towerofanimus | 8 years is a long time

Entry tags:

8 years is a long time

Characters: Ishtar (AU1) and OPEN
Setting: All Over the Tower
Format: Prose Action you pick, I follow
Summary: The age up event and Ishtar is out and about doing things.
Warnings: Character personality differences, possible violence and such. Will add more if anything else comes up.

[ the infirmary ]

Ishtar was seen tinkering with a few of the medical bottles and medical supplies. It seemed like she was preparing for possible doctoring for people if they needed it but she didn't pay attention to her surroundings too much. She assumed the infirmary would be an okay place to be without getting attacked but Sidia hung at her side just in case anything unpleasant happens and she decided it would be time to defend herself against the ongoing threat.

Right now, however, she seemed to be preoccupied with her work as she puts another bottle on the cabinet and walking off with the rolls of bandages to get stored. She seemed like a busy body and if anyone had noticed, her appearance changed slightly with her longer hair and taller frame. Her clothes style changed a little and her face longer and appearing a lot older than the usual Ishtar that zoned around Animus.

[ the wasteland; floor five ]

Ishtar peered blankly at the viewing stations as she touched the walls. It seemed like every time she went there, there was an unsettling pain that pinched her heart. She couldn't take it anymore. It had been almost ten years since she was here and there was nothing she could do. She didn't want to believe that the world she knew and the place she came from was obliterated. It wasn't possible. Sephiroth had said the same thing years ago when they had this conversation, but Ishtar refused to believe it just as he had. Maybe now, she understood why he didn't want to think about it.

It wasn't helpful, but she kept scrolling down staring at the emptiness. The remains of what was her world. The Facility, and her own. She closed her eyes and clenched her fists as she turned her form around. She continued down the path without much to say aloud. She looked away from the view finder, knowing that every time she looked and ventured here, that it was always painful, always. She wished that this was all a nightmare. That these eight years she was in some stupid coma.

[ the forest; floor six ]

Ishtar had Sidia out. It had been a few hours. Sweat rolled down her face as she slashes past another amount of vegetation that stood in the way. The clean cut left a good impression on her. A loud call of a foreign language and a huge light, destroys a nearby tree, leaving nothing but the stump. Ishtar continued to repeat the pattern as she slashed through the air and called out these random spells. It seemed like when she needed peace or practice, she was doing it out in the forest so that it would be easier to deal with if anything happened. It wasn't safe in the forest, but even if her abilities were completely neutralized, she could fend off the creatures with Sidia. Her sword skills weren't as pathetic or slow as they were in the past.

Her skills had heightened and gotten better. She was still determined to prove to everyone she cared and love for that she could protect herself and that no one would have to die protecting her. She didn't want to be a burden. She didn't want to think she was a burden and now, she wasn't a burden. If they could see her now.

[ the gothic cathedral; floor thirteen ]

Ishtar was sprawled across the seating area, with Sidia cradled in her arms. Her guard was up but she didn't seem to be moving. There's a peaceful sound of breathing coming from her. It seemed like the former princess was now napping after a long day and wouldn't like to be disturbed, but she wouldn't mind company if anyone chose to wake her up. She was just tired and worn out from everything. It had been too long and there had been a lot she was thinking about up until now. The Gothic cathedral provided her with some sort of peace and quiet whens he required it.

The mumblings didn't bother her as much as the noise she was used to and she could drown them out when she chose to, but it always stopped when she entered and she learned that speaking normally here didn't actually worked. Either way the older woman seemed to be out like a light sleeping soundly on the seating aisle with her precious sword. There was an almost peaceful look on her face.

ooc: all replies with be with the journal: pheliostasqueen

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"Yeah, eight years. Eight long years," she mused quietly as she tightened her grip on her arms. She wasn't sure why he asked, but the repetition of eight years, seemed to make her stare off into space again. It had been that long since she's been here. How much longer before things would end?

That was always something that bothered her from time to time. She wasn't sure why Sephiroth had asked her this but maybe something happened that triggered it? She didn't even know that he was pretty much sane and coherent compared to her, who thought it had been years since she was here.

"Yeah, and a lot of other people as well. Some people disappeared," she rubbed the back of her neck quietly. Talking about these things made her kind of sad. The Tower had done many things and right now, Ishtar believed one hundred percent that it had been eight years, but he could pretty much try to tell her it wasn't. Either way, Ishtar's mind was processing things as if it were eight years later.

"Unbelievable." It wasn't really. Even out of the things he did remember, he knew he'd pushed his luck several times against the administration here just in his short stay here so far. Maybe 8 years later he'd done something that had earned such a punishment? He wouldn't know.

"Ishtar I -"

He rubbed the back of his neck, under all that hair, along the top of where the collar rested against his skin. It always bothered him more in moments like this. He'd have to ask, he just had to know. The more seconds he spent thinking about it the more he felt sick.

"Did I - do something, recently?"

"Unbelievable? Is it really?" she mused blinking in curiosity as she turned towards him. Was he really surprised about the years? Ishtar didn't expect him to be and clearly, he didn't appear to be someone that would easily forget things. She still was unfamiliar with most of his mannerisms. They were all a mystery to her.

They weren't best friends or anything. She assumed if anything, they were acquaintances if they were able to talk to each other normally. Well, most of the time, they could talk normally.

"Yes?" she mused with her hands uncrossing. It was weird how he was behaving and she was a little concerned for what he wanted to say to her, "Uh...a couple of things? You know the usual? I mean, I'm kind of surprised that I'm used to seeing this. Don't tell me you don't remember those either?" she gave him a more worried look, "Are you okay?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." Sephiroth dismisses the entire matter before he made himself sound any more insane. He even took a few steps away from Ishtar and turned away from her and the screens, to try and put some distance between this issue and himself.

