towerofanimus | Endgame: Gathered on This Beach of the Tumid River

[She nodded, a memory of understanding. That was a good thing to remember she thought. At least it was useful. A reminder of knowledge gained.]

It do be being where I did be growing up. [She could let that much be known at least] I do never be planning on going there again and I do no really be knowing why it do be showing it me now.

[It is, so much more than that really but Sephiroth doesn't have any desire to confuse Nesir any further when it came to what he's about. It had been hard last time to put it into terms that she could understand. Nesir is both incredibly simple and intensely complex at the same time, a walking contradiction in many ways.

He nods, understanding.]

It's important, now more than any other time before, to remember who you are and where you have come from. Perhaps our illusions are similar, in that respect.

[Those words are weighted heavier than he intends for them to be. In fact they make him look away, down to the metal floor that he's stood on.

I need to hold onto that. This place cannot be allowed to take my identity from me.]

But I do no be being that person anymore, I do be being different. [Said in the way that only those who are young can claim to have no ties to the past]

It will be being weird going back to my world...

[Of course she is of the age now, to be saying that as well. Eventually, as she grows up it will become clearer to Nesir that all things have ties into the past. Provided she gets out of the Tower alive, and continues to grow as a person.

Sephiroth grunts dismissively as she mentions going back to her World.]

Not you as well.

Oh should I be sulking and wallowing in self pity like you instead?

No.

[He's not half as bad as he was in the aftermath of his escape attempt, but it still stings. It probably will forever sting, until Sephiroth can get himself in a position to take the required vengeance.]

You shouldn't throw all of your efforts into that which you have no proof will work.

[Not to mention the imbeciles that have swallowed it all up in the name of hope, but it goes without saying.]

Nobody do be having any better plans [Not even Sephiroth, Ganondorf would have, if he were here. But he wasn't and so this desperate last attempt at survival was all that they had.] I did never be being trained to be standing around doing nothing.

[Point to Nesir, Sephiroth doesn't have any plan. He's only ever had one opportunity for one plan, his escape, and it didn't work in the end. The cumulation of most of his time spent trying to figure this place out for his own ends. But no matter how many times the world restoration has been presented to him as a theoretical way out, it just doesn't stick with him. Too much of a risk, to be returned eventually to a World which would then just destroy him anyway; if it were even possible at all.

Other Worlds; there were just too many questions about and there isn't anyone here who's World intrigues him enough.]

That doesn't mean to jump on the bandwagon without knowing where the path leads. Throwing your lot in with a load of zealots who believe whatever the mouthpiece of a dead admin tells them, doesn't strike me as logical.

[Steadying breath, he's trying not to get angry at Nesir. It just infuriates him in general, not half because he hasn't got any other answer himself. Desperation, he can understand. That's not to say he has to like it very much.]

Caution is paramount, even now.

[She scowled] I did no be throwing my lot in with them, I do only be helping because it do be being the best idea anyone do be having. If we do be failing we do be dying, but if we do be doing nothing we do be dying as well so what do the difference even be being.

Fighting admins who -whether we like it or not- know more than we do about what will happen to us once the Tower fails?

[He very nearly scoffs at Nesir, though his respect for her shines through and he open-armedly shrugs it off instead.]

If both ways result in dying, then you need to find the way that does not have that outcome.

What if there do no be being a way? As I do be seeing it everything we could be trying do be carrying that risk.

Then you make a way for yourself.

[The word is emphasized more than Nesir has probably ever heard him emphasize one. It's bitter and defiant, headstrong like he is supposed to be. Even if, not so far below his surface Sephiroth is as afraid as everyone else here, he is simply refusing to feel that way.]

There is a very large target painted across more than a dozen heads. I'm sure you're aware of that.

[Nesir glared at him, she had no ideas. Nothing she could think of to escape from this situation. Which was why she had made the choice to help the others in the first place.

She looked around the streets of Gauig. It had all been so easy back then, she had been given orders and she had followed them. Even if the orders had hurt she could live knowing that she was serving the dark god, and her guardians knew better than she did.

She didn't like having to make the choices and decide for herself what was the better course.

Maybe that was why she this place had been chosen as the place she saw.] Things did never used to be being so complicated.

[He held Nesir's glare, unblinking as was common with such an intense fire in his eyes. Yet this fire was both scalding and cool; hot by his too-easily ignited anger yet something also close to compassion towards Nesir, a minuscule indication that he might sympathize with the outright frustrating nature of the fact that none of them knew really which way to turn to save themselves. Like rats backed into a corner as the encroaching complications barring the way became larger and more all-consuming; he's polite enough to avert his gaze from that glare as she looks around this floor again. He has no idea what she sees of course but he thinks he notices something akin to realization set in.

