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[open] wide open spaces

Hydroponics was simply amazing.

It was relaxing. That was the best way Aerith could describe it. She was sure there had been plenty before her to make this observation, though. Still, it was comforted her in a way she'd needed. Even if it wasn't the planet, her planet, it still gave her a sense of peace. Despite it being an artificial environment, it was realistic and that in itself was astonishing to her.

Nanaki had mentioned the area before, but seeing it for herself was a different story. It made her forget, just for a moment, about being on a strange ship in the middle of space.

That was a nice feeling. She could see why people would spend a lot of time here.

So she wandered around, absorbing what she could, taking in all that was around her. Aerith didn't have a specific purpose - other than exploring. It certainly was a big place.

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"I'm Aqua," she replied, smiling back.

She'd made a deep enough hole to put the plant in, and she started covering up the roots with soil. "My home world had some trees and grass around, but because it was in the mountains, the soil was too rocky for much else to grow. I loved seeing all the different trees and flowers when we had the chance to travel."

Aerith could certainly relate to that feeling. "My home wasn't the best place for anything to grow. I did manage to get a patch of flowers healthy enough to survive, though."

She smiled, thinking back to the church she spent so much of her time in. "Not many had the chance to see flowers there, so I ended up selling them to people. It was nice to get away from there and see what grew out in the world itself, rather than the cramped space I lived in."

"It's a good thing you were able to," Aqua said. "Our master was very strict about making sure we didn't upset the balance of things, including making sure that we didn't bring home anything that wouldn't thrive or would over-thrive and upset the environment."

"At the time, I didn't think much of it. I was young and lonely, so I used the flowers to occupy myself." Aerith watched Aqua plant, sighing a bit at her memories.

"I don't think there was any danger of life over-thriving there. There was barely life enough as it was, Midgar wasn't the best of towns to live in if you lived under the plates."

"Then it's the exact opposite problem," Aqua pointed out. "At that point, I think it would be good to try to get whatever can survive, if there's nothing left to grow in that environment."

"I agree. If my flowers could have grown better, expanded a little more, it wouldn't have hurt anything. But most of the life from our Planet was being sucked dry," Aerith said this a bit sadly. Years of the planet whispering in her head meant she was party to the pain it felt, and it still sat heavy inside her.

"I'm sorry," Aqua apologized, remembering the pain and shock of seeing her homeworld fallen into darkness, barely holding itself together. It wasn't exactly the same, but it was just as painful all the same.

With a sigh, Aerith shook her head a bit. "There isn't much use dwelling on it now, since it seems my planet is gone." She doesn't notice how she says it's her planet, but that was a sense she always had. That connection that ran so deep.

Looking back down at the hole Aqua was planting the seeds in, she leaned forward a bit. "Do you know what you're planting?"

"We just have to hope that we'll be able to restore our worlds," Aqua insisted.

As she packed dirt around the plant, she said, "I don't know exactly what it's called, but it's kind of like a vegetable called eggplant. A little sweeter, though. It's really good grilled." It was one of the few things she'd been able to cook well.

"I know you're right. Hopefully we can have our homes restored, it's just...discouraging, I guess," Aerith mused while she watched Aqua patting down the dirt.

She didn't think she'd eaten anything like eggplant back home - then again, she'd been traveling extensively and they ran short on gil sometimes so most of the food could be bland. Rations and such - it wasn't exactly the most appetizing.

"Grilled eggplant? You'll have to let me try that sometime." She gave Aqua a smile. "Have you planted anything else here?"

Edited 2011-11-09 16:36 (UTC)

"I picked up a few plants and seeds one of the last times we had a chance to visit a market," she said. "I've also been saving them from any fresh food we have. My sister has a carrot garden, though her pet tends to get into it."

"That's a good idea." An excellent one actually, since Aerith had sampled some of the food served on the ship, and it wasn't exactly the most appetizing. "Do we not get the chance to visit markets much?"

"It depends on where we end up," Aqua pointed out. "Sometimes, if we're on a mission, we can pick up some supplies from what's around us. That's how I got some of these seeds and plants. Other times, we wait for a shore leave--and that's how most of us got our supplies. With any luck, we'll have another big one like that soon."

"That would be nice. I've stuck around on ship when there's been missions. Still getting my bearings and all." It was taking her a lot longer than she'd expected, but there had been so much on her mind that wandering around the ship kept her thoughts from circling around on themselves.

"Hopefully, you'll have a chance," Aqua said. "Maybe a diplomatic mission? It's nice when there's no fighting. And it's a great chance to see the other worlds."

"Fighting gets so tiring after a while!" Aerith smiled, shaking her head. "I can see diplomatic missions being tougher than just running in there and having a fight, though. Especially if you have the fighter types doing it. But I would like to see other places, that would be so nice."

"It can be hard for some people to know how to act in those situations," Aqua sympathized. And that could range from simply not knowing the proper etiquette to not knowing etiquette in general.

"The planets we visited for Shore Leave were pretty developed," she admitted. "But when we went to recover the Tapestry, the planet was beautiful. It was in a valley in the middle of a forest."

"Well hopefully there will be more diplomatic missions soon," Aerith smiled as she said this. One of the main reasons she could be excited about being on Stacy was the fact she would get to see so much. It was a lot to take in for a girl who grew up in the slums of the largest city in her world.

She hadn't heard of the Tapestry before, and gave Aqua a quizzical look. "What's the Tapestry exactly?"

"I hope so too," Aqua agreed with a smile.

But her smile began to fade as she thought of the best way to explain the Tapestry. "I'm not sure if it's a machine or if it's magic--it almost seems like a mix between the two. It has these symbols on it, and sometimes it appears light and sometimes dark. There's a way of communicating with it, and it will answer questions or show you images in your head of the future. But whether or not you can avert this future is hard to say." The image of the funeral becoming real with Superman's death was proof of how difficult it was to take.

"That doesn't sound like anything I've seen before," Aerith said thoughtfully, trying to picture it in her mind. She was sure it wasn't something she'd want to see, actually. "Seeing the future doesn't really seem like something I'd enjoy."

Probably because her future was extremely uncertain at this point, especially if she was able to get back home. If there was a home to go back to. Sighing, she hugged her arms across her chest, giving Aqua a smile. "You sound like you've been here a long time."

"I'm not sure exactly how long, to be honest," Aqua admitted. It was so hard to tell time here, and things had a tendency to blur between major events. "If you get the chance, you should stop by the Masaki house or the World Tree Cafe. My sister has a store of food so she can make a homecooked meal for visitors."

"The World Tree Cafe and the Masaki house, huh?" Aerith asked, mentally making a note of the places to at least look up the location later. "What is your sister's name?

"Sasami," Aqua said. "She's about ten, with blue hair in long pigtails most of the time."

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