Welcome to Adventu, your final fantasy rp haven. adventu focuses on both canon and original characters from different worlds and timelines that have all been pulled to the world of zephon: a familiar final fantasy-styled land where all adventurers will fight, explore, and make new personal connections.
at adventu, we believe that colorful story and plots far outweigh the need for a battle system. rp should be about the writing, the fun, and the creativity. you will see that the only system on our site is the encouragement to create amazing adventures with other members. welcome to adventu... how will you arrive?
year 5, quarter 3
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Zack wasn't sure what to think anymore. This place was way too confusing for him, though let's be honest. That wasn't saying much. This man was the kind of person to roll with the punches, to take whatever life threw at him. All that had happened recently? That was was a whole new ball game. Zack knew Gaia, he knew Shinra and the SOLDIERs. He knew how to make those around him laugh, or want to punch him. He didn't care, he loved it there. Now, he didn't know anyone. Sure, he had ran into Cissnei, but they couldn't stay together forever. She had work to do, and he was left to fend for himself.
Of course, that just meant he would walk around until something caught his eye. Usually, that something wasn't of any importance. Currently, he was trying to sneak up on a cat, because for some reason, he just didn't expect a cat to be here. Apparently a part of him though that this was a new planet. In fact, it was the same as the world he was on, only different scenery. Well, there were probably other differences as well, but he would figure those out later. Right now, he just wanted to catch the damn feline, who had vanished without him even knowing. Were cats secretly Turks? They were sneaky enough anyway.
Heaving a sigh, Zack noticed there were some trees nearby. Leaning up against it, he looked down to the Buster Sword. Having that sword brought different emotions to him. He was happy to have it because his mentor had given it to him, but sad because of the reason Angeal had done so. Zack was also worried to have it because he had given it to Cloud, but Cloud was gone now and he still had it. What happened to the spiky blonde? Was he here somewhere as well? Was Angeal here too? Sighing once more, he looked out over the water, trying to decide what his next move would be.
[attr="class","ayab-text"] The confines of Sonora had become stifling as her worry increased over time. Cloud had still not returned, and she was worried about what had happened to him. All she knew was what Alexander had told her, and she knew any fight with Sephiroth would end in some type of injury. When she managed to make it to Provo, then she was going to give her friend a piece of her mind! After making sure he was alright, of course. Sadly, her sense of direction had taken her a little off of the mark on her wayward journey. This was why Barrett had been the one to read the maps or even Cloud. Her sense of the world after leaving Midgar had been so limited and it was not like she had intimately known the layout of Gaia as her friends had. Oh, she knew she should have just spent the gil on an airship ticket! [break][break]
It would have been faster, but she had worried that perhaps Cloud would have been traveling back to Sonora. So, Aerith had thought that perhaps there would be a slim chance of encountering him on the road to the city. And now she regretted her 'brilliant' idea and was lost and staring down at her map with a look of complete betrayal. "I should have listened to my first idea," she lamented with a sigh as she shoved her map back into her bag. This area was known as the Pale Coast, and she could admit the scenery was worthwhile. And, well, it seemed she was not too far away from Provo. All she had to do was retrace her steps, right? [break][break]
And retrace her steps she did--until she literally found herself facing a ghost. A startled gasp escaped her as her hands flew upward to cover her mouth in surprise. It felt as if the entire world stood still and everything she had known had been upended in an instant. Oh. Oh. Was this how Cloud had felt when first coming across her? As if the past had come back to haunt her without warning or preamble and her mind began to fill with white noise for a moment. Aerith was not usually caught by surprise like this, and she could only stand there for several moments as she stared at her very own ghost. [break][break]
"Zack...?" His name came out as a nearly strangled syllable as her heart raced quite erratically against her chest. A part of her wished to run forward and hug him while another wished to pick up a nearby stick and throw it at him. How odd that she felt a strong surge of both incredible care and anger towards him. Five years without a single return letter--even though she know knew the truth as to why. It had not been his fault at all, but emotions were such unreasonable things.
Zack knew he would have to find work, but wasn't that worried about it. With his training in SOLDIER and the things he was taught to do growing up, he could at least find odd jobs here and there to get him started. First though, he would have to figure out how to get his name out there. There was just going door to door, but he wasn't sure if the people here would like that very much. What if that was illegal too? Not saying he even knew the laws on Gaia, but he was starting to think he should maybe ask people what this new place was all about.
