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[PP-F11] Opening Up


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She stood with her hand clenched into a fist and hovering in front of the door. But of course, Teion hesitated. It had been a few days since the Holy Dragon Alliance parted ways after their horrifying encounters in what they could only call the 'haunted mansion'. Since then, Teion had accepted Ryo's offer to move in with him on Floor Eleven and she had spent most of her time adapting to the differences that come with moving from a desert town to the hills surrounding a Venice-style city. And the nightmares of their recent experiences in the death game didn't help the transition one bit.

She felt like she had drawn farther back into her shell than she'd been in a long time, but there was some little urge inside of her to do something about it. To talk to someone about it. But that's easier said than done, right? She had wasted a good couple of minutes standing in front of the door to Jomei's shop, as well as his and Telrenya's home, but finally drew in a breath and knocked on the hard wood.

@Jomei

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It took a couple of days to adjust, to try and forget the images that the strange demon that occupied that mansion pushed into their head. Jomei had found out that he was not the only one.. they all had experienced some of their darkest fears. Every night since then, the visions replayed in his mind, even if just small freeze frames to remind him of what could be if they weren't careful.. if he wasn't careful. His guild, his closest friends, and his lover, all murdered because he wanted to be the hero. Some sort of sick punishment to keep Jomei in his place. It made his stomach churn just thinking about it. However, that player, Death Adder, he didn't seem to be a problem anymore. No one had sighted him in months, especially after Zelreius' swords shattered during that boss fight. He had been taken down a notch, his power reduced. Jomei didn't know, and he didn't want to think about it. But the images still haunted him.

Sitting on their couch, Jomei watched Telrenya descend from their bedroom, smoothing out her ivory colored skirt. Jomei hadn't dared tell Telrenya about the images he had seen, he did not want to plague her mind with the same thoughts. For all he knew, she was still fighting her own demons from that day. The blonde told Jomei she had a few errands to run in town, and that she should not be long. Exchanging a quick goodbye, Telrenya descended the stairs leading to their front door, leaving Jomei alone in their town home. Once he heard the front door close, the man let out a heavy sigh and let his head droop. 

Not even a few moments later, he heard a knocking at the door. Had Telreyna forgotten her key? Most likely not.. being it was something locked to their inventory. Pushing himself up from the plush cushion, Jomei went to check who was paying them a visit. To his surprise, it was Teion, whom he had a few encounters with more recently. Though, he had not had many personal conversations with her, or any business for that matter. "Oh, Teion, hey." Jomei said, a bit of surprise in his voice, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

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The corner of her mouth picked up into a slightly forced crooked smile. "Hey." She greeted back, and drew in a deeper breath through her nostrils when Jomei asked the obvious question of what brought her there. "Uhm, just wanted to check up on you guys," It wasn't exactly a lie, but it was far from being straight-forward with her intentions. "Hey, uhh," She almost started over, hesitating, but the awkward way of speaking wasn't terribly unusual for her. "Can we talk?"

Even after the two had settled to better share a conversation, Teion could still feel the tension in her fake muscles. She was uncomfortable, some terrible mixture of the unfamiliarity with Jomei's company, the pressure of his expectant gaze, and her own personal demons causing her to fidget, her fingers lightly squeezing each other. There was a bit of silence, though it had already been made clear that she was free to speak her mind. "So, you two are doing okay?" She finally asked. How rude was it to have practically assumed that was the case? She hadn't seen much of Jomei or Telrenya, but it wasn't difficult for her to imagine them as the type of people who 'have it together' most of the time.

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When Teion revealed that her visit was simply just a check up on her new friends, Jomei could not help but smile sincerely, yet softly. Before he could truly answer the woman, she requested the two talk. The smile slightly faded, his brow cocking in curiosity. "Yeah of course, come in," stepping to the side, he held the door open with one hand, while extending his other arm towards the staircase leading to the second floor; the living room. Once she had entered through the threshold of his abode, he shut the door behind him and followed the purplette up the stairs. "Well, welcome." he said with a small chuckle, "Please, make yourself comfortable. I'll get you something to drink." Excusing himself to the kitchen, which was visible through an open doorway and a large window cut out of the wall, Jomei prepared himself and Teion a glass of water. 

