#Clive is dead but here ??? I guess ??

[littlefreya]

Me enjoying my new hyperfixation in a dead fandom

[another-clive-blog]

You know what? Maybe we should just have Clive die and leave Dimitri to the aftermath of figuring out what to do <3

If you ask me the best kind of Clive angst is the kind where he’s just dead

On it boss !! That man is dying today or so help me (Dead Clive angst isn't like my favorite but I sure will write the heck out of it lol, your AUs are always very good and inspiring so I can't help it =) )

TW : heavy mention of death and everything it implies.

Also there's Claire. I love her too much

He hadn't made it.

The scientists said he would survive, the doctor said he would survive, he had sworn he would survive long enough to kill Dimitri, and yet Dimitri was there and he wasn't.

Too close to the explosion, the doctor had told Dimitri, what kind of idiot would get this close to such a dangerous machine ? He'd been treating explosion victims for as long as he'd worked in this lab, according to him. Apparently, it was just a matter of time before he couldn't save one.

Dimitri kept hearing the words again and again, the sorry looks, the tipping around the subject.

While waiting for news, he had sat himself at their favorite table in the towering pagoda. It wasn't the imposing office at the very top of the tower, no, it was a small table with a nice view of the Thames and the trees surrounding it- something simple, peaceful and normal. Normal was what they were looking forward to, after all. And it almost felt normal sometime, when the conversation was pleasant and the mood was good.

It had stopped being normal when the doctor had come with "unfortunate news". Just like that, the hat casually sitting on the table, the empty chair, the quiet, none of it was peaceful or normal anymore.

The doctor had left, but Dimitri hadn't, because where would he go to find some normal ? So there he was, sitting at an empty table, with only a white hat in front of him.

It was quiet.

"I've heard the news."

Ah. Of course.

Dimitri refused to look up, keeping his head bowed and his eyes on his hat, far from the doorway behind him where was standing Claire.

"He lost consciousness quite fast, and it went even faster after that. The doctor said he probably didn't realize what was happening." He simply said.

"The doctor is an idiot," He wasn't looking at Claire but he just knew she was crossing her arms, staring at him like she would sometimes do back in the days, when he'd be too self-deprecating, or too pessimistic, or too anxious. He missed back in the days. There was a lot more normal and a lot less tragedy back in the days.

Then again, he was talking to Claire.

She came up to him, stared him down for a moment : then, she sat in the empty chair in front of him while he kept his gaze solely on his hat. "You're not an idiot, Dimitri."

He shook his head. "He didn't suffer-"

"Of course he did !!" She cut him off in anger, leaning forward on the table : Dimitri saw his hat slightly tremble, otherwise unbothered by the movement : he couldn't explain what made this fact so interesting that he would focus all of his attention on it, and not spare Claire a single look.

She didn't let that stop her, though. "And even if he didn't, it wouldn't make any of this better !!"

"What do you want me to do ?" He stated blankly, voice barely above a whisper. "Build a time machine to save him ?"

The joke didn't land, although it wasn't one.

"Dimitri." Her voice was commanding and colder than he had ever heard her. "You are going to stop this madness. Now." He had barely registered her words when a white object appeared in his peripherical vision, and it took him a few seconds to recognize Claire's hat.

He had bought it to her on her first day in Future London, when they had gone from two accomplices to three. Dimitri had bought new clothes for Claire and a new chair for their favorite table : that way, the three of them could always enjoy a moment of peacefulness together, although it almost never happened with their trio. He wondered if it would get easier, now that they were back to just a duo.

He also wondered how normal and peaceful it would be, when he would eventually sat all alone at their- his table.

"I can't," he finally said.

"I think I didn't hear you right."

"I can't," he repeated, louder. "I can't stop now. I can't just- let go of the scientists before coming to some kind of result. And I can't give up on this project before more good than harm has come out of it. If I give up now, then all of your lives have been wasted in vain."

There was a beat of silence, then another. Dimitri didn't have time to reflect on the moment before it ended.

"Dimitri, I'm not some money you spent buying a lottery ticket that you're now trying to get back. I am a person. I gave my life to this project because I believed in it, in the good it could do, in the people behind it. But I don't anymore."

Dimitri had never noticed how similar their hats looked. Had he bought it for that reason ? No- she had chosen it herself, he remembered. He had only paid the price, a pretty fair price.

"You're never compensating for all the people who died for this project : you're just going to kill more while trying to." Claire must have noticed he was staring, or maybe she hadn't, maybe she was focused on something else entirely : point is that she pushed her hat aside, away from Dimitri's.

He talked slowly. "It just has to work one time... One time would be enough."

"Would it ?"

Her tone had changed suddenly, and suddenly she was no longer sitting, startling Dimitri who looked up. He was expecting to see Claire's face but didn't, instead coming face to face with a sea of familiar blue.

A familiar hat.

"I came to give you this," he heard her say behind the hat she was handing him, his hat. He didn't reach for it, only stared, and after a few seconds she dropped it on the table where it landed with a loud flop.

He immediately recoiled in- in something, pushing the blue hat away. He stared at it a moment longer, confused, shocked, disgusted maybe, before his mind registered the sound of Claire leaving.

Standing up, he turned to stop her, but she was already far, so far, too far for him to reach.

He didn't even get a glimpse of her face as she said. "If you decide to keep going, try to at least say his name next time."

And then she was gone, and the silence was back. It was quiet as he waited for her to come back, quiet as she never did, quiet as he finally turned away from the door only to be greeted by three hats on an empty table, all sitting in a quiet reunion. It all felt peaceful and so very normal.

And yet, he found himself wishing for an annoying remark from- from...

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Shaver Mystery

Ray Palmer: listen midnight society i got a crazy story you gotta hear! Palmer: i found this guy, Richard shaver Palmer: he's got a story you wouldn't believe Palmer: but every word of it is the god's honest truth! Palmer: if i'm lying, may lightening strike me down!

Palmer: go ahead Richard, tell them what you told me Richard Shaver: there's an underground civilization of lemurians Shaver: living in tunnels under the comet ping pong pizza restaurant Palmer: big if true!

Shaver: after the lemurians abandoned these tunnels, people moved in Shaver: but they tried using the lemurians' abandoned death rays Shaver: but they didn't realize that if you don't change the filters on the death rays, it'll turn them into deros Barker: oh yeah you gotta change the filters on those death rays Barker: i mean who doesn't do that Poe: clive you really shouldn't make fun of him Poe: i don't think that's sporting

Shaver: anyway by misusing the death rays, it turned them all into deros Shaver: which stands for detrimental energy robot Barker: oh yeah of course it does Barker: that would have been my guess Poe: clive

Shaver: the deros can use their death rays to spy on your thoughts and control your mind Poe: ray i don't think this man is well Poe: i think you might be exploiting him Palmer: what? never! Palmer: he's fit as a fiddle! Shaver: also every day has within it four simultaneously occurring days

Palmer: wow! can you believe that's all true? Poe: ray, i don't think that's true Palmer: not true? look here buddy Palmer: its printed on the pages of Amazing Stories Palmer: all the news thats fit to print!

August Derleth: we're pals aren't we howard? bestest pals? HP Lovecraft: [sweats] Derleth: august and howard, that's what people call us! Derleth: cuz they're so used to seeing us together Derleth: we're practically inseperable!

Barker: boy you two really are thick as thieves huh Lovecraft: [sweats] Barker: august and howard huh Derleth: you can call us augie and Howie Barker: i'm not gonna do that

Palmer: in fact, i have a little something right here Palmer: linking the shaver mystery to the Cthulhu mythos Derleth: i'll kill you Derleth: i swear to god no one will ever find your body Palmer: Derleth: i will obliterate you

Palmer: whoa whoa whoa just take it easy there pal Palmer: i'm just tryin' to make a buck here, can't blame a guy for makin' a livin' can ya? Derleth: i will murder you Derleth: i will murder you dead Palmer: [sweats] ha ha whoa by is it getting hot in here? Palmer: [tugging collar] is anyone else getting hot in here?

Palmer: i'm just saying people love thinking spooky stuff is real Palmer: maybe lovecraft thought Cthulhu was real Palmer: we could make a lot more money if he did Derleth: hey mary let me see your knife Shelley: here ya go

Poe: mary don't give him your knife Shelley: it's my knife edgar i can do what i want Poe: why do you want to see Mary's knife Derleth: no reason i just want to see it Shelley: good enough for me

Palmer: you know what, i'm just gonna see myself out Poe: mary don't give him your knife Derleth: GIVE ME THE KNIFE!

[forthegothicheroine]

Ah, Waxwork II: Lost in Time! Or as I like to call it, Bill and Ted's Army of Darkness!

In case you missed my recap of the first Waxwork film, this is a duology of horror comedies characterized by three things: classic horror homages, sexual perversity, and the repeated humiliation of Mark the protagonist. The sequel doesn't hang together quite as well, but I think it's interesting nonetheless, in that the worldbuilding gets weirder with every scene, and my hypothetical novelization in which I try to work it out grows in increasingly epic proportion.

