[8]

[dammit_yuri]

Who: Flynn Scifo, anyone else.
What: Most things seem normal, but Flynn seeks out Lust because he feels like he has to apologize to her.
When: 09 03 2016
Where: Crystallis
Warnings: None so far.


[Flynn felt like a total ass for leaving things like they did when he had last encountered Lust. It wasn't her fault she couldn't understand his feelings. It was unrealistic of him to expect her to change and then have her think that he thought any less of her. So he goes out trying to find her.]

Comments

[gorgeous_sin]

Lust's head lowered slightly, regarding Flynn with a greater scrutiny as she frowned. He was making some good points, and that meant she was paying closer attention to him now. "...Perhaps." Even she herself was viewing Flynn in black and white categories, as well as herself. It didn't seem possible that she could change if she didn't have a soul. How could such a thing happen?

And if it was happening, what did that mean for her? For her relentless pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone?

Her head jerked to the side where she directed her harsh stare at the computer monitors and the lines of scrolling data. Strange as it seemed, all of her research and studies hadn't yielded nearly as many interesting points as just speaking with the likes of Flynn, Lydia, and Mikleo.

Why?

"If I am changing, then I'm concerned about what's causing that change," she said, her expression darkening. "I have a mortal body, but not a mortal soul. If any changes are being made, they aren't voluntary."

[dammit_yuri]

"To be alive is to keep on changing." Flynn commented, almost absentmindedly. "Perhaps you are more human than you give yourself credit for. You may not be the same type of human as the woman you were based on, but I would be hard-pressed to find a valid person who would take issue with that. You keep on treating yourself like a machine, but you act nothing like one, in my opinion."

He had spoken out of turn. But it was about time they had this conversation. "You could spend all your time researching and never find what you're looking for, because there has never been anybody quite like you."

[gorgeous_sin]

"A machine? Hm~ Not quite." She closed her eyes with a half-smile, her head tipping forward to send a loose ebony curl spilling over her shoulder. She pushed herself away from the console and turned to face Flynn, arms lightly crossed. "A machine, at least, has all of its parts. There is a part of me that's missing, and has been missing since the day of my creation."

Her arms drifted to her sides as she approached with slow, small steps, gesturing elegantly as she spoke. "It's like waking up without an arm, or a leg. A part of you that should be there, but it isn't. And you can't help but try to do things as you always have...taking a step with a foot that isn't there...reaching for a pen to realize you can grasp nothing with your mutilated stump. You try. And you falter. Every instinct tells you that it should be there, but the fact remains that a part of you is missing. You're incomplete."

She was standing directly in front of him now, gazing up into his blue eyes from beneath her fringe of thick, dark lashes. "I am Lust...I am desire...the intense longing that can never truly be sated." She laid a hand upon Flynn's chest, on the spot where she could feel the subdued thumping of his heart. "It is all I know. It is all that I am. I can only ever behave selfishly, to serve my needs. And what I need is to feel whole again. I don't know if you can understand that."

There was a touch of...sadness?...in the faint incline of her brows as she smiled. Then she turned away with a casual sigh. "In that sense I believe I know the Calamity's craving...despite the inevitable fate of self-destruction...better than anyone. Until I find the Philosopher's Stone and fill this mortal shell with a true soul, I can never truly be satisfied."

[dammit_yuri]

"Maybe I can't ever hope to understand that," Flynn almost whispered. His eyes flew to the floor, then shot back to Lust. "It still sounds to me that you're so busy focusing on what you're missing, that you don't see what you already have. And maybe no matter how much we discuss it, I won't ever fully understand you, much like I don't think you'll ever fully understand me. But the more we focus on the things we don't understand, it's more than likely that we're missing the things right in front of us." He then nodded, as if reaffirming his own decision. "I can't promise I'll find it, but I will look for the Philosopher's Stone for you."

[gorgeous_sin]

She almost demanded to know what it was he thought she had. Since being pulled into this world, she'd been made mortal, and given all the problems that came with it: hunger, sickness, weakness. She could be killed in this world.

On the other hand, Lust was actually alive. She'd died at the hands of Wrath in her world, and according to her file, no one had mourned or missed her. She'd died alone, wondering what would happen to her now if she didn't have a soul to traverse the plane of the afterlife.

Now here she was, standing in a room with a man who went through great efforts to make her the most pitiful cake the world had ever seen. And he did care what happened to her. So did Mikleo. Why? Because it was simply their nature, just as it was her nature to pursue self-satisfaction. If she had the stone, could she truly change her nature, and become the woman she was?

Even stranger, why was her selfish and jaded self good enough for him?

Lust put her fingertips to her forehead, closing her eyes for a moment. It wasn't confusing enough to trigger another mental breakdown and physical collapse, but it did make her head hurt. She felt as if the answer were just there, only a breath away from the reach of her fingertips, but frustratingly beyond her grasp.

"...Thank you. I intend to continue my search," she informed him. Because it was the only thing she could still pursue. Everything else was simply too abstract. Lust turned away, walking slowly back to the computer. "I've learned that the crystal belonging to the White Mage Hero of Light, sealed in the Temple of Heroes, may hold the same properties as a Philosopher's Stone. We may begin there."

[dammit_yuri]

"right," Flynn nodded.

Then he left.

(Eat the damn cake, woman.)