#salty ask

[strayheartless]

Cloud wakes up one morning in Edge, and everything is normal...but he feels like someone something is missing. He's used to it, his memory is shit these days, whatever.

Squall wakes up one morning, in his queen sized bed, all alone. Huh, that's unusual totally normal, like he gives a shit.

Neither of them realize time and space warped them into the same world for 10 years, where they got together, then warped them out and erased them from each other's memories and worlds.

😈

I know I asked for this but HECKIN’ OWWWWWWWWWWWW.

***

Denzel is pretty used to Cloud taking a second to recognise him in the morning. Tifa and Marlene say it happens sometimes, and he’s lived with them long enough now to know that it’s not personal. Still, this morning seems particularly bad.

Cloud is staring at him perplexed across the breakfast table, ignoring his own toast. He blinks hard a couple of times, then shakes his head and squeezes his eyes shut tighter. He looks upset by something, maybe even a little confused.

“Cloud, is everything okay?” Tifa asks from the sink and Cloud opens his eyes breathing deeply.

“Yeah,” he mutters, reaching out to push Denzel’s bangs out of his eyes.

“Has your hair gotten lighter?” He asks and Denzel makes a confused sound.

“I don’t think so,” he says.

Cloud pulls his hand back, letting the hair flop back into place and Scrubs at his face, frustrated.

“Hey,” Tifa rounds the table and kneels next to his chair. “You sure your okay? You look spooked,”

Cloud let his head hang for a second, gripping at his own neck so hard that Tifa reaches out to extract his nails from his nape.

“I- I feel like I’m missing something. Like someone should be here and they’re not. But I can’t tell who,”

“Marlene?” Zel guesses but Cloud shakes his head.

“Were you dreaming about Zack and Aerith again?” Was Tifa’s guess.

“Not that I can remember,” Cloud shakes his head again and lets Tifa take over massaging his neck.

They were all familiar with Clouds spotty memory. Sometimes he forgot Aerith was dead. Sometimes he would wake up and insist that he had to go meet Zack at some hole in the wall pizza joint that hadn’t existed since Meteor fall. On really bad days he didn’t talk, just stared at everyone like he didn’t know who they were. Like he was completely vacant.

“Do you want me to call your Clients for today and postpone deliveries?”

“No,” Cloudbutted his head against Tifa’s shoulder, something he’d taken to doing as a sign of affection when his words were failing him.

She ruffled the back of his hair and let him get on his way.

There weren’t many deliveries that day anyway. His first was Cid and as he walked into the shop he almost dropped the box at the sight of Shera. He doesn’t know why, but he hadn’t expected her to be there. The Workshop looked wrong too. Had Cid painted the hill of the Gum- airship? Cloud tsked. He liked the red better.

“Hey kid, Y’alright?” Cloud jumps again. He swings round to see Cid squinting at him from behind his shouldering goggles.

“Yeah,” he not-quite-lies. “Just having an off day… feel like I’ve lost something. Don’t know what,”

Cid snorts.

“That’s called getting old son,”

“That’s called almost drowning in Mako twice chief,” Cloud bites back, but there’s no real heat to it.

“Yeah yeah, you’re a walk-in’ talking’ miracle. I got it,” he hands Cloud the cash for delivery and Cloud pockets it without checking. Even if it wasn’t all there, he knew Cid was good for it. Even if he wasn’t Cloud would let him off. He always did for friends.

“You got many more o’these?” Cid asked, sucking on the end of his cigarette. Cloud thought it was a tooth pick… weird.

“Couple. Headed out to Kalm next.”

“Well you be careful, it’s gettin’ Squally out there,”

Cloud freezes. The image of a face burns itself into the forefront of his mind. A hand holding his that just a touch bigger. A body in his bed that he knows is going to start out on the other side of the bed, but will inevitably Koala itself to his back. A dumb jacket with an even dumber white fur collar. A slim set of hips adorned with far too many belts to be practical. A Gunblade. A scar across the bridge of a wonderfully sloped nose. A set of warm Hazelnut eyes.

