InsaneJournal

The Story of Zack: Prophecy/Inspiration/Development/Ambition/Escape
Something I've been wanting to try for a while and this prompt seemed like a good chance to start.

Title: Prophecy
Characters: The Powers That Be and Zack
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 100
Team: SOLDIER

In the beginning The Powers That Be watched a stream of green life coagulating, as these things tend to do with alarming regularity. There were no new patterns by then, though all were unique. The Powers That Be took special note of this one. They knew the signs.

“Are you sure you want to let it run free?” asked The One. “It'll be nothing but trouble.”

“Oh, hush,” said The Other. “It's just the kind of trouble I need.”

And when the spirit had solidified into the usual crying, screaming, pissing, puking mess, the mortals in charge named him 'Zack'.

Title: Inspiration
Characters: Zack
Rating: PG
Word Count: 100
Team: SOLDIER

Be forewarned; Zack's story, though bright, is a brief one. The middle comes far too soon.

He was twelve. The war had been on forever. Radio didn't compare to the big city newspaper some traveler left behind. It was clipped to pieces and tacked to the walls of the local for all to see.

The children had a face to go with the name they'd been hearing. And what a face. It haunted Zack's dreams long after pretend wars were over. “I'll be just like him one day,” Zack promised, not knowing that middles are just beginnings of the end.

Title: Development
Characters: Zack
Rating: PG
Word Count: 100
Team: SOLDIER

Don't worry. We're not at the end yet, although ends are our subject. Zack discovered his shortly after he discovered Sephiroth. It was that special time in a boy's life when everything becomes a vast muddle, to emerge years later as a passion for fast bikes and pretty, leggy things.

Sephiroth was a pretty, leggy thing.

Zack measured himself at his door every morning and surveyed himself in his mother's long mirror. It was disappointing how he seemed set to run stocky, with legs more given to muscle than length. But what was on top wasn't half bad at all.

Title: Ambition
Characters: Zack, Mr. Fair.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 100
Team: SOLDIER

The fire could only get stronger, especially with hormones feeding the flames. Out of children's games and a young man's dreaming, something had emerged and taken hold of Zack. He began training in the haphazard way of the ignorant young. It went swimmingly until his mother's good tea tray went missing. Zack had been using it as a breastplate.

“Should have gone for a helmet,” his father said after the inevitable was over, “for all that you act like you've got fluff for brains.”

Zack mused that it was different for SOLDIERs and tried not to rub his sore end.


Title: Escape
Characters: Zack, Mrs. Fair, The One.
Rating: G
Word Count: 100
Team: SOLDIER

Zack was fourteen when he packed his bag. He hitched a ride on a turnip truck (the potato truck was in the shop) and made his way out of Gongaga.

He told his parents he was leaving. Well, he left a very folded note under the tea cozy. The alert was out for half a day before a neighbor found it.

“Gone to join SOLDIER,” it read, “Write to you soon, love Zack.”

“Love!” his mother shouted, only half-relieved. “The nerve of that boy!”

Somewhere close by, someone spoke that she did not hear. “Nothing but trouble, I said.”