Aerith

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Age: 26

Height: 5'4

Birthday: January 12

Notes:

Incredibly kind and considerate and gentle and caring, so is Leon, their mother pound it into them well

She’s not a huge fan of Swearing, it's just, how she and Leon were raised

She puts everyone’s safety and comfort first

She’s super accepting of things but if you give her bad/upsetting/horrifying news she’s not good at reacting to it,,,, she’ll stare in horror for a while before she can think of something to say, if she can think of something to say,,,,

She gets a little squeamish about A Lot of blood because Bad Memories

She’s hard to anger, unless, ah, it involves the defense of someone she cares about,,,,

            Leon’s kind of the same, except for him it’s with impulsiveness, not anger

Super polite—almost to a fault. She hates insulting anyone or being the slightest bit mean

Extremely hospitable (the Gainsborough way)

Has a keen sense for residual traces of magic

It’s not as strong as Aqua’s or Rinoa’s—Aqua’s was heavily trained and refined, while Rinoa’s comes inherently with being a sorceress and spending A LOT of time dealing with literally all the magics. Aerith isn’t bad at sensing residual magic traces, and she does deal heavily with magic, her sense just isn’t as refined or as accurate

Good judge of character

Tries to see the good in everyone which may contradict the last one but she definitely looks for the good in people and treats them based on their good qualities not their bad ones—but she knows bad vibes when she gets them

And just because she’s nice to everyone doesn’t mean she doesn’t see that they’re really completely terrible people, and she’s just being polite because it’s a decent thing to do

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History:

Growing up with Squall and being raised as siblings

Growing up with a Healer Mother

Everyone at school—at least in her grade—would go to her for minor healings, and she missed school a lot to help her mom out with the “business”

Idk how much Squall missed comparatively, but, he probably missed school semi-frequently at the least

Her relationship with Zack, meeting him, him visiting RG a lot, staying the night sometimes in between jobs, them dating

Participating in FF8

Rinoa staying with them for a while afterwards or w/e

Losing Elmyra

Losing Zack

Losing Radiant Garden

She hits a funk, for a bit, in traverse town, when all the loss makes her heart nearly collapse on itself, and even if she and squall are close and siblings that doesn’t mean she can’t have grown distant from him during the time

She snaps out of it at some point but she does have A Funk

Living in traverse town

Sephiroth is a point of all of the HB gang's history that needs to be remembered. Specifically for Aerith: Sephiroth taunted her about Zack a lot

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Fighting Style:

Aerith does know a wide variety of magic, but she tends to stick to support/defensive magic the most, such as Cures and Esunas and Barriers, etc. She can do offensive magic—especially in large amounts—but she generally is fighting in a group, and in a group, her talents are better focused towards support. Everyone else can take care of the fighting. She can make sure none of them get their butt handed to them while doing it.

Relationships to other characters:

Leon

They were raised together, as siblings!! This is her brother!!! She likes him a lot,,,, but that’s,,, I mean, like I said, it’s hard to translate siblings into words

They talk a lot, she trusts him a lot, it’s normally him she goes to when she’s in over her head with something, and she's SO grateful for him

He appreciates her kindness, she appreciates his level-headedness and ability to stay calm in most hard situations, also he’s kind, he’s a kind guy, he’s a Gainsborough, that’s what Gainsboroughs are

They look after each other, they talk a lot quietly to each other about life and stuff like they don’t Super Hang Out And Kid With Each Other All The Time, their relationship is just kinda quiet yanno???? They talk about life, about issues, about the restoration, about Riku, about Namine, about Rinoa, about Zack, about their mom, they understand each other so well

I’ve said it elsewhere, but: she probably feels bad about Traverse Town, about the depression that hits him, because she knows it’s indirectly her fault, and the name change she knows is because he couldn’t protect her, he couldn’t be good to her, she knows that, and it saddens her, but there is an overwhelming gratitude in her chest that his name went from “Squall Gainsborough” to “Leon Gainsborough” and not to “Squall Leonhart” because she lost so much in that year and she doesn't think she could've handled it if she'd lost her brother as well

Zack

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They met when they were 16 or so and he was traveling a lot but he stopped by at her place between jobs so much because he could guarantee bed and a meal there, plus he liked her, and that was no secret

They went thru FF8 together and that builds a relationship like no business, though there were "seriously" dating a little before FF8 happened (ages 17/18, not too young) but all they really did were super cheesey dates

They loved each other and it was happy bubbly sort of love, making each other laugh, going on those aforementioned cheesey dates, hand holding short kisses, teasing Squall, teasing Squall and Rinoa both, it’s, yanno, they were very much in love and there wasn’t anything special to it, it was just, two kids in love

And then he died and she lost one of the most important people in her life, right after losing her mother, and she watched him die an she couldn’t save him and it stung, it stung so hard, and she carries not just the weight of his death but also the weight of "I was there but I couldn't save him" for years

Elmyra

This is!! Aerith’s mom!!! She loves her mom!!! There’s literally!!!! Nothing much to add!!

