Lost Soul

Lost Soul
Date of Scene:	18 November 2012
Location:	Southern Manhattan
Synopsis:	After the shopping trip in Manhattan, Aerith takes the time to continue her training, this time on her own. As she and Tifa discuss the particulars, the Cetra senses something down on the street, and soon the two of them to the aid of Valencia. The Heartless they face is a special one in particular... one that is the cause of much grief for their new acquaintance.
Cast of Characters:	Aerith Gainsborough, Tifa Lockhart, Valencia

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Aerith has posed:
Empty, cleared-out space? Check.

Proper clothing? Check.

Metal staff, about five feet long? Check! Everything was in order.

Of course, Aerith starts out with stretches, because that's the way it's done apparently. She's getting ready for her training at about five in the morning, because she couldn't sleep the night before. It was something she'd have to deal with later. For now, while she had the time, she'd train and work on things that needed work. Thanks to Tifa's instruction, she could handle most of the preparations on her own, and she already had an unarmed sequence to practice. So all that was left was to just do it, and five minutes later she was all over it. Of course, this was still at half Tifa-speed, but after having done it for so many times, her body was starting to remember the steps and weight changes without conscious thought.

Honestly, it felt good, like she was actually getting somewhere...

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart wakes upw hen she hears the noise, and a bed-headed Tifa appears through the door, rubbing her eyes and yawning a bit. "Hmm, I see you're getting on it early hm?" She's not used to having people around her when she sleeps, that and its not her bed, makes it a bit lighter sleep. She smiles a bit though, yawning. "Looks like it's starting to work too."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith didn't stop for Tifa, but she did respond to her question. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. The more time I have to spend on this, the faster it'll get done. After all, repetition is everything, right?" She ended the sequence, turned around, and started all over in the other direction. "I'll try picking up the pace by about two seconds tomorrow, see if I've actually learned anything."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart smiles "Just go until you feel the exertion, you can go just a bit beyond it. When you repeat that pace you'll realize soon that you're not getting as tired anymore. That's the trick, if you don't exert yourself your body won't understand that it needs to give you a little more."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded, still working on the sequence anyway. Moments later, she'd finished up, turned around, and started a third set. Aerith had worked up a sweat by this point, but she wasn't quite hurting yet. No, that'd come much later.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart smiles and shakes her head. "What time is it anyway." she hmms, and turns around to find a clock, going back toward the beds. "Gee, you really couldn't sleep huh, what's on your mind?"

Aerith has posed:
The flower girl continued working the sequence, her features a mask of focus. "It's nothing. Just felt something strange yesterday. Can't quite put my finger on it." She threw another straight punch, putting her weight into it. "Don't know what it is yet, so don't worry about it."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart nods, sitting on the side of the bed "Lots of things going on recently. We had company most of the day, I met Deidra ont he way back here too, going to help her with shopping. Can't really ask guys to get girl stuff huh?"

Aerith has posed:
Aerith giggled. "Not in general, no!" She finished the routine for the third time, and by then, twenty minutes had come and gone. Maybe it was time to start working on her actual weapon techniques. With that, she walked over to her staff in the right side of the room and snatched it from its position against the wall. "So is this place sufficient enough for a good location?"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart nods. "I'd say its a great building, its in great shape and only needs furnishing and wiring. Most of the expenses are paid too, so next part will be to shop for those furnitures. Its not normal shops anyway, its specialized for stuff like bar counters."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith smiled and assumed a fighting stance, one end of the staff pointed just below head level. "Well, good luck getting those, I'll be doing this most of the day." With the staff held in an overhand grip, she started an eight-strike patten, two to the head, two to the head, two to the body, two to the knees, and two to the ankles, with a forward thrust at the end. Turn the other way, repeat. Apparently she'd been watching someone or something, because this was different than her self-taught swings...

