Understanding

Understanding
Date of Scene:	11 January 2014
Location:	The Old Kingdom
Synopsis:	The path to change and progress begins with one small step, and Aerith takes the first step to changing the way she thinks about things. Of course, no great journey happens without help, and who better to guide her than Chita?
Cast of Characters:	Aerith Gainsborough, Chita
Tinyplot:	Topsy Turvy

---

Aerith has posed:
Frankly, it was the most eye-opening time she'd ever had.

Perhaps for both of them, but she wouldn't ask. Aerith was too busy adjusting her dress after settling several things straight, once and for all. But now her mind was full of questions that she hadn't even thought of asking before. She couldn't blame it on Mim's spell, either.

She didn't have the heart to blame it on the one that accused her of something she hadn't intended, but felt guilty of all the same.

Sitting there on the grass, she gave Chita a sidelong glance. Everything that happened between them changed with one incident, and she felt responsible. The worst part was that she couldn't undo what was done; what she'd had to do to keep him from falling. She couldn't unsee what she'd witnessed.

But it wasn't a thing to talk about here. No, they had to discuss it with clearer heads.

Aerith smiled and got to her feet, dusting the grass off of her blue and white dress. "Time to go."

Chita has posed:
The Viera was, at the moment, simply laying there on the ground quietly 'staring' up at the sky. Chocobo off wandering to nibble at some things here and there and play around when nothing was going on that required him, instead, it just left the two alone. Might even be hard to assume her awake, period, given she always had that blindfold on and her breathing was relaxed enough at the moment.

When Aerith moved to stand a near flicked but no movement otherwise, until the remark came. "Go? Where? Did you have somewhere pressing to be?"

Moving to stand up as well, a faint rip could be heard from Chita's shirt, ripping from the tightness that came with now having breasts, a couple of buttons popping off. "Tch... let me put something else on." And with that, she looked thoughtful before picking some clothing out of the air that she used to wear. "Haven't worn these in so long... will feel strange actually wearing them again." The outfit pulled out was actually a rather frilly black lace dress that she had worn forever and a day ago in the party after the fire crystal stuff in Fluorgis. Long, almost gothic, but now that she properly had breasts and not just a bra stuffed to look like such, it fit rather well. Funny that, really.

Not embarrassed in the least to get changed there, Senra walked in front of the camera long enough to peck a fat bug out of the grass that Chita was changed by the time visible again. The old clothes were thought about briefly before being thrown aside. Normal Chita would never just get rid of something like that, but at the moment, didn't seem to care in the least about the waste, or any memories attached to such. No sentimentality whatsoever.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith started to walk away, and by the time she was done, the flower girl turned to look over her right shoulder. "We're going home, of course," she called out to the Judgebunny. "You do want to get out of this, right? Well come on, and bring handsome there with you."

Chita has posed:
"...I have no home. Hades made certain of that. And I sure as hell have no intention of... oh right, not a male anymore for whatever reason thanks to this curse or magic or whatever it is. ... sure, why not. I have no business here and I'll beat an answer out of Seith some point later. Or Mim, or whoever the hell you said it was." And with that, Chita gave a little whistle and Senra trotted over. Hopping up onto Senra and hiking up the dress in a very unladylike-manner, the Chocobo trots over towards Aerith and waits for her to hop up.

No gentlemanly hand up from Chita. As far as she was concerned, it was already generous enough to give her a ride in the first place.

Aerith has posed:
Who said Aerith needed one? She simply hopped up as well, just behind Chita. While it would have been nice, she could take care of herself just fine. "Right, to the portal. Maybe then we can clear our heads." Aerith pointed in the direction of the exit to the Old Kingdom. "Onward!"

Chita has posed:
"Where to, idiot? I'm blind, in case you've forgotten. Again." comes a rather nasty remark. She'd felt Aerith's arm move, and thus likely point, but had no idea just where.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith chuckled. "To the east." She could forgive Chita just this once. After all, she wasn't herself. "We should see the portal in the next few minutes if we just keep heading back where we came from."

