FEBRUARY MINGLE

[etrayamods]

WHO: Everyone!
WHEN: February 14th - March
WHERE: Etraya
WHAT: The arrival of newcomers, a mini mission, and some new city features!
NOTES\WARNINGS:

⏵ arrival ⏴ Welcome to Etraya! Arrival goes as expected - characters awaken on hospital beds and are offered an explanation of their situation: that they have arrived in the city of Etraya, and they are their world's only hope. They are welcome to wander the hospital if they would like to - the upper floors are mostly empty, full of pristine hallways and numerous rooms filled with supplies, cots, and things one would expect from a relatively average 21st-century hospital. In the hospital's lobby are several party tables set out with miscellaneous baked goods: croissants, cookies, breads, cake slices, as well as tea and coffee to accompany them - or hot chocolate, for those who are opposed to the other offerings. Outside the hospital, the last remnants of snow are melting in the sunlight as the weather begins to warm up. It's still chilly enough one might want to put on a coat, but not so cold a jacket is necessary for wandering around without freezing off one's fingers. We hope you enjoy your stay. ⏵ heroes return ⏴ As the Quantum Rail train glides to a halt, returning passengers step out onto familiar ground - the train station, right where they had initially begun their mission. When exiting the station, their earpieces vibrate, indicating the automatic download of a detailed map which highlights key locations, transit paths, and notable landmarks. As Aurora promised, she had been working on a few renovations around Etraya! A sleek trolley system now winds through Etraya, following clearly marked pathways through the city bubble to make travel across the city smoother. However, the trolley only moves one way, eternally following the loop Aurora has set it on. And because of this, it takes six hours to complete it's loop all the way around. Don't miss your stop! Pets and animals have been returned to their usual preferred areas, some awaiting the arrival of their owners, and others keeping to themselves in the forested areas throughout Etraya. Beyond the small upgrades, things seem relatively unchanged - until one familiar sign catches the eye. One marked by four vertical lines, methodically crossed out one by one: the final slash has now been drawn through. The tally is complete. What it indicates has yet to be made clear, but it has to mean something, right? No one would go through the effort of making an ominous-sounding sign without following through. ⏵ love in the air ⏴ This Valentines Day, Aurora and the companion bots have opted to try something a little different: they have scattered mystery valentines across the city. Hidden within mailboxes, tucked into cafe menus, slipped under doors, on the outside of high windows for those wall-crawlers to spot. There are countless of these little slips of papers, strewn throughout the city. And within each valentine, is a challenge or gesture to complete. Please feel free to make these up yourselves as long as they fit in with the theme! Some examples include: Deliver a flower to a stranger. Write a heartfelt poem for someone. Share a box of chocolates! Confess your feelings for another. Play matchmaker for two people - this can be platonic, or romantic! Gift a friend with a stuffed animal. Give five different people a genuine compliment. While not mandatory, completing five tasks will earn an individual an additional ten points to use towards anything they would like! Each little Valentine is signed "Your Secret Admirer. ♡", and some of them may even be addressed to specific individuals. Don't be surprised, Eddie, if you see one or two that are specifically addressed to you lurking around your collection of chicken friends! And while most of these are harmless, some of the valentines cards come with effects for those who come into contact with the paper. Perhaps they thought it was a piece of garbage, or were just kicking it out of the way rather than intending on taking part. It doesn't matter! They get to join in on the fun, too. Heart Eyes - your pupils literally turn into hearts for a few hours, making it hard to focus on anything other than things (or people) you find attractive. Love-Struck Stammer - You can only speak in poetic compliments or romantic declarations, regardless of whom you're speaking to. Chocolate Bliss - Everything feels good. Simple. Easy. As if there's nothing in the world to concern yourself with. You feel happy, without any concerns or worry. Rose-Tinted Vision - everything looks soft and romantic, as if you're in a romance novel. You know the ones. Magnetic Attraction - regardless of what you had been doing, you suddenly find yourself unable to leave the side of the person closest to you. Had you been eating chocolates while walking down the street? Well, have fun getting stuck to the guy who'd been out for a jog! Serenade Syndrome - you find it impossible to resist the urge to sing your words, turning all conversations into love ballads. Heartstrings - A thread appears, connecting you to someone close by who you share many similarities too. Perhaps you had never met this person before, but the threads tied around your pinky fingers that refuse to let go until you allow yourself to open up to them clearly means you should be a little more familiar with them. Love is in the air—or maybe just a bit of well-intended chaos! 💕 ⏵ NOTES ⏴ Welcome back from the mission, and welcome to Etraya for our newcomers! We've tried to keep this log simple for an easy introduction, as well as some downtime for our mission-goers who worked hard to solve the Quantum Rail mystery. There is something else going on, but. . . well, no one seems to know what! The computer that had been on the lower floor of the hospital is now missing, and Aurora may seem a little flustered as she flits around Etraya, in search of something. For all questions relating to this log, please refer to the mod queries comment. All other questions can be directed to the FAQ. ⏵FULL NAVIGATION⏴

