audience: aerith

[mygod]

Comments

[mygod]

About saving the people who are trapped inside their own minds?

I can think of no greater torture. If death is their only reprieve, it cannot come soon enough.

[residentflorist]

[...she seems a little surprised, but mostly relieved. she wasn't sure if that was too soft-hearted of a concept for them when it's really as simple as "eliminate the monster before it eliminates you." but then again, given what they've said before, maybe it's not so shocking.]

I understand why people hold on. And I understand how hard it is to kill someone even when they're suffering. But watching them struggle and not be themselves...

[anyway here we have shadows suddenly swarming in, and:] Shit.

[she's not unfamiliar with this, at least, but here is a thing until 08:07:09 and minus whatever's going on in the shinra helicopter. fuck off shinra.]

[mygod]

[ OKAY BYE SHINRA? BYE CLOUD AND AERITH? famine watches it, curious. interested. it's one thing to hear of all the insane magical troubles and another to see it for themselves ]

... something about watching someone struggle and not be themselves, was it?

[ cloud your brain problems ]

[residentflorist]

[the brain problems!! she's really standing here after all of that happens before she frowns off into space.]

I think you would have understood the point without a visual reference... [thank you, you useless shadows. but.] ...he's okay for now.

[mygod]

If you insist.

Is it a mind control based on proximity to... Sapphire, or whoever?

[ no ]

[residentflorist]

Sephiroth. [automatic correction.] To be honest, I haven't entirely figured out how Sephiroth is doing this. But I think so. Even though sometimes...it just happens to him. The temple had crumbled just before that because Cloud took the black materia from its pedestal and triggered the defense the temple had.

[mygod]

Huh.

Sounds complicated. How much do you know of him? Your mercenary companion.

[residentflorist]

You can probably see why I'm a little more careful with him now, can't you? [but also tricky...] I know enough, but...I am still trying to find him. The real him. There are things about him that I think are still hidden that even he doesn't know about.

[hidden by layers of sephiroth and also zack, she guesses.]

[mygod]

So you handle him with kid gloves because you think his brain can break apart if under too much pressure?

[residentflorist]

[she just kind of looks at them because cloud rejected reality so hard he thinks she's alive, so.]

It's a little more complicated, but...something to that degree, yes. We know how to snap him out of it when it becomes too much, but there's no sense in fighting too hard when it'll just make it more difficult. [...sighs.] I know that sounds bad. I do know that. But I don't...

[she doesn't want anything bad happening to him.]

Sephiroth's influence is getting stronger somehow. It's not going to be an easy road for him when we return.

[mygod]

[ i hope this happens again on friday that'd be so fucking crazy ]

... recovery is never an easy road.

[ to put it simply, ]

Whether it be brainwashing or something else, the body struggles against change. Even when it's necessary. And for wounds of the mind, it can take years to work through in therapy.

I suppose it's simply a matter on if you find it worth it, or not.

[residentflorist]

[hey siri how do i make my castmate find my body.

this makes sense to her though. they do not have therapy where she is from, but understandable. she seems to get the point they're trying to make with this.]

Of course I find it worth it. [that might not be what they meant.] Even if it isn't easy, everyone else will be there for him. He won't be alone.

[mygod]

Would he find it worth it?

Even if it means having to confront difficult realities that would uproot everything he knows about the world and himself?

[residentflorist]

No, because he's more likely to insist he's fine even when he's very clearly not. [and she sounds annoyed by this.] But I think it's because he doesn't know anything else.

[mygod]

[ nods ]

... Yes. I understand that well.

Though they do tend to end up happier on the other side, once they start to let go of their preconceived, false understandings.

[residentflorist]

[...tilting her head.]

Something you have experience with then?

[mygod]

[ nods again ]

A few strays that I've picked up have been abused into certain thinking patterns, to say the least.

[residentflorist]

[there's a little look at the mention of strays, but she won't point out she's thinking anything about it. rather, she's just frowning because she's getting so tired of hearing about people being manipulated into shit.]

Have you been able to start helping them to unlearn them? It sounds like it'd be difficult for them, too.

[mygod]

I sent one to therapy.

[ we love therapy ]

I gave another a little test that is also a leash, and he seems to be doing better for it, even though he still complains.

[residentflorist]

[this is the second time famine has mentioned therapy, and this time aerith gives them a little look that says she kind of gets the concept but isn't sure what that actually means. she can guess, but by all means, explain the therapy. everyone in the 7 party needs therapy.]

If he's still improving, sounds like token complaints to me. I think when people really don't want to follow suggestions, they would complain and then still not follow through. [...] It's...nice that you cared about them enough to give them what they needed to start getting better.

[mygod]

They wouldn't be as useful to me if they were still running around committing murders thinking that it was what they had to do to find fulfillment in life.

[ is it nice? is it? to pardon and save a serial killer, aerith? is it?

anyway, ]

Therapy is when a licensed professional engages in regularly schedule talk sessions with someone to unpack their trauma and face fallacies in their own thinking. It takes time, but it is effective.

[residentflorist]

[well you could have led with that part, man. also listen sometimes...people do things...are they no longer killing...

whatever it's fine.]

Oh, so that's the motivation. Sounds a little like someone else was misguiding them to begin with. And if the murders have stopped and they're coming to terms with what's happened...[well. people still die when they are killed and there are some evils you can't forgive, but intention means a lot.]

We don't have anything like that, I think. At least nothing I've heard of. [...] Are they helping you in your mission to fix your country then?

[give them a new way to find fulfillment, maybe.]

[mygod]

I don't particularly care if others don't accept them. I have. But yes, they've stopped senseless murdering if that's something you're worried about.

[ but famine is concerned only about their own arrogant judgment. ]

They're useful in their own ways. The country is fixed, though. I've left them to continue on in their lives.

[residentflorist]

[there's a little pout because, like, she wouldn't call it a worry but also she's currently finding how many people are in godawful situations to begin with.]

So you're satisfied with the progress of everything so far. [she means back where they're from, but she figures they'll interpret that however they want because famine does not budge on their opinions much, it seems. unfortunate that she respects that.]

[mygod]

It was in a good enough place for me to feel comfortable in leaving it behind.

[ tilts head ]

I do not have the imagination to ask for more.