Squall.

Clouds knees give out, hitting the tiled floor with a horrific crack.

He Screams at the sky.

****

“Can I help you Quistis?” Squall grumbles as he flips through the mornings reports. She’s been stood in his office too long and if she keeps staring at him like that he’s going to end up growsing something he regrets.

Fuck, his head is pounding.

“You seem off today.” She says like it’s an off hand comment. Squall resists the urge to roll his eyes.

“Didn’t sleep well.” He mutters, scribbling his signature at the bottom of a page. The next set of papers is about refurbishments to the western corridors. He massages between his eyes with the knuckle of his pointer finger.

Hadn’t they done that at the beginning of last year? Sora had talked his ear off about it being too much of a rabbit warr-

Who?

Squall blinks. Who the hell was Sora?

“Are you sure that’s all it is? Rinoa says you’ve been pretty in and out all day,”

“And I suppose Rinoa is the foremost authority on my moods,” it’s a unnecessary bite, one that he doesn’t even know the reason for. His wife is absolutely the authority on his mood swings. She’s generally the only one that can handle them.

No she isn’t.

Squall puts his pen down and places his head in his hands. His headache felt like someone was drilling into his eyes and temple. He just wants today to be over. He wants to go back home to C-

To Rinoa.

Quistis looks at him for a second, before seemingly deciding it’s not worth arguing with him. Instead she waits for him to finish signing papers while she looks out of his office window.

“Sure is Cloudy today,”

There’s a crash from behind her and as she spins around she finds Squall on his hands and knees on the carpet heaving up the pasty and Coffee she’d brought him. He’s sobbing hysterically as his mind faces a million miles a second and his head feels like it’s going to explode with the pressure of the memories.

A hand a little smaller than his, that was calloused and almost always covered in motor oil. A tiny waist that was just right for wrapping his arms around in the early mornings and late nights. Broad shoulders clad in paldrons. A wold at his heart. A wolf in his ear. The most dazzlingly blue eyes Squall has event seen. Bright blond hair. A stupidly large sword wrapped in bandages so he “didn’t hurt the kid”. A scarred sternum and torso under his hand.

Cloud.

Squall passed out from the pain.

[saltydkdan]

Do I need to/should I watch all the previous seasons of friendlocke before starting the current one? I want to but there's so much

You don’t need to! The first 2 seasons are connected, but Pokémon Violet is completely disconnected from the previous ones. It’s meant for new people :)

If you like it, then you can check out the first two and have plenty to check out later on!

[lord-aldhelm]

1, 2, and 21 for the salty asks!

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get? I guess Aethelflaed x Erik? I mean it reeks of Stockholm syndrome and also they never had any development in their relationship. Like, at all. He was nice to her for a few minutes and all of a sudden she wants to fuck him? AFTER she was sexually assaulted by her husband...? you would figure she would be more, idk, cautious? But whatever...

Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP? As I said in a previous post Uhtred and Aethelflaed should have remained platonic. I think Finan and Eadith are cute together, but I am also happy for her that she left and got to have her own life away from the bullshit. Other than that, I don't know of many OTPs in this series.. a cursory glance at AO3 shows mostly Finan x Sihtric stuff so... uh... yeah

What are your thoughts on crack ships? I don't do them personally but I love seeing the creativity of the fandom so, I think it is funny!

[astorichan]

1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 14?

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

Grumm, probably.

3. Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion?

Don't recall that, tbh. I unfollowed a bunch of people once I left an old fandom of mine, but it wasn't because of an opinion.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

dfgdf I'm so much of a fandom baby help No, hasn't happened yet and I hope it won't.

8. Have you received anon hate? What about?

Not on Tumblr or ao3 and not over fandom.

