childrenofbajablast | Test Drive Meme #1

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Test Drive Meme #1

Arrival

Broken Palace by Jonathan Eng

0:07 / 1:13

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Click here to listen.

During 2014 Jonathan Eng composed the soundtrack for interactive narrative experience The Sailor’s Dream, consisting of a mix of instrumental tracks and a seven-part musical story told in folk song-form.

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Like all who come through summoning circle, your arrival is heralded by a dream. Waking up is a dizzying, disorienting thing... and possibly made worse by the fact that you aren't alone.

Right after you appear, so does someone else. If you're lucky*, they'll simply blink into existence by your side. If you're not, there's a chance they spawned below or above you. That's one way to make a memorable first impression. Best untangle yourselves and get things figured out.

If you're extremely unlucky*, instead of another person being brought through the summoning circle, it's a monster. The creature bobs, laughs maniacally, and immediately begins to spit flames your way.

Some welcome this is. If you aren't the fighting type, hopefully someone nearby is. Eventually, one of the local Town guards will slay the monster before it - and you - cause too much trouble or fire damage.

Town Tricks

After your unexpected introduction to either your fellow offworlder or monster, you'll be given a proper one from Charlie in Town. He sends you on your way shortly after to get settled in properly and deal with then next offworlder that walks in. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a revolving door right now so he doesn't have time for a more in-depth explanation or to answer too many questions.

Nor does he remember to warn you about The Fae.

Although native to Talahee Forest, which is currently off-limits to offworlders, the surge of magic from the summoning circle has piqued their interest. While the faefolk vary wildly in appearance, the ones scouting are pixies.

These tiny tricksters may be too shy to reveal themselves outright... but that won't stop them from playing pranks on all these fun, new victims. Some examples of what can happen are:

At night

Thankfully, these Fae mean you no harm. In fact, if you react with hostility they will give you a wide berth and simply find someone more fun to play with.

Rocky Talky

One of the things that was given to you in your welcome pack from Charlie was a summoning-stone. Although it looks like, well, an ordinary stone- It's actually magic! You can look through it and see someone else's face too if you're both viewing your stones at the same time. It can also record your speech and deliver that to someone else in a snap.

One of the other features is that you can scrawl on it. It will turn your writing into legible text that you can send others to read on their stones. Of course, you need to attune yourself to your stone first. To that end, it prompts a small questionnaire:

Name:
Age:
Race:
Favorite soup? Why?:
Is soup something you eat or drink?

The last couple of questions might seem... strange but, surely, it must have a reason for asking. Once you answer the questions and unlock your device, you might pocket it and forget. Unfortunately, your scrawled answers were sent to the entire summoning-stone network throughout Town. Everyone can see what you put and they might even have some thoughts about it.

Registration Questionnaire

Notes

⁂ Hello and welcome to Children of Bahamut! If you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback feel free to comment here!

⁂ For the Arrival prompt, feel free to roll a d20 to see how lucky or unlucky you are.

⁂ The Town Tricks example list for pranks isn't exhaustive. If you have other silly prank ideas in mind, feel free to roll with that and have fun with it! The Fae certainly are.

⁂ There is a correct choice of favorite soup and the moderators will remember your choice/opinions. (We're joking. Mostly.)

⁂ Full Navigation ⁂

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Fight back. Why the hell won't this monster fight back?! This, to Cloud, feels like a cat toying with a future meal. He knows damn well what Sephiroth is capable of, down to the feeling of Masamune skewering through his chest- the scar is a constant reminder. *This* is not him. Not the man who invades his peace at every moment, who glides into his dreams and warps them into nightmares with that wicked, cruel smile.

"Don't toy with me!!! Stop holding back!"

Every single swing drains Cloud's physical energy more and more, leaving him to run solely on adrenaline and rage. He can feel his head beginning to pound and hurt and notices the corners of his vision taking on a sickly bright hue, a sure sign of another of his strange episodes coming on. Though the pull towards Sephiroth he has come to recognize is present, it is somewhat muted now, compared to the last few run-ins he had with the fallen SOLDIER. Despite these obstacles, and despite being drained of his superhuman strength, Cloud does manage to get a few more swipes in before his arms give out and his mind finally takes him to his knees.

