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♥ Character Information
Name: Denzel
Age: 13
Personality: An orphan, Denzel lived a hard life after Meteor and his experiences with death and Geostigma have shaped his perspective of the world into something other than what he'd have been if his parents had lived. Living with Tifa and Cloud has only encouraged his serious nature, though his new 'family' helps him remember it's okay to laugh from time to time as well.
There's no time like the present to grow up- Being powerless, not knowing what to do, unable to protect others--these are all things Denzel hates about being a kid. Adults in his past as well as those around him in the present have shown him incredible strengths of character it pains him to be unable to imitate. Dependence is something he dislikes and he forces himself to try and be as capable of self-sufficiency as possible. This can often lead to him making bad choices, which only frustrates him more as he feels an adult would never have made such a mistake. At the same time this lends a seriousness to his character not found in other children with families. He's very aware of what's going on around him as well as attempting to be informed on the world. When disaster strikes his first thought is no longer to cry, but to formulate a plan. Sadly his inexperience in life as well as not usually having all the information makes this a desperate area for him.
Through a child's eyes- Despite his wish to grow up as soon as possible, Denzel is still very much the child. He often thinks in absolutes and the actions of those around him constantly influence his decisions. Comprehending the entire picture, not just his small portion of it, is something he struggles with, as is thinking of things from others' perspectives. He doesn't mean to hurt anyone with the things he does, but it often doesn't occur to him that not everyone will see his actions in the same light as he does. He also looks up to adults, Cloud in particular, as a guiding force. Though when they say something he doesn't particularly like it's hard for him to accept.
Do you remember what laughter was like- Fairly serious in nature after the events since the collapse of Sector 7, Denzel sometimes needs to be reminded it's okay to smile. He picks up on social cues--others smiling and laughing--but he doesn't often initiate these things himself and his responses to such things tend to be muted. He even takes play seriously, preferring to "train" than play a game of tag or do a puzzle. Slowly he's growing out of this though as he spends more time with Cloud, Marlene, Tifa and their friends. Watching these adults causes him to realize that you can smile and protect the world at the same time, though he's a fair ways off from being able to do that himself.
Strengths: Denzel doesn't have many physicals strengths, being only thirteen, but he does his best to be strong and in good physical condition. He knows the basics of swordplay as well as fist fighting (along with a few dirty tricks), though he's not so skilled he'd get anywhere against an adult. His best physical skill is how fast he can get through obstacle courses (something he relishes a bit after being sick for so long). Flat out running is hard race for him, but ducking down alleys and cutting through tight areas as well as scrambling over construction and debris in good time is something he excels a bit at.
Mentally he's very determined and doesn't give up lightly. He's also devoted to those around him, not just his 'family', but friends and people in general if he can help ease their lives. He takes things seriously which can be a boon in dangerous situations and is perhaps the greatest asset to the basic survival skills he knows.
Weaknesses: As far as weaknesses go Denzel's greatest short coming is that he's still a child. He just doesn't have the height and weight, as well as strength, that adults do. Or even older kids. So it can be hard for him to fight back against someone older than him. Despite this he tries to be stronger than he is, willing to pick up fights he obviously doesn't have the ability to win.
He also has something of a childlike mentality despite his serious nature that can lead to him misinterpreting things and thus getting into trouble. This comes most often into play when people tell him things he doesn't want to hear (usually to do with waiting to grow up before trying to get strong enough to fight). His introversion doesn't aid this as he'll often keep thoughts and plans bottled up inside, making it hard for others to help him.
This is perhaps the leading cause of his poor communication skills. It often doesn't occur to him that he needs to explain himself for others to understand and help him--this causes problems that could be fixed with a five minute chat to turn into complex problems that are hard to get to the root of.
History: Denzel was born in Midgar. His family lived on the plate of Sector 7. His father worked for one of the business departments of ShinRa and his mother was a stay-at-home wife and socialite. They were a well-to-do enough family, though his father worked hard to become the head of his division and gain a larger paycheck, wanting to be able to move his family all the way up to the affluent Sector 3 resident district. "Always have a goal," was one of his father's sayings.
When Denzel was seven AVALANCHE had reappeared, now led by Barret Wallace, and once again begun its well-known terrorist attacks. This didn't seem important to Denzel until the day his father came home from work early, agitated and nervous. Where was his mother? What was taking her so long to get home? Why wasn't she home yet!
Denzel didn't know what was wrong, but when his father went to the market to find his mother he followed. His mother didn't know either, but his father quickly explained that AVALANCHE was going to destroy the support pillar of Sector 7--they had to leave. Now. Their new house in Sector 5 was already set up and waiting, they just had to get to it before the plate dropped.
