♛ 55 {Expedition}

[ardor]

[After (most) everyone's out of the caves and back on the beach, it's time for dinner. Out comes the food, the fires are lit, and people are having a jolly good time or something like it. Hopefully.

Whatever's going on, people doing their thing. It involves eating and... socializing. That thing. Mingling is happening, and everyone better be liking it! Or at least tolerating it.

Share notes, discuss findings, show off booty Martel, or just east and pass out. Anything goes!]

((ooc: Open expedition post on the beach. Have at it.))

Comments

[bustered]

[Whatever, man, whatever. Zack's good with just chillin', however Cloud wants to do it, eye-resting or whatever. It's nice to just be so casual, so simply relaxed together.]

Yeah, it would've been nice here on the beach. Or something else we could toss back and forth.

[Someone needs to introduce them to frisbees.]

[shrugs_a_lot]

Uh huh. [So much for an answer... But better than nothing.]

[bustered]

Waves are nice, though.

[The soft sound he means; it reminds him of being on the coast, before Cissnei had caught up to them. It's not an entirely bad memory, not at all.]

[shrugs_a_lot]

[Funny, they were kind of thinking the same, unconsciously at least in Cloud's part. There is something soothing about that sound, and while he can't put his finger on the reason, he enjoys it all the same.]

I'll get that villa someday...

[bustered]

[It's very soothing, the kind of thing you don't mind sharing with someone because it's so nice. And because that someone is someone you trust so much.]

Yeah? That'd be nice.

[shrugs_a_lot]

[Maybe it was the fact that he was somehow aware that after crossing the sea, they'd reach their destination, but it is still a long way to go for him to realize that.]

Yeah, I just need the money... And you know, if the Planet is still there... [If...]

[bustered]

You'll get it. And it will be. [Because Zack refuses to die for a world that gets destroyed, okay? Even if he doesn't know the whole story.]

[shrugs_a_lot]

Wait-- [He kind of wakes up, opens his eyes and looks up at Zack.] It does... If Reno's telling the truth, anyway...

I'm not sure I wanna ask him.

[bustered]

Mmm...?

[Zack tilts his head a little, looking down at Cloud as best he can without shifting too much.]

I don't know what happens. [He's out of the story by the time Cloud's in it -- it's probably at least partially his fault that Cloud is in it. But he's not voicing that, doesn't want to give it breath and life and form just yet.] I'd believe him. But I'm not gonna ask him either, I don't think. We can't do anything about it here anyway, can we?

[shrugs_a_lot]

We maybe can't but, it would be one thing less to worry about. Either way? I wouldn't believe a word that --[little #%&"$] --he says. [The pause is very much there. Such a hypocrite, Cloud...]

[bustered]

Yeah... [Okay, that silent expletive is definitely there. Zack's not sure of what's between the two of them. He's on good terms with Reno but something obviously happened and Cloud isn't, so he makes a note to himself to not mention the redhead too much around the blond.] Not gonna waste our whole evening on him, are you?

[shrugs_a_lot]

... Sorry. [Alright maybe he was exaggerating, ever since that adventure in Wutai, things had changed a little but Cloud's opinion on the Turks wasn't one of the highest...]

[bustered]

S'okay. [And really, it is. They've still got the shoreline and the waves, and each other's companionship. That more than makes up for a moment of ill thought.]

[shrugs_a_lot]

[Thinking about Reno and the Turks isn't pleasant and it's not as easy to simply get over. It leads you to think about the whole ShinRa fiasco and of course when you think about ShinRa you gotta think about ɥʇoɹıɥpǝs... He's been out of the blonde's head for a while, it's probably time to bring him up again.]

Were you friends with... him? [Not quite self explanatory... So much for relaxing times.]

[bustered]

[Well, Zack doesn't mind talking, but there's only one tiny little problem...]

Depends on who you mean by 'him,' doesn't it?

[shrugs_a_lot]

[Good point... How's that he misses that stuff?]

... [Can't remember his name but...] The General.

[bustered]

Oh... yeah...

[Zack looks from the shoreline down to his hands, trying to think of how to put things. Were they? Well, Zack liked to think so, but things with Sephiroth could only ever be described as complicated.]

Yeah, I think I was the closest thing he had to it after-- after Modeoheim.

[shrugs_a_lot]

What happened there? [Because it is obvious he wasn't there.]

[bustered]

You want the long version, or the short version?

[He sighs, but quietly; Zack would be flopped down on his back if it wasn't for the blond leaning against him. But Cloud is comfortable, and a comforting presence at his side, and Zack is loathe to let that go.]

[shrugs_a_lot]

[He supposes it's one of those uncomfortable situations, isn't it? It had to be, specially if it was about ... that guy.

But enough is enough, Cloud's waited patiently and pussyfooted enough around these things. Besides, it wasn't as if it was about him anyway.]

... [Shrugs a little bit.] The easiest version?

[bustered]

Doesn't exist.

[Half a shrug in return, mostly only moving the arm on the opposite side of Cloud's lean. He'll give the blond the slightly-edited-for-failing-memory version, because how does he even begin to tell Cloud it's the mission where they really met?]

