[open] I'm in love with a shooting star

[pinwheels]

Who: Rinoa Heartilly + you?
What: catch-all for January!
Where: different places around the Void
When: during January
Content Warnings: n/a! will update if anything comes up


I ☆ ❝We promise to see shooting stars together.❞

[ It's easy to miss the changes that happen to the world when you've spent most of the last however-long indoors. In the end, her time in the nightmare that was Mementos hurt Rinoa somewhere deep, bringing with it a heavy feeling in her heart that took time alone to process. It was a little while after the clocks started to work that she emerged again, and she wasn't surprised to find that her processing time had brought with it further changes to the rest of the world.

The sky was one such thing, dark where it had been a light near-nothingness before, complete with auroras and stars that aren't from home, but could be. Since finding it for the first time, seeing the lights dancing across the darkness of the endless abyss, Rinoa's found herself spending a lot of time outside, amongst the ever-cycling purple scenery of the lake, looking up through the canopy and watching the stars. Sometimes, Angelo and Felix come with her; sometimes, like now, she's alone, her companions resting back in their apartment.

Every time a star falls from the sky, it brings with it a mixed feeling. There's a sense of its beauty, an absent-minded smile on her lips as she watches its path across the sky. But with it comes the hollow sense of homesickness that has haunted her ever since she got here, worsened by the fake Squall in the nightmare, strengthened even further by the taste of her magic, pulled abruptly away upon waking.

It's a feeling still trying to burrow itself into the pit of her stomach when she realizes that the star she's watching is getting remarkably close. But where most might try to move away, Rinoa moves toward it, black boots hurrying over the withering grass, and it's with pursed lips, a curious expression on her face, that she gathers the small glowing rock into her hands. ]

Wow...

II ☆ ❝I can be fearless, too.❞

[ When she's not watching the night sky, the next best thing is training. Rinoa's never been good at fighting alone; even here, she's proved that she needs people around her if she wants to stand even the slightest of chances against a foe. But she's already seen how people tend to wink in and out of existence around here, which brings with it a special kind of fear unique to her existence in the Void.

It's not the same terror that woke her from nightmares back at home, or the pain of the reality she's living now - no one can be as precious to her as Squall; there's no one she can fear losing as much as she fears being without him - but she does have friends here, people she trusts and has come to rely on. If something happens, and if they disappear too... what then?

She can't fight alone.

But maybe she can learn.

Without the power of her magic, Rinoa is left to the blaster edge perpetually strapped to her arm, and it's with that that she makes her way from place to place, setting up targets of whatever she can find and obliterating them before starting over. Today, she's in one of the many caverns within the mountain. If you find her here, feel free to join her; perhaps you can even teach her how to use something new! ]

III ☆ ❝Cool 'em down, Shiva! Freeze them to the core.❞

[ It's not like snow is a new thing in the Void; it was part of Rinoa's arrival on the top of Mt. Silver, a constantly-falling cold in a place that otherwise seems to not know how temperature works outside of "mild". She's even experienced the sudden storms before, the way the snow sometimes just tends to just dump itself out of the sky into whatever is underneath it, only to disappear moments later.

She's never tried to actually build a snowman, though.

This particular snowfall has been going for quite some time now, and the rocky ground underneath it is covered in a blanket of crunchy white. Rinoa's clothes don't offer much in the way of warmth, but that doesn't stop her from stomping into it, gathering handfuls of the stuff and piling them into rough spheres in order to try and create a figure.

Whatever she does make, well... it's not very good.

If you try to tell her as much, though, you're liable to get a snowball to the face! ]

IV ☆ Wildcard

( something else in mind? hit her with something random, or hit me up if you want to request something specific! ♥ )

Comments

[starshower]

[Tifa definitely does have an idea, and she's already working kicking around the rocks on the ground to find one of a suitable size. She plucks one up off the ground that fits in the palm of her hand and tosses it up in the air to catch it again.]

