"Truly, it is nothing less than a tragedy of what occurred to your home," Genesis drawls, with a kind of manic and malicious brightness to his eyes and his smirk that does not match the words, but does match the follow up. "If only the rest had caught alight, and then it would have been far more fitting."
It is a bit of a pity that Angeal is not the one standing here instead, because Angeal has a way of handling Genesis that Sephiroth does not. Granted, that "way" occasionally means hauling Genesis over his shoulder, but it would be something. Then again, Sephiroth knows why Angeal cannot be the one to stand here today, because Sephiroth has to be the one to distract one half of his DNA.
Granted, that does not mean he has any better idea of why Genesis has decided he needs to be right here, shittalking Hojo directly to his face, but it is the situation they are in, and Sephiroth is not entirely sure he is in the correct mental state to dissuade him. Is this what dissociating is like? He is not entirely sure.
What he is more certain of is how familiar the look is on Hojo's face as he finally draws his attention away from Sephiroth It is a look that Sephiroth has seen more than once, on this man's face - the look of someone who has found something that would be otherwise inconsequential to him if not for the revolting fact that it were near him, and interrupting in his much more important life. Sephiroth has seen it directed to many people before, when simple and cold apathy has not been the poison of choice instead... and yet, peculiarly enough, he feels he has seen it towards Genesis and Angeal the most. Even when he first met them, mentioned their names to Hojo.
Genesis, he could understand. Genesis is demonstrating a clear reasoning for why Hojo would make that face at him right now, as he leers back in the face of contempt. Yet Angeal was always a bit more of a mystery to Sephiroth. Calm, to the point, and quiet. Sephiroth would never have expected Hojo to like anyone, but he would have thought Angeal, at least, would have been passable. Ignorable.
"How brazen, for a criminal to return to the scene of the crime which he has committed," Hojo says, in that drawl which has grated against Sephiroth's ears for most of his life. "Or perhaps you desire for some leniency if you grovel for it well enough?"
Hojo has always thought himself the most important and intelligent man in the room. A man filled with hubris. This is a problem when faced against someone like Genesis, who also carries his own fair share of arrogance. It would be fascinating, if it were not related to people with close ties to him. "What an interesting declaration to make, Mr. Hojo!"
"Professor."
"I have never seen your doctorate in my life," Genesis baldly lies with all the confidence of an emperor striding about in the nude. Sephiroth is fairly certain that Genesis saw Hojo's doctorates when he snuck inside the house to set it on fire. "So let us not jump the gun in proper labels, or get distracted by the main topic at hand. I come here to offer my good and dearest friend Sephiroth move out while the house is under repairs! Do you have any proof, or -" And he leans forward, using all the height he can muster. " - are you simply falling prey to an emotional outburst from the trauma of losing your house to flames, good sir?"
Sephiroth takes a moment to admire the way Genesis's voice curls at that single authoritative word on his tongue. It becomes less an admission to another's authority, and more an insult. He, in contrast, can never sound anything less than quietly obedient when he says it.
Being accused of letting his emotions get the better of him is like being accused of corpse desecration, in Hojo's eyes, except it actually matters to him. Those same eyes narrow, dislike only intensifying into something more venomous.
Maybe this is why Genesis came with him. Sephiroth has a feeling that if it were him on his own he would not be able to drag out this conversation for nearly so long, or even hold up against it. He would have brought up the idea of staying in a dorm, it would have been shot down, and he would not have known how to fight against it. Would not have known how to stand his ground and refuse whatever isolated hotel Hojo would have chosen for himself.
But Genesis isn't like that.
On the small side street that goes between their house and the next, arguably for trash pick up, there is the sound of a truck coming to a stop long before it reaches the main street.
Genesis sneers and argues and burns, getting right into an argument with Hojo right there on the front lawn of Hojo's house about how he can't just force his college-age son to stay with him forever, and how it's idiotic to force him to stay in a charred husk of a building (it is not that bad)...
Off to the side of the house, far behind Hojo's back, Zack Fair scrambles up the side of the fence and nearly lands on his face. Following after is Gillian Hewley, Angeal's mother, who is delicately placed up there on the fence where she balances precariously in order to best help guide a large ladder that is soon followed up. Zack helps get it to the ground once more, even if it means his jaw nearly gets smacked into. Only then does Angeal himself haul up over the fence like it's nothing, landing so that he can help his mother down from the fence. She is a mature woman, after all. It's only polite.
