( 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

[velveteened]

Reeds might be a little harder. Besides, they aren't as pretty!

( for a pretty girl like you is how he'd amend to — well, a lot of girls. )

[anklets]

[The flash of a smile-- she ducks her face and a curtain of hair swings forward and hides it.]

Concerned with looks... [ there's a lilt, here, one she's gone without ] Alright. Daisies, then.

[velveteened]

If I'm making you a flower crown, it has to look nice!

( because there's never such thing as making just the one, and if she actually does insist on him having one she won't be allowed to go without. )

[anklets]

[Clever boy. She makes a sound like a laugh and accepts her half-victory.]

I'm wearing one, too, now?

[velveteened]

Of course! You have to.

( it's a rule.. they approach a flat grassy space, far enough from the lake to not be muddy, and he pauses and glances at her in the unspoken question of whether this is the place to sit. )

[anklets]

[Takes that pause and fills it by plopping down cheerfully. You've got your answer, Vessalius.]

Well! I've never been treated as royalty before.

[velveteened]

'Princess Lenalee' has a nice ring to it.

( he sits down too, reaching to gently break the stems of nearby daisies. )

[anklets]

[A tad- wryly:] Does it?

[She sets the dishes aside (this time there is a quiet rattle, but she hasn't spilled any of the tea!) and tucks her legs beneath her, letting her shoes fall off into the grass.]

[velveteened]

( with solemnity — )

Every girl can be a princess, of course.

( solemnity and clearly having heard and said it often, from his uncle and to his sister. )

[anklets]

[And now her lips split and reveal straight, white teeth. It's been a while since they've done that.]

Those words are so honeyed the bees may decide they prefer you over the flowers.

[velveteened]

( it's a victory, and he takes it as such.

and he doesn't blanch or wince at her words but if there's a fleeting sense being caught in the act — virtual bees are no joke! — well. )

We wouldn't want that!

( why not start twisting some stems together in diversion )

[anklets]

Wouldn't we?

[Diverted, or she at least appears to be that way: she scoots herself closer and moves her attention to the quickwork of his fingers as they set the stems in a new shape. After a while, she plucks herself some daisies and attempts to mimic.]

[velveteened]

Definitely not.

( he works more slowly when he notices her attention, trying to make the individual movements more obvious. his own fingers slip sometimes, pause, need reminding — it may not be as long as it has for ada but it's still been some time now even for him. )

[anklets]

[He needn't coddle her so! Jerry taught her all the manners of a lady early on; learning how to learn quickly became like an art to her-- but, let's be honest: he taught her how to perfect that, too.]

I guess it's a bit scary, that you may be stung for being so sweet.

[As she strings the first of two daisies together. It... doesn't look too bad, actually.]

[velveteened]

Aren't you in more danger of that than me?

( and here we've got the closest he's ever come to flirting with her, possibly, though by now the intention is far away from that. he nods approvingly at her attempt and presses on with his, picking at the nearby flowers that luckily grow quite plentifully. )

[anklets]

[Wherever his intent chooses to lay, the true flattery of it goes gently buzzing over her head as those virtual bees would likely do, and that's just fine.]

If they could catch me.

[velveteened]

( only laughs, saying, )

Good point.

( and, before long, finishes a reasonably neat-looking daisy crown, holding it up for her inspection. )

[anklets]

[Abandon all pretense, ye who enter here: Lenalee came to make flower crowns, and flower crowns she shall make, until her fingers are numb to it and all she can smell is pollen.

With surprisingly girlish fascination:] It's lovely.

[velveteened]

( he grins at that, then leans forward to gently drop it atop her head. he won't fuss with it if it lists to the side; that's up to her, and anyhow flower crowns aren't meant to be so stiff. )

I knew it! It suits you, Lenalee.

[anklets]

[Bows her head for him, solemn. She doesn't expect to receive a crowning more than once in her life, you see, so she'll make this one count.]

Does it? [ she touches the delicate petals with the very tips of her fingers, allows it to sit skewed ] I'd always thought they were a little too symbolic for me.

[velveteened]

Symbolic?

( seems a funny thing to say, makes him pause. )

[anklets]

It's said the Church reveres them as one of the Virgin Mary's flowers. [ tilts her head ] They may also represent innocence and loyal love, but that depends entirely on who you ask.

[velveteened]

Ah, I forgot about that.

( "that," being the flower meanings — not something he's so knowledgable on as some people he knows, anyway. he sits backwards, leaning on splayed hands. )

Who was the Virgin Mary?

1/3

[anklets]

[anklets]

[Maybe she. Misheard.]