Freyd

"Hey kid. Good to see you again." Freyd sauntered into The Knight Shift from a back corner that shouldn't have connected to anything. "I've got a few favours to ask and figured that my apple fee covered the down payment." Several parcels materialized from thin air onto Rencesvals' work bench, each carefully wrapped and labeled. "There's some rush, but not tremendously. I need these soon, I guess is what I mean." Looking the blacksmith up and down for a moment, you could practically see the wheels turning behind the cowl. "There might be a few other things that could benefit from your a

Plans within plans within plans... He'd always enjoyed Frank Herbert's Dune, ever since he first read it as a teen. There was something about the combination of its harsh environment, ruthless economics and absolutely cutthroat politics that Takeshi had always found appealing. Staring as he was now, down the bowels of a massive and seemingly endless sewer network, Freyd couldn't help feel like the parallels to Aincrad were strong. "Mouth of the sandworm, eh Persi?" The aloof little shadow mongoose stood off to the side on the least filthy spot she'd been able to find and had been pree

Leaning in against the chairback, Freyd's mood seemed to relax as he drank the purple concoction, a steady stream of sips confirming its approval. "Taking our medicines," he echoed, the reference being especially apt to the earlier point. He couldn't recall whether Elora had ever heard the tale. It wasn't one that was retold with frequency, all parties involved preferring to place the painful memory behind them. But, the true victims of the tale were not present, so maybe he could clue her in. "You've never heard about Maeve, have you?" Quaestor happened to be exiting the kitchen

Whistling as he entered, Freyd barely bothered to look up. His mind was elsewhere; likely several elsewheres all at once. Things were on the move and there was little time to dally while he put his plans into effect. A swift foray through Cintamani was likely to also be required. He'd get on to that later. For now, a couple of basics were needed and NIGHT's shop was reliably well-stocked. "Two," he muttered, holding up the correct and matching number of fingers. Persi indicated the point of interest by sniffing at the lone remaining bits of amber still on display. Goods gathered an

The shop door rattled slightly for a moment, then nothing. It rattled again accompanied by muffled cursing and some jostling of the shoji against the frame. "Oh. Right." Having resolved his conundrum, the figure casually slid open the door and moved to enter, pausing at the last moment with his muddy boot less than two inches above the pristine floor. "Yeah. Erm. Sorry," he added sheepishly, pulling back his offending limb and outerwear and depositing the latter on the stoop. Neglected manners aside, anyone would be forgiven for believing the man to be a anything but a str

Freyd was curious to note that she'd encountered Quip on her way to meet him. "You've met Quip," he started between shoveling more food into his mouth. "What could possibly lead you to believe that any interaction with that woman results in mutual decisions. The only way to convince her to do anything is to get her pissed off about the opposite." Leaving the rest of whatever latest scheme he'd hatched unspoken, Freyd focused instead on the latest platter's offering. Borris' machinations provided added distraction, a tiny smile of approval singing him praise for his ingenuity. It took

"Who said you were the first to arrive?" The man's voice pierced the shadows enveloping the darkest corner of the excessively cozy chamber. Tone tinged with playful smarm, the first signs of form came as the emergence of a trademark cowl tucked low to conceal his features. Oscar didn't need to know he's snuck in right behind him as he entered. Better to play his perceived and cultivated part and stick with his shtick. The Whisper's charcoal hood nodded in deference to their recently shared ordeals. Freyd knew the personal toll they'd taken on the man, but kept any reference to them silen

About to return the quip, Freyd paused to watch the shattered corpses twitch, then clamor back together and merge to become greater and nastier versions of their original selves. "Uh. Yes, you did. Slacker." Hoping to catch them off guard before they could fully reform, Freyd launched himself at the nearer 'coupling' and slammed his fist precisely where its two heads were intending to meet. One sickening crunch later, the morphing monstrosity split like some sort of fleshy-digital banana with the upper part peeled and wondering wtf just went wrong. Bouncing off the stone wall behind

