#as the one inside the shinra building. which is probably gonna help because i remember being confused

[thatrandombystander]

Getting towards the end of my FF7R re-playthrough, so we're approaching our first encounter with Sephiroth that isn't just a Cloud hallucination, and I'm just "Hiiiiii Sephiiiiiii 🥰🥰 You here to kill the president and psychologically torment Cloud a little bit 😍 Happy to see you, we'll talk later 😘"

[nyanzaya]

Ok so I had a REALLY weird dream recently so I’ll send this first ask as like the set up because it’s rlly long. 1/2?

(This involves Neko!Izaya so I thought you’d like to hear about it first) So background information first; for some reason I’m like “piloting” Izayas body. I’m making his decisions sort of??? I only found out when I walked past a mirror and everyone kept referring to me as Izaya (Prolly because I lined him back in middle school lol) and the fact that the other characters CLEARLY did not like the fact that I was still breathing. There’s a lot to unpack so I’m gonna be formatting this in a bulletin point way that’s in chronological order.

- So Izaya and a BUNCH of other DRRR!!characters are staying in this weird group of cabins in the shape of an upside down U, with a road heading into town. Starts off as a dirt/gravel road that goes into pavement. You know the ones.

- So Izaya/I am staying in this cabin building at the very end of the U on the left side. (Since this U kinda warps around the road into town) Across the road is one of the main “Bathrooms”. It’s got the showers while each cabin has like one of its own bathrooms. (This has meaning I promise)

- Within the cabin Izaya/I am staying in there’s at least three rooms. Shinra was in the next door over, while Shingen was in the room at the end of the hall. I saw him go back there once and never saw him a again for the duration of the dream. (So we’ll just call this the Kishitani cabin)

- The bathrooms across the road from The Kishitani cabin is shared with the neighboring cabin. The neighboring cabin was MUCH bigger but also had more people in it. So there was two to a room there, while in The Kishitani cabin we each got our own room. (Which when I first found this out the first thing that came to mind was “what a bunch of losers” lol)

- Shizuo Heiwajima was a resident in the neighboring cabin. Which means we have to share a bathroom w/ him :) (this is actually very unfortunate later on) His cabin contains the Van Gang (didn’t see a lot of them only glimpses), as well as Namie, her brother, and his gf Mika. I had a feeling that Namie was supposed to be staying in the Kishitani cabin, but left because,,,,, brother,,, ig)

- Nobody knows about Neko!Izaya yet, only Shinra and Shingen. And Izaya is hiding as a human VERY well (for now). We get kinda Fucked Up™️ later on too.

A finishing side note for now is that the weather outside is fucking FREEZING. There’s snow and ice slush everywhere, and the air is that really dry cold that burns your nose and lungs when you breathe. There would also be these gusts of really cold wind that would freeze the sides of the pine trees, so there wasn’t snow on TOP of them bist there was snow plastered to the SIDE of them. So right now we’re stuck in cold winter hellscape. Also I don’t know where Celty is, but Shinra had left to “go handle something” or whatever so he was gone for a good portion of time too.

Part 2/4? (This is way longer than expected.)

Mornings sucked because if you left the cabin you would almost definitely start freezing to death. Considering that, We just poked around our room for a bit and found nothing of interest. So it’s around midday now which means that the sun is out in full force and the outside is somewhat bearable, so why not go exploring right?? It can’t possibly lead to something catastrophic that would eventually put us at the brink of death.

- First place we go is to the “Bathrooms” across the little dirt road. As soon as we step through the door you just KNOW that Shizuo had been there previously and he was Mad™️. There was glass all over the floor from one of the broken shower doors, and it looked like someone did a very half asses job at cleaning up said glass.

- Enter: Namie. She apparently had the same idea and was wandering through the showers section of the Bathrooms as well, she had at least one other girl with her but I don’t remember who it was. Namie was also “talking” to me but it was more of just her trying to bicker. Clearly not liking that we had the same idea. So I eventually leave and go back to my cabin. I just remember wanting to avoid the other characters, because avoiding them meant avoiding unwanted conflict.

- I want to say this is the first night in this cabin, but at the same time it was like this had been playing out long before my weird dream had even started. So this is probably like the third or fourth night, and we were clearly avoiding a conflict that I was not present for.

- Middle of the night We hear thumping from down the hallway that works it’s way to my bedroom door. I initially think it’s Shinra walking around but that thought is quickly snuffed out.

- The man who opened the bedroom door was tall as hell and was clearly here for us. The man is having a hard time holding himself together, literally. Eventually his human persona wears off and we’re left having a showdown between us and this man made of GLASS. And this glass is SHARP. While trying to fight off the faceless glass demon/general asshole we “die”, he got the better of us and stabs us through the hand and a few other places. I just remember the hand being the most memorable. Close quarters combat with him is not the way to play this.

- We come to about a kilometer out from the U of cabins, at night, in the freezing cold, buried in the snow like a shallow grave, and still bleeding. Between the gusts of wind you could hear something moving around, and so we knew we had to get back inside STAT.

- Now at this point in time there was no need to keep up the human disguise, so we just didn’t. Enter: Neko!Izaya

Part ¾

We get back to the cabin and the room is a disaster. The bed is skewed and the suitcase of stuff I had is nowhere to be seen. The floorboards are cracked too, and we can see something shining under them.

