Noctua

He hadn't said anything, it was like he was letting her attempt to find her words. That was nice of him, but at the same time, she kind of wished that he would just say something. But, at the same time, it was probably nice that he wasn't saying anything. When he hugged her though, she leaned into him, willing the rest of the tears to just go away. She didn't need to make him feel bad to have him stay around to attempt to become at least friends again.

"It's not though," her voice started to sound a little stronger, more like her old self, but there was still that fear behind her words. Slowly, her right hand was starting to feel better, it was still bruised looking, but, it wasn't hurting anymore. She'll take that as a good thing, no more pain meant that things were healing. She wanted to say more about, well anything, but finding the words was still hard to do.

Though, she did get the feeling that they were being stared at. She could just feel it, judging eyes just staring at them, judging. "Can... can we go somewhere else...? I feel like people are... staring...." Of course, she didn't want to move though at all. She liked being right there, but at the same time, she wanted to be out from under the judgmental eyes that she was feeling. Plus, she knew that she needed to talk to him to tell him why she had apologized, but that was still probably something that was best talked about not under prying eyes.

@Koga

Oh, thank god, the shaking stopped. That was one less thing that was causing pain right now. Her health bar might have been full, but punching that gate to break it, well that did a different number of damage. It was like when she tried kicking that stupid rock. At least she didn't have to worry about him attempting to carry her home this time, more because she didn't know if he'd actually do it. Or possibly because she wanted him to do that, but she wasn't going to admit it out loud.

"Is your hand okay?" Really. Really Koga. That's the first thing that you ask when her hand is being cradled close to herself? Even as she tried to come up with some smart ass remark, she couldn't. Instead, she just shook her head. No, her hand wasn't alright, but that was honestly the least of her worries. She knew that she needed to talk. She needed to tell him not to worry about her, that she'd be fine. But, she couldn't voice the words.

"Are you hurt?" Did he just ask the same question, just differently? She looked at him, kind of grateful that his grip was loosening on her shoulders. "I-...," she tried to say something, and just shook her head in response instead. Something needed to be voiced, said, heard, but she just couldn't figure out what anymore. She sighed lightly, a sound actually coming from her with that before she moved away from him a little.

She didn't move far enough to where his hands would have left her shoulders, but just a little more room between them, because she still didn't know where they stood anymore. "The bandits...," she had tried again and just shook her head. She couldn't right now. Nope. But the pain, slight fear, and guilt. Why guilt? Because she had actually pushed him away, and she had a feeling that it broke what they had.

There was a moment of a flash back to being in that prison, and she looked at Koga, the stinging sensation starting in her eyes, before she actually felt a tear fall. "I'm... sorry...." She meant those words, and it could be easily heard in her voice, and the pure fact that she hadn't run away from him. Being right there at the moment, was pure comfort. Something that made her feel a little safer than she had when she first entered the safe zone.

But, she still held that guilt, because she didn't know if he felt the same, or if he was going to push her away the moment that he knew that she'd be fine. But then, that wouldn't happen, she didn't think that he could do that, not after all the pain he's already suffered. Really? Too many possibilities and not enough answers right now.

@Koga

She was safe. She was finally safe, and sound, and didn't need to fear. But there was a part of her that still did fear. A part of her that feared that she wasn't going to be the same after all of that. How long had she even been gone? How long had she been asleep after being drugged? These were all the questions that were barreling through her mind, making her completely miss the man that was quickly moving toward her. She saw none of that, she was just more worried about where it was that she needed to go from there. What did she need to do? Did Koga even get her mess-....

The moment that she felt arms wrap around her and hug her tightly, the first, automatic, response that happened was she stiffened. She didn't move, her mind instantly started to make her think that she was dreaming. There was no way in any reality that Koga would be hugging her right now. Not after the way that she left him. Not after all the fighting. So, did that mean that her escape had been in her mind as well? Was she still asleep? Was she still in those rags and in that ce-....

She blinked when he started to shake her, and then he was spewing questions. Many, many questions. Threatening the bandits that she had already killed, or at least, most of them hopefully. She looked at him, and there actually seemed to be worry written all over him. Had he actually been worried? Oh, he did get her messages. In that case, this wasn't a dream, or nightmare, but it was real.

