Complete Eastern Brisshal Four Years Too Late

[Hanno Futaba]

Not quite convinced at Celestine's words, Hanno only didn't decide to put the shield into the inventory because he was unsure if Celestine would think he didn't trust her if he decided to do it. So instead, he kept it anyway. "As long as you say it is fine. Really, she is mostly sleeping anyway-"

Hanno was more than used to the weird looks whenever he wandered with his shield, to a point that he simply ignored any glance at him, shrugging it off with a smile to anyone that decided to take a very direct stare at him. "Well, maybe this time for sure. I wouldn't want to cause us trouble... It seems like people are being extra wary today. But that's fair, Honeymoon isn't used to having this sort of thing going around casually." He mused.

Then, his eyes focused on Celestine, that quickly cast a spell that made the shield that was resting on his back slowly shrink into a small faerin girl. "H-Huh?!" Hanno blinked, vaguely feeling his dignity receiving some damage. He frowned, wondering why that feeling struck him, but regardless, he mustered his usual grin and looked at Celestine.

"Hey, my shield can't be this cute! Your illusion is amazing!" Hanno chuckled, with the Illusion distorting slightly for a moment, but soon stabilizing and becoming even more firm than Celestine probably intended, though this was beyond Hanno's awareness at the moment, more focused on going to a table to eat.

"Okay, so thiiis one-" Hanno moved closer to a particular table, courteously pulling a chair for Celestine to sit before taking a seat himself and his 'sister'.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Hanno may have been used to the strange looks, but Celestine had beauty standards so unrealistic, the real world literally couldn’t handle them. Her glowing hair, the way the inside of her cloak seemed to reflect a field stars, and pretty much everything else about her for that matter, all seemed very particular. And this naturally had to extend to her company~!

All that in mind, she wasn’t quite expecting the reaction she got. It was hard to place. Was he irritated? Disturbed? Insulted? That frown… she certainly hadn’t imagined it, and yet he moved on with his usual, friendly demeanor.

"Ehehe, that is sounding like an anime title~" Celestine chuckled with soft, smug grin. "Thank you, I do it much practice!"

She curtsied in thanks to Hanno’s powerful etiquette and took a seat, glancing through the menu. Suddenly, she caught sight of a strange distortion from the little faerin out of the corner of her eye. "Hm?" Maybe Ghast was shuffling around or something? She’d rather not think about it. It still looked perfectly believable though.

Actually… Wow, she’d really outdone herself this time… Back to the menu!

"I would like to do the eating of a mixed salad," she eventually came to order, lamenting at the fact that Terrasphere was realistic enough to force her into healthy decisions. If so much of her magic weren’t focused on Ghast, this would typically be where she’d illusion her food into something like cake. Ah well.


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

"Now that you mention it, it really does." Hanno laughed heartily, "I wish I was as good as you in magic. That may take a while for me, the cons of being a physical attacker I guess." He shrugged, looking at the menu and wondering for a moment.

Meanwhile, the drowsy faerin girl had her eyelids twitching, just before her eyes slowly opened, looking around and then having an intrigued expression on her face for a moment. She opened her hands, looking down at them and trying the movements of the fingers...

And then, Celestine would feel her illusion trying to be absorbed. Maybe at some point even severed from her control if she didn't try to fight back, but the shield would remain with the illusory appearance regardless.

"Boar!" The faerin girl pointed at the menu, poking her finger on the choice while Hanno muttered.

"Boar again, Ghast? That's..." He frowned, noticing the voice didn't come out in the way it usually did, and he turned to look at the faerin girl that looked at him with sparkly eldritch eyes.

"Boar, big bro! Boar" She beamed a bubbly smile.

Hanno blinked, then turned to look at Celestine. "Your illusion is really good." He reinforced the previous compliment, focusing on the menu for a moment and then making his own choice. "I think I will have a stew and a sauteed carrot and broccoli." Hanno spoke, looking at the waiter that finally approached them to take their orders.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

"Being the physical based is not the bad thing, though!" Celestine insisted with a friendly smile. Hanno had really proven that to be the case in that cave all those years ago. "You do the good fighting! I like to do more of the fanciness."

