Emerath hadn't expected Celestine to follow him back to Honeyhome. Though, what was actually more surprising was the fact that he managed to find his way back to Honeyhome. And yet, here they were, freezing, probably half starving from their encounter in the woods. Freezing. That one was especially important.

So Emerath pointed to a nice little bakery that always had a nice loaf of bread cooking on the windowsill. It probably wasn't the greatest food in the world, but it sure smelled great. Emerath wandered over, and found a nice bench to sit on as he tried to warm up in the hot bakery. The ovens were cooking, and so this place served two purposes. Warm bodies, and warm bellies. Emerath ordered a fresh loaf of honey bread from the portly baker, who smiled and offered Emerath a freshly baked loaf for him and his, did he just say girlfriend? Emerath scoffed, and looked back to Celestine with a red tint on his cheeks, thinking how crazy that thought was. Whatever, they were getting some fresh bread.

"So Celestine," he offered, wishing to move on from that errant thought after they had settled, or even as she just stood and stared at him, whatever her preference, "you have these lists. You want to be a protagonist. So the best way I can think to help you become a 'main character' in your mind, is to help you not just complete the lists, but to do so with flair and panache."

Emerath tapped his chin, as the baker brought them their bread, it was a smaller loaf specially made for a couple of people as a snack. That would have to do for now, as Emerath peeled off a piece of the fluffy loaf and popped it into his mouth, savoring the honey sweetness. That was another reason he enjoyed Honeyhome, was for its namesake. The wonderfully tasty honey. But back to the matter at hand, as Emerath said, "So, I feel like to be a great protagonist in a game like this, you have to be good at certain things. It seems like politics, adventuring, and exploring are all great ways to get noticed. Do you have any lists that specifically deal with those things?"

@Celestine

 

Celestine followed Emerath along closely. He looked to be knowing where he was going… sorta. At the very least, much more than she had before the whole random witch encounter incident. It was cold. Very cold. It also seemed like they were walking a whole lot longer than necessary. Just as she was about to bring it up, Celly thought she caught sight of smoke billowing up in the distance and - as they followed the beacon of puffiness - it turned out to be smoke indeed. Honeyhome! Finally!

The first thought she had was an inn or tavern: those tended to be the most comfortable and warm. Emerath had another idea though, and once she started thinking about it, it actually made way more sense. Bakeries HAD to have warm ovens burning, so of course, they’d be nice warm spots. How genius! She took her seat at the table, stringing her tail through the back of the seat where it was free to swish around comfortably. While she waited, she offered a little wave to the baker, who seemed to be getting a certain misconception about the two of them. Yes! Fantastic!

Without a second thought, she whipped out her list and checked off “Get mistaken for a couple” off the list, adding a ‘7’ next to it after giving it a bit of thought. She put it away again as Emerath arrived at the table.

“Oh, flair… hm… yes, that is making the sense. Main characters are always doing the flashiness. Maybe that is why I am liking them so much,” she pondered, following the loaf of bread as it made its way to the table. She tore a piece off and placed it on the top of her head, trying to flick it left to right with just her cat ears. Realizing she was still actually kinda hungry, she tore off another piece and popped that in her mouth while she continued to play her little game.

“Politics?!” Celestine released a short giggle-fit, waving off the ridiculous idea with her hands. “What kind of the politics characters are people actually liking? I cannot think of one I am liking myself. Blech. No. Maybe the poisoning of a king for the one list, but that is as close as it is getting.” She shook her head.

“No, I am wanting to become the kind of the protagonist that I can like,” she explained as if having said that should’ve cleared everything up in an instant. “I can tell you… these are the two big lists of mine.” She whipped out two scrolls from her coat, though from the looks of it she was actually taking them out of her inventory space. Placing the scrolls on the table, she unfurled the start of each one, revealing the titles.

“Hero Protagonist”
and
“Villain Protagonist”

“This one,” she explained, pointing to the Hero Protagonist list, “is of all of the things of goodness, heroics, and honors. This one,” she moved to the Villain Protagonist list, “is this opposite. All of the things of badness, dubiousness, and behavior of maybe evilness. It is truly the list of villain.”

