#c: zack

[hiislegacy]

Starter | Muse: Zack

"Okay... So, that's new!" Zack was staring up at the sky, or what was left of it, cracked and torn with light and stars. It would've been so pretty, if it weren't a sign of death marked on this world. He was distracted by that, and didn't notice the other beings nearby, until he caught sight of a dark wing and a raining of feathers.

"Oh! How's about that... You two mind telling me what in the hell is going on here??" He was definitely startled by seeing them, of all people, considering they were supposed to not be around anymore. It almost angered him to the point of seeing red, but he somehow managed to ask his questions and keep his cool. The sword on his back was heavy, but he'd wait to bring it out until he needed to.

@hoshinierabareshimono

[cassbrookes]

Where: Outside the Wall Who: @zackastor

Everyone seemed to be stretched thin these days. Cass still hadn't gotten the whole story out of anyone, but she knew David and Ike were both essentially desk jockies for the time being, and a few members of the outside security team were down for the count as well. That was the only reason she was out on her own that day - well, not on her own. She did have Zodiac. And he was as good as another human, she thought, reaching down to pat his shoulder with grateful affection.

Thankfully, her entire patrol had been quiet and she was about to head back in the direction of the entrance when Zodiac's head lifted and the stallion tensed, nostrils flaring and ears twitching, til he swung his head in the direction of the sound he'd picked up on. Cass was on alert, hand on the knife she had tucked into a makeshift holder on her belt, until she recognized one of the hunters - Zack? He wasn't new by any means, but he and Cass hadn't ever interacted before. She'd heard rumblings about him, a few things that made her think he'd be better to avoid. Still, the deer he'd managed to bring down looked like it was proving to be a bit much for him on his own. And Cass was the sort to give people a chance to prove themselves one way or another.

She slid down from the saddle and lifted Zodiac's reins over his head. "Liniştit," she murmured softly, and the stallion's posture visibly relaxed, his head dropping into a more natural position. Leading him toward the hunter, she waved one hand with a friendly smile. "Looks like you could use a hand. Or I guess, to be more specific, a horse. We can strap that over Zo here if you'd like and walk back to the gate together."

[muertarte]

[PM] Was hanging downtown yesterday. Hope you're back to the gallery soon.

[User has attached a pdf of a digital drawing -- a simple but lovingly done sketch of MuertArte's front façade]

[pm] Thank you. Will be back Monday. Like my post said.

[user is touched by how much time was obviously put in the drawing, but they’re an artist first]

Is good start. Have more confident lines. Weights are nice and are variations. Look forward to see how you improve perspective. You have skill.

[serafim]

@hisalis, continued from from (x):

“Always,” Sephiroth answers without really answering at all, his brow lifted in an elegant arch. Secretly, he’s been keeping track of how much time passes before Zack feels the urge to crack the silence with his typical chatter. The count hasn’t gone much longer past three minutes before the dam breaks.

Not a record, one way or another. Sephiroth estimates the timing to be perfectly average.

In a shorter time than he cares to admit, Sephiroth has grown accustomed to the constant stream of consciousness. Zack’s voice is a comforting soundtrack, in a way. If he allows himself to truly listen, even if the sentences Zack manages to string together mean nothing to him at all (there are many topics that Zack likes to broach of which Sephiroth has little or no interest), the smiles and laughs that sneak their way in between the words makes it worthwhile. Missing a detail here or there during their one-sided conversations seems to have gone unnoticed.

Sephiroth rolls the pointy end of one of Zack’s many unruly spikes of hair between his fingers as the warmth from Zack’s palm tendrils out over his skin. The hum pressed to the roof of his mouth is a touch doubting. “I didn’t realize puppies could purr.”

[rocketbirdie]

here comes trouble (make it double!)

[rei-is-hiding]

@zerith-week day 2: pure heart

[c-o-t-o]

Your writing of Zack and Cloud's date ideas was sooooo cute! Do you think they'd get jealous of you talking to other guys, assuming they had a crush on you?

Thank you so much!! I actually love comparing these two because I feel like their personalities really are so opposite. If they had crushes on you and saw you being friendly with other guys they'd 100% get jealous.

Cloud would probably be really pouty about it but try to pretend nothing is wrong. It would be written all over his face that he's bothered by it, but the second you ask him what's wrong, he'll say it's nothing and try to do something to distract himself. He'll stay relatively quiet about it, but inside, it's all he can think about. Eventually he'll shyly murmur it out, that he wishes you'd talk to him as much as the other guys. Eventually Cloud would have no choice but to admit that he likes spending time with you, trying to convey his message without entirely confessing to you just yet. But the second you catch on and start to probe him, he'll say "never mind" becoming too bashful, walking away so you don't see him blushing.

