A Study in Blood [Germany, Closed]

“He..” she trailed off when Erek question about ‘discussion of Wraith's lack of skills’ and simply shrugged before continuing. “Not exactly the easiest person to open up to.” then why did she continue to stick up with him? If he could have communicated and stayed around more she wouldn’t be feeling like she was ripping out teeth to get answers or getting frustrated.

“Why can’t he just be honest with me like everyone else?” he brow furrowed once again in thought. “Maybe I won’t be such a good wife to him..Hel we’re not even married yet." she glanced at the engagement ring on her ring finger on her right hand as she flicked the daggers at Erek. Each throw she would take a glance at that ring and frown as she contemplated on her relationship with Wraith; even though they’ve been together for quite some time she still felt an empties in her.

“It must be nice to have bonds, yeah?” she said in a lack of pep in her voice. “To rely on someone to take your falls..” the words trailed off as she gave a sigh and shook her head. She needed to focus on this training than worry about her own problems - besides Erek was a complete stranger and she needed to watch what she said. “Can’t let my mask fall.”

Her spiritual senses scanned the way his energy changed and paid careful attention to Erek’s words. They seemed sincere enough to be heard and she forced a smile while building back up the blocks to hide her emotional state. A rosy tint filled her cheeks when he mentioned about ‘size’ in the bedroom, in all honesty, she didn’t seem to care about that sort of thing; was size really important for a bit of pleasure?

“He’s not good at communicating,” she admitted. “I think he just wants to make me happy.” a frown graced her lips as she realized after that thought she had been wanting so much attention that he kept giving her what she wanted. Regardless, she focused back on the task at hand and materialized her next weapon: a blade roughly two and a half feet long makes it seem at first like a simple sword, made from reishi which glows a blue color. Upon further analysis, however, one would find a revolver chamber just above the hilt, a trigger on the bottom side of the grip, and a barrel on the top of the blade.

“You want more? Alright then!” she chuckled before pulling the trigger in quick secession and sending out a wave of blue bullets. "You won't be able to defend against this!"

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443/4051=4494

[action one: expert spirit weapon}

"Very few people are easy to open up too, even when you trust someone-- it can be difficult," he stated simply as there was a lull in the blades. His eyes watching her expression, noting the way the pep in her voice faded and she clearly became more troubled. As the idea of "having bonds" was brought up, he would release a slow breath as he contemplated those words for a moment.

"Bonds are a good thing to have, but you can't always rely on them to take your falls," as he said this, his voice would hold a slight tinge of sadness, his eyes softening once more. "The world isn't so kind as that, if something terrible happens to you, in the end, you have to be the one to pull yourself back up. Bonds can help you, they can give you ropes- but those ropes can't magically pull you up out of the hole on your own. You have to use your own two hands to do that," this was important- because from what he could tell, the current issue with this Wraith was not just on the man's end.

She was being put off by his personality, uncertain how to approach him, the topic, and likely-- many more topics. Lonely, despite being so close. He'd been there all of his life, he knew exactly how that felt. Her slight blush betrayed her general inexperience, causing a low chuckle to form from his lips.

"If you think he wants to make you happy, then the only problem is communicating how to do that. If conventional means don't work, find new ways. The only thing that stops two people from communicating is when someone gives up," his eyes would close as he shrugged, "If you care for him, and want to make it work-- then you just have to keep trying. Write him a letter, leave it for him to find and read, tell him everything that way. Give him time to think about it, to understand your feelings, and he'll reply. Be it a letter, or take things into his own hands and talk to you face to face," he offered the idea to her, whether she wanted to do it or not was up to her.

Instead, he would allow the conversation to transition smoothly as she would grip the air, and suddenly a blade would manifest from her hand. A firearm bonded to the hilt-- it was less like a gun with a Bayonette, and more like a sword with a gun. A Gunblade? How unorthodox, yet fitting from what he had seen of the young woman's personality. As the young woman stepped forward, raising the blade and telling him he wouldn't be able to defend, he had an odd sense of excitement rattle through him. His lips curled into a grin, and his fists tightened.

