✭ mission oo1;;

[classed]

[ he's already taken care of one of these things. this one's gonna be a piece of cake!

( because it totally doesn't matter that he only has five minutes before the place goes up in flames. he's got this in the bag and he's going to show director lazard that not only is his dream of becoming a hero not unattainable, it's just within his reach. )

he takes a swing at the thing – man, you're ugly! – and it goes down just as the one before it had. with a heavy thud and a settling of even heavier limbs, and zack thinks he's pretty well-deserved in the way he strides up to the body, swinging his sword back into place over his shoulder. ] Gotcha, didn't I, you –

[ smack!

a heavy hand comes up, catches him right across his front and sends him flying backward. oh, crap, not good. so not good –

and where he expects to get up close and personal with one of the pillars that circle the outermost space of the room he'd been in, the impact doesn't come. he ends up sprawled on his back, arms and legs akimbo, and ow okay sword digging into my back ow ow ow. he sits up, shakes his head and winces when a sharp little stab of pain forms right behind his eyes, looks around to see just what on gaia had happened. ] … Huh? Wait, this isn't – [ this isn't fort tamblin.

this isn't wutai at all.

unless wutai had always had a floor made up of stars and he just hadn't noticed. maybe he'd been too busy taking out their soldiers, or something, because that has to make a bit of sense, doesn't it? ( no, it doesn't. it doesn't have to make any amount of sense, zack fair. ) ] Where … hellooo? Angeal? [ he pulls himself up to his knees, wincing again as that pain behind his eyes creeps up on him a second time. ]

Director? [ nope. nothin'. ] Jeez, that thing must've hit me harder than I thought. [ he finally manages to get to his feet, rolling his shoulders and reaching behind him to ensure that his sword is securely in place, stretching himself out with a couple of squats just to be sure – because you never know, he's pretty much convinced that there's always going to be time for squats – and he takes a few steps forward, still peering down at the floor like he's never seen stars before.

which. he has, naturally. it's just that they're usually in the sky and not on the ground and how is that supposed to make sense. ( here's the thing, zack … stop trying to make sense of things already. you'll save yourself a lot of headaches along the way if you just go with it. ) ] Hey, uh … Anybody here?

… At all? [ no? :| ]

Comments

[fallbythesword]

[Yep, this is playing nice. You should see her idea of playing dirty...

She watches him crouch down and poke at the stars... and she rolls her eyes - just a little! - before she speaks again.]

Whatever the floor is, it seems metallic. Cold, too. And a little wet. [Because of course barefoot is the way to go if you ask Jacqli, so she'd know first hand!] Completely transparent, though, and not like glass. It's interesting...

Gongaga. Is that your world?

[classed]

[ no, no that's okay … he's pretty sure he doesn't want to know what your version of playing dirty is.

so. feel free to keep that to yourself, 'kay?

( just let him poke the stars jacqli sheesh! )

given that he hasn't been able to make heads or tails of this – despite only having given it any measure of thought for a good, oh, handful of minutes – he picks himself back up and unconsciously brushes his hands off on his uniform. ( he's wearing gloves and wouldn't have been able to feel anything, anyway, and it's kind of an automatic motion that he doesn't think a damn thing about. ) ] Cold and wet … [ that sounds very unpleasant tbh. ]

… Huh? Oh, it's the town I'm from. Little backwater place in the middle of the jungle. [ he doesn't get this whole 'world' thing yet. give him time. ]

[fallbythesword]

[If you insist~ Silly human.

And she picks up on the fact that he doesn't get the concept of multiple worlds just yet. So! Let's try a different approach.]

I've never heard of it. What planet?

[classed]

[ he does insist. yes. he very much insists.

zack are you scared of a tiny little thing that could totally own your ass with song magic to the face. yes you are.

well, so is her boyfriend sometimes. you'll be in good company. carry on.

he blinks again, still thinking that that's kind of an odd question to ask, but hey, he'll play along! ] Gaia. The only planet I know of. [ shrug~ ] Guessing you're not from the same one?

[ because apparently that's a thing?? ]

HAHAHA wrong tag in the wrong place orz

[fallbythesword]

[Fear is a healthy response. Don't worry about it.

