[PP-F6] Constant Companion <<Feeding the Enemy>>

[Piera 0]

Piera had left Jomei's shop on the second floor and immediately set off to complete her other errands. She was fairly confident now in her ability to somewhat hold her own (up to a certain floor level) now that she had a full set of proper armor as well as the new accessory that would help her with her First Aid skill. She was tempted to also put in an order for a new spear, but she was still fond of her Bleeding Lance and she was sure that most blacksmiths were busy with the last rush for the boss battle. The only reason she felt she could take a break so to speak and go out to find a familiar was because she had already completed her crafting for the day and had nothing much else to do. So she sent out a message to her ginger friend to meet her in Amazon, the root town of floor six.

To: Jomei
From: Piera
Subject: Familiar

Hey Jomei, I took care of my errands and am good to go now! I'm just hanging out in Amazon on the sixth floor. Meet me there when you can~

The alchemist then wandered around the solely female inhabited village, looking at the various tents and NPCs with curiosity, the cape of her new Violet Dragoon armor fluttering behind her as she strolled. 

[Jomei 0]

Another customer had just left Jomei's shop after he was not able to compose some battle music for him on the shop. Jomei felt he had disappointed the man, despite him telling the irishman that he preferred if it took awhile so he knew Jomei put more into it. With a shrug of his shoulders, he placed the stringed instrument on the chair and stretched his arms. At the same time, he heard a ping with a little letter icon in front of him. Tapping on the virtual envelope, a larger box appeared with a message. It was from Piera, letting Jomei know she had finished buying the food for her quest and was ready for him on Floor Six. He smirked, impressed at how swiftly Piera went about doing so. She must have really wanted to find a familiar. 

RE: Familier

TO: Piera
FROM: Jomei

Got it. On my way.

 The ginger haired man then locked up his shop, and began his walk towards the center of Urbus, where the warp pad was located. Upon stepping into the platform, he spoke out. "Amazon." and he vanished in a blue lights. Moments later, he found himself standing in the middle of a village surrounded by large, tropical trees. It did not take long for Jomei to recognize the brunette, who was sporting some shiny new armor. He walked up to the girl with a smile, "Hey there Piera, ready to head out?" 

[Piera 0]

Piera was debating asking a passing NPC why there were no males around. The answer was sure to be interesting. But before she could summon the courage she heard a familiar accent say her name and she turned, smiling at the ginger man that approached. "Hey Jomei. Yeah, let's ju-" Her speech was cut off as her eyes lost focus when she suddenly remembered something that caused her friendly smile to morph to one of sheepish embarrassment. "R-Right after I buy some food. I forgot, sorry." She had been so eager to get started, she'd forgotten all about that key task.

 

Quickly running from tent to tent, the brunette eventually found an NPC merchant. Explaining her quest and situation (and repeating it a bit slower and easier for an NPC to recognize), she purchased a bag of succulent fruit that she was assured would attract monsters. Thanking the merchant, the alchemist paid the one hundred col for the bag and deposited it into her inventory before walking back to Jomei, still feeling a little awkward. "Okay, now we can go."

[Jomei 0]

Jomei blinked in a curious manner when Piera seemed to trail off of her sentence, as if something caught her attention. She then turned to Jomei with a look of embarrassment, admitting she had forgotten to buy the food needed to actually attract the animal. Jomei could not help but laugh at the girl's mistake, "I thought thats what you were doing after leaving my shop haha!" She then ran around the area, trying to find which merchant sold the food she would need. He stood with his arms crossed waiting for Piera to run her last errand before the two went on their journey. Jomei looked onto his shoulder and scratched Adere on the head, "Looks like Piera and I are gonna find you a new friend." 

The brunette finally returned, holding a bag of assorted berries. Jomei looked at the bag, and then at his friend with a nod. "Alright then, lead the way." Jomei followed the girl forward to find the familiar. "By the way, I like your new armor. Very fitting for a field medic." 

