[PP-F4] Recovery of the Broken (Telrenya)

[Spencer 0]

The snow falling down from the sky usually made Spencer's eyes follow each individual snowflake, following its path all the way down to the ground where it became with the snow below him. Now, Spencer's eyes stared blankly forward, the snow losing its meaning to him at that very moment. He was feeling, just like every snowflake that was falling down to the earth, insignificant, small, and unneeded in the vast world of others just like him. Even with the extreme temperature and the snow slowly piling on him, and on the bench he was sat upon, he didn't shiver. His body was lost in its own world where the cold didn't matter, nothing much matter. The events that happened earlier, still too bizarre to think of, led him down this path of depression and self hatred. The sole fact that he could do nothing while this tyrant of man posing as a hero was able to do so much to the four of them set icicles into his self esteem, freezing up the confidence and self loving. He sat frozen still, not sure what to do anymore.

A soft ding made his vacant eyes move just a hair, now staring at the notification icon that lit up his messenger screen. His friend, Telrenya, she messaged him asking him where he was, Jomei was to hold a meeting to go over everything that had happened recently, but he didn't think he was needed. So, there he sat, on the fourth floor, the only one that filled him with immense joy to be on, feeling pitiful and upset, wondering if the snow could bury him enough to where no one could ever find him again.

@Telrenya

[Telrenya 0]

Telrenya began to pace with a look of concern plastered on her face. Jomei had called for a guild meeting in an attempt to stabilize their conditions after the traumatic events a couple of days prior. The only person they hadn't heard from was the lowest-level of the four and the one that each of them was the least familiar with by far: Spencer. An hour had passed since she sent off a message to the man, and the woman came to a stop with a small sigh. With a swipe of her menus, her eyes traveled down to his name on her friends list. 'Floor Four...' She thought, reading off the man's vague location that Cardinal provided to her.

After throwing on a light-blue knit dress and a pair of black leggings, she set off to the teleport gate, calling out for Snowfrost. She wasn't sure how long she looked, starting in the city and making her way out to the surrounding forest, her eyes eventually fell on a familiar sandy-haired head in the distance. She squinted her eyes, spotting Spencer's frame sitting on a bench and staring out over the falling snow. She jogged over to him, a bit out of breath once she had finally reached him. "Spencer!" She called out to him as she approached. Her breath formed puffs of fog in the frigid air in front of her after each exhale. Once she was close, the woman suddenly tensed a bit, losing most of the courage she had built up to address the man. "Uhm... well, hey." She said lamely with a weak smile.

[Spencer 0]

Spencer was lost in thought, something that has been happening anytime he is alone, and it was getting worse with the feeling of being alone washing over him. He did feel bad to a certain extent, ditching his friends in the guild was kind of an ass thing to do, even though he did feel like him being there would do nothing good, he was just a person to fill an empty space of a guild in order for it to be registered in the system as being a guild. He ran a hand through his hair, the snow falling out of his hair on to his shoulder, and some moistening his hair and his hand that ran through it. He sighed once more and leaned back, letting the snow fall on his body.

Spencer heard Telrenya's voice calling for him, but he just assumed he was hearing things, but when the girl ran up closer to him he realized she was actually there and trying to get him to respond. He looked up slowly and offered a small smile. "O-oh hey Telrenya... Are you here to drag me to the guild thing we had going on today?" He sat up and shook a bit, the snow falling off of him. He opened his inventory and brought out his signature umbrella, covering him from the snow as he looked up at her. "I didn't go because I didn't see a sense in going." He shrugged and looked down, playing with the snow at his feet.

[Telrenya 0]

Telrenya's heart sank an inch when Spencer had asked if she was here to drag him along to the guild meeting. She tried her best not to let the feeling show through her expression, but naturally she did a pretty poor job of it. The woman looked down to the snow piled at her own feet, pursing her lips lightly as she tried to think of the right words to say. Finally, she let out a small breath, condensation forming in a thick cloud in front of her face as she did so. "No, I'm not."

