On the Lunatic Pandora: Thursday Night, Fandom Time (NFB)
More corridors, and more monsters. The group ended up going down a long elevator, only to turn around and take another, nearby elevator all the way back up. It was a good thing Fujin and Raijin knew where they were going, because it was easy to get hopelessly lost. After fighting through one monster that was bigger and tougher than the rest, they came to the room that was their destination. At the far end, with his back to them, was a boy with short blond hair in a long white trenchcoat -- almost Squall's mirror image in every way.
Seifer
Seifer stood watching out the window, tapping his gunblade against a boot. He could hear those morons coming and smirked as they filed into the room.
"So the traitors and morons finally found their way to me. Took you long enough. I was starting to think the monsters were going to take away all my fun."
He turns to look at them, still casually tapping his boot with his gunblade. "Well, fun for me, anyway."
Fujin and Raijin
"NOT TRAITORS," Fujin barked. She glared at him with her good eye. "POSSE."
"Yeah, Fujin's right, ya know?" Raijin added. "It's like, we're not abandoning you, you've abandoned us, ya know? We just... we can't do it anymore, Seifer. We can't help you end the world." He scuffed his toe on the floor, looking sheepish.
Seifer
"We were posse." He paused to stare at them for a moment, then nodded his head. "Raijin, Fujin, it's been fun."
Fujin and Raijin
"We want the old you back," Raijin replied. "It's... sad that we have to rely on Squall."
Squall
Squall hated being relied on.
"It doesn't have to be like this, Seifer," he insisted. "You can still back down."
Rinoa
"They're still your posse," Rinoa insisted, unable to keep herself from sounding snippy. Because he was being ridiculous, that was why. "They're worried about you. We're here to help, Seifer. Don't you get that?"
Raven
Raven was really hoping to avoid another fight. "Please, listen to her," she said, stepping forward, projecting calm and trust to Seifer. "We do not wish any violence. You do not know many of us, but I promise you, we are only here help."
Seifer
Seifer laughed and shook his head. "The only thing you can rely on the Ice Princess for is to stand there with a vacant look in his eyes."
He glared at the others and waved his hand, as if waving off their words. "Don't lie, it's unbecoming of... well, even you. You're here to try and stop me, but you won't succeed."
Fujin and Raijin
Fujin and Raijin glanced at each other, considering their options, then nodded, as one.
"SORRY," Fujin said.
"Yeah. We can't be a part of this. Best of luck, ya know?"
They fired a crisp salute to Squall, and his friends, and a much longer one for Seifer. They couldn't fight with him, not now, but they were never going to fight against him, either.
They were a posse, still.
And with that, Fujin and Raijin turned and left.
Karla
"Well, that was helpful," Karla commented as they left. She had a feeling that negotiations were about to break down precipitously.
On the plus side, it meant she really didn't have to try for diplomacy. "Look, you," she said, tilting her chin at Seifer. "Everyone's bailing on you like rats from a sinking ship. Even your so-called posse is smart enough to see you don't have a chance. Come back with us and we'll magically pull your head from your ass, and everything can go back to what passes for normal around here. You don't have to do this."
Diplomacy was not amongst Karla's skillset.
Seifer
If this were any place and time but now, Seifer would so be hitting on that chick. He liked them direct and mouthy.
He stepped back and raised his gunblade, and then beckoned them with his 'bring it' gesture. "How about we stop acting like girls and get things over with. Things being your deaths and my revolution."
Tara
"You know this isn't you," Tara said, squinting at him. "Your aura, it's all -- the colors are mixed. I don't think you really w-want any of this."
"And," she added, stepping back, "it's kind of sexist to call people girls as an insult."
Because that was clearly a key factor.
Squall
Seifer.
This was where it had started, so many months ago: Squall and Seifer, battling to prove who was better. A matter of pride.
Squall touched the scar on his face -- the one Seifer had given him -- and narrowed his eyes. This time, it would end differently.
He ran forward, his gunblade striking sparks on the floor before he swung it up to slash at his enemy.
Seifer
Seifer pulled his gunblade up to parry the attack, lashing out with a fireball at the same time.
"Still so damn predictable, huh Princess?"
Jono
Oh, he wanted to play with fire, did he?
