Aereth

After the dangerous assault of the purple haired blacksmith died down again, Aereth also started to unwrap his sandwich and took a big bite and an awkward silence settled between them. Aereth once again didn't know how to engage the woman into a conversation. She really was a hard nut. In between his bites he sometimes just looked at the woman trying his best to read her, without much success. The emotional wall he had managed to take down when Teion cried in his arms was already rebuilt, which left the brunette guessing what was going on in the head of Purple. 

So they just finished their dinner in silence and as the silence was almost unbearable anymore, Aereth spoke up again. "Aaah... Can I use your bathroom for a moment?"

"What the actual f*ck?" he asked himself and smacked him into the face mentally. Did he really just ask to use her bathroom?

@Teion

Aereth simply shrugged at the comments Endilix gave out about him ruining his first impression about Aereth. Just as he was about to start rambling about how he shouldn't have stared at his cursor so much if he wanted to have a good first impression, he decided to let it slide.

"Look, I just don't appreciate it when people stare at my cursor and start assuming things. I'm sorry. I'll stop making bad jokes and you stop looking at me like I'm some psychopath if you don't even know me. Agreed?" Aereth said as he walked in and removed all of his armor as soon as the door shut behind him. His messy brunette hair fell into his face, and he simply moved it back with a swipe of his hand.

Then the redhead mentioned that he didn't know who Beatbox was, which made Aereth face-palm mentally. "Sh*t..." he thought, and apologetically looked at Teion. Maybe she wouldn't have wanted to talk about this topic, but now the damage was done. Aereth only grabbed a glass of water, and walked over to a nearby wall, leaning against it. It seemed like it was time for him to shut up, and just talk if he was asked something.

@Endilix

Aereth's eyes were closed. Pooh and Piglet had their backs turned to him and he was still thinking about all the mistakes he had made on this operation.

Number one: He went in alone. Solution: He needed a small but strong squad of players he could trust. They would have his back and he wouldn't run at the risk of getting blindsided anymore. 

Number two: Better and longer planning phase. Honestly his mission failed as soon as he decided to dive head first into it. He might have had a shot at succeeding, even if he was alone, he would still have had a better shot at it with more planning...

When he then opened his eyes again, the brunette noticed something in the shadows. Piglet and Pooh were chatting with each other and didn't notice it, but Aereth did. His eyes shined red for a split second, indicating he had activated his searching skill. Though he didn't have the Night Vision mod, he wasn't able to see exactly what it was, but it most definitely was a player. But why would someone hide in the shadows? Was somebody here to.... To save him? 

Suddenly the sounds of fighting started to emerge from the room next to him. There was something going on. Pooh and Piglet, those brainless idiots, shared one look, and the bulkier looking Pooh, left the room to see what was going on...

@Hidden

"Yeah, I saw that. And felt it." Aereth added with a smirk on his own as he thought back on the bitchslap he received as Teion invited him to that Halloween party. "But I still had a damn fine evening back then. Only tried to get myself killed one or two more times afterwards." Aereth said with a smile and prepared to dodge anything that was would get thrown at him. He really enjoyed the time on the party, even though he was the more quiet one of the group. They all seemed to be so close, but at the same time so far away from each other. "Jokes aside. I really enjoyed that night. Was great to see you in that costume."

"Will do, just wait and see." the brunette said and opened his inventory, and after a few long moments of searching he finally found what he was looking for. He chuckled, and suddenly two perfectly wrapped sandwiches materialized themselves in his hands. "Thankfully I'm a really fast cook so we can start right away. Those are some of the best sandwiches in Aincrad, so I hope you enjoy." Even back in the real world he couldn't cook for his life, only living from fast food, rice and noodles if his girl didn't make him anything, and he hadn't changed that attitude in Aincrad.

@Teion

Aereth flinched a little bit as she pushed the piece of furniture away. "Now, now. We don't want to mess up everything again now that everything is back in place, do we?" Aereth said with a weak smile on his face.

