OOC: Application
Series: Final Fantasy VII & Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (with a side of Before Crisis)
Series' Medium: Video game(s). There are also other side games, movies, anime, and novels associated with the Final Fantasy VII series, but they don't pertain to this character all that much.
Character: Zack Fair
Age: 23 (some sources list 22, but I saw an equal citing of both and chose to go with this one)
Sex/Gender: All male, baby.
Canon Role: Protagonist through and through, though his position as a soldier means that he is willing and able to kill whenever necessary, and he has killed even the closest of friends due to certain circumstances.
"Real" Name: Lance Findlay
How long have you roleplayed your character, if at all?:
I have roleplayed him for about six or seven years on and off, but this will be my first time playing him while adhering to the Crisis Core canon. (All the other times I'd played him was before the game came out.)
Where have you roleplayed in general and/or with this specific character?:
I have roleplayed extensively over instant messenger, on a variety of message boards, and in way too many LJ RPs. However, my current game is Damned -- I have Sora, Guy Cecil, Peter Petrelli, and Harvey Dent there. The place I played Zack for the longest was at a LJ game called Luceat Eis (luceat_eis) under the username twilight_dark. Zack was AU to fit into the Kingdom Hearts verse, however.
Are you personally familiar with your character's canon?:
Very much so! I have played through the original Final Fantasy VII game more times than I can count, and I have played through Crisis Core twice. I have also watched Last Order and Advent Children (an anime short and movie respectively) -- Zack has roles in both of them, but they are mainly rehashes of things that are covered more extensively in FFVII and Crisis Core. I've also read the chapter of Before Crisis, a cell phone game, that Zack appears in. Before Crisis was never brought to the US, but there are translations available online.
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
Zack was born in the small country town of Gongaga on the planet of Gaia. The planet is kept alive by an essence called the Lifestream, which is spirit energy; when anyone in Gaia dies, their spirit becomes one with the Lifestream. The Lifestream can also take on a liquid form, which is called mako. The Shin-Ra Electric Power Company discovered that mako could be used as energy, and this discovery led to it becoming a superpower that had a stronghold over all of Gaia, complete with its own military force. The Shin-Ra Science Department even learned how to crystallize mako into something called Materia, which could then be used by humans to cast spells.
While Zack had a pleasant childhood and loving parents, he found himself bored with the isolated town he grew up in [slight extrapolation] and became enamored with the idea of joining SOLDIER, Shin-Ra's elite military group. At age thirteen, he ran away from home and crossed continents to reach Midgar, the largest city in Gaia and home to Shin-Ra headquarters. Zack was a quick learner, entering SOLDIER and rising up through the ranks until he reached 2nd Class in a matter of three years. (Getting into SOLDIER itself is hard enough, but moving from 3rd to 2nd so quickly is uncommon.) SOLDIERs are all infused with mako, a conditioning that increases their physical skills.
Zack's mentor was a man called Angeal Hewley, a 1st Class who was known for being cheap due to growing up poor and yet for having strong convictions when it came to his SOLDIER honor and having dreams. He stressed to Zack that he could never succeed if he didn't have a dream, and so Zack decided that his dream was to become a hero.
Everything went normally enough until Zack suddenly stopped getting assignments, which was more than enough to make him restless. The reason eventually became clear: a 1st by the name of Genesis had deserted Shin-Ra for unknown reasons, taking a large number of SOLDIER members with him. Zack then met the Director of SOLDIER, Lazard, to be given his first assignment in a while; he was to finish up the mission that Genesis had abandoned, which involved tying up Shin-Ra's war with Wutai. (Wutai is an Asian-influenced country; the war was caused by Shin-Ra wanting to extract mako in the Wutai region against Wutai's wishes).
Zack enthusiastically accepted the mission and successfully infiltrated and defeated a Wutai fort (though not without meeting a strange ninja girl named Yuffie in the process!). He got into some trouble at the end, but Angeal stepped into save him. On the way back, they were attacked and separated. When Zack tried to reconvene with Angeal, he was attacked by a stray summon (summons are powerful monsters called to people's aid through Materia). He was unable to defeat it himself, but Sephiroth, a famous Shin-Ra general and someone who Zack greatly admired, stepped in to dispatch it. Sephiroth inspected the soldiers from the earlier attacks and found that they looked exactly like the renegade SOLDIER, Genesis. He explained that they were Genesis "copies."
When they realized that Angeal was nowhere to be found, Sephiroth believed that he had betrayed them, but Zack refused to accept that and continued to feel that way even after a month had passed. Zack's next assignment was to investigate Genesis' hometown, Banora, both to see if his parents had any information about him and to search for the arsenal of weapons Genesis stole when he deserted. His partner was a Turk (a special Shin-Ra group that deals with more underhanded assignments such as kidnapping and assassination) named Tseng, who explained to Zack that Banora was also Angeal's hometown; he and Genesis had been good friends for a long time. He also explained that the technology to make copies was taken from Shin-Ra; it allowed Genesis' traits to be copied onto other SOLDIERs and onto monsters. (Zack didn't like the implication that SOLDIERs and monsters were one and the same.)
Zack found Angeal's house and met his mother, who told him that both Genesis and Angeal had been around. Genesis had attacked the town (and even killed his own parents), and Angeal had come to leave his sword with her; his sword, which was a symbol of his honor. Zack had to wonder if maybe Angeal's ties to Genesis trumped his ties to him, but he moved on with the mission, heading with Tseng to a factory on the edge of town. He learned along the way that Angeal and Genesis were Sephiroth's only friends, which is why he'd refused to take the mission (it had originally been assigned to the general).
Zack found Genesis in the factory, but Angeal showed up and wielded Zack's sword against Genesis. Genesis accepted the side that Angeal chose and left, with Angeal following. Zack tried to follow suit, but Angeal pushed him back, making it clear that he didn't want him involved. Tseng explained that they needed to leave immediately; the town was going to be destroyed by an air strike to get rid of any evidence of misconduct. Zack rushed back to Angeal's mother to try and save her, but found her dead with Angeal right there--betrayed and upset, Zack tried to get answers out of Angeal and only got vague replies.
When he asked where Angeal's SOLDIER honor had gone, Genesis stepped in to explain that they were monsters, and monsters couldn't have honor. Then, a single black wing sprouted from his back and he flew away. The town was destroyed and Zack returned to Midgar.
More time passed, and Zack was eventually called in by Lazard and Sephiroth to be informed that he was now 1st Class. He thought he would have been happier, but it felt like he'd only gotten the position because most of the other 1sts had deserted. Zack was also told that the army had been ordered to kill Genesis and Angeal, but the conversation was interrupted by headquarters suddenly coming under attack by Genesis copies. Sephiroth theorized that a Shin-Ra scientist who had vanished after lifting the copy technology, a man named Hollander, was behind it; he probably wanted revenge after losing the competition for the head of the Science Department to Hojo (the current head and an all-around creepy guy).
Sephiroth and Zack moved out to deal with the attack, and Zack ran into a female Turk named Cissnei. They fought against a winged Genesis copy together; afterward, Cissnei commented that she'd always wanted wings as a child, but Zack now believed that winged humans were monsters. Cissnei argued that wings symbolized freedom for those who had none, which made Zack think twice. They parted ways and then Sephiroth contacted Zack and ordered him to Mako Reactor 5; Angeal had been sighted there. The idea was for them to find Angeal before the army did and "fail to eliminate him," a plan Zack could definitely agree with.
Zack reached the reactor and fought a monster that had Angeal's face--apparently Genesis wasn't the only one who could be copied. He met up with Sephiroth, and as they headed for Hollander's secret lab, the general told him a story of when he, Genesis, and Angeal had been fighting in the training room -- it had gotten out of hand and Genesis had been injured. The wound wouldn't heal, and Hollander (still working at Shin-Ra at the time) explained that Geneis needed a transfusion. However, for some reason Sephiroth couldn't be the donor. Zack then discovered that Genesis was the product of a secret project, Project G, that Hollander had spearheaded. The problem with the wound was due to a complication from that project, a "degradation" that was caused by a "leak" of genetic information.
Then, Hollander and Genesis showed up. Hollander claimed that only he could stop Genesis' degradation, and Sephiroth dealt with Genesis while ordering Zack to chase after the scientist. Zack did so, but then Angeal intervened. Zack demanded to know why he'd switched sides, and Angeal revealed a (white) wing of his own, much to Zack's surprise. Zack still attempted to reason with him, but Angeal tried to provoke him into a fight; when Zack refused, Angeal caused the grating under him to give out, sending him hurtling down into Midgar's slums.
Zack was woken up by the voice of a girl named Aerith; the flowers she grew in a church in the slums had broken his fall. Zack suggested that she sell the flowers, since they're something of a luxury item in Midgar, and then decided to take her on a date for "saving" him. They ended up doing as much, spending a good portion of the day together; they dealt with Zack's wallet getting stolen, Zack bought her a ribbon and some perfume, and they generally hit it off. There was some awkwardness when Aerith said that she thought SOLDIERs were scary, not knowing Zack was one himself, but when she found out she quickly assured him that he wasn't scary at all.
Zack was then called back to headquarters by Sephiroth; Genesis had attacked headquarters (again). On the way back, Zack was met by Angeal, who asked him to join his cause. Their enemy? All who cause suffering. Zack agreed, and Angeal flew him back to HQ. While Zack didn't really know what Angeal was up to, he was happy enough to be working with him again. They met Sephiroth and then split up, with Zack going to the Science Department to secure Hojo. (Angeal believed he was in danger due to Hollander's grudge.) Zack did so, but Hojo wasn't very cooperative -- he started going on about something called Jenova, "the calamity from the sky," and then insulted Zack for his ignorance. Genesis showed up, but Angeal was quick on his trail. Those two ended up having an aerial fight while Zack was left to fight another summon. By the time he'd defeated it, both of the ex-1sts were gone.
