[F12-PP-PT] Where Nightmares Tread [Slimin 2, the talkening]

[Alinta 0]

Alinta watched silently as he worked. Yeh, he must be Japanese, she recognized the way he'd hone his blade...from a live action romance - forbidden flowers in bloom. She wished she was at home, warm in her bed...eating out of a bucket of ice cream watching that show. Instead...she was here, with a real life swordsman, it'd almost make her heart flutter - if she wasn't completely terrified of him.

Alinta didn't quite realize she was staring till he stood and let the sword hit the wood with a thwak. She jolted with a flinch, eyes shifting to the blade. Then, in a movement the woman barely noticed she found him leaning right over her. Soft grey eyes staring down at her. They didn't look like the hardened eyes of a killer...they looked tired. Pained...And he smelt..nice.. The woman expected him to smell like blood and metal but instead...

Hints of tea, a sycamore tree...old paper and inks...and something else she couldn't quite pick, but it was floral.

The lonely Ronnin, gone from heart and home, an outcast in late winter, never to return to home and warmth...

No. Alinta couldn't get side-tracked. This was dangerous. 

He ripped the close from her mouth and Alinta gave a struggling gasp of air. He had caught onto her trying to remember what he looked like?

What the fuck..How the fuck did he figure any of that out?

How would he know that she'd tell? He had no way of following her 24/7 - and no way of waltzing into Oscars shop...all Alinta had to do was survive, and she'd run straight there. Her deep purple eyes, like amethyst shifted away from his.

"Here...it's...I-I-...Alinta...Real name....U..Uhm...R-...Raven...Ebonhart..." She muttered, then cleared her throat. "I mean...I used to be Rachel but....I got it legally changed t-t-to Raven Ebonhart..." She stammered. Alinta was absolutely terrified of this man, but with him being so close like this...she swallowed.

He'd stand and return to honing another blade. This time...Alinta purposefully kept her gaze away, but only for a few minutes before she they shifted back to him. There was no way he'd be able to do anything....right? It's the entire reason he was holed up here with her, the reason he had her as a hostage. And a hostage...was no good dead...right?

Dare she mention that? "I...I'm n-no use....uh....." She was going to say she was no use to him dead. But her courage wavered with another draw of the sharpening tool across his blade. She winced and her gaze fell down to the ground, what little courage she had lost. Oscar was the only person she was really close to. The only person on her friends list... she just had to make it back to him.

@Bran

Edited 20 hours ago by Alinta

[Gaius 0]

The man sat in front of the fire letting the moisture dry up, chewing on a prepared meal. One of many that lined his almost insatiable pockets. "Decent goal, more then I can say about most." The man shrugged and leaned to look over his left shoulder, toward the door as it shook under the storm. "Might have, seems pretty horrendous out there." Gaius chuckles unwrapping a bit more paper, and digging. One of the toppings fall out and drop to the fire, making a hiss as its flash cooked. "You'll get there, the fact your out here trudging up to your knees in shit. That kind of determination doesn't grow on trees." With that statement he recalls how many players thought like Reytac, wished to develop and grow but basically confined themselves to floor 1 and stuck to the constant rats race of grinding at sunrise then hiding in a tavern come nightfall. The very same he'd offered a hand on numerous occasions but he could only help them so far, the rest had to come from within.

"Me?" The topic shift had him raise an eyebrow in reflection, pressing an open hand into his chest as if it was odd. "Uh, well its not nearly as grandiose a venture. This swamp has a tendency to grow mushrooms and things. Truffles, puffballs, shiitake. Stuff like that, kind of hard to get them other places." Gaius would pay a shrug to the guy, finding his reason for diving head first into the storm to be far more lame. "I'm a cook, and run a restaurant. But most of my sus or assistants aren't really tough enough for floors like these. So a little leg work from the boss keeps the wheels turning." With that statement he slides open the final bit of the sandwich, taking in the last chunk. Like a ravenous animal, his appetite was never ending.

@Reytac

[Reytac 0]

"Determination, huh? Yeah, I suppose that's a good word for it. Better than 'bloody-minded stubbornness', at least." Reytac let out a chuckle as he took another bite of the sandwich. This was probably one of the better things he'd eaten - definitely better than most of the vendor food he'd been getting by with so far. He was trying his best to go slow - he'd have to ask Gaius where he had picked up - 

Reytac paused, mid chew, to stare at the other man across from the fire, then swallowed the food in his mouth roughly, nearly coughing since he'd definitely swallowed without chewing fully. He took a drink of water to try dislodging the lump in his throat, then rapped one hand against his chest. "Wait, for real? You're a chef? That's awesome! I forgot that we could take up professions like that - does that mean you made this, too? Because sir, let me tell you, it is awesome." He waggled the half-eaten sandwich towards Gaius while he was talking, then resumed eating for a moment. Then kept going, until he'd finished the sandwich and took another drink of water from his canteen.

"Well, Mr Gaius, I am definitely going to have to swing by your store at some point. I'll try to bring some supplies with me when I do - in this kind of place, it's probably better to pay with raw materials than just basic cash, I guess." He let out a chuckle and shook his head, taking a moment to push some of the water-slicked hair back from his face. 

 @Gaius

Edited 8 hours ago by Reytac

[Gaius 0]

Gaius sat next to the hearth just listening to the recount and introspection from Reytac, long past finished with his meager lunch. At least meager for him. "Nothing wrong with being stubborn. Just means you don't give up." The man couldn't help but bolster the sentiment with his own feelings on the matter, it was a creed he lived by. Without much focus the dragoon would scan the surroundings, finding the decrepit guard tower to be an odd yet pertinent structure plucked out at random. There was something rather whimsical for a place so mundane to be suited to an introduction. In another timeline, he could have wandered past it and this never would have happened. Fate is weird like that. The random change where things align in such a way that unforeseen circumstances will change based on them. A lasting impression, one created entirely by chance.

The sudden coughing fit drug aloof thoughts aside and snapped reality back front and center. His attention shifts to Reytac, a little concerned as the guy starts to chug a canteen. "You alright?" The guy shows a lick of concern, but the change in expression left the reason for his Heimlich to become obvious. "Oh, for sure. I am one of the best chefs in Aincrad if not the best. My food is pretty well sought after, and the Rolling Bite is pretty damn busy at all hours." That statement struck a string of pride in the guy, given it was all due to his hard work and the multiple apprentices he'd taken. One star at a time. "Wouldn't mind a little more deliveries every so often, god forbid half this stuff is a bit off the wall to collect from a market stall. As for raw resources, rarer the better. Tuna, oysters, crawdads, stuff you wouldn't find floating in the stalls in the town of beginnings." The guy chuckles after the longer response, realizing this storm was going to be taking its time so it wouldn't hurt to get comfortable.

@Reytac