[F7 PP] Bull In A China Shop

[Persephone 0]

Today Persephone was on her own. She left Mayuri’s little ass at home. The girl was tired. She did not have the stamina to keep up with Seph everyday and every few days required some down time. That’s when Seph would go on without her companion, scouting floors and mapping things out as to where they might go looking for Mai’s little lost friend.   

Life was elusive. For two years they’d played this game of hide and go seek, and that bastard was winning. Persephone was convinced that he was dead, and Mai was not. He was still in her party list, and he showed up in there day after day even after all this time. It was why Mai hung on to hope. Seph didn’t understand the whole thing really. She didn’t understand why a girl could get hooked on just a guy. Men were often disappointing in Persephone’s experience, even in knowing this; it didn’t stop her from flirting with them.  

Today’s excursion left back on floor seven. The mountain range was vast, and they’d only managed to cover less than half of the territory outside of Nimbus. Neither of the women was adept to mountain climbing and both were far from expert trackers. 99% of the time the only reason they ever made it back home every night was due to Mai’s ingenious idea. It didn’t matter where they were or were going; they marked their path insuring they would not get lost. And so here Seph was, with a ball of red thread, unraveling and tying it here and there as she made herself a little path through the mountainside.

The sun climbed high over head until it reached the apex on the mountain she climbed. It was noon, likely later and still Seph climbed along, trying to keep her footing down along the rocky terrain. Pebbles and dirt crumbled under her steps and broke away and rolled downhill as the ground got softer and softer, and it got harder and harder to climb. Persephone was above the tree line a good fifteen feet higher than the tallest treetops, with the ground slipping away beneath her feet until it gave way and she began crashing down. Down the steep face of the mountainside she slid crashing into rock and stone and soon there after bouncing off tree to tree unable to catch herself or find away to stop her wild decent until she found herself at the base of the mountains staring face up at the sky.

“FFF****CCCKKK” She screamed as she lay face up on the ground staring up at the cloudless sky above. She startled birds in the treetops and they flew away cawing in surprise.

Persephone lay on the ground awhile, her right arm extended over her face, blocking out the warm glow of sunshine that radiated down upon her. “What am I even doing with my life,” as she huffed and slammed her small hand against the ground beside her signaling momentary defeat. The woman did not want to get up. She was just going to lay there awhile and feel sorry for herself.

And that’s all there was to that.

[Life 0]

Life continued his self tour of the first ten floors, he was re-familiarizing himself with the rest of the world around him after having isolated himself on the eighth floor for two years. This floor itself wasn't particularly remarkable, just rocks and open plains as far as the eye could see, which usually was obscured by some kind of mountain range or large set of rocks. Blistering heat and freezing snow made for an interesting dynamic on other floors, but this, well this was just empty. The temperature didn't even feel like a temperature, it was dry, but it wasn't hot, an it wasn't cool either. It bothered him. He didn't even think there were any quests to do out here. How dull. He confirmed with himself.

Life continued walking aimlessly, not really expecting much of anything and almost ready to pack it up and head to another floor when suddenly; He spotted a dainty figure tumbling down the face of a mountain before reaching the bottom with a modest *thump* Whoever it was, didn't appear to be moving, but they didn't appear to be dying either. Life waltzed over toward the collapsed figure and leaned over them, allowing his black blue fringe to dangle in front of them and with comedic timing replied to their comment. "Well the first thing would be tumbling down a mountainside for some reason, when you should be getting stronger for the front lines?" 

 

Spoiler

Stats:
14dmg,2eva,12mit,2acc,2lm

skills:
rank5 katana

rank3 light armour

Survival

equipped:
Lunar eclipse - fate +6damage
Blessing of the goddess +2acc +1eva
battle kimono +2Lm +1eva

 

Edited March 10, 2020 by Life

[Persephone 0]

“What?” Seph said uncovering her eyes, definitely not expecting a response. “IT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION, SIR!” She growled at the speaker rude enough to interrupt her temper tantrum.

The sun rays shining down through the trees blinded her momentarily and she blinked until speaker came into view and she sat up straight. Her eyes had to be deceiving her. They just had to be.

 She saw the blue kimono first.