Comments

[miniroth]

A little sogginess is obviously the rain, which might not be falling but is surely to blame. He'll never say anything about it. And with Etraya so big and so few people around, nobody is about to actually see any of it which makes it ... a little safer. A little more private even if it's right out on a sidewalk in front of a diner.

He makes a note about how that's phrased. She and Popp - Popp's an interesting addition and one he's a little surprised about but not disappointed, but there were people he would have expected to be higher on the worried list.

Who were not. It told him everything he needed to know. "I didn't mean to worry you. Or Popp."

Or anyone for that matter. "...I'm fine." Which of course means he's anything but, though he does finally loosen his hold on her; he's glad Gaia's there but there was a point where it would surely be awkward.

He wouldn't mind staying like that for longer. The warmth of it thawed more than the cold of late winter air. "I went from the snowstorm to an underground tunnel here, as I'd left." Barefoot, shirtless, and with a blanket on instead of a proper jacket because jackets hadn't fit anymore. "I haven't heard Earenk since arriving, or felt her presence." Her dragon too was likely gone.

[hammerbearer]

It's better to blame the rain than bird droppings. Or snow. Or tears. And it's cold, who wouldn't have a bit of a reddened nose that needs a bit of a sniffle and maybe a handkerchief to clear later?

"I know." They knew. She'd probably even speak for Popp with certainty on that one. Lacking mention of others may be a fallacy on her part. There were a few that spoke up, but like any individual under an emotional umbrella of feelings, Gaia is probably going to focus on the people that were... well, that she knew better. That didn't have that bridge between 'young' and 'adult' which still needed to be crossed.

Maybe it does mean something though, at least subconsciously.

There's one last squeeze before she releases Sephiroth. He's fine. And that's her answer of relief that she probably won't put to words so much. Is she going to do a discreet wipe of her eyes on his sleeve before stepping back? Yes. Of course that didn't happen.

Hands to her hips, she still has something to grimace about and that's how he arrived in this place. "I was in a, um 'hospital' bed." One of those terms that didn't come direct to mind based on what she'd often call places where medical things occurred. But Gaia always did try to adapt. There's a slow nod; she doesn't appear surprised to hear that the dragon wasn't here, nor would hers be.

"When you disappeared, I went to Charlie and asked him to try and find you. That's... how I knew you weren't on that world anymore." And not dead or lost or not wanting to come back. "I asked about your dragon and he said that it's almost certain she returned to the Dragon Well. A sort of... afterlife for dragons. But he was in the middle of trying to verify that when I found myself here."

Still, her answer is sympathetic. Gaia remembered what Earenk meant after some fashion to her friend. And Kellen had been growing on her a bit.

But... cold. That reminds her they're standing out here and there's warmth and food instead.

"Come and sit with me? Have some food? I was just about to eat something myself. And... well, if you're not busy, you can tell me all about what's happened since you arrived."

She's already heading back for the diner. But as she moves, she hold back her gloved hand; it's an offer to take it and retain some kind of contact. That wouldn't have happened before either. But do either of them really want to feel like they could lose the other right now?

"Has it only been about a month or two?"

[miniroth]

"Hospitals are medical facilities, usually for civilians." If the explanation will help, he'll provide it; there's a lot that just doesn't get told to anyone, and they're left to figure it out on their own. Sephiroth is still figuring out much on his own as well, but at least he's not becoming a monster in the doing.

But he'd gotten used to the sound of other voices, and sleep had ... been neither dreamless nor easy. "I imagine Charlie will have other concerns to keep him occupied than one boy and his dragon," and now Gaia, in fact, "He is running a world."

There's no sign of any displeasure about Charlie's actions, or any potential 'lack' thereof. The man really did have other things to do, and that he'd looked into it at all was a kindness.

It's almost automatic, turning to follow as if it's old habit. The offered hand is studied for a long moment before slowly, hesitantly reached for; he's not really sure what to do, what the gesture's meant to be. He's never encountered it before. "It has. By my guess it's now February."

