melodiesoflife | Taking responsibility [Semi-Open]

Entry tags:

Taking responsibility [Semi-Open]

Characters: Vincent, Sephiroth, others [Mostly Open; Refer to the top-level Prompts]
Where: Hospital, Aquares Ixen
When: 9th-14th September
Summary: Some aftermath of the fallout from Sephiroth grieving over Terra being in Crystal Stasis. Vincent helped disable Seph, and is now keeping an eye on him. Some people might want to have words with him about how he did so. In between guarding a Weapon for a few shifts...
Warning: Language maybe? Potential angst?

Sept 11th-13th at various times.
Vincent is one of those who is guarding the Ultima WEAPON'S wreckage. These are the only times he won't be found at the Hospital, keeping a guard over Sephiroth. If you want to interact with him, see here.

Sept. 9th-12th

Vincent will stay out of the way of the healers, but otherwise stay in the hospital and keep an eye on Sephiroth as he sleeps off both the post-Job exhaustion and the sleep status. Making sure the silver-haired SOLDIER is healing well, and not being bothered unduly. Occasionally Vincent will head to the Crystal Stasis wing, visiting those among his friends who are there. Ophelia can also be found bringing him a bag with a change of clothes, and a book or two.

He's unlikely to talk in the same room Sephiroth is resting in, but feel free to come check on the SOLDIER, or yell at Vincent, or check on Vincent.

Sept 13th--Closed to Sephiroth
Vincent has spent the past few days keeping watch over and not quite playing guard for Sephiroth, mostly so that when the other does wake--he can apologize. Also to keep others from overwhelming the silver-haired soldier right away. Sadly, Vincent understands heartbreak; he also knows Seph well enough to have some idea of how, hopefully, to help the other start healing.

September 13th, OPEN

Since part of Vincent's assumed role has been gatekeeper for a very private and recovering SOLDIER, he'll be keeping an eye out to ensure the other doesn't get tired, when others DO come to visit him. This is the prompt to use for visiting Sephiroth--and if you want to do so privately, Vincent can wait outside the door.

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"Yeah, it's frustrating," Rialynn agreed, staring down at her coffee cup. "It's hard to record history when there's still so much we don't know. I'm not sure how much help I'll be playing Hero anyway...I'm a bard. I write songs. I didn't even have any special powers until I finally relented and asked Cid to put some jobs on my crystal." Because she couldn't just sit around and do nothing but write down people's stories. She could do that while defending her friends too.

His last statement pulled her attention back up to him, and there was a flicker of worry in her thin brows. "What? Why, what was the other option?" Rialynn had never dealt with computers before, and didn't recognize the coded language they utilized, so this was all news to her.

"One of the lines of code indicated transport to a location based upon whether the Ultima Weapon was on, or off. If it was on--the Edge of Madness, if it was off--Order's Sanctuary." Vincent intoned, informing her more than anything else. "One had to poke through the program to find the lines of coding, but it was found in Palitutu's secret lab."

Much the same, given the unease.

[She makes a quick glance toward where the guards were stationed, then moved to follow the other two if need be.]

I heard of the incident. Security's been ever tighter since, considering another patient above.

[To her credit, she kept her voice down and non accusatory. If anything, there was a bit of empathy behind her tone.]

[Ophelia blinked, and moved to Vincent's shoulder. What had Ellana heard?]

Understandable, considering the Heroes precarious standing these days, even in Aquares Ixen.

[A dart of his own eyes down and towards her. Silently asking what she had heard.]

"I'm reminded of something I read once ago, or perhaps hit was told to me. Either way, I've come to believe it true."

Maybe Sephiroth did feel he was vulnerable, but that was the other reason Vincent was here. To play guard against more than just curious onlookers. To be companion, whether wanted or not--he was needed.

"There is always some madness in love, but there is always some reason in madness." Letting that sink in, be thought over, before he continued. "Certainly there is reason you felt for Terra so strongly, or you wouldn't grieve now. Grief is its own madness too."

A hint of sad laughter. "I know that madness--love and grief both."

Sephiroth forced himself to blink a few times, still carefully keeping his eyes averted from meeting with Vincent's; no small task on it's own given the proximity the other man had put himself in.

Like some bona fide spear of truth, that first line spoken lanced sharply through walls that really hadn't yet had a chance to re-find their foundation just yet and Sephiroth hissed in a breath. Grimaced and turned his head away in an attempt to forestall the quivering it brought to his jaw, anything to delay the sinking pit of a feeling that a moment later would threaten to rise up and still bring tears even though he was already sore of them. He couldn't cry in this company; whatever was left of his pride wasn't sure it could take it.