It was way after Genesis had gone rogue, and Angeal left to chase him. We -- ShinRa -- had been chasing them both, but you know well as I how hard it is to catch up to a determined SOLDIER First, let alone two of them. We were headed out on a mission, Tseng and me and some grunts from army. Helicopter was shot down over the mountains.

So we hiked it, you know? It was either that or freeze in Modeoheim's climate; it's not exactly the warmest place on the Planet. It was rough on Tseng and on most of the army guys, but this one kid and I, we took to it like chocobos to a trail. He was used to the harsher climates, he said. Good guy to work with.

[Another shrug. That kid was you, Cloud, but Zack can't say that. His voice has gone over a little hollow in the telling though, the shutting off of emotion for the threat of it spilling over.] Anyway, we eventually caught up to them. Genesis and Angeal, I mean, at the reactor in Modeoheim -- abandoned reactor, I guess I should say. The degradation was really bad. I had to fight Genesis and I... I defeated him. But we had to leave in a hurry because Hollander, this scientist who... well, he worked with Genesis and Angeal both, it's a long story. But he was getting away, so we chased him into the town.

Modeoheim's a ghost town, you know? Pretty much entirely abandoned, I think it's just too harsh for people up there. And ShinRa doesn't do much with the reactor, it's not like they have a base there to support an economy. But we chased him, me and Tseng and the army grunt, tracked him into town, into one of the larger buildings. And Angeal was there.

I don't know if he'd seen the fight with Genesis, or if Hollander just told him about it. But he... he turned himself into this monster, Cloud, I don't... [A slight shake of his head.] Anyway, I had to fight him, he forced me to fight him. Forced me to kill him. And... and that's why I have the Buster Sword, because he gave it to me with his dying breaths. Told me, made me promise to never lose my dreams and my honor.

[There's another pause, a little longer this time.] That's why I didn't tell you about him right away. The reason he was beat up when he got here is because I killed him.

[Of course, he hasn't gotten to the Sephiroth part of the story yet, but he'll get there. If Cloud still wants to listen, that it.]

1/2

[shrugs_a_lot]

[Cloud listens, intently, yet not looking at Zack. He rather stare at the body of water for now. The story feels way too familiar for comfort, but he's doing his best to ignore that nagging feeling, probably for the best, instead, he tries to focus mainly in how the General would fit in it the whole thing.

Still, he can't avoid tensing up as Zack continues and explains to him how's that he got the Buster sword. It simply hurts to listen. It's the same pain that had gotten over him while they sparred, that same pain that had tried to find its way back in his birthday. There was no doubt about it, it was Zack's fault when it happened. Cloud wanted to scream and let free all that pain in his chest.

It didn't come out as a scream. Cloud's shoulders start shaking as he tries to keep it down; it is as if Zack had told him the most funny thing ever he had started laughing. All the feelings he was trying to bottle inside came out as a laugh, but not just any laugh, while it wasn't loud at all, it was an eerie, cruel sound that didn't quite fit the blond.

He keeps laughing for the moment, muttering something unintelligible without really realizing he's placed his hand over his forehead, holding his head tightly because there is the headache again and--]

[shrugs_a_lot]

[And then he stops altogether, there is no trace in his face that there had been any other kind of emotion just a second ago. Rubs his forehead just a little bit before running his hand though his hair as he usually does.]

I...

Why did he-- [... Stops before asking. It doesn't seem nice to ask why Angeal had gone so far.] Never mind.

[After a pause:]

How does ... he fit in there?

[It seems like he does want to keep listening, but it is as if he hadn't even noticed what had just happened. At least most of the pain is gone, yet it lingers, it always does.]

[bustered]

[There's another sigh. Zack's voice is flat and emotionless, maybe even a little defeated. He'd had some comfort after that time, the comfort given to him by Aerith's quiet understanding. But Paradisa took that memory from him on his arrival, and he's no hint that he ever lost it. So all he knows of that time after the mission is Cloud and Sephiroth.

And Cloud isn't exactly with him on this one, is he? There must be something going on, something deeper than surface ignorance, to make the blond laugh like that. It had been almost cruel-sounding, not like Cloud at all, even in his cockier moments. Even so it had hurt, pulling at a wound that Zack had admittedly chosen to open himself. Now he's tired of the conversation, uninterested in hurting more -- hurting again -- because he can't just grab Cloud and shake him until he remembers.]

I lost my mentor. Sephiroth lost the only two people he'd considered friends. We didn't entirely trust ShinRa anymore, didn't have anyone but each other. That's how we fit together.

[shrugs_a_lot]

[Alright... It mustn't have been easy to say, but there had been a short way to say it! ... He should have gone for that one. For a moment, Cloud can just wonder how long it had passed for Zack to be able talk about it. Or was explaining this little story part of the commitment that came with their "friendship"?

He wasn't going to ask.]

You could have just said that from the beginning. [Cloud, you insensitive jerk (granted that it could've avoided the earlier creepy scene from his part) --he seems to notice that's not the right thing to say though, as he looks up at Zack immediately expecting a reaction. Should he say anything? A simple sorry would work? He honestly doubted it.]

...

[The apologetic word seems to be stuck somewhere in his throat and it won't come out, but there is something that matters most than that, he thinks.]

At least you have him back. [Doesn't that count for something?]