[Stryke/Invite] A Curious Place

[Deleted]

It was slightly windy, and the sky was overcast that day. There was no sign of rain, but that day was cooler compared to the past days of that week. Feeling well rested after recent disturbing events, Caerbannog walked along the streets of Londenium until she came across an unfamiliar area. Judging by her distance from the taller landmarks, the samurai figured that she was right in the heart of the city. The old building before her was open to the public, or so she thought, for the main lobby was accessible.

“ Hmmm... “ the girl fidgeted where she stood.

Hrairoo was once again perched upon her head, and the rabbit shifted its position slightly. The creature’s ears perked up at the sound of incoming adventurers, but the city was safe, to say the least, Roo was not too worried. For a while, Caerbannog stood there at the door of the Parliament Building, unable to decide if she should go in or not. There surely would be more people inside the building, for she could hear their garbled conversations.

“ Should we go in? “ she asked Roo, but the rabbit merely looked down at her forehead.

As another group of adventurers approached, the samurai stepped aside to let them pass. She heard some mention of guilds and parties, but since she did not know any of those people, she was unable to inquire further. That, and she’d rather not use up her words for the day on such simple things.

OOC Notes: ---
Word Count: 252
Tags: @dindeen Stryke

[Stryke]

Not much time had passed since Leo apologized To Caerbannog in the cathedral and Leo had yet to fully recover from all the events that happened that week. Firstly he killed Caerbannog while being completely controlled by his berserker induced rage, then he apologized to her while exposing his weakest parts, saying that week was rough was an understatement.

Leo traversed the city while still being in deep thought, he was still thinking about Kumori's words, the ones about a guild he was creating. Leo didn't know what to do, he couldn't believe the man trusted him enough to make him part of something like that, not after what he did to Caerbannog, presumably the most important person Kumori had in this world.

Leo wasn't used to guilds, there were few in the current time and even those didn't have many members, the strongest guild probably had something like 10 members or less, Leo didn't really care about it till Kumori asked him to join his soon to be guild. He just couldn't see himself in a group of people doing everything together and he especially couldn't see himself taking orders from another person. Leo was sure Kumori would be a great leader, he was calm and wise even in situations where most men would have easily succumbed to rage, the same couldn't be said about Leo before he started working on his anger and temperament. The swashbuckler had a very particular pride, no matter how good were Kumori's intentions, Leo just couldn't let him give him orders.

There was also another problem, Leo was still incredibly ashamed for Pking Caerbannog, he wasn't yet worthy with being on the same guild as her. There weren't only bad parts though, that feeling of union between adventurers was something that unconsciously searched for, he indeed wanted someone he could depend on and also be depended in return. The feeling of mutual trust, the safety of having someone taking care of you and cheering you up, those were the things Leo really missed and a guild could surely give those to him.

With his mind still traveling between thoughts, Leo didn't realize he changed his usual walking course, before he knew it he suddenly found himself around the old parliament building. Perhaps it was his guild thoughts that guided his steps on a subconscious level, in fact that place is where an adventurer could create a guild and have a guild hall. Leo stared at the tall building with his eyes half closed, both in tiredness and in annoyance, his concentration levels those days were absolutely minimal, he had to quit being so stressed about the present and return to his usual state of mind.

Since he was there, Leo decided to explore that part of the city more carefully, because he didn't even think about having a guild till now he left that part of the city largely unexplored. Minutes passed, Leo had his hands in the pockets of his shirt and he looked absent mindedly at his surroundings, normally he would be more attentive at things happening around himself but with all the things going on those days he wasn't really in the mood to care about everything he saw. At some point, just when he shifted his sight from the road in front of him to a bird that passed in the distance, Leo bumped into something.

His first reaction was to look in front of himself and all he saw was the road ahead of him and traces of black hair just at bottom end of his sight, he looked down and opened wide his eyes from what they saw, the little samurai Caerbannog.

Leo remained silent for a second, surprised to see her in that place, it didn't help that he still felt incredibly awkward around her, how could he not be?

Thankfully, Leo managed to snap back from that state,

"Hello Caerbannog, I'm sorry to have bumped you, I was distracted for a moment"

He said to excuse himself. Looking at her direction, Leo couldn't' help but realize that a rabbit rested on her shoulder, a name tag appeared above its frame, indicating it was named Hrairoo.

"Hey, I didn't know you were an animal trainer"

Leo said more cheerfully while bending on his knees and trying to pet the rabbit, his love for animals helped him get a bit more upbeat than before.


WC: 736

[Deleted]

While the samurai was debating whether to go after the group of adventurers to ask them about guilds and parties, she felt something warm and strong hit her back. A giant angry boar?! Nope, she was in the middle of the city so that was next to impossible. That is, unless the GameMasters decided to hold an ‘Attack Londenium’ event without informing them and had summoned mobs in the city. It wasn’t the case, the girl soon found out as she turned to look at the culprit. At first all she could see was someone’s armor in front of her, but then Caerbannog’s eyes looked up- up... up. Her expression was one of surprise, not anything like fear or anxiety, just surprise. Her frenmic rabbit Hrairoo did not know who that adventurer was, but it was the one who looked cross due to the incident.