[Piera 0]

Piera smiled prettily, her dimples showing at her friend's compliment. "Thanks. I had it specially made. That's uh, actually what I was doing after I left your shop. Had to go pick it up from Mack's shop tent thing on the fourth floor. But um, how do you think it's fitting for a field medic?" Her eyes blinked in curiosity behind her glasses. She chose these specific enhancements because of her new First Aid skill determining her role in combat, but she was fairly sure that he couldn't tell the enhancements just by looking at it. Or maybe he was just saying appearance wise?

 

The brunette lead the way out of the safe town of Amazon and into the wild jungle. The humid heat was pretty stifling in her new heavy armor, but she endured it, somewhat thankful for her years in the South to give her a little preparation for such unpleasant conditions. Glancing over at her ginger friend, his own familiar caught her eye and she smiled, wondering if she would tame an animal that could fly like Adere or perhaps something completely different. "As long as it's not a bug...or a fish." She couldn't help but murmur to herself.

[Jomei 0]

"Well." Jomei said, scratching at the hairs on his chin, "You told me about your first aid skill ... so I figured support was the role you were gonna go for. And I know from games, its good to have heavy armor as a medic, because you're one of the most important people on the field." he scratched at the back of his head and turned to Piera. " I mean... that is what you're going for...right?"He felt slightly silly for assuming the girl's whole build, just based on one skill. "E-Either way, Mack did a fine job." he chuckled.

Jomei groaned as he went into his inventory and unequipped the heavy cloak over his shoulders.. "You know... Ever since I got this new armor with this warm cloak... I have yet to go to a floor where it is cooler... I always end up going to one of these hot or humid places" he sighed "Its a constant reminder of how much I hate the heat." he continued to complain. He looked at Piera, who was admiring Adere as she flew around their position, mouthing something to herself. "So, what did you have in mind? For a familiar?" 

[Piera 0]

Piera grinned as Jomei floundered in his reply. "No, no, you're right! I forgot I'd mentioned to you guys that I finally got that skill. But yup, support is what I'm goin' for. I've always been a support character in most of the games I play, unless they're not multiplayer. After we um...found out we were stuck here, I considered trying to go tank, but I'd already leveled up my two handed assault spear skill some. And Lee was already building tank so..." She shrugged. "Figured I might as well try and deal damage while Lee was my tank. But then I found that skill and everything sort of fell into place."  Nodding with a content smile as her friend complimented the guild leader's work she stated, "I think so as well. The cape was a nice touch, I wasn't expecting that." She swirled said cape in her hands as she walked, feeling rather cool (even in this heat) for some reason, though she probably looked pretty dorky in reality. "I choose two slots of mitigation and one slot of regeneration. Since all of my healing items will be going to others and I can't heal myself with my skill."

As the rapier wielder groaned and complained about the weather while unequipping his cloak she chuckled dryly, wishing she could do the same, and replied, "Yeah this is probably the worst floor to have heavy armor on. Even the fifth floor has more of a dry heat than all this icky humidity. Do you really hate the heat that much though? Guess you can take the man out of Ireland but you can't take the Irish outta the Irishman~" The brunette teased before using her spear to part a ridiculously large leaf that was obscuring their path. "Hm? Oh... I guess I haven't really thought about it much honestly. I haven't seen what all can be tamed. And I don't even really know what monsters are on what floors because I haven't done that much exploring. But I guess I'd really like something cat-like, snake-like, bunny-like or bat-like." The alchemist ticked off each of the options on her fingers. "Those are some of my favorite animals and all have been approved by Lee. I'd rather he not kill my familiar as soon as I bring it home, y'know?"

[Jomei 0]

Jomei smiled, "Well thats good. It'll be nice to have a support player who can heal us if The Velvet Room ever goes on a quest together. Don't want to have Lowe and I dying." he laughed, poking fun at the unlikely situation. They probably... hopefully.. would never put themselves in such a situation. He  looked the girl up and down to examine the handiwork of the armor again, as the girl pulled at the cape on her back. "Aye, it is a nice touch." he raised an eyebrow and smirked as he pulled at the long cloak on his own back. "Now we just need to convince Lowe to get a cape himself."he laughed, picturing the three friends standing, capes flowing in the wind.