You won't have to. I've got a pretty good throw if you wanna work on your aim.

[She glances around them.]

It's a little on the dark side, but that'll spice things up a bit.

[pinwheels]

[ Okay, she has to admit that this seems fun. She's a pretty good aim, if her travels around the world with Squall have taught her anything, but she doesn't think she's ever gone for something quite so small and fast-moving as a thrown stone.

She nods at Tifa, her lips stretching into a smile. ]

Okay! Let's try it.

[ In preparation, she readies her arm, her eyes narrowing in the darkness to try and find a focal point. ]

[starshower]

We'll start out easy and go from there.

[As if there are any more ways to throw a rock than just chucking it through the air, but she'll figure something out.

She's gathered enough medium-sized rocks for them to get some decent practice in—not hard to find in a cave, thankfully—and she doesn't give Rinoa a warning before she throws the first one in a straight line up, followed by a second in an arc away from her, waiting to see how she'll handle this.]

[pinwheels]

[ That first one is easy enough. She's barely finished nodding when Tifa throws it, and her arm shifts, finger triggering the blade without even thinking. The first arc is clean, the weapon slicing the rock completely in half before slotting back onto its launcher.

As soon as it lands, Rinoa fires off again. Her aim is good, but the shot a little slow; this time, the weapon grazes the second rock, sparks flying, and it lands on the rocky ground with a bright scar across its surface. ]

Mm... It's not bad, but it could be better, right?

[starshower]

The first shot was perfect!

[But of course, there's always room for improvement. To be fair, the second one had come much quicker and without any warning, and the fact that she still managed to hit it at all is what's impressed Tifa.]

Wish I had a slingshot or something. Or one of those [she points at Rinoa's weapon] that could shoot rocks instead.

[Gotta work with what they've got, though! Which is why Tifa picks up a few more larger ones this time and prepares to throw. The first is hurled right at a wall with as much power as she can put behind it. So much that it goes flying straight at Rinoa—!]

[pinwheels]

[ It's a pity, she thinks, that she doesn't have one of her older models here with her. She's sure that Tifa would be able to handle the weapon quite well, and it would be fun to have someone to train with. But the Shooting Star is the only one she has here. Maybe they could get one of the more technically-minded people here to make something similar?

Her thoughts are still there when Tifa picks up a larger rock and tosses it at a wall, the sound snapping her back to reality just in time to notice that it's rebounded right in her direction—

In a flash, her arm comes back up, finger hitting the trigger to launch the disc. It slices through the oncoming rock, cutting it clean in two; the halves fall to the rocky ground as the weapon slots back into its place. A breath, and Rinoa offers a brief grin to Tifa. ]

[starshower]

Sorry—!

[From the other side of the cave, Tifa shoots Rinoa a sheepish grin.]

Guess I threw that one a lot harder than I meant to... Good thing your reflexes are in top shape.

[Or else that could have ended terribly, with something like a black eye or a concussion... Rinoa doesn't appear to be too bothered by the surprise turn, so it's easier for Tifa to shake it off. It's good practice!]

That was pretty impressive, though. How long've you been using one of those?

some mild headcanon here!

[pinwheels]

[ She smiles back at the other woman, shaking her head as if to reassure her; in the end, no one was hurt, so it's okay, right? That's how Rinoa sees it, anyway.

Lowering her arm, she considers the question with a tilt of her head, and there's a few moments of mental math before she ventures an answer: ]

It's been a few years at least. I don't remember exactly, but... I started learning a little while before I left home. I wanted to make sure I had something to protect myself with... and fight, too.

[ Her teeth flash in a grin as she continues: ] You can't join a resistance if you can't fight, right?

[starshower]

[Tifa pauses in picking up another rock, eyes rising from the ground to cast Rinoa a curious glance as she slowly straightens again.]

The resistance?

[Sounds familiar... Hence the sudden interest.]

What kinds of things did you guys do?