fandomtownies | Entries tagged with zack fair

Ever have one of those... months? Where you just don't quite feel like anything around you is real? Zack had been having one of those now that the summer excitement had ended. He was so used to fighting figurative fires or being on fire that without them hitting the island constantly, he was feeling directionless.

Girl had been there to at least nudge him in the direction of food and exercise. There had been many squats done over the past month. And now it was October, and she was pretty much dragging him by the pant leg in to work to do paperwork, if nothing else. These things had to get done, and really, what was running a business if not just a series of smaller, marginally less horrible fires?

... Besides, the shelter had apparently gotten an bunch of tarantulas in this morning, and the vet was insisting that someone else get them situated in their enclosures. She loved all animals, true, but that didn't mean she necessarily wanted to touch some of them.

"Aww, but this guy is so fluffy," Zack teased her, letting one settle comfortably in his gloved hand.

She threw a squeaky bone at him.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

When Zack made his way into the shelter for his shift today, he had to kind of stop and stare.

He had no idea where all of the animals had gotten the materials to make them, but there were definitely guinea pigs and fancy rats and an assortment of other small critters marching around their enclosures in protest, with little signs saying things like, EQUAL RIGHTS FOR SQUIRRELS, and YOU CAN'T BUY ACORNS WITH RUM.

...

"I totally missed something, didn't I?"

In fairness, that was not a new state of being for Zack.

He watched the protest-in-miniature for a few minutes in bemusement, and then put a NOW HIRING sign in the window. Probably the only sign in the shop right now that wasn't being used to petition for squirrel rights.

[OOC: And also open! And also probably SP!]

puppy_fair

"Oh no."

The summer had been a lot of things! Hectic, for sure. Random? Definitely.

Great for checking the chicken coop on the roof for eggs?

... Nope.

And so, instead of the regular puppy pen setup today, there was one with heat lamps and straw and what felt like ten million fluffy chirping baby chicks, all running about and tripping over one another and peep-peep-peeping to their downy hearts' content.

"Please," Zack pleaded to the vet, "please tell me there's a farm somewhere on the mainland that wants to take them?"

Furnado was open. How did you feel about chickens?

[OOC: peep peep peep peep]

puppy_fair

The puppies were puppies this week! And the fish weren't missing, and the birds weren't radioactive and diseased, and the cats weren't waist-high with tusks, and Zack was feeling pretty good about all of those things, really. He was even smiling as he and Girl made their rounds of the Furnado, checking up on each and every animal that was there. Even...

"Mr. Winkles, you know you're not going to get extra playtime in the ball if you keep trying to run people over while you're in it."

Even Zack's evil gerbil, yes.

Furnado is open! And as normal as it's ever been.

[OOC: I forgot it was Tuesday, la.]

puppy_fair

Do you want to know who noticed that all the sea creatures had gone missing pretty much right away? Zack, that was who. He'd gotten a call from the vet yesterday when she'd been doing her rounds saying that every single fish, shrimp, crab, and snail had gone missing overnight, and Zack had done no small amount of fretting and going around the shop for signs of break-in or maybe even break-out before he'd noticed that a lot of their non-living stock seemed to be missing, too.

It had started innocently enough, with an, "Oh, sorry, it looks like we're out of the seafood medley cat food that Whiskers likes this week, we'll put more on order for you."

It had quickly escalated into, "Okay, if you can't find the cuttlebone, we can used the crushed clam shells for the birds, they don't care where they get their calcium that much. What do you mean, we don't have those, either? Okay, I'll go up to the chicken coop and collect some eggs, then!"

... Zack did not like this reality. Not one bit.

[OOC: Open!]

intraspective

Iris was mostly taking the whole pixelated thing in stride. It was weird, but it was a pretty harmless weird, and Silly looked adorable as a tiny pixel bird. Sorting out her shop, on the other hand, was an exercise in confusion since most of her stock was just…

Mushrooms?

If anyone came in and bought anything this week, it was coming with a disclaimer that she had no idea what she was selling them. (Though she was amused by the poisoned mushrooms that had shown up in the corner of Shame.)

And then there was her greenhouse.

Her poor, poor greenhouse had suffered a lot this summer already. Now, she couldn't really call what had happened to it this week suffering, exactly, but she also couldn't do much with all the red and bitey plants or the weird beanstalk ones.

(Iris was sort of hoping she got to keep one or two of the bitey plants though; she was always down for more weird plants.)

As for the beanstalks…

Well. Obviously, right, the only thing to do was to climb them.

Which was how Iris had found herself up on a suspiciously solid set of clouds, staring at the floating gold coins just waiting up here for her, and then leaning over to peer down at everything below.

… Huh. Okay. Now the question was, would each of her beanstalks lead her to more money? Would she get to keep the money?

Pick Your Poison is… Open…? Ish?

[But obvs the post is entirely open!]

puppy_fair

"Um. Oh. Uh."

Zack kind of squinted a little at the tank they kept their turtles in. Probably not surprisingly, they looked an awful lot like the ones that had been outside yesterday. Meanwhile, the fish looked a whole lot like the ones that were outside now. Sure, they were just hanging out in their tanks being fishy or turtley, minding their own business, but Zack was a little leery about sending them out into the world this week while people were stomping on the same things just past the door.

"Man-oh-man."

Maybe he'd just... put a sign in the window?

OUR PETS ARE NOT FOR STOMPING. Come in and make some friends and we'll put them on hold for you until things calm down if you're worried about getting them home!

