melodiesoflife | Preparations for a Fierce Battle

Who: Everyone
What: A meeting to discuss the plan of attack against Palitutu
When: July 13th
Where: Old Observatory
Warnings: Threadjacking and discussion is heavily encouraged

[Anyone approaching the Observatory can smell the meeting long before they enter the building. Mordecai and Ellena worked hard the past several days cooking dishes for the Heroes and any guests they brought, resulting in a tiring contests of who could cook the most.

Dishes from Mars. Dishes from Ellana's world. Pastries. Any snack the two of them could find the recipe for. If there were some people that were unsure whether to come to the meeting or not, free food is the strongest argument.

The largest meeting room is prepared with tables and chairs for everyone to sit down, with sofas lining the sides. When everyone settles down and grabs a plate, Mordecai steps onto an area at the end of the room devoid of tables and chairs.]

Alright, alright. We got food in our stomachs, so it's about time we get this started.

Now, we all know why we're here. Palitutu's comin' in less than a month, and we still need to come up with a plan of attack. Seein' how big this team grew, there's gonna be a wide differences in opinions. Last thing we need is all of us disagreein' on what to do at the last minute.

[Like a few days ago. That was a disaster.]

We have plenty of reason to believe that she's not gonna listen to anythin' we say and kill us at the start, so we'll need to prepare our openin' move. There's plenty of ways to fight a WEAPON, but we gotta work together to do it in an efficient manner.

So. Now that I got your attention, what ideas do you have to offer?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[That Sheena seems to have managed to sneak into the position where she was sitting, or she had been there before the room had begun to fill, without Sephiroth noticing prickles a little at that sense of self-awareness within himself that's still under-going something of a reconstruction. In times gone past, he wouldn't have allowed anything anyone did in the room to have escaped his notice.

Either he had blanked her completely, out of no intention to do so, or Sheena really had been using those base ninja skills she had to her advantage.

As she meets his eye contact, Sephiroth blinks down to look at her crystal before rising his attention to her face again. He imagines others have seen this state of mind on him, before on a few occasions but to see it on one of those others is concerning.

Maybe he does care more than he lets on, after all.]

-doing ok?

[The side quest for the sandwich is put on hold, for the time being.]

[ That really can't be seen as his fault. Sheena's been doing ninja things since she was a child, so she has years of experience with or without that job.

If she wasn't feeling so down, she'd be pleased she had done her Grandpa proud.

This state of mind for her isn't normal, so it's perfectly understandable that it catches him off guard. As does his being concerned does to her.

Drawing back slightly in surprise, she nods. ]

Yeah. I'm fine. [ Her go-to answer, Seph. ] How are you doing?

[The more that he watches Sheena out of concern, the more that he feels obliged to do so. She'd been there to help him once, when he'd been at his lowest; they are all in this together?

Not exactly, but Sephiroth would have time for a handful and Sheena is one of those. Both eyebrows rise at her answer and he chances to step a little closer to her. He's much too polite to force himself into her immediate vicinity, to sit next to her, right away but he is intuitive enough not to buy the 'go-to' response.

At the time same, it's not his place to push...]

Trying to fill the gaps, you know...[Hmph.] The usual.

[He's trying to make light of it by poking a little fun at himself.]

[ If her thoughts are correct, they're more in this together than anyone knows. But she's still keeping those musings to herself, just listening to the others come up with their own ideas.

She hadn't gone back to looking at her crystal, so she doesn't miss him moving closer, and she wonders if he has something he needs to talk to her about. Like her actions a few days ago. Well, he doesn't have to say anything about that to her.

She's already said plenty to herself. And she isn't quite finished yet.

Still, she keeps silent, waiting for him to answer her question. A response that has her giving him a solemn look. ]

I hope you succeed in that, Sephiroth. I really do.

[ Didn't quite catch the humor there, obviously. ]

[All things considered Sephiroth could have a lot to explain about his own actions on that particular day as well. In hindsight, and after Biggs' letter to them all, it had been a mistake the way he'd reacted just as much as the others who had tried to defend Rialynn. All he could do, though, is to re-focus and be vigilant against such a lack of wider-perspective next time.

Not that the damage wasn't done, that yet more citizens had lost family members and friends.

He thinks it's unusual for Sheena to react with such seriousness to an obvious attempt to lighten the mood, but then, it's not as if he's the paladin of social interactions.]

And you?

[The attempt at humor is dropped, completely.]

[ Sheena didn't want to kill Rialynn; what she had been doing wasn't her fault. The ninja had actually wanted to just knock her out. That would have broken the hold just as well. At least she thought it would have.

Nowadays, she's not exactly sure what to think anymore.

Except, that's the very answer she gives him with a slight shrug of the shoulders. ]

Just thinking about things, that's all.

Thought is all well and good...

[Try as he might, there isn't any dismissing the way that the way the outside corners of almond-shaped eyes seem to harden up as Sephiroth addresses an issue that he also struggles with.]

...until it's not. Until it starts to breed a lethal kind of hesitation.

Right?

[He doesn't mean to force the conversation, yet at the same time he seems to think he might have great deal to relate to the hurdle Sheena might be trying to get over.]

[ Sheena actually winces slightly at his words, since they hit pretty close to home. Still, she manages to look up at him. ]

Acting on certain thoughts can also lead to a kind of lethal hesitation if time is wasted, too.

[ He's not really forcing anything. Sheena's just scared to say anything. ]

[It seems that his intuition might be right on the money this time. Not bad for someone who is socially inept a great deal of the time. He averts his eyes a little once he catches her wince, not wanting to seem impolite but at the same time not wanting to put too fine of a point on the fact that he'd noticed.]

Or similarly if time isn't taken in consideration beforehand...

[In other words; damned if they do, damned if they don't. A concept all too familiar to too many of the Heroes of Light.]

...question is, which is the lesser evil. To live with the regret it might carry, or regret having not taken the chance in the first place?

Edited 2016-09-08 20:00 (UTC)

[ And those are the very words she mutters. ]

Damned if you do, and damned if you don't. No matter how hard you try...

[ She gives him a solemn look. ]

Neither. Both of them are equally painful because they're tied together.

[Um-hmph. Sheena has essentially knocked it on the head there. He regains eye contact with her and nods, wanting to clearly indicate how he's much on the same wavelength.]

That's right. Frustrating as it is.

[Sephiroth tilts his head a little to the side, partly in thought, but partly in an attempt to further engage Sheena into coming out of her shell a little bit for him. Her opinions matter, at least to him.]

So it's that regret that we need to curb, or do we stop trying?

Preparations for a Fierce Battle

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject