❄ The new kid ❄ [open]

[pinnaculum]

Characters: [au2] Sephiroth and YOU
Setting: throughout the tower: dorms, cafeteria, library, floor 81, anywhere with monsters to fight.
Format: Starting in action, but will match prose
Summary: A new Sephiroth arrives in the Tower. He's a bit smaller than the other one, and looks a lot younger.
Warnings: Mentions of human experimentation.


The dormitories; room 1-18 and hallways:
[Waking up in a completely unfamiliar place isn't a novel experience for Sephiroth, but it isn't one he likes. He rises from the bed and quickly searches the room. He reads the letters he finds and changes out of the white jumpsuit as soon as possible, exchanging it for his own dark gray, utilitarian clothes. He has a pair of dark goggles that he rests on top of his head. He uses them at times to disguise his glowing eyes, but he doesn't pull them down now. The last time he woke in a strange place, it was cold and snowing. This is a warm room. It is preferable, but he still has much to learn about his current location. He ventures out into the hallway as soon as he's dressed.

He doesn't see Mr. Valentine. He's supposed to stay near him. Maybe he can find him somewhere nearby.]

Floor 1; the cafeteria:
[Who has absolutely no problem with eating his oatmeal? This kid. After all, soldiers in the field eat rations, and this is no different. He is eating the bland food at a steady pace with a remarkable lack of expression and quiet determination. Seldom has oatmeal been eaten more seriously.]

Floor 3; the library:
[Sephiroth doesn't see the need to ask for help, though he's frustrated that he still hasn't found Mr. Valentine. The network terminals aren't difficult to operate. With in no time, he's accessing them and looking through the old entries. He frowns slightly. A lot of these entries aren't very useful. He doesn't need to know about people feeling sick or playing pranks or insulting each other.

After spending some time at a terminal, Sephiroth makes his way through the shelves and locates a nice, extensive section of science books. In no time, he's amassing quite the collection of thick tomes on biology, genetics, and chemistry. He pulls down all the books that seem interesting. The ones on the upper shelves are harder for him to reach, so he leaps up several feet into the air and grabs those he's selected from the shelf. This acrobatic display seems effortless.]

Floor 81; the observatory lounge:
[Sephiroth has walked out onto the bulging glass windows, so that he almost seems to be suspended in midair. He isn't doing anything in particular. He stands silently looking upward, watching the stars.]

Any dangerous floor, near dusk:

[It's growing darker, and it's probably a good time for children to be heading back to safer floors, but Sephiroth, instead, is heading out. He has a sword with him, a rather long sword for someone of his height. Kids, swords, and monsters: always a good combination.]

Comments

[neverbeamemory]

[Yes, he'd regret making that comment if he had any reservations about revealing less-than all of the story to this child version of himself. It's all too linked after all and he was (of course!) way too intelligent not to ask the questions that it would all lead to. Sephiroth had already figured out that it would very much be all or nothing - that's assuming the child would even believe him. Far-fetched as the facts would sound.

It's hard to know which way to go with this when he fancied he himself would have dismissed it if he'd had such revelations made to him as a child. Even if he didn't specifically remember ever being this young. But if this version of him was so young, then perhaps Sephiroth himself hadn't actually done all those things in that alternate reality. But nothing else could have done it, right?; Midgar was destroyed, the boy had said it himself.]

I did a lot of things. Great things.

[Sephiroth then pointedly tore his gaze away from the boy and scolded himself inside. What was he waiting for? He's by no means ashamed of anything he's done back on Gaia so why the hesitancy. Some paranoid sense of self-preservation which by the very fact they are both existing here in the same realm shouldn't apply!

He swallowed before looking back to the boy. This feeling couldn't get any stranger but if he didn't tell then he knew he'd end up regretting it more. As soon as he started speaking it was as if a weight was getting less.]

I pulled a Meteor out of the sky.
I collapsed what was left of a building down around the one who had stopped me before.

[pinnaculum]

[Sephiroth continued to look up at his much taller self, intrigued as the other continued to speak. He took in everything he said, seemingly without judgment.

