Calypso

Relief washed over her, and the dispersal of any residual tension caused her to let out a small chuckle. She accepted his offer of help, pulling herself up to plant her feet flat on the ground once again. The weird, inexplicable fluttering feeling in her chest died down, and when her hand fell back to her side she silently worked to dispel any remaining delusions of jealousy. 'Of course not, that's completely unrealistic.' She thought, grasping at whichever words sounded definitive enough to put the whole matter behind her.

"Let's." She affirmed at his suggestion, taking a quick look at their surroundings. After picking a direction, the two eventually made their way into a sparsely-populated forest that was much less troublesome to navigate than many another she had traversed in the past. There was plenty of space between the heavy bark of each tall tree, and the ground beneath them was not covered with as many loose leaves, debris, and gnarled roots as she would have expected. While there was generous space overhead for the sun's rays to peek through the lush, full branches towering above, the light still noticeably dimmed from the sunshine that had caused the lake's surface to sparkle and glisten.

At her shoulder, Danesh's mouth stretched open in a wide yawn, the tiny, razor-sharp canines that lined his jaw fully visible for a moment. He lifted his head again while beady onyx eyes blinked, and on her other side his long tail flicked gently against her arm to express his interest. "Go on then. She smiled, shrugging one shoulder to urge the familiar to his stout feet. He gave a light shake, clearly trying not to disturb his partner after a short stretch. He gave a small hop off of his perch, and his long body naturally snaked through the air between the two players. Callie kept herself alert enough, glancing over the terrain as they walked. Somehow, she began to feel something she couldn't quite place. Not unease, and not quite nostalgia. She paused for just a second when she thought she saw movement from the corner of her eye, but their pace was slow enough that her momentary falter was hardly noticeable. "Is it just me, or does this place manage to strike strangely between peaceful and creepy?"

Callie didn't know how to process his reaction for a moment. She cheeks grew rather warm, a faint scarlet color appearing on her skin after he asked if that of all things was the cause for her distress. The most truthful answer would have been something like, 'yes and no', but she had no bravado left to try and defend her thought process. Instead, Shield thankfully took the lead while she stared back with a kind of dumbfounded expression. She followed his physical guidance without fuss, her legs and feet tucking beneath the rest of her until she was sitting on her ankles. She remained quiet throughout his explanation, denouncing both his participation in the 'Best Couple' contest and his betrothal to the overly-enthusiastic Beat with a line of reasoning that made absolute sense. For a moment, she was left to wonder why such an explanation had never occurred to her as a possibility before Shield had to sit her down and spell it out for her.

By the end of his reassurance, she was lucky that her face already displayed a fair amount of embarrassment. It might have been the way he worded that last sentiment, but something about it left her positively flustered. If her cheeks weren't already tinted pink, they would have flushed from the simulation of blood flow. Her hand picked up from where it had settled atop the other in her lap, and Callie loosely wrapped her fingers around her mouth in a poor attempt to bury her feelings. She thought about forcing out a thought, tacking something on to confirm that everything he said was true. But a "Wait, really?" or an "I had no idea" would just make her feel more silly. At this point she was thankful that he had confirmed his and Beat's romantic relationship was just a farce without her having to bring it into question more directly. But that still didn't explain one last thing: why in the world was she so concerned with it in the first place? 'It couldn't be something like... No. Obviously not.'

As the color began to gradually drain from her face, Callie's eyes traveled back up to meet Shield's again. A short breeze picked up, tousling her long bangs and prompting her hand to move from her face to draw the locks of hair behind her ear. A couple of seconds passed, and it was right about then that she realized the rate of her virtual heart beating inside of her chest. She cleared her throat, and finally spoke up. "Right, well, sorry for the misunderstanding. Ohh man, I feel so stupid now." The last bit escaped her with a breathy exhale while she looked away, and the corner of her mouth turned up into a wry smile at her own foolishness. She hoped that this was the part where they laughed it off and things would just go back to normal.

The weird, mixed feeling of guilt came back, hitting her even harder this time. He was calling her out, her dancing around the topic that he bothered to bring up in such a straight-forward manner clearly rubbing him the wrong way. And he was right to be insulted, especially in the way that he worded his response. But at this point she wasn't sure what frustrated her the most--the fact that she still didn't really know how to confront whatever it was that bothered her, or that it had sparked the closest thing to an argument they had encountered thus far.

Regardless of the whole ordeal blowing up in their faces being more her fault than his in this moment, Callie would not sit idly while she was pushed into a corner. Picking herself up from their tranquil spot in the expansive meadows, her chest naturally puffed a bit as she stood to face Shield proper. The nearly half-foot difference in their height still left her far from intimidating, but she no longer felt quite so small and vulnerable under his gaze. She frowned as he brought their friendship into question, something that she should have caught herself thinking about more often lately. A flare of temper caused a lapse in judgement, and she defensively blurted out the first thing that came to mind at his challenge. "And I thought friends would be invited to each other's weddings!"

She didn't exactly regret the accusation, as it was at least one source of hurt and confusion between them. But she knew her delivery was childish, and reacting like that wasn't going to do much more than drag the problems through the dirt. Callie paused, the recognition clear on her face before her shoulders and gaze fell slightly with the release of a small sigh. "Sorry, that..." The apology came out halfway before she stopped and cleared her throat. "Alright, yes, something is bothering me." She admitted, looking up at Shield again. "But hopefully you can understand if I say the subject wasn't exactly easy to bring up." She was still speaking defensively, but far less hostile. It might have been a little cheap to hide behind the lack of a wedding invitation as the sole cause of her discomfort towards him, but it wasn't untrue as something that bothered her, and if she was lucky it would give her the opportunity to chip away at the status of the relationship in question.