She didn't say a word, she couldn't. She just wrapped her left arm around her, trying to keep her broken right-hand close to her body. Two reasons for that, she didn't want him to see it, but at the same time, she needed to keep it elevated, that helped with the pain, a bit. But that's how she stood, right-hand close to her chest, and left arm wrapped tightly around him. Now she felt bad for stiffening when he hugged her.

@Koga

She wasted no time in getting away from the bandit camp. She wanted to leave that place behind her. She just wanted to be back in town, where she could take a bath, and feel like she hadn't been violated in six million different ways. As she walked, she felt the pressure of her bracelet on her left wrist, but she let it be. If Athena wanted to come back to her owl form, she was more than welcome to.

Noctua didn't stop as she walked back to the safe zone. It took a few hours, but soon, she was close to the town. She could see everything, and she couldn't wait to be back in the safe zone. She wanted to feel safe. She wanted to feel like she didn't need to worry about being kidnapped in the safe zone. Soon. Soon she was going to be that safe. In fact, she was that safe right now. The moment that she crossed into the safe zone, she opened her messenger and sent a single message to Koga.

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Escaped.

Thread Summary:

"Come little owl, try and hit me." She looked at him, ignoring the insult. By this point in her time in this game, she was really starting to hate that nickname for herself. She wasn't an owl, was she? "Oh look, she's getting madder. Does this mean that you're going to hit me? I doubt it, you haven't been able to hit anything before now, have you?" How in the world did this bandit know this! This just made her grip the hilt of her rapier tighter, the blade already purple.

She wasted no time in attacked the warden, watching as the warden turned to red dust. He was gone, the taunting was gone. She sheathed her weapon, and she pushed past whoever was standing in the area. At this point, they wouldn't want to hit her, because she just killed their boss. No boss meant that they were in trouble. She walked past them and out of the prison yard. She was done. She was out. She was safe, mostly.

"Oh good, you were smart enough to get out. Well, mostly." He looked at her broken hand and grinned before pulling out his club. Noctua just ignored him and pulled her rapier out, she was not really in the mood to deal with this guy. She killed his guards, she'd kill him too. It wouldn't take that much effort. "Aw, no words? Did our taking you really break something in that mind? Feeling weak yet?" She gripped the hilt of her rapier tighter before she charged him.

Her rapier's blade was purple, and she was ready to hit him, only to watch the warden smirk and move to the side with ease. She ran past him and came to a skidding halt, just staring at the wall that she almost ran into. She turned around, only to take the warden's club to her chest. She fell to the ground, attempting to catch the breath that she had lost in that hit. That hurt like hell, and she knew that she was going to feel it later.

She slowly rose back to her feet, just glaring at the warden as she righted herself on her feet. "What? Think you're going to hit me?" She took in a deep breath, willing herself to ignore this ignorant idiot.

With her boots back on, her dress was able to be at its full length again. After a few minutes of running, she finally slowed herself to a stop. She needed to catch her breath. As she leaned against a door, she didn't realize was particularly there, the door swung open. This caused Noct to fall, and instinctively she caught herself, only with the broken right hand instead of the good left one. There was a silent hiss of pain as she stood up, holding her right-hand close to her chest at this point.

She was really going to have to give her hand a rest after she got out of this mess. But right now, she seems to have found the exit, that was good. She was happy about that. She started to walk down the hallway that it lead through. Slowly, the walls turned from cobblestone to actual brick. This had to be the way out for sure. She would have smiled, if she felt like it would do her any good. Of course, as she walked out of another door, she stopped quickly.

Right in front of her was the warden, and he seemed to be happy that she was there. This wasn't going to be good for her, was it?

"Crap, you're mad." She didn't answer, she just readied her rapier, the blade already turning purple. "Hey... um... I'll just let you go, yeah, let you go." She wasn't going to fall for that trap. Not after being stuck in this place. So, she just rushed him, her rapier slicing through him like butter as he turned into a cloud of pixels. She waited a few moments, wishing that the dumb alarm would just shut up, but that wasn't happening. She heard more bandits running down some corridor though.

Since there was no use in sneaking around, she quickly put her boots back on, and started to run down the hall she was in. Her rapier was sheathed and hitting her right hip. She had to change the sides that the rapier was resting on since her right hand wasn't able to grip the weapon like normal. She knew that she had to rush now, or just try to fight her way out. Either way, she was getting out of here and heading back to town. She was just done with these traps and tricks.

At this point, she'd rather deal with the zombie clowns again.

