AIM Super Fun Time >D

[zephyrs-aria.livejournal.com]

Who: Rachel and Zack
What: Digging in a cave and being trapped in said cave
When: After Rachels last post
Where: Near Kohlingen
Warnings: Prolonged nudity and general embarrassment.



Rachel had taken a few days to air out her home, dust everything, and make sure the stove still worked and wouldn't light the house on fire. Then she'd had to go around explaining to people that she had "purchased" the deed to the house and would be living there now. Telling them, as she had told Locke, that her name was Lani. Though some of them seemed not to believe her, they all accepted this story without much fuss. After everything was in order, she asked around town about interesting landmarks, and was reminded of an old tomb in the area, which she promptly set out for on her Chocobo, For the time being, she left the moogle at home, to keep an eye on things and make sure the house stayed safe while she was gone.

The caves were dark and damp. Just the right place to find monsters...and treasure, and who knew what else. Rachel felt a sense of thrill as she poke around, but for the most part, it looked as though the place had already been cleaned out ages ago. The traps had been sprung, most of the monsters had been defeated already, as evidenced by the corpses lying about, already long decomposed.

"Dammit." Rachel cursed mostly to herself, seeing that this appeared to be a dud. As she was turning to head back out though, a rumble echoed through the cavern, and some of the walls began to collapse. Desparately, Rachel began to run for the exit, but the floor fell out from underneath her and she found herself plummeting into a previously undiscovered set of caverned beneath the tomb. She landed roughly, groaning in pain but thankfully with nothing broken. "Well...that's one way to make a discovery..." She commented to herself ruefully.


Zack had died as he was supposed to, fighting off ShinRa's army to save Cloud, after taking God knew how many bullets and other wounds, he had finally fallen. Drifting off into the Lifestream, he'd been taken up by Angeal to join him and his other friends who had died fighting Genesis. Gone from the world, he'd become a part of every other being in the Lifestream, and they a part of him, until nothing had remained.

Drifting within that hazy fog of memories and united minds, he'd slowly become aware of someplace cold, and distant. Deep beneath the ground, a sudden rift in the earth had shoved liquid Crystal into a pocket of air. On contact, it suddenly hardened into a fantastically huge formation of bright green-blue crystal, which in itself was amazing. But, as Zack had found out, he apparantly had more of a role to play in the world, for he was drawn from the Lifestream and into this Crystal, reconstituted as he had died, though lacking memories as to the time that had passed in the interim.

So he remained frozen in tasteful nudity, for now, waiting to be awakened from crystalline slumber.


The caverns were fascinating. Natural crystal deposits everywhere. And some of them even glowing. Rachel had never seen anything like it before. Not even in her travels as Lani the Bounty Hunter. It was truly amazing. Taking a curved dagger out of her belt pouch, she used it as a chisel, collecting golwing faceted rocks as she went and dropping them in the little pack she carried with her for storing treasures and other loot she collected when she went exploring. As she went further in though, things got more and more difficult. The crystals were getting much bigger after all, and she was pretty sure she'd have to come back with some kind of machinery if she wanted to take some of them out.

And then she saw it. Well...actually she didn't at first. She was busy picking out smaller crystals off the floor and wasn't looking where she was going, so she smacked the top of her head into it, then she saw it. And scrambled back a bit in surprise, a few of the little stones she'd been picking up scatterned across the ground. The thing was huge and seemed to have...was that a..a person!? Rachel got back to her feet and walked up to the smooth faceted surface to examine it. "How did a person get in there...is he alive? OH GRIEF HE'S NAKED!!" She exclaimed, shielding her eyes a bit and turning her head. Still, she couldn't just leave him there. So she decided to try out some new 'toys' she'd purchased on one of the other continents. It was apparently called "dynamite" and could break even hard crystals like that one.

So she carefully set the charges as the vendor had instructed her, and backed up, hiding behind another large crystal and setting the fuse off with a lighter. "Good luck pal." She said a small prayer for the man inside the rock, hoping she wasn't about to kill him.


