#ftgftf

[unintentional-edgelord]

SURPRISE ALL YOU ZX FANS!!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/36468460/chapters/90936619

https://archiveofourown.org/works/38077255/chapters/136693942#workskin

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53998942

YOU'RE GETTING THREE UPDATES IN ONE TODAY!!!

ENJOY!!

[unintentional-edgelord]

I finally, finally got my hands on the Zero/ZX Legacy Collection after long last, and have a lot of thoughts on the transition between Girouettes' death and the iconic Double Megamerge scene in the original ZX. It's a pretty well done sequence, hammered home by how cleaned up the cutscene was for the Legacy Collection.

I was originally going to write about the specifics of this scene, namely how it's a powerful reversal of X sacrificing himself/dying during the Omega battle in Z3 with Girouette giving his life and his Biometal to save Vent and Aile, and the emotional implications, but instead I got carried away exploring Girouettes' perspective of how everything plays out.

Ergo, there'll eventually be a companion post to this exploring Vent/Aile's feelings on everything, the contrast between this Double Megamerge and the one in Advent, and how the music mirrors that.

But TL,DR; Even if it was expected for Girouette to die, the lore and concept art of ZX lets you infer that his backstory had to have been similar to Vent and Aile's. Alongside what we see in the game, the emotional implication of the scene and the music really hammer home what a pivotal moment the Double Megamerge is, and how Girouettes' massive sacrifice drives the story forward. He knows that he'll die, but he'd much rather they live. And not not only that - he knows full well the pain, the sorrow and grief caused by his death will give them the fuel and determination to carry on and become "a hero who can protect everyone."

And this is exactly why he goes through with it.

From Girouettes' perspective, with a healthy dose of headcanon thrown in:

You were fairly young when you experienced loss. Your town was devastated by a maverick raid, and your younger siblings perished. Grief and trauma were hard to work through, but you got there, began to establish a life for yourself After. Started working, joined an organisation to prevent others from experiencing this same loss. Made something of yourself.

And not long after, you were given this immense power to wield that seemingly no-one else could - and you don't know why you were chosen for it. There's the borrowed power of an ancient hero singing in your veins and whispering encouragement in your head, teaching you how to use this strength for good. With his guidance as your partner, you slowly become a seasoned, veteran fighter - learn to balance your role as a defender, investigator, protector with that of a fledgling businessman.

A veteran fighter who rescues a traumatised kid in the aftermath of a raid, so very similar to the one you experienced years ago.

This child has no-one left except you, their rescuer.

And so you make the decision.

The decision to stay out of action and care for this traumatised kid.

You hide the fact that you've been a fighter to keep them safe; to keep them from losing family ever again. Your partner is proud of you and - though he misses the action - does what he can to guide you through this, as well.

Together, you do everything in your power to be the best father figure you can to this kid, to help them through the trauma; they slowly become both an employee and like your own child. Despite the war waging on somewhere in the background, it seems like your days of fighting are over.

And then through a series of unfortunate events, you watch as your adopted kid is able to wield the same power as you; bonds with and borrows the power of another of these ancient heroes. Horrified, you realise that no no no, they're about to get dragged into this war, as well, despite how long you've spent hiding that you're part of it from them.

But you think, at least I can be there to protect them. At least I don't have to hide this part of myself anymore. I can guide them like I was guided so they won't have to do this alone.

You watch your adopted kiddo run headfirst into danger in the name of saving people, so no-one loses family the way they once did, the way you did, too. So you think, I'll clear a path for them. I'll go ahead, go keep you safe.

And then you get ambushed.

There's three of them and one of you - your body isn't as strong as it used to be, crippled by an old injury, and through your shock and fighting for your life you dimly register that one of these men is the president of the company that saved our country? He's been lying to us the whole time!

You try your best, you get several good hits in but you simply can't win, no matter how hard you try, and they overpower you.

That's when your employee, your child, arrives; horror and fear twist and stab into your gut like a knife, and you're screaming for them to RUN! but your voice won't respond to your body.

But something else is responding and it's not the ancient hero; his voice has gone quiet, too. Instead it's this horrible, whispering force that takes over your body, and just barely you manage to tell your child, shoot me! before you're locked into your own head. Your feelings of fear, anguish and agony are mirrored on your child's face; you're unable to stop yourself from trying to murder your own child in cold blood, and use whatever little power you have left to restrain yourself from a killing blow.

