Caitlin
The wind came in small breezes, cool blasts of air gently tousling Nikita's ginger hair. 

There, in the overgrown field, he felt freer than the rest of campus, but still not quite as free as the surrounding woods. The air there felt more open, like he could actually breathe and not be suffocated by the onslaught of smells by the building. 

Nikita knew he probably looked strange, alone in the rodent infested grassland so close to the actual campus, but the winter air was crisp in his lungs and he couldn't help wanting to run out into the middle of the field. 

So he had run out there, stood in the middle of it all, sun beaming down over Nikita. He wore a brown cross hatch flannel with dark ripped jeans, all covered in spurs and grass. He heaved, leaning into himself for support. 
Though, he recovered quickly as he took in the surroundings. He hadn't been out in this part much before. Everything felt so new to him, like he was rediscovering his world. 
His farm felt so small in comparison to Isakstad. He wanted to learn it all the same. 

Without care of ant hills and snake burrows, he fell haphazardly into the tall grass that didn't do much for concealing at its current height- though he still felt a little more hidden laying in it rather than standing so high above it. 

Music played softly in his ears as he began to watch the clouds. His music felt calm, not much like what he heard over speakers from other nearby dorms. He didn't mind their music, but his felt special. Getting away from the noise was something he needed to do from time to time. Rather often, actually. He knew he needed to work on that. 

But that could be left for future Nikita, as present Nikita was sprawled comfortably out over some nice grass without care.
Rhonda
Fin wasn't much of an outdoor person.

France, their *Mere patrie*, had it's beautiful parts - the city they spent all their summers in, even more so. Vancouver, much the same. The rainy, boggy weather applied to a gloomy aesthetic they had enjoyed, and Sweden, for it's chilliness, had it's upsides. Fin pulled their coat tighter around their waist, dragging their boots through the dying and dead grass, blinking past the too-cold sunlight and the blusters of arctic wind.

A walk seemed fitting - being stuck inside the same building as The Horrors didn't seem very appealing at all times of the day. Plus, hey, maybe there was something to this New Year's resolution thing after all. He'd started socializing a little more, not picking so many arguments (...Sort of), and started playing music again. Hopefully, with luck (and time) the band would slowly pick up where they left off and make music again. Can't have a tour all around the world if you don't play, after all.

But, they spotted a head of ginger hair that shook them from their thoughts. Inwardly, Fin sighed. He kept running into people. Pythia, that one poor guy in the wheelchair who they assuredly scared the shit out of, the like. If Finley ran into Mimir out here, they'd be pissed.

At least this person was laying down and not panicking out of a failed sense of direction. 

"Hello?"
Caitlin
A far out voice took hold of Nikita's mind, shaking him out of his trance and violently throwing him to reality. 

He shot up out of the grass, pulling his headphones out and looking around like a frightened deer. 

Wide eyes landed on a stranger, walking seemingly up to him. 


Nikita wasn't exactly sure how to react. Should he be embarrassed? He didn't know, truthfully. Usually when people saw him out in the fields, he could have an excuse. He lived on a farm, after all. But Newton's Cradle wasn't a wide expanse of grazing land and forest, it was a facility with a complex building and even more complex people. 

What could his excuse be? Did he even need one? He was allowed to walk around campus, after all. And judging by this person's demeanor, he wasn't in trouble. 

Instead he waved nervously, "Uhm, hi." He managed, sounding almost bored with how flat his voice came off. Really, he wasn't used to the sound of his voice. Nikita often spoke in sparse sentences, rarely even saying anything. People didn't really approach him, and the one time he had approached someone else he had talked the boy's ear off. He wasn't really sure if his voice could do that again. 

He lowered his hand to collect his headphones and bag, getting ready to leave. Even if this person wasn't an administrator, he would still leave if told to do so. Nikita wasn't there to pick fights about where he could and couldn't lounge, especially when a good old forest was nearby.
Rhonda
Fin's blue gaze pieced together the red hair, the facial features. They looked familiar, this new face - *What was with Fin and meeting people in the woods?* - and he tried to remember from where. He rocked back on his heels, studying, studying.

"I'm Fin," They finally said. "You, uh. Are you a student here? Sorta?"

