steepwithdead | Folkmore

...Oh, that's true, it snows here doesn't it.

[He hadn't been here last winter, but it did fit with the trees; if the leaves come off then generally snow happened.

Recent events have made it clear storing things up in case of being snowed in might not actually do any good. How is he supposed to be planning for winter like this? ... Not important right now.]

In that case planting would probably be wasteful unless you built a large glass box around ... all of it.

[The entire home. ALL of it.]

On occasion.

[This place never seems to fully winterize, outside of the aptly named Wintermute. Whether is weird in this world. (This month being an outlier... still. Weird in general.)]

I'm not going to worry overmuch. Nature will live and die in the ways it was designed to, and we have very little control over that. I'll do what I can for it, and when spring comes again, growth will come with it. I've always let the seasons do what they will.

I'm not sure applying what nature intends to this particular place is a good idea.

[It's offered hesitantly at best, that's definitely NOT his area of expertise.]

Nature doesn't intend much here. It's all Thirteen, and she just shook this entire place like a toy rattle.

[And maybe to such a degree that some of the spirits hadn't bothered to come back. There seemed to be more vacancies than before. Did they really get sent away, or were they dead?

He shakes his head, banishing the thought.]

If diseases and viruses being natural and thus best left alone are a concern as well, mine is not, so please don't let it weigh into things.

Hmm.

[He's not sure he agrees on nature's intent- Thirteen can place a lot of things in one place and shake it around, but she can't stop the will of nature entirely. Not in people, not in whatever grows. It tends to do what it wants in spite of, not because of, a higher power.

But again, that's not what this meeting is for.]

You don't have to worry about that. Disease and such can be natural, but that doesn't mean we have to suffer through it. Nature understands the rules of kill or be killed. There's no rule against fighting back. [He tilts his head questioningly.] What is it that ails you?

[Red in tooth and claw, even for diseases, huh? That's a practical way of looking at it, but relying on external things like medicines and drugs and magic might throw off how natural the fighting was.

.. No point in saying so. It wouldn't benefit him.]

That.. I'm not entirely certain of, as all information is second and third hand at best. A spaceborne virus or disease that chose my planet to infect, can affect people as well as beasts and monsters. That I've shown few symptoms I can recognize yet is I suppose a blessing but I don't much want to carry it around with me.

[It works out better if your remedies are natural and your magic comes from a nature god, but really, everyone's got their own standards. He's comfortable with his.]

Hmm. And you want to see if I have the power to remove it from you? Do you know what not having it in your body might do?

[Doesn't necessarily change whether he'll try or not - having bodily autonomy means getting to choose, regardless of consequence - but he'd like to brace himself for the potential bad.]

Only good things, I imagine. I might lose some strength or speed, but based on what I've seen others do, I doubt it'll be much. The cost is too high for such meager gain.

[He doesn't seem like he's lying though, he believes it. How problematic could it really be, pulling out the tainted blood and leaving him actually human?

The threat simply .. goes away. He could deal with Jenova on normal terms, without falling prey. Cloud wouldn't have to fear him anymore. No one would.]

[That sounds like an educated guess at best, which is not ideal, but... alright. Alright. He did offer to help, and colour him curious, too. He wants to see what exactly this means and if it is something he can help with.]

Let's give it a try, then. I think maybe we ought to move to the floor, though. If it takes a lot out of you, I'm not sure I'd be able to catch you.

[He's a tall kid, and Caduceus isn't terribly strong- or fast, is the bigger issue. Even if he can handle a head injury, Caduceus doesn't need the extra guilt.]

[It's extremely rare that Sephiroth is both prompt in obeying and openly enthusiastic about doing so. This feels like it's the right track. Who needs to learn how to master strange alien abilities if they're all simply removed like the disease they were?

And so he takes a moment to unbuckle is sword and set it aside, it wasn't much needed here anyway, only for getting here and leaving again, and settles unceremoniously on the floor beside it.]

I'm a bit heavier than I look, so that's probably true. You don't look all that weak though. Someone your size?

[Sephiroth is MUCH heavier than he looks, like most SOLDIERs, but Caduceus is so much taller, he HAD to be tough. That people who specialize in healing tend to neglect other skills, like lifting weights, eludes him.]

Let me know what you need from me, also.

[Caduceus transplants himself smoothly to the floor in front of Sephiroth, long legs crossed, his hands rested on his knees. He looks a little amused at the comment on his strength. Could he carry someone if he had to? Sure, he'd done it before. But sudden drops have more momentum than one would think they might. The floor allows for less harm.]

"Strong" isn't the same as "not weak". [It's a distinction he's had to think about on and off, in an adventuring party like his. He's not the weakest, but far from the most muscular. He's content with it.] You don't have to do anything, besides hold still, I suppose. And tell me if you feel more pain than should be normal.

