Once again, the brotherly duo would find themselves employed by the man known as Dr. Stephan Mabuz. They'd last worked with the doctor a couple of days prior, and though they hadn't dealt with each other for too long, it seemed the doctor found it easier to contact the pair for work than to go searching for anyone else. To Jian, it began to feel like he was working harder than he'd ever worked before, even though this had been planned as a "vacation" of sorts. His only intention had been to visit his brother, but now they seemed to be out and about working than anything else.

He tried not to complain too much about the circumstances as he continued to wait for his brother's arrival. In all honesty, Jian was actually beginning to appreciate the money and experience he was gaining from doing these quests. Though they appeared menial, they allowed Jian to flex muscles that he wouldn't have usually been able to. If he was going to become a strong mage, there weren't exactly any shortcuts that he could take. Despite how annoying it seemed, these requests were crucial to his development. Maybe this was something that Jiao was already aware of.

205/1000

The reunion of brothers continued in the same place which it began. The sketchy magic shopped owned by the even sketchier man, Dr. Stephan Mabuz, had been the place which Jiao-long had ran into his brother for the first time in years. The meeting was strange, and tense, among many other mixed emotions, but now the dust had settled and the two brothers seemed to be getting along the same way that they used to. The second time that they would meet each other at the magic shop would be an arranged meeting on much better terms. Jiao-long was ready to get back to work.

It had actually been quite a while more than Jiao-long had anticipated, the amount of time that he spent in the town of Oak. Usually, he could only devote half a day or so to heading into towns for supplies. However, it felt different this time. For some reason, Jiao-long could sense that his true purpose was going to come to him very soon. In the meantime, he needed to get a little bit more money, now that he was relying on civilization and not himself to survive. Jiao-long took a few steps further, walking up to the magic shop, seeing his brother Jian in the same place they met just a few days ago.

[225/1000]

As he waited, the younger of the two brothers couldn't help but think back a bit and wonder how the rest of his family had been faring since his departure. It hadn't been too long since he left the country of Sin, however, this was his first time ever being outside of the country. He was happy he'd been able to find and contact his slightly older brother, but this didn't mean that he'd forgotten about the other siblings within his family. He even began to wonder how they'd react once he'd given them the news that he'd been able to reconnect with Jiao. He was more than sure that the younger side of the family would love to hear about how their brother fared, but the other half? Not so much. Sure, they'd be happy knowing he wasn't dead somewhere, but they'd still likely feel some type of way about how he left.

Jian sat in silence as he considered these things. He had prepared himself to wait quite a bit longer for his brother to arrive, but it seemed that this wouldn't be necessary. He was beginning to remember how prompt of a person that his brother was, and this was a quality that would make these future quests go by much easier when they could rely on one another not to be too late. Though his brother could obviously see him as he began to approach the shop, Jian felt the need to wave in a manner

"Good morning, brother. Ready to get started?"


462/1000

As Jiao-long approached his brother, he took notice of Jian waving at him. The gesture was simple enough, and common courtesy; however it took Jiao-long slightly by surprise. He had spent so long completely isolated from all of society that common social norms had began to work their way out of his muscle memory. Despite the fact that he had been so close to his brother growing up, their recent disconnect seemed even more apparent now. Back when they both lived at home, such gestures werent really necessary among them. They never really felt the urge to have to physically acknowledge each other when they met up. Such was the manner of their closeness.

Jiao-long responded to his brother's wave with a quick upward nod and a slight smile, figuring that would be the appropriate response.  His brother greeted him with an upbeat tone of speech before asking if he was ready. Again, Jiao-long couldnt help but smirk at the gesture. He thought of what his father and elder siblings would think about the two twins taking on such a menial and low level task. The thought of the look on his father's face caused Jiao-long to laugh audibly.

"Of course brother. This shouldnt take too long. Lets get it over with and go find a bite to eat!"

[454/1000]

Jian couldn't agree more with his brother's response. Because of how early he needed to wake up in order to make it here, Jian hadn't managed to get a bite to eat yet. While waiting he could feel his stomach growling. It had taken him until his trip to Fiore to realize just how privileged of an individual he was. Rarely throughout his life did he ever have to worry about ever feeling "hunger". They had a multitude of staff within the Feng family that made sure that none of them ever had to wait for a meal. Just the sensation of having his stomach growl was something he couldn't exactly remember experiencing. In many ways, he actually felt grateful for this. He was beginning to experience what life was like for so many others throughout the world, something that he was sure his brother was also grateful to be experiencing. This wasn't to say that he felt that people were happy to feel hunger, or should be happy to feel it; he simply felt happy to experience a sensation that so many others likely felt as it allowed him to understand what it is that many go through on a daily basis.

With his inner thoughts finally cleared up, Jian decided it was about time he replied to his brother.

