un: localflorist | text

[anciently]

( ooc ; likely spoilers for rebirth endgame chapters within )

[ One moment she's there, in her apartment, and the next...back on Gaia. With no memories of the city, the other world, where she'd been for months, fighting to save the planet she'd been unceremoniously returned to. And then...after so much on the home front, she'd found herself right back in Etraya: her memories of the time before in tact, as well as the memories of the things she'd been through in the interim. The things Cloud had already known about, but kept from her.

After she reappears and processes all the memories, she has to recuperate a bit. Without anyone around, the usually-cheery Aerith doesn't have to mask her expression, and sits in her apartment, letting it all break over her like unceasing waves onto someone whose feet are thoroughly stuck in the sand. (It's not unlike when her plushie was destroyed, honestly, which feels like ages ago.) When that's...more or less done, she reaches for her phone.

She doesn't leave the unit, doesn't go down the hall. Yet.

In crafting a message to the network, she opts for text because, this time, she doesn't trust herself to keep a straight enough face. To keep all of what's happened - disappearing from this world, returning to her own with no memories of Etraya, and...the weight of their journey at home - from her voice. So, she takes a deep breath and begins typing, eventually sending out: ]

long time no see, etraya! or, maybe it hasn't been that long, considering all of the plant life at my place is still in good shape.

so...has anybody been back home? that is: was brought here, then went back somehow with no memories of ever having been here, then got pulled back again? consider me curious about the details.

i know i can't be the only one. right?

also...if there're any kind souls out there who don't mind giving me a little refresher on our current mission, it'd be much appreciated. thanks!

Comments

[anciently]

[ His response is a surprise, and it draws out a little huff-like laugh, in spite of the situation. ]

Well, if that's how it's gotta be... [ How could she have forgotten about him? About everyone in Etraya that she's met across these months? It clutches at her heart, painful and tragic, and she feels now, more than ever before, the conviction to prevent that in the future. To be able to remember. Somehow. ]

Yeah. It was like I'd never been gone. Just like coming back here. [ Except, on Gaia, her memories of Etraya are gone. ...As compared with being back here, where all her memories from home - including the new ones - are in tact. ] But, I guess you're right: at least I have some time to think.

[ Assumedly. Because now that she's gone back once, there's a little fear in the corner of her mind that she could return at any moment, never to see Etraya and its people again... ]

Thanks, Fabian. I know you mean that, and it-...it helps a lot. [ Aerith shifts where she sits, looking down at her hands in her lap for a moment before lifting her head to look at him, smiling faintly. ] ...I've been lucky, huh? To make so many great friends during my time here.

[maximumlegend]

[ He lets out a sound that's a little like another huff, but this time it's more obviously meant in a joking sort of way - more of a 'pfft.' The joking side of it easily comes through in the way he moves to gently jab her in the side with his elbow while they're sitting here. ]

Come on, you can't act like that is nothing but pure luck.

[ If she looks over to him at all, she can see that Fabian is fully grinning at her. Happy. Playful. ]

I am fairly sure that you making so many great friends has everything to do with your own charming personality, you know.