More time passed, and Zack got a call from Aerith asking him to come help her make a flower wagon, as he'd promised to do when they'd first met. On the way, he ran into Angeal, who explained that Genesis and Hollander were in the abandoned town of Modeoheim, and then left. When Zack made it to the church, he was intercepted by Tseng (who apparently knew Aerith, although he didn't care to explain how); Zack was on the mission to Modeoheim. The helicopter crashed on the way there, meaning that Zack had to lead them through the snowy area. Tseng had a difficult time keeping up, but one infantryman named Cloud kept perfect pace with Zack. It turned out he was a country boy, just like Zack, causing the two to instantly bond. Cloud was insecure about whether he'd be able to get into SOLDIER, but Zack steadfastly encouraged him.
On the way, they ran into a mako excavation test site. Zack infiltrated alone and found Genesis (whose degradation had worsened) and Hollander having a confrontation, with Hollander insisting that Genesis needed him and Genesis insisting that he could use Jenova cells as a cure instead (there's that name again!). Hollander countered that no one knew where the Jenova cells were, and Genesis decided that in that case, he would accept his fate, but not without taking the rest of the world with him. He fought Zack (allowing Hollander to get away), but once he had been defeated, he seemingly let himself fall to his death. Zack was shaken by this, feeling guilty that he couldn't help him somehow.
He continued on to Modeoheim and found Angeal waiting for him there, looking for a fight. Hollander stepped in and implied that he was Angeal's father (which Angeal refused to believe) and also revealed that Angeal's mother was the namesake of Project G (G is for Gillian) and that she had actually killed herself due to shame. Angeal was the more successful product of the project, but he obviously only saw himself as a monster by that point. He ordered Zack to kill him; as he'd mentioned before, their enemy was suffering, and he claimed that he had caused his own suffering. He then summoned a series of monsters that carried his traits and they all combined with him, turning him into a grotesque amalgamation. Zack was forced to defeat him, which reverted Angeal to his normal (badly degraded) form; he thanked Zack and handed over his sword before passing away, leaving Zack crushed, but still able enough to apprehend Hollander and hand him over to Shin-Ra.
A lot of time passed as Zack dealt with what he'd done. He grew out his hair, became the 1st (possibly the only one left, other than Sephiroth) who led the infantrymen, went on a mission with some Turks and a few SOLDIERs (Sebastian and Essai) who ended up getting brainwashed by AVALANCHE and dying in the Icicle Inn area (this is from Before Crisis), and found himself surrounded by Turks as the company questioned his loyalty. On top of that, everyone acted as if Genesis and Angeal had never existed, making Zack wonder what worth he had as a SOLDIER. He was forced against his will onto vacation with the Turks, where he discovered that Lazard has gone missing (it turned out he had been embezzling money to fund Hollander's reserach) and that Aerith was the last of a race called the Ancients, making her extremely important. It was something she had never told him, but he wasn't that put off about it. That was when the beach he was on was attacked by Genesis copies--strange, when Genesis was supposed to be dead.
Still, there was no time to ponder. Junon, a large port city, was under attack, meaning Zack had a mission. He went there with Tseng, who explained that Hollander was there and the attack was likely meant as a way to get the scientist. Zack's job was to secure Hollander, and he chased the man all around Junon, but Hollander slipped out of his fingers. Sephiroth showed up to tell Zack that he'd failed the mission, but that Genesis copies were attacking places all over Gaia; he believed that Genesis was in fact still alive.
Zack returned to Midgar to check up on Aerith; he found a monster with her, and was about to attack it before he realized it was an Angeal copy. It protected them from a hostile mech and then flew up into the church rafters, as if it wanted to keep an eye on the girl. Zack was still wary, but he focused on helping Aerith build a flower wagon, since he'd promised to. He was interrupted by news that he had another mission; a particular reactor had been surrounded by a legion of monsters, and there was also evidence of Hollander, Lazard, and Genesis' presence there. He used the last bit of time he had to help Aerith sell some flowers and then told her that he might not be back for a while, but that he definitely would be back.
He found out that Cloud would also be going on the mission, and that they were going to Cloud's hometown, Nibelheim. Upon arriving, Zack learned that Sephiroth's mother's name was Jenova, which he found odd considering what Genesis had said about Jenova cells before. The next morning they headed for the reactor with a young girl named Tifa as their guide. Cloud and Tifa had to wait outside while Zack and Sephiroth entered the reactor. The interior housed a series of pods and a sealed door with the name "Jenova" above it. Inside the pods were grotesque monsters that had apparently been made that way by intense mako exposure; they were created by Hojo. Sephiroth started to freak out as he wondered if he and the monsters were one and the same, but then Genesis appeared to explain that Sephiroth was the product of the Jenova project; Jenova, a monster that was excavated 2,000 years ago. Sephiroth was a success, meaning that he was unable to degrade; if he shared his cells with Genesis, that would cure him. Sephiroth refused and left, with Genesis doing the same soon after, leaving Zack to return to town with Cloud and Tifa.
Sephiroth was nowhere to be found, and Zack had his own share of problems. With everyone around him turning into some kind of monster and him expected to just follow orders, he didn't know what to do. A comment from Cloud reminded him of what Angeal had always told him, which cheered him up. The next day, Tifa informed him that Sephiroth was in the Shin-Ra mansion on the edge of town. Zack went there and found Sephiroth holed up in the basement, reading document after document and refusing to talk to him. After seven days had passed, Sephiroth set the town on fire. Zack found the man, who was now completely crazed, and chased him to the reactor.
Zack found a badly wounded, pissed-off Tifa on the floor of the reactor, but he had to move on, cutting through the sealed door to where Jenova was being held. Sephiroth was with her, and he completely ignored Zack's demands for answers. Eventually, Zack had to accept that Sephiroth was a lost cause, and he forced himself to fight the general, as much as it pained him. He was no match for Sephiroth, and ended up sprawled on the reactor stairs. He registered Cloud running in and ordered him to kill Sephiroth; Cloud somehow succeeded, but not without getting a bad wound himself.
Both of them were them harvested by Hojo and made into experiments where they were submerged in tubes of mako. Zack was in and out, hallucinating and barely aware, but he eventually broke out (or was he broken out?). He rescued Cloud, and while Zack was somewhat out of it, Cloud was nearly catatonic. (Zack had a high tolerance to mako due to his SOLDIER conditioning, whereas Cloud had no tolerance.) Zack dragged him out of the mansion, and to his surprise, the whole town was rebuilt even though it had burned down.
Shin-Ra infantrymen showed up and tried to take Cloud; Zack fought them off and then returned to the mansion to recuperate, where he changed Cloud into a SOLDIER outfit to get him out of the mako-soaked clothing. Zack felt lost and desperate by this point, not sure if he could save anyone, but he found a note from Aerith saying that she wanted to spend more time with him, and realized that he had to get back to Midgar. He continued to drag Cloud through the countryside until he reached the coast, and that was when he really started to question what he was going to do with his life.
Cissnei then showed up, intending to capture them, but Zack begged her to let them go -- she eventually relented and even gave Zack the keys to a motorcycle, complete with a sidecar. On the way down a highway, Zack was ambushed by Genesis and a few copies. Genesis believed that Zack's cells now had a modified version of Jenova's power in them; one of the copies yanked out some of Zack's hair and ate it, but instead of healing, the copy transformed into an even worse monster that Zack had to fight while Genesis fled.
He continued on afterward and then stumbled on his hometown, Gongaga. He debated whether he should actually enter -- chances were Shin-Ra troops would be waiting for him there, but he was worried about his parents. Cissnei found him again, scolded him for coming, and told him that Angeal was apparently in the area. Zack was surprised, but he also suspected that Angeal had helped him escape the mansion somehow. Cissnei then assured him that his parents were fine, and Zack asked her to keep them company for a while.
He then caught a glimpse of a figure with a white wing, but it flew off before he could say anything. He chased after it, but instead ran into Genesis and Hollander, the latter of which explained that Zack's cells were actually useless -- it was Cloud's cells that they needed. Hollander flew off (he had ended up injecting himself with some of Genesis' cells) to where Zack had left Cloud. Zack ran back to stop him, and that winged figure swept in to help. Zack finally killed Hollander, and afterward he discovered that while the helper looked like Angeal, he was actually Lazard -- apparently siding with Hollander hadn't gotten him too far. However, he'd been imprinted with Angeal's sentiments, due to being a copy of him now, and so he wanted to help Zack. They both realized that Genesis had to be stopped, and they determined that the man must have gone to Banora.
When they reached the town, it was very different from when Zack first went, now in shambles and overflowing with Lifestream. Zack asked Lazard to watch over Cloud while he moved further into the chasms of the area. He found Genesis, who was badly degraded, his hair a pure white. Zack tried to explain that he was there to offer help, but Genesis wouldn't listen to reason. He absorbed the Lifestream's energy and turned into a huge monster (seeing a trend here?). Zack defeated him and reverted him to his normal form. He carried his (still alive) body out and found a badly injured Lazard -- Shin-Ra had attacked while he'd been gone. The Angeal copy from Aerith's church was also there; it had apparently helped fight against the troops.
Zack broke down into tears, as everyone around him was either dead, dying, or catatonic. Both Lazard and the Angeal copy faded away into the Lifestream, and then Zack found a piece of paper near where the copy's body had been. It was a letter from Aerith, and apparently the 89th one she had written, as it had been four years since they'd seen each other. Zack was floored by this, since he'd had no idea that so much time had passed while he'd been in the mansion, but he did the only thing he could: he picked up Cloud's body and continued on to Midgar. He hitched a ride in a truck with ideas of being a mercenary alongside Cloud floating in his head (whether that was meant to cheer up Cloud or himself is up for debate, but Zack continued to talk to Cloud despite never getting a response).
When he got out of the truck, there was a literal army of infantrymen waiting for him. Zack had no other choice but to fight, and so that was what he did; memories of all of his friends circled through his mind and then faded away as he lost more and more blood. Zack kept fighting until he could barely swing his sword anymore, but it wasn't enough. He was gunned down and left to die on the cliffs at the outskirts of Midgar. However, Cloud somehow managed to drag himself over, and that was when Zack told his friend that he would be his living legacy, the one to inherit his dreams and honor.