What a weird week.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

There was no smoke outside! There was no weird maze outside! There was no tainted monster water out there and the place wasn't full of murderers or supermutants!

Zack didn't mind most of those things personally, nah. He had plenty of experience with all of the above. It went hand-in-hand with being SOLDIER. But the fact that the island seemed to be taking another break week meant that he was going to do so many outside things today. So many. He was putting the chickens back into the coop up on the roof so that they could enjoy the fresh air, he was leaving the front door to the shelter propped open, and the puppy playpen was being set up outside today with plenty of toys and water and a big umbrella for shade, to entice people to stop by and give all those good little dogs a visit.

You know you wanted to.

Visit the doggos. They were all good doggos and today was a beautiful day.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

It was... weird... walking into an animal shelter where even the parrots were grey. Okay, some of them were supposed to be, but even galahs and African greys had some flash of red or pink somewhere. This was just... desaturated. And so Zack spent a long while just kind of sitting and staring at them in silence before doing the rest of his rounds around the shelter.

He didn't predict many people going home with parrots this week, they tended to catch people's eye with their plumage, after all. But at least grey puppies were still puppies, and a merry romp around the puppy playpen was absolutely in order after last week, darn it.

Furnado was open! And even mostly normal!

puppy_fair

Well, the vet had called in sick today, something about 'swimmer's itch from hell' after an attempt to rescue a duck trapped in some reeds at the park yesterday had gone a little sideways. Besides that, though, things seemed to be pretty normal at the shelter when Zack arrived for his shift. The chickens were all accounted for (or at least the ones that had been accounted for by the end of last week), none of the animals seemed to be suffering from radiation poisoning, and nobody was a dinosaur.

Okay, the dinosaurs had been pretty cool.

A few of the animals did seem a little more agitated than usual, but Zack was going to mark that one up to still being antsy after last week, and then give them extra treats and toys and cuddles to help them relax a little.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Man, the pickings in the animal shelter today were... sparse. Sure, there were plenty of fish, because who out there was in a hurry to adopt fish when all you had to do was go outside and look out the window to see sharks and whales passing by? There... seemed to be fewer chickens than before on the roof, and it was with a bit of a grimace that Zack started bringing them inside. Apparently the island didn't see fit to turn them into dinosaurs or anything, this time around.

He hoped they had simply wandered off to explore, rather than being picked off by the angry people with meat-hooks and the like around here. He wasn't going to hold his breath, though.

At least the animals that had been inside all the while seemed okay?

... Zack was equipping materia that wasn't likely to punch holes in anything for this week, though. Seemed like a good idea. Full cure, Wall, Hell Thundaga...? Or maybe Graviga...

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Zack had been maybe a little leery of coming in to the shelter today, but to his relief, all of the birds and fish had returned to their usual health, there was no longer a bomb shelter in the basement, the upstairs was, in fact, an apartment, and the chickens on the roof weren't dinosaurs!

But...

"Once I get into my ball again, I'll destroy you alllllll!"

... Zack was learning Some Things about the disposition of Mr. Winkles, his gerbil.

"Really," Girl sighed, giving a small whuff of disapproval as she leaned against Zack's leg in support, "don't listen to him, Zack. He's always like this."

"He is?"

"It's the desperate rambling of a pea-sized, insecure mind."

"Should've taken control of the world when I had the chance!!"

"When did he have the chance!?"

"Never, Zack. He's a gerbil."

It was going to be an interesting week.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

... Zack didn't want to ask. He really didn't. Everything out there was kind of... um... kind of like the bottom half of Midgar with the top half peeled away, and it was horrifying, and apparently it had carried over into the shelter, where the vet had apparently become a very alert, very pleasant person who just so happened to look like a desiccated corpse, and the fish were bad and the birds were worse...

But at least the dogs and the cats were exactly the same?

Oh. And apparently there was a basement now, instead of an upstairs. It had a big vaulted door on it.

Zack... was going to not go down there.

He was going to just sigh and play with the puppies instead.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Okay... so things were a little wet. Apparently wet enough that the name of the shelter had once again changed at some point, though Zack still wasn't actually aware of that fact. Yesterday had been a day of discovery, realizing that the upstairs apartment had been re-purposed to house the non-aquatic animals and the main floor was up to his waist in water, though the fish and frogs and snails and little shrimps and turtles and even a few random ducks all seemed to be completely happy with that arrangement. He supposed Sidon would be too, for that matter. After returning some texts to Iris last night, he went downstairs to hang a hopefully waterproof sign.

Welcome! The Non-Aquatic Pets Have Been Moved Upstairs!
Come on up!

And then, after a few minutes of deliberation, he added, Chickens are still on the roof in sharpie.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Zack stepped in from the jungle outside into... the jungle inside the animal shelter. Which earned a blink. The whole place seemed to be done up like some kind of prehistoric habitat, full of creatures Zack couldn't even begin to identify.

Girl, still normal, gave a dubious 'whuff.' The puppy playpen, at least, was still present, if made of wooden poles tied together with vines, though the dogs inside were... uh... well, they acted like dogs, anyway.

Zack glanced at Girl.

"I'm afraid to see what's happened to the cats."

The cats would still be cats, just bigger and with more impressive teeth. The guinea pigs and a few of the fish species were surprisingly unchanged. A lot of the birds were still small, just rather more toothy and carnivorous than he remembered them being.

What he really should have been concerned about were the roof-chickens.