Celestine pushed the two scrolls over the table, letting Emerath take a closer look through them. “If you are looking for the list of adventure and explore, most of that would be the list of hero,” she directed. “The villain list is of the great challenge, because I must have the motivation of necessity to do an evil. Otherwise, the list points do not have the meaning.”

 

Emerath watched the girl play with her food, then eat, and then go over her lists. She seemed to still be playing with her food, even as she explained the details to him about her lists. He wasn't entirely surprised that she scoffed at politics. It wasn't really Emerath's main interest either, but he didn't doubt that somewhere out there people favored a protagonist who was in favor of politics. But Emerath could respect that Celestine didn't want to be that type of main character. It made sense, even. Many would argue that King Astor was the "main character" of Terrasphere, what with the most recent developments in the story. But he wasn't the most interesting guy, at least from what Emerath knew. It didn't help that Emerath had never actually seen the man in any public way. The sort of king that everyone knew, but nobody saw.

Moving on from these errant thoughts, Emerath looked over the lists that Celestine had provided him with. As she had described, the "Hero Protagonist" list contained many bullet points that lead to someone becoming legendary, heroic, or otherwise just a good person. As he looked over the "Villain Protagonist" list, it looked much the same, but on the other side of the coin. Many of the things that were listed were things that Emerath knew a villain would do, but not ones that he would ever think to do himself. But he did have a few points to offer, "Well, to start, I would definitely be better at helping you with the hero list. I'm more of a heroic minded individual myself. So a lot of the things on this list are ones that I would tend to do in my free time."

But then he put his finger on the villain list, and said, "Buuuuut, there's a few interesting things about villains. Do you know what makes a great villain great? A villain feels completely right and justified in how they feel about situations. Do you need to kick a puppy? What makes you a villain isn't necessarily kicking a puppy. I've kicked wolves before. Those are dogs. But they were also trying to kill me. This doesn't make me a villain. What would make me a villain is believing that every wolf on the planet is evil, and then working to eradicate them by kicking each one. And there's always that one wolf. The one that is actually a really good wolf, that stands in my way and points out that I'm a villain."

He hoped his logic made sense. From what he knew of any sort of creative writing, this is how he always enjoyed his villains. He popped another piece of bread into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully, before saying, "Think of Majolica. She's evil. But she works as a villain because she finds herself completely justified in her evil deeds. From her end of the story, she is the hero. The only reason she's a 'villain' is because our morality is different. What is black to us is white to her, and so on. So sometimes you just have to flip the script. Maybe every wolf is evil, but from their end of the story they are all good and humans are evil. That would fit you being a villain as you kicked puppies. You're a villain to them."

Emerath was starting to talk in circles, but there was still a vein of logic that ran through his thoughts. Maybe he should eat more bread and talk less.

 

Celestine flicked the small, torn off piece of bread across the top of her head, where it bounced off her other ear and onto the table. She grabbed it and tried it again a few more times as Emerath continued to speak, slowly growing more and more skilled at consistently catching the little chunk of baked wheat with the other ear. By the time Emerath had concluded his thoughts, she had gotten to the point of being able to flick it from side to side with only the occasional dropping of it. It was actually kind of mesmerizing to watch.

“Doing a back up a bit, I am not thinking so. Majolica is knowing she is the villain,” Celestine corrected, reasonably sure on that point. “That is the point of her witchiness. I am thinking she is actually a fruitcake person. Probably one who is of pressure to be acting of sweetness or something of those sorts.” Celestine raised her index finger to pause a second before finishing her prediction, “Or - at least - I am of great sureness that she is not of the way she is here in the reality of her’s. I am instead seeing a person who is doing a test of something different for either the protests or the funs.”

Flick~!

Perfect catch!

“The important thing to do a remember of here, is that she is doing a pretend. She does a log off, and then she is a different person. Well… probably. I am not the same.” She took another glance at the scrolls draped across the slightly crumb-y table. “I know what you are doing a thinking of. I can not be doing a witchcraft or anything like that outside of here. You would be of correctness. But there are things of similarity, no?”

“Cough lawyers cough,” she joked, simply speaking the word ‘cough’ instead of actually coughing. Smirking at her own snarky jab, Celly popped another chunk of bread in her mouth and ate it up happily.

Flick~!

The little piece of bread bounced off her left ear and landed on the ‘hero’ list, spraying it with a few crumbs. She promptly placed it back on her head and flicked it again - this time, successfully catching it.

