☈ strike #14 (action / voice)

[thestormishere]

[ After the whole fiasco with having to take down Jack Horner's dragon form, Lightning's been thinking a lot lately-- namely, about her own trouble with maintaining a human form and fallout from failing against her will several months ago- both things which, frankly, she's been trying to avoid.

However, she can't just keep ignoring it forever, can she? Especially considering that ever since then, even if she's continued to grow slowly stronger and is currently safe from the ramifications of an active l'Cie Brand... the 'penalty' she was saddled with makes using her powers a lot harder than how it used to be.

And so she practices, attempting to get a handle on the magic that's there but no longer instinctive like it once was. Healing magic is fairly easy to figure out, the weaker elemental things like Thunder and Water are simple enough if difficult to aim now, but as for the more complicated spells...?

As for learning new ones...?

She can be found alternately in the battle dome and outside near the edges of town quite a bit during these last few days, with and without her gunblade and various other weapons from before and during her time spent here. She's not really doing much actual fighting, though; it's obvious she's trying to do something, concentrating for sometimes minutes at a time, before casting something that just seems to flicker in the air around her, or light up the edges of her weapons with bright-colored energy.

After some time and a lot of deliberation, she turns to the journals. ]

-- Filtered to House Lucky occupants --

Hey. Have a minute?

-- - --

Comments

[thestormishere]

You're hungry? [ She crosses an arm over to the other as she turns to leave, glancing at him briefly before looking up thoughtfully. She eats... er, well enough, but it's not something that's really on her mind much. ] I don't care; we've got things at the house, but... either way.

[wingenvy]

[...Oh, Light. He's trying to ask you out to dinner here.]

I just think it's nice to have someone else cook for you, especially after a hard day's work.

[thestormishere]

[ ... Oh, Zack. You'd have to hit her over the head before she'd fully realize the implications right away, you know. Her mental image of being asked out to dinner doesn't involve... like, still carrying weapons because the people who own them just got done idly trying to slice each others' limbs off with magical enhancement. So. ]

Ah... I guess you're right. Yeah.

[ Thoughtful pause, because this just wouldn't be Lightning without them! Her own cooking is... well, that sort of thing was definitely all inherited by her sister. There's a reason beyond just taste that she sticks to things no more complicated than needing to boil water. So yeah, she can definitely agree here. ]

Where were you thinking?

[wingenvy]

[Well, she's dealing with the guy who regularly brought his sword to dates with Aerith because he was on duty at the time, so they didn't exactly do much of the romantic-dinner-for-two thing either. Customary dating would be weird at this point.]

Seventh Heaven's been my favourite since I got here, but that might just be a bias of mine, who knows.

....hafta turn that icon randomizer off

[thestormishere]

[ Therefore, Lightning is unsuspecting. ... Sort of? She's never done any dating at all, aside from early-teenager stuff. ]

Bias? [ Her voice is low as she idly messes with the fastenings around the wrists of her gloves. ] Because of Tifa...?

and here I was thinking RAWR JEALOUSY D8<

[wingenvy]

[Zack shakes his head, a smile crossing his lips.] Not quite! Actually, I didn't really know Tifa that well. Before I came here, I'd only met her twice. Back in Midgar, I met I guy in the slums who was talking about opening a bar. He asked for name suggestions, and I told him to call it Seventh Heaven. Years later it turns out that he did open Seventh Heaven, and Tifa worked there! That's how it got the name here in Luceti.

not quite xD

[thestormishere]

... You're pulling my leg.

[ She raises her eyebrows-- but is she mad or amused?! There's been some wacky coincidences that have popped up in her own life, sure, but that's just waaay too much of a stretch for her to swallow right off. Oh, Square Enix... ]

[wingenvy]

No joke! The bar opened up in the same slum area the guy was in, though, and Aerith knew everyone in the slums pretty well, so it's no wonder we met. If it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't have been down there at all.

[thestormishere]

Right...

[ She still has like a month to go before she actually hears about the falling through the roof story, so. She just keeps staring at him as she walks- it's not that she doesn't trust him, exactly... just that she really doesn't like potentially being fooled. You can probably count on her checking the story against Aerith later; hopefully the other woman will be able to do Zack a favor and confirm it?? ]