Raidou

The soft crunch of a root beneath footfalls, as weight finds that step. A thick scent on the air, one of a rain still making everything ripe and awake. Blooming flowers unfurl and expose themselves to the sky to soak up sunshine that peeks through the canopy. Another broken bit of wood as passage is sought. The simple sway of a vibrant red robe, exhales as energy is exerted. Hopping up and placing his right hand against a large living spire, the rough texture of bark beneath the touch. Iris flash green as an echo vibrates out, bringing a few little morsels and the absence of hostiles to light up on his mini map.

A reflection in those glasses shields his eyes from view, adjusted with the left before he hops down. More resources, for the eventual ends that would serve to push them even further. It was easy to discount such trivial tasks such as these. Passing through a brook, pushing shrubs out of passage with both hands. A grove of patchwork grass staring back at him. Skill fires again, appearing as though his blade might not be required. Senses on overdrive as the wanderer continued to wander, painting an ever expanding map of the floors behind his eyes. To put to paper, to extend the most valuable commodity for free: Knowledge.

Consumed:
Lemon Berry Palmiers (Filled) +4 Loot Dice
Ambition Food: +1 EXP for Profession

Raidou | HP: 980/980 | EN: 116/116 | DMG: 11 | MIT: 44 | EVA: 3 | ACC: 1 | BH: 53 | LD: 14 | BLGT: 32 | TAUNT | V.D.: 107 | V.O.: 161

"I'm not?" Raidou remarks as there was a taste of disbelief. "Reasoning, and perspective. As I have said before, to you, I am not like them. You cannot see me that way, but there are those that do. Objectively, my actions can be considered abysmal. I can be doing what I have to, for the right reasons. But right and wrong is not something black and white. It is defined individually by everyone differently. The question is if you are the minority or the majority?" Bubbling and a bit of a whistle interrupts as he tends to the next batch of potions, turning a dial and lowering the heat.

Turning a neck and locking a large round bottom flask in place, as a bluish mixture begins to pass through strings between glass. "I am exactly who I need to be, intentionally. I have decided to be everything and nothing, Hero and Villain. Friend and Foe, it is a mess, and it isn't pleasant. But it fixes a fundamental problem, because the board is rigged from the start. By being both and neither, I control the whole outcome. Brewing a fresh new ideal world, just like a potion. Chemistry 101 and the definition of insanity. So similar, it's impossible to do the same thing and expect different results. So change the recipe, and synthesize what you want to exist."

The fire is turned up, and he scrapes the bits of glass out of his hand. Cuts immediately heal as his regeneration kicks in. "Both true, because this place demands sacrifice. Who would you be willing to condemn if not me? It is my choice to make, as it has been for so long. It is better chosen than forced upon you. I do not value mine out of need. I am a monster, you've seen it yourself. The things I have had to do pale Freya's. What she had to do, from what I understand, was forced upon her. I made the active choice to do what I had to, there is a distinguishable difference then necessity out of circumstance and active decision. I cannot help myself because of the role I have been given, actions speak louder than words after all." Turning a hand and mixing another bottle of liquid, continuing his craft for it needed to be completed. A batch of damage potions, like many before it. They would be required as well.

"This isn't easy for me, it never has been. But when a sacrifice needs to be made, let the participant be willing. It's much easier to palette. Stay true, Eruda, and try not to worm your way into darker dealings. It is not a world you want to see, despite whatever inkling you believe you can handle. Learn from my experience, learn from the road I've walked. It is not a path worth taking, it's best to live outside it and enjoy the reward of my efforts. Trust me when I tell you, it isn't worth it. It never will be. But its necessary. Only one of us need to dive into it. Leave me to clean up this mess, I am already in the thick of it." His voice would allude to it, almost as if pleading. She was so close to greatness, as a voice and a successor. She couldn't follow him down the rabbit hole to wonderland, because it was hell.

Lifting his hand as he watched the man's affix to his lips while speaking. His hand starts to move, forming out language without audio. A useful skill, as perhaps this would be easier for the exchange. The Red Wanderer was a learned boy:

Feel free to be afraid of what I can do, feel free to worry for Violet's sake. But do not discount my intentions, I have never once lied to you or your people. I intend to protect her as I would any other honest player.

Scanning the appearance over, the resemblance to another was uncanny. Give or take, a few discrepancies. A memory stored, and yet the wanderer couldn't taste the relevance. From what Rosa outlined prior, he was no longer living, and it was Mina who had avenged his death. An eye for an eye. A dark chamber that reflected the grim recount. There was something still waiting to be seen, and it played upon why the Arbiters were so concerned about The Red Wanderer, a legend alone. A living one.

