The Tower Needs Holiday Time Too

Beneath an overturned barrel. In a half empty Grunty trough. Carefully tucked in the overhangs of a roof so it doesn't fall. Colorful eggs were turning up all over Tolbana, even when people weren't certain that the mechanics of the holiday event would reach in the Tower.

Seems like someone decide the Ezzo refugees should get to enjoy the season too, since this was now their home.

Vertina was doing her best to not let the Landers notice her. It wasn't that hard since most of them moved around the town in long predictable patterns. But an Adventurer not bound to a certain path would probably spot her hunched amonst some crates next to one of the rebuilt buildings after tucking one of the eggs away in the open box at the top.

    And as it turns out, another Adventurer does, indeed, take notice.

    Vertina might hear some sounds of movement above and behind her. Right before the source of that little disturbance calls himself out.

    "Heeey, I thought it was supposed to be an Easter Bunny rather than an Easter Dragon," a familiar voice declares with a faint hint of amused teasing. Looking up to the source of the sound finds one (1) Atif hanging upside down from a light pole he has his legs and tail both wrapped around. Golden scarf and red hair both comically drooped downwards by gravity.

"Gah!" Vertina was so focused on hiding eggs without being noticed that she didn't notice Atif until he speaks up. She starts, and fumbles the eggs in her hands for a moment. After a bit of comical accidental juggling she manages to catch two in her hands, but a third drops.

But she manages to catch it in the crook of her foot like a hacky-sack. Standing on one foot with other limbs in odd positions would probably be harder if it wasn't for the tail for counter-balance.

"Hey Atif." Gently she rolls the one egg off her foot to the ground so she can stand normally before she falls over. "I didn't know if the holiday mechanics would actually put eggs inside the Tower, so I decided to hide some of the ones I got from bun-buns last night. This is home for a lot of people now, no reason they shouldn't get to celebrate too."

    "Ah!" Even Atif lets out a sound of alarm when it briefly looks like an egg is about to fall down and get crushed by gravity-- and then followed immediately by a sigh of relief with the skill Vertina displays with her feet for the last second save.

    Legs and tail unwrap from the pole, sending him dropping down with a quick flip that guides him landing gracefully onto his feet a couple paces from the other Salamander. "That's real good of you, you know. I don't think most people would bother going through this kinda trouble."

    He comes padding closer to her, almost getting to tiptoes (tip-talons? friggin' reptilian feet) when he leans forward with hands wrapped behind his back. "Do you want some help?"

At the offer of help Vertina smiles, and hands over one of the eggs she's still holding. "Sure! Just don't put it anywhere too high. That's not fair to the kids... or short people." She laughs, and leans down to retrieve the egg from the ground. "People need a cheerful holiday to remind them not everything is hopeless. That includes the ones that lost their previous home kingdom."

    The egg is quickly taken into a red hand, and turned over to be eyed over by Atif's emerald gaze. "Mmm, got it, got it. Only in places where anyone could reasonably find them in. No silly obscure spots that require parkour."

    His head cants slightly to the side then, lips briefly pursing. "There was something I wanted to talk to you about though. We can walk and talk, yes?"

Vertina checks over the egg she almost dropped just to make sure it's not cracked, then nods as she tucks it back in her inventory. Trying to carry more than one at a time wasn't such the best idea in the end. "Yeah. No using our Adventurer skills to an unfair advantage." She winks, and starts to stroll down the street. "Hmm? Whats on your mind Atif?"

    Atif's quick to set into motion besides Vertina, keeping up easy enough pace with her. The couple times they've raced should have proven already that he's not going to lag behind, afterall! "Well..." His voice, though, it edges on something a bit more serious. "YOu know about the whole thing with potion prices soaring up and ingredients being hard to get, right? And you remember that cart that was full of potions and antidotes in front of the Boss Room in the tower? That was my first visit to the tower, so I ended up wondering... Do ya know if that's like... normal? To have something like that there?"

"Oh, that." Vertina looks up one way of the street, down the other, and seeing no Landers in immeadiately line-of-sight sneaks over to crouch and slide an egg under the sign one of the recently opened supply shops puts out to tell they're open. "Not just.. left there like that, no." She scoops a bit of sand up and scatters it over the egg to hide some of the bright color and make it blend in a little. But not so bad it can't won't be noticed.

Vertina gets back to her feet and steps back to look to Atif. "There's a theory going around that someone or some group is trying to blame it on the Scale Emblem Alliance and throw shade on our Tower efforts."

    Oddly enough, when Vertina turns back to Atif again... he isn't holding an egg anymore. Did he slip it into his inventory? But then, he's holding out a hand to her in non-verbal request for another one. Maybe he's just slippery like that. Sneaky lzrd.

