paixaorpg | Who would have expected this? [Active]

Entry tags:

Who would have expected this? [Active]

Character(s): Rinoa Heartilly, OPEN
Content: Rinoa arrives in Paixao to find it in ruins.
Setting: Near the Jountenheim Gate
Time: Week 42, afternoon
Warnings: None as of yet

Stumbling her way through the rubble of the city, Rinoa couldn't help but consider what had happened in her absence. Obviously something bad had taken place, but what could have caused the city and even the dome to collapse into ruins like this. It was so strange to see it this way, but she couldn't let it stop her and keep her here. She had to move on, and had to move on with caution considering what was left of the buildings that hadn't collapsed entirely looked as if they were about to any moment. Not only that, but the place was so quiet and deserted. Almost like it was some sort of ghost town.

She climbed over a larger piece of debris, taking care not to take a misstep and fall, moving farther into the city, keeping her eyes open for anyone possibly needing help, or even someone who could give her a better clue as to what had happened in the, well, maybe five or ten minutes she had been gone.

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To be perfectly honest, Squall hadn't exactly been on the same floor as the ruined city. After Seifer's disappearance, he'd wanted to spend some time with his thoughts, and so he'd headed off into the castle's many floors. Rinoa turning up again, on the other hand, was something that he wasn't about to miss, and it didn't take him him too long to get back to the general vicinity of the gates.

From there, it was only really a matter of finding Rinoa, but that had never really much of a problem.

For the most part, Rinoa managed to stay in the general vicinity of the gate, doing what she could while she waited for Squall to find her. In truth, she just couldn't sit still, not when she'd come back to find the city in ruins like this, and then there was the possibility of people still being hurt within the ruins. People that she wanted to help if she could managed it.

Still, on the bright side of it all, she knew that Squall was alright, and that alone had meant a lot to her, but she hadn't heard anything from Seifer, not that she'd gotten around to asking quite yet. She'd been a little distracted, and she had to admit that Squall had been the first person she'd thought to worry about when she'd arrived. It hadn't been until after that she'd recalled Seifer had been here too. Probably because she hadn't really seen him a whole lot when she'd last been here, nor had she spoken to him much for that matter. Well, she could ask about him later, she supposed, knowing he could handle himself for the most part. Or she hoped he could handle himself. She never really knew what Seifer got himself into in the end.

After having searched the immediate surrounding area near the gate, Rinoa's eyes immediately started searching for only one person. Squall. In truth, she had been keeping an eye out for him before as well, but now she found herself putting all her concentration into finding him. She was sure she would spot him. She would always spot him. She would always find him, just as she knew he would always find her.

As far as Squall was aware, most of the people were at least out of the ruins. He couldn't say for sure of course, but it seemed like the sort of thing that people would have been generally on top of after a disaster of this magnitude. For now, however, that was less important. Rinoa was back, and if he was being completely honest with himself he'd missed her almost more than anything. A Sorceress and her Knight were never supposed be apart for as long as they'd been, and he had to admit he wasn't entirely sure how well things would have been going for her at home, without him at her side.

Assuming that was even the case. He didn't really know all the details about returning home, even if he'd wanted to. Then again, maybe it didn't matter, if he wasn't going to be one of the people who left, much less one of the ones who left and came back.

Regardless of where his thoughts turned to it was all to easy to spot Rinoa, once he drew close enough. Though he couldn't say he was glad she'd left, at least she hadn't arrived when things had still been falling apart.

"Rinoa!"

Rinoa twirled in the direction of Squall's voice the moment she heard it, a smile instantly flashing onto her face and her eyes lighting up as she caught sight of him.

"Squall!"

Before she could stop herself, she was pushing her way through and over the rubble between them just to close the distance between them. Sure, in her mind, it hadn't been too long since she herself had last seen him, but it didn't change the fact that she was relieved that he was okay, and that he was here with her. That she hadn't returned to find herself alone, and without her Knight.

Of course he was fine. Better than fine, honestly, now that Rinoa was here. He'd never really minded being alone, but this way he didn't have to worry quite so much. True, he wasn't an expert on how Sorceresses worked, but still, it was better to not have to worry quite so much. Especially when he'd seen what the alternative could end up being.

