[PP - F19] To melt away the cold {Tricolor_Mina, Raidou, Morgenstern}

[Setsuna 0]

Out of a gateway, light tapping shoes on aged stone. Dark, empty, save a captain. "I haven't the slightest idea, didn't put up much of a fight." Unfeeling, empty, just like the player's surroundings. Out of simply a gesture, Setsuna turns and takes a huff of her clothes. "Really, out of all of them you chose that one." she scoffs, she reeked like sulfur and whatever other sludge that was still smeared within that space. Plugging her nose, her sense of smell was a bit refined by comparison to the next guy.

It made it all but pungent and overpowering. "Is she dead, have we failed?" The girl remarks coldly, a few tapping steps to Mina laying there like a sack of potatoes. "I say we drop her where she was found, we have more important matters than play babysitter to a stone." It was a bit dark, sure but true. Just the slightest bit of memory of the first time she'd met the girl and gave her a tongue lashing, apparently the girl was a beacon for trouble. Drawing her blade out slightly as she catches movement, holding with a raise of Freyd's hand. She was about to dissect Akane for just appearing out of the shadows.

[Raidou 1]

 ♫

Confirmation came rather quickly, watching Mina's moving cursor halt in an instant and a giant flash of white light at his back. Ameniti was intending to make a gambit, cause a disturbance to force a distraction to give her ample time to flee. She wished a diversion, using the house of cards as scapegoats for her escape. Unfortunately, a guild was militarized for this exact sort of event, trained and efficient. As Morgenstern darted around in a frenetic display of concern, Raidou seemed cold and calculating. Running data at the foot of a myriad of consoles like a conductor, watching and waiting. Returning in a huff, with some information to relay. "Correct, Jon, she's safe. Faster than I could have expected, no less. But frankly, she needs more than one person she can rely on." The man's anger was warranted, and it wasn't hard for Raidou to relate.

"I accept that responsibility, as I always have." The red wanderer seemed adamant, truthful as the menus continued to stir. Olenna rushing out and ripping a crystal out in a huff, his eyes maintain that volatile red glow of a mixing hatred and tracking. "Clearly, although my warning was dismissed completely, it has been self-fulfilling prophecy. This was exactly what I feared, and although it seems the suit mean well..." He'd pause and fiddle with the lenses on his brow. "I don't believe Rosa and her band understand the gravity of the mess they are in. Collection breeds value, The greater your number, the more costly your head. It is all too easy to assume you are safe, that numbers make you safe. But it is lazy, as a group is only as strong as their ability to consider what ifs and listen to methods beside their own."

"Go get your fianceé Jon, and protect her in a way so that I won’t have to. She wants more from this world than she currently owns, and I cannot trust the Arbiters to keep an eye on her, clearly." Turning on his heels to a sway of red, as another sonar like pulse leaps from him. A couple more red dots in the distance being snuffed out, these weepers were going to be obliterated like the scum they were.

"And you have one thing right, Morgenstern of the APD. The red wanderer, who a hundred names belong to, The red wanderer is a bad omen, the question is..." A black shadow beneath him growing larger. "For who."

*Raidou teleports to ???*

[Morgenstern 1]

The dark gold of his eyes remained unwavering as Raidou began his reply. In fact, the man's natural calm and collected voice was aggravating. It was as if Mina's demise had just been a insult thrown to the wind. He didn't enjoy anyone making light of the one thing he had left. If he were to trust the man's words at all, someone had rescued Mina and she was making a safe return. However, it didn't sound like he was planning to stay away. 

"I accept that responsibility, as I always have."

 "Do you really think that protecting a few people makes up for the lives you've massacred? You're a monster in human skin, even if you are only hunting the weaker monsters. You're one of the worst of them. Never forget that."

Raidou continued to speak, and while Jonathan was in agreeance of the fuckups that the Arbiters were, it didn't ease his mind of Raidou himself at all. He also didn't like Raidou basically giving his commands. The former Paladin didn't take orders from anyone these days. Especially cold-hearted killers. 

