towerofanimus | 013 | So clearly lightning resistance needs work....

Characters: Sephiroth & YOU
Passive/optional tag: Cloud, Hojo, Rufus - Side Effect: Forceful Jenova cell 'pull'.
Setting: Following evening after This - towards the end of the event. Locations below.
Format: Usual wordy prose but will switch to match
Summary: Aftermath: Sephiroth's 1st death in the Tower, at the hands of future!Hei. 1st reaction: WTF-with-the-not-moving. Later restless wandering around.
Warnings: It's late at night and it's dangerous in the Tower. Careful how you approach; edgier than usual Sephiroth

Part 1: Next Evening - Dorm 03-02
Suddenly Sephiroth felt again. He felt the familiar give of the mattress enough to know it was his bed in the Dormitory and he breathed slowly in the precursor to waking up. So he'd died; in all it's painful glory. It wasn't as if Sephiroth wasn't used to what death felt like, but now he couldn't move. Even his eyes won't open yet even though he feels like they are ready to. A heartbeat skipped, then Sephiroth remembers that he had experienced this once before; that day when he'd first woken up here. So this was the consequence of death in the Tower - a relapse to the paralysis. Great, he'd hated that enough the first time.

Though it hadn't been this long before. Or at least not as far as he could remember. He can't even tell how long it has been, and this waiting quickly gets old. There had to be something he could do about it. Sephiroth took a long inhale and settling his focus back inside himself he concentrated on wrapping his willpower around the already panicking jenova cells inside and PULLED.

Nothing. He still couldn't move.

Again and again he PULLED. Trying to will the great Jenova-web work to give him his motor functions back quicker; each time more desperate but all in vain. He couldn't let them get away with leaving him paralyzed like this - especially since there were others in the Tower with the cells that could be made to help him. Perfect opportunity to stretch and test his influence so to speak.

For the longest ten minutes these attempts went on. Sephiroth was trying so hard, that when suddenly the paralysis let go his eyes shot open with such speed that it made him dizzy. Whatever influence he'd held over the web snapped with the shock and Sephiroth lent up somewhat heavily on his elbows while his mind adjusted to being awake, peering around the Dormitory. So it was the next evening?

Part 2: Nighttime wandering: Hallways > Elevator > Floor 12 and back again
Once settled Sephiroth felt quite proud. Sure he hadn't been able to force himself to overcome the paralysis but stretching and feeling out what connections were available to him, through Mother's gifts, was something he really should have discovered sooner. He blamed it on having to settle into his new environment, and having to deal with the blinding questions that tended to circle around in his mind too fast for him to focus on one thing.

Apparently then, the meditation was helping to re-focus him, if nothing else. Maybe it was a case of that he couldn't see the wood for the trees; maybe if he stopped looking for answers he might learn something. Something to consider.

Having been 'dead' during the daytime - followed by the panic at not being able to move, it's not like Sephiroth could just lie back down and go to sleep. So instead he got up and equipped himself for a night time wander. Though he'd certainly watch his back a lot more in case that crazy lightning guy wasn't finished with his rampage. That had certainly been a very personal attack; if only Sephiroth knew what it was he'd done, it must have been heavy to have earned that response. Well there was a bit of strangeness going on after all, Sephiroth would wait for his time to exact revenge for that insult.

Sephiroth made his way down the lift from the Dormitories and then up stairwells. He'd avoid what monsters he could, though inevitably some monsters won't be avoided especially considering how dangerous the Tower is during night time. At least his first death here hasn't blunted his sword any, and his strength is as it was as well. Finally Sephiroth would linger for a while on the 12th floor, watching the projection from start to finish a few times before the frequency of shadow-based monsters appearing was ruining his chance to get the escape he'd come here for and then he'd return back in the direction he came.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Would it have been helpful or not to have interfered with Ienzo's spat with the Dragon? Sephiroth wasn't sure whether him and/or Masamune would have simply gotten in the way of Ienzo's more powerful magic attacks. He certainly seemed to have geared himself up in terms of magic shields to mitigate the Dragon's attacks quite well. It was clearly damaged by cold attacks, a magic user should be able to finish it easier than the keen edge of his blade that doesn't do much to the thick skin.

And so Sephiroth had just remained a few feet in the air, large black feathered wing occasionally beating at the air to the one side of him as if it were keeping him there. Of course in truth it has nothing to do with it. His natural telekinesis counter-balances and has a lot more to do with keeping him afloat than the Jenova-given mutation does.

Masamune was quickly risen back into a ready position the moment that Sephiroth saw that Ienzo was about to take a way-too close fireball to his head. He had enough time to register that the mage had fallen back to the floor before the Dragon got back into his range. One thing about being airbourne with Masamune; there is no floor to get in the way of a potentially cleaving attack. Wasting no time Sephiroth dodged upwards away from the stream of fire that came from the Dragon's mouth like a fire-jet. He aimed powerfully for the wing joint that he'd managed to nick at earlier, this time putting some of that telekinetic force behind his strike.

For additional forcing of the issue Sephiroth followed with a strong boot to the back of the creature; hoping to impair it's flight enough to force it to have to land. In the meantime, the Dragon forced multiple spikes on it's head through Sephiroth's opposite foot but while agonizing the pain was almost a side-thought. What was important now was to kill this monster before their fight drew out other monsters.

