Lack of Will, Lack of Life (closed)

The same unchangeable yellow-clouded sky, above the same unchangeable marred blue grasses, was all Zerori could see as she lounged about once more around the same collection of boulders. She’d long since abandoned her search for Tokepo, her father, and was still contemplating the deal she’d made with Alaistair to escape Hell. Aside from how she’d make the fight against Xylo… ‘entertaining’, she really didn’t have any particular reason to bother with anything.

Her father was no where to be found.

Training only made her feel like she was boring herself with repetitive motions. It wasn’t helping her mind, for certain!

Staring up at the sky, Zerori’s gaze consisted of a dull-eyed expression, passively looking for nothing and seeing nothing. It was as if she wasn’t even awake, aside from her eyes being open. After what felt like days, fixed in the posture, the hybrid’s eyes would blink closed and then re-open with a grimace. Stretching her arms from out beside her, she’d let loose the loudest ‘yawn’ in the form of a yell that took up every bit of her breath and echoed across the grassy plains.

Afterwards, she just leaned up and placed a hand to her face, “I’m losing it.” Shaking her head slowly, she’d mumble, “I’ve been dead so long I’m starting to feel dead. I need-!” Looking between her hands, she struggled to come up with words. “Interaction, a hobby, a punching bag – ANYTHING!!” At the final yell, she threw her clenched fist as hard as she could into the ground and reveled in how it broke through and splintered the dirt around it.

Looking around, she’d spotted the first cloud that caught her eye and placed her hands on the ground to push herself to her feet. Stalking towards the cloud, her gruff voice demanded quickly of her victim an answer, “You! Do you-?” She paused, a modicum of sense pervading her mind and stopping the next combination of words. However, no better option came to mind before she just let the hesitant words escape.

“…Do you want to hang out with me?”

((Woo, Zerori is losin' it lol))

As expected, this little blob of light was just as confused as she was. Well, perhaps more so since she was the one whom initiated the odd desire for companionship. Giving him a look of utter bewilderment at his question, Zerori just placed a hand over her face with a deep groan of frustration. She sat down in front of the cloud and crossed her legs before responding in a defeated mutter, “I have no idea.” She moved her hands to massage her temples as the words seemed to just come from out of no where, “I feel like I’ve been dead for a very long time and I’m… just… LOSING my MIND!” She hissed, smashing one of fists into the ground.

For a moment, she tried to collect her thoughts before she focuses her attention on him, “So I, uhm… I don’t know. Just talk with me, I guess. Why’d you die? What brought you to hell?” She motioned her hand around them as she finished with a final question, “Also, what’s your name?”

God, this is super dumb. Like… insanity dumb. You’re talking to the equivalent to a rock in hell. YOU were like a ROCK in HELL! Why did anyone even speak to you like this? Her thoughts were spiraling out of control from apathetic to self-hatred.

It wasn’t that time was against her – how could it, being dead and completely outside of time?

But somehow, despite being dead, a small part of her felt as if she was doing nothing BUT wasting time. And that was a paradox that Zerori didn’t have the patience or self-enlightenment to figure out.

((So sorry for the crap post after… jfc, 3 months of waiting. Gonna keep up on this for sure! Treylech ))

At her request, the cloud spoke and what a story there was to tell. Easing down into a sitting posture as he regaled her, Zerori's expression would go from disgruntled - a bank heist, really? - to pity at the mention of his reasons. She propped her cheek in one palm, leaned against her knee, and her mouth fell open.

"A saiyan woman? Can't say I've met you before so... Perhaps Earth, then?" There was a passing moment before she clarified, "Mental notes. Don't mind me," She waved dismissively.

When came her turn to share she had a sympathetic smile on her face, irony almost pathetically cathartic. "My story really isn't much different, see," Gesturing with her hands she waved upward in an uncaring motion, "There was a young girl that I was... Responsible for, we'll say, and I regrettably lost her to my own shortcomings." Briefly, she met his eyes before discreetly looking just off to the side, "My goal was to revive her but a lot of shit fell through and I was pretty much killed by a ghost of the past."

What else could she add than that-? Oh.

"A very unexpected and powerful one. Not everyday you get killed by the guardian of Earth."

It was so quick that she almost didn’t catch it, the question. With herself in a sitting position, she couldn’t really do anything about it but it wasn’t question that caught her off guard anyway. Perhaps she didn’t expect the sheer genuineness of the question. When he suddenly began backtracking, she took that as cue to answer the abruptness. “Hey, enough of that.” It was a soft scolding, backed up by a hardly threatening frown on her face. He didn’t remind her of anybody, but something just… bothered her about him.

Reaching for the cloud after his bout of self-admonishment, she made to bring him closer to her and pushed her face close to his with a firm snarl, “If you think like that you’ll die again just as soon as you return, got it?” Whether she touched him or not, she’d release him just a quickly before continuing, “I don’t. That ‘sense of loss’? I don’t deal with it. Not well, at least.”

She brought a hand to her chest, where Bing had thrust him arm through, and scratched at the area like there would be a wound there. “Can’t say anything against her being a ‘faceless’ person or anything but,” She shrugged, giving him a silly grin, “You must have made SOMEONE pissed enough to kill you and I’m betting they aren’t going to forget your face. So take pride in that.”

Listing to the little cloud actually take pride in their own existence was an oddly warm-hearted feeling. Sentence to hell be damned, she wasn’t just going to abscond from doing an occasional good deed or two. It only bristled her a bit that he thought of himself as a ‘speed bump’; progress was progress, it seemed and she gave a soft sigh. “Good, then.” Getting to her feet, she stretched a little with a arms before popping a different topic to the little cloud.

Wait.

“’Traylecked’? Was that your name?” She tried to pronounce, butchering it slightly before she continued. “You said next time like you wanna give your assailant another go; is that right?” She tossed a smirk and crossed her arms, “If you have a name for me I could be convinced to lend my services – should I found a way back to the world of the living, of course.” She pressed her index and thumb together with a leer, “-And I only charge a modest fee of 3,000 zeni if you’re willing to buy my services. Of course, if they’re my level of power or more then… well, you’re shit out of luck. I think dying once is my limit before I resort to dirtier methods. Which cost extra.”

((SORRY FOR THE WAIT AGAIN - I AM TRASH Treylech))