driftfleet | shinra soldiers need not apply

Entry tags:

shinra soldiers need not apply

Who: Zack Fair / OTA
Broadcast: Yes!
Action: the Caprine
When: Now!

( action; caprine )
[...Alright, so that was. Weird. He was totally just on the Marsiva, but now he's on another ship, apparently! With confetti, and... pudding, which gets set aside for now, because he's sure as hell not trusting random food thrown at him willynilly.

He's more interested in the new ship itself, so he'll be exploring the place, poking his head into whatever room he comes across unless it's locked. Apologies in advance?]

( video; fleetwide )

[Have a Zack! Pulling bits of confetti out of his hair. He looks about as confused as any newcomer, though perhaps not as disturbed. He has officially Seen Some Shit, as one might guess by the semi-glowing blue eyes.]

Testing, testing... okay, we'll pretend this works. It's kinda different from standard issue ShinRa PHS, but it doesn't look that complicated...

Anyway- hey there, fellow space people. Name's Zack. Am I crazy, or are the voices in my head legit when they say I'm on TV? 'Cause, uh. I'd kind of prefer that, at this point. Not really a fan of the random voices concept.

...Aerith? Where'd you end up?

[TRIES VERY HARD NOT TO BE WORRIED]

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[There's just a second of sound, a sharp inhale, because if this is a hallucination it's somehow on this not-phone instead of right in his face like they had been before. And he hasn't really had any hallucinations or heard voices or anything since Tifa helped him (or maybe you have and you just couldn't tell), but this still doesn't-

He's never been able to remember Zack as crisply as he is here. Even now, all Cloud can recall are foggy, disjointed things; the sound of rain against metal, the crunch of boots in snow, his heels dragging across the ground. It's a patchwork of sensation, of a boisterous voice he can't quite recall, though this one sounds a lot like what it should've been.]

[...on the other hand, this place has yet to give him something good, and Cloud is one bitten a million times shy. He's had enough of being jerked around and he's barely been here a month; people got shoved into his head against his and their will, what's to say something like this is beyond the Atroma to fabricate?

No, hell no, he'll believe he's in the Lifestream first.]

You know that big sword I'm getting made, you monsters? I'm gonna get your names carved in it. Like, I mean serial killer style, that's how much you've pissed me off.

You are on TV! It's a whole reality show thing. Kind of cool, except no one really applied to be here I guess? It gets kind of silly. It'd be way better if they had like a gladiator elimination combat system or something.

But... um. Are you actually hearing voices in your head? Does that happen to you a lot? [Trying not to be overtly concerned here, don't stress the new person.]

[That voice is... seriously familiar. Like, aggressively, hauntingly so. A part of Zack wants to point and go ah-ha! on the spot because he knows, he knows this person. But at the same time, it can't possibly be that easy. For them to arrive here hoping to find Cloud, for him to be right here...

No. No way. He's never had that kind of luck. And this guy doesn't act like Cloud as he remembers, or how Aerith described. It's probably just a fluke.

...Still.]

That's... a weird way to say hello to somebody, y'know.

[TEST...ING...?]

No, no. Not, uh, usually. I've just known enough people in the past who've started off with that sort of thing, and believe me when I say it never ends well. So I figure if I'm headed down that route I need to start therapy yesterday.

[...she is now slightly confused. Sorry, man. Not the quickest sometimes.]

...so you were just pretending to have voices in your head? That's good. [...why would you pretend about that?]

Nah, I'm talking about- okay, now I'm gonna feel like I'm crazy all over again, but like- I only knew it was a TV show because that's what my brain was saying to me? Didn't get a memo, nobody told me, just woke up and BAM! All that info. The show, the plot, how to do ship maintenance and stuff...

...That's not just me, right?

Oh, that. That's like network input. Nothing weird about that. Except we're not actually actively networked, so it's just like a data squirt you get when you wake up and that's it, doesn't really happen again.

[That's equal-parts horrifying and oddly comforting.]

Oh, uh. Alright, got it.

[BRAIN DUMPS ARE NORMAL, CHECK. Also, that's freaky.]

Is that just so we don't explode ourselves in the middle of nowhere?

Yeah. Like it'd be kind of dumb if you walked out an airlock or something because you didn't know what an airlock is. There's people here from like the fucking stone age, it's crazy. And I mean, it kind of makes sense that you should have all the info you need in order to do your assigned job.

Yeah, I guess that's true. I mean, I come from a pretty advanced world myself, but nobody's ever gone to space, so we don't know the mechanics of it... I'd probably end up doing something stupid or reckless in no time if I didn't know what's what.

[He's optimistic, not dillusional.]

It's pretty easy to make mistakes when you're in a strange environment, right? I fuck up in non-combat situations all the time because things are really different. But as long as you do your best and don't open your ship to hard vacuum, everything else can be fixed!

What job did they assign you?

