Freyd

"This better not be reindeer piss," Freyd grumbled, staring dubiously at the giant glass mug full of steaming something yellow that someone had shoved into his hands. The locals laughed at the comment, even as he sniffed the foamy head with trepidation. "Because it also kinda smells like it." More laughter. "Don't worry, stranger, the brew's just been aging since the last Sun Solstice festival. It's just long into its fermentation. But I assure you that it's quite fine and mostly palatable." "Fermentation? You mean that this is actual booze?!" Freyd's eyes grew to saucers,

"Let's go to Urbus!" Mouth still forming words and possibilities, but voice halted by Elora's declaration, Freyd's brows had risen by the sudden strength of her convictions. "Sure," he added, eagerly agreeing. "Urbus will have a lot of potential. Maybe someplace near the High Fields of Crossing? I always liked the name. There must be some safe zone or pocket nearby where we could plunk our place." Rising from his lotus crouch by unfolding his legs, it was like someone had pressed a trigger on some scissor lift and compelled him to ascend. Back on his feet, Freyd dusted himsel

A plastered smile planted itself on Freyd's face while Kyo regaled them with her knowledge of medical conditions, and their applicability in a world she had yet to explore. "Oh, you're gonna fit in just fine around here," he conceded, laughing while choosing not to engage in a distracting debate. It is true that if we go through too much stress in here too quickly, it'd probably have a backlash o' some kind on our real bodies, though..." "That's the catch, isn't it? There's no way for us to know if much or any of what we've been told is true. Given the scale of Kayaba's deceit

Every lead up to a raid meant a flurry of furious activity: field bosses to be slaughtered, mountains of items to be identified and fused, and a virtual Thanksgiving buffet of consumables to obtain and prepare. This time was no different. Freyd was in the final stretch. Having already visited The Knight Shift to secure a new blade for Morningstar, he was bound for the location provided at the prep meeting with an inventory full of goodies that would make Santa's toy bag look like amateur hour. What had ever possessed him to volunteer as a tank?! Wrapped in trusty but worn traveling leathers

"Y'can't get a concussion in VR. And the system doesn't simulate pain, so I think the only thing ya'd have t' worry about with that kinda fall's your HP and gettin' dizzy for a while." Freyd just chuckled, a grin growing about Kyo's ironclad certainty. "Uh-huh. Sure. You keep telling yourself that. Pain suppression has its limits. And while you might not suffer a true and proper concussion, having a mutant troll toss you across a cavern to smash you face first into the far wall does tend to discombobulate a bit. Also not too sure about your notion of not losing health just becau

"I...err...your information may be slightly incomplete," Freyd added, deliberately turning his attention back to his plate. "I've seen gemini on other floors. Many other floors, actually. And many, many, MANY gemini. A whole forest full of the things. I even saw one claw its way out of a player once... oh! Twice, actually." Poking randomly at his meal, as if trying to distract himself from the topic, he swiftly shoveled in a mouthful to prevent himself from saying anything more. "So, if Montjoy's not a gemini, then what do you suppose he is? Simmone's mirror revealed him as Takesh

"Kyo, huh? Nice to meet ya." Freyd saluted with his semi-free hand, or at least with the two fingers not currently holding a pastry. "Good of you to make it out of the old T.O.B. and join us in the fray. Once more onto the breach, and all that." The uppermost tip of his antique fishing rod twirled about as he spoke, like some sort of makeshift battle standard. With him, who knew? It might actually have been one. "Good to see you're still alive. I like the shirt; it's very Tom Selleck." "THANK YOU," the Whisper blurted, agog, as if Morningstar had just cracked the Enigma code

"Freyd," was his immediate response, spoken without a moment's hesitation. "Though you say it with great tenderness, 'Takeshi' rings in my ear as if the name belongs to someone else." A flush of colour and uncertainty rushed into his cheeks, unaccustomed to expressing that sort of humility, or maybe not with such abundant sincerity. "There is a place I know, on the Eastern edge of floor six, away from the strange habits and practices of Amazonian Krycim and their counterparts in Senimoh. It's... serene. The woods teem with life and might be well-suited to that alchemy you keep threaten