Callie felt a pang of something she couldn't quite label at Shield's mention of how she had been acting. Mostly guilt, as the feeling was nostalgic of a child who'd been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. She must have put more effort into avoiding the man entirely than disguising her unease during their few interactions since Valentine's. She had a few options in how to respond, but most were easily identifiable as unwise at best. He knew something was bothering her, so there was no point in denying or playing it off, and after how much they had seen of each other up to this point it would just be rude to shut him out entirely. It would have been easy to claim that whatever was bothering her was personal, or she'd rather not talk about it, but those deflections were only half-true.

Her lips pressed together slightly as she fought the next battle of finding where to begin. The thought of broaching a topic that couldn't be classified as small talk, and digging past the surface of either of their lives, was beyond weird. Not necessarily bad, but she was suddenly concerned with his reactions, his thoughts, and his feelings that she did not suspect would be easy to gauge. But, maybe the subject matter would allow her more tells than he might otherwise give. "Ahh, really?" She started, still feigning a shred of ignorance while her far hand pulled away from her lap to slide over the back of her neck. "I guess I haven't gotten out much since that masquerade ball." That was a lie. She had been out and about plenty since then, though her escapades of questing and grinding levels had naturally taken a backseat to peaceful exploration while her adventuring partner had been kept at arm's reach. Still, it was a lie that got them on the topic of the first event that she could pinpoint as a source of her distress. "You and...Beat, was it?" Of course she knew his username. "Did you have a good time? I hadn't been to an event like that before, so it was a little intimidating."

It didn't seem to be out of the ordinary for Lilith to do what she wanted, especially when it came to inviting herself over for a play date. It was always rather heartwarming to see how readily the little viper always climbed onto Danesh's back, but the feeling of her scaled body coiling around her arm was a terribly unfamiliar one. Callie tensed up until she realized the source of the odd sensation, her head turning just in time to see Shield offer her a hand to take the familiar back if she wished. She couldn't help a small smile when Lilith reached her goal, slinking and settling on top of her companion. Callie's golden eyes moving to the side, she could spot her thin tongue flicking at the air past the grey hairs of the small dragon's mane.

"Ah, she's fine." Callie responded with a breathy chuckle, the direction of her words shifting more towards the viper herself. "Sorry to keep you two apart, then." Her lips pursed into a wry smile. Their friendship was rather cute, but the fact that the programmed pets even had the capability to do more than brainlessly follow their owners and play their respective roles in combat still managed to surprise her.

"Hm, not bad." Callie turned her head back forward, eyes easily settling on the large lake in the distance that seemed to sparkle with the sun's rays that bounced off of its surface. In the short seconds that followed and left her answer falling flat, questions began to surface in her head. Perhaps she was being too impatient, but there hadn't yet been mention of a quest, a treasure hunt, or any other sort of objective for this meeting of theirs. This was different, just exchanging pleasantries in peaceful nature, and she couldn't decide if that was good or bad. "I think this is the nicest floor I've seen so far, by most people's standards." She threw out, looking out over the woods on the other side of the lake, the patches of color where wildflowers grew several feet from where they sat, and the cozy-looking buildings of Coral that she had passed by after arriving in the main settlement. "Is it always like this, or did you just catch it at a good time?" The corner of her mouth picked up, and she silently wondered if the awkward feeling in the air felt as thick for Shield as she nudged the conversation along.

"Really? No torches, nothing?" Callie spoke to herself with a hint of irritation. They had wandered just far enough into the cave tunnel that her eyes were beginning to strain against the darkness. With a flick of her wrist through the air in front of her, she summoned her menus and poked at a string of options. She was rummaging around in her inventory, tracing her hovering finger through the air until she found what she was looking for. She selected an item that appeared in her hand, and once the crystal was nestled into her palm the Glow Stone came to life. She held her arm out to illuminate the path in front of them, the light bouncing off of Spencer's back and shoulder as he walked a couple of paces ahead of her to the side.

Kicking her feet as they dangled in the open air below her, Callie sat atop one of the cliffsides that lined the edge of the plains on the seventh floor. She found herself in the mountainous area more than anywhere else as of late, often using the excuse that the level of Aincrad was Danesh's favorite, and therefore she was there for him more than herself. Whether or not that was completely true, she hadn't given much thought to. She had been up on her perch long enough for the anxiety she had felt around the tall ledge to fade away, and she instead focused on the impressive view that stood before her. "Still not used to how thin the air gets, but it's still pretty nice. Right?" One would think she was talking to herself before her eyes dropped to the familiar that was curled up on her lap. She smiled softly, when the small creature flicked its long tail similar to a cat's in a lazy response.

Her tranquility was interrupted by the chiming sound that rang in her ears, alerting her of a new message. "Hm?" She mumbled, wondering about its contents while her hand worked to reveal the mystery. Callie frowned. Not because of any bad news, and not because she was not fond of the message's sender, but rather because she noticed something in Shield's invitation. His open-ended phrasing was typical, but it seemed even moreso this time. His messages would usually indicate that she had no obligation to attend, but this time it was almost as if he expected her not to. Or, at least, he truly didn't expect her to show up. In a moment of reflection, she could hardly blame him. Things had been awkward between them, to say the least. "Ever since..." She had to stop and think about it. Ever since she saw him acting terribly strangely at that masquerade ball. Since that day, she'd indirectly prodded into his life for reasons she couldn't produce an answer to. Going so far as to show up to a wedding she wasn't invited to, only to leave before the ceremony's completion. Was she mad at Shield? No, not if she was the one giving that answer. But she was unmistakably irritated, or maybe just frustrated, with something.