Chita has posed:
"..." Chita sat there quietly for a moment, as if hoping Aerith would realize what she said, then added, "You seem to fail to realize I have no idea which way is which. So let me save you the trouble of hurting your dense little head." Reaching behind her to feel around and find Aerith's left arm, she pulled it around her side and put the reign to the Chocobo in it, as if saying just guide the Chocobo yourself.

Aerith has posed:
Lacking tact, no real sense of propriety... Yes, they needed to get out of here before it got worse. Aerith quietly took the reins and guided the chocobo where he needed to go. At least Senra didn't judge.

On that note, they definitely needed to get a hold of Mad Madam Mim and end this before something really went wrong...

Within the space of five minutes, Aerith turned Senra toward the portal... and simply guided him through. If this worked for herself and Rhiannon, it would work for Chita as well. Indeed, she felt her mind clear of any strange impulses the moment they emerged on the other side...

Chita has posed:
Not really thinking about much other than what she wanted to do once she got back to Fluorgis, among such ideas was to find whatever Viera had hired that Ninja to find and capture them and beat the living piss out of them. And possibly Hades as well. ... now that she thought about it, she could probably get Hades to agree to give everything back if she just killed Mercade. Seemingly no issue with it now.

Just as she thought about that, however, they hopped through the portal and everything seemed to hit Chita again all at once. The effects of Hades' curse, which had seemingly been temporarily halted by Mim's curse, the shift into being a female, now reversed, their morality being stripped away and...

Remembering exactly who he had upset, what he'd said, done and... "I'm sorry." came a soft mumble, voice soft, more familiar than it was as he leaned forward, one hand on his chest as if it hurt quite a bit. But from what, he didn't say. The dress he was wearing did start to slacken, though, looking like it might simply fall off him the second he wasn't sitting on it.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded. "I've already forgiven you. The moment that spell went off, I knew something was wrong. Ignored it to the heavens and back, but once I left, I figured it was no good to have it on forever." She glanced toward Chita for a moment. "That doesn't mean though that it wasn't interesting, at least for me. Sometimes, I forget I have that side of me."

Aerith wasn't timid at all about reaching a hand toward one of Chita's ears and rubbing it. "Now we can talk, seriously." She stopped Senra and slid off of his back. "You are going to explain to me how to fix this whole thing I've been doing to you." She turned away from him for a moment. "I don't like it at all, and it wasn't my intention."

Chita has posed:
"Really?" he asked softly, shivering a bit at the ear rubbing before reaching up to say, "Please stop that. As nice as it is, I am not quite sure how to compare that if I was to remark it similarly on a hume." The embarrassment of such came back briefly before he answered the question simply enough. "You can't fix it, it is simply... how I feel on the matter. Can you not just accept that? I am not upset with you, even if I have long since felt rather uncomfortable."

Even if everything was feeling rather overwhelming at the moment as he thought about everything that went on while under the effects of the curse. He was so violent... so angry. Some things still seemed blank too, as if he had done it without even thinking about it. "I cannot just run away from whatever is causing the effects on everyone in that land Aerith... I have to go back in. I have to find a way to stop it and save everyone."

Yup, he's back to normal.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith glanced back at him, her brows furrowed. "I agree that it's how you feel. The problem is, it really is unacceptable, Chita. The reason you feel this way is because I treated you like that, and I had no idea of it." She grimaced. "There's no telling how many others I've treated like that... so it's time to squash this, once and for all." She put her hands on her hips. "So let's squash it."

Chita has posed:
"..."

Silence lingered for a moment only to say, "You're doing it right now." He didn't turn to look towards Aerith as he said that. Instead, he just shook his head a bit and said, "It is a part of who you are, and I am not going to try and change you. I just wish you could realize that not everyone enjoys being talked to like they're a child who needs to wipe their cheek because food is on it. You don't have to mother everyone Aerith, especially me. Now you're trying to make up for it by 'fixing' whatever you did that was wrong instead of just going on your way. Stop trying to fix it and just... stop."

