[Video] ♞ Fire Cross III

[knightfan]

[ Watch From 00:05:33 - 00:06:37 and 00:07:30 to 00:10:23 or read below.

There's a podium with more microphones than necessary. Behind it is a man in a suit, making a rather political speech about how the "people of the world have the power to end all wars." There's the sound of something breaking in the background, but the man continues on regardless, rambling on about how an ambassador, the Sorceress, is a necessity. Again there's another noise, this one screeching in the background, followed by more sounds of things breaking before Seifer bursts on into the scene. Two Galbadian soldiers make an attempt to apprehend him, but he disposes of them quickly, taking the suited president hostage. Feeling as though Seifer has apparently lost his mind, a woman in red—Quistis—orders Squall to come and assist her.

The scene cuts out briefly, to when Squall, Zell and Selphie finally arrive. Quistis insists that Seifer needs to be restrained, so Squall makes an effort to calm him down. ]

What do you think you're doing?

It's obvious, ain't it? What are you planning to do with this guy?!

...Planning to do?

I get it! [ the blond, Zell, exclaims. ] You're Rinoa's...

[ Seifer immediately cuts him off. ]

Shut your damn mouth! Chicken-wuss!

[ Quistis explains the situation: ]

He broke out of the disciplinary room, injuring many in the process.

YOU STUPID IDIOT!

Be quiet.

[ And then Zell blows it: ]

Instructor, I know! You're going to take this stupid idiot back to Garden, right!?

Shut up! NO!

[ The president understands now. Seifer is from Garden, as are Quistis, Zell and Selphie. Now he has someone to blame. As the president explains how he has them all in the palm of his hand, Seifer shakes his head. Great. ]

I see... So you're all from Garden. Should anything happen to me, the entire Galbadian military will undoubtedly crush Garden. You can let go of me now.

Nice going, Chicken-wuss! You and your stupid big mouth!

[ Which obviously means he's not letting go. Zell seems horrified. ]

Take care of this mess! Instructor and Mr. Leader!

[ Seifer, with President Deling still at... gunblade point, back out of the room with Quistis following. In the next room, a masked woman in dark clothing appears from out of thin air and approaches Seifer. As if pitying him, she murmurs: ]

...Poor, poor boy...

Stay away from me!

Such a confused little boy. Are you going to step forward? Retreat? You have to decide.

Stay back!

[ Quistis runs in, but the woman, the Sorceress, paralyzes Quistis. ]

The boy in you is telling you to come. The adult in you is telling you to back off. You can't make up your mind. You don't know the right answer. You want help, don't you? You want to be saved from this predicament.

Shut up!

Don't be ashamed to ask for help. Besides, you're only a little boy.

I'm not... Stop calling me a boy.

You don't want to be a boy anymore?

I am not a BOY!

[ Angry, Seifer releases the president, who scrambles to leave. ]

Come with me to a place of no return. Bid farewell to your childhood.

[ Squall and the others finally enter, but are paralyzed as well. After making his immediate, rash decision, Seifer waves goodbye to his peers with his gunblade and disappears with the sorceress. ]



[ Seifer is frowning down at his D-Terminal. It wasn't so terrible. It could have been much, much worse; at least it isn't something that Squall doesn't remember, otherwise he'd be screwed. ]

At least I can say I was on the first live television broadcast in seventeen years. You can just disregard everything else since it wasn't even interesting, let alone important.

[ Although... it's weird seeing himself like this. He knew he'd made those decisions and acted like a lunatic, but was he really taken in by the sorceress, his matron, that quickly? ]

Comments

[innermonologues]

So that's how it started....

[knightfan]

[ Don't. Even. ]

How what started? Enlighten me.

[innermonologues]

When our paths separated.

[knightfan]

Our paths separated when you became a SeeD.

[innermonologues]

So it's my fault?

[knightfan]

It's not your fault, dumbass. You did what I said to do and you passed the exam. Zell did, too, even though he whined the entire time. But even if I don't understand, it doesn't matter anymore. I don't care about being a SeeD, just its definition.

[innermonologues]

[ Sighs.

He goes quiet for a moment.]

It's not all that exciting as they make it out to be.