Ready to see more of Mark not getting laid? Read on!

We open with a quick flash of images from the end of the first film, not that it really matters- the whole waxwork conceit is over now, despite the title. Things are off to a weird start, since Sarah has not only been recast, the new actress isn't even styled the same- they have the same ending scene, but now there's a girl who looks like Kim Basinger in LA Confidential. It's similar to what they did with Jodie Foster and then Julianne Moore as Clarice Starling, but Foster declined that sequel because she was offended by the original ending, whereas here I guess they wanted as many actresses to not sleep with Mark as possible.

The theme music in this film sounds like a legally distinct version of the song from Suspiria. I thought I should mention that.

Unfortunately, a severed zombie hand also survived the last movie. It follows Sarah home, where she is threatened with an abusive stepfather who was never mentioned before. He is angry that she's sneaking home after being out late, which begs the question of how she got away with partying with China in the last film. Maybe China always drugged the stepfather and now that she's dead, there's nobody with access to narcotics? Anyway, he dies pretty much as soon as he's introduced, courtesy of the severed zombie hand. Sarah disposes of it in the sink garbage disposal, but that leaves her covered in gore beside her dead stepfather.

The next scene we see of her is at a murder trial. (I think? More on that in a bit.)

Sarah's legal case that a severed zombie hand killed her stepfather isn't going over well in court, although to paraphrase Legal Eagle, once your lawyer enters a plea of "not guilty because monsters are real", the judge should probably declare a mistrial. We also learn that over 200 people were found dead when the Waxwork burned down, which really doesn't square with the crowd we actually saw there. It was a big mob fight scene, but it did not look like over 200 people.

Strangely, after the court arguments, Sarah gets into a cab with Mark to try and go prove her innocence. Can you do that if you're on trial for murder? I don't think you can do that. Maybe this wasn't actually the trial, but a grand jury or an inquest or something? Anyway, they go back to the home of the occult professor guy from the last movie, and find some more of the monster hunting artifacts he and his colleagues collected- including a bloody Jason mask. Maybe this is in the universe where Peter Cushing accepted the role of Dr. Loomis when he was offered it, then proceeded to just kill all the available slashers?

Before he died, Sir Wilfred (the professor guy) recorded information about traveling to other times and places via "going through the looking glass." Sarah has read Alice in Wonderland, which is lucky because Mark can't even put together that "looking glass" means "mirror" without her help. He has gotten significantly dopier since the last movie. The key to opening the portal to other times turns out to be a chess set with Alice in Wonderland pieces, so off they go to find a new disembodied hand to prove to the jury that such things are possible.

If I were Sarah I would probably just say "fuck it" and find a new world to live in.

The first horror movie- I mean, time and place- they land in seems to be the Universal Frankenstein movie, but with Udo Kier instead of Colin Clive. Mark takes the role of Henry Clerval remembers who he is in the future, while Sarah takes the role of Elizabeth Frankenstein and does not. Unfortunately, the bad doctor sees his friend making eyes at his wife, and has his cackling hunchbacked assistant throw him to the monster to kill. I love it whenever Frankenstein is portrayed as a bit crazy over Elizabeth, so I appreciate it here. (I loved The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, and I will even defend it.)

Mark gets on the monster's good side by finding him food, but only after suggesting they "order a pizza." Mark seemed reasonably put together in the first movie, but here he is not the brightest jack o lantern on the street.

Even in the face of an angry mob, Frankenstein rails and attacks his romantic rival. It's bad enough that he found Elizabeth talking in private with another man, he says, but with that dork Henry? Mark is sad to be spoken of this way, but he's used to it by now.

Mark's previous kindness to the monster pays off, and he and Sarah head off to find other portals while Frankenstein gets throttled (in good Frankenstein tradition.) They get separated in the ether, however, off to different places and scenes. These scenes cut back and forth between each other, but for the sake of convenience, I will discuss them separately in their entirety.

The theme song in the Frankenstein sequence sounded like a legally distinct version of the song from Young Frankenstein. I thought I should mention that.

Mark finds himself in The Haunting of Hill House- or rather, the 1963 film The Haunting. (Do horror kids today still watch The Haunting? They should.) Further cementing any associations with Army of Darkness, Bruce Campbell himself, in tweeds and with a pipe, leads a crew of paranormal investigators in black and white footage; Mark is his friend in a bad blonde wig, and Sarah is now the mousy Eleanor, whose main function is to constantly be hit on by Theo. Which I guess puts it one up on the Netflix adaptation. We get the classic scares from the 1963 film, with mysterious pounding and bulging at the door and voices calling Eleanor to come home, but Eleanor escapes her dark fate in this timeline. The others, though, fare worse.

Theo is hanged and then possessed by a ghost, but that's a kindness compared to what happens to Bruce Campbell. We find him at the climax of the sequence chained up, flayed open to his ribcage, with an eagle pecking out his organs. He then gets knocked face down on the ground, knocked in the head repeatedly with various objects, and has his wounds comically doused in salt and vinegar. He keeps up a cheerful, vaguely condescending fifties dad attitude nevertheless.

This sequence is what makes the entire movie for me, and it's kind of a shame when it ends with an exorcism.

Sarah, meanwhile, is in Alien, as the captain of a salvaging space crew with a xenomorphic hitchhiker. The men on board get into a comically macho yelling match, but it doesn't save them when the alien attacks. I make fun of these films, but despite being cheap B-movies, they make the most of their limited budget and give us some good, pragmatic practical effects setpieces. Sarah blows the alien out of the airlock, then meets Mark again, who tells her about various adventures he went on that we didn't see. I'm not sure if this is a joke or if those scenes were cut.

When Mark and Sarah proceed to their next portal-hopping rest stop, they change genre a bit- instead of doing a horror pastiche, they do a pastiche of shlocky 80s fantasy movies. I love shlocky 80s fantasy movies, but this part of the movie lasts a weirdly long time for something that's supposed to be a horror comedy. They have an actual character moment where they talk about how Sarah wants to go back and show the jury the truth about the zombie hand because she feels guilty about their friends dying in the last movie. Those friends will never be mentioned again.

Sarah is carried off by evil knightly henchmen, and the mullet and jerkin-clad Mark is left on his own- all except for a mysterious man who I think is doing a David Carradine impression. He tells Mark that an evil overlord called The Master abducts and torments the women he desires, including his own lost love Lenore. To avenge her and save Sarah, he gives him some kind of magic sword and vanishes into thin air. Great.

Like I said, this part of the movie lasts a long time, so I'll try to be concise here. ("No, there is too much- let me sum up.") The Master is a perverted dark magician overlord who wants to usurp the King of England, despite this not looking like a world that would have an England. He has a creepy henchman who evokes what I call the Fancy Sadist Problem, but that's its own long post. Sarah is the sister whom The Master incestuously desires, and Mark has to be helped out of humiliating captivity by the ghost of Sir Wilfred. This ghost tells him that he has been playing in "god's Nintendo game", time hopping to keep fighting evil in different universes. I think. I'm not entirely sure how it works. It sounds a bit like Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion mythos. I would expand upon it in my novelization.

The second best scene in the movie happens when Mark fences with the Master, and they crash through the portal to keep fencing though the street of various other horror movies- Jekyll and Hyde, Dawn of the Dead, Godzilla, Nosferatu, I think Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and something with Jack the Ripper. Whom they defeated along with the other evil souls in the first Waxwork movie, but time and space and alternate universes, etc. Hyde does the "How much of this bottle did I drink?" gag, which was very funny when done with a boiling beaker.

Mark and Sarah manage to snag a hand in Dawn of the Dead, but only she can go back through the portal because Wilfred's ghost says she needs to sort through her own problems before she can be a time warrior. I wish this was the first movie so that that meant accepting her masochism and finding healthy BDSM partners, but no, it means showing the severed hand to the jury.

Mark tells Sarah that he loves her when she leaves through the portal, but she doesn't hear him. Story of Mark's life. At least he manages to send her a letter via a postman who delivers letters centuries after they were first postmarked. And that postman's name, I assume, was Moist von Lipwig.

Even once Sarah is exonerated and goes off to be a time warrior with him in the final few minutes, though, she never requites his affections. Maybe we can assume she will, and she clearly cares about him deeply, but she never says she loves or even likes him, and they don't have what would seem to be the obligatory ending kiss.

Throughout time and space and alternate universe, the only thing that remains constant is Mark not getting laid.

[sapphire-weapon]

So, I reached the very endgame of FFXVI and looked at the shitton of sidequests that popped up before heading off to the final confrontation and went “fuck it.” I had done every single sidequest in the game leading up to this point, but I was reaching the end of the final night of the days I had taken off of work to play this game and I just needed to beat it and be done with it. I made a manual save at that point and just went into the final boss, intending to go back to the sidequests later.

After I beat the game, I didn’t honestly think I’d actually go back to those sidequests. What was the point, knowing how the game ended and what it meant?