Zack was in a rather peaceful sort of slumber, experiencing good dreams and serene contemplation of.. well, not too much besides girls and food, and being a SOLDIER. Then it all changed with a thundrous blast, that cracked most of his Crystal, and blew a portion clean off!

The cracks spread, and soon the Crystal he'd slept in burst, raining fragments around the area and dropping him to the ground, where he landed in a crouch, head hanging. "Ugh.. Gosh, darn, OW! Cramp! Oh jeez!!" he dropped onto his backside, heedless of his nudity, and began rubbing a nasty bunching from his leg.


Rachel had her ears plugged for the blast, but as soon as she saw chunks of crystal on the ground she stood up and came back around the corner, only to see him lie back and grab his leg. "Oh wow you woke up quick!" She exclaimed and rummaged in her bag, but didn't find anything really usefull besides a couple of potions. They'd have to do for now. "Here' this might help" She told him as she pushed the potion into his and and then scooted around to try and help him get into a sitting position by pushing on his back. She tried her very best to keep her eyes politely averted. Since she didn't have any cloth on her he'd have to wait until they got to the chocobo for that.


Zack groaned, and popped the top off the potion, blinking, "Ain't a brand I'm used to.. ours came in cans.." he shrugged, and downed it, almost immediately feeling better when the familiar tingling ran through his body. The man sat up, rubbing the back of his head and crossing his legs. "H-uh.. can't say I recognize this place.." he'd heard a female voice, though now it was behind him, "Er.. thanks. Who the heck're you?" for that matter, who was he? Apparantly he remembered general things, but that failed to tell him anything about, well, himself.


There was a quandry. Should she tell him her real name, or the alias she'd been going by? Well, she shrugged, what could it hurt really? "I'm Rachel. And this place is pretty new to me too. It's under a well known tomb near a town called Kohlingen though. Any of that sound familiar?" He looked pretty lost. So she stood up put her arms under his as a stablizer. "Can you get up, you think? You were locked in that crystal but it looks like your legs are still in pretty good shape. No sign of atrophe or anything y'know?" The way he rubbed his head made her uncomfortable. She didn't know that she could carry him if he passed out, so it was better to get him up and moving as soon as possible. Besides, they needed to hurry and get out of there before any monsters were attracted to their location.

"How about you, do you have a name?" She asked. "I could call you caveman, since you're down here." She gave a small giggle, hoping the joke would keep their spirits up at least for a while.


Zack laughed softly, and stood with her help, testing his legs, "Everything relevant seems to be in good working order." he gave a playful wink in response to her joke, "Nah.. I don't remember my name, or much of anything. Probably something to do with being in that Crystal or being blown outta it.. it'll probly come back to me, eh?" he seemed friendly enough, and when he was sure he could stand, he lifted his arm from hers, "Nice to meetcha Rachel. Can't say I've ever heard of a Kohlingen either, but maybe it's up here, just waitin' fer me to remember." his voice had a definite twang to it, and one would notice after a moment that his eyes were glowing. "Best get outta here.. me with no clothes and no weapon, I doubt I'll be too too useful."


"I know what it's like, to not remember anything." Rachel said, nodding and frowing a bit before he turned to face her. She blinked a bit then, truly startled by his eyes. Maybe it was something the crystal had done to him? "Wow, your eyes are...really amazing." She said, and then turned bright red. It sounded like she was flirting when really she was just caught off guard. She put a hand on the back of her raven haired head embarrassedly. "Ahh, yeah I wasn't going to mention your uhm...lack of clothing." She said and laughed a little before tossing a few of the larger crystal chunks into her bag. They might sell for a lot after all.

With that out of the way, she put herself in front of Zack, but then stopped for a moment, seeming to consider something. "I wonder if you know how to work a sword or a gun. How about it, any memories of those kinds of weapons lying around in there?" She asked him hopefuly.


Zack laughed for a bit at her blushing, and smiled, "Thanks, I guess? I mean.. what's up with 'em?" he shrugged it off when she moved on, glancing down at himself with almost no modesty, then answering about weapons after a moment's thought, "Let's see.. I think if I had a sword I could do somethin' with that, but I don't remember much about guns. Just that I didn't take well to 'em."


"Good enough" Rachel agreed, and detached her rapier from her belt, holding it out to him. "You may not be clothed, but at least now you're armed" She nodded approvingly. She still had her pistol, so she wasn't helpless either. "You must really be in a fix" She said, shaking her head. She hoped that it wasn't her fault he lost his memory. Taking a small silver mirror out of her belt bag she passed it back to him. "Have a look for yourself. I've never seen anything like it before." Not that that was much of a statement, nowadays she seemed to be running into all kinds of strange things. Evil shadows, people who could summon giant beasts to fight for them, and that man in black, just to name a few.

Making her way forward through the caves, she kept an eye out for the hole in the ceiling that she'd fallen through. It shouldn't be too far, as she didn't remember taking many turns or corners while she was working her way down there. She could finally see it just up ahead, when to her dismay she heard the tell tale rumbling of monsters making their way towards them through the tunnels. "I hope you're good Mister Caveman. Because it looks like we've got something bearing down on us." She said as 3 large, rolling, caterpillar-like insects came into view.


Zack used the mirror to check out his eyes, also noticing the cross-shaped scar on his cheek, and the spikey head of hair he was sporting. He took the rapier, finding it a bit too small for his liking, apparantly he was used to more cumbersome weapons.. "Well, they're really glowing, huh? Wonder what's up with that..?" he'd handed the mirror back by the time the caterpillars rolled up.

Smirking, Zack readied the rapier, feeling only a little foolish that he was naked at the time, as the fencer's stance wasn't one that looked good with one's dangly parts, well, dangling. Oh well, it couldn't be helped. "Same for you Rachel, heh, they don't look so tough, though."


Rachel nodded. "Easy pickins" She said with a grin, before taking aim and blowing the first one away. They were really weak monsters after all, and it didn't take much for her to get a headshot and dispatch it cleanly. "I wonder if there's a way to speed up your recovery" She mused as she quickly hopped out of the way of a second bug that tried to execute a rolling attack on her, it's spikes impaling the ground like tead on a tire. "Electro-shock thearapy maybe?" She asked, but then laughed, unable to keep a straight face for the duration of the joke."I'm kidding of course. I wouldn't subject you to something like that I promise."

"It took a near death experience for me to regain my memories. I hope yours return easier than that." She told him, shaking her head.


"Here's hoping.." he spun away from one hit, lunging back and, instead of using the rapier, he simply dropped his knees onto the creature, crushing it against the ground. As he rolled to his feet, though, Zack transfixed the last on the end of her rapier, pinning the thing to the ground. He'd moved -very- fast while doing this, and the weapon's blade was quite buried. How the hell strong -was- he? "Phoo.. that was easy, huh?"


"Wow, you really layed into them." She commented, as they reached the hole in the ceiling. "Just what kind of person were you before the crystal I wonder." She shook her head again and sighed. "Well, no sense in pondering it right now I suppose. Do you think you could reach that hole up there? That's where I fell from, and I don't know if there's another way out." She stowed her gun, examining the hole. It was pretty high off the ground, but with the speed and strength she seen in him a moment ago, there was a good chance he could reach it if he jumped. Then maybe he could pull her up after him. At any rate, anything was worth a try.