//Not so predictable,// Jono said, his voice in the wide-open now as he reached to pull his wrappings down. //Somewhere along th'way, he learned all about th'power of friendship, or some such rot.//
Here, Seifer, have a whip of flame, coming right back toward you. Sort of a how-do-you-do, I can play with fire too, kind of... bonding... thing. Sure.
Seifer
Squall suddenly wasn't a concern for Seifer, the flame that was being shot at his head was.
"What the hell?" he muttered loudly as he barely managed to call up a shield spell in time. "Where'd you pick up this freak, Puberty Boy?"
Rinoa
"Don't call him that," Rinoa seethed. She'd meant Jono, because Squall had probably been called worse, by Seifer.
If she hadn't been so abruptly angry, she may have gone for something lighter than a Meteor spell. As it was, Seifer could duck some falling rocks.
Karla
Karla would have cheered for Rinoa, if she hadn't been busy getting herself into position. Jono's fire and Rinoa's rockslide from thin air had put Seifer's back--quite literally--against a wall.
She could use that.
Fixing Seifer's position in her mind and hoping Rinoa's barrage would continue for another minute, Karla passed through the wall into the adjoining room and then ran over to where Seifer had been standing a moment before. Passing her upper body through, she wrapped her arms around his chest and yanked. "Kiss kiss," she breathed into his ear as she held onto his struggling body. "Told you to give up." Then more loudly she yelled, "Get him!"
Squall
While he was pinned, Squall jumped forward and slashed at Seifer several times in succession.
He knew he shouldn't, but he just felt an incredible amount of satisfaction from hurting Seifer. He'd feel bad about that later.
Seifer
Seifer felt bad about it now, what with that damn blade cutting into his skin. Obviously someone had been paying attention during their sparring.
"Let me go, you little witch," Seifer snarled out between grunts of pain. He took a split second to think, and decided to cast Quake instead of Cure.
Considering he was between the two people he was hoping to affect, he should have went with the Cure.
Tara
Tara raised her hands and, before she had time to overthink it, cast the best shielding spell she knew around everyone around her. It might block outgoing attacks, but it should block the incoming one, too.
Squall
Squall fell over as the shaking ground pounded and bruised him. He hadn't expected that. He got up on all fours, trying to steady himself, and thrust out a hand at Seifer, casting Thundara.
Karla
The quake hadn't affected Karla as much, considering she was halfway through a wall, but she couldn't help but cling onto Seifer more tightly as the ground shook and shivered. Which meant that as soon as she looked up, there was a giant burst of electricity heading for her face.
Unaware of how Squall's magic worked--or of Tara's protective spell--Karla squealed and pushed Seifer forward to further get between her and Squall's spell, tumbling to the ground behind him to get out of the way of the blast.
Seifer
The electricity from the spell smashed right through what was left of his shield spell and hit Seifer. He jerked wildly for a moment, and nearly dropped his gunblade when his fingers went numb.
He was actually kind of surprised that he was still conscious.
Rinoa
"Stop it, stop it, stop it!!!"
It even surprised Rinoa, how loud that came out. But once it started, it wouldn't stop. The words had been bubbling up and they just hung there in the air.
She wasn't a mercenary. She wasn't a SeeD. she couldn't do this.
"You're going to kill him," she said, her voice desperate, pleading. "Everyone just ... just stop."
Squall
Squall stopped, his gunblade slowing to a halt in mid-swing. He kept his eyes on Seifer warily. "He's not giving us a choice."
Rinoa
"Don't be stupid!" she said, stomping her foot. She could be childish if she wanted to! Because this was ridiculous and maybe she didn't care if she was being childish right now. "There's always a choice! You don't believe in destiny, anyway! This is bullshit!"
She couldn't, she couldn't, she couldn't stand here and watch this. She couldn't.
He had Sylvie's eyes. She remembered the first time he had ever kissed her, the way his lips had tasted and the roaring in her ears. Maybe that made her a child, maybe that made her ridiculous, but oh fucking Hyne, he was going to die. She couldn't stand here and watch him die. Not even for Squall.
Seifer
Seifer slumped a bit, one shoulder pressed against the wall, gunblade still gripped tightly in his hand. "This is our destiny, my destiny. I will defeat you and the sorceress' plans will fall into place."
He gritted his teeth and started to raise his gunblade again. "Or I'll die trying."
