#01A || Am I getting better? [IC: S]

[ghostofnibelheim]

[Four Seasons] Reforged

Closed Starter for the “Four Seasons” Divergent Megaverse!

Of how Project “S” (now named “Sephiroth”) and Heidegger first met.

Involved Characters: Sephiroth, 11-12yo ( @ghostofnibelheim​ ), Heidegger, 43yo ( @cwarscars​ )

References: Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-

Settings: Midgar, September εγλ 1992

                                               ‘I want to go home.’

~~

“This way, Mr. President. As I said, he’s still alive and in top form... We transferred him last week. The transport from Nibelheim seemed to have no repercussions on his health.��� Hojo had a smug grin on his face as he spoke. He was in a good mood today, even enough for his usually slouch and crooked posture to be a bit straighter, making him taller beside his most important funder. 

Not so much beside the Director of Public Security, Heidegger, who was also part of the small entourage... but that would be a feat in itself, that the man of science had no interest in challenging.

“He may look a little frail at a first glance, but do not let appearances deceive you. The data show a stable growth rate, and I’d expect he will hit puberty very soon. ... But he underwent the mako infusion procedure like it was second nature. Almost no side-effects. A light amnesia, but his procedural memory was not affected in the slightest. Now that he is stabilized and acquainted with the new environment, I had him dismissed from medical bay and transferred for the first performance test today. You will see.”

A lot was at stake here. And while the man was still disappointed by the lack of Cetra-like talents in the boy, the prospective of the so-called SOLDIER program interested him. His acquired position at the head of the Science and Research Department left vacant by Gast Faremis was on the line... and he knew he still had competition.

If he could impress the President before the mess of theories Hollander was toying with back in Mideel bore any good fruit, the seat and all the benefits that came with it would remain as his.

And what a promising specimen this one was!

Only one more turn around the corner before they would arrive to the laboratories. A place far more at-home for the man in white coat, and less so for his “guests”. Reaching for his ID Key in one pocket, Hojo nonetheless couldn’t refrain from a light sneer on his face as he flicked a side look to the military officer that waited alongside Shinra Sr for their entry to be granted.

“With the President’s approval after this, I’ll have Project S handed over to your care then... Heidegger, was it?”

[ghostofnibelheim]

In contrast to Cloud's fit of hilarity, the face of S was a pure display of innocent confusion. The boy blinked at the strange transformation, tilting his head sideways in a puppy-like manner, until his face was nearly aligned to the shoulder. Try as he might, he could not recognize this creature... and yet at the same time, something about it felt so strangely familiar.

"It is ugly, huh...?" He spoke in a quiet voice. He watched the strange thing clamber its way out, stumbling past them in a clumsy, goofy odd run until it reached the door. There, it slapped itself fully against the surface, falling back and flat on the floor like a strange misshapen sheet of paper that disappeared under the door, like a document slipped into a folder. Free at last.

S slowly stood, looking back at the younger child. His right hand reached down, offering his help, while he gave him a timid smile.

"Come with me. There's a lot I want you to see."

This large house, too big for a lone boy, would be considered maybe a small world to explore.

But for S, who had known nothing else that was outside, this small world with Cloud in it had just become the perfect place to live in.

"Oh, eeeewwww!! He's so uglyyyyyyy!" Though it should be noted that the statement - as true as it was - was not delivered in horror, rather, the young blond was all but falling about himself in a fit of laughter. Astonishing perhaps for a boy who had been fearing for his life only moments ago. His belly was actually hurting, and enough to warrant the need to hold himself around the midriff, at just how funny the silly man looked just quivering and making stupid noises under the desk.

He didn't even think to ask who it was supposed to be, assuming that S was just thinking about an ugly man. At least that was what his six-year-old mind could deduce from this little exercise.

But when it came to Cloud's turn to make the monster look like something or someone 'tricky', not only was he now drawing a complete blank, but he was still giggling rather mindlessly at the ugly man crying under the table. It took a little while longer to calm from that, even long after the poor pumpkin-shaped monster had turned back into its original form.

But suddenly he had it!

Mimicking the silver-haired boy, leaning forward with his hands on the floor, he thought long and hard about what he wanted the pumpkin to turn into, or rather didn't want it to if that made any sense at all. And the thing under that table began to morph; huge feet which stretched all the way from under the table and between the two boys, a ginormous head hunched into a square and overly thick chest, and humongous arms, with equally huge hands making its squat beneath the table almost impossible.

