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WHO: Tifa and open + two closed sections
WHAT: Tifa explores, meets her roommate, and visits the forge
WHERE: around the city, Dorm room 302, the forge
WHEN: early Sept, before vaccine event things
WARNINGS: will update with any relevant ones

exploration - OPEN

After finding Cloud and Vincent, Tifa takes on a goal of exploration. She'd gotten the idea of the place and a feel of how frustrating trying to get anywhere is. But she hasn't had any real experience outside of her arrival. So she wants to try to find out what she can, learn more about this city and the inhabitants, and hopefully learn her way around the city as much as is possible.

Places of note are the park, where she takes a second time to look around. She'd been so busy trying to find Cloud that she hadn't really looked around all that much. Now, she wants to see it. She also walks into Koenig's Fitness and Recreation, surprised by the gym's looks. Wearing her full gloves and arm guards, she probably looks like someone to be concerned about, but she lifts a hand in greeting and chooses to hang back until she figures out what she can really do here.

If anyone catches her attention, she is willing to talk and get to know people along her way.

room 302 - CLOSED to sharon

Overwhelmed has been the state of Tifa's mind for quite a while now and her introduction to this city hasn't really helped that much. Cloud's presence has been the most stabilizing force since she got here, but finding out that his memories contradict hers yet again keeps tearing at that stability. She hardly knows what to believe as far as Nibelheim; having to hold back so much else is really beginning to take its toll and she hasn't even been here all that long.

She manages to find her dorm room easily enough and after taking a few deep breaths, she presses her hand to the biometric lock system. As the door unlocks to let her in, she pushes it open and takes a step inside. Her eyes take in the layout of the room before the silhouette of someone else inside. Probably her roommate.

"Hi," she says, gently closing the door behind her. "My name's Tifa. I guess I'm your new roommate."

Firecross Metalworks - open to anyone who would be at the forge

The last stop on Tifa's list is the forge Cloud told her about. It takes her a day or so to make her way over there, but eventually, she can be found making her way inside. Glancing through the bowels of the junkyard, she tilts her head, wondering if Cloud really has the right place. It isn't like him to try to play a practical joke on her.

"Cloud?" she calls, making her way further inside.

Eventually, she finds one of the training areas. They look well-maintained, or at least maintained enough, and people seem to be using them. She does her best to stick to the outskirts, but not even that really saves her. She turns at just the wrong moment, just in time to spot someone twirling a weapon in her general direction - whether it's a pole or a sword or a buster sword, she can't tell. She reacts instinctively, shifting her feet to take her weight evenly as she lifts both arms into the shape of 'X' in front of her head, far enough out to keep whatever the weapon is from hitting her. Gritting her teeth, she digs her heels in, not about to let whatever or whoever this is take a chunk out of her.

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Well, he's definitely impressed by how easily the woman takes the blow, and when she disengages he tucks the staff behind him, so that it's not a potential threat. Even offers her a small smile before he seems to break a bit. He wants to know who he's dealing with, and when she tells him, his face passes right past polite welcome to deep regret.

Cloud.

"I... it's okay. You didn't know. He, uh... I'm Nida. You should probably avoid me. Cloud doesn't really like me. Which is completely fair. I'm sort of an asshole."

The look on her face morphs to something more quizzical, like she doesn't understand why he would be saying all of this. "You haven't done anything to me," she points out calmly. A moment passes before she adds on, "Cloud can sometimes be... hard to get along with."

He wasn't always, she wants to say, but she holds that back. She still has too many things to deal with where Cloud is concerned and right now she should be focusing on Nida.

"It's nice to meet you, Nida," she says, offering him a gloved hand to shake.

"Yeah, so can a surly drunk," Nida sighs, shaking his head. This is just a mess. He can't begin to explain to her just how he messed up and how he's pretty sure Cloud would prefer to not have his friends interacting with Nida.

"It's..."

Still, it's rude not to accept an offered greeting, so he offers his hand out to her as well, shaking hers briefly.

"You as well. You've got good moves. Or so I'd assume, from how you blocked."

Good thing Tifa doesn't just follow orders like not trying to be someone's friend. Unless Nida turns out to be some kind of killer behind the scenes, Tifa doesn't see any reason why she shouldn't at least try to befriend Nida.

The surly drunk comment gets the edge of her mouth to quirk upwards. "I know a thing or two about handling both types. I used to run a bar back in Midgar." So judging by what she knows of Cloud and any kind of drunkard, her guess is that they just had a personal conversation that just went really sour really fast. Not that she's going to voice that guess. It isn't her place at all and she doesn't want to make Nida more uncomfortable than he obviously is already.

Her grip is tight, firm without being bone-crushing, and gives him enough of a hint as to her strength and sincerity.

"I've been training at hand-to-hand combat for several years. Came in handy on the road a few times. I'm guessing the weapon you're holding now is your preferred one?"

Oh, he's a killer. Just not here. Just not now.

"Midgar. That's where you're both from?" Yeah, Nida's learned next to nothing about their giant-sworded friend. Not a damn thing.