"Huh.. well, I guess I did eh?" he rolled one shoulder, mentally preparing for such a feat, "Maybe I could try. I mean, heck, I dunno what I can do, maybe I'm some kind of.. hero, or something!" he grinned, and nodded to Rachel, "Alright. I'll jump up, and try to get out, then I'll try pulling you out, too." he wasn't going to leave her here, after all. Handing back Rachel's rapier, he squatted, then stood, frowning thoughtfully, "That.. felt pretty good. Hold on." A few more squats. A few more. Maybe one more.. "Okay! Here we go!!" he bent down low, like a coiled spring, then shot up into the air. Scrambling at the lip, he caught something, thankfully, and hauled himself up.


Rachel nodded. "Well, it's possible. I certainly hope you weren't an imperial soldier or something!" She said and laughed a little. "The last thing I need is for you to recover your memories only to try and burn my hometown to the ground." She told him, fastening her sword back onto her belt. She tilted her head curiously as he started doing squats. What a strange man this was. Maybe...maybe she really had damaged his head! The thought nearly made her cringe. If it was true, that made him her responsibility. She would have to make sure to stick by him until he got his memories back.

But thankfully he made the jump, and soon he was up on the upper floor. Next would be her turn, and then she'd get him out to her chocobo, where she had a blanket that would suffice until they got back to her house in Kohlingen. "How's it look up there? No monsters in sight?" She asked while waiting for him to pull her up.


Zack looked around, and nodded softly, "Just a Chocobo up here, it's lookin' pretty nervous.." he held his hand down and grinned to Rachel, "Just jump up and grab my hand. You look pretty light, really, so I'll just pull you up once you've got a hold." he seemed very good-natured, actually. That brought up a good point, though.. he could fight, and was quite an athlete.. what if he was some kind of bad-guy soldier? He really hoped he wasn't..


Rachel did as she was told. She hoped she really was light, so she wouldn't have to slap him if he had a hard time pulling her up. It would be rather awkward after all. "Don't worry about the bird, it's mine." She told him as she was dragged up over the edge of the hole. She stood, dusting herself off, and gave a quick nod of affirmation. "Come on, I've got a blanket stored on the bird that you can use. How are you with walking by the way? Do you need to use the Chocobo?" She scratched her temple lightly, wondering how they would work around that. The town wasn't too far, but it would still take at least a couple hours to get back there. "Oh yeah, I've got some jerky in the saddlebags too, if you're hungry. Can't imagine you wouldn't be after being stuck inside a crystal like that..." She said and chuckled.


"Nah, I'm good to walk. I guess I need to stretch out a bit.. if nothing else, 'cause I was stuck in that Crystal of mine." he smiled, and patted her shoulder, "Light as a feather, by the by." truthfully, he'd barely felt her weight. Which was weird, because even small women weighed something. He wondered what the hell was going on with him.


Rachel blushed a little. What woman wouldn't though really? Digging around in her saddle bags she pulled out a light weight, soft fabric blanket and tossed it over to the man and then without checking to see where it landed, she went back into the bads, rummaging until she found the bag full of jerky and a canteen filled with water. Which she gingerly removed from the pouch, giving her bird a gentle stroke before turning to offer the food to him.


Zack was a little baffled at first, especially when the sheet landed on his head, covering him down to about his knees. Lifting his arms, he smirked, and staggered forward, moaning hideously, "Oooh.. whoooo~!" he really was having trouble taking this seriously. He'd been found in a pit, in a town he didn't know anything about, knowing almost nothing about himself. And apparantly, he had super powers.


As Rachel turned to offer him food, she was met with a blanet that was waving it's arms about spookilly. For a second, she thought they'd been ambushed, then she looked down, and realized that ghosts generally don't have bare, manly ankles. But rather than ruin this fantasic "illusion", she instead pretended to look about in confusion, and then with mock disappointment, she sighed. "Darn, I had this beef jerky here and some water, but the only other person around is a ghost, and goodness knows they don't get hungry." She said, and shrugged. "Well, guess it's all for me then." She giggled to herself as she pulled a tasty piece of dried meat from the bag and stuck it in her mouth.