Fern-ado is open for all your prehistoric pet needs.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Where was Zack?

Who could say, really? There were kittens and puppies, birds and fish and hamsters and rabbits. Up on the roof, as always, there were chickens. Heck, there was even a duck wandering around the floor today that somebody had brought in with a hurt wing, so the vet had splinted it and was keeping an eye on its recovery before seeing if it was okay to be set free.

But Zack?

... Well, if you looked really closely in the puppy playpen, one might catch glimpses of a grown man being smothered under dozing dogs of every shape and size, the surrounding area showing signs of well-used tennis balls and squeaky things and rope-tug toys.

What a way to go.

[OOC: Open!]

special_rabbit

Amaya got the forge ready and roaring that morning, even if she didn't plan on getting much use out of it until the afternoon, when she'd start in on some of the work for the hilt of the sword she was currently working on. That would be quite a bit of challenging work, too, work that she was looking forward to, while she saved the detailing on the blade itself for next week's lesson with Fjord.

The morning, she decided, was going to be spent over a few mugs of coffee and some blue prints spread out over one of the worktables, a pencil stuck behind her ear that she'd almost immediately forgotten about as soon as it wound up there, since she was working with another pencil, and would only rediscover the first pencil once she tried to tuck the second one behind her ear at some point. It was time for a little bit of rearranging, now that it was already shop with two blacksmiths. Who'd've though she'd ever go from her tiny little corner shop in Daventry to a two-smith operation? Sure, Fjord still had a lot of work to do, a lot of things to learn, but it would go much quicker if he had a bit of his own space to work while she did the same.

And you so know she was already thinking of ways she could be using both anvils at once , too, which would be wholly unnecessary and a little ridiculous, but it would be fun to at least try.

But first, figuring it all out. Things like this worked much better with a plan, and Amaya liked a good puzzle, trying to figure out and rearrange things to see how to make the addition space fit in without having to compromise too much of what was already there. Luckily, the shop had plenty of space to begin with, so the planning wouldn't take much. Just a matter of figuring out just how much she wanted to rearrange.

The Forge is open!

biotic_psychotic

Morning was for other people. Sure, she'd been awake and even gone for a run but that didn't mean she enjoyed mornings. Nobody sane did, she was convinced.

Jack hiked herself to the Perk and got the largest mug of black coffee they had. Digging a small tablet and stylus out of the larger side pocket of her cargo pants, she parked her ass at a table with a good view and called up a strategy war game.

Tactics and strategy weren't her forte. She was the tank. She'd always been the tank. Killing was easy. Doing what she was told to do was easy. Jack was good at thinking and adapting on the fly, and she could, when necessary, think and plan in advance. The thing she brought to one very particular table was her ability to think outside the lines. She didn't think like the people around her. She wasn't a do-gooder, she wasn't all noble and caring and shit.

Jack was a killer. She was an apex predator and she was really fucking good at it. What she could be, when she had reason to be, was a really fucking good ambush predator. Right now she had the best reason in the world. So she was playing the game and teaching herself new ways to put old skills to good use. Every successful guerrilla war needed its sappers. Think like the enemy. Find the chinks in the armor, find the weak points, find every spot they'd be vulnerable.

Something she'd always been good at.

Jack sipped her coffee and studied the screen.

[Perk is Open! cuz I think I'm funny opening both tea and coffee shops on the same day..]

puppy_fair

Ever have one of those days where you felt almost cheated about not having a hangover? That was Zack today as he made his way into the animal shelter and pretty much immediately set to work. He'd gotten home later than late last night, had trudged his way more-or-less soberly to crash on the sofa, and was now at work, quietly holding a grudge against the SOLDIER treatments that made 'drink to take the edge off' into an hours-long slog that mostly amounted to, 'drink one of everything to experience the thrill of a minor buzz.'

If Hojo wasn't dead, he'd kick him for not warning him in advance about that particular side effect.

Not that he would have especially cared, at the totally reasonable age of twelve, if he had.

Ah well. At least there were puppies, here. It was hard to go wrong with puppies. And kitties. And-- it must have been Easter recently, huh? Far too many rabbits and baby chickens, already starting to trickle in as people realized that, yes, pets took effort.

"There are maybe ten people living on this island! Who keeps doing this!?"

Was that a lamb?!

[OOC: Open!]

intraspective

A few days spent in Midgar, where things had felt equally as familiar as they were off-kilter hadn't really made her more inclined to want to leave it, but Iris had made a promise, and she did always keep those promises.

Even if the time she kept them in was no one's but her own.

But she was within her week-to-ten-days that she'd promised Zack this time. (By a hair; it was day ten.) He couldn't complain about that and she couldn't complain about having to leave Midgar, and Tseng, behind either. She did, all the time, for work.

As soon as she hit the island, Iris headed for the Perk. It was more neutral territory than the place above the Boards and she was… maybe stalling on that.

She did send off a text to Zack, though:

back on the island & hitting up the Perk. want anything?

[Open post is, of course, open!]

puppy_fair

So, apparently, even if you were taking care of administrative stuff from another reality and you had a proxy looking after the hands-on stuff while you were away, there was still a lot of work to be done when coming back from an extended, uh, three and a half month... vacation?

Granted, it mostly meant Zack was going around and personally introducing himself to all of the new animals, because he had no intentions of leaving a single puppy without the traditional Zack Fair greeting to Furnado.

