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IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Zak Gist
Canon: Eternal Law
Canon Point: Post-series

In-Game Tattoo Placement: Just between his wings/shoulderblades. The antlers themselves are simplistic and stylized, with small stars in the the gap between them.
Current Health/Status: 100% healthy
Age: Older Than Earth (14 billion), appears to be in his late 40s
Species: Angel

Content Warnings: religion, armageddon/apocalypse discussions, war

History: Zak Gist isn't older than any of his fellow angels but he certainly has experienced more. He is one of the angels in his canon's universe who is assigned "tours of duty" on Earth to help, comfort, and guide humans in various ways. Zak particularly seems to fashioned in the role of a lawyer, based on what we know of his history. The earliest tour of duty he talks about in canon is World War I, where he was first a soldier (and also the Angel(s?) of Mons) and then assigned to be a lawyer overseeing court martial cases for cowardice because God - or rather, "Mr Mountjoy", as he's referred to in the series for...some reason) objected to his overt interference in the outcome of the battle. (That's part of their mandate too. They can attempt to help, attempt to guide, but they are not supposed to directly interfere. It's...an unclear divide.) However, from his world-weariness, it seems like he's probably had a lot of tours of duty.

Also prior to the events of the show but slightly more recently, Zak was doing a tour of duty (where his human identity was "Daniel") and he met and fell in love with a woman named Hannah English. He'd intended to give up his life as an angel and live as a mortal with her but says that when he went to talk to Mr Mountjoy about it, he was persuaded otherwise. (He tells Tom, the other angel assigned to work with him, that he truly believes that if one more angel falls or chooses to turn their back on their angelic nature, Mr Mountjoy will decide that the whole experiment with Earth has been a failure and will turn his back on it. Zak also believes that if this happens, humans will destroy themselves and the world. Another character in the show, Mrs Sheringham, is seemingly the first angel to have done this.) From what we're told, we can infer that Zak was essentially removed from his current role - Hannah says that "Daniel" told her to meet him at their favorite restaurant because he had something important to tell her and then never showed up - and was brought back to Heaven.

Which brings us to the events of the show. The structure of the show is very case-of-the-week, and largely the goings on of the cases themselves aren't terribly important to at least Zak's overall development. However, when Zak arrives in York and meets his new colleague (Tom, who has previously been part of the angelic choir and has never done a tour of duty before) he quickly also finds out that Hannah seems to have been brought to York as well. In the first episode she gets shot at and ends up in the hospital. Zak visits her a few times, once telling her to go home and another time at the end of the episode where she takes a bad turn and almost dies. Zak lashes out in what seems like angelic fury and it somehow saves her life. Again, he tells her to leave but unfortunately Zak and Tom have an adversary in town as well - a fallen angel by the name of Richard Pembroke - who offers her a job and thus insures that she stays in Zak's life. When Zak asks her why she decided to come to York, she says she can't remember which makes Zak suspect that Mr Mountjoy is putting her in his way as a test.

In the second episode, a package turns up at the angelic trio's door that turns out to be a clock that was associated with the Cuban Missile Crisis (Mrs Sheringham states that it "actually ticked down to Armageddon"). It's non-functioning when they receive it, but...well....

Hannah and Zak keep getting thrown together over the course of the next few episodes, since she is employed by Richard, whose firm always seems (or at least in 4 of the 6 episodes) to be opposing Zak and Tom. While he also deals with a colleague who is questioning their roles (Tom quickly becomes confused and conflicted about humanity and what he and Zak are doing), Zak seemingly can't help but be drawn to Hannah. He definitely tries to push her away but doesn't succeed very much. (At one point he takes her out on an evening boat ride for her birthday, which seems counterproductive.) At one point he does attempt to guide her towards dating an Army psychologist that they both meet during one of the cases and he succeeds....a little. Hannah starts dating this new man.

Unfortunately, it's not enough. In the last episode, it is revealed that Richard is the one who brought Hannah to York. He says it's because it's what Zak wants (they have a fight in a cathedral and Richard alternately begs, belittles and tempts Zak to give into his love for Hannah) but it is also obviously because he wants Zak to fall and presumably for Mr Mountjoy to make good on his threat of abandoning Earth. Zak rebuffs him, Hannah is set to leave York with her boyfriend...and then (maybe because he's a little bit carried away by winning case?) he...takes her up to the top of the cathedral. And they kiss. And the clock starts working.
CRAU History and Impact: N/A
Personality:
The underlying narrative - or at least character - structure for Eternal Law is definitely a spin on the "buddy cop" dynamic and Zak Gist is absolutely the wise, world-weary, "I'm too old for this shit" personality. Or at least how that's how he initially presents himself. Of course it's a bit deeper than that but he does tend to enter a lot of relationships and situations with that kind of mindset. In some ways, you could say that Zak embodies the "Good is not Nice" trope, although it isn't a perfect fit.

