The Magic of Learning [Mentor] [Closed]

[Deleted]

Dorian HP: 100% MP: 100%

---

Life's pieces fit together, one by one.

The challenge of inserting them is all the fun,

For each shape adds to making of the whole;

The eventual completion is the goal.

---

Dorian simply sat at his booth in the tavern, his eyes watching as the Lander across from him sweated and poured over the board. There were only three rows left, and he was nowhere near solving the order that the Shaman had devised for him. Placing another new arrangement of pegs in the next row up, Dorian gave a short nod, reaching for his own set of black and white pegs to place into the small dots beside the row; one white, one black - indicating one colour was correct, the other was correct but in the wrong spot. The Lander pursed his lips and concentrated further, rearranging once more on the next line, with only one left to go. Two white, no black. He had lost the one he had gotten correct!

Tensions rose in that brief moment as he put back the one coloured peg he had changed, but now he had to figure out where the other colours went. So many possibilities for only three empty pegs... Time seemed to stray on longer and longer as he went through all the possibilities, seemingly crossing off the ones he had already proven to be incorrect. With a determined expression gracing his features, the Lander placed the three colours into the slots and glanced up at Dorian for approval, like a puppy asking for treats. But there were none here, as the Shaman simply shook his head, turning the board to reveal the colour order he had chosen. Groans of defeat were released as the Lander stood up and left the booth in a huff; a rather aggressive reaction, seeing as all he lost was a free drink, paid for by Dorian himself.

Rolling his eyes and releasing an amused chuckle under his breath, the Shaman leaned back into his seat, staring down at the pegs that had been arranged and placed into the rows. The game was Mastermind, or so it was called back before the Catastrophe, a simple logic puzzle game where the code-breaker attempts to decipher the specific four peg order devised by the code-maker. Each attempt is put in a row, with the code-maker giving feedback using their own white and black pegs; white meaning that one of the colours is correct, but in the wrong spot, and black meaning the peg is the correct colour and position. It's a fun little game that is easy to set up and can occupy one's time in a variety of ways.

With a gentle sigh, Dorian decided to, for the moment, take a break from his second win of the day; though to be fair, he hadn't really won anything, since all he did was make the order for the code-breakers to work out. Reaching out with his hand, he grasped the handle of his tankard, pulling the rich ale up and taking a gulp from it into his mouth, closing his eyes as he swallowed it down. Wincing from the initial burning sensation upon his throat, he placed the drink back down and released a warm breath of air as the heat of the alcoholic beverage moved down his gullet and brought a pleasant temperature to the inside of his body.

It had been a month since the Catastrophe; a long time since his world had changed, and he suspected there would be even more time in the future to wallow in his situation, but for the time being he was enjoying the new world as best as he could without actually adventuring alone. He had participated in a few bits and pieces with groups, and due to the nature of experience here in the new expansion, his level was quite high, a healthy fifteen. With that, he had unlocked the ability to mentor other Adventurers, though he had not utilised such a feature yet, nor did he intend to unless he was specifically asked. Despite his enjoyments of the MMO-esque Elder Tale world, a part of him still felt scared of what lay waiting; despite the fact that death is pretty much meaningless thanks to the cathedrals, it still undoubtedly brought a lot of pain.

But, such thoughts were not welcome at this time; it had only been a month! He needed to enjoy the city of Londinium more before finding himself a place to stay, perhaps in this very tavern, which he had neglected to find the name of. Leaning forward over the peg board he had set up on the table in his booth, he began removing the various pegs and putting them in their respective buckets along the side of the board, neatly crafted into the wood; it had been a lucky find, locating this game in the din and rabble of the marketplace, but he had been happy to discover it's existence. Mastermind had been a favourite of his ever since he was a young boy; without video games to keep him occupied, puzzle games like this were his way of escaping from the world, or - more importantly - his stepmother.

Once the board had been cleared and readied for another game, the Shaman turned to the rest of the inn, scanning the rabble for people who might be interested in trying their luck for a drink on the house. It was late afternoon now, so the tavern was fairly stocked with people enjoying themselves and perhaps waiting for dinner; and there was of course the occasional group of Adventurers, back from their exploits out in the fields and forests. No doubt they had stories to tell. "Anyone want to try their luck at a game? Free drinks go to the first person who can win!" He chuckled softly under his breath, the generosity of his words the only thing making him so extroverted in this moment. As he watched the denizens around him, he wondered quietly to himself who would take him up on his challenge.

