#lots of clarret in this

[sleepsentry]

Long clarret+cloud shipping ramble under the cut

Very mild sidequest + barret date spoilers for rebirth

I hope this makes some kind of sense

Also, this isn't some essay or definitive take. it's just me rambling.

Idk if I've said this before or not but

What I think I like about Barret and Cloud as a queerplatonic pairing is this idea of "it's not fate, it's highly unlikely, it's not meant to be, and yet here they are"

I also appreciate the complete lack of "yaoi-isms" in my own interpretation at least. And when I say "yaoi-isms" I don't strictly mean M/M pairings

I mean that "romantic" trope of "finding your other half", that sometimes borders on codependent obsession, that's foundational to a lot of classic and contemporary yaoi and yaoi inspired dynamics (which is often part of the appeal and leaned into for drama it's just not my cup of tea)

Like all that "our souls meld, I see them in my reflection, oh if only we could be as one, perfect for eachother, it was fate, I keep chasing them, I want to find them, I want to keep them, stay with me...ect ect ect"

Like all the people misusing the term psychosexual to describe Seph and Cloud

Barret and Cloud have zero chance of having a dynamic like that because they're so different. (And I also personally think that kind of dynamic would creep out and annoy the shit out of Barret lol)

Barret is incapable of being anything other than himself in contrast to others. He never had the choice to blend in or become some kind of legacy having symbol. He's not conventionally appealing or marketable (in universe and out)

Unlike Tifa or Aerith or Zack or Sephiroth or Cloud, Barret's like... an actual grown-up.

He's disabled, he has a kid, he's out there trying to change the world for the better, and he fails a lot.

He was nothing but a civilian to Shinra, never expected to make any impact (like Tifa.)

He doesn't have the time or space to be all "Oh Cloud"

His world doesn't begin and end with some fucking guy basically. (As harsh and reductive as that is lol)

Because the stakes in Cloud's other popular ships are so fucking high it's really unfair on the poor boy.

And I think that's potentially valuable for someone as "in his own head" as Cloud. Barret would challenge him to confront "what is" not "what could be or what was." It's also good for Cloud's sense of identity and ego to have someone who takes Cloud as he is and responds honestly and tangibly. Tangibly, being a key word.

I understand tifa and aerith and zack do something similar but those three also have a lot personal stuff that muddies things.

The emotional stake that the main four (zack,aerith,tifa,seph) have in who Cloud should be for their sake is unreal and unfair. And I genuinely believe it can say interesting things about Cloud's sense of identity but, again, it's not my cup of tea.

It also feels very counterintuitive to the idea that Cloud is supposed to be "just some guy who became a hero" if the main four's worlds revolve around him.

Barret? He's just another friend. Cloud doesn't "have to be" anything for him.

As for what Cloud could be to Barret, I think Barret would see a lot of his younger self in Cloud and through getting to know Cloud and learning to be kinder and more patient with him, he can learn to be more forgiving of his past and current self.

Cloud also has a few moments where he helps Barret calm down or reign himself in, even if unintentionally. (One moment early on in remake during the first bombing while they're escaping on the lift. And another during an early rebirth sidequest where he, harshly, helps Barret calm down from an anxious spiral over how he might fail his daughter in the future)

In rebirth, Cloud also reassures Barret that his friends are there for him and he doesn't need to carry everything himself.

In the remake games, at least, I think they have a lot of chemistry and the lack of romantic/super important expectations means the dynamic gets to breath a little.

To quote Barret in his rebirth date: "Guess we balance eachother out."

And, as different as they are, Barret and Cloud do have a lot in common.

[In the beginning, they're both acting tough because of their assumptions about who the other is.

They both lost their homes and loved ones to Shinra related cruelty.

They both were expected to be unfortunate civilian victims but instead stubbornly refused to die without a fight, and eventually, saved the whole world alongside their new friends. (Most of the party members could fit that description to be fair)

They both get treated harshly due to surface level assumptions about who they are.]

I think what I like about Barret and Cloud is I think they're very complimentary as characters. In their designs and their personalities. The relative rarity of the pairing also adds a sense of novelty and I'm not going to see it everywhere inescapably.

Also I just like Barret a lot and relate to both of them more than other characters.

