( midnight anthem )

[ooc: Sorry! I finally got a bit of inspiration for something to write and then my internet went out. I was like T.T and there were dramatic screams and everything.]

There was a bulletin out from Scarlet, asking if anyone had seen her picture.

...The truth is...I have her picture.

I didn't mean to take it, I swear! I brought up her usual coffee, but Rose said she was out and to leave it on her desk. So I was doing that when I saw a picture frame on the desk. Usually it's facedown whenever I come in, but...it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up! So I had picked it up and was looking at it when I heard her outside, talking to Rose. So...

...well, I panicked and stuck it in my bag. Then Scarlet came in, I said hi, and got out of there. I hadn't gotten a good look at the picture, and I wanted to know a little more about her and...and...

Oh, I have no excuse, I'm horrible...

But the picture is interesting, in any case. It's Scarlet, but she's just a kid, on a swingset with some older boy. I don't know where it is, but there's city buildings in the background. I wonder why she always hides it...

But she's going to kill me if she finds out I have it... Maybe if I can stick it just outside her office, she'll find it and never know it was me.

Yeah, I'll go do that now.

Valentine's Day... it's been weird already.

So I went to buy Scarlet some of this gourmet coffee and some flowers, but Rose told me that she was busy. So I left the stuff with her and went back to my place feeling kind of down. But then I got in, and found that someone had come by and left two giant bouquets of flowers, six teddy bears, and a ridiculous amount of chocolate for me.

I think I know who it was, but I haven't seen him yet today. Or I was going to find him and thank him (and ask him if he got a raise or something), but then I got the message that all of SOLDIER was to participate in a bachelor auction. Even me.

They might have heard me screaming at my phone a few halls away, I'm not sure.

Anyway, I have an idea of what I might do to have some fun (and hopefully get out of being bid on). Just gotta hope Reno doesn't mind...

Just preemptively (I might get something up today or tomorrow, but at this rate it doesn't look like it), no journal for this week, but Kira has been spotted over here with Reno and friends! Sorry about my general lack of activity lately - life has been throwing shit at me for a bit and I can't seem to focus on current Kira at the moment. Will be back in another day or so, I promise!

Date: January 17, 1990

Finally back in my barracks after a couple of long missions. I'd be complaining more, but I'm still excited about the whole thing, so let me just grumble good-naturedly about the DRAGON.

So I was off on a mission for Genesis to collect an Ifrit materia, which sounded fine. After all, Ifrit = fire = yay, at least in my head. So I got sent to these caves way out in the middle of nowhere with a Turk pilot who sat back and snickered the entire time after we landed. But I had the mission to do, so I just kind of ignored him (any reports of a singed Turk are a lie, I swear I have more self-control than that) and headed in.

Mostly it was a pretty standard mission, fighting monsters, exploring the cave and that sort of thing. But then I got to the back end of the cave and spotted the mako spring, with the red materia in it. Only problem was, I saw it a moment before I saw the HUMONGOUS DRAGON that landed in front of it just as I was going to get the materia.

(I'm not bitter about it, of course not.)

So I fought the dragon. And it was a pretty hard fight, especially since dragons tend to resist fire and I like to use fire. But I managed to wound it once, then grabbed the materia while it was recovering, and got out of there, fast. I was half expecting it to land on the helicopter once I got out the cave, but I guess it decided a little SOLDIER wasn't worth the trouble? Or something like that.

Anyway, that wasn't what was important about when I got out. What was was that it had started raining, but the sun was still shining, and you could see for miles over the plains. And the rain was shining like gemstones as it fell, and I was trying to catch a drop or two. It wasn't the same once I had caught it, though... kind of made me sad for a moment.

But then I saw the pilot laughing at me again, and, well...

Anyway, got back to headquarters, tried to summon for a little while in the training room, then kind of staggered to the showers and my room.  I wish I'd had a camera with me, though. Maybe if I could show you guys what I meant, you'd realize why I'm waxing mildly poetic about this instead of laughing crazily at me.

[ooc: will write more on this mission later as soon as I'm not writing a paper an hour before its due homg...]

So... Scarlet returned the other day. It was a little funny... I thought everyone had gotten over the whole 'Scarlet's coffee SOLDIER' or 'Scarlet's whipping girl' thing, but apparently not.

It probably had something to do with the way I was grinning ear to ear after I heard she'd returned, or the way I ran up to her office with her favorite coffee, or the way I was...never mind.

I'll never live this down...