Callie sighed. It wasn't fair to avoid him, and that's not what she wanted to do anyway. Scooping Danesh up from her lap and guiding the sleepy familiar onto her shoulders, she swung her legs back atop the cliffside to pick herself up. Opting to follow the coordinates offered to her without the forewarning of a return message, she carried herself back to Nimbus. From there, to the city of Coral, to the grassy meadows sprinkled with trees, flowers, and other greenery on the iconically peaceful floor. She swallowed and lightly cleared her throat when she spotted Shield's profile relaxing out in the open, more to prepare herself for speech than any kind of attempt to draw his attention. That came when she walked herself over, folding her legs to take a seat beside him and look out over the top of a sparkling lake far off in the distance. "Hey again," She started, the greeting flimsy without any planned follow-up. "Taking the day off, or something?"

Callie watched as the man told them his story, and her brows knit together in a mixture of sadness and concern. It took her a few long moments to remember that the man, his late wife, and his emotions were all programmed. Scripted, and likely fabricated. Perhaps he and his story were based on someone who actually lived, a person who took a vow of silence for their loved one. She frowned, wondering briefly what it might be like to feel that way. To care for someone so deeply that you would forfeit something as precious as a voice simply to honor their death. She hadn't given up hers by choice, and so for someone to do so stirred up a strong sense of confusion, almost resentment towards the computer-generated man. Her lips pursed, and she drew in a short breath through her nose. Regardless of her mixed feelings, his story was a pitiable one.

Her right hand closed, and she held it close to her chest for a moment. "I'm sorry for your loss." The man gave her a small nod in thanks, and she nodded back as there was clearly little else to speak about. Despite the interaction, she couldn't help but feel disappointed. It was lackluster compared to her hopes and expectations of some grandiose secrets. Slipping her hands into her pockets, the woman's attention was retrieved when Spencer gave her a wave to call her over to the entrance of a cave. Callie cocked a brow, walking over to peer inside. The mouth of the cave was nestled into the side of the mountain, with the light of the sun bathing the rocks and stretching a generous distance inside before the darkness was all that was left behind it. "Hmm..." She mused aloud, wearing a thoughtful frown. "Wonder if there's anything worthwhile in there. It's pretty out in the open." She remarked, glancing over at Spencer. Her expression shifted to a small, crooked smile when she noticed the light in his eyes. She could tell he was excited, whether it was from their shared language, or the prospects of adventure. A single chuckle escaped her. "You want to check it out?"

Callie blinked, struggling to process. As she feared, the sailor had latched onto her presence once it was announced, and before she even had time to breathe her sense of personal space had been ripped from her for longer than she would have liked. She struggled just slightly against his unwelcome hold, but just as he took her aback by lifting her up off the dock just a short while ago, the NPC held her in place with a startling strength, squeezing her arms against her sides.

Everything else happened just as fast, which was much too fast. She felt something being more shoved than placed in her palm, her balance taken from her yet again as they were shoved out the door, and finally the slamming sound that followed caused her to wince. Sitting on the ground outside of the fisherman's cabin aside Shield, Callie brought her hand up in front of her and stared at the item she'd been given for a few long seconds. All things considered, it was a beautiful item--the single, shimmering fish scale serving as a token to remember their 'adventure' by, if nothing else. In the silence that hung, she moved to store the pendant away in her inventory before Shield's voice filled the air. She looked over to meet his gaze, responding slowly at first with the sense of bewilderment that stuck to her, and relaxing slightly as the idea of a change in scenery and unwinding sounded more and more appealing.

"Yeah... Yeah, that sounds alright."

Thread Complete!

• Calypso: +6 SP, +4,100 col, +<<Gleaming Fish Scale>> [T2 Trinket] [+1 LD, +2 Prosperity]
• Shield: +6 SP, +4,100 col

"I only took a year of Spanish in high school because I was forced to." Callie signed back, a chuckle escaping her lips at the end. American Sign Language wasn't something she expected to be anyone's first choice when it came to learning another language, but she could feel her heart swell with a touch of joy, both at Spencer's decision and at the ease at which she could converse with him, both silently and not. "But that's amazing." She commented, continuing to speak with her hands if only for the nostalgia of how long it'd been since she'd used them to communicate with another person. "I was starting to think I wouldn't have a reason to sign anymore."

With their short trek up the mountain pass, they approached the temple without any difficulty and found themselves promptly greeted by the silent keeper as he looked to them in awe. Callie's face lit up all over again when the man did, in fact, interact with them. The question of whether or not they were the first players to discover something like this burned brightly in her mind, but she tried to control all of the questions that were flooding her and simply air one at a time. With both of the players now bundles of excited energy with their new discoveries, she nodded in response to the silent man. Her hands moved again, the side of her index finger tapping against her chin, then later moving to her right ear as she posed a question in return. "Can you not speak? Or hear?"

The rest of the way to the base of the mountain was a clear shot, free of any more wandering monsters, and so Callie took her eyes off the path in front of them to look back to Spencer as he caught up to walk beside her. The short explanation he offered was obvious, but the surprise on Callie's face would have made it seem like the fact came out of nowhere. Perhaps it wasn't really all that rare for someone to know sign language, but the fact that nobody living here would have needed it made it feel like it had died out after two years. Though she hadn't noticed it, Callie's own mannerisms had changed now that she no longer relied on her hands to communicate with others. She still subconsciously used body language more than most, but it wasn't as terribly prevalent as it used to be when she was first adjusting to having her voice back in Aincrad.