He wanted Vincent to just...stop. To stop talking to him in this way, that aged voice of experience behind it, adding a sense of self-naivety and depreciation to the jumble of a negative mess Sephiroth had already taken to thinking himself in terms of. It was made worse by the fact that he used to know himself so well, forever wore his confidence where others could see it and now...

Well, they all needed a real hero. Not one that had been built up on the equivalent of smoke and mirrors.

Once more an attempt to swallow all of that back and Sephiroth leaned his body more onto his good side and managed to get himself -with a different hiss of a noise, that time- into a seated position. Slowly blowing out that breath as his damaged shoulder argued loudly at the change. The pain was almost welcome, something familiar and practiced in how to deal with, unlike those things which Vincent spoke of.

"-she doesn't deserve this."

Vincent didn't seem to mind that Sephiroth wasn't watching him--was only reluctantly participating in this conversation. Sephiroth also knew it was not likely at all that Vincent missed the other's reluctance, the non-verbal cues he was giving off to be left alone. Which meant it was a conscious decision to remain and not respect that desire, on Vincent's part.

"No. She didn't." He finally answered after a pause. "No one deserves to go into that state, or to be here in the first place. We're all cleaning up messes left long ago by those who had no thought or care to just what they did. They made a problem, and felt themselves so capable of solving it, that when it spiralled out of control they were blindsided."

Letting that sink in for a moment, as his voice had been a slightly louder volume than he normally used. Emphatic and firm. When he spoke again, his normal tones and volume had returned. "None of us 'deserve' to be here, and yet here we are. So, who can blame any of us for finding connections where we can with those whom we find comfort with?"

Another pause, and then decisive. "You won't be allowed to run from this, Sephiroth. You've closed yourself off, kept others at a distance, and avoided dealing with things for too long already." Perhaps there was also a hint of challenge in his tone.

It was a similar set of thoughts that Sephiroth had tackled with time and time before, that Vincent voiced now. Yet, as he himself hadn't had any of the answers, nor any understanding of how to go about obtaining said answers Sephiroth had ended up applying himself in a direction. One that, at the time, he reasoned was the best place for him - in the defense of the Aqures region from the Heran threat. A threat that had now been replaced with a much larger scale problem with regards to security and the protection of migrants into untainted land which they were running out of.

Still, he could immerse himself into that just as much as he had previously so outwardly it seemed he still had exactly the same conviction. Sephiroth's firmly set jaw twitched a little in response to Vincent's first question, as if he might retort with something but his minder gave him no chance to form the words before running immediately at him with the more direct statement. Then he did make eye contact, anger quickly drying out the sorrow that had been there and -perhaps as expected- going immediately on the defensive in reaction to that tiny hint of a challenge presented.

"That's rich coming from you." Sephiroth's sharp tones were also louder, but not as loud as they could have been had he not been asleep for the best part of three days. But it also betrayed the real fact that he knew Vincent too had been guilty of all of those things and yet more, it was personal when it came to the circumstances that he already knew...of exactly what events had brought him into existence at all.

Ales shrugged and looked away. "We all get into scrapes eventually. You're right, it'll heal." It didn't matter if Sephiroth earned those injuries through battle or through a dumb accident; both were common and the latter was best not discussed with mere acquaintances.

The presence of another calmly looking at the display seemed to help, as Ales' eye grew less downcast and more neutral. It wasn't the same enthusiasm he held when he first arrived on Crystallis, but the apathy had been normal since January. This was his new measure of mental health.

"How soon do you think you'll be back in action?" He asked without looking up.

Rialynn's mouth pursed into a small 'o' of understanding...shortly before the full realization of his words set in. "So because we defeated the weapon, we went to the place where we wouldn't get mauled by those weird purple zombie things?" She held her coffee cup with both hands, looking more than a little nervous. "Then...in that vision, where we opened a portal to the rift, we must have gone to the wrong place!"

She didn't know much about computers...or anything at all, honestly...but if she thought of it as a story with two diverging paths, it made it a little easier for her to understand.

"Um...aren't they working on a project at the lab that'll open that rift? Maybe they should...I don't know...smash it together with Palitutu's code...thing?"

"You're helping keep watch. It's very important, kupo." And not hard work. Some of her stakeouts here at the hospital have ended with her being woken up by a janitor nudging her with his broom. She'd have to keep from dozing off in her hiding spots if she wanted to be a good Assassin.

"We're doing okay, kupo. Mary is a little upset about everything. Palitutu. The Calamity..." She got all shifty eyed for a moment, not wanting to mention Downopolis out loud, "Other things, kupo. She's trying to find new leads to follow."

