sixthiterationlogs | take time, take all the time you need.

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take time, take all the time you need.

WHO: Brigitte Lindholm
WHERE: Southern village
WHEN: All of March kinda
OPEN TO: OTA, with sections for Seifer & Pepper
WARNINGS: Sads over villager disappearance; otherwise nah

around the village | seifer (early march, post take-two)
The supplies that she and Jane had scraped the desert for had been salamanders. Not a common occurrence in the area around the village itself, though she’d then grown used to stuffing the things into jars, their skin oddly warm to the touch. After dropping them off in the village supplies, she’d secretly squirreled one of them away to become the smithy’s new pet-slash-mascot, just like Seifer had been wistfully wanting for a while. It was a little bit of a silver lining, and it had gone well for a few days.

But then the slippery little bastard got away.

Which is how the pair wound up spending their pre-lunch hour wandering the village, checking under bushes and porches, both of them carrying oversized jars and squinting for that tell-tale glimpse of red.

“I feel like I should be putting up a lost pet poster,” she sighs.

at the forge | pepper (after they realise tony’s gone /handwaves)
Brigitte hadn’t really experienced the disappearance of someone she knew. She’d heard of it happening, of course, whether it was longstanding residents vanishing or Jacob’s sister being whisked away shortly after arrival. But she hadn’t undergone it herself.

Until the morning when she came into the forge and found that, for once, the fires hadn’t been lit. She was so accustomed to Tony’s brand of early-morning workaholicism that it jarred her, sent her immediately wondering: Another kidnapping? Another mysterious teleportation across the island? It almost felt routine by now: logging into the network, going to check around, maybe receive his marching orders from afar like he’d done back in January.

And then nothing, and then nothing.

The days crept on, with that odd uncomfortable lack of resolution — was this what happened ? you just kind of… assumed that they were gone? — and Brigitte trying to come to terms with it. Which is when Pepper Potts finally enters the forge and finds Brigitte sitting there on a barrel, the kiln unfired and the young woman clutching a pile of papers filled with the man’s hurried scrawl of a shorthand. She’s staring down at it, at a loss.

around the village | OTA (anytime march)
In Tony’s absence, Brigitte steps up her presence at the forge even more and is trying to keep the place running in some kind of order. She still lives at the inn and can be found there for communal meals and relaxing in the evenings, though she’s starting to doze off in the common room too now — pot, kettle, black. She’s spending more time in the library, reading up on the local flora, brushing up on her notes from Bev’s first aid classes. Learning all the little things that she never paid much attention to before: the teas which can ease headaches, others which ease cramps or nausea. It’s the little things.

[ WILDCARD: pretty much anywhere’s fair game! she goes jogging in the mornings, and can be sporadically found in the infirmary/dojo too, though less often now. ]

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It looks to Aqua like it's more than just being a little tired. It's the kind of tired that can run a person into the ground, wearing on their energy and soul as much as their body. Something happened and Aqua would be a terrible friend if she didn't try to help. So she settles into a nearby chair, moving it close enough that they can still talk.

"You don't have other people to help you?" she asks curiously. She doesn't go to the forge much, but she remembers there were a couple of other people there the one day she did wander in.

"There are, but they're more like, if I point them at something and tell them what work to do, of course they'll do it. But I still need to figure out what work there is remaining, what status all the projects were at. Pepper's helping, though. She's totally invaluable for figuring out his notes and records. But..." But she's also the man's fiancée, and hurting even worse, and so Brig feels guilty piling any weight on that woman's shoulders. Even if they're doing it together (and thank god for it), one hand helping the other.

And then again. Work can help keep them moving, keep them functional, give them a reason to get up in the morning.

"Have you known anyone here who vanished?" she asks, suddenly, looking over at Aqua. "Not like you did, just for a few days, but. Permanently."

That would be a hard situation to inherit. Aqua might not know Pepper, they haven't met yet, but she can tell that Pepper must have been close with Tony. Either way, Brigitte is hurting and so Aqua does the only thing she can.

"I may not know a lot about forge work-" Brigitte knows that from their first meeting. "-but I might be able to help you divide up the work and keep track of what still needs to be done." It's the least she can do, especially since she really doesn't have much of a job here herself yet.

The following question gets gentle shake of Aqua's head. She hasn't seen a couple of people since their initial meetings, but she doesn't know for sure of anyone who has disappeared permanently. "Not that I know of," she says softly. She has been lucky in that regard. "But I really haven't been a resident of this world long enough to make many friends." Brigitte is definitely one of her closest friends here and Aqua would probably do just about anything for her at this point.

"Me either, until now. This is the first time it's someone I actually knew well," Brigitte admits. "And you and I are both so new, I thought it just..."

She trails off. It had seemed so much the luck of the draw; she would've thought the disappearance and the moving-on only happened once you'd been here for ages, but then she'd heard what had happened to Jacob's sister, the first time around. So it really was just... hopelessly random. With no way to stop it, or predict who might be next.

More than the teleportation, more than being whisked across the island on the whims of some unseen observers to jump through hoops and deliver supplies for god knows what reason — more than any of that, these disappearances frighten her now.

"And... you know, that would be appreciated. Or even if it's just, coming by at the end of the day to help put out the fires and tidy things up and close up shop for the night? I tend to work too late on my own projects too, so I forget and stay there too long." If the others at the forge had already left, there was no one to nudge her at the end of the day, remind her to get her ass back to the inn and sleep.

Aqua feels the tug of loneliness in her heart just by watching her friend and hearing Brigitte's words. Remembering how Brigitte had comforted her when she dragged Aqua out of the fountain, Aqua hesitantly reaches across the space between them to rest a hand on her friend's shoulder. Coming from a person who isn't as tactile as a lot of people here, even that touch means a lot.

"I can come by in the evenings," she says firmly. Aqua is the type of person who always needs to stay busy, to help people as much as she can. Doing these small things to help Brigitte will keep her occupied, too. It's the least she can do.

"I'll do whatever you need me to do. Even if that's just reminding you to go to bed." She smiles at that, thinking of how she used to wake Ven up, rather than put him to bed. "Will you be okay?" she asks next, knowing that any kind of loss can wound a person deeply. If Brigitte needs Aqua to push her off to bed now or distract her or just be a comforting presence, Aqua would be happy to oblige.

They both have those habits, these two: keeping themselves busy, picking up additional tasks, never letting themselves lapse into too much stillness.

"I think so?" Brigitte admits after a pause. "I mean, I'll have to be. Others have lost worse. It's just... another job. A bigger job. I can do it." Her hand catches her friend's where it rests on her shoulder; squeezes once, accepting the comfort that was offered.

Then, self-deprecating and a little bemused: "This probably sounds like the laziest thing, but sometimes it feels like the rooms are just sooooo far away even though I know they're just upstairs. But the warmth down here is just... nice. I like being around the people. Does that make sense?"

Aqua nods at the question. It does make sense and she thinks if Ven were here, he would feel the same. But it makes her wonder about some things and she tilts her head curiously.

"Do you have a roommate who could help you get back easier?" If Brigitte is completely alone in her room, Aqua imagines that would make it harder. "I have a spare room in the house I found. I've been trying to think of ways to stay around people for more hours of the day than I'm alone. Maybe we could help each other."

Of all people here, Brigitte should understand why Aqua wouldn't want to be alone anymore. She's had far too long being completely alone.

She liked the inn so much, but living here had been inconvenient at times: not having a full space in which to sprawl, just a tiny one-room spot to call her own. And the thought had occurred to her before that if she had a house, she could have a place for friends to crash, and she could've shoved Jacob at the sofa when he needed somewhere safe to sleep. And yet, until now, she hadn't fully considered moving out. She'd latched onto the inn as such a comfort blanket, a crutch to keep herself surrounded by people. But it sounds like Aqua is in the same boat.

Neither of them want to be alone.

So maybe they could be not-alone, together.

Brigitte has perked up, looking more alert and awake than she had been just a minute ago. "I don't have a roommate, I'm just by myself," she says. Then: "Are you sure? You wouldn't mind? Because that. Would be lovely, I think."

A place to actually be home; to slump around in her PJs on days she's not working; to doze off on the sofa, surrounded by her notes and designs, rather than in a public space like this. Living with a friend. Someone like her. It sounds... good, actually.

A smile blossoms across Aqua's face at Brigitte's response. Pushing herself to her feet, she offers a hand to her friend. She wouldn't have offered if she minded, though she isn't the type to point that out. Instead she just nods.

"I don't mind," she assures her friend. "I think I'd rather have a friend for a housemate anyway. And that way, neither of us ever has to worry about being alone. Or too tired to make it back. I can stop by the forge in the evenings and bring you back to the house."

As far as Aqua is concerned, this is a win-win situation for both of them. Now they just need to get Brigitte's stuff from her room in the Inn back to the house. Between the two of them, that shouldn't be hard at all.

It’s just like Aqua — just like both of them, really — to jump right into action once she’s made up her mind, without wasting a moment. There’s no time like the present, after all, and there’s literally no reason to put it off: Brig’s room is still mostly bare, since all of her clunkier equipment and notes are down at Tony’s forge now. (Her forge. Her smithy.)

So she catches her friend’s hand and surges to her feet, re-energised filled with a second wind from the decision. She’d been so picky about who she might live with, but this? This works.

“I don’t even own that many things — it’s mostly my clothes and a couple notebooks I got from Reeve. I could go right now.”

So she leads the way, bounding up the steps to room eleven, and they start ransacking it together: stuffing things into their standard-issue backpacks, stripping the linen to leave the room neat and empty for the next occupant. It feels like a sleepover, like a slumber party; she’s suddenly giddy at the prospect. “Just so you know, I’m not a very good chef,” Brigitte warns while they fold up her blanket, “but I’m learning.”

Aqua has never been the type to put anything off if she can get it done right now. Something like moving her friend into the spare room at her house is even better than anything else she might want to do. Naturally, they both want to get Brigitte moved as soon as possible.

"We'll learn together," she says with a smile as she helps gather and carry her friend's belongings outside. "I'm an okay cook, but it wasn't something we spent a lot of time on."

But that is something they can work on later. Right now, they have a move to make. They can worry about cooking when they've figured out the rest of the details. Aqua feels good about this. At least she knows they get along very well and they trust each other. This is a much better option than being alone.

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take time, take all the time you need.

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AN ATTEMPT @ ROOMIE SEGUE

/zooms with it!

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could poss wrap on your next w them heading back? THEYRE TOO CUTE

that's a wrap! \o/