Teion

"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 keep the hint of disappointment out of her voice, but it had filled her unexpectedly.

Just as she was getting lost in how lackluster her excursion had been in planning, purpose, and execution, a slight movement caught her eye. Looking past the transparency of the hovering window in front of her, Teion's eyes narrowed as they focused on what lay behind it. Wondering for a moment if her sight was playing tricks on her, she swiped a hand through the air to dismiss the menus, causing them to slide a few inches to the side before they vanished. With a clear view now, she squinted slightly as she stared back at the odd number of bright red ovals that glowed faintly on the ground. The sets of eyes suddenly blinked, and all at once Teion registered their position over the face of her own shadow, the combination of the picture and its movement giving her a start. She jumped slightly, taking a step backwards, and the moment her shadow was disturbed the eyes closed again and seemed to disappear in an instant. "Did...did you see that?" She didn't take her eyes off of the shaded earth to look at Hestia, though she turned her chin ever-so-slightly to the other woman's direction. Cautiously, the violette moved to manipulate the shape of her shadow--turning to the side, and reaching a hand up move in front of and quickly brush against her face.

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 narrowing as she focused on the floating text and images. "No idea. I've never been on this floor before, so I was really just exploring and grinding some monsters for extra EXP. See if they dropped something good." She admitted and explained, her tone indicating that the latter hadn't resulted in anything of note.

She frowned as her mind was distracted from her task with the mention of the runes that coated the ground. "Hmm... Not really." She shifted her weight to one side, placing a hand on her hip. "I don't think they were completely identical, but I didn't get to study them or anything. I didn't even see if they could be interacted with, like on a menu or anything." She sighed. "It screams 'trap mechanic', but hell if I know if there was anything more to it. If there was even any kind of prize for getting through it." She went on with a defeated tone.

With the virtual sun hanging high above them and a generous distance between the players and the tallest cliffsides within view, each of their shadows were laid out over the uneven, rocky terrain beside them. Her attention fully split between the conversation at hand and the floating menus hanging in front of her, Teion didn't even notice as five small, ruby-red eyes blinked open on the face of her own shadow to stare back at her.

Teion had taken a couple of swings of her hammer before stopping to inspect the amorphous blob of material that glowed with a bright light. Each time her tool made contact with the metal's surface, Cardinal warped it in a single animation, bringing it a little bit closer to the shape of a sword each time. While she could mindlessly go through the motions of crafting until each piece was completed, there was something more satisfying, or fulfilling about being careful with her work. She had started to wonder if her cautiousness did anything at all besides take extra time, but nonetheless it had formed as a habit, and she found herself turning the shimmering hunk of steel over atop the anvil after every swing or two of her hammer.

It took her until the sword was almost completed to notice Hestia wandering aimlessly around the small smithy. The woman seemed to be trying to occupy herself by exploring, but with what little the dusty shop had to offer a curious eye, Teion immediately felt a sense of apprehension wash over her as she realized that by keeping Hestia here she was essentially forcing herself into the role of host, holding the girl hostage in the barren shop until whenever she would manage to finish the poor girl's order. Teion's lips pursed as she watched her back for a second, and she straightened her spine from where she had been leaning over her anvil to set the sword-in-progress back down in the heat of the forge. Smithing hammer still in hand, Teion broke the silence with an unsure, "Uhm..."

"Sorry, I don't have much to keep you busy here. Uhh..." Her head turned as she tried to think of something to suggest for Hestia to keep herself entertained while she waited. Her smithy stood as simple as it was when she first opened shop--a single story that consisted of a main display area, the back of the room housing the counter where she kept blank order forms and other such things where she once worked out business deals between other players. The area that she worked in stood to the side of that space, but wasn't separated away from any of the rest of the shop, making it so that she didn't even have to raise her voice to speak to Hestia when she stood on the other side of the room. Her forge, anvil, tools, and a simple drafting table all stood neatly arranged, coated in about half as much dust as the rest of the place.

Her head turned, and she took a couple of steps to one of two doors that had sat closed towards the back of the room. The one on the left side, she pulled open and left that way while she motioned with a small jerk of her head. "There's a couple of places to sit, or you can relax on the bed in there. Sorry it's not much." She muttered, pulling her eyes away from the tiny space past the door. She had taken one of two small storage rooms, meant for holding extra supplies, maybe a piece of unused furniture or two, and put a bed in it to give her a place to sleep without having to throw col at an inn every night. It wasn't nearly as comfortable as the bed she had slept in the night before, but it sufficed.

