Baby, you’re perfect

[buckynats]

find the word.

+ top level with your person. prefs/canon info/etc.
+ other people will reply with the first word that comes to their character's mind to describe yours. it could be about their appearance (consider this an 'are they beautiful?' meme if you wanna), their personality, or the mystique that may or may not surround (they're...interesting). break out the thesaurus.
+ your person reacts.
+ thread.

Comments

cloud strife | ff7r | ota.

[exfirstclass]

( finished rebirth, warn for spoilers for others tho please! )

[vehementi]

Mine.

[And away we go: Sephiroth is already ramping up the "how fast can we piss Cloud off" scale from the get-go.]

[exfirstclass]

[His head pounds something fierce, the skull-splitting ache almost overshadowing that comment. He glared through the ache and his bangs, hand dropping from his head. Like hell.]

I’m not your anything, [ he grits out, distinctly aware of the lack of sword in his immediate reach. ]

[vehementi]

If not to me, then whom? [Sephiroth smiles his barbed smile, watching Cloud wade stubbornly through the blade-sharp ebb and flow of his influence.] You can hardly even claim to belong to yourself.

You know not who you are...

[He drifts closer just then-- a gloved hand coming to rest on Cloud's bare shoulder, his fingers biting down against the skin.]

But I do.

[exfirstclass]

[The sharp stab of an ache is an echo to the smooth note of Sephiroth’s voice and his shoulder jumps under the touch, every muscle in him tense. His glare wanes, though, with a wash of crippling hesitation.

All the shit he says… he thinks Sephiroth might be right about this. His memory is such swiss cheese. Sephiroth might know him. Cloud can’t even be certain Sephiroth is really here.]

So what, [ he bites back, scowling but not looking the near half foot up. When he falls for the bait, Sephiroth always disappears, slips through his fingers like sand. Leaves Cloud looking crazy.] That doesn’t make me yours.

[vehementi]

[How much of it is Cloud's desperation to recoil from Sephiroth's touch? And how much of it are his cells screaming to be reunited with their source, firing off every impulse? Even Sephiroth doesn't fully know, but he's committed to finding out. Cloud's steely gaze wavers, drifts, clouds over for a moment.

And still, Sephiroth only smiles. His fingers still bite, his thumb finding Cloud's collarbone, pushing into the dip it creates. He's toying with him-- testing him... little by little.]

No? [He leans in just so, tempting Cloud to look back up and meet his gaze.] Tell me, then... Why is it you so often linger above the abyss, aching to take a step? Why is it that your bones ache with yearning, Cloud? To feel whole?

[exfirstclass]

[ It’s maddening the way he gets underneath his skin. Sephiroth is a devil whispering in his ear, speaking of things Cloud only barely dares to entertain a shadow of a thought of. Didn’t second guess, until Sephiroth came haunting him when he should be dead. All the way dead. Not digging his fingers into the hollow dips of his collarbones.

The corner of Cloud’s mouth twitches, the scowl burying deeper into his expression, and he’s glaring up at Sephiroth before he recalls it, locked with those cat-like eyes. Eyes he sees when he closed his own damn eyes at night. Sephiroth’s gaze sends him faltering again, stumbling at the haunting nature of those eyes and how very much they are the embodiment of the whispering call of the void. ]

Yearn for what? [ He spits out, gathering up his cold fury,] You? [He stubbornly ignores the way that last question resonates with him. Fragmented, seems right.] You’re delusional, Sephiroth.

[vehementi]

[And maybe there's a thrill in it for Sephiroth, watching Cloud buckle under the weight of his stare, feeling the fight ebb out of him even for just a moment when Sephiroth reaches out to touch him, to hold him, to whisper things only fit for his ears. No matter how much Cloud despises him, how much he wants to cleave him in two-- some small part of him still yields.

Yearn for what? You? Cloud snaps, and Sephiroth's laugh rings out - cold and sharp - like a knife in the dark.]

Am I? [His hand moves from Cloud's shoulder just then, cupping his chin like one would a dog.] And yet... here you are. Choosing to remain.

[exfirstclass]

[ The little of him not pinprick stiff, goes utterly rigid at the ringing laughter. His teeth grind down against one another, his eyes as narrow as slits. Hard to imagine this is the man people called hero. Cloud looked up to him.

There was a time he would have been weak-kneed over Sephiroth cupping his chin.