Denzel's mother wouldn't hear it. At the least she was determined to warn her friends. She ran off before Denzel's father could stop her. Needing to go after his wife, Denzel's father was torn until he saw a co-worker, Mr. Arkham, moving to get out in time as well. Denzel hadn't met Arkham before, but he noticed how agitated he was as well when he came over saying something about how the Turks had already planted the bombs, it was time to leave. ...Didn't the Turks work for ShinRa? Since when had they helped AVALANCHE?
Confused, Denzel could do nothing as his father gave him the key to their new house in Sector 5 and sent him off with Arkham, promising to reunite with him later after fetching his mother. Denzel never saw them again.
Arkham took him to the new house where they watched the news--until the twisted screech of metal shredded the air and the plate shook. Arkham rushed out of the house as a special news bulletin showed Sector 7 collapsing. It took Denzel a while to recognize his home sector, but when he did...he ran. The police were already setting up barricades to prevent people from falling into the abyss that used to house Sector 7. Everything...everything was gone. Just like that. If he squinted he could see Sector 8 in the distance. It was as if Sector 7 had never been there.
Somehow he made his way back to his new 'home' after that. Arkham gave him something to eat and found him a mattress, promising to check in on him once awhile. And then he left. Denzel watched the fall of Sector 7 over and over again on the news. His parents... He couldn't believe it. Maybe they'd just gone to work and that was why they hadn't come back yet. His father was a pretty important person after all.
He went outside to see if everyone else was at work. All the houses around him were empty. Notes were stuck to doors with contact information and locations of shelters...but no people. Denzel looked farther and farther, but eventually he had to admit it. No one was at work. His parents weren't at work. They weren't coming back.
Before he knew it he was lost. Crying, angry, lost, alone--he grabbed an abandoned toy and threw it, breaking a window. And that's how he met Ruvi. Ruvi was an old lady--at least old to him--with a comforting presence. He'd broken her window, but when she understood his situation... "Come to my house, OK?" She said. And that's how Denzel ended up living with Ruvi.
She was always busy cleaning and sewing and doing chores--he helped with what he could. The outside of the house, the inside, the dishes; he wasn't any good at sewing, but he could at least microwave some of the canned soup she kept in the storage shed for dinner. Ruvi talked about her son a lot--what he liked and didn't like, how he worked a lot... She was obviously very fond of him. Denzel could only wonder if that's why his parents hadn't come back. He was so useless...they must not have been fond enough of him to come back. That's why they went away.
Then one day Ruvi took him outside and looked up into the sky. There was a black dot up there. All the time anymore. The news called it Meteor; it was going to destroy the world. Ruvi told him he could take some food and go, decide to be wherever he wanted at the end of the world. He didn't have anywhere to go. And he liked Ruvi--with his parents gone she was the only one who seemed to care. He told her he wanted to stay with her. She didn't say anything, but the next day she told him it was his job to take care of the garden now.
Life went on. Chores and talking with Ruvi, reading her son's monster encyclopedia at night. ShinRa built a canon, but it only fired once before collapsing. The ShinRa Building itself was destroyed. Denzel could only wonder what sort of monster could possibly manage that. He waited for the end--he didn't think he'd mind if it came while he was asleep with Ruvi. There was a sort of peace about it all.
And then the peace warped and shattered. They thought it was the end, the way the house shook. He was scared; it went on for ages. Ruvi went to the living room window, telling him to stay put. But he couldn't let her go alone. When he followed he found her trying to hold the vinyl she'd put over the whole he'd made in her window in place. She screamed at him to get back in the room as the vinyl bulged out, threatening to tear away. Finally she came over and shut him in herself just as white light burst into the house. She was screaming then and he couldn't get the door open, she was holding it closed, keeping him in, he only wanted to help--!
He wasn't sure what happened, but the light squeezed in through the cracks between the door and the wall like a snake. He fell away unconscious.
When he woke up Ruvi was on the floor. He held her hand until she told him to go check outside. Everything was such a mess... When he went back inside Ruvi was dead. A black substance was leaking from her body--something about it was wrong. It made his skin crawl. He ran outside in fear and met Gaskin. Gaskin was leading others who hadn't gotten to the slums yet down there where it was at least marginally safe. He and the others helped Denzel bury Ruvi. And then...they moved on. Going to the train tracks they descended down to the ground.
