Hey! You've reached the voicemail of Zack Fair, SOLDIER 2nd Class! I can't answer the phone right now, but that doesn't mean you can't talk to me when the beep sounds, anyway! So leave your name and number, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can, thanks!

*Beep!*

---

In creating this journal, the author has assumed the identity of a fictional person for use in the role-playing game fandomhigh, for the sole purpose of entertainment, without intending to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud either the person who created the fictional person, or any reader of this content. The author does not purport to be the creator of the fictional person, or to be affiliated with the creator, or with any person or entity with an interest in the fictional person.

Zack had managed to get all of three steps out of Angeal's mom's house when he heard a loud crashing sound nearby. More Genesis copies, not far from the gate and roadway leading out of the small gathering of houses.

( More Quick Work. )

[Second verse, same as the first. Ganked from Crisis Core, NFB and NFI for distance, OOC welcome, and ow. That gave my heart a hurty.]

Before they left, Zack and Tseng had a conversation that started off in a manner that Zack would consider rocky (Be alert or you'll fail? Thanks, Tseng!), but it ended on an okay enough note. Sure, Zack had learned during the talk that originally, this had been Sephiroth's mission, but the SOLDIER 1st was refusing to go. But when Zack had insisted that they spoiled Sephiroth too much, Tseng had nearly laughed!

And so he was added to Zack's list of "bestest friends forever." It was a Zack thing, and really shouldn't have come as a surprise to anybody.

( Now they had arrived at their destination... )

[Mmm, delicious canon catchup. Ganked in entirety from Crisis Core and adapted for Fandomy-Zacky goodness. NFB and NFI for distance and such, but OOC is welcome, if you wanna. There... will be more on the way, yes. Later today, so as not to be spammy.]

It had started this morning, with a phone call that said in no uncertain terms that Zack was wanted back in Midgar for an assignment. The details were vague, of course, which was understandable. After all, it was impossible to secure a phone line running from one world to the next, and so Zack had been flown out to Midgar this afternoon, and he'd proceeded to spend the rest of the day in the SOLDIER floor common area. Waiting.

( Man, what is with Angeal? )

[And once again, I make with the canon Catchy-uppy. Ganked from Crisis Core, of course, and open for phone calls or whatnot while Zack is wandering Midgar like the adorable little slacker that he is, but NFB for distance!]

The flight into Wutai? Completely uneventful. Getting a run-down of the plan from the Director? Equally so. Zack was practically twitching by the time he and Angeal were finally on solid ground again, making their way toward Fort Tamblin. Any minute now, things would start to get interesting. Please. Really.

( The Puppy should be careful what he wishes for. )

[NFI, NFB for distance, ganked entirely from Crisis Core, which is now my archnemesis for not believing in inconsequential plot points that I can just skim over without missing out on something huge somewhere down the road. This wasn't supposed to be a small novel, and yet, here it is. OOC is love, and cookies, and pie, and all of that good stuff.]

Zack had arrived in Midgar last night, and Angeal had taken him aside for training. More training, without so much as a word on anything that had been brought up over Parents Weekend about returning to active duty. And so Sunday evening and most of Monday had been spent the same way they had been on Zack's last visit to Midgar.

( Training. )

[NFI and NFB for distance, unless anyone has any urge to give the squeeful puppy a phone call. This whole shamozzle has been ganked directly from Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII, which I love like pie and have played entirely too many times. Oh, yes.]

Yes, it's revenge of New-House-No-Internets, the board game. Today is "moving day," (again), in which we pack up all of our worldly possessions from the wee rental apartment we've been crashing in, and we take off for the house that is ours. Because the company that's going to hook up our internet has fallen through twice (!) already, even though we're supposed to get it by Monday this time, I'm going to say "Gone until I'm back." Because Murphy's Law seems to not like us having the internets.

So! Zack is off training in Midgar, feel free to handwave that he got in touch with anyone who he might be doing things with if I'm not back by Tuesday, and the other three guys are... moping *coughJonocough* or laying low (Algren, Tybalt, Reno-in-Edge). It's what they do. And I'll see you guys when I get the internets back!

So, Zack was up bright and early, doing squats and such in his usual effort to ready himself for the day. Somewhere in there, he remembered the mail that had showed up on his phone during his ice-cream date with Layla, and he actually got around to checking it.

Zack,

Please report to the SOLDIER floor this weekend for some proper training. Transit will be arranged for departure at 7:30 am Saturday morning. Please, don't be late.

Angeal

Zack stared at the message for a few minutes. And then looked at the time. And then made a squeaky sound and made a break for it. He had to grab his sword and jet!

[Establishy, natch.]

Otherwise known as the availability notice of "I get told absolutely nothing." No, seriously.

