Arrival

[lockhart-2045.livejournal.com]

Character(s): Tifa Lockhart

Content: Tifa Arrives At Muspelheim 

Setting: Muspelheim Gate

Time: Monday afternoon

Warnings: None

 

 

 

The first thing Tifa Lockhart felt when she came to was pain.

A lot of pain.

Her head was pounding, and she dimly wondered when she last had a migraine. No…not a migraine. The pain was eerily reminiscent of the time she’d been hit by an extremely angry Bahamut Sin.

With a groan, the dark-haired young woman sat up, wine-red eyes dimly scanning the surrounding area. Slowly, the unfamiliar images registered in her fuzzy brain, and she did not like what she was seeing. Seventh Heaven was gone, as were the buildings she had been familiar with.

In their place stood a magnificent gate wreathed resplendently in gold flames, and beyond the gate were enormous domes that seemed to reach to the sky. Tifa blinked, more mystified and disoriented than ever, having never seen the likes of it before in her life.

Right in front of the gates stood a line of people, and none of them seemed to be bothered with the fact that there had been a young woman who had just passed out less than a hundred meters away from them.

Where in Gaia was she? All she knew was that she had been going through the normal routines of opening Seventh Heaven when she suddenly blacked out. How pain got into the equation, she would never know, but it was something the young fighter intended to find out. It was just too strange for words. Who had brought her here? What was going on?

Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs, Tifa immediately regretted it when that particular action made her feel almost sick. Swallowing hard, she struggled to get to her feet, bracing herself for a potential tumble; she did not know how long she was out, and there had been a risk that certain parts of her body would have been asleep by now.

Silently glad that she did not fall on her face, she stepped towards the large gates; it was the only place where there seemed to be people. If there were people, they would know what place this was. And then she could actually get back home to Denzel and Marlene, both of whom were probably wondering where she was right now.

Brushing herself off as she approached them warily, she stood in line until an overly cheery man at one of the little stands exclaimed, "Welcome to Paixao!"

"Paixao…?" Tifa echoed, confused. What kind of a name was that? Surely there wasn’t a…town called Paixao in Gaia…was there?

The young man evidently did not notice her disorientation even as he handed her a brochure and went straight on to the next person in line before she could even ask questions.

Looking down at the brochure curiously, Tifa was about to flip through it when yet another man handed over some sort of metallic device to her. Immediately wary, she was about to refuse when he simply said, "Take it. Everyone has it here."

Frowning, she stared down at the device and flipped it open. "…An electronic journal…??" ....What is this for?

And once again, the question worth a million gil. Just what kind of place was this? She asked as much to the man near the gates, but he simply stared at her, pen and a large book in hand.

"Welcome to Paixao, Miss…?"

She hesitated for a moment, then spoke. "Tifa. Tifa Lockhart."

He nodded, his expression almost bored. "Uh-huh. Go on in, Miss Lockhart."

"Do you know where—"

"NEXT!"

Mildly annoyed, Tifa entered through gate. The men at the entrance were very much less than helpful, but even as she stepped into the strange, entirely-too-alien city, the young woman knew that there should be someone –anyone – that would be able to help her to figure the entire mess out. 

There had to be.