You know. So, so many cuddles. The kittens, too. And the bunnies. Any birds that enjoyed being handled. Even a snake that really just wanted to chill out around a warm set of shoulders.

Entirely for the good of the animals, of course. Not at all because Zack was in the market for ten million cuddles today while Girl sprawled out across his feet, what an absurd notion.

... Okay, not too absurd.

It was nice to be home.

[OOC: Open!]

somethingwithturquoise

Since she'd been keep a pretty low profile once she realized what was going on last week (you're welcome, Fandom; no one needed to deal with a pollenated Summer), Summer wouldn't have even realized what was going on with the weekend if it hadn't been for radio, since she definitely did not have any weird little kids from any weird little relationships that weird alternate universe versions of herself were getting all mixed up in.

On the one hand, this was a good thing. Hem had been cute and all, but alternate versions of herself were usually terrible and it was nice to not have to be reminded of the fact that this dimension's version of her was (somehow, astonishingly) one of the better ones.

But on the other hand, it was still kind of a bummer. Maybe not if she convinced herself that the island was just giving her a break for once in her life, but it almost made her wonder if her love life from this point on was just so abysmal and depressing that the island just laughed its theoretical butt off and was all, 'Nah, bitch, not even worth it.'

So the clear solution was just to not think about it at all, and just focus on work instead, because there were a lot of extra orders for supplies coming in in preparation of what might be the result of a whole bunch of animals in confined spaces under last week's influence.

Furnado is open!

hashtag_chocobro

Feeling like he really should have pulled one of his I.O.U.s on Sidon for covering him so that he had more time to get ready for the dance (after all, what all did Sidon have to do to get ready? Shine up some jewels and maybe add an extra frill or two to his cravat?), Prompto was nonetheless still there at Furnado for his shift, with the intention of blasting through all the things that needed to get done so he'd have a good reason to get out early to get ready.

Hair like this didn't just happen on its own, people.

He charged Girl with the tasks of playing with the puppies, then, so that he could focus on his tasks. "Sorry, little dudes," he told them. "No time for puppy playing today..."

...but then they had those eyes. And those faces...

Ah, who was he kidding? There was always time for puppy playing! And absolutely nothing was probably going to get done, and Prompto was so not going to have enough time after his shift, but...PUPPIES. WORTH IT. SO TOTALLY WORTH IT ALWAYS.

Furnado is open!

puppy_fair

Zack had gotten back to the island late last night, too late to call anybody to see about collecting his dog, but he'd been far too antsy to sleep, and the idea of going back to the apartment to sit alone for hours hadn't appealed to him in the least. And so he'd walked. Done laps of the island's stairs at far-too-late until it had bled into far-too-early, and had eventually wound up at the park, doing squats to work off some excess energy.

There was a lot on his mind, that was what he was attributing all of this anxiousness to, and given the fact that he was SOLDIER, it was entirely possible that was all that was going on, there. Not that it really made much difference with Zack, granted. Even on a normal week, who could tell the difference between being friendly and being flirty, when it came to him?

Somewhere around the crack of dawn, he'd traded in squats for sword forms, and was absolutely murdering the heck out of an invisible enemy, wielding the sword he'd had Amaya make for him before he'd left. It was a pretty close stab at mimicking the standard SOLDIER sword, though it came without the unpleasant associations and, he had learned while on his walkabout looking for Iris, was much more sturdy than the mass-produced disasters he'd broken over and over again in his tie working for ShinRa. He hadn't regretted leaving the buster sword with Amaya at all.

[OOC: Open park! Puppypuppypuppy!]

somethingwithturquoise

Turtle & Canary had a generator, of course, and it had been plugging along nicely since yesterday, when Summer came in and realized that it was much better to just stick around the store like Apu instead of her powerless apartment. Besides, it gave her something to do, in pulling out the significant backstock of supplies they kept on hand for emergencies, as well as all the warm winter gear and shovels and space heaters and blankets and firewood and whatever else might be needed. And she figured if anyone was braving the weather to make it over here to get supplies, well, then, she was definitely going to just give it to them, because who was going to be a jerk about making a profit off desperate people at a time like this?

Well. She could think of plenty of people, really. Which was exactly why she wasn't going to.

And things seemed to be go along great, up until the power cut off in the store, too. Which...shouldn't have happened, because, hello, generator, but then again, hello, ridiculous amounts of snow. So Summer, bundled up all over again and armed with a shovel and a butane torch that should help with any ice if that was the problem, headed on up to the roof where the generator was...

...or used to be, anyway. It still was, but it was very clear that it was beyond functioning at the moment as it was being attacked by snowmonsters.

"Oh, come on! Really?"

Well, at least it wasn't sharks.

Although she had a pretty good feeling that it would be pointless, Summer at least had to use the fact that she had a shovel and a blowtorch in her hands to fight off the snowmonsters, feeling particularly proud about having managed to just kick one off the side of the roof (hoping there didn't happen to be anyone passing by at just that moment), and once she'd cleared the area of them, she went to inspect the generator. Which was difficult, since the snow kept falling, and Summer didn't have much technical aptitude for this sort of thing anyway, and it looked...bad...real bad. And save maybe calling Amaya to have a look at it since she probably knew the equipment, there was probably no hope of it getting fixed any time soon, especially not out here in the cold.

Summer shivered.

"At least I don't have to worry about the frozen stuff spoiling," she murmured as she made her way back downstairs, into the darkened store, trying to figure out exactly what her next step should be.

