edgeoflife | Summer Solstice

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Summer Solstice

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!

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Wandering around

At some point, Isa gets separated from Lea in the crowd. Rather than hunt him down, he decides to wander around on his own for a bit. Well, not quite on his own. He has a giant plush dog with a crescent moon on its back from one of the game booths. Which he keeps accidentally knocking into people with.

"Sorry," he says each time he bumps into someone. Most of them aren't paying attention, but surely someone will be and they're want more than a mumbled sorry as he walks away.

Food

Isa is trying not to spend too much money, but he's also a teenage kid at a festival. He's trying to balance holding the plush dog in one hand and a hot dog in the other as he makes his way through the crowd to find a place to sit. Of course, there's very few open seats anywhere, so when he finds one, it's of course next to some stranger.

"Is this seat taken?" he asks, pointing to the empty one next to them.

Tifa is a bit better at spacial awareness and so she isn't knocking people - but she is carrying a gaudy, ridiculously oversized stuff chocobo in her arms. She's a little distracted with the sudden sight of a funnel cake booth however and doesn't automatically side-step when she's bumped. Her turn is a little too fast, one hand shifting from the stuffed chocobo a little too quick and defensive - but then she relaxes and her eyes focus and -

"Isa!"

Tifa's quick turn startled Isa, but once he got past that he smiled a bit sheepishly. "Hi, Miss Tifa. Sorry for bumping into you like that."

He noticed that she too, had an overly large plushie. "Did you win that yourself?" Isa asked, motioning toward the stuffed chocobo with his free hand.

She shook her head at his apology. It wasn't needed. Sometimes... old habits just died hard. At his question though her smile spread a little and she gave the stuffed animal a slight heft.

"Mm. At the ring toss. Isn't it hideous?"

"A little," he said with a chuckle. "That's where this guy came from, too. Lea won him for me. He's really good at the ring toss."

She looked at the stuffed dog and nodded.

"I think yours looks cuter. Lea's very talented. That ring toss was harder than I'd expected. Do you two have anything planned for the rest of the day?"

"Yeah, he is. We're going to meet up for food later, but we don't have any plans other than to enjoy the festival as much as we can today." Isa and Lea would have to work during the rest of the festival. Which might be a good thing the way Lea had been throwing money around this morning.

"I think that's just exactly enough plan for a day like today." Kids needed time to be kids. Tifa knew it wasn't exactly something that had been a luxury for most before Meteor. She was glad WRO had put on the fair. Everyone needed time to relax and kick loose for a bit.

"If you get thirsty help yourself to the drinks at the stand. No charge for employees." She gave a bright smile. "And I'll see you at work later!"

"Thanks. I'll see you then!" Isa waved and headed back in the direction he was going before their run-in.

Free drinks were always a good thing. He didn't want to take too much advantage even if he was going to do more than enough work later. Jobs which he and Lea had gotten really lucky finding.

Looking up, Cloud looks from Isa to the giant plush dog he's attempting to hold, and then shakes his head. He'd hoped no one would ask to use that seat but... he's not going to say no.

In fact, he'd intended to say nothing at all and just go back to carefully picking at the funnel cake, but... He looks up again, to the clearly awkward attempt at holding both hot dog and giant plushie that's being made, and the other kid would have some difficulty sitting down, like that.

"... do you want help?" Cloud asks softly after another moment of hesitation. It won't feel right not to offer.

"Thanks. I'm fine," he replies, setting the hot dog, (in its container, of course,) on the table. But now there's the problem of what to do with the huge plush dog. He doesn't want to set it on the ground because then it will get dirty, but he also wants to be able to actually sit down to eat.

"Actually, maybe I could use your help. I don't know what to do with this," Isa says, wiggling the plush in hand before scrunching his lips together in frustration. Why did the plushie have to be so damn big?

Looking around, Cloud frowned in thought. Taking one of the few free chairs still scattered around otherwise occupied tables didn't seem fair. A glance down at the table and he grimaced a little.

"... not sure how clean it is, but if we... don't use the table, you could put it there?"

It didn't look very dirty, but who knew. There was a dusting of powdered sugar from his own careful picking from the funnel cake, but that could be brushed off.

"Hmmm. That could work." He paused. The table was a little dirty, but as far as he can tell, there's not anything likely to stain the toy, but just to be safe it would be better not to set it directly on the table.

"Hang on." He set the plush down in the seat that he would be using and took off his jacket, leaving his torso clad in a black under-shirt. Isa moved his hot dog out of the way and spread his jacket on the table then moved the plush on top of it.

"Thanks for the idea. I'm Isa," he said as he sat down with the hot dog in hand.

Quickly removing his plate when the idea was deemed viable, Cloud brushed away the powdered sugar as well. It wasn't perfect, but at least the jacket would only get a minimal dusting of white, if anything.

"Glad that worked," Cloud said with a small smile, "I'm Cloud. That thing is huge." He eyed the huge plush on the table between them in amusement, feeling, for a moment, the urge to get something big as well. As long as it wasn't a chocobo...

Which just made him remember the one Tifa was going to give to his older self, and his own encouragement of that act.

A jacket is much easier to wash than a plush that size. If the jacket gets dirty? It's no big deal.

