Freyd

"Broken in the head? Maybe. But in one of the most admirable ways possible." Freyd's tone smacked of honesty and respect. "That sort of genuine selflessness is rarer than rare." He let the martyr bit pass without comment. If she was fishing, he simply preferred not to bite, especially as her statements felt far too much like bait. Mina struck him as too capable of feigning intensity when it suited her purpose. It was likely the way she'd snared Morgenstern in the first place. Some men can't resist an excess of passion. Then it dawned: no wonder she was so keenly attracted to Raid

"Everyone says that, like I'm expected to ramble off my life's story in some rehearsed song." Freyd smiled quizzically, his brown consterned by the odd yet consistent expectation. "Should I make flip cards, or maybe commission a triptych to be mounted to one of those samurai flag pole thingies that I could have mounted to my back?" Slightly mocking. Slightly appealing. He could use it to advertise. Quip would be pissed. Motivation grew. Why was everyone so suddenly interested in getting under his cowl? Maybe it was just a 'people' thing? Weird. Hirru had shared his tale, though

"Please tell me that thing is temporary." How long had Freyd been sitting there, watching him? The man had an annoying habit of just showing up out of the blue, or, perhaps more accurately, the black. The Whisper was leaning against a hitching post, his chin resting on a hand as pitch as night, propped up on his elbow and carrying an almost bored expression on his face. "You know that, if I were a bad person, you'd be a smear on the ground now, right?" A finger flicked in the direction of the orange icon spinning and glaring at him from over Lium's head. "Seriously. Being this clo

"Oh... pfft... uh.... well, there was the time that Katoka and Elora tried to take down a dragon by instigating a dance party. Or the time that my gemini wretched itself back up from my insides and went on a rampage through the Forest of Memories, making copies of itself all over the place. That was fun. Penny football championships with Persi - she cheats, by the way - while Yuki fought the two-headed serpent thingy. Were-rat pirates? Getting shot out of a cannon? Setting Kiluia on fire, by accident. That time the bottom fell out of the Lake of Reflections because a dragon punched a ho

"Never had a pet," he confessed. "Parents were neat freaks, and our lifestyle was a little too... sterile, for animals." Humans too, if he was honest. But those days were long gone. Now he lived in a home that was the very epitome of all the things he'd hated growing up. Life was such a quirky thing. "Persi's really the closes thing I've ever had." Laying back against the grass, the tugged his cowl down a little further over his eyes, shading them from the sun' s indignant glare. How dare he enjoy himself, it seem say, scowling at him with all that warmth and happiness. Fickle fl

Mere days ago, he would have refused and kept his distance, not understanding the significance or import of the ties that bind, beyond an exercise in abstract philosophy. So much had happened in so little time. Memories of laughing and crying friends flooded his mind's eye. Eruda, Raidou, Sam, Freya, even Gaius and so many more. All those faces at the raid. What a heaping mess that had been. But, because of it, he'd grown and changed. Hopping down from his stony perch, Freyd moved to sit at Xena's side and allowed himself to gaze up at the cool blue sky overhead. Scattered fluffy

Persi poked her head out of the rushes, something slick and slimy wriggling in her mouth. She bit down and the thing went rigid. Being a grappling type familiar had its advantages. Making eyes at Amber and twirling imagined eyebrows, she looked quite proud of herself. Funny how an inky blob of shadow with nothing but a pair of blue orbs to emote with could manage so effectively. Freyd just palmed his forehead, trying not to laugh and set her off at the same time. She was a good familiar and had carried him reliably out of more pinches than he'd ever care to admit. If it meant that he ha

She had a point. He wasn't actively trying to recruit her, but rather just to provide options. "Prestigious? Maybe. That sounds almost pretentious. If anything, the guild's grounded nature and leadership is what attracted me to it in the first place. I... " Freyd seemed to hesitate, as if pondering how best to craft his words. "I considered becoming a broker myself, very early on. But I'd spent too much time hiding in the shadows. It felt like it would be stepping back into my original doubts." He shook his head, eyes closing for a moment, lost in dark memories. "Couldn't do th