Zack had to think fast! He couldn't see, but he -could- smell the food.. which instantly reminded him that HE WAS HUNGRY! "Oooh.. if only I had fooooooood.. I wooooould beee at peeeeeaaaace.." he continued to wave his arms about. Maybe she'd play along, and 'dispel' him?


"No, no, food would fall right through your incorporeal body Mr. Ghost." She said, but then giggled a little. "However, I do have a solution to your problem." She reached forward, pulling the front of the blanket down off of his head while simultaneously calling "Phoenix...doowwwnnnn!!" In a silly voice meant to mimic some kind of enchanted words. "Oh look, it worked. You're now officially alive again!" She said and gave him a smile, holding up the bag of meat and the canteen for him.


"Well, holy crap! You just saved my life!" Zack grinned at her, and wrapped the sheet around his middle, tucking it tight to avoid further nudity. "I'll have to reimburse you for that Phoenix Down, though. It's not good to have debts and never repay them." he took the bag and canteen, mock-saluting with the canteen before taking a small swig. "Seriously, though, thanks Rachel. I dunno how long I'd have been stuck in that rock, y'know?"


The raven haired woman laughed. It was good to be around someone with a sense of humor. Laughter was something she'd been missing out on for a long time now. "I guess we're both pretty lucky then. After all, I might never have gone down there if I hadn't decided to come visit my hometown. I've been avoiding it for 5 years you see." She nodded, hopping on her chocobo. "Come on, you can walk and eat right?" She asked him, feeling in good spirits now. As the bird moved along at a casual pace, Rachel leaned back comfortably.

"So," She asked him as she chewed the end of a strip of meat thoughtfully. "Anything come back to you yet? We know you can use a sword at least, and you're really strong too...hm, maybe you were a professional fighter? Like..in competitions or something?" It was a shot in the dark sure, but better than nothing at all.


"Yeah, I can walk and eat, heck, I can talk, too." he laughed softly, and answered her, "Well, let's see.. Your rapier seems way too small for me, I guess I'm used to swinging somethin' bigger? Sounds flashy, to me. All that's come back so far is exercising, and fighting.. so you're right, maybe I'm some kind of professional fighter or something. Hmm.. well, if you don't want to hang out in your hometown.. maybe we could try to find out something about me. Like my name." he paused to chew on a strip of jerky, thinking, "What about you? Why avoid your hometown for so long? Did somethin' happen?"


"Well you could say that." She said and laughed sheepishly. "Well, to make a long story short, I fell off a cliff, got amnesia, like you, and then died in an Imperial attack." She scratched her head and sighed. "And that's not even the half of it. After that, my former fiancee placed me in suspended animation, then used the power of something called the Phoenix to bring me back to life. Except that instead of bringing me back right there, it dropped me off on another continent in a place called Dali." Rachel bit her lip, the whole thing sounded pretty insane when she said it out loud.

"Well as you can imagine, coming back from the dead is no small thing, so rather than just give everyone in town the shock of their lives, and partly because my family was already dead by that time, I just...stayed far away from there. You know, took a new name, started a new career, blah blah blah." She glanced over at him to see if he now thought she was a lunatic. "Finding your memory sounds a lot more interesting than moping around there though. So we'll stop and pick up my other little companion who's guarding my house right now, and you can rest a while and then we'll get the heck out of dodge."


"Hmm, well, crazy as it sounds, I believe you. I mean.. I was in a crystal, and I don't remember anything about myself, y'know? Heck, I know I like to be physical, running jumping squats, that kinda thing." he glanced down at his exposed torso, and shrugged, "Which is kinda obvious, given my build. And I figure I must have been fighting a lot, I mean, look at these scars! They're crazy! I wonder what happened here, that didn't kill me," he brushed a hand against his chest, indicating a mass of white flesh where he had been shot up protecting Cloud, "This is huge! Oh well.. we'll find out, eh? Whatcha think we should call me, Rachel? Can't keep calling me Caveman, or Hey You, or Nakedman."


