Digitalis Old English folklore said that foxes wore the flowers on their paws to silence movement and stealthily stalk prey. Healing, pain, insincerity, insecurity
Right. All together there were eight of us. Or...nine, I guess, if you count Cid. He's a pilot who was helping us travel. But it wasn't always that many. Cloud, Tifa and Barret all knew each other first.
That's true. [by now they've entered the barn, so let's check out the hay.]
Well, like I mentioned Cloud, Tifa and Barret knew each other first. Cloud and Tifa were friends when they were kids. They're from the same village, but Cloud left to join the army when he was a teenager. After he quit, he picked up work as a mercenary and that's how he ended up in Midgar where we all met. Barret's the leader of a group called Avalanche. They're people who're working together to help protect the planet and fight against a company called Shinra. They're an electric company that's using the planet's lifeforce for energy, but because of how much is being used the planet's suffering.
Cloud was hired to help Barret with a job because Tifa asked him to. [she thinks on this, pausing a little to push on a bale of hay to check for its comfort.] The first time we met, he said he was involved in some dangerous things. But that didn't really matter, I think. Especially when the next time I met him he came crashing through my roof at the church and landed right in my flowerbed. But he's an ex-SOLDIER and knows how to fight, so I made him my bodyguard.
[aerith could defend herself, but cloud as a bodyguard really did benefit her at that moment. she pauses as if she's thinking about how much, exactly, she wants to tell him. she'd said it was a long story, but perhaps she'll skip a few details here for now.]
Red, Yuffie, Cait and Vincent are all people we met on our travels. Red is someone we rescued and brought with us on our way out of Midgar, and the other three were in other places. But we all had the same goal to take down Shinra. [...] And to stop Sephiroth from destroying the planet.
[ Another teen soldier. Too many of those lately, he thinks. Far too many... but he listens along quiet as they work, Daan picking together parts of hay that are softer and less likely to poke. ]
The materia.
[ Said like a suggestion, when she says Shinra is using the planet's lifeforce. He remembers she said they were energy sources, sometimes naturally formed. ]
Close. [a gentle correction, but she does seem a little happy that he remembers that much.] More like what the materia is made from. It's called mako. Shinra found a way to use the lifestream to generate electricity. They built these machines called reactors that are used to extract the lifestream from the planet to create the energy fuel to power the world. When Cloud and I met, one of the reactors had just been destroyed.
[she thinks daan is smart enough to put two and two together to get that avalanche was going around destroying these things. but...she shakes her head.]
Shinra's a big threat, but they're not the biggest threat. Sephiroth is even bigger than that. [...] He was a SOLDIER once, too. But something happened five years ago to change everything. Now he wants to destroy the planet...he says it's to claim his birthright. "A dominion that shall encompass worlds unbound by fate and histories unwritten."
[she says this like she does not believe it's possible, and also like she's mad. because she is. fuck you, sephiroth.]
He wants to destroy the planet and start over as something like a god. [she'll just lay it out really simple because sephiroth is a pain in her ass, actually. daan is a nice man, he does not need the full elaborate details right now.]
[this is such a funny response, she gave someone else an even more brief rundown and they truly went "oh okay." SHE DOES NOT EXPECT PEOPLE TO SAY ANYTHING.]
...we'll have to be. [so. debatable!] We fought him right before we came here, but he got away from us. So we have to follow him before he finds the thing he needs to destroy the planet.
Don't need to build it as thick as a bale, or compress it this hard. Shouldn't be too hard to transport it to the church in a few trips. The few positives of this place being really small.
Now that you've mentioned it, I wonder if they'll even notice...
[so! picking up some hay. it's a little scratchy, but you know what it's fine.]
Three trips ought to do it between the two of us! One pile for each person. [she will politely wait for him even if she is very much thinking about something.]
[ Imagine barn squad really is like hey assholes return us our hay. He'll kind of gather it up a bit trickily, but maybe there's things... around... there's buckets? Buckets of hay it is. He's average strength more or less and he's had a few days to recover, so he can carry this fine. ]
Got it in there somehow...
[ What's on your mind, Aerith. ]
Not that I've forgotten the directions or anything... but lead the way.
[i'd believe it. but they can take their hay-buckets/armfuls of hay and begin to walk. she will in fact take the lead with a little nod, gracefully turning around and heading out and down toward the church.
she is kind of thinking both about the words she caught from daan, her own words, and what she'd just told him. it means that when she asks the next question, it's with an open sense of vagueness to let him decide how to answer.]
...Daan. Do you worry about the future? Or do you let it come as it comes to you?
[ He's quiet for a moment -- long enough that you'd be forgiven for thinking he hadn't heard it. But right before it turns into too awkward of a breadth, he finally speaks. ]
Depends on what you're getting at...
Still, don't think I can do much when the future comes. Worry or not.
[honestly he could have ignored her entirely and she unfortunately would be like "okay valid" and change the subject entirely. but he does answer with time. and that's enough.]
Some things can happen in the past that change how a person views the future. And being here now is maybe almost like a detour of a new future. At least until we can get back.
[oh so this is why he was voted the saddest man...
she does not think this. that's me. what she seems to think is that she's a little surprised when he volunteers more information on his own. she's been trying to be good about not asking too much of him too fast, and she's aware this conversation could turn differently if she isn't careful. there's a nose of agreement though.]