 "For who."

Jonathan watched as the man vanished in a blue light and growing shadow, and couldn't help but find his anger without an outlet. "You're a bad omen for Mina and everyone else who isn't absolutely prepared to end someone's life." Jon knew his words were hypocritical after ending an innocents life, but he lived in constant memory of that. He had watched countless of people he was supposed to protect perish because he wasn't strong enough to protect such a large group. The Celestials had fallen because of his Inadequacy. From his own immaturity. A guild made with only good intentions is one that is easily able to be manipulated, corrupted, and destroyed. 

Finally turning to Olenna, she would first be met with his originally fury. "Went out of her way? I'm sorry that she had to be bothered by something as inconvenient as using a skill." Damn were these Arbiters annoying. Sticking their nose into places it shouldn't be and now rejecting the consequences as their own. "I haven't cared about the way I looked for some time now. I will let myself look like the most disgusting and vile person in Aincrad before I just let someone hurt Violet. I will be known as Vengeance before expire if something were to happen to her. Anyone that I find responsible for it will get to see my face as their last." 

Taking a breath, Jon's cold and venomous voice would simmer. "Look. If you want to protect your sister, then leave. Leave the Arbiters and never turn back. They offer your sister no protection and instead endanger her. If you owe something to Rosa or some shit like that, don't worry about it. If there is anything I've learned, there is no place to be a hero here. Protect the ones you care about and that's it. Lose sight of that and despair will follow shortly after as you watch all you hold dear die in front of you."

"Besides, I'll deal with Rosa myself after an incident like this..." 

He opened his menu and messaged the person at the top of the list. 

Quote

To Mina:

Where are you? I was told you were safe, I'll come pick you up and take you home. I don't want anything like to happen again. 

If he didn't receive a message in return, Raidou would suffer. Starting with that sleeping girl. 

[tricolor_mina 0]

Olenna looked outraged, before backhanding morg, her eyes watering with outrage. "I LOVE how you frontliners are acting like you're the best things ever!" she spat, her tears spilling over as she practically shook while staring at the man in front of her. "Our problems aren't caused by people like rosa, like glenn... They're caused by power-hungry high levels like you that developed a GODDAMN GOD-COMPLEX! This guild is NOT what you seem to be oh so convinced it is, so for christs sake just fucking listen to us for once. I don't give a damn if you're not scared of me, scaring you has NEVER been the goal of any of us. The shit you've seen throughout your visits? I don't think you understand how much that bitch 'Hidden' outclassed everyone save Rosa, and even she was way weaker than her at the time. You showed up, and took down only a few people, while even Violet was in the middle of the mosh pit, something that I'll remind you, SHE DID OF HER OWN FUCKING VOLITION! We just wanted vengeance for the lives lost, and boss sought out an ally in Hidden, because she wanted someone strong to be able to help us if push came to shove."

She folded her arms across her chest, glancing back at the bar. "Rikers Edge and the Arbiters... we were just an intel guild at one point... just a group of about six or seven people that sought out the unsung secrets of Aincrad." she said bitterly, closing her eyes. "Akane, Ameneti, Pavan, Hakube, Elena, Shireen... all but three of them are... were still alive.. I would assume that Ameneti is probably dead after pulling the same trick twice, probably thanks to the wanderer. None of them wanted any part of what happened, but it happened anyways. Akane still blames himself for not being strong enough to stop what happened to them, and I know Shiri does too... I just, I just don't get it... the only people in this guild that have a kill count are Rosa, Akane, and myself... and all of them were people who wanted us dead. Why are you acting like the rest of them are serial killers, too? Violet respects us, treats us like humans... you on the other hand, deem us criminals, not even worth acknowledging in a polite manner at the bare minimum... but you know what, Jackass? At least I can say I've never had a red cursor, unlike you." with that, she held up a pale blue teleport crystal, before crushing it, and whispering the name of a town, and vanishing in a sparkle of blue crystals, leaving Jon alone in front of the empty bar. Akane had instructed everyone to leave for now, until Rosa had the opportunity to return.