- We pull back the floorboards, or at least what’s left of them, and pull up a giant steel box. In said box was a pair of thick leather gloves, with sharp nails on the end, a note, and a small map of the region we were in. On the small map was several other little squares which I assumed would be more boxes like the one we just found. (The gloves also helped keep our hands from freezing up which was nice)

- The front door and our bedroom door were broken and would no longer lock so there was no point in staying. No one else seemed to be around either so we just assumed that we were in this alone and needed to kill this thing before it killed us, and maybe someone else. (I also think Izayas sisters were there at the cabins, because I remember that being a pretty motivating factor.)

- After a lot of running we come across some buildings and fences, which looked like a Zoo. Zoos need caretakers, and caretakers were people, and people meant help. So we get onto one of the main roads of the “Zoo” and immediately something is wrong.

- Dawn is breaking and there is still no one in sight. On top of that none of the animals look right. Everything was very much uncanny valley. None of the animals looked like animals, and they were all hyper aggressive. Even the ones that seemed like they were supposed to be harmless.

- So far there seems to be no signs of people, but the farther back we get to the more restricted looking areas, the more signs of human life. There’s crates and Jeep’s, and we even found someone working on a computer in a big open tent. Although when we approached her, she didn’t really respond.

- So we leave again and follow a road into town. Once the town was in sight (think old European style town), the glass man was back chasing us in full force. And it seemed that as long as he was being touched by direct sunlight, he would appear as human.

- Getting to the town and there are people EVERYWHERE. Townspeople walking in and out of shops, driving down the road, and just going about their business in general. It was comforting but also concerning considering that we were still being chased but this glass man who for some reason is targeting us.

Part 4/4 (another long part)

I figured that if I could lose him within the town then I should be home free. Unfortunately wherever I managed to parkour to, he would already be waiting nearby. And If we stopped moving then we’d get attacked again.

- He would make snide comments every time he would cut us off within the town, although after the first few times I stopped listening to what he was saying, and I think this might have pissed him off.

- Eventually we had gotten into this other building which was definitely upper class or something, if you were to judge it by the decor and the sheer size of it. One of the hallway walls had a HUGE painting of this Neko mother surrounded by her little kids. The painting was clearly very old, and I wasn’t expecting to see anything like that.

- In this house we found three more of those Steel boxes. One with a black trench coat lined with wool, and there was a picture of another Neko in the box that was wearing the same coat. On the picture it said something along the lines of “to whoever receives this coat, let it warm and shield you from the night”, something weird like that. Each box that had something in it also had a picture too. Which was interesting, since each time it was always of a different Neko. Anyway I got like some sort of undercoat and I think a thicker pair of pants.

- Obviously we had been found again and were forced to flee to the edge of town. There was a old rickety building that we ran into, and were then cornered in.

- At this point we had to fight him, and as it turns out as long as he is taking human form (in direct sunlight via the giant skylight in the main room) you could do a lot of damage to him. I didn’t want to get too close to him do at one point I had taken an old coffee table and hit him w that, since it wasn’t that heavy.

- The gloves were helpful when we had to use the nails and dig under the guys false skin to tear some of the glass out. The less glass chunks he had in him, the less mass he had and the less damage he could do.

- Once we had whittled him down to almost a skeleton of what he was before, we reached into where his face used to be and pulled out the one piece of glass that wasn’t the same as the others. It was 100% clear and had this weird glittery purple and orange in the middle of it.

- While trying to leave the building we ran into this old man who I guess was working in a facility below the building, who was coming up to see what the commotion was about. He also took the weird glass/rock from us

- That’s how we found out that those weird looking rocks had come down in a meteor shower a few months ago, and that you’re not supposed to put them inside of your house. This is apparently because he cold of the outside keeps them sedated almost. So when you bring them inside they’ll latch on to any sort of free floating objects to create a body for themselves. Which is why when someone put it in the main bathroom where all of the broken glass was, it was able it create a much stronger body.

- Afterwards he, or someone else, had given me a ride to just outside of the cabins we were staying in. It was starting to get dark but it wasn’t getting colder yet, so everyone seemed to be out and about. I saw Kyohei walking back to his cabin so I ran up to him and grabbed him to tell him not to let anyone touch anything outside, and to especially not bring anything else inside. Which I probably sounded crazy but he just went with it.

- During that time I got to talk to the other characters, only for a little bit though. I tried talking to Shizuo but every time I did he would clam up and ignore me. Which fair enough I guess, since very few people got along with me and I had disappeared for the past 24 hours.

- Afterwards it had started to hail, and that was around the time I decided to leave the camp and try and go home. Just to get anywhere else but there. When it stopped I took one of the trucks and drove until I reached a highway, which was very far out. When I went to merge though, the on ramp wasn’t connected to the actual highway. It was like it was never completed and there was a drop off straight down into a canyon. I just sat there in the truck for a bit and watched the other cars driving back and forth across the bridge over the canyon.

- The ramp was only one lane so I and to reverse all the way back to the road, and then back to the 7/11 I had previously passed, so hopefully I could make a phone call to get out of there. Though the dream ended before we got the chance to do that.

I’m sure that there is a lot missing considering that it’s rare for me to remember dreams in the first place. I’m also sure that Shingen had something to do with us being in that location during that time of year. But I hope you found some entertainment in this weird dream that will probably haunt me for a while. Love your blog btw and I hope you keep posting!