Zack would make it SO obvious that he's jealous, and pretty outwardly. He'll try to make a joke of it, saying that you must really like those other guys to be talking to them so much. And have a "what's so great about them when you've got me!" approach to talking about it. He'll go out of his way to make sure you're always seeing him do stuff like working out or fighting in the combat simulator, cracking jokes with others as you walk by to show he can be funny... showing off, basically. But Zack will be real with you at the end of it all and would probably end up confessing to some extent because he wants you to know he really likes you and wants to spend more time with you. And then joke again about how the other guys there aren't that great, anyway.

[waifujuju]

SMTV x FF7

[psykopaths]

Gal Gadot in Zack Snyders Justice League, (2021)

[tomorrowusa]

J.D. Vance is even worse than you think.

[H]is worldview is fundamentally incompatible with the basic principles of American democracy. Vance has said that, had he been vice president in 2020, he would have carried out Trump’s scheme for the vice president to overturn the election results. He has fundraised for January 6 rioters. He once called on the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into a Washington Post columnist who penned a critical piece about Trump. After last week’s assassination attempt on Trump, he attempted to whitewash his radicalism by blaming the shooting on Democrats’ rhetoric about democracy without an iota of evidence.

Being "evidence-free" is fairly normal for Republicans theses days, but let's continue.

This worldview translates into a very aggressive agenda for a second Trump presidency. In a podcast interview, Vance said that Trump should “fire every single mid-level bureaucrat” in the US government and “replace them with our people.” If the courts attempt to stop this, Vance says, Trump should simply ignore the law. “You stand before the country, like Andrew Jackson did, and say the chief justice has made his ruling, now let him enforce it,” he declares. The President Jackson quote is likely apocryphal, but the history is real. Vance is referring to an 1832 case, Worcester v. Georgia, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the US government needed to respect Native legal rights to land ownership. Jackson ignored the ruling, and continued a policy of allowing whites to take what belonged to Natives. The end result was the ethnic cleansing of about 60,000 Natives — an event we now call the Trail of Tears. For most Americans, this history is a deep source of shame: an authoritarian president trampling on the rule of law to commit atrocities. For Vance, it is a well of inspiration.

Implicitly, Vance favors the persecution of Native Americans. He's a fan of ethnic cleansing.

Vance apparently alters his views simply to further his ambitions.

Ultimately, whether Vance truly believes what he’s saying is secondary to the public persona he’s chosen to adopt. Politicians are not defined by their inner lives, but the decisions that they make in public — the ones that actually affect law and policy. Those choices are deeply shaped by the constituencies they depend on and the allies they court. And it is clear that Vance is deeply ensconced in the GOP’s growing “national conservative” faction, which pairs an inconsistent economic populism with an authoritarian commitment to crushing liberals in the culture war.

A favorite abbreviation of mine for "national conservative" is Nat-C.

Yes, Vance actually follows a monarchist blogger. What would the signers of the Declaration of Independence think?

Vance has cited Curtis Yarvin, a Silicon Valley monarchist blogger, as the source of his ideas about firing bureaucrats and defying the Supreme Court. His Senate campaign was funded by Vance’s former employer, Peter Thiel, a billionaire who once wrote that “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” He’s a big fan of Patrick Deneen, a Notre Dame professor who recently wrote a book calling for “regime change” in America. Vance spoke at an event for Deneen’s book in Washington, describing himself as a member of the “postliberal right” who sees his job in Congress as taking an “explicitly anti-regime” stance.

Those pushing the odious Project 2025, which we should think of as „Mein Trumpf“, are big fans of J.D..

Top Trump advisor (and current federal inmate) Steve Bannon told Ward that Vance is “at the nerve center of this movement.” Kevin Roberts, the president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation and the driving force behind Project 2025, told Ward that “he is absolutely going to be one of the leaders — if not the leader — of our movement.” He would be a direct conduit from the shadowy world of far-right influencers, where Curtis Yarvin is a respected voice and Viktor Orbán a role model, straight to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Viktor Orbán is not somebody any American leader should emulate. Orbán is essentially a goulash Putin.

In 2004, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean described himself as hailing from “the Democratic wing of the Democratic party.” If the GOP under Trump has indeed evolved into an authoritarian party, then Vance hails from its authoritarian wing.

So Vance is from the authoritarian wing of the authoritarian party.

Dictatorships are much easier to prevent than to remove. What are you doing in real life to work for the defeat of the Trump-Vance ticket? If you like democracy, you can't take it for granted.

NOTE: Zack Beauchamp who wrote the highlighted article above at Vox has a related book out this month.

[hiislegacy]

Starter | Muse: Zack Fair

"... GENESIS!!!! HEY!"

The door was just straight up kicked open, and in came barreling the raven-haired SOLDIER. He realized how much of a mess he made as his boots dragged in so much mud on the floor. "Oh, uh... sorry about that!!" Zack quickly ran over to where he was, so full of energy and a wild look in his eyes. "So, I was wondering!! You wanna do something tonight?? I've got nothing on my schedule, and I'm gonna be like really really bored."