[[open! feel free to swing by either before or after the generator kicks the proverbial bucket!]]

special_rabbit

Hurrying down the stairs straight from her radio broadcast, Amaya's suspicions were immediately confirmed...in a way. From the cacaphony of destructive sounds to the abrupt cut-off in the power, she knew something was up with the Crumbler.

She didn't think she'd have suspected it was snowmen doing the damage, though, two of them, having somehow managed to bust through the barred door and were now busting through the Crumbler with gleeful abandon.

"Not on my watch, buddy!" Amaya shouted as she stomped down the stairs, grabbing the weed whacker from the weapons wall on her way. "You leave the Crumbler alone!"

Of course, with them being made of snow and all, a simple blow to the top of their head wasn't likely to do much, was it? And she couldn't crush their kneecaps when they didn't exactly have knees. They did have arms, though, and those arms were what was causing the problem, right? So a well-aimed swing of the weed whacker (hey, those arms were made of sticks, by the looks of them, so it still fell squarely in the realm of gardening and thus a proper use for the tool, if you asked her) knocked the arm off of one of them, and, while it went scrambling to retrieve it, she sent a boot through his head that she figured might buy her a little more time as she went to focus on the other one, just as he'd ripped a very important chain from the poor, sputtering, slowly dying Crumbler.

Bought her a little more time, too, to go find herself some flint and get the spark she needed to light the fire in the forge. It helped that, as soon as their arms were plopped back into place, most of their attention went right back to the Crumbler, which was quickly being disassembled with absolutely no care and bolts and nuts going everywhere, and Amaya tried not to groan over how long it was going to take her to get that all pieced together again. Of course, once the snowmen realized what Amaya was doing when she started yanking on the lever of the bellows to stoke the fire, their attentions clearly shifted, one going for the bellows, one going for her, but she'd had just enough time to get something going, just enough time to reach for a club, shove it in the fire, and then send the just-barely about to fire end of it straight into the snowman's torso. When his hands went to the big hole in his stomach in surprise, she took the opportunity to yank off those arms and tossed them into the fire, then gasped as the other snowman, grinning, managed to yank off the lever for the bellows.

"Oh, like I've only got the one!" she snorted, giving him a punch in the face that didn't seem to do much but surprise him for a second, but that was all she needed to move enough to give him a firm boot toward the faintly glowing forge. "It's hot enough already to deal with the likes of you, I'll bet."

Ahhh, nothing quite like starting your Thursday with squirrel notes and then manhandling snowmen toward a fire until they melted. Which was a little grim, if she thought about it for too long...so she wasn't going to think about it.

She was going to frown a little at those puddles, though (they hurt the Crumbler! This was entirely justified!), before going to get her second, smaller bellows to get the fire going a little more, something she was feeling very glad for when she turned around to inspect the damage on the Crumbler just in time to see another pair of snowmen walk in through the busted door, curious and eager to find trouble.

Well, if they were looking for trouble, they found it. "Alright, then, boys," said Amaya, shoving some nearby rods of metal into the embers of the forge to heat up and pulling on her gloves to make sure they were good and ready. "Let's dance."

The Forge was....open?

[[the post totes is. i imagine waves of snowmen trying to make sure the generator!Crumbler is 100% dead flowing in throughout the day, so please mod their presence or lack thereof as you see fit if you're coming by!]]

puppy_fair

The plan, after Rufus had given him the ticket, was to leave immediately. But as the day had continued on yesterday, Zack realized it wasn't quite so simple. He needed to tie up loose ends, needed to pick up his sword from Amaya whenever it was finished and needed to make sure the shelter was in good hands - damn Tseng for arranging for him to inherit a business that made him responsible for so many lives. He'd known exactly what he was doing.

And then the storm had hit, and Zack found himself making a damn beeline for the Furnado, to check the supplies, make sure the generators were running, fill up water bottles, and - crap! - rescue the chickens from the roof, a task that was easier said than done.

Okay. So he had a ticket to get home. Apparently right now, the rest was a bit of a work in progress.

At least the cold didn't bother him. Thanks for that much, ShinRa.

[OOC: And open! I'm done for now!]

puppy_fair

"Hey, guys, that's really great," Zack said, forcing a little bit of a smile at the troupe of singing gremlins who had parked their way just inside the shelter's door. They were singing their hardest, doing their best, and while the dogs and cats and fish didn't seem to care much for their singing either way, the birds were doing their best to... well, not sing along, per se. But definitely to try to sing over them.

And Zack, being Zack, felt it was important to encourage their creativity.

And, uh, to not get bitten.

So he was standing at the counter making busy work for himself, looking as attentive as he possibly could. He was making a sign:

Thinking of Giving a Pet for Christmas?
Please, Think Twice!
There will be no adoptions until the New Year, thank you!

If he could help it, he was never having a repeat of the Easter Bunnies again. If anybody saw an animal here they wanted that badly, they could definitely be patient enough to wait until January to bring it home.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Today had been going pretty well at the shelter, right up until Zack went to the roof to feed the chickens.

He'd been caught in the snow, you see.

"-- And I, SOLDIER 1st Class Zack Fair, will protect each and every one of you, come what may! Oh, you roosters might think you've got it handled. I see you all strutting around like you own the place. But not a single one of you can compare to the might of SOLDIER. I've fought dragons, you know! And gods! I command the power of Ifrit and Odin!"

He was going to be here for a while. The snow wasn't letting up and he hadn't fed the chickens yet. The vet would be happy to assist you downstairs until he came back down from up there, though.

