Not technically the mafia... (ch57)

by griffinkhan

Sorry, I was still amused by KKBeckett making the FF Gang out to be the mafia. Because that's totally what they look like, right? (I kid, I kid.)

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I'm pretty sure this chapter was basically intended to be fluff with some minor plot points put in.  As in, Yuffie telling/showing Cloud the secret hideout was the only plot point I had to hit.

However, I also had to include Zack doing squats because it was bothering me that I hadn't been able to include that before.  (No, seriously, it was bothering me a crapton.)  Anyway...

The kissing bit (or them talking about kissing) was totally Yuffie just popping into my head and saying that.  So, naturally, I had to work in the dialogue.  Mostly because it's just all of the #accurate.

Originally, Yuffie was just going to tell Cloud about the hideout, and then someone like Aerith or Leon was going to hear about it, but then it just worked so pleasantly into her showing him it because she trusts him.  And then Leon's watching because he can't stand the silence of the hotel (well, he can't really stand silence, but I'll have feels about that later.)  And then he's all like... what should I do? And he wanders back to the hotel and Rinoa's there waiting for him because he's been writing to her off and on asking her to come visit and she basically just decided one day that she was going to, despite the fact that she probably should be training and stuff.

But no, again, I get to have feelings about Leon... because... well... Idk... that bit about not liking silence because of it reminding him about the end of time and I just... don't even... know where that came from.  And then him seeing Rinoa and having a very typical reaction to seeing the person that you WANT to spend all your time with.... yeah.  And then throwing them in a room with Zerith.  So much win.

Review Responses:

KKBeckett: yes, EVERYONE ships Zerith.  Really, everyone.  Cloud's certainly one of them, because he'd seen how Zack talks about Aerith and then he saw them together and just.  Yup.  Also, yes, that was a reference to people getting new weapons.  Blatantly.  Because I'm cool like that.

Teaser Quotes: (Because I enjoy them!)

"Wha' in'a name'uh all tha's Holy in'a Worlds're yeh doin'?"

"I'll have to get the cot out of the closet."
"I can sleep on the floor, really."
"No, you're sleeping in my bed! I'm sleeping on the cot."
"You don't have to."
"Yeah, right.  It's cool.  I've slept on the ground before."
"I've slept on the ground before."

"Anything you want to talk about?"
"Nibelheim."
"Yeah?"
"We need to go."
"Okay.  Wanna go now?"
"No."
"Okay.  We'll go tomorrow."

"This World is falling into darkness."
"No, there's no... We have to go back! We have to save..."
"There isn't time! If we don't leave now, we'll get sucked in, too."

"Can I have some eggs now?"
"Of course! I'll get you some right now."
"I made them myself."
"Oh, really?"

And then, well, I'm just impressed by these cellists:

Some more family feels! (ch56)

I've given you family feels before, haven't I? If not, I'm surprised.  Rar's been handing them out like candy.

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Also, I hit 100 Reviews! (I'm at 102 right now.)  Woot!

So this chapter is a conglomeration of several things.  First of all, we've got Marlene's birth, which we're in Barret's POV for.  That was fun.

by TaoPaint

Then we've got Tifa's search for Cloud.  And Tifa can use light corridors, which I'm surprised none of you said anything about.  But maybe it's not all that cool.  Which is fine, it doesn't have to be, I just expected someone to say something.  Ah well.  But regardless, Tifa can use light corridors because she's A) a freaking strong-willed person and B) her heart's got enough light in it to manage.  So, yeah.  Fun times!

And then we have the family feels.

See, I knew that Zack and Cloud would end up visiting Traverse Town anyway.  Cloud was going to be super uneasy about the whole deal, because he doesn't like to be around people, but Zack insists that everything will be fine because the people they're around can totally handle weird things.  Originally, this would have been where Cloud told Zack that he had been in the Realm of Darkness (because I'd intended for him to keep that a secret, but he ended up sharing that on their first meeting, so okay then.)  Regardless, even if that conversation had happened around here instead of several chapters ago, Zack still would have insisted that Cloud had nothing to worry about and they'd all help him out.

I thought Cloud was going to throw up a huge panic regarding going and being around people, and I was like, perhaps I'll have to knock him unconscious? Is Zack going to bring someone else to Aerith for healing? But, as it turns out, Cloud is a big boy and sucks up his own worries for a bit so that Zack can visit his girlfriend.  Classic case of characters not behaving in a way in which the author planned.  Because Zack introduces Cloud to the gang and Cloud's welcomed beautifully.