---

Notes: Current Attire - Neourban Threads
Word Count: 984
Tags: Evenever

Coded by @serenityspace of LH

[Evenever]

Evenever Ritual Sorcerer Lv. 9

HP 61% MP 100%

STATUS: Cold Debuff - Health doesn't regenerate - 12:07 left

---

Evenever returned to the city using the [Call of Home] skill, the only skill she had figured out how to use without the obnoxious UI. She used this because she was too lazy to walk the couple kilometres back. While she had used her other skills, she hadn't figured out how to activate them without selecting them in the UI. So most of her kills in this world had been gained just by swinging her staff around like a long club. She died many time from both PvE and PvP ambushes, so she stuck close to the outskirts of the city and just killed super weak animals. Her level has gone up to nine in the last month, but levelling is not why she killed the monsters. She needed money to survive.

She had experienced death by starvation in this world early on shortly after deciding if her new body didn't need to bathe, maybe it didn't need to eat and drink. So at some point while sleeping in an alley, her hit points had hit zero and she woke up in the cathedral, still hungry, with her hit points still slowly going down. So if she didn't eat, she was going to just keep dying and respawning. Not a very good prospect. Thankfully by this time others had figured out how to make the food taste good, but it was really expensive, so she just lived on ingredients. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, and sugar. If she had the cooking skill, maybe she could have put together a salad at least.

Anyway, that's how she lived in this cold month. Gathering enough money at the beginning of the week to buy ingredients so she wouldn't starve, then spending her time wandering about the city for anything interesting. Many of the other Adventurers seemed to have fit into their roles in this world. While most focused on raising their levels, many others just stuck around the city doing odd jobs you would normally expect an NPC to handle. Plenty of maid, janitors, stall vendors, and about every minimum-skill level job you would expect to be filled was filled. Those who couldn't find their niche, like Evenever, just sort of existed and nothing more.

The cold January air beat against her body, though much of her was just numb from being out for the last few hours due to her creature slaying in the outskirts of the city. Could she even get sick in this world? She got dirty, but her body would miraculously clean itself without needing to wash. Her clothes, though, were in tatters. She was still in her beginner cloth "armour". A simple gray robe that felt rough like burlap and only went down to her knees, a white blouse that felt like it was made of the same material, only thinner, and a knee-length blue skirt, also of the same material. On her feet were simple brown leather boots. The hems of everything were torn or frayed. There were some burn marks on her gray robe. The blouse was missing the top button, revealing the top of her cleavage to the elements. If her body wasn't so clean, she would be textbook hobo.

She pulled her oval glasses out of her inventory and put them on to read the signs of the buildings around her. For some reason the game world gave her a new everything else, but didn't fix her eyesight. So to avoid having them break, she put them away when she gathered money. She was freezing, she thought. She couldn't feel her legs or fingers. Pulling up the UI, sure enough she had a debuff from the cold that was slowly wearing on her hit points. Not enough to be dangerous, but it was annoying. So she entered the first inn-bar-tavern-pub building. She didn't know the difference. As long as they had a fire pit or some place to warm up (for free), she didn't care.

The inside of the building was packed. It was a building layout that was one she least liked. They had a hearth off to the side and built into the wall of the main floor instead of in the middle, so there were cold areas furthest away from the fire, which were the only places with free seats. She walked in and shook a bit like a dog to brush off the snow that might have latched onto her robe. She smacked her hands together, rubbing them quickly to build friction, then slapped them against her bright red cheeks. The feeling in her extremities was already starting to return.

She took a few steps inside before one of the patrons on the cold side of the room beckoned others to play a game with him. It piqued her interest, but first thing's first. She took out a couple of crumpled up pieces of paper in her robe pocket that were her sad attempt at making her own sudoku puzzles. She casually tossed them into the burning fire. The bartender gave her a stink eye look and just returned to his patrons. A couple of pieces of paper in the fire shouldn't hurt. Why did he look so offended? Oh, it might not be that. I've probably been here before and loitered without buying anything. He probably recognized me. Well, if he has a problem with me, I can just go somewhere else~

She stood near the fire, though behind several others also trying to get warmed up, for about a minute or two before the feeling in her legs started to return. She was still far from warmed up, but she decided to pay the guy who asked for challengers to his game a visit.

