edgeoflife | Summer Solstice

Entry tags:

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!

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That could be an idea!! I have.. er.." She stopped, thinking a moment. "...Well, I had a connection with fire.. but.. I can't seem to control it here. The world feels different, less... Maybe I'm just not sensing things like I used to."

This was probably a very strange conversation. She needed to clarify before he was weirded out what she was trying to explain.

"I wasn't from where I came from in the first place. When I was a baby I was taken from one world, they just called it the Esper world and unfortunately I was never able to learn its true name.."

This was probably making things worse but she forged ahead.

"So I ended up in the military from... from birth I suppose, then later I found out I was actually from there.. My father was an Esper, a.. .. Its a magical being, I guess is the best way to describe it. But um.. that's why.. why I said the thing about the fire..."

Oh her face was burning, that was too much information. She wrings her thin fingers together, biting her lip.

"..I'm sorry. That was probably too much."

Blinking, Cloud stared. Listened and tried to make sense of it. Biting his lip, he chewed it for a moment.

"Magic is only contained in materia, here," he said quietly, then frowned, going back to the rest of what Terra had said, and definitely didn't think about Nibelheim in flames, about Sephiroth wreathed in fire... the smell of burning flesh.

Squeezing his eyes shut for a moment, Cloud breathed in and swallowed, then looked back to Terra.

"How do... um, Espers work?" She looked human (Sephiroth had too), but Cloud wasn't going to overreact. She was sitting here, worried because she felt she'd overwhelmed him. It was okay.

Yep.

She'd babbled too much. She felt her cheeks grow hot and she looks down into her lap. She had seen that same reaction in the faces of the children she'd found. Traumatized, hurt children. It was clear she triggered something in this boy.

She looks back up at him when he asked about Espers and her smile was soft, a bit sad.

"...Espers are just.. magical. Like ... people shaped Materia, I guess. They all look different, but they all were a close community.. and humans would kill them for their magic, to take it."

The tubes with Espers would always be vivid in her mind because her Father had been one of them in those tubes.

"At least, that's what I've learned. I've never been to the world.. My mother was human though. I look more like her, but my hair..." She reaches up, touching it briefly. "..It.. did look like my father's, green. Like the Lifestream but I guess when I came here.. I feel different. I don't feel like I had before."

She would always be half Esper, but she definitely didn't feel genetically half Esper here. There wasn't the same magic coursing through her.

"I'm sorry," Cloud muttered, glancing down. It wasn't her fault he'd recently seen his home town being burned down, but it was also just... days ago. He shook his head, pushing the thoughts away.

"... that sounds... kind of like summons," he said slowly, frowning, "but I don't know if summons live anywhere than the materia they're called from. Since materia are small pieces of experience and memories from the Lifestream."

Crossing his arms, Cloud looked at Terra for a moment, and thought it honestly a pity she'd lost her green hair. She would probably look very nice with it. It wasn't something he'd say, though.

"Wonder why you lost it... But if you got it from your Esper... parent, maybe that half didn't... agree with the Lifestream?"

Different magic, perhaps? Or something. Cloud didn't have a clue.

Oh, it was certainly a pity. She was sad about it quite a bit, considering it'd been a distinctive part of her life.

"Summons..? Well, you can summon the spirit of the Magicite, but its not.. really them." She knew because she had summoned her father before.. it was more an image, and a burst of magic. It was upsetting that it wasn't really him but she found connection elsewhere.

"I think so, it must have happened that way. Its okay. My friend, Celes.. she has blonde hair and I always thought it was so pretty.."

She reaches up to pull one of her curls straight. "And it was very straight too..."

The curl bounces as she releases it and she gives a little hand wave. "But enough about me! Tell me more about you..?"

Nodding slowly, Cloud wondered what she meant by 'not really them', but he wasn't sure how to ask - or if he should. Summons were... well, he didn't really know, he'd never seen one, but they probably were at least somewhat different from these Espers Terra was talking about.

