Description: Eva stops by with a wonderful, tasty giftbasket for Hotaru and the two end up discussing the war and how it changed them. Hotaru finds herself confused at some of Eva's detailed accounts... but then again, it was a pretty upside down time in Thailand.
The Kyokugen Dojo is a little ways out of town, nestled against a forest, surrounded on two sides by wide, open, grassy fields. It would be a very unassuming building were it not for the gigantic sign out front that advertised the location as the KYOKUGEN RYUU DOJO. In smaller print is Takuma's advertising slogan for the month: 'Learning Through Pain.'
Those who have met Hotaru might find such a machismo training facility a strange place to find the girl, but young Futaba has come to find that how it looks on the outside and how it really functions on the inside are two completely different things. Presently she is engaged in a small construction project off to the side of the main building.
Hammer in one hand, wooden boards or nails in the other, she's pounding away at a small edifice that clearly appears to be a small, detatched room of sorts. There's a spot that looks like it might be a window eventually, and the door portion is obvious.
It hardly looks to be a professional job and were it not for Ryo checking in on her to offer advice and show her how to do things correctly, it would be quite the disaster by now. Still, it's coming along, slowly but surely. Just follow the hammering to find her!
It's been long enough since she's arrived back in Southtown that Eva's felt comfortable enough to wear clothing more suitable for summer months. Wearing a blue spaghetti strap top with a gauzy white cotton shirt, denim capris and comfortable flip-flops, no one would know that she was ever in a combat zone. That is, not unless they look closely. There are still stitches ugly and black lining the haphazard faded slashes across her back, caused by an unnamed agent, as well as others, but all will fade, in time, only the most severe becoming scars.
Hotaru is another face that was on the battlefield, and, while Eva was not awake to thank her for not only fighting in the battle over the radio tower, but for taking care of her and her teammates afterwards, she is now. And, thankfully, the atmosphere is a lot less stressful for doing so! Walking up to the dojo, basket in one hand, the tall girl peers around, eventually latching onto the sound of hammering. So follow, Eva does. Perhaps the person may know where Hotaru is?
What Eva does not expect is for Hotaru to be there, pigtails and all, hammering away at a building. "Hotaru?" Eva blinks, shifting the basket from one hand to the next. "I see you're doing well."
Hmn. This wall seems a little wobbly, Hotaru muses. Nothing anothe several 2x4's nailed to it can't fix, she figures! Reaching to her side, her hand takes hold of another board and starts to hold it up against the wall as if searching for just the right place to situate it. Her novice carpenter skills are given a break, however, at the sound of a familiar voice behind her.
Glancing over her shoulder, the pig-tailed girl gets to her feet quickly, dropping the board to the ground, "Oh! Eva! It's good to see you." She looks the girl over as if inspecting her condition. "You seem to be doing good, too. I'm sorry I wasn't there when you woke up after that horrible battle," the girl states. She had hung around to see Arika and Drake recover, then it was off to help elsewhere.
"Welcome to the Kyokugen Dojo," she then beams, dropping the hammer to the ground at her side and clasping her hands behind her back, "Have you come to take classes?"
"No, no, it's fine!" Eva says, waving a hand. "I was out for days. That last attack really hurt me." Thankfully for Kurow and his magic flute, Eva has no clue of the young man's name, or even his importance in the scheme of things. To her, he was just another weird Shadaloo goon, and one who gave her a potential scar on her back if she isn't careful about rubbing Vitamin E on on it. .... Which is pretty damn hard to do, if you asked her.
"Actually..." Eva begins, looking at her basket. "I wanted to give you something in thanks. And, perhaps, in celebration, since we're both back and in one piece. It was scary and horrible all around. .... I hope you like, uh..." She slowly uncovers the basket. "I made brownies." It's hard to gauge how readily people in this city have had experience with typical Western foodstuffs, and, if so, if something cooked by an American would taste disgusting. .... Kind of like how Eva rarely chooses to take an Italian resturant here at face value.
Then Kurow is lucky that Eva isn't about to throw a wrench in his plans by providing a glaring contrast agianst the version of events Hotaru remembers from that fight. Clawed young man? Flute playing bastard? She doesn't remember any of that. All she recalls is Marise, with her nails, ravan locks of strangling hair... and dozons of Shadaloo troopers. That there was another foe that the Shooting Stars had to face down is not part of her current conscious recollection of the way events played out at all.