[hammerbearer]

Gaia nods. Context had been evident, but it's interesting to have her opinion confirmed. As for Charlie and Kamurkia?

"I know. And it was kind of him to take the time that he did. I don't blame him."

It was very reasonable to expect some time would be needed at the end of the day. Though it would have been nice to have the peace of mind that the dragons did indeed return to the afterlife. They didn't just... vanish because some other force called the two away.

Well, wondering what Charlie's answer would have been won't do them any good here right now. As Sephiroth reaches out a hand, Gaia offers him a smile. It's relief and gladness. And it's understanding. But without making a big deal of it, she simply extends her hand just a touch further and glasps hers around his. There's a small squeeze.

Like this it seems to say.

"About the same amount of time's passed then. Come on, let's go eat and catch up."

Into the diner she will lead and back to her chair. Her free hand is up and signaling the companion bots that they'll be needing to order more.

Clearly.

[miniroth]

It's not the first time Gaia's been put in the position of taking the lead and it probably won't be the last. She might be the first person in his life to ever intend to actually lead him around by the hand, and he probably wouldn't have allowed it if it were anyone else. He's careful with his hold, but it's certain if he wanted to he'd just shake her off. He doesn't. Sephiroth would rarely say how he felt about things, but there were other ways to know. "I'm .. glad she's gone back to ... hwere she belongs, I suppose."

An afterlife. Not trapped on some strange world, far from her own kind.

Like they were.

But there's no resistance, and he goes where led. The diner is warm, the diner has food, and that's where Gaia's stuff is! It's sensible! "...I'd thought, with the changes taken away. That I'd be less hungry all the time." Not so much.

The problem with being a teenager. With more than one chair available, one's selected at random; he'll only let go when she has, even if there's a table between them. "I'll try to answer anything I know about this place but in truth I know less of it than I did the last one."

[hammerbearer]

"Yeah." There's a part, a small part, that feels bad for the dragons. Gaia had gotten used to Kellen. There had been a bond and maybe the dragons themselves had not had any say in what brought their soul out of the afterlife and into the bodies of unsuspecting people from another world.

But at the end of the day, Gaia and Sephiroth, Popp and all the others summoned had seemingly been drawn into machinations against their will. Transformed against their will because of that. Which has every chance of continuing here in some fashion.

"Hah!" Hungry? "That is all a part of being a teenager, like it or not. You should see the faces of the culinarians when we arrive in a group to talk about festival planning."

There's always a surplus of youth ready to go talk about the food preparations for the festival. always.

The companion bots have brought over a menu. And there are two of the four chairs empty. One is obviously Gaia's, the other taken is.... Gaia's shopping. At least the stuff she had picked up after she'd sent that blond man back with her stuff to the apartments.

She'd be annoyed if he was planning to steal them to give to someone else but she doubts that was the goal. Also if that happens she will track him down. As for hands and where they're sitting at the table? Hm. Gaia is aware that she's been a bit forward with the amount of contact she's pressed on Sephiroth.

But honestly he hasn't shown any signs of minding. The holding of hands is going to come to an end, but rather than settle in the chair she'd obviously been sitting in, she selects the one next to the other teen and pulls her food over.

"Here, have this 'french fry'. They're basically deep-fried popotos."

He should be used to her terms for things by now even when she does slip back into the habit.

[miniroth]

That Gaia's actions box him in against the window isn't missed, but also there's not so much as a murmur of complaint. For all that he knows this is perfectly normal behavior, and he doesn't .. really mind it anyway. It's nice. Cloud kept tabs on him, and seemed to Sephiroth that he meant well, but the man wasn't ... a friend. He supposed he had to acknowledge the word now.

Side by side is nothing new at least. It didn't require contact, and he could settle back into a more comfortable isolation and eye the menu with distrust. "..I suppose that does make sense if I'm to grow to be somewhere closer to three hundred pounds and almost seven feet tall," he murmurs, this close anything louder entirely unnecessary. "The fuel would need to come from somewhere."

Earenk would have had excellent advice on exactly what to eat and how often for a growing hatchling to stay at proper strength.

On the bright side he doesn't have to question what a popoto is! If it's the wrong word at least it's one he's familiar with, and the french fry is studied for a moment. Deep fried things were his bane. On one hand they tended to be addictive. On the other hand more than a couple and he'd find himself rather ill. It's taken anyway. "Let's trade information. Tell me what happened after I .. was brought here, and I'll explain what I can of our situation."