She walked closer to the table, then her step increased when she saw what he had. A board full of 84 holes and coloured pegs to fit in these holes. The board was very simple compared to what she'd seen on Earth, but it was definitely, "Mastermind!" She spoke excitedly, her eyes shown brightly, staring at it while standing over the table with the game boy sat about a foot from her. "Oh, I have this game at home but I never had anyone to play it with before~" She sat down in the booth seat opposite of the game boy with a grace that betrayed her haggard apparel. The chill of the seat against the back of her legs made her shiver a bit before her body heat warmed the seat. Sat in the booth, she crossed her right leg over her left and rested her head on her right knuckle. "How about best two outta three? These kind of games don't last very long and I want to enjoy my first time playing this~"

---

Skills Used: Call of Home - 49:05

Tags: @serenityspace

NOTES: Template~

[Deleted]

Dorian HP: 100% MP: 100%

---

After having defeated three patrons in a row, the Shaman was left hanging in his initial offer to the tavern, silence and continued murmurs of conversation the only response to his proposal for a game. With a disappointed sigh, he sat back into his seat, leaning against the woodwork and glancing over the mahogany carved board that made up the Mastermind game. In the containers alongside it, the various coloured pegs resided; yellow, green, blue, red, orange, and purple. Six different colours, to make up a four colour combination - it was simple enough, as long as one knew how to apply logic to the game itself.

Dorian's eyes glanced upwards towards the entrance, where just a few moments ago a stranger had entered the fray. A young woman, seemingly shivered and shaking from the cold outdoors, snow falling from her form as she reacted to the change in temperature from entering the tavern. It was a particularly hefty winter's day here in Londinium, and many were sticking to the indoors, hence why so many seats had been taken up by the fire. Dorian did not mind the cold - after all, he had managed to gain enough practice with his abilities as a Race of Ritual to use his tattoos to keep his body warm - so he simply took the closest booth to the fireplace and settled himself there, enjoying the revelries that were occurring around him.

From the short distance, the Shaman could just make out that the strange newcomer had tattoos of her own, not unlike the set of markings that flowed down his back, currently somewhat aglow under his cloth as he let a bit of mana course through his body, keeping his temperature at a pleasant heat. If she was a Ritual, she had yet to utilise this ability, hence her beeline towards the fireplace. "Poor thing," he muttered under his breath, thankful that the booth somewhat drowned out his voice should he wish not to be heard. He did, however, feel bad for the new patron, who was hastily tossing bits of crumpled paper into the fire to feed it further. Dorian glanced back at where the innkeeper was tending to the bar, noting his rather enraged features as he glared at the woman. Odd.

Dorian lowered his gaze down to the table in front of him, his warm drink still keeping a thick head of foam. He grasped at the tankard, lifting it back up to his mouth and taking another swig. With a heated beverage of ale, he didn't need to put as much mana away into his tattoos, meaning he could keep a level of energy within his body for safekeeping, which was important when dealing with games such as Mastermind. But, as his drink was set back down on the table, hand moving to wipe away the remnants of his swallow from his lips, his eyes darted up as he suddenly realised he had been joined by another.

The woman he had spotted by the fire was now stood by his booth, her voice alerting the Shaman to her presence as she exclaimed the name of the game in front of him. The fact that she recognised the board, as well as managed to pick out it's name; Dorian quickly deduced her to be an Adventurer just like himself. "It is indeed; funny, you're the first person to actually recognise it," he uttered in reply, a chuckled smirk dancing over his palette as he watched her sit down opposite him in the booth. Despite her dishevelled appearance and attire, she seemed to keep an air of grace and civility to her; yes, definitely an Adventurer. "Of course, to be fair, you're the first person to take up my challenge who isn't a Lander, so such knowledge is to be expected of you."

Noticing her shiver as she sat down on the cold wood, Dorian swiftly placed his hand atop the tankard's rim, gently pushing on it to slide it across the table. "Here, this should help keep you warm," he explained, though judging by her older appearance, he guessed the woman was likely old enough to know the effects of alcohol and it's warmer properties. Pulling back to let her take up the drink if she pleased, he put his hands over the Mastermind board and dragged it across the table to position it between them, the array of dotted rows at her disposal. "Very well, never let it be said that I took away from someone's enjoyment; best two out of three it is."

With a closer look at the woman's appearance, Dorian could see the trademark tattoos that marked her as a Ritual, just as he was. An impressive collection, she had adorned herself with, the multitude of reds that matched her features - such as her hair and eyes - creating quite a vivid display. Glancing back down, he began an idle hum that vibrated over his lips, as he deftly grasped at the clump of coloured pegs, lifting the lid of the small compartment that hid his created code. Keeping his decision hidden as best as he could from the Ritual across from him, he placed the four pegs into the respective spots: green, then red, then green once more, and finally orange. "Ah, and of course my manners have left me," Dorian denoted, dumping the rest of the coloured pegs back in their spot before extending his hand across the table to initiate the common greeting between new acquaintances. "Dorian, at your service."