They manage - miraculously, somehow, they manage to fight you to a standstill, begging you to stop the same way you're begging yourself to do so. Your heart is breaking, shattered into pieces at the tears streaming down their face - barely, just barely, you feel that terrible whisperings' influence ease away.

Moments later you're both struck down - and you know the only thing keeping you alive is the armour encasing your body, the power of that ancient hero on loan flowing through your veins. Said ancient hero's voice is once again echoing in your ears, in your head, telling you to stay put, that you're close to death, that I can't lose my Chosen, you're my partner in crime, Girouette, we'll make it through this. The thing that sets a Zero apart is our inability to stay dead. We're going to make it.

But outside of your head - there they are.

Your child.

Barely clinging to life, the loaned power of an ancient hero flowing through their veins is not enough. They're not strong enough yet, their breathing growing more pained by the second and tears forming in the corner of their eyes.

You can't leave them to die.

And so you make the decision.

To give them your strength - your partner knows what you're asking, why you're asking it.

Makes certain that you're sure.

You know you're going to die; you didn't want to go yet. But it's worth it, to see your child survive, live on, thrive.

The last of your life, the power flowing through your veins to them; the very last gift you'll ever give them.

The power to protect.

And as you slip into the nothingness, your partner whispering his goodbyes to you and your child's screams of anguish echoing in your heart, the very last thing you think is, I'm so very proud of you.

I love you.

And on this mortal plane, you are no more.

[unintentional-edgelord]

Headcanons and other things I like to keep consistent in any interpretations, AUs or otherwise of the ZX/A crew, just for fun:

• For all intents and purposes, Girouette IS Vent and Aile's dad, adoptive or otherwise, no ifs, ands, or buts.

• Girouette is both a master baker and a total prankster.

• Girouette Express actually started out as a cake delivery business, which Giro inherited from his own adoptive father that named it in his honour.

• Vent and Aile are twins. Neither is sure who the oldest actually is, but it's Vent.

• Vent's favourite food is barbeque pork buns, which I took from the manga.

• Aile takes her coffee black but will also indulge in hot chocolate every so often. We're talking very, VERY fancy hot choc.

• Vent is a bonafide fashion disaster when he's not in uniform, and Aile prefers to dress androgynous. The two will often share accessories and jackets. Aile buys hers several sizes too big A: for aesthetic, B: so her tank of a twin can borrow them.

• Sho from the manga inevitably ends up running Girouette Express when the twins are indisposed.

• The source material never actually states that PnP are twins (and believe me I've scoured the ZX/A scripts), but I always treat them as such, with Prometheus as the older twin.

• Prometheus will always, without fail, end up in a death-related job no matter what universe I write him in. This is inspired by his status in canon proper as the Grim Reaper.

• Pandora is naturally glamourous but always puts effort into her appearance. Prometheus is vain as a peacock and unfortunately is NOT naturally glamourous at all.

• Pandora is weirdly perceptive of everyone's emotions but her own. Prometheus sucks at social interactions but doesn't come across that way due to immense vanity and overconfidence.

• Pandora is usually the first of the twins to spike her drinks with some sort of alcohol. Prometheus, bizarrely enough, recognises this to be an unhealthy coping mechanism more than she does and doesn't drink as often. His preference is chilli hot chocolate, she likes matcha lattes.

• Aeolus has some experience in working as a lawyer, no matter what universe I write him in.

• Aeolus is classically trained in ballet and has dabbled in both kendo and iajitsu.

• Aeolus is albino and partially blind.

• Siarnaq is fluent in sign language. Aeolus and Pandora are the only other two Megamen able to have a full conversation with him in it as they are also fluent. The rest are still learing.

• Siarnaq is a terrible, awful cook who will burn his RICE without fail. Bizarrely enough however the only thing he is ANY good at preparing is pufferfish.

• Thetis grew up around religious influences which partly influenced his whole "cleanse the world" pholisophy, and also has a criminal record from being involved in graffiting and protests.

• Thetis loves tacky formalwear and anything with fish on it. I can see an older Thetis wearing fish-patterned ties.

• Atlas is the best cook out of the Big Four as she actually uses spices. Oftentimes, TOO many spices for their tastes, barring Siarnaq. Her spiciness tolerance is very high.

• Partly taken from what I've seen of the ZXA manga, but Grey LOVES his sweets and trying new foods. Ashe has not helped in this as what she drinks can barely even be considered coffee given the amount of syrups she puts in it.