He didn't exactly break into a run to close the distance between them, but his pace picked up a little all the same, and he couldn't keep a smile off his face either. If he had nothing else, he at least had someone he knew, and that was enough.

Though Rinoa wasn't exactly running, she was moving at a quick enough pace that it wasn't really considered a walk either. In reality, it was more like a jog, because despite the fact that she had been worried about him, in her mind, they had only been separated for a short time. Sure, there there was some confusion as to the state of the place, but she wasn't quite as confused about where she was this round. All the same, as soon as she was close enough to embrace him, she did without any hesitation or thought. It was as if Squall's arms were exactly where she belonged. Where she always had belonged.

She put her head on his shoulder as she always seemed to do when she embraced him, feeling the fur on his jacket brush against her cheek, and tickling her face. She just absolutely loved the softness of it against her skin. It was somehow comforting, just like every part of it's owner seemed to be. His firm muscles against her, the smell of leather that she had gotten so used to associating with him. That gentle smile that she got out of him every so often, and one that she tried to get out of him as often as possible. It had taken so long to get that smile out of him, and it had certainly not been easy getting it, but then again, it was Squall.

Right now though, she was happy just being able to hold him, letting him take over her mind and senses for just a moment before having to be pulled back to the hear an now to face the current dilemma.

Squall didn't complain in the least about the sudden embrace. Even if he wasn't often given to hugs, Rinoa was here, and things felt... right again. True, it was always possible that she'd end up leaving again, but for now, he wasn't going to let himself worry about it. Truth be told it was hard to even really dwell on now, with Rinoa resting against shoulder.

For now, he was content to simply let her stay there. There were things that would need to be faced, but they could wait. The ruins weren't going to be going anywhere in a hurry. Nor was anything so desperately pressing that it needed to be dealt with immediately. For now, they could take a moment to simply enjoy each other's company.

A moment passed before Rinoa finally lifted her head from Squall's shoulder so she could look at him. As nice as it was, even she knew they couldn't just stay like this forever.

"So, what happens now? I'm assuming that we can't really stay in the same place as before."

She knew it was something that would have to be discussed, and now seemed like as good a time as any to do so.

No, they couldn't. Not that the hug itself wasn't nice, but sooner or later something would come up to make it inconvenient at the least. It was simply how life worked.

"Even if it's still standing we aren't likely to be welcome. There should be places on the other floors, though."

How welcome they would be there was something he hadn't looked into, but it had to be better than staying somewhere where most of the available places were in a state of disrepair.

Rinoa had never really gotten a chance to explore the other floors, though she had heard about them. Well, she supposed this was as good a time as any to finally get to see them.

"I haven't even been to any of the other floors yet." She told him, wondering what they could find up there as a temporary residence.

"I've been to a couple," Squall answered with a shrug. Not enough to really be any sort of expert on what they might find there or what they should expect, but he knew enough to know that anything had to be better then what they had here. Which one happened to be the most suitable to their needs, on the other hand, was something they'd have to find out.

"Do we want to start looking now or later?"

"Well, it might not hurt to look now." She replied, and if she spotted anyone of need of some help on the way, then she could stop then, but for now, they really did have to find somewhere to stay for the time being. Not to mention, she was still a little curious about the other floors.

"Which ones have you been to so far?"

Which ones. It was an easy enough question on the surface of things, but Squall isn't actually sure he knows the names of the worlds. Mostly he'd been staying in the city itself and it there hadn't exactly been a surplus of people mentioning the names of each world.

"I can show you?" he answered, with a slight shrug.

She nodded with an amused smile. "Having you show me would be better then just getting a description of them, right? So yes, you can show me." She pulled away from the embrace completely then, but she then proceeded to put her hand in his, holding onto it as it gave her a sort of continued comfort.

Squall's only answer was a nod. It was easier to simply show her as well, and it got the both of them out of the ruins of the city. The rest was simply putting in enough time to get to all the worlds he'd been to and that was no great trouble. Both of them had been farther than between floors of a very bizarre castle before.

"It's this way," he added as a sort of afterthought, nodding in the direction of the door out of the floor they were on.