---

Notes: Colour Combination - Green, Red, Green, Orange
Word Count: 924
Tags: Evenever

Coded by @serenityspace of LH

[Evenever]

Evenever Ritual Sorcerer Lv. 9

HP 61% MP 100%

STATUS: Cold Debuff - Health doesn't regenerate - 7:52 left

---

There was something about the way the man spoke that got on Evenever's nerves. He was a bit too formal. Evenever didn't like it. Especially since the setting didn't fit the need. They weren't in some ballroom where he had to act all gentlemanly and she didn't need to act all ladylike. Though, to be honest, there has never been a point in her entire life where she has needed to act super ladylike. So that's probably why she's put off by his speech. Any more and he'd sound like one super posh man you'd think would only exist 100 years ago. Like those old guys in the smoking rooms in the Titanic.

He offered her his drink, which kind of defeated the point of his little challenge. She looked at it for a couple seconds, wondering what it was before gently sliding it back toward the man's side of the table with her right index and middle fingers. Whatever it was, it was probably bitter and she didn't care for bitter drinks. She preferred sweet, teeth rottingly sweet drinks, which contrast with her profession. Though, actually, no. It's rotten teeth that kept her employed, actually. Never mind. "You're trying to get me drunk already? It's just the first date~" She teased with a cheerful inflection, bringing her right hand back to herself, both her right and left arms rested on the table underneath her breasts. Hmmmm, she wondered how she must have looked to those around her. She was clean, but her clothes were worn. Far more of her body was probably visible through her clothing than would be acceptable. White blouse in the cold. Ah, maybe that's why the barkeep stared at her earlier? To put things simply, she was a mess.

She lifted her robe up a bit and folded it over in front of her to cover her chest from any more prying eyes. She wasn't embarrassed, just didn't want to give anyone else a free show. So she held her left hand in front of her between the edge of the table and her belly but with her hand wrapped around the edge of the robe to keep it covering her. With her right hand free, she sat listening to the man's humming, trying to connect it to any songs while looking away toward the group of people sitting on the ground by the fire.

When the man introduced himself, Evenever had gotten tired of his over-politeness. She leaned forward and playfully flicked the man's forehead with her right middle finger. "Don't have to be so polite with someone like me, hun." She sat back in her seat and casually just picked up 4 pegs of random colour and slit them in the slots. Before he had a chance to mark the answer in white and black pegs, she already grabbed another four at random. The first four she placed were two purples, a blue, and a yellow. "In this world, the name's Evenever. Let's have a little fun while I get warm~"

---

Skills Used: Call of Home - 44:50

Tags: @serenityspace

NOTES: (Eh-vah-never)

[Deleted]

Dorian HP: 100% MP: 100%

---

Dorian blinked slowly as the woman pushed back the offered drink, sliding it across the table and back to his side where he stopped it gently with his open palm, glancing down at the frothed liquid within the tankard. In hindsight, he should have kept it to himself; after all, he was offering a free drink on him should this stranger win. Hearing her teasing remark, he couldn't help but feel the warmth of his body spread up into his cheeks, forming a rather embarrassed flush of crimson that threatened to burn for quite a while upon his features. "My apologies, miss... I did not mean to be so forward, and I did not realise you would get drunk so easily," he murmured back in a teasing tone; two could play at this game.

Chuckling softly under his breath, he lifted his tankard up and swirled the contents around, scrunching up his nose at the brown-ish liquid. "To be honest, I don't blame you for turning your nose up at it," he began again, setting the drink back down and lifting his gaze up her form, only to stop and rest on her own cherry-red hues, locking eyes with her. "It's a bitter ale, but it's unfortunately all this ramshackle locale has to offer," he whispered under his breath, so as to keep the rather rude remark from being picked up by the nearby bartender. Putting his hand atop the rim of the tankard, he slide it away from the playing area, both as a way to show his disgust for the drink and to keep it from spilling on the board. "I'm more of a sweet tooth myself."

As she fiddled around on her side of the table, no doubt attempting to cover up and keep warm from the biting cold, Dorian leaned back into his seat, closing the lid over the combination he had chosen so as to keep them from being seen by prying eyes. His eyes went wide as her form suddenly lifted, after he had introduced himself, and her hand reached out to flick her middle finger across his brow in a playful manner, marking him with a slight sting. Wincing for a brief moment, he sighed softly at her words, glancing away to look at the people crowding the rest of the tavern. "My apol-... I mean, ahem, I'm sorry," he muttered out; it was difficult for him, suddenly being ratted out for his overbearing politeness. He could see it getting on people's nerves, but this was the first time he had been called on it.