An alarm was going off, so what. She was going to kill these guys. She wasn't about to deal with anymore chatter about how weak she was. She already knew all of this. She didn't need a reminder from some dumb AIs. So, she focused her attention on the first guard, and her rapier's blade started to turn its normal purple. Once she felt that the moment was right, she attacked, watching as the guard vanished into a cloud of red.

One down, one to go. She turned to look at the other guard, only she didn't see him. But, she felt his spear in her side, and she winced. That was a critical hit, she didn't even need to see the health drop to know that. She felt it. It hurt like hell. There was laughter that came from the remaining guard, almost as if he expected her to just collapse into a pile on the ground from the pain. That wasn't going to happen.

Instead, she looked at the guard, anger and hurt just staying there in her gaze. That was when the guard knew that he had made a mistake. "Crap." She didn't say anything though, she just started to straighten herself out, her gaze never leaving the remaining guard.

"Do you think she has the smarts to get out of here?" "Don't count against a woman bud, they can be fierce." "Yeah, but did you see how broken she already was when the boss found saw her at the trap?" "That just means that she will be even more fierce." "Yeah right. I bet she'll trip, and we'll get to just kill her." "You're on." So, this had been a trap. That was nice to know, and she was going to make sure that she didn't let either of these goons win their bet. She started to sneak past them, only for some dust to enter her nose.

That was the moment that she sneezed. "Ha! Told you she'd get caught. Let's end her." She looked at the two guards that started to come towards her, but as she tried to attack them, she missed, and worse than she thought she would today. She tripped over her own bare feet, wasn't that just embarrassing? The first guard laughed at her before he attacked her, managing to hit her right in the right hand that was still bruised and purple. That didn't help make things feel better, neither did the chunk of health that left her.

When she second guard went to hit her, she tried to move out of the way, but was too slow, getting hit right in the left shin. At this point, she was wondering if she was going to be able to even walk out of here. She knew that she could beat these guys, but it came down to, how much damage would they do to her legs to make it so that she couldn't run? That was when she heard the alert, and she silently groaned. "Yeah, there's no sneaking out for you now."

There had to be an exit around here somewhere, right? She thought that she saw a door a few times, but no, it was just a trick of the very poor lighting in this dungeon. She just continued on, feeling that she was going in the right direction at least. Though, it still made her stop and try to figure out why she was even here. Was it because she tried to help the town by chasing the bandits away? Or had that just been a setup on its own?

She didn't want to think on that, or even the fact that she woke up here in rags. That was the scariest part about all of this. She was suddenly really grateful that this was just a video game, because those things couldn't happen, hopefully, right? Okay, that thought just created more panic in her mind, making her completely forget what it was that she was doing at the moment. She just stopped and stared at the white bracelet that was on her wrist and she let out an inaudible sigh.

This was not going to be a great day, at all. She was hoping that it would have ended nicely, but no, it was ending worse. Was it even the same day anymore? She didn't want to look at the HUD to know that answer. Instead, she just kept trudging along, trying to find her way out.

She just needed to keep walking. If she did that, then there was a chance that she'd find a way out of this place. Of course, she had a feeling that it was way off anyways. The more that she quietly walked around, the more guards that she stared to notice. This wasn't a good thing, she really needed to be certain that she was quiet, or she might not actually make it out of here. Oh, how she wished she had a damned map right now.

She did notice something though, each prison cell looked just like the one that she broke out of. Were these all just carbon copies? Had they really been that lazy when creating this place? Honestly, just by judging how everything looked, that was a definite yes. She noticed that Athena was getting tired, so she gently grabbed the owl and held her close. She wasn't about to lose her familiar, hell no, she needed that one person on her side right now.

What she needed was for the owl to be made smaller or something to be able to be carried. That was when she noticed that there was no longer an owl in her hands, but a small, pure white, feathered bracelet. She loved this game right now. She put the bracelet on, knowing that it was Athena making it easier to be carried while the owl was tired. That was a great help really.

She stopped walking when she heard some voices. "Wonder what the boss wants to do with that chick we got." "Probably kill her sooner or later, or attempt to see if she can make her way out of here." "Is that why the boss put her in the weakest cell that we have." "Believe so." So, that explained that. This was a test. Or at least, if it was a test, this was a horrible one that she was going to pass with flying colors. She was going to make sure of that.

