1300
EN: 162/162

Stats:
Damage: 21
Mitigation: 152
Accuracy: 4
Evasion: 2
Battle Healing: 72
Loot Die: 5
Stealth Rating: -5
VAMP-D: 72
FLN: 16
HLY: 16

Equipped Gear:
Weapon/Armor/Trinket: 
  - Samael's Pride | T4 Katana | FLN II | HLY II
Armor/Trinket: 
  - Negare Omnia | T4 HA | MIT III | VD I
Shield/Armor/Trinket: 
  - Night Shades | T3 Trinket | ACC III | EVA I

Combat Mastery:
  - Combat Mastery: Damage R3

Combat Shift:
  - AOE Shift

Familiar Skill:
  - Grappling Familiar

Custom Skill:
  - Shades of the Gemini (CS)
  - Beckon the Void (CSA)

Skills:
  - Battle Healing R5
  - Charge
  - Energist
  - Extended Mod Limit
  - Extended Weight Limit
  - Fighting Spirit
  - Heavy Armor R5
  - Howl
  - Katana R5
  - Quick Change
  - Searching R4

Extra Skills:
  - Disguise
  - Survival
  - Meditation
  - Brawler

Inactive Extra Skills:
  - Leadership R5
  - Forgotten King's Authority
  - Lady Luck
  - Photosynthesize
  - Assault Mode
  - Frozen Hide

Addons:
  - Focus
  - Focused Howl
  - Iron Skin
  - Precision
  - Reveal
  - Stamina

Mods:
  - Detect
  - Elusive
  - Emergency Recovery
  - Impetus
  - Inspiring Speech

Inactive Mods:
  - Night Vision
  - Press the Attack
  - Rally
  - Steadfast
  - Tracking

Battle Ready Inventory:
  - Bear Trap (Reusable 1/combat) x1
  - Bear Trap (Reusable 1/combat) x1
  - Crystal of Divine Light (Reusable 1/thread) x1
  - Mass HP Rec [Inst] (+10% HP) x7
  - Meathook (Reusable 1/combat) x1
  - Ordsea Crystal-B (Reusable 1/combat) x1
  - Ordsea Crystal-B (Reusable 1/combat) x1
  - Rhino's Horn (Reusable 1/combat) x1
  - Teleport Crystals x7
  - Veritas | T4 Katana) | AA, PVO I, VO I, Taunt x1

Housing Buffs:
  - Bedroom: -1 energy cost for the first two expenditures of each combat
  - Bathroom: The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 20% (rounded down)
  - Basic Kitchen: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot. This can exceed normal Cook enhancement caps. Ex: A perfect T2 MIT food gives 35 MIT instead of 30.
  - Storage Closet: +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot
  - Living Room: Increases out of combatHP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.
  - Attic (Bedroom): +1 Expertise to declared utility skill. Cannot boost a skill without ranks, or increase a skill past its maximum rank. Cannot boost a skill the user has not learned yet. Ranks obtained using this buff will make the mods of that rank available for purchase. Mods obtained this way are unusable if this buff is removed until the skill is returned to the appropriate rank by way of SP purchase.
  - Basement: Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll
  - Guest Room: Players can have one «Amenity» in a «Guest Room» and the «Amenity» cannot be recovered. Players are allowed to change which «Amenity» is in the «Guest Room». Multiple instances of the same «Amenity» do not stack. This buff affects the player and their choice of up to two party members.
  - Extended Workshop: +2 Crafting EXP per crafting attempt and +1 crafting attempt per day
  - Ornate Fishing Pond: +2 Fishing EXP per Attempt and additional +1 LD & CD to fishing attempts.
  - Dining Hall: Turn 3 identical food items (same quality, tier, & enhancements) into a Feast. A Feast contains 6 portions of the food items sacrificed. Feasts created this way cannot be used outside of the thread they are created. Limit 1 item created per thread.
  - Mega Slime Farm: +10% EXP to a thread. Limit one use per month. Must be used on a player's first post in a thread. Cooldown begins counting down when used in a post.

Guild Hall Buffs:
  - Trading Hall: Reduce LD needed for Salvage by 5 (10+ for Alchemist crystals, 6+ for everything else). +2 EXP per craft. Rank 9 crafters and Rank 4 merchants/performers receive +1 crafting/identification attempt per day. Rank 10 crafters and Rank 5 merchants/performers receive +2 crafting/identification attempts per day.
  - Treasury: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests.

