[Active/closed]

[noliektinyspace]

Characters: Cloud Strife (FF7), Cloud Strife (KH)
Content: One connected by darkness, one connected down to the cells. Seems like they're more alike than they assumed.
Location: One Irving Place
Time of day: Evening.
Warnings: None.

Comments

[not_asoldier]

Cloud thought he had problems, but they paled in comparison to his younger alternate self’s. The boy seemed… fragile, broken, and deeply wounded by something that happened to him in his past, and what had happened to him here only seemed to exacerbate it.

It would be unsettling to see anyone in that condition, but the fact that it was the other him made the feeling worse. He knew what it was like to have your life shattered at a young age and he knew what it was like to deal with strong feelings of hopelessness and despair. He also knew what it was like to bottle up your feelings, and how that never worked.

If the was something that was bothering the boy he needed to talk about it, it was awkward that he was the boy wanted to talk to. But… Cloud assumed it was because he might be the only one that would understand, all things considered.

Cloud sighed as he prepared himself for what this conversation might hold before he entered the apartment. He saw his other self staring off into space, frankly, the boy looked pitiful.

“Hey” he said as he sat on the couch next to him, and he briefly paused when he noticed younger man’s eyes. They were glowing, why didn’t he notice that before? Cloud himself had startlingly bright blue eyes, but they didn’t actually glow. Weird.

“Hey” he repeated, getting his mind back on track, “You wanted to talk?”

[noliektinyspace]

He pulled the blanket a little further upon his small frame and glanced down, pulling bare feet out of fuzzy blue slippers and sliding them up to the couch carefully, under the warmth of the sheet. A small shiver spread through him, though not entirely because of the cold. This wasn't a topic he enjoyed discussing on a daily basis, and refused to make it on a daily basis. Though... it needed to be discussed, right?

Sephiroth. Things always led back to him in some way, didn't they?

"We don't have to." He replied quietly, solemnly. But he was nowhere near timid. Uncomfortable, yes. But not weak or timid. "I heard about the one from your world. Sora mentioned him." He shifted a little, trying to bring himself back up upon the couch further. "Something about your... darkness?"

Darkness in the metphorical sense.

Darkness in the literal sense.

Either way didn't matter, did it? There was still damage done. Still suffering. Still one factor put through torment and gods knew what else. This man next to him; so different and still the same. In bizarre ways.

He shook his head again, realizing he may have jumped the gun a bit hard. "Sorry, sorry, that's probably something you don't want to talk about."

[not_asoldier]

Well this conversation just hit the ground running, didn’t it?

Did he want to talk about Sephiroth? No, not at all. He wanted to forget that man ever existed.
But need always trumps want, and if Cloud needed to talk about his Sephiroth then so be it.

It did sort of matter weather or not the darkness was literal or not. The darkness he was familiar with was dangerous, capable of consuming and destroying everything in it’s path, not just some pretty metaphor. Darkness had hurt him, his friends and his family so many times. He had almost fallen to the darkness himself, and there was still a part of him didn’t think he had been worth saving.

Cloud’s expression changed to something dark and pained. "No, it’s... it’s..." He started, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it was okay, because it wasn’t.

"He’s the personification of the darkness in my heart, or... that’s what he claimed, anyway. No matter what I did to try and defeat him, he would always come back.” Cloud explained, then he idly added. "Looking back at it... I think I went about it the wrong way..." He buried his head in his hands

"Tifa was right, all I needed to do was accept the light. Why did it take me so long to realize that?"

[noliektinyspace]

"Accept the... light?" The young blonde questioned, head tilting slightly to the side curiously. "You... had some kind of substance implanted in your heart to duplicate him, or...?" He blinked, and blinked again. This was... difficult to figure out, to say the least. Even though he'd gone through it once with Sora, the more the concept was talked around, the less it made sense to him.

He moved to sit against the armrest of the couch, leaning back against the small pillows situated in the crook of the arm and pulled one hand out from under the blanket to slide within the creases of fabric thoughtfully. Light blue eyes never left his double for a few moments as the other seemed to be trying to figure something out for himself.

"How can you go about fighting Sephiroth the wrong way? If someone does something to hurt you, you fight back. It's simple self-defense, especially if they're targeting you." Granted, bringing a ten-foot sword through a man wasn't exactly 'self-defense', but the bastard had already destroyed everything around him. It was close enough.

"Start from the beginning. I don't really understand what's happening here."