"For a mind such as his, it is best he reside in a place with no interferences from lower sorts," Hojo sneers at Genesis, while Angeal and Zack carry the ladder over to the side of the house.
Genesis disbelieving laugh is sharp, the kind of sound that the whole neighborhood likely hears. "Oh, but interference from you is perfectly fine," Genesis sneers. "If he were as brilliant as you say, then why would you be so worried about him being corrupted? Or does it have nothing to do with Sephiroth's intelligence, and everything about your inability to control him if he doesn't return every night?" Gillian goes up the lady first, testing the window to Sephiroth's room - untouched by the fire, of course, it only damaged things on the lower floor - before she slips right in.
Hojo snaps out something about a father's rights. Sephiroth shifts his hands subtly behind his back, and focuses his mind away from the argument Genesis is having with the man to watch instead as Angeal follows his mother up the ladder, while Zack watches Genesis's voice rise.
There is not actually a lot in Sephiroth's room. It was always thought that the basic would do well enough for him: a bed, a place to store clothes, a desk where he could accomplish the studies that were approved for him. He can't imagine that there is very much in there for them to get, besides perhaps his clothing, ideally stuffed into a nondescript bag. Anything else, like toiletries, those can be replaced easily enough.
So he is not entirely sure what to make of it when he sees his mattress shoved awkwardly through the window and down to Zack's waiting wide open arms.
Or when parts of his bed frame start getting passed along down the ladder from Angeal to Mrs. Hewley to Zack.
Or when parts of his bed frame start getting passed along down the ladder from Angeal to Mrs. Hewley to Zack. Disassembled. Hojo is threatening to call the cops on Genesis at this point, and Genesis is daring him to do it "For then we can have a neat little tea party in your parlor, Mr. Hojo, and won't it be interesting to see what they might pick up on?"
It says something to the Hewley family's ability to rob a room blind, or Genesis' ability to talk at length, that both parties are in perfect sink. Sephiroth watches the same thing happen before with the ladder being guided up over the fence after everything else, and then Zack and Mrs. Hewley and Angeal... Before, a few minutes later from around the corner, the Hewleys trot up like it's the most natural thing in the world. "Gen, we could hear you yelling from down the street," Angeal informs him, while Zack guides the truck around the corner.... its bed absolutely loaded with, very obviously, all of Sephiroth's things. While Mrs. Hewley places a hand against Sephiroth's back, Angeal looks to Hojo. "Anyway, it's a little too late to argue about it all. He signed the paperwork last night, and there'll be a fee if he doesn't settle in the room after a certain period of time."
Genesis makes a production out of lying. Angeal makes it the most natural thing in the world, even as it is complete nonsense, on both any paperwork being signed, and any fees.
There's that look on Hojo's face again, but it's replaced by one of dawning realization as the Hewley family truck comes to a stop right there in front of the sidewalk... before flashing over to where Mrs. Hewley is still trying to guide Sephiroth along. "Gillian, you-" he starts.
Mrs. Hewley starts, not expecting to be addressed, and stares right back at him with a blank look of shock. "I have never met you in my life," she blurts out, and then Genesis throws down a smokebomb.
It is.... understandably a bit of a rush after that, with both Hewleys practically hauling him along to the sound of Angeal's "Go go go!" and Genesis's cackling. Both of them haul him into the cramped and precarious back of the truck, whereupon Zack joins them almost immediately like an over eager puppy that's misjudged a step. That leaves, presumably, Mrs. Hewley in the driver's seat, and Sephiroth thinks she's hitting the gas even before the door has properly closed.
For a moment, there's nothing but silence. Or, rather, there's the sound of the engine rumbling beneath them, and wind rushing past them, taking most of Sephiroth's long hair with it to the point that Angeal has to smack it away from his face, and the sound of plastic bags rustling... But silence, relatively speaking.
For a moment, there's nothing but silence. Or, rather, there's the sound of the engine rumbling beneath them, and wind rushing past them, taking most of Sephiroth's long hair with it to the point that Angeal has to smack it away from his face, and the sound of plastic bags rustling... But silence, relatively speaking.
And then Zack is laughing triumphantly with his hand smacking along Sephiroth's arm, and Genesis is teasingly berating Angeal for taking so long and how it was only his gift as an orator that kept the gig up.
And Mrs. Hewley, from the driver's seat, politely asks, "Aren't you all hungry from moving out? We should stop at a diner. That seems like it would be nice."