... And speaking of the fanciness, Celestine felt a surge on her spell. It was odd, since illusion magic usually was more of a steady stream: only when one made serious changes to the illusion did it ever really spike in the energy requirement like that.

What was that darn nightmare shield up to...?

"Wha-!" Celestine nearly fell off her seat as the illusion suddenly... disobeyed her!? Or, not so much disobeyed, as acted on its own! All with a loud cry for meat, which... was actually super adorable if she forgot what that little faerin actually was.

"Uhm... yes..." Cel answered offhandedly, though a simple glance was enough to tell that she was just as amazed by the realism of it as Hanno was. Wishing to know just what was going on, Celestine turned the illusion off just for her, and... what? It was still the same!?

She turned the illusion off entirely, and it was the same thing: nothing changed!

"W-wait... how...? What...? Hanno, are you doing me the trolling?" Cel pouted playfully. He must've picked illusion magic at some point and now was using it in some elaborate prank!


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

"And that's some cool fanciness that saved my ass before." Hanno chuckled. "But thanks, I try to train every day. Maybe you could teach me a bit of magic someday-?" He wondered, looking at Celestine's expressions regarding the other 'faerin' behavior.

Why she seemed just as surprised as him?

"Doing you the trolling? Nah buddy, I really mean when I say it is cool!" Hanno insisted. Did his compliment came out as sarcastic or something? Probably not, judging by her playful pout, it was either an act of cutesy or she was trying prank him herself.

"I am just not used to see Ghast acting like that. When she talks she isn't that much expressive." He said with a half grin.

And that was obvious, usually Ghast was just a single giant eye and tentacles.

He the tries to focus on the waiter, that now was looking at both of them without much patience. "U-Uh, buddy, have me the stew with sauteed broccoli and carrots after all" He confirmed to the waiter.

The faerin girl puffed her cheeks, turning to Celestine and looking at her while bending on the table to lean closer. "Big sis, tell him for boar. Boar!" Her ears dropped, tilting her head just like a pleading puppy.

"... Please?"

Hanno stared dumbfounded, Ghast actually said please for once.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Celestine tilted her head in perplexed confusion. So Hanno wasn’t pulling any shenanigans (or so he claimed!), but the shield was still very much a little girl! It wasn’t always able to transform, was it? All that dissonance stuff creeped her out to no end, and this certainly didn’t help things.

… And yet, Hanna was awfully cute!

Especially cute when she played the lil’ sis card like a pro, staring up at Celestine with pleading eyes. Granted, she was requesting a giant plate of meat to devour, but that was pretty typical of little kids anyway!

"U-uhm…" Cel stuttered, still not quite sure what to make of the situation. "And some roasted boar… I do the guess… if you are not minding…" she added to the waiter just before he wandered off. Gosh, she was so easily influenced by polite little kids, maybe she should find another line of work IRL.

Unable to resist her own curiosity, Celestine reached a hand out and sloooooowly approached Hanna’s head, giving it the lightest and most shaky pat imaginable. It was soft… it felt like hair. No strange, slimy tentacle texture. What on Terrasphere was going on…!?

"It will not do her a sick if she is eating herself the boar, yes?"


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Ghast's eyes brimmed with joy as she started fidgeting in excitement on her chair. "Yes, yes! Thank you, big sis!" She chirped, blinking and looking intently at the hand that approached her head, soon giving her a timid pat that made her giggle with a vague distortion by the end of it, having her legs kicking the air in joy.

"No, she won't get sick, I mean-- She is... An eldritch abomination with the intelligence of a dog." Hanno frowned, looking at the faerin that was still giddy she received a pat.

"... Or at least should be." He cleared his throat, looking at Celestine apologetically. "I'm sorry for that, I will make sure to pay for the boar," Hanno said, slipping a sigh. At the end of the day, Ghast got what she wanted thanks to the illusion, something that still intrigued Hanno.

