#they saw ff7 and were like… what if it was worse…. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

icharchivist · 1 year ago

Note

I apologize for busting in your askbox Icha, but I saw you and an anon discussing the FF7 remake and I am so so curious as to know what did they change/leave out? I have heard it wasn't as good a remake as most were hoping for, and am just curious what changed. 👀 (If you don't have the time or energy though then no worries! 💖)

All the best for you, always, Icha! 💕

you're all good no worries <3333

And ahh yeah the big question huh!

The thing is that the remake isn't actually a remake and they lied about it being one, so that's kind of the big of the issue in a sense?

The major difference is completely related to Sephiroth (king of causing problems on purpose).

The remake is actually a sequel set in a timeloop only Sephiroth, and it's implied, Aerith too, are aware is happening, seemingly provoked by Sephiroth himself, as the Sephiroth we see during the game is from the Future.

More details under the cut and it will mention a few major plot beats spoilers from the 1997 game the remake hasn't really touched on yet (but since you mentioned reading Sephiroth's wiki page it should be okay?)

(also more salt 😭)

(and i got long ✌️)

The remake was set to be cut in multiple parts, the first part covering the Midgar portion of the game which takes about like, 6 hours to complete max? before you leave to the open world that is the rest of the game. The first part wanted to extend on Midgar, so those first 6 hours of content were extended and padded in, for better or for worse.

Problem is? Sephiroth doesn't appear at all in this portion of the game. In the Original game, Sephiroth is built in very slowly, first by hearing him being name dropped a lot, then learning he caused a massacre in the Shinra HQ, and then, once you leave Midgar, Cloud will actually tell you about who Sephiroth used to be and why now they have to find him. Still after that, in the OG, you spend a very long time following a trail of murders committed by Sephiroth before ultimately meeting him in Junon, which is about 10 hours into the game. And, notable, Sephiroth doesn't care about nor notice Cloud until their run in in Junon, where Sephiroth even first is startled in meeting him bc he doesn't put together right away who Cloud is.

But the first part of the remake only covers the Midgar part of the game, the first 6 hours. And they didn't want to do this part without Sephiroth.

So they came up with another plot instead:

the remake is set in a timeloop of the story happening over and over again, except that Sephiroth From The Future cheated his way into coming here at the beginning of the game and starting to haunt Cloud on purpose.

Basically, anything you see about Sephiroth in the remake pt1 isn't in the OG. His dynamic with Cloud also is straight up pulled from post-game canon's dynamic, so no longer the slow build up to how Sephiroth actually took some time to start obsessing over Cloud and ruining his life.

Sephiroth spends all of his moments in the remake making sure to taunt Cloud about the history about to repeat itself. He taunts him about how he's going to kill Aerith before Cloud even knows who Aerith is. He taunts Cloud also by throwing back words Zack once told him, he appears at random specifically to spite Cloud, it's an overall mess.

His involvement in the plot also creates a whole new type of enemies which are called the Specters. They're sort of ghostly figures who, we learn, are actually "keeper of the canon", trying desperately to make sure the timeline happens exactly as it happened in the original game. (for example, there's a scene where Hojo takes a look at Cloud and, suddenly puts together that he has met him before and almost says it aloud. The specters appear and take Hojo away so he doesn't finish his sentence because in the Original game, Hojo doesn't realize who Cloud is until way into the 3rd act, and Cloud can't know why Hojo knows him. It's actually important for Cloud's storyarc that Hojo doesn't spill the deeds until that point.)

Aerith is originally the only one being haunted by the Specters and it's implied she is seeing visions of her death. Cloud is also seeing vision of her death once he gets in contact with the specters.

The game ends after a battle with Sephiroth (again, he's not supposed to be here) which also ends up destroying the Specters, with the implication that from now on, the characters have the free will to not follow the path of canon. Aerith herself, again, who's hinted to know she's going to die, makes a speech about how the future isn't set in stone and they have to move forward.

The remake also ends on an alternative timeline playing at the exact same time, as the Specters have been destroyed into every timeline ever, where the Specters aren't there to make sure Zack dies shortly before the plot of the remake starts. So we get to see an alternative timeline where Zack has lived, but, since his death is the cataclysm in Cloud getting out of coma, Cloud is still in coma.

We're still unsure where it's going to go.

The major problems I have with the remake is basically this whole thing. There's stuff the remake do differently as it adds on to the game (like adding a full sidequest to flesh out Jessie, which isn't in the OG). Some of those however, imo, are not really good, but at least it's just mostly an interpretation choice.

One thing that bugged me with the remake for instance is that, as you're probably aware, ff7 follows a group of eco-terrorist, Avalanche, who try to take down an immoral company, Shinra, that is abusing and killing the earth. In the OG, the act of terrorism actually do cause a lot of damage and death, and it's actually left ambiguous in the game if those are actually on Avalanche's hands, or if Shinra is actually framing them by overblowing the damage they caused.

In the remake, it's pretty much confirmed it's all propaganda and Avalanche has been doing things cleanly and it's only another violent branch of Avalanche we aren't related to that causes crimes.

It removes a nuance and it will also therefore makes Barret and Reeves's confrontation later in the game a bit more hollow, because the whole thematic of "are you willing to accept the collateral damage of the extreme action you're forced to take" is lessened by the approach of Avalanche not having done anything actually harmful. the OG has more nuances over it, ultimately siding with Avalanche and Barret, but genuinely addressing that there's still a responsibility they have for all of this.

At the same time they also paint Rufus Shinra in a better light than the OG did, trying to make it look like he's actually trying to do some good, which i'm dubious about.

But, at least, on that point, it's expanding on the original game and adding context, whenever this context is good or not.

In the same level but that i don't mind, it also explores Tifa being conflicted about being a terrorist more.

Some additions that makes sense but end up being a little bugging on the long term are related to Cloud's mental health in general (or, more likely, complete lack of.)

I need to mention more about Cloud first but basically:

Cloud has something Seriously Wrong going on with him and you don't know what it is most of the OG because he always tells you with perfect confidence that things are fine. He has hallucinations, he has mental breakdowns, something is haunting him. He's supposed to be an Ex-Soldier, but no one who should know Soldiers seem to recognize him or know who he is. He recalls the Nibelheim incident in details to Tifa at some point and Tifa is unnerved without telling us exactly what's up. Aerith mentions she sees her ex in Cloud a lot.

(anything else i'm going to mention forward aren't covered in the remake yet, so the exact handling of it all is left for debate, but i think it's relevant to how some things are handled in the remake pt1)

If you bring Tifa and Aerith to Zack's house in the OG Zack's parents will ask Cloud if he knows about Zack, and Cloud will say he knows nothing about him, which will really unnerve both of the girls who are going to start saying cryptic things to Cloud that he doesn't manage to interpret, mainly Aerith trying to press Cloud into if he's SURE he doesn't know Zack (which is when she mentions it's her ex.)

in the OG, it all built up as Sephiroth starts to mind control Cloud as a puppet, nearly have him kill Aerith during one of those puppet moment (before killing her the moment Cloud manages to break away from the mind control), and then make him see a vision of the Nibelheim incident that doesn't show Cloud at all, instead all the moments Cloud remembers doing seems to be done by Zack. Cloud finds it stupid, thinks Sephiroth is lying, and asks Tifa to back him up, which is met with Tifa's silence as she herself has a breakdown, because the vision Sephiroth is showing them is what Tifa actually remembers. Cloud was never there during Nibelheim and she's been doubting her own sanity the whole time because Cloud's recollection of the event is too precise, so it must mean SHE remembers it wrong right?

But when Sephiroth forces them to see the reality, it breaks the two of them, and then he breaks Cloud further by telling him that all of this is only because Cloud himself doesn't exist, but instead is a failed Clone of Sephiroth, who was always meant to be him, and that it's why Cloud has memories only Sephiroth would know about, and that he belongs to and with Sephiroth. This is why no member of Shinra they ran into seems to remember Cloud at all. He never existed. This is the last straw in breaking Cloud's spirit completely, and he becomes Sephiroth's little plaything, that ends up helping Sephiroth triggering the apocalypse.

But Tifa is Cloud's childhood friend. she doesn't remember him being there during the Nibelheim incident, but they were still friend before that. At this point of the game we switch MC and play as Tifa as she tries to understand what's wrong with Cloud because clearly Sephiroth is lying, yet he DOES have a control over Cloud and he's right about Nibelheim so, what is going on?

and bc of some magic i won't enter into details to, we get to learn the truth: Cloud is actually Cloud, not a clone. He was there during Nibelheim, but not as a soldier, but one of the infantry working under Zack, who also was a friend and a mentor to him. He was so ashamed of coming back home without making it to Soldier he hid his face the whole time. So the whole thing is his recollection of Nibelheim. after Sephiroth tried to kill them and Cloud managed to get rid of him for a time, Tifa, Zack and Cloud were all mortally wounded, and while Tifa was taken away safely by a friend, Zack and Cloud were recovered by Shinra's scientist (Hojo), who did experiments on them by infusing them with Sephiroth's DNA. It didn't take in on Zack, but it ruined Cloud's mentally and brought him into a catatonic state. Zack manages to get them to escape a few years later and spend the rest of his life trying desperately to protect Cloud, so much so that he will die trying to protect him. This is when Cloud manages to wake up, and the last trauma of having Zack dying for him and giving him his sword, mixed to the experiments and everything, messed with Cloud's mind. He got amnesia out of it and started to take elements of Zack's life as his own, imitating him, confusing memories of Zack as himself doing those things, stuff like that.

(side note, considering the fandom we know each other for: geez amnesia guy who is in this situation because he handled very badly the death of a loved one up on a hill in the last attempt of said loved one to save him? never heard that one before.)

It's only at this point of the game everything starts to make sense - the rest of the time, we're really served to "Cloud doesn't seem to exist", so when Sephiroth says Cloud is just his clone, we believe it the same way Cloud believes in it. It's a masterful manipulation moment in video game history imo because it really puts us in Cloud's shoes and have us believe Sephiroth as well because we've only ever had Cloud's POV on things, so we react the same way when Sephiroth starts to play with Cloud's mind.

*takes deep breath*

all of that to say that therefore the fact the remake actually hammers in a lot that a lot of people at Shinra recognizes Cloud actually totally undermine this reveal completely. When it's Hojo, it still can work because whenever Cloud is a clone or not, Hojo would have been involved. But some infantry men mentions recognizing Cloud because they used to work together. so like. already ruining one of THe major twist of the game don't we? (they literally mention that Kunsel (players of the prequel would know this guy as Zack's best friend back in the days) has been looking for Cloud. while the impact of that only really land if you know who Kunsel is, it still means Cloud's existence is known and has values inside of Shinra.)

but we ruin it even more by showing the alternative timeline where Zack survives.

Cloud still has mental breakdowns in the remake and i think its swell, but a few of them are far less subtle than the OG were, not to mention it's now also linked to flashforward to what is *supposed* to happen, to the fact Cloud feels like he's going to kill Aerith one day.

I genuinely don't think the "maybe he was a clone all along" fake reveal would work on the player at all with the way the remake is handling it. The moment they showed the Zack survives timeline, it was done and buried.

With the content of the remake itself, while Sephiroth acts in character, i do genuinely hate that we go straight to post-canon Sephiroth while he has one of the most interesting build up as a villain, especially with how slowly he started to pay attention to Cloud and his group before deciding he's going to make his life his unending nightmare.

The "Keeper of the canon" antagonists that have to be defeated so the characters can write their own fate has been bugging me for a while now, not being sure where the game is going. Like i mentioned lately, i don't think ff7 is a story that works when you make it about fate. Aerith especially is put in a really delicate situation because, as i was saying in a recent ask, her death is the catalyst of the core thesis of the game. And with the Zack's alt timeline showing that Cloud doesn't wake up if Zack lives, it means the remake can go one of two ways here: either it won't kill Aerith, for free will, and it will undo everything the plot is building itself around, or it will make her death unavoidable, punishing us by making sure we know Aerith is meant to be doomed and nothing else.

I've been on the fence about the ending of the remake for the past few years, not liking the way it was a "stealth sequel", not liking the way they decided to make Sephiroth the evil villain without showing us his nuances the way the OG did by bringing his most evil version directly from the start into the game. I had some grievance here and there but yeah.

But i've been trying to stay cautiously opened to it all.

The discussions those past few days have been because of the trailer of pt2 of the remake, Rebirth, teased to come out soon.

i'm linking the post here, but the long story short is that the trailer is doubling down on the whole "is fate going to be rewritten", but also on the absolute lack of subtility or care for the actual mystery that was raised by the OG.

Mainly, the Rebirth trailer has Tifa discuss with Aerith that she doesn't remember Cloud was here during the Nibelheim incident. The one thing that is supposed to be a major twist, completely done with. The shock the player has when Tifa doesn't back up Cloud when confronted to Sephiroth's recollection of Nibelheim? Misplaced, removed from its punch, hammering again in that there's something So Wrong with Cloud.

Worse: in the trailer Sephiroth taunts Cloud by telling him that Jenova (his alien mother) has the ability to change appearance and imitate people. And that Cloud saw Sephiroth "kill" Tifa. So "how can he be sure Tifa is the real her?"

So Tifa showing her doubt about the Nibelheim event is set up to have you doubt her.

And as i mentioned in the post, it makes sense for Post-canon Sephiroth to change his strategy in how to attack Cloud's psyche and manipulate him because at this point he knows Cloud relies on his friends to hold on to his sanity, so now he wants to remove the way he relies on them.

But i find it vulgar and uninteresting compared to the actual gaslighting going on in the OG. Also with how i feel like if Sephiroth starts to pull the OG's gaslighting at Cloud, it would be so weird after he already tried to pin him against Tifa, because he would sound like a tryhard who's changing his strategy lmao. idk his gaslighting worked on Cloud because Cloud trusted Tifa so fully. By having him doubt Tifa it changes the dynamic. And why would Sephiroth insists "no no actually remember i killed Tifa so you can't trust this Tifa" if his endgoal is "actually you're not real and you only have my memories xoxo" yaknow?

*TAKES A DEEP BREATH*

So that's my major issue with the remake, and ik it involves a lot of "oh this new thing they set up is going to ruin future things" so it can still be left for debate just how much this is actually a bad thing and how much i'm just building problems in my head, but yeah the issue really comes from the pitch itself that it's *not* a remake like they said it would be, but a sequel in a timeloop, and it has to be considered as such. And personally i'm genuinely not a fan of the concept.

on another just general notes elements that were changed/added in the remake that don't really matter on a major "plot is changed" level:

-There's whole new dungeons for sections that takes 5 minutes in game, which can go from "this is the most hollow and boring thing i've ever seen" (anything happening on the way to Reactor 5 once they leave the train), to "hey that's pretty good for character exploration actually" (the train graveyard being just a place you walk through, to exploring Aerith's fears and having her bond with Tifa)

-Fleshing out the slums era of the game. you don't spend a lot of time in Sector 7 or 6 in the OG but the game makes sure you see just how full of life those places are. It gets really long with some quests that aren't totally worth it, but sector 7 especially helps fleshing it out and it's really nice.

-Wall Market also gets a way longer quest which personally does bore me to death, but at least it did completely overhaul a huge part of the OG that didn't age well at all with the Honey Bee Inn, so that's nice.

-I mentioned a whole sidequest related to Jessie especially that's really nice, that have you spend more time with Biggs and Wedge in particular. I got a crush on Biggs and Jessie out of that while i never cared about them like this in the 15 years i've been invested in this game so i think it means something.

-The DLC is a full Yuffie centric campaign that is a completely new addition to even bring up in the game, but isn't specifically out of place. Nothing implies Yuffie would have gone through that in the OG, and i think it kinda pushes her on a more "mature" storyline than when we meet her, but considering Yuffie was an optional character who had her plotline cutdown in the OG to start with, i think it's fair enough.

This DLC also has Yuffie forced to face people from Deep Ground, which is a secret program we only learn about in the sequel video game called Dirge of Cerberus, which focus on Vincent and has Yuffie as a supporting character this whole time. With Yuffie being involved in this storyline later, i do think it's interesting to give her reasons to be involved with it in the remake to start with.

also DoC is a bad game (and honestly i wonder if they'll even remake it too bc of that lmao) but Deep Ground is a FASCINATING concept and i've been eating up every single way the rest of the saga has included Deep Ground into its plot, so i really do like that there's not only mentions of it in the remake but also a tangible proof of its existence. Maybe now we'll know what happened to Genesis! @ Remake tell us what happened to Genesis or so help me, we're like 5 people to be obsessed with him come ON.

and one thing i might be a bit iffy about:

-In the Original Game, you get to pick a lot of Cloud's dialogues, at least up until the point Cloud learns about his past, in which case you suddenly don't have control over him anymore. Fans have theorized for decades that as a result, you are the person influencing which is Cloud's persona we're putting forward. Are we playing up the way he's inspired by Zack by picking the flirty options? are we playing up this cold idea of a Soldier he has probably inspired by Sephiroth by the colder options? so on and so forth.

This ends up also playing on the fact there are different possible romance path option (including one with Barret) in the OG, which are reliant on those options.

Most of those dialogues have been revamped completely in the remake so that Cloud's characterization is completely reliant on the game's narrative, not on the player. You don't get to pick most of Cloud's dialogues. The romance paths also are revamped so you have completely different triggers to them instead. the options that would have Cloud unlock a date with Barret also have been completely removed from the remake, and instead we have a whole new romance path with Cloud being able to get a kiss from Jessie depending on how he does on one of the quest. how come a game from 1997 was more bi-friendly than a game from 2020 i swear.

For this later it's not something i have *particularly* strong feelings about in comparison to the main issue i have with the game, i don't care about the romance in ff7 to start with, but i'm a bit sad we lose the whole "the player is choosing Cloud's persona until the point Cloud remembers who he actually is" aspect the OG had.

SO THIS SHOULD COVER IT ALL.

So, the game has a lot of difference with the OG, and on the details it's not bad at all.

Unfortunately the major driving plotpoint of the remake is something that makes it a sequel rather than a remake and i find it Bad.

... sorry for the very very long answer but i'm really passionate about the OG, so i can't help but pick those stuff up 😭

Hope it gives you some insight into it!!

Take care!

#ichareply #ichafantalks fvii #ichasalty #moonmuffins

0 notes

elfyourmother · 3 years ago

Note

Ysayle for the ask meme, please!

My NOTP for them

The only one for the longest time was Estinien/Ysayle and tbqh even though I did a complete 180 on it after examining the root of why it squicked me out so badly, it’s probably the top ship that I am extremely wary about seeking out content for and am very, very picky about--I don’t actually seek out content for it.

And now I cut because it’s soapbox time.

