Chickens in the Trees

Moving base

sinnatious — Sun, 24 Dec 2017 07:46:55 GMT

It's been a criminally long time since I last posted, and not sure if anyone is still even reading this journal. Hi, hello, I live! The last 18 months irl have been a bit insane, so it's been tough to gather up enough time to write much less post, but my posting had been taking a nosedive even before that.

This post isn't about that, however - I wanted to make an announcement to let people know that I'm going to (very belatedly) move my posting 'base', so to speak, over to Dreamwidth. I used their handy little import tool so nothing is lost beyond maybe some formatting. I don't intend to post on livejournal any longer. The site's policies have been going downhill for a very long time and I'm no longer comfortable using it to post, and certainly not enough to pay for an account any longer.

Odds are I won't ever get back to great posting frequency, but the journal format is still my favourite (never managed to get my feet properly wet with tumblr) so that will likely be where the fanfiction all goes. At some point I'll get around to formatting a few more of the backlog onto aO3 as well. On that note, I have so many WIPs, and I'm not sure if I'll ever manage to finish any of them, are people interested in reading them regardless? Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks for all the good times, Livejournal. I made so many lasting friends on this site, and it holds many fond memories, but it is time to say goodbye.

ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN

sinnatious — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 06:03:23 GMT

I haven't posted for a long long time, sorry about that. I am still writing and whatnot I just haven't written anything I've felt is worth posting for a long time, unless you guys want to read a bunch of potentially forever unfinished WIPs.

Who cares about that, though? I have revived from the dead purely to gush PURE UNMITIGATED JOY in all directions thanks to E3.

FF7 REMAKE GUYS. IT'S REAL.

I am so mixed up about it. On one hand, I am so worried they'll mess it up, because the task of making that entire game in HD is so enormous and expensive and while I wouldn't mind if they tweaked a few of the dated controls and whatnot I also don't want them to change a single thing and wow. Just wow. Still not convinced it's a very late, very expensive April Fool's Joke.

GUYS, CROSSDRESSING SCENE IN HD.

And if that wasn't enough, we have a release window and more gameplay footage of the The Last Guardian, which I had been thoroughly convinced was vaporware and had totally given up on.

LOOK AT IT, IT'S STILL BEAUTIFUL.

Of course, this seems like a timely occasion to relink this comic.

Oh yeah and Shenmue 3 is also pretty cool I guess, I just don't have any leftover feelings after FF7 AND THE LAST GUARDIAN HOLY CRAP GUYS, THE GAMING GOOD TIMES NEVER END.

Xmas Giftfics 2014 Part 1

sinnatious — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 06:02:08 GMT

First set of Xmas Giftfics! We all knew there wouldn't be any before Xmas, so Happy New Year!

For isa_lyxces
A: Magic Kaitou
B: Whatever you please
C: The dangers of pretending to be someone else.
AN: Ahhh thank you for giving me the chance to write in this fandom a bit! I’ve been wanting to play in it for a while now! This might not be what you had in mind for your prompt but it’s what spilled out so hope you like it.

Hakuba burst onto the roof, blond hair still frizzed from the burst of static electricity Kaitou Kid had used to disrupt the security system. One leg of his pants was missing half of its fabric – torn off to escape the glue trap on the stairs – and his right side was spattered with bright pink paint from another barely-dodged trap, but he’d made it. The sky was still clear. For the first time a dozen heists, he’d made it before Kaitou Kid could leave.

“Kid!” he called out.

That familiar figure, clad in white tuxedo and cape and top hat, emerged from the shadows, a wraith in the pale light of a full moon. The power was still off for the blocks around them – a weird pocket of darkness in Ryougoku.

“Tantei-san,” that pleasant voice greeted him, so similar to one he knew but still so alien, far too smooth, far too controlled.

It infuriated him. He wanted to seize the thief by his shirt and shake him until the mask finally dropped.

But even Hakuba had to admit that he wouldn’t be fast enough – Kaitou Kid always stood just out of reach, a ghost you couldn’t ever quite touch. You were lucky if a finger brushed some fabric, proof that he was actually there and not merely an illusion.

“What happened to Kuroba Kaito?” Hakuba demanded, without preamble. He’d finally, at last, caught the thief long enough to ask that. He couldn’t waste any words.

Kaitou Kid merely tilted his head – his monocle caught the moonlight, flashing a blinding silver. “I don’t know what you mean, tantei-san.”