"Donkey... what?" Freyd seemed genuinely confused, because he was. Whatever Elora was going on about might have been understood by Mina, but had clearly gone right over his head. Mina's accounting for Akane's behaviour came as no surprise. He'd faced his own share of betrayals and knew all to well the need to be wary. Even coming here had taken some convincing, and most of that from Montjoy himself. Speaking of which, the silhouetted marionette danced giddly about the room, likely moving the silent tunes cast about by the flicker and motion of candle flame upon the walls. Shadows were w

Freyd was genuinely flummoxed as Elora handed him a would-be sail, uncertain as to how they'd make a mast upon which to affix it. The plan had been 'slab', not so much 'sailboat', but she'd made the effort and he didn't want her to be disappointed. "Erm... right!" Grabbing a flexible shoot from a slimmer, younger tree, he lashed it to the raft's base and slung it into a curve, tying off to two far corners for stability. Maybe it would work. Big maybe. But it would look like it was supposed to work, and that should be enough. "Thanks! Here. Let's tie it off at the corners like a

Radiant sunlight streamed through the broken canopy of the sparsely grown trees in the Forest of Memories. Freyd had finished collecting his daily reports, assigning agents where and as required to deal with the doldrum affairs of Firm Anima's routine management. Things were much quieter than in the past, or so it seemed, and so the Captain had selfishly assigned himself the duty to patrol the shores of the Lake of Reflection. As trivial a task as it might seem, there was a time during the wrath of Skalaugh and assault of the Sundered Spire upon Coral when the threat was unavoidably real.

"Wait? You mean that it's optional?" The black-clad shadow man quipped as he rolled past her on the left. Springing as he came up, Freyd snapped a rapid series of strikes against their target's legs. A keening howl erupted from each point of impact as Samael's Pride unleashed the hungry void within. Every blow passed through the troll's legs with devastating effect, literally devouring the pixels that made up the mobs in their wake. It was like watching someone attack a pencil sketch with an eraser, literally removing bits of it with every swipe. The beast howled, as much in surprise as

Shades of the Gemini [Addon] Cost: 10 SP Passive Requirements: Disguise [Extra] Skill (must be active) Restriction: User cannot benefit from, or inflict, any returned damage enhancements or item effects based on an attackers dice roll [Thorns, Immolation, Aura]. This restriction does not affect the Parry skill or its mods/addons. Effect: Disguise effects become a constant, passive, critical hits made against you only occur on a BD: 10, or BD:9-10 if the attacker has focus. Additional narrative effects as noted below. Description: Gleaned from extensive study of the Ge

Floor four had a summer?! Who knew? The fact that it apparently only lasted for three days was ironically appropriate... but shouldn't it last four? Why did so much weird stuff always happen in this particular level? Mentally shrugging while his brain daydreamed through assorted mental gymnastics, the majority of Freyd's focus was on the festival unfolding before him. Never had he seen Snowfrost as delightfully decked out in brilliant symbols of warmth. Red and yellow pennants draped every street and building facade. Vendors he had never heard of were suddenly lining every nook and crann

"Truer words, as they say." The phrase signaled Freyd's agreement, catching a strangely pleased look in his companion's glance his way. Who knew precisely what was going through the Jade Hunter's head in that moment? Looking upon him in that moment, he only just realized how much the man's appearance reminded him of a certain someone. Their comparative personalities were light years apart, with Hirru's being much more akin to Freyd's own. "I'm honestly not sure where Morgiana sits in all of this. She seems a pawn beholden to Ali, and yet appears and disappears with such conspicuous coinc