[OOC: Open! For modding or playing with Zack, I'm easy.]

puppy_fair

Zack looked faintly disgruntled today as he walked in for his shift at the pet shop. Not for any reason that would be immediately obvious, no. After all, he hadn't been carrying a sword around since the island had brought back the dead for a weekend, and so even he hadn't realized right away that things were amiss.

Except that when he opened the closet by the front door to claim his boots so he could leave the apartment for the day, instead of flinching away from the sight of the Buster Sword propped up against a wall behind some winter coats, he was left standing there and staring in bewilderment at a massive candy cane.

So, yeah. Faintly disgruntled Zack today, sword-and-candy free. But at least there were puppies at work, and he intended to play with each and every one of them before his shift was through.
[OOC: Open!]

merciful_parable

The onsen was something Carter had meant to check out much, much sooner as he had missed the one in Mineral Town rather terribly--something he hadn't thought he'd miss until it was no longer within easy access--but his duties finally smiled upon him enough to have the time to leave the church for a few hours to go and indulge, just a little.

As it was his first time, he listened solemnly to the attendant's rundown of all the rules and regulations of the onsen, before thanking them graciously for their time.

Carter sank into the hot water blissfully. It was a cold day out, but in the hot water, it was impossible to mind such a thing.

It was the small things, really, that made life so very worth living.

[Open, naturally!]

puppy_fair

It was actually a pretty quiet day at the animal shelter, today. All of the puppies seemed to be pretty tuckered out for some reason, which meant less playtime and more cuddle time. Which suited Zack just fine, admittedly. He was still a little bit out of sorts - Portalocity wasn't going to let him book a portal back to his own world, and apparently nothing he could say or do was going to fix that.

Giving a heavy sigh, he flopped down in the seat behind the counter, Girl resting her chin in his lap, and tried to take advantage of some of the quiet in order to catch up on paperwork that had fallen a little to the wayside around all of this Portalocity nonsense and that roiling sick worry that he got every time he tried Ino's phone and was sent directly to voicemail.

... The number of cozy puppies in his lap might have steadily increased as the day went on.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Zack walked into the animal shelter for his shift today, did his rounds of morning chores, and then sat himself down by the counter and sighed.

Mr. Winkles, the gerbil in the Habitrail setup there on the counter, stared beadily out at him.

Zack stared quietly back.

...

"Fine."

And that was how the rest of the day at Furnado was spent with a gerbil in a hamster ball, rolling around the floor and... mostly just trying to run over Zack's boots. He didn't seem to notice. He was on the phone arguing with a gnome at Portalocity again. It was kind of a losing battle, but he'd keep pleading just so long as they didn't hang up on him.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Zack was quiet at work today. The animals weren't. For whatever reason, they all seemed to be singing.

Well. Barking, meowing, chattering, squawking...

Making noise. So much noise.

Zack was going to leave them to it, though. He was distracted with something, poking around the Portalocity website, trying to book a ticket.

It kept rejecting his credit card, telling him to phone in or go talk to a representative in person. And he would happily phone, but... all the animals were singing.

He sighed and thumped his forehead on the counter, and then just kind of stayed there for a long while. Why? Why today?

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

The day had started off normally enough, so far as Zack was concerned. He'd gotten up, gotten ready for work, grabbed a materia and slotted it into a cuff he was wearing for the usual 'just in case' of heading to the shelter, and had settled in for a nice, relaxing day at the--

Why was that cat ten feet tall?

The poor thing was massive, laying on its back and having a nap, not seeming to care that part of its head was poking halfway through one wall and coming right out again on the other side. The other animals didn't seem to care either, not even when Zack went to investigate whether the giant freaking kitty was okay and wound up taking one step forward before finding himself clear across the room, one leg stuck in the wall.

It just kind of stayed stuck there, too, no matter what he tried.

And then his shirt disappeared.

The vet on duty today didn't notice any of this. So, it was going to be that kind of Tuesday.

[OOC: The giant cat glitch is my favourite of all the FFVII glitches, so sue me. Open!]

sharp_man

Anybody walking past Caritas would have spotted a sign out front:

Caritas presents:
THREE-MINUTE DATES

It was written in a calligraphy that was decidedly at odds with the fact that it was done in neon marker on a bar sign.

Inside, tables had been set up throughout the bar, with little candles just a shade nicer than they probably should have been on each one. The zombies were wearing pinstripes (except for the drummer, who was inexplicably wearing a bowtie) and playing their way through a collection of swing music. On the bar were an assortment of snacks, mostly nice cheeses and crudités, with slices of good, crusty baguette.

At eight o'clock sharp, Hannibal took to the stage in front of the band and nodded to the assorted guests. He was dressed in a lovely burgundy and red plaid three-piece suit with a pink shirt and blue paisley tie and pocket square. Somehow, it worked on him.

"Welcome to Caritas this evening, and thank you to the staff for hosting us. I am Doctor Hannibal Lecter, and tonight we are hosting three-minute dates. I hope that many of you will be participating. I am obliged on behalf of myself and this establishment to advise you that we are not liable for any inconvenience or damage you may incur. Hopefully those will both be kept to a minimum, however. Rude behavior is frowned upon." That was a mild but serious look he was giving you all preemptively.

