#Cloud when he finds out he and Zack are going to Nibelheim: “oh shit.” | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kazumahashimoto · 2 years ago

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one thing i've been thinking about vis a vis zack's kazu esque status is like. and i feel like i'd have to give all the crisis core cutscenes another rewatch to fully confirm this. but i think, generally speaking, a lot of people blow zack's facade out of proportion. and it's funny because it was that "zack fair is TIRED of this BULLSHIT" video that got me thinking about it but i watch that video and i'm like yknow. kazu would never do any of this. and sure, "kazu esque" is a completely arbitrary classification i made up for characters i enjoy, but the whole "zack is secretly really sad" thing is a concept i see people dig into a lot. a lot more than i think zack actually does it himself. zack is a spunky happy go lucky guy yes, but he also gets annoyed easily and he never shys away from expressing that. when sephiroth tells him the higher ups don't want him going on a mission because they're worried his personal feelings will get in the way of obeying orders, he says, "well of course!". he's not masking anything for anyone by this point. i don't think he's masking for aerith either, not with his bravado and not to hide his discontent. a HUGE difference in this to me is to look at some of their lowest points. for kazu, when he gets found out, and for zack, when angeal dies. kazu did not seek out his friends. not once. not even slightly. the only reason anything even happened was because saku noticed he was slipping up in his performance. kazu never intended any of them to find out about anything, not after he decided he needed to keep this up in order to hold himself together. but he fell apart, and they noticed, and they helped. kazu does not hug haru back in this moment, and he never asked him to come. zack on the other hand, GOES to aerith. we don't see zack explain to her what happened, he sits in the middle of the church with his back faced to her, crying. he does not hug aerith back, but he still reached out. aerith didn't find HIM, he found HER. kazu would not have done that.

zack's facade isn't something that comes into effect until after nibelheim, and it's only ever to cloud. emphasis on AFTER NIBELHEIM. zack is a friendly guy, i don't think any of their interactions before this were built on trying to. idk keep up the rose tinted idea cloud had in his head of what soldiers were like. and in nibelheim, when cloud prods, zack tells him outright how he feels. zack is angry, he's upset, he's confused, oh but he's a soldier so who cares, he's just paid to hit stuff, not ask questions. he TELLS cloud this. it's only after all they went through in the mansion's basement that zack starts putting up a front, and again, just for cloud. when he sees genesis, lazard, cissnei, he's still just as angry and upset as he was before. he just keeps the smile on for cloud, and maybe himself too in a way. to hold onto normalcy. and so because of this, perhaps because it's how his character goes out, smiling, despite it all, this is were people decide he would continue being if he lived. idk that that's true though!!! like honestly i don't think The Facade was actually that big of A Thing for zack. he smiles and pats his head and makes sure to tell cloud how things are going great whenever he's around, because jesus christ!!! cloud is dying!!!!! cloud is POISONED!!!!!!! he didn't lie to cloud about how fucked shit was when cloud was FINE, but cloud is barely conscious, you think zack is gonna be venting his frustrations to his sick friend?? no!!! he's gonna sit there and smile and tell him everything is gonna be okay!!!! and i don't think that would carry over for long, if zack lived. i mean especially not to cloud, who would absolutely call him on his bullshit. so anyway. my point. i feel like, above all the other arbitrary traits on my kazu esque list, masking all emotions and having a facade is, to me, the most defining of what makes a character kazu esque. and so while YES, i think there are other traits i would classify zack being kazu esque for, i feel like THIS trait in particular regarding zack is one blown WAYYYY out of proportion. zack doesn't actually hide how he feels all that much, he's just a nice guy who also has the capacity to get upset about things. he's multidimensional and he shows that. so. a zack/kazu parallels dissertation may or may not happen, we'll see!

#had to add a paragraph break because it was beyond word limit. lol!#i do have some thoughts on parallels that COULD be drawn especially regarding kazusaku but we'll see!!#words #longpost #ff #cheer danshi #kazu

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tsurugixbuster · 2 years ago

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"I have to go to Midgar."

"What are you gonna do when we get to Midgar, Cloud?"

"Boy oh boy... The Price of Freedom is Steep."

"Embrace your dreams, and whatever happens, protect your honor... as SOLDIER!"

"COME AND GET IT!"

"We're almost there Cloud, almost there."

Like a man possessed, the now Ex-SOLDIER drags himself through the city streets with his best friend in tow. Zack returns to the city like some great conquering hero. In his defense, he had just fought an army single handedly. His battered body and the pain of it all isn't enough to dull the bright gleaming smile upon his dirty face. Now that he was victorious. There is only one thing really on his mind. Only one place he wanted to be.

Aerith

As they came up the hill of Sector 5. He could feel the blond stir beside him. Life all at once seemed to return to Cloud. His arms finding their old strength, if only for a moment. They squeeze tightly around the raven haired man's frame. They nearly collapse to the ground as Zack starts laughing. Whether it is from the delirium and pain or from the excitement of Cloud stirring he doesn't know. He regains his footing through it, and hoists Cloud back up right once more.

"Z..Zack!"

As their glowing eyes meet, Zack can see the pained look come over Cloud's face at once. The firmness of his grasp slips quickly away, as he goes limp once more. Zack is quick to seat the two of them down at a nearby bench. The two of them must be quite a sight. He is glad that people don't come out here that often.

"Zack... I'm so tired."

Zack exhales deeply at Cloud's words. It is a sigh of relief. One he had been carrying with him since they'd left Nibelheim, and the nightmare of Hojo's lab.

"I know pal. I'm tired too... but there's still something I gotta do."

He reaches over playfully ruffling the blond's hair for a moment. With a groan; he rises up from the bench soon afterward

"Good Night, Cloud. I'll be back soon."

With those last words, Zack begins to make his way the rest of the way up the hill to the abandoned church. Any other time he would be all nerves, but this time he is too tired to care. He has been gone so long, and yet every day he has thought about her. Wondered how she was, wished that she was happy, hoped that she would wait... for him.

To think those silly little wishes he had stored in his heart had been what gave him the strength to make it back here.

The doors to the church swing open with a loud creaking thud. In the doorway stands a man. He is blackened and bloodied. As if he had dragged himself up from the depths of hell itself; to be here in this holy place.

She is all he can see in the dimly lit ruin of the church. The look upon her face as she rises up and turns around to see him. It doesn't take her long to come rushing across the room. Those bright green eyes as wide as they can be at the sight of him.

"Well shit. I didn’t want you to see this— blood really isn’t my color. ”

He makes the joke for her. To try and ease her mind. He can only imagine how rough he looks. He doesn't have to imagine how rough he feels. It takes the last of his strength to heave the buster sword from his back and lay it clattering down with a thud onto one of the nearby church pews.

In truth he only half hears what she says at first. The fatigue setting in hard. Even his mako enhanced body has it's limits and he had surpassed those long ago. At the touch of her hand against his own, the SOLDIER crumbles. His attempt to follow her is brief. The man hits his knees in the church's center as if he is falling into some reverent pray.

"I... I'm fine."

He clutches her hand tightly in his own as all of the adrenaline begins to fade. His other arm wraps itself around her legs. His forehead coming to rest against her thighs as he embraces her from his position on the ground.

"I'm back."

He ushers the words fervently once more. As if to reassure himself that all of this was real.

↳ @tsurugixbuster queried: “ well shit. i didn’t want you to see this— blood really isn’t my color. ”

------SHE COULD ONLY imagine the struggles of a SOLDIER. rumors of the program had touched her ears in early childhood, only emphasized in small parts by zack's own casual conversation with her on his visits. she did not know what torture those poor souls went through, only that some twisted version of the planet coursed through their veins when all was said and done. pieces of the planet that were so far gone she couldn't even feel their pulse anymore. processed beyond science and reason. perhaps he bore as many scars as she did ... but aerith never asked. it wasn't right to press.

worry laced her features at the state of him. blood. it spattered his face in flicks - as if someone had come at him with a paintbrush instead of whatever apparent massacre had taken place - and stained his clothes so deeply she was sure it stuck to his flesh. she could taste it on him, heavy copper in the air like cologne, and while it may have made the stomach of a lesser woman turn or drop it only served to strum her with the deepest of concern. " are you hurt? "

perhaps it was a silly question - but he wasn't nursing anything (either he was much more accustomed to pain than she could ever perceive or he wasn't even remotely injured), and aerith could only hope she wouldn't discover some heinous gash hidden behind the sword at his back ... or anywhere else. " come on, let me help clean you up. " gently she reached for his hand, tugged at the palm much larger than hers, wayward toward safety. " i mean ... you're not hurt, right? "

#thememory #V: Reunion (Remake)#;threads #He's not okay flower bae :')#but just let him have this moment

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vortexbeyondthestars · 2 years ago

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so um. hey guys i have an Idea

hahha until dawn final fantasy vii au hahhaah... kinda?? its like inspired by until dawn but does not follow the actual plot of the game very much so...

yea im hyperfixating on until dawn if that wasnt obvious um. i'll put a read more for anyone interested in hearing about it i guess??

sooo basically jenova is the malevolent entity on the mountain. she was created by hojo as a weird expeirment because hojo's weird we all know this. he wanted to release her to see what damage she could cause to the mountain, but vicncent didnt like that since there were people living on and around the mountain and vowed to stop him. well, hojo kinda clocked vincent in the head and put him into a medically induced coma to get rid of him. jenova eventually gets powerful enough to break out of her... tank thing? whatever she was in at nibelheim and kills hojo and escapes.

sephiroth sees the whole thing and is so traumatized he blocks his memories from his brain and runs away.

jenova fucked their house/lab up when she escaped, so its like all on fire and shit. anyway, a pilot flies overhead and happens to see it and decides to try and find any survivors. this pilot? cid highwind. he finds vincent and wakes him up. vincent explained everything and asked cid for his help in destroying jenova. cid was like "well shit i got nothing better to do" so theyre kinda like the stranger in that regard...?

sooo sephiroth gets to the town by the mountain and ends up in foster care. he has trauma induced amnesia. he ends up living with elmyra, gast, and aerith :) im a sucker.

anyways, sephiroth is found to be hojo's last living relative and is given the mountain estate by the authorities. sephiroth decides to go check it out and his friends come with him because they're moochers.

soo his friends are zack, tifa, cloud, aerith, yuffie, angeal, and genesis. and heres the kinda cast list?

mike - zack

sam - tifa

matt - angeal

emily - genesis

jessica - aerith

chris - cloud

ashley - yuffie

josh - sephiroth

yeah so ships and character dynamics are gonna be way different than in until dawn itself because theyre different people obviously. also ships....... are undecided im sorry. expect for angeal and genesis obvi but other than that idk.

so yeah thats all i've got rn um. lemme know what you think maybe?? hmm idk lol

edit: oh yeah!! i forgot to write about barret. hes a guy who lives up on the mountain with his daughter and helps the gang hunt down jenova. hes not any character from until dawn in particular, but hes there definitely

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iaintyourbro · 4 years ago

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The New Red Herrings: Biggs and Zack and How Avalanche Tells Us the LTD is Dead

Biggs and Zack are seemingly alive at the end of FFVII Remake Part 1 - so what does that mean? Will they live throughout the story? Maybe they’ll be like Wedge and escape death initially, only to be forced to face it shortly after?

There’s also interesting similarities on the death scenes of Biggs and Zack, A while ago I took screenshots of the “death” scene of Biggs and thought it was interesting how they had Biggs touch Cloud’s head and also made him promise something.

And how are all these things connected to the LTD?

Now, clearly, neither Biggs or Jessie had as dramatic of a death as Zack or Aerith. We actually see the initial injury or incident that causes each of them to die. Cloud comes upon Biggs while he’s already sitting down injured. Cloud and Tifa come to Jessie after she’s under the rubble and try to save her.

We know Cloud pretty much loses it when Zack dies. He collapses mentally. He’s already been through enough shit to fill a lifetime, and now his only friend, his best friend, and the guy who saved his life, dies trying to get them back to Midgar.