In the wake of this information, the situation grew no less confusing. Wouldn't he have remembered, if he'd done something like that? He couldn't have been responsible for what had happened to Midgar. He'd been sleeping. That's what they'd told him. Somehow, he'd been asleep all that time and hadn't grown up as the years had passed. Preserved, his growth arrested. Did that mean he'd do the things the other Sephiroth mentioned in the future? But Midgar and the Science Research Department couldn't be destroyed twice, could they?]

Why?

[It was a simple enough question. A child's question. He didn't understand what would inspire someone to do those things. Well, destroying the lab was understandable to an extent, but not the rest of it. He wanted to do great things, and he wanted to be a general, but he didn't want to pull meteors out of the sky. What would be his logical reason for doing so?

There was another one-word question on his mind as well, equally as important as the first.

How?

[And finally:]

Who stopped you?

[These were all good things to know. He's never been defeated in a battle before, even if most of the battles he's been in have been training exercises. He's confident enough in himself to know that he is a superior fighter, and that few will be able to defeat him, especially when he's older. So who did defeat him?]

[neverbeamemory]

[All very simple, all very innocent enough questions. All things considered. Pity the answers aren't so simple. And his explanations too, Sephiroth knew would be equally flawed. There were just too many facts Sephiroth himself can't remember. Irrelevant facts when it came down to it now.]

It's a long story. Lets just say, don't ever believe everything anyone tells you. You are much more than what they would have you believe you are.

[Like believing what Sephiroth was telling him? Really, he's not much of a clue where he's going with this. Because it had all rooted from that though right? The initial betrayal that he'd discovered in the truth of his origins. The great secret they'd kept from him. The lies that he'd blindly followed all his life up until that point. Faceless people, nameless names. Though if there is one thing he keenly remembers it's the sense of betrayal, which still felt like a hot knife twisting in his back even now. That town had deserved to burn.]

I followed my destiny. [His gaze was drawn out towards the window, the stars beyond...the cosmos out there. Then his thoughts were drawn back to the Tower sharply.]

Not that it matters much anymore, if this place is to be believed.

[pinnaculum]

[Sephiroth was skeptical. How could he never believe what people told him? There had to be some truth, somewhere. He couldn't believe everyone had lied to him. There was some proof of what they'd said, back home. Years had obviously passed while he'd been asleep, yet he hadn't aged. Mr. Valentine and the others had done nothing but help him. He already knew he was more than he seemed: he was the ideal soldier, and no one knew his limits.

The answers the other Sephiroth gave him weren't satisfactory. There was too much left unexplained. He didn't bother to disguise his skepticism, though it was very polite skepticism.]

I will be careful about what I believe.

[And that meant he'd be careful about what anyone said, including this other Sephiroth.]

Destiny? [Sephiroth didn't believe in destiny; it wasn't provable, but he looked out toward the sky, too. He wished he could travel out there. Among the stars. What must that be like? Something about the cold emptiness between the stars seemed to speak to him, to call to him. His attention drifted along with that of his other self, until a moment later when he blinked, returning to himself.]

I am going to become a great general.

[It wasn't destiny. It was a goal that he was going to accomplish. Even if he couldn't join SOLDIER, there was still the WRO. Or maybe there would be some other group to arise. He could start it himself.]

Sufficient proof of our world's destruction has not been provided.

[So Sephiroth hadn't been able to make up his mind one way or another. Was the world destroyed, or not? It was more than a little frustrating, not knowing. But the thought that the world had been destroyed didn't trouble him as much as it might have most people. There was very little that he was attached to in the world. This world had no shortage of books, as well as monsters to fight. He did feel something that couldn't quite be called "missing" when he thought of Mr. Valentine, but he had come to accept the man as his guardian.

But his main problem with this place was that in some ways, it was like returning to the lab. It was like an experiment. But he had more freedom here.]

Do you think it has been destroyed? [After all, he'd been here longer and might well know more.]

[neverbeamemory]

[General. Sephiroth's eyes narrowed at that word but took care not to point them at the boy directly. That was one of the very few more solid facts that he did know about his past; he had been in SOLDIER and he had been a hero. A General. But it had all been lies, all intricately fabricated to a standard where even as he'd grown up he'd believed it without question.

It had made it all the more unforgivable when he'd found out the truth. All the more insulting for anyone that would refer to him as such. Somewhat dryly he replies to the boy, though it's difficult to keep the utter distaste from his tone.]

