melodiesoflife | #14 | Now for re-learning that which might have been forgotten.

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#14 | Now for re-learning that which might have been forgotten.

Characters: Sephiroth & Open Prompts below
Where/When: Aqures Ixen and a little further out for the 3rd prompt, during the Another Side, Another Story event.
Summary: Sephiroth burns the last four sessions due for obtaining his Custom Job, runs into a terrorist from Gaia and heads out further afield for some light training.
Warnings: Some long prose. Some action. Potential profanity filter w/Barret.

1) Laboratory [OPEN] 23-24th Feb
He’d got this.

After the vast amount of time he’d spent in Mysidia engaging in one expedition or another last month -and then there was Terra- Sephiroth’s Custom Job just had to be neglected for a little while. Never mind the amount of times he’d found himself in a situation where that potential power he might unlock in his crystal would have been more than welcome; it only reminded him constantly of its need to be finished.

He’d so got this.

It wasn’t so terribly unlike the physical monitoring he’d undergone at Shinra countless times before, the last stages of his ‘attunement’ to the ‘parameters’ that equipping this newly created Job would have on him. Nodes were attached with sticky tape to specific points on his bared torso; to monitor muscle tension, the build-up of latent energy, heart-rate, and who-knew what else. Wires trailing off to a nearby machine as Sephiroth again lifted Masamune up and out in front of him; the great sword finally as weightless as he remembered. A basic kata executed, seen from behind the glass of a viewing platform as moogles on the other side recorded the various readings. A spike of dials dancing as he closed his eyes and reached deep for the mako-rush that he’d used to be able to summon so easily at will.

A spark from one of the dials accompanied a flicker to the lights momentarily as Sephiroth carefully, once more, lowered his sword.
--
But there was a catch.

A flaw in the Job itself that had been identified early on that in itself had prevented its discovery half as quickly as Sephiroth would have liked. It manifested itself as a delayed-onset exhaustion and while a few of the moogles had a theory why it was an issue, it made symptoms no less tangible.

As tangible as promptly hitting the deck when he emerged from the last session of his four-day burn towards Job completion, where Sephiroth’s physical limitations had been pushed to their absolute maximum; during the process itself, combined with the untold weight of his other responsibilities and duties as well, and had crashed as a result. It took a handful of moogles and other assistants to lift him, but at the very least there were a spare consultation room that day where he could be lain out to sleep, lights off, until he could catch up.

However long that might be, being as Custom Jobs weren’t yet an exact science.

2) Aqures Ixen [Barret & OPEN Cast-prompt]
[Well this is categorically not what was on Sephiroth’s particular to-do-list for the day. Or the month, or even the year, to put it bluntly.

He thought he’d gotten over the worst of what the apparent ‘other’ wave of Heroes of Light could mean for him, having been presented with a mother that he’d never known already and the resultant surge of questions and insecurities have already proved a difficulty to sleep with a couple of nights ago. Wrecking untold havoc with the come-down from the final stages of tuning his new Job, no less. No matter it’s done now, he still feels a little hazy.]

Don’t do anything foolish.

[Hopefully this lunatic would listen to calm reason, insofar as Sephiroth just about manages not to provoke the situation further with his tone. Both leathered hands are raised, palms forward at the rough, agitated black guy with a gun arm pointed squarely at his chest. It’s surely the last time he’s leaving home without a weapon, after this.]

3)Monster hunting; Aqurean Forest - [Lydia/ Terra/ OPEN]
[ooc: Pick your monsters. From bestiary we’ve Golem, Mandragora, Ochu which are native to the Forest, or Red Bomb & Elemental which are native to the Region.]

Thanks to the presence, and consequential vigilance of many Heroes of Light living in Aqures Ixen, the plains nearby to the City seem relatively free of any monsters that may have roamed closer to the outskirts in the past. No matter; with the dump of several months worth of experience into his new Job, Sephiroth was fairly certain that the run-of-the-mill critters probably wouldn’t serve for the challenge that he needed to feel out - for once out of the safety parameters of the laboratory.

