The Beginnings of the Beginning

Due to it's location by Aincrad there are no days when the town of Carmina isn't busy, whether bustling trade, festival or supply line, there is always something going on. Outside, by the walls, only there can a sleepy nook or two be found that hold some level of quiet reprieve from the bustle. Usually most Landers avoid the area, especially with the ongoing war, but such an inconvinience doesn't so much hassle the casual adventurer.

It is here that Lunaris can be found, darting around the area and gathering things together, odds and ends by the untrained eye, and every now and again setting her little fox, Pecan, on any monster that gets a bit too close. Low level as they are, such scuffles never last long, even if Lunaris isn't particularly strong for an adventurer. Still, even so, she keeps an eye out for the unusual and the strange.. There has been some of that lately, after all.

Loud, crowded places were definitely not Rhi's location of choice, which is why he was wandering about outside the safety of the city, wearing ragged looking traveling clothes that were very clearly far too large for him. His feet carried him across the land without so much as a spec of his attention, seemingly unworried about the low level monsters in the area while the majority of his concentration was on his hands, where whisps of darkness mixed in with little motes of light floated about.

So absorbed was he that he didnt even notice as he walked right past Lunaris, muttering something under his breath about concentrations or something or other and seeming a good bit irritated. He was an odd individual, to be sure; wearing clothes that looked like they were going to trip him at any moment, but the most catching things about him perhaps was the odd tatto that could barely be seen on the back of his neck, and the faintest humming sound coming from his body.

As Pecan dashed at another slime, sinking his teeth in until it burst into a cloud of sparkly pixels like a glitter balloon, does Lunaris start to look about once again, searching. Her work in the little alcove was mostly about trying to construct what essentially was a proof of concept foe her work. In reality it was a bundle of rag-tag little bits piled together. Not that that seemed to dissuade her. Or even apparently be a downside. Truly, what went on in her head was a mystery to anyone but herself. Yet her eyes soon spy an odd Adventurer, giving a squint to try and identify the raggled nomad before soon bounding over and tossing half of what she had collected in the air. So much for that. Someone with good eyes might even notice a particularly sparkly item fly into the nearby foliage. Moments later Rhi was accosted, a full half-circle of being examined by the Cait Sithe, "Hey! I'm Lunaris, what's your name? Who are you? Why are you here? Is the city too noisy? Were you going to get new clothes..?" All said in one breath as her head lists curiously to her side, a huge grin on her face as she waits for the reply.

in the span of a second, the magic in Rhi's hands is out like a light and he screams -very- girlishly as he notices the Cait Sith who's attention he's evidently drawn. It takes him a second or two of examining her before he finally just pulls his scarf over his face more and avoids making direct eye contact with her. "E-er... Hi?" He offers in an unsure tone, seeming like he was ready to run away from this encounter at the first opportunity. "I'm... Rhi? Just uh..." He pauses, frowning. "N-nevermind... What uh... what are -you- doing out here? I dont n-normally run into... People..." He seems clearly uncomfortable talking, maybe more in general than with Lunaris herself. If one were paying attention they'd note that the humming sound has come toa complete stop.

"Nice to meet you Rhi! You're in my guild? Name's Lunaris, adventurer.. Uh.. Summoner! I pet things!" Lunaris introduces herself with an inclination of her head, eyes darting about with a smile like someone who has had far too much coffee. To make matters worse, Pecan had zipped over to investigate this odd person, nosing up at their shins. "I'm collecting things! And designing, obviously," her hand waves to the bundle of sticks on the ground that really look like nothing impressive. And if she notices Rhi's reticence and shyness she certainly doesn't show it. Calming down for just a moment, her green eyes dart over his clothing and frowns, "Soo... About those clothes..? Need new ones? You look like you've been away a while!"

