potato_powerhouse | For quiet_storm. Continuing from TFLN

[The idea that physical trauma can affect memories still confuses Cloud. Combat is one activity that doesn't trigger memory jumbling for him. Or maybe it's just because he has such a hard head?]

At least it's a really badass scar, though?

[Don't worry about it? Cloud spent way too much of his life worrying about everything, and he knew it. Shoshosu was one of the few people who could say that to him and actually make him worry less instead of more.]

What is it?

Yep. And it's a conversation piece!

[It makes her giggle and she reaches up, booping his nose with a grin.]

No matter what...always remember you have a soul...and even if it's hard...explain to people what you want. Or that you aren't sure what you want. Some may cry, some may yell, but if they've come to love the you that exists now as much as Shoshosu does, they will be behind you all the way.

I can't say don't brood. You will have times you have to think...just no letting it consume you, or running away.

[Wow, she doesn't ask much, does she. Just everything that Cloud has never had the courage to do. Depending on what he might learn from this, some of that might even be impossible. Or at least they'll seem impossible.

Cloud closed his eyes and ducked his chin until their foreheads were touching.]

That's not gonna be easy.

Nothing worth it ever is. Trust me. It takes a long way to reach it...but try your best.

[She hums, reaching up both hands to cup his cheeks as she rubs her head against his.]

For now, let's with getting one thing Cloud wants... Hear. Think. Feel.

[Another hum, and her eyes close as well as she tries to block everything out but the pulse of her friend's soul. Maybe with just Cloud being a magnet for two supernatural people might get her something... She's at least sure she can feel the energy of this world swirling in her head, teasing at her chakra.]

Gaia's Lifestream was a gregarious sort of energy, thoroughly entwined with all living things on the Planet all at once. Though all of the beings with the ancestral ability to "talk to the Planet" were now part of the Planet itself, that just made the collective energy even more willing to reach out to the consciousness of the living.

When the Lifestream sensed that someone was Listening, it focused its joyful curiosity in Shoshosu's direction, celebrating this newest sense of connection. It spoke to its delightful and fascinating guest in its own native speech, the language of the Ancients that had first brought life here so many years ago.

We are honored to be in your presence, sacred life.

The Lifestream had no expectation that this being or any other in its web would understand the words as anything but the feeling of distant music, but it spoke them nonetheless.

Oh!

For a moment, it is music. And even with her Echo helping her understand, the Lifestream sounds like many souls at once singing to her. Not like with Hydaelyn, who was one gentle voice, but a massive crystal filling her sight, head, and heart.

She has to take a breath, and force her eyes to stay closed. To not tremble and worry Cloud.

"The honor is mine...to be given your audience...f-forgive Shoshosu if she intrudes too much."

The Mother Crystal is often formal when she gives an audience herself, even if her Avatar is not. Best to try to be as well to the Lifestream of Gaia.

Maybe it was because this planet's Life energy is so young, so new on the galactic scale, that it had no sense of formality. It was a cheerful small child approaching a stranger and hugging before being properly introduced.

"This sacred life Shoshosu speaks with us!" The energy scintillated in wonder. "What does this sacred life like say to us? Does this sacred life have need of our energy?"

Shoshosu almost has to laugh as the understanding comes over her, wanting to embrace it in return. She almost loves instantly as she hears it speak again.

"Shoshosu has a gift, from an old planet...though you seemed to have guessed that much," She hums a little. "It's a complicated request, but I'm hoping you can help, Gaia. I need to see my friend Cloud's past. He's worried about something, and I think looking there may help."

"The life of Cloud is worried about something? Which of us is the life of Cloud? Is he here with us?"

Complicated, yes, but not because of seeing the past. That was easy. The whole Planet's life history was recorded in the glow, overlapping a trillion times over as living things shared their existence. Finding a single thread in the thickly woven tapestry was a strange thought. Like finding a piece of water in the ocean.

"I don't know if it helps...I used him to help contact you. He rests with the physical body of Shoshosu. He has friends who are with you. Aerith and Zack. Does any of that help?" Though she and all the souls in the Lifestream understand enough to speak to each other, but she is trying her best not to take for granted concepts that she thinks everybody should understand.

"He's one of the ones the bad thing, Jenova, hurt."

"Aerith!" The excited sound echoed from multiple directions. There was a tidal change in the energy, and as the echoes finally died away a single white glowing presence emerged. Instead of the language of the Ancients she spoke in the human language of Gaia. Her individual personality was a little more mature than the combined young souls of the Planet around her, but her heart was just as light and accepting as the part of the Lifestream that first greeted Shoshosu.

There was a warm amusement in the flower girl's voice. "You've come to say hello, then? It's nice to meet you, Shoshosu. Thank you for taking such good care of Cloud for us!"

"Shoshosu is pleased to meet you. I would have come sooner if I thought I could...and had been a little less worried about how invasive the Echo might be," At most the change is a little moment of how she first heard things, before she understands once again. She's getting it now, and embracing the presence of Aerith like she tried once she understood the Lifestream. "I'm trying my best...but he has a worry, and...well I am taking it seriously, as you see. The Lifestream has been very willing, but it's...different from Hydaelyn, so I don't know how to find Cloud's past and find the answer."

