fandomtownies | Jeff, God of Biscuits, Monday Evening

"How about chocolate-chip *with* peanut-butter, and possibly nuts?" Dinah asked, looking like she was thinking of this very very seriously. "And then soem of those oatmeal chocolate-chip? That's almost healthy!"

"And it never hurts to pretend that we're actually worried about what we're eating," Zack noted with a laugh. "Okay, some of each of those, aaaaand, I think I'm going to get some more of those monster cookies. I can't help it. They're pretty."

They had M&Ms in them! That was exciting!

"So, how about that Terrain class today, huh?"

"Oh my god, that. Was. Awesome," Dinah said, then agreed, "And I think I need a monster cookie too, that class really took it out of me. How much fun was that course? And the city run? Woo! I wanted to go back a second time."

"Think if we asked really, really nicely, we could convince Lady Ghanima to let us stay late after class next week to do it all again? That was way too much fun! I haven't done something like that since training with Angeal back in Midgar." Bounce bounce bounce. Place the order. Oodles of cookies. Oh, and something to drink! Their respective Mountain Dew flavors, naturally. "There are probably enough rooftops here in town to be able to do something kind of like that, but we wouldn't get very far, I don't think."

"No, but, but!" Dinah nearly danced with her new idea. "Triela and I were talking? And we think we should do it anyway, even without the roof-running, 'cause one it would be fun, and two we really should know the Island like that, don't you think?" She bounced back at him. The faultline under Fandom got one tiny infinetesimal increment larger when they had sugar. "I mean, we do it nearly every week anyway after we get sugared up, but still! For real! Starting other places and heading back to the dorms!"

Ooooooo!

"Okay, that's an awesome idea," Zack decided, all smiles as he paid for the cookies and nodded toward a table. "Arthur would probably lynch me if I tried to make that a lesson of the day for the reserves, but even so..."

He tilted his head back, thinking that one over.

"It'd be worth it, maybe, to grab people who are confident enough to not break their necks and take them on a run across the island, anyhow. All the better for rallying the troops later, you know?"

Yeah. His brain often defaulted back to the hero circuit.

"Yes!" Dinah grinned, and took her cookies and Mountain Dew, and headed for their booth-of-the-week-when-it's-cookies. "Priestly and I go running pretty often, and I know Rose Hathaway does too, even though she's not in the Reserves or anything. So it could be something the Reserves do, but something fun for other people too, right?"

Mmmmmmm. Hang on a moment. Dinah has to close her eyes to completely appreciate this cookie. "MmmmmmmMMMMmmmMMMMMMMm...."

"That's a good one, huh?" Zack followed along to the booth-of-the-week, his mind still half-set on the possibilities for the reserves. "You know, it would make sense to do something like that. Maybe spend a day focusing on that kind of thing in town, and then another working on navigating the preserve. Falling off rooftops and tripping over roots are pretty bad form when you're trying to get from point A to B quickly in the middle of an invasion, after all."

Please hold, Zack was now sampling his own cookie.

"Ooooooooooooooooooh."

"Ahhhhhhh." Dinah sighed happily, then licked at one perfect chocolate-chip and said seriously, "And this is why Jeff is a God."

After a minute, she added, "And I was talking to Eleanor in class about woods, and how they're a lot different, harder, even. More uneven terrain, after all. Lost more obstacles. That would really be a good idea too!"

"Maybe we could start with an obstacle course," Zack mused, and then he had to pause for another moment in order to properly appreciate the cookie.

It was a beautiful cookie.

Okay, he was done now.

"Just to see if there are people who are ready to to running around through the town or the woods, first. I wouldn't want anyone who wasn't ready for something like that to end up getting hurt, after all."

"Good point," Dinah said, thinking about it. "And not everyone will be into it, probably. But it's worth trying, right?" She took a long happy sip of her Mountain Dew, and sighed. "So what did you do this weekend?"

Zack grinned and shifted his weight in his chair some so that he could lean across the table in happy-excited-puppy fashion.

"I got to spar with Deadpool again," he shared. "His two swords against my one, and I did pretty good for a while, there, too!"

Zack's definition of 'pretty good' possibly meant that he was thrilled that he'd been able to use a Cure spell on himself in time. Not dead! Triumph!

Dinah boggled at him, because despite what some people thought of as her deathwish, that was hardcore. "You fought Mr. Deadpool? With only your one sword? And he didn't skin you alive? Omigod."

"In all fairness, I think he's mostly trying not to kill me," Zack noted, shrugging a little. "I told him that I'm pretty hard to kill, though, so at least he's not wearing kid gloves with me anymore."

Zack kind of hated when people were afraid that he'd get hurt or something. Just a little.

"So, that went pretty well, and then he called me a puppy on the radio, and yesterday all of the staff at Fina were trying to get me to bark."

"Oh, maaaaaan," Dinah said, mostly to swallow back those giggles, because so not fair. Zack's puppiness didn't deserve to be mocked! "Why are Fandom cooks so mean? The ones at the Diner pick on Priestly all the time too." Then she pointed at Zack. "But you're a little more than crazy to be fighting Mr. Deadpool! He's huge! And scary! And insane!" She took a breath. "But I'm glad he's trying hard not to kill you, sheesh."

"He heals quickly, too," Zack noted. "So I don't have to worry about accidentally killing him if I get too into Combat Mode."

Yeah. There actually was a Combat Mode. Even if it did mostly just sound like he was using some kind of weird manner of speaking.

"He's not that scary once you get to know him, anyhow!"

This was Zack speaking. Nobody was scary, if you asked Zack. Silly boy.

"He's always been nice to me, but then, he always calls me Tiny Hyper Person so. You know." Dinah would always be a smidgen intimidated by Mr. Deadpool. "I did not know that about the healing. Hunh. But cool. And wait, when you say combat mode, are you talking, what, like a berserker thing?"

Zack shook his head a little at that.

"No, nothing like that. I keep my control even in serious battles," he assured her. "But sometimes, I do get a little carried away. There's this," slot machine thing in his head, "thing that lets me... Every now and again? Kind of use these all-out attacks that are difficult to avoid. Really, really useful to have in a serious battle, but I don't really control when I hit my limit break, either."

It made sense in his head. Er. On his world. Honest.

"Ummmmm." Dinah gave him a worried look, not liking that much, and wondering if this was a Bad ShinRa thing again. "Okay, so, like a switch? And you get faster and more aggressive, and then you crash? Is that what you mean by limit break?"

"Oh, no, it's more..." Zack ran one hand through his hair, trying to puzzle out how best to explain the DMW. "There's this thing that kind of... logs my memories, from time to time. Stuff with people from back home who play a big role in my life. And sometimes, it can tap into those memories and kind of give me an extra bit of power. There are different boosts that happen sometimes, like temporary resistance to physical attacks, or immunity to poisons and stuff like that."

This was so weird to explain.

"Other times, I just kind of kick into this big attack I know, with my sword. Or another attack that Angeal taught me. It's nothing bad, honest. I get a huge energy boost and everything afterward!"

It was magic. Or something.

"Hunh." Dinah wasn't sure whether to be envious, or not. Maybe a little envious, with a side order of confused?

Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Cooooookie.

The cookie helped. "Okay, so it's like an adrenaline rush for most people, only yours has some extra side effects. Got it." She grinned, then opened her eyes wide. "Oh! I talked to Reno about you! He knew you! Knows you. Will know you? That!"

'Digital adrenaline rush' was probably the easiest explanation he was ever going to come across. He was totally going to have to remember that one in case the DMW came up in future conversations.

"Oh, yeah? That's pretty neat. Small world and all of that! Did he have anything good to say?"

Okay, so Zack was nosy. Nosy like a nosy thing. Could anyone really blame him?

"He said to tell you to stay loyal to your friends there at Midgar," Dinah took a breath, "And you helped save the world! How cool is that?"

Zack was not going to squee. He wasn't. Really. Honestly. Much.

Maybe he'd just bury his face in a cookie and make mostly-giddy squeaking sounds for a moment.

Okay. He was good. Really. Honest.

"Okay. That? Is so cool."

Irony is a bitch, Zack.

Dinah was doing a little chair-dance of glee. Because it was way too cool that she got to tell Zack this.

"He said not to tell you too much, but he gets to meet you in a couple or three years, I think. Oh! And the disaster is one that nobody can prevent," she said, a bit more soberly, biting her lip. "But I think you do something important in the picking up the pieces part. So! Yay? Yay!"

(A few years from now she would be very upset with Reno about this.)

Edited 2009-06-16 04:20 (UTC)

"Yay," Zack agreed, though a little more soberly, now. It was pretty cool to think that he'd get the opportunity to really make a difference someday. But the circumstances were... less than stellar.

In a big way.

"It's weird, thinking of Midgar as anything less than... Well. Midgar. If it's all the same with everyone, I'll do what I can to keep the city safe, no matter what your friend figures can or can't be prevented."

It was a hero thing, really.

"I know that part sucks," Dinah said, not saying the words Meteorfall because wow, Zack didn't need to know that. "But they do rebuild. Not everybody dies, if this does happen. Reno's proof of that, they're doing it right now. And it's not your fault if you *can't* stop it." She didn't want him blaming himself if he couldn't stop some impossible thing. "It sounds really big. But maybe you help evacuate everyone, or save the city from being completely wiped out?" Dinah offered.

"I'll do my duty as SOLDIER," Zack decided at length. "And not worry about it in the meantime. If this is something that I really can't prevent, then there's no sense losing sleep over it. And if it's something that I can, then I know something is coming now. I'll just pay more careful attention."

Yes. That would do nicely.

"Perfect," Dinah said, grinning at him big. "It's years off, and hey! You may not even be from the same time-line as Reno." That thought was a big consolation too. Maybe ShinRa wouldn't go evil. Er. More evil? Something. "But I know you'll do great when it happens."

More coooookie. "Are you ready to not be a newbie here any more? Two more weeks 'til the next batch come in."

"Ooh, fresh meat?" Zack was completely fine with the topic swap. Newbies! "I wonder if anyone we know is going to show up this time around? Or if we're going to get another unicorn or something as a student! That would be So cool!"

Professor Skywalker had mentioned the unicorn to Zack. He was never, ever going to let that one go. Ever.

"I heard about him! I was so sad that I missed him and he'd left before I got here," Dinah said wistfully. "Or maybe more aliens? We got a lot of girls with magic this last time, maybe there'll be more guys with guns?" She paused, and managed not to snicker at that. Hormone week had honed Dinah's innuendo-meter. "Ahem. I don't know if I'd want to meet someone I know here. Last time it didn't go badly, but still."

"Aliens would be cool! Guns, too!" There was bouncing. Epic bouncing. With cookies. "You met somebody you know here on the island, huh? At least it didn't go too bad, right? I mean, that's the important thing, if you can bump into someone and make things go smoothly."

He was an idealistic kid, that Zack.

"Yeah," Dinah said a little dubiously. "Well. I didn't actually know her, I knew another version of her. A doctor who used to be here. Who was way more evil back in New Gotham, but... Her own police gave her a second chance, and I guess she got therapy, so." She took another bite of her cookie, and said, "I felt like I had to let it go, you know?"

Zack nodded his agreement.

"If someone is really, honestly trying to make right with the world, even after doing terrible things, I can't see why they shouldn't get a second chance, too. I mean, if they're better now, what good would it to do hold the bad stuff against them forever?"

"Yeah." Which, weirdly, reminded her of Reno, too. "And I guess you can't just base on 'I like this person better, they should get a second shot' versus 'this is someone who hurt my family.' I mean, that's the whole reason we have an impartial justice system, isn't it?" Dinah remembered Al Hawke, and said, a little more quietly, "Still sucks if you're not really sure about them, though."

Zack had... never actually been in an area with a truly impartial justice system. But in all fairness, he didn't know a heck of a lot about the sort of justice that ShinRa tended to dole out anyhow.

"Uncertainty is the worst," Zack agreed, nodding soberly. "I mean, if you've been burned once before, how do you know it isn't going to happen again, right?"

See, he could be understanding and stupidly forgiving at the same time. It was a thing.

"Yeah, and what if you suspect they're doing it just to get out of being punished? Because they broke their word once? What if they'd do it again?" Okay, this was getting depressing. More sugar! And Mountain Dew! After a minute or two of chewing and drinking, Dinah said, "Anyway. That's why I only want to be on the crimefighting and investigation side. Not the 'Justice' side of Crime & Justice. Somebody with a lot more patience and maturity can work that out after I catch a bad guy."

"Totally in agreement there," Zack decided, putting his arms behind his head and leaning back in his chair for a moment. It was a short moment of course. There were cookies to be eaten. "SOLDIER doesn't really deal with that sort of thing. Bringing in criminals is more for the Infantry, or the Turks. I can live with being the guy who slays monsters and fights wars. It's less... personal, I guess."

Well, it was for now.

"Reno was a Turk." Dinah nodded, then looked thoughtful. "I don't think I could be a soldier. Not long-term. Well, maybe if I had to, if our country was being invaded, but. I like the finding out stuff part as much as the fighting, and I don't really enjoy when the battles are against non-stupid things. I get all worried about their side of it, you know? If I'm bringing in a criminal, I know he's a criminal. You don't get to ask that kind of thing when it's a war, do you."

"You don't," Zack agreed. "But... The war between ShinRa and Wutai has been going on for way too long. People just want it over. If me joining in and fighting can somehow put an end to it, I'd consider that a job well done, too."

"Yeah." Dinah nodded, pragmatism and idealism pretty much balanced on this issue. "We're in a war too. Although you guys may not hear about it much here if you don't watch TV, since it's overseas, in other countries. It's been going on eight years and everyone is sick of it. And Reno says you make a difference, so!" She smiled at him. "It's good to know that, hunh?"

"I can live with making a difference," Zack agreed, smiling faintly. "More cookies?"

There was always time for more cookies!

"More cookies!! And I'm out of Mountain Dew!"

Always!

Jeff, God of Biscuits, Monday Evening

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