( 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

[overclocking]

[ Blinks, mouth tugging at a frown. Is he imagining things, now? Voices in his head, on the breeze?

He eases somewhat when he spots Blue—up the slope, near the door that he's left ajar, and this seems like appropriate turnabout. Doomed to walk in on each other's memories forever, it seems. He makes his way closer, and makes a mental note to remove his shoes, later. The grass actually rustles beneath his feet. ]

Blue.

[ Remembers their previous discussions, and speaks to a question he isn't even sure was asked. ]

This is Earth.

[firstroar]

[with Chrono in sight, Blue can be certain about that sense of familiarity. he, too, wonders on this chance, tables turned and all.

this is much more grand from his perspective, though.

he is still in his waiting with his eyes and thoughts fixed on Chrono; he nods in regard when he's close enough, and silent for longer after that remark.

Earth. Terra's ancient name.

how many things can be coincidence?]

Your Earth. [he looks past him.] This is what it was like...?

[overclocking]

[ He follows Blue's gaze, and watches the spruce trees sway with a tug of satisfaction. The hours had been well-spent. ]

Mm... or close. This was a place in Michigan, where Rosette grew up. [ Says it almost absently, thoughts still caught in memory. ]

There would probably be more animals around, if this were the real thing. And a small fishing boat [ points to the lake, sparkling under the high-noon sunlight ] right out there, on the water. The fishing was almost always good at this lake.

[firstroar]

[light and conversational externally, sure, but Blue's mind can grasp the greater measure of the words, the names, and faintly feel where threads of memory could lead should be try and touch them. they are heavy with value...and this place, too.

it tightens his throat, simply gleaning that awareness. he swallows, but says nothing for a length.

quietly:] It's beautiful.

[overclocking]

[ He smiles, bright and genuine, and he wonders if his face will crack from being stressed this way after so long. ]

I'm glad.

For as long as it's here, it can be yours too.

[firstroar]

It should be real... [muttered as he sets a hand on the trunk of the nearest tree. should be something Physis can enjoy...

his hand retracts, pulling himself out of that to acknowledge Chrono, give him a tight smile.]

You remain generous, Chrono. Thank you.

[overclocking]

[ Chrono is perceptive, for all that Rosette might try to argue otherwise; notices some shift in demeanor or mood, brow furrowing slightly. ]

Are you alright?

[firstroar]

[he spent 300-plus years living with empaths, but having his feelings detected easily here is still a small surprise. he hesitates. it's nobody's business or burden but his own...except for the parts that aren't.

he frowns faintly, eyes back on the tree.]

I'm here. Still alive and standing. [so that's alright.] But it's almost certain Physis is no longer here.

She'd have liked this vision very much. It's similar to the ones she gave me.

[overclocking]

Physis... [ Tests the name once, because isn't that... ] I spoke to her, when we were in the UE.

[ Something in his chest clenches at Blue's expression, and it's- too close to home, too familiar, too recent. He'd set his tray down across from her that day because she'd reminded him of Mary, in a way.

It makes it worse. ]

[ Quiet, so as to not carry to the others who've been drawn to the scenery; ] ... I'm sorry.

[firstroar]

[his mouth tugs faintly, getting sense of that line of thought.]

I'm glad you could meet her. Even if it was only briefly. [he looks toward him, the smile weighed down by his grief, but there all the same.] I'm glad she could meet people like you. People different than us, still respecting her.

[overclocking]

I wish I'd had something more illuminating to talk to her about...

[ Most of his conversations in that lab are a muted blur. A balancing act between acknowledging their situation and ignoring it completely. ]

Would you tell me about her?

[firstroar]

[he's quiet at the request for a time, looking past him, away, and then back again in a slow sweep of the place as he collects his thoughts. his shoulders lift with his breath.]

She's...unique among even my kind. She alone can predict the paths our future can take, and give us the insight we need to reach them. I found her, decades ago, because her vision of our homeland was so bright and pure in her.

[a beat.] She's our compass. A beacon to Terra. And she has never been anything but giving and kind to us all. Even here, she hardly wavered at helping others, though she'd never left our ship before.

[his voice has been thickening in places, as is wont to. his goddess – a long, long fixation and lap of comfort.]

