supersoldier | ( aefenglom inbox. )

[Events have put him in a strange mood. Rumination comes easily to Sephiroth, and with the influx of the new Mirrorbound, it has struck him in spades. He has not been an easy man to find as a result -- falling upon old habits of social detachment -- but at least he is an easy man to text.

The reply comes with only a one or two minute delay.]

I have time. What would you like to speak about?

[A quicker reply than he expected, but not unwarranted. Easier than hunting the other man down in the city, something he's not inclined to do for so minimal a topic. And he also prefers the impersonal nature of these messages.]

Nothing pressing. I understand we crossed into one another's mirrors, and I appreciated your willingness to aid me with my own. You kept your word.

However, this concerns our initial meeting during the festival. I wanted to... explain my behavior.

[Who waits a month and a half to do that... him, apparently.]

[Well. Who also purposefully ignores it for a month and a half? Also this guy.]

I see.

[A moment, and then another text follows.]

Your eagerness to follow me, you mean. You left an impression if nothing else.

[That's putting it... nicely.]

[If Itachi weren't so dead inside as to feel embarrassed, right now he would feel... embarrassed.]

Yes. I was affected by the cometflies, a version which altered my perception of others such that I found them... desirable.

[Speed dials Sasuke to kill him again, thanks.]

I apologize for any discomfort. I'd still be interested in sparring sometime if you're amenable.

[It’s fine, surely. It’s not a recollection he deigns to think about — it’s one of those situations where the less it’s acknowledged, the better.

But if Itachi is feeling the need to clear the air, far be it from Sephiroth to stop him. In fact-]

Given your demeanor after our first meeting, I had assumed that the environment was a factor in how you were acting at the time. Put it out of your mind. It’s not fair for me to blame you for something that was out of your control, so I won’t.

[Elephant in the room, officially banished?]

I would like to spar with you. Whenever you’re free.

[Another delay, this one longer. As if Sephiroth has debated sending the rest.]

Everything that’s happening has made me restless, and it would be good to put my blade to work.

[After dealing with people like Stiles (nosy, too intelligent) and Jonas (dumb, overly trusting) over the past few weeks, that reply is a breath of fresh air. Subtle yet direct, dismissive, intuitive enough to understand the situation and be ready to move on.]

You're right. In any case, I appreciate your discretion.

[Itachi doesn't enjoy feeling out of control, and he thinks heavily on his actions before he commits them. And, privately, he's mildly relieved to see it hasn't put Sephiroth off of their agreement.]

Perhaps the end of this month. With the new moons approaching, my magic has been... chaotic and less easily controlled. [The latter reply interests him, though he treads carefully.] Do you mean the sudden arrivals? I've noticed a large number, is that unusual? Apart from the disorder of coming through mirrors across the city rather than the Looking-Glass House.

The end of the month will be fine. It's simple enough to contact me. Message me as you are now and we'll arrange a place and time.

[As for the rest, well. Sephiroth takes a moment to decide what he wishes to say, if he should frame it as something that's been troublesome to him, or dismiss it as lesser. In the end, Itachi's penchant for being distantly logical, unaffected by strong opinion outside of a clinical assessment of any given situation, earns a small amount of earnestness.]

Yes. It's an inordinately larger amount than usual. With it comes at least several others from my planet, all hailing from mismatched timelines. One has even arrived after his death.

Very well.

[The first part addressed, he moves on to the remainder of Sephiroth's message.]

Several? I wonder what the meaning is... if perhaps your world has a stronger draw to this one's influence. My situation was similar; I also arrived after my own death. I've yet to see any pattern to that.

Were those timelines far outside your own?

[After his own death...?

That is, granted, not the point of this exchange, and Sephiroth is very much aware of this — but that admission might as well be a nail sticking up in the midst of the rest of the conversation. He cannot help but immediately draw a parallel between Zack and Itachi, or at least make a haphazard attempt to compare them in his mind, as though doing so would make returning to life an easier conceit to accept.

Results are lacking in the end. They’re nothing alike; simply because Itachi appears to handle it well enough does not mean the same should apply to an old friend who looks at him with uncertain eyes.

He packs his questions away. For now.]

They are all years ahead of me. The amount of time varies, but I have yet to meet someone who isn’t from my future.

Has anything similar happened to you?

Yes, although I don't have the comparison of several individuals. My brother is here. He comes from a timeline years in the future, apart from my own memory of the present.

[How much he personally knows of that future is limited; Sasuke hasn't shared, and he hasn't asked. For the most part.]

It does cause one to think. My own situation excluded, if someone else - such as yourself - were to return to the moment you left, would you carry this future knowledge with you? Would you be able to change events? And would you wish to, if you could? I wonder.

Edited 2020-05-19 03:23 (UTC)

[Itachi doesn’t know just how loaded, or how relevant, those questions might be. Would anything change, knowing what others had experienced in the future? Was it written in stone, or could it be swept away with newfound knowledge carried from world to world, like sand by the sea?