It’s complicated, but I used to resent the hell out of it as an Ysayle stan because I was so starved for anything with her, but it seemed like damn near all of the sparse content in her tag involved Estinien. And in really gross and heteronormative ways that always reduced her character. The only thing I can possibly compare it to is the extreme flanderization of Aerith that happened over time post og FF7, both in fanon and in the actual Complication, where all of the fire and determination--everything that I loved about her, everything that made Aerith Aerith--got chipped away until she became this two dimensional ~soft~ messianic angel figure who died for Cloud and only exists as tragic inspo for the friends she left behind.

Istfg there’s an entire cottage industry of art and fic like this out there with Ysayle. And it drives me batshit insane! lmao like I get the worst rabies. Ysayle’s lot in life was not to suffer and suffer and then become a terrorist and hit rock bottom and suffer some more and then Redemption Equals Refrigerator. And so much Estinien/Ysayle shit I saw ran on that. Just endless angst to the point of wangst, and then she dies for Estinien’s character development, the tragic speedbump on the way to him finding True Love with his Real LI(tm), whether it’s Aymeric or WoL or both.

It’s really not dissimilar to the Haurchewol content that drives me batshit insane, only it feels even worse because of the blatant misogyny involved, and because again if I wanted to see any kind of Ysayle stuff this was the Ever Given in her tag, and the fact that she was twisted into this gross heteronormative caricature in the process. If I never see another fanart of Ysayle as some passive doe eyed waif clinging to him it will be entirely too soon.

In general, Estinien/Ysayle is a prime example of what I always talk about when I say that as a bisexual I ship m/f, I don’t ship het. I can’t stand het!Estinien/Ysayle--them fighting all the time on the road trip being taken to mean that they ~secretly want to fuck~, reducing their very real and very valid conflicts with each other in ways that feel very demeaning to both of them but especially her, and solidly going against just why I liked their dynamic in the game so much in the first place: finally a man and a woman in a story don’t get along but he doesn’t act like a misogynistic shithead towards her and she’s not portrayed as some hysterical shrew that needs to calm down, it’s not rooted in anything but legitimate conflict. And the aforementioned fridging.

Initially, I actually wrote Ysayle as a lesbian in my ‘verse for a long time, and emphasized their friendship in my work instead. I convinced myself that Estinien/Ysayle squicked me because of that. But eventually she and Haurchefant had too much chemistry in a thing I was writing, and I started to feel like Estinien constantly hollering about her being like a sister to him was protesting too much. There are characters I definitely see as lesbians (Joye, Lyse, Sadu, Cirina, Drusilla among others) but I had to be honest with myself that Ysayle wasn’t one of them, and that my reasons for writing her that way weren’t especially authentic but rooted in my aversion to the heteronormative stuff I was seeing (and also some weasels re: my shipping tendencies and a little internalized biphobia). Once I unpacked it, I realized there was nothing inherently disconcerting about the ship to me, it was just that the way others were conceiving it that put me off. I was under no obligation to do it that way in my own work, and once I gave myself permission, it really felt right and I realized I actually love it.

Ysayle actually lives to have agency and purpose and a character arc outside of Estinien, and development that ultimately has very little to do with him, which is why it works for me in Gisele’s story. I very much enjoy and explore their dynamic stripped of all that nasty heteronormative baggage.

So tl;dr: I actually ship it to death, but it has to be done in a very specific way for me not to upchuck or be incensed and I frankly don’t trust most of fandom to handle it properly, I have to be totally honest. At minimum she’s got to survive Heavenward. I mean I can’t handle reading fic that follows canon wrt her anyway but I absolutely Cannot deal with Estinien/Ysayle angst where she dies. I don’t care how well written it is, it tweaks literally everything in me that made me believe it was squicky to me for so long.

My BROTP for them

Emet, funny enough. Obviously they both have the Enemies of the Scions turned beloved members of the order thing in common. But despite her own checkered history with Ascians (I hc it was Igeyorhm who taught her how to evoke Shiva, while Lahabrea was working Thordan--it was their plan to play both sides against each other), Ysayle was actually the most strident voice in favor of Hades joining the Scions that didn’t belong to Gisele. He infuriates her at times with how glib he is, and what a smug little shit he can be, but she respects the fact that he’s really rather sincere all things considered, and he respects her tenacity a great deal. The really funny thing is a big reason why Hades is so fond of her is because she often reminds him of Elidibus at his best, though he’ll never ever say it in a million years. (It’s the quiet confidence.)

My OTP for them

The elfpile but specifically Gisele/Ysayle, forever and always. They're perfect foils for each other, and the enemies to friends to lovers trajectory was so unbelievably natural as a result. They understand each other in ways no one else does, on a deep, soul sort of level--they’ve literally seen each other’s darkest, most painful memories and felt nothing but profound empathy for each other and a deep need to comfort each other. Quite simply, Gisele is everything Ysayle has ever wanted and needed after a lifetime of suffering in solitude burdened with what she believed Glorious Purpose(tm): a true companion, someone who loves and accepts her and shares her struggles. Being with Gisele was the first time in a very long time that Ysayle could simply be Ysayle. And on Gisele’s part, Ysayle is someone she can share the gravity of her own path with, who gets it on a level even the other people who love and support her most can’t, by virtue of the fact that she’s walked it herself.

My second choice pairing for them

Outside the elfpile, I am very fond of Ysayle/Y’shtola, like very fond, with or without Gisele, and I legitimately struggle to put into words just why it feels like a warm fuzzy blanket on my heart, except that they just have this quiet understanding with one another that doesn’t especially want grandiose gestures. There’s just so much love and respect and genuine affection between the two of them.

Ysayle/Lucia is another one I’m very fond of with or without Gisele, for a lot of the same reasons I ship Ysayle and Aymeric so badly--the enemies to lovers thing is so, so good with them.

My fluffy pairing for them

Ysayle/Haurchefant is made of so much sunshine. The whole basis of their relationship is compersion. He loves her unconditionally and reminds her to be kinder to herself. She reminds him that there’s nothing noble about suffering and that he’s allowed to need people as much as they need him. It’s so lovely and pure.

My angsty pairing for them

I already talked about Ysayle/Stephanivien At Length in his answer so I’ll talk about Aymeric/Ysayle for a sec because it’s fraught for a lot of the same reasons, but much more so given Aymeric’s higher profile and extenuating circumstances in Gisele’s story.

Obviously there was the inherent issue of them having been avowed enemies for so long. No one knows more than Aymeric the actual toll caused by Ysayle’s crusade against the Holy See, because he had been fighting her schemes on all fronts since the minute she came into prominence and organized what had to that point been fairly disparate groups of malcontents and wild eyed fanatics into the deadliest threat to the Holy See in centuries. Aymeric knew exactly how cunning and dangerous she was even before the Primal summoning business. She’d successfully infiltrated the Temple Knights, even, which is how she got close enough to destroy Daniffen’s Collar. Ysayle had been a thorn in Aymeric’s side from day 1, the cause of many sleepless nights in his office. And more than anyone besides Haurchefant, Aymeric knows just how much Ishgardian blood is on her hands. Which is why it meant a great deal to him that she turned up that night to quell her followers during the riot. It was proof beyond doubt that she could be reasoned with, that she could be as powerful an ally as an enemy--it planted a desperate seed of hope in him, even, and he was greatly disappointed that she’d slipped away before he could parley with her.

And! Aymeric absolutely did not question Estinien when he was startled out of bed in the middle of the night by linkpearl a few weeks later, groggily listening to the quiet explanation that Lady Iceheart had been gravely wounded in the process of coming to their aid against the Garleans and Cid was going to bring her back to Ishgard for immediate care by the chirurgeons. Because that’s just their relationship. And Aymeric knows damn well that Estinien’s like a feral cat and is cynical and suspicious of people’s motivations and slow to trust as a result, because he’s known and loved him for years and years by then.

So Aymeric sheltered her at the Congregation’s infimary; only Lucia and Handeloup knew who Ysayle actually was. Captain Whitecape only knew that she was under Aymeric’s personal protection and was to receive the very best of care. He got to know her then, visiting her often. Aymeric was wary, of course, but Estinien vouching for her the way that he did--with obvious affection, because Aymeric caught onto that very early on--did a lot to put him at ease. He trusted her, despite everything. And he fell in love with her without even realizing it. It was post Dragonsong, when the Inquisition came for her in the middle of the night, when he finally did.

And Ysayle...well, she didn’t want to like Aymeric, much less fall in love with him. He was her mortal enemy, even more than Estinien; if Estinien was a weapon that butchered Dravanians, Aymeric was the hand that wielded him. The Archbishop’s own hatchetman, as far as she was concerned, the embodiment of the Holy See’s sins against Dravania, a self-righteous zealot who at best blindly believed the Church's lies without question and gleefully perpetuated them at worst, glorying in the Dravanian blood he spilled in the name of the Fury. She wanted so badly to continue hating him. But the man she finally met was wholly unlike any the evil caricature she had built up in her head in order to justify her crusade. He was merciful, and compassionate, and reasonable. And he believed her, no questions asked; he’d even taken her side, and gone to confront the Archbishop, something she would never have expected in her wildest dreams. Like Haurchefant, Aymeric shattered her preconceived notions of Ishgardian knights and noblemen with extreme prejudice. Ysayle realized what a good man he was, how very wrong she’d been about him, and kind of despaired a little about it even as she began slowly falling for him.

It was Gisele that brought them together, naturally. But it’s always been incredibly fraught for Ysayle, the way she feels about Aymeric, and it’s entirely because of their history of animosity and the atrocities she committed against Ishgard. There’s always been an element of that with Estinien too of course, but it’s that much more for Aymeric, being the political creature that he is, as the de facto ruler of Ishgard--no one was spreading ugly rumors that she seduced the Azure Dragoon and turned him against his own people. But this is why for instance she didn’t marry Gisele and the others, and why she tries to make herself so inconspicuous when she’s in Ishgard. The last thing Ysayle wants is to make Aymeric’s life difficult or complicate matters for him, especially not after he risked his position and his reputation to protect her. If it were up to her she would remain in the shadows. But he would never ask it of her because he has too much honor and respects her too much. They’re discreet mostly for her sake, their closeness attributed to her position as the Scion whose sphere of influence is Dravania and her shared role as an ambassador between it and Ishgard. But it’s rather an open secret that she’s his mistress though, especially by the time Endwalker rolls around. Which is why I think after everything is said and done post 6.0, she probably will marry the lads. Maybe it took her helping to save the whole damn universe to finally accept that she’s worthy of stepping out of the shadows, and that she doesn’t have to be defined by her past where Aymeric and the others are concerned.

But there will always be that lingering cloud over the Ysayle and Aymeric; Aymeric calls it “the shadow between us”. And part of loving each other the way that they do is their frankness in accepting that.

My favorite poly ship for them

The elfpile without a doubt, and specifically for Ysayle it’s about finally having the companionship and the unconditional love that she had desperately craved for so long, as much as her individual feelings for each of them. I talk about this a lot in the context of her membership in the Scions, but it’s even more true in the context of the OT6: the Harriers were followers, they were not friends or companions or partners. Many of them were, in fact, wild-eyed fanatics. And her own belief in her destiny did a lot to set her apart even from the ones who weren’t. Ysayle was repulsed in a lot of ways by the whole thing, and it’s the real reason why she rebuffed the followers who constantly threw themselves at her. Once or twice she succumbed to her profound loneliness and took lovers from the ones who were relatively normal, but she always hated herself for it afterwards and none of it meant anything to her. It was really an awful way to live tbh, but at the time she accepted it as the personal price she had to pay in order to see justice done. The work was ultimately the most important thing to her, and if she had to sacrifice her own happiness for it then so be it.

Gisele et al completely shattered all of that in the best possible way, and helped her heal from all of that in ways even Ysayle would struggle to put into words. More than anything, Ysayle finally has people who accept her for who she truly is, not fearing and worshiping her for some grandiose role. People who approach her as equals, who are attracted to her for her and not because they think she’s a living saint. They just make her feel normal, and I can’t overstate how very much she needed that.

My weirdest pairing for them

(again I’m not fond of this wording)

Probably Ysayle/Vrtra in light of canon but I was shipping it the second we met him in MSQ. The irony of it all is just too damn good tbh, this woman who once very sincerely believed she was the reincarnation of Hraevelgr’s consort years later genuinely falling in love with his brother, who has quietly built the society she dreamed Ishgard could be. I mean canon even touches on it, when Estinien and Alphinaud talk a bit wistfully about how Radz-at-Han is the embodiment of Ysayle’s dream of man and dragon living in harmony, the way it was in that distant golden age of peace.

It’s not just sad “oh well” talk in my canon. Ysayle fell in love with Vrtra and Radz-at-Han, as much as Gisele did. Both mean more to her than she could ever really express. And in the process of doing so, Ysayle finally understood her faith in Saint Shiva in a way she never did when she had deluded herself into thinking she was the saint reborn and running around scheming and killing in her name.

#character death mention #ice wife #otp: stone and steel #not me writing essays and dissertations about ysayle again fsdhfks #yloiseconeillants #ask bisho #ship memes #askbox memes

10 notes · View notes

the-evil-authoress · 3 years ago

Text

GX Month Day 30: “End Phase”

Our third and final free day! Feel free to do with it whatever you want. :3

I’M BACK WITH MORE FF7 AU CONTENT 8D

Don’t ask me where in the timeline this happens, I have no idea, I just wanted to write some sappy reunions.

Today could have gone better, Jaden thinks as he lands face down in the dirt, ears ringing. New aches on top of old bruises rally their protest, and maybe if he just stays down here he won’t get wailed on anymore. Vaguely he notices something shiny glinting in the light a few feet away. Ah great, that last hit knocked Refraction out of its holster.

Before Jaden can summon the will to retrieve a sword, a gloved hand enters his vision and snatches it off the ground.

“Get down!” the new voice calls, but Jaden snaps up in alarm as the person vaults over him into the battle; and immediately winces against the blinding light that bathes the area.

Someone just activated Refraction?!

Blinking spots out of his eyes, Jaden shoves himself to his feet. “Who the fu-” He freezes in place, the words stuck in his throat as his eyes land on familiar blue. Their assailants lay sprawled on the ground as the person wielding Refraction turns back to them.

“Are you guys alright?”

No. No way. It can’t be.

“Yeah, thanks for that.” Yugi sighs with a weary smile.

“You…” Zere breathes and Jaden can’t even pry his eyes away from the ghost before him to seek her reaction. “You idiot!” the young woman cries and throws herself forward to hug the ghost of their past. Her voice breaks as she presses her face into his shoulder. “You kept me waiting.”

“Yeah… Sorry about that.” He hugs her back just as tightly, but his eyes look up and directly at Jaden. Jaden flinches. Those eyes, green and gold, just like he remembers them.

But I saw you-

The images flash through his mind like yesterday - the blood, the rain, the mud, Jesse’s hand as it fell from his cheek. Then other hazy images break into the memory with a skull splitting headache -

-“Just hang in there, we’re so close.” The owner of the voice stumbles and Jaden’s already hazy vision wavers, breath uneven like the other is injured.-

-“Hey… I’ve got some stuff to take care of… Look after these for me?” Both the rifle and the sword are pressed into his limp hands. The other’s breath is uneven. “I’ll be back. I promise.” A gentle hand on the back of his head. The press of their foreheads. Then the other is gone.-

His knees hit the ground, fingers twisted in his hair as his vision distorts. His brain feels like it’s on fire, his skull about to crack apart under his skin. He can feel the blood on his hands and the hand in hair. Nothing makes sense. His friends call his name but it sounds like another illusion, far off and distorted. He can’t- His head-

He only barely registers falling forward.

His eyes crack open in a small, unfamiliar room, and Jaden reaches up to rub the lingering echo of a headache. Where is he? And how did he get here? They were attacked on the road, then-

“You’re awake?” The voice breaks into Jaden’s thoughts and he jerks, twisting to find the source. “Good. We were worried!”

The vision of a dead man assaults him and the breath leaves his lungs. Oh. This again. Jaden turns away, mumbling, “Just another dream then.”

“What?”

Jaden fists his fingers in the pillow. “This isn’t real.”

A brief silence follows the proclamation, then the mattress dips next to Jaden’s hip. “Now why wouldn’t this be real?” Jesse asks with honest curiosity.

Rolling away from the ghost, Jaden curls into himself. He doesn’t want to look, not when he’ll have to wake up and Jesse will be gone. “Because…” he whispers, head throbbing against the memory he tried so hard to repress. “I saw you.”

“Me??” The ghost sounds so painfully confused. He usually does, in the worst of these dreams, the ones that try their damnedest to convince him they’re real. Other times Jesse’s ghost tries to avoid the topic altogether, or gives Jaden that damnably sad, understanding smile. “Jay, you’re not makin’ any sense.”

All of Jaden clenches around a truth he hates, before spitting it out with anger and spite. “I saw you die!” There! That’s the truth! Now he’ll wake up like he always does and be alone and-

“Hey.” A gentle voice, a hand on his shoulder. “Look at me.”

Jaden is weak, so weak for this, he lets this dream ghost gently push his shoulder until Jaden is facing him again. He looks so solid, so real, and Jaden wants to reach out and touch him but that will just make the reality worse when this dream ends.

If only this ghost would be so kind as to leave him alone. The hand that cups his cheek is painfully warm. “I don’t know what they did to you, but I’m right here. I’m alive. I came back.”

His jaw quivers, his eyes sting. This can’t be real. It can’t. He remembers screaming over a corpse, dragging the weapons away when the rain finally cleared. His head throbs as he remembers that other version - Jesse injured but alive, a solid presence against Jaden as he continues carrying him to safety and freedom. “Which...which version is real...?” he whispers, voice wavering and so horribly, damnably weak.

Rather than answer immediately, Jesse takes Jaden’s hand and places it on his chest, right over a steady heartbeat. Jaden inhales sharply. “This is real. Whatever else might be going on in your head, this right now is real.”

Dream or reality be damned. Jaden surges up and crushes himself against Jesse, buries his face in the other’s shoulder and lets himself break in a way he hasn’t in a very, very long time. Jesse holds him, strong and solid and warm and alive for however long it may last; and just this once, Jaden lets himself believe he won’t wake up alone tomorrow.

#gxmonth2021 #jaden yuki #yuki judai #jesse anderson #johan andersen #FF7 AU #ygo gx #yugioh gx #yu gi oh gx

10 notes · View notes

secret-engima · 4 years ago

Note

Yknow how the Cloud-Prom thing is a thing? Yeah well I was thinking of it in reverse. Prompto reborn as Cloud.

FINALLY FOUND THIS ASK.

It’s been buried so long I thought I’d never find it again.

BUCKLE UP NEW AU RAMBLE TIME AND IT’S A LOONNNNGG ONE.

Also before we begin *yeets canon FF7 timeline because it MAKES NO SENSE*.

There.

...

-Prompto wakes up when he’s 4 and he falls into a stream tainted with a LOT of mako while fleeing from bullies.