So...I was out the other day, just browsing the bookstore in search of a new romance novel, when I saw Loveless. I realized that, for some reason or another, I'd never gotten around to actually reading the play myself, so I bought it (and my novel) and started reading it outside a little cafe near the store.

It's a beautiful story. I can see why Niichan said  he cried when he went to see it, and now I want to go see it myself... I don't know if I could get tickets right now, but maybe sometime later on I'll get to see it. In the meantime, at least I'll know what Genesis is talking about when he starts quoting it, and hopefully he'll be happy that I'm interested in it.

But while I was out reading, a group of Genesis fangirls came along and spotted me. They were from the Loveless Study Group, and for some reason I decided to join both them and Red Leather, his other fanclub. I didn't mention that I was a SOLDIER, though, and definitely didn't mention that he agreed to train me, otherwise I probably wouldn't have made it back to the building unscathed. Still, all the other fans I met were nice, and now I have something to do other than sit around twiddling my thumbs.

With Genesis and Reno and them gone to Nibelheim, there isn't much for me to do. Niichan said it was normal for Thirds to get annoying, pointless missions like I've been getting ever since I joined, but that doesn't mean I'm not sick of them. I wish I could've gone to Nibelheim, seen a little more of the world. So far, I've only been to Junon for school, and hearing people talk about all these other cool places makes me want to go as well. But I guess that'll wait until I get through all these little missions...

...still, I'm really bored.

So...I got bored the other night, and ended up compiling a list of Kira songs. Ended up being huge, but then this is only a fraction of my music collection anyway, so...eh. Fake cut to my personal journal, sorry for the randomness!

( Kira's playlist of doom )

Genesis is going to be my teacher.

...

It kind of feels like it hasn't exactly sunk in yet. So here goes one more time - Genesis is going to be my teacher.

Yeah, that did it. Just went dancing around like a maniac.

In other news...I took Alex out on a date just this week. It was...nice, but I don't know what to think now. Thankfully, she doesn't seem to know either, so at least I'm not the only one uncertain about the whole thing. I mean...

Going to go dance now.

[OOC: So...I was bored and on vacation when it was like, 'heeeey, trip to the Department of Backstory time!' So here we are, yay backstory. Fake-cut to my personal journal because I'll update this post when I write more to save your flists. OOC comments definitely welcome, whether here or on the entries themselves.]

Date: Late summer 1989
Summary: Just after joining SOLDIER, Kira meets a SOLDIER (and hears of a couple more) who start to change her outlook on life.

( random acts of kindness)

Date: October 1989
Summary: While visiting her old home, Kira meets someone that thought she was long dead.

( feels like someone walked over my grave )

People always seem to want my opinion on the war in Wutai. They hear that I'm Wutaiian, and automatically think, oh, she can give us a Wutaiian perspective! They never seem to believe me when I tell them that I was born in Midgar and only left to go to the military academy in Junon. It gets frustrating, but since its rare that I talk to anyone outside of SOLDIER, Scarlet, and Reno, I don't get asked that question much anymore.

There were a few terrorist attacks by the Wutai about a week ago - nothing the military couldn't handle, really, but enough to scare people - and I've heard reports of Wutaiian people in Midgar and Junon being attacked by mobs. Again, it's not something I've experienced (am I sheltered or something?). Actually, for some reason, I haven't really been too concerned with it at all.

...Weird.

Anyway, Kunsel seems to be concerned about Genesis. Apparently, he's been acting strangely lately. I told him I hadn't noticed anything when I sparred with him in the training room, but then, Niichan notices a lot more than I do. So I'll take his word and his warning, since he might be assigned to my unit for a mission or something.

And San just got taken off active duty. I don't know what to feel about that, actually... But still, he crossed a line that night, and I don't want anything like that to happen again.

Date: Shortly after Kira enters SOLDIER, a year before the present time
Summary: The oft-mentioned wall punch incident, and the first appearance of San
Rating: PG-13 for language
Status: Closed to IC comments.

 

( what's a girl to do... )

 

Date: October 1990
Summary: Last of Kira's thoughts in Wutai


( someone get me out of here please )

Date: October, 1990
Subject: More thoughts in the Wutai journal
Rating: Er...PG-13? Mentions violence, nothing explicit though.
Status: Closed to IC comments

( I don't think I care if you read this... )

Date: October 1990
Subject: Kira brings a notebook with her to Wutai.
Rating: PG
Status: Closed to IC comments

 

( Private! This journal is the property of 'Kira' Ashikira )

 

Airships are pretty cool. Maybe it was even worth waking up at 3 in the morning to ride one. And I've got a candy gram from Daichi, delivered by Cloud just before I left, and an email from Scarlet, so all in all, it's not as bad as I thought it might be.

