Teion

"Heyo." Teion slipped into the familiar Merchant shop on the eleventh floor, just hours before its owner would have likely departed for the twenty-third floor. "Sorry, last-minute request." She took on a crooked smile of apology, already working to open a trade window. While her spirits were higher than average, the nervous energy buzzing about inside of her was just like her first and last boss fight. She had heard rumors that Bialas was considered 'easy', at least compared to some of the past. She typed in the number of col listed beside the general stock items she intended to purchase

Of course he could tell something was bothering her. It wasn't until he asked to know what it was that Teion realized how obvious she was being, with her nervous habits and the sudden silence that fell over her. But maybe she was glad that he asked. Relieved that he wanted to know if something was the matter, and giving her the gentle nudge to speak up where she couldn't bring herself to on her own. She stopped, unable to focus on walking at the same time as her contained emotional crisis. Surely grabbing his attention while she stood rooted to the ground, her eyes met his for just a mome

"Oh...yeah?" Was she wrong for feeling a sense of disappointment at having the topic waved away? Her chest tightened, and for a brief moment all she could think about was the want to talk to him. More than the idle conversation they usually held, though that would have to suffice for now. She wanted to open up to him, to tell him what she was thinking. She didn't want to fall apart into an emotional dumpster fire like she had in front of Kimi, Jomei, and Hestia--no, this was a different kind of breaking point. One that was preceded by an overwhelming desire to become close to someone, coupled

Teion pulled her right knee up, crossing her legs while she placed her palms flat on the uneven surface behind her. She looked on when Hestia bid her farewell, leaving her with more encouragement to keep the cat with her, if it really had taken a liking to her. The blacksmith only cocked a brow, reflecting for a moment on the words. The cat needed a home to survive? It was all alone? Her skepticism kicked in full-force, having to stop herself from scoffing before Hestia's avatar had disappeared. She lifted a hand up to wave her away before the light of the teleport crystal engulfed her, waitin

"Oh, uhh," Teion was surprised by the woman's continued interest, and her further questions caught her off-guard. "Err, I'm not smart about cat breeds," She admitted, a hand gravitating upwards to settle at the back of her neck. "But her name is Chii. Her fur is short, and all white, with blue eyes." A small smile crept onto her expression as she recalled the attention-hungry pet that always kept her company after a long day at work. Her small apartment felt lonely most nights, but at least she always had Chii to look after. When her companion voiced her assumption as to Teion's hesitatio

"Pfft, scared of cats?" She echoed in a scoff. It wasn't like Hestia knew much about her, but Teion still found the assumption amusing. She shook her head, "No. I actually...have a cat back home." She admitted, hesitating for a moment before getting the sentence out. It was incredibly rare that the woman shared anything about her 'real' life, outside of the game. Then again, nobody ever really asked. Whether the real world was a topic reserved for only those who held a certain bond or level of friendship, or if it was simply an unofficial taboo amongst players, Teion never found herself talkin

While Hestia looked on with amusement, Teion glared at the small creature that had effectively taken possession of her makeshift seat. Finished grooming itself, the shadowy cat tucked its dark paws beneath its chest as it lay down, remaining impassive to the conversations around it. The violette's face clearly bore a mixture of irritation, annoyance, and inconvenience all at once. but her stance finally began to relax and her hand dropped from her temple and back to her side. She took a couple of steps back to the two figures, keeping her eyes on the strange, seemingly domestic creature as she

"My fa--... What?!" She asked incredulously, eyes tearing away from the small creature that stared back at her in order to look at Hestia as if she was actually crazy. The cat sat beside the tank on the rocky surface, perfectly unbothered by the violette's reaction. It lifted a paw, sticking out its reddish tongue to lick at it several times before drawing it up and over its tall ear. Its paw dragged over its ear and rubbed first against its top-most right eye, then down to the one below it before hovering in front of it again to be licked. Teion's eyes flickered between Hestia and the cat tha

