Difference between revisions of "Domestic (Seifer Almasy)"

Latest revision as of 22:59, 10 September 2018

Seifer clicked off the phone and leaned back in the hot water, staring up at the rippling ceiling of the Moon Cell. The steam from the bath filled his vision more than the unfamiliar crystalline sky. It was a haze of liquid white on glittering blue and silver that spun in dizzying circles. The Gunblade Knight closed his eyes.

"Look at you, getting all domestic!"

The yellow-and-purple polkadot voice was right in his ear. Seifer didn't open his eyes.

"Shut up."

The polkadot voice went 'hmmm.' "Not that I blame you, but shouldn't you tell them?"

Now Seifer opened his eyes. The Knight tilted his head to the right to see the grey, multi-armed giant sitting mostly naked in the bath. A towel that matched the color of his voice draped over the giant's right side to support the cardboard arms on his shoulders. Another towel was wrapped around his face. Empty white eyes stared into Seifer's. Seifer rolled his eyes in turn and looked away.

"I told her last night I'm no good with this shit. That applies to all of 'em." Seifer's fingers flexed in the water, letting it wash over him. "The only person I ever let this deep into my head is you, and believe me, I'm starting to think that was a mistake, Greg."

Greg shook his head. "You can't be like that now that you're part of a team."

"I'm not 'part of a team,' I'm 'employed as a solo agent.'" Seifer tilted his gaze back to Greg. "And what the hell would you know about being part of a team?"

"Well, this one time, this floating head offered me a spot on a team if I would be the red ran-"

"Oh, shut up." Seifer reached over and pressed Greg's head into the water. There was no mass to the ghost; it was as easy as pushing air, and Greg dunked forward obligingly. When he rose up he was dripping.

"The point is," Greg said, wringing the towel around his face, "Relationships are like swords."

"Seriously?!"

"Of course!" A grey finger rose. "They chip and get dirty with use, and they need to be polished and maintained, sometimes by a professional."

"Are you - *you* - telling me to go see a psychologist? Shit." Seifer threw up his hands. "You're as worthless as that doctor at Garden. Doctor...Doctor…"

Greg's pure-white eyes sank a bit. "You don't remember her name, do you?"

"Shut up!"

"You need to tell them. You should tell them where the magic comes from. Where the power comes from." Greg leaned back, spreading out three arms against the crystalline marble. "You should tell them why you really brought your book with you."

Seifer took a swing. His fist connected with a grey hand. No mass, but no reaction, either; the ghost was as substantial as it wanted to be, and only to him. "You might be getting more competent with your Draws," Seifer seethed through his teeth, "But you don't get to give me life advice, jolly grey jackass. We're not friends, Gilgamesh."

Gilgamesh released Seifer's hand and ran one of his own against his towel, the other settling against grey abs. "I live in your head. Sooner or later you're gonna have to admit that we're close."

Seifer sat back down and crossed his arms, sinking deeper into the hot water. "We're workplace associates."

Gilgamesh laughed. "Well you might be a dog but you're definitely no Enkidu. I'm the reasonable one in this workplace association, and that's just weird! Normally I'd be all goofy and encouraging you to make poor life choices, but..."

"..."

"You don't wanna know what comes after the but?"

Seifer groaned. "*BUT*?"

Gilgamesh huffed. "No need to be so rude about it. But…if there's one thing I know, scrambled memories or not, it's friendship. It's intimacy. It's sharing your life with someone else and knowing they've got your back, and that they're as worried for you as you are for them"

"You sound like a self-help book."

"Well I am full of many helpful advices about many helpful topics."

"That's not a word," Seifer snapped.

"How would you know? You dropped out."

"I…" Seifer hesitated. Then he looked away, staring at the wall, his eyes hard. "Man, just go away. You know how hard it was just to talk to Tamamo like a person?"

"I mean I've been here the whole time," Gilgamesh gestured at himself, "I pretty much saw your face go through the whole set of stances."

"How can I tell her where the magic comes from?" Seifer sank a bit more into the water. It was touching his chin. "And if I can't tell her, how can I tell the rest of 'em?"

"So…" Gilgamesh leaned forward. "You were lying when you said you thought of the Concord as a home, huh."

"Did I say that?" Seifer looked over at Gilgamesh and blinked.

"Yeah. You did. You were telling the story about how we met. You said you thought of the Concord like it was home." The grey giant stroked his chin under the polkadot towel. "You remember the knight thing, though."

"Of course I remember the knight thing. Win the Grail War for the cute princess and our hot dragon lady boss knights me." Seifer pushed up out of the water and met Gilgamesh's eyes. "Did I actually say that I thought the Concord was home?"

"I guess if it already got eaten, it didn't mean much to you." Gilgamesh reached over and patted Seifer's bare shoulder. "Sorry. If it makes you feel better, it was probably worth that Demon Slice you did in the ship."

Seifer looked away, peeling Gilgamesh's hand off. "I probably wasn't lying. Just...a weak moment. Vulnerable. Wasn't used to people caring."

"Probably that," Gilgamesh said. His three arms went behind his back as he reclined. "You know, if nothing else, you should probably tell them that you can't even remember most of their names."

"...." Seifer stared at his hand quietly. Slowly, it closed into a fist. "That's...not important."

"I think you're a coward."

"Fuck you."

"I think you wouldn't care if the whole world burned away," Gilgamesh said, standing up and placing himself in front of Seifer, squatting down to stare him in the eye. The heat haze made the grey giant's ethereal skin seem even more translucent. "You'd throw everything away for the chance to be a hero. To be the one who saves the girl and gets the treasure. You would throw away everything about yourself in an instant because you'd much rather do that than face what a fuck-up you are"

"Shut up!" Seifer took a swing again, and this time, his fist passed right through. The giant sat back in the water and sighed. "Shut up!" Seifer repeated, "Asshole! Like you wouldn't throw everything away just to get a fucking sword! Excalibur, Excalibur, Excalibur, this is far from the strongest of swords, Masamune, Zantetsuken, Lionheart, Hyperion, you just go on and on and on about all the cool shit you want to steal and that's all you are! Where's this bullshit wisdom coming from, huh? Who gave you the right? Who gave you the right to judge me? Who do you think you are? That Ruler jag?"

"Seifer, I-"

Seifer jerked his thumb at his chest. "I'm Seifer Almasy, god dammit! I'm King of the Moon! I'm Tamamo's Knight! I'm a member of the Concord! I'm gonna be a real-ass knight, and I'm gonna get my name inscribed in the multiverse so deep I'll be a fucking *regular* in this Grail War shit! If all it costs me are my memories of those dipshits back at Garden, some goddamn details like names, and some stupid sappy shit I said, then so what? Who cares?! You don't think all of that is worth it to me? You don't think all of it is-"

He was yelling at air.

Seifer looked down at himself. His fists curled tight. "I'm not a fucking joke, Greg," he muttered, "I won't end up like that. I'm Seifer Almasy. I'm gonna be famous. All the worlds are gonna know my name."

He sat back down, pulled his legs up to his knees, and stared into the heat haze where Gilgamesh had been a moment ago in silence.