He handed over his sword and then breathed his last breath.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
Zack will be taken from just after his death. This will be the first character I've had who's coming in after dying (other than when I had him briefly in the game before), so I want to play with the idea that he would have to see Landel's as a second chance, and also deal with the possibility that escape might mean dying all over again. On top of that, I think that having to give up his life actually assuaged a lot of Zack's grief in some ways, since he'd been responsible for so many deaths himself. It'll also make it interesting for him to have to face old friends who are now a lot older than he remembers them being, and if we ever happen to get a Cloud, finding out that the friend he died for ended up crazy because of him will be a lot to deal with (in a good way!). In any case, one of the most important things about Zack's character is his death, and even though he's been expanded on through Crisis Core, that still holds true.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
Zack uses a few different words to describe himself, most commonly a SOLDIER and an aspiring hero. He both succeeds and sometimes fails at being these things.
It was Zack's number one goal to become part of SOLDIER and make it to 1st Class, and for a while it was something that he took immense pride in. Especially when he was younger, he would defend the company against people who were anti Shin-Ra, and even when he was presented with good, hard evidence that the organization that he was working for was wrong, he would still do as he was told. This is mainly out of a sense of commitment and loyalty. He made a choice to be a part of Shin-Ra, and that meant that he was going to stick with it for as long as he could. However, a large part of what Crisis Core is about is showing the way that Zack slowly loses faith in the organization, due to finding out about all of the experimentation it was responsible for (which directly affected many of his closest friends and role models) and then being made into an experiment himself. Still, Zack followed Shin-Ra up until the point that it put both him and Cloud in serious danger, and the fact that he tried to escape from what amounted to torture is what led to his death.
Despite having been forced to turn his back on Shin-Ra, there was one thing that remained in his mind, even up until the end. Despite the fact that he was fighting against Shin-Ra troops, Zack still commented about protecting his SOLDIER honor; this is likely because he still believed that he was doing the right thing, and also because it was a concept that he took from Angeal, someone who he still considered an important part of his life even though he had killed the man with his own hand.
That brings up another point. Due to Zack's loyalty, he was forced to fight against people who should have been companions rather than enemies. He killed Angeal and Genesis, and fought fiercely against Sephiroth as well. In the case of Sephiroth and Angeal especially, these were people who he held immense respect for, and yet when the occasion called for it, he still had it in him to wield his sword against them. While Zack questioned some orders that he received, he usually followed them to the letter. Angeal more or less ordered Zack to kill him, and so Zack complied. Each of these instances pained him to the core, and he spends a large portion of the game trying to talk reason with the people he's forced to fight. Even in the last battle against Genesis, Zack goes into it saying that he wants to offer Genesis help rather than fight him. Things seldom turn out the way he wants them to, but that doesn't stop him from trying. Also, you would think that someone would get jaded after having so many friends turn on him, but that isn't the case at all. Zack can be optimistic to a fault when it comes to such things.
It should be obvious by this point that Zack has gone through a lot of trauma in his life, but that never keeps him down for too long. There are at least two points in the game where he breaks down into tears, but it's almost as if that release causes him to pull himself together and keep moving. Zack is extremely action-oriented (he gets very restless when there's nothing to do, such as when he was put on mandatory vacation for a time), so he doesn't like moping or sulking, no matter how bad things get. It's better to work past it and focus on the next goal rather than thinking too hard about how hopeless his situation is. That was how he was able to mainly keep his spirits up even as everything was falling apart in the events leading up to his death. Chances are that he knew that he probably wouldn't survive, and yet he still just focused on saving Cloud and getting back to Midgar, where he could see Aerith again. Zack also doesn't really like to make a big deal of what he's been through. When he runs into Cissnei after he's escaped the Shin-Ra manor, she asks him what was done to him there, and his reply is, "Well... this and that."
Zack is one of those people who has extremely strong relationships with others, and this includes his superiors. While he would always follow Angeal and Sephiroth's orders, he had no qualms about teasing them and having an overall casual relationship with them. This is surprising especially in relation to Sephiroth, since most people are extremely intimidated by the general. Zack, on the other hand, just treated him like someone else he could become friendly with. This is because Zack is a very friendly person in general. He will easily introduce himself to someone he doesn't know, and it doesn't take long for someone to be considered a friend in his book. Crisis Core's battle system has something called the Digital Mind Wave (or DMW, more info about it in the powers section) which more or less involves Zack being spurred to fight better by having memories of his friends come up while he's in battle. He starts off with Angeal and Sephiroth already a part of it, but the other four characters who are on it (Tseng, Cissnei, Aerith, Cloud) are added to it immediately after him meets them. This is partly a gameplay thing, but I think it also shows how quickly he makes friends. Another example of this is shown in the Before Crisis mission, during an exchange between Zack and the Turk he's working with: Zack: "We don’t really have to rush, you know. Essai and Sebastian [the two other SOLDIERs also on the mission] have got everything under control. They’re good guys, and they’re strong besides. For all I know, the battle could be over by now." Turk: "You seem to get along with them very well. You’re friends?" Z: "I worked with them once before." T: "You only worked with them once?" Z: "That’s all the time you need, isn’t it? To become friends with someone, I mean."
Of course, sometimes this backfires; Zack is so nice that he can be taken advantage of somewhat easily. For example, Yuffie sent out spam email to every SOLDIER operative in an attempt to basically manipulate them to find treasure for her. Zack was the only one who actually fell for it, and he continued to respond to her messages because he felt bad for making her cry. There's another side-story that involves a 3rd Class SOLDIER who keeps failing his missions. Zack comes across him and agrees to do a mission for him, but in the end he's suckered into doing more and more because he feels bad for the guy. That's just how he is.
On top of that, Zack is something of a ladies man. He'll hit on girls regardless of who they are (he hits on Cissnei even though she's a Turk, for instance; he totally could have had Reno and Rude out for his blood for doing that!) and there's some evidence that he kept up his flirting even when he and Aerith were in a relationship, judging from some of the comments she makes in the original game. A lot of this is due to how much confidence he has in himself. Zack knows that he's an attractive person, and he's also very confident in his fighting ability, to the point that he'll step up to a battle even when someone more experienced, such as Angeal, is there. Still, considering how quickly he rose through the ranks, that confidence isn't exactly ill-founded. He's never malicious about it, either. He obviously enjoys fighting quite a lot. It's what he chose as a profession, not to mention he's really good at it -- he gets a thrill from battle. (Example from when Angeal is briefing him: A: “You charge the front gate, and--” Z: “And? And and and?” A: “Indulge yourself.” Z: “Got it! That's what I do best.”)
It's also because of this confidence and his sincere optimism that Zack comes across to others as a very inspiring person. He has other SOLDIER friends who will often send him emails about how they were so impressed with a speech he gave to the infantrymen, or how they're always going to back him 100%. These come in even after he's been missing for four years, showing just how much loyalty he ends up receiving from others due to his personality. He even ends up getting a fan club, which had 109,348 members before it disbanded. Yeah, the guy was popular.
Zack has a very high tolerance for just accepting strange things. While it was a shock to find out that Angeal was the product of an experiment, could sprout a wing, and that there were monsters that looked like him, he never let it affect his opinion of the man himself. He is exposed to a lot of weird stuff during the course of the game, stuff that most people would probably not be able to register, let alone deal with, and he just... takes those blows as they come. Another example of this is when he found out that Aerith was the last surviving Ancient. He was a little surprised that she never told him, but he didn't let it change his opinion of her, and he never actually brought it up with Aerith herself because he realized she'd wanted to keep it a secret. Zack can accept things like that, even if he thinks that need to be normal is overrated.
While Zack is used to following orders, after everything that's happened he's at a point in his life (or... lack therefore) where he would rather do things himself because he's sick of being bossed around. He was pushed into doing a lot of things that he didn't want to do and didn't get much out of it, so now he's looking for the freedom to do what he wants. He spoke to Cloud about the two of them becoming mercenaries, and there is an ongoing theme in Crisis Core with wings and their real symbol being that of freedom. When Zack was in the mako tube and hallucinating, his clearest thought was, "Those wings... I want them too." In addition to that, when he's preparing to fight off the troops that apprehended him at Midgar, he comments that "the price of freedom is steep." Suffice to say that he won't be all that happy about being trapped once again when he wakes up at Landel's.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
Zack has the body type of a soldier, which means that he's got a lot of muscle on him, though it's not to an extreme. Still, the fact that he can swing such a huge sword around says a lot. He's also got unnaturally bright blue eyes as a result of the mako exposure that he's had; this is a telltale sign of any SOLDIER operative. His hair is black and spiky, and at the point he's from it's grown long enough that it goes down to about his shoulder blades.
His height is kind of tricky. While Crisis Core at one point lists him at something like 6'3", that doesn't make much sense, since he doesn't tower over the other characters that much, and he's actually a little bit shorter than Sephiroth, who is supposed to be 6'. For that reason, I'm going to also put him at 6' because I think it makes a lot more sense.
Zack also has a cross-shaped scar on his left cheek. He got part of it from Angeal when they fought the final time, but the next time he's shown it's a full cross, and no explanation is given for the other half of it. My only assumption is that it's self-inflicted as some sort of grieving method, or it was all supposed to be from Angeal and the game just didn't make that clear. In any case, I'll try to avoid mentioning it since the whole thing is kind of weird.
What kinds of otherworldly abilities does your character have, if any?:
First of all, due to being a SOLDIER Zack has been put through exposure to mako that increases his physical abilities. In other words, he's stronger, faster, hardier, more agile, etc. than the average human. He is also able to use Materia, which is concentrated mako energy, to cast spells (anything from offensive to healing to stat-boosting) and even summon powerful monsters. He also collected items that let him summon other odd creatures (such as a chocobo, cactuar, etc.) that would help him with fights at times.
The most interesting abilities he has, though, are the limit breaks he gets. In the FFVII universe, if someone is pushed to the brink either through strong emotions or simply being attacked enough times, they are able to perform a limit break, which is a very powerful attack or something else along those lines. In Zack's case, it's linked to something called the Digital Mind Wave (DMW). In the game itself, it's more or less a slot system. The effect is that Zack will sometimes end up thinking back on a memory he has of him and a friend of his together, and that boosts his energy to the point of being able to use the attack. Their voice runs through his head, and he executes it.
