fairly | [Voice / Action]

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[Voice / Action]

Man, everything gets pretty crazy when these experiment-things happen, doesn't it? ....oh well.

Hey, out there! Anybody who actually knows how to fly- got any advice? How do you do it? Magic, wings, a bit of both? I'd really appreciate the help!

[Zack woke up different this morning- not to the same degree as nearly everyone else, it seems, but enough to notice pretty damn fast. Getting changed was an adventure of yelping, flailing, and finally getting himself a pair of scissors to do some surgery on his shirt- because he woke up with a pair of very different white wings stuck to one side of his back.

It's not a bad change, mind you- after dealing with Angeal and Genesis for as long as he did, he'd begun to envy their wings and ability to fly the way they did, even if they were horribly unfair about their expectations of people 8| So after giving it some thought, there was really only one thing to do:

Fly.

Thus, he will spend the majority of the day learning to flap his new wings, jumping off rooftops, baffling over how the hell Angeal and Genesis balanced themselves in the air with such one-sided wings.

...Oh, and faceplanting in the snow. He'll do a lot of that. Thank goodness for durable SOLDIER bones, eh?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hmm... well, you can't get anywhere without taking chances, right? So I'll go for it! You've got a bet! ...What are the stakes?

Let's see. If you can't fly... you have to wear something I pick out for you!

...That sounds like it might be dangerous. [To his reputation, at least.]

I thought bets were made for little risks. Are you backing down?

...Ha, not a chance! Bring it on! [brb climbing to the roof 8|]

I'm watching! [And chang...ing? Not that Aerith notices right way, besides a momentary (and rather odd) sensation in her body; she's still got brown hair framing her vision, and she's looking up at Zack instead of at herself.]

[And Zack's too far away to notice, being in the roof and all. With a shout and a running leap, Zack launches into the air, the wing catching on the wind and holding him aloft for a few seconds! FINALLY!

And then he loses control, or the wind abandons him, or something- and he glides right into the top of the next snowbank, rolling, rolling, rolling until he flops right at her feet, eyes clenched. Ooof.

Now is that a win, or a loss...]

Hmmm... [kneeling down by him.] looks like that was a real effort. Guess I can't put you in a dress! [She can, however, put him in something else. She's counting this as her win. >_>] ... Huh? My voice...

[...Um. That didn't sound right at all.] ...Aerith? You okay? You look kind of...

[Old. ...Er. OLDER.]

Kind of what? [But with how he's looking at her, she puts her hands up to her face--ohhhh my gosh. That is not her face.] Did I change again? But-- [She looks at her hair more closely now, holding a strand up with her (also noticeably changed) hands. It's so similar to hers, but...different. She stands up from her crouch and looks for the nearest building's windows--stops dead.

That's--]

... Mom?

[Zack rolls back to do his little crouch-hop back to his feet, moving to stand behind her. Huh... definitely a resemblance. That's not the mom he remembers, though.]

Mom? But I thought...

[Her brain is still stuck on the fact that she looks like her dead mother, and she brings her hands up to her face to lightly rearrange her hair before hastily lowering them again. It's eerie... she hasn't seen this face in fifteen years. Zack's confusion finally registers, if belatedly.]

...Not Elmyra. She adopted me. My real mother, my birth mother. This is Ifalna.

[Blink. Blink.] Ifalna? Where've I heard that name before... did you tell me?

You've heard it? It's not a common name. I'm... pretty sure I didn't tell you. [ It would have been like telling him about her heritage--which gives Aerith an idea where he might have heard it. Her expression is guarded, eyes lowered as she offers:] She was an Ancient, too. It could have been that scientist you mentioned before. [A Turk junior to Tseng wasn't as likely, given Ifalna's passing.]

No, it wasn't you. Hmm... I think it was a researcher. ...Oh! Yeah, it was this guy in the exhibit room at Shinra. He said she was a Cetra. [He pauses. ...Huh.] Cetra and Ancient... they're the same?

[She nods.] Different words, but they mean the same thing. ...wow... I didn't realize how much... [She really did take after Ifalna a whole lot--though--there are differences, too.]

Mm... [She turns to Zack, frowning with a rather serious expression.] What did he talk about? No... how did he talk about her? [Should she really be asking, considering she already knows it might upset her to hear? But with Zack getting that close to one of the people who'd worked in the lab during her childhood... there was a strong desire to know what she could find out.]

[Man, this is kinda spooky. Zack peers left and right at her. They really do look alike.

...Ack, distractions. Well, he's not exactly game to go into detail- he's pretty sure the scientist was too dismissive about her for Aerith to enjoy hearing it. Thankfully his memory isn't that fabulous.]

Uh... I don't really know. It was years ago, after all. I think he said she was the last Cetra or something?

[She shifts a little as he looks at her...and suddenly wonders if this is how Cloud felt, getting peered at as Miss Cloud. But probably less on the eerieness and more on the half-suspecting something was on her face.]

Oh...yeah, it was. [Which is disappointing, but she feels herself relaxing a bit.] We were the very last ones, and she was the last one who really understood what it meant. I didn't get a lot of what I was hearing for a long time, or what I was supposed to do... [She looks up at Zack with a smile, but there's a tinge of ruefulness in it.] We're very different that way.

[He's... trying not to stare too much. It's harder than it looks.]

What you were supposed to do? Like what?

[The longer the weird looks go on, the antsier Aerith gets, fiddling with her hands. ...She has old fingers now.]

The Cetra are supposed to care for the Planet. Talk to the Planet and unlock its magic, help the wounded land heal... and at the end, they reach the Promised Land. Shinra thought the Promised Land was a place full of mako energy. That's why they were interested in the Cetra.

[Oooookay looking away before he starts thinking Aerith's mom is hot.]

The Promised Land, huh... I don't know much about anything, it seems. [No wonder they were watching her, though... geez.]

[...Well. Least we know THAT apple didn't fall far from the tree.]

No one told you, so how could you? For most people, the Cetra and the Promised Land might as well be a fairy tale.

[She bites her lip for a brief second.] ...Are you upset that I didn't tell you?

No, that's not it. I guess I feel kind of bad because I didn't really ask you much about your life. Though if you were keeping it a secret, I wouldn't have wanted to make you lie to me, either...

Hm. Who wants to talk about boring old scientists, anyway? I like how I spent that time with you, just as it was.

Sounds fair to me. I don't have any complaints about those times, either.

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[Action] ...lol I just can't stick to only two icons ^^;

[Action] FEAR NOT she's just a younger ifalna anyway

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