Leaving for Midgar [1987]
Who: Just Zack
What: Leaving Gongaga for Midgar
Where: Outskirts of the forest
When: Age 14
Rating: G
Open: Not sure. Mostly narrative.
Zack ran both hands roughly through his hair, not really trying but making the appearance of flattening his unruly spikes. That hair had been the bane of his mother’s grooming instincts, cheerily defiant even as she resorted to nearly shaving his head off in an attempt to tame it.
That only made it worse.
Not that Zack minded looking like a pincushion. Hair was hair, any way you looked at it, and his was just…a little more free. Didn’t mean it was freaky or anything.
And besides, he kind of liked their defiant nature.
Kind of like his, Zack thought as he trudged along the dirt road, meager possessions strapped over one shoulder in a worn, vegetable gathering bag. He didn’t want anyone he encountered to think he had any money or goods worth stealing, knowing it was better to draw less attention to himself.
Kind of hard to do that with the hair.
Either way, Zack was heading to Midgar to be a SOLDIER, a knight, a protector like his hero.
Sephiroth.
Zack mouthed the name like hope and future and a dream that he could just possibly wrap both arms around and never let go. It was there, so close, and all he had to do was make it to Midgar, make it past monsters and cutthroats and disgruntled army personnel and take it with both hands.
If there was anything Zack was good at, it was taking.
He would take this dream, even if it had hurt his mother, both his parents, who wanted him to stay in Gongaga, marry the neighbor’s pretty daughter and be a farmer for the rest of his life. He didn’t want to hurt them, he really didn’t, but he resolved to make it up to them later, return home someday and show them that he could do it, that he would live his dream.
And he would take care of them.
Hopefully, that would make up for him leaving in the middle of a fight.
But first, Midgar. Sephiroth.
Zack couldn’t help but give a little hop in his steps, thinking that finally, finally, his life was beginning.
What: Leaving Gongaga for Midgar
Where: Outskirts of the forest
When: Age 14
Rating: G
Open: Not sure. Mostly narrative.
Zack ran both hands roughly through his hair, not really trying but making the appearance of flattening his unruly spikes. That hair had been the bane of his mother’s grooming instincts, cheerily defiant even as she resorted to nearly shaving his head off in an attempt to tame it.
That only made it worse.
Not that Zack minded looking like a pincushion. Hair was hair, any way you looked at it, and his was just…a little more free. Didn’t mean it was freaky or anything.
And besides, he kind of liked their defiant nature.
Kind of like his, Zack thought as he trudged along the dirt road, meager possessions strapped over one shoulder in a worn, vegetable gathering bag. He didn’t want anyone he encountered to think he had any money or goods worth stealing, knowing it was better to draw less attention to himself.
Kind of hard to do that with the hair.
Either way, Zack was heading to Midgar to be a SOLDIER, a knight, a protector like his hero.
Sephiroth.
Zack mouthed the name like hope and future and a dream that he could just possibly wrap both arms around and never let go. It was there, so close, and all he had to do was make it to Midgar, make it past monsters and cutthroats and disgruntled army personnel and take it with both hands.
If there was anything Zack was good at, it was taking.
He would take this dream, even if it had hurt his mother, both his parents, who wanted him to stay in Gongaga, marry the neighbor’s pretty daughter and be a farmer for the rest of his life. He didn’t want to hurt them, he really didn’t, but he resolved to make it up to them later, return home someday and show them that he could do it, that he would live his dream.
And he would take care of them.
Hopefully, that would make up for him leaving in the middle of a fight.
But first, Midgar. Sephiroth.
Zack couldn’t help but give a little hop in his steps, thinking that finally, finally, his life was beginning.