ＤＯＮ’Ｔ　ＴＵＲＮ　ＯＵＴ　ＴＨＥ　ＬＩＧＨＴ

( October 2nd, House 41, tl;dr )

( Later October 2nd, voice, filtered to Noel )

October 4th, Voice
[ It's been since before her disappearance and then almost immediate return that Lightning's made any sort of widely public, intentional post, but today apparently she's got something heavy enough on her mind to warrant attempting to soothe her curiosity.

It doesn't bother her so much though, and even those who have only seen or met her in passing should be able to tell that there's something subtly different about her- in a way that surpasses the fact that she's apparently sustained a haircut, and those wings fanned out slightly behind her are different colors than before, once-red wing turned white, once-white turned to silver and gold. She regards the journal thoughtfully a moment before speaking, her voice deliberately even. ]

If I remember correctly, the viewpoints over what happens to us after death... are as varied here as the worlds we're pulled in from. Reward and punishment, returning to where our spirits belonged in the first place... simply fading into oblivion....

[ She pauses, and a clock fixed to the wall behind her - an antique-looking, wooden piece of work - fills the air with steady ticks and tocks as she takes in a breath or two, looking up and over past the 'camera.' ]

When we die here, we return but a week later... although missing a piece of who we were before. [ Another breath. Tick, tock. ] What do you suppose happens, in the meantime?

Do you believe it is different than 'home?'

[ Sure, she knows this sort of thing's been brought up before, but... if it's ever been in these exact words, she definitely isn't going to waste her time digging through years of others' entries looking for it. ]

[ For Lightning, because of the circumstances at the end of the last time she'd been drafted, this is actually the first time since her arrival she's ever had to go and try to readjust back to 'normal' life so suddenly- to go from experiencing days of battle and worry, thinking critically, ready to kill or order to kill at a moment's notice... to sleeping in a bed she's used to, eating breakfast in the morning, running for exercise, trying to figure out what else to do for the day...

The village might just be getting started on a whole new New Feather cycle, but Lightning doesn't really find it easy to care that much. She pays attention but mostly ignores what doesn't concern her-- aside from even more random strangers wandering through her yard, that is. Apparently that's just the price of living at house #41, so close to the plaza.

... Of course, something is still pretty off, too. Regardless of somehow managing to do a passable job before, she'd really rather not be having to go out and water the flowers around the house again-- Aerith's flowers. Especially since, like it or not, the guilt over not keeping an eye on the other woman that last day of the draft continues to plague her. She still doesn't know what happened to her, aside from the fact that she suddenly disappeared and just never came back... and yet she does know that others will probably be wondering where she is anyway. In a weird way, the l'Cie kind of considers handling it her duty... even if she'll still be eyeing anyone who gets near with obvious suspicion.

Unless your name happens to be Hope or Zack, of course, the former which has an upcoming birthday laying on her mind, and the other which... she needs to... kind of figure things out with. After that conversation right before everyone was sent off. Ohhhh boy.

If she's not caught in her yard, eventually she does leave her own territory, though, restless and looking for something to do. And after some time, she turns to the journals with a dry, vaguely annoyed-sounding inquiry: ]

Just... out of curiosity, who all is even looking after these fruit trees north of the village? [ A short pause, and she's clearly looking off, studying something a little bit overhead. Unsurprisingly, she's standing right alongside an apple tree, bearing a prodigious load of readying round fruit. ] Look about ready to harvest, out here...

[ Today, Lightning's doing something fairly unusual in comparison to her normal - and recently even darker than normal - behavior. For once, she's outside and yet doesn't seem busy, merely watching as her puppy Baldr frolics about in the general area of community housing 4 in search of sticks to defeat, things to dig up, and nearby people to greet. In fact, the young woman and dog look pretty safe to come 'visit' with today- especially since there's also no gunblade in sight, and as she sits down to lean against the outside wall, she makes a pretty inane-seeming public message. ]

These seasons... usually last about three months each, right? How much warmer does it get?

( And then this, filtered to Sigmund )

[ So. Even though there seems to be an 'experiment' in full swing this week, several days later Lightning still has yet to be affected for some reason. Not that she's complaining, of course, considering she has several new problems on her hands anyway-- namely, the recent appearance of both Hope and Sazh to Luceti. Talk about complicated. Needless to say, Soldier Girl here needs another outlet; therefore, she has decided to develop a new skill:

Knife-throwing.

Because clearly, being a superpowered, magic-slinging former-sergeant trained in the use of a gunblades and bazookas and airships and who knows what else doesn't make her quite dangerous enough. Yeah, she knows the basics of using a knife in hand, and she can throw one fairly decently already, but that... is not enough.

And so she's practicing, outside near the forest and in a particularly snowy patch of ground- this is because not only is she working on her ability to toss sharp objects, but is trying to improve her maneuverability in the snow at the same time as well. After all, you never know when something like that might become important.

She probably makes an interesting sight too, holding a knife out in front of her like she's taking aim, but then turning around completely and launching herself backwards into not just one flip, but two - briefly touching down between them, off-hand braced in the snow - before flinging the knife mid-flight. However, although the weapon hits her target, once Lightning has bounced to a stop and surveyed the throw, she still seems unsatisfied (you know, despite pulling that off at all in the first place).

So she does it again, and again, and again, until finally, she feels like she's gotten a little better and gets ambitious enough to try something a little different. Setting her feet, she picks up a knife in both hands, jumps back again and-- abruptly loses her equilibrium in the air, so that the knives go flying off-course entirely, and she goes crashing down unceremoniously with a bark of surprise. A moment later, she's rolled to her feet, looking bewildered and displeased, and a moment after that, she looks down and notices that she's no longer herself. Again. ]

... Oh.

[ Yeah. "Oh" is right, considering she's suddenly several years younger, with longer hair and a face that's far more used to smiling than frowning-- her little sister, Serah's, actually. Furthermore, despite so many others getting to keep them, for the time being she's been stripped of her powers completely. If you... just got a knife to the kidney, then sorry, blame the Malnosso, and hopefully it didn't go too deep?

Replies will come from strikingusdown. ]