R E D E M P T I O N ?

" I've never tried. " Independent. Private. Selective. Written by Walden. Sideblog — burdenedbyguilt — because sometimes inspiration is elsewhere but I still want to write.

[thecursedgunman]

Welcome to blog for Vincent Valentine of Final Fantasy VII!

IMPORTANT NOTE! — To begin, my Vincent Valentine is entirely based from the material prior to the release of the Remake with very few additions made from it based upon things I have heard. This is not a commentary on the new version or the voice actor—Matt Mercer is extremely talented and I appreciate him in other things—but Vincent Valentine, as voiced by Steve Blum, is my version of Vincent. It is the one I grew up with and considered an odd sort of comfort character. While in most things I am able to roll with re-castings, FFVII is not one I seem able to get past, so I have been unable to dig into the new material. I am not unwilling to incorporate aspects of Remake into a thread/verse, but it is not my default, and—even with the incorporation of Remake characters, events, or anything else—he will still be a direct interpretation of the original Vincent, reacting to those things.

Thanks for your time and your follow, and I look forward to writing together!

RULES // DOSSIER // CARRD

I do also have other FFVII blogs that can be found here:

@fivedecisivefactors — Tseng of the Turks

@thecursedgunman — Vincent Valentine

@theobliqueandthedirect — Rufus Shinra

Note: The first two are main blogs; the latter blog as well as this one are a side blogs, and thus, any follows will be from one of my main blogs.

I also have a few other blogs with FFVII/KHII verses available:

@weariedshield , @secondofthelegion , @aworldofmania — Muses from a mobile game called Path to Nowhere. [ It's a pretty niche game, it seems like, so be assured, no prior knowledge of the game is necessary. ]

@mistersaxophone , @justwantedbeeframen , @beboptothebeat — Muses from Cowboy Bebop [ blogs currently under construction as my love of the anime was recently revived ]

@lechevaliermelancholique — Haji from Blood+

@alchemicassassin — Midas from FORTNITE

@arashikagesteel — Storm Shadow [ with occasional Snake Eyes muse ] from G. I. JOE

[thecursedgunman]

This is such a Vincent and Chaos song. It even has a little bit of that REDEMPTION end theme vibe with the build up and almost dissonance near the end. And the deeper voice at the one part in the song—you'll know it when you hear it—even almost sounds like Blum.

[thecursedgunman]

ʻ i know it hurts. ʼ [ @warofthebeasts ]

When the... creature before Sephiroth peeks only slightly from behind one tattered, bloody, and likely broken wing, it is only for the purpose of baring his teeth, an enraged snarl tearing from his throat at the appearance of another. The guttural sound seems to bring even the trees and the stone around them to quake, as if they, too, know what his presence means, the purpose that even his accursed prison does not comprehend.

The simple-minded, ignorant fool.

In the most eerie and unsettling way, Chaos both resembles and looks nothing like the weak vessel who who dares to confine him, who tries to control him. There is a wildness to his demeanor, a sharpness that marks him as wholly removed from the usually aloof and indifferent countenance of the gunman, darkness snapping about him in frenetic, writhing tendrils.

Golden eyes dangerously flash as they track the one who is both familiar and strange. Other.

The next sound is a low, hissing rumble that rattles within his chest, a warning that he approach no further.

[dragonicks]

𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓

because even dragons deserve hurt/comfort.

compassion, ʻ i know it hurts. ʼ ʻ are you limping? ʼ ʻ land, now. you are not fit to fly. ʼ ʻ I just... did not think you could fall ill. ʼ ʻ lay down and let me pull those arrows out. ʼ ʻ i can sense that you are hurting. where is it? ʼ ʻ everyone must rest after a hard-fought battle. ʼ ʻ do not let your pride be the cause of your death. ʼ ʻ I am not certain a dragon should sleep this often. ʼ ʻ your blood, it... burns my skin. oh, you poor thing. ʼ ʻ you protect me so diligently. let me care for you now. ʼ ʻ please, lay down for just a moment at least. we do not need to fly anywhere. ʼ

