TDM 002

[erkumods]

TDM 002: IF FOUND PLEASE RETURN TO

( 1 ) Around mid-morning, a message from the Augur appears on bracelets all across the city. "New organisms discovered. Domestication in progress." The wark of a chocobo rises up from the outskirts of the city. Several more join in, forming a charming chorus. And, strangely, this is when new arrivals begin to show up. Beamed in one at a time, scanned en masse, they are processed just as the first wave was. There's one major difference: whereas the old guard was given their bracelets and ushered into the City, the new folks are also given... collars. Buckled, snapped, or otherwise fastened around their necks, a variety of colorful collars with some rather unusual novelty pet tags. (These are just a few suggestions. The typical “If found, please return to ____” is also very much acceptable.) "You are new organisms. Domestication in progress. Compatible Eros energy will complete domestication." No matter how hard they try, characters cannot take the collars off by themselves. They need a partner's help - but not just anyone will do. It very well might be the first person they find, or it might take several tries. The robots grow bolder as the day grows on, targeting characters who aren't new, as well. "Y̶o̶u̴ ̸a̷r̸e̷ ̵o̵r̵g̶a̴n̷i̷s̶m̸s̶.̶ ̶D̷o̶m̴e̴s̶t̶i̶c̵a̸t̶i̸o̴n̸ ̷i̵n̸ ̴p̸r̶o̵g̷r̵e̷s̵s̷." Their antics die down by nightfall, but for the next day or two, the occasional malfunctioning 'bot may accost someone in the street, so stay on your toes! ( 2 ) An abandoned racetrack lights up the night. That's right: place your bets, folks, because these birds are about to run around a track while robots sell synthetic, overpriced aphro-popcorn. ...Did you say priced? That’s right! If you participated in the orgy earlier this month, you'll find you have a stash of credits accessible in your app. You've fucked money back into the world, so why not waste it? (Opportunities to earn credits will come up periodically and won't always be sexual in nature, so don't worry if your character wouldn't have any yet.) And if you don't have credits to bet with, why not get creative? ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● N A V I G A T I O N

Comments

[vanguarda]

[the comment on the hair length catches zack off-guard momentarily, because it's so innocuous, so normal, that for however long the breath of those words gets to remain in the air between them, they're back in midgar, doing some dumb assignment for shinra—talking about the good old days without any sort of inkling to what already transpired.]

[zack feels that feeling compressing before it crashes, as angeal guides the chocobo back. he follows, too, as if compelled by the greens he carries with him.]

[he feels out of breath—]

[angeal doesn't know about what happened to sephiroth. to angeal, it's the awkward reunion between two friends, one dead while the other remained. angeal didn't get to see, what happened in nibelheim. should he say something? but he'll tell sephiroth eventually (he has to), so it wouldn't be right to keep angeal in the dark. would angeal see sephiroth as anything different?]

[—and his breathing is ragged as he drags himself towards the stable, a hand reaching up to hold onto the door of the stable, swinging it closed once the chocobo gets settled inside.]

Something happened to him. [alarmingly, he can't keep his tongue in check.] But he doesn't know about it. I'll have to tell him, and I don't know how to do that. He's... from five years before me. [and perhaps, hilariously] I'm older than him, Angeal!

[wingsofhonor]

Wait. [Zack officially has his full attention now.] What happened?

[Judging from the pup's tone it sounds if Sephiroth had an accident or something but that's rather unlikely since the man is damn near indestructible. So what could've happened? Before Angeal could inquire further about that, Zack drops the following bombshell.]

You're older than him?

[He blinks his eyes owlishly at Zack as he does the math. If the Sephiroth they know is only twenty-one, then...wait.]

Well, shit.

[He accidentally swears as he lets out a laugh.]

That means your older than me too! You do realize the three of us were born all in the same year, right?

[Sephiroth, Genesis, and he were all born in the same year due to the start of both Project G and Project S. The masterminds involved planned it all much to their displeasure. It's not something that Angeal ever really thought about but he did find it rather coincidental that they're birthdays were so close together.]

Don't you get any ideas, Zack. I'm still the mentor around here, got it?

[He's teasing of, course.]

[vanguarda]

[the teasing might hit a little too close to home, and not in the right place. he hadn't even stopped to consider that he'd be older than angeal, that it would mean something because angeal wouldn't be alive to celebrate any more birthdays. his breath hitches uncomfortably—his expression a scowl through the hurt in his eyes.]

Good, 'cause I don't want to be the adult!

[how it rips through him, the unfair certainty that he's had to be the one to make decisions that are beyond him—or that he's had to do what others push onto him.]

[the silence that follows is awkward, as zack curls onto himself, shoulders hunched and chin dipped downwards, an uncomfortable tightness to how his hands remain frozen where they are; as if he realizes that his outburst was highly uncalled for, and he turns his gaze away, unwilling to look at his mentor.]

[the three of them. they're meant to be dead. is genesis going to show up, next?]

[he breathes heavily, this ugly thing still budding within him. the shuffling of the chocobo and a sharp chirp serves him as a cue. he says what he says because it's scalding hot in his tongue, and if he hesitates now, he'll hesitate forever.]

You're not the only one who got brought back from the dead, Angeal.