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

h e l p I don't think I even dislike a character in this fandom. There are a lot I don't particularly care about, but "dislike" is too strong of a word. I will confess to another fandom thing, and that is that I had disliked Batgirl for so long. She got on my nerves and I don't even remember why by this point.

14. Unpopular opinion about your fandom?

People that I've seen referred to as "big names" or "gods of x" are not that good. They're usual, normal people with a hobby of writing/drawing/theorising in the HK universe. I am literally begging, stop acting like there are any "gods" in the fandom.

[iheartbookbran]

My favorite part about the Debling plot was Penelope and Cressida doing the most over there top cat-fighting in order to win him over, not because they genuinely liked the guy, but because they wanted to escape their families and also lowkey just hate each other.

[chaos0pikachu]

the (mcu) avengers could NOT handle the fact that eddie is basically living out a live action tentacle hentai every thursday through sunday and sometimes on wednesday if he feeds venom tator tots okay?

[traumasurvivors]

“If you report them and there’s actual proof then they’ll be punished. You should report.”

I have an ask in my ask box along these lines and I just want to say…

I reported what happened to me as a child. Seven years of sexual and physical abuse by someone in my family.

I went through the court process for years. Got victim blamed on the stand. And it was Hell.

In the end, he pled guilty and you know what he was given for his plea deal? A curfew. He didn’t serve a single day. He had to be in his house by a certain time at night until a certain time in the morning.

I knew a girl who was sexually abused by her mom’s boyfriend. He admitted guilt right away. You know what happened? He did serve time but he only went to jail on the weekends for about a year and was able to keep dating the mom but he had to live somewhere else so he lived across the highway.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t report. That’s a personal decision. I’m just saying to quit shaming people who don’t. Outside of the fact there often isn’t justice, sometimes reporting is re-traumatizing. Or comes with other consequences.

I got raped at 18 and 23 and never reported either because of the shit I went through in the courts. If I was victim blamed for stuff that happened when I was 6 years old to 13, surely it would be much worse as an adult.

Whether someone reports or not is personal and their decision. It is not on them if the person does it to someone else.

[thatgaywizardoverthere]

Arthur “Disaster Bi” Pendragon learning about true loves kiss as a cure like:

Gwaine: For fuck’s sake, he’s not enchanted every time he smiles at someone else, Arthur! He was literally just laughing at my joke!

Arthur, aggressively frenching Merlin on the council room floor: YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO CAREFUL OKAY-

[randomminty]

On break..

[cursio-neptune]

I just now noticed that sunflower and moonjelly are literally the only ones with expressions

<< First < Previous ~*~ Next >

[chiefcroissantdeanbanana]

how I imagine their talks after ending 9 LMAO

[strayheartless]

Please I need Kunsel to find and help their stray chocobaby please he's all alone

I mean… yeah okay😈

***

The world was different now. In the last few months it had changed again while Kunsel hadn’t been looking this time. When he’d finally rolled back in to town for the first time since the plate fell on Sector seven, he’d had to ask around to find out that this new City -Edge, was it?- had been attacked yet again.

They were saying the Chosen one had saved them. A Warrior of the goddess. Kunsel was hoping beyond hope he didn’t meet this so called “hero of dawn,”. He might just spit in the red bastards face, and that was never a good first impression in a community that revered the man as a hero.

It would be like standing in Nibelhiem town square and professing Fenrir was nothing more than glorified sled dog. You just didn’t do it…. Not that it would matter much these days in Nibelhiem.

“So,” said the man in front of him, pulling his attention back into the room. Reeve Tuesti, head of the WRO was not necessarily an imposing figure. He didn’t command a room in the same way that the former President had, nor did he have that silent control that Rufus wielded with devistating accuracy. Reeve was kind, respectable even. Kunsel knew he had looked after his people in shinra as best as he could, and he knew that most people working here thought just as highly of him as they did back in the day.