It was dangerous and people...so many were dying. The black substance frightened everyone. They said it was contagious, no one wanted to touch anyone with it. At the bottom people began digging graves. Gaskin was there and Denzel stayed with him. Gaskin at least made sure he and the others who stayed as well to bury peoples' dead were fed.
Eventually fewer people began filtering down from the plate. It trickled down to a handful, then one or two, finally the odd one. Gaskin talked about moving on to the new town of Edge that was being built on the perimeter of Sectors 3 and 4. Everyone agreed it sounded like a good plan. A month later Gaskin died of Geostigma and they were all lost.
Denzel and the other children found the destroyed, new world had a purpose for them though. People from Edge came to them asking them to find building materials--steel pipes, nails, light bulbs, whatever they could get their hands on. They were given food in exchange. At first it was good; they were all so proud of themselves for being able to be independent. Even if many of them cried at night for lost family and friends still. Then it happened again. Jobs started drying up as machines from other places were brought in and Edge began manufacturing its own materials. The children began to leave in ones and twos to the Edge and its orphanages.
Things began increasingly harder when there were less than ten of them. Then only six. Then...it was just Denzel and a boy named Rix. They didn't even have enough money for food. What were they going to do? Denzel made a careless remark about catching and eating rats like slum people, half in jest, half in serious. Rix, having been born in the slums, left after that.
It was just Denzel. He didn't know what to do. He tried to find rats to eat. Find anything... Wandering the ruins of Midgar he eventually made his way to the Sector 5 slums in search of food. A motorcycle was outside of a church there. He hadn't seen one that wasn't trash in quite awhile. What really caught his attention was the cellphone hanging from the handlebars though. On a whim he grabbed it and called his old home in Sector 7. All he got was a message saying all Sector 7 phones were currently out of service. Maybe he'd call Ruvi's house...but he'd never known her number.
So he called the first number stored in the phone's contacts. A female voice picked up. It must have been his fatigue and hunger talking as he found himself crying, asking...asking what he should do! He was so alone--was he going to die? A pain shot through his forehead and he dropped the phone. No...no...oh God, don't let it be black, don't let it... When he opened his eyes he saw the black of Geostigma. He passed out.
Later he awoke in an unfamiliar bed in a strange place with two unknown girls watching him. They were Marlene and Tifa. He learned he was in Seventh Heaven. The owner of the phone, Cloud, had brought him there. From that time on he was part of the 'family'. He immediately set to doing chores like he had for Ruvi, but things were different now. He had it. He had Geostigma.
The pain, the uncertainty--he didn't want to die! He'd thought once he could die if it was quick, if it happened in his sleep, if someone who cared was there. This...this though was filled with attacks of pain that felt as if his brain was going to be squeezed out of his skull. He felt weaker all the time... It was the kind of death when you're just waiting for it, but it always comes later than it says, just to piss you off. He hated it. Hated the way Marlene and Tifa had to take care of him, had to babysit him and he couldn't do anything in return.
The only real solace was those nights Cloud actually came back. Cloud--he wanted to be like Cloud. Strong like that. Able to help people. Not have to depend on anyone. On the nights Cloud came back from deliveries Denzel and Marlene would talk to him about the things he'd seen, the places he'd been and they'd sit at one of the bar tables pouring over maps, picking out the best routes for Cloud's next deliveries. It was...something. Sometimes it made him feel like he could be as strong as the man sitting next to him if he just held on.
Then Cloud stopped coming back to Seventh Heaven. Denzel was crushed. Was it him? Was it because he was so useless? Just like his parents, just like... He didn't know. He wanted to get better. So when one of the girls he often saw outside approached him saying people were there to fix kids like them...he left. He didn't even tell Tifa.
That's how he ended up at the Forgotten City with Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo. What happened then...the fighting between Cloud and others, looking for Mother--is an horrible blur of distant sounds and muted sights. What's clearer is coming to in Edge later and seeing Tifa unconscious next to him.
The Tifa who had taken care of him all this time. The Tifa who held him sometimes when he cried over all the people gone. That Tifa. There was a monster--like all those monsters in Ruvi's son's encyclopedia he used to read--and he was sure that was what had hurt Tifa. When he went to make it pay a hand held him back. It wasn't the first time he had met Barret, but it was the most inspiring.
Tifa came to and joined them and from there so many of her friends appeared--he hadn't ever known. And then... Cloud showed up. The amount of security Denzel felt at the sight of Cloud was immense. After wheedling a promise from Cloud to return to Seventh Heaven, he went back there himself to wait with Marlene. Things...were going to be okay. Right?
