Grasslands

[Apollymi]

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48990412041_428636f919_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2hD7EGz)

The Grasslands are home to several large farms and a merchant outpost. Here one can interact directly with this branch of the merchants guild, as well as have a direct interaction with the Filolial farms. This entire land is lush and teeming with growing life.

[Bloodedge]

After having quite the fiasco in the Kingdom of Eonis, the group of Adventurers from another world walked their way out into the grasslands, where they hoped to acquire a new means of general transportation across the lands. Karna walked out ahead of the others in the group, carrying his usual attitude with him. Meanwhile, Kou allowed himself to fall behind in an effort to draw Hikari's attention away from the others. "Oi... There's something I've been meaning to ask," he said to the girl while Karna blabbered incoherent complaints about the trip as a whole.

[Apollymi]

As the party undertook their first trip as a whole, Miki floated along on her pillow. Though leaving first thing in the morning had been an idea she'd put forward, she'd not slept as good as she would have liked. As such she seemed to be a bit out of sorts rubbing her eyes with one hand on the side of her neck as if annoyed. That being said, she wasn't actually upset, instead she was in deep thought about the kind of Filolial she wished to raise. While she concentrated on her own thoughts, Karna's complaints could be heard but would go without direct acknowledgement for quite a while to come.

In the meantime, Kou hung back and began a conversation with Hikari, who was initially about to ask to join Miki on her pillow only to become distracted. "Huh? Are you finally willing to accept my awesome advice about women?" the girl asked in her general teasing tone. It seemed she'd slept well enough the night before, to be back to her usual antics. She looked at her brother with wide eyed deviousness but fell in line beside him so they could talk more.

[Bloodedge]

Pleasantly for Kou, Hikari fell behind a bit alongside him, leaving them the ability to converse with some amount of privacy. When she replied to him, her words threw him off momentarily. His retort came with clear surprise to what she'd blurted out. "What!? No!" he said, keeping in mind that he needed to regain his composure before the others had their attention pulled his way. He rubbed his face before sighing, and continued with his original clause. "I just meant... well, how? You're here in this world with us, and I couldn't be any happier about that than I am, but... how?"

[Apollymi]

The demi-human girl was completely unsurprised by the lad's reaction to her first bit of speech. She laughed in response and managed to look a bit haughty. "Your loss..." she said with a casual eye roll. With the ice broken and her brother getting himself together a bit, it seemed he had a question to ask. It seemed that though he was happy she was here, he had no idea how she'd come to be here, to be honest she really didn't know either. "To be honest, I don't really know. I was really excited for the game to come out. I'd been doing a ton of research on it... I even got myself into one of the closed betas..." she said thinking back on the moments that lead up to her finding herself here. "I was really excited to be able to finally play a game with you, I thought if I had some good ideas for character builds to work with yours, we could just play the whole thing together..." she claimed her tail swishing in the breeze. "But before the beta was even over, I found myself here... Just woke up here out of the blue, I don't really remember what I was up to before then, I remembered trying to play... and asking you to go out and get me some snacks and then.... nothing really," she said thinking about a day Kou had mentioned previously. She couldn't know how such a moment had actually played out, but she'd died of her own illness at home that day while he'd been out getting her snacks, but she'd simply woken up in this world as a demi-human and been working up to becoming a Knights Apprentice to look for him potentially. "Anyways, I'm happy I found you!~ I remembered everything you told me about these online communities and didn't attach myself to anyone sketchy while I looked for you... I did want to become a Knight's Apprentice though, to be ready for when I found you!~" she commented happily. She didn't have the complications of her former life affecting her. And with her brother here, she was pleased beyond reason to live this life out with him. She gave a summary of her life up to this point and thought about it for just a second. "How did you end up here though? It seems really weird for a bunch of players to basically end up in a game world for no reason," she said thinking the whole situation was weird, there was also the matter that she couldn't say her own name, but she'd leave that alone for now.

[Bloodedge]

Kou only had an ear for Hikari as she explained the circumstances of her arrival here. It was a very different experience to his own arrival, but... that much could be expected, considering what he'd seen with his own eyes the day Hikari left their home world. Hikari mentioned the last things she remembered from her previous life, and even noted simply waking up in this realm with nothing between his departure to the store and her transportation. The truth of this matter, however, was far sadder in Kou's memory. Fallen and crushed bags of various snack foods lay on the floor of their home for days after he discovered the corpse of the girl who now walked beside him as a new being. Still, since she had no memory of her own departure, Kou chose a path of strength which forced a smile onto his face as he looked to the girl again. "Well, we're back together again, and you seem to be doing well. That's the important thing now," he said, moving quickly onto the next topic: his own arrival to this realm of reality. "I was just playing the game. It was months after you came here. I had just hit max level when the game started showing me all these weird, hidden traits and classes. I picked one, and boom! Here I was at level 1." That was all there was to Kou's story. It really was as simple as him making a selection in the game, then suddenly having to start his life anew in the world he'd become immersed in. Still having the previous topic on his mind, though, Kou took an unnecessarily-long pause before addressing Hikari again. "Oi. I'll take care of you here, alright?" he said in a way that seemed to lack the upbeat nature he held previously.

[Apollymi]

Kou's sad memories of Hikari's former life made the lass look up at him with confusion in her eyes. It was obvious to her, he was hiding something, he so quickly switched to the question she'd asked him, that she was all but sure she was missing something. Whatever the case, it seemed that her brother had actually gotten to play the full release version of AoE and had even gotten all the way up to level 50 before he ended up here. But he wasn't level 50 now so that seemed odd to her. "Level 1 huh? That's weird, I got here at the level I'd gotten up to before, it was 4. I'm level 10 now though... it's hard grinding up alone and traveling and whatnot, but it should be fine now. And you obviously still don't know when to quit, you got all the way back up to level 30 and I assume you haven't been here too long..." the girl mused happy to be able to go on such an adventure with her brother. It seemed though that he was content to try and take care of her in this adventure and she found herself looking at him and frowning deeply. "Nope!" she said shaking her head from left to right, those small ears on her head twitching. "I've been here for ages by myself, you don't get to swoop in and take care of me again," she said before turning her gaze back to her brother. "This time, we take care of each other. I'm definitely not sick and I've been super careful, and I know bunches about this place, so we can take care of each other... deal?" she asked extending her right pinky to the lad in the way of their former selves. She knew she'd been more than a bit of a burden to him before, and now that she was physically fit enough to look after herself, she had no intention of letting the lad take on the full brunt of her care again. Being in this new world, leveled the playing field for them quite a bit and gave them a fresh start, and she was willing to fully accept this.

[Bloodedge]

"Yeah, I'll admit the leveling here is nothing to take lightly. I wouldn't have even gotten as far as I did without help. Now that you're with us though, we'll all grind out tons of XP." Kou said this as a matter of fact, knowing the group dynamic thus far had been more than sufficient for leveling in this world. His claim of taking care of the young teen was rejected without hesitation, much to Kou's displeasure. He had no intentions of letting the past repeat itself, yet Hikari was fixated on the idea that they take care of one another instead. Most notably, she mentioned no longer being sickly. This was at least a massive step in a positive direction, and with that confirmed, Kou stared at the girl's extended pinky finger and sighed. "... Hai hai. There's no arguing with you when you're like this," he said, extending the same finger to meet hers in a lock.

Interestingly, Karna had begun walking backwards and keeping a displeased eye on the others who walked behind him. During the exchange of siblings, he scoffed and yelled at the group. "Oi, maybe we could keep the focus here? We're at the shitty farm now!"

[Apollymi]

It seemed that even Kou had a bit of a problem leveling when he got to this world. The fact that he mentioned the goodness of having help was also quite odd. Hikari knew her brother from before, was all about his ability to do things in a solo environment especially if people were just going to hold him back or try and get carried. This present outlook was very different from the lad, and made her wonder what had changed his mind... though, as her gaze shifted forward she had an idea. Moving right along it seemed her brother was initially displeased by her counteroffer but was sensible enough to accept it given she wasn't going to allow it to be any other way. Their fingers meeting in the old sign of agreement was enough to bring a smile to the young girl's face. "Hai hai!~" she managed but before anything else could be said, Karna's displeased words and expression reached the girl and she in turn stuck her tongue out at the other lad. She didn't know what had occurred to make him so cranky but she was far from being too worried about it.

Miki on the other hand, had her eyes on the farm to begin with and saw it coming into view with extreme wonder. 'Sugoi! It's here!~' she mused happily. Of course this line of thinking was soon interrupted by Karna who sounded no more pleased than he usually did. "Yare yare, you're loud this morning... relax, we can all see the farm..." mentioned the blonde lass, who though her face had initially showed discontent was actually simply in deep thought about the coming moment. Speaking of the coming moment, there was a young man in a straw hat approaching. He had wide eyes and a small scar under one of them. "Howdy!~ You folks here for a Filolial? We have all types around here if you are just looking to buy. Or, if you're looking for something more specific and you've got the time, you can try your luck at breedin' 'em..." mentioned the farmer. Miki knew for a fact that she wished to breed the Filolial of her own accord and nothing would detour her from it, but they'd not discussed it yet between the two of them, so she waited to see what Kou would say.

[Bloodedge]

Karna's attitude aside, it seemed they were actually stepping onto the farm by the time Kou and Hikari reached their agreement. Kou steeled himself to prepare for whatever exchange needed to be made here at said farm, but the farmer who met them bore a familiar visage. "Hmm..." Kou muttered. It took him a few moments, but eventually, he managed to pinpoint where he'd seen this particular face before. "Sou ka. That's the weird guy from the Black Bulls squad," he said. Onto important matters, though, there was the matter of how they would approach the Filolial situation. Kou knew there was virtually no point in purchasing one outright. Their personalities were a gamble, and their natural-born abilities were even more influx. "I say we breed. If we're going to be keeping it long-term, it may as well be as good as it can get," said Kou, warranting a reaction of disgust from Karna. "Right. Now we're all about the breeding."

