[F4-PP] Happier

[Raidou 1]

Tilting his head, he couldn't help but reciprocate her jubilance with a grin of his own. "Most fulfilling feeling in the world, doing something as trivial as picking apples out of a tree for someone else. Of course we're contributing, even if it seems small in the grand scheme it makes all the difference. The Philosophy of picking up trash in a park at its finest. It takes a small amount of effort, but if everyone did it then the park would be clean." The man takes to another lemon square from the plate, trying to sponge up some of this tea before he'd need a bathroom break. "Have you tried the grove on floor 2? Me and Ariel found a place for Urbus filled with Golden Delicious apples virtually untouched by players and NPC's. Just North East of the northern gate, past the treeline near the peak right before the cliff." A nonchalant change in conversation topic out of habit. "There I go again... Isn't fair..." he murmurs Raidou sighs sharply "Let me try that again. I uh, had help." Raidou hesitated on every word, as if sharing his history was throwing himself and his loved ones on the fire.

He was so used to protecting them, their names and actions fell to silence.

"Haine, was my teacher. I was avoiding the hell out of her like I did everyone, and being the curious girl that she was chased my ass down and tackled me." He smiles nervously and scratches the back of his head. "I must have looked like a wild animal, ragged and alone. The red wanderer, thought an ill omen because I never said a word. Honestly it was because I was fucking terrified to speak. We sat on a park bench, and she offered me a sandwich. From that point forward, any time she'd spot me I'd try to get away, and Haine would chase my ass down again. Eventually I stopped running, and then I started running toward her." A smile and with it fond memories.

"Your house may feel empty, but it doesn't have to be. I made my home in the middle of a woods filled with fog. I haven't seen that place in over a year now, and the last time I was there I blew it up. Glass everywhere, took me 3 days to clean it up. Now I live in a mansion in a nearly abandoned town of Sun Elves, helping fund their reconstruction efforts and because the place was already furnished. Furniture is hard, I'm more into potions, glassware and books." He'd tap twice and hope to draw Alexander's attention. Another round. "Different hats, and I'll say this is a new one for me. But its me underneath it, so uh, thanks Lessa for the new hat."

[Lessa 1]

"Floor two, huh?" Lessa echoed, pursing her lips in thought. Then she shook her head. "I actually don't think I've been to that one. I'll have to check it out though. Thanks for the tip."

She slipped into silence as Raidou began speaking, and he gave every indication that the words did not come easily. Sure, she'd poked at him a bit, encouraging him to open up to her, but she hadn't expected this. She'd thrown open the proverbial floodgates, and now she'd have to ride the wave that followed. She enjoyed providing a listening ear, and so many people came to her for advice, but damn if this particular situation didn't make her feel at least a little guilty.

"Haine sounds like a very special woman," she stated once her companion had fallen silent. "I think we all need someone in our lives like that. Someone to pull us out of the shadows." A shadow passed over her eyes before she added, "Or pull us back from the edge. A good friend will do that for us, even if they have to drag us kicking and screaming." Her voice trailed, and for a moment, Lessa simply stared at her mug. Her thumb stroked slowly over the polished ceramic, back and forth, a gesture she didn't even realize she was doing. "There are periods of time, I think, where we don't really know what's best for ourselves anymore. It could be exhaustion, or just big emotions, like grief or anger. But we give ourselves over to it, and we stop acting rationally. I've been through it a few times since we got stuck in here. I stopped eating, I stopped going out, I stopped... well, I stopped functioning. And every time, someone who loved me kept me afloat until I could at least tread water again." She offered Raidou a small smile, then inclined her head toward the barkeep. "This time is no different. Someone's holding me up. Doesn't matter much that they're NPCs."

Lessa's gaze turned back to Raidou, and she finished with, "I'm glad that you found someone to run to. It's so much easier to do than running away. Maybe not in the moment, but in the end."

"Sounds like you have something very special going on over there," she answered, once he brought up his new home. Then she huffed out a small laugh. "Yeah, you're welcome, but you don't need to thank me. We're all just doing the best we can in this pretty floating prison of ours."