"I'm listening." a tinge of hesitation or something else building.

Adjusting his lenses, "being cautious is how I survive. It is also how others I oversee do." Removing them and beginning to polish them with a clump of that crimson red robe. "My guild dealt with the threat, and it did so in a way that left no loose ends. That thread has been burned off, clean and surgically." Staring at the photo and catching a glimpse of it was all he needed. The woman was clearly troubled, body language portraying it well. "Safer me, than the alternative, to be sure. Understand that although I look your enemy, I am not. That is intentional."

A new into the room, one that wasn't unseen and yet didn't strike as a hostile either. An aura of pressure fades the moment he begins to speak. "Jack. Or whatever moniker you use these days." Replacing the glasses on his brow, and pushing them up. "Tell me a story, Jack, one that leads me to Rosa." The tone was alluding to a semblance of worry, one of concern that meant that the woman was next on the chopping block. The red fog begins to grow under his boots. The question was, when should the blade be drawn.

Droplets into an awaiting vial, condensing from a vapor to a liquid. A cyan mixture taking to the ground up white flakes at its bottom. He was already nigh a dozen deep, for the inevitable crafting storm that would follow suit. "I know Eruda, and that may work for you. But it doesn't for me, not when I know what it means." He had been on the other side of the spectrum, where everyone was lost due to a lack of preparation, and he could do little to save them. He couldn't take that risk again, not for anything. "Setsuna shouldn't have done that. This world is a terrible place, and it will change you. It will dig under your skin and change who you are. You'll lose yourself in all the conflict, all the infighting. It will be nearly impossible to tell friend from foe, stay in our world. The one where we can achieve what we need to, pushing forward and growing stronger. Together without fear of your allies betraying you." There was wisdom in his words, mixed with pain.

Removing his lenses and setting them down, a lingering film of red seeping from his feet. "They don't listen Eruda, they don't learn. The ones that do are Firm Anima. It means Strength of Soul, because at the end of the day it is our souls this place wants. Either through killing us or perverting us into monsters. It is only with each other, with support and with a shared voice we can remain human." The irony wasn't lost on him, for to form the guild and place it where it was, he had to sacrifice everything he hoped to protect in them. "You cannot help me, Eruda, because no matter how much I try, they will never hear me. They will march into their own destruction with heads held high. All I can do is delay it, and protect as many as I can from it." Crushing a vial in his hand, as a ripple in time forces a sea of faces to scream past in an instant. Some that died, others close to it. Who would live, who would die?

An Eye for an Eye

"A window?" Raidou peers back through his glasses. "We are operating on bided time, these frontliner's we cannot put too much stock into. They will leap headlong into the fray without a second thought. Preparations always come after, in an abrupt and frenetic fashion. They are never prepared. Time is what we have so little of, Eruda." Raising from his chair, eyes puffy from a sense of exhaustion still taking hold from the night before. He'd yet to sleep, he just happened home when Eruda was waking up.

"I don't get to relax, because when I do. People die." Pushing the chair in slowly, trying to keep his head on straight. Frustrated at the thought that perhaps, even though he believed it so, that the blonde tank was the only that understood. Perhaps she wasn't, perhaps she was like the others who took to pleasantries and once the gunpowder hit the barrel realized her folly. "This dark corner is reality, not some gloom filled self-imposed isolation. The fact is, pacing doesn't exist here. Forethought doesn't exist here. People will dive head first into conflict at a moment's notice, at the drop of a dime, and will get themselves killed." Leaving his robe where it lay, he ushers out of the chamber.

He couldn't allow himself to be angry with her.

The rattle of vials behind a second station, burners lighting up one after another. Potions, Salves, Crystals. All in preparation for the next big fight, that undoubtedly a sea of faces old and new would strive right into. A guillotine waiting to fall, who lived and who died rested solely on those who foresaw the death and hoped to change it. To change fate.

A pause as the wanderer stared out the window, watching the sun slowly rise. The sweet scent of eggs and morning breakfast waft through the air. "Interesting, not sure if it is what I've found or not." Unsure how to handle this atmosphere, Raidou makes movements for the tea. A sip of the stuff proves it too sweet for his tastes, but even still he keeps working away at it. "Floor 24?" The inquiry tried to keep him stable, out of his own head. There were leagues to do still, and he wasn't trying to ruin the girl's day. Moving to the table, he takes a seat, unsure how to react. "I uh, enjoyed this. But I should get back to what else needs to be prepared for the next fight." A tinge of hesitation in his voice, the mask back in place and with its composure. Another sip of that tea, Raidou hides his discomfort well.