We see this most obviously with the introductions of two of the three main characters: Zak and Tom. Tom comes down to Earth, Zak is there to greet him and immediately he is rather dismissive of both Tom and Tom's fascination with the Earth. It doesn't help that Tom comes from the choir (which, based on all the reactions of the more seasoned characters, is strange) and Zak is really not happy with it. He's snappish about Tom's habit of singing on multiple occasions and instead of doing much to guide this newbie he instead just seems annoyed that he has to put up with it. When Mrs Sheringham does try to give Tom the full rundown, Zak is snippy about it. ("Chicken or fish? Chicken or fish?" he says in a mocking voice, implying that he's heard it all before and would prefer not to.) Really, he's just...an ass to Tom for at least the first two episodes. At one point early on he says specifically to Tom, "Please don't think I give a rat's fart what you think, you pompous singing little twat", shortly after insulting Tom's intelligence and capabilities. He seems to prefer that Tom not do anything the first two episodes because he doesn't trust that he can and doesn't seem inclined to take the time to guide him rather than being an ass about it.

Tom actually is the one who bears the brunt of Zak's worst behavior in the beginning, though for some very obvious reasons he is also very curt with Hannah at the outset as well. He does try to be nice but he ends up cutting a lot of conversations very short or turning down her attempts at friendship with no explanation. Also, even when he's not actually mean to Tom, he can sometimes be a little condescending. For example, at one point when Tom greets a young woman in his presence, he mocks the way he does it ("Hiya?") and then sort of teases him by saying he's "made a little friend". He's also occasionally dismissive to Mrs Sheringham and is definitely not particularly perfect. (She irons his shirt and he doesn't say thank you until she needles him about it, at which point he gets defensive, both he and Tom are definitely not as mindful of her as they could be.) Situations in which Zak is stressed or off-guard usually seem to lead to him being snappish.

Another one of Zak's non-angelic qualities is definitely linked to his (sometime) disillusionment with his role as an angel and his relationship to Mr Mountjoy. Zak has a habit of talking to him (in public, usually) and it always seems to be somewhat annoyed/argumentative. He calls Mr Mountjoy a cruel bastard, chides him for not helping Zak influence a mortal, sarcastically proclaims that he's popped a rib when Hannah gets tangled up with the army psychiatrist, etc. He blames, in fact, a lot of occurrences that he doesn't like on Mr Mounjoy. He also wobbles back and forth over the party line, really. He questions Mr Mountjoy's actions and decisions quite a bit - at one point, Mrs Sheringham is very curt in verbally shutting him down, in fact - has many examples of being dismissive about their role there . He especially does seem to take issue with the idea that angels aren't supposed to love humans.

(Incidentally, we also find out from Richard in the last episode that Zak was very, very close to falling originally, which speaks to a part of him that always questioned Mr Mountjoy.)

There's also an element to Zak's persona of prickliness that is simply some amount of trauma. He's very in love with Hannah and is being stopped from being with her and for a good part of the series he thinks that Mr Mountjoy is specifically testing him. We also know that he probably has some level of trauma related to war and being a soldier on Earth. Specifically because Mr Mountjoy apparently punishes him for trying to save human lives by forcing him to try to defend "cowards" for four years, during which he never won a single case and woke up every morning to the sound of executions.

All that being said, when dealing with mortals by and large, Zak is a pretty decent person. He might sometimes be a bit dismissive of them privately - he says one client has "breath like a dying warthog" and talks about another as "an unrepentant old man with yellow fingers" - but when actually dealing with clients and people related to their cases, he is at worst polite if a bit direct and at best actually quite gentle. He's especially good with children and the elderly, which does seem to fit his status as an angel. For example, he tells one elderly lady who has just described her group of friends at a care home as "a ship, all on one final adventure again" that she is "the belle of the ocean". Another time, he rewards a disillusioned social worker who has given them evidence they need with a hug and tells her that she's an angel.