Cloud's sides heave with desperate, exhausted breaths as he sinks to the ground, a snarl of equal parts fear and rage coming between gritted teeth. The Buster Sword clatters onto the cobbled path beside his struggling figure. So this is it. Sent to some podunk place, just to be drained of his abilities and fed right to the man who has singlehandedly destroyed everything he held dear. Will he kill him? Steal him away to use him as part of a master plan?

There was so much Cloud had left to do. People, companions he cared about, despite all efforts to claim otherwise. A Planet that needed help. So many questions unanswered. He keeps his head held up. If he is going to die, he will make sure it is not as a coward, but with defiance. That he will go down fighting to his last.

Edited 2024-09-23 19:39 (UTC)

Sephiroth...isn't sure what to do.

Prevent Cloud from killing him, certainly. He's come to that conclusion. But how to proceed other than that? He has no idea. He doesn't know what he can possibly say to Cloud. What he can do, to distinguish himself from Jenova to him. If he should even try to make the distinction to Cloud, or if it would be better for Cloud to just let him...hate Sephiroth simply, without complicating matters. Would understanding the reality of things, the nuance of it, actually do Cloud any good, or will it just hurt him further?

Sephiroth - or Jenova, using him - has taken so much from his victims. The way he understands it, the only possible recompense he can make is to do whatever he can that can make their lives marginally better, even if it can never begin to compete with how much worse he'd made them. But...it's not clear what would serve that purpose here.

He supposes, if nothing else...trying to establish he isn't a threat to Cloud here is a start. And there's no better place or moment to do that than when Cloud slumps to his knees before him, exhausted and helpless.

He takes a careful step back from him. "...I don't wish to fight you, Cloud." His voice is quiet, and completely without the undercurrent of smug mockery Cloud is no doubt accustomed to from Jenova. And, to further emphasize his point, Masamune simply...disappears from Sephiroth's hand, leaving him unarmed.

Cloud watches Sephiroth prepare to move, and braces, his vision swimming more and more, the sharp pain and ringing that follows when his memories fail to work growing in intensity. One hand grabs at his forehead, anything to make it stop.

It does not stop, of course. Flashbacks bleed into reality- the entire town around them is suddenly ablaze, then reduced to ash, then reappears as it presently is in the span of a few seconds. Sounds of Sephiroth's low voice urging him to embrace his hate, then talking about the JENOVA project, then his voice, broken and manic, speaking to JENOVA and calling it Mother. The line between reality, illusion, memory, past, present, and truth completely blur, and Cloud is set adrift and floundering.

Sephiroth is going to strike, inevitably. That's how it is going to work, right? Just like when he skewered him. Cloud prepares, uses every drop of will he has left to pull himself back to the apparent reality before him...

...And then the man steps back. He speaks in a voice that is hauntingly familiar, from a time that is near impossible for Cloud to recall fully without problems, but he recognizes it nonetheless. The voice of the Sephiroth he knew and fought alongside so many years before. Masamune is gone.

"What...What is this? A trick to lure me in? Do you think I'm an idiot? Your little toy?"

Cloud's voice is straining with pain, confusion, flat anger, but an undercurrent of something new. Uncertainty. Why would Sephiroth go with this angle, if he knows how scrambled his memories are in the first place? What the hell is the plan?

"Does it matter what I think?" Sephiroth sincerely doubts it. At least, not to Cloud.

"If you think it's a trick, then don't believe me. But while I won't permit you to kill me...I won't fight you otherwise. You can judge that with your own eyes well enough."

He pauses. What now? Does he just... "I don't have anywhere else I can seemingly go outside of this town," he says, after a moment's pause. "The same as everyone else who seems to have been drawn here. But would you like me to go...elsewhere, at least?" As in, would Cloud prefer to have him out of sight. It doesn't feel exactly right to just walk away from Cloud like this, but certainly Cloud doesn't want him around, either, so...Sephiroth's instinct is simply to ask what he wants him to do.

That Cloud himself might not have the first idea is not something he's anticipating.

"Of course it doesn't," Cloud snaps, finally managing to sit up properly. The next step is staggering to his feet. The first attempt, Cloud falls over. The second, he scrambles up gracelessly, swaying and using the Buster Sword as a support with the tip in the ground.