“Is this making any of the sense to you, or do I need to be of more clarity,” she asked, waiting for Emerath’s answer.

 

Emerath wasn't sure that Celestine was actually paying attention as she sat there and played with the food between her ears. He had made a lot of points, but Celestine settled on rebutting the one about Majolica being evil. He chewed thoughtfully on his bread as she talked, though honestly his eyes were focused on watching the bread pop side to side between her ears. It was oddly mesmerizing.

When she had asked him if it made sense, he blinked, and he brought his eyes back to hers, having only half caught what she had been saying. But he figured he had the gist of it. Majolica is another person in real life. She probably isn't really an evil person. And Emerath knew that to be the truth. Emerath wasn't a tinkerer in real life. Just a simple code designer for websites. But Terrasphere allowed people to be more than they ever could be in real life. That was part of why it was so amazing and popular.

"Look, I'm not trying to say that the person who plays Majolica is some evil person out to rule the world. But it's clear that Majolica herself is evil. And it's clear that her character in this game is that of a spoiled brat or a naive child," Emerath said, a frown on his face. He didn't want to sugar coat it. He didn't absolutely hate Majolica, but it was hard to forgive someone for wanton destruction when nothing more prompted it than a "No."

"I'm sure you're a lovely person in real life. I'm nothing like I am in this game either. My life is anything but glamorous. I don't go around doing science all the time, or shooting lightning from my hands. I don't actually know any form of martial arts in real life. It's all just... mundane for me. I go to work, come home, play this game and live a second, better life."

When Emerath put it that way, it all seemed so boring. Maybe that was why Celestine wanted to try so hard to be a protagonist. It was hard to stand out in the real world. But here, even with a bunch of super powered adventurers, it was a lot easier. Not quite so impossible. It started to make a bit of sense in Emerath's mind, perhaps even why Majolica was acting out so much.

And then Emerath Katou, engineer and explorer, as a character in a video game... started to feel boring too. A sigh escaped the man's lips, as he pushed the bit of bread he had been munching on, as he said, "Alright, I think I get it. I think I get why you're so determined. But you know what, I want to be interesting too. Now you've made me want to be a protagonist. So who gets to be the protagonist if we both want to be?"

 

Celestine continued to listen, and - similarly - continued to flick the piece of bread whilst eating away at the rest of it. She had to admit, the honey flavor was an incredible help to the bread’s flavor. Something most people didn’t really think to add to bread. But now that she was tasting it, it just felt wrong that most breads didn’t have honey. Even so, the flavor was more of a nice little bonus in the back of her mind. Her main focus was on Emerath’s words.

As he concluded with one final question, Cel let out a cutesy giggle, that eventually turned into a full chuckle. This wasn’t the response she was expecting from him at all, and his worries were just plain hilarious to her.

“I don’t think you are needing to be doing a worry,” she reassured, finally calming down a bit. The piece of bread had finally taken a tumble down onto the table from her giggle fit, and this time, she left it, instead standing up and pacing around the table. “It is like you were doing the saying of earlier, yes? We can each be doing ourselves a becoming of our own protagonist. It is all in how you are doing the seeing of yourself, I am thinking.” She pressed a finger to the side of her head as she circled around again.

“But I have the good news for you,” she exclaimed! Celestine stopped her circling for a moment to lean on the table and look Emerath in the eye. “It is a very easy thing to do a becoming of the protagonist. All you are needing is two of the things: a goal, and a something to keep you from doing a reach of it.” She straightened back up and continued her circling. “It is why the evil Majolica you did a speak of is already the great protagonist! She is having the goal of doing the world a conquer, and the world is doing a fight back. But what am I doing a goal of…?”

Whump…

Celestine whacked her forehead on a hard, wooden wall near the door. It wasn’t a harmful whack: more of a lethargic whack that lacked energy. She spoke with a mock despair.

“Nothing. I cannot do a think of anything I am having the goal of.” She flipped around again to face Emerath and approached with haste, laying her fingers dramatically on the two lists. As she spoke, she appeared perfectly cheerful again. “That is what the lists of protagonists are for. It is so I can do a find of what I should be having a goal of. And maybe what should be doing me a fight for it. The protagonists are always having a need of an antagonist too.”