By chocobo it opened up the option, and it was clear that a location a little further afield would prove more adequate. Plus the fact that there were a couple of other Heroes that he intended to bring out towards the Aqurean forest in the south, for similar purposes. He knew the route well enough, having travelled it on occasion between Aqures Ixen and Esdham when he had the time or the shuttle couldn’t make a call on his request.

Upon reaching the edge of the forest, Sephiroth brought his bird to a stop --she warked almost rebelliously at not being allowed to carry on running, but eventually obeyed-- and with a smooth swing of his leg dismounted and began to survey the treeline a little ahead of them. There didn’t seem to be any threats visible, but he knew perhaps better than most Heroes that this forest could be alarmingly deceptive.

Not being a Chocobo Knight, after all, it would be safer to proceed on foot with the birds safely out of the way. He turned once more to his bird and, with a sing of edged steel, Masamune was pulled smoothly from the scabbard that he’d secured just behind the saddle. The chocobo, as unused to it as she might be, didn’t seem to even flinch.

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"Oh, careful-" Without even thinking of it, she reached out to offer a steadying hand. Having experienced it firsthand she knew that moving too quickly could have the opposite effect after experiencing a crash like the sort she'd witnessed him suffering as she first arrived in the lab. The concern in her brown eyes was likely more apparent than she meant it to be. That hiss of his hadn't escaped her notice, either.

Awkwardly withdrawing her hand and standing fully, she went to one of the cabinets. Now where had she seen the small collection or rags? Ah, right.

"I doubt they would try to weaponize the very Lifestream itself," she remarked, finally locating a clean rag to wrap a piece of ice or two in. She was no mage, so this would have to suffice for the time being. Returning to his side to offer the wrapped ice cubes for his muscle strain, she found herself falling into the selfsame silence. Academically speaking she could inquire what he'd used in place of mako to obtain a similar effect, but that didn't nearly seem appropriate in the circumstance.

Pulling up a chair to sit beside him didn't seem nearly as inappropriate however, and so she did. Lucrecia was content for a moment to simply sit in that silence.

"Ah. I wondered where I'd left it." It had been an accident for her to misplace the tome she'd recorded the group's travels, made notes as studied the peculiar languages of this world, and even written down tactics and theories to be proven at a later date. Though she hoped it meant that he hadn't read the entire thing. She hadn't used ink and quills save for passing interest growing up, so many of the first tens of pages had embarrassingly poor penmanship. "Did you open it?"

As Lucrecia laid a hand on him there was something about Sephiroth's aura that seemingly bristled in reaction, like that split second before physical movement in someone who clearly didn't want to be touched. It was almost as if the entire surface of his skin that she touched instantly seemed to shrink away from her. Sephiroth was much too tired to have hidden back the aversion he had to sudden and unexpected physical contact, like that, not to mention who had delivered it. The resultant flinch seemed to have escaped his notice where the pulling of the muscles in his upper arm had rushed itself to the front of his immediate attention though. A small mercy, but for the fact that he clearly saw her concern for him; curious.

"No. Well, I'm not sure that type of technology is yet available here in Crystallis. The Lifestream is...different here." Therein Sephiroth silently made Lucrecia aware that he -at least- knew that she too was from Gaia.

"There is no mako infusion here. So re-creating the same effects within ones own body comes with a price, it seems."

In their silence, he eyed her offer of the cold wrap for a split second longer than was comfortable --trying to comprehend within himself what could come from it-- before reaching out to take the same with his good hand, re-finding the scalding knot of pulled muscle with experienced fingertips before pressing lightly against it. He'd need a day or so of resting, he presumed, to make sure he didn't pull it further.

After a few moments, Sephiroth relieved some of the pressure from the cold pack and tentatively stretched his arm out in front of him. Coiled muscle shifted beneath skin as he tested opening, and then closing his hand. It wasn't even much of a sprain, just uncomfortable enough to bring the smallest twitch of a sneer to the corner of his face.