"Oh!" Hotaru gasps with surprise at the gift basket. Stepping forward, her eyes widen at the sight of the brownies, hands clasping together in front of her, "Did you make them yourself, Eva?" she inquires eagerly. Fortunately, Hotaru has actually spent a year living in the states and has developed /quite/ the sweet tooth for Western desserts. "I haven't had brownies since... almost six months ago actually, back when I was in Los Angeles," she ponders, unclasping her hands to tap her cheek thoughtfully.
Shaking her head, she gestures toward the main building to the side, "Would you like to come inside? There's milk, or lemonade. I'd love to share such a wonderful gift with you." Lifting her hand to wipe it across her forehead, she points over her shoulder with the thumb of her other hand toward the construction project in progress. "Whew. Besides, I could really use the break," she grins.
Kurow never pulled out that flute, either, in that battle. The Italian-American would be surprised that he *knows* how to play such a mundane instrument, much less doing it in unorthodox way. All Eva knows is his claws in her back and the marks on her arms. What the conversation shall entail will be up to the two girls, and.... well... soft gooey brownies fresh from the oven.
"Yes!" remarks the girl, almost smugly, for once. "I love to cook! Though, sometimes, the ingredients I need can be very expensive!" Like peanut butter. Oh god, peanut butter. Recovering the tray of brownies, Eva blinks. "I've never been to Los Angeles. What was it like?" Thank goodness Hotaru likes brownies, though, or else it would be awkward for her to try to stomach them. Despite Eva being an excellent cook, a distaste for a certain food can overcome any talent. "Lemonade would be great. It's been so hot I'm not sure if I'd want to drink milk." Even if milk and brownies go together like wine and oysters. "Actually, if you don't mind... Hotaru, what did you encounter in Thailand? That is, if you really want to talk about it." Sometimes, it seems like a horrible dream to Eva. What she saw. It may be a while before she gets into a conflict like that again, and the amount of pressure it placed on her family was horrible.
Hotaru clasps her hands in front of her again, positively beaming at the thought of homemade brownies by someone who actually /knows/ what brownies are supposed to be. The Japanese approximations for the chocolatey treats are, well, are at best not /too/ unpleasant. But these smell like the real deal to the sweet-toothed fighter.
"Okay," she grins eagerly, leading the way through a sliding paper door that was already open. A number of fans inside attempt to circulate the air to keep the temperature from being TOO hot inside. "Mn," the pig-tailed girl replies at the question about Thailand. "Hold that thought." she says with a faint smile as she slips into the kitchen. After the sound of a fridge being open and closed, some ice retrieved from a freezer, a refreshing liquid poured into two glasses.
Hotaru returns, smiling as she places the two glasses down on top of a low, traditional table - there are no chairs here. Kneeling room only! Kneeling down at the table herself, hands craddling one of the clear classes full of lemonade, the girl thinks back on her days in Thailand. "A lot of things..." she murmurs as she rests her chin against her hand, eying that basket, waiting for Eva to put it down so that she can attack its delicious contents!!
"A lot of sadness, a lot of hope. It was a very upside down time for me. I'm still reeling over it all, a little. Trying to sort events out in my head. Everything is almost a blur now," she admits. She had told Acacia that she had a nagging suspicion she was forgetting something important about her time there, but she keeps that exact concern to herself for now. "I think the worst part was seeing the prison camps and the large prison itself... the things that happened in those..." She shakes her head, frowning a little before sipping some of the lemonade again. She made this batch, so it's extra sweet. Sugar is the universal ingrediant for the girl whenever she makes /anything/.
Well, it appears Eva's gamble worked! And the rewards om return are good for both her and Hotaru: Eva gets to properly say thank you to a person who put her life on the line for her and her teammates, and Hotaru gets chocolatey goodness. And, well, Eva does too, but that's beside the point!
Without much show, Eva takes out the brownies, slicing through the moist dessert with a knife that was also tucked inside. Taking a paper plate, she takes out a nice large serving, face twisting with frustration as she tries to get the piece to migrate evenly from the whole of the brownie pan and unto the plate. She somewhat succeeds, with a little mess, but it's not as if Hotaru may mind, by the look on her face.
