June-July and Calibrations

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WHO: Reeve Tuesti, OTA
WHERE: Arriving In Tunnel, Calibrations Waiting Room, Reeve’s Calibration Room
WHAT: The lead up to and time around Calibrations
WHEN: June 2nd to July 10th
WARNINGS: CW: Reeve’s Calibration room may contain references to kidnapping and confinement, including of children


Man and Cat OTA
When they arrive it’s near the end of the thirty-six hour period. There had been much to do for preparation, things to pack, and honestly, he wanted to see the storm as it brewed up. It wasn’t like he’d seen it the first time, having arrived just days after the last blew itself away. But that means the man arrives with quite a bundle in his arms. Packs and papers and the few kits and tools he’s gotten himself from the replicator.

And at his side, a foot and a half tall stuffed animal of a black and white, tuxedo-cat, its own arms wrapped around coiled up papers. Was it possible for a stuffed animal to look proud of itself? Perhaps it should, because it’s got a very smart looking, dark green cape tied around its neck and a whole load of responsibility, so why wouldn’t it be happy?

“Does anyone know how long these storms typically last?” Reeve asks of anyone who comes near. And Mini stops every few steps to readjust the papers. It’s a lot harder to carry things when you don’t have fingers.

Calibrations Waiting Room

here

Calibrations [CW: Referenced (nothing explicitly depicted) kidnapping and confinement, including of children]

It’s not a bedroom, it’s an office. A rather dark one at that, most of the light coming either from the scattering of monitors, some recessed lighting high above, or two lights pointed at the rather oversized Shinra corporate logo behind the desk. The desk itself is cluttered, covered with files and papers and reports. This is clearly the desk of someone far too busy with their life. Someone who isn’t fully organized.

On it there are a few things of notable interest, like architectural reports and diagrams, a few reports on small hinges with one bearing a sticky note of ‘but why would you want them’, and there’s even a box filled with several glowing green and blue orbs. Materia. Further along, in a corner, is a framed picture of a couple that look vaguely like Reeve, his parents no doubt, and Reeve as a boy, all of them smiling in front of what looks like a farm house. The computer monitors scroll through a number of images of Midgar in various stages of being built.

Of course most of that only matters if you didn’t sit in the very comfortable office chair. Hope you like boring board meetings.

Reeve himself lounges on one of the couches in the room, looking tired. Very tired. Like he wishes he could just sleep in peace. But, if engaged, he will indeed talk.

Comments

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When he enters, Reeve just... stares. He looks over the top of the book, just the memory of a book, and stares. Vincent, his lips forming the name. This isn't... this isn't possible. At all. Vincent would have told him.

It wasn't until Vincent turns and watches him that he sets aside the book and stands.

"Vincent."

[afterform]

Vincent offered a nod to his name as if he needed to confirm his identity to Reeve. He scrutinized Reeve from head to toe back to head. He stood still and silent while under Reeve's eye. The book Reeve held was far from Vincent's mind. Instead, he wondered about the man's lack of costume. Not that Vincent had any expectation of seeing Cait Sith cozy within a Shinra room. Still, perhaps it was a possibility within this dream.

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"Are you real?" he asks, unable to believe it. "Or just a memory?"

[afterform]

Vincent frowned to Reeve's inquiry. He cocked his head and shifted his weight on his feet to turn and face the other man. Vincent contemplated the question for a moment. While he could say he was real, there was a part of him that felt as if he could be just a memory—a confused fragment within the recesses of Reeve's mind.

"Does it matter?" He settled with something he felt more for rather than confirming or denying his nature within Reeve's dream.

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"Very much so. Because if you're really here, then..."

WEll, then that mean's he's here.

"That means you really need to learn to use your phone better."

[afterform]

Vincent moved his head down, his eyes cast over Reeve's shoes, and his hand slipped up to touch the phone attached to his hip. He wondered if it had been there all along or did it just manifest because of Reeve's comment. It doesn't matter. Vincent lowered his hand and brought his eyes back up to Reeve's.

