Rystelle Member

Coming back into the living room with a glass of water, Sophia saw Tim still standing. "Take a seat," she told him, smiling, taking a seat on the couch herself. "I promise you it's ok. 'M not gonna bite, and you don't have to worry about breaking anything." Finally Tim sat tentatively down on the couch. She opened the bag with their food and passed Tim his stuff. "Would you like to watch TV?" She asked. "Or play a video game after we eat?"

Even with her sharp ears Lydia had trouble hearing Ragna's words over the raging storm. It was all she could do to keep him in her sight and follow him, trusting him to lead them to safety. When the lightning hit the tree Lydia almost jumped out of her skin. She covered her ears and shut her eyes, crying out in pain as the noise seemed to leave her temporarily deaf, the white light leaving her temporarily blind. When she opened her eyes again and blinked she searched the area for Ragna. He had gone ahead, not realizing that he had accidentally left her behind. It took a moment for her to find his large figure and she quickly scurried after him, for once wanting to make sure she was right by his side. As she entered the cave after Ragna he turned and said something, but she was still massaging her hurt ears. Eventually her hearing returned to normal and she heard Ragna say he was going to start a fire. She nodded her understanding and took a seat on the cave floor. Soon they had a nice fire going, but they were still soaked to the bone. Lydia's magic was limited and she did not know a spell to dry their clothes. They would have to do it the old fashioned way. Although tougher than most humans, even elves got cold and Lydia shivered violently as she waited for the fire to dry her off. Once more she rubbed her ears and complained, "That lightning strike hurt."

"Alright then," Sophia agreed. "We'll head to my apartment." So she drove them to a nice little apartment complex where she had a flat on the second floor. It wasn't huge, but it had a living room and kitchen, a bedroom and full bathroom, and a balcony. "Here we go," she said, opening the door up and flicking on the lights. "It's not much, but it's home." Her apartment was clean and well kept with most of the clutter belonging to the book cases. There was a kitchen table with two chairs, a soft couch with a coffee table in front of it, bookshelves, and an entertainment stand with a decent sized tv on it. The entertainment stand was filled with various gaming consoles. Shrugging off her jacket she put it and her shoes in the closet. "Jacket and shoes in here, please," she informed Tim, motioning to the closet. She went and put her purchases away in her room--leaving the game on the coffee table--, then appeared again. Walking into the kitchen she asked, "Would you like something to drink? I have water, juice, soda, and tea."

"We'll get some carry out from the food court then," Sophia decided for them. So they headed to the food court and picked out what they wanted. Afterwards they head outside to Sophia's car, putting their purchases in the back seat, though the food stayed up front with Tim so he could keep an eye on it. "My place or yours?" She asked as she buckled her seat belt and started the car. He had not been to her place yet, but she was sure he would like it. It was clean, though some spots like her bookshelves looked pleasantly cluttered with action figures, books, and movies. But if Tim felt better going to his place they'd go there.

"It is," Sophia agreed. She felt positively giddy with excitement, this time mostly because her new jacket was a Legend of Zelda one she had found in one of the gaming stores. She was positively glowing with (nerdy) happiness at having found such a jacket. On sale too! She had bought a game as well, an older version of Mario Party thinking that she may be able to get Tim to play it with her one day, and just some dragon earrings she had thought looked pretty cool. All-in-all the entire trip had been excellent in her opinion, and she knew that Tim was at least enjoying himself and was better than he had been earlier--all things that made her happy. It was starting to get late in the evening now and her stomach was starting to grumble. "Want to get something to eat, Tim?" She asked. "We could eat here or stop somewhere else, or get take-out and stop by your place or mine."

Eventually they broke the hug and Sophia managed to give Tim a smile. "Shall we head to the mall now?" She asked. Tim nodded his consent and grabbed his hoodie and house keys, taking his coffee when Sophia gave it to him. They left the apartment, making sure to lock it behind them, and then walked over to the cafe parking lot. They hopped into her car and were on their way. Sophia pulled the car into a parking spot and they got out. "Awesome!" She said excitedly. "I haven't been to the mall in a while. Let's go see what they have, shall we?"