Then we've got the section with Merlin, which ended up tying into the family feels.  I knew Merlin was going to move into Traverse Town right about now, so I inserted him into the chapter.  What ended up happening, was he got caught up in an argument regarding family.  Because Blake is a real person who may or may not have helped Yuffie out with the Heartless occasionally, so she threw out the name as a cover for spending time in her secret hideout.  When she tries to make her cover more real, Blake does the typical thing and says that they weren't really friends so she should back off, but then he also takes things a step too far and insults their family.  (Originally, it was just going to be him insulting Aerith, but it turned into insulting the whole family because it flowed better and I ended up liking where that went.)  But poor Merlin, who gets completely sucked into the whole thing...

But then there's some Cloud and Yuffie bonding, which is super nice! Because... well... idk, people bonding with Yuffie is nice.  She's still kinda young.  And she still lies slightly pathologically (minus to Aerith, if we're not counting the secret tunnel thing.)  But she grows out of that.  I swear.  She's still ornery, but she gets better.

Quick Review Responses:

SpiritDreamWarriors: Of course I shall continue! I'm a little slow at the moment, but I hope to make up for lost time over the holiday.

archsage: Yes! Family is about so much more.  Anyway, I'm not really too into RWBY, but I have seen Dead Fantasy!

KKBeckett: I appreciate your mafia reference.  Also, yes, Tifa's basically just following Cloud around at every world he's been in since coming back from the Realm of Darkness.  Because he's with Zack, he's been to a lot of Worlds.

Anyway, I should be a person and go to bed... so... have some teaser quotes real quick!

"I want to go somewhere, just for a bit.  To see the sights! I'm not weak, I know how to take care of myself. However, you're the one with the star shard."

"I'll stay here and..."
"Take care of Yuffie?"
"No, make sure she doesn't follow you."

"I do want to know why you're doing this."
"Practice.  Training.  Something like that."
"You're bored, aren't you?"

"Why aren't they're any Keyblade Wielders around?"
"They've all but disappeared.  Something's happened and the Worlds have gone dark."

"Who are you writing to?"
"Zack."
"Are you writing mushy stuff?"
"Maybe just a little."
"Ew."

And then... well... good music!

Brotp Feels (ch55)

Because Zack and Cloud are one of my brotps.

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Zack Fair by Ex-Shadow on dA
Cloud Strife by Malindachan on dA

They really are though.  This chapter basically just solidified their friendship for me in my head.  Mostly asthey're derping around in the Shinra building as they're on a mission to get materia.  Because, though they've sort of started to call each other "friend" before, it's in this chapter that it's completely legit.

It's where we realize that Cloud's slightly impressed with Zack's shenanigans, and he'll do anything if he thinks it'll work.  And Zack's like "yes! I like this one! I will keep him!"

Of course, they're not entirely just shenanigans, given how there's the entire discussion at the beginning of the chapter when Cloud's telling Zack how he basically just figured that Zack could take care of himself in the event that anything happened and meanwhile Zack's thinking that if anything were to happen, he'd manage to take care of them both.  (Zack's not going to let anything on the scale of Angeal happen again.)

That picture up there is just so perfect (though they totally didn't take the stairs in my fic, but the elevator), the idea behind it is so accurate.  They're infiltrating the Shinra building! Like partners in crime! I was so happy when I stumbled across it a couple of weeks ago in my image search.

Also, I'm very excited for upcoming chapters because it's when Cloud actually gets integrated into the rest of the group.  Sure, he's met Yuffie and I've made a slight reference to Yuffie liking Cloud (like, doesn't disrespect him) from FF7.  But Aerith! And Leon! And... eeheehee! Can't wait!

Surprisingly, that's all I have to say on my brotp feels at the moment.

But you can have some teaser quotes!

"Who sabotaged my cannon!"

"I didn't do it!"
"I was actually going to ask if this is the last of the milk..."
"Yeah.  Tell Aerith we need more."

"I don't like flying."
"Nobody asked yeh."

"Don't you ever wonder what Radiant Garden looks like?"
"Um, to be honest, no."

"I wish we knew how to fix Worlds."
"That requires something called Kingdom Hearts.  And a Keyblade.  I think."

And then there's this gem!

Yup, more letters (ch54)

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It occurs to me that my author's note on this chapter doesn't make a whole ton of sense, or it makes sense, it's just highly unamusing.  This is entirely because I was putting the chapter up late last night and I was sleep deprived and working through the medication over the migraine.  (I should have been sleeping, but there was homework....)

So, ignoring the odd author's note, let's talk about the chapter.

I don't really ever plan out the letters chapters.  I never have, I probably never will.  I basically just look at my outline and decide "That looks like a good place for a round of letters" so I put it in.  There have been a couple of times where I elected not to do the letters because I couldn't think of anything to write and I don't want to force the letters.  This was one of the instances, however, where I could better bridge what was going on through letters than anything else.

