towerofanimus | 002. Runaway Bride

Characters: Francis and YOU.
Setting: Floor Six
Format: Either is fine. I’ll match.
Summary: Francis needed a bit of nature. Francis got a bit more than what he asked for.
Warnings: CRACK! Oh… Maybe language?

Six: the Forest

The first time he’d visited the sixth floor, he’d stumbled across it by mistake. A forest with lush foliage had greeted him and as much as he’d craned his neck he couldn’t see the end of it. It seemed impossible to have something that large confined indoors. So, like any good man he had explored without much consequence. In regards to tower-based activities he’d been lucky.

Considering his impaired urge to seduce everything under the age of 35 in the tower and all, he had an unsettling amount of free time on his hands. The sketchbook tucked away in his chest hadn’t been touched since he arrived at the Tower, so Francis, in his brilliant (naïve) mind, had gone back to the forest.

To be promptly run deeper in than he’d ever thought possible. The creature that had approached him immediately looked like a rabbit. On steroids out of a child’s nightmare. He’d lost the beastie but was now stuck wandering through underbrush with no recollection of where the exit was. This was not the forest he’d experienced the first time and admittedly, he was concerned.

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The forest... It was a nice change in scenery. When she'd first been alive, she'd rarely had the opportunity to visit places that had grown so beautifully. While sharing her consciousness, on rare occasions, with KOS-MOS, she'd never had the opportunity until they'd seen the Miltia of Shion's past. And even then, it hadn't been anything like this.

Mary was very happy to just walk around and feel each tree, enjoy the sensation of grass brushing against her ankles where her shoes and dress didn't cover. Thus far, she'd refused to give up the style of clothing she was most accustomed too, during her time on Lost Jerusalem, and still couldn't understand the turn that clothing styles had taken in Shion's year. She was very caught up in enjoy the simple sensations, that she almost didn't notice how far she'd gone and she certainly didn't notice the other gentleman until she actually bumped into him.

And she promptly squeaked and took several steps back. Mary reminded herself that, as an immortal being, she shouldn't have been startled by running into someone.

Francis had been wandering strangely uninterrupted for the last ten minutes... or was it fifteen? Maybe an hour? With as many candles on his proverbial birthday cake of existence time was oddly skewed when a lack of definition gave meaning to it. He simply knew that he would kill to see that blasted staircase about now.

Something brushed against his back and he froze, stuck with a lungful of air as he held it. The squeak made him turn around quickly - for he was a man that faced whatever would eat him. Or so he liked to think. Rather than a scary beastie in sheep's clothing a woman, who seemed equally shocked by discovering another person in her path.

"Today must be a popular day to be lost amongst nature, non?" Yes, that's right. Make light of a slight woman with a large bust nearly shocking him out of his own skin. This tower had made him an anxious mess alright... Francis let out that poor trapped breath and offered a friendly enough smile, holding up his hands to show he was UNFORTUNATELY without weapon. A slight miscalculation on his part, surely. "Unless you are not lost?"

At least the person she bumped into was just that, a person. And he didn't look threatening, especially after showing that he was unarmed. Though, if she was honest with herself, she could probably have help her own even if he had been and had also been violent. Mary knew she wouldn't have done as well as Yeshua, but at least she had something resembling combat experience through KOS-MOS.

"I.. I don't think I'm lost. I'm certain I can remember the way I came." Mary glanced back in the direction she had been coming from, thinking for a moment each turn she'd taken, and the landmarks before smiling to the man. "Yes, I'm sure I could... maybe."

Well, given a bit more time, she very likely could. And maybe a few wrong turns here and there... They couldn't stay lost there forever, after all.

The more she spoke the more perplexed Francis found himself. She didn't seem like a woman of certainties if her love of using the word 'maybe' was any hint. It could have been nerves though, after all neither of them had expected to run into the other soul out here in the middle of nature. No matter how dangerous it was. Francis usually had a way of putting women at ease.

He put on that smile that he'd simply allotted a number to: 39. It was one of his more complacent grins and he looked over her shoulder before speaking. "Ma chere, would you be willing to point me toward the staircase? I think I have had enough nature for today." More than enough for a decade if he was honest, but a decade was a blink of the eye for the likes of Fran. "I came here to sketch and ended up chased by the wildlife. I would not be suggesting your continued stay in the forest."

He winked. Lady-killer, this one. "A lovely lady such as yourself need not be amused to the joys of this place."

Oh yes, it was nerves. Mary wasn't used to being surprised. The biggest surprise of her time would be soldiers approaching their group or encountering the emperor. This was a similar surprise, like encountering soldiers.

"Ma chere? That's... french, isn't it? I haven't heard that in many, many years." Mary said, thoughts distracted for just a moment before nodding, indicating the direction she'd come from.

"The stairs should be that way. I can go with you, just in case I'm mistake. I may recognize something I passed."

His brow rose at that. "Yes, it is French. What do you mean you haven't heard it in awhile?" It was a valid concern, wasn't it? His native tongue was tied to himself and he would like a little reassurance that wherever she was from well, wasn't his home.

"Let us head toward the stairway then. Oh, where are you from exactly?" Francis could question and walk at the same time and took a step in the direction she'd seemed to be coming from. "I hope you do not find it rude that I am so ah, eager to rid myself of this place, petite. I am usually a better gentleman to those I meet, even with duress."

002. Runaway Bride

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