anger, ʻ who did this to you? ʼ ʻ keep flying! don't stop! ʼ ʻ perhaps you got what you deserved. ʼ ʻ you should not have been flown to battle! ʼ ʻ put your teeth away and allow me to help you! ʼ ʻ hundreds have died because of your flames. stand up. ʼ ʻ this is abhorrent! no man should seek to harm a dragon. ʼ ʻ i should not have been so brash- now you are hurt because of me! ʼ ʻ just let them try to harm you again. I am the other half of your strength. ʼ ʻ I would be doing my family, my realm, a great service by finishing you off. ʼ ʻ we once saw you are infallible gods. look at you now﹔like a kicked hound. ʼ ʻ burn me. eat me whole. who will help you then? or are you willing to die for your pride? ʼ

sadness,

ʻ easy there... ʼ ʻ you poor, sweet thing. ʼ ʻ it's everywhere... your blood... ʼ ʻ you look like you can hardly move. ʼ ʻ keep your eyes open... that's it. look at me. ʼ ʻ I have not seen your wings so tattered like this... ʼ ʻ i am so sorry. you do not deserve wounds like these. ʼ ʻ no! I can't... I cannot lose my dragon. I cannot lose you. ʼ ʻ please rest now. please. I will watch over you. you are safe. ʼ ʻ we began life in the same cradle. why would I leave you now? ʼ ʻ steady your breathing. I am here with you. I will not abandon you. ʼ ʻ what wars have you been made to fight to make you react so strongly...? ʼ ʻ do you truly think I see you as only a weapon? that I would sit and watch you die? ʼ ʻ please do not overextert yourself! I was uncertain you would even wake from your wounds. ʼ

{ CRASH }  for sender and receiver to crash to the ground. { WASHCLOTH }  for sender to gently wash receiver's wounds. { THREAT }  for sender to cautiously approach an injured receiver. { SHARE }  for sender and receiver to share their pain with one another. { DEFEND }  for sender to shield receiver from an attack with their body. { CURL }  for sender, though injured, to curl around receiver to protect them. { SONG }  for sender to comfort an injured receiver by humming/singing a song. { OFFER }  for sender to offer an injured receiver food in order to gain their trust. { NURSE }  for sender to nurse an injured receiver back to health while stranded, hoping to soon fly home. { EXHAUSTION }  for sender to carry receiver far from danger, landing when they are no longer able to fly.

[warofthebeasts]

"You didn't protect me before!" Sephiroth snaps with all the honesty and viciousness of a child that knows he is right and also knows good and well that the accusation will hurt deeply in its truthfulness. Where had this man been for the last ten, eleven, twelve, however many years of the child's life? Why hadn't he protected him when he'd been a baby?

Why is he offering to protect him now, after so many years of misery and pain and trauma that give him nightmares every night?

He is angry. He is hurt. A man shows up, kills the Professor brutally, tells him that his mother is not Jenova but some lady named Lucrecia who had supposedly cared for him--but she had cared for her work more. He can hear between the words.

Sephiroth has never been a stupid child.

The anger that wells up in him is not new to him. It is overwhelming, and before he can even try to stop himself, he's pushing himself past the man. He's ignoring the blood, the body, and he's running out of that room. He doesn't know where he's going; he just wants out. The stench of blood, the reek of death, that man...

He stops at the bottom of the stairs that lead up and out of the basement, standing perfectly still.

He'd never been allowed to go up there without being escorted.

[thecursedgunman]

The words land with lethal precision and even he struggles to hide the wince. The pain is every bit as bad as the bullet that tore through his abdomen, the one that would have killed him, and the worst part of it is that, once again, he deserves it.

He doesn't resist or try to stop him when the boy shoves past him and storms from the room.

He had failed. He had failed so utterly and miserably, and he not only understands but agrees with the child's righteous anger.

It is the same anger that he directs at himself, and he deserves every bit of it.

... but no matter what he deserves and no matter how great his failings... he cannot abandon the boy to whatever fate awaits him.

Slowly, deliberately, he follows after the child, stopping at the doorway into the room where he stands, frozen at the foot of the stairs.

"... You're right," he says at last, his low voice almost lost even within the relative quiet.

"I failed to protect you then. I tried, but I didn't remain objective. My lack of discipline led to making a mistake and being caught off-guard. You were the one who paid the price for that."

