guess we're zombies then [aerith]

[Cid Raines]

He wasn't quite sure what to think when he found a girl on the floor, brown haired and wearing a simple pink dress. As he felt fully recovered from his time at the local inn, he decided to, instead of calling someone over to help her, pick her up and take her back to that inn. Upon reaching the inn, he had a conversation with the owner's daughter, where he found out that that was the "second person today" including him. After putting the brunette woman in the room, where he assumed she would be tended to with a bath, perhaps a new set of clothes, he continued the conversation.

"So do you know what exactly is going on?" He asked, frowning a little as he watched the woman scribble a few notes down in a book, before flickering his gaze to the rest of the room. This couldn't be Cocoon, nor could it be Gran Pulse, which, from what he heard from a brunette Pulsian huntress, had probably fallen to ruins if it had been five hundred years she had been asleep for. No, when he woke up and asked where he was, the lady answered with, "Bhujerba," which he knew was not a settlement upon Cocoon. Being part of the Wide-area Response Brigade, you had to know where everything was on Cocoon.

"No, not an idea. One morning it was just like this -- humid, no sun, with this unnatural grey fog. My father thinks it's the doing of an otherworldly being, but not an esper," She paused, then went on to explain -- she had already accepted that this man was not of Ivalice, and she could already sense the confusion on his face before he asked a question. "Espers are powerful beings created by the gods themselves, with a purpose for each of them. It is possible to summon them."

Summon.

That word hit Cid Raines quite hard, but he managed to compose himself before he looked like he was about to grab the quill and try to kill himself with it. "Ah, I understand what you mean," he said simply in return, then he looked up towards the stairs, about to excuse himself, when the woman spoke again, asking him to check in on the girl he had brought in earlier. Cid nodded, then he got up and left, heading to the room the girl was in. When he was outside the room, he heard a call of, "Hello...? Is anyone there? I'm awake now..."

Assuming that she wasn't half dressed, which was unlikely considering she called out for someone, Raines opened the door slowly, peering into the room before entering it fully, closing the door behind himself. He smiled at the girl, nodding to her in greeting. "Afternoon," he greeted, scanning her body over quickly. He noticed that she looked ... awkwardly positioned. As though she had literally woken up from sleeping, which she probably had. But, she had not sat up in a more comfortable position. He frowned lightly, then went on to introduce himself.

"My name is Cid Raines. I brought you here after finding you passed out on the street... Are you feeling fine?" He asked, showing concern on his face as he watched her face carefully.

tags: aerith.
words: 0540.
comments: i focus too much on presentation of posts. dang it!

[Aerith Gainsborough]

Aerith was a bit surprised when someone entered so quickly. He was much taller than she would have been standing up; she even had to lean back a bit to take him in. He wore what looked like a military uniform. She was briefly curious as to whether he was with Shin-Ra or not, but then it occurred to her that if he had been, she would have already been carted off to a laboratory and had horrible things done to her. She paid the man a bright smile when he greeted her, waving her right hand and attempting to shift positions before she realized that wouldn't be possible without being able to move her lower body. Aerith pushed herself in to a more comfortable looking position, noting how odd it was that her legs looked to be in uncomfortable positions yet she didn't feel a thing.

Her mind was brought back from her wondering by Raines' introduction. So he'd brought her here? That was nice of him. She looked around the plain room for a chair, pointing at one fairly near with only a slight wavering of expression. He asked if she was all right, and a look of concern filled her green eyes. "Well... I can't feel anything below my waist. I think I might be paralyzed... Does this look bad to you?" Aerith asked, pulling up the top of the night outfit she had woken up in enough to show the thin scar on her stomach made by Masamune. She dropped her shirt again and shook her head, smiling. It was troubling... but there was nothing to be done about it. "So you saved me, Mr. Raines? Thank you. I'm Aerith, Aerith Gainsborough. I can't thank you enough; I don't know what I would have done if I'd woken up somewhere and I couldn't walk and no one was around to help me. I feel bad though; I don't have anything to repay you with..."

