driftfleet_ooc | Summer Test Drive! (Calibrations edition!)

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!test drive

Summer Test Drive! (Calibrations edition!)

THE SUMMER TEST DRIVE MEME
(Or Winter Test Drive for you Southern Hemisphere folks!)

Got someone you want to try out before you app? Well this is the post for it! Feel free to use anything that fits in the setting of Drift Fleet! Want to play bumper shuttles? Want to go wild in a med bay? Play around with the current plot? Have at it!

Threads from the Test-Drive may be made game "canon" but DO NOT count toward AC!

FOR NEW PLAYERS: You DO NOT NEED an invite to participate in the TEST DRIVE! If you decide to APP into the game, ONLY THEN will you need an invite from a current player!

SPECIAL NOTE!
Since June is a special month in which we'll be breaking from the usual plot to bring back the calibrations plot, the Test Drive prompts will come in two flavors!

OPTION A: Standard Test Drive
Go ahead and treat the test drive as you normally would, using past plots or fleet locations as your setting! Here's some helpful info for some ideas.

April/May's Star System

March's Star System

Game Details

SS Iskaulit

OPTION B: Build-a-Calibration
If you'd like, you can use the info given about the Calibrations plot to design your own calibration room for any characters you want! Got a character you want to explore their inner psyche but isn't in the game yet? Go ahead and try it out! It can be a fully fleshed out room, or simply just a small part of it you'd like to play with.

Alternatively for any characters that are in the game, you can use this as a chance to either iron out, brainstorm, or test run any components of your calibration before the actual plot starts! We don't recommend posting the entirety of your calibration in this meme (as you'll have nothing new to post come plot time), but this can be a good chance to test out any parts to make sure they work how you desire.

Test drives are posted SEASONALLY, so the next one will be in September!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ All she can do, really, is laugh, because it's so completely ridiculous. The Planet had whispered to her and she was sure she knew what had happened to Zack, even if she had never let herself admit it - but being part of the Lifestream, being one with the Planet, letting herself be what she thinks she was always meant to be... She knew what had happened to Zack. She knew why he didn't come home, why he never replied to her letters.

It wasn't his fault. It wasn't his burden to bear. She would have waited, but she'd known, deep down. ]

Aren't you always? Busy, busy, busy, Mr. SOLDIER.

[ She steps up, though, and nudges his shoulder. ]

I didn't mind. I knew it was important, wasn't it? It meant something to you, what you were doing. That means it's okay.

[He smiles awkwardly at that, offering up a little shrug. She's got him there- he was always busy, and he did regret that. Everything that kept him busy back then seems so insignificant now. His loyalty to ShinRa - the very thing that held him fast to his duties - is shot to hell and will never recover. He fights for different things, now. More personal things.

Or he would, if he hadn't... no, nevermind.

He taps the toe of his boot against the floor, shuffling from one foot to the other. How does he even begin to explain...]

It doesn't... have to be okay. You can be mad at me, y'know.

[Maybe if he'd fought harder, or tried to escape sooner, or kept better track of time... maybe it wouldn't have taken as long as it did.]

[ It's not as if she can blame him, really. Her life was so quiet and boring compared to his - even with the Turks chasing her around and trying to get her to go back with them. It only really picked up when Cloud dropped through her roof, but that... That had just reminded her of the man standing in front of her now. She had missed him, each and every day, and seeing him now felt like almost too much for her to handle, not sure what to do with herself.

But Zack is here right now, and Aerith feels like she's grown up just a little bit since she last saw him. So, instead of being mad, she just laughs quietly. ]

I was mad! For a long time, Zack, I was so mad at you. I waited and waited for you to come back from your mission, but you never did. Then the Planet...

[ Her hands lift and press over her chest, against her heart. ]

Then I knew you weren't coming back, and it didn't feel right to be angry anymore.

You knew...?

[Hah... of course she knew. She had a way of doing that- just knowing stuff whether she ought to or not. Sometimes it could be played off as intuition, but sometimes - times like this - it was so obvious why the Turks wanted her. She was the real deal.

