IC Inbox.

[weartearrust]

"This is Angeal. You know what to do."

Comments

[drunk text time]

[nimbuster]

Tell me about sephiroth

[Yeah, that's...that's it. No leadup, no further explanation. Just that, out of nowhere, around 10pm.]

[weartearrust]

[It's 10pm why is someone texting him about sephiroth. He stares at the text for a bit.]

Sephiroth Fact #3669: he doesn't use the whole bottle every time, that's only after particularly grimy experiences.

Logistics is told otherwise.

Video

[chaos_drifter]

It looks like you and I are paired for the month. Do you need anything? [Avalon knows they should say something else, considering they have no idea who Angeal is, but their mind is blank. After a moment of staring into the camera, no obvious expression on their face, they cut the feed.]

[weartearrust]

Your preferred form of address and any expectations you have for me would be a good start; it's nice to meet you even over these devices.

[Angeal doesn't know many at all onboard and Avalon is a completely new face. Maybe it'll be a relief that he seems perfectly willing to cooperate.]

[artistinexile]

Good day, Angeal.

My name is Thrawn. I work alongside you on custodial duty. If you are interested, I have a one-day experiment for us. Should it succeed, it may reduce your workload there, in half the time. It may also - and this could be either a warning or an additional incentive - irritate Richter Belmont.

Are you interested?

[weartearrust]

Hello, Thrawn.

Given our situation I can't agree to anything without reading the fine print, but I'm willing to listen.

Not only the experiment, but it's goal.

Thank you.

Audio, after pairings

[chaos_drifter]

[Avalon has no idea what to think of being paired with the same person twice in a row. The first time that had happened, Ruka had disappeared, but the second time, Rawne had become their permanent Warden. Perhaps the Admiral is watching either them or Angeal.]

You and I are paired again. What was the request that you wanted to make last time?

[weartearrust]

Hm, I thought these pairings were different every month. Well, that's alright. I'm told my warden might have a way to get the Admiral to change the view outside my windows? It's simplistic, but.. I miss the countryside.

Text, after the Flood

[chaos_drifter]

There are some people offering forms of help that I may not be able to give, but do you need anything from me?

[weartearrust]

Thank you for asking, yes I do. I wasn't able to get to your pastries and soup before everything went rather nightmarish, but that's been remedied when you're free.

The recent events were not pleasant, but not worse than was my primary line of work on my planet. I'll be alright.

Text!

[coffinturk]

[ A text appears somewhere before the announcement about port. ]

Angeal. You were fond of plants weren't you?

[weartearrust]

Still am. What can I do for you?

extremely backdated to pairing day

[anti_altruisms]

Archer and Angeal are, coincidentally, both in the kitchen when the announcement goes up. Archer considers it with all due seriousness but waits until the work is done to mention it.

"It seems we've been paired for the month."

Yes, good, getting right to the point.

"Is there anything I should know, or that you'd like to know about me?"

[weartearrust]

It's heard, but in the meantime there's food to be made and then dishes to be washed, and while chatting while doing that is possible, it's also a good way to have a knife slip. Not Avalon a third time - that's fine, he was still going to keep tabs on them and how they're doing. "Yup."

Of all the Wardens to be paired with, Archer's not bad. He's used to the man's directions by now, and at least it wasn't guessing what a stranger was going to be like. "... Not really sure what you need to know. At this point I'm pretty certain I'm here because of forcing my protege to kill me, if that helps." That's only one part of it. There's so much else. "I admit I'm curious about you, but I'm not going to pry and damage a perfectly good working relationship over a temporary pairing."

Audio, backdated to the 10/29

[chaos_drifter]

Do you know which areas of the Barge need the most work, and do you need help doing repairs anywhere?

Sorry for delay, medical happened.

[weartearrust]

I don't, I'm still taking stock of what happened. .. If nothing else there's still a lot of cleaning to be done. Yanking debris. Seeing what's salvageable.

audio

[cactusy]

I got paired with two of you this month, and the other guy's called "the Dark Urge". You're name's a lot less descriptive.

[A pause.]

Probably less descriptive. Are you an angel?

[weartearrust]

[That's definitely a laugh. He doesn't .. sound psychotic but that doesn't mean much around this ship.]

No, my mother was just a romantic. I must have missed the announcement; I'm Angeal Hewley, soldier by trade. What can I do for you?

audio; post-pairings

[cactusy]

Well, that was a surprise.

[It's dry, but it's her baseline level of dry, rather than anything that hints at actual annoyance or displeasure.]

[weartearrust]

I guess this means I won't be getting a new temp mid-month. The Admiral must have liked my fishing technique.

[This is.. perfectly fine to him, post announcement.]

A text

[coffinturk]

Got a minute?

