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[planetdialup]

 

 

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[planetdialup]

She closed her eyes, and offered a shuddery little sigh.

"Some days, I'm not sure. But I want to help people. I want to help my inmate, Ciel. I want to help Cloud graduate. I love my people here. And my planet...my planet needs help. But am I doing what's right...? Sometimes...I don't know Sym."

[agardener]

"You're doing what's right," Sym says firmly. At least using the definition Trevor gave him, which may or may not be accurage.

"But if you are, then you are not helping anyone by making decisions based in guilt."

[planetdialup]

She hoped so. She sighed, and nodded, nestling up against him.

"Right. You're right. What...should I do then? To ease the guilt, do you think?"

[agardener]

"I think you must recognize that you are not doing anything wrong by being here. That you have a duty to take care of and that is what you must do. And while it isn't something that you want or something that you might otherwise choose, it isn't inherently bad or wrong to enjoy yourself here," he says. "The people you love, the people who care about you - Zack and Cloud and your Ceil - they gain nothing by your misery."

[planetdialup]

She considered that, fretting at her lip. What Sym was saying- it was true. None of them would want her to feel miserable, or wrecked with guilt. Even Ciel, for all she knew him the least and was her duty.

"And I take that duty seriously." Her voice was soft. "But I'll try to be...open to being happy." She was quiet for a little while. "Is it hard sometimes, back home? When you're not sure if happiness or duty is more important?"

[agardener]

"I don't think you have to choose," he says gently. "Not in this case. At home, yes. Perhaps it is. But here, you can have both in equal priority."

[planetdialup]

"Right." She sighed, and bit her lip. "Maybe it just...feels that way here."

She sighed again. "Maybe I just need to...distract myself or something."

[agardener]

"Hm. I can offer my assistance," he pipes up, glad to have something to do. Not that he resents talking to her, not at all.

[planetdialup]

"I'd like that." She twisted, so that she could face him in her hug. "Do you have an idea?"

[agardener]

"Would you like to see the chair I created for you?" he wonders.

[planetdialup]

She lit right up. "You made it? Already? That was so quick!"

[agardener]

"Of course," he says with a laugh, gently loosening his grip on her. "You have to let me stand, though."

[planetdialup]

"Oh? Oh! Right."

She made to scoot backwards, squeaked a little as she landed on her back end, and made to scramble up.

[agardener]

He grins at that and stands up, bringing the chair over to her. It's made of purple mushrooms and crystals, a thing of beauty even if it's in the strange shape of a chair with two raised arms and a high back.

"What do you think?"

[planetdialup]

Oh, it was a strange shape of a chair but- she hadn't known what to expect. It was beautiful. Beautiful and functional and everything. She pushed herself up onto her feet, pressing her hands together.

"Sym, this is beautiful. You did wonderful work- I thought it would be...I don't know what I thought it would be."

[agardener]

He claps his hands together. "Good. Now...stay with Coral a while. It will tell you when you can touch the console. I have a surprise for you."

[planetdialup]

"A surprise?" She looked curious, rubbing at her face. "Having the chair and being able to sit with Coral is already a treat Sym."

[agardener]

"The chair is not a surprise. We talked about it already," he tells her as he opens the vat and steps inside of it.

[planetdialup]

"Well, no. But it was earlier then expected!" She told him, making to position the chair close to the console before sitting. Coral, she thought, wasn't burrowed in her clothes yet.

[agardener]

The key word is yet, but it's content to sit in her lap and wrap its tentacles loosely around her wrists in what is very obviously a cuddle.

And when the vat is open again, another vriki emerges, this one vaguely purple, and much bigger. That's when Coral tries to guide Aerith's hand to touch the console and experience life the Vertumna way.

[planetdialup]

"That's a good vriki." She murmured, glad for the cuddle. It was when she saw the vat open to the vaguely purple creature that she made a soft noise, startled, before letting Coral guide her hand to the console.

Well, this certainly was a surprise. She assumed that the purple one was supposed to be Sym, since Coral wasn't alarmed.

[agardener]

The purple one is Sym just as they are both Sym because they are Vertumna.

And so this time, when she touches the console, she will sense Coral, of course, but also Sym, who is burying himself in a patch of dirt and growing into a tree very quickly.

She will also sense the mushroom, hardy and content, along with the crystals. There are no senses, but she will sense them just the same.

[planetdialup]

There was the simple joy of Coral, and there was Sym who was...oh.

A tree. The crystals were a new sensation, as was the mushrooms, and the tree...

She thought she felt tears of joy on her cheeks.

[agardener]

There is nothing but a generic contentment to the adult vriki. It is a tree and its purpose is to spread seeds and Sym....Sym can do that later.

For now, it exists in the cavern and existing is exactly what it wants to do. The crystals and the mushrooms are happy to stick exactly where they are, and the mushrooms start to take root in the floor again since the chair had moved.

Coral drops its tentacles, or rather Sym asks it to, and curls up in Aerith's lap to let her experience the uncomplicated and still rich moments of the plants.

[planetdialup]

It is a tree, it is mushrooms and the crystals are crystals. There is contentment, and there is just something freeing to be just...knowing and fulfilling one's purpose.

Her other hand was gentle on Coral, resting there as she closed her eyes. This was a wonderful surprise.