[imacetra]

So, my younger brother wanted to give FFVII a try.....

@itscalledequivalentexchange has never played the game before. He knows a little bit about it because I yell about the game and characters a lot, but he doesn’t know shit other than what he saw in Advent Children.

So this is how his first round of gameplay went. (anything i said will be in bold)

- "It's not every day you see one in a group chat like AVALANCHE. Wait fuck, I mean group."

- "This is too much work."

"Do you want ME to play?"

"No."

- -random battle- "Noooooo, fuck you, I didn't want this!"

- "I'm using my boyfriend's sword. Stabbing people in his memory."

- "I wanna hear the fucking victory music."

- -Barret joins the party- "Did he just come inside me?"

- I had to yell at him for a whole minute JUST to help him find the first item box. Then he goes "Oh, I see a shiny box!"

- -gets a phoenix down- "What's Phoenix Down? Is my Phoenix Down? Whose Phoenix is down?"

- -Barret shakes his fist- "Is he trying to flex?"

"No, he's shaking his fist at ShinRa."

"It looks like he's trying to flex."

- He hit the elevator button at least five extra times and got mixed up. Then he accidentally went back INTO the elevator when he was on the right floor.

- "Cloud you fucking-- you have great hair but--" -random battle- "FUCK!"

- "Oh I forgot Barret was here."

- -doots along to the victory fanfare-

- -gets jumpscared by a random battle transition-

- -Barret gets shot- "Oh you don't mess with bear!"

- "How is he not bleeding?"

- -sees Jessie- "Oh, I thought that was a parrot."

- "I'm very tired."

- "Which one is the OK button?"

"The circle button. 'O' for Okay."

"But. I don't want it to be okay."

- -criticizes the ladder mechanics for being "dangerous"-

- -sees save point- "A question mark? They must still be in the closet."

-i blink a million times-

"Oh, it's the save point!"

"GOD DAMMIT"

-hysterical laughter-

- -sees my save file- "Daddy?"

-i choke on my own spit-

"What's Daddy?"

"THAT'S WHAT I NAMED BARRET"

- "Okay, new save file. I don't wanna save on Daddy."

- "I can shoot and stab. That's two different people."

- "I hope I don't push Sephiroth's buttons."

- -sees materia- "Is that an emerald?"

"No, it's a--"

"A potion?"

"No, it's a materia."

"Oh. Restore materia."

- Barret: -tells him to set the bomb-

"WHY WOULD YOU TRUST ME WITH A BOMB???? I'M CLOUD!"

- "ANYWAYS, BACK TO THE CLOUD"

- -cloud has his bad brain times-

"WHAT THE FUCK?! OW MY EARS! I DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS!"

- "I think I’m an old guy now."

- "Go easy on me! This is my first day on the bomb squad!"

- "Is that a crab? I'm so confused."

- "What did you do to Barret?"

- "Is he legally satisfied?"

- "That looks like an infinity sign, are you making him (Barret) immortal?"

- "Stabby McStabberson, look out for the butt."

- "Bigshot? More like Big HOT"

- "Should I be focusing on what I'm doing?" -dies-

- "Game over. My first dead of the game."

- "This is a true victory."

- "New Game? Fuck that shit. Continue."

- "Daddy? No. I'm not in the mood for Daddy." -picks HIS save file-

- "Okay this is NOT my first day on the bomb squad."

- "Run, baby run. Look out for a gun."

- -sees the magic option for the first time- "I can do magic now? I'm gonna be the best wizard of oz."

- "No, don't hurt the bear! He's a big softie on the inside. But you're not supposed to know that. Oh, sorry Barret."

- "Good job Barret."

- "Since Barret did a good job, he gets a gold star sticker."

- "Barret is best boy. Cloud is a good boy, but it's his second day on the bomb squad."

- "I don't know how long Barret's been here, but he's been here."

- "Don't worry Cloud, maybe you'll be best boy if you beat his bestness."

"Wait, are you saying they need to fight to see who's best?"

"No, they need to earn good boy points."

- -burps- "Excuse my language."

- -limit break lights up-

"Cloud's ready to be gay!"

- "Let's break the ice between us."

"You're literally making ice."

"No, I'm breaking ice with ice."

"There wasn't ice to begin with!"