So, starting with Aerith's letter to Zack, what we're dealing with here is Aerith first trying to help Cid, because Aerith likes helping people in general, and she's been asking around to see what might work best for Cid's cannon prototype.  She asks this of Zack some undetermined time before this chapter and he responds sometime later (though still before the chapter, the last chapter also) about materia.  This is the letter Aerith had written before the start of chapter 53, she finishes the letter to Zack and starts one to Rinoa before going and making dinner, there was her afternoon.  Aerith does the usual thing and tells about how Traverse Town is.  Then she asks about Cloud because she cares.  Then she tells Zack not to be jealous because she still cares for and thinks about him as well.  She tells him her dream (which stemmed from a dream of mine, actually... because I legit dream about this stuff).  Aerith asks about Zack and also what Cloud's favorite foods are.  She makes a comment about wanting to go to festivals, but then ends the letter.  She curiously does not talk too much about herself, not really.  A point I will discuss later.

Aerith's letter to Rinoa is the letter she's writing at the start of chapter 53 when Leon joins her at the table.  Aerith's super awkward in this letter, I realize, looking back at it.  There's an awkward introduction and it just continues being awkward from there.  She talks a bit about herself, but only in the mage-sense to give Rinoa a background.  Then she goes into that whole "nice" thing which just cracks me up.  She's so blunt about it.  Also, she completely rats Leon out and it's amusing.  She asks Rinoa about what sort of food she likes and then what it's like to fly.  Which, is both a reference to Aerith being scared of the sky and the wings Angeal has in Crisis Core.  The being afraid of the sky part comes in where Aerith says how she thinks it would be scared to fly.  Not that Aerith's actually afraid of the sky in my universe, because she's not, she sees the sky as a way to connect with Zack when they're worlds apart.  And then the whole freedom of wings is a reference to Angeal.  Yup.  Then Aerith asks if Rinoa has any suggestions for the cannons in her typical helpful manner and then closes the letter wishing Rinoa luck.  Again, Aerith talks little about herself.  (I feel like I'm writing an essay here, but I'm actually just reflecting on Aerith's character.)

Then there's Leon's letter to Rinoa which he spends most of chapter 53 writing.  Side note, I keep changing what Leon's handwriting is, annoyingly.  I just can't settle on something in my head.  I know it's a bit of a scrawl, but that's all.  Anyway.  Leon's awkward too, but he's always awkward and Rinoa's totally okay with it.  The letter is a whole ton of feels: he is angry at Rinoa's father for not caring about her, I discussed in the last blog post Leon's feels regarding Cid and his current cannon building escapades, then there's the whole Father!Cid bit that I just adore... He misses her, he tells her that he's skeptical of Yuffie, he feels weird being back in Traverse Town, but he loves Aerith's cooking.  A completely normal letter from him.  Completely.  Especially the "Also, I love you" part.  Goodness, Leon.

Then there's Zack's letter to Aerith, which was probably written shortly before this chapter and the one before, but Aerith has not gotten it yet.  Zack's letter actually makes me sad.  He's so happy-go-lucky at the beginning.  He puts the ! after Aerith's name just because.  He tries to describe Halloweentown and fails (funnily enough, the world he's on is super festive and Aerith was talking about festivals, I can't remember if I planned that or not.)  Then Zack starts asking about what to do regarding Cloud's nightmares.  And that question isn't even completely relating to Cloud's nightmares, because Zack's getting nightmares too.  Except, where Cloud's getting suffocating nightmares about the darkness and something following him, Zack is getting nightmares about Angeal.  But then Zack changes the subject by saying that he considers Cloud a friend and he's really glad he met him, but he also misses Aerith and he's torn between the two.  Then he starts asking all the questions that he knows Aerith's going to answer anyway whether he asked them or not, but he ends with an emphasized "PLEASE TALK ABOUT YOURSELF I MISS YOU AND I JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW YOU ARE FEELING".  Sorry about the caps there, it was totally Zack.  And then he admits in the PS that he's getting the nightmares too and my heart simply breaks for him.  *sniffle*

Wow, that was a ton of feels.  I feel a bit bad about that.  Except, I don't.  :P

Teaser quote time!

"Well, then go.  Do whatever it is you need to.  But be careful!"

"I feel like there's more darkness floating around and I don't want you to get caught up in it."

"That, my dear, is a wild ride."

"Everything okay? Or is that a dumb question?"

"What are the odds that we'd end up finding each other? Two country boys who were just off to find adventure."
"You know, I think we found adventure."
"You can say that again."

I LOVE this video.  Just... yes.

