[LOG ; semi-open] Of War, Politics, and Love.

[crowned-jewel.livejournal.com]

Characters: Garnet, Zidane, semi-open to those on board the Invincible.
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: The evening of Vayne's assassination, Garnet needs to do some talking.
Location: Aboard the Invincible, En Route back to Lindblum
Date: The evening after the Heads of State meeting, and Vayne's Assassination.
Warnings: TBA

By the time Garnet had stopped shaking, stopped spouting half-formed utterances of disbelief, stopped feeling as though she were going to faint, several hours had passed, and the Invincible was en route back to Lindblum. Zidane had seen to her shattered psyche, and she only half remembered clinging to him, trembling like the last leaf on the tree. How long she had done so, before he'd removed them both from the prying eyes of strangers, she did not know. People had screamed, Rosa had fainted, and Cid had barked commands The only one really anything close to composed. Now, as the evening grew darker outside the windows of their airship cabin, the cries of Ashe's babe long ago quieted, the reality of the situation had begun to sink in for the Queen of Alexandria.

Vayne Solidor was dead.

Dead in the most brutal way possible. Worse, Garnet thought, than any of the atrocities she'd seen on any individual during Gaia's wars. She was never a front line soldier on a battlefield, and had been spared the sight of twisted, maimed figures. But she could not get the images of that afternoon out of her head. One moment, smiling, and she anticipated the disappointment she would have to deliver. The next moment, gone, in a display so vile, she'd nearly been sick.

And there she sat, outwardly calmed, but her mind in turmoil. Not a word had passed her lips since she'd stopped her horrified murmurs. In her hand, she cradled the Ring -- the one Vayne had given to her some months ago, and the one she'd been planning to give back to him when she gently as possible turned down his proposal. It was irrelevant now.

Closing her hand around the ring, she finally moved, setting it on the alien-designed table-top beside her chair.

Comments

[tantalus-born.livejournal.com]

Zidane had done the best he could, really, with trying to keep Garnet...stable? As she broke down throughout the day. He couldn't blame her really, Vayne had been her friend, even if Zidane hadn't liked him...but even if they hadn't been friends, seeing him just die like that would be hard on anyone.

So for a long time he had held her, until she'd stopped shaking and was just sitting, and then he'd left the room for a short while to tell the Regent that she had finally calmed down, though she probably wouldn't want visitors for a few hours. And when he'd come back and she was just...sitting there...he'd moved to sit on the edge of the strange window the room had, watching the water passing by beneath them.

It wasn't until he heard the faint sound of metal on wood that he turned to look at her, hauling himself up from the window. "Hey."