[F7-PP] The Manta Ray and the Macaroon (Manta)

[Macradon 0]

It twas a cold evening. The mountain range's cold was bundled up at the top of the mountains. Macradon was unsure of what to do right now. He sat up there, wanting more strength. "If ... if I were stronger I could've ..." he thought, sitting in a legged position on the top of one of the mountains. His eyes glaring at the sun that was already on its way towards a sunset. He was wearing his green and black robes, opposed to what he usually wore when out in the open. He wasn't wearing any guild uniform today, and had no reason to. He would sigh deeply as he kept on sitting there on the top of the rocky mountain top. His name was etched onto one of the larger boulders that was on top of the mountain, this was his usual training spot, so having his name up there gave him some determination for being up there. 

[Amira 0]

As far back as she could remember, and that was only a day or so back, she had never been this high up in the floors. The seventh floor was a particularly beautiful one as she was finding out however. She had been hiking for quite a while, glancing around at the incredible landscape, her starter rapier at her side in case she came across any enemies. After almost an hour, she finally arrived at the top of the mountain, where she almost stumbled right into another player as her foot caught on a root. She just barely missed him and fell right beside him, face first. She rolled over and looked up at the sky, still out of breath from both the hike and the fall. She lay there, her long scarlet hair spread out beneath her like a halo of sorts.

[Macradon 0]

Macradon just sat there, starring into the sun "Oh yeah, remember to blink" he thought and would blink a few times so his eyes wouldn't dry out from the sun ... if that even worked in this game. He would keep his back straight and just stare, hoping for something to give him a push towards the right path. With that thought in mind, something, or rather, someone fell and landed right besides Macradon. It was a girl with scarlet red hair, she seemed quite exhausted by something, but wasn't really commenting on anything right now, she was just staring into the sky. "Uh ... hello there" he would say as his gaze went from the sun to the girl who were on the ground. "What brings you up here?" he would ask the girl as he had never met anyone up here before, he was so sure that it was his special place, though now it wasn't feeling as special as he thought it once were.

[Amira 0]

"Exploration." She simply stated, finally catching her breath and sitting up to look at the other player. "And hello to you too." She couldnt help but notice that he seemed dissapointed, but she couldnt figure out why. Maybe he had been expecting someone else and when he had heard her footsteps he had gotten excited. "I just decided to take a hike and see what this floor had to offer." She said with a happy smile.

[Macradon 0]

Macradon would calm himself again, his spot wasn't taken, it was just randomly found which was plausible by all means. He would sigh deeply and look back out into the sun "Exploration you say ..." he would say, thinking back to his time when he traveled alone on all of the floors. It was the lone journey he had to do, it was the journey he needed to find himself in this world of Aincrad. He would look at the redhead, he hadn't seen her before, never and nor did she feel like anyone familiar who could've changed appearance, but none of his friends were looking anything like this, not even close and no one would change that drastically. "I'm Macradon, by the way, people call me Mac" he would say as he leaned back and would support himself with his two arms. "What's your name?" he would ask.

[Amira 0]

Scarlet looked over at  the other player. "Nice to meet you Mac. I'm Scarlet." She blushed a little bit. "I work as a maid on the fifth floor." She said, embarrassed as to the position that she held. Her blush faded quickly however. "So, what are you doing up here?" She asked with a friendly smile. He wasn't familiar at all, so she doubted that he was anyone that she had known before.

[Macradon 0]

A sensible chuckle would emit from Macradon's throat as this person, Scarlet, would tell him her occupation. He had no idea why it was relevant by any means, but she probably had her reason to tell him about that. He would just ignore it for now and focus on creating a conversation to make the time pass, it would be too awkward for the two to just sit there and do nothing. “Nice to meet you” he said with small smile on his lips. “Hm … I was just refining my fighting style” he said “Training in the more common language” he said and would let out a small chortle. “I have been feeling too weak here lately, so I wanted to press on and become stronger” he said and quickly changed the conversation to something else “I haven’t seen you before, have you just begun exploring or have you just been out alone for a long time?” he asked Scarlet.

@Manta Gaul

[Amira 0]

She smiled kindly to him. "I don't quite know actually." She patted her rapier, the crown on the pommel glinting in the light. "I'm an experienced player lacking the experience." She said, her smile broadening at her own little private joke. She toned down her smile, getting back to the conversation at hand. "Mental strength is the most important thing to have here, more than stats. Too many people crack despite stats. Once you lose control of your mind it can be even worse to have high stats." She stated, a piece of wisdom that just came to her tongue, despite not having much experience with high level play, at least not that she knew of. All she knew were that her stats were crazy high. Of course, she would know about mental strength, apparently not having had enough herself. She hadn't been able to deal with her past experiences, choosing to forget instead. "Are you looking for a training partner? Or someone to keep you company?" She asked politely. She'd always enjoyed the company of others.

[Macradon 0]

Macradon would nod understandingly. He knew how people’s mental health could be their demise, and having higher stats would just make it worse. He had seen people die, he had experienced other's deaths and their outrages. He knew that your psyche was important to stay alive in here. Smiling at Scarlet’s comment, Macradon would nod “I suppose I could use some company, it’s not good for me to always go in solitude, like I’m used to … I need to integrate myself into the world of people again” he said jokingly. It had been some time since he went the full journey of solitude, but it still hung upon him like it was a burden, like he was still there. He knew that he had lots of friends inside towns and could easily speak to them, go to town and the like, but it just felt like he needed solitude for him to get stronger, for some odd reason. He wanted to change it, he didn’t want to stay in solitude forever, he wanted a partner, but to start off, company was a good gateway.

@Manta Gaul