PSL; WHAT YOU GONNA DO WHEN IT ALL FALLS DOWN?

[supersoldier]

just face it.

Comments

seph has no off button

[supersoldier]

[Light spreads in clusters around their feet, winking into existence with bright green stems and yellow blossoms. The darkness recedes from the contour lines of petals that press against it, scenting the space between them sweetly. Sephiroth’s mako-green eyes meet Cloud’s, irises hooded beneath long lashes, holding as their wall of feathers spread to let in more illumination.

And then he stands, bootheels grinding into the flower bed, his great black wing fanning to free Cloud of its confines. Sunlight cascades down through a hole splintered into the roof to the church, wetly throwing his flight feathers into an inky, glossy shimmer. Each striation shines as he folds it back.

This is a place where he does not belong. He knows this, every speck of soil beneath his boots made hallowed through that woman’s memory. Sephiroth is just a blackhole void in a picture-perfect recollection. A gaping emptiness where light is disallowed.

And yet he feels the peaceful aura here, too, looking up through that break in the rooftop, watching as motes of dust float past, dancing and disappearing. His wing tucks closer to his body, a solid black mass against his frame.]

Does this place comfort you?

[coraza]

[freed from the black wing that consumed him, cloud breathes in and realizes, belatedly, just how suffocating it was within the confinement of 'safety' that sephiroth had wrapped around him. it takes cloud a moment—hands grasping at soil between his gloved fingers and the petal of flowers grazing lightly against his skin—before he stands, feeling every point of friction between his bones and joints, but feeling oddly... light.]

[this place does bring him comfort, in a way that he doesn't quite know how to measure.]

Yes.

[his back is to sephiroth, as he stares in awe, in wonderment. this is aerith's church, but it's not quite like the one he remembers. it's... older looking, somehow. like the environment outside it crumpled and added some extra tumbles and cracks. instinctively, his right hand moves to his left arm, grabbing there. his eyes move downwards to it in confusion.]

[he drops his hand and tightens it into a fist at his side.]

Those visions I saw— [of aerith, of sephiroth, of a pool of water] —are they real?

[supersoldier]

[Aerith’s church and her garden of flowers afford them both lucidity. Cloud is free from his static and his headaches, and Sephiroth knows the slow-drip of the past is flowing into each little groove of his mind. Some of it feels like the memory of another lifetime ago, the humanity that he discarded so readily in the churn of the Lifestream. He doesn’t want it, he doesn’t need it, but in this place, he has no choice.

And so his eyes turn towards Cloud, away from the light, with a little more consideration than before.]

What do you think those visions represent?

[Answers his question with his own.]

[coraza]

[finally, cloud turns his head to look sephiroth, weighing his words, and their eyes meet. a connection that—no matter the distance—will always be there. like the churning bellows of a cello just underneath the surface, reminding him of the steady threat; of the expectant apparition of the man's presence everywhere he goes.]

[it dawns on him, like a slow realization, that he cannot escape.]

A future that hasn't happened yet.

[he puts these thoughts together, but he isn't sure how it works, or if he believes it himself.]

...or one that has, but not for me. [a pause, as he turns to face sephiroth properly.] For you?

[supersoldier]

[His eyes brighten with approval, cat-like and sharp.]

Yes. For me.

[Masamune's blade whispers against sunlit yellow petals, walking forward two steps closer to Cloud.]

But do not forget what I told you.

[That which lies ahead does not yet exist.]

Those visions are but ghosts of your... failures that have not yet come to pass. Your inability to protect those you care about. That one, perhaps, the most egregious of all.

[coraza]

[cloud digs his heels in, obstinate, watching as sephiroth approaches him and offers, for once, answers. perhaps he's finally asking the right questions. no matter, cloud feels a resurgence of something cold and angry brewing inside him. his failures. these are things he hasn't experienced yet though he seems to resent the fact that sephiroth is calling him out for not being able to protect those he cares about.]

[of protecting — aerith?]

[a light breeze ruffles the flowers, making them sway gently to the side. the earth beneath their feet sinks slowly, fills with water, as the whole church pushes and groans under the weight of change; of perches and pillars succumbing to the different years, the different states of its being. but the water keeps filtering in, creating a pool, slowly swallowing up their boots in it.]

[cloud's eyes remains on sephiroth.]

So what do you want from me?

[change fate, he had said. together.]

[supersoldier]

[The water rushes in at all angles, it bleeds up from the ground and drowns the flowers, it submerges his boots and wets the tips of his wing’s feathers.

He’s unmoving in the rush, the motion rippling all around him, teasing at the bottom of his length of hair. Sephiroth cants his head at Cloud, meeting his obstinance with more answers — though perhaps they are not satisfactory to him in this moment.

The old church groans and aches with time.]

I want you to work with me. To lend me your strength, as I told you once before.

[And as before, a gloved hand extends, palm-up. Fingers uncurling in Cloud’s direction, and the feathers of his single wing flares.]

Won’t you do that for your precious Planet? Our Planet? Or are you still too afraid?

[coraza]

I'm not afraid.

[he is, but not to the extent sephiroth is giving him credit for. cloud worries that whatever he accedes to do will only be like signing a deal with the devil. there is not enough for him to come up with a decision that feels satisfactory to him, and it just feels like a ton of weight on his shoulders, suddenly.]

[the anxiety that keeps gnawing at him over unknowns.]

What's the catch?

[the water surrounding sephiroth grows murky, a darkness teeming from him and pulsing forward, reaching for cloud. the sky that can be seen from the hole on the roof of the church grows darker, like a storm is brewing.]