paixaorpg | Since when were SOLDIERs Houdinis in disguise? [Active]

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Since when were SOLDIERs Houdinis in disguise? [Active]

Character(s): Zack Fair and Cid Highwind
Content: Zack pays grumpy ol' Cid a visit
Setting: Cid's shop
Time: Early in the mooooooorning!
Warnings: Cid's $#%&*@-prone mouth, Zack's unusual moroseness, poor attempt at poking the pilot

He should have expected it.

They had unfinished business, and it looked like it would remain unfinished. He wasn't sure why he was even remotely surprised by this point, considering how Angeal had stated vehemently that they were through, done with when they'd first run into each other. And he had to admit...what the heck was Angeal thinking? Yeah, sure, blah di blah honor, blah blah blah monster. And he got all that, really, but you'd think a SOLDIER would just stay put and actually fight for once.

Not run. Running was for Turks.

Then again, Zack finally conceded as he made his way up the stairs towards Cid's shop, maybe Angeal wasn't hiding out somewhere obvious. Somewhere like Cid's shop. He wasn't the only one Angeal had unfinished business with. Come to think of it, Zack hadn't seen Sephiroth around lately either.

Weird. And slightly alarming.

Zack pushed through the front doors of the shop, the back glow in his eyes intensifying for a few seconds before they dimmed. It was obvious that there was only one person present in the small shop filled with knick knacks and grandiose displays of tea boxes, as much as Zack had hoped otherwise.

He summoned a crooked smile for Cid and waved. "Oi, Cid! Got any coffee for a poor, starving SOLDIER?"

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Coffee? Why the hell would he have coffee? Someone wanted coffee they could go somewhere else to get it. Waste of good water, really and who the hell went to a tea shop to get coffee. Not that... tea was the only thing he sold in pace, but it was the point of the matter.

"Got tea," Cid answered, managing to not sound too grumpy and yet still convey the general idea that if Zack wanted coffee he was on his own as far as getting it. Cid had a teakettle not a coffee pot.

Hell, he wouldn't know what to do with a coffee bean if it bit him on the nose.

Tea? What was this, Tseng's hide-out? No SOLDIER worth their strength would ever admit to drinking that stuff. Unless you were Angeal or Sephiroth, in which case Zack doubted anyone had the balls to call either one out of their taste in drinks. And while Zack could vaguely remember the sludge they'd served in the mess hall, at least that stuff packed enough of a punch to wake him up.

And strangely enough, he only remembered it because there were mornings he swore that stuff was leftover experimentation scrub from the Science Lab. There was no way real coffee would squeak and attempt to escape from his mug before he'd gulped it down.

"That's weak stuff, friend. You can't honestly expect me to drink that. I might as well just dump water on myself- it'd work better."

No SOLDIER? Cloud certainly had. But then again Cloud wasn't exactly a SOLDIER. But even that sure as hell didn't change the fact that Cid was neither capable of or interested in making a cup of coffee. He had a teakettle and that wouldn't exactly do much for coffee beans even he had them.

"Can and do," Cid snapped back. "You sure as hell ain't gonna see any coffee in here. I ain't gonna make it."

Although he prided himself on make stuff better than what ShinRa had deigned to serve under the term 'tea'. That stuff wasn't fit to clean his engines, much less actually be drunk.

"...Right. Did anyone tell you you're a deprived engineer? Not sure what else to tell you, friend." Zack plopped down onto a convenient, yet wholly uncomfortable chair, waving one hand at Cid in a roundabout acquiesce to down his weakly swilled water. Serve him please, Cid.

"Guess that's what I get for coming here."

"It ain't gonna kill you and I sure as hell ain't deprived." Stubborn, yes, and an assortment of other things besides but not actually deprived. It was just that he had his preferences and he was going to stick to them come hell or high water or rampaging Weapons out to destroy the world.

And if that meant Zack would have to deal with tea, well... he'd just have to deal, as the tea kettle chimed in with its shrill announcement that the water was good and boiled.

Zack sank down lower on the seat, legs splayed as boots scuffed on the floor. His butt won't thank him for this later, but there was only so much posture he could take sitting in a chair like this. And besides...it was really obvious by now that Angeal wasn't here. He doubted the man would have survived a day without some coffee.

He'll let Cid finish the preparations; it's obvious the man had a bit of a territorial issue regarding fluffy bits of leaf.

It's not long at all before Cid's got the tea made to his satisfaction; he's had long years of practice and after a while that sort of thing becomes routine. Or as routine as anything ever got, in Cid's life. But that was somewhat less the point then the fact that in short order a cup of tea was placed in front of Zack, with the expectation that he would at least drink it, if not actually like it.

Further conversation could wait, after all.

Looks like Zack wasn't much in the mood for tea, evident when a hand nudged somewhat pathetically at the colorful and steaming mug before pushing it further along on the table surface. He'll drink it, just not until he gets what he came for.

"Haven't seen Seph around," Zack started, not wanting to launch into the sticky situation of Angeal's disappearance yet. He was well aware of the animosity Cid held for the former general and if nothing else, Cid's desire to see Sephiroth remain sane would compel him to keep tabs on the man. "Haven't heard from him either since the last check-in. What about you?"

What about him? He hadn't heard from Sephiroth at all since that one meeting and that was perfectly fine by him. We should he care about the man who'd destroyed their world and embodied everything that was the worst of ShinRa? He couldn't stay far enough away.

But a man heard a thing or two, if he knew how to keep an eye to the ground and Cid sure as hell knew how to that. It had served him well over the years and fuck if he was going to let something like that go to waste.

"Haven't seen him. Probably went back to go nuts again."

Tact... was not something Cid excelled at.

Slightly alarmed eyes raised to fix on Cid's face, studying his expression for a moment and not looking away until he'd seen something there. He shook his head at the ensuing hope that Sephiroth's time here, the time he'd spent learning about his potential soon-to-be committed mistakes would stand as a deterrent against his future actions. If Sephiroth still committed the atrocities he had in Zack's past after knowing all that...

Sharp regret hit Zack at that moment, for not spending more time with the other SOLDIER, for not giving him even more compelling reasons to resist Jenova. Well. It was too late now.

And in a way, time was such a weird entity here. It had taken away Sephiroth, Angeal, and had given him Cloud and Tifa. A much older Cloud, Zack thought with some fond bemusement. He eyed Cid again. Wondered if he knew about that.

"You do realize he might be going back to Nibelheim." And that Cloud will be there was left unsaid.

It didn't need to be said. Cid had heard about what had happened at Nibelheim from Cloud, and even if the story might have been a little skewed it was still a story. Sephiroth went nuts, destroyed a town and royally fucked up Cloud's life.

"What the fuck do you want me to do?" Cid snapped back, with only a minimum amount of real anger. "It ain't like I can call him back."

And really, even if he could he wouldn't have. No need to grab the wrong one.

"Yeah," Zack grinned, propping a booted foot up onto the table. "Wouldn't that be something!" Something tragic, if Zack had anything to say about it. If they actually managed to harness that type of power, there was no predicting what the resident villains would do with it, once they'd too figured it out.

Better for everyone that ignorance of that sort of power was abound.

"Look. Sephiroth was the one who pushed for the Resistance. Now that he's gone, there isn't a spearhead. And..." Zack paused, trying to work the words past the sudden tightness in his throat. "Angeal's gone too. Get my drift? More people are arriving everyday." People like Cloud, and Zack still hasn't gotten over that. Cloud! A couple of inches taller, even. Weird. "So what are we going to do about it?"

Either set of them, and it wasn't something that Cid wanted to think too much about. Bad enough already, if you asked him.

"You want a spear, it's right there," Cid answered with a nod to his the spear resting against a nearby wall. His spear, and Lifestream help Zack if he touched it. Was he offering himself as a leader? Not really, although it could be read that way. "We're gonna keep the damned Resistance running. Get someone on recruiting or something."

Preferably someone who wasn't him.

"Somehow, I don't think the people will want to follow a piece of lead, Highwind. Even if it's a particularly nice set of lead," Zack allowed with a grin. "And I doubt they'd want to follow you, either. No offense, friend, but you're a little rough around the edges. Which still leaves us in the sad state of being leaderless."

Plus, Cid's gruff but essentially harmless demeanor might scare away the potentials. Couldn't let that happen.

"Recruiting? So who do you propose?" It was obvious that whoever they nominated had to have common sense about them, enough to at least determine who a good candidate for recruitment would be. The city wasn't always discriminate on who it received, and the new arrival had just as much of a chance being a part of the Organization or a part of that hag's group.

There was a non-committal noise at the comment about people not wanting to follow him. They'd seemed willing enough to follow him before, although that group had at least been generally been familiar with before hand. Besides he hadn't wanted the damned position in the first place.

He was just fine with not being in a position of leadership.

"Not that... rat thing. Never really liked him." Anything else? Wasn't really Cid had ever thought about. Sephiroth had been in charge and that was that.

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Since when were SOLDIERs Houdinis in disguise? [Active]

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