~-*-~-*-~With Violet, Freyd, & Setsuna~-*-~-~*-~

Violet glared up at Freyd, well... more specifically, she was glaring at the phial that he was trying to offer her. it smelled absolutely RANCID. She would rather cripwalk backwards into hell than drink that. "Freyd, no offense, but uh.. " She eyed the phial warily, a frown on her face. "If you made that, I'm pretty sure that's a crime against Alchemy, y'know!?? For christ's sake, use some mallow root or some fucking Ulafish bones, ANYTHING that doesn't make an atrocious potion!" "Or, you can just use an antidote crystal or Purify like a normal person, you know?" Violet jolted as a soft blue glow surrounded her, her eyes training on Her brother, who was shaking his head. "Your soon to be Fiancee threw a fit when Raidou intervened, by the way. You should probably send him a message-"

*DING!*

"... or Reply to the one he just sent, no..?" Violet grimaced, sitting up as she did so. "Alright lets see... "

Quote

From: Tricolor_Mina
To: Morgenstern

Hey Jon! I'm ok, I'm going to be teleporting out in a bit, Akane came to get me. If you want to drop by and say hello, I'm at F: 13, X: +45.19, Y: +22.38. I'm with Freyd at the moment, so I think I'm pretty safe~

"There! Maybe that will keep him calm, yanno?" "Doubt it. He was fairly pissed earlier." Violet stood up, stretching her arms slightly, before shooting Freyd a look. "Its actually fairly normal to get caught up in messes like that on my end, but maybe don't fling me around when you come to 'Save the day?' Its a little annoying for that to happen more than once, dude." Violet continued to stretch, wincing slightly as she shook the stiffness out of her arms.

[Freyd 0]

"Look," he said to Setsuna as she muttered her complaints.  "I grabbed the first one listed.  It's alpha-numeric, and not my fault that the smelly one ended up at the top of the list.  I'll tear it up, though so it doesn't happen again."  Glancing over to Mina's fallen form, he watched as she started to rouse herself and berate him about stuff.  He wasn't quite paying attention, at first.

"Yes, she's fine.  Let's get her back on her feet first and make sure she gets out of here.  This area of Floor Thirteen is especially inhospitable."  He sniffed at the wind, then spat out whatever had gathered in his throat from the heady fog that pressed down upon everything around them.  "Good spot for grinding, though."  Gradually, he turned his interests back to their rescuee.  If she was bitching this much already, she had to be fine.

"Do I look like I know anything about alchemy?  I only find and label this shit.  The system spits it out whenever things die around me, which happens kind of a lot.  Just be glad that I didn't whip out the Lich Loogeys." 

Looking to the closing hellmouth and final wisps of whoever the heck that was drifting out of it, Freyd found his thoughts to the scent of dead player pixels in the wind.  He'd only ever experienced it a few times before, which seemed to surprise most people.  They all assumed that he spent his days crushing player-killers into pixel paste, but the truth was far less sinister, at least for now.

"And I just sacrificed my best imitation grandad fishing pole to get you out of that bind, so you can put up with a bit of repeated flinging, thank you very much!"  His half-hearted incredulity was seriously undermined by the bucket hat, shades and shirt, not to mention that shorts, though Freyd's legs were less scrawny than she might have expected.  Still pasty-white, though. Clearly, they didn't see much sun.

"But, yeah.  I'm guessing we're done here.  You got a crystal to get back to wherever you're going, or is your boyfriend picking you up?"

He'd never felt so much like the Dad of Aincrad.

