witchesreign | [ action ] Ϟ [ 03 ]

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[ action ] Ϟ [ 03 ]

[ Regardless of what some off-world cadets may claim, it turns out that they actually don't brainwash those who become SeeDs. Therefore, even if one goes and gets hired on as part as the staff? There's definitely nothing that says they just magically forget about things that were known as a cadet.

Case in point: the 'secret area' of the training center, which may just become the location of a ~~rather unpleasant~~ surprise for anyone who dares to make a late-night trip up to the secluded balcony there- Instructor Claire Farron, leaning against the rail and looking generally... well, miserable, though as always she's bound to be trying to hide it.

Of course, how she ever found the place to begin with when she has no real friends is up for debate.

In any case, obviously she's not exactly in a good mood, and obviously, she's probably not doing much of this 'sleeping' thing recently. This extends to the day time as well, as anyone who's in her classes or currently being tutored may notice she's suddenly grown even more tense and prone to distancing herself... and if not that, then they should still be pretty hard-pressed to miss that several days ago she cut off most of her hair. The reason for that should be clear; she is not a fan of particular recent arrivals.

Good luck figuring out when she actually does stuff like shower or eat anything besides the occasional in-hand fruit now, although people are still welcome to try.... ]

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[ Someone is poking around the training center. She's trying looking for this elusive 'secret spot' herself, but to not much avail, considering she's on the entire opposite side of the training center she'd need to be looking on. Maybe she should go ahead and give up on finding it herself, and ask someone on the BBS for help..? Yeah, that would probably be the best way to go about it.

So, now that she's given up... Since it's so late, she should probably head back to the dorm. She'd lost track of time while she was searching around.

Skipping along, she covers the ground back to the entrance of the training center quickly, spotting a somewhat familiar head of hair... Except... ]

... You got a haircut..!

[ New haircut, and a somehow even sourer attitude when it comes to this l'Cie outside the boundaries of her classroom. Her frown is dark as she stares at the girl, letting the pause hang in the air-- sufficiently long enough to make clear that she doesn't want to talk to you, Vanille.

Or so it would seem, if she weren't still standing in the way of the exit and making no move to fix that. ]

Your point being?

[ That response... Isn't the one she'd been expecting. She'd thought Lightning had gone back to normal... But this was just the same as she had been before. Was all of that an act?

Vanille immediately resumes the attitude she'd been taking before the last conversation she'd had with Lightning— keep her head down, and move along. Don't make trouble. Still, that was really cruel of her... Pretending things were back to normal one minute, and then going back to... ]

It's nothing. [ She takes a step forward— meaning to go through the exit— only Claire is in her way. ]

[ And Claire's... just not getting out of the way here. If Vanille wants by, she'll have to go right past her- something that may or may not be a very good idea.

Of course, considering she's in the training center when it's late and she's all alone... that's not exactly the smartest thing you can do, when there's someone like this around and your latest close friends to show up here have managed to thoroughly piss her off. ]

[ Vanille stops, glancing at 'Lightning' before dropping her eyes back to the ground. She needs to get by there... Why is she just standing in her way? Does she want her to stay in the training center? ... Well, she probably doesn't care whether Vanille's grades suffer from her not getting enough sleep or oversleeping because she got to bed late, but...

She's an instructor, right? ] Um... Excuse me.

[ She'll take her chances trying to slip past her. ]

[ ... Nope.

Claire is fed up, and all things considered, right now she just doesn't care about her normal performance where she's distasteful around the Pulse l'Cie but generally does nothing to act on it. Vanille really does make herself too easy a target, unfortunately, and as soon as she's close enough Claire lashes out to grab the girl's shoulder with no sign of intended gentleness. ]

So...

[ Vanille grimaces and stops dead in her tracks in order to ease the pressure Claire has to put on her shoulders to keep her from moving past. Instead, she takes a few steps back, putting herself almost back in the position she had been in before. ]

So..? [ She didn't think she wanted to answer this question, but, it didn't feel like there was much getting by her, either. ]

[ And Claire steps forward after her, dangerously aggressive and not letting up. ]

I want you to tell me something.

[ Another step back. ] ... What?

[ She pauses, teeth clenched but finally stopping in the miniature pursuit of the girl. However, she's clearly no less hostile- in fact, she lays a hand on the handle of the dark-colored gunblade hanging behind her, itching to do something more than just throw around words and intimidation. ]

Why do you call her 'Lightning?'

Why? [ ... Good question! ] That's what she told us to call her.

But why?

[ Literally said through clenched teeth! But she's really been wondering about this for a while- as long as it's been obvious that the person they all know is someone else entirely. Claire has sported the nickname on and off over the years, but never seriously until she was made a l'Cie and the media picked up on it.... ]

I don't know. [ She shakes her head and takes another step back— the clenched teeth... Claire definitely knows how to be intimidating! ]

She never told me.

[ It's not that Claire doesn't believe her... it's that, from what she's gathered during her exposure to the rest of the others, she knows she has a very small chance of scaring any of them quite like what she's doing here. That is to say, fortunately, she doesn't ~~yet~~ know of the relationship between Lightning and Hope... or any of them, really- she's completely blind to the connections formed save for the most blatantly obvious (from her point of view): Snow and Serah; Fang and Vanille; Sazh, Vanille, and Hope.

Of course, there's always Serah, but... going after her sister is out of the question.