"I really have no idea what he as been up to. Unfortunately, otherwise I could have tried to help him.... But it must have been something really important and dangerous. Maybe he wanted to protect you, or somebody else. Otherwise he wouldn't have left you." Aereth said in an attempt to justify Beatbox' reasoning as to why he went into a battle he couldn't win. This would be the only reasoning HE would have left his love. To protect her.... "Do you know wh.... Never mind that." Aereth cut himself off. Did he rally just ask her who Beat's killer was? God damn it, how unsensible was he.

After that silence settled in between them. Aereth found himself unable to come up with anything that would cheer the woman up anymore. He was just looking at her with a sad expression. 

"You know what? I'm gonna make us something to eat. I'm not the best cook in Aincrad, but I think I can manage to produce something edible." Aereth said as he finally stopped looking at the purple haired woman, and placing an awkward smile on his face.

@Teion

"You know whats funny? Back in the real world I almost never drank anything alcoholic, hated the dizziness and clouded mind that came after drinking alcohol. But here in Aincrad I often wished I could just open my mouth, drink some sh*t and then forget." Aereth said in a bitter voice as Teion gave back the little silver bottle. Carefully Aereth closed the bottle and stored it back into the inside pocket of the coat he just took it from.

"While this is true, I can see that you are suffering more than many others." Aereth's hand started to move towards Teion's shoulder before he suddenly stopped mid air. "The hell am I doing?" he mentally asked himself, looking at his arm before dropping it again. Even though he had met many girls on his journey through Aincrad, he never gravitated so much towards one. It seemed like he just couldn't banish her from his thoughts... "I remember you saying that you couldn't save him... Nobody could have. He was stubborn and brave." 

"A dangerous combination..." he added mentally, thinking about the blonde front liner.

"But you have to forgive yourself. He wouldn't want to see you suffering like this. It was not your fault..." he was trying his best to comfort the purple haired girl. She needed to move on. Otherwise she would destroy herself... Otherwise she might end up like him...

@Teion

The door opened and finally Aereth was able to see this so called friend of hers. He used the first few moments just to look at him, but when he addressed the brunette, and Teion tried to explain, which she clearly had trouble with, Aereth spoke up. "Oh, why I'm here? For some trouble, the nice weather and maybe some killing, whatever you wanna call it." It was always the same. They always saw his cursor before anything else. Oh how he hated these distrustful glares from everybody. Last time in the inn, his weak emotional side got the better of him, but this time he was just annoyed. 

As a couple moments of silence settled in, Aereth sighed and continued. "That was a joke. I'm an old friend and ex-guildmate of Beatbox and I'm looking after Purple over there, so she doesn't do anything stupid or get herself into trouble." he said in an attempt to to explain himself. 

"Yeah, no worries. I'll be nice..." The brunette said with a smirk, not that anybody could see it through his helmet. "Oh, and you can call me Max, if you want." 

@Endilix

"Yeah, for a couple of days. After that I'll leave again. And I was worried." Aereth answered as Teion turned away from him. Her words still sounded empty and pained even though she tried hard to get back to her usual tone and her sharp tongue.

He then forced out a small chuckle as she told him how he was making some interesting friends all around Aincrad. "Really seems that way, hmm? But really, thank you."

His gaze then wandered around the shop once again, recalling the mess it was when he first entered, before letting it rest on the back of the purple haired blacksmith. "Don't worry about me getting bored. I've been staying in a god damn dungeon for more than four days in a row. So I think I'm pretty resistant again boredom." 

Slowly he pulled out a small silver bottle from a hidden pouch of his cloak. Inside of the bottle was a golden/brown liquid that Aereth only enjoyed after a really rough day. Whiskey. Of course it did nothing more than tasting similar to the alcoholic beverage from the real world, but he found at least some solace in the bitter taste and the burning sensation of drinking it. He opened it slowly and took a healthy sip of it, before finally pushing himself away from the wall he previously leaned on, and walked over to Teion.

He followed her gaze out of the window with his own before offering her the silver bottle. "You've had it... Rough, right?" The brunette asked in a more serious and sad voice than before.