Rolling the ‘hero’ scroll down a bit, she pointed to one of the few things that had a checkmark: “Rescue a kitten from a tree.” Or - more specifically - she pointed to the number ‘10’ which had been written next to the checkmark. “When I do each thingy a complete, I also do them a rate. One to ten, for how much I did a like of it. Then, when I have done all - or at the least, most - of the thingies a complete, I will do the list another look. Then I can hopefully do a figuring out of what the goal I should be having is.”

Having finally said her piece, Celestine sat back down and popped the piece of bread she’d been flicking around in her mouth. She sat there, munching on it and waiting for some sort of reply

 

Emerath was caught off guard as Celestine started to giggle uncontrollably, and for a moment he felt embarrassed. Perhaps he had been a bit too honest with the idea that he wasn't some grand player of this game. But after she calmed down, the red left his face as she spoke and he realized that she wasn't necessarily making fun of him. He idly took the rest of the bread and popped it into his mouth as he watched the woman pace, his eyes keeping up with her as she went back and forth.

He had been a bit worried when she banged her head into the wall, but it didn't seem to have fazed her at all. But he could understand the frustration based on what she had just explained. Emerath wasn't sure if he had any goals either, but a few things came to him as she finished her explanation. He looked back to the crumb covered lists as he realized that the bread was all gone, and a part of his heart sank at the fact. He had considered ordering more in that moment, but figured that the duo had more pressing matters than sitting in this little bakery eating bread. Like actually going into action.

His eyes snapped back to attention as she came to talk about the lists, and what the numbers next to each checkmark meant. Emerath would have been lying if he had said he wasn't curious, but he wasn't sure what proper etiquette was when it came to discussing "How to Be a Protagonist" 101. But the answer made sense, and Emerath began to look over each list with a bit more of understanding as he saw the numbers next to all that had been completed.

So, Emerath figured he should tell her what he had figured a goal might be. "Recently, I had met a Caenis prisoner in the jail cell. He was quiet, and reserved. But there was a sadness in his eyes. His family had been taken prisoner by another tribe and they were forced into what is basically slavery for these people," Emerath explained, his eyes downcast as the memories came back to him. The pain was lessened by the next bit though, "I decided to help this man, his family. All Caenis really, to escape the clutches of their slavery. I guess you could say that's my current goal. Unfortunately, since it's all in unknown territory, this isn't something that I can just do. But perhaps that's what makes it such a good goal."

"In the meantime, I just end up floundering around, doing whatever presents itself at the time. I don't have a lot of direction besides, 'This event is happening. Better do it before it's gone!'" Emerath said with a bit of a sigh, "Which means I haven't had a lot of time to build my own story. Look, this is about you though. My goals are unreachable at this time, so is there anything on the list I can help you do?"

 

Celestine continued listening to Emerath, idly swishing her tail back and forth. It was hard to have these extra kitty parts and not use them, so why fight it?

“Caenis… those are the puppy peoples, right? Arf arf?” Her tail swishing seemed to intensify in speed, alongside a wiggling of the ears. It was almost like the cat parts she had were reacting to the idea of a dog… though in reality, she was just doing it intentionally for a bit of interesting narration. “I did not know the cat peoples were doing a slavery of the puppy peoples. That could be coming in handy: I am thinking there is something on this one about the slaves...”

She grabbed the ‘villain’ list and poured through it, pretty much ignoring the fact that she had basically admitted to wanting to become a slaver… if only for a short period of time. Though she had the care to avoid saying anything out loud, her face clearly showed a few ‘ahah’ moments of recognition.

“Anyway! That is a goal of great goodness,” she complimented, showing him a thumbs-up before burying her face back in the list. “Maybe if I am wanting to be doing a slave, you would be doing the making of a good antagonist for me. I would not be doing a count on it though: there does not seem to be much of the appeals for doing a slave.” Celestine shrugged and set the list back down.

“You are of rightness! Now that the bread of yum is all gone, and the butts have done themselves a warm, we can be getting to the list!” She swiftly rolled up the villain list and ‘tucked it away’ - though, more realistically - it actually vanished into her inventory. “Because of the requestings, we will do a thingy on the list of the heroes. Now let us do a see...”

