Random Bits: FF7 03
[Setting - Zack is sent out to find Cloud after a trying morning 'Generaling'.]
[Location - A few block from the Base - Cloud is on a Murder Walk after dealing with an unruly SOLDIER.]
A disembodied Angeal Head floated across the velvety black screen of Cloud's memory, bouncing slowly in random directions like the ghost of an old Windows Logo screensaver.
"Go take a walk!" it commanded with each ricochet.
It was joined by a Zack Head, which also began bouncing randomly around and repeating "No, don't eat him!"
Cloud scowled to himself as the memory flickered unbidden across the backs of his eyelids.
1st Class SOLDIER Timothy Titsworth burst into the conference room with the force of an angry soccer mom who has just found out her little angel was allowed to watch a PG-13 movie.
Known as "Tiddy" (because there was no joining an army without aquiring some kind of weird, cool, humorus, or downright embarrassing nickname that you either loved or hated), Timothy showed great promise as a SOLDIER, but he was overly ambitious, and more than a bit egotistical.
"What the hell, Tiddy!" Angeal barked, rising from his seat at the conference table, where he had been discussing plans for the upcoming Games with Zack, Cloud, and President Rufus Shinra.
"What the hell, indeed, Sir!" Titsworth snarled, saluting as an afterthought. "I want to be assinged to a higher level training mission-!"
"No." Cloud said firmly as Angeal apologized to Rufus for the interruption. "I already told you that you aren't ready. Get out, now. I am in the middle of a meeting, and you are out of line, Private Tiddy." he continued, deliberately stressing Titsworth's rank as an unspoken reminder of who he was speaking to, and unintentionally making a pun that caused Zack to make a very un-General like snorting sound.
Titsworth looked at Zack like a miffed child hoping that Daddy might say 'yes', even though Mommy had already said 'no'.
"General Fair, I-!"
The room was suddenly full of angry dragon. Papers scattered, people made exclamations of surprise, chairs tipped, and someone laughed as Cloud Shifted into his ELITE form and, with mouth gaping, lunged across the desk at Titsworth.
Zack jumped on Cloud's long neck, landing just behind his head, and managed to grab the long, whisker/tendril/moustache/feeler thingies trailing from the sides of his snout and hauled on them like reins while shouting "No, don't eat him!"
Massive jaws with long fanges snapped shut inches from Titsworth's face and Cloud goose-honked in pained surprise, pulling his head up and back, twisting it from side to side while backing up as he tried to relieve the sharp pulling on his face feelers. He Shifted back to his normal shape, leaving Zack sitting in mid-air for the length of an eye blink before gravity caught up with reality and he crashed to the floor.
Zack immediately bounced up and grabbed Cloud by the arm before he could lunge at Titsworth again.
"Go take a walk, "Angeal snapped at Cloud, who was all scowls and hisses.
"But what about-!" Titsworth began from where he had fetched up against the wall. Like a terrier with a rat, he was not about to let the argument go, out of either a poor sense of self-preservation, or out-right stupidity.
"Shut up, before I tell General Fair to let him go, and we end up having to send your mother an 'In Sympathy for Your Loss' card!" Angeal snapped with that tight-lipped, angry-eyed expression that most teens didn't even have to see to know it was being made. It was an expression that had its own sound.
Titsworth huffed, but closed his mouth. He remained on the floor, sitting very still as Cloud stormed out of the room. Dragons were like cats. They would go after anything that moved.
Cloud shook his head at the memory, causing the Heads to bounce violently around and collide with each other with a double "ouch!" before they faded away. He was only mildly annoyed by now, having walked several blocks, but he couldn't help but feel unjustly put-upon. It wasn't like he'd chosen his ELITE form, and he couldn't help that it would sometimes take over. It wasn't his fault that dragons had a very simple idea of what constituted 'conflict resolution', and that it mostly involved eating whomever caused the conflict.
Go take a walk...
Cloud would have rather gone out for a nice long flight. It was much more fun, and relaxing, but it did tend to stir up the city's inhabitants. There was just something about a black winged shadow passing overhead that would send people screaming in panic. Old instincts died hard, and deep in most the primitive part of their brains, people were still just small, soft-bodied squeaky creatures hiding under leaves and flinching at shadows.
