q-q-quistis?? pls? anything quistis-related? i just /clenches fist/ love quistis So Much
Her hands shake as she curls them into the soft-taut flesh of her upper arms, not yet dense muscle but close, so close. Her nails leave ragged red crescents, tinged with green at the edges.
She does not have an answer, not one that will satisfy, not here in this hard steel chair facing the headmaster’s desk. Xu sits diagonally from her, as close to behind the big desk as she can get in her quest to reach the top, a notepad in her lap, a pen at the ready; Quistis does not begrudge her that place. She does, however, keep her gaze on the space above Cid Kramer’s left shoulder, a sympathetic expression in his eyes. He knows her better than most.
Quistis digs her nails in deeper, and drags herself back to the present moment.
“If you had another blue mage on your staff, maybe you would understand,” she says, her voice clear, crisp, Deling City-chic in every syllable, a birthplace and temporary home unable to be swayed by the soft, rounded slang of Balamb, accent as lazy as the sea.
There’s Rexaur gore drying beneath her pink manicure, new magic bright white-hot in her veins.
“I reserved the TC for personal use. This wasn’t my fault.”
If a fully-grown, supposedly competent SeeD decided to violate that request, walking in while she was absorbing another spell for her arsenal, his slaughter was to be expected. Probably deserved.
That she will not admit. But Quistis flicks her gaze an inch downward, meeting Cid’s eyes.
“Permission to be dismissed, sir.”
He looks at her for a heartbeat, sympathy backed by surprise at her steel-laced resolve, even covered head to toe in someone else’s blood. When had she gotten so strong?
“Dismissed,” he decides ultimately. Xu makes a mark on her notepad. Quistis leaves the office.
The next time she seeks out that blue-tinged fix, she boards a train for a different town. It’s for the best.