Jomei sighed, "Its not that I hate the heat.. I just prefer the cooler weather. Heh, guess you're right about that. The breezy weather back in Ireland is definitely my favorite.. why I always found autumn to be my favorite season. That.. and I always found myself sweating like a pig at the slightest hint of humidity." he laughed sheepishly. He smiled when the girl marked down her different ideas for a familiar friend to find, "Well.. good that you're making it vast. I went into the forest on Floor Two looking only for an owl.. and what do I find? A black bear. Heh.. That was fun."   The irishman placed his hands into his pockets and smiled up at his own companion as she decided to perch on his shoulder. 

[Piera 0]

At the ginger's reply, Piera smiled and nodded in agreement. "No way. I'm gonna be the best healer in Aincrad!" She boasted in a somewhat unusual show of confidence for herself. Laughing in amusement at the idea of them all having capes she retorted, "Only if they're all made of velvet by our illustrious leader! I mean Fool, hehe." That was quite an image. Would definitely give them a bit of recognition among other players, though she wasn't sure if she'd like that personally. Was an interesting thought at least.

The brunette smiled fondly at her ginger haired friend as he spoke with equal fondness of Ireland's weather and his favorite season: autumn. "That's mine too." She admitted before going on, "Though I can take the heat fairly well. Just not the sun, heh. Sorry I picked such a difficult floor. With any luck I can tame the first animal I come across!" Piera brushed her bangs off of her sticky forehead before chuckling. "Adere definitely suits you better. You never told me how you tamed her. How was it? Was it hard?"

[Jomei 0]

Jomei put up his hand to Piera and smiled, "No need to apologize, I'm just being a wee baby is all." he wiped some of the sweat off of his chin. He looked to the owl on his shoulder as Piera asked how he ended up taming the girl. "Hah, now thats a story." He scratched the owl's chin before turning to Piera, "Well, it was on Floor Two, in the woods surrounding Urbus. I had made the mistake of not only going by myself, but leaving slightly later in the day. I spent quite awhile looking for an owl to tame.. checking up in the trees, holding a pice of ra-" he coughed "Raw, meat." he quickly corrected himself, making sure not to admit to the girl that it was indeed rabbit meat he had used. "Well, carrying it around was another mistake, because the smell of the meat attracted a huge bear that I had to fight off. After taking him down, that was when I spotted an owl up in the trees... I thought I was going to tame it for sure when it swooped down to me to take the meat from my hand, only to change course when it saw some fresh prey." he let out a sigh. "By then, it was getting dark.. and I had found shelter in a small cave.." his tone lowered at the thought of what happened next, but he decided not to talk about it. "A-Anyway. when I woke up the next morning, I only had to search a little more before finding Adere." 

[Piera 0]

Piera couldn't help but smile widely as her friend's accent showed a bit more than usual for a moment. She couldn't help but find it endearing as it reminded her of her father when he would broaden his accent as he got excited about something. But she focused back on her friend as he began to tell his tale of how he found his familiar. At least her ears did. Her eyes stayed front and center after narrowly avoiding getting a vine to the face. "Oh, so you knew right out of the gate what you wanted." She'd just be happy to come home with anything...though preferably something without too many legs or eyes...and had a buff. That would be nice.

The brunette didn't even notice Jomei almost admitting to using meat from one of her favorite types of animals as bait. Though her eyebrows did raise when he stated that it didn't exactly attract the animal he wanted it to. She chuckled at his luck of the first owl he ran into not being interested at all. But when he got to finding shelter in a cave before immediately moving on, her head tilted back to look at him curiously, but didn't ask about it, figuring that perhaps something embarrassing or private had happened.

Smiling she suggested, "Maybe Adere was watching you the whole time, testing you before deciding you were worthy of being her tamer~" The idea was interesting certainly. Piera was eager to see what it was like to interact with a familiar of your own. She'd only had second hand contact with her fiends familiars and it wasn't quite the same. Though Chewie definitely had personality. Then a thought struck her. "Oh! When should I start playing that song that I got from you?" She wasn't entirely sure how it was supposed to work, just knew that it would help her attract and tame a familiar and that was good enough for her to purchase honestly.

