/Define 'the man in front of the hero's headquarters'.
Yeah, you know what, I'm going in. Just because I might need you in the future, so if you bite it or go crazy, that's not great for me./
(There is something a little different in her as well. Usually, she's a bit nicer. With all the time she's been spending in diamond form, her empathy is dimished, feelings numbed. It's so she doesn't lose it, and it works, although it makes her suck... A lot more, actually.
There's no information that she wants to find as of now, so he'll be connected to her consciousness for now. A blank space, the sound of heels clicking on the floor as she shows up in a white outfit, her waist-long hair in a high ponytail. He should be in front of her.)
[Clive doesn't bother responding. He has no idea what 'going in' means, but he's sure he is going to find out very quickly.
Part of his mind bucks at the intrusion, but he soothes it aside. This is a willing exchange. Sophie is just trying to help. Somehow? He isn't sure what he needs help with, but she thinks he needs help so here they are.
If Sophie was expecting a human, it's not what she gets. What stands before her is, in some senses, a man. He's humanoid with plated skin that looks like hardened earth and obsidian, cracks running through with full of magma and flame. His hands extend into vicious talons, legs shaped in a way that indicates an ability for speed and strength, plated tail lashing out behind him, scythe-like horns spitting flame, hair glowing and moving with what looks like streaks of flame. When he sees her, he stands, towering over her.
His presence certainly feels different from what she is used to.]
Guess we'll see about that, won't we?
[He tilts his head slightly, glowing blue eyes assessing.]
Interesting what you can do in here. How much energy does this take?
[[ooc: Clive's new physical traits are based on Ifrit's concept art for FF16. While his visage is still overall human, the traits he has adopted are from his Eikon's form. ]]
(See, thing is. Sophie's seen some crazy shit. All of them have. His appearance doesn't make her recoil, nor does it instill fear. All it does is make her cross her arms as she looks up, a power pose so she too can have some sort of physical display of toughness, which might or might not be taken by him as such, but it helps her.
She does sense the difference, and she had seen him before, so while this is news, she really cannot be bothered to pay too much attention to it right now. Feelings suck and she has been putting her own on hold for now.
Diamond form is not one she uses often, but it's been coming in handy lately.)
This is my version of walking into somewhere. None. Why? That's wholly unimportant.
[Clive shrugs and walks around, examining the vast blankness of the space. It is so strange, seeing this as if he is walking in it. He wonders what his real body is doing right now.]
Just curious. There are so many new things that I am learning.
[He reaches out to trace a clawed finger through the air.]
What is my physical body doing right now?
[He'll answer her questions about Nate in a minute. He's currently marvelling at something new and, to him, that is more important.]
Ask more about it when you give more of a shit. Got it.
[There’s no judgement, just understanding.
Clive doesn’t even pause, just drops himself onto the ground in front of her. It’s a little funny seeing a creature like him sitting criss cross applesauce.
Might as well be honest. He’d rather not have her poking around to find the truth. ]
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. I have largely become disillusioned with the world and see very little point in doing anything to help these people. I struggled with it at first. Focused on scratching the itch for violence with finding criminals and dealing with them.
[He shrugs. ]
What makes these people worth saving? Why am I killing myself over people who are just going to turn around and hurt their neighbor? Have you seen what they have done to the planet? Their blatant disregard for lives other than their own is disgusting at best.
A man I met, blonde, blue eyes with one that randomly flashed gold, helped me understand the perspective opposite my own better. So I paid attention to the people around me and well. He’s right.
(Because correct, she doesn't feel like going into Telepathy 101 right now. Not when she has more pressing matters to care for, and it's not like she's never going to talk to him again. He can ask and receive proper answers when they're not engaged in such a worrying conversation such as this.
Her face doesn't change, although she intertwines her fingers to settle her chin on, elbows on her knees as she listens.)
Because it's the right thing to do, you moron. I've been there too, you know. I've done some shit that goes against my best judgement, but as a gentle reminder — doing the right thing is a thankless job, and not doing it hurts you in the long run.