He turned a corner and continued walking briskly along the shop lined street, noticing that other pedestrians were trying to avoid him without looking like they were avoiding him. It might have worked, if it had been one or two individuals. There is just nothing subtle about an entire crowd suddenly crossing to the other side of the street.
Cloud found himself completely alone on the sidewalk. That was fine with him. At least he didn't have to feel like he was in the middle of a school of salmon during their running season.
The ponderous growl of a heavy engine pulled Cloud from his musings. He paused and turned just in time to watch one of the army's Humvee's pull up to the curb beside him.
Zack, grinning from ear to ear, leaned toward the open passenger side window and said, in his best Creepy Witch Voice, "Need a ride little girl?"
Cloud hissed at him and resumed walking, forcing Zack to drive slowly along beside him.
"Come on, Spiky! I'm sorry I pulled your face feelers!"
Cloud pointedly ignored him.
"Don't be salty,"
Cloud kept walking.
"Don't be like that-!" Zack steered around a parked car and rolled back along side Cloud. "I'll let you work my stick-shift!"
The offer was met with an icy side eye and frigid silence.
"I'll pay you," Zack venture playfully, with a cheeky grin.
"You can't afford me." Cloud replied curtly.
Zack's grin froze, then shattered into an open mouthed gape as the comment hit him like a cast-iron lightling bolt. The hairs on the back of his neck rose at the feeling that a white-hot icicle had just been fired through his brain.
"I...did...did you...just...?" he stammered, the humvee stalling as he briefly forgot how to drive. Well, I'll be dipped in shit! Now I know how Dr. Hyansen felt! Zack thought after he recovered enough from the unexpected sarcasm that he was able to get the vehicle restarted.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" Zack called as he caught up to Cloud and parked. "Just get in, okay? Look," he said, holding up a brown paper bag, "I brought shrimp yum yum sticks!"
Cloud's eyes were instantly glued to the bag. The scent of shrimp and vegetables in a crispy wrapper covered in toasted sesame seeds hit him straight in the olfactory receptors. He struggled with himself, pushing for Caution, while the dragon part of him drooled all over Common Sense.
It's obviously a bribe, Cloud warned the dragon.
Shrimp yum yum sticks!
No, he's using food to-!
Shrimp yum yum sticks!
But, listen, he-!
NO! SHRIMP YUM YUM STICKS!
Cloud's stomach growled, and he gave in. As he climbed into the passenger's seat, he had to laugh at himself. Hey little boy, I've got some candy in my van, he thought with a wry snort.
"What are you laughing at?" Zack asked.
"Nothing." Cloud said slightly irritated at how he would do almost anything for those stupid sticks. It was a good thing Zack hadn't brought canned cat food... Cloud snatched the bag from Zack and took a big bite out of one of the sticks while the dragon part of him happily chanted Shrimp, shrimp, shrimp, shrimp, shrimp!
"You can still work my stick-shift if you want," Zack offered jokingly, patting the shift handle. He completely missed the slight tightening around Cloud's eyes, and the tiniest of upward curving at the corners of his mouth.
"I'll pass," Cloud replied, the words coming out slightly distorted as he shoved another yum yum stick into his mouth. "Your knob is too small."
"Wha-!" Zack all but yelped, a full body cringe slamming down his spine as his body tried to physically force the word 'knob' back out through his ears.
"The knob," Cloud repeated as Zack cringed again, "It's, too small so it makes your hand hurt on long drives."
Zack shot him a suspicious look, but it merely ricocheted harmlessly off the look of genuine sincerity and yum yum stick crumbs on Cloud's face.
"Maybe I should put in a request for bigger knobs..." Cloud suggested, "Bigger knobs would fit more comfortably in your hand and make them easier to manipulate for longer periods of time, right?"
Zack flinched and Cloud could almost see his brain shudder as it tried to use its own stem to tear out his eardrums.
"Stop it!" Zack snapped.
"Stop what?"
"Saying...'knob',"
"What's wrong with the word 'knob'?" Cloud asked, his eyebrows pinching together in confusion while Zack cringed.