Teion was both surprised and not to see that Hestia had come plenty prepared after her request. She blinked, taking the pieces of paper and taking a moment on each as she flipped through the designs with their notes. "Well, at least you know what you want." She muttered under her breath after Hestia had finished speaking. She placed the short stack of papers on the drafting table that sat a short distance beside the large stone forge, pressing her palm against the surface and dragging it to the side in order to spread the sheets out on top of each other. She scanned over each of them for a moment, silently debating where to start while she continued to mull their designs over. A defeated sigh escaped the blacksmith, "Yeah, this is definitely different from the last set you ordered." She admitted.

The trade window appeared in front of Teion and pulled her away from her thoughts a moment. She moved automatically to accept it, noting the number of higher-quality materials she had to work with alongside the number of pieces she needed to finished. While her left hand reached for the corner of the page that detailed a curved sword, she quickly figured how many materials she had to devote to crafting each piece, and spent another moment wondering if the odds were against her in getting it done.

Shaking her head to dismiss the thoughts, Teion brought the design for Harpe to the front, setting the page back down before using her other free hand to open her crafting menus. A few taps, and some of the material that Hestia had transferred to her was consumed from her inventory as a steel ingot materialized in the mouth of the forge. Teion got to work, stepping to the side of the forge and crouching down for just a second. The fire inside of the stone structure roared to life, and she grabbed a set of dark tongs from the set of tools that hung on the wall to the side. She took hold of the ingot, repeating the same process that she had time and time again when starting a new craft. Cardinal took only seconds to turn the raw metal red-hot, and she then moved to position the steel atop an anvil, grabbing her smithing hammer with her right hand and taking a couple of basic swings for the system to register the action and begin to forge the weapon into shape.

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 gaze landed on the scenery before them. "Oh my--" She cut off her own whisper, wide-eyed as the view took her breath away for a moment or two. She stood, feet rooted to the ground while Ryo had stepped forward to take a seat, only finding herself coming back to the present after a few more seconds had passed. "It's amazing." She said simply, a softness to her voice that reflected the smile she wore.

Cobalt eyes tore away from the soothing light of the setting sun that washed over the sea of green before them. Her sight shifted to the man that sat ahead of her while he looked out over the peaceful view. What was he thinking, she wondered? Was he hoping that she joined him, that they would watch the sun set together? Her mind was suddenly busier than when she had been battling inside of it. She started remembering things: the day they'd spent together on Valentine's, her heartfelt exchange with their mutual friend Spencer, and of course the most prominent visions of her conversations beneath the waterfall. The sound of Ryo's voice calling out her name rang in her ears, and Thea hurriedly snapped back to reality with a flushed face and a shyly averted gaze. Suddenly aware of how quickly her heart seemed to be beating inside of her chest, she swallowed, silently asking herself why the hell she was getting so worked up.

In a snap decision, and with a strong mental shove, Teion moved her legs to carry her forward to the cliff's edge. She stopped beside Ryo and crouched down, sliding her feet over the edge to let them hang while she took a seat. Despite her control in the situation, she couldn't seem to dismiss her awareness of their proximity--maybe half a foot of empty space sitting between their shoulders. She swallowed again. The silence that had settled couldn't have lasted for long, but every second that she fought herself on opening her mouth felt like an eternity.

"I can see why you were vague about that quest." She finally forced the words out, choosing the topic that simultaneously filled her with the most apprehension and burned with the strongest desire to get off of her chest. Her lips pursed, knowing the line would have gotten his attention, and she told herself that it was too late to back out now. She drew in a deep breath through her nose, only now trying to think about where to start. "I can guess it's different for everyone, but I wouldn't have thought it'd be so...specific." Her expression was flat as she stared off into the mixed colors of the distance, letting the scenery calm some of her nerves as she continued. "It was..." She stopped, brows narrowing as she struggled to find the right words. "They didn't want to fight me. Mostly, anyway." She mumbled the last words, recalling her heated battle with her earlier vision of the very man that sat beside her. It was then that she realized just how unspecific she was being. Despite her want to open up, she hesitated, and Teion could feel the edges of her teeth as they began to dig into her bottom lip. Doubt was quick to fill her, and she was once again aware of the intesity of her beating heart. Her fingers had been fidgeting amongst themselves in her lap for a while now, and her right heel gently tapped against the rocky cliffside a couple of times as she struggled to get some more words out. "Uhh. We can talk about, something else if you want. I don't wanna unload a bunch of weird stuff on you like that and, uhm, ruin the mood or something." Her cheeks burned a much milder pink than before as the thoughtless implications of her choice of words hit her after they left her mouth.