[Apollymi]

At the same time that Kou was having his recognition, Miki was having hers. "Sou ka, I always did think that guy would make a pretty decent farmer. He probably eats the Filolials though..." she said with a chuckle. Recognizing this one's visage as one from a series her favorite Mangaka had been working on lately. A moment later though, Kou was speaking on a matter most important and it happened to line up with Miki's exact thought pattern. She also wished to breed the Filolial for the optimal outcomes. "Yosh! I was hoping we were on the same page. This is like my favorite part!~" she squealed with near impossible amounts of delight. "Nii-san, you and your weird mini-games..." mentioned Hikari, but she supposed there were worse ways to spend an afternoon. Moreover, she noted the amount of excitement coming from Miki and nodded her approval of this as a reaction. Not that she enjoyed the idea of breeding the Filolials herself, but that this lass was similar enough to her brother to enjoy the same things. While she thought this over Miki reacted to Karna's outburst which seemed to not go along with this entire situation. "Oh, stop complaining, they get better attributes if you breed them yourself, and better stats if you raise them. It's a minimal amount of investment for the best return possible. Going the easy way won't be good long term, so... I'm all for this!" Miki claimed seemingly excited about the prospects. After hearing the words which came from Miki directed at Karna that same devious light returned to Hikari and she downplayed her entire involvement. "Well, if both of you feel so strongly about it, who am I to argue. Go ahead, breed chicken!" she said giving her consent to be tied to this farm for way longer than she'd originally planned. She didn't remember the details but she knew for certain it'd take a while.

In the meantime the farmer heard out the arguments presented by the group and decided to chime in. "I mean, if you wanted to breed them, it might take a while, but there is plenty to do around here if you get bored of that part. We can also take over part of the raising process to make it easier on you, you can even decide the care play if you want. You pick your two Filolial to cross, and hatch the egg, then we can take care of it for you until it matures," he mentioned. Miki looked back at the farmer and scoffed, she had no intentions of picking potentially perfect stats just to let the farm ruin it by not getting the Filolial enough varied experiences when it was young. "Honestly, I am not really interested in letting them raise it either. Its stats might get too jumbled after we go through all the trouble of picking them out..." Miki stated her opinion on the plan offered by the farmer.

[Bloodedge]

"Oi, it's not a weird mini-game!" Kou said, having a rather quick reaction to Hikari's assertion. "If anything, it's like a break from the usual grind, and one that makes the grind afterwards way easier! Besides, it's pretty fun. I feel like it can only be better as a real experience," he concluded. At the end of it all, Hikari seemed to have no qualms, and Karna seemed to only be griping for the sake of it. The farmer offered assistance with raising the Filolial after its hatching, but Kou knew how such a thing worked out in the video game. Miki was, once again, on the same page. As such, he looked to the blonde and nodded with a chuckle. "I tested it pretty early in my first play-through. Remember leaving your Pokemon at the daycare, how they learn new moves only to replace the one move you wanted to keep? Yeah, something like that," he said, turning his attention to the farmer thereafter. "No dice. We'll pick the parents, and once that egg pops out, it's ours."

[Apollymi]

"Touchy touchy, Nii-san. I already said do what you want..." said the girl casually brushing aside her brother's explanation. She knew for a fact she would have gotten roped into such a thing, even if it'd only been the two of them in this world. The interesting part of this day, was that, such excitement and stubbornness about something as simple as mount stats wasn't just something Kou was worried about. Miki also seemed to want to have her hand in this proverbial pot. Beyond that, her brother's mention of Pokemon seemed to set Miki off on a similar kind of tangent. "Of course, or you get one back out of daycare and it has absolutely nothing but stat moves. Then you have to go through and find the move tutor and that's a hassle and half, no. Absolutely not," Miki said firmly. Hikari's eyes widened at this her little tail swishing in the breeze as she gained an entirely different kind of excitement in this day, 'He managed to find the only girl in the world, who might be as big a nerd as he is!?' her mental thoughts were those of absolute disbelief.

Meanwhile the farmer could do nothing but laugh a little and slap his knee. "I like you kids, both of ya' are just raring to go!" he claimed. It had been quite a while since a pair of adventurers had even cared enough about the stats on their Filolial to want to do anything with it, much less claim like this pair that they wished to raise it completely from picking the parents, to hatching it, all the way through raising it. "Alright then, here ya' go..." mentioned the farmer as he pulled from his pocket a triplicate set of cards. "This one is for a female, this one is for a male, they will bait the ones you decide on by way of magic. And this one, well, it's for the honeymoon suite so they can make their prospective egg," mentioned the farmer. "The whole pack will cost you 100 Gold pieces but it will let you pick literally any of the Filolial you come across on the property," said the farmer pretty astutely. If this pair wanted to raise their own pet, it would be cutting him out of quite a bit of his day to do profit. Miki thought for a second and pulled out the coinage she'd gotten from the princess the previous day. "I'll give you 200 and you'll also give us access to any of the food it will need until it fully matures, deal?" she asked of the farmer. She'd already mentally calculated how much the farmer would be losing out on as far as his profits were concerned because they wanted to raise their own baby. She didn't wish to short such an honest man and knew the round 200 gold pieces would more than make up for the few gold pieces in profit the food was worth to him. And it would give them a bit more choice when feeding their future pet for attributes, which she'd read up on a bit. "You drive a pretty hard bargain, Missy, but I can't deny it works for me. Just bring back all three cards when you're ready and we'll get to work on your Filolial Egg." said the farmer, handing over the cards in exchange for the coinage that Miki offered. Cards in hand the blonde lass had a huge smile on her face as she turned to Kou. "Alright, you chose one and I'll choose one, and then we can try to go for the best possible stat combination..." she said offering the lad his choice in card, which upon being placed in front of the appropriately gendered Filolial would take a snap of it, allowing it to be summoned back to the ranch by the farmer when they decided on the pair.

[Bloodedge]

"Yeah, screw all that. Besides, it takes all of the sentimental value out. That stuff is important, especially now that it's real life for us." Kou was very firm in his stance about raising a Filolial, and luckily, Miki seemed to be as well. Though the others didn't share their enthusiasm for the activity of choice, having even a maximum of two participants involved would be quite the boon. The farmer was quite pleased with the effort saved on his part, and still, Miki made the deal even better for the man while gaining an extra win for the Filolial's development. The cards he offered were taken by Miki, then held out to Kou. He reached out to choose one randomly, ending up with the card denoting a female Filolial. He made a very simple, yet important decision regarding them choosing separately. It would be a shame if they accidentally chose a pair of Filolials which didn't have ideal compatibility, so he gestured for Miki to step out ahead of him. "After you, then. I'll just match traits after you're done."

[Apollymi]

"Right? Plus Filolial chicks are super cute!~ I live for this part!~" It seemed that Miki's normal level of composure was out of the window when it came to the idea of personally nurturing their Filolial. Beyond her regular disposition, they'd been doing a lot of combat and killing since they came into the world, and it was nice to be able to complete a task without abject violence or diplomacy being involved. After Kou made his choice, of the female card apparently at random, Miki was left with the male one. Looking at it directly she tucked away the honeymoon suite card for later usage. It seemed that Kou didn't want to take any chances on them potentially choosing a bad stat match up for their parent generation, and was content to let Miki choose first and then fill in the blanks afterwards. She nodded and took off at a gentle place, thinking through her own knowledge of the Filolials to try and come up with a good way to split the work in this case. "Hm, Filolials have 4 traits that need to be bred for, the other three have to do with environmental interactions and feedings. So basically, we should be able to find a pair with two high tier stats each to make them compatible for a good breeding set," she thought aloud her face shifting into her concentration face. 'I should choose one physical attribute and one mental, then there can be balance, so they should also be able to get along...' she thought. With this in mind she began her exploration.

The card she had with her glowed gently every time she came across a male Filolial, alerting her to its potential as a choice, but the first few she found didn't suit her needs. 'Eww, they are all super physical, with no mental traits... no wonder they are out here alone in a group together...' she mused. She took the time to leave behind this group of Filolials and explore a bit more in depth, along the eastern edge of the farm, there was a male Filolial with teal feathers and a group of both male and female Filolials around him. Miki's eyes widened as she scanned this one for stats and found it to have two at S rank which she liked. "Endurance and Receptivity!~ This one!~" she chimed excitedly, applying her own magic to the card she tapped this particular bird, locking it in as a choice for their pairing. She didn't feel the need to explain to Kou what she'd been trying to do, figuring the lad would understand her intentions in this way. What he'd have to look for in a female was the two opposite breed-able traits, Strength and Discernment. If they managed this, then they would have the perfect pairing for stats that they possibly could.

[Bloodedge]

Holding onto his card, Kou crossed his arms and watched as Miki went off to find an appropriate male Filolial for the breeding process. He was quite interested in seeing what she would choose, and it appeared she was putting quite a bit of consideration toward her selection, and after going through a couple of Filolial groups in this area of the farm, she selected one with two of four traits at S-rank. 'Endurance and Receptivity, huh? Interesting choice. In that case...' Kou was beginning to consider his selection from the female Filolials, and it wasn't quite the route one would expect. Without further ado, he made his move into the appropriate area of the farm. He walked ever so casually through a large collection of female Filolials, who seemed to avoid grouping together the way the males of their species did. Instead, they formed a much larger, loose-knit community among themselves. "Strength... Strength..." he chanted as he viewed each Filolial he passed, specifically looking for those who boasted a rank of S in the Strength parameter. He found a few specimens with the desired stat, but he was struggling to find one with the proper Discernment ranking. That is to say, he did indeed stumble upon a female Filolial with S-ranked Strength and Discernment parameters, but after a few moments of inspecting it, he grinned and moved on from it.

Eventually, he stopped and stared at one particular Filolial. This one boasted S-rank Strength alongside B-rank Discernment. It may have seemed to be an odd choice to make, but as he stared this one down, he prepared his card. Tapping the creature, he bound it to the summoning seal within the card, then turned to address his companion, Miki. "There we are. Now, about that honeymoon card..."

[Apollymi]

After choosing her male of choice, Miki followed Kou as he looked for his female counterpart. She was quite interested in his process, and noted that he'd passed up a perfectly balanced female alternative, to get one with slightly less good stats. 'Hm, I wonder about that...' she thought absently. Of course, she didn't actually question his decision aloud, knowing that if the lad had passed up a creature, he thought it better for the situation at hand. The one he chose wasn't a bad choice in her own mind, and it got her to wondering why type of Filolial would hatch from the egg. 'Sugoi! It's coming... I can't wait!~' she mused internally. After choosing his particular female of choice, he mentioned the honeymoon card, Miki produced it and handed it over without so much as a complaint. "Hai! It's here... I've never really seen these before, I looked into it briefly, but I have no idea how it actually works..." she mentioned, choosing to wait for any coming explanation as she handed over this object to the lad. She was exceptionally excited for this moment and seemed to be genuinely interested in the steps which came next, if only because it would lead to one of the most interesting non-combat things they'd gotten to do since coming to this world.

[Bloodedge]

Kou imagined Miki had a few thoughts regarding his selection, but all would become apparent in due time. He was quite surprised she didn't question this aloud, but if she wasn't going to, he had nothing to say. Soon enough, Miki was producing the honeymoon suite card handed to her by the Filolial farmer. She apparently wasn't very familiar with this card, but Kou had familiarized himself with the various mating location types. "Endurance and Strength are fixed when the Filolial is born. If they increase, it happens at a flat rate that screws up the mental parameters. Breeding for a rare variant of Filolial takes a weird type of approach. We've got S-rank physical parameters, and one S-rank mental. If we get the other one at B instead, and use the right honeymoon suite, the last stat will max out because of the birth circumstances. Hot springs should be the way to go for this one. The Discernment stat should get the boost it needs from the instinct of avoiding 'too hot' water, and the romantic aura and relaxing atmosphere will max out the kid's intangible stats as well."

[Apollymi]

Soon after she handed over the card, there was an explanation of the honeymoon suite that Kou wanted to use, and as it finished the girl translated the information into the sort she had more experience with. The connection made here, was too Pokemon which made her eyes widen slightly. There was a sparkle present which made the lass look like she was star struck for a few moments. "Sugoi! This is gonna be great. I mean I figured you knew what you were doing because you had one before, and you are... well you. But that's such a good idea... there's like so much potential here! I can't wait!~" Miki's blonde face showed a level of excitement she couldn't seem to contain, her happiness nor the extra commentary. Miki had honestly been pretty excited and fidgety about the entire idea of this since it was first mentioned, she couldn't wait to see how it turned out, and mentioned it aloud immediately after. "Yosh! Let's get back to Farmer Artem!~ I'm ready to see how this turns out!" Miki mentioned content to go and see the farmer and set up their egg breeding services. All the while, Hikari watched the interaction between her brother and the lass Miki and wondered why they weren't in a proper relationship yet. 'I didn't know girls came in this much nerd... I wonder if her original self was hideous?' she pondered this point.

Whenever the came across him again, the straw hat farmer would be grinning wide with both of his eyes closed. "Eheh! You kids are back. Found what you were looking for then? What kind of breeding session do we have going?" he asked of the pair, admittedly more than a bit curious about their personal choices in this matter.

[Bloodedge]

The excitement welling up within Miki was apparent. Frankly, Kou was in the exact same situation, even though he wasn't as open about it outright. Seeing how hyper Miki managed to be, though, lifted his spirits enough to put him in the same sort of mood on the surface as well. "Right!? It's going to be one of the max rarity spawns, no question! We could even push it beyond that if we put a little extra effort into raising it in a good environment for its type. It'll be an extra commitment of time, but way worth it in the end!" he announced. Before the farmer, Kou wore a grin he'd held onto since the most recent exchange with Miki, content to announce their choices with confidence. "These!" he said, offering the cards he held, which were the female Filolial and the Hot Springs honeymoon suite.

In the meantime, Karna took to Hikari's side, looking as displeased as ever. He'd been intending to speak with this girl for some time, but only now did he see a proper opportunity, considering where both of their minds were focused. "Nope. Definitely one of the hottest chicks in school. He knows who she is, even."

[Apollymi]

The sparkle in Miki's eyes was soon met by a bit of excitement from Kou as well. These two seemed to feed off each other in this regard, and his claim that their combined Filolial could be a max rarity spawn only furthered the way the blonde lass felt. "The extra commitment doesn't matter, think of the stats! And how absolutely adorable it will be!~" she chimed, seeming to be on the verge of some sort of emotional outburts. "I live for this sort of grind!~" the lass said, and truly she meant it. Though she hadn't specified she'd spent a lot of time in the most recent installment of Pokemon breeding her favorite team until it was perfect for facing the elite four. She'd even grinded it all the way up to level the old-fashioned way, no cloning, no trading, no interaction. This was both a matter of her loneliness as a gamer, and her commitment to being absolutely certain of the creatures parameters. She could be described as insatiable in her search for rarity in these ways. Regardless by the time they were talking to farmer Artem once again, she was handing over the singular card she still held. The farmer looked at these choices a bit confused, as if he'd never seen a combination like this before, and the truth was he hadn't in all his time here. "Hehe, never seen this set chosen before. And hardly anyone bothers with the hot springs... this might be kinda interesting to be sure... welp. I'll wrangle 'em up and get them working on that egg. No telling how long it will take the egg to drop though, could be a couple of minutes, could be a few hours..." he said as he took all the items to a barn like place and pressed them into a panel. This would transform the inside and summon the two chosen Filolial into the place. The space itself was enclosed and took on the full form of the hot spring, including unreasonably hot water. Beyond all that the outside of the barn had on the side a single flap like opening for the egg when it was ready. "Hai!~" was the only response Miki had, as she began to anxiously move about waiting for the process to finish. She couldn't sit still and didn't know what to do with herself, this was an exciting moment.

As the pair excitedly awaited their Filolial egg, Hikari heard the words of Karna which addressed her previous thought. According to this lad, the girl in question, wasn't hideous originally and technically qualified as one of the hottest in their school. Hikari herself had been in middle school so she didn't know any high school aged people aside from her brother. 'If she's actually pretty, she's that much of a nerd, and she's genuinely a nice person... I don't really get the...' she paused her thoughts for a couple of reasons. The most important of which was her thoughts had been addressed and she hadn't tried mentally communicating for whatever reason, which meant that Karna had read her mind. "Wait, wait... did you just read my mind? You can do that? What the actual hell?!" she was aghast. Yes, she'd much rather keep trying to figure out why her brother wasn't currently dating this girl, but that could wait for her own curiosities and apparently they'd be waiting a while yet.

[Bloodedge]

"Exactly! It's definitely going to have the best stats it could possibly get, and on top of that, it'll look way more awesome than any other Filolial outside of a few random wild ones." The excitement levels didn't seem capable of rising any higher, but the farmer showed some interest in the breeding combination offered to him. This confirmed Kou's belief that others in this world didn't fancy such a combination, just as it was one of many hidden paths in the video game version of the realm. Kou was content to wait around for the Filolial egg's production, but there was one other piece of information he needed to share with Miki. "So, we're gonna have to get this thing swimming within three days of its birth to make this work properly."

Hikari had an additional train of thought following Karna's answer to her curiosity, but it never reached its conclusion. More importantly, she soon made it clear that she'd halted her thoughts due to being shocked. Karna had indeed read the girl's mind, as he'd been doing with the entire group for quite some time now. He was actually quite disappointed that none had noticed thus far, but he also supposed it was worth crediting Hikari for noticing it more quickly than the others. "Of course I did," he said, interestingly sparing the girl of his usual sarcastic tone. "It's why I gave you that look back at the castle. I'm on-board with the plan, and have been walking the same path you are now since I was a lizard."

[Apollymi]

Kou seemed to think their Filolial would look and be amazing as well, their shared excitement was something which made this experience that much greater for Miki. She didn't usually get to share the moments of her nerdy excitement with anyone, and it'd been a long time since she had someone who was just as excited about something like this as she was. "It'll be way cooler than wild ones, because it'll be ours!!~" she chimed her eyes still sparkling. Beyond this point, and after the honeymoon suite was set up, Miki was also just as content to wait for egg production as Kou. One might think such an activity strange but the farmer respected this pair's moxie and wandered off to do some work while they waited. And while this happened, Miki was made aware of a strangeness surrounding the groups new mount. According to Kou, it would need to be taught to swim before it was three days old. "That doesn't sound too bad, are there any specifics about it that we need to know? Like it's breeding required some special conditions will it need to learn in a specific type or body of water?" she asked wanting the details so she could help plan and work out how to best make this happen. She was pretty sure they would have a few in-game days before the egg hatched, given this, it would be best to travel with the egg towards their destination water source, before it hatched and try to teach it how to swim afterwards. Whatever the case, they should still stock up before leaving here, as long as they didn't dawdle here too long, they could very easily reach most of the good bodies of water within the time period they needed to teach the Filolial chick to swim.

In the meantime, Hikari was being treated to a very different conversation, while she was able to keep a watchful eye on the rest of the group. She took note of the doubly excited natures being exhibited by both her brother and Miki as well as their thoroughly close conversation as they tried their hand at Filolial breeding. Beyond that she noted their closeness in such a moment, as she listened to Karna speak on his abilities. "Sou ka... you're being nice now. Doesn't seem too sketchy though..." she said the slightest bit of skepticism leaving her face. According to the lad she was speaking with, he'd also been trying to hook this pair of adventurers up, and apparently hadn't been having much luck with it either. "I wasn't expecting to have a partner in this plan... I also don't understand why you were a lizard... but, what matters now is..." she paused her gaze shifting back. "Figuring out what the hell the hold up is between these two. I mean jeez, they so obviously like each other, and they're the same kind of nerd, and if he knows she isn't hideous, he shouldn't have normal gamer hold ups. And she probably doesn't either, because she's still hanging out with him, and not taking advantage of him, or anyone else. She's nice to me, even when no one else is around, that's a great sign for a girl interested in him. Way better than normal..." Hikari started a tirade, about this pair, but her observations of the last day or so were still fairly accurate to the best of her approximation.

[Bloodedge]

"Hmm..." In all honesty, Kou had to give quite a bit of consideration to the trait-raising activities possible in a Filolial's infancy. It was a very careful process that needed to be taken on by the pair, and every little thing made a massive difference to the outcome. "That's tough. For what we want, we need it to level its Discernment through experiences as an infant. It needs to move around and, honestly, have a pretty hard time even when it's out of the water. That sort of thing will make Discernment go from B to S before it counts as a toddler, which is exactly what we need to make it evolve into an even higher class. In the game, I had an artifact for hatching eggs. That one let me go from the Filolial Farm all the way to the Marshlands before it hatched the egg, since I could set it to a specific timer to hatch it slower, or quicker than normal. Marshlands were great since it made the Filolial learn to swim in murky water and walk through mud instead of solid ground. It only took half an in-game day for a place like that to get me what I wanted from the rare white Filolial."

Karna wasn't exactly pleased with the notion that he was suddenly being nice, as claimed by Hikari. "Che! I've always been nice," he insisted as if none of his actions previously were in the wrong at all. Either way, Karna was content to address the matter at hand, and for reasons all his own which would see the pair of Adventurers forced together. "Maybe because he's hideous? Inferiority complex? Very hideous? Too much of an average guy to approach an idol? Uncomfortably, grotesquely hideous? Small cock?"