"AAAAH!" A high pitched squeal as the small blond would jump to his feet and point, all giggles and mischief, at the monster he'd just created.

"He's ugly toooooo!!!"

The creature in question was in fact supposed to be the milkman who'd confronted him at his front door literally that morning; the man had been terrifying then but was now reduced to this image of hilarity cowering in a dark corner of a room.

Though in reality, it didn't really look like a person at all, at least... not any normal man walking the streets of Nibelheim. It looked more like someone had attempted to draw a human, without having ever seen a human before and was given only a vague description.

But at least he was having fun.

[ghostofnibelheim]

@umbral-stigmata-unbound || Continued from here

It was a lot of words. More than S had ever received in his life. How was it then, that they seemed to say so little? There was a lot of talk about the future, but that was just how it'd always been. If he closed his eyes, he could almost pretend he was listening to that man again. The Doctor of Doctors. He knew his name, he just didn't like to say it. Or even think of it.

Sephiroth's only saving grace was that even now, S found that guy much more repulsive than he could ever be. Broken promises or not.

"... There's nothing here." He muttered in the end, squeezing his knees together and looking away. "If this is the place Mother went to, where is her house?"

[ghostofnibelheim]

Ding Dong I know you can hear me Open up the door I only want to play a little

Ding Dong You can’t keep me waiting It’s already too late For you to try and run away

I see you through the window Our eyes are locked together I can sense your horror Though I’d like to see it closer

Ding Dong Here I come to find you Hurry up and run Let’s play a little game and have fun

Ding Dong Where is it you’ve gone to? Do you think you’ve won? Our game of hide and seek has just begun

I hear your footsteps Thumping loudly through the hallways I can hear your sharp breaths You’re not very good at hiding

Just wait, you can’t hide from me (I’m coming) Just wait, you can’t hide from me (I’m coming) Just wait, you can’t hide from me (I’m coming) Just wait, you can’t hide from me

Knock Knock I am at your door now I am coming in No need for me to ask permission

Knock Knock I’m inside your room, now Where is it you’ve hid? Our game of hide and seek’s about to end

I’m coming closer Looking underneath your bed but You’re not there, I wonder Could you be inside the closet?

Ding Dong I have found you

Ding Dong You were hiding here Now you’re it

Ding Dong Finally found you, dear Now you’re it

Ding Dong Looks like I have won Now you’re it

Ding Dong Pay the consequence

[ghostofnibelheim]

umbral-stigmata-unbound​:

He stared at the book, eyes only slightly widening in surprise, before he simply raised a brow. He observed the book but was still unsure of its content. Was it…a dictionary? Or a story book? What exactly did they even attempt to teach him through books?

He hesitated a moment longer, observing the child as he was presenting the book, before finally, taking it carefully. “I can do my best, I suppose…. Some of my explanations may still confuse but…we may manage to…figure it out.” he opened the book, flipping through it for the moment, then looking back to S. “Was there anything in particular you were wanting an explanation for right now…or is this…an extended ask?” he found himself considering. Was he agreeing to let this young boy come wandering around for questions, without thinking it through?

Could he really say no, even if that was the situation?

The child remained silent after the other’s question; his eyes blinked, confused and still so cat-like slow while he elaborated the man’s words. He really did word things in a strange manner sometimes.

“Start with this one!” Taking the initiative and dismissing the matter, he brought the book back to the first pages, where a few words had their description covered in thick black lines of dried glue, unable to be read. He pointed to one of the top ones that had caught his interest.

“What is an ‘ac…cident’? Ack-cident?”

[ghostofnibelheim]

umbral-stigmata-unbound​:

“Your want means everything to me.” he answered, honesty abrasively clear in his tone. “You’ll learn to understand why, when the time is right. But you are correct. This was my idea, because I perceived it to be the best option for all you needed right now. But your choice matters as well. You have gotten out…if there is more you wish to see, perhaps you can see it….but understand S…unless you wish to claim that cage you just broke free from, you have no home. They never gave that to you. So you will have to take it.”

Silence followed, as he allowed the boy time to take in his words, try and understand their meaning, and respond as he saw fit. But he also saw no reason with overloading the boy right now. He would speak, he would explain, he would remind him of his options, and then if need be, he would leave the boy be.

He would need suitable nourishment soon, something suitable that didn’t overwhelm his body given what he was used to with his diet. That would be what Sephiroth would make priority next.