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart noticed that too "Looks like you got some tips from somewhere, or did you just figure it out by watching me?" She wonders, getting up and moving to the small kitchen to ready something to drink. She can't sleep anyway, might as well ready some tea.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith shook her head. "I've never seen you do any of this..." She repeated the pattern a fourth time. "I saw someone else doing it and I figured I could learn a thing or two. So... now I'm doing it myself." After finishing the sequence for the fifth time, she immediately moved on to defensive actions. "So I think I should be able to make something of this if I work enough at it."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart smiles "Of course, that's the whole point of training. The worse part is not doing it, its being diligent about training it." Soon the smell of the tea she brought with her is filling the room. "Not everyone has the patience to sit through it, there's no shortcuts or immediate results.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded and stopped for a moment. "Something else I learned that I might be able to use..." She held the staff in the same grip... only this time she started to twirl the weapon, from one side to the other in a figure-eight. Of course, she started off slow, since she'd just seen the move the other day, but even she could understand the applications for it. "How many times do you think I could hit someone in the head with this if I moved fast enough?"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart grins "Not that many times, sadly. Think about it, when you will actually hit, your staff will meet resistance. If the hit is clean, it might stop even, if its glancing it will only slow down, thus not do alot of damage. Its a blunt weapon, a slash weapon might slice through or down faster, but not a staff."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded. "The thing about Heartless is... they tend to not really have much resistance. At least, not the little guys. I could use this to fend a bunch of them off." She started to pick up the pace, her arms now used to the movement. "Besides, if I ever end up in a fight with this, I'll only go for glancing blows anyways. This is more to fend off attacks than anything else, I think."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart hmms "Then you might want to focus more on strong, sweeping hits than small flurry. A flurry kinda would need them to all line up so you keep attacking at the same place over and over, otherwise if you need to change the angle you'll lose speed and precision." She moves toward you, and makes a roundkick at the chest level "Something like that could kick off a few at the same time. If I do this instead..." She lifts a leg up, standing on her other leg straight up, and starts kicking several time in the same spot "This would only be good, for example, if they were all pouring out of a small space like a door. Different moves for different situations."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded and twirled her weapon faster now, the metal rod whistling three inches past her ears. Her staff was a blur of motion now. "I get what you're saying. So what I'd have to do is something like..." She quickly transitioned from the spinning to a wide forward step, turning her back for a split second before coming around full-bore with the weapon in a wide forward arc. "...This?"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart grins and nods. "That's it. I told you, the basic is all about weight shifting, and you're starting to understand and apply it alot better now. You need to train the motion to increase its speed and get your muscles to remember the movement, but otherwise that's how it works. Even improvising moves that you never practiced can be good though."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith sighed and wrapped her staff around her right shoulder twice before walking over toward the wall she'd gotten it from. "Well, I guess that means I have a lot of work to do." She made her way toward Tifa. "Got any more of that tea? It's time for a break, I think."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart smiles. "Of course, its ready right now~" She moves back to the kitchen, readying two cups of the tea. It just finished heating up, so it's perfect. "I didn't bring honey with me though, but its not so bad like this either." She offers Aerith the cup.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded and took the cup, sipping gratefully from it. "So how do you think I'm doing? I mean if I work on this all day, I can really pick it up, right?"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart smiles. "You'd tire your muscles quickly if you trained all day, but every day will do good. It takes a few weeks of good conditionning to get a decent level, and then you keep honing and pushing it further, training more complicated moves once your body is able to follow that you picture in your mind." She sips on her tea, elbows on the counter.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith chuckled. "Well I'm picturing a lot right now. I won't bother telling you about it, I'll show you once I get it just right. Need the moves first, then the actual concept..." She shook her head. "It's Cetra stuff, you wouldn't understand." And that was that. To be honest, She honestly believed that Tifa wouldn't get that much out of a full explanation.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart tilts her head a bit at that, but nods "I guess I wouldn't know, I'm just a common human after all, hm?" Not that there's anything wrong with that either, she worked hard to get where she is right now.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith giggled. "For a common human, you can do some pretty amazing things." She took another sip. "Besides, I'm only half-Cetra. I have no idea who my dad is... mom didn't mention it, and I was too young to remember." She lowered her head for a brief moment, brows in a frown and eyes tilted upward somewhat with thought. "When we get our world back... I'll definitely have to look into it."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart smiles "I didn't mean it that way, I'm not feeling bad for being simply 'normal'. In fact I'm probably only normal as far as physically speaking. Outside of that, I'm probably not so normal or common in most people's eyes." She nods "I'm not sure we'll ever see our world as it was before, but bits and pieces of it are thrown over many places around here, so we might still find clues.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith sighed as she leaned up against the left-side wall, taking another drink from her tea cup. "So what you're saying is, I can only take so much punishment each day before I have to wind it down, is that right? How long do you think that is? I heard you say an hour, but... I think I can go longer."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart smiles. "It wouldn't help you, you might tear or damage the muscles instead, and then you'd be a few days without training, which is much worse if you look at the big picture. I suggest an hour, but a little more doesn't hurt, but a not a whole day either."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith gave another smile. "You sure know a lot about this... which reminds me." Cue another sip of the tea here. "What was your master like, anyways? You never really told me about him."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart hmms "Well he was a good man. He was trong, but he never used that strenght unjustly either. He was a wanderer, he never spent alot of time in a place, he usually would find a place to rest at, find a disciple to stay in their house for a while, train them for a few weeks and then leave again for other places. That's how he trained over 140 disciples around the world. Of course, not all of them are diligent, strong or serious about it either."

