I'm tired of being me and I don't like what I see;

[mentors]

Who: Angeal Penance and whoever comes across him.
What: Angeal's arrival as a giant injured chimera-monster has him roaming the grounds, eventually collapsing in one of the castle's gardens.
When: Sunday morning
Where: One of the gardens
Rating: PGish

Monster.

Each step sets the word further into his brain, as clawed feet dig into the ground, unsteady steps taken one at a time. One after the other, he had to figure this out, figure out why he was here when the release of death had been so close, something he had so wanted. Angeal can still feel the lingering pain in the monster's body, amplified and mixed in with the creatures he had absorbed to become what he was now. Angeal Penance was starting to show the wear of a long battle, of all the damage it had taken. His wings drooped low and tails hung limply instead of lashing out, and each step became harder to take, heavier to make until he has to drop the trident from his hand, and his front legs give out and buckle underneath him.

This place is quiet, serene... It wasn't the abandoned baths of Modeoheim, dark and industrial, but something the human mind in the monster recognized as a garden, and one well cared for. But it was so quiet, no animal life, no voices, anything.

Perhaps this is his little bit of Lifestream- what he gets before breaking down and becoming one with the planet. Maybe he was dead already. That thought is more calming than any of the others, and the beast heaves a great sigh and lets itself fall to the ground below. Conciousness is not lost, not yet; But at the same time, he had accepted the fact that this would be his final resting place.

Angeal just hopes his student knows that in defeating him, his pride, his honor was his to of passed on, given to the one person he had trusted and forced to rid the world of him.

Comments

[bustered]

It's a day like any other: Zack has awoken, done his morning workout, checked his journal, and shouldered his sword to head outside to train. It's a small routine but it is his, something he's building to try to give himself some semblance of normalcy in a world he still doesn't understand. It's one of the few days he hasn't invited Cloud or Allen to join him, one of the few times that solitude seems easier than company.

Not that company is easy, either. But when both choices hurt, it's sometimes a matter of choosing the one that tugs his heart the least.

And Zack is about halfway through his self-made training routine when he notices that something's a bit... off. The ambient sounds of birds and small animals in the gardens have ceased, and it's almost too quiet. He lowers the Buster carefully and listens, just for a moment.

Definitely too quiet.

Hefting the sword to move of a guard position, Zack turns in a careful circle, trying to pinpoint from which direction the feeling of wrongness is coming. When he thinks he has it -- no 'normal' animal noises, but a faint something that could be breathing -- he heads off at a steady pace, keeping his footsteps light and quiet. He doesn't want to take any chances that he'll ruin his own element of surprise.

Of course, surprise is turned on him when he rounds a corner of the castle to see a figure he hasn't seen in years -- one that tears his hurting heart open a little more. But there's not even a question of what to do next, no hesitation at all. His steps might be slow but they are sure, approaching the figure carefully, and from an angle.

"...Angeal?"