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?

[thanabro]

... You remember that dream too, don't you?

[He wasn't stupid. He wouldn't be reacting this way if he had no idea what Ryoji was talking about.]

I... I knew there was someone under it...

[nemophila]

[He knew about he Joker.

No, no no no he-- his grip went the opposite now, and the books fell out of his arms to the ground as he turned away from Ryoji, his hands clamping around his head before migrating to cover his face.]

N-No I-- I'm not--!

[It took him a moment to calm down from his own hysterics before he finally said something intelligible.] I'm so sorry...

[thanabro]

[Ryoji attempted to catch what books he could before just carefully stepping back to avoid kicking the pile.]

...

[He just shook his head, expression carefully blank.]

Some of the things you said were... really true, though. I... I'm...

[... too weak.]

[nemophila]

No, no--!

[Apparently Ryoji's hesitance was enough to offset his own panic, because his hands flew back to his sides as he zipped right back around, his posture a bit rigid.]

Please, I'm sorry I-- I didn't mean any of those things I said. [Dreams were usually hazy after you woke, but the details were starting to fly back to him full force.] I was just-- please, don't take that to heart. It wasn't fair of me, I was wrong--!

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.

Floor 6, oops

[kindofademon]

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

[Look who's alive and well.]

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]

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]

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.

[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!"

[thanabro]

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

[sky_child]

Purse...own...uh...

"Oh! A persona! I know about that. A girl named Labrys mentioned them."

Suddenly it's as if he was never shocked at all!

"So that was like your heart spirit?"

[thanabro]

For some things. For others you were right.

[The past has taught him too much. Too many people throwing things in their faces. He doesn't want that to happen again.]

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. ]

[kindofademon]

What about animals, maybe?

[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?

[nemophila]

No I... [His arms dropped to his sides and his shoulders droop, and he all around just had this kind of defeatist look about him as he looked at the ground.]

I was wrong. I don't even believe most of the things I said....

[thanabro]

... Close enough.

"I don't know anyone named Labrys... but yeah, kind of. They're parts of yourself."

[sky_child]

"She said I might have one, too. I wonder what mine would look like..."

A bird. In another game.