To be honest, she knew in the back of her mind what the goal of today’s walk was. Though Terra had tried to tell herself it had been for no reason in particular, she knew all along what she really wanted to get out of this ‘walk’... Or rather, what she had been hoping to find.
One couldn’t truly blame her, though. After all, love makes anyone do the silliest things, even if they know that it may prove to be fruitless. In this instance, she didn’t want anything at all... Instead, she wanted to find someone specifically.
Surprisingly enough for the half-esper, it didn’t take terribly long to find him.
A few yards away she can see him, sitting on a bench almost half slumped over. Though she still isn’t too finely attuned to the feelings of others with him, she can already tell what overwhelms him. The sadness he radiates is so palpable and honestly, it hurts the esperkin’s heart. Though she wishes to embrace him immediately, Terra instead wishes to make a more light-hearted approach to try and bring a smile upon his face.
To try and ease his aching soul.
So quietly does she walk up behind the bench now, taking a moment’s pause... Before she leans over his slumped frame, her face now upside down and opposite to his own. His eyes are closed, it seems; had he been sleeping?
❝ ... I’m surprised you don’t have your book ready to bonk my forehead with, ❞
❝ ... Oh. Here again, I see... Somehow it feels like no time passed since I left but I know that I did disappear here from a time... Does that make any sense? ❞
❝ Tell that to the vendors selling them all over here. My ice cream would melt before I could get away in time to bring it out of hiding! And we shouldn’t have to live in fear over the reign of these birds, right? ❞
❝ Hmm... Maybe, ❞ the blonde hums in thought, bringing a hand up to her chin as she seemingly plans something within her mind.
❝ I’m not sure what you can do regarding the seagulls, though... They really do whatever they please, ❞
Phew....OKAY! I slept on this after thinking about it and I should've thought about this before...LIKE weeks ago as a backup plan, but it's too late now!
Anyway, so here's the....scoop??? I have an upcoming bet visit for my dog Lulu for an EKG??? scan for a developing heart murmur! I have around 200?? At the moment but that's not enough to cover the expense. I read it can range anywhere between 400-800. ANYWAY, so I figured I could ask for some donations OR another option is I can make oc bio or ideas for whoever is looking for oc ideas and stuff. I don't have any other things I'm good at like drawing and icon making, etc. But I'm OKAY with making OCs.
If you'd prefer oc making from just donation, please let me know! You can find my discord at JADEYOUBIHH#1770
If you'd like to just donate here is my handle for PayPal
❝ Waaaaaah!! You saw that, right?! The way that seagull came swooping down and flew off with my ice cream! This is very serious. If it really came for one of its brethren, nothing stops it from targeting others. ❞
❝ ... Seagulls tend to be very notorious for being confident and cheeky. If you’re in an area with a lot of seagulls around, I honestly wouldn’t even eat around them. ❞
❝ in your defense, it is not an instinct that comes so easily to everyone, regardless of who they are or from whence they came. had i not been made vividly aware of my own feelings, i would not have acted upon them. ❞
At his own admission, Terra can’t help but look away almost sheepishly for once. Truthfully, she wouldn’t have realized either had he not said anything in the first place and brought everything into perspective...
❝ I also think... It comes down to someone’s own self-doubt, too. My friend back home... She wouldn’t even admit to her feelings about someone else until she was confronted about it, so... In the end, people will always just be complicated. ❞
❝ So... I know Valentine’s Day was a while ago but what I was making for you wasn’t finished yet, ❞ comes the confession of the esperkin now, her arms behind her back as she looks down at the ground for a moment. While she’s a little ashamed of how long it took to perfect his gift, Terra is glad she spent more time on making his present as great as she knows it should be. She’d much rather give him something she knows she can make look nice instead of something half-heartedly made or bought.
❝ Anyway... Here, ❞ and with a small smile, she finally reveals and holds out the gift to V. Within her hands is a handmade leather-bound journal, with its spine carefully stitched together with jute rope. On the front in painted gold calligraphy (which, if one knows Terra well enough, would know she probably spent more time than she should have studying calligraphy in order to make it look perfect), spelling out ‘Visions of V’.
She’s been seated on the edge of the sidewalk for a while now, sort of fiddling around with her hair.
It’s small and perhaps, in retrospect, a silly thought... But Terra had come up with the idea of perhaps doing something a little different with her hair for once. She always had haphazardly thrown it up into a ponytail and... Well, with the new year already here, the esperkin figured she’d try to do something a little different this time.
