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.

[ 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?

...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.]

[ 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 ]

[the emotion is...dubious.]

...but how do you know?

[ 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.

[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.

... 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.

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.

[ 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 ]

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.

[ 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?

Edited 2024-07-20 18:05 (UTC)

[she's just tired man. and the heavy notes of...anger, maybe. and guilt. grief. all of that.]

We didn't really fall asleep, I guess. We met back on the streets with the other three because we were planning to catch the killer. Set up traps and everything. But...the longer we were out there, the harder it was to think of anything but getting revenge on them. Finding who it was and taking from them in exchange for what they took from us. We started remembering...everything about the lab, too. That we were just copies. That we didn't mean anything outside of being testers. Something to help perfect what was needed to save the "real" version of us.

Looking at it now, it didn't matter to us that we no longer were even sure what we witnessed was real. Maybe Zack really didn't die, but it didn't matter. Other people did. That was enough reason to make them pay for it.

[ knowing how aerith feels about having that level of anger cloud is just going to ... squeeze her hand... ]

... Did you?

[ he's not curious about it he's just WORRIED. ]

[....]

The killers were right under our noses. And they were intending to kill us, too. For being soulless monsters. Demons, even. To protect innocent people from us.

[she'll answer his question in a second, she just wants to put that out there.]

... Aerith.

[ he can infer is the thing because she has only mentioned some names that haven't died and he knows how these things work, but instead of saying it himself he squeezes her hand again ]

You're not any of those things. It wasn't real.

[back to looking at the invisible zack. she's quiet, like she's thinking if that's true or not.]

...one of the others must have attacked Yuffie before I found her. She was already a mess by the time she crossed my path, but she didn't even recognize me. She just saw me as a Reliver, even though...[she shakes her head.] Maybe I stopped caring, too. She was just as guilty, taking those lives for a god that isn't even real. She tried to attack me first, but she was already pretty hurt. She said she was doing it because God was saving people like them. Like me. That killing them was the only way.

[...]

I didn't mean to hit her so hard the first time. [another wash of guilt, nausea, and despair mostly.] But it didn't matter. I had her right where I needed her, and the garbage can wasn't as heavy as I thought. Once I started, I didn't stop. I had to make sure she stayed down. After the third strike, it was over.

[ gently moves her head so she isn't looking at zack, with works because cloud isn't that expressive even when she is describing the fact that she had to kill yuffie with a garbage can. which is just making him more worried for both of them but they are alive now at least! yay. also just anger but its at this place for making her do this ]

... Yuffie's alright. She's fine. They messed with your heads.

I thought I was getting through to her, but it didn't work. And she wasn't even sorry about it [she acknowledges it wasn't real, she's just explaining to cloud. and then...]

...I left her body there. I went out to find the others, but Karlach found me first. She was at the end of the road. Her job was to remove us...the devils wearing human skin. ...so I ran, knowing she'd follow me.

[ [cloud in cosmo canyon voice] thats enough

he stares at her because that certainly explains why she wasn't asking about karlach, and despite knowing it wasn't real it does making him hold her a little tighter. ]

... And she did?

[ he hates this! so much ]

Yeah. Thought if I could get her far enough, I could get her before she got me. And for a little while it worked. I was able to slow her down a little, but I got lost and...it was a dead end.

[remnant to her actual murder here, really.]

She just kept saying she was doing it to keep the city safe. That it was my fault for going to the other side. Called us monsters. [...she's not sure she wants to tell cloud about how much karlach threw her around, actually, given her extremely broken everything. so.]

She had the hatchet from the beginning. I should have known. But she was just...she reminded me I wasn't real. The real Aerith had died, and I was only a replacement. Inhuman. And she was going to be the one to save the people from people like me.

[and she was hatcheted in the back a few times. y...ay.]

...I don't know what happened to her after that.

[ going by how fucked up karlach was she probably died too. or close to it. there is no satisfaction from that, it turns out, can people stop stabbing aerith in the back for TWO FUCKING MINUTES ]

None of that's true. You're not a replacement, and you're not a monster. [ he knows there's maybe no point repeating it but he doesn't know what else to say, so it comes off a little more desperate. ]

[she's busy leaning into his side, mostly quiet but emotions all over the place and erratic for a moment. there are a lot of messy feelings involved, especially because this involved multiple friends. so she's just clinging onto him uselessly for a few minutes, very clearly trying to calm herself down instead of explode in a wave of haphazard feelings.]

[ well that's fine he can hold her and try to keep his own feelings down to not add to the mess of feelings she's trying to deal with right now. if he runs his hand through her hair enough maybe it will help? he is so useless at this she needs a better boyfriend but her only other option is the ghost of evil zacks in this room so he will do his best ]

[zack's not even evil he was just so vague and she's so mad about it. EXPLAIN, SCIENTIST ZACK.

eventually though...from where she is, she says very quietly:]

I didn't want to die again. [which maybe is. a choice. but this keeps happening every time she comes to terms with actually being dead (?) at home and coming back. but a lot of her fears came from being chased and cornered again, dying alone and knowing she wouldn't be the one to stop a friend from hurting themselves or other people.]

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