He thought so. Until Cloud disappeared again. But there was a voice--a different voice than any voice he'd ever heard before--that told him if he went to the Sector 5 church he'd find Cloud. The church had been flooded...but the voice was right. Cloud was there. Letting the ex-SOLDIER bring him down into the pond that had filled the church, he flinched as Cloud poured water over his Geostigma. And yet...he began to feel better than he had in so long. He felt his forehead for the black substance that had been with him since Cloud had first found him--it was gone.
Things got better after that. Cloud was around more. His and Tifa's friends came to visit more--at first Denzel felt left out, but they welcomed him into their group. Denzel wheedled training lessons out of them after getting over his shyness. He even attempted to join the WRO, though Reeve told him the organization no longer accepted children.
A year later he could have set the clock back three years. There were more stories on the news. Bad stories. He paid more attention to these than he had to those when he was seven. Tifa and Cloud were talking to people about serious things on the phone--he eavesdropped when they weren't looking. Their friends stopped coming by as much. Cloud was gone a lot, Tifa was even gone a few times leaving him and Marlene with Johnny.
And then came the night of the attack. It was raining when Deepground attacked. He wanted to go out and fight, but Cloud and Tifa were gone again and Marlene... He couldn't leave her. The two of them along with Johnny got out of the city as the WRO retaliated. He didn't know what was going on anymore.
He spent the rest of the war in an hidden WRO base, locked up safe, to his disgust. When it was all over he was angrier at himself than he'd ever been. Why was he so useless!? It was pointless to bring these feelings up to Tifa and the others thought--they'd say he was just a kid. So he kept them inside as life returned to 'normal' with the addition of Shelke to their 'family'. She was kind of hard to talk to, but she wasn't stupid either--sometimes talking to her helped Denzel understand things better.
He still spent a lot of time training--even more in fact, when Cloud and Tifa weren't watching to tell him he was overdoing it. If he couldn't protect others...what good was he?
♠ Roleplaying Samples
First person: Cloud's gone again. So's Marlene and Shelke. They left while I was sleeping--I wonder what happened.
There's a lot of stuff on the news again. I wonder if we'll have to fight... I'm not hiding this time. I'm not sick anymore and I train all the time! If it comes to a fight I'm helping. I don't want to be useless anymore.
They might not tell me though. Sometimes I get the feeling all the adults hide stuff from me just because I'm a kid, even Tifa and Cloud. Shelke's the only one who ever says things without treating me like a kid (though it's pretty weird that she looks like a kid still). I can't do anything if they don't tell me what's going on. That's why I stop to listen to the news on radios a lot when I'm not at home to watch it on the TV. It pays to be prepared.
Whatever's happening I'm going to be prepared. Just like Cloud.
I hope they don't try and send me somewhere safe again.
Third person: There were things on the news again. Well there were always things--but there was bad stuff going on.
Usually the news showed a lot of stuff about reconstruction and how the world was moving on--pretty boring stuff, but good stuff. Denzel didn't buy all of it, mostly because he could see how slow some of the construction was going right here in Edge, but things had been looking up. Now all the news stories were about how things weren't true, just rumors and not to believe them. The only one the news wasn't saying was a big hoax was the Lifestream in the sky.
Couldn't hide that. Just looking at it made Denzel feel a little ill and unconsciously rub his forehead where the worst of his Geostigma sores had once been. He kept thinking of Ruvi lately. If he hadn't broken that window... It was his fault. At least he'd been able to give her a proper burial--those kinds of things were important. Though thinking about her all alone up there on the plate in Sector 5 didn't fill him with any sort of happiness. It just made him even more depressed.
He didn't know what was going on in the world anymore. Edge was starting to look a bit like a ghost town. Friends were moving away and shops were closing down. There weren't as many people coming to the bar anymore either, though Tifa kept telling him everything was going to be alright.
Some of the kids were saying the dead were coming back to life. He'd heard some of the adults whispering about it too in hushed groups. He was inclined to not believe it--he'd seen the dead. He'd spent some of his life doing nothing, but burying the dead. The dead never got up again. He knew that.
"Commissioner Reeve released a statement today that the rumors of the dead rising are just that, rumors. They may have stemmed from the sudden migration going on in certain areas of the globe at this time. To help facilitate these people the WRO has set up refuge areas in Midgar and Northern Wutai. If you are in need of help you can seek aid and specialized counseling in these areas. Now for the weather!"
Denzel tapped his fingers on his knees, thinking as the TV talked about mild winds and gray skies on Tuesday. Just a rumor. It was stupid to think anything else.
