Team VTRY (Ongoing) (Invite only)

Upon entering the room, Talen starts hearing a soothing melody which instantly catches her ear, causing them to perk up and figure out where it was coming from. Spotting Corbenik on the window sill with a flute, Talen sneaks up on him but doesn't disturb him. Quietly listening and enjoying the music h played.

"N-n-n-nothing's been troubling me, I'm perfectly fine!" she said, a bit surprised by the question while simultaneously averting her gaze. Stealing a peek at Corbenik she notices him without the signature scarf and sunglasses, blushing a little as she fixes her scarf own around her neck, partially covering her face.

"No! It's just that...the...I mean...what you said...the library..." unable to say anything straight Talen starts shuffling her feet in place while nervously fidgeting. In a voice barely audible to anyone she whispers, "...did you really mean what you said in the library?"

"I...well..." trying to find the proper words to say she starts fidgeting again, her face red with embarrassment and her eyes avoiding contact with Corbeniks'. "I'm....not sure." she said. "I mean, you're nice and all and you care even if you don't say much..." Taking a deep breath she adds, "We're also very close and you've been a great friend these past years in Beacon but...I can't explain it at all...I don't know what I feel..."

As if on cue, the door clicks and swings open, Rowan walking in with three orbs floating above his head. Nodding the two teammates with a quick "Hey.", he moves to the windowsill beside his bed, taking a small pair of shears from his side table and turning his attention to the small bonsai on the sill. Quietly, he starts snipping away at errant branches, neatly depositing them on the sill in a pile. Turning his head, he notices the odd atmosphere. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Oh, hi Rowan." Talen replied. "Not at all, me and Corbenik were just having a little chat."

Somewhat avoiding eye contact with any of them, Talen brings up her scarf to hide most of her face before taking a seat on her bed, facing the wall. Bringing out her gauntlets she gets a clean cloth and starts cleaning the claws after ejecting the dust cartridges. Thoughts running wildly through her head, she forgets to pay attention to what she's doing and ends up cutting her palm on the blade. Yelping a bit and wincing at the pain she watches as a trickle of blood falls to the floor before healing her wound with her aura. Afterwards she quickly gets the cloth and starts wiping the spot where her blood hit the floor. I hope none of them saw that.

Damn it, he noticed. Sharp as ever.

Laughing halfheartedly, Talen dismisses Corbenik saying, "I'm ok, nothing big. Anyways, I could heal, remember?" This is getting way to awkward. Maybe I should take a breather. Walking over to the bonsai Rowan was attending to, Talen says, "Looks a bit...small." Trying to spark up conversation.

"You ok there, Talen?"Rowan asked when he heard Corbenik's voice. Hewas about to get his box of medicinal plants from his drawer but stopped when he remembered Talen's healing, sighing as he went back to his tree. Hearing Talen walk over though, a dandelion floats over her head and watches her carefully, know just how cute it was when she got unnerved by them. You'd think she'd get used to them after two years. He thought, snipping another branch. "It's supposed to be small. It takes a while for them to grow so you have to give them a lot of care."

"Shoo!"Trying to swat the dandelion out of the air she says, "Well, it's odd for it to look fully grown despite it's size." Thinking a bit on  home she remembers how she used to jump from tree to tree for fun when she was little. There's now way this tiny thing would ever grow as big as those. Stealing a look at Corbenik, she sees that he's wearing his sunglasses again while reading a book, as if the conversation earlier didn't happen. Sighing a bit, she steps on the window sill and looks back to the two of them, "I'm going out for some fresh air, I'll be back in a few." With that, Talen leaps out the window while doing a flip before landing on the pavement as if she didn't come from a a higher window at all. Looking back at the window she sighs again while aimlessly walking into the night.

"It looks pretty good to me." Rowan said, ruffling her hair like a kids before she jumped out the window, a dandelion stealing one last nuzzle while she was in the air before dissipating. Soon afterwards, the room fills with silence, only broken by the methodical snipping of pruning shears and the turn of a page here and there. "Soo...." Rowan said, keeping his eyes on his work as he tried to break the silence. "You and Talen?"

Rowan scoops the trimmings into his hand and deposits them in the bin by his bed. "I'm not too sure on that, Corby." Rowan said as he dropped into his bed, hands folded behind his head and one foot balanced on the other. "You used to be pretty quiet so it was pretty tough getting to know you. Still, it's good that you're emotions are coming out." Rowan said, shutting his eyes and smiling softly. "I'd go into the whole 'it's normal to have these feelings, guys like girls, there comes a time in a man's life' thing but that'd be too much for me."

A dandelion wastes no time flying behind Corbenik, pushing him in between the shoulder blades towards Rowan. "She hopped out the window while I was working on my tree." Rowan said, chuckling lowly as the glowing orb pushed him to the window, the two others giggling words of encouragement though only Rowan would be able to understand. "Go get her, buddy." He encouraged, giving a thumbs up as he kept his eyes closed, relaxed as can be.

"Fair enough." Rowan replied, the dandelions easing up on Corbenik, shrinking down to baseball size and moving the circle slowly above their maker's head. "You're being awfully timid bout this, aren't ya? I know you're normally the quiet type but do you really think this is the time to be shutting up?" He asked, a playful tone in his voice as he sent a dandelion to gently nudge him in the shoulder.

Taking her time outside, Talen starts thinking over what just happened. Though it wasn't the first time someone's called her cute, she gets that a lot, it was the first time someone close to her opened up and actually said he liked her. She wasn't turned off by what happened but was really surprised, especially since Corbenik didn't talk that much. She never knew that he might have liked her and always treated him as a friend so she didn't know what to feel.

Why does this have to be so hard? I don't know what to feel nor do I know how to act. It's not like I don't like him but I don't know if I like him like that.

Now near the edges of the courtyard, Talen spots a nearby tree and starts climbing to the top, swinging from one branch to another before landing on top. With nothing but the nighttime breeze and the occasional cricket chirping outside, Talen thinks over what she should say. She stares at the moon, remembering her home in the north, realizing that the moon is the same wherever it is seen.

"I'm not ready yet. I just need some more time." I'll tell him that.

After getting down, she starts heading back to dorm room, her heart beating wildly not knowing what to expect.

"Nice analogy." Rowan chirped, lips curling into a smile. "I guess I just have a more direct approach than'll work with Talen. Not that I like her in that way, don't get me wrong. Love Talen like a sister or one of my kids. She's all yours, buddy." He added, laughing lowly, chest shaking being the the only thing showing it other than the soft chesty he he he'.