Why Zack is Important to Cloud

Relationship wise, Cloud obviously had a much deeper connection to Zack. At the point that Biggs dies, he doesn’t know any of that, but I think his death definitely triggers something in him. Biggs saw through Cloud’s front. We know Biggs dealt with the kids at the Leaf House, and most likely acted like a volunteer in the Big Brother program. He tells Cloud he’s got a lot in common with the kids at the Leaf House.

Zack had Cloud take on the responsibility to be his living legacy. Of course we all know he shuts down about five minutes later. Biggs had Cloud promise that this wouldn’t all be for nothing. In both cases, it doesn’t work out. He forgets what Zack told him and the Sector 7 plate still falls.

Zack’s death has a major impact on Cloud - it’s ultimately what breaks him. It also gives us these really sad moments of somebody who’s already been through so much and is breaking now.

Cloud is upset about Biggs. He was becoming his friend. The three Avalanche members really did accept Cloud and tried to be his friend. He was included with them - in most cases. Of course there’s the Avalanche party that he’s kicked out of (mind you - he does this to himself by acting like an ass to Barret and them) and then during Chapter 4, he’s separated to go steal Jessie’s dad’s ID.

Ultimately, though, we know that Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie all like Cloud. They seem to see through the hard exterior pretty easily. So Cloud loses another person in his life.

The ending of FFVII Remake takes an interesting turn. Anybody who played OG or CC knows what is supposed to happen to Biggs and Zack.

But, Remake’s ending seems to imply that they survive the event that was supposed to take them out.

Did Zack survive the last stand? Is this a case of the Last Stand in CC being combined with OG where as they walk away, Zack ends up getting shot anyway?

So we also see Biggs.... wait, wrong picture.

That’s the right one. We get a shot of Charlie Sheen Biggs waking up in a bed in what looks like some type of either infirmary or large room. In OG, we know that all three of the Avalanche members die during the Sector 7 plate fall. In Remake, the only one we get confirmation on is Jessie, and that’s only in the Chapter description.

Wedge we know survives until the Shinra building, where the Whispers ultimately take him out since he defied fate.

So, what will happen to Biggs?

The biggest thing talked about seems to be the ending. Zack surviving created a lot of buzz. Is there a second timeline? Is he going to just simply walk another 10 feet and get shot in the back? Did her survive in the first place? Why does Stamp look different on that bootleg chip bag?

Will we have a beautiful Zerith reunion?

In the OG, the Love Triangle illusion was the red herring. This was mostly to trick and distract the player to focus on something, so later they can destroy you with major twists. It also was used to get the player to like Aerith so her death would be more impactful. In addition, it makes the whole Northern Crater confession from Cloud about Tifa’s opinion being the only one that matters a slam in your face of holy shit what is going on?!

At this point, everybody and their mother knows Aerith dies. It’s not something that was kept a secret. It’s referenced in various materials. The one thing not openly referenced is what’s going on with Cloud. They never reference the Lifestream, the fake persona, or anything outside of the OG and Ultimanias. I think this is a shame since it’s such an important part of his character arc, but I get that they want to try and leave the element of surprise in play.

I think everybody would agree that the moment you find out Cloud was just a grunt that was WITH Zack during the Nibelheim incident is super powerful. I still get chills all these years later. Letting this be a well known thing would take away the element of surprise from new fans. Of course, people can go online and read blogs like this one and know all of this, but for somebody - especially future generations - who may just be looking for a new game to play, you’d want this element of surprise to stay in tact.

We can’t use Aerith as the only red herring anymore, and we can’t use the love triangle. For many reasons. Everybody knows about it and the love triangle was a poor choice for something like this because some people missed the point completely.

Now, FFVII Twitter is always on fire.

Also, even though the Lifestream and Cloud’s true identity are pretty well kept secrets in terms of printed media, most of the people who played FFVII Remake played the original game, they know what happens. People who were new and played Remake first most likely went and bought OG and played it. So now they know what happens.

They knew this, or they probably wouldn’t have shown Cloud in this state, but even for those who don’t, the alternate timeline theory is born. Biggs enhances this theory because he’s alive too. How can Cloud walk past them AND be carried by Zack in some catatonic state?

It keeps us distracted. They want us to think that fate can be changed. In the case of Zack, they’re even saying that the past can be changed.

Ultimately, whatever they do, it’ll be shocking to most players. I do trust that the devs aren’t being deceitful when they say they are going to keep the major plot points the same and FFVII will be FFVII going forward. Part 1 keeps major plot points but adds substance to a lot of things. They took out unnecessary parts and enhanced others. They also removed a lot of the love triangle stuff.

Another striking thing with all of this is the Jessie factor. The Chapter screen tells us she died - it only says Biggs was seriously injured. That hasn’t stopped speculation.

The ending shows gloves on the table next to Biggs’ bed and a lot people said oh it’s Jessie’s left glove! And it does appear that it is. There’s only one glove. To me, this seems like they recovered her body and were able to pull of some personal affects of hers to leave with Biggs. Both articles look damaged or faded.

Faded could mean they’ve been sitting in the sun for a while. The incident happened a few days ago, though we don’t have a definitive time on when we’re shown Biggs. This could be a future look.

They also could simply be damaged and full of dust from the plate collapse.

It is implied in Chapter 4 if you listen to the conversation between Jessie’s mom and the gang that Biggs and Jessie have a different relationship than Wedge and Jessie.

I have some thoughts on what this may mean:

Biggs is Jessie’s BFF and her mom likes him.

Jessie and Biggs dated at one point and decided to not tell her mom that they no longer are or that its casual.

Jessie’s mom was hounding Jessie about finding a man so she picked Biggs to be her pretend boyfriend and he agreed.

Biggs and Jessie are secretly dating and only her mom knows.

Which one do I think it is? Well, knowing Jessie, I can definitely see her doing #3. I can absolutely see her acting like Biggs is her boyfriend to get her mom off her back. I think #1 and #2 are also huge possibilities. #4 is far fetched, but they could cover it up by having Jessie flirt relentlessly with Cloud and appear to be single.

Some people think that Jessie will end up at the Gold Saucer singing. Personally, I really hope not. If they keep a bunch of people alive (even if it’s for a short amount of time), it really takes away one of the major themes of FFVII which is death and moving on. In addition, I think it’s too many people they’d need to kill off later. Jessie is a very popular character, so I hope they don’t take that as an incentive to change that aspect of the story.

Aerith’s funeral and Jessie’s death are similar as well, so I think it is foreshadowing some things.

We get a princess style carry here. Aerith and Jessie both get these in Remake. Jessie’s second one ends in her death. Will Aerith get a second princess carry by Cloud? Will it be to take her to her final resting place?

Maybe she won’t even go to the lake - maybe to the sky?

We know Tifa was super upset in OG, and they really don’t touch on it much. We only see her run away crying after this moment. You learn in Case of Tifa that she’s really upset about, but a lot of people don’t read Case of Tifa, so they only know this scene.

We know that she gets very upset over Jessie’s death.

I think Aerith’s death will be much worse.

It seems Jessie’s death is a reference to how Aerith’s death was handled in the OG.

Will it be handled the same? Maybe. I think they’re going to make it seem like she’s going to be okay, and then boom.

So the ending gives us hope that we have two friends that are alive. It makes us think that we can save Aerith. I do think Wedge’s death towards the end and comments that Red XIII made in Chapter 17 may also be hinting towards the fact that you cannot change the past and you cannot change fate.

Over on Discord, @anesuna brought up a good point about Wedge’s cats. Biggums survives the plate collapse along with Wedge. The other two cats - Reggie and Smalls - sadly perish (::cries a lot::). This could also be a reference that Biggs survived while Jessie and Wedge do not.

So what about the LTD?

I think this is a heavy reference to the old OG love triangle. Don’t fall for it! They’re warning players now instead of wanting them to fall for it.

Why do I say this? Aerith seemed to think the love triangle was fun. Thing is, Cloud wasn’t all there at this point, so it was just an illusion. Since players didn’t seem to get that the first time, they’re going to make it clear now. There were a lot of aspects they seemed to take from Aerith and give to Jessie. Overly flirty (with Jessie they added thirsty) and being overly childish at times. Aerith in remake is still somewhat childish, but not completely.

Oblivious Cloud is Oblivious. Yeah, he was oblivious in OG that Aerith and Tifa had feelings for him. He has no idea what Wedge is talking about now. Earlier in this same conversation he thinks that Wedge is telling him not to come around because people will gossip about Jessie being in Avalanche, but the player knows really what he’s referring to...

I think this is probably a reference to the Gold Saucer date because of the stage part. I take things at face value and don’t really dig too deep, but I think this exchange with Wedge is supposed to tell the player not to fall for these false loves early in the game.

It’s brought up again during Aerith’s resolution scene.

Earlier Wedge said not to fall for Jessie’s trick, because it was a game to her. It wasn’t real love. Aerith is now telling her that if Cloud thinks he falls in love with her, it’s not real.

We have two separate instances in the game where they’re telling you to beware of the false love. It’s two times the word love is used.

After all of this, the ending presents us with two guys who should be dead that appear to be alive. One of them is directly connected to Aerith.

This was their way of trying to shut down the LTD and replace it with different red herrings. Will it work as well as the LTD? Well, it seems that the majority of FFVII Remake fans have talked about the ending.

Yes, a lot of people talk about the LTD, but I think the majority of players are more interested overall in what happens next and what’s up with Zack. I think the majority of the fandom is also ready for the LTD to officially be dead so we can actually focus on everything else and stop the madness.

It’ll never fully stop, but at least it’ll be clear for anybody who plays the game and alleviate the bulk of the chaos.

Say hello to your new red herrings: Biggs and Zack.

Say bye to the LTD.

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yyxy-seph · 4 years ago

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Post Insane! Sephiroth X Black girl! Reader

𝒪𝓃𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝓈𝒾𝓁𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓁𝑜𝒸𝓀𝓈 pt.1

Part 2

Part 3

Warning: SUPER fucking cheesy! And I’m a relatively new FFVII fan so some of my wordings might be kind of weird. But if you want more content like this from me, just hit the heart!

Also, I’ve changed some of the events in the storyline. Avalanche hasn’t attacked Shinra just yet! But Sephiroth has already had his insane streak.

Context: Zack & Cloud set Y/N up on a blind date w/ Seph! Here, we will discover an interesting history between Seph and the reader as well as witness their adorable date!

————-

“Y/N, come here.” Zack ordered once more. I let out another sigh of frustration at how he had set me up on a blind date with no warning.

He said that he was tired of watching me worry over the thought of not being able to find a fine man, get married, and have kids as a SOLDIER.

So he set me up on a blind date with a tiny bit of input from Cloud. I know right? As if he really cares about stuff like this. But Cloud has been acting really strange about it and it kinda upsets me how they’re making plans without my input.

Before I left the SOLDIER territory, Cloud showed up just to tease me. On my way out he said “He’ll never be just a memory to you, you love him too much.”

What does that even mean? He also said that this guy I’d be meeting is a pretty, popular ex- SOLDIER.

Zack told me not to lift one finger in preparation for the date since he was planning it all. He even picked my outfit.

A little black dress with a turtleneck, low slit in the front, and cinched waist. It also had silver buttons and bows along the back. The heels were probably the most interesting part though.

They were gladiator-style, thigh-high sandals with a chunky heel. But, they weren’t just ordinary heels. They had a shuriken intruding in the back that could also be used during battle. How stylish!

I gotta give it to Zack. He could be a part-time stylist. He even called the shoes “cute and dangerous”.

He entered my view with his regular gleam in his eyes.

“I think you’ll really like this guy. He’s just your type-badass, first-class...well, former SOLDIER, long hair, certainly committed, and kinda fucking crazy-“

“I’m not sure if that description helped much for my worries.” I cut him off.

He laughed nervously but continued, reassuring me it’d be ok.

“But no really, you’re just his type too! Pretty, curvy, great fighter, determined. He really likes bad girls, and to me, you’re pretty damn bad on the field. You can fight your ass off! Proves why you’re first-class!”

A smile spread across my face.