He looked a little different than the last time Kunsel had seen him: a peppering of greys hairs at his temple, some new crows feet and stress lines, a wedding ring that Kunsel knew had two partners not one. He looked wiser, he looked world weary but happy.

“I hope you don’t mind but I had Tseng pull up your old files from your Shinra days. It’s nothing to worry about, just jogs my memory a bit these days.” The man chuckles a bit as he goes between glancing at Kunsel and the file. Kunsel shrugs, he can respect a man who goes into a meeting with all the information. Even if he personally wouldn’t put all his cards on the table like that. Then again Kunsel was supremely paranoid these days.

“With the company for over a decade, Wutai decorated Veteran… ah, worked closely with Commander Hewley. Never met a man I didn’t like who had. Works in your favour,” it’s a joke, Kunsel knows but he uses the opportunity to test Reeves character.

“What about Commander Rhapsodos, or the General? They worked closely with him too.” He watches as Reeve looks at him that little bit longer, considering him.

He smiles.

“I take your point, but having known both men a little before what unfolded I don’t feel uncomfortable in pointing out that previous to what happened they were good men themselves, if a little rough in character.” He said.

Kunsel took the point. He knew the truth of it of course. Angeal may have been the more virtuous of the three in the end but both Rhapsodos and Sephiroth had not been the monsters they built themselves to be. Maybe Rhapsodos had redeemed himself of late.

Reeve appeared to have moved on, flipping the page.

“Well, Second Class Zelda,”

“First Class,”

“Pardon? Your file says-“

“I know. Never wanted a fan club or that level of notoriety within the company. I prefer working in the background So my file said one thing but my uniform said another,” Kunsel had hated being forced to take that damn promotion. Roche had hung off of his shoulder like a dead thing begging him to say yes. ‘my friend be will be greater than all the rest! Imagine the glory of commanding your own battalion! Imagine the fame!’

In the end he’d taken it because the troops had asked him too. A few privates who’d known Cloud and been ashamed enough after his disappearance (or as they’d thought, his death.) about how they’d treated him, had asked him to lead them. They knew he’d been Kunsel’s friend, and he knew that most of these people had been led by Zack a few years back.

He’d hated himself for it but it hadn’t been all that bad when alls said and done.

“Well, I have to ask then, how did you avoid degradation?”

It’s a fair question. Most soldiers who hadn’t died in the field had rotted slowly at their desks and gone mad. For all Kunsel had been driven up the wall by Roche what happened to him had broken his heart… last of the mentor kids gone. Zack as the first and only soldier to be taken on by Angeal personally; Roche as the suprise acquisition of Genesis. Nobody had thought Genesis had the patience for it. He wasn’t a patient kind of person. But Roche had adored him and Genesis had secretly liked the attention.

Kuns wondered if Rhapsodos regretted that now…

“Off the record?”

Reeve regards him and then nods.

“S-cells. I know, it was a dumb idea but I had people to find and when Hojo left his office insecure I took a gamble. Payed off in the end,”

“That’s one hell of a gamble, Sephiroth would have had access to you, he could have controlled you.”

Kunsel chuckled darkly.

“Sephiroth never had much interest in me.”

“You were First Class Fairs best friend, he would have been plenty interested in you from that little fact alone. It was a reckless decision,”

Kunsel blinks at that assessment. How did he know that? Kunsel and Zack had always been warm towards each other on the floors but Kunsel had went to extraordinary lengths to keep his private life private for a reason.

“Your not the first friend of Fairs I’ve had the pleasure of meeting First class Zelda,”

“Zack only had two real friends, one of them is dead. Whoever you met is lying to you,”

He’d showered the world for Cloud and find nothing but stories. Then at a certain point those stories had led him to the scorched remains of Mideel. To a doctor who told him he doubted Cloud had made it in his state.

Kunsel had been so devastated he’d gone numb with it. These days he just wanted to help rebuild in as unobtrusive way as possible. Maybe he could make up for that failure some day be repopulating Nibelhiem or something… actually Cloud would likely haunt him for that.

