[PP-F3] Dusk to Dawn

[Hidden 1]

Hidden stepped forward, her feet trampling the leaves that littered the forest ground. It was evening, the Sun almost beginning to set on the horizon. She had one goal in mind, a shop that rested within the forest. She wore her cloak, but with the hood down, revealing her face. With her having spoken to the man named Are and beginning to clear her name, she might as well attempt to get used to not hiding behind a cloak at all times of the day. Of course... she didn't want to be the person she was. 

Elucia was the fake persona she had crafted that was nice to people and had earned her orange crystal protecting herself. While it was all just a web of lies, Hidden wanted to be a person like that. Nice, got along with people.... She was trying to be as nice as possible, but changing who she was is pretty difficult. When she pretended to be Elucia, she would drink a potion that would change her hair white for 4 hours before reverting back to its normal black. Now, Hidden wanted to be more like Elucia, and there was one person she knew who could do that for her. 

The raven-haired girl stopped before a hill where a building was carved into it. Biting her bottom lip, she would stand there for a second. 'Not the kind of place you would think to find him.' She would think before stepping up to a small wooden door that would lead inside. She would hesitate, gulping. An uneasy feeling would wash over her. 'How will he react to seeing me like this? He has only seen me with my hood up, a stranger without a face.'

Knocking on the door three times, she would grab the handle to the door and pull it open slowly before shifting to the inside. As she made sure the door closed behind her she took a look to the inside of the man who was Raidou.

It was a disaster. Papers and items cluttered the shop with almost no sense of organization. She never expected this from him. She figured he was neat and tidy. That would've matched his personality. "What... happened here?" she questioned aloud. Was there some sort of fight? It actually looked like a tornado had gone through. 

[Raidou 1]

A red robe adorned the top of a counter, to its side a myriad of herbs of many shades and maturity. Staring over a cascading tapestry of glassware, a bunsen burner with a low flame bringing a bubbling solution to activity in a light blue color. He turns the apparatus to allow some of the vapor to escape as the bell to his shop rang softly after a few knocks on the door. Looking to the unsuspected patron through different metal glasses, one of many. "What can I do for you?" Raidou asks in a gentle tone with his eyes still removed to a slip of paper, being unsure who it was at first inspection but he couldn't help but shake the feeling of familiarity that was itching at his thoughts. Communing a few distilled drops to a small vial, a dash of honey extract causes it to flash purple signifying a perfect craft.

Raidou removes his glasses and wipes them softly with a white rag before replacing them awaiting an answer from the girl who had sought him out so far from the confines of the city of Delilah.

Raidou | HP:1210/1210 | EN:118/118 | DMG:18 | MIT:99 | EVA:3 | ACC:3 | BH:60

Spoiler

 

Raidou, The Red Wanderer
Level: 59
HP: 1210/1210
EN: 118/118

Stats:
Damage: 18
Mitigation: 99
Evasion: 3
Accuracy: 3
BH:60

Equipped Gear:
Weapon: Auric Sol - Corona [T3/Perfect/2HSS]: Damage 3
Armor: Tactician's Gaze - Ogma [T1/Perfect/Trinket]: +3 Accuracy
Misc: Red Wanderer's Robe [T1/Perfect/L.A] +3 Evasion

Skills:
Gatherer [Obtained]
Two Handed Straight Sword [Rank 5]
One Handed Straight Sword [Rank 3]
Parry [Obtained]
Howl [Obtained]
Battle Healing [Rank 5]
Fighting Spirit [Obtained]
Light Armor [Rank 4]

Extra Skills:
Concentration
Familiar Mastery: Protector

Mods:
Vengeful Riposte
Focused Howl
Finesse Rank 3
Athletics

Battle Ready Inventory:
Teleport Crystal*1
<<Darkness Salve>>*3
Commander's Scrutiny - Duress [T1/Perfect/Trinket]: +2 Accuracy, Taunt
Dracbane [T2/Perfect/2HSS]: V.O 1, ACC 1, BLD 1