"Sometimes I can get carried away with this whole gentleman thing. But, well... It's hard to knock a habit, especially one since childhood," he mumbled under his breath, curling his lips into a soft smile before shaking his head at his own over-dramatic words. Her hand was quick after she had distracted him with conversation, already putting in two arrays before he could properly mark which were wrong and which were correct. The first set was quite random, and he put in his white and black pegs beside it to indicate where she got it right. "Quite eager, hmm?" Seeing her second row, he looked over the colours, shaking his head and leaving his space blank, with no black or white pegs.

Finally, after much deliberation, she introduced herself. "Well, it is quite the pleasure to meet you, miss Evenever. But please, let us play then. We wouldn't want you catching a cold before victory, now would we?" A smug grin plastered over his palette as he gestured for her to make her next attempts, leaning back into his seat once more. As he watched her play, his mind thought back to the drink and how she had denied it quite quickly. "You know, if you wish for a drink that's not as bitter..." He glanced towards the door, lifting his hand to the back of his neck as he contemplated his words. "I'm sure we could find a more suitable place for your beverage reward; that is, if you win, of course."

---

Notes: Colour Combination - Green, Red, Green, Orange
Word Count: 685
Tags: Evenever

Coded by @serenityspace of LH

[Evenever]

Evenever Ritual Sorcerer Lv. 9

HP 61% MP 100%

STATUS: Cold Debuff - Health doesn't regenerate - 4:51 left

---

She had placed her first set of coloured pegs in their slot with no luck. Not that she was really trying. There were probably several thousands of combinations she could pick. While she owned this game, she never played it with anyone. But she did play with it by herself when she first bought it. Enough to get a little way of always guessing the right combo. Right now she was just playing around. Playing dumb, but if she continued like this, she might start to annoy him. So no purple, blue, or Yellow~ That cut her options down to three colours immediately. So that meant one colour was duplicated. That was just blind luck. Her second row was a random grab of a green, orange, and two yellows. One black and one white. So after staring at the board for a half a minute, she finally grabbed four pegs. Red, orange, and two other yellows.

She had originally planned to completely throw the first game, but something in her shouted NO. The first play was too lucky. She watched as two whites were put in place. And she knew what the first peg was and where orange and red didn't belong.

"You can just call me Evenever~ No need for 'miss'. Again, too polite~ Seems to be a hard habit for you to break." She hummed a bit with a single tone. "Actually, talk however you like. It'd be mean for me to stop you~" She returned his smile with one of her own, though she was probably smiling instinctively the entire time? "Anyway, can we even get sick in this world? Though I do have some kind of debuff on me right now stopping my health from regenerating. I guess that's considered a cold here? Even so, it's only going to last another six minutes."

She picked up four new pegs and fit them into the fourth row. First green, which she knew was going to be black, then two red pegs, followed by orange. When the responding black and white pegs were 3 black and 1 white, she mulled around in her mind trying to figure out if red was the duplicate or not. She tried to remember the rules. This result doesn't mean she guessed the right amount of colours. She knew there was a duplicate, but not which colour was duplicated. White just means the colour exists in the combo, so this is tricky...

For her fifth turn, she played two blues, then red, and orange. This was to confirm if the first red peg in her fourth row was in the right place. When she got a single black and one white, that confirmed it. So she knew the pegs for the first two~

After he started to speak again, she raised her head up to meet his gaze. When he finished his sentence, "Oh myyy, a promise for a second date already~ Things are going so fast I might have to shop for a wedding gown soon~" she joked.

Her sixth row was 3 blues and one orange, leaving a single black peg. That's three peg colours IDed. "Hmm, this is quite difficult. Why did I lose so many blacks?" She bluffed. He probably saw right through her.

---

Skills Used: Call of Home - 41:49

Tags: @serenityspace

NOTES: Decided to advance the game a bit further. Kinda move things along.

[Deleted]

Dorian HP: 100% MP: 100%

---

The game was quickly put into full swing, as her guesses became more logical and less random; though to be fair, she was incredibly lucky with one of her first guesses, knocking out three different colours of pegs from the tally. "Ah, very well then, Evenever it is," he commented as they continued, grabbing for two white pegs and putting them in the slots by her third row to indicate she had managed to find two colours in the combination, but not their location. "Yes, it is a noticeably difficult part of my... programming, one could say, to go against. But, I will try and make an exception." He lifted his gaze momentarily to raise the side of his brow, cocking it in an intrigued expression. "Just this once."

Her further topic of conversation was an intriguing one; in the short span of time he had spent here in this new world, he had not gotten sick, at least not in the same sense as something like the common cold or the flu. "Really? You have a 'cold' debuff?" Dorian blinked in surprise at this revelation, his hand flicking up to activate his interface, allowing him to look at Evenever's stats; while he couldn't help but glance over and see that her class was Sorcerer, he focused on her debuffs, seeing the health regeneration blocker that hung below her name. "Huh... Never seen anything like that before, quite the unique little item you've picked up there," he muttered finally, closing his interface and returning to the game.

