people are able to hold onto hope

The revelations were growing more disturbing by the day. Not only had three months unearthed very little in the vein of potential ways off the island, the phenomena which took over Darrow in any number of ways, from fog to the reawakened, were also making Rukia more uneasy by the minute. Some people might have been accustomed to the idea of there being multiple verses functioning in any number of ways, but to Rukia, there was only her world. There was only the balance that she'd learned of her whole life, the divide between the living and the dead, a cycle which tossed about but rarely tipped.

Darrow changed everything.

While able to keep a straight eye for most of it, sometimes Rukia found herself needing an anchor. Today was one of those days, Rukia making her way over to the town park and stretching her muscles out, testing out a few basic forms in her tank and capris. To anyone watching as she passed through the basic hakuda moves, it was pretty clear that Rukia had some level of experience.

But no one would have been able to mistake her for someone with decades of it. She kept her moves casual, hoping to slip under people's radar, because this was a time for thinking. Not explanations.