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FF7 -- Restore -- chapter 5 scene 2
-Wutai being a mix of Chinese and Japanese I kinda tend to pick some things at random and totally make up some others.
-Not sure about the pacing or how interesting it is, but it needs to be there, so ehh.
-> Plz crit away, it's only the first draft.
Table of Contents
Prologue - Previous
Cloud slid down the last few feet to the ground, the rope ladder zipping through his gloved hands. His feet landed on paved stones with a solid thump.
"Thank you for coming so quickly, Mr. Strife," Reeve said, taking a step forward and offering a hand to shake.
Cloud shook, observing him and the subdued town square. Very few passersby, all with their heads hanging low and talking in hurried, uneasy whispers. A couple of stern, grim-faced Wutainese men in white traditional costumes waited a few steps behind Reeve. That might have explained Reeve's textbook-proper posture and his reserved greeting.
"Thank you for calling us," he replied, cautious.
Tifa landed behind him with a little oof and turned to face them, giving Reeve a smile that was still half-awake at best. She'd slept for the last five hours of the trip, only waking up a few minutes before Cid threw the ladder over to send them down.
"Miss Lockhart."
"... Mr. Tuesti," she replied, visibly a little confused but willing to play along.
Reeve guided them a few steps away from the dangling rope ladder, as a few of Cid's employees climbed down to take care of the crates being lowered to the ground. There was nowhere big enough for his ship to land in the city. He'd come join them later, when everything with his cargo was sorted out.
"May I introduce Councilor Kanemoto and Leuang, his secretary. They are in charge of the guests."
Cloud nodded a greeting. He almost offered his hand to Kanemoto, but seeing the dry little bow he was given, and the expressionless stare going right through him, it would have been ignored. Kanemoto seemed old, maybe sixty or maybe ten years more, steel-gray hair pulled back in an old-fashioned topknot that even Yuffie's father hadn't been prone to wearing much. A traditionalist. Leuang was younger, in his thirties maybe, but he obviously took his cue from the old man.
"Thank you for taking care of us," Tifa said, smiling, though it was her reserved, polite smile and he could tell she knew just as much as he did that more would have been wasted.
Well. He had known before coming that they would be seen as outsiders, hadn't he.
Kanemoto had a little spiel ready as he led them to the Kisaragi estate -- that it was a honor to host friends of Lady Kisaragi, that if they needed help they should not hesitate to call for Leuang, who would be able to find anything they might require. They exchanged condolences as well. Then silence fell. Cloud let it.
He would have liked to go to bed soon, but there was still the wake to go through. He'd napped in the ship, too, but he hadn't managed to catch much more than a half-hour of shut-eye here and there.
Tifa had fallen asleep at about eight AM Edge time, and he had told himself that of course Denzel would still be in bed, especially if he had stayed up the previous day out of worry. Then the network had gone down. There was nothing they could do from the ship but fret, and he could fret just fine alone, so he'd let Tifa sleep anyway. Thankfully at some point the network went back up and so when Tifa woke up he could reassure her right away; Denzel was safely with Elmyra, getting ready to take the next ship over. He'd be there early morning tomorrow, Wutai time.
It let them entirely free to fret about other things instead. Cloud had forbidden himself to think about the Sephiroth situation, though, considering how fruitless and unhelpful that would be.
They passed a gate with guards who scrutinized their faces, and then they were in the first inner courtyard of the Kisaragi residence... or estate, or castle, or whatever they called the sprawling interlinked buildings and their inner gardens.
"Leuang will lead you to your bedrooms, so that you may change into appropriate clothing," Councilor Kanemoto said, giving Cloud's sword and Tifa's leather jacket a disapproving look. "Mr. Tuesti..."
"I believe I will walk with them," Reeve said with firm politeness. "I need to change as well. Thank you for coming, Councilor."
The old man stared at Reeve for a few seconds, and then at Cloud, eyes flicking quickly over Tifa before he gave a sharp nod and turned on his heel to leave.
"This way," Leuang said, and started walking.
They followed as he led them to the gallery that followed one of the inner courtyards, and then back inside the building, a wing Cloud hadn't visited before. It had obviously been refurbished since the war, though traces of it -- broken tiles, empty nooks, the shadow of a disappeared tapestry -- still showed. Servants hurried past, pretending not to notice them.
