Summer Solstice

[lifemods]

Summer Solstice Fair

The sun is shining, the Mognet is working again, and the summer solstice fair is here! The WRO hopes to makes this an annual thing, but this is the first year they're doing it. Everything you could ever want from a fair is here and open to the public.

*Fair Rides: Ferris wheels, a mini rollercoaster, that thing that looks like an octopus and spins around--the WRO spared no expense to make sure everyone would have fun here today. There's even a gravity ride that takes you up to the top of a pole and then drops you!

*Food: So much food. So much unhealthy food. Funnel cakes, hot dogs, burgers, ice cream, you name it. And it's all fairly cheap too, since the WRO promised to pay for half of what the merchants sell!

*Carnival Games: And most of them aren't even rigged! The Gold Saucer donated games for the fair and there are so many games. There's your standard shooting games, some basketball games, a dunk tank, hoop tosses, you name it. A few are rigged, though, so buy beware! There's also a few card tables set up in a tent for those who like their games a little less wild.

*Speed Dating: ...yeah, the WRO has no idea. This came with the Gold Saucer stuff, along with a Cait Sith and Moogle mascot pair that will coax anyone they can into sitting down and participating.

*Job Fair: With the influx of new arrivals, both native and Streamers, some employers see a golden opportunity to get some jobs filled! In one corner of the fair is another, mini-fair fill with tables and presentations on various workplaces: the WRO, ShinRa Tech, the volunteer emergency services of Edge, and the Highwind Air Taxi Service, just to name a few. Anyone of working age is welcome to wander in and have a look around.

Of course, the fair is taking up the entire center of Edge, so there's lots more to see and do!

[[Feel free to make your own top levels! Welcome to Edge of Life!]]

Comments

[fearedheir]

"And no doubt Reeve is aware of that." He slid the papers back to Vincent. "Ask him to get you to Mideel.

[exturkishdelight]

There might have been an eye twitch. But... He should attempt contacting Reeve. If he could observe or at least et information. its all he needed.

"Keep it. I have no discord with the Turks."

He turns away, his cloak swinging around him as he steps out of the Gazebo.

[shinra_dog]

"Mmm..." Reno hummed thoughtfully as he popped another hot, sugary zeppola into his mouth. To be fair, he'd dragged Rude to quite a few booths now. But it was so infrequent that they got a chance like this! They'd been working their asses off for years, especially the last two. There had been no festivals, no carnivals, no occasions for unhealthy celebration. The last big celebration Shinra had had was probably Rufus' presidential parade. And there was hardly anything carnival-like about that event. Reno had actually spent part of it in a bar (whether or not he should have).

Could he probably have gotten at least half of this stuff on his own time, somehow, somewhere? Sure, with some effort. But it was a lot easier to justify it this way.

"Yeah," he conceded. "At least for awhile. No promises about a couple hours from now. It's not like this stuff fills ya forever."

[shinra_dog]

And suddenly there was bread underfoot.

"Hey!" Reno protested, glaring at the guy who'd just thrown a bun at him. And then stared. Because suddenly there was a weird dog... man... thing, sucking down a hotdog and wagging away like he'd just stolen the supper roast.

Job

[shinra_dog]

"It stands for Identification Number... The first two letters of 'identification' -- I.D.. So we can store mass records of our employees easily via computer data..." Reno stared at Laslow, rather at a loss.

"Maybe technology isn't for you..." he said slowly.

Job

[shinra_dog]

Shinra was rebuilding, yes. And they'd been successful enough to have a new building, some actual services, even unbeknownst to the people the Mognet servers belonged to them. Still, they didn't have as many employees as they once did. Obviously.

Which was why Reno was now representing the Shinra Tech table at the job fair, filling a gap in the schedule. He glanced up at another Stranger X, trying not to look too bored.

"And you are?"

/pets

[backwatertrooper]

"I guess," Cloud said with a little huff, because well. That was true, as trite as it was. Then he cocked his head, eyeing Zack and hesitating for a moment before a small smile escaped.

"... does that really count in your case, though?" It was said a little hesitantly, despite the fact that this felt easy, normal almost since he first met Zack (though he hadn't felt relaxed enough to tease back quite like this, then), this was still... different.

[flirtatioustea]

Even in the free clothing given to him by the lovely people who rescued him and Keaton, it was obvious Laslow was not used to a world like this. He kept tugging at his shirt, much too rough on his skin, and he had kicked off the strange cloth shoes that tripped him up. So no, technology wasn't for him.

