closed 🌠 yellow flicker beat sparking up my heart

[starshower]

🧙 WHO: Tifa Lockhart & others
⚔️️ WHAT: July catch-all!
🕒 WHEN: Throughout the month
🗺️ WHERE: Wherever the threads happen
⚠️ WARNINGS: N/A

Some closed threads for the month! If you'd like to plot something with Tifa, please feel free to hit me up via PM or @ crystariums, or on the cr meme and I would be happy to do a starter ✨

Comments

eustace.

[starshower]

[Never one to shy away from a little bit of fun, especially when the days are hot and there's the promise of something to cool her down, Tifa's checking out the aptly named Cool Down Carnival on day one. She's not going to slip-n-slide, but the shaved ice and the iced drinks are what she goes for, careful to avoid the magical ones, to taste-test the different recipes.

Including the margarita being served for the Margaritaville Pair Challenge. The bartender in her is piqued, curious about how big a "giant schooner" really is. She's near the back of the crowd waiting in line to participate when she spots a familiar face nearby—or rather, a set of familiar ears sticking up over the heads of the others. She wastes no time in wandering up behind him, gently excusing herself as she has to push past some people and stops to bounce on the balls of her feet once she's found a place at his side.]

Pretty impressive, huh? [The fact that anyone can finish that is... a lot. At least there's a perk.] Looks like it takes two to do it.

[Is she implying? She might be implying.]

[flamekthunder]

[Eustace wasn't really one for large crowds like these, but since it was a festival of sorts it wouldn't hurt to pass through it briefly to take a look at what's happening.

Okay, that's a lie. His wolf familiar had been whining at him all morning because she was bored and he hadn't been paying as much attention to her lately and what a terrible master not taking his wolf out for walks or play games or anything fun!!!!!

...

Anyway, after all that she had run off on her own again, ditching him like always and leaving him to wander around. Having no plans to stay longer than necessary, Eustace managed to find his way to the giant crowd. He only stops briefly to see what's going on when he hears somewhat familiar footsteps approaching him and his suspicion is confirmed when she stops beside him.]

Only fools would try to do it.

[Totally ignoring.]

[starshower]

Yeah? I think it looks kinda fun. Should've done something like this at Seventh Heaven when business was slow.

[Would it have ended well? That's another story. Maybe not such a big drink, though...

Tifa's hands rest on her hips, and she rises up on her tiptoes to see what's going on. The pair that's up there right now are just finishing up theirs, but with only seconds left on the clock. The crowd is counting down—three, two one!—and just like that, they've lost, and only with a sip or two remaining at the bottom of the giant glass.

And that's when it happens: the host looks around the crowd and spots Tifa's head poking up from behind the audience, and Eustace's ears, too. He jabs a finger at the two of them.]

"How about you two? Come on up, give it a go!"

[The people around them are already nudging the two of them up towards the front, or trying to, chanting "DRINK! DRINK!" as they do, and Tifa spins around, surprised.]

Uh...!?

"Unless you think you'll looooose~! Or you're chickens!"

[flamekthunder]

[.....Sorry what. He first stares up at the host and then a hard stare at Tifa as if commanding her to refuse. Seriously this woman is nothing but trouble— And is this the second alcohol related incident with her???]

Pass.

[Just a curt response before he tries to turn away and break through the strangely determined crowd. Seeing his resistance only seems to bolster a few to try and get him to go up there, and there are some very large burly guys at the ready to "help" him up there unless Tifa can stop him first.]

barbara.

[starshower]

[It takes almost the full day for word to reach Tifa and for her to get out to the Land of Rot to help, so by the time she makes it to the farmlands, the sun has already begun to set beyond the horizon, spilling shades of red and orange across the sky. It's almost fitting for a fight against the undead, in an eerie way...

She's out of breath when she makes it to the edges of the farm where the fence encloses it on all sides, and the silence that meets her there is so loud that it rings in her ears. People are there, all around, but either this is a lull in the hoards of zombies—the calm before another storm, or she's missed it completely. It's hard to tell, but the silence does nothing to calm her nerves, or relax the goosebumps rising along the back of her neck.

Tifa wanders up to the nearest person—another woman she recognizes from her short stay in Celliwig, in the restaurant, and she's conscious in making herself known, footsteps purposefully heavy when she wanders up behind, not wanting to spook Barbara on the way.]

Are they gone?

[This is definitely the calm before another storm, but Tifa doesn't know any better.]

Why's everyone still here?

sorry for tagging in so late!!