That is, if S chose to stick with him. If he chose to return to the manor, then Sephiroth would have to return him, no matter how he himself would rather not. Sephiroth knew the reasons to hate it, to imagine it in flames….but S did not have those reasons. Not yet. And it was not yet the time to lay those upon him.

He glanced towards the entrance to small building S rested in, and considered giving him space once more.

                             “You’ll learn to understand why, when the time is right.”

     “Once you get better, you will be able to go outside. Be patient, S.”

                                              “Not now.”

Not now. It was always the same excuse. How often did he have to hear this? How much more of this imprisonment did he have to endure?

                                    “You have no home.”

That couldn’t be true. He refused to believe something so unbearably painful. The mere attempt to wrap his head around this and regard it as truth made his chest feel like it could be ripped apart.

What meaning was even there to being alive, if he was bound to feel this empty sense of not belonging, of caging, wherever he’d go? Was that what Sephiroth meant? If so, maybe it’d be better to not be there at all. Not just here in this dead place, but anywhere.

And that thought was the scariest of all.

[ghostofnibelheim]

umbral-stigmata-unbound​:

He resists a sigh, but at least with this question, he doesn’t have to straight out lie. He could tell a truth, even if it was to be a layered one. Retracting his touch after realizing it had not-so-positive effect on the child and was therefore ineffective, he looked about his coffin before shaking his head. “No. Not simply because of you. He’s not fond of most people–you could say…he dislikes everyone…even me. But he has to deal with me.” he finishes explaining.

That beast was still writhing against his push, even now as they spoke, and that left a sickening dread in Vincent’s stomach, as he watched the boy. His control seemed….firm, for now, but he wasn’t sure how much longer he could endure testing it. He wasn’t even sure what would come, what damage this beast would really be able to do, if he lost control.

“No one can really know what’s in the mind of others….so…try not to worry too much, when you can’t understand people.” he advised absentmindedly, not really considering how the cryptic nature could come off confusing.

“Then I won’t. I promise.” S said, and no one would understand just how deep from the heart he spoke, even for something so small. This lesson was bound to shape him into the man he was bound to become. And while the child had little to no role models in his life, a part of him thought it wouldn’t be so bad if that man was even a little close to the who sat before him now.

“Oh!” Completely carefree of his oath now, the child whipped his head left and right, casting all other matters aside then to pick up the big old book that was among his things and presenting to the man. “I have this, too. The Doctors gave it to me so I can learn, but… some things are too strange. I want to ask you to explain it to me. Please?”

[ghostofnibelheim]

umbral-stigmata-unbound​:

He was bound to the young boy, and so even as S wandered far, there was that tether, that instinct, which would draw Sephiroth to him. But he would leave him be, to his own personal choices and attempts of comfort. He would have to learn. That was the core point of all of this anyways.

It was three hours after he’d felt S settle, that he used that connection to follow, drifting at great speed until he could sense him within one of the of the old buildings. And so he lingered outside, a few buildings away. He knew, the best option was to have S find his way, to test himself and to push and learn. If he forced him, it wouldn’t change anything.

So, when he thought he heard shifting of a young figure, he decided to wander just outside the building he was resting in.

“If you regret coming along, then perhaps you should be returned. Would you really prefer those empty halls, your restricted interactions with your few friends there?” he asked calmly. “Truly, S…consider what it is you want most for yourself, in this very moment.”

The spot on the strange bed he’d found had just begun to gain some warmth under him when that voice reached and penetrated him with the same ease and disturbance of a cold draft. Instinctively, the boy flinched, squeezing his eyes shut to let that ugly feeling pass. And as it did grow subtler, he shot a look left, right, to the wall.

The man was outside, yet somehow, his voice reached him as though he was right there with him. How was this even possible? Was he actually a ghost?

The things he said were confusing too. Why did it sound like it was all entirely up to him? Would it really be as easy as saying it, if S wished to go back? Would he just return him as he said?

Or was this a trick…? He still remembered the way the Doctor spoke. It was a bit like that… was this Sephiroth also trying to trick him?

“What does what I want matter to you?” He challenged him, staring straight into the opposed wall with a hard frown from where he laid. “This was your idea! I just wanted to get out and go home!”