"Good." She replied simply when Hestia confirmed she had some materials for her to work with. Now she only had to hope that what she had was enough, and they wouldn't have to be bothered to go out and either collect or purchase more after she'd started working. Leading the way, Teion jogged down the flight of stairs to the main floor of the inn, her eyes naturally wandering to the corner of the room where the long burnt-out embers of the fire sat below a mantle. She easily remembered how they had been gathered there just hours ago, talking over the events of the night prior and sharing more raw emotions than she had been prepared for. She thought back to just a minute ago, when Hestia had mentioned the option of bidding their other adventuring companions--Hestia's guildmates--farewell before they would head out. She didn't bother exploring the suggestion, figuring that it would only be a matter of time until they'd see each other again, whether it be for the next leg in their quest chain or even something more personal or relaxed. Much like Hestia's decision to approach her about another blacksmithing commission.

Giving a small nod to the NPC that called out a thanks and goodbye as they were leaving, Teion wordlessly continued to the open area of the city of Nimbus and made her way to the teleport gate. Several minutes later, and the straightforward trip to her shop in Fortaleza drew to a close as they reached the sand-dusted oaken door that led to her smithy. The door clicked as it opened for her, Cardinal recognizing her as the owner of the otherwise closed shop and locked building. She left the door open for Hestia to enter behind her, and Teion was immediately thankful that the place was in, more or less, decent condition. An unwanted memory came to mind--when Aereth showed up at her front door after her week of solitude, leaving the aftermath of her temper tantrum on display all over her floors. Instead, her countertops and baseboards were dusty and rather bare. A few creations sat laying around, but otherwise it was easy to tell that Teion was hardly in the business of crafting for the general public anymore.

"Alright, what've we got?" She prompted, breaking the silence as she planted her hands on her hips. She turned around, facing Hestia in the middle of the shop's main floor, waiting to hear whatever details about this set of gear the tank wanted that she hopefully had in mind for her.

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 these monsters didn't, for some reason, bypass that basic mechanic.

Her lungs rose and fell as her pace dropped, the normally nonathletic woman stopping to rest her right hand against a steep rocky hill at her side. She leaned over, gulping in air while she caught her breath and casting one more glance behind them. It seemed they had ran for long enough, she deemed, when she could see the shadowy figures in the distance trotting back to their original spawn location. Teion drew in a deep breath through her nose, straightening her spine and exhaling through her mouth as she put her best effort into steadying her breathing. "Thanks," She offered Hestia a breathy reply, picking up her hands and lacing her fingers together, resting her palms on the top of her head. "I dunno how I was gonna get away from two of them, without setting off more of those traps." She frowned, making a face that read that she didn't want to find out whether that would have been possible or not.

Pulling herself up to her feet with Spencer's assistance, she couldn't help but smile softly at the little penguin he took in his arms afterwards as little Noot waved a flipper at her. She reached a hand forward, using the tips of her first two fingers to gently stroke at the feathers atop his head while she listened to the man speak. Lips pursed, as if she had been caught, when he mentioned her blaming herself again. Her eyes darted to one side, almost as if she chose to pout a bit because she was unable to refute his claim. As Spencer continued, and finished his thoughts, Teion's smile went crooked, and she took in a breath through her nose before exhaling into a small sigh. "Yeah, I know... We're all allowed to be upset, and all that." She replied half-jokingly.

Teion pulled her hand away from Noot's head, moving her arm out to the side as she stepped forward and initiated a hug of her own, carefully wrapping her arms around Spencer's frame so as not to disturb the penguin caught in the middle still in his arms. She lingered for a few seconds in silence before releasing her hold and taking a step back. "Thank you again, Spencer. She started, her pride leaving her unable to look the man in the eyes while she spoke. "I go on about how communication is so important, but it takes something like this for me to talk about my feelings." She exaggerated the word to take some of the edge off, letting out a small chuckle when she did so. "Still, I'm glad we didn't end up at each other's throats. You actually seem like a really nice friend, and I'd hate to keep letting those go again." Her smile twisted, but she finally met his gaze as her shoulders dropped with a hint of relaxation. The tension was finally draining, the tears were gone, and Teion was finally coming back to the reality outside of their little therapy session.

Teion turned halfway and lightly jerked her head in the direction of the door behind her. "I'm gonna head back down there, maybe hang out a little before it gets late. You coming? Or, need a bit more time?" She prompted, trying to cover her bases in case the blonde would rather avoid any other faces for a while.

Thread Complete!

• @Ryo - 1 SP, 88 col
• @Piera - 1 SP, 88 col
• @Jomei - 1 SP, 88 col
• Telrenya - 1 SP, 88 col
• Teion - 2 SP, 88 col
• @Ruby - 1 SP, 88 col
• @Hestia - 1 SP, 88 col
• @Spencer - 2 SP, 88 col
• @Jevi - 1 SP, 88 col

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 no visible treasure to feed into any kind of temptation to stick around, Teion's lips pursed as she came to a decision.

The woman pulled her axe behind her back, storing the weapon away at its harness to allow her free use of her hands and easier movement. Watching her every step, she weaved in between the traps and hurried around Hestia's flank. As soon as the runes grew more sparse to allow her to pick up her pace, Teion rushed to the tank before reaching out and giving her arm a quick tug with her instruction. "Yeah, screw this! Let's get out of here."

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, head snapping to the side to search for the second monster. She found the creature on its side after having been knocked off of her, blinking as it slowly pushed itself up several feet away from her. Her breath practically caught in her throat when she saw the bright light of a rune carved into the ground beneath it, but it slowly released as she watched the monster's jet-black claws scrape over it without any kind of reaction.

It took Teion several long seconds to figure out everything that was happening, all the while trying to focus on dodging any continuous swipes from the towering beast that practically flailed its thin arms at her. Suddenly it stopped, turning its head to the side just as the now-recovered creature standing off to the side. And when Teion heard a familiar voice calling her name from the other side of a third shadowy figure off in the distance, the woman's blue eyes widened in surprise. "Hestia?!" She called back, just as shocked by the tank's presence as Hestia had sounded. The beast in front of her began to slowly shamble in her direction, attracted by the tank's ability just the same as the other that dashed on all-fours to attack. "Watch it! Touching those red things makes more of them!" She called out. A moment of hindsight hit her as she realized Hestia must already be aware of the mechanic, having summoned a shadowy creature herself. With a shake of her head, Teion renewed her grip on her battle axe and turned her attention to the ground to carefully work her way in the same direction. While her health and defenses could probably hold up for a while, she had no idea if Hestia could actually manage fighting off three of those things at once.

ID#: 101716 | LD: 19(+4)=23 - Success! Enhanced Familiar Found

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 dodging out of the way. If she moved clumsily, she would only end up summoning more monsters. The runes weren't terribly close together to make her think this was a trap to spell out certain death, but she was going to have a hell of a time getting herself out of this one.

And so, without moving from her position, Teion's arms felt the strain of resisting another heavy strike from the monster, wincing from the effort. Despite her attempts to block the swings, her health bar naturally began dropping a few points after each attack. "Alright, okay--" She began mumbling to herself, trying to keep her wits together in order to get herself to fight back without fear of making things worse. Before she could continue her little pep talk, however, a short scream escaped her as an unexpected force pressed in between her shoulderblades. The woman was shoved forward and promptly crashed into the ground, hardly able to use her arms to brace herself. Managing to keep her grip on her weapon, Teion was left prone while the sharp claws of the four-legged beast that had first spawned digging into her back as it pinned her down. The woman let out a tiny gasp to refill her lungs with air before her jaw came together with a growl of frustration. "Gods--Urgh!" She grunted beneath the creature's weight.

Teion set the plain brush back down on the bedside table just as Hestia hestiantly got to the point of her unexpected appearance. She listened to the request, and it seemed to take a good couple of seconds to fully register in the blacksmith's brain. Once it had, the face that Teion unwittingly made showed just how crazy she must have thought Hestia to claim that she needed another full set of gear. "What?! Did you like, pass another level threshold or something?" She asked, answering the question in her head just a moment later. She had just traveled with and fought alongside the woman--her skills were impressive, and she was surely a higher level than her, but the equipment she had on wasn't necessarily holding her back. The question soon became rhetorical, as Teion didn't allow Hestia much time to respond to it. Instead, she shifted her weight, bringing a hand up to pinch at the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. Her eyes squeezed shut for a second, and she kept them closed as she continued.

"Pff, yeah no, I won't bite you." She confirmed with a small exhale, Hestia's weak attempt at a joke actually managing to defuse the violette a bit. She drew in another breath and sighed, dropping her hand and motioning a couple of circles with her index finger to instruct Hestia to turn around. Once she had complied, or if Teion had to be more straightforward to ask for some privacy, she would open her menus and scroll over to her equipped items. While she worked to dismiss the loose, basic clothing she used as sleepwear and shifted to her inventory to equip something more suitable for walking around in town and later working in her smithy, she opened her mouth again. "I guess it's not all that much trouble. And you better have some materials I can use for all that, cause I sure as hell don't. Just let me know if we need to stop somewhere to pick something up first." She said, her use of the word 'we' leading to imply that Hestia wouldn't be left alone to wait for a notification once the items were done.

Settling on a thin, navy blue sweater with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows and a pair of worn-looking white shorts, she reached for the brush one more time and gathered up her hair. "You have anything else you need to do around here?" She prompted, the heels of earthy brown boots hitting the floorboards as she crossed the room while securing the high ponytail at the back of her head with a deep blue ribbon.

"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, flinching backwards at the unexpected reaction and pushing herself back up to her feet in a hurry. As the light faded, however, and the rune in front of her was drained of its life, Teion blinked as she set her sights upon a new figure standing in front of her. Standing about four feet tall, a midnight-black creature stared back at her with glowing red eyes. As if its body was made out of shadows themselves, it was hard to fully comprehend the creature. She couldn't immediately discern how many limbs it had, or whether or not it had a mouth. The only distinguishing features at first were its three glossy crimson eyes, and the various runes and other markings in the same red hue that decorated pieces of its form. They pulsed lightly, and it almost looked as though they hovered over its flesh, rather than resting on it directly.

Teion stumbled backwards, losing her balance for a moment at the sudden appearance of the creature. While she took another couple of cautious steps, her eyes flickered upwards to see it bore a deep red cursor, and the woman internally cursed at her bad luck. "Looks like I've got another friend to take care--" She cut herself off as her eyes wrenched shut with the appearance of another blinding light. She winced again, her grip tightening on the handle of the axe in front of her until she could force her eyes back open. Looking down, she spotted the edge of another rune, as dull and lifeless as the one in front of her now, under the heel of her boot. Her eyes widened in realization, and she spun around to meet another two sets of red eyes worked into a slimmer creature that towered over her by a good foot at the least. This one gave her little time to react, bringing up a gangly arm that bore long, claw-like appendages. Teion's jaw clenched, and she rushed to bring her polearm up over her head to block the strike as the monster brought its limb down onto her.

Tilting her head to one side and working the brush through the knots and tangles in her hair, Teion's eyes remained trained on Hestia as she stood in the center of the room, hestiating before throwing her a thanks and compliments on the gear she had made some time ago. The project was an ambition one, and in the end she was only glad that she was able to produce the number of pieces at the quality that her customer had wanted. Although, at that time Hestia was more of an acquaintance, or friend of a friend, than whatever their relationship could be labeled as now. Not quite friends in Teion's book, but definitely not strangers. At least, not when it came to what Hestia knew about her life. Vice versa, the violette couldn't say she knew the first thing about the girl behind the avatar. 

She watched Hestia begin to fidget, her smile faltering. Normally Teion wouldn't be so perceptive, with a generous amount of social cues eluding her. But, with nothing else to focus on, she cocked a brow at Hestia's uneasiness. After switching her hands and combing through the last section of hair with alternating strokes of her brush and the fingers of her free hand, her brows narrowed again. "What? I'm not gonna bite you." She started, although the temper behind her words might insinuate otherwise. "If you you don't need me for the quest turn-in, then what is it? Do you wanna ask a favor or something?" She pressed the girl, impatiently waiting for an answer.

"Uhm...what?" Teion let go of the door's handle, leaving it ajar in order to bring her palm up to the corner of her right away and rub at the skin in an attempt to wipe away her sleepiness. Her other hand reached up to the crown of her head, nails weaving downward through violet locks. When they met the resistance of several knots after a few inches, she inwardly groaned and began to wonder just how disheveled she might have looked to the woman across from her.

Without giving her any information, Hestia merely offered to wait downstairs for her. 'Wait for what?' She wondered. She wasn't just going to dismiss the player in order to get more sleep--even if they didn't exactly see eye to eye, Teion wasn't going to ask someone to just leave for a few hours. But still, what did Hestia need her for? She sure as hell didn't sign up to take on the next quest in that chain after what happened last night, and she couldn't remember agreeing to anything else. She had expected the others would have left the inn long before she got around to dragging herself back to her smithy.

"Err, no, it's okay." Teion nudged the door open a bit more and pushed herself off of its frame. She turned back towards the inn room and retrieved a black-handled hair brush from the bedside table while allowing Hestia the freedom to follow her inside. Beginning to carefully drag the bristles through her hair to tame her bedhead, Teion looked back to her company again. "So, what's up? Do you guys need me there to turn the quest in or something?" She tried coming to her own conclusions while waiting for Hestia to explain her unexpected visit.

Having fallen asleep like the dead only after the sun had started rising over the seventh floor's tall mountain ranges, Teion was out for several hours until a restlessness seemed to find her. She found herself drifting in and out of consciousness while small rays of light peeked through the window panes on the opposite side of the inn room from her single bed. And so, despite her desire to sleep burning stronger than it usually did, her brows twitched as the sound of distant knocking stirred her again. She squinted, opening her eyes just enough to take in the sight of the room and register its difference from the small storage room of her smithy. Not to mention how much more comfortable the bed was, and that everything was much less dusty. "Maybe I really oughta stay at an inn more often..." Her voice cracked in its mumble as a thick layer of sleep still hung over her.

Her eyebrows narrowed, and she stopped herself from closing her eyes again and allowing herself to try and drift off again when she heard the faint call of her username coming from the hallway. "Huh?" She picked her head up from its pillow, listening for a moment. Nothing followed, but she could have sworn she wasn't just hearing things. Reluctant to drag herself out of bed, she slid her legs over the side and carried herself to the oaken door. Cracking it open, she leaned against the frame until she quickly spotted long raven hair belonging to the woman standing hopefully outside of the door across from her. "Hestia?" She asked in vague recognition, her voice still a bit rough and her eyes narrowed from the lingering haze of sleep. "Was that you asking for me?" She asked, almost hoping she wasn't mistaken. As convenient as it would be that the tank was waiting outside of Kimi's or Jomei's room, and she was free to crawl back in bed, she also didn't want to deal with the embarrassment of being mistaken.

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 running just past her ankles. A cream-colored knit sweater rested off her shoulders, a couple of wide black straps belonging to an undergarment of some sort visible past its collar. Dragging her hand to one side, the menus slid away and vanished with another small chime, and her fingers curled around the hem of her sleeve as it fell back to her side.

"Hmm~?" She hummed with intrigue as Ryo made mention of keeping himself busy. When they faced each other again, Teion leaned forward, taking a step to close some distance between them as she began to inspect his features. She met his eyes, finding their golden color before flickering upwards where she noticed a difference in his fringe. She took a couple of steps to the side, walking a half-circle around the man until she found the rest of his purple-toned hair tied back. Without thinking, Teion reached forward and took the ponytail loosely in her palm, turning her hand towards her and pulling it back, letting his hair fall through her fingers until she noted its shorter length. "So you have." She remarked, only realizing the oddity of her actions after the fact.

"Oh--uhm, something cool, huh?" She latched onto the other topic he had presented before there was time to question it. Her fingers weaved together in front of her abdomen, and behind them her thumbs played idly with the soft fabric of her shirt while she kept her eyes turned forward.

A passion that she'd never thought would burn out, the violette's smithing days were all but over. Besides the occasional piece made for her newfound friends in the Holy Dragon Alliance, Teion only seemed to pick up her hammer when she had exhausted all other forms of busywork as of late. The all-but-retired smith sat atop a hill she had grown more and more familiar with over the passing weeks, arms wrapped around her knees while she cast sidelong glances at the man with a similar hue in his hair. She and Ryo came back to visit the Fields of Crossing often lately, if for no other reason than to talk and enjoy the scenery together. A soft smile graced her lips as he finished recounting an excursion with their mutual friend and the man's guild leader, Jomei. She chuckled, even, when she recalled the ridiculous photo Ryo had sent her on a whim, one of his own face perplexed by the ginger's amusement as he stood with thick black markings decorating his face to resemble a cat's whiskers.

The familiar chime of a received message caught Teion's attention and quickly sparked a sense of curiosity in the woman. She suspected Hestia, or maybe Spencer, inviting her out to a quest of some kind or perhaps just for a playdate with the latter's little penguin familiar who seemed to have taken such a liking to her. As she freed a hand to pull open a set of menus and navigate to her messages, her brows naturally narrowed in a mixture of concentration and intrigue as her eyes slid over the written words. She frowned, busy wracking her brain for the exact reason that the message sender's name was familiar. Where had she met this person before, and when?

The details were fuzzy at best, but she finally felt like she figured it out. Pushing herself to her feet with a small grunt of exaggerated effort, Teion turned to her company and let out a quick sigh. "Well, this oughta be interesting. You alright if I just stop by your place later?" After the walk back to Urbus, and making some quick arrangements with Ryo along the way, Teion stepped up to the teleport gate and called out the nostalgic Town of Beginnings. She slipped her hands into her pockets once she had blinked away the sudden change in scenery and carried herself towards the meeting place her old acquaintance had specified.

Her first impression of the twenty-third floor was only how very different it was from the one below. Following so many landscapes of death and darkened skylines, the twenty-second practically felt like a sanctuary--an oasis among depressing battlegrounds and lethargic, or outright undead, NPCs. But here she was, back in what looked like an underground city that was even more run-down than she had expected. Any NPCs she crossed paths with were quick to shoot her nasty looks, making it very clear how unwelcome she was in the Elves' home. Quickly moving past them, Teion's head turned as she scanned the area for other players, but any figures she could spot without pointed ears and silvery hair did not resemble what she remembered of Zandra from their past brief encounters. Frowning, she decided against her better judgement to stray away from the gate she had called to meet at in order to search for the woman.