She looked at her high-heeled boots, and she made an executive decision, even if she was going to need a major bath after this. She quietly took off her boots, thankful that they were just vanity and not apart from her actual gear, and put them back into her inventory. When her boots were in her inventory, she found a way to tie the bottom of her dress so that the bottom of the dress wouldn't drag on the floor and make any sound.

Once she was certain that she was going to make the least amount of noise possible, she started to walk once more. She walked quietly past the room that the guards were in, and could have sighed in relief when she snuck by them without alerting them or anyone else in this place. If she could keep this up, she should be fine, hopefully.

An exit, that was what she needed. She needed to find some way out of this place. But, the more that she looked, the fewer exits she found, and instead just more prison cells. Where was she exactly? This didn't seem like a regular place for a bandit crew to be frequenting. She kept quiet though, she didn't want to alert the entire prison that she was out. She got lucky that those two guards were so easy to defeat. She just needed to sneak her way out of here.

But, to be able to do that, she needed to know where this darned exit was. That was the frustrating part. She didn't even have a map on her HUD to show her where she was. She had no help, this was the one quest that she truly hated. She had run into many things that she has hated, zombie clowns being one of them, but this, this was just horrible. There seemed to be no way out, and she felt like she was walking in a labyrinth of prison cells.

Seriously, what kind of bandits were these guys to have found a place like this to just live in! She felt like she had mumbled something under her breath, but no sound actually came from her at this point. Had she somehow managed to damage her vocal cords? Was that even possible? She doubted it, this was probably just her self-conscious being an ass towards her. Yeah, lets go with that one.

Now that she didn't have a pair of bandits in front of her face, she looked at Athena, the owl had this solemn look about her, and Noct knew why. Noct was giving up, that was clear to see. She just didn't want to admit it out loud, because that would mean that she was truly past the line of giving a crap about anything that happened to her at this point. Not that she really seemed to care in the first place though. She leaned against the wall that was behind her, and she opened up her HUD.

There was something that she needed to do. It took her a bit, but she finally sent her first message ever of being stuck in this damned game.

Quote

Koga,
First, I'm sorry. I've been a royal brat, and I know this. I'll keep my distance from you, unless you want me around. Second, I've been kidnapped. Those bandits on the third floor, they drugged me, I'm working on finding my way out now. Third, I do still love you.
Noctua

That didn't seem to be as hard as she always thought it would be, but she did much prefer her old way of just writing notes. It was easier, and much more natural to her. But, either way, she sent that message to Koga, and she pushed herself off of the wall before she started to walk once more.

One bandit guard down, and one more to go. Athena was just flying over Noctua's head, watching the last remaining guard that was standing between Noctua and finding the way out of this prison. She just wanted to get out. She wanted to not have to deal with this anymore. Not only that, but she was half tempted to just hang up her rapier by the end of this as well. At least she was hitting things though, that was a good thing really. She pushed all of those thoughts to the side, and she just stared down this bandit guard.

"Well, what do you think of that? I'm going to kill you." Noctua just shrugged, did she really have anything to truly live for at this point anyways? She lost Koga, hell she probably pushed him away to where he wouldn't want to talk to her ever again. That was probably a good thing for him though, she was nothing but trouble apparently. She used those emotions, and she started to charge Neutron once more, the dark purple turning another shade lighter.

She didn't wait for this guard to talk again, he was annoying her as it was. She just charged him, and attacked. She didn't see much but the guard turning to red pixels as he died instantly. Yeah, she could get used to actually hitting things, it was a good thing. But then, she was probably going to start missing here soon, that was just her luck.

"There she is!" Damn it, they found her faster than she thought that they would. She spun around and stared at the two bandit guards that had found her. One was ugly as all holy heck, not only did he need a hair cut, but it looked like he needed a bath desperately. The other one, well, it was sad because he looked to fresh to be a guard or even a bandit. She really hoped that the younger and cleaner looking one wasn't a player, because this would really suck.

But, judging by the fact that there were no player markers above either of this idiot bandits, she was going to be safe from turning orange for this. She didn't give them much more of an option to talk to her, or to try and subdue her. Her rapier quickly started to turn its dark purple, nearly black, color as she charged Neutron. She really did miss the basic purple that it used to be, she would need to work on changing that back. She didn't even know how it changed color in the first place. But, it was a lighter shade of the most recent black, so perhaps it was based off of her mood?

