paradisalost | castle rooftop; no journal

Entry tags:

castle rooftop; no journal

[that had been a far longer sleep then he had thought. dreaming, endless darkness, the works. some good and bad, but this was longer then expected. and as he groggily came to, a bit of a headache and a woozy feeling, he felt a little...inverted. more vertical and not horizontal. and dare he say it...]

....uh...wha...

[upside down?]

What the... Where am I? [looks around, and as he slowly comes to, the drug wearing off, Cloud realizes he's been tightly chained up and being held over extreme heat below]

! W-Woah, what the heck is going on?! Why am I... ... ...

[Lava. A boiling pot of LAVA]

GAHH!! H-Hey!!!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[have a Komui calmly standing beside the cauldron. what, it's Halloween-y, all in the spirits of the holiday, right? he adjusts his glasses a bit higher on his nose, casually reading over whatever paper is clipped to his clipboard - it looks like the plans for the cauldron's construction.

when he hears the sounds of Cloud stirring, he glances up; the man is being precariously balanced by an intricate system of chains at his waist - binding his arms to his body - and his ankles. Komurin is manning a pulley on the ground a few feet away from Komui.]

Oh, you're awake. I was beginning to think sedating you had been a bad idea. It would've been unfortunate if you'd taken much longer and fallen in before regaining consciousness, wouldn't it?

[that voice. wtf that VOICE. he looks to the side of the cauldron to see who that happens to be]

K-Komui...?

[Cloud will proceed to struggle oh-so-helplessly now]

W-What the hell?! Have you completely lost your mind? Let me down!

Edited 2009-11-03 00:09 (UTC)

Don't be so dramatic. And you might want to be a little more careful about how you word things. If I "let you down" right now, you'd fall right in, wouldn't you?

[he takes a step closer, crossing his arms over his chest]

Let's have a little heart-to-heart, Cloud. Just you and me.

(Kind of hard to do that while I'm hanging over lava!)

Look, if this has anything to do with Lenalee, I haven't--

[what's THIS? Komui climbs the little step-ladder next to the cauldron, sticking his arm out and positioning the picture right in front of Cloud's face. yup, it's him mackin' all over his little, adorable Lenalee.]

You haven't what, Cloud? By all means, explain yourself.

!

[shocked he is definitely. but...was Komui snooping through his memories? who knew what else he had of his? his dark secrets, his happy moments, what did Komui find?!]

Where did you get that?

[the pulley drops him an inch or two]

I'm the one asking the questions, Cloud. [pats him]

Ah--! [okay. he'll ask questions later when he's not in Komui's hands]

It was a loss. For some reason whenever somebody said my name I had to kiss them. I wouldn't make this kind of thing up.

That's no excuse. [tosses the photo into the cauldron... and it sinks, burning] You went near her despite being on this loss and knowing what might happen, didn't you?

[go ahead! he'd rather forget anyway] She came to me. And I hadn't figured out how my loss worked at the time. Besides, she kicked me and... [kind of embarrassed about all of that. he still hasn't apologized for that incident]

[looking bored] You're still making excuses?

[the pulley drops him another two inches]

I'm not impressed.

! Komui! Wait, I...!

... [he was gonna have to actually talk. not just sugarcoat the excuses. truth or not, it seemed that maybe this would help. at least, he hoped. calming down, he let himself hang there, as if defeated, and he sighs]

It's all my fault. I was too stupid to see what would happen. Even if I didn't mean to, I still feel bad for having done it... I should have run. I should have stayed away from her... Lenalee's an important friend to me, but the last thing that I would want to do is...ruin that. Guess it's a little too late for that.

I can't tell you that what you're doing is wrong, because you're looking out for your sister. Your family... (Something that I...) She's something worth fighting for, and even if this is kind of...stupid...

It's nice to see just how much you care.

But I'm not going to lie to you. I care about Lenalee, just as much as I care about anyone else I want to protect. They're my friends...and I don't want some misunderstanding to change any of that. She's done a lot to help keep me going here, just as anyone else would. I'm not going to take what she's done in stride. Like you would be, like Allen, like any of her friends...

I'm sorry for all of this. You don't have to forgive me, but... I just want you to trust me.

[Komui watches him for a few seconds, obviously surprised at the long explanation he received in response to his prompting. apparently this method was... well, expedient in getting what he wanted out of this fellow.

but honestly, if it was just about the kiss? he wouldn't have gone to such lengths. it was a culmination of a few... disturbing... things he'd read in the journals, not any of which he enjoyed.

so, he stares at Cloud for a minute before sighing, crouching so they're both eye-to-eye.]

