I'ziva Ganajai (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
purrrrfection) wrote2000-03-21 03:00 am
purrrrfection) wrote2000-03-21 03:00 am•||• Open Post •||•
You know what to do! Hit me up, picture prompts, written prompts, quotes, songs, you name it!
purrrrfection) wrote2000-03-21 03:00 am
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but this is nothing new for alisaie, and her time in amh araeng has sharpened her skills and senses both, honing her edge, shaping her into a hunter, a killer, and she cannot allow even one eater to escape her sword. its movement gives it away, the telltale unnatural curl of its wings as it makes to escape, and alisaie leaps from the broken tower without a second thought. ]
Get back here!
[ there's no need to shout, the sin eater does not hear reason, but it fuels her fire nonetheless. it won't get away. even one stray eater is one too many, and even a lesser fiend can devastate a village or a group if left to its own devices. this she cannot allow. the ground flies up toward her, and alisaie's grip on her rapier tightens. she's ready to strike.
at least, until a different movement catches her eye - one more natural and easy, something walks on two legs, and alisaie is thankful for her sharp elezen sight that even from this height and distance she is clearly able to make out the face and features of her friend. is that.. ?
no - first, she must see to her task. just in time, alisaie bends her mind again to the sin eater, landing hard in the unforgiving sand, dashing immediately. she catches the eater in the spine with the tip of her blade, and without hesitation unleashes a flurry of merciless blows that send it crumbling, screaming, into the amber sands. she would almost feel sorry for how woefully unprepared it was for her attack if she did not know better. can a sin eater even know fear? can it know anything at all? ]
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The sight of stark red amidst the wasteland of warm sands and decrepit buildings is like a beacon to her eyes, and follow it down they do. She'd half a mind to call out but simply managed a questioning, alarmed tone as she uttered the girl's name and watched her fall.
Seeing her handily dispatch the sin eater after isn't nearly as shocking (This is, after all, the same young woman who'd fought back a horde of red kojin single handed just to buy her companions an escape.), and all that Ziva can think about now is reaching her, a strange blend of emotions swelling in her chest.
Godsdamn it all, this will be harder than she thought, won't it? To pretend to remember nothing of all she'd learned of Alisaie and Lyse and the others in Lunatia? To set aside memories of all the time they'd spent there just doing normal, mundane things. She knew more than she should now, and at keeping secrets, Ziva was no expert. Sooner or later she was bound to let something slip that she likely wasn't meant to know yet- if ever at all.
But, bah- she stubbornly puts all that aside! Even just the sight of Alisaie's back as she draws nearer is enough to make her forget those worries and all others, a smile coming unbidden.]
Talk about a grand entrance... and here I was, hoping to be the one to surprise you.
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only once the eater begins to shimmer away in a slow burn of light does she turn.
it's not that she isn't happy to see ziva. of course she is. not only is she a familiar face, she is a friend, and while for alisaie lunatia is a fading memory, she has not forgotten. everyone else has, it seems - and it was more than a little strange at first - but those she had known in lunatia who had also hailed from hydaelyn are flung far from her now. back in eorzea, a world away, and she has had a very long, very arduous year in which to allow the memory to decay. she's hopped around so many damned worlds by now that it feels near enough to habit now.
nevertheless, she is passing shocked to see ziva here - how on earth had she arrived from the first? that they had shared the star would not surprise her, eorzea was filled to the brim with bright and capable adventurers last she checked, but to run into ziva here, in a place like this..? crystal exarch and her few fellow scions aside, there are none on this shard who should know of eorzea at all.
and ziva.. ziva seems to recognize her.
okay, just hang on here, her brain is struggling to make sense of this. ]
Ziva? You.. what in the world are you doing here? How -
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Quip aside she HAD expected surprise to be chief among them, but this seems to go far beyond that. There's a flicker of recognition that seems... wrong somehow, out of place. In the weeks that had passed since her departure from Lunatia she'd had ample time to wonder how the others fared on their respective stars, but never did she imagine for even a MOMENT that any of them might somehow find their way back to HERS.
So it is that she's none the wiser as to the true nature of Alisaie's confusion, and furrows her brow with a wry smile, playful even now.]
The how of it is a bit of a story, but as to why, surely you didn't think I'd be content to stay behind on the Source while the rest of you were off saving the worlds as we know them?
[It IS a relief, not only to see her again but to hear her name spoken in such a familiar way. Some part of her that she'd done her damned best to silence and bury still feared a repeat of her first meetings on Lunatia. Not only Alisaie, but Estinien, Arenvald, and brief though his visit had been: Aymeric. Returning had done a bit of a number on her, but she'd bounced back quickly enough.
Never the less, it's a good feeling to have that recognition confirmed at long last.
But, again, this surprise seems a bit... excessive somehow. The smile wears away, concern becoming more apparent.]
... You look as though you've seen a ghost. You... did believe I'd come for you all...?