She didn't care, nor did she take a moment to try and figure it out. Once she was ready, she hit the first bandit with Neutron, and she watched as the ugly one turned into red pixels, dying instantly from her hit. "Hey! Now I'm going to have to kill you for that." She didn't utter a word back, it was almost as if her voice wasn't working anymore. But, there was one thing about this younger guard, he was fast. So fast that she didn't even see him move to hit her, until she felt the pain in her right arm. Her health regeneration kicked in though, and she knew that she'd be perfectly fine.

Okay, now that she was fully geared and ready to fight whatever bandits that were about to attack her, she was ready to do one other thing. She had a feeling that she was going to need a lot more luck than she normally had to get out of here. So she summoned the Berry Crumb bar from her battle ready inventory. She knew that she had bought this for a reason, she just didn't think that it would be for this reason. Funny how things worked out like that. Oh, well.

She ate the snack and watched as she gained three points to her loot dice. That should help her get out of here, right? Hopefully. She was exhausted, more than she probably should be, and she was feeling lonelier than normal. She didn't like how this place was making her feel. It wasn't a scared feeling, but definitely one that was reminding her of how useless she ultimately was. She looked at Athena, and the owl seemed to be as ready to be out of this hell as Noctua was.

They just needed to find a way out with attracting a lot of guards, or just finding a way out and defeating all the guards, at this point, she didn't care. She wanted out. She wanted fresh air that didn't smell like cobblestone and moldy water. She wanted sunshine. ^{Not only that, but she wanted Koga....}

She quickly walked past the gate, feeling slightly violated now that she got a good look at what she was wearing. Rags. Someone had literally undressed her and put her in rags. That... was a bit unsettling, okay more than a bit, but she didn't need to go into a panic attack right now thinking about that. Instead, she could hear the guards getting their weapons, and she knew what was going to happen, but she needed to find her gear.

She made her way to Athena, and quickly let the freaking out owl out of her cage. She didn't say anything, but started to look for where her gear might be, when she spotted the crate that was right next to Athena's cage. Wow, these bandits weren't very smart, leaving Noctua's gear right next to the prison cell that was easily broken out of. Well, easily enough, she was ignoring the pain that was in her hand currently. Thankfully, she was ambidextrous and was able to use both hands for writing and fighting. She knew that she wasn't going to be able to hold her rapier in her right hand right now.

She opened the crate and quickly grabbed all the things that were in the crate. They literally even emptied out her inventory, what in the world? That didn't matter. After she grabbed all of her things, she started to feel safer. She had her best gear on, and with her rapier in her left hand and Athena flying above her head, she felt safe to take on whatever this prison was about to throw at her.

Could she be overthinking everything that was going through her mind right now? Most definitely. Was she going to believe that at all? Not right now, or possibly until someone finds out what it was that she was thinking to point it out to her. But for now, she was using the rage of how horrible she was towards Koga to help her finish off the last of this gate. She wanted out of here, just so that she could stop by the shop and leave him an apology letter.

She noticed that the durability on the gate was almost gone, and she was hoping that with this last hit, the gate would just fall over and no longer be in her way. One final punch, and perhaps she should just put everything that she had into this punch. She did that, and not only did she feel something in her fist crack, but she watched as the gate just fell over, creating a loud noise.

Two things happened in a row. First, Athena was startled awake, the snowy owl screeching loudly. Second, the crash of the gate woke the guards up, and she could hear them yelling. "She's awake!" "But how?!" "Don't know, don't care, subdue her!" Crap, how long did she have?

[Gate Durability - 0%]

She didn't want this to be the end of everything that she knew though. She didn't want to let him go, but at the same time, she didn't want to force him to be near her. Not only that, but she didn't want to be known as that person who made someone get back with her even if they didn't want to. She wasn't that kind of woman, and everyone knew it. She was the one who ran away. The one who was flighty. The one who never stayed in one place because she would get scared.

She didn't want to be scared anymore, but she couldn't help it. It was like being scared about emotions and relationships was hot wired into her mind. Hot wired to make her always mess it up. Did her moving all the time because of her father's job have such a damaging effect on her mind, that no one realized it until right now? Until this very moment, when she just watched everything that she used to have in her life in the past year, just, fade away.

Fade away as if it were nothing. Like this gate, this gate was nothing, she just needed to prove that. Another punch, another sharp shooting pain that went through her fist. This wasn't going to end well for her, but if she got out, that was fine, right?