So awkward trying to talk about this.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith's eyes widened. "You... really think I was talking you down?" She took a step back. "I was just telling you that I wanted to change myself, and I needed help, and you took it like..." She frowned. Not happy. "There's no way, then."

Chita has posed:
With Aerith hopping off Senra and stepping back, Chita went to move off only to make a rather annoyed sound as the dress simply fell off. "Sometimes I hate this curse." Quickly pulling out a pair of mens clothing to hop into, he winds up simply standing there shirtless as he fixes the pants and says, "It is not that you are talking down to me... at the moment. You are still treating me like a child however. 'Let's squash it.', you trying to 'make it right'. Just stop, alright? The only reason it bothers me is because I'm tired of feeling helpless. Everything I have done lately ultimately will have the same effect in the end, if I succeed. Besides helping others... I will become stronger. I hate having to rely on others, having to feel like I NEED others to protect me. You don't have to make it up to me Aerith, or anyone else. We're both fully grown members of our kind. Even if I am ultimately being childish about it all."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith gave a nod. He was definitely acting childish about it. No question. "So this is you telling me to leave you alone for an undetermined amount of time, until whatever it is you're doing is done." She was starting to not care if she was assuming. "Tell me if I'm wrong."

Chita has posed:
Giving a small sigh, Chita moved towards where Aerith was and stopped a bit further away than he had intended. "No. This is me saying you don't have to fix anything. You don't have to do anything... I like you quite a bit Aerith, always have. You're sweet, you try to help others, you are intelligent, witty and you are generally a good being. It'd be nice, though, if I could feel like I'm accomplishing anything around you though, that I'm doing something with my own power... not just letting you take care of me. I know you're just trying to help, and I appreciate it... I truly do. And I'm sorry that I said something while under the effects of that... curse or whatever it was in the lands we just came from."

Reaching a hand out, he attempted to take hers, planning to use it to pull Aerith into a hug. "I never said anything before because I am bad at this. I do not explain myself well to others."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith tilted her head. "Well this is your chance to get it right. You certainly made it sound very, very bad at first, and it hurt." She folded her arms. No hugs yet. "I won't be so willing to forgive you if you do that again, so make yourself understood. It sounded like you wanted me gone, and now you say that you don't, while saying that I'm a burden. Explain to me how to best stop being one, and we'll be fine. And please, stop thinking this is for you... it's just as much for me."

Chita has posed:
"For you, is it? Are you really taking to hear something I said while I was not myself?" Honestly, he was rather irate about that, but couldn't hold it against her. Instead, he simply dropped down onto his knees and looked up at her, "I'm sorry I am being so irrational, but I do not think I could truly explain it right now because I don't really understand it myself. I like to think I do, but the more I try to explain it, even to myself, the less sense it makes. I don't want you gone... in fact, the opposite. I want to be able to protect you for once... to keep you safe. To be there for you and pay you back for everything. For saving me, for trying to help me so much... for staying around even if I have been a jerk. But the more I try, the more you go about trying to fix something with me instead. To keep me safe, or protect me from myself. ... does that make more sense?"

As he spoke, Chita just 'looked' up at her, hoping for some kind of favorable response. "I want to be a hero... your hero, if that is how it turns. I don't want to just be that one guy you help and he never gets to do anything to redeem himself for his time of weakness."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith paused for a moment, taking it all in.

There it was. Details, facts, actual paths to solutions. "There. Better. So you're not saying to sit there and do nothing... you're just saying that you'd like to stand on your own." No matter how difficult that was to achieve...

He'd refused to kill one of his best friends, and this was where it landed him. He'd gone against the de-facto leader of the Shadow Lords, and lost his sight for it. Almost his life. He'd been losing so much ground that he wanted at least some of it back.

"I would say something like 'I'll be there for you', but that's too cliche. I'd be angry at you, if you didn't make sense. And I would certainly not forgive you, if you weren't sitting here telling me you want to protect me."

