Name: Aerith Gainsborough
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Species: Cetra
Position: Healer
Weapon:Aerith has a fair proficiency with staffs and staves. She carries a staff metal-core wood staff with a cloth handle and an ivory disc with an open hand carved on both sides.
Powers:Aerith has always been best at healing and support magic. Recently, she’s been making a concerted effort to learn more such spells, instead of just picking them up as she went along like she’d been doing.
Her current spell list is: Curaga, Esuna, Revive, Regen, Scan, Haste, Slow, Stop, Sleep, Silence, Dispel, Reflect, Shell, Protect, Bravery, Faith, and a Null spell that can be cast as blaze, frost, shock, or tide.
She now has the non-elemental attack spells Energy, Flare, and Ultima as well.
She keeps studying theory, and has lots of ways to use these besides their basic battle forms.
Aerith hears things. Voices. The voice of the world, in fact - it’s always been there, in the back of her mind, though it’s generally such a cacophony that she can’t make much out. It sings, though.
Limit breaks are special abilities that can only be used when a person has been pushed beyond their limit - essentially, when they get hit a lot, although extreme emotional distress can and does contribute.
Aerith’s Limit Breaks:
Healing Wind- cures the entire party (all her nearby allies) for half their full Hit Points.
Seal Evil- Aerith casts a spell that stops enemies with lower power levels than hers from moving and casting magic. Sort of a stop and silence cast.
Breath of the Earth- Cures all status ailments. Mass Esuna.
Fury Brand- Fills two of her allies limit bars to the top.
Planet Protector- makes all allies within range temporarily invincible.
Pulse of Life- restores all allies within range health and magic fully
There's one more, Great Gospel, but she's never used it.
She also caries the White Materia, which is good for… well, it’s pretty. And it can help keep your hair up. And, you know,the whole calling on the will of the Planet thing, but what good does that do in your everyday life?
Picture:
(pic from sandara.net)
Appearance:Aerith is fairly small, five foot three and slender. She wears her hip-length brown hair tied back with a pink ribbon and caught in a long twist, with a pair of locks left free to curl past her collarbone, and bangs to frame her face. Her bright green eyes are clear as water, and usually smiling.
She tends to wear pink dresses, calf-length, usually short- sleeved or sleeveless, with brown boots. She likes bracelets.
Personality:Aerith has always been kind and sweet and cheerful. She cares about everyone- the world in general and her friend in particular. She will stand by those friends (and that world) against anything that comes. Including things of their own making, though afterwards she will chew them out for getting into such stupid trouble in the first place.
She pours everything that she is into Radiant Garden, and it's never occurred to her to do otherwise. But then, growing plants isn't work, and healing people? That’s second nature to her. She couldn't not any more than she could stop breathing.
She has a definite mischievous streak, and a slightly screwy sense of humor ((anyone remember ‘Cloud dress-up’?)), but is still one of the most responsible people ever…. when necessary. Although -- she does have an unfortunate tendency to forget to mention things simply because it never occurred to her that they might be important. Aerith is supportive, kind, wonderful - and completely incorrigible.
History:((Okay, I kinda got carried away here. Yes, Seph wrote his part of the dialogue.))
Aerith Gainsborough grew up in the slums of Midgar. She lived with her mom, Elmyra, who had adopted her upon the death of Aerith’s biological mother, Ifalna. She was a cheerful, loving child, though sometimes very strange, and she grew into a cheerful, loving young women, who sold flowers that she grew in an old cathedral.
One day, as she tended her garden, the sky ripped open with no warning at all, pouring out countless Shadows as the planet screamed. The darkness ate at the world, dispersing the Lifestream and tearing the planet apart. Everything was utterly dissolved.
But the darkness, strangely, could not seem to touch Aerith - even in the depths of her grief, despite how hard it tried. And eventually, it came to an end as she found herself to be - somewhere, as opposed to the nowhere-and-nothing of the darkness.
It was Radiant Garden that she came to, where she would pick up the threads of her life. It didn’t take long for her to make friends - many of those she was closest to, it turned out, had come from the same world as herself; Tifa Lockheart, manically cheerful Yuffie Kisaragi, gruff pilot and engineer Cid Highwind, grave and stoic Squall “Leon” Leonheart (who was technically from a different world than the rest of them, but that didn’t matter much), and Cloud Strife, who she teased mercilessly and fell quite in love with.