I was just informed that the moving truck will be arriving bright and early tomorrow morning with all of my Stuff in it. The Stuff that I have not seen since, like, January. The Stuff which will then be unloaded into a House, which is something else I haven't had since January. The House will not have Internets. This gives me Woe and an urge to randomly capitalize random words.

I should be able to snag internet access here at the apartment that we've got rented until the end of the month, so in theory my availability shouldn't completely crumble to the ground. But moving is still moving, so I'm liable to be running about like a chocobo chicken with my head cut off at least for the next few days, from the look of things. I'll see how things look tomorrow (because again, nobody is telling me anything), and I'll figure out if my pups need to be turned into critters or rocks or vending machines from there.

Just tacking up one of those "Just In Case" availability notices: Tomorrow, bright and early, Hurricane Bill is slated to buffet the Eastern Shore of the province in which I live. I just so happen to live on that aforementioned shore, and relatively close to the ocean, at that.

Also, I have never weathered through a hurricane in my life. Omg save me.

I'm not expecting to get washed away in a flood or anything, but there is always the possibility that our power will get knocked out because of our proximity to the water. If I'm scarce for a while starting on Sunday, that would be why, and I apologize in advance for any plans I've made IC with Zack, Reno, Algren, or Tybalt that might get missed, as a result.

With woe in my heart (I'm missing GIRL DAY, dammit), I'm running away to a weekend-long music festival. I'm pretty sure I've managed to notify the people that I had planned to thread with this weekend, but seeing as the tickets kind of snuck up on me and I have the memory retention of a goldfish, I'll say it here, too.

Gone for the weekend! Zack is a wee puppy with adorable floppy ears, and Elena has modding rights. Algren is back on the island, yes, but he's still good and smashed up, so he'll be just taking it easy for a few days. And Tybalt is... Tybalt. He probably ran off to Vegas or something for the weekend upon the realization that he had boobs. And what happens in Vegas, baby...

I should be back by Monday, unless the high tides of the Bay of Fundy snatch me up and carry me out to sea. In which case, you can find me singing Disney songs with mermaids or something, instead.

Oh, not cool, sleep. Not cool at all.

With all of the nightmares that Zack had been dragged into over the course of the night, you'd think that he'd at least be well-rested. But he woke up this morning feeling as though he'd been hit by a bus. Not rested at all. And these nightmares were sticking fast to his mind, as though he'd been there himself.

Not in the least reassuring, that. Not when there was so much enjoyment being pulled from the hunt, from the kill, not for the taste of it, but for the game of it. It was different, being in SOLDIER. He hunted to protect himself, to keep other people safe. He enjoyed it, but not like that.

There was something else that had been said in one of those dreams, as well. Something about being left behind. And it was just as big a slap to the face as the bloodlust had been.

And so Zack was picking up his PHS, and dialing a number back in Midgar that he hadn't had the time to dial since he'd gotten here.

"Hey, Angeal? Oh, yeah, I'm doing... fine. I was just wondering if you'd tell me one of your stories. Yeah, one of the ones about dreams, and honor...?"

By the time he hung up again, he was at least feeling less sick about things. Even if he was still tired.

[Open for the roomie, or anyone who has any need to pop by to poke the puppy!]

... You know, I had intended to put this up on Monday, but it's been that sort of week. Be nice, I'm an old lady now celebrating my birthday today.

*Clears throat* BUT YES. There's a BDE on the horizon, and because I love traumatizing people making icons of the undead so very much, I figured I would toss a drop in the bucket and offer to make some gameface icons, or even milder fangy ones, for those of you who don't already have them.

They would be not unlike these...



... Which pale in awesomeness to the ones that MP was making earlier, but ssh, I am bound by the squash-and-stretch limitations of an outdated version of Paint Shop Pro. And I can edit in bloodspatter if you want, which makes everything look better, so there!

What do I need? Just a picture to work from- with an open mouth if you want some fang showing- that is of a workable size. The same idea as the example I gave back when I was working with the zombie icons, yes! I can work with PBs or animated characters, so don't go worrying about picking out a particular image for simplicity's sake. I like a challenge, yo.

And all I want in turn would be for you to ping asking while using a sexy icon. It's my birthday, I'm allowed!

As you may or may not have noticed, I'm going to be skipping town for a few days, headed off to the magical internet-less land of music festivals with no indoor plumbing et cetera. I'll be leaving this afternoon, and back on Sunday.

In the meantime, Tybalt is a can of Fancy Feast, Algren is going to stalk back to his room after his shift at Wellspring in order to be surly with a flask for a few days, and Zack is a wee adorable puppy with bright blue eyes, and Deadpool who is awesome has got modding rights.

