[IC] [closed]

[Kefka Palazzo]

Cidolphus Escovane

Twenty Seven | 15, September | 6’0” | First Class
“They’re watching you die, and when you’re gone it’s like you weren’t even there…“

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Mrihl - Baron's Estate

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Cid drew himself as far into himself as he could as he ate, without appetite. Slow, mechanical motions of his jaw ground his food, as his mind flowed with thoughts as wild and alive as the waters of the river after the snow melts, as though all of his energy were placed into passing fits of ideas through his mind’s eye. What have they done to him exactly? Why was it manifesting now? What had triggered it? He found the thoughts only bloomed more, threads of idea and approach that caught and weaved together to make as detailed and intricate a web as any arachnid would be proud of. Was he a monster now? Surely since starting this whole thing, he hadn’t felt quite ‘human’, quite himself, but he hadn’t believed things to be so altered. Yes, the voice had taken some adjusting to, but in a way it was quiet comforting. A companion that seemed to be always there, compartmentalized in a corner of his mind, always willing to take him away if he were to simply lift back the veil that he had thrown over it. She hadn’t named herself, other than assuming the identities of numerous figures from his past, but there was a comfort that he found came with her presence. Almost, he reached for the veil, but stopped himself, suddenly cautious. Could she be part of what was happening to him?

He felt it better to push it all aside, to leave it all tucked neatly away, and he turned his attention back to what he knew, what he understood. Cid ate and drank with increased vigor, pulling his attention out of his thoughts, and back to the meal at hand. The first bowel emptied before he was half way through the loaf of crusty brown bread that came with it. It tasted better than he had hoped it would, warm and sweet out of the oven, a nice accompaniment to the spicy brown stew and the cold, thick ale. Another bowel, another flask of ale, and he rose from the table, feeling satisfied, and slightly light headed from the drink. He dropped a couple of coins down on the table’s top, before leaving.

The thoughts took him again as he walked back to the compound, suddenly disinterested in seeing the rest of Mrihl, and desiring instead to be elsewhere. He had no grand desire to return to the group of soldiers he traveled with, they had proven to be anything less than open, and he knew little about any of them, other than they seemed capable in a fight. He cared very little what happened to any of them, and had he any way of truly being away and free of the whole business, he felt he would take it, no matter the cost. The more he learned, the less he liked the way things were heading.

Without incident or grandeur, he arrived back at the baron’s estates, and after several quick inquiries, he found himself back with his companions. This motley crew of warriors, gathering…

His mind snapped to the sound of Evangeline’s voice. The strength and urgency in her tone drew him away from his thoughts, as she approached the larger Solider. She showed an intensity that he had initially thought to be so contradictory of her nature, which now he is coming to understand always lies beneath the hew of multicolored eyes and juvenile silliness. She was as multifaceted as the rest of them, as dangerous and threatening as any of the rest. By the strength in her gaze, the tension in her taunt body, he imagined she could even wrestle the big man to the floor, and make him beg her release. It was the question that sent an icy chill to his veins, drawing all warmth from his blood.

“Perhaps he is calm because he already knew,” Cid spoke up, offering a point of view to Evangeline’s question. She had to be having similar thoughts as to his own, similar misgivings and a very familiar sense of foreboding since arriving in Mrihl. “Or he simply refuses to see it. But it is what it is, and we are alone with it. Do you not think we all saw? But none of us speak of it. We are alone with it, to make of it what we can. Something is askew here, with us, with this place, this situation. We are ignorant as children, and meant to be this way, by design.”

[icmasticc]

S a b l e M a x w e l l

Mrihl - Baron's Estate

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The armor was just now beginning to feel heavy. One of the first few training exercises a potential SOLDIER had to endure involved the instructors treating the recruits like pack mules and loading them up with everything possible before forcing them to walk or run with the load. It was a basic strength building exercise, but one that held importance because, in spite of technological advancement, armor still held weight. The memory of burning quadriceps and calves came rushing back to the forefront of her mind's eye as Sable slowly, but surely, made her way down the widest and grandest hallway she had probably ever been in. The Baron's estate was no joke and it made even her wealthy family's home look like a doghouse with paintings. The injured Ravager had broken away from the group upon entering and told herself that she would find the damn food no matter what, but her body was forcing her to find a bedroom instead. She had half listened to one of the many servants spout directions to whatever chambers she was meant to occupy and it was only through sheer force of will that she eventually found and pushed open a needlessly ornate door and fell on an immaculately made bed. The armor was just now beginning to feel heavy, but SOLDIER training indoctrinated into her core being laughed at the prospect of removing the weight. That was not going to happen.

Sable gazed at the ceiling above her, her arms strewn outwards and her legs sprawled. The tile was laid in a very meticulous way, but the craftsmanship was partly blocked by what was clearly a hand-made ceiling fan and light fixture. In truth, her cloudy pupils peered at nothing. In her mind it was certainly a dead horse, but the loss at the fields still bothered her. SOLDIER had not been her first introduction to combat training and she had held herself to a high standard for years. She felt like she was reverting... Reverting back to a self she had long since locked away. The past slowly crept in, first overtaking her peripheral vision and finally enveloping her visage completely. Images of a lazier, more complacent young teen bombarded the Ravager. Arthur's teachings echoed from afar as she watched the mistakes she made play over again. Mistakes that, at the time, seemed to be easily filed under that's just what teen girls do. Mistakes that allowed more serious consequences to seep in and lay a foundation. Mistakes that dredged up that fateful day when the only home she had ever known was brought to the ground. Mistakes that could not afford to be made any longer.

"Just what the hell are you...?" Sable asked out loud. She couldn't see it and nothing in that grandiose room had changed, but she could feel it. She could feel the presence of the being that had been pestering her for months now.