Indeed, he doesn't really know what to do now, or what he wants. Nor does he ever expect that kind of question from Sephiroth of all people. Perhaps the one he knew before in his past, yes, but not this one. On the one hand, as his head vaguely clears, all he can think is that yes, he wants Sephiroth gone. Away, out of sight and out of mind.

But then reasoning sets in. This is Sephiroth. Is he about to let Sephiroth wander around here unchecked?

But...He also hasn't attacked him. Caused him any mental pain or purposely provoked him. Yet. Definitely yet.

"And let you walk around here being a danger to people? You think I'm gonna let you do that? Just how far are you willing to take this whole act-nnngh." Again, that buzzing feel, a pull towards Sephiroth comes up, and his head throbs like it is being hit with a damned sledgehammer. It takes everything Cloud has in him to not collapse again.

"I doubt I'm much more dangerous than you right now. Our abilities seem to be...severely stunted, here." That, at least, Cloud shouldn't need to take Sephiroth's word for; he must be feeling it himself. "As for tricking you, or endangering other people...I don't know what purpose it would serve here."

Another pause. "But being around me seems to be triggering...something in your head. Even if you wanted to follow me around, can you afford to?" He takes another step backwards, further away from Cloud. "For your own sake...you should get some distance from me."

For his sake?

For a second, it almost sounds like Sephiroth is concerned about him. Again, it rings true towards old memories that are difficult to delve into.

"How am I supposed to know your reasons? I still don't know any of yours for what you've been doing to me already. What makes this different?"

But there goes Sephiroth, stepping away. For his sake, apparently. Cloud shakes off the haze of scrambled memories, trying just to focus on the here and now. If this isn't a dream, and this is Sephiroth, choosing not to harm him...Or is him IN a dream, which has happened plenty before, at the very least he can attempt to get a few answers. Whatever he can, to take home with him.

He hesitates. Debates, for a moment. Should he even try...? But Cloud asked, and while there's not much Sephiroth can give him, honesty is perhaps the bare minimum.

"Jenova." He says it simply. "I...or whatever's left of me...have been doing what Jenova wants, ever since that day in Nibelheim. I am...whatever part of Sephiroth that Jenova is not. I don't want the same things. I never have."

What Sephiroth tells him doesn't ring as trickery, or the words of a hungry tiger circling a meal. They sound...Startlingly genuine. Too good to be true, even.

"But I saw you. I was with you, over in Nifelheim. When you locked yourself in that basement and lost your damn mind. That was you still. Wasn't what you wanted to see your mother, or whatever it was you kept telling me? What the hell happened then? When you died?!"

Sephiroth knows no good will come from telling Cloud that it was Zack who was with him in the basement, Zack who came to find him. That Cloud was there, technically, but with very minimal contact with Sephiroth of any kind until the actual reactor, and that Sephiroth had never seen Cloud in the Nibel manor whatsoever. It will at best only confuse Cloud further, and at worst he'll just assume it's lies.

Besides, ultimately, the little details aren't important to the big picture.

"Jenova is...a virus. An intelligent hivemind of a virus. The ShinRa experiment that created me, made me as powerful as I am...I was injected with Jenova before I was even born. Much of my abilities come from it, not from any innate power or talent of my own." His gaze slides away from Cloud. "When my mind broke...the virus that had always been a dormant part of me took over. There wasn't enough left of me that was whole to oppose it. I still looked like myself, the way an ant riddled with parasites may still look like an ant...but that was where the similarities ended. And once Jenova had control...it took the vessel Hojo had created for it, and it did what a virus is meant to do. Spread itself to others...and kill anything extraneous to its natural imperatives."

He meets Cloud's gaze. "In the reactor, where 'I' spoke of seeing my mother...all I was then was a viral outpost, reuniting with the source of the virus hivemind. I, as a person...I had a human mother. But the Jenova in me...seeing the creature in the tank, to it, must indeed have been like a child finally reuniting with its mother. A scout, returning to home base."