Sephiroth closes his eyes, leans back against something that he thinks might have his whole computer system in it. "Yes," he says, and finds himself smiling. "It seems like it would."
TTRPg.... AU....???????????????????????????????
It is a bit of a pity that Angeal is not the one standing here instead, because Angeal has a way of handling Genesis that Sephiroth does not. Granted, that "way" occasionally means hauling Genesis over his shoulder, but it would be something. Then again, Sephiroth knows why Angeal cannot be the one to stand here today, because Sephiroth has to be the one to distract one half of his DNA.
Granted, that does not mean he has any better idea of why Genesis has decided he needs to be right here, shittalking Hojo directly to his face, but it is the situation they are in, and Sephiroth is not entirely sure he is in the correct mental state to dissuade him. Is this what dissociating is like? He is not entirely sure.
What he is more certain of is how familiar the look is on Hojo's face as he finally draws his attention away from Sephiroth It is a look that Sephiroth has seen more than once, on this man's face - the look of someone who has found something that would be otherwise inconsequential to him if not for the revolting fact that it were near him, and interrupting in his much more important life. Sephiroth has seen it directed to many people before, when simple and cold apathy has not been the poison of choice instead... and yet, peculiarly enough, he feels he has seen it towards Genesis and Angeal the most. Even when he first met them, mentioned their names to Hojo.
Genesis, he could understand. Genesis is demonstrating a clear reasoning for why Hojo would make that face at him right now, as he leers back in the face of contempt. Yet Angeal was always a bit more of a mystery to Sephiroth. Calm, to the point, and quiet. Sephiroth would never have expected Hojo to like anyone, but he would have thought Angeal, at least, would have been passable. Ignorable.
"How brazen, for a criminal to return to the scene of the crime which he has committed," Hojo says, in that drawl which has grated against Sephiroth's ears for most of his life. "Or perhaps you desire for some leniency if you grovel for it well enough?"
Hojo has always thought himself the most important and intelligent man in the room. A man filled with hubris. This is a problem when faced against someone like Genesis, who also carries his own fair share of arrogance. It would be fascinating, if it were not related to people with close ties to him. "What an interesting declaration to make, Mr. Hojo!"
"Professor."
"I have never seen your doctorate in my life," Genesis baldly lies with all the confidence of an emperor striding about in the nude. Sephiroth is fairly certain that Genesis saw Hojo's doctorates when he snuck inside the house to set it on fire. "So let us not jump the gun in proper labels, or get distracted by the main topic at hand. I come here to offer my good and dearest friend Sephiroth move out while the house is under repairs! Do you have any proof, or -" And he leans forward, using all the height he can muster. " - are you simply falling prey to an emotional outburst from the trauma of losing your house to flames, good sir?"
Sephiroth takes a moment to admire the way Genesis's voice curls at that single authoritative word on his tongue. It becomes less an admission to another's authority, and more an insult. He, in contrast, can never sound anything less than quietly obedient when he says it.
Being accused of letting his emotions get the better of him is like being accused of corpse desecration, in Hojo's eyes, except it actually matters to him. Those same eyes narrow, dislike only intensifying into something more venomous.
Maybe this is why Genesis came with him. Sephiroth has a feeling that if it were him on his own he would not be able to drag out this conversation for nearly so long, or even hold up against it. He would have brought up the idea of staying in a dorm, it would have been shot down, and he would not have known how to fight against it. Would not have known how to stand his ground and refuse whatever isolated hotel Hojo would have chosen for himself.
But Genesis isn't like that.
On the small side street that goes between their house and the next, arguably for trash pick up, there is the sound of a truck coming to a stop long before it reaches the main street.
Genesis sneers and argues and burns, getting right into an argument with Hojo right there on the front lawn of Hojo's house about how he can't just force his college-age son to stay with him forever, and how it's idiotic to force him to stay in a charred husk of a building (it is not that bad)...
Off to the side of the house, far behind Hojo's back, Zack Fair scrambles up the side of the fence and nearly lands on his face. Following after is Gillian Hewley, Angeal's mother, who is delicately placed up there on the fence where she balances precariously in order to best help guide a large ladder that is soon followed up. Zack helps get it to the ground once more, even if it means his jaw nearly gets smacked into. Only then does Angeal himself haul up over the fence like it's nothing, landing so that he can help his mother down from the fence. She is a mature woman, after all. It's only polite.
"For a mind such as his, it is best he reside in a place with no interferences from lower sorts," Hojo sneers at Genesis, while Angeal and Zack carry the ladder over to the side of the house.