-Well technically he wakes up two weeks after that little mishap because mako poisoning plus sudden memory reboot is an Ouch and took a while for his tiny body to acclimate too. His mom (he has an actual non-adoptive mom now, that’s weird) is so relieved he’s okay and Prompto feels ... really bad that now he doesn’t entirely feel like her kid.

-He IS her kid and he knows it, but he remembers a time when he wasn’t, when he was an escaped science project and a Prince’s friend and a Crownsguard who saw the world end and then pick itself back up afterward. It’s impossible to go back to being ... well ... who he was before he Remembered.

-His mother accepts his new personality changes and “quirks” and Prompto loves her all over again for it.

-Cloud Strife is now a strange mix of too old and mature for his age and a bubbly, cheerful sunshine child. The residents look down on him because he “has no father”, but Prompto has suffered worse than their petty scorn and refuses to let it bother him.

-The local bullies learn to leave him alone pretty fast too, because Cloud may be small, but he has all of Prompto’s memories to back up his techniques, and bullies dislike pain. His mother just scoffs at the angry parents who complain about twisted wrists and black eyes and says maybe if they controlled their own children, hers wouldn’t have to resort to violence to defend themselves. It makes them no friends in Nibelheim, but there are a few neighbors who don’t buy into the town’s cliquish nature and they keep trouble away from the Strife home.

-Cloud is 7 when his mother finally stops letting him just handle her unloaded rifle with constant supervision and actually teaches him to shoot it. It feels young to Prompto, but Prompto had grown up in the sheltered city of Insomnia. This is Nibelheim, and Nibelheim’s wildlife don’t care how young he is or that they aren’t “supposed” to enter the town when they are young and dumb and hungry. Nibelheim also doesn’t have much in the way of a grocery store, and if the table needs food, someone is going to have to go shoot it.

-This at least, is familiar. Even in a world where he is no longer Prompto, and he’s pretty sure the world has been taken over by an evil Niflheim empire knockoff pretending to be a power company, he’d long gotten used to having to defend a settlement from things with teeth and go hunting to provide food.

-But back to the Evil Empire Pretending to Be A Power Company that he’s pretty sure has taken over most of the world- yeah. That was a nasty shock to figure out when he was 6. It’s nothing overt ... sorta. Just- you know- the way the elders grumble over how they were always small, but they were never ABANDONED until the reactor came and everyone started to work there rather than learn the old trades. The ivory carving and fur-tanning, the jewelry made of bones and fangs and shed dragon scales and the parkas made from wolf fur and rabbit hide that were second to none in quality. It hadn’t been the most thriving trade perhaps, but it had been something. Now all there was was the reactor, and that ... sat wrong with Prompto. There was also the rampant propaganda that was always pro Shinra, the news that this power company had just started a war (???) using their super soldiers (??????) and honestly why no one saw anything wrong with that was a mystery to him.

-Cloud is honestly glad that he’s living in such a backwater town. The farther away he is from That Nonsense the better. At least until he’s old enough to be able to properly fight and wield dual pistols like he used to.

-His mother buys him his own pistol when he’s 10. He’s responsible enough for it, and Nibelheim doesn’t really care about things like age laws that city folk do. Every child here knows how to safely use a firearm of some kind out of sheer necessity, even if most of them are not allowed to have their own until they’re closer to 12 or 13. He still primarily uses the family hunting rifle, since hunting for supper with a pistol is stupid, but he carries the pistol everywhere he goes in case something decides to try to make a meal out of him. It’s a battered old revolver, but Prompto spent ten years keeping equipment functional with minimal supplies, and soon his little Quicksilver is as fast and reliable as any “new” model.

-His mother doesn’t ask how he already knew how to disassemble and clean the pistol. She never asks when he knows things he has no right to, and he’s glad for that.

-Cloud is 11 when the abandoned Shinra Mansion stops being abandoned and those instincts that kept Prompto alive through the Long Night start screaming. It could be something innocuous, but those military trucks pulling around to the back of the mansion don't look like they’re only carrying supplies, and he’s not the only townsperson who thought they heard pained sobbing and smelled burnt flesh from inside some of those vehicles. Cloud thinks about keeping his nose out of it, he’s physically only a child after all, but the rest of him knows that if something goes wrong with ... whatever this is, then his entire town could be at risk of “disappearing” if Shinra is as bad as he thinks they are.

-The townsfolk aren’t supposed to go in there, too many monsters and it being private Shinra property after all, but the kids like their dares and their scary stories, and all of them know the secret ways to get inside and out again that bigger monsters can’t fit through and adults don’t notice. Cloud creeps around cautiously, pistol loaded just in case, and he can’t get INSIDE the actual building without being spotted, but he sees enough.

-This mansion isn’t a mansion. It’s a LAB. Those trucks were carrying lab equipment and supplies.

-And human victims.

-Cloud rushes home and throws up in the back yard and all he can think about is how two weeks ago the news mentioned a “radar malfunction” or something that led to an entire town being bombed out of existence and oh wouldn’t that explain the smell of burned skin?

-Cloud tries to stay out of it, but he CAN’T. He can’t in good conscience, so he keeps sneaking around, avoiding the guards and wondering what, exactly, to DO.

-He finds the ... disposal area and Regrets™, but every time he sees someone being thrown down there, he creeps over to check for a pulse. Just in case. Just in case.

-He’s thinking of stopping for his own sanity, because all of this is bringing up every trauma and nightmare he tried to forget from Prompto’s life, when he-

-Finds a little girl. Bloody and injured, with something imbedded in one frail hand that looks like shards of materia, and he expects her to be dead like all the others except she’s not and Prompto breathlessly carries her away on his back to hide in one of the tiny mountain caves he’s turned into a hideout over the years. He keeps a lot of stuff in there that his mother would never allow if she knew, things like a restore materia he won off a drifter in poker (and oh the man’s face at being outmatched by a 6 year old), and a surgical kit he ... found out in the wilds (it wasn’t like the man would need it anymore, the wolves had seen to that).

-He uses the restore materia five times before he’s sure the girl is as stable as she’s going to get on such short notice, then he stuffs a rag in her mouth and ties down her arm, because he may not know a lot about this world, but he knows shards of materia in her hand CAN’T be good for her health, long term or short. Materia absorbs magic from people on skin contact, so even in shards, there’s a high chance it will absorb her magic until there’s none left and then start going after her life force.

-Two hours later, he uses one last restore to seal shut the hand he just extracted the last bits of materia out of, throws the materia shards into the nearby mako spring that has been providing his light out of sheer spite to whoever imbedded the things in the first place, then passes out because he’s an 11 year old who just used six restore spells and performed field surgery on someone’s hand using his own tools and the bottle of alcohol he smuggled up here a long time ago as disinfectant.

-He wakes up a long time later, and by the time he gets back down the mountain to find his mom, the town is looking for him. He tells no one what really happened, but he needs SOME cover story because he’s kinda covered in blood from that whole- rescued a child out of a death pit and then did surgery on her hand thing. He makes up a story of a hunt gone wrong and hiding in a small cave until the wolf pack left and is grateful no one asks to see if his pistol is out of ammo or not. They just buy his story and move on to talking about hunting down this supposed wolf pack.

-When his mother takes him home, he tells her the truth. It’s the first time she’s doubted him since he was 4 years old. Shinra has already left again as suddenly as they’d come so it’s safe to take the bigger of the hidden entrances into the mansion grounds. He shows her how to get in, and while the death pit is a pile of smoking ash now, the signs (the bones) are still there and she is horrified. She is more horrified when he lets her into his secret cave and shows her the little girl, huddled up in his secret hideout’s fur blankets, still unconscious and deathly pale but at least not actively dying anymore.

-She agrees that this must remain a secret, for when Shinra eventually came back.

-They keep her hidden up there for three months with only a handful of other people in the know (all folk who Claudia has trusted with her life before and who she knows won’t go blab to the mayor). They feed her and care for her and discover she’s lost all her memories. They know about Kalm, it’s not hard to guess that her parents are likely dead and burned by now.

-Claudia names her Storm and says she will take care of Storm now, and Cloud hugs the stunned girl close and whispers that he’s always wanted a little sister.

-Six months after Kalm’s burning and Shinra Mansion’s return to empty haunted building status, Claudia lets the rumors spread that her cousin has died and left a child to be sent to Nibelheim to live with her. Since Claudia has always been closed mouthed about her family, this rumor is believed wholesale, and when one of those other folk in the know sneaks Storm down to the next town over a few hours before Claudia arrives in her battered old truck to “pick her up”, their alibi is as complete as it’s gonna get.

-They estimate that Storm is 9 years to Cloud’s 11, and she takes to being his cousin/sibling with a desperate sort of fervor. Cloud throws himself into being an older brother with equal devotion, even as he trains harder with his guns and survival skills and passes them on to Storm too.

-Cloud is 14 and maybe going a little stir crazy in his small town life (he’s grateful to be away from most of Shinra’s nonsense, but it does get REALLY BORING out here, especially with everyone his age leaving to go work for the Evil Empire In Disguise) when Storm tentatively asks what happened to her in the mansion. Cloud doesn’t know. But he’s got two pistols now and he’s not afraid of the local monsters, so he kisses her forehead and treks off to the mansion to find out.

-He fights his way into the mansion and finds all the creepy science papers and learns ... a lot.

-Apparently Evil Empire was playing god with things they knew little about, surprise surprise.

-Cloud tucks away Storm’s file (Felicia was her old name, interesting), and keeps digging. It takes a couple days of repeated visits (in between which he updates Storm and his increasingly alarmed mother of what he’s learned), but eventually he finds the files on Shinra’s golden boy Sephiroth and learns he’s had his DNA combined with a dead “ancient” (and if that’s really an ancient cetra and not some kind of horrible alien Prompto will eat his own shoes because there’s a picture of Jenova in the file and yeah, NOTHING HUMAN IS THAT SHADE OF BLUE kthanks). He digs even more through the mad ramblings, used to it after having to decipher ancient texts and Besithia’s mad rants with Ignis during the Long Night, and finds...

-Oh.

-That could be useful.

-Prompto treks down to the basement, then further down to a room filled with coffins. He wanders around until he finds the right one, flips it open, waits until the guy with Intense Vampire Vibes starts to wake up and ask who has disturbed his slumber, then interrupts with a cheerful, “I’m Cloud Strife. I’m going to steal everything in here I think is useful and then burn the rest to the ground. Do you wanna leave now or leave later when your cape is all crispy?”

-The man stares at him, “...What?”

-Cloud grins a little too wide and knows he looks very insane and ghoulish with the monster blood on his clothes, the dust and cobwebs in his hair, and the fire materia he’s juggling in his hands as he perches fearlessly on the edge of the coffin and simplifies, “Mansion go fwoof soon. You staying or leaving?”

-The man doesn’t seem to believe him, or even believe that he isn’t some kind of bad dream, so he just nudges Cloud off the coffin edge and shuts the top again. Cloud shrugs mentally, too frazzled and angry to care right now about Vampiric Drama Queens.

-He removes the relevant files that he’s found as well as any materia and weapons (and the diary of this one lady named Lucrecia who is apparently Sephiroth’s REAL mom and Mister Vampire’s former lover), then “borrows” a gas can from his mom’s shed and ensures that the dry, rotten floorboards of the mansion are thoroughly soaked in the stuff before wandering outside the back way, getting to a safe-ish distance and throwing a fireball through the broken window.

-The mansion does indeed make a loud and eager “fwoof” sound as it goes up in flames. Cloud watches the inferno with possibly too much maniacal laughter (hey he’s STRESSED okay? He’s getting the impression that HE’S the one the lifestream has decided to make it’s errand boy to save the world and he DOESN’T LIKE IT so just let him VENT), then laughs harder when a wall breaks open and out storms a slightly crispy and very unimpressed Vampire Drama Queen. Did Cloud maybe take too much glee in ensuring the gas had gotten into the basement too to make sure ALL of the mansion went up? Probably. Did he regret it?

-No. Not in the slightest.

-One very unimpressed Vampire stare down that became genuine alarm when Cloud’s laughing fit turned into childish bawling later (stupid child stress hormones turning everything to tears when he least expected it, then again he’d always been a crybaby as Prompto in his own eyes) and Cloud leads Vampire Man home because he isn’t sure what else to do. He also makes Vampire Man (Vincent Valentine, the man sighs after the seventh time being called a Vampire) carry the diary and the most relevant papers down to his house. The other ones he hides in his cave for now, just in case.

-His mom breaks out the strong stuff halfway through Cloud’s story and shares sympathetic looks with Vincent over Cloud’s pyromania. Then he explains what he’s found and thinks about “Jenova” and while Vincent is skeptical, his mom has seen too much of Cloud’s weirdness not to believe him at this point. Cloud mentions that there are hints that at least some of the thing is up in the reactor. Storm cuddles up to her brother and solemnly asks if he’s going to go set the blue alien on fire too.

-Cloud says yes, Claudia sighs, and Vincent looks like he has a headache.

-Two weeks of preparations (and waiting out Shinra’s investigation of the fire, which they SOMEHOW deem an accident), a long hike, and some angry swearing from Claudia as she shorts out the security cameras (since when could his mom do that) later, and they have indeed found part of the blue alien woman. Their plan is interrupted when Vincent unexpectedly transforms into some kind of mini- dragon- monster- THING and aggressively fills the entire glass tank Jenova is in with blood red fire, but after THAT little episode is done, the Thing in Vincent’s skin eyes Cloud, starts laughing, calls him “the Chosen’s Little Argentum”, and cedes control back to one very dizzy Vincent.

-They all decide to call it a week after that.

...

Gonna wrap this up soon because ow my hands but some other thoughts on this is-

-Cloud and Storm start traveling to get answers and also to stay under Shinra’s radar, Vincent goes with because for some reason Chaos finds Cloud amusing and is willing to be quiet around the boy and also because this child CLEARLY needs a keeper and his pseudo-sister is his old partner’s DAUGHTER who was experimented on by Hojo and saved by Cloud so he can’t just leave now can he? Also the Lucrecia diary enlightens him to some things, like how Sephiroth is still alive and kicking (and currently sane!).

-Also Claudia comes with because she is a Good Mom and not about to let her 13 year old, her 11 year old, and a quasi-immortal Turk galavant around the countryside without adult supervision.

-Claudia and Vincent bicker like an old married couple and honestly Cloud is content to ship them so long as Vincent treats his mom right, and the ex-Turk would be amused by the Shovel Talk he gets early on if not for the sneaking suspicion (read: Chaos’s cackling) that this tiny blond menace guising as sunshine could actually pull it off, science immortality or no.

-Storm takes to swords like a duck to water and Cloud teaches her what he remembers, which is around the time Vincent asks about why Cloud Is The Way He Is and Claudia tells him that her son is a reincarnation. Honestly Cloud is just as flabbergasted as Vincent because since when did his mom know that?

-”Since you started talking in ancient forgotten languages during your hyper moments when you were four,” is the placid answer.

-They eventually wander into Midgar because What Is Self-Preservation and find Aerith. Aerith gloms onto Cloud and smiles a teary smile and calls him “Prompto” and that’s when he learns that Aerith is LUNA.

-They meet Zack outside of Midgar where Zack is playing Hunter rather than joining Soldier. Cloud and Zack stare at each other for like- twenty seconds before hugging for dear life and crying all over each other because it’s NOCTIS and THEY MISSED EACH OTHER SO MUCH.

-Zack still has armiger magic and gives it to everyone involved save Vincent, who looks like he might actually have an aneurysm if anymore Weirdness gets attached to his soul. He already has two (now three and one absentee sort of fourth) crazy children to look after, please keep the ancient magic away from his already battered soul.

-Not sure who/if Iggy and Gladio are reborn as, I’ll think about it.

-Fixit shenanigans ensue. The Turks get converted to the cause because 1. Veld’s old partner is back and 2. his supposedly dead daughter shyly turns up decidedly NOT dead and with proof that Hojo experimented on her (he nearly flips a table and the scars on her hand from Prompto’s field surgery hurt Veld’s SOUL).

-Claudia is Team Mom of the Turks now, she’s not sure how.

-Zack and Cloud put their heads together and decide the PERFECT way to infiltrate and ruin Shinra’s hold on Sephiroth is to-

-Have one of them become his secretary/assistant. Cloud loses the coin toss, so now Sephiroth has a personal ray of sunshine and good morals following him everywhere like a stray kitten. It’s working WAY more than it has any right to.

-Someone (read: the newly converted to the cause Turks and a gleeful Vincent) start slipping Reeve data on what the mako reactors are really doing to the planet. Also Hojo ends up dead. So does Rupert.

-Also also Claudia is Rupert’s sister, so Rufus gets an aunt figure to imprint proper morals into his skull through love, sarcasm, and good food.

-There I’m out of thoughts on this AU for now.

#SE asks #oliverslewty asks #Secret Engima Rambles #Sunshine and Clouds verse #long post #oh no another au #*smacks with a newspaper*#STAY QUIET PLUNNY

147 notes · View notes

lany-d-flow · 4 years ago

Text

Whisper Talk: Going Against Alternate Timeline Theories with a Theory, and Answering Questions Saying Otherwise.

Those who look with clouded eyes see nothing but shadows. -Sephiroth, Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

SPOILER WARNING

Pressing “Keep Reading” will bring you into spoiler territory for, well... Final Fantasy 7 Compilation and Remake, so this is your warning, all right buddy?

Also, this is one person’s interpretation of another work. What I predict may very well turn out to be untrue, and if you disagree with my prediction then that’s totally fine! (If you’d like, we could chat about it).

But honestly, I have spent the last few months thinking about this game in an unhealthy manner. I think having all of these whispers inside of my head with my frustration getting bigger is not going to move anything forward. So it’s time to wake up, get up, get out there and write thoughts about what is actually going on with Final Fantasy 7 Remake, while trying to clear up misconceptions that may be leading people astray. Perhaps the latter is the intention of the developers. If it is? Well, let’s move past the clouds and find the sunlight.

All right, let’s mosey into this nonsense.

It’s been months since the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. After a long five-year wait for many fans, we got a piece of the story on the Playstation 4 in March and April 2020. It was exciting to see the capital of Final Fantasy 7, Midgar, be brought to life with state-of-the-art graphics. Treading through mako reactors, Sector 7 and Sector 5, the nasty Wall Market, Shinra HQ, hearing conversations of lively NPCs, exploring the subtle easter eggs and symbolism through visual storytelling... Goodness, so much of what this game had to offer was a delight! The developers put their heart and soul into fleshing out a section of Final Fantasy 7 that was, at most, 6 hours long. This level of detail cannot go unnoticed, and I’m sure it’s made everyone excited to see the reimagining of Gaia when we receive future installments!!!!