Valencia has posed:
Skating through Manhattan, hovering just a bit off the ground is Valencia as she passes by several people, some of them falling down reflexively as she nears as she calls back, "Apologies! Pardon me, sincerest apologies!" as she looks around and stops, hovering perhaps six inches off the ground as she sits in the air and says, "...Well that's not good. I'm probably lost..." as some people look around at her, a few giving her strange looks as a police officer approaches her and says, "Pardon me, miss. Could you refrain from causing a ruckus like you are? We don't need unnecessary commotion, and you seem reasonable enough... Whatever you're doing." before Valencia nods and says, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm trying to find a... I suppose a friend, you could say. It's complicated, and I'd rather not involve unnecessary parties. I hope you understand." before the cop raises an eyebrow and says, "Oh really? Miss, I'm an officer of the law. You can trust me, unless you have something to hide..."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith moved from her wall and peered outside the window, having heard something a few moments earlier. She looked down and saw a commotion on the street. "Hey Tifa... take a look at this."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart hmms, moving over to the window to check what Aerith is calling her over for. She tilts her head. Well, a floating girl, that's something else. But among Gargoyles and other things... not crazy, but might be for this town. "Wonder what that is all about. Wanna go check?" Not like they are going to stay inside the whole day anyway.

Valencia has posed:
"...I wouldn't want to endanger you." Valencia says, looking a bit defensive, "Really. She's... Well, a heartless now. I'm trying to put her out of her misery, and I heard that an odd heartless appeared here recently." the cop frowns and says, "You're actually trying to find one of them, hm? Miss, I admire your devotion to your friend but I can't let you do that. She might as well be dead and gone, and there's no way to bring someone back from that kind of a transformation." Valencia starts to look sad and says, "I know, but... It's my fault she's like this. I need to take responsibility for this, someone has to."

Aerith has posed:
Too bad they couldn't hear what they were saying... but maybe this was a good thing. Maybe all they needed to do was stay up here and...

The back of her neck tingled. The whisper buzzed in her ears. She shook her head to clear it, but it persisted. Right, bad idea. Whatever you say. "We need to get down there. Something's not right." She made her way toward the door, assuming Tifa would follow. "If nothing else, this'll get us out of the room."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart nods and goes down after Aerith "I'm fine with that." She hops down the stairs toward the street, moving toward the police and the girl, but staying a few steps away, police officers usuall'y don't like it when people get into their stuff, and she doesn't know what's going on just yet.

