Just fake it if you're out of direction

[cetrary]

Who;Aerith and Cloud | Aerith and OTA
What; Hollow event
Where; Forest and market/Aerith's shop.
When;6/26 and 6/27
Warnings; Violence


A. Clean Up Shop | OTA on the 27th

Work to cover up the hurt. That was how Aerith's line of thinking was going since the events of the previous day. She'd had some time to rest but was there ever going to be enough time to fully recover from what had happened? Probably not. It'd be just another bad memory to push through and try to put on a smile to everyone around her. Sometimes that was a lot harder than others and this was one of those times. She tried to put a smile on while she brought little pots of flowers into the tiny shop that she was trying to turn into something.

It wasn't much right now. There was an obvious store front with a sign that just read "Flowers". She'd really need to think of something better than that. Inside there were pieces of wood up against a wall, shelves that needed to be nailed in still. There were pots on the floor with different flowers in them and a checkout counter with a little old fashioned register on it. Behind the checkout counter there was a door that lead to a backroom that was currently locked. Every day it was getting a bit closer to being finished, but she still felt like there was a lot more she could do with it all.

There was a little wheelbarrow outside the building with flowers and vases piled high. There was no way to not have it at least slightly in the way of people passing by but she just had to hope people would notice before bumping into it. She had the door to the store propped open with a single brick and she came in and out to grab a pot or a vase or some flowers and bring them inside.

When people passed by she smiled a sad little smile and gave a semblance of a wave or a friendly but brief "Hello!" and then she immediately went back to talking to her flowers. Each one she brought in she mumbled something to them, an entire conversation between a woman and a plant.

B. Closed to Cloud | 26th, night

Zack. He'd come to her shop while she was bringing a white lily inside. Ironic almost. He'd smiled that bright wide smile like a puppy when his parents came home after a long day of work. Her heart had swelled and threatened to burst as she wrapped her arms around him in a big hug. He felt just as warm as she remembered and he talked even more. He'd always been a talker. The happiness inside of her blinded her to the wrongness she should have been able to sense. Later she'd kick herself for it. Now though, the moment was all she could think about. It encompassed every aspect of her being. When he took her hand and asked for her to show him her garden she didn't even hesitate.

She grabbed his hand and immediately dragged him towards the forest and the lodge to make it to the garden she'd made for herself. The smile on her face was wide and she giggled happily as she pulled him to the forest.

"No falling on these, okay? I've worked really hard for this," she said teasingly as she reached the edges of the forest. Once she made it to the garden though something changed. Zack's smile twisted into something horrific, something that only belonged in a nightmare.

"Zack..." she whispered as she let go of his hand. Suddenly she realized just how cold the hand felt. Cold and ...rough? Why was it rough?

"Moved on pretty quick didn't you? With a fake puppet too," the thing that looked like Zack shook his head, black spiky hair shaking like a mane. The façade it'd put on started to vanish.

"That's not true," she said firmly with tears stinging in her eyes. The thing that was Zack laughed and as it shimmered into something monstrous. A creature made of other things, flowers, trees, pieces of dead animals and perhaps something even worse. She screamed and sent a blast of energy towards the thing. It was magic distinctly different from anything her materia may have summoned, magic that came from within and outside at the same time. The force pushed her to the ground and she scrambled backwards in the dirt shaking as she watched it come towards her.

Comments

[cetrary]

"Where do you want to go? Back to the apartments might be best!" she started off back towards her building. At no point did she even try to acknowledge that he'd said something else. In fact it seemed as though she was purposely ignoring the first thing he'd said. Which really wasn't that unusual for her, was it? How often had she just ignored him in favor of not explaining anything at all about what she knew. Or what she was hiding. It was almost second nature now. But was that actually a good thing?

[mostlycloudy]

"Sounds good." He was fine with the change of topic. It was as though his mind recoiled anytime he tried to probe the part of it that remembered seen who or what had attacked Aerith before it had become the creature they'd defeated, and it wasn't the first time. He didn't want to look there. Whatever was there hurt and it was terrifying. Here, he could protect Aerith and do what he did best, all he knew how to do.

Even if what he knew was a lie, and the more he worked, the more things people said or didn't say, the more he was coming to realize there was a lot he didn't know.

And maybe that was for the best. Probably not, but at least it felt a lot safer.