Fury and fear and anxiety and frustration roiled in him, threatening to spill out and destroy all in its path. “Don’t feed me that line now, after six months!” he shouted.

The words echoed across the roof, stark and confronting. Hissing through his teeth, Hakuba reined himself in and continued in a more controlled tone, “You disappeared without a word. Do you have any idea how worried Aoko – how worried everyone has been? And then you have the gall to keep doing this?”

“I’m sorry about whatever is going on with your friend, tantei-san,” was Kaitou Kid’s mild response, as he sauntered towards the edge of the roof. “But I can’t do anything about that. I’m sure, wherever he is, that he’s fine and must have a good reason for making you all worry.”

It was the closest he’d received to an acknowledgement over the past six months. Normally Kid was in and out so fast, each heist far too chaotic for Hakuba to even be heard over the ruckus, much less get any sort of answer. No doubt an intentional effort to avoid him. Edogawa was still afforded banter, after all, but then, the child had never met Kuroba.

“Is he fine?” Hakuba demanded. “Then tell me this, Kid: When was the last time you were Kuroba Kaito?”

The slightest hitch in Kid’s step was the only hint that he might have caught him off guard. “Really, tantei-san, you must stop accusing me of being your friend. It’s getting unoriginal, people might start thinking you’re a bad detective!”

Hakuba, as always, ignored his protest. “The best magicians never drop the act. They carry their stage personas everywhere to hide their secrets. The feeble old man who’s as strong as an ox. A pair of twins sharing the same identity.” Hakuba watched him like a hawk, waiting for the barest slip in that poker face.

Kid, naturally, did not oblige. “Your point, tantei-san?”

“It’s one thing for a celebrity or a stage magician. But the psychological toll is enormous. It happens with method actors all the time, who can’t let go of a role. And those are people who aren’t being shot at or breaking the law. So forgive me for being more than a little worried, Kuroba, and just tell me – when was the last time you dropped the act?”

Kid just smiled. It was all teeth and sharp edges and strangely haunting. “What do you want me to say, tantei-san? Six months?” He laughed, the sound as carefree as always. As fake as always. “I’d say it’s been at least eight years.”

Hakuba froze in place, mind whirring with the hundreds of possible implications of that statement. Eight years? But that went all the way back to when…

Nakamori chose that moment to burst onto the roof with half of the bedraggled taskforce, shouting obscenities as they rushed to dogpile the thief. Kaitou Kid simply spun away and leapt into the sky, glider unfolding under his cape. “My apologies, Inspector, I can’t play tonight! Next time, perhaps!”

No personal farewell for Hakuba, that time. No taunting ‘tantei-san’, or last-second prank.

Kaitou Kid was avoiding him.

“I’m not giving up, Kid!” he shouted into the sky. “You can’t hide behind that mask forever!”

The Taskforce were giving him odd looks, but the sight of the usually unruffled Hakuba Sagaru shouting angrily after Kid was hardly a new one. Nakamori patted him on the shoulder. “That’s the spirit! Downstairs, men! Squad cars, take chase! He’d heading east!”

The roof emptied as quickly as it filled. Hakuba didn’t follow.

It wasn’t even about catching the thief anymore. If Kuroba thought he would give up after a statement like that, he was tragically mistaken. No matter how hard he avoided him, Hakuba would be at every heist, calling his name, reminding him of the life he’d left behind.

Reminding him that Kaitou Kid was supposed to be the mask, not the other way around.

For Anon
A Dissidia/Fallacious Deity
B Squall Cloud any other
C Squall finally gets back to Garden
AN: I thought I’d finally squared away these prompts last year but what the hell, why not. Tis pretty pedestrian though.

The vast structure sat on the lakeshore, swathes of pearl white curves and pale blue contours that made up the building, crowned with the elaborate spoked halo that inspired its logo. Balamb Garden.

Home.

Squall didn’t dare hope just yet – there had been others worlds they’d stumbled upon, where Garden sat deserted or defunct, where he was a stranger supposedly native to Esthar, where Seifer had never come under Ultimecia’s thrall… things that were never quite apparent until they actually met some people.

But the rush of memories flooding through his head at the sight made him suspect that this might finally be the one. Onion Knight had been sure when they’d found his home – so had Terra, and Cecil. That same certainty stirred in his chest. The air tasted right. Everything just fit.

