#Aerith naturally thinks all of this is hilarious

[radioactivepeasant]

Fic Prompts: Free Day Thursday

This is part of my Sephiroth Gainsborough au (where Ifalna lives and Seph was raised by Elmyra). After finding Vincent and three small Sephiroth clones (aka the Remnants from Advent Children, here being Hojo's failed attempts at making a Sephiroth he can still control), Cloud and Zack go to check the reactor. Nobody sees Cloud again for five years, until he shows up in Sector 7 looking for work. Due to Hojo Interference, the Gainsborough Boys and Cloud can now sense each other. None of them like that.

There was something familiar about the little boy glaring at him. Something itching at the back of his mind, tugging at a corner he just couldn't reach.

It was dark there. A door he couldn't open. Sometimes that frustrated him, but mostly, Cloud had the feeling he should be glad he couldn't see what was behind the door.

"You left, you jerk!" yelled the small boy, kicking him in the shins again, "You were s'posed to come back!"

"Um."

Cloud stared at the child.

"I think you have me confused with someone else."

A flicker of something passed through the child's eyes. It looked almost like fear, or hurt. He quickly masked it with anger, but not enough to be fully convincing.

"Are you pretending you don't even know us, Cloud?" Outraged, the boy aimed a third kick at Cloud's legs. "You stupid big brother! I bet you forgot Tifa, too!"

Tifa? This brat knew Tifa? Before the kid could kick him again, Cloud grabbed his shoulder.

"How do you know Tifa?" he asked in confusion.

This time, the kid actually looked into Cloud's eyes. He studied him for a moment, them a troubled look stole over him.

"Yazooooo?" he called, without looking away from Cloud, "Where's Dad?"

"Seventh Heaven," an older child's voice floated up from the other side of the scrap heap. "His turn to man the bar tonight, Mr. Barrett's got....uh....a neighborhood watch meeting. Why?"

Sounded like this Yazoo kid knew something about AVALANCHE. Cloud hoped he knew how to keep a secret.

"Why? 'Cause Cloud doesn't remember us, and his eyes got all weird and green and mako-y like ours!"

"Wait. Kadaj, wait. Who has green mako eyes?"

"Cloud!" The kid -- Kadaj, evidently -- glared up at Cloud. "And it made him forget everybody or something!"

Cloud had an uneasy feeling that this conversation was going to lead to more questions than answers.

He'd guessed he would be heading to the bar to meet with the team before they left for the reactor. What he hadn't anticipated was being manhandled there by a pack of little kids.

Little kids who all looked a lot like Sephiroth, the retired general.

But the oldest was what, ten? Eleven? Shinra would've made a giant production out of it if their prize warrior had reproduced, and this kid was a little too old for the math to work out.

Cloud winced when the one with the short hair -- Loz? -- squeezed his hand a bit more tightly than was comfortable.

"You can't leave anymore," the boy declared stubbornly, "You gotta come home, and eat your vegetables, and wash your hands, coz Grandma doesn't like dirty hands, and play with us!"

"Kid," Cloud said, a little helplessly, "I got a job. I can't go home with you."

"Do you live at your job?" Kadaj huffed, tugging his other hand, "Do you sleep there?"

"Wh- no, but-"

"Then you can come home after work!" Kadaj nodded firmly as if this settled everything.

Loz beamed up at Cloud. "Yeah! You can sleep in my room! Only, I don't think you will fit on my bed. Your legs are very long."

Well. At least somebody thought he was tall.

Cloud resigned himself to being hauled up the creaking wooden steps and through the door of the Seventh Heaven bar. A sharp pain lanced through his head the second he entered -- flash of green, fire, there's so much fire-! There's someone...someone is reaching for him, he can't make out their face, but it's important- the fire! Eyes, eyes in the smoke that look like--

"Sephiroth!"

Sephiroth. The war hero, Shinra's poster boy turned "the one that got away". And he was wiping down a bar with his sleeves rolled up to the elbows.

His hands were tense, tendons showing against the skin. And then he looked up.

His face was calm and expressionless, just as Cloud remembered him. But then the facade broke, and a muted shock rolled in.

"Gaia," he whispered.

Hurriedly, the huge man set down the washcloth and stepped out from behind the bar. He tightened his ponytail and crossed the room in four strides.

Cloud's brain was on fire.

Move, move! Threat threat threat- unfamiliar instincts half whispered in his mind, while the rest of him felt almost relaxed.

"Cloud!"

Sephiroth grabbed his shoulders. "When Tifa said you were coming I, well I didn't believe her. We thought you were dead, Cloud, where have you been?"

Loz looked distressed. "You thought Big Brother was dead?" he squealed. Tears welled up in his eyes.

Instantly, Sephiroth regretted his choice of words. "Loz, Loz, deep breaths. Take your deep breaths. There's no need to cry. Look, Cloud is obviously not dead."

"Yeah, but he doesn't remember us!" Yazoo cut in, "And look at his eyes!"

Cloud looked uncomfortable. "What, they've never seen a SOLDIER before?"

Sephiroth frowned. "Boys," he said, a little too calmly, "why don't you go upstairs and play with Marlene?"

Yazoo wrinkled his nose. "But she's a baby!"

"Barrett said she wanted help learning to read today," Sephiroth continued as though Yazoo hadn't spoken, "I'm sure you can help her with that."

Loz reluctantly let go of Cloud's hand and headed for the stairs. He turned to point at the man. "Don't go nowhere!"

"Anywhere," Yazoo corrected him, shoving him up the stairs.

Cloud stared after them.

Sephiroth had kids.

That was incredibly weird.

Especially when said kids kept calling him Big Brother.

Sephiroth ran a hand over his face. With the children out of the room, he looked far less composed.

"We searched that reactor top to bottom," he said at last. "We checked every unclaimed body, every collapsed house. You weren’t there."

That sat oddly with Cloud. We. Who was "we"?

It couldn't have been Shinra, looking to salvage an asset. Sephiroth had cut ties with the company after the Niblheim reactor meltdown.

"You were looking for me?" Cloud asked incredulously.

Sephiroth shook his head. "Of course we were! My father is still looking for you! You- Gaia, Cloud. You were sixteen! I never should have let you go after Genesis on your own. That-"

He sighed. "That's my fault. I'm sorry."

Genesis.

The name sat heavy in Cloud's stomach like a ball of ice, and a twinge of pain shot through his chest.

"What happened up there, Cloud?" Sephiroth demanded.

Cloud looked back at him, expressionless.

"I...don't know. I can't remember."

[strayheartless]

Vanitas and the Chaotic Good learning curve:

Leaving complete darkness behind isn’t hard exactly. After having Mr. Giddy goofy light bringer (Sora) witter in his ear for a good nine hours about the “benefits of not being evil” Vanitas isn’t willing to say he caved…. But he caved.

Besides if little miss “How can I face everyone” Martyrdom (Riku) can find the balance, how hard could it be right?

Turns out it’s not hard, it’s just… interesting. He’s observed a lot from those light bringers who still have to find a balance with the darkness in their hearts. Here’s what he’s learning:

Dawn (Riku) is not above small acts of violence against Sora. Whacking him with a paperback, flicking his forehead, tripping him when he gets up to do to the bathroom. It’s all fair play apparently.

It is not acceptable to firaga people for annoying you, but that doesn’t mean Kairi hasn’t.

The real-boy (Roxas) can hit HARD and no he won’t apologise for braking something if he thinks you deserve it.

Raggedy-Anne (Xion) has a higher kill rate then Vanitas does… which is only mildly disturbing.

Biting people is bad, but Terra and Aqua always seem to be covered in Bite marks anyway. He has been informed it’s a different kind of biting. He doesn’t wish to explore that further.

His own natural eye colour after possession is red, and ain’t that a kick in the teeth.

Dawns a bitch when he’s grumpy and apparently the way to deal with him is to be a bitch back. Kairi is very good at being a bitch back. Sora just wishes everyone would get along.

The-real-boy and Dawn have serious history and it makes families dinners tense sometimes. Vanitas would not like a repeat performance of helping Ven drag Roxas into another room whilst Terra heals Riku’s fractured cheek. Roxas apologied but Riku still didn’t get out of bed for three days after.

Spikes and fire (Lea/Axel) apparently has the power to kill a man with the snap of his fingers. ApPaReNtLy he has killed someone with the snap of his fingers.

Moon boy (Isa/Sïax) has a limit beaker that could level city blocks. Wild.

Cry baby dislikes Cloud Strife for reasons only Ventus, Aqua and Hercules (apparently) know. Vanitas is pretty sure not even Cloud knows what he did. Van recons it has something to do with the big sword and the… Squats???

“I will not summon Floods until Xion and Sora cry. It is bad and I will apologise for it” … In Vans defence Naminé thought it was hilarious.

Dawn blindfolds himself when he’s upset about… something?

He gets along surprisingly well with Roxas… apparently shared trauma and distaste for stupid people goes a long way. Neat!

Raggedy Anne knows there is a spot on the back of Axels neck that if you dig in hard enough he passes out…. Isa showed her this.

Sora it not above throwing things at Riku and Kairi when he’s overtired and upset. He gets more upset that he threw the thing at them though.

Apparently master water slide (aqua) can still open dark corridors, she just doesn’t.

Dawn knows how to access dark gear. He’s done it exactly once in Vans presence and they didn’t see him for DAYS afterwards… that’s how Vanitas learned about the blindfold.

Naminé can get in your head. She hasn’t but she can. It makes for tense moments between her and Sora when she says something she shouldn’t know.

It is acceptable to throw water at Axel when he gets “fired up” during training. This was a delightful discovery.

Upon being introduced to the restoration committee it is not acceptable to point out that Leon looks like if Simba was a person… but it does make Sora and Aerith laugh so hard they end up crying on the floor.

Cloud strife is apparently more trauma then man and now Terra feels bad for hating him.

It is not acceptable to to tell Winnie the Pooh that forest fires are caused by thinking too hard. Sora and Ventus will slap you in the head and it will hurt

And possibly the most disturbing discovery of them all in Vanitas’ opinion… Sora has a Rage form AND an Anti-form. And they come out to play regularly in training.

Ultimately what Vanitas is learning is that nobody is amine to the darkness. He’s learning that it’s not about being evil or good by nature it’s about deciding who YOU want to be. For all he makes fun of them and calls them soppy lights, it’s…. Good to know that there is hope for him, even if it means he can’t get rid of the darkness. He can still exists in the light.

[jemtokall]

zack for the hcs ask post?

Oh gosh I didn't expect someone to ask me anything from that post LMAO but I can never say no to spewing my thoughts about mister Zack Fair <3

Headcanon A: what I think realistically —

Has ADHD!

Zack's favorite stim is doing squats!

He catches social cues but will ignore them (exhibit A, the girl at front desk who didn't care for his flirty advances until he became 1st class. Zack probably asked her on a date before and got rejected, and he didn't try again) (exhibit B, very often people tell him that Shinra/SOLDIER is in the wrong and

Gets the zoomies (which is a great quality for a SOLDIER operative)

Gets distracted easily! Look at how many side and fetch quests he has piled up...

2. He gives the gentlest of hugs to his friends, but when it comes to Angeal he gives him the bear crushing hugs

3. BISEXUAL KING <333

4. Naturally had brown eyes before he joined SOLDIER and got mako blue eyes

B: what I think is fucking hilarious —

Zack thought of Angeal as his dad. Sephiroth and Genesis were secondary fathers, so the entire events of Crisis Core felt like a huge divorce (I mean, the events of the game are still painful, but it hurts less by thinking of it as a divorce)

He shows to be grossed out by bugs in game, but I believe he ate them as a child. Gongaga was full of them! He outgrew it when he moved to Midgar and there weren't as many bugs everywhere

Zack adopted several pet fish in his lifetime, all of them eventually died due to Zack being gone for long periods at a time for missions. But Angeal didn't have the heart to break the news to Zack, so he replaced them fish with a googly eyed rock. Zack never knew the difference.

Takes a lot of selfies because he knows he'd gorgeous

C: what is heart-crushing and awful but fun to inflict on friends —

After the events of Nibleheim, the only thing Zack had were Cloud and Aerith. One comatose, and another a memory.

Cloud only due to circumstance since they were in the same boat of being science experiments. Normally we see Zack suspicious towards those in Shinra, even if they were friends before (Cissnei and Kunsel are the two prime examples. Cissnei eventually earned his trust, but Kunsel never got the chance to because there's limited things he can do through text.)

Aerith was his only connection outside of Shinra, if anything, he sympathized with her since she was under the Turks watch. The two never talked about it, but they didn't talk about a lot of things. There was always an unspoken escapism that they found within each other. But 4 years is a long time, and the reality of that hit him when he found her 89th letter.

He couldn't even reconnect with his parents, who he hasn't seen since he was 14yrs old. Shinra took that away from him too.

2. After the Wutai War and Angeal disappeared, Zack ate apples more often to feel connected to him. (He couldn't find Dumbapples so he made do with red apples.)

3. After Angeal's death, Zack changed his hairstyle to represent his growth, but it's slicked back to resemble his late mentors hair.

4. He really wanted to see Sephiroth as a friend, but Sephiroth closed himself off too much for them to make a real connection. But that doesn't mean that Sephiroth didn't care, just that he kept Zack at arms length.

D: what would never work with canon but the canon is shit so I believe it anyway —

I would've loved to see him in a team setting! Because I headcanon that he's so used to working as a lone wolf (or in a unit) that he has a hard time working as a part of the team. He's always given or taken orders! He would likely butt heads with whoever else tried to give orders, if he didn't ignore it entirely and run in head first.

I said it before but BISEXUAL KING I would love to see him flirt with a guy in canon :') he came close with Kunsel but it was written off as a joke ("I love you man!" @Kunsel )

I hc him as native american because I'm indigenous and he's just like me fr look at his black hair its practically canon

[almostyours]

"    [...]   i've been seeing a lot of tweets and tiktoks from angels saying that x character is just like x hiraeth member,  and honestly,  i thought it’d be fun to make a video about it for all you losers who want to know if your favorite anime character or whatever matches up with any of the members.    [...]    like,  not too long ago,  i watched this parallel edit of geto and poppy with mitski's abbey,  and man,  what the fuck?!  that was as messed up as that one kaia’s working for the knife edit.  the power of life-changing edits…   "   —   august  2,  2024

TLDR.   a  quick  CHARACTER  STUDY  of  the  hiraeth  members,  using  actual  characters  from  other  media  as  references.  narrated  and  explained  by  popular  youtuber  and  angel,  bestie.  template  credits  to  user  @/aqualvng.

POS.   optimistic,  hardworking,  passionate,  loyal,  ambitious NEG.   overbearing,  stubborn,  overly  idealistic,  emotionally  guarded

LESLIE  KNOPE,  parks  and  rec.  

"   [...]   i think this is what happened.   imagine mama and papa hiiragi binge-watching parks and rec and thinking,  yeah,  let’s just make our own version of leslie.  i’m telling you,  leslie is basically kaia—  super charismatic but,  like,  in that way that’s a little overbearing but you still can’t help but find it endearing.  i mean,  everything about leslie is this perfect blend of being super driven and sweet,  and it just screams kaia to me.   "

TOMOE  MAMI,  puella  magi  madoka  magica.   

"   so,  if you think about it,  mami and kaia are like two sides of the same coin.  mami's got this super mature,  collected vibe,  right?  and even after everything she's been through,  she still manages to be this caring,  protective figure for everyone around her.  that's basically kaia in a nutshell if we consider how hard it was for her to debut.   [...]   no matter what happens,  she stays strong and keeps looking out for everyone,  just like mami.  it's that mix of being graceful under pressure and still having so much heart that makes them so similar.   "

MIZUNO  AMI,  sailor  moon.  

