Event Horizon [Elesia/Laertes]

[Elesia]

Wwwwwwelp.

She was definitely in a town, and it was definitely... a town, and maybe where she was supposed to be? Standing alone in the street, Elesia briefly considered slightly regretting temporarily ditching Hal to make some money. She didn't consider it for long, obviously, because this was just another opportunity to show how amazing and completely self-sufficient she was and she also had no idea how to get back to whatever town they had been in when she last saw him, or country for that matter, but the last person she had talked to half an hour ago was pretty sure this was Khathelet, the country or territory or whatever, and this town had had a sign on the outside that said it was River Falls.

Which was weird, because she didn't see any falling rivers, but when she had pointed that out the guy had kinda looked at her funny and walked off, so she had stuck her tongue out at him when his back was turned and that made her feel much better in general. But now she was lost, again, and honestly she had no idea where the town hall wa-

Oh. Huh. A sign named 'town hall.'

After taking a few moments to convince herself that she had known that all along and that she was completely prepared for and planned for this, Elesia barged in the front door without any further preamble, grinning like the cat that had gotten the cream, holding the poster that said HELP WANTED and some stuff about monster killing and rewards. She hadn't really read it. "Hi! ...Job!"

[Laertes]

Money. I need money

Laertes thought as he traversed the town. While he had enough of his supplies to last him or so he thought, at the start of his journey it quickly dwindled. He had but so much food and left for himself to live off of. However, constantly moving and dealing with the wild life of his travels, Laertes could not have taken into account just how much he needed.

Calculated this wrong. Very wrong. If I don't find some sort of work soon, I won't be long for this world.

The way of the sell sword wasn't easy. Despite his formal training, the life he chose to leave behind had left him with one skill that he felt was necessary in the days of bandit raids and bloodshed: his ability to defend. Far from an adept fighter, Laertes wasn't the most skilled swordsmen. Yet through honing his skills after all the years of secrecy, he was well enough to the point it was skill he could profit on. He stumbled towards the town hall with his faded black cloak, he immediately surveyed the group. Attempting to not draw any attention to himself, he moved quickly.

"You there. What does that sign say?" He referred to the young lady who seemingly barged in with a large grin, moving towards the help wanted poster simultaneously with him. He couldn't afford to miss an opportunity.

Not in this day.

[Elesia]

"Awuh?" Elesia tripped over her own feet, her feeble attention span sundered and shredded and generally discombobulated by the sudden interruption, before righting herself by dint of sheer force of will, and also pirouetting in place and hopping backwards to get a better footing. But mostly the willpower thing. HUH. Her immediate first thought on staring at her new friend was that she needed a bitchin' cloak like that, straight up. Without any concept of NOT saying what was on her mind, she piped up immediately without thinking. "Your cloak is AWESOME."

Oh right he had said something. Sign? What sign? She held up the paper mutely, staring at him in confusion before responding. "It's - um - a monster hunting thing. That pays money! I guess you have to kill some 'monsters' or whatever but they can't be much worse than revenants I figure so it seemed like a great idea to make money since apparently hero-ing doesn't make you rich unless you stay in the same town forever and I think they would get tired of giving me free stuff eventually."

One breath, one very long sentence. "I was going to talk to the town leader guy to accept the job."

Only then did it finally, FINALLY occur to her to even be curious of what the guy even wanted by asking her that question. "...Hi! My name's Elesia. What's yours? Why'd you ask?"

[Laertes]

Monsters huh? In recent years the outbreaks of monsters and revenant increased. Something Laertes studied both through the text and whispers of town. It wasn't all uncommon nowadays now. With the opportunity, this would be perfect for Laertes to try his luck and gain some experience all the same.

He turned back to her, the girl he admitted tuned out for a second before he heard traces of her named being muttered. To avoid suspicion, Laertes would rather no one learn his true name.

"Noh'Body" He started, adjusting his cloak. "My odd name is Noh'Body". Untrue as it was, it did cover him for the time being. She didn't seem like she was too bright. Excited youth, and probably learning more about her way around the world. The opportunity was there. "Well. This job seems like it would be if there two as opposed to one. What say you? Would you be interested in a partner and we split the spoils down?" Though his preference was to work alone, it wouldn't be fair for him to simply rob the girl of the job.

He knew what it was like to barely have any money to live. He was living that situation now.