He’d obviously been still for too long, as Cloud quietly offered, “Want to take a closer look?”

Squall nodded curtly, and led the way without another word.

They didn’t have to go far. They were barely halfway across Garden’s court when they were spotted.

“Squall!” a familiar cry echoed across the courtyard, followed by excited barking, and then suddenly she was there. Rinoa, throwing himself towards him.

He caught her in his arms. Closed his eyes, for just a second, and breathed deep.

He’d remembered her earlier, of course. Glimpses, snatches of knowledge, all carefully buried in the interest of focusing on the mission. But he’d never remembered enough to realise how much he’d come to miss her.

Then somewhere to the side, he heard Selphie’s surprised exclamation, “A sorceress?!”

“Don’t worry Squall, we got this!” Zell charged in, fists raised.

Cloud, being Cloud, side-stepped with unnatural swiftness, leaving Zell stumbling and swearing. A whip snapped at his feet, winding around his ankle. The crack of a gunshot rent the air, and he leapt sideways, leaving Quistis staggering as her whip was wrenched out of her hands.

“What?” It took Squall a few second too long to process. The glowing eyes thing. He’d forgotten about it – it had been quite a few worlds since it had been an issue. “He’s a guy.”

“Adel looked like a guy!” Zell protested.

“He’s not a sorceress! Stand down and stop overreacting,” he ordered. Reluctantly, his friends lowered their weapons. Rinoa clutched his arm a little tighter, squinting at Cloud in a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. Angelo sat growling by their feet. Cloud, for his part, stood at a wary distance and said nothing.

“Overreact? We thought you’d been kidnapped and then this stranger turns up with glowing eyes and what’s with that, if he’s not a sorceress what is he?” Selphie berated him.

They thought he’d been kidnapped. Him?

“I wasn’t kidnapped. It was a mission,” he said. “Classified.”

“There’s no mission so classified you can’t at least warn your friends and colleagues that you’re going disappear for a month. Laguna had half of Esthar’s forces out looking for you.” Quistis informed him with a smile that was pure ice. “That’s irresponsible, Squall. I thought I taught you better.”

A month? He glanced at Cid, who shrugged, as much as a moogle could shrug, as though to say ‘close enough’.

“Yeah, back to the point, if he’s not a sorceress, who or what are these guys?” Zell demanded.

“Part of the mission,” he said, and didn’t bother introducing them. He carefully extracted his arm from Rinoa’s hold, unable to restrain the quirk of his lips at her pout. “Give us a minute.”

He stalked to the other end of the courtyard – not out of sight, but enough to be out of earshot. Cloud trailed him, keeping a careful eye on the SeeDs watching his every move like unnaturally attentive moombas.

“This is your world then?” Cloud asked.

Squall nodded. “As sure as I can be.”

There were still gaps in his memories. It was impossible to tell if they were due to the Guardian Forces, though, or still lost to that world. But Selphie’s grinning face, the softness of Rinoa’s hands, Irvine tilting his hat in greeting as his gaze passed over them – it felt right. It fit.

Cloud stared past him, at his fellow SeeDs gathered in the courtyard, and the growing crowd of students looking on from the fringes. The faintest of smiles graced his face. “Looks like you were missed. The others would have liked to see this. Might have ruined your image a bit, though.”

Squall scowled. Nobody ever expected it from him, so it always caught him off-guard when he realised Cloud would tease them. “Very funny.”

Cloud shrugged it off. “We’ll be on our way then. Seems like we could cause trouble if we hang around.”

It wasn’t any of his business. But they’d been comrades, of a sort, for a long while now. And… despite their beginnings, Cloud hadn’t been terrible company. Less irritating than some of the others, for sure.

Tidus’s grin still haunted him.

So he asked, as an aside, “You going to be okay, on your own?”

“He’s got me, you know,” Cid pointed out, wings fluttering in indignation.

Squall eyed the moogle dubiously. He and Cloud weren’t exactly bosom buddies, after all. “But it could be…” Weeks? Months? Years? There was no way of knowing. It had been long enough, just to find his place in the messed up timeline of his world.

Even he thought it unfair that the rest of them had returned, when the one who had been waiting decades had further yet to travel.

“It’ll be fine,” Cloud said quietly. “…You should go. No long goodbyes, right? We’ll head out before we leave so you don’t have to answer any awkward questions.”

Squall nodded. “Good luck.”