"   kaia is totally the sailor mercury of the group.  just like ami,  she's always the voice of reason,  the one who keeps everyone grounded when things get crazy.  sailor mercury’s got that calm,  logical vibe that balances out the rest of the team,  and that’s exactly how kaia rolls too.   "

ALPHONSE  ELRIC,  fullmetal  alchemist.   

"   everyone says that kaia gives off major alphonse elric vibes and i agree!  just like al,  she's got this really gentle and kind nature,  always looking out for everyone else and keeping the peace.  even when things get tough,  alphonse stays strong and focused,  never losing that caring side of him.  [...]   she’s basically the heart of the group,  just like alphonse is for edward.   "

KOCHO  SHINOBU,  kimetsu  no  yaiba.   

"   kaia reminds me so much of shinobu from demon slayer.  she's got that calm,  almost serene vibe that keeps everyone around her grounded.  but just like shinobu,  you can’t help but feel like there’s more going on beneath the surface.  kaia's so composed and collected,  it makes me wonder if there are things she’s keeping to herself...   "

OTHERS.   yuuji  itadori  jujutsu  kaisen,  joy  inside  out,  maizono  sayaka  danganronpa  series,  amy  rose  sonic  the  hedgehog,  monica  geller  friends,  navia  and  yae  miko  genshin  impact,  pam  beesley  the  office,  debra  morgan  dexter,  aisha  winx  club,  diana  prince  wonder  woman,  kanroji  mitsuri  kimetsu  no  yaiba,  nate  archibald  gossip  girl,  aerith  gainsborough  final  fantasy

POS.   compassionate,  determined,  kind,  hardworking,  loyal NEG.   assertive,  aloof,  self-critical,  perfectionist,  stubborn

EDWARD  ELRIC,  fullmetal  alchemist.

"   ed and poppy are both super funny,  and they’ve got that quick wit that keeps things entertaining.  ed’s got this hilarious anger that pops up whenever someone mentions his height,  which just adds to his charm and reminds me when poppy said she didn't like when her members teased her because of her height.   and who knows,  maybe she reacts the same way as him!   [..]   but underneath all that humor,  both of them are incredibly determined.  ed’s always putting in the work,  no matter how tough things get,  and poppy’s right there too—  funny and playful,  but totally serious when it’s time to get things done.  they both know how to balance humor with hard work,  and it makes them really stand out.   "

BLAIR  WALDORF,  gossip  girl.   

"   queen b and poppy are like two peas in a pod—  both super stylish and ambitious,  always bringing their a-game when it comes to fashion and getting what they want.  they’ve got that sharp sense of humor that makes them fun to watch,  but let's be real,  their ambition can sometimes rub people the very wrong way.  they know how to work a room and get things done, but not everyone is a fan of how they do it.  it’s that mix of charm,  wit,  and a bit of ruthless drive that makes them very similar,  even if it doesn’t always win them friends or fans.   "

MUICHIRO  TOKITO,  kimetsu  no  yaiba

"   my boy tokito and poppy both have this cool,  nonchalant vibe that makes them seem pretty aloof at first.  but once you get to know them,  you realize there’s a lot more beneath the surface.  muichiro might come off as distant,  but deep down he’s super kind and cares deeply,  even if he doesn’t always show it unless it's with people he really trusts.  i think poppy’s got that same energy—  she might seem detached to non fans and casual listeners—  she does hold the ice princess title,  after all...  but she’s actually nice with an interesting humor.  it’s that mix of seeming indifferent on the outside but being truly kind on the inside that makes them so similar.   "

SUZUMIYA  HARUHI,  haruhi  suzumiya  no  yuutsu.

"   [...]   haruhi’s got this whole quirky,  controlling side,  always wanting things her way because of her vision and interests,  while poppy isn’t quite as intense—  but who knows?  there's still that spark in poppy where you can see a hint of haruhi’s need to steer the ship.  both of them have a knack for getting people to follow along,  even if they do it in different ways.  [...]  it’s that combo of charisma and a touch of unpredictability that makes them so captivating.   "

TIFA  LOCKHART,  final  fantasy  franchise.

"   i think that they are surprisingly similar when they’re in their comfort zones.  both of them share a mentality of blending strength with charm.   [...]   tifa is open and nurturing,  always ready to support her friends while kicking some serious butt.  poppy,  though more reserved and i doubt she can go around kicking butts because she’s an idol and she's under a contract,  has that same underlying vibe.  if you think about it,  poppy might actually mesh well with someone like cloud,  but her personality and mentality are really close to tifa’s.  it’s like they’re two sides of the same coin,  each showing their unique flair but with a fundamentally similar approach to life and relationships.  plus,  poppy literally looks like her!   "

OTHERS.   suuguro  geto  jujutsu  kaisen,  winry  rockbell  and  roy  mustang  fullmetal  alchemist,  veronica  lodge  riverdale,  raiden  shogun  and  tighnari  genshin  impact,  maka  albarn  and  death  the  kid  soul  eater,  tomioka  giyuu  and  kocho  shinobu  kimetsu  no  yaiba,  kagura  gintama,  rei  hino  sailor  moon,  daria  morgendorffer  daria,  homura  akemi  puella  magi  madoka  magica,  li  syaoran  cardcaptor  sakura

POS.   laid-back,  resourceful,  insightful,  confident,  passionate NEG.   immature,  impulsive,  lazy,  overzealous,  egotistical

JAKE  PERALTA,  brooklyn  nine  nine

"   they are like kindred spirits in the world of not taking things too seriously.  both of them have this laid-back,  sometimes immature attitude that makes them incredibly funny and relatable.   [...]   even though they might joke around and not always be the most serious,  they’re absolute pros at what they do.  they can be goofballs,  but when it comes down to it,  they’re still incredibly skilled and get the job done.  their ability to balance humor with top-notch performance is what makes them very similar.   "

KOMAEDA  NAGITO,  danganronpa  series.

"   [...]   both of them have a way of captivating everyone around them with their unique charm.  nagito’s got that edge of unpredictability and a touch of madness,  but yvan,  while definitely charismatic,  is not on the same level of insanity…   but who knows...  still!  their magnetic personalities and ability to be both compelling and a little bit unpredictable make them quite similar.  they’ve got that special something that makes them stand out, even if yvan's a bit more grounded compared to nagito’s crazy ass.   "

STICKS  THE  BADGER,  sonic  boom

"   sticks and yvan have this blend of quirky energy and unpredictability.  both are known for their eccentric and offbeat personalities,  always keeping things interesting.   [...]   they might express it differently,  but both share that ability to captivate and make us laugh with their one-of-a-kind charisma and off-the-wall energy.   "

IZUMI  KONATA,  lucky  star

"   both of them are so relaxed and easygoing that it sometimes gets them into trouble.  konata’s lazy tendencies and carefree attitude often lead her into all sorts of misadventures,  and yvan shares that same chill demeanor,  though there might not be quite as extreme since they are an idol and have to work,  y’know?...   in a way,  konata could almost be seen as a parallel to yvan,  while kagami,  with her more driven and serious side who is known to scold konata because of her laziness,  fits poppy perfectly.  …you guys remember that one video where poppy was scolding yvan during isac,  right?   "

FURINA,  genshin  impact.

"   they have this strikingly similar vibe when it comes to their outward personalities.  both come across as charismatic and confident,  always putting on a great show.  but underneath that surface,  it feels like there’s a lot more going on.  i am not overanalyzing yvan,  before anyone starts!   "

OTHERS.   ling  yao  fullmetal  alchemist,  bart  simpson  the  simpsons,  rengoku  kyojuru  and  kotetsu  kimetsu  no  yaiba,  sonic  the  hedgehog  sonic  franchise,  black  star  and  patty  thompson  soul  eater,  hirasawa  yui  k-on,  mabel  pines  gravity  falls,  shaggy  rogers  scooby-doo,  naruto  uzumaki  naruto,  gina  linetti  brooklyn  nine  nine,  klee  and  bennett  genshin  impact,  kyoko  sakura  puella  magi  madoka  magica,  lumpy  space  princess  adventure  time,  morgana  persona  5,  phoebe  buffay  friends

"    [...]   and yeah,  i hope you enjoyed this silly little video!  just a reminder,  this was made purely for entertainment.  i’m not trying to overanalyze,  force a trait into them,  or read too much into their personalities because that’s not right.  we don’t know these girls personally.  we’re all just fans here.  we don’t know shit,  and that’s something we shall respect.  this video was just for fun,  to have a little laugh,  and to connect our favorite characters to them.  so,  yeah,  i hope you had a good time hanging out with me while i did my makeup!   [...]   see you next time,  besties,  and don’t forget to leave a little likey like and a comment down below!  bye bye!  stay hydrated and keep being everyone’s besties!   "

[kimmimaru]

Thoughts on Rebirth Tseng:

Putting it under a cut due to spoilers as usual, since I've essentially finished the main plot for the game. Ok, so if you've been reading my spoiler posts then you're aware I found Tseng to be acting weird, still don't know why that was but the only scene he acts even remotely naturally is when he's dying in the temple and talking to Aerith. Honestly can't wait to see his reaction to her death, I'm a sucker for angst. But anyway, I theorise that the reason he was acting weird is because of Aerith and his dislike/uncertainty of Rufus' plans involving her. Also like...Rufus protecting Tseng from Hojo lol. That side-eye look Rufus sends Hojo's way when he mentions 'helping' Tseng is hilarious. So I have always liked having Hojo tease the Turks with threats of experimenting on them in fanfic and now its proven to be an actual thing lol. But never expected Rufus to be the one to 'protect' them. Tseng's always been a character I've vaguely struggled with because his ability to set apart both sides of himself is so good. Like he acts the cold, hard villian but in actuality he's not. Obviously Reno and Rude know him well enough to kind of call him out on it, but I've never been very good at portraying that with any kind of decency in fanfic. One of the reasons I like writing him so much is to try and get inside his head, I don't understand him very well so I try and figure that out in fanfiction. Its almost like he's got two personalities, one is more what we see in Crisis Core and the other is everything afterwards. Honestly I kind of blame Veld, he was supposed to be the example to Tseng of what leadership looks like. Either that or Tseng decided to change because it was the only way he could keep doing his job and keep his humanity. Also we don't really see it in Rebirth but I've always liked that Tseng has a vicious side too. I think the biggest example is in The Kids Are Alright, when he lays into that doctor who conned people out of money. I would like to see more of this side of Tseng in the next installment tbh, I feel like this is an important aspect to his personality. Like his cool veneer isn't thick enough to withstand something he deems dispiciple, that scene left a lasting impression on me as its like a switch flips. Its one of the things that's actually terrifying about Tseng, he goes from cool and calm to violent in the blink of an eye. Rebirth doesn't show it so well I don't think, but I suppose nothing's really happened to make him do it. I just find it fascinating that considering what he does for a living, a doctor scamming people is what sets him off. He is a literal murderer but a man conning the poor makes him angry. You know, Aerith's death would make for a great exploration of this side of Tseng. The man is probably one of the most dangerous Turks, the others are much more honest with themselves and their feelings. You know where you stand with Reno, Rude and Elena. Tseng is like the person who pushes down all his feelings until one day they just explode. At least, that's my impression. No clue if this makes any sense, its more of a vague ramble tbh. But I am having thoughts and these thoughts need to be written down, helps me get things in order in my head for later fanfic purposes.

[mashymarrow]

What makes this more hilarious is that there's a video on how all the girls want to kiss Cloud but the only one he kisses is Tifa. She's the only one he leans into wanting a kiss, even before in Gongaga if Yuffie didn't interrupt them. With Aerith, he immediately backs away after noticing their faces are close and turns away looking awkward. In Tifa's date, it all comes naturally and he lets go of her slowly after she jumped into him in the gondola ride. In the other dates he looks at the fireworks but in Tifa's, he stares intensely at her instead. When the ride gets bumpy, Aerith falls into Cloud's chest resulting in their faces to become close but how he reacts after ward is very telling. When Tifa is able to pull the switch back so she doesn't bump into Cloud, she looks at him proudly like she's looking for a compliment. While Cloud compliments her saying good job, he looks sorta disappointed after or is it only me? lol I think he was looking for the right time to make romantic advances but she stopped that from happening with her skills.

Let's not forget for years they were praying for a kiss in the gondola for CA and rejoicing they will get a kiss when the trailer came out. Now they got none they're turning around acting like they don't care and want it. They're not fooling anyone.

All their handles and pfps and shit were full of "THE GONDOLA DATE IS COMING!!!!" "CLERITH KISS ON THE GONDOLA IS COMING!!!!"

And then Tifa got kissed and they had to go into damage control mode to "explain" why it's not romantic for Tifa to get a kiss after screaming about Aerith getting one. And they're still screaming about getting one in part three, so if it's not romantic and doesn't mean anything why do they want one?

[sanjuno]

Sanjuno’s Story and Fandom Masterlist

I’m going to pin this list of titles so that people can more easily figure out what they want to vote for each Friday. Anything labelled with Meta, WIP, or Concept can be voted for.

1.    ATTACK ON TITAN

1.1.  Coordinates T by H: Eren’s coordinator abilities allow him to metaphysically bond with other humans, thereby giving everyone in the group the ability to psychically communicate with the rest and also boosting everyone’s healing ability exponentially to be on par with the Titan Shifters. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

2.    BLEACH

2.1. What Happens on Vacation: Crossover with YYH – turns out that Kurosaki Misaki was a senior ferry girl on sabbatical (which translates as living a mortal life unaware of her true nature) and she was late returning to work due to being trapped in Grand Fishers gut. Ichigo and Uryuu are very confused when their “cousin” Kazuma shows up to introduce his new bride to the family. Koenma is just really pissed off by all the paperwork he needs to deal with while cleaning up his father’s mismanaged pet project. Chaptered, WIP - Unposted

3.     CODE GEASS

3.1.  A Code of Ice and Fire: Crossover with GOT – Lelouch, his two younger siblings, and Lelouch’s most loyal followers are reincarnated into Westeros. Lelouch proceeds to make it his lifelong mission to drive Cersei into frothing fits and strengthens the Baratheon dynasty to the point that even Tywin is impressed by his grandson’s machinations. Then CC shows up with dragons and Ned Stark starts to think that maybe Robert’s onto something with the “drinking to forget” idea. Meta

3.2.  Abandon Thyself: Post-Zero Requiem Suzaku travels back in time to the scene in the Shinjuku Ghettos when the truck explodes. Given that the people closest to him haven’t actually spoken to Suzaku in years, the origins of Suzaku’s obvious mental instability is hilariously misattributed by various outside PoVs. So when Suzaku hits his knees in front of Lelouch, swearing eternal devotion and vowing to make Lelouch the next emperor nobody panics. (They should really reconsider panicking.) Drabbles, Prompt Fill - Posted

3.3.  The Sun Also Rises: At the moment of his death in the Zero Requiem, Lelouch travels back in time to his childhood body. With only a week to go before Marianne is “assassinated by terrorists” Lelouch sets out to rearrange the board in a way none of the other players will see coming until it’s far too late. Lelouch has been given a second chance to make things right, and Lelouch wouldn’t be Lelouch if he didn’t plan big. This time around, Lelouch plans for his victory to be a bit more obvious. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

4.    DCU

4.1.  Time Enough: Terry McGinnis, his little brother Matt, and their dogs are the only members of their timeline to survive because Bruce Wayne was too old to see any more of his sons die in front of him. So they all got knocked out, shoved into an escape capsule, and ejected from the Batman Beyond timeline before it crumbles. Said time pod crashes into the middle of a Red Hood versus Match throw down, and Terry’s Wayne-inherited charisma is so powerful it allows him to banter his way into good graces of both villains. Jason drags them all off to his lair because every single member of the Batfam hoards orphans. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