Student, if that was the right word, would make sense. Plenty of people geared up and trekked about the woods. They were pretty sure Sig might have gone camping out here once or twice, and he and Sergio sometimes came out here to talk and burn things in the little metal trash bins speckled along the path with a pack of matches Sergio snuck in his coat.

"Oh, uh. Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you off. I'm just walking through."
Caitlin
Nikita nodded and stopped packing his things, "Uh, yeah. If that's what you call it." He muttered, unsure what to do now that he was told he could stay. 

He dwelled for a moment, mulling over the words this person had said to try and form a reply that would keep this conversation going. Then it hit him. 

Was this *That* Fin? 

There was a burst of anxiety that pricked at Nikita like thorns. He didn't want to fuck up, in fear of losing a potential friend. Him and *A* Fin had been talking over the Newton's Cradle intranet, and if this was the same person then Nikita needed this to go smoothly. 

He swallowed hard, tried to open his mouth but found a jumble of words clogging his throat. 

"Uhm." He croaked, failing to get out a good word. He coughed and tried again. "I'm Nikita?" His voice raised at the end, in the form of a question. He was trying to inconspicuously ask if this Fin knew him. He would mention stars, or either of their usernames, but he didn't want to come off as strange if there happened to be two Fins at the cradle. He still needed to make an effort to be more social, and he couldn't do that if he immediately came off as a socially awkward creep. 

He ran his thumb over his other hand, fidgeting to regain himself at some level. There was always this swelling feeling of fear whenever Nikita talked to someone for the first time, and he was currently in the process of trying to quell that anxiety.
Rhonda
"Oh!" Fin's expression softened into something a bit more friendly. "We've talked online! Hi!"

He waved, tilting their head slightly back and forth as they put two and two together. Nik, it seemed, was in fact in front of him, the new friend they'd been talking with back and forth for about a week or so.

"You're the guy who I talked about stars with! It's nice to like, actually meet you. Um, sorry I didn't recognize you - I'm not like, great with names. Or faces."

The suspicion lowered from their hackles; apart from the general weirdness of the Cradle, things had been going *Okay*, oddly enough. The star catalogue Akvile had let them borrow was interesting, the weather had been a little better, they'd' seen a few dogs in town. Things were picking up just a bit.
Caitlin
Nikita brightened at the recognition. "Yeah, good to meet you too." He said briefly. 

There was a feeling of relief that washed over Nikita like water. It cooled off any previous anxiety, and allowed him to loosen up and talk again. 

"So," He trailed, looking around. He thought he would be alone out there, so naturally there was one main question on his mind. 
"What brings you out... Here?" He gestured to the field. Nikita had never really met anyone who needed to be outside as much as he did, so he always assumed normal people needed reasons to come outside. Most didn't enjoy colder weather either, double the reason to ask. 

But Nikita didn't want Fin to feel like he was questioning him, either. He came up with something quickly. 
"Uh, if you want you can join me? I was just going to kind of exist here, until I got bored." Nikita offered, patting the grass next to him. He didn't want to immediately make Fin feel unwelcome, even though they had been talking online a bit. He hoped that by offering a place with Nikita he would alleviate any strangeness that surrounded their current interaction. 

Despite his awkward speech and gestures, this was Nikita's best. To him, at least, it wasn't nearly as bad as when he shakily introduced himself to Pythia a few days prior. 
To Nikita's surprise, it was a little easier to talk to Fin, having known a bit about them from their interactions. Nikita had probably interacted the most with Fin, past a few comments and peaceful hellos.
Rhonda
They glanced around the field, shrugging a little bit at the menagerie of loosely gathered trees and wildlife (as much as there was present in the Swedish winter in a random field) (of which there was still most likely a lot).

"Honestly? I originally uh," He laughed, just a little, scratching a tuft of bright blue hair on the back of his head, "Came out here to smoke. Or, set a bin on fire - but, I'm not! Currently."

A boyish grin pulled their features into a look of almost sheepish amusement, dragging a toe of their Docs across the dirt. They shrugged, just a little, before looking back up at Nik, and sat down beside him. They rested their chin on their knuckles.

