#it really just seems like. yknow. a young adult who made a company with his friends

[natjennie]

listening to adam's statement as someone who only really got attached to nrb after adam had left, so I'm not personally invested in the situation nor did I even really know what happened and I've gotta say. he really does seem just like. genuinely forthcoming. considerate to the other parties involved. disappointed, obviously, that such a personal conflict has to be made public in this way. but handling it with grace. I am one of the top straight white man haters in the country but besties. he seems fine.

[ilovesmosh55]

This is a certified fire emblem headcanon info dump post . Bullet points copied and pasted from my notes app for the most part so sorry everyone if the formatting or grammar or something is weird

Exactly how the Nabateans work isn’t ever fully explained in game so this is. My take on it based on hints from the game and the characters’ relationships with each other and with Sothis:

-Sothis is an otherworldly alien being who DID come from far beyond the stars. Her lifespan is unfathomably long compared to an average human’s (if not just infinite/indefinite. I imagine as long as her home star shines she could live forever) and her godly power is basically like. An average human’s ability to wield magic times one bajillion. Naturally just has More Magic.

-She left the rest of her kind behind to visit earth and settle there but she doesn’t talk very much about her life before earth to anyone even her closest family. She greatly prefers life on earth and forming human connections to… whatever was going on back on the blue sea star.

-She created her children not by giving birth but like the games said . With her blood. She can just sculpt a human form from Anything, press together a crest stone, and blood-let on it a little bit, and badda bing badda boom new Nabatean. A Nabatean’s abilities, dragon form, and personality can be influenced by what she created their vessels out of. The first ones were created from the clay and mud of the earth she landed on hence the name Nabatean meaning earth dragon lol.

-Sothis DID love and want to watch over humanity, despite not being omnipotent and all-powerful like the Church claims. Creating her children and living among them and humans side by side was sort of her way of expressing that love.

-Despite not claiming to be omnipotent and all-powerful, Sothis’s strange appearance and abilities lead the people of Fodlan to begin calling her a goddess and worshipping her, which she happily accepted and encouraged. The idea that she watches over all life from above and is the arbiter of every soul came along with the church after she died (and is not really true). During her lifetime, she was just worshipped and was the queen of Zanado

-Sothis can create and bring life to a Nabatean at any age/stage of life. Rhea is one of the few she created as a baby rather than a fully grown adult, and she raised her as her own as a result.

-Seteth and his brothers are one of many “batches” of Nabateans made as adults and as a result they aren’t nearly as close to Sothis as Rhea is/was.

-Specifically, Macuil seems to even resent Sothis as he mentions byleth “stinking” of her during his battle. I imagine he’s the eldest brother and resents her for seemingly “abandoning” him to watch his brothers alone when others like Rhea got centuries of her time, love, and attention.

-Nabateans are all created by Sothis and most of them view her as a mother or at least a distant family member/matriarch figure but unless specifically made by Sothis to be siblings (as Seteth and his brothers were. Made as a matching set.) Nabateans aren’t actually related to each other. Sothis travelled all over Fodlan and probably other parts of the world too and created countless sets of Nabateans based on all different types of people. She would often make a few sets/unrelated individuals at once so that her creations/children could have like-minded company.

-Flayn’s mom/Seteth’s wife was also a Nabatean but from another “clan” and therefore yknow not his sister. Rhea Seteth and Flayn only really see each other as family in 3h because they are the last of their kind and feel the need to bond together for safety.

-Seteth and his brothers were based on whatever the Fodlan equivalent of Celtic people is. Rhea was made as a baby for Sothis to raise herself and is made more closely in her image than most of the others.

-Nabateans DO age, but very veeerryyy slowly. Rhea was pretty young, about the equivalent of 19 when Sothis was killed and the war of heroes started. By the time 3H canon begins, she’s about the equivalent of 38-41-ish. Seteth is about 40 in human years too, though he’s actually much younger than Rhea because he was created after her but was created as a young adult. Flayn is the equivalent of 15. Was only like 12 when she was injured and fell asleep back in the day.

-Sothis’s body, like when she was alive properly, will never die/rot so long as the blue star shines. However, the other Nabatean’s bodies DO rot but again. Veeerrryyy slowly. It would take centuries before they’d start to smell off.

-Other Nabateans, especially ones created later who weren’t raised and taught how to use their power by Sothis herself are not nearly as powerful as she was. Rhea is one of the strongest and was raised by Sothis personally but even she can’t control herself and goes crazy if she overuses her dragon form too much.

-Rhea was able to create Sitri/the other failed mom vessels because she was taught how to by Sothis. Probably watched her create many other Nabateans. However, since she is not nearly as powerful as her mother (and was just reusing the crest stone of a dead woman), Rhea’s vessels are far more fragile/sickly and humanlike. Most of them died very shortly after being created from their bodies basically being unable to sustain themselves. Sitri was pretty sickly and feeble but she was actually the healthiest and longest living one

-If not properly utilized and honed, Nabatean’s magic also fades over time, hence how Seteth’s brothers are now basically stuck as dragons. They didn’t transform for so long that they got rusty and probably can’t anymore.

[tonitheloftwing]

Jumanji: A Film About Mental Health, Trauma, and Jungle Hijinxs

So, Jumanji. I guess this isn’t a full analysis because I’m not like planning this out in advance or anything, but I just want to drop my thoughts on this movie yknow? This movie certainly isn’t perfect, but I live very close to where certain scenes in the movie were shot, so therefore I have a pretty close connection to it. Fun fact, I see Parrish Shoes wall art almost every time I go into town! They put it up for the movie but never took it down/cleaned the wall, kind of as a landmark. When I was little and before I’d seen this movie, I thought that Parrish Shoes was an actual shoe company due to this. But yeah Jumanji is sort of a cultural phenomenon around here, even the newer movies.

