Complete Eastern Brisshal Four Years Too Late

[Hanno Futaba]

Coming back to Honeyhome, Hanno had just finished a patrolling by the forest, making sure that the newbies he had found knew about the game and the third-death issue. He only truly managed to convince one of them to log off forever, but it was already a good achievement considering he usually didn't make anyone give up on the game. If anything, at least he could offer some tips for the crazies that wanted to continue in it.

Still, it was a tough job to do. And every job had a reward, and this time he decided to indulge him with a bag of honeyed apples. Licking his lips, Hanno was more than ready to just wipe out all of those apples all by himself, already dreaming about the sweet combination of the fruit and the honey melting in his mouth.

However, any idea of spending the rest of the day alone disappeared as soon as his eyes met a familiar figure.

Hanno paused for a moment, taking a second to register who it was before widening his eyes. It was the same girl that saved him from getting killed by a giant bat he was tanking.

Hurrying his steps, he tried to get to her. "Hey! Hey buddy-!" He frowned, trying to remember her name, until it finally snapped in his memory.

"Celestine!"

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Honeyhome was quite a bustling place compared to what she was used to. Ever since Terrasphere's reopening, Eastern Brisshal in general was booming with all the new crazies who threw caution to the wind and logged on. All unfamiliar faces though, sadly. After all, most of the people she knew had since become stronger, and thus preferred the more dangerous and unexplored regions.

And so, the last thing she'd expected was to hear her named called out among the crowds of new faces. Celestine turned toward the source, noticing a familiar face.

"Scary shield guy!"

Admittedly, it might've been better to have remembered the name instead of just 'shield guy.' She certainly remembered who he was, though! An adorable valiant knight, shielding the party from a giant bat-dog... thing.

... And that scary shield would be engraved into her nightmares until the day she died.

Cel offered a friendly hand wave and a smile. "You are being here again?" She should at least make an attempt at the name, right? It started with F, she thought. Fanny? No, Fargo...?

On second thought, she'd keep quiet about that and hope he did her a favor...

@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Hanno slowed down when the woman seemed to notice him, letting out a heartily chuckle at the way she referred to him. "Scary shield guy? That's how I am known? Good thing Ghast is asleep, otherwise she would bother me all day because of it." He nudged his shield, that just rumbled lazily in return.

Being as friendly as he was expecting her to be, Hanno could be grateful that while people changed a lot, most of the good ones were still as endearing as before.

"Yeah, I need to. I have friends in here, and I've been trying to get people to log off or not get killed three times, especially newbies." He said, letting out a sigh before returning the question.

"And you? Decided to log in again because you missed stuff?" It sounded like an innocent question, but it was also a way for him to figure out if she was UI-Locked or knew someone like that.

It was important to know that, even though another reason he was talking to her was a bit more selfish.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Fixing her hair to stave off the awkwardness, Celestine listened to Fauno’s response and could only be glad he was a casual enough guy to shrug off her embarrassing failures. Who was Ghast though? Or… wait… the shield had a name!?

"Wait, it can do a talk…!?" She found herself ever-so-slightly quieter now knowing there was a sleeping shield to hopefully never wake up. Then again, it had protected her all those years ago, and there was also her own… friend… so…

"Oh, that is a good doing of yours," Celestine nodded. "I have been… kind of doing that too." She’d leave out the fact that she basically acted as a tutorial girl for the last several hours and focus on the one time she half-heartedly said Terrasphere was dangerous. It just felt so nice to be needed…

She pondered the next question for a long moment before answering, "Well… I did this place a miss, being the honest. I did many friends the making. Though I am not sure how many will do the coming back… it is nice to do you the seeing though!" Even if the shield still creeped her out a bit…

@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Hanno glanced at the redundant hair fixing, wondering just what was bothering Celestine that much. Was she just shy about meeting other people? Hanno could only wonder, especially since she looked a social type. He decided to not pay attention too much to it, even if his stupid high-level awareness kept bothering him about it.

"Ghast? Yeah, she can talk, but rarely does it. Generally, she just *groaaans* or *grooowls* or stuff like that." Hanno did his best to mimic the noises, though he wasn't very successful about it.

When Celestine revealed she was doing the same for others, Hanno smiled warmly at her, feeling cheerful about her kindness. "That's very nice of you, Celestine." He said genuinely, being very sure that she was doing a good job at it. He couldn't stress how good it was to have other veterans ready to help out everyone.

"The how many will come back is a mystery. Honestly I hope most stay safe out of this game, and those who join, be like you and me trying to make sure others will stay safe." He grinned. "You saved my arse at that time we fought a giant bat together, so having you doing this kind of job makes me relieved."

Then, he figured it was the perfect opportunity to invite her!