@Teion

Mentally the brunette sighed in relief as Teion told him to go on with a slight smirk on her face. Fighting PvP matches to the death, spying on Player killers and trying to take down whole red guilds, no problem. Crying woman: biggest f*cking problem of his life. He just didn't know how to deal with them. Of course, he should try to help them and cheer them up again, but something about crying women made him uncomfortable beyond everything else. 

"Well, I don't know how much you know about me, but besides being the best active freaking tailor in whole Aincrad, I mostly do mercenary work and in my free time I'm hunting down Red Players. So as you can imagine, one day the biggest red guild payed me a visit." Aereth sighed and leaned with his back against the wall, also crossing his arms over his chest. "Threatened to kill everybody I was close to if I didn't play by their rules. Rule 1: No hunting of LC members. Rule 2: Killing a list of ex Laughing Coffin members, to tie up loose ends within three months." Aereth paused for a brief moment. Thanks to Teion's weakness he was able to tell his story without faltering. He couldn't. 

"Disobeyed them and ran away. Long story short, they were trying to threaten me with stationing players around my shop. So after that party one of my info brokers hit me up with a message telling me that there was an orange player waiting for me at my shop. So I had to go home and 'nicely' told him to get lost. They didn't like it, obviously and I had to run away again."

"And well... Here I am. They don't know my exact movements and they have no idea who you are, so I assumed it would be safe for some time to stay with you..."

@Teion

"Good. She isn't arguing." The brunette thought as Teion started to look for a fitting piece of armor. He was thankful that he wouldn't need to spend his energy on trying to convice her to let him come with her, and inwardly he was chuckling. "Payback's a bitch."

Catching the piece of heavy armor with ease, the brunette examined it for a little bit, before opening his menu and equipping it. It felt... "Heavy. But it will do." This was the first time Aereth was wearing heavy armor, and he could already feel how it took away a bunch from his freedom of movement. Dodging hits was much more complicated this way.

He sighed. "Yeah, it is. That thing saved my life more often than I can count. It's really a fine piece of armor." Aereth replied as Teion told him how it was a shame that he couldn't use it. As they were almost out of the shop, Aereth heard that they were going to Snowfrost. "Damn, they'll surely find me there..." Walking into the lions cave wasn't something very clever, considering that Laughing Coffin would surely have multiple scouts placed on his home floor. So Aereth quickly turned around and took a helmet that covered his whole face. "I'll take this as well. Just to be sure." The brunette said in a metallic voice through the helmet.

Aereth was walking some steps behind the purple haired woman as they made their way over to her old friend. As always the other players were throwing hateful glares at him as he sneaked past the guards of the safe zone in order to make it to the bar. But this time it didn't bother him. He was just here to make sure Teion wouldn't do anything stupid on her visit. He wouldn't allow it...

@Teion @Endilix

"Wanna start that talk about orange cursors again?" Aereth asked in a teasing manner. They have already talked about that matter before. Slapping other players so hard that they loos health points wasn't something anybody should do without thought. 

After spotting multiple of his friends and ex guild mates, Aereth finally found a quiet spot where he could just wait until the evening would have passed. 

Just as he was about to walk over and enjoy his peace, the purple haired woman told, or better demanded, to come with her so she didn't embarrass herself alone. "No thank yo--hugh..." He didn't even manage to finish his sentence as she started to pull him along with her. "What the.... Purple! I'm not your dog. I'm death. You don't just pull death with you." Aereth argued but had no chance to escape her grip. 

With a heavy sigh of defeat from Aereth, they reached the group of pirates. The brunette immediately noticed the tension in the air as Teion addressed her female friend, and decided to just stay in the background of the conversation for now.

@Teion

Thankfully Aereth somehow managed to calm his temporary landlord down again after her breakdown. Currently Aereth was reorganizing his inventory, as well as making a list of things ne needed to re stock. Basic supplies, like water and food ran low on his one week long flight, covered as a dungeon trip. Armor and rings were thrown on the bed he would need to make call his own for the next couple of days. He didn't know how long he would need to stay undercover for Laughing Coffin to loose interest in him, probably they never would, but for now he needed to stay low. 