A lift of ginger fingers, reach to the lenses on his brow and remove them. The woman had been honest, the most he could do was reflect that honesty. The guise removed, a boy, not a man. "You wouldn't be the first. But caution is important in the world we live in. The Arbiters should understand my tact." A seat upon that bed, as it gives to the weight. With the same amount of careful, gentle flick of the wrist, Raidou reaches for one of those gilded and long cards. There wasn't even the slightest bit of hesitation, and it looked like a father caressing a child.

Lifting it and looking it over, as he places it down. A Hierophant, reversed just the same as the first. It takes its place near the others, and with intensity Raidou looks to the woman. A sonar like pulse blips out on his map, confirming their isolation. "I don't believe in fate, and it is mine to control. Where have your people fled? Are they safe?"

Eruda was so human, so real, that she was hard to quantify. She had a way of making the swordsman want to be the same, not some manifestation that was necessary. "Don't be." Raidou mutters, knowing full well that the potential for a possible mistake was reciprocated. The time for dancing was through, and the writhing bit of ink wormed beneath his attire. Raising from the bed frame, it croaks as the weight is removed. Taking another scan of the room, he'd never enter without a good reason, before seeking the door.

The blonde tank was already fast at work, studious in her attempts toward an early morning. Wearing the robe she had made him all that time ago, he wore it still. His heart on his sleeve, it was it. Finding a pair of glasses and unfolding them, Raidou places them back where they belong. Offering him almost an immediate feeling of security, of roots. His head starts to clear up.

The sound whistles through the interior, a tiny tremor making the woodwork shake. The clattering of heels grace the floorboards, which creek under weight. Remnants of a quick exit, as if a haunting had scared the patrons from tables and chairs at rapid paces. The soft flutter of crimson as it moved cautiously and carefully through these absent halls. Life had changed for those that took solace within, moving up a winding set of stairs that he'd been once prior. To the scene of a crime, where the perpetrator had since been eradicated. Curious if whatever companions she held had returned to discover the means, Raidou was on edge in Riker's edge.

Finding words instead of an intention to hide, and a name-dropped so openly before his own moniker. Another? Questions rose, and further still was motive. Lingering trails of a fleeting outrage, taken to sheer like strands of red that dance in his wake. "One of the suit I presume, why else would a name be given. If ill intention is the main course, then you will not fair well." The warning came off quiet, one almost peaceful in its delivery. The description matched a loose one as it came into purview. One of a queen.

"But I digress, why return here? And why seek my fortunes? You will not enjoy what you see."

His attention shifts to Jon almost abruptly, knowing full well that the conversation between them had yet to happen. This was what was to come of it. "I will not justify my actions, I did what had to be done. As we all have in one way or another, it's easy to convince yourself that it was right or that there could be another way. Survivors guilt, I've heard it referred, but I will not find myself in that pitfall. It is done, and I do not take pleasure in it. Trust is an interesting notion, choices another. I do what I have to make sure of our success. Your success, take heed to remember that. White king. That is what is important to me."

Two steps into the newly formed barrier between himself and two he'd met or seen before, purely coincidence. But there wasn't such a thing, was there. Gabrandr lay dormant, winded and damaged almost to the point of weakness. He'd seen that flavor, he'd worn it in a sleet of frost. To be defeated, to be useless. "Our entire lives are a story, history itself nothing more than a recount of the victors. It is common to forget the names between, the lives between that were lost along the way. NPC's are but numbers in an algorithm, but when you view the world as I do, they appear just like people. A villager aiming to protect his home, a guard who dies the same. Time and time again I have seen the same flavor of humanity in them, I will not make a brash decision if they are 'real' and whatever that might mean. Life is a life is a life, it exists in all things, in all shapes and sizes, and those with the ability to choose and choose to protect life besides their own will see the same returned favor."

Lifting his blade, a slight sheen of blackened silver, dull as the day it was forged. A blade that had stood with him through everything, even still it held his hand. "But no, I will not be giving Gabrandr or anyone like him the benefit of the doubt. The keys to our victory here, to escape this madness, is to handle this only on fact. Feeling holds no place here, chance holds no place. Every exchange relies on numbers, every encounter expects specifics. Normally, we are used to seeing a number on a status screen. Some measure of our durability, our output, our loss. But what of chance? What of the actions we take that slightly tip the scales in our favor? This goes unseen, and it's impossible to quantify. When we go left instead of right, where the sun is rising instead of falling. Gabrandr made his choice and he will feel its consequence. As will, I, some day."