For reference: Everything I say here is just my personal interpretation of the film. Also halfway through I decided this isn’t going to be a general overview of the film but moreso a theme essay. TW for mental health related stuff, mainly PTSD and childhood trauma. And murder.

As a kid I did NOT pick up on the themes of mental health. Pretty much each character is suffering from some kind of mental health issue, and it’s not played for laughs, which is kind of uncommon in movies from this time period. I know it’s kind of common knowledge at this point that the hunter dude is played by the same man as Alan’s father and is supposed to represent him to Alan (this is played quite on the nose at the end of the movie), but Alan really doesn’t have a good relationship with his dad. Alan is a victim of bullying and has a lot of pressure put onto him due to the family name, which is stressful for him, but his dad doesn’t understand and therefore undermines all of Alan’s struggles and even does things that might make them worse, like forcing him to attend Cliffside School For Boys. Even if Alan is as grandiose as his father thinks, going to this school would still not be good for his health. Of course, Alan doesn’t have to go to this school because he gets sucked into Jumanji, and has to spend 26 years trying to survive in the jungle. To me, at least, this represents the stress and fear and anxiety Alan would have had to deal with if his life continued the way it had as a young boy; a childhood wasted surviving in the jungle. (Speaking of which, how did Alan survive that long anyways as a 11-13 year old? What a trooper!) This doesn’t really connect to the former points, but we also see that having to endure the suffering in the jungle (or, in this metaphor, being made to grow up too fast and have his anxiety worsen) hasn’t made Alan any more mature. In fact, multiple times, it’s mentioned that he’s still very childish. Sometimes it’s played off for laughs, like when he is revealed to not being able to drive a car or when he holds onto the grudge of Billy Jessop when Sarah has completely forgotten who he is, but other times it’s actually quite serious. Like when Judy asks what Alan is going to do with his life now that he’s back, he has no idea. He says something along the lines of “I’ll just start back off where I left. I wonder if Ms. [Teacher] still teaches the sixth grade.” He hasn’t matured... at all. Mentally, he’s still a sixth grade boy, just with a crap ton of trauma and 26 years of wasted life. 

The other characters, Judy, Peter, and Sarah all mainly seem to suffer from PTSD. Sarah’s is the most obvious, as she goes to therapy for her PTSD, and her therapist is trying to convince her that Alan was in fact murdered, and the bats and watching him be sucked into the board game were figments of her imagination to protect her from the trauma. It seems as if Sarah herself doesn’t fully believe this notion, but since it’s more easily explainable and more easy to heal from, she goes with that. When she calls up her therapist, telling her about another “episode” she’s having, it implies that Sarah has PTSD induced flashbacks from this trauma, which I found quite surprising for the movie to nod to, seeing as this is based off a children’s book about a magic board game. In the fight Alan and Sarah have before the stampede arrives, it’s even mentioned how Sarah is shunned by society for her mental health condition, as no one comes to her birthday party and she had to change her name to fit in with society. While the former might seem small, for a teenager who has just watched a friend of hers die, it has a horrible effect on her. Like Alan, her trauma has wasted her life for 26 years.

Judy and Peter have lesser cases, or at least aren’t explored into as much as the two adults, which make sense. They both also seem to suffer from PTSD from the death of their parents, which manifests in different ways for the both of them. In Judy, it presents itself in compulsive lying (although her lying seems to be quite exaggerated and mainly played for laughs), and Peter’s in selective mutism, both of which can be results of childhood trauma/PTSD. 

At the end of the movie, all of this is undone. Alan and Sarah go back to the past, and get to do everything all over, as many survivors of childhood trauma wish they could. Judy and Peter have no recollection of any of this, and their parents never die. Even Alan’s father improves within a matter of minutes, and decides to be a good father to Alan and not pressure him into living up to the family name. (How did that happen, anyways? Did the board game somehow have an effect on him too? Was the writing team not thinking?) All their trauma has been reversed, but, at least Alan and Sarah, still have to live with the memories of how things could have gone. 

Also, fun fact! I’m kind of into true crime and if the Alan Parrish case happened IRL I’m pretty sure that it would have either been ruled a homicide or gone unsolved. If you want me to become Stephanie Harlowe and make a post about how the Alan Parrish investigation would have gone down I’ll do so. 

[honibee-arts]

Hello! For the ship prompt, could you write about Zhuiyi getting together when Jingy finds out Sizhui is a Wen? Please!

Lan Sizhui. Lan Yuan. That was the name he had answered to for as long he had answered to.

Lan.

Not Wen, Lan.

That was the name they all knew him by, the name he knew himself by for so long. He knew the history of his people, both what shufu had warned of and condemned in his lectures, but also the stories of family he never knew from his parents and Uncle Ning.

"Would they think of me differently if I told them?" he had asked his cousin as they sat by the memorial they had built.

Uncle Ning was quiet, his dark, dull eyes staring up at the inscription of his sisters name.

"That depends. The Wen name is a curse. We all suffered because of his arrogance. I lost my life, so did A-Jie, and Puopuo, and Uncle Four, even before them... Your birth parents did. I carry the burden, and for so long I have carried it alone. That kind of damnation... You're too bright to be held back by it, A-Yuan." He replied, speaking slowly as a thoughtful expression took over his still soft features. He still looked so young despite his grey skin and the black veins licking up his neck and jaw from the dusty collars of his tattered robes. "Jin Rulan may not take it well, after all he still does not feel safe around me... I don't blame him. It was my fault, what happened to his father."

"You had no control..." Sizhui said quietly, looking worriedly at his cousin. "You can't blame yourself for the things Jin Guangyao, Su She and Xue Chengmei made you do."

"Perhaps. Ouyang Zizhen might not think too much of it."

"And A-Yi?" Sizhui asked nervously as his cousin laughed softly.

"Oh? He's A-Yi now? When did that happen?" his cousin asked.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"Your father acted the same way about your mother. I know how you feel about that boy."

