[PP-01] <<Training your Friend>> w/ Mari

[Cordelia 0]

Pacco Pacarro the Third and Fourth. Maybe she was just terrible with names. Maybe she was just really good with names. You never know.

Cordelia wasn’t sure what to expect with this new one. He was much more. . . friendlier than Pacco. Of course, it was nice but she wasn’t sure if she would ever get used to it. They both looked exactly the same. The only difference between the two was that-- well, one looked depressed twenty-four seven and then other looked like he was on something. That-- that was really it. 

Cordelia sighed. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to start training Pacco right after she had caught him. He was unruly, so maybe it was a better idea to just let him. . . chill out for a few days. . ? Though she really needed all the stats she could really get at the moment, so perhaps it was better to just get on with it?

Consumed (CD) Item: +1 CD

@Mari

[Mari 1]

“Hmm….the last time I was here I was attacked…” Mari muttered under her breath, it had been annoying, very annoying - but she had also managed to meet someone who was equally annoying and frustrating. Mephisto. At least he tagged along with her when she found and trained her familiar. Speaking of familiar, but not a familiar Mari noticed a head of white hair just up ahead. “Cordelia?” Mari called out, her casual walk turning into a small jog as she approached the other woman.

“Hey, what brings you down here?” Mari asked. She offered Cordelia a warm smile, Mari wanted to do better by the young woman - she wanted to show her that hey, Mari appreciated her. Mari couldn’t help but notice a couple of black birds flittering about her.

Ahh...that’s right, wasn’t her familiar a bird of some sort?

“Err...I see you’re making some friends there.” Mari said as she gestured toward the feathery creatures.

@Cordelia

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia stopped abruptly in her tracks as she heard someone call out to her. Her face went blank for a second before she smiled at the familiar ginger. “Oh, hey Mari.”  She sniffed. “Yeah-- yeah, I guess, I did. I guess I have to deal with two birds now. . . but they’re pretty much the same. . .” she trailed off, shaking her head. “You know what, it’s complicated. I’ll just have to explain it later,” she said sheepishly, shrugging her shoulders. It was complicated. It was still confusing even to Cordelia, so how was she going to explain that to a person when it didn’t even make sense to her?

“So, what brings you around here?” She asked, eager to change the conversation. It’s not often that she usually saw Mari just out and about by herself. In fact, the only times she actually ever saw her was either at her shop or doing a quest.

[Mari 1]

“Me? Oh...err….” What was she doing down here? Mari pursed her lips as she crossed her arms, trying to think of a reason, she had just been aimlessly wandering really. “I...don’t know, reminiscing I guess. I was close by and it’s a shorter walk to this floor than it is to the fourth...I probably wouldn’t get home till the middle of the night, and I love the snowy floor but not so much in the middle of the night.” Mari sniffed and gave a nod. “Yeh, prob gonna hole up in a cave somewhere tonight.” She said with a wry grin.  Truthfully, she barely slept in her home - Mari still had reservations, still believed she didn’t deserve it.

“So...they’re the same?” Mari asked as she kneeled down and held a hand out to one of the birds. “In other words -they’re both your familiar...but they kinda share the same mind? Like bees or ants?” Mari looked up and over her shoulder at the other.

“Are they trained?”

@Cordelia

[Cordelia 0]

“I see. . . that makes sense, I guess. I wouldn’t want to be walking through a snow covered floor in the middle of the night either,” Cordelia mused, shuddering. “Well, I wish you the best of luck. May you find a very homey cave,” she said, cracking a small grin. 

Cordelia looked between the two Paccos before she let out a sigh. “So you get it?” She asked, her expression slowly sweat-dropping. “I think it’s something like that. . . frankly, I don’t even know if Pacco is a bird at all. I swear, he’s like some kind of supernatural entity or something,” she murmured, shaking her head.

She looked over to her familiars. Pacco was a strange being. She was still convinced that it was some kind of supernatural ghost, demon, thing that was playing hand puppets with crows. It sounded like she was crazy but they were in a world where fighting giant bugs was a daily occurance, come on, people!

ID: 138246
CD: 1+1=2, Fail

[Mari 1]

One of the birds, Pacco - snapped at Mari’s outstretched hand. Her brows lowered and furrowed. “Hey...that’s not very nice…” She admonished. “Maybe Pacco remembers me too well, I wasn’t...exactly nice to you when we first met, was I?” Mari asked quietly. When they had first met, Mari was quite standoffish - she had only really come back from her isolation and was still under the belief that everyone was out to get her, whilst that wasn’t the case it was a difficult feeling to shake, even now. “I had a lot of reservations, and I kinda took them out on you. I never really properly apologized for that...So again, Cordelia - I’m sorry.”

