Welcome to Gaia! ::

For the last several hours, Lavendulan had been spending time cleaning her room. It wasn’t that it was really messy as opposed to just having a thin layer of dust over most things due to her chosen craft. With the holidays quickly approaching, and a surplus amount of time on her hands, she had been working on several river rock carving projects.

There were several failed projects in a pile that needed to be taken back outside or for her to do something with; two broke on accident while one had been ruined when a drunken officer stumbled down the barrack hallway and slammed their shoulder against her door. It was startling and because she was working on one of the finer details when Laven jumped, the Dremel tool carved a deep jagged line across the surface.

She really needed to find a better suited place to work on these things.

In the meantime, Laven diligently worked on removing books from her shelf and dusting them off, getting her pile of laundry and bedsheets taken care of. The rug was taken outside and beaten over a rail, a cloud of dust bloomed when she whacked the opposite side. Before bringing it inside she made sure the floor was swept before putting things back where they belonged.

Thinking back on it, they probably should have picked a time for Tinaksite to show up rather than just playing it by ear. But Laven knew that the Captian had a life outside the Negaverse or the Dark Kingdom, one Laven honestly felt a little envious of, which meant that more than likely Kat either had work or school to attend to and so she probably wouldn’t be showing up until sometime around dinner if she were to guess.

The light tapping sound on her door had almost gone ignored, brushed off as someone walking down the hallway with too much in their arms so that whatever they were probably carrying, groceries more than likely, just brushed against the wall as they passed by. But then she looked up and over at her alarm clock and realized that it was later than she thought it was and put her book down.

“Coming!” Laven announced from the other side of the room where she had been sitting in the circular reading chair.

The room, for the most part, was as clean as it was going to get. Majority of the dust from her stone carving had been taken care of, the only thing she didn’t do was laundry but at least the twin-sized bed was made and Hati, her purple wolf plush, laid along the wall with its head propped up on the pillow as if it were sleeping.

It only took a few steps to cross the small room, but when she did Laven reached for the doorknob to let her guest in. “Tinaksite!” Laven smiled up at the Captian and stepped aside. “Come in, come in!”

“This is more than all right. This is perfect.”

“Feel free to take a seat anywhere,” There were two chairs, one at her desk and another over in the corner of her room by the bookshelf, circular and plush with several pillows. Several nights had been spent dozing off over there, mostly out of boredom or because what she was reading was less than entertaining. But that was just a testament as to how comfortable it was.

“You really have a talent for cooking,” Twice now Tinaksite had managed to make her stomach growl hungrily and mouth water in eager anticipation of taking that first bite of food. “Are you self taught or did you learn from your parents?”

Laven offered her a soft smile, “you don’t need to worry about losing me.” Had they been beside one another she would have offered Tinaksite a reassuring hug in. Even though their friendship was relatively new, she had a feeling that it was once meant to last.

“So if I may ask, where did you grow up?” She asked, head canting to the side curiously as she glanced over her shoulder to where Tinaksite took a seat. The heavy accent it was a give away that English was a second, maybe even third, language but it could have also been that it was encouraged to speak her native language at home when around family or relatives.

From her bookshelf, she grabbed two plates and handed one to her friend.

“I was born in Riverside, California, near Los Angeles. However, when my brother passed away we ended up moving north to Sacramento. Much to my parent’s dismay, when I got a full-ride scholarship at one of the private universities here in Destiny City, I was quick to leave.” As beautiful as it was over there, the cost of living was too high for her to live on her own and roommates would have just annoyed the crap out of her with their distractions and partying.

Plus, she needed a fresh start in order to keep moving forward in her life.

Unfortunately, fate or destiny had its own plans. Because now she was trapped here in a dorm room in the Dark Kingdom rather than some remote location outside of Destiny so she could at least live somewhat of a normal life. Both Lopezite and Wolframite had been helping her cope with the changes but it was still a hard pill to swallow at times.

Laven took a bite of her sandwich and made a very please ‘yum’ sound.

“I’m curious,” she lifted her hand to cover her mouth since she hadn’t quite finished swallowing before talking again. “At the end of the day you’re still a normal civilian, you’re not bound to this place.” At least not as she was. “What’s keeping you from returning to Rushia? Doesn’t your extended family still live there?”

“I can definitely understand that feeling.” There was an almost sad far off look in her eyes as she glanced around the room. “For a long time, this place used to feel like a prison. It still does from time to time but less often now that well…” Her eyes wandered over to the door where beyond that was Wolframite’s room on the other side of the hall.

“Now that I’ve finally been kind of crawling out of my shell and meeting new people,” albeit slowly at a snail’s pace. “It’s opened up opportunities to invite one or two friends over.” Granted that was all she really had… well, technically three counting Lopezite.

“Have you considered getting a roommate maybe? Something to make it so your apartment isn’t so quiet?” Laven took another few bites of her sandwich to keep the bread from going soggy from the condiments because she was talking too much and not enjoying the meal Tina prepared.

“I’m sorry that things with you and your friend didn’t work out. But I’d be happy to try to help you find someone that would.” Laven smiled, but behind that display was an aching heart. She knew that if she was a normal officer like Tina that they could have made good roommates.

But as things were, Tina would have to move to the barracks and this just honestly wasn’t a place for someone to thrive. It’s like a perpetual winter without the cold or weather that came along with the season. The ambience never changed, a backlight of purple hues illuminating the area.

This was a place for monsters and lost souls. Tina was not quite there yet, even with her sadness from missing her home back in Russia she still had something yet to live for. “Until then though, you and I can plan nights out, you know you’re welcome here. Maybe we even go on patrol together?” Not the most exciting thing to do at night but it was a job that had to be done and unfortunately Laven couldn’t go out alone. Well… she could but it took a chaperone for her to leave the house.