"Yes, I could do with something to eat. I suppose we should head inside and see what we're supposed to be doing."

705/1000

The question which his brother had asked him intrigued Jiao-long. He had been under the impression that when they had arranged to meet up, they already knew the task that they had in mind. He recalled a discussion about some rare herb that could only be found up on a steep mountain that was just about impossible to climb, at least to the average man. Perhaps it had just slipped Jian's mind, or Jiao-long was just having false memories. This kind of thing tended to happen a lot to Jiao-long, seeing as he smoked enough opium daily to tranquilize an elephant

"Im pretty sure that we already know what we;re doing. Something about a rare herb on a mountain right?

Jiao-long thought to himself deeply about the task they were about to undertake. Rare plants were something of a specialty to him. At least the ones that you could stick in a pipe and smoke. He wondered if he would be able to smoke the rare herb which they were tasked with collecting. It couldnt help to pick a few extra plants for his own personal keeping. He made sure to take a mental note to grab some of the herb himself. For experimental purposes of course.

[670/1000]

Upon finishing his words, he could see that his brother appeared to have a look of confusion about him. Had he said something wrong? He briefly thought back to his words, but he simply couldn't figure out what he could have said  to elicit such a physical response from Jiao. It wasn't until his brother's response that he began to realize what the problem truly was. Apparently Jiao felt as if they'd already been briefed on what their task would be today, even mentioning that they were supposed to be venturing into the mountains to recover what he deemed to be a "rare herb". Now, instead of Jiao being the one that was confused, Jian was now utterly bewildered.

How could they know what they were here to do if they hadn't yet spoken to their employer? All they'd been notified of was that the doctor needed help, but they hadn't yet been told what exactly they were supposed to be doing...right? The longer Jian began to question, the more he began to feel his memories and thoughts were now a muddled, hazy mess. Before Jian could speak out against his brother's recollection, he soon found himself having flashes of memories and recollections that he couldn't exactly place.

In these memories, he could see himself traversing away from Oak towards the mountains in which his brother had described only moments ago. He'd made use of his "Whisper" spell in order to communicate with the flora and fauna that he encountered on the way; each plant giving him the directions he needed to make it to his destination and find the rare herb he'd been sent out to acquire. After reaching the mountain, he was now tasked with traversing the steep cliffs. He could remember how intense of a climb it was, and how much stress it managed to put on his body. After enduring such an ordeal, he'd managed to reach the herb, place it in his pocket, and return to Oak. With his return, he'd made his way to the shop of Dr. Stephan Mabuz before waiting on his brother to arrive.

He couldn't understand how he'd just now begun to recollect all of these memories, and to him, they merely came off as a dream - at least until he reached into his pocket and pulled out the herb they would have been tasked with collecting. A look of shock appeared on Jian's face as he examined the herb and then looked at his brother. Could this have been after-effects from the opium he'd experimented with the previous day? Maybe that was the explanation behind all of this.

"....I guess we've completed our task?"

Jian wasn't sure what to say to his brother, as he was sure he now came off as insane. Either way, "they'd" retrieved the herb, and the mission was indeed completed. The only task left now was to turn in the herb to the doctor.

1195/1000

625/650:

As Jian began to lift a small herb out of his pocket and spoke to Jiao-long the whole world began to twist and turn. Jiao-long tried to think back and retrace his steps from the day. He had woken up under the expectation that he would be meeting his brother, Jian, by the shop where they had first been reunited. He remembered that there had been a very specific task which they were going to undertake, and that they were going to head out to grab some breakfast after that had completed it. This much was very clear to Jiao-long.

So why was Jian suddenly pulling a strange plant out of his pants and telling Jiao-long that the task was completed? What on earth had Jiao-long missed? As he began to think upon how he had gotten into this situation his head began to spin and the vision in the corners of his eyes blurred intensely. The world spun around Jiao-long at a speed far too intense for him to keep his footing, and all of a sudden he found himself on his rear end, all sense of direction and orientation lost. He felt himself fall backwards as all of the memories suddenly came back to him.

He remembered taking a few too many hits of the opium pipe, and his brother trying to cover his face to protect himself against the second hand smoke. The next thing he knew they were on a long trek up a mountain, trying to find some mysterious plant. The hike had taken a little bit longer than it probably should have, mostly due to the fact that both Jian and Jiao-long had smoked enough Opium to keep all of Fiore high for a week. THey grabbed a plant and headed back down, and that's where Jiao-long found himself now.

He gave Jian a look of confusion, before they headed inside to the shop to hand inthe herb which they had collected. The fact that the shopkeeper wasnt at all surprised proved that the memory was not false. After that, Jian and Jiao-long set out to find some breakfast.

[1035/1000]