(Open / Complete)

[onegil]

Who: onegil, superninjayuf, firstclasswings, OPEN
When: A couple hours after immunizations
Where: Solamente Park
Rating: G - will update if it changes.
Summary: Aerith just needed to get out, think, breathe, you know.

Comments

[onegil]

Tifa had her worried the most. She wasn't speaking very much, and when she did it was flat and lifeless. Aerith couldn't stand to watch her friend spiral down like this, with no will to take the hands reaching out for her. Her head lowered at the thought, eyes on her boots as she tapped her heels against the side of the horse. They all lived together and yet there was absolutely nothing she could do to bring her out of her dark corner anymore.

"Yeah," she agreed quietly. She could choose to believe this, blind herself from the truth. "Cloud's always known how to keep himself busy." She managed a light laugh, but it died far too quickly. Who knew it would be the girls left to fend for themselves? They were tough, they could and have all taken care of themselves at one point or another, but she missed the rest of AVALANCHE. Just because they didn't need them didn't mean they wouldn't want them.

Aerith looked up as Yuffie trailed off. The only one in this place that would have enjoyed it was Marlene. It was amazing the kind of impact a little girl like her could have. "We can keep it as a project. If we find anything that might fix it, or any paint, we just save it for this. One day we'll finish it, and maybe by then things will be looking better."

[superninjayuf]

Yuffie had never seen Tifa like this. Even when Cloud closed in around himself, in the years after they defeated Sephiroth, after all they'd been through, Tifa had been the one strong enough to pull Cloud back to them. She was just as worried as Aerith, she just didn't know what to do. "He'll come back when he's ready," Yuffie murmured, her fingers walking over the hard, chipped plastic, "he always does."

They just needed to trust in that, and hope that he did wait too long. "We'll make it pretty again then." It was a sort of resolution. Marlene couldn't enjoy it anymore, and Yuffie would always wonder what if, and hate whatever it was that happened, even if she didn't know, but she couldn't be sad forever. Maybe the carousel could be the turning point that people talk about.

"Some paint, a little tinkering. I'm sure someone knows something about that stuff. We'll make it work real good." It would be painted, and through some sort of marvellous miracle, Yuffie had so many little ideas on how to get it into one of those big fancy carousel's with the lights and music.

Something sparked back alive and for the first time in a month, Yuffie smiled without faking it. "It'll be like in those story books."

[onegil]

He'll come back. But this wasn't their Planet, they weren't home. If somebody left, they came back. If somebody died, people could rest well in the fact that the deceased would find happiness and become part of the Planet. What happened to the lost and lonely here? She had often tried to hear the voices of the Lifestream, to feel what was going on, but it was so quiet. So lonely. "So we'll just have to wait."

And wait.

"All right." It was decided. If they could somehow rebuild this contraption, it would be possible to do anything else. To find hope. "I wonder if we could ask for help over the NOC." Not everybody sounded quite as optimistic as they could manage to be, and she was sure there would be someone calling their attempts stupid and pointless. Still, somebody might need the distraction just as much as they did.

"We'll do this," she added, brightening at Yuffie's smile alone. "One step at a time, right?"

[superninjayuf]

She didn't rightly want to think too long on Cloud leaving, even just for a little while -couldn't he see that Tifa needed him? So her energy was going to be dedicated to the carousel, and protecting people. So that no one else had to ...

"I bet some of the guys in the shops could help. Like the weapons, I bet they'd be fine for altering to fix this." It was a project, like saving Wutai, like saving Planet, like helping Reeve. Yuffie was good at distractions, she could find a distraction in just about anything.

"We can ask, I'm sure, and then if someone knows how to wire things, or whatever they can maybe make it go again, and we'll paint it?" Yeah, Yuffie had found her groove again, and even if it wasn't going to be permanent, it would last for now.

"This'll be the best carousel in the world!"

