two.

[sicharia]

Characters: [AU9] Claudia Hortensia & OPEN
Setting: Room 3-03; outside the 100th Floor; Various (Floor 12, Floor 81, others)
Format: Action preferred
Summary: Claudia deals with the aftermath of the event.
Warnings: The first part contains references to suicide; this is likely to come up wherever her regain is mentioned.


[I. Room 3-03]
[The belt in her hands is just a belt; there's nothing outwardly distinctive or notable about it. Seated on the edge of her bed, Claudia runs it through her hands, the leather dark and smooth against her pale fingers. Unthinkingly, she seeks out the grooves left in the material, examining the places where it is worn from use with her touch.]

[...She can't say for sure. She never saw the belt for herself. But in this place, cool leather in her hand and monster written over her bed in blood, she thinks about the moment she heard that Kirei had hanged himself, and she then starts to cry.]

[II. 100th Floor]
[Claudia doesn't actually set foot on the floor itself, lingering outside on the stairs. She has no desire to see what will be there for her when she opens the door, and especially not after—after earlier.]

[So, then, why is she there? She almost wonders that herself. It's ridiculous. She knows nothing about the relative stranger she is looking for, just that she has met him once before on this floor. There's no reason for her to suspect that she'll find him here again, but—what other clue does she have? She needs to find him. She needs to apologize.]

[III. Various]
[The other person— He's stranger to think about, and he killed her rather than the reverse. But, even so, she feels it would be wrong to simply pretend it hadn't happened.]

[Of course, she knows even less about him. She spends some time wandering around the 12th Floor, but she doesn't really expect to see him there. She checks the 81st, too, which is even more ridiculous. She never even met him there, or at least not really. It's so strange to think that she had met someone both as a child and an adult here...]

[In the end, her searching is mostly aimless, directed purely by gut feeling.]

Comments

[chainsawn]

[ It's okay, she really basically does act like a little kid most of the time.. so it's not like she even minds being talked down to, instead she goes along with it, nodding a little. ]

I'm fine. It wasn't that bad. [ SHe's had worse. Hasn't anyone here? ] .. Were you in a hurry..?

[sicharia]

Oh, no, not really. I'm just—looking for someone, but I'm not sure where to find them. I'm sorry, I should have been paying more attention.

[chainsawn]

[ ...

She glances to the left, to the right... nope, doesn't seem like there's anyone else here. So the person she's looking for isn't here? ]

I'll look for them too.. if I can find who they are, I guess.

[sicharia]

Oh! You don't have to do that. [She does pause here, though, tilting her head aside just slightly as she considers.] Do you know a person named Sephiroth?

[chainsawn]

Sephiroth.. [ She tilts her head back and forth a few times like shaking stuff up might trigger a memory of the name, but in the end she has to shake her head. ]

It sounds sort of fancy. Is he the prince of the tower?

[sicharia]

[A slow, small smile creeps onto her lips when she hears that response, the expression fond. It's an endearing answer. Claudia lets out a slight breath like a chuckle.]

No, he isn't. From what I've heard, he's a soldier. He's, um— Well, there's two of them, actually. One of them is a child, but I'm looking for the one that's an adult. He's tall, and he has long silver hair, and his eyes are very bright.

[chainsawn]

[ She's noting it all mentally, although it's a little confusing.. there's two, but she's looking for the adult? Urotsuki's actually never learned of the concept of there possibly being two of the same person here, so she is pretty blankly confused. ]

Does that mean there's an adult me out there too? Does she have very bright eyes too? That'd be nice.

[sicharia]

Mm, no, not necessarily, though there might be. Hm... Sometimes there's more than one of one person here, but they're usually a little different from one another. I met two of a friend I knew from home, in fact. They were both adults, but they looked and acted differently from one another. They both remembered things differently than I did, too, so that means another me could be brought here, too.

[Though... She doesn't like the thought of her other self being brought here, now that she thinks about it, and a slight frown crosses her face.]

[chainsawn]

Maybe we should look for them to make sure. There could be another you or another me around and we wouldn't even know.. it would be confusing for other people.

[ And she sure as heck doesn't want Kidou to be all over another her, even if that's technically her too.

Also Urotsuki YOU'RE DERAILING THE POINT.. ]

[sicharia]

Ah, well... I suppose that's true, but I think for the most part people hear of it when there's another one of them around. That's the kind of thing that has a habit of getting back to a person, you know?

[Claudia doesn't seem to mind the derailing, probably because she can't help but think of Urotsuki as a child. It makes her more indulgent than she might otherwise be. She smiles slightly, a little amused by the conversation.]

But if you're really worried, I can help you look sometime.

[chainsawn]

If you're a lot alike, then maybe people won't notice.. like, they might just think you can go from one place or another really quickly. [ She nods to herself. Nobody would believe something like that, of course, but she seems fairly convinced of this deal.. ]

.. But looking together sometime.. that sounds like a fun. It's better than being by yourself.