[ghostofnibelheim]

umbral-stigmata-unbound​:

He barely restrained a small, amused smirk, at least briefly entertained by the young mans angry and intense attitude. It wasn’t that the situation was altogether humorous, it was simply admirable how intensely the young boy felt and how determined he seemed. Against all odds, he would stand by his feelings and thoughts right now, even if it meant leave Sephiroth and walking out into uncertainty.

Good. This would be rough for S, but necessary.

He simply crossed his arms as he watched him start to leave. “If that is what you decide, S. I suggest you be careful.” he warned. There was little life here, of course, but that did not mean there would be absolutely no dangers.

Of course, there was another bit of amusement–the poor young boy was perhaps unawares, or simply in denial of one thing. There was nowhere, now, that he could go that Sephiroth could not easily follow.

He simply stood and watched the boy, to see if he’d really go through with attempting to leave, to watching where his mind and his emotions would take him from here.

With the coat still folded over his arms, S just kept striding forward, away from the man in the dark uniform. Being careful, he said. The young boy couldn’t bother to even respond, brooding overtaking his normally polite disposition.

He had been careful all his life, as always told. Why should he even care to do that anymore? What was the worse that could happen? This had to be the most awful scenario he could possibly be in, anyway.

Still locked in a cage, just a different layout. And to boot, he had lost contact with the only one remotely close to a friend he ever had. Regret and guilt were starting to make him feel sick in the stomach.

S wasn’t sure for how long he had been wandering. Stepping alone in the barren white pathways of the city, his gaze got lost amongst the many seashell-shaped roofs that surrounded him, unable to make heads or tails out of the layout.

Even without walls, it was like this place had simply no way out.

But he had to admit, the size of this place was beyond comparison to where he used to be. Not that having more space for himself made him happy. The manor had been too much room for a lone child already. A ghost town… made him feel so much more lonely.

When his legs finally could no longer carry him, he chose the first nearby building to hunker down. The spiral-shaped interior made him feel a little dizzy, like he was inside the belly of a ship. Or that’s the mental image his mind summoned anyway; obviously he couldn’t know if that was really what being on a boat would feel like.

The furniture was humble but familiar. The boy sat down on the first bed in a row that hugged the wall, pulling up his knees to his chest, leaving the coat next to him on the old blankets that somehow were absent of dust.

This whole place was strange. It was abandoned, but so pristine in its own way. Cleaner and pure compared to the old, moldy interiors of the manor. Almost like the place had been used and taken care of the whole time. But he was too exhausted and defeated to even think over that mystery.

For now, there he sat, waiting for his energies to return, or for exhaustion to pull him back into sleep. Wanting nothing more but to be anywhere else, with anybody other than himself.

[ghostofnibelheim]

umbral-stigmata-unbound​:

He raised a brow at his rather firm, annoyed demand for him to not lie. He just barely grinned, a faint turn of the corner of his mouth. S certainly had a strength in him already, and an awareness. He eyed him a moment longer before, finally, he carefully responded.

“I won’t lie.” he assured him. “You need to hide, just for now, because you have things….feelings, and thoughts, and power in side of you that those people holding you in that mansion have been making you contain. You need solitude to let it out, to feel it, to understand it, and to begin to let it grow as it needs to. You need the solitude, to be free, and to be safe. Because as you grow, those I took you from will want you even more. They want to use you, but not for anything that helps you, or this world.”

He eyed him, letting it all sink in for a moment. “I know this won’t be comforting to you, at first. But, time will make it easier. And finding yourself, I promise, will make it worth it. What else do you want to know?” he asked him carefully.

It really was all the same. The overlapping of each word felt like corrosive acid on wounds that had just stopped bleeding a moment ago.

             “Just for now”

                                                              “because you have an illness…”                          “inside of you….”

                                                 “You need solitude”

            “to get better, to heal”

                                                              “to be safe”

                                  “time will make it easier”

                                                                    “you’ll get used to it.”

No.

No, no, no!

He was done with it all! He’d rather DIE than stand a moment longer of this treatment!

If all he had done was to take him from a cage to another, why had Sephiroth even bothered? Why tell him the truth, only to leave him to seethe in the same kind of hellfire he had just discovered to be in since he was even born?

He’d have just been happier in his ignorance, then!

But that was then, and this was now. The boy had been exposed to the truth, and by the way his eyes glowered so vibrant up at the man, it was clear to all – which was just the both of them, if what Sephiroth said was true – that he would not live like this another day.

“I want nothing with you.” He spat, cold and unrestrained, before turning by a perfect 180 degrees to start walking in the opposed direction.