5.    DRAGON BALL

5.1.  Saiyajin Pride: Alien biology has a larger impact on characterization that it does in canon. Mirai comes back to the main timeline live in sin with Videl and Gohan. Vegeta and Goku deal with some shit that comes from being the last full-blooded members of their species. Then just as things are settling down… Garlic is an idiot who thinks up a loophole in the “can’t wish people dead” rule and wishes Goku and Vegeta’s families straight out of existence and they end up in an entirely different reality. The only upside is that Vegeta finally gets to kill Frieza. Chaptered, WIP - Unposted

6.    FAIRY TAIL

6.1.  Flight Of Dragons: Future!Lucy misses her target and ends up landing further back in time, during the same year Natsu and the rest of the Dragon Slayer kids were brought to when they were pulled forward in time.  Fairy Tail luck kicks in, and future!Lucy runs into child!Laxus as he escapes from his father after being fed the Lightning Dragon Lacrima. Laxus is handed a Prophecy and runs with it. Children have never needed Fairy Tales to tell them that Dragons exist, but they certainly help. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

6.2.  My Heart Overflows: Juvia and Grey have finally started dating, but the Fairy Tail Mage Guild has some interesting traditions when it comes to proving the validity of a romantic relationship. Oneshot, Prompt fill - Posted

7.    FAMILIAR OF ZERO

7.1.  A Velvet Glove: Crossover with TMNT – Leonardo gets summoned to be Louise’s Familiar. Since all of his brothers are dead, Leo sees no reason not to make the most of this “lifelong bond of magic and spirit” and adopts Louise as his little sister. Halgenkia is not prepared for a Louise Francois le Blanc de la Valliere with ninja training. Henrietta is probably far too gleeful over making her best friend her Spymaster, but it’s not like anyone knows enough about what they’re doing to stop her. Reconquista gets exposed and smashed, and Wardes really should have respected his fiancée more. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

8.    FINAL FANTASY VII

8.1.  A Dirge of Ice and Fire: Crossover with GOT – Several members of Avalanche and the Elite Soldiers are reincarnated as the spares and bastards of Westeros’ Great Houses. Given that Rhaenys Targaryen used to be Cid Highwind, the Sack of King’s Landing goes very differently. Meta

8.2.  A Feather’s Weight: Crossover with Naruto – Kakashi and Obito, along with their respective subordinates, are reincarnated in Wutai, and are thus in position to undermine a lot of Hojo’s plans simply by being themselves. Wutai still loses, but by a much smaller margin, and SHIN-RA realizes much too late that Wutai’s “concession” was a trap. Kakashi is a big shiny distraction for Sephiroth, the SOLDIERS revolt, and nobody knows who assassinated President Shinra. Chaptered, WIP - Unposted

8.3.  Antiviral: Woden and Gaia conspire to create antibodies to fight off Jenova’s infection. Cid and Vincent end up bearing the brunt of this decision, get roofied by Divine Intervention, and also end up the Gaian equivalent of demonic werewolves. Also the Planet is transforming all the SOLDIERS into werewolves too, yes, even the dead ones. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

8.4.  For Love Of: Cid Highwind crashes the Tiny Bronco into Lucrecia’s cave, does the metaphysical equivalent of tearing her heart out and eating it to absorb her power, and them proceeds to adopt General Sephiroth as his son because it’s not like anyone can stop him. Cid Highwind does what he wants. Sephiroth does what Mother wants. SHIN-RA soon regrets everything because Cid Highwind is a hell of a lot better at rewriting the social order than Avalanche is. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

8.5.  Hindsight is 20-20: CHAOS decides to rewrite time because they have a massive crush on Cid and they don’t want him to die. CHAOS fumbles the landing and Cid ends up in the body of some weird Lucrecia/Ancient-Cetra-Who-Was-Jenova’s-Host Clone and ends up giving birth to Sephiroth. Things only get worse from there. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

8.6.  Like it Rough: Cid likes Vincent a lot and also has a bit of a kink for scars. Cid walks in on Vincent naked, runs away to hide his raging boner, and Vincent ends up chasing Cid around the airship until he can pin his friend down in the Captain’s bunk because the demons are all drunk on the pheromones. Oneshot - Complete

8.7.  Names of Power: Jenova’s taint getting mixed into the Lifestream has far-reaching consequences, and Avalanche gets tapped to handle the fallout whither they like it or not. Series, WIP - Posted

8.7.1.     Small Packages: The Lifestream meddles in Avalanches lives even after the Planet has been saved. There are clones and ancient powers better off left alone but it’s not like Avalanche ever gets a say in the matter. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

8.7.2.     History Inverted: Jenova isn’t all the way gone and the Planet really doesn’t care if Humanity survives or not as long as the infection is burned away. Aerith shoves the spirits of Avalanche and their children into a new timeline because she doesn’t want to watch their souls get shredded. Avalanche proceeds to mosey along and wreak havoc in the way only they can manage. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

8.8.  To Earn the Sky: Echidna, Mother of Monsters and Heroes, and Jenova, the Calamity From the Skies, are at war. Hojo makes a very big mistake when he uses the Blood of Echidna’s Children in his Revenant Project. Cid Highwind is a good son, and his Mother wants to meet her new Grandchildren. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

9.    FINAL FANTASY XV

9.1.  A Light of Ice and Fire: Crossover with FFVX – Noctis, his Retinue, and the loyal members of the Kingsglaive and Crownsguard are reincarnated into Westeros. Jorah Mormont is Cor Leonis, but Cor Leonis is not Jorah Mormont, and so the Northern Forces are something to fear in Robert’s Rebellion. By the time King Robert visits Winterfell, it will be a very different Northern Kingdom that he finds there. Meta

10. GAME OF THRONES

10.1.               Crossover Fixits to Help Westeros be Less Miserably Doomed: Various casts from other series end up reborn in Westeros and use knowledge from their previous lives to change the Game. Series

10.1.1. An Assemblage of Ice and Fire: Crossover with MCU – Team Iron Man focus, since Tony is reincarnated as Ned Stark. Starks are made of Iron, and Winter is coming. Tony’s genius intellect, knowledge of politics and economics, experience with magic and alternate realities, and the fact that Extremis carried over through his reincarnation and adapted to work with First Man magic means that the Stark siblings who go to the Tourney of Harrenhal are nothing like the canon versions. Rhaegar gets his Stark bride, and he proceeds to regret it for the rest of his life. Meta

10.1.2. A Balance of Ice and Fire: Crossover with SW – Qui-Gon Jinn’s three Padawan Learners and Padme (who got taken in Anakin’s place) are reincarnated as the Tyrell siblings. They proceed to follow the Will of the Force and prepare the Seven Kingdoms to win against the Long Night. Meta

10.1.3. A Code of Ice and Fire: Crossover with CG – Lelouch, his two younger siblings, and Lelouch’s most loyal followers are reincarnated into Westeros. Lelouch proceeds to make it his lifelong mission to drive Cersei into frothing fits and strengthens the Baratheon dynasty to the point that even Tywin is impressed by his grandson’s machinations. Then CC shows up with dragons and Ned Stark starts to think that maybe Robert’s onto something with the “drinking to forget” thing. Meta

10.1.4. A Dirge of Ice and Fire: Crossover with FFVII – Several members of Avalanche and the Elite Soldiers are reincarnated as the spares and bastards of Westeros’ Great Houses. Given that Rhaenys Targaryen used to be Cid Highwind, the Sack of King’s Landing goes very differently. Meta

10.1.5. A Dying Will of Ice and Fire: Crossover with KHR – The Tri-Ni-Sette holders and all those bonded to them are reincarnated into Westeros Noble Houses. Xanxus is born as Robert’s eldest trueborn son and Heir to the Iron Throne, and so all it takes is one look at the Wall to know that there is something to fear on the other side. Tsuna is busy swooning over Arya’s muscles but in-between reciting odes to his amazing betrothed he takes time to tell Nono’s ghost “I told you Xanxus would make the better Heir.” Meta

10.1.6. A Light of Ice and Fire: Crossover with FFVX – Noctis, his Retinue, and the loyal members of the Kingsglaive and Crownsguard are reincarnated into Westeros. Jorah Mormont is Cor Leonis, but Cor Leonis is not Jorah Mormont, and so the Northern Forces are something to fear in Robert’s Rebellion. By the time King Robert visits Winterfell, it will be a very different Northern Kingdom that he finds there. Meta

10.1.7. A Space Between Ice and Fire: Crossover with Naruto WCE – The Konoha Founders and their siblings are reincarnated as Starks and Baratheons and manage to save the Realms of Men while resolving their many and varied issues with one another. Meta

10.1.8. A Transformation of Ice and Fire: Crossover with TFG1 – Most of the Cybertronians who died during Unicron’s Awakening end up reincarnated as dragons (Seekers) and Direwolves (Autobots). The sapience of the animals causes significant changes to outcome of several key canon events. Meta

10.2.              Singing In A Different Key: SI is reborn as Jon Snow, who then precedes to Machiavelli the fuck out of the North in preparation for the coming Long Night and also to screw over the Lannisters. Because fuckthe Lannisters. Meta

10.3.               Wolf At The Door: When Ice takes the head of Eddard Stark, Valeryian magic mixes with the Blood of the First Men. It’s wild, uncontrolled, and Ned ends up as a four year old in Winterfell’s Godswood, staring at his reflection in the water. Eddara Stark, second-born child and first-born daughter of Rikard and Lyarra Stark looks back up at him. Ned, fully believing that this is his punishment for failing his family and best friend the first time around, decides to fix the Realm by fulfilling the Pact of Fire and Ice. The thing about being a woman is that no one ever expects you to be a threat, not even other women. The thing about being the Quiet Wolf is that everyone overlooks you until the moment your teeth sink into their throat. Concept

11. GET BACKERS

11.1.               Holy Days of Yore: Various celebration themed fic that explore Ban’s backstory as the “With Queen’s Grandson” and bring a bit more of that old black magic into the Get Backer’s lifestyle. Series

11.1.1. Lupercalia: Ban gets a magic matchmaker box in the mail and everyone wears their heart on their sleeve for Valentine’s Day. Oneshot - Posted

11.1.2. Oeastre: Ban gets roped into being the master of ceremonies for Maria’s coven and Easter gets interesting. (Everyone makes like bunnies.) Oneshot - Posted

12. GIRL GENIUS

12.1.               The Other Side of the River: One of the Jagermonsters manages to catch wind of Lucrecia’s plans and absconds with Klaus Barry during the confusion caused by the first explosion. This understandably causes some disruption in everyones plans when KB and his nanny run into Agatha during her time with the Circus. WIP - Unposted

12.2.               Threefold Path: Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek get their brains booted back in time during the si vales valeo and decided to run away and join the circus until they’re old enough to take over the world properly. WIP - Unposted

13. GUNDAM WING

13.1.               Mistakes and Misdemeanors: Heero was on blockers for the entire war due to a series of implants, which did no favours to his mental health. When the implants run out Heero gets run over by a hormone train and absolutely nobody knows how to handle that. Chaptered, WIP – Posted (Under Revision)

14. HARRY POTTER

14.1.               Black As His Name: Sirius Back lives! Because the Veil dumps his mind-and-soul into the empty body of his younger self in a world where Walburga Black lost it on her eldest son much earlier in life and Sirius was tortured until he was left brain-dead. Arcturus Black is pissed off over the treatment of one of his Heirs and since Sirius’ magic is still intact, names Sirius the Heir to House Black and proceeds to hold the Heirship over everybody’s heads for spite for as long as Sirius continues to “live”. Everyone in the Black Family is very surprised when the annual shaming ritual disguised as Sirius’ birthday party is crashed. By none other than the birthday boy himself. Sirius rolls with it and becomes a True Black in the most Marauder manner possible. WIP - Unposted

14.2.               Black Hunt Under Bloody Skies: Crossover with KHR – Regulus and Sirius both end up dumped into KHR because Death owes them a favour on its Master’s behalf. Things start to get weird after the Arcobaleno curse is broken. Regulus is actually Skull and Sirius is his Sky and they confuse the entire Mafia so much. WIP - Unposted

15. HOMESTUCK

15.1.               A Jump To The Left Behind: Post game reality has all the races living in a Galactic Republic, and the Troll Ancestors and Human Guardians all need to team up in order to solve the mystery of the planetoid-sized meteor that just barreled into the middle of their busiest spacelane because their names are written all over it. In the process of exploring the meteor they accidently wake up the Players and Sprites. Chaos ensues. Concept

15.2.               Pandora’s Final Gift: A mermaid AU where a Deep Old One gives Eridan (and only Eridan) the memories of his Game Player Self as a lark. Eridan hits the level cap for his current reality, freaks out, saves Sollux’s life, and then absconds as far away from the center of the Empire as he can get. Concept

16. INU YASHA

16.1.              Hunter’s Moon: The standard “Demon Mating Season” idea that draws on the infectious nature of demon energy in the Sengoku Jidai and runs with it. Everyone over the age of eighteen gets some. Kagome gets to go home and take a nap. Chaptered, WIP – Posted (Under Revision)

16.2.              Cry Wolf: Playing straight with the crack concept that Inuyasha and Kouga were betrothed as children. Kagome isn’t in the picture because she got yeeted back to her own time when the Shikon no Tama got purified. Chaptered, WIP – Posted (Under Revision)

17. KATEKYO HITMAN REBORN

17.1.               A Dying Will of Ice and Fire: Crossover with GOT – The Tri-Ni-Sette holders and all those bonded to them are reincarnated into Westeros Noble Houses. Xanxus is born as Robert’s eldest trueborn son and Heir to the Iron Throne, and so all it takes is one look at the Wall to know that there is something to fear on the other side. Tsuna is busy swooning over Arya’s muscles but in-between reciting odes to his amazing betrothed he takes time to tell Nono’s ghost “I told you Xanxus would make the better Heir.” Meta

17.2.               Black Hunt Under Bloody Skies: Crossover with HP – Regulus and Sirius both end up dumped into KHR because Death owes them a favour on its Master’s behalf. Things start to get weird after the Arcobaleno curse is broken. Regulus is actually Skull and Sirius is his Sky and they confuse the entire Mafia so much. WIP - Unposted

17.3.               Burning Salt Water: Crossover with OP – Xanxus gets dumped onto the Oro Jackson during the Pirate King’s last voyage when Nono’s Zero Point goes sideways and he ends up adopted by Rouge and Roger while he heals. After the execution Xanxus ends up raising the ASL trio to take over the Pirate Throne and Ace sets the Moby Dick on fire when Whitebeard kidnaps him. Meta, WIP - Unposted

17.4.               Cat’s Paws: Uri has seen enough Time Travel bullshit to know how it works, and so when Hayato gets himself killed she grabs his soul and flings herself backwards in time because fuck the timeline this is her human and he’s not allowed to abandon her again. The other Box Animals think it’s a great idea and do the same with their humans, and this results in the kind of alternate timeline that gives Byakuran a headache. In other words, Uri creates a timeline where Flame Actives are a lot more Alien than they used to be and now everyone thinks Youkai and other myths are real. Chapters, WIP - Posted

17.5.               Fire Shall Waken: All of Nono’s sons are still alive when the Cradle Affair happens and it results in the entire 10th Generation gathering up their Harmonies, rolling Xanxus into a blanket burrito, and taking off to Japan under assumed names where they proceed to spend the next eight years coddling Tsuna and being spoiled rotten by Nana in return. Meta

17.6.               Gremlins Della Varia: Mammon’s experiments with the Curse have had some odd side effects on the Varia. It all comes out during the Ring Battles and the other Arcobaleno are Judging You, Viper. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

17.7.               Karma, and the Repercussions Thereof: Crossover with Naruto. Legendary Ninja from the Elemental Countries get reincarnated into KHR and proceed to adopt all the Magic Rainbow Fire Children. Nono and Iemitsu suffer. Series, WIP

