IC contact

[more_than_words]

This is Tifa. Thanks for calling. I can't answer the phone right now but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Have a good day!

Comments

[audio]

[dicey]

What's your deal?

[audio]

[more_than_words]

[and there's the call back.]

Hello? Sorry I was busy. What do you mean, what's my deal?

[audio]

[dicey]

Why are you the way you are? I don't get you.

[audio]

[more_than_words]

[silence for a moment. Maybe the sound of Tifa sitting down and then a serious but willing:]

I'm the way I am for a lot of reasons I guess. Which part are you asking about, Vriska?

[audio]

[dicey]

The stuff with me and Zell. He said you were a romantic.

[audio]

[more_than_words]

He did? [That's her trying to decide if she's outraged, embarrassed or amused. A pause and then a softer:] I guess I am.

...

I know you're both tough but I know how I feel when I think I've lost someone important to me. When they come back, I just want to be near where they are, at least until my stomach unknots. I thought, even if he was asleep for most of it, it might still feel good for you both to be together.

Was I too pushy?

[audio]

[dicey]

It's just kind of weird that you are way more sappy about this than we are!

[Vriska Serket: master of tact]

[audio]

[more_than_words]

Hm. [She hangs around with Cid and Yuffie (and even Cloud). Tact is quickly becoming a foreign diplomat in Tifa's world. She's going to take a moment to mentally digest the words however. And the fact she got caught. It's honest though when she says:] I'm sorry if it felt weird. Thinking other people are happy together makes me feel good myself. [and hopeful and wistful too.] If you catch me doing it again, you can tell me to stop if you want to, all right?

[audio]

[dicey]

I don't really care! It's sort of funny.

[audio]

[more_than_words]

[There's an exhale that might be a quiet laugh.]

Okay.

So - did you end up drawing on him?

[audio]

[dicey]

No. I was nice!

[TEXT]

[zackthepuppy]

Hi, Tifa. This is Zack. This is probably going to seem a little weird but I was told that you knew me. Don't worry. I know about my future.

[TEXT]

[more_than_words]

[Tifa's been leaving her PCD on to receive. It's her usual habit anyway, just to keep half an ear on things but since Cloud's left, she's needed the sound of other voices to fill the empty air. Text messages however usually get missed. She doesn't actually pick up her PCD often to check for things like that. When it beeps at her from its spot on the little stool she's left it on she looks up from the old wooden floor she's slowly scrubbing back to life and frowns at it. That's about the only action it gets for a full minute - until she finally sets down the half worn brush and reaches over to flip it toward her.

It promptly gets dropped. Scrambled after. Stared at for several long seconds. The return text gets typed and erased three times before she finally sends it.]

Zack? Is Cloud with you?

[TEXT]

[zackthepuppy]

[Inside the room where he had picked that isn't near Angeal's or in any place that he is familiar with, his dog Justice barked once when his PCD vibrates on the weathered nightstand. His head slowly turns on the pillow, his face showing signs of aging at least five years. Everything has been so hard lately.

His hand reaches for the device, even after he had sent the message, there is no turning back on the path he had started. He flips it open, half expecting the message to be a scolding one, his heart drops instead but it's a relief at the same time.]

No. I'm sorry. He's not with me. I want him to be. I have so many questions I need to ask.

[TEXT]

[more_than_words]

[She's glad it's text because she can feel her face fall at his answer. She doesn't want him to feel guilty for something that's not his fault and she knows Zack well enough, now, to know he'd feel bad all the same. She'd known better about Cloud but the hope had still jumped up inside her. He had a way of finding his way back to her. It seems perfectly natural to send her answering text and it's only after she does that she realizes... he'd said he'd been told he knew her. So - he didn't already?

It doesn't change her offer.]

Would you like to come over?

[TEXT]

[zackthepuppy]

Yes. I'd like to meet you, if you don't mind.

[He doesn't know about the Nibelheim incident yet. All he knows is that he's dead and he kills his mentor which sent him into a world of nightmares and terrible thoughts. It hurt...a lot.

Text is just easier to him. It keeps things simple without the complications of his own emotions getting in the way through his voice. Still, it didn't make things any easier.]