(... Motherfucker. Okay. She needs more information about this. Fuck, fuck, fuck.)
You seem to be in short supply of patience. Not surprising considering -
[He gestures vaguely around, even though they are in this strange liminal space. She'll get the idea.]
And who gets to decide what the right and wrong things to do are? Some may argue that ending the suffering of the people here is the right thing to do. None of what I have ever done to save people from themselves has been done in search of thanks. It is when someone is given a good turn and then turns to hurt another that I find an issue.
He didn't give me his name and I didn't ask. You know him then?
Look. I'm just going to go ahead and file this conversation under 'my dear horny friend is having a bad day in morality shift land, and he'll come to his senses when we are back', and then we can have it again. Right now, you're going to have to trust me that the answer is definitely not this. Can you do that for me?
... And, yes, I do. He's one of mine, and also a telepath, and an Omega-level one at that. Needless to say, this is further reasoning as to 'we'll circle back into this conversation'. When did his eye glow, do you remember?
Edited (i just remembered what i wanted to write initially lmao) Date: 2025-08-10 09:18 pm (UTC)
[Clive props an elbow on his thigh and rests his cheek in his palm. He is quiet for a moment, considering.]
For you? [He makes a thinking sound. He likes Sophie. For others, he might push, but she is clearly having a rough time and, morality shift or no, conversations that went nowhere were not things he enjoyed.] Sure.
Tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm going to assume Omega-level means powerful. His eye glowed multiple times during our conversation. The first time was very early on. Maybe after we exchanged a couple of sentences. Why?
So, whatever the fuck you've been doing, you'll trust me and chill? Don't make me lock you in a basement.
(When her brain is more in place, she's going to be really damn touched that a horrifying demon-looking man literally just went 'you know what? just for you? okay". Her ego is already huge, but hey, there's always more space for it to grow.
So, she'll come a little closer, copy his posture with both her hands on her cheeks.)
It means there's no known cap, so, yeah. Powerful. I'm great myself, but that's not me. Our eyes sometimes do these things when we do psionic shit, so that tells me he is here somewhere, or was, and that's above my pay grade. Seriously, Clive, you owe me like, five dinners when this bullshit is over, just for my pain and suffering.
(She's looking around for a moment, feeling things out, her fingers on her temple for a moment as she checks for imminent threat.)
Oh, please, boy, relax. He's not the only Omega-level telepath in this place, I'm trained, I don't think he'd hurt me, and I'm tattling. I'm fine, and you'll be fine too.
How about I let you know if my status of whether or not I need to be locked in a basement changes?
[Although, frankly, a basement probably couldn't stop him if he really wanted out.
Sophie's blatant and aggressive dismissal of his worry soothes something in him. Not the kind of reaction he expected, but he'd take it. Clive lets his hand fall back to his own lap.]
I was going for a walk, looking for something to eat when I smelled blood. A lot of blood. I found Nate standing in front of the superhero headquarters, covered head to toe in it, just staring at the place, talking about how the world would be better if we could just see things from the other's point of view.
When I started talking about how I knew someone who I had been trying to see eye to eye with, he looked at me and his eye flashed. He asked me about him. I told him about my thoughts and the thoughts of the other guy on what saving our world looked like. I told him that the version of salvation from the other person's point of view is to take away free will. His eye flashed again and he said that maybe the other guy was right.
I don't know why I felt the need to do it, but I used one of my shirts to start cleaning him up. I was doing this while we were talking. I cleaned his hands and his face and then he took the shirt from me.
Forgive me for not trusting your judgement as of now.
(Or in other words, she's not sure he knows when the basement is needed.
Everything Clive is telling her in regards to Nate, though? Copied and pasted right into another Omega-level telepath's brain. A pink one. She said she was going to tattle.)
Oh. Fun, pretty sure he was in your brain, and definitely not in his right mind during it. Sorry about that.