He was about to set out to question the locals when he heard her voice, and for a moment, he was about to answer what he thought was a voice in his head. Taking a deep breath, he turned, and his eyes widened. It was Aerith. Not ghost Aerith, not a voice popping into head, but her. He had waited for this moment for five years, rehearsed in his head what he would say to her. Now that this moment was here, for once in his life, Zack was at a loss for words.
"Aerith." Was all he managed to get out, standing frozen where he was at. The woman he had fallen for, who had wrote him the many letters he had never gotten the chance to read. His thoughts went to the flower cart he never got the chance to fix for her. There were so many things he wanted to say to her, but none of them were coming together to form a complete sentence. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about thirty seconds, Zack pulled himself together.
Taking a few steps towards her, he put a smile on his face and rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Been a while, huh?" Mentally smacking himself for choosing that of all things to say, he dropped his arm to his side. "Look, I'm sorry for the way things go left off with us. I had no intention of leaving you like that. A lot happened, things I'm still not even sure of, but they weren't fun I can tell you that much. You didn't deserve any of that." Oh, word vomit worked out quite nicely, but let's just stop now and let her talk and possibly yell at you, okay Zack?
[attr="class","ayab-text"] Aerith found herself still frozen in place even as Zack turned to her and said her name. It had been years since she had heard his voice anywhere but within her memories. The sound and lilt of it were still the same even after these five years--no, it was more than five years now. Did she count the time she had spent here in Zephon as well? Her life had finally come to a semblance of normalcy and now all of it was gone in the span of a single moment in time. All of her grief and anger had risen to the surface as if no time had passed. What should she say? What should she do? She still wished to slap or throw something at him, and the irrational thought had her laughing for a brief moment. The sound of it was strained and high-pitched to her ears as she quickly swallowed it down. [break][break]
And then he moved towards her with that same, casual air he had always held about him. She had always admired how easily Zack had gone with any odd situation thrown his way and continued to smile through it. Had she not also tried to do the same after meeting him? Perhaps Cloud had not been the only one to adopt some of his mannerisms as well. Trauma had a way of changing a person's personality to hold those shards of a person lost. If she kept some of Zack's easygoing smiles for herself, then she could still have a part of him with her. Slowly, she lowered her hands from her mouth as she clasped them together tightly. It felt as if her entire body was shaking at this point and her own handle of her emotions broke from her. [break][break]
"It's been awhile? That's the first thing you think of to say to me, Zack?" Her green eyes were narrowed before she unclasped her hands and walked towards him as she jabbed her index finger harshly into his chest. "It's been over five years and eighty-nine letters! You left without a word and I thought you just forgot about me and moved on." Why would he not? He was a First Class SOLDIER and she had been no one special but for her heritage and what Shinra thought they could gain from her. Aerith felt the tears begin to burn in her eyes as she jabbed her finger into his chest again for good measure before hugging him tightly as she cried. He was an idiot! The biggest idiot she had ever had the displeasure of meeting! [break][break]
"I know it wasn't your fault," she whispered after a few moments. "You tried to come back, and that's what matters. But you're still an idiot and I'm mad at you." Oh, what would have her life have been like if he had come back? If he had not died in such a horrible way? But he had died like the hero he had always wanted to be and had saved Cloud. Things had happened as they were meant to at the time and she could not regret meeting Cloud and the path she had chosen as a result.
Post by Zack Fair on Sept 28, 2021 21:06:52 GMT -6
WOULD YOU SAY I BECAME A HERO?
Zack was nervous, and just a little bit scared as well. He may be a trained SOLDIER, but women could be crazy sometimes. There was no way he would blame her for being mad, he would be too. Well, at least upset. The fact that she seemed to be humored by something did not put him at ease. She was going to hit him. He could sense it was coming, and he deserved it. Well, sort of. He didn't have to try to stop Sephiroth. He could have just taken Cloud and left Nibelheim after Sephiroth started the fire. He had to be a hero though...
Oh, she was upset alright. He knew the words his brain finally threw out weren't going to go over well, but when did that ever happen to him? "I, uh-." That was about all he could get out before she started walking towards him and he knew he was in trouble then. The chest poking came, but he couldn't focus on that. She still smelled like her flower garden in the Sector Five church, and it brought back all the memories of their time together. He almost forgot he wasn't there anymore, but her lecture brought him back, and he dropped his head.
Until he heard she thought he had moved on, and his head shot back up. "What? I would never. You meant so much to me!" Wait, did he just say that out loud? Well, it's not like she didn't know, right? There was one last finger jab, and then she was hugging him and crying. He could feel the tears coming to his eyes as well, but he wasn't going to let them go. He wanted to be strong for her, as he was back then. He wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her close, letting her cry into him.
