[PP- F5] Desert Storm <<The Traveler>> (Carmine)

[Jomei 0]

"Oy, this heat.."

Jomei groaned as he stepped out of the Warp Pad and onto the sandy ground of Armadillo. Instantly, sweat filled his forehead. He looked around and wiped at the sweat, pushing his bangs out of his face. He lifted his hand and opened his inventory, unequipping his Leather jacket and scarf, revealing only his yellow, sleeveless martial arts top. He brought his hand back to his chest and unlatched the top few buttons of his shirt, revealing most of his collar. (Much better} he let out a sigh of relief, it didnt do much, but he felt he could bear the heat a little bit more now. 

 

The vast deserts of the Fifth Floor were the site of Jomei's next quest. Earlier in the day, Jomei had been approached by a sickly woman NPC who told him about a precious cargo in the desert that needs to be retrieved. She fears that if it is not found within the next two days, it may fall into the wrong hands. After the woman informed Jomei of her dilemma, it was revealed to be <The Traveler> Quest. After making a trip into lower floors to stock up on provisions, he warped back up to the desert wasteland to prepare to head out.

 

He did not want to make this trek out into the desert alone, especially if it was going to take two days. He lifted his hand again and opened up his friends list. Scrolling through, he came upon Carmine and a light smile crossed his lips. Without hesitating, he poked at her name and opened up a PM to her:

 

Hey Carmine,

I promised you a more exciting day last time we hung out, so today's that day. You down? Meet me on the Fifth Floor!

-Jomei

He sent her the PM and leaned back on a small wall, still smiling. Jomei had met Carmine not too long ago after a situation at a pub on the First Floor. The two spent the night hanging out, and it really made Jomei happy. He was excited to see her again, honestly. He crossed his arms and waited for her to show up. 

[Carmine 0]

Laying in grass, completely content with eyes closed, Carmine let other players pass her by and even step over her body as she blocked the walkways of few due to her place in the fields. Close to the fields where the safe-zone ended, but not close enough to be in danger while so vulnerable, Carmine half-napped half-relaxed where she pleased and in this case it happened to be in a rather busy zone. Not caring much about what others thought or did, she was almost oblivious to the message received though once she'd decided to lazily open her eyes Carmine noticed a notification. With a huff and moving her body to sit up straight, the woman opened her unread messages and grinned to herself upon shifting her eyes to the sender's name. It hadn't been long since she'd spent time with Jomei, but she defiantly wanted to see him again. Kinda cute, and all sorts of entertaining, there really wasn't a reason to not go see him again.

 

Sending back a quick "OK", Carmine stood up and move herself from Floor 2 to Floor 5 in a matter of minutes using a teleportation pad instead venturing between Floors on foot. That was tiring, and would take too much time anyhow. Locating Jomei, well, that was simple since she could locate him through his profile with a tracker so long as he was on the same Floor. 

 

Though, as soon as Carmine set her tracker for him and stepped off the telepad, the sun's rays beat down on her relentlessly. "Damn." She muttered, taking a hair holder out of her inventory, pulling her long, crimson hair into a messy bun, bangs falling back down in place since Carmine wasn't able to hold them back. Removing her long-sleeved undershirt, so only the cloth chest piece that came with the starting clothing covered her, she decided to bare with the pants currently equipped and began following the arrow she set to help her in finding Jomei. Still, the heat was sweltering and Carmine found herself sweating from merely walking a few feet. Fanning herself as others around her were, she opened her mouth and breathed through the opening much like you would see a dog doing.

 

In no time she found the male, and snuck up from behind before popping out in hopes of surprishig him. "Hey! What's up Jomei? Did you miss me so much you had to PM me?" Carmine playfully punched one of his shoulder, sticking her tongue out before lifting both arms to hold them behind her head. "Just playing. Have any plans?"

[Jomei 0]

Despite the usual blistering dry heat of this floor, Jomei began to feel a very slight, but still hot, breeze. It was pretty continuous, but not too strong. He looked up at the sky, wondering if there was ever a possibility of rainy weather on this floor. He chuckled when he figured that it was highly unlikely. A familiar ping noise took Jomei's thoughts off the weather when he realized he had been sent a PM. As he lifted his hand to the little letter icon, he noticed the sender of the message was Carmine. He gently bit his lip in anticipation before tapping on the letter, he was nervous she would have turned down his offer. His nerves were settled, and he was filled with joy when she accepted his offer.