She hesitantly took a seat in the empty space on the bench beside Spencer, leaving as much room between them as she could so as not to make the man uncomfortable or feel like she was intruding any further. Telrenya leaned forward, crossing her arms over each other while she rested her elbows against her legs. She stared out at the falling snow herself, a sullen look on her face while she stayed silent for a few long moments. "I was just, well, worried about you." A tiny, nervous chuckle escaped her. "And..." Her fingers idly traced and tapped along her forearms as she had nothing else for them to fidget with. Her gaze dropped to the blanket of untouched snow that stretched out before their feet. "You might've heard it enough, but I'm sorry. Just, that you got roped into everything that's happened."

[Spencer 0]

"I got wrapped into it because I'm a part of the guild." He mumbled and looked in the sky. "At least, I'm a hole to fill so the system registers the guild as an actual guild." He said a little louder, looking over at Telrenya. He shook his head and looked back down at the building piles of snow on the ground. "Why am I even apart of the guild Telrenya?" He said and looked up at her. "Is it because I was just convenient enough to be trapped in that god forsaken house? That I was brought in on a technicality with the player number." He stared at her for a moment before standing up and walking around the snow, his footsteps pressing into the fresh snow.

"Am I here just because I was a hole to fill so the guild could get off the ground? I'm probably going to get sacked when you get another player to join the guild, at least that's how it seems. You don't need me, I can't do anything for you guys." He said aloud to her, no longer whispering or mumbling. "I'm not needed, Telrenya. I can't do anything. I was helpless to even kill that monster in the Mansion, and I'm sure as hell helpless to help you three defeat that horrible man we encountered a couple of days ago. Hell, I couldn't have even gotten my weapon if I tried. He didn't even see me as enough of a threat to attack..." His voice trailed off and he kicked the snow.

[Telrenya 0]

Telrenya couldn't bring herself to lift her gaze. A pang of guilt hit her with his question. Her chin dropped a couple of inches to lower her face, and she bit down on her bottom lip as Spencer stood. His volume increased a bit and his emotions flared, and for a while she couldn't bring herself to look up at him. When he told her he wasn't needed, and touched on the day that seemed to have torn all of them apart, her fingers curled against her arms and she quickly pushed herself to her feet and raised her head.

"You saved my life!" She exclaimed, overcome with her own emotion for a split second. As soon as the outburst had escaped her, she seemed to regret it. The woman retracted, bringing her hands in front of her torso and dropping her gaze to the side. "I... I don't think anyone just thought of you as a head count." She mumbled out while her thumbs began to slowly dance around each other behind her hands. "But I, we..." She continued, not sure which words to use before they spilled from her mouth. "It wasn't fair to invite you to something like that before we really knew you." She admitted while another pang of guilt hit her chest. "I hope...and I think, that Jomei and Ruby feel the same way, but," She glanced back up at Spencer a moment before holding her gaze on the man. "Well, when I added you to my friends list that day, I did... I still want to try to be your friend."

[Spencer 0]

The remembering of him saving Telrenya shot a hole in his thinking, but he quickly filled that hole with self doubt and pushed it all away. "Doesn't even matter. I'm level 8, me doing much isn't a possibility. I thought I was doing good, building myself up finally after months of not doing anything, but now I can see I'll never be good enough to protect people." The fact that he saved Telrenya was still nagging at him, he did something that other players couldn't have done, then again they could have ran up there and saved her.

He shook his head and paced a bit more, now his turn to look down at the snow. "How do you know that they don't see me as that. Jomei invited me to the guild, and almost immediately had me to start training, I wasn't good enough for him." He mumbled. Being accepted was a big part of who he was, he came out when he was young and it was always nervous that he wouldn't be wanted by the people he meets or sees.

When she brought up being his friend he looked up at her, a ghost of a smile dancing over his lips. "I'-I'd like that." He mumbled, sitting back down on the bench. "Why do I feel like this, I can't do anything for you guys and it's killing me, I'm not important Telrenya. I'm glad I'm apart of the guild, I really am, but I feel like I'm kind of just an add on to your three. You guys can do so much, I can't really do anything to help you out and it drives me insane sometimes."