Not knowing is frustrating in its own way.]

Carrying the knowledge over would be change in of itself. Regardless of intent, I think our worlds would feel the ripples of a Mirrorbound newly returned from this world. The question is, as you said, whether or not it’s possible.

Have you asked your brother about your world’s future?

I haven't yet spoken to anyone who has returned and come back, which is not to say it hasn't happened. The mechanics of our arrival continue to be a mystery.

[And in return, Sephiroth can't know how fraught that question is to him, either... though more for the subject of his brother alone.]

Not explicitly. Seeing as I've died, I don't feel that it's necessary to know, outside the broadest terms. My own purpose was at its end anyway.

Did you learn your own future, through these individuals from your world?

[He's almost jealous, for a flash of a moment. To not wonder at one's future or the consequences of one's existence, how it might have changed things in ways that haven't come to pass. Then again... it's pointless to think that way, isn't it? Itachi believes it to be unnecessary because he is dead in his world. Sephiroth still has the burden of living and breathing, and affecting his home planet should he return.

Supposedly, at least.]

Yes. And not all of it is kind. Some of it impossible to believe, even uncharacteristic.

[Ah. And therein lies the more complicated problem, one he intuits immediately from Sephiroth's words, even if it isn't plainly spoken. Would he feel the same if he was faced by that situation? He doesn't know the man well enough to guess. Still...]

Perhaps you'll change this version of your future. At least in my own world, altering fate is possible, at a cost.

If you cannot, then there's little reason to question what could be, because you won't have control over anything. The 'you' of the future may seem uncharacteristic now, but that's only because you're limited to your current perspective. There might be realizations and events you have yet to experience.

If we return without knowledge of this place and everything that's happened, and without the ability to use that knowledge... it does cause me to question the point of our existence here.

[He’s right, of course. That there are two options — the future might be altered with effort, or that it might be fruitless altogether. But that sends another wave of deep dissatisfaction through him, uncertain and unsure.]

The woman I spoke with said something similar in regards to a revelation.

[That he learned something in Shinra mansion that changed it all. But there is nothing that would cause for him to put the entire town beneath his sword, or to set it all aflame and let it writhe in the immolation.]

I know it means little because you do not know me, but there is nothing I could have learned that would have turned me into the man they describe. It would have changed everything.

[It is so far beyond what he should be capable of, what he knew himself to be.]

It’s all conjecture at this point, but the forces that brought us here may be concerned more for this world than our own. Our experiences are crafted for the sake of this planet and this planet alone.

I believe you.

[A simple statement, but a true and certain one. Of what little he's come to learn of this man, trust at face value is strangely inherent. Sephiroth has given him little reason to think otherwise. He is not someone who appears manipulative or coy, self-indulgent, biased or two-faced. They seem to share an objectivity difficult to find in the common individual, and Sephiroth has no reason to lie to him.]

But that is the heart of it: you cannot know or even guess the revelation that caused such a change in you. That is the nature of knowledge itself. It alters reality.

[That said...]

I suspect you're right. Free of this place and its power that have transformed us, you and I would have different abilities, ones perhaps more powerful than this world's limitations. Our designations as witches and monsters here seems only a reason to better fit us into what they need us to be.

[He should push away the malaise. Ignore the uncertainty — usually, it’s so easy for him to do, his laboratory-turned-militant upbringing making it as natural as breathing. But there are times when even Sephiroth cannot pull himself out of the mire of his own thoughts, every limb caught in their tendrils; in these moments, it is good to hear the clinical assessment of another who can give advice from an arms-length away.

Itachi once again reinforces the truth of the situation. Either things will change, or they will not. And Sephiroth cannot bring himself to argue the point a second time.

His reply to everything is a simple question.]

So you would accept this information and move on? Continue to function in this world as though you’ve learned nothing at all?

I'm not certain what I would do in your position.

[What if he had learned of a likewise impossible scenario? There are several he can imagine into existence, both real or otherwise contrived.]

I am not you, and neither do I know what was shared with you, so the gravity is lost on me. However, in your place... continuing on as though ignorant wouldn't be possible. I'd try to act according to that future, and if I didn't want it, then I would seek to avoid it at all costs.

I see.

[His options are limited. Seeking to avoid it meant unearthing further information on the subject, which also meant confronting those who must know more.

Those who must be keeping things closer to their chests than he likes.

But in this moment, however, there is little to be done.]

I’ll consider what you’ve said.

Of course. I hope the situation becomes clearer for you.

[He almost considers apologizing for not being of more help, but... it's not a true sentiment, just a polite instinct. They both know his own involvement is limited. And that outside perspective has helped Itachi in other situations in the past.]

I'll reach out later. Until then.

Thank you.

[Words not usually granted by Sephiroth, but the perspective is appreciated.]

We’ll speak soon.

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