Oh, it is very much a thing! She smirks a little, shakes her head.]

I've never heard of Gaia at all. I'm from a planet called Ar Ciel. [Beat.] It happens a lot around here. People aren't from the same world.

I WAS SO CONFUSED.

[classed]

[ he's sure it is.

he'll catch up, really he will, but this is all such a new concept to him that it's going to take more than a handful of moments to process this. ]

And I've never heard of Ar Ciel. [ go figure! ] What's it like?

[ pause. ] Is there anyone here that comes from the same world as someone else?

[fallbythesword]

Well the planet itself is dying. Humanity constructed tall Towers and built new land around them, just to escape the surface and survive.

[nbd man. nbd. But she is legitimately curious, so she asks] What about Gaia?

[Beat.] And yes, there are quite a few people here from Earth. They aren't all from the same Earth, but it's still a pretty common theme.

[classed]

[ hey, that sounds kind of a lot like what's going to end up happening to his world … maybe you two can bond over that. ] I guess it'd be too much to assume that Ar Ciel has a Lifestream? It's like … well, exactly what it sounds like, I guess. The Planet's life source.

[ he's trying so hard to make correlations. he really is. bless him. ] Well … anywhere there's a mako reactor, the land's pretty much dead. All the life and hustle 'n bustle is in Midgar. Where I'm from specifically, it's nothing but jungle. Hot and humid as hell.

[ like you can literally look out the front door and get sticky-gross. it's that bad. ] … Huh. I wonder why?

[fallbythesword]

[She shakes her head.] I don't think so. The planet has a Will, like every other living thing. I'm pretty sure right now, the planet just wants to burn.

[It really is a sad story. She just... is very bad at conveying that. So, again! nbd man. nbd.

They can definitely bond over planet death, though. Geez.]

What's a mako reactor?

[classed]

… Why would it want to burn? [ that sounds really odd to him. :|

but yes. bonding over planet death. it's not really like they could find anything else to bond over. hurr. ]

It's this giant thing Shinra uses to extract mako from the Planet. Remember when I said they use it for energy? That's how they get it.

[fallbythesword]

Hmm. I think you might want to burn too, if you were treated the way humans treated the planet.

[Yeah probably not. planet death is surely the only common ground they're gonna find.

ridiculous human soldier hero type ugh]

That sounds useful, if dangerous. Disruptive, too.

[classed]

[ he takes a second to think about that.

because they might not share the same experiences involving their respective planet's death, but it doesn't really come as any surprise that humans are the universal cause.

even for someone as naïve as he tends to be on a regular basis. ] … Not really. I'd wanna show 'em how wrong they were and hope they learned a lesson.

[ good grief, zack fair. what were you saying about ridiculous human soldier types? :| ] I've never really wondered what the Planet thinks about having all of its energy taken from it … I can't imagine it's too happy about it. [ which only means there's going to end up being some retaliation, right?

FORESHADOWING!!! ]

[fallbythesword]

[That answer definitely makes her scoff.]

Are you serious? [She even rolls her eyes!] Whatever.

[She might be a little better about her dislike of humans, but that's not going to change her mind about how people, as a whole, would never learn from something as simple as a planet wanting to ~show them~ or ~have a conversation~ about how wrong they are. Goddess... Do swords come with some prerequisite that you must be naively optimistic to wield one?!

.... Okay, mental rant over.]

It shouldn't be. I know I wouldn't like it. Just like, if I were my planet, I wouldn't like being poisoned and destroyed while the humans fight each other over ridiculous ideas.

[Bitter? Her? Nnnnnoookay yeah.]

[classed]

Well, yeah! How are they gonna know what they're doing wrong if you don't tell them? [ the 'duh' goes unsaid, but heavily implied. come on, jacqli. surely that had to have been a given.

hey! he isn't naïvely optimistic! just occasionally naïve. and swords don't have prerequisites, don't be silly. that's just absurd.

but now that she's gotten him thinking all deep-like, he can't help but to wonder how his own planet feels about having its life force filtered right out of it. that can't be a good feeling – he knows that – but it's still kind of difficult to think of gaia as any form of sentient.

he isn't a cetra. he doesn't think like that. doot doot. ] You've got a point. Man … [ he shakes his head. ] We really do many too many problems for ourselves, don't we?