Mari stood and dusted her hands. “I do admire you, and despite our first meeting, I hope we can continue to get along.” Mari paused, not sure what else to say, or of she was coming off as sincere or not. She wasn’t exactly good at these sort of interactions. In a way,she was envious of how easily Macradon managed to just befriend everyone he met. Then again, Mari didn’t think she had that same sort of patience.

“A hive minded creature in the form of a bird...yeeh - that sounds about right for Aincrad - I mean, I have a giant floating fish - and Macradon has a miniature cerberus - so yeh, fits right in.”

[Cordelia 0]

“Oh, he’s just mean to everyone,” Cordelia sighed, shrugging it off. “He still snaps at me half of the time I try to interact with, which is really why I just let him-- or them do whatever they want."

“Oh, no, no,” Cordelia fretted, a sheepish smile forming on her face. “It was partially my fault, too. I shouldn’t have been so blunt with my thoughts. I’m still trying to work on that a little bit.” Cordelia gave Mari a ghost of a smile. “Yeah, I hope that, too.”

The platinum-haired player let out a laugh. “Abnormality is the new normality, I suppose,” she exclaimed. “I’d be more surprised if someone had an animal that made sense to have, like a dog that doesn’t have two heads or a cat that isn’t completely made out of fire or something like that,” she mused, chuckling to herself. “I guess that’d be rarer than finding something like our familiars.”

[Mari 1]

Mari offered Cordelia a warm smile as she watched the other talk, Mari first pinned Cordelia as someone who was quite cold and standoffish, aloof - and not really in tune with her emotions. But seeing her like this? She was animated, and it felt like she wore her emotions on her sleeve. It was admirable, and innocent.  “Maybe he...they? Maybe they just want some more food - or something shiny.” Mari mused as she tapped her lip in thought. “Yanno I used to feed the birds around my apartment, we have a thing called swooping season - where the magpies swoop people to protect their young but they never attacked me...probably because I fed them.”

Cordelia talked about the different kinds of familiars and Mari nodded in agreement. “Yeh, if I wasn’t afraid of getting attached...I’d probably have gone for a regular cat. But, things won’t last forever in here. So I decided to get something that I guess I’d find less of an attachment to, but still found to be both useful and in my general aesthetic, so now I have a giant floating Koi fish. It’s a little hard to be attached to something you can’t really pat or interact with.”

Mari fell silent at that admission. Right… that’s why she had been so cold toward others, at some point they’d all escape this place - and all the friendships and relationships she had made in here...could she really expect them to last? Mari had no idea what awaited her out there, many times she admitted she’d just be thrown into jail - and she wouldn’t even argue the fact.

“Oh..Ah, sorry.” Mari said to Cordelia when she realized she had just fallen silent on the other woman. “I tend to get a little lost in my own thoughts sometimes.  “I think it’s ok to be blunt - I know I am...I’d rather someone be blunt to me, and hurt my feelings - than be lied to, and for it to hurt more later.”

@Cordelia

[Cordelia 0]

“Perhaps,” she trailed off. Pacco had never been the type of bird to collect shiny things-- much less collect things at all. “He does have a particular fondness for. . . crackers, weirdly enough. Ever since he was given them, it was the only thing he would eat,” Cordelia said with a laugh. “I suppose a balanced diet doesn’t really matter in here but it’s still funny to think about sometimes, I guess.”

Cordelia’s eyes downcasted to the floor. “I suppose things in here won’t last forever, huh,” she echoed, a small tinge of sadness seeping out of her voice. She wondered if she would ever get to see anyone in SAO out in the real world once they beat the game and got out of here. 

“Ah, don’t worry about it.” Cordelia cracked a smile as she returned back to the conversation too. “You think so? That’s one way to see it, I suppose.”

[Mari 1]

Smiles were fragile things, and they often told so much more than words ever could. A smile could be the prettiest and warmest thing in the world as it would stretch to meet your eyes - but it could also be the coldest and most cunning. And Cordelia’s...it was a mask. Mari felt her heart wrench seeing that smile - it was one Mari knew all too well, it was one she wore daily.

Mari instinctively reached out to Cordelia; “Hey now.” She said softly as her hands landed on either one of the platinum blondes shoulders. “Things in here can’t last forever, but it doesn’t mean they won’t extend out there - a familiar is data - but the people? They’re real those friendships are real - and I’m sure that someone like you, they’re gonna hold those friendships close to their heart.” Mari gave Cordelia’s shoulders a gentle squeeze.

“You’re stubborn, I very much doubt that you’d even let people loose touch with you. You know we’re all probably in the same facility. When we get out - we’ll all have to be rehabilitated right? That’d happen as a group. Together. So if you want, you can come find me out there, if I’m out there that is.”

@Cordelia

[Cordelia 0]

"You have a way with words, don't you?" Cordelia mused softly, giving Mari a genuine smile as she nodded her head.