[hammerbearer]

Since they're seats he can always slide out and backward so it's not a true blockade. And as for the menu? Well, there are the danger foods you typically would expect, this menu has a few tame looking sandwiches and wraps, a salad and different beverages.

While the fries are a temptation, Gaia probably has enough for both of them. If one were inclined to ask about sharing the guilt. She's pleased enough he takes the one offering at the end, knowing some of his eating habits.

Telling him what happened though, that's a reasonable place to start.

"You disappeared at the beginning of December. During the snowstorm... I suppose you remember that." Gaia looks sheepish to be repeating what might seem to be the obvious. She takes a fry for herself and nibbles on it. Ketchup? She doesn't know the amazingness of condiments and potato, though there are probably bottles on the table.

"After I couldn't find you and... it was obvious you weren't checking your lines, I went about searching."

Not troubling the adults. Everyone had their own problems. And sure in retrospect it would have been a good idea to do it despite how Sephiroth might have felt about dragging his family into the matter, but... Gaia takes a deep breath.

"After it was clear I wasn't going to be able to find you, I went to speak with Charlie. He... was able to tell me that you hadn't died, you'd just... gone. Somehow the last place he could find trace of you was the summoning circle we first appeared in."

[miniroth]

If escape ever becomes important he'll probably try something. But it really isn't.. and if he had to, there's always the window. "..I do. I appeared here returned to human form, barefoot and wearing a blanket."

It had been sensible there, with malformed 'wings' and changing feet to worry about, but here it had been a hindrance. Then he'd traded the blanket for someone else's teeshirt. And then got wizard robes. And a hat. "Though I know I did not get as far as the circle, I had been ... returning home, and that was in another direction." As much as anything could have been a home. It shouldn't have been a long walk even in the snow, they were only on the other side of the orchard.

But she'd gone looking, while he played with magic books in a foreign library. "It seems whatever force brought us there doesn't prevent others from interfering, since we're both here, and minus our dragons."

[hammerbearer]

There is going to be a light prompting to remind Sephiroth about the menu by nudging the edge of it. Don't forget to eat. A companion bot has brought over utensils and a glass of water and hovers with contented patience to await further input.

"It makes me wish I'd just told you to come home with me after." It's voicing a dismay she'd felt several times over the last couple of months. Would it have changed anything? Probably not. Sephiroth would have been gone, maybe vanished in midair before her. Maybe thought to have gone about his business the next morning because of routine.

It just feels like something more could have been done.

But she knows better. So she lets out a soft huff of breath. "Always something more powerful to think about? I wonder if leaving the dragons behind was by design or unintentional." A pause. "...Since they probably weren't calling us here to judge Kamurkia."

Probably. Or maybe it was the greater dragons' souls that confused things? Gaia shakes her head. Right, she was explaining things.

"...When Charlie confirmed that you weren't there, life went on I suppose. I let people know. Many expressed their sadness you were gone. And.... some others were known to disappear. One of Emet-Selch's friends. Hythlodaeus. You haven't seen him here, have you?" It seems right to think that might have happened, come to think.

"...Popp and I continued with the hot springs project. I also kept up your trap lines, thinking if you were called here once, you might return." Not to mention it would be a waste to leave them.

"And... just before I found myself here, some sort of creature called 'Illithid' crashed their airship nearby. And some sort of experimental version of a monster called Intellect Devourers were set loose. "

...The information had not been something she'd been happy to hear about. She takes a deep breath.

"To be honest I wasn't entirely sure I wasn't victim to something when I ended up here." Can she be entirely sure she's still not? ... Well, no. But the thought of having herself trapped in some sort of mental attack (again) leaves her with a deep, uneasy feeling.

[miniroth]

Menus for modern sensibilities rarely had enough protein on them for Sephiroth's tastes but he does take the time to carefully, if briefly, look over the list of things the robot could acquire. Everything he selects is meat, processed meat, or eggs.

"I.. ..don't know that I would have gone with you." They'd been family, as close as he'd ever get, and he hadn't been lying when he said he'd be lost without them. It's been a difficult couple of months. He hasn't even found a new routine yet, unable to let go of everything he'd had and simply move on. He takes a breath, it still wasn't pleasant to think about but now htere's other things, and those subjects hurt less. "But likely we're here on our own intentionally. Kellen and Earenk wouldn't be helping any judgment of our worlds, and they don't have agency enough to help in the judgment of theirs."

Being dead has side effects.

Hythlodaeus is known only in passing, violet hair and violet eyes and a kind if mischevous smile; he pauses for a moment, thinking of who he HAS seen, then shakes his head negative. Again there's a certain.. absence in who she mentions, but given their last conversation, and how out of place he'd felt, it wasn't a surprise.