"Oh, really?" Her smile nearly turned into a smirk, and though she hadn't meant it her tone slipped into some sort of challenge rather than curiosity or a polite filler word of confirmation. Her torso turned just slightly as she walked, her shoulders a bit more square in Spencer's direction to face him just a little better as her hands raised from her sides. "Me too! How long ago did you start learning?" She used them to speak for her. The feeling was nostalgic and familiar all at the same time, but her movements were without hesitation. Meanwhile, as his companion would surely be engrossed in her conversation, Danesh's head lowered to rest on her right shoulder, his eyes closing while he enjoyed the ride the rest of the way to the temple.

Callie let out a huff of frustrated air as she finally gave up on catching Danesh's ferret like body while he had half-crawled, half-floated around her body to avoid her. "No, he hates being handled." She confirmed with a frown, casting the creature a disapproving sideways glance as he settled back across her shoulders again. "But he does like to be a brat on occasion." Danesh simply stared back at her a moment, his beady onyx eyes carrying as little emotion as his small face showed expression. She hardly noticed the little penguin waddling around her feet until Spencer plucked him from the ground and held him in his arms. "Aww!" She fawned a moment, setting her sights on the infantile creature cuddling up to his owner. It did well to distract her from her mild irritation, and she turned her chin back towards her right shoulder, where the ermine sky dragon turned to look at the other pair of player and familiar. "And this is Danesh. He's from this floor, so I've been spending more time out here since he likes it so much." She wore a crooked smile that persisted when he inquired about her destination.

Her gaze shifted to the tallest mountains standing ahead of them, where she could see snippets of the temple structures peeking out where it must sit nestled along the steep paths towards the top. She only hoped that those paths were clear and straight-forward enough that she wouldn't be getting lost during the hike. She nodded, enthusiasm in her voice as she explained herself. "Right, I was hoping to find some kind of Easter egg or something. I don't see why they would put an NPC that doesn't speak somewhere like that if there wasn't some kind of option to interact with it." Her reasoning was more of blind optimism, but she was content to stick with it. "Otherwise, the place sounds boring, so my fingers are crossed to get him to show me something interesting." Spencer's last statement was vague, but held enough descriptive weight to pique her curiosity. "Hmm? What do you mean, though?" Her head tilted to one side before it swiveled to the left, checking the position of the monsters she was earlier working to avoid. Callie carried herself forward again, turning back to make sure Spencer would follow suit alongside her.

"I'm not carrying you, so you better hurry up before I leave you behind." Callie warned in half a joke, sparing another glance over her shoulder to see how far behind her familiar lagged as he snaked through the air. "C'mon, I waited on that hill of yours for an hour, so you can at least pretend to be interested in what I want to do for once." She nagged at her companion. She found herself on the seventh floor regularly as of late. Despite all the flak she gave him for his lazy behavior and flippant attitude, she still had a soft spot for Danesh, and admittedly the tall hills, open fields, and tall mountains of the seventh floor had started to grow on her.

There was still a short walk to the base of the mountain she was aiming for, but as she was working to veer her path away from a couple of incredibly tall lizard-like monsters with long necks similar to a giraffe's, a glimpse of motion in the other direction caught her eye. She looked over, ahead of her and to the right, to see someone waving at her as they approached. She cocked a seafoam brow, surprised to see anyone else on their own so far from Nimbus. She stopped, and as the stranger closed the rest of the distance between them and came into earshot to introduce--or reintroduce--himself, she was left to wrack her brain for a couple of moments searching for the reason why the name he was giving her was familiar, and why she couldn't match it to his face.

"Oh! Spencer?" Her wallflower acquaintance from the Valentine's Masquerade Ball. She perked up now, taking another look at the man. He looked like a totally different person from her recollection--his hairstyle more messy and casual, the tailored suit he had worn replaced with gear more appropriate for adventuring and taking a hit from wild monsters, and of course the half-mask absent from his face. "Wow, I barely recognized you. It's been a while, yeah." She admitted with a small chuckle. In the time that she'd stopped, Danesh had finally managed to catch up and immediately moved to her left shoulder, hurriedly climbing and slinking his way between the back of her neck and the veil of colored hair that fell behind her to plant himself atop her shoulders. "Hey!" She called as the feeling got her attention, and she reached up to try and retrieve the familiar. Danesh was quick to snake around her, the lazy creature moving more quickly than she had ever recalled in order to avoid her grasp.

Though she would have preferred never to see the salty old man's face for the rest of her life in Aincrad, this last visit was both unavoidable and gave her somewhere to direct their attention that was away from how soaked and disgusting they had both ended up. As they approached the quiet cabin, and without meaning to, Callie kept herself behind and to Shield's right, gladly letting him take the lead when it came to initiating conversation with the crazed NPC. She could only wonder about what kind of reaction they might get for a second or two. Would he gasp and holler about how they were ghosts of the sea, spirits come back to haunt him as they had surely died out on the lake? Or maybe after retreating to the cabin he'd have some sort of minor reset, and go back to his general unsettling behavior while they got through whatever painful and smelly dialogue he offered them to finish the quest.

The latter scenario ended up being the most accurate, and Callie gave a short start when Shield was sucked into the old shack's interior, her left hand moving to hold the door while she watched the fisherman's loud and messy display of gratitude. Her free hand picked up to hide her mouth, which was trying not to twist in too obvious an amused smile while she could see just how well Shield took to the NPC's affectionate thanks. She had to hold in a chuckle, giving her own throat a quick clear. She took half a step to the side, practically hiding half of herself behind the door that stood ajar in fear that she'd be attracting too much unwanted attention to herself by speaking up. "Ahh, right, so... Now that it's dead, we'll be on our way?" She eyed the fisherman carefully as he transferred the last of his salty tears from his cheeks to Shield's still-damp clothing.