"This is an opportunity for you to meet and make friends, and perhaps spark something more. It will work like this: I will announce pairs of people. You will go to the tables indicated and meet, and you will have three minutes to introduce yourselves and do whatever you like, within the bounds of legality and public decency. Then the band here," he gestured at the zombies, "will begin to play, and you will wrap things up before I announce the next pairings. You will each have five dates. Should you wish to spend more time together, the bar will remain open afterward, and we encourage you to remain and mingle."

He smiled and spread his hands. "Please, enjoy."

[Each date is five comments per person; if you need one or two to wrap things up, that's cool, too, but keep it short in the spirit of things. Regular bar post for post-3MD mingling should be up Saturday, but this is going up early for great timezone justice.]

~~Please wait for the~~ OCD is up! Have at!

puppy_fair

"... Why is there a baby bear in here?"

That question, really, ought to sum up Zack's entire day. He'd come in to the shelter, and the dogs were going crazy and the cats were all puffed up, and there was a baby bear in the vet's office. Just hanging out. Being a bear. Apparently it had raided the pet treats aisle and was casually munching on a fruit and nut stick that was usually intended for the parrots.

Which was kind of a relief, honestly, because a free-range baby bear seemed just as likely to try to eat the parrots themselves, to Zack. Or any one of the other hundred animals just conveniently packaged up in cages.

"I mean, you're a cute bear! But we usually deal in pet animals."

The bear nodded a little in understanding, and then returned its attention to the treat stick.

"... And where's the vet today, you'll probably need a checkup."

The bear rolled its eyes at him, expressively.

Furnado is open. You might want to take any pet emergencies to the mainland today, just in case.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Ha! Back to work at long last! Between break week and being a puppy, Zack had kind of started to miss this place. Well. Not this place, exactly, but he'd maybe started to take for granted just how much he loved wrestling with the puppies, and so that was exactly what he was doing today, pulling out the puppy playpen, sitting himself down inside of it, and alternating between giving them all belly rubs and letting them all climb all over him.

Apparently being a puppy for a week couldn't even ruin this for him. They were small and floppy and made of joy, and when they were all tuckered out, he'd start bringing out the older dogs and playing with them, too.

The vet just smiled and let him have his fun today, at least. He treated her to lunch as thanks, and then got back to playing with the dogs.

It took his mind off the fact that, in all of that time, he hadn't seen Ino even once, and now he was starting to worry.

[OOC: Open!]

spectre_alenko

Zack hadn't been sleeping very well over the past week. The twitchy puppy paws, Kaidan could deal with, but the sad forlorn whimpering and occasional bolt out of sleep just about broke his heart. Both dogs had stayed on the bed with him, Zack mostly under one arm because it seemed to help. He'd known Zack had PTSD - it was, after all, why he had Girl. This.. was more than that.

This morning, Zack had awakened them all with forlorn howling as he came out of sleep. Girl all but flopped across him. Kaidan wound his arms around them both and made quiet, soothing noises. Once Zack had fully woken up, he tried to hide by burrowing further under Girl.

There was no getting back to sleep after that, so Kaidan took a quick shower and got ready for the day. He threw together a daypack of Zack's clothing plus dog accouterments. He carried Zack down the stairs, then set him down and took them on a run to the park.

Once there, he pulled out a pair of tennis balls and began throwing them for the doggos.

There were worse ways he could spend his day off.

[Open park is open!]

unusual_sith

In addition to the requisite booths, there was plenty of food, games, rides, and tables for sitting and people-watching.

Come and hang out and enjoy!

somethingwithturquoise

After not having class last week and knowing a few things about how this week had been going in general, Summer sent out a text, a Twitter DM, and Facebook messages to her class earlier that day that basically said something along the lines of: So, if I'm not mistaken, about half the regulars in the class don't even have opposable thumbs right now, so no regular class this week. I will be at the Perk during classtime today, though, if anyone wants to have a little sesh to go over something or get a headstart on next week's class, no big deal, real casual, and I'll buy your coffee.

There. Now she didn't have to feel like she was just being a slacker as she got a PSL, camped herself at one of the larger tables, and pulled out her laptop, which she was going to use to update Turtle & Canary's website, which was in dire need of some upgrading anyway, though, again, she'd be happy to be interrupted for any classwork if anyone actually showed up. Which she honestly didn't think they would, but, hey, there wasn't a single one of them that she wouldn't want to stop everything and just babble about social media over coffee with, so it worked out either way.

[[ look, sometimes you just don't have it in you to write out another gen-z social media rant, and this is definitely one of those days. Open perk is open, though! ]]

spectre_alenko

Zack's predicament had brought something to mind, so Kaidan had taken himself to the hardware store early Wednesday morning.

The CIC was open, but the owner was busily replacing all of the round door handles with lever handles for every door in the building. The front door already had an automated opener, as did the game rooms, but the Employee Only door and subsequent doors to the apartment upstairs - as well as the back fire door on the ground floor - all needed replaced.

The dogs were helping. Zack was bringing him tools and Girl was occasionally just flopping on Zack to hold him still for a few minutes. Puppy zoomies were still totally a thing.

[Open!]

hashtag_chocobro

"Oh, maaaaaan, come on!"

Prompto had thought he'd done so well. He thought he'd planned and set everything up perfectly, so that when he got back from vacation, everything would be fine in his new favorite game, but Prompto had been devastatingly wrong. Any of his crops that hadn't died were clearly eaten by moles, all of his pets had run away, and even his house had burned down and not just a normal fire, but he was pretty sure someone had razed it, which he didn't even think was something that could or should be possible in the game, but, apparently, that was what happened, and so he loaded up his game to a picture of devastation and destruction and heart-ache.