[Elesia]

Noh... body? Huh. "That's a weird name. Sounds a lot like nobody." The thought of deception never once crossed her mind; despite making the word connection she didn't even think to consider that Laertes might be deceiving her. She shrugged. "Well I guess not everyone can have a name as awesome as mine! But it sounds mysterious and stuff so it's not that bad." Perhaps someday she would learn to be a little less trusting of people, but for now Elesia was quite happy to assume the best of everyone. And their wallets, in Hal's case, though he'd gotten pretty mad about that for some reason.

She was tempted to try to find a bedsheet or something to match his awesome cloak, but didn't want to obviously copy him. Maybe later she'd look for one. Noh'Body's offer took her by surprise though, his words coming outta left field. She had kinda assumed that she could do it on her own, without Hal... but she was still proving she could do stuff without Hal if she worked with someone else, right? Elesia hesitated for a second, torn between wanting to do it solo to REALLY prove herself and accepting Laertes offer due to what minimal common sense she had suggesting that having someone to watch your back as a good idea.

"Um... Alright!" Well it wasn't THAT long of a period of hesitation, barely a second if that. She thought fast! "But, uh, can you fight and stuff? Monsters, like, kill peoples and stuff, and I don't think I can drag your body back to town if you bite it, you look heavier than me."

[Laertes]

She can't really be this dense. He shook his head, looking at the excited girl. None the less, his plan worked. Sometimes Laertes needed to be cunning as opposed to direct. In the end, this business venture wouldn't last no more than a few nights at best. Monster extermination shouldn't be this hard, but in the this time and age, Laertes couldn't be too sure.

You don't need to worry. Leave my corpse to rot if I'm stricken down. I'm skilled enough with a blade to be of some use. But you don't seem to possess any weapon. Are you an archer?

Elesia didn't seem too heavily packed. Yet she was worried about Laertes being stricken down? Seemed like this would be more of a babysitting mission with her than actual slaying. None the less, money is money. Acquaintances are acquaintances and should be left as just that. All he needed was the most important information. Namely, if she could defender herself from monsters. Laertes never judged a book by it's cover, but this book did not seem to have a cover. He shrugged lightly, motioning towards the door.

We should get going now, if we want to complete this before sun down or at the very least, locate where we will be camping in the night. I trust you have the correct provisions?

[Elesia]

"I - I'm not leaving you behind! That wouldn't be very nice. I just meant, uh, you have people who would care if you didn't come back, right? So you gotta make sure to survive so you can get back to them." Normal people had families and stuff right? This guy seemed way too lackadaisical about dying. She didn't like it at all. It didn't make her angry or anything, but it rubbed her the wrong way. Elesia put one hand on her hip, not really sure how to finish that off but a little miffed regardless. Sure, SHE wouldn't be personally torn apart if he died, but it wouldn't be very heroic of her to let him die, and his family and friends would be pretty sad about it too.

Orrrr maybe she was overthinking this? She wasn't really sure, and starting to get frustrated by her own inability to understand what really bugged her so much. But at least he seemed pretty confident in his blade. So she guessed he was a sword guy. What was an archer though? She didn't really know that much about weapons but she was pretty sure mages weren't called archers anywhere. On one hand it was kinda insulting that he assumed she was a not-mage, on the other hand it gave her a bit of an opportunity to show off.

"Naw." She lifted her hand, raising her index finger a bit almost as if to wag it in reproach, but instead of doing so just smiled mischievously a little. A moment later the tip of her finger ignited in flame, a tiny but intense inferno no larger than an inch of rainbow fire that flickered between colors as thought it were natural. She jolted the finger a bit and it seemed to leap to her middle finger, turning emerald in the process, then disappeared in a puff of smoke with her little show-and-tell completed. He didn't need to know she practiced that at night so she didn't accidentally set herself on fire in the process, of course.

Provisions...? Maybe he was talking about food. She assumed he was talking about food, anyways, mostly because food was ALWAYS important. "I'm pretty good at surviving in the wild." Heh. IF ONLY HE KNEW.

A voice from behind surprised her, the bemused-looking man at the desk she had been initially approaching finally deigning to enter the conversation after observing them for long enough. "You two are taking on the monster hunting job, eh? Good to finally see someone ready to step up, those accursed creatures have been preying on nearby farms and villages for too long, but until recently we didn't know where they were headquartered. About an hour East of here, in a small gorge - shouldn't be hard to find. We're not sure how many there are or what all kinds, but there are definitely some dog-like creatures among them."

[Laertes]

Your concerned is charming and welcoming, but needless to say I wouldn't be missed. Old souls die eventually. Of course, his family may miss him but for all they knew, he was dead right now. It wasn't the most welcoming thought but Laertes was a realist. People die just about every day, he wouldn't be the first nor the last someone didn't miss when they were gone.