- -I save his ass by grabbing the controller and using a phoenix down on Cloud, then potions on him and Barret-

"Oh, what do potions do?"

"They. Fucking. Heal. You."

"Oh. I thought Phoenix Downs did that."

-I put my face in my hands-

"Like, I thought there were different kinds of potions. Like a stabbing potion, and other potions…"

Me, sobbing into my hands, "He's so fucking stupid…"

- "I'm going to use my hair to lightning you."

- "You interrupted my bonding moment with Barret! I was ready to ask him for a hug!"

- "Go faster! You gotta be Sonic! But you're not Sonic, so I guess I can't judge you."

- "There's no fucking time for the victory dance!"

- "This is called stress! And it's not fun!"

- "6 minutes!"

"More like 69, hehe."

"Yes. That would make me less stressed."

- -enemy uses Beam Gun- "No, I don't want Bean Gum!"

- "Cloud's marrying the Buster Sword because that's the closest thing to Zack."

"He can marry Barret."

"Well he's not facing him, is he?"

- "I will STAB THAT!"

- "I'm tired, and I'm stressed, and I did not ask to be on the Bomb Squad."

- -forgot Jessie downstairs- "Where the hell is she?!"

"You left her downstairs!"

"Why does she need ME?!"

"BECAUSE HER FOOT IS STUCK"

"DAMMIT"

- He has a minute and twenty seconds left and he's going after Jessie

- "Hi stairs, I'm back. You're gonna explode, but it's not my fault."

"You're probably gonna explode too."

- I've never seen the game when you run out of time so this is exciting

- Me, laughing my ass off, "You're fucking dead, oh my god."

- "Who knew being a Cloud would be so stressful?"

- "Okay we gotta do this! We're smart this time!"

"Are you sure?"

- "Oh, I see her foot being stuck now. Ohhhhh."

- "You fucking left without me, you fick! ….What's a fick?"

- "I ask for SO much, and this is what I get."

- -Cloud jumps across gap-

"You got some good jumps. I wish I was in gymnastics."

- "We got 7 minutes! We can't lose this! I'm gonna burp, and I don't wanna do that."

- "Third day on the bomb squad, or was it the fourth? Fuck, I don't remember."

- "Stab me in my nugget."

- "How much things are we gonna blow upppppppp?"

- "Oh that was a nice somersault, you got good gymnastics."

- "Do you see the fire on your butt? There is no fire on your butt."

- "Toot toot gotta get the snoop snoop."

- "Could never came-- Oh he said Cloud, not could. Could never came."

"You said Could again."

"Shit."

- Barret: I'm takin' it out of your pay, hotstuff!

"Wait, hotstuff?"

"Yeah, Cloud and Barret are boyfriends."

[rauhallinen-hauki]

(edit: turns out that as of the time of posting this I'm actually early-misread june as july- but we can celebrate Barret and ff7 on this blog everyday anyway so its ok :) )

Sorry for being so incredibly late! romancingbarretweek 2022, prompts by @romancingbarret

july 3 - post-game -Barret x Cid: vacation at costa del sol after the main saving the world adventure is over.

july 4 - fighting side by side - Cloud x Barret x Aerith

july 5 - co-parenting|Marlene - Bareeve: the idea of bringing an actual "Caith Sith" to the team is brought up and approved. Marlene discovers the joy of owning a cat.

july 6 - hurt/comfort|hometown - Barrifa: venting conversation about their shared traumas involving their

hometowns being destroyed, somewhere in the valleys near Nibelheim and Corel.

july 7 - relaxing - Clarret: taking a nap together

july 8 - AU|canon-divergence - Barrifa: FF7 retold as an spaghetti western au

july 9 - free day- Barret x Cid: dancing :)

Once again, sorry for the delay but hopefully my love for Barret and FF7 shows trough. Thanks a lot for this event!

[up-sideand-down]

Not a date + vacation fic.

Rules: Send me two (2) tropes from this list + a ship and I’ll describe how I’d combine them in the same story.

47. Not a Date AU

34. Vacation AU

There was no ship in your ask, so I'm going to fill it in with one of my Otps: Clarret.