"You saying it. It's just...wrong,"
"I'm saying 'knob' wrong?"
"NO! Just stop saying it!"
"There's nothing wrong with knobs," Cloud chided. "Lot's of things have knobs," he continued while Zack cringed and flinched along.
"Like radios. Radios have knobs. And tv's have knobs. Dressers have knobs. Oh, and cabinets have knobs. Beds have knobs, and you can put a knob of butter on your toast. Trees have knobs too, and hands can get knobby, and even people have knobs! My mom had knobs and she said that when I annoyed her I was 'twisting her knobs'...or was that 'pushing her buttons? I forget-!"
"Stop saying 'knob'! Zack wailed, hands clamped protectively over his ears.
"Why are you getting so bent out of shape over the word 'knob'?
Zack bristled at the word, his hair lifting like the hackles of a startled wolf. It was then that he noticed the slight crinkling around Cloud's eyes.
"You dick!" Zack snarled, annoyed. "Play Backwater Dummy with me, will you?" He leaned in close, and with a malicious grin, started wiggling his eyebrows.
Cloud recoiled, Shifting into his half-form and hissing shrimp yum yum stick all over Zack's face as memories of a certain Inspector's rather mobile eyebrows rose up to haunt him like a greasy meal at 3am after six beers.
Unperturbed by the macerated mist, Zack continued wiggling his eyebrows, laughing evilly, "How do you like that huh? Say 'knob' again, you little turd!" He reached out to playfully poke Cloud.
Out of pure reflex Cloud bit the offending appendage.
Zack yelped more out of surprise than pain, and snatched his hand away, retreating back to the driver's seat to inspect the damage.
"Not cool, man, you gave me a noodle hand!" He said with a pout, illustrating his grievance by flapping his now numb hand around on the end of his wrist.
"I didn't mean to,"
Zack started using his left hand to rapidly and repetitively smack his right arm against his thigh.
"You want a rag...or... something?"
Zack paused, eyeing Cloud suspiciously. Almost afraid of the answer, he risked asking "For what?"
"So you won't be walking around the rest of the day wearing that shrimp facial."
"Oh. Yeah." Zack replied, realizing that the remnants of shrimp yum yum sticks were quietly getting crusty on his skin. He took the napkins Cloud fished out of the crumpled bag on the floor boards and awkwardly used his left hand to wipe his face.
"How's your hand?" Cloud inquired, a note of guilt hovering in his voice.
"Hanging in there," Zack replied with a lopsided grin.
Cloud signed into his hands in mild irritation at Zack's penchant for making jokes out of everything.
He felt Zack patting him on the shoulder. There was something awkward about the gesture that had nothing to do with the current atmosphere.
Looking up, Cloud saw Zack using his left hand to hold his numb arm up by the elbow and slap the appendage down on his shoulder. He imagined that this was exactly how it felt to be patted by a zombie. Cloud snorted in reluctant amusement and shoved the dead arm off his shoulder. The limp limb bounced off the back of the seat and slithered down the armrest to swing loosely at Zack's side.
Both men stared at the arm mutely until it stopped swinging like a slowly winding down clock pendulum before looking at each other.
Zack arched an eyebrow and said, "What? You like the angle of the dangle?"
Cloud rolled his eyes so hard he almost became the first person to find out what the backs of his own eye sockets looked like.
Zack laughed and started the vehicle.
"What are you doing?" Cloud asked in alarm, "You can't drive like that!"
"Sure I can. I'll drive, and you can work my stick!"
"Move, I'm driving."
"Fine. Killjoy.
Want me to shift your stick?" Zack asked as Cloud settled into the driver's seat.
"No thanks, I do it myself."
"Riiiight!" Zack drawled, doing a single finger gun.
"Do you want two noodle arms? Because that's how you get two noodle arms."
"Okay, okay. It's gone, see?" Zack pretended to chuck the offensive appendage armament behind him.
"You know, it's a good thing we aren't too far from Base." Cloud said as he pulled out into traffic.
"Why?"
"My hand won't have time to cramp up because of the-!"
"Don't say it-!"
"Knob."
Zack's distressed cry of "Stop saying 'knob'!" rang in the air before dopplering into silence as they drove away.
End.