Kneeling at the table, a custom the American has gotten used to with some practice, Eva all-too-gladly accepts the cold drink from Hotaru. After the walk here (it's amazing how fast your body decides to set back after inactivity), the lemonade tastes like sweet heaven to Eva's mouth. Her face can't help but show this satisfaction, along with the contented sigh. Yes, she was *that* thirsty, but having a glass of homemade lemonade is like icing on a cake. Or a brownie, as it were. "I can understand. A lot of it is a blur for me as well." Of course, Eva has no memory tampering to speak of. It just was beyond anything she had experienced. "Well, how about I tell you about what I saw," she starts, cutting her own slice. "It's hard to talk about things when your mouth is full of brownie, after all, and, like you said, not all of it was bad. A lot of kids in the villages loved the colored chalk I brought along, and I got to study and sketch a lot of exotic plants and animals between missions."
Hotaru accepts the brownie-laden plate with a grin, not afraid to get her hand sticky with the dessert as she lifts it up to her mouth and takes a bite. Breathing in, she sighs as she chews on the treat, "Mmm, delicious Eva. These are great." She alternates between drinking and eating as she listens, taking it all in little by little. She can sympathize with the events being quite a blur.
She's quiet then, since her mouth is full almost every moment, with either juice or brownie, but she nods about the children, the imagery of them enjoying the present from outside the wartorn nation causing her to smile warmly.
She's quiet after a while, before she pops a question that has been on her mind for some time. A question that maybe only those who went to Thailand could understand; the young fighters so unprepared for a life of war and destruction. "Eva... I was wondering. Do you think the what you saw... what you went through... do you think it changed you any? Do you feel like you're the same person you were before you left?"
There were positives, in within the negatives. The wide smiles of children begging her to draw them something, or wanting to show them something they drew. The food, which tasted more rich than something she'd buy at a diner, despite the cook having only been to a supermarket a few times in her life. Eva was never in the city centers long, so that side of Thailand is still hard for her to decipher, but the poorer neighborhoods and villages among the jungle? She knows those *very* well.
And yet, the negatives were just as horrifying. Yes, Hotaru's questions resonate with Eva clearly. ".... It changed me. It has not made me a worse person, but... I realize that I need to be more direct. To act more. I also feel...." How should she put this? "My team was one of many who contributed to the prison break that happened, not too long before Shadaloo fell. It was there that I saw a fighter than I didn't expect at all. Her name is... Sakura, I think. You may have seen her. Sailor outfit, short brown hair? About our age, but... very powerful. Well, she was there. I thought that was surprising, but I would have been willing to think that it was just me not knowing her well enough if it weren't for Drake. Everything was different about her, from her voice, to her chi. I thought it was light blue, similiar to yours and mine, but... it was purple, almost black. Like all the other fighters working for Shadaloo. And it felt like a sort of pain I've never experienced before. Also, to hear her talk? Drake tried reasoning with her, but she seemed all too happy to gloss over death and pain the war has brought to people with 'Shadaloo's love'." A distressed wince crosses the girl's face as she recalls it.
"... I've heard about brainwashing, but I've never seen it. Not like that. I never knew such a thing was even *possible*. It scared me." The liquid in her glass trembles as she sets it down. "To have your morals and thoughts stripped away, only to be replaced with something so much worse... If I had a choice in the matter, death would have seemed like a so much better option. I don't want..." She tries to compose herself. "I don't want to forget why I'm doing any of this. Fighting, and everything. I can't forget."
As the discussion shifts to facing off against Sakura, Hotaru grows silent, still drinking and eating, but with less vigor now. There's no denying that she's feeling something about the topic now. "I know Sakura, yes..." the girl finally comments after a moment. "She has been an inspiration to me for years. Sometimes when a fight goes roughly, I think about how tough Sakura has been... how she just keeps giving it her all... her fighting spirit is something to behold."
Her smile sadens though, leaning back a little, placing the glass on the table's surface. "I ran into her myself. It didn't come to blows... which is a good thing for my sake," she states with a frown and shake of her head. "But yes... To see the spirit I knew and admired so soundly crushed by the manipulation and brainwashing of Shadaloo... was one of the hardest things I've ever had to face. It was why I was there, searching for her so hard. But in the end, I could not find her. I had no choice but to come home as all the leads dried up at the end of the war."