He could say a lot to that - could ask questions, could explain himself, provide excuses. There wasn't a good reason for his long absence but it sure as hell was justifiable. Even when he was free to do so, going back to Midgar was... dangerous. And he'd had Cloud to take care of, too.

But all that is ignoring what he really needs to say. So instead he claps his hands together and ducks his head low.]

I'm so sorry! I was trying really hard to get back!

Mm, well. I always know, don't I?

[ She recognised the change in the Planet, even if she couldn't quite place what on earth was going on. It was strange to realise that she could feel the fact that Zack was gone, somehow, even if she wasn't entirely sure what it meant. Zack just wasn't... Present, and she didn't know it if meant that he was out of her reach or if he was really gone, taken from her somehow. It was one of those things she just couldn't recognise.

Not back then, anyway.

Finally she moves forward, stepping up and moving into his space. It's familiar, to lean into him and tilt her head, to move her attention so she can force him to look at her - it reminds her of what it was like before he'd gone on his mission, before he'd gone away. She doesn't know what to do other than look at him, even with his head low and his expression torn. ]

I know! I didn't wait forever. I did write to you, though. I wrote you so many letters I thought you'd get bored.

[ But then she smiles, arms behind her back again. ]

But it's okay. I had my own adventure to go on.

[The gesture is so familiar that it forms a lump in his throat, and he has to swallow past it as he looks up at her again. They're both older now - it's been painfully long - but she's as bright and sincere as ever, a smiling, encouraging presence that always drove him to keep moving forward, to keep doing his best. She's changed a little, grown into herself probably more than he can recognize, but that part of her will surely never change. He'd missed that. He'd missed her.

Right... the letters. He scuffs a hand through his hair, remembering her last words to him. What would she have thought, if he showed up right after receiving that final letter?]

I never... got any of them. ShinRa wasn't looking to deliver where I was.

[Mail to a lab rat? Or to a fugitive? Yeah right. They'd just wanted him to disappear and for everyone to forget about him. They probably got sent to the shredder at HQ, never to see the light of day. It's incredible that Aerith kept it up for as long as she did with no response at all.]

Except- the last one... I got that one. Number 89.

[ It's been such a long time since she saw him that the nostalgia feels a little thick in her throat. She was so young when they'd first met, so different from who she was now, far more naive than she had ever let herself be - and now she stands in front him so different to who she was before. She wonders if he can tell, if he thinks she's so completely different to who she had been before, and she can't help but let her eyes drink him in, wondering and questioning all at once.

She doesn't want him to think she's different. At heart Aerith knows she didn't change - she just grew up, just a little. She had to let go of so many things that made her a little more childish than she is now. ]

Oh. I thought...

[ Actually... She doesn't know what she thought. All she knew is that she wrote him the letters and didn't hear anything for four years, and then... Then the Planet spoke and she thought... Well, she knew, but she didn't want to admit it to herself. ]

Number 89? You got it? Zack...

...Yeah.

[He doesn't want her to feel guilty for it or anything - it had been a farewell letter, yeah, but it isn't her fault that he up and disappeared on her - so after an awkward pause he shakes the misery off his expression and dusts his hands together, as if that simple gesture could force away that thick unease his absence has caused. He knows he needs to tell her, but... this doesn't seem like the time or the place for it.]

Well! I sure made a mess of things, no denying that. I'll just have to catch up as best as I can from now on. What kind of adventuring have you been up to?

I saw the sky.

[ That's the first thing she says - because she did. She's seen so much of the world, now, and she can only wish that Zack had been there at her side. She wanted to share so much with him, to do so much with him, to keep all the promises they had made one another. Her heart feels warm and heavy all at once, and she doesn't know how to handle the twist of her own emotions.

It's not like it was his fault. He didn't know where SOLDIER would send him. He didn't know what his missions would be. He just followed his orders and his heart all at once. ]

Hmm... I climbed a mountain, and made lots of new friends. I sold lots of flowers, too.

