Put Your Lights On
10.24.05
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This is a FFVII fic by kleptomaniac0. I own no characters except those you haven't heard of, meaning the ones I've made. Normally I'm averse to posting something new while I have multiple works in progress, but this OC, the first OC I ever created, has been banging against the walls of my head ever since Advent Children came in out Japan. So I'm letting her out before she drives me crazy.
This will be a lot more unguarded than my other works, meaning it'll be sloppier. I'm writing this to get it out of my head and though I always appreciate reviews and constructive criticism, I probably won't be looking at them until the story's done.
Who am I kidding? I need feedback like sunlight. Drop me a line, you know you want to.
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Chapter Thirty-Five
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Some fifty miles out from Midgar, down south towards the grassy fields chocobos loved, Sephiroth's black bike purred a halt and he stepped off, nudging the kickstand out with one foot and taking off his helmet. Toriko fell off, her body completely numb from the combination of the motorcycle's vibrations and sheer fright. Sephiroth looked at her with a frown as he opened the chests built into the back of the bike.
"Stop being melodramatic," he said. "And get up."
"Yes, Father," she said, pushing herself onto her feet. At least he was kind enough not to make her do anything more than that: it would be cruel in her near incapacitated state. Toriko tapped her ears to get the ringing out of them as Sephiroth pulled several very tightly packed items from the motorcycle's trunk.
"There was no way to fit two tents in here," Sephiroth said, looking at her, "so we'll be sharing one. Will that be a problem?"
Toriko's innards twisted. Though reasonably she knew he wouldn't do anything to her, her mother's memories railed against being so close to the man that was on some level still the Demon. Toriko swallowed, trying to force away the imprinted revulsion.
"I don't think so..." She said cautiously.
"You don't think so?" He repeated, his brows arching.
Toriko squirmed, uncomfortable at having to answer a question she didn't know the answer to. Sephiroth looked at her for a moment before going back to unloading.
"Well, someone needs to keep watch anyway," he said. "And too much sleep is making me dull."
Toriko looked at him, her eyes widening. Implicitly he'd just offered not to stay in the tent if it would bother her. Shame filled Toriko's face with warmth and she looked down at the ground, feeling wretched.
Sephiroth glanced at her. "Don't be like that," he said, sounding more annoyed than comforting. "When you get older and we start doing these trips more often, you'll do your fair share of staying up."
"Yes, Father," she said, looking at him. "Umm... Do you need help unpacking?"
"No."
Toriko looked around. "Where are we, exactly?"
"We are in the westernmost third of the East Continent," Sephiroth said vaguely. "Surrounded by nothing but wide plains, mountains, wild chocobos, and the occasional monster."
"Monster?" Toriko looked at him sharply.
Sephiroth nodded. "They're far and few between, but I expect we'll encounter at least one at some point in time. Which reminds me..." Sephiroth leaned over the bike and opened a small compartment on the opposite side. "These are for you," he said, straightening and handing Toriko a black case, much like something used to carry a flute. "Don't lose them."
"Don't lose them?" She repeated, puzzled, and opened the box. A strangled gasp came from her throat as Toriko found herself staring at eight gleaming orbs of materia.
"Don't get too excited," Sephiroth said as she gaped at them, her hands trembling. "They're all newly born and it'll take a very long time for you to get them as strong as they need to be."
Toriko looked up at him, eyes wide. "Why are you giving me this?"
"Because I have too much," he said, leaning against the bike. "The damn things give birth so often that it's like having a chest of magic mice in my closet. You're doing me a favor by taking these."
"That's not what I meant!" Toriko wanted to say, but Sephiroth went on. "You already know how to use materia and I don't intend for this trip to be purely for fun: we're going to use it for training."
"Oh," Toriko said, feeling something inside her wilt. But then she looked down at the materia and a warm feeling spread throughout her, filling her veins with bright, jittery energy. Excitement, that's what it was called.
"You'll learn to tell the difference between various types and levels of materia," Sephiroth said, "as well as use them in combinations in order to achieve specific effects. Normally these things are only taught to SOLDIERS, but they're good for anything."
"Thank you," Toriko said sincerely, looking up at her father.
Sephiroth met her gaze for a split second, and in that moment she thought she saw him blush—but then he looked away, gazing off into the sky.
"You're welcome," he said. "Now tell me what kinds of materia you have in that box."
Toriko looked down at the case. Arranged by color, there was one yellow materia, three green materia, one blue, and three purple. Toriko exhaled deeply to clear her mind and touched the yellow materia.