The very second the words leave his mouth, Cloud is ripping himself out of Sephiroth’s grasp, yanking himself away with a frustrated noise, stumbling two steps away through the static buzzing in his head. ]

Not a chance.

[ As if he hasn’t been seeking Sephiroth out like a man in the desert for water. To put an end to this. His gaze flits away from Sephiroth to the blade behind him, his hands curling into angry fists, chin held up stubbornly. ] You’ve got it backwards.

[ He’s just playing his time. Waiting for a chance, he’s convinced himself. ]

[vehementi]

[Sephiroth lets Cloud wrench himself away, simply watching him furiously deny every word, every touch. His hand remains in the air for a moment, still holding the ghost of Cloud's face, before it falls smoothly back down to his side.]

I see.

[He doesn't have to follow Cloud's gaze to know where he's looking. It's almost obliging, the way Sephiroth pivots and opens a path straight to the fallen Buster Sword.] Perhaps you'd wish to carve your blade into my flesh a second time?

--Ah. [His mouth twists cruelly.] But that memory, too, has faded. Hasn't it? Our crowning moment together.

[For just a moment, Sephiroth pushes on that static crackling through Cloud's skull-- finds a pliable entrance and pushes his fingers through. Opens it wide enough for Cloud to see Sephiroth's back at the top of metal stairs, to see himself charging up them with the Buster Sword in hand and-- CRACK. The sword nearly bisects Sephiroth, pushing through him and into splintering glass. It's not enough to put any missing pieces together in Cloud's fractured psyche... just enough to make him hurt and question.]

[exfirstclass]

[ The way Cloud scowls, teeth half-bared like a vicious dog, it’s no guess that he wants to cleave Sephiroth in two. The small step aside, presenting him a path to his sword has every muscle nearly twitching with the eagerness to make a break for it.

And then there it is — Cloud doubling over with the splintering ache in his skull, the static and the loud pound of his own heartbeat filling his ears. His breath’s lost, a strangled noise leaving him as his hand presses against his temple, the memory flickering through his head at the mention, filling a void. It slots into his fractured memory like a missing puzzle piece, his sword puncturing Sephiroth and the thick glass housing Jenova.

His sword pierced Sephiroth and Cloud’s breath is gone in a gasp, his head jerked up to look wide-eyed at Sephiroth through the haze. ]

I killed you, [ he hisses, but his face is pinched with disbelief, because he couldn’t have. The opening presented goes ignored for once, lost in the fray of half-pieced memories. That makes it sting and ache a little differently, his memory still ripe with fond memories of Sephiroth, the foolish crush of his… it made the vicious betrayal worse. Losing his mom, his home… everything all at once. The fleeting memory of Sephiroth run through doesn’t help like it should. ]

[vehementi]

[There's something in the way Cloud's face twists, glosses over, and eventually jolts with recognition that's so delectable each time. Cloud is a fragmented network of conflicting memories, ideas, desires-- somehow both so malleable and willful wrapped into one rattling package. Each time Sephiroth pushes inward, it's a wondrous surprise. Will Cloud push back against him? Or will Cloud crumble underneath his unforgiving weight?

What a fascinating thing it is, exploring under Cloud's skin, and he can only think of burying his hands deeper until he's in Cloud's ribcage, holding his fractured heart.

Cloud is pulling in a few different directions, it seems. The wolfish anger is there, but he seems momentarily disinterested in chasing his sword with the fervor he showed before.] Indeed... a feat only you have managed.

[Sephiroth spreads his arms. Welcoming. Beckoning, even.]

Are you proud?

[exfirstclass]

[ There aren’t words to describe how naked he feels under Sephiroth’s gaze. No, naked isn’t close enough to describing it. Dissected. Pulled apart from the inside out with surgical precision. His head aches and his skin chills, crawls, while Sephiroth stands there smirking. It’s beyond frustrating, the helplessness that sinks under his skin that only Sephiroth makes him feel with such pinpoint precision.

Sephiroth fans the flames like nothing else. Against the rattling in his head, the fresh lick of disbelief at his own barely remembered actions, that frustrated fury boils back over. ]

I should be, [ he bites back with a heated scowl.

Exhaustion and fresh bruises forgotten, Cloud takes a dive past Sephiroth, rolling to his sword in the path so generously provided with swift efficiency. As if Sephiroth wasn’t baiting him. In quick motions, he finds the buster sword back into his hands and his feet back underneath him, the blade separating them. ]