"Yeah, you've already got a crazy story and you don't even remember how you got down there." She said and giggled. "What to call you though? hmm...That's pretty tough. Just going by your hair....we could call you spike!" She said and then laughed. She looked over his scars as well. How did anyone live through something like that? She supposed she was lucky that the phoenix had healed all her damage when it revived her. It made her think though, would people treat her different if she'd been scarred up like that? It was usually a mark of pride for men, but women....

"Well, you look old enough to make your own decisions. What do you want to be called?" She asked him at last, raising a brow curiously. She'd chosen the name Lani for herself, so she didn't see why she shouldn't let him pick his own name too. Which reminded her of something. "Oh yes, when we get to town, I've been using my alias Lani there. So they don't freak out and yell things like 'the dead have risen!' and 'it's the end of the world!' So if you could keep the Rachel name our secret, I'd really appreciate it." Rachel smiled apologetically. It wasn't really fair to put a person on the spot like that. Especially one she'd only just met.


"Well, of course I can call you Lani. I mean, I only just got used to Rachel, so Lani shouldn't be that big a deal. It ain't hard to remember, eh? Hmm.. if I take a name now, and find out my name's like.. Steve or something, and I've been calling myself John? Oh well, I'll think of something.." he continued to eat and drink, though after a moment he passed her rations back. "Let's see.. I don't think Spike would be a good name.. What about.. hmm.. Well, I can't think of anything right now, but soon!"


Rachel put the food back in her saddle pouch. It wasn't hard since the bird was moving at such a leisurely pace. "I dunno, Steve sounds too normal for you." She teased him and chuckled. "Maybe your name's like...Speed...or....Revolver or....Moonunit". She shook her head. The town was visible in the distance, had they really been taveling that long? Time sure was flying today.


"Moonunit? The hell?" he laughed merrily, and continued to walk along beside her, "Okay, so no normal names. Hmm.. how about Edge, then? I mean, I use a sword, and it's pretty simple. Easy to change when I figure out my real name. Then again, that almost sounds -too- cliche.. hmm. Sigma? Zero? Cloud?" he was just throwing out names that no loving parent would give their child, now.


"Edge, that is a good one. If a little cheesy." She nodded. "But...what about Neo? You've got glowing eyes, that seems pretty futuristic to me." She scratched her temple. "We could call you Lloyd. I think I heard a story once about a famous swordsman with that name." She humed a little, guiding the Chocobo around towards the east side of town. Her house was right on the east edge, so they wouldn't call too much attention to themselves. It was bad enough people knew she looked at lot like well...herself, and now to be bringing in a guy dressed in a blanket? The rumor mill would just love this.

"Cloud....CLOUD!? You just looked up didn't you..." She had to giggle. Who would ever name a boy Cloud after all. "If you're going be named after something in the atmosphere, why not just call yourself Sky? Since you've got blue eyes and you seem pretty carefree."


"Okay, ya got me, I was just looking up. Better to call myself Squall or something, some kind of interesting weather? Hmm.. Neo isn't bad, no, and neither's Lloyd if he was as awesome as he sounds." he continued to think, watching people go here and there in the village, "How about Blank, because I don't have a memory? Or something like Arc? I was technically a treasure when you found me."


"hm..." Rachel thought a bit more. "While Sky is a nice name, it doesn't really fit you does it. What about Tidus? Like...the tides of the ocean!" She exclaimed, then placed her hand on her chin, thinking more. "Or....maybe...you could be...uhm....Lone Wolf!" She exclaimed again, and gasped dramatically. She stopped at the house that she knew so well, tethering the Chocobo to a post near the front door and unlocking said door, letting it swing open. "Well, we can think of more inside. Welcome to my home!" She told him, making a motion to invite him in.