"God, I sure hope so, though. I'm not even sure if the people I've met live in the same area as me," she murmured, scratching her chin. Real life subjects were something people weren't too keen on talking about nowadays, and it can even be considered room to be asking someone about their life in the real world, which Cordelia thought was completely bullshit. Sure, it can give you a bit of homesickness but it was honestly stupid to just flat out ignore what you have going on back in the real world, not matter how much you hated it.

Something about the conversation seemed to have sparked a question inside her, though. What was going to happen to Mari once she had gotten out? People knew her in here as. . . a murderer, but what about the people outside? She was sure that people were going to come and find her for her crimes but still, she wondered exactly how it was going to happen.

ID: 138247
CD: 4+1=5, Fail

[Mari 1]

Mari shifted away from Cordelia and arched her back, stretching. At least it was pleasantly warm here. Her words must have resonated well with Cordelia- as she seemed to lighten up after that. Well, it was a good thing, right? "Mmm....I dunno about that." Mari said to her comment. "I'm actually pretty terrible with words, I often blurt out whats bothering me at the time - I don't have a lot of tact, I'm not really refined like Baldur. I'm always so emotional - and I can't even be carefree like Macradon." Mari didn't have a high opinion of herself, she would constantly be reminded of things she hated.

Mari shifted to and fro - kicking at the lush green grass till she had flattened enough of it for her to sit down. Mari plopped herself down against the ground and leaned back on one arm. "We may not live in the same area - or even the same countries, but everyone in here - I'm sure we're all in the same place somewhere. It would be easier that way yanno? To move everyone with the same ailments to the same location. Monitoring and data collecting would be much easier."

Mari watched as the two birds hopped around. Tilting their head to the side as they listened to the worms beneath the ground. "We're like...a rare gem to them I bet. Something like this has never happene before, they're going to lap up all the data whilst we're in here, and when we are out there - they're only gonna wanna continue that. People think I'm pessimistic when I talk about that. But I'm just being realistic. Sides whats so bad about being valuable? The green players at least, I'm sure they'll treat very carefully."

@Cordelia

[Cordelia 0]

"I feel like people take it more to the heart if you're more emotional," Cordelia reasoned. "It doesn't really matter how you're expressing it, it just matters that you're doing it genuinely," she shrugged. "That's my point of view on it anyway."

"I suppose that would make sense. . . but there's thousands of players still in the game. Do you think they could find a space big enough for that?" She pondered, unclipping her capelet before laying it on the ground. "The last thing I want to be is another lab rat," she muttered, shaking her head. She plopped herself down on the fabric before sighing. "I totally get that though. Of course they'd want to gather information about it. The NerveGear was a breakthrough in technology after all."

Cordelia hummed, drumming her fingers on her leg. "Where do you think Kayaba is right now?" She asked. "He must be in hiding somewhere, but he must be surveilling us from somewhere, right?"

[Mari 1]

Mari nodded in response to Cordelia. "Honestly, I am not the best person. On the scale of decent to downright awful I'm probably more toward the side of 'shi**y human being' The funny thing is how I don't ever really lie...and yet..." Mari sighed as she shifted her gaze skyward - the sky was a brilliant and flawless blue - the kind of bright blue that burned your eyes if you looked at it too long. "I think all people ever assume I do is lie, but - I can't exactly blame them, eh?"

Mari pulled her eyes away from the sky when she felt them begin to burn. "Yeh sure; there is plenty o' space - we are probably lab rats, but at least we're in here whilst they're out there doing whatever."  Mari made for another friendly pat at Cordelia's familiar. "He's probably watching us all from the sky like some creep - or he's probably among the players - changing his identity at random. Maybe he's Xavier today, and tomorrow he's Matilda. If he has the power to completely change the system at a whim that is."  Mari liked the conversation, it wasn't often people were so willing to talk about their predicament so easily. It was such a taboo subject, even more so than talking about the lives outside the game.

"You don't mind the subject matter?" Mari asked. "We could talk more about your....familiar hive mind birds if you'd like."

@Cordelia

[Cordelia 0]

"I would certainly see why people would distrust you. . ." Cordelia murmured, her voice trailing off. 

All thoughts seemed to have gone to Pinball. That bastard. Perhaps it was foolish of her to immediately trust someone with an orange crystal right away. She glanced over to Mari. Not all of them were bad, though. . . but she wasn't sure if she could ever look at someone with that same orange cursor above their head the same again. 

"Those ideas don't sound too far off," Cordelia mused, tilting her head. "Matilda and Xavier are very specific names," she joked before tilting her chin upward to the sky. "But that would make sense."

"No, no, of course, I get it." She looked over to Pacco. "Frankly, I have no idea how he works. Sometimes I just think that he's some kind of invisible force that's playing with hand puppets that just so happen to be crows," Cordelia deadpanned. "How I got the second crow is still a mystery to me."

