That's...a lot of water. [Open]

[Marlene Wallace]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,10,true][atrb=style, background-color: #fff; width: 450px, bTable] SOMEONE LIKE YOU

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“What a day,” the six year old whispered to herself as she shut the door behind her.

She was under the care of both Cloud and Tifa today. She had been given next to a billion chores to finish. She’d probably be less warn out if she had managed to set time aside the previous day to get half of them done, but she really wasn’t feeling up to code health wise. The girl felt like she was coming down with something, but she didn’t want to mention it to any of the adults. Marlene wasn’t the type of girl to want anyone to have to worry more than they had to. Besides, she was sure it was nothing. She passed it off as a little cold. There was no use in getting the people who cared about her jumbled up over something that could turn out to be nothing. She was usually lucky enough not to get sick, so she doubted there was anything seriously wrong with her. She had a luck streak when it came to diseases, why would she be lucky enough to bypass less spectacular sicknesses?

Taking a moment to double check, the brunette decided that she was done for the day. Her list had been full-filled, and it was finally her time to settle down for the night. There was nothing she wanted more at that moment. Sleeping might have been just the thing to get rid of the ill feelings she was experiencing.

Marlene dug through her dresser drawers, ruffling through all of the clothes she kept with Tifa. She came over so often while Barret was busy that she had her own room. Tifa’s had become sort of a second home for the girl. She felt as comfortable there as she did when she was with her adoptive father. Besides, Tifa was the closest thing to a mother figure she had, since she was one of the few woman taking a major part in the young girl’s life. When she couldn’t find her pajamas, she came to the realization that she must have forgotten to do the laundry. Great, she thought to herself. That made her look like she was being even lazier. How could she let such a simple chore slip her mind? It was on her check list, but she must have skipped over it twice. This was obnoxious. She really wasn’t herself today. She was making all sorts of mistakes with her simple every day things. She assumed she could just blame it on a possible cold. She really didn’t want to sink down to the idea that she might actually be sick, but she was running out of explanations. After all, what else could have been wrong with her?

Shaking her head, Marlene took the dirty laundry from next to her bed in her small arms. It looked like it was overflowing, and covered her face. She walked over to the metal crate she usually used and threw them in there. Sighing, she picked her crate up and barely managed to turn her door handle. When she did, she pushed the door open with her tiny hip and exited the room.

As Marlene walked down the hallway of the home of her baby-sitters, she began to feel a little dreary. She didn’t really think anything of it, but then her eyes began to get heavy. She shook her head, attempting to clear it. It was no use. Only moments later, the room was moving around her, dancing in blobs of color and funny abstract shapes.

“How weird…” Marlene whispered to herself.

What was this? Had she fallen asleep? Marlene continued to move forward, suddenly feeling the weight of the basket increase. Her arms felt as though they were being pulled down with force, and it slipped out of her hands. Clothes fell out of both sides, and she tripped over the crate it’s self after she continued to try walking forward in a daze. She fell face first into the hard, cold floor. Her head smacked against it with enough force to bounce back up once and then fall back down. The colors and shapes she saw before began to blend together. It was only minutes before the colors faded into one.

Darkness.

That was the last thing Marlene saw before she opened up her up her brown eyes. The first thing that appeared to her was a wooden structure. Marlene blinked twice, trying to regain her focus. Their floor at her second home wasn’t made out of wood. She wondered how Cloud managed to remodel the floor with her sleeping on it. She brushed that thought away fast. Cloud wouldn’t be the type to not move her to bed before doing such a thing. Although he didn’t always show it, she knew he cared about her.

Marlene slowly sprung herself into a sitting position. She blinked twice once again, confused by what she saw. Water. It was just, water…. This was incredibly strange to the young girl. Looking down again, she realized that she must have been sitting on a dock. How was this even possible? Wasn’t she just at home? Unless there was some time continuum rift, this just wasn’t possible. The simpler explanation would be that someone moved her, but that idea didn’t play it’s self in her head. Marlene rubbed the bump on her head. It was there, and it hurt. She began to get the feeling that she was, indeed, awake.

“Cloud?” Marlene called out. “Tifa?”

CODED BY LADY RAINICORN @ CAUTION

I have no notes.
I used 942 words.
This thread is open.

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[bunny]

