Have a Great Fall [Closed/Emily]

It had been a night like any other in Hueco Mundo. Well, how could it not be in a place where the sun did not shine? Emily once again found herself wandering. For how long? Truth be told, she had stopped counting the days long ago. All she knew was that she had to go forward. There just had to be more to this dull desert, she could sense it! But where? This was her aspect driving her onward like a hermit. What a fool she was for listening to it. At least she wasn't alone. Next to the girl hopped a happy little deer shaped out of reishi. It didn't do much other than follow her, however. It seemed to be just a little companion she had conjured up.

Although most of these escapades were incredibly uneventful and consisted of Emily talking to herself, this one was different. "... And that's why I--", her speech was interrupted by a girl softly landing on her feet next to her. Of course this startled Emily. She was confused and just a little scared. After all, she hadn't expected company. Because of this, she had lowered her guard, put the bossy façade in the back of her mind for a little while and began talking about things that troubled the arrancar. It was a very rare sight that Lessa got to see, indeed.

She stepped back and took a moment to gather herself, the little reishi deer dispersing as she did. Lessa would most likely notice this change, and thus would be able to see right through the façade she was about to put up. Her hand had moved to rest on her umbrella's hilt out of reflex but never did she make a move to draw it. Not much she could do with it anyway. The girl squinted, observing the intruder and heeding their words. She hadn't managed to sense her prior to her arrival, and her appearance was not exactly that of an arrancar from what she could gather. Just who, or what, was this person? Human? Shinigami? If the latter was the case, why was she not being eradicated yet? That had been the case for all previous encounters with them. She was intrigued to find out just who this person was.

Although one would expect Arrancar and other Hollow-breeds to attack potential threats on sight, this wasn't the case for Emily. Her aspect left her more curious than anything. This would, of course, usually lead to combat due to misunderstandings. Hopefully this time would be different?

"I'm not going to attack just because you say I shouldn't.", she asserted. Emily didn't like receiving orders, that much was clear. "Information?", she then asked with a sassy, almost mocking tone. Of course, all part of that façade. She had probably overheard Emily's actual soft, somewhat sweet tone of voice when she landed. "Specify.", she commanded. This was really odd, someone so weak as Emily shouldn't be so bossy, right? Perhaps she was just delusional.



Hello! Sorry for the delay. Replies will be faster from here on out. Looking forward to see where this thread goes!

Lessa just couldn't help it, she rolled her eyes at the words of the woman before her. She really didn't talk much, did she? Or maybe that was just how she was with enemies. Casually, as if not really paying too much attention to Emily, the Vaizard began to cast slow glances about, not picking up anyone nearby that might interrupt if things did get a little violent. As barren and gloomy as this land was, she had to be glad for the fact that it was so dang vast. If it wasn't for that, no doubt they'd already be swarming in Hollow and Arrancar eager to see what a Shinigami was doing there.

"Fair enough. The not attacking thing, but you haven't yet, so that's a good thing. Besides that, you wouldn't last a second against me," for the briefest of moments, Lessa let her power flare just slightly, to about half of her maximum strength, before dialing it back down to a level somewhere near this girl's. A small demonstration of her powers to be sure, but not so big that they ought to attract an audience, or so she hoped, at least. "So, you're not the boss of me here," she commented arrogantly, giving a slight smirk to the masked girl before taking in her appearance more.

Huh...she knew all Arrancar had fragments from when they were Hollows on them, but this girl's mask was among the more intact she had ever seen, covering the entirety of one side of her face. An odd, errant thought entered her mind as she stared at the mask. Wouldn't it get in the way, badly, during a fight? The lack of depth perception...Lessa couldn't even imagine it. Heaving a sigh, both to distract herself from her thoughts and to get the other's attention, she looked to the other's eyes again, the smirk gone, this time in its place was a confident smile.

"But hey, I get it. Shinigami comes out of nowhere, demands information. Doesn't decide to stab you the first chance she gets. Of course you're going to ask questions," she commented, shaking her head. "Gosh. You Hollows sure have gotten a backbone since Tova vamoosed to...wherever he vamoosed to," right, yet another person she would have to find out what happened to, but that was a matter for another time. First things first, she had to explain things to the woman here before she was the one trying to stab her, rather than the other way around.