"Like--like, a stupid coward." She couldn't keep her voice steady any longer as a heat stung at the corners of her eyes. Her vision blurred as couldn't help herself from imagining Aereth's expression as Hestia recalled her conversation with the man. "I, didn't even talk to him. I thought, I thought I could get all the right words out if I wrote it down. S-so, I left a note in his shop. I, I haven't seen or talked to him since, so it makes sense if he hates my guts now." She choked out the last few words. Despite her desire to put an end to the romance between the two of them, the realization o

'Will be difficult to break through?' Her mind echoed, wondering about the implication of Hestia's choice of words. Did she plan to keep in contact with him, or try to get close to him? The thought surprised her on both ends: that Hestia was stubborn enough to try to make friends with the man she initially held so much disdain for, for reasons unknown to her, and that Aereth might allow anything of the sort to happen. Especially after how she had treated him, of all people. The lump returned as Hestia went on to recount the brunette's reaction. Guilt was quick to grip at her, even with th

The more Hestia went on to recount her meeting with the infamous player, the more Teion's smirk grew wider and more genuine. She spared a glance over her shoulder, catching a glimpse of the woman's expression as they walked. "Hmmm. So, not quite the 'monster' you made him out to be, I take it?" She didn't bother suppressing the smug attitude that her voice was sure to carry after listening to Hestia relate to the mysterious man's motivations and finally seeing the humanity in him despite the name he'd made for himself in Aincrad. Hestia's last line caused her to falter, and for a brief se

She paused for a moment, wanting to swear that she'd seen something. In the end, Teion kept her mouth shut, simply frowning as she tore her eyes away from her shadow to try and pull her attention back to the topic of conversation. "Yeah, no, I'm fine..." She affirmed with a touch of defeat, shaking her head and moving her legs forward to finally start carrying her forward again. Having given up on fully piecing together what bits of map data she had to forge a direct path to town, she figured wandering couldn't do much harm than she had already gotten herself into thus far today. She hesitated

"Ehh? Like one of those 'unique skills' that are floating around in rumors?" She replied skeptically without taking her eyes off of her menus. She frowned, trying to brush off the thought of any kind of treasure whatsoever that might tempt her to go back to deal with those creature-spawning traps. Instead, Hestia changed the topic of conversation, and her frown only persisted at the options she was presented with. "Oh, uhh..." She shrugged, indifferent to the offer. "I don't really care one way or the other... I wasn't doing anything special out here, just, killing time, really." She tried to

She rolled her shoulders in a shrug, looking away from Hestia as her attention was pointed in the distance elsewhere. Teion surveyed the landscape of where they'd ended up, the terrain just as unfamiliar to her as the rest of the floor had been up to this point. Sighing with defeat as she soon realized she didn't know how to get back to town from memory, the woman began flipping through her menus in order to pull up the map data she'd managed to gather thus far in an attempt to piece together some sense of direction. She shook her head while she looked over her displays, brows naturally narrow

The trail he lead her down was anything but convenient, straying far away from the obvious paths that surely would have led back to a settlement. Cardinal had finally allowed her hair to return to its normal dry state, giving her respite from any lingering physical discomfort from the waterfall in the middle of the glade. Their hike lasted several minutes, and Teion wondered silently through the length of it, leaving herself to her curiosity from his vague hints. She didn't have to suffer through the mystery for long. As they picked themselves up to the summit of a a small mountain ridge,

Teion's tall brown boots pounded against the ashen floor and uneven terrain as she ran away from the area of conflict. She gave only a fleeting glance behind her to ensure Hestia and her familiar were able to disengage from the creatures and were following her. As long as they didn't run into any trouble along the way, they just had to put enough distance between themselves and the monsters to exceed their aggression radius, and they would be left alone, deemed too much trouble to bother continuing to chase. At least, that's how every other game worked, and Teion only hoped that this one or th

A growl rolled from Teion's throat. 'This won't work...' She thought as her eyes danced over the various lit runes scattered across the floor. Her weapon was heavy, and she relied on keeping a wide stance to properly fight with it. Restricting her footwork and movement was going to result in weaker strikes, worse accuracy, or both. "C'mon, there's gotta be something..." She muttered, her head turning side to side as she scanned the area while Hestia kept the beasts' attention on her. She weighed her options, but with no obvious solution that would allow them to disable the remaining runes, and

