timeandtides_backup | [Thread, Closed]

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Characters: Tifa, Ashe, Beatrix
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: Three women experience some of their most heart-felt memories.
Location: Memoria
Date: February 1st, 1804
Warnings: This is going to be embarrassing.

It was bizarre. One second Tifa was in Lindblum, the next there was a bright light and she found herself in the open, standing on a wide, rocky plain. Her heart jumped as she recognised the airship moored in front of her. The Highwind. Tifa was so stunned that for a moment she couldn't move. This place was all too familiar. The beautiful sunset, the airship, Midgar in the distance... And this was a very particular spot indeed. That rock there, that was where she and Cloud-

She caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and turned at once. Somehow, she wasn't alone. It looked as though she was back in her own world and yet, the two women standing nearby also looking bewildered were not from home. Tifa recognised both of them vaguely from the party in Alexandria. Alexandria's famous general, Beatrix. And the lady Ashe, the woman who had recently given birth to a baby boy.

Tifa stared at them. "What...?"

That was about as coherent as she could manage for now.

[ooc: You can watch Tifa's scene here. Skip to 14:30. The PC version has slightly different dialogue, but it's basically the same.]

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"Tifa..."

She closed her eyes, thinking of all they had been through together. "No matter how close we were, we were far apart before this. But when we were in the Lifestream surrounded by all those screams of anguish, I thought I heard your voice." Her voice was becoming shaky with emotion; it wasn't easy for Tifa to admit this. She sniffed, holding back tears. "You probably won't remember this... But deep in my heart I heard you calling my name... Or at least I thought I did."

"Yeah."

Cloud had heard her. Tifa couldn't quite describe how that made her feel.

"...Hey, Tifa... I... There are a lot of things I wanted to talk to you about. But now that we're together like this, I don't know what I really wanted to say... I guess nothing's changed at all... Kind of makes you want to laugh..."

She smiled. "Cloud... Words aren't the only thing that tell people what you're thinking..."

He didn't reply, but she didn't expect him to. Tifa moved to sit down next to him, the pair of them curled up on a rocky hill together as the sun set. She rested her hand on his arm, looking at him with eyes as open as they'd ever been. Cloud gazed back at her with big blue eyes, and if she hadn't loved him already she would have fallen in love with him at that moment.

They kissed while Meteor shone down on them, bringing certain death in its wake. This was the last chance they might ever get to be together...

Then the memory faded and Tifa blinked, snapping out of it. She was alone, sitting on the hill - no, wait, she wasn't alone; Beatrix and Ashe were both staring at her. Oh, God.

Tifa swallowed with difficulty. "Did you guys... see that?"

There was no answer to the question; in fact it seemed to fall upon deaf ears. The woman was thoroughly caught up in whatever illusion she was seeing. Something rather emotional, from the appearance of it. After a moment, she leaned over to kiss the empty air (how odd-looking) and Beatrix thought to look away for the sake of propriety if nothing else. Unfortunately, the illusion faded just a moment before she would have done so, and Beatrix's gaze was met with an embarrassed look. So the only thing she could do was salvage the situation as best she could.

"I saw nothing of importance," she replied with an air of authority, then turned her gaze to their other companion. "Would you agree, Lady Ashe?"

Either people were present whom Ashe couldn't see, not unlike the way only she and Vaan had been able to look upon the Occuria's vision of Rasler, or their companion was experiencing something private; unintended for others. Looking to Beatrix, Ashe gave a nod, Tifa's embarrassment not lost on her.

"Nor I," she agreed, as certain in her words as the Alexandrian general. "We should make haste... there is an uneasiness to this place."

As always, whenever she felt unsettled, Ashe's instinct was to look to her wedding ring for motivation, only... it was missing. The discovery elicited a gasp from the princess, as did something all too familiar. Music. The traditional wedding march strived to be heard above thousands of Dalmascan and Nabradian voices calling out in joy, the names of their prince and princess lost within the sheer volume of the celebration. Ashe's heart instantly leapt at the sight of her people surrounding the elaborate parade, waving to her, smiling, some even weeping at the sight they beheld as the carriage drew closer to Rabanastre's grand cathedral.

Her wedding day. Turning to the left, Ashe smiled at the sight of him, the gallant figure of her fiance with whom she stood side by side, about to be wed. Reassuring was the smile Rasler offered; they were young still, on show. Her fingers, interwoven with his, tightened out of public view. However, her happiness was clear for all to behold as the procession continued.

"Once we are wed, Dalmasca and Nabradia will be united in the eyes of all Ivalice."

Through her veil, Ashe studied his face, taking a moment. "... As will we." they spoke softly to one another, despite the noise. "Rasler... I could not be happier." Her face brightened, feeling her hand squeezed in return.

"Nor I."

They were being nice, Tifa could tell. She was too embarrassed to speak. She simply nodded at Ashe's words and started walking away from the airship...