I've just tattled, so we'll be dealing with that on our side. In the meantime, let's focus on you. Where are you right now?
Fair enough. Although I'm not sure a regular basement could hold me if I didn't want to be there.
[He wasn't saying it as if he were bragging, just a statement of fact.]
Remind me to ask you about figuring out how to protect myself from that later.
I couldn't tell you, exactly. I'm in downtown San Francisco. That's all I can give you in terms of specifics. I haven't really been paying attention to street signs.
My services also include standing in front of you in diamond form, holding a water spray.
(It's not really real, because she can't do it without cutting the connection, but this only exists in their brains, so she can show him quickly what it looks like before he asks, again lacking in patience, before she is normal again.)
I'm giving you a crash course later, but if you turn it against me, I'm smothering you in your sleep. Do you mind if I hop on your optic nerve real quick?
[Clive's eyebrows quirk the smallest bit when Sophie shows him what her diamond form is. It certainly is impressive. His fingers twitch to touch, but before he can move, she is back to her normal self.]
That might be a bit more effective.
[Clive nods.]
That seems fair. I'm trusting you not to take advantage of that. Go ahead. Look to your hearts' content.
[Luckily enough for Clive, he had already left the alley where he had left a particularly crispy corpse.]
(The space in which they talk dissipate. She's once more a presence in his head, absorbing all the information his brain receives from his senses.
She smells burned hair. God, she does not like the smell of death. Familiar, almost too much so. She's been dead too long, half so for a chunk of the times she was brought back. Chemicals, inhalers, massacres.
/What I think depends greatly on the day. There are things worse than death, Clive. Remember that next time you want to fuck someone over.
Again, we're putting a pin on what you think because what you think right now is all bullshit. I'm throwing up a psi-shield, which might not super hold, again, Nate's an Omega-level telepath but it's better than nothing to protect you.
I'll ask the other ones to do the same. We'll deal with it./
/And sometimes it is a mercy to those who may continue to be impacted by men such as that, but it sounds like this isn't a conversation that you want to have./
[Clive turns a corner, moving farther away from the scent. Unfortunately for Sophie, Clive's sense of smell is currently even more keen than usual.]
/And do you intend to do this for every person who may have been impacted by Nate? How thin can you stretch yourself before you snap, Sophie?/
[Clive sighs and turns down another alley, jumping up to use a fire escape to get to the roof and hop a couple of buildings away. The freer air and the quick distance turn the foul stench into a distant whiff. He slows when he is finally far enough away to not smell the corpse anymore.]
/Sophie, you are snapping as we speak./
[Clive doesn't need to see her to sense how stressed out she is. She had little patience the last time they spoke, but this? This was entirely different.]
/You're not exactly a delicate person normally, but today? Well. You've been a bit prickly./
/Some of us were built with anti-snapping mutations, Clive. I currently feel very little, you don't like it, you're gonna have to wait until everything's not shit and I'm not putting off fires so I can turn it off./
(Then he'll have regular Sophie back.
That's the thing, though, isn't it? It's not that Sophie doesn't feel usually, because she does. God, she does. She's explosive, impulsive, a martyr, and a shitstirrer, but that's the surface.
She's never been so good at expressing things on her end. There has never been any need — she shares her brainspace with those who need to know, and what does one independent feeling matter when the group prevails? Not to mention how pathetic, disgustingly vulnerable these things feel, risky, frightening.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
let me know if its ok, i'm more than happy to edit if anything!
Date: 2025-08-08 11:40 pm (UTC)Yeah, you know what, I'm going in. Just because I might need you in the future, so if you bite it or go crazy, that's not great for me./
(There is something a little different in her as well. Usually, she's a bit nicer. With all the time she's been spending in diamond form, her empathy is dimished, feelings numbed. It's so she doesn't lose it, and it works, although it makes her suck... A lot more, actually.