Oh, but wait... the developers introduced a new monster called Whispers, otherwise known as Arbiters of Fate, and... What purpose do they serve?! Why are these things in Final Fantasy 7 when they never had a role in the original game? Based on everything we saw in the story, they seem to be making sure the story of Final Fantasy 7 runs exactly as it’s supposed to. Without these ghosts, the story will not be 1:1. To make things worse, we have Sephiroth who’s from the future?! No wonder these Whispers are here, Sephiroth’s trying to rewrite history because everything he has tried before failed him!

So based on what we saw in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the developers decided to create a metaphor for the fanbase, and since we defeated ‘destiny,’ we’ve defeated the fanbase’s say in where the story goes, thereby giving the developers permission to change the story the way they want it. Wow, this is pathetic on Square Enix’s part. Final Fantasy 7 is an amazing story with layers and layers of complex themes, why would they try to form it into something else? Now we’re going to have time travel and alternate timelines in the plot and Sephiroth seems unstoppable now. Heck, the developers are probably going to make sure impactful moments in Final Fantasy 7 do not happen, so Zack and Aerith are probably going to survive. And they’re also ditching the Compilation? Can these people be trusted?

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is ruined!!!

Still with me? Well, this is just some of the talk that I’ve heard based on the execution of Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s plot. I won’t try to list every possible thing people are talking about, but I think we get the idea of the impression that our game’s ending put on a lot of players. So I wanted to give my input on what I believe is actually going on with the story, as well as answer many questions popping up about the circumstances of our game’s characters.

So, do I think the developers are changing the story?

Short Answer: No, at least not in the way that many people think. They’re “changing” the story by putting in new elements, moments that tie with the rest of the Compilation, but the main plot points (Overarching plot, the main crisis, the internal plot, the emotional climax, etc.) still need to happen. This series is more than 2 decades old, and with time it has received: a movie, 2 books, a sequel, 2 prequels, and now a remake with existing materials to tie into the game.

Long Answer: All right, if you’re still with me, thank you. I will do my best to explain all of what’s going on. I’ll give my input via understanding how the FF7 Universe works; in other words, what the Whispers are, how the Whispers work, how they’ve actually always been apart of FF7 and are now receiving an expanded role, and how Sephiroth and Aerith showing meta behavior makes sense due to the power that the Planet has given to the Arbiters of Fate (exposure = visions out of context). I will also be answering questions that one may bring up as proof of an alternate timeline/story change and argue what their purpose may actually be.

So, let's Talk about A Whisper

Wait a minute...

So, let's talk about the Whispers.

Let’s start by explaining what the Whispers are, what function they serve to the Planet, and how the Planet creates them in the first place:

Whispers are souls that act as arbiters of fate and have been a part of the Planet for as long as the Planet has existed. They know the fate of the Planet from beginning to end, and their function is to make sure that a specific destiny runs its course. They all unite under the will of the Planet, just like the Sephiroth Clones all act under the will of Sephiroth, which is probably the reason why they were given a cloaky look: the Whispers' function parallels the Sephiroth Clones' function and both act under the authority of something else. They cannot be seen by everyone, and to actually see their physical manifestation, you need to either be 1) deeply connected with the Planet, or 2) receive some form of physical contact from someone who has a strong connection to the Planet. This is established early in Chapter 2 of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Cloud meets Aerith for the first time, and at first glance she seems to be blown away by the wind. After Cloud and Aerith have an exchange and Aerith gives Cloud a flower, immediately after this we are greeted with an illusion of Sephiroth tormenting Cloud and more importantly, Aerith touching Cloud, allowing him to see the Whispers floating around the street. This follows the logic of my two points, as Aerith is a half-Cetra who’s been receiving visions of the past and future for years (her mural of symbolism in her Shinra HQ room was drawn when she received a vision as a child, though she does not understand the full context of what it means), and of course she ended up giving permission for Cloud to see the Planet’s protectors in action.

So how do the Whispers make sure destiny happens as intended?

Well, they do so by constantly observing the actions of the Planet’s people, sometimes in sight, sometimes not. If something happened that is off course, the Whispers immediately act to correct the course of said issue. We see this multiple times in the story. Some examples include: Aerith trying to leave the street where she meets Cloud, then proceeding to leave the street after meeting Cloud, following the Whispers’ intentions; Jessie getting injured in Sector 7 because destiny needs to make sure Cloud goes on the next AVALANCHE mission. If this didn’t happen, then Aerith and Cloud probably wouldn’t have met again; Surrounding the debris on top of Jessie to ensure her death takes place on top of the Sector 7 Tower (I’ll cover the speculation on her “survival” later); stopping Cloud from remembering everything about the Shinra Research Lab; stopping Hojo from revealing the truth of Cloud’s past (no way in Hell are they going to let the internal conflict unfold this early); reviving Barret from the stab wound that the Sephiroth remnant gave him; lastly, pushing Wedge down the Shinra HQ tower to ensure his death happens. Destined events either eventually happened, or they got delayed. This implies that the Whispers are nigh-omnipresent beings, especially given how many they are and how they were able to surround Midgar entirely, and their part of correcting destiny follows the flow of a river. As Red XIII puts it, “The flow of the great river that is the Planet, from inception to oblivion… For it is the will of the Planet itself”.

Cool. So how are the Whispers born? Where do they come from?

It’s actually a pretty straightforward explanation, and Aerith tells us in Chapter 18: Destiny’s Crossroads. Before the Whispers became Whispers, they were “Those born into this world. Who lived and who died. Who returned. They’re howling in pain.” This adds on to what Sephiroth said a moment ago: “All born are bound to her.” All Whispers were once living people, animals, etc. And all that are given life on the Planet are bound by something like a contract: You get made into an image and are given a physical life. In exchange, once that time’s up, you must return to the Lifestream and become a part of the Planet, being one of many who follow her will. You’re born, you live, you die, and you serve another purpose in a collective of spirits who are now tasked with making sure the flow of destiny is as it should be. By following all of this, we can conclude that 1) Everyone who lives on Gaia could eventually become a Whisper, and 2) since Whispers are a part of the Planet, they are formed from the Lifestream, the Planet’s lifeblood. This leads us into the next question...

How do the Whispers know the course of Destiny from start to finish?

Great question! The logical explanation to how they know is quite simple: the properties of the Lifestream. The Whispers are made out of Lifestream, and that gives them knowledge of the Planet’s destiny. I argue it is not farfetched to make this claim, as the Lifestream has shown time and again what it is capable of. Infact, let’s make an analogy of Lifestream manifestations via state of matter.

Lifestream: Its Three States of Matter and their Benefits and Side Effects

Mako is the liquid form of the Lifestream, Materia is a solid form of the Lifestream, while the regular Lifestream itself can be most equivalent to something of a gas/plasma, at least one that can be seen. Throughout Final Fantasy 7 we’ve seen what all of these forms can do. Mako is an extremely powerful energy source that powers all of Midgar through reactors, and is also what SOLDIERs are bathed in to possibly receive superhuman strength; Materia are jewels capable of all kinds of powerful magic; summoning fire, lightning, ice, creating shields, copying abilities of other living beings, healing, elevating other materia abilities, and most notably summon manifestations of powerful beings (Bahamut, Shiva, Ifrit, Odin, Knights of the Round). While the Lifestream itself? That’s all the souls of the planet with a consciousness that follows the Planet’s will. Some can appear as a physical manifestation, but they’re not quite solid, which is how Cloud’s buster sword moves through the Whispers as if he didn’t cut through anything. Use of the Lifestream can also create projections (think Aerith’s Chapter 14 resolution), allow access into someone’s subconscious under certain circumstances, and of course, give people visions of the past and future without any context as to how those events happen(ed).

All three forms of the Lifestream have side effects, too.

Materia can degrade the vitality and strength of the user. Think of it as a trade-off for borrowing the Planet’s lifeblood in the form of a jewel.

Mako can cause extremely intense mental breakdowns and break the psyche of those without strong mental resilience, which is why Cloud was unable to make it into SOLDIER. But he eventually received Mako exposure anyway. What happened? Oh yeah, he went into a comatose state not once, not twice, but THREE times. First during experimentation, second when he arrived at Midgar before Tifa bumped into him, and when he fell into a pool of Mako and washed up on the shore of Mideel.

Meanwhile, Lifestream side effects are non-contextual visions, loss of sanity similar to Mako (think Tifa before she entered Cloud’s subconscious), and if the Lifestream has something in it, infection! That’s how Geostigma came to be: Jenova cells from Sephiroth, Jenova, and the remnants were floating in the Lifestream, and when the latter destroyed Meteor, it also exposed humans to Jenova cells, turning into a severe disease that is deadliest toward hosts with emotional fragility. This is why Cloud has a “Geostigma episode” in Advent Children when he runs into an injured Tifa.

Even with all these side effects, the benefits are far too great to ignore. All this power from the Lifestream is why Sephiroth and Jenova wanted to siphon it for themselves in the first place. By siphoning the Lifestream resisting side effects, one can receive unparalleled powers. Sephiroth himself said it in the original game:

Notice how the last quote aligns with what Sephiroth said in the Edge of Creation about the Nebula?

“Our world will become a part of it… one day.”

We’ll come back to that statement, I promise. But for now, based on everything I’ve told you, here’s what I think is going on in Final Fantasy 7 Remake:

Sephiroth is not from the future. His exposure to the Lifestream for the last 5 years gave him the side effect of non-contextual visions. Among these visions, he probably saw his master plan fail. Eventually he realizes that the reason he has these visions is because of the Whispers and more specifically, the Planet’s Weapon Arbiter. The Whispers are fighting against Sephiroth as he’s gained both a rough understanding of the future and the Lifestream’s powers by siphoning it up. So, his new master plan? Defeat the Arbiters of Fate and THEN continue with his original plan. Sephiroth being omnipresent makes sense given his control over Jenova and her shapeshifting, S cells that allow him to puppetize clones and Cloud, and being in the Lifestream basically giving him more power with one form of that being omnipresence. What’s going to lead to his downfall is ultimately his arrogance: he probably thinks that just stopping the Whispers is enough for him to win. So while the physical manifestation of fate is gone, Sephiroth still needs to meet the same criteria to win: get the Black Materia to summon Meteor, his ticket to siphon up all the Planet’s Lifestream, which means he also needs Cloud to give him the Black Materia, which then means that eventually Aerith will have to summon Holy and eventually become one with the Lifestream to beat Meteor.

See how all of this comes together without time travel theories that go off on insane tangents? It’s established that the Whispers know the course of destiny from past, present and future. But WHERE did it say that they can travel through time? WHERE did it say that Sephiroth can travel through time with the Lifestream? That kind of power would be an enormous retcon to the story and the functions of Gaia, and it would also lead to a really convoluted plot that can deviate from the main themes of the story (trust me, some theories out there are wild). We do know that Whispers are in a singularity and it moves like a river, which as @silver-wield cleverly put in a post about the story of FF7R, translates to:

The arbiters of fate issued a correction to Wedge and made him fall out of the window in the Shinra building. Which means fate cannot be altered, merely delayed, which then leads to a more painful end for not accepting that fate.

...Or perhaps shuffled up with ultimately the same necessary outcome, because the river of destiny was put on a different course but is still heading to the same destination. There are multiple works in the compilation that the writers and developers would like to tie together to the main story. What’s a way for them to execute this? By making a metaphor for the OG storyline and by beating it giving them permission to add new things? From a certain point of view, sure, but the developers never needed permission to do this in the first place. But the side effect of beating the physical manifestation of destiny was likely shuffling parts of the story of Final Fantasy 7, prequels all the way to the chronological sequels. One can make a case for this based on the explosion felt at Midgar when the Arbiter and Sephiroth were defeated in the Singularity. The glitters of light could also reflect this change. From all this I argue freedom came to be, and characters from the Compilation might make an appearance during the main story such as Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo. However, no matter what changes are present, the outcome will be the same. Cloud is not properly himself yet; he still thinks he made it into SOLDIER, he gets slight interferences from Jenova throughout the story (example: Cloud’s hand twitching when against Sephiroth at the Edge of Creation), he has the Buster Sword but still doesn’t remember who its original owner was, so his unreliable narration, downfall and emotional climax still need to happen. Aerith is the only character who can summon Holy and the only character who can call forth the Lifestream, and the only way she can call forth the Lifestream is by becoming one with it. How can she do this? There’s only one way: Death. Sorry guys, but if both Sephiroth and Aerith have prophetic visions of the future, there’s a chance that both know what must be done for themselves to get the upper hand. Sephiroth still wants to siphon up the Lifestream and become an omnipotent God, and the best way for him to do this? Summon Meteor. What does he need for this? The Black Materia. Who does he manipulate into giving him the Black Materia at the Northern Crater? Cloud.

My point from all this is that there are specific beats that need to happen to move the plot forward, no matter what new things they add from the Compilation. Using a different crisis for the overarching plot that isn’t Meteor is a retcon to the story, and why advertise Meteor and have it as the centerpiece of artworks and the title screen if you’re not going to use it in the first place? That’s just… really strange. We can add things in the middle of the plot to flesh out the main themes of a story while staying faithful to the outcomes. Adding something entirely different as a crisis like time travel in a game that has never been about time travel is out of place, unnecessary, and people are placing way too much faith in this being true while not looking at the bigger picture and function of Final Fantasy 7’s power tools. I believe the developers want you to think that the story is changing, that a happier outcome is in store for everyone. This all works with what Final Fantasy 7 did for many players in the first place: subvert expectations by placing us in an illusion with an unreliable narrative. We assumed Cloud made it into SOLDIER until we found out he never made it into SOLDIER and created a facade to conceal the truth that he was afraid to face. We thought Aerith was the love interest when the game kept making us appreciate her perky attitude until she ended up dying and then we discover in the Lifestream Sequence that Cloud’s romantic feelings, his whole reason for fighting, was for Tifa. We thought Shinra was the main antagonist of the game until shortly after going through Midgar, the main antagonist is Sephiroth. We thought we were fighting Sephiroth throughout the game until we find out that the real Sephiroth was encased in a crystal sucking up the Lifestream. We don’t actually fight him until the very end when he merges with Jenova and the Lifestream into Bizarro Sephiroth and Safer Sephiroth.

See where I’m going with all of this? The developers want to continue using red herrings and playing the theme of illusion by using different methods. The old methods will not work anymore, so they have to find a new way to subvert expectations in a way that gets us confused, excited, and uncertain what will happen until we actually play through the next installments. When that time comes, be prepared to get your heartstrings pulled, because reality hits our characters hard, just like it hits us hard. Think Biggs, Zack, Aerith are going to survive, and that Sephiroth is travelling through time to accomplish his devious tasks? Well, think again.

Now that we’ve gotten this far into this Whisper Talk, there are a load of questions I will need to address. So without further ado, Let’s mosey!!!

How is Sephiroth not from the future? His one-winged form from Advent Children Complete was shown in the final boss fight, the boss map looks eerily similar to Edge, and we saw multiple Sephiroths throughout the story. The game is heavily implying that Sephiroth is from the future and he wants to try to achieve victory a second time.

Well, for starters, First Class SOLDIERs having wings has been a thing for a while. Sephiroth was not the only SOLDIER to have a wing. As Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core showed us, Sephiroth’s comrades, Angeal and Genesis, were able to grow wings at will. They had different cells (G cells) which gave them a different ability, make copies of themselves, rather than control others who share their cells, sure, but that is NOT stopping any of them from growing wings at will. It’s something used across the board for all three of these really powerful SOLDIERs and it’s no surprise that this time around, they want to show Sephiroth using more of his abilities throughout the game.

Also, Sephiroth having one wing is nothing new. It’s part of his Safer form and is named on his track, One-Winged Angel. So, as an homage, they wanted the villain of the game to use a wing during his fight in Advent Children.

There’s also another way we can explain this. Sephiroth formed a body of his image in Advent Children thanks to Kadaj. And what purpose does Kadaj serve? He’s a strengthened remnant embodying Sephiroth’s cruelty. In other words, he’s another puppet Sephiroth can manipulate. And he uses Kadaj’s body + Jenova’s head to form his image. A clone and Jenova cells, or just straight up Jenova, allow him to shapeshift as that’s one of Jenova’s trademark abilities. So using this as an implication of time travel doesn’t add up.

When it comes to Sephiroth’s 70 alternative accounts, each of them have a straightforward explanation, including the one that confuses most people. Here we go, according to the FF7R Ultimania:

An illusion only Cloud can see:

Cloud has S cells injected into him. The same S cells are also Jenova cells. Jenova cells allow hosts to read the memories of those nearby, inherit the memories of other hosts, and give Sephiroth shapeshifting and puppeting abilities on those who have S cells. This is how Cloud created his SOLDIER facade thanks to Zack’s injection, similar memories and instinct to hide from the truth. What’s likely going on here is Sephiroth is able to make Cloud hallucinate thanks to said S cells, hence why it’s an illusion ONLY Cloud can see. We saw this during the Nibelheim flashback, meeting Aerith for the first time, after the Sector 7 Plate collapse when he was behind Tifa. This is another way of showing Sephiroth’s omnipresent power.

Also, if we're going to get really specific about the properties of Jenova cells, we can look at a source like FF7 Ultimania Omega:

Jenova's mimic ability Jenova has a mimic ability which allows it to read the memories and feelings of others, then adjust its appearance, speech and behaviour accordingly to imitate what it has seen. Jenova once used this ability to get close to the Ancients and infect them with its virus, which killed many of them.

This ability is not limited solely to Jenova itself, for those who have its cells within them passes it as well, though in an incomplete form. Immediately prior to the start of the game, when Cloud's mind was shattered, he ran into Tifa and seemed to immediately return to "normal"; this was because of the mimic abilities of the Jenova cells inside Cloud read her mind, seeing her memories of him, which were then combined with his own ideal vision of himself, fashioning a new personality for himself.

And there you go. Jenova's signature abilities are shapeshifting and illusion. It's mentioned in her backstory, It's shown in her boss battles, it's shown in Jenova-infected hosts, and it's even shown in her OST! The illusion aspect being something only Cloud can see makes sense, thanks to his Jenova S cells, so the developers are expanding this ability.

Black Robed Man:

Simple. These are Sephiroth Clones, also known as Remnants. Each of these puppets have S Jenova cells injected into them, which is what allows Sephiroth to create illusionary projections of himself via their bodies. They can also create an illusion of Jenova’s Lovecraftian forms. If predictions are correct, there’s a chance that a couple of them could end up becoming the Advent Children (more on that later).

Flashback:

Also simple. This connects to what was mentioned in Cloud’s illusion. Cloud knows events he should not thanks to his Jenova S cells, and flashbacks like, “Within my veins flows the blood of Ancients. This Planet is my birthright!” are events that will be featured later in the game in moments like the Kalm flashback. Moving on!