[Apollymi]

The pair of adventurers stood around outside of the 'honeymoon suite' discussing the fine tuning of the training of their future Filolial. According to Kou, making sure it learned to swim and got high Discernment before it reached 'toddler' stage was very important for its future evolution. It was claimed by Kou that during his experience of the game, he'd had an artifact to help him hatch eggs at his pleasure, and he'd used that combined with the terrain to properly get what he wanted out of his Filolial. Miki took this information and frowned deep in thought, but this wasn't a matter of her own displeasure, it was simply what occurred when she began a deep thinking exercise. "Hm, assuming that we can't get that artifact again, we might have to make a different kind of concession. It takes 4 days for an egg to hatch properly, and getting to the Marshlands from here before then is a bit of a gamble..." she said aloud. Her mind went back to putting together a map of the world as she'd seen it in her own game. They were currently in the grasslands, and they needed to get to a place, that could both allow them to teach their Filolial to swim and expose it to the non-solid ground type which would require it to use its mind to figure out how to move better. "Terrain and swimming... what about... Dragon Lagoon Beach?" she asked looking up at the lad. She remembered from her early travels that the Dragon Lagoon Beach was considered a tourist type of place, it was a full length beach which got swirling riptides at different intervals of the day, such would be great for teaching swimming, and the beach was full of thick and dense sand which had good properties for healing, but also was fully good for maximizing all aspects of physical exercise. "It has hilly sandy beaches, swirling riptides for different levels of challenge to learn to swim in, and most importantly, it's only about a day and a half away from here give or take. So, we can definitely make it before the egg hatches, or align our arrival with the time the egg should hatch, even if we can't get the artifact you were talking about..." Miki tried to provide a potential solution to their problem.

In the meantime, Hikari was still conversing with Karna. It was apparent that the young man didn't think himself mean at all given his reaction, but he did have a habit of being overly sarcastic and rubbing people the wrong way, though both Kou and Miki seemed alright with him regardless. Hikari also didn't dislike him at all to be honest, when he offered up his own thoughts about why the relationship between the pair wasn't working, she was aghast. "Like hell! My brother is fucking adorable. A stand up guy, who takes care of his skin, showers and brushes his teeth twice a day. He's definitely not hideous! Don't even suggest it!" she said crossing her arms over her chest and managing to look petulant. Her brother was absolutely not ugly even in his base form, so there wasn't really much cause for that as an assumption, the rest of what the lad had to say though... that might be on to something, "That last bit is gross, I don't wanna think about it, you find that out yourself if you wanna know," she said choosing to address only comments about her brother's potential mental complexes as she knew nothing about his physical deformity potential. "And he's definitely not average at anything. He doesn't try really hard at things he doesn't care about, but he's definitely fully the type to be committed to all things he loves, and that I know," she said with a comfortable nod. "Inferiority complex..." she paused thinking about it. "You mean like he might not think he's good enough?" she said, that commentary was a bit outlandish given what she knew about her brother's personality. "If he's got something like that, then its happened in the months I've been here. My brother isn't the type to assume he isn't good enough for anything. He'll work hard, and he'll make himself into whatever he wants to be. Hm, I am gonna have to observe more, and talk with him directly eventually. Maybe I can nudge him in the right direction," she said thinking about it more. "Do you know them both, or what? Why did you decide to try and hook them up?"

[Bloodedge]

When Miki brought up the idea of having the artifact Kou spoke of, he shook his head. "We shouldn't have a problem getting that one here, but even with the four of us and everyone else we've met so far, there's no way we could get it even in a week. I didn't get that one until I had been dealing with Goblins for a whole day outside," he stated. Luckily, Miki had enough knowledge of the area surrounding this one to make a very acceptable suggestion. This Dragon Lagoon Beach she spoke of sounded even better than the Marshlands he'd used in the video game, if only a bit dangerous with its riptides. "Hmm. Sounds like high risk, high reward. That sort of struggle for the Filolial might make it level way quicker, but if we keep an eye on it, I think we can keep it from aging up before it's done. Let's get us an OP chicken!"

Hikari was rather perturbed by Karna's assertions. She insisted that most of his assumptions were inaccurate, though there were a couple of matters she either didn't care to address, or couldn't be too sure of due to the time since she'd last seen her brother. She also went on to ask if Karna knew either of them, and wondered aloud why he cared to force them together. To this, Karna shrugged. "Probably because I bore easily, and they obviously tried to screw each other out in the open once. Mind you, that all happened when I was a lizard, and they were Dragons. That's not important. It's just something I decided to do, but it's important that we go through the process of elimination, right? Most of what I said could be the problem, you said was wrong..." Karna didn't bother explaining himself further. Instead, he moved toward Kou. There were two options remaining for why nothing had already occurred between the two Adventurers, and since Hikari said Karna should find out for himself the answer to one thing, he decided to do exactly that. Stepping up behind the other white-haired lad, Karna tapped his shoulder and sent a paralyzing venom from his nail through the boy's body. Since they were already conversing, Kou happened to be facing Miki. As such, Karna was content to very casually crouch and slide down Kou's breeches, right in front of the blonde lass he was speaking to at the time. In doing so, he made a marked effort to watch not Kou, but Miki in the aftermath of his action.

[Apollymi]

Kou explained the artifact in question was one received from following a line of Goblin related quests. Miki's eyes widened, and she couldn't help the slightly disgusted utterance which fell from her mouth. "Ugh, goblins..." she murmured. Though she wasn't directly afraid, if she could directly avoid fighting rape monsters she would at all costs. Especially seeing that she was actually in this place and not simply using an avatar as a stand-in to the trauma such a thing could cause. But it seemed her own ideas about the potential use of the beach was indeed one which Kou could agree with. He'd gone on to state it was a high-risk high-reward sort of situation. "Hai hai, we can monitor it pretty easily though, there are smaller pools which we can use for the early stages before we move our chicken out into the ocean. Let's do this!!" she chimed happily.

In the meantime, Karna felt the need to share his own interest in this pair's relationship. According to him, the pair had Dragon Avatars and apparently as them had tried to fornicate in front of everyone, this embarrassed Hikari a bit, "They were DRAGONS?!" the questioned surprised. "Baka-nii, hentai... though...." she thought about the situation logically. It was said in all legends that dragons were creatures of instinct, and if they'd tried to mate each other as Dragons, then it was likely that they actually really liked each other regardless. And though she thought the whole voyeur thing was a bit too much, Miki hadn't abandoned ship after, so she obviously didn't have too much of a problem with anything that had taken place at the time. 'I wonder if she's like that too...' the girl wondered. Strangely, Karna wasn't exactly done yet. He moved away from her and did something she couldn't necessarily see.

In just a moment Karna had walked up behind Kou and paralyzed him with a single touch, he would then lower the pants of the lad while he couldn't move at all. In this moment, Miki's eyes were still on Kou and she saw what Karna was doing but even as it happened her eyes were glued to the situation. It was as if initially her mind wouldn't let her fully understand, and then, just like that... Kou's manhood was bare for her to see. Seeing this sight triggered a rather embarrassing memory for Miki, of waking up cuddled against his erect manhood in the Fairy Forest and touching it. Her eyes widened immensely and she took in the sight as her face turned an ridiculous shade of absolute red, all while Karna watched her reaction, when she finally moved to cover her eyes her mind drifted back to that memory and she mentally chided herself. 'I can't believe I touched his junk that time. And now I'm looking at it... and I can feel it in my hand and throbbing against my lower back...' her thoughts paused as she finally managed to clap her hands over her eyes, though there were quite a few openings as she tried but failed to properly hide a strange thing about herself. "Karna you jerk! Why did you do that?! Undo whatever you did so he can pull his pants up," she finally managed some semblance of her own voice to come out. And worked towards covering her eyes for giving the lad with her properly privacy to eventually return himself to a clothed state. In the meantime, Hikari watched and though she was visibly embarrassed for her brother as well, she couldn't see anything so she was fine, what was more was the reaction from Miki wasn't exactly as normal as she expected. 'Most girls would squeal. Be upset, and leave. She seemed embarrassed and I can still see the color of her eyes. She's still looking! That's interest!' she concluded. If this was the case then it was some mental hang up, and had nothing to do with anything physical which was a bit of a relief as it was now something she didn't have to deal with.

[Bloodedge]

Karna's eyes gained a very interesting, ominous glow as he watched Miki's reaction. He could see the blood on its way to the girl's face, and he could hear - almost feel - the increase of her heart rate. What's more, he could see where her eyes were placing their focus, despite an apparent effort for Miki to cover her face. This was obvious enough without the need of any special vision on Karna's part. "Whoops~ my hand must have slipped twice! Apologies, Friend!" he said to Kou as he rose, dispelling the paralysis he'd placed on the lad. Kou had experienced a very massive amount of shock while being incapable of expressing it, but the moment he was able to move again, he hastily righted his little wardrobe malfunction. "Oi, what even--!?" Kou turned around quickly to address Karna, but the latter had already returned to Hikari's location and begun speaking casually with her again. "... the fuck..."

"Alright, there's that. Good thing that wasn't the issue," Karna said whilst just out of earshot to the others. He seemed rather content with Miki's reaction in this case, and with that, their plotting could begin without any hiccups. "That would have broken the whole thing. Dicks are important. Anyway, ideas?"

[Apollymi]

Karna claimed that his hands had merely slipped twice and soon after, Kou was returned to normal. His immediate response to his current nudity was to cover himself much to Miki's relief. She hadn't expected such a thing to happen and it'd completely broken the moment of their happiness. The mutterings of Kou brought forth a shrug from the lass as she finally managed to lower her hands though her face was admittedly still a bit red. "I have no idea what all that was about," she said frankly. "Karna might be some kind of troll... it has to be that Avatar though... what I recall of his actual self seemed to be pretty normal," the lass said as she waited for her the heat to leave her face. "Anyways, there is happy chicken raising going on here... maybe he'll be a bit less bored when he finds out we're going to the beach later..." she said, simply attributing the lad's unpredictable behavior to his boredom at being involved in Filolial raising.

In the meantime, when Karna came back it seemed he'd gotten the results that had been asked for. "Not exactly how I thought that was gonna go, that was a bit extreme," the lass said, though she didn't have any actual complaints because there were lots of good results and information to be gained from watching the situation. Moreover, Karna was content to share a bit of knowledge to the lass which she took to heart. "Dicks are important. Got it," she said as she tried to think of the next possible issue. "Well, I already got rid of the normal potential drawbacks, as far as game nerds are concerned," she said. "No physical mismatches, no intellectual mismatches, no skills gaps..." she said frowning deeply. "This inferiority complex thing you talked about... how does that work for dudes? Girls might not think they aren't as smart, as pretty, their boobs aren't big enough... that sort of thing, would be pretty easy to spot for me. What do dudes use to measure their worth for these kinds of things?" she said getting into the deep psychology of the situation. She hadn't seen her brother in a few months of real time, and years and years by game standards. She was also pretty young and didn't deal with very many boys outside of her brother, as such, she didn't really know what made them tick for relationships that weren't platonic.