Not so with Vanille. Claire's frustration and anger suddenly flare, and without any further warning, she lunges at the girl with a snarl, fully intending to knock her down. ]

[ And knock her down she does, but not without Vanille screaming in terror beforehand. She'd known she'd attacked Serah, and she wanted to do her best to stay as far away from her as possible... It wasn't really fair that they ended up in the training center at the same time, or that she'd ended up in her class. She hadn't done any of it on purpose!

She hits the ground with a thud and immediately tries to scoot on the ground further away from her, to put some distance between them. ] Stop..!

[ Claire is stressed and far more overtly hostile than she'd probably ever be otherwise, but if she wanted to... oh, actually kill Vanille, with as easy as it would be right now, it definitely would have already been done by now-- she's not into murder for the hell of it or prolonging the inevitable if it has to be done; Pulse l'Cie or not, she'd have to decisively push herself to off someone who isn't fighting back.

And she still knows, if only subconsciously at the moment, that she wouldn't get away with it here anyway.

So instead she just looms over her, stepping forward with intentional malice... and her hand actually on the handle of the gunblade now, so that it snaps out into a ready position. Just because she won't do anything doesn't mean she's not going to act like she might, when under the influence of pent-up anger. ]

Give me a reason.

[ Vanille shakes her head and backs up a little more, eyes widened at the gunblade being drawn before her. She's actually paralyzed with fear at the sight of it, eyes moving from the blade to her face in shock.

No... She knows fighting her is not the answer. It would just prove to her that they're enemies, even more than she already knows or thinks that's true. But, at the same time... She's pushed her to the ground, drawn her weapon... Maybe she's finally lost it, and she's going to... ]

Because I didn't do anything..! [ Everything inside Vanille is screaming to run, and she scrambling to stand up— she'll run back into the training center if she has to, she just needs to get away. ]

Didn't do anything? You're from Pulse, aren't you? Have you really done nothing?

[ Yeah, suddenly this isn't about what it was a few seconds ago any more. However, with her weapon drawn, Claire suddenly stops moving forward again. Bizarrely, it's almost like she's waiting for the answer. ]

[ Not at all, and Vanille understands that immediately. This isn't about what she'd been doing in the training center, or talking to her, or trying to move past her at all. ]

I don't... [ Of course she hadn't done nothing. She didn't know what it was like in Claire's world, but in hers... She had been to blame for her sister being branded, and for Dajh being branded, too... And everyone else. She'd gotten all of them into this mess.

If Claire had known that... No wonder she hated her. And if she didn't... Then, it would only make her hate her more.

What could she say? It wasn't like she was innocent. ]

Well? [ Yeah, the weak answer only frustrates her, her glare so hot the other young woman can probably almost feel it on her. ] Do you deny trying to hurt Cocoon?

[ Of course she doesn't know that Vanille and Fang are the l'Cie responsible for the huge break in the artificial world's shell, but... she has heard of things that have happened since they've reawakened...

And bizarrely, out of all the things to hit her about the differences between her own world and the one that all of the others apparently inhabited, it's wondering whether the event that happened behind the surveillance at Euride Gorge happened there, too- what lead to the Branding of the little boy who eventually led PSICOM to the Pulsian fal'Cie near Bodhum. ]

That's not what we want! [ She snapped back almost immediately, voice brimming with emotion.

It was the truth— it wasn't what they wanted... Anymore. True, when they were living on Pulse, they'd wanted nothing more than to bring Cocoon down to protect themselves... But if they'd known what it was like, or at least if she'd known, she wouldn't have been so set on following Fang, becoming l'Cie together... ]

That's not what any of us want.

But you do it anyway!

[ She's certainly capable of raising her voice in turn, accentuating it with a broad-swept gesture with her gunblade. As far as she's concerned here, she's not to be fooled- she might be Sanctum, but she's a l'Cie too and has had the experience of feeling the weight of a Focus... not realizing the Pulse l'Cie marked by Anima might not have the same influence on their will that she just takes as a matter of fact. ]

No! It's— [ She starts to argue back, but the sweep of her arm with the gunblade catches her attention, making her heart pound and then feel as if it might stop in her chest. ]

We're not...

I'm not going to do it!

Tch!!

[ Claire's eyes widen in obvious fury- she's definitely heard that before... and still stubbornly believes just the opposite. Hearing otherwise, especially from this l'Cie, overwhelms her with anger, until the grip on her gunblade has reached the point of pain, and she actually lifts her other hand, sorely tempted to do something even more regrettable than her attack on Snow in the Quad had been.

-- But then, she steps back, sneering, but forcefully wrestling herself back under control. That? She can't afford another mistake like that one had been. ]

Like there's a choice.

[ And with that spit out she spins on her heel, turning her dark-colored gunblade in hand to slam back into its holster with excessive force. She's leaving. ]

[ Of course there was a choice... They could always choose not to do them. Of course, it would mean turning Cie'th, and she was sure no one would ever want to choose, that... But given the option between destroying Cocoon and turning into a monster, well— Vanille's choice had been rather obvious to her. Even now, when she's far away from it and her brand is sealed, nowhere they could actually even try to complete their Focus, she has doubts on whether or not they'd be able to fight fate...

Even though, right now, they technically were.

Vanille is not going to stop Claire if she wants to leave. No, the exact opposite, actually. She draws back even further, watching warily. She's not getting up and heading down the same corridor as her until she's given her time to get back to her dorm, even if it means she'll be falling asleep in class. ]

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[ action ] Ϟ [ 03 ]

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