towerofanimus | (no subject)

Characters: Tifa, and you
Setting: Random Encounter (your choice)
Format: Prose
Summary: Tifa is in the Tower!
Warnings: Freaking out over her missing Cloud.

Dorm

Something pinged in her head, and Tifa sat up, placing hands on either side of herself. What was that? Was she just paralyzed? She remembered she couldn't move for what seemed like a long time, and then-

Where was she? This was not Kalm, she could tell because that town didn't have any buildings like this in it. Slowly, she shifted off the bed and discovered she was wearing an odd white suit.

What in the world...

About twenty minutes later, and after discovering her own clothing packed away in a trunk, she stared at the offerings it had. Her old SOLDIER uniform. The last thing she remembered, she had been wearing it.

It was a reminder of Shinra, of another time and definitely another life. Anger surged even as she pushed it underneath everything else, burying it. Instead, she chose a miniskirt and one of the tank tops she favored in off duty times.

Finally, feeling a little bit better and not quite so odd in that white suit, she spotted the little letter addressed to her.

Wandering the Tower

Waking up in a strange white suit was nothing compared to the oddness of the letter, and that honestly didn't worry her so much as the matter weighing on her mind right now.

The shock of ending up in a strange place that claimed your planet had died was nothing to the fact that no matter where she went in this place, Cloud, Barret and the others weren't around. Where was she, exactly? Midgar? Had they been captured? Was this some sort of experiment? She had just escaped from one, and without explanation she now found herself in an entirely different one. That didn't even matter so much as that Cloud wasn't there.

Either way, a deeply unsettled feeling grew along with her panic. Soon enough she was running through the hallways and staircases, looking everywhere she could.

She had to find him.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He couldn't deny that he enjoyed the sight of a woman in a tank top and miniskirt, but right now, he was much more concerned by the expression on her face. It wasn't hard to guess what she was feeling, and it was just as easy to guess why. He knew that feeling. He'd been trying hard not to panic himself.

"Hey, you all right?"

Tifa stopped when she heard someone talking to her, looking confused for a moment before she focused on him. She had been through a good chunk of the floors in this tower already, and it couldn't hurt asking. "Oh, no, I'm looking for someone. Have you heard of anyone named Cloud?"

Zidane didn't have to think long. He shook his head. "No, sorry, never heard of a Cloud." Well, he'd heard of a cloud, but not of a person by that name. "Wish I could help."

Although, why couldn't he? "Or maybe I can--I'm looking for somebody, too. Two sets of eyes'll look better than one!" He could keep an eye out for this Cloud while he searched, or team up with her. Either option would likely help their efforts.

Shifting awkwardly, Tifa didn't know this boy and didn't know if he was with Shinra or if he was just another one like her, lost and confused in the strangeness. She didn't know if she wanted to take the risk, but he had a point.

Instead, she deflected by asking a question. "Oh? Who are you looking for?"

If she wanted to deflect, that was okay with Zidane. He was glad to answer any of her questions, just as he was glad to help.

"His name's Kuja. He's my brother," he said earnestly, without hesitation, concern clear in his own tone. Kuja'd been dying, and he needed to find him. "But--uh, he doesn't look much like me. Tall guy, silver hair, no tail." Describing someone who was his exact opposite, Zidane curled his tail around to illustrate what Kuja did not have (not visibly, anyway). "Wears a lot of purple and feathers. You'd know him if you saw him. What's Cloud look like?" Zidane was already planning to keep an eye out for him for her.

"I'll be sure to keep an eye out for him," she gave a hesitant smile, running a hand through her hair. He was trying to help, and that scored a point in her book. "Oh, Cloud... he's sort of short... blonde hair, blue eyes, and he wears his hair spiky."

She made a gesture where Cloud's biggest spike would be if she had his hairdo. "One really big one right here, sort of at an angle."

"Thanks! I'm not sure yet if he's here, but he might be."

A guy with spiky blond hair--that did sound familiar, but in spite of the in-joke in Zidane's story, he didn't really know Cloud. "Sounds like he stands out." He laughed. "If not up too high. Not shorter than me though, is he?" Not that he was the shortest guy ever, but most other men were taller than he was.

Tifa smiled a little and squinted her eyes in thought. "Mmm, no, just a bit taller, I think. But, thank you, really."

Meeting nice people here really did make her feel just a tiny bit more stable. Waking up in a strange situation had her all nerves and jumpy, but after a year of being on the run, it wasn't a surprise she was so jumpy. "My name's Tifa."

"No problem! Happy to help," he said, and he meant it.

"Great to meet ya, Tifa. The name's Zidane. You just get here? I've been here a little while, and it keeps on getting weirder." In spite of the fact that he was worried as well, not to mention confused, he was doing his level best to keep calm.

"Oh, I suppose. I woke up here and started looking around, so I guess... it's been maybe a few hours?" Tifa shook her head, rubbing her forehead. "Weirder... oh, just what I need."