Train Station, Balamb, Tuesday Morning Fandom Time

[angelo_wings]

When Rinoa had received Tara's message, she had acted quickly. Her first call had been to Squall, and her second to Belle. She packed quickly left it to Squall to arrange the portal; he was quicker at organizing details than she could be, anyway.

Her house was depressing, and would mean talking to her father, which was complicated. So she had told Tara to meet her at Balamb Garden, which was currently docked near its original home on the island of Balamb. The flying school was big enough to allow for privacy; there were always extra students' quarters. And if she needed to get away from the crowd, they could take the Ragnarok out somewhere secluded.

For now, Rinoa was waiting just outside of the train station, where the portal was supposed to arrive. What if the portal didn't show up here, after all? Or what if it had shown up early and Tara had started wandering and gotten lost?

Okay, so Rinoa was worrying. Worrying was silly, so she was going to stop worrying and instead try waiting. The two didn't look much different to the untrained eye.

(for Tara (and Squall if he'd like as well) -- Squall and Tara-modding done with permission. NFB, since off-island.)

Comments

[angelo_wings]

"Oh, it's really just Squall," Rinoa said firmly. "He hated being called Commander even when he actually was Commander. He makes faces when people try to salute him. It's cute."

As the thought struck her, she added, "So if you get really bored and want to amuse yourself, start calling him that with a straight face and watch him try not to bitch about it."

Rinoa and Squall had levels to how dysfunctional their relationship was.

In the meantime, she was leading Tara around the first floor of the school, pointing out a few helpful things as they went.

"The school's a giant hub," she explained. "Important stuff around the rim, elevator in the middle. Cafeteria's over there, library's here, and this training room is where they go to gear up and fight monsters. So if you want to get some stress out by beating things up, let me know? You might want to take back-up, because sometimes this T-Rexaur shows up."

[life_inshadow]

"Will magic work in there?" Tara asked. She didn't normally beat things up as therapy, but ... "Something about trying to kill a fake dinosaur sounds really good right about now."

[angelo_wings]

"Magic totally works," Rinoa said with a grin. She stopped short in front of the entrance. "Want to head in there now? We can just drop our luggage in the locker room. Because taking down a fake dinosaur is every bit as awesome as it sounds."

She hoped Tara wouldn't mind that she was inviting herself along. She didn't doubt the other girl's skills, but the training room also didn't seem to bother with details like "safety protocols." Hence the in-house clinic.

It was really a sink-or-swim sort of school.

[life_inshadow]

"I think that is exactly the kind of day I need," Tara decided. "I can name the dinosaur cancer and pretend to be all tough."

She was excited. She felt guilty about it, but she was.

[angelo_wings]

"There are going to be grunts before we find the dinosaur," Rinoa announced cheerfully, leading Tara down an austere hallway. "You should come up with names for them, too. They'll be annoying one-hits so you might want to reuse the names."

The locker room had the same kind of cold, informal decor as the hallway. Probably to be expected, from a military school.

Rinoa, meanwhile, was distracted by an area over to the side.

"Do we want to grab weapons?" she asked. "We don't need to, magic works fine, but variety's nice. Sometimes you just want to hit things with a club."

Clearly, Rinoa would not be helping with the 'guilty' side of Tara's conscience.

[life_inshadow]

"W-we can do both," Tara said thoughtfully. "Hit the little guys with clubs, zap the big guys with magic. I have to say, this isn't what I thought we'd be doing ... but it's awesome."

[angelo_wings]

"If you'd rather do something else, we can," Rinoa said with an easy smile. "But Garden's got an infinite supply of monsters to cut through. It really shouldn't be this fun, but it is."

She grabbed a gunblade, herself -- she always wanted to try one out -- before waiting for Tara to make her selection.

And then, to lead Tara in to the actual training center itself. Which was, in sharp contrast to the clean, bare lines of Garden thus far, a lush, tropical jungle. It was a bit like having Triassic Gardens kept next to the cafeteria.

[life_inshadow]

Tara was blinking a bit as she walked in. "I'm confused," she said. "Is this real, or is it like the Danger Shop back at school, where it's really just fancy computer ... stuff."

She was such a technical person.

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa, herself, stopped, and glanced around.

"I have no idea," she said. "I always figured it was real, and they just kept monsters in here. I guess it could be like the Danger Shop? But I think it's really Esthar that's got the advanced tech like that. It's probably real."

The school was disturbingly hardcore like that. The final exam was a real-life mission. 'Surviving' played a key role in passing!

[life_inshadow]

"Seriously?" Tara was impressed. "I k-kind of never thought about that, that a school might just ... throw monsters at people for fun."

She bit her lip, mulling it over.

"Anyone ever get eaten?"

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa stopped, reaching over to put a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"I'm pretty sure they don't let people come in here until they're old enough," she said confidently. "When they prove they can handle themselves. I've never heard of anyone getting eaten or anything like that. It's for the kind of fighty restless people who'd go crazy without something to spar against, like Squall. And Kennedy."

She wasn't sure if they were still ... a thing or not, but hopefully the comparison at least might make Tara smile. Because Kennedy would probably view this place like it was a candy store.

[life_inshadow]

Tara thought about it, and eventually came up grinning. Because yes, something like this would be amazing for Kennedy.

"Hopefully they have fight restless people on staff to feed them," she offered. "With ... dinosaur chow, I mean."

[angelo_wings]

"They used to let Squall run the place," Rinoa said with a laugh. "That should tell you a lot about the staff here."

She tried swinging the gunblade once or twice to get the heft of it in her hands. Nice.

"Ready?"

[life_inshadow]

"As I'm going to be," Tara said. "Get me out if anything tries to bite off anything I want to keep?"