I can understand that, Cloud. I'm not entirely unsympathetic to your plight. You were put in a bad situation by the castle, isn't that right? But you made some bad choices... It's something that, considering the circumstances, I can forgive - if only because you got your just dessert.

That, and my sister still seems very fond of you. [he clears his throat before sitting on the top of the ladder cross-legged, clipboard resting in his lap

...and the pulley drops another few inches]

[made some bad choices... whether they were out of his control or not, as he was dropped another few inches, he didn't even look down to his demise. but a genuine look of disbelief crossed his expression. perceptive Cloud was perceptive]

You don't mean...what happened when I...?

[Sephiroth]

Hm, did you say something?

[sorry. he's honestly and genuinely back in angst mode right now, closing his eyes as he remembered everything that happened when he became Sephiroth. and the center of it all, whom broke and got so deeply involved as she did?]

...

[what could he say to that?]

[he notices that expression, Cloud, and drops the silly act for a moment, looking rather serious]

I can see my the look on your face you understand the gravity of the situation, don't you? [he reaches forward and grabs the chains at Cloud's waist, pulling him to the side of the cauldron where he's standing and begins fiddling with the chains, but Cloud wouldn't be able to see what he was doing from his vantage point]

You hurt her. She trusted you, and you hurt her, whether you had control or not. That's twice, now. How much can I blame on the castle for this?

[those words sink in, sharper then any blade that had penetrated his skin. whether Komui was fiddling with the chains in any way or not... he wasn't thinking about that. he had constantly been told to not blame himself for what had happened in the past. here and back at the Planet. and it was how he had learned to forgiven himself. whether it was out of his control or not...it all still happened]

...

[faced with death, and faced with some pretty harsh facts, Cloud would have hung his head were it not for the fact he was upside down]

...

I... [he has nothing left to say to that]

Edited 2009-11-03 02:10 (UTC)

[a soft 'ho, hum']

Don't get too sentimental on me, Cloud. It won't do either of us any good.

... You gonna let me go or not?

Of course I'm going to let you go.

[sigh in relief. after this he had a lot to think about... he felt terrible right about now and...]

!

Wait--!

[he finally frees the chains about Cloud's waist, which fall with a kerPLUNK into the cauldron. he motions to Komurin, and the pulley drops a few more inches so that Komui can pull him towards the platform with the step ladder]

Don't get too enthusiastic, or you might fall in~♪

Grr... [oh god help him now. ... oh wait. Komui works for said god. THE FEAR OF HIM IS IN CLOUD NOW]

[once Komui has a good hold of him on the platform, he motions to Komurin and the chain secured to the pulley gives some slack so he can position Cloud in an upright sitting posture on the edge. there, back on somewhat solid ground]

I'm not an unreasonable man, you know. It's true I will, at all costs, vehemently protect my sister and her innocence, but...

... Thanks for letting me go.

Hm? You're getting a little ahead of yourself.

[...

pushes him in the cauldron]

!!! Ahhh!!!

[just screams out in horrendous pain and he is completely engulfed by said lava]

[...only not? wow this is hot but it's not boiling. and he should have been nothing more then ashes by this point bubbling on the surface. NOPE! immediately he gets to the surface, and realizes yup. definitely still alive. but WTF! is Cloud lava proof? as if gasping for breath, he hangs over the edge of the cauldron]

Haah...haaah.....haaah....haah... What...what the...hell...

What the hell...is this?!

[Komui calmly crouches by the edge of the platform, looking down into the 'lava']

How dramatic! You made a very big splash.

[still kinda flailing about making a splashes. part of him is still tied up y'know, by the ankles]

Get me out of here!!

Well, I suppose enough of it's been absorbed into your blood steam. Komurin, pull him up.

[and now you're being unceremoniously lifted up and out of the "lava," Cloud!]

Absorbed? What the hell did you do?!

Who knows? We'll find out, sooner or later. [and he's walking down the step ladder, now.]

... ... Rrgh. [let him go let him go let him go let him go. he flails by the ankles lolz]

[good luck getting down, Cloud. Komurin is following Komui down the stairs :D]

Hey, wait! Let me down! I... ...

Ugh...

[ "You hurt her. She trusted you, and you hurt her, whether you had control or not. That's twice, now. How much can I blame on the castle for this?" ]

...

(Lenalee... I...)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

castle rooftop; no journal

no subject

1/3

2/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

no subject

1/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/3

2/3

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

no subject

1/2

2/3

3/3

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

2/2