Housing Buffs:
Hard Working: +2 EXP per crafting attempt and +1 crafting attempt per day
Filling: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot.
Relaxed: Increases out of combat HP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.
Col Stash: +5% bonus col from monster kills and treasure chests

Guild Hall Buffs:
Lucrative: Reduce LD needed for Salvage by 5 (10+ for Alchemist crystals, 6+ for everything else). +2 EXP per craft. Rank 9 crafters receive +1 crafting attempts per day. Rank 10 crafters receive +2 crafting attempts per day.
Col Deposit: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests.

 

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by Raidou

[Hidden 1]

As Hidden stood there, her eyes shifted to where a voice came from and sure enough he sat there. The red-robed man sat foused intently on his work crafting a potion over a small flame from some sort of metal candle. She felt like she had seen the object before in high school, but she hadn't seen it very well as she always had remained in the back. She watched as he finished his crafting before looking at her.

Her mood dropped as she looked into his eyes which were lacking any form of familiarity. 'He doesn't know who I am at all... I know I normally wear a hood but the jerk has been around me enough to know right?' A pout formed on her face and she looked away from the man. "I hoped you could at least recognize me by now." she said quietly to Raidou. Hidden dragged a piece of her black hair away from her eyes so that she could see without problem. She grabbed a vial of white liquid from her belt and set it in front of Raidou. "I need a better version of this. One that can make the color change permanent." Hidden would state, staring into his brown eyes through his glasses as she did. 

[Raidou 1]

The voice had more than affirmed who she was being this close in proximity to her, she smelled just as she had when she had pushed him down that day on floor 4. "Hidden, it's a bit hard to couple with the change in appearance." He paid her a soft smile, taking the potion she had placed upon the countertop and removing the cork. He dips his right pinky in the fluid and adds it to his tongue. It was bitter and he could taste traces of turpentine and saltpeter, typical of dyes but this one seemed set for a palette. "Rudimentary, Whoever made this was 'guessing'." Raidou insults the original crafter unintentionally, but the quality clearly has shown a lack of expertise.

Removing a bit of cold ivory from the countertop, he shows it to the girl "Funny how this is what we are using for this craft, this is the same strain I gathered back then." as he picks it up it shimmers gold with his gatherer skill, adding it to a Mythril mortar and pestle he grinds it to a fine powder. The lenses on his face seem to glow in a light blue sheen of their own, every piece of equipment in here was designed meticulously to make him just a tiny bit better. 15 minutes pass in what seems like a blink of an eye and producing an almost clear liquid in a bottle that was cold to the touch. "This will never fade, but I warn you. It will never fade. Be sure this is what you want before you do. All you need to do is pour it in your hands and run it through your hands." When she would, the color in her hair would be stripped from it like ink.

[Hidden 1]

Hidden stood there for a moment as Raidou would mention that it was hard to cope with her change in appearance. "It's essentially the same cloak, but the hood is optional. Some angry little girl made it for me." She recalled now that the girl was in Raidou's guild and it was due to him that she got the item. "She was pretty good at her job, but I could've done without the 'monster' bit." she would say unenthused. As she handed him the potion, he would experiment with it a bit and told her that practically whoever made it wasn't that good. 'Keres made that for me' she thought. 

He pulled out a familiar plant, one that he was picking on the day she pushed him on the fourth floor. She watched him get to work and for several minutes it was silent in the shop save for his crafting. She sat on a table as she watched him working, finding herself accidentally admiring the adamant gaze that Raidou made when focusing on his crafts. Shaking her head, she would face the other direction as to not look at him.

Raidou would speak again and Hidden would turn to where he would old out a potion. She would grab it from him, almost dropping it from the surprisingly cool temperature of the vial. She was almost about to drink it but Raidou told her it was applied, not consumed. "Yeah yeah, permanent. Yada yada. I'm pretty sure if I felt like changing it back you could make a potion for that too." 