——-

I’m in the middle of traveling right now! But omf thank you for sharing this I cry,,, also sorry everyone I don’t know how to make a read more on mobile 😭

This is actually a super interesting dream I wonder what it means tbh LOL what has me is the Neko part I weep softly. This kind of explains why my muse for Iza(Neko!izaya) has been a little low, like it felt like he wasn’t “with me” if that makes sense!

The coat and the pictures I’m hhrhrh…. It’s super funny to me because it kind of falls in line for Iza’s mom and her kits with that picture of a mother Neko and her kids because that was all I could think of but still! This is such a sweet story in a exploratorive way and a interesting lore perspective because those pictures and items were left there by someone for a reason but we have no idea who 👀

Then how you/izaya is trapped there?? I need the part of the dream where we know why and who LOL but tbh maybe Shigen did have something to do with it 👀 damn nebula and their mysteriousness

Ty again for sharing this with me 😭 it really helped and I enjoyed! I have like,,,mild travel anxiety and this made me feel better💕 for the posting part,,,I will try jdhdjs i have to get back to the Iza/Zuo content but I been ensnared in Genshin Impact and FE: Heros and I’m stuck on Link Click LOL but, I hope to post more about drrr/hybrid verse/Iza+Zuo content!

[silver-wield]

I want to know what your thoughts are on the optional Aerith resolution scene? Particularly around the time where Aerith says the "love" line?

Awww man, you're gonna make me watch that? Lol

Ok let's do this then.

Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be reasonably long.

Also, this is one person’s interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that’s cool and we’ll agree to disagree.

You’re also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I’m grabbing them from Youtube and it’s frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.

Other analyses if anyone’s interested.

Shinra HQ vision scene (Cloti/plot analysis) 

Chapter 3 (Cloti reblog) 

Tifa character analysis 

Aerith Resolution (plot analysis/theory – I should probably update this since I’ve had other ideas since then) 

Train graveyard (not really an analysis, but I got some sweet screenshots of Cloti) 

Clotiscrew tunnel analysis 

Cloti reunion analysis 

The Promise Analysis 

Andrea’s approval (Cloti ask response) 

Leslie analysis (not mine, but a good read) 

Cloti action touching 

Aerti friendship analysis 

Cloti body language chapter 3 

Cloti healthy disagreement 

Cloti post heliboss battle (chapter 15) 

Clerith playground scene 

Cloti body language plate fall 

Cloud and Barret friendship 

Now, strap in and enjoy the ride.

Recap time!

So, Aerith's been taken by Shinra and the group is still feeling the after effects of the plate fall. Everyone's pretty demoralised and after they visit deep ground and Cloud gets the aborted flashback of himself inside a chamber being experimented on, he says to Elmyra they should go save Aerith before the same fate befalls her.

Elmyra asks they sleep on it.

During the night Cloud “wakes up” to see a ghostly Aerith heading downstairs. He follows her outside and they talk on the hill top where the lifestream can be seen glowing in the background.

It’s important to note that Cloud has literally just gone through both the train graveyard and seen a bunch of ghosts and the plate collapse where he’s seen a load of people he cares about die. 

Cloud looks surprised. Hmm I wonder why....

Yeah, this is a no brainer opening. Aerith shouldn't be there and he doesn't think he's asleep at this moment. He looks around and figures out it's a dream, but isn't totally sure because how often does anyone have cognisant dreams?

You can see the doubt about if she’s a ghost or not and she doesn’t clear that up, so Cloud’s left wondering if Aerith’s dead already. The following conversation doesn’t reassure him.

Aerith's “Maybe. You tell me,” doesn't actually help here. If Cloud's having doubts about how real it is – and she's aware of his fake persona and wants to know the real him – then causing further doubt in his mind seems counterproductive. It's like she's implying an illusory nature to their relationship. It also feels like foreshadowing the moment Cloud thinks he’s not real. 

She's also not looking at him when she says it, so even if it was a teasing moment between them, she's automatically set a distance between them. Because eye contact matters, remember? When someone can't meet your eye it's for a reason, whether they're uncomfortable or hiding something or whatever. Eye contact is a conscious connection between two people. Deliberately not making eye contact has meaning too.

Aerith exposition. Lots of fidgeting. No eye contact. She seems like she's making small talk to avoid something. Even when Cloud faces her head on she quickly turns away again to stare off into the distance. Cloud remains in her peripheral vision only. When Aerith does turn to reassure Cloud, he looks away.

And after is the immortal line “Don't be silly” in response to Cloud's sarcasm. I mean, isn't she supposed to be the sweet one? So wouldn't her saying silly fit with her vocabulary? Or should she have said something like “Cloud, don't be a fucking moron” because she swore that one time and everyone erupted into cheers over it? Let's say it is a callback to Claudia, who somehow had a prophetic vision of Aerith being “the one”. Aerith didn't say “silly goose” which was the exact line Claudia said, so technically Aerith's only half of what Claudia suggested. If Tifa says “goose” at some point does that validate her being in the running too?