"Existing is generally recommended. How are you settling in? I know you're, like - you said from a farm? Somewhere in there? Gotta be a jump, of some sort, *Dieu."*
Caitlin
Nikita's eyebrows raised at the mention of smoking, anything really. 

He had known of it, obviously. His Grandfather was rarely without a cigarette. He had never really taken an interest in it, seeing how his Grandpa hacked and coughed on occasion. His expression flattened, and even warmed up a little as Fin sat beside him. 

Conversation felt easier since Pythia, he didn't feel like he was choking on words anyway. 

He shrugs as he starts to talk. "Everything is... Okay, I guess. It's certainly different from the farm, yeah. The math is really hard, and there's a lot more... Memorization." Nikita sighed, leaning back and using his arms as support to hold him up. 

"To be honest, my days feel kind of foggy. They blur together a lot more here, but maybe that's because I don't do enough." He gave himself a pitiful chuckle, trying to sound like he didn't care as much as he did. "And it's loud. Really loud... I couldn't really sleep when I first arrived." He continued, recapping as much as he cared to recall from the previous week or so. 

"Next to you, I've met one person." For such a low number, he actually sounded proud of himself. 
Nikita hadn't ever really made a friend, it was good he already had two. 

His gaze drew lazily over to Fin. "How about you? I know you've said you've been here for like, ever, but how do you feel about living here?" He spoke significantly easier once conversation had been established. He wasn't awkward socially, just wary of strangers. At least, that's probably what his Grandma would say.
Rhonda
"Loud?" Asked Fin. They thought about that for a second, tilting their head back and forth before a shrug. He reached in his pocket and took out a nicotine vape, taking a hit and taking great care to make sure the smoke didn't get in Nik's face. After all, friends with similar names were hard to find, and Fin was trying to be more social.

Fin didn't think of the Cradle as particularly *Loud*, apart from the eldritch horrors that transpired on too frequent an occasion. He had come to accept it, more or less - the ideas of which were not lost on them, most of it was tragic, at least - and shrugged a bit at Nikita's questioning. 

"I've been here since, uh. God. August, two years ago? This August will be my third year here - it's kind of, insane really. I don't mind living here - I feel like I've made progress, sort of. I dunno. I was never very dangerous, even when I first got here. The worst I did was burn a few buildings down."

For the first time, in quite a long time, Fin drew their knees up to their chest, and red burned at his ears at the mention of the crimes that got them slapped into Newton's Cradle to begin with. Most everyone that Fin was close with, though, knew of his arsonist tendencies, or had committed a crime worse, and ergo, didn't judge. Nikita, in a sense, was one of the 'normal' people of the Cradle - of which, at least, they seemed to be becoming more common. Dae-hyun, another friend of Fin's, came to mind.

"I think it's alright," They continued. "The people here have kept it in-tact for me. I think if I didn't have the people I do, I'd go mad. More than usual. It's been steady going - haven't failed any classes, um, so, that's good. I helped start a band. Uh, the food's alright. I've learned to not burn water."

He was ticking different things off on his fingers, chipped black nail polish counting off different experiences.

"There was a brief stint with an angelic cult, and my best friend became a fugitive. That sucked - like, entirely."
Caitlin
Nikita let Fin go on. At the mention of *How* Fin was sent to the cradle, he kind of retracted a bit- drawing his legs a bit further into himself and leaning slightly to one side, away from Fin. 
He had attacked a boy. 
That and all his fits of anger. 

His aggression, at least, had subsided since leaving the farm. The newness of his current world kept him curious and learning, but he knew that once he started to get bored of his place things would start going downhill for him. 

He thought that maybe if he could make enough friends before then it wouldn't turn out like the farm. 

Nikita wasn't receding because of Fin, but because he didn't want others to know why he was there. Things like that spread like wildfire in all the movies set in highschool, and he wasn't about to openly admit it. 

But the subject changed quickly, and the tense feeling at the pit of his stomach subsided. 

At the mention of a cult, there was a mix of worry and morbid curiosity. 

"I'm sorry about that... But, if you don't mind, what exactly happened? That whole situation seems kind of crazy." He comments, trying to tread lightly around the topic that seemed spotty for Finley.