LIFE AFTER AYTO.

[corporative]

love's like a barbed-wire fence.

Comments

for ash!

[corporative]

[The game's over, and the portals across dimensions open up between all of its contestants. Lucky for Rufus, who had expected to keep a few connections live across worlds -- but none so important to him as Ash. He would discard all the rest for him. Makes sure that he's the first to grace Shinra's halls.

Or rather, his office.

It's large and sprawling, with glass windows couched behind an intimidating desk to allow for view of Midgar behind him. At night, it's quite a sight, a darkened city of steel looming yet shining in the ethereal green mako-light. Pulsing, like a thing alive. Rufus sits at the desk that was once his father's (it's his, now), legs crossed and waiting. And when his guest finally arrives, he stands with a grin spreading across his face, blue eyes bright.]

You made me wait.

[He's clearly glad to see him.]

[gilden]

[ This sure is a sight. Ash has gotten used to aspects of modern architecture at his time on the island, but his roots are still that of someone raised in a time where wooden boats are common means of transport, and all of this, the lights, the steel, the vaulted ceiling—if he had to describe it in one word, magical. If he had a second, opulent. There have been actual ships that he's ridden for weeks at a time, that would fit neatly inside the confines of this place.

He's like a kid in a candy store in many ways, butterflies in his stomach from anticipation and excitement. A few more steps into the office (a quick pause to really take in how large this place is) and Ash meets that grin with one of his own—at least momentarily. And then he's gone, dipped behind one of the many palms, though his bright eyes still peek through. A beat later and:]

But I'm here now! [ It's all very silly, though he does step back out into the open as he speaks, putting aside all the other objects and sights vying for his attention to really focus on what matters the most, who matters the most (there's so many things in his vision that he wants, but it's really no contest and hasn't been for a while). The rest of the distance between them he closes easily with more hops than steps, stopping at the edge of the desk, one hand leaning onto it. ]

And you can have me for as long as you want. [ He's a bit late he knows, but hopefully his words make up for it. That and the suit he's wearing too. ]

for miss blaze

[corporative]

[A little more than two years has passed since he sought out his perfect match in a game well beyond the borders of time, space, and the very planet he stands on. And after he had returned, it had been like no time had passed at all. Rufus had deigned to tell his Turks about the experience once, but only once — after they looked at him with varying shades of skepticism (Reno even had the audacity to ask if he was feeling alright, boss?), he decided ease their concerns by never mentioning it a second time. When the inter-dimensional portals did not open up as expected, when his phone could not contact his new set of connections as promised, he thought he had, maybe, dreamt it. Maybe they were right. A fever dream, whipped up from Gaia’s own discontent — or something. It had been difficult to know. So much had happened then.

So much has happened, since.

Midgar is now a shell of its former glory. Its skeletal, steel framework still stands, but so much in-between had crumbled and fallen during the meteorfall and Holy rising up to meet it. Two incomprehensible forces colliding barely above the Planet’s stratosphere; the destruction was inevitable. Thorough. His newly-acquired empire had crumbled, just like that.

So many had lost their lives in the chaos, and Rufus had nearly been one of them. When he had pulled himself from the rubble, freeing himself from detritus of HQ bearing down on him, he saw Midgar in a new light — ugly, shattered, and exposed. For all of Shinra’s power, in the end, it accounted for nothing. It was not him or his own who had put a stop to Sephiroth. And when the world was ravaged by disease not soon after, and Rufus had become ill and weak, he knew then: things had changed for good.

And his perspective shifted accordingly. Maybe for the sake of his pride, maybe still a little self-serving, but he had to adapt; the world swept away the old Shinra establishment with a furious rage. It left him with a clean state, and he would rebuild his reputation brick by brick if he had to. His legacy, well and truly crafted by his own hands and none other.

Midgar would be rebuilt. The people, aided in ways they could never expect from Shinra before. It would be a project that stretched well into his lifetime, but he took it on with what fervor he could. With what time he could carve out of the day. Needless to say, Rufus keeps a busy schedule between the ruins of the once-great city and Edge, the one built from its remains.

One day, he’s summoned down to the first floor of where he keeps headquarters, a clffside medical facility which has been quaintly dubbed The Shinra Cabin. Rufus stubbornly takes the stairs, but no one wastes their breath in telling him otherwise these days. He’s no longer wheelchair bound; though he needs the aid of a cane to walk particularly long or cumbersome distances, his strength will eventually return fully — and faster, if he pushes himself. And he does.

When he arrives at the entrance, he sees the straight-backed form of Rude standing at attention, expressionless as ever and questioning someone beside him. This someone is a woman: tall, built, with a shock of pink hair. Recognition barrels into him, stilling him in his spot. Like a piece of the past, risen from the dead, or a so-called figment of a dream existing in the waking world.]

Blaze?

[firesinthesky]

[ For Blaze, it’s only a matter of days. She’s right back where she left off, deep in the wilderness with her thoughts and her chocobo for company, sleeping under the stars as she turns the events of the past few weeks over in her head. More often than not, she fishes the little orb out of her pack, her wish still unspent, looking at the night sky play over its surface.

She hadn’t gone to the island for personal gain, or even for love, but now that she’s back home again, it feels like something is missing. Blaze wouldn’t call herself wholly satisfied with her match - she and Rufus got along well enough, but there was plenty they butted heads over as well, his disregard for the common folk chief among them, and yet something in her nags at her, tells her to seek him out. To go.

And, well, Blaze has never been one to turn down a new adventure.

So, she pulls the funny little magitek device out of her pocket and calls for the boat. (She doesn’t question just how it’s able to get up the river like that - stranger things have happened.)

Where she ends up is not a shining city full of bright lights and unfathomable technology and the name “Shinra” hanging over all. It’s a ruined wasteland. Something terrible and tragic has happened here, and for a second, Blaze’s heart catches in her throat as she wonders if she’s come too late.

It’s days more as he picks her way through the ruins, to the city built on the fringes of the devastation. The locals stare at her, and she can’t really blame them. Someone gifts her a cloak, dark fabric that she folds around herself to make her appearance a little less startling. She asks questions and she learns the terrible truth of what happened to this place, but most of all, she learns that Rufus Shinra is still alive. She takes odd jobs and barters her way out to the facility that he now calls home, and when she arrives, she’s stopped by men in suits and bombarded with questions of their own.

Though it all, she insists, though not unkindly, that she needs to see Rufus. She must.

And when he arrives, Blaze’s face breaks into a bright grin that falls just as quickly as it came when she finally gets a chance to look at him. He’s still the man she remembers, obviously, but he’s a pale shade of himself, leaning heavily on a cane for support and looking winded after a trip down the stairs. ]

Rufus! Oh, Rufus, what happened?