[It's not supposed to hurt, but he's never tried to purge an alien virus before.]

[The faint puzzled frown suggests that Sephiroth really doesn't see the difference, but his lack of pursuing it also pretty clearly demonstrates he also doesn't think it's important to get into right this moment. Maybe later, once he's no longer got space disease written into his cells.]

I can tolerate quite a bit if it's uncomfortable.

[Chances are astronomical he's not going to say anything, because the goal is worth a little suffering. Maybe it'll feel like being ill. He'd never gotten sick but it sounded like a miserable time.

Unfortunately for him, while Holy aligned things are excruciatingly rare on his planet, that doesn't go for everywhere, and if he had any actual physical weaknesses, that would certainly count.]

Ideally you will feel better, not worse.

[Not that he knows if Sephiroth feels bad, now. He seems healthy enough. Regardless, he has the information and location he needs. Time to start.

He lifts a hand, fingers shifting into an intricate gesture, pointing towards the young man waiting, and he murmurs an incantation under his breath. A sweeping wind flows at once between them, twisting around Sephiroth's body, wrapped around him like a series of gentle, non-constricting vines. A sensation of warmth passes into his body, the sweetest of fires burning away that which infects him right to his core. Soft patches of pink moss grow painlessly onto his skin, turning to ash and dissolving away as they draw poisoned cells into themselves, out of his body. The whole process only takes a handful of seconds, and all the while it seems to whisper: you're alright. you'll be alright.

Sephiroth may not recognize it for what it is, but what it is, is undeniably: the loving touch of a mother, soothing one's ills. And while it may not give him the effect he's hoping for, ultimately, the process truly could not have been more gentle.]

[If he'd always felt the way he did, even if it was wrong, he'd never know the difference. Finding out otherwise might be an amazing breath of fresh air.

There's no sign of fear or pain, the vines are watched with alert interest as they rise and coil around him; it's warm and strange, better than the astringent pain he associates with anything medical. Never once does it feel like danger, and perhaps, given his nature it should. There's some distant, alien part of him that recognizes it, but any potential retaliation is utterly subsumed by the gentlest of unspoken encouragement. It'll be alright.

Well. In a way. There is no easy way to unravel the virus that is Jenova from his very DNA. Not while leaving him alive. Suddenly having so much of what makes him up purified, the black poison of his alien 'mother' replaced by the radiant tenderness of something he'd never experienced and didn't have words for, bloodlessly fractures skin and bone and more. Every cell begins to break down, missing such key components. It only takes a handful of seconds but the teenager slumps against the vines with a broken sound not of pain but of wonder.

It's like trying to cleanse the demon out of a tiefling. It can't be done without killing the hybrid. One moment he's alive, held in the loving warmth of a power he could no more comprehend than he could breathe water, the next he's not, his body unable to support life with half its components seared away.

...On the bright side, the disease is gone.]

[....

....

....]

[Oh Wildmother, we really in it now.]

[Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's try this again.

Caduceus reaches into his side pouch, withdrawing a sizable diamond, and rests it on Sephiroth's (no longer breathing, hoo boy) chest. He cups his hands around it, murmuring another chant, and instead of a breeze it is more like a wave, a rush of energy spreading outwards from the diamond, and a whole meadow of moss, grass, and glimmering fungi sweep across his body, the light of revival resonating through the precious gem and warming every inch, every blade, like a sunbeam encouraging growth. Warm arms gather up what remains of his soul and politely but firmly set him back down into his lifeless body, reminding him not yet, not yet. His life is young, still, and he has so much to live, so much to learn.

The diamond is dissolved through the magic of revival, and once again, the meadow of growth across his body fizzles and crumbles into ash around him. The Wildmother giveth, and the Wildmother taketh away, so to speak. Just... this time, in reverse order.

Yeah, this one's weird. But Caduceus peers over Sephiroth's face, watching to see whether or not he pulled it off in time. He's never tried a revival in Folkmore before.]

[Folkmore would have ... probably seen to bringing him back in a few hours or days regardless, right? That's how it works, usually.

He'd wondered if the Lifestream would simply reject him when he died and that's why he'd keep coming back again and again and again. None of this, even at the last moment of thinking anything at all, none of it had felt like rejection.

It had felt like the very opposite of that, and it felt nothing like the cold he expected of mako, raw lifestream. Warmth sent him on his way and warmth calls him back, sweet and comforting, strange and welcome in spite of it. That restoring him means putting his genetics back the way they'd been since birth is an unfortunate requirement, but it does work - no motes of Thirteen's resurrection system begin, not when it's unnecessary as breath resumes with a jolt, heart stuttering back into its steady rhythm, and Sephiroth himself ... more than a bit dazed as awareness flickers back. Caduceus is blinked at once slowly in muddled incomprehension, iris a thin green ring around wide pupils before they contract down to pencil thin lines as he tries to recoil from the unexpected closeness and utterly fails to manage the coordination. Give him a minute.