Cloud glanced at Reeve a couple of times, but the man didn't meet his eyes even once, staring ahead with grave thoughtfulness. Alright, Cloud could take a hint. They weren't supposed to know each other all that well.
"This is my stop," Reeve said; Cloud memorized the door. "I will see you later."
A nod, and he was gone.
"Your rooms," Leuang said, stopping a few doors down and pushing it open. "Miss Lockhart," he indicated. The next down the corridor; "Mr. Strife." He gave them a short bow and then he was gone. Cloud traded a look with Tifa, shrugged, and went to dump his backpack on his bed. There was a sword rack, though it was made for slender katanas and wouldn't have fit his huge broadsword. He propped the handle against it, eyes traveling over the bedroom.
Slippery wooden floor, scrolls hanging from the walls that he lifted to check for hidden surprises. The window was round, with intricate latticework, welded shut. He could kick his way through if needed, but it would leave obvious tracks. There was a folding screen hiding a sink and an old-fashioned wooden tub in a corner; no shower (or anyone hiding in the tub either). The second screen hid a door. Hmm.
"Hey, Tifa," he said, peering through at her bedroom. It was about identical; only the color scheme had a little more red to replace his own cream and black.
She'd taken off her jacket and stood in the middle of the room, like she was still trying to decide what to do next. She looked at the door with a faintly puzzled expression, and then laughed. "Oh, look, we have a polite fiction door."
"... What?"
She took his sleeve and tugged him in, and pushed the door closed. Seen from this side it almost melted into the wall.
"You know, we're not married, so there is no reason to be in each other's bedroom? And we would have to go out in the corridor to visit, and if that happened too often ..."
"They could have just asked if we wanted to share," Cloud replied, tilting his head in confusion. He felt along the wall for the latch and pushed the door open again. "Kinda weird to give us separate rooms and then a sneaky way to go from one to the other."
Tifa let out an amused little huff. "Hence the polite fiction part. It's not polite of them to ask, it's not polite of us to flaunt it, so they're giving us the sneaky door and then we can do whatever we want with it."
Cloud shrugged. "That or they don't have a lot of rooms left for guests." He leaned against the doorjamb, so he could keep an eye on both bedrooms. "What kind of clothes did you pack?"
Tifa sighed and sat on her bed to open her own bag. "Well. I brought our best formal clothes but you know, after seeing the councilor... I'm not sure they'll work." She nibbled on her lower lip, lost in thought. "Maybe we should buy something--"
A knock rang at her front door; before she or Cloud could move it was pushed open. Reeve peeked through, flicked them a quick smile, and stepped inside, closing the door after him. He was carrying long silk-wrapped packages draped on his arm.
"Reeve? Are you... not supposed to be here?"
He let out a rueful laugh, laying the packages on the bed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you so wary. No, of course I'm not forbidden to be here. I would just rather not raise too many questions. I'm only supposed to be one of Avalanche's associates, not a member."
They'd found it more practical. Some people weren't happy with Avalanche's old, violent means; no need to tar Reeve and his organization with the same brush. Being one of their allies gave Reeve the positive boost of being a politician who shared their ideals and their pro-Gaia stance without marking him as an active rebel.
He raked his hand through his hair, smoothing it back. Cloud saw a few gray strands amongst the dark. He frowned a little. His goatee was as neatly trimmed as ever and his suit showed almost no wrinkles, but Reeve looked tired too, when he let himself show it.
"It's good to see you," Reeve said, more quietly. "The atmosphere here has been... tense."
Tifa moved to him, rested a hand on his shoulder. "Tense how? ...Is Yuffie alright?"
Reeve sighed. "I haven't spent a lot of time with her. I'm not sure how she's taking it. When I saw her there were so many people asking for her input, and she was... Well. She wasn't chatty. Proper, mostly. I don't know if she even truly believes it's happening yet."
"Stiff upper lip," Cloud said quietly, remembering Zack's words.
"That's a good word for it. She was sitting with her legs folded like they do here and her back straight, wearing at least a dozen layers of kimono. I'm not sure she could have slouched even if she'd wanted to." He raked a hand through his dark hair again. "She looked more like a doll than a person. It isn't right."
Tifa made a little distressed noise. Reeve nodded his agreement.
"... Anyway. As a political ally, it's alright if I come wearing a suit instead of traditional clothes, but as her personal friends you probably shouldn't." Reeve pointed at the silk-wrapped packages.