"Good thing Hojo taught me the rudiments of materia recognition, if only for learning purposes..."
"Sense," Toriko said, feeling her awareness expand.
"What does it do?" Sephiroth asked.
"It gives me the enemy's statistics," Toriko said. "And it doesn't cost MP."
Sephiroth nodded. "Good. Next one."
Toriko touched a green orb. It felt warm and somehow alive under her fingers, the way most green materia felt: the light licking feeling, though, was particular to only one kind. "Fire."
"Next."
"Wind," Toriko said, touching the orb and feeling its characteristic 'fragility': wind materia felt like a smoke-filled globe.
"Next."
And so it went until Toriko had identified all the materia. Toriko was pleased with herself: she'd known all what the orbs had been at first touch and when Sephiroth had asked her questions, she'd answered him correctly. Sephiroth seemed pleased too.
"Here's something to put those materia in," he said, and handed her an armband and a Shin-Ra standard issue sword: the former had six slots and the latter had two. Toriko was speechless and she looked at her father, unable to say or think anything to express the maelstrom of shock, awe, gratitude, and suspicion that were roiling in her chest.
"Stop that," Sephiroth said suddenly, his eyes narrowing. Toriko blinked and started when she found tears on her face.
"When did this happen?" She thought furiously, rubbing her face with her sleeve. "And why am I crying? He has a very practical reason for giving me these. It's not out of affection, it's for training. I shouldn't look so much into it..."
To make up for her slip, Toriko briskly arranged the materia in the armband and the sword as Sephiroth watched her.
"Not bad," he said, "but neither of us will be needing the Restore-All combination. You still have the Touph Ring, don't you?"
"Yes," she said, holding up her hand and showing him the tarnished silver band.
"Good. Put that All with either Fire or Wind: it'll be more useful for groups of monsters."
"Yes, Father."
"And put the Sense into your armor: otherwise you'll sense something every time you hit it."
"Yes, Father," Toriko said aloud while thinking, "But then I will know how close I am to killing it."
"You will also have to be close enough to hit it, which means that it will be close enough to hit you," he replied. "More than likely you'll be able to dodge it, but there's no need to take chances."
Toriko shuffled her materia until Sephiroth was satisfied. When she was done, Sephiroth resumed rummaging through the motorcycle's trunk, apparently looking for something. As he searched for the mysterious item, Toriko puzzled over the armband. Made for a heavily muscled man, it was too big to put around her arm. Toriko turned it over in her hands and noticed a hinge on the outside of it.
"That makes sense," she thought, studying the hinge. "If it's loose enough to slide all the way up a man's arm, it's also loose enough to slide down, and that would be terrible in battle."
On the opposite side of the hinge was a hairline crack showing where the armband would split. Toriko felt around the armband until she found a small button she could press; when she did, the armband popped open with a metallic click.
"I wonder..." she thought, looking at the open band. It was too big to fit around her arm, but maybe...
With no real thought to what she was doing, Toriko put the band around her neck and closed it, the ends of it snapping shut behind her neck. It was only when she heard the closing click that Toriko realized she might have done something stupid.
"I hope I can get this off," Toriko thought, feeling around the band. She wasn't worried when she couldn't find the button on the first, but on the third or fourth time around she began to feel a little panicky. There had to be some way to get this thing off her neck. It felt a little tight now; she hadn't counted on that. Toriko drew her head back and tried to squint down at the band, but she couldn't see it. "Where's the button?" She thought with rising panic as she went around the band for the fifth time. "Where is it?"
"Father," she squeaked, the air straining past the armband.
Sephiroth looked up from the trunk, glancing at her over his shoulder. He opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, but instantly spotted the problem, the band of glowing stones around her neck. For the first time in their association, he appeared totally nonplussed and actually stared at her, his mouth open, for a good long time.
"What..." he said finally, walking over and kneeling by her. "Why...?"
"It won't come off," Toriko said, very near to tears.
Sephiroth knelt by her, running his hand through his hair. His green eyes were bright with bafflement and not a little amusement, which tugged at the corners of his mouth.
"Sit still," he said, reaching for the band. His leatherclad fingers were warm and oddly comforting as they spidered around her neck, feeling delicately for the catch and occasionally turning the band. This close, Toriko could see how his fey, chiseled features oddly matched her own. She would have his cheekbones when she grew up, and hopefully his long eyelashes. Though her skin would never be as pale as his, she hoped it would be as soft.
"Father, do you shave?" She asked.
