[PP-F4] Frigid Pride «Avalanche»

[Samriel 0]

Another day another floor. Though Samriel had to say that this was the harshest one that she'd visited so far. She hadn't seen snow in....well if TV didn't count, then never. And this was more snow than she had ever cared to see. And she had literally only just teleported in! Though it wasn't like this was the first time she had been here, but enough time had passed that she'd forgotten about how fiercely the cold bit into a player's avatar. Shivering, the blonde pulled the bear fur trimmed cloak that was part of her armor closer around her. She had originally thought that the addition of a 'cape' was a bit showy...but now she admitted that it was actually useful. Bracing herself, Samriel began to walk through Snowfrost Town, grateful for the sturdy high boots and to the fact that while it was cold, it could be worse...there could be a blizzard going on! The town was sort of cute, looking like the front of a holiday card. But she wasn't here to enjoy the sights. There was a quest that she had on her list. She had spoken to a broker that was giving out free information to less knowledgeable players and they had mentioned the quest called Avalanche. It sounded within her capabilities she thought and so here she was. Perhaps she should've bought a sweater first though. Dang hinds- "Ooof!" 

Samriel's thoughts and stride were suddenly interrupted as she was tackled by a furry creature half her size. At first the shield woman panicked, trying to bring up her menu to equip her weapon....and then she realized she was in a safe zone. "Wh-?" Before she could get out a fully formed question, a cold wet nose snuffed at her cheek, causing her to shriek at the unwanted sensation and involuntarily laughed as she was crawled on and thus tickled. "Ch-Chewie!" The blonde declared in realization before growling and attempting to heave the bear cub off of her person, or at least enough to allow her to sit upright! But the bear cub was determined, sniffing about her hips and cloak as if desperately searching for something. "Bah, you greedy bear-dog." Roughing up the fur around his neck and ears fondly, Samriel then swiped open her menu to materialize an assortment of berries from her menu into her cupped hands. Chewie's reaction was rather immediate, stuffing his muzzle into her hands with such force that it pressed them down to her lap. "Easy, easy! They're not going anywhere. ...Well except your belly."  She smiled softly down at the familiar, thinking of her dad's dog. The tender moment didn't last long as quickly finished off the snack before looking up for more as if he were starving. Rolling her eyes, Samriel not so gently pushed him off of her. "As if you don't get fed all the time." 

Standing and attempting to brush the white powder from her person and not really succeeding, the blonde sighed before staring down at big and fluffy. "Well, c'mon." She motioned for the familiar to follow her as she began to walk towards a familiar large brown tent some ways away, just at the edge of the town. Lifting up a flap, Samriel popped her head in and called out, "Mack? You in? I found something of yours."

[Mack 0]

Chewie gave Samriel a look that said, very plainly, that he did get fed all the time but that, all the same, it was not nearly enough feeding as she shoved him off her lap. Rude. The grizzly cub gave Samriel a deeply hurt look that lasted for all of, maybe, two seconds. As she brushed powdery snow from her legs Chewie compensated by taking a running start and plowing through several huge snow drifts. When the cub re-emerged a few seconds later he looked like a cross between the grizzly bear that he was and a polar bear. Tongue lolling out, the bear cub padded through the snow over to the blonde woman, leaned up against her, and transferred a good amount of powdery snow onto her legs again before following along at her side as she trudged through the snow in the direction of his master's shop. When the blonde pushed open the tent flap the bear scampered in past her and made a beeline for his spot by the nice warm forge, shooting a look at Mack in the process that clearly said, 'See? Look who I found. I'm so good. I need a treat.'

"I see," the Blacksmith rumbled in a deep tone, emerging from the area at the back of the shop where the forge was located. Even though it was quite unnecessary, he brushed his hands off on the blacksmith's apron he was wearing. "I assume he's begged for and received a treat," the towering man continued, completely ignoring Chewie's look that was asking for another treat. Somehow, the ginger man seemed to be immune to the bear, though that may have been because he lived with the creature. "What brings you to the fourth floor today?"

[Samriel 0]

Clearly seeing the proud look on the familiar's fuzzy visage, Samriel rolled her eyes and he'd been closer, she would've tried to (gently) push him over. Deciding she might as well get out of the cold for a minute, the blonde entered and let the tent flap close behind her, sighing in content at the warmth bottled up from the forge. At the blacksmith's question, she raised an eyebrow. "Are we stuck in a virtual reality video game?" The key was that the answer to both questions was 'yes'. Though technically he hadn't really asked. She couldn't help but huff a small chuckle under her breath at Chewie's disgruntled snuff as his owner ignored his pining.

Lavender eyes flicking from the bear cub to the fully grown bear sized man, Samriel replied, "Just doin' a quest. Was on my way to it when Sir Begs-a-Lot ran into me. Literally. Just wanted to make sure he got back home alright." She shrugged, her long blonde braid falling from her shoulder to behind her back. "I'd uh, ask you what you're doing here but,"  The shield woman gestured to his forge with a humerus smile. "Kinda obvious I guess. And you probably live here so...double pointed reason." Bah, she was rambling, why was she rambling? Time to exit stage left...  "I'll um, get out of your fur-er hair now."

[Mack 0]

Chewie huffed out a breath that sounded like a long suffering sigh as he looked from the blonde woman to his master. It was clear that he was now being ignored. Plus, no one had paid him in a delicious treat based way for finding Samriel and bringing her to the shop. Really, Chewie was pretty sure that was worth two treats right there, one for each of the performed tasks. With inflation and taxes that came to, roughly speaking, two infinites worth of treats. Honestly, everyone knew that. Slowly, Chewie trudged to his spot near the forge, shooting Samriel a very hurt and sad look as he walked off. She was obviously the better bet to feel guilty and give him more things to put in his stomach.