He smiled a little as she pulled a curl straight and then let it bounce back, then straightened up, eyes widening a little.

"... me?" Cloud shook his head, voice a little hesitant even in that single word, then bit his lip, "there's not much to tell, I don't think... my hometown's---"

He had to pause, eyes squeezing shut and his hands tightening into fists in his lap. Not is. Not anymore, not ever again.

"... was Nibelheim. It... burned down." A few days ago, a few years ago. Both equally true. Cloud was talking, but his eyes were closed and he'd sort of hunched up. "It... was a little village in the mountains on the Western Continent."

Letting out a soft breath, straightening up and opening his eyes again, Cloud leaned forward to sketch out invisible lines of the continent they were on, a finger marking out Edge and Midgar with a softly added 'we're here', and then the Western Continent and where Nibelheim approximately had been, there.

It was such a familiar response. The way he curled in, closed his eyes. Spoke of his home in the past tense. She'd caused that reaction in Narshe. Though that city was still standing, it was devastated. People feared her and the city never recovered. No one lived there now, after the fall of the continent.

And the continent falling devastated more villages. More people with that traumatized expression.

She catches his hand as he draws the map out. He didn't have to show her, because it was obviously hurting him to do so. She should have been more cautious with her words.

"I'm sorry. Its okay." She never had a home so she couldn't even say she understood. It was unfortunate. She wanted to understand for him. "You don't have to tell me anything else.."

Staring unfocussed at the hand around his wrist for a moment, Cloud slowly shook his head, looking up at Terra from under his bangs.

"You don't... have anything to do with it," he said softly, shaking his head again. It wasn't her fault. Even if she, in some strange twist of coincidence, could control fire, she really had nothing to do with Sephiroth.

"... sorry," Cloud sighed, frowning, "I thought I'd be able to... talk about it, even... even that little." Staring down at the imaginary lines he'd made in the table for several moments, Cloud shook himself and looked up with a determined edge to his expression.

"Do you want to know what the Planet looks like? I can do the same as I just did, just... focus on other things."

Terra shifts over, moving her chair around so she could seat closer to Cloud's side. He seemed a little bit out it at the moment so she could take the brief moment to sit next to him and wait for him to come out of it. She was close enough with her leg against his to comfort him.

"Yes, please. And I can draw a map of my own too." She pauses and turns, reaching down to scoop up a bit of dirt.

She blows it gently over the table so there's dust and smiles at him happily. "You can draw in the dust. Tell me about everything."

That little bit of touch made him twitch and then relax. It was only a little, and knowing her or not, it was... nice. Not enough to make him want more space, but Cloud still felt a bit awkward.

Watching her dump the dust on the table, Cloud suddenly felt very foolish as he realised something and shook his head, fishing up his phone.

"We can use this. At least for the Planet. You'll... probably have to draw your world out on the table though," Cloud said, ducking his head to quickly dive into the phone's apps and finding what he wanted; a map.

"... Here. This is the continent we're on," pausing, Cloud looked around them, the distant ruin of the ShinRa tower visible even from this angle, and once again he got a brief sense of confused vertigo at seeing something that, before he woke up here, had been perfectly whole when they left for Nibelheim, in ruins. "The city beyond, the ruins... I guess it happened in the last few years. It was called Midgar. Wutai's west of the Western Continent."

Scrolling on the map, he pointed to the northern continent.

"There's a huge crater in the north on that continent... We usually call the Planet just that, but Gaia's used sometimes too."

Terra felt a little silly when he pulled out his phone to show her a map, even laughing in that high pitched nervous way. She leans closer so she can look over his shoulder, nodding as he describes the different places. She was very attentive to these things and looked to wherever he pointed. Her lips moved as well as she tries to memorize the names.

"A crater..? Well. ... I guess.. "

There was a sadness in her eyes suddenly, then she reaches out to carefully start drawing the lines of the continent. She marked a few places as well as she did so.

"My friend Edgar rules Figaro... and South Figaro is down here. The castle can move between two locations, is really amazing and.. this is Narshe, I.. ... That is where I was freed from the Gesthalan empire."

