Main Campfire, Monday Evening

[longislandiceme]

"No, Kate, you can't have a s'more," Bobby said sternly to the cat who was currently nosing around the s'more ingredients he'd set up. "Because s'mores aren't for cats, that's why."

No, he couldn't actually understand cat. He's just Bobby, and physically incapable of shutting up for more than a few minutes at a time.

[ooc: open! location moved 'cos I'm a dolt who didn't notice there was already an evening post set at Ninth Hell. not deleting this time, I promise.]

Comments

[puppy_fair]

He'd never heard of it! It would probably be for the best if he continued not hearing about it, so that he couldn't tell Cloud that he had heard of it, some time down the road!

Oh, what tangled webs we weave...

He relaxed a little, easing back to lean against a log from where he'd plopped down on the ground.

"I mean... I know about Midgar." He seemed less happy, talking about that. "Someone's already mentioned that part to me."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

That snapped Elena to attention in a hurry.

"Who?" Elena asked, her eyes narrowing sharply. "And what is it they told you?"

No one should be telling Zack anything. Yuffie understood that, or Elena had thought she did. If she didn't, that was going to require a second conversation, one that was slightly more ... emphatic.

[puppy_fair]

"Um." Okay, Zack had to kind of lean back a little, sort of taken aback at the snapping to attention and the narrowed eyes. "A friend of mine? Dinah. She mentioned that bad things happen in Midgar, things that can't really be avoided. She said that I make a difference, somehow. I don't think she really had all of the details, either."

He tapped his fingers together, frowning, and then he reached for a marshmallow. This was definite marshmallow conversation.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Is she from Midgar?" Elena said, suspiciously. Dinah. She was going to remember that name. And find that person. And do whatever was necessary to keep that person from possibly destroying her world, through malice or stupidity.

What if someone had already told him about ... oh, fuck.

"Zack, listen to me. This is important. Just because she thinks she knows what happens, doesn't mean she does. It might not be the same Midgar. This island is a dimensional nexus, which means all sorts of different realities connect here. There could be some version of Gaia out there that never even had a city called Midgar, or where Wutai won the war, or where chocobos only come in the color purple. You can't let what might or might not happen to some other Midgar or some other you affect what decisions you make."

Especially not the decision to rescue Cloud. Please do not rethink that one, Zack? That one had the fate of an entire world hinging on it.

[puppy_fair]

"Nah, she's from Earth somewhere, I'm pretty sure," Zack replied with a shrug. And then he swayed a little as he reached for a stick to throw a marshmallow onto.

Stabby! Stabby the marshmallow!

"So, ShinRa wins the war, huh?"

Zack Fair, totally missing the point, yes.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Elena closed her eyes for a long moment, and exhaled.

"You see?" she said. "You see why I can't talk to you?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack gave his head a shake, sticking his marshmallow into the fire.

Where it promptly went up in flames. Oops.

He took a moment to pull it out again, and then blew on it until it was just a sticky, smoldering char.

"Don't worry about it. Really. I'm not the type to worry about what might happen, anyhow. Today is right here, I'm going to handle it while I still can."

He eyed the marshmallow critically for a moment, and then flicked off some ash and held it out toward her, smiling lightly.

"I never did catch your name, you know."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Elena," she said. "Of the Turks, but I'm trying to keep that part under wraps. Lots of people wouldn't be very happy about what we do."

She couldn't blame them. Murder, torture, espionage: all in a day's work.

[puppy_fair]

"Well then, Elena," Zack said, nodding toward the marshmallow in-case she wanted it, "nobody has to find out."

He smiled, brightly. It was like the unpleasant undertones of the entire conversation had just wandered away.

"You'll find that people here tend to be a lot more accepting of others than they can be back home."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Some things are hard to take," she said, taking the marshmallow hesitantly. It was too much like bonding, trusting, connecting. Things she should not be doing with Zack. "We're not ... like you, in SOLDIER, you know."

He was naive, and sweet, and possibly didn't realize exactly how dirty the dirty work could get.

[puppy_fair]

Zack really didn't have any idea how dirty the dirty work could be, and it would be a few more months before he'd be able to form any mental image of it at all.

Zack was also infamously difficult to dissuade from a friendship. It worked nicely in his favor, sometimes.

"Well, we in SOLDIER get out there and do all of the big jobs," Zack noted, reaching for another marshmallow to stabbity on the end of his stick. Putting the marshmallow on the stick was probably his favorite part. "And I don't really know much about the Turks, honestly. But we're all ShinRa. If anyone has any problems with you, Elena, then they have problems with the both of us."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Elena popped the marshmallow into her mouth and chewed on it. It kept her from saying things she really shouldn't and absolutely couldn't. Chew. Chew. Chew. Swallow.

"Some day," she said softly, "when you find out more about the Turks, you might change your mind on that. I just wanted to tell you that it's okay, if you do. I won't hold it against you."

[puppy_fair]

"You know," Zack mused, tilting his head as he stuck his marshmallow into the fire, "judging by how worried you seem about it, I think I already have a pretty decent idea what kind of person you are, job or none."

And really, he wasn't one to talk. He probably killed more people on a mission than most Turks did in ten.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Wartime was different.

"I'm not a nice person," Elena said calmly. "I don't think they let you join, if you are."

[puppy_fair]

"A bad person wouldn't bother warning me," Zack pointed out.

Flawless Zack logic at its finest, really.