Elora

There was barely enough time to rally their familiars as the duo set off on an expedition to Floor 2. With Freyd's hand in her own, Elora felt as if she was being towed, no, guided into the next chapter of their lives. "Most of the second floor is fairly rustic." , he began to explain, "There's plenty of timber and stone to work with, which could easily be adapted..." "Does that mean we'll be building it ourselves?", she asked. Perhaps the question sounded naive, but Elora was completely unacquainted with how the home-ownership process in Aincrad worked. "I just thought we'd be movin

♪ The Festivities Begin ♪ Large globs of melting snow slopped onto the muddy ground from evergreens above. Elora swayed with the grace of their crooked bows as she set to keep her brimmed tankard from sloshing over. Unfortunately, she had long since replaced her means for elbowing and shoving spatially-unaware celebrants from her path. While her right hand guarded her golden grog, her left pinched the hem of a gathered woolen skirt. Anyone paying mind would be able to recognize the garment's utility for toting around an assortment of delicious samples. An even more astute bysta

"Freyd,", he promptly decided, "Though you say it with great tenderness, 'Takeshi' rings in my ear as if the name belongs to someone else." "I understand", she calmly agreed. Part of her felt relieved to know the feeling was mutual. For as much as she'd heard Mina speak his given name, Elora still hadn't grown accustomed to addressing him with it. She had only ever know 'Freyd' as 'Freyd'. And I guess that makes sense. "There is a place I know, on the Eastern edge of floor six...", he soon suggested, "It's... serene. The woods teem with life and might be well-suited to that alchemy

"It's something that became a trend after the shenanigans with the shadow.", began Mina. Of course it was., she huffed knowingly. Elora could feel her spine slide down in her seat as the pink-haired player went on to describe reports from her intel. How was it that this game always managed to invent more fucked up and even creepier things to torment them with on a day-to-day basis? What was next? A personal manifestation of her worst fears programmed to pop into her vicinity at the start of every morning? "...Some of them seem to have... glitched for a lack of a better word.", Akam

As the trio began their meal, Elora attempted to mimic Mina's "itadakimasu". "... you butchered that so badly that the auto-translator couldn't pick it up." "Donkey... what?" "Eat a donkey mass? Is that not how you say it? Eek i docki MASS --", she tried again, pronouncing each syllable as if she was chewing on glass. After several seconds of making strange faces and guttural demon noises, she eventually muttered, "How do you say your vowels so softly?" With a wave of her hand, she ushered the conversation forward. Elora was partial to their hostess's logic. As angst

"We can skip over those concerns and just assume that it's going to be just fine. I will cover the costs. Instead, we should probably start by thinking about where want this home to be, and what we want it to look like." She felt an initial relief, then a wash of uncertainty. "Oh yeah -- location...appearance...what we want to be...huh..." A gloved hand came to rest pensively beneath her chin. "Well, no offense to Mina, but I couldn't stand living on that volcano of a floor -- or Floor 5 for that matter -- that's the desert one, right?" A nod confirmed that to be correct. "And as much

Elora backpedaled away from Freyd the closer he came. "AIN'T NO WAY! Get it off!!", she shrieked, her eyes adamantly avoiding contact with the emerald-colored danger noodle. She swore she'd got a glimpse both of her friends' mischievous grins before Freyd nonchalantly tugged on the serpent and tossed it back toward the jungle. With a sigh of relief, she accepted the pole and set to assembling their vessel. First a tsunami, then the snake, how else will the universe torment me today? Elora shuddered at the thought of encountering a ravenous herd of ocean-side stallions. At least those don't act

"How did she hurt you?", he asked curiously. "Eh", she began with downplayed attachment, "We weren't exactly friends by the time that happened. Honestly, we'd grown apart over the past couple of years, if you could even say that. We went to secondary and our relationship just sort of...dissolved. She wanted to hang out with the kids who were going places. I was just sort of...baggage at that point." And no one else liked me. It was easier that way. With a heavy sigh, she added, "She would call me names, spread rumors behind my back, nasty things to distance herself from me as much as poss

"I'm glad you did it...", began Freyd. Fiery tension bled from Rose's features as her eyebrows raised in surprise. It was as if the other player had just reached out and snapped his fingers in front of her face. "...Otherwise, we would never have met. And I am terrified to think of who or what I might have become without you." Her cheeks continued burning as her eyes now stung with...What is this feeling? Frustration? Relief? Happiness? Love? Why did she feel so many conflicting emotions at once? She tried to still her racing heart as it struggled to settle on a single response. Freyd in

Elora narrowed her eyes at Freyd, before reexamining the edges of the sea. By now, the sun had leaped ahead in its setting sequence, casting a blinding glare across the surface of the water. It would be impossible to confirm what she had seen. "I guess if you insist there aren't any boats, then a raft would be the only feasible option." Elora took a moment to inspect their surroundings as Freyd focused on getting Katoka's attention. She began by sending the picnicking snacks into her own inventory. If fortune would have it, Freyd would believe that her and Katoka had finished off the delectabl

I should have dropped it., Elora thought as she witnessed him revert to something cold, whether it was shock, apathy, or simply retreating to familiarity, she couldn't discern. Most likely, it was a combination of even more emotions and experiences she didn't understand. Reaching out, she chose to fill his cup in turn. It was an unspoken prompt and indication that she wanted to listen to whatever he had to say. "I can hardly claim to have been the most conscientious on health care myself, though a certain degree of relentless parental badgering impressed some useful habits..." There'

"Has this only been since the raid, or did you have these dreams before?" "Before.", she answered succinctly, her hand finally releasing its grip under his. "I don't want to dredge up more bad memories, but that sounds a lot like what I would have imagined Shadow's flood to have felt like. We never really talked too much in detail about that." "Yeah...", she started slowly, allowing her mind to drift back to that dark day, "A lot of the sensations are similar. Except, instead of drowning, I don't know -- I feel more like I'm just...deteriorating." Is that the proper word?, sh

A call of encouragement warranted another step forward as Elora pretended to be taking her sweet time with swimming out to sea. "I'm just -- adjusting to the temperature." It was a pretty flimsy excuse, given that this world had a way of moderating one's exposure to any uncomfortable element. Luckily, you could always rely on the mind to reinforce years-long aversions to anything it deemed 'uncomfortable'. "Are you alright in the water?", Freyd seemed to be catching on, "I should have asked first." "Best to just dive in and get over it all in one go...", he offered as a suggestion.

Elora's brows rose in curiosity, then furrowed with concern. "Well...", she began with fidgeting fingers, the mug-full of tea now planted firmly beside them, "It's been all sorts of things...A lot of times, I can't see or hear, I just feel...paralyzed." Her blue eyes grew colder for a moment as they recounted something distant. "There's always a sense of dread, some sort of wrongness that I can't shake." A steady breeze caused ashy willow branches to billow and sway overhead. "Once and a while, I hear voices, or see a shadow. It's like someone is there, but I can never make out who." Fre

"Is something bothering you? Maybe keeping you from sleeping?" Elora could feel a worry swell within her chest as fingertips twitched in response to his touch. For as outwardly as she expressed her more volatile emotions, she had a surprising tendency to hold those most vulnerable close to her chest. Where she had previously struggled with admitting her weaknesses, she now needed to consider the wellbeing of those who cared for her. It's nothing different than before., she tried to rationalize, I didn't want them to know how much I sucked at things, but...they accepted me anyways. I'm su