Maybe they were relieved he was no longer there.

"I don't know how much reassurance it is, but this is certainly a real place." His gaze shifts, to the landscape outside the window. "Surely something hallucinated up would be more ... populated. And not by machines."

That might actually be cold comfort. "And if its just you being a victim of something, then.. I'm glad you're here even if it's only for a little while." Even if he's imaginary! "I've.." It's been lonely. "..been worried too."

[hammerbearer]

Those robots are going to be happy to accept the request, cart off the menu and probably return with something that qualified as an appetizer while the rest cooks. And a drink if that was asked for. More food will follow.

Gaia nods once. She knows that was likely the case. It doesn't entirely help but... right.

"When Angeal said you'd moved in with Glenn and he had lost track I thought... that couldn't be right."

The last she'd known, he was heading home to the place he'd lived in since his 'elder brother' had invited him to stay with the gang. And it wouldn't have been too much to think if that was the case he hadn't gotten a chance to reach out to her again before disappearing from Kamurkia entirely.

Except... She wouldn't have thought he'd have moved in with Glenn willingly either. Unless something was happening that made Sephiroth weigh the option between staying and troubling his family further and moving out and being discomforted by...

Gaia takes a deep breath. She'd half paid attention to the teen's thoughts on Kellen and Earenk and those seemed a fair assessment on why they're not here alongside the souls they'd bonded to. It's bittersweet, but they don't deserve to be pulled from their world any more than Gaia or Sephiroth did.

This is a real place.

"You're probably right," though the smile Gaia offers is wan, it feels genuine and like she's pulling herself together. It's not filled with people because she's forgotten them or anything like that. And with that last she chuckles. If she's fumbling for his hand a minute to give it a squeeze, that's fine right?

"I was worried too you know!"

Same.

"And besides, it's real enough that I get hungry." With more than something appetizerish still on the way for Sephiroth, Gaia is going to put the ball in his court.

"What's it been like here so far?" And reach for her sandwich wrap.

[miniroth]

"Glenn? Did my things also disappear with me?" He hadn't had much aside from the ever growing heap of blankets and a couple of trinkets that caught his eye, gleaming green and interesting. It sounded strange, that someone he'd seen at least twice a day, if not more, would simply lose track of him, and never bothered to check to see where he'd gone and why he'd left his things behin--

Memory provides a reason, when he dwells on it longer than a moment. Blood in the basement, dimly lit, the mixed terrible pain and relief of having trapped wings cut out.

How they'd reacted.

How they'd all reacted. "Maybe I should have," he murmurs, sagging a little in his seat. His disappearance was probably a relief. "Once we spoke, he'd wanted us to stay together, but I.. was too afraid of getting attached again."

Everything he found and cherished he also found a way to destroy, it seems. "But they're .. alright, aside from the ship?" Intellect devourers and mayhem abound. She wouldn't know their state RIGHT NOW, but when she'd left.. "And Glenn?"

The man had disappeared not long after he did. Would she even know?

He's having less success pulling himself back together, though it'll probably be forgiven. Doubts and fears and worries were shared things, even if the subjects differed a little, and Sephiroth doesn't jerk his hand away from her light squeeze. A slow breath, and carefully he takes a minute or so to regain what composure he can before it all goes to pieces. They'd all be fine. They were long before he came along. That he still woke expecting to hear the low murmur of familiar voices, missed familiar tastes, missed ... all of it was his problem to bear. Not Gaia's.

"It's.. empty. There's no feeling of life here. Just people in a very bad simulation. They're real, we all are, but this place is a caricature of reality and it's unsettling. The one mission I was sent on was unpleasant and bizarre, with little use for my skill set, but it was apparently very important to saving our worlds." Eventually, inflection will creep back into his tone. But for now careful neutrality will do. She wouldn't say anything about the lingering pain, but why risk it? "This place.. this city doesn't feel like a place waiting to be born, it feels like it's waiting to die and nobody really knows what to do about it."

[hammerbearer]

Gaia's eyes drop away momentarily. She's a little ashamed that she wasn't more thorough in looking into matters like that. Then she starts a little and returns her attention.

"I didn't want to tip Angeal and the others off by asking about your things and... honestly I didn't think about it." Given he could have simply disappeared without them because there was a snowstorm at the time. She should have, it would have made sense to check.