17.7.1. Karmic Balance: Kakashi and Obito are ninja married from the very start because of metaphysical bonding and some minor haunting during their last lives. Between Ninshu Shinobi needing to be in Clans and Flame Actives needing to be in Harmonies it does not take long before the child stealing begins. Gokudera Kakashi is the best wife and Dokuro Obito repents, repeatedly and often, while also having the time of his second life. Tsuna loves his Kakashi-sensei and wants to be just like him when he grows up. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

17.7.2. Karmic Justice: Madara and his brothers are reborn as Fon’s nephews and do not take kindly to the Arcobaleno curse being put on one of their relatives. The Hibari Clan proceeds to start hunting for the Man in the Iron Man en mass. Madara and his brothers hit Namimori during Nono’s visit and witness the sealing of Tsunayoshi. They don’t take well to this either. Things go worse for Tsuna than they do in canon and Madara hunts down Tobirama because he needs the resurrection to be done perfectly. Tsuna loves his Madara-shishou and wants to be just like him when he grows up. Oneshot - Posted

17.7.2.1.      Karmic Justice – Hubris: Madara comes across Xanxus in the ice while investigating the Vongola and despite Xanxus being a bit older than the usual target for child stealing decides to steal him anyway. After resurrecting Tsuna, Madara and Tobirama’s next project is defrosting Xanxus. Concept

17.7.2.2.      Karmic Justice – Providence: Madara finds Xanxus on the streets while hunting in Italy for the Man in the Iron Mask. Wrath Flame calls to Wrath Flame and Madara instantly adopts the delightfully savage little boy. Then Namimori happens, and Tsuna’s seal gets him temporarily killed, and Xanxus reaches 100-year-vengance-plot levels of overprotective big brother. WIP - Unposted

17.8.               Music of the Spheres: Crossover with SM – Post Stars Usagi and Post Vongola Inheritance Tsuna are cousins who meet for the first time ever only after the Vongola’s enemies kidnap Ikkuko and Shingo. Usagi gets taken into protective custody by her Mafia relatives without being given the chance to say she doesn’t need it. Usagi then proceeds to seduce all the women, charm all the men, and accidently throw Iemitsu out the nearest window every time he’s in the same room she is. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

17.8.1. MotS - Celestial Chorus: Chibiusa’s arrival has Usagi dragging her family to Namimori to prove that Chibiusa isn’t their cousin and things get wildly out of hand. Meta

17.8.2. MotS - Sing In Exaltation: The Shingo from The Sharp Knife Of A Short Life hears the name of his ‘cousin in Namimori’ and immediately begins to meddle. Meta

17.9.               Overlooking the Obvious: They say that to truly know someone you need to walk a mile in their shoes. The adage is proven true rather dramatically when a misappropriated Possession Bullet ends up switching Gokudera and Hibari into each other’s bodies. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

17.10.           Reach For The Sky: Kamen Rider Sora and his team are the protectors of Namimori against the invasion of Youma from the dark dimension. Reborn shows up to tutor the last remaining Vongola Heir and ends up in the middle of a longstanding battle against the Forces of Evil. Does the World Greatest Hitman have what it takes to guide the mysterious masked Rider towards his true strength? Stay tuned to find out! Drabbles, Prompt Fill - Posted

17.11.           When the Nightingale Sings: Sky Flames are Dragons, and when a Sky is Sealed they turn into True Dragons once said Seal breaks. Tsuna has the Best Treasures Ever. Reborn is confused but willing to roll with it. Hayato needs to do all the research. Drabbles, Prompt Fill - Posted

17.12.           Where the Sky Meets the Sea: Crossover with OP – The ASL Trio are reborn as Sawada Tsunayoshi’s younger brothers, and the Will of D means they remember everything. Sawada Iemitsu might once have been Akagami no Shanks and despite lacking his memories knows better than to keep secrets from his wife. (Iemitsu does keep a lot of secrets from Nono, such as the fact that he has more than one son.) Iemitsu redirects Xanxus’ attention to the Family traitors, Nono never meets Tsuna, and nobody gets sealed. Then Reborn shows up, and everything is now on fire. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

17.13.            

18. KYOU KARA MAOU

18.1.              The Needs Of Our Natures: Wolfram decides to prove exactly how much his mother’s son he really is and seduces Yuuri. Wolfram seduces Yuuri like it’s his job. (Yuuri likes it.) WIP - Unposted

19. MARVEL

19.1.               An Assemblage of Ice and Fire: Crossover with GOT – Team Iron Man focus, since Tony is reincarnated as Ned Stark. Starks are made of Iron, and Winter is coming. Tony’s genius intellect, knowledge of politics and economics, experience with magic and alternate realities, and the fact that Extremis carried over through his reincarnation and adapted to work with First Man magic means that the Stark siblings who go to the Tourney of Harrenhal are nothing like the canon versions. Rhaegar gets his Stark bride, and he proceeds to regret it for the rest of his life. Meta

19.2.               Iron Laced: Crossover with TMNT – Maria Carbonell was actually Oroku Karai in disguise because she was on vacation from being a member of the Council of Shadows. Karai and all the Turtles accessed magic ninja dragon powers when they took over the Council and Karai-as-Maria passed that down to Tony. So Tony is actually a dragon and an encounter with the Enchantress leaves him locked in his dragon form. WIP - Unposted

19.3.               Miles To Go: Post-MCU Civil War almost-Time Travel where Tony grieves so hard he sends an Extremis injector capsule to the year before the Winter Soldier murdered his parents. Said capsule lands in front of a wasted 15-year-old Tony in the aftermath of a frat party. Cue the face hugger scene. Tony gets an Extremis upgrade about 30 years ahead of schedule and it’s the only reason he survives the memory download without his brain turning into mush. WIP - Unposted

19.4.               Perception: Instead of killing Scott in X3, Dark Phoenix instead fixes the brain damage that prevented him from controlling his optic blasts and then shunts him trough time an space. Scott wakes up 18-years-old in Stryker’s lab and proceeds to hijack Wolverine’s rampage so that they can both escape. James Howlett is impressed, and Cyclops hates everything but especially time travel because it ruins all his fallback plans. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

20. NARUTO

20.1.               A Feather’s Weight: Crossover with FFVII – Kakashi and Obito, along with their respective subordinates, are reincarnated in Wutai, and are thus in position to undermine a lot of Hojo’s plans simply by being themselves. Wutai still loses, but by a much smaller margin, and SHIN-RA realizes much too late that Wutai’s “concession” was a trap. Kakashi is a big shiny distraction for Sephiroth, the SOLDIERS revolt, and nobody knows who assassinated President Shinra. WIP - Unposted

20.2.               A Space Between Ice and Fire: Crossover with GOT – The Konoha Founders and their siblings are reincarnated as Starks and Baratheons and manage to save the Realms of Men while resolving their many and varied issues with one another. Meta

20.3.               A Widening Gyre: Rin survives the Chidori and her existence is now an S-class secret. Said S-class secret distracts Obito on his way to ambush Kushina’s labour and several different chase scenes take place. They all end up in the ROOT base made from one of Tobirama’s old labs and instead of Kyuubi getting loose Team Ro, the Fourth Hokage’s team of bodyguards, Obito, Anko, and all of ROOT plus Danzo himself get dumped into the Warring Clans Era. Obito kills Danzo in a panic when he realizes that taking the Bijuu means killing Rin, Kakashi sacrifices himself again, and there is a lot more running around. Kakashi suborns ROOT en masse, Obito is stupidly overpowered and homicidal but it’s okay because Kakashi is playing damsel in distress and distracting him. The Senju and the Uchiha are all really confused by these kids, there are far too many mistaken identities, and Konoha gets founded much earlier than in canon. Meta

20.4.               According to Custom: Hashirama and Madara should not be left unsupervised (that’s why Mito and Touka tend to lurk nearby when they have tea together) because it causes them to get Brilliant Ideas. This time they decide to make friends with one another’s little brothers. How Madara went from being “nice” to Tobirama to courting the oblivious younger Senju is still something of a mystery, but there are several bets riding on when Tobirama is going to realize what’s going on. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

20.5.               Around the River Bend: Tobirama feels Itama die and runs to the river to mourn. Quite predictably he meets Madara there, and the course of History changes. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

20.6.               Colours and Promises: Set a decade after the Evil has been defeated and life returned to normal, Tobirama (once the magical superhero Dragon) is still living with the side effects of sacrificing everything to save the world while he was still a teenager. Notes on a piano, and a familiar voice singing a familiar song. Tobirama finds Madara (once the magical superhero Phoenix) and finally gets to enjoy his victory. Love can be killed, but it never dies, only ever taking on new shapes as we move on with our lives. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

20.7.               Dare Not Speak Its Name: Madara is Demi as all get out aka Madara’s a virgin with a shy dick. Also known as the AU where Madara proposes marriage to Tobirama for the sake of peace and the children. The only reason Izuna approves is because the thought of Tobirama suffering a lifetime of blueballs is hilarious to him. Meta

20.8.               Heavy as the Mountain: Team 7 is losing the fight against Kaguya, but Obito and Kakashi perform a last-minute sacrifice that means the kids survive. It also causes them all to be de-aged by over a decade and thrown back in time to the Warring Clans Era. Kakashi and Obito die, Team 7 gets adopted by presumably-Hatake Kanna, then a few years later they run into Uchiha Izuna and it all descends into chaos. (Team 7 takes total advantage of everything to get their revenge on Zetsu and maybe fix some of Konoha’s longstanding issues at the same time.)  Oneshot, Prompt Fill – Posted

20.8.1. Crumble To The Sea: The adventures of time travelling Team 7 as they get adopted by the Uchiha Clan, arrange to make Izuna’s life miserable until he proves worthy of courting their An-chan, and get aggressively mother-henned by Uchiha Madara. (The last one came as a bit of a surprise.) Kurama ends up adopting the Uchiha Clan because he likes frustrating Zetsu, and Team 7 appreciates the extra time to grow taller before they need to go weed whacking. Concept

20.9.               In Konoha We Dance: The Uchiha Clan has a tradition of belly dancing and it fixes everything that was wrong with Konoha in canon. Series

20.9.1. O-Bon Appetite: Thanks to his dance training Izuna manages the core control to dodge Tobirama’s sword enough to avoid a fatal wound and Konoha starts off on more equal footing. Tobirama then walks into a traditional Uchiha celebration and his brain shuts off. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

20.9.2. Hot Like Burning: Kushina drags Minato to the Uchiha Police Office Party so she can make time with Mikoto and there is so much skin, Minato was not emotionally prepared for this. Fugaku takes advantage of the Yondaime’s weakness as only an Uchiha can and the glorious ‘ship FuMiKuMi sets sail. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

20.9.3. Got This Fire Burning: Overnight shifts at the Mission Desk gets boring. Konoha ninja like to dance, because dancing isn’t boring. Kakashi shows them all how it’s done when a member of Team 7 hits it. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

20.10.           Karma, and the Repercussions Thereof: Crossover with KHR – Legendary Ninja from the Elemental Countries get reincarnated into KHR and proceed to adopt all the Magic Rainbow Fire Children. Nono and Iemitsu suffer. Series - WIP

20.10.1.                Karmic Balance: Kakashi and Obito are ninja married from the very start because of metaphysical bonding and some minor haunting during their last lives. Between Ninshu Shinobi needing to be in Clans and Flame Actives needing to be in Harmonies it does not take long before the child stealing begins. Gokudera Kakashi is the best wife and Dokuro Obito repents, repeatedly and often, while also having the time of his second life. Tsuna loves his Kakashi-sensei and wants to be just like him when he grows up. WIP, Chaptered - Posted

20.10.2.                Karmic Justice: Madara and his brothers are reborn as Fon’s nephews and do not take kindly to the Arcobaleno curse being put on one of their relatives. The Hibari Clan proceeds to start hunting for the Man in the Iron Man en mass. Madara and his brothers hit Namimori during Nono’s visit and witness the sealing of Tsunayoshi. They don’t take well to this either. Things go worse for Tsuna than they do in canon and Madara hunts down Tobirama because he needs the resurrection to be done perfectly. Tsuna loves his Madara-shishou and wants to be just like him when he grows up. Oneshot - Posted

20.10.2.1.  Karmic Justice – Hubris: Madara comes across Xanxus in the ice while investigating the Vongola and despite Xanxus being a bit older than the usual target for child stealing decides to steal him anyway. After resurrecting Tsuna, Madara and Tobirama’s next project is defrosting Xanxus. Concept

20.10.2.2.  Karmic Justice – Providence: Madara finds Xanxus on the streets while hunting in Italy for the Man in the Iron Mask. Wrath Flame calls to Wrath Flame and Madara instantly adopts the delightfully savage little boy. Then Namimori happens, and Tsuna’s seal gets him temporarily killed, and Xanxus reaches 100-year-Xanatos-Gambit-vengance-plot levels of overprotective big brother. WIP - Unposted

20.11.           Look the Innocent Flower: Orochimaru gets the Hat instead of Minato because instead of working for Danzo he creates his Baby-no-Jutsu (the same one that produced Rogu and Mitsuki) and that’s how Orochimaru accidently turns Tenzo into the Orochimaru-and-Tsunade lovechild while field testing some gene-splicing adoption techniques. Sarutobi is so delighted by all the babies he names Orochimaru his successor without any further debate. Konoha proceeds to become a somewhat androgynous, gender-fluid utopia full off affectionate, friendly people who only want you for your body. Orochimaru refuses to allow hypocrisy in his Konoha and loyalty to ones comrades is not only encouraged, it’s enforced. Meta

20.12.           Negotiation is an Artform: Remix of The Art of Negotiation by Kage88 – Konoha’s Founders take a trip to Uzushio and the Uzumaki are annoyingly persistent in their attentions, even when said attentions are unwanted. Tobirama’s political savvy is not to be underestimated, and Tobirama’s just as ridiculously overprotective of his loved ones as his relatives are of him. Bitchy pining resolves into dating, and the only reason Tobirama lets Hashirama get away with betting on his love life is because Hashirama was the only one who had faith in Tobirama making the first move. Oneshot, Fandom Exchange Fill - Complete

20.13.           No Evil Abolishing Resentment System: Post Kaguya’s return, Madara gets bound by a System determined to help Madara turn all his Resentment Level into Love Points via a quick transmigration plot. Transmigrator!Madara gets to kiss-kiss fall in love with Reincarnator!Tobirama 55 times in a row. I promise that all the gratuitous makeout sessions are plot relevant. Meta

20.14.           Only Fools Rush In: Also known as the Uchiha Get Catnipped AU – the scene of Rin’s suicide is a few seconds off from canon and this not only results in Rin remaining alive, but Obito is also welcomed back to life so enthusiastically by his teammates that his Makengyou spontaneously manifests. A year or so later, Danzo attempts to use an experimental drug to weaken the Uchiha Clan enough for ROOT to have an easy time killing them and/or an excuse for eradicating the entire Clan. Only the drug is a happy-making drug that has every single member of the Clan manifest the Makengyou and immediately run off to snuggle their friends, family, and sundry other precious people. Meta

20.15.           Red in Hand and Claw: Madara has Raptor Summons. This fact is significantly more terrifying than anyone outside of the Uchiha Clan is really aware of. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

20.16.           Roads Diverged: Kakashi from a Darker-Than-Canon AU ends his fight with Obito with mutual destruction, and as they both lay dying Kakashi confesses to having always loved Obito. Obito being Obito and therefore unholy levels of Extra even for an Uchiha, proceeds to use Edo Tensai on Team 7 in order to heal Kakashi and then fling him through dimensions until he lands in a Lighter-Than-Canon AU where Kakashi sees Rin in time to avoid hitting her with the Chidori. Things spiral from there. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

20.17.           Spite And Fury: A crossover with the “Original Goods” Proud Immortal Demon Way from Scum Villains Self-Saving System – Uchiha Madara and Shen Jiu get combined into a single person and Cang Qiong is not ready for this much concentrated asshole. Too bad for them, the new-and-improved Shen Qingqui is here to stay. Meta