“ Pup- uhm... Stryke! “ the samurai said; she had meant to say something else after that, but words were difficult to find.

Fortunately, the other wolf hair brought up a topic for their conversation. He took notice of the rabbit on her head that, although a bit aggressive-looking due to the appearance of a stranger, let Stryke touch its brown fur since it sensed no apprehension from its tamer. Initially, Hrairoo trembled but it relaxed soon enough. Still, it was not willing to trust any other biped aside from the samurai.

“ All alone, “ Caerbannog pointed at the rabbit, and then she pointed at herself, “ Now not alone. “

Her nightmares about the fateful incident had become few and far in between after having spoken to Stryke at the Abbey. Caerbannog was not back to how she was before her first death, and she probably never would be like that ever again, but it was part of her growth much like how it would have been in the real world. Well... not like dying in the real world, because that one did not have second chances; rather, it was an event significant enough to bring about a change in her. No changes to her horrible socialization though.

“ Inside? “ the samurai reached out a hand to tug at Stryke’s sleeve, something that she’d only do to people whom she felt comfortable enough with; her other hand pointed at the door of the Old Parliament Building.

She wanted to ask about guilds and parties, maybe wander around in the hall too, but the sheer amount of people put her off the idea. With Stryke around though, she figured that he could take care of the socialization part as she poked anything and everything that interested her. She would let the swashbuckler lead the way; or rather, she would not budge from that spot until she got what she wanted. So much for discarding her childhood ways...

OOC Notes: ---
Word Count: 474
Tags: @dindeen Stryke

[Stryke]

The little rabbit let itself get petted by Leo, but not without showing some initial hostility towards the swashbuckler. The animal trainer subclass was one interesting class to have and Leo was sure that if he couldn't take the berserker sub he would have chosen it without a doubt over the others. The prospect of having a pet greatly amused him since his parents never let him have one back home, even when he transferred to England to study he couldn't have one thanks to the strict rules of his campus.

As usual, Caerbannog expressed herself using only the most necessary words to let Leo know what she was talking about, sometimes she reminded Leo of that old scene from the tarzan movie where he first meets Jane. The girl then tugged his sleeve and muttered the word "inside" as a question, Leo looked at the girl with a questioning look and then he raised his head to look at the giant building. He was happy that Caerbannog didn't treat him like a monster, instead she appeared to be more comfortable with his presence than Leo would have anticipated and that greatly relieved him.

Looking at the giant building before him, Leo realized that he never entered inside, he was genuinely curious on how it looked.

"Sure, let's go inside, truth be told I never even visited this place"

It was a strange for an adventurer to never visit one of the most important buildings in the city but for Leo it bared no importance at all, he never even thought of joining a guild up until now, going there would have been only a huge waste of time.

The two adventurers entered the tall building and Leo soon had to realized that Caerbannog's curiousness far outstripped his own, she kept pointing at things and stared at Leo till she had his attention and responded to her, which led to some confusing moments since Leo's knowledge about that place was even inferior to hers. Caerbannog just looked like a little curious child and the difference between their height led to a really strange moment where a lander gave him some parenting advices after seeing Leo look at something in the opposite direction from Caerbannog for an instant.

The tour in the building continued and the two adventurers were now crossing a long hallway that supposedly led to the guild housing section. Kumori's offer returned to Leo's mind, he still had to make the final decision but he wasn't so sure on which one. Maybe he needed an opinion from someone else, the swashbuckler lowered his head on his right side and looked at Caerbannog, even though she wasn't really good at talking she was also the only one Leo could ask some advices.

"You know..."

He started,

"I've thought about Kumori's offer, but I'm not entirely sure on my decision. For one part the trust between guild members is tempting me to join, but on the other hand ...I've done a terrible thing and even though you and Kumori claim to have forgiven me I know that earring your trust back will require effort and time. A guild is built on mutual trust and right now me joining kumori's can only be detrimental to its growth"

Leo concluded, hoping that Caerbannog would help him clear some of the haze in his mind


WC:562

[Deleted]

The samurai clapped her hands like an excited child when Stryke agreed to explore the parliament building. The hallways led to various halls which mostly were closed but the main hallway itself was full of people and was by no means lacking in space. There were flyers and posters about recruiting guilds and parties, notices about lander quests and a lot more information on boards, from landers and from other adventurers.

Caerbannog ran about trying to look at anything and everything within her line of sight. Upon her head, Hrairoo felt a little dizzy but it managed to cling tightly onto the girl’s hair. Eventually, the samurai ran back to Stryke and they proceeded down a long hallway. She looked up at the swashbuckler when she felt him lean closer to her, his voice a little closer than what she was used to. Stryke then asked about Kumori’s offer regarding the formation of a guild, something that the samurai did not know much about.