Karla
"'Destiny' is just another way of saying, 'I'm too stupid to come up with a better plan'," Karla said through gritted teeth. "The option of forcibly removing your head from your ass is still on the table, Seifer. Take it so Rinoa doesn't have to watch you die."
Squall
"We've already beaten you," Squall added. "Have some dignity. Besides, if I kill you now, you don't get a rematch."
Rinoa
"You're out of options," Rinoa said. "You know that. Garden's coming, and your army's gone. Do you really want to die? Great. We kill you, and then what? Then it's five minutes later and you're gone. And nothing else has changed, except that you're dead. It doesn't accomplish anything and it's stupid and dammit, Seifer, I don't want you to die."
Seifer
Seifer started to step forward, but swayed and slumped back against the wall again. There was blood running down his hand and onto his blade from a wound somewhere under his jacket.
"I hate not getting a rematch," he said as the gunblade started to slip from his hand.
Rinoa
Her throat might have had a sudden lump in it. For no reason at all.
"Exactly," she said, softly. "A-and if he wins, you know he'll just gloat about it and be totally insufferable, right?"
She offered him a very weak smile. Squall never gloated about much of anything. It was an attempt at a joke. And a bad attempt, but ... please?
Seifer
Seifer let his gunblade fall to the floor as he shrugged. "He's gonna gloat anyway. In that silent, smug way of his."
He didn't move a whole lot, and tried to look like he was in a whole lot of pain.
Rinoa
"You know how he is," she said, shooting Squall a quick glance and hoping he wasn't taking that wrong.
She took a tentative step towards him, and then another. He'd been hurt, badly. Which had been necessary. It still scared her.
"Come on," she said, holding out her hand to him. "Let's go home."
Garden would still take him in. Quistis would make sure of it.
All he had to do was take her hand.
Seifer
And that was the opening he wanted. Seifer shoved off of the wall and at the same time he grabbed her hand and was yanking her towards him. The blade he had hidden up his sleeve was pressed against her neck in a flash. Seifer smirked at the rest of the group.
"You morons," he mocked as he started to pull her down the hall.
(Post 5 of plot. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Post 8.)
(Dun dun dunnnnn! Okay, here we go! Preplayed with the incomparable, best-ever whateverknight, trigons_child, glacial_witch, life_inshadow, and furnaceface AND NOW WITH special guest star Kym (formerly our asgardcreated and gotyourmateria) serving as our amazing kick-ass Seifer Almasy. ♥ Still NFB and NFI, but as always, OOC is love.)
Seifer
Seifer stood watching out the window, tapping his gunblade against a boot. He could hear those morons coming and smirked as they filed into the room.
"So the traitors and morons finally found their way to me. Took you long enough. I was starting to think the monsters were going to take away all my fun."
He turns to look at them, still casually tapping his boot with his gunblade. "Well, fun for me, anyway."
Fujin and Raijin
"NOT TRAITORS," Fujin barked. She glared at him with her good eye. "POSSE."
"Yeah, Fujin's right, ya know?" Raijin added. "It's like, we're not abandoning you, you've abandoned us, ya know? We just... we can't do it anymore, Seifer. We can't help you end the world." He scuffed his toe on the floor, looking sheepish.
Seifer
"We were posse." He paused to stare at them for a moment, then nodded his head. "Raijin, Fujin, it's been fun."
Fujin and Raijin
"We want the old you back," Raijin replied. "It's... sad that we have to rely on Squall."
Squall
Squall hated being relied on.
"It doesn't have to be like this, Seifer," he insisted. "You can still back down."
Rinoa
"They're still your posse," Rinoa insisted, unable to keep herself from sounding snippy. Because he was being ridiculous, that was why. "They're worried about you. We're here to help, Seifer. Don't you get that?"
Raven
Raven was really hoping to avoid another fight. "Please, listen to her," she said, stepping forward, projecting calm and trust to Seifer. "We do not wish any violence. You do not know many of us, but I promise you, we are only here help."
Seifer
Seifer laughed and shook his head. "The only thing you can rely on the Ice Princess for is to stand there with a vacant look in his eyes."
He glared at the others and waved his hand, as if waving off their words. "Don't lie, it's unbecoming of... well, even you. You're here to try and stop me, but you won't succeed."
Fujin and Raijin
Fujin and Raijin glanced at each other, considering their options, then nodded, as one.
"SORRY," Fujin said.
"Yeah. We can't be a part of this. Best of luck, ya know?"
