A Long Way From Home [Private]

It had been quite a long time since Terra had even seen a boat, much less boarded one. As far as she cared, she was heading off to parts unknown, somewhere fresh for more wandering and adventure, though a recruiting academy only made the deal sweeter. The grand majority of her wandering had either been by foot, or by train. Rarely had the money or the connections to take some form of vehicle to her destination. Though, perhaps 'destination' wasn't exactly the right word to use. She never had one before, she only knew that she wanted to be someplace other than where she was.

She made her way down the docks, her hand lazily gripping her axe mid-shaft, letting it hang at her side. She stood before the ferry, hopping over the threshold between the dock and the boat, taking a moment to find her balance after nearly falling flat on her face. She looked around the boat, looking for other passengers. It was a small motorized ferry, clearly rather old, it was split into two sections with a wall between, the wheel at the front, and the back being an open area with a bench on either side, and a tarp overhead to shield passengers from the rain. She was told she wasn't the only one on their way to Syne, so she assumed she was just the first one to show up, that was a rarity. Terra was never on time, much less early.

She shrugged, slipping the duffle bag from her shoulder, letting it gracelessly fall to the ground by the bench, her axe following, clattering loudly as she sat down on the bench.

She spoke quietly, just loud enough for anyone waiting on the boat to hear, "And now we play the waiting game."

Kendrick felt a wave of nausea wash over him as he crossed the threshold from the dock to the boat. He had never gotten motion sickness before, but then again, he had never been on a boat either. The soft wobble of the boat made his stomach churn and forced him the grip the railing, nearly flinging his bag off his shoulder. He looked up for a moment and met the eyes of another passenger, who quickly averted their gaze. Kendrick mumbled a curse and shuffled forward, holding on to the rail for dear life. He found his head dropping, hoping that if he stared at the floor long enough his nausea would wash up a little.

Kendrick continued his shuffle until he felt his knuckle stop at a pole. He looked up to see that he had made it to the tarped sitting area. A small grin of relief formed on his face as he wobbled over to the closest bench. A faunus with unkempt hair had already made herself comfortable, which normally would shy Kendrick away from his seating arrangement, but given the circumstance he couldn't care less. He gripped the back of the bench, hoping he wouldn't draw too much attention to himself as he carefully lowered his body next to her.

Taking a moment of rest, he slid his backpack next to him and lowered his head. He peered over at the girl, giving a weak nod. Then, with a feigned toughness in his voice he muttered "You got a paper bag on you?"

Terra slowly brought her gaze up from the floor to the man stumbling towards her, stifling a laugh and choking out her words, "Drunk, or first time on a boat?"

She scooted over to the left, clearing some space between the two on the chance he actually did vomit, which was looking like more and more of a possibility with each passing second. "And to answer your question, no, no I don't." she shrugged, nodding her head over the railing and into the water as the engine of the boat suddenly roared to life, the noise dying down as the ferry started to distance itself from the dock. "Should worse come t' worse, you could always hurl into the water. Don't think the fish'd mind the extra protein. " She grinned broadly, leaning back and spreading her arms to rest along the railing. "So, why're you hopping on this rickety old thing? Gotta be a reason for braving your way through pukeville."

Kendrick lets out a soft groan before, leaning back and letting his head roll behind him. "I'm heading off to uhh..." He let out a breath in an attempt to focus himself. "...Syne." He completely abandoned the persona he wanted to keep up, there'd be no point in it now. Normally he keeps people away with just his appearance and his attitude, but like this he's as weak as ever. On the plus side, the faunus girl seemed friendly.

"How about..." He lurched forward a moment, stifling back a gag reflex. If he throws up in front of her, he'll have to leave the boat. To distract himself, he sat up proper, taking in a deep breath from his nose. "What about you?" He said in a forcefully stable tone, ending in a slight rock forward as he purses his lips to fight back another wave of nausea. Fighting back the urge to vomit becomes more and more of a task with every passing moment. He doesn't know what will happen when the boat starts moving.

She kept up that warm smile of hers, leaning forward and resting her arms in her lap, turning to face him directly. "Well, I'm headin' off there myself!" Her head cocked off to the side in mild curiosity. "I'm Terra! Sorry, jeez, wow, where are my manners? Meant to ask you that one! That's completely my bad! Dad raised me better than that." She laughed awkwardly as the shoreline drifted further and further out of view, the occasional bit of water splashing out and onto the boat, wetting Terra's feet.

"So, we've got quite a bit of time to kill, these boats are really slow an' all, so I figured, 'why not strike up a healthy conversation'? And so I did! Where're you from? Your name, story, aspirations, secrets, dreams, loves, desires, hopes? The whole shebang!" Terra couldn't help but grin, a hearty laugh filling the cool, moist air as she spoke on and on.

Kendrick could tell he'd like the faunus, it was the way she spoke. He always could spot a phony a million miles away, so she was definitely a breath of fresh air. "My name's Kendrick." He said, taking notice that his nausea was slowly fading out of him. In this small moment of comfort, he found himself falling into an old habit of staring at a woman's chest. He was disappointed in the obvious lack of cleavage, but was impressed by the muscle that made up for it.

On that thought, Kendrick realized she could probably pummel him into the floor and brought his gaze back up to her face. "As for the rest of that stuff...Uhh..." Kendrick rubbed his neck, feeling taken a back by the question. What was he doing here? He knows he wanted to change, but already the eyes of the people around him felt like too much. He can barely handle a boat ride, how was he to fight high level grimm? "No real reason, I just thought'd be cool is all."