Right?
Name: Denzel
Age: 13
Personality: An orphan, Denzel lived a hard life after Meteor and his experiences with death and Geostigma have shaped his perspective of the world into something other than what he'd have been if his parents had lived. Living with Tifa and Cloud has only encouraged his serious nature, though his new 'family' helps him remember it's okay to laugh from time to time as well.
There's no time like the present to grow up- Being powerless, not knowing what to do, unable to protect others--these are all things Denzel hates about being a kid. Adults in his past as well as those around him in the present have shown him incredible strengths of character it pains him to be unable to imitate. Dependence is something he dislikes and he forces himself to try and be as capable of self-sufficiency as possible. This can often lead to him making bad choices, which only frustrates him more as he feels an adult would never have made such a mistake. At the same time this lends a seriousness to his character not found in other children with families. He's very aware of what's going on around him as well as attempting to be informed on the world. When disaster strikes his first thought is no longer to cry, but to formulate a plan. Sadly his inexperience in life as well as not usually having all the information makes this a desperate area for him.
Through a child's eyes- Despite his wish to grow up as soon as possible, Denzel is still very much the child. He often thinks in absolutes and the actions of those around him constantly influence his decisions. Comprehending the entire picture, not just his small portion of it, is something he struggles with, as is thinking of things from others' perspectives. He doesn't mean to hurt anyone with the things he does, but it often doesn't occur to him that not everyone will see his actions in the same light as he does. He also looks up to adults, Cloud in particular, as a guiding force. Though when they say something he doesn't particularly like it's hard for him to accept.
Do you remember what laughter was like- Fairly serious in nature after the events since the collapse of Sector 7, Denzel sometimes needs to be reminded it's okay to smile. He picks up on social cues--others smiling and laughing--but he doesn't often initiate these things himself and his responses to such things tend to be muted. He even takes play seriously, preferring to "train" than play a game of tag or do a puzzle. Slowly he's growing out of this though as he spends more time with Cloud, Marlene, Tifa and their friends. Watching these adults causes him to realize that you can smile and protect the world at the same time, though he's a fair ways off from being able to do that himself.
Strengths: Denzel doesn't have many physicals strengths, being only thirteen, but he does his best to be strong and in good physical condition. He knows the basics of swordplay as well as fist fighting (along with a few dirty tricks), though he's not so skilled he'd get anywhere against an adult. His best physical skill is how fast he can get through obstacle courses (something he relishes a bit after being sick for so long). Flat out running is hard race for him, but ducking down alleys and cutting through tight areas as well as scrambling over construction and debris in good time is something he excels a bit at.
Mentally he's very determined and doesn't give up lightly. He's also devoted to those around him, not just his 'family', but friends and people in general if he can help ease their lives. He takes things seriously which can be a boon in dangerous situations and is perhaps the greatest asset to the basic survival skills he knows.
Weaknesses: As far as weaknesses go Denzel's greatest short coming is that he's still a child. He just doesn't have the height and weight, as well as strength, that adults do. Or even older kids. So it can be hard for him to fight back against someone older than him. Despite this he tries to be stronger than he is, willing to pick up fights he obviously doesn't have the ability to win.
He also has something of a childlike mentality despite his serious nature that can lead to him misinterpreting things and thus getting into trouble. This comes most often into play when people tell him things he doesn't want to hear (usually to do with waiting to grow up before trying to get strong enough to fight). His introversion doesn't aid this as he'll often keep thoughts and plans bottled up inside, making it hard for others to help him.
This is perhaps the leading cause of his poor communication skills. It often doesn't occur to him that he needs to explain himself for others to understand and help him--this causes problems that could be fixed with a five minute chat to turn into complex problems that are hard to get to the root of.
History: Denzel was born in Midgar. His family lived on the plate of Sector 7. His father worked for one of the business departments of ShinRa and his mother was a stay-at-home wife and socialite. They were a well-to-do enough family, though his father worked hard to become the head of his division and gain a larger paycheck, wanting to be able to move his family all the way up to the affluent Sector 3 resident district. "Always have a goal," was one of his father's sayings.
When Denzel was seven AVALANCHE had reappeared, now led by Barret Wallace, and once again begun its well-known terrorist attacks. This didn't seem important to Denzel until the day his father came home from work early, agitated and nervous. Where was his mother? What was taking her so long to get home? Why wasn't she home yet!
Denzel didn't know what was wrong, but when his father went to the market to find his mother he followed. His mother didn't know either, but his father quickly explained that AVALANCHE was going to destroy the support pillar of Sector 7--they had to leave. Now. Their new house in Sector 5 was already set up and waiting, they just had to get to it before the plate dropped.