[Bloodedge]

One thing had yet to be addressed by Kou mentally, and that happened to be the fact that Miki was standing right in front of him when his pants were dropped. When she began speaking to him again, this registered in his mind, bringing a startling redness to his face. 'Oh, shit. Do I... Do I say something about this? Do I apologize?' he wondered. 'No, it wasn't my fault, right? She isn't bringing any attention to it, so...' Indeed, Miki moved onto another topic in a very slight way, addressing the strangeness of Karna's avatar compared to what they saw of his normal state. Given the current situation though, Kou was a bit bashful going about his responses. "Err... yeah... it's kinda weird. Hopefully the beach trip will calm everything down..."

Karna shrugged again, having no concern at all for how extreme his approach may have been. As far as he was concerned, he did only what needed to be done. Their planning would continue. Being younger and seemingly inexperienced, Hikari wondered what males would suffer from as sources to their inferiority complexes, if such a thing could be the case with her brother. When Karna responded, he did so very bluntly. "... Dicks," he said, pausing before going on with the rest of his list. "Power, money, status, etcetera. It's mostly dicks, though."

[Apollymi]

Miki had a moment to gather herself, and it seemed that by the time she'd done that properly, Kou was now in the same sort of embarrassing situation that she'd been before. She took note of his reddened face and tried to look away a bit to spare him too much of this feeling. She felt the need to apologize and ease his mind a bit. She could at least, take responsibility for adding to the awkwardness of such a situation for him. "Gomennasai, I didn't mean to make that awkward for you. Do you need a minute or two?" she apologized for staring and asked willing to give the lad a bit of space to get himself together, also seeming to be a tad bit bashful. She knew he seemed to be pretty uncomfortable with the idea of their closeness and didn't want him to feel bad or super awkward because he'd been pants'ed in front of her. To be honest, she'd only really been embarrassed herself because she'd let her mind wander a bit too much while she stared at his manhood, while knowing about her own past missteps as she tried to navigate the nature of their partnership. She could only hope that something like a beach trip would get everyone back to a more normal pace, as an aside at the very least, time seemed to be passing decently quickly.

As the pair of older teens navigated their way through the awkwardness of the situation created by Karna, Hikari watched those little ears of hers twitching as the lad mentioned that the manhood of boys was something they were insecure about, and beyond that money, power and status also tended to be things, but he claimed it all boiled down to genitals which was sort of weird to the girl, but she understood at least a little. "Sou ka, Dick-sensei, you seem a bit obsessed. We've already established that his... bits aren't actually a problem here right? So...." the girl paused to think about their lives before coming to this world, and wondered if her brother had a hangup related to some combination of the other things. Money, power and status didn't really matter to them, they weren't poor as kids but proved their worth and worked hard every single day. He was an admirable older brother who always did his best and provided for her, especially when she was too sick to take care of herself. She knew for a fact that her brother had a lot to offer anyone, especially a girl in a relationship with him, perhaps... he just didn't really know how to approach it with Miki because of something like that. From what she'd seen of Miki, the girl seemed to have herself together rather easily, she also didn't act like someone who wasn't used to having those things, so she made the assumption that she'd always been that way. 'Hmm... maybe it's something like that...'

[Bloodedge]

Shortly after Kou had his own thoughts about apologizing, Miki chose to do so for the awkward situation. He was a bit taken aback by this, and visually so at that. "Eh.. Iie, iie. Let's just uhh... wait for the egg, yeah?" was all he could muster as a response. He didn't have any other way to attempt saving face, and his plan now was simply to wait out the Filolial egg, hopefully without encountering additional things to trouble him.

Hikari took to assigning a title to Karna - one he didn't seem to be too bothered by, for whatever reason. "It didn't seem to be an issue. If the guy's a grower, even better. Either way... one of those things I listed, if any at all, would be the reason. If that's the case, though..." Karna paused. He was still within the mind of Hikari when she thought something specific could be the trigger, but whether he knew for certain what she thought of or not, he didn't bother. There was one certain path Karna himself had in mind. "There's one easy way a guy like that gets over the hump." With that said, he let his clause hang in the air and looked to Miki, assuming one such as Hikari would follow his train of thought.

[Apollymi]

There was an obvious shift in Kou's face, and Miki couldn't quite place what such a thing meant. For all she could interpret of it, the lad seemed surprised by her offered apology and she could only wonder why. Whatever the case, it was soon stated by him that he was just content to wait for their egg, and that he didn't need a moment alone or anything of the sort. It all seemed to be some sort of mechanism for saving face, but Miki would take him at his word and simply nod, "Hai hai," she took the opportunity to get more comfortable in the moment. Her pillow weapon floated underneath her and she lowered herself to ground level to relax and she took up about half the pillow and left more than enough space for the lad to join her if he wanted to. "I guess there is no reason to stand around the whole time or anything, we might be here for a while..." she stated finding herself in a state of relaxation and leaving enough space for the lad to join her if he wanted, while she stared off in the distance.

While the pair of teens worked on their partnership, Hikari and Karna kept up their plan for pairing the set into a proper relationship. He even mentioned the goodness of one being a 'grower' and if Hikari were to make assumptions she could guess why this was a good thing. "Hai hai, Dick-sensei!" she said locking that away for later. It seemed beyond this though, he had something of an easy work around for Kou's apparent lack of obvious disposition towards Miki and it seemed to be, the blonde lass herself. Hikari's left brow rose gently and her ears twitched. "Hm, you want to use her to get through to him?" she asked almost rhetorically. "I mean, that seems like a decent idea, but she isn't exactly chasing after him or anything... is it possible to make her be obvious enough he can't ignore her?"

[Bloodedge]

"Hai," Kou said when it was mentioned how much time they had to pass. Miki had taken to floating atop her pillow. Kou paid no heed to the amount of space left on said pillow, instead sliding onto the ground against the nearest wall. He crossed his left leg underneath his elevated right leg, then he leaned himself over his right knee.

Karna sighed, beginning to realize this didn't lack as much difficulty as he thought. Sure, Kou made himself a very difficult end to work from when pairing with the blonde female, but Hikari's assertion made Karna realize that if Miki herself were less of a problem, his new plan would have completed itself without Hikari and himself doing anything to progress it. "Kuso," he muttered while placing a hand on his chin. "I didn't think about it until just now, but... what could her hangups be? If they're both interested, and we've determined something's up with him... why hasn't she done something?"

[Apollymi]

Both of them were content to wait, apparently separately. Though this wasn't really what Miki wanted at all, there wasn't much to be done about it. She'd noticed these fits from Kou came and went with every adventure, she had no desire to force him into contact with her if he didn't wish to have it. As such she sat in thought on her pillow legs crossed gently just a few inches off the ground, leaving a very interesting spectacle to be seen.

As the pair of adventurers ended up slightly more apart than they had been while geeking over the potential of their bird, Hikari had posed a question which apparently made Karna think about this plan a bit more. He hadn't yet realized that Miki had to have her own hangups as well. Hikari was a girl herself and she had a bit of insight into this, and given the girl's current positioning atop her pillow, and the distance between Miki and Kou she had some observations to make. "Well, I did mention the normal visual things... but she obviously doesn't have those kinds of problems. I mean... look at her," the girl said, knowing that a girl who was at all self conscious wouldn't be sitting atop a pillow in the middle of a field like a model. "Nii-san refers to her as his partner, and she didn't leave after seeing his junk... they are past the sketchy gamer girl phase too..." she concluded based on the nature of their relationship and knowing that her brother hadn't referred to anyone as his partner before. "Unless..." she stared at the girl atop her pillow and saw it for the first time and thought back again. She'd joined the lass on her pillow in Eonis as well and the same amount of space had been there. "She's confident in her own abilities, and her looks... but for some reason, she doesn't want to deal with the potential of getting turned down. So, she's not being very direct... that's a weird problem for an attractive girl to have, but I've seen it before," she said calmly. "A girl in middle school was a classic overachiever, because of this she became really scared of interacting in ways that she couldn't dominate..." Hikari gave her hypothesis but she didn't have a whole lot to go on. By all accounts the girl named Miki was pretty well-rounded, the idea that she had rejection or abandonment issues was a bit outlandish, and there wasn't any apparent cause for such a thing to exist.

[Bloodedge]

Karna could give much insight to issues from the male perspective, but he could only make assumptions about the opposite sex. Luckily, this partnership had Hikari to offer her insight as a young woman. She managed to debunk the potential self-image issue, as well as the chance of being 'creeped out' by the potential suitor that was Kou. She did, however, have an idea for what the cause might be. She'd seen the type of overachiever, likened to Miki in this case, who suffered from a fear of rejection. This notion was nothing new to Karna, but it was very odd to hear of a girl having this problem. "Really? You're serious? That's the problem every guy has, ever. All of those hangups I mentioned boil down to the same thing: fear of being turned down. Poor Oujo-san and her man problems. Who'd have thought the rich idol would be afraid of being told 'no'?"

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Hikari's insight seemed to bring a very specific revelation from Karna. Hikari thought about this and nodded. She understood how guys could fear rejection. They were faced with it often, because of this they had to put it aside and keep trying, that was sensible. But for a girl to develop such a fear of rejection meant she had to have been rejected in a way that was exceedingly formative. "She's a rich idol, but she's out here trying her hardest. If she was typical in that 'rich idol' outlook, she and my brother wouldn't even get along. He can't stand that sort of entitlement. She doesn't seem to have any at all, not even enough to assert herself with the boy she very obviously likes. If it wasn't bred into her as a rich kid, then it had to have been beaten out of her... metaphorically speaking," she said becoming more sure by the second. In this moment, Hikari would consider how she would try approaching a shier boy if she liked and wanted to talk to him. She'd be straightforward and open, because that is who she was. Her brother was always honest with her and accepted her feelings, she had no reason to assume no one else wouldn't hear her out. Miki was obviously a girl who makes herself available but had no expectation of said availability being acknowledged. "And as a girl, it's not the 'no', so much as it is everything else that comes with it..." said Hikari. "They've been adventuring together, and he's accepted her as his partner. Her hard work in that case, has already been rewarded. Pushing at it for more, isn't really worth the risk of losing what she's already built, and maybe she knows its possible to lose and doesn't want to go through it as such. So, regardless of her own feelings... she'll leave it alone because she'd rather have something than nothing..." Hikari concluded. "You know, like the girls in the rom-com who help their best friend get hooked up with someone else even though they like them..." she finished. She'd seen something like this before, perhaps that still did make Miki the easier push, if she knew her actions would be rewarded she might be willing to take the risk.

