Saturday Evening, Room 421

[angelo_wings]

It was Saturday night. She'd been here a week without checking in. Conveniently, she had so very handwavily found a store to sell her a computer -- wireless, they said, which was confusing but she liked it.

So now she had no excuse not to e-mail Quistis and ... no, scratch that, Quistis didn't exactly like her. She didn't take it personally. She figured most of that had to do with the sulky dark-haired boy who'd declared himself her Knight.

Selphie, on the other hand? Selphie would appreciate the gossip. Especially if she started with the most important part.

Selphie!!

SQUALL IS TAKING SEX ED!!!!

I don't know how he got signed up for it, but I snooped and saw his schedule. It's called "Dating, Hooking Up and Sex." I can't imagine how much he glared at everyone for that.

We took a shuttle here and met all sorts of people who were also coming to the school. Then we got to the picnic, where I met even more new people (new for me -- they were already at the school for a while). Most of them are from places I've never heard of, and they don't know anything about Galbadia or Timber. They even stare at me funny when I say I'm a sorceress!

I was assigned a 'big sib' who apparently knows Squall -- he's going to teach here one day! Isn't that wild? -- and my roommate is very nice. There's an awesome library here but I haven't spent much time there. I've been going to classes and I even got myself a computer so I can check in with everyone.

How is everyone adjusting? Has Esthar been attacking? Is there anything new I should know? Is anyone upset at Squall for leaving? I didn't know he was coming with me. I mean, I saw him, but I figured he was just escorting me there, not that he'd stay. You know how stubborn he gets.

E-mail back soon, okay? I want to know everything that's going on. Especially concerning Adel.

She had left a few details out. Her friends said they were okay with her being a sorceress, and maybe they were. That didn't mean they'd want to know about the Magic Reserves, or that she'd met a boy with wings just like hers. Best not to push her luck.

Rinoa typed her name, hit Send, and began composing an e-mail to Zone. Something way more professional, hopefully. The Forest Owls weren't going to just give up.

Angelo was asleep on the foot of her bed, and the door was open.

(will be linkdroppy as hell once I edit those in. yyyyyup, links ahoy! all squall-mods (like finding his schedule) were permitted by the mun. also open!)

Comments

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa rolled her eyes. "A friend," she said.

Just a friend. That was totally all that was in her tone. Mostly.

"Tall, floppy hair, grumbles and says 'Whatever' a lot? Would have been wearing black before it got all gooped up."

[intraspective]

"Oooooh," she said, nodding. "The one that looks like an old teacher we had here."

Ino had been on the island long enough to not assume people were the same even if they looked it. Also, the fact the he was a student was a pretty big tip off that it was a different (version?) person.

"He's cuuute," Ino teased. "From your world? Or just a new friend?"

[angelo_wings]

"He used to teach here!" she said, bouncing excitedly to impart the news. "It's a timeline issue. The island's past, but his future."

Except for the part where alternate realities came in, and this may not be his future, but she didn't follow that as well.

"He came here with me," she added, fussing with her hair and grinning. "He's supposed to be my knight."

The duties of 'knight' did not include 'sticking his tongue in her mouth' but Rinoa was working on that.

[intraspective]

Ino, for her part, had no idea if that was true or not. Really, it was possible, Fandom being the way it was.

"I took his class," she shared conspiratorially. But oooooh. "Like, a knight in shining armour? To protect you?"

That? That was romantic! Ino approved!

[angelo_wings]

"She didn't mention armor," Rinoa smiled. "Just that he should be my knight, and bring me ..."

She screwed up her face, trying to remember the exact words. "Bring me ... peace of mind, and protect my spirit. I don't know what that means, exactly, but he followed me here."

And now she had to laugh. "What did he teach?"

'Hating Things 101'? 'Whatever for Dummies'?

[intraspective]

... yeah, that kinda sounded a bit romantic to Ino too.

"Well," she said, deliberately picking her answer. "Hopefully he don't have much to protect you from here."

Give her a second... it had been years. "'Interdisciplinary Studies or Whatever'!" Be afraid that Ino could remember that. "It was fun, kinda all over the place but that's what interdisciplinary means, so you know, whatever?"

Ino thought she was funny, yes.

[angelo_wings]

Ino should tell Squall how romantic it sounded. And badger him about dating Rinoa already.

Mainly because Rinoa also didn't bother much with things like 'boundaries.'

"He really had 'whatever' in the name?" she giggled. "Did he say that every other sentence? And glare a lot?"

Heyyyy, wait a second.

"Why wasn't I here?"

[intraspective]

Because that conversation would go so well. So, I heard you're a knight...

"Really had it in the name," she confirmed, flopping down more comfortably by Angelo. "He said it--oh. Um."

Think fast, Ino!

