( 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

[soul_sister]

[She smiles at that, stretching languidly in the grass. The first two stars of the Thunderbird have begun to peek out, glittering in what would be a zigzag pattern.]

I'm sure you have one or two left.

[overclocking]

Well, how about this:

You prepare the fire, and I'll give you a new story?

[soul_sister]

Deal!

[She pushes herself up and brushes off.]

I'll be right back!

[overclocking]

[ Haah... just as easy as he remembers. ]

I'll be here.

[ Flops back on the grass while he waits, eyes closed, thinking and feeling nothing but the faint whisper of the breeze and the distant birdcalls. ]

[soul_sister]

[It's some fair amount of time later, finding both tinder and conversation to be sufficiently distracting. She sets most of it into a disorganized pile nearby and leans over to check on him.]

Fell asleep?

[Should he open his eyes, behind her, the sky is awash in stars, bright and clear, the diffuse glow of the milkyway keenly visible. A few fireflies dart between them, pulses of soft light touching the air.]

[overclocking]

Hn?

[ He blinks a few times, eyes re-acclimating to the change in light. It's been so long since he's had any measure of proper sleep that each limb feels weighted down, glued to the grass and moss. A few more hours and he might have fused with it, become just another ancient stone peeking out of the foliage.

Instead he shakes his head, focusing on Rosette first—as always, even with the heavens splayed out right in front of them—before he turns his attention beyond her. ]

Oh- [ Sits up, energy renewed. It's better than he'd imagined. ] Wow.

[soul_sister]

[She straightens up and lifts her chin to follow his line of sight. She clasps her hands behind her back and takes in a deep, long breath of the cool night air and lets it out.]

It's been too long.