The edge stirs for a moment, a bit of light building upon its edge. Raidou fighting against some urge. "But the truth is it isn't my choice to make, I make them so often alone that when I am allowed I prefer to defer them and seek council. If it were up to me, Gabrandr would be dead. Simply because I cannot trust him, his actions speak against everything he had hoped to attain. But unlike him, my actions will reflect my words. I will protect the Galtean People, because unlike you, they have not made this mistake. They have found themselves in the same as us, trapped in a world outside their design. Although their prison, a facsimile and their bodies of numbers. If they hold life or not, I will protect it. If not for a given 'soul' then for the land they live upon."

That blade pulsates like a heartbeat, a reddened light billowing off its edge like a jaw opening up. Raidou rolls his shoulder for a moment, as if preparing for something drastic. It seems there was some hesitation, as he was working through it. "Scathers need destroyed, they are too harmful an object to be allowed to exist." His eyes advance to Freyd linking to them for but a brief moment. There was a semblance of pause, a shared moment that seemed like eternity to them. A mental audience, as if a debate or agreement was held beneath the words. Simple to miss, and had existed for the longest time.

"These people can feel Eruda, these people can breathe. Although it is fake to us, it is real to them. I would warn you to know who your enemies are." Glancing around the room, feeling the exact same he had in the Shadow's Raid meeting. It was as if his words fell on deaf ears, an ode to his life before this. It was what he was all too familiar. When he spoke, no one seemed to hear him, the voice of reason was easy to be squelched to one of emotion. The heart and mind hardly shared the same sentiment. The heart, usually won. "We stand in this room with a task to complete." Eyes to Shiina and to Sam. Raidou broke down everything to a sea of digits, analysis and optimization. Enemies to attack patterns and weaknesses. Quantifiable and understandable.

"Right and wrong." He looks to Jon, to Mina, and to Shield. "What is it? Who decides the definition? What reward suffices if we are 'wrong'? What..." His attentions shift to Simmone "Price are we willing to pay to be right? It is a fallacy to assume we are just, are virtuous or noble. To our companions and our friends we are the hero, to our enemies the villains. Every story has a side, and perception is in the eye of the beholder." A couple more steps without a sway in concern, making a move toward NIGHT, Koga and Calrex on defense. Weapon charged to a crimson letter. "I am not willing to pay anything to be right, I cannot allow you all to put your lives in jeopardy simply because it makes you feel better. Because you assume it is right, because you assume that it is the 'right' thing to do. You don't want to be a murder, fine. Someone can take that burden from you, do what must be done, so your hands can remain clean."

*Tap, Tap* across the misshapen and disheveled stonework, a massive spear still looming out of it like a sprouting tree. "No more victims of 'our' people, this game has claimed far too many of them." Everyone in here had experienced their share of loss, if not of life, than of circumstance. When would it end? When would it finally click that the change was, allowing one to remove their humanity to save the others. To do what must be done, at any cost to themselves. "Every second wasted, is another life lost. Even now, there are players just like us, grinding or fighting. Dying for breadcrumbs, alone." His thoughts advance to that 'corpse' he'd found in the shape of a smattering clump of items in Black Iron Dungeon. Forgotten in a black prison until finally stumbled upon. Right beneath the noses of all the Town of Beginning's frequent fliers. No one even knew their name.

*Slink*

The blade returns to its scabbard as the power dissipates, as Raidou grits his teeth with enough pressure to cut his gums. "It isn't my decision to make, and if this ends up getting you all in over your heads, it will be my blood on your hands. That is the price we are willing to pay. If it does not mean anything then so be it, but all you exchange is one life" Gesturing to Gabrandr with an index finger "For another. There is no best option, there is no rose-tinted world where everything just works how you wish it to. Unless you make it, through force. I refuse to allow anyone else to die, while I still breathe." Eyes flare with some easy to palette fury. "Know this, Gabrandr, if you betray their trust. I do not trust you, and no matter where you go or what you do. I have faced impossible before, I have fought the largest foes this game has ever offered. I will find you, and you will get no second chance. I stay my blade not for you but for them." His gaze moves to Freyd and then follows to Eruda. "Hope that, for your sake, I will not draw it again."

