The Kingdom of Eonis

[Apollymi]

"Huh, I guess we haven't eaten since then..." Miki said. It was a very true statement that she sometimes forgot such things while she was wrapped up in things. They'd fought in a war, gotten through a labyrinth and spent two separate nights partying in those kingdoms and still hadn't gotten anything to eat. Just thinking about it now made the lass' stomach churn. "Yep, food is definitely on the list now..." she added as they walked into the Blacksmith's shop. Miki managed to look surprised by the greeting they received, she hadn't imagined that such information would have gotten back to Eonis so quickly. "Wow... I didn't expect that, are they really singing songs about us?" she asked almost rhetorically with blankness returning to her visage. "We uh... came back to get those weapons you were talking about. We have the necessary materials if you can work with them..." she mentioned making moves to extricate the two bottles of Sacred Tree Sap from her pack and give the man before her the spear she'd been using as it was obviously magically attuned enough to receive such upgrades.

[Bloodedge]

"Of course, lass! Songs, art, all manner o' things in yer honor!" the blacksmith confirmed of the praise surrounding this young pair. Kou seemed surprised, but he did also remember a morality alignment function in Age of Eternity, where positive actions could result in things that included praise from NPCs. The question presented by the blacksmith resulted in Miki presenting the Sacred Tree Sap, and Kou took the moment to produce the Magic Crystals he had in his possession, as well as his new sword. "Oh, some extra! I'll make ye somethin' real special wi'these!" he said while claiming the items offered to his craft. With everything in tow, he stepped into the back of the shop, where he kept a more appropriate set of tools for this particular job. Out in the open shop, Kou seated himself. "I wonder how long it'll take. Getting something crafted in the game takes about thirty seconds, so... that many minutes, I guess?"

[Apollymi]

Miki suppressed a sigh at the idea that the alignment of her character as 'good' made it so that strange pieces of art were being circulated about her and Kou's adventures. 'Songs and art, huh? I guess that will take the surprise and sting out of it later...' the girl's mind justified as it became obvious that their blacksmith could indeed do what they needed with their materials. "Hai hai, arigatou gozaimasu..." Miki said to the blacksmith. It did indeed normally take about thirty seconds for the blacksmith in game to work, it was assumable it would take this man about thirty minutes of their new time. "That seems pretty fair..." she said taking a seat as well she crossed her legs at the ankle and began thinking knowing she didn't have anything to say. "Hm, I wonder if it's going to be thirty minutes for both or thirty minutes for each? I guess it doesn't really matter but..." she gave only a soft chuckle. "Huh... I don't know what to talk about?"

[Bloodedge]

"Hmm. I'm guessing it'll be thirty for each. Just long enough that we shouldn't even bother going all the way to the castle." Kou spoke these words with a heavy sigh, and slung his left arm over the back of the chair he'd claimed. It seemed Miki had no clue what to discuss, but if he was being perfectly honest, Kou was in the same boat so to speak. "Uhh... I'm not sure either. I realized something a few minutes ago, though. We never named our mount, and that's pretty important. Naming mounts gives them bonus parameters, so we're giving ourselves a handicap by not doing it."

[Apollymi]

"Right, no use trying to go all the way to the castle. To be honest, I wouldn't like the idea of doing that without my weapon anyway... though we've met some pretty reasonable faction leaders so far, humans tend to be the outliers when it comes to having good manners in these types of situations..." Miki mentioned pretty blandly. Though she wasn't aiming to pick a fight with anyone, she'd rather be prepared to have one instead of walking into new territory like a lamb to the slaughter. As they moved along in conversation though, it came to Kou's mind that their mount was still without name and since giving names to creatures gave them better parameters it would be good to give the Ryuuko a proper name. "Sou ka, I guess that is right. Want to spend a while brainstorming names? Until we find one we both like?" she asked of the lad. She managed to look a bit quizzical as she tried to search her brain for an appropriate name for the creature. 'Alright Miki, keep it together... try not to make its name a straight up reference to something else... no need to repeat Dire Wolf, Youko~' she chuckled to herself. Still she thought to have a bit of fun with it. "What about Shredder?" she offered.