[dragongrrl]

[Whenever there's a prblem that the farm needs help with, Barbara is always one to answer the call. A farm is something she knows and understands. And no community can survive without its farms--it's much more important to the town than the town is to it.

She looks around in the silence, and the heavy tread makes her spin around at once, but she relaxes when she sees it's Tifa.]

Don't know. [It's not safe. Surely the crops can wait until the undead have been exterminated?] You fight?

[She hears something from beyond the field and looks towards the darkening wilderness. Figures, not moving right, limbs swinging, gait unsteady--but their direction is all too purposeful.

Well, Tifa probably fights if she's here, so Barbara strides out to meet the threat.]

[starshower]

Yeah.

[Her gaze doesn't move from the horizon. Not until she sees movement through the corners of her eye. Shadows shifting in the distance and with it, the sound of shuffling breaking the silence that's hung over the farm for what feels like an eternity. She shifts her stance, brows wrinkling and eyes squinting to see through the oncoming darkness.

So this is why everyone wasn't leaving. Still plenty of fight left.]

Got any tips on how to take care of them?

[She's never had to fight undead before.]

[dragongrrl]

[Undead aren't a common sight around Deist or Dragon Roost, but Barbara's father taught her many things about monsters and how to fight them. The undead of her world had a particular weakness, so that seems like the first option.]

Fire.

[So saying, she steps forward, takes a deep breath, and exhales a gout of flame at the closest zombie...

...rather than falling to cinders as she expected, it lets out screech from hell and starts careening around wildly, like a torch with legs. Barbara squawks and hurries after it.]

Not fire!

klee.

[starshower]

[Tifa's spent most of the morning in the cafeteria serving up breakfast—an assortment of eggs, bacon, muffins, coffee, and the like—that she helped cook in house, that it's time for a break from all of that. She's still here to help, but with the number of people coming out here to assist with the efforts at the care centers, it isn't hard for her to move from one task to another.

She's found a local toy store not far from the hospital that's started a toy drive—mostly get well soon teddy bears for the kids who have fallen ill, but there are other fun things thrown into the mix as well. She finds herself wandering inside the store, into the middle of two aisles filled to the brim with stuffed animals. She's looking for a few to bring with her on her own to the children, but...]

Hmm. I don't know which ones to pick.

[She mutters it to herself under a finger pressed to her lips, before picking out a unicorn and holds it out to the girl in red standing near her.]

What do you think?

[fishblast]

[ though Klee has quite the explosive personality, it's nice to be able to lend a hand every once and a while instead of just destroying things. when she heard that people were needed to help out around the hospital, she'd jumped at the opportunity - she was great at holding things in her backpack for supply runs, and if the person really looked like they needed cheering up, maybe they could even hold Dodoco for a little while. that always made her feel better when she was sick.

throughout the morning, she's smelled the delicious scent of breakfast wafting through the air. she'd already eaten earlier, but it still makes her wonder what sort of goodies are around... maybe she can see if there are any left over once snack time rolls around, but that's for later! she still has work to do now, and that involves picking up a special order from the toy store. said work, however, is prone to some delay thanks to the distractions provided by the store - honestly, the volunteer coordinators should have forseen as much when sending a kid to complete a task like this. she'll do it, of course! just... not right away.

stuffed animals usually don't do much for Klee (Dodoco is the only stuffed friend she needs, of course!), but she'd be lying if she wasn't taken by how soft and fluffy some of them were. she's staring up at the shelves when she's addressed by Tifa, turning to focus on her. ]

I know! They're all so cute - I wanna give all of them a hug! [ but that's too many hugs, and she doesn't have the time, so she doesn't. maybe some other day. ] Hm... I like it, but I don't think it's fluffy enough.

[ clearly, she has an opinion! her eyes fall onto the sheep that's a couple of shelves higher than her, and she points. ] Like that one!

[starshower]

This guy? Not a bad choice at all.

[Tifa takes the sheep off the shelf and tests it out, hugging it against her cheek until half her face is buried in its floof. Then to the other cheek before holding it out between the two of them for a final appraisal.]

I think this one's the fluffiest one here.

[It's the first animal to be placed into her basket near her feet, and Tifa grabs a second for Klee should she want to test its fluffy levels for herself. The unicorn she'd been holding is also set down next to it, and the two of them look like they're about to be carried off on a grand adventure.]

I'm taking a bunch to the hospital for the kids, so whichever ones we pick out will get lots of hugs, at least. [Then Klee won't be responsible for all of them.] But I'm gonna need a couple more...