Yes, I'm being facetious. Point is, unlike the promise between Cloud and Tifa when it was Tifa reusing her own words, this relies on Aerith having meta knowledge of what Claudia said to Cloud when he was 16 and Aerith was with Zack. So, with that in mind, why would Aerith care what Claudia had to say about some other guy she doesn't even know when she's already got a boyfriend? The implication of this is that Aerith already knew everything that would happen to Zack and she'd already moved on from him to Cloud before they ever met and yet she kept writing letters to Zack the whole time.

But then after meeting Cloud she decided to take him up on the slide and talk about her dead boyfriend...as a way to let him know she's single?

This is Cloud's face when Aerith says in a perky voice “You worried about me?” This is the bit where he says “Of course.” It's a very neutral expression tbf. There's not anything being given away and the way he says the line is very simple too. Nothing suggests he's revealing a big secret to her or that he's embarrassed by his concern. I'd say it's SOLDIER!Cloud at rest since we know from the devs that Cloud still puts on a front with Aerith because he doesn't know how to deal with her. Which is typical for Cloud since he's emotionally 16 and never dealt with girls.

That perky persona visibly drains from Aerith's face and body language. Her posture sags, she breaks eye contact, she looks sad. This is the image of someone who isn't happy to hear that Cloud's worried about her. Now, if she was into the whole ship wouldn't she be happier to hear that line from him? She's regretful and turns away again, using her body as a barrier to any possible intimacy.

I'm sure people disagree, so imma explain. If she'd turned her back that would be an outright rejection. She'd be fully closing herself off. By turning away, she's indicating the conversation isn't over, but her degree of attention on Cloud is less than if she'd face him head on. If she stayed facing him, then that builds intimacy since face to face is open body language which can have several interpretations – some of which I've mentioned before like confrontational when Cloud steps up to Rude. When it's between a couple, it's suggestive of building intimacy and trust.

And when Cloud takes a step towards Aerith, she steps away again, towards the lifestream in the distance. Not permitting the closing of distance is a sign she doesn't want to encourage intimacy with him. That she walks towards where the lifestream is means that's where her attention and focus is. Whether that's an overarching plot reason or from a “Zack is there” reason is up to your interpretation.

Another immortal line. Considering Aerith just stepped towards where we can see the lifestream and that she's taking up her priestess pose we can reasonably assume she's thinking of Zack, unless you're once again subscribing to the theory that she's meta!Aerith aware of her own death and speaking of that. In which case, yall need to make up your minds whether she's one or the other because you can't swap between the two when it suits you just to justify your arguments.

When Cloud says “I'll remember that” in response to Aerith's advice that “every moment matters” it definitely comes across as one of those character building life lessons that Cloud's had over the course of the game. He got one from Barret about how not everyone has a choice to run away, one from Marle about listening to others and caring and now he's got one from Aerith about making the time they have count. These are mentor moments.

But more importantly, look who Aerith's looking at when she says that line. It's not Cloud, not the lifestream. Us. The players. She is talking to us. This isn't just wisdom for Cloud, it's for us, too.

After a 9 second pause from Aerith, in which she looks at the ground, Cloud offers a suggestion of what she wants to say next. She seems very lost in thought during this time, and almost reluctant to speak. Considering she always seems to know what to say in any given situation, this is off. This very long pause is the longest she's been silent in the whole game. It's notable. She almost seems to be warring with herself as her eyes narrow and she subtly shifts from side to side.

I may well be wrong about the length of time she’s silent. It could be 7 seconds in a callback to the 7 seconds it took for Sephiroth to drop and kill her in OG. 

I'm one of those who does subscribe to the whole OG!Aerith vs meta!Aerith theories – which I stick to throughout every scene involving her so don't even try and @ me and say I'm a liar – and to me, this looks like OG Aerith trying to assert dominance over the situation, while meta Aerith wants to refuse.

When Cloud speaks, Aerith looks grateful for the cut in. It pulls her out of that warring state, while he's trying to look cool and mature still lol (dork)

Okay, so that whole speech she gives about thanking him is definitely coming off like she's aware of things she shouldn't know yet. This may be what OG!Aerith was trying to prevent her from saying. This isn’t something that Cloud should know yet, after all.

After some physical humming and hawing, eyes downcast, then glancing away and we get a shot of her feet – remember all of this is intentional to build a story here – she looks up and we get this line that's making certain people freak out with joy.

Quick lesson on intonation.

Intonation is the rise and fall – the pitch – of how you say certain words. The way you say them gives them their meaning. You can say the same words in many different ways to convey different meanings and/or emotions.

I've previously focused on Aerith's choice of the word “can't” here because this is the key word in the phrase.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure how certain people are interpreting this line to turn it into a positive. The word “can't” is synonymous with an impossibility. It means “there are specific reasons why this isn't possible.”

Aerith didn't say “Don't” as in “you shouldn't”. She said “can't” as in “not able to”. She is telling Cloud that he's not able to love her. The specific intonation on the word “can't” supports this evidence. If yall wanna examine it more closely then I suggest you turn the sound down slightly so it's actually harder to hear the whole sentence and see which words have more emphasis. Can't has specific emphasis, which wouldn't be there if she wasn't stressing the word.

As for her facial expression. I mean, this doesn't look like the earlier one where she's sad or regretful. This is matter of fact. She's telling him this as a kindness because he's not yet aware of the reasons that she is.

(Note: I didn't say which specific reasons because some of yall say it's her death and others say it's Tifa, so that's up to you. There's reasons, is my point).