She poured the cool liquid and began to apply into to her hair, running her fingers in between the strands. In a process that lasted only a minute, her hair turned completely white and the floor where she stood completely black like she had spilled oil all over it. "Ummm.... wow. Is that on me or is that on you?" she would ask, paying no mind to her newly permanent white hair. She stepped from the dark puddle that sat on the floor of the shop. "It actually extracted the color instead of just removing it." she said aloud noticing what had been done.

[Raidou 1]

He had supposed she was correct but he was more familiar with the voice behind the mask than the object itself, it was strange that he had not focused upon it to heavily before. Then Hidden had brought up its origin, being Setsuna that had contacted the guild a while back. "Setsuna is troubled, and as such difficult...The friends that brought her here were slaughtered by an orange player wielding a one handed sword with paralyze effects. If she was not forced into Tolbana by one of them, she'd be dead. In some ways she is still a child." he elaborates for a moment taking his eyes to the pitch pool of liquid now painting the floor.

"It will be no issue." Raidou comments as there was a third occupant in the shop, as soon as Hidden wasn't looking down at the floor the fluid would vanish. "I could make something that would alter your hair color again, but it's much harder than simply stripping what was already there." the words were as methodical and analytical as always when spoken by the nomad.

[Hidden 1]

She listened to Raidou's explanation about Setsuna and nodded her head. Regardless of what had happened to her, did it excuse calling every orange player a monster? Hidden turned, dismissing the conversation. "I suppose since she is part of your guild and I got the item for free that I'll let it slide. This time." Hidden added quickly at the end. Just because she was trying to be nicer, she couldn't let players like Raidou think that they could push her around now. 

"I really doubt I'll be changing my hair color again anyway. There is a reason I changed it. Speaking of which..." She turned towards him and bowed, staring at the ground. "I am sorry that I pushed you into the snow and am mean all the time. I-I am really trying to make it better." She lifted her head up to look up at him. 

"I know I am rude and berate you all the time and boss you around. I am cold and distant... but I just don't know of any other way. It is..." She couldn't finish her sentence. 'The only way I was able to come this far without getting hurt myself. The only way I know how to not get hurt is to hurt others before they hurt me.' 

[Raidou 1]

The girl that was the topic of discussion was already scheduled to be reprimanded in light of what Raidou was told, she was told to treat Hidden no differently than a guild member. He should have foreseen the reaction she would have though. "I apologize for her behavior, Eventually I may get a handle on her." he responds to the now ivory topped female in his shop, as she folds over.

What the? Don't say bosom...

Raidou was caught completely off guard by this, whatever it was for he knew not how to interpret it at all. "Well." he stammers out with a cough, trying to choose his words carefully. "It never bothered me in the slightest, I meant what I said then and what I am telling you now. I will always be here to offer you a hand Hidden, If you need a lightning rod to absorb those harsh words know that I would never hold it against you. You have nothing to fear." and for once he could offer a soft smile, fiddling with his glasses as an anchor on the situation to give him the sense this was reality.

[Hidden 1]

As Raidou began to speak, she stood up straight finding him stammering in a way that would bring a warm smile to rest on her face. She noticed there was what looked lie to be a faint blush coming to his cheeks, most likely from some form of embarrassment? Had she done something to do that? 

"It never bothered me in the slightest, I meant what I said then and what I am telling you now. I will always be here to offer you a hand Hidden, If you need a lightning rod to absorb those harsh words know that I would never hold it against you. You have nothing to fear."

Hidden's mouth parted into the shape of an o. That was sadly one of the nicest things someone that wasn't Sey had ever said to her. Tears threatened to run down the side of her face and her own embarrassment rose. All the while the boy fiddled with his glasses with a smile on his face. 'This is why I wore cloaks, so they couldn't see this' she thought. Panicking to find some way to hide her face from him, she lunged forward and buried her face into her shoulder and wrapped her arms around him so that he couldn't move.

