( open )

[overclocking]

Date & Time: Several days after the necromorph outbreak
Location: A VR room
Characters: Chrono + Rosette + open!
Summary: Lil bit of coping in-between zombie apocalypses and civil wars, nbd
Warnings: None! KEVIN AND BREAK
Notes: Feel free to tag around also! ♥


[ Chrono doesn't bother to close the door when he finally decides to try one of these rooms for himself. Something about the last few days (weeks) (months) has left him unwilling to stay in enclosed spaces too long, with no obvious path of exist. Too much like a lab or an undead-lined hallway.

But these concerns slowly melt away as he sets about instructing the AI, and the room gives way to a place that isn't a room at all.

Mountains rise up in the distance, framing a blue, clear sky, and a faint breeze rustles the treetops of a thick Michigan forest. Birdcalls ride that wind, and the air smells cleaner, fresher, than any moon base could reasonably boast. Where the blanket of trees ends, a large, glassy lake gleams in the sunlight. He takes care with this part—instructs the AI to make the water a temperature a bit too low to be entirely comfortable for swimming, knowing full well that this won't actually be a deterrent. But it wouldn't be right, otherwise.

He takes his time strolling from one familiar landmark to the next, having the computer make adjustments as necessary. He doesn't miss details, either; for all the times that Rosette brought him to this very place, his eyes had missed nothing. They were wide and all-absorbing, like someone who had been born anew and was discovering the world for the first time.

(Likely because, in all honesty, he had been.)

He stops once he circles back around to the open door—a black silhouette hanging oddly in the landscape, and the only giveaway that none of this is real. It's here that he surveys the scene as a whole, the sum of all its little memory-parts. ]

Perfect.

[ Well. There's still a thing or two missing. ]

... Almost.

Comments

never be gomen

[velveteened]

( that — isn't lost on him, the reaction, but he just smiles and takes a few steps closer, coming into the room (mountainside idyll) properly. )

This is beautiful.

[overclocking]

It's— "home."

[ The closest he's ever had, at any rate, if he isn't counting all those places beyond his burned bridges. ]

We used to come here all the time, whenever we needed to get away. [ He doesn't even qualify we, because there's really only one possibility. ] And it's where we met.

I thought it wouldn't hurt to see it again.

[velveteened]

Oh, that's right! ( he says, remembering. ) Where you, Rosette, and her brother used to play. Her favorite place.

( he looks around, expression relaxing into fondness. )

I can see why she'd say that — and why you'd want to see it.

[overclocking]

[ The conversation is still fresh in his mind—in a way, he's almost gladdened that someone else knows. ]

Why don't you stay for a while?

I think everyone could use from fresh air, even if it's fake.

[velveteened]

It still counts if you think it counts!

( which makes no sense, but is a nice thing to say blithely. he takes another couple of steps more solidly into the room at the invitation, nodding. )

You were planning on staying awhile?

( hard to imagine wanting to leave, if he thinks about it. )

[overclocking]

Of course! We have to stay until the sun sets and we can see the stars. That's when the bonfire is, too.

And that doesn't even include the frog-catching contest, or seeeing who can pick the most berries.

[velveteened]

( he laughs at all that. )

It sounds like you have a lot of things planned already!

[overclocking]

Not at all!

[ He closes his eyes for a moment, listening to the birdsong and Rosette's laughter as she torments someone near the lake. ]

It's just that there are so many possibilities. We used to spend weeks doing things like this... all we had to worry about was Rosette and Joshua being scolded for returning to the orphanage too late- which they usually did, because they'd thought up a new game.

I don't have weeks to spare, but I do have one evening.

[velveteened]

( orphanage, he thinks, and if there's a flicker at that it's not as though chrono can see. )

That sounds like it was a lot of fun. This place must have more happy memories than you can even count!

[overclocking]

Almost.

[ Stoops to pluck a stray pinecone out of the grass, before it gets stepped on. ]

It would probably be more accurate to say that this place itself is a collection of memories.

[ —Aaaaand chucks the pinecone to Oz, not bothering with preamble. Think fast. ]

[velveteened]

A coll —

( WOW RUDE. he raises his arms to block rather than catch it, laughing, scooping it out of the air before it can hit the ground.

and throwing it right back!!! )

That's unfair!

[overclocking]

[ CATCHES IT, though he fumbles for a moment. ]

It's only unfair if it hits you in the face. [ Said in such a way that implies he's quoting someone, three guesses as to who. ]

[velveteened]

Isn't that being a bad influence?

( so angelic!!! )

[overclocking]

It's not my job to be a good influence.

[ Not to Oz, anyway. ]

Besides, don't you have Mr.Gilbert for that?

[velveteened]

Gil?

( STARTS TO LAUGH.


no that's not totally untrue


but still )

[overclocking]

... Is that wrong?

Don't tell me you don't have any good influences.

[velveteened]

I'm the good influence, of course!

( of course )

[overclocking]

[ IF ONLY HE WERE CLAIRVOYANT ]

Oh! Yes, of course. My mistake.

[velveteened]

Well, now you know!

( the magnanimous way he says it might be a bit off-set by his cheerful blitheness. )

[overclocking]

[ We're straying dangerously close to Annoying Faces, now. Emergency subject change. ]

Well, since you're here, you might as well help out.

[velveteened]

With being a good influence?

( NOT GOING TO BE THAT EASY )

[overclocking]

I'm not that optimistic... No, not that.

We have berries to pick. Lots of them.

[velveteened]

( wow!!!!!!

but he does pause at that, cants his head curiously. chrono did mention berry-picking, but it like the rest of the activities he mentioned isn't exactly something in which oz is well-versed. )

What'll we do with them?

[overclocking]

Eat them, of course!

[ A... pause. ]

Well—if it's possible to simulate taste. I'm not actually sure.

[velveteened]

I've never thought about it. ( admitted, but, ) There's only one way to be sure, right?

( so very out of a book, children playing in an open space and doing things like this, ones he'd imagined but never had chance to do outside of imagination. )