Or if she'll even completely understand the answer when she finds it. "So, I hope it won't be a bother. Cloud seems to think you have gotten a big job now, so I wouldn't want to interrupt it."

"An answer from Cloud's past, hm? What's the question?" There was a light, silvery laugh. "And don't worry about being a bother. This IS my job!"

"Is he really the Cloud that was Zack's friend? From Tifa's childhood? He thinks he's a different person that just sort of wound up in the original Cloud's body when he died..." A soft hum on her end. "Because his memories before that...only involves Zack and Tifa, and a lot of other stuff, like what Jenova did to him...Shoshosu has her own theories, but telling him any of that won't give him peace of mind."

If there's a variant of clinging to Aerith's dress, Sho is doing it right now. "I know he's going to be...always a little sad and confused...he's been through a lot...but I want him to have less reasons to run? If you get what Shoshosu is saying?"

Edited 2018-04-09 05:35 (UTC)

Aerith does the equivalent of crouching down and reaching a hand out to hold Shoshosu's.

"Jenova has created a dark place inside him, where his memories have been locked away and twisted into lies. The truth isn't just hidden from sight. It's been destroyed, and that was the only place it ever existed. Some questions no longer have an answer."

"I had a feeling that was part of the problem..." Leaning in to rest her head on Aerith's shoulder, and in the waking world, she's holding Cloud tight. "Is he the Original. Even if he can't remember because of all the damage that was done, is his Soul still Cloud? Would I find if I went back to the day he was in the tank...that he's not there? That's what I want to find...so Cloud won't worry he's pretending and forgetting again, like with Zack-ack."

There she goes, nicknaming people before she even gets properly introduced.

In another dimension Cloud tilts his head, watching his roommate curiously. Aerith rests her hand gently on Shoshosu's back.

"The Jenova virus can sense someone's desires. It can show you what you wish to see, changing the past again and again. The original Cloud's memories will never return to the Lifestream. Whether they were destroyed when his still-living body was submerged in dead mako, or they survived only for Jenova to twist them beyond recognition, we who are part of the Lifestream will never know. If the virus touches one of us then it touches us all."

Aerith pulled back enough to seem as if she was looking her guest in the eyes. "But maybe... just maybe... someone attuned to Hydaelyn instead can see past Jenova's lies."

Shoshosu gasps, eyes bright at Aerith's statement. "Yes! Yes! That is what I want to try. Since I've never dealt with Jenova...maybe Shoshosu can, if you can help me find the way?"

She's practically bouncing, burning with the desire to help. To not fail Cloud...and now the kindly woman she's speaking with now.

Aerith's little laugh was one of simple delight. "We of the Lifestream cannot see through this darkness. If your heart can, then it alone can show you the way."

She bent down and touched a nonexistent whisper of a kiss to their guest's forehead. "You have our blessing, Sacred Life of Hydaelyn. Just remember, whether or not you find what you're looking for, the only thing that matters is that you chose to seek it out."

The white light faded from around Shoshosu, glowing invisibly inside her instead. Cloud blinked at her in concern.

For now, especially because she can feel Cloud's concern in waves, and she really needs a moment to collect herself after that, Shoshosu comes back to reality. Her eyes opens wide, and she blinks up at Cloud before giving him a bright smile and kissing him on his chin.

"It's okay, Cloud. I was trying...and I got the Lifestream and Aerith...say that looking into it by themselves is very dark because of what Jenova did...but I'm...going to try to look because I might be able to cut through the lies..."

She murmurs this, sounding distant...still half in the experience of communicating with the Lifestream, half in the waking world. "They...they'll help me...help you."

"Aerith talked to you?" The thought put a calm little smile on Cloud's face. "She's never been much for subtlety."

A little nod and a pleased hum at Cloud's smile...and her eyes slowly drift, more out of focus that their usual pupil less form usually seems. "Mm. She came when me and the Lifestream had a communication problem...I didn't know how to find you in the sea. So she came...she was really nice."

"You were looking for me inside the Lifestream?" That would be a LOT of lives to sift through. It's lucky the Shoshosu was able to find Aerith so she didn't have to go searching by herself.

"I'm not in there, though. I'm still alive."

"But...you are connected..." All this made sense while she was talking to the damned thing. "It asked, "which of us is the life of Cloud?' I didn't know how to answer, and so Aerith came. Well, after I mentioned she knew you."

She sighs, resting her head against his shoulder. "The Echo allows two souls to understand each other, a couple of dozen souls...in an entity that could be called divine? I can't completely get it. Both of them called me a Sacred Life...it was a new one for me."

Cloud shrugs, yet again. "Well, I was made out of Lifestream and I have no idea. It doesn't surprise me that you don't understand it."

He rests his hand against the back of head. "I wonder if everybody is a sacred life in Lifestream language. I've seen a few bits of writing that the Ancients left behind, but I've never heard anyone speak it. I don't even know what it sounds like. Or even if I could hear it at all. When we were at the Temple of the Ancients, Aerith could hear the voices but no one else could."

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Up to you how well this try works...And what Sho actually picks up.

Hmm... :3

Hoo boy.

Re: Hoo boy.

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