All that Glitters…

sonofseto:

animus-inspire:

With the crowds there is a moment that Cait Sith loses sight of the other, bemoaning the Mog’s clumsy nature under his breath in a strongly accented lilt. The automaton is not a real beast and therefore cannot sniff out scents like one, not that that would have been much of an option with all these other humans milling around. Instead the big pink plush is halted and with a scritchie behind one ear, the little cat calculates trajectories.

Finding the most probable course taken by that strange bare-foot human setting off weirdness in his circuits, Cait Sith steers Mister Mog to halumphing once more through the crowds. Some more cussing and a sudden realisation later finds the cat leaping from his vantage point to weaving in and out of the people, one part thanking Reeve for the increased motor abilities, the other cursing himself, so by extension also his creator, for being of the height which seemed to place him just above the level of most adult human’s bottoms!

“Nanaki?” The little cat crows, batting away a rather large posterior from crashing into him, shaking a white fisted paw up at the people suddenly alarmed to have a three foot feline in booties and a crown darting between them. Getting to the edge of this particular crowd, Cait Sith puts paws on knees and bends over with a defeated, “Fwwooo, yer lost ‘im.”

Only then for ears to prick up at the shrill sounding shrieks of terrified woman coming from the other side of the corridor platform. Either Don Corneo had arisen from the dead to terrorize the broads at the Saucer or someone just walked into the wrong restroom. Single gendered dressing rooms and toilets were a concept familiar to the little cat. Too familiar some might say. A beast turned human, lost in the frantic milieu of Gaia’s gambling capital on the other hand…

Jumping up and down on the spot, Cait Sith finally caught a confirming glipse of red hair and skitters across the concourse quickly. As he arrives outside the Marlboro door whiskers twitch and two, three paces are stepped to the sides. Aha. He’s in the Tonberry Toilets!

Pushing through into the room with troughs and stalls, Cait Sith stands at the entrance like a cowboy who had just crossed into a saloon, one haunch cocked to the side, “Well, now, lookie here.” A drawl thickens the words into the empty space before the stall doors, “It don’ take a genius to spot a goat ina herda sheep! So what say ya, partner? Gonna spend the rest of ya day holed up in ‘ere or ya gonna come out an’ face me like the man ya are now.”

It seems I have a choice; I can remain here, perched atop this odd looking porcelain seat and hope that the feline will go away or face him and no doubt his many questions. I know Cait Sith well enough now to know that it is doubtful he will leave, he is a tenacious cat and as curious as I am. I rub my head feeling a bump beneath my mane where the shoe colliding with my skull, hissing under my breath at the slight pain. I shift on the seat pushing down the mild panic that flutters in my chest and draw in a breath. Then slowly drop my paws to the floor, the tiles are cold on my bare skin

What I don’t want is my condition to become common knowledge to the rest of my friends and for this reason I have kept away from them. Cait Sith, as much as I was fond of him, did have a habit to gossip.

Face me like a man…right now i couldn’t have felt any less of a man, more like a beast pretending to be  human

Clutching the uniform close to my chest, I stand up and slowly push the door open, peering around it to find Cait Sith stood there. I step out to face him, shifting awkwardly from paw to paw

“One has to go to work very soon Cait Sith, so one does not have much time. Mr Dio told me not to be late, that he will be training me personally. One does not wish to disappoint one’s new employer. Shall we talk elsewhere?”

I pad past the feline and back out into the main concourse, it is still very busy, I make my way to an empty bench, shaped like a chocobo and sit down. Placing the folded uniform neatly to one side and patting it. It is the only thing I own in this world right now and I aim to take care of it.

I glance at my feline companion and let out a heavy sigh

“Well as you can see my friend, one is human…I got my wish”

Cait Sith really had no reason to go elsewhere. Not so much a frivolous a creature as his demeanour might suggest, the little cat however does possess a tenacity that could rival a stubborn behemoth, and even more than that had a curiosity about his companions that could quite possibly be mistaken for genuine affection. That is, if a mere robot could even feel such a thing.