Witty Title! Witty Title! (to the tune of secret tunnel) (ch53)

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I don't know why I keep making references to the Secret Tunnel.  I just do.

Warning: Leon feels ahead. (Not my feels about Leon, but Leon's actual feels, because there is a difference.)

by yukimaria on dA

So, Leon's kind of out of it for this chapter, mostly because he's growing adjusted to living in Traverse Town again and he's writing a letter to Rinoa and he doesn't think he's too terribly good at that and Aerith writes letters like she's breathing and he's a bit jealous that Cid doesn't need any help with the cannons anymore, but at the same time he's kinda glad because he's never been really good at that sort of thing either, he just puts up with it, he's much better thinking about that sort of thing in the theoretical sense, and he's glad for Cid because he has Shera, but he misses Rinoa like Aerith misses Zack, and what is it that Yuffie's up to these days, does she seriously have a friend? or is that just another one of her white lies to keep her out of trouble because of what she's really been doing? but on that vein of thought, what has Yuffie really been doing? he doesn't know...

See, Leon feels. I suppose I should have warned you about that.... *goes and adds warning*

Also, "Am I missing an eyebrow?" -Adam Savage, Mythbusters (but it's totally Cid right now, don't even argue.)

The rest of my feels I think I explained on the tumblr.

This chapter was never actually plotted out, which is why I think it goes a bit all over the place and has a bit of everything, because I only had a prompt to discuss Squall's feels about missing Rinoa and Aerith's feels about missing Zack, which only come up at the very end of the chapter.  But I also got in some Cid and Shera love and another hint at Yuffie's antics, yay!

I will spare you all my feels about how I'm super done with school and really just want to sit and write and do nothing else because that's actually what I want to do with my life but I also have to pay bills and I should finish my bachelor's since i started it and yeah...

That was me sparing you.

Teaser quotes! (which are way more exciting!)

"You don't mind swimming,d o you?"

"Apples are really expensive right now."
"But I love apples!"
"Then you pay for them."
"Fine! I will.  Can I put them in your basket though?"
"Yes, I suppose."

"I've gotta ask, do you get weird looks for the wings?"
"All the time."

"Someday though, someday I'll be a part of the adventures."

"I uh... may have given her a summon materia."

Nifty video!

Magik, you should be in bed right now (Prequel Ch52)

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I don't have a tumblr for this one because I didn't make one for some reason...

The only note I really took as I was writing it was "oh look, another mini feels fest"

Mostly because it's another step in Zack's healing journey... and I'm having problems making notes live about those because of all the raw emotions.

That said...

This is a picture of Zack and Cloud as wolves.

photo by kimikow1

I just... it's adorable.  Anyway.

My original notes for this chapter were: "Zack and Cloud find themselves in Olympus.  Zack is so upset he nearly throws the star shard.  Cloud convinces him that they must be there for a reason.  Zack finds his sword hanging as a trophy-momento.  He turns it into a memorial."

It didn't change much from that, really, it just got expanded a whole heckovaton.  I kinda feel bad for Cloud, though, because he really has no idea everything about Zack and Zack's past as it relates to Angeal is loaded.  Cloud's tragic backstory is at least fairly simple... he got sucked into the darkness.  (Well, okay, I said fairly simple.)

Anyway, but I love the brotp that is Zack and Cloud.  Almost as much as I love the brotp of Riku and Sora.  Almost, but not quite.

Basic general update... I'm sorry when I fall behind, even though my average is every other day, so when I fall behind I doubt it's noticed too much, but I do still feel bad when I fall behind (like now.)  School, however, is trying to kill me and plus, I'm writing book 3 for nano (or at least a large portion of it because I can guarantee you it's going to be more than 50K (though it may not be 80K like my novel was at the end of nano last year)).  But I do like interacting with you guys and I know you're all busy too, but if/when you have a moment, I love it when you drop a line!

Teaser Quotes:

"That could have gone really poorly."
"Yeah, but it was the first thing I thought of."

"Just, go in there, say you don't feel good, faint, then I'll nick some materia, grab you and go."
"Are you sure?"
"Do you have a better idea?"
"No."
"Here goes."
"Someone help! I think I've been Poisoned!"

"Midgar? What was he doing here?"

"I punched him because he said we were weird and weren't a family."

"Zack, what...?"
"Squats! I do them sometimes."
"He does them a lot.  When we're not killing Heartless, that is."
"How have I never noticed?"
"Usually, when Zack's here, he's either injured, with someone who's injured, or kissing you."

