driftfleet_ooc | Summer Test Drive! (Calibrations edition!)

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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

[ 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.

[Yeah... maybe later, Aerith. There's a lot he could tell her, but it's kind of the most horrible thing ever and he doesn't know about her history and therefore is way more keen to protect her from that information. So, you know. Let's not spoil the mood.

He's not so fussed about boundaries- at least, not now that she's shown him that she's okay with it, so when she's near to him he closes the distance to wrap an arm around her.]

I might need a few myself. Can't say I expected anything like this.

I didn't either. I thought I would have to wait forever to see him again.

[ Being a part of the Lifestream isn't like being a person, after all. She could go to Cloud and talk to him, but really being there with him? Really being at his side, talking to him, supporting him? That's something different, something entirely detached from her position as something more spirit-like, and she only hopes that Cloud is as happy to see her as she will be to see him.

She knows he's around. She can feel it.

It's easy to get caught up in Zack, though, and the arm around her has her relaxing, just enough for her to lean against him and tilt her head up. ]

What will I do if you both cry, hm?

Hmmm...

[He makes a show of looking very serious as he ponders it, ending it off with a casual shrug. As sad as this whole thing is, it's... pretty difficult to stay sad when they're both here, alive and well. He'd much rather try to forget what they're not talking about and enjoy this unexpected time they have.

Getting cozy doesn't hurt, mind.]

Cry with us, obviously! There's no shame in happy tears.

But if I cry then you'll cry even more and we'll never stop!

[ At least she's smiling, and the prospect of crying from happiness isn't something at all daunting. Instead, it's something that a part of her thinks she might actually be looking forward to - being able to find and grasp some happiness after such a long time being sad and unsure and almost lonely.

Cloud deserves to be happy, doesn't he? Doesn't Zack?

Doesn't she? ]

Zack... [ Shifting, she leans her head against his shoulder. Speaking of happiness... ] I'm glad.

[Oh, screw it. He goes ahead and tugs her into a proper hug again, daring to press his lips briefly to her hair. He can't not. Her joy is infectious and he's got plenty of his own without her help.]

Yeah... me too. More than I ever thought.

[Who could have imagined, facing down an army of guns, that he'd get this chance?]

[ Oh! She stumbles into the hug, but her arms are around him quickly enough; it's familiar and warm and it reminds her of a thousand things she had thought she'd forgotten. Zack was such a huge part of her life, someone she had never really been able to move on from, and now he's back her joy is overwhelming. She's surprised he can't feel it bubbling over. ]

I... [ What does she even say? Leaning back, she tilts her head. ] You're really real, aren't you.

[ This isn't a dream or a fantasy or part of the Lifestream. This is real and Zack is solid under her fingers, under her palm as she touches his cheek. ]

[He lifts a hand to press it over hers, fingers curling. Is this real? So much of it feels ethereal, two people who supposedly died here and alive again, by some great miracle. He's seen people return after he thought they'd died before, but that had never been about resurrection, just his own perception versus their strength. And he can't imagine that anything could have saved him, especially if Aerith herself felt him pass.

At the same time, he can't deny the sensations he knows are legit- her hand beneath his, the sound of her voice, that look in her eyes. It's not a dream, not a hallucination. He's had those before, and if they'd ever been like this he would never have escaped Nibelheim.

So, at last, he exhales quietly and offers up the best, brightest smile he can muster.]

Feels pretty real to me. How about you?

[ Each touch makes her feel as though she could fly, and it's an incredible feeling. It feels ridiculous to be so happy that she can just reach out and touch someone, but after so many years... After such a long time... Aren't they allowed this? Aren't they allowed to be happy, to have these moments? She thinks that, surely, after all that they went through, they're allowed to have their moments of happiness. They're allowed to wrap around one another, they're allowed to reach out and draw one another close...

