[72] [action/voice]

[silversnowfall]

[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.]]

Comments

[silversnowfall]

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?

[distressedude]

[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.

[silversnowfall]

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

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

[distressedude]

...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?

[silversnowfall]

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?

[distressedude]

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.

[silversnowfall]

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

[distressedude]

[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.]

[silversnowfall]

[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.]

[distressedude]

[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.]

[silversnowfall]

Too quiet? ...Eight people live here.

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

[distressedude]

[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.]

[silversnowfall]

[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.]

[distressedude]

[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.

[silversnowfall]

...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?

[distressedude]

...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.

[silversnowfall]

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.

[distressedude]

[Ion nods, then follows behind her as she moves to return to her room. But when he turns and sees her room looking just as it had when he saw it last week... he freezes. When people left, the rooms were empty. Even when they came back, the rooms stayed empty. That was something he knew from experience. But this room was untouched and entirely unchanged -- there was even a bit of a mess on the ground, likely caused by the scuttle from when Nephry was initially kidnapped.]

[Did this mean... Nephry hadn't gone home?]

[He can't move. He feels so overwhelming relieved, he can't even step through the doorway. But if Nephry didn't go home, what did that mean for her memories...?]

[silversnowfall]

[For her part, she managed to sit for only a moment or two before going to her closet and looking through it for something suitable.

A part of her had forgotten her tendency toward a black-and-white scheme as a younger woman.]

I hope you don't mind excusing me while I change.

[distressedude]

[...]

[It takes him a minute to respond, still just staring.]

[Oh. Right. New feather dress.]

[......!]

Not at all. [His voice sounds distance for a minute, but once he hears it, he catches himself. He actually sounds a bit more cheerful when he speaks again, if not still a bit out of it.] I'll be waiting for you in the living room, then.

[And he'll just close the door behind him and do just that! Maybe he should make tea. He could use something to calm his nerves a bit.]

[silversnowfall]

[It takes her longer than he might be used to. When she returns to the living room, looking a great deal more formal and, well, regal than she might have about a week ago, she sits in the chair nearest the fireplace to wait.]

[distressedude]

[That's all right, since Ion is somewhat floundering about himself. He's no stranger to the malnosso's "memories" of the future. Toph had been given a strange future of a life spent in Luceti with him, and Natalia had been given a treatment rather similar to this, believing she had been sent back home and came back for about a week.]

[But were the malnosso's false memories to be considered genuine? It went hand-in-hand with something Ion himself had never quite reconciled: if people could exist from the past and the future in Luceti at the same time, did that mean the future was absolute? Or were there simply multiple timelines where things were different? It felt like something that was just too big for someone to try and understand.]

[He didn't know whether it would be the right thing to do, to tell Nephry that the malnosso had simply altered her. She probably wouldn't believe him -- and he wouldn't blame her.]

[But the effects will wear off regardless, right?]

[Soon after she sits down, Ion comes in with two cups of tea and hands one to Nephry.] I thought perhaps you might like some as well.

[silversnowfall]

[He could present evidence. Her room, the discordant way her memories lined up with the truth here.

But she could also indeed be herself from Auldrant's future. Just for a little while.]

Thank you. I could use it. ...Something is bothering you.

[distressedude]

[He takes a seat across from her and sips at his tea, shoulders relaxing.]

...I guess I'm still working on processing what's happened today. It's been... a long week.

[And it's not something he wants to talk about. Bringing it up to Nephry out of necessity was already more than he wanted to say on the matter. He shakes his head.]

But I'll be all right. To be honest, I'm more curious to hear how you've been. I'm sure a lot can happen in a few years, let alone ten.

[silversnowfall]

I've been...well. [What a small word, to encompass all that she has done and seen in that short time that feels like an eternity now.]

Auldrant has changed - for the better, I think.