There's no information that she wants to find as of now, so he'll be connected to her consciousness for now. A blank space, the sound of heels clicking on the floor as she shows up in a white outfit, her waist-long hair in a high ponytail. He should be in front of her.)
Nice to finally meet you, dumbass.
Totally fine! First meeting: Clive in monster form. Have fun, Soph.
Date: 2025-08-09 12:13 am (UTC)Part of his mind bucks at the intrusion, but he soothes it aside. This is a willing exchange. Sophie is just trying to help. Somehow? He isn't sure what he needs help with, but she thinks he needs help so here they are.
If Sophie was expecting a human, it's not what she gets. What stands before her is, in some senses, a man. He's humanoid with plated skin that looks like hardened earth and obsidian, cracks running through with full of magma and flame. His hands extend into vicious talons, legs shaped in a way that indicates an ability for speed and strength, plated tail lashing out behind him, scythe-like horns spitting flame, hair glowing and moving with what looks like streaks of flame. When he sees her, he stands, towering over her.
His presence certainly feels different from what she is used to.]
Guess we'll see about that, won't we?
[He tilts his head slightly, glowing blue eyes assessing.]
Interesting what you can do in here. How much energy does this take?
[[ooc: Clive's new physical traits are based on Ifrit's concept art for FF16. While his visage is still overall human, the traits he has adopted are from his Eikon's form. ]]
no subject
Date: 2025-08-09 01:08 pm (UTC)She does sense the difference, and she had seen him before, so while this is news, she really cannot be bothered to pay too much attention to it right now. Feelings suck and she has been putting her own on hold for now.
Diamond form is not one she uses often, but it's been coming in handy lately.)
This is my version of walking into somewhere. None. Why? That's wholly unimportant.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-09 03:04 pm (UTC)Just curious. There are so many new things that I am learning.
[He reaches out to trace a clawed finger through the air.]
What is my physical body doing right now?
[He'll answer her questions about Nate in a minute. He's currently marvelling at something new and, to him, that is more important.]
no subject
Date: 2025-08-09 03:49 pm (UTC)(Read, she's super lazy to explain. It's irrelevant.
Instead, she's going to sit on the floor, patting the space in front of her so he can too.)
Auto-pilot. What's going on, Clive? Talk to me.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-09 04:50 pm (UTC)[There’s no judgement, just understanding.
Clive doesn’t even pause, just drops himself onto the ground in front of her. It’s a little funny seeing a creature like him sitting criss cross applesauce.
Might as well be honest. He’d rather not have her poking around to find the truth. ]
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. I have largely become disillusioned with the world and see very little point in doing anything to help these people. I struggled with it at first. Focused on scratching the itch for violence with finding criminals and dealing with them.
[He shrugs. ]
What makes these people worth saving? Why am I killing myself over people who are just going to turn around and hurt their neighbor? Have you seen what they have done to the planet? Their blatant disregard for lives other than their own is disgusting at best.
A man I met, blonde, blue eyes with one that randomly flashed gold, helped me understand the perspective opposite my own better. So I paid attention to the people around me and well. He’s right.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-09 05:04 pm (UTC)(Because correct, she doesn't feel like going into Telepathy 101 right now. Not when she has more pressing matters to care for, and it's not like she's never going to talk to him again. He can ask and receive proper answers when they're not engaged in such a worrying conversation such as this.
Her face doesn't change, although she intertwines her fingers to settle her chin on, elbows on her knees as she listens.)
Because it's the right thing to do, you moron. I've been there too, you know. I've done some shit that goes against my best judgement, but as a gentle reminder — doing the right thing is a thankless job, and not doing it hurts you in the long run.
(... Motherfucker. Okay. She needs more information about this. Fuck, fuck, fuck.)
... Nate? Are you talking about Nate Grey?
no subject
Date: 2025-08-10 04:39 am (UTC)[He gestures vaguely around, even though they are in this strange liminal space. She'll get the idea.]
