Fanfiction: "As the Moon Chases the Sun"
Jan. 1st, 2021 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deemoyzaTitle: As the Moon Chases the Sun (14,091 words)
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: Final Fantasy VI
Rating/Warnings: Teen / Warnings for Canon-Typical Violence, Mind Control, and Self-Harm
Characters: Celes Chere, Terra Branford, Kefka Palazzo
Relationships: Celes Chere & Terra Branford
Summary: Growing up in Terra's shadow, Celes had come to hate her...until she actually met her. Perplexed by Terra's mix of childish naivete and innate power, Celes finds herself drawn closer to her and the warmth she radiates, and through the passage of time and loss of memories, their paths continue to cross.
Notes: Written for Yuletide 2020
Celes stared at the smoldering targets before her, trying to steady her breathing and ignore the twitching in her fingers, the magic still firing through her nerves.
"One minute, fourteen seconds," Sgt. Helmer said, pocketing his watch. "Adequate. But the Esper girl eliminated all targets in forty-one seconds, suggesting you have room for improvement. "
Celes clenched her fists at the mention of the Esper girl and muttered an affirmative.
"Considering your magical enhancements and rigorous training," Sgt. Helmer went on, "your skill should be indistinguishable from hers by now. See to it that it becomes so, soon, or I will have no choice but to report your failure to the Emperor, himself. Dismissed."
Celes saluted and waited until Sgt. Helmer had walked out of sight before heading in the opposite direction, still gritting her teeth. Even after years of being compared to the Esper girl, usually unfavorably, Celes had never actually met her. She'd heard whispers of her among the empire's scientists, including Cid, but she'd never caught even a glimpse of her. She occasionally entertained the idea that the Esper girl didn't exist at all and was simply an elaborate motivational tactic to spur her toward improving her performance, but the stories she sometimes heard from the Magitek Research Facility, and Cid's own haunted eyes after returning from there, indicated that something powerful and strange lived among them.
Whatever the truth might be, the Esper girl hovered at the edges of Celes' consciousness at all times, haunting and threatening, and Celes hated her for it.
Upon returning to her quarters, Celes set aside her sword and turned her attention to the stack of textbooks on the desk in the corner. In addition to her military training, she was expected to keep up with her lessons, meeting with a tutor several days out of the week. Most of the lessons bored her—basic language and mathematics, a detailed history of the Gestahlian Empire, with particular focus on its militaristic achievements—but she found a quiet comfort in the study of natural sciences. It offered her a glimpse of a variety of plant and animal life that she hadn't seen and likely never would, and it showed her that most of the world outside of Vector was built on its own sets of laws: ancient, consistent, and proficient.
But she enjoyed this subject most of all because it led her to the one place in the city where she could find a modicum of peace. Early in her studies, Cid constructed a greenhouse on the roof of an old military warehouse, and invited her to help him maintain it. He taught her about the plants that grew there—which were edible, which were medicinal, which were deadly—and encouraged her to help him experiment with creating new hybrids. One such experiment yielded a lovely new rose with petals such a dark blue that they looked almost black, except in the sunlight, and covered with delicate flecks of gold.
"They look like stars," Celes observed, touching the petals as gently as she could. "Or, at least, like the pictures of stars in my books."
"It looks like a night sky," Cid agreed, "anywhere outside of this city. The sun sets, you look up, and see something like this spread above you, in all directions. Perhaps you will see it, someday." He sighed. "I only hope you will still be able to appreciate it, by then," he added under his breath.
"This is a new species, right?" Celes turned to the books Cid kept in the greenhouse and thumbed through them, looking for similar roses.
"Yes, it is. It seems we have reason to celebrate; our experiment was a success!"
"What shall we call it, then? Something to do with the night? Stars? Sky? Darkness?"
"Hmm." Cid stroked his chin, then turned to her with a tender smile. "What do you think of the name Rosa celestis?"
"Celestis?"
"Yes, for its resemblance to the sky. But also, in honor of the person who helped create it." He gestured dramatically to the rose. "This, Celes, is your flower. May you bloom just as magnificently, as a soldier, and as a person."
That had been two years ago. Now, at eleven, she had yet to bloom into much of anything. Her lessons bored her, and her military prowess had reached a plateau. She'd heard talk of another round of infusions, but Kefka's erratic behavior after his last round gave the scientists pause, and her, a reprieve.
