There you were, with that look on your face

[alittlelonger]

WHO: Rinoa Heartilly
WHERE: Bunker, Hot Springs, outside House 16
WHEN: November 2nd and then the few days after
OPEN TO: Bunker for Squall, OTA to the others!
WARNINGS: TBD

Bunker, closed to Squall Leonhart

She comes to very slowly. Rinoa might have gone in and out of consciousness for longer than she knew, or that's how it felt. This wasn't the first time she was so groggy and confused that time had no real meaning. Dark eyes slowly opened and then closed, unable to focus too much on what's in front of her. Where was she? Her hand reached out and hit something solid, and it stung, leading her to whimper and pull it back. No, this was all wrong, this couldn't happen to her again. No more tubes, no more containments, no more sorceresses.

Rinoa started to flail, confused and stuck, when abruptly it seemed to open, letting her tumble out and into the room. This all felt like serious deja vu, because she was only falling for what seemed like a very long second before she collapsed into waiting arms. This time, though, she couldn't stand back up, but merely crumbled to the ground, clinging to the familiar body. "Squall?" she whispered.

The Hot Spring, later

Rinoa was curious to get to know this village, but she stayed overall within the boundaries of what was recommended. Still unsettled and thrown off by the experience, she needed a little space to unwrap her brain and breathe easy. She hadn't heard about the hot spring or what they were capable of, all she knew was they looked peaceful and nice and she decided to sit own next to them. She took off her shoes and set them aside, letting her feet dangle in. She reached down to take some of the water and rubbed her face with it.

She was unfortunately not someone who was very aware of her surroundings, so anyone could easily walk up to her or sneak up on her, and she'd never know.

Outside of House 16

The one thing she absolutely was all for about this place was an actual house! Rinoa lived with the SeeD and she tried not to complain about being constantly interrupted or a living quarter that was nothing like what she grew up in. She loved her friends and the others, but there was just something about having an actual room. Multiple rooms! And a kitchen. It made her miss home and her father so intensely she never expected it, but at the same time, it was comfortable.

She replaced her gray scrubs very quickly with shades of blue, as it was her most comfortable shade. At the moment she was cheerfully sweeping out the indoor of the house. No one had lived in it any time recently, from what she could tell, and Squall certainly wasn't going to think of that. She was going to need to clean and maybe set up some nicer living areas for them. She was in good spirits though, dark eyes bright, smiling up at the sun.

Comments

[awall]

Any place called a bunker was a place that Squall felt he needed to know. Bunkers were more familiar than homes. But any plan of in depth exploration was cut short when there was a familiar figure in the tube.

Rinoa! Squall was already trying to accept he would never meet his former friends again. It was bet to set his expectations low. He had particularly cut any thoughts of seeing Rinoa again. Each world and she probably just got further and further.

But here she was.

He ran after her and opened the door with more force than necessary. Rinoa, Rinoa, please be all right he thought as he wrapped his arms tightly around her. There was no reason that she wouldn't be okay if everyone came through this way, but this was Squall. He worried.

He knelt down as gently as he could, trying to keep her comfortable. "It's me. It's me, Rinoa, I'm here." There was a hint of desperation in his voice. He couldn't believe it. She was here in his arms.

[alittlelonger]

Rinoa was wet and exhausted and she felt sick. It was a stark contrast to what they'd just been doing, enjoying a romantic moment at a party. She thought they were all okay then, that the worst times were behind them. She immediately relaxed in his arms, allowing herself to rest on him, her eyes still closed. "Is it the sorceress?" She asked him, nervous. "Did she come back?" It was the only thing she could think of. That was the source of all their problems before.

She reached out to touch her necklace, because it always grounded her. His arms were helpful, but that was a particular instinct. Only to find nothing there. And she was wearing something strange and wet. "Our ring. Oh no, I lost our ring." That seemed to wake her up though, opening her eyes and attempting to sit up. "Can you see it?" She weakly brushed her hair back out of her face.