“That’s very sweet of you, Zack. That’s why you’re my best friend!”

He beamed in return. “No problem. But one more thing before you go in.” He said more seriously.

“Okay...”

“If he goes bat-shit crazy again and tries to hurt you, yell for me as loud as you can. Promise me.”

“Again?? And I can handle myself, Zack.”

“I know you can! Just promise me.” He said, holding my hands and tightening his grip.

“Fine. I promise.”

“Now go blow his mind with those mako-infused eyes!”

I chuckled at his words and went into the room, one step at a time in my heels.

It was a restaurant. The walls were painted the vermillion shade of red. Black stripes were also painted in certain spots, accentuating a romantic vibe.

“Where is he, where is he?” I asked myself with each step. I was starting to get nervous. All those years of fighting off countless enemies and this is what has me the most anxious and uncomfortable.

Just then, I spotted a man sitting by himself as if he was waiting on someone to join. He had silver locks from what I could see but his head was turned to the kitchen of the restaurant so his face remained mysterious.

I sat down on the empty seat in front of him, curious to meet this man.

He turned his head swiftly, to the sound of me placing my hands on the glass table.

“Hey- SEPHIROTH??”

His cutely shaped lips rose in attraction.

“Hello, princess.” He responded.

I was completely and utterly shocked. Sephiroth, the best warrior in Shinra. The guy who lost his mind and caused the Nibelheim incident. The guy who is somehow still good looking to me even after all the fucked up shit he did. The silver haired man of my dreams who broke my heart when I was younger.

Even though we’ve had little to do with each other in the past, he still meant a lot to me until he faded from my mind. That is, after he went insane.

He liked me, I liked him. It was evident. We were young and in the SOLDIER program. He took up my mental space rather than training. I liked him that much. But he was more focused on his training and never considered dating. He just thought I was a pretty face and that we’d be nothing more.

He worked his way up to first class through his amazing fighting ability while I stayed behind due to my lack of interest. Fighting was just a thing to do. It was never too important to me.

The night before the Nibelheim incident, we shared a kiss. He snuck to my dorm out of curiosity (and desperation due to his previous conversation with Genesis), it seemed. He said, “ if we were to have a relationship, I need to have a good fighter and a good kisser. If you fail at one thing, you must perfect the other. Otherwise, we never know what could be.”

I sat up on my bed and pressed my lips against his. He leaned in more, deepening it. Soon, we were making out. Until, we weren’t.

He just left after that. No words were spoken. He just slid on his coat and left.

The next night, he’d lost his mind. And once the word had spread that this happened, my heart was instantly broken.

I thought things like, ‘Why would he do such a thing?’, ‘He didn’t love me.’, ‘I would’ve been there for him through all this chaos’, ‘He just played with my emotions and used me’, ‘He didn’t like the kiss’, and so on.

With my new wound, I decided to nurture it by taking my frustrations out during training. I trained as hard as I could, making my way up to first class. Everyone was shocked, especially Cloud. He thought he’d never see the day that I took training seriously.

But here I am. And now I’m in front of my past love, Sephiroth, who never seemed to care about me and... now does? Why did Zack set me up like this?

“I-I can’t believe I’m on this date with you right now.” I admitted with crossed arms and growing hatred.

His green cat-like eyes sparkled under the florescent lights. “Sure, you can’t. But you are. And there’s no turning back now.”

“Oh, yes there is.” I shot back while getting up.

He leaned forward over the table and laid his hand on top of mine, grasping it in his clutch. “I left you...and I’m sorry for that, but I’m not letting you leave.”

He flashed another attractive glare while more of his long hair fell over his shoulder, revealing once more that it was him.

Uh, I hate myself for still thinking he’s handsome.

“Why should I stay?” I asked, half-way giving in already.

“Because I won’t hurt you like I did before.”

I sighed, still being disappointed.

“Tuh, it’s only a matter of time before you’re blowing my head off or impaling me with your masamune.”

“Baby, I would never, never you.” He stated with promising eyes.

The nickname caught me off guard, making me fall a bit more for him.

“Just sit down and I’ll tell you everything. I swear. The truth and nothing but.”

I gazed down at his hand, still caressing mine, and back up at his green eyes.

I can’t believe I’m giving into this.

“Start talking.”

He began while I sat back down.

“I never meant to hurt you, really. I just didn’t intend to be in a relationship at that time or do the things I did the next night.”

“Why did you get my hopes up that night then?” I questioned, still being defensive.

“I-I just c-couldn’t control myself. I didn’t know how I felt about you. But now I do.”

“And now I’m supposed to sit here and take you back just like that? What about how I feel?” I replied and continued.

“Will you be able to control yourself if I piss you off one day, or is that the old Seph?” How do I know you’re telling me the truth and not just using me again?”

“Y/N, I don’t expect you to believe me or take me back but just hear me out.”

“I’m waiting...”

“The night I found out the entirety of my origins, I just couldn’t deal. I’d been lied to my whole life so far and had a deep feel for anger and assassination. I hated Shinra, I hated everything. My mind had gone elsewhere and that wasn’t me. I’ve calmed down and found the real reason for my existence. And that’s being a great SOLDIER, saving the planet, being the fine man you wanted, and giving you the world.”

Not gonna lie, his words were really touching. I could see the sincerity in him. But I still wasn’t ready to give in just yet.

“It’s that easy?” I asked.

“It’s only that easy if you show me the way. I need you. I want you.”

More silence and confliction rolled through me as I started realizing he might be telling the truth.

#ffvii sephiroth #ffvii #ffvii x reader #sephiroth x reader #black reader #yyxy-seph

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goddessofroyalty · 5 years ago

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(1/?) Sephiroth Does Not Know how to flirt, at this rate, he is never getting a date with Cloud. And he didn't even kill his mom this time around! (oh, this could be Shinra's midwife stuff!) I love that the kids are about as arrogant and sure of themselves as Sephiroth was pre-Nibelheim. Yes, let's join the megacorp so powerful that only a literal Calamity from the Sky dwarfed it as the greatest threat to the planet, no biggie. Also, they noticing Uncle Zack first... they never knew but he is

(2/?) still family T.T... and then they make eye contact with Parental Unit 2 and All Thing Descent Into Hell. I feel Sephiroth would also freak, - with deepground being a thing can you blame him, oh god what if he finds out about deepground while trying to find out Where. The kids surely know - it's part of the family saga (and it isn't funny how they have SO MUCH SHIT on Shinra?). Now, that'd be interesting, maybe that's the closest he gets to going Dark Side in that timeline. And Hojo is

(3/?) around making everything worse, as always. When you mentioned Nibelheim I was like 'yeah!, visiting the grandmas (two of three!)' but then it occured to me that they have NEVER had to handle flesh-and-blood Jenova's mental powers, and that could be... bad. Also Dad Is Coming and Wants Answer, is Uncle Zack even there with him this time, what do we do, oh! let's set everything on fire! And aunt Aerith coming to pick them up and leaving a huge mess behind... nice.

Does Sephiroth even realise he’s flirting? Or does he think he’s just having small talk with Cloud by telling him he knows exactly what their future children will look like?

I do very much think the triplets inherited Sephiroth’s arrogance. They feel themselves a tad untouchable. Probably because of how a lot of people treated them (considering clearly somehow related to Sephiroth + children of one of the heroes who saved the planet). So, yeah, they don’t see a problem with joining Shinra in the past - probably thinking that if shit does go bad they can just reveal some of the backroom shitfuckery that goes on there and bolt during the chaos that would result.

Sephiroth is... yeah... a bit thrown by the three and how much they look like him. Which is why he decides he has to figure out who they are and where they come from. Because the answer to that might be a big threat to Shinra/Sephiroth himself. And it doesn’t help that the three possibly keep leading him to different in-play conspiracies to keep him away from figuring out the truth about them. Just... every time they do he eventually realises that, yes, bad, but not their origin.

Yeah Jenova flesh and blood would be a new experience for them. And probably part of the reason they almost pre-emptively burn the place down. They can hear her and she seems to be making sense? But they know that’s a bad thing and dad is coming and will probably be more susceptible to her and okay they’re just gonna’ torch the place and hope she goes down with it.

Which ends with them looking very sheepish with a very confused Sephiroth AND Vincent on the burnt rubble of Shinra Mansion. And honestly they’re kind of glad Aerith shows up then because they don’t think they can dig themselves out of this one.

#Final Fantasy VII #FFVII #Cloud is remnants carrier #Sephiroth #Loz #Kadaj #Yazoo #Final Fantasy Omega Verse #Final Fantasy mpreg #Ramblings of the Goddess #Q and A with the Goddess #Anon Question

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synnefo-nefeli · 4 years ago

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I’m a die hard Clerith shipper since 1997, you can’t change my mind but the one thing I won’t tolerate in FFVII aside from shipping wars, is anyone shitting on Tifa.

Don’t. You can like Clerith without hating Tifa. You can find other reasons to not to like Tifa as character, that isn’t “I don’t like her because she gets in the way of my ship”

Personally, Tifa isn’t one of my top tier FF characters, but I am not going to ignore how much of a badass and important person Tifa is to Cloud’s story.

People cite Aerith’s death and burial as the most important moment of FFVII, and yes it’s heartbreaking and an iconic scene. But you know what’s also an important scene?

Tifa in the lifestream with Cloud setting his memories straight. Tifa who up until this moment unbeknownst to the player, is aware that Cloud as he’s presented himself thus far *isnt* the Cloud he thinks he is. She’s been patiently going along with Cloud’s story trying to figure out *what happened* to him/ how he appeared in Midgar boasting of being a SOLDIER while clearly suffering from Mako poisoning/how will she ultimately break this story to him.

Think how hard it was for her to watch Cloud have ptsd episodes and not know how to ground him other than to say “it’s okay. Pull yourself together, let’s keep moving”, because she doesn’t know how or why Cloud is suffering.

But then they fall into the Lifestream together and Tifa helps Cloud sift through the memories warped and altered by the poisoning and Cloud’s severe PTSD.

Only Tifa could help Cloud here- she’s the only one on the Team who has known Cloud since they were young/understands Cloud’s motivations for wanting to become stronger in joining SOLDIER.

This part of the game is beautiful and emotional, and very ahead of it’s time in its portrayal and meta-discussion of PTSD; Cloud isn’t magically healed and back to normal, he never will be, be he’s reclaimed his identity enough that he can begin to heal. I’m replaying the original atm and the moment still holds and I’m hoping that the remake nails this moment. It’s as important and impactful to Cloud as a character as Aerith’s death.

Speaking of Aerith. Aerith and Tifa become friends from the jump. Aerith is so respectful of Tifa that twice she makes sure that she isn’t encroaching on Cloud and Tifa’s relationship. She asks Cloud if Tifa is his girlfriend, she reassures Tifa in Don Cornero’s Mansion that she’s not there to steal Cloud from her.

And yeah, Aerith isn’t trying to steal Cloud or anything - she helped a cute buff guy recover from a fall, asked him for an escort because this time the Turks brought backup to capture her, and got swept up in the ensuing events.

Hell, Aerith is ride or die for Tifa BEFORE THEY EVEN FORMALLY MEET EACH OTHER. Aerith sees Tifa being carted off to Wall Market and her “some bad shit’s about to happen to this woman if we don’t move NOW” senses go off.

Cloud’s like “oh let me take you home first and I’ll get my teammates...” and Aerith’s like “YOU NAIVE FOOL? DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO CUTE GIRLS IN WALL MARKET? (tbh, considering how naive Cloud can be, I am going with ‘nope’.) WE GOTTA GO! QUICK GET INTO THIS SEXY DRESS BECAUSE MR. SOLDIER YOU’RE NOT COMING UP WITH A BETTER PLAN WE CAN WORK WITH!!” Aerith drives the entire plan to get into the Don’s mansion. She negotiates the dress, the wig, the makeup, EVERYTHING, to make sure that Cloud can pass as a women to come into the Mansion with her.