A text

[weartearrust]

Probably, but depends on what you want it for. Do I need to get dressed?

Spam, early on in the Flood

[chaos_drifter]

Avalon pauses when they see Angeal in the hallway, looking through him more than at him for a moment. Their thoughts on him are more complicated now: the last time they were paired with someone more than once, it had become permanent, and they had almost been expecting that again. Angeal is also the reason that Shaw is still here, and they like that they have more time with her.

It makes no sense to say any of that, so instead they ask, “Do you need help staying warm? I can turn into an animal if you would rather not touch me as a person.”

HOLIDAYS HAPPENED i am sorry!

[weartearrust]

How these kinds of things work, he didn't know. He'd had temporary wardens, he'd assumed he'd keep having them for quite a while, his careful asking around had resulted in the idea that most people rotated for months on end before settling on something.

This is rather early, by his flawed estimates.

Avalon turning up in the hallway earns them an immediate smile. "I'm doing alright so far." But this in no way prevents him from opening his arms in a way very much suggestive that he wouldn't mind a hug anyway. "But no reason to take frosty chances. What species you are isn't really important, is it? I'm not contagious or anything."

Not right now.

[audio]

[nimbuster]

Hey, Angeal, you seen Zack lately? Tried calling him a few times but he hasn't picked up, and he didn't walk Zeke at the time he usually does. Kinda worried.

[weartearrust]

.... A couple of hours ago.

[Angeal sounds unruffled, so whatever it was can't be a big deal! right??

But there's a reason he's not going to turn on the video, and is glad it's only audio.]

He may just need time to unwind a little. Send a message in the morning perhaps.

[cactusy]

Shaw is dressed in workout clothes when she comes into the gym, but it's not the weights or the machinery that she heads for: she beelines for Angeal instead. She won't get too close to what he's doing, especially if there are moving parts involved (no one wants an accidental medicine ball to the head), but it's clear that he has her full attention.

"Hey. Time for take two."

[weartearrust]

Just a punching bag today, heavy and sturdy; whatever he'd done to his shoulder meant it was still a little bit sore trying for proper sword forms, but boxing was a completely different set of motions and pummeling a bag for a few hours was a good way to let his mind wander and keep somewhat in shape.

When Shaw turns up suddenly it's easy to stop at least, and reorient on his Warden instead of the heavy bag, picking up a water bottle poached from the kitchens. "Yes ma'am. What do you want from me?"

Easy compliance, but that's nothing new. He had other ways of digging his heels in.

Spam

[colorofthesky]

It takes a while for Zack to motivate hunself to do this. The initial conversation with Aerith helped, and he’s done a lot of thinking since then.

He doesn’t know exactly what he’s going to say…but he also doesn’t feel like he can put this off any longer.

Because of that, sometime in the evening, he walks over to Angeal’s cabin…and knocks three times.

(Maybe he should have texted in advance, but part of him thinks he’ll just lose his nerve if he gives himself the space to.)

Re: Spam

[weartearrust]

The amount of people who knock on Angeal's door regularly are few, and not people he much has any concerns about, so when there's a knock on the door, his response is a somewhat muffled "It's open!"

It's an invitation enough.

Opening the door takes things immediately back to Banora, still. Even the 'windows' show a view of the landscape around that ruin of a town instead of the eerie space around the Barge. At some point perhaps it would be a good idea to change to something more modern but even six months in he still finds some comfort in the rustic and familiar.

There are six different very large glass jars of at least five gallons each sitting on the table, full of liquid in various shades of yellow, and Angeal himself, in nothing more than sweatpants and a teeshirt, frowning at them with a mason jar in hand as if they've done something to personally disappoint him.

Maybe they have.

[nimbuster]

[There's no text with the message Angeal receives from Cloud. Just a photo he took with his communicator. Two familiar black-haired fellows, one having wrapped his arms around the other, just...standing there in the middle of the deck.

That's right. Vincent Valentine is getting hugged. By the sunshiniest man on the planet.]

audio; soon after Vincent's post

[cactusy]

My warden item tells me if you're dead, but not if you're injured; check in.

Also audio

[weartearrust]

[Angeal sounds half awake at best, but undeniably alive. Someone was napping. Or just outright asleep.]

Uninjured. Kind of functional. You need me somewhere?

action; backdated a couple days

[cactusy]

[After going through about as much of Sheehan's most recent network post as she can stand, Shaw is restless. She paces in her cabin and stares daggers at her warden item, keeping a close eye on Angeal's little tracking dot - and the moment she sees that he's anywhere but a private cabin or the kitchen area (that is, not working, and also somewhere public), she heads out to find him. Once she does, she positions herself nearby (seated a few feet away if he's sedentary, or falling into step beside him if he's not), and says without preamble:]

What were your favorite and least favorite things about working for Shinra? I'm thinking one of each, but if you've got more, hit me with 'em.