[Oh wow... she really had been busy. Well, he's glad. Her letter had made him worry that she was stuck in the same spot that whole time- trapped in the slums of Midgar, content enough with her flowers, but not necessarily happy. And that's something he'd always wanted for her: happiness. Freedom, too, if she wanted to take it. She could fill the whole world with flowers if she desired it. Or she could see the whole world, love the thrill of adventure, explore everything he's gotten to experience outside of the city. He'd wanted to show her that, if she were to let him, but he'd never wanted to push her boundaries or cause her discomfort.

So... yeah, he's glad. Somehow, she got out.]

And? Was it fun?

[He's trying hard not to sound too eager; he doesn't want her to have to answer in a way that appeases him. But oh, he hopes she had fun.]

[ Aerith wishes that Zack could have been there. She knows the story - or parts of it, at least. She understands why she saw so much of Zack in Cloud, and why she was drawn to him, searching for the man behind the image of a SOLDIER. What she wants now... What she wants is to be able to tell Zack that she had the best time, that she was happy, that nothing went wrong and nothing could upset her now, thinking back, but... Can she lie to him? Can she pretend that everything ends well and that it all worked out>

There's a drop in her stomach and she feels it like a knife sliding through her skin.

She remembers that feeling, too. ]

It was fun. It was the most fun I'd had in a long time.

[ The most fun she'd had since she wandered around the slums with a SOLDIER boy who thought she was an angel. ]

[He wants to believe her, desperately. He wants to accept her at her word and leave it at that, so they can both keep smiling and enjoying one another's company again after so long. She's not smiling, though. She's always worn her heart on her sleeve and there's an unspoken but hanging at the end of her response, a conditional footnote that she can't bring herself to say. It was fun. She might have had fun.

But... something had happened, hadn't it. She'd lied to appease him, after all, hiding her pain for his sake.

Dammit. Dammit.]

You sure don't look like you had much fun.

[He's so frightened of the answer, but this isn't something he can just ignore. What is it?]

It was fun. It was! I promise, it was...

[ But, but. It hangs heavy in the air between them and she has to turn away. She looks up and wishes, somehow, that she could do something to make this better, that she could whisk it away like she did the hurts and pains of others, but... She can't. It's impossible. Instead she has to make do with what she has, and what she has... It's heartache and hurt and, inevitably, death. She doesn't want to tell Zack that, even if she knows the two of them meet again in the Lifestream. She doesn't want to bear the weight of that.

No one else can do it, though. No one else can voice what she can voice. ]

But it didn't last forever. My adventure ended, Zack, and... And that was it.

[ Will he understand? Her hands press over her stomach and she closes her eyes. ]

[Zack's not the smartest guy ever; he can have his dopey, clueless moments, and he follows his heart more than he's ever followed any string of logic. It's just not his way. And it's true that he doesn't always clue in to the hints he's being given.

no, no, no

This, though... this, he can understand. He denies it for as long as he can, grasping at the last few strands of that magical fantasy he'd created in his mind where she was free, safe, living with people who loved her, growing flowers, traveling as she pleased. Everything she'd ever deserved and more.

no, not her

He can't hold on to it. To reject what she's telling him would be cruel, and to ask her to say it, crueller still. She deserves his understanding, his sympathy. He knows what she's not saying because he hasn't said it of himself.

she can't be...!

He feels that same choking pain in his throat, and he can't keep his distance anymore. He steps up to stand behind her and wraps his arms around her, the way she'd done for him years ago, back when Angeal died and his whole life had fallen apart. She'd held him together, then. He's a little late, but it's his turn.

not you too...]

I'm so sorry, [he whispers, his voice hoarse. Sorry for not being there, for not protecting her, for not coming back in time. So much had gone wrong in their lives, and it's not fair.]

[ She can see the moment that the realisation dawns on him and her first instinct is to reach out and soothe him, to try and fix the hurt that seems to be settled over him, overwhelming him. He had promised her, hadn't he? That when she saw the sky he would go with her, that he would protect her - not that she always needed it. It's not as though Aerith was blind to the world, to the dangers of it, and with the Turks around and the slums as dangerous as they were... But the surface was different, and ShinRa was different, and Sephiroth...