[TEXT]

[more_than_words]

[She doesn't know what he's already been through here, berating herself mentally for missing his arrival somehow but if he's already been told how he dies...if that's what 'knowing his future' means... she thinks that's a hard thing to swallow down. It's obvious, this text, that he doesn't know her and she wonders briefly who pays enough attention to her to even know she knew him, much less to mention her to him. It's a good thing though and she's already getting up and dusting off her skirt.]

I'm at the stadium. Come in and up the stairs on the south. There are a couple of chocobos in the field in the middle but Mr. Angry won't bother you if you give him a wide circle. I have a house in one of the boxes. It'll be the one with the lights on. {x,y}

[She adds the coordinates for good measure and then sets to work, tackling the job of putting everything she'd torn up in her fit of cleaning back together with something very close to her usual energy.]

[TEXT]

[zackthepuppy]

Got it. Tifa, thanks for seeing me on short notice. I can really use a friend right now.

[That's one thing he paid close attention to when it came to his training. Reading maps and understanding coordinates is something that he actually picked up pretty fast.

Tifa is right that he's in a bad place mentally. It's as if his entire world has been shattered and caving in. He snaps his PCD closed and continues his trek forward. His mental notes on the map provided is the only thing guiding him this time. He makes it a point to stay focused or else he would get lost along the way, even though emotionally, he was already sinking into despair.]

[TEXT]

[zackthepuppy]

Hey, there! I was thinking, maybe I can help with the chocobos. You got them there, right? I used to help the village with the ones we had and I know how to break them.

[Zach is in better spirits now that he's had time to adjust and let the dust settle.]

[TEXT]

[more_than_words]

[When her phone chimes a text message at her this time, she dives for it and the smile shows up as she reads it. The muscles in her shoulders also relax and she lets out an unconscious breath. It takes her a minute to answer back but only because she's finding a good place to sit down and curl her legs up.]

I'd like that. They're both tame but they need attention. Omelet should be fine but I think you and Mr. Angry might have a history from your last time here.


I think you're the reason he's called Mr. Angry.

[TEXT]

[zackthepuppy]

What did I do?

[He's pretty confused why a chocobo would be so mean like that. Man, his future self really did a number that he's got to correct. After a few moments, he sends another directly after.]

Okay, no problem. Sounds like my future self was a trouble maker. Geez. I don't mind giving them attention.

[TEXT]

[more_than_words]

I don't know.

[It's one of her regrets, that she didn't ask more questions when there were people here who knew. It just never seemed important because - well, there were people here that already knew and chocobo names had been down on her priority list.]

Don't blame yourself. He's cranky for everyone. I just got the impression that the two of you had a history. It can't be that bad. The older you took care of them the last time Cloud disappeared from what I understand. When would you like to come over?

[TEXT]

[zackthepuppy]

Oh good. That's a relief. If he's just that way with everyone, then he's just probably grumpy because it's just who he is. They're like people, you know.

I was thinking I can stop by after I find out what all this crazy is about from this weird Scavenger hunt. I hope that they're kidding. I just found out that they're hunting for body parts. What's up with that?

[TEXT]

[more_than_words]

[She'd been so isolated, she hadn't even realized what was going on until the messages started coming in on the PCD. It was horrifying and she'd felt both guilty and relieved and then guilty about feeling relieved when she'd realized she didn't have a team bracelet. She's sure people have already warned him already - but that's not going to stop her from adding her own.]

Things are like that here. Sometimes the events are just silly or embarrassing. Sometimes they're even helpful. But sometimes

Zack, sometimes they're sick. The monsters who make these things happen, they like to hurt people. Even more than that, they like to make other people hurt each other. Before this, there was a killing game of people trapped in the mall. When the monsters decide to make things violent, they like to do it in ways that hurt people inside as well as physically. You need to be careful.

[TEXT]

[zackthepuppy]

I will. I promise. Shuichi, I met him when I first got here, him and his band are hunting buddies of mine. I'll be okay. We'll make sure that everyone stays alive. I'm in a thorn hut with him in the Gardens. There's safety in numbers. It's a good thing they don't know about you.

[It was because of his mass network text that he sent out that he was willing to help that put him in harm's way in a flash. It was almost in that instant that those that know him gathered him up to hide him.]

It'll be okay.