He closes his eyes. "And you know that, in a sense, I never died. Jenova again. The part of me that was human died, but a virus like Jenova isn't so easily destroyed. It persists still, in the Lifestream, in Hojo's experiments with its cells. Wherever it can. And it will likely continue to use my form as its chosen face, until it finds another it prefers more." His eyes bore into Cloud. "Who do you think the body in that tank was, if not Jenova's host before me? Who did she used to be, thousands of years ago? How much does it matter now? All she is now, all anyone knows her as now, is Jenova. Perhaps that was her name once, and now...all her name means is the virus that destroyed her." His voice falls a bit quieter. "Such will be my fate as well."

For so many, 'Sephiroth' is synonymous with the deeds of Jenova. The distinction may matter to a few individuals, but to history...Sephiroth is the virus. The plague on humanity. The calamity from the skies. His legacy, forever.

For all that Cloud wants to just brush off every word Sephiroth says as lies, a part of him continues to grow both confused and a little curious. This is far more than he's ever heard the one in his nightmares speak to him at all, for one, and for the other...

Why come up with such a story in the first place? There is a despondency Cloud picks up with the silver-haired SOLDIER's way of explaining Jenova that rings eerily genuine. As quickly as his mind starts to slip towards offering Sephiroth an ounce of belief, it jerks back, reeling and replaying the repeated traumas the man- or if this Sephiroth is to be believed, the virus with his face- inflicted on him.

None of it makes sense. Those misgivings in his eyes and how he purses his lips might not be easy to read for most, but for a man who knows Cloud as well as Sephiroth does, perhaps he can see it.

"Why then? You're dead. How do you even exist anymore if you aren't the same guy? Plus...You feel like him. Like you."

Cloud isn't even entirely sure what he means by feel. That pull. A certain chill he gets. One he always gets, even if Sephiroth is out of sight, that tells him he is near. Magnetic in the absolute worst of ways.

"I don't know," Sephiroth answers honestly. "Much of my physical body was lost in the Lifestream, after you tossed me into the reactor. So my being whole and alive again is more than just a matter of simple resurrection...never mind having Jenova's influence muted enough that I am in control of myself once more. But how such impossibilities were achieved - I have no answers. The place I was in before this was a simulation, where in theory anything was possible, but...this world feels real. All I know is that, whether I asked for it or not, I am here."

He doesn't...really know how to address Cloud's remark about him feeling like himself, although he does feel an uncomfortable lurch in his stomach at the statement. Does Cloud mean that, even as himself, he feels identical to the vicious Jenova mockery he had become? He supposes that Cloud might well not be able to recognize - or might actively refuse to recognize - that there's any difference, that it may be anything but an objective observation, but he hates the thought of it all the same. He still struggles to accept at times that he and the monster are separate, so someone not being able to tell the difference...it damages his ability to continue to believe there is one. Maybe Cloud is more right than he is.

"Feel like...how?" he asks, a bit haltingly.

Edited 2024-09-26 13:51 (UTC)

"Simulation," Cloud echoes, confused. Like what- stuck in one of Hojo or Chadley's training sims as though in an afterlife? Ridiculous. "Now you're just saying things."

But stranger things have happened.

"When you would show up and cause problems,it felt like a magnet. A pull. Dunno. Even when you were away, it felt like I had to find you. On some physical level." Cloud shrugs, again wondering in the back of his mind just why Sephiroth reads as feeling...Sad? Worried? Whatever it is, it is far beyond the scope of anything Cloud has seen from Sephiroth since Nibelheim- through his own eyes or otherwise. "It still feels like magnets. Like there's something important. Or more mind games."

"It doesn't make much sense to me, either," Sephiroth replies, with a helpless shrug. "None of this does. But my being in a simulation prior to this surely can't be any less believable than what is clearly happening here and now? What makes sense or seems possible isn't an obstacle to things happening; that much is obvious."

When Cloud speaks about the feeling he means...Sephiroth feels a mixture of relief and dread. Relief, because what Cloud is speaking of isn't some explicit parallel between Sephiroth and Jenova; dread, because it is, of course, still Jenova. But what part of Sephiroth's life, his very existence, has the luxury of not being Jenova in some way?

"I know what you speak of," he says, carefully. "But tell me. The pull you feel now...it's much weaker than it was back in our world, isn't it?"