Zack laughed again, and went inside, looking around and letting out a low whistle, "Spiffy! Tidus or Lone Wolf, huh? Nah. First one sounds wussy, second one sounds.. well, like some kind of guy that only works alone. I don't much care for it. How about Interceptor? Or maybe.. hm.. maybe something more indicative of what I do? Like Fighter." he put a hand on his hip, turning around and raising his brows, "There's a place to get clothes and stuff in this village, right? I mean, I like ya so far, but the rumors this is gonna make, a naked stranger you bring home outta the blue? Clothes might help."


"You're quite right. It's kind of late now though." She told him, lighting some lamps. "But never fear, I've got a solution!" She headed off to her room, which wasn't that far away, and then paused, poking her head out of the door and giving him a brief but embarrassingly appraising look. "Do you mind using clothes that belonged to someone else first?" She asked, bringing out a pair of worn, dark blue pants, a white muscle T-shirt, and a jacket that matched the pants pretty closely. "These should be about your size." She nodded. "There's a pair of boots too, but lets just see how these work first. It's not like we need to get out of here right away anyway". She pushed the clothes into his hands and made a waving motion. "You can change in my room. It's just down there with the door open." She told him, then turned the stove on and put some water on. A cup of tea was really needed. And maybe even some soup for dinner. She'd bought fresh bread earlier after all.


If it was embarassing to be appraised thusly, Zack didn't show it. Instead, he graciously accepted the clothes, and smiled, "Thanks, I'll letcha know when I get 'em on." he headed into her room, nudging the door closed with his foot and looking around. Well now, Rachel certainly didn't live in poverty, that was for certain.. he idly wondered what she'd been doing in that cave. Hunting for gems, maybe? He'd noticed her taking chunks of those crystals.. Whatever, he got changed, and folded her sheet up, setting it on the edge of her bed. Rolling his shoulders, he did the jacket up, then undid it again after moving around. They'd do, and were actually pretty comfy. As he came out, he quipped, "These are a little tight, but the price is right." and grinned at Rachel, "Whatcha think?"


Rachel looked over and couldn't help turning bright red. He filled the clothes out well. Maybe too well. "They look nice." She told him, smiling cheerfully. "I've got some split pea soup on and there's fresh bread on the table there. So we should eat pretty good tonight. Better than just dried meat at least." She said with a slight wink, giving the pot a good stir as the tea kettle began to whistle. She removed her gloves for the first time that day, dainty hands hidden under all that thich padding, and set them on the counter. Then she took town two cups and set them on the table, getting the tea in order and placing the sugar out. "Sweeten to taste" She told him.

"hm, So far we haven't come up with anything that sounds right. But I feel like we're on the right track with the more unusual choices. Maybe something like Zidane? That was the name of one of the people my old Bounty Hunting partner joined up with a couple of years ago." she mused, spooning some sugar into the cup and giving it a stir. She added more than normal, having quite a sweet tooth. "Maybe something like....Cecil? That sound pretty exotic."


Zack sat down at the table and smiled, looking over what she had laid out, "Sounds good to me. Y'know, all this talk of names, and the exotic ones.. but a normal one's stuck in my head. What do you think of Zack?" he didn't know whether or not that was his name, but it felt right, and that's all he had to go on for now. Zack took his tea, and took a sip, making a face then adding just a bit of sugar. Stirring it awhile, he sipped again, and smiled, "Yeah, Zack sounds like a good, solid name. Somethin' you can depend on."


Rachel tilted her head, listening to the name and weighing it in her mind. "Zack, it's not extremely common, but it's not...Cloud." She said, giggling a little. "I think it fits you well." She agreed, taking a sip before standing and going back to check the soup. It was just about done, so she got down two bowls. "So we have to wonder, what kind of person Zack was." She mused. There didn't seem to be anything around there that jogged his memories, maybe he was from a bigger place, like Jidoor or Zozo.

"Tomorrow after we've gotten some sleep, you can come with me. I was just going to look for work down south in Jidoor. Maybe someone there will recognize you. Or just being out and about might help bring something back." She nodded to herself, spooning soup into the bowls and bringing them over to the table, where she broke off a chunk of bread and dipped it in the tasty green mush. "Bon Appetite, Monsuier Zack".