It was a strangely uneasy feeling, though, watching him walk away, that enormously heavy sword slung on his back. Not knowing how long he’d be wandering alone, in any number of dangerous worlds, without backup.

For the first time, he thought he might understand, just a little, how Rinoa, and Zell, and all his other friends in Garden felt when he took off on his own. How his comrades back in that world must have felt, too.

Squall scoffed at the thought. Cloud was more than capable. If he’d lasted this long, he’d trust he’d last long enough to find home.

That’s what comrades were supposed to do, after all. Trust each other to come through.

For rafira
A: FFVII
B: SephCloud
C: FFXIV
AN: Probably not SephCloud enough for you but I hope it satisfies! (I got kinda caught up in setting, also I had no idea what I was doing, just, wordspew, ahahaha).

Cloud had seen many, many worlds in his multi-dimensional misadventures.

This one started out not that different to the others. He’d awoken in a lush, strange forest. The flora wasn’t immediately identifiable, but the sheer size of the some of the trees was enough to inform him that this was Not Home. A quick glance around showed no sign of Sephiroth either.

No real cause for alarm – Sephiroth could take care of himself, and would turn up eventually, whether he’d been brought along for this particular dimensional ride or not. The first order of business would be to pinpoint some kind of civilisation and figure out precisely what kind of world he’d landed in, and what kind of crisis he would need to avoid, because there was always some sort of crisis.

With that in mind, he chose a random direction and set off.

As was typical with strange forests, it didn’t take long until his presence earned the ire of the local fauna. For the most part he could dispatch them with ease, though the further he wandered the more effort he found himself exerting. He spied an ornate archway and what looked like might be a network of hanging treehouses, so veered in that direction.

That was when he’d been set upon what seemed to be a legion of what looked an awful lot like treants and ochuus and giant toads. Cloud stepped out of range of some wildly swinging tree branches, considered the mob before him, then pulled out a summon materia. R amuh quickly put them all to rest.

That had, apparently, been a mistake.

“Walking One can summon Ramuh even without sparklies!”

He turned to see a small crowd of onlookers had gathered. The little creatures were not quite like anything he’d ever encountered before. They seemed to hover somewhere between plant and fairy, with large black eyes and twig-like arms and legs, and skirts made of leaves.

They set up on him in a flurry, fluttering around his face and plucking at his hair and clothes. “Walking One’s garments are strange!”

“Walking One’s eyes glow like lamptrees!”

“Walking One must be Holy One! Holy One must come with these Ones!”

They seemed friendly, at least, and the first sign of intelligent life Cloud had seen yet, so he didn’t protest as they herded him deeper into the forest.

In their chatter he soon learned that they were called sylphs by the ‘Walking Ones’, and that Walking Ones were usually persona non-grata in the Sylphlands, but that Ramuh was apparently super important to them and Cloud’s association with Ramuh made him a very special exception.

Needless to say, there was promptly a feast.

Some part of him registered that these little creatures might be, to some people, extremely dangerous, and they also struck him as a touch deranged. But Cloud couldn’t quite shake the feeling that he was the special guest at sort of mad, back-to-nature tea party.

“Holy One will summon Ramuh to protect us,” the nearest sylph declared. “Holy One will drive the Walking Ones out! The forest will be peaceful again!”

“What is bad about the Walking Ones?” Cloud asked carefully – it seemed like it could be a touchy question.

“Walking Ones bring fighting! Big Stompy Ones destroy everything. Walking Ones fight their battles in these Ones’ homes!” they exclaimed.

“These Ones tried to summon R amuh with sparklies, but Bright One came and made Ramuh leave! And these Ones have no more sparklies to call Ramuh back, until Holy One arrived,” a second lamented.

“Does Holy One care for this One’s milkroot?” another one offered him up a bundle of plant matter in a way that suggested it was a vast personal sacrifice.

Tifa’s voice in the back of his head, and a long, hard road of learned diplomacy had him taking a small sample in compromise. It seemed to make the little creature inordinately pleased to have both offered hospitality and kept the coeurl’s share of her stash.

Cloud chewed on it pensively, mimicking the partying sylphs around him. It tasted like dirt. He didn’t see the appeal.

It did seem to have some effect on the little creatures, though. Cloud wasn’t any sort of expert on other-dimension biology, but he’d worked in a bar long enough to recognise drunkenness when he saw it.