"Like I said, I want information on what's happened the past few years. Ever since...ooh, let's see. Were you around for Gilgamesh's invasion of this place? Since that, if you can. Or maybe you were around during the time those Espada had their meeting and everything went to shit...? Look, I can't really specify if I don't know how much you already know. Sorry," she wasn't truly sorry, of course, but it was a noncommittal way of ending that thought. Honestly, what had she been thinking, asking to specify without giving any information herself? Even if the Hollows had grown some backbone, they still didn't seem too terribly smart.

A rude thing to think, to be sure, but this girl would never knew she thought that, so who cared? She might prove her wrong, she might not. Either way, all Lessa wanted at the moment was answers. "To be more specific though...hrm. Well, who're the Espada now? I probably don't know any of them, been too long. Seriously, just treat me like I don't know anything at all and whatever you tell me to solve that will probably work."

Emily couldn’t believe it. This girl dared speak back? Surely that had to be a foolish joke, right? She was the one with the upper hand here. This was her home, this was her domain. Hueco Mundo. How dare this filthy cretin even speak back? Thoughts of anger and frustration flooded Emily’s mind, blissfully unaware that it was her who was the fool in this situation. She stepped forward, only to be stopped.

An immense pressure weighed on Emily and she was frozen. A look of surprise, shock and terror overtook her facial expression for how much was visible of it, and she was brought to her knees. Flashbacks of her encounter with Jian and Souta pushed those thoughts of rage away, and she couldn’t help but feel as insignificant as ever. While this pressure wasn’t as powerful as Jian’s, it was certainly fearsome. Then, it dawned on her. She had called this barren place her home. Reality was much harsher than that fantasy, however. Emily had no home.

When that heavy weight was finally lifted from her spirit, she took a few moments to get up, using her umbrella as support. She was weak, broken by such a small effort of this girl in front of her. The girl panted, coughed and looked at the ground in front of her with a shocked look. What was she to do? “Y-you… Bitch..”, she grunted under her breath. I should kill her where she stands. She didn’t act according to those thoughts, however. She simply couldn’t.

The arrancar valued her life much like any other, and she had already learned that fighting was absolutely no option here, despite what her short temper would lead her to believe. Instead, she opted to listen.

Gilgamesh? Espada meeting? Emily could only mutter a grunt. She tried recalling those events, she really did, but was met only with memories of mindless slaughtering, brutal times and instinctive behaviour. These memories were fuzzy, blurry and distant. They were of a different Emily, back when she was a mindless hollow. No, she couldn’t recall these events. Perhaps she had a part in them, but she did not remember. This, combined with the fact that Emily was always in a different place, she had no real way of being informed. “I… I don’t know.”, she muttered, hating to admit her ‘defeat’.

“As for the Espada…”, she then said, looking up. Emily wasn't associated with Las Noches, and only a chance encounter had lead her to know this information. “I know of one.”, she said, looking up and squinting. Just because she had been put in her place, didn’t mean Emily could help her, or even wanted to. “Who wants to know?”, she then asked with a fierce snap. It was true that Emily wasn’t very talkative, but she was simply keeping her guard up. Lessa could kill her in an instant, and Emily wasn’t going to take that chance. On the other hand, she wasn’t one to like the taste of defeat, and her sassy façade served to assert her fictional dominance once again.

“Introduce yourself, Shinigami. Why do you want to know about these lands?”, she then asked. She wanted to know more about Lessa. She was curious, just who was this monster disguised as a cute gal in front of her? Why were they not huddled up in the Seireitei?

"..Are you okay?" for whatever reason, Lessa found herself concerned with making sure the other woman was okay, that her reiatsu being released like that hadn't been too much for her. This girl was no weakling, so Lessa figured she could have handled it, but that didn't seem to be the case. The more important question in her own mind though was why did she care about the well being of this woman? She was just an Arrancar after all, a mindless beast, or so that was what you were always told in the Academy. Of course, she had experienced enough to know there was a lot more to them than just that. Tova Diablo and Titus Arkhan had both been beings that possessed a fair degree of intelligence, so it'd probably be stupid to think of Arrancar as mindless.