ENDING SPOILERS BENEATH THIS CUT

And then I poked my head into the fandom and kept seeing people insist that Clive lived in the end (and also probably so did Joshua). And, at first, I was like “how much fucking copium are you guys huffing over here?? We literally physically see Joshua die, and he even says that the power of the Phoenix can mend flesh, but it can’t bring the dead back to life. So, all that happened was that Clive healed his corpse to make him look more dignified, but that is it. And we literally see Clive fucking turn into stone and Jill feels his aether disappear. They fucking died, we saw them die, you are so high on copium it’s making you look stupid.”

But then I kept digging into it.

And digging into it.

For Joshua -

Ultima says that Clive’s will is so strong that it actually harbors the power of creation, especially considering the way that Joshua is etched onto his heart. And, during the ending, Clive has Ultima’s power, which also literally is creation. We might not see Joshua get up and move around again, but his survival is hinted at/confirmed during the post-credits scene when he’s listed as the author of the book.

Okay, I can buy that. I guess. It still sounds copium as fuck to me, but I can see how people got there.

Clive’s was a little bit more abstract, and I kept seeing people refer to a conversation he had with Jill that I swear to god I never saw, because apparently Jill is the confirmation that he lived. So, in an effort to understand what the fuck people were talking about, I booted the game back up and went back and did the sidequests that I’d ignored last night.

And I saw the conversation.

And fandom is right. 

This motherfucker goddamn lived ARE YOU KIDDING ME

THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN IN MISSABLE OPTIONAL CONTENT HOLY FUCK

It’s subtle, and it’s spelled out purely in symbolism, but it is there.

Jill says: “I realized that, no matter how terrible the night, dawn will always come. You [will] always come for me. And you have. Again and again.”

A few lines later, Clive says: “I’ll stop at nothing to see that you [get the life you want].”

In the ending, Jill watches Metia go out -- Metia, which she prayed on to bring Clive back to her -- and she takes that to mean that Clive is dead. But when she runs out of the infirmary and drops to her knees, the sun rises. Immediately. And Torgal howls -- and howling is how wolves try to signal their location to lost members of the pack to guide them home. And then Jill smiles at the sight of the sun.

Metia goes out because Jill doesn’t have to wish on it anymore -- not because Clive is dead, but because they’ll never have to be separated again. It also probably goes out because there’s no more magic left in the world. And, in fact, that’s probably why he doesn’t die -- the ability to channel aether in the form of magic disappears from the world before the curse can actually fully take him.

Because I rewatched the ending, and --

We don’t actually see him turn to stone. We see his hand turn to stone, but it doesn’t appear to be creeping up the rest of his arm or anything. And then he just... closes his eyes and drops his head against the sand.

That motherfucker is alive.

And because he’s alive, it ties back to Joshua because of the sidequest with the fuckin heartstones binding them together through the will of their father. If one endures, so too must the other. They both have to carry out Elwin’s legacy; it can’t just be Clive (or, it can’t just be Joshua, if you’re of the opinion that Clive resurrected him with Ultima’s power but then died himself).

Because it wasn’t just Cid’s dream and Cid’s legacy -- it was Elwin’s, too. The game makes it a point to repeat that over and over again, and it also keeps hammering home the idea that Clive and Joshua need to continue on living in order to see Elwin’s dream realized.

And Elwin’s dream is shown to have been realized in the post-credits scene. For that to have happened, both Clive and Joshua had to have lived.

Does this absolve XVI of all of its other writing problems? Absolutely not.

Is it complete and utter bullshit that this is so obtuse and missable and a vast majority of people are never going to find it? Yes.

Does it make things marginally better, though.......? Yeah, it actually does.

This is the payoff for Clive allowing himself to be loved. Jill’s love for him literally saved his life. Cid gave him something to die for, but Jill gave him something to live for. He made it a point to hold on long enough to look at the moon, because he promised her he would -- and doing that is what kept him going long enough that the magic disappeared before his body could fully turn to stone. And that whole idea of death and rebirth is thematically tied into the whole Phoenix thing and all that other bullshit.

I’m going to need to take some time to process all of this, but.

It does make me feel at least a little better.

[agaypanic]

An Undead Secret (Ravi Chakrabarti X Zombie!Moore!Reader)

Masterlist

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Summary: To save your life, your sister Liv scratched you and turned you into a zombie. Feeling hungry, you go to the morgue to visit your sister and get her to share some of her food. One problem: only Liv knows about your condition and your boyfriend Ravi just came back from a coffee run.

A/N: i know i have a bunch of requests but i just finished all of iZombie in less than a week and Rahul Kohli/Ravi Chakrabarti is SO dreamy, so i felt the need to write something about him lol

***

You wished you were one of those people who meal-prepped for their week. Then this wouldn’t have happened. It was bad enough that Liv had to split her brain resources with you. But when you were enjoying your day off, you went to the fridge for some lunch just to find that you were out of the brain that Liv had brought home for the week.

“Crap.” You muttered, feeling around on the island for your phone while you stared at the fridge. Part of you hoped there was a bit of teen girl brain in some container at the back, but there was none. So you called your sister.

“Hello?” Liv answered.

“Hey, Liv. We’re out of that teenage girl’s brain, and I’m starving. Can I swing by the morgue real quick?”

“Oh! Yeah, come on down. Sorry, I forgot to tell you about that. I’m making spaghetti with Italian gangster meatballs right now.”

“That sounds perfect. See you soon.” You and your sister said quick goodbyes, and you got dressed to leave the apartment. 

Luckily, you and Liv lived near the Seattle Police Department, so your drive was quick. This was especially good because you didn’t know how long you’d be able to go without eating another brain. Part of you wished you had the balls to be a murderer or something; at least then, you could get brains whenever you wanted instead of waiting for the latest murder victim to land in the morgue.

“Liv, I’m here!” You announced, walking into the morgue. Your sister stood in the kitchen, looking up at you from her cooking to smile at you. 

“Hey, Y/n. Just about to make the meatballs.” That made you race to her side, eyeing the brain that she was cutting up.

“Mind if I have some right now? I can’t take the waiting anymore.” Liv nodded, cutting off a good chunk for you to eat. You picked off a piece to eat while Liv made the rest of her lunch. When everything was done, her phone buzzed on the counter.

“Damn, it’s Clive. Guess I have to have my food to go.” Liv grabbed a tupperware container to put her lunch in and was about to exit the morgue when she turned back to you, as if suddenly remembering you were there. “Feel free to stay, if you want. I’ll let you know if I have to leave the station.”

“Have fun solving murders.” You waved your sister off, and she left. 

You had been to the morgue before, but never alone. You’d always have Liv or Ravi with you, mainly because they worked down here and you didn’t. Despite knowing there were dead bodies on the other side of the room, the place was otherwise pretty peaceful.

Brains, like most foods since you turned, were bland and pretty much unappealing. But you and Liv found that the saving grace for your taste buds was spicy things like hot sauce and ghost peppers. After a bit of digging, you saw what was probably Liv’s hot sauce in the fridge and practically doused your chunk of brain with it. You moaned with delight at the fact that you could actually taste something now.

“Y/n! What a pleasant surprise. What are you doing here?” Someone startled you from behind. You whipped around to see Ravi walking down the steps into the morgue, carrying two cups of coffee. “Have you seen Liv? I have her coff- Oh my god, what are you eating?” Clearly, he hadn’t registered what was in your hands at first.

You knew that Ravi knew about Liv being a zombie; it was actually something the two of you bonded over when she started working in the morgue because how crazy was it that you knew someone who was actually undead? But a few months ago, your apartment was robbed, and you got hurt pretty bad. Instead of calling the police, you called your sister, who you begged to turn you. With little convincing, seeing the condition you were in, Liv scratched you.

You wanted to hide your new condition more than Liv, so you became a frequent buyer of hair dye and spray tan or foundation. Liv agreed to keep the secret between you, so no one else knew. Not even Ravi. Sure, maybe you should’ve told your boyfriend that you were now a zombie, especially since if you ever had sex, you could probably turn him. But thinking about how he could react scared you. It was one thing to be friends with someone undead; it was another thing to date them.

“Oh! Hey, Ravi.” You hid the half-eaten piece of the brain behind your bag, smiling innocently yet nervously. “Um, you just missed Liv. She went upstairs to meet with Clive.”

“Y/n…” He said in that tone that a parent would use on a child that’s just done something wrong. He set down the coffees and walks into the kitchen, looking curiously at you. “What’s behind your back?”

“Nothing.” You responded, voice higher than it just was. Ravi reached his hands out to you.

“Sweetie, it’s okay. I just wanna see.” This is part of why you felt so guilty about not telling Ravi. He was so kind and understanding, just wanting to help. Of course, it helped that this wouldn’t be his first zombie encounter.

Realizing there was no way out of this, you sighed and brought the brain into his line of sight. His eyes widened as he realized what you were eating.

“Ravi, babe, I can explain-”

“You’re a zombie?”

“I guess I don’t have to explain; that’s spot on.” You laughed, trying to ease the tension, but Ravi wasn’t having it. He grabbed your arm to sit you down in one of the chairs in the kitchen, sitting in the one next to you.

“How long?” Seeing you nervously play with your fingers, Ravi grabbed your hands and threaded your fingers with his.