Jomei really enjoyed hanging out with Carmine. She was a lot of fun to be with, and really pretty too. He scratched at the back of his head and smiled, looking down at the ground. He was a little worried about getting close with a girl again. The last girl he cared for vanished.. So he wanted to make sure the same didnt happen to Carmine. He brought his gaze back up to the vast desert surrounding the city as he heard murmors of other players in the area. His face tensed as he saw a large cloud of sand off in the distance. {Damn.. Thats where we have to go.. And we need to complete this in two days.} All the more reason to protect her.

Before he could think much into it, he was surprised by a familiar voice coming from behind him. He jumped as he quickly spun around to see Carmine standing there. His slightly scared face turned into a grin when he noticed it was her, "Hey you" he said with a light laugh, "Oh of course," his tone becoming teasingly sarcastic. He noticed her choice of attire for the quest and chuckled, "guess im not the only one bothered by this extreme heat, huh" he pulled on his open collar, which was usually covered by his scarf, to help air himself out.

His face and tone became more serious as he looked out towards the sandstorm, and their destination. "Well, I accepted a quest that I thought could help us both out in the long run.. <<The Traveler>> its called, and we get a neat <Survival> skill for completing it" he lifted his hand, opening hus HUD, and sent a party invite to Carmine, " and I thought it would be nice to hang out again" he smiled at her. His gaze went to the sandstorm again, "Sadly, we have to get through that," he pointed forward at the large dust cloud, which seemed to get bigger as it got closer.

[Carmine 0]

"Thought so." Carmine relaxed, facial expression very lazy as she lowered her eyelids and grinned lopsidedly. "The Traveler, huh? Make that The Travelers, and we both sound bada*s." She joked, quite excited to perform a quest with a friend, liking the name of the mission the two were taking. Despite heated temperatures, there really wasn't much else to complain about in terms of the adventure about to happen; thus, Carmine had no problem with what Jomei had in store for the day. "I was never fond of warm weather. Cold is much better. You can't take off your skin, but it's super easy to pull more layers of clothing on or wrap yourself up in a blanket."

 

Far from hesitant to accept his request, Carmine returned the arm she moved, to tap the symbol indicating her joining Jomei's party, back in place behind her head. Turning her body in order to take a look at what Jomei had pointed out, Carmine's eyes widened and an involuntary huff escaped from her lungs. "Woah." Heart beat quickening, she practically jumped out of her shoes with pure excitement. "This is gonna be fun~!" The woman clapped, now flashing an all-tooth smile, green orbs still on the dust cloud off in the distance that seemed to be growing with every second that passed. It took more than that to intimidate Carmine. In fact, the danger that seemed endless in the eyes of players on Floor 5 was something she wanted to rush head into, something she would never view as scary.

 

"I'll protect you." The twenty-six year old reassured Jomei, feeling as if he needed to hear those words in case any worries crossed his mind. With a gentle squeeze of her companion's shoulder, Carmine began walking ahead backwards, still facing Jomei. "Don't let my low level fool you, I can wreck anybody... or anything in my way." Turning around, now facing forwards, she took a look over her shoulder and motioned for Jomei to catch up. "C'mon. We'll have a great time together. Promise." Really, Carmine wasn't as interested in receiving a skill as she was in spending what you could call quality time, only in Sword Art Online, with someone she could already call a good friend. It seemed being lonely wasn't a problem anymore, and that relaxing wasn't really a good choice on her side. Or more importantly, the side of her friends.

[Jomei 0]

Jomei crossed his arms when Carmine decided to change the name of the quest to The Travelers.. being there were two of them. He then let out a chuckle and tilted his head a bit, "You're damn right." agreeing with her comment on calling them badasses. Traveling through a dust storm fighting off anything in there way? Sounded like the definition of it. Jomei nodded in agreement when she mentioned not liking the heat, and preferring the cold. "Aye, I know how you feel. It never got this hot back in Ireland.. always cool weather" he smiled as he thought about the cool air, the look on his face was one that someone would make when a relaxing breeze would hit them. "Sadly though, we may need to deal with the heat for awhile.. Our target is far out.. we would need to travel for about a day and a half before reaching it.. No idea why someone would drop their stuff out that far, but oh well.. So we will have to deal with the extreme weather for awhile" he shrugged his shoulders. 

