isleofavalon | [Catch-All] Moving Forward

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[Catch-All] Moving Forward

🧙 WHO: Aerith Gainsborough, You
⚔️️ WHAT: Catch-All for August / September
🕒 WHEN: August / September
🗺️ WHERE: Aerith's flower shop, Camelot, and wherever else we need to be.
⚠️ WARNINGS: TBD

[They drop down! Click if you don't see them.]

► [01. Flowers, Flowers Everywhere]

[Aerith's flower shop has seen a lot more activity than she's expected. When she initially opened it, she'd assumed it would be a relatively calm pastime. She's not prepared herself for just how many visitors she'd get.

The upstairs loft painting has finally been completed, though it looks a... little like a child did it in some places. (That's Aerith's masterful painting at work there, along with some help from Nanaki—but the latter's was better.) She's made it less cluttered in most places, creating a nice comfortable little way off to the side where there's some in-house teas available at no additional charge. The patio outside now has a few smaller tables and chairs for those who want to sit in the sun and enjoy the sights. The other portion of the store holds a curtain of hanging ivy and other blooms that pave way for a plant paradise right within, though it can get a little warm and humid in there.

In short, Aerith has been busy.

Today, she's in the midst of writing some instructional cards for some of the newer plants that she's presenting in the front window. She tucks them in all nice and neat and catching the eye of the next passerby, she lifts a hand and offers a welcoming wave and a bright smile.]

► [02. A Real Place]

[Aerith... has never gone house shopping before and realises that as she's begun to look at new residences, she has no idea what she's actually gotten herself into. She's been using her phone to get around to the best of her ability, but with no real idea as to where she should be heading next or what seems to be the most logical course of action in terms of distance, she really spends most of her time wandering from one district to the other, stopping occasionally to examine some of the houses.

In the midst of still peering at her phone on the way to her next misadventure, she lifts a hand to grab onto the person nearest her, tugging on the arm.]

Hi, excuse me. Can you help me find this place here?

[And then she lifts up her phone. It's a nice, small, very modest looking place. Can't be more than two bedrooms at the most, if even that. Definitely bigger than the apartment she's currently stationed in, however.]

► [03. Lending a Hand - Don't Treep, Man]

[It's another moment where she's almost a little envious that she doesn't have green magic. It'd certainly make her growing anything significantly easier. But maybe that's a little too easy. There's something to be said about the achievement of hard work and earned success.

Not part of the green mage collective, Aerith helps around the farmland by doing a little bit of everything that she can get her hands on. Her favourite thing to do, however, is the watering. It's easy to find her going down a line of very small sprouts that have only just begun to pop right up out of the ground, modestly watering them.

And talking to them. Because that's a necessity, you know.]

Oh, look at you! [She croons happily.] You're looking so good! You're gonna grow up nice and strong, right? [In fact, Aerith is probably a little too excited about something as trivial as watering plants. But seriously—talking to them is good for them.]

► [04. Wildcard]

[As it reads on the tin. Wildcard option available for those who aren't looking to use the above prompts. If you'd like to do something special, please either PM, PP at ofthesky, or contact via Discord. We'll set something up!]

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Well, that's easy— [Okay. It was easy for Aerith to explain. Perhaps not that easy for anyone else to understand given that she certainly had her own way of doing things.] —you're not me. I'm more inclined to think that someone who isn't me is very interesting. I get to learn something new that I didn't already know before. Instant interest!

[She perked up almost immediately when Baiken continued.] Oh!! Is an ally pretty close to friend? [PROMOTION?]

[ She'd just been about to comment on the strained logic of "you're not me therefore you're interesting" before Aerith's follow up hit her like a slap to the jaw and she felt herself sputter slightly. ]

Come on, what kinda question is that?

Well, 'ally' just sounds so stiff and formal. I'm pretty sure you can get away with just calling me your friend.

[Somehow, she managed not to laugh about it.]

[ Baiken groaned lightly, rubbing at the back of her head. ]

Putting me on the spot, huh...

[ Honestly, she should have seen it coming, given what she knew about the girl thus far. ]

Fine. You're my friend, hanako.

[PROMOTION OBTAINED.
L E V E L U P

Aerith looked positively delighted, clasping her hands together.]

Oh, goody! I already considered you a friend, so now the process is officially complete. But you don't look very thrilled about it. Don't tell me you thought you were going to get away with not making friends here.

I told you before, right? [ Baiken sighed, reaching for her shoulder and rolling her neck. ]

I'm a vagabond. That kind of lifestyle isn't exactly conducive to forming bonds with other people, you know...

[ She didn't really clarify if it was a problem or not, but... odds were strong if it was actually a problem, she probably still wouldn't be there, helping water the plants. ]

Honestly, if anything, being a vagabond means you just need friends more. You can't do everything alone and everyone needs someone. Even if it's just for occasionally having a laugh or otherwise good time.

[Aerith practically sounded like a pro. Because she was. The self-proclaimed expert on FRIENDSHIP.]

I'd argue being a one-armed, one-eyed vagabond is learning precisely to survive on your own.

[ The world was pretty damn cold, after all, to those who struggled to fend for themselves. That was one of the first lessons that was burned into her, after her world had changed in that attack. ]

For anything social, I usually just hit up a bar or a brothel...

[ Which were, by nature, transactional and transient. She was never certain if she actually preferred things that way, or if it was just convenient... ]

Surviving isn't necessarily the same thing as living life. It's just going through the motions out of necessity. Sure, it's living in some way, but it's not what I'm thinking of when I think of living.

[But that was getting all rather technical and she knew very well that not many others would have shared the same sentiment.]