Denzel's mother wouldn't hear it. At the least she was determined to warn her friends. She ran off before Denzel's father could stop her. Needing to go after his wife, Denzel's father was torn until he saw a co-worker, Mr. Arkham, moving to get out in time as well. Denzel hadn't met Arkham before, but he noticed how agitated he was as well when he came over saying something about how the Turks had already planted the bombs, it was time to leave. ...Didn't the Turks work for ShinRa? Since when had they helped AVALANCHE?
Confused, Denzel could do nothing as his father gave him the key to their new house in Sector 5 and sent him off with Arkham, promising to reunite with him later after fetching his mother. Denzel never saw them again.
Arkham took him to the new house where they watched the news--until the twisted screech of metal shredded the air and the plate shook. Arkham rushed out of the house as a special news bulletin showed Sector 7 collapsing. It took Denzel a while to recognize his home sector, but when he did...he ran. The police were already setting up barricades to prevent people from falling into the abyss that used to house Sector 7. Everything...everything was gone. Just like that. If he squinted he could see Sector 8 in the distance. It was as if Sector 7 had never been there.
Somehow he made his way back to his new 'home' after that. Arkham gave him something to eat and found him a mattress, promising to check in on him once awhile. And then he left. Denzel watched the fall of Sector 7 over and over again on the news. His parents... He couldn't believe it. Maybe they'd just gone to work and that was why they hadn't come back yet. His father was a pretty important person after all.
He went outside to see if everyone else was at work. All the houses around him were empty. Notes were stuck to doors with contact information and locations of shelters...but no people. Denzel looked farther and farther, but eventually he had to admit it. No one was at work. His parents weren't at work. They weren't coming back.
Before he knew it he was lost. Crying, angry, lost, alone--he grabbed an abandoned toy and threw it, breaking a window. And that's how he met Ruvi. Ruvi was an old lady--at least old to him--with a comforting presence. He'd broken her window, but when she understood his situation... "Come to my house, OK?" She said. And that's how Denzel ended up living with Ruvi.
She was always busy cleaning and sewing and doing chores--he helped with what he could. The outside of the house, the inside, the dishes; he wasn't any good at sewing, but he could at least microwave some of the canned soup she kept in the storage shed for dinner. Ruvi talked about her son a lot--what he liked and didn't like, how he worked a lot... She was obviously very fond of him. Denzel could only wonder if that's why his parents hadn't come back. He was so useless...they must not have been fond enough of him to come back. That's why they went away.
Then one day Ruvi took him outside and looked up into the sky. There was a black dot up there. All the time anymore. The news called it Meteor; it was going to destroy the world. Ruvi told him he could take some food and go, decide to be wherever he wanted at the end of the world. He didn't have anywhere to go. And he liked Ruvi--with his parents gone she was the only one who seemed to care. He told her he wanted to stay with her. She didn't say anything, but the next day she told him it was his job to take care of the garden now.
Life went on. Chores and talking with Ruvi, reading her son's monster encyclopedia at night. ShinRa built a canon, but it only fired once before collapsing. The ShinRa Building itself was destroyed. Denzel could only wonder what sort of monster could possibly manage that. He waited for the end--he didn't think he'd mind if it came while he was asleep with Ruvi. There was a sort of peace about it all.
And then the peace warped and shattered. They thought it was the end, the way the house shook. He was scared; it went on for ages. Ruvi went to the living room window, telling him to stay put. But he couldn't let her go alone. When he followed he found her trying to hold the vinyl she'd put over the whole he'd made in her window in place. She screamed at him to get back in the room as the vinyl bulged out, threatening to tear away. Finally she came over and shut him in herself just as white light burst into the house. She was screaming then and he couldn't get the door open, she was holding it closed, keeping him in, he only wanted to help--!
He wasn't sure what happened, but the light squeezed in through the cracks between the door and the wall like a snake. He fell away unconscious.
When he woke up Ruvi was on the floor. He held her hand until she told him to go check outside. Everything was such a mess... When he went back inside Ruvi was dead. A black substance was leaking from her body--something about it was wrong. It made his skin crawl. He ran outside in fear and met Gaskin. Gaskin was leading others who hadn't gotten to the slums yet down there where it was at least marginally safe. He and the others helped Denzel bury Ruvi. And then...they moved on. Going to the train tracks they descended down to the ground.