She points to another place. "Mobliz is here. I live here now, with the children.. Well, I. .. I did."

Then she draws out the southern continent. "This was Vector. It was where the gate to the Esper world was. Emperor Gesthal found the Goddesses within and the continent... broke free and rose to the sky. But Kefka moved them. They are not meant to be moved, they're statues you see.. but because he moved them it threw the balance off and..."

She swipes her hand across, erasing a good portion of the map. Then she redraws.

"This is how the world looks now... When the continent fell, it released monsters.. Mobliz was one of the places that burned. And the world was reshaped."

"There was a huge meteorite a few thousand years ago that created it, I think," Cloud shrugged, eyeing Terra a bit worriedly at that laughter, wondering if he should just have gone with drawing things out on the table. This way, though, was definitely easier.

Straightening up as it was Terra's turn, Cloud frowned down at the table and the lines being drawn in the dirt.

"It--- What?" Cloud stared, remembering what Lea had said about the meteor that apparently had been responsible for Midgar's destruction, "all of it? Just like that?"

How had anyone survived? Glancing from the redrawn map to Terra and back, Cloud frowned.

"... how did... anyone survive?" He didn't quite dare asking where she lived now. It made him think of Nibelheim again, and the fire, and the fact that it was all gone.

"It.. wasn't high up enough to cause too significant of damage, thankfully..."

Devastating the entire world was certainly significant but in the long run, people were alive, people she loved were alive. Cities still stood and people were recovering bit by bit.

She starts to gently wipe the dust off the table, erasing her world away. It was depressing, to talk about it when she couldn't be there to help repair it.

"Bad things happen.. and the ones left pick up and continue forward. I want to continue forward and be strong for the people around me. And.. while I lost everything by ending up here.."

She pulls in a breath, closing her eyes before looking at Cloud and smiling.

"I just need to keep going."

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.

Edited 2016-06-28 18:53 (UTC)

Terra raises her hands quickly, shaking her head.

"There are a lot of people who were dead before though. I don't want them to lose this chance at life! If... If I need to start over for good people to get to live again then I want that, I can do that..."

She might want to go home but there would be no way she would do so if it meant people who had the chance to live lost that chance.

"So.." She picks lightly at the grain of the wood on the table. "Do you know what you want to do here...? Have you found any opportunities?"

Cloud felt himself flush when Terra mentioned that there was people who'd been dead who'd come through - there was more than him that applied to?

"Well, maybe everybody won't have to go home, only if you want to?" Of course, there might be no choice - Cloud was sure that whatever was causing this would have to be fixed, because this wasn't normal behaviour for the Lifestream, and that probably only meant bad things for the Planet.

Shaking his head, Cloud glanced away and shrugged.

"I don't know," he said softly, frowning at the people milling about without seeing them, "the place I was employed at before doesn't exactly... exist anymore, I don't think, and aside from that there's not much I can do."

That was a mix of Cloud's usual lack of self-confidence and an honest look at his current skill-set.

"... Not that many will be interested in hiring a sixteen year old," he muttered with a shrug.

Terra notices the flush to Cloud's cheeks. She smiles softly, hoping the same thing he hoped for.. But she had a feeling he was one of the dead come back. She would choose to stay if it meant he could live, certainly. He was very kind.

"I'm sure you have more skills than you think but at the same time..."

She tilts her head thoughtfully. "...You could lie and say you're older..? Or maybe just start at something... entry? Build up some new skills, non-military skills..."

There were a lot of different options. And Terra was glad she had met someone as confused as she was.

"We can work together at finding somewhere. Then we can have at least one friend in whatever new thing we start doing."

Her suggestion made Cloud laugh - a short, startled amusement that nonetheless was genuine, and he ducked his head, hiding his chin and the tip of his nose in his scarf, but probably not obscuring the slightly mischievous smile completely.