For quite a long time now he and Nanaki had gone forth together in battle and in random bouts of camaraderie which no doubt the beast-turned-human might protest about but which both had settled mostly contentedly around.

There were still many who distrusted Cait Sith, but in Nanaki, the fortune teller, the matchmaker and the spy had found himself a fellow furry friend. Not so furry a beast now, though, as the boy emerges from the toilet with a two-foot shuffle, Cait Sith grinned; Nanaki was still kinda furry, if his mess of scraggly hair was anything to go by!

Even though the feline robot was adept at spreading rumours and liked to keep to keep a black tufted ear to the ground, he was created by a man more reserved than most and only gossiped when it was of some use to both maker and method. If he had known what Nanaki was thinking between those very human-shaped conch-like shells of ears, Cait Sith would have huffed and puffed.

However, that was not what happened, instead Cait Sith was left crowing at the back of the boy as he skulked past to the busy concourse, “Och, why the long face? An’ we’re not talking aboot yer normal muzzle ‘ere, laddie!”

Cait Sith turned on his boots to patter after, hopping and scrambling up the side of the large plastic Chocobo to plop down unceremoniously upon Nanaki’s precious uniform. Like a cat he was in the habit of sitting on things not to be sat upon, though at least he did not shed or leave claw marks as readily as the standard feline.

“Ken tell the great Cait Sith everything, eh?” A little nudge against long human legs, “Kinda already used to walkin’ on two legs, see…” It was a little offer for a listening ear, as much as he could ever be. The curiosity was just an added impetus to sit uncommonly still for the little cat, white paws folded neatly on his lap.  

Mind your own business

execoterrorist:

She thinks she’s finally found the root of the problem. She’s known a lot of workaholics in her life, primarily ones in positions of power similar to Reeve’s. And it hurts, really, to know that there are people that, due to upbringing or social conventions, believe that they are absolutely rubbish at anything that isn’t submitted in triplicate and signed in nine places.

She is stubborn. She won’t be leaving until he at least has arranged a date with Shalua or has confessed to not having any feelings for her at all. She doesn’t expect him to admit to love or undying devotion. Marriage wasn’t even on the spectrum. But anything was better than watching the two in question share looks across board meetings. 

“So, Reeve Tuesti, you can sit here in your tower and help out all of humanity but you can’t take one moment or two to try to be a human yourself?” Feelings, emotions, trips and stumbles. They were all part of what it meant to be a human being. Reeve Tuesti wore a costume of complacency and genius, hiding his true…fear? Did he fear the very parts that made him man?

At his comments about the dates, she snorted. He knew as well as she did that they must have been tied in the relationship arena. Her “lovers” and “experience” could be counted on one hand. The wayward leader of AVALANCHE hardly had time to stand back and think about relationships. “If talking about the best way to blow up reactors is a date, then yes.” 

But this was a world of peace. Reeve Tuesti had time. 

Ah, but it was not his position, the responsibilities he now bore are only a recently developed stage in his life though Reeve had always taken things on his own back rather than let other things out of his control mess things up. Neither was it was not his upbringing as Reeve’s Ma and Da would have been proud of him provided he did not end up harming himself or others.

It was unlikely to be social convention either, for this was a man who was intuitive about others but remained mostly diminished from their connections. He went around inhabiting a feline automaton for half of his life, the cat inhabiting a human held another approximate portion and the remainder had to remind himself every day of the training he had received as a boy in order to make sense of anything.

Humans and beasts were messy, complex creatures. Machines and circuits generally were not.

At her words, Reeve opened out his crossed arms and gestured to the room about them, “Not a tower, Elfe. This is not ShinRa and I am not Rufus, nor the old President. Though, like them, I am just one man!” He slams his palm down on his desk sharply as he stands, fury and frustration apparently fuelling the sudden brightness in his eyes.