Perhaps you could get that blade checked out, Sephiroth. Infused with some kind of magical ability, perhaps? If it were within Ienzo’s range of capability, he would certainly help out, if only because he now knew that there were monsters in this tower that had elemental weaknesses just like the ones back home. But, moving back to the more immediate matters at hand, Ienzo pulled himself to a kneeling position on the ground and cast Curaga. Overkill? Maybe. But Ienzo certainly felt those effects enough to justify it on himself, and besides, it was the first spell that came to mind that could cure Sephiroth as well without Ienzo having to focus directly on him. There was no telling what had happened while he was trying to regain his bearings.

Ienzo looked up in time to see Sephiroth kicking the monster, which must have been already reeling from another attack — otherwise, he couldn’t imagine a fighter like that lowering himself to common brawl tactics. Whatever happened, the Ryu Dragon spun around in the air a bit drunkenly, and promptly proceeded to sink like a rock to the floor. Seeing an opportunity, Ienzo leapt up and took about five feet of air between himself and the ground. Then, with the Dragon still recovering from the crash, he sent a powerful Blizzara point blank in its specific direction. ...And then, thinking that perhaps was not enough, another Blizzard right behind.

The creature roared and flailed at the first attack, and the second one silenced it. Not wanting to stand too close in case it was just pretending to be defeated, Ienzo moved himself back up to Sephiroth’s level, watching intently. There were several monsters he could think of that would try to pull a trick like that and, say, reach out for his face once he got close enough to examine it in the Book of Retribution. He was silent for several seconds, breath held, waiting.

...But no, the creature was really dead.

Almost casually, he glanced over at Sephiroth, hoping for a second opinion on the matter.

Well if there was one thing about having Ienzo around, healing was helpful. Sephiroth had had to make himself back off from the Dragon though as Ienzo popped up into the air out of no where to finish the monster off. He'd have followed it to the floor for an attempted impale, else.

Sephiroth was left hovering with Masamune relaxed to the side but not overly so, eyeing the fallen Ryu Dragon carefully. He didn't pay much mind to the fact that Ienzo had moved back level with him though it seemed they both had a similar idea. Wait for a while to make sure it was dead first.

"Well, that was unexpectedly entertaining." Sephiroth commented as he lowered himself back to the floor. The black feathered wing was folded in and back before being dismissed into nothing at a thought, a few black feathers left in it's wake for only a moment before they dissolved into the air. Just to be sure though, before Sephiroth would allow Ienzo to get any closer to the Dragon - he'd prod at it with Masamune a couple of times.

Everybody loved free healing. It was a lesson Ienzo had learned quite a while ago, where even the staggeringly dickish members of the Organization were suddenly a lot warmer to you when you were good to them as support on a mission. He smiled as Sephiroth talked, the closest thing he would allow to laughter in the middle of a fight; he was right, though, this was entertaining.

He stood back to let Sephiroth poke the creature, though had a word of caution. “Please don’t do too much to it,” he noted, letting the Book of Retribution flip around. “I still have to take notes on this one, remember.” But while he waited, he began throwing down some more basic information about the fight. ‘Level of difficulty’ was omitted until he got some more information from different tests about how powerful it was — that is, asking other people in the Tower with different skill levels how their fight went. And once Sephiroth had finished, he pulled out the gloves again and swooped in to make the same observations he had for the rabbit, and several more.

"Relax."

Don't worry Ienzo he hasn't forgotten the purpose for them being in the Forest at all. Only two stabs with Masamune were given before Sephiroth stepped away. He turned so that his back was to the researcher and would keep a keen eye on every angle of their surroundings; it would be troublesome to say the least to have to deal with more than one of those things at a time.

Occasionally he would glance over Ienzo's shoulder at whatever he was writing in the book.

Ienzo watched the stabs intently, feeling completely entitled to stop them if they were getting too stabby, but fortunately they didn't. Sephiroth was just making sure the creature was dead, which Ienzo could completely understand. See, he's willing to let other people play with his precious toys if they treat them nicely! Ienzo's notes were fairly boring, and a significant amount of the pages were just sketches of the wings, teeth, patterning, etc. Pretty much useless information for anyone who really was fighting one of these things, but Ienzo wanted to make sure in case there was a completely different monster roaming around with vaguely the same appearance.

"I think that's enough," he said, standing up. "We should keep moving before this attracts something else, yes?"

Well at least all of this time that he was spending killing monsters looked like it was going into something concise. Even the small glance that Sephiroth managed to get from just a quick gaze over Ienzo's shoulder told him that much. Not that he'd had any reason not to believe Ienzo but it was good to see for himself.

Taking another long sweeping gaze around their surroundings, Sephiroth nodded though not directly at Ienzo. It probably was a good idea not to linger any longer than they had already.

"Probably suggestible yes." Picking a direction it doesn't look like they've gone in yet Sephiroth lent his head that way first. The only time thus far that he's given any indication to Ienzo which way he would be heading. Well he's certainly proved his usefulness if nothing more.

013 | So clearly lightning resistance needs work....

Floor 6 (no problem. I love your wording btw - reminds me of MMO playing "squishy wizard"....)

Floor 6 (All credit goes to tvtropes.org for that particular term. xD NOT VERY SCIENTIFIC, BUT W/E.)

Floor 6

Floor 6

Floor 6

Floor 6

Floor 6