@hoshinierabareshimono

[beforethepoison]

POV: you follow Clark and Lois to Martha's farm on a Sunday

[muertarte]

@zackbanes

[PM] It's fine. That's not something you can help. I should have been able to [...] do my thing earlier. [...] You didn't hurt me. Or any of us. You saved us. But yeah we're safe now. Thanks to you, and Emilio.

[pm] I should help it. But am made to hurt people. Am bad. Am bad. Am bad. Head is Everything has jumble I want to

Sometimes we can not help how things happen. But you did save everyone too. And you stop people from becoming hurt with your fire. You did very good job.

Am glad you are all safe.

We did what was right. Emilio is good man.

[serafim]

@hisalis

There has been no variation in his answers. Sephiroth has not yet answered any one of Zack’s requests with ‘no.’ Not outright. Even so, Zack asks. The questions, the fact that they are posed, that Zack does not budge an inch until he receives an answer, that matters. It matters in a way that Sephiroth has gradually come to better understand over time in combination with Zack’s cheerfully patient persistence. He is accustomed to being observed, but to be perceived is another issue entirely. More a wonder than an issue, when it comes to Zack. 

They rarely have the time to spend together. Some of it is stolen, chanced upon by coincidence or sporadic moments of shore leave when their rotations happen to fall into sync or overlap at convenient intervals. 

For all of Zack’s powers of perception, he is still spectacularly lacking in subtlety in other ways.

Like right now, with Zack edging towards him once the elevator doors have slid closed. The panel lights up after a second destination has been added to the elevator’s queue and it shudders to life with a musical chime played through speakers installed somewhere in the ceiling.  A brief glance at the numbered buttons tells him Zack is likely on his way to meet with Angeal for training. His own stop is past that floor. A place Sephiroth is loath to frequent even on a good day. 

The floor panel does not hold his attention for lack. Zack has his usual look of intent about him, and Sephiroth is left to guess at what permissions he may be granting in this brief sliver of time. Assuming no one else boards the elevator after them. 

“You don’t have to ask me this time,” Sephiroth intercepts helpfully. A preemptive yes might save them a few precious seconds from interruption. 

[schadentekkers]

[catboyidia]

assigning candy to asgzc + plus what i think their faves would be

angeal: i want to say kitkat, i cant quite explain why but its the first candy that came to mind… maybe i’m subconsciously thinking about the kitkat slogan, which makes me think of him because damn… poor guy really needs a break… + i’m somewhere between headcanoning him as someone who unexpectedly absolutely loves candy or someone thats not actually all too fond of candy/sweets in general, but he absolutely feels like a granny candy kind of guy! like he always had THOSE strawberry hard candies on him at all times, which makes me think his favorite would be some kind of hard candy, or some kind of cheap chocolate like a hersheys bar or something, that he doesn’t like for the flavor, but because it was the primary candy he got as a kid whenever he could afford it

sephiroth: hes literally a sour patch kid… he looks so intimidating and mean but (pre insanity at least) he’s actually just an awkward sweetheart! post insanity though is like toxic waste or something (like the sour candy, thats an actual candy i swear) because it just hurts a lot and to most people is not enjoyable at all + i dont think he eats much candy, nor did he eat much of it growing up, i think he mostly only ate what he was given by others, like hard candies, because people are more likely to carry those around as opposed to like a chocolate bar or something, and i feel like it’s probably stuck with him, so by process of elimination, they would be his favorite but he isnt really opposed to any candy, he just doesn’t really eat it in general and he probably prefers other sweets, like baked things

genesis: hes fireball/any of those cinnamon “spicy” candies… they’re red… and genesis seems to really like committing acts of arson with fira materia… and they fit perfectly dont ask its hard to explain! also skittles, which i feel is self explanatory… + he likes lollipops, not because he truly loves them, but because he loves purposefully sucking on them in a provocative manner when angeal and sephiroth are around to get any kind of reaction out of them! his actual favorite would probably be like… turtles or ferrero rochers or something of that really expensive, fancy chocolate nature (do not correct me on the fancy or unfancyness of those chocolates! i’m poor, they’re fancy to me!)

zack: … pixie sticks… all the way… just a fucking tube full of sugar… + he doesn’t have a favorite because he likes literally all of it, put any candy in front of him and it will be gone in a second and he will love whatever it was that you put in front of him! the only exception is that he hates chocolate, and i think i have that in my head because of the whole puppy zack thing, but regardless he loves all other kinds of candy, and he absolutely bounces off the walls for the rest of the day, after eating every candy he can get his hands on

cloud: he feels like gummy bears, especially the mini ones… cute, small and squishy… and pretty basic like they aren’t like remarkable, just kinda there but generally liked and appreciated without any strong haters, and i don’t think i can think of a single person, in canon, that ever actually hated cloud (dont quote me on that, i could be wrong) + his favorite would probably be some kind of obscure small town local candy, which only like a few people have ever had or heard of, and he thinks no other candy can match or live up to it… otherwise, he probably likes most chocolate/candy bars in general, and hes not really picky about it, but hes also not primarily fond of most other candies that aren’t chocolate