Cloud lifted one of the edges, arching an eyebrow at the white woman's kimono he had unveiled. "That, and you already knew we'd have nothing appropriate, huh."
He relaxed a little when Reeve's weariness disappeared briefly and a teasing smile flashed through. The man always looked proper and understated at first meeting, but when you knew he was the brain behind Cait Sith's flamboyant performances your expectations changed a little.
"Well. Yes."
"Got one for Cid too?" Cloud asked, briefly amused at the thought of the coarse blond in traditional Wutaian clothes.
"Of course. I even have a set for Vincent."
"That's not necessary," replied said Vincent, standing calmly by the folding screen in Cloud's bedroom. Cloud twitched in aborted reaction, hand groping for a sword he wasn't wearing.
Vincent glanced at him, but he didn't smile at having successfully taken Cloud by surprise. Half of his face lost in his eternal cape, the rest of it just as hard to read as it had been before Meteor. Huh.
"Yuffie?" Reeve asked.
"Still secure."
"Got bodyguard duty?" Cloud inquired, and got a nod in reply. "Who's taking over?"
Vincent frowned faintly. "None of ours. But she seems to trust the kunoichi shadowing her."
Cloud didn't reply, allowing his raised eyebrow to express his disbelief that Vincent had left Yuffie even so.
"...Purification ritual. Staying wasn't appropriate."
"...Oh."
Alright. Yuffie taking a symbolic bath wasn't something Cloud especially needed to witness either.
"Are things really so risky?" Tifa asked. "I mean, maybe I could go if she really needs help, but... They wouldn't be happy with me barging in on a ritual either."
Reeve watched Tifa in silence for a few seconds, weighing his words. Cloud stayed silent. His paranoia kept feeding on Vincent's and Reeve's, but he had no more solid proof than Tifa did.
"You have to realize that right now, even with Lord Kisaragi's untimely death, Wutai's government is in a better state than ours. They lost the war several years ago, yes, but they surrendered, they weren't utterly destroyed -- they got to keep most of their rules and traditions, and most importantly a lot of their leaders and infrastructures. And... without Shinra, ours is almost completely gone. WRO is dedicated to rebuilding, not commanding."
Tifa's brow furrowed.
"We can't go back to a pre-Shinra system because it was completely destroyed to put Shinra's in place. Several city-states and their vassal villages didn't even have their own mayors anymore, they had Shinra-instated governors. There have been elections, and a surprising number of the winners are even competent, but at best they have five years' experience, and at the moment they're all concentrating on their own areas. We're not an empire anymore, we're a bunch of city-states with vaguely friendly relations, but who can't even all afford to help each other much because our own need is too pressing, and we keep having to reinvent new protocols and make new treaties."
"... I... can see that, but... What's the link with Yuffie?"
"The timing is ideal to get revenge," Reeve said simply. "The only thing that's stopping the Wutai nobility from starting preparations is that Yuffie has friends outside of Wutai and that she supports world peace, and right now she's in control."
"But she's also a kid who doesn't know anything," Cloud concluded.
Reeve nodded, visibly tired once again. "She also stands in the way of another family ascending to the throne, and she stands in the way of the Progressive party which wants to do away with the whole feudal system. I'm not sure if they're already planning to take action against her, but even just one of the three would be enough."
Cloud's shoulders tensed. He'd known it would be awkward; he hadn't really allowed himself to believe it would be that bad.
"Wutai politics really are cutthroat, huh," he said under his breath. Damn. Sephiroth hadn't exaggerated.
Reeve nodded grimly. "A bit too literally, too. From what I've gathered, funerals are an especially dangerous time. Wutai traditions find suicide to join your loved ones noble and tragic, and when you're distracted by grief you're vulnerable both from without and from within."
Tifa made an angry noise in the back of her throat, fists clenched. "That's not right. Yuffie should be busy grieving, not -- that's just not right." She started unwrapping her kimono, a scowl on her face. "I'm going to get ready."
"You won't see her before the wake starts," Reeve cautioned. "They won't let you."
"Well then, I'll be the first at the wake."
Cloud nodded slowly and went to the bed to get his own kimono. "Might as well." He paused, frowned. Yuffie's situation looked more urgent, but. He had other things to watch out for too. "Reeve, Vincent?"