Only a few minutes of travel brought her to the inclines that would lead her above ground. With a touch of surprise that the floor wasn't entirely made of caves like some she'd seen before, Teion emerged to the growing light of the sunrise peeking out over the horizon of mountain ranges in the distance. She squinted at the sight, and let her gaze wander like her feet carrying her through the plains until she set her sights on the armored woman who seemed to be waiting. Recognizing Zandra, Teion lifted a hand to chest-level in short greeting. "Hey, found you." She declared, placing a hand on her hip once she'd closed the gap between them. "So, you have anything in mind? Or will we just be looking for stray monsters to take down?" She asked, getting straight to the point.

She was surprised by his straightforwardness, his honesty, and, from what she could discern, his genuine care. Meeting Spencer's eyes as he took her hand in his own, she couldn't help but frown at some of his words. He spoke as if he was almost desperate for love, and she wished for a moment that she could dissuade him from that line of thinking. 'It's not my place.' She quickly resigned the thoughts, and dropped her chin again.

"Spencer, has anyone ever told you that you're way too sweet for your own good?" Teion let out a short, breathy chuckle along with the rhetorical question, shaking her head lightly before she came back to the serious notes in their conversation. "Thank you, though. It means a lot just to know that you would be willing to give up on something like that, to give me a chance." Another shake of her head. "I would be too stubborn, and greedy to do that." She took a long paused, and bit down on her bottom lip while she first searched herself for the next words, and then worked to force them out of her. "But I'm scared, too. My heart has gotten me in so much trouble since all of this started that my head is fighting back now. And..."

Teion drew in a deep breath through her nose, casting the little penguin familiar at their sides a glance before his innocent face caused a tiny smile to spread across her features. She reached out her free hand, stroking the feathers atop Noot's head with repetitive motions. "I think we might have more in common than I thought." She started over, still addressing the sandy blonde across from her. "I'm basically a hopeless romantic, and it feels like ever since this game started I've gotten myself mixed up with one guy or another, and it's never ended well. I... I don't think I ever told you, Spencer. But, those people that attacked us all in the desert? They were after that person I mentioned. They were going to use me to get to him." She admitted, the last traces of guilt from the whole situation finally working themselves loose from her chest.

"I've had someone who's feared as a PKer, someone who's committed suicide..." She was fighting back tears of her own now, and she instinctively tightened her grip on Spencer's hand. "So, I'm scared, y'know? It's just, hard to imagine that things won't go horribly wrong for a change." She took in another deep breath to try and steady herself, to keep the bulk of raw emotion from spilling out over her cheeks. After a moment or so, her eyes flickered back up to Spencer's face, and the smile that she forced was obvious and sympathetic. "Still, thank you. I feel like, this place is probably not the best to be looking for love. But I guess we can't really help it, huh?"

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 monsters she had worked through were mainly feral beasts: wolves, and other similar four-legged creatures that tried their hardest to tear her apart before her axe head would slice through them.

Cobalt eyes traveled over what looked like runes etched into the ground at her feet, in no particular arrangement or pattern. Or at least, none that she could make out. She stared at them a moment, her feet taking slow steps to carry her forward while she frowned at the strange markings. Shrugging it off, she pressed on, having decided to travel a bit farther in the hopes of catching an interesting sight before she would give up and head home. "I wonder if Ryo would wanna come over..." She thought aloud, her mind already far in the future as it wondered how she might occupy her time after sunset.

As her boots hit the dirt with every step, she hadn't the slightest clue what might have triggered anything. Teion jumped with a small start as the runes littering the ground suddenly began to glow with a bright red color, one by one in an erratic pattern. She looked around her, stopped, and spun to turn back the way she came. She strained her ears, trying to listen for any sort of threat, or a presence other than her own that had caused the runes to come alive. Slowly, her right hand reached behind her to grip the polearm of her axe once again.

In the midst of the half-finished room--perhaps a future study of sorts--Teion's eyes fell on Spencer as he hurried to his feet, not expecting her to barge in on his emotional turmoil. Her brows knit with a look of concern and regret as she continued to realize the pain that he must be feeling and where it was coming from.

"I'm not okay."

Teion could practically feel her own heart wrenching inside of her chest. She stood, halfway through the door, as he continued to speak. She felt herself swallow, the slight subconscious action making her throat feel heavy. Her teeth met as a result of her clenched jaw, mind working to process the things that Spencer was saying at the same time as kicking herself for what a huge mess this had all become. And then, in the middle of his heartfelt words, the sandy blonde had closed the gap between them to wrap his arms around her. She was surprised. He was the one that needed a hug right now, not her. Teion paused for just a moment for her mind to catch up, but then her arms found their way around him in return. She hugged Spencer tightly, lingering until he would pull away again to wipe the leftover moisture from his face.