He sighed. "This isn't even for that...ShinRa, was it? I was hoping something here would require my skills, and yet..."

[backwatertrooper]

Staring at the now-cleaned table for a few more moments, Cloud shook his head, then looked up to catch Terra's smile, and frowned softly.

"Maybe... it won't be permanent," he said slowly, brushing away the last, thin layer of dust that still clung to the worn table, "if they can figure out what's wrong with the Lifestream that should let you get home, hopefully."

A thought which was pretty unsettling for Cloud; going back would mean going back to being dead, and while there'd been no way to stop it when it happened, he didn't really want that. He didn't belong here, no, but... He pushed that whole train of thought away determinedly.

"... I guess you're right, though," he added quietly, even if he wasn't sure how, but he'd heard the same sentiment before, and Terra probably had the right idea.

[backwaterpuppy]

"Oh. Well, that's cool." What else was he supposed to say to that? He imagined he might hear a lot of strange things from other Streamers that were from worlds more set apart from this one than his. Maybe she had some funny or interesting stories to tell. This could actually be fun.

"Liadrin," he repeated with a friendly smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you too. And honestly the eyes weren't really the weirdest thing for me." People had glowy eyes sometimes, it just happened, though not usually to that extreme. The ears, though... That would take some getting used to.

"So, Silvermoon City... what's that like?"

[backwaterpuppy]

The voice behind him sent a chill up Zack's spine that caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand on end. There was nothing creepier at the moment than hearing yourself from behind you, even if a moment later rational thinking settled in and told him it was the Zack of this world back from the dead. Yeah, rational.

He turned slowly, steeling himself for whatever he may see, and locked eyes with someone brighter and younger than himself. Obviously the world hadn't beaten this Zack down quite as hard, and for that the older Zack was happy. Well, as happy as he could be that he'd died. Which wasn't that happy, but he was here now so that was what mattered, right?

"What do you think?" He asked flippantly, folding his arms over his chest and resting his staff in the crook of one elbow, leaning on it slightly as he sized up his counterpart. There was no need to make this weird. Just play it cool.

[backwaterpuppy]

The SOLDIER's expression lightened a bit when Cloud approached. His Cloud. It was a funny thought, but one that made him feel a little warmer inside when it popped up.

Zack locked eyes with the woman manning the booth, narrowing his a bit as he listened to Cloud and then took the ring back. He tossed it in one hand for a moment, feeling it up and testing the balance.

"Yeah, I think you're right. Which makes it nearly impossible. But only nearly." Knowing that he was at an unfair disadvantage, Zack took another moment to feel the weight of the ring before he lined up his toss, accounting for the misdirection the weight would cause, and threw. The ring hit the rim, spun three times, then settled on top of the bottle.

"Score! Alright, one of those fish is mine," he declared loudly, tossing an arm over Cloud's shoulders. "Help me pick one out? You're my lucky charm now."

[backwaterpuppy]

Oh, a familiar voice! Which, granted, wasn't too unusual in this place since it was a parallel of his world, but still.

"Rude of the Turks," he responded in kind, looking up from his card. Nothing seemed different about this Rude, so that was a plus. "Speed dating, huh? I didn't figure you for that kind of guy."

He wanted to make a comment about Reno, but after how awkwardly things had gone with Rufus after mentioning Tseng... Well, he might keep those things to himself from this point forward.

[paidmuchbetter]

"You may mull it over in your head as much as it pleases you, but I remain firm on my stance." Look at this, Tseng standing up to Rufus? The world must be ending. Or he just really doesn't want to hire anyone into the Turks. It sounded like a security breach waiting to happen, rabbit or not. Her snippy attitude hadn't helped her at all either.

The Wutaian looked down at the kit on his lap, smiling ever so slightly as she yawned and rolled onto her back for a belly rubbing.

"Has there been any headway on the research in Mideel?"

[fearedheir]

Rufus chuckled. "Of course, Tseng. I would never argue with you over your subordinates." Usually, anyway. "And not yet. Vincent Valentine did attempt to put in a resume--and I do still have it, before you ask--because he wants clearance to explore Mideel and the Lifestream. He seemed to think I had enough standing with the WRO to grant that to my personal employees."

[backwatertrooper]

Settling back on his heels, Cloud was all too happy to watch Zack feel out the ring and calculate what he needed to do to win, and couldn't help the little grin when the ring landed around the bottle on the first new attempt.

"Fish?" Blinking, Cloud looked around and spotted what Zack must be talking about, and glanced from the fish to Zack for a moment, a little distracted from the pleased glow in his gut. "... the calico one with the long fins?"

