The Right Hand Path - Awareness
Title: Awareness
Arc: The Right Hand Path
Fandom: FF7
Characters: Sephiroth, Cloud, and Zack
Rating: G
Words: 951 this part
Note: This is the fourth part of one of the stories I started a while back, comments loved! Follow the Arc name tag to get the rest.
Summary: This is a universe in which Sephiroth was jarred back into his clone too early, and was taken with Zack and Cloud when they broke out, before Cloud ended up in a mako coma.
It had been calmer between them recently.
Caution had led to delays, and hair dye had been attempted upon him and deemed a lost cause. He hadn't been asked his opinion about the prospective colors they had attempted to give him, and thankfully the dyes hadn't fully clung to his hair. The almost purple tinge was regrettable, but better than the other possibilities.
None of the experimenting had made it easier for them to get into cities unnoted.
Glowing eyes could be hidden by glasses, clothing under coats, and some weapons that they had between them could be tucked away. They themselves remained distinctive, and trying to be mysterious tended to make their group more memorable than not, as the sheer presence of them was unfortunately hard to dampen.
He still hadn't gotten his rights to a permanent weapon back. But, that was fine. Careful testing had started to reveal to him what sorts of oddities lay between him and Strife now. They hadn't been there before, had never been with Zack at all, so they left him curious, just as they had left the blond. Thus the anger of the other anger when he had at first not known the answer.
At that time he simply… had not realized that their something was something that they could do anything about. While still true, it firmed, that vague sense turning into a keyed vibration against his perception, and the better he became in being aware of it, the more he slowly became aware of others.
He hadn't realized there would be others, nor that he could press on those cords and bring or deny awareness to himself. Cautious testing, just as he'd done with the persistence of the softly whispering burble in his mind, let him determine that unlike that voice, these would not be picked up by the blond.
He made a point of it to not let the blond know, for this, likely, would be an instance of lost trust, the gap widening instead of closing should they know about the fact that he could so intensely influence others he might never have seen nor met. Strife would be yet more suspicious of their interactions and his silences, and that would draw no benefit at all, not when he wasn't trying to experiment with what the two of them had in respect to each other. No, he only experimented with the contact that he had with those unknown others.
Using it, he brushed at those of the city they were considering, those that seemed closest on the pale strings in his mind, and decided to be more bold than he usually was, giving them the impression that they wanted to keep Shinra people distracted. He had never attempted anything that didn't have to do with himself directly, and he had certainly never been present to watch results, should any results truly happen. This was going to be its own sort of new attempt. Still, it was just an attempt, and he did have the present circumstances to focus on as well.
Thus, of course, Zack had to be talking to him when he finally turned his attention back to his surroundings again, Strife watching him with too studying eyes as the dark haired man outlined his projected course of action for going in. He didn't ask for the man to repeat, instead playing back to himself what he had heard but not registered before, and he nodded to show he agreed once he determined the question that had been directed at him.
They wouldn't, of course, leave him alone. Between the three of them he knew he was as much their prisoner as ally until he finally managed to prove himself, something that seemed to be coming more quickly with Zack than the blond would permit him. Thus, caution.
Having determined everyone amenable to his plot to that point, violet eyes turned to the city that lay north of them. "Now, Spike and you can go through one of the lower gates. You two got enough of that same air about you that they might take you as brothers, while I can circle the city a bit myself to come in a different way. We can meet up towards the middle, off the square? That way we can see about the possibility of sticking it out here for a few weeks, get supplies and some real rest. Sound good? Compliments, complaints?"
The blond leaned in a little to study Zack's face before nodding and taking out his sunglasses, settling them low on his nose. "Time to go Sephiroth."
He sighed, but met violet eyes before nodding and getting to his feet, glasses, of the color tinted normal variety, being nudged up his nose. They had no magnification, but people seemed less likely to take a second glance to see his odd eyes or the glow while he wore them than without. Oddly, it tended to be taken as distortion, though he, personally, doubted he would have so easily missed such cues. "We will be seeing you in the city then."
Something in his tone made the man pause, but he was gratified when there was no askance of explanation. "Yeah, see you then guys."
With a small wave between the black haired man and blond, the group parted ways, him following on Strife's heels as the blond handed back his weapon, while Zack turned to head in another direction entirely.
They always took on cities as though it was a combat situation. Hopefully this time there would be no trouble as there had been on one or two occasions prior.