Unknown:

This is where people get confused. But believe me, the answer is MUCH simpler than most people realize. The Unknown Sephiroth is the last form of Sephiroth that we fought in Final Fantasy 7. Yes, the shirtless one. From here forward I'll call him SOLDIER Sephiroth. For reasons I do not know, they decided not to make him shirtless this time around (too sexy by far?) but believe me when I say that that Sephiroth is the same one we saw at the Edge of Creation. How am I so sure of this? Look back at how Cloud met that Sephiroth in Remake and compare it to what happened in the Crater. They have the same tunnel of light and Cloud’s visiting a persona of Sephiroth that exists in a dimension unaffected by time and space. The Lifestream gives Sephiroth the opportunity to pull Cloud's conscious mind into this dimension. Cloud being in the Singularity during the final battle of FF7R Part 1, and the Singularity containing Lifestream = ability to take Cloud to meet SOLDIER Sephiroth in a pocket dimension, the Edge of Creation. In OG, being exposed/near the Lifestream in the Crater allowed Cloud to visit Shirtless SOLDIER Sephiroth in another dimension and finish him off, with Aerith helping Cloud return his consciousness to the real world.

See?! It actually makes a lot of sense, only this time Sephiroth hasn’t been stripped of his God powers and is currently siphoning the Lifestream. So this time around, Cloud couldn’t beat down Sephiroth. The reason the FF7 Remake Ultimania labels this Sephiroth as unknown is because it’s following a narrative where it assumes you do not know everything yet. Final Fantasy 7 Remake has only covered Midgar, and there’s still many places and moments we have yet to explore. But the Ultimania is not going to cover them until they are published in the next installments, and why would it tell us unrevealed "secrets" of the story? So for now, it has to act as if this is a mystery. This is the same case with Zack being labeled as “Missing in Action” rather than dead in the Ultimania, because we have not reached that moment in the plot yet. But I’ll cover that a bit more on one of the next questions.

As for Sephiroth being prophetic in the Edge of Creation, it’s simply foreshadowing what we’ll eventually have to face. “That which lies ahead… does not yet exist” is telling us that the final battle still has years before it’s ready to be unleashed. As for the Nebula, “Our world will become a part of it… one day,” this is a more vague statement of what I quoted earlier:

“By merging with all the energy of the Planet, I will become a new life form, a new existence. Melding with the Planet… I will cease to exist as I am now. Only to be reborn as a god to rule over every soul.” The Nebula that Sephiroth is staring at is stated in the FF7R Ultimania to represent Sephiroth’s wing(s). This same Nebula also has a similar shape to the original sketch of Safer Sephiroth. So, based on what SOLDIER Sephiroth told Cloud, we can conclude that Safer Sephiroth will one day be born and be the last fight for our team, maybe even taking place in the Edge of Creation. BUT it’s not quite time for that to happen yet, as Safer Sephiroth's physical body is still resting in a crystal at the Northern Crater. So there you have it!

Lastly, conceding the battlefield against Sephiroth, it is an homage to Advent Children and Edge, yes. That does not automatically mean that Sephiroth is from the future. We just fought arbiters of destiny who turned themselves into depictions of the three Advent Children. This is ultimately the developers' way of ending the game with an exciting boss battle and a somewhat familiar scene. It's just a manifestation of one of Gaia's locations while in the Singularity. Also, this whole boss battle was ultimately a fanservice-esque decision by the developers, particularly Co-Director Naoki Yamaguchi. They originally did not plan to have this boss battle in the first place, but they wanted to end this game on some kind of high note with the main antagonist. They could've ended the game with the Arbiter boss battle, and I think doing so would have confused less people, but the reason behind the Sephiroth boss battle has been spoken. We can conclude this: it was a Jenova/Remnant copy of Sephiroth using expanded abilities like his wing and absorbed some of the Whispers' power before this Sephiroth was defeated by the team and the Whispers were released from his grasp. There is no need to overthink this decision (but yes, I don't think it was entirely necessary).

But what about the Arbiters manifesting into images of Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo? Whisper Rubrum, Viridi, Croceo, and Bahamut SHIN are all representations of Advent Children’s antagonists and their bio says they are from a “future timeline.” Isn’t this proof that there’s time travel and alternate timelines going on?

Well, you are right about the enemy intel bio in Final Fantasy 7 Remake stating that these guys are manifestations of figures from a future timeline. BUT that does not imply that multiple timelines are forming. Technically speaking, we all live in one timeline that follows through a singularity. This is the same case for Final Fantasy 7, and the very place we are fighting these Whispers is called the Singularity. The reason the Whispers are forming into these creatures is because of their future knowledge. This is their way of shapeshifting into powerful foes that can defend themselves against the team. They are turning into foes that destiny will one day birth, but in the form of something akin to a Weapon just like the main Arbiter itself, and this is also the developers way of adding a homage and possibly a hint of the foes that will appear in the future. They are NOT the Advent Children themselves, otherwise there would probably show more personality, and they would also… look more like them. So what happened with “time” after defeating these Advent Whispers and the Arbiter Weapon? Well, it sharpened the curves of the river and put destiny on a new course, but to the same destination, hence the “set beginning and end” that the developers mentioned before. In the river’s new course, we’ll get new events that while still having original events that will all be more fleshed out. In part of this new course of destiny maybe there’s a chance that we will see the Advent Children themselves. How can I be sure of this? After speaking to a friend about it, the remnants we encountered give us a hint. Marco, #49, resides in Sector 7. Who was a teenager that resided in Sector 7 before becoming a remnant and then Advent Child? Kadaj, also known as the manifestation of Sephiroth's cruelty. Meanwhile, we have #2 in Sector 5, who shows strong features fitting for someone in SOLDIER. Who fits this category? Loz, also known as the manifestation of Sephiroth's strength. People have theorized that #2 is Zack, but I do not agree and will address that later. The only remnant candidate we have left is Yazoo, the manifestation of Sephiroth's allure. This makes sense as he’s the most silent of the trio, so the developers will keep his remnant in mystery for now. But there you have it. By Nomura stating, "Come back to me a few years later and ask me what remake means," what I believe he means by "remake" is write the original story of Final Fantasy 7 with characters in other parts of the compilation included. Hence, a shuffled story with the same necessary outcomes.

Okay, but didn’t the developers say that Final Fantasy 7 Remake is not canon to the Compilation, thereby making it a different story from the Compilation and proving the developers are ditching the original story in the process?

Let me tell you right now: if those lines were what they actually said in full context, then they were lying. How am I sure? Because throughout FF7R, parts of what happened in the Compilation are included in the story. Zack’s Last Stand was featured in a flashback; Hollow’s lyrics greatly parallel the lyrical version of Price of Freedom; one of Cloud’s old Shinra Military comrades was featured and mentioned Kunsel, from Crisis Core; and of course the big Arbiters being manifestations of the Advent Children.

For saying the Compilation is being ditched and is the bad ending, why include characters and homages specifically from the Compilation? If they really were, they wouldn’t put pieces of it into the story like this. All that was stated by Director Tetsuya Nomura was that FF7 Remake is not canon to the Compilation YET. Keyword YET. The story is incomplete and the developers need to see Remake through from start to finish before they can say it’s truly canon to the Compilation. And what have Scenario Writer Kazushige Nojima and Producer Yoshinori Kitase said about the story?

Does this sound like they’re ditching the Compilation to you? I think this should sum up how they are tying the series of Final Fantasy 7 into one big package, but there are some people saying that the team seeing Advent Children and the Planet 500 years later, followed by Red XIII saying it’s “a glimpse of tomorrow if we fail here today” as proof that what happens in the future is a bad ending. This is not entirely true. It makes sense for humanity to be gone 500 years later with the Planet living on because that was the life that the team was trying to save in the first place. What Red XIII told us was simple: that if Destiny wins, then the river of Destiny will run the same course, and that includes the events of On The Way To a Smile, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, and of course humanity being gone 500 years later. This is another case of the team receiving future visions without context, as I addressed before. They saw an event where they maybe saw people they knew, but do they know what leads to it? No. So what they assume about the outcome of the future and what’s good and bad may not necessarily be correct. They will find that out as the next parts of Final Fantasy 7 Remake are released.

Okay, but aren’t the characters free to do whatever they want now that they have beaten Destiny? As Aerith said, they have boundless, terrifying freedom.

They have freedom from the Whispers, and like Zack once said, “The price of freedom is steep.” They can begin their journey without the worry of the Whispers acting up if they do something that strays far away from what’s necessary. That doesn’t mean that they are not going to head to all the destinations we needed to reach in the original game. We will still probably have the flashback at Kalm since it’s the nearest town away from Midgar. We still need to pass through the Mythril Mines to get to other destinations. We still need to pass through Corel, Barret’s hometown, to get to the Gold Saucer where we will meet Cait Sith and reach Barret’s character climax. We still need to reach Gongaga and this will likely be a required place to visit because of how much more importance Zack is given in Remake. There’s also no working reactor in Gongaga so there’s a chance that yellow reunion flowers will grow as foliage. We still need to head to Cosmo Canyon, where Bugenhagen will teach us more about the Lifestream and where Red XIII will learn the truth about what happened to his father Seto. We still need to head to Nibelheim where a lot of confusion is going to rise within our team--specifically Cloud and Tifa--and also where we need to release Vincent from the Shinra Mansion. We still need to cross Mt. Nibel (we might get a flashback from Cloud) and head to Rocket Town to meet Cid and drink some goddamn tea. We still need to head to the Temple of the Ancients for the team to find out what needs to be done to save the Planet, and also the place where Sephiroth will manipulate Cloud and the team into giving him the Black Materia. We still need Aerith to head to the Forgotten City as it’s the only place she can use her prayer to activate the White Materia and summon Holy. We still need to head to the Northern Crater as that’s where Cloud will likely have his downfall and submit to Sephiroth….

We could keep going on with this, but I’m sure you see my point. New things will happen but there are important locations that the team needs to reach in order to come closer to their goal of stopping Sephiroth. The simple thing is that, from here on out, the Whispers will not intervene, giving us the illusion that things will change, but we most likely will learn the hard way that the necessary outcomes will still happen. So once again, the river is on a new course to the same destination.

Okay. You’ve talked about Sephiroth not being from the future, but what about Aerith? Her prayer stance in the opening cinematic looks eerily similar to her stance in the ending of Final Fantasy 7. Based on this, is she from the future/did she see the outcome of the Meteor-Lifestream-Holy Conflict?

No. What probably happened was the developers paid homage to that ending screen. What follows immediately after that is Aerith picking up a crushed reunion flower, symbolizing the non-reunion that Aerith and Zack could not receive in life, but eventually receive in the Lifestream. And once again: Aerith has received visions of the future, but without context as to why and how they happened. In a novella it’s mentioned that Aerith received a vision as a child and drew her mural of symbolism in her room as a result. We know she’s been receiving non-contextual visions for awhile, but being forced into a big responsibility by the Planet is something she needs to learn to accept, and that’s part of her character arc we will receive in the next parts of FInal Fantasy 7 Remake. There is no evidence she can time travel, and she doesn’t always know the Whispers’ intentions. When the team asked her what they were doing while surrounding the Shinra HQ Tower, she simply replied, “Who knows?”. She’s not omniscient. She has some meta knowledge and a big responsibility, but does not know how to handle this role yet. And that's where character development comes in for our Maiden of the Planet.

Cool, but why are people like Rufus and Hojo able to see the Whispers in the first place? And maybe Zack, too?

Actually, there’s a pretty straightforward explanation for this. As we know, to be able to see the Whispers, once again you have to either be heavily connected to the Planet or touched by a special person. Aerith spent a portion of her childhood in the Shinra HQ Tower. Who else was there with her? Her biological mother Ifalna. These two are both Cetra, one half and one full-blooded. Hojo likely spent hours upon hours with both of them, especially Ifalna, so receiving contact from them is not farfetched. Also, that gross f***** of a scientist does unfortunately play an important role in the plot and keeping the flow of destiny on course. As for Rufus? This man was a teenager when Aerith and Ifalna were living in Shinra HQ. It’s very possible that he ran into one of the two cetra and maybe received contact from them. If he didn’t? Don’t forget, this man is the president of Shinra throughout almost all of FF7. Even if the team opposes him, they still need him. He is very necessary to destroy the barrier that blocks the team from getting into the Northern Crater. Without his actions, the team cannot make it to Sephiroth. It’s that simple. And even though he can see the Whispers, how much does it matter? It’s only going to matter if the Whispers make a resurgence sometime in the plot. There you have it.

Okay, but why is Zack alive after his Last Stand? And why were the Whispers present during this? Also, what about the Stamp bag? Isn’t this proof of time travel and alternate timelines?

And here’s where the red herring comes in! He did beat the Shinra Army. And yes, the Whispers were present. BUT why were they present? Remember what was mentioned earlier? The Whispers are dead souls returning to the Planet, and if that’s the case they have been part of the Planet for a LONG time. This means that they were ALWAYS present through the course of events in the Planet. The reason we see them during Zack’s Last Stand is likely to throw one off at first, until they connect the dots with how old the Whispers actually are. And they are showing themselves in the Last Stand because this is an extremely important event that has to happen for Cloud’s next journey to begin. We didn’t quite get to see how the Whispers changed up the event, but they likely did form it in a way where the developers wanted to trick us. It's also left ambiguous if he can see the Whispers or not, although they do not seem to alarm him IF he can see them.

Now, about the Last Stand, If you compare Remake’s Last Stand to Crisis Core and Final Fantasy 7 OG, you’ll notice that Remake’s moment has similarities to the OG scene.

Zack walks, drops Cloud in a safe place, and defends himself against the soldiers in all three. So here's where the cutscenes get different:

FF7 OG: Zack fights against Shinra infantrymen. We don't see the troops, but Zack thinks he defeated them. Afterwards he heads to Cloud but immediately gets shot by a group of Shinra troops, and I mean shot. Afterwards, there is no dialogue between Zack and Cloud, Cloud grabs the Buster Sword and starts breaking down in the rain. Thus, his journey--nearly--begins.

FF7 Crisis Core: Zack confronts the Shinra army. He begins his monologue:

Boy oh boy... The price of freedom is steep. Embrace your dreams, and whatever happens... Protect your honor, as a SOLDIER!

We then proceed to battle the Shinra army. Eventually, the screen fades to black and we see Zack mortally wounded. The same group of Shinra troops from OG come over and bullet Zack to death. Eventually, Cloud wakes up in shock, and Zack parts Cloud his sword and last words:

For the both of us... You're gonna... Live. You'll be... My living legacy. My honor, my dreams... They're yours now.

Cloud then proceeds with a breakdown, and afterwards begins his journey, where he'll bump into a certain someone while in Mako comatose. Sheesh I hate watching that scene due to its deadly side effect.

Where does Remake stop?

Right in the area where Zack’s grave is, a cliff with a steep descent to flat land. It’s the same spot where Zack got shot by a Shinra infantryman who pursued Zack throughout his running away from Shinra Mansion; it's the same spot where Cloud placed the Buster Sword to honor his close friend’s wish; and the same spot where Zack declared, “For the both of us… you’re going to live. You’ll be… my living legacy.” The developers intentionally stopped us from seeing the outcome of that moment because it’ll either be the same place where Zack will die, or we’ll see his fate get delayed and placed somewhere else.

I have also seen people argue that #2 is Zack, or if not Zack, then Zack’s corpse.

This is false.

Remember why Zack was placed in a cryosleep tube in the first place? Because, like Cloud, he was considered a failed experiment by Hojo because the S cells could not turn him into a Sephiroth clone. Zack becoming a Sephiroth clone would be a major retcon to the story and how he was able to escape with Cloud in the first place. Zack becoming a clone would mean that he was never a failed experiment. And what would happen if he wasn’t a failed experiment? Cloud wouldn’t be able to escape and FF7 wouldn’t have happened. Could Hojo have picked up Zack’s dead body after his death? Maybe, but is there evidence that his corpse would still become a clone? That’s extremely unlikely in my personal opinion. We would have to assume that Hojo did another clone experiment this time around and the Shinra troops decided to take his body with them when they had no good motive or order to do so anyway. Their orders were likely “shoot to kill” and that’s it. We don’t need Zack’s corpse to be remade into a clone, and we certainly don’t need him to be a clone if Sephiroth wants to do something like create an illusionary projection of Zack. Remember what happened in the Northern Crater? Sephiroth used Jenova to create an illusion of Tifa in order to trick the Black Materia holder into “helping” the team.

Lastly, that bag of Stamp's Champs, Original Flavor.

It’s interesting, isn't it? And Nomura told us to pay close attention to both stamps. This is probably the biggest case of an alternate timeline being real, but after thinking about it for a while, I argue that it's not proving an alternate timeline exists, but rather it's being shown to give focus to two different heroes. And how does this work in the FF7 world? Well, Shinra probably has simple rebranding of Stamp on a Shinra product. It’s not uncommon for corporations to rebrand their products into a different name (just look up Lay’s Potato Chips and you’ll come across Walkers, as shown in my poorly collaged photo). BUT there's another example to talk about, as a friend mentioned. Stamp's Champs are the "original" flavor. This original flavor and Terrier is being used to represent Zack in FF7, as he was once called a "puppy" by his mentors in FF7 Crisis Core. Now, that bag is calling to the original hero, who was Zack (could also be an homage to how Zack's design was originally assigned a "different" role in FF7 OG) up until he passed his dreams on to Cloud. So what this means is both Stamps are used for wither a different flavor or got rebranded after a certain amount of time passed, or the Stamp brand has the same flavor is different depending on the location in Gaia. Now for the second functionality for Stamp: It's being used as a red herring to mislead the players deeper in to the mouse trap. Remember Stamp’s original function in the context of Shinra? It served as a propaganda device for Shinral to promote its use of warfare for wealth to mislead the public into thinking Shinra’s deeds were for progress and beneficial for the Planet. It’s very possible that the developers are using Terrier Stamp as a propaganda device to trick the face-value players into thinking everything’s going to be different for the story until we're shown otherwise. And if it actually is an alternate timeline? It will not affect our team. As established previously, there is no time travel that our team is capable of, and the Whispers act on a fixed flow under the Will of the Planet and are almost omnipresent, so they must correct the course of destiny in the present and as quickly as possible. That alternate timeline would probably just be used to show us that no matter what we do, what’s set in stone needs to be kept in stone. So, don’t get your hopes up that Zack is going to survive, especially since he already passed on the Buster Sword to Cloud in the present "timeline" that we're playing.

But why is there a different Seventh Heaven sign shown during the ending sequence? Isn’t this proof of an alternate timeline?

