Vivi Ornitier (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alreadyhuman) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
daybreakacademy2021-01-12 01:33 pm
alreadyhuman) wrote in daybreakacademy2021-01-12 01:33 pm
At Journey's End
A.
[ What alerts certain people to Vivi's absence is not Vivi himself, but a gangly chocobo chick that has been doing a great deal of growing thanks to his care in the last few months. It 'kwehs' its way around campus in great distress, without its owner anywhere to be seen. ]
B.
[ Catching up with Vivi, even with his head start, isn't a difficult task. With the amount of energy he has left, even in the Outlands where Mist is abundant, the journey he's making is draining on more than one level.
Mostly because the place he's walking through, dragging himself step by step to some unknown destination, is alien even by Outlands standards.
Memories shimmer around the strange crystal structures that protrude from as if they're being reflected from him. The friends who have gotten him this far, the fights that have burned themselves into his memory, the simple things that brought him happiness...
Most of them - almost all of them - involve other people. Rare are the ones that are by himself.
He's not trying to hide himself, or his slow progress. He hums tunelessly at times, some kind of exhausted dirge born of forcing himself to keep moving. ]
C.
[ Wildcard! If you want to have threads with Vivi acting noticeably weird/drained/nervous I am down for that, just let me know. ]
[ What alerts certain people to Vivi's absence is not Vivi himself, but a gangly chocobo chick that has been doing a great deal of growing thanks to his care in the last few months. It 'kwehs' its way around campus in great distress, without its owner anywhere to be seen. ]
B.
[ Catching up with Vivi, even with his head start, isn't a difficult task. With the amount of energy he has left, even in the Outlands where Mist is abundant, the journey he's making is draining on more than one level.
Mostly because the place he's walking through, dragging himself step by step to some unknown destination, is alien even by Outlands standards.
Memories shimmer around the strange crystal structures that protrude from as if they're being reflected from him. The friends who have gotten him this far, the fights that have burned themselves into his memory, the simple things that brought him happiness...
Most of them - almost all of them - involve other people. Rare are the ones that are by himself.
He's not trying to hide himself, or his slow progress. He hums tunelessly at times, some kind of exhausted dirge born of forcing himself to keep moving. ]
C.
[ Wildcard! If you want to have threads with Vivi acting noticeably weird/drained/nervous I am down for that, just let me know. ]
no subject
...So what you made are usually more like simple automated assembly robots. But instead of technology and electricity, they worked on Mist and magic. And what happened with the Black Mages was... an accident? An unintended side effect?
[He hesitated, a jumble of thoughts trying to come together from so many different angles. It's complicated, but at the same time, he knows what he believes is right in his heart of hearts. It takes him a moment, eyes glancing over to his friend again, before looking back to the daemon, his expression oddly soft and thoughtful.]
Yeah, I understand why you're reluctant to do that. It's one thing to have something without sapience to do things like that, but it's something else to ask of that of a thinking, self-aware being. And why you'd have second thoughts about lifting the contract based on that.
I can't pretend to understand the nature of the Mist, unless you can enlighten us as to what it truly is. But knowing what little I do... I have to wonder? If it's the source of power and a critical essence of what most of your constructs are, and the bodies are just "shells"... is it possible that the Mist itself is why the Black Mages gained sentience?
Because if the failed experiments had a survival instinct and a desire to stay alive... wouldn't that suggest some level of sapience from word one?
no subject
She's not sure what to make of all this, honestly. She glances over to Vivi, then to Gunvolt as he's speaking, then back to the daemon.
... She doesn't know what to say. But...]
I have to wonder the same thing as Gunvolt, I'll admit.
no subject
But there is, I think, something else responsible for this growth of sentience.
I am merely the original writer of the contract; I forged the template - what you, humans, might call the 'master copy'. What other creators do with it, how they might modify it for their own uses, is theirs alone, and no concern of mine...or so I thought.
This child here, and others like him, are the result of a pact sealed between humans and daemons. The contract was modified to allow for more ingredients...the fragments of lost souls, mixed together with Mist to create something new. No doubt they were intended to simply be more complex soldiers, but they created life instead...
[ The daemon shakes his head. ] Unlike this boy, I cannot call other daemons to me. Without them, the ones who were responsible for moulding him and his kindred, that contract cannot be changed.
But I believe there is another way, though it requires some sacrifice from each of you...It is an unusual method, but I believe it has enough power to make a difference.
Would you be willing to hear it?
no subject
no subject
[It's said at the same time Desidera answers...]
no subject
Yeah. Tell us.
[Knowing what the sacrifice is? That's free. And for Vivi, he might be more willing to take risks. He had a feeling the boy would do the same for him.]
no subject
If it was one of you alone, the power would not be enough. But with such a mix of beings, I believe it will have far more potency.
Of course, I will have to forge my own weaknesses, one for each of you. But I believe it is a fair price.
[ He looks down at Vivi, his look and voice grave. By this time, Vivi is beginning to doze, despite his best efforts; he's running low on time and energy. ] The root is, after all, my negligence.
no subject
She looks back up.]
You said that it would involve a sacrifice from each of us. What would that be?
no subject
... except, no, not really. It doesn't take long to decide. If it means saving Vivi...]
... I'd like to know, too.
no subject
You will likely have scars to mark the donation. That is the way of such things, unfortunately, but I suppose it is fortunate that it is blood and not something more irreplaceable.
no subject
I'm in, then.
[Some blood's a small price to pay for a friend's life, as far as she's concerned.]
no subject
I'll do it.
no subject
...But giving his blood for a friend? That wasn't the thing that bothered him. Not even for a second. He already shed gallons of sweat, trillions upon trillions of joules of electricity, and plenty of tears trying to find an answer for saving his friend. Blood... that was nothing, at this point. If anything, that's nothing more than a transfusion. A transfusion for a bunch of people, that would give them their lives and their freedom.]
...Yeah. Me too. Even if it scars, it's one I'll wear with pride.
no subject
A new scar to cover the old - replacing a stain with a sign of his care for someone else - someone he had grown close to despite his attempts to keep distance from others.]
I'd give more if that is required, but blood? I can shed it for his sakes.