Given how harsh Mary had been with Sephiroth at the time of the outburst, she wasn't sure if Vincent would allow her to see him, or if Sephiroth would want to see her at all. She frowned at Vincent's admonishment but it wasn't like she wasn't expecting it either.

"Aye. I'm afraid I made some assumptions about the man, but afterwards I'd come to suspect something like that. I don't know his experience, or yours. I just pegged him as the distant and stoic sort." She sighed and shook her head, "But I've known military men. And I thought I knew him better than I did, clearly."

Keeping watch was exactly what Vincent was doing, in his own way. Ophelia just wasn't sure how much would be public knowledge, and she valued the trust placed in her by Vincent. And by Sephiroth--she liked the other hero and wished she'd been able to help more before now.

"A lot of it is hard to deal with kupo, so I don't blame her." Ophelia replied, before Vincent made a small noise in his throat. Thoughtful, before addressing Bonnie. "If I can aid her, I am willing. Even if right now I prefer to keep my eyes and ears here in Aquares Ixen."

"I won't claim to have known him well--he is the distant and stoic sort." Says the kettle about the pot, considering Vincent's own demeanor and nature. Lowering his voice though, a dart of his eyes around--unobtrusive--and a nod, beckoning Mary slightly closer. "I hadn't known how bad it was though, and his secrets are not mine to share. But Sephiroth has known nothing BUT the military lifestyle. Back home on Gaia, or here on Crystallis." A pause, crimson eyes seeking hers to be certain she was following him.

Vincent watched Rialynn and her imagination go wild. A hint of amusement in his expression, as she speculated before he shook his head. "We don't know for certain what the Edge of Madness is, other than a location. It would seem there are multiple places within the rift."

A shrug, before he continued. "I was not party to the vision, although I have had parts of it described to me." In the vision, Vincent had been one of those to die, after the rift opened. Seeing Sephiroth go down had triggered Chaos's release, and he'd done his best to hold the line against the manikins--and perished doing so. "If you're concerned though, I would ask the scientists. Jade and Dr. Crescent were both present when we investigated Palitutu's lab. Are they also working on the rift project?"

So curiously formal there, using Lucrecia's title. Then again, saying her first name often revealed too much of how Vincent felt--in his own opinion. Much as he had been in another life; when discussing her professionally she was Dr. Crescent, not Lucrecia.

"It does not make it any less true." Vincent responded, tone firm as he was aware of his own guilt and sins--where they mirrored Sephiroth's own and were similar. "If you want to compare notes, I'll be more than happy to--but I doubt it will help." Surprisingly, he did not seem to be angry with the other.

If anything, Vincent was keeping a very tight rein on any hints of temper. Not that he didn't expect Sephiroth to attempt lashing out while in pain. It was a common and human reaction.

"Is this to be the catalyst, in this time and place, to deciding you will burn your bridges?" A deliberate question--alluding to, but not directly mentioning what had happened on Gaia. But asking Sephiroth his decision--giving him the choice to follow that path, or not. No judgement yet, either, in Vincent's tone. Only curiosity.

Whichever it was that Sephiroth ended up putting this particular incident away in his mind would shape a lot of how he'd go forward from it. But indeed, Ales didn't need to know; much as most didn't need to know the particulars of what had happened. Especially as it were new ground for him as well now, and didn't know where to go from here.

There was something, perhaps in the way that Ales had presented his query, that quickly reached in and pulled at Sephiroth's attention.

"It's difficult to say, given the potency of healing seems to have been dulled for us-" Even the medical staff at the hospital didn't know what the actual effects of the regeneration of his custom job would be. Add various potions, add an occasional Cure spell.

"-why do you ask?"

The ease with which Vincent essentially smashed down Sephiroth's attempt at a scathing comeback only turned up the heat under his own anger more. Eagerly it flickered, barely contained beneath skin and behind eyes that still came up flaring in response. Anger...a much easier emotion for him to channel, something that could be burst out and then it wouldn't be inside him anymore. Unlike the unbearable bitter sadness that had festered since they'd come back from within the Rift. Something that he already knew well enough, and knew that he would become closer to naturally...if so-called 'destiny' was any indication.

He sat up straighter, felt a strong desire to stubbornly fling himself from the opposite side of the bed and stride from the room, yet keenly aware of how physical limitations made that scenario pretty limited in it's execution. He didn't need to sit there and take such a suggestion from Vincent, of all people...how could he ever understand...

"Burn my bridges?" He emphasized that middle word fiercely, as if to somehow get Vincent to think about those for a moment. To Sephiroth, although there were others around him that seemed always to be on hand to look out for him, there had been only one bridge, passed all of those defenses he put up, that he'd allowed to be built. If anything had burned it, it had been Crystallis itself by taking her from him...but not so far off the end of that feeling of hatred towards this Planet which was starting to grow, was the vague awareness that it was an inevitability.