Careful now. There’s a big possibility that what was shown during that shuffled sequence of events was the original Seventh Heaven bar. That’s right, there was a Seventh Heaven before Tifa’s in Sector 7. How do I know this? It’s a sidequest in Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core. Zack met an unnamed carpenter in the Sector 7 slums and helped name the bar. The canon answer in the narrative is to choose the name Seventh Heaven. So what’s likely happening here is 1) we saw a past event of the first Seventh Heaven bar being worked on, as the folks of the slums are building their homes together; 2) we are seeing the folks rebuild the Sector 7 slums, and perhaps to honor what was once there, the folks are building another bar and making sure to keep the original name Seventh Heaven, or 3) pretty much what I said before and it’s happening in an alternate timeline. Regardless, there’s a good chance that Crisis Core is being referenced here. And if it isn’t and it’s different events happening in an alternate timeline? Once again, our friends can’t go to that alternate timeline because time travel is not a power they have. So, it doesn’t really affect the main beats of our journey. What may happen, though, is our team will visit the Sector 7 slums later down the line, and they’ll have a reunion with a rebuilt home before settling the score with Shinra and Sephiroth. Until we see it, though, that’s just headcanon.

But why is Biggs alive? Aren’t Wedge and Jessie alive, too?

Biggs is shown to be alive, yes, but at what point of time and for how long? Also, even though he is shown to be alive, how is that going to drastically alter the story for our friends? He may stick around and have a minor role later, but he could very well die again depending on where the Destiny River is heading, and there’s likely very little he can do to somehow drastically change the story. Is he going to suddenly appear and sacrifice himself to make sure Aerith survives? Highly doubt it. See what I mean? Even if someone like him is left alive, he’ll either receive the same fate in a different way or just get a role that won’t change much of the main story. So, are Wedge and Jessie alive? Wedge, absolutely not. He was pushed down Shinra HQ Tower and there is no way he was able to survive a fall that high. There is no evidence that he “survived” after that fall as well. As for Jessie, we saw her gloves and headband on a dresser next to Biggs, but that’s it. Why would they place those next to him and not next to Jessie if she’s still alive and being taken care of? She was high atop the Sector 7 tower and it’s very unlikely anyone besides our team was able to run up and grab her on time. She was also in a worse state than Biggs and probably got crushed by the tower collapsing. In other words, she got crushed twice. Once when she set off her bomb and Cloud and Tifa bump into her; the second, when the plate dropped. What the glove and headband are, are likely nothing more than the remains of a friend who couldn’t make it. There may have been time for someone to pick up Biggs and that’s how he ended up in a bed, covered in bandages. As for more proof he’s the only one who survived? Wedge had 3 cats he held. Out of the three, only one named Biggums survived. The other 2 missing, I believe, are symbolism for the fate of the AVALANCHE trio. There you have it, three charming but minor characters who had written character arcs that got fleshed out in Remake, but don’t serve an extremely important purpose to the main plot points of the game (no offense to the trio, I do like Mr. Not-Charlie-Sheen and I wonder what they will do when the inevitable happens).

This is cool and all, but what about Sephiroth's line? "Seven Seconds till the end. Time enough for you, perhaps. But what will you do with it? Let's see." Also, this Sephiroth used more informal phrasing in the Japanese acript, such as "ore." He seems to be aware of what the future holds, too. So what do you make of this?

Ah yes, this moment, also one of the first pieces of script the writers thought of:

Well friend, I actually covered this topic before:

Seven Seconds Before the End: Theory vs. Context

While that post was made to debunk a theory, I believe what I wrote in it can easily be taken into the context of this post. That's one thing people constantly overlook about this line: it already has a given context. What do I mean by that? Check out the story log here:

In the world beyond, Sephiroth shows Cloud a vision of the planet seven seconds before its demise. Having strayed from the course destiny set for them, they strike out on a path toward an unknown future.

This is what Sephiroth was referring to: the end of the Planet. Unfortunately people are taking this line WAY out of context and using it to write theories that stray far away from the line's meaning in the first place. It's part of what Sephiroth is after, and it's part of what Cloud is fighting against. The team fought against the Arbiters of Fate because they believe what they saw was the end of everything for them without seeing the long-term outcome, while Sephiroth lured the team to fight against the Arbiters of Fate because he may have seen his failure, and believes that with the physical manifestation of the Whispers gone, he can continue his plan without any chance of failure. A part of the future, no matter what seems to happen, will involve making a decision seven seconds before the Planet's demise. What will cause the Planet's demise? Meteor. That is the main calamity we are trying to stop after defeating Sephiroth, and we need to defeat Safer Sephiroth and SOLDIER Sephiroth to make sure his will cannot block Holy from being summoned, as well as prevent Aerith from calling forth the Lifestream. So once again, this is from Sephiroth's rough understanding of the future, and it's a meta message for the players of what the ending of Remake might entail. It is NOT Sephiroth from the future suddenly sending his body/consciousness into the past in a really odd moment to give Cloud a warning.

Even with all this, the ending of Final Fantasy 7 Remake stated, "The Unknown Journey will continue." What do you have to say about this?

Yes, there is an unknown journey. This is a journey with new content to tie the rest of the Compilation together, like a possible story shuffle mentioned earlier. There's bound to be new and revised scenes in between the set beginning and end, hence "the unknown journey." I talked about this before, but for the developers to put something like "The same journeys from 2 decades ago will continue" is counter-intuitive to what they just showed us in the ending and would mess with all the anticipation for what's to come next. We have to think about this in a different perspective, and not the perspective of "oh, nothing is going to change." The developers need to keep people excited, and part of keeping that excitement is marketing a tease. It's pretty much how marketing works, too. A marketing scheme that only tells the literal facts without trying to juggle the consumer's emotions isn't going to interest the consumer that much compared to the marketing scheme that teases at the possibilities. As for the reason Yoshinori Kitase will then say that the team is continuing FF7R as FF7 has? He's in a different mindset during interviews like that. The game Final Fantasy 7 Remake is telling us things like a book, ending the events with a To Be Continued cliffhanger. Meanwhile, Kitase can state that FF7R will continue as FF7 because that's technically a vague statement. We know we'll get key locations and scenes, but we don't know how they'll get fleshed out. And we sure as heck don't know about any new scenes and how those are going to be executed in the next installments. In other words, think of a classic sandwich with a hipster rendition. The set beginning and end are the top and bottom buns, the protein is almost the same, maybe a couple spices added in there; and the unknown is all the new toppings added in your hipster-style classic sandwich. I know this is a strange analogy, but hopefully it gets the point across. So don't worry too much; Nojima, Nomura, and Kitase haven't shown us the new condiments yet!

Conclusion

If you're still here after reading through my wall of jargon, thank you! After all that I've written, I hope I was able to accomplish my goal: to ease your worries about the developers' plans with the story. And I hoped to do this by giving an in-universe explanation as to why certain things are happening. There is context to the Whispers' powers, and with the Whisper following a continuous flow of destiny, pieces of the future and past are scattered in that river. Sephiroth's been basking in this river for years now, so he got similar exposure as Aerith did and now has rough knowledge of what's to come. I think people who are clinging to time travel theories are taking the Whispers' powers out of context. We saw vague bits of the future; Aerith did, Sephiroth did, we did, and do you know who else? Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Red XIII. Heavy exposure to the Whispers gives visions as a side effect. They're not travelling through time from the future to fix things when they've always existed as dead souls who returned to the Planet; they're continuously moving around Gaia and watching folks--especially key players in saving the Planet. The flow of a river doesn't stop, it keeps moving through its closed course. Maybe it can change its course in a slightly different direction, or get shafted into sharper curves to delay the flow, but it will still head to its final destination no matter what. While we are in the current of this new course, we'll stumble upon some untouched terrain before we get to the set ending.

However, even if we know about the inevitable, that isn't going to stop us from feeling intense pain for our heroes.

Thus the journey continues.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go sit my ass down and drink some god-damn tea.

Special Thanks

@otp-oasis-heavenxearth (Also known as @magicalchemist)

For taking the time to read my rough draft and pointing out the goofs, bringing in your theory ideas, as well as helping me solidify my confidence in Final Fantasy 7 Remake's future. Seriously, if you haven't, check out her blog. She's incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to FF7 and looks through every different perspective while sticking to the facts. In other words, straight up awesome!

@silver-wield

For allowing me to cite your post, as well as being the first person that made me faithful the developers are staying true to their word with their direction of FF7R. Seriously, thanks! If you haven't, check out her blog. Her attention to detail is incredible!

28 notes · View notes

acedesigns · 5 years ago

Text

High Expectations [FF7: Rufus/Reader]

A/N: May continue with this, idk.

Dedicated to @the-temple-pythoness for wanting more Rufus/Reader fanfic, ‘cause same.

Word Count: 2474

You honestly had no idea what the hell the last secretary was doing. There was no organization. No rhyme or reason as to where anything was. Honestly, you thought the secretary was trying to get fired. It was more like the secretary was trying to get their boss fired as per the order of their boss’s boss.

That was unacceptable in your book. Especially now that the boss’s boss was dead and now the boss was the boss. You shook your head knowing that only made you sound like some insane rambler. But it made sense…To you. Maybe your boss, too. He fired the last secretary the moment he was promoted via inheritance.

“Why are there sticky notes everywhere? I don’t even know if they’re relevant anymore,” you grumbled and ran a hand through your hair. You held a sticky note up to the light to try and determine if the ink had faded at all.

“How’s it goin’?”

You jumped and dropped the pale pink sticky note and glanced over. There was a Turk with spikey red hair. Sitting up straight, you cleared your throat. “I’m doing well, thank you. How may I help you?”

He dismissed you with a wave of his hand. “Just checkin’ on the boss’s new secretary. Heard you came in early. Last one sucked and was always late.”

“Yes, well.” Your eyes jumped around on every bit of torn paper on the desk. “I can see that. Did they know how to operate a computer?”

“She knew how to work her cellphone,” he chuckled. He grabbed a chair and dragged it over to your desk. “Other than that, she wrote down messages on something she would tear out of a notebook and leave it on her desk.”

“My god,” you groaned and pinched the bridge of your nose. Just by glancing at the pieces of paper, they were so incoherent with the sloppiest of penmanship that you couldn’t understand a single thing she was trying to say.

“But hey, at least the bar is set low.”

“No! It’s not set low!” you protested with a pout. “I have to exceed the bar I set for myself. Which is high, by the way.”

The man chuckled. “You’re a fiery one, aren’t you?”

“More like dealing with constant anxiety,” you muttered under your breath. “Anyways, I’m [Y/N]. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Reno,” the man replied. He watched with amusement as you started to sort the scraps bit of paper. There was a pile of what you were sure were actually scribbles and no real words, a pile where there were just a couple of words and then scribbles, and a pile of what looked like could be an actual message. “Watcha plannin’ on doing with that?”

“I’ll be scanning and uploading them onto the computer, based on my best estimate as to what they actually say, and about what order they were written,” you hummed in reply. Once they were sorted, you stood and hurriedly made your way over to printer/fax/scanner/time machine.

“You could just toss them,” Reno suggested.

You stiffened at the idea. “No, there could be something important!”

“If there was something important, she wouldn’t have written it down.”

“Still,” you sighed and started the long process of scanning every tiny bit of paper. Of course, you couldn’t just put multiple sheets through the scanner to make it automatic. You had to put it on the scanning glass, one-by-one.

“Excuse me?” a voice sounded from the office’s entrance. There was a soft knock on the door frame. You looked over and saw a woman holding a vase filled with white lilies, roses, daisies, and mums. “I have a delivery for [Y/N].”

“Yes, thank you!” You hurriedly took the vase from the woman and dismissed her, having had already tipped her online.

“What are those fore?”

“His father just died,” you muttered and scrutinized the bouquet for any imperfections, there weren’t any. “I was told he didn’t really care for his father, but I figured it’d still be nice to give him something.” You walked towards where his desk was. It was nearly empty, allowing you to place it with ease.

“Have you even met him yet?” Reno quirked an eyebrow up.

“No.” You returned to your previous position at the scanner and glanced at your watch. You had approximately thirty minutes before you were required to be at work. You were going to be paid by the year, so getting there early didn’t hurt anything.

“Well!” Reno clapped his hands on his thighs before standing up. “I need to get goin’. If you need anything, just holler. I’m sure we’ll see each other a lot.”

“Thank you.” You nodded your head but didn’t redirect your attention away from the pieces of paper you were scanning. Once the green light was done going back and forth nearly a dozen times and the files were sent to your computer, you gathered the pieces of paper to file later. There were other things you needed to prioritize.

Your fingers sped across the keyboard while you searched for any appointments that the president could have. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing for the past few years. You scrunched your nose up in confusion. Even the part-time hourly workers had more meetings than that.

“Did she seriously not schedule a single thing?” you whispered in astonishment at how far she went to suck at her job. “Well, nothing to back up, then.” You wanted to cry from the feeling that you were doing something wrong, but there was nothing you could do.

The elevator dinged. You glanced at your watch. It was about time for the president to show up. Ten minutes early, you noted. Staring at the elevator, you held your breath as the doors opened. A man in a white suit exited the elevator. Quickly, you stood from your seat and bowed slightly as he entered the office.

“Good morning, President Shinra.”

The man paused in his steps and looked over at you. There was a firm frown set on his face. You felt some sweat build up on the back of your neck from his intense stare.

“It’s President Rufus,” he corrected sternly. “I will not be mistaken for my father.”

“My apologies, President Rufus.” You were crying on the inside. Absolutely crying.

“I need to you schedule me a flight to Junon. I need Heidegger to be with me. We’ll most likely be traveling from there. We will need a substantial amount of security personnel without alarming the public as to why their streets are flooded with military.”

“Yes, sir!” you responded quickly and turned towards your computer to start orchestrating the trip.

Rufus nodded before continuing to his chair. He stopped in front of his desk and looked at the flowers. He glanced over his shoulder towards you before taking his seat and taking care of business he didn’t finish the night prior.

“A military parade!” you suddenly exclaimed with a wide grin. Then, you paused and covered your mouth with a slightly fearful look towards Rufus. “Sorry.”

“If the idea is worthless, then apologize. What is your idea?”

“Well,” you paused and swallowed your nerves. “One way to move a large number of soldiers would be to hold a parade. It’d be a way to gather support for Shinra, for you to clearly establish yourself as president, and demonstrate the extent of Shinra’s power to those opposed.”

“And would you be able to organize such a thing in less than a week?” Rufus’s steely gaze scrutinized your form for any imperfections.

Your hands formed into tight fists. “Yes.”

---

It was day three into planning. The first night, you gathered changes of clothes from your home and temporarily moved into Shinra Tower. You were in the office before Rufus arrived and well past when he left.

There was only the point of getting a chartered flight to Junon that met Heidegger’s preferences. Nothing was good enough for that man. To make matters worse, most air carriers were under their annual maintenance. Why they were all scheduled for the same time was beyond you.

Opening your e-mail, you prayed there was something saying that you got a flight. There it was. The Highwind was available. But just barely. It’d be going into maintenance almost immediately after its arrival to Junon. With a rush, it’d take three days to be completed. If that wasn’t good enough for Heidegger, you would actually murder that man yourself.

There was another e-mail with a file containing and a newly composed song for Rufus’s parade. You opened it and turned up your speakers. Music, that wasn’t half-bad given it was written in only a day, played.

“What are you listening to?”

You jumped and looked up at the president with wide eyes. Quickly, you paused the music. “I-I,” you stammered and took a deep breath to calm your nerves. “I commissioned a composure to create this for your parade. The infantrymen will do a small performance to it during the Welcoming March.”

“I see, and what else have you planned?” There was no indication as to how Rufus was feeling. You couldn’t tell if he was pleased, angry, or anything.

“Well, we have banners created with your signature created to be draped down the front of each building on the route. There will be two on each building, actually. Heidegger will be at the front leading a squadron of Soldiers. Then, you’ll follow in a car. If there’s a situation, the car can create a shield and get you out of there quickly. Of course, with the security measures in place, that shouldn’t happen. But you can never be too careful.”

“And what do the banners say?”

“Uh,” you hesitated. “New Age. President of Shinra, Rufus.”

A slight smirk appeared on Rufus’s face. “Very good.” He turned to begin to head back to his desk. “Oh, and we will be needing to cross the ocean to Costa del Sol after I give my speech.”

You froze. “Y-Yes, sir!” You wanted to cry knowing that getting an airship to cross the ocean that day would be impossible. It would have to be a traditional boat or submarine. A submarine was too risky and too cramped.

You stood up with your legs shaking ever so slightly. Slowly, you walked over to the president’s desk. “Excuse me, sir.” He looked up at you and motioned for you to continue. “All of Shinra's aircrafts will be undergoing maintenance on the day of your speech. Would a ship suffice?”

“That’ll be fine.”

You let out a breath you were holding and gave a weak smile. “Thank you, sir.”

“Relax, [Y/N],” Rufus spoke once you turned to head back to your desk. “You’re exceeding expectations.”

You felt your cheeks head up at the praise. “Th-Thank you, sir!”

The alarms were blaring on the ship. You looked around in fear. Red lights were flashing. Though you were informed on what to do, your nerves were screaming and you were forgetting. You just needed to get somewhere safe, but where was safe?

“Take a deep breath,” you whispered to yourself to try and stop yourself from having a panic attack.

You looked over to Rufus and Heidegger. Heidegger was running around screaming at his men. You could have sworn he had just punched one of them. Rufus was looking around at the windows and his hand went towards where his shotgun was.

“Sir!” You ran over to Rufus. “We need to get you out of here. There’s a safe room set up for you.”

He nodded towards you as you exited the control room. Soldiers were running down the hall with their guns close to their chests. Some were yelling about a man in a black cape and some sort of monster below deck.

“Multiple casualties!” one yelled as he ran past you.

Your heart hammered. As you led the president down the hall. Your eyes kept clanking behind your soldier to make sure he was still there. In a couple of minutes, you paused in front of the door and swiped your security card.

“Here, sir,” you stated and stepped aside so he could enter the room.

“After you,” Rufus stated.

You scrunched your nose up in confusion. “But sir, your safety--.”

“You will not be a hindrance to my safety by being there.”

Nodding a brief thanks, you entered the room and started to make sure everything was secure. There was an emergency generator, a first-aid kit, and supplies to last a few days. The Turks spared no expense in ensuring the president’s safety and comfort.

The door shut and locked behind the president and he went towards the couch. He moved his shotgun and placed it on the floor next to him. He watched you stare at the door for anyone trying to intrude.

“Relax, [Y/N]. Nothing will happen to us so long as we’re in here.”

“But--.” “The Turks never fail their missions. Their mission is to protect me.”

“With all due respect, sir. Their mission was to protect the late president.”

Rufus chuckled slightly. “It was just the opposite. They were to not be near my father at the time of his assassination. Why do you think Sephiroth was in that building that night? Or how do you think I knew to show up at that tower shortly after my father was killed?”