• Ashe is a FANTASTIC dancer. Vent dances like a dad at a disco. Both are inevitably the first to join in if something like the Macarena or Nutbush are played. (Great, now I want to animate them doing the Nutbush.)

Any other headcanons I give away will spoil some very minor plot points of FTGFTF, but spoil them nonetheless, haha.

Feel free to reblog and add what you like to keep consistent about these characters!! Curious to see how interpretations differ :)

[unintentional-edgelord]

So I put together a playlist for For The Glory, For The Fame on YouTube since Spotify is missing the ZX/A Tunes versions of the songs:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWzsurFE3s_RVPEMETrd0bmUx_iopeHl4&si=2lcyRiU6TNqn5cJU

So if you ever wanted the "soundtrack" to the fic, in essence, here it is!

It's in a pretty specific order; I would say the first few songs are the end of ZX and some interim pieces, some songs chosen specifically for characters, and the rest... well. I had boss themes in mind for a reason!

Enjoy the playlist with the fic, and I hope it gives you a taste/hint of what's to come :) especially with some songs I've chosen for certain characters, if you can figure out who I've attributed what to.

(Bits of it may be changed as I go lol)

[unintentional-edgelord]

When the wind is slow, and the fire's hot

The vulture waits to see what rots

Oh how pretty, all the scenery

This is nature's sacrifice

Finally, finally after forever, the next part of FTGFTF is done. Sorry if the pacing is a bit janky, I may go back and fix it up, but I hope you enjoy the long-awaited Atlas fight and I hope it delivers. Put a lot of work into the actual fight itself.

Shout out to @dumpsterfirepropaganda for keeping me going and hyping this one up, and to @copper-sands , who despite knowing nothing about MMZX, has still been cheering me on!

[unintentional-edgelord]

me: I'm not going to make ZX OCS, I want to really flesh out the canon characters!

also me: accidentally makes a character to tie into Siarnaq's backstory

also also me: ...I've drawn Siarnaq, I can't not add Riquis now

anyways. Riquis, man with the hat. Let it be known I cannot draw cowboy hats, so here he is with and without!

[unintentional-edgelord]

Context-less concept sketches for an upcoming FTGFTF chapter!!

Formal wear is fun to design!

Grey has a cocktail dress with shiny shorts and cool boots, picked because it's short and therefore easy to move in.

Ashe has a wide-legged pantsuit with a cape and lots of shiny accessories because c'mon, she's Ashe.

Plus a bonus with her:

Mostly because I wanted to draw her in motion, she's jumping over a table haha.

I'll eventually do a coloured version.

Curious to hear everyone's guesses about what this is for!!

[unintentional-edgelord]

Was scrolling through you’re blog and noticed for one post you had really neat designs for Ashe and Grey for a later chapter of your ZXA retelling, but that made me wonder: Do you have a written outline for the fic or is it just a bunch of ideas and you’re figuring out the rest? I ask cause when I write chapter fics I have to write an outline doc of what happens in every chapter, almost like a plot summary, just to keep track of my ideas in a cohesive order. But I wasn’t sure how other fanfic writers handle approaching things and well you got the advantage of also following the game so I thought I’d ask ahah.

Hey hey! First off, thanks for the ask, I hope you're enjoying the fic and the art for it!!

Secondly, I'm approaching the fic slightly differently to how I normally plan my writing. Since I know how the plot of Advent goes as per the game, I'm treating the original script as my "outline," and writing notes for what I really want to include or change from the game, and justifications for a level sometimes. These notes don't always stay the same though! For instance, a note I had written for an early chapter:

You can see I'd planned to have Grey stop Buckfire monologuing pretty early on, and shoot Rospark too. But the why of how it happened changed (ie, original plan as above to catch them off guard, vs Ashe telling him to because the Pseudoroid freaked her out).

Normally, when I write, I have a rough outline of events in chronological order and write the chapters based on that. I did try the "chapter by chapter" approach for my biggest original work, but unfortunately it went off the rails and I had to throw all the planning out the window! So I haven't really tried it again lol.

I also tend to have separate documents for lore and character notes as well, which goes for all of my work.

In the case of FTGFTF, I've got a massive document that details quirks and backstory notes for the characters - for instance, since we were only given hints of the Big Four's backstories in game, I wrote down a summary of what I think they were, and this colours the way I write them in the fic. That's definitely been a lot of fun to explore!

Hope this answers your question and I didn't go overboard in doing so!

