piece_of_tail: (don't know when to stop)
Zidane Tribal ([personal profile] piece_of_tail) wrote2015-05-31 05:00 am
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▷ First Impressions
▶ VISUAL: For image reference, please see his original canon render and his Dissidia render. The second image is for a sense of more realistic proportion; the details of his outfit and belongings are in line with his original canon appearance (lace at the throat, no pierced ears, etc).

Zidane is on the shorter side, not reaching much past 5'2", with a plain and expressive face and bright blue-green eyes. His hair is straight and sandy blond, tied back at the nape of his neck with a dark green ribbon where it extends to in between his shoulder blades. His default outfits are detailed in the above image links, with some variance to come as time progresses in game. His build is springy and wiry, allowing him to be agile and quick when the situation calls for it.

His most notable trait, especially considering the rest of his appearance is pretty much human, is his tail. It is prehensile and its length is almost the same as his height, though in Snowblind it is no longer strong enough to carry his weight like it used to. He generally carries it low, curving it back up once it's only a few inches from the ground. While not expressive in the same way as a dog's or a cat's - it's a monkey tail, after all - it's a very good indicator of his level of excitement or tension. Don't be surprised if there's a decent amount of body language regarding his tail in third-person logs!
 
▶ AURAL: Zidane speaks with a fairly typical Midwestern accent, most pronunciation being straight from the dictionary with the occasional clipped "-ing" to "-in'," "going to" mashed into "gonna," and an ample amount of contractions, even if they're not typical [ex: "what are" to "what're"]. His voice is surprisingly deep for someone of his slight build, short height, and youthful appearance, and he tends to project clearly with an assertive but casual tone. With quite a bit of experience as a professional actor as cover for being a criminal ahahahah, he generally is able to lie and fake emotion well while still sounding his signature brand of sincere.

Being a very old fan of FF9, I have conflicting opinions about his voice-acting in Dissidia after having 8 years to internalize how the game text read in my head, but even so I believe it is a good starting point to hear a little bit of his cynical but upbeat attitude.

▶ OLFACTORY: Considering Zidane comes from a band of traveling actors and thieves in a steampunk world, he tries to keep himself tidy in his homeworld's terms but still has a bit of a salt/sweat musk due to the fact that daily showers and changing clothes every day isn't really a thing for him - even without Snowblind's extenuating circumstances.

Also, as a headcanon note, since he's got a tail and may actually be furry in places under his clothes (why else would he scratch his butt so much?) he smells kinda like wet dog when his furred areas get sodden. 

▶ DEMEANOUR: Zidane's tagline in Final Fantasy IX is "You don't need a reason to help someone." He tends to strike a good balance of being helpful and offering advice without getting in a person's space and making them feel obligated to respond in kind, and overall he's pretty good about making it clear that helping people out is just a thing he does, not a favor that needs to be paid back that he'll call on later. Despite his compassion with others, he's slow to personally invest in people and understands other people being slow to trust him, as a stranger, in turn.
▷ IC Permissions
▶ PHYSICAL AFFECTION: Aside from his jokes about being really clingy when he's sad... Zidane is pretty casual about non-romantic touch and physical affection. Handshakes, pats on the back, hair ruffles, and the like are all cool to him. (Though since he's usually the one in the "older sibling"/"mentor" role, despite his young age, making any gestures that insinuate you think of him as a kid may get a huff and a sourpuss face.)

Just don't grab his tail unless you want him to get super scandalized. :D 

▶ PHYSICAL VIOLENCE: While Zidane is an experienced fighter and was, in fact, literally built for it, he tries to avoid escalating situations with a threat of force unless force has already been threatened on him. Due to the psychological fuckery that will likely be happening in Snowblind, however, I can't guarantee this will be the case should he be in some way mentally compromised.

But as far as the permissions part of it goes, feel free to start something with him! He's a dodgy little fucker, though, so even without powers and weapons he won't hit hard but he'll be hard to hit. Just something to keep in mind!  

