wingenvy | [Action]

[Okay, so. He'd been en route to Midgar with Cloud. With a motorcycle, it had been awesome. And they'd been making good progress! Sure, he wasn't all that certain about directions, but being underground for so long can screw with a guy a little. There's no helping it. He'd been in a pretty good mood, though.

So if things had been going well for the first time in ages, why did he wake up this morning and find himself in the woods, alone and unarmed, in a fresh pair of white pants that didn't belong to him? It meant he hadn't been captured, since he wasn't in the lab, so... what? Seriously, what?

More importantly, where is Cloud!?

There's a sense of panic he hasn't felt since the troopers in Nibelheim had first started dragging Cloud away from him, so he wastes no time getting up and heading off to get a look around. If the military isn't responsible for this, maybe Cloud just wandered off (somehow) after whoever it was had taken Zack out. Man, so much for life getting easier...

tl;dr Zack will be ducking around the village early-ish in the morning, trying to make the most of the late November sunrise by doing his best ninja impression. He's trying not to be seen, but how effective he is at doing so? Really depends. SOLDIERs are sadly not ninjas.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Giles is coming down the stairs of C4 that morning when...hm?

...it takes until Zack next ducks into the light, but he does manage to spot him. And the New Feather garb.]

Excuse me?

[Ack! Caught. Zack pauses for a moment, considering his options, then relaxes his posture and lifts a hand. Better to play it cool, since the guy's not charging him with a gun. He really needs to get out of that paranoid phase.]

Oh, uh, hey! Don't mind me, I'm just out for a walk.

Yes, I can see that.

Need a map?

A map? You got one? [That would help, actually. He really has no idea where to go. At least the mountains in the distance are definitely not the Nibelheim area peaks.]

[Giles does. He opens his journal, flips a few pages, and then passes over the much-folded map he keeps.]

[And that- ...is a map of the village and surrounding area. Not that helpful.]

Uh... do you have one of the world, too? I'm trying to get to Midgar.

[Yes, unfortunately, it is. Just of the village.]

"Midgar"? [Giles shakes his head] You're in Luceti. Sorry. There's the village, the forest, and the desert, but after that there's a barrier that no one's managed to get through yet.

A barrier? Wait, we're trapped here? [Oh god, is this some kind of situational experiment or something? Out of the pods, into the... wait, that doesn't make sense.]

I'm afraid so. [All the sympathy in the world, Zach] People are sent home sometimes, but no one knows when or where or why it happens.

[Oh god oh god oh god. This is seriously messed up.]

Is it just- randomized or something? Do people even know why?

The arrivals used to be on a fairly regular basis, but recently the situation...changed and now no one seems to be certain. The arrivals, as far as I know, at least, are random.

This is a really messed up place, then. [...hey. Hey. Peering a bit.] Are- ...are those wings?

[Blink.

Wow, you were really focused, weren't you, Zach?]

Yes, they are. Everyone has them. Try not to jostle them too much, and do not under any circumstances allow them to be damaged or removed.

[Look he had to find Cloud, it was important :c

Zack furrows his brows - that was kind of a weird way of saying it, wasn't it, making it sound like he has wings and shouldn't jostle them, because if he looks over his shoulder he OH GOD THERE ARE WINGS ON HIS BACK FFFFF]

[Take your time, Zack. Giles will wait patiently. Just, seriously. Don't jostle 'em. They're all new and stuff.]

They're real! They're actual, live wings! [He has to resist the urge to tug on them in disbelief. No wonder his back had been kind of sore earlier.]

[Again - all the sympathy in the world, Zack. Giles was in your shoes just two months ago]

They're quite useless, actually. Apart from the bit where we need them to survive.

We... need them to survive? How does that work? [Maybe they're linked to his spine or something, that would explain a few things D|]

[Giles shrugs] No idea. But that is one thing everyone seems to know for certain. If the wings are removed, you'll die. Even having feathers pulled out can make you ill.

[Man, what a difference. Genesis and Angeal used to shed like twenty feathers every time they took off.]

Huh... thanks for the advice, I guess. [He might just try pulling out a feather later to confirm this, but not when anyone's around. If it really does make him sick he can't risk getting caught.]

Not at all. It's nothing anyone else wouldn't have told you. The ones who have been here longer get unfortunately good at this.

[He points to a building across the plaza] The Welcome Center is there, they can get you an apartment if you don't have friends here you can stay with. Some of your things might have ended up in the clothing shop or the item shop, but it might take a while yet.

[Welcome Center? Sounds like a useful place to start. Zack glances in that direction, then nods.] I'd better head over there then. I'll check around for my stuff, too.

Best of luck.

Thanks! [With one final wave, Zack runs off to explore some more. Hopefully he'll get somewhere useful.]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

Re: [Action]

[Action]

Re: [Action]

[Action]

Re: [Action]

[Action]

Re: [Action]

[Action]

Re: [Action]

[Action]

Re: [Action]

[Action]

Re: [Action]

[Action]

Re: [Action]

[Action]

Re: [Action]

[Action]

Re: [Action]

[Action]

Re: [Action]

[Action]