Not if his experiment went as hoped at least.
Arc: The Right Hand Path
Fandom: FF7
Characters: Sephiroth, Cloud, and Zack
Rating: G
Words: 951 this part
Note: This is the fourth part of one of the stories I started a while back, comments loved! Follow the Arc name tag to get the rest.
Summary: This is a universe in which Sephiroth was jarred back into his clone too early, and was taken with Zack and Cloud when they broke out, before Cloud ended up in a mako coma.
It had been calmer between them recently.
Caution had led to delays, and hair dye had been attempted upon him and deemed a lost cause. He hadn't been asked his opinion about the prospective colors they had attempted to give him, and thankfully the dyes hadn't fully clung to his hair. The almost purple tinge was regrettable, but better than the other possibilities.
None of the experimenting had made it easier for them to get into cities unnoted.
Glowing eyes could be hidden by glasses, clothing under coats, and some weapons that they had between them could be tucked away. They themselves remained distinctive, and trying to be mysterious tended to make their group more memorable than not, as the sheer presence of them was unfortunately hard to dampen.
He still hadn't gotten his rights to a permanent weapon back. But, that was fine. Careful testing had started to reveal to him what sorts of oddities lay between him and Strife now. They hadn't been there before, had never been with Zack at all, so they left him curious, just as they had left the blond. Thus the anger of the other anger when he had at first not known the answer.
At that time he simply… had not realized that their something was something that they could do anything about. While still true, it firmed, that vague sense turning into a keyed vibration against his perception, and the better he became in being aware of it, the more he slowly became aware of others.
He hadn't realized there would be others, nor that he could press on those cords and bring or deny awareness to himself. Cautious testing, just as he'd done with the persistence of the softly whispering burble in his mind, let him determine that unlike that voice, these would not be picked up by the blond.
He made a point of it to not let the blond know, for this, likely, would be an instance of lost trust, the gap widening instead of closing should they know about the fact that he could so intensely influence others he might never have seen nor met. Strife would be yet more suspicious of their interactions and his silences, and that would draw no benefit at all, not when he wasn't trying to experiment with what the two of them had in respect to each other. No, he only experimented with the contact that he had with those unknown others.
Using it, he brushed at those of the city they were considering, those that seemed closest on the pale strings in his mind, and decided to be more bold than he usually was, giving them the impression that they wanted to keep Shinra people distracted. He had never attempted anything that didn't have to do with himself directly, and he had certainly never been present to watch results, should any results truly happen. This was going to be its own sort of new attempt. Still, it was just an attempt, and he did have the present circumstances to focus on as well.
Thus, of course, Zack had to be talking to him when he finally turned his attention back to his surroundings again, Strife watching him with too studying eyes as the dark haired man outlined his projected course of action for going in. He didn't ask for the man to repeat, instead playing back to himself what he had heard but not registered before, and he nodded to show he agreed once he determined the question that had been directed at him.
They wouldn't, of course, leave him alone. Between the three of them he knew he was as much their prisoner as ally until he finally managed to prove himself, something that seemed to be coming more quickly with Zack than the blond would permit him. Thus, caution.
Having determined everyone amenable to his plot to that point, violet eyes turned to the city that lay north of them. "Now, Spike and you can go through one of the lower gates. You two got enough of that same air about you that they might take you as brothers, while I can circle the city a bit myself to come in a different way. We can meet up towards the middle, off the square? That way we can see about the possibility of sticking it out here for a few weeks, get supplies and some real rest. Sound good? Compliments, complaints?"
The blond leaned in a little to study Zack's face before nodding and taking out his sunglasses, settling them low on his nose. "Time to go Sephiroth."
He sighed, but met violet eyes before nodding and getting to his feet, glasses, of the color tinted normal variety, being nudged up his nose. They had no magnification, but people seemed less likely to take a second glance to see his odd eyes or the glow while he wore them than without. Oddly, it tended to be taken as distortion, though he, personally, doubted he would have so easily missed such cues. "We will be seeing you in the city then."
Something in his tone made the man pause, but he was gratified when there was no askance of explanation. "Yeah, see you then guys."
With a small wave between the black haired man and blond, the group parted ways, him following on Strife's heels as the blond handed back his weapon, while Zack turned to head in another direction entirely.
They always took on cities as though it was a combat situation. Hopefully this time there would be no trouble as there had been on one or two occasions prior.
Not if his experiment went as hoped at least.