They fired a crisp salute to Squall, and his friends, and a much longer one for Seifer. They couldn't fight with him, not now, but they were never going to fight against him, either.
They were a posse, still.
And with that, Fujin and Raijin turned and left.
Karla
"Well, that was helpful," Karla commented as they left. She had a feeling that negotiations were about to break down precipitously.
On the plus side, it meant she really didn't have to try for diplomacy. "Look, you," she said, tilting her chin at Seifer. "Everyone's bailing on you like rats from a sinking ship. Even your so-called posse is smart enough to see you don't have a chance. Come back with us and we'll magically pull your head from your ass, and everything can go back to what passes for normal around here. You don't have to do this."
Diplomacy was not amongst Karla's skillset.
Seifer
If this were any place and time but now, Seifer would so be hitting on that chick. He liked them direct and mouthy.
He stepped back and raised his gunblade, and then beckoned them with his 'bring it' gesture. "How about we stop acting like girls and get things over with. Things being your deaths and my revolution."
Tara
"You know this isn't you," Tara said, squinting at him. "Your aura, it's all -- the colors are mixed. I don't think you really w-want any of this."
"And," she added, stepping back, "it's kind of sexist to call people girls as an insult."
Because that was clearly a key factor.
Squall
Seifer.
This was where it had started, so many months ago: Squall and Seifer, battling to prove who was better. A matter of pride.
Squall touched the scar on his face -- the one Seifer had given him -- and narrowed his eyes. This time, it would end differently.
He ran forward, his gunblade striking sparks on the floor before he swung it up to slash at his enemy.
Seifer
Seifer pulled his gunblade up to parry the attack, lashing out with a fireball at the same time.
"Still so damn predictable, huh Princess?"
Jono
Oh, he wanted to play with fire, did he?
//Not so predictable,// Jono said, his voice in the wide-open now as he reached to pull his wrappings down. //Somewhere along th'way, he learned all about th'power of friendship, or some such rot.//
Here, Seifer, have a whip of flame, coming right back toward you. Sort of a how-do-you-do, I can play with fire too, kind of... bonding... thing. Sure.
Seifer
Squall suddenly wasn't a concern for Seifer, the flame that was being shot at his head was.
"What the hell?" he muttered loudly as he barely managed to call up a shield spell in time. "Where'd you pick up this freak, Puberty Boy?"
Rinoa
"Don't call him that," Rinoa seethed. She'd meant Jono, because Squall had probably been called worse, by Seifer.
If she hadn't been so abruptly angry, she may have gone for something lighter than a Meteor spell. As it was, Seifer could duck some falling rocks.
Karla
Karla would have cheered for Rinoa, if she hadn't been busy getting herself into position. Jono's fire and Rinoa's rockslide from thin air had put Seifer's back--quite literally--against a wall.
She could use that.
Fixing Seifer's position in her mind and hoping Rinoa's barrage would continue for another minute, Karla passed through the wall into the adjoining room and then ran over to where Seifer had been standing a moment before. Passing her upper body through, she wrapped her arms around his chest and yanked. "Kiss kiss," she breathed into his ear as she held onto his struggling body. "Told you to give up." Then more loudly she yelled, "Get him!"
Squall
While he was pinned, Squall jumped forward and slashed at Seifer several times in succession.
He knew he shouldn't, but he just felt an incredible amount of satisfaction from hurting Seifer. He'd feel bad about that later.
Seifer
Seifer felt bad about it now, what with that damn blade cutting into his skin. Obviously someone had been paying attention during their sparring.
"Let me go, you little witch," Seifer snarled out between grunts of pain. He took a split second to think, and decided to cast Quake instead of Cure.
Considering he was between the two people he was hoping to affect, he should have went with the Cure.
Tara
Tara raised her hands and, before she had time to overthink it, cast the best shielding spell she knew around everyone around her. It might block outgoing attacks, but it should block the incoming one, too.
Squall
Squall fell over as the shaking ground pounded and bruised him. He hadn't expected that. He got up on all fours, trying to steady himself, and thrust out a hand at Seifer, casting Thundara.
Karla
The quake hadn't affected Karla as much, considering she was halfway through a wall, but she couldn't help but cling onto Seifer more tightly as the ground shook and shivered. Which meant that as soon as she looked up, there was a giant burst of electricity heading for her face.