"Just... dont move! I don't have anywhere else to hide. But that was... really nice for you to say." Her face reddened with her own embarrassment. Maybe it would just be easier to like push him down and run the opposite way? She couldn't bring herself to do it. Currently she was finding out exactly how much she had missed being this close to someone in the year she had been away from Sey. 

"Laugh at me or anything and I'll stab you. Dodge that stab and I'll literally kill you, you hear?" she warned, not inching away from her current spot. He voice was muffled from speaking into him, but he could hear her find if he was paying attention. 

[Raidou 1]

A new side of the girl he had not expected to spring forth her, Hidden felt 'exposed' as if a wound that had scarred over had become fresh again. Frantic still trying to hold up a brave front, she sinks into the alchemist, a soft scent overpowering the lingering smell of the draught that had stripped the color from her hair. "Someone once told me that the world was neither kind nor fair. That we need to curse against fate and look out for only ourselves. If this is the case then I will fight against such a thing with every fiber of my being."

As tender as he was with the plants he harvested, he wraps his arms around her frame in an embrace. "This gift was given to me, the same I give to you now. If you need to seek shelter, I would be that barricade. If you were to stab me, I would probably heal through it. But because you asked me to I won't." he joked for a moment, in a break in his usual demeanor trying to lighten things up just a tad.

[Hidden 1]

Her face reddened to the max when he returned the embrace, her embarassment through the roof. She was sure her body would just melt right there where she stood. "Seek shelter?" she voiced back, her voice a higher pitch than normal. She pushed off him, breaking his embrace and giving them a bit of distance. She was heavily breathing now. "No... more.... I can't...." She turned to hide away from him, crouching on the ground as she flipped through her equipment list to equip the hood to her armor.

With her face now concealed, she took a moment to calm herself, standing back up straight. Back within the comfort of her safe space, she stood there silently for a moment and her breathing calmed again. "I uh... thank you for the potion. You prove that you are still useful." She said. It was obvious that she threw up her guard, no doubt for a different reason this time. Clearing her throat, she would stand there awkwardly, unsure of what to say to the man in the red coat. 

[Raidou 1]

A push and shove, it was obvious to Raidou that Hidden had experienced a bit of sensory overload. After all, it was a problem he used to have before the bluenette came along, a simple high five causing him to become a puddle on the floor. The girl returns to her signature appearance behind the darkened cloth that concealed her face, to where she felt comfortable. It was clear to the nomad that he'd need to cut the tension apart, it hung in the air so thick you could almost taste it. "Not a problem and I suppose we will see if I remain useful." he comments with a slight smile on his face, looking down to where the blackened liquid had poured from her hair to confirm it was now missing. "Another lesson perhaps, A bit of insight into what it is I do." Raidou remarks moving behind the glassware and taking an emblazoned red herb from the counter.

[Hidden 1]

The tension hung thick in the air, making it difficult to breathe. She balled her fists tightly as she began to regain control of her rampant emotions. Taking a breath, she would find that Raidou would be the first to speak, breaking the silence that had formed between them. She wasn't sure if his initial comment was him joking around or if he actually thought that was what she looked at him. 

The robed alchemist would produce another herb, one that she hadn't seen before. While she wasn't too curious about what the herb was, she would step forward to get a closer look to what he would begin doing. If this friendship was going to work she had to try and act like she was interested in the things he did right? That was one of the things that friends did?

Taking a breath, she would pull her hood back slowly forcing herself once more out into the open. She had to learn to control her emotions so she supposed this was the perfect test. A blush still tinted her cheeks. "Show me what you do everyday" she told him. Maybe this was how he leveled up so fast and she needed to learn it?

[Raidou 1]

Working the plant at a staggered rate on purpose to allow the process to sink into the secondary participant, the red tuft plant becomes flakes before evolving into deep red powder. He then taps the pestle to dislodge the clung bit before transferring its content into the mouth of a large glass sphere, the clear liquid that begins to boil before turning into a clear pink. Turning his back and removing a small bottle and a dropper from it, he adds a drop from it in gold.