What was he even choosing fish for anyway? Thinking of Tifa and the giant, ugly chocobo plush she was giving to his older self, Cloud wondered if it was supposed to do be for Riku, though that seemed off, somehow...

"What do you want it for?" he asked after a moment of debating whether to ask or not, but well. If he was choosing the fish he should know what it was for, right?

[paidmuchbetter]

One may not think that a fair would be the place to find the security director for ShinRa Tech, being a generally aloof man. However, the fair held a special, secret nostalgia for Tseng. The merchants reminded him of the open-air markets in Wutai, the vendors scrabbling to sell their wares. The games reminded him of festivals, with children running around and the smell of fresh-cooked food wafting through the air. The air was too thick, yes, and the food was too greasy, but the nostalgia remained.

He strode leisurely through the crowd, hands clasped behind his back, watching people partake in food and games as he passed by. He wouldn't indulge in any of it himself, of course, but it gave him enjoyment to watch.

No, Tseng was here on business, if anything. He alternated between keeping an eye on Rufus' whereabouts, sweeping the grounds for threats, and loitering around the ShinRa Tech hiring table at the job fair. Nothing in the world could get him to go to the speed dating area, so no one had better even try. And rides? No thank you.

[flamesbond]

Unfortunately for Tseng, there was one small problem.

He was walking by one of the more open areas where people were playing and Lea had what had been advertised as "training chakram" but were more spiky frisbees than anything. One went flying right by his head, going back towards to where it came from but the other one was going to hit him if he didn't duck.

[gardeningaia]

"I don't know how anyone could have expected what's happening in Mideel, but Mom probably won't be surprised that I'm one of the people who returned. She knows what a restless spirit I am." It's a figure of speech, but a fairly apt description of her time post-death. There had been too much to do for that whole "rest in peace" bit. "So yeah, hopefully she won't be too shocked."

There's probably still going to be a little shock.

"Exploring is good! But, you're not going to find Midgar. Just the ruins." Aerith's smile turns wistful at that. "It was destroyed about three years ago. Meteor, an ancient spell of destruction, threatened to destroy the Planet. Another magic repelled it, with the power of the Lifestream, but they collided over Midgar. Edge was made with the wreckage, or so I've heard. Midgar was the biggest city in the world, and it's where I lived pretty much all my life, so...yeah, you could say a lot's changed. I tend to roll with the punches, though."

Just don't ask her to roll with katanas.

[paidmuchbetter]

"Valentine?" He asked with a bit of surprise, looking over at Rufus. "He would be a useful asset to the company. And last I checked, he has connections within the WRO. If we could get him on our payroll, to report to us, while using his network, it would be advantageous."

[fearedheir]

"While giving the WRO and AVALANCHE access to what information we have before I feel like sharing," he pointed out. "He claimed he wasn't part of AVALANCHE, but I don't know who he thought he was fooling."

[paidmuchbetter]

Or catch it. Years of various forms of training had awarded Tseng a high level of awareness of his surroundings paired with exceptional reflexes. Without taking the time to turn towards the threat, the Turk lifted a hand to catch the disc full stop next to his head. It was light enough that he didn't need to redirect momentum. It was also not a real weapon as he saw it, and a quick investigation revealed no explosives. Following the trajectory of the chakram back to the assailant revealed an almost unnaturally red head of hair. Tseng's first instinct was that Reno was messing with him, but then...

"Did you throw this?" He asked the boy calmly as he stepped closer, offering the chakram out to the young man. Not Reno, but the resemblance was striking.

[flamesbond]

This was the second man in a dark suit he'd run into at this fair. What the hell?

"Yeah, sorry." Lea rubbed the back of his neck, looking to the side. "It got away from me. You okay?"

[gardeningaia]

"So Rufus is quite the capable leader." She can only imagine the turmoil the company must have gone through with their once-legendary SOLDIER trying to end the world. She wouldn't have been sad if the company had become defunct, but people tended to stick to what they knew. And there were a lot of people who only knew working for Shinra.

"Have things been eventful up here?" Aerith asks suddenly. "Information in the Lifestream is...different. It's been about a year since we cured Geostigma, I know that."

[gardeningaia]

"Nooo, don't eat my corndog!" Aerith raises her arm high above her head to keep it away from Zack. ...Except she's a full foot shorter than him, so it's not exactly far out of his reach.

He can have a bite. But she'll make him work for it a little. Maybe just get up on tip-toes.