"I did, only to see whose it was; but I'm unsure how secure the mognet is regarding delivering items to yourselves-" The excuse sounded petty, even to Sephiroth's own reckoning. He knew full well if he'd wanted to see her there were few who knew the city as well as he did. Not to mention there were plenty who knew him that he could have asked about her.

It wasn't as if he'd been fixating on her face or anything but Sephiroth did then look down and away from them both, a firm line forming between the middle of his eyebrows as circumstances caught up.

"I- I'm unsure-"

Luckily she withdrew her touch as suddenly as she'd unknowingly had done it, more concerned with his well being than the awkwardness that ensued.

"So I've noticed." She admitted, though the surprise was likely evident in her town. If he knew she was from Gaia as well, then-- no, she couldn't dare to hope he had learned of her existence back there. If anything, Hojo would likely have erased all but hints of her involvement in the experiments performed in Nibelheim. But then, where would he...? Had it been one of the many tricks this world seemed to pull on them?

Though perhaps she didn't have the right to ask that of him, as worn as he was already. Perhaps after she'd rested further she would, but for now her curiosity could wait.

"I will admit, I hadn't even heard of such a thing until we reached Mysidia." Perhaps in passing at the very beginning, but at the time there was no one to send messages to--all of the other Heroes save those who'd just awakened were crystal. In truth, her own excuse was rather petty. They could have gone to a Mognet office to send and recieve letters, after all. It likely would have been easy to have received her book back from there. Not that she was one to judge his uncertainty. Not that it did not sting

"Of what? My presence?" It was an honest question, however meek or uncertain her own tone was. After all, he'd never had the opportunity to know her... it was only fair. She had run off in surprise and uncertainty when they'd first crossed paths, after all.

"Yes."

Blunt as it was, with no further explanation, at least Sephiroth would always be honest. Indeed, Lucrecia seemed to have hit it cleanly on the head, his thoughts that had been stirred over the last few days since she'd seen him coming out of one of the police stations in Aqures. Of course, he'd looked much further into the book than just that front page but the details had seemed irrelevant when faced with something altogether more jarring for him personally.

There was little point hiding it, and that notion of caring which had been communicated by her even just in this brief meeting, only served to flare the issue up more in the back of Sephiroth's subconscious. He could ignore it, probably most likely would have done if he'd been a little less fatigued; despite how he'd been trying to tackle his own demons more directly as of late.

"I know who you are, Dr. Crescent." Vibrant green eyes with their tiny slits served him well currently, in hiding what he might really be thinking about her as he met eye contact once. A beat later, predictably he looked away and set the cold pack again underneath a bent-up arm.

At the simple answer, Lucrecia withdrew inwardly. Clasping her hands together before her and lowering her head, it was almost as though she were bracing herself for whatever thoughts her exhausted son had conjured up from whatever he had learned of herself.

"That...seems to be rather common, lately." Something that had surprised her, considering no one had come to find her until AVALANCHE had stumbled across her in the Caves. She'd sometimes wondered if Hojo had erased her from the records entirely after Project S. She almost expected that of him.

Yet the talk with Yuffie was still fresh in her mind, and part of her wondered if her lingering here had been a mistake. Maybe it was, but... he deserved to know if he wished to. "Although, may I ask what that entails?"

If he'd allow that, she would rather not have a misunderstanding like she'd had with the young Wutain princess.

He looks up again, at her first comment, silently flicking his keenly attentive eyes over all of the woman poised in front of him. Picking up whatever nuances of expression within her body language that might feed his sharp intuition. Sephiroth soon looks away again, unable to decide if it's even correct or appropriate to be looking at her in such a way or not.

This was the woman who had given him up, almost as soon as he was conceived. Who he hadn't known about, at all, for so long and now-

It didn't take much for Sephiroth to get lost with words but when he couldn't fathom how he really felt presented with her directly like this, it made it even harder. Again, he eyed her carefully as she attempted to draw another question; shouldn't he be the one asking questions?

"I know...enough. Through Vincent. Through...other means here."