[Browsing now, Tifa wanders down the aisle a few steps to grab a bunny with floppy ears, and she turns to show Klee for her expert opinion.]

izzy.

[starshower]

[Tifa had heard about the training grounds as early as her arrival, but so many other things had taken up her time since then that she's only had the chance to visit it in passing, to check out the facilities but never use them. Not that she needed to—she's made a perfectly fine makeshift punching bag filled with sand for her room for the time being—but there's something about having a place dedicated to it that makes it a nice change of pace.

She's been working up a good sweat against a training dummy, using the occasional fire spell to practice her magic and spicing up her hits, which is something she can't do back at the inn, lest she want a room full of sand to clean up. How long it's been since she started, she has no idea, but even she has to take a break sometime to dab the beads of sweat from her brow with the towel she slings around her neck.

The training grounds aren't crowded, but they aren't empty either, and when she spots a girl nearby, she's a bit sheepish when she addresses her, wondering if she'd been hogging the dummy for too long.]

Sorry. Did you want to use this?

[notwearingthekeds]

[Izzy was, in fact, staring as Tifa worked on the dummy. Her reasons were definitely about watching a capable fighter throw strikes Izzy would never be able to do herself. And taking note how she interspersed magic with her strikes.]

[Definitely not distracted by the fact that Tifa looked really good while doing all this, and not startled when Tifa started talking to her.]

Oh, no. I use the ranged targets when I work on punching. I was just- watching someone who knows what their doing.

[Izzy had what training she could get from others, but they weren't experts on hand to hand. They just knew how to throw punches. This woman knew how to fight.]

[starshower]

[Well, that's a high compliment if she's ever heard one. She takes pride in her skill and trained hard to get to where she is, but it's still always nice when someone else takes notice of it, and it brings some extra colour to her already reddened face.]

It's just practice. Nothing special.

[Although something that the girl's said has her tilting her head, and brows knitting together ever so slightly.]

Ranged targets, though? You find that helps with punches?

[It seems a bit odd, but maybe she's missing something...]

[notwearingthekeds]

There are apparently a lot of monsters here, I think knowing how to punch them is definitely special.

[Izzy smirks, just a little, at the question. It seemed that the creativity of a child had its perks. Or at least her desire to overcome not being able to reach all the things she wanted to punch in the face. Izzy threw a quick jab at the dummy, too far for her to reach it normally.]

[But there was an audible sound of impact and the dummy chipped a little in a direct line to Izzy's punch.]

Magic is really fuckin' cool, isn't it?

lizzie.

[starshower]

[Tifa's stayed away from resetting the western wards within the Land of Rot, mostly because she doesn't know what it means to do so, and perhaps out of a little fear for screwing it up. She doesn't trust her magic to be completely reliable just yet. So, she puts her skills to better use in drawing the zombies away and keeping them away.

Things seem to be going fine now that she and the others know how to handle them. They've been able to force them into retreating to the edges of the wards, far enough that it will take them a long time to make it back, so Tifa seizes the moment to take a breath, slumping against a nearby tree that's so skinny it looks like it'll snap under her weight.]

Feels like I've been doing this forever... [Lizzie was one of the few familiar faces around, so of course she's stuck close to her.] I guess that's the problem with undead, huh? They've got nothing better to—

[She feels the ground shake under her feet. It's light at first and only noticeable because she'd been standing perfectly still, but it's sudden enough that it surprises her into straightening.]

... Did you feel that?

awww yeah

[warbun]

[Lizzie has had longer to learn how to use her magic (the kinetics stuff, anyway--blood magic is another story altogether), but really she uses it as a supplement to her fighting rather than a means of fighting itself. She uses it to make swinging her axe a bit lighter, which gives her speed she wouldn't ordinarily have. And sometimes flight to help close distances, although that skill does little for her here.

Fighting the zombies back and redirecting their attention has been tiring, especially as the encounter has drawn on, and Lizzie also takes advantage of the respite by setting her axe to the ground and leaning on it a bit.]

Gods, doesn't it. [She gives her still-new friend a wry smile, ready to respond to her with a pithy comment of her own, when the world shudders ever so slightly. The smile quickly shifts to a frown.]

I did.

[There's another shudder, large enough to get Lizzie to stagger, followed by a darkening of the sky. Lizzie whips around, seeing an impossibly large creature hurtling toward them.]

Shite! [Run!!]

