just this once, everybody lives!

[sageprincess]

Characters: Everyone.
Setting: Anywhere.
Format: Party style.
Summary: Post-Ex Machina catch-all mingle.
Warnings: See individual threads.

[After a long, drawn out battle, the infiltration team returns to the residential portion of the Tower, weary, battered... but victorious. Some catching up is in order.]

Comments

[notayoungkitten]

[In her own world, there were very few people who could outmatch Ocelot. She was the best sharpshooter to ever live and she had the experience to back it up.

But that madhouse that had been securing the room... she hadn't been able to do anything but guard the retrieval unit. It wasn't even so much that she gave a damn about whether it lived or died, because quite frankly, she didn't. But it had been the only thing that could help them with everything that had been happening and much of it had happened too quickly for her to do anything about it.

Riki had tricked them, and she had been quietly judging the situation once more and hadn't picked up on it. She probably could have died. Probably should have died, really. But she hadn't.]

It seems we have a new enemy now. We succeeded in securing the room that he was so content to protect though I'm uncertain what we accomplished, exactly.

[Ultimately, they had never figured out just what Riki had been doing. And Aria was growing more suspicious by the moment in Ocelot's eyes. This had been an act of war that the residents had been made to play out and the old soldier didn't like the idea that she might have been used.]

[neverbeamemory]

[Sephiroth turns to Ocelot as she answers him, stretching his neck out to one side and then the other - an audible pop doesn't actually help much though from the look on his face.

A new enemy she says. Or is it simply a confirmation of one who has been there all along. Sephiroth has been unclear where the lines are drawn now, ever since March. All the advise, to put in his efforts with regard to Aria's cause as there 'is no other way' - and the only other option is oblivion. It blurs the line between what he should do and what he could accomplish. It's not going to be so long now until he has his real powers returned to him again-

Perhaps encouraged by a similarity in Ocelot's eyes, Sephiroth suggests lowly what he thinks she may have been thinking. It's got to be one of the coldest, yet logical things he's said in a while. Maybe the sleep did him some good.]

It's not necessary for the soldiers on the front line to know the background behind an objective.

[He lowers his gaze then, still rubbing at the back of his neck but unable to get to the right spot due to his collar, to the rough sketch of the map beneath him and in particular to that room where all the majority of the power is distributed. That had to be that room, that room of Zo's that Aria's forces now occupied.]

[notayoungkitten]

[She glances around to make sure that no one else is within earshot. This might be their safe haven away from the administrators-- though with Zo and Riki nowhere to be seen and Ruana not having made a move, she's not sure where that actually leaves them.]

Of course not. But I can't help but feel we were lead astray.

[It had been Aria's act of war, using the residents as soldiers. Ocelot had gone wanting to learn what Riki was up to and instead hadn't actually learned anything of value. If one of the other groups had, she didn't know.]

A war is coming. I've no doubt about that.

[neverbeamemory]

[He might have done the same, that careful peering around to make sure other troublesome residents were not nearby. Apart from the fact that Sephiroth makes no secret that he disapproves of their somewhat-blind faith to all things Dax had researched and/or set up. Only recently has he considered that the Hidden Floor might be the only place that isn't watched, isn't listened in on - though there are always workers present around in it so he's not sure where entirely those claims come from. No where is 100% secure in this place.

The question is, who is listening to what the workers are listening to. There isn't an answer to it and the whole circumstance has irritated Sephiroth to no end. Even before his attempt at escape.]

Exactly my problem with this entire arrangement.

[He speaks lowly, and the answer could apply to both of Ocelot's comments. Not only are they (and by they he means the collective of the majority of residents) being led blind into whatever plans Dax programmed Aria for, but the details aren't validated which makes it worse.

Sephiroth has come a long way since following orders in a War and would not regress to that now. To him though, the war has already been started, this conquest is just another step in it.]

I do not care to fight for any side that I do not see a clear path to victory.

[-yet, when 'the only way out' is thrown around so excessively, Sephiroth cannot afford to bury his head so deeply in the sand. He might miss that opportunity he needs.]