“A few months. Liv turned me.”

“Why did she turn you?”

“I asked her to.” You thought he’d ask something else, but instead, he gave you a look that urged you to tell the full story. You sighed. “My apartment got broken into, and the guy didn’t really appreciate that I was there. I called Liv and asked her to scratch me. That’s why I moved in with her and Peyton.”

“Oh god, Y/n.” Ravi let go of your hands to hug you, dragging you and the chair you were sitting on closer to him. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there.”

“It’s okay, Ravi.” You responded, face buried in his shoulder. “You didn’t know.” That seemed to bring up a new point with him. He gently pushed you off of him just enough so he could make eye contact with you.

“Wait, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I just wanted to be normal.” You shrugged. “I didn’t want anyone to know I changed. That’s why I dye my hair and use makeup and tanning spray and stuff. God, Mom would’ve had a field day if she saw Liv and me with white hair looking like we haven’t seen the sun in years.” You laughed lightly, thinking about how your mother would react. She already thought Liv had thrown her life away; you suspected she would feel the same about you. “And I didn’t want to scare you off or something.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, zombies aren’t exactly a new thing to me.”

“Yeah, I know. But it’s one thing to be friends or colleagues with a zombie. It’s an entirely different thing to date one. Just look at Liv and Major.” Ravi nodded, seeing your point. He sighed, grabbing your hands again.

“You still could’ve told me, love.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Immediately, Ravi clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“No, don’t be sorry. I get it. It can be scary.” He squeezed your hands. “But now I know. And if anything, now I have even more reason to try to find a cure.” Ravi kissed your knuckles. “It’ll be okay.”

“Wait a minute. You’re okay with me being a zombie?” He looked confused, so you elaborated. “Because if you wanna break up because of it, that’s fine. I’d honestly get it if-”

“Who said anything about breaking up?” Ravi could’ve laughed at the thought itself. “Y/n, honey, you being undead isn’t a dealbreaker for me. I care about you too much to let a little thing like that get in the way.”

“Little?” The way Ravi spoke warmed your dead heart, but being half dead wasn’t exactly a little thing. “Ravi, I need to eat brains in order to survive.”

“I work in a morgue; you can get them the same way your sister does.”

“I don’t even care about food if it’s not covered in hot sauce or ghost peppers.”

“I’m fine with making two different meals for dinner.”

“Unless we find a cure or you don’t care about turning into a zombie, we can’t have sex. Ever.” That seemed to get through to Ravi, taking a sharp breath. You wondered if that would actually be a dealbreaker for him, and if you were about to walk out of this morgue broken hearted.

“We can cross that bridge when we get to it.” He answered, letting go of your hands to gently hold your face. “But for now, I’m completely fine with dating a zombie. Especially because it’s you. Even if it means we have to get a bit creative when we-”

“Okay, okay. I get it.” You laughed, stopping him from finishing his sentence. “So, we’re good?”

“Always have been, honey.” You grinned, leaning forward to kiss him.

[rydiathesummoner]

Ok I'm gonna have to disagree with Joshua here. Jill volunteered her Shiva powers all on her own. Her whole arc was about her choosing what to do with her powers. She wants to continue living and making her own choices. The story makes it incredibly clear that she's almost out of gas and continuing to prime into Shiva would kill her sooner rather than later. Clive on the other hand, is immune to the curse.

What was Joshua wanting her to do, martyr herself so Clive didn't have to fly solo? She can't help rebuild the world if she's dead. Plus, she's a woman in her 30s, not a kid so why was Joshua trying to insert his opinion at all here? I guess I was a bit annoyed here because he's usually more pragmatic than this.

Not to mention he's all getting onto Clive for shouldering extra burdens when he stuffed Jote into the hideaway despite the fact that supposedly she's a great soldier. I mean she could have helped a lot against all those akashic mobs. Or when 5 minutes later Joshua decides to go off alone to look at that mural. I mean, kinda hypocritical there baby boy.

I would like to praise the writing team here with Clive though. Clive took the punch and just sat there. Retaliating was not even on his brain. Any other writing team would have had the two wrestling and fighting and Gav would come back and be like "break it upppp!" I think it says a lot about Clive and his personality.

[thewardenofwinter]

Writeblr Introduction | Morana Warrin

I have finally created a Tumblr for my writing. I haven't been on here since I just got internet access (around 2013 so you can probably guess the things I saw) but I need a place to throw all my ideas at a wall and watch as they trickle down into a puddle of lost nights of sleep and aesthetic pinterest boards.

▸ About

▸My name is Morana, I would prefer they/them pronouns but, to be frank, I do not care what you refer to me as. I have been writing for a long time (too long if you ask some people) but in the past three years, I have been taking the profession much more seriously in hopes of starting a career. Besides being a writer and a threat to modern society, I also dabble in drawing/graphic design and character design.

▸I adore 19th-century Russian literature (Mikhail Bulgakov is my personal favourite) and absurdist texts. There isn't a moment of my day when I'm not listening to some sort of music, I do not discriminate genres in the slightest but I am partial to rock and its many subgenres. I love any 90s and early 2000s movies, early Hollywood horror flicks, and Soviet films from the 80s.

▸ Current Projects

(I am horrible at summaries so please take pity on me. also check TWs)

The Resurrectioners

You only live twice.

(TW: Mentions of s*icide)

After the deaths of her two sisters in a car crash, twenty-seven-year-old Samara Dombroski decides that her life is no longer worth living and makes a successful attempt at her own life. Only there's one problem:

She doesn’t stay dead for very long.

An indeterminate amount of time later, Samara wakes up in a strange, vast estate plagued by visions of the past that she can’t control. She learns that this place is run by a man known only as The Resurrectionist, a necromancer armed with a group of assassins possessing strange abilities called Resurrectioners, an eclectic group of individuals who all share her story: people who found death by their own hand or by some other tragic means.

Now a resurrectioner herself, Samara must repay the debt of her second chance at life to The Resurrectionist by disposing of cadavers for him: violent, ghoulish beings that result from misused necromancy who feast on flesh and bone. Once she has killed enough to satisfy The Resurrectionist, she will be released from the estate she is trapped in and free to live the rest of her life.

genre: dark fantasy, thriller

What We Undertake

Some things are better left undead.

Guillermo Del Toro's Crimson Peak meets Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow in this paranormal mystery and gothic romance set in the late 19th century.

Our tale follows one Dolores Clive, resident medium and the daughter of the late Warren Clive, Boston's most beloved undertaker. After her father's death and subsequent take over of the family business, Dolores has become a recluse haunted by ghosts of her past and near future which all comes to head when her step-sister arrives in town with her newly acquired fiancé and his rather strange but beautiful brother in tow following a string of murders.

Genre: horror/supernatural fiction, gothic fiction

The Stray Girls

It's not drugs that are killing these teens.

(TW: Mentions of drugs and alcohol)

Set in the fictional city of Maynard, The Stray Girls is a retelling of The Lost Boys centred around a cast of troubled teen girls set 10 years later in 1997'.

After once again deciding to move across the country with her daughters, Magdelena's mother decides that cheap rent is worth more than her daughter's lives when she moves to Maynard, Washington— which currently boasts the largest missing girl population in the country. While settling into their new home, Magda notices her elder sister Roxanne is beginning to act strange: leaving the house in the middle of the night, wearing sunglasses indoors, and sleeping all day. First suspecting it to be drugs, Magda thinks nothing of it, but as time goes on and her sister's personality makes a sudden shift in the wrong direction, she can no longer pretend like everything is alright. Meeting the group of troubled girls that her sister now calls 'friends' slowly leads her down a path of crime, thrill and peer pressure. But it's not booze that these girls are drinking: it's blood.

Genre: Teen Adventure/Horror

▸ LINKS

pinterest // spotify // instagram

Though my aesthetic and writing style may scream morbid academic pretentiousness, I assure you my online presence and writing greatly contrast with my personality (and looks for that matter) so please do not be alarmed by my frequent buffoonery, general bastardness, and bombastic vulgarity.

Thank you for reading! (or skipping to the end)

— M. Warrin

[cleve-in-a-can]

Hello mortals, I have been dead for abit to long and as I figure out what to draw, Here are some LBP headcannons I guess:

Clive and Herbert are actually best friends (afterall, Clive mentions in game how herbert was at his factory when he got infected by the meanies and Clive puts it on himself saying its his fault that it happend showing his genuine care for herbert)

Eve tried out to be a model before the asylum (Look. At. Her. if anyone in LBP is going to be a model its her)

Clive had a crush on Luscious Lucy at some point in his life (tell me he didnt. Tell me.)

Avalons brother (siris) was made by Avalon out of robotic parts because he got jelous that some of his friends had siblings (hence Siris' robotic appearence)

Herbert stays in the cosmos and becomes an astronomer after the end of the Negativitron attack.

Gustavo, Irene and Felicia are all best friends, they all mock Coach Rocks loud voice and start all the manglewood gossip.

Irene's diner is the hangout place for all the Allience's meeting.

Avalon and Marlon have never met but they're both inspired by eachother

[phoenix-flamed]

Meet The Mun!

ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘɪᴄᴋ ᴜᴘ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛ ᴍᴜꜱᴇ(ꜱ) ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ?

Well... To be honest, I don't entirely know. I decided to play the XVI demo when it came out, and at first I was like, "oh no he's hot but he's so dead" when Elwin first showed up. But as soon as the throne room scene started, and he told Clive, "Alright, you can stop licking my boots. Your mother isn't here," I had this intense feeling of, "I need to RP as him." The inspiration just... struck me so unbelievably hard, and I haven't had that happen since like, 2014? Somewhere around there? So I made this blog, the same day, and now here we are!

ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ?

Hmm. There are a few subjects that I absolutely won't write, like sexual abuse, CSA, and relations between adults and minors. (Which is one of many reasons why I'm still glaring daggers at XVI's Ultimania book for their listed ages of characters like Anabella and Hanna.) As a general rule of thumb, if it's an intense subject other than those listed above, I'd like to talk and plan it out first, so that all parties are okay with it and no one gets shocking/dark content sprung on them unexpectedly.

ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ʀᴇᴀʟʟʏ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ?

Heeheehee. Horror, actually -- most specifically, psychological horror. The last fandom before this one that I was hardcore devoted to was for Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. As much as I love angst, fluff, drama, silliness, adventure, fighting(although I am super, super rusty with this one), etc., horror is the sort of dark content that I love. Give me brutality and torture, give me gore, give me body horror, give me psychological terror. Give me the fucked up and the disturbing, and you'll have me doing the M. Bison "Yes! YES!" thing.

ʜᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴜᴘ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴꜱ?

Inspiration, mostly. I try and twist ideas around so that they're at least vaguely plausible in canon, but really it's a matter of inspiration -- if an idea jumps out at me and really resonates with me regarding my muse, then it gets mulled over until it's fleshed out enough to be written as a headcanon.

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ɪɴ ꜱɪʟᴇɴᴄᴇ ᴏʀ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘʟᴀʏ ᴍᴜꜱɪᴄ?

Definitely play music. To be honest, I listen to music most of the time as it is, when I'm not talking with people. (And even then, sometimes when I'm on vc, I have music playing very quietly in the background.) It's not an inspiration thing, or anything like that; it's just that music is what keeps me focused. Grounded, I guess, so that my brain doesn't float away and get distracted by 100 different things while running in another 100 different directions all at the same time. It acts as a sort of tether to keep me on track!

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘʟᴀɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʀᴇᴘʟɪᴇꜱ ᴏʀ ᴡɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇᴍ?

It depends. Sometimes, inspiration smacks me upside the head with a brick for writing a particular reply. Other times, I have bits and pieces of ideas for various parts of the reply, but I have to sit with it for a while and map it out in my head first, if that makes sense? Then I can actually physically write it out, reread it over and over, and make adjustments as necessary. But much of that is also because I have the awful tendency to overthink constantly...

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ ꜱʜɪᴘᴘɪɴɢ?

Yes! As long as there's chemistry between the two muses, definitely. My favorite thing is when characters grow closer over time, and love grows that way -- but I'm not at all opposed to jumping head-first into the deep end if the chemistry is good enough and the muses just... naturally click.

ᴡʜᴀᴛ'ꜱ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴀʟɪᴀꜱ/ɴᴀᴍᴇ?

Vonny! (Thanks, Von Leon, for inspiring my nickname, you depressed sadsack.)

ᴀɢᴇ?

34, going on 35!

ʙɪʀᴛʜᴅᴀʏ?

June 29th. :D

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀ(ꜱ)?

Burgundy, various shades of blue, lavender!

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜱᴏɴɢ(ꜱ)?

I'm predictable; I listen to mostly video game soundtracks, especially Final Fantasy ones. I also really love Miracle of Sound and Aviators, with an actual example of a favorite-favorite song being Aviator's "Blood and Snow". There's also so many others... But we'll be here all night if I name off all of my favorite songs.

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ᴍᴏᴠɪᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜᴇᴅ?

I started watching the remake of "All Quiet On The Western Front", ... but then got distracted. I should finish it...

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ꜱʜᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜᴇᴅ?

Uh. Well, technically, the last show I watched was the first episode of The Last Czars... Yet another thing I meant to watch more of, but got distracted. Aside from that, I've been watching a bunch of Jack Patillo and Matt Bragg streams, if those count?

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ꜱᴏɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪꜱᴛᴇɴᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ?

Miracle of Sound feat. Aviators, "Let There Be Fire"!

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜰᴏᴏᴅ?

I ... don't actually know. Pepperoni pizza, I suppose?

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜱᴇᴀꜱᴏɴ?

It used to be winter because of snow, but now it's summer or fall. I like summer because of the sunshine and hotter temperatures, but hate the storms that come with it. I like fall because while it's cooler, there are significantly less storms... (Can you tell I'm terrified of storms?)

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ᴛᴜᴍʙʟʀ ʙᴇꜱᴛ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ?

There are a few! In addition to one of my RL partners, I won't name any names but some of these friends have also been there for me through some serious bullshit. I'm eternally grateful to have met all of them -- and to have them in my life. I just hope they know who they are, if they see this!

Tagged By: @origami-assassin and @lastflowerpetal -- thank you both!!

Tagging: Everyone who sees this and hasn't already done it! Consider yourself tagged!!!

[clivedovelover]

Very politely but sorry i was referring to ur oc aus i saw on the other blog 😭😭😭

IM FINALLY ANSWERing THIS ONE BECAUSE I REALIZED I CaNT ACTUALLY do A COOL THING FOR EVERY AU

Hello sorry i think 4 months passed since this ask was sent i'm kissing you on the forehead anon i'm sorry

Okay so there are 3 AU's or so, i'm still thinking of doing more in relation of these main 3 but i don't know!!

Folie a Deux

I don't have this one super elaborated. I just wanted an AU where Valentine beats the shit out of Clive daily

Basically is an AU where pretty much everything stays the same at first (clive blowing up london, Valentine's mom dying) but in relation of both characters they are more morally dubious, Clive goes to prison but he manages to made it appear as if he killed himself there, and then he runs away with another identity to avoid his sentence.

Valentine thinks, in this AU too, about how clive freed him from his mother and, in some percentage, they both were meant to meet. He doenst feel guilty about these thoughts (not like the original who does feel bad about thinking like that). He also doesn't believe the news about this guy killing himself in prison, he feels so upset about it and takes it as a personal attack, Valentine decides to start investigating about that, mostly because he got a fixation with Clive after the destroying of the city.

One way ir another he finds out that Clive is alive, in an almost empty town. As a said before both of them are more morally dubious SO yknow lol. Valentine's mom is dead and Graciella isn't being really helpful, he doesn't have friends or anyone who is close to him so what he has to loss?

Valentine kidnaps Clive on his own place, knowing no one would look up for him and does shitty stuff to him from time to time, but mostly just keeps him at his mercy. Clive develops Stockholm syndrome

Puppy Love

I guess the name is self explanatory, kind of.

Valentine is 14 and Clive is 17, valentine moves to London way earlier in his life. Graciella is a teen here too with the same age as Clive, they are classmates.

I did this one because i wanted something more light hearted and also because i wanted Renata (Valentine's mom) to interact with Clive in some way.

Valentine is still a lonely kid but at least has Graciella as his friend since is the only other argentinian person on his school.

Graciella doesn't like Clive and Clive doesn't mind her, they just team up when it's needed because it's easier to work with the other.

Valentine has a crush with Clive, and it's silly. He's also 14 because i was that age when i found out about Clive and Professor Layton games hehdhehhe

Im not sure how i want for this one to end, but since it's an AU i can give Clive a happier ending? Maybe

Elope

Again, i'm sooooo creative with the names

It's the same as the original story but it ends different, Clive doesnt kill himself and accepts to run away with Valentine, again lying about his own death. Valentine just leaves a letter for Graciella and she doesn't make the report to the police

They run away to the same town as the Folie a Deux AU and have a pretty calm and nice life, they change their names and formalize a relationship after some time.

Valentine becomes an art and theater teacher for the people of the town and Clive takes care of the house most of the time (for safety reasons mainly)

[lyssala]

The Sun & The Moon: On the FFXVI Ending

Throwing my thoughts on the ending into the void.

Aka I keep seeing posts about the ending so I need to type out my thoughts to validate myself.

For reference, we played on release and did two full play throughs.

First of all, I am a happy ending person. I want desperately to find the happiness because there was so much suffering so much loss. Saving the world or not, the thought of Clive having come so close to his own happy ending, of having the family and the love he never got to have, so damn close and then still ending up dying alone on a beach leaving the people waiting for him wondering if he would ever come back to them seems so cruel.

But, Lyssa, you played XV too, and Noctis legitimately sacrificed himself in the end to save the world. You’re right, he did, and that ending still makes me ugly cry because I also didn’t think it was fair that he had to do that. The thing were XV and XVI differ is, we see Noctis in the after with Luna, in their wedding attire, finally together. It’s immensely bittersweet, but we see them at peace. We do not get that in XVI SO point by point let’s GO.

