jikan_rpg | Open Log: Backdated Mid-September.

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Open Log: Backdated Mid-September.

⌛ Who: Aerith and anyone brave enough!
⌛ What: Aerith and Sephiroth have switched bodies... Isn't that fun?
⌛ When: Mid-September.
⌛ Where: Mainly the Tokyo area.
⌛ Warnings: N/A

Midnight Run:

Aerith was dressed... oddly. For her, at least. A cloak with a hood pulled over her head, shielding her face from view.

Not that it did any good, really. After all. She wasn't quite herself these days. And her only hope was that people would keep their distance just on general principle!

Because as much as she loved Sephiroth, he really wasn't the most social or personable of creatures!

It had been a few days now and they were running out of much needed supplies. Sephiroth had offered to go but she'd quickly, and gently, denied that offer. Not that she didn't think he'd get the right things. No, it was because she was afraid people would approach him and make her life a little more complicated once things went back to normal.

Because as current... Aerith was walking a little taller than she normally would.

She really wasn't herself.

In fact, she was someone else entirely.

A rather pensive looking Sephiroth crept through the streets, a basket hooked over their arm half filled with an assortment of vegetables and meats already. Doing their very best to be as unassuming, unsuspicious and as invisible as a 6 foot tall guy in a black hooded cloak could be.

SuperAerith!:

How often did she get to be a superhuman? Not often! Even if she was, technically, the last of an ancient race of peoples who could commune with a whole ass planet, it didn't really grant her with super powers!

But being Sephiroth?

She couldn't help herself. She'd been nervous at first, though Sephiroth had coached her a little, as much as he could. Half of these things came naturally to him so it was almost like explaining how a heartbeat worked. The body just did the thing. So Aerith had to learn mostly on her own.

And so if you were around when she discovered she could run faster than the speed of light (maybe not that fast...) and saw a blur screaming past... that was just a superhuman flower girl panicking! Until the screaming became laughter as she found that roofs just weren't that high anymore. She could jump from one to the other. She could near fly if she really tried! But she was just a bit too nervous to try that one just in case she couldn't get back down again.

So it might be a bit strange to find 'Sephiroth', long, silvery hair pulled into a messy braid, dressed in a button-down shirt and comfortable black trousers, bent over with his hands on his knees and breathing hard between deep, happy laughter.

"This... I could get used to. Maybe..." More laughter. Maybe she didn't want to get used to it? As a novelty it was fun!

WILDCARD:
[You have another idea, just throw it at me and I'll roll with it. I'm open to anything!]

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Zack gave it a few days first after speaking to Aerith on the network. She said she'd let him know when they were better and he believed that! But between worrying and having to be in the area for some work anyway, he may as well risk it. Aerith can yell at him for not listening, but look, he has to check on them! Have either of them even been sick before?

It's just as he's starting down to Neo-Midgar that he sees "Sephiroth" and his basket. For some reason something about it seems off, but he can't put his finger on why that is - maybe it's the cloak? Sephiroth never came off as a cloak guy, so that's gotta be it.

But if he's out and about, that must mean he's feeling better, right?

"Hey, Sephiroth!" He calls out as he jogs to catch up. "Wait up!"

She should have heard him. Probably would have if she hadn't been too focused on putting one foot in front of the other. But when she heard Zacks voice call out to 'Sephiroth', she froze.

Fight or flight.

On a normal day she would have stood her ground. But right there and then she wanted to run. She could have ran if she wanted, and run fast! Zack wouldn't be able to catch up in a million years.

And yet... she was frozen to the spot, struggling to work out what to do that wouldn't rise more suspicion. In the end she chose to force her feet back into movement, just walking, back straight though her head lowered enough that the hood of the cloak kept her face in shadow. There was no reply to Zack. Why would there be? She was supposed to be Sephiroth, right? She could probably get away with just a raised eyebrow or two and a hum here and there to carry the conversation, she wouldn't even need to open her mouth! Though she really really hoped Zack would get bored and just carry on his way...

Though Aerith knew her luck wasn't going to be that good.

Unfortunately, Aerith's luck isn't that good.

Zack catches up and falls into step next to her. No response is pretty normal, and Zack has always gone into conversations with the expectation that he'd be doing most of the talking. Not a problem, since he's very good at running his mouth. And it isn't like he minds, either.

But even up close, there's still that feeling that something isn't right. Maybe it isn't the cloak after all. It's like it's on the tip of his tongue, what's weird about this. He'll probably figure it out as they talk, though, and it isn't like it's a bad feeling, per say.

"Feeling better? Aerith said you two came down with something." She had said it was one of this place's something-or-others, but he didn't know half of what could happen to people here. May as well just think of it as a cold. Might even be for the best.

Definitely out of luck!

Zack came up beside her and she did her best best not to fidget nervously. The question was answered with a noncommittal grunt and a quick glance to the side. What was Zack even doing here? She's thought, at the very least, she wouldn't run into anyone who knew Sephiroth enough to know he was acting weird!

"Much better. Thanks." She finally answered, since she really couldn't do the silent thing Sephiroth did. Actually she hated it. Not when he did it, she'd learned how to translate it herself. But doing it herself? No chance! Aerith would be driven insane if she ever lost the ability to talk!

"Glad to hear it." Maybe that's what it is, something left over from whatever Sephiroth came down with. It would make sense, all things considered. And besides that he seems fine - so he has no reason to really poke at him until he answers.

As to what he was doing - well, he folds his arms behind his head and for the moment his eyes drift elsewhere as he talks.