She would simply have to work harder, to focus her magical abilities and to use the faceless shadow of the Esper girl as her motivation and her target, until it, too, lay in ashes at her feet.
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: Final Fantasy VI
Rating/Warnings: Teen / Warnings for Canon-Typical Violence, Mind Control, and Self-Harm
Characters: Celes Chere, Terra Branford, Kefka Palazzo
Relationships: Celes Chere & Terra Branford
Summary: Growing up in Terra's shadow, Celes had come to hate her...until she actually met her. Perplexed by Terra's mix of childish naivete and innate power, Celes finds herself drawn closer to her and the warmth she radiates, and through the passage of time and loss of memories, their paths continue to cross.
Notes: Written for Yuletide 2020
Celes stared at the smoldering targets before her, trying to steady her breathing and ignore the twitching in her fingers, the magic still firing through her nerves.
"One minute, fourteen seconds," Sgt. Helmer said, pocketing his watch. "Adequate. But the Esper girl eliminated all targets in forty-one seconds, suggesting you have room for improvement. "
Celes clenched her fists at the mention of the Esper girl and muttered an affirmative.
"Considering your magical enhancements and rigorous training," Sgt. Helmer went on, "your skill should be indistinguishable from hers by now. See to it that it becomes so, soon, or I will have no choice but to report your failure to the Emperor, himself. Dismissed."
Celes saluted and waited until Sgt. Helmer had walked out of sight before heading in the opposite direction, still gritting her teeth. Even after years of being compared to the Esper girl, usually unfavorably, Celes had never actually met her. She'd heard whispers of her among the empire's scientists, including Cid, but she'd never caught even a glimpse of her. She occasionally entertained the idea that the Esper girl didn't exist at all and was simply an elaborate motivational tactic to spur her toward improving her performance, but the stories she sometimes heard from the Magitek Research Facility, and Cid's own haunted eyes after returning from there, indicated that something powerful and strange lived among them.
Whatever the truth might be, the Esper girl hovered at the edges of Celes' consciousness at all times, haunting and threatening, and Celes hated her for it.
Upon returning to her quarters, Celes set aside her sword and turned her attention to the stack of textbooks on the desk in the corner. In addition to her military training, she was expected to keep up with her lessons, meeting with a tutor several days out of the week. Most of the lessons bored her—basic language and mathematics, a detailed history of the Gestahlian Empire, with particular focus on its militaristic achievements—but she found a quiet comfort in the study of natural sciences. It offered her a glimpse of a variety of plant and animal life that she hadn't seen and likely never would, and it showed her that most of the world outside of Vector was built on its own sets of laws: ancient, consistent, and proficient.
But she enjoyed this subject most of all because it led her to the one place in the city where she could find a modicum of peace. Early in her studies, Cid constructed a greenhouse on the roof of an old military warehouse, and invited her to help him maintain it. He taught her about the plants that grew there—which were edible, which were medicinal, which were deadly—and encouraged her to help him experiment with creating new hybrids. One such experiment yielded a lovely new rose with petals such a dark blue that they looked almost black, except in the sunlight, and covered with delicate flecks of gold.
"They look like stars," Celes observed, touching the petals as gently as she could. "Or, at least, like the pictures of stars in my books."
"It looks like a night sky," Cid agreed, "anywhere outside of this city. The sun sets, you look up, and see something like this spread above you, in all directions. Perhaps you will see it, someday." He sighed. "I only hope you will still be able to appreciate it, by then," he added under his breath.
"This is a new species, right?" Celes turned to the books Cid kept in the greenhouse and thumbed through them, looking for similar roses.
"Yes, it is. It seems we have reason to celebrate; our experiment was a success!"
"What shall we call it, then? Something to do with the night? Stars? Sky? Darkness?"
"Hmm." Cid stroked his chin, then turned to her with a tender smile. "What do you think of the name Rosa celestis?"
"Celestis?"
"Yes, for its resemblance to the sky. But also, in honor of the person who helped create it." He gestured dramatically to the rose. "This, Celes, is your flower. May you bloom just as magnificently, as a soldier, and as a person."
That had been two years ago. Now, at eleven, she had yet to bloom into much of anything. Her lessons bored her, and her military prowess had reached a plateau. She'd heard talk of another round of infusions, but Kefka's erratic behavior after his last round gave the scientists pause, and her, a reprieve.
She would simply have to work harder, to focus her magical abilities and to use the faceless shadow of the Esper girl as her motivation and her target, until it, too, lay in ashes at her feet.