Reeve blinked at him, curious. "Yes?"
Vincent gave Cloud a long, piercing look, glanced at Tifa's suddenly tense shoulders, and his eyes narrowed. Cloud was suddenly tempted to just tell him everything right away. But... no. He didn't want to have to say it again when Cid and Barret got there. It wasn't safe anyway, not here where they couldn't be sure who might wander by the door at the wrong time.
"... Stick around after the funeral. Something to tell you." A tense silence, to tell Reeve and confirm what Vincent already knew, and then, abrupt, "Don't tell Yuffie."
"...Sure."
Next.
-Not sure about the pacing or how interesting it is, but it needs to be there, so ehh.
-> Plz crit away, it's only the first draft.
Table of Contents
Prologue - Previous
Cloud slid down the last few feet to the ground, the rope ladder zipping through his gloved hands. His feet landed on paved stones with a solid thump.
"Thank you for coming so quickly, Mr. Strife," Reeve said, taking a step forward and offering a hand to shake.
Cloud shook, observing him and the subdued town square. Very few passersby, all with their heads hanging low and talking in hurried, uneasy whispers. A couple of stern, grim-faced Wutainese men in white traditional costumes waited a few steps behind Reeve. That might have explained Reeve's textbook-proper posture and his reserved greeting.
"Thank you for calling us," he replied, cautious.
Tifa landed behind him with a little oof and turned to face them, giving Reeve a smile that was still half-awake at best. She'd slept for the last five hours of the trip, only waking up a few minutes before Cid threw the ladder over to send them down.
"Miss Lockhart."
"... Mr. Tuesti," she replied, visibly a little confused but willing to play along.
Reeve guided them a few steps away from the dangling rope ladder, as a few of Cid's employees climbed down to take care of the crates being lowered to the ground. There was nowhere big enough for his ship to land in the city. He'd come join them later, when everything with his cargo was sorted out.
"May I introduce Councilor Kanemoto and Leuang, his secretary. They are in charge of the guests."
Cloud nodded a greeting. He almost offered his hand to Kanemoto, but seeing the dry little bow he was given, and the expressionless stare going right through him, it would have been ignored. Kanemoto seemed old, maybe sixty or maybe ten years more, steel-gray hair pulled back in an old-fashioned topknot that even Yuffie's father hadn't been prone to wearing much. A traditionalist. Leuang was younger, in his thirties maybe, but he obviously took his cue from the old man.
"Thank you for taking care of us," Tifa said, smiling, though it was her reserved, polite smile and he could tell she knew just as much as he did that more would have been wasted.
Well. He had known before coming that they would be seen as outsiders, hadn't he.
Kanemoto had a little spiel ready as he led them to the Kisaragi estate -- that it was a honor to host friends of Lady Kisaragi, that if they needed help they should not hesitate to call for Leuang, who would be able to find anything they might require. They exchanged condolences as well. Then silence fell. Cloud let it.
He would have liked to go to bed soon, but there was still the wake to go through. He'd napped in the ship, too, but he hadn't managed to catch much more than a half-hour of shut-eye here and there.
Tifa had fallen asleep at about eight AM Edge time, and he had told himself that of course Denzel would still be in bed, especially if he had stayed up the previous day out of worry. Then the network had gone down. There was nothing they could do from the ship but fret, and he could fret just fine alone, so he'd let Tifa sleep anyway. Thankfully at some point the network went back up and so when Tifa woke up he could reassure her right away; Denzel was safely with Elmyra, getting ready to take the next ship over. He'd be there early morning tomorrow, Wutai time.
It let them entirely free to fret about other things instead. Cloud had forbidden himself to think about the Sephiroth situation, though, considering how fruitless and unhelpful that would be.
They passed a gate with guards who scrutinized their faces, and then they were in the first inner courtyard of the Kisaragi residence... or estate, or castle, or whatever they called the sprawling interlinked buildings and their inner gardens.
"Leuang will lead you to your bedrooms, so that you may change into appropriate clothing," Councilor Kanemoto said, giving Cloud's sword and Tifa's leather jacket a disapproving look. "Mr. Tuesti..."
"I believe I will walk with them," Reeve said with firm politeness. "I need to change as well. Thank you for coming, Councilor."
The old man stared at Reeve for a few seconds, and then at Cloud, eyes flicking quickly over Tifa before he gave a sharp nod and turned on his heel to leave.