"I'm an adult you can't tease me about these things!"

"Master Wei seems to do it a lot."

"Just because Wei-Qianbei does it doesn't make it right... Besides... I'm not allowed to think about having a cultivation partner until I'm 30..."

"Hanguang Jun seems to be a strict parent."

"It wasn't Hanguang Jun who made that rule. It was Wei-Qianbei."

"Alright. I don't know much about love, I never really got to have that kind of life... But, A-Yuan, if he loves you, he won't care."

Sizhui nodded, picking up his sword and standing up. He bowed to his cousin and to the memorial they had built together.

"Thank you, Uncle Ning."

"You don't need to bow to me, I'm your cousin."

"It's disrespectful..."

"That is another thing, A-Yuan, by name you may be Wen, but by heart, soul and mind you are more Lan than most I know. A name is a name. It carries weight yes but it does not define you."

Sizhui smiled, allowing himself to be carefully pulled into a hug. Uncle Ning was still so careful with his strength, afraid to even slightly squeeze him. It brought a smile to his face.

"Thank you, Uncle Ning."

"Good luck, A-Yuan."

"Thank you."

When Sizhui returned to Cloud Recesses he found Jingyi standing idly by the gates.

"Jingyi!" Sizhui grinned, dismounting his sword and trying to keep his voice level as to not stress his poor grand uncle any further.

Jingyi grinned and sprinted toward him.

"Sizhui!" he yelled, laughing happily. Sizhui winced. Three rules broken in five seconds. Not Jingyi's personal best, but still a feat his Ba would call impressive.

"Jingyi, don't run..."

"It's been three months I missed you!" he threw himself at Sizhui, crushing him in a hug. He had to ignore how his cheeks burned.

"I missed you too..."

"You barely wrote to me! You wrote to Hanguang Jun and Wei Qianbei more than me!" Jingyi whined.

"I'm sorry... I... Jingyi... I have something I need to tell you."

"Yeah? I have something to tell you too."

"Y-You do?"

"Yeah, I do-"

"LAN JINGYI." Shufu roared from the stairs. "How many times must you be punished before you learn?! When will you stop testing my patience like this?!"

"Ugh. There's your grand uncle." Jingyi groaned.

"Jingyi..."

"You are not meant to abandon your post when you are on watch, Lan Jingyi. On top of this, you have raised your voice multiple times, expressed excessive joy, and ran."

"You seem to break that first one a lot, shufu."

"Talking back?! Again?! Have you no shame?! Go to the courtyard and copy our disciplines ten times while on your arms."

"Handstands? Again?"

"Fifteen times!"

Jingyi groaned and pulled away.

"I'll see you later, Sizhui."

"Bye..."

Sizhui watched his friend follow his grand uncle back up the winding staircase carved into the mountain, sighing as he tucked his sword into his belt and taking the path around the back of the mountains for a change. He supposed now was the time to give the rabbits a visit after so long.

He wandered up the mountain path, smiling at the clusters of white and single speck of black amongst them. The rabbits seemed to play happily without a care in the world, and the one black rabbit amongst them was just one of them. He wished his life was as simple as theirs. They had no names, no title, no politics. The black rabbit was just another rabbit, even amongst the cluster of white. Perhaps that what he was, a rabbit of a different colour but a rabbit no less.

"Are you alright, Sizhui?"

Sizhui jumped, gasping softly as he met the gaze of his uncle. After so long apart, his uncle looked haggard, still wrought with guilt and grief, thin and wafish, malnourished, pale. It made his heart ache, seeing someone who was once so happy and joyful broken down so much by such cruel manipulation

"Zewu Jun." he moved to bow but his uncle held his hand up. The sleeve of his robes slid down and pooled at his elbow, revealing just how gaunt he had become.

"Sizhui, when it is just us you can call me shushu. It is alright. You have no need to bow to me." he said softly.

"Apologies, shushu."

"No need. You seem troubled, nephew. Talk to me?"

"I would not want to be a burden"

"My nephew is not a burden. I would appreciate the company as a reprive to my seclusion."

Sizhui nodded hesitantly, following as his uncle guided them to sit on a log by the cluster of bunnies. Sizhui fiddled with his pendant as he explained his concerns to his uncle, who listened to him with an attentive patience and an empathetic insight.

Speaking with his uncle was safe. Things like this, he was unsure about speaking about with his parents. He never spoke with Hanguang Jun about such things and Wei-Qianbei teased him before threatening to cut off Jingyi's hands.

"If Jingyi truly cares about you, he will not change his thoughts of you because of your ancestry. You are yourself, you are not your distant relatives. He is smart enough to know that."

Sizhui nodded.

"Uncle Ning said the same thing..."

"Then you know what you must do."

"Yes..."

"I wish you luck. I'm sure your father will have more than words for Jingyi if he rejects you."

"Ba threatened to cut his hands off."

His uncle smiled at him.

"I am still sect leader, so the both of you have my blessing and your parents cannot stop me, Sizhui."

"Ah... Thank you, shushu." Sizhui bowed despite his uncles protest and continued up the mountain path to the dorms, in need of a bath and a change of clothes after travelling for so long.

"Sizhui? You wanted to talk to me?" Jingyi asked, walking into their shared dorm.

Sizhui swallowed thickly, looking up from his book. He saved his place with a ribbon and cleared his things. He tried to take a deep breath and keep calm, yet the anxiety began to flare up inside him.

"I... Yes. Two things really."

"I'm all ears, you know you can tell me anything, right?"

Sizhui nodded once more, sitting near Jingyi.

"Yeah... I... You know how Hanguang Jun adopted me?" he began awkwardly.

"Yeah?"

"I... My original family. My birth parents..." he took a deep breath, trying to ignore how Jingyi studied him quietly. "Were Wens. Specifically the offshoot in Yiling... The one Wei-Qianbei looked after... He adopted me then. And then he... Yknow. And Hanguang Jun took me in after."