Yeah. You could think there's a change for the better, but something happens and it immediately falls apart. [it happens.] ...what were the things you used to look forward to?
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Yeah. There's a lot we still need to take care of before then, but...after that, they'll find a way to come back stronger. Tifa's strong.
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[ Sounds like they've got quite the squad. ]
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[ Eight... feat your local grandpa Cid, he's got one foot in the grave. ]
How did you all meet? If you don't mind me asking.
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It's a little bit of a long story, I guess. Do you mind that?
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[ Even if work is gauging and gathering hay. ]
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That's true. [by now they've entered the barn, so let's check out the hay.]
Well, like I mentioned Cloud, Tifa and Barret knew each other first. Cloud and Tifa were friends when they were kids. They're from the same village, but Cloud left to join the army when he was a teenager. After he quit, he picked up work as a mercenary and that's how he ended up in Midgar where we all met. Barret's the leader of a group called Avalanche. They're people who're working together to help protect the planet and fight against a company called Shinra. They're an electric company that's using the planet's lifeforce for energy, but because of how much is being used the planet's suffering.
Cloud was hired to help Barret with a job because Tifa asked him to. [she thinks on this, pausing a little to push on a bale of hay to check for its comfort.] The first time we met, he said he was involved in some dangerous things. But that didn't really matter, I think. Especially when the next time I met him he came crashing through my roof at the church and landed right in my flowerbed. But he's an ex-SOLDIER and knows how to fight, so I made him my bodyguard.
[aerith could defend herself, but cloud as a bodyguard really did benefit her at that moment. she pauses as if she's thinking about how much, exactly, she wants to tell him. she'd said it was a long story, but perhaps she'll skip a few details here for now.]
Red, Yuffie, Cait and Vincent are all people we met on our travels. Red is someone we rescued and brought with us on our way out of Midgar, and the other three were in other places. But we all had the same goal to take down Shinra. [...] And to stop Sephiroth from destroying the planet.
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[ Another teen soldier. Too many of those lately, he thinks. Far too many... but he listens along quiet as they work, Daan picking together parts of hay that are softer and less likely to poke. ]
The materia.
[ Said like a suggestion, when she says Shinra is using the planet's lifeforce. He remembers she said they were energy sources, sometimes naturally formed. ]
I presume that's the person in charge at Shinra.
[ No. Somehow there are more problems. ]
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[she thinks daan is smart enough to put two and two together to get that avalanche was going around destroying these things. but...she shakes her head.]
Shinra's a big threat, but they're not the biggest threat. Sephiroth is even bigger than that. [...] He was a SOLDIER once, too. But something happened five years ago to change everything. Now he wants to destroy the planet...he says it's to claim his birthright. "A dominion that shall encompass worlds unbound by fate and histories unwritten."
[she says this like she does not believe it's possible, and also like she's mad. because she is. fuck you, sephiroth.]
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This all sounded so grounded in reality until she explained Sephiroth. Girl, what? ]
...
A dominion that'll...? I'm afraid I don't follow.
[ Sephiroth you fruity-ass bitch. ]
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...That's really intense.
[ WHAT ELSE IS HE SUPPOSED TO SAY TO THAT!! He's just a dude in the grand scheme of things, he's not from a fantasy RPG. ]
An active threat right now? Are you all going to be okay?
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...we'll have to be. [so. debatable!] We fought him right before we came here, but he got away from us. So we have to follow him before he finds the thing he needs to destroy the planet.
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All of us.
[ None of this sacrifice shit. ]
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All of us. No matter what it takes.
[let's think about hay though.]
...do you think the people staying at the barn will mind if we take this? I don't want to leave them with less padding for themselves.
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If they do we can barter again further down the line, I'm sure.
[ Lets go, dorm wars 2. ]
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I guess that's true. And there's plenty here, especially with only six of them staying here.
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Don't need to build it as thick as a bale, or compress it this hard. Shouldn't be too hard to transport it to the church in a few trips. The few positives of this place being really small.
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[so! picking up some hay. it's a little scratchy, but you know what it's fine.]
Three trips ought to do it between the two of us! One pile for each person. [she will politely wait for him even if she is very much thinking about something.]
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Got it in there somehow...
[ What's on your mind, Aerith. ]
Not that I've forgotten the directions or anything... but lead the way.
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she is kind of thinking both about the words she caught from daan, her own words, and what she'd just told him. it means that when she asks the next question, it's with an open sense of vagueness to let him decide how to answer.]
...Daan. Do you worry about the future? Or do you let it come as it comes to you?
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Depends on what you're getting at...
Still, don't think I can do much when the future comes. Worry or not.
...
I don't have a lot of thoughts about it...
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Some things can happen in the past that change how a person views the future. And being here now is maybe almost like a detour of a new future. At least until we can get back.
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To be totally honest, I don't have much going for me right now...
I've just got one thing, more or less, driving me forward.
...
I wasn't always like that. Plenty of things to look forward to.
[ He speaks plainly, little if any deeper inflection in his voice to sway one way or another. ]
You can always lose everything in a moment.
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she does not think this. that's me. what she seems to think is that she's a little surprised when he volunteers more information on his own. she's been trying to be good about not asking too much of him too fast, and she's aware this conversation could turn differently if she isn't careful. there's a nose of agreement though.]
Yeah. You could think there's a change for the better, but something happens and it immediately falls apart. [it happens.] ...what were the things you used to look forward to?
["are they things you can get back?"]
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