Another quick update: More things have come up, but this time it's mostly my own fault for them (procrastination woo).
That being said, I do have Tuesday off, so posting will resume this week, provided I don't manage to fuck up in new and exciting ways.
You barely manage to stumble back from the sword that slices down where your face had been a moment prior, instead falling on your butt as you narrowly manage to avoid getting sliced in half.
"What the fuck was that for?!" you shriek as you leap back up, getting some distance from Slashy McStabface over there lest he try and go for your neck next.
"Do not mock me." He mutters, his voice more akin to a solemn whisper of the wi- oh god is it infecting you?! You mentally curse your enjoyment of bad shonen as you slowly step away from the crazy man who is somehow better with swords than you are. You even have magic on your side, so how the hell does that even work?!
"Understood!" You call out, before you promptly turn around and march off, accompanied by an audible 'hmph' from the Sword Master.
Well, it seems that didn't work. Your walk back to the shrine could be more accurately described as a sort of mobile sulking. The Hollows seem to notice your foul mood, falling out of their deathlike trance to get as far away from you as they can, whether out of fear or some semblance of self-preservation you're unsure.
As you enter, Hawkwood seems to notice your return, giving you a faint smile. He's removed much of the metal from his attire, leaving him covered in a mixture of leather and cloth. The plate armor covering his left shoulder, the metal gauntlet, his chainmail chest piece and helm, and his metal kneepads all lie scattered around as he diligently triple then quadruple checks each for something before he begins scrubbing it with a rag.
His head no longer being covered by chainmail lets you get a much better look at his face. If you had to describe it in one word, you'd go with 'exhausted'. Stress has clearly taken a toll on his body, as despite his relative youth his face nevertheless sports the beginnings of a few wrinkles, while the hairline of his scruffy black hair has already begun receding. "How'd it go?" He calls out to you.
"Fuck you." You grumble, much to his amusement. "Why didn't you tell me there was a crazy nude man with a sword out there?"
"Honestly, he's been there for so long at this point that I forgot about him until you mentioned the path to the tower." Hawkwood says, I thought that maybe you could pull off whatever bullshit seems to follow you around and figure out what he's doing here."
"Well, besides being challenged to a fight like eight times, and then threatened until I left, and almost sliced in half I didn't get anything out of the guy." You say shooting Hawkwood a glare.
"Fair enough. It was worth a shot though." Hawkwood says as he finishes scrubbing at his shoulder plate, placing it down next to him and moving on to the next piece.
"He attacked me! I could've been hurt!" You yell out.
"If you managed to survive a Darkwraith, I doubt an old man with a sword would be much trouble for you."
"I don't know, he's fast. Like, faster than me." Seriously, how.
Hawkwood looks up from his work, a mixture of confusion, and a hint of concern. "Are you serious?"
"Do I look like I'm lying?" You are very serious right now. That's how you would describe your face.
"Well... You didn't get hurt at least. So good job." Hawkwood says idly, as he returns to scrubbing down on his gauntlet.
"Are you not even a little concerned?"
"Sayaka, you do realize that everything you encounter is going to be trying to kill you, correct?"
"...Alright, fair enough." You grumble. "But still, not even a little?"
"Am I concerned that the person who can essentially pull estus out of their ass almost got hurt?" Hawkwood deadpans.
Eh, point taken. You sigh as you fall over into a pile of ash, which proves simultaneously more comfortable and much worse than you expected it to be. You stare at the ceiling, accompanied by the noise of Hawkwood cleaning.
"So, what are you doing anyway?" You finally ask, eyeing the glinting metal in his hands.
"Making certain that there's no rust forming on my equipment."
"Wouldn't the bonfire take of that?"
"It would, but it's less for practicality and more habit than anything. It's just something I do every now and then. Helps me unwind." He explains as he finishes up with his gauntlet, leaving it nice and shiny. He gently places it down and picks up one of his kneepads.
Alright, well that's kind of weird but believable. Madoka's Dad said he found washing dishes of all things to be relaxing once, so it's not exactly hard for you to get using the same logic.