Heck, Aerith was going to go into the mansion HERSELF to get Tifa when the guard was like “No dudes allowed.” The only reason they went looking for dresses in Cloud’s size, was because Cloud got all “No, I can’t let you go in there a lone if it’s as bad as you think it is”, (as if he hadn’t just spent the last day with this woman watching her completely kick ass in battle). So Aerith was like, “Fine, you wanna come with me? Get in the Silk Dress, Cloud” with the same energy as Shinji’s Dad.

And when Aerith gets captured, Tifa was like “WE GOTTA GO AND SAVE HER FROM SHINRA!” as well as protecting Aerith through the whole ShinRa office building mission when the groups had to split up. So yeah, these two queens love and respect each other from the get-go, they put Cloud in his place, tease the shit out of him and Barret, probably had hair-braiding trains at camp, and support the hell out of each other .

Also, as we see from the rest of FFVII and in AC, Tifa is devastated by her friend’s death and continues to grieve with Cloud. Tifa is emotionally intelligent enough to see that Cloud’s grief and guilt over Aerith’s death is killing him, but also respects his need for space. However, when she finds that he has Geostigma and has staying away from everyone so he can just waste away and die as some sort of penance for not being able to save Aerith and zack, she get’s PISSED at him. Tifa is instrumental in bringing Cloud back (again) to his senses. Making him see, that he doesn’t only belong to himself, he belongs to their family, just as much as they belong to him. The love and fierce protection Cloud has for his family? They have that for him and believe he’s more than worthy of that love. Tifa takes none of Cloud’s mopey and self-loathing bs, and sets him straight.

So if you think Tifa is only there for fan-service, an annoying bitch who is there to be jealous of Aerith, is there just to make a love triangle so SE can pander to fans on both sides, you clearly

a) didn’t play the games b) missed one of the best female relationships and examples of women supporting women in gaming c) missed how equally important both Aerith and Tifa are to Cloud in their own ways

IMO I see her and Cloud as platonic soulmates- kinda like Black Widow and Hawkeye- they have history, they have shared trauma from their childhoods and in the destruction of Nibelheim, they know what it’s like to grow up in a poor country town that’s been exploited by Shinra on so many levels from the natural resources to it’s culture of military indoctrination and idealization.

Yes, there was an innocent first love, but after certain events, to me- it’s moved beyond romantic attraction between them. They’re always going to be important to each other and in each other's lives.

Their innocent first love to me, mirrors Zack and Aerith’s, but Aerith moved on and fell in love with Cloud. Yes, Cloud reminded her of Zack, she probably wanted to remain close to Cloud to get closure on what exactly happened to him.

People often forget, Aerith *knows* Zack’s died and returned to the Lifestream in the way that she knew her adoptive mother’s husband had died before word reached them. When she has her awkward moment in Gongaga it’s not because she’s now realizing that he’s dead, she’s now realizing that these are Zack’s parents and they still don’t know what became of their son. Zack was scrambled into Cloud’s memories due to trauma and because Zack was someone Cloud looked up and was his ideal, combined with the fact that Zack was the only person talking to Cloud for 9 months as Zack carried his catatonic self back to Midgar. But Cloud didn’t *become* Zack, only Zack’s plans of becoming a mercenary and being a former SOLDIER were impressed upon him. If Cloud actually became Zack he would have been chipper, this energetic “I’m a hero!” all around good-guy hero Zack made himself out to be. The Cloud we first meet...isn’t- yes he thinks he’s a former SOLDIER turned merc, but he’s sardonic, arrogant, and too much of “tough guy/lone wolf”...he’s more like his child-like self who was made to feel like an outsider and wants to showoff how much cooler and stronger he’s become. He didn’t find Aerith because Zack was some how possessing him. Aerith and Cloud meeting was destiny, and their subsequent relationship is independent of their past histories with Zack. And if Aerith is interested in Cloud because she reminds him of Zack - well...the woman is allowed to have a type.

I digress.

Cloud was in love with Tifa in that - “hey! notice me! If I go off an become this awesome guy, I’ll be worthy of your attention” sort of way, that teens get. He was a lonely kid, often bullied by the other children in the village (Tifa included), and probably didn’t know *why* he wanted Tifa’s attention- it was most likely Tifa had the most social capital among the kids. And despite her hot/cold treatment of him,Cloud who was desperate to prove himself, figured that if he somehow “won” Tifa’s attention, it would “show them”. I am not saying that Cloud was using Tifa or didn’t care about her- he does love her. He blamed himself for not being strong enough to save her when she tried climb Mt. Nibel. But you can’t ignore that his thirst to prove himself wasn’t wrapped up in his crush. It’s your typical “become a hero, get the girl” idealization. Cloud was 14 when he left Nibelheim for Shinra’s military. He was a child, just like Tifa, with a naive idea about how the world worked- and the world slapped them both in the face, HARD. Relationships mature and change over time. Outside forces can and will shift your dynamics in how your relate to the people you love. Sometimes your first crush, becomes one of your very best friends (happened to me personally so maybe this informs my take on Cloud and Tifa) because when you’re young you don’t understand that loving someone, outside of your nuclear family, isn’t only constrained to romance. This is what I believe happened to them. Cloud and Tifa had the quintessential school yard crush, and when they were reunited years later in Midgar, they still care deeply for each other in a different way than they did when they were 14 and 13.

But those are MY feelings, it’s how I play the game’s attraction mechanics; I am afforded to shape Cloud’s relationships as I, the gamer, see fit. I understand why Cloti shippers ship Cloud and Tifa, and they’re just as valid as Clerith, Zarith, Clack, etc.. but I’m a sucker for M/F platonic soulmates because there needs to be MORE of that in media. I rather Cloud and Tifa be platonic soul mates, co-parenting Marlene and Denzel with Barret, than Cloud “settling for Tifa because Aerith died”. which that explanation for Cloud x Tifa, often used by Clerith shippers, just undermines who Tifa is as a character and her’s and Cloud’s relationship.

But anyway, even though I don’t ship them and Tifa is not my #1 girl for VII, she is a vital character. She’s not there for fan-service. She’s not there exclusively for a love triangle and to cause tension between Aerith and Cloud. Tifa is VITAL to Cloud’s story, to the story of VII, to the planet of Gaia. You wouldn’t have VII’s core story without Tifa. And I will go to the mat for her just as hard as Aerith did when she saw Tifa in the cart bound for Wall Market.

So again: you may not ship her with Cloud, or she may not be your fave in VII, but in this house we forever respect the badass queen whose name is Tifa Lockhart

#ffvii #rant #tifa lockhart #in this house we love and respect Tifa Lockhart #even though we don't ship her with anyone really #I used to ship her with Barret and sometimes Rude #If Cloud didn't exist I would prolly ship her with Aerith tbh

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timpini · 6 years ago

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Calculated Risk

I actually wrote something? And finished it? We’re in the twilight zone boys which is fitting for the month of October.

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16369628

Pairing: Cloud Strife/Aerith Gainsborough

Rating: T

Words: 2451

Summary: They had all saved up enough gil to come to the Gold Saucer tonight; something they both had promised Tifa for a long time. While Zack was extremely happy to be here, Cloud internally was screaming and doing his best to keep his composure. This was...far, far too much for him. Gold Saucer was also too big and he had no idea how Tifa knew where to go when he probably would have gotten lost four times about now.Or an AU in which Cloud goes to the Gold Saucer and sees someone who captures his attention. He may impulsively take a calculated risk, but man is he bad at math.

Read the whole thing on AO3 or below the read more!

On the surface, Cloud wasn’t phased by the bright lights and constant noise of people around him. Inside, he felt a thunderstorm of emotions threatening to bubble up past the surface. The only thing keeping him grounded was Tifa’s hand in his as she pulled him along. Behind them, Zack was also trailing and attempting to keep up with her pace.

“Come on, come on!” She ushered and pushed past people in their way. It cleared the path enough for the boys to make their way through without bumping into anyone. Cloud thanked his blessings, because all too often the smells that hit his nose were too much.

They had all saved up enough gil to come to the Gold Saucer tonight; something they both had promised Tifa for a long time. While Zack was extremely happy to be here, Cloud internally was screaming and doing his best to keep his composure. This was...far, far too much for him. Gold Saucer was also too big and he had no idea how Tifa knew where to go when he probably would have gotten lost four times about now.

Knowing Tifa though, she did her research in advance and actually bothered to look at a map. She had already dragged them around the Event and Ghost Square. They had to be booked for their reservation to stay the night. The theme of the inn was cheesy and Cloud didn’t appreciate the hanging man by the check in counter. He shuddered at the memory.

The next stop they seemed to be heading to was either the roller coaster or the giant gondola in the distance. Tifa’s hand was like a vice on Cloud and his blood began to pump harder in his arm as his fingers began to lose feeling. He tugged his hand free of Tifa and she paused for a second until her stride matched his.

“We’re almost there!” She said and brought her hands together in front of her chest. Cloud let out a hum of acknowledgement and rubbed his sore wrist. Zack appeared to his other side and chuckled. Cloud gave him a side eye knowing exactly what that laugh was for. His look also spoke back the echoing thought that he could be the one Tifa was dragging around like a rag doll if he found it so funny.

In the parting crowds of people, he could make out the booth and entrance to the Gondola that now towered over them by stories. Cloud didn’t let his displeasure show, but Tifa knew he wasn’t one for rides and it was assumed that Tifa and Zack would go on it as usual. Cloud would stand at the bottom and just enjoy the sights. His eyes began to look towards the people in line, and noted that he wouldn’t have to wait long for his friends to return since it was so short they’d make it on the next available one.

And then the world came to a halt.

Blue eyes were trained on someone. Auburn hair that followed her form effortlessly and for a moment, time stood still. She was in line with someone. Cloud couldn’t tell you anything about the other person though because he was hyper focused. When her friend spoke, her green eyes sparkled with enthusiasm and a smile broke out on her face. Her laugh resonated to him and suddenly, the rest of the world sounded far away from him. Cloud swallowed hard. To his side, Tifa was saying something and Zack made a comment.

She’s beautiful, the back of his mind whispered.

All too suddenly, his friends pushed past him and got in line to board the Gondola. The passengers from the previous ride began to exit shortly after. Some other people also pushed past him to get in line. Yet, he was still rooted to his spot almost as if placed under a spell.

His eyes never left the girl, even as she got on with her friend and the door closed on their car.

Cloud’s heart was hammering in his chest. He had never seen anyone like her before in Nibelheim. Then again, there wasn’t anyone extraordinary in Nibelheim because no one came or went from a place like that. Surely an angel like that would never make a stop in some backwater town like that. Those green eyes seemed otherworldly against the dull colors he was familiar with, and they began to haunt him. His thoughts swirled as his friends got on their car and hollered at him.

The ride began shortly after, with a god awful groan from the metal rubbing together in the machines. The Gondola began to circle in a hypnotic motion.

Cloud’s thoughts never left the girl. Never in his life has he felt this stupefied. He had to talk to her and find out more about her because surely she couldn’t be real, could she?

Then, all too suddenly, his feet under him were moving and he ran past the entrance gate to the ride. He heard the protests of the people in line as his legs leaped and then, he was in their car as the ride began to ascend. She let out a yelp and her friend also let out a noise of surprise.

The Gondola halted and lurched, almost throwing her out of her seat and into him. Her friends arm shot out and held her back. His eyes met Cloud’s and they squinted into a glare. From below, Cloud could hear the operator.

“Hey, you can’t do that! Only two people per car!” His gruff voice was unamused and the displeasure of some of the other riders could began to be heard. One of them was all too familiar.

“Cloud you’re gonna kill yourself! What are you doing?!” Tifa’s shrill voice cut through everything. She was leaning out of her Gondola car window and staring up at the now hijacked one in horror.

“I uh…” His accent was coming through heavy now because of nervousness and his actions hadn’t really caught up to him yet. All he could focus on was that those haunting green eyes were on him. He felt his stomach churn and coil as a result.

