[Action]

[wingenvy]

[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.]

Comments

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

[That's kind of strange. But...sure, yeah, Cloud can work with this. He takes Zack's hand and shakes it firmly.]

Yup. Good t'meet you too.

[wingenvy]

[Awesome, they're at least on the right track. It's not exactly how Zack saw things going for them, but he's not about to complain when Cloud's right here in front of him, walking and talking and... okay. So Zack's happy.]

So, food? And hey, do you have a place to crash? I mean, until we figure a way out of here, anyway.

jsyk i'm totally going to handwave all the explanations /lazy

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

I don't yet, but I know where to look for one.

As for food...yeah. There's a few places we can get some stuff. I'll explain what's going on along the way. [Because Zack doesn't seem the type to sit down and calmly peruse that huge guide.]

BORING CONVERSATION ANYWAY

[wingenvy]

[So let an epic journey in search of food and lodging happen! And Zack will listen to each bit of what Cloud has to explain... more or less. He tries, anyway. Some of the stuff goes right over his head.]

-said Zack.

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

[Cloud isn't going to try very hard. It's pretty obvious by the way Zack's eyes drift off to the side and he falls into the habit of humming at somewhat regular intervals.

Eventually Cloud gives up on explaining things and switches to asking. On one hand he's...well, a bit in awe; this is the man that died to save his life. There's guilt there, of course, and a heavy weight settling in his stomach that he knows he's going to deal with until Zack discovers the truth, but there's also so much curiosity he's nearly bursting from it.

Zack was friends with him, right? Why else would he break Cloud out of the labs instead of just escaping himself? He must know something. Maybe they hung out, maybe he had stories of both of them. Maybe there's some evidence of him not being...quite as pathetic as he fears he was.

Plus he just wanted to learn about Zack. He must've known so many things already, if he'd confused himself with Zack before; they had to have been close.]

Hey, so uh...when did we meet?

[wingenvy]

[Zack blinks, brows furrowing, and thinks back for a moment.] Let's see... that'd be... two years before Nibelheim? We were on a mission to Modeoheim and the helicopter crashed, so we had to walk there. The two of us led Tseng and the other troopers to the mission because we were total country bumpkins. [And it was lulzy and awesome.]

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

We walked away from a helicopter crash?

[Zack he can understand; Zack was -is- a SOLDIER. But he would've just been some scrawny kid. And the other troopers survived too?

What the hell, he is so lucky with these things. Fall off a mountain? Scraped knees. Helicopter crash? NO PROBLEM.]

[wingenvy]

Yeah, go fig! Guess those Shinra models are really tough. It wasn't in bad shape after we went down, so nobody died.

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

Modeoheim...where is that? I've never heard of it. [...uh, or rather-] I don't remember where it is, I mean.

[wingenvy]

Ah, Modeoheim... doesn't really exist anymore. It used to be up north by Icicle Inn, but it was abandoned way before we even went there.

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

So it was snowy. [Cloud mulls this around; helicopter crash in the snow. That has to ring some bells, right?

...unfortunately not yet. He scowls a bit and scratches the back of his neck.] I don't remember any of it. What happened?

[wingenvy]

[Damn, his memory really is messed up.] It's... kind of a long story. We were looking for some SOLDIERs who'd abandoned Shinra and were causing trouble. We tried to rescue a scientist, but he got away when- [When Angeal changed...] ...When a monster attacked, and... yeah, it was kind of a mess. [He smiles faintly.] But I'm glad you were there.

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

Glad I was there? As what, a decoy? [He was just a trooper then, a new trooper at that. Possibly even fresh out of boot camp; he would've been completely useless in the face of a SOLDIER's might.]

[wingenvy]

No way, you were really helpful! You chased after the scientist. If you weren't there we might not have found the most dangerous area at all. [Not gonna say what the danger was, or that Cloud got knocked out, or anything else...]

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

Oh.

...well, glad I could help then. [Coolness. He wasn't so pathetic after all. Then again, Zack could just be trying to comfort him, but y'know what? Cloud's okay with that for now. He knows he was pretty sorry back then anyway.]

[wingenvy]

Yep. It's too bad we didn't get to hang out much after that.

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

We didn't? [Though it shouldn't come as surprise. Vastly differing ranks and all.]

[wingenvy]

...Nah, not really. I mean, I saw you a few times! And I took you out to lunch, along with a bunch of other troopers. But things at Shinra weren't going all that well, especially in SOLDIER. I didn't have a lot of free time.

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

Oh. [That's...weird, but also a relief. So he isn't missing that much after all.] So I guess we didn't end up talking much then, did we?

[wingenvy]

[Zack shrugs. Most of their getting-to-know-you phase took place in Nibelheim, and... well, he wouldn't want Cloud to remember that anyway.]

Does it matter that much? I mean, we're still friends, right?

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

Yeah...

[It's a lame answer and Cloud knows it, but he's reluctant to give away too much. How do you say "Not really we barely know each other," to the guy who died to save your life?

Exactly. You don't.]

Oh, uh- There's a grocery over there. Do you wanna go to a restaurant or just pick something up here? Since we've still got to look for a place to sleep.

[wingenvy]

I'm fine with just picking up whatever's there. If we really want something fancy we can wait until we're settled.

[Which is a weird thing to imagine- staying in one place like this. Especially a place where they're just experiments again. They'll definitely have to do some investigating soon.]

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

[Oh yeah. They're probably going to share a living space, aren't they? Not that Cloud isn't used to it, it's just been a while since he's done so with a complete stranger.

His answer is a noncommittal hum; thankfully Cloud ate recently so he's not all that hungry, so once they collect whatever they plan on eating Cloud leads them over to the nearest apartment complex (C4) as per the map he lifted from the Welcome Center.]

This place should have empty rooms in it; that's what the girl told me anyway.

[wingenvy]

So we get our own apartment and everything? Man, Hojo needs to take notes from these guys or something. We were seriously gypped.

[It's kind of weird, mentioning such a sore subject with someone who was there but doesn't remember it at all. At least this way Zack can joke around a bit for his own sake without worrying about offending or upsetting Cloud. He's not sure how else to deal with it anyway- besides the obvious option of not dealing with it at all.]

[herobydefault.livejournal.com]

Hojo needs to go to hell is what Hojo needs to do. [Nevermind that he's already dead.

Cloud flips the map over, where he'd scribbled a few things.] The apartments come furnished already, so that's good. Looks like we just have to keep trying doors until we find one that doesn't have anybody in it. There should be keys on the counter.