[Jomei 0]

"Could be.." he looked up at the owl.. wondering if she truly had been watching him from the moment he entered the forest that day. He then bore a toothy grin at the thought, "Guess we will never know.. Unless Adere here decided to start talking English one day." he laughed at the thought of the small bird having complete conversations with him. "I mean.. I can understand what Adere is trying to tell me usually.. to a point at least. Its like when you try to get something from a pet in the real world.. Only I think the programming of the familiars, once they are tamed at least, leave them understanding our language a little bit more than we do theirs.. Right Adere?" As he looked up at the bird, it replied with its common 'hoo' sound.

Piera then brought up the song that she had purchased from Jomei, "Oh yeah.. good question." he laughed. Honestly.. he knew the song attracted Adere whenever he played it..but he had no idea how it worked out in the field. Guess there was really only one way to find out. "I guess whenever you feel like it. Should loop for awhile.. so you don't have to worry about it ending before finding a familiar. And if it does, I remember it, so I can play it live." he tapped on his temple with his pointer finger. 

[Piera 0]

Piera grinned back at the suggestion that Adere could speak. "Aaactually... I have a potion that can let you do just that. It will let you understand all familiars too, not just your own. Though of course it only lasts for a handful of hours. But I understand what you mean. After being around an animal for so long, you can pick up their body language and mannerisms." It was sweet seeing how the two interacted though. She could only hope that her new familiar and her had that good of a rapport.

As the ginger stated that she could play it whenever she felt like as the crystal looped, she nodded and stopped in her tracks to open her menu. Though when he offered to play it live, she laughed. "That would be something! My own personal minstrel calling animals to me, hehe." Still, she scrolled through her inventory and activated the song 'Familiar Call', the melody echoing around them in a catchy beat. "Heeeere aminals aminals aminals~" The alchemist called out hopefully as she peered out into the dense jungle. "Oh, wait." She realized that she was forgetting the last important piece. "Forgot the bait." Opening her inventory again, Piera extracted the bag of fruit, awkwardly holding her spear in the crook of her elbow as she reached into the bag and took out a soft pink and yellow fruit that smelled strongly of pears. "Mmmm, tasty food!" She called out hopefully convincingly before smiling up at Adere. "You want some Adere~?"

[Jomei 0]

Jomei turned to Piera and blinked when she mentioned she had crafted a potion that would let one understand their familiar.  "Wow thats awesome! You really are an amazing alchemist, Piera!" Jomei was amazed and proud of his friend, for she had created things that he did not even know could exist in this world. "Maybe one day I'll have to try it out.." he smiled. 

The girl then went through her inventory, trying to find the song to play and hopefully attract the various animals of the forest. "Hm.. that would be kind of fun haha.   Aincrad's own Pied Piper.. or Luter...er.. Lutist." He laughed as he scratched at the back of his head sheepishly. After the crystal materialized into the brunette's hands, she tapped on the red button that caused the music to play. It made Jomei happy to hear one of his songs be put to the test out in the field. Soon after, she took out the bag of bait she had to attract whatever animal it was, offering some to Adere. The happy owl swooped over to Piera, perching on her shoulder, and waited to be fed.

[Piera 0]

[ID: 33836] [LD: 5+1(Song)+1(Trinket)=7] [The mob is not interested.]

Piera smiled in pride and shyness at her friend's praise, her dimples showing as she glanced down at her feet. "Thanks. I just saw so many players with familiars and I'd heard of a potion that could let you understand hostile monsters so why not familiars? The recipe took a bit to perfect though. You're welcome to try it out any time you like. I owe you after all." It also didn't hurt that he was a friend and guildmate.