[awall]

His heart broke listening to her worry about the sorceress. Of course she would think of Ultimecia, and he wasn't sure his answer would comfort her any. "No, she's gone." Unless she was brought here, but he was not going to focus on that right now. "It's not the sorceress. It's someone else." Someone or someones more powerful but somehow less malevolent. That did not sound comforting in the least in his mind.

"You didn't," he assured her, his hand following her own to brush her face. "We're here without anything of our own." He was still wearing his magenta scrubs and didn't have his necklace, either, which was also not going to comfort her. There was so little he could do. He was worthless in protecting her in this world. She had only just arrived, and he already felt like a failure. Maybe her being here wasn't for the best. Maybe it was just selfish to want her here. Maybe she would be better off without him but somewhere safe.

Fully convinced at his own ineptitude, he nevertheless couldn't stop himself from leaning forward to kiss her. He was weak and selfish, and he felt guilty, but it had been so long. He needed her to know he still loved her. He needed to know that she loved him, too. Instead, he said, "I'm sorry."

[alittlelonger]

Rinoa was so confused, but at least the sorceress wasn't involved. That helped. It didn't stop her dismay that the rings were gone. It seemed silly, to so desperately worry about that, when she had Squall right here and didn't need a symbolic item to give her strength. She was startled when he kissed her, mostly because they were technically still so new to that. It was wonderful, to know that Squall wanted her, that she wasn't alone in her feelings. She fell so hard for him she didn't think she'd find a way up from it, until he joined her and then they were in it together. She could absolutely get used to him kissing her so freely. She smiled against his lips and returned it sweetly.

"Why are you sorry?" She asked after they parted, blinking up at him. "Still taking blame for everything that happens to us, hmm?" Rinoa ran her fingers through his hair affectionately, and then she frowned. "Your hair is longer. It's different." When did he have the time to start styling it? It wasn't a complaint, he was handsome no matter what, but it seemed so strange. "And you're ... are you in magenta?" Okay, she had to laugh quietly, because she'd never seen him rally in anything but blacks and whites. "You're wearing colors."

Rinoa looked down and saw she was in gray, scrunching up her nose. "Oh, we're both in weird colors."

[awall]

The sudden kisses were not likely to become a regular occurrence, at least not for a long time. But for him, it wasn't sudden. It was a lifetime of missing her, of never thinking he would see her again, of trying desperately to fix the entire universe to see her again. This kiss wasn't sudden. He was waiting ages.

She quickly identified exactly what he was sorry for, and her teasing took a slight edge off of his shoulders. He still felt guilty, but at least she wasn't judging him.

But she did point out his hair, which surprised him to hear. He hadn't thought about his hair much, but he did style it differently as he aged. He blinked a little before answering. "Well...hair grows." But when she laughed at his clothes--and then her own--he at least managed an affectionate eye roll. He was laughing with her on the inside.

[alittlelonger]

When she first met Rinoa, she didn't know what to make of him, and wrote him off a little at the start. Now she knew him better than anyone else in the world, and she wished she could shake her old self and tell her to pay attention. It wasn't a schoolgirl crush. True love wasn't easy; if it was easy, everyone would have it. She pulled on his hair playfully, seeing those worry and guilt lines and wishing them away. Wishing would never change that, but she'd keep trying anyway.

"Hair doesn't grow in a half hour, Squall." That was an observation she made without thinking, because they obviously had only just been at the garden, and now they were there. But her eyebrows knit in thought as she peered at him. He wasn't acting like it was a half hour. The kiss was almost desperate in a way, and they hadn't needed that since beating the sorceress. But the hair was the puzzler. "Wait ...." They did have experience with time. Time and space and the warping of them both. "How did that happen?"

[awall]

Rinoa's first impressions of him were exactly what he wanted, so she couldn't blame herself for writing him off a little. He wanted to push people away before they could get to know him and judge him. But Rinoa did the opposite and always was the opposite: she was reckless, she made huge mistakes, yet she kept going. He really admired her empathy and loved her flaws, even when they made his life more difficult.

Oh. Everything was starting to click, so he leaned back, kneeling on one knee and arms crossed on the other. He needed some space to gather his thoughts and try to explain the mess. "..." This was hard to explain. "I've been in a world like this before. Two, actually." The second one he was barely there before being here, though. Hopefully this world with Rinoa would actually give him some time. "I don't know how this one happened yet. I don't think any of the villagers do. It's been around for a couple of years, though. I only got here a few days ago."