Lydia mulled over Ragna's words. She had never really concerned herself with the origin of any race, only their actions. Still, it was good to know that the two races most swathed in mystery were at least bound by their oaths. It was more than she could say about elves who were a self-interested lot concerned only with beauty and purity and preserving it for their pleasure. Lydia herself felt none of those draws as her elven blood--thankfully--failed her there. Her skills and abilities were almost wholly elven, but her personality and interests were almost wholly human in nature. For instance, while she did not need to sleep and eat that much, she enjoyed it and often partook in those activities as much as humans did. And just like a human Lydia could be self-interested, self-less, and sometimes even both at the same time, given how odd and complicated humans were. For the most part Lydia tried to be self-less. She traveled the land helping others with problems small and large. She tried to keep the fragile peace held in precious few places by chasing away trouble-makers, stopping thieves, capturing murders. No matter what race someone was, age, gender, or anything else, Lydia tried to help everyone. Equally, if you were a trouble maker, no matter who or what they were she would take them down, sometimes bringing them to a local prison or else simply killing them. She had taken her fair share of lives over the years. She couldn't say the deaths bothered her. Some of the men and women she had killed had been little more than monsters who enjoyed rape, torture, and murder. She had done away with them with no qualms. The only deaths that really bothered her were the few instances when she had had to kill animals that had gone mad and were actively attacking people. Those she mourned because they were creatures that did not know any better. Finally Lydia shrugged. "I try to protect the peace," she said. "There's very few places any more that are peaceful. I and others like me are trying to simply preserve what remains while also trying to expand it. Humans, dwarves, and yes, even demons and elves, if anyone is in any sort of trouble I try to lend them my hand." She glanced at Ragna sideways to see what he might have, then continued on. "I actually do stay with the dwarves fairly often. I am friends to many of them, including their king, and it is where I feel most at home, if I am being truthful. But Termina houses more people of all races than any other small town or village. There it is easy to gather news of trouble brewing in other parts of the world so that I know where I might lend my services."

Sophia waited for Tim to decide what he wanted. Finally he agreed to a hug and Sophia couldn't help but feel a little relieved. She didn't know what was going on with Tim, but she would do whatever she could to make her friend feel better. Taking care not approach him too quickly, Sophia wrapped her arms around Tim's shoulders and gave him a gently hug. "It'll be ok," she said, trying to reassure him. "Whatever it is will be ok."

Even if Sophia tried to she knew she wouldn't be able to forget seeing Tim like this. She tried to hide her worry, however, thinking it might make him feel a little more at ease. "Of course. We can still go to the mall, Tim," she said, trying to help soothe his nerves a bit. "Whatever you want to do is fine by me." Suddenly Sophia bit her lip. By nature she was an extremely caring person. She hated to see others upset or in distress and always tried to help out whenever she could. People usually found her easy to open up to, and Sophia was more than glad to lend them a shoulder to lean on and a friendly ear to listen. With Tim it was a bit harder to do this since he was so withdrawn from people in general. Still, Tim was her friend and she wanted to do whatever she could to make him feel better. "Do you... do you want a hug?" She found herself asking a little tentatively, unsure as to how Tim might react.

Sophia closed the door behind her by backing into it, then followed Tim's voice into the kitchen. She instantly set the drinks down on the table when she saw him leaning over the kitchen sink. She noticed the same bottle of pills from yesterday on the counter beside him, but she said nothing about it. She didn't know what they were for but it would not be right of her to jump to conclusions. Even with his back to her Sophia was sure that Tim must have been extremely pale with a look of agony on his face similar to the one from yesterday. Part of her really wanted to go over there and hug him no matter what might be going on, but the other part of her rationalized not to. She didn't want to overwhelm him. So she stayed where she was and asked, "Is there anything I can do for you? Do you want to just stay here and relax?" Whatever Tim wanted to do she would do it so long as it made him comfortable and happy again--or as least as much as he could appear to be when they were together.