So he said, “This milkroot’s good, everyone should have some. Can we get some more of it?”

A couple of them teetered on indecision, but for the rest – well, it was as though he’d given them a personal invitation to the party of the year. “If Holy One thinks so!”

“This One knows where to get more milkroot! Come with this One!”

“But if these Ones have too much milkroot-” one tried to protest.

“It’s to celebrate the arrival of the Holy One! If the Holy One says it’s okay-”

They worked with stunning speed, all things told. The feast being held in Cloud’s honour starting going south – or rapidly improving, depending on one’s point of view – fast.

Of course, being the only sober one at a party wasn’t much fun, but Cloud was hoping they would eventually all drift off to sleep or become pliable enough that he could slip away no questions asked before they turned into him a weapon for their cause. It was ultimately unnecessary, though, when a new visitor made it into the clearing.

“There you are.” That voice never failed to send a shiver down his spine – although the reasoning had shifted somewhat over the years. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Sephiroth,” Cloud breathed in relief. He seemed to be his usual self – sometimes one or both of them could run into trouble in dimensional jumps, be it from lost memories or being caught off guard by new varieties of magic, or how their unique physiologies reacted to the laws of magic in that universe. Cloud had spent an unfortunate amount of time sporting a giant bat wing once, and sometimes it felt like his memories were sand being constantly scooped with a sieve.

“I see you’ve discovered the Sylphs,” Sephiroth noted as he moved closer.

“Walking One shall not touch Holy One!” the nearest sylph – possibly the only sober one left of the lot - exclaimed angrily, lightning crackling around her tiny fists as she zoomed between them.

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at him. “I have apparently been made High Priest,” Cloud explained plaintively.

“It’s an interesting look for you,” was his only response.

As though it was Cloud’s idea to have a crown of flowers threaded through his hair by drunken sylphs, never mind the even more elaborate wreath of vines and flora around his neck. Luckily they’d been too high on the milkroot to make much progress on his ‘ceremonial robes’.

“I just need to go talk to this One- to Sephiroth here,” Cloud assured the sylph, carefully stepped around her. Their way of speech rubbed off awfully quickly. “I’ll be perfectly fine. You should, um, enjoy some milkroot while I’m gone.”

The sober one regarded him suspiciously, but the rest were giggling and burping and didn’t pay him much mind. Cloud grasped Sephiroth by the arm and murmured, “Walk with me, quickly.”

And so they made their escape from the heart of the Sylphlands.

“Your cunning escape plan was to get them high?” Sephiroth asked.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Plus using the Buster Sword seemed like overkill, and the deeper he got the lower the chance it seemed he would have otherwise peacefully extracted himself without becoming yet another mass-murdering ‘Walking One’.

“Hm. Hopefully they will not pursue once they recover and realise you are not returning. You summoned Ramuh, I take it?”

“Yeah. How did you know?”

“I encountered some of the local law enforcement, who filled me in on the pertinent details of the area.” He plucked a flower out of Cloud’s hair, inspecting it intently.

Sephiroth had been luckier than he on arrival this time then. “Thank Odin, I was worried those things were going to be the dominant form of intelligent life here. So what’s the game plan?”

“Apparently they are not strangers to dimensional travel. That said, the community is not particularly open-minded to outsiders. There is a sort of regulated gypsy class, though, which appear to be the backbone of the economy. Largely mercenaries and craftsmen. We should sign up for the duration.”

Cloud nodded. That sounded easy enough, provided the sylphs didn’t make too much an issue of him.

It didn’t take long until they approached a large wooden hut and a collection of tents. The entrance was guarded by a series of lookouts with their faces hidden behind flat, carved masks. They were human at first glance, but their pointed ears were a stark reminder that this was Not Home.

“You found your friend, then?” one of them greeted. “Good news indeed – the Sylphlands are not to be traversed lightly. Although by the looks of him it seems you encountered the sylph regardless.”

“I found him on the outskirts of Little Solace,” Sephiroth lied, twisting their hands together and squeezing his fingers in silent censure. “They were… most hospitable.”

Two camps of sylphs, then. Cloud filed the knowledge away and carefully kept his mouth shut.

As Sephiroth led him past towards a pen of what appeared to be this world’s version of chocobos, he leaned in and whispered in his ear, “Ah yes, before I forget – I would not recommend summoning Bahamut in this world under any circumstances.”

Cloud just nodded. He had learned not to ask.