"This way," Leuang said, and started walking.
They followed as he led them to the gallery that followed one of the inner courtyards, and then back inside the building, a wing Cloud hadn't visited before. It had obviously been refurbished since the war, though traces of it -- broken tiles, empty nooks, the shadow of a disappeared tapestry -- still showed. Servants hurried past, pretending not to notice them.
Cloud glanced at Reeve a couple of times, but the man didn't meet his eyes even once, staring ahead with grave thoughtfulness. Alright, Cloud could take a hint. They weren't supposed to know each other all that well.
"This is my stop," Reeve said; Cloud memorized the door. "I will see you later."
A nod, and he was gone.
"Your rooms," Leuang said, stopping a few doors down and pushing it open. "Miss Lockhart," he indicated. The next down the corridor; "Mr. Strife." He gave them a short bow and then he was gone. Cloud traded a look with Tifa, shrugged, and went to dump his backpack on his bed. There was a sword rack, though it was made for slender katanas and wouldn't have fit his huge broadsword. He propped the handle against it, eyes traveling over the bedroom.
Slippery wooden floor, scrolls hanging from the walls that he lifted to check for hidden surprises. The window was round, with intricate latticework, welded shut. He could kick his way through if needed, but it would leave obvious tracks. There was a folding screen hiding a sink and an old-fashioned wooden tub in a corner; no shower (or anyone hiding in the tub either). The second screen hid a door. Hmm.
"Hey, Tifa," he said, peering through at her bedroom. It was about identical; only the color scheme had a little more red to replace his own cream and black.
She'd taken off her jacket and stood in the middle of the room, like she was still trying to decide what to do next. She looked at the door with a faintly puzzled expression, and then laughed. "Oh, look, we have a polite fiction door."
"... What?"
She took his sleeve and tugged him in, and pushed the door closed. Seen from this side it almost melted into the wall.
"You know, we're not married, so there is no reason to be in each other's bedroom? And we would have to go out in the corridor to visit, and if that happened too often ..."
"They could have just asked if we wanted to share," Cloud replied, tilting his head in confusion. He felt along the wall for the latch and pushed the door open again. "Kinda weird to give us separate rooms and then a sneaky way to go from one to the other."
Tifa let out an amused little huff. "Hence the polite fiction part. It's not polite of them to ask, it's not polite of us to flaunt it, so they're giving us the sneaky door and then we can do whatever we want with it."
Cloud shrugged. "That or they don't have a lot of rooms left for guests." He leaned against the doorjamb, so he could keep an eye on both bedrooms. "What kind of clothes did you pack?"
Tifa sighed and sat on her bed to open her own bag. "Well. I brought our best formal clothes but you know, after seeing the councilor... I'm not sure they'll work." She nibbled on her lower lip, lost in thought. "Maybe we should buy something--"
A knock rang at her front door; before she or Cloud could move it was pushed open. Reeve peeked through, flicked them a quick smile, and stepped inside, closing the door after him. He was carrying long silk-wrapped packages draped on his arm.
"Reeve? Are you... not supposed to be here?"
He let out a rueful laugh, laying the packages on the bed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you so wary. No, of course I'm not forbidden to be here. I would just rather not raise too many questions. I'm only supposed to be one of Avalanche's associates, not a member."
They'd found it more practical. Some people weren't happy with Avalanche's old, violent means; no need to tar Reeve and his organization with the same brush. Being one of their allies gave Reeve the positive boost of being a politician who shared their ideals and their pro-Gaia stance without marking him as an active rebel.
He raked his hand through his hair, smoothing it back. Cloud saw a few gray strands amongst the dark. He frowned a little. His goatee was as neatly trimmed as ever and his suit showed almost no wrinkles, but Reeve looked tired too, when he let himself show it.
"It's good to see you," Reeve said, more quietly. "The atmosphere here has been... tense."
Tifa moved to him, rested a hand on his shoulder. "Tense how? ...Is Yuffie alright?"
Reeve sighed. "I haven't spent a lot of time with her. I'm not sure how she's taking it. When I saw her there were so many people asking for her input, and she was... Well. She wasn't chatty. Proper, mostly. I don't know if she even truly believes it's happening yet."
"Stiff upper lip," Cloud said quietly, remembering Zack's words.
