Don't just let life pass you by...

[lsr_summons]

Who: Lucrecia; Shiva; Closed
When: December 16th, morning
Location: Junon, a few blocks away from the ShinRa building
Rating: PG13
Summary: Ice Queen visits ice queen?

Comments

[lsr_summons]

Shiva held up a hand, swift and sure, but not impatient. "Excuses and rationalizations are lost on the ears of gods; don't waste your energy."

Her face held not once ounce of pity, but it did soften by degrees. "Yes, I know. And that's why I'm here. Because you are working towards that goal, but those around you? Are not. They are caught up in more personal dramas, with petty agendas. On your current path, you are all set to fail, woman."

"Unlike those boys and demons you have put all your trust in, I know what must be done..." Her face and form were shifting, and Shiva caught her wrap over an arm as it slipped from her naked skin. Her tattoos began to sparkle and glow as a less lethal manifestation of her diamond dust swirled around her, concentrating into a globe in the open palm of her hand. "After all, I was the one the Cetra called down to freeze that overgrown virus who mocks every sacred office of woman." She stuck out her chin, smiling once more, not a drop of shame to be found in her glory.

"So if you are ready to freeze your tears and still your tongue, if you are ready to find the power of your sex that lies in its inherent strength, and not in either the slung mud or the pretty pedestals society has placed upon it..."

"Well... at least we can make your foolish sacrifices worth it."

[chaos_proponent]

Lucrecia had been about to say more but she stopped when Shiva spoke, her expression holding a flash of pain before she dropped her eyes. Truth be told, she was still wondering if she wasn't hallucinating somehow. Maybe she had been working too hard, but the swirl of dust around the summon drew her eyes back up to Shiva's face as she continued to speak.

"...I know some of that..." Her voice was quiet, thoughts flashing back to her talk with Vincent a few days previously. "You froze Jenova originally?"The information surprised the scientist and she fell silent for a few moments listening before she spoke again.

"I want to make things right, although I don't know how to do that, aside from continuing with my research." Lucrecia watched Shiva for a moment before she looked away. "...You think I can actually make things better this time?"

[lsr_summons]

If only that obsessive stubbornness could be brought out to flow, rather than driving inward. Shiva watched Lucrecia impassively, silently viewing the scientist's thoughts and feelings as well as her face.

As the woman began to drift away, the goddess reached out a cool hand to take Lucrecia's cheek and lift her head. "No. I don't think you can do it. You are not listening, daughter: I have the power. The gods as a collective. But you will only be dealing with me, because that is the arrangement I made with Alexander. Because, yes, Lucrecia, it was I who helped the Cetra, and it was I who froze the Knowlespole, who gave Gaia her scab so she could heal. It makes your team's work a bit of a personal slight, don't you think?"

Shiva gave Lucrecia a pat on the cheek before dropping her arm. "But harsh as I can be, I never take things personally. The small workings of mortal children roll off my glaciers. So wash the despair from your face. You're simply going to help me with my work, and then all will be satisfactory."

She crossed her arms under her breasts and jutted a hip, in a pose not unlike Lucrecia's own businesslike body language sometimes. "In order to do that, though, you must know what to do, yes. And that involves... learning to ask."

"Here, an exercise: tell me, right now, what you desire most. And don't try to please me--you won't, no matter what you voice--just be honest."

[chaos_proponent]

"...We were foolish to think we knew what our work would lead to." Lucrecia's voice was quiet as she looked up at Shiva before glancing back to the window next to them. The whole situation was decidedly surreal and she half wondered if she'd been slipped something in her food.

"...What I desire most?" The question startled her for a moment and she was silent, trying to sort through her thoughts. "...I want impossible things." Her voice was quiet when she finally spoke again. "I want things that I can't have, that I don't deserve..."

[lsr_summons]

"Humankind is inherently foolish, in general. All fallible things are, even gods. But our privilege is we have access to divinity. And, no, I am not giving any of you that."

Shiva raised her eyes to the sky, closing them as she pressed her palms together, drawing in invisible power from on high with an almost note on her lips. It ended in a satisfied sigh. She dropped her pose to face the scientist again, watching her watch the window. She tapped her writing. "Do you think that is an impossible thing to have?" Shiva worked her hands, her diamonds and snow pulling together in a tiny, translucent projection of Lucrecia, who looked up at the larger form expectantly as it spoke for the goddess. "Can a woman be both cold and compassionate? Can she use both love and logic? Can her heart ache and not be broken? Can she sacrifice of herself and still meet her needs? Can fear be conquered with love? Such a mountain to climb..."

The goddess cradled the small, icy being, addressing it, though keeping an eye on the original. "Too much a mountain for you to conquer, yes. You. But this... is not about you, because this is about being a woman. Being a member of womanhood. Do you think I am anything without my sisters? Are any of them anything without the others? This planet--this universe turns because we all share in the work."

Another wave of the hand, and more figures popped in around Lucrecia, some familiar, like Scarlet, some less so, like Aerith and Yuffie, some virtually unknown to the scientist like Shelke, Elfe, and Sayoko. All had the same determined expression in varying quantities, and all began speaking the same words about saving the planet. As more appeared, the volume became louder, until Shiva was forced to raise her own to talk over it. "None of you must be perfect, none of you must be larger-than-life, none of you must be everything if all of you bring something."

"I am willing to help you achieve this--no, not as a leader, not even as a gatherer. But... I can open your heart to being a sister, a mother, a daughter... a friend. Able to do your part. Do you feel that's possible?"