Hotaru sighs a little, "All I can hope for is that she is okay now. But it may be a vain hope. I need to find her. I have to know or do something to help her if she is still under Shadaloo's sway. I can't accept her living like that. But the only thing that scares me just as much is... to think of what will happen to her when she IS rescued and her mind restored... and she remembers it all. Everything she did, everything she helped happen." Hotaru lowers her eyes, blue irises gazing at the half-empty glass. "You're right. The thought of going through that... to have your mind controlled by another... it is truly horrifying to contemplate."
To see Hotaru's sugar-famished eating of her brownies makes Eva a little sad, but, perhaps, in talking about these matters, both girls will find more closure in the events of Thailand. "... I'll be leaving the brownies here, don't worry; I'll just come back for the pan later, depending on how long they last." Which may not be long at all, considering. "... yes, she's been somewhat of an inspiration for me too. For me, however, it was just the sight of someone so young doing so well; I didn't know her much beyond that."
"Unfortunately, we had to fight her. It was a hard battle. Drake wanted to coax her back to her old self, while Arika chose to forgo that because she was worried about Drake's safety. After she went down, I was the only one left standing, but her partner managed to make short work of me. From what I know, however, we delayed them long enough to keep them from joining the other groups invading the prisons at the same time. I just kick myself because we weren't able to capture Sakura, but even then... I don't know if we'd be strong enough to hold her down once she woke up. We managed to bring down a tank with our combined efforts, but Sakura is worse than any tank." Odd, to say that, but the girl hits hard and moves faster than any tank.
".... I see. That's why you came?" Eva slowly nods, sipping from her glass of lemonade thoughtfully. "For a while, after Drake invited me to join the Shooting Stars and go with them to Thailand, I wondered if it was all worth it. My father threatened to personally come over on a plane and beat me silly if I went, and, I realize that it was a very hard thing to accept for them." For now, she won't mention her twin; that's enough miscellaneous bad news for the day, and soon, even brownies won't overcome it. "... I think people will understand Sakura, once they realize what's happened. However, Sakura may have to live with it the rest of her life, if she chooses to keep going over it. She's very fortunate to have people looking after her like you, however. I'll keep an eye out for her too as well, even if I'm not sure how much I'm capable of in that regard."
Hotaru takes in the entire account, nodding at places, but remaining quiet for the most part. She does mention, "Yes, I was part of that prison assault as well. I believe the other fronts were successful in large part because of how well your group kept such powerful Shadaloo representatives busy." She had heard talk of the different fights back at the resistance camp after all was said and done. What the shooting stars pulled off was instrumental in pulling off the rescue operations that helped turn the tide of the war.
She props her chin with her knuckles as Eva talks more about Sakura though, nodding thoughtfully. "If you hear anything or see anything, I would like to know. I'm thinking of hiring help to try and find her... I don't know what else to do. I'm not really very good at investigating such things. I mean, I've been looking for my brother for four years now to no avail," the girl admits with a bit of a shrug. "And all I ever see of him is when he shows up on TV for his SNF appearances."
She swallows, resting her hands in her lap. "But yeah, all I can do is hope for the best for right now, and keep looking for any signs of her. She'll need all the support she can get."
".... Then I thank you. If your group hadn't done so well... I probably would not be sitting here." Two times where Hotaru has helped her, whether she knew of it or not. "I guess that's two times you've helped me. The fight at the radio pole.... between the demon lady and the man with the claws, we would have not made it. And now, here.... It's now my firm belief that the only reason our side won was because we helped each other, whether we realized it or not."
As for Sakura? "I'll let you know if I see anything at all. I heard she still attends SNF tournaments, correct? My father ranted about that when I came back; he said he was afraid his little girl would be saluting a dictator like that one girl on TV. I saw a video of the whole thing online." Ah, the glory of the internet. "Perhaps you may catch her at the tail end of one of these fights."
Which leads to another topic. "... You've been looking for your brother?" And yet, it seems, if he's been showing up for SNF appearances.... Perhaps it's a matter of him not wanting to be found. But she's not about to talk about that. "I hope you find him, Hotaru. Somehow. Were you two close?"
"I think no one person can claim to be the one to have made Shadaloo fall," Hotaru comments at first, "It was teammwork on all fronts that made it happen. I'm just glad that I managed to not be too much of a burden."
