[Zack tries and fails to not laugh when Sephiroth vanishes into the snow. Pale and white-haired, he practically disappears even when he gets up again. Poor guy. (It's hilarious.)]
I agree! Caves always have some weird stuff. Or fun stuff. Or just stuff in general.
[And sometimes the stuff explodes! Sometimes it tries to eat you! These are also fun and weird options. Zack starts forward up the path anyway, undaunted by its appearance or their lack of proper gear. They'll manage somehow! But mayyyybe he's keeping his wings out longer than usual, too. Just in case. He can survive falling off a mountain - crashing through Aerith's church from the top plate kinda proved his fall durability - but that doesn't make it fun to do.]
[He manages a remarkable amount of dignity for being snowed and the laughter, but he doesn't actually seem bothered, either by Zack's amusement or the drift. Reasonably snow free, he heads for a decent start point for the climb, rubbing his hands a little on his pants to remove the remainder.]
Oh, it does. Good for hiding in when the sun gets too hot, just wait it out in the dark until closer to sunset. You just gotta watch out for trolls asleep in them.
[It wasn't a bad way to spend the heat of the day, in the back of a nice cool dark cave. Aside from the trolls, anyway, but those were easy to deal with.]
I haven't found a lot interesting in them though. Just glow in the dark mushrooms.
[Huh. Now he's rethinking the idea of visiting some of Cruel Summer's caves. He doesn't mind fighting trolls or whatever - par for the course in his life, let's be real - but exploring new places is a thing he likes just about as much as fighting. Any time he went to Cruel Summer it was mostly rocks and sand... this sounds far more intriguing.]
Glow in the dark mushrooms are kinda interesting. Are they tasty?
[The kid from Gongaga wants to eat weird mushrooms, news at 11.]
I don't think I'll be going to Gongaga and devouring all its mushrooms any time soon.
[Though it did make him wonder if that's where most people got their mushrooms. If Banora's major export was apples, did Gongaga export weird mushrooms?
Things to find out if it ever occurs to him later when he's back in his own time.]
I think only one should be fine, as long as the mushroom isn't immediately lethal. I can cast for both of us pretty well, and if it incapacitates me suddenly you'll just have to pick up my sword and cast it yourself.
[Why double up! Well sometimes there's reasons to double up, but that's usually active fighting when the chance to snap off a heal or cure isn't really going to happen often.
He didn't think mushrooms in Cruel Summer would count.]
Or you can eat it, since you're familiar with mushrooms, and I'll watch to make sure you don't start hallucinating or foaming at the mouth or something.
Hmm. Okay, but if I start foaming at the mouth you gotta promise not to take any pictures. I don't need an uncool mushroom-foaming reputation following me home.
[Some things, you can never outrun... (And the answer to his unspoken question is "probably, yeah".)]
[The measuring silence that draws might not bode well.]
I won't. [That conclusion takes WAY too long to reach.] I don't have anyone acceptable to show it to even if I did. Mr. Valentine doesn't care I don't think, and Cloud would probably try to kill me for letting you get poisoned.
[Although it's terribly dry, there's something in his tone that suggests he's not ... ENTIRELY serious. A morbid joke, but a joke it might be.]
But if the glow from the mushroom is contagious I may have to.
[Zack doesn't entirely believe him, but you know what, if he's foaming at the mouth he should probably prioritize getting help over his dignity, so. Fine.]
Eh, I'll worry about that if it happens. Most of the time you can cook the poison out of stuff, so worst case scenario we'll know raw is off the table!
You know, I thought I replied to this already and yet..
People used to tell me I need to plan more. I'm gonna tell whoever says it next that Seph wants me to plan less!
[He's laughing anyway, trudging through the snow to get to the next flat edge requiring a proper climb, which he'll immediately grab onto and heft himself up. Maybe there's a cave at the top!]
[He really should clarify. He should. Misunderstandings cause all KINDS of problems. But he's reasonably sure that none of this is serious and Zack isn't going to use it in more dangerous settings as an excuse to charge in blindly. Probably.
He's also a bit slower to work on getting up the ice and rock, not for lack of strength but lack of reach, requiring a bit more scrambling to get where he's trying to go. Could they probably jump it? Yes. Could they fly? Also yes. But that's not the POINT.]
[The good thing about going anywhere with Zack is he's got limbs for days, so once he's up the most recent ledge, he leans over the side and offers his hand out to give Sephiroth less of a stretch to heave himself up there. Teamwork!]
How's your dog's sense of smell? Most of the good mushrooms can be sniffed out.
