Zompania Draft: Coming Home

[frost_jewel]

Who: Anyone drafted to Zompania, or recruited as reinforcements, or left behind in the village. SO. Everybody!
What: The draftees and reinforcements return to the village.
When: May 26, early early in the morning
Where: Back in Luceti
Summary: Most draftees and reinforcements return to Luceti in the very early hours; now, instead of a medevac site for the draft, the village is a welcome (?) refuge from the nightmare of Zompania for its own. There's a high likelihood it still looks a lot like it has in the past few days; those in the fight didn't even get a chance to shower before returning.

(This is the place for all your post-draft trauma and reunions and every other thing. Have fun! And don't forget to entry-tag your character.)

Comments

[silversnowfall]

No.

[Half disbelief, half refusal. No, this is not an acceptable truth.]

You can't mean that.

[If she insists hard enough...]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[He keeps his eyes fixed on hers, and his face now bears a decisive frown. There might not be a right way to tell someone about death, but Jade knows that there's no use in dancing around the issue.

He repeats her name, with a softer tone.]

Nephry. [He feels like that, and his expression, could say it all. Perhaps one of the more emotionally-attuned comrades should have delivered this news. But Jade wasn't going to wait, and he'd rather spare them the burden of having to recall their friends' deaths.]

[silversnowfall]

[Of course it's true. Jade would not lie to her about something so serious, especially when it has no benefit to him. Nephry falls back a half-step, one arm wrapped around herself and the other hand covering her mouth. Drafts were dangerous, this one particularly so, it was an emergency and they had no choice and-]

How? [Tear, in particular, would not want to see her fall apart over this.] How did it happen?

[yourfononsarewhack]

[Jade lowers his glasses as he looks towards her, sounding somewhat more solemn than usual.]

They fell in two unrelated incidents. I don't quite know the details regarding Asch, but it seems that he was ambushed. [A cruel twist of fate in how similar seemed to be next to his true death on Auldrant.]

As for Tear... [He glances down towards the ground quickly, and he gives a slight pause.] She was overwhelmed by the enemy. By the time I was able to clear my way towards her... It was too late for anyone to help.

[silversnowfall]

You were there?

[Jade is perhaps the world's least comforting person. He's talking about the death of someone who was once his niece - in a wrong life, a false life, but.

Was it preferable to dying alone, if the alternative was to have Jade Curtiss tell you that there was nothing to be done?]

Did- did you try? [It's hurt, angry, shattered.]

[yourfononsarewhack]

I was there.

[He repeats calmly. Once, she had been the daughter of that he tried to forget, the self that knew even less about caring. A kind of person he could have been like had it not been for Nebilim.

As much as he sought to detach himself from that life, he knew that Tear shared that awkward bond he held with all of the comrades whom he had battled Van alongside. He answers Nephry's raw emotion with words that are more quiet, calm and controlled, but underlined by some sort of fatigue.]

I could not try to save her. There were no possibilities that came to mind that would not have wound up only wasting her last moments of life. [He had thought of Nebilim and he squandered his potential last moments with her on his desperate attempt to seize her life. Jade rubs at the bridge of his head for a moment.]

All I tried was some sort of an... emotional reassurance, as unusual as that may sound. I thought that at the least, it could have soothed some of her pain. [His hands drifts down from his face, and he shakes his head.] But that's irrelevant.

[silversnowfall]

How is it irrelevant? How could it be?

[What she's hearing is, no, he didn't try. Knowing it was likely hopeless does not excuse him from giving up, in case it wasn't.]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[Jade stands in the face of her anger while maintaining a calm face. He's never been one to spin excuses regarding matters of a serious intent. He doesn't try to defend himself, especially when he considers himself to be guilty. And his sister is one person whom he trusts to judge him.]

I doubt that what little I did had any effect. If anything, I must have provided a negligible amount of comfort in the end. It all becomes irrelevant next to the end result.

[silversnowfall]

[That is as good as admitting it. He must know that. Nephry's diplomatic side tells her she's overreacting out of grief and loss, and that if Jade has feelings at all about it, they can't be good ones - look at the way he's standing there talking to her. And it is not fair to accuse him of failing to protect her; she's as much of a soldier as he is.

Nephry is fortunate to have a diplomatic side that can shout.]

Where is everyone else? [Those he did not name, they should be around here somewhere.]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[Jade isn't quite sure what he feels. Some sort of absence, some level regret... but it's all buried deep within him. All he can do now is face the facts and let them be interpreted as they will.

The shift in topics is welcome; this answer is at least relatively better, although Jade retains a serious demeanor as he answers his sister.]

In a physical sense, they should be well - if particularly sleep-deprived. But on the mental front... This draft has been far too rough on them. [They don't have Jade's ability of coping and/or repressing.]

[silversnowfall]

Then we should find them.

[If he is as "fine" as he projects himself to be.]

[yourfononsarewhack]

[He nods.]

Yes, I'm sure they must be ready to progress onwards by now. [He looks back in that direction. The direction that he came from. That direction. The direction being looked towards.]

[silversnowfall]

Well, if you find them, and they aren't- hurt, then take them home. [Take the children home Jade no stops.] I'm going to stay here and look for them, too.

[yourfononsarewhack]

[Jade nods.]

Thank you, Nephry. I'll make sure that they're back shortly - and safely. [With a woosh of his dirty uniform, he turns to head back.]