 

Jomei could not help but smile at Carmine's excitement to jump head first into a possibly dangerous sandstorm. Jomei turned as Carmine did to look at the oncoming cloud. "Yeah. Gonna be awesome!" Jomei was pretty excited for this trip as well. He turned his head to Carmine and chuckled, "Is this your first time up on this floor? You seem pretty excited for all of this." â€‹He figured she was strong enough.. hell, he knew she was strong enough, or at least smart enough to keep herself out of any real danger, so he had nothing to worry about.. just figured he would ask. 

 

Jomei felt a hand on his shoulder as he continued to look at the storm, followed by Carmine's confident voice saying she will protect him. Jomei turned to her with a raised eyebrow, "Protect me now will you? Hmm" he placed his hand on his chin and closed his eyes, smirking, "Im pretty sure its gonna be me protecting you, lass." he opened his eyes and gave her a look teasing her. Honestly though, he was very thankful that she was willing to say that.. Despite knowing she was lower leveled. That she was willing to fight her hardest to make sure he was okay. His teasing look turned to a warm smile, as he half closed his eyes, "But honestly though.. thank you.." he spoke softly in a happy tone "And I will make sure nothing happens to you as well.. I promise." 

 

Carmine began to walk ahead of Jomei, to which he agreed it was time to get going. Before doing so he gave out a sharp whistle. From the sky above him, a brown blur swooped down to land right on Jomei's shoulder. It revealed itself to be a small owl, "By the way, this is Adere." he scratched the owl on the side of the head as he introduced his familiar to her. Jomei noticed that Adere looked intimidated by the stormy weather ahead, "Hm.. maybe it would not be best for you to fly around in that huh.." He scratched his temple with his index finger, before smiling "Here, ill keep you safe." With that, he unlatched another button on his shirt and let Adere climb in, this way she would be protected by the harsh winds. With the light bulge of an owl in his shirt, Jomei opened his HUD and equipped his new sword. "Alright, lets get going." he took lead in front of Carmine, heading out of the city and into the desert. 

 

As the two walked into the desert, they were met with the powerful sandstorm ahead of them. Strong winds blew at the two players, picking up multiple particles of sand that whipped at their faces and bodies. Jomei held his hand up to cover his face as he took a small face full of sand. He squinted his eyes and turned to Carmine, "How are you doing?"

 

((For each post, link and roll a CD. You lose a point of health every time you roll a 1 on your crafting die due to the wind and the sand. Ill probably make small exceptions for when we are resting at night.))

 

ID: 24160

CD: 11 

 

Jomei: 50/50

Carmine: 17/17

[Carmine 0]

Carmine nodded, and giggled lightheartedly as Jomei agreed with her title-giving for the both of them. As a duo there definately wouldn't be a thing that could take them down, being so tough and all. In reality, though, that's exactly what Carmine believed and she'd rush straight into whatever Jomei did following right beside him all the way; not following behind like a lost puppy. "I would love that... Heat is overrated." She commented, wishing she could've lived in Ireland, or anywhere else with cool temperatures for that matter, instead of North America. Jomei's expression seemed pretty content, thus Carmine let him have his little moment alone and refrained from saying anything until he spoke again. "Right? Why didn't the lady just have the package dropped off at her door? I thought that's how everyone had it done." Carmine joked, sighing shortly after. "A day with you? That's not so bad~" Running the back of her hand against her forehead, holding it there to keep the sun out of her eyes, Carmine found it harder to keep her eyes open so she just squinted as the two carried on.

 

Even as the cloud came closer to the duo, Carmine was still excited as ever and running on pure adrenaline. "Hmm? Oh yeah I've never been here before now that I think about it. Like I said I'm not a huge fan of heat so you can probably see why." She quickly thought of a reasonable answer though the reason why was most likely because she wasn't one to travel very far from the first floor much. That was bound to change sometime, however. "What I'm excited for is everything! Fun adventures are hard to come by after all."