His own pain and suffering seem slight by comparison. He cannot even remember fully what he had undergone. He can recall only flashes from his slumber, terrifying, agonized glimpses seen clearly solely while held within the iron grip of his own night terrors that for so long seemed as though they would never end...

... until they did, and he realized that reality could be far worse.

"... I can never atone for the torment you've endured... but if you allow it, I would protect you from any further harm. I would do so until my final breath."

[rpmemegraveyard]

Send 💭 to get a peek at some of my muses usual internal dialogue / thoughts!

Get a quick view of their thought process when doing... Anything, really.

[thecursedgunman]

❝  you’re  alive !  oh,  thank  goodness.  ❞ [ @shadowsarise ]

He had been awakened from his night terror tormented slumber by the sound of foot steps upon the stone floors. Even now, how lightly he sleeps, an old habit from days long past when he still cared about his survival.

It won't matter, he had thought, Whoever it is will look around the room, see that there's nothing of interest and leave.

Only, those footsteps do not depart, after all.

They grow closer...

And then the lid is pushed away and he moves with inhuman speed, flipping out of the coffin and land across the room from this most strange of intruders. Beneath his cloak, his hand cautiously settles upon his revolver.

"... Do you often look for the living within the places of the dead?" he questions. Perhaps that is why he seems so surprised by this turn of events.

[warofthebeasts]

Sephiroth draws back, shrinking away subtly; he doesn't know what's going on, but he is more than perceptive enough to sense something of a change. A bad change. He's seen it before in the people who become monsters; he's fought some of them, and he doesn't want to fight this man.

He doesn't want to fight anyone. He wants to be left alone.

But...

His gaze sharpens and darkens, eyes narrowing. If his mother had studied Jenova, had worked with Professor Hojo, then what made her any better than the Professor? What made her any better than the countless other laboratory assistants who either ignored or took pleasure in his isolation and pain?

His brows draw together with a frown.

"If she cared very much for me, then why am I here?" he asks, gesturing to their surroundings: to the cold basement, to the beakers and test tubes and notebook upon notebook detailing every tiny, minute observation even down to how many heartbeats were in a minute when he was thrown into a sensory deprivation tank.

"I don't want your protection. Or anyone else's... I don't need it."

[thecursedgunman]

Good job, Valentine, he mentally berates himself. You spooked him anyway.

Thankfully, he need not fumble his way through some apology or explanation in another—likely doomed—attempt to reassure. The boy seems quite determined to simply push forward and... latch onto one of the very things he has never been able to understand... what he still does not understand.

"I... don't have that answer for you. I don't even have that answer for myself...." he says after a long moment. "... but I cannot imagine that this..." A look around the facility, "... was done by her choice."

"... Her ambition was one of her greatest strength... and one of her greatest failings... Perhaps it got the better of her. Perhaps she was blinded by it. Whatever the case... There's no reason to inflict further suffering on yourself for her mistakes."

"What do you think will happen, if I leave? Do you think there are no records of your existence? ... Do you think that Shinra won't try to reclaim you?"

[warofthebeasts]

What else can he think when he's only one among many? An experiment, a pet, and all of them disposable. The Professor had made no secret of how disposable they are, Sephiroth included, losing no opportunity to remind him that his fate is to be cut open on the cold steel slab of a table with his organs in jars.

A specimen.

So why shouldn't he meet the same fate as his creator?

"Oh." The assurances did little to ease his suspicions and wariness; people had lied to him before, and they could lie to him again.

And this man had no reason to tell him the truth.

(Though did he have a reason to lie to him, too?)

"My...mother?" Sephiroth questions, and 'mother' with the name 'Lucrecia' was not a combination he had ever heard. In fact, he'd never heard the name 'Lucrecia' before at all. "My mother's name isn't Lucrecia. It's Jenova," he asserts firmly, stubbornly trying to cling to at least one thing he still knows as fact.

He doesn't have much else. Hojo is dead and there is no one else. There is nothing else.

"...What...are you going to do to me?"