<<Spare?>>

1 hour ago, Freyd said:

Rank 5 Appraiser (Base: BD 10, CD 8+ for unique, 10 identifications per day)
+1 to CD from Hermes’ Scale
+2 EXP: Hard Working (also +1 IDs per day)
+2 EXP: Lucrative (Firm Anima) (also +2 IDs per day)
+1 EXP: Custom Ambition Tool (bought from own shop 2020-07-16)

Consuming:

Crafting Respite: None
Witch's Brew:  None

Identifications:

6 x T1 Perfect Items (@640 col) = 3840 col
+12000 col for re-rolls. (4 * 3000 for 2 rerolls apiece)
+1000 col for re-rolls. (1 * 1000 for 1 reroll apiece)

Total Cost: 16840 col

Junking:

X x T1 Perfect Item (@400) = X col

Total Value of Junking: X col

Net Cost to Banker: 16840 col 

Items #1-6

  Reveal hidden contents

Item #1 - KEEP (to be fused with Hikei)

Name: Bits of Golden Flotsam +2 
Your Profession:  Appraiser
Your Rank: Rank 5
Roll ID:  203043, 203044, 203045
Roll Result: LD 12, 15, 10
Item Type:  Trinket
Tier: T1
Quality:  Perfect
Enhancements: REC 2, ACC becomes -> ACC 2, LD 1
Description: An assortment of shiny bits and bobs suitable only for fusing.
Link:  https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/20975-pp-pt-f8-where-the-red-burn-glows-monkey-king/?do=findComment&comment=641901
Acquisition ID: 195422a

Re-roll +1: [REC] ID #203046 | LD: 16 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)
Re-roll +2: [REC] ID #203047 | LD: 4 - becomes [LD] - (No Unique)

Item #2 - KEEP

Name: Hikei +2
Your Profession:  Appraiser
Your Rank: Rank 5
Roll ID:  203048, 203049, 203050
Roll Result: LD 5, 8, 4
Item Type:  Trinket
Tier: T1
Quality:  Perfect
Enhancements: LD 2, REC 1 becomes -> LD 2, ACC 1
Description: A pair of spectacles known as the revealing mirror help to see through any manner of hiding. These golden glasses have round lenses that help to focus ones eyesight onto that which is not seen. It is said that mirrors are a true reflection into ones soul, and these glasses show that truth.
Link:  https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/20975-pp-pt-f8-where-the-red-burn-glows-monkey-king/?do=findComment&comment=641933
Acquisition ID: 195495a

Re-roll +1: [REC] ID #203051 | LD: 2 - becomes [Antifreeze] - (Unique: BD: 10 | CD 12)
Re-roll +2: [Antifreeze] ID #203052 | LD: 17 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)

Item #3 - KEEP

Name: Bits of Golden Flotsam+2
Your Profession:  Appraiser
Your Rank: Rank 5
Roll ID:  203053, 203054, 203055
Roll Result: LD 4, 15, 15
Item Type:  Trinket
Tier: T1
Quality:  Perfect
Enhancements: LD 1, ACC 2 -> KEEN 1, ACC 2
Description:  An assortment of shiny bits and bobs suitable only for fusing.
Link:  https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/20975-pp-pt-f8-where-the-red-burn-glows-monkey-king/?do=findComment&comment=641946
Acquisition ID: 195547b

Re-roll +1: [LD] ID #203056 | LD: 6 - becomes [REC] - (No Unique)
Re-roll +2: [REC] ID #20 | LD: 13 - becomes [KEEN] - (No Unique)

Item #4 - KEEP

Name: Koumi +1
Your Profession:  Appraiser
Your Rank: Rank 5
Roll ID:  203058, 203059, 203060
Roll Result: LD 13, 18, 20
Item Type:  Trinket
Tier: T1
Quality:  Perfect
Enhancements: ACC 2, Keen 1 becomes -> ACC 3
Description: This pendant is an old looking gold coin with a leather strap looped through a hole in the top of it. This pendant provides the user with no actual benefit but, just having this lucky charm in the users possession seems to make them more likely to hit. It is said that this coin is a coin from ancient Greece, and was used by Hercules himself.
Link:  https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/20975-pp-pt-f8-where-the-red-burn-glows-monkey-king/?do=findComment&comment=641950
Acquisition ID: 195572a

Re-roll +1: [KEEN] ID #203061 | LD: 17 - becomes [ACC] - (No Unique)

Item #5 - KEEP

Name: Bits of Golden Flotsam +2
Your Profession:  Appraiser
Your Rank: Rank 5
Roll ID:  203062, 203063, 203064
Roll Result: LD 14, 18, 9
Item Type:  Trinket
Tier: T1
Quality:  Perfect
Enhancements: EVA, KEEN, REC - > EVA 2, REC
Description:  An assortment of shiny bits and bobs suitable only for fusing.
Link:  https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/20975-pp-pt-f8-where-the-red-burn-glows-monkey-king/?do=findComment&comment=641952
Acquisition ID: 195582b

