hugtopia | [Video]

[The feed opens on Gladio, sat in his garden, the sun shining down on him. The sky is bright, the weather warm but a cool breeze ruffles his hair. The garden is well tended, green and well kept. The scene might have been a lovely and calm one if not for the serious look on Gladio's face. He's not quite looking at the screen, but off to the side, seemingly lost in thought for a long moment before he heaves a heavy sigh.

Still not looking at the screen, he starts to speak.]

It's been long enough. I've had time to think, so I'm going to tell you why I did what I did.

[He goes quiet again, considering his next words.]

I know... some of you are pissed we did this. You were happy livin in blissful ignorance, trusting this world without question. And for a while I was too. Till I realised how messed up that was.

I was so desperate for a peaceful life I didn't think...

[Gladio glanced at the screen then, his eyes narrow slightly.]

When did we all just roll over and accept this insanity? We were kidnapped from our homes, our families, and trapped in this bubble. We were given the most basic info and told to accept it. The most basic food we can't even really call 'food', and we accepted it. We were given tasks and rules and hoops to jump through, and we accepted it. We were forced to touch, kiss, hold and reveal secrets to strangers, and we accepted it. It was the 'will of the Gods'. We all just nodded and accepted it. Why? Why have we accepted all this? Why do people keep coming and going? Where do they go? Do they just go home? Or are they taken? Are they being hurt? Experimented on like the animals they had us catch? Why do these weird things keep happening? Why can't they answer our questions?

And why are we terrorists for wanting answers? We hurt no one. We destroyed nothing. We're the heroes of this world, right? Here to save the planet. So what are they keeping so secret?

Why aren't you all asking questions?

Why're you just rolling over and accepting their truth?

[Again he looks away, heaved another heavy sigh and brought a hand up to rub tiredly at his eyes. He definitely looked tired. Stressed. His tone shifting from angry to confused to desperate for people to understand, and for himself to understand why no one else was fighting.]

We're forced from our homes... Our families. We form bonds with people only to watch them vanish. And... I don't know bout anyone else, but I didn't consent to this. I never signed up for this world.

I want answers. We wanted answers. And we weren't gettin them. So we went looking for them.

[Here he laughs, low and without humour. A shake of his head and a sardonic glance at the screen.]

The fact the natives reacted the way they did should be a red flag. What're they protecting so badly? What's so secret? What aren't they telling us? Is it about what really happened to this world? Who these 'Gods' are? How we actually got here and why? Where our friends go when they suddenly disappear?

And we're the bad guys?

How's that make sense?

[Gladio shrugged and with one last sigh he reached out and switched the feed off. He'd said what he wanted. Now he would lie down in the sun and try and calm down.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Finally.

[How many arguments did he need to have before someone acknowledged that?! Far too many. Even if it was annoying, that tiny concession took a lot of the heat out of Tony's tone.]

I do see that. None of this is ideal and the consequences suck all the way around. No one wants to make the natives afraid or us non-natives to be seen as the enemy. I don't actually blame anyone for being upset. I blame them for not allowing there to be priorities that might take precedence.

[He goes still at hearing the last part. It's what he's been wanting ever since he was taken from his home world and lost Manabu Yuuki. After that, Gwen Stacy vanished and re-appeared in a suitcase, before many, many others. It was a long time to live worrying about what was happening to people he cared about and being powerless.

What would he do then? He had no idea.]

A way to determine if they have simply gone back to their own world or were still here in this one? Is such a thing possible?

For the moment, assume that it is.

[He'll get into the fact of it genuinely being so later. Once he's had a little more time to figure out what Tony might make of his abilities. Or the idea in general, for that matter.]

What would you do with such information?

What do you think I'd do with it? I'd see if I could verify that information or determine it's validity but otherwise, I'd inform the people who are worried sick about their loved ones.

It'd certainly give us more time to find answers about this place and if what we're being told is the truth.

[If it were possible, maybe he could go back to enjoying his life here again.]

In answer to your earlier question then: I have the ability to see people's souls. Enough to be aware of what should happen when a person leaves this world.

[It may not be quite the sort of explanation that Tony had been expecting, true. But it is something that can be reasonably well proven to exist, and something he would be more than glad to demonstrate besides, should it be necessary.]

[Tony sits back then and runs his hand over his beard, quietly thinking. There's a number of guarded emotions that pass over his face but the one that keeps shining through is hope.]

So you can see if someone's soul isn't here? As in this city or how far can you see?

It functions in a manner not dissimilar to normal sight. At larger distances it is not unlike looking into a great crowd, but it is enough to tell when someone is absent.

[Or to track down individual people, as he has done before. It takes more work, yes, and so he doesn't often make a particular effort to do so, but it is still within his capabilities.]

It does, however, appear to be limited to the space within the barrier.

[Though should he ever get a change to see the world beyond that barrier, he's willing enough to see what he can there as well.]

You think that looking from a distance into a great crowd you can tell when one person is missing and where that person might be?

I can't tell if you're overselling or underselling this power. You seem to be doing a mix of both. So tell me this, did you ever meet a man by the name of Genesis? He was an ally of Sephiroth's. Can you 'see' if he's here somewhere in the city?

I did not. Nor can I identify a soul as belonging to a specific person without having met them.

[Perhaps it would be easier if he had met the man in question, but alas, even he cannot claim to know everyone.]

However, I can tell you where souls do and do not congregate, here. Similarly, while I cannot speak to the soul of the individual you have named, one of the people who had hailed from my own reality has also recently vanished from the city, thus granting insight into the matter.

[He nods, considering that. Again that was both helpful in ways and unhelpful. It made Emet's power a lot more believable that it wasn't perfect.]

Can you see if there are any in the towers on the top third of the buildings? That's the area we've not been permitted to go so far.

[He frowns.]

So you can see through this person who has left that they're not here in the city? Although that doesn't rule out anywhere else in this world and we know from their journals there are other cities- or were, at least.

Who is it that has left recently?

Gaius van Baelsar.

[He knows, logically speaking, that Gaius has left aside the trappings of rank when he had decided to not return to Garlemald (as most who leave do). But even so, he cannot entirely help but remember him best by that name - and it is hardly as if Tony knows or cares about the intricate details of such things, or so he'd imagine.]

But assuming you mean the research tower itself, there is not. What souls exist there are solely those of the researchers - I could not tell you which of the natives worked there, however. Merely that some of them do.

[A pause.]

As to the other cities... given the deleterious effects of that which lies beyond the barrier, I cannot imagine that any other cities would be inhabited. Especially when I have seen no indication that the natives are able to exist any better outside the barrier than we are.

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