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deemoyzaTitle: "Where I Belong" (currently 9,562 words)
Chapters: 2/?
Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Rating/Warnings: General Audiences / No warnings apply
Character(s): Selphie Tilmitt, Original Characters
Series: Part 3 of the Esthar Chronicles
Summary: While studying the history and manufacture of Estharian aircraft, Selphie comes across her own name in an article about a deadly revolt in a mining town, not long after the overthrow of Adel. Shocked, she travels to the town, hoping to piece together clues about her past, and to dig up just one memory of the people she loved so long ago.
Chapter Summary: Selphie confirms that she is the girl mentioned in the article and, with Retta, Haren, and Argider's help, digs deeper into who the Tilmitts of Mosden were. But every answer leads to more questions, and Selphie finally decides that the best way to lay the mystery to rest is to confront it directly.
Selphie swallowed hard. Argider was right. If she couldn't even bring herself to look at Alden Tilmitt's photograph, how was she going to bear learning about him, and the rest of her family, from people who'd known them for years? If she was going to solve the mystery of who she was and where she came from, she needed to inure herself to shock.
"Argider," she said quietly, "can you pull up that picture again? I think I probably should have a look, after all."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."
Retta motioned her behind the desk while Argider pulled up the article. It was another one from Mosden's daily newspaper, dated several days before the one in Selphie's folder. Soldier, Family Killed During Revolt, the headline read, and the subhead continued with details: Capt. Alden Tilmitt, 28, Among Dead After Last Night's Riot. Argider scrolled down and Selphie held her breath, squeezing her eyes shut, then cracking one open to see a photo of a man in a military dress uniform. Slowly, she opened her other eye and let the picture come into focus.
Alden Tilmitt was unremarkable, as far as looks went, but the collection of badges and ribbons pinned to his coat told a different story of him as a soldier. He was fair-skinned, with close-cropped brown hair and thin lips set into a stern line. But what leapt out at Selphie were his eyes: bright green and slightly downturned, they were nearly identical to the ones she'd seen in the mirror her whole life. She needn't have worried about not recognizing her father's eyes; seeing her eyes on someone she didn't know was far more disturbing.
Argider glanced over his shoulder. "You okay back there, Selphie?"
"Uh-huh." She took one last hard look at Alden's photo, then turned away from the gaze that was at once impersonal and far too familiar. "You guys see it, too, right?"
"The eyes. Retta?"
Retta nodded. "I'd say this makes a decent case for you being the Selphie mentioned in the article," she said, each syllable gentle and deliberate, as if she was speaking to a frightened child. "That's what you originally wanted to know, correct?"
"Yes," Selphie replied.
"All right, then, now that the answer to that seems likely, I have to ask you another question: do you want to continue? If you're satisfied with what you've found, you don't ever have to open this folder. It's up to you, and whatever you're comfortable doing."
Selphie bit her lip and sucked in air through her nostrils. Retta's voice was so soothing, her offer so understanding, that Selphie had to fight the urge to run into her arms and cry and forget she'd ever read that stupid article to begin with. She could wipe it from her mind, maybe junction three or four GFs back at Garden to make sure it was gone for good, then go on with her life of airships and SeeD missions and Garden Festivals.
But would her questions really just disappear? She'd be lying if she said she hadn't idly contemplated the possible answers for most of her life. And those eyes… her eyes, Captain Alden Tilmitt's eyes… there was no erasing what she had seen. Her father's eyes would haunt her reflection forever, and she'd never truly be herself again, unless she finished what she'd started.
She sighed, then faced Retta and held out her hand. "I'd like to look at the folder, please. I'm going to see this through."
Chapters: 2/?
Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Rating/Warnings: General Audiences / No warnings apply
Character(s): Selphie Tilmitt, Original Characters
Series: Part 3 of the Esthar Chronicles
Summary: While studying the history and manufacture of Estharian aircraft, Selphie comes across her own name in an article about a deadly revolt in a mining town, not long after the overthrow of Adel. Shocked, she travels to the town, hoping to piece together clues about her past, and to dig up just one memory of the people she loved so long ago.
Chapter Summary: Selphie confirms that she is the girl mentioned in the article and, with Retta, Haren, and Argider's help, digs deeper into who the Tilmitts of Mosden were. But every answer leads to more questions, and Selphie finally decides that the best way to lay the mystery to rest is to confront it directly.
Selphie swallowed hard. Argider was right. If she couldn't even bring herself to look at Alden Tilmitt's photograph, how was she going to bear learning about him, and the rest of her family, from people who'd known them for years? If she was going to solve the mystery of who she was and where she came from, she needed to inure herself to shock.
"Argider," she said quietly, "can you pull up that picture again? I think I probably should have a look, after all."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."
Retta motioned her behind the desk while Argider pulled up the article. It was another one from Mosden's daily newspaper, dated several days before the one in Selphie's folder. Soldier, Family Killed During Revolt, the headline read, and the subhead continued with details: Capt. Alden Tilmitt, 28, Among Dead After Last Night's Riot. Argider scrolled down and Selphie held her breath, squeezing her eyes shut, then cracking one open to see a photo of a man in a military dress uniform. Slowly, she opened her other eye and let the picture come into focus.
Alden Tilmitt was unremarkable, as far as looks went, but the collection of badges and ribbons pinned to his coat told a different story of him as a soldier. He was fair-skinned, with close-cropped brown hair and thin lips set into a stern line. But what leapt out at Selphie were his eyes: bright green and slightly downturned, they were nearly identical to the ones she'd seen in the mirror her whole life. She needn't have worried about not recognizing her father's eyes; seeing her eyes on someone she didn't know was far more disturbing.
Argider glanced over his shoulder. "You okay back there, Selphie?"
"Uh-huh." She took one last hard look at Alden's photo, then turned away from the gaze that was at once impersonal and far too familiar. "You guys see it, too, right?"
"The eyes. Retta?"
Retta nodded. "I'd say this makes a decent case for you being the Selphie mentioned in the article," she said, each syllable gentle and deliberate, as if she was speaking to a frightened child. "That's what you originally wanted to know, correct?"
"Yes," Selphie replied.
"All right, then, now that the answer to that seems likely, I have to ask you another question: do you want to continue? If you're satisfied with what you've found, you don't ever have to open this folder. It's up to you, and whatever you're comfortable doing."
Selphie bit her lip and sucked in air through her nostrils. Retta's voice was so soothing, her offer so understanding, that Selphie had to fight the urge to run into her arms and cry and forget she'd ever read that stupid article to begin with. She could wipe it from her mind, maybe junction three or four GFs back at Garden to make sure it was gone for good, then go on with her life of airships and SeeD missions and Garden Festivals.
But would her questions really just disappear? She'd be lying if she said she hadn't idly contemplated the possible answers for most of her life. And those eyes… her eyes, Captain Alden Tilmitt's eyes… there was no erasing what she had seen. Her father's eyes would haunt her reflection forever, and she'd never truly be herself again, unless she finished what she'd started.
She sighed, then faced Retta and held out her hand. "I'd like to look at the folder, please. I'm going to see this through."
