[Thread;Closed]

[waitedinwinhill]

Characters: Laguna and Raine
Progress: In Progress
Summary: Arguing about Raine's phone call from Rinoa
Location: Dali
Date: October 1804
Warnings: Bickering?

Comments

[prez_leg_cramp]

Laguna had heard, pretty much, the tail end of the conversation but had simply stayed silent until it was over. Now that it was, he was hard pressed to say anything. In the end, all he could say and do was walk up behind her and simply murmur, "That wasn't fair and you know it."

Because it wasn't. Raine wasn't listening to anyone, let alone Rinoa. She wouldn't hear that Rinoa really had been controlled. Raine didn't know Rinoa well enough, sure, but that didn't mean that Rinoa couldn't be different from other Sorceresses. And Laguna knew, first hand, what it was like dealing with an evil Sorceress. He had nightmares, still, of what happened recently but it simply wasn't in him to lay all the blame into Rinoa. No one had any idea that Ultimecia had arrived to Gaia and thus couldn't have known what was going on until it was too late.

It simply wasn't fair to make Rinoa feel worse than she already did.

[waitedinwinhill]

Maybe it wasn't fair and maybe it was. Being called out on it when Raine hadn't quite made up her own mind only irritated her further. Like she wanted to talk to that girl. "And what she did to you? To Ellone? To Squall? That was fair?" she snapped back. She left herself out of those victims even though she felt just as much in that number as they.

For a moment she pressed her lips together, then walked away. Pacing the floors was her way of dealing with anger or frustration or stress. Pacing and ranting. "She lied. She kept it secret she was one of those... those Sorceresses." Raine nearly spat the word out. It was distasteful enough in concept, much less speaking it. "And look what came out of it. She's no better than that witch in Esthar that had Ellone kidnapped. No. She's worse. Because she lied to us about what she was. And she thinks saying 'I'm sorry' will just make everything better." The longer the ranted, the more animated her frustrated arm flails became.

[prez_leg_cramp]

"Raine, she never lied," Laguna replied, walking up to her but staying wisely away from those flails. "We already knew she was a sorceress. She became one because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time. She's had to deal with knowing what she was for quite a while now. She really was controlled, Raine. I don't... I don't blame her. I blame Ultimecia. She is the one behind these entire thing, including Rinoa receiving the sorceress powers."

He sighed, running a hand down his face, moving it to his neck and rubbing it. "Look, I don't like this any better than you do but... just listen to me. All of us are from a time later than you, things have changed."

[waitedinwinhill]

Wrong thing to say, Laguna. Almost everything else went past Raine's attention as one thing, and one thing alone, grabbed hold and wouldn't turn loose.

"You knew? You knew what she was and you didn't tell me? All of you?!" Shock and hurt and fury all collected on Raine's face at one time. How could they? How could they hide something like that? How could they encourage one of those kinds of women to be around? It was like they'd all forgotten what was done to them.

Maybe they were just so far removed from it in time they'd forgotten. But Raine hadn't. She couldn't. She'd just experienced it. She'd suffered the loneliness and the fear of having her family ripped apart. Then to have another Sorceress come crashing in and they were just going to wave it away?

[prez_leg_cramp]

So had Laguna, to be fair. Adel came back and Ultimecia wanted to cast Time Compression. It hadn't been a fun time before arriving here himself, but he did know Rinoa. "What? Raine, are you serious? What did you want me to do? 'Hi, honey! Oh yeah, Rinoa is a sorceress, okay, I'm going to go talk to the mayor now, bye!' That is not only random but not exactly a conversation starter," Laguna argued. "And don't you start acting like we were hiding it. If we had known it would upset you, of course we would have brought it up. But in case you haven't noticed, lately, people are already blaming other people just because they are different. Remember those l'Cie people? They use magic and are somehow monsters for it, same as Sorceresses are considered to be."