Everyone back at Shinra seems pretty worried about this mission. The group going is actually pretty small - just my unit, led by Genesis, so most normal people would think we were worried about the numbers. But we're SOLDIER, after all; it won't be a problem.

Honestly, I'm looking forward to this. It's been a long time since I actually had a human opponent outside of training. If I do well enough, maybe I'll be promoted to 2nd Class at the end of this.

If I keep telling myself it'll just be a routine mission, maybe it will. And we'll get back to Midgar safely, and everything will be just as it was before I left. As long as I keep telling myself that...

So the other day, I was patrolling the Sector 5 slums, on the lookout for more malfuctioning machines with a couple MPs. Everything was pretty much normal, and I was getting bored when a group of kids came running up, saying something about a kid in trouble. So I told the MPs to keep watching the market and the main parts of the sector, and went with the kids.

I know all those kids, since I grew up in Sector 7. So aside from the scare of seeing a little girl high up on a girder jutting out from the plate support pillar, the entire thing was worse since I'd basically watched Miri grow up. But in any case, I had to break through the gate with Shani (did I remember to mention that I named my weapon?) and headed up.

I have no idea how Miri made it up there, since the gate to the pillar is supposed to be locked. But she had some motivation - she was holding a cat and two kittens, and was refusing to come back down. The girder was swaying a bit from her sitting on it as long as she had (about thirty minutes, apparently), and since she was about four stories up, any bad movement would lead to...well, you know.

So I just leaned out, managed to grab her by the back of her shirt, and pulled her back.

On the way down, she told me that her cat had just had kittens, but her mother wouldn't let her keep them. The key to the pillar gates was in the lock, left by some maintenance crew person (who had better pray I don't find them), and she managed to get up as far as the fourth level before realizing she was afraid of heights.

Kids...

Also, can anyone keep a kitten or two? If she can't find a home for them , they'll be set loose in the slums, and I hate to think of what might happen to them then...

When I need to think - really deep thought, not all the time, thank Gaia - I go to the highest place I have access to  and just watch the city. Nowadays, I sit on the helipad that SOLDIER and the Turks use, in a hidden niche right at the edge of the platform. The wind can get very powerful that high up, and I doubt anyone but a SOLDIER would bother to stay up there for long. So I sit there, staying warm with my old FIre materia and, since I received it the other day, my new weapon.

I think I'll ask Scarlet (still strange calling her that, but she insisted) out for dinner to thank her. There are a few nice restaurants in the Loveless District. And the Loveless Society is holding performances of the play soon, which I can get us into free. Reno might know if she likes Loveless; I'll ask him later.

This is probably overstepping myself. But then, I've most likely done that already, and it's not like anything is going to come out of all this.

My father used to love learning about different places and people. He was born and raised in one of the small villages that Midgar was built over, and until he joined the army, the farthest he had been from home was Kalm. So even though he, like most residents of those forgotten villages, resented Shinra for taking away the sunlight, the chance to travel the world was too good an opportunity to pass up. And then he was sent to Wutai, where he met my mother.

Mama said that he really did love her when they first married, and I believed her. There were times during those eight years when he seemed to forget about his hatred and made an effort to bring us closer together again. But no matter how long his peaceful spells lasted, it was inevitable that one day I'd be woken by his barking at me like a drill sergeant and Mama crying in a corner.

When I first came to Shinra and wanted to join Shinra, they sent me to a psychologist. In the sessions I had to sit through, that lady tried time and time again to get into my head, apparently in order to prevent 'aberrant personalities' from entering an organization whose training methods could break anyone, given enough time. She seemed to think I had been transformed into a miniature version of my father, only far more sadistic, with multiple personalities and rampant pyromania.

She might have been right about the pyromania, but otherwise, I have no idea what she was talking about.

Currently lying on one of the sofas on the SOLDIER floor, waiting for the potion they gave me to kick in. They may be going wild, but those machines are definitely good at doing what they were designed to do. I would be more interested in this if one hadn't broken one of my ribs today. And I need a new weapon now; today's was the third SOLDIER-issue sword I've broken since joining.

Note to self: request a Thunder materia for all future coffee excursions.