20.18.           That We Answer to Our Stars: Crossover with SW – Kaguya’s reality warp has some strange side effects to the point of ridiculousness. All the Uchiha to ever exist are resurrected and then dumped wholesale onto an alien deathworld that is essentially what Training Ground 44 would be if it was allowed to cover an entire planet. The Uchiha proceed to seduce the Jedi and foil all of Palpatine’s plans for galactic domination. Meta, Chaptered WIP - Posted

20.19.           The Memory Remains: Canon divergence via the reincarnation of Uchiha Izuna, his wife Kanna, and Senju Touka as Uchiha Obito, Hatake Kakashi, and Nohara Rin. Yes, they retained all their memories. Yes, Konoha is going to suffer for its sins against the children. Yes, this is going to end in a Team Minato threesome. Meta

20.20.           The Thin Line: Kakashi loses patience with the Sandaime when no appreciable action is taken to remove Danzo from power even after Kakashi literally reports to Sarutobi’s face that he was ordered by Danzo to assassinate the Third Hokage. So Kakashi crashes an Uchiha Clan meeting and asks them to run away with him and his cute little brothers to a lovely tropical Island. Cue the Uchiha Exodus That Fucks Over Canon. Kakashi and the Uchiha Clan proceed to re-found Uzushio and collect a few S-class missing nin along the way. Meta, WIP - Unposted

20.21.           The Waters and the Wild: The Senju are High Court Fae, and the Uchiha are Wild Hunt Shapeshifters. Tobirama attempts to interrupt Hashirama and Madara during their riverside meeting, only it backfires when he realizes that Madara is his Soulmate. Also the Uchiha are “clothing optional” and Tobirama was not emotionally prepared for this. Oneshot, Prompt Fill – Posted

20.22.           To Linger In Dreams: After Kaguya takes over his body Madara gets yeeted out of reality into the Void. An eldritch Void god takes an interest in Madara and chucks Madara into a Magic Fantasy AU and Madara is even more not-Human than he was before. Also known as that really fucked up AU with cursed ABO dynamics. Meta

20.23.           Truth in Hyperbole: Shinobi are what happen when Aliens and Humans have kids, Bloodline Talents are what happens when Kami and Youkai ancestry gets added to the pot. Most of the time Shinobi stay mostly Human. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they really don’t. Series - WIP

20.23.1.                Blood Price: Tobirama wakes up after being killed and proceeds to resurrect his little brothers and Madara’s little brothers. Tobirama would resurrect Madara too but Madara had already managed to resurrect himself. Oneshot, Comm. Fill - Posted

20.23.2.                Still Waters Run: The Sage of Six Paths gets his ass kicked by his ex-wife, his daughter-in-law, and Tobirama’s mother. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

20.23.3.                A Thing With Feathers: Madara’s side of the story of their transformation into minor kami. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

20.23.4.                Come Away: Zetsu is targeting Obito in another attempt to create the Rinnegan. Kakashi has his first “near death” experience and Obito is not amused at all. Neither is Rin. Team 7 is overprotective and codependent regardless of the generation in question. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

20.23.5.                Quoth the Raven: Danzo’s schemes got him chased out of Konoha to escape execution, and he invades during the Chunin Exams in order to get his revenge. Summoning Tobirama using the Edo Tensai was probably not the best plan. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

20.24.           Tsukumogami No Kankurou: While he is still very young, Kankurou signs a Summons contract with the Tsukumogami (aka the Muppet Theater Troupe) and then proceeds to interrupt Yashamaru’s “attack” on Gaara while simultaneously wreaking havoc across the entirety of Sunagakure. All of this is done to get back at Rasa for not letting Kankurou play with his baby brother. The Middle Child Syndrome is strong in this one. Never underestimate the power of petty spite. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

20.25.           Twice is Happenstance: As a side effect of the battle against Kaguya breaking through dimensions, the ghosts of the Uchiha Clan send their memories as far back as possible. On the eve of his younger brother’s assassinations, Uchiha Madara wakes up with memories of being Indra and Sasuke. All the Uchiha have memories of their past and future lives combining with their current selves, and it causes something of a fracas while it gets sorted out. Cue the Uchiha Exodus That Fucks Over Canon. Oneshot - Posted

20.25.1.                Enemy Action: The building of Uchihatlantis, the knockback effects of remembering more than one lifetime, and what happens when the Uchiha start to go back out into the world in order to hunt down their spouses and mess up Zetsu’s plans. Meta

20.26.           Two Steps Back: Retired Rokudaime Hatake Kakashi accidently has his first vacation ever interrupted when he visits the Uzushiogakure ruins and gets slingshot back an incarnation or two due to triggering a derelict seal. Kakashi being Kakashi, he proceeds to continue with his vacation until he has a drunken bar hookup with Uchiha Izuna and now the beloved younger brother of Uchiha “I-can-fight-five-armies-and-win” Madara is stalking Kakashi in order to recite (hilariously awful) poetry about the beauty of Kakashi’s kenjutsu. This is not the retirement Kakashi signed up for. Drabbles, Prompt Fills – Posted

20.26.1.     TSB – And a Jump To The Left: The epic courtship confusion which descends upon the Land of Fire when the Time-Travelling King of Trolls and an Angry Weasel Brat attempt to out-romance each other. Meta

20.27.           Two Truths and a Lie: Mikoto and Kushina have been fake!dating for years to keep the more annoying Uchiha relatives from trying to get her married off. It’s a brilliant plan, and it works perfectly. But times change, and Kushina’s eyes are very pretty. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

20.28.           Wills of Fire and Conquest: Crossover with OP – Kakashi is Rouge’s little brother and ends up raising the ASL trio while also searching for other reincarnated shinobi. Obito and the rest of Akatsuki become the Red Dawn Pirates and Kakashi eventually founds a new Uzushiogakure on the Red Line. Ace decides he wants to be the Nidaime Uzukage, and Whitebeard accidently insults Ace’s mother so badly during the “recruitment” debacle that Ace spends 100 days trying to beat an apology out of the arrogant old goat. Shinobi-versus-pirate culture clash is frequent and hilarious. WIP - Unposted

20.29.           Worth of a Thousand Words: Political Hostage!Tobirama gets caught by the Uchiha just before he manages to use Hiraishin in battle for the first time. The Uchiha are all sensors that use Ninshu techniques otherwise since lost to time to communicate among themselves. This results in a much more united Uchiha Clan who are perfectly willing to let Madara push for a peace treaty with the Senju now that Tobirama’s capture has given them the leverage to do so. Meta

21. NURARIHYON NO MAGO

21.1.               1001 Demonic Nights: An AU Rikuo who was dragged into Yomi along with his Hakkai Yakko during the battle against the Nue manages to escape from hell by jumping into an alternate reality where his mother Wakana had a threesome with Rihan and Otome. Wakana left to take over her family shrine without telling her lovers that she was pregnant. The Rikuo who was born as a result died as an infant from the Nue’s curse on Nurarihyon’s bloodline. Both Rikuo and Otome’s daughter were conceived on the same night and are both half-demons due to Rihan shifting forms for kinky species-play. WIP - Unposted

22. ONE PIECE

22.1.               Burning Salt Water: Crossover with KHR – Xanxus gets dumped onto the Oro Jackson during the Pirate King’s last voyage when Nono’s Zero Point goes sideways and he ends up adopted by Rouge and Roger while he heals. After the execution Xanxus ends up raising the ASL trio to take over the Pirate Throne and Ace sets the Moby Dick on fire when Whitebeard kidnaps him. WIP – Unposted

22.2.               How Far I’ll Go: Roger had other lovers before he met Rouge and one of them was a Fishwife that he met at a Peacemoot. Their daughter was a mermaid and thus needed to remain on Fishman Island for her own safety. The World Government is so Human-centric that they don’t bother looking into any of Roger’s lady friends from the other races. Gol D Ann gives no shits about anybodies prejudices and when her mixed up genetics mean her feet come in about 20 years early she immediately takes off to track down her baby brother. Goldfish is Luffy’s favourite sibling and Ann is delighted to find three baby brothers for the price of one. WIP - Unposted

22.3.               Rumour, Slander, Hearsay: Garp is even worse at interpersonal communication than in canon and now the entire Marine fleet thinks that Monkey D Dragon is an oversexed degenerate who keep dumping his illegitimate spawn on his poor heroic father’s doorstep. Otherwise known as Dragon adopts ASL and they seek a glorious Revolution. Meta

22.4.               Those Who Favour Fire: Ace survives Marineford, even if only in spirit, because the Goddess of the Sea answered the prayer of another version of Ace. Waking up in the place of his 17-year-old murdered doppelganger, Ace now has to deal with raising a 7-year-old Luffy and escaping the notice of the Marines. Oh, and his murdered younger self is hanging around as a ghost, all the younger versions of Luffy’s crewmates keep showing up on Ace’s boat, and Ace keeps getting tripped up over how much more horrible this world is compared to the one he came from. Chaptered WIP - Posted

22.5.               Where the Sky Meets the Sea: Crossover with KHR – The ASL Trio are reborn as Sawada Tsunayoshi’s younger brothers, and the Will of D means they remember everything. Sawada Iemitsu might once have been Akagami no Shanks and despite lacking his memories knows better than to keep secrets from his wife. (Iemitsu does keep a lot of secrets from Nono, such as the fact that he has more than one son.) Iemitsu redirects Xanxus’ attention to the Family traitors, Nono never meets Tsuna, and nobody gets sealed. Then Reborn shows up, and everything is now on fire. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

22.6.               Wildfire Hearts: Ace goes back in time from his death to the Grey Terminal Fire, figures out how to use natural fire to heal himself, saves child!Ace and child!Luffy, changes his name to Portgas D Riot, runs away to the Grand Line with his baby brothers, puts together a new pirate crew, and hits on Marco so hard the Phoenix forgets how to complete his sentences. Everything works out for the better. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

22.6.1. WH – Heave A Sigh And A Wish For Me: SI-Clearfin Lionfish Mermaid named Occhio D Vittoria gets tapped in by the Ocean Goddess to help Riot et al from Wildfire Hearts succeed in their adventures.Oneshot, Prompt Fill – Posted

22.6.2. WH – Today Is The Day Of Reckoning: Riot is gathering up his new crew, forming the Anarchy Pirates, dealing with Garp, seducing Marco the Pheonix, and discovering that Sabo survived when his little brothers gatecrash a Revolutionary Army mission. Meta

22.7.               Wills of Fire and Conquest: Crossover with Naruto – Kakashi is Rouge’s little brother and ends up raising the ASL trio while also searching for other reincarnated shinobi. Obito and the rest of Akatsuki become the Red Dawn Pirates and Kakashi eventually founds a new Uzushio on the Red Line. Ace decides he wants to be the Nidaime Uzukage, and Whitebeard accidently insults Ace’s mother so badly during the “recruitment” debacle that Ace spends 100 days trying to beat an apology out of the arrogant old goat. Shinobi-versus-pirate culture clash is frequent and hilarious. WIP - Unposted

23. PETSHOP OF HORRORS

23.1.               Event Horizons: Leon isn’t human, and that changes things in the aftermath of the confrontation with Papa D. Count D wants to unravel the mystery of his favourite Detective, and Leon is starting to wake up. Hopefully they both find the knowledge they’re looking for before it’s too late and their enemy finds them. Chaptered WIP – Posted (Under Revision)

24. POKÉMON

24.1.              The Hero Of His Own Story: When Green Oak is replaced as the Kanto Champion less than a full 24 hours after winning the title, he runs. Right into a Celebi that was looking for an assistant. Green Oak gets over his bullshit really fast because oh shit that’s an Angry Legendary. Green is also supremely unimpressedwith Red’s bullshit when he learns that Red was supposed to be dealing with all the world-saving events but is instead hiding in a depression cave. Meta

25. SAILOR MOON

25.1.               From Olympus to Mu: The Senshi go to college and Mamoru reunites with the Shitennou. Basis of headcanons and characterization for any further post-canon SM fic. WIP - Unposted

25.2.               Music of the Spheres: Crossover with KHR – Post Stars Usagi and Post Vongola Inheritance Tsuna are cousins who meet for the first time ever only after the Vongola’s enemies kidnap Ikkuko and Shingo. Usagi gets taken into protective custody by her Mafia relatives without being given the chance to say she doesn’t need it. Usagi then proceeds to seduce all the women, charm all the men, and accidently throw Iemitsu out the nearest window every time he’s in the same room she is. Chaptered WIP - Posted

25.2.1. MotS – Celestial Chorus – MotS Spinoff AU: Chibiusa’s arrival has Usagi dragging her family to Namimori to prove that Chibiusa isn’t their cousin and things get wildly out of hand. Meta

25.2.2. MotS – Sing In Exaltation: The Shingo from The Sharp Knife Of A Short Life hears the name of his ‘cousin in Namimori’ and immediately begins to meddle. Meta

25.3.               The Sharp Knife Of A Short Life: SI is reborn as Tsukino Shingo under the aegis of the Roman God Janus and then proceeds to merrily say ‘screw canon, my sister gets to be happy or else’. Oneshot, Prompt Fill - Posted

26. SCUM VILLAINS SELF-SAVING SYSTEM

26.1.               Spite And Fury: A crossover with Naruto and the “Original Goods” Proud Immortal Demon Way from Scum Villains Self-Saving System – Uchiha Madara and Shen Jiu get combined into a single person and Cang Qiong is not ready for this much concentrated asshole. Too bad for them, the new-and-improved Shen Qingqui is here to stay. Meta

27. SLAYERS

27.1.               Infinite Blue: Zelgadis starts paying more attention to the deeper practices of Shamanism and gets in touch with his demonic side while achieving deeper harmony in himself. Xellos approves and it all results in magic explosions and very strange demonic courtship rituals. WIP - Unposted

28. SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

28.1.               Skipped Tracks: The triplets from Underground end up transmigrating into the recently deceased bodies of their counterparts in a SatAM reality and proceed to rock out and confuse everyone. WIP - Unposted

29. STAR WARS

29.1.               A Balance of Ice and Fire: Crossover with GOT – Qui-Gon Jinn’s three Padawan Learners and Padme (who got taken in Anakin’s place) are reincarnated as the Tyrell siblings. They proceed to follow the Will of the Force and prepare the Seven Kingdoms to win against the Long Night. Meta

29.2.               A Robe of Stars: Crossover with TMNT – The turtles and Karai help Obi-wan save the Initiates and babies in the Jedi crèche before the Temple gets razed. Once the children are safe, Obi-wan and his new allies turn their attention to saving the Vode. WIP – Unposted

29.3.               That We Answer to Our Stars: Crossover with Naruto – Kaguya’s reality warp has some strange side effects to the point of ridiculousness. All the Uchiha to ever exist are resurrected and then dumped wholesale onto an alien deathworld that is essentially what Training Ground 44 would be if it hadn’t been fenced in. The Uchiha proceed to seduce the Jedi and foil all of Palpatine’s plans for galactic domination. Meta, Chaptered WIP – Posted

30. TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

30.1.               A Robe of Stars: Crossover with SW – The turtles and Karai help Obi-wan save the Initiates and babies in the Jedi crèche before the Temple gets razed. Once the children are safe, Obi-wan and his new allies turn their attention to saving the Vode. WIP - Unposted

30.2.               A Velvet Glove: Crossover with FOZ – Leonardo gets summoned to be Louise’s Familiar. Since all of his brothers are dead, Leo sees no reason not to make the most of this “lifelong bond of magic and spirit” and adopts Louise as his little sister. Halgenkia is not prepared for a Louise Francois le Blanc de la Valliere with ninja training. Henrietta is probably far too gleeful over making her best friend her Spymaster, but it’s not like anyone knows enough about what they’re doing to stop her. Reconquista gets exposed and smashed, and Wardes really should have respected his fiancée more. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