[Bloodedge]

"Well, that explains the bad blood with the other princess," Karna said in light of Kou's demeanor toward the stereotypical rich types. Knowing Miki didn't fit this criteria, and that being true enough for their partnership to work in the first place, made this a bit more solid and a bit more simple. Of course, with that simplicity... came a bit of complexity as well. The fear of rejection was associated with a fear of loss for the existing dynamic between the pair, and such was a problem Karna and every other male he'd ever seen feared. "Sou desu ka... That's the Friendzone Conundrum..." he said as if this were some unspeakable evil. "It usually takes some sort of event to overcome that. Those types don't like to make moves themselves, but they're always doing little things that'll hopefully be noticed. So... what exactly can we do? I think the best way is to make a big thing happen, but what, if anything? You know him, but I don't think that helps nearly as much if we're trying to find her breakdown point."

[Apollymi]

"Yeah, it was pretty obvious him and that other princess weren't going to get along. I knew that before I even properly met her, given the attitude of the kingdom," the girl said seeming unsurprised about her brother's dislike of Princess Madoka. As they moved right along, it seemed that Karna could mention something known as the 'Friendzone Conundrum' which was spoken of with much disdain. "Scared of being stuck as friends, don't want to lose friendship... understood Dick-sensei!~" the girl said, picking up all necessary information in his sentences and locking it away for later usage. As they conversed it seemed that an event was needed to make this whole thing work out for the pair and while she knew her brother, apparently none of them knew the individual story of Miki enough to be able to pinpoint exactly the kind of event that might be. "Hm, it might take a little while, there are two things we have to do if we want a large event to help them overcome the 'friendzone'," she said thinking about it as a logical undertaking. "We have to find out enough about her to figure out what it will take to make her do something which is undeniably a romantic gesture," she said with a nod. "We also have to make sure my idiot brother doesn't do anything stupid like reject it," she said with a nod. "So, we spend time getting to know her, and nudge him into whatever comfort-zone he needs to find to be open to the obvious romantic gestures she puts out. We are all traveling together now, it would be easy to chat her up, and find out more about her, it would be easiest if we had someone on hand who knew the type of person she actually was to start with, but maybe, existing events can be exploited a bit until we know enough about both of them?" she said.

It'd been about two hours since the two birds had entered the honeymoon suite, and in that time, after an easy hour of silence between Kou and Miki, and the continued plotting of Karna and Hikari, the little side door on the bottom of the wall beside the lad opened up. And within it, would be seen an egg of the Filolial. Miki's eyes shifted as she heard the sound of the hatch opening and then widened as her excitement returned. 'It's here!~' she thought, with a shortness of memory to completely forget the earlier embarrassment of their time here.

[Bloodedge]

"It'll definitely take time," Karna agreed. At the very least though, they were working through a plan. Karna found this to be the only proper source of entertainment he had until the others were ready for more challenging tasks than their current Avatar levels allowed. As such, he was more than willing to commit. He nodded through Hikari's plan, taking it as an acceptable path while also seeing in-betweens to possibly make leaps and bounds toward their goal. "Right. We learn, we take precautions, we jump at any extra opportunities the world throws our way. It'd be great if they would just turn into Dragons again, as long as nothing interrupted them or made them change back again..."

Two hours into the Filolial breeding process, an egg was produced from within the suite. Kou happened to be sitting next to the hatch, still in silence, yet his eyes widened the moment the egg arrived. He took a few moments to look at the egg, using his magical sense to confirm the potency of the Filolial within. "Jackpot!" he exclaimed aloud. Kou even rose from his seated position to reach out and touch the egg, finding it to be exactly the quality he wished to have.

[Apollymi]

According to Karna her plan was as good as any, and as such Hikari beamed with childish pride at her own ability to formulate this plan. His own words implied that they would have had an easier time, if the pair turned back into dragons and that they could work on their relationship from that point of view without any difficulty. "The plan works for now, but, I am not sure both of them becoming different people would be good for them," she said knowing how girls minds worked a bit. "I don't know how men think in this regard, but a girl who didn't feel implicitly like herself, might not feel alright with the decisions made in an alternate form... even if they are technically the decisions she could or would make under certain circumstances..." Hikari concluded. Someone like Miki might not count an effort as not this avatar as proper towards her advancing romance. Whether it was part of her or not.

Miki hopped off her pillow which followed along behind her as she looked at the open slot and saw the egg which they'd been waiting for. "Sugoi!~" the girl chimed, her abilities as a druid let her know that this egg was full of life energy. Even if she could tell nothing else, she could tell the quality of the existence growing within the egg would be excellent. Around the same time as Kou, Miki also reached out to touch the egg, and was happy for doing it. "It's here and already amazing!~" chimed the blonde lass who was once more beyond excited. At the same time the farmer appeared from within the honeymoon suite. "Alright that didn't take so long, hope you two are ready for the long haul. Now... that egg'll take like 4 days to hatch, more if you don't keep it near ya'." the straw hat farmer mentioned. He also held out in front of him a small sack which contained several different capsules full of varieties of feed for the Filolial. "Here's the feed ya' paid the extra for. I gave ya' some of everything in decent quantities. More than enough for its entire childhood. And this card so you know the basic things the food'll do for ya'. There are some hidden things though, so don't forget to try them out for yourself!~" mentioned the farmer. "Any questions?"

[Bloodedge]

Once again, Karna shrugged. "A guy probably isn't going to be something other than himself. It'd be more like... he's being more of himself than normal," he insisted. Whatever the case was with those of the female persuasion, it was apparently a different scenario entirely. Regardless, a look in the direction of the plan's targets confirmed that they would soon be departing from this farm, and not at all too soon for Karna.

Two hands were upon the egg at once, by chance. Kou thought nothing of this. He was quite immersed already in the idea that the egg came out perfect in the end, and now the farmer was upon them with the additional items and information they needed for raising it. In no time at all, Kou was holding the sack of food and the information card. All that seemed to be left now was their trip to the beach, which he was more than ready for.

[Apollymi]

It was explained to Hikari that a man as a dragon was more of himself not necessarily different. She couldn't really say the same would be the truth of a girl, but she'd also not witnessed Miki's dragon form for herself. There was only one thing she was quite certain of, and it was that Miki was as much like the girl of their original world as one could get in a fantasy setting, because that was normal of female gamers. Especially the types who gave themselves normal body proportions. "Hai hai, I'll keep that in mind." Hikari chimed her understanding only to watch as both of the other two seemed to be quite enthused about their new egg.

Soon enough Kou was holding both food and card with explanation of food on his person, and Miki was instead holding the egg, beaming like a new parent. The fact that the egg was now here and they could go was beyond relieving for the young girl, when asked if she had any questions she simply shook her head from left to right. "Iie, thanks a lot though," she mentioned as she kept the egg nestled in the relative safety under her bosom but tucked in close to her body. "Alright then, ya'll come back now, and show me how it turns out!~" mentioned the farmer who was content to see what would come of this little experiment by the pair. Moving right along, Miki turned to Kou. "Okay, this part is done, it's takes about a day to get from here to the beach. You wanna get started right now?" she asked content with whatever he decided.

[Bloodedge]

Holding onto the important items, Kou awaited their departure. Karna had begun his approach to the others while the farmer said his farewells. With Kou slinging the sack he carried over his shoulder, Miki asked if he wished to get moving right away, to which he nodded. "Hai. It's probably best if we get there with some extra time on our hands to settle in. There's always a chance that we'll need all three extra days to make sure the Filolial grows properly," he said as he began taking steps away from the Filolial honeymoon suite. Karna tagged along with a simple glance and nod in Hikari's direction.

Continue the Adventure Here (http://www.roleplayuniverse.net/forums/showthread.php?907-Dragon-Lagoon-Beach).

[Apollymi]

This ride had been quite exhausting. The entire time Miki had ridden, she'd been on the lookout. She knew the Lost Prince could be found within these grasslands, she simply had not narrowed down her search field. Even with Youko running at maximum speed for a great deal of the time. It'd taken them quite some time to get here, given the distance from the Kingdom and his slower speed stat. He made up for this, by being able to run for quite a long time without tiring even while carrying the blonde lass upon his back. When he slowed for a drink at a slow moving river Miki dismounted and stretched her entire body. 'Ugh, I don't mind the riding part. But, I really...' there was a pause in her thoughts as she pushed back her hood. Where had that sentence been going? 'I didn't even get a chance to really talk with him...' she thought sadly. She walked to the river's edge to wash her face, in so doing she caught a glimpse of herself in the water's surface. As the sun was settling in on the horizon she saw herself drenched in its rays. She looked terse and tired. She hadn't even been thinking about what she'd say to the Prince when she found him, she was thinking much further ahead, to her reunion with the group. To her reunion with....

There was a nagging tightness in her lower belly. Like her stomach was upset, but that wasn't it. What was this feeling, of longing she currently had? She couldn't rightly explain it, but deep down she knew the root cause. As she thought about this, Youko drank from the water, getting ready to continue should his mistress require it.

[Bloodedge]

In the meantime, one of the larger stone structures in the grasslands featured a cave-like opening a few steps up from the ground. A single boot could be seen hanging from the bottom of this hole, and a meter above that, there was a flaxen-haired head looking toward the blonde and her pet beast. His eyes bore a color akin to dried, tainted blood, as if to reveal his 'cursed' heritage. Expression forlorn, he observed the removal of this young woman's hood as her Direwolf drank from the sea. What was a single girl doing out here? She seemed to be an Adventurer, but it was a rare sight for even them to linger here for very long. No matter. Surely, she would be gone soon enough, and he would be able to wander freely. As per usual, he was nothing more than another face in these fields. Even if she saw him, she was sure to move on just like the others.

[Apollymi]

Miki's restless thoughts were getting her nowhere. She had to get down to business, talk to and retrieve the Prince, get back to Eonis... slay the Demon King. These were all very achievable goals. She simply had to right her mind to do them in the order which was necessary. She slapped her hands over her cheeks multiple times, acclimating herself to the idea of what would happen here. 'Alright, Miki! We got this, find the Prince...' she thought to herself. Giving herself an alignment on step one of her plan. She paused looking over to the Direwolf at her side and watched as he'd stopped drinking to sniff the air. "Is he here?" she asked of the animal which nodded without speaking. "Sou ka... rest up then. I'll go make friends I guess..." she said aloud as she began walking away, Youko seated himself. He'd been along on many an adventure, he knew how such situations played out.