“Will you um--will you go out with me?” Oh shit. That wasn’t what he wanted to say or anything close to how he wanted to open up a conversation with her. He said it so fast though it probably sounded like word vomit. Her eyes blinked a few times as if trying to wake herself up from what could possibly be a dream. Cloud could understand the feeling, because none of this seemed real at the moment. The crushing embarrassment surely hadn’t hit him yet.

“You’re not--is this really necessary?” Her voice had taken on such a tone of disbelief that Cloud started to feel bad. He was beginning to ground himself. Did he really just run onto their Gondola and ask this?

“Uh...yes?” He wasn’t even sure himself and he could see Tifa face palming out of the corner of his eye from down below. Zack was now looking out of their Gondola window and his face was beaming with amusement. His grin so wide it threatened to split his face. Green eyes flickered out the window at where Cloud’s attention was for a moment and back to him. The operator began to put the Gondola in reverse.

“Seems like you’re about to get thrown out.” The guy’s voice made Cloud aware of his presence again, and it did not sound the way he expected. It was flat and monotone, but his features looked quite annoyed.

Cloud suddenly felt all too aware of himself.The mortification of his actions as the girl stared at him in both confusion and awe made his gut take on a weight of its own. How often did a guy throw himself into a Gondola car in desperation to ask a girl out? Then again, most guys would probably wait for a more appropriate time to do something like this. Like, perhaps when she got off the ride and wouldn’t look like a deer in headlights.

Cloud inwardly groaned at his own foolishness. As hands grabbed at him to remove him, her eyes followed him until she was out of sight. At the bottom of the Gondola, he was tossed out by the operator. His mouth opened to say something more, but then a fist met his face and he fell backwards from the force.

“Are you just...do you even think of your actions before you do them?” Tifa sounded exasperated. Cloud’s vision was starred for the moment, but he knew she was gesturing wildly as she spoke to him. When did she get off the ride?

“Not really, no.” He at least prided himself on being honest. His mom taught him well. Honesty however wasn’t what Tifa wanted though because she huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. His hand came up to rub his cheek as he tried to stand back up on wobbly legs.

“Next time you decide to be an idiot, don’t let me be around to see the results. What if you fell?! Why on Gaia did you think that was okay to do that to that poor girl?! You probably scarred her!” Her voice got louder the more she spoke with her aggravation. Zack on the other hand was a completely different story and it was almost jarring having both of them speak to him.

“You gotta let me be there because I wish I had the gall to do that! Way to give a good first impression Romeo.” Zack walked up and patted him on the back. Cloud didn’t wince, but as usual Zack wasn’t aware of his strength and that too felt like Tifa’s punishment.

“I kind of found it...endearing.” A voice cut in. Behind them, a form appeared and molten blue eyes met green. Tifa immediately whirled around on her.

“Don’t say things like that, it’ll promote him to do it more.” Despite her annoyance, Cloud could hear amusement on the edge of her voice. The girl gave a small laugh and and walked up to Cloud. Her eyes were swirling with some unknown emotion and she held out a hand to him.

“We never got to introduce ourselves to one another, did we?” The smile on her face was mischievous, and he knew she found this whole situation humorous. Embarrassment flushed on Cloud’s cheeks and his eyes broke away from hers to look at her outstretched hand.

“My name is Aerith.” Her voice spoke softly. Autopilot must have worked because suddenly his hand was in his vision and encompassed in hers. Warmth coursed through his palm and fingers. His blood pounded in his ears.

“I’m Cloud.” He hoped he sounded more confident then he felt. Judging by Zack’s snort behind her, he wasn’t doing a good job in the slightest.

“Hi Cloud.” She said meekly and shook his hand. She didn’t pull it back after the hand shake and everything suddenly felt too warm. She continued.

“I’ve um...never been asked out quite like that before. Not that I’ve ever been asked out to begin with but..” Aerith cleared her throat and Cloud could tell she was trying to cover up a laugh at his expense. His face was probably completely the shade of a tomato. Gaia could probably hit him with a Bolt in this moment and he’d be okay with it.

“Well at least in books they weren’t as dramatic. Do you normally go to such lengths?” Now her hand finally retreated him his and went behind her back. Her mischievous smile still hadn’t left as she leaned forward in curiosity. Realization crashed into Cloud like cold water being thrown at him.

Flirting. She was flirting with him. Cloud nodded no to her question and the bird’s nest of blonde hair above his head shook with the motion. Aerith chuckled and turned to his friends.

“Would you mind if I took him up on his offer at some point during your stay?” At this point of the exchange, Tifa’s jaw dropped and Zack doubled over in laughter.

“You mean...you’re actually going to take him up on that offer?” Tifa was in awe, mainly because she would’ve laughed at a guy who did something like that because it seemed so desperate. Then again, Aerith might have been just as odd as Cloud was though, considering she said she found it endearing.

“Well yeah. How could I say no to someone who would risk his life for just a chance to date me?” She reached behind her and flicked her braid out. She was now being dramatic and confident despite the fact that Cloud’s stomach at this point has probably fallen from his feet to the other side of the world. Did it find its home in Nibelheim?

Zack at this point had to chime in. His laughter subsided as his hands came up to wipe at his face. He coughed a few times to gain back his breath.

“Oh man, no one is going to believe this. I don’t even believe it! Good job Cloud.” He began rolling again with laughter and Aerith’s shoulders began to shake as well. Cloud just gave a meek nod and tried to smile despite the turbulence he felt inside himself. Something was bothering him though about the whole encounter.

“Sorry for ruinin’ your date though.” His voice was quite compared to the bellowing laugh of Zack and the nearby crowds. Aerith turned back to him and shook her head.

“Tseng is a childhood friend of mine. I had been wanting to come out from the slums for a long time and he was worried about me coming alone.” Aerith’s matter of fact tone left no ill qualms and so Cloud assumed she had to be telling the truth. She turned back to Tifa.

“So, is it alright?” Her hands had found the bottom of her braid and began to twist. Cloud realized she too was nervous and was putting on a good front. Her tell was obvious though. Tifa gave a huff.

“Yeah, it's fine. He’s a big kid and can take care of himself...clearly.” Aerith’s face lit up at the comment. Suddenly, his hand was pulled from his side and now it was Aerith who began to tug him along behind her. His eyes trailed up from their hands and met those green eyes again.

“Come on, the next ride is starting soon.” He didn’t regret a single action he made today so long as they would keep looking at him.

#final fantasy 7 #final fantasy vii #ff7 #clerith #cloud strife #aerith gainsborough

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daydreambouquet · 3 years ago

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Zack never survived the Nibel Reactor and therefore couldn't rescue Cloud from Hojo's clutches. From this single point of divergence, the story unfolds.

Hold onto your materia, folks!

Preview of Chapter 21 - Wutai

He’s dreaming of his mother. It’s difficult to see her face, but he can sense her warmth. He’s at home in Nibelheim. Low afternoon sun casts everything in pale yellows. It feels good here, in this indistinct time. The world of nonstop pursuit, armored drones, and the anxiety of protecting his friends is the real dream. This here... This is reality.

“Mother.”

She’s silhouetted against the curtain-lined windows. He’s sure she’s smiling. He’s safe with her.

It’s time to wake up, he hears her voice. But isn’t he already awake?

A darkness shades the sill. The yellows bleed until the room is soaked in violet. He’s being pulled away, against his will. Upwards, downwards. Away from Nibelheim and the loving aura of a woman he can hardly picture.

Wake up, a voice commands.

This time, he doesn’t resist. He complies.

Cloud wakes in the middle of the night. His eyes snap open, and he’s extremely groggy. As if he’d been drugged. Warily, he looks around. Everyone else is asleep, which is unusual because they’d agreed to take turns keeping watch. His sword is partly unsheathed, up to the section where materia is slotted.

And the slots are empty.

“What?” He rubs his eyes. It’s dark due to the cloud cover, but he confirms via touch that the materia slots are vacant. Both his Ice and Restore are gone. The Destruct he’d found in Nibelheim is still in his pocket, though.

He bolts up, which is a bad idea because everything spins. This isn’t a poison, though.

“Tifa…?” He rocks her shoulder. She doesn’t move. He tries Barret. Nope. Everyone is in a deep slumber. He’d need to hurt one of them to wake them up because these, he realizes, are the effects of induced sleep from a Seal materia.

Everyone else’s equipment is also devoid of materia. They’ve been robbed.

He shakes off the last of the sleep spell, and then he notices one person is missing.

Yuffie. She’s gone. It doesn’t take much to extrapolate what happened.

Something rustles across the grassland. A figure darts in the moonlight. He must’ve woken the second she’d left camp. He takes off after her, furious but not astonished. He knew there was something off about her intentions from the start.

He moves in predatory silence. The Shinra training is easy to slip into. She is the enemy, after all, and he will overtake her. Even in this dim light, he can see her heading into a forested area. Two small bags hang from her arms. He takes an angled route to cut her off.

The forest is dark, but she’s in no hurry. They are in a grove of flowering trees. Her steps break twigs, and a flashlight pinned to her jacket bounces light across fallen pink petals. An air of confidence and self-satisfaction surrounds her. She thinks she’s invincible. Cloud’s about to change all of that.

He crosses in front of her, blocking the way, and when her flashlight reaches him, she abruptly halts and screams. The bags jingle on her arms.

“Oh!” She quickly recovers. “C-Cloud. What are you doing awake?”

He’s not playing any games. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Um, just going for a stroll. Couldn’t sleep…”

“Wrong answer.”

He steps closer. She clutches the bags of materia tighter.

“So what, I stole your shit,” she says, fearless. “But I have a good reason.”

“I don’t care. Give it back. Now.”

“Or what?” Then her smirk fades. “Wh-what’re you doing?”

The alarm in her voice confuses him at first. Then he realizes his hand is on the hilt of the sword, his stance has adjusted for offense. The ingrained conditioning of her as his enemy has surfaced, unwanted. No, she’s just a teenager. He consciously releases the sword.

“Where’d you get the Seal materia?” he asks.

Her joking demeanor is gone. She gulps. “It wasn’t a materia. It was a Dream Powder. My only one.”

Cloud keeps his anger low. “Do you have any idea the risk you put everyone in? Those drones could drop out of the sky at any minute, and we would’ve been annihilated while we slept.”

“Except you…” she mumbles.

“Yeah,” he says. “Except me.” Truly he doesn’t understand what woke him or how he was able to shake off the effects without aid.

“It should’ve worked,” she bemoans. “That sleep spell shoulda put you out, too.”

“Well, it didn’t. So hand over the materia.”

“No.”

“...Please.” Because he doesn’t want to have to take it by force.

She backs away. “You don’t understand. I need this materia! For Wutai!”

But the Wutai province was banned from using or holding any military units or weaponry, including materia, after its defeat under Shinra and General Sephiroth.

“That’s precisely why we need it!” she implores. “Have you seen what Wutai’s become? Have you seen how diminished we are?! The war is over! And yet we are nothing but a tourist attraction, stripped of ourselves and held under Shinra’s thumb like a pet dog!”

She snarls the last sentence. Fury scorches every word. She’s glaring at him.

He waits, expecting more. The tirade has transformed her.

“Let me guess,” she says. “You’ve never been to Wutai. You’ve been in a coma or whatever your story is. So you haven’t seen the remnants plastered over with Shinra’s laws. Trust me when I say we need this materia. We need to remember what we used to have, and fight to get it back.”

It’s honorable, her quest, but Cloud has another priority.

“Stealing from us won’t help Wutai,” he says. “We need that materia to fight Shinra and Sephiroth, when we find him.”

“Not from what I’ve heard,” Yuffie scoffs. “Seems Aerith is plenty powerful taking out Turks with one swirl of her staff. And you’re practically indestructible. No, I don’t think any of you really need this.” She holds up one bag. The materia click against each other within.

Cloud centers his footing. “Please, Yuffie… Just give me back the materia.”

“Tell me how you withstood the sleep spell.”

“I don’t know.”

“Bullshit. There’s a lot you conveniently don’t know.”

He sighs. They are getting off track. “So what are we going to do?” he says, “Fight each other in the middle of the woods, in the middle of the night?”

“...Maybe.” But she doesn’t sound so certain.