Valencia has posed:
"Miss, please. I can't allow you to pursue something like this." the cop says, before Valencia looks up at a nearby figure on a roof that looks... Something like a crouched neoshadow in robes, staring with yellow eyes and claws out as it dances about jerking around as several powerwilds jump out of the shadows and climb down the roof towards the civilians, "There!" Valencia says as she points up to the robed heartless, "That's her!" she says before it turns and disappears into a dark portal as she reaches out and says, "No!" before skating off towards the incoming powerwilds as she draws her rapier and says, "...Got to make sure nobody gets hurt." and readies herself.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith's senses go on total overdrive as they head down the elevator. "I thought so, they're coming. Just outside, down a couple of buildings." She shook her head to clear the voices, but they continued to pester her. "We need to get them taken care of!" Elevator stopped at ground level, and Aerith sprinted her way out of the hotel, hopefully with Tifa behind her, all the materia in her staff glowing before she hit the sidewalk.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart was behind Aerith the entire time, no worries there. When she sees the girl sprinting toward the hearltess though, she sees there's trouble brewing. She tightens her gloves, a pure reflex before she enters battle, even as she's running after the girl "Right, let's do this Aerith."

Valencia has posed:
The powerwilds screech and jump as they fly towards Aerith, Valencia, and Tifa scratching at them rapidly while others attempt to cling onto them and bite them, using their weight to push them down as well.

Aerith has posed:
All that training over the past few days must have paid off, because Aerith rolled backward just as the thing landed. She then proceeded to step forward and smash her staff against the side of the strange new Heartless's head in an attempt to make it take a few steps back, just before smashing it yet again in combination.

Valencia has posed:
Slashing her rapier at the heartless twice, before she stabs rapidly at them with her sword and starlight blades, Valencia glares and says, "Thank you for the help. Are either of you aware of how to locate a specific heartless? I've been looking for one for some time..."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart is very dodgy by nature already, so when the first heartless lunges at her, she jumps over it, foot landing on its head, and using it as a springboard to jump over head of the small group... just enough to land behind them, and send out a strong kick, showing Aerith what she meant earlier about fighting groups, as she bats several of them with a single, powerful sweet kick.

Valencia has posed:
The powerwilds jump out of the way of Aerith's staff, but are stabbed by Valencia's sword and smashed by Tifa's kicks. They jump about, screeching angrily before charging the three women, sliding around and flipping as they try to backflip-kick and slide-tackle them.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith gritted her teeth as one of them delivered a clean hit, forcing her to stumble backward. Moments later, she regained her footing, shook her head and decided to try something different... Her eyes narrowed as the added noise in her head cleared for a brief moment. She drew in the energy around her before pointing her right hand, palm out, toward the nearest group of Heartless. The next moment, a sphere of flames shot forward, followed by two more as she tried to solve the problem with explosives.

Because explosives solve everything.

Valencia has posed:
"Nngh..." Valencia says as she's hit by the flip-kicks, but parries the tackles though not without soaking some of the force. She then sheathes her rapier as she says, "Fine." as she gestures, while a whirlwind of mechanical parts appears and forms into a spider automaton with a scorpion's tail, "Open fire!" she says, as the automaton fires a salvo of fire magic into the crowd of powerwilds before she holds her hands together as a sphere of gravity magic appears in it, then throws it out as it shrinks into nothingness, before a 2D-looking disc of pure black appears as she says, "This worked last time, and it -will- work again!"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart isn't much on the magic side, but her physical prowess certainly makes up for it easily. The way she kicks and punches the monkey-heartless out of the way, she's not easily intimidated by their attacks. She blocks the first attack, and grabs the incoming monkey's foot, using it as a club to slam it into the others following, rapidly reducing their numbers with sheer strenght. She's certainly not scared of small fries like these, even in numbers.

Valencia has posed:
As the rest of the powerwilds fall to the combined efforts of Aerith and Tifa, whilst evading Valencia's latest attack, the robed heartless appears nearby once more before giving a jittery look of what almost seems to be anger then disappearing. Panting, Valencia drops to the ground and says, "Couldn't... Catch her..." looking somewhat saddened and tired.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith's senses lit up again, pointing to somewhere directly behind her and to the left. She glanced over her shoulder... only to find no one. Her eyes narrowed as she turned back toward the woman who they'd just assisted. "Hey... who are you talking about?"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart cleans up the last heartless, as they al dissipate into a black mist. Its never pleasant to watch, even if its what they need to do. She shakes her head "Not even a warm up." She moves back toward Aerith and the girl, checking on them. Noone seems majorly hurt at least.