"From time to time," he said. "My facial hair grows slowly."
"How come?"
"I don't know."
"Are you ever going to grow a beard?"
"Probably not."
"It would make you look old," Toriko said solemnly.
"That it would," he agreed. Light flickered in his eyes and with a click the armband came open, falling from Toriko's neck. She heaved a sigh of relief, feeling so happy she could nearly explode. Sephiroth looked at the band. "How did you get this around your neck?"
"Well, it was too big to go on my arm," she said, taking the band from him. "And I didn't think I could stick it on my leg, so..." And again, with no real thought, Toriko put the band on and snapped it around her neck. Immediately she froze. "Shit."
Sephiroth pressed his lips together, but she could see the laughter dancing in his eyes and hear the chuckles he was hiding in his throat. Reaching out, he took the armband off again and shook the materia out, saying, "Maybe you need a different piece of armor."
"I think so," she said, frowning at the armband.
"They might not make armor for people your size," he said. "I'll talk to Scarlet about getting something made."
"Scarlet?" Toriko asked, tilting her head. "Double-sided tape woman?"
"Yes," Sephiroth said, his face perfectly straight. She could, however, feel his mental chuckles. "Battering ram woman. She's the head of the department of Weapons Development."
Toriko's eyes widened. "Formidable."
"Indeed," Sephiroth agreed. "But she enjoys playing games more than profiting from them, which makes her a tiring companion and a most irritating rival: I try not to deal with her more than I have to."
Toriko fixed on the word 'companion'. "Have you ever slept with her?"
A look of disgust crossed Sephiroth's face. "Dear God, no. Her laugh is horrible enough, I don't—" He stopped, suddenly remembering how old Toriko was, and said instead, "She's stuffed herself full of silicon; for all we know, she doesn't need the double-sided tape because that dress is—shall we say—firmly supported. I'm not interested in a doll anyway."
Toriko grinned. Sephiroth's complex insults were fun. She hoped to make long ones like his someday.
"As long as I'm there, I'll see how your weapons are coming along too," he said. "I've requested a variety of blades and firearms to see how they'll work out."
"Firearms?" Toriko asked, surprised.
"No use in overspecializing," he said. "You never know when you'll get caught without your preferential weapon, so it's good to be well-rounded."
Toriko could understand that. "Am I still going to use twin swords? You said you wanted to make me learn something with reach."
"Well, yes," he said, leaning back to prop himself up on his arms. "You are going to be short, so reach would be an issue: however, a master of twin swords will have attack and defense neatly rolled into one, and with your enhanced abilities, the normal consideration of reach won't apply to you as much."
Toriko digested this. "What is the real purpose of me learning to fight? I could understand if I was a boy, but I'm not, so…"
"It's true girls don't usually fight," Sephiroth said. "But that's a waste of resources. Women can be just as deadly as men in combat, and sometimes more useful."
"Kunoichi?" Toriko suggested.
Sephiroth nodded. "That, and men have compunctions about attacking them. A few times, we faced all-female regiments in the war and the men just didn't want to hit them. I asked one of the survivors what was going through his head and he said, "Well, they were girls, Captain," before he died."
"They didn't fight back?" Toriko asked, surprised.
"They did eventually. But by that time, the women had already slaughtered over sixty percent of the force."
Toriko caught a drifting thread from his mind and asked, "Is that why rape became so common?"
Sephiroth mentally twitched. "I know she's not an ordinary girl, but I hate it when she asks questions like these..." "Yes," he said aloud. "It became almost policy to do that because of the shattering effects it would have on a female warrior's psyche."
Ruthless. Terrible. Yet perfectly reasonable. Toriko began to realize what a truly terrifying person her father was, not because of his physical prowess but because he preferred to methodically dissemble people from the inside out, leaving fragile shells that were better ground to dust.
"He really would have gotten along well with Mother if only they'd met under different circumstances."
"Of course, it damaged quite a few of the men too," Sephiroth mused. "The older ones more; war and its atrocities didn't fit their preconceived notions of honor and duty. The younger men adapted quite well."
"Congratulations, Father," Toriko thought to herself. "You've raised a generation of brutes."
"Any other questions for me?" He asked, looking at her and tilting his head; his silvery hair spilled over his shoulder, pooling in his lap. Toriko studied it for a moment.
"Was your hair always that color?" She asked finally, looking up at him.
"This?" He picked up a lock and rolled it between his fingers, the fine strands glinting white-silver in the afternoon light. "No, actually. It started turning white during the war."