The blue-eyed girl stopped walking and listened carefully to what her fellow wolf hair said. Her nightmares were almost completely gone and she was close to forgetting about that issue altogether, but it seemed that the young man himself was unable to get past the incident. He seemed to be coping well but still had some worries, as if he was punishing himself. Caerbannog would have told him to just forget about what happened, but she knew that it was not that easy to do.

“ Distance makes heart grow fonder, “ was her reply, something that the girl thought about whenever she was apart from her family and friends, “ In guild or not, Stryke is my friend-friend. “

That seemed to make no sense, but in the girl’s mind, it did. There were friends in the Friends List and then there were friends who were actually her real friends. Despite the unfortunate incident when the swashbuckler lost control of his berserker side, he had been apologetic and sincere. Caerbannog knew that he was a proud adventurer so Stryke must have taken a lot of effort to convince himself to actually apologize and try to mend his broken image.

OOC Notes: ---
Word Count: 364
Tags: @dindeen Stryke

[Stryke]

Caerbannog's response surprised him, somehow she considered him a friend. In all honesty Leo didn't know if he could bring himself to be friends with or trust again someone who killed him once out of fury, he was a completely different person than Caerbannog. He was entirely sure that if the same thing happened to him, Leo wouldn't be able to forgive the culprit so easily, let alone be friend with him. Fortunately Caerbannog wasn't like him and she was willing to trust him again, he that was one of his limits, trusting anyone was already difficult for him and usually just a sign of betrayal was enough for him to entirely stop caring of one person. He would forgive, sure, but trust was something completely different.

In the end Caerbannog was right, Leo became so obsessed about his crime that he couldn't see the obvious, no matter what decision he took, that wouldn't change his relationship with Caerbannog and Kumori. A friend is still a friend, even if their paths lead to different places,

"heh, you're right"

Leo said smiling, the first smile he made since that day in windsor greatwood,

"I was so focused on what happened that I didn't realize a guild is just that, a guild. Whether I'm in or not it won't change anything between us"

Leo felt much better, finally he started to feel like he too could move on and return to be the one he was prior to those events.

"But anyway, thank you for considering me a friend, your trust won't be betrayed a second time, believe me"

Leo said with a proud smile, there was no reason to feel down anymore. He still had to decide whether to accept Kumori's offer or not but now that decision didn't trouble him anymore, he was just happy that had someone who trusted him enough to make him part of something and he would be thankful for it, even if his final decision would be to not join.

The tour of the building continued and the two adventurers finally crossed the long hallway, eventually entering the guild housing part of the building. Leo had imagined that place to be a little different, it looked more like an hotel. There were various doors and each one would show a menu screen saying whether the room belonged to a guild or was vacant, a bit underwhelming fro Leo to be honest,

"Mhm, I guess the larger rooms are in a different place...if there are any"

Leo sked himself for a moment if those rooms were the only ones available to adventurers, what if someone had a really big guild? a huge guild would never fit in those rooms, maybe it was possible that those rooms were definitely larger on the inside, it wasn't an uncommon thing mmorpgs.


WC: 472

[Deleted]

While the adventurers carried on with their heart-wrenching conversation of feels and friendship, Hrairoo quietly listened to every word that was said. Surely someday, the rabbit thought, those strange sounds would make sense. It twitched its nose at Stryke every now and then while it imprinted the swashbuckler’s appearance, voice and scent in its little rabbit mind. Just by the sound of her footsteps or her breathing, even just by the scent of her hair, Hrairoo could identify his tamer for he spent most of his waking moments with her. But for her acquaintances, the rabbit had to put in some extra effort to actually remember them.

The rabbit made a friendly purring sound when Stryke finished his statements. Roo could not understand the words but it could distinguish the difference in the young man’s tone. He sounded solemn and sincere, that much the rabbit knew. As for the samurai, she nodded at Stryke and then she looked up at Roo. A curious thing, she thought, for the other wolf-hair was the first person that Hrairoo acknowledged during a conversation. Usually the frenmic rabbit would just stare at the other person, but for the creature to purr at Stryke’s direction meant a different thing altogether.

“ Roo likes you, “ Caerbannog pointed out to her fellow adventurer, “ Purrs when happy. “

She did not know what to make of it at first, so that was the conclusion that the girl arrived at. After a few steps farther into that area of the Old Parliament Building, Caerbannog was once again engrossed in everything around her. She’d completely forgotten about Hrairoo’s behaviour and so the samurai again poked at anything within her reach. That also included landers and adventurers who were talking amongst themselves about guilds and such.

“ Here for guilds? “ she asked one random person who seemed a bit surprised at the sight of a samurai with a rabbit on her head, “ How to make guilds? “

The person who turned out to be a lander who wanted to converse with a crafter’s guild looked at Stryke. He had seen the swashbuckler walk in with the samurai who seemed to be a child in all accounts: her manner of speaking, her appearance and her height. The lander was not cross just yet but he was getting there, so he looked at Caerbannog and then at Stryke while he hoped that the tall adventurer would get the little girl out of his hair.

OOC Notes: ---
Word Count: 415
Tags: @dindeen Stryke