Valencia has posed:
"...Someone I owe a lot to." Valencia says, "The one who destroyed my world out of jealousy. Of me." She then looks up and says, "The last thing she asked me was..." before she looks away and says, "...To help her. She was scared, right before they consumed her she understood what she was doing for a few seconds... and I can't leave her like this."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith shook her head. "And so she did the one thing that should never be done, only to realize her mistake at the end and pay for it..." She sighed. "So then, do you think she's the one behind this attack?" Because another one was coming, a bigger one. This wasn't it. And the itch at the back of her mind persisted... making her grip her staff just a bit tighter.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart blinks a bit at the story "That's harsh... I'm sorry you have to go through this. I bet alot of people we know are also heartless now, devoured by them." She sighs, and looks to Aerith. "You alright?"

Valencia has posed:
"Yes. She just wanted to one-up me, it was a rivalry even if she let it turn to malice in the end." Valencia says, "I know what she looks like... Robed, somewhat humanoid and clawed with yellow eyes. If darkness is all that's left of her... Her jealousy and malice is probably what is driving what she's become." before what looks like a robed neoshadow appears out of a portal and lets out a chittering screech as it dances around the three women. Looking around at the heartless, Valencia gives a sorrowful look and says, "...I'm sorry. This is all I can do." as she draws her rapier and takes up a fighting stance.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith sighed as she whirled her staff into a fighting stance. She knew she didn't have much in the way of actually hitting something with it, but she'd try. "That's the one you're talking about? Certainly looks human enough, but if this is what happens when the Heartless eat you, I'd rather not have it happen to me." With that, she steeled herself for a fight.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart tightens her gloves again as the main one comes back to take up where its drones failed "Well, I want to beleive that if there's anything good left in here somewhere, then there is a way to draw the light out, the same as letting darkness consume us, the light can do the same." At least its what she believes "But first we might have to tame it down... but if anyone's words can get through, that'd be yours, right?" She takes her fighting stance.

Valencia has posed:
The heartless chitters and growls at Valencia as it throws a series of dark bolts at her. Valencia looks at the heartless and is hit with the bolts as her vision clouds before saying, "Gina! It's me! Come on, your classmate remember?.. Your rival! Not some bully or someone who's stepping on you, a -friend-! I know you might not see me that way, but you've always pushed me to do my best, and I owe you for that!" as she holds up her rapier as light swirls around it, before shards of light fly out towards the heartless, "...Come on..." she says hopefully.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith evaded what was left of the bolts and immediately assumed the support role. She wasn't about to interfere that much in this, but she wouldn't let this woman they barely knew die. All three women were surrounded with auras of blue...

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart nods as she jumps in to open up the attack as well. She knows heartless have almost no conscience, but there's the fact that its noone she knows that are underneath... its hard to get through to someone's conscience when you don't know what to say. She always took most of the heartless for fodder for darkness as a result...

But this was different. Maybe just knocking enough sense into that thing could wake it back up to its humanity. Well, she wants to believe in that. For now, time to attack.

She rushes forward and brings down the pummeling on the robed heartless.

Valencia has posed:
The heartless disappears into the darkness and reappears off to the side, dodging the bursts of light. It cringes and raises its robe which seems to be fairly hard when Tifa strikes at it taking a bit of damage, but not -too- much. "Please... Come on!" Valencia says, "It's my fault that you looked so bad, I should have thought about the people who I was overshadowing! The academy was never about technology, it was about sorcery and magic!" she then surrounds herself in light both around her body and her feet, before gravity magic appears around her hand as the gravity seems to reduce around the robed heartless, "You're better than this! You asked me to help you, but I can't help you unless you let me!" she says. The heartless then wordlessly glares at her as it unleashes a vortex of arcane energy at the three women.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith attempts to jump out of the way, only to find herself knocked several feet backward by a spiral of darkness. She gets to her feet and breaks out the healing magic, one of her materia glowing fiercely as a soothing aura envelops everyone.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart gets blown off by the sudden dark vortex, even as she was still in range after the last attack. She gets pushed back, and tossed into a nearby bench, crashing through it. She grrs, rolling on herself back to her feet "That wasn't nice now, listen to your friend already!" She jumps in for the next attack, preserving her energies for something big.