The brunette certainly enjoyed the thought of Jomei wandering around the floors of aincrad with instrument in hand as a horde of tamed animals trailed behind him. "I'd pay to see that." The alchemist tensed slightly as something swooped onto her shoulder, but relaxed upon seeing that it was just Adere. "Here you go, there's plenty." She held up one of the pear like fruits for the owl to nibble at since it was half her size and definitely too big for the nocturnal bird to eat whole.

Once she had gotten a few bites, Piera noticed something slither in the underbrush and inhaled as she noticed the beautiful snake make its way towards her. Motioning for Jomei to stay still, she knelt to the ground extremely slowly before gently holding out the fruit to the reptile. It turned its head towards her, black tongue flicking out to smell the air for a moment and everything was still. Until the snake turned and slithered away, causing the bespectacled young woman to sigh sadly. "Dang. Guess snakes wouldn't really be interested in fruit..."

Edited October 3, 2015 by Piera

[Jomei 0]

Jomei shook his head, still amazed at the thought of being able to talk to his familiar. "Like I said, just amazing." he smiled with a light laugh. He then cocked his head slightly to the side when she mentioned she would let him give the potion a try whenever he wished because 'she owed him.' "Hm? What do you owe me for? I don't remember doing anything." he scratched at the hairs on his chin, trying to remember what he may have done for the girl in the past. He never expected any sort of payment back for any times he went to help her with a quest or anything.

Jomei smiled as Piera fed the fruit to his owl companion. Adere was one of the friendliest owls Jomei had ever heard of, usually letting anyone pet her or feed her. However, the only people who she would go to and rest on their shoulders were himself and Piera. It made him happy to know the owl trusted and liked Piera as much as she did him. He thought maybe that would be a good use for the potion, to see how Adere truly felt about Jomei and his friends.. Maybe another time. "Hah, I never knew she liked fruit.. She usually only goes for meat." 

Piera's arm shot out, gesturing for Jomei to stop his motions. He took a sharp breath in through his nostrils as he looked around at the grass for what she may have seen. Was it a mob? Or possibly she spotted a familiar to tame. He kept his distance and made sure to not move or make a sound. From a tall patch of grass slithered a snake, and Jomei could see Piera's eyes lighten up. He did not take her for the type to love snakes, but he was sure there was a lot he still did not know about the girl. However, the snake seemed un interested in Piera's offering. 

[Piera 0]

Piera tilted to the left and then the right and back again as Jomei questioned her what she owed him for. "Ehhh...well I guess 'owe' isn't quite the right word. You're my friend. And even if you weren't, you're also a guild member. I'd probably give over half the items in my shop to either you or Lowenthal at the drop of a hat if you guys needed them. So it's just for you being you." She grinned winningly, her tone somewhat teasing but the intent was sincere. When the ginger voiced his surprise that his familiar actually ate from the fruit since she usually only ate meat, the brunette's eyebrows raised in concern. "Should I not have given it to her? I hope it's not bad for her or anything..." That was the last thing she wanted. The alchemist's index finger stroked Adere's feathered chest and glanced at her worriedly.

Piera was grateful for Jomei's quietness while she attempted to tempt the snake she had noticed, but was sadly disappointed when it simply slithered away. "It had stripes like Anko too..." She murmured in lament. Sighing, she continued walking alongside her friend before a thought occurred to her. "Do you have any pets Jomei? Outside of SAO I mean."

[Jomei 0]

Jomei laughed, "Don't go saying that, lass..You'll need those potions for the raid party. And I might just make that a bit of a problem for them if it'll mean saving me bollocks" he gave the girl a grin and a wink, letting her know he was joking. "I do appreciate it though, but you're making me feel bad about charging you at all for that song there." he scratched his cheek with his index finger, feeling ashamed that she would give many crystals and potions to Jomei if he needed.. but he ended up charging her for one song. Despite, it made him happy she saw Lowe and himself that way. He was happy to have a best friend like her. 