“I…” you paused in shock. “You hired Sephiroth to kill him?” Rufus didn’t answer, but the smirk on his face said enough. You staggered back to the wall and leaned on it, fearful that your legs would give out from under you. You knew Shinra wasn’t the most ethical corporation, but there wasn’t a single ethical one under capitalism. And you needed the money. But this…Was beyond what you thought you were signing up for.

“Didn’t you know that my father and I didn’t get along?”

“Mmm,” you hummed and nodded your head. “I knew that.”

“Then, why did you give me flowers?”

You looked up at him. Looking back down to the floor, you slid down against the wall until you were sitting. “I know you didn’t like your father. But that didn’t mean you were still upset by it. You might not miss the person, but you might miss the role he could have filled. That you’d never have a good father. They were more for the role you lost, not the person.”

Rufus hummed while thinking. He stood up from the couch and made his way towards you. You watched with slight curiosity, some fear that he was going to kill you. He turned and slid against the wall next to you until you were sitting side-by-side.

“You are by far the best secretary I’ve ever had.”

#Final Fantasy VII #Final Fantasy 7 #FF7 #FFVII #Rufus shinra #/Reader #X Reader #Reader insert #Fanfiction #Fan Fiction #Fan Fic #Fanfic #Shinra #Rufus

279 notes · View notes

chronicparagon · 3 years ago

Text

One Piece AU: Harmony the Wing Less

Warning: This AU has content that may be disturbing to some readers. Triggers include blood, death, child death, child slavery, and torture.

Art by Rina-Ran

(Note: I know this is art of FF7 Harmony but I felt can be applied for this AU too)

Harmony Halcyon

Tribe: Shandian

Occupation: Mercenary (but also works as a barmaid when jobs are slow), formerly a crew member of the Sea Warriors

Age: 19 years (before time skip) 21 years (after time skip)

Backstory

Harmony’s life began with the Shandia tribe. Though the war existed through most of Harmony’s life, she would be among the people who had no part in the fight, but suffered the consequences. Her name was given by her parents who wished for peace but they did not know that it may never come for them. Things became worse when a stranger called Enel came to the land and proclaimed that he was their god. Enel’s domination aggravated the constant war with the Skypians and it would worsen from there. Many people of Skypiea became slaves shortly after with women chosen as his servants.

As Harmony was becoming a teenager, her parents feared she would be next. They couldn’t bear the thought and joined those where were brave enough, yet foolish enough to stand against Enel and his soldiers. If only they knew then that choice would end in failure and seal their fate.

These defectors and their families became prisoners, tortured for the twisted amusement. To make matters worse, Harmony’s parents were forced to watch their own child be used as part of their punishment. Harmony was only thirteen. Thirteen years old when men pinned her down, stripped from the waist up. How they laughed as they wielded torches and knives, standing by until their master gave them the signal.

Harmony’s screams fill they air as blood splatter the ground along with her feathers drifting down, turning from white to red. Pain seared into her bones as it tears her wings off her back. Cutting, tearing, ripping, and burning into her back. Harmony tried to fight back, only to earn severe burns on her right arm. Her parents begged them to stop. Her mother wept and her father screamed for their child to be spared. Their pleas fell on deaf ears. They pulled on the shackles, desperately reaching for their daughter.

“STOP THIS! STOP! DON’T DO THIS TO MY GIRL!”

“MY BABY! GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY BABY!”

Blood chilling laughter masked the heartbreak.

Once all that was said and done, the girl was left shaking, tears streaming down her face as she laid in her own blood and feathers. It was then that Enel decided that her parents have seen enough and ordered their execution on the spot. The last thing Harmony’s parents saw was their own child crawling toward them, wanting to save them. But she could not get to them on time. There was nothing she could do. Such a pitiful sight.

The young girl begged for their lives as well as the other defectors who knew they were mere moments away from their own demise.

So, so pitiful.

A child’s cries mean nothing to a god who lusts for blood and power.

So, so sad...

On this day, the Shandians learned that their own was sentenced to death and their bloody wings posted as a warning, a sign that any rebellion would be met with their last moments filled with terror. A warning to not disobey their new god.

Many of the Shandians escaped and sought refuge in a village where Enel could not find them shortly after. It was best to find safety and face the new tyranny on top of this bitter war against the Skypians. The defectors were nothing more than traitors. It was best to leave them for dead than risk their own families.

As for what happened to Harmony? She was not the only child who lost her family because they stood against Enel. There were several others. The boys who did not die right away from the torture were killed off. Best to eliminate any possible adversaries. Better to be safe than sorry. Only the girls were spared as they could be useful as they reach adulthood. Yet the treatment they received was not much better. Most of the girls passed away from their injuries. Several more succumb to infection caused by their own wounds. All of them cast aside like the adult defectors, forever forgotten by enemies and their own kin. Harmony was deemed unattractive by her burns. “Damaged goods” as what her captors said, but may have some use as they learned she survived.

Despite everything, Harmony refused to die. She couldn’t surrender. That is never an option. That’s just how she was raised by Shandian warriors. She beat the odds set upon her, fighting with all her strength, just to survive another day. But she knew she may die if she stayed under Enel’s rule. Her time was running out when he or his minions could demand more from her. The girl can’t bear the thought of what may happen from the horrors she witnessed here. Though it was dangerous, the teen knew she must escape. It is better to risk it for freedom than die as a slave.

One night, Harmony decided to act on a plan she concocted. She managed to slip away, hoping to make it out to Angel Island. Sadly, there was a snag that alerted security and there was hell to pay. At that point, all that mattered was her attempt was an offense. She was lucky to be alive and serve, but she threw it away by trying to run away. Death was the only solution to this. Enel’s gift in attacking others with lightning broke her makeshift raft and she soon found herself swept away, clinging to a remnant of the raft as the harsh current shoved her to and fro, just barely escaping the god’s attacks. She was swept away and it was thought that she drowned.

But fate had other plans. Harmony’s stubborn nature kept her alive as she held on to the large piece of wood that wa sleft of her raft. She climbed on when the current calmed as she drifted further from Skypiea, unsure where she was going and if she will live. Soaked to the bone and shivering, the teen laid there, hoping and praying that she made the right choice as she left her home and entered a world like no other.

She would have passed away if it wasn’t for a pirate ship catching sight of her. A ship belonging to the Sea Warriors, a fierce crew led by Captain Bjørn the Berserker. Though he was a ruthless man known to strike fear into the hearts of men, he had weaknesses to women and children. Though some people may jeer at Bjørn for being kind to women and children, his wrath will have them not dare chuckle at his actions. He was not called the Berserker without reason. Upon seeing Harmony, he had pity on the child and ordered his men to bring her onboard. It was there that he ordered his crew to never harm the child or he will have their heads. Harmony was afraid at first, vaguely remembering the stories of pirates and what they are capable of. But over time, Bjørn slowly gained Harmony’s trust and she quickly won the hearts of others on the ship for her kind heart. Bjørn saw her like his own child and treated her as such. He taught her how to fight, use the gun and sword, though she preferred the former. Harmony called him Uncle Bjørn and lived with the pirates.

Though she is still embarrassed by no longer having her wings, and the scars still made people cringe by how ghastly they appear. There are nights when the phantom pain her wings torment her, just like the nightmares of Enel and how he took her family and her home. How she missed Skypiea and her own tribe. She longed to go home and be with her people again, but she knew it isn’t easy.

Her parents were defectors and though the Shandians strive to remain out of Enel’s reach, they may reject Harmony for what her parents have tried to do. She feared they will reject her for her old burns and the loss of her wings. feared she would be rejected by her people.

Her fear was so powerful, she dreaded the thought of returning to Skypeia. Though they were liberated from Enel’s tyranny and the four hundred year war against the Skypians ended, she cannot bear to return for the memories and heartache are too strong, just like the fear of being deemed an outsider instead of being one of the Shandians. And so, she remained with the pirates until she became an adult when something that bothered her became more intense.

But, she feels she must do more than live the sheltered life on this ship. Yes, her needs are met, and she is safe for the most part, but there is something within her. A calling to see the world. She knew it was a harsh and cruel place as she has seen it firsthand. Yet, she did not abandon the kindness she carried since her birth. She wondered what would happen if she went out to see what this place has to offer. Could offering light and kindness in this dark world make a difference? At least a little bit? Perhaps it is wishful thinking from a foolish heart, but the desire to make a difference and put an end to the ugliness of human nature gnawed at her. It became too much to ignore!

Her wanderlust grew stronger by the time she was nineteen. She came to Captain Bjørn requesting to leave the Sea Warriors as she craves for adventure and finding herself.

Though Bjørn was reluctant to let her go as he knew the cruelty that existed in thei dangerous world, he agreed. He gave her a small fortune from his treasure and his prized pistol before seeing her leave the Sea Warriors. He made sure to remind her that if she ever changes her mind, search for the Sea Warriors and they will welcome her back.

Harmony gave her guardian one more embrace, tearfully thanking him for everything before she set off from the ship before it left her behind on an island that she chose to start her journey. She recalls some sniffles and a few men hiding in the shadows to weep. The Sea Warriors became a family to her. A rowdy one, but they all cared for her and grew attached to the child they watched grew up to a woman. One who is ready to see the world and find herself.

#new AU #One Piece AU #it's a bit rough but I'll edit it as I develop the story more #blood tw #torture tw #child slavery tw #death tw #left in the dark

2 notes · View notes

iaintyourbro · 4 years ago

Note

What’s your take on Cloud’s depression during AC? People on twitter are suddenly talking about this, again. This matter was brought up by those antis saying that we Clotis should accept the fact that Tifa wasn’t the one who “healed” Cloud and that she was also being mean and not considerate whatsoever. The funny thing is that, they also accused us of denying his depression and not understanding it. TF. Let’s be real, Tifa played a major part, in fact she gave him morale thx to her “scolding” lol

Hey anon..

Yeah, Twitter has me depressed today. I think it started last night. I was enjoying it for a bit, but the last week or two have been so bad over there with bullshit that I’m about to just take a break from the entire fandom.

My Take on AC Cloud:

I watched AC when it first came out, and I barely remember it. I remember I didn’t like what they did. Why was Cloud so depressed and brooding? Oh Aerith is in this? Interesting. I felt like it was disjointed and removed a lot of the great progress Cloud made in OG. They kept this depressed, brooding guy in KH as well... It just didn’t seem right to me. I was young, too.

At this point we also didn’t have On the Way to a Smile, Crisis Core, or anything else, really.. None of the Ultimanias were in English at this point. I also was not interested enough in going online. It was a weird time when I was playing other things and was meh on FF7 for a while. I was always a FF8 fangirl, so was jealous of FF7 at times hahaha. It got so much more attention and love.

It took me a long time to watch it again. I remember my husband watching it before Remake came out and I felt mad or sad. It was like an emotion from memory, and I didn’t know why. I can’t describe it. I saw it on the TV and was like why is this on here...

After playing Remake, I bit the bullet and ordered AC Complete, which had things tweaked and added. I also am now in my 30′s and have a lot more life experience.

Antis like to say Cloud is depressed solely because Aerith is dead and he wants to be with her. This may be one of the reasons I didn’t like AC, because when I did happen to come across some FF7 thing online, I’d see this shit and be like whatever, that makes no sense.

I enjoyed ACC. My heart was actually pounding and I was nervous/intrigued by what was going on even though I knew the story. I haven’t read all of CoT yet, but I’ve seen the excerpts online, so I know the general gist of things.

Based strictly on ACC:

Cloud is really upset that Denzel is sick. He’s obsessively looking up medical stuff to figure out how to cure it - this is shown with everything all over his desk. He’s closed in on himself to do this. I did the same shit when my dad had cancer. I did it for three fucking years while he was alive - from the time he got diagnosed to the day he was dying. Every damn day I looked up articles, research, and theories. It’s not healthy. It’s depressing and I closed myself off from the world half the time and didn’t realize it. Thank God my husband is a patient saint.

Cloud does care a lot about Tifa. His reaction alone at seeing her knocked out in the church is heart wrenching. When they’re brought back to Seventh Heaven, Cloud pops right up when he sees Tifa there. He then stays with her until she wakes up. This is a pretty good amount of time. The sun is up when he’s looking over her, and when she wakes up, it’s dark outside. He could have slipped out again without her noticing if he really wanted to. I’m sure he may have contemplated it.

She calls his ass out on how he’s acting. She knows he’s sick at this point. This was huge for Tifa who’s not confrontational. He clearly doesn’t want to completely disconnect, or he would have gotten rid of his cell phone voluntarily. He doesn’t. They actually show him checking his messages.

Ultimately Cloud leaves because he ends up with Geostigma. That’s the last straw. He can’t face the fact that he’s going to die and what it’ll do to his family, so he leaves. Listen, I think the only reason my dad didn’t try to leave when he was diagnosed was because he had nowhere to go and by time he started verbalizing wanting to leave, he was physically unable to. Yes, I remember him being angry because he was hospitalized again and he told my mom he was going to get an apartment by himself so she didn’t know when he was getting bad. It’s very hurtful to even think it, and even worse when you know they don’t actually mean it... They do it because they don’t want to see their family hurt.

The setup he has at the church as his “living” area is super depressing. It looks like something a homeless person sets up. He legit was going to wait to die. He had a lot of knowledge about this, so he figured there was nothing he could do.

Marlene calls Cloud out on his bullshit too. Cloud admits to her he doesn’t think he can take care of anybody. Marlene Barrret quotes him and it’s cute. I think Cloud appreciated it and I think it made him think.

In ACC, Cloud has a short conversation with Aerith. Aerith seems almost annoyed with him like “wtf is your deal, dude” kind of attitude. Zack shows up when he’s bloody and half dead fighting Sephiroth to encourage him. There are scenes with him talking at Zack’s grave and saying he couldn’t keep his promise to him. He flat out tells Aerith he wants to be forgiven. He doesn’t say I miss you, I want to be with you, none of that happens. In fact, it’s mainly her telling him HE needs to start doing some forgiving - ultimately to himself.

When Cloud is in limbo - between living and dying - Cloud says “Mom.” Very romantic, I know. Then Zack and Aerith have a conversation very similar to a couple that’s going to adopt a child and they tell Cloud he’s too big for them. This is the “I see the light” and the person on the other side is like “nah bro go back, not your time yet.”

He wakes up, Tifa and crew is there, he smiles at Tifa... and it’s a happy ending. He sees both Zack AND Aerith at the end, and they walk off in to the light together all cute and shit.

Adding in Things from the Novels/Interviews/Thoughts:

The devs have said Cloud was happy with his family and that scared him. The happier he got, the more scared he got. We know he cherishes everything. He especially cherishes the family he has.

Cloud’s depression spiral started from the high anxiety of having a happy life and Elmyra asking him to deliver flowers to Aerith’s grave. Now, I have my feelings about this, but when I look at it logically, I don’t think Elmyra ultimately does this out of spite. I actually don’t think Elmyra thinks Cloud and Aerith were a thing - so it wasn’t that either. I think she knew Cloud was friends with her and maybe he’d want to deliver some flowers - to give him some business.

This flower delivery reminds Cloud of what he thinks is his failure to protect somebody else. At this point he has his memories of what happened to Nibelheim, his mother, Tifa, and Zack. The Sector 7 plate drop and Aerith are the most recent “failures”. So this brings up Aerith.

Then Denzel comes along and he’s an orphan because his parents were... yeah... killed during the Sector 7 plate collapse. Double ouch. But Cloud and Tifa are going to take care of him.

Tifa herself has a lot of guilt because of the same reasons, she just deals with it very differently. Tifa tells Cloud to bring Denzel right home. She can make amends by adopting him in to her family and caring for him. Cloud thinks Aerith brought Denzel to him (Tifa corrects him). This is a Cloud thing, it’s not romantic. Cloud doesn’t know the guilt Tifa feels. He legit thinks all of this is his fault. Tifa’s guilt stems from the fact that Shinra drops the plate because Avalanche was in Sector 7 - she was in Avalanche. She feels guilty about Aerith because she thinks its her fault Aerith followed them to Don Corneo’s mansion. The thing is, Aerith doesn’t blame EITHER of them - I just wish they’d cover a Tifa/Aerith conversation about this as well...

Cloud and Tifa do have fights in the novels from what I understand, but it’s because he’s acting weird. He feels bad hiding the fact that he’s been going to the church a lot, and I think that does turn in to a whole LTD debate. So you can take this as Tifa is jealous that he’s going to the church all the time or she’s upset that he is hiding from her.

In the novels, Tifa has a breakdown when they go see the church after they defeat Sephiroth. This is where you get to see how badly Aerith’s death impacted her. So my thought is... Cloud thinks bringing her to the church hurts her because of her feelings, not because she’s jealous. I think Cloud is oblivious to the jealousy thing, honestly. Don’t think it’s a thought in his mind.

I honestly don’t know the real reason why he goes to the church to hide. I think this is another point of fight with both sides. My personal take is there was nowhere else he could go and be alone. Most of the stuff had been destroyed. It was still close by, so he could still do his work and keep an eye on things/be nearby.

There is a quote that is taken to be literal, but I think it’s just a way to say it wouldn’t have mattered who Cloud was “with.” Yes, Tifa and Cloud have issues, and I believe the quote goes “Perhaps it would have gone better with Aerith, but I think her responsibility is too great. Maybe the children will help them with their issues.” This isn’t exact, but it’s the jist of what they said. The children do help them - that’s the point of the scenes with Marlene, to slap him silly with reality.

“Oh but he sees Aerith when the building is falling.” Yes, you know why? Because he thinks that’s going to happen to Tifa. This is a “NO I’M NOT LETTING THIS HAPPEN.” moment. On top of it, I don’t think anybody would be right again if they saw this happen. If my neighbor was impaled by a large sword in their back, I’d be messed up from it. I don’t really know my neighbors. He’s not replaying this death scene in his head cuz he misses Aerith, he’s playing it in his head because it’s traumatic and he doesn't want to see this happen to Tifa. Especially Tifa.

It’s been put in Ultimanias time and time again that Cloud’s feelings are for Tifa. I went through my Ultimania - which only covers OG - and it doesn’t say anything about Cloud’s side of the CA argument. It does say how he feels about Tifa in the Lifestream, though.

The “He wants to die for her, see, that’s why he’s going to the church and waiting.” No, he doesn’t want to die or else he wouldn’t be so depressed. Just thinking this is fucked up on so many levels. If he really wanted to die and be with her, he’d be happy he got an incurable illness, I’d think... Cloud leaves Tifa and them because he doesn’t want to hurt him with him dying and not being able to stop it.

The other thing that would be... weird... Zack is in the Lifestream with Aerith. They walk off together for a reason. I don’t think she’s going to just drop Zack for Cloud since the whole reason she was initially interested in Cloud was because of the similarities to Zack. He had the same sword, the same clothes, and in OG had some of the same mannerisms. I noticed the dropped the squatting in Remake - the random squatting.

