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!

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

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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.

"It's not by choice," Cloud said with a little grimace, shaking his head, "it'd need to be really short... or I'll have to use hair clips..."

He shrugged, but there was a faint blush on his cheeks as he said it. He'd cut his hair before he came to Midgar, getting rid of the longer hair he'd had until then... Cutting his hair so short the spikes wouldn't be obvious had never been something Cloud had tried more than once.

(One word: mullet.)

Shifting on his seat and uncertain what to say next, Cloud's gaze fell back on the huge plush dog on the table between them, and he smiled a little.

"... have any spot to put it?" It was... large, after all and would take up space.

Isa chuckled at the mental image of Cloud in hair clips. Little bendy metal barrettes pinning his hair down, with little flicks of it still sticking up despite his best efforts.

"You're better off keeping it as it is now. Or wearing a hat, if you can find one that will fit all that hair under it."

He glanced over to the giant dog plush. "I don't know. We don't really have much furniture yet. But he can hang out on my bed when I'm not sleeping." It would also be there when he's sleeping, but he wasn't about to admit that out loud to someone he's only just met.

"It goes under hats pretty well," Cloud said, blushing a little because it wasn't hard to image what Isa was laughing at and yeah. It would look ridiculous. Though to be honest he didn't know about hats in general; the infantry helmets had partly been metal and pretty heavy... "But I don't really bother."

Exactly because it was a stubborn mess that stuck up as it wanted.

"Maybe on a chair, when you can get one..?" It probably was a good thing the plush was cute and had been intended as an earnest, non-teasing gift, since then the size of it was less annoying than... ahem, the plush Tifa had gotten his older self.

Isa nodded. He wouldn't want to bother with a hat either if his hair did that. It's a good thing that his own hair is pretty tame. It only takes him a couple minutes to run some gel through his hair as he brushes it back before he separates the end into little spikes.

"We just have a couple bean bags right now. I've got money saved for furniture, but we wanted to make sure we had jobs to pay rent and bills with before spending it. We're working for Tifa now, so we'll be getting furniture soon." Because nothing would be worse than having furniture and no place to keep it because they couldn't make rent.

"Probably a good idea," Cloud said, nodding, and didn't say the next thought that occurred to him, but he was pretty sure it must've been Isa who thought about that. Lea didn't seem the... type, from what little he'd seen.

"And it's not as if you really need a lot in the way of furniture, to start with," he added softly, then frowned, "I need to find some sort of work too..."

Emergency option; go out and hunt the monsters he knew he could handle (as Zack and possibly his older self for more lessons when it came to use a sword), but while that was familiar he sort of felt like wanting to try something else.

What, though, was a good question.

Isa nodded. That about summed up his thoughts on the whole furniture business and was why they were doing it as they were.

"You don't want to work for Tifa? I'm sure she'd hire you if you wanted to work there."

"I..." Blinking, Cloud shook his head, though mostly because he was suddenly stunned because he had, honestly, not thought about that possibility at all. "I guess I could, but... I think I'd like to try something else first."

He wasn't sure why, honestly, because he certainly didn't mind spending time around her or his older self, but... she was Tifa, and (apparently, now,) actually a friend and years older than he'd seen her last. And he hadn't actually ever thought of working in a bar. Too many people around.

"... usually a lot of people there," he said finally, shrugging and crumbling the pieces of funnel cake that were left on the plate with a finger, "and... I still need to get used to her being older."

That wasn't exactly it, but it worked well enough.

"Yeah, it's pretty busy there. I feel like all I do my entire shift is run back and forth from the stock room to the bar." Not that he minded, he liked the work, especially since it usually meant the only interaction he had with the patrons was an 'excuse me, coming through' here and there.

Isa finished off his hot dog. "Well, good luck with the job hunt. I can give you a list of places that are hiring.

"Thanks," Cloud looked up with a smile, "that'd be useful." Really useful, actually, if only to know better where to start and what he could rule out.

"And thanks for the company," a pause as Cloud glanced to the plush and back to Isa, hesitating before he continued, a little smile on his face, "... both of you."

Even if the dog plush had taken up the whole table.

"No problem. I can text you the list when I get home?" Which of course meant trading numbers. It would be one of the few actually in there. He had Lea, Lea's aunt, his parents, the bar, and Tifa's number. A whole whopping five numbers.

"It was nice meeting you, too." Isa chuckled at the inclusion of the plush. "I should come up with a name for him." Was he kidding?

Nodding, Cloud opened his mouth and then paused, a grin suddenly appearing.

"... you can just ask Lea for my number, instead of either of us having to pull them out now. We exchanged them when we first met..." and again that made him feel stunned, though at least Isa had confirmed that was just... how Lea was.

"He's... sort of big enough to deserve one, isn't he." Was Cloud joking about this, now? Impossible to tell as he managed a straight expression and his glance to the plush was more thoughtful than anything else.

"I'll do that then." Of course Lea exchanged numbers with him right off the bat. He was pretty sure Lea had like 50 numbers stored in his phone at this point. Not that he ever looked to see, it's just an assumption he made based on his proclivity to make friends wherever he goes.

"I think so." But what would be a good name for a big blue dog. "Maybe Moony?" He's not the best at naming things, clearly.

"Why not," Cloud agreed with a nod, "doesn't sound bad... Or... um, Hati? It's... related to the moon too."

Shrugging, he stared at the cute plush dog. The name was probably not very fitting for something as cute as the plush, but he'd noticed Isa's suggested name had to do with the moon - and really, he wasn't that stellar at naming things either, but this was something familiar to him.

"Hati," Isa repeated. "Hmmm. I like that. Thanks." Later on, he'd look that up and see what the name meant, and find that it was perfect for a moon dog plush, even if it was too cute for a name so fierce.

It really rather was, but Cloud smiled anyway.

"No one can say we didn't try," he said, feeling kind of silly, but maybe that wasn't a bad thing.

"You're right about that." Ia smiled. They're young. They're allowed to be silly. And he doesn't think much about how silly the whole naming a plus was.

"Well, i should probably get going. I'm supposed to meet up with Lea later. It was nice meeting you." He held out his hand to shake Cloud's.

"It was," Cloud agreed softly, taking Isa's hand. It was actually a little weird, how it'd worked out - so far - with both Lea and Isa. It wasn't something he was used to, even if he had, admittedly, not tried much with the troopers in his squad or anything.

He'd been so focused on other things, anyway...

"Later." Isa nodded, scooped up Hati and his jacket in one arm and his garbage in the other and headed off. Cloud was the only new friend his own age he now had in this city. He should work on changing that.

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Summer Solstice

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