Trust In Isolation [Rita/Solo]

Following up to this thread: https://www.platinumhearts.net/t24367-savoring-a-game-sabre-rita#172860

The pitter-patter of blood dripped from a tree and onto the warm, desert sounds of the forest of menos. In the treetops above, a woman's teal gaze filled with melancholy gazed down below at the numerous unconscious hollows below her. As her exhausted breathing eased into a softer exhale, she gazed back upward at the endless heights the trees around her extended to.

This was -- aloneness. No one was around her; the air was still, and only the echoes of her thoughts kept her engaged in the emptiness. And it is in this stillness where one can think.

"Trust,"

The woman talked in a low, hushed tone to herself as sadness filled her eyes.

"Such a simple word, yet so complicated."

As her dulled stare shifted back to the pack of passed-out hollows on the forest floor, the words of Sabre came back to her as the contemplation of her paranoia and pessimism were a problem, even if she tried to downplay it to herself. Seeing the sight of these supposed beasts and monsters fighting together while she, a human, was alone and having this supper alone felt ironic.

With her eyes closing to have a moment of reflection, perhaps she wouldn't even be in this mess if she didn't bother to go on that mission alone. That desire to be someone and to make this life amount to something valuable was turning into her weakness rather than the strength it was in the past. To go from the slums to having wealth and resources almost feels no different from the sense of loneliness the woman could feel in her heart.

"Damn, maybe I should have let one of them come with me."

Opening her eyes again to the quiet forest before her sight, the woman pondered what Kenichi and Vanyel were up to. Were they coming to find her? Did they have issues going on in their lives to deal with? Or, even for that matter, what about her interns: Shou, Sora, and Ikari? They seemed to take a great liking to her hospitality. Or, hell, maybe she might even run into that crazy Amaranta chick in her home world.

" Really, thinking about all of them at a time like this...?"

As the woman bit her lip, a sense of woe flowed through her soul as perhaps these were the things she needed to focus on whenever she was out of this insane situation. There was no doubt she had strength in her mind, but she knew her heart was the weakest attribute, as even a King or Queen can be killed when isolated from their kingdom. And by that same vain, the guarding of her precious, precious heart and the weakness of her ego was the crux of this hell she was in now.

So, as a single teardrop dripped onto the sands below, Rita just had no choice but to realize how deeply alone, weak, and vulnerable she was at this moment. In the human world, she could drink it away, smoke it away, work it away, fight it away, or immerse herself in her company to the point where she was too exhausted to the introspection into her soul's isolated essence.

And with that acknowledgment, a problem was identified. The only question was whether or not Rita had the strength to do something with that pain to correct it and make her future better and invest more of that precious resource of trust into the people she's kept at such an arm's length. As her eyes began to close, she'd leave that thought for her future self to deal with when she woke.