It was dangerous and people...so many were dying. The black substance frightened everyone. They said it was contagious, no one wanted to touch anyone with it. At the bottom people began digging graves. Gaskin was there and Denzel stayed with him. Gaskin at least made sure he and the others who stayed as well to bury peoples' dead were fed.
Eventually fewer people began filtering down from the plate. It trickled down to a handful, then one or two, finally the odd one. Gaskin talked about moving on to the new town of Edge that was being built on the perimeter of Sectors 3 and 4. Everyone agreed it sounded like a good plan. A month later Gaskin died of Geostigma and they were all lost.
Denzel and the other children found the destroyed, new world had a purpose for them though. People from Edge came to them asking them to find building materials--steel pipes, nails, light bulbs, whatever they could get their hands on. They were given food in exchange. At first it was good; they were all so proud of themselves for being able to be independent. Even if many of them cried at night for lost family and friends still. Then it happened again. Jobs started drying up as machines from other places were brought in and Edge began manufacturing its own materials. The children began to leave in ones and twos to the Edge and its orphanages.
Things began increasingly harder when there were less than ten of them. Then only six. Then...it was just Denzel and a boy named Rix. They didn't even have enough money for food. What were they going to do? Denzel made a careless remark about catching and eating rats like slum people, half in jest, half in serious. Rix, having been born in the slums, left after that.
It was just Denzel. He didn't know what to do. He tried to find rats to eat. Find anything... Wandering the ruins of Midgar he eventually made his way to the Sector 5 slums in search of food. A motorcycle was outside of a church there. He hadn't seen one that wasn't trash in quite awhile. What really caught his attention was the cellphone hanging from the handlebars though. On a whim he grabbed it and called his old home in Sector 7. All he got was a message saying all Sector 7 phones were currently out of service. Maybe he'd call Ruvi's house...but he'd never known her number.
So he called the first number stored in the phone's contacts. A female voice picked up. It must have been his fatigue and hunger talking as he found himself crying, asking...asking what he should do! He was so alone--was he going to die? A pain shot through his forehead and he dropped the phone. No...no...oh God, don't let it be black, don't let it... When he opened his eyes he saw the black of Geostigma. He passed out.
Later he awoke in an unfamiliar bed in a strange place with two unknown girls watching him. They were Marlene and Tifa. He learned he was in Seventh Heaven. The owner of the phone, Cloud, had brought him there. From that time on he was part of the 'family'. He immediately set to doing chores like he had for Ruvi, but things were different now. He had it. He had Geostigma.
The pain, the uncertainty--he didn't want to die! He'd thought once he could die if it was quick, if it happened in his sleep, if someone who cared was there. This...this though was filled with attacks of pain that felt as if his brain was going to be squeezed out of his skull. He felt weaker all the time... It was the kind of death when you're just waiting for it, but it always comes later than it says, just to piss you off. He hated it. Hated the way Marlene and Tifa had to take care of him, had to babysit him and he couldn't do anything in return.
The only real solace was those nights Cloud actually came back. Cloud--he wanted to be like Cloud. Strong like that. Able to help people. Not have to depend on anyone. On the nights Cloud came back from deliveries Denzel and Marlene would talk to him about the things he'd seen, the places he'd been and they'd sit at one of the bar tables pouring over maps, picking out the best routes for Cloud's next deliveries. It was...something. Sometimes it made him feel like he could be as strong as the man sitting next to him if he just held on.
Then Cloud stopped coming back to Seventh Heaven. Denzel was crushed. Was it him? Was it because he was so useless? Just like his parents, just like... He didn't know. He wanted to get better. So when one of the girls he often saw outside approached him saying people were there to fix kids like them...he left. He didn't even tell Tifa.
That's how he ended up at the Forgotten City with Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo. What happened then...the fighting between Cloud and others, looking for Mother--is an horrible blur of distant sounds and muted sights. What's clearer is coming to in Edge later and seeing Tifa unconscious next to him.
The Tifa who had taken care of him all this time. The Tifa who held him sometimes when he cried over all the people gone. That Tifa. There was a monster--like all those monsters in Ruvi's son's encyclopedia he used to read--and he was sure that was what had hurt Tifa. When he went to make it pay a hand held him back. It wasn't the first time he had met Barret, but it was the most inspiring.
Tifa came to and joined them and from there so many of her friends appeared--he hadn't ever known. And then... Cloud showed up. The amount of security Denzel felt at the sight of Cloud was immense. After wheedling a promise from Cloud to return to Seventh Heaven, he went back there himself to wait with Marlene. Things...were going to be okay. Right?