30.3.               Iron Laced: Crossover with TMNT – Maria Carbonell was actually Oroku Karai in disguise because she was on vacation from being a member of the Council of Shadows. Karai and all the Turtles accessed magic ninja dragon powers when they took over the Council and Karai-as-Maria passed that down to Tony. So Tony is actually a dragon and an encounter with the Enchantress leaves him locked in his dragon form. WIP - Unposted

30.4.               Paper Flowers: Leonardo and Michelangelo reconnect after years of separation and deal with some leftover issues from their childhood while they prepare to welcome the next generation of Ninja Turtles into the world. WIP - Unposted

30.5.               Patching the Trousers: Starting from the end of the Fast Forward arc, Leonardo gets lost in the multiverse and proceeds to adopt all the secondary turtles. All of them. Leonardo is the Mom Friend, only he’s not a friend he’s just a Mom. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

30.6.               Stained Bandages: Realistic resolution to the most common dark!Splinter tropes. Leo doesn’t really care about himself, but if you touch his brothers he will kill you. Splinter touches Raphael. Karai is gifted with Splinter’s decapitated head in a box. Oneshot- Posted

30.7.               Unraveled Sleeves: After First Contact and Splinter’s death from old age, the Turtles scattered to live their lives. Leonardo is the only one who stayed in the Lair. Making peace with the Karai was only the first step towards healing, and Leo makes peace with himself as he takes on students and his family grows again. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

31. TRANSFORMERS

31.1.               A Transformation of Ice and Fire: Crossover with GOT – Most of the Cybertronians who died during Unicron’s Awakening end up reincarnated as dragons (Seekers) and Direwolves (Autobots). The sapience of the animals causes significant changes to outcome of several key canon events. Meta

31.2.              Action Equals Reaction: There is a time and a place for everything. Even things like learning that your Air Commander is pregnant, and his parents are wingnuts. The middle of battle is neither the time nor the place. Oneshot - Posted

31.3.               Compromising Positions: Bay’verse Shattered Glass – Megatron knows that there’s something wrong with his brother, but nobody will listen to him. Oneshot - Posted

31.4.               High Stakes Wagers: Decepticon Romantic Gestures at their finest. Series

31.4.1. The Bet: Soundwave saves Starscream’s life after he gets blasted away from Unicron and they proceed to have wild, kinky spark-bonding and that’s it that’s the plot. Oneshot - Posted

31.4.2. The Rebirth: Starscream and Soundwave head off Galvatron and Zarak’s attempt to destroy Cybertron (and Earth, but that’s really secondary to them) and earn their just rewards for being on the winning side. Oneshot - Posted

31.5.               Nine Rings of Vos: The Epic Seeker Saga where Starscream is the uncontested leader of the Seekers and he’s using the Great War as a cover to renew his people’s population numbers, add some variety to their core coding, and also destroy the Cybertronian Government because they liked to make Seekers into their slaves. Seven-part Series, Chaptered, WIP - Posted

31.5.1. Before Dawn: A Rings spin-off where the Seekers are actually all sparklings who disguised themselves as their parents in order to survive the Great War. Crash-landing on Earth precipitates the Big Reveal and also the actual adult Seekers get woken from Government sanctioned stasis thanks to the energy surges caused by resource shipments coming in from Earth. Chaptered, WIP - Posted

31.6.               No Evil: Starscream is a scientist who wants to stay a scientist but he’s so damn good at being Air Commander that he gets promoted anyway. Also, his best friend/roommate from the War Academy is the closest thing to a therapist that the Decepticons have and that means Starscream stays mostly sane. Concept, WIP - Unposted

31.7.               Thundercracker’s So Crazy in Love: Seekers Go Into Heat and that will put the War on pause for a bit because of the crazy. Series

31.7.1. Always the Quiet Ones: Thundercracker terrorizes the Decepticon forces on Earth while displaying for his Wingmates and accidently kills Megatron. Oneshot - Posted

31.7.2. Decepticon Service Announcement: Thundercracker is the new Supreme Leader of the Decepticons and he’s decided that they’re in a good position to negotiate peace terms with the Autobots now. Oneshot - Posted

32. YU-GI-OH

32.1.               Old Game, New Rules: Sentinels and Guides are a built in part of society and a certain playing card game ties into that a bit more than most people would expect. There’s a lot of gratuitous soul-bonding smut, worldbuilding runs rampant, and there’s a lot of social commentary on the futility of stereotyping any portion of the population based on a single point of commonality. Chaptered WIP – Unposted

32.2.               The Future of the Past: Jounouchi’s past life left a surprise in their soul that the trip to memory world triggers and now Katsuya is living through all of Jono’s memories. Chaptered WIP – Posted (Under Revision)

33. YU YU HAKUSHO

33.1.              Bonds: Koenma and Yusuke are soulmates and Enma Daioh interferes because one his brat son is properly wedded and bedded Enma can take a long overdue vacation. Oneshot – Posted

33.1.1.                  Ties That Bind: Koenma and Yusuke are just starting to get used to being bonded mates when a new/old-and-forgotten enemy shows up to complicate things. WIP – Unposted (Under Revision)

33.2.              What Happens on Vacation: Crossover with Bleach – turns out that Kurosaki Misaki was a senior ferry girl on sabbatical (which translates as living a mortal life unaware of her true nature) and she was late returning to work due to being trapped in Grand Fishers gut. Ichigo and Uryuu are very confused when their “cousin” Kazuma shows up to introduce his new bride to the family. Koenma is just really pissed off by all the paperwork he needs to deal with while cleaning up his father’s mismanaged pet project. Chaptered WIP - Unposted

[arqinnovations]

10 things that I want from FF7 Remake 2

Some of these are a given, but just for fun, others are a bit of a long shot. Spoilers abound, so turn back now if you're still making your way through Midgar as we speak. In no particular order:

Jessie. I'm going to be honest, it took some self-restraint to not make this a 10 things I'd like to do to see from Jessie list. One thing that Remake did incredibly well was flesh out the Avalanche crew, and Jessie was undoubtedly the one who benefited the most, going from ponytailed plot device to forward and fiery courter of Cloud. I absolutely dreaded her inevitable death scene, and nearly jumped out of my chair at the suggestion that she may have actually survived this time around. I won't ask for a pizza and chill side quest, but I would be thrilled to just see her alive and well in the next chapter.

Gold Saucer. It's not a question of if it'll be in the game, but of how it will be presented. I'm expecting that a lot of love and care will be put into this locale, and I want everything: Chocobo racing, roller coasters, a beefed up haunted house, battle square, a potential date with a pissed off Barrett...all of it. Saying that I'm excited to see an updated Gold Saucer would be a massive understatement.

Open world. Or not. I'm fine with either. I remember how massive the FF7 world seemed to me as a kid while playing the original game, and I just can't see how something of that size will scale to the table that Remake has set so far. I loved - loved - roaming forests and taking long road trips with the boys in FF15. But Remake has a completely different world with different stakes. While the idea of a free-roaming epic is indeed attractive, there will inevitably be other games that have done an open world on a far grander scale, and it'd almost be a shame to see Remake try to draw from Skyrim when the reality is that it doesn't have to. Midgar was linear in nature and it was still beautiful and felt massive in its own way. I'd be fine with a series of mostly contained villages and towns with the second installment.

Playable Turks. This one falls into the long shot category, but you can already feel how badly the creators are itching to turn the Turks into good guys. We know that this timeline has forked off into a direction different from the one that we grew up with, so perhaps we can get a few missions with Reno and Rude running point? I'm not holding my breath, but it would be awesome.

Bahamut. And not just one, I want all three back. Vanilla Bahamut, Bahamut Neo, and Bahamut Zero! Heck, give us even more. Omega Bahamut! Ultima Bahamut! Bahama Bahamut! Nobody goes into battle without a Mut!

No more squiggly dust ghosts. Yeah, enough of those guys. I can go as far as to say that I appreciated what the Whispers provided the story, but now that our heroes have apparently ripped through the threads of fate and are playing with a freshly shuffled deck of cards, I could do without seeing them again.

The Highwind. I don't think there's any doubt that we'll be seeing the Highwind, given it's importance to Cid's character and the fact that the airship becomes the party's main mode of transportation towards the latter half of the story. What is in question is to what degree players will be able to control the massive aircraft. While we had the ability to manually fly exactly where we wanted to in the original, there's understandably some doubt as to how this will work in Remake with the game's open world status still very much in question. I'd bet on control being limited to the bridge of the ship with the option to select predetermined destinations from a world map. And I'd be fine with that. Just give us that sweet Highwind music.

More of Rufus in action. Seriously, look at that pimp. A character this cool deserves to be seen in battle more than once.

And less of Zack. Assuming he's alive and well in this reality, I could go without seeing too much of the guy. The original FF7 was such a fantastic story about life and identity because Zack passes on and symbolically entrusts his hopes and dreams to Cloud (who somewhat hilariously takes things way too literally). That story doesn't work quite as well if Zack is just hanging around being...uh, alive and stuff. And if he is, what has he been doing all this time while Aerith was getting harassed by Turks every day? Swell guy, that Zack. Or are we to assume he's alive, just not in this reality? Honestly - and it might just be me - I thought the reinsertion of Zack into the fray was one of the few missteps Remake made.

Aerith has a chance? Square knew what they were doing when they opted to establish a new timeline. I'm not saying that Aerith surviving would make the story better. On the contrary, I'm not sure if it works at all without Sephiroth jumping in and making her into an Aerith-kabob. What I do know is that there's now some definite intrigue to that moment, and they've effectively put all the suspense back into a scene that we had assumed would end in a familiar, heartbreaking fashion. It's a smart move, regardless of what eventually does happen.

[up-sideand-down]

For headcanons: I'm always down for more of your Love Potion No. 2 - or How To Appear Cool Without Really Trying. As much as I adore Nerd Chic, those two are my favorite of yours.

I’ve really kinda been missing Love Potion No. 2!

Despite the fact that he is a massively successful shapeshifter, Sephiroth does have a favorite gift/hobby: Make-up. He calls it “Shifting the hard way”. He tried it on a dare from Tifa after she pointed out Cloud always did “Witching the hard way.” It was fun and terrible at the same time. He is getting pretty scarily good at changing his appearance manually now. But his favorite person to practice on is Cloud. He can make Cloud look damn beautiful. 

Now that it knows where Sephiroth is, Sephiroth and Masamune have become very close friends once again. Sephiroth always sets aside time to stand and do nothing with his friend who prefers to be an it and Masamune will take an hour or two to be living and breathing. Despite the rocky start, Masamune has also adopted Cloud as a friend. Cloud brings nothing, but joy to Sephiroth. Masamune also thinks Cloud’s dry wit and poor luck are hilarious. Worth being able to laugh for. 

Cloud and Sephiroth do love pouring through Grandma Catherine’s cookbook for interesting or funny spells she has. Some they plan to teach to friends (sometimes under Catherine’s instructions) and some they mark to “test out” later. Sephiroth still really believes Cloud’s magic is linked to love. If it’s for love, or someone who loves him, it should work. After the revive spell worked on a succulent Sephiroth accidently killed (and mourned) Cloud is also starting to suspect the same thing. 

Sephiroth has also become very popular at Seventh Heaven, not because he’s Cloud’s boyfriend, but because people really like watching him change. Sephiroth spent a good chunk of his life trying to deny a very natural urge in all shifters and now has Cloud and a bar of people begging him to go ham and change. He takes requests once a week. His favorites are from kids. Kids really have good imaginations and really make him stretch his shifts. 

Besides Cloud and Masamune, Sephiroth gets weirdly close with Aerith. Actually, it’s not that weird because she’s also good friends with Cloud and Tifa. But Seph and Aerith are gossip fiends when they’re together. Friday nights can usually find the two away from their boyfriends chatting viciously over whatever the special is that night. It’s not always about other people (Aerith loves giving Seph make-up tips too) but Zack and Cloud are unnerved by how well those two get along. They feel like they’re comparing notes. “There’s not much bad to say,” Sephiroth assures him. 

[winterune]

Happy 46th Birthday, Suzumura Kenichi-san! | 12.09.20

I only realized it was Suzuken’s birthday yesterday when I saw a Kiramune tweet wishing him a happy birthday. A day late, but here’s my birthday commemoration post talking about some of Suzuken’s roles that I love.

#1: Zack Fair - Final Fantasy VII

Long live the best puppy, best friend, best soldier, best hero (and apparently it’s CC’s anniversary today on September 13, so... a happy 13th anniversary to Crisis Core!!). Anyway, in all seriousness, Suzuken’s voice suits Zack so much you can’t imagine anyone else voicing Zack once you’ve heard him. He sounds so natural. It’s like Zack was made for Suzuken xD Also, listening to Maaya and Suzuken as Aerith and Zack are just hhhhh so wholesome and cute >< Here’s to more Zack Fair in later parts of the Remake.

#2: Okita Sougo - Gintama

God I’m sorry I love Okita so much the little shit xD No other comment other than he’s a little shit who has really cool action scenes and I love his interactions with Gintoki (dunno why but I love hearing him call Gin “danna” lol) and I will die asking for more Okikagu scenes (they’re hilarious omg) and Suzuken is just perfect

#3: Hitachiin Hikaru - Ouran High School Host Club

another little shit, or well, two little shits. Hikaru and Kaoru, the insufferable twins xD I never really did read the manga and I’ve only watched like half of the anime (lol) but I loved Hikaru (for some reasons I don’t quite remember) and I kind of shipped him with Haruhi (and not because they’re Suzuken and Maaya, no). I like seeing them together :3 

#4: Myoue - Kyousougiga

Kyousougiga was a super cool anime. Very artistic and aesthetically pleasing. The story was quirky and unique with enough emotional depth. The characters were amazing! (Please I need more Rie Matsumoto anime!) Watched this back when I just started watching anime and I haven’t yet recognized a lot of seiyuu names but I remember loving Myoue and Suzuken as Myoue. Still one of the best anime in the last decade. 

#5: Hans Humpty - Rokka no Yuusha

Rokka no Yuusha was an interesting piece of locked-room mystery. Though I don’t quite remember the plot nor the characters, but I do remember liking it back when I first saw it, and Suzuken’s character was a favorite. Why I’m putting this on #5? Because I realize I haven’t seen a lot of Suzuken anime apparently and among others that I have seen, I think Rokka no Yuusha kind of tops them. 

And for some honorable mentions:

Demyx - Kingdom Hearts

I think I remember listening to Suzuken’s Demyx once upon a time. Yeah, kind of like that staple Suzuken’s upbeat character. I don’t remember much of Demyx’s Japanese voice, and my memory of him is based on his KH2 appearance (because I haven’t played KH3 yet). Still, I’d like to mention him here :)

Kokutou Mikiya - Kara no Kyoukai

Another Maaya x Suzuken role :3 I need to get back to watching this tbh. 

Mirokuji Yuuya - Re:Creators

The series had an interesting premise, but it never really did deliver. Still, Yuuya was my favorite among the bunch, and Suzuken was a plus :D (also, it’s another anime with both Suzuken and Maaya!! And I loved the rivalry between their characters too! Maaya’s character was awesome)

Iyami - Osomatsu-san

I still can’t quite associate Iyami’s voice with Suzuken... though I only watched the first...four episodes? of the first season ^^; Well, I’d still like to mention him here, because Suzuken as Iyami is just too weird xD

[iaintyourbro]

Shipping Makes Me Question My Sanity

I learned about the FFVII waifu wars after playing the remake. I played the OG many moons ago, replayed it a few years ago, but really got interested in the character dynamics after playing FFVIIR. 

I foolishly looked up “Is the remake pushing Cloud and Tifa more?” I found the shipping wars... That I never knew existed. 

You see, I played the OG and it was pretty clear to me that the story went a certain way. In fact, I didn’t even associate FFVII to romance. 