[unintentional-edgelord]

So I wanted to give some mild context to a line in For The Glory, For the Fame, since I don't think I explained it in-story too well:

Aile's actually met Aeolus before, due to the merger of the company he represents as a lawyer with the remains of Slither Inc.

Having said that, though:

Since the merger started, and ESPECIALLY after falling in with Albert/essentially disappearing off the face of the planet, Aeolus has been hunted down a fair bit by corporate saboteurs and assassins looking to halt the merger and take what's left of Slither Inc. for themselves. So he changed up his appearance a bit to try and throw them off - dyed his hair green (it was originally white due to his albinism) and grew it out, ditched the glasses and the fake lens that disguised the colour of his blinded eye. (A previous drawing of mine has him get the glasses back after the events of Advent :) )

This is also why in FTGFTF he's got Siarnaq as a partner; who better to stop assassinations than other assassins?

Had Aile - and even Vent - stopped to take a proper look at him and not been so frantic, they would've been pretty surprised and actually recognised him as "That Aeolus Siolen." However by the time he introduced himself he was already merged with Model H, and at that point all bets were off on whether or not the twins were going to throw hands.

Anyways just wanted to drop that but of lore in!

[unintentional-edgelord]

Captain America, are you off to fight the bad guys?

Hey, mighty Superman, can you save us from ourselves?

Hey, Mr. Universe, can you lift us up above this?

'Cause I'm just Iron Man, I'm a ghost within a shell

Take a look around, just look around

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions

Why did they never mention, what's real and in between?

It seems the path we're on was paved with blood and sorrow

No thought about tomorrow

Just part of the machine, or so it seems

Yeah, so it seems

We're all living the dream

- Living the Dream, Five Finger Death Punch

So I heard this song and couldn't help but think it really hit a chord for most of the Megamen in ZX and Advent, for quite a few reasons, and the idea to draw something based on it wouldn't leave my head. You can tell who I haven't drawn merged before, haha.

Lyric explanations under the cut.

Captain America, are you off to fight the bad guys?

Hey, mighty Superman, can you save us from ourselves?

Vent and Aile, respectively, as to me they embody the classical heroes of comic books (especially Vent) and since they're kinda the OG heroes in ZX, it felt like there was a pretty good thematic correlation here between them and the kinda quintessential Cap and Superman.

Hey, Mr. Universe, can you lift us up above this?

A play on Atlas' namesake, the god who held the world up - but also I can definitely see a reformed Atlas being a hero who is very good at search and rescue due to her immense strength. That, and she's always putting on a front to appear strong.

'Cause I'm just Iron Man, I'm a ghost within a shell

Self explanatory for Siarnaq, I would say. Ghost within a shell is quite evocative of him.

Take a look around, just look around

Grey is still observing the world, still learning it's ropes. Endlessly inquisitive, endlessly thoughtful, the quiet observer.

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions

Semi-spoilers for FTGFTF but Aeo wanted to do good in the world (this is the line that originally had me linking this song to the ZX/A crew!), and at every turn it seems he's blocked by something. Model W corrupting him has absolutely not helped with this, as he's committed heinous acts in the name of hopefully achieving peace.

Why did they never mention, what's real and in between?

Ashe, learning the truth about the twins. That they're not unrepentantly evil, and it shakes her worldview.

It seems the path we're on was paved with blood and sorrow

Ahh, Thetis. You're doing your best to save the environment, but this ground is already blood-soaked, and you're adding more blood to it.

No thought about tomorrow

Just part of the machine, or so it seems

Prometheus and Pandora, living day by day by day, unwitting cogs in Albert's master plan.

And everyone else, believing that they're the ones partially responsible for the machine.

Anyways, enjoy.

[unintentional-edgelord]

That feel when you're so excited about certain parts of the fic you're working on but unfortunately have to slog through setting it all up so the payoff is satisfying :')

am I talking about the Oil Fields chapter of FTGFTF, yes, the bulk of it is done but there's still setup to finish and I just want to get to the end of the Atlas fight and I'm so excited about it

[unintentional-edgelord]

New chapter of For the Glory, For the Fame is FINALLY out!!

This chapter covers the events of the Arctic Ice Floe, though as usual I've taken some liberties with canon.

Shoutout to @tyrantchimera for giving me the ideas on how to make this chapter more fun because it was a SLOG to write, and @dumpsterfirepropaganda for keeping my motivation with it going!

Read on and I hope you enjoy, guys!