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Kunsel knew Zack was going through some hard times right now. He might not know exactly why, and honestly, how would Zack even be able to explain it all? Notwithstanding the whole Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal telling him to keep it quiet thing, how could he reasonably explain to his fellow Soldier that they'd all somehow come across a video game, no, a series of video games, that told the future? And an extremely grim one at that? So, no. Zack did not explain anything to Kunsel. But that didn't stop Kunsel from picking up that something was wrong. So Zack wasn't entirely surprised when his partner-in-crime (when no one could catch them, anyways) placed a simply wrapped, game-shaped package in his hands one afternoon.
“You like those Myths of Lezda games, right?” He asked simply. Zack nodded, so he continued, “I heard about this one from the grapevine. Bit of a cult classic at the moment, but apparently really good.”
“Is this like that one Uberman Zero game series you got me?” Zack asked suspiciously. “Because yeah, those were good. But also, like, stupid hard. And the fourth one made me cry so bad Angeal nearly had kittens! And threw, like, three cartons of ice cream at me.”
Kunsel assuaged, “Nah man, nothing so crazy. It's a bit more lighthearted from what I could tell.” He gave a mischievous smirk that Zack didn't entirely trust, “besides, the main character seems like someone you could really relate to.”
“You're the best, man!” Zack grinned. Kunsel always had his back! Maybe a new game was just what he needed to get his mind off the other ones!
An hour later, Zack's opinion of Kunsel shot downwards in a spectacular spiral. The audacity! The nerve! The betrayal!!
The main character was a dog.
Well. A wolf. Close enough. He sent Kunsel an appropriately affronted text and got on with the game anyways. Because Kunsel, though clearly enjoying a joke at Zack's expense, had never actually steered him wrong. And so Zack played.
Kami-Ō. What a weirdo name.
Zack soon decided that the gameplay was solid, the art style was kind of weird on the eyes yet very charming, and even if the story was a bit whacky, it was interesting enough to follow along. Before he knew it he was binging it every moment he could. His sleep schedule turned into hot garbage. Zack realized about twenty hours in that there was a particular sort of irony in him using a video game to escape the realities being forced into him by another video game, but, well. He'd take what he could get. And Kami-Ō really did have some light hearted moments he sorely needed. It had some truly heroic ones too. And sad ones. The next time someone dropped a tray in the cafeteria, it rang out like one of the Wutaiian style drums from the game, and he instinctively yelled, “EEEEEEYYOOOOOOOOOOO!!” Because he'd just beaten the Evil Kitsune-Thing boss fight and gods that particular voice track was so memorable. And memeable. A buddy of his, Essai, repeated the noise. Half the cafeteria looked at their antics with disgust, but the two boys realized they'd somehow played the same rare game and started gushing over it.
Nothing got bros together like some good ole’ cult classic games!
He definitely had to introduce Angeal and the rest to it once they got the Final Fantasy VII debacle sorted out. Because those guys deserved to have some actual good experiences with games… and totally not because he wanted to teach Angeal to yell the voice line too. Totally not. Nope. Or compare Genesis to the hilarious flute guy. (Or maybe Sephiroth…? He certainly had the hair for it!)
Despite Kunsel saying it was light hearted, when Zack finally got to the end and the sidekick character started talking about gratitude, Zack absolutely bawled. Because it was such a good game and it was hitting him so hard. Especially with everything going on. (It didn't hit as hard as Uberman Zero 4 did, at least, because screw that game's magnificently tragic ending, and oh, wow, now he couldn't stop thinking about its message of heroics and sacrifice and DAMN THAT GAME HE COULDN'T EVEN LISTEN TO THE CREDITS THEME WITHOUT WANTING TO CRY).
Video games were just… such an art form man. Just. Art!!
Angeal came into to room to see Zack crying over a game again, sighed, and simply dug in the freezer for another tub of ice cream.
Who knew pixels and programs could make his emotions go to the dogs like that?