"Assault. Good choice. They're a good bunch. Gaius took over as their interim captain when Haine stepped down. Feel free to reach out to him for advice." Freyd's dark sense of humour was getting the better of him again. Responsibility wasn't Gaius' strong suit, but the man had matured quite a bit, of late. Something told him that he might make a fair captain, if he wasn't allowed to shirk the role. Sending a new recruit his way might do just the trick. "Raidou leads the vanguard. Kiluia is still in charge of Provisional, I believe, and yours truly looks after O&I, but don't t

Thread Summary: 5651 words / 30 = 188*5= 940*Tier Katoka receives: 5260 EXP (Word Count [940*4] + 1500 [Quest]) 3464 col (400 [1 page] + 2500 [Quest] + 564 [Laurel, +15% of EXP as col]) "Zero Degree Icicle" | T2 Rare Katana | Freeze | ACC Unlock Frozen Hide extra skill Freyd receives: 11280 EXP (Word Count [940*12]) 1692 col (1692 [Laurel, +15% of EXP as col]) Unlock Frozen Hide extra skill

"Relax?" Freyd blinked for dramatic effect, but it was fair comment on his own obsessive work ethic. "I'm not sure if I really know how, to be perfectly honest. With rare exceptions, it's been a wild ride of putting out fires and rushing towards the next floor." Dusting fictional dirt from his pants, Freyd ventured into his own past, realizing the truth of it. "For the longest time, all I was focused was getting to the point where I'd could stand side by side with the front lines. Contribute, yanno? I went from hiding from my own shadow to... " he glanced at the ground between

"I know what you mean. It took a long time before I could trust people, even after I'd left the starting city. It just seemed like the system was ready to pounce on me from every shadow I saw. Eventually, things settled down and I learned to navigate my way around, made contacts and allies. Got stronger. You know how it goes." He blinked, realizing that he'd been talking to her as if they were both front line veterans. "Well, you will soon enough," he added, laughing at himself for so easily slipping into old habits. "You're smart, Xena. That will carry you far. Just be careful

"Wait. Whut? No, no, no. We don't make promises about regrets. Regrets just happen. Let's limit how much fate we try to change in a week, m'kay? My head's still spinning from the last time!" Freyd groaned dramatically and pressed the ball of his right palm to his forehead. "Can we at least mitigate it to mostly no regrets? You seem like a really nice person, Rebekah, but I don't want to overpromise here." Freya took her parting shot, as fully expected. "Who's terrorizing? Monkey guts build character! She got off a hell of a lot lighter than I did the first time I faced t

Flipping the item over every which way, Freyd honestly couldn't recall where he'd picked up the heavy tome. It was found, buried in one of many piles of junk that Quip kept threatening to set ablaze if he didn't get around to sorting or purging on his own. "It kinda looks like a colouring book," he muttered trying to open it with one hand while the other struggled to simultaneously help him sip at his coffee. He'd already spilled a cup of the precious, life-giving fluid, staining a dozen pages and spilling more all over the ground. "Marv, do me a favour and just..." Tucking what s

Freyd listened. It was what was expected, and what @Hirrurequired. It also happened to be what he wanted to do. The smallest of smiles crept up at the edges of his lips, until a natural pause presented him with the needed opportunity. "My dear Hirru. If you're such a connoisseur of stories, why are you sitting here fishing with me while people are living those stories two dozen paces away?" A light chuckle allowed itself passage, even as something nipped at his line. Perhaps it was truth? When his companion extended his hand and offered healing, Freyd hesitated. It wasn't that

Thread Summary: 8204 words / 30 = 273*5= 1365*Tier Freya receives: 12285 EXP (Word Count [X*9]) 1842 col (1842 [Laurel, +15% of EXP as col]) Kodo receives: 1365 EXP (Word Count [1365*1]) 400 col (400 [1 page]) Freyd receives: 19110 EXP (Word Count [1365*14]) 2866 col ( [Laurel, +15% of EXP as col])

"Yanno, this is gonna sound really weird, but I feel like I haven't actually fought anything in ages!" Stepping last into the room, Freyd somehow still managed to find his favourite chair before anyone could get to it. That was a ruse, in and of itself, as the man never sat in the same seat twice, at least in a row. Unpredictable and unbalanced, someone had called him once. It might have been Montjoy, now that he thought about it. It felt weird not to hear his voice anymore, yet his presence was still there. Kicking a pair of booted feet up onto the table, Freyd slurped his drink as loud

