[F2-PP] Fragrance in bittersweet nostalgia

[Raidou 1]

A somber wind, a desperate shake. The twist of a wind that carried with it a scent. Raidou's chest expands with a silent inhale. Eyes closed as a chorus of repeated words and phrases racked and riddled themselves within the space between the back of his skull. "I disagree." He spoke, exposing the amber iris that baked in the soft glow and reciprocated it. "There is wisdom in fear, in finding gravity in choices made." A coo from a beast that bends and coils around its given master, sensing the discomfort and aiding accordingly. "And it's a fair assertation to make, that an eye is always for an eye." He cannot help but fixate on the creature, how lifelike its concern seemed to be.

A jest from the girl sees Raidou detached, perplexed, and at an end. To some such a jest may have been ribbing, joyous. But the nomad had none to spare. "Questions, answers. Inquiry that leads to more. Curosity, that stems outrage. Forgive my overstepping of any boundary I may have. I see the world through a different lens, one that struggles to understand my peers." Another pull of roses, of a figmented reality being poured into the senses. All Raidou could see were numbers, memories, and tombstones. Try as he may, to break himself for a self bestowed duty. He couldn't.

"Perhaps, in all my existence it is here I am ignorant. Perhaps, what I lack is what you mistake wisdom for." The notion caught him off guard, that he could find himself unable to be afraid for another or himself. Or he was so drowned within it, he had become numb to its presence. "But I digress, It was not my intention to interject into your personal affairs. I struggle in these moments."

[tricolor_mina 0]

Violet gazed up at the sky, closing her eyes in remembrance. Smiling faces, the warmth of a dear friend's hands caressing her skin. A broken picture frame, and a torn photograph laying within. Just the thought of what happened back then hurt violently as she thought of his face. "You're right, Raidou-san..." she mumbled, opening her eyes to see the sky. "That mentality, though... an eye for an eye does make the world blind if it perpetuates, does it not? The gravity of such a thing is quite dire." Akame chirped again, nuzzling her face to once again try and drag her mind away from that painful train of thought.

She snorted quietly when she heard him apologize for not wanting to overstep boundaries with any strange questions. If anything, he was just being polite, something she was surprised he was apologizing for. "There's hardly any reason to apologize there, haha~! You were simply being polite." Violet replied kindly, smiling at him. "You're actually kinder than most of the people I've met in that regard, to be quite honest! It was simply surprising is all! Though questions are by far one of the better ways to understand your peers, y'know~!" She leaned forward slightly, looking him dead in the eyes.

"I take wisdom in everyone's words, dear wanderer. Every voice has a place in the colorful painting of life, y'know?" Violet's smile widened slightly when he was taken slightly off guard by her earlier comment. "And being afraid of hurting another, while noble, is only going to hold you back a little. Sometimes you just have to paint an image of yourself you can be proud of, and a splash of color certainly won't hurt, haha! though I do think I have a question for you, now... Has anyone done that for you? Splashed your path with a brilliant shade of color that wasn't your own? Taken you on a fantastic adventure?"

@Raidou

[Raidou 1]

"Blind..." Spoken as if the sentiment was returned, shattered into a million pieces that littered the floor like a broken glass. Joining Violet's gaze, two insignificant specs under a newly birthed starlit sky. Peeling from that blackened layer, small pinholes that allowed souls in through its cover. "Am I?" a rather plain-looking boy, sitting on a device of his own ideals and without it, he was no different. "I wonder if that's true, I find that all that I run across has some dream. Some unspoken need of the heart, that they are too afraid to let free. Is it kindness, in how intrusively I analyze it and try to correct that mistake. Even more so, I assert myself in that dream and try and synthesize it to where it ought to be. Is it because I am unhappy, cannot enjoy that happiness, that I seek to give it to others?"