Valencia has posed:
The twister strikes Valencia just barely, as she weathers the storm as it glances off her starlight aura. "Come on! Look at me, look at what you're doing! Look at the people around you, do you really want to do this?!" she says as she starts striking at the arcanist with her rapier, hitting it rapidly alongside various strikes of starlight, "Come back! It's not too late!" she says.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith was starting to think differently about that as she resumed her duties, casting another protective aura around her and her friends. She had this thing figured out now... and she'd capitalize on it. An emerald wreath of light surrounded the three of them, and hopefully any other attacks would be somewhat less effective.

Valencia has posed:
The heartless seems to take a few steps back as it cries out and gestures as gravity magic surrounds its hands. It then slams them together as an absolutely massive gravity sphere appears amongst the fighters. The force is absolutely crushing, and it's not entirely certain whether or not the party will be able to resist.

Valencia has posed:
Valencia strains against the force pressing down on her as she says, "Please... Stop this!" with a desperate look on her face, "I'm trying to help you! This is what you asked for!" before she lands on the ground, her float magic being too hard to keep up as she drops to one knee and says, "Please... I didn't mean to do this. I didn't mean to push you this far!" before she gathers magical power to herself as she inhales and exhales slowly as she says, "...I know what to do." as she seems to be charging something up.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith is weighed down by the sheer force of the attack, so much so that part of her is grateful she put that ward up in time. Right, now it was time to re-think this whole strategy. She wasn't doing too well at the moment, and while the others had gotten away fine, she hadn't. Maybe it was time to start teaching her how to be nice the hard way.

Aerith prepared an awful big healing spell to get her back into shape. First things first, after all.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart isn't very good when it comes to magic, but fortunatly she had the help of Aerith there, with her shield. The gravity attack start pushing her down, but she manages to stay standing, in fact she manages to push through the enormous magical well, and stay standing. Well that certainly could have been alot worse.

She grits her teeth a bit as she moves back up, readying a set of kicks, aiming to tenderize it a bit more. It doesn't seem the words are reaching, but can't let themselves be beaten up either.

Valencia has posed:
As Valencia slowly advances towards the heartless, astrological symbols begin to appear around her. The heartless fires off several shots, which she steps away from and even in a few cases soaks without flinching. Finally, all twelve zodiacal signs appear around her as she closes her eyes and says, "...Destiny lies in my hands." then opens her eyes and shouts, "GALAXY STOP!" as the heartless seems to freeze up in mid-claw as she hugs the heartless and says, "...I'm here. Come back to me... Please. You're the only person left from my world." as a light seems to emanate from her. Suddenly, the heartless starts twitching in a frozen position before it lets out a -massive- screech and breaks back, pushing Valencia away and starts running away as it disappears into a dark portal. Valencia then collapses to her knees and says, "...Why?" as she starts crying saying, "...I tried. I did everything I could. WHY DIDN'T SHE ANSWER?!"

Aerith has posed:
Aerith sighed as the Heartless retreated. She wasn't even sure what to say, if anything at all. This woman was in such pain, and yet she stood there, uncertain of what to do.

After a moment of indecision though, she simply walked over, knelt next to her, and gave her a hug. No words, no condolences, just a hug. It might not even solve anything, but it was all Aerith could think of.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart phews as the heartless disapears, but leaves the new friend in tears. "Well, she's not dead, so keep hope, its not over until she vanishes, don't you think?"