"Heh, yeah. Least it ain't as bad as Edge, Cloud, or Squall. Could you imagine what sort of people those names must have had as parents? Jeez." he laughed, and took a chunk of bread for himself, swishing it through the soup and munching on it slowly. "Well.. I hope I was a dependable, reliable sorta guy. Like.. if you need something done, or your back watched, I'm yer man, y'know? That'd be nice."


Rachel dipped more bread and looked him over a bit. "I don't know, you look like the sort of person who had a lot of really grand dreams, but maybe...a little lazy." She said and stuck her tongue out at him. "But still, definitely better than Cloud or Squall. Or Edge...that just sounds like someone who wants to be tough but isn't." She giggled. "Or at least someone who wants to sound tougher than they are. People can be silly like that sometimes." She scratched her nose a bit with one delicate finger.

"It's kind of an exciting mystery though isn't it? Just trying to figure out how you got all those abilities. I mean, I had amnesia for a while, but I never had any abilities like that to wonder about. Plus well...Locke was there and he knew all the things I couldn't remember. That made things kind of scary for me though..." She trailed off, sighing a little. She hadn't really wanted to talk about that yet. But then, if she couldn't after five years, how long would be "long enough"?


"Yeah, I can see how that'd be scary. Heck, I'm a pretty strapping guy, and if some lady knew all about me and I didn't, I'd be all 'Whoa' about it. I can imagine you were pretty freaked out when some dude you didn't know knew you, huh?" he tried to smile reassuringly, but honestly, he was a little frightened, and voiced it, "Alternately, what if I'm some kind of bad guy? Like.. some kind of murderer or something, who was locked in a crystal to keep people safe? What then?" Zack wasn't the type to dwell, though, and the fear was fleeting, for he remembered his soup and got right back into that.


"hm...It's possible. But I think...if you can be pleasant as you are now, then if you got your memories back, you wouldn't have to go back to being that, would you? I didn't go back to being a tag along on someone elses adventures after all." She told him, returning his smile. "As for Locke, I think what really scared me was...the desparation in his voice. The way he pleaded with me, like I could choose to remember at any time. And even though I didn't really remember, I told him that yes, we were giong to get married. Because I didn't want to hurt and well...things got really bad after that. It wasn't long after that that my parents basically ran him out of town." Rachel took a long sip from her soup, it really had been a terrible time, and while she couldn't say she hated Locke, seeing him the other day had made her feel sorely guilty about their past.


Zack nodded and sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, "I can imagine that must have been pretty bad.. least not knowing is simple, if not very reassuring.. right now I guess I could be whoever or whatever I wanted to be." he stirred his soup for a time, before taking a spoonful more, "Well. Anyway, I didn't mean to pry or anything, that must make ya feel pretty low, having to think about that kinda stuff on my account." he smiled brightly, "So we're headed out tomorrow, where's the place we're goin'?"


"Don't worry about it. No one can run from their past forever. Except maybe you, if you don't remember anything." She added at the end, teasingly. "Tomorrow, we'll head for Jidoor. It's in the south, just a bit higher than the opera house. It's a pretty long trip, so I'll rent chocobo too if you like. For now though we should probably turn in for the night." Rachel thought for a bit, clearing her empty dish over to the sink. "My parent's room is just down the hall, you can sleep there for the night." She told him at last. It had been a really exausting day after all. "I think I'll draw up a bath, and turn in early."


"Alright. I'll go turn in. If ya need me for anythin', don't worry about askin'. Least I can do for yer hospitality, right? It ain't everyday you find a stranger then help 'im." he stood, and put his dish away, pausing to nod and smile to Rachel. "Thanks again, heh.. I dunno if I'd even be outta there without yer help." with that, he headed down the hall to her parents' room, to turn in for the night.