(Warning for spoilers, including character death, in other Final Fantasy games as well)

Why I Don’t Think We Can Assume Any of the Three are Dead

1. The Ancient Rule of Storytelling: No body, you say? THEY AIN’T DEAD.

Usually used when a villain “is defeated” but then they can never find a body - guess what, Luffy is going to have to beat their ass YET again. Final Fantasy has never shied away from character death. From Minwu (FFII) to Tellah (FFIV) to Aerith (FFVII) to Zack (FFVII:CC) to Haurchefant (FFXIV) to Noctis (FFXV), heck even other character death in XVI.

Dion to me is the iffiest one, and I say it with a heavy heart because I loved Dion. He fell early and he had death flags on him BUT we didn’t even see him hit the ground so I still standby that if Clive could survive falling from Origin, Dion could too.

Joshua we actually did see die, and it was terrible - both when it happened and when Clive went back to mourn his brother (again for that matter and thanks I’m crying again). The thing is, we also explicitly watch Clive use Phoenix’s power to heal Joshua. Yeah we don’t see him wake up, but literally what was the point of that action if Joshua was just gonna…you know still be dead. They could have just left him as he was. The whole purpose of showing that action, imo, was to finally give Clive the chance to save his brother, which was all he wanted for so much of his life. I don’t believe that was done as just “well you tried but he really dead, bro.” To me it was to show, no, Joshua has a chance to live the life he always wanted too.

Clive, despite all his dang death flags, is still the most secure to me because the last time we see him, he’s still alive. We know he survived the fall, we know he was conscious on the beach, we only saw the curse spread to his hand. If they really wanted to hint he would die there, we easily could have seen the curse spreading to his face. We didn’t though. He was tired, and weak but he was alive. They made an effort to show him alive. If they truly wanted an ambiguous ending they didn’t even need to show him on the beach, just showing Origin fall would be enough. They didn’t though. They showed the man alive, calling out to Jill, not as apology for breaking his promise but a “I can see the moon same as you, I’m still here.”

2. The Ding Dang Themes of the Game

We spend the whole game determined to fight fate, and while yes, fate was defeated when Ultima was defeated, because the human will won…then didn’t because the man who was determined to fight and escape those binds still ended up lost those everyone who loves him…which was part of the fate he was trying to escape? Final Fantasy games have had dark elements before, and they’ve been heartbreakingly sad. They’ve shown loss of all sorts some self sacrifice, and some because the world can be just so cruel. However, once thing Final Fantasy isn’t is loss without hope.

Noctis got to say goodbye to his best friends (yes I am crying again don’t you dare mention Stand by Me in my presence) because he knew what was coming and they knew what was coming. It gutted me, but they all knew and had come to terms with it. It was Noctis’ choice to walk in there knowing he was not coming back. Clive was not the same. He didn’t say goodbye, he said, I’m coming back. While everyone knew there was a risk which is why it was so emotional to say goodbye, he had a life he wanted to return to, one he spoke of returning to. It was never, “You’re coming back right?” And then they skirt around giving a firm answer because they just don’t know. Clive was firm about it, he was coming back, it was his will to come back and guess what won against Ultimia? You guessed it, human will.

Having Clive die alone on a beach after all of that? After all he went through and after all he still wanted? That to me is just cruel, and Final Fantasy has never been cruel. Ren also made the good point that if Clive was to die, Joshua would have fallen with him, so it ended in a reversal of beginning with Joshua watching Clive die instead of the other way around. That didn’t happen either though. He was on the beach, again, still alive (see point 1 as a reminder), additionally, if he thought he was dying, I’d imagine he’d be apologizing to Jill for breaking his promise. In fact that’s what I SWORE he was going to do, but he didn’t. His will to survive was still intact when we left him which to me fits far more with the theme of this game then dying alone on a beach.

3. The Sun and the Moon (It’s Clive and Jill, It’s Just Literally Them)

So yeah I know that the sun and moon imagery is usually used to describe star crossed lovers, never meant to be as the sun and moon rotate. The game already proved that was untrue, they were always meant to be. By all odds they survived and somehow found one another again.

Jill, the moon of course, always said it was because of her prayer to Metia, that every time she prayed for him to return to her, Metia granted her prayer. I say this as someone who grew up religious but now am not, Jill believed it I’m sure but I think it was Jill. Love has also been a huge theme in Final Fantasy, and Jill’s heart filled prayers to keep Clive safe, always had. Not necessarily because a god deemed it so (again, defying gods a huge Final Fantasy theme lol) but her complete and sincere love for Clive, that always kept him safe to come home to her. She prayed for him as he was leaving for origin, just as heart felt as she always had. Why would that fail now the time she probably desired it more than any other time? That also seems so cruel. For him to be torn from her when they were so close to finally being able to have the life they dreamed of together. What purpose does that serve? It wouldn’t except for Jill to have yet another thing in her life to break her heart and leave her to pick up the pieces. I think she would, for Clive’s memory, but again, it feels like loss for no reason but loss. Jill deserves her happy ending too.

You find out later on even more so why Jill cherished the moon, because it brought the sunrise (or you know Clive in the metaphor here) and with the sun the promise the Clive would always come for her. One he never broke. They literally went out of their way to say “the sunrise meant you’d always come for me, I know this.” It was a direct setup for the ending. It was her seeing the star she always prayed on for Clive flicker out, and in that moment I think she did lose all hope because that was the one thing she could always count on to bring him home (to which again, not a god, but her love that brought him home). She is distraught (and so was I so we have that in common LOL) but then, the sun rises, and she smiles. It’s hope. It’s her hope because Clive has never broken a promise to her, and the sunrise has always brought him to her. I have no reason to believe the sunrise didn’t bring him home to her like it always has. Not a single point in this game has given me reason to believe it so why would I?

4. They Did the Thing! The Name of the Game!

A smaller point but one none the less. I sure hope you all played every single side-quest. One particular one, leaves you with a quill to add to Clive’s wall of treasures; one with the sole purpose of when (not if) Clive puts his sword down, that he writes his story. What do we see in the after credits? Literally, a book that is telling his story. Idk how more clear they gotta be that Clive is gonna be okay (tbf I WISH they would have just told me he was gonna be okay too LOL)

Granted, Joshua Rosfield is the author to which, it really could have been him writing Clive’s story in his absence or it could have been Clive and using the name to memorialize his brother’s name. Or it could have been the both of them and they used Joshua’s name because Clive is content living his life behind the scenes. He’s never wanted attention or praise. I don’t think he ever would have used his own name.

Additionally, the ending lines that equates to as my journey ends another one begins to me never meant journey = life. His journey was over, he did what he set out to do. The new journey? Traveling the realms with his wife in a world without the burdens of magic and doing what they do best, help the people who need it.

5. Doggy Knows Best

And finally, my last point is, Torgal knows what’s up. Technically, this is Ren’s point so I give him the credit here but animals, especially Torgal who is more than just a dog (literally an Eikon himself bonded to Jill and Clive, something acknowledged in the game), know when their master is hurt or worse. We’ve seen Torgal when one of them are hurt or in danger or not coming home. Yet at the end of the game, when Jill is absolutely breaking Torgal simply howls.

You know where else he did that? When he was trying to find Clive after Phoenix Gate and he would sit and howl. They were already bonded, he knew Clive (and Jill) were alive but he didn’t know where so he howled for his people until he could find them. It’s the same thing he does at the end of the game. He knows Clive is alive out there, and they are just separated but they’ll find another again because just like Jill, Torgal has no reason to believe otherwise.

And honestly I’m going to believe the dog.

Final Thoughts…For Now Cause I Always Have Thoughts its the ADHD

If you read all this, I hope it brought you some peace <3 I don’t believe a cop out everyone died ending is indicative to the wonderful storytelling this team has brought us in FFXIV. If anything, it reminds me of the ending of A Realm Reborn when you are convinced all the Scions are dead and then ope nope they’re fine just scattered and we’ll find them yeah SOUND FAMILIAR LOL I think they left it open to let people come to their own conclusions but in my heart of hearts I believe they had no intention to let Clive die on that beach because nothing in the story leads me to that conclusion.

If they try to tell me otherwise, well then I’ll go full denial LOL but unless Yoshi-P calls me up and says girl stop you’re wrong, I’ll continue to push my Clive finally gets his happy ending and travels the realms with Jill like he promised her <3 (ONE MORE THING: why the heck would they have Jill just be like mmmm think I wanna leave this realm when its over, lets see the world if they had no future content planned YOU CAN’T FOOL ME she could have easily said anything but she said something that would directly give us more content okay I’m done lol)

[deuterosapiens]

So, the foreshadowing in this game is again, subtle as always. Cid's near-fall on the bridge was the moment where I said, "yeah, Cid dies here," and lo!, Cid dies here.

Joshua's return is really not too surprising. Phoenixes aren't exactly known for staying dead, are they? His discount-Roxas look works for me.

