[F22-PP] Little Imperfections

[Eruda 0]

Finishing that slice of cheese, she clears her throat, taking a drink of her coffee. Seeing Rai walk back out she smiles, placing the eggs on two separate plates. She quickly prepares a cup of tea for Rai before she places two plates of eggs on the small table. She knows that he said he didn't want any but she would give him the option if he changed his mind. Walking back to the kitchen grabbing the coffee and tea, she takes a seat at the table, scooting the tea toward Raidou. It was a gesture for him to take a seat. What just happened didn't need to be an awkward thing.

Before starting to eat, she says "The other day I found a grove like the one on floor 21. It is smaller but it is a real beauty." Taking a small bite of her eggs, they were pretty well seasoned. "It's on floor 24, it has a small cave entrance, not sure the length of it but the grove itself is worth seeing." Taking a drink of her coffee, leaning back in her chair, glancing up at him. "It's where I was going today, you can join me if you'd like." It was somewhere that she waiting to explore, she wanted to share something as beautiful with him. "I didn't see it in your guild notes so I was unsure if you've been there." It was almost a question but not of the same tone. She sits there now eating her eggs silently and drinking her coffee. This might have been why she was caught dancing in the first place, she was excited for the day to come.  

[Raidou 1]

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.

[Eruda 0]

"You know, normally I would be okay with that answer," Eruda takes the second plate and sets in on the floor for Raserei. "Nod my head and just agree," getting up, she grabs her plate as the wolf scrambles past her feet to the eggs. Turning the water on now, washing that dish, then waiting for the other to be available. Turning slightly, leaning against the counter. Glancing to Rai, "Today, no..." Drying her hands, she tosses it on the counter next to her. "We just got out of the Raid not even 2 days ago and now," Eruda pauses to make more coffee. Turning slightly as she pours the water in the container, "We have a window. It is going to take the frontliners time to find the next course of action and floor door." Grabbing the other plate as she watches her blue canine lick her lips, setting it in the sink. Her head shifts slightly over her shoulder back to Rai, "You may think it to be a waste of time, but I see that very small window of silence as an opportunity to relax a bit before the blazing fire hits once more." Water goes on and the sponge hits the plate.

Pouring her coffee, black again, taking a seat next to Rai again. "I will not let you go back into that dark corner by yourself again. The prep for the next battle will be done with the entire Firm Anima together when it comes time." Taking a sip of her coffee as her gaze meets Rai's through those frames with a glare from the light. "Until the come with me and enjoy that tiny opening that is given to us, please." Taking another sip, she didn't want this to end just yet, and maybe Rai would completely disagree with her, either way, she wouldn't give up. He was a hard person to get time with, but it was becoming a bit easier as the days go on. 

[Raidou 1]

"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.

[Eruda 0]

This dark corner is reality

Raidou was right, she already knew it. There were things that she was keeping inside and she really didn't want to go straight into the darkened bridge of this game. Eruda had been doing some research of her own, and the truth is, it was a lot to take in. This game was demented in more ways than she would like and all the killing, violence that happened behind the scenes while everyone else were pretending that it didn't exist. Just trying to live their life and forgetting that the real world just stopped being real because they have been trapped in this insanity for way too long. Those little petty things that she did for herself, like dancing in the kitchen and finding love, it was something real to hold on to. Those feelings to keep her knowing that something beyond this was still intact. It was her way of keeping sane. Raidou walking out abruptly, she knew that he was just trying to not outburst at her, and that was fine because she didn't tell him all this. Eruda didn't want him to think that she was a waste of time, communication was everything...

Grabbing her coffee, she had to keep positive, she just had too. A deep breath as she walks toward the room, the vials rumbling quickly, the smell of something burning upon liquid. His robe against her frame drags against the ground as she makes her way to the door he went through. Standing there watching him work for a moment, her chest was heavy with emotion. Thinking about what Haine had once told her, if she focused on just the fight in the game then she would inevitably lose who and what she truly was in this game. Eruda's eyes narrow, she did not want Rai to think that she couldn't handle the darkness of this world, she could, she just had to force herself to find an outlet, simply so that she didn't lose herself in this darkness.

In a soft voice, "I do these specific things for a reason Rai. Random has never been ideal for me. Everyone has an outlet, and these little events are mine." Walking slowly to the other side of the table watching his hand swiftly work, prepare. "I have been slowly learning your world, everything that is has, that brink of evil, and yes our reality. Setsuna has taught me a thing or too as well," thinking about the duel that had, it was completely one sided because she couldn't do anything else but take that hit. Picking up a finished vial, observing the content, it was a dark blue color. "Those feelings of excitement and passion, it keeps me sane. Allows me to know that there is something to go back to after this hell. I just needed a small break, that is all. Do not get that mixed up with thinking I don't understand, because I do more than I wish too." Setting the vial down, twisting her head just a bit. "Tell me what I can do to help..." She was ready to go back to prep mode that break was over. These days it was like a switch of off and on for her.       

[Raidou 1]

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

[Eruda 0]

A small raise of her brow just listening to Raidou speak. "Isn't that what you are doing as we speak." Eruda began to think about all those previous conversations that she had. "You speak about human life as if it is the most important thing in the world, yet you do not value yours." Everything that was said, from Freya to Rai, Freyd in the last floor raid. "You are willing to throw your life away and everything in it for Firm Anima for me. You speak as if sanity is long gone from your view, but what of humanity Rai." That entire conversation with Freya and what she had done, "You deem yourself a monster because you have killed players that took advantage of others, so what does that make Freya. She also did what had to be done to save her skin." This game is not just a game, it has caused changes to happen and forced people to do things that they would have never done before.