Aerith grabbed his left arm and hauled him up to his feet. "Well get up, because I'm not a damsel in distress." She grinned. "I'm not one to stay back while others stand in front of me. I'm one to fight alongside them."

Chita has posed:
Listening to what she had to say, he stayed still let her speak only to feel himself grabbed suddenly and pulled up. Smiling a little, he took the opportunity to reach forward and put a hand on either side of her hips before leaning to press a kiss onto her cheek. "How about you be rash for once in your life and do something stupid so I can feel like I have finally been able to do something for you, hm? I really do l..."

Pausing before he finished what he said, he started to sound like he was going to change what he was saying before growling out an angry sound and saying, "Damned Hades' curse, preventing me from being deceptive. Went and ran my mouth... I really do like you quite a bit, Aerith. More than I am even certain why. I would venture to say I have a bit more affection for you than that, but I am still uncertain on that one. So let me do this... to show I am trying to do the right thing."

Bringing his hands together, he used his left hand to pull the ring off the ring finger of his right hand and offer it towards Aerith. It was the ring with the Judges symbol on it that he always wore. "This is me promising to try and not let my own feelings of inadequacy cause problems between us. And that... I want you around, Aerith. Truly... if I still had a home, I would ask you to stay there with me. But as I have no home, instead, this will have to do for now."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith glanced at the ring for a moment, wondering if this was a proposal of some sort. Maybe he had no idea of what was going on, really. But he'd almost said he loved her, right? And their time in that mixed-up spell had drudged up some things.

But that was just simmering underneath, waiting to happen. She'd had it confirmed when Chita began calling her out for missing the fact that he was blind. She had to remind herself (and her player) about that blindfold.

With that, she looked back at Chita and took the ring, placing it on her right ring finger. "Fine, it's a promise. Because really, it's been causing a lot of strain where there shouldn't be any." She was on the verge of venting to him just how frustrated he made her, but she stopped herself. Not the time.

"I don't have anything to give you, but... and I'm not sure how I'll do it..." she sighed. "...I'll let you lead, blind as you are."

Chita has posed:
"No... it's about time I trusted you and stopped trying to fight your judgment for whatever reason. I will go along with whatever you wish, be it go back in and try to end this... or not be reckless and let it play its' own course. And you can lead us, too, atop Senra. I do trust you, Aerith, even if I am rather pigheaded." Chuckling softly, though, he added, "And you do not have to give me anything. I'm the idiot here, right? The one acting childish and being grumpy because you keep pulling me away from getting hurt? This is me apologizing and trying to prove I meant it."

In an attempt to be playful, Chita tried to quickly pick Aerith up off her feet, given he was quite close to her, only to whistle for the Chocobo to come so he could place Aerith up onto it.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded. "Good." She let him sweep her off her feet, but didn't react, save for a smile. "Now then..." He placed her atop Senra and glanced toward the portal, eyes narrowed. "There's only one way to avoid being caught up in that spell. Accept yourself, every part of it. Good, bad, ugly. I know I'm flirty, I know I'm a trickster. I know perfectly well I have dirt on me. It's where I grew up." She glanced over toward Chita. "I'm not about to let those facts dictate who I am, but I'm not about to be afraid of them either."

Aerith smiled. "We're not going to be reckless about anything. We're not about to retreat, either. We're going back in there and we are putting our boots right into Mim's backside until she returns everyone to normal... regardless of who it is."

Chita has posed:
Hopping onto the Chocobo behind Aerith, he slipped his arms around her stomach to hold onto her before saying softly against her cheek, "I will try... but please do not hold it against me if something happens and I am not myself." then he whispered something with a grin on his face before saying, "Well then... let us go."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith chuckled. "Let's go, Senra!" She snapped the reins, and guided the chocobo forward again. "Our first order of business is simple... rally the troops!" With that, they dove into the spell again... hopefully for the last time.