There are seven different attacks that he can use, linked to seven different characters:
Angeal (Rush Assault): Zack uses his fists to beat up his enemy in a pretty long combo and finishes with a powerful tackle.
Sephiroth (Octaslash): A quick, more powerful sword combo.
Tseng (Air Strike): Zack calls Tseng on his PHS and the Turk comes in with a helicopter and blasts the hell out of Zack's enemies.
Cissnei (Lucky Stars): Increases the chance of getting subsequent limits and gives Zack only critical hits for a while.
Aerith (Healing Wave): Zack is fully healed and made invincible for a short time.
Cloud (Meteor Shots): Zack jumps into the air and a few meteors come falling from his sword to hit the enemy.
Genesis (Apocalypse): Zack is able to summon a powerful lightning attack that hits all enemies.
If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
While Zack will still be strong enough to swing a big sword around without breaking a sweat, he won't be over human levels anymore. No defying gravity, either. Seeing how he's a First Class SOLDIER, he'll be able to handle himself just fine without the enhancements.
Since he won't have any Materia or any of those other items on him, Zack will be unable to cast any spells or do any summoning.
That leaves the Limit Breaks. First of all, he would only be able to do limits for characters who are currently in the institute with him. That means that right now, Cissnei is the only one, although we have potential Aerith, Cloud, and Sephiroth apps, so those might become valid as well, if the apps get in. He will only be able to do one limit per night, and the effect of each limit will only last for two of his posts. Here's what they'll be able to do:
Rush Assualt: He'll get a burst of strength that'll spur him to go after what he's fighting with his fists. Might not be the best idea, but there you go.
Octaslash: He'll get a burst of speed that will allow him to attack his opponent with a sword in quick succession. This only works if he has a sword, obviously.
Air Strike: There will be a small explosion in front of his opponent. This will only last for one of his posts, since it's just the one thing.
Lucky Stars: His attacks will increase in strength for the two turns.
Healing Wave: Small to medium sized wounds will be completely healed, while larger/more severe wounds will be slightly healed.
Meteor Shots: Zack's sword will get covered with fire. This also only works if Zack has a sword.
Apocalypse: Same as Meteor Shots, but with lightning.
NOTE: These power limitations are pending.
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
First and foremost, Zack is the squatting champion! Seriously, doing squats is like his favorite pastime and so he does them all the time, likely to let off both energy and stress. Other than that, his occupation is a soldier, so fighting is what he's good at! Mainly with a sword, but he's shown using his fists when doing Angeal's limit, so he can apparently fall back on that if need be. Chances are he had some training with guns, too, and he's shown using a sniper rifle, but they make a point of the fact that it is equipped with some kind of Shin-Ra technology that makes it so even the inexperienced can use it. Swords are definitely what he's most comfortable with.
As mentioned in the personality section, he's an inspiring speaker and is good at rallying people up. He also can order people around since he got to a pretty high rank by the end of it all.
Uhhh, he can put together a flower wagon with the right tools? It's not like carpentry is something that he does a lot, though. And he can drive a motorcycle! That's about it.
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
The first thing Zack is going to have to do is, obviously, deal with the fact that he isn't dead. He was at least somewhat content with his death, so it will be jarring at first, but he'll quickly realize that this is a good second chance. It's not like he wanted to die, but he realized it was the only option and was happy enough that it looked like Cloud would be able to get away. Still, it's going to occur to him rather early on that there is something unnatural about him being alive again, and he'll probably suspect that Shin-Ra revived him for some reason. That'll make him wary for a while, but once he finds out that this isn't even his world, then he'll just start wondering if it's even possible for him to make it back to Gaia still alive.
Either way, Zack is pretty flexible in terms of what he can do within the institute. He's able to both lead others and follow orders himself, though it's very possible that he'll stick to doing his own thing, since that was what he was hoping to do before he died. He's the type of guy that would see a random request for help on the bulletin and respond to it with no questions asked, so I could see him getting involved with other people that way. Other than that, he's going to have a good deal of canonmates to contend with, and he'll probably end up helping the Turks with some assignments if they ask him to, or teaming up with Yuffie if only because he'd still feel weirdly protective of her.
If Sephiroth gets in, then Zack would first have to deal with the mindfuck of being faced with someone who went crazy and tried to kill him. He would probably eventually realize that Sephiorth was the Sephiroth he knew, and while he'd be worried that history might repeat itself, he would in the end give Sephiroth the benefit of the doubt. Once he got to that point, he would be perfectly willing to follow Sephiroth's orders, since he doesn't equate Sephiroth with Shin-Ra, and it's the company that he has a problem with now.
There's also an Aerith application coming in. If that one gets in, then Zack would do all he could to make up for the fact that he broke his promise, and he would take it as a pretty hard hit if he found out that she had also ended up dying.
Sometimes the nature of the institute and the experimentation going on will put Zack on edge, but he'll just take his anger at the situation and turn it into energy to do whatever needs to be done. If he does come to the conclusion that he can't really leave the place without dying all over again, then he'll just do what he can to help everyone else with whatever they need. He isn't one to complain about his own bad luck, either, so he'd probably just act as if he was going along with the escape effort even if he had no intention of leaving.
Zack would use the opportunity make new friends, catch up with old ones, and make the best of this extra bit of life he's somehow been granted. He'd do his best to find fun things to do even among all of the chaos, though he'd also be very dedicated to whatever jobs he took up, seeing them as missions that he'd need to complete.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Zack fights for a living! Fighting monsters is more or less routine for him, and he's gone up against some pretty grotesque stuff on top of it all. I mean, he had to fight this terrible mix of his mentor and a series of monsters. It was pretty bad.
He's been experimented on, he's had to deal with someone like Hojo, he's had to kill people he cared about, he's been through all sorts of trying events (including death)... Landel's will be one more thing to add to the list, but hey, at least he's breathing!
Third-Person Sample:
Zack would have to say that the courtyard was one of his favorite places to go in the institute. It was kind of weird to have a favorite spot in a place like this, but he had always been the sort of person who made the best of things rather than stewing in how bad it all was.
There wasn't much for him to do in the Arts and Crafts room, he usually didn't have the attention span to get far enough through any of the library books, and the Game Room didn't have anything that approached the sort of virtual reality simulations that he was used to. The Music Room was kind of nice, but it wasn't as cool as it could be when he couldn't play any of instruments.
So, that left the outdoors. Sometimes it was nice to find an empty bit of grass and just stare at the sky (the sort of sky she'd been scared of--was she still?). Whereas other times, times like these, he found himself in the mood to do some squats.
He'd noticed a few of the other patients staring at him, probably wondering what he was up to, but Zack just waved at them and grinned. He made sure to take it slow; if he started getting really into it, then the nurses started to worry that he was pushing himself too hard. That seemed kind of ridiculous when he was used to fighting monsters, but then he remembered that they all thought that was something he'd made up.
It had taken some time for Zack to realize that this wasn't Gaia. The first clue had been when he'd gotten no reactions from the nurses or the patients to the name "Shin-Ra," and then he'd slowly realized that no one seemed to recognize him. At first he'd wondered if there was some sort of brainwashing going on (maybe he wasn't as famous as Sephiroth, but he was pretty sure he'd made well-known status by the time he'd died -- and wow, that was a weird thought), and then it had slowly sunk in that this just wasn't his home.
That had been a kick to the gut at first (he'd wanted to visit Gongaga, check out Cosmo Canyon, that sort of thing), but then he'd realized that he could probably ask about Cloud over the bulletin board without having to worry too much about giving his friend away.
He'd gotten a few responses, and one rather interesting one. Something about the person knowing Cloud, but Cloud not necessarily knowing him (Zack thought it was a him, anyway; the writing hadn't looked particularly girly)... It had fallen into confusion pretty quickly, and so Zack had just decided he'd meet up with this person face-to-face.
So here he was, doing squats in the courtyard while waiting for someone named Sora to show up. (Come to think of it, Sora was a pretty girly name. Maybe he'd been wrong?)
A young kid walked up to him and Zack stopped what he was doing, straightening and then standing akimbo. "Are you the one from the bulletin board? About Cloud?"
"That's me!" the boy replied cheerfully as he stuck out his hand. "I'm Sora."
"The name's Zack," he quickly shot back as he shook. "Pleased to meet ya'!"
Sora stared at him for a few seconds and then smiled. "Yeah, you look like someone who could be Cloud's friend, all right."
Zack crossed his arms over his chest and regarded the boy curiously. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"The hair!" Sora snickered.
"Hey!" Zack snapped back, but it was all in good fun. "Look who's talking!"
And it was true. This kid's hair bore a striking resemblance to Cloud's. Come to think of it, hadn't Sora said he was fifteen during their talk over the bulletin? That would put him pretty close to the age Cloud had been when they'd first met. But why did he seem so much younger? Maybe being part of the military just aged people.
Zack hoped not. He didn't need to be getting wrinkles at the ripe age of twenty-three!
Still, they had only known each other for a minute or so and the two of them were already laughing. It looked like this was going to to be a fun conversation.
First-Person Sample:
SOLDIER Report
Night 3:
Hostiles Encountered: 2 (rabid dogs)
Hostiles Defeated: 2
Physical Status: 80%; bite on right arm.
Physical Status of Teammates: 100%
Notes: Even though the dogs seemed to be rabid, it doesn't appear that my wound is infected. Like before, it was cleaned and bandaged by morning.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. The goods will be delivered tonight.
[this part of the page was then torn out to be handed off to Sephiroth]
Dear Mom and Dad,
Seeing how these letters aren't actually going to get to you, I guess I can be a little more free with what I say. I guess it's weird that I'm writing at all, but I was never really able to break the habit, and this is a good way to get things down.
I went out with two other patients last night to get metal, under Sephiroth's orders. Both of them were great to work with, so I'm hoping that we get the chance to do it again. We got attacked by some monsters on the way, but it wasn't a big deal. They listened to me and were smart enough to stand back while I fought. I got a little injured, but it's not like I haven't been through worse!
I'm still looking forward to when I get a sword. It won't be as good as the Buster Sword, but better than nothing, right?
I think I'm going to be working with Yuffie tonight. Still can't believe how big that kid has gotten. (And still so much energy...) But oh, looks like Cissnei's headed this way. Gotta go!
