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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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The door opens and Heather sits upright in her bed, the book she'd been engrossed in now held like a weapon, ready to be thrown at the intruder. Her hands fall when Tifa speaks. She dreaded the day she'd receive a roommate and even prepared herself for it during her first couple of weeks but the day never came, much to her personal delight.

Until now.

Fuck.

"Uh, Heather. I'm Heather Mason," Fuck, fuck, fuck. She watches Tifa warily as she slips her legs over the side of the bed, bare feet touching the floor. Her bleached hair is a mess, frizzy, and clearly no friend of the hairbrush. The rest of her side of the room seems to share the same energy as her hair, messy and a touch chaotic. A controlled chaos, she'd attempt to say. A pile of clothes stacked on her desk chair, an empty water bottle beside her bed next to a myriad of sketchpads, notebooks, and art supplies. A large plush sits at the foot of her bed, a white leather vest hung over its shoulders,"Sorry about the mess, kinda forgot I could end up with a roomie."

A touch sheepish but not enough to imply she's truly apologetic. She's just glad it hasn't spilled to the other side of the room. She can't quite tell what kind of person Tifa is but Heather knows she should probably try to start out on the right foot.

Edited 2019-09-17 21:41 (UTC)

Turns out that working on a rusted out truck can only get so far to leaving a guy distracted throughout the day. There are parts that need scavenged, replaced, repaired or just made by Seifer, and when Seifer isn't free to do it or he's busy, it's not like Nida can go elsewhere easily. It's a long way back to town and if he's already present he should do something with it, right?

Working out was of course the only real option, because that's what they did. They were all warriors, and as much as Nida hated it, falling back on SeeD training was doing a lot for his sanity right now. So he'd done the best thing possible, which was running through practice kata. Oh, but he was doing it blindfolded, because he just needed to do something to truly relax. And moving, just focusing on the stretch and slide of muscles, had been the best thing.

Which was why he didn't seen the woman until the bo, luckily one of wood rather than his normal training metal one in the corner, came down in the 'X'. Good thing he wasn't trying to put too much force into it. Instead one of his hands comes off of his grip and pushes the blindfold off.

And he looks at the woman in shock, jumping back a step.

"What? Who are you?"

Tifa hadn't intended to make the other woman get up, but she gives her head a gentle shake in response to Heather's words. Honestly, this is nothing compared to what she's used to. At least it's just two women sharing a room instead of the huge group they usually have. Controlled chaos with that group was always putting it mildly. Not that Tifa would begrudge any of them, but this is something of a breath of fresh air, even if having another female roommate makes her think rather forcefully of Aerith.

She misses Aerith so much. Every day.

"It's okay," Tifa says, forcing words past the exhausted lump in her throat. "This is clean compared to what I'm used to." Taking a few steps forward, she makes her way over to the untouched side of the room, turning to sit on the edge of the bed. Once there, she starts carefully taking off her gloves, making sure the colored materia fitted into the slots on her weapon still stay in their slots. "On the road, we all shared one or two rooms. The four boys, three girls, one robotic cat on a stuffed moogle, and one... other." Whatever Nanaki's species really is. "So just having one roommate is a whole lot better."

This also means that she can probably sleep through Heather's movements if she needs to, or at least that she won't jump awake at every sound. Just the important ones.

"I just got here about a day ago, so I don't really know a lot about this place yet." Just what she'd been told when she woke up and what Cloud added on. Still not enough, not really.

Fortunately, Tifa doesn't look like she's expending too much energy blocking the pole from hitting her. She manages to disengage, stepping back and letting her arms drop back to her sides as the man also puts space between them. Her expression is one of mild wariness, mostly because he just took a swing at her than because she doesn't know him.

"Tifa Lockhart. I'm Cloud's friend." In a manner of speaking. "Sorry for interrupting you. I didn't know anyone was training back here."

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.

Tifa looks drained and Heather can't blame her. The first couple of days for her had been mentally exhausting; it'd been a lot of information, culture shock, and a distinct sort of lonely ache. Even now, she yearns for home, though home for her is more a person than a place.

"Is there anything you want to know?," she offers after a pause of hesitation. The materia in her gloves catches her eye but she assumes the colored gems are nothing more than an accessory,"I can't promise I know everything, only been here a couple of months, but I can try."

If not, Heather's got plenty of advice for getting by within the city, including the best time to hit the kitchens (surprise, it's when there's less people up).

"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."

Tifa has lived with the ache of homesickness for years at this point and the unfortunate reality is that the place she misses the most no longer exists. Home was burned to the ground and the entire population slaughtered four years ago. Home doesn't exist anymore and she aches for it and the people she lost. So having one more place taken away and another added on... she is drained and that probably isn't going to go away anytime soon.

"Cloud kind of gave me the political rundown," she says tiredly. "But if you have any suggestions on how to survive the days, I'll listen. I still need to figure out what to do with myself while I'm here."

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.

Assuming someone kept an eye on him when he insisted on coming out here, Squall spent most of the day watching whoever else was there work while playing on his phone. He tried to do more things with the personal space he wanted to create but after realizing he had moved the same thing around five times, he stopped.

By the time Tifa explores, he has found and is practicing with the prototype gunblade again. Going at it harder (and a little clumsier) than he should, trying to reassure himself he isn't losing his ability to fight. Seeing her in his way is a shock. He fails to pull back on his swing and slams the unsharpened blade right in the center of her 'X'.

This close, the bandage around his head is obvious. As is his wide eyes.

He steps back warily, breathing hard. His gunblade held in both hands and pointed at her. Did the others tell someone again?

"Who are you?"

"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.

First Nida, now this guy. Tifa really should have been paying better attention to who was around before she went walking through this place. Or asked Cloud to take her around. Really, these responses are normal and she should've expected them. As it is, she lowers her arms to appear less threatening, but her eyes take in the blade still pointed at her as well as the bandage around the guy's head.

