silversnowfall | [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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[She doesn't. If anything, she darts forward to throw her arms around Nephry, clinging tightly for a moment as weeks of tension and worry leave her in a flood.]

[It takes a moment before she can speak again, composing herself and letting go.]

You're really back! We were all so worried...

I believe I never really left. Though Ion thought I did, and he may have said that to you.

[The tightness of Anise's hug only makes her hold on tighter.]

How are you?

But...you could have! I was so afraid. [For once, she's being perfectly sincere.] What if they sent you away while you were kidnapped? Everyone's been leaving us...I don't want you to go too.

[The Nephry that Anise is more familiar with does want to go home. But seeing this...would she want it as badly?]

Well, you don't have to worry about that now. I'm very much still here. I trust you didn't let Ion and Florian get into too much trouble?

[After some significant events in the past ten years...well, Nephry knows how to talk a lot more like a mother than she used to.]

[That voice does help her calm down a little. She rubs at her eyes, regaining her composure.]

It's been pretty quiet. Ion and Florian never really get into that much trouble anyway!

Really? I distinctly remember one of your brothers having terrible luck with climbing trees and gravity.

[Huh?]

My...brothers?

Oh. ...Ion and Florian. I'm sorry, things haven't quite sorted themselves out all the way yet.

[A dubious stare.]

We're not siblings.

[and it's more than slightly weird to think of Ion as a sibling when they had. You know. Made out.....]

I know. I'm sorry.

[Separating the Luceti memories from the Auldrant ones (because about three years' worth are shared, aren't they?) is still difficult sometimes. It would sound like an excuse, though, and so Nephry doesn't say it.]

[She's still confused, and worried too.]

Nephry, are you okay? Did the Malnosso do something to you?

[It seemed like too big a mistake to be made.]

[Oh.

Right. She hasn't told her yet.]

I'm older than you remember, that's all.

So...you did go home?

[Nephry doesn't really look any different. Hmm.]

I thought so, at first. But all of my things were and are still here.

So, do you think this could be some memory trick?

It could be. But I am older, and the things I remember from Auldrant feel very real.

It...Any memory experiments all felt really real to me too.

[And she hates them so much, each and everyone of them..]

Being honest-to-goodness physically older is helping me think it's real, Anise.

[You can just tell. Things feel a tad slower, and such.]

You don't really look that different.

[TELL HER YOUR SECRETS.]

Well, thank you. I hope to hear that same thing in another ten years, but I doubt it will happen.

[Here's something that Anise will appreciate.] Jade's starting to turn grey, and he's in his early fifties now.

[That gets a little giggle out of her, although the mention of the colonel makes her sad as well. It's been months since she last saw him.]

How is he?

As much trouble as he's always been. About a year after- ["After Luke came back," but wait. Anise doesn't know he leaves. Thankfully all the practice gives her an almost seamless change] Luke's coming-of-age celebration, Peony assigned him to the problem of the Planet Storm, and things have been going well since then.

...When you visit the capital you and the boys cause him as much trouble as you possibly can.

The colonel could always do with someone shaking him up! Although I can't imagine Ion willing to do that... [Oops completely misinterpreting what Nephry had said.]

[Also hoping that with the "brother" statement, the Ion in Nephry's reality is still alive.]

Ion? [This is a misunderstanding. For a long moment Nephry wants to perpetuate it. Then she remembers making herself a promise about being truthful.]

...I'm afraid I may have misspoken.

What do you mean?

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silversnowfall - 2012-08-29 14:00 (UTC) - Expand

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