[Bloodedge]

Miki made an excellent point about the humans and their temperament. If there was anyone Kou didn't trust when he was weaponless, it was humans. Fairies and Dwarves were decently diplomatic, Goblins were only a threat in raids, and even Ogres and their evolutions were honorable enough to offer a weapon to unarmed opponents. Humans were another sort of monster entirely, and vindictive enough that any problem had with them would remain a problem for a long time.

As they spoke, the Adventurers reached a point of agreement about naming their mount. Kou gave this some thought, but could come up with nothing but ridiculous gag names right away. Such things would have been fine if he'd been playing the game, but here in this world, they needed something more... realistic. Miki's suggestion, while just about there, garnered a laugh from Kou. "Shredder? Are we gonna attack giant, radioactive turtles with it? I'd rather call it... Leeroy."

[Apollymi]

It seemed they were both in agreement about not facing the human faction of leadership just yet. And instead they both settled into the long haul of choosing a name for their Tiger/Dragon Mount. Of course, this chimera of a creature deserved a good name, and Miki had thought at first her offering would be a good one. But a laugh from Kou followed by his explanation made her chuckle as well, she hadn't even thought of it as a problem. "Damn, I was trying really hard for a not reference, and I ended up making one anyways... If we call it Leeroy we have to start feeding him chicken before every battle..." she said of their pet. She laughed a little harder when she expressed herself further. "It could... be a ... Catastrophe!~" she said trying to stifle a her laughter, the pun of this name was too much. She couldn't help but find this funny even though she knew it was really silly to even think like this she found this moment to be a great deal of fun.

[Bloodedge]

"Of course! Chickens can't be that hard to breed as a food source. Besides, think of the battle entry! We can ride up on it all like, LEEROOOOOOY, and then if we take a massive loss, we can comfort the mount by reminding it that it still has chicken! Flawless execution!" Kou continued about his first spoken idea for a mount name. Miki offered a second name suggestion, yet Kou couldn't take it seriously at all. If the first two shared between them were bad, this one was a level of 'punny', so to speak, that couldn't even be fathomed. "That's just horrible," he said, laughing again. "How about... Raikou?"

[Apollymi]

The giggling... was almost constant, and in the moment Miki was really regretting not being able to make the joke of calling their mount Leeroy. This world was too real for them to give their pet such a joking name. Given this she also knew that her most recently offered name was too much. "Oh hush... it's a great name... glorious even. Catastrophe has character as a name, it will help him become the best he can be. And then when he's rushing into battle we can be like 'OH SHIT IT'S A CATASTROPHE!' and it will be hilarious..." she said in joking justification of her most recent name choice. Beyond this she was offered another name by Kou and while it wasn't the worst of the group, she also had a particular reference for it. "I can't with Raikou. It was the most annoying catch for me of that generation. Just running, running, running, then I finally track it down, and have a pokemon with scary face at the front of my team. I work it down to one health, and it struggles itself to death. It would be a constant reminder of hours of soft resetting, it's traumatic," the girl said of the name Raikou. While it was strange to try and name something together, she still appreciated this moment of happiness and beyond that she'd settled into the comfort of it. By the time they'd gotten to this point, her position in the chair had shifted and she was now fully facing Kou, a smile on her face as she came up with another name. "Ah, I've been trying hard for a not reference, so why don't I just go for a different kind of reference, Xerxes..." she offered as a name for their shared pet. Perhaps it was because the last game she'd finished was one set in ancient Greece...

[Bloodedge]

Kou couldn't handle even the idea of naming such a mount as the Ryuukou "Catastrophe" by Miki's previous suggestion. It seemed though, she couldn't tolerate his follow-up name either. When she gave her reason, he remembered his own traumatic experience with that very name. "You know... I wasted an entire Master Ball on that bastard. Yeah, never mind. Raikou's a stupid name," he said in the end. As they conversation progressed, Kou's position also changed quite a bit. He was eventually leaned forward in his chair as he faced Miki, arms slung over his knees as Miki presented a name which wasn't so bad at all. "Xerxes... That's a strong name. Let's do it! As a warning though, I'm going to call him Leeroy as a nickname. I can't let it go~."