"Tifa Lockhart. I'm Cloud's friend," she offers easily. "Sorry for startling you. I should've made more noise when I came in."

"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?"

The commotion over in the training area hadn't gone unnoticed, Seifer just chose to ignore it while he continued to work deeper in the shop. Surely the others could handle themselves against most intruders, if it were anything particularly serious he'd go lend a hand. As it was the altercations died down rather quickly, telling him what whatever was going on out there wasn't anything to worry about.

Once he finally reached a good place to pause in his work he meandered his way toward the training area, his little reptilian dog hopping up to join him as soon as he was away from the fire and loud noises. Spotting the newcomer he offered a cautious nod, lifting his goggles to scrutinize her.

"I hear that right, you a friend of Cloud's?" If that's the case then she's fine to hang around.

In Squall's current state, he probably would have missed her even if she made noise. Between her standing down and the mention of Cloud, he eases up and lowers his weapon. Cloud doesn't seem like the type who'd just tell a random friend about this place (or make friends to begin with). He frowns, trying to work it out.

"Are you his girlfriend?"

"Good, I hate having to talk politics." pass on some gratitude to Cloud on her part.

Her expression quickly becomes thoughtful, cherry picking the information she thinks might help most. Finally, she sighs,"The city can be kind of a bitch to navigate, almost as if it's always changing. One time a street will lead you a bar, the next a smoke shop. The network, our phones, are definitely being watched, lots of censorship."

Now, on ways to kill time.

"Luckily, there are a ton of places to get work. I got a bar-tending job in less than a week," with zero experience. Lying gets you places,"and it sometimes seems as if every place is hiring. I mean, if you want more than the measly 200 duos you get a month."

"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?"

At least one of them isn't caught in the middle of a routine. Tifa turns at the sound of the new voice, taking in the look in this man's eyes and the scar across his face. He doesn't look too bad and a healthy suspicion might just keep them all alive.

"That's right," she says, stepping forward to offer him a hand to shake. "Tifa Lockhart. I haven't been here as long as he has."

"Sounds great," she says with a resigned sigh. Why is she not surprised to hear that everything is being monitored? Everything she hears just reeks more and more of Shinra. She'll just have to be careful.

"So if I want to live and not just survive, get a job. Well, if there are bars hiring, I can do that. I ran a bar back home."

The one missing out on the fun of challenging everyone else to fights. It's alright though, he's making great progress on... an unnecessary number of weapons he's not offered to anyone. They're just there. In an ever growing pile. Several piles honestly. He has a problem.

He took the offered hand in a firm handshake, offering a nod and something that might almost be a smile if you squint. He doesn't smile much, sorry Tifa.

"He probably should'a warned us you were comin'," He offers with a wry smirk. Yeah he heard the commotion. "Nice to see he's got some friends from home around now. Known him long?"

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."

Of all the questions Tifa was expecting to have leveled at her, the one Squall gives her next was decidedly not on the list. She looks stricken at first, shock and embarrassment coloring her face and flushing her cheeks.

"What?! N-no! We're just friends. We've known each other a long time. That's all."

Maybe one of them might like it to be more, but that's all Tifa is willing to admit to now. At least out loud.

Edited 2019-09-29 20:56 (UTC)

Oh. That sounds reasonable.

"Why are you blushing?"

It's an offhand question. Even though the reaction is a little suspicious he's not going to push a denial. He's completely relaxed now, holding the gunblade at his side.

"Is Cloud here?"

Her brow lifts up at Tifa's response; she hadn't expected her to be a bartender (a musician, maybe, given her appearance and mention of cramped traveling),"You won't have to look hard to find a place. There are a ton of bars and clubs all over the city and given that everyone seems to be pretty happy to pass the time drinking, they could always use another bartender."

In fact, there are a fair amount of entertainment venues in a wide variety throughout the city. Heather often wonders if it's all there to distract or placate them.

"I'll have to hit you up for tips, sometime. I'm still getting used to the job myself."

"I should've been paying more attention to who was around me," she counters, though she appreciates that no one had tried to stab her on purpose when she turned up. She might have interrupted a few training sessions and gotten a sword or two pointed at her, but at least when she explained she was a friend of Cloud's, everyone had been quick to lower their weapons. It probably helped that she'd lowered her fists first.

Her grip is firm and strong in their handshake and she nods in response. "We grew up together," is her quick answer. "So, yes. Before I asked him to join AVALANCHE with me, we hadn't seen each other in a few years. But we've known each other for a long time."

"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."

He's not about to disagree with her, getting caught unaware by people training wasn't speaking highly to her awareness. Though she didn't take any blows to the head so that was worth something. Cloud was well liked around the shop, so a friend of his was a friend of theirs.

He lets out a whistle. "Damn, that long?" They really did go back. "He's told me a little about where he comes from and what's going on there. With the reactors and all." That's what AVALANCHE was about, right? He thinks that's what that was about. The life force of the planet and all.

Tifa nods at the mention of reactors. At least that's one thing she won't have to worry about telling him. She doubts anyone knows the truth about Nibelheim, but she'll get there when she has to.

Besides, not dealing with important, confusing things seems to be her forte. Especially where Cloud is concerned.

"That's what started it all. Now we're trying to stop Shinra and Sephiroth from destroying the whole Planet."

Because it wasn't just bad enough with Shinra and the reactors. Now it's also Sephiroth and Meteor. Tifa remembers the way the giant red ball looked when she woke up in Shinra's care.

"It's been... a lot harder than we all thought it would be."

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( OPEN )

room 302

Metalworks - Oops that's his pole!

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Metalworks

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Metalworks, after she's met more of the crew

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