    "...That would make sense, sort of, but..." Crimson brows knit up, and teeth worry at his lower lip momentarily. "One of ours, over in Olympus, did some investigating on the market trends leading up to everything. Supposedly all of that points to Scale Emblem and New World Alliances both overconsuming the sources for ingredients. Which... Well, even they found that really strange. Because if the New World folks, of all people, were just as responsible, then why wouldn't *we* also be party to it?"

    He nudges his head slightly down along the street in indication before he sets to a walk, voice going a bit lower when he speaks again. "... Some of us started thinkin'. Wonderin' if people in other alliences were findin' similiar information. Except replace their own alliance with Olympus."

"Wow, you're quick." Vertina pulls another egg from her inventory and hands it to Atif as she turns to follow him farther along. She looks up thoughtfully for a moment. "... That would make it sound like someone trying to get the Alliances to turn on each other. I mean, not gonna lie, there are tensions there. It's unavoidable with so many different opinions on how things should be done to survive here. But--"

She holds up one hand, and thumps the other against the back of it, spreading her fingers in a widening mimicry. "--Cracks only get bigger that fast when they're being purposely hammered."

    "I don't think I'm that quick," protests Atif with a shrug, as if the sudden disappearance of the egg was perfectly and completely normal.

    "Mmh... Yeah, right? I know some people from... every alliance who have some... let's say strong opinions on the other ones. But that was kind of the horror scenario that popped into our minds."

    He glances sidelong to her, and at her hand making the mimicing gesture. "That someone's hammering the cracks. S'why I wanted to ask you. See if you heard anything similiar from your peoples' side. ...I figured I should ask you specifically, too, rather than someone else, since even if the theory ends up being incorrect, it prolly wouldn't make the already-existing tension any better to go spouting that around all carefree-like. You know?"

Vertina nods at both points. "Well," she pauses to brush some stray blonde strands out of her face and tuck them behind a barbed ear, "I know we have people investigating it instead of taking things at face value. But there's people in all the groups who won't be so.. patient."

She pauses, casually glancing around, and then lowers her voice to not quite a whisper as well. "There's also members who don't think we should be pushing another Boss so soon, especially with this and other problems going on. But the top levels of leadership overruled waiting. They see it as a sign to move on before we do get stalled." In the end she just shrugs.

"I don't know, investigating isn't really my thing." Vertina takes out one of the last eggs, and tucks it into one of the bins of feed stockpiled for travelling traders' pekos. "Also not really fond of fighting in water, but that's just another challenge to overcome!"

    "... Yeah I'm not... a smart person," murmurs Atif with a low, akward cough, hand going rubbing at the side of his neck before reaching up to draw red strands of his own hair back from his forehead. Somehow, that hair just keeps on living it's own life, almost fluffy-like. "So it's not really my thing either. But I figured I should... at least try to chip in. Somehow. Especially if there's a threat of us ending up at each others' throats for no real good reason. I wouldn't want us to end up in some awful situation where the the alliances are at war with each other."

    A sheepish sideward glance to her, and he adds in, barely audible, "...And not just because I'm basically dating someone from another alliance already either." Ahem.

    There's a rapid blink sent more directly at her, then. "Eeeeeh? Water? The next floor's full of water?"

Vertina raises a brow. "Only 'basically'?" she replies with an obvious teasing tone. "We've gone out for food and stared at stars together, I thought we were passed the point of basic." She takes out another egg and hands it to him.

"It's water themed, and the boss most likely is in some way to. I forget the specifics at the moment." Gives her head a little shake. "I'm probably going to have to rely on other fighting means, like the fist weapons I was working on, if I can't use my fire easily."

She checks her inventory. "I think that's all the eggs. Other than the one from the caernebogg itself, I'm keeping that trophy."

    Her response to the words he had maybe partially hoped went unheard causes his face to BURN red, and cough awkwardly. "I mean-- I didn't mean it like that--" He mumbles, glancing off to the side. "...I'm not exactly an expert on the whole dating thing, so I don't really, like... know how labels with these things work." And then, in a slightly lower mumble, "...Nevermind that I want to call you 'girlfriend'."

    The newly-given egg is shoved into his inventory for a moment, just for the purpose of freeing up both his hands. Hands that are used to lightly slap at the sides of his cheeks. Focus, Atif, focus!

    "Ugh. Even in this kind of videogame there has to be a water level, huh?" A quiet huff comes with that complaint while he digs the egg back out from his inventory, looking around in consideration. "I mean, I don't do terrible with water, thankfully. At least until oxygen starts being an issue. But trying to adapt to new situations either way is part of improving on yourself, right?"

    The egg in his hand is slipped up to balancing on top of one upraised finger, and the subtlest motion of his wrist sends it spinning around along it's vertical axis, right there upon the red fingertip. "Should we think of some special spot for this one then?"

"Yeah. The challenges are what I'm here for after all. Just because I can't use water as an element doesn't mean I can't deal with the environment. It's just not a favorite. Still waiting for the floor where they somehow have ice and fire together." Followed by a shrug, like she never heard half of his uttering. "Maybe somewhere near the center of town? It'd be either the first or the last one they find that way."

Though as they start walking that way Vertina does come up to lean over his shoulder, smirking. "And I never said you couldn't~" Not so unheard after all.

    Atif nods his head rapidly. At least this is a subject matter he can lean into well enough! "Yeah! It wouldn't be fun if it was just straightforward easymode stuff all the time, right?" Her suggestion for the last egg draws a low, thoughtful rumble in his throat, before he nods decisively. "Yosh! There's probably a foutain or something I can hide it by! There's always cracks in those things."

    But then she does *that*. He feels her sudden proximity, and his face already turns immensely red all over again when he turns his head to look to her, and see her so close all of a sudden. And all the redder at the words that come from her! "U-... uh, um, um!" He mumbles incoherently first, before an audible swallow. It might seem his brain just short circuits there completely, but just before Vertina might think to lean away again, he suddenly gets a decisive look in his eyes (nevermind the blush). "Well! Then... a boyfriend does this sorta thing too right?" And cue his hand slipping over to find hers and grasp it, with a gentle squeeze. Gasp! Handholding! In public! How scandalous!

Vertina giggles in spite of her usual efforts to not behave too girly. But she doesn't pull her hand away.

If anything she does use it to pick up the pace and pull Atif after her towards the town square. "Com'n! Let's go find a hiding place for that last egg!"

    Atif actually looks surprised by both teh giggle from Vertina and the sudden tug to his hand that ends up guiding him along.

    Still, there's a cheerful soudn of laughter from him, and he's quick to pick up the pace, so that he ends up no longer pulled along, and instead running alongside her, hand in hand. Even if everyone can see. Not that the landers might care that much, but other Adventurers might give a few funny looks if they happened to run past any.

    "Yeah! Let's make it a reeeeaaal good one!"

Vertina clearly doesn't care if they stare or not. "Oh, there's a well!... Mmm, bucket is too obvious." She trots to a stop next to the well, and leaned over a little to look at it. "What about up in the covering? Who really thinks to look up there normally? But they might hear it rattle around when they turn the crank."

    "Probably..." Atif agrees easily, leaning over right besides her to look in in tandem with her. "Also... it'd be kinda embarrassing if it ended up falling down there if the chain or whatever ended up hitting it."

    "Oh! Oh, yeah!" Atif gives a firm nod at this, and draws his hand finally away from hers so he can snatch that bundle from her. "It'll gotta be high enough still that people can reach it without, like, scaling it..." The covering's pushed at, just enough to create more of an openin, and the redhead leans in further over, midsection propped on the edge of the well with his feet raised up from the ground. "Just gotta find spots I can tie the ends to..."

"Just tie it to the struts inside." Vertina leans forward a bit, bracing herself on Atif to keep him anchored on the edge of the well so he doesn't slip and fall inside while tying to egg holder in place.

    "Huh? Oh, like those things! Yeah, okay." With Vertina helping brace him, Atif arches his body fuuuurther in so he can reach in properly with his hands, to work the wraps tied up there into an egg-hammock. ANd thus, the final egg is deposited there, and Atif leans his weight back so that his upper body pops back up itno visibility, and his feet find the ground again. "Okay, that oughta do iiiiiit."

Vertina grabs on and hels pull Atif out of the well and back onto his feet. Then moves it to put around his shoulders instead in a light hug. "Will have to keep an eye on that one to see if anyone finds it. But thanks for the help, Atif."

Vertina grabs on and hels pull Atif out of the well and back onto his feet. Then moves an arm to put around his shoulders instead in a light hug. "Will have to keep an eye on that one to see if anyone finds it. But thanks for the help, Atif."

    Atif ends up leaning lightly against her with that little hug given aroudn his shoulders, tail playfully swishing over to brush against her leg. "Hey, what else was I going to do?" He asks with a small smile while his hands work the well cover back into place, head turned over enough to meet her eyes with his own. "Not take the opportunity to spend time with you?"

Vertina chuckles. "Fair enough." Once Atif is on his feet and safe from falling in the well she slips her arm free again, if only to stretch. "After all that I think I'm ready for a nap. Got to make sure I'm rested up for the Boss Fight."

    Atif turns to face her full with that, while one hand draws up to adjust his scarf along his neck and send the loose length of it flipped back over his shoulder to his back. Big leaning motions like that have a bad habit of sending it over to his front! "Yeah, fair. I... might go there too when the time comes. Dunno. If I don't, you'll tell me all about what happened later, yeah?"

"Of course!" Vertina smirked. "Preferably over a good meal. Fighting super powerful boss monsters builds an appetite!"

    "At Hifumi's place again? Or maybe that burger joint Gwen put up." A bit of flushing red color on Atif's cheeks aside, he leans towards her a bit, smiling. "Sooo... It's a date?"

Vertina leans close to rub her scaly cheek against his own. Not quite to the point of kissing in public, but it's cute and affectionate all the same. "A date it is."