Still, he's left whistling at the grip.

"I'll say. Zell would be jealous of that grip. A martial artist I worked with back home. And yeah, I'm a polearms specialist. This is just a practice bo. That one over there is normally what I work with," he says, turning his attention to the wall and gesturing to a six foot iron pole. The thing is heavy, and good for muscles.

"Sort of," Tifa corrects gently. She always has been the more open of the two, even now when she's still trying to sort through their conflicting memories. "Our hometown is Nibelheim, but Midgar is where we both were living before... well, before we had to start traveling."

World travel that happens to involve saving the world from Shinra and a bunch of other things that she hasn't even told Cloud yet.

She glances over to the wall to see the pole Nida mentions. "That looks like something Cid would like," she comments. "He used polearms, too. Spears mostly, I think. Well, if you're ever looking for a sparring partner, I could always use the practice."

Before we had to start traveling. Now that is an interesting word choice. In fact, it implies a lot more. But what, exactly, David doesn't know. Not in the slightest.

A sparring partner, though? He laughs.

"I don't know that we'd be a good fit in a fight. I'm a longer ranged melee combatant, you're hand to hand, right? Quick, inside my defenses quite immediately. I'd have my ass kicked. I'm terrible at hand to hand. I'm trained as a monster hunter. Against humans I'm more an ambush predator."

It's honest. But damn, he wants it.

"Well, there's no reason not to practice," she points out mildly. Besides, she could probably use the practice, too, given how many times she's had to fight Shinra soldiers over the years. And that experience could've helped her fight Sephiroth, Shinra prodigy or no.

"Or one of us could do something out of our comfort zone. Learning a new combat style could help us fight that same style in the future." A practical use for practice. "Or we could just talk about our experiences for now." Until they get to know each other a little better.

"It's... been a while since someone tried to teach me. Mostly it's just Seifer and I beating each other up. Or Jason beating us up."

Because he's not emotionally read ready to deal with teaching someone else his skills. Not after... Well, it doesn't matter how that sentence finishes. What matters is moving to the side of the room and putting the wooden pole, and his blindfold, aside.

"So you're... friends with Cloud. Don't suppose I can get some advice while you're knocking me around?"

"I can try," Tifa offers as she watches Nida set his equipment to the side. He already knows how to use his body and weight as a fighter. She just has to teach him how to use his fists as his weapons, not as extensions of his weapons.

"A lot of my training involved learning to use my whole body as my weapon," she explains. "I don't need to pick up a weapon to be an effective fighter. I am a weapon. My mentor had me learning specific movements and then I learned to put them together in combat."

She demonstrates Beat Rush before turning back to Nida. "What's been going on with Cloud?"

Okay, Beat Rush looks a bit familiar, and he smiles. It's like being home, for half a second, watching Zell showing off. But he starts stretching more as he returns to face her, finally shaking out his hands.

"I learned some hand to hand. But I'm not the greatest at it. All Garden Cadets learn basic hand to hand. But I know I'm no specialist. I wouldn't mind learning."

But then she's asking the question and the smiles are replaced by cringing.

"I was... drunk. Grieving over the fact that my boyfriend, who I was looking to propose to, disappeared. That happens, or did back in the other place I was. They go home, and they never remember you. I lost the man I love and he found me at my lowest point. I wasn't a nice drunk. I was a complete and total asshole and so scared about losing people that I may have tried to keep him away from our friends here, the ones that won't even notice me when we get back home because of who I am there. And I'm frankly surprised he didn't shove me off the roof. Looked ready to. I would have deserved it."

"That's smart of them to teach you even the basics." Whatever "Garden" is, they had at least given the cadets that much to help them. It's more training than a lot of soldiers seem to get.

She tilts her head a little as he explains the situation. It's hard for her to really get a picture of what happened from this outsider's view. Whatever words were exchanged probably hit both of them a little too hard. "The alcohol probably didn't help," she muses. "I've seen plenty of drunks coming through my bar back at home and emotions like that don't go well with too many drinks." But that isn't really what Nida needs to hear, so she mulls it over for a little longer. "Cloud is... hard to befriend these days, but once he's your friend, he's very protective. He just doesn't like to show that much anymore. Not after Nibelheim."

She's fairly certain Cloud won't have told anyone about that here.

"You could try talking to him, explaining it and apologizing. And I can put in a good word for you."

There's no guarantee that her word will help at all, but she likes to think that Cloud trusts her enough to take her opinion into consideration. They've been through enough for it.

Nibelheim? Nida doesn't even know what in the world she's referring to. So there's that, and he lets it slide off.

"We... don't talk. It's hard to get close because I'm afraid I'm going to upset him. But you should probably get to know me a bit before you decide to give me a good word. I mean, I could actually be a terrible person."

He smiles lightly at that comment. As if it's a joke. But he probably is. Still, he does start to stretch, though, clearly eager to start learning.

"Please don't completely break me with this? I do have to work tomorrow."

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