"And now we wait." he comments and as it starts to thicken it flashes and turns almost into a syrup. Eventually, it looks akin to blood as the opacity fades completely, and fiddling to with a spigot into a small vial, it drains off only a fourth of what was still spinning in the apparatus. The moment it's corked it seems to tinge and change color rather rapidly through different shades of red.

A minute passes before a flash of purple causes the potion to settle. "This one is perfect. Which makes me believe the rest in the basin is as well. Such a repeatable process, but with this, you can drastically change everything. One small action. Imagine who's life this would change, secure if but one more day." he hands the vial to Hidden.

[Hidden 1]

Hidden watched Raidou as intently as she could. It really wasn't an interesting concept to her. Crafting was an important part of the system but it didn't suit her really. She watched as he carefully prepared his material and worked it. She sat in silence and waited as he worked his own magic. It seemed to be a more complicated process than it actually was. Her eyes drifted from the concoction to Raidou's face. 

What she found was a look filled with an emotion she never typically found in him. He was so diligent in his efforts, he was putting everything into his creations and was pleased with the help they did. It made her feel bad for using such a work nonchalantly without a care. Her eyes watched his face and her mind was lost in thought. He was no longer the awkward boy she met in the snow. Instead, he was as firm as stone. His crafting seemed to be the only time where the stone softened. 

 "...One small action. Imagine who's life this would change, secure if but one more day" A vial was held up for her to grab and she was drug back from her thoughts. "Oh.. uh yeah." She said, gingerly holding the vial. She turned and set the vial down before looking to on to Raidou. 'I suppose there is no better time then now to really ask.' 

She took a breath. "Hey... I was wondering...." She hesitated for a moment, looking for the correct words to say. She didn't want him to misunderstand.

"That day when I met you, you were way different then you are now. What exactly happened to change you that much that you aren't even the same person now?"

[Raidou 1]

As he worked the equipment taking the waiting liquid to more bottles, Hidden asks a question he had not entirely expected her to ask. His hands paused for but only but a second, before he turned with a tinge of nostalgia present in his words. 

The way I see it you have two options right now
     The point I'm trying to make is that it's not your fault for that
          need to put in an effort to get to know the other

"A lion spoke of courage and of choices and through an unceasing persistence fought through my attempts to isolate myself, reminded me of a time I had fled from when all that I cared for was stripped from me. It was this I believe started the process." Raidou comments as he swivels a new plant, condensing the ivory leaves into flakes in a mortar and pestle. The beginning of a change the plant would undergo as a fitting metaphor.

You got your respite, right?
     At least you have that. Cherish it.
          If you ask me, it sounds like you're fighting yourself too much. Just do or say what you feel like, and stop second guessing sh*t.
               If the world is being cruel to you, maybe you should be cruel back.
                    We all have our demons

The alchemist twists the bunsen burner to allow the heat to gain strength for the concoction would need a brighter flame. "A fire that burned low illuminated a gift that I had long sat in the dark, and through the shadows, it had cast I saw my own reflection of what it was like to be alone. It hurt more than I would have wished it to and in my haste to rekindle that fire to show how much I appreciated the light it brought me, but I only managed to get burned."

Give people time to work through their anger and frustrations.
     Anger stems from misunderstandings, we always talk to each other, but it's even harder to listen to each other.

Taking extra care to refine the powder further into a thinned powder that was not unlike flour given its color and consistency, his hand still moved on autopilot as he was deep in recollection. "A bird with a coin, a loud thing that shouted loud enough for me to hear it through my new wounds showed me why the fire was so hot, brought about clarity through that which I sought sanctuary. Through the exchange it had paid me something more valuable than the gold it carried, it offered me perspective."

