queenoflogs | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Characters: Jessica + Anyone interested
Date: Present day, present time
Summary: Homesickness + Denial + Magic Dirt = an exciting new feature on the landscape!
Warnings: Mild angstmuffinry?

So, magic dirt. You grab some, you think about the thing you want, and boom, done! Woo.

At least, that's the theory. Possibly it was a bad idea for Jessica to try to develop something while she's stressed and freaking out because the full weight of her situation finally hit. Because now, she keeps trying to make something fortressy, but all she comes up with are things from home.

Beige wallpaper.

A soft peach couch with frayed arms and an old antimacassar.

The carpeted stairs with a stubborn purple stain.

A varnished wooden board with pegs bearing leashes.

She frowns, furrowing her brow, and tries to will everything to take the shape her brain wants, not the shape her heart does. Mind over matter, right? Right.

Stone, thick and solid.

A tower, tall enough to see all the Gardens.

Off-white painted walls with a border of pink flowers.

A desk with a lamp attached, and a built-in holder for pens.

A window with yellow blinds, sunlight streaming in.

No, no, no, stop it!

Her room ignores the orders, sweeping up and over her.

There's a stone tower in the garden, with a window at the top. There's a fully-furnished bedroom inside.

There's a Jessica seated on the bed, hugging a pillow and crying.

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Rose was doing her daily wandering when she noticed a tower appear out of nowhere. Out of all the odd things to happen in this place, this ranked as one of the more unusual. Perhaps the Queen decided on a whim to put it there, or perhaps it was yet another prison to hold more dangerous residents.

Still, the tower was too much for Rose to ignore. She made her way towards it, keeping her mind open in case someone was inside. Then she heard faint crying. "Are you all right?" She called, hoping for some kind of answer.

There's a fairly long pause (taken up inside by brief panicking, face-wiping and a few deep breaths) before Jessica peers out. And starts.

"y- yeah... um... I'm... okay," she answers, her hoarse voice and occasional sniffle totally giving that lie away. "um. This is definitely not what I meant to do."

There were few walls that members of SOLDIER were incapable of scaling. Sephiroth only had to leap. With her speed and strength, it was almost like flying. The tower, though tall, did not intimidate her, and she was as curious about it as she would have been about any new structure in the Gardens, especially one so odd.

Why a tower with no door?

She leapt up to the window and inside. She hadn't been expecting to find anything in particular within the tower, but she was surprised to find Jessica there, and just as surprised to find her so visibly upset. "Jessica. Are you in need of assistance?"

!

fdsjklfsdjklfsd

Excuse Jessica, she is going to have a brief bluescreen moment at being discovered in her shameful moment of weakness.

"I..."

She squeezes the pillow and looks down.

"I guess not really..."

"I apologize for intruding. I didn't realize you were in here." She looked around the room, taking in the decor with a neutral air. This certainly wasn't the fortress that Jessica had been talking about making.

"I see that you're upset." Sephiroth was capable of great subtlety in battle, but casual conversation was another matter. "Does it have something to do with this place?"

"no, it's okay..."

Other than it being kind of embarrassing to have people seeing her room all of a sudden, with all the nostalgic, occasionally terribly girly, often kiddie details. She tries to shrink further behind her pillow.

"yeah... I was trying to make the fort, but... I don't know what happened. I didn't mean to make my room..." She tries to swallow the waver in her voice.

"You... created this tower?" Rose looked up and saw the girl. "How did you manage such a feat?" As she asked, she started to look for a way into the structure. "And do you need help getting out?"

"Well, um... with the magic dirt? I..."

She looks around, inside and out.

"I can probably get out, I think..."

I'm not sure I want to yet.

"d- don't... don't worry about me... I'm okay."

Magic dirt? Rose vaguely recalled someone mentioning such a thing, but she passed it off as untrue. Apparently she was incorrect. She was reluctant to leave the girl in such a huge tower, especially after hearing her cry. "Very well. Do you need anything?"

She considers this for a moment. "Probably nothing you could provide. Unless there's a secret way out you know."

The tower looked like it had an entrance/exit, but if she meant the Garden itself... "That is something I do not know, signorina. I am sorry."

"Yeah, I didn't think so..." She sighs.

"But, uh... thanks."

Sephiroth nodded. So this was Jessica's room. Sephiroth had not had a particular personal bedroom as a child, and her current quarters back home had little in the way of ornament. This kind of room was not very familiar to her.

"I didn't realize one could make things with the soil that one did not intend." It was different than the Materia she'd tried to create, which had been warped. She found the idea intriguing, but she saw that it could also have unfortunate consequences. "Were you having difficulty focusing?" Her tone was dispassionate, but she gave Jessica a sympathetic look.

"....yeah." She smooths down a wrinkle on her comforter. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I've been here for a while, I should be used to it." She scrubs at her eyes again, sniffling.

"Sorry. I know I'm being weak right now."

"There's no need to apologize. You miss your home. I can understand. I miss mine as well. Sometimes reactions to stress are delayed, that's all." She was well-acquainted with the phenomenon, having witnessed a variety of responses to combat.

A sigh explodes from her throat, and she lets herself fall back on the mattress.

"I guess..."

Looking out the window, she adds, "I'm gonna have to get some more dirt now."

"I'm certain of it." She smiled.

"I can get some for you, if you'd like. I'm able to travel very quickly, and I was considering getting more for myself."

She sits up quickly, about to speak.

And then clams up and looks down.

She spends a moment looking for the right response around her newly-reconstructed room.

"I... guess that'd be OK. If you don't mind."

I wish I could go with you... I wish I was better.

Sephiroth made no move to leave. "There's no need for me to go now. If you're having trouble concentrating, perhaps you should rest for a day or two before making another attempt."

With a sigh, she squeezes the pillow again. "Yeah, probably... Now watch something bad happen while we don't have a fortress."

Sephiroth shrugged. "There has been no fortress for all this time. It can wait a few more days. If something happens within that brief time, it will be the Queen's fault, and not yours. I'll do what I can to protect people."

She tried to find a use in Jessica's creation. "You could use this place as a residence, despite the fact that it's somewhat inconvenient at this height. It's a defensible position."

She... honestly can't think of a good argument against that. Which, of course, doesn't make her feel better emotionally, but at least she can accept that she wouldn't be universally reviled if some catastrophe were to come up before the fortress was around.

"I... might." There's something very comforting about having her room, even if it's fake and her real home is... forever away. "I could set up an elevator. Maybe even set up the fortress around it, since this was going to be the spot for it, anyway. It'll be kind of weird, I guess, but... it's something."

Being able to plan and focus helps a bit. At least she feels less like crying now.

"um..."

Sephiroth nods her agreement, pleased that Jessica is recovering. "With the soil, it should be easy to add an elevator. It would be a good idea to have such a vantage point within the fortress. You could easily see over the walls and observe the enemy. If you resided here, you'd be the first to spy danger and could warn others."

Jessica seems to want to say something else. "Yes?"

"Yeah, that was kind of the idea, before... y'know, I fucked everything up." She half-smiles, ruefully.

She's quiet for a moment, tracing the pattern on her comforter with her eyes.

"Thanks."

...

Tenshi spotted the tower early. While she had no idea what the tower meant, she figured that a heavy strone structure implied someone wanting to protect something.

Hopefully by force!

She quickly hopped on her floating rock and moved towards the window, where she then knocked.

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