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[ however can she answer such a question? alisaie had come to know ziva intimately at lunatia, she learned just how brave and strong she is, how important her comrades are to her, just how far she would go to protect those she loves. in fact, she could not help but be reminded of a certain warrior for whom the first waits, even then. were her world or loved ones in danger alisaie has no doubt that ziva would be among the first to respond to the call for aid, but this -
this is something entirely different.
one does not simply jaunt up to the first and take the first bounty on the adventure board - if ziva is here, it is because she was brought here, and alisaie can count on her hands just how many people the exarch had pulled from the source. if she is here, it is because he had willed it. but why? it's the warrior that he has sought all this time, and the only reason the scions are here at all is because they had been caught in his wake; no matter her valor or personal investment, even alisaie would not have been here at all were it not for her close ties to the warrior, but as far as she knows, ziva has never known the man.. at least, not that she has disclosed, and alisaie certainly had never seen her hanging about the rising stones. in fact, she'd never seen ziva on the source at all, before arriving in lunatia.
it's enough to make her head both ache and spin in the same turn. ]
But how? That you remembered me at all is unexpected, but one cannot simply ride a chocobo to a place like this. How on earth did you come to be here at all?
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Ziva's head tilts with a frown, Alisaie's words ringing... oddly in her mind. It's finally dawned on her that this might be... that she might be... but, that's impossible, isn't it?
Right, as if she and hers didn't do ten impossible things a week at LEAST. Ziva's eyes widen then, her lips parting in surprise. Is she REALLY to dare to hope that she may not be so alone with her thoughts after all?]
You remember? Lunatia...?
[Which means it's now HER turn to beg the question: HOW??? How is it that she's HERE- what- she hadn't remembered Ziva before. It had been obvious that whoever the Warrior of Light was on Alisaie's star, it wasn't HER. Why then, HOW, then, was it that the Alisaie who she'd met on Lunatia came to be here??
But putting that aside for a second, guilt hits her, and for a brief moment she wonders if she shouldn't have mentioned her title after all back then. She worries that- if she's right -what she's about to say is going to sit poorly.
After that pause, a moment taken to compose herself, she straightens. For a second she actualy seems... struck speechless, a rare thing indeed for her, as Alisaie had likely realized during their time together in that glittering city worlds and worlds away.]
Ah, so that's the way of it. How indeed.
[And then... she smiles?]
Aye, I remember you, I remember that place. [There's another pause, and then a humorless chuckle.] Gods if I know how to say this without sounding puffed up on self importance, but... I'm the one the exarch called for. I'm... the Warrior of Light of my star. I hope you'll forgive me for saying nothing of it before. I could find neither the words nor the right time.
[Somehow it had always seemed so unimportant, and when she thought about the confusion and possibly the pain it might cause, knowing from their first meeting that Alisaie already harbored some particular feelings about not recognizing Ziva? The choice was simple, at least at the time. She'd held her tongue regarding her true identity so as to avoid causing further upset and confusion. Here's hoping that she doesn't wind up paying for it now. Until she's sure of that she withholds all other thoughts and feelings on the matter, when really all she wants to do is rejoice that she isn't stark raving mad after all, that someone (especially someone so close to her) still retains memory of that place and those experiences, questions (of which there are many) aside.
Questions for the exarch later, perhaps.]
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ziva, she.. she is...
in retrospect, it makes sense enough. she possesses all the selfsame qualities of the warrior that alisaie knows - she is strong and kind, compassionate and tenacious, and the gods know that more than one unfamiliar face in lunatia had claimed the title of warrior of light. now more than ever alisaie is acquainted with the idea of multiple worlds, multiple timelines, they exist, and that ziva might be the warrior of light in her reality is not so unbelievable. in time, alisaie could come to digest and accept that.
but then.. why is she here? how do they share the same star? it's enough to make her head hurt. ]
I.. I don't understand.
[ it's all she can say, isn't it? if ziva is here, then.. where is the warrior she knows? the one who was meant to arrive here? a deep misgiving takes root in her heart, but alisaie soon shakes her head. ]
Nevermind. I doubt you are able to offer any more answers than I can.
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[After all, can't be "worse" than being pulled completely away from home against their will, can it? True, it was for good causes in both recent cases, but it didn't change the fact it may have been nice to be asked, in the case of the prismals. Suppose there was no harm in it, though, since time hadn't passed by in the duration, and if anything they came away more knowledgeable than when they'd left.
Frowning briefly, Ziva folds her arms, thoughtful.]
Our best bet would be to ask the Exarch... but... I can't deny that I'm glad to see you again. I would've been happy regardless, but it's a bit of a bonus knowing I HAVEN'T finally cracked my gourd, being the only one to remember my time there.
[To which she can't help but smile. It's simply her way, trying to put a positive spin on things. Fretting won't get them very far, in the end, and she can't pretend to be disparaged by the recent development.] In the meantime...
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still, she feels a stain of doubt upon her heart, and a cold, quiet fear that is taking root. were ziva not on her home world, surely the exarch would have noticed that she was not, in fact, the same warrior of light that alisaie is familiar with. for all the similarities they share, he and ziva are still quite different, markedly physically different. so if she is in fact who the exarch was fishing for, that means that it is not ziva who occupies the wrong space.
it is alisaie.
gods, she had been so happy to be home at last..
shaking her head, alisaie draws in a deep breath and lifts her eyes to ziva's face. ]
Aye, no doubt you have.. questions. I've a patrol to finish, if you should like to offer a hand we can finish it in half the time, and leave ourselves ample time to speak.
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[Once again she surveys the spot where the eater's aether was but moments before, then turns her attention back to Alisaie. This is her patrol, and as such Ziva is simply here to assist, not to lead.]
Where would you have me start, then?
[She asks with a wink and an easy smile. Chores. Always chores in the end. The only difference is in how they vary in importance. The sentiment is a fond one though, they're nearly always doing so for the good of others and now that hold especially true.]