It took some time, crew-hiring to remove temporary walls and ship paintings to galleries and museums... but several days after the battle, in the aftermath making it clear this house had nobody else to go to (except for 'up for sale'), the place is basically ready.
Some boxes of things still rest unpacked in the living room, in hallways, near bedroom doors. It's not fully good to go yet. This is still excellent progress for now as it CAN be lived in.
Rune finishes dragging a box close to the couches and tables in the living room, then flops over to have a seat upon one such couch. "Ahh... getting that in here took a while." She is at least /trying/ to help, even if her sheltered, low-labor upbringing means she has flat out been doing the least of the work here. Getting this far is an achievement to her, one she idly 'basks' in while flipping open a box lid. There appear to be books, tea sets, and similar living-room decorations within. She then looks around to see what the others are up to this afternoon.
Hinote Kagari is dressed in an old shirt and jeans and has been doing a lot of work. Mainly, he's been replacing electrical plates with fancier ones- this is a basic task that doesn't require a electricians liscene to do-- unscrew faceplate- put in the new ones that Runealy and/or Vale decided on. If wires needs replaced, he makes a note in his tablet and makes a note to hire an electrician later- or make Runealy hire one.
Hinote claimed what appeared to be an old guest bedroom and put in some nicer furnishings- the old stuff- still fancy but more modern than he'd like- got shipped off to an auction of some sort since it was still high market stuff.
He's still doing things to his room- but right now he's doing the whole house things.
He pops up from next to the couch, he smiles a little. "Feeling comfortable, Runealy?" he asks.
He stands back up. "Alright. I thinnnnk I got all the plates on this floor. I need a short break. I can finish the next few later."
"Sure beats a trashy convience store, eh?" he asks idly. he plops his butt down onto the couch.
"Oh. Right. I haven't. Had a chance to mention... to you at least."
"...some sort of small bird followed me home from Waldia. The bird said- I am very warm." he says. "I had Gao check her out. Everything seems fine. Just..."
"....very confusing."
Mentioning the store brings Rune's mood down for a split-second, as she recalls it. It was a little personal slice of hell, only made tolerable by great need, friends being there, and finer details like Mistpaw being brought in. So her answer to Hinote's question is a forceful, absolutely convinced: "Yes. You don't realize how great beds, blankets, good wardrobes, actual meals, and all of that are until you don't have them. It's way better than that store," a smile takes hold after that conclusion as she adds: "and now we can give the apartment back to Virtue."
Then she realizes Hinote said something else interesting. Something she can't quite grasp. She understands all the individual words. Putting them together in this case just leaves her with one response: "...Huh?" A moment's thought tries to re-process this. Then, "I don't get it. A bird 'said' something to you? Followed you?"
Rune doesn't look angry about this. Not at all. She's just visibly very confused.
Hinote Kagari grins. "Which is good because it's very small and now we have Vale and Sol around. I can only sleep on the floor for so long~" he insists. He gives Runealy a small shoulder pat- and grins. "-- maybe we can turn some of the Guest Rooms into potential safe rooms like they gave to us? It'd be nice to give back- and this place is sooooo big- and it's filled with Guardian Knights so I'd say it's one of the safer places in the city." he winks.
He then blinks. "Oh-- lemme go get her silly little feathered butt."
He stands up and walks up the stairs.
A few moments later he comes back with a smallish red bird on his shoulder with some long sparkly plumage. She yawns because it's likely she was napping somewhere.
She may be kind of cute looking. "This is Illume. That's her name. I didn't name her."
Illume blinks at Runealy. "Hi!" it finally says, chiprly. She then peers. "You look warm." she nods matter of factly. This seems to be a compliment--of uh. Some sort.
Valeria has had an even less strenuous upbringing than the princess by exactly one factor; she was never trained in magic or any kind of fighting or self defense. Perhaps that only counts towards Runealy's magical form, but regardless Valeria is not all that much help when it comes to heavy lifting.
There are luckily many things to do that don't require heavy lifting, such as helping with the design problem of finding the proper mixes of modern and rustic, and as such has been doing a lot of directing about as well as, 'Put that here. Hm, a little to the left. No, a little more... perfect!'
However once Runealy begins doing more of the gruntwork herself she feels a little bad. A lot of this heavy furniture, furnishings, Waldian rugs and carpets (and floor coverings!), drapes, and more were her idea. She's the one who was so insistent about making this little piece of Mitakihara a bit more like a little piece of Waldia.
On the other hand, this is something she truly believes in. That the best way to make Runealy, and even her knights, feel more at home is to make their home more like Waldia. And making them feel more at home is a very important part, in her eyes, of feeling safe' And having a safe, that is both protected and happy, future is everything she has decided to fight for.
And that's why she has absolutely no issues abusing magic to give herself abnormally high carrying strength and stamina.