Valencia has posed:
"...I couldn't stop her." Valencia says quietly, "I couldn't stop her then, and I couldn't stop her now. I need to be able to do more. I need to learn more about heartless, know everything about them. I need to, otherwise I won't be able to bring her back. She's the last person I know from my world, and... I-I drove her to this. If it weren't for me, she would have been happy. She would have had been the top of the class, the one that had everybody's attention." she then pauses before getting up slowly and saying, "But... What can I do? I tried to reach out to her, I tried to bring her back. What more can I do?" before she wipes her tears away as she says, "But... She ran. She didn't fight back, she -ran-! She was scared of something, she felt me trying to get through to her! She would have just clawed me if there was nothing of her left!"

Aerith has posed:
Aerith didn't want to tell her that she ran because the light would have melted away the shadow she had become... so she simply took a few steps back as the woman continued to speak. Heartless... were not so easy to bring back. In fact, one might say it was impossible. Still if this woman had hope, who was the flower girl to take it away from her? No, let her have hope. Let it drive her. Let it teach her about the Heartless, and thus teach her the truth that way.

Better she find out herself than from someone else.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart rather keep hope, simply, its when you give it up that its truly all over. She scratches her head, looking over to Aerith. She can't do much more either.

Valencia has posed:
"...I should probably talk to that boy about that job I was offered." Valencia says, "He said that they were studying heartless. Maybe they have information I can use!" she says, her demeanor returning to a happier state.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded, giving her a genuine smile. "Well if you're going to leave, at least give us your name so we can see if we can't help."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart nods. "You mean the Shard Seekers, or the Detective Angency?" She worked with both, she knows about them.

Valencia has posed:
"Valencia diChiaroscuro." Valencia says, "Sorceress, Mage, and Scientist." before she shakes her head than says, "...No. It was..." Shi-... ShinRa? The boy was wearing a suit, he asked me a few questions about getting in and out of a digital world. I answered, and he seemed impressed. He also seemed strangely knowledgeable about power systems too."

Aerith has posed:
Ah, Shinra again. Seems they have their fingers in every pie, don't they? Aerith mentally shook that thought away. No, they weren't the real problem. And she couldn't rightly tell Valencia the danger of associating with them, could she? Not when there was so much else going on. "Well, I'm Aerith, and it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. If you want, you could rest in my hotel room for a bit until you're fully recovered enough to move on."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart doesn't like Shinra either, she doesn't know what they are up to recently. And that isn't a good thing usually, with Avalanche between pretty much scattered right now. "Yeah, you can come in and rest, it seems you only recently arrived in this place, better to take it easy."

Valencia has posed:
"Well, I haven't been here for long." Valencia says, "I've found some friends though, back in Traverse Town. They're called, 'VAKYRI'. Apparently they liked the idea of having a sorcerous scientist working with them. Or would that be a scientific sorceress? Either way. We met when I was trying to find a place to set up a lab, apparently we both found the same abandoned house. We cleared out the heartless in it, and we've been working together ever since." she says with a smile. She must recover, -very- quickly. Before she takes a step and says, "Ow!" as she grasps her leg and says, "...I should probably avoid walking." as she lifts a few inches off the ground and says, "Much better. I try to make sure I don't use this all the time so my legs don't get too weak, but no sense in walking on an injured leg!" as she slowly follows Tifa and Aerith.

Aerith has posed:
So this wasn't just magic, but technology. Aerith wondered if Valencia would be a better fit with the bigwig of this city than with Shinra. David Xanatos seemed to know quite a bit, but it appeared she had her obligations already. "So who exactly were you talking about? I mean, she had to be more than just a rival, more than just a school friend or what have you." She made her way into the hotel, ignored the look from the receptionists, and headed for the elevators.