As soon as his arms wrap around her she feels a little bit like she's going to break inside, her breath coming out in a sharp gasp. It's a snap and she lifts her hands to cover his, to grip at his fingers with her own as if he can be her anchor once more. She can remember being with him in the Lifestream, watching over him and the two of them watching Cloud together, but this is different. This is a real, physical touch, a real person holding onto her, and it's been so long that she's not sure how to cope with it, with the knowledge that this is real and happening and that he's here.

Slowly, she turns in his arms so that she can wrap her own around his neck, pressing her face into his chest and holding on. She waited for so long, she thinks, and wrote so many letters, hoping and praying for a moment like this, where Zack could come back to her and they could pick up where they had left off, selling flowers and making the world more beautiful. It wasn't meant to be, however, and that dream had been stolen from her.

It had been stolen from him, too. ]

We saved the Planet, Zack. [ Tears gather in her eyes, heavy and thick, and she presses her face harder against him, her voice muffled and quiet thanks to the pressure. ] I found Cloud - no, no, he found me, silly Cloud. He fell through my roof just like you did and he was my bodyguard. He was good, the best, you would have been proud.

[ There's no use trying to explain how she knows that Cloud and Zack knew one another - it's a complicated mess, more than she can put into words, and her focus now is on soothing his pain, on lifting the weight of responsibility from Zack's chest and making him feel better. She'd accepted her fate, after all. ]

I was happy. I promise, I was so, so happy, and I had a good time. The best time.

[ Even if... Even if...

I have twenty-three tiny wishes, but you probably won't remember them all, so I put them all together into one...I'd like to spend more time with you. ]

...Cloud...? You met... he made it...?

[God. God. He'd hoped- he wanted Cloud to make it, even if he couldn't. He wanted to be there, to introduce them, to let Aerith take him under her wing and help to heal his mind. She had that power, she was a healer- not through materia but by her spirit, somehow. She healed just through her presence alone. He thought- maybe they could take him to the church, maybe lay him down with the flowers, and somehow the pieces of his mind would come together again. They'd hang out. They'd go on adventures together. They'd be mercenaries making big money and ducking away from the feds and they'd come back to Aerith with food and fun gifts to make her smile and everything would be perfect.

That dream died with him, but- he'd really hoped Cloud would find her somehow. That he'd know. And that... that she'd know he was trying to come back to her.]

Hah... I always thought... I thought you'd take good care of him... that he'd be okay...!

[His grip tightens a little, clinging with a sliver of desperation, trying to keep from shaking. Somehow, despite everything, they're together again in this place. Whatever that means, whatever the future brings, at least for a moment they can have this.]

He crushed my flowers!

[ But she says it with as much energy and humour as she can muster, trying to repair the cracks in both their hearts. As happy as she had been with Cloud, as much as she adored him and had cherished each moment at her side... She had missed Zack too. Sometimes being around Cloud had been so desperately painful that she hadn't been able to handle it; she had seen so much of Zack in him, so many echoes of this man who had urged her up and given her strength, and it had been almost enough to break her heart all over again. That's why she had been so desperate to see the Cloud behind the image - to see the real him, his heart, his strength.

They were both... They were more than she could put into words. These two men who had been through so much...

She doesn't tell him that Cloud didn't remember. She doesn't tell him that Cloud didn't mention Zack. He's hurting enough already - there's only so much she can do to break his heart when all she wants is to hold onto him and feel his arms around her, familiar and gentle. ]

He was okay, too, in the end. Just like you - strong and silly!

[ But she loved him, and she loved Zack, and her heart burns with it even as her fingers grip the back of his shirt. ]

I wish we could have been together. All three of us. That's my new wish, all of them together. I wish we could sell flowers together under the sky.

...Yeah... me too. I wish- more than anything. That would be amazing...

[He's not much of a salesman, and he doubts Cloud would be one, either. But that was never the point of flower selling. They're such a rare commodity that they're supposed to sell themselves. The point of it had been more... something to do, together. To share in the experience, one another's company. He could buy her entire field of flowers with a SOLDIER's salary but it wouldn't have been as meaningful.

To hear that Cloud's okay... it's one huge relief in the midst of all this heartache. It's not like he saved Cloud, really. Getting him out of Nibelheim was only step 1. Cloud... looks like he saved himself, somehow. Got to Midgar, met Aerith, and even saved the planet, apparently. He'd accomplished so much, it's amazing.