Re-roll +1: [KEEN] ID #203065 | LD: 11 - becomes [KEEN] - (No Unique)
Re-roll +2: [KEEN] ID #203066 | LD: 19 - becomes [EVA] - (No Unique)

Item #6 - KEEP

Name: Bits of Golden Flotsam
Your Profession:  Appraiser
Your Rank: Rank 5
Roll ID:  203067, 203068, 203069
Roll Result: LD 5, 17, 6
Item Type:  Trinket
Tier: T1
Quality:  Perfect
Enhancements: LD 1, EVA 1, REC 1
Description:  An assortment of shiny bits and bobs suitable only for fusing.
Link:  https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/20998-sp-pt-09-polishing-off-the-iron-knights/?do=findComment&comment=642314
Acquisition ID: 196547a

 

Believe it

Piece by piece as others gathered around the table. "Not a problem, these days my alembic doesn't see that much use anyway." Raidou remarks, dismissing Sey's acceptance as trivial. Leaning in close and murmuring, "Don't worry Hilda, I've still known you for much longer. By the way, planning on dying your hair again?" It came off as odd, as if it was something he was familiar with asking. A smile as he users to his given seat, reaching for his nose and plucking free a pair of lenses and folding them up. "Steam always gets the better of me." As they began to fog up, placing them near his dish and placing his hands together in front of him.

"Thanks for the meal." For a brief instant there was something fractured, distorted and obtuse. But it doesn't seem noticed by the pleasant atmosphere at all.

To the platter and a pair of chopsticks, while others preferred forks. He was a man of method, and had his own tools he used. It was a bit precarious, and it seems he was having a bit of trouble, even still he was persistent. "So Sey, how is the new shop fairing? Every now and again I hear word of the 'fresh new cook', They haven't really pieced it together, you moved to a better local yet?" The utensils hanging out of his gullet as his gaze was fixated on the guy with a shared smile, loose conversation and bantering as if they'd been friends for quite some time.

The conversation stops as Raidou tilts his head, halfway in a shared discussion with the girl's fiancé. "Who?" He pauses and looks to Simmone perplexed. "Who is Setsuna?"

The sounds of various menus closing one after another, prompts filled and disposed, and Raidou couldn't help but glance. Watching an insurmountable count of them choose against the choice that should be obvious. Blade low, he'd look at Freyd and slowly remove his lenses from his brow. "For now? We don't have the luxury of a later trial." The nomad remarked, cleaning those fixtures on his robe. "Gabrandr decided to place these devices down here of his own volition. It's assumed that had we not arrived, they would have gone off." His eyes advance to the ceiling, casting a silver glare over those windows as they are replaced.

"Everything he has told us up to this point can be false. A manifestation to convince you that he has value." Eyes narrow as he was perplexed by the confusion here. Like Nemo, Like the Mysterious Broker. What is spoken can clearly not just be trusted. It surely couldn't be only Firm Anima that had undergone these affairs, could it? Did they stand alone and had dealt with such betrayals by themselves?

Mobs could lie

"Freyd has broken down exactly our concerns, and yet..." Another prompt closing, like a nail in a coffin but whose? Looking on to Hirru, the clearest in his motives by far, but yet was willing to make that plunge on happenstance. On the simple chance that Gabrandr could prove useful. "The facts are, Mobs do not sleep, they eat as a formality, breathe as a formality. I would much rather give him the benefit of the doubt, but that is resources we simply cannot offer. Who of you would stay by his side indefinitely, hoping that he will not shove a knife in your back the minute you doze off. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until we clear this game? We need to understand the scathers. This much is true."

Looking straight at Hirru, pushing the glasses up his nose.

"They are weapons, designed to erase an entire city. Hardly made to kill a single man, Razwell is but one man. Gabrandr hardly needs an atom bomb to do so, he held his own against us for quite some time. And yet he is to be that cities' savior? If this was all he could do to save his people, then his people are surely condemned under his crown. There are men and there are monsters. Washing an entire city clean is messy, and men would have been caught in that blast." His eyes lock to Gabrandr "How many were you willing to kill, to liberate your people. How many unseen faces were you willing to erase just to remove Razwell. That is your mistake, because this wasn't the way."

The way was, one that he was all too familiar. "To put it bluntly, we cannot trust you, we cannot imprison you, and we cannot watch you. There is only one thing we can do... But only as a whole." Looking to the rest of any able-bodied players so that they understand, Raidou's decision was one based in quite a bit of caution and careful consideration. His attention shifts to @Koga "The threat is still very much real, and we need to decide if how we are going to handle it."

