Life and Times of Teh Asuka

This is something I wrote ages ago, for the FF7 with daemons verse (actually for a planned sephzackcloudaeris divergent AU that I ended up never writing) and I never posted it because it does spoil the deal with Zack and Seph's daemons. But it's been so long since I touched this AU, I figured it didn't matter too much anymore.

Zack's daemon (smaller, golden variety).

--

Day 3

In some places Zack knows that it's seen as kind of rude and invasive to talk to someone else's daemon, especially in public and with people you don't know well. In Wutai, for example, or in the richer circles of Midgar society, it's pretty much shocking. (Which is funny because both societies get hives when you find a point of comparison between them.)

In the army it's not that way, especially not in SOLDIER, but that's because you don't become SOLDIER in the first place if your daemon's going to be dead weight, and being able to take orders and relay them is just the very start of usefulness. (Along with using Materia independently of your human, and fighting a variety of differently-sized, differently-shaped daemons. Predators are the overwhelming majority.)

Zack knows of nowhere it's looked down upon to chat with your own daemon.

He never sees Sephiroth speak to his. Or look at him, either.( Read more... )

Oh god I completed something today. It'd be more awesome if this hadn't been missing literally the LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS for the last four months. auuugh.

This is part of the Cloud/Tifa/Aeris divergence that started with "Interrupted By Fireworks". It's also where the plot really starts to swerve from the game.

Archive.

Tifa's daemon = Breon, Nibelheim stag.
Aeris' daemon = Simon, orange tabby housecat.
Cloud's daemon = Skally, a cuahl/coeurl (cheetah with dragon whiskers)

She watched Cloud and Skally leap from pillar to pillar, reach the stairs' landing, climb up to the platform, the strange altar where Aeris and Simon waited, and she almost stayed behind.

( Read more... )

390 words or so, gen.

Archive for daemon AU ficlets

( Like a ryuu is the same thing as a wyrm! )

Reposting two ficlets I wrote for the prompts post, edited a little bit, and a brand new third ficlet about the crossdressing quest thing. XD (I might write more about this moment, I haven't figured out yet what else happens differently enough.)

( Sephiroth, age five )

( Elena & the Turks in Wutai, vacation )

( Quest to Crossdress~ )

Summary: the His Dark Materials story rests onto the idea that in some universes human beings have an "external" soul, which takes the shape of an animal. The animal is usually the opposite gender of its person, and it can shift between species at will until puberty, where it settles into its definitive form, which depends on the human's personality but can be just about any animal, insects included. There's a huge taboo against a human touching a daemon, unless you're... well, soulmates, because it feels icky and wrongwrongwrong.

This is the game, with added soul!pets, so I'll only do scenes where the daemons change the way things go, but there won't be big, endgame-changing stuff.

pairings: this is following the game plot (sometimes even the actual game script) and thus as gen as the game, meaning Aeris and Tifa flirt with Cloud in their own ways but nothing actually happen.

Pre-game

Sephy&Gast
Characters: Gast&Shelag, Sephiroth&???, Hojo&???
Summary: Drabble. Gast worries about babyRoth.

Ifalna
Characters: Ifalna&Jalen, Aeris&Simon
Summary: 800 words. "All Cetra daemons are birds. Her mother's was a fierce thunderbird. Her father's -- she is told, she doesn't remember -- a storm-petrel, always flying high, never landing. One of her grandparents had a phoenix.

Ifalna's Jalen is a sparrow, flitting here and there on her head, her shoulders. Anything but impressive, a drab little thing that cannot fight, that relies on looking like too much effort for too little of a meal. He suits her well."

Settlingt
Characters: Tifa&Breon
Summary: 800 words. Breon settles.

Aide
Characters: Zack&Callie, Sephiroth&???
Summary: in Wutai.


Game

Not at First Sight
Characters: Tifa&Breon, Cloud&Skally
Summary: Tifa meets Cloud at the train station.

Church Encounter
Characters: Aeris&Simon, Cloud&Skally, some Tifa&Breon, Barret&Akela, Reno&Tahoe.
Summary: "Skally's front claws were hooked deep into his wrists, a double pawful of them, needle-sharp, almost strong enough to nick bone. For a second he almost thought she was going to manage to keep him from falling."

Quest to Crossdress
Characters: Cloud&Skally, Aeris&Simon
Summary: "You're aware that I'm about four times your size, right?"

drabble
Characters: Vincent&Janet, Cloud&Skally
Summary: Drabble. "When Vincent changes shapes his daemon tears into pieces beside him and for a moment she's like mist on the verge of death."

Vacation
Characters: Elena&Marco, Reno&Tahoe, Rude&Ben
Summary: That thing in Wutai with Don Corneo.

Dragon Taxonomy
Characters: Cloud&Skally, Yuffie&Xiaolu, Cid&Lisbet, Barret.
Summary: ~380 words. A random discussion between party members.


Divergent Timeline n°1: CloTiRis
One thing does change. One silly, inconsequential thing. It snowballs pretty fast.
This timeline contains a Cloud/Tifa/Aeris threesome, amongst other things.

Interrupted By Fireworks
Characters: Breon&Tifa, Cloud&Skally, Aeris&Simon
Summary: "Tifa was already stepping forward to push Cloud along when the door opened behind her and Aeris's cheerful voice rang. 'Heya, Cloud! You want to go on a date?'" 3 600 words, crack and angst.

City of the Ancients
Characters: Breon&Tifa, Aeris&Simon, Nanaki, Cloud&Skally
Summary: "She watched Cloud and Skally leap from pillar to pillar, reach the stairs' landing, climb up to the platform, the strange altar where Aeris and Simon waited, and she almost stayed behind." 3 400 words, angst and action, weird mindfuckery.


( Daemon list & pics )

Same 'verse as Meet Again (Tifa) and Church Encounter (Aeris). Short, Cloud POV on Vincent. It hit me over the head and as a result it's likely confusing as fuck. Some of it is deliberate, because I'm an evil tease, but some of it might just be writy fail. I can't tell. x__x;

Skally: Cloud's daemon, a cuahl (big hunting cat); Breon: Tifa's daemon, a king stag.

( When Vincent changes shapes his daemon tears into pieces beside him and for a moment she's like mist on the verge of death. )

... So. I have recently decided I love Golden Compass/His Dark Materials crossover AUs. By which I mean mostly This Other Series, Just With Daemons. I don't care as much about the characters or plot, I just want to export the concept.

(the His Dark Materials story rests onto the idea that in some universes human beings have an "external" soul, which takes the shape of an animal. The animal is usually the opposite gender of its person, and it can shift between species until puberty, where it settles into its definitive form, which depends on the person but can be just about anything, insects included. There's a huge taboo against a human touching a daemon, unless you're... well, soulmates, because it feels icky and wrongwrongwrong.)

I have wasted the last five or six hours hunting down FF7 bestiaries for pictures and trying to match all the characters i could think of to their proper animals. And then NAMING those animals. This includes characters like Heidegger, Elmyra and Zangan. Yeeeah. :/

Anyway. I have no clue, this kind of wrote itself. There will likely be a few more scenes but I don't foresee a multipart from this. I have no real plot and thinking through the repercussions seems exhausting; it just seems shiny right now.

( about 700 words of Tifa meeting Cloud again pregame. D: )