week two | dates

[showhost]

You worked up your courage and asked someone out on a date! Good job!





Now you have to hope the producers are kind re: where they send you.

Comments

[willandaway]

Some enemies are weak to certain weapon types.

[and certain Archetypes specialize in the usage of certain weapons, but without explaining how Archetypes work. . . he isn't sure that answer will make sense. so he opts for the simpler one!]

It opens up different battle strategies, too.

[hgeegh]

Huh . . . Well, can't argue with that.

[The instructor returns with a ladder. They're getting that knife down or so help them.]

But this isn't a battlefield. There's no weak point to exploit here, so try to take it easy.

[willandaway]

[they're gonna find that it's super embedded in there. . .]

. . . right.

[deep breath in, slow breath out]

Cooking is not a fight.

[hgeegh]

[Overhead, the instructor grabs the knife by the handle. The knife doesn't budge. They use both hands and start pulling.]

Did you fight a lot in your travels?

[willandaway]

[classes cannot continue until the knife is retrieved. . . Will has the decency to look a bit embarrassed by this turn of events, but at least he and Sanji can have a nice conversation]

I have to. Monster attacks are becoming quite common outside of the cities and villages. If I couldn't fight. . . I wouldn't be here right now.

[hgeegh]

[The instructor continues to grunt and yank to no avail.

That makes sense, though. For an adventurer, it's critical to be able to fight or be escorted by someone who can.]

Monsters, eh? What are they like?

[willandaway]

[. . . should Will help. . .]

[. . .]

[IT'S FINE]

[while he waits, he'll just pick up his other knife, balancing it idly from one hand to the next, more like a weapon than a cooking utensil]

It depends on the monster. Some of them are giant bugs, but we also have wild dogs, sandworms, vicious birds, undead soldiers, goborns, ogres, slimes--

[Sanji gets the feeling he could keep going]

[hgeegh]

[The instructor kicks off the ladder, plants their feet on the ceiling, and struggles anew to dislodge the knife.

As for Sanji, he's too busy cringing at the mention of bugs to pay the third person in the room any mind. The rest of the monsters are fine, though the list swells to such an absurd length that he eventually sets his knife down and waves a hand.]

All right, I get it. Your world's teeming with all sorts of monsters. And you fought them by yourself?

[willandaway]

[DAMN THIS INSTRUCTOR HAS SOME ATHLETICISM IN HIM. . . Will admires his tenacity from down below]

Of course not. That'd be foolish. I have friends who fight alongside me.

[he'd be dead without them, and he knows it!]

Their strength is my strength. Especially. . . when we find ourselves face-to-face with a human.

[FINALLY I CAN BRING IT UP]

[hgeegh]

[Bless.]

A human?

[Meanwhile, the instructor wrestles with the stuck blade.]

[willandaway]

[. . . abruptly, he is reminded of the weird conversation he had with Minami about humans. . .]

They're. . . monsters.

[he continues, very tentative, unsure how Sanji will react]

Creatures that ravage the land with their strength. They destroy villages and murder indiscriminately wherever they go. Most armies don't stand a chance against them.

[. . .]

I've watched as one killed an entire squadron of soldiers in one evening.

[hgeegh]

[He makes a face. Objectively, all of this sounds terrible, and he'll probably acknowledge that, but there's something he has to clarify first.]

Hey. What do I look like to you?

[willandaway]

[?]

What do you look like? You mean. . . your tribe?

[that's the only way he can interpret that question]

You're elda. . . just like me, and most everyone else here. Aren't you?

[hgeegh]

I have no idea what an elda is. [Other than that it's Will, apparently.] I'm human.

[At that moment, the instructor gives a loud hnnng! as they tug at the still stuck blade.]

[willandaway]

[h]

But you don't--

[?!??!!?!?!?]

You don't look human at all--!

[hgeegh]

I look elda. [Because that's what Will said.] But I'm human. Almost everyone here looks human to me.

[willandaway]

That's not. . .

[he has long since stopped paying attention to the poor instructor overhead, who is probably exasperated by the lack of assistance with this STUPID KNIFE. sorry the students are now FULLY PREOCCUPIED]

[Sanji may have noticed that Will carries his bag with him everywhere. . . and at times like this, it comes in really handy. he begins digging through it, producing a dink leather-bound journal that he flips open. once he finds the page he is looking for, he shows it to Sanji]

[it's a crude drawing of this fella]

. . . this is a human. The monsters of which I speak.

[see?? THEY LOOK NOTHING LIKE ANYONE IN THIS HOUSE]

[hgeegh]

[The instructor is suffering.

Sanji, on the other hand, is free yet squinting at the drawing.]

Whoa . . . [Talk about ugly. This is an insult to the ladies foremost.] They really do look like monsters.

[willandaway]

[ugly and horribly murderous!! Will remembers vividly what this human in particular did at the Northern Fort]

You can see where my confusion is coming from. . .

[hgeegh]

[Most humans (of those he knows) aren't capable of that level of mass destruction, either. This is really challenging his worldview right now. For humans to be the monsters . . . ]

That doesn't change the fact that I'm still my world's version of a human, though. Some of the others back there might be the same as me. That's not going to be a problem, is it?

[willandaway]

[immediately—]

Of course not. Even if you are . . . human. . . you aren't a monster.

No one here is.

[hgeegh]

[Sanji stares at Will for a passing moment. Then he sighs, rubbing his neck as he looks up at the ceiling, where the instructor is hanging by the handle of the knife.]

The purest kind . . . Right.

[willandaway]

[. . . ?]

Purest?

[hgeegh]

Nothing.

[Sanji waves, dismissing that train of thought.]

But that knife isn't budging. Just how hard did you throw it?

[willandaway]

[GOD]

Maybe I really should help.

[the instructor, relieved that one of them is FINALLY ready to do something, releases the knife and hops off the ladder to just. . . go lie on the ground. he's so exhausted]