"And when Charlie confirmed you'd disappeared from the world, well. I didn't think to check for your possessions. But Popp still had the Ruin materia you gave him so, so that much was still present. And...."

Gaia reaches for her arm, rolling up the sleeve and fiddling with a bracelet around it. It's no more her fashion than a certain necklace had been. Arguably it's a little crude; some leather cord, neatly braided around small scales. Dragon scales and small ones, suited for a creature of human size.

...The important part, other scales to the side, is that carefully and safely braided into the work are green scales so dark as to seem almost black.

"These stayed too. I found them, between the floorboards."

After there's a bit to process that, Gaia then speaks about Glenn. While it might have once escaped her notice, she had made herself become more aware of who disappeared.

"I think he's gone too. Glenn. Not long after you." She looks out at the world of Etraya. Which at the moment is an empty street, unless you account for the companion bots and their busywork.

"...I noticed that too. This place is... empty. Not like Kamurkia at all." That place certainly had a diminished population, but it was alive. Healing.

[miniroth]

"They're just objects." Items weren't really important. But he knew he'd had a growing interest in things, specific things, and leaving them behind.. should have been relevant. But even Angeal hadn't questioned it. "He.. they were all probably relieved." One less thing to worry about. One less reminder. He'd spoken to Gaia before at length about it before, the strained relationship that came with just being a smaller, younger version of their lover.

The array of tiny scales are familiar. He knew his own. Knew when he'd scratched them out, torn between pain and relentless itch and given into the impulse to scratch until it STOPPED.

She'd kept them. Spent the time looking for them. Made them into something.

Sephiroth doesn't know if it's that, or the news of Glenn also disappearing, makes it harder to breathe, makes his vision blur suspiciously. She wanted to remember... and Glenn was gone.

He didn't have to guess if she'd cared. She'd cared enough to go looking. To find little discarded bits of refuse and wind it into a reminder.

Glenn was gone. But not here in Etraya. In the light of the restaraunt, the barest gleam of green in otherwise dark scales. "The missions and fights here might be better," he says eventually, voice soft and a little strained. "I don't think I'm suited to having a family."

[hammerbearer]

"I'm not sure what I can say. Angeal and I spoke in person, but..." There were probably things she couldn't understand in the end. Perhaps it'd been her age versus theirs. Or maybe the circumstance of having to come to terms with a younger version of one of those involved. Maybe it was even Gaia's own bias.

She'd found the first by happenstance while cleaning. And then yes, she had scoured between the floorboards and behind things to see if she could claim anymore. It was a small collection but it'd been enough. For herself and Popp; there are two other types of scales in the collection of the band. After the transfer to Etraya they may not have any supernatural or alchemical potential anymore; just some shiny, colorful scales.

But that doesn't matter, does it? Not for this.

Since Gaia's been watching Sephiroth closely, among eating her food and dealing with her emotions, might she catch the tension that hints at the verge of... Her own expression tightens and becomes firm. She reaches out with her free hand and while she doesn't directly touch Sephiroth's face it is clear she wants to make sure he's looking directly at her expression.

One that's filled with conviction.

"I won't say it's easy to have a family. But everyone deserves one, Sephiroth. Even you. Maybe especially so. If Angeal and the others couldn't be that for you... well, even if I weren't here, I would be. Your friend. And family."

And she's sure Popp would agree if he were here.

[miniroth]

'Relieved' was a kinder way to think about it. Maybe they'd just assume he'd be back to his own world, in his own time, to live out the life he was meant to. "Then don't say anything." What is there to say? "It's alright. I .. don't think I belonged with them." Not yet, not without years of friendship and trust, with a Genesis and an Angeal his own age, learning each other as they went. "No matter how much I might have wanted it otherwise. It's just hard to admit it."

Attempting to speedrun it, with grown adults who knew how it would end but couldn't fill those same positions in his life... he wasn't able yet to do the things that made people friends and family, act the right way, say the right things. He knew where the blame for that lay, and it wasn't with them. Sephiroth couldn't even see eye to eye with a version of himself only ten or fifteen years older.

But it was still that same older self that was the only person who could touch him without immediate impulse being expecting pain, and it's a struggle to suppress an automatic twitch away from the hand that reaches for him without ever quite coming into contact.

Gaia had never crossed a line yet, and wasn't now. He had to get used to it. Had to. And she'd never hurt him yet either, all the more reason to try to overcome the instinct. "I don't blame them. Don't .. take it that way. They have each other, and that's how it's meant to be." Where did two Sephiroths work into that? And one being so much younger, suspicious of every kind gesture?

