I am the Darkness Within @apocalypticmadman - Tumblr Blog

Thursday and Rebirth is released on PC!

@aamusedly

"I hate you less than some others."

#Sephiroth is never anonymous #aamusedly

Crow's brow furrowed in a look of both curiosity and concern. Few would feel empathy for the man sitting across from him, especially not after all the grief he'd been put through, but the Celestial tended to be an exception rather than a rule.

"Created?" Crow worried his lip between his teeth for a moment. "An... experiment. You weren't born of a Celestial, were you?"

apocalypticmadman

The man shrugged with little care. Honestly his origins were largely unimportant in the scheme of things. He had Celestial genetics as well as human but that was as far as his knowledge went.

"I am told my Celestial mother's name was Jenova. It is possible that I was born of her naturally or only created using what remained of what he found of her. What Hojo made of me after her apparent death is known only to him." His eyes returned to Crow's, luminescent green in the dim light of the bar his slit pupils the only physically obvious indication of his inhuman bloodline.

"I don't care to find out. Look too far into the abyss and you'll eventually find that the abyss can look back at you. In the end, the abyss will always win."

#aamusedly #celestial au #so ominous

aamusedly

Despite his good-natured optimism, Crow was still a self-preservationist. He'd been avoiding the Cosmic Chain for years, and knew very well what he stood to lose if he was captured again.

Prison hadn't been kind to him. But apparently this scientist would be even less so.

Crow turned down to look at their hands on the table, long blue fingers absently fiddling with each other. "You're familiar with this character."

"Did he hurt you?"

apocalypticmadman

Hurt. "That, I suppose, is one way to word it, yes." Sephiroth mused, his gloved fingers tapping against the table's surface. It was likely the only possible sign of nerves that he would show openly. Honestly the fear he held for the man was so deeply buried that he barely acknowledged it himself.

Worse yet, he didn't even know why he feared him. His time in the lab blurred into a gray fog; one likely self-induced. All he knew for certain was that he couldn't end up in the scientist's hands again.

"He created me." He snorted in bitter laughter. "My dear so-called father."

#aamusedly #celestial au #casually adds back to your pile of replies

aamusedly

Crow couldn't hide the flicker of disappointment on their face. He'd known from the onset that it simply wasn't logical that Sephiroth would know of any other Celestials just floating around somewhere, but his inherent optimism was a hard reflex to quash.

It took a steadying breath to remember that he was being greedy here-- there was another Celestial sitting right across from him, and that was more than he'd ever expected. Granted, that other Celestial was already dodging him.

"We don't need to resemble eachother to be... related. Descended from the same people, I mean. Genetics of our kind are... strange. They manifest differently. It doesn't matter, because we already know it-- we both felt it, right?"

apocalypticmadman

That was true enough and Sephiroth couldn't deny it. Even as closed off as he kept himself Crow radiated a sense of familiarity that no one else ever had. Perhaps it was that aura that unnerved him in the deep recesses of his mind that he largely ignored.

Finally he let out a small sigh as if in reluctant surrender. "Yes. I did. I can't lie about that." He kept people at a distance out of the sake of self-preservation but it seemed that his "cousin" wasn't about to let him. And in the end it might just be easier to surrender in this case. He had already spared Crow for some reason he still didn't understand, forcing his employers to believe in the death of their target.

The characteristic smirk faded, the cat-like pupils narrowing despite the dim light. "If you insist on such a thing I will give you a warning. Stay out of the sight of a man named Hojo. The Chain knows you are a powerful biotic and are not human or completely. They would only imprison you as a thief and renegade. Hojo will know you for what you are and he'd like nothing more than to have another subject to continue his research. There will be no escape from that hell and even less of a chance of rescue."

#hi my dad is a psycho scientist that has a thing for Celestials #watch out for him #aamusedly #celestial au

//Crow is precious and you can fight me on that.

I'd say you can fight Sephiroth but he doesn't care enough.

aamusedly

Crow should've been afraid of many things in this equation-- least of all the barely-sane bounty hunter sitting with him. But what outweighed trepidation for Crow was something that went deeper than a survival instinct.

Loneliness could drive a person to do very unsafe things.

"I don't like leaving conversations unfinished. Especially if it's about... you know. Us. Our mutual... species." What a wretchedly clinical way to put it. Crow scratched at the bridge of his nose awkwardly-- he hadn't planned this far ahead.

"I just... wanted to talk to you. I wanted to know you. Where you came from, how you survived... if there are others like us."

apocalypticmadman

He had to wonder what drove the young man before him to pursue any sort of relationship with him. He was not the type of man most people wanted to know and for good reason. Sephiroth didn't like to let anyone in, his quiet paranoia keeping him isolated. If someone was close to you they could easily get rid of you.