He pauses for a moment, looking off toward the waning sun, as another rustling breeze rakes through his hair. "Is it kindness, to try and protect everyone from themselves. From this place, even if they do not wish it. To selfishly make myself responsible for their lives without considering their views. To thrust my own life before theirs, despite how they feel." These were the questions that always lingered just beyond the peripheral, the ones that Raidou so desperately tried to avoid having to ask. For the first time in ages, he was reflecting inward near another.

"To answer your question, Mina. I cannot get not a single voice I've ever heard out of my head, every cry for help, every smile, every little lesson. It is them, every single one of them, that make me who I am. A book still being written." His eyes advert to the red robe playing blanket under his butt. "Without them, I would still be the same confused little boy."

[tricolor_mina 0]

Violet splayed her hands out in front of her, a wide smile on her face. "Sometimes we can't help but feel responsible for caring for another person, y'know?" she chimed, a faint laugh bubbling in her throat. "The beauty in that, though, is that you can make a meaningful impact in anothers day, and make them feel better than they did before!" She stood up, before twirling around, her cloak billowing around her as she whirled around in a blur of pink and dark red, blending and mixing with the color of the setting sun, and the soft light of the fireflies.

When she finally came to a stop, she walked over to Raidou, and crouched down directly in front of him, before ruffling his hair playfully, laughing as she did so. "Its never selfish to want to protect another, if anything its actually quite selfless! You're kinder than you know, Wanderer-san!" Violet commented, removing her hand from his head. "As you do that, sometimes you pick up their aches and pains, and you start to feel closer and closer to those people over time. And maybe one day you'll have a group of people trying to repay you for giving a piece of yourself, and dedicating time to helping and saving others! Their colors will mix together with yours, and you'll discover that in your sacrifice, you managed to turn it into a precious work of art you can treasure til the end of your days!"

She smiled at his comment about change, and how people had made him much more than a confused little boy, and helped him trek the story that was his life. "That's the spirit!" She cheered, pumping her hand in the air. "People shape experiences more than you realize sometimes, and sometimes you'll find that your story won't be quite the same without them, y'know? Forging bonds with another person makes life much better for both of you, because now both of you have a new page in your story!"

@Raidou

[Raidou 1]

A hand planted firmly on his head, raking the strands like the flame before. That same signature bubbling in his stomach, from the exposure and the contact. Raidou steels himself his best to quash that rush, one that back in the day would have seen him face first on the floor. Mina may just be right, and the wanderer couldn't argue with it, but yet couldn't help but feel as though he was ignoring them through it. "Quite expressive, it suits you." Raidou remarks, as the toes in his shoes wiggle as a physical release.

It's plucked free, and the static that was ripping down his nerves subside. An advance of his gaze to hers, a rather chipper charming fist pump. "I hope that in the end, if I do but one single thing in my time here. That I stop one good name from ever being drawn on that wall again." A flash of a feeling of loss, of abandonment, as he could feel the groves of the etching along that slab of lead. "I can tell you, for certain, that I wouldn't." There was something about her expression, her delivery, that brought about nostalgia in droves. But the source was muddied, mixed in a rippling mass of memory. "Another inquiry, I need no answer if it hurts. I will understand." He looked down and peeled out a small black book.

"Who is waiting for you outside this place? Family? Friends?" and he was ready to repay the favor.

[tricolor_mina 0]

"Well I do try my best, haha~!" Violet sat back down, crossing her legs with a grin on her face. It actually made her happy to hear that Raidou thought she was being lively. She was afraid of still being distant, that small part of her that yearned for friends again, that missed social interaction. That same part of her that was absolutely terrified of being lonely again. It felt nice to actually be open, without putting up a front of being a snarky, sarcastic friend who joked constantly about dark topics that most wouldn't touch with a nine foot pole. That defensive wall had been taken down, if only for this moment in time.

Violet nodded solemnly at his vow to not let another name get etched on that cursed monument ever again. "Agreed. Never again." she said calmly, furrowing her brow. "The pain that accompanies that, the loss of a dear friend... Seeing those names makes crossed out, to never be alight in the lists of their friends, it hurts. It hurts desperately. I never want to see someone suffer like that again." Her mind flashed to Declan as he bled to death in her arms, tears mixing with blood and staining the concrete a deep crimson. No, never again. She wasn't just going to sit there and let her friends die again right in front of her face.

It was her turn to be shocked, when Raidou posed a question to her about who she was hoping to return to one day, in the real world. "You know... I haven't thought of such a thing in a while. I uh, honestly didn't plan to make it as far as I have, as morbid as it sounds." Violet laughed nervously, rubbing her shoulder. "If I had to pick someone at this point, though... It'd have to be the people I've met here that keep me going. They've been making life so much more bearable than it had been in recent times. Even though it hurts a bit to think about it like this, I won't get any better if I can't bring myself to answer a question like that!"

@Raidou

[Raidou 1]

Such joy from Mina, and yet Raidou couldn't find the grounds to appeal with the same. He was never the brash or excitable sort, always so meticulous and studious. In a way he envied her. Instead, just an almost unfeeling acceptance of what was, and rarely a smile to match it. Else it was nothing more than just a response, a confirmation that he had heard. The wanderer caught on the words again, Violet was clinging to something personal. He could pick up on the turn of phrase, from experience. But it wasn't bothering her now, but some part of him was frowning deep down. That was another one, another tally in the list of many. It wasn't right.

"Fair enough, I have my own fair share of people that I would enjoy see make it out of this." But Raidou hung onto it, given the response there was no one for her outside of Aincrad. Nothing to return to. He begins to run his thumb across the black book, but in turn an answer given so an answer received. "My mother." The words came out almost pained, a wish that he was sure would never be fulfilled no matter how hard he'd try. The swordsman in crimson, the red wanderer, the ill omen. Loved his mother dearly and was convinced he would never see her again.

[tricolor_mina 0]

"I can relate to that, missing your family is always up there, y'know?" Violet said quietly, shaking her head. "Still, it gives you that extra bit of motivation you might need for making it through another day in this crapsack world. Just think of being able to see them again, and smile because you know you have that to look forward to once we make it out!" She moved closer, making it so that she was able to loop an arm around him, and allowing Akame to sit in between their arms. She was probably crossing a few lines when it came to social contact, but screw it! She wanted to capture a memory in her screenshot camera.

For the first time in a while, it wasn't Jon, Itzal, or Rosa that had brought a smile to her face. It was a young man by the name of Raidou, who seemed to be uncomfortable in social situations to a degree just by how he carried himself. But in such a small amount of time, she had managed to break a small wall down, allowing her to catch a glimpse of a really kind young man that just wanted to help others. Hopefully she could pay it forward, and help him out in any way she could. For now though, she would savor the fact that she had made any kind of progress with a smile on her face.

"Say cheese, Raidou-San!"

@Raidou

[Raidou 1]

Looking up into an awaiting screen as the sensation of heat burned across his shoulders. It felt as though his skin could tear itself off and fold into a tiny origami crane. The blood boiled in his veins, and even still, outwardly you couldn't even tell. A victory of practice, a facsimile of what was going on underneath. It comes out completely placid, dead pan, without any idea how he was supposed to respond in this moment.

"Cheese." The following photo would reflect just an almost aloof, albeit serene expression. Another feverish rub of his thumb on that book, and another question buzzing around in his mind. Somehow this girl was making it so easy, whereas so many listen but do not hear, she was. Just like a wanderlust child building a snowman. Like the flame in the snow, like a shadow in the forest. Like a whisper in an anthem of thunder. Like a pair of rings in a cup, she could truly hear him.

The final question, one that may lead to a rumor and a figment. To a legend, to a villain. "Mina, is there anything that you regret?" Flipping open the black book and looking down into scratched pages filled with information.

[tricolor_mina 0]

Violet closed up her menu, humming to herself as she did so. It was quite the nice photograph, thus she felt no need to try and take another, as it would be perfect to save in her memories as a great time. The contrast between her goofy grin, and Raidou's calm serenity, the image seemed to be balanced wonderfully. It was a wonderful page in the story of her life. Akame Chirped, fluttering back over to Raidou, and curling up on top of his head. She giggled, not bothering to move her friend away. It was too sweet of an image in her head for her to have the heart to remove her.

Violet actually flinched when Raidou asked his next question, the thought of what he'd asked hitting her rather hard. "What do... what do I regret..?" she whispered, shaking slightly. Her mind drifted back to that day, that god awful day that everything went sour. She swallowed thickly, tilting her head down as she responded. "I... I regret... I regret not being able to... to save... to save my.. my best friend." Her voice broke slightly at the end. It hurt to even mention it, even in passing, even without explaining. The wound was never going to fully heal, not any time soon at least. She felt like her arms had been dipped in icewater, making her shiver almost convulsively. ".. haa... aah...! I.. I didn't actually think... I, uh... can we.. can we change the s-subject please..?" 

@Raidou

[Raidou 1]

Flipping through the pages, he tore out a page. "I'm sorry for your loss." There was an obvious expression of sorrow, pained, upon his rather generic, boyish looking face. Raidou balls the piece up, lowering its durability quite considerably in an instant, before tossing it out into the field of flowers and seeing it destroyed. The topic was bitter, something that Mina clearly didn't want to drudge up. He'd switch that scope inward. "Mine, is this book." He remarked looking through the pages, catching on his peripheral a shutter as a familiar played nest atop his hair.

To another page, ripping it out and killing it like the first. The very same that was coveted by all of those he used to associate with. "It's a book filled with information regarding players, you'd be the first to know outside specific circles." His hands stopped, finding irony on the pages. "How it's most frequently used? Murder." Every bit of it was filled with info, from inspection and word of mouth. The small facets of other players builds, weaknesses cataloged one after another. Names, dates, frequent locations, connections. Every scrap imaginable that would make slaughter easier. He'd kept it simply as a contingency, and even still it left him a prime target for those that coveted such precision.

The Red Wanderer was the best in the business at studying the hardest pray: Man

[tricolor_mina 0]

Violet was still shaking slightly, but managed to pull herself together enough to pay attention to what Raidou was saying regarding his little book, though his apology unfortunately went unheard. Her mind had tuned it out in favor of trying to latch on to something, anything other than what happened to Declan. "I-information..?" she whispered, a confused look crossing her face. "I-is it just about other players, or is it about quests and stuff? Or guilds?" She didn't look over at the small book, instead averting her gaze. It would have been rude to look unless prompted by the boy to do so.

When he mentioned its main purpose was for murder, Violet felt her blood run freezing cold, and she stared at raidou, her eyes practically glowing. The shaking had finally stopped, replaced by a tranquil appearance. Unless someone was paying very, very close attention, they would be unable to notice that she was trembling with barely restrained outrage. "I'm just going to go ahead and hope you haven't personally partaken in something like that, Raidou-san, or that it was just people wanting to get their hands on that book that did the deeds." she said calmly, looking him dead in the eyes. "I'd hate to think that you'd do something like that, unless you had a rather good reason for it"

@Raidou

[Raidou 1]

"I did, I had no idea what it was being used for. Despite my suspicions, I was alone in this place for what felt like ages. The one thing I was good at was gathering information, and I needed to eat." He slides through page after page. "I am not proud of it, and as soon I was made aware of how it was being used, I left it behind me. Even still, there are so many that seek what I carry in here, and its existence works to disarm others from repeating my mistakes. Hard work is only necessary when there isn't such a readily quicker path available. Through it, I become a target, but it solves the issue." A twist of his face toward hers, finding it difficult and yet it needed to be done. "There is no good reason, what reason could possibly be enough to justify it? Just because someone is orange do they deserve to die? No, what the red wanderer did and was, was nothing short of a monster. A player that appears, hard to notice at first and yet learns everything, remembers everything and leaves with another's entire identity locked onto a piece of paper to be sold off. There is no good reason, and I will never fix that mistake, but the most I can do is try."

On the page in front of him, but a single name and a few bullets: Sey

[tricolor_mina 0]

Violet sat there as he explained his initial intentions for the book, and how he'd sold it for a price, only for the information to be misused despite his intentions. Her expression immediately softened when she heard that. It was still heartbreaking how people were forced to suffer in this world, without food, without a home... At least his had a somewhat happy ending. "At least you aren't in that situation now, it seems. I know alot of people that would pay good money for information on dangerous guilds..." She commented, looking up at him. "You did what you felt was necessary, you can't help the fact that the wrong people got ahold of that information. Once you sell something like that, there's nothing you can do to control where it goes."

Violet nodded, understanding how he wanted to atone for what had happened, despite having done it out of desperation. "I disagree, you wanted to be able to eat, to have a source of income. I can't blame you for that, no matter how I try to frame it." She replied, shaking her head. "I'm sorry you have to bear that burden, though. Nobody wants that on their conscious, they don't leave you once they've gone. Its definitely not easy to live with, thats for damn sure." She still kept her gaze away from the book, not wanting to see anything inside, in case it involved anyone she knew.

Violet summoned a piece of paper, before scratching out a location, and a name. It was a slight gamble, but she knew her friend would appreciate sending Raidou her way, especially if he had any intel on Hidden. "If... if you ever need a reliable source for intel, though... might I suggest looking into the Arbiters hand? Their guild master is always looking for an information trade, and she'd be able to help you fill that book of yours out... and catch a few red guilds while you're at it."

@Raidou

[Raidou 1]

"I suppose. I'll take it into consideration." The truth of the matter was, he couldn't bring himself to ever part with anything out of the book ever again. But even still, Mina believed this Arbiter's Hand to be at least notable for retrieving information. Raidou still wasn't convinced that he wasn't to blame, and god forbid that quite a few others blamed him as well. When he'd show up, and not but a few days later some incident occurred, it was hard not to assume that 'the new different thing' was the culprit. Thus the rumor was born. "We each have our own set of burdens, don't we." Raidou remarked trying to break the tension, finding some solace in the fact that he shared it all with at least one other person, and it wasn't nearly what he expected. Folding the book shut, and burying that painful memory in his pocket.

"Now I am at a loss, normally conversations end much quicker than this. I don't intend for them to end up so deep, but they seem to always." It was the truth, every point of inspection and reflection ends in some digging into each other's soul. Perhaps it was just his way of trying to understand, but unless provided, the nomad was completely devoid of approach. Raidou couldn't even operate on his own without some obvious goal in mind, let alone bring another to share one. Hesitant, he adverts his gaze from the girl and finding a simple focus in Akame, the wound up familiar straddling his shoulders like a moving scarf.

[tricolor_mina 0]

Violet smiled faintly when he said he'd consider it. "I think you'll get along with the person there, even if you don't talk about info. She's one hell of a chef~" she cheered, pumping her fist in the air. "Besides that, I kind of want to treat you to a meal! And you can bring any of your friends along, too! The more the merrier after all~!" She leaned backwards a bit, before vaulting herself to her feet, letting out a small grunt of exertion as she did so. When he mentioned the burdens that they bore, she simply shrugged. "Well, burden or not, we're both alive, no?" she replied, shrugging. "We keep moving despite the pain and suffering we bear, and put up fronts to make due with what we've been dealt, y'know? All we can do is just be happy we've been given another day to survive at this point."

Akame purred at the attention she was being given, absolutely loving the interaction she was having. "Conversations are much better when you can drag them out, actually. You get to learn more when they happen like this!" Violet stuck out her hand, grinning like an idiot as she did so. "Especially since it usually manages to get you some new friends! Well? How 'bout it, Raidou-San? Wanna be friends?"