Rhi tries his best to give Lunaris a smile, which she of course cannot see since he's hiding his face behind his over large scarf. "Y-yeah... Gradeur, right?" He asks cautiously, looking less like he was going to bolt but very muchg like he wanted to be anywhere but here. "I'm uh... I'm a tank?" He didnt look much like a tank in those ragged looking clothes and his small frame, but maybe he had some unique skills or something that helped him out.

When he feels Pecan, the red haired adventurer looks down at the small animal and crouches to hold out a hand for it to sniff, seeming far better with animals with with people. "Y-you're... what are you designing with a bunch of sticks?" He asks, glancing over at a slime that was slowly but surely glooping closer to them. The mention of his clothing make the poor boy flush horribly and he shakes his head back and forth, sending crimsons curls flapping in all directions. "Th-these are u-uh... special. I don't wanna go in the city and deal with... e-explaining everything to a tailor... and armorsmith..."

"Grandeur! I was wanting to build a ranch. Though we might be working on karaoke! Or ice-cream. I'm not sure which," Lunaris chatters rather happily, then gives a soft smile at his reply, pausing for just a moment in thought. "Have you been to the Hunter's Guild yet? Great for getting money and stuff! I started there. Founght undead.." A visible shudder runs through her, causing the tail behind her to poof up all the more. "Tank's are useful though for putting fish in!" Was that a joke? Hard to tell, she had already moved on to watching as Rhi greeted Pecan. A small twinkle in the Cait Sithe's eye showing her appreciation, easily missed.

As her use for the sticks is questioned she lets off a small giggle, "So Pecan doesn't get bored while I work! And they're good sticks for testing ink and stuff! Sticks are really handy you know? Everyone undervalues them," she doesn't much look at the slime, her hands around her leathered belt, she was certainly relaxed here, though looks curious at Rhi's outburst, "Ah alright! We could.. Hmm.." She bends down a bit to get a closer look at the clothing, "Maybe someone can repair it..? With magic?"

The conversation seems to begin to move a bit more smoothly now that Rhi is distracted by a cute animal, letting his fingers scritch under it's chin while he listens to Lunaris speak. "Er... I didnt think this game had the code to support making things that didnt exist before... like ice cream? I wonder if the game has a sort of self-learning AI that..." His words go too quiet to hear for a while, muttering to himself about code or other things that are very likely not at all interesting. Only at the mention of the hunter's guild does he snap himself out of his muttering, a flush on his face. "H-hunters guild?... I-I uhm..." He looks away a moment, eyes drawn to the slime. He raises his hand up and a bit more of that darkness rises, before suddenly the slime in consumed in an orb of darkness, both vanishing a moment later. "I-I'm a member, but I havent actually taken on any jobs or anything... n-not a big fan of fighting, honestly." He admits, blinking at the comment about fish and trying to sneakily sniff himself.

The talk about sticks actually manages to make the shy person smile, nodding a few times they say, "They're the basis of a lot of different crafts, even wands can be made out of plain old sticks if you've got the patience and dont mind a rather weak item." He tilts his head at the odd fox girl and asks, "Sooo if you're in grandeur, you're a craftsman of some kind, right? Y-you... said something about a ranch?..." At the mention of his clothes being repaired with magic, Rhi just shrugs, "I-is there much point?... it'll just get messed up again."

Pecan was happy enough for the attention, yapping if those fingers ever stray too far away from the fussing, indeed he was a demanding little fox when it came to scritches. "Look around! Plenty of weirder things happen than inventing things. I saw thing gnoll with a dragon tail and everything! They were scaaaary.." She doesn't take up the bit about AI, but she doesn't look blankly at the concept either. A topic simply sidled past with all the stealth contained in the Cait Sithe. As she looks over to watch Rhi absolutely destroy the slime with dark magic she giggles and breaks into a grin, energy reinforced, "I can take you on one! And why not fight? You joined a game about fighting, riiiight? Landers can't always protect themselves! We're like.. Heroes!" With that announcement she strikes a pose well worth an anime, just to get the point across.