He heard Teion's question from the other room, and given any other day, he would have taken it simply as a check in on friends. Jomei let out a small sigh as he placed two empty glasses on the counter top before him.
"In general, I'd say we are both doing fine," he started as he began to pour water from a pitcher. The man moved himself from the kitchen again and placed one of the glasses of water on the table before Teion, before taking a seat himself that sat perpendicular to Teion. "But.. you're talking about the mansion.. aren't you?" 

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"Yeah..." The word came out like an exhale, as she'd been holding her breath a couple of seconds without realizing. Her palms lay flat on her thighs, sitting on the front half of the sofa and leaning forward into her words. "Uhm..." She thought about where to start again. "I haven't really heard from the others in a while. And, I don't know if anyone else is as..." Her lips pursed after a pause, her hands hovering frozen in the air after they had moved and her eyes pointed up in a struggle to find the right words.

She started the line over. "I don't know if everyone else is perfectly fine, or maybe they're not and they just aren't talking about it. I mean, I know I'm not a part of your guild anyway, but it kind of seems like everyone's...just gone their separate ways after that." Her hands fell back into her lap, and she eyed the glass of water sitting in front of her. She put off reaching for it a while longer. "And, sorry, I don't mean to come in here and bum you out." Her mouth briefly twisted to a crooked smile.

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  • 7 months later...

"Hmm.." the ginger responded with a hum, pursing his lips as he reached to the glass on the table before him. His fingers wrapped around the cup for a moment, his fingertips cooling from the liquid inside before raising it to his lips. The mansion.. at least, the resurrected, horrid version of that mansion that the guild experienced as a whole, took a huge toll on everyone. 

Jomei honestly had not even thought about the toll the mansion had taken on everyone, let alone himself. Of course, he and Tel had spoken about it just a little bit.. but he had not reached out to anyone else to see if they were okay. 

Placing the glass back on the table before him, Jomei closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. "Like Spencer had mentioned..that was not the first time that we had visited that place. Originally, it was Telrenya, Ruby, and myself visiting a mansion that I had apparently won in a raffle. Upon arriving, we found it to not be a player home, but a side quest created for Halloween. Spencer, who we didn't know at first, found the place and investigated before we got there."

He continued reminiscing on that day, "It was like a typical haunted house.. shadows lurking in the basement, rooms that lock behind you and try and trap you. It was dangerous, but not mentally straining. Whatever the hell that was.. that we all visited." Jomei shook his head, "I'm not surprised that the others aren't okay either." 

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A sigh that echoed Jomei's spilled out through Teion's lips almost subconsciously after he finished his thoughts. Her eyes were still glued to the glass sitting in front of her while a myriad of negative feelings ebbed and flowed in the pit of her stomach. Perhaps it was one-sided, but she felt of her relationship with Jomei as strained, or at least complicated. They'd only encountered each other a handful of times, and he usually felt more like a friend of a friend. But then there was the incident during the Arabian Nights quests, and this horrible ordeal through the mansion...

Teion's normally stoic face gave way to concern, anxiety, and a touch of sadness. "Right... Yeah, I haven't been in touch with Spencer, Hestia, Jevi... Most of them, since then. And I didn't want to keep holing myself up at home, either. I thought you two were still...out and about, I guess." A short pause. She hadn't exactly gotten the sentiment out that she was after. "I don't want a bunch of bridges to burn in there, y'know?" Her lips pursed again and her eyes finally came off of the glass, but instead of looking up at Jomei they moved to the side instead to signal her embarrassment.

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The ginger shook his head, "I really haven't been in contact with any of them either" he couldn't help but scoff at his own words, "Some guild leader I am, huh?" He forced a smirk, though there definitely was no joy or jest behind it. The facade faded once again though, and his olive eyes trailed downwards, "I really should have gotten in contact with all of them.. make sure that they are handling things alright." Jomei sat in silence for another moment, thinking about the mansion and what it did to them. "That place played with our minds.. showed us what we fear the most. I can't even imagine the horrible things it taunted everyone else with." He looked over towards the door, "I don't even know what Telrenya saw.. nor did I tell her what I saw." Jomei ran a hand through his hair, pushing the orange locks from his face to the top of his head for just a moment. He gnawed at his lower lip, "I feel its the fear of having to talk about what we saw thats keeping us all so distant."

