Event || Esdham Under Fire

[melodiesmods]

Characters: Anyone.
Where: Republic of Esdham
When: From the 15th to the 18th of January
Summary: Event log for the Esdham Under Fire event. Feel free to start your thread and put in the header where your character is, when and what they are doing. refer to the OOC Post for details and plotting.
Warning: Battles, possible death and war horror.

Aqures Ixen
The Army Attacked
Transport from Aqures Ixen
The Coliseum on Fire
Rescuing the Civilians
Protecting the Airport and Mognet Office
The Bevelle
Attack on the Presidential Palace (Boss Battle)
Misc.

Comments

[neverfirstclass]

As they ran in, Cloud threw down the bar as Sephiroth closed the door, locking out the enemies for the time being. It would buy them some time for sure. Cloud flipped up the visor of his own helmet, taking a moment to adjust to the general gloom of the hall they had entered into. It looked like they were in one of the side lobbies of the arena. The sounds they were hearing were coming from the direction of the main entrance.

Cloud paced a bit and then collapsed heavily on a bench, his breaths long and heavy. He felt fine physically, but he also felt exhausted. Like his mind was being pulled in every direction and almost burned from the labor of being constantly alert.

He let Sephiroth go on about his own distraction for a few moments, not wanting to bother the man. Eventually though he couldn't help but speak. "Sephiroth....Sir....what was it like the first time you killed someone?"

[shinrasfinest]

Eyes that shone some in the gloom flicked over towards Cloud when he heavily sat down on the bench nearby but didn't linger on the boy for long before returning to reaching underneath a particularly buckled plate on his opposite arm, searching for the release in order to discard it. Sephiroth knew, from the aching that already was settling in a lot of his major muscle groups, that if he did the same it'd take at least double the effort to get back on his feet again. He didn't want to think too much on how many hours he'd been going without much of a rest.

It was that self-same constant state of alert that was more than half of the reason he were still pressing on with the fighting. Although it had been a while since the War at Wutai had officially ended for him, slipping back into that particular 'zone' was akin to donning a well-worn second skin for Sephiroth.

He paused, finally pulling the dented plate free and letting it fall to the floor, as Cloud broke the silence between them. Sephiroth kept most of the resulting frown to himself, mostly turned away for a few seconds before turning to face him again. One might as well ask him what it was like to swim for the first time, or ride a bike. It wasn't a detail that Sephiroth ever put any weight into. Still, he had a good guess why it had come up now; how many times had he seen otherwise promising candidates for SOLDIER balk when it came to ending a life? Cloud couldn't afford to balk now.

"What was it like?" He repeated, trying to use the words as a guide for how he might attempt to answer Cloud. Truth be told, given the intense battle they were caught in the middle of, the last thing Sephiroth needed now was to be distracted by sentiment or philosophy. There could be a thousand long answers to that query- but the silver general of SOLDIER settled on only a short one.

"It was me, or them."

[neverfirstclass]

On edge as he was, Cloud's eyes snapped to the metal plate as it landed. The clattering alone was nearly enough to make him jerk from where he was seated. As his heartbeat returned to normal he pushed himself back to his feet and paced around some to work off the energy. He really hoped this would all be over soon. This wasn't how he was expecting this engagement to go at all.

They were legendary heroes right? Weren't heroes supposed to be able to come in and change the tide of battle? And here they were fighting for their lives against a superior force.

"Well...yeah I guess...But I mean how did you feel about it?" Cloud couldn't help but push. The sight and sound of that man dying in front of him was still repeating in his eyes and ears.

[shinrasfinest]

Sephiroth followed Cloud's pacing with only his eyes and by slightly turning his head when he passed out of sight. It reminded him of Zack, and how the puppy would always resort to squats as a way of disposing of unspent energy. When Angeal had mentioned the habit, Sephiroth had wondered if it might be a side effect of the mako infusion - but here was Cloud exhibiting the same symptoms without a drop of the Planet's lifeblood infused. It had to be something else, then.

"I felt-" Cloud didn't ask for much, for sure, though Sephiroth was having difficulty pinning down an answer. Truthfully he hadn't felt much of anything, or at least as far as he remembered. Only monsters didn't feel though, so while Sephiroth must have felt something, he'd worked so far past it that it didn't matter anymore.

"-it's important not to think so much." Was the only advise he could bring himself to give, it wasn't a comfortable subject and Sephiroth quickly found another scratched plate of armor to occupy himself with.

[neverfirstclass]

It was a much simpler form of restlessness than Mako energy, and one that Zack certainly shared as well. It was the curse of being a country boy from a quiet backwater. It was that restlessness of wanting to do anything to avoid dying in the same one chocobo town that you grew up in. Well Nibelheim had a truck, but that's beside the point.

The energy would find its way out one way or another, and the biggest fear was not life or death but the failure to make a difference. To matter. Being a hero in this land helped with that, but having just been face with the sheer Reality of a man dying in front of him those thoughts couldn't help but creep in.

He stopped his pacing as Sephiroth 'scolded' him. He was right, there would be time to worry about this later at least. For now he needed to live. "R-right..." He checked his gear and gave Sephiroth a nod, "Whenever you're ready, Sir."