IM ON A BOAT MUTHAFUCKA DONT YOU EER FORGET

[backwater]

[ FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS: look up some old friends. This is a weird and wild new world and even if Zack isn't certain what his place in the grand scheme of things is supposed to be (except NOT DEAD, RENO), well, friends are the perfect place to start! They're the only home he's ever needed anyway. Fuck off with your Shinra shit, he's going through old Tinder matches and on-the-lam connects, reacquainting and reuniting, and it's just such a grand old affair. What a time to be alive. (Reno.)

And then he remembers these girls. Fires off a text, and wouldn't you know it? They're hosting a yacht party and asking if he can bring some cute friends. And can he. Time to dash out a mass text to all 104 friends he has in this world:

ayyyyyy yacht party! get here quick, were goin to costa!! 🌞🍸👙
🌐 Tap here to view Zack Fair's location

The yacht picks them up in Greater Midgar and there are plenty of babes and beverages to go around for the (too-short, wtf) ride over to Costa del Sol. But once they're there, it's all rum runners and bikinis and cookouts, motherfucker. The yacht will remain docked close-by, just in case you need to puke your guts out in the loo or make good use of the lush cabin space, but c'mon. Almost all of you are pale as fuck get some Vitamin D from somewhere other than Rufus, you cocksuckers.

Anyway. Enjoy! ]

Comments

[beenhad]

[ Nope. No humor. Just this chilling void of emotion, as usual. ]

My contacts tell me that he had an altercation with Sephiroth. By the time that I arrived on the scene, he was beyond resuscitation.

[ He's just glad that there was no one there to watch him frantically pouring every last shred of MP he had into that Full-Cure materia, even though he knew there was no hope in fucking hell that it'd do a thing.

Anyway. It's doing funny things to his head to talk about this. He sounds far-away now, not because he's drifting away from the mic or anything. A different kind of distant. ]

Do you have any further questions?

[goons]

Were you with him? In the end?

[Rude is trying so hard to keep himself together long enough to get through the call. He does what he can to keep the emotion out of his voice, but he's not like Tseng, or Rufus, and sometimes even Reno--well, not anymore.

Reno wouldn't get to do anything anymore.]

No. That's all. Goodbye.

[He doesn't need to know anything else. It was obvious he had work to do, now. After he threw up.]

[beenhad]

Rufus was.

[ Tseng does not want to have this conversation any longer either. There's just a small matter of protocol and then he can go back to doing what he was before this. You know, watching their whole world burn. ]

I am ceasing all operations until further notice. You are relieved of any pre-existing duties you might have had.

[ Usually, he'd be more specific here, but... he can't fucking remember anything. ]

That is all.

[ He should offer sympathy. Or a platitude. Perhaps commiserate with him so that Rude does not feel alone in this. Rude is worth it.

He doesn't. He hangs up instead. ]

doooone~✨

[goons]

I see.

[There's a moment where he just wants to hang up the phone and trash his room, but there might be more to hear. Rude takes a deep breath to calm himself, but he's already starting to shake with an uncomfortable mixture of anger and sadness.]

Understood.

[He keeps it together just long enough hear the bit of silence between Tseng's slow breaths and then the sound of the call ending. Rude looks at his phone and then throws the thing right across the room. Even without knowing what had happened, he knows he should have been there with him. Knowing his partner died without him only fills him with guilt, and he doesn't know where to start with mourning someone he's secretly been in love with for years.]