[onegil]

Aerith tilted her head to the side, a hand lifting so that she could tap her fingernail against her chin. "You think they would be okay with that?" The idea of taking weapons and disassembling them for the carousel wasn't bad, but she did have to wonder if it would seem disrespectful to some people. They did need them for the defense of their city, "but I guess it wouldn't hurt anything to just borrow a few," she finished the thought aloud.

"If we can find a job around here, maybe we'll find a way to pay for other things we'll need." Or trade. She still had trouble with the matter of currency, and it didn't help that she didn't have much with her of value. She laughed lightly at Yuffie's high energy, nodding in agreement. "It might be the only carousel in this world," she added, tone light and cheery.

Then she suddenly lit up, remembering something she probably shouldn't have forgotten to begin with. "I remember hearing about a Lady Heather a while ago. I haven't looked yet, but she might have something we could use."

[superninjayuf]

At the least, it was a spark of something, life maybe, that there was a chance to move past it all. Not to forget it, but to build on from it, to get somewhere that it didn't hurt constantly. Or it was bearable at least.

"Maybe not used weapons, like, broken ones. That we can just use as spares. I'll go see the weapons guy later." There had to be tools to make weapons, maybe she could barter to get a loan of them to see if they'd help with this. Maybe someone knew enough to help out. Yuffie wasn't looking to electrocute herself.

"Lady Heather? Wasn't she the magic woman? She could heal things or something, right?" Because Yuffie had vague memories of a Lady Heather when the building came down. Although Yuffie hadn't been hurt, she'd been more concerned with helping then herself that she hadn't paid too much attention to others offering the same help, only people needing it.

"I've sort of got a job." Only she was putting it off, "with the enforcers? Only, it's this person I don't know and...And General Sephiroth who are in charge." It wasn't the unknown person that put Yuffie off at all. It was Sephiroth, and figuring out if she could actually work with the man who had killed the woman in front of her.

Yuffie's smile dropped and her face turned serious.

[onegil]

"All right, just be careful when you do." The people around here, the ones she assumed were originally from here, seemed nice and helpful enough but one could never be too careful anymore. She had to admit, since coming to Paradise she had become a little more wary of strangers.

Aerith nodded slightly, lips pursing as she tried to remember exactly what it was the woman had said. "She wasn't specific about any type of payment at the time, so I guess it's a matter of being lucky. I'm hoping she's not reserved to just healing, though. Or maybe the healing of all kinds, even for inanimate objects." Though that kind of magic seemed almost impossible, but so did waking up in strange new worlds and look where they were now. "It won't hurt to ask, regardless."

For a while Aerith had forgotten the residents of Paradise even had the enforcers. She never paid much mind to the Regent when he spoke, not because it was uninteresting but because she was no fighter like the rest of them. The mention of Sephiroth got a look from Aerith and she frowned a little. She had kept in mind that this Sephiroth was supposedly different from the one she remembered, but the flower girl had yet to speak to the man let alone even see him to know for herself. "Do you..." she paused for a moment, sorting out the words while trying not to assume the worst of people.

"Do you trust him? Sephiroth, I mean. It's hard... hard to think he's not that person."

[superninjayuf]

Yuffie wasn't just that far lost on her naive streak. While she understood that even here, some of the people weren't exactly what she'd consider 'friendly', Yuffie hadn't really met anyone that she was worried about.

The idea that maybe Lady Heather could heal 'things' as well as people, well, maybe she could help them all. At the very least, give them something 'nice' for once. Although it was possibly too much to ask. Yuffie hadn't figured out how to make a decent living at all, and bartering things was only going to get so far -Yuffie was far too attached to, well, everything, to give them away.

"It'd be nice if she could." She thinks about jumping up onto the giraffe/horse/camel thing, but she's not sure it would hold even her meager weight, so she just leans, hearing it creak slightly.

