queenoflogs | the power of friendship.

Entry tags:

the power of friendship.

The Caves of the Arimoi are an extensive network of caverns, winding through the earth. Who maintains the torches which light each passage with a dim and flickering luminescence? Who placed here these treasure chest, filled with artifacts both ancient and obscure? What is it even doing here, as it is clearly not part of the Queen's domain? Nobody knows, or at least nobody is answering. But here it is nonetheless, and it is both ancient and strangely beautiful.

You are not alone in these caves, however. Echidna's children lurk, jealously guarding treasures and preying on unprepared explorers. Here a woman with the lower boidy of a dragon lurks, vicious teeth dripping with venom. There, a formless, shapeshiting mass strikes out with its terrible barbed whip. There, hydras and chimaerae patrol, and in some places the beautiful woman you stumble across may not be what she seems...

How are you supposed to make nice with creatures like these? That's up to you to figure out.

[ooc: A more detailed description of the Caves and Monsters can be found on the setting page. We will be tagging into threads with NPC monsters, if you have a specific monster you would like to encounter please leave a note in your thread.]

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"Shut up, idiot. You're going to draw attention to us," Akiha snapped back as she bent down to tug the end of her skirt free from the rocks it had gotten caught on. She wasn't dressed for 'adventuring' and she was already fed up with this whole thing.

"This is the stupidest idea ever," she muttered.

Akiha's plan had been to let the do-gooders of the Garden explore this and talk about it on the Vine while she and the Condesce discussed it from the safety of their own homes as neither of them actually cared about this 'Mother of Monsters'. But, noooooooooooooooo, Kris had decided to go 'adventuring'.

"That's the whole point!"

She turned around and grabbed Akiha's hand. If she wasn't prepared, Kris would help her along.

"The more you kill, the more powerful you get."

The sudden pull from Kris made Akiha stumble and she had to grab the magician with her other hand to keep from falling. Then, once she had her feet, she jerked herself free from Kris' grip.

"If you get eaten by a monster during this stupidity, I'll be very angry with you." She glared. "And that notion of killing making you more powerful is preposterous."

"I've probably been doing this longer than you." She said that rather sullenly, not in reaction to what Akiha said to her but in reaction to Akiha pulling away from her hand.

"And I'm right. It does make you more powerful."

"I'm sure you have considering this is the second time I've ever gone 'adventuring', as you put it."

The other time being when they went into the Hollow to find the Healer. That turned out to be pointless except for the pearls Akiha had ended up with. She had a few with her, just in case, but doubted she'd need them.

"Why are you acting like I kicked you anyways?"

"Because..."

She almost would prefer if Akiha figured it out herself. Even then, she was pretty sure Akiha would need to be guided to an answer so she decided to wait and see while they continued inside the cave.

That wasn't helping any. It made Akiha think, which meant she focused on the words and not the action. Didn't Kris see that her threat of being angry if Kris got eaten was an indication of affection? Akiha wasn't good at expressing herself sometimes and she'd already told Kris that the magician wasn't allowed to leave her. And that included being eaten by monsters.

"Because what? I said I didn't want you eaten. Isn't that enough?"

Emotions, why must they be so complicated?

She huffed once in reply, though she didn't look angry. "That's not it."

Waving once with her hand, she hoped to give a slight hint.

Yeah... that wasn't giving her a hint, mostly because she didn't realize she'd taken her hand away like she had. She just hadn't wanted to fall and would rather have both hands free when she was in an unknown area. Especially since she'd almost fallen when Kris had taken it in the first place.

"Then tell me. I have more to worry about right now than figuring out why you're acting so... tenebrous." Like trying not to trip over the rock she just did.

Growling a little, Akiha picked herself up off the ground and glared at her scraped palm. Kris better appreciate her being there.

Sometimes, Kris felt Akiha was more hopeless than herself....which was saying a lot. So she offered her hand for Akiha to grab.

"This was it."

In some ways... Akiha was. And it was sad.

She looked at the hand and her brow furrowed. It took her a moment to realize what had happened. Akiha then sighed and took Kris' hand.

"This isn't some kind of date."

"I'm just helping you out."

She tried to help steady Akiha a little since she did seem to keep having trouble. Having someone with a better sense of this holding on to you would help.

"Besides, if we get lost, I can at least get us out of here so we need to stay together."

Akiha didn't want to admit that Kris was helping her, but her hand tightened just a bit on the magician's. They weren't very far into the caverns and she was already tired of the place.

"Is it really necessary to be here? I only came along because you asked." And used that damn look Akiha hates because it makes it hard to say no.

"If you want first dibs on things, of course it's necessary."

Come on, Akiha. You wouldn't want people showing off things you didn't have, would you?

Only if they were things she wanted to have.

"Don't tell me you're just expecting there to be a pile of gold somewhere in this place?"

"Yeah, I was!" Monsters always stashed away things in chests that they took from previous adventurers or they took from other people's villages and other sorts.

"That and maybe some magical artifacts."

"...you're serious."

Akiha stopped to stare at Kris. She was dumbfounded. What was the point in risking their lives for a supposed pile of gold that's meaningless or some magical artifact. What counts as a magical artifact?

"Did you think I was joking?" Sheesh. How was a girl supposed to be taken seriously these days when Akihas were running around attempting to disprove everything.

"I have no idea." Akiha started walking again, picking her way over rocks and other stuff. "It just seems... silly to think there is a pile of gold laying around anywhere. That's what banks are for."

"A bank?" Kris snorts. Using a bank was for gullible people.

"Why would you ever trust people with your money?"

"Money is to be invested and held in a central place where bills can be payed, investments made, and capital moved around for use in a business," Akiha explained.

"It's all accounted for and there are laws should a bank misuse your money without your consent. They're insured and it when you deal in international business, you can't just carry around a pouch of gold. Different countries have different currency and banks facilitate the exchange of currency. I can't just go to America and buy something with yen. I have to have dollars to do that. And the same goes in Japan. It doesn't matter how many dollars I have in my possession, I can't buy anything unless I have yen."

Akiha glanced over. "Were you under the impression that there is a giant vault in my mansion in Misaki City that holds gold ingots?"

Kris shook her head. As a matter of fact, she had no idea where Akiha kept her money and wasn't too worried about it. It wasn't like she wanted to steal it all.

"It just sounds like a good way for them to take all your money."

"First of all, not all the money is in one account. Then not all the accounts are in the same bank. Some of it is in investment firms and other places. So, it's not ONE person holding my money," Akiha replied, her irritation showing. "Keeping all your money on your person is a good way to invite someone to mug you. Maybe it's easy for you to just hold all your money considering how little you have, but it's a very different situation when you have extensive assets."

She sighed. "And the rest of it is societal differences. Our worlds are different. Things work differently. Leave it at that. You are more than welcome to not put your money in a bank."

"I'm really rich, you know. Really rich." She used to be poor but no more. That aside, Kris resigned herself to not understanding why someone would use a bank.

Akiha was of the opinion that what Kris considered rich was a lot less than what Akiha considered rich.

"You certainly don't act like it," she commented.

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