[Video]

[headup_stickontheice]

[So Cam meant to turn it off when he saw and understood how...personal this is. But at seeing Seifer take someone hostage...

He knows Seifer's no-nonsense and relatively, well, hard on people. But It's something Cam has a hard time believing. A very hard time believing. Until...

That lady, the sorceress? Nothing...felt right about that.]

[Well he sort of clears his throat, and he doesn't quite make eye contact -- or what he imagines eye contact would be via video chat -- and he mumbles a little.]

I...didn't mean to see it all.

[Video]

[knightfan]

[ He could explain himself. That taking out President Deling was actually Balamb Garden's plan, something that Squall had been hired to do himself. That because he was worried that Squall, Selphie and Zell were rookies who had just become SeeDs... had little field experience... that if they messed up, they would have faced the most powerful military in the world. The three of them would have been roadkill.

That it had been Rinoa's goal, and that he had a soft spot for Rinoa. That if Zell had kept his goddamn mouth shut the plan would have worked, despite Squall's failed attempt at the first assassination on the president, and the "end of wars" thing the president had been rambling on about would have come true. That, had he killed Galbadia's president, he would have done exactly as Garden ordered and maybe, finally, been rewarded and recognized for doing something right instead of being treated like a "problem child" again and again because he gets things done, just not by the book.

But he doesn't explain that, because there's no point. Why would Cam believe him, anyway? Seifer knows what he looks like; he looks like a psychotic terrorist, which... he supposes is true. Being hired to assassinate someone kinda does that to a person. And Squall... comes off looking like Balamb's prized and cherished golden boy... again.

In truth, Seifer doesn't want to respond to Cam. He doesn't want to cement the fact that whatever "friendship" or "acquaintanceship" they had has probably crumbled away. It must have. If the two most loyal friends he had in the entire world ended up justifiably ditching him, why wouldn't Cam? In the end, Seifer answers, since he doesn't believe in running away from his problems. ]

I think it's fair, considering what your D-Terminal broadcast. So... don't go apologizin' over something you didn't have anything to do with. It's just gonna go in circles.

[Video] omg with all my icons I FORGOT TO CHOOSE ONE LAST TIME i am scum

[headup_stickontheice]

[And he's not going to argue with Seifer, because he's learned by now that that doesn't really get him anything. There's a small bit of curiosity, and it's not like he wants to, but...]

...What was that guy talking about? The...president.

[Not the question you might expect.]

[Video] hideous

[knightfan]

Deling?

[ Seifer raises his brows. Definitely not what he was expecting to hear at all. ]

That depends. What he said was that Galbadia, as the powerhouse of the world, wanted to make nice with the rest of the world and end all wars. What he meant was that he was going to have a sorceress, an icon of fear for most people, serve as an ambassador so everyone would be too scared shitless to stand up to Galbadia. As a country, it... likes to invade places.

He ended up dying shortly after that, so in the end it didn't matter. Sorceress Edea publicly executed him out of the blue.

[ Something Seifer only minded because it hadn't been him. If he'd just done it when he'd had the chance... ]

[Video]

[headup_stickontheice]

[Politics isn't exactly something Cam's strong at...but he nods along, understanding much as he can. Even he can get fear -> invasion -> bad.]

...was that the sorceress you went with?

[Video]

[knightfan]

Yeah.... That was her. It's complicated, considering she was also my matron. But I guess the "bad things"...

[ And here he uses airquotes. ]

...she did weren't really her fault. She'd gotten bodyjacked by another sorceress.

[Video]

[fullofthorns]

[ Roze just sits there, eating a bag of popped corn and smirking as she chews lazily. She'd been watching memories on and off with no shame at all. As far as she was concerned, it was the truth. It was the bared bones and bleeding hearts of everyone in this place. These were the honest moments people refused to admit to; the things that defined them.

She wanted to know who she was surrounded by, and the memories leaking were about the best opportunity she could have asked for, without going door-to-door. Granted it was a little more raw than she was entirely comfortable with, but she reasoned it out and validated herself in her own head. ]

Hey, Princess.

You know there's not a lot of things I like more than an authoritative man in a fine coat.