So that is in other terms for you are a one tune person, following the same rhythm?
     If your goal is to just help out everyone then you aren't even living for yourself anymore.
          I just hope you know its nice people like you that are discarded or stepped on.
               Nice people are broken down and left behind. Everything that you build will be stolen from you.
                    You put more on the line, you gain more in return.

"Then when I sought out that which had charred me before, in the never-ending snow. I found that the shadow it produced had taken a shape of its own, with its own thoughts and feelings that mirrored the kindling. A strong wind at its back, I was fighting against overwhelming odds and found myself taken from my feet and although this shadow threatened to consume me I could feel that it was only pushing me toward the light. It reminded me of my past and a sword I had sheathed for good." He removed the pestle and began to process this plant into the large apparatus in front of him allowing it to swirl in shade as it spun, it was changing by the second due to the steps it had undergone.

If someone doesn't agree with you, forget them.
     It's their opinion to disagree and they aren't worth your time.
          If you can't be outward with yourself, people will walk on you
               Don't let others walk on you.

The mixture started to thicken in the glassware, showing that it was nearing its final change before it would show its quality. "I drew that blade and despite the time it still shined as the day it was abandoned. I took a journey with it, the teachings I had received made me realize it was a light and on that path, I came upon a fox in white fur. It asked me what I had learned and although I could not find my tongue at first it kept asking those questions and brought everything I learned to an epiphany."

You'll need allies in the future
     Work as a team while doing your best to tough it up.
          It's only a matter of time,
               So why should you care about it.
                    if say, you were in danger,
                         Cast aside your worries and believe in the person you are

"I had traveled down a long road, and with a reddened robe sheltering me from harm I persevered through it all. I have found what I have lost and had earned: My voice, my light, and my understanding. So Hidden, thank you for giving back my light." Finishing the brew and moving it into a vial, the catalyst of Cold Ivory that could change any potion to something different had been completed.

@Mari@Zajcica@Ariel - The Crowned Lion

Edited July 21, 2020 by Raidou

[Hidden 1]

As the now white haired girl asked her question, the wanderers work paused for a moment. She probably had caught him off guard. She took a step forward, leaning onto the table he was working on. 

"A lion spoke of courage..."

For a moment as he spoke, she found the boy she met. The one who spoke in riddles and made no sense. However, it quickly became clear to her that he was here all along. She just had been refusing to make the connection. She had been keeping the two people separate as to not have to think of them as the same person. Raidou wasn't hiding behind a mask like her, he was instead pushing forward to make himself better. Something she didn't feel like she had the strength to do. 

 "A bird with a coin..."

It was here Hidden realized that Raidou was referring to actual players, not the Wizard of Oz. She hadn't been sure who the lion was and she doubted the bird was Crozeph. The boy didn't do much shouting. No, these were the people that pushed Raidou forward, made him who he was becoming. 

"Then when I sought out that which had charred me before..."

As he spoke of a shadow, she assumed was her. Though, she could hardly see where his words came form. That day in the harsh cold of the fourth floor, she had berated him, pushed him around, and attacked everything he liked doing. He liked to gather and craft and she belittled it. An act that should have made anyone instantly hate her. 

"I had traveled down a long road, and with a reddened robe sheltering me from harm I persevered through it all. I have found what I have lost and had earned: My voice, my light, and my understanding. So Hidden, thank you for giving back my light."

A smile lit up Hidden's eyes for a moment before it quickly faded and dimmed. Her head tilted downward as her gaze fell to the floor. "That can't be right. I can't bring light. I'm the one that is always needing to be helped by others to get anywhere. I'm the one who snuffs out the light of every room I am in. I bring others down as I pull myself up. I've brought you down and used you multiple times." Hidden's voice at this point was beginning to sound desperate. Tears began to well in her violet eyes. "Shadows don't bring light. All they can do is hope and pretend to be light. No matter what, they won't ever become light. Instead, they will fade into nothing when you bring the light too close..." It was clear to her now that this wasn't about Raidou anymore. 'Like the selfish person I am, I made this about me again. Maybe I should just leave. He is trying to make himself better and I am just going to get in the way."