He spoke calmly, trying to make it as much a military debriefing as possible. He didn't really notice how much he had glossed over everything that had happened to him after Garden and before here. It was much more relevant to focus on this place for her.

House 16

[connatural]

Having headed out towards the river to try her hand at fishing, and having caught two medium sizes fishes, Ashley is heading back to her place when she notices someone across the way. Someone that isn't the man she met the other day.

Pausing on the porch to twist the twine around a stuck out nail to hold them while she heads across the way. It's still feeling so odd to her. She's never had this kind of neighborhood, and her neighbors were all abnormals in the Sanctuary, so this is definitely so many kinds of movie life to her. Fantasy and not real.

For now though, she's willing to play along. What else is there to do?

"Hey," she calls, pausing before she comes too close, waving. "Welcome? Or... sorry? It's all kind of new to me on how to consider this place."

House 16

[alittlelonger]

Rinoa glances up at the voice, and her smile is fast, sweet. She's very used to meeting strangers, having been the daughter of two famous and social people. She was going to cocktail parties before she could walk. This kind of stranger though, that's what she preferred anyway. A village, not a military or a socialite party. Just two people. In a strange place. She waves back.

"Hi. Oh, uh, I think welcome is right? Thank you!" Wow that was not something she really thought about yet. It was still settling in on her, the reality of the situation, but she didn't feel a driving desperation to go home. This was all too confusing to get a real read on. The welcome felt nice at least. "It's very new to me, it was two days ago I dropped out of some tube." In retrospect, a very creepy way to enter any situation, but she'd been caught by Squall and that made it less creepy. "I'm Rinoa."

[connatural]

"I'm Ashley, and that happened to me about a month ago," she admits, shaking her head. "It's weird. Sometimes it feels like a lifetime, and other times it feels like it was just yesterday I woke up in that fountain."

And she's not sure if that's this place, or if it's just dealing with all of these changes and everything that comes with this place. Subtle differences but differences nonetheless.

"But welcome to the neighborhood," she says with a chuckle. "I should have probably baked something? Isn't that what people do? Not that I've ever been the cooking or homemaking type." Which now that she thinks about it, learning to cook might have been useful. Too late now though.

[alittlelonger]

"You came from the fountain too? Squall told me that's how he came in. I was down in the ... underground space? He found me there." The whole setting was very similar to another situation from their past, and she thinks she'd probably prefer that to almost drowning in a fountain. Rinoa shrugs off whether or not that means anything, because she's not sure if anything means something. She's not prone to much introspection about the greater world. She's only eighteen and surely older and wiser people around here have better answers. She'll ask them, some day.

Rinoa laughs. "It is what people do, but I'm pretty sure we don't have to follow the rules here." She smiles fondly. "I used to do that in my neighborhood. I'm not a great baker though. They were always kind enough to at least pretend they would eat it." She apologized for the burned edges, but it really was the thought that counted, probably. They had a family cook who probably would have been the better choice, but Rinoa and her mother liked to do it themselves. Her mother ever forgot that she was a poor lounge singer once upon a time.

"It's been awhile since I've had neighbors, at least this way. It's exciting! I've been living in the Garden, which is um, more like military barracks and apartments?" The garden sounded nice as a term, but it only vaguely resembled one on the outside. "It is a pretty place but it's crammed in very closely. It's great to have an actual house again."

[connatural]

Ashley nods then. "I did. I came up suddenly unable to breathe and desperate to get to the surface. I saw the bunker," she says, figuring that's got to be where she is talking. "And some have told me that others came down there too, though no one can explain to me why the difference. Though it might be able the changes to the village all together. I was told they didn't have any of that until recently."

So much around them looks so familiar to Ashley and it's all part of what bothers her about this place. Nothing should seem this familiar and yet be so weird at the same time. That it's set up this way makes it so weird to her.