Suddenly he heard Teion's voice announcing that she would leave the smithy. Immediately, Aereth left his room and he threw a dark green cloak over his shoulders. "Cool, where are we going?" he bluntly asked waiting for a response.

As nothing came after a few moments, he pulled down his hood and added. "If you thought I'd let you go out alone in your current state, dream on. Not happening, Purple."

"Oh, and do you by any chance have an old armor set I could use for now? You know... Running around in burning armor isn't quite as under the radar as I would like..."

@Teion

Unlike the last time when Aereth hugged her, she didn't freeze and push him away at the first opportunity. Her arms also moved up and her fingers gripped the brunette's shirt. At her comment to shut up, Aereth let out a light. "Heh..." and obeyed.

They were only standing. Teion was crying and Aereth was constantly moving his arm up and down in an attempt to try and calm her down and after some long minutes Teion's grip loosened. Gently Aereth also released her from his hug and gave her some space and noticed the faint blush on the face of the purple haired blacksmith.

"It's alright. There is no need to be sorry for anything. You were there for me when I needed somebody. And not it's time to pay back my debt. There's nothing to be ashamed of, Purple." Aereth answered.

He needed to distract her somehow. Like mentioned earlier, Aereth was terrible when it came to cheering up people. "Wanna know what I've been doing? And if yes do you wanna hear the good part only, or do you wanna hear the full story." Aereth asked with an awkward smirk.

@Teion

Aereth had received many orders in the last couple of days. It really seemed like either his new pricing model was pulling them all to his shop, or he, once again was the only active tailor in Aincrad. Why nobody wanted to be a tailor, he didn't know. And to be honest he didn't care either. He just wanted to get up in rank as fast as he possibly could in order to be able to craft the best equipment in whole Aincrad. And so he started to work again, attempting to produce the perfect equipment for his many customers...

Critical Fail[+1 EXP]: 1
Fail [+1 EXP]: 0
Salvage [+2 EXP]: 6
Uncommon [+3 EXP]: 1
Rare [+5 EXP]: 1
Perfect [+8 EXP]: 0

Losses: 7 Materials

Gains: 1+12+3+5+9(Bonus) = 30 EXP

Thankfully Teion stopped arguing with him about letting him help her cleaning up her shop. His look lingered for just some more seconds on the purple haired woman as she took a way the spear from his hands. And now where she was finally cooperating, the shop slowly started to look like a smithy again.

But after Aereth spoke up for the second time, Teion froze. She just stood there, asking him why to continue. What reason did she still have to wake up from this nightmare anymore. It was as if their roles from a little bit longer than a week ago were reversed. Teion had lost her will to continue, and it was Aereth's turn to save her.

And then Aereth froze. Every muscle in his virtual body tensed as he was faced with something he feared even more than the Laughing Coffin. A crying woman. His body moved on its own. Within the blink of an eye the brunette closed the distance between them. Did he unconsciously activate the Charge skill, he didn't know. And he honestly didn't care. He gently turned her around and wrapped his arms around her body. Did he do this for her, to comfort her? Did he do this because of his fear? Or did he do this for a completely different reason? He couldn't find an answer for himself.

"It's alright... Everything is going to be alright..." He whispered, while gently stroking her back with his right arm. Oh how bad the brunette was with cheering up crying woman. "And don't you think you're a bit of a hypocrite scolding me just some days back for saying more or less the exact same thing as you right now?" Aereth added with a small smile.

@Teion

"Isn't that obvious." Aereth answered as he picked up several items. "I'm helping." he said trying to figure out where all the stuff belonged, but quickly realized how this somehow impossible. He waited for a couple of moments until Teion would hopefully tell him where to put the items.

"So from what I see you haven't listened to the advice I tried to give you, right?" Aereth asked in a sad tone. He always was very straight forward, never beating around the bush for too long. And besides that, he really cared about the purple haired ball of hidden fury. And this was something he did with or without those feelings. She saved him back then, even though he could have walked away without bating an eye. Even though she was suffering from her own loss... She still tried to patch the broken pieces of his personality together. 

"Don't be like this. Your friends want to help you. I want to help you. And I'm sorry that I left the way I did back after that party, but as I said. It had to be done..."