The smile that she showed him was crooked, and lasted only a second or two before she let out a breathy half-chuckle. The woman turned to push the door closed behind them, and leaned back against it. Arms crossed themselves over her chest, and she was looking down at the man's feet while she tried to find words to push out. "Gods, I'm bad at this..." She mumbled before filling her lungs with air and lifting her gaze. "Spencer, I'm so sorry. I don't want anyone else getting hurt, like I was already feeling bad about hanging around him so much, and with everything that happened today, I--" She stopped her tangent short, pursing her lips and raising her chest with another breath of air. It let out in a sigh, and she felt the back of her shirt drag against the wooden door as she slid down against it. The woman sat on the floor, letting one of her legs extended out in front of her while the other folded in close to her chest. The fingers of her right hand weaved through the hair at the side of her head as she loosely held it, staring at the ground while she tried again to get her thoughts together. "I...I'm not sure." She admitted, the corner of her mouth twisting into a tiny, wry smile. "That's probably a mean thing to say after all that, but." She brought her hand forward and pushed her bangs away so that her palm could press against the side of her forehead.

"I was, seeing someone. Until... like a week ago. Ryo knew I was with someone, but that didn't stop him from wanting to get close to me, I guess. It's...the whole story is a mess." She shook her head lightly and pulled her hand down to place her cheek in her palm. "So, I don't know. But, I'm still sorry if him liking me means that you get hurt. Especially when I'm over here, just..." Her sentence trailed off and was lost in the small, frustrated growl that she let out.

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 words trailed off into nothingness as she chose not to voice her wandering thoughts of the colored cursor that was more likely to hover over an attacker in an area like this.

With a moment of uncertainty, she then held her hand out to offer the item back to Ryo. "But, uhm. Yeah. Thanks." She repeated. She was growing stiff again, still caught up in the tense mindset of internal struggles and the oppressive humidity of the wild jungles. A quick, subconscious glance down at herself and her drenched clothing caused her to let out a tiny sigh, and her shoulders dipped slightly while she shifted her weight. "Hey, uhh... Do you wanna go somewhere? Like, I can change, and we can find a better place to talk, and stuff." Alongside her suggestion, she avoided meeting his magenta eyes with hers a bit more than usual.

"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 smirk at the weapon's showy design.

After another moment or two admiring the axe and how it seemed to compliment the orange-hued sky that lay beyond it, Teion released a breath of air from her lungs in a small sigh and and dismissed the weapon to her back, where it fell nicely into place in its halter. Her arms reached up over her head, and she lifted to the balls of her feet while her eyes squeezed shut with a satisfying stretch. "Hmmn, well. Might as well have some fun while I'm out here." Her words were breathy with another large exhale as her arms fell, and the woman set off from the camp grounds towards the mountainous landscape of the foreign floor.

@Hestia @Stryder

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 eyes still fixated on the man, her thumb and forefinger came together against her forearm, pinching at the skin beneath the black material that ran up her arms until she winced with discomfort. Regardless of the fact that she didn't know if that would have any different outcome had she done so in her dreamscape, the faux-pain was good enough for her, and she finally moved to pick herself up to her feet.

All the while, from the moment she had woken up, her head felt as busy as ever. Playing back pieces of her encounters one after another. The Frenchman's voice seemed to replay in her ears, and her lips pursed slightly as she tore her eyes away from Ryo to stare down at her feet. 'Gah, why does he have to be here now? I could've used some time to process...' She thought, growing flustered while she felt her heart beating a bit faster in her chest.

Having hesitated long enough, the woman bent her knees and pushed off of the rocky structure's ledge to drop herself into the lake below once again. Despite the weight of her soaked combat attire and the humidity still lingering in the jungle air, Teion's attention was elsewhere as she swam the short distance to the water's edge and picked herself up onto dry land. She took a moment to gather her wet hair and carefully squeeze out some of the excess moisture before she accepted the towel Ryo handed to her with a shy "Thanks." His next question registered, and she averted her gaze while she worked to dry her violet locks. "Oh, uhm..." She hesitated again. For a split second, she wanted to tell him everything. Explain everything she saw and everyone she talked to, and what she thought it all meant. Talk it out, analyze it, and let it sink in all over again. But as she cast another glance his way, she found any such words getting promptly stuck in her throat. "Better." She affirmed simply, regretting her standoffishness immediately. Keeping her hands busy, she tried to tack something on. "Err, what are you doing out here, anyway?"