The bullets fired, and his arms raised in a crossguard, the reishi in his blood hardening even further as they barraged against him- and to his surprise- pinged off his flesh. Blinking in surprise, before he felt a dull throbbing in his arms, ah, so it had hurt him. Though realistically nothing compared to what he had anticipated- he briefly wondered how effective this would be against real firearms as he lowered his arms slowly, light bruising now dotting his arms as he squinted at the injuries lightly.

"Huh," he pondered quietly before he would let his gaze trail toward Frey and arch a brow.

"Well, I didn't anticipate to actually manage it, but I assume you were holding back significantly," he stated with dry amusement before his gaze lowered once more toward his arms. Flexing his fingers to make sure the bruising hadn't actually caused any lasting damage- before he stared at the bruises, frowning.

"Still hurts, sadly," he stated obviously before an idea occurred to him. The report had said he had "regenerated from his blut". He glanced briefly at Freyleif, raising a hand to request a halt for a moment briefly before he stared down at the bruising on his arms. Theoretically, all injuries were connected by the veins and arteries- it made sense. But what would be the source? They had said it was based on his blut, so that meant-- reishi?

Staring at the damage to his arms, he would slowly release a breath and closed his eyes- before the reishi in his blood would suddenly channel through him, flooding his arms, and after a few brief moments- the bruising would visibly begin to lessen, the purple skin turning green, and then brown before fading several moments later entirely. Slowly, he would open his eyes as the pain from his arms faded slowly. How intriguing, lifting his head a bit he glanced at Freyleif and raised his arm for her to see the complete abnormality.

"Apparently, the report wasn't lying, though how I managed to perform something like that on instinct alone I have no idea," his tone was dry, but clearly intrigued by this new discovery.

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Post Words: 842
Thread Words: 8,081

“Haha! Yes, I was holding back.” she grinned. Erek still managed to stay somewhat unscratched from her bullets as she held back from using full force. Reishi condensed around the barrels once more and she held her gunblade aloft while observing him a moment as he halted her. Something began to change in his skin; each bruise shifting color until it was completely smoothed over. How odd. Her eyes squinted trying to see what exactly he did to heal using Blut.

“Well, yeah it had to do with reishi to heal but using with blut instead. I never heard of anyone using it like that though.” she tilted her head and lowered her weapon arm. She wondered what else Blut could do with this discovery of self-healing - maybe her old clan had something with rituals of blood?

“That’s pretty neat, I’m glad you’re able to utilize that.” she complimented before continuing. “I’ll think about what you said..about talking to him and stuff.” even though she tried reaching out to him many times it had left her at a loss in getting him to open up more. She chuckled bitterly at the thought of having to go to some ‘couple’s council’ to work out things. Wraith wouldn’t go through, and she held doubt he'd open up to anyone else let alone speak about his dark past.

She slowly sat down upon the grass and stabbed her blade into the ground. The clouds slowly were starting to roll in with their gray color and she wondered if it was going to rain soon. Yawning out tiredly, Freyleif looked up at Erek and said, “Want to practice more or do you think you have the grasp of it now? I think by absorbing reishi and melding it into your blood cells you were able to heal them mixed with the Blut technique.” she folded her arms and glanced back up at the sky going silent.

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322/4494=4816

Erek would chuckle softly as she clarified-- quite happily-- that she had been holding back, as expected. Still, as he nodded at her statement, he would glance down at the areas of his arms that had been healed.

"So there are other forms of healing using reishi then," he pondered idly before his arms returned to his back as he arched a brow at her compliment, a slight smile decorating his features. It was nice to hear that it was unusual, he supposed, that meant that it would be of use to the order and likely help others quite a bit if it could be researched. Perhaps others could even be taught the ability with enough practice, that would certainly help with his standing in the order he had little doubt. It would also ensure that he was able to help the survival chances of others, certainly something worth the effort.

"Thank you, but I'm not entirely certain it's worth congratulations, it's entirely possible that it's limited in scale," his eyes trailed downward as he examined his limbs before he would stretch out his limbs slowly. It was an intriguing ability, though he wasn't sure how much he'd want to try and rely on it-- using it to support his combat abilities was nice, but generally, you wanted to minimize the risk of taking any damage in the first place. Perhaps it would be a solid augmentation to his combat, but he didn't wish to rely on this ability he apparently had.

