Vanille wakes up today like any day on this world. It's a normal day as far as she knows, so she gets up, stretches, and heads out to get ready for the day. Once she's in her normal outfit - she's forever happy that she has her normal clothes and doesn't have to wear those scrubs anymore - she heads outside to check on the herd. All six of the larger ones are happy to see her as usual and she dotes on them as she ever does. After a while, she steps back to lean against the fence so she can watch them. She misses the wildlife of Gran Pulse sometimes, especially chocobos. It's been so long since she's seen a chocobo. They would get along great with the animals she already has and, even better, would be the best beasts of burden they have around.

Sometimes she wonders what it would be like to be a chocobo.

It happens almost without her realizing it is. Her body starts growing, elongating her nose, her mouth turns hard and... her limbs look... yellow. She gasps and everything goes back to normal. But this has made her wonder.

In a few minutes, she's figured it out. Giggling to herself, she runs to the front door of the house, yelling out through the halls from outside. "Phryne! Ashley! You gotta come outside and see this!" When they do make it outside, together or separately, they'll find a large flightless yellow bird waiting out in the pen with the others. It keeps shifting its weight, fluttering its wings every so often. Maybe it's excited about something?

They clearly need to check out this new... bird...

After surprising her roommates with her new ability, she immediately starts running around the entire south village to find everyone she can. Anyone she knows is automatically a target, finding the best places and ways to introduce her friends to one of her favorite animals. Chocobo!Vanille can be found literally anywhere in the south village. Particular places that might find a giant yellow bird outside are the Inn, the fountain park, and any of her friends' houses.

Hopefully, everyone is happy to see a chocobo because here one is.

Chocobo!Vanille is generally well-behaved. She likes being petted and might even preen a couple of people before revealing herself. If someone scratches her under her chin, she'll stretch her neck up and flutter her wings happily. Just don't bend any of her feathers backwards. That hurts.

If she's feeling particularly playful, she can be found running circles around people, dancing, even jumping over things to see just how high she can get. This sometimes has a rather comedic effect, given that chocobos can't... fly. Sometimes she trips over things, not quite adjusted to a chocobo's movements. Sometimes she just falls out of the air, claws over tail feathers, wings flapping frantically and getting her nowhere, before she faceplants on the ground.

Ow.

Anyone is welcome to help a poor bird out, play with the bird, pet the bird, or just laugh at her comedic attempts at getting anything done.

Turning into crystal is the strangest thing to be familiar with, but this is the second time it's happened to Vanille. This time, though, she and Fang had wanted it. They had been through so much together with their Cocoon family that when the time came, when they really did destroy Orphan, they realized that they had another gift to give the people of Cocoon. Despair wasn't the only way to become Ragnarok and the truth was, they were always better acting together than separate.

So Fang and Vanille had willingly become Ragnarok, but instead of destroying Cocoon, they saved it. They reinforced some of Cocoon's outer shell and sucked up all of the crystal dust that had fallen onto Gran Pulse, creating a strong crystal pillar out of it to hold Cocoon in place. That was as much as they could do and now they were part of the crystal pillar, part of the only thing holding Cocoon up in the sky. There they would stay, for as long as the crystal pillar survived.

The sensation of being crystal isn't as wet as she feels now. Something is different. She flexes her hands, something she shouldn't have been able to do at all, given that she'd been holding Fang's hands in the pillar. Frowning, she finally pries her eyes open, shocked at the sight of water around her. Light shines from above, so that is where she goes, kicking with all of her might until she finally breaks the surface of the water. She coughs once she's up, leaning her arms on the stone wall, but not yet far enough to have her head over the edge. She still has to cough up some water from her lungs and come to terms with the fact that she isn't a crystal anymore and what that might mean.

Once she has been fished out of the water, she finds herself a place in the Inn, only really wanting to warm up and dry off properly before she makes her way back to the house. She's grabbed a spare blanket or something like one and is at least wrapped up in it by now. At some point, she has a lot she will need to process. True to form, though, she's pushing a lot of that aside for later. She might be sitting by the fire, but part of the reason she stayed in the Inn for a while is to see if she can find anyone she knows. Several people deserve to hear something about what happened to her and if she can find familiar faces, all the better.

Anyone who comes by is greeted with a smile at least. "You can sit by the fire with me, if you want. There's plenty of room."

Eventually, she makes her way back to the house she has been sharing with Phryne and Ashley. Her head hurts, her heart is heavy, and she's only partially coping with everything that happened back on Cocoon. Her first stop is to say hello to the animals outside in their pen. She hugs each of the larger animals, staying outside long enough to notice or be noticed by anyone walking by. Passerby will receive a wave from her, especially if she knows them. Then she makes her way inside to try to find her housemates and the dogs. Raine and Bhakti announce her arrival and she spends some time cuddling and loving on both of them.

"You didn't miss me, did you?" she teases them, letting both of them lick her face and hands as much as they want. "I hope you were good while I was gone."

As soon as Vanille got back from the long hike, she threw herself into her daily routine. The pups were happy to see her back and she was equally happy to see them. She was also happy to see her bed again and the comfort of her home away from home.