Shaking his head, he turned his attention to Celestine again, smiling faintly. "At least no one is being bothered by it anymore..." He shrugged. "... About our travel though, where do you think we should start to try and find those two?"

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

"You are… the welcome…?" Cel continued to wear a bizarre face as she glanced down at the girl who shouldn’t exist. If Celestine had a dollar for every time she’d adopted an honorary little sister in Terrasphere, she’d have two dollars! Which wasn’t a lot, but weird it happened twice…

"Right…" she nodded, as Hanno reminded her what the adorable faerin really was deep down inside. A fact that was incredibly easy to forget now. "That is fine. I can do it the paying. I did myself a concert earlier and many did me the giving of the moneys."

As they waited for the food, the travel plans began…

"Hmm… well I was thinking Mizuki might do herself much wandering of the Hylands, because it is where the woof-people do the residing. But Rook…" she raised her hand to her chin for a moment, and then shrugged. "I am having none of the ideas for him."


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

"Oh right, you can do the good playing-" Hanno beamed, pausing and noticing her caught a bit of Celestine's speech before shaking his head. "I mean, at least now we will have some music at camping, if you are willing to do it for us, heh." It wouldn't hurt to ask her for it, right? Hanno loved bards.

For the clues they had about the two they were looking for, Hanno could only cross his arms.

"Rook was never the sort of guy to tell much of what he is doing..." Hanno sighed, rubbing his neck unsure of what to do about it. "In this case, I think we should go for Mizuki first, we have more leads to her, and she may have some idea of where Rook could be." He said with a grin.

It was the perfect plan, they wouldn't waste a single time if they went for that route. "Even if we can't find Rook, we would at least have three persons for the barbecue, rather than just the two of us, which is already-"

The faerin girl looked at Hanno intently, with a big pout and violet tears brimming at the edge of her eyes.

"F-Four rather than just the three of us." He corrected himself, frowning.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

"Sure, I do the taking of any of the excuses to be making the songs~" Celestine nodded enthusiastically. Really, she'd take any excuse to show off, but she'd leave that part out for obvious reasons.

Raising a thoughtful finger to her cheek, Celestine hummed slowly. "Rook was not the sort of guy to do any of the speaks, actually..." she corrected, recalling him being pretty silent throughout the whole adventure. "Doing him a find will have much of the difficulty."

She could only nod at Hanno's suggestion. Mizuki it was! At first, Cel was perplexed at Hanno's freeze, but as she followed his gaze, she understood what had caught him up.

"Y-yes, we can definitely do us a barbecue with the four," she agreed, fighting the urge to leap forward and wrap the sad little Hanna in her arms. Instead, she reminded herself there was theoretically a nightmare shield buried somewhere in that cute little face and leaned into Hanno's ear, "Is the Ghast usually does this kind of act?"


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Hanno's smile only widened more at Celestine's confirmation and acceptance, nearly making Hanno bounce from his seat joyfully. "Yes, yeees! That's great! With my cooking and your singing, every camp night will be a whole fun!" He was already excited just to think about it, when it came to it, things would probably be even better.

A brief chuckle then escaped from his lips, and he shrugged about Rook. "He is a cool guy in his own way. Let's just hope Mizuki has an answer for us." He said, having some confidence that the wolf woman would have something to tell them about Rook.

He didn't miss Celestine's confusion, and also didn't miss the correction she did, giving her a grateful smile and leaning closer himself when she approached with a question.

"Well... Yeah, in her own way? As a shield, she usually can't puff cheeks or anything, but yeah, she is always like that... Maybe this time she won't be stealing my food since she will have a boar to herself, so-" Hanno sighed with a shrug.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

"Huh…" Cel hummed as Hanno (sorta) confirmed that his shield usually acted like an adorable little sister. Either that, or she seriously misunderstood what he was trying to say there. "Well, okay, if you do the saying so…" she shrugged, at least comforted somewhat by the fact that he was considering it to be relatively normal.

A short while later, three plates were placed in front of the three, filled with food. Celestine’s little bowl of salad had been placed right next to the massive boar, which barely fit on the platter, making it seem laughably tiny by comparison. That said, unlike the shield cosplaying as a faerin, Celestine had a figure to maintain, and couldn’t afford the luxury of consuming giant piles of meat.

… Even if it made her mouth water so much.

"Maybe do it the eat of quickness before she does the boar a finish," Cel suggested, taking her own advice and quickly feeding the salad into her own mouth. It was at least a decent salad, so there was that. It didn’t take long until she’d polished it off, especially given how small it was.


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Hanno looked at Celeste as she leaned away, shrugging slightly. "Yeah, she is just like that. It is a bit funny to see it being translated in the face and body of... A person. Especially a little girl-" Hanno said, glancing at Ghast, who was already feasting on the boar in the most innocent way a child could, something vaguely unsettling.

He couldn't help but smile faintly at her looking happy about it. "I think I can get used to that though. Kinda reminds me of my little siblings." Hanno said, with a fond expression that only faded when he realized that Ghast was halfway done with the boar already.

"A-Ah, maybe you are right, Cel!" Hanno hurriedly began working on his own food, thrusting everything deep in his mouth and trying to rush his eating.

Ghast side glanced, and she started taking bigger bites of the boar until she was done, already trying to seek for Hanno's breads, soon being stopped by the faerin that held her forehead with a stretched-out hand, making her struggle to reach the food. "H-HEY!" Hanno called out while holding a spoon filled with broth near his mouth.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Cel had literally just been told that this sort of thing happened all the time, but still… seeing such a tiny little girl eat a roasted boar that was practically larger than she was… well, Cel wasn’t quite ready for that. And moreover, she wasn’t even done, going after Hanno’s food too!

"No, no, no…" Celestine clicked her tongue a few times like a mother scolding her daughter. Wrapping her arms around Hanna, Cel pulled her back a bit, trying desperately to forget there was a tentacle shield somewhere in there and trying instead to focus on, and buy, the much more pleasant illusion.

"You do not do others’ food an eat! That is not how you do a polite." It was also what she always did to her cousin in the real world, so there was some hypocrisy there, but she wouldn’t make that part known. No way the shield was actually capable of learning her lesson anyway, right?


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Hanno was mostly relieved when Celestine stepped in to save his food from being devoured by an eldritch abomination, yes, the sort of thing that could only happen in a place like Terrasphere. And he couldn't lie, despite her looks, she suddenly acted in a way that even Hanno was feeling scolded, making him stop eating and rub his neck in embarrassment.

There were so many eyes on them too, but he decided to not tell Celestine to not make her embarrassed as well.

"W-Wait, don't scold me!" Ghast, or Hanna, cried and turned to look at Celestine when she was wrapped and pulled away. She then turned to face the other girl completely, pouting with puff cheeks. "B-Besides I have to, Big Sis! Big Bro is owing me a lot of food-" She said, pointing at Hanno in an accusing manner.

Hanno blinked, looking at her baffled. "What? But I feed you every day, and I never stopped doing it since I've got you." He retorted, making a few new faces that weren't there before to know she was an eldritch horror look at him with a judging expression.

The girl paused, with the puffing cheeks deflating while she averted her eyes. "... Liar. You left me alone for four years." She muttered.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Celestine wasn't about to let Hanna eat Hanno's food, despite her protests. "Then do not do a misbehave~" Cel insisted with the boldness of a mother scolding her daughter, wagging a finger just to sell it even further. She was so accustomed to this sort of thing from her real-world job, it just kinda came naturally. She'd heard every excuse in the book, too...

...

Except that one. That one was new.

"You know, she is having the point~" Cel smirked, just to show she was more teasing Hanno than actually justifying Hanna's food snatching. "That is the very long time to be doing an alone for."

When she'd logged on this afternoon, Cel wasn't exactly expecting to become a mediator for a faerin man and his eldritch shield turned sister. It spoke to the absurdity of this game: such a thing wasn't even that weird to her anymore.

She still lightly flicked Hanna on the forehead as punishment, though (would that even slightly hurt such a study shield?). "Still! No doing food a steal. Okay?"


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Hanno staggered for a moment at the justification, his heart partially parting because he knew how excited the shield was when he had logged back in after the disappearance. Even if it wasn't his fault, there was a hint of guilt in his eyes, that grew even more when Celestine teased him.

"Y... Yeah. I suppose you are right." Hanno nodded, pushing the plate to stay between him and Hanna... Ghast? It was getting complicated.

The faerin girl beamed, already trying to reach for it before having her forehead flicked, holding it and looking at Celestine surprised. "Wh-What?!" She pouted for a moment, listening to the scold and squinting for a moment before finally nodding. "Alright, if big sis says so-!"

"Please obey me too." Hanno muttered.

"Only after four years worth of food!"

Hanno stared at her, then slipping a chuckle and shaking his head. "Well, that wasn't what I was expecting for today... I am glad you are good with dealing with stubborn kids." Hanno said, glancing at Celestine.

"After this though, I think we can leave to buy travelling supplies and get our feet on the road next time we log in. Doing it today will be tough-" Hanno said.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Celestine was both surprised and delighted that Hanno's nightmare shield actually behaved, wondering if she would've done so in shield form, or if the weird illusion theft mechanic was messing with its... uhh... head? Either way, Hanna was cute... certainly more so than a squid shield, so she was happy to have that to scold while trying to enjoy dinner.

She chuckled.

"That was not what I was doing the expect of either..." Cel answered with a nod, glancing between the two similar-looking faerin. "I do a lot of the works with the kids though. They are much more of the cute than the adults." Adults were the worst sometimes...

Standing from her seat, she quickly paid for her salad and prepared to leave. "Sure! I should probably do myself a logging off soon, but we can do us the meet here tomorrow. In... let us say 18 of the hours? I think I can be doing that."


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

"Kids are very cute, indeed. We can agree with that for sure." Hanno chuckled, slowly peering from Celestine to Hanna, frowning slightly for a moment and letting out a quiet sigh. It seemed like he was going to endure this sort of thing for a while now. "Doing a lot of work with children huh? Honestly, you really showed it today." He grinned.

Granted, Ghast wasn't really a kid, but rather an eldritch abomination glued on a shield.

As Celestine already set a meet up time for the next day, Hanno nodded eagerly. "Sure! 18 hours from now, I will be waiting for you, buddy." He beamed, giving a small salute as he stood from his sit and placed the payment on the table, quickly reaching for his shield-

"Hmm~?" Hanna looked up at Hanno, who was holding her arm.

Oh, wait-

"Ah, by the way, if you could get rid of the illusion? I gotta use my shield at some point." Hanno laughed a bit, looking at Celestine.

@Celestine (Wrap up soon? :3)

 

[Celestine]

Celestine nodded, happy to have made an arrangement that worked for them both. "Wonderful, I will try to do a timely arrive, then."

She gave him a weird look as Hanno reached for Hanna in a fairly strange manner. Probably, it was some sort of instinctual gesture he was used to at this point, and now, with her being the way she was, it was… well… adorable. But also clearly wrong.

"Uhm… well… see…" Cel struggled for words. Hanno had played this game long enough to know how illusion magic worked, right? Maybe…

"The truth is…" she continued, scratching the side of her head, "…I released the illusion a while ago."

She left a pregnant pause in the conversation, letting her words sink in as Hanna and Hanno shared a look. "Who knows though, maybe it will do a wear off when I do my log off. You will have to do me the telling when we have our meet. Do yourself the good night, Hanno!"

Before he had time to protest, her finger was on the button, and Celestine vanished.


@Hanno Futaba (Wrap up! Feel free to make a final reaction post if you’d like)