This can't be fake. This can't be unreal. Leaning up, Aerith shifts, pressing her face into Zack's shoulder, breathing him in for a moment. His smile is so beautiful, so handsome, and she had never let herself think about it for too long before now. She'd miss him too much and the ache inside of her, the one she had learned to ignore, would have consumed her. The Planet was already whispering too much, she couldn't let this take more of her mind and her heart.

It's okay now. This is okay. They're okay. ]

Mhm. It feels real. I don't want it to go away.

I don't plan on going anywhere. Not this time.

[Not ever again, if he can help it. He's learned his lesson, and he's done with ShinRa, with SOLDIER, with all of it. No more mako, no more scientists, no more Sephiroth or S-Cells or G-Cells or Jenova or any of it. Even if he's a dead man walking, he wants to hold on to this for as long as he can.

If this is a second chance for both of them, then... haven't they earned this?]

Good.

[ She doesn't want to let go of them again, not really. She doesn't want to give them up. Haven't they earned this? It keeps rolling around in her head - they deserve some kind of happiness after all they've been put through. She's just not sure how to grasp it when it seems so wildly out of her reach.

Instead, she leans up, touching her forehead to his jaw. ]

You have to help make my wish come true.

[Her wish, huh... the one he'd never forget, the amalgamation of all she wanted from him into one, because she knew him so well. It makes him smile, stroking a hand through her soft hair.]

You got it. And since our wishes just happen to cross over, we can work on both together. And I bet Cloud has a similar wish, too.

Mm, I think so.

[ It's easy to lean back, to look at him, to be filled with awe and wonder all over again. Will the feeling ever get old? Will it always be new and novel? ]

I can't wait for us to be together again.

Same here... waiting is the hard part, geez.

[But at least they're in good company this time around. He smiles and leans in to touch his forehead against hers. Even the smallest touch is enough to soothe the most frazzled of nerves, and he's so fresh from his own death that if he thinks too deeply about it, he might just fall apart. Seeing her here, out of anyone he could have found in the world, hell, in the universe... it feels like fate.]

You don't need to tell me that.

[ She waited for years and years for Zack to come back only to realise he never would, and now she has to wait a lifetime for Cloud to join them. She doesn't wish ill on him, of course, and she knows when his time will come he'll be at their side, but it doesn't make it any easier. This is better, she thinks, with certainty. This is better because there's no sadness or death or pain - they're just together again, how it should have been from the beginning. ]

You're going to stay with me, aren't you, Zack?

[ She reaches up, her hand touching his cheek. All she knows is that she can't lose him again - she refuses to say goodbye. ]

[He lifts his hand to cup around hers, lips curving into a broader grin.]

Yeah... hell yeah. I don't wanna be anywhere else.

[In his younger days he'd always been a bit wild- eager for adventure, thirsting for a fight, loving it all the while - as Aerith herself had said, the day they first met, it was the way of SOLDIER. But over time, getting to know her better, spending his free time in her company, he'd become less and less satisfied with his missions. In part because of how dark those days had been, sure, but also because it dragged him away from her time and again. It was exhausting. He'd missed her. She'd managed to tame the monster; Angeal would've laughed.

He'd thought, so often in Nibelheim, about that last phone call. Vowing to call her back. Never getting the chance.

God, he's had enough of walking away from her.]

Aerith... I'm gonna stay this time.

[ His smile makes hers widen, and she leans closer. ]

Good! I don't want you to go anywhere, you hear me?

[ There's a moment where all she can feel is a rush of warmth, leaning close and pressing herself against him just because she can. She had lived a very long time waiting for Zack - waiting for a call or a letter or for him to drop into the church and say hello, sometimes never getting anything for a long time. Knowing that she can wake up and he'd be there, or she could call him and he would pick up... It's still something completely miraculous to her and it bubbles deep inside her.

If she could just wrap her arms around him and never let go... If she could hold on... ]

I'll stay too. We can stay together.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Summer Test Drive! (Calibrations edition!)

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