Love,
Zack
Series' Medium: Video game(s). There are also other side games, movies, anime, and novels associated with the Final Fantasy VII series, but they don't pertain to this character all that much.
Character: Zack Fair
Age: 23 (some sources list 22, but I saw an equal citing of both and chose to go with this one)
Sex/Gender: All male, baby.
Canon Role: Protagonist through and through, though his position as a soldier means that he is willing and able to kill whenever necessary, and he has killed even the closest of friends due to certain circumstances.
"Real" Name: Lance Findlay
How long have you roleplayed your character, if at all?:
I have roleplayed him for about six or seven years on and off, but this will be my first time playing him while adhering to the Crisis Core canon. (All the other times I'd played him was before the game came out.)
Where have you roleplayed in general and/or with this specific character?:
I have roleplayed extensively over instant messenger, on a variety of message boards, and in way too many LJ RPs. However, my current game is Damned -- I have Sora, Guy Cecil, Peter Petrelli, and Harvey Dent there. The place I played Zack for the longest was at a LJ game called Luceat Eis (luceat_eis) under the username twilight_dark. Zack was AU to fit into the Kingdom Hearts verse, however.
Are you personally familiar with your character's canon?:
Very much so! I have played through the original Final Fantasy VII game more times than I can count, and I have played through Crisis Core twice. I have also watched Last Order and Advent Children (an anime short and movie respectively) -- Zack has roles in both of them, but they are mainly rehashes of things that are covered more extensively in FFVII and Crisis Core. I've also read the chapter of Before Crisis, a cell phone game, that Zack appears in. Before Crisis was never brought to the US, but there are translations available online.
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
Zack was born in the small country town of Gongaga on the planet of Gaia. The planet is kept alive by an essence called the Lifestream, which is spirit energy; when anyone in Gaia dies, their spirit becomes one with the Lifestream. The Lifestream can also take on a liquid form, which is called mako. The Shin-Ra Electric Power Company discovered that mako could be used as energy, and this discovery led to it becoming a superpower that had a stronghold over all of Gaia, complete with its own military force. The Shin-Ra Science Department even learned how to crystallize mako into something called Materia, which could then be used by humans to cast spells.
While Zack had a pleasant childhood and loving parents, he found himself bored with the isolated town he grew up in [slight extrapolation] and became enamored with the idea of joining SOLDIER, Shin-Ra's elite military group. At age thirteen, he ran away from home and crossed continents to reach Midgar, the largest city in Gaia and home to Shin-Ra headquarters. Zack was a quick learner, entering SOLDIER and rising up through the ranks until he reached 2nd Class in a matter of three years. (Getting into SOLDIER itself is hard enough, but moving from 3rd to 2nd so quickly is uncommon.) SOLDIERs are all infused with mako, a conditioning that increases their physical skills.
Zack's mentor was a man called Angeal Hewley, a 1st Class who was known for being cheap due to growing up poor and yet for having strong convictions when it came to his SOLDIER honor and having dreams. He stressed to Zack that he could never succeed if he didn't have a dream, and so Zack decided that his dream was to become a hero.
Everything went normally enough until Zack suddenly stopped getting assignments, which was more than enough to make him restless. The reason eventually became clear: a 1st by the name of Genesis had deserted Shin-Ra for unknown reasons, taking a large number of SOLDIER members with him. Zack then met the Director of SOLDIER, Lazard, to be given his first assignment in a while; he was to finish up the mission that Genesis had abandoned, which involved tying up Shin-Ra's war with Wutai. (Wutai is an Asian-influenced country; the war was caused by Shin-Ra wanting to extract mako in the Wutai region against Wutai's wishes).
Zack enthusiastically accepted the mission and successfully infiltrated and defeated a Wutai fort (though not without meeting a strange ninja girl named Yuffie in the process!). He got into some trouble at the end, but Angeal stepped into save him. On the way back, they were attacked and separated. When Zack tried to reconvene with Angeal, he was attacked by a stray summon (summons are powerful monsters called to people's aid through Materia). He was unable to defeat it himself, but Sephiroth, a famous Shin-Ra general and someone who Zack greatly admired, stepped in to dispatch it. Sephiroth inspected the soldiers from the earlier attacks and found that they looked exactly like the renegade SOLDIER, Genesis. He explained that they were Genesis "copies."
When they realized that Angeal was nowhere to be found, Sephiroth believed that he had betrayed them, but Zack refused to accept that and continued to feel that way even after a month had passed. Zack's next assignment was to investigate Genesis' hometown, Banora, both to see if his parents had any information about him and to search for the arsenal of weapons Genesis stole when he deserted. His partner was a Turk (a special Shin-Ra group that deals with more underhanded assignments such as kidnapping and assassination) named Tseng, who explained to Zack that Banora was also Angeal's hometown; he and Genesis had been good friends for a long time. He also explained that the technology to make copies was taken from Shin-Ra; it allowed Genesis' traits to be copied onto other SOLDIERs and onto monsters. (Zack didn't like the implication that SOLDIERs and monsters were one and the same.)
Zack found Angeal's house and met his mother, who told him that both Genesis and Angeal had been around. Genesis had attacked the town (and even killed his own parents), and Angeal had come to leave his sword with her; his sword, which was a symbol of his honor. Zack had to wonder if maybe Angeal's ties to Genesis trumped his ties to him, but he moved on with the mission, heading with Tseng to a factory on the edge of town. He learned along the way that Angeal and Genesis were Sephiroth's only friends, which is why he'd refused to take the mission (it had originally been assigned to the general).
Zack found Genesis in the factory, but Angeal showed up and wielded Zack's sword against Genesis. Genesis accepted the side that Angeal chose and left, with Angeal following. Zack tried to follow suit, but Angeal pushed him back, making it clear that he didn't want him involved. Tseng explained that they needed to leave immediately; the town was going to be destroyed by an air strike to get rid of any evidence of misconduct. Zack rushed back to Angeal's mother to try and save her, but found her dead with Angeal right there--betrayed and upset, Zack tried to get answers out of Angeal and only got vague replies.
When he asked where Angeal's SOLDIER honor had gone, Genesis stepped in to explain that they were monsters, and monsters couldn't have honor. Then, a single black wing sprouted from his back and he flew away. The town was destroyed and Zack returned to Midgar.
More time passed, and Zack was eventually called in by Lazard and Sephiroth to be informed that he was now 1st Class. He thought he would have been happier, but it felt like he'd only gotten the position because most of the other 1sts had deserted. Zack was also told that the army had been ordered to kill Genesis and Angeal, but the conversation was interrupted by headquarters suddenly coming under attack by Genesis copies. Sephiroth theorized that a Shin-Ra scientist who had vanished after lifting the copy technology, a man named Hollander, was behind it; he probably wanted revenge after losing the competition for the head of the Science Department to Hojo (the current head and an all-around creepy guy).
Sephiroth and Zack moved out to deal with the attack, and Zack ran into a female Turk named Cissnei. They fought against a winged Genesis copy together; afterward, Cissnei commented that she'd always wanted wings as a child, but Zack now believed that winged humans were monsters. Cissnei argued that wings symbolized freedom for those who had none, which made Zack think twice. They parted ways and then Sephiroth contacted Zack and ordered him to Mako Reactor 5; Angeal had been sighted there. The idea was for them to find Angeal before the army did and "fail to eliminate him," a plan Zack could definitely agree with.
Zack reached the reactor and fought a monster that had Angeal's face--apparently Genesis wasn't the only one who could be copied. He met up with Sephiroth, and as they headed for Hollander's secret lab, the general told him a story of when he, Genesis, and Angeal had been fighting in the training room -- it had gotten out of hand and Genesis had been injured. The wound wouldn't heal, and Hollander (still working at Shin-Ra at the time) explained that Geneis needed a transfusion. However, for some reason Sephiroth couldn't be the donor. Zack then discovered that Genesis was the product of a secret project, Project G, that Hollander had spearheaded. The problem with the wound was due to a complication from that project, a "degradation" that was caused by a "leak" of genetic information.
Then, Hollander and Genesis showed up. Hollander claimed that only he could stop Genesis' degradation, and Sephiroth dealt with Genesis while ordering Zack to chase after the scientist. Zack did so, but then Angeal intervened. Zack demanded to know why he'd switched sides, and Angeal revealed a (white) wing of his own, much to Zack's surprise. Zack still attempted to reason with him, but Angeal tried to provoke him into a fight; when Zack refused, Angeal caused the grating under him to give out, sending him hurtling down into Midgar's slums.
Zack was woken up by the voice of a girl named Aerith; the flowers she grew in a church in the slums had broken his fall. Zack suggested that she sell the flowers, since they're something of a luxury item in Midgar, and then decided to take her on a date for "saving" him. They ended up doing as much, spending a good portion of the day together; they dealt with Zack's wallet getting stolen, Zack bought her a ribbon and some perfume, and they generally hit it off. There was some awkwardness when Aerith said that she thought SOLDIERs were scary, not knowing Zack was one himself, but when she found out she quickly assured him that he wasn't scary at all.
Zack was then called back to headquarters by Sephiroth; Genesis had attacked headquarters (again). On the way back, Zack was met by Angeal, who asked him to join his cause. Their enemy? All who cause suffering. Zack agreed, and Angeal flew him back to HQ. While Zack didn't really know what Angeal was up to, he was happy enough to be working with him again. They met Sephiroth and then split up, with Zack going to the Science Department to secure Hojo. (Angeal believed he was in danger due to Hollander's grudge.) Zack did so, but Hojo wasn't very cooperative -- he started going on about something called Jenova, "the calamity from the sky," and then insulted Zack for his ignorance. Genesis showed up, but Angeal was quick on his trail. Those two ended up having an aerial fight while Zack was left to fight another summon. By the time he'd defeated it, both of the ex-1sts were gone.