@Teion

Rude Aereth needed a reminder that he shouldn't stare in other peoples houses. And he got one. As Teion tried to close the door a little bit in order to stop his staring, Aereths view moved down to the ground. "Thank you..." Aereth answered and entered the shop.

"Tell her this is a mistake, and leave." The small voice in the back of his head screamed as she reluctantly offered him the side room in the back. "She doesn't want anything from you, and it's not right to have such stupid feelings for the girlfriend of your dead friend." The voice grew louder and louder, until he almost couldn't bare it anymore, but then he finally saw the extent of Teions rampage. 

Practically her whole shop was devastated. And as if a switch was flipped inside of his head, the voice vanished. Suddenly there was nothing in his head, just he urge to help the girl. So he dismissed his cloak and wordlessly dropped to his knees helping Purple to clean up the mess.

@Teion

Yeah. The brunette somehow had fallen for Purple... But what now? It was highly unlikely that she would also feel that way. Besides that, who would want to be together with a revenge driven murderer with suicidal phases. He sighed.

"Hey. I just wanted to make sure you are ok..." he paused. "And now that I see that you're ok, I'm going to leave again..." his brain dictated.

"Sh*t kinda hit the fan, and now I need a safe place to stay for a couple of days..." he added.

"What the f*ck are you doing Aereth?" he thought as he looked at her. She looked tired, beaten and broken. "I-Is this my fault?" he thought as he slowly looked past her, activating his search skill to see more in the dim light. Her place was a mess. "I was worried about you..." Not a lie, but his mouth was talking on its own. 

@Teion

One week has passed since the Haloween party and Aereth's last encounter with Laughing Coffin. He was still on floor 16, grinding in the very same dungeon he had hidden himself in from the first day. But now he needed to move. Once again his info broker messaged him that LC was upping their presence on the 16th floor. 

So somebody had seen him when he restocked. "Seems like I need to change...." he thought to himself as he opened up his inventory and scrolled through the teleport crystals. His finger hovered over the fifth floor for some moments. Oh how he wanted to see how she was doing, if she was safe. "F*ck it..." he said and materialized the floor 5 teleport crystal. 

Moments later his virtual body materialized on the fifth floor and he pulled down his hood. It took him just a few minutes of silent walking until he reached the familiar shop. 

As he was about to knock on the door it slowly dawned him... He was always thinking about her. Always worrying... "Damn..." he thought to himself as he just stood in front of her door gently putting his hand on the wooden door and resting his head against it. But now wasn't the time to back down. So he simply raised his body again and knocked....

@Teion

On the fourth day after his flight, Aereth had to restock his supplies since he ran out of water and food and didn't want to deal with the constant feeling of hunger and thirst. So he sneaked past the guards and quickly needed to find some food and water.

He hadn't heard from any attacks on neither the Celestials nor on Domarus. Itzal and the Celestials were pretty much a frontline guild now. All paladins much stronger than Aereth himself, and even an unique skill. They would be fine. Even though Domarus wasn't as strong as the Celestials, his followers and his popularity would make it very hard the Laughing Coffin to harm him.

Just one purple haired female managed to worry him without end. With every day he grew more and more restless if Purple was ok. His brain told him that she would be ok, but every other bit of data in his body screamed to go to her and see if she was ok...

@Teion

The next morning was filled with Aereth typing messages to Itzal and Domarus. He needed to warn them, to tell them to be careful and attentive....

Quote

To: @Itzal
Subject: Warning!

It's been too long since we saw each other again, but unfortunately I need to tell you to take great care. Laughing Coffin is making their moves. They found me, threatened me into working for them, but I refused. Now they might come to harm you guys. I'm incredibly sorry for that, but I couldn't do it anymore. 

Keep the guild safe and tell all the others about it, I'm going to vanish for some time. 

Until next time, hopefully...
Aereth

Quote

To: @Domarus
Subject: Warning!

Trouble with Laughing Coffin. Got ambushed at my shop and now they are after me and probably everybody I'm having regular contact with. You, Keres and Hidden need to take care and pay close attention to everything around you. Trust nobody. 