Releasing the hand from the top of his head, his bangs returned to the front of his face in a bit of a jostled mess. He looked across the table to the purple haired woman who had come to check on him. He and Teion were hardly friends, not that they had no reason to be.. just a lack of familiarity. Yet, she had been the one to take initiative to check on him and his fiancee. "I've been talking so much about myself, or everyone as a whole. How have you been holding up? I figure you didn't just come here to see how I was doing.. I'm sure you want to get the thoughts of that day off your chest as well. " 

 

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Teion frowned and finally reached for the glass she'd been given. She took a long drink and then held it just above her lap, giving her fingers something to fidget around. She was awkward and nervous, and this seemed to be one of the rare times her mood displayed itself on her sleeve.

She paused. A long few seconds passed. On the inside, Teion had painstakingly picked out a few words, repeated them over in her head a few times, and was now just stuck on getting them out. She swallowed, and her cheeks turned just a slight shade of pink. Finally, when the awkward tension had just about reached its peak, she got out, "Can I ask you for relationship advice?"

The question might have hung in the air, and she had refused to make eye contact with Jomei all the while. She stared at the glass of water in her hands instead, and cleared her throat instinctively. "I mean--" She almost hurriedly went on to try and explain herself somehow, only to drop her shoulders a tad and try again. "Well, it has to do with what happened in the mansion... Just, I think I've been holding onto a lot of stuff and I don't know how to talk about it to Ryo, so..." Her volume dropped gradually until her words just began to come out in a mumble. "You and Telrenya seem to be doing really well..."

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After a moment of silence, watching Teion sip from her drink in preparation for what she wished to speak on, the woman finally spoke what was on her mind; she asked for relationship advice. What could be seen of the creases on his brow became more prominent as he rose his eyebrows in a bit of shock. He definitely was not expecting that to come up in conversation, rather than some mentally straining crisis that plagued them all. Though, talking about her relationship with Ryo would definitely be a better change of pace.. even if the situation she would be asking about was not a happy one. Anything to take his mind off of seeing the bodies of his closest friends gored before him. 

"W-Well sure" he said with a soft chuckle, a more genuine smirk finally taking hold, "whats on your mind?" She quickly corrected herself, revealing that it did have to do with that day they were all together.. but it seemed to relate a bit more to her relationship status. Had something happened between herself and Ryo? or possibly something that made her question her love? "I'd like to think we are doing well," he said, partially joking, knowing that his relationship with Telrenya has been going pretty strong, "You can ask me anything, go ahead." Jomei wouldn't call himself a love-guru, but he would do his best to help a friend out and put Teion's mind at ease. 

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The pinkish tint to her cheeks grew a bit more pronounced and her shoulders shifted a centimeter or so upward as her embarrassment swelled a little. She hesitated for a while. Then, with a big draw of air into her lungs, Teion blurted out, "Okay, so, I know you're not a therapist or whatever, but I'm gonna give you some context and get into some real deep sh*t and I hope it doesn't weird you out, y'know?" Her mouth twisted to one side and she fidgeted a little more, letting out her breath in a sigh.

"I don't think anyone else knows about all the...history Ryo and I have." She began to explain. "I mean, we met here in the game, but... Well, there was some really messy stuff before we got...where we are now." She leaned forward and set the glass of water back on the coffee table. She placed her hands flat on her lap and reached her fingers to curl just over her knees. "I got mixed up in a lot of seedy stuff. And uhm... Well, even before that, Ryo liked me for a long time, I think. He tried really hard to get to know me, but he also wanted to give me space after Beatbox. I feel kinda bad for how I handled all that, but..." She shook her head.

"I guess, the thing I'm most worried about..." Teion hesitated once more. She swallowed. "I...took a long time to accept his feelings. And reciprocate them. And, I worry sometimes... Well, that he's going to resent that." Teion's cheeks puffed a little with air while her insecure imagination fired up. "He'll find someone else that he likes, or...take a better offer that comes along." Her voice caught in her throat for just a moment when she remembered exactly what she saw in that mansion. There was a heavy silence for a few moments, and Teion swallowed hard. None of that was a question.

"How... How do you know that Telrenya's the one?" She finally looked Jomei in the eyes, a complicated mixture of emotions swirling inside of hers. "How do you know that she loves you?"

Edited by Teion
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It almost seemed as if Teion had given him a warning. A warning that she was about to drop a bunch of baggage on his couch, despite the two not having the closest friendship yet. With a small smile, Jomei simply nodded at Teion, letting her know it was okay to proceed. Jomei felt he was a good listener, but not always the best with words and actually formulating advice. Hopefully, in this situation, Teion just opening the floodgates and allowing her thoughts on Ryo and her struggles and hearing those thought become spoken word would help her develop a solution on her own. Jomei only hoped that he could do his best in giving sound advice.

