June-July and Calibrations

[plate_builder]

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

[plate_builder]

"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.

[plate_builder]

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.

[afterform]

"What do you want to hear from me?" Vincent kept his eyes settled on the other man. He can feel the steadiness of his breath, even in a dream. It was almost like he was awake.

[plate_builder]

"Something," Reeve sighs, fingers curling through his hair. "Anything. I've missed you, my friend. I thought..."

He doesn't know what he thought.

"I just don't want to look to the future as if there is nothing there."

[afterform]

Vincent wasn't particularly guilt-free from looking too much to the past, but he wasn't sure about Reeve's expectation either. "There is something there." He nodded toward Reeve. "You told me.. Gaia is safe."

Vincent held his tongue for a moment before he spoke again. "I am here now, with you."

[plate_builder]

Yes, he is. Reeve has his friend back, one of his few, and definitely one of his truest. And he nods in agreement.

"I am both saddened to see you here, Vincent, and relieved. To have you and Cloud here after being alone is strengthening. Only way it could be better would be for Tifa or Nanaki to be here."

[afterform]

He can imagine the pull on the others now that Cloud was here. He recalled the reunion in Edge to fight off the Remnants and stave off their own reunion. Vincent nodded. He anticipated the others would follow.

However, he was unsure what Reeve meant when he mentioned being sad. "What threatens this world?"

[plate_builder]

"Nothing we can fight by traditional means. There are storms, they have driven the native population out. The city is in ruins..."

None of that matters so much as this next warning.

"Cloud is from a point before Aerith's rain, Vincent. We'll need to look out for him. The Stigma."

[afterform]

Vincent straightened on the couch. He thought about the disease, and the overcompensation Cloud's body endures to fight off the virus. Reeve was right; they would need to watch Cloud.

Would it worsen here, or would it remain stagnant?

"What of our materia, potions, medicine?" He paused. "What will work here?"

[plate_builder]

"I have no materia, or potions. I've also not taken the medical data point. I don't know what to do."

He doesn't even remotely know what to deal with this change.

[afterform]

The data points were something amiss from Vincent's mind as he asked the question. He thought about them now and wondered if he learned them, could he heal Cloud of his affliction? Or would these points only be of use to injuries and ailments obtained from this world?

"What have you gained from this world?"

[plate_builder]

"Nothing yet. I've... been trying to learn it on my own," Reeve admits, and he feels like he should learn it just for Cloud.

All he's gained is an ill-fated crush on another man. Again

[afterform]

"Trying?" He wondered if Reeve intended that to sound dubious or if that was Vincent's projection. Vincent hasn't chosen between the data points himself. Though, he was leaning toward a few of them.

"I was considering communications or medicine."

[plate_builder]

"Well, there's only so much that can be done, so much that can be learned," Reeve muses as he looks up at his friend. "Cloud has engineering, I will likely take whichever you don't."

[afterform]

Between the three of them, they could cover more information and focus on the different division points of knowledge. Would doing this somehow benefit them more in the end? If so, how?

"Take medicine." Vincent decided he would try communications. "Though, it doesn't matter.. Does it?" He looked over Reeve. "We'll be experts in whatever we choose."

[plate_builder]

Well, this was going to be interesting. Reeve had never thought himself a doctor.

"And now I truly wish I'd come with my Full-Cure materia. Alas, it's not so. I'll take the datapoint when we win free of these tunnels. Though I do not know if we will be 'experts' so much as merely competent enough to not shoot our own feet off, so to speak."

[afterform]

Vincent doesn't particularly care one way or another. He didn't know any better, and he assumed Reeve's knowledge about the level of competence that came to the datapoints. Vincent looked around the room. "Why this room, do you think?" Of all the places Reeve could dream of, why did it have to be his Shinra office?

[plate_builder]

Why this room? Oh dear, he doesn't even know. Reeve looks around, and sighs.

"Perhaps because of how much of my life I've lived here. How the ruins of Temba remind me of Midgar. Because this was where I was when I realized I was not innocent in the face of the end of the world?"

[afterform]

Vincent silently listened as Reeve expressed his reasoning for the room. They both seemed to share a weight of guilt for their culpability in Gaia's torment. Reeve's place of sin was his office in the Shinra building. Reeve didn't have to express his remorse, yet doing so brought Vincent to avert his eyes. He had no right to sit in judgment of Reeve's guilt, despite Reeve sharing it with him. In any case, they absolved their sins by helping save the world they cherished.

[plate_builder]

"I..."

The silence doesn't help. It wears him out a little.

"We all have things we need to redeem ourselves for."

[afterform]

"Not to me, you don't." Vincent offered, though he didn't think it mattered what he said. What he wanted to convey at that moment was that Reeve didn't have to explain anything to him. Whatever reasoning or justifications Reeve had for his time at Shinra was on him, and as Reeve said, they all were guilty of something.

[plate_builder]

Not to him? Reeve almost wants to laugh. Had he not helped build the facilities that Deep Ground used without even thinking to ask why? He had bought the line that it was a shelter with no hesitation. And did he not put Vincent in a position to be in the line of fire in Kalm? Other times as well?

However it's clear the man doesn't agree, so why bother arguing.

"And do you owe me redemption? Am I a weight on your conscious? I pray not."