"Talking about that bat, do you still want to get that barbecue going? Man, I'm really hungry for a juicy barbecue." He chuckled.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Celestine continued staring inquisitively at the sleepy shield, now wondering how one determined the gender of a shield. Like where do you check? Is it a voice cue? Were those groans and growls particularly... cutesy or something? Or maybe it followed boat rules, where they were always female. Sooo many questions, and all of them too awkward to ask!

"O-oh!" She snapped back to attention as she was complemented, having realized her eyes were pretty much laser focused on Ghast the scary shield for what must've been at least half-a-minute now. "Thanks."

He went on to explain some more about who generally was coming back, granting her... at least some peace of mind. She was caught in-between wanting everyone to play what was undeniably her favorite game, and wanting no one to play it for safety reasons.

Funno then brought up a certain event, with an important correction to be made...

"Batdog!" She distinctly remembered that thing was not your average bat. The details of that whole combat were, admittedly, a little hazy, though; and had they really planned a barbecue? She kinda didn't remember. More importantly...

"Uhm... you want to do a corpse of the four years of death a cooking...?" That sounded disgusting, honestly, but Terrasphere was special in some ways. Maybe there was magic that could do it in a way that wouldn't make her puke? She smiled, "A barbecue is sounding delicious though! As long as the food is not doing the much rotting..."


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

"Batdog?" He asked for a moment, pausing and crossing his arms and trying to have the mental image of it again before grinning and nodding.

"Yeah, batdog. That big monster." It was kinda cute in a way, but honestly he didn't want to look completely like a weirdo in front of Celestine. She already was clearly cautious about his shield, if he said that giant bat was cute, she was going to avoid him permanently.

When Celestine mentioned the corpse of the four years of death, Hanno looked at her for a long second before laughing heartily, holding his belly and averting his face. "Wh-What?" He covered his mouth, looking at her and shaking his head quickly. "Hell no, man. That thing probably doesn't even exist anymore. I mean a normal barbecue, a celebration!" He said, trying to correct her and giving her shoulder two big pats.

Maybe it was the way he worded things, but he couldn't help but have a few side effect chuckles.

"... We may need to find the others though. Do you still have contact with any of them, or know if they are playing again? Like Rook or Mizuki?" Hanno asked, wondering what those guys were up to. Honestly, he still hoped they wouldn't log in, but if they did, at least they could join them in this party.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Celestine blushed slightly as Fanno suddenly burst into laughter. "O-oh... ehehe..." More hair fidgeting followed, hinting that it might've simply been a nervous quirk of hers. More than that, she also kept brushing the bottom of her hair as if there should've been way more of it: perhaps another hint that the character Celestine was different from her player in that regard.

Even so, as his friendly laugh continued, she slowly eased up and joined him with a sweet-sounding chuckle. "That is sounding the nice to me," Cel nodded, until he brought up the issue of finding the others.

"Hm... well, I did a forget of the friend requesting, so I do not know if they are doing themselves the coming back or not." She frowned. It was a shame, actually; they were pretty nice! Although, she distinctly remembered the Rook guy being hard-- well... more like impossible to speak with. You could speak to him, but not really with him.

"I guess if you do the asking, that means you are not having the knowing of where they are either? Oh! Although..."

She took the opportunity to send Fanno a friend request, only to notice the name in the UI was still filled out from his introduction 4 years ago.

"Ooohhhh: Hanno...! Darn it, I was so close!" She quietly murmured to herself, through the back of her hand.


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

The nervousness on Celestine's face made Hanno feel vaguely bad about laughing at her words, but he couldn't just handle the affirmation, it would've certainly been disgusting to eat a rotting batdog 4-years old meat.

When she said the idea sounded nice, he beamed even brighter at her. "Really? Then there is nothing that can stop us from doing it. Man, it will be so fun. I was missing doing stuff with you guys." The trip to fight the batdog was filled with fun things to do, and he enjoyed every single second of it. He hoped that the barbecue would be just as fun.

"Yeah, I... Kinda forgot too. It didn't help that everyone kinda went their own way after running away from that cave." He shrugged. "I have no idea where they could be." He admitted with a sigh, then tilting his head at her quiet murmur. Hanno could barely hear it thanks to his good perception, but for Celestine's sake, he just pretended to not hear.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Whew, he didn’t hear! She should really learn to shut her mouth more tightly.

"Ehehe, well… I was having the other meetings to do, so I was maybe doing myself more of the haste than I should have been having," she threw another awkward look, but nodded nonetheless. "I was doing you the miss too. Everyone, really. If we can be doing the reunion meals, then we definitely must!"

… Although, she realized fairly quickly, she didn’t remember any of their names. There was angry wolf girl, the felis with the dog-thingy, the perky guy, and then silent bird man. Obviously, remembering them all this way, it made it a bit awkward to bring up, but she’d do it anyway.