"Stress?"
"Perhaps. Or puberty." He looked at her. "Wondering about yours?" Toriko nodded. Sephiroth looked at her for a long moment. "Well, it wouldn't look back on you," he said finally. "You'd look more like me."
"Is that why it would look good?" Toriko asked, a smile tugging at her lips.
Sephiroth smiled. "Of course." Getting back to his feet, he said, "As soon as I find my own materia box, we're going to take a hike."
"Where to?" Toriko asked.
Sephiroth pointed toward the east and Toriko turned, blinking when she saw a mountain in the near distance.
"There and back," Sephiroth said.
There and back? Toriko felt her legs wobbling. But she got to her feet, saying, "Yes, Father."
Sephiroth looked at the armband, turning it over in his hands. "I don't have another piece of armor for you," he said finally, putting the armband in the motorcycle's trunk. "But the Touph Ring will prevent any injuries, so you'll be fine. Are you ready to go?"
They'd eaten lunch before taking off from Midgar, so Toriko couldn't even plead hunger as an excuse. "...Yes, Father."
"Good," he said, reaching down and pulling the sheathed Masamune off the side of the motorcycle. "Let's go, then."
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Author's note:
Once I made this pot in ceramics class that was just perfect for me to stick my hand into, so I did so for carrying purposes. Once I sat down and tried to remove the pot, however, I realized that the shape of the mouth and the swell of my knuckles made removing my hand impossible. So I swore and tussled and yanked and eventually pulled the thing off my hand as my friends came to sit with me.
"What are you doing?" They asked.
"Oh, I got my hand stuck in this pot," I said, showing them the pot.
"How?" They asked.
"Like this," I said, and promptly stuck my hand back in there. It's like when you shut the car door and realize just as the thing slams shut that you've left your keys in there. "Damn it!"
So I wrenched it off again. As more and more people came by to visit, I had to put the pot away so I wouldn't show them exactly how I managed to get my hand stuck in the thing. I kept it in my bag when I went home, and as I was unpacking my stuff, my sister came into the room and noticed the pot.
"Oh, that's cool." She said.
"Yeah," I said. "Hey, you want to know something funny? I got my hand stuck in this."
"No, you didn't."
"Yeah I did. See? ... DAMN IT!"
So there's that. It's just so easy...
From here on in this A/N I will answer questions, the first being yes, I know there's no Wind materia in FFVII. However, there are several Wind summons, so I conclude there are Wind orbs…somewhere. Replies to questions are arranged alphabetically by reviewer name.
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Ksim3000: Jeez, you asked a lot of questions. But they're fun, so I'll happily reply/postulate/explain.
Question 1: First of, between say a SOLDIER and a normal Human being on this "Planet", would the average Human be stronger than say us, here on Earth? And basically, the SOLDIERS just one big rendition of this?
Answer: First off, I do think humans on the Planet (though officially, the name appears to be Gaia) are stronger than normal humans, if only by virtue of having to lead a more active lifestyle in the interest of survival: monsters, hello? Considering how common potions and weapons are and the like, I assume quite a large population of the Planet knows how to handle arms and keep themselves in the physical condition required to use their weapons of choice—the bare minimum required, anyway. So they're healthier and stronger, in my opinion, but not like they've got twice our gravity or anything.
From this point, SOLDIERS are, of course, much stronger, their strength/health being determined by their class/number of enhancements and their level (10, 30, 99, etc). I think Third Class SOLDIERS would be stronger than normal people, but still at an attainable level: you could eventually bench 500 lbs, for example, if you decided to train. Third Classers get that right off the bat as soon as they're done with The Process. Second Classers have about 1.5x their strength at the same level. First Classers, however, are exponentially stronger, and here I mean 'exponential' in the calculus sense, which means that they start off slow but once they get going, they shoot way up. See a graph of "e" for further clarification. In a neat side-by-side comparison
Human (this is a healthy human male who is neither over nor underweight with a regular metabolism, no physical ailments, and no physical training): x
Third Class (if said male were to undergo The Process): 2.5x
Second Class (Process no. 2): 3.75x
First Class: ex (no conclusive number is put here because how much stronger the First Class SOLDIER would be is dependent on x, which is the person's strength at level x. For example, say we have a regular person at level 3. A First Class SOLDIER would be approximately 20 times stronger than him/her (meaning they measure as level 20). If the person is level 4, then the First Class SOLDIER is approximately 55 times stronger (level 55). Do the math and get some really freaky numbers!)