Silence swallowed the room. Jingyi, for once, was quiet. Too quiet. Sizhui hugged himself, dreading what his outspoken friend would finally say.

"... You're the most Lan Lan who ever Lanned. Your ancestry doesn't mean shit to me." Jingyi said after a heavy silence, causing Sizhui to laugh.

"Jingyi! Language!" he hissed.

"No, it's true. You're still Sizhui. It doesn't matter to me what your parents were, you're still you and.... You're very special to me." Jingyi mumbled at the end, a rosy blush spreading onto his cheeks.

"I'm... I'm special to you?" Sizhui asked, feeling his cheeks burn.

"Y-Yeah..."

"Like... Special special?"

Jingyi stiffened next to him, his hand hesitantly creeping toward his, tangling shyly with his fingers.

"Yes... I... I like you, Sizhui. A lot...."

"Like... Cultivation partner like?"

"I thought your parents forbid you from that until you were old and like them."

"They won't know if I'm thinking about it.." Sizhui looked down, grinning to himself. "Besides, Zewu Jun gave us his blessing."

[tumblunni]

SO! IT is time for Dr Snap headcanons!

* He is autistic like me, because I find a lot of his portrayal very relateable as an autistic person. He's clearly hyperfocusing about monsters, and he gets so super passionate and infodumps about them! And he's very socially awkward and perceived as "weird and childish" by others for being so passionate about his interests and not being good at making the correct facial expressions and stuff. In the Japanese version there's actually even more of that, in English he speaks in a standard formal grandpa style but in Japanese he speaks in oddly stilted childish language and uses the unfitting pronoun "boku" that's usually only used for young kids in fiction. There's also a scene of him literally saying he gets social anxiety in crowds, which was left out in the English translation for some reason. I was surprised to hear about that from my Japanese friends, it makes him even more relateable! And of course, his whole plot is basically the fantasy version of "his only friends are animals because other humans exclude him", which is another relateable mood.

* Also I want the Darkonium Orb as a stim toy, lol! I know it's an evil artifact but a floating ball seems like it'd be super fun to swish around in circles. And I wonder if it's like a crystal or if it's like a squishy stress ball...? I'm getting distracted, lol!

* Since all we know about his backstory is that he had no friends even as a child, I headcanon that he suffered badly from bullying and isolation in his youth that permenantly impacted his ability to trust anyone but monsters. I had the idea that maybe he was also mistreated by his parental guardians for being autistic, and he often used to hear "if you misbehave, the monsters will get you!" It actually backfired and started his love of monsters! He used to dream that the monsters that take away bad kids would take him away from his suffering...

* Oh, and related to this: it's my headcanon that he was raised in an orphanage since a very young age and doesn't know anything about who his parents were. He was just found clutching his baby sister crying and shivering in an abandoned wagon in the woods, full of dead bodies that were assumed to be his family or at least whoever was taking care of him at the time. For a long time it was thought that monsters had killed the family, so that's why the cautionary tale of "monsters coming to get you" was used to discipline him at the orphanage, and why it hit so hard. But when he grew up and became a famous and successful scientist he was able to finance an investigation into his own past and discovered the culprit was actually human bandits. He still could never find out the names of his parents though, but knowing that monsters hadn't been the cause of his tragedy helped him get over his fear of them and eventually learn to love and trust them more than anyone else

* Oh yeah it's also my headcanon that despite how obsessed he is nowadays with the cuteness of monsters, he was actually very frightened of them all the way up until his 20s! The "you're a bad child for these neuroatypical symptoms you can't control, and monsters are gonna get you just like they got your family" thing actually did affect him a lot as a child. He saw it as kind of a guilty or sinful feeling that sometimes he would wish they would just take him already because even the horror of monsters can't be as bad as the horror of people, yknow? But he was still too scared of them to ever really interact with them at all, and believed whatever he was told about them cos he had no other frame of reference. He also felt rather aimless in life because he hadn't discovered this thing he would love so much, yknow? He flittered through loads of different hobbies getting temporarily obsessed but never finding anything that stuck with him. Bit of a jack of all trades!

* oh btw I headcanon his first name is Jack, lol! To fit with the playing card theming of the game. Also his younger sister is named Jacqueline and she became known as Jack Of Hearts as a famous adventurer~!

* Oh also I headcanon that he has a sister, lol. Should have mentioned that earlier! The game never tells you anything about the player's mother except that she died, so I headcanoned maybe she was Dr Snap's sister and he's your uncle literally just because I like Dr snap a lot and I want him to adopt the player and take him away from his shitty dad. Like man you know you're a shitty dad when the main villain of the damn game has more scenes of positive parental interaction with your son! (ANOTHER REASON WHY DR SNAP TURNING BAD AND DYING WAS SO SAD)

* His sister was very similar to the protagonist as a child, a punky outgoing stubborn badass who wouldnt listen to rules and wouldn't take any shit from anyone! Even though she was his younger sister, she would always be the one protecting her shy older brother from bullies! She was his dearest only friend in such a tough life...

* Sadly, she was considered "more adoptable" since she was neurotypical. Young Snap blamed himself that he was holding her back from finding a new family, because she always refused anyone who didn't want to take her brother too. He thought it would be better if at least one of them escaped the orphanage, so he eventually convinced her to leave him and go with a nice family. And then he didn't see her again for decades, and he didn't have a single other friend...

* The instigating incident that caused him to first become a monster research was because of this. He didn't have a good life after losing his sister, he eventually just aged out of the foster system without ever being adopted, and had trouble living independently and finding a job with his limited skills of Just Hyperfocusing On Random Stuff And Not Being Able To Talk Good. Nobody really valued him enough, he was just considered strange and all his attempts to research various things (I think before monsters he liked butterflies a lot) were considered creepy and useless because he was so lower class and could never afford to get a proper scientific education to actually do anything with his skills. So he ended up flitting about between jobs that he would keep failing cos of his lack of social skills, having no time to do the hobbies he cared about and being told he could never make a job out of them. And having no family or friends and living in terrible conditions. He didn't have any hope left in life...