[ghostofnibelheim]

umbral-stigmata-unbound​:

He watched him, noting him defying his instructions, but he had no reaction, save for the slimmest, briefest smirk before it faded back into his simple line. He looked around, before looking back to S. “An old, abandoned city. It has no true name. Nothing left to the knowledge of man of what its people called it before. But it offers solitude, and safety. Both, you will need, at this time.” he explained. He looked towards one of the smaller formations, almost like a strange hut, formed out of a tree.

There, he collected a somewhat large coat, and a blanket. He had food stowed away, as well. He’d been reaching out to this time, to that place and other locations in this time where he could reach S, for some months now. He had to prepare for all manner of scenarios, and one he had assured preparation for was the possibility of getting him back here. They would need more food, but he had gathered enough for now. There was stuff for bedding as well. Anything else would need to be collected, though, as he needed time to consider what the boy needed.

He returned to him then, kneeling, and offering him to coat, while holding the blanket which he would offer after.

“This place holds unique energy, of those that left it behind. It is…foreign, to us, yet still, we have our ways of working with it.” he told the boy, but he was very away that he very likely wouldn’t understand. He had taken on a rather huge responsibility, collecting the boy, but he was determined.

He would steak his life on this endeavor. His very existence. And he was.

S had definitely not understood all of what Sephiroth told him, much of it being vague and cryptic at best. But of what little he grasped, there was enough to cause his brows to crease into a surprised, disappointed frown.

Accepting the coat somewhat instinctively, his eyes bounced right back up to meet that pair of twin jades above him. “Solitude… and safety…? Why?”

This wasn’t what he’d expected. It sounded very much like what the Doctors had been doing all along! Had he just broken out of his cage to get into another?

“If I’m not sick, why do I need to hide still? What do you want to do with me?” His tone had gained confidence, enough to gain some bite. Smaller hands squeezed the coat between crossed arms as he all but glowered and demanded an answer. A real one.

“And don’t lie!”

[ghostofnibelheim]

umbral-stigmata-unbound​:

He hesitated to explain. It didn’t sit right to lie, no matter how easy or necessary it may be. But he certainly couldn’t tell him the truth, could he? He would fear Vincent, or he would fear those that ‘care’ for him and thought he might be right to fear both, he would have nothing if fear consumed him. So…now was not the time. So, he would just have to manage.

“Well….it’s not so much an animal, and not so much a human, either. It’s a special being…I’m still learning to understand. I didn’t find it, so much as we found each other….and found ourselves bound. You could say he hides in me, like the spiders hide in the dark.”

He considered his explanation, watching the young boys reaction, and considering his warnings as well. In their time locked away, he’d only neutralized his demons, if not unsettled them and made them restless. He couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t lose control again…like in the beginning. They were always shuffling about in their own ways, even now, some more simple, others more chaotic. But that thing….was very much aware of their going ons right now.

And then the boy asked if he could see it, and his eyes went wide.

Yes. Free. Let me out…. Let me take him… Let me reach him. Let me out! he could hear it demanding, feel him clawing, and he shut his eyes, brows furrowing with his focus to hold the beast back, to act as a sort of psychic guard against him, fighting it’s very primal urge to sink its claws and teeth….into the boy. He didn’t understand it, but he could feel it and see it clearly, that this beast saw S as a threat. What made him, had so much potential for corruption and destruction, much like the monster the cells were taken from. But Vincent would not believe it…would not allow it to be so simple. He would not fail this boy a second time.

He took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes, patiently. He reached to pat the top of his head. “Not just yet… He’s not very good…at socializing. He doesn’t like it.” he lied. “So…it’s better not to. Understand?”

The child’s air of placid curiosity shifted to attention; his head perked up when the man in the coffin closed his eyes, noticing some kind of struggle in his features. Wondering what could be wrong, he waited and stared, boring those vivid jade eyes into the man’s form.. with anticipation, even.

Whatever seemed to be affecting the brunet ceased, and S let his shoulders relax a little, relieved that nothing bad seemed to be about to happen to neither of them. His body did tense a bit again, with surprise, when the man’s hand reached towards and rested on his head. Such a heavy and foreign feeling.

His eyes blinked slowly and looked upwards with a vaguely uncomfortable – no, maybe the right word was ‘timid’ – frown in his little brows, head bobbing slightly with each shift of that hand on top, unable to resist its strength. It was big enough to swallow him whole, had it been a mouth instead.