I know that Camelot has plenty of bars. Brothels... [Awkward.] ...not sure about that one. You could probably ask around. There's host clubs, but I'm pretty sure those are not the same thing.

I... wasn't asking for a recommendation, hanako. [ In truth, she'd already found some places to scratch that itch, though she wasn't certain if she could keep up with the cost of it all... ]

That's good, actually. Because I didn't have the knowledge to give you any.

[She laughed rather shamelessly. Given that she didn't really spend time in either of those places, the idea that she'd had any knowledge would have been laughable. Better to assume that Aerith's innocence kept her largely out of places like that.

If anyone bought that Aerith was, in fact, as innocent as she looked.]

You definitely don't seem like the type...

[ And not because she came off as innocent, but more like she just didn't come off as the sort of person who'd ever... need something like that, whether for perverse reasons or finding herself that desperately lonely. She had charisma to spare, more likely to be an entertainer herself than the entertained... ]

I'll take that tea, if it's cool enough to drink now.

I'm not sure what I'd say if you did think I was the type.

[Another laugh and she nodded at Baiken's request, making little time in offering over the cup she poured for her. The tea has likely become a comfortable warm as opposed to a scalding hot.]

Do you take anything in it or just as is?

[Aerith was prepared in advance—cubes of sugar, cream, milk, honey, lemon. No shortage of ways for one to have a cup, as it were.]

Never got used to that... that way Westerners have their tea. Where I come from, we don't add anything.

[ She took up the cup, palming over it and ignoring the finger hold entirely, letting it warm her hand before lifting for a sip. Hmm... a light flavor, but pleasant. ]

It's good as is.

Well, everyone's different. I don't usually put anything in my tea either, but... everyone's got a preference.

[Aerith seemed very content simply to hold her cup between her hands with a smile. It was a sweet, floral accent, not inconspicuous, but subtle enough in all of the right ways. If such a thing existed.]

I bet there's a tea house or something like it here. I haven't gone to check or anything, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't.

If you mean finding a place that does Japanese style tea, I doubt it. Most of the attempts here at anything remotely Japanese are well-meaning but missing the mark.

[ She didn't hold it against them. It was a different world, after all. ]

Wish I could get some good matcha here, at least.

I didn't necessarily mean that. I wouldn't know the difference between Japanese style tea and whatever other kind of tea that's available here. But there's all these cafes and things like that. If there isn't a tea house, then surely there's a cafe that specialises in teas.

[A pause. She didn't know at all. Aerith realised that she didn't spend much time looking for anything if it wasn't for the flower shop.]

Maybe, anyway. Maybe you could go to one of the cafes and explain what matcha is and they might be able to replicate it for you. It's also possible you might find someone here who's from the same world?

Too much effort. I'll do without.

[ Another longer sip. ]

Besides... I think I can trust your tastes.

My tastes? That's flattering, considering I didn't know I had taste.

[A joke. But more or less confession that she didn't know the first thing about tastes in tea. Or other related things.]

Tea aside...
How are you finding things here? Are you any more comfortable or still feeling like you need to travel this path on your own?

I've walked the whole city front to back, most of the outer territories, too. I feel like this place is shifting from "strange land" to "familiar" in my head, which I guess is good.

Not much use for someone like me, here, in relative peacetime, all cataclysms aside...

This sounds like a good thing to me.

[Aerith nodded slowly, wondering if she'd quite hit that point herself. She wasn't sure. It was familiar in some ways, for certain, but she wasn't sure she would have called it 'home.' On the contrary, Aerith found herself more often than not a little homesick, which seemed like a strange thing to admit considering her circumstances.]

You're more used to keeping busy, then? I've always wondered how people like that managed to fit into things here. I know every now and then something happens, but that's not a constant. I could see how some might find it a little more on the dull side.

My only real skill is killing, so you can imagine there's generally not much for me to do.

[ Baiken shrugged. ]

People want muscle in some of these freelance jobs, but they usually want someone with two hands...

["My only real skill is killing..."

Somehow, she doubted that. Baiken had only ever been most keen on saying as little about herself as she possibly could. The path of least resistance, it seemed. As little as she could get away with where others would stop prying for information. Aerith was not one of those so easy to concede defeat, regardless of the form it might have come in.]

Oh, I'm sure you have more skills than that... [As she thumbed at her chin, she found herself continuing. The arm—] Come to think of it, I don't think I realised you were missing the other. I always thought you were just hiding it or you were comfortable keeping it hidden. [Or the greater likelihood was that she didn't want to pry. People who were missing appendages, usually didn't take kindly to having that sort of thing brought up. Besides, missing a hand, missing an arm, these kinds of things didn't detract from a person.]

[ Normally that sort of thing would sit poorly with her. The insistence that she could do differently, do better. Or even Aerith's observation about her arm. But... it was Aerith. And she knew enough about the girl by then to know she was being sincere, and well... Baiken did leave the loose sleeve hanging, after all, rather than pinning it up.

She pulled her pipe out from her kimono, as well as the small bag of her smoking grass. While doing so, she made it a point to grab the empty sleeve, in demonstration. ]

Nope. Nothing there. Lost it a long time ago.

[ ... Oh wait. ]

Is it alright if I smoke in here?

[Not that she hadn't taken Baiken at her word...

At her question, Aerith cast a look around the flower shop. It probably wasn't going to be extended exposure, but maybe in the future, she'd make a note about that kind of thing outside. It wasn't like it was a question she'd really been much asked in the past. It wasn't exactly one of the questions she expected or had been ready for.]

Uhm. Should be fine.

[This once. Aerith takes a long drink from her tea.]

I don't think it's necessarily important to have two hands for everything. You seem pretty capable as you are.

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