Getting back up, you immediately regret your brilliant plan of lying in a bunch of ash, but a hand over the bonfire fixes that issue for you. "Well, I'm going to go check out if there's a way up to the roof somewhere else. Got any ideas?"
"Try the path up the stairs and to the right." He replies without looking at you, focused instead on his maintenance.
"Which right?" You say, smirk forming on your face.
"Right as in the right when you enter, not the right from this direction."
"Why not just say left?"
"Because it's the right side of the building, but sure, take a left turn from here, it really doesn't matter."
"So you would say that left was right then?"
"I..." Hawkwood's exasperated sigh upon realizing you were just messing with him is like music to your ears. The conversation seeming to be over, you head up the stairs, leaving Hawkwood to his strange maintenance/relaxation ritual.
As you emerge from the shrine once more, you find yourself in front of what looks to be a very weird tree. It's almost humanoid, kind of like those weird hollow-trees you found in the High Wall, albeit much larger. Unlike those, however, is that where a face should be there's nothing but a hole.
You slowly approach the tree, only to be startled as a strange tapping sound seems to echo out from within it. Suddenly, a small bit of what looks like wood seems to fall out of the face-hole of the tree, landing gently against the soft dirt beneath it. Carefully, you reach down and pick up what seems to be a seed of some sort.
Continuing on, you climb another set of rough stone stairs that are overgrown with grass and weeds. At the top you spot a matching metal barred door. This must be what that key that the Handmaid was selling was for.
Turning your head, you see a ladder that with a bit of effort you can reach up and pull down. Why is there even a door here if this is literally within reach? Looking around, you notice that, next to a tree, there's a spot where you could've just climbed up onto the root itself without much difficulty. So why is there even a ladder in the first place? You guess whoever designed this place must've been a big fan of redundancy. Probably was the same person who designed the elevators come to think of it.
It looks like you could either check out what's on the roof, or take a look at whats inside the tower over there first. Getting up there isn't too much of an issue for you after all. [] Check out the Roof first, you don't feel like dealing with crazy sword man right now.
[] Check out the tower first. May as well get it out of the way?
[] On second thought, all of this could probably wait for later.
-[] Head for the Undead Settlement
-[] Head to the Cathedral and see what you'll find up the ladder.
-[] Go and fight the Sword Master. What could go wrong?
The seed of a tree that once roamed the land as a Giant.
The Giants were said to have once rampaged through the North in a vengeance-fueled frenzy, before their entire force was slain, leaving these trees scattered throughout the lands.
The flame is said to be the source of all life, but what does that make the kindling?
[AN]: Sorry for the wait on this, hard to get myself to write when I'm stressed. After I sorted all of that nonsense out (Mostly. Still dealing with one of them that I had thought was solved) I was pouring all my time binging Total War Warhammer. Again. Luckily, I managed to burn myself out on it (again) so now I can actually devote some time to writing! Fun fact about this post though. Thought I lost it and had starting rewriting it, only to stumble on a saved WIP later. On the one hand, it was quite a relief. On the other, I really just wish I'd found it sooner.
Why can't Sayaka just jump up to the roof? It's like 7 feet tall from the ground near the tree. She's a magical girl who can jump three times that height with ease even when not transformed.
Why can't Sayaka just jump up to the roof? It's like 7 feet tall from the ground near the tree. She's a magical girl who can jump three times that height with ease even when not transformed.
She can, it's one of the options, unless I'm misunderstanding what you're asking.
You can jump up onto the roof and look around, or climb up to the tower itself and check out whats inside. The 'tower' refers to the Bell-Tower, with the elevator behind the shrine.
With a quick jump you manage to pull the hanging ladder down, it's descent letting out a shrill screech as the rusted metal that remained still for longer than you've been alive is finally put into motion. Considering it's poor quality, would it even be worth climbing it? Turning around, you look at the almost comically short distance between the roof and the ground next to the tree. Honestly it'd be easier to just jump up over there. The jump would be easy for almost anyone if they just climbed the tree as well. For you, it's more of a joke than anything.
This is proven true when a moment later, when you leap up over the edge onto the roof, and stick the landing with style. Gym class would have been so much more fun like this. With a sigh, you begin your walk along the orange tiles, your steps a light tapping as you go. Hopefully this isn't audible for everyone in the Shrine, but you wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't. The acoustics of the place make no sense anyway, and is that chirping?