Aerith made a small gasp and indicated to the chair, motioning for him to sit down. "I think except for my legs, I'm okay. Please, sit down, you don't have to stand there!" she said, her smile diminished but still present. She waited for him to sit down before she spoke again, tilting her head to the side a little. "You're in some kind of military, right? Your uniform looks like something an important person would wear. I'm just a flower girl from Midgar... So do you know what's going on? Something's weird. The air feels... off somehow. Like there's a disturbance somewhere. It's... kinda hard to explain, I can feel things like that sometimes. Usually it's only when I'm calm... but I shouldn't be, considering I'm in a strange place and paralyzed, huh?"

[Cid Raines]

Couldn't feel anything below her waist? Raines frowned, nodding slightly in agreement. That definitely sounded like paralysis. He had had a couple of soldiers within the Cavalry ending up paralysed from the waist down, and on one occasion from the neck down. He felt sorry for the people it happened to, as they had lost all their physical freedom as a result, and he didn't exactly enjoy being bedridden. As a child he would often refuse to stay in bed when he was ill, and that continued on to when he was an adult. He was always up on his feet, to try and boost the morale of the Wide-area Response Brigade, and make them not worry about them. He was pretty sure they did worry though, but they did look a bit happier, and were probably pretty glad when he didn't decide to fight in a battle himself.

"Oh no, it's fine. I don't need to repaid, so don't worry about it," Raines replied, shaking his head. He honestly didn't mind, and besides, he was managing to cope fine in Bhujerba, being able to adapt well to situations. He doubted he would be able to cope as well if they didn't use the same currency, gil, which was odd. This Bhujerba was part of a world known as Ivalice, a word that the ex-Primarch of Cocoon had never even heard of in his life. While the people hear did wear clothes that reminded him of Pulse, there were still differences. For example, accent, but he guessed that, like Cocoon, there would be different types of accents down on Gran Pulse. Also, there was no Cocoon in the sky here, not that he could see of anyway due to the fog, but he had found out recently that there had never been a floating world in the sky here...

"I think except for my legs, I'm okay. Please, sit down, you don't have to stand there!"

Raines moved over to the chair that she indicated and sat down on it, and immediately he had a question asked. He nodded, not replying yet as she was still talking, and not wanting to interrupt as he was polite like that. Midgar? He had never even heard of that place either. This was... confusing.

"I'm not sure what's going on myself," he said, shaking his head and, not realising he was doing so, raising a hand to the side of his head where he thought he had been shot. "I come from a place called Cocoon. That's the name of the... world I come from. It was a floating planet in the sky above another one called Gran Pulse. I have never been to Gran Pulse, like all of the citizens of Cocoon, and I know all the cities in Cocoon. This place, Bhujerba, doesn't fit anywhere in Cocoon, so I was thinking it belonged to Gran Pulse, but I doubt it... and this Midgar you come from? It doesn't sound familiar either," the dark haired man explained, resting his gloved hand on his lap again. He looked deep in thought, trying to think of what had happened...

tags: aerith.
words: 0521.
comments: wall of text. mother of etro.

[Aerith Gainsborough]

Aerith frowned and looked down at her lap when Cid replied that he didn't know what was going on either. So he was from a place called Cocoon? She shook her head when he mentioned it; even with traveling the world with AVALANCHE, she'd never heard of a place called Cocoon. She frowned a bit deeper, then replied. "I've never heard of either Bhujerba or anywhere like Cocoon. The planet I come from is called Gaia, I think... I guess there's nothing that can be done about it. If only Cid were here; he'd know what to do... and he'd probably say some nasty words while he was at it," Aerith smiled at the thought of her old friend Cid Highwind. She then realized this might cause confusion, and amended her statement.

"Cid Highwind, I mean. He was a pilot. I heard he built everything from airplanes to the airship I saw in Junon... I'm sorry, I'm getting lost in thought. This is just... a lot to take in. Gran Pulse, Ivalice... D'you think we got summoned?" Aerith asked suddenly, sitting up a bit straighter and giving Raines a serious look. "Like Bahamut or Alexander. You know, using magic to call a being from another world. Could that have happened to us? But... no, that's too silly. Summons disappear quickly; maybe a similar kind of magic? Am I over thinking things?"