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[atrb=style, width:300px; text-align:justify;] T his new world teemed with life. There were creatures she'd never seen, flowers she'd never seen. Trees grew to magnificent proportions, and waters ran crystalline. In the air, Aerith tasted no acrid traces of pollution, no reminders of a corporation built upon the backs of the poor. This world, despite the troubles that hung on the edges like whispers, was like the Lifestream made corporal. Possibility was palpable. Tenacious hope was tangible. Though there were bubbling questions of why and how and where, Aerith did not cower in this strange world. Though it was so different than Gaia, she did not fear it. It had been a week since she awoke on the coast of New Bodhum. It had been an abrupt, ungraceful affair where she choked up a stomach full of water and scared the smallest of children that had seen her floating body being rocked by the tide. It seemed that Aerith would never fully escape death and rebirth by lake and sea. Cloud had laid her to rest beneath the waves, and a man named Sansa dragged her out again. The barrage of questions that had greeted her were met with wide-eyed stares and dry quips about her luck in life before the gentleman who saved her from dying a second time ushered away all spectators, offering a hand and a bed until she was ready to face the truth. That she was very, very far from home. A week had past, and though Aerith did not fear this world, she also did not accept it. Though she had questions pressing against the back of her teeth, she could not find the voice to speak them. Though Aerith loved the things that she saw, she could not move past the passive, strange awe that kept her rooted, unable to move forward or back. So she returned, every day, to the dock where she'd found life again. Garbed in unfamiliar hues of blue and green and pelts of animals that loomed larger than she stood tall, Aerith turned her back on the bustling activity of New Bodhum and watched the waves. As they rolled in, she breathed in. As they rolled out, out came an unsteady exhale. And that's when she saw it. It was a flicker-- No, a shimmer twinkling just on the edge of her peripheral vision. Hands placed flat against splintering wood, Aerith twisted to properly face the spot just above the dock where the air wavered and the colors swirled. For a brief second-- as a leg formed-- she worried that it was a creature ready to attack. A scramble to stand followed the conjecture. The shifting movements to flee did not. "You just appeared. To the lot of them, it was as if the waves washed up your corpse, but I saw. There was something weird going on just above where you showed up. Like... A heat wave." Could it be that someone else was finding their way into Gran Pulse? Would they be Cloud? Zack? Tifa? Would they even be from Gaia? If she could travel so far from her world into one she didn't know existed, perhaps there were others who would come from other worlds equally as foreign and wonderful. Her fingers curled into expectant fists, dropping first to her hips before rising against her chest. Though her gaze flickered briefly to see if anyone else saw what she did, Aerith didn't take her eyes off the forming figure for less than a second. And in that second, Marlene appeared. It was so unexpected. Of all the names rushing forth in her vain hope that she would not be alone in this strange world, a child's did not come to mind. Though this world was beautiful, it was also dangerous. Marlene deserved to be on a Gaia rid of the threat of ShinRa, tucked into bed between Cloud and Tifa when nightmares plagued her. She didn't deser-- And just as the worry and confusion washed over Aerith, so did the relief and the love and the appreciation to see someone she'd watched over. She dropped into a crouch, flexed her fingers experimentally and easily softened the worried expression creasing her brows. No fear, she thought. No fear. Not waiting for Marlene to turn and spy her, Aerith spoke, a joking tone lacing her words as if there were nothing wrong, "You shouldn't be wandering off on your own, you know. Tifa and Cloud will worry."

© OXYMORON

[Marlene Wallace]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,10,true][atrb=style, background-color: #fff; width: 450px, bTable] SOMEONE LIKE YOU

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Marlene starred off into the glistening water for a few more moments, completely lacking any action what-so-ever. Something seemed so wrong here. It just wasn't possible to pass out one place and wake up in another. She was a strong girl, so her tears where going to have to wait for another time. First, she needed to figure out what she was going to do from here. Perhaps she'd be able to find some people? Maybe someone would be able to take her home. It did cross her mind that the possibility of Cloud, Tifa, of Barret being near by might have been an answer, but decided against it when she realized that none of them would put her on a pier where she could so easily just roll over on the water. Marlene took a deep breath, finally letting her vision break from the water as her eyes trailed down to her lap.

Her ears perked up as she heard what appeared to be the sound of foot steps. That was a good sign, that meant she wasn't alone. Marlene swung her head around to see who was approaching. Aerith! Wasn't she....dead? At least, that's what Marlene had been told. She had been stabbed by Sephiroth, so how was this possible? Was....Marlene dead to? The thought sent a shiver down her spine and she let a few of her held back tears fall down her face. She didn't want to be dead! She was only six years old and had so much of her life set before her. She must have been so much sicker then she thought. If she'd only mentioned it to Cloud or Tifa then maybe she wouldn't be in this mess. Maybe they could have helped her and saved her from this fate.

"Aerith!" Marlene exclaimed as she made her way to where Aerith was crouching and grabbed hold of her arm. "Am I dead too?!"

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Marlene completely ignored her scolding about running off alone, because that wasn't the case at all. Besides, there were bigger issues. She might have been dead! Aerith probably meant that she ran away from Cloud and Tifa and got herself killed! Marlene as getting light headed again, ignoring the fact that she probably wouldn't be feeling something like that if she really had been dead. The worry flushed over her face as she stared at Aerith.
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CODED BY LADY RAINICORN @ CAUTION

Sorry that it's kind of short compared to your reply, but it's my eleventh post in a row between sites.
I used 411 words.
This is a reply to Aerith.

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[bunny]

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[atrb=style, width:300px; text-align:justify;] T here was confusion. Consternation. Fear. Though Aerith knew that it wasn't her person specifically causing such an unfavorable reaction, but rather the presence of a someone Marlene knew to be dead, it still wasn't enough to avoid the threatening frown wrinkling at the corners of her mouth. As her arm was reached for, Aerith offered it. As a question was offered, she answered it with a shake of her head. She flexed her free hand and shifted forward, brushing for the falling tears with the backs of her fingers, the unhappy set of her lips twisting into a reassuring smile. "If you keep crying like this, I'll start to think you don't want to see me, Marlene." There was a pause. Then, Aerith grew a little more serious. "You're not dead. You're just a little far from home. "You're--," she stopped again, this time in uncertainty. Her parted lips closed, and Aerith considered exactly how she would tell Marlene what she was still struggling to accept and understand. All those questions she never asked could come tumbling out of the little girl's mouth, and Aerith would be no help at all with clearing the haze.

© OXYMORON