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Post by Tifa Lockhart on Jul 24, 2008 2:13:39 GMT -5
Tifa felt her fingertips brush Cloud's, and her breath caught. That small touch sent an electric jolt down her spine, and without thinking she laced her long, slender fingers through Cloud's. Turning large, liquid eyes to Cloud's, she return his smile with a slow one of her own. With him here, she could get through anything.
Taking a step forward but clutching Cloud's hand, she brushed windblown locks from her face. If she had closed her eyes, she would have never known she was standing in the middle of a blazing furnace; there was no heat from flames licking at her skin, no crackling of homes turning to embers all around her, no charred stench from living people and burned bodies being pulled from the flames. There was....nothing. Only her eyes disabused her.
Casting a glance over her shoulder, she saw Vincent following, his own eyes tormented. Vivi, however, was hanging behind. Pausing, she tried to smile encouragingly while using her free hand to gesture towards the little mage.
"Vivi?" Tifa called back to him. "Are you coming?"
((Sorry, sorry...it's been a helluva month. I can't even begin to tell you all what happened lol))
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Post by Vivi Orunitia on Jul 25, 2008 2:07:14 GMT -5
Vivi smiled, although no one else could see it on his dark face, at Tifa watching her overcome her grief and sadness, holding close to Cloud. It brought a well of memories to his mind. He saw Zidane and Queen Garnet. How many obstacles had they overcome together? How they had both lost everything, and yet they stood tall together. But now Zidane was lost to them. Only a memory. He was the only one that could in any way relate to Vivi. And yet, even with him gone, his memory still carried Queen Garnet through her troubles, as if she were soaring on the wings of an angel. Sir Fratley and Freya. How long had Freya searched for Sir Fratley? And even under what seemed like impossible odds, even she did not give up when her love seemed to be lost to her forever… or not even when it seemed that he had lost her along with his memories. But still they fought through… searching for what connected them. Even Stiener and Beatrix. How their companionship had grown, causing even ther griefs to be only mere stepping stones. Even when the Kingdome that they called home was split with the turmoil that Kuja had created through their Queen. They still managed to hold to their values, and to each other. That is when the thought hit him… who could he overcome his hardships with… even though he had truly amazing friends, there was no special bond for him like the others shared. No one person he could share his experiences with… No one who truly understood him. Was there even a person out there that COULD understand him? He had heard the words from Kuja himself. There was only one of his model created. A Prototype. He was truly alone. Not even in the Black Mage village could he feel home. Home. The word seemed so simple. A place to reside.A place to fit in. A place to belong. No place had Vivi found that fit that discription. No even with his “uncle”. Vivi was the only one he knew that could call himself alone. He took a couple of steps forward, joining the rest in the flames, but unlike the others the flames burned him. Not burns that he could expect from a flame, but with other memories. He saw Lindblum. The city that had been destroyed right in front of him and his friends. He saw Queen Brahne lying on the beach after Bahamut had turned on her. He saw all the death and despaire that his kind had brought. How could he have friends after that? Was the only reason that they wanted him around for pity? Or because they thought he was helpless? What motivation drove them to accept him? Or… DID they accept him? Was it all a fasad? Was it all a lie? Did they keep him around for his power? And if they did, how was that different than being used as a weapon? There are two sides to a war. Two sides to every fight. Was he being used? Even now the black mage couldn’t be sure that he wasn’t just being used. He looked at Tifa and Cloud. His look was pleading for answers. The truth, his head told him, was obvious. Tears welled up inside of him. “Why?” he asked in a very quiet whisper. “Why am I here? Why do you keep me with you? What is my purpuse here?” His tone betraying his seriousness. His voice cracking with every word. This town was affecting him. This town was breaking him, and now he was reaching out… and he could only hope that he could be saved. He was being attacked by the strongest and most terrifieing demon of all… himself. And he would need the help of his friends to defeat it. ((whoo, that just kinda spilled out. Hope that it flows as well as i hoped it to. If anyone disagrees with the direction that i headed in this post, please let me know, and i will be glad to change it. ))
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Post by Xenos on Jul 25, 2008 15:57:11 GMT -5
((Oh, how weird! Squall and Xenos are talking about the people who need a purpose and the people who ARE a purpose and the effects these people have on each other... ^^; ))
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Post by Cloud Strife on Jul 27, 2008 22:40:22 GMT -5
"Why?"