My living legacy... maybe it was too much responsibility, but he pulled it off, somehow. He did it. Cloud... you did good, buddy.]

I'm glad... it wasn't for nothing, then.

[ It doesn't seem like a realistic wish, not with what she knows about the world and her and Zack's place in it, but this isn't home, is it? This isn't the Lifestream. This isn't where they're sat, waiting for Cloud to join them, watching over him with a tenderness that can't be denied. This is a place where she has real hands once more, where she can reach out and touch Zack and know that he's reaching back for her.

Maybe their wish can come true.

Aerith doesn't care about the flowers or the church, not right now, not when she can wrap herself around Zack and pretend as though everything is okay. It had been so long since she had seen him and so much had changed, but at heart they were the same people. Two people that wanted to be together again, that had to wait until the Planet took them back to be able to have it come true.

He's here. She breathes out his name and holds on tighter - he's really here. ]

Do you have any wishes, Zack?

[Wishes... this, right here and now, is at the top of any list of wishes he could have made after Nibelheim. At least a dozen more following it would involve her and Cloud. He laughs quietly, lifting a hand to brush through her hair. He can feel the ribbon there, the one she promised to always wear. Years later and it's still there, sure enough.]

Hah... yeah... yeah, I do. A little more than 23 these days, I think.

[He could probably list off a hundred or more if he really sat down and thought about it.]

It would take a while to say them all, so... I'll just say that I wanna spend more time with the ones I love.

[ There's nothing she wants more than this, she thinks. To be reunited with Zack in person in something she had given up on so many years ago that she can't even rationalise how wonderful it is to have him here again. He's real and warm and solid, and when he speaks she can feel it vibrate through his chest, pressed against her cheek. ]

Well, I think that's okay.

[ She has a few more than that herself, she thinks, a thousand and one silly things she could wish for now that he's here.

Still... She breathes out, closing her eyes, and doesn't dare to think. ]

We could find him, you know. Cloud.

[Zack goes still at that, his breath escaping his lungs in a rush. Cloud... on the edge of death, he'd said his farewells with the assumption that there was nothing to follow, that he'd fade away and join the Lifestream or whatever happens to people when they die. He's not like the others, with their experimental genes that keep bringing them back over and over. He's just a SOLDIER, and as strong as they are SOLDIERs die all the time.

But this... this is unexpected, a second chance he never imagined. Whatever this is, whatever this means... it's hope.

His voice is hushed when he responds, daring to hope.]

You really think we could?

Of course! I always know where he is, you know.

[ And she can always find him, especially when he calls her name. She promised she would wait for him, after all, and he had figured out that she would wait for him, too, whenever he might come join them. It might be sad, the day that Cloud returns to the Lifestream, but at least it means they can all be together again. It's something she wants - she misses him, even if her role is different to what it had been. She was the last of the Cetra, after all; she was always meant to take care of the Planet.

Reaching out, Aerith takes both of Zack's hands in her own, squeezing them gently as she grins. ]

He'll be so happy to see you.

[ And sad, and guilty, and miserable, but happy, too. ]

I sure hope so! It's been a long time.

[Technically he "saw" Cloud just the other day, but Cloud's been lost to the fog of mako poisoning for a long, long time now. Seeing him again as he's meant to be- whole, sane, healthy... yeah, that would be awesome.

He returns the squeeze, twining his fingers through Aerith's. She always knows what to say to make him feel better.]

The feeling's definitely mutual.

[ The thing is that Aerith doesn't quite know how long it's been. There's so much of their history she's completely blind to - and she wants to know. She's desperate to know about everything that Cloud and Zack went through, all the things that made one man she cared so deeply for bleed into another.

Breathing out, she shifts close, wanting to wrap herself around Zack once more but not being sure of the boundaries. They're older, time had gone on, they were together in the Lifestream, but this... This isn't the Lifestream. This is living, and Aerith doesn't want to think about it too hard.

She doesn't want to go back to being afraid of the sky. ]

We'll have to find him as soon as we can! And bring tissues, in case he cries.

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