thestormishere | ☈ strike #04 (voice / action)

[ It takes a while before Lightning finally attempts getting in touch with those she interacted with the most (and who she assumes probably figured out who she actually was) while aged down and in Zack's body. When she does, it's filtered to those mentioned, but not particularly secured against hacking or anything, clearly having been 'posted' quickly and with a tone of voice that's very short and to the point. ]

Zack, Aerith, Cloud- we need to talk.

[ And after that's all been taken care of, well... all that's left is to gather up her dignity and try to move on from the whole damn mess, right? Get some fresh air and cool her head, pick up something from the grocery that isn't in a can and won't choke her with flavor....

Problem is... the experiments' effects are far from done with her.

One of these is what Lightning is this evening, instead of the pink-haired ex-soldier she should be. And as if suddenly finding herself as a chocobo isn't bad enough, that's when that oh-so-nice random teleportation kicks in too, sending her... oh, who knows. The middle of town? Your front porch? Who wouldn't want a massive eight foot tall yellow bird in their bathroom? Look at those long curly eyelashes ~~and huge killer claws~~! ♥ ]

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[Huh. He wasn't expecting the ungloved hand, especially considering her expression. He gives her a firm but hopefully warm handshake, not holding on too long. Women can be pretty scary when they're mad.]

Is something wrong?

[ Geez, doesn't she have reason to be a little weird after spending most of a week out of her mind and in another's body? But yeah okay, there is more to it than that. ]

Aerith said you were a soldier... right?

That's right. I used to be part of a military back home. [He's kind of curious about how much Aerith told her now.]

[ Not so much what Aerith told her... more like the weird stuff she noticed during that time running around as... him. She takes a step away from the building, crossing her arms again. ]

Hm... how to put this...

[ She frowns and gives him a piercing look- he already claimed not to be a l'Cie, but... ]

The way you are. Is that normal?

Normal... hmm. Not exactly- I'm part of a special group of soldiers who are modified with special chemicals to become more powerful. You probably noticed differences like that. [Besides the eyes being a dead giveaway.]

... Chemicals?

[ Well, that's not weird at all. ]

Yeah- it's called mako. Most of the world I live in runs on mako energy. It's what makes these glow. [He points to his eyes. And yeah, maybe it's a little weird. He'll just quietly leave out the bit about getting injected with the cells of a 2000-year-old alien |Db]

[ Head down while she thinks about this for a few beats. It sounds kind of like bioengineering then, like they do to turn monsters into weapons-- she hadn't ever thought if it was possible to do that to humans before.

Therefore... where he's from, it's alright to have superpowers and not have the government try to murder you on live television? Crazy. Unless it's like... the situation with Sanctum l'Cie, that is. However, it might be a little awkward to make her next question 'okay, so are you being manipulated to destroy the world?' ]

'Mako.' I see.

You alright with that? [Zack peers in a bit, trying to get a feel for her expression. She's surprisingly hard to read.] If you want to ask something else, it's okay.

Yes. I just had to know, first.

[ Of course, that's no guarantee he's telling the truth, but... for now she has little way of being able to tell something like that, huh? She sighs hard, changing her posture just slightly... mostly so her gunblade will hang just a little better. ]

I guess I should thank you for helping watch me.

Hey, no worries. The feeling's mutual anyway- thanks for taking good care of my body while you had it. I could've ended up in all sorts of trouble if someone else had been switched with me.

Doubt it was easy.

[ Well, it is easy to be petty and wonder what could be worse than that, but point taken. No walls were burst through, at least. She's mostly being vague about just what she means there on purpose, though. ]

I can't complain much, though. Weird as it was, it had to have been worse for you. At least I knew where I was and what was going on.

... That's true.

[ She closes her eyes a moment, brows drawn. She'd rather not think about how she's waaaay more familiar with this guy than she would have ever wanted, okay. ]

All things considered, you seemed to take it pretty well.

[At least he wasn't a wrinkly old man /o/ And he laughs a bit at that, shaking his head.]

Believe it or not, this isn't the weirdest or the worst thing that's ever happened to me. I'm just glad we're all back to normal.

... Glad that's settled then.

[ Meaning... okay, weird. Perhaps she'll have to find out what is worse than that, some time. 8| But for now: ]

Listen. It's probably best if we just forget about it.

Forgetting about it is kinda asking for a lot. But I'm cool with not mentioning it again if that's what you want. [It's just plain rude to bother a lady with something she doesn't want to talk about, anyway.]

... Then don't discuss it with any others. Understood?

[ There's a bit of the 'I'm a soldier of rank and nothing intimidates me' thing creeping in here without Lightning really even thinking about it, but... she's pretty damn serious about this. Even if she is a little uneasy. ~~Def. not a little girl any more, though.~~ ]

Yeah I get you. Not really anyone else's business anyway.

[Man, she's so serious. It kind of takes the fun out of things.]

[ Yeah, she's just not a very fun kind of girl. She gives a kind of relieved sigh though, tilting her chin down. ]

Thank you. Zack.

[Considering how many serious people he's befriended, it doesn't really ruffle him. He just offers up a casual salute, smiling. He's glad she seems to feel more at ease about things now.]

No problem, Lightning. I figure I'll see you around?

[ Well isn't he a charmer? That might get a slight eyebrow arch out of her. ]

Most likely. I live in this building too, you know.

[ And with that she just turns coolly and moves to go around him back inside. ~~Yeeeaaah...!~~ ]

☈ strike #04 (voice / action)

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