So up until she said that, Cloud was actually looking at her. But this made him turn away in dismissal. Not with embarrassment. He's not caught out and flustered. He's SOLDIER!Cloud, remember? He's all front and super cool facade.

This isn't the first time a girl has thrown herself at him. Jessie did it too, only more ott. Cloud's used to brushing off girls and does it without effort.

I'm sure up to this point some people have been screaming about how biased I've been and unfair and this is so cloti (excuse me while I roll my eyes).

So, if I'm biased why am I about to point out that the above screen is real!Cloud popping in for a visit? This is him overriding the SOLDIER persona to question if Aerith might have a point. But not about her. About Tifa. Because within the previous few hours, Cloud and Tifa shared an intimate moment. And it wasn’t soldier Cloud who did that. It was real Cloud. Aerith is calling attention to real Cloud’s feelings for Tifa, which makes him look to the house where Tifa is sleeping. He gets soft eyed and starts to smile, but then seems to want to question himself, which we know isn’t a good idea. Real Cloud and Soldier Cloud aren’t ready to meet yet.

And while real!Cloud is busy debating with SOLDIER!Cloud about Aerith's words, she's approached completely silently – because, ykno, she's not actually there – and he's caught sight of her hand in his peripheral vision. The second she touches him he jerks back looking surprised. This wasn't a telegraphed move where he saw it coming from 10 feet away and chose to do nothing.

I also question that if he can feel her hand here then it's solid, but when he goes to grab her it's not? So, she chose to let him feel the first touch, but then rejected him grabbing her? Or is it more likely that having caught sight of her hand in his peripheral vision he didn't actually feel her touch his face then or the time after because Aerith's not there. There's no actual physical interaction between them.

This is pity. Not much else to say about it. Meta!Aerith knows Cloud's future and that by introducing these future concepts to him, she's causing confusion ahead of the time it should happen. She feels bad about that and probably about her OG behaviour that she had no control over thanks to the Whispers forcing her to go against her real nature.

Well, I was going to say that Cloud going to grab her wrist – not her hand – is just further proof of her intangible presence. She isn't someone he can hold onto. But having grabbed this screen it's clear he wouldn't have grabbed her wrist at all either. His hand is open and aimed at her forearm and already passing through her well before he tries to close it.

And the reason why goes back to the ghost thing. Cloud thought she wasn’t there in person, that she might be dead or it’s a dream, but then she touched him. So he wants to grab her the same way he did Jessie in the pillar, to try and keep her alive. But his hand goes through her and he’s left looking confused again.

“Do I get a say in all this?”

Well now. That's a bit different. I'm sure like everyone else we've all been convinced that Cloud said “Don't I get a say in this?” like he's arguing with Aerith's decision. That he's admitting he's already in love with her.

“Do I get a say in all this?” is a totally different kettle of fish.

Don't connotates a confrontational tone. It's argumentative. It's rejecting whatever previous statement was made.

Do is a question. It's inquisitive. Placid. Neutral. It's neither confirming, nor denying the previous statement. It's merely asking for more information.

Funny how those little word replacements some people use end up twisting the narrative.

Cloud’s not just speaking about Aerith’s most recent statement either. He’s talking about the whole conversation they just had. The possibility that she’s dead or dying and he doesn’t get any choice about it. This is a throwback to the OG theme of life and death and how the dying get to say goodbye and decide how to leave, while the living don’t and have to figure out how to move on from it afterwards. 

Anyway, Cloud has his back to us, so we don't even know if that's coming from SOLDIER!Cloud or real!Cloud, so that's up for debate and I won't even bother since he's got his back to us and we can't see either way.

And then we've got the cool SOLDIER!Cloud (screen) telling Aerith he's gonna save her. We already know that Cloud does his best to sound cool and confident when talking to Aerith because he doesn't know how to be himself around her. This is the kind of line you'd expect to hear from him.

She replies, “If that's what you want.” which is also very non-specific. It's a neutral statement that leaves things up to Cloud. It could imply an answer to the previous question he asked, since the two do stand beside each other and make sense. However, the interjected “It's almost morning” line breaks this up and makes it less of an impactful statement from her. She's done her upmost to neutralise any romantic context from this scene.

Conclusion

If yall saw romance then okay, you must be right.

I sure af didn't. I saw a regretful Aerith telling Cloud things he shouldn't be aware of yet, feeling more regretful for confusing someone who's already suffering from mental illness and then making non-committal statements that neither reject or encourage his attention.

Maybe she's regretful for her own sake as well, knowing what she does about him and still doing this to push some future narrative only she's aware of, but I wouldn't say this is romantic. It's clearly some kind of goodbye from her. Cloud, for his part, looks confused and guarded through most of the scene. There's one moment when his real self peeks out to question Aerith's meaning, but then he's gone again. We can't say for any certainty that his question was asked by his true self or his SOLDIER persona and without visual context I won't speculate.

[omegasquire]

Rose Gold: Ch 7

Cid glared at the door that everyone else had left through. The only people keeping company here were him, Yuffie, Strife, and Reeve, who stood behind his desk, half paying attention to them as he looked outside the windows. He might’ve looked like the weakest of them, but even he had a gun resting in his hand.