Cloud turned his head to look at Vivi as the word reached his ears. He couldn't see the little mage's face, but from his shaking he could tell that something was wrong.
“Why am I here? Why do you keep me with you? What is my purpose here?”
Cloud reluctantly let go of Tifa's hand, and went to kneel down next to Vivi. He could only guess that the memories being shown in the flames had triggered unhappy memories for Vivi; But there was nothing he could do about that. Vivi would have to find the strength for himself.
"Vivi...I don't know what it is that you're seeing. But you'll have to trust me when I tell you this; You have to let it just be a memory. We're here for you. But you have to fight whatever demons you still have."
Cloud gently placed his hand on Vivi's shoulder, and smiled at him.
"For a little guy, you got a lot of power. And we won't leave without you; So you'd better win!"
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Post by Vincent Valentine on Aug 16, 2008 9:39:49 GMT -5
Valentine looked around, he too was plagued by horrendous sights and sounds at the state this town was in. He searched his mind for clarity. Peace. Inside himself...he found nothing. Only the black void that Chaos wormed its way out of every now and then. It was as though a fever, was constantly trying to break in pitch. To take his strength. Sap it completely.
Vivi, the little mage seemed to be following in suit. Both were caught in a rift of memories. Though the Mage's seemed worse. Chaos wasn't compelled to act, which was rare. The red-garbed man saw this as an opportunity.
"Vivi, don't let your sorrows engulf you. If you let them, they'll only cause you more pain. Chaos will not loosen it's hold on anyone for too long. And if you find yourself tortured at the wrong time...Chaos will never surrender you, ever again. You're with friends. Don't fight alone. Use us as your power." he offered his sentiment. His words of comfort. A rare occassion had presented itself.
"Amazing how touchy you can be...will it last?" Don't even begin- "Oh, I won't...for now. It seems you have pressing matters to attend to."
What did Chaos mean? Normally, Chaos wouldn't pass up an opportunity to catch him off-guard. Why was it leaving him alone? Was it the place? Did Chaos feel unnerved itself by the location?
((Yeah, I'm still here...sometimes.))
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Post by Tifa Lockhart on Aug 20, 2008 16:00:10 GMT -5
((Does anybody have any objections if something happens? We've been standing outside Nibelheim for awhile now...anybody care if I take us in a direction that gets us through the eternal fires?))
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Post by Tifa Lockhart on Aug 27, 2008 22:04:18 GMT -5
((Okay, since nobody screamed "DEAR GOD NO!!!", away we go )) Following Cloud, Tifa approached the childlike mage with a warm, earnest smile on her face. Hoping to comfort him, she knelt opposite Cloud, her ghostly, endlessly burning home providing a backdrop in her vision. Tilting her head to the side, she listened to Cloud's words, and couldn't deny the warmth his smile put into her. He was so beautiful when he smiled. When Vincent spoke, Tifa lifted her eyes to look towards the red-clad, vampiric man. As his deep voice offered support to Vivi, something moved in the corner of her vision. Squinting, she leaned a little toward the flaming town, trying to see what she had nearly missed. There, towards what was Cloud's house. A man, stopping every few steps to peer into buildings or kneel in the street. He seemed familiar, though surreal. The whole town was like a bad dream, a nightmare Tifa tried to block out even while seeing it. Her mind simply wouldn't wrap around it. The lack of substance in the scene before her made her eyes wish to slide past. Concentrating as Vincent's words washed over her, Tifa fixed her gaze upon the man. And that was when he turned. He looked towards her, at her but not; his phantom looked through her. With a gasp, she shot to her feet, eyes wide and face pale. Subconsciously, she reached out and took a single swaying step towards the town. "Father..." her voice was soft even to her own ears, barely a hushed whisper. The figure of her father moved towards Cloud's house, turned the corner, and was gone towards Mount Nibel. And Tifa knew what was fated to happen. "Father!" She screamed, her feet in motion before she realized she was running headlong into the town. Something inside her was tearing loose at the thought of her father dying again and again in this horror. She had to, somehow, find a way to stop it. As tears streamed unnoticed down her cheeks, Tifa raced after the apparition of her father.