"And I see...unfortunate then, that you don't seem to know much..." she trailed off, shaking her head as she thought about what to do now. Lessa had hoped that she'd run into an Arrancar that had been around a while, or one that at least had heard plenty of stories. So to run into one that didn't know anything was...well, to say it was disappointing would be a little bit of an understatement. "Oh well, guess that's what I get for thinking some random Arrancar would be my ticket to learning everything I want, so don't feel bad about not knowing," the Vaizard commented with a casual tone, crossing her arms, her gaze staying on Emily.

When next the girl spoke, Lessa arched a brow. The small girl supposed that was a fair thing to ask; despite never being one for much manners, Lessa still tried to be polite. As polite as a brat from one of the furthest districts of the Rukongai could be, at the least. "Well my name's Lessa Kachekiwa, although if you don't know about any of the events I mentioned, you probably have no idea who I am, either," she informed the other, wondering just how much she did know. Even if those events were a mystery to her, surely she ought to know who some of the big players of this place had been, right? It'd be rather unbelievable if she didn't, especially considering no one knew where they were now.

"A long time back, I used to be a ward of Tova Diablo's, he was the Cuarto Espada at the time and eventually became King, at Las Noches. Eventually left again, though, and was found by some prick named Gilgamesh; guy led an invasion of this place. Tova invaded in return, and I sort of just...slinked away once he escalated and attacked Karakura Town too," the girl shrugged her shoulders, hoping the simple explanation would suffice and that she wouldn't think there was any more to it than what she had just said. The last thing she needed was an Arrancar prying into her life and somehow stumbling across the fact that she was a Vaizard.

"So, I'm not an enemy of this place, really. I want to know what's changed, that's all," she paused, eyeing the other before giving her a slight smile. She had to wonder, what would the old her think of the changes that had happened? Even back then she still didn't like Arrancar too much, nor did she hate them, but she never would have graced one with a smile.

"Lessa.", the woman repeated with a grumble. Needless to say, she wasn't all too pleased with the presence of this person. She was way too casual for being so powerful. Way too relaxed and way too... passive aggressive, almost. Emily couldn't quite put her finger on it. Instead of looking into Lessa's eyes, she turned her head and gazed over the sands spanning out in front of her. "You're right. I know nothing.", she grumbled. Knew nothing of Lessa. Knew nothing of Las Noches. Knew nothing of herself. The only thing she really knew was that she had to wander. Wander far, far away from Las Noches.

Emily never graced the girl in front of her with her own name, instead continuing the conversation despite how much she wanted to leave. "The incursion.", she stated bluntly under her breath, not drifting on the subject. "You used to be a ward here? You, a Shinigami? In Las Noches?", she asked, her tone already revealing both perplexity and a tiny speck of anger. "So Las Noches had already fallen so low.", she muttered under her breath. Clearly this arrancar wasn't a fan of the damn thing. Even saying the name left a bad taste in her mouth. Had she thought of it in a positive way, perhaps she would have been more informed. But nay, she had to be a special little snowflake. A damn wench who didn't want to be restricted. Could she not see how badly it affected her?

"You are neither hollow nor arrancar, yet you call yourself a friend.", she mumbled. "No, let me rephrase. You claim to be no enemy of Hueco Mundo.", she corrected herself, speaking just a tad louder this time. Everything Emily had known and lived by was getting twisted around. A shinigami being a friend of Hueco Mundo? Of Las Noches, even? How can one be a friend of a place of chaos, especially a shinigami? A mere puppet to the seireitei? She lifted her head to stare at Lessa's eyes, and opened her mouth to speak, hesitated for a bit, and then finally spoke. "Your words are poisonous, Shinigami. How can one such as yourself be a friend, when our very natures are opposite?", she asked. At the same time, her stomach seemed to grumble. It was about time for a snack.

Peering out into the distance, waiting for Lessa's answer, Emily searched for prey. Foolish hollow who dared draw near. If none would come, she would just have to take the initiative. Perhaps even with this odd girl, depending on her answer.

Well the other girl certainly was pessimistic, now wasn't she? Then again, Lessa herself had been like that at one point, when she had been stuck in the Human World, so it wasn't as if she could blame the other. And considering how gloomy Hueco Mundo could be...yeah, it was definitely not a surprise that one could get depressed here. Lessa just decided to let the silence pass and wait for the girl to answer or say something; it took a while, but eventually she did, and what she had to say earned an arched brow from Lessa before she shrugged. "Used to be, yeah. Only for a little time, though. Didn't really last all that long, but I still caused a bit of fuss just by being here. I don't think I have to explain why," the little blonde answered, a little amused at how incredulous she seemed.