“… Is he hiding because of me?” He asked then; while he did sound dejected, there was no real amount of upset in his tone. S spoke as though this was a common situation to him. “… Things don’t like me. Everything runs away and hides if I try to touch it. I don’t know why.”

[ghostofnibelheim]

umbral-stigmata-unbound​:

With that, Sephiroth moved in, taking the boys still firm into his arms. For a man so unused to dealing with children, his arms mostly managed to wrap and cradle around the boy properly. There was a lacking warmth, but there was a security, as he held him close to his chest and kept him there firmly and surely. He stood then, eyeing him, before he began to walk.

And he walked the way out of the mansion, out beyond it’s barriers and off into the trees and fields surrounding it, speed too fast to truly catch his escape with the boy with anything inside that manor left to observe him. Finally, in the seclusion and in the night, he looked down at the boy once more.

“Don’t be afraid….this…is nothing to fear. But you may wish to hold on to me.” he tells him, as the sound of something big shifting around his back fills the area, and then suddenly a long, black wing, majestic but lonely extends from the silverette’s back. His hold around the boy presses more firmly. “Here we go…”

With that, after allowing S the chance to follow his advice, he took to the skies, and soared off in the direction if what would be their safe haven. The blasphemy of it was not lost on him, but with memory of his remnants and their time upon the planet, it had been clear the place would not so easily damn those of his blood and genes.

He was taking the boy to the Forgotten City.

It was some time later, after flight full of chilling and loud winds, that he came to fly and circle around a half glowing city. It seemed dim yet bright all at once, glowing with it’s own light, yet it’s light might remind one of the reflection of the moon. He found a place, with an abandoned temple, surrounded by a clearing and the glowing trees and dim bushes, and landed there carefully. He waltzed his way towards the temple, settling beside it as he finally offering for S to get down.

“Take a moment to catch your bearings from the flight.” he advises, before wondering if the young boy would understand. “Just…sit, and take a breath, if you need to.”

S didn’t know what he had really expected. But maybe nothing his imagination could come up with the moment he was picked up would ever remotely be close to reality.

What he certainly hadn’t expected was for the man to simply walk out of the large house like this, as though the door was absolutely meaningless. The barrier S had always respected and stopped at even in his worst rebellious tantrums was violated with the same ease of stepping on an insect.

He didn’t even look around as he was carried away. His green eyes were too busy staring at the front side of the mansion that had been his prison for ten years. Massive, imposing and so dark. The oppressive effect it gave to look up to its victorian-like trims and dusty windows seemed to dissipate with each step moving away from it, the manor becoming smaller, fainter, and blending in the dark of night.

After that, his eyes closed, and all he perceived was cold. The initial coolness of fresh air soon became the gelid kiss of strong winds. The mansion had always felt a bit cold, but not quite like this. The open world was unkind, it seemed.

He fell asleep at some point, and by the time his eyes opened again, it was impossible for S to tell how much time had passed. He no longer had the windows of the manor and the sun outside to use as reference.

As they descended, his dark vertical slits narrowed even further, receding to the pale jade green while he slowly blinked, taking in that completely unfamiliar environment. Buildings and roads like he had never seen, shining so brightly despite no electricity powering lamps anywhere near.

The silence was eerie, almost deafening, even for him. The manor was a barren place, and yet S could hear it breathing. The creak of old floorboards, stone walls settling in to the small shifts in humidity and temperature. It had been like living in the stomach of a lazy beast.

Here however, there was nothing like that. Everything was perfectly still, and shifting his gaze hesitantly, S had the impression the place itself was holding its breath.

… A dead place, was another thought crawling up the back of his mind.

“Where are we?” He asked quietly, frowning slightly when Sephiroth addressed him. Not quite complying to his instructions just yet.

[ghostofnibelheim]

umbral-stigmata-unbound​:

His eyes widened at his careful question, but he wasn’t upset by the curiosity whatsoever. Just, surprised, before realizing, he really shouldn’t be. S was….unique, and gifted, in ways perhaps a boy shouldn’t have to be. He swallowed, gaze, lowering,  before he looked him back in the eyes.

“It doesn’t eat…. It’s a unique creature, one im…still learning to understand. But, it doesn’t eat…so don’t worry.” he told him, unsure if he should explain anymore. Could he sense the others, or simply the strongest one?