"I am not sure how to do the others the finding, but I will be setting up the birdfeeders everywhere to be doing the birdman a catch!" It wasn’t overly clear whether she was joking or not. She didn’t sound too serious, but then again, Celestine rarely ever sounded serious.


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

"Yeah, that's fair. Honestly, that day was pretty weird, I was expecting some giant monster, but nothing of that level. And to think I nearly became ration, I'm really glad you were there to rescue me." Hanno laughed, scratching his head in a bit of embarrassment. Being a tank was tough, at a time you were protecting everyone from danger, at another time you needed to be rescued immediately- There was no in-between about it. Nope.

A warm smile then crossed his lips, and he nodded. "You can count on it then, buddy. Our first plan is to actually finish the business of finally having each other in the friend list ourselves." He chuckled, then crossed his arms while pondering about the others.

"Honestly, Rook wouldn't be too hard to find. He is kinda different- As for Mizuki, she is a bit quieter and lone-ish, it will be a bit harder." He sighed, then considered the worst possibility:

"There is also the chance of neither of them being around, which would ruin our plan right off the start."

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

"Ehehe, well, I think we all did ourselves the rescues, together..." Celestine corrected. What was a healer without a tank, after all? Dead. That's what. And one could probably make the same argument for the rest of them as well: each member of the team essential in their own way.

Celestine smiled, nodding her head in agreement. Honestly, it sounded almost like...

"It is the grand quest, to do us the gathering of the two bat-stabbers of the legends, from across the world!" She voiced the thought aloud. It sounded way more exciting that way, at least as opposed to just saying, "I want to find our two friends from ages ago and add them to my friend list."

"Well, I will do you the cookout with just the two of us if we cannot do them a find. Maybe we will give it the one month of the searches, and after, we will have it with whoever we can be getting?" It was the best suggestion she could think of, otherwise they might very well delay it for an eternity, looking for those who just weren't there.


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Hanno smiled warmly at Celestine's words, nodding briefly at her correction. "You are right. We did a great job." He accepted the correcting, being fond of the idea of teamwork being the true reason everything worked out.

The way she voiced their 'quest' brought a chuckle out of Hanno's mouth, and he decided to play along with it. "One may unite the chosen ones, so we may gather together so we can work together once again and do the ancient ritual of roasted food eating." He grinned, liking to make the whole situation sound much more incredible than it actually was. Though it was surely important in a way, to recreate their bonds.

With Celestine's suggestion, Hanno grinned and rested a hand on his waist, nodding along. "Sounds like a plan, buddy. I will make sure to hunt down the greatest ingredients we can have to put some heat in that barbecue- I mean, the ancient ritual of roasted food eating!" Hanno beamed, with his stomach already growling slightly.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Celestine couldn’t help but chuckle as Hanno joined in her silly quest idea. This was one thing she remembered liking about him: serious when he needed to be, but otherwise a very fun and casual guy to be around!

… Except for the scary shield; that thing still creeped her out.

She’d lean into it further, "Ah yes, it has been many of the moons since I have done myself the ritual of the roasted food eats. We must do us this ritual so I can have myself the recovering!" There was some truth to that, actually: her energy bar was pretty darn low. Granted, she’d have to recover it several times over before hoping to find two people who could be literally anywhere across the world.

"And I will be doing the best of hunting down the people!" Celestine declared, before realizing she ought to add, "Erm… for the gathering, of course, not the roasting…"

She wondered how much it cost to rent one of those giant announcement boards in Finweald. That’d certainly be one way to get someone’s attention…


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Hanno grinned as they playfully continued. "So many moons huh? 'Tis a shame, we can't allow it to continue. One can't lose their powers because their bellies aren't filled- An empty sack cannot stand upright!" Besides, Hanno himself needed to do this ritual, because he needed some magic meat deep down his stomach every month. Hopefully, someone wouldn't mind if he just embued some magic on some raw ribs no one was going to bite.

"How should we do it, my dear comrade? Together we stand, or divide and conquer? The path to finding the ancient heroes is a rough one, but I believe in our strength even if it is the latter." He asked, wondering if Celestine wished to part ways to find the two guys they needed to get together for a good barbecue, or if they should just do it together like the duo of blue-haired bonkers they are.

Regardless of the choice they would make, he knew they would do well, and they had each other on their friend list now, so they wouldn't miss each other out.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Celestine was enjoying this back and forth, although there was only so much she could do before she ran out of ways to keep it fresh. Still worth keeping up for the fun of it, though. Either way, Hanno had excellent timing, as he got into the logistic of the search.

"Hm..." she thought about it for a moment. Apart, they could probably cover a lot more ground, and would therefore have a way higher chance of finding the two. Going together honestly sounded like a lot more fun, though. And by fun, she of course meant: A gigantic eye monster was less likely to spawn on her torso. Granted, the shield wasn't much better, but at least with the shield it wasn't on her, so she figured that was a bit preferable.