* So one day he ended up making a sad decision to end it all, after being fired from yet another job and just not having the strength to keep trying when it seemed like this would be every day of the rest of his life. He went out into the woods to take some sleeping pills and pass away where he wouldn't be bothering anyone. But by a stroke of fate he ended up bumping into a monster!

* Because he'd already made his peace with dying, he didn't have any fear if it killed him here. But instead this titanic beast simply stumbled to the ground and desperately clutched at a pile of broken eggs. It had already been fatally wounded by a hunter, and only wanted to try and protect its children from the same fate. Dr Snap remembered his child self clutching his baby sister to protect her from the bandits, and he was so moved that he tried to save the poor creature! But his limited skills learning science only from books meant he wasn't much use. And all he even knew was how regular animals work, which could end up only hurting a monster! Plus he was in the middle of nowhere with no supplies!! He tried his best but he was completely out of his depth, and all he could do in the end was hold the poor thing and stroke its head as it passed away. And as the tears streamed down his face, they landed on the one still living egg that the monster was protecting. It hatched into twins who would be his first of many monster partners!

* So he rushed home carrying these lil newborns and desperately took care of them. He began researching monsters in order to look after them properly, and found that he was totally sfascinated by them and also it was the one thing he was truly talented at that he'd always wanted to find! Having a family to take care of was what he really needed to find a reason to live again, and he was also able to finally make a career out of his monster research and find enough success to live more comfortably. He even ended up inventing the monster scout ring and founding an entire company all about mosnter battle tournements! And this led to him finding his sister again, because she heard news of this and recognised him. They reunited as adults and rebuilt a happy relationship, and she was overjoyed to hug her new lil monster nieces and nephews!

* So yeah he has a lot of reasons to love monsters a lot and see them as the embodiment of goodness that deserves everything in the whole world. And after his sister passed away he was left alone with his monsters again, terrified of losing more family, and slipping deeper into the madness of those forbidden legends that could give his monsters eternal happiness...

* also I think he likes tea, it would be nice to have a fancy tea party with him and his monsters

* also he is a good man who didn't deserve to die

[turtleparadise]

[ ~ One ~ Two ~ Three ~ Four ~ Five ~ Six ~ Seven ~ ]

5. Heroes

"Think you can handle one of these after so long?"

Vincent glared at Reno, telling him to be quiet without words. They had followed the signal into the ancient demon's nest itself, Shinra Headquarters. Most of the building had been demolished, but there were plenty of places for an enemy to lie in wait, ready to catch them off-guard.

The question was unnecessary. He hadn't held a gun for at least two years now, but the old habits were all still there. And wearing his old cape felt strange after all this time, but he still remembered how to use it as a distraction, as a tool to block attacks, or anything else he might need of it. He would do just fine.

The three of them crept through the darkness together, following the signal on Rude's phone. They had snuck in through a hole in the wall on the second floor, and were steadily ascending, when Vincent held his arm out, signaling them to wait. He turned to the wall and traced a numeral 3, but his comrades couldn't see it in the dark.

"What?" Reno asked, much too loudly. Vincent glared at him again, and grabbed his empty right hand, tracing the numeral one more time. "Oh! There are three of them! Hey, thanks, Vincent!"

"Get down," he growled, pushing the two to the floor as gunshots fired from across the chamber. Not wasting any time, he waved his hand over one of the Materia set into his weapon, sending magic missiles flying their way. The three assailants all ran for it, and he gave chase. After a brief moment of the three dodging through improvised tunnels throughout the floor, he corralled them back toward Reno and Rude, who stopped them dead in their tracks. A few quick stun blows later, they had the three knocked out and tied up.

"Well, one step closer," Reno said, dusting off his hands.

"Take them to the plane. Tranq them and come back as soon as you can," Vincent said. "Rude and I will keep climbing."

"You want me to carry all three of them?" Reno glanced between the two. Vincent turned to give him an amused stare.

"I thought you were a Turk." Reno scoffed at this, but hoisted the three captives up anyway.

"As you wish, senpai."

"I'm not gonna call you 'senpai'," Rude said, just as a point of information.

"Good. Let's move!"

\\\\\

"How many stairs do we have to walk up?" Rude panted.

"They should be close," Vincent said, not for the first time. "The signal seems to be coming from the eleventh floor."

"Guys!"

"Reno?" Vincent looked down the stairwell to see the redhead running to catch up to them.

"I just got news that they've attacked the city. Looks like the second guess was correct - they tried to set the town on fire while everyone was at the event center. Luckily, the Guardians saw them all coming a mile away, so they're subduing them as we speak. No damage, no casualties."

"Which means the rest is up to us," Vincent said. "Meet us at the eleventh floor."

"Will do! Hoo... Too many stairs..."

"Do you need help?"

"What do you mean? I'm not beat yet. I'm a Turk, after all!"

"A Guardian Turk," Rude nodded. Vincent shook his head, letting out a short laugh.

"Morons."

"I think he likes us."

Upon their rendezvous at the designated level, they found no opposition, only a computer monitor which flashed on, showing the face of an elderly man, who smiled at all of them.

"Palmer?" Reno gaped at the image of the old man, who was much the worse for wear these days.

"That's right! Welcome to my castle! To tell the truth, I wasn't expecting company on this special night. But you've given my son a miraculous opportunity. You see, he truly loves to fight, but there hasn't been anyone to match him in a long, long time."

"Son...?" Rude asked. A door slid open, and out walked a creature - it definitely had the basic shape of a man - that towered over them, and let out a high-pitched shriek.