"So you lived in a neighborhood like this? I never did, so it's all kinda new to me." The Sanctuary was a village all it's own, confined into a single building. One the size of a city block, and twice as deep, but still basically a single home. At least in Ashley's mind. "If you know how to cook though, I'd like to learn. I suspect come winter especially it might be useful, even if we don't have our own working stove."

Which she could work around until things got too cold.

"Oh? You're military then? So cool. I worked for the private sector, though aligned with country security in a lot of ways. Yeah, I've never had a house myself. I always lived with the company, and my mom but still." She glances to the East. "There's another village up north, but it's out a way, and most live down this way. So not as crammed, but doesn't make it much better."

[alittlelonger]

"Oh, wow, honestly I don't remember being in the tube itself, I saw it after Squall got me out. I'm glad I didn't end up in a fountain, I'm a good swimmer but I was so out of it already." Rinoa was dizzy and confused when she fell into the bunker, barely able to see around her or recognize Squall at all at first. She's not so sure how almost drowning would have worked in that situation. "Maybe it's just someone being down there or not? Because it was luck he was there." It might not entirely be luck, but Rinoa and Squall have a particular spin on fate together, so she's sure that hasn't changed.

"Not ... exactly." Rinoa smiles, running fingers through her hair. "I come from a wealthy family, we had a manor. It was a little isolated. But my mother used to live in the neighborhoods, so she often had us go out and meet people that way." For her father it worked, because it was politically smart and helpful. For Rinoa, it meant she broadened her horizons. And Julia seemed to understand that isolating her child wasn't ultimately helpful for her. "She died when I was little. I always wished I lived closer to other people." So that would explain her genuine enthusiasm at the moment.

"Does the inn have a working stove? That might be where we have to go until we figure out how to get everything else working. I've never lived somewhere without advanced technology, it's weird to think of those details." But they'll have to. They have to reframe everything they knew. "I'm not military, but Squall and all my friends are. They work for this group called the SeeD. I didn't really plan on joining, but I also had no idea what I was going to do. So I guess this answers that for now!"

[connatural]

Nodding, Ashley pales a bit remembering. "Something pushes you up? But not enough, and given the sudden moment of what and where? Yeah, I inhaled," she admits, making a face with her nose wrinkling as she shakes her head. "I admit, makes me think it has something to do with cryogenics and that is all about the defrosting but it doesn't make it any more comfortable to go through. And yeah, that may be it. I just get curious."

And she knows the danger that curiosity can get her into, but that doesn't tend to slow her down either.

"In that we're the same," she admits. "I was raised in what amounts to a private community, but a lot of my work even from a young age took me out and about. Not as much into the neighborhoods like this though." And she is glad for it, not imagining how hard hunting monsters could be in a place like this.

"I'm so sorry." Ashley smiles though at the rest though, nodding. "If it wasn't for the kidnapping and all? I would think it's kind of neat. But then there's all of that and, yeah." Again with the face making. "The inn does have a stove though, and I'm learning all new ideas for cooking over a fire in the fireplace. I've camped enough, so it's not that hard."

Listening, filing away the name for later though she's never heard of it. "I find it interesting the types they've brought here and the experience they have. A lot who seem to have military or adjacent type experiences. Which is not foreboding or anything." She rolls her eyes.

spring

[oorah]

Frank is obnoxiously quiet on a good day, but he never means to sneak up on anyone. Still, he's been out here for a while now dog training. Aloe came to him wary of people after his owner mysteriously disappeared and he'd been on his own for some time. His trust with Frank is building, however, and he's slowly starting to show affection towards others he doesn't deem as threatening. Neither of them expect to see anyone as they come through the clearing to the spring, so Frank isn't as on alert as usual, focusing more on the dog than his surroundings. Which is how the pit bull trots right up to Rinoa and starts snuffling at the exposed back of her throat before Frank can round the corner. Oops, he whistles and the dog looks up like he knew he did something wrong before slinking back to Frank's side. "Sorry," he murmurs, signing the word along with the speech without noticing he's done it.

spring

[alittlelonger]

Rinoa startles at the snuffle, scared for a handful of seconds, before she turns around and sees the culprit. She owns her own dog, so it did feel familiar, that sniffly friendship. She's aware in that moment how much danger she could've been in, so oblivious to the world, and feels a little guilty. Squall would be so worried. She really has to remember how to be careful! Being sheltered led to a lot of things she never thought of before becoming important. But the dog seems nice and the man seems genuinely apologetic.

