closed 🌠 the day midgar stood still

[starshower]

Who: Tifa Lockhart & close CR
Which: Closed interactive dream
Where: Atop the Sector Seven pillar
What: Tifa has a nightmare of the night of the Sector Seven plate drop.
Warnings: N/A for now.


[For whoever happens upon the dream, they'll immediately be greeted with the stench of fire and burning metal. Debris is falling, the grates beneath them are groaning, helicopters circle about, and the lights hanging from the underside of the colossal plate shine down on the city of Midgar below. The air is thick with smoke and flames, but even thicker with something else...

Dread. The fear for a thousand lives below... The fear of losing after fighting for so long...

If they look behind them, they'll see that world below—the winding, narrow streets of the Sector Seven, and the little lights within the run-down buildings that line them. Where they stand is on a portion of the pillar that helps to hold the city above the slums, the platform ablaze with flames and everything looking like it's almost ready to crumble apart. And all the way across the platform is a computer, its screen red and flashing with "WARNING", and a small, familiar figure darting towards it.

"Plate separation authorized. Awaiting confirmation."

To their right is a red-haired man crawling across the ground, his arm stretching to reach for the silver rod a few feet in front of him. On the left is another, taller man kneeling over himself, both of them looking worse for wear, injured, and clearly having just lost a hard-fought battle.

Tifa's hair flutters in the hot wind as she stands in front of the computer, out of breath as her fingers hover over the many buttons while the voice repeats itself over the speakers.

"Awaiting confirmation..."

She's at a complete loss. She can feel the panic gripping her chest and squeezing her heart. If she could just figure out how to stop it... how to turn it off... If she hits the wrong one, it could all end in disaster. But for some reason, besides her hands trembling, she's frozen. Haunted.

...

It's just like... that day... all of those days when she failed...

......

"Plate separation authorized. Awaiting confirmation."

The moment anyone dares to take a step in her direction, phantom-like creatures—Whispers—will create a barrier between her and this newcomer, swirling around and around to keep them in place. Fight against them, try to run... Weapons will phase right through them and they will beat you back, but anyone who tries to do anything but choose between the two men at either side will be stopped...

Even should they try to call out to Tifa, she's far too distracted by the computer to notice everything else going on around her.]

Comments

[judicialassistant]

[ The edge in Tifa's voice pricks at her like a knife being lightly dragged against skin. Susato listens however, without interrupting, and meets her eyes when she can feel Tifa watching. ]

No, it's okay. I think I understand.

[ Better now than she would have before, but there is still a slight distaste in her mouth that she can't swallow. ]

Revenge is a beast that sleeps in even the most kindhearted people.

[starshower]

[Her lip twitches as she fights back the urge to sob, the words hitting her right where it means the most, but also right where it hurts the most. People often say that about Tifa, and she does believe with all her heart that everyone, regardless of who they are or where they come from or even what they've done, should be treated with kindness... but there's always been that beast that has indeed slept within her own.

It's just a matter of what she chooses to do with it...]

It is.

[She concedes softly in agreement.]

I... didn't tell anyone because I didn't want you all to think differently of me. Less of me...

[And then leave her.]

[judicialassistant]

[ Susato doesn't say anything, but continues to watch as Tifa holds back that sob. Susato has always had a sense for it--people's intentions, emotions. Perhaps that is how she took so well to dreamotion. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to help her now. If she says anything... voices her support... She may not be able to hold back the tears, either.

So instead she shakes her head and propels herself forward to pull Tifa into a hug.

...

......

She'll find her words. Just give her a moment. ]

[starshower]

[She is a bit surprised by the gesture, simply because it's unexpected and so sudden, so there's a gasp from her as Susato pulls her in, and a beat where she's so shocked that she remains frozen before she finally wraps her arms around her and squeezes gently in return.

By some miracle, Tifa manages to hold back the sob, although it's not without a fight. She doesn't want to cry—she's already been through this before, and then dreamt it again and again, as if there's something here that this world is trying to hammer into her. Maybe it's that she needs to move past this. Or maybe it's because she has people here who support her, people who wouldn't leave her regardless of what she did before coming to Reverein, and that she shouldn't be afraid of that anymore.

It's hard to break free from that, but Tifa thinks she's finally coming to understand that these sorts of bonds run much deeper than that.

It's also difficult to find the right words at a time like this, so for now, she'll also take that moment to simply be there with Susato and appreciate her presence and all of the things she loves about her before she finally whispers,]

... Thank you.

🎀

[judicialassistant]

[ There's a subtle crack. Whether it represents both of them breaking or whether something else has given way to the fire all around them, she can't tell, but she doesn't move. Won't move, not until the nightmare is over, until she can see Tifa out of it safely.

Until then... ]

I will stay as long as you need me to.