solvet saeclum in favilla;

[thanabro]

Characters: Ryoji and OPEN
Setting: Floor Six (ruins of the forest), Floor Three (library)
Format: Either.
Summary: Ryoji is extremely conflicted right now. He's torn between fear of himself and fear of being weak. Knowledge and strength are two sides of the same coin, so he goes in search of both.
Warnings: Possible talk of death and/or body horror.


[Floor Six]

[Stronger. He has to get stronger. Even though he's been training, it's not good enough. He needs to push himself more, and he needs to stop taking so many hits. The forest is a good place to train, though, which is why he's found himself here. He steps away from the staircase and starts jogging, heading into the forest to find a clearing.]

[He's not strong enough, he needs to be stronger. He needs to protect them…]

[Once he finds one, he faces a tree and summons Thanatos, who slices into it, again and again until it falls, crashing to the ground. He stares at it, face set in an expression of determination, before he turns to another three, attempting to pull himself up it.]

[… He might have trouble getting down, though.]



Floor Three]

[Ryoji picks through the bookshelves, trying to find anything that looks interesting or helpful. He finally picks out a one on basic martial arts, and another on swords. A third book in his pile is an adventure novel, but he sets that one aside while he looks through the other two.]

[… His head keeps nodding, though. It might be important, but it doesn't mean it's horribly interesting.]

Comments

[Floor Three]

[nemophila]

[Someone else was also looking through the bookshelves, and he already had an ample stack of books in his arms. He took another off the shelf in the weapons section, and balanced it on top of the stack he already had in order to flip through it.

Looks like he's too preoccupied in the moment, but he might be a bit in the way if Ryoji's still looking at the swords.]

[thanabro]

[He frowns, trying to place the other teen's face as he looks past him for another book - and then it hits him.]

[He's seen half of that face before, in a dream.]

... Excuse me.

[His voice is soft. It was just a dream, right? Then why does he feel so nervous around this guy?]

[nemophila]

[Jun didn't usually like being interrupted at times like this, so his face was a bit stone cold when Ryoji drew his attention.] Hm?

[And then it took him a moment and... Oh.

His eye went wide and with the small intake of breath he took, the entire stack of books became unbalanced as the top few fell to the ground.]]

[thanabro]

[Ryoji crouched, picking up the books Jun dropped.]

... Sorry. I shouldn't have startled you like that. I...

[... It was a dream, that's stupid, why is he even considering this?]

That mask...

[Smooth, Ryoji.]

[nemophila]

[Oh god, he remembered. Ryoji did and-- so did he. He had hoped to some higher power that he knew wasn't listening that they were just dreams, just the usual nightmares, despite how different they felt but-- something had been different about them.

He numbly reached for the book that Ryoji was offering him, but didn't quite grip it; instead, just grabbing his current stack and gripping the bindings until his knuckles turned white.] N-No it--

[It couldn't... he couldn't...] What mask?

floor six.

[sky_child]

--well. That's one way to find wood.

Link had wandered into the forest in search of some--and, by extension, something to keep him occupied, something that wasn't keeping an eye out for his own safety. He shouldn't be surprised that the one thing he's trying to avoid is meeting him where he hopes to escape from it, but...

He's never seen a persona before. Seeing as how he's a Link, he's certainly not quiet about his surprise.

[thanabro]

Ryoji turns, facing Link as Thanatos disappears.

"Oh. Uh... hi. Sorry, was I making too much noise?" Maybe he should have gone further in the forest to not disturb people... whoops.

[sky_child]

"What...was that...?"

[thanabro]

"That... was my Persona. There's a bunch of people here who have them... we use them to fight."

Floor 6, oops

[kindofademon]

Trees are pretty easy targets, you know. It seems like a waste.

[Look who's alive and well.]

[thanabro]

Huh?

[He turns to look at Ryuunosuke.]

Yeah, I guess. But he can hit pretty hard... I don't want to hurt someone unless I mean it.

[kindofademon]

What about animals, maybe?

[thanabro]

No way. I wouldn't want to hurt them either.

[Unless they were attacking him...]

Floor Six

[littlesound]

Little by little, Sonata's getting up the nerve to explore more of the tower. Nothing's tried to get her so far in this outing, and it's still light out... and forests are neat. So she's walking along with her micsaber in hand, head up high to stare through the leaves and branches...

"...oh!" And there's some guy in one of the trees! A guy that obviously needs to be pestered.

"Hey! Hey! Hey, you! Hey!"

[thanabro]

"Huh?"

Ryoji calls down to her - oh. She's kind of adorable. Way too young for him, though.

... He'd get closer, but he's kind of stuck.

"Hi there!"

[littlesound]

"Hiiiii!" She waves a wide, overhead wave, happy to have gotten his attention.

"Why're you in that tree? Are the trees here good to climb?"

And now she's coming even closer to that tree that he's in, placing a hand on the trunk and assessing its climb-worthiness. Climbing stuff is great.

[thanabro]

Wow. She... she really is young.

"Um... I was trying to train up my strength and stuff... but now I think I'm stuck."

floor three.

[fractus_animus]

[ ... He generally hangs out here because it's so huge it's easy to avoid people. If it isn't here or the research library, it's probably him stealing food away once or twice a day and going back to his room.

Avoiding people wasn't easy, but he tried.

Right now he was just absorbed in the music.

Still, it's hard not to notice someone falling asleep on their own books. Minato still has a bit of a rocky feeling with this kid from some other universe. He feels vaguely familiar (but from where?), though nothing can really place him easily. At least not in his case. Oh, well. Eventually the lyrics blaring from his headphones grow closer, loud enough to be heard by someone else.

Burn my dread... ]

You won't get anywhere with books alone.

[ This kid is SEES, so he really sees (hah) no reason to be nice to him. Never mind he killed him once, technically. He doesn't really care. Just one death in a place where death's become a joke. ]

[thanabro]

[He looks up at Minato - the other Minato, the one not in SEES. He hasn't seen this one for a long while. He's not angry that he was killed, just frustrated at himself.]

[But he can't help but feel a clenching in his gut as he looks at him, remembering the words from his dream.]

I know. I've been training, too.

[... Still...]

How have you been, Minato?

[fractus_animus]

[ His reply is quite cold and curt. ]

None of your business, really.

[ Yeah he's not... very nice oops you're in SEES??? ]

You should just take the things and do it. Reading is nice but it won't teach you hands-on stuff. You have to screw up, play with things to learn that.

[thanabro]

[Ouch. That tone from Minato is still painful - and it reminds him way too much of that dream. His entire body seems to droop.]

I know. I need to find a sword first, though. I've been trying to get stronger by fighting some of the monsters around.

[He always has to retreat when there gets to be too many, though.]

[moontothetide]

[...Tara, when she notices Ryoji nodding over his book from her own position at the next table, is just going to quietly get up and walk the book she''d been reading back to the shelf.

If she happens to give Ryoji a completely accidental slight kick to the chair leg, well, then that's just an accident and totally not her former-college-girl sympathies over having to read something boring for what is probably a necessary reason.]

[thanabro]

[He jerks upright, looking around, before -]

Aha. Hey there~. How are you doing?

[Flirting is a totally acceptable cover for frustration, okay.]

[moontothetide]

[Sure it is, Ryoji. Sure.]

Pretty good. [Well, she's getting better. That counts.] I-I was just, um, off to try and find some more books. Y-You know how it is.

[He's clearly in research mode, so she knows he knows how it is.]

Find anything interesting?

[thanabro]

Not really... theory's okay, but I really need to find someone who'll train me in using a sword.