More time passed, and Zack got a call from Aerith asking him to come help her make a flower wagon, as he'd promised to do when they'd first met. On the way, he ran into Angeal, who explained that Genesis and Hollander were in the abandoned town of Modeoheim, and then left. When Zack made it to the church, he was intercepted by Tseng (who apparently knew Aerith, although he didn't care to explain how); Zack was on the mission to Modeoheim. The helicopter crashed on the way there, meaning that Zack had to lead them through the snowy area. Tseng had a difficult time keeping up, but one infantryman named Cloud kept perfect pace with Zack. It turned out he was a country boy, just like Zack, causing the two to instantly bond. Cloud was insecure about whether he'd be able to get into SOLDIER, but Zack steadfastly encouraged him.
On the way, they ran into a mako excavation test site. Zack infiltrated alone and found Genesis (whose degradation had worsened) and Hollander having a confrontation, with Hollander insisting that Genesis needed him and Genesis insisting that he could use Jenova cells as a cure instead (there's that name again!). Hollander countered that no one knew where the Jenova cells were, and Genesis decided that in that case, he would accept his fate, but not without taking the rest of the world with him. He fought Zack (allowing Hollander to get away), but once he had been defeated, he seemingly let himself fall to his death. Zack was shaken by this, feeling guilty that he couldn't help him somehow.
He continued on to Modeoheim and found Angeal waiting for him there, looking for a fight. Hollander stepped in and implied that he was Angeal's father (which Angeal refused to believe) and also revealed that Angeal's mother was the namesake of Project G (G is for Gillian) and that she had actually killed herself due to shame. Angeal was the more successful product of the project, but he obviously only saw himself as a monster by that point. He ordered Zack to kill him; as he'd mentioned before, their enemy was suffering, and he claimed that he had caused his own suffering. He then summoned a series of monsters that carried his traits and they all combined with him, turning him into a grotesque amalgamation. Zack was forced to defeat him, which reverted Angeal to his normal (badly degraded) form; he thanked Zack and handed over his sword before passing away, leaving Zack crushed, but still able enough to apprehend Hollander and hand him over to Shin-Ra.
A lot of time passed as Zack dealt with what he'd done. He grew out his hair, became the 1st (possibly the only one left, other than Sephiroth) who led the infantrymen, went on a mission with some Turks and a few SOLDIERs (Sebastian and Essai) who ended up getting brainwashed by AVALANCHE and dying in the Icicle Inn area (this is from Before Crisis), and found himself surrounded by Turks as the company questioned his loyalty. On top of that, everyone acted as if Genesis and Angeal had never existed, making Zack wonder what worth he had as a SOLDIER. He was forced against his will onto vacation with the Turks, where he discovered that Lazard has gone missing (it turned out he had been embezzling money to fund Hollander's reserach) and that Aerith was the last of a race called the Ancients, making her extremely important. It was something she had never told him, but he wasn't that put off about it. That was when the beach he was on was attacked by Genesis copies--strange, when Genesis was supposed to be dead.
Still, there was no time to ponder. Junon, a large port city, was under attack, meaning Zack had a mission. He went there with Tseng, who explained that Hollander was there and the attack was likely meant as a way to get the scientist. Zack's job was to secure Hollander, and he chased the man all around Junon, but Hollander slipped out of his fingers. Sephiroth showed up to tell Zack that he'd failed the mission, but that Genesis copies were attacking places all over Gaia; he believed that Genesis was in fact still alive.
Zack returned to Midgar to check up on Aerith; he found a monster with her, and was about to attack it before he realized it was an Angeal copy. It protected them from a hostile mech and then flew up into the church rafters, as if it wanted to keep an eye on the girl. Zack was still wary, but he focused on helping Aerith build a flower wagon, since he'd promised to. He was interrupted by news that he had another mission; a particular reactor had been surrounded by a legion of monsters, and there was also evidence of Hollander, Lazard, and Genesis' presence there. He used the last bit of time he had to help Aerith sell some flowers and then told her that he might not be back for a while, but that he definitely would be back.
He found out that Cloud would also be going on the mission, and that they were going to Cloud's hometown, Nibelheim. Upon arriving, Zack learned that Sephiroth's mother's name was Jenova, which he found odd considering what Genesis had said about Jenova cells before. The next morning they headed for the reactor with a young girl named Tifa as their guide. Cloud and Tifa had to wait outside while Zack and Sephiroth entered the reactor. The interior housed a series of pods and a sealed door with the name "Jenova" above it. Inside the pods were grotesque monsters that had apparently been made that way by intense mako exposure; they were created by Hojo. Sephiroth started to freak out as he wondered if he and the monsters were one and the same, but then Genesis appeared to explain that Sephiroth was the product of the Jenova project; Jenova, a monster that was excavated 2,000 years ago. Sephiroth was a success, meaning that he was unable to degrade; if he shared his cells with Genesis, that would cure him. Sephiroth refused and left, with Genesis doing the same soon after, leaving Zack to return to town with Cloud and Tifa.
Sephiroth was nowhere to be found, and Zack had his own share of problems. With everyone around him turning into some kind of monster and him expected to just follow orders, he didn't know what to do. A comment from Cloud reminded him of what Angeal had always told him, which cheered him up. The next day, Tifa informed him that Sephiroth was in the Shin-Ra mansion on the edge of town. Zack went there and found Sephiroth holed up in the basement, reading document after document and refusing to talk to him. After seven days had passed, Sephiroth set the town on fire. Zack found the man, who was now completely crazed, and chased him to the reactor.
Zack found a badly wounded, pissed-off Tifa on the floor of the reactor, but he had to move on, cutting through the sealed door to where Jenova was being held. Sephiroth was with her, and he completely ignored Zack's demands for answers. Eventually, Zack had to accept that Sephiroth was a lost cause, and he forced himself to fight the general, as much as it pained him. He was no match for Sephiroth, and ended up sprawled on the reactor stairs. He registered Cloud running in and ordered him to kill Sephiroth; Cloud somehow succeeded, but not without getting a bad wound himself.
Both of them were them harvested by Hojo and made into experiments where they were submerged in tubes of mako. Zack was in and out, hallucinating and barely aware, but he eventually broke out (or was he broken out?). He rescued Cloud, and while Zack was somewhat out of it, Cloud was nearly catatonic. (Zack had a high tolerance to mako due to his SOLDIER conditioning, whereas Cloud had no tolerance.) Zack dragged him out of the mansion, and to his surprise, the whole town was rebuilt even though it had burned down.
Shin-Ra infantrymen showed up and tried to take Cloud; Zack fought them off and then returned to the mansion to recuperate, where he changed Cloud into a SOLDIER outfit to get him out of the mako-soaked clothing. Zack felt lost and desperate by this point, not sure if he could save anyone, but he found a note from Aerith saying that she wanted to spend more time with him, and realized that he had to get back to Midgar. He continued to drag Cloud through the countryside until he reached the coast, and that was when he really started to question what he was going to do with his life.
Cissnei then showed up, intending to capture them, but Zack begged her to let them go -- she eventually relented and even gave Zack the keys to a motorcycle, complete with a sidecar. On the way down a highway, Zack was ambushed by Genesis and a few copies. Genesis believed that Zack's cells now had a modified version of Jenova's power in them; one of the copies yanked out some of Zack's hair and ate it, but instead of healing, the copy transformed into an even worse monster that Zack had to fight while Genesis fled.
He continued on afterward and then stumbled on his hometown, Gongaga. He debated whether he should actually enter -- chances were Shin-Ra troops would be waiting for him there, but he was worried about his parents. Cissnei found him again, scolded him for coming, and told him that Angeal was apparently in the area. Zack was surprised, but he also suspected that Angeal had helped him escape the mansion somehow. Cissnei then assured him that his parents were fine, and Zack asked her to keep them company for a while.
He then caught a glimpse of a figure with a white wing, but it flew off before he could say anything. He chased after it, but instead ran into Genesis and Hollander, the latter of which explained that Zack's cells were actually useless -- it was Cloud's cells that they needed. Hollander flew off (he had ended up injecting himself with some of Genesis' cells) to where Zack had left Cloud. Zack ran back to stop him, and that winged figure swept in to help. Zack finally killed Hollander, and afterward he discovered that while the helper looked like Angeal, he was actually Lazard -- apparently siding with Hollander hadn't gotten him too far. However, he'd been imprinted with Angeal's sentiments, due to being a copy of him now, and so he wanted to help Zack. They both realized that Genesis had to be stopped, and they determined that the man must have gone to Banora.
When they reached the town, it was very different from when Zack first went, now in shambles and overflowing with Lifestream. Zack asked Lazard to watch over Cloud while he moved further into the chasms of the area. He found Genesis, who was badly degraded, his hair a pure white. Zack tried to explain that he was there to offer help, but Genesis wouldn't listen to reason. He absorbed the Lifestream's energy and turned into a huge monster (seeing a trend here?). Zack defeated him and reverted him to his normal form. He carried his (still alive) body out and found a badly injured Lazard -- Shin-Ra had attacked while he'd been gone. The Angeal copy from Aerith's church was also there; it had apparently helped fight against the troops.
Zack broke down into tears, as everyone around him was either dead, dying, or catatonic. Both Lazard and the Angeal copy faded away into the Lifestream, and then Zack found a piece of paper near where the copy's body had been. It was a letter from Aerith, and apparently the 89th one she had written, as it had been four years since they'd seen each other. Zack was floored by this, since he'd had no idea that so much time had passed while he'd been in the mansion, but he did the only thing he could: he picked up Cloud's body and continued on to Midgar. He hitched a ride in a truck with ideas of being a mercenary alongside Cloud floating in his head (whether that was meant to cheer up Cloud or himself is up for debate, but Zack continued to talk to Cloud despite never getting a response).
When he got out of the truck, there was a literal army of infantrymen waiting for him. Zack had no other choice but to fight, and so that was what he did; memories of all of his friends circled through his mind and then faded away as he lost more and more blood. Zack kept fighting until he could barely swing his sword anymore, but it wasn't enough. He was gunned down and left to die on the cliffs at the outskirts of Midgar. However, Cloud somehow managed to drag himself over, and that was when Zack told his friend that he would be his living legacy, the one to inherit his dreams and honor.