She was raised to be polite and caring, and she learned soooo much about healing form her mom, Elmyra taught her everything she knew,

They’d known she was gonna die sooner rather than later of course, she was getting Way Up There in years, and so it was expected, but it still hurt, oohhhh it still hurt, Zack stayed for a week at least, Rinoa might have visited more frequently as well, Aerith and Leon both had a nice looooonnnng cry about it

They missed her, they missed her bad, and I’m not saying that’s not true but the death of her mom did not weigh as heavy on Aerith as Zack’s death did, and there’s honestly,,,,, a good chance that Zack dying so soon after her mother did that made his death so much harder to bear ((nevermind the fact how he died—brutally murdered, she couldn’t heal him, you can’t heal old age and she knew that, but she could’ve healed Zack’s wounds, but she should’ve been able to, but her knowledge was not enough, and it sucked))

Rinoa

Aerith and Rinoa are good friends, I mean, when you travel with someone for a year, that happens, also Rinoa’s Squall’s not-so-serious girlfriend and she supports them all the way, she really does

She likes her outside of her being Squall’s girlfriend though, of course she does, maybe she thinks Rinoa is a little immature but, actually probably not, Aerith does at no point consider herself Above Others or more Mature than others, and there’d have to be a bigger age gap for her to even potentially consider Rinoa immature

Rinoa’s just another person to get to know, and Rinoa’s pretty likeable, they all become good friends over the course of ff8 and the years after, that’s a fact, it’s articulating the hows and whys they like each other that’s the Problem

Still!! she likes Rinoa and she’s always here for Helping People (and so is their mom) so it’s no big deal to invite her into the house for a couple months while she sorts herself out, and Aerith/Elmyra/Squall/Zack help as much as they can

((it’s in, a lot of ways, something Rinoa has to figure out for herself, but support always Helps))

So yeah!! they get along!! They’re good friends!! It’s always nice to see her, to hear from her, etc

Cid

Like I say in Leon’s page, he may have visited Elmyra a lot for chronic back pain also the moment she learned he could make a mean soup she was calling him over a lot for help because if there’s anything she needs it’s the resources to feed a lot of people

And I mentioned before that there’s a chance Elmyra just up and recruits him to make soup weekly for them so he’s over at least once a week, so he’s a family friend

They get along of course, Aerith gets along with everyone, she tries so hard to, and after 5+ years of living each other, of course they know each other well and like I said they’re all a family, and as I’m realizing, it’s hard to put the dynamic of family into words

The only thing special about this family is “we were all in a bad spot so we stuck together and now we’re staying together”, that’s it, that’s all

She looks after him makes sure he’s eaten and slept because that’s just what she’s been taught by her mother to watch out for, and so it’s second nature, even if Cid isn’t sick / injured or anything

And just so we’re clear: the world fell, Aerith and Leon were together because brother and sister, Cid had a rescue ship ready to take anyone he could gather outta there, maybe they went to him, maybe he went to them, and then Yuffie they picked up on the way, because they weren’t gonna leave anyone they saw behind

(it’s, just, Yuffie was the only one they saw lmao)

For extra clarification: Aerith/Leon were 21/20 when it fell, and Yuffie was 13

Yuffie

Aerith actually knew Yuffie, kinda, before Radiant Garden's fall---she caught Yuffie stealing once and ever since then tried to keep an eye on the girl, along with make her return whatever she stole (or Aerith paid for it)---but her efforts to keep an eye on Yuffie were only so successful

((in FtPverse canon, Yuffie was an orphan))

She tried to inquire about Yuffie's parents and/or take Yuffie to her own mom, but Yuffie always managed to squirm away before she could get far with either plan.

After Radiant Garden's fall, Yuffie became family, and Aerith looked out for her the most because she was relatively used to dealing with Yuffie, or at least dealing with Yuffie stealing things, also neither Leon nor Cid were that great with kids, and while Yuffie was 13, she was still a bit of a handful

Yuffie also Really Looks Up to Aerith and Aerith of course is super fond of her

also they're, just, family

Riku

Aerith didn’t initially know Riku very well, obviously, but she considered him very strong and very determined (if not very good with people) and admired him for both things

She also does not forget that he is only a child—he is no older than Yuffie—and that he is maybe taking on too much responsibility, maybe trying too hard to be someone who he shouldn’t have to be

She’s worried about him because leading an entire rebellion (against his will??) seems like a task too strong for a boy his age to take on, but he shoulders it, and she isn’t sure how to tell him that he should slow down because they are, really, only friends in passing, at that point. They know each other, but him going to her for advice isn’t exactly a common thing, and while she can step in and tell him to stop trying so hard, she never did

Not to mention, sometimes she thinks: we weren’t that much older when we went to another world and took down Ultimecia, so maybe he isn’t too young

Aaaaand then she finds about his past about what happened to him and it infuriates her, it saddens her. I won’t say she’s never dealt with abuse before (with the sort of business her mother ran, I’m sure one or two kids probably showed up, at least) but she’d never had to handle it so personally.