[ She pauses, picking a kernel from her tooth with a wince. ]

But whats the deal runnin' off with that cougar like that? You went all Stiffler's mom and dropped all your IQ into roulette. She didn't even really say anything like...really mind-blowing. You just did a "NUH UH! UH HUH" fight and left.

Not that you owe anyone an explanation, but I mean...come on. Really?

[Video]

[knightfan]

[ ...She's eating popcorn. It's not like what was broadcast was earth-shattering or anything, but seriously?! Can he take back his effort to cheer her up the other day? Because in his mind, she obviously didn't need it. ]

She's not a cougar.

[ He answers quickly, angrily and sharply like he can't deny it fast enough. ]

Her name is Sorceress Edea and she was my matron.

[ After a moment, Seifer curls a hand into a fist and lightly presses it against his forehead. ]

I know what she said wasn't convincing. [ Now. ] But going with her was better than staying behind. And even if I didn't want to go... she's a sorceress. Well, was a sorceress at the time. Her magic gave me a little... push.

[ After falling silent for a short moment: ]

...It's rude to eat when you're talking to people. Cut it the hell out.

Re: [Video]

[fullofthorns]

O~oo, gosh. Love it when you're all bossy.

[ Chew. Chew. Swallow. ]

What's a matron, exactly? And she's a cougar...older hot lady? That's a cougar. That's pretty much the definition of a cougar.

[ She tilts her head, regarding him for a moment before setting the popcorn aside out of view. Didn't mean she wasn't going to sneak a handful here and there. At least she wasn't talking with her mouth full now.]

So you were magically coerced? That sounds like mad bad news, man. Chicks get in your head like that, its a toxic relationship. Girls that play head-games are bad news, Princess.

[ Interestingly enough, that's genuine concern on her face. Well, so far as he knows. She hasn't been around long enough for people to realize just how honest she tends to be. ]

[Video]

[knightfan]

[ She's pissing him off, but... well, he'd rather be pissed off than gloomy, so in the end he can't really complain. ]

I don't live under a rock! I know what a cougar is and that's not her. For me to think of her that way is crossing into territory I don't want to cross into. You know those motherly types who run orphanages? That's what a matron is.

[ ...Okay. He can deal with a compromise. ]

Sort of magically coerced. I can't... put the blame on her. I wanted to go; she just tapped into the part of me that was pretending I didn't. Besides, even if I did want to pin on the blame on someone, it couldn't be her. She wasn't even herself.

Re: [Video]

[fullofthorns]

Was she all head-jacked too? [ She asks, leaning back and reaching fora glass of water, which she knocks back pretty quickly with the gusto of a professional drinker. Maybe it wasn't water...pretty clear though. ]

Well I think she's a cougar. You don't have to. I can kinda understand though, being as she's kinda like your sorta-mom. So I'll refrain from extolling her many virtues or expressing my jealously of her.

[ Kinda just did that, Roze, but whatever, at least you weren't dropping too many deets. ]

[Video]

[knightfan]

[ She better not be hoarding alcohol without him. Seifer scrunches up his nose a little in vague disgust when she calls Edea his "sorta-mom." ]

Yeah, she was a little head-jacked. More like body-jacked, though. And don't call her that.

[ His immediate thought is "SHE'S NOT MY MOM!" but the fact that he feels so defensive about it... pretty much counters that. Ugh. Well, at least she's not here. It makes him sick to think he's suddenly having those issues so late in life.

It's because he's stuck here thinking about everything, isn't it? He can't go off and do stupid things and ignore the consequences. Now the consequences won't leave him alone. Now he has to sit here and think and brood and slowly turn into Squall because the only people capable of doing anything around here are the Digimon. ]

Anyway.

[heartdive]

It really is Selphie.

[ best priorities. Sora has them. ]

[knightfan]

[ He'd rather focus on that than on what everyone saw. ]

Who else would she be?

[heartdive]

It's just you guys have a Selphie. I have a Selphie.

[knightfan]

A Selphie to go with your... Leon, I take it?

[heartdive]

No. Yuffie, Cid, and Aerith hang around Leon. Sometimes Cloud.

Selphie is from the islands just like me.

[knightfan]

...And your Selphie was born and raised there? Without a doubt?