Missing out on internets musical crack for the real thing. Alas.

Thursday! Zack's day off, and there was a kind of rhythm in the air that he hadn't really noticed around this place before. The sort of rhythm that had him singing earlier, and yes, he was going to just ignore that bit and get on with his day. Which, really, was all the better for pulling out his sword and meeting Deadpool in the preserve for some training, right?

Because Shiva knows, the kid was going to need it someday.

"Ready!"

About as ready as wiggly puppies like Zack ever got, anyhow.

( In Which There Is Singing! )

[Establishy, natch. Preplayed with mouthy_merc who is hotter than Shang and Donny Osmond combined, trufax. And with so many apologies to Disney.]

After a day of being harangued by dishes-who-were-no-longer-dishes, Zack was all too happy to make his way back to his cabin, find his way to his alcove, and collapse on his--

Actually, no, he wasn't going to be collapsing on his bed tonight. Because his Uniform was sitting on it, grinning pleasantly with his arms crossed over his chest.

"My bed tonight, Zack," said uniform announced. "I'm expecting company."

A pause.

"Unless you wanted to join us?"

Zack had the sinking feeling that he was going to be sleeping outside, tonight.

[For a pair of very sharp ladies, indeed! Of course, because it is but a wee alcove, anyone who lives here and feels the need to throw things at Zack's curtain can ping in, as well.]

Ah, morning! That time of day where Zack typically went through the closest thing to a routine that he actually had. There was the streeetch, and there was the yawn, and there was the reaching over the edge of his bed and blindly groping about for his uniform. It was all very important routine, naturally. Especially that last part, because it meant that he wasn't going to spend the day in his underpants. Always a bonus!

Except that today, his uniform wasn't there when he reached over the edge of the bed to pat around for it. And cracking open one eye to look for it revealed that it was, in fact, on the other side of the room, being worn by another guy, who was looking at him expectantly.

"Um. Hi? You're kinda wearing my clothes?"

The other guy smirked faintly from under the SOLDIER helmet and shook his head.

"Guess again, Zack."

There was a long, long, long pause. And then Zack shrugged. Nope. No clue. Had the other guy actually hidden his uniform? Was he a member of SOLDIER who had also been assigned to the island? Was there any way at all that he'd be so kind as to loan him a pair of pants?

Nope. No. Sorry.

"Well, then who are you?"

The other guy's response of, "You ought to recognize the Uniform that's been all over every inch of your nearly-naked body," earned only wide-eyes and epic squeaking sounds from Zack as he pulled up his bedsheets and turned many new and interesting shades of red.

[Generally establishy, but open to other cabinmates, sure!]

Zack was not what most people would refer to as a 'patient' individual. That wasn't to say that he was the sort to complain over a wait, really. In fact, the opposite tended to be true. If he was waiting, it was because it was one of those rare occasions that he was actually early for something. Usually, he was late. There was so much out there to poke at on the way to a meeting place, really.

... Which was possibly why he was happy to meet Fiona at the front doors of the dorms, today. There wasn't much between his room and the entryway that could distract him. To be on the safe side, he'd set out early, even, and was secretly thrilled when he made it all of the way down the stairs without any interruptions. And so, as a result, Zack was there early, fidgeting and twitching and wobbling back and forth on his feet.

Yes, just like a puppy.

[For the one, please! He won't be here long.]

It wasn't that Zack was terribly irresponsible, really. He was exuberant, yes. Perhaps he was just a little bit attention-deficit, sure. He tended to twitch and wiggle and squirm when people made him sit still and wait, absolutely. But he got his job done! He'd sit in that chopper and wait for the 3-2-1 of the voice of the pilot on the radio, telling mission control or whoever was listening that the SOLDIER operative was ready for insertion.

( Just pretend this cut is a pretty CG opening sequence... )

"Zack." Angeal turned to head toward the door. "Embrace your dreams. If you want to be a hero, you need to have dreams... and honor."

Zack squinted a little, puzzling that one out. Didn't he already?

"And that's what we're sending you away to boarding school to learn."

And with that, Angeal exited the room before Zack ever had an opportunity to protest.

[Establishy, NFI and NFB for distance, clearly. Most of this scene was shamelessly ganked from the first five minutes of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Which means there are... Well. Spoilers. For the first five minutes of Crisis Core, and all. But I'll take OOC comments if there are any OOC comments to be had. I so, so can't wait for newbie day!]

Oh, yes. It's time for that predictable sort of post that surfaces right about this time of year... The infodump. This time, with twice the Final Fantasy VII, because it really has eaten my soul.


The Newbie: ( The Puppy! )
The Teacher: ( The Tiger! )

And, of course, the Alumni:

( The Turk! )

( The Mun! )