God of Marriage Saga: Chapter 10
Imported from SF2 with no description.
Of course, I'd been dwelling in what that damned professor would do to her.
But that was a distraction.
Indeed, just 'speculating' on what Lupe even 'was', was bringing me more into Hojo's mindset.
This was not Barret's sort of fight, where I could just go in guns blazing and mow down a bunch of monster meat. Cloud's expertise wouldn't get around the abstract enemy.
The problem was that... Hojo wanted to know things, that didn't need to be known, or that were curiosities that shouldn't be explored for the causes he'd had in mind to explore with--
--Mainly to revel in his own brilliance.
... so I needed to counter that with a little humility of my own.
I... had no idea why I warped from idea realm to idea realm. Sometimes it became more clear after the fact. Leeta and Lyco were there to cast doubt on the situation, and show me that things weren't as straightforward as just walking into Shinra HQ. Something that was surprisingly easy to forget, in the passion of dealing with a dangerous foe. What I was doing was not to take on a flesh-and-blood Hojo. I'd slipped for a moment, and feared for Lupe, and her girls were there to catch me.
No. The real problem was the Hojo within. It was time to confront him.
... I had wanted for Aerith and Nanaki, better known by Hojo's lab designation, "Red XIII", to mate and have offspring. And it was because... I was seeking a relationship that crossed the boundary of species and form and race and tribe.
So I let my romanticism be co-opted by a sort of intellectual voyeurism. Pornographic. Fetishistic.
What was the best way to dispel this?
The weak option was 'it's just entertainment, bro'. Yes. Seeing a strange sexy union of two different species, that was a sordid sight. But that was exactly what was Hojo's problem--
"How I should like to meet their offspring."
It was a spectacle, to us both... and I needed to cut that tie.
Nanaki made it pretty clear; he didn't like two-legged things that way. Moreover, Aerith had feelings for someone else, too...
Plus, Nanaki was a kid, at heart. He wasn't going to have his way with Aerith.
...and AVALANCHE was the final nail in the coffin, sabotaging the whole messy experiment before it could start.
So... that was that. I'd 'killed' a bit of imagination, that didn't need to play out. It could've gone tragically, or turned into a 'making the best of a bad situation' scenario, but all possibilities that went the latter way were silliness wallpapering something much more sinister.
... was I... boring, for pointing this out?
... and it didn't protect Lupe. Distance between worlds accomplished that. Lupe had Julian Robotnik to deal with, not Hojo.
... and worlds connecting wasn't always a good thing.
I let out a sigh.
The problem was, I loved something enough to take it too seriously, because of loneliness.
... enough to treat a fiction like someone.
...but...
...she'd have patience with me... with our separation... if I could just accept that there was more to this...
The lab was empty. Blood had been spattered everywhere... and Hojo was nowhere to be found.