In fact, Zak can be very caring and empathetic. The best example of this is probably his relationship with Mrs Sheringham. Even though he can be a little unthinking, they have a really good friendship and he is seen to be very attentive to her emotions specifically. He comforts her when she's distressed by hugging her, he arranges a dinner for her on her wedding anniversary and when he realizes towards the end of the series that she is in the middle of some big decision - which happens to be whether or not she is going to leave him and Tom and move on with her life - he tells her that they will not interfere with whatever she chooses to do and that they will always respect her no matter what.

Even in the middle of being huffy, he has moments of softness too. For example, in an early episode Tom pulls a ladybug out of his hair and on the heels of reprimanding Tom about paying attention to beetles instead of their case, he stops and concedes that it is pretty and both his voice and expression are very soft. Another very good example of Zak showing his soft underbelly even when he's generally engaged in being less than pleasant is in the first episode. While he spends almost all of it being some level of unpleasant to Tom, there's a moment where he finds him in a church, listening to the choir. He's come to fetch Tom, but in a moment where Tom hesitates and looks back, Zak observes that he's homesick and tells him "it's the most natural thing in the world". You would think, given his behavior towards Tom for the rest of the episode, that he would be annoyed or dismissive of this kind of weakness but the tone of his voice is actually very kind. Really, Zak's built up a shell to help him deal with what he's experienced but he's a soft and caring individual beneath it all.

Finally, an important and slightly less abrasive part of Zak's personality is a little bit of rebelliousness, honestly. A mischievousness, even. Even though they're not supposed to interfere with the decisions of humans, Zak does it...multiple times across the series by showing them visions and such. Mrs Sheringham tells him off for it more than once. He also does things like miracleing fireworks out of thin air even though we hear Tom about to say that they're not supposed to do things like that. He definitely has a sense of humor too. In later episodes, he ends up teasing Hannah about things a lot. (For example, when she finds out he can cook in one episode, she mentions something about how "if he ever needs someone to test recipes on...." and his response is to lean in, smirk, and tell her that he knows where to find her.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping: In general, the powersets for angels in this canon is...a little vague, honestly. Nothing is explained or even demonstrated particularly well. However, these seem to be the general things angels can do.

Flight: Angels have wings, ergo they can fly. We don't necessarily see them do it ever, but there are a couple scenarios where Zak and Tom seem to have either flew or...possibly materialized places. Warping: I'll adhere to the stated suggestions for warping flight capabilities here. Additionally, in canon angels' wings seem only to be visible to humans in rare scenarios (close to death, for example) but I'd like to warp this power so that Zak's wings are visible to anyone if he chooses to bring them into corporeality.
Miracles: This is something that again, we see only a very few times and it's not absolutely clear the extent of what they can do. Zak creates fireworks, Tom...locks doors from a distance? Who knows. Warping: Any miracle Zak attempts is not going to go the way he expects and will probably have negative or annoying effects.
Touch empathy: Angels can seemingly get some sense of a person's mental state if they touch them. At one point Tom experiences dementia, for example. It doesn't always seem to be intentional. Warping: I think maybe if Zak tries to do this, a good warp would be that the person he's touching will also get a sense of his own mental state?
Mental influence: Angels can apparently make people they touch see visions. Zak does this a few times. Warping: Since this isn't strict mindcontrol, I'm not sure that "they have to do what they're trying to make their subject do" really fits. Perhaps it just doesn't work sometimes or the vision he tries to show them is not what he intended? Maybe they get a memory of his he doesn't want them to have.
More-than-human Strength: Zak is able to pick up and throw a human at one point.
Divine Sense: There's some suggestion that they do have a sense of other angelic/demonic beings. Warping: In his TDM threads, I did play it so he can't tell the difference between demonic and angelic without touching the being in question.
Telepathy?: Zak hears Tom call out to him once and at one point when touching a person he's able to hear a song from their memories. I don't know. Warping: standard telepathing warping?
Inventory:
A nice outfit (suit, tie, etc)
A couple nice bottles of wine.

Writing Samples: TDM prompts + threads

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Ilana
Player Age: 33
Player Contact:

ltmutiny

Other Characters In Game: N/A
In-Game Tag If Accepted: Zak Gist: Ilana
Permissions for Character: here
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Yes
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: I really enjoy situations that make characters doubt their own senses/memory/understanding of reality as well as circumstances where characters are either forced or coerced to act in ways against their will or better judgement. Or fighting monstrous urges.
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: N/A
Additional Information: N/A

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