[open] I'm Nobody, who are you?

[mnementomori]

Characters: Xion and anyone who encounters her wandering the Gardens.
Date: 3/20, early afternoon onward
Summary: Xion has been hit with a wildcard while out gathering more dirt for her tram system.
Warnings: will update if needed.

Xion was lost.

That wasn't right. She knew the Gardens like that back of her hand, she'd been here long enough. Even with new scenery always popping up, she was able to keep track of it. But the tall spire of the Clock Tower was nowhere to be seen, despite the fact that she was just out in the dunes collecting sand. She clutched the bucketful she was carrying tightly, stopping to look around again.


[ooc: as an amplification of her usual weird changing appearance, the wild card effect will cause her to take on the appearance of someone important to the one looking at her. The full extent is up to you: who she appears to be, whether her voice changes, whether they look male or are a female version, whether the illusion wears off once they figure out it's Xion. Have fun with this!]

Comments

[histrionic]

She comes forward slowly, peering down at Xion intently.

"Wrong? Lost?" She moves a hand, almost reaching out, then, as if rethinking the action, draws her hand back sharply. "How can you ask me these questions, when you must know? Or is it that you mean to mock me?"

She knows very well that Zidane wouldn't mock her, but she says this all the same, unwilling to unbend or greet her sibling, suspicious and--what else? It's a difficult emotion for her to identify, a weight on her chest and a knot in her stomach. She wants to speak to Zidane, but at the same time, she cannot.

[mnementomori]

She shakes her head vehemently. "I wouldn't make fun of you. I really don't know. Was it something I did?" She set down her bucket of sand, taking a step closer. "The Gardens are...changing. I went out to get sand, and I can't find the Clock Tower anymore."

[histrionic]

Kuja isn't pleased with this reply, turning her head slightly to one side, her examination of this other critical. Whoever this is, it looks and sounds like Zidane, but what it says makes little sense, not if it is Zidane.

What trickery is this? "Yes, the Gardens begin to shift, uneasy." She pauses.

"Zidane?" But the slight hopefulness in the question is matched by an equal measure of despair. Zidane is gone, of course. Likely dead, as she will be, whenever she leaves this place.

[mnementomori]

"Zi...dane?" Xion bites her lip, unable to stave off a sudden uneasiness. "It's...I'm Xion. It's me." She clutches at the front of her cloak nervously. What was going on? Did Kuja seem...sad?

[histrionic]

"Xion...?" For a moment, disoriented, Kuja doesn't seem to know what she means. Then she falls silent, as her expression slowly shifts from sadness into anger.

"Why have you done this? I don't take kindly to jokes at my expense." She doesn't think of Xion's earlier comment about not making fun of her. She stretches out a hand. Light rises from her fingertips, settles into bright spheres above them. The effect is pretty, but decidedly not friendly.

"How do you know his face?"

[mnementomori]

She takes a step back, her heart thudding in her chest. "I haven't! I didn't do anything! I don't know...I don't know what you see. I can't control it...!" There's a desperate edge to her voice, though she's more afraid of herself than Kuja at the moment. Why was this happening, why now?

[histrionic]

Kuja didn't seem to be listening to Xion's actual words, or if she was, they didn't seem to register. Her own voice rose and sharpened as she looked at his face, heard his voice... Though she had heard and understood the name "Xion", it was so like him, and it was cruel, too cruel to see him like this. What a joke.

"Then why must you torment me like this? If he died, it wasn't my fault!" She seems affronted, when she knows in her heart that it was, it was all her fault, but she can't admit it out loud.

In the next moment, her voice lowers, and she addresses Xion as Zidane again. "I told you to go, but you refused. I'll take no blame for it--I saved your life, but you were too foolish to leave."

[mnementomori]

"Kuja, please--" Her face is burning with shame. Though they've been at odds before, she always considered the woman a friend, despite the fact that Kuja was hardly the kindest person she knew. Seeing her in obvious distress feels wrong, alien--after all, she'd always boasted about how strong she was.

She feels dizzy, lightheaded. She doesn't know what to say, how to fix it, and even though she's learned she needs to face things, her first instinct is to turn tail (no pun intended) and flee. So she runs, abandoning the bucket of sand, not even considering that Kuja was probably much faster than she was.