towerofanimus | 008

Characters: Sephiroth [Open]
Setting: December 8th: Dormitory 03-02, Floor 2 & Floor 5
Format: Prose but can switch to Action
Summary: After End of the Angry Mob Plot Sephiroth feels somewhat deflated but no less bitter afterwards.
Warnings: Sephiroth: always threat of violence.

0204hrs December 8th - Dormitory 03-02

It was like falling within a dream and then waking as you hit the floor.

Piercing green eyes shot open in time with a sharp intake of breath, wide and hyper-actively looking around in the darkness. A heartbeat later and Sephiroth was sat bolt upright in his bed making out the details that he could in the gloom. Silver pauldrons sat undisturbed on top of the chest at the bottom of the bed as they would usually, his long leather trench-coat draped across the end of the bed.

It could have all been a bad dream, but for his shaking as if from the cold. He never shook from the cold. Strong muscled arms he couldn't remember resting back on after first sitting up shook just enough for him to notice this oddity. Sephiroth shifted his weight forward again and crossed his arms across his chest - each hand rubbing the bicep of the other arm similar to the way a normal person might keep warm.

He'd stopped rubbing, suspiciously narrowing his eyes at his own thoughts and feelings; as he apparently just held himself in a hug. Silver hair fell down like a great curtain across one side of him as restlessly Sephiroth continued to peer around in the darkness. Going through the events of the last three days in his mind again and again; scraping with a wire toothbrush at the festering mess of fresh memories inside.

It hadn't been a dream.

Early Afternoon December 8th - Infirmary
Like a bad hangover, Sephiroth didn't feel much like having his bi-weekly face off with the red collars today. For once, just this once he constantly reminded himself, he would attend the collar checkup today. Just on this one occasion he would submit. He would sit and wait, ignore the burning of every fibre of his body reminding him that this was wrong - that this was unacceptable. He was stronger than this.

The administrator lift looked so desolate, so un-used. The Infirmary itself had been restored to it's former spotless condition, but knowing how he'd indulged here Sephiroth couldn't resist to smirk as he watched the drones go about their tasks while he waited for his turn.

"Damn you do clean up so well." He muttered to himself mostly, not caring really who else heard him though.

Later Afternoon December 8th - Floor 5
A leather gloved hand reached out as if to touch the dead world of Gaia but found only the screen depicting it. Through lowered eyelids Sephiroth gazed in the hope that some understanding would come. He had never visited this floor before and just looked, forcing back the stirring wetness which stung in the depths of the corners of his eyes; he rubbed at them now and again. After all, he hadn't slept well.

If he ~~and Hojo~~ had the right of it and this had been in some way or form his doing, then why was looking at this screen making him feel this way. Of all things he should be feeling it should be the usual outrage that he experienced when he considered that their keepers here had stolen him away from the victory that was rightly his. The power of the Lifestream that should be coursing through his veins even as he observed the dead world on the other side of the screen sure did seem to resonate, like it should, with what he was seeing.

Whatever that power was, Lifestream or Jenova; it only told him one thing. He could taste the dust, smell the death and know the screaming pain of the entire planet. He wasn't a Cetra at all, but he might have imagined that this was a similar connection. The amount of his darkness that he'd infected the Lifestream with, was it a surprise that it now produced this link?

What he didn't understand, was what had drawn him here to gaze so unrelenting into a screen. He had a good idea now, of the extent to which their owners could realistically bend and distort the reality here - he wasn't going to believe any of it. But every cell of his was tricked into accepting it.

The developing headache might well be permanent.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It's all rather boring. They take the collar, attach it to an IV, and you sit while it exchanges the fluid for new. Nothing painful, merely an inconvenience. I'm thinking about bringing a book next time." He must be new, if this was his first time.

"And you are conscious, through all of this?"

Perhaps he might actually be able to learn from the process, if he wasn't unconscious while they were doing it. At least he could be sure they weren't doing anything he wouldn't know about.

"Entirely. It's nothing to be scared about, though I admit I was nervous when it was my first time. Now I simply view it as something I must work into my plans every other week."

"I'm not scared."

Sephiroth spoke quickly, if a little short back at the other resident. He wasn't scared, he just- well he didn't like letting anyone close enough to interfere with him in such a manner.

"I've just, neglected to come completely on my own before."

"...What happens if you don't come on your own?" She had been dutiful about it-she had to go to the infirmary every week anyway-so she had no idea.

"They come to get you. The red-collars."

Sephiroth looked over her again, not understanding at all how someone could have so completely conformed to the regime the Tower demanded of them.

"I don't think I could stand seeing another one of them, for a little while at least."

There was a certain amount of freedom when you went along with such basic demands. Without a point in resisting, she would rather spend her energy on better matters.

"Don't tell me, it's some sort of scene-they come and you fight and destroy them until you're exhausted, and they take advantage somehow and it's all so very awful in the end but at least you're still in one piece."

One thing she didn't leave behind was her ability to spin a story in her head.

Sephiroth chuckled shortly as she ran the details of the scene that would make sense. The scene that should happen, between them. It was bittersweet though, and far from the truth.

"It doesn't even get that far to be true. They find you, you don't get much time to react much. They disable your abilities and you can't hurt them. It's pretty one-sided and completely un-dramatic."

She gave a mock sigh, crossing her arms and shrugging.

"That's so boring. Honestly, they should let you fight back for a bit of entertainment on both sides of this. You get the chance to work on your skills, they get to watch. Their way sounds like something from a cheap science fiction movie."

"Yea. About as boring as beating on drones." Sephiroth casts a glance around the Infirmary again, wondering if he was going to get these flashbacks from his memory every time he came in here from now on.

"I suppose that's why we have all the monsters, for entertainment."

"Entertainment, possibly training, possibly to weed out certain types." She chuckled to herself. "At least it's impossible to get rusty here when you put in the effort."

"I suppose, until you start to learn all of their moves - then it's more like swatting pests than really testing yourself."

It had been like that for a while for Sephiroth thus far, who hasn't yet had the horror (or privilege) of coming face to face against the nastier monsters.

"May I take it that you're perhaps looking for a fighting partner whose moves you haven't gotten to try out?"

No harm in asking, right?

So he hadn't figured her for a fighting type. Not like it was obvious being all wrapped in a blanket like she was.

"I'm always up for a challenge."

"If you'd permit me to brag a little, I have a decent amount of confidence in my own abilities, and I understand what it's like to get bored."

She had no idea what his sort of abilities were, but she couldn't deny she wanted to find out.

So polite. Sephiroth had being confident in his own abilities down to an art form. Or at least usually, not today. Today he felt more than a little humbled, aching and tired in general. Three quite alien concepts to him. The events of the previous day had opened gaping concerns regarding his potential here when it came to the grander scale of things, on the other hand, he'd found at least one boundary he couldn't go through.

"We should do something about that then. A spar perhaps?"

It was very important to learn as much as possible about as many people as he could. How else could he begin to find his place here.

"Whenever you'd like. Just ask, and I'll show up."

Overconfidence was the quickest way to getting yourself in a bind-oh she knew that-so she tended to so for politeness over boldly talking about her own abilities in most cases.

It wasn't like he had any other pressing concerns to be occupying his time with in the Tower. If he wasn't already facing the concept of his first voluntary collar checkup on top of the mental hangover today, he might well suggest they get this over with right away.

If anything was worth his time, it was like she had said, keeping well trained and expanding ones ability in combat only came with new challenges.

"Sure. I'll keep that in mind next time we cross paths"

008 | Fallout

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