And honestly? That was fine by him. It just made it easier not to strain himself thinking about it. He'd use his blade until the blood left his corpse. Until then, he was alive and he planned to keep that way for as long as possible.

Well. A young lady like yourself has to have some sort of weaponry or talents. How else would you survive by yourself? Intriguing, she didn't seem to want to talk him more about her survival instincts or even what she was skilled at. It didn't mean much more than she simply saw Laertes as he saw her: expendable. There wasn't a need to know too much about each other. So long as she could defend herself and not be a burden, everything would work well between them. Just for this short time.

They eventually found their intended persons, who filled them in on the aspects of this problem. A gorge? Shouldn't be too hard to find. After all, how many sin spawns prance around in the wild nowadays? Rhetorical. There were a lot of them. So, Elly. Shall we head out? The quicker we start this the quicker we can claim the reward. Besides, while the sun is still shining, we need to survey the area and see just how many we'll be dealing with.

Quickly. Swiftly. That's how all problems should be dealt with.

[Elesia]

She... she didn't really get what Laertes said honestly. Why wouldn't people miss him? That was just too sad. She really had no idea how to respond though, something was... weird about this guy. Not weird in a bad person way, but he felt. Uh. Broken? Or something. Elesia wasn't really sure, but she felt bad about it regardless.

Her response to his comment about how she survived was a lot easier, and Elesia latched onto it in a heartbeat. "By sheer awesomeness, duh!" She was completely clueless as to his thoughts of course, and the concept of being seen as trying to 'hide' her talents was completely alien to her. From her perspective she had already shown off her mage-y powers and everything from there was just gravy. Mmm, gravy. Now she was hungry again. As usual.

But "Noh'Body" was right. They should get moving sooner rather than later, she could generate a whole lotta light but nighttime in the wild was not a good time to be away from safety. Bad things lurked in the shadows even at the best of times, and now that monsters roamed the world, there was a very good reason indeed to not be found wandering dark forests alone or in small groups in known monster territory.

"Y-yeah, we should get moving." A little distracted by his version of her name. "Elly, huh?" That was actually kinda catchy! "I like it! Thanks!" Grinning brighter than a million suns, she pirouetted in place with arms outstretched and scampered towards the door, assuming that he meant literally RIGHT THEN in terms of leaving.

[Laertes]

Then let's be off.

And they began walking through the town, taking their final stares and glances through their town as they made their. The travel towards the woods wasn't terribly long so much as it was annoying strolling before they exited. If you get cold feet, feel free to turn back at any time. He said sarcastically. Elly didn't seem like she understood what fear was. With her aloofness, and seemingly overbearing optimism, she seemed like the perfect one to be partnered with for such a mission.

Or maybe annoying. Laertes shrugged to himself.

They walked through the rough terrain until they came near some foliage. We should be in the spot soon. We need to be careful though. While we may still have the sun's rays, the shadows can hide any number of things. Tread lightly.

[Elesia]

"Ugh, my feet are FINE," Elesia huffed in what was quite possibly the least convincing rendition off annoyance the world had ever seen - such a bad attempt that even the densest man alive could tell she wasn't actually mad about it. She was barefooted, granted, but enough of a brownish tinge to them that it was quite clear this was a normal state for her. And it would have to be considering how long she'd wandered around like that in the forest and ever since leaving it. Boots and stuff were for sissies! "Also I could set them on fire if I had to."

...

For the first time in recorded history, the bear bare beginnings of an idea began to sprout in Elesia's mind as the hamster in the wheel woke up from its long nap. Fire... feet. Hmmmm. There was something to that, she was sure of it. Not that she had any idea what, but there was potential there, opportunity that she might get an excuse to experiment with sometime today if there were indeed monsters in need of a murderin'. Hmm. She should probably try not to burn down the entire forest with her PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER, though. The curse of being so awesome that she had to hold back her true and terrifying power against her unwitting foes.

And humble to boot! Smiling to herself, Elesia instantly changed tunes after Laertes' latest comment. The trees had eyes. Beady, disgusting little eyes. Well, no, they didn't, that was just a saying she had heard once that sounded cool, but it made things much more interesting if she imagined that they did. Dropping - 'dropping' - her voice to a stage whisper, Elesia continued, stepping closer to her companion just because she could, and not at all because she could use someone larger and better armored than her as a meatshield if the need arose. "So uh do you know what kinda baddies live around here?"

[Topic end, will continue in future topic]