Faintly, you can hear what sounds like a bird tweeting. In hindsight, it is weird that there haven't been any birds you realize. Really, there haven't been any animals, besides those rotting dogs back at the High Wall. The noise seems to be coming from the upper level of the roof, prompting you to go and check it out in lieu of not having anything else to go off.
At the top of the Shrine proper, you find a bird's nest that seems to be built over a large hole in the roof. And in it is an adorable little bird. Judging by the black coloring, it's most likely a crow, but beyond that you have no idea; you're not much of a bird expert and that doesn't matter it's flapping its tiny wings eeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
You wait a moment to make sure that the parents aren't nearby. You remember hearing that birds are very protective of their young, although you're not sure if the same is true for crows, and it's better safe than pecked. When you're sure that either its parents aren't here, or aren't coming back at all (although the thought fills you with concern), you begin your approach. The last thing you'd want to is scare the poor thing.
Getting closer lets you have a closer look, and it just makes you want to cuddle the little bird. The crow doesn't even have most of its feathers yet! Maybe it wouldn't hurt to try and get a better look...
And then it turns its head to look at you. You freeze, worried that you may have messed up somewhere, before the last thing you expected happens: the little bird starts talking.
"You, you!" It calls out in between squawks with a voice that would feel fitting coming from a small child. "Me, me, pickle-pee!"
What.
"Me, me, pump-a-rum!" The hatchling finishes off with. It continues to stare at you, its eyes a familiar blue, while you stand there motionless trying to process what exactly is happening.
On the one hand, this doesn't make the bird any less cute. If anything, it makes it even cuter, in a weird way. On the other hand, how is it talking? Don't you need a mouth to actually talk?
Your confusion is heightened when the bird speaks once more, albeit interrupted by its constant squawking. This time there's a hint of... concern? "You, you, feel okay? Hurt, hurt?"
"I'm fine!" You reply, trying to ignore the part of yourself that refuses to believe you're having a conversation with a bird.
"You, you. Fine, fine?" Now it's the bird's turn to look confused. How does a bird look confused.
"Er, my name is Sayaka, but I'm okay, or, well, not hurt at all, just..." You stammer out before you're interrupted by the hatchling.
"Sayaka, Sayaka!" The hatchling chirps out happily. "You, you, deed-a-reedle! You, you, zoomba-zoom!"
Nothing should be allowed to be this adorable. You can't help but fawn over the little bird, who seems to be trying its hardest to preen despite it's few flight feathers.
After an appropriate amount of time was spent admiring the bird, a thought strikes you. "Do you have a name?" You ask.
"Me, me?" The bird asks. "No, no." It shakes its head sadly, causing you to struggle to ignore your heart shattering at the sight of it. "But, me, me, pickle-pee! Me, me, pump-a-rum!"
So that's not its name then? Putting aside the idea that a baby bird understands what names are, because at this point surprise is losing its novelty, you don't think you could just leave something so cute alone without even a name to call itself. Suggest a name for the Hatchling of Firelink Shrine.
[] Write in.
[ ] Nevermore
The classic crow/raven name
[ ] Boko
Because I liked FFT
[ ] Kuro
Generic Japanese name for black things... also sounds suspiciously like crow as well...
[ ] Itachi
because weeb
[x] Kemuri
Japanese for smoke, because he lives in our chimney.
I feel like Nevermore doesn't really fit an adorable little baby like this. It's a bit too... intimidating?
Also, is Pickle-Pee canon to be female or is it just how everyone always draws them for the sake of another waifu? The voice doesn't really give too much of a hint towards either way.
I feel like Nevermore doesn't really fit an adorable little baby like this. It's a bit too... intimidating?
Also, is Pickle-Pee canon to be female or is it just how everyone always draws them for the sake of another waifu? The voice doesn't really give too much of a hint towards either way.
In terms of canon? It's never really addressed. Hell, the bird isn't even actually named Pickle-Pee, the bird just really enjoys fifes and drums apparently. The credits list the role as "Nestling" instead.