Valencia has posed:
"Well..." Valencia says, "I feel responsible for her fall. I feel like I ruined her life by constantly one-upping her. Who knows what her friends or family were demanding from her because of my achievements? For all I know, she could have been abused because one of her parents was angry with her. And... She's the only other survivor of my world. I feel like she's the only one I could really relate to about all the things that happened. Nobody really quite understands the sights I've seen or the people I've known, even if they lost their worlds too. Shared tragedy forges a deep connection, or at least that's how I feel."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart sighs a bit as she listens to that. Jealousy, its never pretty. But there can always ben something deeper underneath it too, the human psyche is something else after all. She moves up the stairs to her room, leading the floating girl "Nice trick, using magic for floating." She doesn't have enough magical power to do that herself... well, nor the materia for it either.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith however, says it out loud. "Underneath Jealousy is admiration and love." She giggled. "Not that kind of love per se, though it sometimes can be." She pressed in the button for her floor, and as they went up, she glanced toward Valencia. "So then... how exactly do you do what you do? Because I find it very interesting."

Valencia has posed:
"Well, float is a fairly standard form of magic." Valencia says, "Some of the starlight energy I generate is through sorcery though. It's a sort of magic that not many people have but..." she then pauses before saying, "...You mean you thought that she might have-" then cuts off and blushes before she says, "I... I mean, I never thought of it like that. I was always more interested in the guys in my class than... Well, I don't know if I could... I mean-." she then cuts off, apparently mumbling to herself and looking -very- awkward."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart nods. "Some people are bad at showing their emotions and it come all out entirely wrong. Like how you see kids nagging each other, its usually because they like each other but they don't know how to show it without looking weird."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith giggled. "You're so cute when you blush, you know that?" She shook her head. "Relax, I didn't mean it that way. Maybe she just wanted to be like you so much that she became super-competitive over it, but in the end, her own decisions as to how to do it... led her to how she is now."

Valencia has posed:
"I... I think I understand." Valencia says, "I'm just not sure how to handle this. I want to think that I can bring her back but... Some part of me still thinks that I can't. I've never heard of someone returning from being a heartless, and... There's a first time for everything but I'm wondering if I was just grasping at straws earlier. And even if she loved me... In -that- way, I don't know if I could really return her love in the way she'd want. I'm just confused, this is a lot to take in. But I'll be able to figure this out in time!"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart nods. "Better to rest for now, no use exerting too much. No use fussing over things you can't change right now.

Aerith has posed:
Ding. Elevator stopped.

Aerith walked out with her two companions in tow, and just like that, she slid her card through the key reader. With a click and a turn of the knob, they were in the rather comfortable hotel room she'd managed to procure for her time in Manhattan. "Home sweet home... at least for now."

Valencia has posed:
"Well, this will be better than the beds I've tried to create." Valencia says, "I'm not that good at sorcery, really. Most of the things I've done recently have been slight modifications and repair, rather than anything big. I hear that great sorcerers can turn mice into men, or a turnip into a timebomb."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart phews. "Well that sounds like pretty strong magic indeed." She smiles and moves to the kitchen, readying a batch of tea. After the fighting, it'll be nice to kick back a bit.

Valencia has posed:
"Well, yes it is." Valencia says, "Legend has it that for every good sorcerer or sorceress, there's an evil one. I hope I count as one of the good ones..." before she walks over into the kitchen and smiles before saying, "...Hm. Are there any drinks that you like that you haven't been able to get around here?"

Aerith has posed:
Aerith headed toward one of the beds. "She's a barista. Drinks are her thing, and she's good at finding them." She placed a hand on her chin. "Speaking of which, she's got a bar she plans on opening in town."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart smiles "Yup, got the building picked and all. I already have a bar in goug, but we're branching out now." She hmms as she readies the tea, and brings two cups for the two other ladies in the room soon after "We like this tea."

Valencia has posed:
Looking at the tea, Valencia sips it and says, "This is quite good, actually. But in any event, I can perform minor material transmutations. That's why I asked if there was anything you couldn't find. First thing I did when I arrived here was turn some worn, moth-eaten curtains into good blankets in that abandoned house. It takes me longer, the more different the new form is. I... May be able to bake quickly, provided I have a recipe and the proper ingredients. It's just things that are closely related, honestly."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith yawned as she headed for the couch. "Well... I'm sure you guys have a lot of interesting things to talk about then, but I'm tired from earlier today." That, combined with all that fighting of course. "I'm gonna take a breather." She plopped on the couch, closed her eyes, and within three minutes, her breathing took on the qualities of napping.