He handed over his sword and then breathed his last breath.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
Zack will be taken from just after his death. This will be the first character I've had who's coming in after dying (other than when I had him briefly in the game before), so I want to play with the idea that he would have to see Landel's as a second chance, and also deal with the possibility that escape might mean dying all over again. On top of that, I think that having to give up his life actually assuaged a lot of Zack's grief in some ways, since he'd been responsible for so many deaths himself. It'll also make it interesting for him to have to face old friends who are now a lot older than he remembers them being, and if we ever happen to get a Cloud, finding out that the friend he died for ended up crazy because of him will be a lot to deal with (in a good way!). In any case, one of the most important things about Zack's character is his death, and even though he's been expanded on through Crisis Core, that still holds true.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
Zack uses a few different words to describe himself, most commonly a SOLDIER and an aspiring hero. He both succeeds and sometimes fails at being these things.
It was Zack's number one goal to become part of SOLDIER and make it to 1st Class, and for a while it was something that he took immense pride in. Especially when he was younger, he would defend the company against people who were anti Shin-Ra, and even when he was presented with good, hard evidence that the organization that he was working for was wrong, he would still do as he was told. This is mainly out of a sense of commitment and loyalty. He made a choice to be a part of Shin-Ra, and that meant that he was going to stick with it for as long as he could. However, a large part of what Crisis Core is about is showing the way that Zack slowly loses faith in the organization, due to finding out about all of the experimentation it was responsible for (which directly affected many of his closest friends and role models) and then being made into an experiment himself. Still, Zack followed Shin-Ra up until the point that it put both him and Cloud in serious danger, and the fact that he tried to escape from what amounted to torture is what led to his death.
Despite having been forced to turn his back on Shin-Ra, there was one thing that remained in his mind, even up until the end. Despite the fact that he was fighting against Shin-Ra troops, Zack still commented about protecting his SOLDIER honor; this is likely because he still believed that he was doing the right thing, and also because it was a concept that he took from Angeal, someone who he still considered an important part of his life even though he had killed the man with his own hand.
That brings up another point. Due to Zack's loyalty, he was forced to fight against people who should have been companions rather than enemies. He killed Angeal and Genesis, and fought fiercely against Sephiroth as well. In the case of Sephiroth and Angeal especially, these were people who he held immense respect for, and yet when the occasion called for it, he still had it in him to wield his sword against them. While Zack questioned some orders that he received, he usually followed them to the letter. Angeal more or less ordered Zack to kill him, and so Zack complied. Each of these instances pained him to the core, and he spends a large portion of the game trying to talk reason with the people he's forced to fight. Even in the last battle against Genesis, Zack goes into it saying that he wants to offer Genesis help rather than fight him. Things seldom turn out the way he wants them to, but that doesn't stop him from trying. Also, you would think that someone would get jaded after having so many friends turn on him, but that isn't the case at all. Zack can be optimistic to a fault when it comes to such things.
It should be obvious by this point that Zack has gone through a lot of trauma in his life, but that never keeps him down for too long. There are at least two points in the game where he breaks down into tears, but it's almost as if that release causes him to pull himself together and keep moving. Zack is extremely action-oriented (he gets very restless when there's nothing to do, such as when he was put on mandatory vacation for a time), so he doesn't like moping or sulking, no matter how bad things get. It's better to work past it and focus on the next goal rather than thinking too hard about how hopeless his situation is. That was how he was able to mainly keep his spirits up even as everything was falling apart in the events leading up to his death. Chances are that he knew that he probably wouldn't survive, and yet he still just focused on saving Cloud and getting back to Midgar, where he could see Aerith again. Zack also doesn't really like to make a big deal of what he's been through. When he runs into Cissnei after he's escaped the Shin-Ra manor, she asks him what was done to him there, and his reply is, "Well... this and that."
Zack is one of those people who has extremely strong relationships with others, and this includes his superiors. While he would always follow Angeal and Sephiroth's orders, he had no qualms about teasing them and having an overall casual relationship with them. This is surprising especially in relation to Sephiroth, since most people are extremely intimidated by the general. Zack, on the other hand, just treated him like someone else he could become friendly with. This is because Zack is a very friendly person in general. He will easily introduce himself to someone he doesn't know, and it doesn't take long for someone to be considered a friend in his book. Crisis Core's battle system has something called the Digital Mind Wave (or DMW, more info about it in the powers section) which more or less involves Zack being spurred to fight better by having memories of his friends come up while he's in battle. He starts off with Angeal and Sephiroth already a part of it, but the other four characters who are on it (Tseng, Cissnei, Aerith, Cloud) are added to it immediately after him meets them. This is partly a gameplay thing, but I think it also shows how quickly he makes friends. Another example of this is shown in the Before Crisis mission, during an exchange between Zack and the Turk he's working with: Zack: "We don’t really have to rush, you know. Essai and Sebastian [the two other SOLDIERs also on the mission] have got everything under control. They’re good guys, and they’re strong besides. For all I know, the battle could be over by now." Turk: "You seem to get along with them very well. You’re friends?" Z: "I worked with them once before." T: "You only worked with them once?" Z: "That’s all the time you need, isn’t it? To become friends with someone, I mean."
Of course, sometimes this backfires; Zack is so nice that he can be taken advantage of somewhat easily. For example, Yuffie sent out spam email to every SOLDIER operative in an attempt to basically manipulate them to find treasure for her. Zack was the only one who actually fell for it, and he continued to respond to her messages because he felt bad for making her cry. There's another side-story that involves a 3rd Class SOLDIER who keeps failing his missions. Zack comes across him and agrees to do a mission for him, but in the end he's suckered into doing more and more because he feels bad for the guy. That's just how he is.
On top of that, Zack is something of a ladies man. He'll hit on girls regardless of who they are (he hits on Cissnei even though she's a Turk, for instance; he totally could have had Reno and Rude out for his blood for doing that!) and there's some evidence that he kept up his flirting even when he and Aerith were in a relationship, judging from some of the comments she makes in the original game. A lot of this is due to how much confidence he has in himself. Zack knows that he's an attractive person, and he's also very confident in his fighting ability, to the point that he'll step up to a battle even when someone more experienced, such as Angeal, is there. Still, considering how quickly he rose through the ranks, that confidence isn't exactly ill-founded. He's never malicious about it, either. He obviously enjoys fighting quite a lot. It's what he chose as a profession, not to mention he's really good at it -- he gets a thrill from battle. (Example from when Angeal is briefing him: A: “You charge the front gate, and--” Z: “And? And and and?” A: “Indulge yourself.” Z: “Got it! That's what I do best.”)
It's also because of this confidence and his sincere optimism that Zack comes across to others as a very inspiring person. He has other SOLDIER friends who will often send him emails about how they were so impressed with a speech he gave to the infantrymen, or how they're always going to back him 100%. These come in even after he's been missing for four years, showing just how much loyalty he ends up receiving from others due to his personality. He even ends up getting a fan club, which had 109,348 members before it disbanded. Yeah, the guy was popular.
Zack has a very high tolerance for just accepting strange things. While it was a shock to find out that Angeal was the product of an experiment, could sprout a wing, and that there were monsters that looked like him, he never let it affect his opinion of the man himself. He is exposed to a lot of weird stuff during the course of the game, stuff that most people would probably not be able to register, let alone deal with, and he just... takes those blows as they come. Another example of this is when he found out that Aerith was the last surviving Ancient. He was a little surprised that she never told him, but he didn't let it change his opinion of her, and he never actually brought it up with Aerith herself because he realized she'd wanted to keep it a secret. Zack can accept things like that, even if he thinks that need to be normal is overrated.
While Zack is used to following orders, after everything that's happened he's at a point in his life (or... lack therefore) where he would rather do things himself because he's sick of being bossed around. He was pushed into doing a lot of things that he didn't want to do and didn't get much out of it, so now he's looking for the freedom to do what he wants. He spoke to Cloud about the two of them becoming mercenaries, and there is an ongoing theme in Crisis Core with wings and their real symbol being that of freedom. When Zack was in the mako tube and hallucinating, his clearest thought was, "Those wings... I want them too." In addition to that, when he's preparing to fight off the troops that apprehended him at Midgar, he comments that "the price of freedom is steep." Suffice to say that he won't be all that happy about being trapped once again when he wakes up at Landel's.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
Zack has the body type of a soldier, which means that he's got a lot of muscle on him, though it's not to an extreme. Still, the fact that he can swing such a huge sword around says a lot. He's also got unnaturally bright blue eyes as a result of the mako exposure that he's had; this is a telltale sign of any SOLDIER operative. His hair is black and spiky, and at the point he's from it's grown long enough that it goes down to about his shoulder blades.
His height is kind of tricky. While Crisis Core at one point lists him at something like 6'3", that doesn't make much sense, since he doesn't tower over the other characters that much, and he's actually a little bit shorter than Sephiroth, who is supposed to be 6'. For that reason, I'm going to also put him at 6' because I think it makes a lot more sense.
Zack also has a cross-shaped scar on his left cheek. He got part of it from Angeal when they fought the final time, but the next time he's shown it's a full cross, and no explanation is given for the other half of it. My only assumption is that it's self-inflicted as some sort of grieving method, or it was all supposed to be from Angeal and the game just didn't make that clear. In any case, I'll try to avoid mentioning it since the whole thing is kind of weird.
What kinds of otherworldly abilities does your character have, if any?:
First of all, due to being a SOLDIER Zack has been put through exposure to mako that increases his physical abilities. In other words, he's stronger, faster, hardier, more agile, etc. than the average human. He is also able to use Materia, which is concentrated mako energy, to cast spells (anything from offensive to healing to stat-boosting) and even summon powerful monsters. He also collected items that let him summon other odd creatures (such as a chocobo, cactuar, etc.) that would help him with fights at times.
The most interesting abilities he has, though, are the limit breaks he gets. In the FFVII universe, if someone is pushed to the brink either through strong emotions or simply being attacked enough times, they are able to perform a limit break, which is a very powerful attack or something else along those lines. In Zack's case, it's linked to something called the Digital Mind Wave (DMW). In the game itself, it's more or less a slot system. The effect is that Zack will sometimes end up thinking back on a memory he has of him and a friend of his together, and that boosts his energy to the point of being able to use the attack. Their voice runs through his head, and he executes it.
There are seven different attacks that he can use, linked to seven different characters:
Angeal (Rush Assault): Zack uses his fists to beat up his enemy in a pretty long combo and finishes with a powerful tackle.