And who gets to decide what the right and wrong things to do are? Some may argue that ending the suffering of the people here is the right thing to do. None of what I have ever done to save people from themselves has been done in search of thanks. It is when someone is given a good turn and then turns to hurt another that I find an issue.
He didn't give me his name and I didn't ask. You know him then?
no subject
Date: 2025-08-10 09:01 pm (UTC)Look. I'm just going to go ahead and file this conversation under 'my dear horny friend is having a bad day in morality shift land, and he'll come to his senses when we are back', and then we can have it again. Right now, you're going to have to trust me that the answer is definitely not this. Can you do that for me?
... And, yes, I do. He's one of mine, and also a telepath, and an Omega-level one at that. Needless to say, this is further reasoning as to 'we'll circle back into this conversation'. When did his eye glow, do you remember?
Good ol Bojack
Date: 2025-08-10 09:29 pm (UTC)For you? [He makes a thinking sound. He likes Sophie. For others, he might push, but she is clearly having a rough time and, morality shift or no, conversations that went nowhere were not things he enjoyed.] Sure.
Tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm going to assume Omega-level means powerful. His eye glowed multiple times during our conversation. The first time was very early on. Maybe after we exchanged a couple of sentences. Why?
no subject
Date: 2025-08-10 09:37 pm (UTC)(When her brain is more in place, she's going to be really damn touched that a horrifying demon-looking man literally just went 'you know what? just for you? okay". Her ego is already huge, but hey, there's always more space for it to grow.
So, she'll come a little closer, copy his posture with both her hands on her cheeks.)
It means there's no known cap, so, yeah. Powerful. I'm great myself, but that's not me. Our eyes sometimes do these things when we do psionic shit, so that tells me he is here somewhere, or was, and that's above my pay grade. Seriously, Clive, you owe me like, five dinners when this bullshit is over, just for my pain and suffering.
No morality shift can stop Clive from fussing over the people he likes
Date: 2025-08-10 11:34 pm (UTC)I'll try. Though I don't think locking me in a basement will be necessary.
[Clive will greatly come to regret not asking Sophie to lock him in a basement.
He does get a bit concerned about her mention of it being above her pay grade. Not for him. Why would he ever be concerned about himself?]
If that's true, is it safe for you here? Sophie, if his influence is still here...
[He reaches out and puts a hand over one of hers.]
If you can get hurt, you need to leave. I won't have that. I'll take you to as many dinners as you want, just please. Be safe.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-10 11:45 pm (UTC)(She's looking around for a moment, feeling things out, her fingers on her temple for a moment as she checks for imminent threat.)
Oh, please, boy, relax. He's not the only Omega-level telepath in this place, I'm trained, I don't think he'd hurt me, and I'm tattling. I'm fine, and you'll be fine too.
Tell me exactly what you remember.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-12 01:15 am (UTC)[Although, frankly, a basement probably couldn't stop him if he really wanted out.
Sophie's blatant and aggressive dismissal of his worry soothes something in him. Not the kind of reaction he expected, but he'd take it. Clive lets his hand fall back to his own lap.]
I was going for a walk, looking for something to eat when I smelled blood. A lot of blood. I found Nate standing in front of the superhero headquarters, covered head to toe in it, just staring at the place, talking about how the world would be better if we could just see things from the other's point of view.
When I started talking about how I knew someone who I had been trying to see eye to eye with, he looked at me and his eye flashed. He asked me about him. I told him about my thoughts and the thoughts of the other guy on what saving our world looked like. I told him that the version of salvation from the other person's point of view is to take away free will. His eye flashed again and he said that maybe the other guy was right.
I don't know why I felt the need to do it, but I used one of my shirts to start cleaning him up. I was doing this while we were talking. I cleaned his hands and his face and then he took the shirt from me.
[Clive shrugs.]
It was all pretty weird.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-12 01:39 am (UTC)(Or in other words, she's not sure he knows when the basement is needed.