[Telrenya 0]

Telrenya didn't realize she had been holding her breath through most of his thoughts until he had moved back to the bench and sat back down. She exhaled, creating a large puff of fog while she sat down beside him again. She placed her hands in her lap, trying her best not to keep fidgeting as much as he continued. Though her heart felt heavy with the weight of the feelings between them, she tried her best to keep herself under control as she mulled over her words. "Well... I think it might be best if they talk to you directly, too." She gave a small shake of her head as if to dismiss any possible misunderstandings. "Nobody sent me, I didn't come here to try and play the peacekeeper." She let out another sigh, lifting her chin to look up at the cloudy sky, partially obscured by the treetops in the distance. "Ruby's one-of-a-kind. She's usually tough on the outside, but she has a soft, squishy center." The woman gave a tiny chuckle at her choice of words. "I think she has trouble connecting with people sometimes, though. Jomei..." She started, trying her best to set aside her bias towards the ginger-haired man. "I believe he means well. I think for a minute, we all got caught up in this guild idea and didn't stop to ask you what you want to do." A wry smile crawled across her lips and she gave a sideways glance towards the man before looking back up towards the sky. "It was mean to just assume that you wanted to train right away."

A moment of silence hung in the air, and Telrenya thought back on his words. It hadn't hit her nearly as hard, but she felt as though she could relate to a piece of his despair. "You know... I don't know if we've ever been in a party before. I'm not actually much higher in level than you, so... I think I can understand how you feel, a little bit." She wasn't sure if the words were meaningful to him, or if she was simply trying to fill the empty space between them.

[Spencer 0]

Spencer was sitting on the bench while Telrenya talked about Ruby in the guild, which Spencer gave a sad chuckle as well when she explained her. She also told him to talk to them individually, which Spencer really did not want to deal with all the drama it could cause if he did say something to Jomei and Ruby. This is why he was out on floor four all by himself, he didn't want to deal with everything that was happen. He sighed a bit and ran a hand through his blonde hair, the snow semi dry from when he didn't have his umbrella up. "I... I just felt like you guys were trying to like build me up so I might be actually able to do something. It was probably with best intentions in mind, but to me it feels like I can't be as good as you three, like I can't do the things you guys do and I'll always be playing catch up to you three. " He rubbed his eyes, them slightly filling up with tears at his own self pity. 

Spencer heard the woman talking about her own level and he looked at her quizicaly. "Aren't you around Ruby and Jomei's level? You don't seem weak at all. I thought you were a high level." He felt sorry for him a little less and looked at the girl. maybe I'm not as weak as I think I am.. wait yes I am look at me, I only have one skill, at rank one.  He sighed a bit, but he was making progress

[Telrenya 0]

Telrenya blinked a couple of times when Spencer questioned her level, telling her that he thought she was as experienced as Ruby and Jomei. She couldn't help but let out a chuckle before settling herself and quickly apologizing for the reaction. Her hand swiped in front of her body, summoning her menus with a small ringing sound. She pulled up her player information and then swiped her hand to the side so that the window would slide over and hover in front of Spencer. "You said you're level eight, right? I'm level seventeen." She admitted, looking away shyly. She could relate to some of Spencer's feelings, and her hands fell back into her lap. "Ruby and Jomei... Sometimes I feel like they're leagues above me." She stared at her thumbs as they ran over each other in rhythmic motions. "But they don't treat me any differently, and sometimes I'm able to forget about the numbers." A small smile pulled at the corners of her mouth at the thought.

The woman brought a hand up to the nape of her neck. "I appreciate the compliment, but I'm not really cut out for fighting." She gave a short, nervous chuckle. "I've been trying anyway, but sometimes I worry that it'll just get me killed someday." She shook her head lightly, feeling as though she was getting off topic. "Anyway, Spencer... I'm sorry we made you feel that way. If...well, if you still want to be friends, I just want to make it up to you." She turned her head to look at the sandy-haired player and offered him a warm smile.

