Day 53: Intercom, Evening

[damned_intercom]

The commotion just after the intercom's jingle displayed the same kind of erratic energy that the Head Doctor had been exuding all day.

"Come on, get those papers out of the way - no, I don't...! Ah! Good evening, everyone, and I hope you all enjoyed the activities we had to

Comments

[itwillbecome]

Zack looked, to be honest, completely baffled. This did not help Terra's confidence any. He contemplated the idea that he'd made a mistake for a moment, but that was pretty unlikely. He had answered to the name, after all, and his look was pretty unique, even if he was older than Terra remembered him. The apologetic tone of Zack's voice just made things sting that much worse.

But he could explain, right? Not that there was much more to explain, he thought, not without getting into things he wasn't certain that he wanted to discuss. "I was visiting the Colisuem," he began, trying to hide his discomfort. "Near Thebes, I think the place was called. I entered the Coliseum battles and you were my opponent. Pretty powerful too and Hades' manipulation didn't help." He frowned, obviously confused. "I didn't think it was the kind of thing you could forget. Although..." he paused, rubbing the back of his neck and looking a bit embarrassed, "you were a lot younger then, but you aren't the first person I've met here who's the wrong age." Him and Riku. He couldn't even imagine how he could have missed so much time passing.

[zack_fair]

Even when Terra said the name, "coliseum" didn't ring any bells. It sounded a bit too outdated for somewhere like Midgar, but maybe there was another part of Gaia that was nicknamed that and he just didn't know? But Thebes didn't ring any bells either, and he was pretty sure he would have at least known one of the two. More than that, he didn't know Terra, so it was no surprise that nothing in his story was familiar to him.

But they had fought against each other? That was something that Zack could believe, since he did have some fondness for competitions. He wouldn't have wanted to beat someone so much younger than him, just because it seemed like overkill (so to speak). What he liked even less was the mention of manipulation, though. Who did this Hades guy think he was?

So he'd been younger, huh? In that case, the fact that they'd been fighting made sense. More than that, Terra must have known him pretty well if he remembered him now. Granted, his hair was pretty hard to mistake, so there was that. "That's weird. I don't think I would have forgotten something like that, either, even if I was younger," he said as he rubbed at the back of his head. "I haven't heard of Thebes, either."

He had no idea what was going on, but his instinct was to blame Landel. Sighing, Zack ended up just shrugging his shoulders as he tried once more to shake Terra's hand. "Well, if we somehow knew each other at some point, then we can get to that point again, right? It's nice to meet you, Terra." He knew they'd already gone through introductions, but he wanted to start on the right foot now.

[itwillbecome]

"No," Terra agreed, still frowning at the revelation. It didn't make any sense that he wouldn't be remembered, but this whole ordeal was proving to be nonsensical in his mind. Maybe his view of what was normal was a little skewed though, by most people's standards. "It wasn't really the kind of thing that someone would forget." He imagined that being posessed in such a way was the kind of thing that stuck in your mind for a good long while afterwards.

The gesture was so familiar though. He couldn't see how Zack could be anyone else than the kid that he'd met. Everything was the same except the age.

This time when Zack's hand was offered, Terra took it, albeit a little hesitantly. He shook it firmly, and at the introduction, a small smile curled his lips. At least Zack's temperament didn't seem to be any different. It would have been worse if Zack had started to hate him or something.

"Yeah, yeah we can. Nice to meet you too, Zack," he replied. And it was a little awkward, and a lot weird, but not half bad.

[zack_fair]

It seemed that something he'd done had been the right thing, seeing how he caught that little smile on the kid's face. It wasn't much, but it counted for a lot considering how weird this situation was between them. More than that, Terra seemed willing to start over, which was good news to Zack. He didn't know how else to approach this.

"So, where do we start?" he asked as he spun around on his heel and sat down at his desk once more. The food there was cold by now, but Zack still did his best to pick at it.

Seeing how Locke had been here just last night, it went to follow that Terra was new here. More than that, he was still pretty young, which meant he could probably do for some direction. "Well, as much as I'd like to learn more about you, I should tell you first that this place isn't as harmless as it tries to seem. If you're heading out tonight" -- had the boy even heard? -- "then you need to be careful."

It was easy for him to slip into mentor mode when he felt the need to, and it made him realize how old he really was. Blegh.