Appropriate Video:

Vexen Feels (Can't Escape chapter 65)

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Rar's Tumblr Event Thing

I think we all kind of feel bad for Vexen.  I, at least, do.  The poor guy doesn't really have any friends anymore (they're all mostly dead), he doesn't see eye-to-eye with Ienzo anymore, he's staying in another universe because he's afraid of his past (namely Xehanort-who isn't even around anymore) coming to haunt him.  But in that other universe, he's hardly allowed permissions for anything, he's not particularly good for anything, but he cares about Riku, and by extent Namine, and he just wants the best for them though he's terribad at showing it.

by halfdemondog on dA

However, Vexen with goggles is a thing I like.  (See the picture).  Idk, I saw it and I liked it.  Plus, in my
head, Vexen wears glasses now.  It's a thing.

But we did get a lot of character development out of Vexen and Riku.  Mostly with Vexen being reminded that Riku is not an experiment and he should be notified if Vexen is going to use him for an experiment.  It's clicked in Vexen's head now, especially after that whole stint with Xemnas.

Meanwhile, Namine's just having a meltdown and Riku's got a massive headache for it.  It totally has everything to do with their connection.

And, Vexen had a dumb and took them to the wrong Castle Oblivion, probably sending my Vexen Replicas panicking about their security (only to stop panicking when they figured out who it was.)  They probably figured if it was anything important, Master Vexen would let them know.  And since he left again, they'll leave him to his business.  (Heh, I actually didn't account for the three of them being in CO, it just like, did not occur to me until just now... but that's totally how that would have gone down.  Had they tried to interrupt Vexen and Riku, Riku would have just left...)

And, I have absolutely no notes on this chapter, so I think I'm just gonna wrap this blog up here.

Have a video!

Cid and Shera (Prequel ch51)

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I can't remember when I decided that I was including Shera, but I don't think it was the first intended outline.  I think that was because I was scaling it to characters I knew I was using in AtP/BB/etc.  However, I'm sure that by the time I was including Angeal and Genesis, I was including Shera.  In fact, I'm pretty sure Shera got included before Genesis, even.  (Mostly because I wasn't sure how I was going to be writing for Genesis, anyway...)

by jameson9101322 on dA

And, about the time I included Shera, I basically started falling in love with the whole Cid/Shera ship.  (As in, I found artwork of it on dA and was like OMGFEELZ.)

Originally, Shera was basically just a stranded scientist who had a large want to get rid of the Heartless.  But then, I started fleshing out her backstory and somewhere in there she ended up being a lab tech at Disney Castle and she's personally worked on the King's ship.  Yep.

But now she's totally staying in Traverse Town for a bit because of a cannon attachment project.  Because, at this point, gummi ships are really only used for travel.  We've got a few more years before KH1 and the addition of weapons to gummi ships.  This is the time for prototypes.

There will naturally be more of Cid and Shera in the future.  Eeheehee.

Also, Shera will appear in Book 3! I just haven't written that part yet.  Well, technically she's in the area, just the POV I was in wasn't going to allow me to introduce her... give me a couple of chapters.  Yadda, yadda.  (My Hades is showing.)

Anywhosawhat... that's all for now!

Teaser quotes!

"I suppose I've just figured that if something were to happen and I were to go crazy or something, you'd be able to take care of yourself."
"And you while I'm at it ... you've gotta stop worrying about hurting other people.  You're not some pariah that everyone hates."

"How do you know this stuff?"
"I met a Sorceress once."

"Shoot, do you need sunscreen?"

"Have you ever been to a beach before this?"
"No."
"Really? You lived fairly close to Costa del Sol, didn't you?"
"There was a mountain in the way."
"Oh, yeah, right."

"Just pretend like you belong!"

And obligatory video! (I love this arranger!) (ugh, can't seem to embed this one, oh well, here's the link.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDfBi-blLFk

Namine... you didn't want to do that (Can't Escape ch64)

Chapter Link

Rar made fun of me for revealing all of Vexen's passwords.  To which Xion says:

His passwords all have the word 'replica' in them.  Except the once that was 'scienceiscoolxiii.'  Vexen can just hush about that one, okay?


Sometimes, I think I have too much fun with talk sprites.

Anyway, first of all, my Namine was totally thrown for a loop when Riku showed up.  Like, we all know Riku practically had a panic attack, but it basically fried her brain, too, note how she's being super slow? I don't even remember intentionally planning that.  But this is Namine.  And Namine does things like that.

Additioanlly, she can nearly vicariously have a meltdown if she pries into Riku's memories too hard.  Like, Namine, you know that's going to hurt... she could have pried farther, but I made her stop because that's a headache (for both her and me) that I don't want to deal with.