The ending of ACC implies that now that Geostigma is cured and Sephiroth is (hopefully) gone for good, Cloud can be happy. I’m not saying that his smile fixes everything. I’m sure that him and Tifa had to work on things, but you can see in DoC that things seem to be much better - he’s more upbeat and happy. He’s more dorky, like he should be.

Sorry this is long. I have a lot of feelings about all this stuff today. I’ve been seeing the fights over on Twitter about it and.. yeah. Cloud is depressed because of the fact he’s dying, his kid is dying, and he can’t seem to do anything right in his mind.

Thanks for the ask.

68 notes · View notes

im-totally-not-an-alien · 5 years ago

Text

Final Fantasy 7 prompts no. 16

1. Cloud and Sephiroth are soulmates, but Sephiroth rejected Trooper! Cloud because he saw him as useless and weak, and very much beneath him. Cloud of course, is crushed beyond reason, and his friend Zack is left picking up the pieces.

Sephiroth didn't even recognize Cloud at Nabilhaim, making him feel even worse.

Later, during both the final battle and the events of A!C! Sephiroth can't seem to understand why his beautiful- powerful- perfect- Cloud kept rejecting his advances. They were soulmates, weren't they?

2. Reno wakes up feeling like crap and hearing someone cursing him out. As he becomes more aware however, he realizes he's laying on Rudes back and they were both being carried out of the Zolom infested swamp like a mini pancake stack by none other than a thoroughly miffed Cloud Strife. Reno is honestly touched.

3. Ff7 remake fic where Barret pays Cloud to play dress up and have tea parties with Marlene.

4. I adore the ff7 x The dark artifices crossover. I can totally see the fae freaking out about all the Edrich magic pumping through Cloud and Vincent, and adoring Cloud and crew cause Cloud is basically an Edrich God who isn't inherently malicious and they're trying to get him on thier side. The Clave is trying to find excuses to hate them though.

5. Cloud time travels but he can only speak in incorrect-strife-quotes

6. Cloud sacrificed himself to seal Sephiroth away and now they're both stuck sleeping in a gigantic materia in town Square. Generations come and go and every year the people hold a festival in his honor, wrapping the glowing white materia in yellow and white lilies and rejoicing in the surrounding nature. Genesis stops by regularly, and while niether Sephiroths or Clouds faces ever move, he likes to think they're annoyed by his Loveless recitals.

7. Cloud lands in an alternate universe and his wrist immediately starts to burn. He peels off his long glove to see Sephiroths name written there. He just stares blankly at it for what feels like an hour before letting out a string of curses that would make Cid proud. Once he learns he's not on Gaia anymore Cloud decides to play it safe and uses an alias so the him from this world doesn't get in trouble when he blows the reactors. Except he doesn't. Cause there are no reactors. Shinra is run by Sephiroth after a military coo left him in charge. There is nothing for him to fight. Cloud proceeds to break down for the second time that week.

Elsewhere, Sephiroth is looking down in disbelief at the name on his arm. Who the fuck is Storm Strife?

And thus begins thier global game of cat and mouse.

8. Cloud wakes up in a lab 10 years in the past. If that wasn't bad enough, he's surrounded by small children with either silver or blond hair, all of which look like fussions of him an Sephiroth. Cloud can't help it, he screams, and the children, none of whom look a day older than 7 begin to cry. After a few moments he mutters, "Damn it. Guess I'm a dad now."

Weeks later and several reports of a flock of small Sephiroths later, the Silver General tracks them down and confronts Cloud.

9. Sephiroth grinned down at Cloud, "Your suffering brings me joy."

Cloud to his credit, looked scandalized, "Um, ew?"

10. Cloud falls through the roof of the Shinra building and kills Hojo.

11. All the guys wear dresses for a day. No one comments on it.

(Edit: by all the guys I meant all of them. Everyone from Barret and Sephiroth to Hojo and Rude. No one is spared.)

12. Rufus falls out of the sky and Cloud catches him. Niether say anything as Cloud sets him on his feet. Rufus straightens his tie and smooths out his clothes before nodding his thanks to Strife, who just raises an eyebrow in response

13. Cloud screams into the void and before long Barret joins him. Tifa is glad the guys are bonding but...

14. Cloud time travels but is super clingy to Zack. Zack meanwhile is just freaked out and wondering why this blond guy keeps apologizing to him. Should he be worried?

15. Cloud also curses at Sephiroth any time he sees him. Like, strait to his face. An entire platoon of SOLDIERS swore they felt thier blood freeze when this crazy tiny blonde started to literally tell the most powerful man in the world to "Fuck himself with a wooden pogostick and go strait to hell!" Sephiroth fought him and lost, being saved by Zack blocking the swordsmans deathstroke. Sephiroth is afraid.

#cloud strife #final fantasy 7 #ff7 #ff7 prompts #Sephiroth #Sephiroth is a bastard #reno #rude #Rufus #rufus shinra #the dark artifices #zack fair #barret wallace #marlene wallace #genesis rhapsodos #soulmate au

128 notes · View notes

holdin-out-for-a-hero · 4 years ago

Text

Creep-FF7 Biggs X Reader Ch.8/?

Summary: you get on the bad side of one of Don Corneo’s men and now you have a target on your back.

A/N: Sorry this chapter is a week late! New chapters will be posted every Saturday, but I’ll try to post more than once a week. Also, it would mean a lot to me if you checked out my last post, it’s important.

"Raise hell," was what Jessie said. A simple, yet effective description of your current mission. Thing is, your team had never been told to raise hell before. Usually, you were told the opposite. In all of your previous missions, it was imperative to not raise hell or else get caught and ruin the mission or worse, lose your life. This was going to be interesting.

The four of you crept around the corner, staring out at the security checkpoint that lay directly in front of you. Something was off about the scene...

"Where are the guards?" Cloud asked. He was right, there wasn't a soul in sight. Even the guard booths appeared empty. Definitely a red flag.

From there the group scurried towards the guard booth, heads ducked just in case there was a troop they had missed. You and your friends crouched against the wall, just below the window and out of sight. Wedge was the first to peer into the booth.

He let out a small scream, and you slapped your hand over his mouth. Cloud grabbed the boy by the wrist and yanked him out of sight. So much for being subtle... But if there were someone outside, they would've been provoked by Wedge's scream. The seconds slipped by painfully slow as your group waited to see if anyone would come looking for the source of the sound, no one did. You let out a breath you didn't realize you were holding, hand falling away from Wedge's mouth.

Biggs looked inside the guard booth himself, noticing the only Shinra troop was either dead or unconscious on the floor. He ducked back down quick.

"Looks like someone beat us here," he said, voice a low growl.

"And I don't think it was Jessie!" Wedge added. Biggs shook his head.

"This had better not get in the way of our plans..."

Cloud slowly stood up, glancing around for any sign of life before looking down at the three people below him.

"It won't," he said simply.

"And you're sure about that?" You asked, scanning your surroundings as you stood up to his level. Once you were completely content that no one was around, you crossed your arms and stared up at the SOLDIER. He only nodded, and you studied his face, unable to read him. "Then let's go."

Biggs noticed your extended glance at the mercenary, and as the four of you moved to your next position, he made sure to slide between you and Cloud.

You couldn't help but notice his proximity as well as the brush of his hand against yours as the two of you walked side-by-side. You wondered if he noticed too. His hand was so close to yours, you could just grab it if you wanted... You mentally slapped yourself, now was not the time or place for a stupid crush.

"Don't see anyone here, what the hell happened?" Biggs asked, taking another glance at his surroundings. The usually heavily-guarded security entrance was lifeless. It was and eerie sight, which he couldn't seem to get over. Something was wrong, and the fact that he didn't know what it was only made his concern grow.

"Jessie's supposed to circling 'round back, right?" Wedge asked, worry lacing his tone. You nodded to him.

As you leaned against the wall that stood just before the warehouse gate, you tried to ready yourself for what would happen next. Sure, there weren't any guards outside the building, but there was no way that would ring true on the inside. There were too many valuable thing in that warehouse, so Shinra probably had a whole militia in there to keep it all safe. As soon as Cloud walked into those gates, all hell would break loose. Just like Jessie wanted.

Biggs went over the plan one last time: The three of you would scale the building to reach a vantage point while Cloud walked through the front. Then, the three of you would use the vantage point to help him out and watch his back. As Biggs explained this, you noticed Cloud's eyes glaze over in contemplation. He wasn't thinking about the mission, though; there was something else plaguing the merc's mind.

Biggs finished speaking, and Cloud still looked shellshocked. His gaze hadn't faltered from the sky in quite a while, which both Biggs and Wedge noticed.

"Cloud?" you asked; he didn't respond. You slowly placed your hand on his shoulder, and he jolted at the contact. You gasped and you pulled your hand away. His gaze met yours, eyes fiery and filled with... fear? Confusion? "You okay?"

He hesitated, glancing at you once more before calming down and returning to his typical stoic demeanor.

"Yeah,"

Just as he spoke, a flare whirred into the sky; Jessie's signal for the plan to commence. So you, Biggs, and Wedge scaled the side of the building, reaching a second floor balcony that ran all the way around the inner courtyard of the warehouse. Cloud stepped through the main gate, and as he did, a few Shinra guards spotted him.

He slashed his way through the troops, effectively causing a stir, which only lead to the dispatch of more troops. You tried your best to make his job easier by taking out a few from your vantage point, as did Biggs and Wedge, but for the most part it looked like Cloud could handle himself. You would expect no less from a former SOLDIER 1st class. But you couldn't forget that look in his eyes... what could possibly be going on in that boy's head?

"Unauthorized intruders in 7-6 annex. All units: proceed to location and neutralize targets."

The automated voice dragged you back into reality, the reality where you had to raise as much hell as possible. All the missions you've been on in the past, you were told to do the exact opposite. Stay as quiet as you can, Dont let anyone see you, if you get caught, you die. So hearing that stupid automated message set off so many alarms in your head. You had to remind yourself that it was gonna be ok, Cloud was the one taking the brunt of it anyway (which he was perfectly capable of handling). You took a deep breath to calm your nerves and keep your hands from shaking. It would be really hard to shoot Shinra troops with shaky hands.

There was a slap on your shoulder, you turned your head to see who it was. You met eyes with Biggs, a smile on his face and and a knowing look in his eyes. He felt the same way, you could tell.

"Showtime. We can do this." He said, you smiled up at him. And then the two of you resumed helping Cloud.

You stuck close to Biggs for the most part; because of the safety his presence always provided and that stupid little crush, it had become a subconscious habit. Jessie often mocked you for it, and Wedge and Tifa would always raise a brow. But they weren't here right now, and Wedge was too busy to judge you.

All was going according to plan, until it wasn't. You knew there were going to be troops, your group could handle troops, but there was more up the company's sleeve than just a few inexperienced guys with guns. They were Midgar's biggest technology and weapons manufacturer, so you should've expected to see something of that sort. When it happened, though, you were still surprised.

The platform you stood on started shaking, no, vibrating, and you instinctively grabbed at Biggs' bicep. The two of you looked around in confusion, trying to figure out why the ground was shaking below you. And then you saw it. Just a few feet away, a turret rose from its hiding place within the platform. There wasn't just one, but many spaced out across the balcony.

"Oh, you gotta be shitting me!" Biggs said.

As soon as they ascended from the ground, a storm of bullets were coming Cloud's way. There must be some way to help him, you thought. You looked at the turret, maybe there was a power button on it or something? Probably not, though you did check. Then you realized something: they weren't attached to the platform. With enough force, you could push them off. So that's what you did, you began pushing, only to realize you didn't have the strength to push them down alone.

"Help me out!" You called to Biggs, and he did so. As soon as he joined in, the turret fell from the platform and bust into a million pieces below.

Wedge watched from across the courtyard and began doing the same with the turrets on his side. Pretty soon, the three of you had taken most of them down.

"Goodbye," Biggs sighed, he had just pushed the last turret from the platform, which he insisted he do alone, and put his hand on his hips, catching a breath as he watched it shatter on the ground, "And good riddance."

Just as it seemed all of Cloud's threats had been neutralized, a loud growling and the sound of a gate opening interrupted the moment's peace. They just had to let out the dogs... Shinra's guard dogs weren't like normal dog. No, they were genetically enhanced and the most viscous animals you had ever encountered. They could rip a man in half. And cloud was facing an entire pack of them.

There were so many hounds, more than you ever expected, all growling and snarling. You questioned Cloud's ability to take them all on at once. Though you've seen him accomplish crazy things, there was a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Across the platform, Wedge saw the situation unfold below. There were way too many of them, and he knew there must be something he could do. Wedge saw the opportunity to be helpful and took it, no matter the risk. He jumped down from the platform, took the dogs' attention away from Cloud, and then ran.

"Catch me if you caaan!" He taunted, which only angered the dogs more.

"Wedge!" You shouted. He only sent a thumbs- up in you direction.

"What the hell is he doing?" Biggs asked, holding onto the railing. You found yourself gripping the railing as well, praying that the boy would end up ok. And if he did, you'd definitely give him an earful after the mission.

The dogs chased him in circles while Cloud worked to take them out one by one. You and Biggs tried to help, but since they were all running so fast, there was always the fear of hitting Wedge instead of the intended targets. You both avoided the dogs closest to him and instead focused on the ones in the back.

But one was getting closer and closer to him, snarling and ready to bite. It's head was at just the right height to take a chunk out of his ass. Once it got close enough, it sunk its teeth in. Wedge jumped at the contact, grabbing at his butt as he screamed in pain. But he couldn't stop running, not yet, or else he would become a meal for all of those animals.

Cloud took the rest of the dogs out, and Wedge collapsed to the ground when he knew his threat was neutralized.

"Think I... ran off... the pizza," He said in between ragged breaths. You and Biggs laughed. Wedge was just... so Wedge. That's the only way you knew how to describe him. Even when his life was in danger, he was still undeniably himself. You couldn't wait to give him a lecture for being so reckless.

"Hell of a show, man! If only the ladies loved you that much!" Biggs called from above.

"I'm glad someone's enjoying themselves," Wedge replied.

And just like that, the moment of peace was over. This time, your new threats were mechanical beasts, Shinra's newest and best mechs. Of course. Because things just couldn't be easy, could they?

The four of you began fighting against those metal monsters. Cloud and Wedge attacked from the ground, while you and Biggs used your height advantage to chip away at the machines' health.

Still, Cloud was a far better fighter than the three of you combined, and it turned out he didn't really need your help either. He finished them off quickly.

This time, there was no time to take a breath before the next threat appeared: more troops. And a lot of them at that.

"Don't move!" They ordered to Cloud and Wedge as they circled the pair, guns at the ready.

And then came the unexpected savior: a man on a bike flying through the air. That red bike... it was Roche. And he rode in with the same maniacal laughter he did when you first met him. As he landed, he spun around all of the troops, dispersing them.

"Well, aren't we having a wonderful time kicking the hornet's nest?"

You and Biggs jumped from the platform, running towards Cloud and Wedge. The troops you ran past didn't even respond, for they were too focused on Roche, a member of SOLDIER, helping the other side. At least that's what it looked like. It was too early to tell who's side he was really on.

He parked his red bike, stepping off of it and turning to look back at the four of you. He glanced between Biggs and Wedge for only a moment, before turning to you. A spark of recognition graced his eyes as he looked you up and down, noticing the bandages on your arms.

"Glad to see you're ok," he said, same sickening inflection.

"No thanks to you," you spat.

"Weren't you going to do the same thing to me?" He raised a brow, a smirk playing on his lips as well.

You huffed; he was right. You were going to do the same thing to him. He just beat you to it. Still, the sight of that weirdo infuriated you, and you had to hold your tongue to keep from telling him off.

Roche's attention fell away from you and instead to Cloud. His eyes lit up at the sight of the fellow SOLDIER, that creepy smirk of his growing even wider.

"You know what I want," he said, voice a low rumble, "A second dance, just the two of us."

He approached the mercenary, taking slow, methodical steps. His blade was held down at his side, scraping the ground as he walked. Then he stopped, taking his sword and holding it out towards Cloud.

"You turned the key," he said, placing his other hand on his heart, "then engine roars with excitement... it hungers to be set free!"

His poetically erotic comment disarmed your group for a moment by sheer shock alone, though you all quickly regained composure.

Roche wanted a one-on-one duel, but you recalled being told to have Cloud's back. Looking at Wedge and Biggs, you knew they were thinking the same thing. So the three of you held fast to your positions, weapons and fists at the ready. Cloud reached for his sword, and the three of you took a step closer.

"Fall back," Cloud warned. You opened your mouth in shock for a second, before a hand on your wrist and pulled you away from the upcoming fight. Without even having to look, you knew it was Biggs. You crossed your arms over your chest in annoyance; you really wanted to punch that weirdo...

There was a second's pause as the two finished their stand off, before Cloud made the first move and ran at the other SOLDIER. And thus their battle begun, sparks flying from the clashing metal. Being genetically altered, their movements were much faster for you to keeps up with. It was a flurry of attacks, one right after the other.

It seemed as though Cloud must have worn the man down, as the man staggered back, out of breath. After a few gasps of air, his breathing slowed again and he looked back up to Cloud, that same evil grin on his face. He straightened up, playing with the blade in his hand for a moment, before laughing.

"I told you we were going to push it past the red line!" He said, sword pointed at Cloud.

And so their dance started again. Their swords swung through the air so fast you could practically see them cut through the air around them. Huffs and grunts filled the night as their swords met over and over again. Neither party held back, both SOLDIERS used all their might, which made for an electrifying battle. Their moves were rapid-fire, an onslaught of attacks with the same intensity of a summer storm.

Eventually though, cloud chipped away at the man's health and stripped him of his resolve. Roche fell to his knees, taking quick, labored breaths. Cloud put his buster sword back on his back.

"Satisfied?" Cloud asked. Roche caught his breath and got back on his feet.

"With such fleeting pleasure? Hardly." He laughed, making his way back to his red bike. He stroked the seat for a moment, before turning around, "There are higher height to which you and I can still soar."

As the words left his mouth, more Shinra troops as well as a few more mechs came out to play. Was this night ever going to end? It was always one thing after another. You, Cloud, Wedge, and Biggs got into a square formation, each facing outwards so everyone's back was covered.

The troops stood back as three mechs stomped over to your group, the one in the middle charged towards Cloud and he held his sword up in defense.

Just before it could get to him though, Roche drove past, knocking all three mechs off of their feet. He stopped his bike for a moment, taking another sinister look at Cloud.

"We really must do this again. Until then... try not to die. I'll see you on the road, my friend!"

And then he drove off like a madman, skidding past both your group and the Shinra troops, his laughter echoing through the night.

#biggs x reader #ffviir #final fantasy vii #biggs #barrett wallace #ff7 biggs #jessie rasberry #tifa lockhart #cloud strife #ff7 #ffvii remake

35 notes · View notes