I'll do my best.

[No promises, especially considering...]

I think they set me up as an engineer? Kinda makes me question the brains of the people who brought me here... I must be the least qualified person for that job.

Knock it off!

[There is just honestly no way. Dead people don't come back. All that stuff he heard about people showing up here is just like, hyperbole or something, because it can't be that easy, to recover those he's lost. It's just not that simple.]

What's your name? Did the Atroma put you up to this, or are you just some kind of like, synthesized voice thing or whatever?

Oh, I think they do stuff like that all the time just to be shit lords. You know like... make people do jobs that they never would have done back home. But you've got enough info in the data dump that you'll be competent if you apply it, and I know you'll work hard! Um... and if you really don't like it, you can ask to have your augment changed... I think?

It's not something I've done but I remember other people have. I think.

[are you fuckin' serious, dude

Sudden indignance overrides any thought of keeping calm; that kind of response solidifies the fact that yeah, he does know this person, and yeah, it's who he thought it might be. And that makes it worse because this isn't what he'd been hoping for in a reunion. He didn't think he'd have a fight over his own existence.

Ugh, whatever. He's never been good at subtlety, so here goes.]

Wrong. Not a fake, or a copy, or a robot, or anything else you can come up with. And I'm not, you know.

[Dead. At least, he's assuming that's why Cloud's so defensive and angry about it. He got pissed when people came back from the dead back home, too.]

Trust me, Cloud, I'm as surprised as you are.

[She thinks... well, he's acted on less intel before. Can't complain too much.]

Guess I'll see how it goes before I rush into anything new. Maybe I'll be struck by some grant epiphany and be amazing at it or something.

That's the spirit! Full speed ahead, and even if you fail, you'll still take down everything in your path!

[...Wrath, that is probably not how engineering works. Like she has any clue.]

Hey can I ask you a question? It might be rude, I'm never sure.

[It takes a long, terrible moment, but finally Cloud flips it over to video.

It's not so much that he doesn't want to believe it as he does. Holy, he does, he wants to believe so badly that he hates himself for it. He's supposed to be honoring their memory by standing tall and strong and keeping things and people safe, and here he is half-bent over a comm, clutching it with shaking hands, curled up on the corner of his bed with his back to the wall because he's never felt so under attack as right now.

If this really is Zack then he's- does he even want to meet up with him? He barely remembers him but maybe that doesn't matter. He remembers Zack dying on that cliff because he refused to abandon some sick kid who maybe couldn't even be saved. If he'd just dropped Cloud and run he could've made it back to Aerith, no problem, and he probably would've been able to keep her safe way better than Cloud could, and-

You'll never get anywhere with what-ifs, Cloud.

Tifa's voice, somehow firm and gentle at the same time, rights him a little bit. This isn't fair to Zack (if it really is him, Cloud's still not sold on it). He just- he needs- he doesn't even know how to be sure, but he needs to be sure.

The message he sends doesn't have a single word, just a moment of him staring down at the still image of Zack's face from the video thumbnail, then up into the camera in clear invitation. Prove him wrong. Please, please Zack, prove him wrong.]

[There he is. Thank goodness.

He accepts the video switch and studies the feed very seriously, taking in what he sees. Cloud looks stressed, which is understandable enough, but that isn't what Zack's focused on. There's a light in Cloud's eyes that wasn't there before, a sign of consciousness, of coherence. He's not an empty shell trapped in the prison of mako poisoning, weak and crawling, struggling for every word he speaks. He's older now, and angrier, and there's something haunted behind his gaze that wasn't there before. He's not the same trooper he met back in Modeoheim, who faced down Sephiroth and barely survived in Nibelheim, who scratched messages in the glass back and forth in that lab until he lost the ability to function.

But he's grown- he's gotten stronger, and he's healthy again. He survived that awful, awful day, found Aerith, lived. It's all Zack ever wanted for him.

So he doesn't hesitate; he smiles, bright, proud, relieved.]

Hey, buddy. You look really good.

[Prrrrrobably not, but at least they didn't pick him as a doctor. He'd have lynched somebody for that one.]

Sure, go for it.

[Zack will soon be greeted by a young woman with spots running down both sides of her face, smiling to him as she spots some confetti still sticking to him here and there.

Mostly his hair.]

Hi there. Welcome to the Caprine.

Hmm...

[ She's settled down in a kitchen, putting her device on the table in front of her. ]

Blue Fish!

[It's definitely mostly in the hair. He's trying not to leave bits of it everywhere but to no avail.]

Oh, uh, hey! Thanks, appreciate it. [Have a confetti-speckled wave.] I'm Zack.

[OH THANK GOD he wasn't sure if it would be that easy]

Blue Fish, huh... I'll have to try and figure out how to get there... hmm.

[He can fly a shuttle, can't he? He can totally fly a shuttle. Probably. Maybe.]

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