Audio/Action to SL; Day 110; Up and Dead Center

[heroproceeding]

[ You'd think this would be the easy part after working at this and only finally squaring things away.

Truth is? It's not.

Still gotta make this happen.

The audio catches the tail end of an exhale as he finally gets himself to just do it already. ]

So, me and Kain made a detour a while ago at the hospital. I know it might seem in bad taste, but we photographed everyone we found there. I figured it would help to... confirm some things. [ Closure. Evidence. An end to false hope. If that's what they want anyway. He isn't about to speak for them all. ]

It's probably kinda dated now, but we were trying to clean up the distortion some and get as many names down as we could. But honestly, we still don't know everyone we found there. So, if you know anyone we haven't identified, let me know. Thanks.

[ Attached Files: link.jpg, cullenrutherford.jpg (identified by Kain), tadashi.jpg, archer.jpg, fujiwaranomokou.jpg (identified by Kain), marcos.jpg, zelda.jpg, mami.jpg, stiles.jpg (identified by Jim), sans.jpg (identified by Steve), biff.jpg (identified by Angel), freya.jpg, miranda.jpg, sephiroth.jpg ]

Comments

@dreamsnhonor; audio/action

[heroproceeding]

stiles. got it.

[ The text is more for quick confirmation on the network. He makes that quick adjustment. Then he's leaning back, sliding down against the wall and breathing out a slow breath before he's glancing Jim's way. ]

Can't say you missed much. It wasn't exactly some leisurely walk through the park. [ He shrugs his shoulders just a little bit where he sits, even as he reads over the next message left. ] Now, I know what it's like to be a Turk. Definitely not my thing.

[rattlingthestars]

Place looks almost as bad as it felt. [ And that had been pretty bad in the antagonizing amount of time it had taken Jim to get out of there. ] You think it'll help people, though? To know where they are?

[heroproceeding]

Some. [ He can't say that holds for everyone, but... He closes his eyes, even as he continues. ] Sometimes it's better than being stuck with that 'What if'... Even if it's not easy, at least then you can try to move on. You can't get stuck in the past.

[ Those words might be straight from the heart. Straight from personal experience. ]

[rattlingthestars]

Makes sense. Moving on's a good thing.

[ Jim can't help thinking about the way they'd searched for Cloud in the snow weeks and weeks ago until they'd exhausted the possibilities, how they'd never know if it were the snow or a monster that got him. About Tadashi, who's death had been as close to a certainty as Norfinbury ever got.

The thought of Tadashi and Sephiroth and Freya having been in there the whole time makes him want to shiver more than the cold. ]

So's this. I know how bad that place got to you.

[heroproceeding]

[ Good or necessary. Sometimes it's hard to say.

But what definitely isn't... is the fact that that place was definitely awful. And for more reasons than one. That suddenly comment, quiet as it is, gets him to pause in the midst of typing back to someone. There's something... off about what he says. Almost like there's something left unsaid... Zack just shakes his head in the end though. ]

...That obvious, huh. [ He's not about to pretend he wasn't, not when he knows Jim'll call bullshit on him anyway. But what else he can say is: ] It's not exactly a place I wanted to visit again, but I wasn't about to leave you by yourself, you know?

[ Bad enough landing there once after waking up after dying. And granted, the others had been on their way and he could have just stayed back then... but what kind of friend let alone SOLDIER would that make him? ]

[rattlingthestars]

I could've handled it.

[ An enormous but automatic lie, even though now probably wasn't the time for it. Jim seems to realize that belatedly, but he doesn't take it back. He wants Zack to know that he would've been brave, or tried to be. But: ] -I'm glad you were there, though, even if it sucked. So... thanks.

[heroproceeding]

[ It's the biggest lie and Zack knows it.

But he also knows how much it means to Jim- how much he wants to be better than he was before. Wants to be brave and to handle himself. He gets it.. which might be why he doesn't call him out on it in the end... though he might have nudged him just a little, regardless.

That gratitude though... A small smile finally does cross his face and this time? This time his tone comes with a little bit of warmth. ] Anytime, Jim... Anytime.