There was no point in telling the young boy the gravity of his monstrous nature. He would hold them back if he must, though most had been rather silent as of light, captured by a depressive state given their fate forced upon him.

In the dimly lit room, green eyes blinked slowly, as new information was processed by a mind so keen to quick conclusions and easy logic. By the sound of it, the ‘thing’ under the cloak was definitely a ‘thing’. Something that lived and breathed. But somehow, it didn’t need to eat? How could that be?

Clearly it didn’t need sunlight either, considering how dark this place was, not to mention the poor ventilation. So, the ‘thing’ was quite not like a plant, either.

“Where did you find it?” He asked, not really leaving room for an answer either, his soft voice getting carried away with excitement that slowly bubbled up in his chest. “I saw a cat once, but it was outside. Animals aren’t allowed in here, the Doctors said so. Although, I see spiders sometimes. But they hide quickly.”

And then, he practically blurted, one hand already reaching forward to the crimson cloth of that cape.

“Can I see it?”

[ghostofnibelheim]

"Negative." Came the much-expected response, quick as a bullet, like Sephiroth was a quiz contestant waiting to hear the one million gil question. "I have a dietician who keeps tabs on my blood tests and charts a meal regimen for me. I eat what I'm given."

As he speaks, he wastes no time either. His eyes observe like a hawk what happens around them. Already he's figured out the procedure, and so he grabs one of the steel trays from the rack at the end of the room, feeling reassured of his understanding when the other does the same.

It is then that the boy takes further initiative and moves forward, towards the counter, past the entire line of grunts that while visibly surprised and bothered seem also too bewildered to actually correct him.

Cloud was so very used to people giving him strange looks, so much so that he'd been desensitised to those very same looks being thrown his and Sephiroth's way for quite some years now. Way too long, however, did it take him to grow such a thick skin. Still, despite Cloud's outward ignorance towards a strangers glare, it would seem out of the corner of his eye that the kid wasn't too keen.

Strange really, the posters Cloud had spied dotted here and there (there were two in the mess hall alone on opposite ends of the room, they were really driving the SOLDIER campaign right now, huh?) brandishing the boy's image painted a picture of heroism if nothing else, and if Cloud's memory served him right again, several battlefront achievements had already been attributed to Sephiroth's claim to fame before the kid had even reached the tender age of thirteen.

He could be wrong of course, his expertise on the former war hero had waned over the years.

Though it was the youth's question which would derail Cloud's current train of thought, and he turned to chuckle at him before realising that he wasn't actually joking.

"Oh... you're serious..." a low mumble as he encouraged the smaller one (a size difference Cloud was having some difficulty getting over, Sephiroth had been... quite a bit bigger the last time he'd been unfortunate enough to cross paths with him) to join the queue of many infantrymen in front of them, and nearly all of them given the pair a very wide berth.

"No, no fighting today, you're on probation remember? You've... eaten in the mess before... right?" The blond imposter isn't even sure why he's asking this question... by the way Sephiroth was reacting to everything in here he already knew the answer.

[ghostofnibelheim]

umbral-stigmata-unbound​:

He nodded firmly, and did not waste time. Though he knew, despite the young boys decision and what he himself had said to lead him to that decision, he wouldn’t be prepared for anything that lay ahead. But Sephiroth would help him understand. They were in this together, now.

He knelt down then, and opened his arms to the young boy. He wouldn’t force his touch, as he recognized the ways in which force was a discomfort to him right now, but he knew the young boy would follow suit.

“I will take you somewhere no others will know to reach…a place we can roam free. A place where I can teach you. We will be alone, but we will have each other. This is my assurance to you.” he tells him calmly, as he awaits his approach, as it would be his last decision.

Listening to those words felt like being at the center of a knot. With each syllab, the grip around him grew tighter, and stronger, and even more painful. Jades shyed in direction of the sealed door one last time. So close, yet so distant and far removed from the realm of possibilities to his young mind already.

The gesture presented to him was the same as when the man in the red cloak had offered succor for the very first time; why did it feel so vastly different?

His eyes returned on Sephiroth, studying him with suspicion still lingering. But the fear of what he may be or what he may do to him had dissipated. Whatever fate awaited him from here on, the boy thought he could at last decide for himself.. whatever that may entail.

Slowly, he moved a couple steps closer, offering himself for grab to the man. But not quite reaching out himself. Just quietly waiting for the unpredictable to happen. For this small world he had known to shatter and crumble around him.