Aerith slid down in the bed a little bit when she realized she was rambling, offering a nervous smile to Raines. "Sorry... I'm probably just thinking too hard. I think... I might have been dead before I came back here. I'm a little worried about that... the last thing I remember before waking up here is having a sword sticking out of my stomach. B-but let's make the best of everything. We're alive now, right? I'm sure all our friends and families are alive and well out there somewhere, too. I mean, I made it and I was dead, so..... ... I think I'm rambling..." she said, slumping over a bit and looking exasperated. She'd never expected to end up in such a weird situation.

[Cid Raines]

Cid...? A pilot? And an airship engineer? Raines cocked his head to the side, eyebrow raised. That sounded rather interesting, mostly because there was another man who was like him in job, or something. Raines himself piloted airships, and even helped maintain the airship the Lindblum (he couldn't have made the beauty, due to being too young to do so). He had however helped build some of the smaller aircrafts that were in the Lindblum's docking bay.

"D'you think we got summoned?"

Summoned. Raines looked a little confused, though he suddenly realised she was talking about l'Cie, and their Eidolons that their wielder could summon to their side to aid them in battle. This statement confused him. He knew he was a l'Cie, or rather an ex-l'Cie as he hadn't actually checked his right hand for his brand yet, and he was pretty sure he hadn't fought an Eidolon (though he was sure he may have been close to calling one to him), so the idea was bizarre to him. He looked down and frowned a little, obviously taking the idea and thinking about it.

Like using magic to call a being from another world... Raines repeated to himself. There was a possibility that they had been called to the world of Eidolons, the invisible world, but he found that unlikely. Unlikely, until he realised that the invisible world was also the world of death.

"I think... I might have been dead before I came back here."

Raines immediately looked up when he heard that statement, an interested look in his eyes, feeling like he had figured it out, but no, he wasn't going to say he knew why -- it was just a possibility. He would have to find more people and talk to them to find more things out...

"I died as well," Raines said slowly, shaking his head a bit at the memory and returning a gloved hand to the side of the head where he had been shot, once again feeling around for a wound or marking, but there was nothing. "I asked to be shot... He did it, but I was wondering if he only knocked me out. Now... In the universe, there are two worlds -- the visible world, that being Cocoon, Gran Pulse... and the unseen world, the world of death," then he realised a flaw in his idea. "Seeing as you died, there is the possibility that we are in the unseen world... which is where Eidolons, summons specific to l'Cie, reside. However... this place is a city located in Ivalice. A living world.

"So now, I'm not so sure about what happened," Cid shook his head a little, watching Aerith. "But we'll figure it out... eventually. I guess we both need to do research on it," But then he realised, Aerith may be paralysed. She couldn't feel her legs. Raines frowned a little, wondering how he'd make it so that she was able to walk around. He felt compelled to help her out, even though he had no reason to. That was just... him. He always tried to help civilians out.

tags: aerith.
words: 0514.
comments: wall of text.

[Aerith Gainsborough]

Aerith progressively looked more confused as Raines' rambling continued. She had no idea what half of what he talked about was in his explanation. After a minute or so of silence, she raised her hand as if she were in a classroom. "Um... I didn't understand most of that theory...I've never heard of Ivalace... or l'Cie... or Cocoon or Gran Pulse. The place I'm from is Midgar, on Gaea. If I'm dead, then... my spirit should have returned to the Lifestream. I couldn't be here physically if I was still dead, so something must have happened..." Aerith replied, going silent and thinking for a few minutes. Afterwards, she huffed loudly and crossed her arms, smiling again.

"Oh well, I'm not going to worry about it! I'm alive again, and that's the important thing, and you are too. We can find out what happened later," she said with a nod, offering her hand to Cid for a handshake... or whatever gentlemanly thing he would do. "I think you and I are going to be stuck together for a while though. Unless you want to leave a poor flower girl paralyzed in a bed she can't pay for, bored out of her skull all day. We should get to know each other!"

Aerith paused to tie her red ribbon in her hair, lacing the tiny white stone that was the Holy Materia inside the folds securely and beginning to braid her hair in to its usual state, wondering briefly who had brushed it for her. But that wasn't important. "So tell me about yourself Mr. Ranies. We can trade stories; I'll bet yours is more interesting than mine is though."