Am I cursed to enjoy every single Ifrit fight this game has to offer? Because once again, Ifrit v. Typhon brought me so much joy, and it's a wonderful palate-cleanse after the Akashic Dragon which, while not a particularly unenjoyable fight, the Cannonier before it can bite me, simply lacked the scale necessary to scratch that particular itch my lizard brain demands.

Speaking of itches my lizard brain demands, and actually, the Akashic Dragon, Typhon, Ultima, and so forth. Praise be to the Flame Imperishable! If I haven't mentioned this ever, my favorite trope in all of fiction is the Awakening of Buried Evil through the Actions of the Greedy and slash or, the Stupid. Think, dwarves discovering the Balrog in Moria. This means that bar none, my favorite locations in video games tend to be mines and extensive underground structures. Think the Mines of Moria. The greatest joy for me is having a party venturing into the bowels of the earth and discovering horrors beyond their kenning which would have been best left undiscovered. Imagine if you will, the Mines of Moria.

I hear mention of a Guardian in these Mines, guarding the Heart of the Mothercrystal, and so naturally, I'm hoping to see an eldritch otherworldly monstrosity. Chained gods to a wall with poison dripping in their eyes, locked away because someone had a damn good reason to lock them away. My disappointment upon discovering, oh, it's just a dragon (a cool dragon, don't get me wrong, it's glorious) might have been a bit preemptive. You know what makes these sorts of creatures really, really cool? A distinct lack of context! So, Typhon with its really slick discount Ozzy Osbourne look, followed by the reveal of Ultima, more than made up for this to me.

I did not cry at Cid's death.

I did, however, cry hideously at the reveal of Ambrosia. First off, how the hell did she survive the beginning? I questioned Torgal's reunion but gave it a pass because why would I be angry at the dog coming back? But seriously, I cannot imagine any conceivable reason of all things that Clive's Chocobo survived Phoenix Gate. At this rate, I'm beginning to suspect his father's not really dead because let's do a quick tally:

Torgal- never presumed dead, but inexplicably alive

Joshua- definitely murdered, quite brutally, but alive through Phoenix magic

Ambrosia- presumed dead protecting Clive during the massacre at Phoenix Gate, but defying all logic, inexplicably alive.

Not complaining though. The reunion was heartwarming. And I find it interesting that this is actually a completely optional side quest, that you could theoretically miss. You would think this little plot would be integrated in with the main plot a bit, but I suppose having a Chocobo mount doesn't exactly tie into the Martha's Rest plot, or the larger plot of the Valisthean civil war very well.

But yes, this entire scene had me inexplicably ugly-crying.

Things are certainly shaking up a bit. As a side note, I'm guessing Jill doesn't make to the end. Why? Because, upon obtaining Ramuh, there's room on the Ability menu for five more Eikons. There's only one Eikon for each Element, and Jill uses Ice. So, unless she freely gives Shiva to Clive as a personal sacrifice, in order for him to gain access to Blizzard Magic, Jill will die.

I'm ignoring the possibility of there being a second Eikon of Ice for the simple fact that the fact that a second Eikon of Fire exists is such a major world-altering revelation that it would have incredible consequences to the world building as a whole if another element were shown to have two (or more) Eikons. Ifrit is special because it shouldn't exist at all- a second Eikon of Ice would detract from that.

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: The Surgery

James H Longmore: Submitted for the approval of the midnight society, i call this the tale of joe's unwanted penis Longmore: it's a darkly humorous and bizarre parody of the bruce jenner story Poe: you mean Caitlyn jenner? Longmore: Longmore: what? Barker: oh yeah this really bodes well

Barker: she changed her name, she's caitlyn now Longmore: really? Barker: you didn't know? Barker: i mean she's in the news all the time for sucking Poe: clive Barker: what? she's not here Barker: i can say it Barker: just absolutely sucking

Longmore: my story is told from the point of view of the penis Longmore: the unwanted penis is mad because its been rejected like it was an ikea lamp Longmore: so making a lot of comments about Joe and his ruined, mutilated, gross, Frankenstein body Franz Kafka:

Franz Kafka: wow, so her own disembodied dick is misgendering her? Kafka: WOW Kafka: that is VERY Kafka: problematic Longmore: well, in the dick's defense, the dick was really mad at Joe! Kafka: and now its DEAD NAMING her!!!

Longmore: anyway Joe gets a vaginaplasty instead of hrt Kafka: "INSTEAD of?" Longmore: yeah Kafka: Kafka: Kafka: "INSTEAD OF???"

Longmore: anyway Joe has a vaginaplasty, during which they remove Joe's dick, balls, and prostate Kafka: THEY DON'T TAKE YOUR PROSTATE OUT DURING A VAGINAPLASTY!! Longmore: Longmore: are you sure about that? Kafka: YES! Kaka: I'VE DONE A SUSPICIOUS AMOUNT OF READING ABOUT THIS!

Barker: wow, franz, you know so much about trans issues Kafka: huh? oh yeah, i guess Kafka: i mean, it's just this thing I've kinda been into lately Kafka: i mean, trans rights are human rights, right?

Kafka: just seems self-evident Barker: oh yeah? you do? any reason why? Barker: for this recent interest hmmm? Poe: clive, leave her alone Poe: i mean leave him alone Poe: jesus christ you have me doing it now

Poe: clive stop harassing franz Poe: clive you know you don't have to be trans to care about trans rights Barker: ah ha oh edgar don't be so naive Poe: yeah you're probably right

Longmore: so the poor penis has been rejected JK Rowling: hello children Poe: oh great look who it is Poe: look who you brought here Poe: this is just great Poe: great

Rowling: ssso i hear the penissss iss ssad? Rowling: sso i hear that a transss perssson issss ressponsssible for thisss? Rowling: just more proof of their natural masssculine criminality Poe: this is stupid Barker: ah ha ha edgar Poe: no Poe: you're right this is stupid

Longmore: so the penis goes on a merry madcap chase to reunite with his former owner Longmore: who has since regretted transition Rowling: yess!! ha ha… YESSS!!

Rowling: there'sss ssssurgical regret too??? Rowling: a transss persssson feeling BAD??? Rowling: thisss ssstory hasss it all! Rowling: the ressst of you should ssstart telling ssstoriesss like thisss Rowling: way better than the usssual ssstuff you guysss tell!

UNRELATED: If you like our jokes, check out our indiegogo! Just added a tier where you can get all 3 volumes of Midnight Pals electronic books for cheap!

[slifarianhawk]

Chapter 34: Stay Safe

I closed my eyes. Deep breath in and long breath out. The plane's take-off was swift and easy. Albert squeezed my hand, "If I had to guess Vladimir had done something to make you hate flying my dear?"

"Very much, my love," I sigh laying my head on his strong chest, "he made me an unwilling member of the mile-high club after the Rockfort Island incident. It was less than pleasant."

"I know dearheart, however, I promise you. It will never happen again my precious lotus." Albert said reassuringly.

"Are you sure that Chris will receive the message?" I asked staring down at my hands.

"I'm sure love, I even made sure to instruct Mr. Coen where to deliver it to. " he sighed placing n g his hand gently on my head," there is no need to worry dearheart. I am sure that Chris will back off." Albert said stroking my hair

"Thank you Wesk" I smiled up at him.

"It was your idea my lotus, but for right now we should worry about my sister and why she would want to destroy Pheonix Corps. After all my dear, you and your people are a valuable asset to me" Albert said removing the armrest and placing me next to him.

"I know love." I cuddled up to his arm, "I can't help but feel bad for O'Brian."

Albert chuckled sadistically, rubbing my hair more," Why do you not rest up my dear."

"I have something I need to check on something before we start to work on my research into the angelis virus," I said pulling out my laptop.

"Why not check on your idiot brother? It might ease your mind my lotus." Albert said kissing my lips.

I let out a small chuckle, "Alright then my love, but you keep your eyes closed, I have to keep my access to the B.S.A.A network a secret."

"Of course dearheart, I'll go fetch us some water," Albert said walking away.

I quickly typed up my password, pulling up the B.S.A.A. cameras and network. Clive was walking over to Chris holding a small box, my heart dropped "Here we go."

/Chris P.O.V.\

Clive walked up to my desk.

"Clive, what's wrong?"I asked seeing a sour look on his face.

"You got a package, Redfield. it was delivered by one of the Phoenix Corps. Agents.

"I'm not really in the mood, Clive," I sigh "Since she sent one of her agents I'll take it though."

"I think it's from him, Chris," Clive said looking at me dead in the eyes.

I ripped open the package and there was a disk in a case and a small package wrapped in pink and light blue paper.

Turning the disk case over," from t,".

"I highly doubt that Chris, please be careful," Clive said.

I placed the disk in the DVD drive of my computer.

Clive looked shocked," is that agent Tabitha."

"Hello there Chris, It appears you found out what I have been looking for." Wesker said holding a S.T.A.R.S. knife, "Look, Chris, it's your sister, my wife"

I stared in shock at what I saw.

It was T, she was naked and collared kneeling on a floor. Wesker's hand held a chain leash. My sister was blindfolded before my greatest enemy.