Sephiroth had helped, selflessly enough on the surface, when the last power-issue had plagued the Tower. Indeed he had taken great personal risk to himself in doing so; if he had died then there would be no time for him to gain any freedom from the control of the Administration again before time ran out. It had been too easy to believe that Pandora, and their collared-unit allies, offered the only means of escape when the pieces of his raw ego quivered at every small recollection of his own failure in attempting it for himself. Yet Sephiroth finds himself now severely lacking the confidence needed for him to continue to trust in the ignorance of others and he is angry that he had been so foolish to think he should entertain the notion of trusting any of them in the first place.]

It's always been complicated. Neither you nor me would still be in this situation if it were not.
Only now it's pushed right in our faces and demands action, but to take the wrong action-

[He looks down more pointedly, and away then, though not around as Nesir does, to some focused point on the floor away from them both. There aren't any great sights to behold inside a Mako reactor; all metal grating and it's industrial bearing, with it's dim lighting dominated by the luminescent tank in which his Mother was sealed.

Sephiroth hates this notion and it's scowled down at the floor. That in his own indecisiveness, fueled by ignorance, he'll be forced into action that will forsake all that he has ever stood for. The Tower of Animus would then win for sure, having collapsed his identity from the inside.]

I do just be wishing it did be being simple. [But nothing ever was, not anymore. It scared her that despite all his power Sephiroth was as helpless as she was, that he did not have any more answers than her.]

But we can no be doing nothing, those who do no be fighting for their futures do no be deserving to be living them.

Don't I know it.

[And really he does. Sephiroth has every intention to fight. Only not that particular fight that everyone else is pawing at. Once he's ready, and he sees his opening he will fight with all that he has. Until then he'll maintain his silent contemplation and his stalwart observing.

So what if it seems like he's putting his head in the sand.]

[She looked around again before her gaze settled back on Sephiroth] What do you be planning to be doing?

[-Yet he's still looking at the floor as if the answer might be down there somewhere. It certainly looks like he's searching somewhere on it for a few moments, not really staring all that directly at one point any more.]

The Tower is quiet now, all except for within one block. Even the Dormitories are mostly deserted, I find.

Battle lines are drawn and I intend to get behind the advance.

[He words it carefully, though nods after wards, happy enough with the expression. His voice is still quiet but really, he's in two minds whether he cares if they are being monitored here still.]

[Nesir nodded thoughtfully though his careful wording was slightly infuriating. Understandable but annoying. She was used to such things, her whole life had been full of secrets and things not said clearly. But sometimes she wished it wasn't.

She gave a slightly bitter laugh, annoyed at herself for thinking such stupid thoughts.] I do be seeing.

[Carefully worded only not out of any desire to deceive Nesir, Carefully worded as if Sephiroth isn't too sure how to clearly phrase his thoughts at this point - yet leave them vague enough just in case.

Another long pause later Sephiroth blinks up from looking at the floor and inspects Nesir's face again. He tilts his head a little to one side, silver hair falling away at one side of his face.]

One way or the other, this may well be one of the last times we will talk together.

[That....stings at him more than he's ever going to give it credit for.]

[She blinked, she hadn't thought of that. That whatever happened win or lose she would never see him again, never see anyone again. Not from here.

She would go back to her own world or she would die, but she definitely didn't feel like the same acolyte who had arrived at this tower and she couldn't have been more different than the child who had once found solace on the rooftops of Gauig.] It might be being... You do no be having any great wisdom to be passing to me then? [A weak attempt at humour, but an attempt nonetheless.]

[Sephiroth too, has come a long way in himself since that fateful day when he learned for once and for all the truth of his origins; that surrounds him on this floor. Though a great deal of it has not been in a positive direction. He imagines himself more splintered now, with his sanity cracked cleanly down the middle and that in itself is the epitome of his stinging failure towards his Mother. Not least the fact that he's still contained here at all, that he hasn't found a way. That he still might not.

Thinking about it pulls at emotions too strained over the edge of his surface mask to be kept hidden. He half-turns away from Nesir and affords that stasis tank another longing glance. Reassuring himself most importantly that it's not over yet.]

I think I- [He stares into the face of Jenova for a few more seconds before looking down and to his side at Nesir again.] I told you before.

Never lose sight of what, or who you are. Letting this place change you irreparably, delivers her victory by default.

[Never lose sight of what she was, the problem was she didn't know what she was anymore. A temple acolyte, a tool of the shadow. A resident of this tower, part of Ganondorf's group. Lotte's future Warrior.

All of those things and none of them, she stared at her hands for a moment, and touched the space where her missing fingers should be before she looked up] Kant did always be saying that changing do be growing, if you can be being in a place a year and no be changing then you did no be learning.

[Yet again Sephiroth turns slightly more towards Nesir, watching her carefully as she fingers her missing finger spaces. Then meeting her eyes again, only fleetingly before breaking eye contact.]

There can not be any real growth here.

[Not that Sephiroth would accept that he himself has also changed, in ways he doesn't want to draw attention to.]

[Nesir continued looking at him even as he broke eye contact] Do you be saying that in all the time you did be being here you did be learning nothing?

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