Frankly, Cid could hardly swallow they were keeping Strife around. Maybe Strife didn’t have a personal hand in ruining Cid’s life -- that was more Shinra’s fault -- but that didn’t change the fact that his life was ruined, along with many others. Families were broken, friends divided. Cid saw his share of the nastiness that was Strife’s doing. His comrades were hurt because of Strife and Shinra.

It struck a nerve to know Shinra once invested in Strife. The corporation had no qualms with exploiting people for their own gains. Even after all this time, it was hard to believe they were ‘reformed.’ For all they knew, it was a ruse and those guys at Shinra were just biding their time.

Strife could be the same way.

Aerith was adamant about Strife’s innocence and how Gaia wanted him around. Maybe she was right, but after all that had happened, he couldn’t be faulted for the bitter attitude he gave. He wasn’t the only one who felt like this was going to backfire on them. Looking at Yuffie as she kept stealing glances at Strife was enough to say the majority of their party was uncomfortable with Aerith’s plan.

Cid exhaled harshly and lit up a cigarette, ignoring the look of disapproval Reeve gave him. He was getting too old for this. He knew he was only in his mid-thirties, but what happened three years ago, and everything before that, made him feel like he was knocking on fifty.

Maybe if he wasn’t so tired he’d be more cooperative about this whole thing. If he’d just gotten a decent night of sleep, he might’ve backed off a bit, but he was running on fumes, and his temper had never been good to begin with.

Hell, they were all getting stretched thin. Since he got the call from Cait Sith and picked up the others, they’d been traveling and fighting without proper rest. The hours spent with Strife passed out in the back of the Highwind hardly counted as true respite for them when everyone was on edge.

Glancing at him, Cid hid a frown behind his hand as he drew a puff. He hadn’t been paying that much attention, but he saw enough to know Strife was unstable. Jenova was definitely in him, everyone agreed on that. What she was doing to Strife, they didn’t know yet, but it was clear Strife wasn’t faring that well against it.

If he was any other person, Cid would’ve instantly felt sorry for him. He had his own grievances, but having Jenova fucking around in his head was completely different. Cid couldn’t even begin to imagine what Strife was hearing -- and he wasn’t going to try to.

Turning his head, Cid tried to squash the emotions that stirred inside him. He was tired of this. He didn’t want to be babysitting Strife; all it did was make him angry. Not all of his anger was even directed at Strife, but he damn well was convenient enough to point a finger at.

Let Sephiroth take care of this kid, not him.

“What happened to you?”

Cid turned back toward Strife. “Huh?”

“Why are you fighting?”

He scowled. “Because you tried to destroy everything. That’s enough of a reason, ain’t it?”

“I guess.” Strife’s voice was quiet. “Were you able to fly into space?”

“How do you know about that?”

There was a moment of hesitation. “In... my world, Cid dreamed of going into space. Shinra offered to sponsor the program, but when the launch failed, they abandoned it.”

Cid snorted. “Well, you got one thing right. Shinra did sponsor the program, but it didn’t fail.” His mouth twisted into disgust. “I just wasn’t the one to pilot it. They took that away from me before I could sit in the damn chair. Some snot-nosed rookie who barely knew his left from his right, let alone how to fly a rocket, got to do it.”

Thinking about that awful day just added one more reason to be angry. “But y’know what? People died for that launch to happen. That’s what really pissed me off. Shinra sacrificed my crew to make sure it succeeded. I couldn’t stand by that, so when I got asked to fight against them, you bet your ass I agreed to join.”

Strife was silent after that. Cid didn’t know what he was thinking. He didn’t like there being walls thrown up between him and another person. It left a lot of room to interpret, and that included coming to negative conclusions.

Cid tried to reel in his ire and frustration. He didn’t really want to talk to Strife. He’d rather be out with the others defending the harbor, but since he was stuck here, there wasn’t much else to do besides gripe and muscle through some semblance of a conversation with the guy who was supposed to be their ally.

“...What’s so special about you, anyway?” When a frown answered him, Cid returned it. “You’re from another world, right? You saved the planet, yada yada. What makes you so special that you had to come here?”

Strife shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Yuffie shifted her weight back and forth. “We saw you fight earlier. You’re pretty strong. Maybe that’s why?”

“Maybe... I didn’t become strong by myself. I had comrades. You, the others, and even you, Reeve.”

Cid glanced over his shoulder to see the surprise on the other man’s face.

“But you went toe to toe with Sephiroth! Friends don’t do that,” Yuffie continued. She shuffled her way to where Cid was, not quite hiding behind him but certainly not standing in front of him either.

“I guess so.” Strife looked over their shoulder. Cid didn’t think he was actually staring at something; there was nothing there worth staring at. “A lot happened... We couldn’t save the planet without getting stronger. I did everything I could to defeat Jenova and be on par with Sephiroth.”

Yuffie was silent for a beat before coming to stand by Cid. “Hey, uh, our worlds are parallel, right? So doesn’t that mean a lot of our history is the same?”

“Probably.” Strife’s brows knit. Cid’s did the same; he had a feeling he knew where this was headed.

“What happened to Wutai?”

“During the war?” When Yuffie nodded, Strife studied her before replying, “Wutai lost. When Shinra sent in SOLDIER, they also sent Sephiroth. A lot of people lost their lives, and Wutai suffered more than Shinra.”

Yuffie’s face fell. The kid loved her country and hometown. Cid remembered when they traveled to Wutai. It hadn’t been of much interest to him at the time, but Cid could appreciate the place. He sympathized with the people and their misfortune.