"Not a problem," Reno said with a smirk. "Let's show 'em how it's done, Rude." His partner nodded, and the two dashed forward.

Vincent cast Haste and Wall on them all, before moving in to strike the giant with Bolt3. It let out another shriek before clawing at him. He jumped backward, but not fast enough to avoid its claws. Three gashes were left in his chest, his shirt shredded. He leaped up and around, jumping from one wall or obstacle to another, acting as a distraction for Reno and Rude to wail on it.

The monster kept clawing at him, but Vincent had shaken off the rust at this point. He dangled his cape from the rafters, tempting another swipe, then dodged out of the way, jumping in to cast Ice3 at point blank range. The giant fell to the floor, crushing desks and cubicles on its way down.

"Well, then..." Rude said.

"Took care of that pretty well," Reno chuckled. "You sure do come in handy, Vincent." He and Rude walked toward the door the beast had entered from, but something Vincent smelled made him lunge forward.

"No...!" He pushed the two away from a grey grid on the floor. Almost as soon as he had set his foot down, pillars of flame erupted all around him. Maniacal laughter full of coughing erupted from the computer monitor.

"Oh my oh my, well, one out of three isn't bad. It looks like the long-haired man is the winner of our special prize...!"

Suddenly, the floor gave way under Vincent, and he felt himself falling.

"Vincent!" Reno and Rude called after him, but found themselves busy with the giant, who had gotten back up to its feet. Vincent reached out with his claw to stop himself from falling, but it wouldn't catch or dig into the metal of the chute. He kept falling, and falling, until his neck got caught in a rope, and he came to a crashing halt on a marble floor in a dark room. He had tried to right himself, but didn't make it in time. The momentum of the noose now around his neck tugged at some unseen mechanism, and he felt walls pressing in around him.

"I wouldn't move, if I were you," Palmer's voice sounded from yet another machine, somewhere in the room. "Those are rows of razor-sharp spikes surrounding you, and each is coated with deadly venom. The former president had all sorts of hilarious contraptions, didn't he? One must marvel at the advancements of technology, and how they're used by those destructive beings called humans... For you see, all human beings crave destruction."

"I'm not here to listen to your dogmatic drivel," Vincent said, working his neck out of the noose right before the floor opened up beneath him once more. He held onto the rope with both hands for dear life.

"I suppose you could call it pointless, considering no one would survive an old-fashioned hanging from the neck like that... But you know, you just can't take too many chances. If you try to struggle out of there, the venom will kill you. And if you fall, the Mako will kill you. It really is a fitting metaphor for life, isn't it?"

"How pitiful."

"Oh? Ohoho, you're still alive! Well, this is entertaining! Keep hanging in there, as they say!"

\\\\\

"I'd like to make a toast."

BANG!

Screams were heard throughout the event center, and all eyes were on the stage, where two young men stood, one with his hands on a microphone, and the other holding a hand gun.

"Yuffie, I'm scared," little Cid cried out. She held on to each of the children, two of their hands in each of hers.

"I'm right here. I won't let you go. Don't worry, Cloud and the gang have this under control."

"Really?"

"My toast is... to this city," the speaker said. "What a splendid place, you know, I've been around... And I've never seen a place so shiny, y'know?" He downed a glass of wine before throwing the glass behind him, letting it shatter. "Yknow, this town must have cost a fortune... multiple fortunes! To build, right? What a waste. What a waste. Then again, money, in itself, is a waste. It's just got no use, you know? Nothing in this world's got any real... use... that matters. The only thing that matters, is destruction."

"Yuffie." The voice came from her phone. She read the text from Reno, and almost dropped it.

"No... No..."

"What's wrong, Yuffie?" Luneth asked. She didn't know how to answer.

[ We took out their leader. It was Palmer. But we lost sight of Vincent. We think he's in the basement somewhere. I don't know if we'll be able to find him in time. ]

"Vincent..." She choked back her tears. She had to show the children that everything was going to be alright. She hadn't even been paying attention to the cultist's speech - something about Meteorfall being a sign that the whole universe wanted to die.

"I was there, I saw those things hit each other. And then the whole Lifestream comes out, and starts demolishing the place. And I knew, right then and there. This was some kinda divine intervention. So when I met the father, I asked him, 'What do you think it's telling us?' And he said, 'Let's just burn it all to the ground'." He laughed, a loud, careless laugh. The sort of laugh you hear from miserable people who want to make everyone else miserable. The sort of laugh you hear from people who think that hurting others is a joke.

"Then what?" Everyone in the building glanced around. It was a teenager with long, blue hair, who spoke out. They couldn't have been any older than seventeen. "Then what do you do? Once everything is burned, you have no shelter from storms. No food to eat. You can't live. Destruction can't sustain itself. Your ideology only works in a vacuum. And you're a fool for coming this far without realizing it." Cheers rang out through the audience - the entire town seemed to support the young adult's viewpoint. "We're tired of violence, and pollution, and corruption. We're tired of hurting each other. We want to live clean, peaceful, fulfilling lives. We want to be one with the Planet. No one here is willing to listen to you. You might as well be talking to a wall. You're just the last stragglers from an era we're leaving behind."

"Timothy, do me a favor," said the young man with the mic, "and shoot that kid for me, will ya?"

"With pleasure."

Yuffie bolted across the atrium, unseen by anyone, to stand in front of the teen, shielding them from harm. But there was no need; the boy never had a chance to aim his gun. Tseng and Elena had crept up from behind and delivered one barehanded blow to each of them, knocking them out. More cheers erupted from the crowd, as the former Turks tied the kids up. Families breathed sighs of relief, strangers hugged each other, and Yuffie turned around to look at the outspoken youth.

"That was very brave. And very dumb."

"Empress Yuffie," the teen swallowed. "That was you...? You... You stood in front of me. Me! To take a bullet..." They threw their arms around her, overcome with emotion, and let tears flow. The adrenaline had released.