[Spencer 0]

Spencer was almost happy that he had someone else that understood what he was going through. He smiled a bit and looked at her, the snow falling in between them softly. "I don't see you as a level 17, I see you in like the 30's/40's area." He smiled and shrugged. To him, Telrenya seemed like a sweet woman but was also pretty strong and confident. Even with the showdown with Death Adder, his opinions of the three of them did not change. They couldn't do anything to stop him, no one could. His mind was in turmoil, the depression and good thoughts swinging back and forth like ying and yang type of thing.

"I still think you're cut out for combat, and I would like to be friends yes." He smiled and looked at her. His mood was improving a bit, but he still felt depressed. Death Adder brought out the worst parts of his self confidence also it shook him how big the gap was between high level players and himself, the gap possibly to big to even bridge anymore. He sighed stood up, stretching a bit and holding the umbrella to help cover the two of them better. "So, you're going to make it up to me? I'm always in the mood to get something so sure, why not." He laughed and his usual smile came back for a second.

[Telrenya 0]

Telrenya's smile grew wider as Spencer's mood seemed to improve, even just slightly. The hole in heart from the events some days past was still far from mended, but she had begun her healing process. She was going to need a lot more time for a sense of normalcy to return to her life, but for now it was time to help her friends with their own wounds.

She giggled and stood up beside him, taking on a thoughtful look after his acceptance. "Hmm, well..." She had to admit that she hadn't the slightest idea on how to follow through with her offer. Her smile turned sheepish and she was forced to address him with another question. "Mm, I don't really know you yet. Soo, what do you like? Or is there anything I can help with?" She asked, hoping to draw something from him to help her cheer the man up.

[Spencer 0]

"Uhh....... I have no idea. I literally have no idea." He laughed and blushed a bit. He didn't have many plans for things that he had to do. He had to finish the other two lesson quests, but she was too high of a level to help him out with that. The Earning a living quest was something he did by himself, familiar is going to be something he is going to wait for. He didn't have much. "We could search for materials and kind of just look around here?" He suggested. He didn't really know exactly what to do from here on out, his plans were basically to just mope around for a while before he headed back to an Inn and slept for the night, to repeat that again and again till he finally got over the feelings that had plagued his mind. He thought for a moment and nodded. "Yeah, that's the best I can come up with, you cool with adventuring a bit?"

[Telrenya 0]

'Mmmm...' Telrenya resisted the urge to mumble her dissatisfaction out loud. Her mind was still worn for wear, and she had nothing in mind herself to give the pair a distraction from their own thoughts. At least, seeing Spencer out here by himself had given her the impression that he had more than a lot weighing on his mind since the incident. Although she was a bit surprised by it, the woman simply gave a nod to agree with his suggestion of exploration and adventure. "C'mon then, let's go see if there's anything interesting around her." She tilted her head to the side with a tiny smile as her legs began to carry her forward.

Even though the causal clothes she wore provided no less benefit than her normal white and gold battle attire, she couldn't help but feel ill-prepared for anything remotely dangerous they might encounter out in the wild. Both for that sake and for their mental well-being, she hoped that their excursion would be a relatively peaceful one.

After exploring the snowy forest a bit, looking for materials or anything else that might be of interest, Telrenya's foot caught on something hidden beneath the piled snow, causing the girl to trip forward and nearly fall into the white powder. She was able to regain her balance after a start, turning and looking back for whatever had been hiding beneath the snow. The small glint of metal appeared and Telrenya was drawn to investigate, giving Spencer a curious look before leaning over the area. As she pushed away some of the piled snow with her foot, she unburied a polished golden knob. It was fastened to what looked like a plain wooden door, light in color and forming a square shape similar to something like a trap door. She stared at the structure for a short moment, never seeing anything like it, before looking back up to Spencer with a puzzled expression. "Should... Should we open it?"