Unable to help himself, he placed a hand atop her head and lightly ruffled her hair. Shinra had destroyed some of the historical structures during the war, and even more when AVALANCHE -- the original one -- had made Wutai’s capital as their base. Yuffie’s life was full of sadness and tragedy at a very young age. She was just a kid. At least Cid could say he was an adult when Shinra screwed him over. Yuffie didn’t get that mercy.

She batted away his hand and looked at him in mild annoyance. She didn’t like being treated as a kid, even though she was the youngest of them all. “Do I make it? What am I doing over there?”

“You--”

Cid could see her rising interest, her desperation. He didn’t know what she was hoping to gain by learning about who she was in Strife’s world, but the idea of continuing this topic didn’t settle well with him. He quickly interrupted before Strife could get another word out.

“Hey! Who cares? That place doesn’t have anything to do with us.” When Yuffie whipped her head around to look at him, he gave her a stern look. “We’re not here to have a pow-wow. I don’t want to hear about some other me in a place I don’t know, doing things I don’t know. Unless it’s gonna affect me here and now, I’m not interested.”

Whatever Yuffie was looking for, it wasn’t going to be found in Strife. It was best to nip it in the bud before Yuffie started asking questions she didn’t need to -- probably shouldn’t for that matter.

“But--”

“I don’t wanna know.”

Yuffie bit her lip. She huffed and reluctantly backed down. “Okay...”

Red eyes shifted to the crumbling of rock creating a fissure in the floor of the crater. Wisps of black drifted from the opening, spreading out like reaching vines. They wrapped and twisted, slowly gathering into three different masses. He narrowed his eyes as three figures emerged from the black nests.

They were male, young, each looking strikingly different from the other, yet carrying the same aura of malicious intent. The black swirls at their feet surged up to cover their bodies, morphing into clothing. A few words were exchanged. One of them held up a hand and in it formed a sword with pronged blades. He swung it around like a child experimenting with a new toy before putting it away.

The other two fashioned their own weapons, one taking the opportunity to test it against the rock upon which they stood. It cracked under his attack, a small crater at its center. The elation on his face as he looked at his handiwork was disturbing.

Vincent moved back before the third could experiment with his newly formed gun. He'd seen enough.

“Sephiroth!”

Sephiroth turned as Zack jogged toward him. “The civilians?”

“All safe. I let Reeve know and he’s taking care of things.” Zack came to stand next to him and they both took in the damage left by the invasion. Several buildings were damaged, a few homes, but most of the harbor city was still in one piece. The people would have places to return to.

“Cid and Yuffie?”

Zack nodded. “Sounds like everything’s okay over there as well. No one got hurt, and Strife didn’t give them any trouble.”

Good. Sephiroth didn’t want to think of what actions would have to be taken if Strife decided to fight them now. It had clawed open his heart when he had to fight Strife the first time. Even if this Strife was a different person, he questioned if he could stomach cutting him down.

To kill him again...

Sephiroth surveyed the streets where some of the clean-up crew was removing the debris and carcasses from sight. It was a dirty, tedious job that garnered no envy.

“Looks like everyone made it out okay. Reeve’s got a pretty good security system going. They caught on before any major damage was done.” Zack leaned forward a little. “If they hadn’t, this place would’ve been in chaos. ...This shouldn’t have happened.”

He agreed. It shouldn’t have. It likely never would have if Strife hadn’t arrived. A couple monsters sneaking around the edges of the city was nothing out of the norm, but when a wave of them came at once, that was worth every concern.

Was it a bad decision to bring him here?

“I guess you could say this is his welcoming party, huh?”

Sephiroth’s lips flattened into a thin line. He didn’t like the idea of this being Jenova’s open invitation for Strife to go to her. She was being aggressive in her pursuit. Strife’s mental struggle was proof of this. If he fought her, she would likely pursue different routes to get to him. That didn’t bode well for any of them.

“Hey...”

Sephiroth pulled out of his thoughts. “What is it?”

Zack ran a hand through his hair, a telling sign he was about to say something Sephiroth probably wouldn’t like. No, he knew he wasn’t going to like it; he could tell what Zack was going to say.

“Look, I know this is asking a lot, but can we just trust Aerith on this one? Strife’s innocent, and Gaia sent him here to help us out with whatever is going on. We should give him a chance.” He was quick to hold up his hands and gesture for Sephiroth to wait. “I know not everyone’s gonna agree. Maybe we can’t trust him, but how do we know for sure without giving this a shot? Don’t you think it’s better to get to know him and try to work together?”

Sephiroth frowned, mostly to himself. He wasn’t sure how he felt about this course of action. Would it be beneficial? Detrimental? Did he want to know more? Did he not? Mentally shrugging off the questions, he nodded. “We’ll try this your way.”

Zack gave a smile, but Sephiroth didn’t return it. They would give Strife a chance to prove himself. If Strife showed he fit into Aerith’s theory, and he could help them, they could loosen his bonds a little and make plans to move forward. If not, then they would treat him like any other enemy and kill him.

Cloud turned when the office doors were opened and the others returned. He hadn’t heard much on the results on the assault, only Reeve’s few words that the harbor was safe. Seeing them enter, it was clear the battle wasn’t worth much worry. Did that mean the monsters were that weak, or that Sephiroth and the others were that strong? Without personal reference, Cloud didn’t know. He hoped he wouldn’t find out by having to fight against them.