"I.. am still not sure friendships are a good idea." They're a weakness. They hurt like no weapon ever could. He still thought of Glenn, of Matt and Lucia. He didn't think he'd be able to forget Angeal's routines, or Genesis' fondness for fine things. Or even his future version's seeming calm, steadfast reassurance. He had felt safe for the first time in his life, even with scales growing in along his collarbones and on a strange planet, in that gentle embrace.

He had caught himself time and again thinking of needing to remember some location, or some little thing to tell Gaia about when he saw her next. As if the routine was maintained, and there were trap lines to check and changes to soothe and compare.

Every time, reality would set in eventually. And it would hurt anew, as fresh as the day he found himself in Etraya's tunnels.

Except Gaia's here, against all impossible odds, and that hurt too, in a different way that was as much joy as agony. "I don't think I'm strong enough. It hurts too much."

[hammerbearer]

She won't talk too much more about her conversation with Angeal then. Except she does wryly, albeit sadly, respond to Sephiroth speaking about whether or not he belonged.

"After you were gone, I began thinking... maybe it wasn't such a great idea for each of you to act like brothers. At least not in public." It certainly made sense from a public perspective. And Gaia was honored that he trusted her enough to say the truth of it. She collects herself and attempts her usual standard of huff noises.

...Though as her fellow teen allows her to take his hand again, it may seem she falters a bit on taking a firm stance in her next words. She looks at him, hoping to meet Sephiroth's gaze.

He's often turning it away in her experience, not letting people look too long on it. But still, she tries.

"I think I understand what you're trying to say. I suspect... deep down, they didn't know what to do about it any more than you did. I'm not saying that absolves them of everything that may have gone wrong..."

They were the adults, right? They should have done better for the child Sephiroth once was. Even if it was just trying to talk things out more.

"Just that... from my perspective, it seemed a bit selfish of them too. That doesn't necessarily make them bad people. Just bad at doing what might have been better for the circumstances."

Gaia is certainly biased toward the younger Sephiroth. But it's also true that he's the younger Sephiroth being suddenly confronted with a future path that was established and comfortable with two people he'd not even had a chance to meet yet. And the teen was certainly not the type to talk about all the nuance and small details that had made him oh so happpy.

She had never been one to outwardly display an affinity for 'sappy details' anyway. Even if she would have been happy for them. Things like this are more her speed. Thoughtful talks, comparing notes. Doing things at a slow pace that builds comfort. But how her heart aches for Sephiroth's sake that everything he's experienced causes him to say this. He's not sure about friendship... being close to people he could lose or go away. That he's not strong enough or deserving.

Gaia has never felt that depth of fear. But... she knows of it, a little. The reluctance to get close to anyone.

"I know it hurts. And we're not... guaranteed to stick together." They've never had a say in it. It's a damned miracle they're here now and it's one she can't even be completely happy about. Because it feels like it's being used. If they had just needed a 'Gaia' or 'Sephiroth', they could have grabbed two from some timeline that hadn't met at all.

Gaia isn't going to be so naive as to think knowing that people can be literally separated by different worlds can still be family and friends. Because it's still pretty painful to be apart. And it definitely isn't like there's no way to communicate at all for Ryne and Thancred, or Gaia and others she's met from the Source.

"Well, there's no need for you be strong enough on your own, is there? Since I'm here," she says instead, with a fair pretense at her usual level of brusque and no-nonsense manner.

[miniroth]

"..More awkward, I think, to say he's me, but fifteen years older." Or so, give or take. And he'd have preferred a sibling, though he didn't even now really know what to do with one. Some connection to someone in the way everyone else seemed to enjoy, in the absence of a father or mother. Maybe few others could understand that in the way Gaia could, she also lacked her own family.. but she'd had them, once.

She'd left people behind as well. Did she think about Ryne as often as he thought about Glenn?

As ever, he doesn't meet her eyes for long. It's a lifetime of habit, of knowing people were uncomfortable having the evidence of how inhuman he was watching them with a gaze better suited to a cat or a snake. Shaking it off was difficult. Knowing Gaia - and many others - simply didn't actually care didn't affect much either, even though for a while hers had been even stranger than his own. "I'm certain they did their best."

Whether or not it was true, he felt it was. What part of SOLDIER taught anyone how to deal with a child? Even if he'd chafe at the label, he was no child but he knew he'd inevitably be seen as one..