Of course, Shinigami were the natural enemies of Arrancar, so it was really no surprise that one would have difficulty believing one had actually been a ward in Las Noches. She wondered, if she told Emily that she had been a ward of Tova, would she believe her? Would she even know who Tova was? Based on how she had yet to react to the mentioning of his name, Lessa very much doubted it, but perhaps she had opted not to ask for whatever reason. Well, whatever the answer to the question was on whether or not she knew Tova, it was clear it didn't seem to matter to her. The girl decided not to comment on the muttered comment; with nothing else to distract her, it was easy enough to focus on the words, especially since they carried particularly well thanks to the silence.

"...Huh?" were the first words out of Lessa's mouth at the next question of Emily's. "Didn't you just correct yourself and say I'm NOT a friend?" she pointed out, mere moments before the other's stomach seemed to growl. That was definitely strange, she was unaware Arrancars did that. Then again, she hardly spent any time around them, so how was she expected to know? Especially when all she had learned in the Seireitei was that they were horrible monsters that needed to die. Stupid rhetoric of course, especially for someone like herself. "I suppose you're not gonna be satisfied with just that, though. I'm not an enemy because I'm hardly with the Seireitei. Heck, if they found me right now, they'd probably try to put me to death or something. They wouldn't succeed," was her simple answer for the simple question.

It was her turn to hesitate now as she stared at the other, and then she let out a sigh. Oh, why not ask? The worst that could happen here was rejection, something Lessa felt the other might give. She clearly gave off the vibe that she wanted nothing more than to be alone, given how much she mumbled and how much she spoke. "You hungry or something? I didn't even know you could do...that." she waved a hand vaguely at the other's stomach.

As more words came out of the small vaizard's mouth, Emily became more and more confused. It was best to just shut her up, in that case. The woman nodded, and squinted. "All right, all right. I get it. I understand. This is confusing.", she muttered dismissively, placing a hand on her stomach. It had become natural for her stomach to groan and moan whenever Emily was hungry. It was only normal, was it not? Therefore, the arrancar furrowed her brows at Lessa's comment. "It's about time I eat.", she confirmed, "And do what?". Her hand moved over to one of the buttons that held the top of her dress shut and unclasped it. Pulling the cloth away, she revealed a gaping hole in her lower abdomen. With a smirk painted on the girl's face, she elaborated. "Pretty sight, is it not? I was unaware you could hear it begging to be filled.", she said, quickly closing it back up again. It was rare for her to reveal it, let alone to a shinigami. Something about Lessa just gave her the urge to show it off. She wasn't with either Las Noches or the Seireitei, or so Emily had thought. It was something she could commend, although her god awful prejudice still left a sour taste in her mouth. Lessa was still a shinigami, no matter what her allegiance was at the moment. Emily was thick-headed, and the initial impression Lessa had left would take a long time to recede.

Just then, her eyes caught something off in the distance. A hollow foolishly wandering out on its own. Emily spoke not, but jerked her head to track its movements. Slowly, her hand reached for the umbrella at her side, and with a swift strike, she stabbed it forward. From Lessa's perspective, it seemed as though part of the umbrella disappeared into thin air, though it was more likely for her to perceive a gathering of reiatsu where the weapon disappeared. Moments later, and Emily pulled the weapon back, a hollow's body skewered to the damn thing. Planting the hollow on the sand in front of her, she stomped her feet next to where the umbrella had pierced and pulled it out. The hollow, seemingly still alive, grasped the sand in a desperate attempt to make a dreadfully slow escape. Useless, of course. "Surely you do not mind.", Emily spoke before beginning her consumption of the being.

"As for what you said earlier. They'd kill you? I can't say I'm not curious. What'd you do? Make out with Souta?", she asked in curious fashion, only mentioning Souta because he was one of the few she actually knew. She was always eager to learn about the world, and her pride had already been absolutely destroyed in this instance. As much as she despised it, she would stick around and learn from Lessa. She was strong, and knew things about the Seireitei and even Hueco Mundo that Emily did not. Perhaps this ignorant little arrancar would come to find out some of the history of her place of rebirth.