If looks could kill... He'd done it again, and she hated him for it, but also knew that it was his own twisted way of showing his friends that he cared. "You've git aishans, Freyd." Exhaustion was finally claiming a win, her anger spent on futile efforts to do whatever it was Landon had sent her out here for in the first place. "Oh, I've got reams of those," he added, chuckling to himself. "I think we can all acknowledge that and move on. The point, my dear Quip, is that you don't need to hold on to yours quite so tightly anymore. If you're ready to face off against me,

Quip just stood, mouth agog and features flushed a fairly fuchsia hue while Freyd revealed his machinations. Berate him as she might, there was a caring core within her that comported itself according to strict and practical principles. She just kept it clad in celtic highland dramatics most of the time. Orchestrating a peeling of those layers had taken time and a fair bit of gambling on his part. "You cuid juist friggin blether tae me, ye know?!" Freyd just frowned. Why on Earth would be possibly do that. People did that. Not him. Besides, this was much more effective and

"Come on Quip, you can do it." He watched her sheep-handling from afar, gauging her pauses, the pacing of her outbursts and the variable tension across her shoulders. She was nearly there. Just a little more until the penny dropped. You couldn't force Quip to do, well.. anything. Nothing she didn't already want to do, at least. Freyd had figured out long ago that the best way to overcome her stubbornness was to turn it against itself, then get out of the blast zone while it worked itself out. Pushing her to the brink at the shop had been the nuclear option. There was always the ri

'Too bad there isn't a decent fishing spot around here,' he thought to himself. Burbles taunted him from the nearby brook, but it was too small to offer any worthwhile rewards. Fond memories of sitting by his metaphorical right hand gazing into still waters while she pondered her own struggles. What had Setsuna been up to, he wondered? How unlike him not to have checked, though he could scrape together a guess. The answer was always the same. Consistent as a glacier that one, and just as inevitable was its consequence if it blocked your ship's path. Kasumi had also been distant and sile

Freyd had always admired her passion, even when it had a tendency to bubble over to excess and scald anything within a surprisingly extensive splash zone. It's what confirmed that she was ready. Gone were her dejected days when Maeve's death preyed upon her every waking thought. He honestly wasn't sure if she'd come back from it, but Quip's spirit was irrepressible. Leaning against the Town of Beginning iconic bastion walls, he sucked on a piece of grass while dressed as a newb player. Squatting in the tall grass, broad rimmed straw hat dipped low, he simply watched from afar as she rampa

"Tazer, huh? Yeah. We could do that." As he spoke, Freyd's hands shifted and twisted, almost like his palms rotated a full three-hundred-and-sixty degree. They roiled a blackish purple as they spun, changing into something that just felt inherently wrong. A snap of his fingers, having restored themselves to their proper position crackled with sickly purple lightning. "Yeah. We could definitely do that." A quick jab to the back of one zombie's spear spun the blade on the far side, pivoting it to slam into its companion's face. Its wielder turned to see what was going on only to fee

"I guess times are changing. Maybe with a few more items and skills I could actually take a step out onto the frontlines. Unless you think I'd take some of he spotlight away from you regulars." Smiling at the jest, Freyd knew his friend had long since been ready. "Katoka, you have the heart of a lion. You've always been ready." The rare compliment was spoken with utter sincerity and would likely catch her off guard. Better Freyd it up a bit to make her more comfortable. "A pint-sized lion, at least." Knowing better than to race her, especially since she got her zoomy zap-stic

Freyd laughed lightheartedly when she tugged at his hand, completely oblivious of her encounter with Quip and truthfully just delighted to see her again. The ripples of his well-intentioned machinations regarding the Scottish dervish were left to work out in the background until he could catch up. And besides, he scolded himself, breakfast with her trumps most everything. That thought alone confirmed how much he'd actually changed. Still playing sheepish and coy, he thought to himself as she twirled her hair. He'd long since noticed her various tricks and games, but thought it best to kee

It took ridiculously little effort for the Whisper in Shadow to blend in with the rest of those players still lingering around the Town of Beginning, wandering the fields and watching as Quip barreled through them in search of materials she'd need for her quest. He could only imagine how Landon was likely celebrating these precious moments of silence. At least Quip wouldn't be hard to follow. Sprinkling materials in her way might be a little too obvious, even for her, and was unlikely to qualify for quest requirement fulfillment. Crafting a neutral and unremarkable appearance, somethin

It had been days since Freyd had forced the confrontation with Quip as a way to try to get out on her own. Elora's invitation and all that followed kept him busy enough to keep from following up on his pet project, as did keeping Dingo awake and in some semblant state of productivity. The boy made sloths look industrious. Catching up on myriad matters after the brief and welcome distractions, the Whisper soon caught wind of some disturbance in the slums of the Town of Beginnings. According to reports, some raving madwoman was terrorizing the locals with some form of sonic weapon that circu

"I know I took a decent hit, but I was ok you know." "Yeah?" It almost seemed like Freyd hadn't quite been sure how bad the injury was, or maybe he simply didn't know how to react to it. "Yeah. Right. You, Elora, the others... you're tough bastards now." A goofy grin spread across his shadowed face as it if the realization had only just dawned. "Err... bitc... you know what I mean." Best not to push his luck. "When the heck did that happen?" The question was clearly rhetorical but hung in the stale and dusty air nonetheless. "Well, I guess we can start heading back?" The

Something snapped inside him at the sight of a streak of orange pixelated mesh along Katoka's flank. The grit of her teeth and the momentary pause of breath as she berated herself for taking the spear like a champ. Her signal given, she would see a copy of her friend materialize immediately beside the towering mob just as the original dissipated from his previous position. Sound just stopped working for a moment as a bubble of bullet time radiated from FTK's centre mass precisely where the Whisper's fist had driven full bore into the mob's chest with the force akin to a nuclear bomb. Rippl

"Hmm?" Freyd had been so lost in thought that he actually hadn't noticed her approach - which was not the slightest bit like him. He was that guy who could leap and cling to the ceiling like a terrified cat, then spring down and unleash full murder-hobo-Armageddon on whatever unfortunate source disturbed him in the first place. He was never not alert, yet here she'd actually snuck up on him just by walking casually down the road. "Oh, hello Elora." A smile spread across his face, disturbing in its utterly uncharacteristic normalcy. Where was the paranoia and furtive glancing over sh

"She'll not bother you for a while, I hope." Freyd stood once again by Harkens' side, the stoic NPC staring at a crowd of re-spawned Red Cloaks waiting in the valley for her to return and start slaughtering them all over again. What a strange fucking world. The Knight Captain merely grunted. Freyd smiled. He liked the dour knight's composure, especially given the tragedy of floor fourteen's lore and inevitability of the Red Cloak's seemingly inevitable demise. "Fighting against all odds and desperation. I can relate. When she returns, let me know. I have a few questions for her boss."

"Freyd? We lookin' for big dragons or baby dragons?" He had no idea. Why should he? It wasn't like Cardinal spilled its secrets before releasing new content, though now he wondered whether some of the brokers somehow had an inside track. The corresponding conspiracy theory was instantly filed away for later brooding...er, consideration. "Not really sure," he mumbled, climbing a nearby tree with disturbing ease and vanishing into the colourful canopy. A few startled and angrily chirping birds scattered at his passage while branches creaked as he approached the top. Like some sort

Sitting idle in the desolate heart of a dead city. What a life... err... death. Whatever. Nothing ever happened here, other than recycled battles that almost always ended in the re-demise of the dude sitting in the ex-glamorous chair at the focal point of everything and nothing. Sure, mobs milled and shambled about endless in the ruins outside, but their patterns were predictable and avoidable. This content was as stale as the air in the rest of the throne room. And this to a man who lived in a zombie-infested swampland where most of the air perpetually smelled like rotten ass. Clinging

Hood up and eyes on the food, Freyd features were seemingly always have concealed. Such was always the way with the Whisper - the guild's O&I captain. Even when in full bloom shenanigans, he always seemed to have something held back or ulterior motive. It probably just came with the job. "Elora's well, I think." Persi licked away a few crumbs on his lips until he gently pushed her away. "We haven't seen each other in a while, but I keep tabs on everyone as best I can. There's definitely some sort of glut or malaise affecting everyone these days. Not that people are necessaril