So this conversation happened:
magik: no swearing, sheesh
rar: sorry? who's doing it?
namine: unstable memories...
repliku: no shit, sherlock
rar: ...
rar: OMG NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING

by forbidden siren

And, apparently, that conversation where Namine offers to fix Namine's meltdowns did actually happen
(how did I forget?!?!?) it just happened here instead of two chapters ago.  But instead of Riku having a panic attack when she mentions it, he actually goes and considers the possibility.  Like, wut? Charries, you ok?

And, I know that the picture there is totally NaminexRepliku, but I just... the picture is so good... and... I have to share... yeah.

Also, another random conversation that I feel like sharing:
rar: QUICK NAME ME A WORLD THAT ISN'T HALLOWEENTOWN BUT THAT ROXAS WOULD GO TO
magik: AGRABAH
rar: OKAY THEN I GUESS THAT WORKS
magik: CHINA
rar: ... we literally just had the same thought process here
magik: lol
magik: hawaii?
rar: like I was like "not halloween town ... agrabah!"
rar: "I don't like agrabah... CHINA!"
rar: yeah
rar: idk
magik: lol
magik: Xion is having none of your crap, Vexen.

Kay.  Yeah.  Have a video now.

Whoa, chapter 50 (Prequel)

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Not quite sure when this happened, but it just came up and I was like "let's do cutesey letters for that."  Except Rinoa's isn't as cute.  *frowns at Rinoa*  Oh well.

I remember very distinctly avoiding my homework as I wrote this chapter.  I was writing it as the Magical Mirari concert (Vocaloid) concert played in the background.  Yep.  What a good homework-doer I am.  Not.  I think it's 'cause my homework is never actually done until the end of the semester.  Sure, I only have class twice a week, but that means that I have to be responsible and really can't do everything the night before.  

But I digress.  

Honestly, I think Zack's letter is the most adorable out of the four.  Sure, he opens it with talking aboutfinding Cloud outside of CO, but the whole part where he makes the funny face and then hopes that Aerith laughs about it? Yeah.  That part still gets me.  

And then there's the part of Aerith's letter where she talks about the sky and pretends that Zack is there with her.  Yep.  Adorable.  Gosh, Zerith like... (I ship them so hard...)

Leon's is adorable because he's awkward.  "I just left but I miss you, and I want to write a letter... now I don't know how to end a letter..."

And Rinoa just lets him be awkward and thinks it's cute. Meanwhile, she's like detailing her life and I'm like... what happened to the cute? Oh well. 

But, I think it makes a happy chapter 50.  I considered for a bit trying to stall and have Leon's return to Traverse Town be chapter 50, but I didn't want to stall, so I didn't bother.  The letters ended up working out okay, though.

This is also sort of the next sort of "chapter" in the fic in the sense that it's where Aerith and Leon are in Traverse Town, missing their person, but Zack and Cloud are out in the Worlds and Cloud doesn't want to be around people. And Rinoa's off training.  So Leon and Aerith are just sitting in Traverse Town, dealing with Heartless and knowing exactly how the other is feeling.  

So, the letters that I'm throwing in here are of my own creation (clearly.)  Mostly done in paint with fun fonts (the fonts are the reason why I do it, honestly, I love picking out fonts for characters, but it's something that fanfic totally doesn't show, which is why I mess around with the bold and italics.)  But anyway, I wanted to do like a single 4x4 picture of all the letters, but it just wasn't working out and I lost patience, so yay individual letters!

Anyway, I think that's all I really have to say about the chapter itself, the cuteness mostly speaks for itself.  

Stay tuned, there's still a couple more chapters in the Crossover, and then I think rar's got a treat for all of you once that is over.  I think, possibly.

As soon as I'm done with this, I'm going to go flood the tumblr with some more spoilers of book 3.  I aim to do one a day and I keep forgetting.  *facepalm*

Nano's going well :)

Have some more teaser quotes though for the Prequel!



"Oh my, what happened?"
"Cannon backfired."
"How bad?"
"I can fix it."

"Yeh don' wanna give wha' we've got another shot? The lasers jus' need teh be calibrated."

"Hello, Yuffie.  What took you so long?"
"I...uh...was killing Heartless."
"Where were they?"
"First District."
"Hmm..."

"Yuffie hasn't been playing in the fountain, has she?"
"You don't think she's fallen in again?"
"Again?"
"Yes. Again."

"You can't be afraid that you're going to hurt people forever."

And... now have some Disney Feels... (at least it gives me feels)

Crossover Continued (Can't Escape ch63)

No, I'm not spamming you with chapters and posts.  not at all.  