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Post by Cloud Strife on Sept 4, 2008 21:51:30 GMT -5
"Father!"
The words hit Cloud like a hammer, and he turned in time to see Tifa take off to wards the Nibel mountains, probably chasing after the ghost of the former Mayor. He stood, torn between what to do. But after a second of indecision, he turned to Vincent.
"Vincent, watch Vivi until he is ready to move, and follow me. You know the way...But I can't let anything happen to Tifa. I've nearly lost her more times than I can count...And I don't plan on letting anymore of our friends die."
He nodded at the former Turk, and then took off running. Tifa had quite a start on him, but he knew where she was going, at least. However slight an advantage it helped.
"Tifa, wait! It's not real!"
He said, instinctively jumping over the piles of flaming debris, real or not.
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Post by Vivi Orunitia on Sept 6, 2008 19:41:25 GMT -5
Vivi listened to the comfort in all of his companion's voices. They were the true friends Vivi had realized. He though back to more recent events. He thought of the battle outside the magnificent city. He had blindly run into the trees chasing the mist. But instead of staying in the open, where the fight had seemed to be dying down, they had followed him without question. They had followed him further into danger. And now he was questioning their friendship. How Ignorant could he truly be? That is when the current events registered to his brain. He had heard Tifa yell, and had even seen her run off, but only now it registered. His moment of self pity was now over. A personal rage built up inside of him as Vivi felt his mental energy returning to him. He focused for a moment on his black magic, ensuring that if the sudden need for a spell arose in the near future, that it would hit true and deadly. he would protect his friends. He would follow them blindly as well. No longer would he question there unwavering friendship. "I am fine," Vivi said in a voice that betrayed nothing about what he was thinking, "Let's get through this place and help Tifa!" and with that, he wiped is face, and took off behind Cloud. With the flames and the mist, he did not want to lose sight of them. For the last time Vivi put away his fears of being alone. ((Sorry it took me so long to post. I had a rough little time for a bit. Leaving for my deployment and all, but now that i am on my 7 month escapade i should be back into the posting habbit ))
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Post by Vincent Valentine on Sept 12, 2008 12:46:37 GMT -5
((Sorry guys, I'll have to make an actual RP post tomorrow, it's really late, I'm tired...and I only just got online for the first time in over a month. Sorry everyone. ))
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Post by Tifa Lockhart on Sept 21, 2008 2:09:54 GMT -5
((Okie Vincent, jump right on in when you're ready XD Oh, and if somebody dislikes where I took this, let me know and I'll change it))
Blindly, Tifa ran. Spectral flames licked at her body and ran like fingers through her streaming hair. Apparitions of other townsfolk moved in and out of fiery buildings. Tifa's feet pounded the parched ground, kicking up clouds of real dust that just made the insubstantial flames seem to twist and writhe in a sickening fashion. She saw none of it.
She knew where she was going, now. To the mountain. Through the square, up the steps, around the corner and past the Shinra Mansion. In her blurred vision, she saw every nightmare she'd dreamed since that fateful day come leaping to full color. Trying to ignore the silent chaos around her, she focused on placing one foot in front of the other. At least the ground was as she remembered. Dashing past the water tower in the center of the square, she beelined for the stairs just beyond.
As her foot came down on the first step, she stumbled. Looking down, she saw the thick sole of her foot sunk inches into the stone before stopping. Taken aback, she jerked her foot away. It came out easily, meeting no resistance. Cautiously, she placed her foot back down. It sunk just as deeply as it had before meeting...something solid. Testing her weight on it, Tifa nodded to herself when it held and tried to dash up the steps.
Every time her foot met with a surface, it was different than what her eyes told her it should be. Deeper, sloped, sometimes flat where she should have had to step up again. She stomped on her alarm though, tripping, leaping, scrambling up the uneven steps towards where she knew her father had run. Urgency consumed her.
Finally she reached the top of her short flight. Trying to make up for lost time navigating the beguiling stairway, she shot forward at a full run, rounded the corner...and stopped.
The Shinra Mansion stood, in it's gothic, gloomy glory, as dark as she remembered. It's gates stood shut, the wall surrounding it as solid as ever. But beyond, everything had changed.