Maybe in time, had things gone the way they had in other timelines, Jenova would have tried a similar thing, and ensnared him for the rest of his existence. It's not Jenova this time who shows him his first and only taste of a mother's love.]

That was ...

[He sounds as dazed as he looks.]

... very nice. Do it again.

[No don't.]

[Caduceus smiles weakly - got his hands full with this one, clearly - and offers his hand out to Sephiroth, intending to pull him upright if it's taken.]

Yeah, let's not do that.

[Even if his heart could handle burning the life out of a child a second time - which, hi, no thank you, that was not very nice - he has a finite amount of diamonds, and more importantly, that's not the sort of thing anyone should start to rely on.]

I'm sorry this couldn't give you the resolution you were hoping for. But repeating what just happened isn't the way.

[He felt no different, aside from the fading sense of solace.

That and Caduceus' behavior tell him it hadn't quite gone to plan. Carefully the offered hand is accepted, with as much caution as he ever applies in case of accidentally causing harm, and pulled upright he sways in place for a moment before steadying himself.]

It didn't work, I take it. [It didn't really need to be said. He couldn't help but be disappointed, but nothing ever was that easy.] It didn't hurt for what it's worth. I've .. never felt anything like it, but it wasn't pain.

I suppose that part is good.

[The last thing he'd wanted was to cause more pain. The rest... not so good. His hand shifts to Sephiroth's shoulder to help steady him, and for the moment he leaves it there. This is the sort of moment that can require grounding.]

I think perhaps it worked too effectively. Whatever is inside you is... ingrained. Too deep to be safely removed in that manner. By killing it, it killed you.

[In truth, he's never come across anything like that before. It's alarming. The fact that it came back when life was returned to him is an even more unexpected side effect.]

Then it isn't something to be purged, because I am the disease. Just like my other mother.

[There was no difference between himself and that plague in his blood; he was the plague. For all that he looked human, it seemed others were right, straight down to his genes.. he was, absolutely, a monster. Not just a human with some extra components.

A confirmation he really wasn't looking for. It did make this a rather pointless venture beyond that, though. A waste of what was surely rather precious time for the cleric, who would have plenty to do besides this.]

... It's not the first plan I've had that didn't go the way I wanted it to. [Sheer force of will means packing up any bitterness or pain about that clarified fact isn't terribly difficult, squashed down to nothingness.] I'll just have to find another road. I admit, the last time I was killed it hurt a lot more than that. Whatever methods it is you employ, or your patron, your targets don't suffer.

[Caduceus narrows his eyes at that. Oh, he does not like it one bit.]

You've died before?

[What is it with this world - or others - where children keep dying? It's the responsibility of those around them to prevent that, and a terrible burden to be placed on them by Thirteen. Even temporary, even with a revival possible, death is not meant to be something that happens so casually. He's a grave cleric, he's died, he gets these things.

He's glad it didn't cause suffering, but still, the fact that he caused this death is not a joyful experience for him. Healing magic is not built for this. It's meant to give life, not take it.]

Just once so far. Strangulation. I am told there'll be another five incidents, probably more.

[He shouldn't be that bland about it, probably.]

Mostly in another.. fifteen years or so I think. One of the several reasons I was hoping to be rid of the virus, I believe it's what keeps me alive. [There's a moment's pause; people didn't react well to things like that, it made it sound like he wanted to die right here and now. He raises a hand to try to stall any such argument, grimacing.] I don't wish to die, as a clarification. Not yet. But I also don't want to live forever, no matter what my creator wishes. There's an important distinction, I simply want to be able to one day.

[What a morbid future to be aware of. Five future deaths? And someone strangled him recently? He's remarkable calm about all of this. A lot of adults couldn't have managed that.]

Hmm. Perhaps the answer then would be, find a way to recreate an effect that will neutralize this alien disease within you, so that when it comes your time to die - naturally, or when you so desire - that which keeps you alive can be halted.

[He's much more willing to discuss the concept when the reasoning isn't suicide, but rather a desire to live and die naturally. That, he can support. An inability to die feels more like an undead situation, and that's too unnatural for his liking.]

And in the meantime, something to suppress what makes you uncomfortable about it, while leaving you alive...

[There's much to be done first. But being able to eventually stop would be.. nice. If the Planet wouldn't let him though. What then?

Neutralizing the alien in his biology later, and something now to suppress all of it sounded unlikely.]

What I dislike about it is very extensive, that might be harder to do than assuring my eventual death.

[Maybe he's focusing on the wrong thing. If he can't prevent himself from being a problem because of his nature, could he prevent others from being affected by it?]

...What about someone who isn't born with it as I am? Could they be cured?

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I also don't know how this works. 8D my exposure to tabletop is folkmore

all good it's really just normal magic!!

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