Miki only took a few steps, before her pillow moved beneath her person. She leaned into it, hovering gently over the ground. Her senses leading her closer and closer to where this Prince sat. These stone structures were quite old, created a long time ago. Her connection to nature allowed her hand trail her hand over the smooth stones as she looked up to see a boot? 'Ugh, hiding in the shadows... I suppose I can't really talk.' Her mind wandered as she shifted her body on the pillow and rose about a meter into the air atop it a smile on her face. "Hello there, did you come here to enjoy the sunset?" she questioned. There was a very specific way to approach the Prince as such she'd be careful about what she chose to say in these moments.

[Bloodedge]

Soon, she'd be gone, but... no, what was she doing? Moving in the direction he happened to be in was one thing, but it seemed almost as if she were looking for something. She... was. It couldn't have been him though, right? There was no way this random Adventurer had come to these lands in search of him specifically, and yet he felt as if that was precisely the case. Soon enough, he gained confirmation that she was, indeed, looking for him. Or... was she? She spoke to the contrary, as if she'd merely picked up traces of another person in the vicinity, and sought company. He was conflicted, but there was no reason to show hostility or anything. "Um─ yes, of course. I am not from this region, but I do enjoy the scenery here. What brings you to these plains, Adventurer...?"

[Apollymi]

Miki listened as this man stumbled through a bit of speech. He probably didn't believe anyone would come here looking for him specifically. So, she had to introduce her motives slowly, a lot more slowly than she'd like. She had no charisma skills and wanted to avoid spooking and having to chase the lad. She was on a time limit after all, and having him run off would be quite bad for the overall task of getting Eonis back into livable condition. "You don't say?" she said most rhetorically at the idea of him not being from this place. For a man who was trying to hide from his problems, he sure didn't look like he was from the grasslands either. Would she point out how much he stuck out here... not just yet, no instead she'd simply smile the whole thing away. "I'm more of a Wanderer. I go places and do random things. I enjoy quiet natural places like these..." she mentioned. This wasn't a lie or anything. Granted she did like the idea of adventuring, she wasn't a technical adventurer by this worlds standards.

As for the reason she was here, well, that would be a more cryptic answer. If she stated her intentions directly, he would react badly. That's what interactions in the game said, and her several reloaded game files were proof of this fact. Saying such things as herself would have been much harder. But this particular Avatar wasn't naturally a bit softer than her base personality. As long as she didn't just blurt out the first thing in her head, she was likely to have a good time with this particular interaction. "I thought I might find someone out here," she started. "Well, someone specific who could... well never mind. It's a little bizarre..." she said. Internally she was cringing. She hated baiting people in conversations, she was a business person so she understood the necessity of it. But that didn't mean she enjoyed in this case, but she also knew if she didn't, then this one would simply deny anything she said.

[Bloodedge]

"... Yes. Yes, places like this are always peaceful. I find myself enjoying them more lately, though... typically in solitude. I'm not one for groups, you see─" he said. This girl seemed alright, at least. If she wanted nothing more than conversation, that was fine. So long as she didn't come from Eonis to request his return, anything was fine. The prince even stepped down from his stone hole, thinking to speak with the blonde in a casual sense. Alas, she seemed to be looking for someone, anyone, capable of doing something. He didn't think himself worth whatever she may have been referencing, but she did manage to pique his curiosity. What then, could she have needed? "I do hope you find someone able to do whatever it is you need. I'm sure you and your wolf are capable, but no young girl should be alone on an adventure."

[Apollymi]

'Ugh...' Miki's mind was full of groans. Of course, he'd bring up not being one for groups. That was part of his melancholic charm... apparently. He did things alone after fleeing from the Kingdom of Eonis and found his peace doing them. Felt like he was atoning or some such nonsense. Whatever the case, Miki had to keep dodging around being direct about the problems she was trying to fix and the things she was facing. She had to bring up anything they had in common and get him to offer himself to the cause before she mentioned what it was really. "I wasn't much for groups either... people never really seemed to get me. You seem like you'd do alright though. You've been friendly to me..." she said softly. "Besides, being alone all the time is peaceful but boring..." she said. Her statement was a bit too factual for her liking, but she'd found that this man took his lone movements as a form of martyrdom so she'd not question it directly.

There was more prodding to do, more gentle nudges required. It was tedious, but she couldn't be direct in demanding he come back either, since apparently it was traumatic for him. 'Ugh...' she thought again as her face maintained a smile. To her it looked fake, but perhaps, her dealings with real smiles had softened this look around the edges a bit? Made it a bit more believable to one who didn't know her. "I'm, not really alone. I mean... my wolf and I travel together. And I sometimes work with others... if I can. But there is a bit more to me than─" she paused. It was mostly for dramatic effect, she needed him to question her directly. "Oh well, I'm pretty weird actually... I don't really mean to go on and on about me," she offered softly. "What about you? Do you really like, adventuring out here on your own?"

[Bloodedge]

"I think I know just what you mean," he said, knowing others never quite understood him either. They were kindred spirits in a way, it seemed. Perhaps he could open up to this one a bit more. He had to agree that loneliness was not necessarily an ideal option, and it certainly wasn't his preference in this life. Alas, he hadn't been given a choice. He was a prince, but a curse, a slight upon the family name Eon. He could only know this solitude outside of the kingdom, lest he invite an even greater stain to its name.

"It is quite boring, I agree. Sometimes, being bored is for the best though, is it not? One can't always lead a life of thrills and excitement; some must take the silent path for the sake of others," he claimed. The girl appeared to be on the verge of unveiling her purpose, yet she stopped shy of doing so. As an alternative, she questioned whether he enjoyed adventuring or not. In response, he shook his head. "Sadly, I do not. I am fine with it, but I would not call it something I like. What about you? Are you alright being here alone, even though you occasionally have companions?"

[Apollymi]

He understood her? Maybe a bit more than she'd like to admit. Miki would have done some soul searching about what she actually found annoying about this Prince. It was what they had in common which made the girl's skin crawl, a little, when she spoke to him. Perhaps his self-sacrificing attitude made her sigh uncontrollably because all he really needed to do was have a five second conversation with someone who mattered to find out he'd run off for nothing. His words were annoying to her. Sure some people couldn't lead a life of excitement, but he was literally crippling his own lifestyle simply because he felt it was best without ever asking anyone else. If Miki were more herself she might have punched him already or slapped him for making such an assumption. But no, the softer approach was needed here today. To get this lad to travel back to Eonis with her, she had to understand him, and in turn get him to understand her.

"I can't really say," Miki mentioned as her body fell back onto her pillow and it began to float around as she pondered over his question. "I think doing the right thing, is often more complicated than we'd like to believe. And sometimes, what we see as best, is only one way to look at it," she said. This was a round about way of stating that his opinion lacked proper depth, but it wasn't meant to cut him off. Instead it was meant to make him think, she paused before him for just a moment and offered a smile. She gotten to the meat of it now. 'Ugh, almost there.... almost there...' she encouraged herself. He didn't enjoy being alone, and thought to question whether she did. There was only one real way to answer his question and strangely, it was truthful.

"Me? Well, I don't like being alone. But I'm alright with this here and now, because I'm not alone─" she said softly only to laugh a little at herself, but it seemed to feed into the moment. "I mean, some journeys I started alone but... while alone I gained perspective. Lots of things can change when you're out on your own, I've learned. How you view things, how others view you, your goals and dreams─" she explained of herself. "All of those things and rise and fall, just like the sun..." she mentioned looking out at the horizon now bathed in the deep orange light as the purples of twilight crept up around the edges. This conversation was annoying, but perhaps she'd be able to give another nudge and get the lad talking. "Oops, I said too much I guess..." she mentioned staring off into the sunset. "Did you? I mean did you figure out anything from being out here alone, besides knowing that you don't really like it?"

[Bloodedge]

She shared with him her beliefs about the path of loneliness versus right and wrong choices. She made a fair bit of sense, but there was no amount of thought to sway his interpretation. His personal choice was carefully decided based on his own origins, and he found it ideal for the safety of his family and kingdom in the future. His lonely travels were no different. Others who found his identity, who thought to return him to Eonis, put the entire kingdom in danger.

There was something intriguing about the way this girl spoke. When she said she wasn't alone, was he the company she spoke of? Did she latch on to the company of him, not as the Prince of Eonis, but as an individual? It was so endearing, he was at a loss for words. "You're not alone─" he repeated with a slight upward inflection. As for her inquiry, he hadn't particularly learned a thing in his lonely travels. He merely... existed, thinking it was for the best. If there was one thing that could have been considered a learning experience, it was exactly what he intended to share. "I learned... that it is not loneliness I desire, even though I must not return home. That is all."

[Apollymi]

Miki could have choked on the amount of nice and dodgy she was being about topics at hand. She preferred to speak in a much more straight-forward manner. In fact, being direct was likely one of the few things she did, that could be considered a flaw, and in her line of business it wasn't even considered such. Beyond all of these points, the lad at least seemed to understand enough of what she had to say, to think her earlier statement endearing. She could tell this by his extra questioning. Good. "Mmhm... " she said offering the lad her full attention. The conclusion he'd come to, was that he still couldn't go home. This was exactly the moment she'd been dreading. In fact, she knew it was possible for him to feel this way but it was exactly this which had made her reload her save file over and over again. "Oh? That's pretty sad..." she said softly. But, this wasn't so much a game anymore, and she had several more experiences and prying bits of information from him. She knew of his status.

A Prince, who thought himself cursed because of how he was. She might have been considered the same, given her own status as a Gatekeeper, which wasn't considered part of the natural order to Druids. Hm, perhaps that could help. "I didn't think I could go home either... but I had a problem I couldn't solve alone, so I did─" she said softly. "I thought they'd reject me because my path was far from normal... It's kind of a secret actually, but I'll tell you... though you might look at me differently afterwards..." she explained of herself, her eyes seemed to plead for acceptance. She twirled a lock of hair around her index finger as if nervous and she was, but for a completely different reason than what she was saying. But knowing the Prince's background perhaps sharing this information about herself would make it a bit easier and cut down on the talk time a bit.

She primed herself to reveal a secret. "I walk a path where death walks beside me. I'm kind of a Necromancer..." she said as if expecting a negative judgement. After all, this was probably one of the darkest forms of magic one could possess and sharing such a secret could be considered a place to bond. Managing to look a tad embarrassed, even though this was what she'd chosen herself. "But through my travels, I was shown the path I walked was mine alone. I found out if I wasn't this way, I couldn't really have helped the people I did. So, I guess sometimes you just have to take the long way around... to be able to go back home," she offered. She knew this Prince had to come to the decision himself to go back, and it'd taken her quite a long time to say the right things before to make it so. Maybe this could help? It couldn't really hurt considering the time restraints they were now under. Though it was definitely an exaggeration of what she'd been doing in the Migrating Vale, perhaps he didn't need to know that. She definitely would have preferred sharing such information with Kou instead, but the Prince might have needed a relatable tale a bit more.