As she commented on thinking about the situation would Wraith, he would simply nod, it was key that she was at least willing to think about the man's point of view too. It was entirely possible things wouldn't work out between them, it wasn't unheard of by any means. But that didn't mean he should encourage that, not unless the relationship was clearly a negative one, from what he could tell-- it wasn't, they just had their rough patches. If he could help ease that a bit, all the better. Glancing at her, as she chuckled with such a bitter tone as she sank down to sit in the grass, his eyes would soften.

"I'll be here to talk if you want, anytime. I'll give you my number, call me if I'm not nearby," his words were serious as his hand fell, and gently pet her hair as he smiled down at her lightly. He knew full well this could go badly for her, but it was important that she at least try-- if it didn't work out, then at least she wouldn't have regrets of "If only I'd done something differently", that was one of the worst feelings anyone could ever be stuck living with.

Falling back he would shake his head as she commented about practicing more, settling to sit beside her as he let his gaze trail upward toward the darkening sky, he liked the rain. The water felt like natures way of removing the stains from her world-- it had been such a rare thing in Afganistan, and they had all wished for it many times. A way to wash away the blood and mud that had covered them.

Glancing down at her as she commented on his ability, he contemplated the statement. "I think it's more than the red blood cells," he pondered softly, glancing down at his hands.

"But I'd need a closer analyzation of it to be certain, I am technically a doctor, even if I don't look it," he chuckled idly, lowering his hand as he contemplated what it was, exactly, that he had done. He'd channeled the reishi into the wounds certainly, but the only thing he had really done was willed the wounds closed, there had been no immediate thought. Would that mean that if he focused the reishi on a cellular level-- if he could even do that-- that the healing capabilities themselves would increase substantially in return? It was an intriguing question, one that he wasn't certain he had the answer too sadly.

Not without quite a bit more practice and experimentation, at the very least.

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Thread Words: 8,771

“A doctor too, huh?” she giggled and reached out to touch her gunblade. It slowly began to crumble away into a swirl of particles by her will. “Sure, I would like your number.” she didn’t think to ask him before as she usually keeps contact with all her Knights just in case they needed to keep in touch, though some remained connected with their sternritter instead.

She pondered what she could do with her own blut as she lifted up her arm ahead and focused on gathering the reishi to it. Slowly but surely the spiritual energy would meld through her skin then her veins tuning that network of blue energy crawling through her joints and skin. She could only maintain it for so long as it mostly strained her into exhaustion. Beads of sweat already beginning to form and she released the hold of Blut before exhaling out.

“Nnh..probably not good to push too hard while pregnant,” her hands then cradled under the bulge of her stomach. A frown forming as she thought just how pathetic that was but she barely trained under it anyway. “I should've trained in that more, it sucks getting exhausted so quickly when it could save your life.” she then rose her shoulders up and down in a shrug.

“Anyway, as I’ve said before..I just know the basics of Blut..sorry If I’m unable to help you with your theories.” she said with a smile towards him.” That’ the extent of my knowledge, maybe ask Amelia for aid or the other knights.” surely someone else could help him if she could not, she thought anyway. She slowly uncurled her arms from her stomach and reached out with her left hand to pull up a blade of grass and lightly brush it against her cheek and contemplated.

“W-would you ever try it with me? You know...the monster mash." it was a bold question and she couldn’t help turn even redder at the prospect of trying it with him; even so, she cringed a bit expecting a flat no and besides he was a new recruit in the Order and the rumors would spread like wildfire. "S-sorry I guess it's the jealousy again." she puffed out her cheeks and tossed the blade of grass behind her. She almost wanted to slap herself for being so bold in asking him such a silly question when she was already engaged.

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401/4816=5217

He glanced at her as she giggled at his statement on being a doctor and chuckled weakly.

"Well, technically no, the specific term would be a "Combat Medic", I didn't go to medical school-- just a masters in medicine, with plenty of experience on stitching people up and performing surgeries," he explained idly-- the distinction was important. He should never have claimed to be a doctor, he supposed; those were gentle souls that dedicated themselves to nothing but saving people. When his hands were stained in so much blood it was an insult to the profession to claim such a thing. He'd have to remember to be more careful in the future.