Now some of you may be wondering how this jives with AVALANCHE: Cloud, after all, has the strength of a First Classer, so why doesn't he shoot past his teammates in terms of strength? This I'll explain later in the context of the story, so I won't answer it here: suffice to say, it will be explained and in detail.
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Question 2: Did the Wutaiese or Continentals have any proper armoured vehicles or tanks, say like the BMP-1, T-55 tanks, M113, M1A1 Abrhams, etc? Or was it just...motorcycles and trucks, oh and Chocobos?
Answer: Those were pretty much it, actually. We know Shin-Ra was a weapons company in the past and that it had access to an abundance of metal, but since there is magic, the importance of tanks and in fact, anything mechanized, is not as great: after all, a Bolt3 spell essentially flushes several million dollars/gil down the drain and sets off a giant shrapnel bomb on your side. The Continental people did use guns, but barrier spells tend to soften, if not negate bullets, so guns and stuff like that wouldn't be as useful. Howitzers and mortars might have been good, but transportation would have been a problem (crossing ocean boats/planes, which can be exploded with magic again). Long story short, the existence of magic in this world means that the people of the Planet conduct warfare in a more "in your face" fashion: I mean, killing people from a distance is nice, but how do you know they won't revive unless you get up to their body and cut their heads off? You know what I mean. This also explains (in my head, at least) why in Last Order, the soldiers chasing Cloud and Zack had both long- and close-range weapons (swords). Here's a rundown of the basic army composition on the Planet:
Wutaiese: Infantry, cavalry, mages (think black mages), healers (white mages), ninjas.
Continental: Infantry, mages, medics, SOLDIERS.
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Question 3: Will you write any background say about the "Planet" and "Earth"? Since you tend to write about the history of the "Planet" quite a bit, will you do anything about original Humans on Earth being involved, say Human Colonization, Humans died on Earth and appeared here, Extra-Terrestrial inteferance in such a scheme or would some Humans have Colonized, the other being Cetra related? So one half equals Homo-Sapiens, the other half equals Cetrea related?
Answer: Err... I don't really see this happening. I'll write about the history of the Planet, but Earth will not be involved in any way. It's Final Fantasy, after all, and I like it because it's not Earth. I probably will have to go into the history of Cetra, however, or more likely, the "Ancients" since I see that as something being learned about in school—which Toriko will eventually be attending.
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Question 4: In your opinion, if writing about this, in comparison to say the "Planet's" forces and Earth's forces, if a war ever broke out between the two peoples, who would be the most likely winner? I know it is an odd question, especially for a fiction, well, a fanfiction at that, but since you are keen on military details, I thought I would ask you that question.
Answer: Earth would kick the Planet's rear. There are more of us, for one thing, and because we don't have instant healing or magic, we've developed weapons that focus on quantity instead of quality: A-Bombs, for example. Yes, a Summon Materia could probably take out a hundred men, but an A-bomb in a populated area could wipe out millions. Plus, our history is a long and bloody one, whereas the existence of monsters on the Planet seem to indicate that people are kept busy from killing each other because they're busy enough killing the fiends. That's what I think, anyway; there could have been (and probably were) a lot of wars, but considering how far the towns are spread out, I don't think it would have happened very often. In any case, I think the Planet would certainly put up a good fight, especially if the war was a defensive one, but we'd eventually overrun them like fleas. I don't know who I'd be rooting for in that fight... Probably the side with the silver-haired bishie on it. :P
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RebelX: You left this question all the way on ch. 26, but I did want to address it.
Question: I'm leaving a review for this chapter because there is something in it that bothers me. If you've switched the two mentalities and made Wutai the sneaky survive at all costs ones and the Continentals the death-before-dishonor types, doesn't that contradict earlier when Sephiroth was remembering how the Wutai women committed suicide en mass rather than face the shame of being POWs? Just thought I'd point out that small inconsistency.
Answer: Thank you for pointing out the inconsistency; I'd forgotten about that until you'd mentioned it. After some rumination, I decided that the Continental Wutaiese (ex. People like Tseng, who were born there/raised there) as not as honor-high considering they have to live with their oppressors/equals-once-subjects. J ( ) also pointed out that ninja have a high code of honor and it was unfair for me to have them unscrupulous, so to speak. I may go back and change the pertinent details, but I'd at least like to get to chapter 100 before a rewrite comes up. And yes, I see this going to about 100 chapters, if only because I'll get tired after four or five pages of a chapter and want to do something else.
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