[starshower]

[Tifa doesn't even see the creature at first—just the mass darkness that looms over them and only seems to get bigger the longer she stands there. The rumble has her already on edge, so the second she looks up and sees the giant maw of something coming down on them, she's ready to run, grabbing Lizzie by the wrist to keep them together.

They only barely make it out before it crashes into the ground, shattering the stoned streets. It barely misses Tifa's foot, and she can feel its breath on her when she screeches to a halt. Others are bolting, but that came in pretty close to the group of them that had stopped for a break, and she'd like to ask what the heck but—

It snaps its jaw at them and its entire body starts to wriggle, as if...]

Oh god. Did it... [She presses her hand to her stomach.] Did it get someone?

mitsuru.

[starshower]

[It had been a relief to find a familiar face again in Celliwig, and an even bigger one to hear that Mitsuru had been assigned as her partner for the job posting. Still not knowing a lot about this world, it becomes a little easier when it's with someone who can relate, even just a little bit. So of course Tifa wastes no time in heading back down into the lava chambers, although her steps become more cautious the further they go. The last time she was in here with someone, it had gone pitch black, so that's something she'd like to avoid this go around.

The room is hot when they finally reach the pools of magma, and Tifa can already feel the sweat starting to form along her brow, but she'll power through. She really needs the money.

Leaning over the edge to take a look at these pods the creature has apparently fallen behind, she peers back at Mitsuru, head cocked to the side.]

You ever meet a "slime" before? Don't think I have, so I have no idea what to expect.

[kirijo]

An enemy from my own world is referred to by the same name.

[ Mitsuru was likewise glad to find that she was working alongside someone familiar. She's only known Tifa for a short while, but they'd been able to connect over the shared experience of being recent arrivals. On top of that, Tifa gave Mitsuru the impression that she was more than capable of handling herself, which was very welcome considering the hazardous circumstances of the mission. Even from a solid few meters away, the heat thrown off by the lava pools was immense. ]

However, I don't expect this creature to be too similar. The slimes I've encountered are extremely susceptible to heat, and I doubt they'd do well in these circumstances.

[starshower]

That makes one of us, at least.

[She's got the advantage of at least knowing what one is, or perhaps what to (or not to) expect. She can't imagine there are too many ways to turn slime into an aggressive monster when threatened...

Tifa stops just short of one of the pools of lava, toes just brushing the edges of the floor. On the other end are the rocks that line the walls where the slime has apparently become trapped behind. To get there, the two of them will need to cross the small ledge of stone up against the wall.]

Make sure to watch your step once we get over there. The floor gets pretty narrow...

[With that, she offers Mitsuru a hand.]

Farm repair

[wherethewindtakesme]

[Gaius has trying to make himself useful. Teaching people to ride horses is fun, but he's not sure if he can turn that into an actual business. He doesn't mind working hard, since he's young enough and strong enough to be a big help.

He does see someone also there, maybe here for the same job? Or does she work here?]

Excuse me? Do you work here or are you here for helping out the farm today?

[starshower]

[Tifa's in the middle of lining up another piece of wood for the new fence when a voice is called out in her direction, and her concentration breaks, the plank falling loose from the spot she held it so firmly in.

She doesn't mind, of course. Helping to rebuild is what they're all here for, so she offers him a smile from over the top of what she's constructed so far and waves a hammer with her free hand.]

Just helping. Was here when those undead attacked, so figured I'd help after all that destruction.

[That she had a hand in causing, no less. They got rid of them, but she feels a little bad about the mess that she left behind. Her and Barbara had successfully taken out a handful of them at once at the cost of one of the many fenced off pens around the farm, so that's naturally where she's started.]

Need something?

[wherethewindtakesme]

Well, I'm here to help, but I wasn't sure where I should start, really...

[The first thing of note is this guy is tall. A little more than 6 feet. He's also got a build to him, which might come from the lengthy spear he's carrying.

At the same time, his face looks very young. If he's still growing, he's going to be one impressive looking adult.]

Did you need some help with the fence?

[starshower]

Anywhere, really.

[There's so much around the farm that needs to be done, so she doesn't blame him for not knowing—there's cleaning the dead crops and preparing the soil for new ones, fixing up the fences and sheds, and the more unglamourous parts like moving the undead bodies that were destroyed in the fight... but she isn't going to tell him about the latter. Someone else can deal with that for now.

Tifa chuckles, but from the box of tools near her feet, she pulls out an extra hammer and a few nails. She's only got one side done and is just starting on the second of the square pen.]

I wouldn't say no to the help. You know how to use a hammer, yeah?

[He certainly looks like he can!]