[Raidou 1]

With the catalyst finished, Raidou took one of the bottled damage potions and put but a drop of the concoction he had just made into his palm. Rubbing it across his hand like lotion, his hand took on a slightly glossed appearance. What follows as he uncorks and pours the red liquid into his hand, as it makes contact it begins to crystalize as its composition is twisted by the mixture on his skin. A heavy prism forms in his palm, a damage item had quickly become a mass healing crystal through such a small addition. "I would argue the opposite, for a shadow cannot speak. A metaphor alone, you are not the shadow but simply that which hides within it. You chose to believe that you were climbing on my back to lift yourself up, but perhaps you failed to realize that maybe that I simply wanted to lift you up. The affliction that makes you feel as though you cannot stand in the light is nothing more than what it means to be human, I would ask you, if you are an unredeemable shade in this story does that make me or the motives I carry the light?" he looked to her with a stalwart gaze, soft but unwavering in its conviction.

[Hidden 1]

As Raidou began to speak, a few tears trailed down the side of her face. It was never a good thing when her seemingly endless pent up misery was let out. Every time it flooded the area. Typically, only Mari had the ability to open the gates. 

 "I would argue the opposite, for a shadow cannot speak. A metaphor alone, you are not the shadow but simply that which hides within it. You chose to believe that you were climbing on my back to lift yourself up, but perhaps you failed to realize that maybe that I simply wanted to lift you up."

Hidden shook her head to argue with him. "Nobody likes the parasite that feeds on them. Nobody wants to help them. They want to rip them away so they can do better for themselves. Why would you carry me when I just weigh you down?" Her teary eyes now remained closed in a way to hide from the conversation. 

"I would ask you, if you are an unredeemable shade in this story does that make me or the motives I carry the light?"

Hidden shook her head immediately. "No. You are the moth that is drawn to it, and not in the sense you are going to get burned. You are the one following the light, burdening yourself with the weight of those that don't have the wings to take them to the light."

Hidden opened her eyes but averted them from Raidou. "You act like you have a don't care attitude, but you care more than anyone I know. You just don't show it. You spend hours upon hours just trying to help everyone, even if only a little bit. Even if you aren't the light, you are without corruption. You do everything without expecting anything in return."

 

[Raidou 1]

A show and tell was in order, the girl had bore her heart on her sleeve so perhaps a glimpse under the veil would assure her that she was in fact more capable of redemption. "Funny you should mention parasites as if you were one. The only thing I see Hidden is my own reflection." he spoke as he pulled the glasses from his face, allowing his own fury to manifest on purpose for once. The lights in the room darken slightly, a faint glimmer of his defeated gemini's skill activation. "What you see is necessary, a facade produced with the intention to inspire confidence to those who would follow behind me. The truth is I could not feel more isolated from my peers and I believe most have seen but a fragment of the mask chipping on an occasion or two. I would allow you to see what it is I am hiding..."

His words pause for a moment as his eyes flare red, with a tempered rage that was softened but sickening.

"My fears..."

A blackened liquid began to pour from his hand, his heart began to skip and his chest burned hot as Juiblex began to encase his frame as a response.

"My anger..."

It grew thicker as he lifted his arms to his chest, his body twisting inhumanly as the creature he was bonded with began to take some semblance of control. 

"And the fact I have already accepted that I will die as a martyr." Raidou's voice bends and twists mid-sentence taking on the modulation of a second spoken word like a sinister echo.

What remained was a darkened mass of teeth and anguish, a physical manifestation of all the emotion usually shielded from all that he would interact with. "I understand torment, to feel as though your emotions are ugly and to feel like a monster, what it is to wish to rip your enemies to pieces with your bare hands. All my failings are ever present in my head, and for this, I am a hypocrite for speaking perfection to others when I am far from what I aspire to be. If I do one simple thing with all this fury, I hope it breaks all the chains that shackle you and the rest down."