"I can see why you'd want to warm up then," he commented further, as she put in the next row of coloured pegs; she was very very close now, with his hand reaching out for a trio of the black variety of pegs, and one white. Inserting them into the slots beside the designated row, he glanced over her guesses so far; only four and she was already one peg away from completing the combination. Clearly this Adventurer was much smarter than the average drunkard who had stumbled toward him in hopes of a free drink. It only made to bring an eager smile to the Shaman's palette, as he leaned back to watch her next move.

"I must apologise for not snagging a booth by the fire, you might have been warm by now if I had." He didn't feel it necessary to divulge that he had moved away from the fireplace to cause his opponents cold in order to slow down their logical thinking, but he still felt bad nonetheless, especially what with her debuff. "Though I am surprised; you are a Ritual, no?" He gestured towards the crimson tattoos on her face and neck, quite a dazzling display, though of course he wasn't about to admit as much. "I assume you haven't learnt the trick of your tattoos, since they can be effective at keeping your body warm through the mana that is contained within them." Drawing his hand back, he rubbed over his left shoulder, glancing over to roll his body somewhat and draw a further heat from the array of tattoos that covered his back, concealed beneath the cloth of his attire.

Her fifth row was now out on display, his hand reaching to grab the necessary pegs to indicate how close she was this time. A pair of blues - no doubt her tactic of singling out correct positions - a red, and an orange. Clever girl. Putting in a single black peg and just as many white pegs (one), he lifted his hand to his chin, rubbing at it as he watched her next moves. But, of course, her teasing had not yet run it's course, as she commented on his previous offer. "A wedding gown? Honestly, I thought we would just elope to the countryside," he humoured back, enjoying the playful quips they were sending each other. "Well... Only if you win, of course." Another breathless chuckle rumbled past his throat, before he swiftly picked up the melodic hum he had been tuning earlier.

One more row was set down on the board, starkly different to her previous attempts; on the surface, her selection of three blues and an orange was a silly move, leaving her with only one black peg to indicate the orange was in the right place. But Dorian could clearly see past her bluffed façade, having witnessed her dead on guesses previously; she was now just a single peg away from victory this round, and the Shaman knew it. "Yes... why indeed," he muttered teasingly, crossing his arms over his chest after he had inserted the singular black peg. This had been a short round, as she had predicted, but the game wasn't over yet.

---

Notes: Colour Combination - Green, Red, Green, Orange
Word Count: 794
Tags: Evenever

Coded by @serenityspace of LH

[Evenever]

Evenever Ritual Sorcerer Lv. 9

HP 61% MP 100%

STATUS: Cold Debuff - Health doesn't regenerate - 3:04 left

---

Six rows down and the last unknown slot could only be one of two colours.

"Is it somehow rare? Though I guess others are more thoughtful and actually dress for the weather and avoid something like this~ I just returned to the city after bashing some animals to death with my stick." She lifted her starter staff a bit and let it drop back behind her on the booth seat.

To let the game go on an extra turn, if it would come to that, she played random colours and only changed the third peg. Purple, orange, orange, and red. Since that didn't lead to any blacks, she now had the full combination.

"Don't worry about the booth. It's still warmer here than it was outside." She started placing the pegs, green then red before she was asked a question. "Hm? I guess? I got these neato tattoos all over my body. There's the sort of meh ones on my face and neck here." She turned her head to the left to show the horizontal tats on her neck with the box below them. "I've also got a few here on my arms." She rolled up the sleeves on her robe to show a few dark red lines running from the outside of her forearm up beyond where she could pull up the sleeve as well as some lines on their own near her elbow. To roll up the sleeve she let go of the front of the robe, letting each side slip open revealing her cleavage again. She rolled down her sleeve and sat her left hand on the table. "There are also a few on my legs and other places. You'll have to propose to see those though, sweetie~" Again joking about marriage, but not about the tattoos, leaving it up to the Mastermind gamemaster's imagination.

He said something about how the tattoos could be used for some kind of magic. "The only kind of magic I figured out how to use without opening up the menu is the call of home spell. Can't figure out the rest, so I end up resorting to beating animals to death for money. God, you'll never be able to say that with a straight face on Earth now will you~" She didn't notice anything about what he did. Something about his shoulder. She thought he was going to show her his tattoos at first.