So, in an effort to avoid thinking about everything she saw for as long as possible, she spends the majority of her time with the animals. Sometimes she can be found in the pen with the larger ones, sometimes she's outside the pen playing fetch with the quickly growing puppy and the reptilian dog. Other times, she takes the whole group for a walk outside. She's discovered that it's really a lot easier to guide the herd if she's on the back of one of the kirin. Given how responsive they are to her, it hasn't been hard to train them to obey her weight changes, rather than anything around their heads. They are still a bit flightier than her others, but as long as she remains calm, so do they.

Unfortunately, this doesn't always help the other kirin. Sometimes it spooks and then Vanille has to command Raine to stay with the llamas while she rides off to fetch the loner. She always returns with the other kirin trailing behind her.

"There's a good girl," she says soothingly, releasing the renegade kirin back into the herd. "See? Not bad at all."

Vanille gives it a couple of days before she starts her rounds of checking on everyone. She doesn't know what all everyone had broadcast and how that affected them all. What she does know is that her group hadn't fared too well. If any of the others had bad memories or uncertain futures play out, she wants to at least be there for them, even if they don't really address the issues.

So she spends time knocking on doors and bothering her friends at the Inn or anywhere else she might see them. "Hi!" she chirps brightly, with the tone of someone who thinks there's nothing wrong at all. "What are you doing today?"

Ashley is one she saves for last, mostly because she has a feeling she's going to need some intervention here. Vanille knows the right door to approach and does so with purpose, knocking firmly on the door. "Ashley? It's Vanille! Open up!"

Open up, Ashley, or Vanille might just come right on in.

It starts out like any other day. Vanille wakes up, happily dons all of her various bangles and jewelry, and dresses in a combination of her normal clothes and something appropriate for the weather. It's nice to have all of her clothes and jewelry back. For a few minutes each day she can almost pretend that she's back home in Oerba, before anything happened to them at all.

Except today something pings on her wristband. She frowns at it, noticing the countdown. She doesn't know the calendar that this place is using, so it doesn't mean much to her. What catches her attention instead is the clip that plays next. The clip is only a few seconds long, but she recognizes too much about it. Sure, she and Fang haven't set foot inside Orphan's cradle before they woke up on Cocoon, but she recognizes it all the same. That being in the background... that laugh. Those weapons on the ground are all familiar, too, in a stronger way. Those are the weapons of her family. Her new Cocoon family. And they've all somehow gone Cie'th with Fang and Vanille being the only ones still upright.

This can't be anything. It can't. Vanille doesn't remember this happening. Maybe it's the future? But how? And why? Or maybe she's just like Fang and can't remember this part. Maybe something else happened. All of these new Cie'th, just like the Calvary. But these are her family, turned Cie'th for no purpose than because she and Fang failed their Focus. Because Vanille keeps running.

Guilt nearly swallows her. As she presses her hands to her ears and squeezes her eyes shut, she lets out a horrendous shriek. Both dog-like creatures start barking and making noise, clearly as distraught as their human mistress. The redhead dissolves into inconsolable sobs, rocking where she sits on the edge of her bed, clearly in no fit state to do anything.

With Ty gone, there are only about two people left Vanille wants to take out on an exploration. She has several acquaintances and people she wouldn't mind hanging out with. But Ashley and Natasha are currently at the top of her "take out exploring" list. So, after letting Phryne know that she's going to explore a bit, she sends Natasha and Ashley separate messages, asking them to go exploring with her. Taking care to make sure her llamas are okay without her, she packs her own bag with supplies and rations, pats Bhakti and Raine on the head, and makes her way outside.

With her two other friends coming along, Vanille leads the way up north. She's much more subdued than she normally is - no tearstains in sight at least, but there's a determined set to her jaw that speaks of some kind of deep pain she doesn't want to talk about. Eventually, during one of their breaks, Vanille spots a group of horses. Her face lights up more than it has been since they started out and she decides to make camp so she can spend some time just watching the majestic animals. Good thing she brought some rope this time. She might need it if she tries to bring some of these home with her.

If she isn't just watching the horses, she might be staring into the campfire or seeing how her companions are doing. She needs to introduce her llamas to Ashley when they get back... and maybe this is a good time to tell Ashley more about who, and what, she is. As for Natasha, there's always time to get to know each other. It isn't as though Vanille has been hiding everything about herself and her world anymore. Just the important details. But the longer she spends here, the more she thinks that these people really don't know what l'Cie are. And maybe they won't be afraid of her.

Eventually, once she's gotten her new pair of horses settled into the pen and introduced them to the four llamas, Vanille decides to spend some time outside with her menagerie. She still needs names for two of the llamas and now she has to pick out names for the horses. That will give her something to do for a while, pondering names. 


She does have to keep an eye on Raine, though. Bhakti seems to have a healthy appreciation for the new beasts, keeping his distance until they seem to accept him. Raine, on the other hand, is used to the llamas, which are gentle and tolerant of a lot of things. The horses startle too easily and after the first few mishaps with them, Vanille picks up her errant puppy and holds onto him. Eventually, she sets him down inside her room, where she doesn't have to worry too much about him, and returns to getting used to the horses. Later, she'll let Raine back outside, but for now she needs to keep things as calm as possible for the horses.


This proves to be easier said than done, she realizes, as the horses stare at the latest person approaching. Their nostrils flare, ears twitching everywhere. Vanille runs her hands down both of their necks, quietly talking to them. "It's all right. It's just another person. You're gonna be fine. Promise!" 

And maybe she's saying that as much for her own benefit as theirs.