[ONE DAY he'll have equal reach, if not greater, but until then he's stuck with the woes of adolescence: being short.
So accepting the offered hand is easy enough, and though he's heavier than a fifteen year old normally is by a good margin, it's still not going to be anything of a problem for a SOLDIER.]
Um, I can't say we've ever tried to sniff out a mushroom.
[Especially since his Omen's senses were no sharper than his. Would he be able to smell a mushroom?
[He knows.. a LITTLE about chocobos. Could ride, could care for them in a slipshod fashion. It was a 'just in case' measure in his time, by the time Zack got to joining up probably there was more reliance on machinery.
But while Vincent wasn't a Real Chocobo, he might do in a pinch, and have human level intelligence to go with it. He boots a little chunk of ice thoughtfully, watching it skitter down the slope.]
Otherwise it'd be spending Lore on getting one, and then what if the creation is affected by expectation? If I want it to have a good nose, it would have one.
Hmm... do you think you're creating new stuff, or just summoning it from somewhere? Because I've seen people get animals that remembered them and all. So maybe it wouldn't be making a chocobo with a good nose, but just summoning the right guy for the job?
[He distinctly remembers April implying that the Mayhem she got was her Mayhem, unless this newly-created version liked her and the name instantly. Zack's never gotten anything, like, sentient from home.]
....I don't know. If you expect your creation to remember you, then it's reasonable that it would.
[Feathers ruffle up; this is the exact sort of thing he'd want to put to the test but isn't sure how to actually DO SO without some seriously questionable choices.]
To be sure wouldn't you .. need to create or summon something intelligent enough to not only remember you, but remember things you were never involved in and thus couldn't simply add to the design? I'd have to ... try to create or summon a chocobo that .. knows you or something .. or ideally someone I haven't interacted with and thus wouldn't know to put into it..
[There's a downside to being the son of two scientists.]
Of course. It would be my responsibility. But it wouldn't answer the question of whether you're just making a copy of something based on your memory, or if you're making a copy of the actual creature with ITS memories intact.
[Doesn't everyone wonder this stuff?]
Wouldn't you want to know, if you were doing something like that?
Ehhh... [The most non-committal of noises.] I don't really care. Aren't we supposed to be copies in this world already? But we've got free will and we feel like ourselves, right? If it's a copy or the original, they'd still be real. So I wouldn't mind!
[It's not life or death important, there's no sense of the gravitas of that kind of important, no weight to it that suggests this is in fact, really relevant.]
Well I care. Not knowing is terrible, then I get stuck wondering about it. It might not change the end result, but ... it's still a mystery worth solving. Besides which, I don't think we're really copies.
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I agree! Caves always have some weird stuff. Or fun stuff. Or just stuff in general.
[And sometimes the stuff explodes! Sometimes it tries to eat you! These are also fun and weird options. Zack starts forward up the path anyway, undaunted by its appearance or their lack of proper gear. They'll manage somehow! But mayyyybe he's keeping his wings out longer than usual, too. Just in case. He can survive falling off a mountain - crashing through Aerith's church from the top plate kinda proved his fall durability - but that doesn't make it fun to do.]
I haven't done that one. No caves there, huh?
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Oh, it does. Good for hiding in when the sun gets too hot, just wait it out in the dark until closer to sunset. You just gotta watch out for trolls asleep in them.
[It wasn't a bad way to spend the heat of the day, in the back of a nice cool dark cave. Aside from the trolls, anyway, but those were easy to deal with.]
I haven't found a lot interesting in them though. Just glow in the dark mushrooms.
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Glow in the dark mushrooms are kinda interesting. Are they tasty?
[The kid from Gongaga wants to eat weird mushrooms, news at 11.]
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Generally I don't eat things that brightly colored, it's normally nature's way of telling you it's toxic.
[...On the other hand.
On the other hand, now he's thinking about it, and he trudges in silence, considering things very, very carefully.]
Later on I'm going to make a poison esuna materia, and then I'm going to eat one. I'll let you know.
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[Everything's brightly coloured there, and lots of glowing things. The trick is identifying the markings!]
You should make two and invite me along! [Or he's inviting himself, apparently.] I'd eat one, too.
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[Though it did make him wonder if that's where most people got their mushrooms. If Banora's major export was apples, did Gongaga export weird mushrooms?
Things to find out if it ever occurs to him later when he's back in his own time.]
I think only one should be fine, as long as the mushroom isn't immediately lethal. I can cast for both of us pretty well, and if it incapacitates me suddenly you'll just have to pick up my sword and cast it yourself.
