silversnowfall | [72] [action/voice]

[72] [action/voice]

[Taken silently within a few hours of one of her oldest friends disappearing, she didn't even have her journal on hand to chance an explanation. A quick one. It was too fast and too late and she was gone.

Over a week later, she wakes up in a greenish forest near some tended shrubs and trees - a cherry tree, says her thoughts, with no basis at all - and tries her best to look nonplussed until she can figure out what in the world is going on here. This is no Keterburg, and she's sure she went to bed in her quiet, frozen hometown just a few hours ago.

When she stands, slow and unfamiliar, one supportive hand brushes against a book bearing her name. So she opens it. Reads things from people she suddenly recognizes, all at once understanding the journal and the forest and the wings again.]

Luceti? [The word comes as a distant almost-whisper. In the journal's camera, Nephry is wide-eyed and scattered for an uncharacteristically long time; when she does regain her composure, she can't keep the surprised note out of her voice.]

Luceti? I...don't understand. How long...has it been since I left?

[[ooc: Thanks to some excellent genes, it may be hard to tell that Nephry's gained about ten years, physically, in the week she was gone. But she has - and has ten years of life and changes on Auldrant in memories to go with them! And ten Auldrant years is a very long time.]]

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[There isn't much she can say to that. It's better, stronger of character, to start walking in the direction she remembers the path taking toward the house. As she walks, she tries to recall what was happening with Ion in her last memories of him - Luceti memories.

They don't come easily. When she reaches the halfway point in her slow, shaky way, he'll surely be there already.]

[Thoughts are racing in his mind the whole way there, and he finds himself walking at a quickened pace as though he were physically attempting to outrun them.]

[How long has it been for her? She sounded different. He can't quite place how, but he can tell something has changed. How much of Luceti did she remember? She seemed to recall it right away, and knew well enough that he was here and they lived in House One.]

[How much of him did she remember?]

[He doesn't know if he wants to hear the answer to that, but right now, all he can do is move forward.]

[The moment he sees her, he stops. He's out of breath, but he doesn't care.]

Nephry?

[...mom?]

[It's like she can barely make her legs work properly to reach him, all of a sudden. At home...in Auldrant he's dead. He has been dead for almost twelve years. And all he was to her was a kind boy carrying the name of a figurehead.

The feeling is a kind of mental double vision, a lifetime in her world superimposed over a few short years in this one. Staggering. The dual realities catch in her throat.]

Ion. [Her attempt at a smile is broken by a dozen thoughts and emotions that aren't happiness. It shouldn't matter.]

[He's trying so hard to keep his composure right now, hands tightened into fists at his side. It's only been a week. But so much has happened in that week, that it feels like months have gone by.]

[And for Nephry, possibly even longer than that.]

[Slowly, he begins to walk towards her, stopping and leaving just a little more than the usual distance between them.]

...how long has it been since you've been in Luceti?

[He won't get his answer just yet; the steps between them are covered swiftly and she doesn't hesitate a moment in embracing him.]

[...oh.]

[It takes a few moments for him to react, but soon enough, he's got him arms around her as well.]

Edited 2012-08-13 08:10 (UTC)

Years. ...Nearly ten years.

[She didn't even know there were such things she was missing. Now that she does, it feels like so much time to make up for.]

[Ten years... that's longer than he's been alive. Long than he ever had been alive.]

[He doesn't say anything, but his grip around Nephry tightens just a bit.]

I'm so sorry, Ion.

[Sorry she forgot it all. Sorry she left, left them all there to whatever the Malnosso intended to do except when it was all over, nothing would stand.

Sorry that in the "real" world, he dies. That brings back a memory and she tries to pull away enough to look at him.]

Are you feeling all right?

[As much as he wants to tell her she doesn't need to apologize, it just didn't feel like the right thing to say right now. He looks up when she pulls back.]

I'm a little shaken up, but otherwise fine. I knew you were gone, but I hadn't realized that meant you weren't... here anymore.

...I don't...really know what's going on. Except that I do, don't I?

Never mind me. I meant...are you ill?

...not at all. [That question throws him a bit. Though he certainly doesn't look too good right now, given his usual health and how stressful things have been lately, it's not as though he looks about to keel over or something.]

Why do you ask?

Because I expected something like that. I just don't know why, yet.

[She still has hands on his shoulders, looking at him with a mixture of seen-a-ghost and proud appraisal.]

The others? Can...I see them?

Well, I guess it is a normal state for me at times... [With a small smile. It still felt strange to think she had really been gone, but... she was back now, right? Certainly it'd take time to catch up, but it's not as though they don't have plenty of that now, right?]

[That's what he's telling himself, at least.]

The others should be home soon, if they aren't there now. We can wait for them at the house.

Please. At the very least I'd like to find something more suitable to wear.

[Well then, taking a step back, he's just going to hold out his hand for her to take so they can walk back together.]

[And she takes it. There was desperation in her need to see those she remembers living in that big house with her. Hopefully she can put some of her conflicting thoughts to rest this way.

The walk back seems impossibly long.]

[Impossibly long, perhaps, but they arrive there soon enough. He's even going to hold the door open for her like a good son!]

[But for now, the house is silent.]

I believe Anise and Tear may have stepped out some time earlier, but I'm not sure whether Florian is home or not... I think perhaps the house has been a bit too quiet for him lately.

[...it was hard to believe there were so few of them living here now.]

Too quiet? ...Eight people live here.

[Followed by a hard swallow because Ion's words are confirming one of her fears.]

[The smile on Ion's face quickly disappears. He's quiet for a moment, and then looks down towards the ground. It's the only way he can keep his voice level.]

It's been awhile since we've had quite that many... though in this past week, two more of us were sent home.

[And now, three. It unsettled him more than he'd like to admit.]

[Been a while? Surely she isn't hearing this right.

We'll see about all this. She turns on one bare heel and marches straight to her own door, pushing it open with only a slight hesitation. No, this is...this isn't quite right. Most of her things are where she remembers them - suited to her younger self, of course - and the bed is made and the desk in order. But something isn't right.

When she crosses the hall to Peony's door and finds only an empty room, she can't even find any words to say.]

[It isn't until Ion hears the second door open that he looks up again. It made sense that she'd have forgotten -- ten years had passed for her, after all! But that didn't make it any more difficult to have to tell her that three of their former housemates had left. Especially when he and the rest of the house were still dealing with the loss.]

[He doesn't look into Nephry's room, even with the door open -- and empty room that he isn't used to seeing empty isn't something he wants to see right now -- but he does come over beside Nephry and takes a look into the room that had at one point belonged to Peony. Gently, he sets a hand on her arm.]

I'm sorry, Nephry.

...That is the nature of living here, is it not? You never know when someone might be...gone one day.

Who else is missing now?

...I'm not sure who else you remember as being here.

[Hopefully this will be the only bomb he'll have to drop on her so soon after she's come back.]

Luke is living alone with Xion now. Asch and Ginji still live elsewhere in the village along with Arietta. And Luke's mother has since arrived in the village as well. [...] Counting Sync, that's everyone from Auldrant.

So...Saphir, and- and Natalia. [Did he hear that? The quick catch of her throat before the name?] They're gone.

[As much as she would like to show her sadness, something else seems to kick in and Nephry stands taller, turning to walk into her room again. To sit down on the bed she hardly remembers, but also feels like she slept in just yesterday.]

Perhaps my memory is not as good as it should be.

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