Riku saddens her

Riku baffles her

She has trouble wrapping her mind around the idea that anyone could have gone through so much hurt, that his whole life has been so short and so much of it has been filled with suffering—that kind of pain is near unimaginable to her, and seeing how much it has affected Riku, how much it has broken him, it hurts

Aerith isn’t inexperienced with hurt—of course she isn't. Yuffie was an orphan, Leon grew up with resentment towards Laguna, she herself lost her mother, then Zack, then her world all within the same year. She just never really knew hurt could take a form like it did in Riku’s life, a form so cruel, so terrifying. Loss is one thing, abuse is another.

And then there’s the fact that Riku thinks he deserves pain, the fact that he is not only hurting, but he is hurting himself, and all she can think of to do is smother him in love because clearly he has not had enough in his life, clearly he needs it and needs it desperately.

It’s in Aerith’s nature to look after people

Riku is no exception

Also, he is family, becomes family, because she knows he needs it

Also: important but not entirely relevant:

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Namine

By now it’s habit, it’s second nature, to adopt people into the folds of this family, and after Riku, it was no question that Namine would come in as well

And by this point of ATR, two months into the fact, they know each other well, they do, Namine’s quiet and doesn’t participate much in conversation, but that’s okay, that’s what Leon does, she can too, it's fine

We’ll start with Dead Inside—Riku and Namine were both passing friends, kids who showed up and who they looked out for because that’s the Gainsborough way, and in Dead Inside, Namine was fine. There were the meltdowns, and those were troubling, and Aerith worried, but they were out of her depth, they were over her head, they were not something she could cure

She thought Namine was determined and strong and a little like Rinoa, stubborn and always getting her way, though also like Leon in a lot of ways, Namine always reminded her of Leon, though she maybe she always sees a little bit of her brother in everyone else

And then Namine moves in, and she reminds Aerith a lot less of Rinoa, and a lot more like Leon, quiet, keeping to herself, and Namine’s suffering, AND THOUGH IT TAKES AERITH SOME TIME TO REALIZE IT, SHE REALIZES THAT NAMINE’S ACTUALLY REMINDING HER OF RINOA NOW MORE THAN EVER,,,, it’s just been five years since she dealt specifically with this trauma and Namine isn’t as blunt with it as Rinoa was, actually

She wants so bad to help Namine, and will do everything in her power to help, because that’s who she is, that’s what it means to be a Gainsborough, to help people however you can, and Namine is family now, there’s no abandoning her

SO YEAH,,,, NAMINE IS FAMILY AND REMINDS AEIRTH LARGELY OF LEON BUT ALSO A LIL OF RINOA,,, AND SHE LOVES NAMINE, SHE LOVES EVERYONE, EVERYONE IS FAMILY

Cloud

Cloud knew Zack and of course Aerith because Zack brought him by at least once

So they did get to know each other and stuff. I don’t know quite the depths of Aerith/Cloud’s relationship but they both knew Zack really really well and so they were both affected by his death just in different ways

They both turned it inwards but Aerith buried it

Cloud blamed himself so much it spawned Sephiroth

So

She ‘n Cloud get along pretty well though like they hung out when Zack would bring him by so they know each other really well 

After Zack's death, Aerith tries as best as she can to comfort Cloud but that's only so easy when she's suffering herself, only so easy when he becomes a rock that lets no one in. 

Tifa

Tifa’s loud but she’s kind too, and Aerith knows under all that rough and tough and yelling she cares a loooooot about her friends

Aerith met Tifa before Cloud, I keep saying: Tifa showed up at her house/in Radiant Garden one day and was like "yo so have you seen this guy with blond spikey hair because I am looking for him" and then later Cloud showed up and he was like "TIFA WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE", etc

They all became friends down the line, all of them, Aerith / Leon / Zack / Cloud / Tifa and, even Rinoa

Aerith and Tifa are polar opposites, though, so that's, a thing. Tifa’s blunt and Aerith’s polite. Aerith is patient and Tifa doesn’t have time for anyone’s shit. So.

It's not that they don’t like each other!!! it’s more of they just get frustrated at each other a lot

They’re both prone to looking after people (Aerith because she wants to, Tifa because she has to) and they go about it different ways and they probably butt heads a lot about what’s best ‘n stuff

They do get along well ofc, regardles, and they used to talk about Cloud/Zack a lot and now they both kinda look after Cloud

They are friends and they like each other and they get along they just don’t agree on everything all the time