Cloud shrugs his shoulders. Having anything close to a civil conversation with Sephiroth is more outlandish than everything else, if he really thinks about it. Not to mention the way he's almost a sympathetic figure like this. Cloud's worldview and his very mental foundation is pieced together with shoelaces and tape at this point, and this is decidedly not helping it stay strong, even if only 2 percent of him feels it. The rest still wants to swing his sword in the name of the rage that's been boiling in him for so long.

"Yeah. Weaker. I usually could feel it over longer distances. Like I had to hunt you down. Nothing like that now."

Sephiroth nods, as if he had expected that answer - which, of course, he had. "I know what the pull you're describing is," he says, somewhat cautiously. "It isn't something I have any control over, or even want to be happening, but...I do understand what it is. However, even if I could explain it to you, you would have no reason to believe anything I said...and it would dramatically worsen your memory issues and headaches. I'm not sure what state it would leave you in. Someday, perhaps, I can explain it, but right after we've been dropped into a strange new world and you're trying to get your bearings...it would be dangerous to risk incapacitating you."

A momentary pause. "All I can say is that it's related to Jenova. If Jenova didn't exist, you wouldn't feel such a thing. And I can say that I feel it as well, to a lesser extent. The pull towards me is the strongest, but I feel the same towards you...and towards others. You may feel those pulls elsewhere as well. I am not the only source. But Jenova is weakened here. Significantly. You can feel how the pull is weakened. That may be related to why it isn't affecting me the way it did in our world...though I can only hypothesize."

He shrugs slightly. "I'm afraid any more information than that would be hazardous. But I think for your immediate concerns, that should be enough to work with. Even if I told you more, and there were no adverse effects to my doing so...having that knowledge wouldn't enable you to do much with it here."

"...Memory issues?"

Sure, some things are foggy, but Cloud never pinned them down as problems with his memory, moreso chronic headaches. (Or perhaps the denial is so strong that he's blocked out the possibility of memory problems.)

Here Sephiroth is, speaking of concerns for him based on information he withholds or gives. It rings eerily genuine to Cloud, along with his claim that much of what happened after Nibelheim was against his wishes. It isn't like the cruel, cryptic taunting he's grown used to. Even Sephiroth's eyes look less cold, less alien than he remembers, despite the catlike and not-quite-human appearance.

The thought of Sephiroth caring about him in any capacity makes Cloud recoil. It's ironic, really. Years ago it would have had him excited. After all, he was Sephiroth's biggest fan. His inspiration. Certainly these thoughts won't come back to bother him longterm.

As for Jenova, why would he have anything to do with it? At worst he was near her- or her last host, if Sephiroth is to be believed- when they had their showdown in the reactor. He's SOLDIER, not some part of that crazy experiment.

"You're not making any sense. I'm SOLDIER. Nothing more than the First Class title I earned, plain and simple. Besides, sure I'll get out of here soon enough. Or wake up."

He hopes so. There's nothing for him in this place, and so much yet left back at home.

Sephiroth shrugs slightly. "If that is the case, then you hardly need concern yourself with me or anything I say, correct? You don't have to understand or trust anything I say if you'll soon put this situation behind you."

In truth...Sephiroth is tired. Guilty and exhausted and frustrated that even his best faith efforts are being met with this stonewalling, even if he can hardly blame Cloud for his mistrust. But if it's impossible for anything of value to be accomplished here, then he'd like to be able to leave...and that means convincing Cloud to disengage. He'd like not to turn his back and have Cloud shove the Buster Sword through his spine, again.

"Know what, you're right. Do what you want."

Cloud shrugs. This is not going to go anywhere, with the way Sephiroth seems hell-bent on maintaining this narrative. It makes something in him question things in a way that he never thought possible. That, in turn, paired with headaches has Cloud tiring out, needing space, anything to disconnect and think this through.

Or avoid it, he will see.

"I get a single whiff of you back to your old nonsense, and it's on sight."

Though Cloud does not turn his back to Sephiroth (he knows better), he does disengage, shuffling backwards and to one side to make his exit. It's weird, it's wrong, yet here he is... Disengaging from his mortal foe.

It ought to be for the best. For now. Cloud just needs to find a way home. This is not helping with that. Best to move along.

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Test Drive Meme #1

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