“And why run off like this? We’d help you if we knew how. I’d help you.”

A wry laugh answers him. She clips the materia bags to her belt and swings one arm up to grasp the mighty shuriken. A light breeze shakes the boughs, sending petals adrift between them. A nocturnal bird shrieks as it guts its prey.

“You’re really going to do this,” he states with resignation.

“Yep.” The shuriken rotates into a ready position. She lets the flashlight fall. “Let’s go, blondey.”

#fanfiction #ff7 fanfic #ao3 #wutai #yuffie kisaragi #cloud strife #final fantasy vii #final fantasy 7 #zack dies earlier

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imnevergonnagiveyouup · 7 years ago

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Meta#2: Not my family, not my friends..nobody

Aaaaaaaand here's another ramble about my beautiful boy. Same warnings as before! Spoilers alert if only to show why I think what I think that's all! Credit for the screenshots taken go again to mah boy Sam ( @fairlegacy ) who's always nice enough and kind to me to help me get in-game content and knows where to get and look for them. Thanks bro! I’m going to be going through some points throughout the timeline of my muse and not just stick to one of the installments so spoilers for the games and the film will be present. I’m obviously not going to be touching in on everything though since at the moment I’m only going by memory, but by what I do remember it’s enough for me to flesh out this second ramble of my boy, so please be wary!

AGAIN! SPOILERS! *movie informant voice* Viewer discretion advised.

Cloud's sense of not being good enough and how he copes with it is something that has haunted him since he was a young kid. Many seem to forget that which is totally understandable considering all the things one has to keep up with in this series to not get too entirely lost in it, a lot to take in. A good number of fans are convinced that it all started when he lost his best friend in front of his eyes and then a year later losing yet another friend in front of his eyes once again. These two events are very important to Cloud’s character definitely, the two people he lost were very special to him and have impacted him in so many ways, but no that’s not where it started for him. It started way earlier. There's a lot of layers that make up Cloud and why he struggles with believing himself to be good enough and why his usual go-to method is just to hide and give up, to isolate himself completely from those that he's grown close to/attached to in one sense or another. Now I use the word attached loosely, so I'll say instead to those that he's warmed up to. That seems a bit more fitting to me. This specific post will also touch on that oh Cloud only gives a shit about himself/barely shows any emotion/feelings. As I mentioned in the beginning, this sense of not being good enough/not being strong enough is something that's haunted Cloud since he was a child, this fear of being a failure and constantly just failing. In the game it isn't something we know from the beginning but something we learn near the approaching ending of the game so way far into the game play not in the beginning. No backstory whatsoever, only its and pieces to piece together and basically you having to take Cloud's word for certain things. In the lifestream segment later on within the game where the player tries to unlock the true person that is Cloud you get introduced with some backstory between him and Tifa where young (real) Cloud shows Tifa a definitive and crucial memory that changed Cloud as a person forever, what initially, before this whole ShinRa/Sephiroth/JENOVA nonsense began, changed him and influenced the taking of his decisions as a young boy. Don't forget that Cloud was just a little boy when all of this happened so for this to go down in the age that he was at this time it hit him pretty hard and it was a pretty big pill to swallow. Not to say he was entirely naive obviously, but that it impacted him boy did it impact him. I’m going to start from the original game on the part of his childhood and then from there stick to the canon timeline of the entire series itself.

I’ve mentioned this specific incident in my last post, where Cloud follows and goes after Tifa when her entire squad get shady and leave her to go through Mt. Nibel on her own. He always seemed to be so inclined to show and prove a point and though he never wished for what took in that day to happen it did. She missed her footing, he was right there, to him he believes within the reach of actually doing something from preventing things to get worse, to help her and stop her from getting so hurt. But as the shot itself says, he ran to her but he didn’t make it in time, meaning he wasn’t fast enough or maybe his reaction was too slow and in the process instead got dragged down with her. Cloud’s injuries were minor ones in comparison to what Tifa got who got the hardest blow and the strongest impact of the fall, go figure how shitty he must’ve felt when her father showed up with a friend of his, seeing his beloved daughter presumably gone and Cloud with just scrapped knees in the process to wake up. When Cloud wakes up he wakes up to Tifa’s father with his daughter in his arms and obviously worried to the core about her. Her father doesn’t even glance at him when he’s taking her away and doesn’t even bother to ask if he’s okay too. He’s only left with her father’s friend who also didn’t even bother to ask if he was okay, instead he was questioned and attacked in a sense with this question:

Being placed a guilt that he shouldn’t have to be exposed to or even be accused of doing something because all he wanted and what his only intentions were to follow after her, maybe keep an eye on her if things got nasty, and they did. He tried to save her and he failed. After he’s left on his own you see little Cloud just sit there almost like he’s getting eaten alive by his own brain. By the incident and by what took place. What got to him wasn’t the older men who basically didn’t give a shit enough to ask if he was okay and alright. What got to him was that he couldn’t save someone else from getting hurt, that he failed to keep someone else who needed it the most in that point in time. From here it only gets worse and goes downhill. They all find out that Tifa isn’t in the best of shapes, she falls into a coma for an entire week and Cloud takes it all as his fault. Even worse because everybody seemed to think that Tifa was not going to be able to make it, to live through it. That he didn’t try hard enough, that he wasn’t good enough, that she is the way she is because he wasn’t good enough and that’s when it all really started for him, this blaming he often puts on himself and where this fear of just not being good enough in general stemmed from. Even when in the lifestream, when speaking to Tifa and trying to explain to her why that memory was so important to him he expresses that he did go out of control and that he did blame himself for what happened that day. That he believed he wasn’t good enough and goes as far as to say that he was convinced that she blamed him for what happened to her. That no matter what she said or anybody said he would always see it as his fault and that she blamed him for it. Obviously the dislike Tifa’s father had for him didn’t help the cause much either and only strengthened this thinking of his.

That sense of doubt was planted very early within him, more so because he was giving it his all to get to her and still didn’t make it in time. After what took place he confesses and opens up about acting up, that he went a bit out of control after what happened. That he began to pick fights with everybody and misbehaved, he grew reckless. This reckless behavior of his wasn’t something be adapted when he took on that fake persona but something he already had the ability to be. Almost like he was trying to prove something to everybody. All in the while still convinced that everything that happened was on his shoulders, that it was his doing and there had to be a certain thing he had to do to make up for it because it was making him act up. And I quote:

I was so angry at myself for my weakness.

He confesses to her, why he went down that path he did after that incident with her. He obviously kept all these things to himself because she didn’t even know he got this way over it, but in a sense acting up how he did isolated him, he placed up a wall to protect himself and preventing himself from utterly destroying himself as if people were going to remind him that it was his fault when in reality for the most part it was all in his head, the only one that had to do any forgiving whatsoever from the beginning was always him and nobody else. This is a good example of a child who’s caring too much, he’s taking it so to heart that it even moved him to take certain decisions he took which were then influenced later and turned into will-do’s by other things obviously, but this is the stem of where it started for him and in his case. Now this isn’t the end of it either, this is just the beginning because this also happens in CC obviously and though my memory of the game itself isn’t the best out there I’ll just be pointing out the parts I remember the most and that mostly stood out to me from that game itself. Aside from the extremely obvious section of Cloud blaming himself for what happened to Zack there’s a slight part within the Nibelheim mission that did stand out to me a lot and it’s the part where he and Zack are talking some things over. Again my memory of CC is not the best so I’ll be revisiting it again at some point but there’s this part where Cloud feels a sense of guilt and just not being good enough once more, aside from him hiding from Tifa and not entirely revealing himself to be there. Again Cloud using his way to cope with something he has a hard time to let go, that sense of believing that he isn’t deserved to be forgiven and believing that he isn’t by hiding/running away. Now the scene in CC I’m talking about is when he and Zack are n the inn after Zack encountered Genesis and tried to help/deal with Sephiroth. Cloud wakes up and is informed that Tifa’s safe and he doesn’t have to worry so much about her because she’s out of harm’s way.

Cloud sits up and he feels a sense of relief but before this scene Cloud’s HELPED by Tifa instead of it being the other way around, how he would have preferred as the thought of what happened that day in Mt. Nibel still haunts him and the weakness of him he so loathes and angers him so much within himself so in this scene Cloud actually goes as far as to blame himself a little, for not being an asset for Zack so much and just be another cause of worry and another person to look out for instead of someone Zack could maybe had the ability to rely on.

But in this particular time the circumstances are different, Cloud blaming the weakness and his inability to be anything more than a weight to Zack on the fact that he’s so far not made it into SOLDIER where it’s rumored its members get enhanced through mako and become a lots more stronger. Another thing he’s showing off in this scene is that failure to even make it into the ranks of SOLDIER and how he’s struggling with entering it at all. Constantly failing on what he left and abandoned his hometown to do anyway, why he hides away in general. Because so far he’s failed and hasn’t been able to keep up with what he’s trying to do, what he set himself up to do the day he found out about Sephiroth/began to admire him/want to become stronger. Failing over and over again, taking steps forward to get somewhere and putting it his all to only fall all the way there. Again there’s a lot of instances within the game where Cloud shows his torment of just not being good enough, believing that he isn’t, and blaming himself. The most obvious one being when Zack died in front of him. That one stands out the most for obvious reasons, ins his fragile state of mind and in the middle of recovering from mako poisoning, but this scene in Nibelheim also really stood out to be, it was very subtle and to really get it you’d have to remember some of the things I’ve mentioned in the beginning of his childhood to have it impact you as it did to me. Cloud’s reserved and even when Zack points out that there’s some issues and senses that there’s something wrong Cloud doesn’t entirely come clean as to what it is that’s bothering him, instead just lets Zack know that yes he has some sort of relation to Tifa and the source of it is from a certain thing that could have possibly happened with her. This thing about Cloud not being very caring about many things, to all their take and without argument he does come off that way plenty of times but here you have a good example of just how above and beyond Cloud really and can truly care. The incident with Tifa marked him forever, not because of how he was treated, but because he failed to help her even when he was trying so hard to do so that it impacted his choices and his behavior. Cloud wanted to become stronger so that something like that never happens again, so that someone who’s helpless never has to feel like they can’t depend on him if he’s there to do something about it.

When he claimed his promise to Tifa, that he’ll become stronger, make it into SOLDIER, and this time without a doubt he’d get and help her out when she’s on a pinch were HIS words. Words he had YET to live up to by this time. In his opinion he hasn’t become stronger, he had to depend on Tifa to help him, he failed to become an asset to Zack and instead became another source of worry on top of everything else that was already going on, and he has not made it into SOLDIER how he swore that he was when he talked to her. So when he wakes up in the inn with all of this going on of course the guilt he always feels should be on him begins to set in and that weakness within himself he hates so much. Like I said before Cloud does come off as a withdrawn person and he never speaks up about how he feels in general so of course he’s going to seem like someone who doesn’t really give a shit in a lot of occasions, it’s something that doesn’t really stand out about him so much because he keeps all of those things to himself, locked away where nobody can reach them. In a way done to shield and protect himself obviously but not just himself but others to prevent them from getting too close because again, he just feels like he isn’t good enough to protect anybody. For a good while in the events of the original game these things are hidden after what he went through with Zack and adapting what he did all in thanks to the mako poisoning and JENOVA itself. But, as I mentioned on my previous meta, as you go and progress through the game you start to notice that something’s wrong, that something’s completely off and that there’s either missing pieces, misplaced pieces, or pieces that shouldn’t even be there and Cloud himself progressively starts to realize these things. Obviously not on his own. His character evolves and changes throughout the game, going from someone who’s all about the solo life into someone who appreciates those that stick with him. And boy does he appreciate. Especially someone in particular, Aeris.

This scene is probably the most important scene in the debate of Cloud only cares for himself because when he loses her he expresses his pain, how much it hurts him to lose his friend. This woman who’s impacted his life and was brutally taken away from it. He even shakes when he holds her.