[Setsuna 0]

"Hmph." Setsuna snuffs coldly, it would take her probably quite some time to get the stink out of the fibers even as a tailor. Both players glance down to Mina making a ruckus, knowing full well that Demon's Maw was no place for her. "Suppose with the attitude that you are right." That cool gaze falls to Freyd, who was offering to protect this girl. "Not quite grateful that her life was just spared, but the reality likely hasn't sunk in." Immediately, she shifts her gaze away, trying not to allow spite to consume her.

Reaching down and grabbing one arm, to lift this still paralyzed albeit loosely sack of a pain in the ass.  There was a catch and a pause for a moment, causing the girl to turn as they trailed with both arms held atop shoulders. "I liked that fishing pole." the girl admits, biting her tongue. 

[Morgenstern 1]

Olenna seemed outraged by his words. Made sense enough, the idiots had this idea that they were a family. They might've been, but a toxic one at that. As he was backhanded, satisfaction would appear in his eyes as his thorns activated, draining her health a small portion. "Yanno, it isn't a god complex. It's the only way to protect you want to keep safe. If you want yourself and Shireen to survive, get on a level you can protect them. Simple as that, its what I did. In the end, it still wasn't enough." As the woman mentioned allying with Hidden, a glare would meet her. 

"Don't think you can just ally with a monster. One day, she's going to end up deciding you all are useless and pick you off one by one. I've seen her attack her own party member before. Someone might die because you dipshits thought that was a good idea. You'd just better hope me or some other 'power-hungry high level' is around when you come to face that consequence." 

The girl vanished in a light, just in time for Mina to reply to his message. Finally something important to actually do. A teleport crystal would whisk him to Angel's Point. From there, he was gonna have to walk.

* * *

It would take some time, but he would find Mina in a group of players. A hand moved to rest of the hilt of his sheathed weapon, as he stepped forward. His eyes quickly flicked between the three other than Mina. One was Glenn. Of course he'd shown up here. The next was a man he didn't know the name too. Jon was certain he'd seen the man in the fight against the shadow. However, he was the same as the other girl. One of The Wanderer's goons. Anybody working with that man was a threat all the same. His eyes trickle down to Mina again who was paralyzed. He didn't assume the two had done it themselves, more someone else who had caused the problem in the first place. Unless The Wanderer had elaborately planned this out to gain his trust to let his guard down. That was not out of the option. Taking up his necklace, he would press the ornament to Mina's skin. Orgoth's Defiance held a power to resist the system's effects. As it touched her, the necklace would activate and remove her paralyzed status. Taking her from the others, he would help her stand until her legs stabilized. 

Taking her hand, he would offer his thanks, his voice cool and steely. "Thanks for the help, assuming it was you guys that managed to get her back." His hand tightened on Mina's. "I'm not sure what would have happened if you didn't." Tugging lightly on her hand, he would motion for the pair to leave. If the other two were unfavoring, he doubted that he was strong enough to protect Mina and her dipshit brother from the duo in front of him. The man was a frontliner and the girl? Something in her eyes told him she was predator, not prey. 

[Shiina 0]

Elsewhere

A somber snooze, bleeding out of her lips as she grumbles "Five more minutes." The tavern becoming less and less populated with every passing second. Each player takes a wide berth around the crazy child in a nightgown, snuggled up in a ball on the floor. A steaming pile of Shiina. Evidently, the entire place empties out, leaving nothing more than an empty vacuum and the soft zzz's flowing out of the girl's lips. The door creeks open, slowly showing the moonlight that poured in from the outside. The girl shutters, a bit of that nighttime chill causing her to turn and clamor for a nonexistent blanket. "I would love the red ones, tank ya very much..." Another insistent babble pours out of the girl's lips, as a weasel squeals for dear life being squished like a stuffed animal. Sprinkles flails with tiny arms, scratching away, but the girl's skin was so damn thick it didn't even leave a mark.