"Maybe it was a different timeline thing? Like, I've met someone who died in my timeline but not in theirs and yet they were ahead of me?"

... way to confuse Rinoa. That could not possibly help.

[angelo_wings]

Angelo whuffed again, at Ino, before standing up and shaking herself off. She padded this way and that before flopping down in a new configuration. One remarkably similar to her previous. Look, it made a difference to her.

"I don't care if I am dead," Rinoa said huffily. "He's not allowed to just ditch me and run here to teach class."

Oh, good, Rinoa was going to be mature about this.

[intraspective]

"I never said you were dead!" Ino flailed. "But it could where he never met you or something! So it wasn't your him but a different one 'cause obviously this one knows you."

[angelo_wings]

"If I'm not dead, then it's worse," she grumbled. "I'm probably back home going evil and he doesn't even care. I ought to punch his lights out."

... yes. That was the natural and logical choice of actions: go and punch Squall.

She flopped back on the bed with a sharp exhale. "He's not supposed to just ... abandon me. I bet he forgot."

Stupid GFs.

[intraspective]

Uh.

... Ino had the weird feeling that everything she was going to say was just going to make this worse.

"...why would you go evil?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. (And people said she had mood swings.) "And why would he forget you?"

[angelo_wings]

"It's the GFs," she said, choosing to answer the second query first. She seemed resigned, now, instead of the flash of rage she'd shown just a few seconds prior. "He's forgotten most of his childhood. If you bind a Guardian Force, then you get to be stronger, but it chews up your memory. He's still doing it. He'll forget his name one of these days."

[intraspective]

"...Oh."

Hmmm. Erm.

"Can't he just have it bound when he really needs it?" Ino tried. She wasn't really sure how any of that worked. "Like, a bit fight, okay maybe you bind it. But not for every day?"

"Memories are a good thing."

[angelo_wings]

"I tried telling him that," Rinoa said, lifting a shoulder. "He brushed it off. He says he wants to be prepared. I think maybe he ... doesn't have many memories he wants to keep, anyway."

Seriously. Enormous chunks of his life had been miserable. It was why he was so bad with people.

[intraspective]

She chewed on her lower lip and tried to think about what to say to that.

"But if you lose the bad memories," she said slowly, "don't you lose the reason why the good memories are so good? There's nothing to contrast them against."

[angelo_wings]

"You would," she agreed softly. "But I think maybe he'd rather be strong than remember anything at all."

He was so invested in showing that determined face to the world. The one that would never abide weakness.

[intraspective]

"It matters," she replied. "Being strong. But there's--different ways to be strong."

[angelo_wings]

"I think he needs to figure that one out himself," Rinoa said, shaking her head. "And I shouldn't have said that, about ... going evil. It's not something to joke about."

Her hand crept to her rings again. The feel of them was reassuring under her fingertips.

[intraspective]

Ino studied her for a long moment. Sure, they'd just met and all but...

"Wanna talk 'bout it?" Ino asked, closing her eyes. "I can keep a secret."

She really, really could.

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa hesitated. It might be a bad idea, but ... this had been a week full of bad ideas. So what was one more?

"Do you know what a Sorceress is?" she asked. "Most people don't, at least, not here."

[intraspective]

"I don't think I do, not the way you mean it," she said, glancing over at the other girl. "I know it means you've got magic."

[angelo_wings]

"I do," Rinoa agreed. "I have ... a lot of magic."

This was a wee bit of an understatement.

"That's why I need a knight," she continued. "So I don't ... lose myself in it. Some Sorceresses seem to. They're fine, and then one day, they're taking over a country and mounting an army. Trying to end the world, or just rule it. I think it's just that there's so much that you ... can't hold on to yourself."

It made sense to her, but then, this was hers. She wasn't sure how well she explained it to other people.

[intraspective]

"And he protects your piece of mind," she repeated softly, Rinoa's earlier words. "They say the mind can only understand so much. Maybe that's true of power it can hold as well?"

Though Fandom made that difficult to say for certain.

"I can understand getting washed away by your own power, though." Ino was in no danger of that but she didn't have to be a genius to guess how quickly she'd go mad if she had no shields between her mind and the rest of the world. She was lucky, being in the 'off' position, unlike Emma. "It's... you can tame it? But it doesn't have to stay tamed and it might get free one day."

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa nodded. "I don't know if I can tame it," she explained. "It's still so new. I lock it away and I try to tell myself I won't ever use it. But Squall was hurt, on the ship, and it all came out. It was ..."

She shook her head, failing at words.

No, that wasn't entirely true. She knew the words she was supposed to use: horrible, awful, bad, wrong.

And the ones that really fit how it had felt: amazing. Incredible. Alive.

Guilt added a flush to her cheeks. Damn it.