"I was over here so I thought I'd stop by to check in on you two. It's been a few days, I figured whatever you guys had wasn't contagious anymore."

"We're not contagious..." Aerith answered after a brief moment of thought. It was so hard trying to talk like Sephiroth! It was even harder trying to push down on the panic that made her want to run away and hide until Zack had carried on his way. She could probably do it. Sephiroth had speed on his side and she could now wield his powers.

But she didn't. She carried on walking, matching her pace with Zacks without any conscious thought.

"... Aerith is at home." Now that was so strange. Talking about herself like that...

Blissfully unaware of Aerith's mild panic, Zack just continues to walk along, humming in understanding. Getting sick in this place with all the other stuff going on had to be a pain, but it doesn't seem like it lasted all that long for Aerith or Sephiroth - a huge relief, honestly.

Though . . . really, Sephiroth getting sick was just plain weird. Could he even get sick under normal circumstances?

Zack tilts his head to glance over, eyebrows raising slightly. "Yeah? You don't think she'd mind if I stopped by, do you? I don't wanna bother her if she's resting."

She closed her eyes and took a calming breath, her panic making her want to snap at Zack. And he didn't deserve that at all! Not to mention the fact Sephiroth wouldn't have done that and she would have just brought even more suspicion upon them both.

"She'd mind." Cold, succinct. That was the Sephiroth way, right? "I'd mind. She... is recovering." And so what was she doing out and about? Aerith tried to think of an excuse... and then remembered the basket she was carrying. So she gestured toward it and peeled back the cover that had been hiding the ingredients from view. "You make soup for sick people." she explained and looked at Zack expectantly, willing him to understand and not think she was being too weird.

Even if Sephiroth wandering around at night with a basket of vegetables was a weird sight in and of itself, let alone a Sephiroth who had plans to cook.

Zack nods easily enough in understanding. "Another time, then." He wouldn't want to bother her if she's still recovering, though if Sephiroth hadn't been sick as well he would have pushed just a little harder. He's sure the man would have understood - maybe.

But as Sephiroth gestures down to the basket andas Zack takes in the ingredients, it takes a moment for the entirety of what he's saying to click together. Okay, yeah, he knew soup was good when you were sick, his mom had made plenty of it when he was a kid. And the basket looked like it had the kind of things you'd find in a soup. Not that he knew how to make it himself, but it was an educated guess.

The bump comes when at the implication being made, though, and he can't help but blurt out -

"Wait, are you the one making the soup?"

Ever since he got off the train and started talking to Aerith while he was in town, the flower girl continued to weigh on his mind. She was...sick? Yet she was also so vehement on him not seeing her while she was enduring this. Cloud planned on being in town for a couple more days before heading back, so maybe he could happen by her front door. Even if it meant he didn't set foot inside...

OR he could be doing his damnest to keep up with the leaping and bounding Sephiroth, acting so wildly out of character that he had to second guess whether or not he was in a dream or not. Rooftop to rooftop. Chasing and watching the man with braided silver hair from his place on the street. Ever chasing, yet not daring say anything outloud as he does his damnest to make heads or tails of this whole predicament. There's not even any time to take out his magi-comm and message him. Or call Zack or Tifa and tell them what he was dealing with.

Only when 'Sephiroth' finally stops, bent over and heaving for breath (really?!) and loosing a deep, happy laughter...

"This what First Class SOLDIERs do in their downtime?"

There's Cloud, standing some distance behind the keeled over swordsman with his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised in the most confused manner.

She froze. The laughter died and her eyes widened just a little.

That voice...

Her head lifted and she turned to look in the direction of that voice to find Cloud watching her, arms crossed and judging.

How long has he been watching?

Aerith straightened up quickly, tossing her silvery braid over her shoulder and considered jumping back onto the roof to take off somewhere else. But surely that would be more suspicious? She was caught so off guard that she completely forgot who she was supposed to be. "Cloud? What're you doing here? Are... where you following me?" Was there a little hurt in her tone? It was definitely softer than Sephiroth ever sounded, that was for sure.

Did...he sound hurt by this? Cloud knew that things were supposed to be different here... That Sephiroth had separated himself from what 'fate' had ordained for him. Perhaps this world had its ways with encouraging refugees to have more 'outside the box' actions. But it still was impossible to not think it was weird to see Sephiroth in such a light. His arms uncross, and he sees no reason in lying to the man.

"I was. Not everyday I see you out and about like this."

"Shit..." She muttered the curse softly under her breath, lips barely moving and eyes shifting away from Cloud. Aerith was embarrassed. She'd gotten carried away and been caught by one of the worst people she could ever have gotten caught by. And he'd seen her behaving in a very un-Sephiroth way.

Lying to Cloud just didn't sit right with her but she wasn't sure just what excuse she could use for her having been jumping all around and laughing.

"I've been... cooped up for a while." Did that explain it? Probably not. Aerith straightened herself up and tried to stand the way she thought Sephiroth would, but there was always going to be something off about her. As often as she watched the man, mimicry was not something she was especially good at.

For all that Cloud once admired of that man, at least Aerith's attempted posturing of Sephiroth wasn't bad. Perhaps to those closer to him, something would seem off... And while he still has his suspicions, she's not entirely busted yet.

"Been looking after Aerith, I take it?"

After all, she was insistent that nobody came to see her due to how sick she was.

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Open Log: Backdated Mid-September.

midnight run

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SuperAerith!

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