From outside she can be seen picking up a large wooden crate, leaping up above a balcony on the second floor and then gliding down to land on it, walking inside and placing it in it's proper room before down the stairs from the inside. "I believe that was the last of them. Anything else should fit through the stairway or unpack to be safely carried up singly."
Right about then she notices the small bird on Hinote's shoulder and studies it curiously for a moment, eyes widening a little as it speaks aloud before looking to Runealy like the princess will have all the answers in the world on the matter of verbose avians.
"...Did we have you on the floor?" Rune can't recall this being the case, so she's wondering if Hinote was just joking around or not. She admittedly didn't look all that closely though, so...
...so Hinote distracts her with some interesting thoughts. "'Safe room'. 'Safe house.'" She repeats these terms. "The first time I ever heard of those ideas was here in Tokyo. It turns out the usual meaning of them isn't /quite/ in line with what Virtue gave us, but I think their idea of it was closer to how we'd go about a 'safe room' if we had anything like that. You know what? Maybe we should. A room that's really protected and feels good too, our version of 'safe.'" A sharp nod to him. "We'll think about that once we're finished setting up here."
Then he's off to get his bird? Huh. Rune just sits there with a curious look. When he's back, she sees what he's talking about. "Wait, where'd you find...? I've seen one or two in the forests, but they're not common and they don't ta--"
Apparently they do talk, as Illume cuts her off with very clear evidence. "...Whoa?" Runealy looks very close for the possibility of ventriloquism - a performance art she has seen a few times - but it doesn't seem to be the case here.
So they have a talking red-and-sparkle bird here. "Hinote, where /did/ you find thi--" No, 'this' has a name. Rune corrects herself: "Illume? And... hi?"
Talking to a bird is a novel concept to her. Rune is nonetheless trying it though, gaze shifting over just far enough to be facing Illume instead of Hinote.
The corner of her eye picks up Vale. "Um... right, good work, but... have you seen anything like this before? Like Illume, I mean?"
Hinote Kagari was never on the floor-- the couch at best. But with Sol and Vale there- he'd probably end up on the floor--- that'd he'd generally be happy to do. If he wanted to sleep comfortably---he technically had a home to to with a bed. But.
Something about that always made him feel bad.
He's glad that they're in a proper home now.
Hinote shakes his head. "She says she's a phoenix, and from the barrier forest and followed me here because. I was warm. So she's been running around the city since we returned, looking for me." he shrugs.
"Very warm." insists Illume.
"That's apparently a compliment." says Hinote with a shrug.
He looks over to Vale and gives a wave. "Thanks Vale, I don't think I could had gotten those up here all by myself." he says with a sigh.
Illume peeks at Vale. "You're very purple! Purple isn't a very warm color." she insists.
Hinote sighs.
"She's behaved enough. She's just odd. and weird. and sticks to me like glue."
"Becuase I'm warm."
"I'm pretty sure has something to do with my fire magic." he shrugs.
Oh no, Runealy is verbalizing the look Valeria just gave to her and sending it back her way. "Only in plays," she thinks aloud, "but they never looked much like," a short pause as it would be rude to get the name wrong, "Illume does."
The bird seems to be the center of attention for now and that suits Valeria just fine, because she's rather curious about it. "Hm? It was my pleasure to help, Hinote," she responds to his thanks only to blink a couple of times at Illume. Did she just get dissed? She decides not, that seemed a bit more like simple honesty.
"Illume, you should attempt to speak potentially displeasing facts in a gentler fashion," she gently chides with a small smile. "In that way you can avoid offending those you do not wish to offend." She reaches up and pushes her hair back over one shoulder, "But it is true, violet is a color neutral in tone at best, and the lavender of my hair is cool even for violet. Still, it is not entirely without warmth and it's cool is among the softer such tones."
"Ah..." Rune isn't quite sure what to make of all this. "Okay... so 'warm' is a thing here, I get that." She tries to think of what else a bird, even a fairly rare one whose 'flocks' tend toward 'a dozen' instead of dozens in flight all at once, might consider. "Illume, what's on your mind?" An aside-glance to Hinote, "She just kind of chased you down? That's something."
Then she blinks as Valeria debates the new bird. "Wait... are you discussing art and color with i---Illume?" This is novel to her.
Illume was brought up in a forest. Potentially, by other tiny phoenixes. This is not high class- and she speaks a little like one might expect a slightly more educated caveman might at times. So thusly she looks at Vale like she has two heads. Like she's the oddity in the room.
"But..you don't look waaarrrrrm." the bird complains. Hinote rolls his eyes. "Okay, come on, let's go back upstairs an get you back snuggled up in the clothes pile. I should get you a proper perch tonight with a warm nest box or something..." he mutters.
Illume seems to take offense to that. "I like warm." she insists.
Yes, we know that Illume, Hinote thinks.
She looks at Runealy and blinks.
"Oh god... please don't talk to me about.. art for like. Two weeks. Between this and a witch I fought last night who's labrinyth took the form of some sort of demented art studio, I think I'm done with... 'art'." he huffs.