 

---

 

ID: 138327
CD: 10, Success

1/3

[Mari 1]

Normally a comment like that would have bothered Mari, but she just lightly laughed. Cordelia was about as blunt as she was. "Yeh, well - I don't blame them - I don't think I could ever be pissed at someone for outright disliking me." She shifted her gaze to the side. "Hell, I hate myself most the time. But hey - we are our own worst critics." Mari said with a shrug. She gave Cordelia a wry grin. "I like to think I'm like Coffee, you hate me at first, because I'm bitter - but after a while, when you've put up with me long enough I'm not so bad."

Mari shifted her gaze to the grass, picking at it lightly. "I'm glad though..." She said quietly. "That people like you and Mac, and even Baldur tolerate me - I mean, if you weren't comfortable I'd completely understand too. A part of me is kinda waiting for the day that'll happen. It feels so surreal to have others to talk to again."

Mari's eyes shifted to the birds again - right... "So, what are you going to train them in?" Mari asked. "I trained Kohaku in damage, since I still run a teeny tiny lil' dagger - I'm planning on making mine completely DoT - and Kohaku will just sorta, make up for it. It's really interesting to watch. As for why you have the two, well, birds are social creatures right?" 

@Cordelia

[Cordelia 0]

"That's one way to put it, I guess," Cordelia chuckled, smiling softly as she ran her hand through the grass. "Does that mean you keep people up at night too?" She joked, scratching the side of her head as she let out a laugh. 

"I can imagine," Cordelia sniffed, "I isolated myself for a few months after the game had started, I only back up and running about a year and a half ago. It was nice talking to people again." She shrugged, learning back as she pressed her palms against the ground. "You'll be fine."

"Well, back when I only had one bird, it was for accuracy. I decided to switch over to damage before the boss raid since my weapon no longer has any damage enhancements on it," Cordelia explained, "I suppose they are. Frankly, I don't know how they're going to help me in battle. Maybe they can just peck out the eyes of me enemies or something," Cordelia mused jokingly.

[Mari 1]

Mari shrugged, "I keep myself up at Night - does that count? Dunno about other people. Maybe my ugly ass mug plagues their nightmares." Mari said jokingly. She began to feel pins and needles in her butt and legs so she pushed herself up off the ground, stretching. Mari began to pace around in a small circle to get the circluation running in her legs again. "It'd be pretty amusing seeing them pick out a monsters eyes - I'd probably pay some Col to see that."

"Hmmm.... Did you wanna see a demonstration on how Kohaku works with my weapon?" Mari asked. "I made Kohaku all damage too, since I'll be reforging my dagger using some items I got from that Cerberus raid we did - Macradon was nice enough to give me his spare etching. Burn Burn/ Bleed Bleed sounds pretty nice, doesn't it?" Mari said with a lopsided grin. "Without realizing it I guess I've specialized in DoT damage - most of it all burning stuff. Pretty ironic considering I hate the heat and live in the snow." 


@Cordelia

[Cordelia 0]

Cordelia scoffed. "That doesn't count," she exclaimed.

"Actually, that would be great. Yeah, I used two of the etchings to remove the damage enhancements on my katana from that quest-- so I deal a bit of DoT now. . . it was never really my intention to deal DoT damage, but I really just needed to remove those enhancements," Cordelia sighed, scratching the side of her cheek. Really, her whole build kind of just took a sudden turn during the middle of being a tier two. First, she had acquired the holy katana, and then she somehow got a phase voucher for it? She really considered herself to be a lucky one.

"I'd be happy for you to demonstrate for me, though! I've never really dealt with a damage familiar before, so it'd be good to see someone else do it before I do something I shouldn't be doing," Cordelia chuckled, scratching the back of her neck.

[Mari 1]

"Hey!" Mari exclaimed. "That totally counts!" She crossed her arms over her chest. "Come back to me and say that when you hear about me jumpin' into everyones dreams demanding food, like a hangry Freddy Kruger." 

Mari laughed lightly, more to herself than anything else. "Yanno...I never really meant to be a DoT build - but it just ended up being that way...my dagger was already bleed/bleed and when Macradon gave me this harness with Flame Aura well...It kinda just ended up being that way. Anyway, let me bring out Kohaku."

Kohaku began to slowly swim around Mari, as though he were flowing through the gentle ebb and flow of a river. Mari gestured for Cordelia to follow as she headed to a nearby tree a few feet away. "There are two ways - the first, is just Kohaku headbutting something, it err...works but doesn't really look very nice. Its cumbersome - and having a giant fish rush at you isn't exactly intimidating. The other...." Mari held out her dagger and Kohaku literally dived  into it - the surface of the blade shimmering like it was naught but the reddened surface of water. A misty veil circled the blade, the colour of whites and oranges - akin to a summer sunset. "This - This is where I normally keep Kohaku."

@Cordelia