Just beyond the Mansion, where she had expected to see Mount Nibel rear against the sky, the land dropped away. Bare, sere clay stretched out before her, seemingly endless, cracked as if it has stood dry for years. In the distance, Tifa could make out something large in the center of the valley, almost like a rounded cloud blooming up from the dead land.
In her shock, Tifa didn't realize she'd stumbled and fallen until her hands jerked away from the warm ground. Reaching towards the wall surrounding the Shinra mansion, she braced herself against the cool stone and heaved in breaths. The air was so dry it made her cough. Closing her eyes, she rested her head against the wall, eyes rolling up to where Mount Nibel should have been.
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Post by Aerith Gainsborough on Sept 25, 2008 12:02:35 GMT -5
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Post by Vivi Orunitia on Oct 2, 2008 20:30:08 GMT -5
Vivi ran as fast as his little legs could take him, but every time he rounded a corner he saw more of the nightmare that had become Nibelheim and all that his mind told him was to turn the other way.
But his heart told him to continue and run on is exactly what Vivi did.
As he got to the stairs he was slowed by the fact that his feet easily sank into the stone, and had to assure himself by trying to place his feet down a couple of times that he could in fact run up them. Something didn't feel natural about the steps though. As Vivi started to ascend up the first step, he felt his foot start to slow. Immediately he jumped back down and was hesitant for a moment ot put his foot back on the stair.
But Tifa needed him. That was all Vivi needed to tell himself, and his foot went back to the stair. But this time it did not sink in. his foot came into contact with the stone as it should have the first time. Vivi did not have time to contemplate this most recent change though. He started running up the stairs.
When he got to the top, he saw Tifa kneeling on the ground, picking her self back up, as if she had fallen. He shifted his gaze in front of him and almost joined her on his knees.
He new what the source of the mist was, but he had truly hoped that he was wrong. But there it was, right in front of him. The towering beauty, and for those who truly knew what it was, the sheer terror of the Iifa Tree could not be mistaken. But as he stared at it, he felt weird. Almost as if he was trying to focus on something that wasn’t truly there. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, but this time the Iifa tree was further away then it had been before. And instead of dry ground, he saw water appearing as if out of nowhere. Further and further the Tree got, and the further away it got, the more water appeared, until the Iifa tree was almost out of sight.
Then it stopped. Vivi could not wrap his head around what had just occurred. The Iifa Tree had moved. And this ocean, for that is what it looked like now, had just appeared. Vivi looked at Tifa wondering if his mind had just made all of this up, but as soon as he turned his head, a shadow fell over them both.
Vivi looked back to see what had changed this time, but almost fainted as his mind tried to comprehend what it now saw. The Iifa was no longer visible. Nor was the ocean. In front of him loomed a giant mountain.
“What is going on here!?” the little black mage gasped. This place now seemed like a nightmare even more then it had when the stumbled upon the burning city. He looked around to see if anything else had changed, almost expecting to see that a monster appear right next to him. The mist thickened more every second.
Then Vivi felt a breeze. Not the kind of breeze that you would feel out in the woods, or by the ocean, but a breeze that seemed fairly familiar to the black mage. A warm, stale breeze that was coming from the side of the mountain. Vivi couldn’t place why this breeze seemed so familiar to him.
He slowly made his way over to where he thought the breeze was coming from, step by step. The Mist was so thick here that he couldn’t even see his feet. He paused, considering what he was doing then said, “I think there is something over…ahhh” was all he got out before the small ledge he was standing on gave out and he tumbled into the cave. He stood up and dusted himself off and looked around. The Mist had cleared a bit. It seemed that the tunnel was how the Mist was making its way to the mainland.
And then he froze. He new this place. He remembered a time when he had been here before. That time though, he was with his friends. Zidane, Garnett, Freya, Stiener, and Quina He was staring right into the depths of Fossil Roo.
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Post by Vivi Orunitia on Oct 9, 2008 1:17:56 GMT -5
(( *POKE* just bored. Thought that i would poke something...))
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Post by Tifa Lockhart on Oct 9, 2008 1:35:37 GMT -5
(( *Pokes back*...we gotta wait on Cloudy and Vinnie to post ))
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