As time passed, her grief over her lost home began to abate, and she came to love this world and call it home. And the world - the worlds, in fact - began to speak in her heart, as the Planet had done.
One of the first things everyone wanted to know was what had happened. It turned out that Cloud knew, but couldn’t bring himself to talk about it, beyond that it was Sephiroth’s fault. And that Sephiroth was going to pay. Tifa had been there too, but admitted to being unconscious and dying for most of it. So far as she knew, all Sephiroth had done had been to torch the town - which, bad as that was, didn’t quite equal a planet.
Then one day, Aerith visited the castle library.
As she rounded a bookshelf, hunting for the right section, she ran into a walking stack of books, which tumbled to the floor revealing a silver-haired man with a single wing and a very annoyed expression.
“Oh, I’m sorry!” She exclaimed, kneeling to help gather the books up.
“I’ll bet.” He knocked her hand away. “I can handle this.”
She sat back on her heels. “Are you reading the entire library?”
“Not all of it.” He continued piling books one atop the other, paused, then reached out for the book Aerith had dropped. It appeared he had memorized the order they had been in, and was working towards returning them to the way he had arranged them. “Only what interests me.”
“Like what?”
“The more answers I get, the more questions arise.” He gave her a very pointed look as he stood, turned, and walked back to a tome-laden table.
Aerith knew perfectly well that had been a barb aimed at causing her to shut up, but as usual, this only made her persistent.
“I haven’t seen you around before, have I?”
“No.” He sat down, placing his armful carefully atop the towering stacks. “Nor will you again.”
“Oh? Why not?”
The man did not look up. “I don’t intend to return here.”
She pondered this for a moment. “Where are you going, then?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Then how do you know you’re leaving?”
“Why would I stay?”
“That... is the most non-answer answer I have heard in...” She ticked off on her fingers, mentally counting, “Four hours.”
The man did not respond, turning the page.
The silence made a valiant attempt to stretch on, but Aerith would have none of it. “So do you know where they keep the books on botany?”
“Botany...? Up the stairs, make a left - stick to the wall. Third shelf from the back.” Not once did he look up.
“Thanks,” she said, brightly. “Oh - how about psychology?”
“Behind you.”
“Thank you very much.” And just to be contrary, she added as she left, “See you around!”
-----------------
The next morning -
“So do you just live here?”
“Have you nothing better to do with your time?” The man reached for another book from the greatly diminished stack, placing the one he was reading on a growing pile on the floor.
She shrugged. “I found another reference I wanted. Seriously, though, have you been here all night?”
“Yes.”
“That can’t be healthy.”
“...”
She looked at the size of the two piles. “Have you even stopped to eat?”
“No.”
“Well, why not?”
“It’s a waste of time.”
“That’s really very silly of you. You’ll study better if you take breaks.”
He frowned, setting his book aside and began paging through another. “Speaking from personal experience?”
“Uh-huh. Anyone who’s pulled an all-nighter knows that.”
“...I am not anyone.”
“Obviously. Who are you, then?”
“Give your own name before asking another’s.”
“Hn? Oh - Aerith. Aerith Gainsborough.”
For the first time, he paused in his reading. “Sephiroth.”
“Oh, so you’re Sephiroth. Then -” she sat, looking serious for the first time. “Can you tell me what happened?’
He gave no reply at all. After a moment, she spoke again. “Cloud won’t tell me.”
At the mention of ‘Cloud’, Sephiroth paused, then slowly, deliberately, closed his book, turning to stare at her. “....How do you know Cloud?”
“There’s several of us who made it here - I’m from Midgar.”
“Is that so? Beneath or above?”
“The rotting pizza?”
“Ah. Beneath.”
She laughed. “That’s me. How about you?”
“Me...? I was - no. I am...” Sephiroth paused for a moment, rising to his feet in one fluid motion and moving a few paces away. “I’m not from anywhere. I was
created by those too clueless to know... but it doesn’t matter. After all... I am Jenova’s heir. I’m not from anywhere, yet. I will be... when I find it.”
That hadn’t quite been the answer she expected.... But at least he was talking. “Is that what you’re researching?” She picked up the nearest book -
The Dark Gene: A Study of Magic and Heredity. Maybe not.