Pulling a hand from her axe, Teion pressed her palm against the earth to try and get some sort of leverage underneath the creature. She winced again as another strike at the back of her head damaged her avatar, giving her half a second of whiplash before she urged herself back to struggling. Letting out a grunt of effort and frustration, the violette was all but helpless until the claws that had been sinking into her flesh suddenly disappeared, as did the weight of the monster holding her down. Finally able to push herself up, Teion scrambled to her feet and backwards with her weapon draw, hea

Teion grit her teeth as she braced herself against the attack. The inky creature threw its long arm down and crashed into the handle of her weapon, causing her knees to buckle under the weight. "Sh*t!" She cursed, forced to drop to a knee as she glared up at her assailant. "Stronger than you look..." She muttered under her breath as she took in the tall, thin frame of the monster. As its arm began to slide off of her darkened axe, its opposite raised above it in the same motion, preparing to drop down on her again. Teion's eyes darted to one side, and she froze in place to stop herself from do

"Alright... Not an instant-death trap, at least." Teion murmured to herself as she took tiny steps to circle around, pivoting her body to slowly survey her surroundings. "Is it a trap at all, though?" She asked herself, moving carefully towards the closest rune etched into the ground, just a couple of feet away from the toe of her boot. The violette knelt down, her axe moving to the side while she freed up a hand to hesitantly reach out towards the marking. Her gloved fingertips only grazed the edge of the bright-red stone before it flared with a brilliant bloody light. She winced, flinch

Taking the man up on his suggestion, she waited a moment until his back was facing her before the soft sound of bells chimed to indicated her menus had been pulled open in front of her. Teion stopped at her equipment, selecting the few pieces of her Amethyst Set and removing them from her avatar in a quick flash of white light. Left in a set of simple white underwear, she hurriedly panned over to her inventory and her finger poked at a few different items to summon a new, dry outfit. A pair of dark blue jeans hugged her legs, flaring just slightly where they covered the cuff of brown boots run

An hour later and Teion had cut through a couple dozen monsters, at least. Getting a feel for her new weapon, she gave the axe's handle a twist in her hands with a heavy exhale. "Whew... Alright, not bad." She reassured herself with a small voice, letting the weapon rest in its harness at her back in order to free up her hands. Giving them a shake in front of her torso, Teion surveyed her surroundings. She'd traveled far from the meager campsite that was the floor's main settlement and strayed away from the highest mountain peaks for a path that looked more intriguing than the rest. The monste

She listened to his explanation, and easily caught the little changes in his tone as he tried to lend as much sound reasoning to his answer as he could. Teion couldn't help but smile, though it took her a second to notice herself. Then a chuckle escaped her, and along with it some of the tension released. She straightened up a bit, running her fingers through her hair to pull them through any knots while her other hand kept hold of the now-damp towel. "Well, thanks. It'd be pretty mean to put wandering monsters around the comatose-quest, but I wouldn't put it past them. Not to mention..." Her

"Kinda matches, huh?" Teion mumbled under her breath. The violette stood at the edge of Stonewall, the border between the safezone and the merciless wilds invisible in the run-down war camp of the fourteenth floor. In reference to her quiet musings, she held her weapon of choice at arm's-length, inspecting the darkened battle-axe. Long tendrils of faintly-pulsating orange that ran along the polearm and blade alike stood out in contrast to its otherwise muted charcoal coloring. Even the large curved blade possessed a solid obsidian color beneath the glowing cracks, causing Teion to give a wry s

A familiar voice caused her wide eyes to shift, and Teion blinked when they landed on the man waving to her from the lake's edge. She stared at Ryo for a second in disbelief, and for a moment she was tempted to question whether or not she was really released from the scenes in her head, and back in the game of Sword Art. If Ryo's avatar in the distance really was him, and not some vision of him that gave her the grounds to argue with herself. Her right hand moved almost on its own, sliding over to her left arm as she held her seat on her knees atop the smooth stone slab beneath the falls. With