I'll be staying under the radar for the next couple of weeks. Don't even try to find me, you wont...

Until next time, hopefully...
Aereth

 

Arriving at floor 16 the brunette searched for a dungeon and hid himself inside. "They can't know about Purple. I never revealed my identity on the party, and nobody knew where I was before that." Aereth reassured himself over and over again. He found himself thinking about her more often than not in time where he stayed in his hiding spot...

@Teion

That was it. Everything was said and Teion started to leave. Every word he said burned in Aereth's throat. While watching how she left his hand unconsciously opened his menu and suddenly a teleport crystal was in his hands. "Floor 4..." Aereth mumbled as he activated his crystal. "I'm sorry Purple..." he added as he faded away into shiny polygons.

The following days were rough for the brunette. He found the Laughing Coffin member that was waiting for him and the man told him that he shouldn't slack off anymore and finally finish the list they handed over to him. But Aereth had enough. A ferocious fight between them started where Aereth eventually came out on top, but sparing the piece of human trash in the end for delivering a message. He was done with them and he didn't care if they hunted him. The only thing he told the player was, that if they touched anyone he knew, he would come and pick them apart one by one. He then quickly too everything he needed from his shop and left for the 16th floor...

@Teion

Once again Aereth felt the already familiar pull on his arm. She still didn't want to let him go. But this time was different. This time he didn't want to go, he had to go...

With one swift movement he freed himself from the woman's grip and turned around to look her in the eyes. He already knew that she wouldn't like what he was about to say, but as much as it hurt him to say it, he had to... "Teion... I know what you are doing... But let me tell you something. You don't have to. You don't have to keep watching over me. You already saved me once, but now I have to keep fighting my war. I've run away for long enough now and I can't risk pulling you into it as well." She didn't deserve this. She still was suffering from her loss and here he was, saying all these cruel things to her. 

He frowned. "Forgive yourself, and let others help you. If you're lucky you never see me again." Aereth was dying on the inside with every word. He didn't want to hurt her, actually he really enjoyed the evening and their time together, but it was necessary. 

@Teion

The Halloween party was nearing its end, which meant that Teion and Aereth were on their way home. They left the mansion and were currently heading towards the main settlement, when Aereth received a message. 

Usually messages never meant anything good for Aereth, since he had only a handful of people in his contact list. One of those people was Itzal and the rest were his information brokers. They were his eyes and ears everywhere. "Infobroker..." he mentally sighed, as he looked at the sender.

Quote

To: Aereth
Subject: LC on the move

There's a LC member waiting outside of your shop. Too obvious for an assassination attempt, too hidden for just some small talk.

Take care.

Aereth froze. Why now? He looked over to Teion and pulled back his hood. "Thank you for everything you did for me. But I need to leave now. Alone. Some ghosts from the past..." Aereth said in a serious and final tone as he handed the borrowed scythe over to her.

@Teion

Carefully Aereth took hold of the weapon. He never saw anybody use a scythe in battleing all his time here in Aincrad. "I have a friend who uses the two handed battle axe skill as well." Aereth replied as he lifted the weapon and turned it in order to inspect it completely. Domarus. That red headed lunatic. Always thought he had everything under control. "Though he just uses a conventional battle axe."  he then added  as he returned the weapon to Teion. "I really need to see you fight with it at some point."

Unlike Teion, Aereth didn't bother to change his clothes. He usually slept in his armor when he wasn't at home. Funny. Due to his profession he had access to almost an endless amount of vanity clothes, ranging from casual jeans and shirts, to probably the finest suites in whole Aincrad... And here he was, always in his armor or shirtless. Why? Because one: he didn't really care much about what he was wearing, and two: he felt much safer when wearing his armor. 

He yawned. "I think I'll sleep for a couple of hours. So you can have the first watch." the brunette told Teion as she made her hair. He then stood up and sat down with his back resting against a destroyed ruin wall, while pulling his hood deep into his face. "I like your hair. The color and length look really good on you..." Aereth said before closing his eyes and starting his rest.

Thread rewards: 3 SP, 600 Col

@Teion