Celestine rushed around the table to Emerath’s side, sharing the list with him. She ran her finger down the list, commenting on each one as it passed by, “Too hard, too long, impossible to be doing here, too cold, I don’t want to be doing right now, hmm…” Her finger had paused roughly halfway down.

‘Stop a robbery’

Glancing at Emerath with a mischievous grin, she hummed, “You were wanting to be doing me a help, yes? This is the opportunity of perfectness! You just need to go outside and be doing a steal of something of great value, and then I can be doing a stop of you. It is of ease! At least for me.” Celestine gave Emerath a pat on the head, convinced this could work out. “Just be giving me a few of the minutes to arrive, so they are thinking I am the hero.”

 

Emerath listened as Celestine tried to make sense of the idea of the Caenis people being slaves, and he did have one correction that he made as she spoke. "I'm sorry, actually the Caenis people are, surprisingly, being held hostage by themselves. Stronger Caenis are subjugating weaker ones. As far as I know, the cat people... Felis I believe? That's what you are, yeah? They've been pretty peaceful from what I've seen."

But with that clarification cleared up, Celestine moved on to the list, and Emerath stood and moved around the table to look over her shoulder. She pointed at various things unchecked, and declined them moving down the list. She had talked about being a slave, or at least that's what he was understanding from her odd speech patterns. A part of him was rather glad he had moved to stand behind her as she spoke, as his face turned a bright red from the idea of her acting as a slave, or vice versa. He simply shook his head and tried to clear the blush as she spoke up again, pointing to a very specific spot on the list.

He mouthed it without saying it, clearly confused as to why she would expect this from Emerath, even as she explained what she would need from him. She glanced back at him, and then patted him on the head, and seemed entirely sure that these instructions were clear as day and that he would follow them without question. But would he?

He opened his mouth to protest, but he had remembered another adventure in Honeyhome he had gone on. And there was a hen that he remembered adoring. One that had followed him through the forest, and would probably not protest too much to him taking her with him for another adventure, even if her owner didn't like it. Emerath was also good with the sheriff of the town, having regularly spent time questing and doing good deeds for the people of the town. So what could one little spot of petty larceny do to harm his reputation? Besides, it would just be a hen.

So, Emerath instead opened his mouth to agree. "Okay, I have an idea, actually. You see, when I first started this game, I had found a hen in the forest. Turns out the farmer had lost her through his son's stupidity, along with the rest of his chickens. Well, an adventure later, me and another friend had managed to wrangle up the surviving hens and returned them to the farmer. But there was always that first hen. She seemed to like me a lot, and even seemed sad when I let her go."

Emerath rubbed his chin, and said, "Come with me to the farmer's hut. I'll formulate my plan for taking the hen, get the farmer's attention so he makes some noise, and then you can chase me into the forest and stop me, before bringing the hen back as the victor. Besides, we can even treat it like a fun little sparring match, and you can see how you shape up in combat against me."

Emerath patted Celestine on the head in return, satisfied with his plan, and just as sure as she had been about hers. He nodded, folded his arms, and then headed for the door, hoping that Celestine would be on board and follow without too much of a fuss. This was originally her idea after all.

 

Wait, what? Was he actually AGREEING to her plan?! She’d thrown it out there as a crazy kind of joke, but now here he was, actually following along with it. Huh. Celestine glanced back with a blank stare as her mind processed his plan. Well, it wasn’t any grand bank robbery like she’d imagined, but it technically fit the bill. Should she really accept that though? After all, the whole point of the list was to give each dramatic action an honest and fair chance, then to rate how much she liked it.

A chicken chase didn’t really feel like she was doing it justice. Still, it might be worth a shot. If he did a good enough job acting - or rather - if he actually intended to steal it if she didn’t catch him… technically that would work. Or at least, it should fulfill the feeling of having stopped some kinda theft. If a really mediocre one.

“Umm… well…” Cel started, showing very clearly how unsure she was on the idea. It took a long moment of thought, but she finally nodded. “At least I can be going as far as the house of the farmings.”

Celestine followed Emerath close behind, shivering as she left the delightful warmth of the bakery for the frigid cold of the outside. Of all the days, this was honestly horrible weather for such shenanigans. Snow falling from the sky, and the sun just beginning to fall under the horizon. Sure, most thefts happened at night, but it would still make things tougher. Perhaps that was the point, actually.