Everything Clive is telling her in regards to Nate, though? Copied and pasted right into another Omega-level telepath's brain. A pink one. She said she was going to tattle.)
Oh. Fun, pretty sure he was in your brain, and definitely not in his right mind during it. Sorry about that.
I've just tattled, so we'll be dealing with that on our side. In the meantime, let's focus on you. Where are you right now?
no subject
Date: 2025-08-13 01:25 am (UTC)Fair enough. Although I'm not sure a regular basement could hold me if I didn't want to be there.
[He wasn't saying it as if he were bragging, just a statement of fact.]
Remind me to ask you about figuring out how to protect myself from that later.
I couldn't tell you, exactly. I'm in downtown San Francisco. That's all I can give you in terms of specifics. I haven't really been paying attention to street signs.
no subject
Date: 2025-08-13 01:31 am (UTC)(It's not really real, because she can't do it without cutting the connection, but this only exists in their brains, so she can show him quickly what it looks like before he asks, again lacking in patience, before she is normal again.)
I'm giving you a crash course later, but if you turn it against me, I'm smothering you in your sleep. Do you mind if I hop on your optic nerve real quick?
no subject
Date: 2025-08-14 02:09 am (UTC)That might be a bit more effective.
[Clive nods.]
That seems fair. I'm trusting you not to take advantage of that. Go ahead. Look to your hearts' content.
[Luckily enough for Clive, he had already left the alley where he had left a particularly crispy corpse.]
cw goresome death
Date: 2025-08-14 02:39 am (UTC)She smells burned hair. God, she does not like the smell of death. Familiar, almost too much so. She's been dead too long, half so for a chunk of the times she was brought back. Chemicals, inhalers, massacres.
He doesn't have to look back. She knows.)
/I can smell... Death. Was that you?/
no subject
Date: 2025-08-14 02:40 pm (UTC)/Yes. He was trying to assault someone. I did what I needed to do. Do you think someone like him deserved mercy? I don’t./
no subject
Date: 2025-08-14 02:46 pm (UTC)Again, we're putting a pin on what you think because what you think right now is all bullshit. I'm throwing up a psi-shield, which might not super hold, again, Nate's an Omega-level telepath but it's better than nothing to protect you.
I'll ask the other ones to do the same. We'll deal with it./
He's worried about his babygirl
Date: 2025-08-14 10:35 pm (UTC)[Clive turns a corner, moving farther away from the scent. Unfortunately for Sophie, Clive's sense of smell is currently even more keen than usual.]
/And do you intend to do this for every person who may have been impacted by Nate? How thin can you stretch yourself before you snap, Sophie?/
super delicate baby girl
Date: 2025-08-14 10:56 pm (UTC)(She hates this fucking smell. She's sensed it before, very personally instead of behind someone's brain. Ugh.
He might feel a little rush from her to get them out of there, because fucking gross, Clive.)
/I haven't decided it yet, we're dealing with it, and I'll let you know. And also, shut up. Do I seem like a woman who snaps to you?/
it's okay Soph. We'll get through this together.
Date: 2025-08-14 11:59 pm (UTC)/Sophie, you are snapping as we speak./
[Clive doesn't need to see her to sense how stressed out she is. She had little patience the last time they spoke, but this? This was entirely different.]
/You're not exactly a delicate person normally, but today? Well. You've been a bit prickly./
[He might even sound a little amused by it.]
no subject
Date: 2025-08-15 01:17 am (UTC)(Then he'll have regular Sophie back.
That's the thing, though, isn't it? It's not that Sophie doesn't feel usually, because she does. God, she does. She's explosive, impulsive, a martyr, and a shitstirrer, but that's the surface.
She's never been so good at expressing things on her end. There has never been any need — she shares her brainspace with those who need to know, and what does one independent feeling matter when the group prevails? Not to mention how pathetic, disgustingly vulnerable these things feel, risky, frightening.
She remains cold, quiet. Upperhand and all.)
/Also, hurtful. I'm a doll./
(no subject)
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