Cloud

[residentflorist]

code

Lilium
Derived from Latin lilia, which may have come from a corrupted
pronunciation of a word from an extinct Eastern Mediterranean language
Humility, devotion, restored innocence after death

"Lovers used to give these when they were reunited."

Comments

[residentmerc]

[ is shoulders better. he is truly trying to navigate all the pain so she doesn't hurt but he can offer comfort he's not GOOD AT THIS ]

Yeah. That happened. [ an octopus was there. ] ... On that boat... On and off. I couldn't remember any details.

[residentflorist]

[honestly it doesn't matter, she currently seems to want to be held if the way she's nestling into him is an indicator.]

But it wasn't like...did you remember home? Us? The way things were supposed to be.

[residentmerc]

... Yeah. I did.

[ he brushes a hand through her hair delicately ]

You didn't?

[residentflorist]

[hairpets are safe and nice.]

...we lived on the island together. It was small and isolated, and there were things wrong with it, but it was home. We grew up together...you, me, Tifa and Zack. In an orphanage for years, but eventually we got older and started our own lives. But we were all still close.

[residentmerc]

[ MADE UP BACKSTORY CONCERNS RISING ... WHO WOULD DO THAT.. CHANGE SOMEONE'S HISTORY. MAKE THEM FORGET THE TRUTH......

anyway more hair pets ]

... That's what you remembered. [ okay. alright. ] It wasn't real.

[ she knows that, he thinks, but. just. reestablishing. ]

[residentflorist]

...but it could have been. That would've been kind of nice, don't you think? The four of us being together. [this is kind of cyoa brain and also aerith going "i think all of us would have been good together."]

[residentmerc]

... Yeah. I guess it would've been.

[ if he thinks too hard about that scenario--all four of them together-- he feels something like yearning and vertigo, like if he thinks too hard something terrible will happen, and this isn't about him, so he dismisses it. ]

So what happened to us there?

[residentflorist]

...Zack joined the Corps at one point. People who protect the public and keep the peace. And...later, he was killed in action. Murdered while trying to follow a lead on an investigation. So you and Tifa joined the Corps, too, in his stead. Yuffie came to us a little later. Self-defense instructor, the youngest and only on the island. She was from a nearby orphanage, but...the whole thing burned down. She and Kate were the only survivors. You two were co-instructors to teach people how to fight, and I...did what I always do. [a thoughtful pause, and brief melancholy.] "Coene full of flowers, wallet full of money."

We were all pretty close. Yuffie was one of the people helping with the investigation of the string of murders that had been taking place. You and Tifa were pretty caught up with business though. I didn't get to see you much in the last few days. [hilariously they did not show up at all, just established in her backstory. good for cloud honestly.]

[residentmerc]

[ again if he lingers too long on the line of zack killed in action he gets a headache, so wow, let's move on from this right away. some of this is. uh. weirdly familiar, but he doesn't question it too much. it would not be the first time people were dragged places that were familiar to others. ]

... Yuffie'd be terrible at holding down a regular job like that. [ coene full of flowers, wallet full of money. of course she still sold flowers. ] So what happened those last couple of days?

[residentflorist]

[pff.]

She was good at it. But...the six of us were working together to solve the murders that were happening around the island. The work of a serial killer. We spent the days investigating and talking to people. Finding clues. Some of them were strangers, but some of them were familiar friends. [a pause.] On the first day, we found Aqua's body after some investigating. She'd been killed the night before, but we didn't have clues to lead toward a culprit. So we split up for the day to go about our evenings. I...don't know where Karlach, Yuffie and Izutsumi went. I can guess now, but I didn't at first.

[...she knows he's not going to like hearing this, anxious energy in her emotions and a little uneasy fear.]

Tomizawa, Anisphia and I woke up in a lab though.

[residentmerc]

[ YES ACTUALLY HE DOES HATE IT, THANKS. his hold on her tightens a little and his reflexive emotion is-- well. it's anger. of course it's anger. why does she have to end up in a lab again. but he tries to calm himself down at her fear and anxious feelings ]

... Did they do anything to you?

[residentflorist]

[she's on and off disassociating a little while she's talking, glowing eyes occasionally drifting off to stare at something else in the corner of the room. if he hated this part, he's gonna hate this next bit, too.]

...they had us restrained for testing. Most of the tests were going to be run by this friend of Anisphia's. Euphyllia. She told me about her once, she's her assistant. But I didn't really think much of her when we were there. [faint confusion.] Zack was helping her. I don't think he was expecting me to be awake though.

