witchesreign | AU Event: For the Planet [action]

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AU Event: For the Planet [action]

[Who's the lady dressed all in dark gray and blue? Why she's familiar....almost. Aerith strides right past people in Garden, her loose (and suddenly short) hair flying behind her. There's no time to stop and sort out her memory: she needs to confirm for herself that things really are as safe as they appear to be. She tightens a dark blue scarf around her neck and steps onto the observation deck, gripping the ledge tightly.]

I'll complete my obligation and then I'll leave. I have no use for this, and it has little use for me. How can any of this be important in the end? In the end, it's still our job to ride the tide. Not control it.

[But she is definitely going to ride the tide back home straight into kicking certain awful people in the face, she thinks, clenching her fist. She glares out into the gray of the day, allowing her anger to start to pass.]

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A sermon?

[She looks...faintly embarrassed, but shakes it off.]

It's been a long time since I could be accused of that. I should probably thank you.

Oh, you just like to climb on top of high places and spout a load of preachy crap for no reason? Maybe you need a real hobby.

[He shifts on his perch a little to make himself more comfortable, completely unconcerned about falling off.]

Pretty good metaphor for something you came up with on the spot, in that case. The tide looks like it only flows one way, but it always goes back out. It's just too large a pattern for one human to see right away. There's no point trying to go against it. If more people understood that... [A brief, unpleasant laugh.] Well, if more people understood that here, I might actually be getting somewhere.

[Apparently he doesn't have a problem with preachy as long as he's the one delivering it.

He looks her over with slit-pupiled eyes.] Guess I'm out of luck here, too. Don't remember seeing anyone like you around before.

I haven't had time for one, but I'll consider it.

[She leans against the edge of the balcony, eying him appreciatively.]
I've made it my job to try to understand. I have to figure some of it out. I've always needed to, for my own sake. And I can't say I have a recollection of you either.

Oh? [His eyes narrow.] There's a word for someone whose job is to understand things, and you're not sounding like much of one. Best stick to the preaching.

[Absent-mindedly, he swings his other leg over the ledge. He's looking pretty precarious up there.]

Can't hurt to ask either, though... [He points at his own face.] Have you seen any other jerk around here who looks like me? He's not that easy to miss.

I'm not a scientist, if that's what you're implying.

[She spit the word out. It clearly disgusted her, the whole idea of scientists. She shuddered.]

Not that I can remember. Did he look just like you? Twin?

Twin's one way of putting it, if you wanted to be cruel. Same face, same... height, I guess. And probably no idea where he'd be right now if this Time Compression crap hadn't bailed him out early. [His smile fades a little.] I just don't get it... all of a sudden there's no shortage of idiots telling me he is enrolled here, has been for a while, and they can't all be lying - so why didn't I know? He wasn't hiding all this time. I'm the one who should be hiding.

[He grips the balcony more tightly.]

Typical scientist. Worst kind of human, if you ask me. Even when he's not around, he's still being a pain.

What's his name?

[Aerith has an inkling, if a faint one.]

[He doesn't answer immediately, but stares off into the distance. On top of the balcony, his knuckles whiten slightly.]

Edward Elric. [Here he looks back at her.] That's not his only name, but if I know him, he wouldn't go by the other one here.

I remember him, vaguely.

He never showed any trace of cruelty to me. But I don't disbelieve you.

You do know him? [He swings one leg back over the ledge, moving as if to hop down, but stops himself before his other leg is fully over.] But... you don't know where he is either, do you? [It's a rhetorical question, and a bitter-sounding one.] Nobody here does.

I knew of him once. We didn't really have time to talk. And I haven't seen him, no. He's blond and wears bright things, he's hard to miss.

You're right. He should be. [He stares at the floor, looking even more defeated than he was already.]

"Knew of him once", what's that supposed to mean? [A beat.] Did he... go back where he came from? That's something that happens to people here from time to time, right? [And raises more questions than it solves...]

He might have. It seems a lot of us have been switched around, coming and going.

Switched around...? [At his side, his hand curls into a fist almost involuntarily, but then he relaxes it.] No, that's not it. That can't be it. I've been here this whole time.

[He looks straight at her again.] If you're hiding him... [It would be a weak threat even if he could bring himself to make it explicit.]

I guess so. It's just...oh, it's confusing.

And I haven't been. We didn't know each other well.

You better not. I'll find out. [By contrast, despite his wording, this isn't any kind of threat. If there does happen to be a quavering note well-hidden in his voice, it's not one of anger.] I might not know what he'll do, but I know that much.

I promise you don't have to worry about that.

[She pulled her arms to herself and shuddered---not because she was lying, but because he worried her.]

[He eyes her. It's a soul he's missing, not a brain - or, for that matter, the ability to feel a little resentful.] What is it? Something to say?

I'm just worried. No clue what's going on, that's all.

Nothing you need to concern yourself with.

[Though he doesn't look at all satisfied with her answer, he won't push it.] Fine, I won't.

[He takes a few steps towards the exit, unwilling to turn his back on her. There's something not entirely right about her either, and he would've thought that would make him feel at home, but apparently it doesn't work that way.]

But... if you catch sight of him, I want to hear about it, understand?

You will.

[She turns, ready to head off in search of her cloak. She has some thinking to do.]

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AU Event: For the Planet [action]

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