She finally picks up her class again and goes back to sipping at her lemonade. "I'm glad that everyone else made it back without falling prey to their brain washing tactics." she comments after another moment. "That's a good idea though. If she ever fights in this area, I should be able to get there before it's over if I'm fast... and not in my own fight. But if it's out of the country, then I won't be able to." she ponders. That is a good suggestion though. Maybe she could apply the same tactics to searching for her brother after all.
"We were very close, yes." Well, for many years. But not at the end. But she has convinced herself over the years that they never drew apart, even to the day he walked away, abandoning her on the porch of their home for the quest that he felt was far more important than caring for his sister.
It is mid-sip that Hotaru pauses, her brow furrowing, as if something said earlier finally sunk in. "Man with the claws? Was that someone you fought at the prison?" she asks, sounding as if something had struck a nerve, but that she wasn't quite even sure how.
As someone who felt the same way as Hotaru, Eva chuckles softly. "No, you weren't a burden at all, Hotaru. To be honest, I was scared of that too, but I realized that, unlike a match, sometimes the outcome is decided by the presence of an extra person. We were fighting on a ship before the fight at the radio tower, and Arika may have drowned had I not gone after her. Otherwise, Drake had to have chosen between his teammate and the lives of the people on the boat. In life and death, small things can mean big differences in lives."
"I can empathize." As if remembering something very pleasant, a small smile lights on Eva's face as she regards the ice cubes swirling in her glass. "I had a twin brother, so... I know how tight that bond can be." No need to go into details on that for now; last thing Eva wants is for Hotaru to feel awkward hearing about her dead brother while talking about her very much alive one.
"... No, at the radio tower." Eva looks confused. Didn't she see Hotaru fighting him? "You were fighting him directly, actually. If I saw right. He seemed to be the leader of the soldiers there. He was the man who nearly killed me." That's.... strange. Why would Hotaru forget? The latter factoid, she could see, as it all happened so fast, but... she distinctly remembers Hotaru trying to hit him before that. "He was very agile. Even you had trouble landing a hit on him, and... from what I gather, you and Arika managed to defeat him after the demon woman and I fell. You were unable to capture him for questioning, however."
The assurance that she wasn't more trouble than help seems to comfort Hotaru substantially, having come home with some doubts about her performance at times. That someone she fought alongside didn't feel that she was a burden carries a lot of weight with her. She's quiet about Eva's brother. That she had a twin is interesting... she can't imagine what it's like to have a /twin/ sibling. Gato and her differed in age, which meant a lot of things they couldn't do together as much as she would have liked. But a sibling at the same age to grow up with? "I'm sorry to hear that," she murmurs at the realization that both of them are missing a brother, juts in different ways.
But then it's the talk of the fight at the radio tower and Hotaru pales slightly. It's very disturbing to hear someone describe an event you were party to, yet have a completely different rendition of it. She thinks back to what happened to Eva during the fight. That she ended up greviously wounded at some point was known to her, but she thought that the fault of the devil woman herself with whom she is quite familiar with. "You mean Marise? The woman that seems more dead than alive?"
How Eva could get the genders mixed up is beyond her though. Marise is definitely female. The girl lifts her hand and scratches absently at her temple, looking confused and somewhat unhappy. "I guess the fight is kind of a blur to me. It happened really fast," she tries to explain the uncertainty away, though not even she really sounds convinced of that explanation.
"No, it's alright. He's in a better place, now." And Eva believes in that. He died knowing the world was his oyster, brimming with potental treasures, and his sister firmly believes that he could have risen to stardom if he had still been alive. "It's why I fight, now. Well, it was, anyway. Now, I fight for myself. I'm sure my brother would have liked that reason better anyhow."
It's strange to see Hotaru looked so confused, especially since Eva sees no reason for her to feel all that alarmed about it. The fight was confusing, after all! As for Marise... so that's her name? "No, I defeated her with my strongest attack. She didn't seem to do well against chi. While I was recovering from that, the clawed man stabbed me in the back. I still have stitches from it, but I'm hoping it doesn't scar too badly." Reaching over to place a slightly roughened hand on Hotaru's shoulder over the table, Eva smiles. "It doesn't matter. We both came out alive, and that is what's important." Leaning back into her kneel, Eva hesitates. "... Though, it is a little odd that you don't remember him. You were fighting him directly."
Odd, but not alarming. After all, it was just some weird Shadaloo fighter. Hotaru probably just forgot it in the battles that followed.