FFVII was a story about a villain who was pissed off that a grunt killed him, so he finds a way to come back from the dead through clones that his father made to fuck with said grunt and get revenge on all the humans that wronged his Mother. 

(This is my explanation in as few words as possible, because we all know explaining FFVII would take multiple posts). 

So why did I look up my question about Cloud and Tifa? Well, I was shocked at how they presented them. I didn’t remember this from the OG. Like I said, I didn’t associate FFVII to romance like I did with VIII, IX, and X. Those were clear. FFVII didn’t have this as a main theme. FFVIIR created extreme sexual tension between Cloud and Tifa. 

I remember when you finally found out Cloud wasn’t a SOLDIER, that he actually DID kill Sephiroth 5 years ago, and that he did come to save Tifa - he fulfilled his promise. The part when the main theme plays and he takes his helmet off... chills. Even now, I love that part. Still, I associated this with us finally getting answers to some of the weird shit that happens earlier in the game. And I was way too young and dense to understand the Under the Highwind scene. 

Needless to say, I wanted to see if others had the same impression. It seems they did, and those posts were then overpowered by the other side. “Yeah, I used to ship Cloti, but the remake made me see that it’s clearly Aerith.” What? What did I miss? 

So I questioned my sanity a bit. I played every quest - I did both Tifa and Aerith’s discovery quests. Until the point we get back to Tifa in Wall Market, I still was kind of iffy on how they were presenting Aerith and Cloud. They removed a lot of stuff from the OG that was a bit more direct from Cloud’s end. They also removed a lot of the jealousy scenes between Tifa and Aerith. Seems they gave all the jealousy to Cloud in other scenes. 

Cloud clearly is soft with Tifa. He remembers The Promise, he calls her beautiful, you have no choice but to give her the flower. No matter what choices you make with Aerith. He still gives her the flower. He gets jealous whenever he even thinks a guy is talking about her in a romantic/sexual way.

Then I see things like “Cloud was so emotionless and mean until Chapter 8″. HOW? And this goes beyond Tifa. Cloud had a ton of character growth during the first 3 chapters, and it continued on until Chapter 8. This was not something where he suddenly turned nice to Aerith. He had a ton of people help him out before.

Take Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. Cloud was a dick to them. I mean, he really was. I was sad for Wedge, cuz I think he’s so nice, and Cloud was just mean to him. By the end of Chapter 4, he’s much nicer to them. He’s left out of their celebration, and I think maybe this was a reference to him as a child. He thought he was better than the other kids (except Tifa). He treated everybody like shit (except Tifa) in the first three chapters and Barret told him to gtfo. 

Jessie made sure to let him know she wanted him there. Now, I’m not a fan of how thirsty Jessie is. I mean they REALLY slam it on you how bad she wants to get with Cloud. Cloud then says what I was thinking “Are you seriously that desperate?!” Yes, she is, and it’s obnoxious, but I think it’s a hilarious addition to the story. However, I think it was a light bulb moment that he would be included if he was a bit nicer to people.

Cloud and Barret start getting along more as time goes on as well. This is all before Chapter 8. So I actually have commented on these posts... “Did you play the first 7 chapters? Did you play the rest of the game?” There’s so many points during FFVIIR where Cloud clearly has character development outside of what Tifa and Aerith do. 

They ignore this. That’s my issue. The ignore everything else in the story. They ignore reality, so that makes people like me question themselves.

It reminds me of a personal situation with my job. We had a really bad leader. Like, cruel, mean. And he got away with it for a long time. You can say, “just leave”, but I think anybody with a family knows that’s not as easy as it sounds. Not when you rely on your job for not only income, but benefits, retirement, and stability. Not when changing buildings causes months of legit mental breakdowns (imagine changing companies completely?). So, it wasn’t really an option.

The worst part during all of that was knowing and seeing the reality of what was going on and having people flat out try to tell me that what I was seeing wasn’t true. I had conversations with other co-workers who started to question their sanity. Is it us? Are we the problem? Are we wrong? What are we missing? And that’s tough, especially when it goes on for so long.

In the real life example, there was a resolution earlier this year, where finally the guy was fired. And a lot of people were fighting him. More than you’d think. But they were scared, so they had to be careful. This is real life, not a game, so the stakes were much higher. The truth all comes out after this type of thing, and it was actually worse than we thought. There was a lot we missed, and a lot we just weren’t aware of. We weren’t crazy - there was just a group of his followers trying to brainwash us in to thinking he was great. 

The shipping wars give me the same feelings I had during that. I question my sanity and don’t get what I’m missing. This is beyond how you interpret the LTD. This is legit ignoring parts of the story as it’s presented. SE put these Cloti moments throughout the Remake to make a point. They have Aerith say things to make a point. They even have Aerith stop making moves on Cloud after Tifa comes back and she sees the obvious “thing” between them.

There are tons of analysis on multiple scenes and how Cloud reacts. Facial expressions tell a lot, so does voice acting. There are reasons they put these scenes in. There are reasons they are part of the main story and not part of side quests. There are reasons that the devs responded the way they did in interviews. 

The Ultimania clearly talks about Cloud’s feelings. The OG talks about them. 

So why do I still feel upset when I see these? Well, for one, the posters that say “I was a Cloti until..” in most cases are probably shipping the other side, but this is a great way to make people question themselves. It may make new fans not enjoy the story as much.

Then you have Twitter. And it’s a shame, because there’s some great fanart on Twitter. But, you can’t search for “tifa” without seeing some really bad posts. And it’s the same accounts over and over. There isn’t a large amount. 

The entire goal of these posters is to fight people who don’t agree with them. They also start posting similar complaints about a week after the Cloti side makes them.

The most recent being that Cloti fans are going after Nojima and it’s not going to change anything. What? I saw a similar post about the C////erith side about a week or two ago. Why are Cloti’s going after Nojima? So I went through some of his posts. I found one where he posted about FF7R. The only Cloti posts I saw were thanking him. The C///erith ones were over the top trying to say how it was all C///erith and there was no Cloti in the remake. One even said that “millions of fans want Aerith to survive.” No, I’d say the majority of fans want the original plot points to stay. 

Nojima himself liked a fanart of himself... where they called him the Cloti king.

So where are the Cloti’s going after Nojima? I only saw praise... 

The next new one is that C///eriths aren’t racist and Cloti’s are. I’ve seen this argument in reverse as well. It seems they scope out some things and repost them in the opposite argument. 

I just don’t understand the extreme nature. You can ship who you want, but you can’t erase parts of the story to make it work. Why even bother playing the game? The romance aspect is SO SMALL in the OG. 

In the remake its a bit heavier, but it’s different times. Sex sells. Let’s add some spice to the game, and they did. I felt no sexual tension between Cloud and Aerith. Jessie tried HARD. The only mutual tension felt was between Cloud and Tifa. That deep, dear lord please do something to release this tension, feeling. Cloud and Aerith had cute little moments similar to a Disney movie or a kids movie. Tifa and Cloud had the moments you see in more mature things. 

Some of these moments are optional - the resolution scene you can technically avoid every time you play if you choose to. The Clotiscrew tunnel roll is a bit harder unless you KNOW you can avoid it and/or are terrible at the game. You literally have to try hard to mess up to not get that scene. 

The Clotiscrew tunnel scene is also hilarious to watch people react to. Cuz you do feel like you need to take a quick walk to cool off from that heat. Even my husband who doesn’t give a shit was like “wow, yeah, okay, that’s... intense.” 

It didn’t have to be, it could have been a roll and release, but he holds her and says “You okay?” in that soft af voice THAT HE ONLY USES ON HER. Her response is equally sexy. Then they get up and stare. Once again, not necessary.

All the “unnecessary” touching that goes on is fun to point out. People are still finding moments, I think. During battles, in the background during other scenes. They’re making this a point. They make it a point to show shots of those two during other scenes in the game. They aren’t being subtle anymore. 

So I don’t understand how you can erase all of that. 

The other side has a small group that is completely shitting on Tifa to do it. I don’t see that as much on the Cloti side towards Aerith. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, I bet it does, but it’s not as easy to find. Almost EVERY shipping fight has something about Tifa’s boobs, Tifa not telling Cloud about his past, something. They make stuff up in some cases.

All of this is a way to recruit people to their side. To “convert” them. I feel bad for the streamers who like Tifa and you see a group come in to try and “correct” that thought. Why do they care so much? 

Maximillian Dood doesn’t seem affected by those opinions - he’s a great supporter of Tifa as a character. He was very happy with the way they handled the remake, and that says a lot. He also has some great reactions to parts of the game. He also is a more experienced streamer, it seems.

My thoughts are... the Remake has blown expectations on how it was supposed to go. Probably a lot of fans assumed they’d make a point to build up Aerith as the love interest... but they didn’t. Tifa is in almost every chapter (2 is the exception). She is referenced multiple times in Wall Market - especially if you actually listen to the lyrics for Midgar Blues. Why place that song in during that part? 

So we go to the attack mode of survival here. They’re going to change as many opinions as possible. They’re going to make people question themselves. Make people feel bad. 

The reality is, there’s a clear cut story - they’re making it that way. There’s multiple hints that there isn’t going to be a love triangle. There’s multiple hints that Zack is going to be a thing in the Remake. They’ve definitely put it on more heavy that Aerith still loves Zack. 

I can only hope that things are made clear. That this can stop. I still say people should ship who they want. Hell, I ship Vincent and Lucrecia (this was my only romantic love in the OG back then...). However, canon is that Hojo and Lucrecia married and had a child. I wanted Vincent to secretly be the father so bad, but he’s not. That doesn’t ruin the game for me, at all. 

It would ruin the game for me, in a sense, if they completely pull a 180 in Part 2 and try to “remove” all of the stuff from Part 1 from a character dynamics perspective. It would feel wrong for Aerith to tell Cloud not to fall in love with her, tell him that everything isn’t real if he does, and also have her back off completely after Tifa is back, and then all of a sudden throw herself at him. It would erase all the friendship scenes between Tifa and Aerith.

And how could you just “turn off” Cloud’s attentive nature to Tifa? It wouldn’t make sense. It would ruin it for me because that is legit trying to erase parts of the story.

I don’t think that will happen. But I still get anxious when I see shit on the internet.

[thememcry]

      ↳ @mersener​ asked, “  " Cloud " ( science purposes ) ” ------ultimate ship meme! // accepting.

General:

Rate the Ship -   Awful | Ew | No pics pls | I’m not comfortable | Alright | I like it! | Got Pics? | Let’s do it! | Why is this not getting more attention?! | The OTP to rule all other OTPs (when i was a kid i was absolute ship trash for cloud and aerith)

How long will they last? - ignoring the obvious fate at the end of disc 1, i’ve always imagined it would have been a forever thing. cloud deserved a fucking nap after everything that happens, and he deserves soft things, too. obviously they both have some shit they have to work through but, given how cloud develops around people he cares for, i think they could be a support pillar for one another. let them retire to some unknown edge of the planet and live in peace together.

How quickly did/will they fall in love? - not. fast. at. all. which would you like me to address first: cloud’s trauma or aerith’s? because they’re both dealing with incredibly heavy shit in very different ways. and the hilarious part is that their trauma stems from the same place? shinra? shinra. so, between cloud taking a while to open up and realize he has feelings in general ------ like as a human being, and then for someone else, and aerith allowing herself to properly grieve for zack and for her lost fucking childhood that she represses into sweet smiles ... it takes a bit.

How was their first kiss? - i’m really torn between two gut feelings here. i want to say it was soft because of the above reasons. i also want to say it was soft because cloud is a socially awkward turtle and very obviously has a difficult time expressing himself, never mind emotionally / romantically. so the initial feeling is that it’s soft and tenuous and just full of is it okay if i? my second gut feeling says that it’s heat of the moment. not so much a rush of adrenaline as it is ... if i don’t do this now, i might never get the chance to. the kind where your mouth hurts when you’re done because you pressed yourself so hard and fast into the other person. urgent. 

Wedding:

Who proposed? - aerith. bless.

Who is the best man/men? - barret. and like ... nanaki.

Who is the bride’s maid(s)? - tifa, for sure.

Who did the most planning? - aerith.

Who stressed the most? - aerith.

How fancy was the ceremony? - Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big.

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? - nobody was omitted out of anything other than “this is a small ceremony”

Sex:

Who is on top? - hear me out. aerith, at first and a good portion of the time. but when cloud gets his bearing, cloud. 

Who is the one to instigate things? - aerith.

How healthy is their sex life? - Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now

How kinky are they? - Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head

How long do they normally last? - this varies, like it does with any couple in their physical relationship. stress is a factor, as well as their mental health. cloud is not mentally okay. neither is aerith, but she’s a lot more ... qualified? to handle her trauma. cloud is not, OBVIOUSLY. so this depends on the mood, the day, the stress. 

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? - yes.

How rough are they in bed? - Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it.

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? - No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory.

Children:

How many children will they have naturally? - i can’t really see them having a child of their own. if they do, then it’s just one. otherwise, you can easily consider the children of leaf house unofficially adopted because of how often aerith is there, and by affiliation, cloud.

How many children will they adopt? - see above.

Who gets stuck with the most diapers? - aerith/

Who is the stricter parent? - c l o u d.

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? - ... there are no responsible parents in this chat.

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? - aerith.

Who is the more loved parent? - they’re loved in different ways.

Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? - you really think cloud is gonna be caught dead at a pta meeting? you really think they’d let him bring his fucking sword inside? 

Who cried the most at graduation? - aerith.

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? - cloud. because aerith dragged him down with her to do it.

Cooking:

Who does the most cooking? - aerith.

Who is the most picky in their food choice? - neither of them.

Who does the grocery shopping? - lmao cloud grocery shopping. LOL. aerith.

How often do they bake desserts? - aerith does, quite a bit.

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? - both work.

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - aerith. i love you, cloud. i do. but i doubt you could cook microwave ramen without burning half of the planet down.

Who is more likely to suggest going out? - aerith.

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking? - CLOUD.

Chores:

Who cleans the room? - i don’t see either of them being particularly messy individuals. cloud is too uniform for it, and aerith just likes to have a cozy feeling, and clutter isn’t cozy. so both pick up after themselves as they go.

Who is really against chores? - neither of them, really.

Who cleans up after the pets? - mostly aerith, i’d imagine.

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - neither.

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - cloud. because it means being SOCIAL.

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - aerith. want your gil back, cloud?

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths? - depends. aerith because she has longer hair. cloud because he zones the fuck out.

Who takes the dog out for a walk? - i feel like cloud? to get a little self-relaxation time. just chill with the pup.

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - aerith does it every holiday. cloud helps when he thinks she needs it lmao.

What are their goals for the relationship? - to get some fucking sleep. not like “ ah, a good night’s sleep ” but more ... no problems, no world ending, no sephiroth, no planet crying, no fucking sidequests (lmao). just ... them, alone but together, enjoying their time and being fucking normal.

Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - cloud. he needs good sleep, the bean.

Who plays the most pranks? - aerith. honestly, idk why cloud likes her she’s a pain in the ass.