"Can they do that?" Luneth asked, pointing to the young adult who had hugged the Empress of Wutai. His three friends, along with Yamato, all shrugged.

\\\\\

"Yuffie..."

He wanted to see her one more time. He didn't know how much longer he could hold on to the rope. If he could just climb up and use the noose as a foothold, he would be fine. But the venom-tipped spikes threatening to impale him, made it impossible. A Mako pool was waiting down below. He knew he wouldn't survive.

His muscles ached, more than he could ever remember. He considered it miraculous that he had been able to hold on this long. But his strength was fading fast. It was only a matter of time... Well, it wasn't the first time he had stared death in the face. But perhaps now, this would be the last.

'It's okay,' he lied to himself. 'If I gave it all I had, it'll be okay. Maybe this is as far as I go. I just wish...'

"VINNIE?!"

"That sweet sound," he sighed, as his grip on the rope faltered. He had heard it - or maybe he had only imagined. That beautiful music. The river running through the mountains.

"VINNIE!"

He also thought he heard the sounds of rolling, crashing, the world around him being demolished. He thought he felt light against his eyelids as he fell... fell... fell... into someone's arms. He opened his blurry eyes and saw her, his one wish, his savior, crying into his neck. He wanted so badly to put his arms around her, but there was simply no more strength left in them.

"Yuffie."

"Vinnie, you're okay, you're okay, you're okay," she assured herself as well as him, rocking back and forth. They both let themselves let go, wailing into each other. The thought that this was not the safest place didn't occur to him, nor did he pay any mind to the feeling of their friends lifting them both up. All that existed was Yuffie Kisaragi. She was all that was, or had ever been, until he passed out of consciousness.

\\\\\

"And you say I only hear what I want to. I don't listen hard, I don't pay attention to the distance that you're running or to anyone, anywhere. I don't understand if you really care. I'm only hearing negative, no, no, no bad..."

'Yuffie...?' Was that her voice, or was he simply hoping? Was he alive? He wasn't sure. He tried to open his eyes, but they were as heavy as concrete.

"So I... I turned the radio on, I turned the radio up, and this woman was singing my song. Lovers in love and the other's run away. Lover is crying 'cause the other won't stay. And some of us hover when we weep for the other who was dying since the day they were born, well. Well, this is not that. I think that I'm throwing, but I'm thrown."

Vincent somehow managed to open his eyes, to see her sitting next to him. He hadn't imagined her hand holding on to his. He hadn't imagined her gorgeous voice singing sad songs to him.

"Yuffie..."

"Vincent? Vincent!" She brought her hands to his face. Then his arms, his chest, his face again. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do. She wasn't sure about anything, other than that he was okay, and awake, and speaking to her. She buried her face in his neck, sighing.

"Good morning," he said, "I love you." All in one breath.

"I love you..." She raised her head to look into his eyes. "Vincent, I love you!"

"Where am I?"

"Hospital in Hana. You're fine. Vinnie, you're okay, you're okay. You're gonna be... just fine..." She opened her phone upon hearing a beeping noise, and closed it with an aggravated sigh as she began to rise to her feet. "Okay, I've gotta..."

"No," he pleaded, weakly grasping her arm. "Please... stay."

"I have to do my duty that you care about so much," she smiled, leaning down to kiss him. Once, twice, thrice... four times. "I'm not going far."

"Come back in ten seconds," he smiled, mirroring her words from so long ago and so far away, when they were safe in a house in North Corel with no troubles and nothing to think of but each other.

"I'll try," she nodded. He let go, slowly, still barely clinging to the last moment.

"That's acceptable."

\\\\\

"Next is Elena! Elena, won't you come over here?"

The blond woman walked across the stage, her cheeks light pink, to accept a medal from the President, as her fellow Guardians had. She bowed low, fiddling with the trinket once it was hanging from her neck.

"Thank you, President."

"Thank you for your bravery," the older woman smiled as Elena made her way off of the stage. "Now, we do have... Oh, look, here she is! Empress Kisaragi, everyone!" She applauded along with the assembled crowd as the Empress climbed the steps to the stage and approached, slowly. The President stepped away from the mic, and Yuffie bowed to her.

"Anybody want a drink?" The crowd cheered as Yuffie downed a glass of water. "I'm tired, are you tired? I'm tired. Geez... You know what? Since those kids had to come firing a gun and ruining the whole mood... Why don't we have another party?" More cheers to this. "Lets... Yeah, let's have another party, one week from now. I'll feel a lot better after that, and I'm sure you guys will, too. I did have fun, though! The first party was amazing, it was so well-put-together by these amazing young people over here." She gestured to the four children, standing up front with Yamato and a certain blue-haired youth. "But this time, I'll help with the designing too. Won't have that other yucky work to do, so..." The town went wild with cheers and applause. She couldn't help but laugh, a cheery, grateful laugh, before turning back to the President. "So, did I miss all the medal-giving?"

"There is one more, if you'd like to hand it out," the President said, handing her the last medal and the slip of paper she had been holding on to. Yuffie read the last unmarked name on the sheet.

"Hikari?" Everyone glanced around. "Hikari Sakaguchi? Sakaguchi HIkari?" No one stepped up. She noticed the outspoken teen from the previous night was seeming rather shy at the moment, staring at the ground, covering their face with their hand. She smiled, and dove into the crowd, taking the mic, the medal, and the sheet with her. "Hikari Sakaguchi?" She asked again. They nodded, eyes blurred with tears. "This is for you." They bowed low, accepting the medal from the Empress, and feeling seven inches tall.

"I don't deserve this," they finally said when they stood up straight. Their voice was picked up by the microphone, and a hush fell over the crowd. They all slowly pressed in against the child, trying to give them comforting pats on the shoulder or back. A few of them succeeded. "Empress... You're the one worthy of a medal. You jumped in front of me. You were going to shield me from a bullet..." They trailed off, sobbing, and dropped backward to sit on the ground, their knees weak, covering their face with their hands.