“I’m dead? That’s news to me. Did you know I was dead Reeve?”

“I did not,” Reeve chuckles, and Kunsel can feel his mouth hanging open as he looks to the office door. “You are looking remarkably well for a dead man I must say,”

Cloud grunts in reply and stares at Kunsel. He’s having a hard time meeting his eyes but Kunsel doesn’t know if it’s because he’s hardly seen him without his helmet in the open like this or something else. The guilty Shuffle and the tell tale twisting of his fingers by his side gives him away.

He feels guilty, and well… Kunsel’s not about to let that stand.

Without really bothering to telegraph his movements Kunsel grabs him by the shoulders and hauls him into a hug. If Reeve hears the sob that shudders out of Cloud he does a very good job of making it look like he’s too busy to notice. Kunsel tracks him over Cloud’s head as he pours some water into a glass and grabs a box of tissues and some painkillers. Absently he wonders how often Cloud has cried in this office.

Kunsel himself has only ever seen Cloud cry twice, once in rage and once in pain. Neither was an experience he particularly wanted to relive. Instead he clutches Cloud closer to him and lets him break.

“I forgot him Kuns,” Cloud sobs. “He was my best friend and I forgot him!”

“But you remembered,” Kunsel reasons. “And if you think Zack would be mad at you for that then your dumber than we gave you credit for,”

Cloud sniffs and chuckles pulling away slightly but not letting go. He’s a tiny bit taller than the last time Kunsel saw him. Maybe it’s just the hair. He’s fuller too, with broader shoulders and newer scars. He looks nothing like he did, but every bit the Cloud he remembered.

Gods he was alive!

“You got rid of the bucket,” Cloud smiles a little.

“Yeah well, with Shinra gone there’s nobody to really try and use my likeness for evil anymore so… thought it was time,” he shrugs and watches Cloud thank Reeve for the water but refuse the tissues and pills.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone grab you like that before and it not end in tears,” Reeve looks impressed but Cloud doesn’t look bothered.

“It’s Kunsel,” he says like it explains everything. “Closest thing to a brother I’ll ever have. He could stab me and I’d probably forgive him,”

Kunsel and Reeve both frown.

“Er, no If I ever stab you, you stab me back and then never speak to me again Cloud. We don’t forgive people who stab us,”

“I have to say Cloud, I worry sometimes about your sense of self preservation… I thought it was better since the stigma left, since Genesis too,”

Cloud blushed, Kunsel’s eyes narrowed.

“Since Genesis what? What the hell did that worthless shit stain do to you?!”

Cloud winces and then glares at Reeve who wheezes at Clouds expense.

“… he’smyboyfriend”

“Sorry what?”

“Please don’t make me say it again. He’s changed Kunsel, like… a lot,”

“He still reciting Loveless?”

“Nope, and he generally hates anyone who does. He’s writing his own thing these days,”

“Wow, he really has changed,”

Cloud snorts “yeah,”

Kunsel pulls him back in again and Cloud relaxes a bit more.

“Zack would be so proud of you,” he mutters into the blondes hair.

“You think,” cloud mutters back hopefully.

“I know,”

[saltydkdan]

top three favorite animals go

-Penguins

-Quokkas

-Dogs

[lord-aldhelm]

24 for salty asks?

24: Would I recommend The Last Kingdom to a friend? Yes, absolutely! Despite my criticism I do love this show, and would love to get more people sucked into it like I have! lol

[astorichan]

26 and 27 for the salty asks?

26. Most shippable character?

Hollow & Grimm, since i have two ships for each of those. Also since that's the extent that my shipping goes dsgsd

27. Least shippable character?

For me personally, Ghost, since I headcanon them as way too aroace for shipping. I enjoy other people's works, though, so this is a soft headcanon and not a hard one :>

[pokimoko]

A non-partnering aromantic asexual crocodile for the request?

This little guy sure knows how to rock.