[vcriths]

AERITH AESTHETICS 001

your stereotypical masculine side

you love hoodies. you love shorts. you love jeans. dogs are better than cats. it’s hilarious when people get hurt. shopping is torture. sad movies suck. you own a car racing game. you played with hot wheels cars as a kid. at some point in time you wanted to be a firefighter. you owned a ds, ps2, n64, or sega. you used to be obsessed with power rangers. you have watched sports on tv. gory movies are cool. you go to your dad for advice. you own like a trillion baseball caps. you used to collect hockey cards. baggy sweats are cool to wear. it’s kinda weird to have sleepovers with a bunch of people. green, black, red, blue, or silver are one of your favorite colors. you love to go crazy and not care what people think. sports are fun. you talk with food in your mouth. you sleep with your socks on at night. you have fished at least once.

your stereotypical feminine side

you love to shop. you wear eyeliner. you wear the color pink. you go to your mom to talk. you consider cheerleading a sport.  you hate wearing the color black. you like going to the mall. you like getting manicures and/or pedicures. you like wearing jewelry. you cried watching the notebook. dresses are a big part of your wardrobe. shopping is one of your favorite hobbies. you don’t like the movie star wars. you are/were in gymnastics. it takes you around one hour to shower, get dressed, and make-up. you smile a lot more than you should. you have more than 10 pairs of shoes. you care about what you look like. you like wearing dresses when you can. you like wearing high heel shoes. you used to play with dolls as little kid. you like putting make-up on others. you like being the star of everything.

appearance

i am shorter than 5′5″. i have many scars. i tan easily.  i wish my hair was a different color. i have friends who have never seen my natural hair color. i have a tattoo.  i am self-conscious about my appearance. i’ve had/have braces. i’ve been told i’m attractive by a complete stranger. i have more than two piercings. i have/had piercings in places besides my ears.

experiences

i’ve gotten lost in my city. i’ve seen a shooting star. i’ve wished on a shooting star. i’ve seen a meteor shower. i’ve gone out in public in my pajamas. i’ve pushed all the buttons on an elevator. i’ve kicked a guy where it hurts. i’ve been to a casino. i’ve been skydiving. i’ve gone skinny-dipping. i’ve drank a whole gallon of milk in one hour. i’ve crashed a car. i’ve been skiing. i’ve been in a musical. i’ve caught a snowflake or snow on my tongue. i’ve seen the northern lights. i’ve sat on a rooftop at night. i’ve played a prank on someone. i’ve ridden in a taxi. i’ve seen the rocky horror picture show. i’ve eaten sushi. i’ve been snowboarding.

relationships

i’m single. i’m in a relationship. i’m engaged. i’m married. it’s complicated. i miss someone right now. i’ve gotten divorced. i’ve told someone I loved them when I didn’t. i’ve told someone I didn’t love them when I did.

honesty/crime

i’ve done something I promised someone else I wouldn’t. i’ve done something i promised myself i wouldn’t. i’ve snuck out i’ve lied to my parents about where I am. i’ve cheated while playing a game. i’ve ran a red light. i’ve witnessed a crime. i’ve been in a fist fight. i’ve been arrested.

death and suicide

i’m afraid of dying. i hate funerals. i’ve seen someone/something dying. someone close to me has attempted/committed suicide. i’ve planned my own suicide before. i’ve written a eulogy for myself.

random

i can sing well. stolen a tray from a fast food restaurant. i open up to others easily. i watch the news. i don’t kill bugs. i sing in the shower. i am a morning person. i paid for a cell phone ring tone. i am a sports fanatic. i twirl my hair. i care about grammar. i have “?”’s in my screen name. i’ve copied more than 30 cd’s in a day. i bake well. my favorite color is either white, yellow, pink, red, blue, black, purple, or orange. i would wear pajamas to school. i like martha stewart. i know how to shoot a gun. i laugh at my own jokes. cause they’re funny. i eat fast food weekly. i’ve not turned anything in and still got an a in a certain class. i can’t sleep if there is a spider/cockroach in the room. i am ticklish. i love white chocolate. i bite my nails. i’m good at remembering faces. i’m good at remembering names. i’m good at remembering dates. i honestly have no idea what I want to do for the rest of my life.

[lettersofsky]

Initial Meetings

Fun thing about this pairing; it was already planned and established in my ‘Strife of a Failure’ story before it came up in Discord. They live together with Angeal’s horde of dogs. Also, no one will ever be able to take the idea that Angeal doesn’t actually know the first thing about gardening away from me.

Day 4: Nature - Angeal/Aerith

Ko-Fi

Angeal had never minded Genesis using his name and mailing address for his subscriptions; his friend was sent out of Midgar on missions more often than not, so he was glad to have his numerous gardening and botany magazines sent to his address and save the other the trouble of needing to get them out of the mail room. The pictures were nice to look at, even if he didn’t understand most of what the articles were talking about.

Unfortunately though, it seemed that the subscriptions had been leaked to his ‘fans’ and they now thought that he was the one interested in flowers and the like, which couldn’t have been farther from the truth. He may have grown up in a farming town, but he didn’t know the first thing about plants; he’d never done anything more than help pick the ripe fruit or vegetables from the fields and orchards, and though they’d had a herb garden at home, it’d been his mother’s.

Sephiroth found it hilarious, that his fans kept sending him different seeds of flowers and plants when he couldn’t even keep a cactus alive longer than a fortnight. Genesis was blissfully unaware of it, ignoring his and Sephiroth’s fans unless he was comparing their sizes to his own, otherwise he was sure his friend would never stop bringing it up. And he might’ve realized that he had been regifting him the seeds he’d been sent, he might’ve been a bit angry about that.

No, it usually wasn’t much of an issue, but Zack never failed to make life interesting for him.

He’d somehow gotten it into his head that Angeal was great at gardening, that he enjoyed it and it consumed his free time, and had decided to introduce him to a friend of his who also enjoyed gardening. He’d tried to explain the mistake to his student but Zack had been so excited at the prospect of them meeting that he really couldn’t bring himself to say anything, Sephiroth would no doubt tease him about how he indulged the boy later but Zack was grinning like it was his birthday so he’d ignore him for the time.

But that left him with the awkwardness of having to explain the mix-up to Zack’s friend, preferrably when Zack was well out of hearing range. Zack’s friend, who lived, under the plate?

Angeal worried for a second that his student’s friend was actually some kind of drug dealer trading in their home-grown narcotics, but he trusted Zack to know well enough to avoid those kinds of people. Besides, Zack wasn’t stupid, he wouldn’t introduce a criminal to one of Shinra’s highest-ranking SOLDIERs.

Probably.

He allowed Zack to introduce them though, showing up early and getting on the train with him instead of calling off the plans and staying home on his day off. He hadn’t been planning on doing much today anyway, maybe catch up on some reading but it wasn’t something he couldn’t do later, the next book in the series wasn’t due out for another few months anyway.

He didn’t really start to worry until Zack started to lead him towards what looked like an old, decaying church, the perfect grounds for some less than legal activities. He really hoped that his student wasn’t doing something stupid, Genesis wouldn’t let him live it down if he did.

But, to his relief, the ‘friend’ Zack wanted to introduce him to was a young woman who grew flowers in the church. She seemed nice enough, if a bit nervous, but that was understandable, he was a First Class SOLDIER after all. She probably hadn’t been expecting him when Zack said he wanted to introduce them, it sounded like something his student would do.

“Hello,” he greeted once Zack had finished introducing them, taking the first step as ‘Aerith’ peered at him, it reminded him of the way Sephiroth would peer at new foods for some reason. “I like your flowers.”

“Thank you,” she responded slowly, blinking wide, impossibly green eyes at him.

Well, this was certainly awkward. Zack didn’t seem to notice though, as he only continued to beam at them. “I’ll let you guys talk about your plant stuff! See you later, Angeal! Aerith!”

He was gone before Angeal could stop him, practically sprinting out of the church and leaving them staring after him. He turned back to Aerith once Zack was gone, left under the full brunt of her stare.

“I have to admit,” he started, raising a hand to rub at the back of his neck and avoiding her eyes. “That I don’t know anything about plants other than how to kill them on accident.”

“Really?” She questioned suspiciously, shifting where she stood.

“Ah, no,” he shifted himself, swallowing heavily. “You see, my best friend loves it and he has his subscriptions sent to me because he’s away more often than not.”

“Oh,” she sighed, sounding relieved. Glancing up at her showed him that she’d relaxed, shoulders untensing and falling loosely by her side. “That’s nice of you.”

“He hates the mail office,” he explained with a small, fond smile. “So he tries to avoid it as much as he can.” It was hilarious, how someone who loved getting things as much as Genesis did down-right despised the post office; he’d almost set it on fire a few times.

“No wonder Zack thinks you like gardening,” she chuckled, fixing him with a bright smile that lit up her entire face. She took a step back, gesturing him forward. “You wanna come see my flowers anyway? You probably won’t kill them if you only look at them.”

Angeal grinned himself at her teasing words, stepping forward to join her at the broken floorboards that surrounded the patch of dirt she grew her flowers in. Things were turning out alright, despite the odd start.

Ko-Fi

[roc-thoughtblog]

SSBU SEPHIROTH DLC REVIEW PART 1 of 2

Just one of two long-ish posts about what I think of the Sephiroth DLC. This post is about everything about or surrounding the pack asides from Sephiroth himself. The second post will contain thoughts on Sephiroth the playable fighter.

tl;dr: I’ve never played FF7, but I respect it a lot. The trailer is rad, I recognised One-Winged Angel. Aerith’s Theme and Main Theme remixes are breathtaking, Northern Cave is amazing and I hope more series get narrative stages like it. And upon hearing it, I liked the original main theme enough to header this post.

CONTENTS:

Personal Context

Trailer

Music

Stage

Sephiroth Challenge!

Overall

PERSONAL CONTEXT: I've never played Final Fantasy VII; the only mainline game I've actually played is IV, though I got some way into VI at one point before I stopped. I can't really say I enjoyed them that much as I think it was around that period where I became incredibly sick of the specific combination of turn based combat, random encounters, and backtracking.

I do have pretty big respect for FF7 though. From my understanding, the story embraces an extremely broad range of themes and several disparate narrative concepts critically well. The primary cast seems quite timeless, and Cloud seems to be a far more interesting protagonist than he would appear when taken for his stereotype. Midgard is an amazingly evocative setting (though I don't know much outside of it apart from Nibelheim existing).

By itself even all of that wouldn't necessarily have to mean much, but what impresses me the most was that this was all at the beginning of 1997. For context, I'm a massive Baldur's Gate fan, and that was only released at the end of 1998; and I wouldn't personally consider Baldur's Gate to be that amazing until Shadows of Amn in 2000. And even then, iunno, I'd call it very fun and immersive, but I wouldn't necessarily call the story incredibly complex, thought provoking, or particularly emotionally evocative.

Final Fantasy VII being out there doing its thing showcasing emotionally gripping and powerful narrative in video games in 1997 to absolute swathes of people who remember it fondly to this day? Very humbling.

Plus I've seen some FF7R streams and the whole Hell House thing is absolutely hilarious.

THE TRAILER: Rad CG trailer, lots of fun. I wasn't going to watch the Game Awards so I would've been spoiled either way, but fortunately I thought it was actually a joke so it was somehow still a surprise. Even I can recognise One Winged Angel damn near immediately, though being primed on the "joke" probably helped.

They really did everything they could to make Sephiroth appear as powerful and menacing as possble, and it was amazing. One-Winged Angel kicking in on a tiny figure in the sky as Galeem falls apart is a great moment, as is that brief moment of Mario's apparent demise.

I look forward to seeing Sephiroth appear, fully animated, in the next CGI character reveal trailer, where he gets comically and indignantly punked in full high quality 3D by the next new character. :D

THE MUSIC: I know One-Winged Angel by cultural osmosis, but I don't really know any other FF7 music tracks, so this is pretty cool. No matter if I've heard of of or played the games before or not, the new music additions and remixes are consistently my favourite parts of Smash in general. Also because only having two music tracks is pretty sad for poor Cloud right? Good thing his nightmarish nemesis is has brought the party playlist I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, both versions of One-Winged Angel remain spectacular. I'm not too zazzed by the Advent Children battle tracks just listening to them, but I expect they'll make amazing stage music when I'm actually playing.

The tracks I really love though, are JENOVA, and the remixed Aerith and Main Themes. The latter two really prompted me to listen to the originals, and they are truly beautiful. Especially the original main theme, the journey that track seems to take you on is all of triumphant, haunting and melancholy; it is spectacular. Hey, I liked it enough to make it header this post instead of something else presumably more appropriate.

I do need to listen to the whole original soundtrack at some point.

THE STAGE: Simple layout, no gimmick, just pure story and game reverence. I was super excited just to see Mementos change colour, I can't imagine what this must be like for real FFVII fans. Maybe it'll bring some of them to tears. What an amazing stage. We'll probably end up playing it a lot when I can finally spend some time with friends.

As a Fire Emblem fan it really makes me slightly jealous for Castle Siege, though I imagine some Smash fans would skewer me for having anything to be jealous over. I always thought that stage could have been so much better if it represented an actual castle from one of the games. May I suggest Jehanna Sands, or Nox Castle?

Going forward, I hope more games will be able to have scenes and story moments highlighted like this in their stages. Northern Cave is a truly wonderful stage addition.

SEPHIROPH CHALLENGE: I like this! But make it harder! It's Sephiroth, it needs to be suffering! I beat Very Hard in less than 20 minutes literally playing on a single half-joycon that was missing the shoulders! It should have to take me several hours even on a proper controller!

Well, I suppose the nature of Smash is that as long as they can fall off the stage, you can always cheese the CPUs no matter how hard they get, so there's only so much you can do. Still, I was hoping for something more along the lines of 4* Spiritless... As a side note I played Robin because I figured I’d have a harder time playing Joker on a half joycon. Turns out Sephiroth CPU just suffers against Joker that much, because what took me 20 minutes with Robin I did with Joker on my first attempt anyway. CPU doesn’t know how to shield Joker’s multihit moves, shadow flare is Arsene fuel and eigaon eats stamina battles in general.

OVERALL: Probably my favourite new character pack since Joker or Terry. Northern Cave is one of the most impressive stages in Smash purely through the narrative in its background. Aerith's Theme and Main Theme of FFVII are already two of my favourite tracks in the game, so by that alone I'm already very pleased. The Sephiroth Challenge is a fun gimmick icing on the cake, even if it was pretty easy.

[silver-wield]

With the way AerTi has been portrayed in the remake I think there’ll be no more love triangle moving forward. They made Aerith this ethereal character the party has to protect. I also noticed that in Shinra HQ it was Tifa who showed more concern for Aerith rather than Cloud. It just sucks that Clerith shippers are all over the place shoving “evidences” down our throats but don’t see them trying to explain that Zack and Aerith scene in the end

The thing I want the most is to end the shipping war. For Square to definitively say "this is the heroine of Ff7". I'm not expecting a sweeping declaration, I mean it IS Cloud, but something that finally puts a lid on it would be a great way to close out the compilation.

I have nothing against Aerith, but I just didn't get the point of her. It seemed like she was added so they'd have someone to kill off, and if you didn't raise your affinity enough with her then the impact of that death didn't hit as hard. I liked the staging of her death, but I was more cut up about everyone else's reactions after. Their grief and how they pushed forward made the game for me. Especially on top of all the other deaths and failures they faced.

Remake Tifa comes off really sympathetic and sweet. I spent a lot of time just saying aww about how kind and selfless she is, but I noticed the only one who asked after her wellbeing was Aerith. Their friendship is one of my favourite things about the remake. No more stupid jealousy. They're both way out of Cloud's league anyway and he should be thanking God they like him 🤣

Remake Aerith comes off more untouchable than before. She's less of a heroine and more a plot driving force. She's distant and despite her cheery nature I felt she didn't really get close to anyone besides Tifa. That may have been intentional if she's got all this metadata and knows she'll die and that Tifa and Cloud will be together.

I've avoided the war for the most part, so I actually went looking for the Clerith evidence. Man, they try so hard it's hilarious! All those essays!

Funny I couldn't find any about Tifa. It's almost as if the compilation is evidence enough 🤔

I could probably explain part of the scene. It's a callback to Aerith saying she shouldn't look back because usually there's an over the shoulder look in those kind of scenes. She puts her head down instead, steeling herself against doing it, though I think her eyes track and there's a slight head turn, but I'd have to watch it again to be sure. Point is, she wanted to look back but kept her resolve to look forward. Not at Cloud - because it'd be easy to throw in a glance at him here too - but forward.