starshower | 🌠 escordvi inbox.

[At first, her mind goes to the story of Nibelheim. How one of their SOLDIERs came in and burned her home to the ground, but that does not show the full scope of how evil Shinra can be.]

The city I lived in had two levels. The slums on the ground, where I lived, where I had the bar and so many other people were just going about their lives, trying to survive. Then, there was the upper plate that hung over the slums where those who could afford it lived.

[Her voice goes quiet, and she takes a long sip of her coffee.]

Well. They dropped an entire plate on the slums to teach us a lesson, when all they really accomplished was destroying hundreds of homes. Killing all these innocent people just to show us...

[ neve's head tilts sideways as she listens, her mouth smoothing out into a line and then a grimace. she can't say she's surprised by what tifa tells her. it's the exact same thing in minrathous, with the archon's palace firing shots at its own civilians to keep them in line. to keep "peace." and listening to this sits as well as anything she has ever seen in her own city.

it takes her a few moments to school her expression back to something a bit less vulnerable. a bit less angry. her voice, however, still sounds like she's hanging onto her composure by a thread. ]

Minrathous is broken. Anyone can see it. The Venatori murdered and scattered the Shadow Dragons, the resistance. But we're still here, fighting. We won't give up until we're all dead or things have changed. Something tells me your city is much the same. They can murder innocents, but it won't stop you from fighting to the last. Might even make you fight harder.

[ both of these women have been through some shit, neve is learning. and somehow, through it all, tifa retains her loving, kind heart. much like lace. or bellara. something neve never could. she isn't that type, has been hurt far too much to trust easily, to show her full scope of emotion.

even so, she tries to help where she can, to provide a safe haven for those in need. someone they can trust. maybe that's enough. ]

What did your people do after? Avalanche?

[It is exactly why Tifa was telling it—she saw the similarities, too, just from the small bit that she has seen from the vision, and what Neve has told her. It doesn't take much to figure out that every world has people like that, so it's not a surprise in the least.]

I wish I could say that we fought back with everything we had, but...

[She heaves a sigh.]

We helped where we could. Helped people find their loved ones and their families, found some stuck in the rubble on the ground. But there was a much bigger threat that we needed to take care of—one that would destroy the whole Planet if we didn't stop him. We had to leave—had to take on that fight because no one else could.

[Tifa's smile is genuine, if a bit sad.]

But the people of the slums are strong. The good ones stick together, they look out for each other. I know that they'll be able to find a way through it.

I hope that your people were able to do the same.

Just helping others is a form of fighting back, in some cases. Often is in Minrathous.

[ but she also understands having to let go of that in order to stop the larger threat. sometimes one can go back and forth, doing both jobs, sometimes they can't. but both options, in neve's opinion, are fighting back.

as for the comment about the people themselves, a soft, tired sight slips out from neve. ]

We're trying. Hard to do when half the city is blighted and the whole thing is under the control of a power-hungry, murderous cult. Those who can leave will. Those who can't... well, they have me and the Shadow Dragons fighting for them. The Viper will continue rescuing slaves and killing Venatori until the Blight claims him. That's all any of us can do now. My team will work on our greater threat, like yours. And one day we'll see the job through to whatever end comes.

Still, hearing all that, I know you're right, but can't help but feel guilty, you know? That we couldn't do more for those people.

[She sets down her coffee again, realizing that she hasn't even taken a sip from it.]

Wish that I could say that we all didn't know what that feels like, but I suspect that's not the case here.

[ neve's expression becomes more distant at those words, at the thought of doing more for the people they'd lost. she feels that every day of her life now. hector, lorelei, the other shadows strung up in the streets, the civilians who had nothing to do with anything and were blighted or killed for their troubles.

her hand tingles, a certain familiar numbness stealing across it before retreating in an instant. like the phantom feeling of magic that no longer answers her call. ]

Yeah. Doesn't help anyone to feel that guilt. But it's there. And sometimes it eats a hole into what you once were. Takes something from you.

[ she hasn't spoken of this magic she once had that got locked away because of minrathous. too hard to talk about what happened to her city, let alone how broken it left her. easier to focus on the remaining job. but maybe it's time...

her hand flexes around her cup, shaking off the last remnants of that phantom feeling. ]

Used to have another magic I could call on. Haven't been able to access it since Minrathous fell. Like that guilt that doesn't go away. Seeing the dead and knowing you couldn't do more to save them. [ she lets out a soft, slow breath that speaks to every pain she feels on the subject of her city. something she thinks tifa likely understands well. ] Yeah. That doesn't go away.

[ but she'll keep fighting. for her city but also on the job she signed up for when she agreed to help varric. she's still on the clock for that one. ]

[Tifa regards her with cautious curiosity.]

Another magic?

[She's not sure that she understands, though she hopes that it isn't that she can see the dead. She doesn't know what she would do in that situation if it were her, or Neve, for that matter.]

Do you want it back?

🌠 escordvi inbox.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject