Single post in Chronicles of Gaia (RP)

Aislin had begun walking when the question reached her ears. She grimaced slightly and muttered, "Introspection this early in the morning?" Then she gave the question a serious thought. ...She'll need to ramble a bit first, it seems. "First off, please don't interrupt me while I'm rambling? I'm trying to find the answer but that means I have to search for it." Aislin fell silent for a time, running her mind through her memories, tracing it back to the point where she had begun to see it being different. "I think it started back when we first met. I knew of Kuja from that alternate timeline I watched, it was essentially the same thing that you went through, but he was different from what I knew. That timeline didn't seem to have you or Rikazu in it, so the Kuja I met here was different, and that intrigued me. What could have happened to change that? No sooner asked than answered, as I watched the argument surround the both of you after the Lich fight." Aislin was now absently pacing back and forth, quite literally thinking out loud as she herself sought the answer to the question. "What had happened between the two of you on that journey caused a place to where Kuja was a lot more open with others and himself, even showing emotion was a big thing as I don't have much control over that myself... Anyway, during our travels I took a liking to the both of you. I wanted to help you out somehow, heck I wanted to help everyone out. You are, all of you, are so different from what I'm used to, and I... I wanted to trust you all, more than I did then, and to do that I needed to change myself along the way." Yeesh, this was starting to turn away from the question. Back on track. "The interactions between you two... well, I probably shouldn't say my conclusion out loud without him around, but he really, truly cares about you. You matter to him in a way that's different from everyone else in the group. And then we met Rikazu, and he was again different and yet, somehow similar too." Okay, now she was getting into touchy territory, better watch her words here... "The way the two of you spoke with him told me you were familiar with him, and that let me place him in a sort of part of my mind that says, 'This one matters. Pay attention.' I saw him as someone much more familiar with this world, and a lot more powerful than all of us, but then we went shopping and I learned even more about him. It uh, probably helped some that I was mostly laughing at his antics during that King's game we played that night. Tried not to let it show too much, sorry. Anyway... that whole thing with Hades showed he could be responible for things that weren't his fault, and showed he had secrets of his own which I could relate to. It also showed that I should try to keep him around because a: he made things interesting, and b: I could learn more about Chemists and how to help the group as a whole. That part's really important now, you know?" She fell silent for a bit, slowing to a stop, before starting again. "My next big interaction with him was after the facility, after Leviathan in fact. I knew what we were doing with his bag was wrong, but I was curious too, and still saw him as one of the more powerful in the group. Seeing him come in dead tired was... kind of worrying in implications, so I tried to help him too. I knew it could break whatever trust you had in me to tell him you had the pendant, but it was his bag and he had a right to know, and he had mentioned holding back his Trance, and that was how I had learned about all of that. He trusted me with that knowledge, because I didn't try to lie to him." Aislin glanced back at Mizuki finally, noticing that she was still there after all of that, but she wasn't quite done just yet. "The three of you can all relate to each other, but as the outsider I could see what held you all back from being open to each other, and everything that's happened since then has shown me one really important thing." Aha, now she's found the answer. Aislin finally turned and walked back over to Mizuki, taking one of her hands between hers. "Mizuki, what you, Rikazu, Rowan, everyone has been showing me all along is that it's okay to be myself here. I can trust you all and not have to expect some kind of eventual betrayal happen. I can, I'm allowed, even expected to help, and that's... that's big. That's like the greatest chance ever to happen to me and I just, I want you all to be okay too. You're all important to me now, and I want to help, I want to trust. You know?" Finally, finally Aislin could stop talking. She had indeed found the answer to why everything was so important now, although now she had tears running down her face along with a smile. She took one hand away to try and wipe her eyes. "Ah geez, I shouldn't be crying from this. Sorry, Mizuki. Sorry Carbuncle." She kept the smile on though. "The answer to your question is, because I did my best to be truthful and honest to him back then, he's decided to place his trust in me. And, I can trust him in return. I can trust him, and you, and yes, even Kuja, and if I go any further I'll be repeating myself." Aislin was certainly in a joyful mood this morning, if the small laughter in the last few words were any indication.