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[moseyin]

Anybody else miss having monsters around to beat the crap out of
Just somethin you can wail on until you stop feeling like you wana punch a wall

This is not a I want someone 2 fight post either Id just like stuff that deserves killing to b around to kill is all

Comments

[wingenvy]

i'm serious dude!! it's

ok it's complicated

no killing and no weapons! promise!

[moseyin]

Fine fine ok I promise no weapons or killing

[wingenvy]

ok good

come to the cargo hold and you can meet him

[TRUSTIN YOU, DUDE

Zack's in the hold with the weirdest dog-thing ever, just kinda looking him over.]

action

[moseyin]

[And when Cloud arrives he stops in the doorway, eyeballing that monster so intensely hard

He's unarmed but damn, does he wanna kill it]

[wingenvy]

[That intense stare is impossible to not notice, so Zack tilts his head to look over and offers up a small, sheepish wave.]

Hey, c'mon over! He's harmless, we can vouch for him. Used to live in Aerith's church.

[moseyin]

I never saw him in there. [Comes slightly closer, arms folded]

[wingenvy]

...Yeah, you wouldn't.

[Zack crouches down, giving the dog's head a little scritch. It's not even furry or soft, but you can't not pet a good dog.]

Hey, this is kind of a reunion for you two. This guy protected you from Shinra while you were sick.

[moseyin]

...wait, this thing? [Half-glares at the monster, expression softening a little bit. .........nope, absolutely no memory of this.] You're sure?

[wingenvy]

One hundred percent. I didn't see it, but I sure saw the aftermath. He put up a real good fight.

[moseyin]

Oh. [So yet something else that died for or because of him. And this one's a monster.

Cloud gets that annoyingly pensive, self-loathing look on his face as he stares down at the monster, brow furrowed.]

[wingenvy]

[The monster dog just peers up at him, waiting to see what he does.

Zack doesn't miss the look, though, straightening up and going over to loop an arm around Cloud's neck.]

Dumbass, I know what's in your head, so stop that. He was already dying. Pretty sure he's lucky to have lived as long as he did.

[moseyin]

Well, glad I could help hurry along the inevitable, [Cloud mutters, but at least he doesn't look like he's going to brood too much.

Doesn't get any closer to the monster, though.] Is this- he here to stay then?

[wingenvy]

Cloud, geez...

[Zack lets it go, though, merely pursing his lips. It hadn't been his intent to guilt trip, but it's a Cloud habit that he has yet to be able to shake out of him. Best to let it run its course for now.]

Dunno. I guess so, considering he's still here. Aerith wants to keep him.

[moseyin]

Does she, [Cloud mumbles, still looking the thing over. Sharp talons. It really looks like it could put up a fight. What if it wigs out and tries to take a bite out of her?] The two of you are awful trusting.

[wingenvy]

....Mm.

[Zack ponders for a moment, then finally moves forward again to crouch next to the dog.]

Try not to freak out- but you'll see it eventually, so here.

[And then he tilts the dog's head up to show off the neck. And the face on it.]

[moseyin]

[Okay that's...odd but not the weirdest monster he's ever seen. The number of things he's run into with faces in weird places is way too high.]

I...okay? Does the face talk, or...?

[wingenvy]

[....ah...

Zack's expression shifts- surprise at first, and then a flash of hurt, and when he drops his gaze he's more resigned than anything else. Of course Cloud doesn't know. He wouldn't know, he never met Angeal. Aerith hadn't, either. It's nothing more than a weird face on a monster, now.

He moves his hand aside, allowing the dog to drop his head back down, and scuffs a hand through his hair.]

...No, it doesn't. I just didn't want you to get weirded out by it later.

[moseyin]

[Bullshit that's all he wanted.]

...you know whose face that is, [Cloud ventures quietly with a frown. People become monsters, Luna had mentioned to him, her voice sad. There's a second, implied question behind his first:

Am I suppose to know, too?]

[wingenvy]

[He debates not answering, at least not for real; a part of him doesn't want to get into it. Would rather just let it die, like all the memories, like the dream, like the soldier who carried them. Surely that would be easier.

We're chasing a scientist and a First Class who have betrayed Shinra, Tseng had said on the helicopter ride over. If they can't be captured, our instructions are to terminate. Understood?

Are you okay? Cloud had asked, on the way home, after everything.

He hadn't answered either of them.]

I do, [is, at last, is reluctant reply.] Nobody else would, at this point. He's pretty much been erased from history.

[It's okay that you don't, in other words.]

[moseyin]

Most decent people from ShinRa are. [Cloud assumes whoever that is was a decent person, at least. If Zack was sad to see them go...maybe.

Or maybe Zack's being too generous again.] So is that...him?

[wingenvy]

[Pretty fair guess; Zack nods, though he wonders if it should be alarming that it was that easy. Is his list of genuine loved ones that short?

...Not that he talks about them much, anyway. And now there's a bit of guilt to join the unease.]

Yeah, it's him. Angeal. Or- his face, anyway. It's some kind of manufactured copy, made into a monster... I don't get how it works, exactly.

[moseyin]

[A manufactured copy.

It figures Hojo wouldn't stop at just humans, at just Sephiroth. Or, more likely, these experiments were warm-ups to bringing Sephiroth back.

Cloud's expression goes dull, but he finally lowers himself onto a knee in front of the dog monster, elbow on his leg as he examines him carefully.]

Just Hojo being a sick bastard again. He ended up making dozens of Sephiroth clones...most of them just went insane. [Pauses, then corrects,] Most of us...went insane.

[Holds out his hand for the dog to sniff.] He probably used his research from making these guys to make the Sephiroth copies.

[wingenvy]

Um... believe it or not, this isn't one of Hojo's. There was this other scientist working on a different project- they had this stupid rivalry goin', I guess, and he saw what Hojo was doing with Sephiroth and figured he could do it better. My grasp on the history of it's kinda shaky- mostly because half of the junk they said never made much sense- but long story short, he couldn't. Everything he made mutated or fell apart eventually.

[Which... would be fine, if it didn't give him that ugly ache in his chest when he thought about it. One of those people was someone he cared deeply for, and the weight of what he'd had to endure growing up like that is still heavy on Zack's back sometimes. Metaphorically, and quite literally, in the case of the Buster.]

He's dead, at least, and they've probably all fallen apart by now. One less shitty legacy of ShinRa's that belongs in the past.

[moseyin]

[what...the fuck

Every time Zack tells him something new, Cloud hates ShinRa even more. Which is unfortunate considering there's no ShinRa to pummel on anymore.]

Did they just go out and hire the craziest, most sadistic hacks for their science department or something?

[wingenvy]

[Zack sets free a bark of quick, sour laughter, quickly stifled into a sigh.]

Yeah, probably. And y'can't even say they got the job done by being all evil and inhumane about everything. All their projects went to hell and nobody came out on top.

[Even they, who were inarguably the only ones who could stand on the moral high ground, ended up either dead or supremely fucked up. Not exactly a victory.]

I did meet a guy who'd gotten out of ShinRa R&D and was trying to atone for everything, one time. Been so long I forgot about him. I didn't think "remorse" even existed in their vocab until I talked to him.