Right After Nurse's Message

[just7seconds]

[Well... isn't this great? What a kind and generous being this fake nurse is! Cloud looks thrilled (no, he doesn't - just the opposite).]

She'd rather kill us than try to work out any kind of deal. Could that be because she doesn't actually care as much as she claimed she did? Or maybe she's simply at a loss for ideas!

... Not that I expect most of you to care what I think, but here it is anyway:

She doesn't like that her "precious dollies" won't stay put. Being unable to keep a firm grip on them has her... in a panic or... maybe a quiet temper tantrum?

Figure out what you really want. I already know what my decision is. I've known since the first day.

---

SPAM

[Or maybe they'll run into him, out in a hallway, or something. Or they're Sephiroth, who's basically never left his side!

Cloud's taken to spending a lot of time around Zack, ever since the latter went into a coma. This is most likely a good chunk of his reason for being so... this, lately.]

Comments

[ragsnbone]

I vote temper tantrum.

[just7seconds]

Definitely feels like she should be the one put into timeout.

[ragsnbone]

Time out face against the wall no talking or the time gets longer.

[fearisfortheweak]

[Achilles seems... tired, more than anything. More tired than he has in a bit.]

Many things can lead to threats of death. Anger. Anguish. Fear.

All are reasonable, but none permissible.

[A soft smile.]

I'll continue to stand by you until the end, lad. Follow your heart.

Death is not an end, but a new beginning.

1/3

[just7seconds]

[That initially gets the most taken aback look he's given Achilles, since they met.]

2/3

[just7seconds]

I've... caused a lot of trouble for you, already, haven't I? Wouldn't you... have a better shot at your deal with someone who can graduate?

[Cloud looks a bit ruffled around the edges, and maybe as though he's awkwardly fishing for the right words here.]

3/3

[just7seconds]

[After a brief moment of debate, he finally takes a deep breath. Gives a very serious, but unusually soft look with the next words.]

... Thanks... Achilles.

1/2

[fearisfortheweak]

[He gently shakes his head.]

I've been here a long time. Over a decade now. Baymax has been here even longer.

This environment... is unfortunately not conducive towards meeting such goals. In all my time here, few have successfully gotten their rewards... to no fault of anyone's.

[He pauses.]

Truthfully, I suspect part of me had come to accept that a long time ago. That I was likely here to remain indefinitely. That my own deal would never be fulfilled.

But that's how it is, sometimes. Forces beyond our power or understanding pull the strings on our lives.

2/2

[fearisfortheweak]

I have been given the opportunity to help many others, such as yourself.

[The smile now is a little less tired, a little warmer as it touches his eyes.]

It has been a great honor to be assigned your Assistant, Cloud.

[sefirot]

That is the ideology of many in a position of power. Destroy that which you cannot fully control.

[just7seconds]

Yeah. Makes sense... given how it works in reverse.

[He assumes that's the real motivation behind all of this: kill the ones carrying the rebellion, kill the rebellion.]

... Too bad we can't be flies on the wall during her own negotiations.

[sefirot]

If my powers were restored I could make that happen.

[mycitynow]

[ There's a pause as Kyoko thinks things over. After a moment, she gives Cloud a shrug, trying to bury any sense of actual emotion behind a cavalier attitude. ]

As far as I'm concerned, I'm dead already. Might as well go out giving 'em heck.

[just7seconds]

[He looks down for a moment. After a moment of serious consideration:]

What if there was someone we could trust to hold onto some final thoughts, for us? [Final messages, he means.] Someone who... might not take her up on that offer, but also wouldn't simply... conform.

[Cloud isn't especially happy, as his eyes make clear, but his expression is calm. Serious. And his tone is a bit... soft, frankly.]

Is that something you'd be interested in helping me with? Picking a person... collecting things to give them...

[A distraction, basically.]

[mycitynow]

I mean, my final thoughts would just be a bunch of rude gestures. But if you wanna leave something behind or something cheesy like that, I ain't gonna stop you.

And at least it's something to do that isn't baby storytime. I'll help you ask around.

[tinstar]

They're not able to handle us any other way, is what I think it is. They either don't know how or are sure it'd work.

But I'll take my chances out in the black before I stay here any longer. At least its a choice, albeit a crappy one.

[just7seconds]

Yeah...

It sucks, but... we get a say.

[punched_hitler]

I am not defending the Nurse, but for the record - in a way, this is giving us far more agency than we ever had on the Barge.

[just7seconds]

[Cloud considers, and then his brow furrows.]

I can't see it that way.

When the choice is between being treated like a handicapped child and... dying? [He shakes his head, somewhat sadly.] It becomes less about agency, more about... survival at the cost of every ounce of free will. This place wants to condition everyone, while the Barge wants to give room for personal growth. Maybe... figuring out who we are?

Back there, we had jobs, and room to build lives. Countless options, choices... Yeah, there are people that probably never get dignity and respect, but... [somewhat muttered:] from what I saw of some of them, they couldn't be trusted with that kind of thing...

[punched_hitler]

[Steve laughs softly.] See, now I could argue that the Barge was the place trying to condition everyone. It was just as bad. And worse? There was absolutely no freaking way to escape it.

Not even death.

Sometimes that's the only choice a person has left, and the Admiral took that away. His wardens took that away.

[stressingwitchface]

Shut up! SHUT UP.

[just7seconds]

[He maintains "eye contact" (just staring at whatever counts as the camera) and just...

SLURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP.

Behold: the loudest drinking through a straw ever.]

[stressingwitchface]

Not THAT.

Although that's disgusting and you should have better manners..

The part about talking terribly about the Nurse!

[qingofcats]

Da Qing is making his way through the mess of the Clipper, on four legs again, making a point of coming up to everyone he knows, or even suspects, is from that Barge that lao Zhao got sent here from, and giving them a good, thorough sniffing. So when he runs across the guy with the weird sticky-uppy hair he trots up to him and wraps himself around his ankles, sniffing him very thoroughly as he does a slow lap around him.

[just7seconds]

Oh jeez... it's that cat that screams, while just sitting in the tree. Cloud makes such an exasperated face, the mixture of sighs and annoyed sounds probably doing nothing to deter the cat's sudden interest in him.

"Ugh, what? If you're hungry, go bother that guy..."

... Yes, he's just throwing Sephiroth under the bus, without guilt. Cloud doesn't expect the guy to do a single thing, from his current position of roughly ten feet away.