End of Year Meme 2014!

sinnatious — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 06:12:49 GMT

Wow the end of year kind of mugged me. First set of prompts should be along in the new year, for those waiting.

Anyhow it's tradition now so here's 2014's end of year meme!

1. What did you do in 2014 that you'd never done before?

So many things. First time visiting Canada. First time in South Korea, Hong Kong, New York, San Francisco. First time I tried soju, or poutine, or boudin, or a dozen other amazing local foods. First time I slid down on a snow-covered hill on an inner tube, first time in a snowstorm, first time snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, first time seeing cherry blossoms in Japan, first time riding the Shinkansen. First time I actually sat down and played an MMO. First time I attended GDC. First time I drove more than 500km in a single day!

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Partially? About the only New Year's resolution I really had was to get another job, and I sort of fulfilled that, but sort of not too. There's no real point to New Year's Resolutions for me at this moment, I already have a list of things I want to work on, no point waiting until the year's turn for that!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes! Well, both an old friend and my oldest brother became Dads. Both had little girls.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

No.

5. What countries did you visit?

Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, USA, Canada!

6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?

Haha same thing as last year: job stability. And a million bucks while I'm making crazy wishes.

7. What date from 2014 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

The 3rd of January. I remember it because I had planned to catch the Shinkansen from Tokyo to go south, and that was the day the Tokaido line was on fire. It was a bit of an adventure catching the train that day. And then I got to visit friends in Kakegawa. Saw a pretty neat castle, ate in a cool little food stall in their shopping district, and by pure chance caught the New Year's ritual by the local fire department for another year of fire safety (it was much more dramatic and dangerous-looking than one would expect!) It's the days that catch you completely by surprise that you remember.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I got called in October as rescue team on a project. Short-term work but very welcome. While I'm not completely satisfied with the end result, I was super proud of myself for the mountains I moved getting that project finished.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Not finding more work I suppose. There were a few very rough months in the middle of the year.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Compared to previous years, this year was a pain. I got a nasty bout of stomach flu in Seoul, then a super annoying cold in Louisiana, then another cold in June when relatives from Louisiana came to visit! (Obviously weak to Louisiana-strain illnesses).

11. What was the best thing you bought?

I bought a super cool jacket in Macy's (the Macy's, in New York) during their Spring sale which I didn't know anything about until wandering in there. It had been discounted ridiculously, so I was already like 'amazing bargain!' and then they discounted it again at the counter so it was super cheap. But the true value is being able to act all bourgeois when people ask about it because I can say all casually 'oh I bought it in New York' and then laugh like an upper class old lady.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

I have a hard time choosing! I want to say my oldest friend this year I think, since even though we've had some rough patches in our friendship over the past couple of years, she's done really well for herself this year and I feel like our friendship is back in a better place. Plus I like to see how she's challeged herself and really carved out her own identity in recent times.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

That one damn level artist that thought it was awesome to duplicate every level and then set it on fire and didn't bother to tell the audio department.

ಠ_ಠ

14. Where did most of your money go?

Travelling.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

FFXIV. Um, yep. Pretty much just that and all news at all related to that.

16. What song will always remind you of 2014?

FFXIV Answers. Yeeeeah, FFXIV again.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

Happier or sadder - Really hard to call. It's been a rollercoaster year, emotionally, with very very high highs, and very low lows.

Older or wiser – Older. I think I might actually be getting more stupid.

Thinner or fatter – About the same. Start of the year lost a fair bit of weight, gained it all back stress-eating while working on rescue-project.

Richer or poorer? – Poorer, although spent it well. No regrets.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Writing, again. More upskilling, although I'm still never sure what thing to learn next. More original projects.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

I want to say FFXIV, because has that game been a terrible time sinkhole, but at the same time I really did enjoy it and I try not to regret things that I enjoyed.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

This is past tense now. For the first time in a long long time I spent it in my hometown with my folks. My aunt and uncle came to visit as well. It was pretty quiet, mostly had a big lunch and a lazy afternoon and evening.

21. Did you fall in love in 2014?

No. Except with tiny cupcakes.

22. How many one-night stands?

None.

23. What was your favourite TV program?

Kill La Kill. Great series, awesome ending. Puella Magi Madoka was also quite excellent, and I also really enjoyed a lot of Rick and Morty.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

No. Well, except for that one damn animator who added clapping animations on the day before content lockoff. Gonna mail him spiders.