She returned to the game and had to look at the board real quick again to remember what the last to pegs were. Another green, then finally orange. Then as if pretending to make another row, she moved her hand to the loose pegs and picked up four more~

---

Skills Used: Call of Home - 40:02

Tags: @serenityspace

NOTES: N/A

[Deleted]

Dorian HP: 100% MP: 100%

---

Being the gentleman that he was ingrained to be, Dorian had neglected to pay much attention to the attire of his current game companion, his glanced attention finally being snagged by her comment about her neglect to dress for the cold. "Indeed, cloth doesn't really do all that well against the cold, at least not the starter grade stuff; the woes of being a spellcaster, no?" He was also donned in rather basic cloth, owing to the fact he was a Shaman; he could have gone with chain armour, but the look didn't suit his character when he first made it back in the real world. Lo and behold, he was now here for real, and the chain was starting to look mighty pretty. But, he stuck with it, even getting a bit of an upgrade from a Lander merchant a few weeks back after training up a bit.

His eyes shifted after lingering over her flimsy attire to catch a fleeting glimpse of her staff, a gentle rumble of a chuckle emanating from his maw. "Quite the image you burn into the brain with that... Those animals must have been running in terror at the might of your wrathful stick," he quipped with a coo, tilting his head to one side as his emerald hues returned to her own orbs, her staff disappearing under the guise of the table they were sat at. Checking the game board, it seemed the game would be finished in the next turn or two; alas, the Sorceress seemed to be interested in prolonging her victory, randomly inserting pegs with just a slight tweak to gain more information; and of course, he could only put several whites, no blacks. She now had the combination, victory in one turn.

"That's true," he muttered, replying to her comment on the warmer state of the booth. It wasn't much, but she seemed content with it, and that was enough for Dorian. Still trying to tend to others happiness over his own. There conversation quickly returned to the more playful aspect as she went on to explain her tattoos, the Shaman watching her gestures as she indicated towards her face first. "Meh? I beg to differ; those ones on your neck and face are quite intriguing... From one Ritual to another, I think they're quite ravishing; brings out the colours of your eyes, if you will." A playful, teasing wink before she continued, of course continuing their quips back and forth. Dorian was unsure why he had delved into this kind of behaviour, as normally he would be a bubbling mess of naive attempts at politeness and gentlemanliness. Maybe the alcohol was getting to him.

She continued on, showing off the one's that were detailed up her arm, showing off a little more than just her tattoos, but of course the Shaman was much more interested in the design of her Ritual-ness; after all, this was the first other member of his 'kind', if you will, that he had met since the Catastrophe, so it was a welcome respite to share in one's similarities. Leaning back in his seat, his brow raised up into a cocked position, hearing her comment on the... hidden placements of tattoos. "That's a shame, mi-... Evenever... After all, if you had shown me yours, I'd have been happy to show you mine." No doubt the alcohol's work yet again, he shook off the growing fluster that threatened to breach upon his features, he continued. "Is that so? Magic in this new world is a rather tricky business, especially for us newcomers, but I've had some time to get the hang of things... I'd be willing to teach you, if you're up for it."

The game continued, of course, Dorian's eyes glancing down to watch as she finished off the last two pegs for her final row, completing the combination he had chosen when the round began. Nodding his head with a soft smile of what he imagined was pride and an impressed chuckle, he extended his hand to gently touch over her own, stopping her from continuing with the next row. Without uttering any words, he lowered his palms to the Mastermind board, spinning it around on the table so that the code chamber was facing her. Pressing his digits into the wooden lid, he opened it up, revealing the code he had picked out; green, red, green, orange, just as she had deciphered. "Looks like you won this round, so congratulations. I do believe you said best two out of three? So, shall we go again?"

---

Notes: Colour Combination - Green, Red, Green, Orange
Word Count: 764
Tags: Evenever

Coded by @serenityspace of LH

[Evenever]

Evenever Ritual Sorcerer Lv. 9

HP 63% MP 100%

STATUS: NONE

---

"Ahh... what the hell am I doing..." She spoke aloud, leaning her body over the table and resting the side of her head against the cold wood. She turned her face toward the wall. "I must look awful to you. I'm sorry for leading you on like that." Under her breath she whispered, "I'm getting too old to be flirting like this." The first couple days of living in this world were tolerable. She was hoping in the back of her mind that she would eventually wake up in her bed like nothing ever happened. But as days turned to weeks, then a month rolled by, she was nowhere closer to figuring out her place in this world... And just what happened in her absence? Logan and Mia probably can't make the rent without her income... Ahh, dysfunctional siblings, herself included.

