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[shadingtogray]

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[ The last thing Amanda remembers is having fallen asleep in Clarice's cabin, but there's grass underneath her, not a mattress. She wakes slowly, squints against the sunlight as she pushes herself carefully into a sitting position. She's wearing white, a white dress that doesn't look like anything she ever owned, and the space around

Comments

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[airof]

Are so! Really real.

Are you okay?

video;

[shadingtogray]

[ Oh. Now the mirror is talking back. Maybe she should have expected that, too. Amanda stares for a few moments, then shakes her head. ]

I'm seeing things. [ It's really the only way she can justify what's going on right now. But she seems to reconsider a little bit, looking at Italy skeptically. ]

If this is real, then how did I get here?

[ The question makes her exhale a mirthless little laugh. ]

I'm fine. Never been better.

[airof]

The Queen took you, and now you're here. Well, took all of us.

The Vine is real too, even if it's kinda weird. You'll get used to it!

[shadingtogray]

So we've been kidnapped.

[ That may be something like rising tension in her voice and expression. She's just starting to realize this is real. ]

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[howaverage]

[ Em has been making more and more of an effort to not look at the Vine lately. All big events seem to shake her up a bit, but this one really did a number on her and so she has been trying to just... ignore everything and focus on herself to try to bring herself back up.

Still, she can't help but to frown slightly at the woman that looks flabbergasted by the Gardens and she figures she's one of the new arrivals. The Queen is seldom satisfied with the people already trapped here and that just manages to grate Em further more.

Sitting on a table at the library, she looks at the mirror rather bored, one hand holding her cheek up, elbow on her knee, the other hand marking the page of the book she was reading before being harassed by the Vine. ]

You should know, the Vine does have this annoying way of creeping up on you when you less want it. [ She closes the book and sets it on the table, kind of hugging herself around her waist. ] Unfortunately, all of this is very much real. [ She pauses and tilts her head, looking at the way she

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[shadingtogray]

The Vine- [ Despite what Emilia says, this has got to be a hallucination; it seems like something out of V-World, but it's not that, either, especially since she's never spent much time with the holobands and doesn't have any reason to use one now. ]

Is that what this thing is.

[ She pushes her hair back from her face with one hand, not really looking at the mirror. ]

Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay.

[ She can't walk, but otherwise? Just peachy. ]

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[howaverage]

[ Even if Amanda isn't looking at the mirror, Em nods at her question. ] That's what people call it, at the very least.

[ Then it's Em who is quiet for a long time, observing the woman rather than saying anything. She isn't a very proactive woman and unless she is actually friends with the other person, she doesn't insist much. She could be wrong, of course, even if the woman is clearly favouring one leg. ]

If you say so. [ Not quite convinced, however. ] Look, you're not the only one that got-- kidnapped, I suppose. In fact, all of the people around here are in the same situation as you are, myself included. I've been here for months, so you probably should try to get yourself somewhere to stay while you're stuck here. There's a building complex a friend of mine-- [ Probably shouldn't say "built from magic dirt". ] --Well, she just overlooks it

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[shadingtogray]

Kidnapped-

[ She's listening to Emilia, but none of what she's saying really makes any sense to her right now. That one word kidnapped has gotten stuck in her mind, and the fact that the other woman has been here for months, and... it's too much. This is too much information at once and Amanda feels a little dizzy. Maybe it's good she's leaning against the tree for support. When she speaks, her tone of voice has gone shaky, anxious. Maybe a little angry, too, though that's not directed at Emilia. ]

Who would do that? Take all these people from their homes?

[action]

[no_hometown]

[Sometimes Sephiroth haunts the area where new arrivals appear, as if looking for something. What she seeks, she does not know. She has not found it yet.

When she sees one of the new women, she does not always approach to introduce herself, though sometimes she waits to make sure they have no difficulties. She notices this woman's pained movement, how she leans on the tree for support. She comes forward, quick and quiet.]

Do you need assistance? [Her voice is low and polite.]

[action]

[shadingtogray]

[ Amanda is not expecting anyone to approach her so soon, and she startles, looking up quickly. Sephiroth is not like anyone she has ever seen in her life, with the long silver hair and the glowing green eyes, and so it is that she can't answer the other woman's question right away - one of her own comes sudden and sharp to her lips instead. ]

Who are you?

[ There's an expression in her own wide eyes, confusion and something close to fear. ]

[action]

[no_hometown]

[For a moment, the fear gives her pause, but the woman's words are normal and understandable; she doesn't know who Sephiroth is. Sephiroth does remember when her appearance commonly took people by surprise, before Shinra made her so renowned. She still receives that reaction sometimes--both in Wutai and here.]

My name is Sephiroth. I am a SOLDIER. [Most people don't know of SOLDIER, but the word has meaning nonetheless.]

This may be difficult to accept, but you--like myself, and others here--have been abducted by an entity of unknown origin.

[action]

[shadingtogray]

[ Amanda can almost hear the capital letters in the way Sephiroth says 'SOLDIER', but she doesn't have any context for it, so she only assumes the woman is a soldier, lowercase. It's almost the same meaning. ]

Abducted? [ Her voice goes tense. She almost asks by whom, but at the last minute she remembers Sephiroth said entity of unknown origin. So instead she asks, ] Why? What is this place?

[ She's read the scrolls, but they don't tell her much. ]

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[neutralityloli]

[ She hesitates, and her expression is uncertain. ] ...Oh, well, I do not know about that... though I suppose if I were not real, I wouldn't be aware of it.

video

[shadingtogray]

[ Amanda laughs a little at that, though there's no mirth in it. She shakes her head. ]

No, probably not.