[ open ] Life is like the igniting of a match

[makoglow]

Who: Cloud Strife + You
Status: Open
Where: Various
What: MANTA quests
Warnings: Gore? Maybe



🌩️ Caught In the Rain

[ More like caught just standing there like some idiot with two drinks in his hands. Because Cloud had been trying to avoid getting involved in all of that nonsense. But, as usual, is he allowed this? Nope. Cloud had been given the directions on what he needs to do and before he could say no, the tavern keep is just walking away. Waving and telling Cloud to have a good time. ]

At least it isn't a dress this time... [ Silver lining and all. Not that it is going to stop him from finding someone to pawn these things off on. ] Here.

[ Now one can either just take the drinks from Cloud as he had been given them... Or maybe there is another option? ]

🌩️ A Sheep in Sheep's Clothing

[ "No one knows how this happened" is what they say. Bullshit is what Cloud says. There is no way that these people don't know something. But that's another problem for another day. The first thing that he needs to do is stop sheep from being harmed...

From other sheep. ]

Still not the weirdest request to get. Let's go.

[ Of course Cloud can do it by himself. But if they do take to flying, he'd have to purely rely on magic. Another person having his back won't hurt.

At least until coming across the first sheep... Who is kind of. Really. Feasting on a bloody smear of what probably used to be another sheep. Maybe. Hard to tell. ]

🌩️ Gentle Moogle

That is not a Moogle...

[ Surely it is someone dressed up as a Moogle? That's really the only explanation because Cloud wouldn't recognize it as a Moogle if not for the pom. Do they even really get that big? ]

Augh. [ He is not even drawing his sword out for this one. ] First the mutant Tonberry and now this.

[ Surely it will be easy to chase the person away. Right? ]

🌩️ Whale Watchers

[ Cloud is standing at one of the Paladin ports that had recently been attacked. The damage isn't anything to sneeze at, but do whales even just come from out of nowhere and attack? Then again, given the odd nature of this place, maybe the whales have found a liking for flesh... Wouldn't surprise him at this rate.

First thing's first, he is looking over the damage. Inspecting it. There is a lot of debris and - ]

Honestly the place looks trashed. Literally.

[ He runs a hand over some damaged posts. ]

Maybe we should check the ships to see if there was cargo that caught their attention...

🌩️ Elemental Energy Part 2

[ Cloud hadn't had much to do with the original survey. However, this time it seems to be right up his alley. Using magic around these butterflies to that they can take readings? Easy. Cloud finds a more remote area and releases the little machine-like creature. ]

Might still need to hold back some. Maybe.

[ Two things can happen here. Maybe he is sparring with someone else. Maybe he's just practicing by himself. Either way, he starts to open things up with a Thundara! ]

Let's see how much it can take.

🌩️ Wildcard

[ This is your freespace area. Don't like any of the prompts above but want to thread with Cloud? Hit me with anything. Additional ones I am interested in are: Seeds of Hope, All Tied Up, Trailing Dawn, and the Plot Chickens . If you want to plot something out, reach out to me at verthunder on both Discord and Plurk. ]

Comments

[emet_sulk]

I suggested the idea some months ago when I first arrived and saw them tinkering: an electromagnetic coil, or something similar. Combine it with a combustion engine and you could have a magickless vehicle.

[ He makes wide gestures, illustrating his point in the air. ]

For cases where the crystal may fail or find itself depleted, a small fuel tank could substitute and provide enough power for you to find help. All one needs for fuel is a violently combustible liquid.

[makoglow]

That's... Pretty standard, isn't it? We might have used mako for electricity, but engines were still pretty much all fossil fuels.

[ Is that not how things are elsewhere? Maybe not if magic is heavily relied on. Such a weird thing for Cloud to think about. But hearing the older guy talk about it makes sense. ]

Which is, I guess, what we'd need to find. Or something like it.

[emet_sulk]

What do you mean by 'fossil fuels'?