This splitting headache from nicotine withdrawal doesn't help her situation, either. 14 years of smoking can't go away in just a month even with a new body. She turned her face back into the wood of the table, her forehead resting on the wood, and she clasped her head with her hands to try to bear the sudden craving. She must have sat like that for a long five minutes, face red and eyes clamped shut. All she could do was endure until the migraine stopped. When her head wasn't splitting as much, she slowly raised herself off the table and wrapped herself in the robe tightly. She took a deep breath and sighed. "Sorry. The last month hasn't been kind to me." Her glasses had fogged up a bit from her breathing against the table. "I might be too old and too much of a realist to adapt to the world like you have~ Haaa-I just wanna go home..." She leaned back in the booth and rest her head against the back of the seat. At some point the cold debuff had expired and her health was beginning to restore.

---

Skills Used: Call of Home - 33:50

Tags: @serenityspace

NOTES: N/A

[Deleted]

Dorian HP: 100% MP: 100%

---

Dorian blinked as he watched the Sorceress suddenly mutter out words, her head hanging low and falling to the table in front of her. Tilting his head to one side, he couldn't help but smile as she groaned about how awful she must have looked, leading him on with flirtations and the like. Releasing an amused sigh, he shook his head gently, sliding the wooden set of Mastermind across the table to leave a healthy empty space between the two of them across the booth, his hand reaching out to comfort Evenever as she lay against the cold mahogany. Digits rubbing over her shoulder, her brushed his fingers through the cloth to give a reassuring massage upon her skin beneath it, attempting to relieve even just a little tension.

"On the contrary, I was having quite fun for a moment there; if anything, I was the one leading you on," he began, lowering his body down to match her and squish his cheek down into the cold wood, blocking her vision from the wall to meet her gaze, albeit in a topsy turvy position. "I'm normally quite guarded when it comes to flirting, and even when I do, it's almost never in an attempt to get into anyone's pants, I assure you." He lightly chuckled under his breath, closing his eyes as he embraced the chill of the surface of the table as it seared upon his cheek. "I think it's just the booze getting to me; though conversing with a woman as dashing as yourself doesn't help matters, I assure you."

Realising he was still keeping up the flirting despite her obvious disgruntled state, he let out a warm breath, quickly lifting back up and bowing his head. "My apologies," he spoke again, leaning against the seat of the booth and crossing his arms over his clothed chest. For the next few minutes, the woman seemed to simply lay there, clasping her head with her hands and pushing her forehead into the wood as if she was in pain; a headache perhaps, likely from his incessant talking, or the noise of the club, thought there may have been more to it than that. Wishing to try and help in any way he could, Dorian once again outstretched his hand, this time gently placing his palm into her cheek. He didn't have any specific healing skills yet, owing to his lack of proper adventuring, but as a Shaman his mana would undoubtedly be laced with more healing properties, or at the very least numb the pain she was perhaps suffering.

Closing his eyes, he let the warmth of his palm caress over the skin of her features, as the flow of magic within his body began to coalesce and stream down his arm, as if a floodgate had been opened and was letting the water out. Through his fingertips, from his palm, green tendrils of mana began to slip into her skin, feeding her own energy and bringing a little bit of health to her form; in a battle situation, this would be nigh but useless, and even now it would do nothing but perhaps dull the headache she may have been suffering, if that was indeed what was ailing her. Nevertheless, he did all he could to help, and as his hand retracted, he gave the woman a soft smile, watching as she finally sat back up from her stupor, her voice speaking out once again.

"It's been a rough month for us all, I'd imagine..." The words left his mouth before he could even consider them, but it was true; the Catastrophe had happened, plunging many bewildered souls into chaos. He wouldn't be surprised if some had gone mad or simply stayed locked in their homes, frightened of the new world they had been thrown into; it certainly hadn't been a picnic for him, but thankfully he had managed to adapt. Long years of strict and heavy discipline meant he was rather skilled at reacting on the fly to new situations, but it hurt no less realising how trapped he was here. A month had gone by and he still wasn't ready for adventure, and he doubted he'd be going out there any time soon. "Like I said, I'm willing to help teach you whatever you need to know to get by; I'd never forgive myself if I left you stranded here in this new world with nothing but the cloth on your back. And even that seems to be running out."

Another soft laugh as he finished talking, happy that he could still find humour in the situations he was dealt with; but, time was a wasting, and there were potentially two more games for them to play. Reaching across for the Mastermind game, he slid it back between them, his hand grabbing up a clump of coloured pegs as he lifted the lid of the compartment where he would put his new code. "Nothing better than forgetting about things for a few minutes and playing a good game between friends, no?" With one last reassuring smile, he gave Evenever a nod, before inserting his new code - Red, Purple, Orange, Green - and closing the lid, letting the Sorceress do her magic.

---

Notes: Colour Combination - Red, Purple, Orange, Green
Word Count: 874
Tags: Evenever

Coded by @serenityspace of LH