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

[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."

[littlesound]

Ten years old, man. Yup.

"You're stuck?" Her efforts to climb the tree halt, and she pulls back to shoot in him an incredulous look.

"You just have to climb back down! It's easy, it's easy!"

[thanabro]

"... Um."

Wow. That look from a ten year old. It hurts.

"I'm scared I'll fall and break something."

[littlesound]

"You're not gonna break something! You'll be okay! You've gotta try!"

She continues to look unimpressed with his lack of tree-climbing fortitude. Backing away from the trunk, she stares up at him with her hands on her hips.

"Does Sonata have to come up and get you?"

[thanabro]

... Okay that finally gets him moving, slowly staring to climb down. He's been mostly a city kid all of his life. He's not used to this.

[littlesound]

Yay! He was moving! Her hands are still on her hips, but Sonata is grinning now.

"You can do it! You can do it!" And she shifts into song, instead. "Ahead, ahead! Go straight on ahead! Climb that tree!! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!"

[thanabro]

Finally, way too slowly, he makes it down to the ground. He turns and rubs the back of his neck.

"... Thanks."

[littlesound]

"Yaaaaaaay!" She cheers when he reaches the bottom. And also claps and bounces from foot to foot. "You did it, you did it!"

And next she grinned, looking very pleased with herself. "Sonata's just doing what she does best! Idols cheer people on and help them out!"