"Nice to meet you," Isa replied. That explained the conversation with Tifa when Lea and him had gone to interview for the job. This was clearly the other, younger Cloud. Not that he'd had the chance to meet the older one either.

"It is huge." He laughed. "My friend Lea won it for me. I think you might know him?" And if this wasn't the Cloud they'd mentioned, and there was somehow yet another Cloud in town, he might get embarrassed.

Startled at hearing Lea's name, Cloud looked up, staring for a moment. He couldn't think Isa meant anyone than the spiky-haired redhead he'd met when he arrived in Edge.. Belatedly, he nodded.

"He's... got spiky, red hair, doesn't he?" Cloud said quietly, hesitating for a moment. But really, he couldn't see many others being named 'Lea' for some reason. Maybe more compared to being given the name 'Cloud', but still.

Cloud nodded again, breaking off another piece of funnel cake, gesturing to the blue checkered scarf wrapped around his neck.

"He... gave me this." Cloud still couldn't quite believe that. Funny he'd manage to meet Lea's friend, too.

"That's him." He nodded. The scarf brought a smile to his face. "I'm not surprised he did. That's just the kind of guy he is. He won this dog for me even though I told him he didn't have to."

Isa took a bite of his hotdog and quietly chewed it. He didn't think anything of what the gesture of Lea winning the plushie for him meant. That was just something friends did for each other.

"I was wondering," Cloud said, drily amused now. At least there was independent confirmation, even if Cloud still was sure that was sort of... worrying. Just giving someone he'd just met an article of clothing they didn't even need, immediately?

Glancing to the plush, Cloud cocked his head, feeling a small smile pull on his lips. At the same time, he glanced to Isa and ducked his head to avoid any possible blush as he wondered if he and Lea were more than they seemed.

Not that friends couldn't give each other presents, but... well.

"Kind of seems like the thing you usually win for yourself," he said softly, then paused and bit his lip to muffle his smile, "... unless you choose something that'll annoy someone."

Or you're together, but that wasn't something Cloud was about to say.

Cloud, don't worry about it. Lea is... Lea and there's not much to be done about it, as much as Isa has tried over the years.

Isa was paying too much attention to his food to notice the odd glances and smiles Cloud gave him.

"I wouldn't have been able to win it for myself through the ring toss. Besides, he grabbed my hand and dragged me over there and said he was going to win it for me. Once he's mind's set, it's kind of hard to stop him." Isa once again said all of this like it was completely normal. Which is unlikely to make things any less confusing for Cloud.

"Lea knows I like dogs, so there wasn't anything annoying about it except that he felt the need to win it."

Listening, Cloud tried very hard to keep his expression neutral, even if Isa was focusing on his hot dog and not looking at Cloud. But it wasn't easy to stifle the urge to stare and arch an eyebrow (as much as he could do it, that was).

"Lea's better at aiming?" Cloud asked, just to say something because otherwise he'd be left staring and silent and then Isa might wonder why and Cloud, even now unable to figure out what he'd say in such a hypothetical situation, seriously didn't want it to become real.

He'd stammer something and blush, probably. There was a reason he'd sent e-mails to Zack for certain things, after all.

"... it's kinda cute. I've seen worse here..." He shook his head, as talking about it made him think of Tifa and the large, ugly chocobo plush she'd won, once again glad it wasn't him who'd end up with it on his bed.

"If it was a professional sport, he'd be the best pro around. He's that good at it." Isa smiled. He couldn't have a better friend than Lea and he's very proud of his best friend's talents.

"Yeah. I saw a few bad ones too. Like the one Tifa was carrying around. I didn't want to say it was ugly... but it was." He laughed and glanced over at Cloud.

Cloud smiled a little and nodded, then snorted, hiding a bigger smile behind one hand before he grimaced at the thought.

"You've seen it too..?" he snorted softly again and shook his head, "it's supposed to be ugly. She's giving it to... um. The Cloud that lives here." He winced a little; it was always so hard to know how to talk about his older self to other people, whether they knew or had figured out there was a connection or not.

Isa assumed the laughing was entirely about the ugly chocobo being for Cloud. Why would he possibly laugh at him saying Lea was that good at the ring toss?

"Oh. I see him while I'm working at the bar a lot. Are they together, or just that close of friends?" That's the only two reasons he can think of that she'd get the other Cloud something so hideous on purpose. Or that he'd be at the bar as often as he is. Romantic partners, or really close friends like he and Lea are.

Blinking, Cloud looked up, staring for a moment.

Together..?

"I... don't think so?" The idea was... Cloud wasn't sure, so he just pushed it away and shrugged. "I think they're just... friends."

Sighing, he gestured to his hair.

"... it's a joke. And one we've heard a lot of. So that huge, ugly plush is just another... version of it."

Even his mother had said something not a few times while growing up, when she didn't say it reminded her of his father. Though since she usually also said something about how she'd made the same jokes to his dad, well...

So it was like him and Lea after all. Pity, he thought they'd make a cute couple.

Isa laughed. "Now that you mention it, I can see it." Honestly he hadn't really paid any attention to Cloud's hair before then. To either of them. He was so used to people spiking their hair - himself included - that it didn't even occur to him that it wasn't on purpose.

OTA

wandering around!

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seem like a good place to wrap it up?

sure!

Food!

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