[open, multiple threads welcome]

[makemiracles]

It was so quiet here. It should have been more unsettling to her, to just wake up in the middle of so many trees, in a place she didn't recognize. But the lack of noise was what was bothering her. It was dark, so of course that was a problem, but she swore that she saw a hint of light as she tried to peek up through the tops of the trees and at the

Comments

[aheromade]

Finally meeting Celice -- here, and not back home in Lenster as he'd expected -- had been something of a kick in the pants for Leaf. It was somewhat distressing (or maybe just depressing?) that people just kept arriving here, with no evidence of a way back home in sight. And with everything going on at home, the idea of not one, but two of them being unceremoniously yanked from the action and dropped in the middle of nowhere...

On the other hand, all unfortunate implications aside, it had also provided a much needed boost to his mood. It was easier to keep reassuring himself that they would get through this and they would get home, when there was someone else there who knew where home was

[makemiracles]

She heard the male voice and paused, fingers knotting together tightly as she fretted over who it could possibly be. He didn't sound familiar at all, not that anyone from her time was going to be alive now anyway. But this wasn't Cocoon, now was it? So she wouldn't have recognized anyone there to begin with, but there was a part of her that wished desperately for the boy to be someone from the orphanage back in Oerba. Even if she didn't know him, it would have been comforting.

"Hello? Who's there?" She shouted back, and trotted off in the direction of where his voice had come from.

It only took her a matter of moments to stumble upon a young man, and she skidded to a halt before him. She regarded him carefully at first, and looked him over, and after only a few seconds of indecision she let out a bright smile.

"Hello there! It's a nice day for a walk, don't you think?" She avoided the topic of being lost entirely, and just placed her hands on her hips and leaned forward, smiling as if she didn't have a care in the world.

[aheromade]

...did she have any clue what they were in the middle of?

Then again, that wasn't really a stretch. If she'd last been somewhere that looked similar enough, then she'd probably not have realized it yet. It wasn't as though most people stepped outside expecting to wind up trapped in another place entirely.

"It's a nice enough day, I'd agree, but the locale has proven less pleasant. Have you only just arrived?"

[makemiracles]

She nervously laughed, and reached up to tug on the end of one of her pigtails, back straightening out as she stood upright. "Ehehehehe...that obvious, huh?" The same hand that had been playing with her pigtail turned and went over to rub at the side of her head, knuckles scraping along her temple. Another nervous laugh was given, and she quickly knotted her hands together and kept them up against her chest.

"I just woke up here, but I was hoping that I might be in Cocoon or Gran Pulse?" She prayed for him to know those places, and for some sign of recognition to show on his face. If it didn't, she wasn't sure what to do.

"I'm not afraid, though! There's no point in being afraid of something like this, is there? If you let every little thing get to you, you'll never end up finding your way back to where you're supposed to be." Forced optimism, but her words sounded sincere and cheerful enough that someone who didn't know her would believe that she meant them.

[thatsortofaman]

It was probably best not to question how the Doctor just knew right away when there were new arrivals to the Wood. Suffice to say that he made a few... adjustments to his communicator - and he'd been trying not to examine too closely just why it had been making vaguely sad noises at him ever since then.

It was making one of those sad little whirring noises now, as he made his way out into the forest and toward the little dot on the tracking device marked with a name he didn't recognize.

His approach was not exactly subtle. It was accompanied by a great deal of crashing through underbrush, and occasional irritable muttering at both his journal and the woods themselves. "--couldn't possibly mark a path, no, that'd be much too simple..."

[makemiracles]

Vanille heard the man's voice and took pause, and listened carefully to see if he sounded hostile or not. All she could tell was that he was annoyed by the lack of a path, and that made her decide that maybe he was lost too. So she followed the sound of his voice and ended up stumbling out directly before him.

"Whoa!" She laughed a little as she skidded to a halt, and leaned forward as she extended both arms in order to keep her balance.

"Hello there!" She gave him a big smile, and brought a hand up to wave at him. "Did you just wake up here too?"

She hoped he did. Not because she wanted him to be lost and afraid, but because it would be nice to not be the only one confused about everything.

[thatsortofaman]

The Doctor pulled to a stop so abruptly that he nearly tripped over his own feet, catching hold of the trunk of the nearest tree to steady himself as he blinked at the girl in surprise.

"Wake up here? No, I was... Well, actually I was looking for you." He frowned, realizing he actually didn't know that was true, and glanced down at his communicator. There was the dot he was following, right next to his own, and he looked back up at her with a bright grin. "Yeah, definitely you. Hello! Sorry about the Wood - I think it sneaks up on everyone like that..."

[makemiracles]

"For me?" Vanille blinked, then peered owlishly up at the man, and then over at his communicator. It was identical to hers, and with a gasp, she pulled her own out of her pouch and held it out toward his.

"I don't mind it sneaking up, as much as it taking me away from what I was trying to do." She tipped her head to the side as she grinned, and then held out her free hand for him to shake.

"My name is Vanille!"