"It's okay! I have one myself, he used to knock people right off their feet." Her smile is sweet and gentle, reaching out a hand toward Aloe for him to sniff with permission now. "I'm Rinoa, I'm brand new. I guess i should probably be more aware of my surroundings, huh?" A little self-critical, maybe, but she's eighteen and it's been a long year of learning for her.

[oorah]

"At least he's not that rude yet," Frank admits, signing for Aloe to sit who does so without any hesitation. He looks to Frank to ask if it's okay before sniffing and then licking Rinoa's palm. Frank flashes a little 👌 OK sign back at the dog who pants happily. "...Probably a good idea." He's all for people being more vigilant as a general rule.

[alittlelonger]

"Angelo meant really well. He was a great guard dog!" He saved her life a few times. Rinoa giggles at the lick, her patting gentle and loving. "Yeah, probably." She looks up at him, curious. "Why are you signing when you talk? I thought it was for the dog, but you did it for the sorry too." It might be a direct question, but he did sort of lead into it, and Rinoa's curious. Maybe he's deaf or part deaf and she'd have to think about that before talking!

[oorah]

It's getting easier to talk about, but he still swallows before speaking up. "I came from someplace where it was dangerous to talk. Or make any kind of noise. Now it's just... habit, I guess." He licks his lips and looks around, like he still expects the Sound Eaters to show up and tear them limb from limb.

[alittlelonger]

Her eyes widen in horror. That sounds like beyond a nightmare. "Oh, I'm so sorry, that's absolutely terrible." She can't imagine something like that. There are a lot of things people can just get used to, like the monsters on the road they always had to fight, or possession from malicious forces. "That's your home?"

[oorah]

Is Reims his home? What a loaded question. Unfortunately for Rinoa, he doesn't have a less dramatic answer. "I don't have a home." A beat, a frown. "But no, not in the way you mean."

hot springs

[morphogenia]

Kamala is just running through. She's got cardio routine to keep up with for the purpose of bullying Frank and getting stronger. These are important things! More often than not lately it just leads to her running into people. At least this one seems less alien possessed? Kamala slows to a stop and clears her throat. "Uh... hi! Sorry if you're about to jump in or something. I can clear out or stand guard. Whatever."

[alittlelonger]

Rinoa looks up at the voice, only slightly startled, she really has to pay more attention to her surroundings. Dark eyes widen slightly and she shakes her head. "Oh, no, I didn't plan on jumping in. It's a little too ... public for me." Even with someone standing guard, that's a little much! And she doesn't want to get her clothes wet. "It looked really nice so I thought why not."

Her smile is quick and warm. It's nice to see someone closer to her age. Everyone's a little older than her. Even Squall is six years older now, which is still so difficult to wrap her mind around. "I'm Rinoa, I just got here a few days ago."

[morphogenia]

She smiles, maybe a tiny bit relief. She's heard people get naked in here. She tries not to judge, but it's kind of weird?? She'd support this fellow teen, but boy is she glad she doesn't have to. "Kamala! I've been here a few months. It's been a pretty wild ride, but it's mostly peaceful around here if that means anything to you." Some people thrive on chaos. Kamala thinks this suits her even if she misses her family who may not really be her family. It's complicated!

[alittlelonger]

"Peaceful is good, I could use peaceful. Outside of the strangeness of being here." Rinoa does have a life to go back to, once she really wants, but at the same time she is burdened with the knowledge that Squall will be without her. She doesn't know if this means he will be gone back home, she doesn't think that's how it works, but he would still be here all alone without her. So she has to stay no matter what, with him.

She's just grateful it's not only them and she can maybe make some friends of her own. "We just had this big battle with a sorceress, but we did beat her. I thought we were about to get a little peace, but our lives are a little hectic back there." To say the last. The SeeD were still mercenaries and there were still threats to the world.