However, she can’t quite seem to decide on what to do with it. Currently, she has finished putting it up into one large braid but she doesn’t seem entirely satisfied with the outcome.
❝ Hmm... Celes was always better at this sort of thing, wasn’t she... ❞
ONE hand shoots up to dissuade the stranger from standing, fingers splayed and mouth agape. The poor woman was just minding her own business on one of several benches throughout the mall, totally unaware of the mischievous snowflake hiding behind the relative safety of her ankles. Rin slowly sinks to her knees before lowering even further, trying to not make any sudden movements of her own… Even if it was still mild at best, there was no way she’d shoot a Gandr at such close range when the target was so flighty. Sure enough, the moment she’s under the bench and ready to pounce it flits away — her fingers catch only air, and her chest connects with the ground with a soft ‘oof !’.
❛ Ghh— sorry about that… ❜ Rin offers a flimsy apology, dusting off her shirt after rising to her knees. ❛ These little enchanted snowflakes are almost more trouble than they’re worth. ❜
While she wished to make a more hasty exit from the rather busy mall, Terra had become rather tired mentally from being around so many people at a time. As a result, she had gone to sit on a lone bench in a less busy part of the mall, hoping to avoid much of the chaos these ‘snowflakes’ have seemingly brought. However, despite her wishes it seems that trouble has once again found its way towards the half-esper...
Though admittedly, to a lesser degree than usual.
❝ ... It’s alright, ❞ she now says after lifting her feet slightly to give the stranger leeway, soon placing them back onto the ground after the brunette’s failed pouncing attempt.
❝ I heard that they’re hard to catch... And as far as I’ve seen, they haven’t really done anything wrong to warrant catching them just yet. ❞
While Terra is used to the company of being around others by now, it’s still rather... Strange, to be this close with people she isn’t terribly familiar with. As a result, she finds herself in a corner quietly sipping her drink, curiously watching everyone in the distance go about their time in the party.
Should she... Maybe say something to someone she has seen a few times before? Or introduce herself to someone new? But what if--
❝ One of us... Should be happy, ❞ the phrase is repeated quietly to herself once more as the blonde remains seated in the middle of a studio apartment, hands clutched together as if in prayer.
❝ Always be happy... And enjoy their normal upbringing... I know you don’t think so but, ❞
❝ That just means... You were always a better person than I am... Than I could ever hope to be. ❞
And while she mumbles to herself words of mild reason and comfort, Terra supposes she will never know what her ‘other self’ thinks of her decision now. The aftermath of their conflict, as muted as it was physically since the esperkin did not want to harm her other half in any way possible, it’s the emotional aspect of it that’s really proven to exhaust her. Though she, at first, had to keep an iron grip on her other self’s wrist, eventually things unraveled and became more heated...
... And then more sad.
Recounting some aspects of her own upbringing and traumatic experiences seemed to have help drive the point home that Terra really just wants the best for her other self... For her other self to be happy in a way that Terra herself perhaps never can be. And while there is some guilt at the back of her mind for being so envious of this alternate part of herself, there is also unimaginable grief for the potential path that her other self could have refused her help and continued to lash out at the half-esper.
Perhaps what makes her the most sad, however... Are those last words her other self told her before she was sent away. They keep echoing within the blonde’s mind as if they are currently being spoken to her now in this empty, lonely room:
❝ ... I want you to be happy, too. ❞
And though she’s not sure if she can ever be so fully and whol-heartedly content as her other self... She wants to try to be. Even if it’s a lost cause... Terra wants to try and enjoy her life despite her trauma... But then again, hasn’t she already been trying to do just that?
Hasn’t she already started to achieve that?
That’s right... She has people she wants to protect and be with, always; both back home and here. Despair can be so familiar and, in its own way, so comforting but... Seeing how happy her counterpart seemed in recalling her own memories and looking at the photos of herself and her loved ones around her apartment... It seems to have given the blonde a sense of new hope. Even if this person has grown up so differently from Terra herself... Are they not still, at their core, the same person?
So... Why couldn’t she be able to be that content with herself and her life someday?
❝ ... I have a long way to go... ❞ she starts with another whisper, finally picking herself up from the floor and making her way to the apartment’s sole exit. Though her brows furrow together in determination, a lone tear soon rolls down her cheek as she turns to look at the bare area once more before leaving.