"...I saw someone make a wish to become a Puella Magi, too." he admits.
Illume nods matter of factly.
He scoops Ilume into his grasp. "Now. Vale has a point. We need to teach you some more manners because.... how many humans did you even meet before me?"
"None! Well. I did try to speak to one a while back in the forest but he got scared and ran away." she says mopely. "He dropped his round woodeny things and everything!"
"...they were warm thou." she says.
Valeria considers Illume for a moment. At first she looks to Hinote, "Is she-" she pauses; well if the bird just followed him how would he know? "Are you very young, Illume?" she asks softly. She takes a step to the side and looks towards Runealy with a smile, "In a sense I suppose I was, but the color of my hair," and eyes, "has always set me apart and so I've become very accustomed to describing it with others." A bit defensive? Perhaps. But when something about you sticks out you can allow it to become a thing of ridicule or something that sets you apart as magnificent, and she and her family have always worked hard to make sure it's the later.
Valeria makes a mental note not to do anything art related with Hinote for the foreseeable future. She'll have to discuss which paintings to hang on the walls with Runealy later, she decides.
"Umm... okay." Rune opts to just let art talk go for the time being, and that's easily done when Hinote brings up... "Another Puella Magi? I'll want to hear about that soon, if we need to keep an eye out for them. Right now though, let's focus on getting settled in here. With 'Walpurgisnacht' coming soon," she has shared the basic details of what Homura revealed recently, "we should get everything inside, where we want it, and do our best to make sure we have this place to come back to when we're done. So a 'safe room' was one thing, but..."
Her gaze wanders from bird to Hinote to Vale. "I get it. Good way of looking at that. That reminds me though, we've got a little more space down here. Do we want to set up any other room that 'sticks out' with the space we've got left? Like making up a reading room or little ball room or training area or so on."
Hinote Kagari frowns at Ilume and brings her up eye level and squints. "How old are you Ilume?" Ilume bird shrugs. He sighs. "I just think she isn't used to humans." he asides. "She knows bird things. I'll take her upstairs." Illume looks faintly frustrated.
There's some arguing probably.
He comes back down and rubs his forehead. "S-sorry. I think she just needs some lessons. I mean...."
"You guys were no different coming here to Earth, right? New things, new concepts." he asks.
He just shakes his head. He nods. "Her name is Shinobu. I met her not too many days ago. She was pondering her wish then, too. But-- it seems she decided on wanting her sight back- she was blind."
"-and she ended up trapped into the Labyrinth alone, so..." he sighs and shakes his head. "I didn't get there fast enough."
Then his eyes light up!
"You think we have enough room for a ballroom!?" he says with wide, suddenly sparkling eyes.
"A private ballroom....!? That would be...."
"So nice..." he says.
Rune lets Hinote and Illume go with a raised eye. There's some curiosity here, but perhaps later on will be a better time to properly meet the bird.
When he returns and talks about Shinobu, this holds her interest very well. "A wish to see again? I'm not sure you could have stopped that even if you 'made it in time.' I can only begin to imagine what that would be like, your entire world just being pitch-black all the time... not able to /see./ Wow..." Her tone is near-breathless, stunned as she does indeed try to 'visualize' this. "...That's a lot. Don't beat yourself up over that one, Hinote."
His reaction to possible ballroom plans is met with some dialing down of expectations. "It'd be pretty small if we did. Something for like five, ten people tops from the looks of it. That's 'if' we did it. No way we'd have room for a few hundred like back at the castle. And there might be other things we could use the space for, so we don't have to decide 'ballroom or not' right this instant."
Hinote Kagari didn't have this large picturesque ballroom in his head. He's thinking small manor style- all fancy-- and tailcoats... and- a single chandiler.... small party affairs--- and he can hear the ballroom music in his head and----
Then there's a record scratch.
"Ugh, you're right. There's probably something better we can use the space for." he says as he taps his chin. "A reading room... training room... a study...." he mutters as he taps his chin.
He nods at Runealy talks about the Puella Magi. "Yeah. In the end it was her choice." he says softly.
"Though."
"She called me cute. I was the first person she saw." he smiles coyly and nods.
"There's also.. um. One of those talky... weapon/device mages called 'Firebird' I've met before- who isn't able to walk- and uses her magic to fly but--- she wears herself out easily. She probably always needs help if you meet her. She's new too." he mutters.
"Sounds like we've got a lot to keep in mind," Rune observes. "We'll deal with wishes and flying and all that later. Right now, it sounds like we've got a few more days to get things moved in, divide up who gets which room, and we go from there." She reminds herself to contact Virtue soon and return apartment keys - and offer thanks for their help. The apartment was a big step up from 'a slice of hell' in a derelict store.
This is a step up even from that. It's something that's theirs, even if it was acquired through misfortune. Something to build up in to a happier, protective place. That thought drives her to fish out some of the decorations from the box and begin placing them onto the living room table...