expiationnet | [Video]

[At first, there's just audio as Aerith is figuring out how this little trinket works. A phone would be easier, wouldn't it? As video comes on, she lifts a hand and wiggles her fingers in greeting.]

Hellllooooo!

[If it seems like she's too cheery, that very likely might be the case. Despite the situation and bizarre circumstances, she's chosen to approach all of this with a great deal of optimism. Smile, and the world smiles with you, goes the saying.]

I understand a lot of us are kind of going through the same thing and it's probably very easy to focus on what we don't know, but I thought it might be kind of nice to have the reminder that we have a common goal. So whether you arrived here with friends or without them, you're not alone! You have the rest of us, too.

[Gesturing to herself, she continues.]

My name's Aerith and I didn't arrive with very much, but if there's something I can help you out with, make sure you let me know and I'll do my best! Also, if you're having trouble finding a place to stay, I'm sharing a room here with my bodyguard, but I'm sure he won't mind too much if we make a little more room for you.

[You're welcome, Cloud.]

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There's that, too.

[Ah, yes. Everything seems to come back to the parchment—contract?—they all arrived with. Issuance of crime committed? 'Crime.' A word that deserves a little closer inspection because she isn't sure the crime of 'abandonment' is on the same level as something more extreme, such as 'extorting the masses,' or even something like 'capitalism.'

She's tried not to think too much about her own, though like any of the others, she's probably given it plenty of thought. She also hasn't asked Cloud about his and he hasn't asked her about hers either. That might be for the best. It's very likely neither of them are ready to talk about it. And might never be. She has to be willing to accept that. Besides, she wants to really understand hers before she makes any such thoughts.]

We'll have to get to the bottom of those as well. I was talking with someone else here a little after I arrived and told her I thought it could be less a 'law' type of system and more like... I don't know. Trials and tribulations. Something that judges us as a person that we have to pass. Wish we knew a lot more about those and what we might have to look forward to. There's a time limit on those and we don't know what that is.

[Could be tomorrow. Could be a month from now. A... year?]

[Honestly, she hasn't stated her own crime outright just yet, but Rinoa's crime of 'Rebellion' is one she'll wear proudly if it becomes known. The fact that she's stood up against injustice is a badge of honor for her. If what she's done is wrong, she doesn't want to be right. Of course... this means she might have a rose colored view of other people's crimes because of her own.]

It's hard to say, since we don't really have anything to compare it to right now. All we've got for now is our best guesses. It's better to treat all our theories as just possibilities until we really know what's going on.

[She pauses, thinking it over for a moment. Though, what she comes up with might not be the most helpful in the long run. She's pretty good at wild guesses after all.]

For all we know, the sentence could just be a bluff, a way to throw us off what's really going on.

That's true, too. It would be a very successful distraction, I think, if that's intentional. A lot of people are focused on it. Makes me wonder what might actually be going on that we should be looking into.

[In the end, though, it's still all guessing. No answers. They can only guess.]

I feel like we could go around and around in circles and still not know what's going on. Soooo... let's do our best to focus on the things that we do know! I don't know when we're going to find out more, but it's only a matter of time.

Exactly. We'd just end up going in circles. What's the point in that? I don't know about you, but I think it's probably more fun to watch a dog chase it's tail than to be the dog chasing it's tail.

[Rinoa makes a face, even thinking about it, nose wrinkling. Wouldn't that just feel silly?]

I just think focusing on making the best of now, until we have something to go on makes the most sense. So that's what I'm going to do.

I don't know... It'd probably be pretty fun to be a dog. At least a puppy.

[Head empty, no thoughts? What kinds of things to dogs think about anyway? Probably food, belly rubs, sleep, and other simple things like that. It is probably considerably easier to be an animal. If dogs were brought to this world, she has to wonder if they'd be in a similar uproar.

...Probably not.]

But at the end of it all, we're not dogs. And I don't mind responsibility, but like you, I'm not going to lose sleep over it all. I'm okay with just taking every day as it comes.

[No matter how complacent that makes her look. There's method to the madness.]

I don't know. [Rinoa makes a face.] I know what Angelo eats, and I've gotta say, I'd really rather not.

[Some of the things her dog'll put in her mouth? Yeah... that's a hard line for Rinoa. No thanks.

She loves dogs, but definitely has no plans on ever being one. Being a person is already enough without trying to be something else on top of that.]

Exactly! Who's to say we're not taking things seriously enough. Maybe I'm just making sure that when the time comes I'm serious for when I really need it.

[Saving her seriousness, because she can't be so serious it hurts every hour of the day. That's exhausting.]

[Plenty of people, it seems, are likely going to look at how Rinoa and Aerith handle things and assume they're not taking things seriously enough. But Aerith hardly feels the need to say as much because it'll likely be demonstrated more than once as time moves forward...]

I think that's the perfect way to go about it. If the others don't understand, then that's on them. Optimism is a strength. We're just showing the others how strong we are.

[It might not seem like much to everyone else right now, but it will in the future.]

[They can struggle and fuss all they want, Rinoa's going to take one day at a time and just do her best to live each day. Anything else? Why that's extra.]

Exactly! And maybe they can't see it right now, but we'll show them eventually.

[But it's sure good to have someone on her side in this. Being the Only One can be awfully lonely. She'd know.]

[Video]

Beggars cannot be choosers. BUT WE CAN DREAM.

Absolutely! They can take my money but they can't take my dreams! ROFL

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