Day 230 audio; @dreamsnhonor [cw: anomaly body horror]

[heroproceeding]

Hey, Zack here. So, Enoch mentioned this earlier about our anomaly buddies coming around again.

Thing is... there's something off about all of this. Not only is the one that's been following me different?
But Zell and Kuns have been telling me they see 'em like a mess of something or other. You know, your typical anomalies. But for me and Jim, it's different. The anomalies almost look like someone we know. Just faceless.

[ It would have sounded crazy maybe six months ago. But right then, if anything, Zack just sounds tired as he makes note of that. That's before the video comes on to capture one of the anomalies in question. To those who've had their lights stolen, the anomaly looks like a young lady in her mid-teens. Innocent looking enough, right? Well- expect her face is gone as he mentioned.

Those who haven't had their light stolen will see something more akin to the Norfinbury flavored expectation. An oversized flower curls and spins, the leaves that remain with it red and curled almost like a bow behind it. The creature crawls along on multiple lithe hands with eyes running down the sides of them. They look worse and worse for wear the further down you look, black and cold with frost bite though only iced over with a blue hue. Sometimes Occasionally, the flower opens wide enough to reveal its center to be a mouth lined with tiny, sharp barbs for teeth. Typically when it seems to get off balance which also reveals what at first looks like to be a long braid behind it to be a set of roots that uncoil from one another and help balance it out.

Zack flicks the video back off with a frown. ]

I feel like we should do a tally of who's seeing what and maybe then we can figure things out from there. So, shoot me a message and let me know what you see. And if you have any theories, I'd like to hear 'em right about now.

[ He's just about to cut it off there when one last thought- if not a slightly distracted sounding one -occurs to him. ]

I'm also attaching an updated list of those who've been discovered and identified in the morgues, too. You can thank Davesprite for the help.

[ An attachment can be found along with this message. ]

( ooc: Durp. Slight edit in the brackets due to a reading error. This is why you don't read the new plot in the middle of the night. )

Comments

[bookofnope]

Doesn't it just. [A brief flare, and he's out again. Can't maintain anger when it comes to this. He doesn't like being explained away, mind - he wonders if he should point out to Zack that he was a pessimistic, sarcastic ass long before the apocalypse, but is forced to admit that that would be missing the point. He knows what a wreck he is. He knows he's deflecting, projecting, lashing out, everything. However much he doesn't like to think about it, he knows.

He also knows he's been using Zack as an easy target. And while it may not make him any more inclined to get along with the man, it does make him feel ashamed of his own conduct, for his own sake. Not exactly being fair, was he.]

It's not - [The thought of explaining Gehenna to Zack is a straining one. But he feels it's owed, somehow, and grits his teeth through it.] It's a long story. But - in a nutshell, ancient beings of divine power have awakened to wreak what is very possibly divine vengeance on vampirekind, while destroying everything else. The world may still be there, in the technical, physical sense, but my Kindred are not, and most likely all civilization as we know it is not, either. When I first woke up here... I thought I was looking at what was left.

WELL SHIT. I thought I responded to this, but I guess I just linked it back then.

[heroproceeding]

[ Not exactly being fair at all. But then he's far from Fair anyway, isn't he. They're polar opposites. They always have been and always will be. But Zack can at least understand one thing mutually with him and that is loss.

He just.. never expected Beckett's loss to be so astronomically awful. It's enough for Zack to just go.. quiet for a time. Because Zack might have lost his life- but that had been out of his choice in the end, hadn't it. Something he had accepted at the time. Something he had chosen to live- and well, die with. And he'd left knowing that at least. At least at the time, Cloud was awake and aware again. He'd fulfilled that intent of protecting him. Aerith had written to him- he'd know she was safe. Cissnei had made him aware that his parents were okay, too. And Kunsel- Kunsel was smart. He wouldn't have made an early grave for himself unless he'd had some way to help Zack. And it'd been too late for that.

All had been well.

Not the same. Far from that with Beckett and he sits there, sucking in another breath. Releasing it shakily. ] Shit, Beckett, I'm...

[ Sorry? Should he say he's sorry? He's never been one for pity. How many times has he lashed out for it? So, Zack shakes his head again, rerouting the thought. ] ..So, it's probably all gone back there. No wonder why..

BACKTAGS INTO THE INFINITE

[bookofnope]

[No wonder why Beckett is such a bitter old man? It's so, in fact, the opposite of how he is used to thinking of himself. Contrary, yes, sarcastic, even cynical, but not bitter. Searching for truth may look like it has to involve eschewing idealism, but, Beckett thinks, there has always been this grand, ridiculous hope in the quest - the hope that things can make sense of looked into deep and long enough. But now he's here seeing himself, suddenly, eerily, in Zack's response to him. Like a too-clear mirror.

It's an ugly picture. Bitter. Old.]

So now you know. [They're empty words, he says them more out of the tired sense that something should be said, than out of any urge to communicate. If only he could have found some petty pleasure, at least, in finally getting to Zack proper. Shutting him up. There is no such pleasure. He hasn't won.]

I hope you have cause for optimism about your own situation. I genuinely do. Dying for something noble is all well and good, but... living would have been better.

AND BEYOND

[heroproceeding]

Living.. would be something better, yeah. [ He breathes it out, some tension releasing from his voice. An honesty he's shared before but one he doesn't speak all too often. Not with the weight of what truly could be at the end of all this. Then, he finds himself shaking his head. ]

But if you want me to be honest? I don't think I'd change what I did, even if I could do it over. But living again- getting more time... The situation's gruesome, but I'll take it. I'll take it if it means I can have this just for now. I don't know if I'd necessarily call it optimism and I can't say it's lucky, but it's something.

[ Something harsh and weighted again. But more than he would have ever had before. There's another short pause before he adds slowly: ] ..Would you go somewhere else? To a different world if you had the choice? I know it would never be the same, but...

[ There are people here from different places. Places that haven't fallen apart or been wiped out. ]

[bookofnope]

[It's something, Zack says and for once - for once - Beckett feels something in him steer and draw itself up in agreement. He doesn't call it optimism, but he knows the urge with frightening, liberating ferocity. Survive, survive. It is an animal urge and he has come to cherish it, more than any love or cause or any human reason just to stay alive.

For once, he feels like he understands the other man, and doesn't mind it if Zack also understands him.]

I thought I wouldn't, once. [He answers with level honesty. Even if the man he is speaking with doesn't all merit it - he still refuses to commit on this point - then the subject does, the question and the answer.] Now... I think, whether I want to or not, I should. I need to. I want to live - and live better than I have before. I want to do it right.

[Maybe there is the key difference between them: whether they would have changed what they did.]

[heroproceeding]

[ Zack's quiet for a long minute as he digests that answer. That honest answer. It's strange. Almost like he's talking to an entirely different person in that moment. A completely different side to him that he's maybe seen in passing but never really paid much attention to, too tangled up in his own presumptions and dislike for the other.

But here, it's strangely.. He can appreciate it. Or maybe he can just appreciate being treated like an equal for once rather than looked down upon for whatever the reason that really comes of it. Not that he's done much better. He shelves that thought for now though, concentration more on the conversation. Focuses on that and hums as he rubs his neck on the other end. ]

Well, if that's the case, then maybe you should. Especially if you wanna make things right. I mean what's done is done at this point, but doing right from here in is better than just giving up. Though- heh.. Guess that's fresh coming from me.

[ There's another short pause. Another short sigh. ] I should be there for 'em, too, after this. Helping 'em adjust back to that life. That's what I should be doing. [ Instead of sounding like he's already giving up. ]