"That's a good word for it. She was sitting with her legs folded like they do here and her back straight, wearing at least a dozen layers of kimono. I'm not sure she could have slouched even if she'd wanted to." He raked a hand through his dark hair again. "She looked more like a doll than a person. It isn't right."
Tifa made a little distressed noise. Reeve nodded his agreement.
"... Anyway. As a political ally, it's alright if I come wearing a suit instead of traditional clothes, but as her personal friends you probably shouldn't." Reeve pointed at the silk-wrapped packages.
Cloud lifted one of the edges, arching an eyebrow at the white woman's kimono he had unveiled. "That, and you already knew we'd have nothing appropriate, huh."
He relaxed a little when Reeve's weariness disappeared briefly and a teasing smile flashed through. The man always looked proper and understated at first meeting, but when you knew he was the brain behind Cait Sith's flamboyant performances your expectations changed a little.
"Well. Yes."
"Got one for Cid too?" Cloud asked, briefly amused at the thought of the coarse blond in traditional Wutaian clothes.
"Of course. I even have a set for Vincent."
"That's not necessary," replied said Vincent, standing calmly by the folding screen in Cloud's bedroom. Cloud twitched in aborted reaction, hand groping for a sword he wasn't wearing.
Vincent glanced at him, but he didn't smile at having successfully taken Cloud by surprise. Half of his face lost in his eternal cape, the rest of it just as hard to read as it had been before Meteor. Huh.
"Yuffie?" Reeve asked.
"Still secure."
"Got bodyguard duty?" Cloud inquired, and got a nod in reply. "Who's taking over?"
Vincent frowned faintly. "None of ours. But she seems to trust the kunoichi shadowing her."
Cloud didn't reply, allowing his raised eyebrow to express his disbelief that Vincent had left Yuffie even so.
"...Purification ritual. Staying wasn't appropriate."
"...Oh."
Alright. Yuffie taking a symbolic bath wasn't something Cloud especially needed to witness either.
"Are things really so risky?" Tifa asked. "I mean, maybe I could go if she really needs help, but... They wouldn't be happy with me barging in on a ritual either."
Reeve watched Tifa in silence for a few seconds, weighing his words. Cloud stayed silent. His paranoia kept feeding on Vincent's and Reeve's, but he had no more solid proof than Tifa did.
"You have to realize that right now, even with Lord Kisaragi's untimely death, Wutai's government is in a better state than ours. They lost the war several years ago, yes, but they surrendered, they weren't utterly destroyed -- they got to keep most of their rules and traditions, and most importantly a lot of their leaders and infrastructures. And... without Shinra, ours is almost completely gone. WRO is dedicated to rebuilding, not commanding."
Tifa's brow furrowed.
"We can't go back to a pre-Shinra system because it was completely destroyed to put Shinra's in place. Several city-states and their vassal villages didn't even have their own mayors anymore, they had Shinra-instated governors. There have been elections, and a surprising number of the winners are even competent, but at best they have five years' experience, and at the moment they're all concentrating on their own areas. We're not an empire anymore, we're a bunch of city-states with vaguely friendly relations, but who can't even all afford to help each other much because our own need is too pressing, and we keep having to reinvent new protocols and make new treaties."
"... I... can see that, but... What's the link with Yuffie?"
"The timing is ideal to get revenge," Reeve said simply. "The only thing that's stopping the Wutai nobility from starting preparations is that Yuffie has friends outside of Wutai and that she supports world peace, and right now she's in control."
"But she's also a kid who doesn't know anything," Cloud concluded.
Reeve nodded, visibly tired once again. "She also stands in the way of another family ascending to the throne, and she stands in the way of the Progressive party which wants to do away with the whole feudal system. I'm not sure if they're already planning to take action against her, but even just one of the three would be enough."
Cloud's shoulders tensed. He'd known it would be awkward; he hadn't really allowed himself to believe it would be that bad.
"Wutai politics really are cutthroat, huh," he said under his breath. Damn. Sephiroth hadn't exaggerated.
Reeve nodded grimly. "A bit too literally, too. From what I've gathered, funerals are an especially dangerous time. Wutai traditions find suicide to join your loved ones noble and tragic, and when you're distracted by grief you're vulnerable both from without and from within."
Tifa made an angry noise in the back of her throat, fists clenched. "That's not right. Yuffie should be busy grieving, not -- that's just not right." She started unwrapping her kimono, a scowl on her face. "I'm going to get ready."