“Oh, please do a wait right there,” Cel called forward, as she caught the side of a warm blacksmith furnace, still with a bright, red-hot glow to it. The first thought one might’ve had when looking at her was - of course - that she was just cold and needed a quick moment to warm up, but she just stood there at a distance, staring at it. With a careful look, it would became clear that she was actually whispering something softly to herself. An incantation.

Over at the open furnace, a strong wind began to pick up near the flames. Strong enough, in fact, to carry away a huge clump of the flaming coals and deposit them right at the base of the outer wall of the inn: made of a perfectly flammable wood. Though it took a moment to warm up, the board finally began to catch a little flame, with almost no one nearby to take notice of.

Celestine watched it for a moment, until she was satisfied it was in a good position to spread to the whole thing. Turning back to Emerath, she ran back up to him and tapped on his forehead. Behind her, it was pretty clear that there were several people in that building, as there was a great deal of laughter and light leaking out from the inside.

“Sorry. I was thinking I could be doing a complete of another list thingy on the way,” she explained as the flame behind her continued to grow more and more perilous. “There are many of the list thingies which are needing a complete, so I am needing to do every one of them that does itself an opportunity. Doing a go through many of the hundreds can be taking many of the times, after all, so I am needing to be doing myself an efficiency.” Cel grinned, totally unphased by what she’d just done.

 

Emerath was satisfied that he had managed to find a good compromise with her plan. Emerath was not one to steal in the first place, but at least this made a bit more sense. He would just be borrowing anyway. And it wasn’t like the farmer would do more than give Emerath a slap on the wrist anyway since he had been the one to save the hens in the first place when his son let them out. At least, he hoped.

They had gotten roughly halfway to the farmer’s house when Celestine had stopped them, and walked over to a blacksmith’s forge. “Cold?” Emerath asked of her, but received little response. Celestine kept her back to Emerath as he figured she was warming up, but he felt the light breeze pick up and pulled his coat tighter around himself. In doing so, he saw the hefty, and still lit, coal float up to the wall. And in a flash, Celestine was back to him, explaining her doing extra things for her list.

But Emerath kept watching over her shoulder, and his gaze was laser focused on the growing fire. “I didn’t realize that arson and murder were on your list!” Emerath suddenly shouted, a frantic tone to his voice, as he ran over to the fire. The Honeyhome Inn was burning! Emerath tried his best to keep calm and think of a quick way to douse the fire, but it was spreading so fast. So instead he ran to the doorway and threw it open.

“FIRE!” Emerath screamed into the inn, and all laughter seemed to cease immediately. Many of the patrons stared at Emerath incredulously. Some, most likely the drunk ones started laughing again as if it were a big joke. “GET OUT! FIRE!” Emerath screamed again, and that was when people actually started to take him seriously.

The sober patrons all started to pick up the drunk ones and everyone began to run out of the inn, as the flames reached the ceiling and lit it ablaze, causing the temperature to rise and burning beams crashed to the ground.

And that was when he heard it. A cry, from the second floor of the inn. That was always how these things went, wasn’t it? Emerath looked around for Celestine, unsure if she had even cared enough to help with her mess, before making a mad dash for the burning stairs.

 

“No no no,” Celestine corrected with a wave of her finger. “This is just a burning. The murder will have to be coming lat—” aaand he was gone. She watched from a distance, worried for a moment that he might have Hydromancy at his disposal. Thankfully, Emerath was just going around evacuating the building. Okay, sure. That was good. No need for people to die or get too hurt. A few burns here and there might add to the experience, but she wouldn’t be picky.

As the fire quickly expanded to the whole structure, Cel casually wandered a bit closer.

“Waaaaarm,” she hummed contentedly as the crowds poured out in a great turmoil. “I am thinking it is an eight. Or at least a seven. I should be doing a subtract of a point for warmer weather.” Whipping out her scroll, she quickly made the appropriate marks before putting it away again. “Where is the Emerath? We should be going to do the other list thingy soon.”

It was then that her ears perked up at the crying sound from upstairs. Oh crap. Was that a child’s cry? From upstairs? Cel glanced at the open window it was coming from. Just one Aero jump would do it. A simple leap up, and then back down. It wouldn’t even be that dangerous, and she could check ‘save a child’ off her list, but…

If she interfered, the data would be false. It would be biased. The child’s potential demise… it was all a part of this experience, and it would always be a possible outcome when burning buildings. She had to accept that and adjust her rating accordingly.