Listening to her admissions and explanations felt like it should be done in silence. Rose was too often hard on herself, but he also noticed how she could swiftly turn dismissive and self-deprecating in her comments. It was part of her tendency towards downward inner spiral that he'd found himself facing off against over and over against. The look in her eyes when he bolstered her confidence and worth was utterly precious, like she'd never had the benefit of such support. It made him want to wrap her in it and just keep her safe and contented - a noble and satisfying purpose. A slim e

"How did she hurt you? Nothing else I've said will change, but I'm curious." It was too rare a chance to glimpse into the person behind the mask he'd never realized was there. How many people wore some manner of the same disguise? It wasn't actually a surprising thought or revelation. Freyd wore so many that he'd always just assumed most people did - though not Elora. Her masks were made of mood, in his former mind, meant to conceal her true feelings. He'd simply never considered that hers might actually hide her identity in this way. Convention expected outrage, but Freyd would have n

Silence reigned along with it consort Stillness. Freyd looked stunned at her revelations, blue eyes shifting back and forth as his mind sifted through thoughts and consequences telegraphing his manic thought process. You could practically hear the gears grinding them, trying to reclaim lost cadence and restore the natural order of a clockwork mind. Most would render summary judgment upon her for such revelations. Who would do such a thing?! Moral hyperbole so often governed human response. But not Freyd's. Halting the tick and tocking motion of his flittering gaze, he'd quickly come to

Ripping, tearing and snapping sounds broke the pristine serenity of the space as something rummaged through the underbrush, felling several shoots and dangly bits from trees just beyond sight. Freyd emerged a moment later, his arms filled to the brim with chopped bamboo shoots and slithering lengths of vine at least one of which was actually a snake. "Here," he added, matter-of-factly, handing Elora one of the longer poles to hold while casually plucking the serpent wound around it and tossing it back into the brush. The tiny beast flailed helplessly as it sailed through the air, indig

A shiver ran through his form, akin to a flicker or trick of the light. Instantly his false fidget was gone, its purpose unfound and therefore abandoned. In its aftermath, Freyd's neutral, piercing gaze had re-affixed itself to his features. Clinically methodical, his machine brain had suddenly kickedinto high gear at hearing her words, searching his seemingly bottomless memory for clues to match the symptoms before him. Strange how he never blinked in this mode. It was as if his humanity was suspended for the sake of focus and priority to other, more cerebral functions. It was nearly m

"You grew up on an island. A cold, wet, miserable island that serves as the shield wall for trade winds, mind you." A goofy and dismissive grin graced his soaking features as he undermined his own initial point. "I doubt we'll find any boats up here. We're nowhere near the settlements on the floor. And if we did, it would mean that someone or something else lives up here." Gazing at the surrounding shoreline, just in case, Freyd found no signs of any manmade constructs or habitation. It was the third time he'd looked, instincts having already kicked in to double-check before stripping t

"Has this only been since the raid, or did you have these dreams before?" Freyd spoke slowly and deliberately, pacing out his words with sips from his own tea while his mind parsed and pondered. Breathing in the vapours streaming from the cup provided added calm and clarity of focus. He'd have to thank Elora for finding this blend once this was all settled. "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." He looked pensive, possibly uncomfortable hims

Listening to Elora recount experiences drew instant parallels to his own. Freyd also hadn't felt right since the raid either. In his case, it seemed rooted in longstanding issues made to resurface by contact with the void in Wushen, and other similar encounters since. Something about that darkness always called to him. Montjoy was its most obvious manifestation, yet he had fallen strangely silent of late. It would have taken a lot for Elora to give voice to these concerns. She had demons of her own, he'd come to learn, and their clutches drained confidence and any sense of self-worth.

Maybe it was an unintentional byproduct of the skill, or maybe just Freyd's own personal extension, but he'd always examined people in much the same way as he did the treasures they brought him to evaluate. Elora had always been a diamond in the rough, in his eyes, and woefully undervalued, principally in her own eyes. With careful nudging and encouragement, he'd gleaned glimpses of the prize that awaited her at the end of her journey. it was a gift to watch someone come into themselves - like watching a rose gradually come into bloom. In this moment, however, it seemed as though the artis