"You won't see her before the wake starts," Reeve cautioned. "They won't let you."
"Well then, I'll be the first at the wake."
Cloud nodded slowly and went to the bed to get his own kimono. "Might as well." He paused, frowned. Yuffie's situation looked more urgent, but. He had other things to watch out for too. "Reeve, Vincent?"
Reeve blinked at him, curious. "Yes?"
Vincent gave Cloud a long, piercing look, glanced at Tifa's suddenly tense shoulders, and his eyes narrowed. Cloud was suddenly tempted to just tell him everything right away. But... no. He didn't want to have to say it again when Cid and Barret got there. It wasn't safe anyway, not here where they couldn't be sure who might wander by the door at the wrong time.
"... Stick around after the funeral. Something to tell you." A tense silence, to tell Reeve and confirm what Vincent already knew, and then, abrupt, "Don't tell Yuffie."
"...Sure."
Next.
Yay!
(Anonymous) 2010-01-06 05:00 pm (UTC)(link)One editorial suggestion: I would change "'[…] the whole Nobility ruling class,'" either to "'[…] the whole Noble ruling class,'" or"'[…] the whole feudal system.'"
There's also a missing "i" at "'Mss Lockhart,' he indicated." I feel kind of petty pointing out tiny typos like that. Should I even bother?
Again, thank you for posting this. It was a lovely way to start the morning.
I really should get a Livejournal account just to look less like a creepy anonymous stalker. This is something like my third or fourth anonymous comment. Sorry!
Re: Yay!
Thank you for the suggestions! *edit fix fix edit* I'm gonna go with feudal system, I love that "feudal" word. *__* (and don't worry about them being "too small", actually the smaller they are and the less likely I'll be to ever notice them, and learning three years later that all along there's been a silly mistake in my stories I kept reading over without noticing is very much AAAAAAA-inducing. XD;;)
you should! it would even email you when someone replies and everything. Much more practical. >.>
Re: Yay!
...Can't find anything new to say either. Sorry~~ >_>
Re: Yay!
Re: Yay!
Where does your username come from? I'm curious. ^^
no subject
I really like the cultural stuff you're doing here, with the danger of funerals and the polite fiction doors, and also the way you're addressing the political chaos Shinra's fall would logically create, and how it's a useful fiction to pretend Reeve wasn't actually part of Avalanche.
no subject
How does one anthropomorphize an election anyway? *grin*
Now I'm trying to come up with something. DX
Glad you like it! I love cultural geekery and worldbuilding so much, I hope this Wutai manages to look coherent in the end. *crosses fingers, takes three bazilion notes*
no subject
(Anonymous) 2010-01-06 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)*warmlovehugsquish* Love this story. So glad you write it.
>>There was nothing they could do from the ship but fret, and he could fret just fine alone<< Eeee, Cloud, so cute with the fretting. ^^ Makes me want to cuddle him. Geez, that man could have all the boob squishes he wanted without even half trying.
And, yeah, I'm useless for more constructive commentary, I just wanted to shower you with affection before I go to bed. G'night.
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Cloud is indeed very boobsquishable. ... especially because you know he'd be kinda "...um #>.>#" about it. XD
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Tired because winter-depression + work-too-much = whatever, sleep plz. I haven't been online very much for the last several weeks because I'm too 'meh' to get interested. Bask in your awesomeness, you at least get a response out of me. Because I like that thing you do, with the words. You know the one.
Boobsquishable = new favorite word. XD Tifa and Aerith ought to gang up on Cloud. Double the boobie, double the squish. Zack should have a camera.
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... Well, i'll still be here when you come out of your wintering cave. .___. ♥ take care of yourself, hon.
Oh man, tifaeris sandwich. He'd die happy. XD
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*squishes Vincent* Yay! Tall dark and silent has appeared! *squishes again just to make it stick* He needs lots of hugs.
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I don't read a lot in the FF7 fandom, but Ciceqi can write just about ANYTHING and make me love it. She's sort of semi-out of the ff7 and Kingdom hearts fandoms now, but she has a crapload of fic already written and she's in the process of finishing her big 'verse.
(newest stuff that's not on the site yet can be found here: http://ciceqi.dreamwidth.org/ )
♥ *goes to post another restore chunk*