It was a long and embarrassing swim, with Callie unable to do much more than kick through the dull waters while Shield helped them move in the right direction towards the shore. When the pair were finally back on land and she had full access to all of her limbs again, Callie sighed. "Thanks." She offered in a small voice for his help, pulling her drenched hair over her shoulder and leaning to one side as she went to squeeze the excess moisture from it. Moving to try and do the same with whatever pieces of her clothing had enough fabric that she could wring them out--which was hardly anything--she perked up from her task when Shield offered her a bit of cloth. "Oh, thank you," She repeated. Her free hand pushed the hair that clung to her face up and to the side, slicking it back while it was still coated with dirty lake water. She used the dry cloth to wipe the grimy moisture from her cheeks, nose, and forehead. When her eyes opened again and landed on Shield's face, she caught it. The slight and sudden contortion of his facial features before his head swiveled to one side.

She was finally catching on to how amused Shield was by the situation. She felt embarrassed, and outside of her comfort zone, and she didn't know how to react. Her now-dry cheeks flushed a bit without her permission and she followed suit in looking away from the man across from her. "Ehm, well. Shall we go pay that fisherman one last visit to finally finish this quest?" She forced the words out in her flustered state.

"Honestly, if you don't stop screeching I'll sit on you agai--" Before Callie could complete her threat with a roll of her eyes, she was silenced by the sudden feeling of the fisherman's hands grasping firmly at either of her arms. With no time to protest, react, or even brace herself, Callie hit the water with a messy splash. The sudden weight pushed the lifebuoy no more than a foot and a half underwater before it bobbed back up to the surface. The woman now stuck inside of it had managed to rotate and orient herself with a couple of kicks before it did, allowing her to breath again as she now floated in the open water nearby Shield. Her bangs, normally pushed to the side, now clung to her skin from her cheek to her nose in a few wet tendrils, threatening to obscure half of her vision as she glared back up at the fisherman still panicking atop the dock. "Call th' lifeboats! Call th' Coast Guard! Call th' Navy Seals!" He rambled on to no one in particular at this point, continuing to escalate the severity of the situation as Shield and Calypso were clearly drowning before his eyes.

"Hey! Wait!" Callie called as she watched the NPC turn his back to them and scuttle away again. Her head dropped an inch or so in defeat as her expression soured. If they were lucky, they were left to their own devices while the fisherman was simply scurrying off to retreat to his cabin. She could only hope.

With a small sigh, Callie worked to turn herself around with a small twist of her torso and another kick of her feet beneath the water. She had been wedged firmly enough against the sides of the buoy that now tightly hugged her arms that she knew she wasn't going to be able to free herself while she was still in the water. Facing herself towards the middle of the lake, she gave a couple of lazy kicks to carry herself closer to one of the dock's support beams as well as closer to Shield. "Look, I know I said swimming would be cool and all..." She recalled pieces of their earlier conversation in a dissatisfied mumble. Picking her voice back up to a regular volume, "If something starts gnawing on my leg, I will freak out." She warned, the thought having already begun to unsettle her as her eyes remained on the cloudy lake water.

Callie had to lean a bit, or at least crane her neck, away from the sailor's limbs as they wriggled and waved through the air. Eventually, she managed to grasp hold of the cuff of his slippery yellow sleeve in both hands in order to hold his wrist closest to her in place against the dock. And though he continued to struggle and squirm and spout, she was glad to have finally subdued the crazed quest-giver. Her methods wouldn't prove useful for as long as she would have liked, however, for when she looked back up to the end of the pier as the shattering light caught her attention, the fact that something besides the Lurker was missing from the impromptu battlefield caused her a sudden surge of concern. The dock was empty now, save for herself and the blundering NPC beneath her, and it wasn't until her eyes darted up to the corner of her vision and landed on the familiar name of Shield sitting beside a full health bar that her sense of panic became fleeting.

She picked herself up, subsequently freeing the NPC, and hurried to the edge of the dock. Dropping to a knee, she peered out over the edge to look over the murky waters and sure enough found Shield's avatar among them. A breath of relief slipped through her lips. They finally finished the quest, and everyone was all right. For the most part. "You alright?" She called.

The fisherman must have taken a few seconds to register that he was no longer restrained, as he didn't come clambering to the end of the pier quite as quickly. But he did indeed hobble over to them just as soon as he had. His fingers curled over the side of the wood as he threw himself close to the floor, setting his sights on Shield before drawing in a deep breath of air. "Man overboard!!" He bellowed, his voice carrying out over the otherwise still waters. He turned to Calypso, and she winced at the volume in which he barked orders that she couldn't understand directly beside her. They were given only a moment's peace as he scrambled away, disappearing from view while the sound of his rain boots pounding against the dock grew fainter the farther he ran. A short silence hang, and then without warning a red-and-white blur whizzed through the air where he had been standing. A lifebuoy landed in the water with a flat splash several feet away from the man, without so much as a rope attached to guide it.

Callie had to put her full weight into lurching to reel the fisherman back to the center of the dock. "Me gun! How dare 'ya strip a sailor o' his arms! Ye' ain't gettin' these ones next, lass!" He continued to shout and cry more nonsense, propelling his arms in circles at his sides as he struggled against Callie's hold. "Ohh, pipe down!" She snapped back, clearly losing her patience with the unruly man. His flailing caused her to lose her balance, but not her grip, and the two slipped on the surface of the dock to crash beside one another.

"Urgh... Yeah!" She called back after a short groan, registering Shield's concern. She looked on at the proper battle, with the man still struggling against the Lurker's jaws while the seaman beside her seemed to be momentarily incapacitated. His cheek and knees pressed up against the damp wood, with his torso raised and his rear in the air. Callie had shifted to sit herself up, one hand still extended and grasping firmly onto the back of the raincoat's bright yellow collar while he mumbled a string of something she couldn't--and didn't care to--make out against the worn wooden planks. "I didn't expect this guy to be part of the fight." She remarked, sighing at the fact that her target had switched from the Lurker to the fisherman.

It didn't take long for the NPC in quest to come to, his grumblings growing louder, but no more coherent. Callie's lips pursed at the movement beneath her grip as he tried to push himself up, and she quickly worked to lean her weight to keep him in place. Registering the resistance, and quickly deciding that it was an enemy to him, he continued on with even more rambling. "Th' beast! It's got me! All hands, man overboard!" He spat, and his legs began stretching out and flailing behind him. Callie scowled, giving one more glance towards Shield and the Lurker. The sight was still an unsettling one, but numbers alone showed that her party member was incredibly close to victory. Besides the initial dent in his health bar, their opponent had proved more of a nuisance and the battle was more one of attrition than a threat to their lives. And so, trusting that it wouldn't be long before either Shield's sword or his armor whittled the last of the Lurker's health down to zero, Callie shoved her palm against the man in her custody between his shoulderblades and picked herself up to her knee. She twisted her body, and promptly sat herself down on the fisherman's back to effectively pin him against the dock. The toes of his boots beat and his palms slapped against the wood in protest, but he either didn't seem able or didn't know how to free himself from his position. "Save yerselves, lads! It's all over! We're headed to a watery grave, at last!" He still managed to bellow and shriek beneath her weight. Callie, meanwhile, gave a huff of exasperation as she extended her legs out in front of her, crossing one over the other at the ankle.

ID#: 102335 | BD: 2(+2)=4 - Miss!

[H:7] Shield - HP: 1249/1330 | EP: 124/124 | Dmg: 2 | Acc: 0 | Eva: -1 | Mit: 169 | BH: 66 | THN: 87 | REC: 6 | LD: 7
[H:1] Calypso - HP: 200/200 | EP: 13/20 | DMG: 9 | MIT: 9 | ACC: 1

<The Lurker> HP: 150/500 | MIT: 150 | ACC: 2 | EVA: -1 | DMG: 250 [9: 300,  10: 350]

"Come on, Dani!" Callie urged as she hurried along at a brisk pace. Her long hair swayed behind her with each quick step, and it hugged her back when she spun around to turn herself back towards the familiar that followed after her. She walked backwards for several paces, meeting Danesh's solid beady onyx eyes as he snaked through the air a generous distance behind her. "Who knows what we'll find there? Wouldn't it be amazing if there was some kind of hidden Easter egg for us to find?" In response, Danesh simply gave a quick shake akin to a dog, his grey mane whipping back and forth from the back of his neck to the end of his tail. Callie frowned, almost wearing a pout at his lack of enthusiasm. "Fine, be that way." She retorted dismissively.

The at-odds pair were making their way across the plains, with Callie only veering off-course in order to avoid the drawing zone of any free-wandering monsters that populated the area. In the back of her mind, she wondered for a moment if she might be able to handle these level of creatures by now, but her excitement to reach their destination drowned out any desire to fight or prove herself. After hearing a rumor about a temple atop one of the tallest mountain peaks, the information trail was pretty easy to follow around Nimbus. The temple didn't sound all that impressive or compelling--no word of items or experience to be gained for finding it. In fact, it almost sounded like it served little purpose other than decoration, or perhaps a resting spot for players traveling through the mountains while they fought against monsters or worked on other quest objectives. But what had really drawn her interest was the off-handed mention of a mute that resided in the temple. "I wonder if anyone has ever tried signing with him before. How cool would it be if the game actually had little hidden dialogues like that, huh, Dani?" She called over her shoulder as she walked along.

Once again finding humor in the daft NPC's outbursts, Callie pulled her hand away from her sword and pressed the backs of her knuckles against her mouth to suppress more laughter. After a bit of musing aloud, Shield seemed to realize the weight of the fisherman's life when it came to their task at hand. Whether NPCs respawned on their own in the event that they died, Callie didn't know. And after the lengthy quest and all the trouble the old seafarer had given them thus far, she didn't have any interest to test the theory and find out. Watching as Shield took the initiative to remove the fisherman from the Lurker's back, she cocked a brow and smiled again at their banter while she momentarily resigned herself to the role of spectator. 

Her eyes widened and the whimsy was quick to drain from the situation as she was reminded that the fight they were a part of was very much real combat with a sea monster that very much wanted to kill them. While Shield struggled against the Lurker's maw, she too caught sight of its dwindling health bar. His instruction reached her ears and Callie looked over just as the old salt had started to regain his bearings. With the harpoon he had been clenching suddenly missing, his bare hands slapped against the docks surface similar to an exaggerated character searching frantically for their glasses. "T' arms!" He shouted, scrambling around as if he couldn't decide whether he needed to retrieve his ineffective weapon or get to his feet first. He and Callie seemed to find the item at the same time, and the woman broke out into a run in order to beat him there. She carried her sword, dropping its sharpened edge to the side after she had passed the old man. The wood of the dock let out a solid 'thunk' as the tip of her claymore wedged itself in, and she shoved the weapon with enough force that it stayed put after she let it go. The steel created a small barrier that caused the fisherman to halt, and when Callie hurried to scoop up the harpoon herself he was already back to screaming of mutiny.

Callie's lips pursed, and for a second she stood unsure of what to do. The old fisherman, still ranting and raving about how she should be thrown in the brig, then thrown overboard for her betrayal, then moved forward to wrap his fingers around the hilt of her sword. He yanked and pulled, as if he were working to free Excalibur itself. Meanwhile, Callie's head whipped side to side as she tried to think of a solution. Desperate, and with no other ideas coming to mind, she pulled the harpoon that she held in both hands back, letting out a small grunt of effort as she threw the item off the side of the deck where it fell into the water with a flat splash.

"Aaiiieee! Th' broad's lost her marbles!" The man squawked as he witnessed her dispose of his prized possession. He abandoned the sword that stood in his way, and Callie only just barely managed to lunge forward to grab at the collar of his raincoat before he had thrown himself off the edge after his harpoon.

ID#: 102332 | BD: 2(+2)=4 - Miss!

[H:7] Shield - HP: 1249/1330 | EP: 124/124 | Dmg: 2 | Acc: 0 | Eva: -1 | Mit: 169 | BH: 66 | THN: 87 | REC: 6 | LD: 7
[H:1] Calypso - HP: 200/200 | EP: 13/20 | DMG: 9 | MIT: 9 | ACC: 1

<The Lurker> HP: 150/500 | MIT: 150 | ACC: 2 | EVA: -1 | DMG: 250 [9: 300,  10: 350]

Taking his encouragement with a silent nod, Callie rolled her right shoulder to bring her claymore back into position. First squared in front of her, then falling to her right, she moved in for another horizontal slash. By her logic, it was the best approach to actually hit the monstrosity without running the risk of terribly displacing herself on a failure. The last thing she needed was to get herself caught too close to the beast, or colliding with the support beams of the dock. The worst case scenario she could imagine had her losing her balance right into the murky waters off the edge of the limited space of their battlefield. She grimaced at the thought.

One such figure who didn't seem any worried about proximity to the Lurker caused Callie to hold fast for a moment. She blinked, and although she really shouldn't have been, she was taken aback by the fisherman's gusto. She spotted Shield's gesture, burying his face into his hand, and resisted the urge to do the same. Instead, a light chuckle bubbled up and escaped her, "It's getting harder to take this seriously the longer he sticks around." She commented with a crooked smile, failing to contain another chortle as she watched the NPC flail his decorative weapon against the monster's face. "Do you think we fail the quest if he gets himself hurt?" She asked, and although the thought was sparked on a whim, she mulled it over more seriously once the words left her.

The back end of his harpoon smacked into the edge of one of the Lurker's glossy eyes, causing the monster to lurch slightly as it gave half an attempt to rid itself of the annoyance riding on its back. Callie took the moment of opportunity to dash forward, needing only to take three short strides before the swing of her steel would reach her target. She brought the blade across, her sword digging into the fish's cheek to decorate it with a thin red gash.

ID#: 102258  | BD: 6(+2)=8 - Hit!
(9 base) x (5 sword art) = (45 DMG) - (150 MIT) = 1 minimum DMG

[H:7] Shield - HP: 1314/1330 | EP: 119/124 | Dmg: 2 | Acc: 0 | Eva: -1 | Mit: 169 | BH: 66 | THN: 87 | REC: 6 | LD: 7
[H:1] Calypso - HP: 200/200 | EP: 14/20 | DMG: 9 | MIT: 9 | ACC: 1

<The Lurker> HP: 237/500 | MIT: 150 | ACC: 2 | EVA: -1 | DMG: 250 [9: 300,  10: 350]

"Oh, honestly!" Callie griped back at the NPC's ridiculous behavior between her struggle to keep his interference to a minimum. She could see his half-glossed eyes widened and come back to life as his delirium faded--or perhaps grew even stronger--and his sights settled back on the prize of a beast in front of them again. Callie grunted through a clenched jaw as she reeled her arm back, dragging the old shack-dweller back another couple of paces in an attempt to position him farther back than herself. "We'll get your fish just like we promised, now please just stay put!" She believed her reasoning was in vain the moment the words left her mouth, assuming they would fall on deaf ears before the fisherman would surely beginning running about as soon as she released him.

Whether that would prove true or not, Callie's attention shifted back to the battle ahead of them at the sound of a splash. The sea monster had finally released Shield, but she could see it was swinging around in order to launch another attack from the water. Just a second later when her own name reached her ears, she sprung into action. "Got it!" She called from behind, breaking out into a run as she returned both of her hands to the hilt of her heavy claymore. She dropped the steel to her right side, dragging it through the air alongside her. Golden eyes followed the ripples in the water that trailed from the tattered fins that poked out from it while she crossed the length of the dock, and she managed to reach her destination just in time as the Lurker burst from the surface once again. It's maw hung open, ready to come down on Shield as if it was content to swallow the man whole. Slowing her momentum in a hurry, Callie's boot planted against the soggy wooden surface as she dragged her sword through the air at the Lurker's flank.

Rather than slicing through the monster's jaw, catching its glassy eye as Shield had, or even tearing through the edge of it's wide, toothy mouth, Callie's blade clashed with the bottom set of its jagged fangs, the sound ringing out with a visual spark that displayed the ineffectiveness of her attack. "Shoot!" She hissed under her breath, her attention now having to fall back to making sure she wouldn't put herself in a compromising position. "Looks like you're definitely on your own for this one," She called back to Shield, not necessarily announcing her withdrawal as she continued. "Even if I get a scratch on this thing, I'm sure that's all it'll be."

ID#: 102129 | BD: 2(+2)=4 - Miss!