Lisa couldn’t forget it, the brilliant blue of the silken robes the shone like that of the wings of a morpho butterfly. He had reminded her as such as he gracefully finished off Avanache with his katana in hand. She looked up at his face, his dark hair just near hanging in his eyes looking at her with a near bemused expression. The look of him was entirely unmistakable even after all this time.

Life.

“Oh you have got to be shitting me!” she clicked her tongue and shook her head as she stared in the face of the man had eluded her and her friend for so long. “We search for you for near a YEAR... and THIS... is where you show up?!?!?!?” She said swinging her arms wide gesturing to their surroundings. It was utterly ridiculous after all their efforts and fights and excursions that the thing they sought out ended up finding her instead. Seph was angry.

No.

Furious!

Persephone was furious!

Without thinking the woman grabbed and handful of small rocks as she got to her feet. “WHERE…HAVE…YOU…” She snapped as she chucked a small rock at him in between her words. “BEEN!” She threw the rest of the stones at him. “Oh my God!” Lisa placed her hands over her face mentally counting down from ten and tried to breathe slowly to keep herself from pummeling Life with more pebbles.”This is okay… this is okay… this is okay…” She muttered to herself until she was ready. Calm once more, she took her slender hands from her face and stared at him choosing her words carefully. She wanted to shake him. To throttle his delicate neck and scream at him until her voice hand gone hoarse and she no longer had things to say. What could she say after all this time?

“She’s been so worried about you…” tumbled from her lips as she looked into Life’s eyes. "Maiyuri... she's been looking for you."

Edited March 10, 2020 by Persephone

[Life 0]

Life didn't know what came over the lady but she all of a sudden started attacking Life in a fury, throwing a mixture of small rocks and dirt at him. Looking for him? Why? Granted, this was a strange floor for anyone to be in, so I guess that may explain why she was so bewildered. But then when she calmed down, something about her seemed familiar... Did she say... "Oh.." It had been two years since Life had seen Maiyuri, he told her not to go looking for him, he should have known that she wouldn't stay put. He felt terrible honestly, he didn't want to feel responsible for whatever would have happened to her had something went wrong while she was looking for him. "For two years huh? Honestly..." Life cast his gaze to the side. He knew who she was now. It had been a long time but how could he forget a face like hers. Persephone.. 

No doubt she had been looking out for her while he was gone. "Thank you for taking care of her, I appreciate it.. But I had to go. I could feel myself crumbling at the edges for a while and I didn't know how else to handle it." Life paused, not exactly wanting to get too deep into those feelings he had left behind. "I don't know if she still cares for me the same way. But once I'm done regathering my wits for this game I planned to go see her again. Though I don't know if I could face her the same way I used to, she deserves someone better than me, someone that won't abandon her."  

[Persephone 0]

Seph listened and cast her glance aside, clicking her tongue and biting back her frustration. This really wasn’t her problem or about her. So she wasn’t sure why she was getting so upset, other than she felt for that stupid little girl waiting back at the cottage. Seph didn’t actually think her friend was stupid, but her hopefulness and sunshiney ways were sometimes too much for a realist like herself. Seph tried to remain objective and remind herself that this was about them. She kept her gaze away away and talking all the same. “Yeah, for a while, we did this a lot. Almost every day for eight months straight…” She kicked her foot against the rocks on the ground still avoiding making eye contact.

“But after a while she didn’t want to go as often. She said if wanted to find her, you would. She still worried though. I could tell. When we're be out in public places, she scans the area maybe hoping to catch a glimpse of your somewhere. She didn’t think I noticed and I wasn’t about to call her on it. We still go.. mostly I go. I can’t stand that looks she gets.”

She listened as he spoke, but she took all of his words with a grain of salt. Who knew what was true anymore. “I know she still cares about you. She loves you. Nevertheless, you know her… she makes the best of all things.”

Now that Persephone had him here, she wasn’t sure what to do. Should she drag his stupid ass to Mai? Was it even good for the girl to see him? Would she cry? What was the right thing to do?

“What do you want to do then? I can’t pretend I didn’t find you. Do you want to go see her?” She asked finally looking over at him waiting for him to decide what to do.

Edited March 18, 2020 by Persephone