There’s a snip where Sephiroth even mocks him for showing emotions and Cloud snaps back at him saying that he does, that he does feel a lot of things and who Sephiroth thinks he is to claim that he doesn’t or can’t or maybe even has no right to show them. Throughout the game itself Cloud isn’t given time to grieve over all the loss they had to go through to get where they are, there’s no time for it. There’s so much going on and so much he has to keep himself on his toes for, but every now and then there are little snips of him within the game after this event showing weakness. Saying things along the lines of how much he wished he could have done something or what ifs, what if there was anything he could have done differently at the time. His sense of guilt and his want not to fail and be a shield to those he warms up to is something he’s struggled to do but really wants to prove that point, to prove himself to someone, anybody, like there’s a need to do so even though there’s obviously none and this kind of deep turmoil only sets in when its him failing after trying not to fail. Again, during the events of the game and after the loss of Aeris Cloud isn’t given a lot of time to grieve because things just keep coming at him and his friends to only get worse when he finds out about Zack and remembers everything and even goes as far as to ask to be numbered. There’s a lot for him to do and to get out of the way and isn’t given the downtime to grieve. But this, this opportunity to express this pain presents itself a bit before AC going into AC. Everything’s calmed down in a sense, they saved and did what they could, in the end with the influence of Aeris the planet ended up saving itself. Now there’s a lot of things that happen in between fvii and AC, Cloud finding Denzel and then having to deal with knowing he has geostigma and then furthermore even leaving his home, and then plagued with thoughts of Zack and Aeris and how he utterly failed to save them and be of any help to them at all.

There’s still a lot going on no doubt about it, but the planet isn’t ending what’s coming to an end is his life and he has implied to not wanting to do anything about that fact because he doesn’t deserve nor has earned forgiveness for his sins. Again, him running away and hiding to spare himself, but not just him but his friends. Though Cloud doesn’t completely cut communication with them, keeping his phone, listening to their voice messages if they leave one, he doesn’t want them to know of his illness. That’s the thing, even Tifa didn’t know he was suffering from Geostigma which at first threw me to a loop when she said that because in Cloud’s desk, the room he left, there’s books and papers concerning it and how to find a cure for it/its effects and what it does to people.

Not just one book or a couple of papers, but two books and a lot of papers concerning the geostigma and if he was not doing it for himself then why do it? What made him want to look these things up? The newest addition and member to his family, Denzel, someone else he’s come to love and care about and he’s one to keep things that’s happened in the past in mind, that if he’s failed before for his loved ones then why would this time if he tries to do anything will make it any different? That’s because he doesn’t think so even though he wants to help, all of those bookmarks you see, all of those papers he studies, those notes he takes. He does them for that boy he’s come to adore and want to protect. To want to serve as a parental figure since in part the reason why Denzel lost his family was also a blame to set on them, or so they also come to think that way. This isn’t just a man who’s running away because he’s given up, this is a man who’s running away because he’s scared of making things worse. His words within this movie that really stand out to the fandom and to me are:

I’m not fit to help anyone..not my family, not my friends..nobody.

History’s convinced him that he can care and want to do as much as he wants but no matter what he tries he will always be doomed to fail. This doubt, this seed that started since the day he and Tifa fell off that cliff and only further got worse with the events he went through. He was convinced that all of that loss and misfortune was on his shoulders and nobody, no matter what they told him or said would be able to convince him otherwise which only made it even more sad and even got him to the point of maybe giving up. He didn’t want to try anymore because of that fear that it’ll eventually backfire, that his good intentions will be greeted with a bad ending. It’s scary, a very scary thing that you’re convinced that you’re doomed to fail. Cloud simply can’t bear the thought of knowing that the geostigma has no cure that no matter how much he searches he won’t find a thing concerning it because that means Denzel’s doomed and not just Denzel but him as well even if he’s not the priority for his want to search for a cure, but knowing that if his friends were made aware that he’s suffering from it then they would also suffer with him, the way Marlene watches Denzel slowly fall apart. It’s a very hard thing for him to grasp and something he’d rather avoid, by again hiding and running away, keeping to himself as he’s always done. Seeing Aeris and Zack again, when speaking to Aeris she makes it clear that she’s never blamed him and the one that has to start doing the forgiving is him. he’s the one that needs to do the forgiving, nobody else which again it’s hard to do because this sort thinking has followed him since he was a kid. Cloud wants to believe he’s good enough but again when from the start he’s been made believe that way and only continued to escalate from there it was hard for him to think that he was, that he is. He was making it but he was falling all the way through it and that’s why that doubt is there and why coming terms with himself regarding it will take time just like anything else.

#* OOC.#*INCOHERENT APOLLO SCREAMING IN THE DISTANCE*#long ass post #i fuckin love cloud strife #if there's anything i'll really find as something i can relate to with him is this #this sense of just not being good enough no matter what you do

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missingmywing · 7 years ago

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Urk. Reincarnation fics are hard. I’m writing an Avengers/FFVII fic where FFVII characters are reborn in the Avengers world because of reasons. (Thanos is a threat, Minerva wants to give FFVII people second chances, etc. Win-win, right?) But my problem comes with writing the characters. Or, rather, how to refer to them. I have to figure out which mindset they’re more in and refer to them as that. But I also have to make sure it fits the situation as well.

(Don’t read below this if you don’t want mild spoilers for a story that’s going to take forever to come out. This is mostly just the character outlines and general idea dump. Details are open to change.)

For example, I have Cloud as Steve (obvious) and Sephiroth as Bucky (more for his Winter Soldier persona... and I’m mean like that. Former enemies turned best friends. Minerva has a sense of humor.) But Seph is lecturing Cloud for getting into fights with bullies, except he’s in his Bucky mindset. While Cloud/Steve is in his Cloud mindset. So Bucky is lecturing Cloud about getting into fights while calling him Steve and it just- it looks awkward. Which, okay, isn’t necessary a bad thing, it’s an awkward sort of situation (reincarnation in general) but it just... feels weird.

Plus, looking over where the story is going... it’s a lot more depressing than I thought it was going to be. At first, at least. ‘Cause here’s the lineup so far:

Avengers:

Tony Stark- Zack Fair

Steve Rogers- Cloud Strife

Bucky- Sephiroth

Bruce- Angeal Hewley

Natasha- Genesis Rhapsodos

Clint- Vincent Valentine

Sam- Reno

Rhodey- Rude

Pepper- Cissnei

Wanda- Aerith Gainsborough

Pietro- Rufus ShinRa

SHIELD:

Maria Hill: Elena

Coulson: Tseng

I mean, Clint and Bruce were both actively abused and Tony was at the least a victim of neglect if not outright abuse (verbal abuse is highly possible), so I mean... Vincent and Angeal are going to be in very painful positions in childhood and Zack... is not going to have a lot of fun at first. He’s not going to be as bad as Tony, he just doesn’t have that personality, but he’s probably gonna pull masks based on Reno and CC!Genesis to protect himself (You know, set up for the Avengers.)

And Genesis. Oh god, Genesis. I feel so, so bad. Minerva does too. She gave him the full option to refuse and be someone else after explaining the situation, but he decided to accept. They needed someone in that position, right? Besides, better him than some innocent child. He is going to get so much fluff after the Avenger’s movie... I’m gonna cry for his chapter, I just know it. Now I just have to figure out a reason for Vincent not to go sniper so he actually gets the chance to join SHIELD... I’ll figure it out.

I feel bad for Aerith and Rufus too, but that’s gonna be more on Zack’s end because... yeah. Avenger’s canon. I’m sorry. I also hate hate hate what I’m gonna do to Seph, and what that’s gonna do to Cloud, but... angst then fluff, right?

I’m sorry.

And no, Asgardians are not going to be reincarnates. They’re gods. Odin would not be happy if Minerva sent her humans into his realm. He didn’t mind being their occasional summon, but he did not want to deal with their bullshit on a daily basis. So, Asgardians are gods and themselves. And since I’m a big supporter of Nibelheim being the Scandinavia of Gaia, Cloud will know who they are and all their stories. When he finds out Loki’s story, he’s going to be displeased with Thor’s explanations. He favors Fenrir, Loki is Fenrir’s father. Besides, he respects why Loki is necessary and is amused and impressed with some of the stories about Loki. He will call Thor on his shit about “imagined slights”. There was nothing imagined about getting his mouth sown shut over dying someone’s hair. Even if it didn’t change back. (Spoiler, that was actually Sif’s fault. She tried to change it back with her own magic and messed up the spell. Loki got the full blame. I’m... messing around with canon and the myths some.They kind of contradict each other.) There’s gonna be a lot of drama and angst before the healing fluff, but I think it’ll be worth it.

I dunno, it’s a work in progress. I’m having fun.

#ffvii #avengers #fanfic #idea dump #reincarnation #au #soldier #turks #asgardians #minerva #summons #nibelheim is gaia's scandinavia

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illusioneery · 8 years ago

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#sefikura week | day 3: friend

He heard Sephiroth’s casual and short tale quite intently, as the man didn’t seem to be the type who shared such casualities, from the little he knew him. Something about the man running into a really short, blond infantryman who dashed away as soon as he could. There were many questions about that.

(”What age do they allow them in, anyway?” Which Sephiroth wouldn’t know the answer to, given that he apparently made it straight into SOLDIER, even if there were no details about that and “Do I really scare people that much that they just run away?” among other things.)

He looked a little... awestruck, if Zack was reading it properly. It was so surreal... General Sephiroth out of all people so seemingly fascinated by some random cadet he bumped into. It definetely made the younger SOLDIER’s day, if he were to be honest about it.

Of all infantrymen they could send along in that assignment, some weeks after that casual exchange, — that involved an attempt to track down Genesis and possibly Angeal — Zack didn’t expect one of them to be small and blond. That had to be a coincidence. The company had maybe thousands of infantrymen and this one, who walked so confidently on that snowy, rough terrain, couldn’t be the “Sephiroth’s infantryman”, could he?

Whether he was or not, that this blond was keeping up with him was notable. He obviously missed his helmet, gone with the helicopter accident they had upon arriving in the area, but didn’t seem to mind the weather. If anything, this cadet seemed too focused in getting to their destination, in just doing the job he was assigned to.

“At least someone is keeping up,” Zack couldn’t help but comment.

“Well, I’m a country boy, too.” The blond answered.

“Oh? From where?”

“Nibelheim.” Oh, that was such a funny name. Zack had never been there before, but he heard things about it; of the place being on the foot of a mountain, cold and having a reactor. Well, that explained the ease the other had with that kind of terrain. “How about you?”

“Me? Gongaga.”

Something about that name had the infantryman laughing.

“What’s so funny about that? You know Gongaga?”

“No,” the other chuckled again “but it’s such a backwater name.”

He caught himself saying the same about Nibelheim. It made him wonder who named those towns in the first place. But in any case they could agree in one thing: the only thing Shinra cared about in those towns were the reactors. Nothing else even mattered in there.

Later on, Zack would ask this infantryman — whose name, he learned, was Cloud — what he thought about Sephiroth, just to be sure it was only a coincidence and that the blond the General talked about was someone else altogether.

But then, after stating he was a fan, Cloud opened his mouth to say “I— I bumped into him some other day...” and the only thing Zack could think was Oh, shit.

Unfortunately for them, on the way back from that assignment, not only was he unable to bring either Genesis or Angeal back (like Tseng explained to him that was probably what Sephiroth hoped he would do by passing the assignment onto him in the first place) but also he lost sign of Cloud altogether upon arriving in Midgar.

Well, at least until he found him on floor 49th one day, for whatever reason. Maybe delivering paperwork again with the risk of bumping into someone? Hm. In any case, he had no papers with him at the moment. Perfect.

“Hey, Cloud. There you are.”

“Zack.”

“You wanna see the General? Right now?”

The blond got immediately nervous about it. “W-what?” But that wasn’t a face that said “no”, it was most likely just the “meeting The General” kind of anxiety, that many people had.

“A friend told me he was going to the Data Room today, but if we’re fast enough, we can get there before him.” After all, that room had its regulations regarding time of usage and it wasn’t even open for the day yet.