Genesis disbelieving laugh is sharp, the kind of sound that the whole neighborhood likely hears. "Oh, but interference from you is perfectly fine," Genesis sneers. "If he were as brilliant as you say, then why would you be so worried about him being corrupted? Or does it have nothing to do with Sephiroth's intelligence, and everything about your inability to control him if he doesn't return every night?" Gillian goes up the lady first, testing the window to Sephiroth's room - untouched by the fire, of course, it only damaged things on the lower floor - before she slips right in.
Hojo snaps out something about a father's rights. Sephiroth shifts his hands subtly behind his back, and focuses his mind away from the argument Genesis is having with the man to watch instead as Angeal follows his mother up the ladder, while Zack watches Genesis's voice rise.
There is not actually a lot in Sephiroth's room. It was always thought that the basic would do well enough for him: a bed, a place to store clothes, a desk where he could accomplish the studies that were approved for him. He can't imagine that there is very much in there for them to get, besides perhaps his clothing, ideally stuffed into a nondescript bag. Anything else, like toiletries, those can be replaced easily enough.
So he is not entirely sure what to make of it when he sees his mattress shoved awkwardly through the window and down to Zack's waiting wide open arms.
Or when parts of his bed frame start getting passed along down the ladder from Angeal to Mrs. Hewley to Zack.
Or when parts of his bed frame start getting passed along down the ladder from Angeal to Mrs. Hewley to Zack. Disassembled. Hojo is threatening to call the cops on Genesis at this point, and Genesis is daring him to do it "For then we can have a neat little tea party in your parlor, Mr. Hojo, and won't it be interesting to see what they might pick up on?"
It says something to the Hewley family's ability to rob a room blind, or Genesis' ability to talk at length, that both parties are in perfect sink. Sephiroth watches the same thing happen before with the ladder being guided up over the fence after everything else, and then Zack and Mrs. Hewley and Angeal... Before, a few minutes later from around the corner, the Hewleys trot up like it's the most natural thing in the world. "Gen, we could hear you yelling from down the street," Angeal informs him, while Zack guides the truck around the corner.... its bed absolutely loaded with, very obviously, all of Sephiroth's things. While Mrs. Hewley places a hand against Sephiroth's back, Angeal looks to Hojo. "Anyway, it's a little too late to argue about it all. He signed the paperwork last night, and there'll be a fee if he doesn't settle in the room after a certain period of time."
Genesis makes a production out of lying. Angeal makes it the most natural thing in the world, even as it is complete nonsense, on both any paperwork being signed, and any fees.
There's that look on Hojo's face again, but it's replaced by one of dawning realization as the Hewley family truck comes to a stop right there in front of the sidewalk... before flashing over to where Mrs. Hewley is still trying to guide Sephiroth along. "Gillian, you-" he starts.
Mrs. Hewley starts, not expecting to be addressed, and stares right back at him with a blank look of shock. "I have never met you in my life," she blurts out, and then Genesis throws down a smokebomb.
It is.... understandably a bit of a rush after that, with both Hewleys practically hauling him along to the sound of Angeal's "Go go go!" and Genesis's cackling. Both of them haul him into the cramped and precarious back of the truck, whereupon Zack joins them almost immediately like an over eager puppy that's misjudged a step. That leaves, presumably, Mrs. Hewley in the driver's seat, and Sephiroth thinks she's hitting the gas even before the door has properly closed.
For a moment, there's nothing but silence. Or, rather, there's the sound of the engine rumbling beneath them, and wind rushing past them, taking most of Sephiroth's long hair with it to the point that Angeal has to smack it away from his face, and the sound of plastic bags rustling... But silence, relatively speaking.
For a moment, there's nothing but silence. Or, rather, there's the sound of the engine rumbling beneath them, and wind rushing past them, taking most of Sephiroth's long hair with it to the point that Angeal has to smack it away from his face, and the sound of plastic bags rustling... But silence, relatively speaking.
And then Zack is laughing triumphantly with his hand smacking along Sephiroth's arm, and Genesis is teasingly berating Angeal for taking so long and how it was only his gift as an orator that kept the gig up.
And Mrs. Hewley, from the driver's seat, politely asks, "Aren't you all hungry from moving out? We should stop at a diner. That seems like it would be nice."
Sephiroth closes his eyes, leans back against something that he thinks might have his whole computer system in it. "Yes," he says, and finds himself smiling. "It seems like it would."