[fallbythesword]

The problem comes when you have told them, and it nothing changes.

[And the fact that you assume that things will be better just by telling humans that they do dumb shit proves that you're naively optimistic! fsdhajklflk

But he concedes in the end, about making their own problems... And though she rolls her eyes again, she does nod.]

Of course you do. But it can't be helped, not unless you can somehow change everyone's minds.

[classed]

[ ouch.

but.

point. ] Ah, yeah … but you never know if anything will change unless you try speaking up, right? [ you're never going to get him thinking negatively, jacqli. even if you aren't actively trying. it's just not going to work.

so take that!

… and wow i'm just now realizing a typo in that tag i'm so sorry HUMANS MAKE ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS FOR THEMSELVES, INCLUDING WORDING ERRORS. JFC.

but wait. you're talking like … ] Sounds like you've got a grudge – wait a second. You're human, aren't you?

[ you look like one. :| ]

[fallbythesword]

[Oh, Zack...]

You're not listening. And that just proves my point.

[Don't take it personally. She's rude to everyone.

HEY IT'S COOL I KNEW WHAT YOU MEANT

But yes, she sees that lightbulb practically snaps to life above his head.]

No, I'm not. I'm a reyvateil. I was actually made by humans.

[classed]

[ take what personally?

that just kind of went right over his head.

difficult to offend this kid? maybe. ( mostly because he completely misses any sort of insult you could throw his way. case in point … ) ]

… A what?

[ good luck, jacqli. you're probably about to get even more frustrated with him than you already are. ]

[fallbythesword]

[djsfkljalk that face

And oh goddess, sir, all of the questions!!! She huffs a little. She always has to explain herself here, geez...]

A reyvateil. In my world, reyvateils are the only ones who can use song magic, because our minds are linked to the Towers that process songs.

[classed]

[ it's his default face at this point in canon. you're just going to have to get used to it.

and it's not like it's his fault he doesn't know what a reyvateil is! clearly, it's up to you to explain it to him! naturally inquisitive, doot doot. ]

Ah. Gotcha. [ no he doesn't. but he's slowly grasping the concept. ] If you're linked like that, does it mean you can hear each other's thoughts?

[ honey it doesn't work that way. aslkhg ]

[fallbythesword]

[She will, begrudgingly.

YOU KNOW, THAT COULD HAVE BEEN A STUPID QUESTION THAT WOULD MAKE HER TWITCH BUT YOU TOTALLY LUCKED OUT. It is actually a very legitimate question and you didn't even realize it. Wow, boy. Dodged a bullet there.]

No, our connections are all individual. There's a different kind of reyvateil - those connected to the Infel Phira - that can share their thoughts and connect with one another, but it's apparently difficult to do. I wouldn't know. I'm not one.

[Nor would she want to be. She does not envy the IPDs at all.]

[classed]

[ he's good at dodging bullets. his evade stats are pretty high.

TOO BAD THEY AREN'T HIGH ENOUGH TO KEEP HIM FROM GETTING KILLED LATER ON. oops did we say that.

let's just pretend that never happened. beaming about asking a legitimate question! yeah! that's totally valid!

he nods like he really understands what she's saying, and even though it's partly true, he … yeah. he's great at playing along, sometimes. ]

So what kind are you?

[ you're really not gonna get away from his questions anytime soon. you might as well pop some popcorn. ]

[fallbythesword]

[oooo burn...

And yeah, no, she didn't expect him to actually understand even half of that. (She sets the bar high, man.) So, whatever.]

A pure-blooded beta-type.

[You're not gonna understand that, either~]

[classed]

[ somebody get some aloe for that burn.

... when are you gonna start speaking in a language he actually understands? c'mon! ]

Uh. [ confused puppy look again, excuse. ] Okay. And that means ...?

[ try again! ]

[fallbythesword]

[She's speaking English common plane-ish, thank you very much!]

It means I was created with DNA taken directly from one of the Origins - the first Reyvateils ever created.

[Does she still need to use smaller words, yo?]