As she agreed to his number, he nodded-- he'd have to make sure to write it down and give it to her once they were out of risk of being rained on. Instead, he would watch her raise her hand, trying at the blut herself, and clearly struggling. He trusted her to know her limited, and sure enough, the cradled the little ones and halted her experimentation He shrugged a bit at her comment.

"People study fields and learn based on what they need at the time, the fact you never dug too deep into it means that you thought studying something else took priority-- that's all." Smiling lightly, he would allow his gaze to trail upward as he rested his arms on his knee's, shifting into a more relaxed position. She was apologizing for her lack of knowledge, but he shook his head slightly, not appearing perturbed in the slightest by the apparent "setback", and smiling at her slightly instead.

"Instead of running off and abandoning someone who has helped me so much the moment she doesn't know something, studying it alongside you and helping your skill in it grow as well is a far more attractive concept," he would explain simply before he would then lean back and stretch. It was going to rain, they should probably head inside-- or at least underneath a roofing or tree so that the young woman didn't get soaking wet. The last thing they needed was her getting sick while pregnant due to expanding energy teaching him, he'd feel terrible.

That thought, however, was halted by her next words-- not that he hadn't seen it coming, of course, but he had expected her to be more shy about the inquiry. Raising a hand to push his fingers through his hair, he watched her blabber and pout, cheeks puffing out like a child and turning red in embarrassment at her statement. It was endearing, really. However, there was a large blazing issue in her offer-- and it wasn't what she likely thought it was, at least not in his mind. He let out a slow breath in a sigh as he placed his chin in his palm, how best to phrase this so as to not make her misunderstand.

After a moment, he would answer her.

"I wouldn't mind having sex with you, Frey, but I have a rule on things like that," he let his gaze meet the young woman's own and he offered a soft smile.

"You have to be able to look me in the eye, and honestly tell me that you won't regret the decision. That you truly won't regret what may happen due to your actions. Living with the negative repercussions, dealing with them, that's all fine-- but if you think, even for a moment you may regret your choice, don't ask for that, alright?" his tone was gentle but serious as he gently pet her head once more.

"It's important. Some things you can't fix no matter how much you want too later-- and a relationship is one of them. I haven't experienced it myself because I've never loved-- but I've seen plenty of others go through it, and seen how a single mistake can make it all crumble. You love him. So make sure you really think about this before you act on anything, alright?" with that, he pet her head a final time before he rested his hand on his lap lightly.

"After you think about it, and come to a decision-- if you still want too, I won't turn you down," with that settled he would watch her quietly, waiting for her response to the matter. He didn't think she was a fool, but she was a teenage girl. Forethought was not their strong suit-- forcing her to think about her actions first was key. In the end, it would be her decision to make.

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Thread Words: 9,534

She carefully listened to him and shook her head still at her lack of knowledge; it was still unfair she didn’t know more of the Quincy abilities to help out more - though she did indeed love creating things with reishi - and with that, she would be more satisfied in teaching in that area. She couldn’t be like Odin or Freyja who knew all the seiðr in the heavens.


She was hoping some kind of reprimand on her question but instead, he calmly said he wouldn’t mind and that lifted some weight off her shoulders. A smile formed and her posture relaxed somewhat. He further explained that she would have to look him in the eyes with honesty in her voice. Her lips began to move until he went on with the idea and she listened intently. Eyebrows furrowed in thought; could she really go on with such action? A chortled escaped her lips at her own silliness and shook her head to shake the impure thoughts running in her hormonal mind. With the pat on the head, she merely gave a huff and growled lowly.

“I’ll think about it,” she replied before forcing herself up with some effort. “I should get some rest now, thanks for the bit of fun! I needed to get some exercise for once and I don’t have enough people to train with all my work piling. I would like to talk to you tomorrow if you have free time. I feel like I could tell you something's without hiding behind a mask.” she strained in saying that last part, though her eyes stayed fixed on his feeling like she could open her heart to someone other than her close friends.

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285/5217=5502
110 gp

-exit-