Rinoa was perfectly willing to leave the city for awhile, though she didn't really want to admit to how much seeing this destruction bothered her. Seeing the city like this. Knowing that people had gotten hurt, even died here, it just didn't sit well with her. She would do what she could help, and try to do good with the power she possessed, but even she knew she could only do so much.

"Lead the way, Commander. I'll follow." She replied as he revealed the direction. She was sure nobody had called him that for awhile, but she couldn't help herself from calling him by rank. He really was such a great leader when he was put into the position.

She'd be right. Without anyone who knew much about the Garden, there had really been much call for his position to come up much in conversation. More so, even, with the fact that he'd never much liked parading his title around without a good reason for it to come up in conversation.

(That he made a good leader was something that he was both aware of and wished weren't the case, and so he did his best to ignore both facts as best he could.)

"Right," he answered with a nod as he headed off in direction to the next floor. There wasn't really much else that needed to be said at the moment, after all. Not without starting up some other topic of conversation and he'd always been none to great at that.

Rinoa on the other hand had always been much better at conversation, and so even as she walked beside him she managed to find words to say.

"Hey Squall, you know, it was kind of weird ending up back home again now that I think about it. I didn't really remember anything about this place until I came back, and I don't think anyone noticed that either of us were gone. I guess that means if we finally do find a way home that we'll be picking up where we left off, right?" She was more looking to just have a conversation, not really liking the silence around them when she was so used to this place having the sounds of people around them.

"No one?"

As nice as the confirmation was, he'd expected that someone would have noticed his complete and total absence for however long it had been. More so, if Rinoa had returned and found him missing - and he didn't really want to think about the implications of if he'd been both there and here. It was bad enough to be here in the first place, regardless of temporal shenanigans lurking in the back as well.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure. It was like neither one of us had even gone missing in the first place. You were still there in Garden. You were on the balcony with me just where I remembered leaving off before I came here, but I didn't remember ever being here at the time, and I don't think you did either." She explained.

It was so strange to remember home and know that she hadn't remembered being in Paixao in the first place until she'd returned. How was that even possible? Had her memories of it just been locked away? Or was something else the cause of it? She did know that everyone had been exactly where she had left them though, and none of them had seemed to have noticed her absence at all.

Well, so much for not having to think about implications. He wasn't going to think about it too much just yet. Even just the idea was very nearly enough to give him a headache. Maybe he'd be able to tease the full truth out of it later. For now, he turns his attention to what Rinoa's saying.

"Not at all?"

"Not at all." She confirmed. "It's strange to think about, isn't it? I never would have expected it."

"Yeah," Squall answered with a nod. To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that he trusted Rinoa to be telling the truth, he'd have had a hard time even believing it as much as he did. But if he was there, then he was there and that was - or should have been - the end of it.

"Do you think it's Time Compression?"

"I'm not really sure if it is or not. It's possible, but I feel like if it had been Time Compression that I would have known somehow." Though perhaps she was thinking too much about her own abilities as a Sorceress. Maybe it really was Time Compression. Or maybe it was something else. It was hard to tell considering the way things were.

"Though even if it were Time Compression, there's still a lot that can't be completely explained. Like the idea that there is more then one world getting dragged into all this. I'm sure I'm not the only one that's been sent back with the same results."

Would she really have, though? Squall would freely admit that Time Compression had been caused by a Sorceress, but he wasn't entirely certain that another Sorceress would really be able to tell if it was active. It wasn't something he'd ever really know, truth be told. He wasn't the Sorceress and he didn't really want to be either. It simply wasn't what he was made for.

"I haven't asked," Squall answered, with a shrug.

"Maybe it wouldn't hurt to ask around?" She was only suggesting it of course. Honestly, if Squall didn't ask around, she was certainly going to at the very least.

First however, they had to figure out a new place to stay, and that would have to be the main focus for the time being.

Well, no, it probably wouldn't hurt. But after such a long stay in a place where things were awfully inclined to be strange almost as a matter of habit, the idea of time compression - as well as the various oddities involved in people leaving and returning - hadn't really been something that had much crossed his mind.

"I guess not."

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