He just didn't have the heart to start the grueling task of building his little adorable paradise back up to the utopia it had been before, not yet, it was still all too fresh, too raw. So he was just going to go back to even more King's Knight with Noct while tinkering a little bit with some controllers.

The C.I.C. is open!

spectre_alenko

Kaidan woke up early and took the doggos for a run. Zack was puppy fluff and zoomies of exuberance, Girl kept pace evenly between the pup and Kaidan.

They went down to the beach. He was probably up to running around the park but he wasn't going to push that boundary yet. Not while he was responsible for the dogs. A sling bag across his back held dog supplies: treats, a few bottles of water and a collapsible bowl, doggy bags.

The weather was cooling off but still kind of muggy, which was why he wanted to get the run in early, before the sun got too high.

When he got bored with running, he took out a pair of tennis balls and began throwing them for Zack and Girl.

[Open! Puppo modded with permission.]

what_the_shock

There were a lot of extra people in the town, but none of them were visiting Miguel. (Thank shock. There wasn't anyone dead he knew that he'd want to get a visit from.)

That said, he wasn't sure he wanted to get in the way of anybody else's guests, either. Or freak them out. So, rather than swing around the buildings in town for a bit of exercise, he'd come out to the preserve. Hopefully the trees would be enough of a challenge.

Which sort of became a secondary concern when he swung over a clearing with a giant sword stuck in it. There was no mistaking that sword, and after carefully listening and looking around, there was no Zack anywhere near it.

Unfortunately, being in his UMF outfit meant no pockets (and therefor no phone), so with a frown (and a bit of effort), he pulled the sword free and tried to find the best way to hold it to carry it. "King shocking Arthur here," he muttered. "Zack, buddy, hope you're okay."

[OOC: expecting one or two, but open!]

puppy_fair

Running.

Zack was just out running. Walking his dog. Just the same as he did every day. Up those stairs, past those shops, through the park...

A shadow passed by overhead, and Zack paused in his walk to rest a hand on Girl's head as she looked up and growled.

Through the park, and then toward the woods. Rougher terrain, maybe. Some cover from above. It was probably nothing anyway, what could it be, after all? Except that a few minutes into the trees, a feather came floating down, and Zack stopped in his tracks and just... stared at it.

"A dog, Zack? I suppose it stands to reason, you'd pick up a puppy of your own, eventually."

Zack didn't look up. He couldn't bring himself to. That voice cut clean through him, that old, familiar tone of wry amusement. He just crouched down and picked up the feather from the ground.

"You came."

"You called."

[OOC: For that guy! Can be open if you want to be in the woods!]

puppy_fair

Zack was quiet today as he came in for his Furnado shift. Not upset, not really. Just... thoughtful. He went through all his usual chores in relative silence, occasionally pausing to murmur to a bird or a bunny or whatever as he cleaned out their cages, but when all of that was through, it was right back to sitting at the desk, letting the baby varactyl nap in his lap again.

It was just something about a comforting presence and feathers, today. There'd been something about a stone this morning that he couldn't quite piece together and really couldn't shake.

"Maybe we'll name you Dream," he murmured thoughtfully to the sleepy little repatavian. "Or Honor."

[OOC: Open!]

always_someone

The weather was still holding out for the weekend, decently warm with a few clouds here and there in the sky, and the weekend itself was coming to a close. Your illustrious Student Council had gone through the paces of organizing a brunch so that Fandomites could have one more day of school-provided quality time with their visitors, and so three were tables out with all manner of food provided, for folks of all dietary needs.

Don't worry, students. Things that weren't necessarily safe for human consumption had been clearly marked as such.

puppy_fair

Zack was in a pretty darn decent mood today as he came in for work. Thursday last week had been... not great, but Ino's birthday had gone well if-he-did-say-so-himself, and he'd even gotten a new employee at the job fair!

... Hiring Prompto had probably only been a matter of time, honestly. But still!

Today, he was dealing with a kind of perplexing animal surrender. A lizard of some sort, which the vet didn't recognize but speculated it was probably still a baby yet, even though it was roughly the size of a basketball as it curled up to nap. Its scales were in a brilliant shimmering shade of purple, and it had a thick ruff of feathers behind its head. And it was snoozing in Zack's lap, giving off little birdlike hoots as it napped.

He managed to resist for a little while, sure, but it was only a matter of time before he cracked and started patting those pretty feathers, which the big baby bird-lizard-thing seemed to enjoy very much.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

As was quickly becoming fine tradition in these parts, Jono's business was getting repurposed tonight for the sake of a party for Iris. Of course, today it wasn't Iris doing the repurposing. Zack had made his way back after the job fair and had pretty much gone to town decorating the stage area of the Groovy Tunes with... balloons and streamers, mostly.

Far too many balloons and streamers.

He had no idea how parties worked, okay? But since she had gone to town with his party, he felt kind of obligated to organize a party that was at least half as exciting.

So, balloons. Streamers. Cans of silly string because that seemed like a party thing? And glowsticks. Who didn't like glowsticks, right?

... Zack had flailed his way through the party prep, mostly.

Anyway, he'd sent out e-mails to pretty much everyone Iris had sent them out for his birthday (so, everybody?) and now he was kind of just sitting back and looking faintly bewildered. Zack had no idea how to party, no.

[OOC: Open birthday is open!]

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