Beyond every bend is a long blinding end; It's the worst kind of pain I've known

[provenworth]

Characters: Elena and YOU
Setting: The Graveyard
Format: Will match yours!
Summary: The Tower doesn’t allow much time for its residents to grieve or recover before the next big event and Elena is no exception. First the Dark World incident, then Wretched Egg and her lovely blood bombs; by the time things settle down enough for her to reflect and take in everything, it’s her birthday. Too bad her birthday party isn’t what she thought it would be.
Warnings: Sads. And snark if a certain somebody comes by to say 'I told you so'


[Floor 48 – Graveyard]

[There they all were. Lined up in a perfect row in the proper order of command from left to right, their names clear against the dark headstone. President Rufus, Tseng, Reno (aka, ‘Sparky”), Reno (aka, “Rusty”), and Rude. Even Strife’s grave was nearby, two rows back, but still close enough for her to pick up the sardonic way that the layout had been chosen. They were her team, her friends, her family. It was a grim and cruel reminder of who had come and who had gone; echoing the validity of Ganondorf’s earlier statement regarding how she of most of the residents had a reason to hate the Admins. Many had lost friends; she had lost her entire team...and her husband.

Elena had not come unprepared to this floor, having picked flowers from one of the meadow floors available. Each grave received its own small bouquet, an affectionate caress of the cold, curved top of each stone. She did nothing to hide the somber and saddened expression with the variety of feelings she held for each tombstone’s owner, pausing longer at one of the Reno stones. His bouquet was bigger, stems held together with a familiar green cloth that had been used only months earlier to tie around their wrists.]

...You jerk. You’re supposed to be the one giving flowers on a girl’s birthday, not the other way around. [Hands held each side of the tombstone, stabilizing her when she squatted down and pressed a quick kiss against the tombstone.] S’okay, I forgive you. Just don’t forget next year...

[Next year. That was assuming that she would still be stuck in this Summon-forsaken tower that long. Taking several steps backwards, she sat on some unknown grave, looking down the line – as well as the single additional off-tangent. At least the whole gang was together.]

...This is the deadest birthday party I have ever had.

[The words had come without thought or precognition, her voice fading into the silence of the graveyard. Lines of her face fell, the double entendre not missed and wholly inappropriate, earning a slow, shuddering breath. Shoulders sagged, chin lowering to press against the collar of her jacket as eyes fell closed.

This was the worst birthday ever.]

Comments

[Graveyard] and with this I break hiatus

[attheclocktower]

[She was already here for work, but... she had her own tokens to leave. At least until she sees Elena, and... something about it is so private and personal she can't go any closer, not at first. She tiptoes around instead, heading over to Roxas' grave to leave one of the shells she'd picked there, taking her time before finally heading over to Reno's grave, enough to catch that last line.

Her eyes well up a little with tears. Even over a month later, even after talking to Riku and having all that time to think... the loss is still raw. But still, she steps up - letting her footsteps be loud enough to be heard, since taking Elena completely by surprise was probably a bad idea]

... not all dead, though.

[They still have each other at least? The tiny little pieces of thier family that are left...

She raises her arms up a little, awkwardly but determinedly. Hug? They probably both need it.]

[lightofhumanity]

[chaos had just finished visiting his old friends when he heard a person speaking to an old grave..by the words used, it probably belonged to her lover. While chaos hated to pry..he hated to see people suffer, and even if he couldn't help much, he still wanted to try and calm the woman down. Carefully he approached her, in full view, so as not to startle her.]

..Perhaps the next one shall be a bit better for you.

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch dragged himself from grave to grave. Dust this one off, imagining the vague human form for someone he didn't know, wandering the dead, dusty remains of a forest. Water the flowers on this one, someone he knows, imagining him cradling a tiny skeleton. Cut to the next row to avoid the ghost. Step around an open empty grave. Smooth out the dirt where someone or something had attempted to dig up the coffin, knowing this person could be standing in a dusty house, or burying their family...

And then he heard the voice of someone here. He straightened up to watch, the hood of his cloak falling back - it had been pushed too far back in little bouts of distressed fidgeting to stay when he stood.

The distress of someone right in front of him, immediate and too solid, pulled him in. He stood at a comfortable distance until she stood again, when he approached and spoke, tearful.*

I'm so sorry...

[neverbeamemory]

Yet another floor that hardly ever see's his tracks in the grave dirt.

Sephiroth again had trekked to the Graveyard floor after the distinct 'flavor' of Kadaj vanished from his awareness, as he had done for Hojo and Cloud; just to verify. Not that they are real graves, and even if they had been Sephiroth certainly wouldn't be grieving for either three of them.

Is it ironic, or typical that his soul has been drawn here to the Tower at the expense of letting others go? Could be either or even a twist of both. The only other one left from Gaia-

...This is the deadest birthday party I have ever had.

Sephiroth purposefully stopped half a foot from the stairwell as he regarded the slumped blonde sat on a tombstone near to where he knew Cloud's tombstone was. There are reasons he needs to stay away from her and so true to those thoughts Sephiroth will take a wide angle around the whole perimeter of the Graveyard if he needs to before searching out for the Remnants' memorial.

[fusedstars]

[Hei was only awake for the briefest of periods, letting Ishtar run the school with the probably one of the few days he had to be awake. Again, he used the day to visit the graveyard, always feeling drawn here. What he saw was something he didn't expect though. Right, Reno was gone now. Explained why he never got any feedback.

He slowly walked towards her, having just tended to the graves of friends he lost. And gently, he places a hand on her shoulder. Her birthday too? This...this was only getting worse.]

I'm sorry.

[savedbyasong]

[Shion had known he would find her here today of all days and he let her have her moment before moving forward and sitting next to her.

He wasn't empty handed either, he held a strawberry pie in his hands] It might be a bit stale... I figured we might not have proper food this month so made it before the month turned...

[And then hid it in his trunk, but it's the thought that counts... right? He looked down] I know it's not much but you should have something for your birthday.

... I feel like I should apologize for this.

[flared]

[Axel had been more or less out of commission for the past couple of days and in all that time he had neglected to visit the graveyard as he usually would. Most days he kept to himself, cooped up in his room, thinking, journaling, keeping his Assassin always by his side for company-- But there was only so much of that he could take.

So today he set out on his own for the 48th floor, footsteps light against the path and the grass by the time he entered the graveyard, and just before he turned to follow his usual way to Roxas' grave he paused when he spotted someone out of the corner of his eye.

Oh. Was that--]

Elena?