[Bloodedge]

The girl seemed shy, even reserved about some dark secret she intended to reveal about herself. Eyes fixed on her, the prince boasted a soft gaze, seemingly as if he admired he expression while showing these apprehensions, or even her willingness to push beyond them. How dark could her secret be? Well, the moment she spoke of Necromancy, it became very clear to him... they were more alike than he previously imagined. "A Necromancer, really?" he questioned, his eyes alight with wonder. In his very next breath, he also stepped closer to the blonde. His left hand rose, taking hold of the hand which twirled her hair. A smile graced his face as his other hand reached out as well, both working in unison by taking Miki's singular hand between them. "I understand. You have gone beyond limitations set upon you by your surroundings. I envy that. You seem to be a woman of great bravery, and incredible grace. I imagine anyone to have you at their side would be capable of anything. If I may be so bold, are you..."

[Apollymi]

She'd confessed her Necromancy, and in so doing had gained an amount of favor with the Prince that she didn't expect. 'Huh, that really worked. I suppose I would have had an extra dialogue option if I'd actually finished the Gatekeepers stuff first...' her mind wandered back to game play to avoid a bit of the shocking reality of the moment. She needed this man to behave a certain way and to get it, she was manipulating him. It didn't have malicious intent behind it, but it was still well beyond what Miki or even Kimiko would have considered normal for her swaying of individuals to her causes. He'd stepped closer to her after questioning her life as a Necromancer but seemed to be a fair bit interested beyond that point. 'Ah the start of the romance...' she thought. It'd taken her quite a while longer to manage this in-game, but here and now he took up her hand. He claimed he saw her as gracious and brave, both of which were things she didn't currently feel.

She had the grace to look embarrassed but this was mostly because she was fighting the urge to pull her hand away. "I... well..." she stumbled a bit in her speech. "There is no need to envy me. I simply walked the path before me, to the best of my ability. There is nothing too special about knowing me..." she finally managed feeling strange about starting up a romance but knowing it was necessary to get the Prince to showcase his full abilities. "You are too kind really. I─" she said, for added clarity she tentatively reached up with her free hand and rested it against the back of his. "I realize I don't even know your name. Though I feel a bit strange telling you mine knowing how dangerous it could be to associate with me... especially when my path carries me into dangers most never face," she said softly. She was really playing into this semi-tragic love story. Tsukiko would be thrilled by a story line like this. 'Ugh, by the end of this, I might hate myself...' Her thoughts stemmed back to the idea that moments like this were much easier to play out, when she didn't have to physically be involved with them.

[Bloodedge]

Her embarrassed state only further drove the prince to believe this would work in his favor. Surely, she was in such a state because she had some desire for him, right? It had to be. Already, there was so much chemistry between them, so much which made them similar. These facts only grew the more the blonde spoke, even to the point of mentioning that she feared offering her own name. He grew more excited by the prospect, nearly bouncing on his feet as his hands shook hers. "No, no, it is fine! My name is also shrouded in misfortunes yet to occur. I am Prince Aeronius Eon of Eonis. I ran from my homeland because I was born with the blood of the Devil, and I have been running from my curse all this time. But... you, you are a Necromancer. You understand what it is like to be considered a curse as well. If it is you, we could... we could begin a new kingdom of the misunderstood! No one would question or ridicule those who have good intentions, but lack the pure souls of others, if everyone is the same. Children would not grow up as we did, feeling as if they don't belong in their own skin or home! Even if you would not become Queen, does this appeal to you at all?"

[Apollymi]

Was Miki interested in this man at all? No. No, she wasn't. Did she need him to come back to Eonis so that they could slay the Demon King? Yes, yes she did. There was something particularly repulsive to her, about playing up to gaming stereotypes within her own body. At least, she'd be able to commiserate with Kou when they finally got some time to be together and discuss it later. Still, the Prince before her bounced on his feet with his hands clasping hers. He immediately went on to give his whole name, life story and ambitions without any further prompting. She looked reasonably shocked by the revelation, not because she didn't already know exactly who he was. No, nothing that simple was in her emotional depth. Instead she was genuinely surprised that so small a gesture had turned him into one who raved as if he would return to his Kingdom immediately. He'd truly meant what he said about not wishing to be alone, that much was obvious. 'Ugh, if you weren't so annoying this probably wouldn't feel like such a drag...' she thought. He obviously had good intentions. She could even back his desire to make sure that children didn't have to feel as outcast as he had when he was growing up.

"That is quite a surprising bit of news. Fortune does smile upon us it seems..." she said softly. "My name is..." again a pause, for dramatic effect. "Miki... and it has been nothing but a pleasure to meet one so like-minded. I did not know what I would find when I came here, but I am glad it was you..." she said softly. This sentence was earnest, making the blonde lass feel less like a manipulative sociopath. "I wish only for the world to know balance... titles and the like do not concern me. If you wish to see your home a place where the intentions of people and not their birth determines how they are judged, then I would see that too─" she said with brightness in her eyes which was for the idea that this leg of her journey might be reaching its end. This was also left purposefully vague so she didn't accidentally agree to marry this man. "I do not wish to bear you bad news but... there is something you should know..." she gave pause to let the seriousness of the moment settle in. Finding out about the King and current state of Eonis was something which was necessary. There was a good chance that it, plus her potential for romance would make it so the lad would be a proper contributor to the fight at hand.

[Bloodedge]

Everything was coming together in a spectacular fashion. The girl introduced herself by the name Miki, and seemed to be accepting of his plan. She agreed to the concept of a kingdom free of judgement, even going so far as to say she wished to see it with her own eyes. Did this mean she would become his Queen? That wasn't clear, but he had hope. For the moment, the girl named Miki took pause to mention that there was something of importance she needed to address. What could it have been? Did she happen to be infertile? If this were the case, any potential heirs would be out of the question. Ah, but in such a kingdom... surely they could take heirs from elsewhere! It would suit the fairness of the land's structure if they did something like that anyway. Yes, yes, a simple gesture of adoption! Ah... but was that even what she had to say? The prince had taken his thoughts a bit out of hand for a moment, being caught up in the idea of creating a just kingdom. In all the time he stood there thinking about heirs that may or may not ever happen, he forgot to even ask what she wanted to say. "Ah─ what news?"

[Apollymi]

'Ugh... I wonder if he is over there planning out our children or something─' was the only thought in the mind of the blonde lass. She definitely wouldn't be backing a name like Aeroki or Maero or Mironius. All of those things sounded disgusting. Whatever the case the man soon stopped himself from whatever his internal musings were, long enough to hear out what she had to say. "The Kingdom of Eonis is... overrun by Demons. King Eon... is among their number," she said allowing the news to settle. "There are some people though, who choose to resist this change. Who are trying to end the suffering of the Kingdom as it is now..." she mentioned explaining all of this. The whole of this situation was tiresome to her, but at least they were now on a path that would end with the Kingdom being saved. "If a vision of a fair kingdom is truly what you wish, the first step to be taken is clear. But it is not a journey you'd have to take alone..." she paused giving him a full view of her wide eyes. "If you are to fix the Kingdom, we have to save it first. I know of a group who is trying to do that. I count myself among them... as I would use my skills my curses, to bring light into the world. I am sure you could do the same, becoming a shining beacon of what good intentions can bring..." her spiel had been given, she was fairly certain that this would go over decently well. Wanting to do what was best for the people, had to come with work, if he was willing to prove himself a proper leader the people would accept him, even if Aerona or another Queen didn't show up immediately. He was without question a better choice than the current King Eon.

[Bloodedge]

The bad news, sadly, was something far less pleasant than he could have imagined. If only it were so simple as relating to her childbearing ability, things could have been fine. Alas, the information she delivered involved Eonis being in a damaged state, with Demons at fault, and his father included among them. Due to the nature of his own birth, Aeronius was taken aback by this grand reveal. Had he been wrong all along? Not just him, but those who viewed him at birth, deeming him to be Demon spawn? Luckily, Miki had managed to make him open up a bit. If that weren't the case, he would have sealed his ears the moment he heard mention of Eonis. This, however...

It wasn't him. Nothing about his origins ever made sense; the only logical explanation was that he had contracted some conditional curse, perhaps due to fate itself at the moment of his birth. No, that wasn't the case at all. His father must have been carrying the Demon seed all along! It wasn't that he was born with Demonic influence, but that he was conceived with it. "I... I─" He was in shock. As badly as he wanted to feel relief, this meant his father was the problem he'd always believed himself to be. Could Aeronius have put a stop to this if he didn't run away, scratching his name from every record, every ledger? No. No, he couldn't think that way. He had to act, but how? "I can... I can do anything within my ability! Could you take me there quickly? I need to see my father; I must know if he is beyond repair!"

[Apollymi]

The Prince's thoughts had indeed gone astray. Luckily, the conversation was easily brought back to where it should be. He seemed to be in shock of the news she relayed and truly, in the moment, Miki felt a bit of sympathy for the lad. She could at least respect that finding out information about situations like the circumstances of your birth and things you'd been blaming yourself for were always pretty shocking. Find out that someone you once trusted with the entirety of your being had fallen in such a devastating way, was likely more than some could bear. Surprisingly, Aeronius recovered fairly easily. Claiming to want to do everything he could. "Of course, I can take you there. It will be a long ride but... we will make it by morning..." she mentioned. A gentle whistle brought the white dire wolf, whose body shifted in size slightly to accommodate two full-sized adults. Miki moved herself onto his back as he laid down and extended a hand to the Prince in the process. "Come Aeronius, we can meet with the others and find out if it is possible to approach the castle proper," she offered. It was enough now that he was along, and willing to do everything possible. Seeing the King would let him know that he couldn't be saved and he'd help out. She wondered what seeing his sister would do, but figured at this point it would likely only help.

[Bloodedge]

Time was of the essence. He had to return to Eonis as quickly as possible, to see what he could do, to find out what he had to do. Miki had no qualms with the rush, even though she stated that it would take most of the night for the full trip. He didn't mind that. With only a nod to confirm, he reached out to take the blonde's hand. Before he bothered with anything else, he settled himself behind the girl atop the Direwolf's back. Even if it took the entire night, that was fine. All he needed was to arrive before the kingdom itself fell at the hands of his own father.

Continue the Adventure Here (http://www.roleplayuniverse.net/forums/showthread.php?853-The-Kingdom-of-Eonis&p=12987&viewfull=1#post12987).