[Why double up! Well sometimes there's reasons to double up, but that's usually active fighting when the chance to snap off a heal or cure isn't really going to happen often.
He didn't think mushrooms in Cruel Summer would count.]
Or you can eat it, since you're familiar with mushrooms, and I'll watch to make sure you don't start hallucinating or foaming at the mouth or something.
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[Some things, you can never outrun... (And the answer to his unspoken question is "probably, yeah".)]
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I won't. [That conclusion takes WAY too long to reach.] I don't have anyone acceptable to show it to even if I did. Mr. Valentine doesn't care I don't think, and Cloud would probably try to kill me for letting you get poisoned.
[Although it's terribly dry, there's something in his tone that suggests he's not ... ENTIRELY serious. A morbid joke, but a joke it might be.]
But if the glow from the mushroom is contagious I may have to.
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Eh, I'll worry about that if it happens. Most of the time you can cook the poison out of stuff, so worst case scenario we'll know raw is off the table!
You know, I thought I replied to this already and yet..
Really. Ignore any and all proof to the contrary.]
We'll have to find a glowing mushroom first, so perhaps planning what to do with it when we find it should wait until then.
[Until then: climbing! And keeping a weather eye out for likely cave systems to investigate in the doing.]
uwu what a tease
[He's laughing anyway, trudging through the snow to get to the next flat edge requiring a proper climb, which he'll immediately grab onto and heft himself up. Maybe there's a cave at the top!]
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[He really should clarify. He should. Misunderstandings cause all KINDS of problems. But he's reasonably sure that none of this is serious and Zack isn't going to use it in more dangerous settings as an excuse to charge in blindly. Probably.
He's also a bit slower to work on getting up the ice and rock, not for lack of strength but lack of reach, requiring a bit more scrambling to get where he's trying to go. Could they probably jump it? Yes. Could they fly? Also yes. But that's not the POINT.]
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How's your dog's sense of smell? Most of the good mushrooms can be sniffed out.
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So accepting the offered hand is easy enough, and though he's heavier than a fifteen year old normally is by a good margin, it's still not going to be anything of a problem for a SOLDIER.]
Um, I can't say we've ever tried to sniff out a mushroom.
[Especially since his Omen's senses were no sharper than his. Would he be able to smell a mushroom?
.. He was going to have to find out.]
I guess later on it's worth trying.
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Anything's worth trying once! Worst that'll happen is it doesn't work.
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There's a lot of mountain to climb.]
Do you think familiars get the senses of their animal forms? Maybe Mr. Valentine can find them. Chocobos have good noses, don't they? ..Nares? Beaks?
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[And please invite him to watch because he kind of wants to see Vincent the mushroom-hunting chocobo.]
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[He knows.. a LITTLE about chocobos. Could ride, could care for them in a slipshod fashion. It was a 'just in case' measure in his time, by the time Zack got to joining up probably there was more reliance on machinery.
But while Vincent wasn't a Real Chocobo, he might do in a pinch, and have human level intelligence to go with it. He boots a little chunk of ice thoughtfully, watching it skitter down the slope.]
Otherwise it'd be spending Lore on getting one, and then what if the creation is affected by expectation? If I want it to have a good nose, it would have one.
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[He distinctly remembers April implying that the Mayhem she got was her Mayhem, unless this newly-created version liked her and the name instantly. Zack's never gotten anything, like, sentient from home.]
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[Feathers ruffle up; this is the exact sort of thing he'd want to put to the test but isn't sure how to actually DO SO without some seriously questionable choices.]
To be sure wouldn't you .. need to create or summon something intelligent enough to not only remember you, but remember things you were never involved in and thus couldn't simply add to the design? I'd have to ... try to create or summon a chocobo that .. knows you or something .. or ideally someone I haven't interacted with and thus wouldn't know to put into it..
[There's a downside to being the son of two scientists.]
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[He really doesn't understand the problem.]
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[Doesn't everyone wonder this stuff?]
Wouldn't you want to know, if you were doing something like that?
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Well I care. Not knowing is terrible, then I get stuck wondering about it. It might not change the end result, but ... it's still a mystery worth solving. Besides which, I don't think we're really copies.
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[He's not fussed. He's also never had an identity or existential crisis, so he's got no chocobo in this race, figuratively or literally.]
But if I ever wish for a chocobo and it has a good nose, you can put 'em to work guilt-free.
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me giving up on trying to remember if this came up before: zack also forgot
part of it did!
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