Laguna sighed heavily, trying to collect his thoughts again. "Raine, Rinoa is barely an adult and has something no one of her age should even have to deal with. Not to mention the fact that because she isn't fully trained, the person who forced those powers onto her can and did control

[waitedinwinhill]

"Sorceresses are monsters, Laguna! And I don't much care for your tone." The sarcastic one he was using as opposed to her rapidly increasing volume. Her arms were crossed squarely over her chest, refusing to yield on the subject. How is it the one time ever he stayed in a serious conversation and it had to be this one? "I can't believe you can just forget what they've cost us."

Still fuming she sat down. Her blood pressure was rising and she'd been cautioned more than once over that she absolutely had to remain calm and as stress-free as possible. Apparently someone forgot to pass on the message to that hoyden of a girlfriend of Squall's.

Raine didn't care much for that 'being controlled' excuse either. It was just that. An excuse. A little more personal responsibility would go a long way. After two or three exceptionally deep breaths, she calmed down enough to ask something that genuinely troubled her. "And what guarantee do we have that it won't happen again? It could. What then?"

[prez_leg_cramp]

"Don't!" Laguna's voice was finally raising. "Don't you dare act like those close-minded people from that town you so lovingly call home! You aren't listening, just like they didn't! I cannot and will not ever forget what Adel did. I am well aware of what her business caused us, but that does not mean I can assume Rinoa is the same!

"I have been in her position! She can't help who she is or what she is. She can't. Because when her and Squall and the others defeated Edea, those powers Edea had went straight into Rinoa. How can you blame her for something she has that she never wanted in the first place?! How can you call her a monster for something she can't control? I refuse, Raine. I refuse to subject Rinoa to that kind of discrimination and criticism that I was? And I don't even have any powers! Hyne... you don't even know anything about Sorceresses except for what one Sorceress did. And believe me, I am quite glad Adel is finally dead, but that doesn't mean that I should be treating Rinoa just like I did Adel. Because Rinoa is

[waitedinwinhill]

Every sharp retort Raine had for anything coming out of Laguna died on her lips. She knew how the villagers had treated him. But this was different. He hadn't done a thing wrong. And his loving, trusting wife defended him to the last that he wasn't what they said of him. Hearing him point out what she already knew and wanted to ignore about the situation didn't make her feel any better whatsoever. Just more frightened and angry that one girl, one Sorceress, could cause so much turmoil even now.

Pressing her lips together, Raine continued to fume while Laguna had his say. But that final addition is what broke her resolve and silence.

"So am I, Laguna."

That was the crux of her problem. If she'd died and yet somehow was living here, what was to stop the same from happening to this Ultimecia again? What was to keep her from returning at that tree the locals whispered about, or just coming back here as she had already? Or Adel for that matter? What was to stop Rinoa from being controlled again?

[prez_leg_cramp]

Laguna closed his eyes and sighed softly. "I know."

He was well aware of that fact and it was a fact that meant Ultimecia could come back. But as of right now, she wasn't. If Rinoa was left vulnerable because people couldn't accept her, they she can and would be controlled. Rinoa was the only good Sorceress he knew, other than the countless others from history that slowly grew to resent humanity for the discrimination.

"Raine, she doesn't expect you to become friends with her or act like everything is fine and dandy. Hell, I don't expect it. Even Ellone is still frightened and they are best friends. But the last thing that girl needs is to be treated like a monster because she fell prey to a much stronger Sorceress who has no morals," Laguna said. He paused momentarily before decided to add something that probably wasn't fair but it was completely valid. "If Ultimecia decided to pass on her powers, what if it had been Ellone? What if Ellone was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time and suddenly she was a Sorceress? Would she

[waitedinwinhill]

The magnitude of just how unfair it was reflected in the horror that manifested on Raine's face. "But she's not. She told me she's not." She'd actually feared it was the case when Ellone started using magic during that dragon invasion. Elle even said her special gift wasn't like being a Sorceress either. Promised her it wasn't. Just the fear she could have been had been enough.

Enough to send Raine desperately pale. She had too much willpower to give in to a faint, but oh how she wished she were the type.

[prez_leg_cramp]

The severity of what he had done reflected on his own face as he grabbed her by her arms and led her to the couch, making her sit down. "Raine, breathe," He said softly, rubbing her arms up and down. He would continue the discussion when Raine didn't look like she was going to faint any minute.