[Spencer 0]

Spencer nodded and started to follow Telrenya through the forest, looking for adventure. He sighed and rubbed the back of head, he had no idea where to start looking for this 'adventure' the two of them were looking for. He still had a lot on his mind from everything, but he was trying to ignore it and get over it on his own, dealing with things on his own was something he was used to, but he wasn't upset over that, he could self-therapy himself to feeling better, but this seemed different. Feeling that helpless and unneeded was something he hadn't felt for a very long time and he didn't want to feel it again.

Spencer adjusted his coat, the cold softly getting to him as he started to move through the winter floor. His umbrella was still up in the air, trying in vain to block the both of them from all of the snow that would not stop falling from the sky. He felt confident that a level 8 and a level 17 could take on things, aka Telrenya would take care of it.

What took him from the mental thoughts and monoloque was Telrenya tripping over something that was hidden in the grass and snow. Spencer gasped softly and suppressed a chuckle, looking down to get a closer look. Telrenya had uncovered a door knob and he looked at her confused and looked back down at it. "Hell yeah lets look inside." He mumbled, trying to get his mind off of what had happened a couple days ago. He looked at her and opened it. It swung open with ease and the rest of the snow fell to the bottom of what looked like a room. He looked at Telrenya, still surprised as ever that this was here. "Should we go down?" He asked and looked at her, kind of nervous about entering something. The last time he entered a random area he found, he met the other three in his guild and almost died multiple times.

[Telrenya 0]

Telrenya matched Spencer's confused look, glancing up at his face and then back down at the door when the man reached out a hand to grasp the handle. She squinted her eyes, unable to make out many details in the space below. There didn't seem to be any stairs to lead them down, so it looked like their only option to investigate the space would be to drop down. The thought--mainly the inability to come back the way they came--left her with an uneasy feeling. "Oh," She whispered in sudden remembrance. She straightened back up from peering through the doorway to swipe open her menus. With a couple of taps, she summoned an item that appeared in her free hand: a rectangular crystal with a soft purple hue. She handed the item to Spencer with a small smile. "I hunted down some teleport crystals yesterday. If anything happens, we can just go back to Snowfrost." After the events of days prior, Telrenya had been wary about leaving the comfort of a safe zone, and so picking up a few of the items was the next best thing to settle her nerves.

She knelt back down to the open space, staring at the dimly-lit floor below them. Telrenya took in a deep breath, mustering up her courage before scooting herself closer to the frame. She looked up to Spencer's face once more, wearing an expression that she hoped wouldn't allow any of her apprehension to show through. "Yeah, let's go." The woman had dangled her legs over the edge, giving a couple of light kicks into the open air as if to test that the space on the other side of the door was relatively normal. She held her breath before lifting herself over the edge and dropping down to the ground below.

The air left her lungs along with a small 'oof' when Telrenya's feet hit the ground. Her knees buckled, but she caught herself with her palms against the smooth stone ground beneath her before she had fallen over. As she exhaled, the air in front of her face no longer formed a puff of fog, and she realized that the air felt a bit warmer--although still befitting the wintry floor. She stood up, taking a few steps forward while her head turned to each side to explore the space. She had only dropped the length of a story or so, and the space she had dropped into looked something like an underground tunnel. Small crystal formations jutted out from random angles, whether it be the floor, walls, or ceiling, and provided a soft glow to give the space a dim light. "Whoa..." She breathed out before speaking up so that Spencer could hear her. "I wonder where it leads. Maybe it's a dungeon or something."

[Spencer 0]

Spencer looked at her and graciously took the teleport crystal. With the mansion, the evil man, and anything else that could possibly come there way, he was ready for this to be an easy way out, so he took and stuffed it into his pocket for safekeeping. He watched as Telrenya slowly moved over to the hatch, looking down on to the ground. Their eyes met as she slowly started to dangle her feet over the edge, a few feet down into the darkness. "Thank you for the crystal." He said before she jumped down, making sure she knew that she was appreciated by the blonde haired man.