The talk about crafts gets a happy nod, her tail swaying in time as she darts aroubd once again, picking back up a couple of sticks, "Sure! I'm a tamer. Monster or Animal. Figured I could own a ranch! People will always need meat, wool, milk, eggs.. Not to mention this world has even cooler stuff, right? Inagine it! Wyvern Omelette.." Was she drooling at that thought? Probably. "And of course! Don't let it get messed up again! It's encouragement!"

The yapping of the fox makes Rhi's grin finally free itself from hiding, making sure to give the small little fox plenty of attention behind it's ears, eventually sitting down to focus on that task. Important work. "Gnoll with a dragon's tail?... What, were they a chimera or something?" He asks with curiosity clear in his expression, seemingly forgetting about his shyness. "Modifying your own body is pretty hard, so if they did that intentionally that's super impressive!" He seems to pause and think about the offer, looking rather torn. "I-I dunno... I joined the game because it seemed better than reality anyways, just a nice escape where I could relax and mess with magic..." He explains quietly, seeming perhaps a bit scared?

The small boy in far too large clothes watches Lunaris as she darts around gathering sticks again, watching her tail for a moment before nodding at her. "Mmm, Monster taming is hard I hear, not many of the beasts that are useful like being messed with by people... A-and yeah, wyvern omelettes... do sound good..." Apparently he was as muhc of a foody as she was, because he clearly was on the verge of drooling at the thought. He laughs at the mention of not letting his clothes get messed up, "Not really up to me... m-my uh... Okay, do you know about were fangs?" He asks all of a sudden.

Lunaris' ears seem to perk up at that smile, she had most certainly been paying attention in her own, oddly oblivious way. And it was always pretty important that people liked animals to her, sure whether they were real or not was up for some debate, but she definitely believed that they were and could not be dissuaded from the line of thought. "No! Demonic, they killed a lot of adventurer's to power whatever it was!" She announces far too cheerily for the actual topic, it doesn't much phase her. "It was pretty gruesome. And the gnoll had demon horns and everything! No idea what it was doing, but should be less of an issue now I imagine. Though still think that quest is ongoing." A heavy shrug as she skips right past any mention of real life, "Yeah, this place is great for relaxing, there's some lovely places in the forests!"

Now with a bundle of sticks re-acquired she stretches back up to her full height and fires off a cheery smile that makes her eyes gleam, "It's not too hard! Problem is you can't control monsters for.. Extended periods. Makes it difficult, that's why Pecan is my main magic conduit!" Nodding towards the little fox that is trying to nip at Rhi's fingers, "Oh, yeah! Were-fangs. Transformers! That sort of stuff. Heard of them!"

Seemingly oblivious of the way Lunaris' ear perk up, Rhi just continues to give the small fox attention while he looks up at it's owner. "Demonic? Well, that's not gonna win me a lot of friends..." He mutters darkly, fingers working through the course fur of the fox while he considers his next words. "If there is a demonic Gnoll running around, that's just more reason for me to avoid going into cities... do you know what he was trying to power up anyways?" Comes a curious question, seemingly drawn in by the topic. The mention of spots out in the forest gets a warm smile and a nod from the small person. "Yeah, I got a place holed away out there... if you know a good spot or two, maybe you could show me some time, and I could you you my... er... hole?" He blinks at his phrasing and goes absolutely scarlet, "In the ground! I dug a hole to live in!" He corrects himself in an absolute panic.

He lets off a long breath, looking a bit mroe flustered than a few moments prior. Luckily there was a distraction for him, and he looked down at the small fox he was petting and just blinks at it. "Pecan is your foci? I didnt know you could channel magic though an animal... I typically use my blood as my conduit, most spells I cast dont require me to actually bleed, but some do." He explains while he casually looks at the beast. The nipping at his fingers gets an amused little chuckle, the flesh there turning to stone in reaction. "As for were fangs... I am one. And my other form is... messy." He tries to explain, keeping the details as few as possible.