He didn't remember, of course, neither does he need the so-called 'proof' in front of him - manifest in 27-year old Ishtar with worry staining her features. He really didn't want to think about all of the implications and he knew her well enough that she wouldn't leave it alone if she thought something was wrong.

He needed time to digest this, however odd that he's only just noticed, through talking to her, that his own past here has seemingly been erased from his memories.

"Are you a hundred percent sure? Your face looks a little--" she stopped herself from continuing as he dismissed the matter, but she couldn't simply just let it go. It seemed like he was acting pretty strange. She didn't move, because she knew he probably needed his space from her after what was said.

It seemed like whatever she said had bothered him, though she wasn't sure why. Did his memory get tampered with? Like what Facility did with their residents a long time ago? She couldn't remember much of the Facility anymore, but she remember the terrible and horrible experiments that she had to endure. The Tower was no exception. It wasn't a sanctuary. It was just the same as Facility, perhaps worse. She waited for him to speak again, but he didn't.

"Sephiroth?" she mused after a long moment of silence.

Edited 2013-01-23 20:49 (UTC)

Sephiroth spent the long silence looking from one random point to the other in front of him, never once turning to look at Ishtar again. He rubbed his forehead in his hands a couple of times and the back of his neck again once. Trying to get his thoughts in order, trying to come with a logical explanation for this.

When she called him out he only looked over a shoulder back at her before strongly shaking his head. He was really lost for what to say to her. Shock danced it's way along the fine line of madness behind green eyes but it was well enough hidden as ever behind Sephiroth's smooth facade.

"I- I should go."

He headed for the stairwell without further comment, it'd be up to her to press the matter if she so felt like it.

Ishtar didn't pry him too much for an answer, since she could tell that his body language and his expression was a little off. He didn't seem so normal right now. At leas, not the same Sephiroth she was used to and it worried her greatly that he was behaving a little out of the ordinary. He continued to remain silent as she tried to approach him, but with cautious steps.

"...Sephiroth?" she mused again as he said that to her. Why did he need to go and what happened? Did she say something really strange to him? She didn't remember saying anything too mentally exhausting and what was going on? Why did he appear like he was also kind of confused about what she had said earlier.

Ishtar decided to maybe press the matter a little bit and see what was going on. If he did snap at her or something, she would take that as a warning and backed off.

"Sephiroth, are you sure you're okay? What happened?"

Sephiroth's over-thinking of the situation was making the implications of his memory loss seem worse than it was. He stopped heading for the stairwell as she called out again. As usual, Ishtar just couldn't leave it alone. Well there was proof at least that it was -really- her.

"I don't know. That's the problem." He was trying not to be angry at her. It really wasn't her fault and she was perhaps one of the only people who didn't deserve his outrage unleashed on her. Ishtar had helped before, even though he had refused it - what would her 8-years older self be like? Why shouldn't he voice his concerns, when she would likely stop at nothing to get them out of him otherwise.

"I can't remember any of it. Every fiber of my being tells me I've only been here a couple of months, yet you're talking as if we've known each other for years. And why not? Unless how you look is some sort of an illusion.

It's unacceptable. I-"

He stopped. He was starting to doubt that he could handle this, and that could not be allowed to happen. Indeed, what memories Sephiroth had defined him greatly. What else had he now lost by having it all erased. If this was an illusion however, there would of course be no way to prove it.

Such illusions in this place are so absolute after all.

He confusion with the situation didn't seem to help the other mans' mood, and clearly she was obviously treading very dangerously into something she should avoid, but Ishtar was always fearless. It mattered little how much danger she was putting herself in. The woman knew her place, but she still chose to be concerned about this person of her own free will.

"I-I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have asked," she replied apologetically to him, "but you really look unwell, though."

She didn't want to let that go. He looked rather strangely pale or something like that. She couldn't really tell if it was because she never noticed it before or whatever happened,, clearly had him change expressions dramatically.

"I hear...sometimes when people don't remember, they might have been taken away by the Tower," she replied softly, "or it could be the Tower messing with us," she added that as a second thought. If it were anything like the damnable place she was in, then there was no way to avoid getting their memories tampered with, or maybe...her memory was being tampered with?

No, Ishtar didn't want to believe that. He was making her confused and unable to respond for a moment. She remained quiet and decided not to voice anything anymore, because it might turn out for the worse.

There was a thought that really didn't need to be added to the mix of swirling headache starting to get beyond the point of irritation - that he could have been 'taken' somewhere by the Tower in the meantime. And quite obviously remembers nothing about it.

It was taking everything Sephiroth had willpower-wise to keep these thoughts spiraling out of control. He could already feel the hot anger welling up inside him and he knew it would be so easy to let it boil over. To storm around the Tower looking for anything and anyone to take this outrage out on.

Wasn't it enough he was contained here at all!

Instead, he opened and clenched his fists over and over - each motion burying that feeling deeper. He needed to remain calm, this place was designed to make him lose it. He wouldn't let them win. Taking a deep, steadying breath he looked from his focus point back at Ishtar.

"Just leave me alone." It's not that she has personally annoyed him in anyway, the best thing for both of them right now would be for him to remove himself from the situation. Without further ado Sephiroth headed out of the floor and back down the stairs.

Ishtar didn't mean to say things like that but she wasn't about to craft up a lie to make things better. She was honest and she was apologetic for bringing it up, but that was just the kind of person she was and it was hard to not say the truth to others.

She remained quiet as she saw that she wasn't making the situation better for him. In fact, he seemed even worse than before, but she didn't bother to argue with him as he told her to leave him alone, "I'm sorry," she quietly mused, "Alright, please take care," with that she left it the way it was.

She didn't want to further make the situation problematic.

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8 years is a long time

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