[MINGLE] One-Man Show

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: Inari Shrine and elsewhere
WHEN: 25 January 2019 through ?
OPEN TO: All opted in characters
WARNINGS: Please warn in the subject line of your comment as needed, and remember to move anything turning adult to a new post.
IMPORTANT NOTES: Final reminders and informational links are here. Please label all top-levels clearly so that there is no confusion who they are open to and what they are for, and DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR TAG!
Have fun and ask questions here!

Comments

[firacrux]

It is mostly sheer stubbornness, however the stubbornness was born from a long life of being trained and expected to stamp everything down. So of course he has no real mechanisms for knowing how to deal with these situations. That would be showing weakness, and weakness wasn't tolerated. Especially not by Seifer.

The tale she proceeded to tell was indeed eye-opening, one Seifer was beginning to understand and feel more a kinship with Vanille over their crimes against their friends. And their world. He still felt that hers were solidly under the influence of the fal'Cie, though her choice to keep her silence was entirely her own. So... complicated, and he got it. It was always easier to forgive someone that wasn't yourself.

"So... why did a defender still turn into a crystal? I don't understand what the fal'Cie accomplish by doing this." Can they not defend themselves, per the rules of their existence? Why a child? It all seemed so insane to him. With her so clearly on the verge of tears he reached out to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. He's not very good at the comfort thing but he's trying.

When she finished, casting on him such a look of determination he sighed in resignation, eyes moving up to the ceiling of the shrine. "I suppose... I should start with who that woman I was protecting was, and what." He's explained Sorceresses in a very detached manner before. Never his own involvement.

"Her name was Edea. Once she ran an orphanage alongside her husband, taking in the children orphaned by my world's constant wars and monsters. She was also a Sorceress. Something feared and reviled by most in my world, as they're the only humans you could really consider naturally capable of magic. If you can call it that."

It's a start, he has to think very hard about how best to approach the topic. How to frame it so it wasn't all just a jumble of nonsense.

"She raised us. All of us. I don't remember much from back then, Nida and Rinoa have filled in a few gaps. We were young, and using GF eats your memories." He offers a faint shrug.

[tosavecocoon]

"When the army found us and Dajh turned to crystal, their leader told us that his Focus must have been to find things of Pulse origin," Vanille explains, her heart still heavy with the pain of it all. "Which meant me. Dajh's Focus was to find me. No matter if you're a Pulse l'Cie or a Cocoon l'Cie, you're still a l'Cie, bound by the l'Cie fate. It's either turn to crystal or go Cie'th. There's nothing else."

So she had doomed an innocent child to this fate, a child who had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dajh could never have understood the weight of his fate and he didn't deserve to be stripped away from his father and his life the way that he was. It just wasn't fair.

But this isn't about Vanille's troubles. Not really. This is about Seifer and her attempt to use her past to help him. So when he starts talking, she simply listens. For a while, she doesn't react and doesn't even brush at the tears in her eyes from her own story. She takes it all in, wondering what would have driven a motherly person to act so cruelly.

"Like a l'Cie," she supplies, once Seifer has paused for a minute. "They're the only ones capable of magic, too, without the manadrives that the army uses. So your Sorceresses are feared because of something they can't control, too?"

[firacrux]

"So these things curse you, make you do their bidding, and the reward for your loyal service is be a crystal or a crystal monster until somebody kills you. What in the hell?" That's just a lose lose situation all around. How screwed up was that? At least with a Sorceress it wasn't guaranteed to end in tragedy. Just highly likely.

Hyne. And to imagine the people caught in the middle of it all... Yeah he could see how she'd be carrying that weight around. Not by her hand, but by her action a boy was doomed to be a crystal forever. Because he found her, and fulfilled his Focus.

"Armies have somethin' kinda like that as well, Paramagic. We were trained in it too, using Guardian Force made it significantly more powerful. But with enough training a soldier could learn to use a few spells without 'em, not very powerful though. And nothing compared to what a Sorceress can do with a snap of her fingers," He sighed, running a hand back through his hair. "Warp reality, time itself, bring statues to life. Imagine it she can probably do it." He nodded at her assessment. "That's right. 'Course a lot of wars have been started over it, I guess the power can get to them. Make 'em crazy. That's why they need a Knight, helps keep 'em grounded. The one person in all the world who will always be at your side. Sorceresses without a Knight, well..." They lose themselves.

"They don't get a choice in becoming a Sorceress, just kinda happens when a dying one shows up to pass on her powers. Guess it's a bit like your l'Cie curse."

[tosavecocoon]

"Yep," Vanille answers with a nod, but that's all she's willing to say on the matter right now. She can explain further about the real horrors, about the Cocoon Purges and how whole cities were killed in one fell swoop just for breathing the same air as a Pulse fal'Cie. The Cocoon fal'Cie had kept the fear of Gran Pulse and its l'Cie alive for hundreds of years. It was no wonder the people called for the Purges.

All of that sounds so familiar to Vanille. Not having a choice in what was done, becoming a being that others looked upon with fear. Panic, even. Vanille understands all too well.

"So... was that Sorceress we saw... was she one of the good ones?"

[firacrux]

He'd be curious to hear the story at a later time, honestly he'd jump at the chance to change the subject but... She has him talking. Might as well keep that going as long as he will allow it.

There were reasons for the panic, as Seifer had learned first hand. Sure they all learned about the war, but to them seventeen years ago was a life before their own. They weren't very old, they hadn't been alive long enough to understand or experience it. The one Seifer had caused... Well that was much more real.

"She was but... no." He shook his head, wrapping his arms tighter around himself. A defensive gesture. "The woman you saw, Edea, she raised us," He said that, but he felt he needed to emphasize. "I don't remember much, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't like that before. She wasn't the only one there. There are two Sorceresses, Edea, on the outside, and inside running the show a Sorceress from the future. Possessing her. That was Ultimecia." His Sorceress. He looked a little ill just saying the name.

"Ultimecia was far from good. Her one goal was destroying SeeD utterly." And, ultimately, everything else.

[tosavecocoon]

Something in him looks different from what she would have expected were this all about good memories. But Vanille had seen Seifer's reaction initially and she sees the way he looks ill now, the way he has himself protectively wrapped up, like a blanket. She wishes she could take some of that pain away.

"What did she end up doing?" she asks quietly, wondering how Seifer could have ended up with someone like that. What had Ultimecia done to him or promised to him? On the other hand, he might have wanted to protect or save someone or something else. Like Fang when she became Ragnarok by herself twice, wanting to protect Vanille at all cost and spare her the life of a Cie'th. For Seifer, it could have been anything, but she doesn't think the whole world's destruction would really have been his idea.