The slight shake to a breath that Sephiroth took in could easily be disguised as a reasonable reaction to a twinge in his injured tendon.

"More than I would have known...than I will ever know when it comes the time to return to Gaia."

If she noticed just how he was looking towards her, she didn't seem to acknowledge it. Too wracked with an ache that could not be put to words, yet she knew he deserved an explanation. Something for what she'd agreed to do to him--her own son. Yet in searching for the words, she turned away. It was easier like this, trying to reign in the emotions that fought in her inner turmoil.

"Can't say I'm surprised. Hojo never..." Lucrecia shook her head. No, that wasn't what she wanted to start with. Though for how long she'd wished to see him, she found herself at a loss. So instead, she left the floor to Sephiroth. "Doubtless you have questions. Do you feel up to it?"

His well being was more important to her, as odd as that may seem.

That something, for better or worse had changed him irreparably before he'd even had so much as a twinkle of consciousness to call his own. For all of the immoral and otherwise questionable circumstances around Sephiroth's origins; he was who he was right now as a result and wouldn't change that even if it were possible. For too long he'd taken the circumstances dealt to him and made the most that he could out of it - it was hardly a chore, being that much better than other people.

Even just the mention of his name from Lucrecia danced along the patience that Sephiroth still had managed to hold his feelings back with but thankfully she just shook it off and seemed to reset her stance. Once the question were finally asked; Sephiroth then made a direct effort to catch her eye contact. Words which had wanted to come spilling out so eagerly in Vincent's company seemed almost too shy to come now though-

"I have one question...but I don't think that it's one that can be truly answered, completely."

That question was:Why? but the way that Sephiroth looked away clearly indicated that their conversation had started to deepen to the point it was uncomfortable. He wasn't ready to ask her, to open those floodgates to what he expected was the answer. It was as Hojo had said to Vincent: they were scientists, that's all there was to it. He kept his gaze downcast and shuffled a little to the edge of the gurney he'd been lain on, one hand still holding the other in place with a cold pack as boots met the floor. A line of discontent made of his mouth was hidden behind bangs of hair as they concealed much of his expression away.

"Perhaps another time."

Another shuffle and Sephiroth -smoother than expected- slid to his full 6'4" worth of height and looked down on Lucrecia.

"I should get home."

Taking note of his reaction to her now late husband's name, she almost wondered just what sort of relationship was had between them - if there was one at all. Their eyes met, and in that moment it nearly felt as though karma had pressed a cold dagger against her back. She had a feeling what that question was, but said nothing as he stood.

He certainly hadn't gotten his height from his birth father, that much was certain.

"Of course. I'm not planning to leave the city for a few days, at least." Even then, it wouldn't be hard to keep contact with moogles if she visited the Mognet station in Mysidia often. Still, she kept an eye on him. Studying his movements, making sure he was standing solidly on his own two feet.

"Will you..." she began, cutting herself off as though second guessing what she was about to ask. Thinking on it, she began anew with an honest concern being one of the few things left unmasked in her tone. "Will you... be alright? Walking to your residence alone?"

His height would likely have been attributed to a mutation brought about by JENOVA, in the same way as his hair color and the main shape of his face that mirrored that of the brain-dead creature so closely. Either that or there must have been some other anomaly in the provided gene pool.

He'd never laid eyes on JENOVA, though, and by all accounts that's potentially one of the only things separating Sephiroth from the monster that he'd inevitably become. Lucrecia would be able to tell that he didn't look all that different from in her visions; it had to have been at around this time in his life that she'd seen.

It might well have been his tight pride keeping him stood firmly upright, and Sephiroth didn't even stumble but for the first tentative step he took towards the door. He made only a comment, only mumbled back over the top of an arm at her as he proceeded to leave.

"I'll be fine. It shouldn't surprise you to know that places like this make my skin crawl."

It bordered on sharp, the way it was uttered and Sephiroth didn't even give Lucrecia any time to reply further before opening the door and striding out into the hallway.

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#14 | Now for re-learning that which might have been forgotten.

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