"I... did do that. Lie about my age, I mean, when I first got employed." He'd only added a year, but still. Cloud wasn't sure now if they really hadn't cared (not improbable) that he was a year under the recruitment age or if they'd really believed he was just a bit on the small smile.

Letting out a soft sigh, he nodded.

"I think I'm just... I've been trying for a thing for two years and now it's... not possible," gaze dropping again for a moment, Cloud grimaced. Because he was, had been, dead, because SOLDIER didn't exist here or anymore, because this was a different (but same) Planet altogether.

"... I like that idea, though," he said softly, looking back up and nodding determinedly, then frowned briefly, "if you... like people, maybe there's cafés you could check..?"

She laughs softly. He was so sweet, Terra was certain they would be able to et pretty far with putting their heads together. They seemed to have a similar situation going on, being lost without anyone else.

"Its okay. We can try for something else and we can succeed because we have each other." Her shoulder bumps gently against Cloud's.

Ah, a cafe..? She wondered if she'd be able to do that. She knew what it entailed, a lot of people to deal with.. she was certain she could.

"Only if you promise to come with me..? We could work together!"

Zack said things like that so often... it made Cloud smile, just a little, before stared for a moment, opening his mouth and then closing it again.

"... I'm... not really good with people," he said after a moment, and only half meant having to interact at all, hesitating but then adding; "but if you wanted support I could go with you." He didn't know her, this conversation notwithstanding, and he was pretty sure this wasn't what the speed dating idea was for or about, and he didn't know Edge any more than she did but...

This was still, in a way, his world, in a way it wasn't, for Terra.

"You've been great with me?"

She smiles at him, just all warmth and even a touch of affection. She liked him, he was sweet. Terra was lucky he sat down in front of her, because he knew a bit more about this world than she did and it would be good to have.

"Even for support... Then I can support you finding something too! We can work together and both of us will be able to succeed."

He met Terra's smile with a shy one of his own, but he shook his head.

"One person is easier. A lot and..." he shrugged. A place like this fair really wasn't a place he much liked to stay for long. Despite the way Terra had been talking so far, he was still a little startled at the offer, but he ended up nodding.

"I'd... like that," he said and then bit his lip in thought, pulling on his scarf a little, "technically, it probably wouldn't be hard to get at least a little gil by picking up some weapons and going after weaker monsters when they wander too close, too."

That would be close enough to his previous line of work and to SOLDIER, even, and while Cloud was planning on buying weapons and keeping up with those abilities (asking both Zack and his older self for pointers with sword work was an idea), he wasn't sure if that would be something to do in the long run, now.

Wasn't sure he could get what he'd wanted from going to work for ShinRa now, or if he wanted it.

"That's an idea!"

Her hand moves to her waist, before remembering she wasn't wearing her sword today. She pats the place where it should be before smiling.

"I can still use a sword. I could go with you, as back up. And if we work together we can take on larger monsters and get more gil for you."

She didn't care if he had trouble with his own skills, everyone could get better through practice and she had the patience to teach him some tricks and techniques if he needed to learn. But she had full confidence in him if he was a soldier.

"Bigger monsters usually need more than two people... or a SOLDIER," Cloud said with a shake of his head, trying to ignore the familiar sting of failure and not good enough that came with thinking about SOLDIER. It wasn't like it even mattered anymore... with ShinRa in its new form, SOLDIER didn't exist any longer.

"I could ask... some people if it's a good idea," he glanced away, hesitating to mention his older self, because what was he supposed to say? And then there was Zack... Shaking his head, he focused back on Terra, "it could probably work as a backup idea if nothing else works."

It was... familiar, at the least, though he should probably mention to Zack what they were doing, if they did go out with this in mind.

Terra put her arm up, patting her bicep. "You underestimate me!"

She had defeated many monsters on her own in her own world. They were sure to be able to handle anything here. But she understands, it would be best to get some ideas and plans on how to approach the option.

"I think we probably live in the same complex, since all the Streamers were put there. We'll definitely be seeing each other again." She bumps shoulders gently.

Summer Solstice

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)