[She nods, and this time, with the warmth of the other woman's hand bolstering her, Aerith did look up, a soft gasp of delight.]
Under the ocean! The buildings, they look like—!
[It's right there, she knows it is, so close and yet so very far. She presses calloused fingers to her mouth, thinking, muddling through the foggy feeling as she returns Himeka's gentle squeeze, gaze lost before she snaps her fingers.]
Wutai! Like Wutai! But Wutai wasn't underwater, it was up in the mountains, I think?
[Tearing her gaze away from the last of the bubbles, she gives Himeka a wry sort of smile; lopsided and paired with a faint shrug.]
Something...old, something awful. It came from above...
[Again those fingers press to her mouth as she thinks, then they drop, fingertips digging into her sternum as she works through the jumbled thoughts.]
Long ago, before me, my people...there were so many of us, but something awful came. The sky itself burned, something infected them, made monsters out of people. There's only ruins left of the old cities now, I was...
[Her gaze drops, eyes screwing shut tight as she wills them away. Those memories are ones she doesn't want. Hopes the sky doesn't open up with the fleeting images that finally rise to the surface; of what happened to her mother, of everything.]
I'm the last one. There's other people back home, but I'm the last like me.
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Under the ocean! The buildings, they look like—!
[It's right there, she knows it is, so close and yet so very far. She presses calloused fingers to her mouth, thinking, muddling through the foggy feeling as she returns Himeka's gentle squeeze, gaze lost before she snaps her fingers.]
Wutai! Like Wutai! But Wutai wasn't underwater, it was up in the mountains, I think?
[Tearing her gaze away from the last of the bubbles, she gives Himeka a wry sort of smile; lopsided and paired with a faint shrug.]
Something...old, something awful. It came from above...
[Again those fingers press to her mouth as she thinks, then they drop, fingertips digging into her sternum as she works through the jumbled thoughts.]
Long ago, before me, my people...there were so many of us, but something awful came. The sky itself burned, something infected them, made monsters out of people. There's only ruins left of the old cities now, I was...
[Her gaze drops, eyes screwing shut tight as she wills them away. Those memories are ones she doesn't want. Hopes the sky doesn't open up with the fleeting images that finally rise to the surface; of what happened to her mother, of everything.]
I'm the last one. There's other people back home, but I'm the last like me.