( 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]

[Thoughtful considersation crosses Rosette's face, plainly, as Lenalee speaks up... it turns into surprise and cheer as Chrono calls out to her as well. THE MYSTERY VOICE!]

Very sure. You should hurry before the tea gets cold.

[anklets]

Tea?

["Hurry", as though she were an invitee to a luncheon, as though she's welcome to simply barge in on this private place... She treads this distance with some hesitance.]

Real tea?

[soul_sister]

Real tea. I don't ask, honestly. It might ruin his butler magic... like telling a bumblebee that it can't fly.

[anklets]

[Doesn't know who "he" is, but she can roll with mysterious butlers as well as she can anything else.] You've brought in quite the crowd. It's amazing we can all fit in here and not feel as if we're crowed at all.

[soul_sister]

[As she gets closer, Rosette pulls aside a teacup and a wrapped scone, offering it up to Lenalee.]

It's the place itself. [It's the sort of place that seems to go on forever, even though she knows if she were to wander through the woods or try to swim far she would hit a wall.] It's so big... but it never made me feel small.

Maybe, I thought I'd grow into it.

[anklets]

[Having weathered freeze-dried rations, this feels nearly too much like being spoiled. Of course, she accepts them both, graciously, and plops down at Rosette's side.]

If you never felt dwarfed, then perhaps you did.

[soul_sister]

I like to think so.

[She turns to look over the landscape, the cool alpine breeze rustled through her hair and coif - the headdress still in place through mud and water.]

But really, who could be intimidated anywhere you've made mudpies and played hide and seek in.

[anklets]

It's so beautiful, I think most anyone would feel comforted here.

[Ah... heh.]

I'm sure you miss it.

[soul_sister]

Mm. Only when there's time...

[She looks instead to Lenalee.]

You're Lenalee, right? I think we've spoken a lot.

[anklets]

[A quiet stare back, which crinkles finally at the edges.] ...That's right.

[soul_sister]

[As with many things Rosette doesn't understand, a complicated expression like Lenalee's... it would be much easier to make her understand her sentiments.

She unsnaps one of the pouches at her belt, and instead of drawing out ammo, there's a hard white chunk of stone in her hand. She holds it out for Lenalee.]

I made sure they got more than one.

[anklets]

[Here, it becomes more simple to discern: non-understanding, as her eyes fall to the stone. They linger. Lenalee isn't sure what she is meant to be seeing, this far removed from thoughts of the cold endless space beyond this room.]

I don't... [ and then it clicks, cleanly ] Moon rock?

[soul_sister]

Mm! You don't have to keep it... But if you want it, it's yours.

[anklets]

[Her vibrancy perfectly matches this place, Lenalee thinks, and reaches to clasp the offering in both hands.]

Thank you. I'll certainly keep it.

[soul_sister]

Good. [She holds Lenalee's hands with hers, warm, if calloused, a moment.]

I think, this way, at least, you have good memories of the moon still.

[anklets]

[They are so much stronger than hers.]

Oh, it hasn't been all bad.

[soul_sister]

Good! [Emphatic and honest.]

Then the goal is even better ones from here on out, until we save the world.

[anklets]

[That's... kind of overwhelming, how tall an order "worldsaving" is in any world, and they've more than one hinging on this.]

You've exactly the right outlook.

[soul_sister]

I know!

For now, though....

How ARE you at frog catching?

[anklets]

Positively abysmal.

[soul_sister]

[She holds out a hand to Lenalee.]

By the time I'm done with you? Frogs are gonna hop right into your hands.

[anklets]

[Takes- it.

Erm. Stows the moon rock in her trousers pocket, then takes it. From moon rocks to lessons in frog-catching... it's so lighthearted that Lenalee could almost pass it off for a dream, endlessly kinder than her usual.

She's glad it isn't.]

If I were a princess, something like that would be invaluable, wouldn't it?

[soul_sister]

[Rosette sets aside her tea and gets to her feet, gently tugging Lenalee after her towards the lakeshore.]

Pft! Who says princesses get to have all the happy endings? We'll prepare for anything.

[anklets]

[Doesn't mind being led, or- any of this, really.]

I shan't be kissing any, either way.

[soul_sister]

....

You know, I don't think I would either. I hear you get lip warts from it. [Said with complete seriousness. Barefoot, Rosette steps into the water first, her feet sinking into the slick silt.]