Having her this close was everything Zack needed. He wasn't sure if either of them felt the way they did back then, but the familiar feeling of being close to someone again gave Zack a sense of peace. The last five or so years of his life had been absolute chaos, and he needed this. She started to speak again, and what she said made him chuckle lightly. "Yeah, I don't think a day goes by without someone calling me an idiot. If being mad at me helps you, you can be mad at me all you want." He looked down at her to give her a small smile.
[attr="class","ayab-text"] A big, dumb idiot that still resembled a puppy! [break][break]
Aerith felt her breath catch in her throat as Zack admitted how much she had meant to him. Of course, she had known that, but it was relieving to hear for herself. It had been fives years without a single clue or idea as to what had happened to him. And, then, she recalled that singular moment in her church when she had sensed him go. A fact she had denied to herself so strongly because she could not fathom a world without Zack in it. She would have rather believed he had moved on than think of him as dead for even a moment. Someone so vibrant and full of life should never be dealt such a cruel hand as death, no? "It's still good to hear," she murmured against the soft fabric of his shirt. [break][break]
Things were not the same as they had once been and even her feelings felt confusing to her now. Five years of denial and moving on and now her past had collided with her in an instant. How should she feel? No, Aerith did not have to think of such an answer right at this moment. The present mattered more to her than the ever-changing future and she wished to prolong this sensation of being in Zack's arms again after all of this time. For once, she was the one being comforted instead of being the one for her friends to depend on. Was it selfish of her to bask in this and take what he was offering to her? The tears continued to stream down her cheeks and she could not have stopped them even if she had wanted to do so. [break][break]
"Well, I wonder why? You do such silly things without thinking and just smile like everything is alright," she said with a watery laugh. All Zack had ever seemed to want was to be a hero and to make the people around him happy. He was everything a First Class Soldier should have been and embodied what it meant to be a personal hero to others. Friendly, caring, and stupidly heroic. Oh, how could she be so hypocritical at this moment? Had she not been willing to do the same? Aerith had gone off on her own because she knew she was the only one capable of stopping Sephiroth and because it was a path she needed to walk. Even if she had promised to come back when it was over. Maybe a part of her had wanted to be a hero, too. [break][break]
Huffing a little, she leaned slightly back to glance up at him and that silly smile. Aerith narrowed her eyes somewhat as she moved her hand to poke him in the cheek with her finger. "You're not making it easy to stay mad at you when you just accept it! Honestly, I almost want to make you beg! But that would be too mean of me to do." Her lips twisted into a slight pout before her expression eased into slight humor and she laughed. The brief, sweet moment of levity was precious to her even as her lips curled into a more somber smile. "There's a lot to talk about, you know. What happened to you and what happened to me."
Aerith mentioned it was good to hear those words, and he gave himself a mental pat on the back for that one. It was the truth. The one thing he had wanted to after escaping that basement was to get back to her, to let her know he was alright. Of course, he should have went to see his parents, but he didn't want to put them in danger. He would have went to see them after he had gotten to Midgar, seen Aerith and found out why things had happened the way that they did. In a way, he did make his way to see her. Just, not really in the way he had expected to. Beggars can't be choosers, right?
Zack could feel that she was still crying, but he didn't care. To be honest, he wasn't even sure what all she had gone through since he had left. Was she taken at the same time as he was? He still had no idea how this world worked. For all he knew, this Aerith could be a little older than he thought she was, though he knew she wasn't much older given the way she looked. She was still young and radiant as ever. Though he wasn't sure on his feelings towards her anymore, he was glad he at least had another friend here.
Putting on a cheeky smile, he winked at her. "I do it well though, right?" He knew he had that reputation, but he really didn't care too much. He got what needed to be done, done. It's not like he was actually stupid, he just got confused easily. His brain didn't seem to keep up with his surroundings, so he just went with the flow. He brought smiles to faces of the people he was around, what more could a person want?
Earning himself another chest poke, he chuckled. "Isn't that the point? I don't want you mad at me, but I'll let you be if you need to be." When she said she could make him beg, he shook his head. "No thank you!" It was at that moment he was glad she wasn't a mean person. Her next statement earned a nod from him. "Yes we do. Know of a good place to do so? I don't have a clue where anything is." He was hoping she knew a little more about this world than he did, or else they were in trouble, though they could always just sit by the lake.