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So, originally, the whole crossover was supposed to take place during Betwixt and Between.  It was during the whole "restoration and rebirth" kind of thing that I had going on, and the crossover was a part of that.  But then I wrapped Betwixt and Between up sooner than originally intended, so it got put after Betwixt and Between but before my Book 3.  (Like, literally, a couple of days before.)

by veritas-project

I remember using this image a long time ago (back when we were all still on Posterous) during the chapter where Namine and Riku ended up running into Shad.  Don't ask me why I used this picture then, but I did.  But now I'm using it again.  It's more appropriate, even though Riku and Repliku aren't going to be fighting each other.  Like, ever.  Alongside, maybe, against, never.

Man, I'm not quite sure where the "comparing injuries" conversation came from, it was probably Sora's idea.  Regardless, it totally happened and it flowed, so we kept it.

Eheheheh... the Larxene stuff, gets me every time! Oh, just you wait.  It's awful spoilers.

Man, does this group go off on all the tangents.  But, what can you do? It's a combination of them all talking about Xehanort/Xemnas/Ansem.  Which rar and I knew was going to happen, because there's the whole thing where Riku's like "man, I gotta deal with these guys again?!?!"

This is also the conversation that spawns Namine desiring to literally summon her sketchbook like a Keyblade.  Yup.  It's a thing.  Well, it'll be a thing.

Oh, this conversation happened:
rar: IS RIKU'S WRIST STILL BROKEN
magik: DEPENDS
magik: WHEN ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
magik: ARE WE TALKING CROSSOVER
rar: YES
magik: UGH, LOAD THE SPREADSHEET COMPUTER

Riku's wrist is still braced, actually, sometimes.  (He never actually got it set the cocky-butt, and then Xaldin did drive a lance through that same hand, so...) Heheh.  But I had to load the darn spreadsheet just to check.  By now, at least, Sora's hands are both functioning... remember Xehanort breaking his wrist during the battle of Castle Oblivion?  Anywho.

I think that's all I've got for now.  Except this.

Zack and Cloud (Prequel Ch49)

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Wow, my original outline for this is completely unhelpful for this.  Literally, it's like "they're both loners who want to travel" "Zack remembers Aerith telling him to find a travelling buddy" "Cloud agrees hoping that a buddy will keep his darkness in check"

by SantaFung on dA

Which, while yes, all of those things happen... my original notes are super unhelpful.

Writing the chapter itself was very fun. I love these two goofballs.

I was having a conniption a while ago because Zack and Cloud hadn't met each other yet... but now they have! And I felt like throwing in all the Crisis Core references that I could as I wrote it.  The bit where Cloud saves Zack from a monster (granted, he does this with a gun in the game) is something I'm fairly certain comes from the DMW.  But the scene technically happens in Modeoheim.  The scene where Cloud lacks money (munny) and Zack agrees to cover originates from a similar scene in Junon (except in that scene in the game, Cloud is also super airsick.  Good thing he gets over that.)  And then the third one, where they're talking about being country boys, that comes from the Modeoheim trip, too.  But yeah, all the brotp Zack/Cloud feels.

Plus, Cloud's just giving me feels because he's freaking haunted right now and it's all the darkness' fault.  Sigh. I could say it's Xehanort's fault... but that is a very very indirect thing.  Heheh.

But yeah, now they can be friends and it's awesome!!

Okay, now for some more teaser quotes because I super like doing that at the moment:

"Why would you bring me here? Why would you ever bring me back here?"

"It's all Shinra's fault, too!"

"Hey, that's my sword."

"Does he have super strength or something?"

"Writing to Zack?"
"No.  Rinoa."
"Uh..."
"I wrote a letter to Zack this morning ... Now I'm writing a letter to Rinoa.  You said that I could."
"Well, yeah, I just..."
"You writing one too?"
"Yeah..."
"Rinoa should be happy she's getting so much mail!"

And because of my obsession with VOCALOID videos...

WHAT IS THIS IS IT THE CROSSOVER? (Can't Escape ch62)

Chapter

Why yes.  Yes it is.

This is the epic crossover you've all been waiting for? (Well, one of them at least.  I think ya'll were pretty excited to see Sora and Sora, too.  But Riku and Riku was always going to happen first.)

Rar and I have had this planned since... oh... Probably since AtP, about when rar was finishing up FtP and moving into Dead Inside.  We even had it written.

Except, reading through it, we realized that we had to rewrite it.  Basically entirely.

Things that stayed the same:

by Maulsypaulsy

Vexen dragging Riku to the other universe
Riku landing face-first in the sand
Namine being the first one to see him
The cast of characters
General chit-chat about recent happenings

Things that changed:
Everything else.

