Abominable Snowfire [late evening]

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

Aravis had spent a fair part of the day walking around the grounds, trying to familiarize herself with the area. Having done that and thoroughly worn out her feet, she'd retired for a brief nap in her cabin earlier.

A bit groggy still, she was curled in front of her campfire, heating a pot of water over the fire to make tea. She'd be more than willing to share.

[bored. visit! she'll share her really strong tea with you!]

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[the_merriest]

Rikku looked up suddenly and blinked. Valentine was ... walking funny. Drunk? Upset? Not good.

"'Scuse me," she said quickly, hopping up and nodding to the people she'd been talking to. Hopefully they wouldn't think she was rude.

She took his arm and guided him a few steps away from the fire, trying to get a read on him. Which was always hard with the mask. Welcome to his world, huh?

"Hey," she said in an undertone. "Whoa. You don't look so good."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Don't feel so good, either," Valentine muttered, looking down toward the ground. His normal 'onward and upward' demeanor had taken a good smashing, by the sound of it. "Nowhere to be right now. I can be anywhere, I think. Just not there..." He looked upward thoughtfully at nothing in particular, opened his mouth as if to speak, then just shut it again with a bit of a choke. "Anywhere but. Here will do. Maybe."

[the_merriest]

Rikku, luckily, was used to dealing with people in bad states. Spira did that for you. Nothing like mass death to prepare you for handling shock.

She steered him a little further away from the campfire. He may not care now, but he'd get his pride back later when he remembered himself, and - yeah.

"Okay," she said softly. "It's okay. Whatever happened, it's gonna be okay, yeah?"

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine was silent for perhaps a beat too many before he nodded, looked at her with a smile, and attempted to piece together a decent reply.
"Of course. When is it not okay? Onward and..." And... Something... or other...
The smile wavered and he attempted to wrestle it back onto his lips. "Onward..."

[the_merriest]

"And upward," she supplied helpfully, putting an arm around him now to steady him. She was talking much slower than her usual, because people who were kinda dazed didn't need to sift through her wall of words. "Hey, did something happen? Are you okay? Have you been drinking at all, 'cause really, it's okay if you have. Maybe we should go let you sleep this off, and see how you feel in the morning, yeah?"

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine nodded slightly, then shook his head, then paused, shook his head again, and nodded once more, leaning into Rikku's side. Something solid there. That was nice. Not about to fall over now. Or sit. A seat would be really nice.
"In the morning... yeah. Yes. Yes. I can sleep it off, and-- upward. Onward and upward, that's how that goes..." He was looking down again, just shaking his head a little. "In the alcove right next to mine... Right beside..."

[the_merriest]

"Something's wrong with your alcove?" she asked. "Is someone hurt? Monster invasion? I'm a Guardian, you know. I protect people. It's what I do. You're safe, honest."

It must be really bad to send Valentine reeling like this. But that was okay, because he was in one piece, and Fandom was full of buttkickers. They could fix it.

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Yes," Valentine agreed with a slow nod. "Perfectly safe. No monsters. Nobody... hurt, really." He shook his head, trying to snap himself out of his daze. "They... went in there and pulled the curtain. And."
And.
"I can be anywhere except there. Anywhere."

[the_merriest]

"Oh. Oh." Better, in some ways, and oh so much worse in others. Whoa. "Demyx?"

Same reaction, though - she wanted to find what made the problem and punch it into oblivion. Shame she couldn't.

"Come on. You don't have to go back there. Let's ... let's go somewhere else. Do you need a place to stay tonight? Yeah. Of course you do. It's okay. You can stay in our cabin. No one will mind, and if they do, I'll ... I'll hurt them. Yeah?"

Rikku pulled him gently further away from the crowd, out a bit into the woods. Nice night for a walk.