"Hmn," Hotaru replies as Eva confirms Marise's identify. Yeah, for as much as she likes sucking the life from people, she sure doesn't take it well when the breath of life gets slammed into her in the form of raw chi fury. But as the young woman insists that she directly fought someone with claws in the frenzied battle at the tower, Hotaru still looks unconvinced that she could just forget something like that.
The hand on her shoulder brings a smile to her lips all the same though. It's rare that anyone ever reaches out to her with such a gesture of friendship. Awkward in almost any social circle she mingles with, the number of people who genuinely seem to care about her is exceptionally small.
"You're right," Hotaru replies, relaxing a little, looking less pensive now. "All that matters is that we pulled through. Teamwork, courage, determination..." She sighs a little, "As far as I know all those captured by Shadaloo have been returned as well. The only person left to find is Sakura. I won't be able to relax until I know she's safe again."
"Marise and I had.... history," Eva explains briefly. "She attacked me once, and, after gaining a nice chunk of my blood or life force or whatever she eats, left me bleeding in the streets. I wouldn't have died, but... I'm not sure what would have happened if it weren't for a gracious passer-by who guarded me and made sure I was alright. So.... dealing that blow was rather satisfying, I'll admit."
\It's definitely a gesture of friendship, the same as the brownies and her seeking Hotaru out. There's nothing about Hotaru that Eva dislikes; if anything, she respects her even more for having the strength to go to Thailand more or less on her own. Eva went, yes, but it was only in the comfort of her group, and she definitely did not stray far from them. "... A lot of strange things happened in Thailand. If it wasn't something we saw, it was something that was hinted at. What scares the me most about Sakura is the many possibilities of what they used. One agent, when my team was guarding a refugee boat, used that purple power to effect Drake's mind. It completely tramuatized him. It was also used at me, but at a lesser and more vague degree. I never chi could be that vesatile, but... I never believed someone like Marise existed as well. All these new possibilities....l I can only imagine what Sakura went through."
Hotaru's brow furrows as she listens to Eva and she nods slowly. "Someone told me that everything there was upside down and that sometimes it would be hard to make sense of it all." That someone happened to be Kurow, and he happened to be covering his tracks. But even in his deceit there is /some/ truth.
"At least in the end... the Thai people got their country back, and the bad guys got kicked out." The pig-tailed girl expression shifts to a grin as she pushes herself to her feet, taking the empty glasses from the table and carrying them off into the kitchen before coming back out. "Thank you for the brownies. I bet Ryo-sensei and Marco-sensei and Master Takuma will enjoy them as well. Maybe sometime we could cook together and you could show me how to make them," she states, sounding hopeful. If not for the valuable cooking experience, the chance to do something with a girl as nice as Eva would make her day.
"I guess I should get back to work on my project. It's supposed to be my own bedroom when it's done, you see. Right now I just sleep on the dojo floor." she states, resting one hand against her hip. Moving her way up the ranks of the Kyokugen Dojo 'family' has been some ordeal, to say the least!
"... That person thought correctly." ..... Oh god, Eva agreed with Kurow! Oh god! Ew! ....... Of course, even if Kurow said it directly to her, Eva would still agree. Thailand *was* upsidedown. It was like a mirror house where your image got more and more distorted as you moved on, until you failed to recongize anything familiar at all. And Eva got the lighter end of the bargain; no one tried to mess with her mind, and, probably, no one from Shadaloo ever will. Blood, sweat, and pain was all she recieved, and it was something she could deal with. "..... War is nonsense. Horrible, dispictable nonsense that, in the end, proves nothing at all but in the eventuality of death. We can only to our best to make sense of it all, and nothing more."
But yes. "In the end, I suppose, that's all that matters. I am grateful that the ones that pulled through in one piece did, and that everyone else has a chance at recovery." Granting the cheery girl a soft grin, Eva slowly nods. "I would love to. Also, if you wish to spar again, I would be honored. We need to get stronger any way we can manage, correct?" She nods to the room. "Good luck. I would love to see it when you're done; it is rare that we are able to construct our own living space." Right, Hotaru; it's a privilege to build your room! ahahaha Eva would probably blanch at the idea of building her own, but she just likes seeing the silver lining in things.
As for parting words for her new friend? "Don't overdo it; today is promising to get a lot warmer!"
Log created on 19:23:06 07/08/2007 by Hotaru, and last modified on 03:40:52 07/09/2007.