He is curious to see how Elfe reacts to him now, the mild-mannered Commissioner showing a keeness of anger. How does the former AVALANCHE leader who hardly had time to stand back and think of relationships either deal with the reactions to her own hypocrisy?

And if he did not actually feel the anger as much as he was making out, Reeve does not let on, merely leans forward over his desk with a darkly lowered tone, “The very same reactors that killed, maimed and poisoned hundreds of people when they were blown apart? Designed and destroyed by perfectly rational human beings at that…”

“So this is an era of peace… I am however not going to sit idly by. There are always things to be done and we can never tell who will get what in their heads from this point on.”

(Source: animus-inspire)

Mind your own business

execoterrorist:

She was tempted to remind Reeve that she had an eternity to do said “important matters” and that, at the moment, she didn’t have anything more important than the well being and happiness of her younger sister. And there was nothing to second guess. She was, if nothing else, so brutally honest that her words rarely had a double meaning. 

The only double meaning she could possibly have here is “do something or I will.” She wasn’t above forgery. 

Although the smallest amount of doubt crossed her mind. He seemed really really against this idea. Perhaps she had misinterpreted Shalua and the Commissioner’s playful banter and sideways glances. After all, relationships weren’t her forte at all. Unless you counted the relationship in the chemical combustion reaction. That was something completely different, however.

She bristled, just slightly, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. Perhaps the most childish part of her resisted her relations with Veld, but right now that wasn’t the important matter. He was trying to get her off topic (succeeding just the slightest), and that would just not do.

Without a word, she trod up to his desk and ripped the papers out of his hand. “That tactic doesn’t work on me.” She held the files out of his reach and stared him in the eye. “You’re a lot of things, Reeve Tuesti. But this passive aggressive shit won’t cut it here.” Did he know she meant business yet? “How hard is it to go on a fricken date?” 

Reeve also placed great value on the happiness of Shalua. When Shelke had returned he might not have shown it, he might have been stoic and understood this did not resolve all problems immediately, but he had been tremendously relieved. His Director had practically killed herself in her search for her reason to live, and it had been painful to witness sometimes.

It was these pangs of pain that cemented those foundations of when they had first met, that made sure that The Commissioner knew how much he cared. It was not that Reeve was against this because he had little feelings for the woman. No. He was against this because he could not envisage he would give her the happiness she truly deserved.

Double meanings or not, Reeve was sure he knew his own mind better than Felicia Dragoon. It was not just Shalua, he had been fighting his feelings his entire life; all his relationships had failed at the feet of his other demands. The same thing would more than likely occur with Shalua. And, he suspects, the same thing would happen with Vincent.

And, if not, then could he navigate the needs of all involved?

Reeve did not want to have to deal with this. It was not a childish response. It was not sticking his head in the ground. It was quite simply that he had more important things to concentrate on. His voice was no longer warm, but remained mild, “I am indeed a lot of things, Elfe, but right now I am primarily Comissioner of the W.R.O.”

He sits back and crosses his arms in front of his chest, at her second question he raises one eyebrow; not challenging, but not backing down either, “You tell me. You must’ve been on more dates, in the conventional sense of the word, than I have recently…”

(Source: animus-inspire)

Mmm - but it’s poetry in motion
And when she turned her eyes to me
As deep as any ocean
As sweet as any harmony
Mmm - but she blinded me with science
And failed me in geometry

When she’s dancing next to me
“Blinding me with science - science!”
“Science!”
I can hear machinery
“Blinding me with science - science!”
“Science!”

It’s poetry in motion
And now she’s making love to me
The spheres’re in commotion
The elements in harmony
She blinded me with science
“She blinded me with science!”
And hit me with technology

I don’t believe it!
There she goes again!
She’s tidied up, and I can’t find anything!
All my tubes and wires
And careful notes
And antiquated notions

But! - it’s poetry in motion
And when she turned her eyes to me
As deep as any ocean
As sweet as any harmony
Mmm - but she blinded me with science
“She blinded me with - with science!”
She blinded me with -