"Demonic. Murdering people. Doing rituals, you know the sort! Generic evil guy. Why wouldn't that win you friends, do you mean he was your friend?" Lunaris asks with a tilt of her head as she deposits all the sticks into her little hideaway for later use/placatement of overenergetic foxes. Not skipping a beat before diving back in, with her back to Rhi, tail swaying cheerily enough, "I mean they weren't in the city. The forest outskirts not far from here. You know? The low level area with all the most adorable bunnies?" Waving a hand over to the west, "But no bunnies at the moment! Apparently good food for Gnoll camps." Whether she understands the stumbling Rhi makes she doesn't make a reaction past looking quizzically back at the Were Fang, confused as to his flustering, "Of course! I love little dens, they are super cool! Had to live in a few before I came back to the cities!"

The talk of Foci's gets a small nod, and to show what she means she begins to draw a symbol in the air, her fingers leaving a trail of violet, rhythmic, magic behind until the work is soon completed. With a flash Pecan's fur starts to crackle with static electricity, when he moves it's far too fast for any normal fox, suddenly behind the bushes, then the next moment there is a weight on Rhi's back and gone again as the bolt of black fur yaps happily. "Like that! It's more buffing him than anything, though I can cast spells through him too!" At the mention of being a Were Fang she gives an impressed look, then at the words she bounces on the heels of her feet, "Oh? Fuka says all the most fun things are messy!"

"Well... That doesnt sound too great. Se he's you're run of the mill BBEG?" Rhi asks, using his nerd lingo freely. "A-and no, not my friend, but my form is... well, it looks like a demonic Gnoll. I'm told it's actually a hellhound buuuut I didnt actually get to pick it?" He seems perhaps not too happy with his other form, but it wasnt like he could go back to chargen so he was stuck with it. At the mention of the forest outskirts, Rhi's eyes go wide, "He was there? I have no idea how I didnt end up running into him or that I wasnt confused for him... Thanks for the info." The reaction to his den (and lack of reaction to his blunder) makes the red headed boy grin warmly. "I'll be sure to show you it some time, nothing more than a small burrow built around tree-roots but... it's home."

The demonstration of magic get's a wide eyed response from Rhi, watching the display with wonder as the small fox bounds around him, making him giggle childishly. "Wow, he's so fast! So I assume you mostly do battle through him then?" He asks, rising to his feet as darkness begins to seep from his eyes before he suddenly vanishes, moving so fast he literally vanishes from sight, before suddenly patting the small fox on the head and is suddenly back at his previous spot, already sitting again. He lets out a breath and a laugh, before raising a brow at the mention of Fuka. "I uh... dont really know who that is, but... I question his advice?" There was a bit of rust colored fur on his cheeks now, and his eyes are no longer emerald green, but blood red.

"Nope not at all! But we killed him. It was pretty fun really, almost everyone got stuck on their snares. But! My party was good at distrupting all the weird symbol thingies," Lunaris explains rather cheerily to the person she had really only just met, yet treated them as a friend already, happily blathering odd subjects around them as she worked on whatever it was. Putting inks on sticks apparently. "Unless you go around murdering people, yelling at people with a scythe or being a generally bad person, you'll be fine! Plus people can use inspect on you before they go all murdery," she explains with a happy cheer, inspect of course being the ability to at least vaguely see someone's status window. "The Gnolls pretty much only went out into the fields! Might be why. Who knows? And a burrow sounds nice! I don't have anywhere at the moment. Just a tent or rented room, y'know?"

Pecan certainly seems to enjoy the attention, running circles around Rhi with their infusion of wind magic, and pretty decent wind magic at that. The giggling earning the fox attempting to leap up and lick Rhi's face, he was a menace like that. "Yep! For now. Until I create my deck. He keep's complaining about rotten flesh and eating ink. Can't say I disagree, he shared that taste with me. So trying to save the poor thing from more!" She giggles at that, finally twisting around to face the Were Fang and cocking her head at those red eyes, "She! And she's right you know? Never tried making candles? Really fun!"