Unaware of how Squall's magic worked--or of Tara's protective spell--Karla squealed and pushed Seifer forward to further get between her and Squall's spell, tumbling to the ground behind him to get out of the way of the blast.
Seifer
The electricity from the spell smashed right through what was left of his shield spell and hit Seifer. He jerked wildly for a moment, and nearly dropped his gunblade when his fingers went numb.
He was actually kind of surprised that he was still conscious.
Rinoa
"Stop it, stop it, stop it!!!"
It even surprised Rinoa, how loud that came out. But once it started, it wouldn't stop. The words had been bubbling up and they just hung there in the air.
She wasn't a mercenary. She wasn't a SeeD. she couldn't do this.
"You're going to kill him," she said, her voice desperate, pleading. "Everyone just ... just stop."
Squall
Squall stopped, his gunblade slowing to a halt in mid-swing. He kept his eyes on Seifer warily. "He's not giving us a choice."
Rinoa
"Don't be stupid!" she said, stomping her foot. She could be childish if she wanted to! Because this was ridiculous and maybe she didn't care if she was being childish right now. "There's always a choice! You don't believe in destiny, anyway! This is bullshit!"
She couldn't, she couldn't, she couldn't stand here and watch this. She couldn't.
He had Sylvie's eyes. She remembered the first time he had ever kissed her, the way his lips had tasted and the roaring in her ears. Maybe that made her a child, maybe that made her ridiculous, but oh fucking Hyne, he was going to die. She couldn't stand here and watch him die. Not even for Squall.
Seifer
Seifer slumped a bit, one shoulder pressed against the wall, gunblade still gripped tightly in his hand. "This is our destiny, my destiny. I will defeat you and the sorceress' plans will fall into place."
He gritted his teeth and started to raise his gunblade again. "Or I'll die trying."
Karla
"'Destiny' is just another way of saying, 'I'm too stupid to come up with a better plan'," Karla said through gritted teeth. "The option of forcibly removing your head from your ass is still on the table, Seifer. Take it so Rinoa doesn't have to watch you die."
Squall
"We've already beaten you," Squall added. "Have some dignity. Besides, if I kill you now, you don't get a rematch."
Rinoa
"You're out of options," Rinoa said. "You know that. Garden's coming, and your army's gone. Do you really want to die? Great. We kill you, and then what? Then it's five minutes later and you're gone. And nothing else has changed, except that you're dead. It doesn't accomplish anything and it's stupid and dammit, Seifer, I don't want you to die."
Seifer
Seifer started to step forward, but swayed and slumped back against the wall again. There was blood running down his hand and onto his blade from a wound somewhere under his jacket.
"I hate not getting a rematch," he said as the gunblade started to slip from his hand.
Rinoa
Her throat might have had a sudden lump in it. For no reason at all.
"Exactly," she said, softly. "A-and if he wins, you know he'll just gloat about it and be totally insufferable, right?"
She offered him a very weak smile. Squall never gloated about much of anything. It was an attempt at a joke. And a bad attempt, but ... please?
Seifer
Seifer let his gunblade fall to the floor as he shrugged. "He's gonna gloat anyway. In that silent, smug way of his."
He didn't move a whole lot, and tried to look like he was in a whole lot of pain.
Rinoa
"You know how he is," she said, shooting Squall a quick glance and hoping he wasn't taking that wrong.
She took a tentative step towards him, and then another. He'd been hurt, badly. Which had been necessary. It still scared her.
"Come on," she said, holding out her hand to him. "Let's go home."
Garden would still take him in. Quistis would make sure of it.
All he had to do was take her hand.
Seifer
And that was the opening he wanted. Seifer shoved off of the wall and at the same time he grabbed her hand and was yanking her towards him. The blade he had hidden up his sleeve was pressed against her neck in a flash. Seifer smirked at the rest of the group.
"You morons," he mocked as he started to pull her down the hall.
(Post 5 of plot. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Post 8.)
(Dun dun dunnnnn! Okay, here we go! Preplayed with the incomparable, best-ever whateverknight, trigons_child, glacial_witch, life_inshadow, and furnaceface AND NOW WITH special guest star Kym (formerly our asgardcreated and gotyourmateria) serving as our amazing kick-ass Seifer Almasy. ♥ Still NFB and NFI, but as always, OOC is love.)