"Let us do the Together Standing!" Celestine nodded emphatically, hinting toward her hidden motivations, as her hand briefly touched her stomach. "As long as you do not mind the travel with me." She could understand that, actually. Some people had described her as... annoying. At least, after a while.

However, a certain other sort of stomach beast growled out of Celestine...

"Maybe after I do a quick eat, though..." she chuckled nervously.


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

When she decided for a Together Standing, Hanno grinned widely, always liking to have a travel buddy even if he technically already had one.

"Not minding travelling with you? I would love to travel with you, buddy!" Hanno beamed, wrapping an arm around Celestine, giving her a tight squeeze and a rub on her shoulder (Since he was too small to ruffle her hair). Letting her go, he turned to look at her, letting out a loud laugher when her stomach growled.

"Mine can do better." He said, allowing his stomach to rumble loudly enough to bother Ghast, that made a tentacle appear from its side before bonking his head.

"H-Hey-" Hanno frowned, peeking at the sleeping shield and sighing with a shrug, returning his attention to his friend.

"Don't worry though, I got your back. There is a good tavern nearby for a big meal. I would need to buy some supplies for the travel anyway, y'know. We need to eat before actually doing the big roaster ritual." He said, gesturing for her to follow him if she wanted, unless she had a better plan or recommendation, which he would willingly follow.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

"Ghck!" Cel let out a vague and indecipherable sound as the air was squeezed from her lungs rather abruptly. For such a little guy, Hanno was shockingly strong, and his hugs similarly tight. Either that, or her squishy mage body was just extraordinarily weak. Or both...

She blushed as her stomach noises elicited a short chuckle, but absolutely wasn't ready for the grumble-off! Such a powerful gargling, it knocked her off her feet! Metaphorically speaking, of course. Celestine chuckled, then outright laughed as he turned the somewhat embarrassing sound around into a fun little exchange. The Big Scary Shield slapping him on the head was similarly hilarious; enough to where it made Ghast at least a little more relatable than before.

Following alongside her short companion, Celestine nodded. "Yes, I should also be doing a stocking up too." Her eyes fell on Ghast once again. "... Does she... do anything an eat?" Cel almost hesitated to ask. Please say no, please say no...


@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

"Oh, my bad, buddy. Are you okay?" Hanno asked worriedly, not realizing he went too far for Celestine, overestimating her resistance. After all, no matter how strong she was, her masteries weren't exactly resistance-focused. She probably wouldn't even stand a chance against a weak special attack from a low-level boss or something.

Her wonderful laugh at the exchange between him and Ghast, along with the stomach grumbling contest made a smile cross his lips again, relieved that she was still good-humored like she always was. Damn it, he needed to make sure next time that this friendship wouldn't get in suspension for four years.

Wait, were they friends already? He never really asked.

Her questions caught his attention again, getting him out of silly thoughts as he glanced at the shield that has been bothering her for a while. "Well, she does eat. I'm almost sure she don't need to, but she always try to steal my snacks and meals when I'm not watching. She stayed four years without eating though, and she is still kicking, so yeah." Hanno said as they started approaching a large tavern, one that has grown a lot during the first time Travelers appeared, and now was growing even more with their return.

"You know, I rarely use my UI Inventory... But if you want I can keep Ghast in it." He said, looking at her while opening the door of the tavern so she could enter first.

@Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Gulp.

That wasn't exactly reassuring. The shield was reminiscent of an all-too-familiar creature that didn't just eat food, but people. Then again, this was a relatively tiny shield as opposed to the giant monstrosity from before, so... maybe it was fine. Still, she'd better watch her plate!

"Eheheh.... I see...." she forced a smile, eyes twitching a bit. The discomfort must've been pretty darn obvious, as Hanno was quick to offer to put the shield away. "N-no, no, that's fine!" Celestine insisted, heading into the tavern and offering a quick nod of thanks. "Your shield does people the saving, so I should do the getting used to it anyway!"

That said, as the stepped into the golden light of the tavern, it seemed others didn't quite feel the same way, throwing him dirty or generally disgusted looks. She couldn't really blame them, either: a slimy tentacle shield wasn't exactly the most appetizing thing in the world to see while trying to eat dinner.

"Uhm... maybe it would be for the best while we do the eat though..." Celestine scratched the side of her head. "O-or, I have the other idea!"

Waving her hand through the air, Celestine whispered a few magic words, and white light slowly collected around Ghast, until it completely covered her. Then, suddenly, the light vanished, and in its place stood a sleepy-looking little faerin girl holding hands with Hanno.

"There! Illuuuusions~! Now you can do the saying that she is your sister or something."

Sadly, watching the shield from hell transform into a little faerin girl in front of their eyes didn't do much to divert all the weird looks. At the very least, they weren't quite as disgusted, so that was a win in Cel's eyes.


@Hanno Futaba