[H:7] Shield - HP: 1249/1330 | EP: 123/124 | Dmg: 2 | Acc: 0 | Eva: -1 | Mit: 169 | BH: 66 | THN: 87 | REC: 6 | LD: 7
[H:0] Calypso - HP: 200/200 | EP: 18/20 | DMG: 9 | MIT: 9 | ACC: 1

<The Lurker> HP: 325/500 | MIT: 150 | ACC: 2 | EVA: -1 | DMG: 250 [9: 300,  10: 350]

Callie's legs were ready to carry her forward, despite the uneasiness resting in the pit of her stomach in the face of such a massive, hideous creature. Shield's orders, however, caused her muscles to tense and freeze up to keep her rooted in place. She frowned, but obeyed, renewing the grip on the handle of her claymore as she looked on. The time she spent hanging in the back-line gave her a moment to reason, letting her easily understand why her party member didn't want her in the fray. Her eyes flickered over to the health bar nestled below her own in the corner of her vision and widened for a brief moment when they registered the empty space at the right-most of Shield's indicator. His latent healing effects made it quick to jump back up, but in all the quests he'd carried her through and enemies he'd defended against thus far, none had threatened the tank with as much damage in such little time. He must have already realized how much damage the beast could potentially do to her frail avatar, and this game was one where simple mistakes could not always be so easily shrugged off.

Steeling herself for the possibility of waiting in the wings through the entirety of it, Callie simply watched and waited. Her attention wasn't drawn to the skipping seaman until the sound of his voice rasping too closely for comfort beside her caused her to flinch. She scowled, and nearly rolled her eyes at the NPC as he served more as a distraction than anything else. "Okay! If you're not going to help, then go wait somewhere else!" Her words were exasperated after enduring a long-winded string of manic orders. The fisherman began hobbling off, and when Callie quickly noticed he was hurrying down the length of the dock back towards Shield, she took a couple of hurried steps forward. Her right hand extended from the handle of her weapon and took a fistful of the back of the NPC's bright yellow raincoat to hold him in place. She had to fight against the man's exuberant motion, taking slower steps backwards to pull back against the path that he was insistent on taking.

She listened with interest, in part because their conversations rarely seemed to have as much substance. But just when she started following along at the beginning of his explanation of what made up the work of a statistician, the hiss of his fishing line served to cut him off. She froze up for a moment, having turned to see the man fighting against a force that looked several times more intimidating than anything the lake had to offer them up to this point. In silent realization, Callie also knew exactly what the violent force on the hook-end of the fishing pole meant: the monster-fish they'd been waiting for all this time had finally spared Shield's lure its interest.

Golden-tinted eyes went wide at the sight of the beast that broke through the water's surface. She was fixed on the creature for a dangerous moment, easily registering its design as the most frightening that she'd encountered thus far. The only memory she could grasp at that rivaled the Lurker in size alone was the frigid Avalanche, but there was something clearly more terrifying about a half-decayed sea monster than a towering man made of ice. Callie shuddered on more than one instance when catching a glimpse of those deep-sea documentaries that showed off recently-discovered species skulking in the farthest reaches of the dark ocean.

Where the vast unknown--and more importantly, what lived inside of it--never failed to unsettle her, Callie was content to put some distance between herself and the massive creature that she knew they were soon to be locked in combat with. Already a step and a half back from her original position, the sounds of shouting that came from behind them caused her attention to snap in the direction of the fisherman's cabin. Spotting the ludicrous old man hurriedly shambling towards the dock, her sights were no longer locked on Shield and his catch. As such, her body tensed up with the sudden feeling of forced movement. Her party member was yanking at the collar of her basic leather armor, jerking her back and giving her enough momentum to stumble several paces towards the end of the dock where the crazed fisherman stood flailing about with his harpoon. It would have been impressive for her to have kept her footing, but thankfully the woman caught herself on her knees and was able to quickly pick herself back up. With the salty NPC beside her spouting out strings of words and curses she could hardly make any sense of, Callie's lips pursed in frustration while her hand reached for the leather-wrapped handle of her claymore. "Well you're not going to be of any actual help, are you?" She grumbled to herself without expecting an answer from the obsessive fisherman.

Freeing the steel from its sheathe, Callie winced in reaction when she looked back to see the Lurker's maw closed around Shield's arm. She gripped the hilt of her weapon tightly in both hands, knowing full well that any attacks she threw at the intimidating monster would be inconsequential. "Right. Anything you know about this guy I should watch out for?" She called forward. If she was going to put in an honest effort, the last thing she wanted to do was turn herself into a liability should the monster decide to start thrashing about on the docks, or betray the game's standard targeting system.

"I haven't done much combat there," She admitted with a shrug of her shoulders, focusing instead on the other half of his question for a minute. "But there are mountain ranges all over the place. The main city is called Nimbus, and it's practically carved out of the side of a tall cliff. There are a bunch of open plains, it's almost like a huge valley. Danesh loves taking naps in the trees on top of the hills there." She smiled warmly, recalling her first encounter with the creature in exactly such a scenario.

She picked up a hand to scratch the center of her familiar's head with the tip of her index finger once more, taking slow and leisurely steps through the grass while Myth set to work on gathering the materials he needed to satisfy the quest's first objective. She was surprised to hear him shift the topic of conversation to herself on a personal note, curious as to how she'd chosen to spend her time and offering a bit of himself in return. It didn't take her long at all to come up with an answer. "I love to explore. Even though it's just VR, I've never seen a lot of places like this," She pulled her arms out to her sides, motioning at the rolling fields they were surrounded by. "This place might be a death trap, but it's the prettiest death trap I've ever seen, so," She trailed off as her shoulders fell. She already knew her level of appreciation for the world they were stuck in, not to mention her lack of enthusiasm when it came to clearing the game, was not the most popular of opinions.

@Myth