Cloud and Barret were very busy men: first trying to rebuild after ShinRa, Sephiroth, that whole Meteor thing and after...they were busy. Cloud had a very successful business to run. Barret was working to find cleaner energy solutions. They had shit to do...and very little time for themselves. Their friends noticed. The kids noticed. Most of Edge noticed. As an intervention both of them were sat down and presented with tickets to an all-expense paid vacation to a private formerly-owned by ShinRa seaside resort in Wutai (courtesty mostly of Yuffie with the bribes and threats provided by Cid and Vincent). They are not thrilled with this. Nor are they thrilled that Tifa and the kids have already packed for them. There is a lot of protests from both men as they are ushered to the Highwind by Nananki. They don't make it entirely unsigned either. Tifa and the kids hug and kiss them goodbye. They grumble goodbye back, still not happy. They had shit to do!

They pass the flight mostly by bitching and grumbling to each other. It takes an embarrassingly long time for the thought to come to them: is this...a date set-up from the others. Is this a blind date vacation? No way. They're not interested. They're busy. They got shit to do back home, no time for love life and love interests. Married to work right? But then again...a few days off can't hurt. Right? I mean...Cloud sometimes falls asleep over delivery orders and Barret gets more sleep in transports than he does at when standing still. Are they...a little overdue. Just...some napping. Maybe read one of the books Marlene and Denzel said they liked. Splash in the ocean. By the end they've come around to the idea of a small, super tiny vacation. But it is not a date. No way. They agree on that.

The Highwind more or less abandons them once they disembark with all their luggage. They both scowl at Cid's wave goodbye. Their rooms are nice, a bit cozy, the Beach is lovely and has private chairs and umbrellas for them. The place is short-staffed, but Cloud and Barret don't really care. For a few hours...they have that teeny, tiny vacation they talk about. A nap, a book, a quick swim, another nap, a very strong alcoholic drink...and then it happens. The ultimate reason Cloud and Barret haven't had a vacation in years: they get bored.

They split up to find their own forms of entertainment. Cloud heads to the buildings to find shit to fix. Barret heads to the beach to pace up and down and clean the messes he finds up. In the surf and on shore...there's so much damn trash. He could fill up bags with the shit that washes on shore. Where the hell is it coming from? Cloud finds that short-staffed means a lot of shit just isn't being maintained well. He starts up fixing things, but there's so much just fine-tuning shit that he doesn't have patience for. He's a hit it until it works kind of guy. Or build something to take care of it. They're back to usual stress levels in under 20 minutes.

It takes complaining to each other that evening for problems to be solved. Cloud figures most of the trash is being washed in from inland. Maybe a river or stream. Find it and find a way to filter the trash. Good search and delivery mission. Right up his alley. Barret hears the list of maintenance stuff and realizes its all very similar to the problems he had with Seventh Heaven in Midgar. He's done it and it's all pretty easy. They make a deal to swap jobs tomorrow. The plan goes beautifully. Cloud finds trash river not far away at all. He rigs up a temporary netting system that a resort staff member can swap up and out with a pulley and winch. The resort handles it after that and Cloud goes trash hunting on the beach. Barret walks and fixes all the little things Cloud left behind. Water filters, tightening screws, a bit of plumbing to unclog some drains. Stuff he was beginning to teach Marlene back home. They're back out to repeat their tiny vacation plans again...until they get bored.

Their vacation follows that pattern for the week. Vacation, get bored, find job to do, foist job off to the other, and then get back to vacation. Their grumbles turn to jokes, crossed arms turn to pats on shoulders, and stress wrinkles turn into smiles. When the Highwind returns Cloud and Barret seem a lot more relaxed (despite only having about 12 hours of true vacation between the two of them) and a lot closer. No one says anything, but Cloud and Barret do hold hands as they walk back home. Marlene points it out but Barret and Cloud just say it's the risk the others took sending them off on a damn vacation. They had shit to do...and now that shit has to wait. But they say it smiling at the other.

[ffviirarepairweek]

Thanks for the excuse to write more Clarret/Boud and ClotiVin! I'm on Day 3 for prompts and I'm excited to start posting~

Awesome! I hope you’re having a lot of fun!

[sleepsentry]

have you read boycott love? it's soumalte clarret!!

I have now! It was very sweet. I enjoyed the characterisation a lot. Thank you very much for the recommendation. :]