He thought so. Until Cloud disappeared again. But there was a voice--a different voice than any voice he'd ever heard before--that told him if he went to the Sector 5 church he'd find Cloud. The church had been flooded...but the voice was right. Cloud was there. Letting the ex-SOLDIER bring him down into the pond that had filled the church, he flinched as Cloud poured water over his Geostigma. And yet...he began to feel better than he had in so long. He felt his forehead for the black substance that had been with him since Cloud had first found him--it was gone.
Things got better after that. Cloud was around more. His and Tifa's friends came to visit more--at first Denzel felt left out, but they welcomed him into their group. Denzel wheedled training lessons out of them after getting over his shyness. He even attempted to join the WRO, though Reeve told him the organization no longer accepted children.
A year later he could have set the clock back three years. There were more stories on the news. Bad stories. He paid more attention to these than he had to those when he was seven. Tifa and Cloud were talking to people about serious things on the phone--he eavesdropped when they weren't looking. Their friends stopped coming by as much. Cloud was gone a lot, Tifa was even gone a few times leaving him and Marlene with Johnny.
And then came the night of the attack. It was raining when Deepground attacked. He wanted to go out and fight, but Cloud and Tifa were gone again and Marlene... He couldn't leave her. The two of them along with Johnny got out of the city as the WRO retaliated. He didn't know what was going on anymore.
He spent the rest of the war in an hidden WRO base, locked up safe, to his disgust. When it was all over he was angrier at himself than he'd ever been. Why was he so useless!? It was pointless to bring these feelings up to Tifa and the others thought--they'd say he was just a kid. So he kept them inside as life returned to 'normal' with the addition of Shelke to their 'family'. She was kind of hard to talk to, but she wasn't stupid either--sometimes talking to her helped Denzel understand things better.
He still spent a lot of time training--even more in fact, when Cloud and Tifa weren't watching to tell him he was overdoing it. If he couldn't protect others...what good was he?
♠ Roleplaying Samples
First person: Cloud's gone again. So's Marlene and Shelke. They left while I was sleeping--I wonder what happened.
There's a lot of stuff on the news again. I wonder if we'll have to fight... I'm not hiding this time. I'm not sick anymore and I train all the time! If it comes to a fight I'm helping. I don't want to be useless anymore.
They might not tell me though. Sometimes I get the feeling all the adults hide stuff from me just because I'm a kid, even Tifa and Cloud. Shelke's the only one who ever says things without treating me like a kid (though it's pretty weird that she looks like a kid still). I can't do anything if they don't tell me what's going on. That's why I stop to listen to the news on radios a lot when I'm not at home to watch it on the TV. It pays to be prepared.
Whatever's happening I'm going to be prepared. Just like Cloud.
I hope they don't try and send me somewhere safe again.
Third person: There were things on the news again. Well there were always things--but there was bad stuff going on.
Usually the news showed a lot of stuff about reconstruction and how the world was moving on--pretty boring stuff, but good stuff. Denzel didn't buy all of it, mostly because he could see how slow some of the construction was going right here in Edge, but things had been looking up. Now all the news stories were about how things weren't true, just rumors and not to believe them. The only one the news wasn't saying was a big hoax was the Lifestream in the sky.
Couldn't hide that. Just looking at it made Denzel feel a little ill and unconsciously rub his forehead where the worst of his Geostigma sores had once been. He kept thinking of Ruvi lately. If he hadn't broken that window... It was his fault. At least he'd been able to give her a proper burial--those kinds of things were important. Though thinking about her all alone up there on the plate in Sector 5 didn't fill him with any sort of happiness. It just made him even more depressed.
He didn't know what was going on in the world anymore. Edge was starting to look a bit like a ghost town. Friends were moving away and shops were closing down. There weren't as many people coming to the bar anymore either, though Tifa kept telling him everything was going to be alright.
Some of the kids were saying the dead were coming back to life. He'd heard some of the adults whispering about it too in hushed groups. He was inclined to not believe it--he'd seen the dead. He'd spent some of his life doing nothing, but burying the dead. The dead never got up again. He knew that.
"Commissioner Reeve released a statement today that the rumors of the dead rising are just that, rumors. They may have stemmed from the sudden migration going on in certain areas of the globe at this time. To help facilitate these people the WRO has set up refuge areas in Midgar and Northern Wutai. If you are in need of help you can seek aid and specialized counseling in these areas. Now for the weather!"
Denzel tapped his fingers on his knees, thinking as the TV talked about mild winds and gray skies on Tuesday. Just a rumor. It was stupid to think anything else.
Right?