As Sephiroth stopped before him, Cloud focused on him. He didn’t consider the fight in the Ancient Forest as a proper gauge for how strong the man was; he had been too confused and disoriented to fight with a sound mind. He wondered if Sephiroth was just as formidable here as he was in the other world, or if his abilities were even more fearsome.

He wanted to know, but in terms of dueling the older man. Even though it was made clear the two of them weren’t related to each other as foes, Cloud couldn’t quite squash that instinct to fight Sephiroth to the death.

He wouldn’t be surprised if Sephiroth felt the same. He likely saw in Cloud just another enemy. They weren’t going to get along, even if everyone climbed aboard Aerith’s request.

“Your workers are cleaning up the streets and containing the damage.” Sephiroth was speaking to Reeve, but he still looked at Cloud.

“From what I can see up here, they should have everything cleaned up by tonight.”

Hearing this was relieving. Even though he had no hand in initiating this attack on the city, he was part of the cause. The others thought so, too. It was written in their faces. Being responsible for harming other people reminded him of when he and AVALANCHE were still in Midgar. Barret and the others had been adamant about opposing Shinra, going so far as to destroy the mako reactors. Their actions triggered President Shinra to collapse the whole upper plate of Sector 7. Cloud didn’t personally press the button, but he was still at fault.

He shifted his gaze away, looking past Sephiroth’s shoulder.

“Jenova.”

He met Sephiroth’s eyes. “I didn’t bring them here.”

“Not directly, but they were here because of you. Your connection to Jenova is strong, and she’s calling you.”

“...Yes.”

Saying it aloud as opposed to having the thought circling his head solidified the horrifying truth. He wasn’t Jenova’s son, but she wanted him all the same. Somehow, she was flowing through him again. It had to have happened sometime between when he was with Gaia and when he fought with Sephiroth.

The void, the array of lights, the music, the hands grabbing at him... that was probably where it started. He had fought as hard as he could. He would continue to fight, especially now that he knew Jenova was heavily pursuing him.

“I’m not going to her.” These words were both for them as well as himself.

“Can you truly commit to that? You’ve yet to show you can control yourself.”

Cloud’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. She won’t have her way.”

Sephiroth matched his expression, tension slowly building between them. Cloud knew this was going to be an uphill fight, and he was already slipping on muddy ground, but if he had to crawl on hands and knees to make sure Jenova didn’t win, he’d do it.

He’d do whatever it took, and he would show Sephiroth that. All of them would see the strength of his conviction.

“Hey.”

Zack’s voice cut in, breaking Cloud’s focus. He took a mental step back and reeled in his temper before he did something he might regret.

“Hey, Strife? Cloud? Which do you like?”

“...Cloud.” He was surprised. This was the first time any of them had called his name, or bothered to ask how he wanted to addressed.

“Cloud. Okay.”

Zack smiled, and Cloud knew it was a pacifying gesture, but he couldn’t help the way his shoulders dropped. Cords of tension were still strung tight along his back, but he found it difficult to express the same anger he had for Sephiroth towards Zack.

“Think we could talk a bit more about you?”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You. Tell us something about yourself. Anything at all.” Zack paused. “Or how about me? Were we buddies?”

This was a sore subject to start with. Cloud didn’t know if this was better than butting heads with Sephiroth.

“Yeah, I guess so. You were of higher rank than me, but you still talked to me like it was normal,” he replied in a low voice.

Zack had always been kind to him. Maybe some of the things Zack said were canned responses, but to Cloud, they felt special -- like Zack was looking at him, not just some nameless kid in a uniform.

“Sounds like the other me wasn’t that different,” Zack hummed thoughtfully. “What rank was I?”

“First Class.”

Zack nodded, a proud grin on his face. Cloud found it a little amusing -- it was as if Zack was praising a son instead of himself -- but not enough to cut through the dour mood hanging over him.

Being surrounded by these people who looked exactly like his friends yet didn’t treat him as such made him uncomfortable. Talking to Zack about himself was even more unsettling. This topic was a private matter he hadn’t really shared with his comrades back home.

“Nice! I bet we spent some quality time together, huh?”

He didn’t respond, only looked away. The time spent with Zack could be considered quality, though it was painfully brief.

“Let’s do that right now.”

Cloud looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Zack came up to him. “Let’s have some quality time together. You and me. Remember what I said earlier? If we’re gonna fight against Jenova, we gotta get along, and that starts with knowing each other. You gotta communicate.”

He’d forgotten their talk in the Highwind. The fast succession of events threw him off; it slipped his mind that Zack even said that. Recalling it, Cloud gave a small nod. If it was just him and Zack, maybe this would be easier than talking to all of them at once. Not everyone was willing to meet him halfway.

Sephiroth certainly wasn’t showing any interest.

“Great!” Zack smiled brightly and ruffled his hair. The action startled Cloud and he ducked away, eyes wide. Zack froze, confusion written on his features, before he softened his smile and lowered his hand. “I bet you’re feeling starved. Let’s go grab something to eat and sit outside. What do you say?”

Cloud muttered his agreement. Zack didn’t touch him again, but he gestured for Cloud to follow. He couldn’t do anything but trail after the other man, skirting the others as he left.