melodiesoflife | On That Day, Five Years Ago - Black Water

On the bright side, Cloud hadn't thrown up when the ship went down. Of all the things that went wrong that day, at least the fortitude of his stomach remained intact.

He'd braced himself for impact and after that it was fuzzy. Dream and memory intermingled. When he and the other Heroes blacked out and later he wouldn't be able to recall which parts actually happened and which were just projected assumption. He even thought he saw Zack running around on the deck trying to help, as absurd as that mental image of a chocobo trying to help keep an airship in flight was.

The next thing he was aware of was the feeling of thick water lapping against the side of his head. That and a sense of cloying scruffiness around his face. Grunting, he pushed himself up to sitting, half in and half out of some water. The dry ground wasn't very much so, more mud. Looking around blearily he could make out shapes moving in the fog around him. Things slipped into focus bit by bit from there. This was a swamp of some sort, or a marsh, whatever. Same difference.

Next he noticed three bodies laying near him; Reno, Johnny and another he knew was a fellow Hero but didn't really know by name. Dylan or something? His mind more latched onto the fact that the way they were laying was that it was almost like Johnny and Reno were reaching for each other.

The last thing to shuffle into focus were the shapes moving in the distance. They were a bit far off, too far, hopefully, to see or smell or hear them...but there were Malboros sloshing through the marshwater and mud in every direction.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"The job. I've got two too many hooves to be a real one, I think." And sure enough, if Cloud ever looked down, he'd notice that Dylas' pants do not end in a pair of shoes. The vampire job keeps him from click-clacking as he walks, but the swamp does that, too. And right now, he can feel how wet and gross the swamp is, but after you walk everywhere barefoot for a while? You kind of get used to it.

"Huh. I didn't think you'd be so quick to say that. I'm not up to anything, but...I figured you came over here because you didn't think I was trustworthy. Reno's the only one here I've ever really spoken to."

Cloud gave a little shrug as he glanced at the hooves. He'd seen a lot at this point and it didn't really surprise him. He considered the pony among the Heroes as a friend after all. "I dunno. You could still be one. I don't see what having hooves would do to stop that." But it really didn't matter. He was just rolling with it.

But then he shot a toothy grin back at Dylas for his self deprecation. "We've all had our lives to manage. It was easy when we first arrived in Crystallis, but over time we got caught up in more and more things and more and more Heroes arrived. I couldn't be there to greet everyone like I used to. Frankly it's been a bit exhausting, and loud too. We were flailing around with our ideals but no real direction."

He looked around at their small group and then gestured at the barely visible path ahead. "This all isn't ideal, but it's simple. We don't know where we are, so we go forward. We're going forward because we don't want to stand still. And we trust each other because we're all in this together."

Dylas is a little lost for words at the first response, but he remembers that not everyone knows what a proper vampire looks like. His ears flick before he answers, and he forces a sigh out. "The transformation into a vampire is different. They...don't have fur or anything like that. I used to look like you before I started having to worry about fleas." He doesn't have to worry about fleas, they don't really enjoy dead skin and coagulated blood.

"You and I see the world in different ways." But despite his low voice and general lack of emotion, it doesn't sound like he's chastising Cloud for his words, either. "I used to know someone who thought like you. I haven't seen them for a long time, though. You should...work on keeping yourself that way. It's a better way to think then what runs through my head."

Proper vampire. Wouldn't that be relative to that world though? But Cloud nodded as he listened, opting not to raise that point. He had no reason to doubt or denounce Dylas' understanding of things. Cloud just knew by this point, by interacting with the other Heroes, that there were many ways things could exist. Ponies, for example.

"Maybe. My best friend back home was like that too. He encouraged me to do better even when I doubted myself. If not for him, I don't know what I'd be like." That's a lie. He knew what happened to his future self back on Gaia and how he dealt with his scrambled memories. Sort of. "He's in Crystal Stasis at Aqures Ixen, or he was before all this happened. I hope he's okay. But you don't need to tell me to try to hold on to who I am. That's been on my mind for a while now."

His smile vanished, taking on a more purposeful glare into the murky distance, "I refuse to be a puppet, even to my own destiny or to the future."

On That Day, Five Years Ago - Black Water - Misery Marsh near Esdham

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject