Taura's stomach was growling, but she could be patient. Her nails were still tacky; she'd rather wear nail polish and eat lunch than vice versa
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The kid had a point. Earth was... sort of a boring name, whereas Gaia just fit somehow. Zack had to admit that talking about home made him miss it all the more, even though he realized that there wasn't a place for him there anymore. He was lucky enough to have gotten that chance to see it, real or not, when he had been teleported there with Cloud and Yuffie.
Now, Cloud didn't even remember that. There was so much he still had to tell his friend. It was almost exhausting.
Though in all honesty, Zack had figured that Hope wouldn't know what a chocobo was. He'd never heard anyone in this place talk about them, and so the fact that their worlds shared that in common was actually kind of bizarre. "You have chocobos too? Big yellow birds? Well, some of them come in other colors..." Zack had only heard rumors about the black chocobo, but he believed that it existed. It was always more interesting to believe in things like that. "But yeah, we have racing. It's just for sport, really. Some people even bet."
What was even stranger was how the boy knew about chocobos but had no idea of what a continent was. Hearing that just made Zack even more curious about what sort of place Hope came from. Was it just one big land mass? "A continent is a large piece of land. Gaia has five of them, give or take. They're separated by the ocean. Why, how does it work where you come from?" he asked, turning to face the boy as he tilted his head.
They were getting further and further away from the rest of the patients, and even the staff was having a hard time keeping an eye on them at this point. They were going to have to head back soon.
"Other colors?" He tried to think of other colors, but couldn't really come up with anything. He had heard about someone trying to dye Chocobo chicks in other colors before, but that person had been shut down almost immediately by the Sanctum and the overwhelming protest to to treatment of chicks like that. And that had been a really old news story once. From what he knew, they were all big and yellow. And they seemed such a normal thing that he couldn't imagine any world without Chocobos... that would almost be like trying to imagine a place with purple grass and green skies. Just too different.
...This world had Chocobos, right?
And-- land separated by oceans? That was such a strange thought. Why would anyone want to live so far from each other? It was just inconvenient. But... it was okay to say, right? If this place was another world; if people had a hard enough time getting back.
It felt strange. Only his first day away, and he wasn't sure what to feel about things anymore. About home, and about what he was supposed to do. With his brand concealed, it was almost like he was pretending to be normal again, as normal as he could get while walking down a street in a foreign town on another world (probably in another universe), under falling snow. Any moment now, he expected to wake up and realize that this was all just a dream.
Any moment.
"We have one land. There's... rivers and stuff, but the ocean is just kind of... around us?" It made more sense to him. The fal'Cie kept the lands together to make it more convenient. He tried to think of similarities to that description, though. "There are... cities? We've got lots of cities away from each other, and there are forests in-between... um. Why would you have so many lands far away from each other?"
"Well, the ones that are other colors are pretty rare, I think..." Any regular chocobo farm was definitely only going to have the normal yellow kind, that was for sure. Zack had even heard rumors of a special gold chocobo, but he didn't know if that was an old wives' tale or not. Either way, he was getting a bit too caught up in thoughts of a home he might not see again.
It was far more interesting to hear about Hope's home now that the boy was finally explaining it. So it was as Zack had guessed -- they only had one large landmass surrounded by an ocean. It was an odd concept, to think that all that land could stay in one piece without breaking off eventually, but maybe Hope's planet was smaller than Gaia. At least they did have an ocean. The idea of there not being one at all was too bizarre.
"We have lots of forests and cities too," he explained. "But uhh... I mean, the world just developed that way. It's not like someone made a conscious decision for the continents to be broken up the way they are. That's just how the planet is." He shrugged, not knowing if there was any better way to explain it. He didn't really want to launch into a science lesson when they were in the middle of trudging through thick snow.
"But we should probably turn around," he said as he spun on his heel (as best as he could in the snow) and looked back the way they'd come from. "I don't know if I can feel my hands anymore," he joked. Although it was sort of the case.
He nodded along absentmindedly, more than willing to head back as well. As ready as he had been to walk along outside, especially where there was less people, the cold was more than starting to get to him again. Even with his hands in his pockets, they were still starting to go numb once again.
It took him a bit longer to get a grip on his trail enough to turn around, but it wasn't that bad now that he had at least a little bit of experience in walking in the snow.
Still, he couldn't seem to wrap his mind around the idea of multiple lands. "But why-?" He cut off, trying to figure it out himself. Why would the fal'Cie even create land masses like that? But then, thinking about it, maybe this was more like Pulse. He had heard stories about the fal'Cie there being merciless and terrible. Maybe that's what happened...?
He still wasn't sure about that, though, but then... worlds were different, right?
It seemed like Hope was really hung up on this continent thing, which caused Zack to run a very cold hand through his hair as he wondered if there was any easier way to explain that that was just how it was. There was no reason for it; things had just ended up that way.
So for a moment he just focused on making his way back, which was much easier since he was able to step back into his own footprints. He didn't want to be responsible for a young kid getting hurt or lost or catching cold, though, and so he continued to glance over his shoulder to make sure that Hope was keeping up.
"There's no reason," he said after a pause. "I mean, the water and the land just moved around and ended up in that shape. Nothing made it that way." Some people did pray and believed that there was some greater being that had crafted the planet to be the way that it was, but that was more myth than anything, just like all that talk of WEAPONs...
This conversation was making it clear that they were coming from two very different places, and yet both at least had chocobos in common. Zack wondered how that sort of thing was even possible.
He hesitated in asking, but that just sounded... odd. Awkward. Where were the fal'Cie in that? He learned from school that Cocoon had over million fal'Cie controlling different aspects of the world, so he wasn't sure which one actually controlled the land, but...
"But how come no one moves it back?" Okay, so he could picture time and planetary shifts moving land... kind of. And he could get that certain things might not be controlled-- like the weather in this world. But that was just something he was... missing, wasn't there? Something seemed wrong. Which was saying something, considering all the things that had happened.
"Isn't there--" He couldn't even figure out the question to ask, and made a frustrated noise at his own inability to understand why this entire thread of questioning felt so wrong. It took a few moments for him to calm that agitation, at least enough to just shake off the thought. "Never mind. I guess it's just... different."
He took a moment to bring his hands out of his pockets again to try and tug the collar of his shirt up higher and hide his chin in there, trying to shake the flakes off his hat and hair as well.
The kid's questions were just getting odder as they continued to fumble through this topic. Maybe it had been a bad idea to bring it up in the first place, although there was no way Zack could have known that and now he was legitimately curious. "Move it back? How could you do that?" There were definitely some people on Gaia who had abilities that were out of the ordinary -- hell, he could be counted as one -- but nothing even close to the amount of strength it would take to move a whole land mass.
"Are there people on your world who can do that kind of thing? Move continents around?" he asked Hope with genuine interest. They had made it back through the stretch of park that they had walked into, hitting the concrete again as they reached Main Street.
From the looks of it, most people were going to get lunch at this point, and Zack had to admit that he was starting to get hungry. Still, he wasn't going to part ways from the kid until he at least got this sorted out. Arms crossed over his chest (another attempt at generating some warmth), he waited for Hope's reply.
He frowned at the idea. "Don't you guys have--?" Fal'Cie? Except from what he had gotten so far, it seemed to be a negative. Still, that couldn't be right, could it? The fal'Cie were everywhere-- Hope wasn't even sure if worlds could exist without fal'Cie. The thought of it boggled him.
Boggled him enough to venture into the topic, as mine-filled as it was with him.
"Don't the fal'Cie take care of the lands?" Because what else would they be doing if not taking care of the lands and such? Phoenix had provided sunlight, Carbuncle generated the food supply, Eden provided shelter and advice for the Sanctum... what would the fal'Cie of Gaia be doing if not taking care of people? They wouldn't allow the lands to drift away like that, especially if that meant it would take longer to get to everyone. "I mean, if they don't take care of the land, then what would they do?"
It seemed like things were starting to fall into place. Sort of. Well, Zack at least knew why there had been all this confusion floating between them. It sounded like Hope's world had something that he'd taken for granted as existing in every world, when that wasn't actually the case. It made him wonder if there was something along those lines on Gaia, but the only thing that came to mind was the Lifestream. Still, that was a pretty big deal. Where did people on Earth go when they died?
"Fal'Cie? What are those? Or... what is that?" He didn't even know if it was referring to a person, a thing, or a group of things, but he got the feeling that even asking that question was going to blow Hope's mind, considering how hard he'd been trying to grasp the idea of a planet that had separate land masses.
"Nothing really takes care of Gaia except for -- well, Shin-Ra would like to say that they do, but they control more than anything else." That was part of the reason why Gaia had been suffering so much. Only those resistance groups like AVALANCHE had been looking out for the good of the land itself, and Zack didn't know if they'd been very successful in the end.
What were fal'Cie? What kind of a question was that? Hope had no idea how to describe them. They just were, and they had always been. As long as people have existed, so had fal'Cie. He stopped in his steps, completely befuddled by the idea of even having to explain them. How would people describe air? Only that thing you've been breathing all your life.
"They're--" He cut off, unable to grasp his own words. Only the beings that provided light, maintained the land and weather, generated the food, gave people energy to use, and took care of people. Kept them alive. Kept order.
Created l'Cie.
Could worlds with people even exist without them? Even Pulse, despite being Hell, had fal'Cie. If not for the fal'Cie, Cocoon wouldn't exist. His would would never have been standing in the sky at all-- it would have crashed to the surface of Pulse, shattered as it collapsed into Hell. How could he even begin to describe something that had always been there?
"Maybe they just go by another name in your world." That was more likely.
Judging from the look on Hope's face, the way he'd stopped suddenly, and the fact that he couldn't really get his words out, Zack figured he was right about his question blowing the kid's mind. He felt kind of bad, but Hope was going to have figured this out sooner or later, and it was better than he got his bearings in this place as quickly as possible. It wasn't like other worlds being different suddenly changed his, after all, though Zack could understand how it might lead to a feeling of displacement for someone so young.
Unfortunately, instead of getting a proper explanation he was just faced with denial. Zack sighed and placed his hands on his hips. He couldn't really blame Hope for resisting the truth, but it was making the conversation difficult to navigate.
"I don't think so," he said with a shake of his head. "We don't have anyone or anything that can move continents around. Maybe it seems weird to you, but a lot of the worlds I've heard about here are pretty different. I've even met some people who aren't in their actual bodies in this place." He was thinking of ZEX in particular -- he hoped that the alien was all right.
"I know it's a lot to take in, but..." He lifted his arm so that he could rub at the back of his neck, not sure if there was anything more he could say.
Aliens and other worlds seemed infinitely more possible than the idea of a place without fal'Cie. How would anything work without them?
"They might not always be nice," He offered, trying to think of a way where it would work. Cocoon had fal'Cie who tended to people, but Pulse didn't. Maybe most places were like Pulse, then, where the fal'Cie seemed more to ignore people than anything else. At least, that was how the stories went. "They might not even move the lands or anything. But they'd be there, even if they aren't doing anything noticeable."
That must be it. He nodded to himself. At least he had figured that part out. Maybe in other places, they didn't show themselves that much. After all... where there was people, there were fal'Cie. And even if the fal'Cie never really showed themselves to the people or bothered trying to help them or anything... wait. That meant those worlds didn't have l'Cie... right?
No l'Cie?
It was so unbelievable it seemed more like a dream. The words and names could be different, but... even with other worlds, there were similarities. They had Chocobos, even the other world seemed to use them for racing more than raising them as pets.
"What about people touched by... something? Different?" He hesitated to put it into words, but... "Changed?"
It seemed like Hope was pretty desperate for some sort of validation, and so Zack started to really think, wondering if the boy's words fit anything about what he knew of Gaia. He came back to the myth about the WEAPONs, but that was something that had never been proved. Maybe it would make more sense to equate the Fal'Cie with the summons? Those had come to him, challenged him, and then helped him, but Zack didn't know if they did anything specific for the world itself.
"Not really sure," he admitted as he rubbed at the back of his neck some more, wondering if he should explain those concepts or not. He didn't want to give Hope the belief that these Fal'Cie things existed on Gaia when they didn't, but he also didn't want to let the boy down. This was why it was tough to interact with kids.
However, the next question took Zack by surprise, mainly because it did hit a note. Maybe it wasn't the right one, but all he could think of was the experimentation Shin-Ra had done, infusing SOLDIERs with mako and even Jenova cells in his and Cloud's case. And then there was what had happened to Genesis and Angeal, how they had changed.
He was quite for a moment, glancing back down the road into town. How had this conversation become so difficult? "Yeah, there's... something like that. Kind of. No one's supposed to know, and it's Shin-Ra's fault, but..."
There was no need for him to keep secrets here, and yet Zack's first instinct was still to keep the details to himself.
And that was all he needed to know, really. Hope didn't have any intention in questioning further into that, seeing as he was just as avoidant of those subjects. He just nodded, feeling slightly better about things. Maybe their fal'Cie had been hidden by that company of theirs, and that was why they supposedly had the power to change the world. Or whatever it was.
"That could be them, then." He was much quieter this time, though. He pulled his hands out of his pockets again to breathe into them, trying his best to warm them up... at least get some feeling back into them again even as he started walking again. As fine as he had been with the cold while they were walking out (and to be completely truthful, he hadn't really been fine with it), it felt even colder walking back. Maybe it was the thought of the heated stores that were getting close again.
He looked up into the sky, wondering just how long it would keep snowing. It was nice to watch, but being in the middle of it for too long seemed to be a pain, now.
"No one's ever supposed to know." Because that's how it was, wasn't it? People got changed and then the moment everyone else found out... they panic. And then innocent people would get caught in the crossfire.
That was one thing that Hope said that rung true with Zack. No one's ever supposed to know. It always came out in the end, though. That was something he believed just as strongly. As hard as Shin-Ra might have tried to silence him through death, he knew that word had eventually gotten out about the terrible things they were doing. And if not all of it had become common knowledge yet, it would. He doubted Cloud would have had it any other way.
He still wasn't sure of how similar his world was in comparison to Hope's, but they seemed to have reached a point where the boy was satisfied about at least one aspect of it. He would get a better idea of how worlds differed as he talked to more people, at least.
"Well," he said with a shrug of his shoulders, "I'm going to go and grab a bite to eat. You're free to come with me, but if you want to go wandering around some more, that's fine too. Just make sure you don't freeze to death, okay?" He meant the last comment as a joke and punctuated it with a grin to make that clear. It was definitely cold out, but as long as people headed inside from time to time to warm up, there wasn't much danger involved.
He looked up at the other and took a moment to think about it before he shook his head. "I think... I'll stay out here just a little longer."
Because as cold as it was, he still wasn't sure if he wanted to go somewhere with more people yet. He might duck into a nearly empty store from time to time to warm up, but he didn't know whether he really wanted to interact with the townspeople or not. They seemed almost as avoidant and fearful as the people at home at been... almost.
Besides, he wasn't sure if he wanted to stay with one person in specifics yet. The last time he had tagged behind someone... well, that hadn't worked out well for him. And he wasn't sure if he wanted to trust anyone to not just leave him behind anymore.
He only hesitated a moment before breathing out and shaking his head again, though. "I'll... be okay."
Because although he wasn't sure about that, the other seemed nice enough, at least. He shoved his hands back into his pockets and stared up at the other, determined to be able to take care of himself outside.
Now, Cloud didn't even remember that. There was so much he still had to tell his friend. It was almost exhausting.
Though in all honesty, Zack had figured that Hope wouldn't know what a chocobo was. He'd never heard anyone in this place talk about them, and so the fact that their worlds shared that in common was actually kind of bizarre. "You have chocobos too? Big yellow birds? Well, some of them come in other colors..." Zack had only heard rumors about the black chocobo, but he believed that it existed. It was always more interesting to believe in things like that. "But yeah, we have racing. It's just for sport, really. Some people even bet."
What was even stranger was how the boy knew about chocobos but had no idea of what a continent was. Hearing that just made Zack even more curious about what sort of place Hope came from. Was it just one big land mass? "A continent is a large piece of land. Gaia has five of them, give or take. They're separated by the ocean. Why, how does it work where you come from?" he asked, turning to face the boy as he tilted his head.
They were getting further and further away from the rest of the patients, and even the staff was having a hard time keeping an eye on them at this point. They were going to have to head back soon.
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...This world had Chocobos, right?
And-- land separated by oceans? That was such a strange thought. Why would anyone want to live so far from each other? It was just inconvenient. But... it was okay to say, right? If this place was another world; if people had a hard enough time getting back.
It felt strange. Only his first day away, and he wasn't sure what to feel about things anymore. About home, and about what he was supposed to do. With his brand concealed, it was almost like he was pretending to be normal again, as normal as he could get while walking down a street in a foreign town on another world (probably in another universe), under falling snow. Any moment now, he expected to wake up and realize that this was all just a dream.
Any moment.
"We have one land. There's... rivers and stuff, but the ocean is just kind of... around us?" It made more sense to him. The fal'Cie kept the lands together to make it more convenient. He tried to think of similarities to that description, though. "There are... cities? We've got lots of cities away from each other, and there are forests in-between... um. Why would you have so many lands far away from each other?"
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It was far more interesting to hear about Hope's home now that the boy was finally explaining it. So it was as Zack had guessed -- they only had one large landmass surrounded by an ocean. It was an odd concept, to think that all that land could stay in one piece without breaking off eventually, but maybe Hope's planet was smaller than Gaia. At least they did have an ocean. The idea of there not being one at all was too bizarre.
"We have lots of forests and cities too," he explained. "But uhh... I mean, the world just developed that way. It's not like someone made a conscious decision for the continents to be broken up the way they are. That's just how the planet is." He shrugged, not knowing if there was any better way to explain it. He didn't really want to launch into a science lesson when they were in the middle of trudging through thick snow.
"But we should probably turn around," he said as he spun on his heel (as best as he could in the snow) and looked back the way they'd come from. "I don't know if I can feel my hands anymore," he joked. Although it was sort of the case.
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It took him a bit longer to get a grip on his trail enough to turn around, but it wasn't that bad now that he had at least a little bit of experience in walking in the snow.
Still, he couldn't seem to wrap his mind around the idea of multiple lands. "But why-?" He cut off, trying to figure it out himself. Why would the fal'Cie even create land masses like that? But then, thinking about it, maybe this was more like Pulse. He had heard stories about the fal'Cie there being merciless and terrible. Maybe that's what happened...?
He still wasn't sure about that, though, but then... worlds were different, right?
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So for a moment he just focused on making his way back, which was much easier since he was able to step back into his own footprints. He didn't want to be responsible for a young kid getting hurt or lost or catching cold, though, and so he continued to glance over his shoulder to make sure that Hope was keeping up.
"There's no reason," he said after a pause. "I mean, the water and the land just moved around and ended up in that shape. Nothing made it that way." Some people did pray and believed that there was some greater being that had crafted the planet to be the way that it was, but that was more myth than anything, just like all that talk of WEAPONs...
This conversation was making it clear that they were coming from two very different places, and yet both at least had chocobos in common. Zack wondered how that sort of thing was even possible.
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"But how come no one moves it back?" Okay, so he could picture time and planetary shifts moving land... kind of. And he could get that certain things might not be controlled-- like the weather in this world. But that was just something he was... missing, wasn't there? Something seemed wrong. Which was saying something, considering all the things that had happened.
"Isn't there--" He couldn't even figure out the question to ask, and made a frustrated noise at his own inability to understand why this entire thread of questioning felt so wrong. It took a few moments for him to calm that agitation, at least enough to just shake off the thought. "Never mind. I guess it's just... different."
He took a moment to bring his hands out of his pockets again to try and tug the collar of his shirt up higher and hide his chin in there, trying to shake the flakes off his hat and hair as well.
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"Are there people on your world who can do that kind of thing? Move continents around?" he asked Hope with genuine interest. They had made it back through the stretch of park that they had walked into, hitting the concrete again as they reached Main Street.
From the looks of it, most people were going to get lunch at this point, and Zack had to admit that he was starting to get hungry. Still, he wasn't going to part ways from the kid until he at least got this sorted out. Arms crossed over his chest (another attempt at generating some warmth), he waited for Hope's reply.
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Boggled him enough to venture into the topic, as mine-filled as it was with him.
"Don't the fal'Cie take care of the lands?" Because what else would they be doing if not taking care of the lands and such? Phoenix had provided sunlight, Carbuncle generated the food supply, Eden provided shelter and advice for the Sanctum... what would the fal'Cie of Gaia be doing if not taking care of people? They wouldn't allow the lands to drift away like that, especially if that meant it would take longer to get to everyone. "I mean, if they don't take care of the land, then what would they do?"
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"Fal'Cie? What are those? Or... what is that?" He didn't even know if it was referring to a person, a thing, or a group of things, but he got the feeling that even asking that question was going to blow Hope's mind, considering how hard he'd been trying to grasp the idea of a planet that had separate land masses.
"Nothing really takes care of Gaia except for -- well, Shin-Ra would like to say that they do, but they control more than anything else." That was part of the reason why Gaia had been suffering so much. Only those resistance groups like AVALANCHE had been looking out for the good of the land itself, and Zack didn't know if they'd been very successful in the end.
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"They're--" He cut off, unable to grasp his own words. Only the beings that provided light, maintained the land and weather, generated the food, gave people energy to use, and took care of people. Kept them alive. Kept order.
Created l'Cie.
Could worlds with people even exist without them? Even Pulse, despite being Hell, had fal'Cie. If not for the fal'Cie, Cocoon wouldn't exist. His would would never have been standing in the sky at all-- it would have crashed to the surface of Pulse, shattered as it collapsed into Hell. How could he even begin to describe something that had always been there?
"Maybe they just go by another name in your world." That was more likely.
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Unfortunately, instead of getting a proper explanation he was just faced with denial. Zack sighed and placed his hands on his hips. He couldn't really blame Hope for resisting the truth, but it was making the conversation difficult to navigate.
"I don't think so," he said with a shake of his head. "We don't have anyone or anything that can move continents around. Maybe it seems weird to you, but a lot of the worlds I've heard about here are pretty different. I've even met some people who aren't in their actual bodies in this place." He was thinking of ZEX in particular -- he hoped that the alien was all right.
"I know it's a lot to take in, but..." He lifted his arm so that he could rub at the back of his neck, not sure if there was anything more he could say.
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"They might not always be nice," He offered, trying to think of a way where it would work. Cocoon had fal'Cie who tended to people, but Pulse didn't. Maybe most places were like Pulse, then, where the fal'Cie seemed more to ignore people than anything else. At least, that was how the stories went. "They might not even move the lands or anything. But they'd be there, even if they aren't doing anything noticeable."
That must be it. He nodded to himself. At least he had figured that part out. Maybe in other places, they didn't show themselves that much. After all... where there was people, there were fal'Cie. And even if the fal'Cie never really showed themselves to the people or bothered trying to help them or anything... wait. That meant those worlds didn't have l'Cie... right?
No l'Cie?
It was so unbelievable it seemed more like a dream. The words and names could be different, but... even with other worlds, there were similarities. They had Chocobos, even the other world seemed to use them for racing more than raising them as pets.
"What about people touched by... something? Different?" He hesitated to put it into words, but... "Changed?"
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"Not really sure," he admitted as he rubbed at the back of his neck some more, wondering if he should explain those concepts or not. He didn't want to give Hope the belief that these Fal'Cie things existed on Gaia when they didn't, but he also didn't want to let the boy down. This was why it was tough to interact with kids.
However, the next question took Zack by surprise, mainly because it did hit a note. Maybe it wasn't the right one, but all he could think of was the experimentation Shin-Ra had done, infusing SOLDIERs with mako and even Jenova cells in his and Cloud's case. And then there was what had happened to Genesis and Angeal, how they had changed.
He was quite for a moment, glancing back down the road into town. How had this conversation become so difficult? "Yeah, there's... something like that. Kind of. No one's supposed to know, and it's Shin-Ra's fault, but..."
There was no need for him to keep secrets here, and yet Zack's first instinct was still to keep the details to himself.
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"That could be them, then." He was much quieter this time, though. He pulled his hands out of his pockets again to breathe into them, trying his best to warm them up... at least get some feeling back into them again even as he started walking again. As fine as he had been with the cold while they were walking out (and to be completely truthful, he hadn't really been fine with it), it felt even colder walking back. Maybe it was the thought of the heated stores that were getting close again.
He looked up into the sky, wondering just how long it would keep snowing. It was nice to watch, but being in the middle of it for too long seemed to be a pain, now.
"No one's ever supposed to know." Because that's how it was, wasn't it? People got changed and then the moment everyone else found out... they panic. And then innocent people would get caught in the crossfire.
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He still wasn't sure of how similar his world was in comparison to Hope's, but they seemed to have reached a point where the boy was satisfied about at least one aspect of it. He would get a better idea of how worlds differed as he talked to more people, at least.
"Well," he said with a shrug of his shoulders, "I'm going to go and grab a bite to eat. You're free to come with me, but if you want to go wandering around some more, that's fine too. Just make sure you don't freeze to death, okay?" He meant the last comment as a joke and punctuated it with a grin to make that clear. It was definitely cold out, but as long as people headed inside from time to time to warm up, there wasn't much danger involved.
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Because as cold as it was, he still wasn't sure if he wanted to go somewhere with more people yet. He might duck into a nearly empty store from time to time to warm up, but he didn't know whether he really wanted to interact with the townspeople or not. They seemed almost as avoidant and fearful as the people at home at been... almost.
Besides, he wasn't sure if he wanted to stay with one person in specifics yet. The last time he had tagged behind someone... well, that hadn't worked out well for him. And he wasn't sure if he wanted to trust anyone to not just leave him behind anymore.
He only hesitated a moment before breathing out and shaking his head again, though. "I'll... be okay."
Because although he wasn't sure about that, the other seemed nice enough, at least. He shoved his hands back into his pockets and stared up at the other, determined to be able to take care of himself outside.
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