( open & closed ) july catch-all

[bloomly]

Who: aerith & you
When: throughout july
Where: solvunn, the horizon
What: catch-all for the month
Warnings: will update if applicable

( open and closed starters in the comments. if you'd like a custom starter or want to do something specific, please feel free to hit me up with a PM and we can go from there! )

Comments

[frontlinetitties]

[The quick push of a slender elbow into her side has Gideon wanting to return the gesture somehow - when one has been touch-starved for half one's life it becomes tempting to cling to what one can get, prolong it in some way. She doesn't though, can't think of a way to make it seem natural or unaffected. She is, however, saved from a moment of physical awkwardness as Aerith keeps talking, brightly. Has Gideon spitting out an incredulous laugh to fill up the space where that touch had been.]

You're kidding, right? Since when has dust and rock and sand ever really counted as a colour? Anyone who actually liked this shit would have to be pretty fucking dull.

[She says, then hopes like hell that Aerith isn't about to turn around and tell her that it's hers. Quickly, she shrugs. Gestures toward an imposing set of dusty metal doors, glinting dully in the near distance.]

It's just something I saw in a story once. Cohort Barracks on a distant and forbidding planet. Like, the military? I always wanted to join up, before.

[Before Canaan House. Before things had changed.]

But c'mon. Let me give you the grand tour. You'll be thrilled and amazed.

[The glib tone of her voice implying that she'll be anything but.]

[bloomly]

Oh, the military...!

( that has her lifting up on the toes of her boots, as though she's trying to meet herself both on gideon's physical level, as well as her mental level; she looks a bit excited at the realization. of course, that's what this place would look like! similar to a prison, but not quite so depressing: then again, barracks make her think of soldier, and soldier makes her think of someone that she hasn't seen in quite some time.

for one moment, her bright smile, pleased, falters, wilting at the corners as though she's just seen something terrible in the distance--when she finally wills her eyes back up to gideon, she's fixed it, some, nodding in agreement. )

Grand tour me! I'm sure it'll be great. ( there's a teasing hum to her voice--at once, she bumps a little closer, not asking before she carefully threads her arm in with gideon's nearest one, linking them together at the bend of their elbows. ) Why did you want to join the military? Oh, wait! You said 'planet' right? Is there more than one?

( her free hand is still lifted up over her eyes to shade it, but she looks up at gideon expectantly. ) Where you're from, I mean. You could travel between them?

[frontlinetitties]

[The way Aerith's smile withers away to nothing, the way her eyes move beyond her to some indeterminate spot in the distance, almost has Gideon turning to peer over her shoulder. Half concerned that there's something there, something awful, something the other woman may require protection from--

--but then she lifts her brilliant eyes to Gideon's instead, and something in her seems to settle. The urge to glance back remains, but as Aerith slides her arm into the crook of Gideon's all concerns are swiftly forgotten. She straightens a little, muscles taut, before gallantly beginning to lead them in the direction of her silent, forbidding domain. She feels just a touch hot under the collar.

Aerith's first question runs abruptly into a second, and Gideon laughs.]

Hey, slow down. Gimmie time to answer before you start with the next question! Although I can hardly blame you for being keen to get to know me.

[She winks, all tease, as they trudge over dun-coloured sand toward the vast metal doors ahead.]

But yeah, where I'm from space travel was a thing. Both inside and beyond the Dominicus system - that's where I'm from - but I only did it myself the one time. As for the military, I wanted to sign up to get the hell away from where I'd come from. I thought it was a chance to get out there and do something meaningful, you know? Plus, the Ninth House is fucking horrible. Even more depressing than this shithole.

[She nods toward the barren landscape that surrounds them.]

[bloomly]

( there's a small laugh--she at least has the good nature to look sheepish at all her questioning, but luckily gideon doesn't seem too put off by it, and she's glad to be able to learn a little more about her. the last time they'd spent time together, it had been mostly idle chatter and flirting: things that she enjoys, but given that she feels like gideon could be a real friend, she wants to learn what she can.

her gaze turns up to watch her as she talks--it means, of course, that she's relying on gideon to guide them carefully. )

Gotcha... ( they're very similar, aren't they? gideon and-- ) So if you joined the military, then you could travel all over, and see new things you've never seen before...

( she's still smiling, at least, as they come upon the end of the sand, where it starts to give way near the vast metal doors; she slinks back a little, letting gideon walk slightly ahead of her so that she can open it. it's only polite, after all. )

What's the prettiest planet you knew of? Like, the one you wanted to see the most?

[frontlinetitties]

Exactly, yeah. You get me. I just didn't want to spend my whole fucking life trapped in some shitty, mouldering pit, you know? Not when there was like, a whole universe out there to explore. and I'm good with a sword. I'd have been badass in the Cohort...although the Emperor is kinda seeming more and more sus the more I think about it now.

[She's happy enough to spill her thoughts as her grip on Aerith tightens just a touch, an attempt at gallant reassurance as the other woman's eyes peer up at her, leaving Gideon to take the lead. There's only a small spark of disappointment as they approach the doors and Aeirth slides free from her, but Gideon is quick to step up and push against the giant hunks of metal-- there'd been a security code at first, when her imagination had originally cooked this place up. Not so anymore. Who'd make the effort to come out to this dump anyway?

The doors rasp open, and the cool, cavernous inside with its branching corridors reveals itself to them. It's echoing and empty and bare. Gideon holds the door, makes a sweeping motion with her free arm.]

Come in and make yourself at home. And this is gonna be disappointing, but I have no idea what any of the other planets are like. We're pretty cut off and secluded on the Ninth. Moreso than I even realised until I went to the First, never mind where we are now. I'd never even seen a tree before I left the Ninth. Real paper is like fucking gold dust. I don't even really know what's out there.

[And she'd never considered it in terms of what would be pretty, and what wouldn't. Her thoughts always flashed to grand battles and the spoils of war. She feels it now like a slice from her sword, how small and closed off her world had been. How limited her imagination.]