fallacies: (truth? what truth?)
Cid Raines ([personal profile] fallacies) wrote in [community profile] concoursec2012-06-20 07:40 pm

the best laid schemes of mice and men--

Characters: Cid and Claire.
Location: Primarily in Trabia? Possibly in a few other locations.
Rating: PG-13?
Open/Closed/Finished: Closed.
Summary: It's not a difficult job, really, so what's the point of sending two Sanctum l'Cie off on such a mission?

To have two back-to-back missions was a bit odd. Difficult? Not really, no, but a surprise, yes. After having been assigned to so few operations since the beginning of his teaching tenure, it struck Cid as… strange, really. Admittedly, though, the weirdest part had to be whom the headmaster had decided to pair him off with for this particular job.

Faint prickles of irritation threatened to overtake his thoughts as he sat on the passenger car, his seat opposite of one Claire Farron. His eyes were trained outside the window, and he lightly drummed his fingers against the window sill as the scenery passed them by. Cid didn’t understand it; this was a ridiculously easy job. There was no need to send two l’Cie out to complete it, even if he did comprehend the reasoning behind the headmaster choosing them to go.

The Blobra infestation in one of Trabia’s chocobo forests had been plaguing their Garden for quite some time now, and in the end, they’d called upon the assistance of Balamb Garden, which in turn sent Cid and Claire along: two individuals who could easily create barriers with their unnatural magic. The idea, then, was to herd all of the Blobra and exterminate them before they could start dividing once more.

To him, though, this was a job that could have easily been done by one of them alone.

Nonetheless, that had been Headmaster Cid’s request, and so, here they were, en route to their snowy destination. Cid sighed quietly and turned toward Claire, doing his best to appear polite. They were to be a team here, even if he honestly didn’t think they’d need to be one; he could at least be civil for that reason.

“Should we review our plans again?” he asked, rather abruptly breaking the long silence that had settled between them. A faint but humorless smile pulled at his lips, here one second and gone the next. Cid would just treat this like any other military exercise; there’d be nothing to it.
subjection: (who am I to try)

[personal profile] subjection 2012-08-05 09:25 pm (UTC)(link)
It must take an unusual person to like being away from home all the time, Claire thought to herself blandly... although, on the other hand, Balamb Garden was something a lot like that too, while at the same time completely opposite as well in some ways- more so because of her off-worlder status. It wasn't like she could say much once she'd thought of that, however, which caused a brief spark of annoyance as she considered it; the question of whether or not she'd truly chosen this life as a SeeD, however temporary or not, was one she continued to struggle with.

Initially, just as he'd thought, she simply ignored the comment, but as several seconds ticked by, she began to realize with far too much distraction-caused delay for her own tastes the slight opening that was just neatly set in front of her. She frowned as she continued to stare off and downward.

Her curiosity about 'Lightning' was immense - how could it not be? - but all this time she'd always done her best to apparently flip-flop without any predictability over whether she really wanted to hear any details about the other woman. It was only very rare chances that she ever felt like pursuing the opportunity to ask- never without provocation, always after second-guessing herself.

In some way, she knew that if she were to be exposed to more of what the people from that other version of her world had to say, the fragile structure of beliefs she held about her own would be compromised-- a point that was all but entirely moot by now, of course. The only reason her reluctant interest went unaddressed now was only because there were now fewer of those from Cocoon or Gran Pulse of any version left behind- less chances to ask even if she was bold enough to do so. She still wanted very little to do with any of them.

Still-

"Do you know why she joined the Guardian Corps?" she asked finally, voice and body tense with lingering reluctance, and though it hadn't been said, the 'she' she was talking about surely wasn't hard to guess at.

At least this time she wasn't pointing a gunblade at the person she was trying to get the information out of.
subjection: (only time will tell)

[personal profile] subjection 2012-08-25 11:29 pm (UTC)(link)
....

Claire looked off as if disinterested, but to her chagrin even she knew it was a very thin veneer indeed. Her mind was quick to jump into overdrive at the information- information she hadn't expected the man to actually be able to give her. While at first it didn't seem to help her much towards trying to pinpoint exactly what it was that made them so different, after a moment the exact oddity in his guessed-at explanation was quick to stand out.

By the time Claire's mother had died, Serah was just about already old enough to take care of herself, several years past the point where Claire had secured a place in PSICOM's training program. While not everyone stayed with PSICOM, of course, even if she assumed something was flat-out wrong in Lightning's head... the account still seemed off in Claire's eyes.

That said, she'd already noticed that when Lightning had been at Balamb Garden that she and Serah seemed somehow even closer than what she'd experienced with her own sister... and not just because of the gaping rift that had been cast between them back in Claire's world, when it had turned out they'd both been marked by fal'Cie on opposing sides. Before that, too.

Realization flickered to life inside of her. Their parents' deaths... was that why?

Lightning clearly hadn't been commissioned; everyone who knew her always referred to her as a sergeant... and suddenly, Claire couldn't help but think of that last picture ever taken of her mother, before she became too gravely ill for photos to be 'allowed'- it also happened to be the first one featuring her oldest daughter with officer's wings pinned to the front of her dress uniform, near the end of the graduation ceremony for cadets coming out of the Academy.

Claire's head ducked slightly, frown tugging harder at the corners of her lips.

"I see," she said, as neutrally as she was capable of. However, the question lingered: if she'd been left without her parents at a much younger age, would things have turned out so radically divergent? Changed to the point where the Brand on her chest took on the appearance of what she'd been trained all her life to believe was the mark of evil?