Sephiroth (Octaslash): A quick, more powerful sword combo.
Tseng (Air Strike): Zack calls Tseng on his PHS and the Turk comes in with a helicopter and blasts the hell out of Zack's enemies.
Cissnei (Lucky Stars): Increases the chance of getting subsequent limits and gives Zack only critical hits for a while.
Aerith (Healing Wave): Zack is fully healed and made invincible for a short time.
Cloud (Meteor Shots): Zack jumps into the air and a few meteors come falling from his sword to hit the enemy.
Genesis (Apocalypse): Zack is able to summon a powerful lightning attack that hits all enemies.
If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
While Zack will still be strong enough to swing a big sword around without breaking a sweat, he won't be over human levels anymore. No defying gravity, either. Seeing how he's a First Class SOLDIER, he'll be able to handle himself just fine without the enhancements.
Since he won't have any Materia or any of those other items on him, Zack will be unable to cast any spells or do any summoning.
That leaves the Limit Breaks. First of all, he would only be able to do limits for characters who are currently in the institute with him. That means that right now, Cissnei is the only one, although we have potential Aerith, Cloud, and Sephiroth apps, so those might become valid as well, if the apps get in. He will only be able to do one limit per night, and the effect of each limit will only last for two of his posts. Here's what they'll be able to do:
Rush Assualt: He'll get a burst of strength that'll spur him to go after what he's fighting with his fists. Might not be the best idea, but there you go.
Octaslash: He'll get a burst of speed that will allow him to attack his opponent with a sword in quick succession. This only works if he has a sword, obviously.
Air Strike: There will be a small explosion in front of his opponent. This will only last for one of his posts, since it's just the one thing.
Lucky Stars: His attacks will increase in strength for the two turns.
Healing Wave: Small to medium sized wounds will be completely healed, while larger/more severe wounds will be slightly healed.
Meteor Shots: Zack's sword will get covered with fire. This also only works if Zack has a sword.
Apocalypse: Same as Meteor Shots, but with lightning.
NOTE: These power limitations are pending.
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
First and foremost, Zack is the squatting champion! Seriously, doing squats is like his favorite pastime and so he does them all the time, likely to let off both energy and stress. Other than that, his occupation is a soldier, so fighting is what he's good at! Mainly with a sword, but he's shown using his fists when doing Angeal's limit, so he can apparently fall back on that if need be. Chances are he had some training with guns, too, and he's shown using a sniper rifle, but they make a point of the fact that it is equipped with some kind of Shin-Ra technology that makes it so even the inexperienced can use it. Swords are definitely what he's most comfortable with.
As mentioned in the personality section, he's an inspiring speaker and is good at rallying people up. He also can order people around since he got to a pretty high rank by the end of it all.
Uhhh, he can put together a flower wagon with the right tools? It's not like carpentry is something that he does a lot, though. And he can drive a motorcycle! That's about it.
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
The first thing Zack is going to have to do is, obviously, deal with the fact that he isn't dead. He was at least somewhat content with his death, so it will be jarring at first, but he'll quickly realize that this is a good second chance. It's not like he wanted to die, but he realized it was the only option and was happy enough that it looked like Cloud would be able to get away. Still, it's going to occur to him rather early on that there is something unnatural about him being alive again, and he'll probably suspect that Shin-Ra revived him for some reason. That'll make him wary for a while, but once he finds out that this isn't even his world, then he'll just start wondering if it's even possible for him to make it back to Gaia still alive.
Either way, Zack is pretty flexible in terms of what he can do within the institute. He's able to both lead others and follow orders himself, though it's very possible that he'll stick to doing his own thing, since that was what he was hoping to do before he died. He's the type of guy that would see a random request for help on the bulletin and respond to it with no questions asked, so I could see him getting involved with other people that way. Other than that, he's going to have a good deal of canonmates to contend with, and he'll probably end up helping the Turks with some assignments if they ask him to, or teaming up with Yuffie if only because he'd still feel weirdly protective of her.
If Sephiroth gets in, then Zack would first have to deal with the mindfuck of being faced with someone who went crazy and tried to kill him. He would probably eventually realize that Sephiorth was the Sephiroth he knew, and while he'd be worried that history might repeat itself, he would in the end give Sephiroth the benefit of the doubt. Once he got to that point, he would be perfectly willing to follow Sephiroth's orders, since he doesn't equate Sephiroth with Shin-Ra, and it's the company that he has a problem with now.
There's also an Aerith application coming in. If that one gets in, then Zack would do all he could to make up for the fact that he broke his promise, and he would take it as a pretty hard hit if he found out that she had also ended up dying.
Sometimes the nature of the institute and the experimentation going on will put Zack on edge, but he'll just take his anger at the situation and turn it into energy to do whatever needs to be done. If he does come to the conclusion that he can't really leave the place without dying all over again, then he'll just do what he can to help everyone else with whatever they need. He isn't one to complain about his own bad luck, either, so he'd probably just act as if he was going along with the escape effort even if he had no intention of leaving.
Zack would use the opportunity make new friends, catch up with old ones, and make the best of this extra bit of life he's somehow been granted. He'd do his best to find fun things to do even among all of the chaos, though he'd also be very dedicated to whatever jobs he took up, seeing them as missions that he'd need to complete.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Zack fights for a living! Fighting monsters is more or less routine for him, and he's gone up against some pretty grotesque stuff on top of it all. I mean, he had to fight this terrible mix of his mentor and a series of monsters. It was pretty bad.
He's been experimented on, he's had to deal with someone like Hojo, he's had to kill people he cared about, he's been through all sorts of trying events (including death)... Landel's will be one more thing to add to the list, but hey, at least he's breathing!
Third-Person Sample:
Zack would have to say that the courtyard was one of his favorite places to go in the institute. It was kind of weird to have a favorite spot in a place like this, but he had always been the sort of person who made the best of things rather than stewing in how bad it all was.
There wasn't much for him to do in the Arts and Crafts room, he usually didn't have the attention span to get far enough through any of the library books, and the Game Room didn't have anything that approached the sort of virtual reality simulations that he was used to. The Music Room was kind of nice, but it wasn't as cool as it could be when he couldn't play any of instruments.
So, that left the outdoors. Sometimes it was nice to find an empty bit of grass and just stare at the sky (the sort of sky she'd been scared of--was she still?). Whereas other times, times like these, he found himself in the mood to do some squats.
He'd noticed a few of the other patients staring at him, probably wondering what he was up to, but Zack just waved at them and grinned. He made sure to take it slow; if he started getting really into it, then the nurses started to worry that he was pushing himself too hard. That seemed kind of ridiculous when he was used to fighting monsters, but then he remembered that they all thought that was something he'd made up.
It had taken some time for Zack to realize that this wasn't Gaia. The first clue had been when he'd gotten no reactions from the nurses or the patients to the name "Shin-Ra," and then he'd slowly realized that no one seemed to recognize him. At first he'd wondered if there was some sort of brainwashing going on (maybe he wasn't as famous as Sephiroth, but he was pretty sure he'd made well-known status by the time he'd died -- and wow, that was a weird thought), and then it had slowly sunk in that this just wasn't his home.
That had been a kick to the gut at first (he'd wanted to visit Gongaga, check out Cosmo Canyon, that sort of thing), but then he'd realized that he could probably ask about Cloud over the bulletin board without having to worry too much about giving his friend away.
He'd gotten a few responses, and one rather interesting one. Something about the person knowing Cloud, but Cloud not necessarily knowing him (Zack thought it was a him, anyway; the writing hadn't looked particularly girly)... It had fallen into confusion pretty quickly, and so Zack had just decided he'd meet up with this person face-to-face.
So here he was, doing squats in the courtyard while waiting for someone named Sora to show up. (Come to think of it, Sora was a pretty girly name. Maybe he'd been wrong?)
A young kid walked up to him and Zack stopped what he was doing, straightening and then standing akimbo. "Are you the one from the bulletin board? About Cloud?"
"That's me!" the boy replied cheerfully as he stuck out his hand. "I'm Sora."
"The name's Zack," he quickly shot back as he shook. "Pleased to meet ya'!"
Sora stared at him for a few seconds and then smiled. "Yeah, you look like someone who could be Cloud's friend, all right."
Zack crossed his arms over his chest and regarded the boy curiously. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"The hair!" Sora snickered.
"Hey!" Zack snapped back, but it was all in good fun. "Look who's talking!"
And it was true. This kid's hair bore a striking resemblance to Cloud's. Come to think of it, hadn't Sora said he was fifteen during their talk over the bulletin? That would put him pretty close to the age Cloud had been when they'd first met. But why did he seem so much younger? Maybe being part of the military just aged people.
Zack hoped not. He didn't need to be getting wrinkles at the ripe age of twenty-three!
Still, they had only known each other for a minute or so and the two of them were already laughing. It looked like this was going to to be a fun conversation.
First-Person Sample:
SOLDIER Report
Night 3:
Hostiles Encountered: 2 (rabid dogs)
Hostiles Defeated: 2
Physical Status: 80%; bite on right arm.
Physical Status of Teammates: 100%
Notes: Even though the dogs seemed to be rabid, it doesn't appear that my wound is infected. Like before, it was cleaned and bandaged by morning.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. The goods will be delivered tonight.
[this part of the page was then torn out to be handed off to Sephiroth]
Dear Mom and Dad,
Seeing how these letters aren't actually going to get to you, I guess I can be a little more free with what I say. I guess it's weird that I'm writing at all, but I was never really able to break the habit, and this is a good way to get things down.
I went out with two other patients last night to get metal, under Sephiroth's orders. Both of them were great to work with, so I'm hoping that we get the chance to do it again. We got attacked by some monsters on the way, but it wasn't a big deal. They listened to me and were smart enough to stand back while I fought. I got a little injured, but it's not like I haven't been through worse!
I'm still looking forward to when I get a sword. It won't be as good as the Buster Sword, but better than nothing, right?
I think I'm going to be working with Yuffie tonight. Still can't believe how big that kid has gotten. (And still so much energy...) But oh, looks like Cissnei's headed this way. Gotta go!
Love,
Zack