"I don't trust him at all. I mean, it's Sephiroth! But," but he didn't seem all crazy and stuff, and he wasn't fighting with Cloud -wherever Cloud was, and he wasn't fighting with the Turks -not that Tseng knew much about the current state of affairs anyway. "It's all complicated with this time-zone, time-shift, not being the same stuff. It's like he doesn't even know who we are or anything."

[onegil]

At least Aerith was more than willing to hand her things away, so long as it meant being able to take further care of herself and her friends. She'd considered, at times, her materia to use as trades, but even those were necessary to protecting the people she loved. Unfortunately, she didn't have much else to part with, much like the rest of them. Her clothes, accessories, maybe the Gold Armlet? If this Lady Heather could help, she would need to keep in mind what she could give in return for her help. A little food she had saved away, blankets... Basic things.

"We won't know until we ask. Just keep a smile and look as sweet as possible," she coached, wearing a smile of her own. "People are more willing to share with someone who doesn't look like they'll swipe something from them later," but she was teasing. She was all for giving second chances, and forgiving past mistakes. Things were only serious problems if they let them be that way, and if Aerith could make a joke of it then everything could blow over smoothly.

Aerith took a moment to consider this, trying to picture a calmer Sephiroth. A Sephiroth trying to protect them rather than destroy them. "I know what you mean, but if he's willing to help keep us all safe then it can't be so bad..." Well, that was a difficult sentence to say. "We'll give him a chance," she decided, nodding more to herself as she slid off the back of the horse and onto the platform.

"We can do that much, right?"

[superninjayuf]

Things would work out so much better if they'd been given their own money, if they could use it -Yuffie had tonnes; not all her own, naturally. But still, Aerith's light tease made Yuffie nostalgic for the days when people had something worth working to steal.

It was far too easy these days. It was like no one knew what a lock was. "Well, I'll do my best, but I think you should be the one to talk to Lady Heather in that case. She might have something worth wanting." Healing anything was something worth wanting, and Yuffie's cure materia was embarrassingly low grade.

If Aerith was all for second chances, then Yuffie was sure she'd manage it too. At least she hoped she could. It wasn't like she'd be doing it on her own anyway, and the General would likely pay her little attention -which for once could be a good thing. So, "Okay, I'll see what I can do, besides, it might help get some things to clean this up. I'll just think of it that way."

She could definitely do that much.

[onegil]

"I will," she assured Yuffie, though how to ask for that kind of assistance would need some work. Just outright 'help us' would be desperate, wouldn't it? Luckily, Aerith was rather confident in her skills with strangers, so she was sure she could think of something. And if the mysterious woman couldn't help them, maybe Yuffie would have better luck with the weapons shop owner.

"So, we have a plan." Aerith cast a glance to the white horse, patting the top of its head again as if it would understand. "We'll have you all fixed up in no time." Before something else happens. When there weren't storms, there were monsters, and when there weren't monsters, there were funerals.

No, this was her distraction. She didn't need to think about that right now.

"Nothing left to do but get started. I'll ask Lady Heather as soon as I can, and start looking for paint. Maybe some of those abandoned buildings have something. A shed, maybe," and the words trailed off as she stepped off the carousel. "Thank you, Yuffie," she finally started again, turning around to look back at her with a smile. "I'm really lucky that you're here with me."

[superninjayuf]

This was a good plan, this was something to do and something productive too -even if it was just a silly little carousel. If they could start by fixing that up, maybe sorting out the rest of this place would be easy. She hoped that it would at least come to them.

"Right," Yuffie was all for getting started. She'd see about talking to one of the two leaders, although she wasn't too sure about this Castango person, or Sephiroth, she supposed 'better the devil you know' was the best idea here.

"I don't think so," Aerith's parting words made her smile after the woman, rocking on her heels, "I think we're all just lucky your here, cause it makes us wanna do better." Because it did. Yuffie was determined that no matter what, she wanted to protect Aerith this time. To help her, to be there, so that Aerith didn't go away on her own and get hurt. "We're all just lucky in some ways."