 

Out of reaction to Jomei's next reply, Carmine stuck her tongue out. "You can try." She knew this was true but if anything were to happen then she'd be first to jump in and help out no matter the consequences. Carmine hadn't expected his teasing attitude to change to quickly, but then again Jomei seemed to be a softy so she wasn't too surprised. "Anytime~ I know we got each other's backs." Whistling surprised Carmine, the loud noise causing her to jump. She turned to peer over her shoulder, eyes widened. "Wh-How... Cooooool." Carmine moved over to Jomei's side once more and watched in awe as he moved his familiar to safety, adoring the animal. "Man, the way that just happened made you like ten times more awesome. Neat~"

 

Suddenly, sand began to blow about in the air and Carmine covered her eyes while pursing her lips to avoid any sand entering these sensitive regions. The desert storms certainly were a pester and setback for their journey. "Me? I'm fine, more concerned about you." Her words came out parted as she wished to keep sand out of her mouth, and from behind closed teeth. Still in such weather, Carmine still joked around. "I have sand everywhere now, though, and it isn't the best feeling."

 

ID 25050

CD 1 ((wut. leave it to me to roll the impossible >.>))

 

Carmine 16 HP ((-1 HP))

Jomei 50 HP

[Jomei 0]

Jomei laughed at Carmine's comment about having her lost good returned to her front step, "Haha, I dunno if this is one of those situations, that would make life easier though." He scratched at his chin, but then placed his hands on his belt with a grin, "But then we would not get to do this oh-so-awesome quest together." He let out a huff of air while pushing his bangs back out of his face to remove some sweat, noticing Carmine was feeling just as unhappy about it. "Yeah.. It really sucks. Oh well Ill make sure our next da~ ay we go on a quest it will be somewhere cooler." Jomei laughed sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. When she finished off by mentioning that a day with him would be nice, he looked over his shoulder with a warm smile and a light blush.. followed by, "Psh. I don't know whats so nice about that." and a sly smirk.

 

"Yeah, not my favorite of floors... surprisingly more bearable than the Ninth Floor though." Jomei began to sweat even more just thinking about it. Seas of lava beneath each town, a volcano every where you turn.. it was damn hot there. "M-Maybe we can stay away from there for awhile." Jomei turned around when she mentioned she was excited for everything, as he began to walk backwards looking at the girl with a smirk on his face. "Excited for adventure, eh lass? Well then.." he pointed his thumb into his chest "..guess we will just have to go on a bunch of adventures together then." he span on his heel to face forward again, placing his hands behind his head.

 

Jomei smiled to himself when she mentioned she was more concerned about him. The storm was really picking up now, as gusts of wind pelted each of them in the face. Jomei heard a slight coo noise from his chest, realizing it was Adere. He pulled up on his shirt a little bit more to protect his winged friend from getting hurt by the sandy winds, "You'll be okay I promise." he said down to the owl with a slight smile. He turned to look at Carmine as she spoke, noticing the slight pauses in her statement.. almost even pained sounding. He felt bad for Carmine, she was still a little bit of a lower level.. so he hoped this storm would not get the best of her. He shook his head.. No he would not let it. He placed his hand on his neck, noticing he still was wearing his scarf, just much looser than usual. He unwrapped the brown cloth from his neck and switched his direction to walk in front of Carmine. She mentioned having sand everywhere which caused Jomei to laugh, despite their situation. "Everywhere, huh? Well.. Im sure thats no fun." He gave the girl a wink as he stopped in front of her. "Here, this should help you." Holding the scarf in his hands, he placed it over Carmine's shoulders, wrapping it around her neck enough so she would be able to cover her nose and mouth with it, making this storm a little bit more bearable for her. He gave her a warm smile as he placed both of his hands gently on her shoulders, "There.. that should be better for you. Come on.. we still have a ways to go." Jomei turned back into the storm as sand pelted him in the face again.

 

((The scarf doesn't prevent you from taking damage from the sand, sadly >.>))

 

ID: 25066

CD: 5