"Give this time. I get the sense that this may be too sudden." Raidou remarks, leaning into her a bit, before taking a stand from the bed. It was late for him and early for her, and despite any lingering emotions, this was not a decision to be made hastily. "I don't know when, and I won't know how. But I will try and find a way to change this in a way that I won't have to hurt you. What you want for me, I don't know if I am capable of being. Right now this is all I have, all that I am." The thickened mass sucks itself up around his wrist and begins to seek out the space between his clothes. "Wait just a little longer, and as much as we wished that, we would not think. I think that we need to be full agreement before we take any steps further." There was a mix of confusion on how to put it, and a wisdom knowing that this is not something to do on a whim. Feelings were easy to be swept up in, Raidou knew it first hand. "I am sorry, but do not take this as a rejection. Let's approach this the right way."

What he really meant, was when he could get his mind to agree, which at this moment was in a state of panic.

Lost at the moment, Juiblex virtually helping him choose through the divide he was having with himself. Whisked away, a troubled and stressed breath that does little for allowing his mind to feel its way through. A sudden change of scenery, he drinks it in. Lilac walls, hardwood floors of a deep slate. Simple, elegant in a very standard way. Clean as expected, he knew Eruda well enough. Raidou would never be in here of his own volition, it threatened everything. His glasses absent, his robe the same. All that he was, matched the room he now found himself in. But where it held color, Raidou did not. There was magnificence in it, that simplicity.

To Eruda's question, Raidou's heart begins to swell. Lifting a hand out in front of him, as he leans into his legs just above the knee. Bleeding out from beneath his clothes, a black writhing mass forms on his palm. It looks almost like ink dripping before it finds its way back up, flowing both ways. "That is the question, isn't it. Honestly, I don't really know anymore. I want this, to share this with you." He appeared confused, however, peering into his hand as that molasses dripped down into a never ending puddle. "Does it matter what I want? Long ago I had forgotten what that was, I want to give you the world I imagine. Not just you, but you especially. It is why I do what I must, even if it makes me the enemy, even if it kills me in the process. It is our best chance of success."

There was the oddest mix of happiness and sadness as he stared for miles through his own skin, a familiar resting like syrup in his palm. 

Reaching his hand to the blade still stuck in the now dim and damaged scather, Raidou removes it with a sharp pull. Bits of metal grind out and scatter along the floor, being dislodged in a spray and bouncing away. "We will stop him, but unfortunately you fail to realize your fallacy." The red wanderer looks to his fellow captain, his second, and the few others of his guild that had joined him in the fray.

"Even still, you have yet to own your mistake. You would have burned away everything, just for a shot at revenge. Assuming that Razwell would be in that tower. Scorching the lands that you wished to return to your people. It wasn't careful, it wasn't cautious. It was a child letting out his outrage on a betrayal. I speak from experience..."

Looking at others in this chamber, knowing full well that most wouldn't even understand the meaning. "I get what you were trying to do @Gabrandr and although your motive may have been good-natured, it is in your delivery you've failed. What's worse is, I cannot trust you, and I have only your word to believe. I will seek out proof, and if there is truth in what you say, your people will not suffer. But understand..."

Reaching to the glasses on his brow, as a bit of that pungeant red film bleeds from his shoulders.

"I cannot let you leave here, after all you attacked my companions without even an attempt at exchanging words first. No crusade or good intention can change that. Actions speak louder than words, and yours have spoken poorly. I am sorry, please find peace."

<<Kill>>

Reticent a bit, unsure if he could make this dive. He wasn't sure how to act, but know of the act. It was a strange mismatch of knowledge and ignorance. As Eruda removes the robe she'd made him and moves in for the kill, he was still stuck trying to dismiss his thoughts and concerns. His worry about attachment, mixed as one side of him wanted one thing and the other the opposite. Leaning into it as his heart and mind fought against one another. That hesitation was still getting the better of him, and springing from his back like a blackened guide. A single strand of black moves around Eruda's waist like a rope. Tugging her in deeper, the familiar knew what it was he needed more than he did. Pressed together a bit roughly, it was almost carnal and primal in its sudden sticky heat. Clutching onto the girl tightly, his grip becomes almost determined and forceful. But not to the sense of pain, more as if he was afraid she'd disappear or shatter if he didn't hold on so tightly.