He didn’t seem to have heard her; at least, not what she asked. “But... it’s not here. All of this, useless...” He laughed. “All the knowledge of this world, and none of it pertinent. Ironic, isn’t it? I left to find answers, only to find I left the answers behind...”
--------------------
They spoke several more times, sometimes on subjects of great importance to one or the other of them, but more often on nothing.
Of the others - Cid got to realize his lifelong dream of space travel, and spent most of his time tinkering with gummi ships (which, in answer to Yuffie’s question, no, were not edible). Leon and Cloud both spent most of their time training obsessively, with Yuffie trailing after them, especially Leon, ‘like the really loud and annoying little sister I never wanted’. Tifa opened a café, and expected everyone to help - she got it, too. Well, mostly. She had to bully the boys into it, and Yuffie kept skipping off on the grounds that she was bored, and it was quickly discovered that Cid should never ever ever bake anything. (Dinner was ready when the smoke alarms went off.)
And Aerith returned happily to her old hobby/job and grew a most impressive garden.
And everyone was pretty much happy.
Sephiroth’s piles of books kept changing, until one day they stopped changing, and he started reading instead of skimming. The next time she walked in he, without preface, began to read one aloud. It spoke of Light, and Darkness, and a Key.... After a few pages, he closed it and wordlessly handed it to her.
She shared the volume, and several more later, with the others - although she never did mention who had given them to her, just saying she had found them in the library.
The group spent many long hours deconstructing and discussing (read: arguing over) the information - much of it went out of its way to be cryptic.
At some point - it would be difficult to say just when - people started referring to the town as Hollow Bastion rather that Radiant Garden, and the change stuck.
The darkness came. They had a little warning, just barely enough. Cid’s endless tinkering came in handy, and they managed to get out of there just ahead of it.
The worlds continued to fall, the stars vanishing from the sky. Aerith could hear their songs go out, one by one, each ending in a tortured scream.
Now in Traverse Town, they did their best to hold things together, and they watched for new arrivals. With this happening, the Keyblade was bound to show up. It had to. But when it did, it was in the hands of a fourteen year old boy with a great deal of enthusiasm and little skill. But he was the Keyblade’s choice, and they had no better hope. They gave him the best they could, little as it was, a moment’s rest and all the information they had.
He left in the company of the King’s High Wizard and Knight Champion, and they waited and tried not to worry, and soon found it easier that they had thought. It was somehow impossible not to believe in him.
And it was justified. Soon the worlds had returned, and they had returned to Hollow Bastion.
It was a year of small triumphs and hard work as they set about restoring Hollow Bastion. There was much to be done. For one thing, the worlds may have returned, but the heartless were still lose in them. And the houses were all broken, and there wasn't much space to grow food, what with everything being rock all the sudden.
--------
After about a year, things started getting worse again. About the same time, they everyone, all at once, started to remember Sora, who they had forgotten - at this point, no one was really prepared to question this.
Cloud grew steadily more introverted and brooding - he was making for really depressing company. And then there was news, that Sephiroth, having not been seen since the darkness fell, was here, back, and then Sora came with a message from Sephiroth that if Cloud was looking for him, here he was.
If Cloud didn’t do this, he’d just stand there and brood forever. But who knows? Maybe this’d get it out of their systems. She could hope….
They both vanished. They weren’t dead, she would know that at least, she always had before. But they were gone.
Time passed. They put in a memorial garden for the people lost to darkness. The paths between the worlds were open, and travel between them became, if not commonplace, then at least not unheard of.
About six, almost seven months ago, Aerith decided that the library here didn’t have what she needed. She wanted to learn more about white magic, so she traveled to Ivalice, where she found out that what she’d always thought was just a knack was in fact, a ridiculous amount of talent.
Tifa showed up a couple of times, but there was never any news. So Aerith had to simply believe in Cloud, and in Seph, that they wouldn’t kill each other, and that they would make it back from where ever they had gone. So she did her best to have faith and not worry too much.
The next time Tifa appeared -- Aerith looked up, fighting the rising hope, but Tifa shook her head.
“I can’t find Cloud.” Her face was dark “But Sephiroth is back.”
Somehow the possibility that one would come back without the other had never crossed her mind. Aerith returned to Radiant Garden as fast as she could get there.