Edited November 27, 2021 by Shiina

[tricolor_mina 0]

Violet smiled brightly as Jon appeared to come and get her, any annoyance at the situation suddenly vanishing from her mind as she stood up, and practically tackled him in delight. She was all to excited to see her beloved sun again. His sunny eyes and hair never failed to make her happy... though that joy was almost shattered by panic when she remembered Shireen's state when she'd been taken. She quickly stomped on that panic as she scrolled through her menu behind Jon's head, breathing a faint sigh of relief that her friend was ok. "Jon!" she chirped, her eyes twinkling with delight. "Jon! It didn't take you long at all, did it!" She nuzzled her face into Jon's shoulder, her grip on him tightening slightly.

Akane watched the pair with a soft smile, a sad look in his eyes. He wanted his sister to actually be happy for once, without having to worry about other things that she shouldn't have ever needed to worry after. Despite any efforts on his or Rosa's part, or even Jon's... she still displayed that fear, that concern. Those emotions that made her all that much more likeable, were slowly burning her out, and making her feelings worsen. His father had always told - well, not exactly 'told' out loud, their father was a mute after all - him that emotions could burn someone up from the inside out.

they could physically render someone incapable of speech, make them shut down because they couldn't process what they were feeling. Everyone had those days, some more than others. Their mother had those days the most, often being unable to speak after several days worth of silence. When he'd seen her like that for the first time at the tender age of fourteen, he'd asked his father what her unmoving, unspeaking state meant. His father wrote down a few words, and circled them. "Depression". "PTSD". "Catatonia".  He'd explained why the first two can cause the last one if it got bad enough, but at the time he hadn't processed it all that well…

The first time he'd seen Violet collapse and fall into that state he'd realized just how serious it was. His own sister was drowning in the same things that their mother was. Hell, after a few years, he'd found he was drowning in those feelings too… shot after shot, time and time again. It hurt to breathe sometimes, and sometimes one drink turned into two, then four, and next thing he knew he was hunched over a toilet the next day, his head spinning violently as his body rejected what he'd done the previous night. Everyone seemed to cope with this kind of thing differently.

Violet formed a shell that protected her soft personality from the harsh realities that she ran into. Blunt, brash, and bold to the point of nearly being suicidal. Rosa was the other extreme, and had fallen into a deep state of depression that gripped her with a tightness that hung around her like a prey animal getting stared down by an Apex predator. It crippled her old personality compared to how she acted now, and had made her bitter and angry with the world. And then there was himself… Glenn being the mask he wore for the sake of other people, the friendly and joyful side of his personality, while Akane was his darker emotions and was where his pain was the most visible. In other words, where he was vulnerable. Where he hated everything, including himself.

… Akane quietly walked over to Jon, a sad look in his eyes. "Take care of her, Jonathan." He murmured, pulling at his scarf. "She loves you dearly… don't take that for granted." He moved away from the blonde man, closing his eyes. Akane pulled out a teleport crystal, before whispering a location, and vanishing in a swirl of blue light. Violet blinked in confusion, her head tilting sideways as she stared at where her brother had been only a few moments before.

*-~-*-~-*-~-*-~-*-~-*-~-*-~-*-~-*-~-*-~-*-~-*-~-*

Edited November 30, 2021 by tricolor_mina

[Shiina 0]

Mumbling softly as a shadow is cast over her, Sprinkles still worming away pauses. He looks up toward the figure and his pupils dilate wide. Normally the thing was so attentive, and bombastic. But here it had taken to shock. Grumbling as she begins to be lifted, a small disk offered to the familiar as his only source of substance. "Not now Sprinkles, Mommy tired. Go eat like a bug or somethin'" That same incoherent babble that the girl was accustomed to when she was sleeping. A breeze in her hair, a small frame easily moved about. The girl wasn't at all heavy by any sense of the word without her armor on, probably rounding the corner of somewhere around 120 pounds wet. She'd played her part, and all of Riker's edge was absent and abandoned as the players within were brought to stabilize and had since fled. A night like any other, and the songstress wasn't one for caution.