[ He's imagining someone pressing the great bones in the New World into liquid somehow but he feels that's not what is being referenced here. Unless...? ]

One can make a fuel from alcohol, I'll have you know. Distilling it in a slightly different way yields a fairly serviceable fuel.

[makoglow]

What? Gasoline doesn't exist where you're from? Things that die and are buried for a long time kind of... Turn into this substance that can be refined as used as energy.

[ A shrug. ]

Mako was supposed to be an alternative to that and electricity.

[emet_sulk]

When creatures die their aether is gradually absorbed by the star. Only bones remain.

[ Maybe Cloud is talking about ceruleum. It seems the closest equivalent. ]

Where does your 'mako' come from?

[makoglow]

I mean from the bones and stuff. It's still organic material that's broken down over time? Something like that.

[ Because Cloud isn't a scientist so he wouldn't know much about carbon breaking down. Just that organic matter decays and will become something else. ]

But mako... It's refined energy pulled directly from the Lifestream.

[ And given some of their conversations? Yeah... Cloud doesn't think that is going to go over well. Harvesting life energy for power. Yeeeeeeeah. ]

[emet_sulk]

[ Hmm... Maybe it takes more than twelve thousand years to transform organic matter into meaningful fuel. Or mayhap the constant process of calamities disturbs the process. Or...they have yet to find this mysterious fuel.

Regardless, his attention is immediately pulled away by what Cloud says next. He stares at the younger man. Stares for the longest time like he can't believe someone could be so phenomenally, incredibly stupid. ]

I'm sorry - for a moment, I thought I heard you say that you use the souls of the dead to fuel your machinery.

[makoglow]

[ ...Yeah it probably does? Maybe dial back on those calamities...

Regardless, Cloud figured he might get an expression like that. Cloud just casually shrugs. ]

That's because you did. Someone found a way to do it and promoted that it was better than electricity or other power sources. Built an entire city. Started using mako to alter peoples' genetics. [ Did you think the slight glow in his eyes natural, Emet-Selch? ] Shinra was probably the worst thing to happen to the planet and they made sure that no one would stand in their way.

[ Meaning that the people that tried to stop Shinra would... Usually return to the Lifestream themselves. ]

Meteorfall kind of. Opened peoples' eyes and the company as well as all of the mako reactors worldwide were shut down.

[emet_sulk]

[ Hey, kid, you aren't the only one with special eyes here.

But right now Emet-Selch gives Cloud a long-suffering stare. He's aware that none of what this man is telling him is directly their fault - that should be laid squarely on the shoulders on the one who came up with the stupid idea to begin with. Still, the old mage cannot help but think that this is what he hates about mortals. ]

Of all the utterly inconceivably foolish plans to come out of your kind's thick skulls, draining the life force of your own dead surely ranks the highest. I'm glad you put a stop to that.

[makoglow]

[ Sorry about you there, old man. None of it is Cloud's fault, no. He can't even really be upset at the people of the planet either. After all, they had all been told that mako will make lives easier. And it had. So many people thought that it wasn't a bad thing for these services to spread. ]

Yeah well. People can come up with some pretty dumb ideas, sure. At the same time they can really surprise you with how good they can be too.

[emet_sulk]

...I suppose.

[ He seems to be brooding over something but, after a few moments, it's clear he won't be forthcoming about what exactly. ]

I'm sure your people will forget the lesson in a century or so however. They always do.

[makoglow]

[ That's... Probably true. To a degree. The lesson might be forgotten and the information lost. It's inevitable, really. Time erases all things. ]

Give us a little more credit than that. Three hundred years.

[emet_sulk]

Two hundred, and I'm being generous. That's at least five generations.

[ Why are they bartering over this? Oh well, it's funny enough for Emet-Selch to smirk about it. ]

🎀

[makoglow]

[ There is no reason for them to be haggling over all of this, really. It's stupid. However, sometimes? That kind of stupidity is needed.

For now, he'll just be content to end it there. There's enough to do anyway and break time? Well that's over. ]