"Then remember her as those things," Freyd offered. "Grief isn't so much about the people we have lost or the injustice of their passing. It's about learning to live with the absence in our lives, as people who go on. This is the key: going on, and holding on to the memories of those already passed as they would wish to be remembered. Hold on to these things about your sister. Make them part of yourself. In doing so, you honor her." Freyd didn't know from whence the words had come. He'd been waxing philosophical a lot, lately. Ever since Morrighan, and stuff, things had changed dr

"I've had to rescue players held captive by them in the past." It was all Freyd was willing to say. While he felt sympathy for Xena, the truth was that he didn't know her affiliations. She could have made deals that compromised her, and he wouldn't risk the guild's safety. "I'm sorry, Xena. I'd like to say more, but there are people who rely on me to look after and protect them against factions like Laughing Coffin. It would be a betrayal to say more, and I take that responsibility very seriously. Hopefully, you will understand." Glancing over her feline paraphernalia, Freyd couldn

"I suppose that we could keep hunting mimics, if you'd prefer to gather more data." Freyd's smile raised the corners of his eyes, the grin was so wide. "This is the first mimic that I've ever actually encountered, if you can believe it. They tend to spawn mostly from treasure hunting, and I think also fishing, but I can't say that it's ever happened to me. I've only just taken up the trade since the flood that coincided with the last raid, so..." Raising his shoulders, he just shrugged by way of further explanation. "Switching gears back, for a minute, what exactly have your interact

"Double-skinned hull," Freyd muttered to himself while slowly carving a second hole to get at Ifrit's interior. The monstrous ship was, indeed, space or depth-worthy. It felt too sci-fi to think of it as a starship, so his brain was trying to kludge 'submarine' instead. It still wasn't working, but kept his imagination occupied as his hand ate its way through the inner hull in a satisfying turnaround of the day's earlier events. "Not how I expected to be celebrating after the boss fight," he told no one in particular. As he nearly finished creating the new opening, the heavy plating b

"Agreed. Something is definitely off. One simple murderous mob for an entire quest? I don't buy it." Freyd's eyes scoured the lake and surrounding frozen wasteland, expecting a horde of shambling popsicle zombies to come shambling out of the landscape at any moment. This was too easy, by far. "Levi, did you recognize anyth-" Freyd's words stopped abruptly when he spotted the boy's shuddering form draped over that of his former friend. Quest backdrop or not, it was hard not to appreciate the outpouring of emotion, especially as his heart-wrenching cry rang out into the cold air, car

"Couldn't we just shoot ourselves out of a cannon, or something, for old times sake?" He glanced at Oscar quizzically, bordering on wistfully. "The thought of placing some Cardinal-controlled critter between my legs and hoping everything will be 'just fine' isn't wholly inspiring." He groaned, suddenly realizing that if he chose the cart option instead, it would surely be filled with hot dogs and inevitably prove to be the least subtle or effective mode of transport ever devised. His giant friend was in a right state, meaning even the usual level of absurdity was an exceptionally low b

"Eh... It's complicated." Reaching behind his cowl, Freyd scratched as if attempting to summon a suitably simple explanation. "Laughing Coffin are an entire guild made up of player killers, and definitely not a group to be taken lightly. Dealings with them, of any kind, are never easy or free of consequences. Even though I've never openly crossed paths with them, our interests have occasionally overlapped - and not in a cooperative manner." He sighed, wondering at what future trouble this might bring, but also knowing that a confrontation with this guild was inevitable. "I'd

The sheets in his hand drooped upon hearing Kodo's words, as if sharing in his grief the only was they could. Freyd's thoughts immediately went to Quip and Dingo, and the self-destructive whirlwind that nearly led them to their own demise when Maeve, their younger sister, had been lost. Had it not been for the thoughtful actions of a friend that pressed him into service to save them, two more souls might have been taken by the tower. Here, Freya was offering this man the same help. "Tell me about her," Freyd asked, unexpectedly laying the papers flat upon the table. They would not wit