It wasn’t that much difficult to convince Cloud to tag along, anyway. All he needed to do was to say that Sephiroth had been talking about him as well.

It was funny, Cloud thought, seeing Sephiroth without his pauldrons on. But then again, Zack was lacking his as well. It wasn’t as if they needed those at the moment, especially the taller one among them, as Sephiroth had intended to use the Data Room instead of talking to them.

Anyway, the blond couldn’t help but blush a little at Zack’s “Sephiroth, Sephiroth! I found him!” as if he was some lost pet that needed to be returned to the man as soon as possible.

Before he could grasp properly the situation, Zack had invited both of them for coffee, promptly stealing Sephiroth from whatever he intended to check in the Data Room. And left them to an awkward silence to talk to someone he knew that worked at that place.

“...How in Gaia did he find you?” Sephiroth ended up asking him.

“We... we had an assignment together.”

“Oh.”

Out of thousands of infantrymen, the man thought. Interesting luck, that was. Sephiroth took a sip of his coffee and looked outside. His mind was telling him not to get too close, to avoid taking this cadet under his wing, but...

“I could help you with training. To get you into SOLDIER by your own merit.”

That was enough to pull the blond a little out of his awkwardness.

“Really?”

“Yes, but let’s make it a secret between the three of us. I wouldn’t like to be the one drawing the wrong... kind of attention to you.” He smiled “You get into SOLDIER and I get a little satisfaction myself.”

Cloud didn’t know exactly what the man was talking about (or that Sephiroth saw something on him that left the General puzzled and willing to know more about him) but he liked the sound of that.

“Thank you, sir!”

“Just ‘Sephiroth’ is fine.” He corrected “We’re out of duty, anyway.” And there was the matter of him not liking his title or that kind of treatment all that much even if he put up with it when meeting people he wasn’t that much acquainted with. If he was going to train this cadet, he’d rather be comfortable in being around him.

Zack returned to them with a teasing “So, how’s the date going?” that made Cloud’s cheeks turn into a bright shade of red, words completely forgotten. Sephiroth offered him knowing look, still smiling.

“We’re getting married.” The face Zack made and that Cloud laughed at that, even if nervously, was definitely worth it, he decided.

“Hey! Don’t get his hopes up like that!” The younger SOLDIER accused, putting the blond right back into all that awkwardness and blushing.

“Worry not, I’m just going to help him with training.”

“Oh, ok.” Zack said before realizing what Sephiroth just told him “Oh?!”

#sefikura #ff7 #sefikura week 2k17 #what even is consistency #idk you tell me #arkeeart #arkeefic #we have a little more color but I don't like this picture much?#i find the sketch of it a little more appealing for certain reasons hm #anyway we welcome zack into their mess #thanks zack #a bit late but it's here

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iaintyourbro · 4 years ago

Text

Let’s Talk About... On the Way to a Smile: Case of Tifa and The Kids are Alright: A Turks Side Story

Yes, I couldn’t sleep... again. I’ve gotten good at staying up two days at a time. Then sleeping and going back to it. I suppose it’s the quarantine... Which is only going to get worse it seems...

In any case, I finally got to read Case of Tifa... and... if you came out of that thinking they weren’t a thing... I don’t know what to tell you. I honestly went in to it expecting it to seem very ambiguous and very non-Cloti (in a sense).

What struck me, first of all is the amount of guilt Tifa talks about having. Tifa seems to be just as bad as Cloud is, she just deals with it differently. Oddly enough, Cloud doesn’t show that much guilt immediately. Tifa is the one who is struggling with this major guilt initially.

So let’s start with some screenshots (pictures?) I took of excerpts I found interesting. Some I’m sure you’ve seen before.

Here we have Tifa talking about the guilt. She also feels insanely guilty for what happened to not only Aerith, but everything else that happened (Sector 7 Plate Drop/Avalanche). The other weird thing about this... and this is legit at the end of the OG... she almost is convincing herself that she should stay alive. I found a lot of sadness in that. And it’s not because of anything Cloud did. No... actually I think that’s what snaps her out of it.

Of course we have a smiling Cloud. You’re going to see Cloud smiles... a lot... and he laughs too, which I really hope they show him laughing because I don’t know what it sounds like...

I’m sure everyone has seen this. It’s the next page after Tifa calls Cloud out on his bright dork smile he’s giving. I mean he fucking says he has her. And that he knows what that means.

I... I don’t know how you can’t take this in a romantic sense. Maybe because the guy barely smiles so to me this is massive. Maybe because he had a hell of a time telling her anything down Under the Highwind. I don’t know. But this seems like something that’s profound to tell a person. That’s the end of that section (teases - perfect moment for a kiss).

I like the “What about you? Are you okay?” Strikes me as something we saw in Chapter 17 when you first get control of Tifa and Aerith, right? “What about you, Tifa? How are you doing?”

Tifa loses it, crying. Guilt, guilt, guilt. They talk more about Tifa’s guilt than they do Cloud’s guilt. Cloud comforts her here. Another profound thing at this point, but... we are seeing him do this in Remake already. The hug is the major one...

But things like when he grabs her from having a crate fall on her... he could have pulled her out of the way and let her go or pushed her (like Leslie does in the sewers). No, he holds on to her. She actually is the first one to let go here. (Look how cute they are PSPSPSPSPSPSPS)

So this whole part just cracks me up. For one, it shows that these three were busy doing stuff together and slept under the plate, even though it could collapse.

I HOPE WE GET A GODDAMN VISUAL OF THIS. Barret making happy Cloud and Tifa drinks? LAUGHING THEIR ASSES OFF?! Barret talking about his past?!

“The other two [Cloud and Tifa] couldn’t remember the last time they’d laughed so much.”

Let’s be real... probably when they were like 14 - maybe.

There’s also a part later down that I didn’t get where Barret makes fun of them for getting trashed during this night. I would kill to ALSO see that.

But... laughing, drunk Cloud? Laughing, drunk Tifa? Plz.

Happy... sounds like the correct term.

Now there are moments as time goes on - mainly after the bar is open - where Tifa thinks about once the bar gets ready, is Cloud going to leave...

This is where I think people take it as they’re nothing. Tifa I think just has a very hard time accepting that not everything is going to be taken away from her. The impression I got from reading this is it was all in her head. Cloud himself gave no indication that he wanted to leave. (The Geostigma catalyst is later)

And here’s why I said I got no feeling that Cloud wanted to leave. (Oh here’s more about Tifa’s guilt). Above this, Marlene says Cloud and Tifa can be her parents and the two look at each other. Cloud doesn’t look away. Cloud also says Awesome with conviction. Looks at Tifa almost to confirm it’s okay... but these two like to talk without words. I think he knew she was getting nervous, so this was his way of saying “See? I’m not going anywhere?”

Marlene gave him a nice little assist here so he didn’t have to say anything and Tifa didn’t have to ask.

Tifa, I think, was already going through her major guilt turmoil - she had an immediate reaction to it. I think she knew, deep down, that Cloud eventually WOULD have this problem, and when she sees the slip from Elmyra for the Forgotten City, I think she knew that was the catalyst.

“Stop worrying about what they were to each other.” I’ve seen a lot of jokes, mostly on Japanese Twitter posts, that Cloud assumed Tifa was his girlfriend. Like, he didn’t realize he needed to tell her that. I read a post about this somewhere too, that they got the impression Cloud (in the land of Cloud’s mind...) got was that Tifa was his girlfriend and knew this. I’m not sure if it’s because of Under the Highwind, I don’t know if it’s because he pulled the same shit on her and talked to her while she was sleeping. I have no idea.

To me, Cloud and Tifa don’t have to say they’re boyfriend and girlfriend. It seems kind of funny after all they’ve been through. They’re almost like extensions of each other at this point.

Okay so the above is from The Kids are Alright. Evan goes to see Tifa at the bar because he just saw Cloud and needs to get to Nibelheim. And Cloud tells him to talk to Tifa.

I have to laugh about this Evan staring at chest line... lololol

Let’s talk about how she describes Aerith. “Friend doesn’t do her justice.”

...Did Tifa have romantic feelings for Aerith? Probably not (though we’d all be fine with it because Aerti is adorable). @holysmotez Made a very good post about how Aerith can be seen more as a holy/religious figure. I think Tifa saying this really does enforce that with me as well.

Also this is the part where you find out there’s blackmail pictures of all three of them in the dresses: Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith.

But I marked an interesting one - “I’ll be fine. And I’ve got Cloud, too.” She sounded confident.

Now, I was blowing through this at this point. I will go back and do a normal reading of it, but after this, Kyrie and Evan go on a journey round the world it feels like. There’s Nibelheim talk. They talk about some of the people who were killed during the Reunion and are found at the northern crater.

And here is the end of The Kids are Alright.

Cloud tells Evan that they’re a family.

This is AT THE END OF AC when the church is being utilized as a way to heal folks. On thing that also seems odd... A lot of people were under the impression that Cloud disappeared for months... but it was like a week. Tifa blows him a kissy kissy at the end of the movie, then apparently walks up with him and the kids to see Evan and Kyrie - very family like.

I also did not get any jealousy vibes from Tifa and no I’m hiding this cuz Aerith feelings from Cloud.

The part where he tells her where he found Denzel felt more like he knew she was worried about him closing in on himself again (which he already was anyway), but her reaction didn’t come off as she felt jealous nor that she felt he was hiding it cuz feelings. She wanted to go cuz she wanted to go and be with him and maybe feel her friend (more than friend) there.

I got the same feeling as I did when he was taking extra jobs to get extra money for his bike. Like I should have told you I was there, and it wasn’t really planned. I think he was praying or whatever the equivalent would be. He was feeling guilty, going down a bad path... because he wasn’t just visiting the church in AC. He also was visiting Zack’s grave. I mean, he let the Buster Sword rust to hell out there. (Angeal knows what you did, Cloud.)

So here’s how I feel after reading this, and now I do think that Remake is setting this up better.

Aerith is the same type of person to Cloud and Tifa. They both feel the same way about her. She feels the same way about them. It’s different than a simple friendship, but it’s not romantic. Spiritual is a good way to describe this.

There is the part where Aerith says Cloud was more than a friend, for she had loved him. By itself I’d say holy shit, wow, Aerith had romantic feelings for Cloud. After reading the rest of this, thinking of the OG, AC, CC, and Remake - yes, she loved him - but not like she loved Zack - she loved Cloud as a special person, not in a romantic sense. I think she almost felt like she had to protect him, because in this same part when she says she loved him, she also says she knows he has almost a delicate heart, but also needed to find a way to warn him about the shit about to go down.

I think if you asked Aerith about Tifa, she’d say she loved Tifa too. I think OG didn’t do a good job of building up the Tifa and Aerith friendship to show exactly how important she really was to the whole thing, but time constraints, technology, whatever, a lot of games in the 90s suffered from this type of shit. Get the game out! We’ll figure out the rest later...

This also does not talk about Cloud’s feelings on Aerith. The only indicator we really get in this is that Cloud felt guilty that he could not protect Aerith.

My guess is he told Tifa this at one point, probably during one of the conversations that she needed his help to stay strong. That’s not romance. He felt obligated to protect her because he was supposed to be her bodyguard, but beyond that, he just protects people. He doesn’t have to be madly in love with them. There’s a difference in how he reacts to her death and Tifa’s simulated death. Cloud is able to function, fight Jenova, and carry her off to drop her off in the lake.

Tifa’s he completely starts to freak. We see what he does in Nibelheim and overtakes Sephiroth. I am not sure what would have happened if Sephiroth didn’t stab him and Tifa had died at that point... I really don’t know.

In any case, you should go read these novels too. The Kids are Alright has Kyrie and Leslie in it. Evan I’m sure we will see at some point soon.

Don’t be afraid to read them... I was because of shit information online, so I hope this puts you at ease.

Oh, Barret and Cid have a conversation about Cloud and Tifa being together too...

#cloti #cloud x tifa #ff7 spoilers #ff7r #ff7 on the way to a smile #case of tifa #tifa lockhart #the kids are alright a turks side story #cloud strife

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