[thecursedgunman]

This time, it is Vincent's turn to pause, and—though he has years of practice in maintaining an impassive expression—such a tumult of emotions begin to thrash in his chest, and with them those voices grow louder.

He cannot allow their bounds to loosen for even a moment, and so, jaw tightening ever-so-slightly, he holds tight to their chains, to the security of their confines within his mind. Already they were riled with the death of Hojo, but his own anger at hearing what the boy had been told? Oh, isn't that delectable?

[ He should have taken his time when he killed Hojo. A quick death was too merciful for him. ]

Only once he is certain of his control and composure does he answer the boy.

"... Your mother was not Jenova. Her name was Lucrecia Crescent, and she was studying Jenova, alongside... that," he explains, only the slightest edge entering into his voice as he cants his head toward the corpse, though he reins it back again.

"Your mother... She cared very much for you... Thus, I would do what I failed to do then when I could not protect her... and protect you."

[scealaiscoite]

‧₊˚ 🪦 ✩ unsettling dialogue prompts

¹⁾ “i’m not crazy! someone’s been in here!”

²⁾ “someone’s standing outside the window.”

³⁾ “i don’t know who sent you that, but it wasn’t me.”

⁴⁾ “i locked this door when i left; i’m certain of it.”

⁵⁾ “i can hear footsteps.”

⁶⁾ “the dog’s barking like crazy, will you go see what’s wrong with him?”

⁷⁾ “that car’s taken every turn we have for the last ten minutes.”

⁸⁾ “did your phone just lose signal too?”

⁹⁾ “i, uh- i don’t remember telling you that.”

¹⁰⁾ “letter came for you- no stamp, though. i think it might’ve just been left at the door, weird as it is.”

¹¹⁾ “upstairs has been banging on the ceiling all damn night, i haven’t slept a fucking wink.”

¹²⁾ “i think someone’s slashed my tires.”

¹³⁾ “i know it’s late, but i need you to come downstairs and meet me out front. someone’s following me home.”

¹⁴⁾ “i don’t know anyone by that name. you’re sure they knocked and asked for me?”

¹⁵⁾ “yeah, because someone sending you a bouquet of the flowers you’re deathly allergic to is definitely not something to worry about.”

¹⁶⁾ “no, no, please tell me you didn’t let them in. the landlord said she’d come and fix the faucet herself, that she never calls in contractors! no one has any reason to be in there!”

¹⁷⁾ “that’s weird, i could’ve sworn i closed the curtains when i left this morning.”

¹⁸⁾ “that car’s been out front all day.”

¹⁹⁾ “i just moved in, i haven’t given anyone the address yet.”

²⁰⁾ “what are you on about? i’ve been in bed since nine, i didn’t text you to meet me anywhere.”

[warofthebeasts]

"You killed the Professor," the child accuses without any hint at being upset or angry; he didn't have any real attachment to the man, but if the man before him could kill someone as important as Professor Hojo, then what would stop him from killing him, an insignificant, unimportant little pet project?

"...I don't want to be killed, too..." Because as miserable and painful as his short life had been thus far, Sephiroth does know one thing: he has come too far to be killed now. He's survived too much to meet his end at the hands of someone who had killed the Professor.

"So please go away." Yet even as he insists on the demand, he knows it to be meaningless. He has no power over anyone, from the scientists to the monsters he'd been pitted against to this man himself. He is the lowest on the ladder.

He knows his place. A dog always knows its place.

"...Please." There is the tiniest waver in his voice with the last word, a small plea: spare me. He wouldn't cause trouble.

He didn't even know how to cause trouble even if he wanted to.

[thecursedgunman]

Ah, there it is—clarity.

The boy is under the mistaken assumption that he intends to harm all within this accursed place, rather than to enact targeted retribution.

How monstrous he must look to the child, having just murdered, in cold blood, a man—even if he was so by only the loosest definition of the word. Slowly, carefully, that he does not further spook the child, he holsters his firearm before reaching up to wipe blood splatter from his own cheek ere the red can stain pallid skin.

With all his years of Turk experience, he pushes down the stab of something in his chest at that small please, as though the boy already anticipates that his fate will mirror that of his tormentor.