Spencer almost winced when she jumped down the hole on to the solid ground beneath him. He quickly looked down to make sure she was okay, luckily it wasn't a huge jump and she was perfectly okay. He sighed and looked down, not able to make out anything that Telrenya was seeing down there. She called back to him that it could  be a dungeon and his heart skipped a bit, kind of nervous with it possibly being a dungeon. "I can not take on a dungeon. Maybe she could." He muttered before scooting to the edge and letting his feet dangle. "Incoming." He yelled and shoved off to fall to the ground.

He landed a little uneasy, his heart in his throat from his not favorite feeling of free falling. He caught himself on the wall and sighed, his lungs breathing a little fast but other than that he was okay. He almost shivered involuntarily, reflex from this floor. But, he realized that it was warmer down in the cave area. He looked confused and looked at the walls, the crystal structures jutting out of the walls in uneven patterns. "What the heck." He muttered and touched the crystals, confused by them. "If this is a dungeon, it's going to be completely different than I have ever seen before...."

[Telrenya 0]

"You okay?" Telrenya checked on the man as he landed behind her, looking rather uneasy from the ordeal. She felt a moment of regret bringing him down to this unknown place, not wanting to bring him any more unneeded stress. She looked back ahead of them, her eyes scanning the dim tunnel before deciding she simply had to hope for the best. "Hmm... A week or so ago I found some crystal caves underneath a mountain on this floor." She recalled, her soft voice carrying easily through the empty space. "It wasn't exactly the same as this, but there weren't any monsters there. Maybe this is something similar." The woman thought out loud.

She looked over to Spencer with a small, reassuring smile before giving him a quick nod of her head as if to say they should give it a look. They walked for a couple of minutes in mostly silence when a faint sound carried along the cavern walls. Telrenya stopped in her tracks to cease the sound of her footsteps, narrowing her brow to try and make out the sound. After a few seconds, her expression turned to that of concern when she felt that the noise sounded like that of a small girl's cries. She turned to Spencer, resisting the urge to run off before checking on her friend. "You hear that too...right?"

[Spencer 0]

Spencer nodded and rubbed his face, looking a bit better. The adrenaline was running through him the last time he jumped from a high distance, this time it was just a straight drop on normal blood pressure and everything. "You were in a crystal cave on this floor? Never saw them before, I hope they aren't da-" He stopped when she mentioned she didn't see any monsters," Okay nevermind, they aren't dangerous." He laughed and looked around. It was actually pretty, and he could put his umbrella away which was nice. with a swoosh of his hand he sent his umbrella to his inventory, the snow mostly dry on his body." I wonder why they are here." He spoke aloud to himself.

Spencer followed close behind Telrenya as they started to walk. but something was odd about what they were hearing as they were walking. Was that a voice? He thought to himself, thinking he was going crazy. The look on Telrenya's face helped show that he indeed was not going crazy, and that there was someone talking, a girl to be exact. "Don't worry. I heard that to. Lets go." He looked concerned for who ever it could be stuck down here.

[Gladiolus Alliance 0]

"For the last time little kitten, you're going to be fine. Now stop your wailing before you bring the whole place down on us." The exasperated voice of the elder sister Sannae tried to soothe the small brunette standing before her. Kitt3n, as her avatar was so appropriately named, rubbed at her eyes with the backs of her hands to stop the tears from streaming down her cheeks. Beneath her yellow frilled dress, her right leg was encased in a thick layer of ice that seemed to protrude from the ground. At its base, the cave floor around her foot was outlined with a soft-glowing blue color. The young girl had quite literally stepped right into a trap.

Kitt3n sniffled as her older sister ruffled her dark mocha brown hair. Beside the siblings, a man scarcely taller than the teen had been watching down one of the tunnels that led to the clearing the trio stood in. Levande looked over his shoulder at the distressed girl and flashed them a devilish grin. "Who knows, maybe Tantis got lost and we'll never find a way to get you out." He teased, but his provocations were only met with a louder cry from Kitt3n, one that carried even farther down the winding tunnels.

"Oh, stop it!" Sannae leaned over to give the green-haired man a small smack on his arm. "Honestly..." She sighed, turning her attention back to her little sister to try and quell her outbursts once again.