closed 🌠 pick a star on the dark horizon

[starshower]

Who: Tifa & the ex-SOLDIER boys
What: Closed catch-all for October.
Where: Around
When: October
Content Warnings: N/A for now, except for maybe the horrifying cactuarbears.

𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳. ♫

Comments

[starshower]

[Hopefully the machine will be magically fixed by the time the next person comes around...]

That one looks like a winner.

[With her own capsule in hand, she lights up with excitement the moment he shows her the one he's chosen. That's definitely the lucky one! This is it! Whatever is inside these capsules is going to be great, no matter what it is. She knows it's not going to be anything big, but the real fun is in getting them.]

On three again? One, two— [And when she pops the lid off of hers, her excitement quickly droops into disappointment.] Oh. Nothing...

[And such is the life of gacha... Throw yourself at it as hard as you can and get nothing.

She peers over at Cloud's expectantly, waiting for something bigger and better.]

[memorate]

[ Likewise, he shares her disappointment when he reveals that his capsule doesn't contain anything either. Not that he was expecting much in the first place, but failing to win her anything is starting to feel like a personal failure. They were so sure that this was the one!

Quick to hide his indignation, he squats down again to open up a few more of the capsules, but so far every one of them is turning out to be worthless. ]

The hell is this? Some kind of scam?

[starshower]

[Tifa does the same, pocketing her empty capsule to free up her hands for pulling more. One, two, three, four, five... She's guessing that they're all the same too, and she drops them back into the pile, but her disappointment is quick to wane as an amused laugh comes from her side of the capsule heap.

She lifts another and grabs Cloud by the hand, slapping it into his palm.]

Could be, or maybe we just used up all our good luck.

[Or someone got to the winning capsules before they did! At any rate, she's still having fun and that's what matters, right? And neither of them had to spend a single gil to do it.]

Hold onto this anyway. Maybe something'll show up in there later, kinda like the fridge at Strife's Bites.

[memorate]

Yeah, well, I never relied on luck anyway.

[ A true SOLDIER gets by on their skill alone! Nevermind the fact that he's definitely survived some things by sheer luck. ]

Everything I ever won was by my own hand.

[ From Jules' challenges to Rhodea's... earrings... but she doesn't need to know about any of that. ]

[starshower]

[Well, she doesn't have to know about it, sure... but she does.

Tifa's hands clasp around his for a moment before she steps away, careful not to slip on any of the "prizes" covering the floor, her grin only widening as she looks away—anywhere but at Cloud.]

By your own hand? [ ... ] Not your hips?

[memorate]

Huh?

[ Since he has no reason to suspect she's referencing that incident, he appears to be confused as he checks his own hips after her comment. Is there something going on with his hips?

He would ask her, but that would mean admitting that he doesn't know what she's talking about. He never likes to admit that he's clueless! ]

What kinda merc do you take me for?