"You think that I can't help you because you cannot help yourself, maybe you have already deemed yourself dead and do not think that you are worth saving. You strive to protect because you think yourself already gone, so it does not matter what would happen to you as long as everyone else lives." Eruda pulls that long robe around her. "Every human life is worth trying to save even if it is not wanted, and Rai you are human. Everything that you are doing to help keep this place safe, that makes you worth saving too." Watching his hand move across those vials, "You are willing to put everything on the line including your soul, and I do not care if you do not want my help. I will take my last breath trying, simply because you are worth saving just as much as everyone else is this god forsaken world." Eruda just stands there watching his hands work, wrapping that robe around her, she was not going to give up on Raidou just because he thinks what he did.  

 

[Raidou 1]

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.

[Eruda 0]

There was that word again, Monster. "I am sorry, but I will never see you that way. You are nothing like those things that we fight, you do everything for the right reasons. Those orange players, those mobs that the cardinal spawn up. You are nothing like them," Eruda's eyes narrow a bit. "I have seen you Rai, and not just the part that this place has forced you to become. The man when we first met, the one in the other room just moments ago. This one..." It started to make her wonder about a few things. Each instance, was different from the other. It was almost like he couldn't decide who to be. Thinking about it, it was the first time that this even came to mind. It almost seemed like he was stuck... 

"You are loving and caring, and you have a calm, collected side, one that is determined to be prepared for every instance. You have a protective side that I have seen so many times before, but at the same time, all the anger inside of you continues to boil on the surface." Something started to come to light and she was unsure if any of it was actually what she was thinking, "It is almost like you can't decide who to be, or maybe you are all of those things... That really sounds like a mess..." Every part she named was night and day different from the other. This game truly shattered him...   

[Raidou 1]

"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."

[Eruda 0]

Leave me to clean up this mess, I am already in the thick of it

A few things catch her ear, she was trying to make sense of it. She already was under the impression that he was in something deep, but she was still unsure what. Just by the way he acted, the words that come from his mouth. It was all wise, almost like it was from his experience that such perspectives could be presented. 

change the recipe, and synthesize what you want to exist

Change the outcome by doing things differently. If something didn't work, try something new until it did. She could most certainly agree with this. Eruda came into this game with that mindset because what she was doing in the real world was not working. Changing most of what she was, it was the only way to crack her shell, and even then it was an issue up until recent events had transpired.  

it's impossible to do the same thing and expect different results

She already knew this, he had been saying this for years. The question was how?

Raidou has chosen to be everything, so he could think of everything in the light of each situation that may come up. That would make him the ultimate mastermind of sorts. "You speak of brewing a new world, could be metaphor for something different, but I have a feeling that it is not. You're everything and nothing, hero and villain, what are you planning Raidou. Before you tell me you couldn't do that to me, you can't involve me, I am already in it. I have been in it, maybe more than you would like me to. There are things that I have not told you or anyone else about one special person," a small sigh as she picks up her cup of coffee, taking a sip it was cold. "I am in something deep as well and maybe not in the same circumstance but still something just as important..." Eruda would let that sink in before saying anything else.

A sigh was given, it was clear that this topic was getting nowhere. She couldn't help but feel like she was missing something. The morning was still early, but Raidou was right. There was no window, there was just small talk and tiny moments that made what she felt real. She didn't mean for this entire thing to be almost an argument. It was not her intention, drinking the coffee left in the cup before walking around the corner. It was becoming clear that maybe Eruda didn't understand, but she would not give up on him. Placing the robe lightly over his shoulders, she kisses him on the cheek. Walking to the door frame, "I am sorry," she goes to start walking out, but then a smile inches on her face. A slight turn of her head over her shoulder, "Thank you for a great morning Raidou. I hope you have a good day." A sigh before walking into the living room. Switching her gear on from her HUD's inventory, she would head to that grove but not for sightseeing. She would gather what it had to offer for the preparation that needed to be done before next big battle. It was the one thing she could do to help.

[Raidou 1]

Allowing Eruda to speak her piece, she was talking herself in circles. He knew what she was hoping to accomplish, but he simply couldn't allow it. No matter how much he wished he could. Murmuring beneath his breath as he overlooked the piled glassware still boiling away, slowly drawing the flame to close. "Stay out of it, Eruda, live in the world I have built for you. Please." Talking to an unfinished vial, that he couldn't bring himself to finish. "I know what you've gotten yourself into. It is a rogue element, it's something we cannot just trust because it appears worthwhile or beneficial." Reaching for the small trinket around his neck, a memory of exactly what could happen which, although it worked out. It could have very well not.

"I've told you what I am planning, and it's for the better." Raidou needed some air, some time to think. The girl was digging so aggressively and yet wasn't understanding the method, it was exhausting. Turning around and placing the bottle on the shelf. "In another life, You would be my world. But here, you just have to live in the one I leave behind." A flash of blue light, and he moves to floor 3.

Thread Complete:
 

8607/30=286*5=1430

Eruda:
1430*8=11440 EXP

Raidou:
1430*12=17160 EXP

Simmone (Guild Treasurer):
11440*.15=1716 Col (Eruda)
17160*.15=2574 Col (Raidou)
400 Col (Thread)