But the crying just grew louder…

She held her ears down to her head.

“Just an NPC. Just an NPC. Just an NPC.”

She kept repeating it, over and over, shutting her eyes… making a move forward, only to pull back. Don’t. Interfere. DON’T! INTERFERE! But was it just her, or was that voice moving? Wait… had someone gone in there to save the child? Yes! Thank goodness! Maybe she wouldn’t have to have this memory weighing on her mind after all.

Tapping her foot with an eager anticipation, she jumped back as a section of the roof collapsed nearby her, releasing another hot plume of fire. She sighed in relief, as she caught sight of Emerath, carrying the source of the sound out of the building. Off to her side, another loud conversation caught her attention…

“HOW MANY TIMES DID WE TELL YOU TO MOVE THAT FURNACE!? A DOZEN! AT LEAST!”

An angry man - possibly the inn’s owner - was chewing out the local blacksmith, who was getting a whole lot of similarly venomous looks.

“I-I don’t see how this could’ve happened. The flames should’ve been contained by th—”

“Well they WEREN’T, WERE THEY!?”

Celestine continued to stand there and watch as this continued, her fingers placed inquisitively on her chin. “Two for the pricing of the one, hm?” She whipped out her list and checked off ‘frame an innocent for a crime,’ giving it a seven. Scrolling it upwards a bit, she then scratched off her previous rating for arson and replaced it with a two.

“Never again…" she declaired for her own sake, calling out to Emerath just after. "Hoi, Emerath! Good job there, but it is becoming the darkness very quick! Are you ready to be going?"

 

Hot. It was so damn hot. The biting cold outside did nothing for the raging inferno that surrounded Emerath. He moved to the stairs, and carefully tried to make his way up, but the wood was quickly becoming weaker with each passing moment. Halfway up, his foot slammed through the burning wood, and his whole body lurched, almost being flung into the burning inferno. Quick thinking threw Emerath's hands out, and with a magic keyword wind blasted from his hands, keeping him from falling into the fire below.

Sweat dripped from his brow, and he looked up the remainder of the stairs. He didn't have the acrobatics to jump. He'd have to rely on his Aeromancy, as he mumbled another keyword and the wind launched him up onto the top of the stairwell. He landed hard with a grunt, and after finding his bearings scrambled back to his feet. The crying wasn't too far away, as Emerath dashed to the doorway to see a little girl, seemingly no older than five or six, hiding under the bed crying and screaming.

Emerath wasted no time getting to her, kneeling in front of her with his hand out. "Come on," he urged, "I'm here to save you. Please take my hand..." The girl stared at Emerath incredulously for a moment, before complying. Emerath pulled her into a cradle in his arms as he turned and ran back out the door. The building was mostly gone now, nothing more than a skeleton as he heard the roof collapse behind him. He didn't think as he ran straight for the edge of the second floor balcony. The girl screamed the entire way as Emerath jumped straight off the edge into the fire below.

Another incantation, as his Aeromancy proved more useful than he ever could have imagined, giving him a nice cover wind to land on the fire safely. He pushed it away from him using the wind, the fire raging around him and trying to break through the makeshift tornado he had surrounded himself in as he made straight for the door out.

And when he broke through, it was all the energy he had. He fell forward, covering the girl in his arms as he landed on the ground, coughing and covered in soot. He was certain he had quite a few burns. He could feel a slight stinging across his body, that probably would only get worse as the shock of the entire event began to wear off. Emerath had never wanted to be a fire fighter and this was why. The movies made it look so easy, but his heart was racing and he felt mostly dead just from the smoke alone, let alone the fire.

Slowly, he released the crying child, as a man and a woman, also crying, came to retrieve her. They lavished Emerath in praise, and he could only cough in response as he tried to find his feet again. The man in the couple gave Emerath a hand, helping him up, before giving Emerath a strong hug. Emerath wanted to instinctively pull away. He never was much for physical contact, but he let the man get his feelings out. NPCs or not, this all seemed so real. Emerath felt like he had just accomplished a feat of heroism in real life.