[ It isn't the first time someone has assumed him to be less than human. If anything, they would be more correct now. ]

"... Hojo was a madman. He needed to be put down... But I am no threat to you."

He pauses then, debating how much he can bring himself to admit to this scared child, what he can say in an attempt to assuage those fears.

"... I... was once charged with protecting your mother—Lucrecia Crescent—among other responsibilities... But I failed."

"Killing Hojo was the beginning of my penance."

[mcflymemes]

PROMPTS FOR PRE ESTABLISHED CONNECTIONS AND CREATING HISTORY BETWEEN CHARACTERS *  assorted dialogue for giving your characters a history and giving them past things or events to talk about, adjust as necessary

do you remember what i told you last time?

have you been doing well since i saw you?

that's not what you told me back then.

when was the last time i saw you?

you were shorter then.

i'm picking the restaurant this time.

we've known each other since we were children.

always knew i could count on you.

that time was different. this is worse.

you're not going to let me live that down, are you?

i seem to remember a conversation we had back then.

so you changed your mind about it?

do you remember our encounter in paris?

you should know me by now.

am i the only one that knows the truth?

we had a lot of help back then.

your mom told me to look out for you.

you just love bringing that back up to annoy me.

maybe don't mention my past indescretions?

this was never going to work out between us.

i told you not to get attached.

i know more about you than you think.

i was there, remember?

i'm not about to forget all the shit you put me through.

you told me you were going to try and make this work.

remember what i said to you?

the last time i saw you, things were good between us.

you never mentioned this before.

that was the longest flight of my life, and you made it worse.

can i still trust you after all that?

at least we tried to make something work.

we never discussed what happened between us.

okay, but i'm driving the car this time.

i haven't forgotten what you said last week.

i'm still thinking about your comment.

i didn't realize it was you when i first saw you.

you seem to make a lot of enemies around here.

there's not much for us to talk about.

we worked it out last time.

i know you far better than you know yourself.

we have a long history.

is that the shirt you were wearing last time?

what don't i know about you?

i haven't told them about us.

you were the only person i could go to.

you know me.

this is bigger than both of us.

i can't stand your driving.

are you taking me to the place we had dinner last time?

that's not at all what you said.

didn't we agree on that?

i thought i made it very clear where i stand.

are these the same people that came after you last time?

are you still going on about it?

can we talk about it?

staying silent about it won't help.

you're the only person who knows the real me.

this is a bad time to talk about your problems.

[chillinrpmemes]

SEND 🔊 AND ASK MY MUSE DIFFICULT QUESTIONS

AND THEY HAVE TO ANSWER HONESTLY

[oopsprompts]

“You’re important to me.”

“What? No.”

“Really? You think I’d go through all this for someone I didn’t care about?”

[thecursedgunman]

❝  go  away. ❞ [ @warofthebeasts ]

It had been foolish of Hojo, in truth. The worst part for the professor was that it was not just one specific instance, but a multitude of poor decisions that had culminated in his demise at the hands of the very one he had presumed was too broken to retaliate for the previous terror and agonized suffering that had been inflicted upon him.

Unfortunately, the stubborn reignition of his will was too late to save Lucrecia from the burden of her guilt, but... it was not too late for her son...

He is unused to dealing with children. VIncent supposes the closest that he knows to it might have been a young rookie in his probationary period working with him and his partner. But he suspects, even at fourteen—as he was then—the over-serious young Tseng was not exactly typical for a child.

[ Who could be after what had happened? After what brought him to Shinra, a desperate agreement made to save his own life? And at what cost... ]

Even so, there is something about the silver-haired boy that is not entirely unfamiliar... but familiarity does little to inform inexperience with such matters as acting as caretaker, except perhaps in being better able to recognize and navigate moods.

Most days.

Today is, apparently, not one of those days, however, because he cannot seem to determine what had caused so blunt of a statement. [ An order? ]

"If you wish someone to do something for you, Sephiroth, it is usually customary to include a please in your request—as well as perhaps a brief explanation as to the reason for it—that the other person might be more inclined to oblige you."

[oopsprompts]

“Try not to die; I’ve become emotionally invested in you.”

[oopsprompts]

“Ask me anything.”

“Are you OK?”

“Anything but that.”