Yuffie knelt down to be on the same level as them, moving the mic away.

"I will protect all of you, if I have the chance," she assured them.

"You protected me... The Empress protected me... I'm... Just me."

"And what an amazing thing to be," she smiled, wiping at their tears.

"I'm not... anyone. I'm not special. I'm not strong, I'm not very smart, I don't have any skills..."

"You do," she shook her head. "Can I tell you a secret?" They nodded. "When I was your age, I didn't pay attention to anyone. I was very self-absorbed. And there's nothing wrong with that. But as I hung out with a certain group of people who will remain nameless..."

"AVALANCHE..." She pressed her index finger against her lips, but continued her story.

"As I grew around them, I started to be able to see people. Really see them. I can tell who you are, Hikari. You're a hero. A warrior of light. You wanted to protect these people, last night, when you raised your voice. Just as I wanted to protect you. You wanted to shout the truth, you wanted to make sure no one lost heart. You wanted to make sure everyone remembered why we all came here, built this city, and started living the way we do." She offered her hand, and they took it, allowing her to lift them back up to their feet. "That's why I want you to have this."

She reached into her bag and retrieved a green Materia, then placed it in their open hands.

"For me...?"

"Do you know what this is, Hikari?"

"Barrier Materia," they said, wrapping the fingers of one hand around the orb and using the other to swipe at more tears.

"Now if you ever need to protect anyone again, you can."

"Thank you, Empress..."

"Yuffie," she corrected with a smile. "Yuffie, to her friends."

"Yuffie..."

"But I want you to keep using your voice. It's a powerful tool. A voice can build bridges or set people against each other. A voice can hurt someone. But it can also heal. What you do with yours is your responsibility. It's a heavy weight, but I know you can carry it."

"Yes, Empr..." They shook their head, smiling. "Yes, Yuffie."

"And I'll leave you all with that," Yuffie said into the microphone, turning and walking back up the steps. "Come to the party. Have a good time. Be good to each other." The crowd picked up again with more cheering.

"We love you, Empress!"

"Don't go yet!"

"Please stay here!"

"Hey guys," Yuffie said, throwing an arm around President Dawn's shoulder, whispering an apology for leaning on her. "I need you to listen to me real quick. I know I've done a lot... That sounds conceited..." She shook her head. "Well, I have. But..." She waved them down when they let out more cheers. "But... I'm not gonna be here all the time. I've got a whole empire to run and stuff, y'know? Of course, I love to visit, but... This woman right here..." She squeezed the President tighter. "She's your 'Empress'. She's your superstar. Not me." Another hush fell over the crowd. "She loves you. She loves you all so much. And she loves this city. And she does everything she can to give you the best of everything. That's why I voted for her." The crowd picked up again. "She's got you well taken care of. I want you to be kind to her. I want you to adore her, as I do." She leaned in and gave the President a peck on the cheek.

"Thank you, Empress," Dawn sighed. "Thank you so much."

"Any time. Now... Entertain your people. I'm goin' back to bed." And with that, she handed the mic over to the President, and walked back into the hospital, to the sound of an entire city's applause.

\\\\\

"That was a lot longer than ten seconds," Vincent said, not yet opening his eyes, when he felt his girlfriend's gentle touch on his shoulders. "Please hold me? I can't move my arms much without hurting."

"I'd love to," she nodded, pulling the thin blanket off of him.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm exhausted," she sighed, crawling into the hospital bed with him, maneuvering both arms around him, pulling his back against her chest. "But I feel good. Everything is gonna be alright. Better than alright. Better... Just better."

"Of course it will. You're amazing."

"Tell me more, tell me more."

"You're so strong. So incredibly genius. You can do anything." She grazed her fingers against his cheek, softly. He kissed her knuckles when they drew close enough. "You saved me. You saved my life." It hadn't been the first time, but Yuffie wasn't going to bring that up at the moment. "'I love you' just doesn't cut it."

"Tell me anyway."

"I love you... Like snow on New Year's Eve. I love you like a desert loves monsoon season. I love you like moths on Autumn leaves. I love you like the tide... Leaving and coming back, over and over... I can't think of anything else right now. I'm so very tired."

"Rest," she said, kissing his shoulder.

"Thank you."

"Vinnie?"

"Yes?"

"...Stay."

"Always."

\\\\\

[ ~ One ~ Two ~ Three ~ Four ~ Five ~ Six ~ Seven ~ ]

[ This chapter was originally titled Stay, after the song, but I decided to go with Heroes after proofreading it. Hikari is a hero to the city, and so are the Guardians. Yuffie is a hero to Vincent. And... I wouldn't say Vincent is a hero to Reno and Rude but he sure is helpful. I'm sure those two are each other's heroes, though... :3

This is pretty much the only chapter with fighting/real danger in it. Sorry to disappoint anyone who came here for more of that, but I'm sure there are plenty other fics with more action scenes. I know the victory was rather anticlimactic, even to the point of Palmer dying of natural causes, but that's kind of the point. I wanted them to be nothing big. I wanted their threat to be a minor, passing thing. A faint breeze, not a tornado. Because as Hikari said, this is a new era, they're leaving behind the harmful ways of the past. That's why I wanted Hikari's speech in there. Because everyone has slowly realized that greed and hate has done them no favors.

Playing through the original FFVII, every time you turn around you see someone else or some other part of the planet that has suffered in some way because of Shin-Ra. Towns destroyed, lives taken, lives ruined. It's brutal. Some of the stuff goes over your head when you're a kid, but it's... so brutal. I like to believe pretty much everyone would come to the conclusion of "Okay, let's never do that $#!% again". I like to write fiction worlds that I want the real world to be. So...

Thanks for listening to me blather again. Seeya next time~ ]