[weartearrust]

[Angeal's got a nice comfortable routine. He does his work, he returns to his cabin, he heads to do some working out or reading in the library.. it's almost monotonous!

This time of day, midweek, that's heading for the library; he's no doctor and knows BEANS about a lot of doctor things, but trying to get better educated about virology can only help. Having Shaw turn up seemingly out of nowhere as he heads for the endless towering shelves is not alarming; somewhere on the way she'd shifted rather permanently from stranger to Not.

The question however is a bit of a surprise.]

Hm. I liked that we were helping people. A lot of what we did was straight up good for folks. Getting rid of marauding monsters, helping on dangerous cleanup or even sometimes construction that could make use of our strength.

[He's thoughtful; this isn't something that's come up much.]

Can't say I cared much for the Wutai war though. If Wutai didn't want cheap power and modern convenience, that was their right. Forcing it on them.. that's a lot of dead people just to bring sanitation and medicine to the survivors.

audio - some nebulous time after the breach

[nimbuster]

[Cloud was not originally going to include Angeal on this little tour of weird personal announcements, but he remembers Angeal's attempts at helpfully meddling, and back then he'd said some things that make Cloud think he might like to know the, uh...developments. And considering circumstances, he also thinks Angeal is one of the least likely to have a problem with those developments. So...]

Hey, Angeal. You got a minute? Got something I want to tell you. Figured it's the kind of thing you'd want to know.

[weartearrust]

[It takes a minute; must have had his communicator down.]

Sure, what's up Cloud?

text

[punched_hitler]

Hi. We haven't met, but I was talking with Aerith and she mentioned there's a new Banora apple tree in the greenhouse. She said you might have a good idea of what we can do with the fruit when it grows. I'm only familiar with Earth apples, so I wasn't sure if these would cook the same way.

[weartearrust]

Well that's some unexpected good news! I assume some kind of magic will be used to make it grow to maturity? It usually takes a good twenty years. You can treat them like an earth "honeycrisp" generally, except expect it to spoil much faster when off the tree. Leave it on the tree and it can last months.

My good friend back home invented a process by which to preserve them for transport elsewhere but I'm not that kind of clever, I'm afraid.

Voice

[weirdnecro]

Hey. You're Angeal right?

Sephiroth directed me to talk to you about something, if you're okay with it.

Re: Voice

[weartearrust]

Sephiroth, really? What can I do for you?

audio | backdated to the start of the port

[colorofthesky]

Hey. Have you done any exploring yet?

[weartearrust]

Oh, hello Zack. I haven't overmuch, though I've been planning to. It's not every day you get to visit another planet, after all.

text; a little backdated!

[cactusy]

[Shortly after the spider fiasco starts rearing its ugly head--]

I'm not going to pretend it's glamorous or exciting, but let's play pest control

[This is her assuming that he's been out enough to notice the problem on his own; if he hasn't, then, well. What a wild message to receive without the proper context, huh?]

[weartearrust]

[There are in fact a few lil spiders running around his cabin RIGHT NOW. He hasn't done anything about them, spiders are beneficial!

And then a text arrives.]

How many exactly are there that pest control is needed? Should I go looking for bug spray or will a rolled up newspaper work.

day 1 of the flood!

[cactusy]

Shaw has never had so much as a cold here outside of death tolls, and given that she hasn't just recently died, she is highly suspicious that something is up when she wakes up in the morning and feels like absolute crap. Hauling herself out of bed and splashing some water on her face does nothing; neither does having some leftover white rice for breakfast. The steady undercurrent within her that's urging her to Go, go, go is the only other anomaly, and she quickly finds that when she listens to it (by approaching the door, by opening the door, by stepping out into the hallway), the malaise decreases by degrees. She may not know the why here, but the what isn't hard to figure out. God. Fine.

Without bothering to change out of the tank top and sweatpants that she'd slept in, she slips on some shoes and heads down from Level 1.

[weartearrust]

Weakness and dizziness are usually treated with food. When that doesn't work, he can A. tough it out or B. head to medical and see if they have any theraflu before things get out of hand. That someone might have brought something onboard doesn't surprise him at all. The decision to go to medical might have something to do with that vague, persistent compulsion to find Shaw.

She's not going to be there this early, it's not her day. Tendi might be, and that's just as good, isn't it? But even heading in the right direction seems to ease some of the wholly unwelcome feeling a little; Shaw will eventually be headed down, but Angeal's headed up, the infirmary - and her cabin - are both a few floors higher.

It's like playing Hot and Cold with his own dizziness, sticking close to walls in case the feeling suddenly gets worse. By the time he actually reaches level 2, she might well be arriving at about the same time.