Rhi blinks up at Lunaris as he hears about killing the demonic Gnoll, "Wait, you were the ones who did that?... Geez, maybe I'm the only person in the g-... in the world who hasnt actually gone out and done something cool yet... You know what... yea, why dont you take me out on one of those hunts you were offering earlier, it might be u-uh.... fun?" He didnt seem entirely sure of that himself, but at the very least Luna had managed to make him come out of his shell a little bit. A giggle is given at the warning, "Well there goes my plans for tomorrow! But nah, I don't plan on yelling at people or swinging around scythes, I use a three headed flail if I decide to use a weapon, most times it's just my hands and my magic.."

A few blinks are given to Luna at the mention fo what the fox consumes. "Rotten flesh and ink... what? I mean it get the flesh bit, undead right? Why are you making your fox eat ink?" Despite the odd question, Rhi is managing to keep speed with the small fox, moving just as fast if not faster than it and still giving it attention, now more playing with it with small little baps. "I never made candles, no... but I did used to draw a lot?"

"Yeah! Though my party was stronger than me. I'm not great in a fight, though when it comes to magic.. Can hold my own for a fair bit! At least alongside others!" Lunaris replies cheerily, holding up a now ink marked sheet of paper and staring at it like that will reveal something to her? It earns a dissatisfied grunt, so whatever it was was not much of a success. And back to the drawing board she goes. "Oh! I would love to! When you see the hunters guild, check what duties it's got listed. I'll take you on any! Though.. If it's undead.." A shudder runs through her once again, ears lowering a fraction. "Ah you'll be fine then! Plenty of dark mages and I'm pretty sure there's a Were Fang or two..? You'd probably have to ask them, new here as well."

Her green eyes glance back in that moment to catch Rhi's confused blinks and lets out a laugh at the question, "Went to a library in the Tower. There was an ink slime. Unfortunately only doing magic through Pecan.. Well, you can imagine," she explains with a playful quirk of her lips before turning back to her work once again, "Ah! Similar then. Never got ink or lead on you? Messy!"

Rhi lets out a long and slow yawn, his exhaustion having apparently caught up with him. "Not much fo a fighter myself, thats... Well, the other one likes to fight, I mostly like to do research or work on jewelry." He explains with a casual smile, looking at the inked sheet of paper with clear curiosity. "What've you got there?" He asks, moving over to her with clear intent on seeing what she had made. "I will though. The hunter's guild I mean. Could be fun I guess? Could use a bit of experience myself anyways... my levels have been stagnating."

A grimace comes over the man a moment later, lhearing about the ink slime. He gives the fox an apologetic look and leans down to pat him on the head again, "Eugh, that sounds gross. Hope you didnt swallow too much of the ink little one? I know a bit about making healing tonics, so if you start to feel sick, lemme know?" He offers to the fox, blinking as he realizes they probably cant understand him. "Er... lemme know if your fox ends up getting sick."

"Got to enjoy everything! Else you're wasting time," Lunaris advises with a playful grin as she stands back up, the sheet with ink on it really doesn't look like much and she grimaces, "An attempt at creating the kinda ink I need for some cards. This.. Isn't good enough. Not carrying the magic. I think I'm going to need to ask Haru or someone. Hope he doesn't deck me!" Still with that she pushes back and stretches, preparing to head off, "Chim me then when you're ready! And Pecan will be okay, I treated him for any that actually got to him. Not gonna let the poor thing suffer. Anyway was lovely meeting you Rhi! See again soon!" And with that she was already bounding off with a wave.

watches Lunaris go with a bit of an amused expression. He was surprised that anyone had managed to get him to open up so fast, since he was usually the sort to simply shut down when they meet new people, but it seemed like she had a way with people, not least him. "See you around Lunaris! A-and yeah, I'll send you a Chim when I figure out what I wanna do... for now though..." She was already bounding away, and he just laughs and turns to make his own departure, seeming happier for having met her.