In its way, the briskness is familiar and welcome. Could he rely on anyone else? He wasn't sure, but ... it was true, if nothing else, that he didn't have to be ... wasn't alone here. Sure, Cloud was around - but that man was forever labeled his elder self's focus, not his own. The entanglement of Nibelheim and Cloud's captivity there.. he didn't know enough about it to broach the subject. Not really.

"I suppose that's true," he concedes, after a long moment of silence. "You are here. And .. I have not heard of anyone simply disappearing, as yet."

Did that mean it was safe? No. But could he pretend, at least for a little while?

[hammerbearer]

"Yeah, I guess that's true. And... it had some good reasons." It gave a healthy separation of past and future selves. Even if it was partially an illusion to make it all easier to understand. To... reason.

She thought about Ryne. A lot. And other people; every day, so she knows she remembers them.

Gaia's attitude about his eyes wasn't so hard to understand, really. The eyes of the Mystel on the first possessed slit pupils and in her world's view, people had different eye traits. She might never have asked Sephiroth why he doesn't like to keep eye contact directly, but it was likely she assumed it was some other reason unless told otherwise. And if that had happened? Well, she would have explained it wasn't unusual on her world.

But she never dismissed that continued discomfort, either. Never tried to force him to look at her, insist that he had to.

Honestly? Gaia looks a little relieved in that moment as Sephiroth asserts that people don't disappear from this place quickly; or maybe at all. This just comes with another huff.

"I should hope not. If one's trying to save a dying universe and uses the power it takes to cast such magicks to summon someone from another world body and all and bind them here, I'd be much more alarmed if people simply vanished within days."

Whether that meant they were being taken for some nefarious purpose or sent back as 'useless'. That's still a lot of power to waste.

Gaia offers a faint smile. The hand clasped is gently squeezed to remind him she's there.

"Well, let's just take it one day at a time." This city and world, their predicament.

And the strength it takes to be friends.

[miniroth]

Habit wouldn't be easy to break now. He's been doing it for too long. Maybe one day, if he remained in places where he was as close to normal as anyone could ever hope to be.. like here. With enough time, it wouldn't matter anymore. "It's .. not bad here, at least." His third planet, and he didn't REALLY have complaints, beyond missing his dragon terribly.

And his family. What he'd wanted as his family. Maybe if he'd just had a little more time, he could have found a way to fit with them that wasn't just being a little version of someone else..

The thought is shaken off. He had to focus on what he DID have. And what she said. One day at a time. Maybe things would be alright. For all that he'd been snatched away from what he'd wanted, Gaia had followed. And she'd always been kind. It's tenative, the light squeeze back.

Sephiroth cared, vastly and deeply, but showing it .. saying it .. those were harder. "I still don't know if any of that is true. I don't know what our last two missions had to do with any of that. How does being on a classist train save a universe? Or finding broken pearls in a library?"

Maybe nothing. "This may not even really be a different world at all, since we can't leave the city limits. If we were on the other side of the planet, every star would still be different." But their dragons.. were gone. And the only evidence they existed, that bracelet of gleaming scales.

[hammerbearer]

Gaia won't claim she doesn't miss Kellen at all. They'd been an interesting sort. But... she probably won't talk about it much. It was always a bit of a mixed bag with her.

Still, she knew more than most people about what the dragon with Sephiroth had meant to her fellow teen. In time, this will lead to her and, when they find Popp here, splitting the bracelets three ways instead of two. That seems the only right thing to do.

"I guess that's true. And... the questions would be a pain."

And dealing with all that none of your business things people like to try and dig into. The teen frowns, though this is lightened just a trace when she feels the tentative squeeze. It's surprising, it's all but new. It causes Gaia's light smile to soften and grow.

Maybe it's just better to move on; there are things to talk about that are more important as she said. Like Etraya.

"The broken pearls could have been parts of something larger," Gaia poses as a suggestion. I don't know what you mean by those events, but some things get sealed in small pieces. Or... shattered."

She tries to ignore the way speaking such words cause a shiver up her spine. Gaia has probably mentioned in passing some secondhand telling of how her world is one of many that used to be some greater whole but there was always a sense that wasn't comfortable doing so.

"The 'train' though. That could be testing us and how we'd respond in that system. We're supposed to be chosen people, right? Or maybe it's just an experiment."

She snorts softly.

"I... hm. It would be a strange change from where we were if they're the same place. And... it feels different. " Of course it does. Their powers aren't limited. There isn't a dragon soul weighing down their bodies and minds. Feeling 'themselves' mostly.

"We really can't go beyond a certain place?" It's already pretty expansive so she hadn't been aware that.... well, not really conscious that this was all one city.