For the next few minutes, Jomei did what he did best and just listened to Teion's plight. There was not much detail to her tale, and most of what she said were vague details, but it was enough for Jomei to get the basic gist of what was going on. From what he could gather, Ryo fell hard for Teion, and she did not feel the same way. The 'messy business' and 'seedy stuff' she had gotten herself into, he decided to not press on. Once she had finished, Jomei felt he had some sort of an answer to give Teion, it seemed pretty obvious to him, at least. 

That was when the loaded question was dropped, before advice could even be given. Jomei's face was one of visible surprise, but he did not express nervousness. He could not suppress the short chuckle that bubbled up from the fluttering feeling in his gut. "You know.. I don't think I've ever been asked that." Sitting back in his chair, chin upturned slightly, the lids of his eyes slowly closed as he pondered on how to answer that question. 

"Es.. Telrenya and I, to start, we just.. clicked. As cliche as that sounds.. I, personally, felt some sort of a connection after the first day I met her. As our friendship blossomed, that was more apparent. She listened to stories of my worst times, of memories that once kept me up at night.. and she subdued them. Made them easier to deal with, just by being there, being a shoulder to lean on when I needed it. She truly brought out the best of me, as she trusted me with her best self as well. Heh, and those traits of our really started to rub off on each other."

"No matter what either of us went through, we were always there for each other, and we've always come out stronger. Not a day goes by that I am not thankful to have her in my life.. for I probably would not have made it this far. I just.. know she loves me as much as she says. I can just feel it, and see it in her eyes, and her smile."

Finally, his eyes returned to Teion's gaze, as he sat forward in his seat once again. "And I think you know, as much as I do, that if Ryo was willing to put his feelings aside to give you space.. to put aside whatever business you had gotten yourself into.. and came out still loving you just as strongly as he did in the beginning, then well, you have nothing to worry about. I don't know much about you, Teion, nor do I know much about Ryo.. but that love I see in Telrenya's eyes. I can see that same spark in Ryo when he's with you."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Teion listened. The more Jomei explained, and the more he weighed in on her troubles, the heavier the lump in her throat seemed to get. She tried swallowing it down once, but by the time he finished trying to ease her worries, Teion couldn't help the tears forming in her eyes. She dropped her head, hurriedly rubbing at them while she mumbled out a, "Sorry."

"You think so?" She let out a shaky breath in an emotional sigh. "Ugh, this is the second time I've just started crying in front of you, isn't it?" Teion groaned half-jokingly. She was grasping for things to say. Directions to steer the conversation. "These are things I should probably just talk to him about, huh?" Her shoulders slumped a little again, and her tone made it clear that she didn't expect a serious answer to that question.

"I guess..." She paused, trying to sum up her thoughts. "I think our foundation was all sorts of screwed up. And, there's a lot of complicated factors," The volume of her explanation began to lower to a mumble when she added, "like the fact that we're actually across the world from each other..." Her tone shifted a little, and she circled back around to the troublesome elephant in the room, "And...yeah, the things that happened in the mansion... I saw some messed up stuff." She said vaguely. She started to fidget again. "I still don't know which parts were real and which were fake. I've...kind of been avoiding asking him directly." Teion admitted.

Edited by Teion
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All the emotions that Teion kept bottled up inside of her finally began to spill over within the tears that rolled down her cheeks. Jomei offered a sympathetic smile as Teion swiftly worked to destroy the evidence of her crying in the ginger's living room. "Yeah, I think it may be the second time. But you wouldn't be the first person thats cried in front of me before. Guess I just have a face that people feel they can cry to" he joked, letting out a hearty chuckle. "But I do think so. If you want my opinion, it just sounds like you are doubting yourself. Taking those first moments you and Ryo spent together where the feelings were not mutual and feeling that they outweigh the good times you spent as a couple. Then again, its like you said... these are definitely things you should talk to him about. I don't mind being the rough draft though." 

Teion brought the conversation back full circle with the event that had brought them together in the first place. Whatever she had seen - whatever that shadow creature had shown her - it made her doubt Ryo's love for her. "It may be best to ask him about it.. but.. the whole point of that mansion was to bring out the worst of us. To show us the one thing we feared the most. Make us doubt who we are, or who we want to be for that matter. So don't take that to heart, or else that creature will have won after all."

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