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From:

So Corvo's the kind of guy who starts at the whiskey stage of things. Good to know. Cloud has no complaints, so he slides his glass closer to him and takes a sniff. Not bad, he thinks. He's no Tifa, but living at Seventh Heaven has given him some basic understanding of what makes for good booze, even if in life it would have taken a ridiculous amount of it to affect him at all.

Not so much now, though. For better or worse.

"Not the social type, either, I take it?"

From:

ravenswrath

It's a whiskey sort of day. He's in this to take the edge off, not to ease himself into the waters. But he does nod at the question.

"Never really knew how to be. Wasn't really my job."

From:

nimbuster

"Well, how's that for common ground?" It's deadpan, but light. "What was your job? Uh - if you don't mind my asking."

From:

ravenswrath

That gets a laugh, at least, and he sips at his drink.

"I was the - the Empress' bodyguard," he finally explains. "Then I was an assassin. Now I am the Spymaster."

From:

nimbuster

Cloud gives his own drink a sip. Huh - so Corvo's pretty much a Turk.

"Been a bodyguard myself. Aerith's, if you know her, and a few other shorter gigs. I was military, then a merc for a while, and now I run a delivery service."

Edited Date: 2024-09-20 07:58 pm (UTC)

From:

ravenswrath

"Aerith?"

He laughs a little, resting his fingertips against his glass. "She's part of the reason I graduated. Kicked my ass enough. Didn't know you two were from the same place."

From:

nimbuster

Cloud's brows lift and then his expression softens, eyes lowering with a slight smile. "Yeah. Known her a while now, been through a lot together. She's...something else. Special. Glad she was able to help you - she's kicked my ass plenty, too, so I know how you feel." That last part is wry, but the warmth lingers underneath.

From:

ravenswrath

Special. That is one way to describe her. The perfect way, actually. He still remembers her in that place, that nightmare, fighting off Weepers and rats with him and there's a surge of affection that he drowns with a drink.

"I say let her do it. Did me a lot of good. You surprised to see her here?"

From:

nimbuster

Cloud arches a brow. "Oh, I don't 'let' her do anything. She does what she wants and there's no stopping her." That fond smile hasn't gone anywhere, though.

The question gives him a moment's pause, which he fills by sipping his drink again and then looking down at it, smile now vanished. "Yeah. By the time I come from, she...she'd been dead for two years and change." His tone suggests that despite time's passage, he wasn't over it yet. Maybe isn't even now that she's here. "But for her, it was only a few minutes. Jarring as hell for both of us."

From:

ravenswrath

Dead.

He stares down at his glass, all cheer gone for the moment. "I didn't know that," he admits. "What - happened?"

From:

nimbuster

"...doesn't surprise me she didn't say anything. Always focused on the positive, for everyone's sake." Cloud doesn't look up, either, as a heavy weight seems to settle on his shoulders.

"It's her story to tell, if she wants to. But I'll say this: she risked everything for the planet's sake, and even after..." I let her die. "...she was gone, she still protected it, from the Lifestream. It and all of us. She's the strongest person I've ever known."

From:

ravenswrath

"Yeah," he says when he has nothing else to say. And he downs his drink, hating the thought of her being gone.

"Does she know what happens?" he wonders, as he hasn't actually asked her from when she is.

From:

nimbuster

"...yeah. Happened right before she came here, from her perspective." Cloud doesn't see Corvo finish his whiskey in one go, but he does it himself a moment later. Yeah, he can get drunk now, and he doesn't give a shit. Though it'd still take a lot more than one glass of whiskey.

He knows now exactly how much it will take. Or...would. If he were going to do that again, which he isn't.

"Haven't told her much of what came after, though. Not yet." Because he's too ashamed to tell her just how royally he continued to fuck up.

From:

ravenswrath

Corvo knows what that's like. He knows it all too well. He refills his glass halfway and hovers over Cloud's in a silent question.

"Why not?" he wonders, because he has a suspicion that he needs clarified.

From:

nimbuster

Cloud nods at the hovering bottle and frowns in thought. There are a few reasons, really. Shame is one of them, but also--

"Because it sucks." He takes a sip of his newly refilled drink. "Things only got worse from there. She'll feel responsible for it."

From:

ravenswrath

"Yeah," he agrees, refilling the glass and setting the bottle aside. "Even though it ain't her fault. What happens?"

From:

nimbuster

What happens? Corvo asks, and Cloud has to think about it because he's never actually had to tell this story to anyone before. Anyone he'd bother to talk to about it was part of it, or they already knew, like Zack and Yunlan. But really, there are only a few parts important enough to be worth telling to someone he just met.

"A lot. We failed to stop a meteor from crashing into the planet. And we failed to stop a giant Weapon from destroying the world's biggest city. Only reason the planet's still there is because Aerith helped us from the Lifestream long enough for me to take down the guy responsible. And then..."

Cloud takes another generous sip. "Turns out the Lifestream itself got corrupted, and it infected a lot of people with an incurable sickness. Geostigma. It's how I died."

It's a hell of a reductive and cynical take on what happened, and he knows he's leaving out things people call him a hero for and probably being unfair to all his friends who helped him, but he doesn't feel like a hero. Taking Sephiroth down was just finishing the job he started and cleaning up a mess he made himself, and then it turned out they didn't even finish Jenova in the process. There was a time when he felt good about it, he knows - a time when he felt at peace - but...he can't remember now what that was like.

From:

ravenswrath

That's a lot. That's a fucking lot of information and Corvo has to sit and ponder it for a while, sipping on his drink. He's quiet, almost like he isn't going to say anything, but after a long pause, a long beat, he sits up.

Disease, he knows. He isn't sure what a Lifestream is, but he know what disease does.

"And you don't know what happened after you died?"

From:

nimbuster

Cloud lets the silence stand without interrupting it. He doesn't mind silence and he's not the chatty type at the best of times, which this definitely is not.

"A little. Two people here come from my future. They say I defeat the guy who used geostigma to resurrect himself again and it gets cured. Not sure if that's a sign I'll graduate or just...another version of me on another version of my world who didn't die when I did."

From:

ravenswrath

"There seems to be some of that going around. People knowing shit they shouldn't." He rubs the back of his neck, looking past him for a moment. "What do you think about graduation anyway?" Because Corvo sure didn't give a fuck when he first got here.

From:

nimbuster

"Hm. S'why I'm here." Cloud glances up at Corvo, now. "Don't recall the details, but the Admiral offered me a second chance to fix everything I fucked up, and I took it."

From:

ravenswrath

He nods. "Better man than me," he remarks. "I came in and wanted nothing to do with this. Didn't want to graduate, didn't care about it. Killed nearly eight people my first night. Those signs on the wall? They're because of me."

Which he is exceptionally embarrassed about, but it's the truth.

From:

nimbuster

What Corvo says reminds Cloud of Sephiroth's attitude. Which means that if Corvo could change his mind, Sephiroth can, too. Validation, of a kind.

But then he blinks, brows lifting, then furrowing. "Why'd you do it?"

From:

ravenswrath

"Didn't get the Admiral chat beforehand. Thought I was still at home or it was a trick of the god who decided to get involved in my life. I finally got stopped, but - wasn't my finest moment."

He sits back, clearly not finished, but taking a drink anyway. This is the most he's talked in a long time and it doesn't come naturally to him.

"I was killed when I was saving the young Empress. So the last thing I saw was her dangling over a lighthouse."

From:

nimbuster

A trick of a god involved in his life...well, Sephiroth might not have become an actual god, but he sure acted like one, tricks and all. So Cloud can sympathize.

"Shit. Do you know if she survived?"