Of course. Undoubtedly you will be. [With his skills and how they would develop, without question to the level of expertise that Sephiroth himself prides himself on, this boy would dedicate himself entirely to whatever it is he wanted to do with his life. Sephiroth feels from traits within himself, that trying to control this direction in anyway would be impossible.]

As you say, there is not sufficient proof. Though I have learned nothing in my time here that would contradict the theory. It is a very, [Pause, breath.] convincing experiment.

[pinnaculum]

Yes. I will be. [He's completely confident in himself. Not that he isn't pleased to hear his other self say the same.] I wanted to fight for the WRO, but they said I was not old enough yet.

[Surely, he's more than old enough to fight in battles. He's stronger than the other people who fight, so what should it matter? He doesn't think that they might have another reason not to want him to fight (aside from the fact that Reeve Tuesti doesn't want any children fighting in the army). He looks to the other Sephiroth to back him up on this.]

It is more interesting than the other experiment. I like it better than staying in the lab.

[He gets to go wherever he wants, do whatever he wants, and read all the books he wants. And there's no professor around!]

I would like to learn more about it. Whether it is true or not. It seems convincing. Do you think this Tower is real or a simulation?

[neverbeamemory]

[WRO. That sounds familiar. Older Sephiroth recalls it the way someone may have seen it on a sign but not really registered it. After all, he'd only had the three times, somewhat tunnel-visioned perspective of the Remnants while he himself had been spreading his own influence throughout the Lifestream. Every soul tainted would count. As such, he can't place exactly where he's seen that abbreviation.

This younger version of himself sure was eager to grow up. It's fascinating on so many levels to think that he had could have really been like that when he was younger. Sephiroth had to remind himself sternly that whatever this boy told him, might not necessarily have been his past though! They could be from complete alternate realities. Older Sephiroth shook his head lightly when the boy looked to him for support, it wasn't a disagreement though really; just his way of dismissing something he doesn't know the details in order to form a comment - similarly regarding the experiments that Sephiroth was indeed subjected to in his youth. It really doesn't matter that he doesn't remember them.

Back to the topic of the Tower. Something for once less mind-bending.]

It sure feels real enough don't you think. When you die here it feels real enough as well. But it's not real. No one can die here, but no one can apparently live outside of this Tower either...

[He takes a breath. All too easy to accept this as the new reality. Sephiroth allows his gaze to fall back from the window onto the boy just a few feet away.]

All too convenient. Collared to keep us alive.

[pinnaculum]

[Sephiroth didn't seem to mind a lack of support from the other Sephiroth, taking it neutrally. He knew he was old enough to fight.]

It feels real. [He couldn't argue with that.] An advanced simulation could also feel real.

When you die? [He paused to take in this information.] I see. People seem to die here, but they are not really dead? Do they use a Revive spell on them? Have you died?

Maybe the atmosphere outside is inhospitable? [Sephiroth raised a hand to his violet collar.] Is that why you think we wear them? To keep us alive? [It was not that he disagreed with this reason, he was just curious about what the other thought. He was very curious about him. He had a lot of questions, and Sephiroth hadn't answered many of his questions. Such as how he'd pulled a meteor down out of the sky. And why.] Do they ever come off?

[neverbeamemory]

Exactly. [Sephiroth nodded a few times to the first questions. This younger version of himself was clearly intelligent enough to not be needing it all spelling out.

He really is a smart kid - well obviously! Sephiroth can't help but smile lightly down at the child, despite the differences in their realities, the dormant cells the boy has are proof enough that it is really him after all. The why and how would have to be considered carefully though, since clearly the wool of falsehoods were still tied tightly around the boy's eyes.]

You wake up back in your dorm a day later. [He won't mention the sleep paralysis involved, that's something he had to find out himself so why shouldn't the boy have to do the same? At least then he'd believe it.]

Both are likely theories, yes. [This being the ONLY reason Sephiroth himself suffers the violet collar around his own neck. Clearly there is no coincidence that they have the same color coursing through them.] And no they don't come off so don't waste your energy, you read about the collar checks?

[As for the questions Sephiroth had so far neglected to answer; he's clearly avoiding the subject for some reason.]