It's an oddly familiar hatred, after all.

"-I don't know what you expect me to say to that."

A day after the incident, Jade returned to the hospital. Sometimes he wished he didn't care so much about what happened to Sephiroth. It would certainly make things simpler if he could just say none of this was his business. And yet he kept coming back.

People really were prone to acting based on foolish sentimentality. Apparently Jade was no different.

He wasn't surprised to find Vincent already present in Sephiroth's room. The SOLDIER himself seemed to be asleep, so Jade hung back by the doorway and inclined his head to wordlessly suggest they could talk outside.

A small grunt, signifying that it wasn't a burning question on Ales's mind. Sephiroth would heal eventually. It wasn't as if his injuries were life-threatening, so there was no need for Ales to waste his sympathy.

"Only to stay realistic about my goals. I was planning to round up a group to work on something, but who and when depends on how everyone's doing."

He hoped Sephiroth would join. Sephiroth was trustworthy. The only reason Ales would not delay his trip to Downopolis was if he would be in recovery for months.

Vincent had been setting down a book, overnight bag tucked under a nearby chair as Ophelia'd brought it. Not hard to spot Jade; a glance backwards to check on the sleeping Soldier, before moving out to the hall with the other.

"I knew Terra being in stasis would be bad, but I didn't realize he'd slipped this far already." Voice low, confidential--they had talked before. Jade had started to get the picture of how Vincent was involved, but perhaps not all of the details.

"Hm." Realistic about his goals. Although Sephiroth had still been going through all of this without much in terms of goals for himself, he understood well the need to be realistic. The circumstances continued to darken with every day, and he'd abstained from really applying himself towards an outcome, for far too long due to the hesitance such a cautious approach brought with it.

With a brief side glance to Vincent, Sephiroth stepped a little closer to Ales. He didn't know much about Ales' goals either, only that their interests had crossed multiple times on previous occasions.

"That very much depends on the details." Not a no. If anything, a invitation for Ales to come and find him or get in touch later, so that they might discuss it further. In front of so many prying eyes might not be the best environment.

Edited 2016-10-08 13:26 (UTC)

Mary nodded quietly as she listened. There was little more to say about the matter. Even with Sephiroth's worldmates she expected there hadn't been much he spoke to with them regarding Terra. If anything he probably kept them further at a distance if the whole experience was this new to him. That he was the sort to hide any perceived weakness or uncertainty was one of the things she had been able to glean from him.

"I've met career men in my time, but he clearly puts them all to shame. At least he hasn't worked himself to the point of giving his own life. There's hope yet for him to find himself." But it would be easier with Terra here. Her crystalization may have set him back, if anything. It all depended on what he decided to do with this incident: take the time to learn from it or push it down even further.

"May I speak to him?"

"Mmmm, just keep your ears open, kupo. I hate to say it but with the Night of Thirteen Moogles coming there's probably something that's bound to happen. But probably nothing to do with Palitutu, kupo." The little moogle felt bad that one of her favorite holidays had been ruined twice so far for their Heroic companions. If it happened again there might never be a chance to show them just how fun the holiday could be.

She looked up at Vincent and squirmed in frustration as she fluttered in front of him, "Ooooh~ It makes me so mad that people keep taking advantage of you all, kupo! The Night of Thirteen Moogles is supposed to be all about candy and costumes and fun, kupo!"

Anger was alright, allowed--it was a natural part of grief. Not that Vincent was certain yet whether the anger was in response to him, or for Terra. He suspected the former however, given Sephiroth's reaction to the words.

"I don't expect you to say anything, but I hope that you'll listen." Vincent replied evenly, keeping his own temper under control. "You're not stupid." Both of his parents were blind, and touched to obsession, but neither of them had been stupid. "I say 'burn your bridges' because there are ties and bonds you possess beyond Terra alone. Whether you want them or not, they exist and did you give them any thought when you gave rein to your tantrum?"

Sephiroth's military career, Sephiroth's reputation among the Heroes and citizens of Aquares Ixen... Even those who considered Sephiroth his 'friend' even if he never acknowledged that word or state, (like Jade and Sheena).

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Page 2 of 5

Taking responsibility [Semi-Open]

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Re: September 12th

Re: September 12th

Not my quote--yay Nietzsche

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September 13th [Ales & Vincent]

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Re: Sept 9-12

Re: Sept 13

Re: Sept 9-12

Re: Sept 13

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September 13th [Ales & Vincent]

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September 10th

September 13th [Ales & Vincent]

Re: September 10th

September 13th [Ales & Vincent]

Re: Sept 13

Re: Sept 9-12

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