[Gate Durability - 25%]

She just needed to keep holding on, right? She'd be able to make it out of here if she did that. At least, those were the thoughts that she was telling herself. She already knew that there was nothing left to fight for, she lost that. No, she destroyed it, that was more accurate. She wouldn't disappear this time if she got out of here, she just... wouldn't talk. She'd stay to herself. Furthermore, she'd make sure that she wasn't putting him through more pain or sorrow.

He had Yukiro and Tala, he'd be fine. She had herself, that was all that she ever needed. She figured that out growing up and moving from town to town, state to state, country to country. She learned that she had to take every hit and blow alone. That was the only way to do it. She was going to be strong, if anything, for herself. She was going to get out of this prison, and just go about doing whatever she can to help around the Town of Beginnings without actually endangering herself.

After today, she wasn't going to chance it anymore. She knew better now. She wasn't the type of person to be proactive. She was a follower, not a leader. Another punch was aimed for the gate, another chunk of its durability dropping. Whatever this quest and prison was going to throw at her, she would make it through. She would be useful, if for anyone, herself. She had to be.

[Gate Durability - 50%]

She stared at the sleeping owl from between the bars of the iron gate in front of her, the muffled voices becoming more distant until they weren't heard at all. Perfect, that meant that she could work on taking down this dumb gate. She just stared at it, before she sighed with an eye roll. She had a sinking feeling that this was about to become a repeat of the day she helped Koga with that stupid rock.

The more that she thought about how she failed at helping him with that quest though, made her angrier. More at herself than anything else. Had she really been such a weak and useless girlfriend? To not only fail at beating up a rock, but being so weak that she couldn't even see through a lie that was being created by a jealous little sister? Yes, yes she had. Just the mere thought of this made it feel like something in her just shattered.

Was that the last remaining piece of the shield that she had been holding up? Just the feeling that she just broke that last of whatever she had going for her, made her punch the gate that was before her. It hurt, oh man did it hurt, but she didn't seem to care anymore. Instead, she felt the first of the tears start to fall down her face, but she didn't bother to stop them. They'd run out, they always did. She has cried so much in her lifetime, that it was amazing that she could even cry right now.

[Gate Durability - 75%]

Her head was hurting, throbbing, man she felt like a mess. This almost felt like a hangover, something that she shouldn't be feeling in the game, or real life. Noctua hasn't snuck drinks after her parents have passed out for the night, no, not at all. Ignore that people, you read nothing. But, right now, she didn't want to open her eyes yet. She tried to move her hands, and instantly, felt pain. She held back the hiss of pain, knowing that if it hurt to move her hands, then she wasn't safe.

She heard some muffled talking, but not because her hearing was going fuzzy this time, but because the talking people were moving away from her. She wondered how long she had been out, but that wasn't something that she needed to think about right now. Instead, she gathered the strength to break her hands free of the bindings that held them. She finally opened her eyes and looked around, sitting up slowly to rub her wrists.

It looked like she was in an old cobblestone prison. Where the heck was she? She was not liking this at all. Wait a second.... Before her popped up a quest, Escape, and there was no declining it. She pressed accept, and that was when she noticed that she wasn't wearing her coat. She felt at her neck and panicked a little, her necklace wasn't there. That was all that she had left of him. She looked for her familiar, only to see that the owl was on the other side of her prison door.

That made her choke up for a moment, because the owl was still asleep. Don't you dare be dead on me Athena, I still need you. Noctua pushed herself to her feet and looked at the iron gate in front of her. This would be easy to bash open, but there was a single problem, she was now having flashbacks or helping Koga with that stupid rock.

As she looked through the box, she started to notice this sweet smell. It almost smelt like the moon flowers that she had learned to grow on her bedroom balcony. As she thought about the flowers, she started to wonder if her parents were taking care of them, or if she was going to go back home to dead flowers. Flowers that she had put so much love and care into. She really hoped not, those flowers were her pride and joy in the real world. Taking care of them had been her favorite thing to de-stress and pass the time.

She kept looking through the box, trying to figure out what the source of the smell was. She was so focused, that she didn't realize that things were starting to get fuzzy. The outside of her vision started to slowly blur, making it hard to see her surroundings. She didn't start to register that effect until she felt herself starting to waver. "No... I shouldn't be faltering yet.... I can go on anoth-...." She didn't remember anything after that, beyond some muffled talking and a screech from Athena.