"Oh no no, its fine!" Jomei waved his hand apologetically when Piera panicked, thinking she should not have given the fruit to Adere. "I just.. since I had attracted her using meat, I thought that was all she ate. I never really tried to feed her fruits before." he laughed. "Hell, maybe it'll help her lose some weight. Gettin' a wee bit heavy on my shoulder you are." he smirked at the bird who was perched on Piera's shoulder. The owl then spread its wings and took off towards Jomei, dropping all of its weight and perching onto Jomei's head. "Oy! Wha-What're you doing?"

Piera seemed quite disappointed about not being able to tame the snake. She mumbled something about an Anko, and the snake having stripes like her. Putting the pieces together, he figured she must have had a pet snake on the outside world. "You had a snake in the real world, I assume?" Jomei questioned the girl. She then returned the questions to him, asking if he had any animal friends in the real world. "No, not since I moved out at least. When I lived with my mother we owned a cat.. I'd think he still was with her. My apartment now doesn't allow pets." he shrugged his shoulders, "Its no big deal though, one less thing to worry about being stuck here I suppose." 

[Piera 0]

Piera sighed lengthily as Jomei reminded her that she couldn't give her guildmates all of her shop's items or even half because the raid party for the floor eleven boss would need them. "Yeah, you're right about that... Though to be fair, I don't have those items just laying around the shop. The only things I have for sale are the potions that don't really help in combat. Those I can pretty much give away as I please if I wanted, though I'd really like for more people to discover and use them. Most of them are for pranking pretty much, but some of them are interesting...at least I think so..." The brunette shrugged, feeling a bit down about the lack of traffic her shop was getting lately.

 

But she was distracted as the Irishman stated that he felt bad for charging her. Immediately shaking her head she said sarcastically, "Oh yes, how terrible it was for me to force you to accept my money. I can afford it with the payoff I'm probably gonna get from Zelrius." Then her expression blanked and she smiled a bit nervously, her ears pink. "Y-You didn't hear that from me though..." She hadn't meant to brag or anything, just a simple statement of fact. Piera's head tilted to look back at Adere as her owner not so convincingly told her that it was fine. "Mmm....we'll see." The brunette laughed as the owl protested being alluded to that she was gaining weight by perching roughly on Jomei's head. "Never make fun of a lady's weight. Even if that lady is a familiar." 

 

Continuing to walk through the jungle as she wiped her bangs from her forehead, the alchemist looked down at the ground as her friend asked if she had a pet snake in the real world. Nodding she explained, "Yep. Can't have any stinky (furred) animals where Lee and I were staying. So we decided to get a reptile and found Anko when she was just a lil baby snake about this long." She held out her hands to barely a foot apart. "Now she's like...." The brunette extended the distance between her hands to roughly three feet before smiling sadly. "Wonder how big she'll be when I see her next...hope she's being taken care of." Letting out a rough sigh that blew her bangs skyward momentarily, Piera glanced back at her guildmate as he answered her question and nodded. "One of the better things about games. Easy to have a pet to care for in a virtual world." She smiled softly up at Adere.

[Jomei 0]

Jomei chuckled, "Even better. I'm sure I could find uses for mischievous potions like that and have some fun with them" bearing a toothy grin. The Irish man was not too much of a prankster, but he could be if he wanted to. The only thing that keeps him from doing so is the retaliation from the pranked party. Anything too embarrassing for Jomei to handle would be troublesome for the poor ginger haired man. "Now I definitely need to come check out what you have." 

"Well, good for you. You deserve it after the hard work you were put through." he put a hand on her shoulder with a smile. He honestly wished he could have chosen a smarter profession, like alchemist or blacksmith... even a tailor. Would have kept him busy and making more col, rather than sitting in a lonely shop writing songs that hardly anyone ever buys. He lucked out that he found a sound that could come in handy with the increasing demand for familiars. 

Jomei shooed the owl off of his head and onto his shoulder, pouting and glaring at the bird before sighing. He listened to the girl speak about how they could not have animals that gave off an odor where they lived, so they got a snake. Definitely an interesting choice for a pet, not one Jomei would have had on the outside world.. but must be fun if you like them. "I'm sure your snake is doing fine" Jomei reassured her. "I'm sure whoever found you and Lee is making sure the snake is well."