@Raidou

[Raidou 1]

"Fair." Violet was correct on that front, at least they were still alive to make changes and to work toward laying those burdens to rest. There was a noticeable difference between the two, she was much more expressive and excitable, which was strange next to a smoothed out almost complacent mirror. "A meal?" His stomach betrays him, it had been more than a few hours and the rumble of it complaining makes itself known. The last promise of meal instantly became the forefront of his mind from the sea of reflection, Celes was the last he'd made such an arrangement and was still waiting for her to gain some semblance of freedom to fulfill that promise. "I have some strange acquaintances. I am not sure if you want to bring them along." It was an attempt at a joke, but the total dead pan wasn't selling it.

Clasping the girl's hand, and she was surprisingly quite a bit stronger than she looked. "I'd like that."

[tricolor_mina 0]

Violet giggled at Raidou's reaction to her so much as even mentioning food of any kind. 'Haha, at least the guy has priorities!' she thought, before gently pulling him to his feet. when he made the remark regarding how strange some of his friends were, she snorted. "Hey, weird friends are better than no friends, y'know! Besides, the weird ones are the best ones~" She replied dryly, her grin widening slightly. "Anyhow, the place has all kinds of food. Rosa is no slacker by any means when it comes to whipping up a fantastic meal, even with the limited materials she's gotta work with. So far the only type of food she hasn't been able to mimic is some of the stuff from Eastern Europe, mainly Russian and German cuisine. Other than that, she's been able to nail pretty much everything!"

Violet had a happy look on her face when he accepted her friendship, which made her happy as can be. She opened her menu, before summoning a bag of food that was in her inventory. Freshly baked cookies, a container filled with Boar bone miso soup, a container of fried rice topped with eggs, and cubed steak that had been drizzled in Soy sauce. She held it out to Raidou, smiling. "Here, you seemed hungry! I've still got plenty of bags like this stuffed in my inventory, so please accept it~"

@Raidou

[Raidou 1]

Watching the girl just produce a spread of an entire meal from a pocket dimension, Raidou cannot help but ask. "You just carry this with you all the time?" Violet seemed content with whatever image he had in mind for friends, and they were an odd bunch. But at this point they were more akin to family. A whiff of the scent from her little boxes as she plucked them open. It being ushered toward him finds a lifted hand in refusal. "I couldn't impose." Again with that near silent betrayal, a low grumble from the deepest pits. A small black string, finds its way out of the nomads sleeve. What seems to collect in the platter, looks like sludge that was moving. "And now another small detail that I suppose I am sharing..." The nomad remarked, as a single eyeball appeared out of the writhing mass contained in a tiny parameter.

"Mina, this is Juiblex." spoken as the thing began to suck up all the soy sauce, it had a thing for other liquids.

Thread Closure:

11454/30=381*5=1905
11454/300=38

Raidou: 1905*10=19050*1.25=23812 EXP
Mina: 1905*2=3810*1.25=4762 EXP

Col:
Mina: 400*1.3=520 Col
Raidou (Simmone): 23812*.15=3571*1.3=4642 Col

Tags:
Mina:
ID:200032 | Battle:3, Craft:6, Loot:18        
ID:200033 | Battle:9, Craft:9, Loot:8        
ID:200034 | Battle:4, Craft:10, Loot:3
Tags: 2
10 materials, +5% EXP to the party
T2 Perfect Armor/Shield #200034a
T2 Perfect Armor/Shield #200034b
T2 Perfect Armor/Shield #200034c

Raidou:
ID:200035 | Battle:7, Craft:12, Loot:4        
ID:200036 | Battle:5, Craft:7, Loot:20        
ID:200037 | Battle:2, Craft:4, Loot:9        
Tags: 1
10 materials, +5% EXP to the party