See, originally, before Dead Inside turned into the huge thing that it turned into, Sora and Kairi's plotlines were significantly less... erm... expansive.  (This is the short version.)  From my understanding, Sora had some trouble with the darkness, but nothing on the level of Shad, because Shad didn't exist yet, and Dead Inside actually took place in a lot shorter of a timespan, which meant that Kairi never actually left the Islands.  This made the Riku Replica super confused when he saw Sora and Kairi BOTH on the Islands.  (I may post the original scene when we're clear of spoilers.)

Repliku was also cockier and the meltdowns were still a relatively new thing.  As in, Vexen didn't even know they existed.  And Repliku was having a conniption about them because no progress had been made (which of course had to change because of the recent experiments.) I think we were also having trouble with Namine continuing to offer to help and he kept saying no.  There was also a whole thing where they got on a tangent about Replicas being their own people (we were on a Days kick) and we were having feels about Repliku being worried that his Namine would be worried that she was a Replica and not a "real" person.  That got cut because people's focuses changed.

Plus, we had to change some of the conversation, because things we projected would happen and things that actually happen do end up being two different things.  And, some things had to get cut because at the time we first wrote the crossover, we hadn't planned on Joseph and Axel being frequenters of the other universes.  And, since Can't Escape became a huge thing, we didn't have to cover a lot of the mechanics.  The people in my universe know about where Sora and Kairi in rar's universe are, because they keep running into each other.  Plus, Axel ran into Repliku recently.

Yeah, it was a whole big thing.

And, about the time when we were going to rewrite it, Namine was dumping loads of feels on me of things that she wanted to say to Repliku.  Which is where the first half of the chapter as it currently stands comes from.  The second half being a brief sum-up of the parts of the story that my characters don't know.

And, I think that's all I'm going to say.  There are more chapters on this to be posted, and I don't want to discuss everything to death just yet!

I think I'll do review responses for this whole sequence once I'm done posting :P

And... I think this is an appropriate video; Also, it's amusing:

Leon's Return (Prequel Ch48)

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So, I wasn't going to do a blog post for this originally.  I was just going to lump it in with like, the next couple of chapter's worth because I wasn't sure what to say.  But now, because of how other things are lining up, I will be posting a blog.  Heheh.  You'll see.

I think I had a lot of things going through my head at the time when I was trying to figure out how exactly Leon's return would go.  I knew it would be something along the lines of he just showed up to surprise Aerith.  But then, somehow, it turned into he showed up via star shard, and then Aerith just assumed he was Zack and came looking, which turned out pretty darn well, if I say so myself.

Though, I will say, I kept switching between their POVs to the point where I actually got confused as to whose POV I was in.  (Clearly I fixed it, but still.  *rolls eyes at the two of them*)

by oblivious-life on dA

Anyway, this is also the part in the story in general where I just had SO FREAKING MUCH going on.  As in, I was dealing both with the Angeal part as well as Ultimecia at the same time.  And so I'm also wrapping up those arcs at the same time.  Not that Zack's healing arc is ENTIRELY wrapped up, because I don't think it ever will be, but all the same.  The FFVIII arc is wrapped up, however.  Sure, we'll still see those characters, but the arc is done.  Wow, I did NOT know what I was getting into when I decided I was doing that.  But I'm glad I went through with it.

Also, it's super amusing.  I was rereading through AtP and BB to write down bits and pieces so I could remember, for multiple reasons.  (like, oh, I don't know, a Book 3) and I just so happened to have written down the chapter about Zack reappearing in HB and Aerith whacking him on the head with her staff.)  The next day, I post this chapter, where Aerith casually mentions that sometimes Zack aggravates her to the point where she wants to whack him with her staff.  Sure, I had that chapter in mind when I wrote that bit of dialogue, but I did NOT plan me writing notes and posting at the same time.  Anyway.

So yeah.  Cookie, on the off chance that you're reading this, why? I'm 45 chapters ahead of where you're reading.  I'll PM you with responses!

KKBeckett, yes, Leon has emotions! It was kind of amusing as I was writing because I was basically just, Leon, did you emotion?!?

Archsage, yes, people are meeting each other and it's super exciting.  What's weird to me is all the people who HAVEN'T met, like Zack and Cloud, for example.  Or Tifa and Leon.  Or Cloud and Leon.  Yeah.  Um, yeah.  I'll leave it at that for now.

Have some more teaser quotes, but they have nothing to do with what I'm planning on posting next.  Muahahaha!

"Why would you go to Midgar?"

"Then some guy found me and I think he tried to get me to join a cult."

"I feel like I'm some sort of walking time-bomb."

"Don't talk with your mouth full.  There's more potatoes in the kitchen."

"Why here? What could I possibly need to do that's here?"

And, that's that for now.  But have a beatboxing cellist!

P.S. I'm writing book 3!!