[overclocking]

[ Breath hitches, she alone can predict the paths our future can take, and isn't it absurd? Perhaps it wasn't Physis' long blonde hair and calm demeanor that had reminded him of Mary, but the way she carried the burden of endless time.

Softly, almost to himself, ] I didn't realize...

[firstroar]

[now that he's on this vein, it's hard to pull him out of it. Blue's quiet, reflecting on this and what he's said; he can't believe he's done her justice in just a few words. there's so much more to her that he can't properly convey.

but, in looking outside of himself, back to the company he's keeping, there's more than just Physis' image floating about.

he looks back to Chrono.]

...Who is she?

[overclocking]

She-?

[ Gets halfway through the word and—falters, taken aback. He's certain he knows what Blue is asking, but not how he arrived at the question; my people, he's said repeatedly. Maybe therein lies the answer.

But for a long moment, Chrono finds himself woefully unprepared to put words to a wound this raw. ]

[firstroar]

The woman...the other one. Yellow hair. [his eyes squint a little.] Am I wrong?

[overclocking]

... No. No, you're not wrong.

[ Tries again after his false start, and his voice is oddly mechanical. Like he's reciting words heard many times from others, answering questions formed from nothing. ]

The holy maiden who could see endless time—past, present, and future. [ Uses past tense without realizing it, because it seems there has never been a time in his life when she wasn't just that. ] Mary Magdalene.

[firstroar]

[he watches him speak, watching where the words led both thought and feeling, but not taking the step forward he needs to follow those paths too far away from himself.

it's...very strange. Chrono might as well be talking about the same woman, using words like that.]

Not unlike her, in a way. Yours and mine.

[overclocking]

[ Some small part of him almost wants to laugh at the happenstance of it all. ]

You know... we were in the cafeteria, in the UE. [ Somehow, he rather assumes Blue does know. ] She was sitting alone. I sat across from her because she was familiar.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so.

[firstroar]

[thinking on her captivity in the UE hurts; he was certain he'd have known better, been able to keep her from following whatever malignant mind was luring her away.

it's only a small comfort to know someone like Chrono was there, though he knows he should be more grateful. but it waters down to others tending to something he's claimed as his – his treasure, as it were. and no matter how much he insists on giving her to a kinder world, he's still holding onto her too tight to share.

that may be the difference between them; Chrono's walking forward with his past in tow, but Blue is sinking with his, even with his eyes forward.


he swallows against unpleasant feelings, looking past Chrono's recollections. he nods, and in nodding brings his gaze back to Chrono proper now that he's his bearings once more.]

I'll remember that. It's something that's...not so simple as keeping a stranger company. It feels important.

[soul_sister]

[As Blue pulls his attention back to the here and now, he's barely finished speaking as an overly big crown of flowers drops over his head... sliding down his forehead and catching on his ears.]

... I might have to work on sizing.

[A beat.]

Chrono! Come over here, I have a better idea for you!

[overclocking]

[ Oh—his mouth is open, halfway through some kind of response, when he suddenly loses sight of Blue behind a ring of freshly-picked flowers.

He couldn't fight the smile that creeps up, even if he wanted to. ]

... Define "better idea."

[firstroar]

[Blue's stiffened up with a quiet kind of surprise; on the inside he's rather alarmed he didn't notice her coming at all. his vision is overtaken by flowers one one side, which makes Chrono look weirder still.

but it just takes a second to understand–] ...Rosette. [–that it's nothing harmful. still, he's slow to pick and lift the sagging side up for him to see, turning his head.]

[soul_sister]

Do you doubt my artistic genius? You'll just have to come over and see!

Hmm, hang on. [She holds up a finger to Chrono and appraises Blue again. She pulls a few longer daisies out of her belt pockets and reaches up to tuck them behind Blue's ears. Flowery platforms for the crown to rest on.]

[firstroar]

[he is as still as he can be, his hand still hovering where he'd tried to lift the flowers out of his eyes, blinking repeatedly as she fidgets, causing his bangs to shift this way and that.

so since he's captive to Rosette's accessorizing, he can't do much but look at Chrono with a questioning stare.]