Scents of the Wild Totem:
  - Tanos

Crafting Profession:
 - Appraising[3478exp] R5
Gathering Profession:
 - Fishing[576exp] R5

 

Edited February 13 by Freyd

[Freyd 0]

Wide eyed miniature faunes halted their games and ran in terror at the sight of a the faceless black-clad figure that emerged from the gleaming white portal arch in the centre of Aruyt.  Storming into existence with the force and rancor of an overwound tornado, he marched through the quaint forest settlement with such determination and purpose that the locals instantly intuited murderous intent.  As children scattered from their streetscape playgrounds in search of immediate shelter, adults witnessing the scene unfold fell silent and watched his passage as one might watch a hurtling train bound for imminent and unavoidable collision, or the final burning moments of an asteroid igniting the atmosphere around them to pronounce the imminence of their demise.

Two players, relatively inexperienced and still testing their early limits, locked gazes on him as he walked by, uncertain how to gauge such a figure and puzzled as to who or what he was.  The taller of them, a man in light scouting armor whose green scale surface remained marred by several recent spider claw strikes, divested himself of his previous conversation and spilled forth his thoughts into a poorly considered stream.

"No marker?  Is that a player or...?"

His partner, a sleek and stealthy type by her build and weaponry, elbowed him quickly in the ribs to shut him up.

"No mob I've ever seen uses portals," she croaked, breath catching in her throat.  "But, no icon?  That's...  our cue to leave.  Now."

Freyd hardly noticed them, or even the NPCs fleeing before his personal dark mood tsunami.  He'd sworn himself off this path, given it up in light of a better more virtuous option.  Yet, here he was: cowl borne as a yawning portal to the deepest, darkest corners of the cold machine mind he'd spent years trying to escape.  Seeing that name.  Feeling somehow responsible. Or, maybe... maybe he was just angry at the injustice of the world, enough to shake and shatter a few pillars of its foundations until his thoughts made sense, or he broke something vitally important. In himself, or the world at large.  Both were viable outcomes in that moment.

Edited February 13 by Freyd

[Freyd 0]

Clouds gathered in the distance, thunder  pairing oddly with intermittently with stray flashes of lightning, like the two couldn't quite get the rhythm right.  Disharmony reigned in the Whisper's heart and mind as he left Aruyt behind him, traversing the open central plains, booted footsteps setting a steady cadence like drums of war that resonated in his ears as much as his mind's eye.  One inescapable face occupied his memories, ragged, dirty and relieved from a rescue done in the name of virtue.  She had questioned the point.  His replies sounded hollow in the wake of her defeat.  And, if his advice contributed to that end...

All in the name of granting them hope?  If this is where it leads, then what was the fucking point?  Dead is dead.

Halting a moment at the edge of the stream he'd been following, Freyd pulled a tattered shred of red cloth from his inventory, the threadbare fabric feeling about as useful as the promise made in its name.  But he was never one to give up casually on his oaths.  Never had been.  

"Never will be?"

That's really the question, isn't it?  What's the matter?  Feeling hollow?  Empty?  Fake?

Staring into the slow moving water, he saw darkness reflected back, glaring with absent accusations of hypocrisy.  The void never fell for illusions, never believed the best told lies, never accepted false pretense or deception of any kind.  The Thing Behind All Lies, he'd come to call it: truth.  A hollow, perfect emptiness bold enough to prove Plato's ideals could be made real, it burrowed into souls like a drill through the cotton candy of your soul.  No resistance.  No hiding.  It always found a way and forced you to look back through yourself.

"Fucking mind-killer indeed," he muttered, musing back to a favoured literary passage from his youth.

Lightning cracked behind him, washing out the image to leave the inverse silhouette as a shade of light burned into his vision.  Truth seen could not so easily be unseen, but would fade in time.

"So, what have I seen?  Her truth?  All of ours?  THE VERY WORLD WE LIVE IN IS A LIE!"

Stomping boot to stream bed sprayed water like fiction, scattering that truth in every direction and for the best.  Maybe.  Hopefully.  Hopefully?  Then why was she dead?  And why did anything any of them did even matter?  That had been her question too.

Edited February 13 by Freyd