[residentmerc]

[ he hates her disassociating with glowing eyes! that's his thing! stop stealing his horrible, horrible thing! and then she keeps talking and he hates that more actually. never mind. he is absolutely livid and then--confused right back. ]

... Zack? But I thought he was dead?

[residentflorist]

He told me he never died. And the first time we were in the lab he said...doing what he was doing was the only way I would live. That I wouldn't remember it later anyway.

[residentmerc]

[ hilarious that this is basically the one memshare he got from mathis but he's not thinking about it right now ]

What was he doing to you?

[residentflorist]

...I didn't know at first. We were connected to cables, and he just kept talking about how this was the only way. But the second night we woke up there...it was a little more clear. We were just a vessel for learning how to implement memories to a real body. He said...he couldn't risk doing the testing on my real one. So there were copies he used. He didn't die, but...he says I did.

[the hallucination zack in the corner says: "If you've felt alone, then I'll make up for it once this is finished, I promise you, but we still have to go a little further. I'm not letting you die again."

this is not comforting. thank you, hallucination zack.]

[residentmerc]

[ again this is the one mathis memshare he received but that was weeks ago so hes just ???? have i heard this before??? for a brief second. also

can aerith stop dying for five minutes ]

... You're real. You're not a copy.

[ he cannot say you didn't die because 1) she has that's why they are here. 2) NOT ENTIRELY CERTAIN ON HER DEATH STATUS BACK HOME ANYMORE ATP BUT DOESN'T WANT TO ASK ]

[residentflorist]

[the emotion is...dubious.]

...but how do you know?

[residentmerc]

[ this is so funny in like 3 canon days this is his own issues. anyway. he pets her face ]

Because that wasn't real. That was the fog. [ first... of all. in case she forgot. but; ] You're the only Aerith I know.

[residentflorist]

[STOP NOT THIS. facepets...help.]

But...I saw them. He wouldn't say where my real body was, but I saw the other copies. And we saw the real Anisphia, dead and frozen, to be used once they were done with her Reliver form.

[residentmerc]

... You saw a lot of things there, but they weren't real, Aerith. [ patpat :C ] Relivers are from Lucas' world. They used his memories to mess with you.

[residentflorist]

Not just his. Mathis's, too. [so she at least is aware of that, but.] But so many people died. More and more bodies showed up over the days we were investigating...I found Marina with her heart ripped out, and some of Iwatooshi's limbs shoved into a garbage can. Yuffie found Red. Geto, Lucas, and a friend of Tomizawa's were also found. And it just...felt worse every day. It was harder to hold it together after each night in the lab. We kept remembering different things, but it...our focus was on stopping the killer.

[residentmerc]

[ NOT OUR FUCKING DOG TOO?????? ]

... And all of that was before you woke up in that lab. Right? [ what if he just keeps holding and petting her and wishes he could just erase these insane memories ]

[residentflorist]

No... [also yeah our dog because sipp and i both put red down as close cr lmfao GOD. anyway she's thinking.] We found Aqua before the first night in the lab. But...I don't think it was our first night? I fell asleep at 11, and when I woke up we were there. It felt like...a dream, at first. But with how things were being treated, it wasn't a new occurrence. We just didn't remember because of the work being done on our memories. When we woke up in the morning, none of us remembered the lab. But...it felt like I suddenly remembered things differently. Before, I only knew Zack had been killed, but then I remembered that I saw it happen. Killed by someone in a dark hooded robe.

The second day we found Marina, Red and Iwatooshi's parts. And the three of us woke up in the lab again that night. Same thing. We were able to see more clearly, but when we woke up on the third day we didn't remember the lab, or even that we weren't really real. It just felt...hard to keep it together. It became about wanting to avenge those people who died. And the third morning is when we heard about Geto, Lucas and Tomizawa's friend. I think she was another researcher in the lab, but I don't know now. [a pause.] Zack...promised it would be okay. That what he was doing, what they were doing to us would be worth it. But he still never explained. Not really.

But...we didn't wake up in the lab on the third night.

[residentmerc]

[ wow aerith your brain issues sound familiar. luckily this isn't about cloud so he can have no realization about any of this and just continue to vibe in CONCERNED WARINESS as he listens to her describe like 30 dead people AERITH WHY ]

... Where did you wake up?