( 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

[promises_to_keep]

[Lea smiles fondly. Oh, a muse? That's kind of cute.

[He reaches up then with a wordless noise of inquiry, fingertips brushing the daisy chain resting haphazardly in his hair.]

Oh! Sheesh, I got too much hair, I didn't even feel it after initial impact. [He adjusts it a little so it's straighter, but shows no indication of removing it. He totally rocks this look okay.] Uh, sure, no problem. Glad I could help. You havin' a party or something?

[overclocking]

Haha, well... I haven't been to very many parties, so I'm not exactly sure what qualifies. I don't think there's enough alcohol, actually...

[ It's not a party if no one is drunk?? Yes this is a healthy way of looking at it. ]

I've been thinking of it as more of a vacation. [ Escapism might be the more accurate word, but they're often one in the same. ] Everyone could use one.

[promises_to_keep]

[Lea snorts a laugh.] Are you even old enough to drink? [WARNING: LOADED QUESTION.] I don't think booze is really necessary to have a good time; in my experience it just makes people more obnoxious. [He puts a hand up to his mouth and adds in a stage whisper,] I probably don't need the help, honestly.

But a vacation is just as good. Real pretty place you've cooked up here--something from home, I take it?

[overclocking]

[ LOADED QUESTION INDEED, and Chrono smoothly sidesteps it by....... not addressing it at all. Brilliant.

He shakes his head and snorts at the stage whisper, quirking a smile. But he actually properly addresses the last question. ]

It's a place in Michigan.

Almost [ -puts that qualifier in where most children probably wouldn't, because he knows better- ] everyone has a place they call 'theirs', right? Or at least somewhere they associate with fond memories, or times in their life when things were less complicated.

This is that place. [ For Rosette, mostly- but him too. There are still shadows of grief here and there, in the shade of a tree or the outcropping of a rock, but it's the closest he has. ] We wanted to share it.

[promises_to_keep]

Michigan? [He rolls the name around on his brain a moment, then shakes his head.] Don't think I've ever been. Seems nice, though.

[Lea doesn't miss the qualifier, and something in him is almost a bit nostalgic at it. Nobodies hadn't had any place to call their own, no place they belonged. There's still a part of him that keeps waiting to just wake up from all of this and discover he's back in his room in Never Was, on that stark white bed in that stark white room, watching his friends pull away and being powerless to stop it.

[He blinks, as if to clear a haze from his mind, then looks curious.]

'We'?

[overclocking]

[ Wonders at the tendency of people here to grow distant when their minds light on things like 'places to belong', but perhaps it would be overstepping his bounds to pry into such matters. He lifts his hand instead, pointing down the slope to where Rosette is no doubt tormenting one of their visitors near the lake. ]

The girl with the blonde hair, Rosette. We grew up together. [ Or she grew up, anyway. ] So this place is really hers as much as it is mine.

[promises_to_keep]

Oh, childhood friends, huh? [That gets a fond smile. There are days he misses Isa more than he really knows how to handle, days he would give nigh anything for a second chance to save him. No, that's every day.

[He follows Chrono's pointed finger toward the hillside, shading his eyes.]

Huh. It's nice to have old friends here, at least. [He looks back to Chrono.] Most of the other Transports seem nice enough, but there's nothing quite like having someone from home around.

[overclocking]

Yeah. [ He knows how fortunate he is having Rosette here; he'd be more than a little lost without someone to follow around cleaning up after. ]

Though... [ His smile fades slightly, though his eyes don't drift from the shenanigans taking place near the lake. ] It's hard, sometimes, too. The things that happen here are dangerous. Painful.

[ He flicks a glance up at Lea, finally, perhaps wondering if there's any understanding in his expression. Surely Chrono isn't the only one who lays awake at night dwelling on these things? He hasn't bothered to ask anyone outright. ]

Sometimes you can't help feeling it would be better if the people you care about were safe, instead of with you in a place like this.

[promises_to_keep]

[There's understanding there, sure, but... there's something a little darker beneath it.]

There's dangerous, painful things no matter where you go, I think. [He shifts his weight where he stands, then looks down at the ground a moment.] 'Safe' is relative--not everyone has safety to go back to. [He meets Chrono's eye then, a sincerity and sadness in his eyes that is gone almost as quickly as it appears.]

Some people I prefer to have with me in a place like this... because I can keep them safer here.

[overclocking]

[ Chrono puffs out a sigh — tries to keep some levity in it, but the way Lea talks about this has sobered him up considerably. ]

The world I come from is pretty peaceful. Well- mostly. [ Flicks a glance up, frowning just slightly. ] I think maybe I take that for granted.

... I'm sorry this place is your better alternative.

[promises_to_keep]

Hey, that makes you pretty lucky, if you ask me. [Lea gives a watery smile.] You don't have to be sorry. In the end, what doesn't kill you just makes you who you are, right? I wouldn't be who I am if I hadn't gone through what I did, so... much as it sucked, in a way I have to be at least a little grateful for it.

[If his world hadn't fallen, if he hadn't lost his heart, he would still have Isa, it's true, but he wouldn't have Roxas or Xion, he wouldn't have his combat abilities or his fire, he wouldn't have seen all the worlds he has. He wishes he hadn't had to lose his home or his heart, wishes there had been a way to save Isa before Xehanort got his talons into him... he wishes a lot of things, but in the end, maybe the gain has been worth the pain. There's so much he has now that he wouldn't have otherwise, and though he feels a little guilty justifying the awful things with the good ones, isn't it better to find those silver linings, however thin?]