"I just finished crafting for the day, actually," the Blacksmith rumbled, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "I need to head out and do some material farming, I'll tag along on your quest," he continued, inviting himself along for wherever Samriel was headed off to. "Besides that, it's getting late and if you're going any kind of distance from town it will be night before you get back and it's easy to get lost on this floor in the dark. With all the snow everything looks the same." Pulling up his menu, Mack began equipping gear. "So, you can crash with me tonight. I have a spare room at my place, but it's a bit of a hike." The hulking man clapped his hands and Invictus appeared in them. Now that everything was decided, so far as he was concerned at least, they could be on their way.

[Samriel 0]

As Chewie passed by to a warmer spot, Samriel ran her hand along his back, mussing up his fur slightly as her eyes focused on his owner. She nodded with vague interest as he declared that he had done his crafting for the day and wondering if they were just doing small talk until the conversation took a sharp turn down a path she didn't foresee. Frozen for a moment, the blonde didn't say anything as the blacksmith proceeded to invite himself along, decide that it was going to be an overnight event and plan for them to 'crash' together at his place. All in the span of sixty seconds.

"....What?" Finally Samriel stirred to life looking rather exasperated and blindsided by the entire situation. "Whoa whoa whoa, put the axe away. Jeez..." Pushing her bangs up away from her forehead, she tried to collect her thoughts. "As nice a offer as that might sound, it also sounds literally like an excuse to get me to sleep with you, literally or figuratively." The blonde raised an eyebrow, challenging the man to contradict her. Eyes shifting to the bear cub she prompted, "Back me up here Chewie, you know him."

[Mack 0]

Hearing his name, Chewie rocketed back out from his place by the forge heading in the direction of Samriel. She had said his name. This meant she was going to feed him. Obviously. Just as he passed beneath the table the grizzly tripped over his own feet and tumbled several times before coming to a stop against Samriel's legs with a solid thump. "Chewie, it's time to hunt up some materials," Mack rumbled. Swiping a finger in the air, the ginger man pulled up his inventory and retrieved a simple loaf of bread. He tossed it to Chewie and, before the bear could right himself and stand up, the loaf had thwacked the cub right between the eyes. Completely unperturbed by this, the cub snatched up the gluten filled treat in his jaws and scampered out of the tent.

"Well, it looks like Chewie agrees with me," the Blacksmith rumbled in a genial tone. "And give me some credit, I have a fully furnished guest room. If I didn't then I would sleep on the couch, a gentleman does not go where he is not invited," the giant said, his storm grey eyes flashing for just a moment as he brushed past Samriel and held open the tent flap. "Plus, the house has plenty of food and a few other nice things, and it's close enough to the hot springs on the fourth floor to not be too far of a walk after one has gone for a dip."

[Samriel 0]

Samriel beamed as Chewie came racing towards her, but it ended in a chuckle as he tripped and thumped against her legs, nearly causing her to lose balance if she hadn't grabbed the edge of a nearby table displaying Mack's impressive wares. "See, I knew I could count on y-" Her sentence was cut off as Mack spoke and tossed bread at his familiar, who was then in the palm of his hands. Crossing her arms with a huff, the blonde muttered something along the lines of needing to get more bribe material before poking Chewie's nose and declaring, "Et tu Brutus?"

Chewing on the inside of her cheek as the hulking man spoke, the corner of her mouth couldn't help but twitch upward as she asked with a single raised eyebrow, "And how do I know you're a gentleman?" Eyes not backing down from his steel toned ones before backing down as the draft rustled her braid. Pulling her cape tight around her once more, they both exited the tent. She had to admit it didn't sound all bad, she just didn't particularly like plans suddenly changing. And wasn't entirely sure how she felt about spending the night with him, gentleman or not. "Sounds like you have quite the setup."

Glancing back at his shop, Samriel frowned thoughtfully and asked in genuine curiosity. "So...your shop is a tent....how do you lock up when you leave? What's to prevent some random nobody from wiping your shop clean? You've gotta have hundreds of thousand col worth of goods and materials in there, right?"

[Mack 0]

When Samriel thumped him on the nose, Chewie scampered off even faster. Obviously, she wanted the bread that master had given. That bread was Chewie's treat, not anyone else's, and the cub was not about to share it with anyone else. Disappearing out of the tent, Chewie dove into the nearest drift of snow and vanished from sight beneath the powder, a steadily shrinking bread periscope marking his location within the drift until the bread was all gone. Then, like the Kool-Aid Man, the grizzly cub burst from the snow drift and gave Samriel a triumphant look. He had eaten all the bread and had not shared even so much as a crumb. Point to Chewie. That done, he scampered in her direction and settled back on his haunches before holding up both forepaws in an unmistakable demand to be carried. He would want to be carried until he no longer wanted to be carried, which would be when he spotted food.

"When have I ever given the impression that I'm not a gentleman," Mack asked, traipsing through the snow next to Samriel. "And I do have quite the set-up, as you'll see." The continued walking for a few moments, passing beyond the town's gates, before Samriel asked another question. "I mostly give gear and goods away to people anyway," the giant man said in answer to the question about locking up the shop. "If someone comes and takes something they obviously need it. Chewie gets pretty upset if they don't feed him before they take something, though."