It had nearly happened once already; a lesson in the weakness of friendship that he had taken to heart.

"Others like us." Sephiroth echoed, that famous sardonic smirk on his face. "Do you believe there are any that only remotely resemble either one of us. Even you and I are not similar enough, I believe, to each other." He raised an eyebrow.

"I would have thought that our combat would have shown you that difference." Of course he had never really embraced his heritage, finding the genetics of an ancient powerful race more troublesome than helpful and the other half...well, to him that side of his so called family wasn't acknowledged at all.

Still he didn't completely abandon the kinship between himself and Crow. He continued with only a pause for another sip. "Thus far I have yet to hear of any that share what little we can claim of our ancestry. If any exist that have enough for abilities to manifest and that they are aware of where it comes from it's more than likely they keep it to themselves. You are aware of the consequences should they not."

His eyes glinted. "There are many ways of hiding."

#seph vc: emotions are for the weak I feel nothing #aamusedly #celestial au

aamusedly

The little sigh out of Crow was more a breath through his nose, frustrated for all that his expression didn't show it much past that. "We are on a backwater bar on a station in the middle of nowhere," the Celestial answered in a hushed tone, "I've been evading the Chain for a good portion of my life. I know when they aren't looking."

Usually. Most of the time, anyways. There was that whole time with the mercenary he was talking to at the very moment...

Carefully, Crow reached out for the chair opposite his... not quite cousin. "I wanted to talk to you. I came all this way."

apocalypticmadman

He knew well enough that not many would take the effort to hunt in the Outer Rim. Mostly because the chance of finding the bounty much less alone was small. Sephiroth, of course, didn't care. He was called in for the impossible chases, the ones where all else had failed and the risk no longer outweighed the reward.

He didn't protest the other man joining him. Why would he? Crow was no threat to him and he had already warned him about the potential consequences. Granted it was rare that anybody chose to sit down with him. Even to those that weren't aware of his reputation the sense of threatening power clung to him like a cloak.

"You've come a long way for a chat." He smirked, his eyes glittering in sardonic amusement. "I'm flattered." He took another sip of his drink. "It must be important."

#aamusedly

aamusedly

This was a foolish task, and he knew that going in. That simple thought had stopped Crow in his tracks multiple times now, but then weeks later he'd pick the trail back up and throw caution to the wind.

Impulse was a thing the Celestial had always had a hard time ignoring.

So here he was, out in the far reaches of space again, hood drawn over his head and cowl up high as he sidled into the backwater tavern he'd followed the trail to. Undignified, for what Sephiroth was. But neither of them tended to follow a mold.

"Why not?" Crow's voice was quiet, careful, blue eyes cutting from where he stood over Sephiroth's seat. "I'm fairly sure we're out of the jurisdiction of the Cosmic Chain. ...Unless you still collect their credits."

apocalypticmadman

Faintly luminescent eyes gleamed in the dim light of the tavern showing very little emotion beyond indolent interest. He had always had the reputation of being much like a cat. And like a cat he had little care as to what was expected of him by others.

"Infrequently." Aka when the Chain was desperate enough to reach out to the man to take the risk he represented. An eyebrow rose, "Even if I did, you wouldn't be my target. I let you go once and lied about your death. I wouldn't make a fool out of myself by accepting a hunt a second time."

"That doesn't mean you should be seen here with me if you wish to remain safe." He smirked. "I have not lost my notoriety." He was patient enough to let Crow explain why he had tracked him down. This was no coincidence; he knew that much.

#aamusedly #YES! One big happy family of two

@aamusedly A cousin for Crow

Sephiroth hadn't seen the other Celestial since he had abandoned the bounty on his head for reasons he still questioned. Granted he wasn't a completely evil man but he wouldn't call himself good or merciful either.

He hadn't expected to see Crow ever again either. It was a massive universe and he had little reason to look for the other. But Crow was hard to mistake for one who was as aware of his surroundings as the swordsman was.

Sephiroth rarely used his inhuman abilities other than what aided him in a fight but that didn't stop him from being aware, at least dimly, of the minds around him. And Crow's was a glaring neon sign.

The question was, why was he here in this back corner of the universe on an even more obscure space station in the middle of no where. Sephiroth finished off his drink with sigh to himself. "You shouldn't be seen here."

#Some sci fi au thing where Seph is a freelance space cop/bounty hunter?#aamusedly #feel free to ignore

//saw Advent Children in theaters tonight. Still a fantastic movie. I might create a HSR verse for this boy.

For one bearing the curse of competence, it was rare for him to have a quiet moment even long enough to enjoy a meal. Perhaps it was only because he managed to keep out of sight before somebody came up with a problem for him to solve.

Unfortunately it didn't last for very long. It never did. "I'm busy."

#Can I just eat lunch in peace?#sane Sephiroth #open