▶ RELATIONSHIPS: Despite starting as a skirt-chaser in canon, by the point in timeline this Zidane is being pulled from he is pathetically in (unconfessed but really obvious) love with Garnet/Dagger and therefore will turn down most any and all romantic advances unless there is a lot a lot a LOT of 1) time passing, 2) despair that anyone will ever make it home to see their loved ones, 3) despair that Garnet ever shows up in Norfinbury (which, really, for more obvious reasons he hopes she doesn't), and 4) exceptional amounts of development between the parties involved, of course.

Alternatively...

If there are memory/event shenanigans, he may relapse into being an aggressively-hetero flirt until said shenanigans pass.

Summarily, you are welcome to try, with the above stipulations taken into consideration!  

▶ PSYCHIC & PSIONIC INFORMATION: With powers being blocked in Snowblind this will likely not come into play at all, but should something happen due to events and the like... No shields! Whatsoever! The only funky mind stuff that seems to manifest in Zidane at all is the unexplained ability to communicate with Kuja (biological sorta-sibling) and Garland (creator) by yelling at them when they're not there and having them telepathically respond.

???FF9. I just call it a Bullshit Terra Thing. I wouldn't even mention it here if it weren't for the rest of the party going "...Who are you talking to?" during these sequences.  

▶ MAGICAL INFORMATION: His own flesh and blood (sort of) says he's too stupid to use magic. lol kuja you're such a stinker Again, this is likely not going to come into play in Snowblind anyway, but even should powers be made available at any point, all Zidane will have is Trance, which is notoriously unreliable, both IC AND as a gameplay mechanic. Sigh. 

▶ MEDICAL INFORMATION: Zidane is technically a biologically engineered life form, but there's never any mention made that there's anything unusual about him medically aside from his metabolism and hardiness being exceptional - evidenced by him often being the last party member to pass out/first to wake up in several instances (Ice Cavern, the sleeping weed incident in Lindblum, etc). Even in these examples, it is only shown and not even verbally mentioned, likely meaning he's well within "normal" "human" percentiles, medically speaking.

Canon does suggest that Zidane may have an exceptionally long lifespan, given some of his creator's dialogue and the purpose for which he was made, but it's only speculation and matters very little in a short-term game setting aside from perhaps explaining his short height and baby-face.
 
▶ OFFENSIVE SUBJECTS & TRIGGERS: Zidane doesn't have outright triggers and buttons, per se, but he still gets a little sore about the concept of "family," especially biological/parental subjects, even after the development and semi-sort-of-disappointing closure he gets in canon.

Other than that, while Zidane typically is fairly outgoing and laid-back when it comes to feels!jamming, if he chooses not to share and someone tries to dig into his personal business it will be met with a sharper, snippier attitude. If one was to really dig in and twist the knife, so to speak, Zidane may very well round on them and verbally tear their throat out as efficiently as possible.

In summary, hypocritical as it may be, Do Not Meddle With The Meddler if you want to stay on his good side.  
▷ OOC Permissions
▶ BACKTAGGING: Until the year 2000.

▶ THREADHOPPING: My limit is 1000 a post.

▶ FOURTHWALLING: Preferably not, but if you have an idea for an EXCELLENT TAG, just let me know via contact! I’m weak where split-second moments of crack are involved.

▶ OFFENSIVE SUBJECTS & TRIGGERS: When talking OOC, I do have a death anxiety problem as well as OCD/GAD/PD/MDD (lots of letters I know), but if we’re talking specifically about things happen in game I am, to my knowledge, fairly unrufflable. I don’t have much interest playing rape plots, etc, but I won’t be OMG OFFENDED!!! if you ask! If you are ever not sure, just ask! I will not judge you!

▶ ANYTHING ELSE? Again just want to stress that I am never bothered by someone coming to talk to me about anything, even if I take a bit to respond! I work an 8-5 day job with very spotty plurk access, so if there's ever a long dead silence please don't fret and think you did something wrong. I promise I'll respond as soon as I'm available!