Intensity shared between them as his hand is moved, to bare skin and would surely smear some dirt on his hands on her belly. Catching deep and drinking deep the gaze between them. "I can't as much as I wish I could. It's what I have to do, it will help everyone get out of this." Cradling her with the pieces attached, his mind wrapped up in them. Unable to completely understand Eruda's 'drift' his first instinct is to take it literal. "I am not going anywhere any time soon. That much, I can promise you. You've always been the thing I can count on, and it virtually destroyed me when I lost you." Pure raw emotion made honesty easy to allow to flow. The softest orange glow began to claim the surrounding atmosphere. There was a noteworthy static still bouncing between the both of them, in this embrace they'd naturally found themselves roped in.

His hand slides to the back of her head and down her spine, as the other finds its way to hers pressed against the side of his face. A stir in the girl's eyes catches him off guard, as his fingers wrap around hers. "I don't know if I am ready to drag you into what I have to do. But that doesn't mean I don't want to, I really don't enjoy keeping secrets from you. It's difficult." His head leans forward and presses his forehead against hers, looking up and matching her gaze with his own. Glimmering on the floor, a pair of glasses casting a small circular reflection. "I just want to change everything, wish everything was different when I am with you. I have never been a coward, but yet the thought of what you make me want to do scares the hell out of me." A soft smile catches the sides of his lips.

"You make me want to uproot everything I've ever done, and I believe that only you could do that, Eruda." a soft chuckle stems from him, one that no one has heard for quite some time. One of a child.

A pair of glasses clatter to the floor, finding their way there after the robe they were resting on was disturbed. Once it clicks what Eruda was wearing, Raidou turns his view to the side and scratches a cheek with a single index. As a way of affirming, he didn't notice and was doing his best not to look until she slapped that crimson red robe around her shoulders. Warmth catches his attention, and when he looks down, he finds a blonde haired scalp pressed into his sternum. Hands fire almost immediately out to his sides, contemplating the next course of action to take, like an array of options that blaze through and are dismissed one after another.

Eventually it clicks and gets stuck: No thinking.

His right hand raises, and a bit hesitant at first, it finds the back of her head with a soft collapse. "Thank you, but I am only as good as my teachers." The heat beneath his hand threatened to make it catch fire, and between it a bit of her hair begins to flutter. The contact saw some energy coursing from one party to another and back. "I don't know if I ever want this to end."

Sporadic and seemingly random, Raidou was disjointed from any semblance of rhythm. Something so wild, untamed and outside a method alluded him greatly. The girl was so bustling and flushed, an earlier version of him may not understand as to why. But a small message dangling on a branch made it much more clear. "It certainly seems much different." Shutting his eyes catches a twist of a woman, smiling back at him for only a brief flash. That causes a surge to race down his hands and soft sparks between him and the blonde. Like static, gentle and yet electric. No pain or damage, but there was a linking of the circuit.

In the back of the blonde tank's head, she'd hear a recollection It is through you

"Like this?" Raidou remarks, shifting in a way that would clearly leave someone else feeling like an idiot.

Set him free

A pair of curious amber eyes, watching carefully and doing its best to pick apart what was being shown. An appearance strapped to his face that hadn't seen the light of day for a very long time.

An eyebrow raises, watching something forcing her hips to pop in an almost unnatural fashion. Raidou never had the groove, he simply couldn't feel it. This was all new to him. He understood it only on a base level, but not truly. "I uh, am fine." he remarks with a soft inhale. Eruda turning as red as she had had a way of reciprocating the same problem back to him. Reaching a hand to his brow, and swallowing hard. There was something that still needed to be said. Slowly peeling the lenses off the bridge of his nose, folding them up and carefully setting them atop the folded robe. A sudden and unexplained word, one with adamantly that was normally found in combat. But where it was absent of anger. It was determination, an eagerness to understand that which he did not.

"That however, I'll take..." Flush still, he twists the meaning around, "Show me." as he starts to unhook and roll up sleeves from gloved hands. His decision was made.

The soft click of a door shut, and immediately Raidou picks up the sounds of music. At this hour? His senses twist straight to caution, placing his back to the wall and moving slowly. Approaching the source of the music, hearing cupboards and other doors open and shut. It was Eruda, up in something she normally slept in. Bouncing around like a goof as if no one was watching. A catch in his head takes him by surprise, and removing his robe as quietly as he can, he folds it and places it off to the side, his hands still a little grimy from a late night.

He adjusts his lenses in the morning light, before taking to a lean and finding a flat space to just watch. This was her moment, and he'd let it play out with a smile. These sorts of things were hard to come by these days, and in short supply. The moment continues to play over and over, increasing in tempo as he goes virtually unnoticed.