...Only to find that the scenery around her had changed. They were in a street in front of a cathedral, a place completely empty yet it looked as though it was decked out for a carnival. Tifa froze, confused, and stared as Ashe began speaking to thin air. Was that how she had looked?

"Ashe?" she said uncertainly.

The again sudden shift in the surroundings was nothing short of unsettling, and almost a little dizzying. And once again it was not a place with which she was familiar. Though when Ashe began speaking to the air, the idea that this was somewhere from her world was not a difficult conclusion at which to arrive.

"If she is in a state like you were a moment ago, she won't be able to hear you," she informed Tifa, though she kept part of her attention to Ashe in case she was wrong and received a response.

With the flower-adorned carriage drawing to a halt, Ashe reached out to accept the hand Rasler offered, stepping down to face the stairs which would lead them to the altar, to their future as husband and wife. Just a few stairs and she turned, mindful of her train, met with the tumultous cheers of her people. Their people.

Without warning, all of Dalmasca's citizens, the carriage and her gown vanished before her eyes, replaced by bewildered stares, just as with Tifa. surely enough, the wedding ring had returned to her finger. Disliking embarrassment in any shape or form, Ashe looked downward, maintaining her composure. The warmth of that happy memory lingered, even if the vision didn't.

"... I saw a memory," she explained, feeling a little more elaboration was needed now this had happened more than once.

It was clear now: wherever they were, this place wasn't real. Tifa thought of how she had revisited Cloud's memories while they were in the Lifestream. Could something like that have happened here?

"You live in Gaia," said Tifa, looking at Beatrix. "Have you heard of this kind of thing happening before? Do you know what it means?"

Beatrix thought about the question a moment, then replied.

"I have heard of something similar occurring once, several years ago. But I would have thought that to be an isolated incident. I have no idea why this is happening now, or to us."

If she had planned on elaborating any further, she was interrupted as the scenery changed to a stone-paved walkway alongside water, and she took a step away from the other two women, now completely unaware of their presence. She was walking alone, wringing her hands in an uncharacteristically nervous gesture. She had long since lost track of the piece of paper whose words she followed at this moment, but she had the words themselves memorized and even softly murmured them aloud as she walked toward the dock.

"When the night sky wears the moon as its pendant, I shall await you at the dock."

Steiner. One of few people ever to best her in a fight. How she had resented him for that for years, but yet, she had respected him as well, and particularly so given recent events. But perhaps not until she had seen that letter and the even slight possibility that he had intended for her to find it did she realize that perhaps that hidden feeling went beyond respect.

All evidence pointed to him as the source of the letter, but she could not be sure. She had been fighting off some feeling of trepidation about it since she had read those words (like a silly school girl, Beatrix. You know better than to let something like this affect you) and even now she was anxious. What if it really hadn't been Steiner, or what if it hadn't been intended for her?

And yet there he was at the dock, like the letter had promised. (She almost absently caught notice of her hands and their tell-tale nervous motions and brought them safely down to her sides.)

“It was him,” she whispered to herself, a small smile growing on her lips. “I knew it.” Her steps growing the slightest bit more purposeful, she closed the distance between herself and him.

No longer surprised by the sudden changes in scenery, Ashe felt disappointment more than anything, that Beatrix had been unable to continue her explanation and possibly move them on, closer to leaving this experience altogether.

The princess recognised Alexandria as their latest setting, the small country holding so much significance not only for Beatrix, now for herself as well.

"Should this have happened before," she directed to Tifa, knowing Beatrix could not hear them, "There must be a way to leave, else those who experienced it would not have been able to recall their tale to others."

Tifa recognised Alexandria too, and Ashe's words reassured her. She nodded. "That makes sense. Maybe Beatrix knows the way out..."

As she approached, Steiner asked if it was her, a question which made absolutely no sense if he had written the letter for her, but for the moment she couldn't quite bring herself to care about making sense of the odd words. He seemed perfectly pleased to see her, and the two stepped closer to one another, leaning in to kiss... and there the memory faded, and she became aware that she was in the presence not of Steiner but of two other women. She slowly shifted back to a more normal stance, cleaning her throat. The look on her face was a clear indication that the others were to say nothing about what they had just seen.

Funny, that was exactly the same place it had gotten interrupted the first time around.

Respectfully saying nothing about Beatrix's vision, Ashe chose instead to break the awkward air by posing Tifa's question.

"You say this has happened before - have you any indication of a way to leave?"

"Or where we even are?" Tifa added.

"It is..." she paused, trying to determine what she would be able to say for certain, "at least similar, if not the same, as a place known as Memoria. Though why it even exists now is a mystery, much less how we arrived inside it without our knowledge. It is possible it could be something different entirely."

"As for leaving, I may only guess." She looked at her surroundings for any possible clues. "It seems likely that someone is at the root of this. If we were to find that person we should also find answers." He voice held an air of authority, though in truth she was much less than certain of anything she was saying. It was all made of guesses, based on entirely not enough information.

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