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Miki wasn't the only one who suffered through trying to catch the legendary 'dog' pokemon. Kou soon enough shared his own story, in which he wasted a Master Ball on the capture of Raikou. "A Master Ball? That's tough... I always end up just keeping mine until the end because I refuse to waste it. I have item hording problems..." she commiserated. Upon sharing such mental instances of trauma caused by a single creature it was decided by the pair that it wasn't a proper name for their shared mount. Both seemed to be reaching a different level of comfort while they discussed things together, it was for Miki a moment which she wouldn't have really noticed what had happened but she couldn't help but feel more at ease while they sat this way together. Her final offer of a name seemed to be one which Kou could agree too, under the stipulation that he would nickname the creature Leeroy. "At the very least, Leeroy will make a very interesting battle cry. No one will even know how to respond. And if they do, we we'll be able to pick them out and make friends~" she offered with a chuckle. This conversation wasn't very intense but it was still quite fun to her as an experience. "So, we will call our Ryuuko, Xerxes. That's cool. I didn't know if I had another reasonable name left in my head..." she claimed feeling good about having chosen a name they could both like.

[Bloodedge]

"Do you mean you don't even use it on the legendary from the cover?" Kou asked. He had a habit of saving his singular Master Ball until he encountered the major legendary of the game, if only to avoid having to fight it at first. However, he had broken this habit multiple times, and wound up with that legendary in a normal ball instead. He wasn't at all satisfied with these outcomes.

They reached a consensus at last. The Ryuukou they shared as a mount would be named Xerxes, though Kou would continue to call it Leeroy at his leisure. "Yeah, I think Xerxes is a really good name for Leeroy. Err... That was the only thing I could think to talk about, by the way. I'm all out now."

[Apollymi]

When asked if she used the Master Ball on the legendary creature from the cover of Pokemon Games, Miki looked a bit abashed. "No... my OCD makes me catch all Legendary pokemon in Ultra Balls. So besides my first set of Pokemon all of them are in Ultra Balls," Miki explained of herself. "It's always a pain grinding up enough money, but its worth it so my boxes look uniform," she said having a strange need for order in those sorts of games. Whatever the case it seemed that the naming of their creature was the only thing that Kou had in mind to talk about. Miki felt it was now her own turn to think of something they could talk about. She was quite curious about the lad as a person... so she eventually came to a strange conclusion. "Alright, how about we play a game..." she offered. "Well not really a game... but it's more like an ice breaker that I have seen done a bunch of times. But I can alter it to fit us and not a bunch of stiff office workers..." she said after a moment of thought she had it.

"It's called 10 Questions. But for us I'll call it 10 Categories. Any random category named, we have to name our favorite of that thing, if we have one. Like... if I said noodle dish, we'd both have to name our favorites. And it's called 10 but it can go on as long as you have a new category to name... it could be a decent way to have something to talk about... and get to know each other a bit better," she offered. She didn't know if this idea would fly, but she thought it would be a fun way for them to get to know each other while they waited.

[Bloodedge]

Apparently, Miki in her human life played the game they discussed in a very specific manner for the sake of aesthetics. Kou couldn't say anything about this, since he'd done similar things in other games, so a casual shrug and a chuckle took the place of what would have been his words. It was then suggested by Miki that they play some sort of game to pass the time and have a topic of discussion. Whatever this was, it was clearly something done in friend groups, perhaps mixers or something of the sort. "Ten categories, huh..." he repeated. It was a weird premise, and one Kou certainly wasn't used to at all. However, he certainly had nothing better in mind. "Alright. I guess I'm game."

[Apollymi]

As they conversed, Kou didn't seem to have a problem with the level of ascetics that Miki claimed to need while playing that certain game in her human life. Somehow she found this comforting, to be honest, she'd never been able to discuss her gaming tastes with anyone so it was kind of refreshing in the first place. Beyond this point it was nice to not receive judgement for her playing habits. As they progressed past this point, her idea of an ice breaker game was accepted as well, which was strange to her because she figured she'd have to pick something else instead. "Alright, then, I'll pick one now... since we were just talking about it, Favorite Pokemon type," she asked the first question and it was not really a strange one considering their shared love of games apparently. "I like dragon type, except for Dragonite cause it looks stupid in the face..." she explained of her own personal favorite.