"NO! T!" I slammed my fist on my desk.

"I'm sorry Chris he found out I contacted you." T was sobbing as wesker slashed her back with his knife.

"It brings me such pleasure seeing and hearing her cry out in pain," he laughed

"CHRIS PLEASE HIC HELP ME. I CAN'T NOT AGAIN. PLEASE ALBERT HAVE MERCY ON ME." She cried out in agony.

"Be quiet my dear you deserve this for being such a naughty girl. Listen to her, Chris! She is begging for a savior knowing no one is coming for her, not even you, her hero brother who saved her from Russia." Wesker's voice sounded like he was in pleasure and I heard a weird buzzing sound, a vibrator.

Damn you Wesker she is your wife!

"Mmmm Her screams, cries, and moans are music to my ears." He laughed wickedly with a lash to her breast.

"Chris please help me. Ahh gods damn you Wesker. Chris, I'm what he wanted! Don't forget me please." She cried

"the sounds echoing off these walls are a masterpiece," wesker said laughing louder.

"AHHHH FUCK! PLEASE WESK DO NOT DO THIS." T moaned out from another lash.

"And this is on someone I once loved, Chris. Imagine if I got my hands on Claire. That would be most men's dream fucking two sisters at the same time." Wesker continued to laugh as he pulled on the leash attached to T's neck " Memorize my dear pet's face and body, Chris. This will be the last time you see her. Oh don't worry I'll take extra good care of your sister, she will make a lovely pet for me."

He held the knife to her throat as she screamed.

Clive took the disk and smashed it on the floor, "that was horrifying for me I can't imagine how you feel Redfield."

"I'm overwhelmed, Clive. This makes me feel awful for not stopping her." I said crying in a blind rage.

"What's in the cute box?" O'Brian asked pointing the the small box on my desk.

"No clue." I opened up the box and instantly felt nauseated, pregnancy tests. Why would he send me pregnancy tests? Unless he intended to.

"O'Brian I think he's going to knock up my sister!" I shouted throwing my cheap-looking desk from Ikea. The computer and family photo on my desk were trashed.

"Chris go home and calm down you will be a help to no one as an angry mess. Until we have the resources to save her I am marking her as a prisoner of Wesker's. I'm sorry Chris you may want to go home and call Claire, Barry, or someone." Clive said rubbing my back.

"You're right I'm no use to anyone here right now" I sigh picking up the photo from the floor a Crack formed along T body almost hinting at her fate.

I walked off, over to the staircase that excited the office. Once I got to the stairwell I closed the door behind me slamming my fist on the concrete wall as the image of her nude body flashed across my mind. I can't abandon her again but at the same time Clive was right we didn't have enough men or resources to save her, just stay strong t.

Damn, I need a stiff visit with my friend Jack Daniel's since I'm out of Johnnie.

"Please T, just stay safe for me. I can't lose anyone else." I choked out behind my angry tears.

Wesker, you will pay! I'll make sure of it.

Hey everyone slifarianhawk here and boy do I have a lot of work to do. I was in a mental hospital and got a lot of writing 72 pages to be precise done. All for re arch angel my thanks go out to my treatment team and nurses who all encouraged me while I was in there. Thank you for reading my name is Silfarianhawk and I'm not so far away 🪷

[another-clive-blog]

haha clive angst!!!

I played with this idea once before, but it never went anywhere, so I’ll share it for fun; Dimitri tests his machine and it explodes, but Clive gets caught in the explosion. So Dimitri gets to relive the worst moment of his life with Clive in Claire’s place!! :D

BSJVDIBEJCT I have an AU where the EXACT OPPOSITE happens (Dimitri is lightly hurt by the time machine exploding and Clive experiences trauma) but you know what ? Yours is far far better. The angst potential of physically injured Clive and mental anguish Dimitri is unmatched. Btw I absolutely ruined Clive this man should be dead

Some TW warnings ! Dissociation (Dimitri kinda loses touch with the present time), physical injury (Clive gets burns and bruises. Also mention of blood and blisters but nothing more than that, I can't describe injuries), mention of death (Claire). This is angst with a bittersweet ending I guess

"I knew this was a trap," Clive groaned. "You're just trying to get rid of me. Again."

Dimitri sighed, closing his eyes for a second. This kid was giving him a headache with his endless babbling. If only he could say or do useful things instead...

Be patient, Dimitri. You're almost there. "If that were the case, then I would probably ask my henchmen."

"Funny that you'd mention that !! Because you have henchmen. Plenty of scientists working for you actually. If your time machine really has a flaw, can't you just ask them to fix it ?"

Dimitri held back a sigh with patience and held out the wrench with patience and responded to his colleague with the upmost patience ever. "I have already told you. The bolt that has come loose is located under the machine. No one here is small enough to crawl underneath it and fix it- except you." Clive was looking at him skeptically, so Dimitri went on. "You came here to witness the testing of the machine : we were supposed to do it an hour ago, if we hadn't noticed that bolt. Now, everyone would greatly appreciate it if you could fix it and save us all another precious hour of our time." The first one having been wasted by your childish refusals and rude comments.

Clive stared at the wrench in disbelief. "And how do I know you're not going to just start the machine while I'm working on it ? Hmm ?"

Dimitri usually didn't respond to the brat's provocations, but he was under the unfortunate impression that the kid wasn't asking in bad faith for once- which would honestly be a first. "I told the scientists in the control room over there," he pointed to the adjacent room, "to wait for my signal. They've been doing just that for an hour now. Just- go ahead. Please."

Clive stared at him for a second more before taking the wrench. He grumbled some more as he turned around to face the gigantic time machine, the latter taking up most of the room. "You are all incredibly stupid for building a thing that big yet being unable to work on it yourselves. And these are the brightest minds of London," he complained extra loudly while crawling as best he could under the machine. Dimitri hoped that the brat knew how to use a wrench : he also hoped that he wouldn't further break the machine, intentionally or not.

A scientist whose name Dimitri couldn't remember came into the room at this exact moment. Probably fed up with all the waiting, Dimitri thought, because he certainly himself was.

"The machine is starting, sir !" The scientist said with a smile.

"Wh-" But they knew the generator was not holding well enough without this bolt, so why wouldn't they wait for- Oh.

'Go ahead', he had said.

He took a step forward.

Then the blast threw him back and into the other room.

An explosion.

His eardrums ringing with the machine's scream could only perceive this word, the one his mind was repeating with anguish, as if it was merely an eulogy. Explosion. There was an explosion. The machine exploded, and with it-

"No-" Dimitri got up and hurried across the room, pushing aside the stunned scientists. "Cl... Claire !!"

The smoke was heavy- the whole building had been destroyed by the explosion. Maybe the one next to it too. He thought he'd heard screams, or maybe it was just his imagination.

There were debris everywhere. The machine in its entirety had gone up in flames, and the building too. They were merely debris now, and under them somewhere was Claire.

He hurried amongst the scraps of metal and ruined wires, scanning his surroundings with fear. Nothing, nothing-

A blue sleeve.

"Claire-" His voice left him, just like his strength as he fell to his knees. No, no, no-

"He's still breathing !!"

...Uh ?

"Help me get him out- guys seriously hurry, I'm not going to jail-"

What- what did you mean she... he was still breathing ?

Dimitri watched without understanding as people dressed in white held up a young man's body in their arms. He was unconscious, covered in bruises and burns. He was alive. He was not Claire.

He saw them taking him away, and then he couldn't see them anymore because he was all alone because everyone had left the laboratory.

The... Right. That's right- this was their... laboratory. Not the miserable room the- the three of them had successfully rented with whatever money they had. No, this was the laboratory filled with- with equipment and scientists. The one Clive had paid for.

Clive. "Clive !" He ran after them, or at least tried to despite his trembling legs.

Clive had been hurt because of him. The machine had been started because of his poor choice of word, and he was the one to put Clive in such a dangerous situation. He had caused it all, the machine's explosion was all his fault-

"Don't worry, the doctor is used to explosions," one of the scientists told Dimitri as soon as he caught up with them. Very useful remark that he promptly ignored.

"Clive, can you hear me ?" Dimitri asked with a frown. He could almost feel sympathy for him now that he wasn't talking and was severely injured.

Clive half opened his eyes- one of them at least, the other too covered in blood. Dimitri wasn't too worried about that : head injuries bled a lot, but were usually not as severe as they seemed to be. What worried him more were the blisters on his cheeks and hands, parts of the body that were definitely better without blisters.

He hoped that the explosion hadn't caused too much internal damage.

Well in any case, Clive didn't seem able to hear him at the moment. His vacant gaze wandered around a bit before finally falling upon Dimitri's face.

Then his own face lit up with fury. "I swear-" His voice cracked, he coughed, took a raspy breath, "if you actually k-kill me- I am coming b-back to haunt you ! You won't g-get away with this !!"

He was screaming, probably because he couldn't hear the sound of his broken voice. Which also meant that he wouldn't hear whatever Dimitri had to answer, but he'd still see Dimitri answering him.

"You're not the first one to tell me that."