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"A memory of you would probably talk more," Reeve muses as he moves to his desk. "Welcome to my mind. I didn't even know you were here."

[afterform]

He watched as Reeve moved through the room to the desk. Vincent turned his body so that he was still facing the other. He looked across Reeve's broad shoulders then to the surface of the desk.

"I don't think I've been here very long."

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"You don't think?" Reeve asks, how can he not be certain?

He watches the older man with a careful gaze, contemplative.

"May I ask when you're from?"

[afterform]

What once would have been a curious and oddly framed inquiry seemed appropriate and reasonable. Vincent answered without hesitation.

"I arrived in Kalm, after you requested a meeting."

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"Oh," Reeve says, his breath catching. Before the mess, then. Which means Chaos was still... "Well, the meeting will happen in its own time then."

And he relaxes at the desk, sitting down in the chair.

"Have you been through one of these mind rooms yet?"

[afterform]

Vincent held his breath while Reeve sat down in the chair. The way Reeve spoke about the meeting indicated the other was from a time afterward. Vincent is not impervious to the natural curiosity of anyone in pursuit of knowledge of their fate.

The latter of the man's words go ignored.

"Tell me." He narrowed his eyes, and he stepped closer to the desk so that the front of his thighs pressed against the wood. "Reeve."

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Leave it to a Turk to ask for things that Reeve was not sure he should give.

"Would it bring you any comfort to know?"

Reeve can't imagine it would. Surely his tone conveys that as well.

[afterform]

Vincent remained silent. Information was the only solace Vincent had anymore and here. Reeve dangled the line before him, without intending to (Vincent's sure), but all the same, Vincent stared with fire in his eyes.

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Wonderful. Reeve sighs and gestures for Vincent to be comfortable.

"What happened starting that night wasn't a short story. And much of it I learned after the fact. So forgive me if it isn't flawless."

[afterform]

After the fact..? Vincent remained standing. He folded his arms across his chest and redistributed the weight between his feet. He looked over Reeve. Short story or not, Vincent expected the delivery to be thorough and efficient, as Reeve would only likely give in anything.

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Reeve sighs, fingers coming up to rub at his brow before going into the story, telling it as best as he can. Which is all rather involved, and no doubt will take up the better part of their time here in Reeve's psyche.

[afterform]

Vincent remained where he stood for a good part of the story. After some time, he did pull back from Reeve's desk and moved to the couch to sit. He leaned over his lap with his elbows on his knees.

After some silence passed between them, Vincent finally spoke. "The last thing that happened for you then..?"

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"Everything finishing," Reeve sighs. "The world saved again, thanks to you."

[afterform]

Vincent lifted his hand to touch at his chest. Promateria was what helped him maintain control over his beasts, over Chaos? This group, this threat, they wanted Omega to awaken and bring havoc on Gaia once again.

It seemed his story was yet finished - for him, but for Reeve, perhaps Vincent's story was done. "There is no thanks to me." Without him in Gaia, maybe the world would not have had Chaos in it.

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"Much thanks to you," Reeve counters. "Without you, Chaos might run rampant, being free. It... cannot be pleasant to hold such a force within you, but without you... The world may well have fallen thanks to Hojo's plot."

[afterform]

Vincent's jaw tightened. His eyes are conveniently cast down to the ground. He would argue with Reeve, but there's no point. What done was done - or will be done, despite Vincent being in this world.

Hojo.. Still, it didn't feel like the end. There had to be more, obviously beyond from when Reeve was taken from Gaia.

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"Do you think it's wrong to be positive?" Reeve asks, with a deep sigh.

There is a lot he can't even begin to deal with. And Vincent being dark in this moment isn't what he wants.

[afterform]

Perhaps Vincent's retort would have been welcomed, but he remained silent. Easy for you to say, your other face is a cat plush toy. Whereas his different faces were of monsters. Vincent brought up his head and looked across to Reeve.

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It was wrong to call it another face, at least for this Reeve.

"You can't even say anything?" Reeve asks, leaning forward over the desk.

Congratulations. He's tired while he's sleeping now.