[Raidou 1]

An arm full of Shiina, staring deep into the girl after offering Sprinkles something to keep him quiet. Still wasn't quite sure why the girl picked something so volatile, but yet it suits her. Through the doors and walks of arbiters edge, he begins to collect papers and scraps of info. Juiblex had claimed the front entry, the blackened liquid forming a space between the frame and sticking it shut despite damage sustained to the threshold.

Through the perimeter as that small support is laid across a sofa. Rustling through as fire continued to burn. Up to the chamber, leaving Shiina in the closed off building. To the room at the top, a sudden echo of color as he perused the room before. A single vial, left behind from the exchange. A crime scene, cataloged, one unit after another. "I suppose that's it." Raidou remarks after a thorough skill driven and real world perception scan of that room.

Pulling out a single space, a bit of wood, he motions something deeper into that nook. He couldn't very well expect Violet to stay away, but he could have eyes should this happen again. Back as if nothing had changed, he adjusts a pair of glasses before scooping up Shiina. The foundation was set, the building would serve him well. That empty vial, still cupped in his left hand, every item had an identity. One that could be discovered and deciphered. If it originated from Ameniti then that would be the end of the trail. But he was nothing if not consistent and calculating. "Let's get you home."

A flash of light after the door's barricade slithers back into his clothes, and he was gone.

[Freyd 0]

 Thread Summary:

25056 words / 30 = 835*5= 4175*Tier
25056 / 300 = 84 seeds

Tricolor_Mina receives:

Spoiler

16908 EXP (Word Count [4175*3] + 35% from event)
1040 col (800 [2 page] + 30% from event)

84 Seeds (Event)
0 tags - ID: 202508 (CD 3); 202509 (CD 3); 202510 (CD 3)

Morgenstern receives:

Spoiler

39453 EXP (Word Count [4175*7] + 35% from event)
7693 col (5918 [Laurel, +15% of EXP as col] + 30% from event)
15 mats (10 [tag] + 50% from event)

84 Seeds (Event)
1 tag - ID: 202503 (CD 11); 202504 (CD 5); 202505 (CD 5)

10 materials, +5% EXP to the party

Raidou Receives:

Spoiler

63652 EXP (Word Count [4175*10] + 35% from event) 
12411 col (9547 [Laurel, +15% of EXP as col] + 30% from event)
15 mats (10 [tag] + 50% from event)

84 Seeds (Event)
1 tag - ID: 202493 (CD 7); 202494 (CD 5); 202495 (CD 9)

10 materials, +5% EXP to the party

Freyd Receives:

Spoiler

33817 EXP (Word Count [4175*12] + 35% from event / 2 for post count)
6593 col (5072 [Laurel, +15% of EXP as col] + 30% from event)
15 mats (10 [tag] + 50% from event)

42 Seeds (Event)
2 tags - ID: 202489 (CD 12); 202490 (CD 10); 202491 (CD 5)

10 materials, +5% EXP to the party, 
T4 Perfect Unidentified Equipment/Item (x3) of the player’s choice [202490a, 202490b, 202490c]

Setsuna Receives:

Spoiler

19726 EXP (Word Count [4175*7] + 35% from event / 2 for post count)
3846 col (2959 [Laurel, +15% of EXP as col] + 30% from event)

42 Seeds (Event)
0 tags - ID: 202499 (CD 7); 202500 (CD 2); 202501 (CD 3)

Shiina receives:

Spoiler

19726 EXP (Word Count [4175*7] + 35% from event / 2 for post count)
3846 col (2959 [Laurel, +15% of EXP as col] + 30% from event)
15 mats (10 [tag] + 50% from event)

42 Seeds (Event)
1 tag - ID: 202496 (CD 11); 202497 (CD 8); 202498 (CD 1)

10 materials, +5% EXP to the party