There was a ringing in his ears, but as the couple walked off, he heard the arguing of two people, presumably the owner and someone else. Based on what he could make out, it sounded like nobody knew Celestine had been the one to start the fire.

As Celestine walked up to him, he grimaced. How would he handle this? How could he forgive her for so callously causing that arson, and for that carefree attitude in her voice? Emerath's fists clenched as he stared daggers at the girl, before violently whispering to her, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't tell the truth to these people. One good reason why..." And then the world started to spin. "Why..." Emerath tried to continue, but blinked, and confused, quickly pulled his hand to his face and opened his palm menu, showing his energy dangerously low, his health dangerously low, and his temperature gauge reading heat damage.

Then the world went black as Emerath fell forward towards the girl. While a hero in this moment, the man was no fire fighter, as he passed out in front of Celestine.

 

Celestine smiled as the little girl was reunited with her family. That was just plain sweet, and it brought some happiness to her just to be able to see it. For such a simple little goal on the list, it had blown completely out of proportion. Kind of like real fire… actually. Cool coincidence.

She glanced up at Emerath’s sour face. Unsurprisingly, he looked a bit mad. Well okay… really mad. This whole situation was quickly growing very awkward, and it reached its climax as he wandered a little closer to whisper a violent… what was it? A threat? Nah, more of a legitimate question mixed in with a threat.

“Huh? Why wha--” aaaand, he was out. “Well that is making the answering of the question very easy,” she whispered back to the knocked out Emerath. She bluntly answered the question like a contestant on a trivia show, “Because you cannot do a telling whilst you are off doing an unconsciousness.” She shrugged, pulling her lips back from his ear.

“Please do the excusing of me,” Celestine called to the crowd of people who had gathered around the burnt building, many of whom Emerath had just saved. “My friend here is of sickness and needs to do a rest. Can anyone do a giving of a place that he can do a rest in?”

The crowd murmured a bit. Half of them sounded confused and were trying to piece together what the heck the strange Felis had just asked them. The other half - who seemed to grasp her strange way of speaking - began to ask around, considering various ways of shuffling accommodations around. What the girl had said brought an issue to mind: the inn was their place of rest for the night, and now it was gone.

Luckily, the kindness of this sweet little town shone out like a light warmer than even the fire that had consumed the inn. Several people - one after the other - offered up a spare bed, a couch, or even just a rug near a fireplace to sleep on. It brought a bitter smile to Celestine’s lips. Sweet to watch, but under the circumstances, also a bit painful.

“I shall house this man for the night,” a voice called from the crowd, as a well-dressed merchant in fine silk stepped up to the two of them. “This man’s the one who warned us of the fire, right? It’s the least I can do.”

And so, Celestine followed the man to one of the larger houses of Honeyhome. Although it was hard to call it a true mansion, it definitely shone as a house which tried everything it could to look better than all the others: marble pillars, finely trimmed hedges, and the like. Helping several other strangers drag Emerath’s unconscious body there, they took him aside to a smaller room, and finally laid him down in a nice, clean bed.

The four villagers who had helped to carry him there murmured amongst themselves...

“Do you think he’s okay?”
“Well, he’s breathing. That’s usually a good sign.”
“Yeah, but look at those burns…”

“Okay!” The voice of the merchant rose above the whispers and grabbed the attention of the conscious few in the room. “Unless you have any sort of magic, medicine, or combination of the two, I suggest we leave and let the man rest. If you would...” he insisted, showing them to the door.

Celestine departed. Considering the time, and the damage to the inn, the only realistic choice was to log out for the night. That, or stay with a random NPC. She shook her head at the thought. It would just be too awkward. Finger hovering just over the ‘log-out’ button, Cel froze, and finally swiped back to send one final message before she left.

Mail

To do you an answer of your question: I cannot think of the reason. You probably should be doing them a telling. If it does your morality a console, there is the good chance I will not be doing a burn of the people house again. The list thingy has done a complete, so I do not need to be doing it a repeat. Hehe: rhymes.

Anyway, do your heart a follow. Tonight you did me a show that you are already knowing the kind of protagonist you are wanting to be. Probably, you already are your own protagonist. If the heart of hero does a saying that you should be doing the village a tell of my act, then it will be a normal part of the experience. I will not do it an interfere.


Sov godt.