"..."

Sable did not move. "You heard me. What the hell are you?" She asked again.

"We are the same," The voice replied in her head.

Sable still did not move, but a small grin began to stretch at the corners of her lips. "Right. The same. You think this is some fantasy game? More like some fantastical bullshit,"

"You have seen their true essence. You will understand in due time."

Sable finally sat up and pulled in her armored legs one over the other. She was finally intrigued. "Seriously, what or who the hell are you? And how are you in my head? You can't keep repeating these same riddles."

A soft giggle echoed in the Ravager's mind. It was high-pitched and slightly annoying. "We are the same. When your eyes are my eyes, you will understand fully."

Sable wrinkled her face and sighed. She was getting nowhere again just that quickly. "Fuck me, it must be some kind of code you mysterious beings follow right? Don't tell the person you're fucking with why you're fucking with them lest they actually give a shit too quickly? Christ. Give me something! You obviously want to help me in your own twisted way," She pleaded.

The voice was silent for a few moments. Sable sighed once more and pushed her armored back down on the mattress once more before something in her mind perked up. She could feel a response coming. "Take off the blindfold and let your eyes become mine... Only then can you understand fully," The voice fell silent and the feeling of presence dissipated. Sable exhaled and pushed herself up again, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and onto the ground where her feet emitted a quiet clang.

"So much for that," She muttered to herself. A knock at the door snapped the SOLDIER out of her personal reality and back into the public one. A servant opened the door halfway.

"Your presence is required in the office miss. Please allow me to show you the way."

Sable nodded and stood before taking one last longing look at the bed. She suddenly realized it was the comfortable thing she had ever been on and regret slowly washed over her aching body as she turned and followed the humble man out of the room, down the hall, through a corridor, up two flights of stairs and down another, separate set of stairs to reach the office. She pushed the door open just as Cid was apparently answering a question posed by Evangeline. Having missed the initial inquiry, Sable simply found the nearest seat and plopped down. She was more than fully done with the day at this point.

"We are ignorant as children, and meant to be this way, by design."

"Ain't that the fucking truth," She chimed in just as Cid finished.

[Raijinslayer]

James Lockheart

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Mhril, Baron's estate, Some office

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James chuckled a bit at Evangeline's initial response to his question, a hollow and dry laught that didn't carry and real humor to it. He repositioned himself a bit so that he was reclining into the chair, no longer carving in the corruptive energy he now possessed into the fancy piece of carpentry, though the damage that had been done to the chair had made the leg rather unstable. As Evangeline brought up his little 'freakout' as it were, he simply shrugged his shoulders a bit, looking off to the side as he considered getting himself another sandwich, since she didn't seem to want one. He had no real explanation for what had happened to him, or was currently happening to him as an apparent result, but it had helped him to kill the beast, so he didn't mind too much. It was simply another mystery that seemed like more trouble than it was worth to get into.

His aloof manner apparently was causing Evangeline some distress however, as he notice how her body seemed to tense up a bit, the dilation of her eyes barely visible as she slammed her hands onto the desk, almost demanding answers about why he was so come in the face of these events . . . and if he'd noticed anything strange during the battle. I wonder if she's wondering why I'm not bothered by the killings or the fat that weird things seemed to have happened to us? Probably both now that i think about it James didn't answer immediately, taking the time to collect his thoughts, his dark red eyes swiveling from Evangeline to Cidolphus to Sable, the last two having entered after the Saboteur's outburst. Once they had each said their piece, James decided that it was about time for him to give his own thoughts on the matter, turning his eyes to Evangeline again.

"I'm calm because I don't see anything to freak out about. I'm alive, I've got all my arms and limbs, and as far as I can figure, i have enough sanity intact to properly do my job. That's all I truly care about at the moment. If the deaths of those soldiers are bothering you, than I can't help you. I didn't know any of them, and even if I did, they knew the job they were signing up for. Death is always waiting for us, the cold blade of it's scythe held to our necks with every waking moment." James chose this moment to stand, reaching his full height as he proceeded to make a slow lap around the room, drawing a single finger along the wall as he did so. A line of black rot would follower the appendege, marking the power his inner beast had given him with it's influence. "If it's the strange events that happened on that battlefield, again, I can't help you. As far as what happened, I can't say I saw much since I was a bit busy fighting a giant murder bird to notice much of what was going on the ground. From what little I did see, it seems that we aren't as human as we believed ourselves to be."

James finished his circuit around the room as he finished speaking, a curl of black smoke seeming to trail from his finger as he removed it from the wall, a stray thought factoring in that he should probably avoid damaging anymore of the Baron's things, lest he be held accountable for them, or worse yet, get them kicked out of the man's home.

"In all honesty, I don't know why I'm as calm about this as I am. Maybe it's because I have no memories of anything before the SOLDIER program, only vague glimpses of a past life. . . and those brief glimpses have given me such vivid nightmares that I never truly dare to go digging into my past. I'm a SOLDIER. It's is how I live, and it'll be how I die, whether it be today, tomorrow, or ten years from now. I've never truly felt a strong fear of my own mortality, nor have I truly felt any truly powerful feelings since I first came to be aware of myself in my room after the initial trials of the Program. I believe that they're sealed up with the rest of my memories, and if they'll cause me to give such an outburst as you've done, Evangeline, than I'd rather not have them. No offense to you, or any of you really, but I'd rather remain as I am. It's not exciting or thrilling for the most part to be me, but at least I know I'm sane. From the glimpses I have had into my own head, memories revealed in certain moments of recollection . . . I can say for certain that the man I used to be was significantly less so."