25. What was the best book you read?

Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov, but that's unfair because I love Isaac Asimov so any time I read a new book of his it's going to win.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Not really a 'discovery' but I really enjoyed the Magical Sisters Yoyo and Nene soundtrack. Example.
Also the entire FFXIV soundtrack in general, but this track in particular whenever I need to get pumped about something: Ultima

27. What did you want and get?

I WANTED A THAVNARIAN ONION FOR MY CHOCOBO AND I GOT IT. Woo! \o/

28. What did you want and not get?

There were a couple of particular jobs I very badly wanted and did not get. :(

29. What was your favourite film of this year?

Always a super difficult question, but based purely on re-watches, I'm going to have to say Guardians of the Galaxy. Big Hero 6 very close second.

30. What was your least favorite film of this year?

Lucy. Interesting movie, I didn't outright dislike it, per se, but I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.

31. What did you do on your birthday?

On my birthday I ate lunch in my favourite local Japanese restaurant, watched Guardians of the Galaxy on blu-ray, and played FFXIV.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

A steady job. I know, whinge whinge whinge. I'm working on it.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?

I don't have a fashion concept, nor any concept of fashion.

34. What kept you sane?

FFXIV.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Eh, none spring to mind this year.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

Everything political stirs me up right now, let's not tread down that spiky path.

37. Who did you miss?

P-chan. My friends who almost all entirely live in other cities or states or countries. :(

38. Who was the best new person you met?

All of my cool new FFXIV friends! I did actually meet some of them irl too so that absolutely counts.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014:

Flare until dead.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray.
I've been for a walk on a winter's day.
I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A.;
California dreamin' on such a winter's day.

Xmas Giftfic Palooza 2014

sinnatious — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 07:24:12 GMT

...Are people still on LJ? I haven't posted or written in ages! Real life got very very chaotic without any warning, and there was a lot of stuff going on, which I will likely post about sometime in the next week or so, although life doesn't seem to be slowing down at all so maybe not.

Anyhow, that's not what I'm posting about. I'm posting because it's that time of year again!

Yes, Xmas giftfic prompt time!

I'll probably regret this, but I also haven't done much writing the past three months and I miss it. Still chipping away at my boatload of WIPs (urgh and managed to get into Kaitou Kid fandom as well, adding to that already generous pile) but some shortfics seems like a good way to keep me in a posting habit.

Rules are the same as last year:

A. Fandom and/or universe
B. Characters and/or pairings, if any
C. Some kind of prompt (keep it to one sentence max please).

I'm willing to attempt to tackle pretty much anything, though keep in mind I never manage to fill even half of the prompts and your odds of getting your prompt filled are higher if it's something I've at least displayed some interest in or knowledge of. As always no promises about length or quality of what I churn out, sometimes I get a bit experimental with these things and they also don't usually get much in the way of editing. I'll endeavour to get some out before Christmas but we all know what my timeline is normally like. ;)

So get prompting!

This post is now closed for prompts. Hopefully some fics will be coming your way very soon. Merry Christmas everyone!

Optimal Scenario, File 7.0

sinnatious — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 08:55:45 GMT

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

File 7.0

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Consciousness came in a blur, the smear of reality washing into unsteady focus before his eyes.

Cloud lurched to the side, reeling from a strike he couldn’t place. His head swam, struggling to reorient even as another blow crashed against his knees. Something glass bounced away, ringing as it rolled against the rocky floor.

He hit the ground, spinning to what he hoped was out of range. It bought him a precious few seconds to regroup.

Had he been asleep? Confused? Maybe both. It was dim, difficult to see, his eyes still struggling to adjust. A cave? A shadow shifted to his right, accompanied by a wet, gritty slither and an echoing, guttural growl.

He recognised the putrid odour a second too late – he was already gagging on it, eyes watering and throat burning.

Malboro.

No time, he had to act fast. He lurched towards the shadow and swung blind. His fist smashed into something wet and fleshy. Sharp, bright lines of pain scraped against his knuckles. He’d got it in the mouth.

The growl turned into a grunt, and flailing tentacles slapped welts against his legs. Cloud swung again, and again, throwing all of his mako-enhanced strength into each wild blow. The growl became a squeal, and at last the slithering mass went still.

His breath rasped in his throat, harsh and scratchy and acidic. He shuffled awkwardly, arm held out, until his aching fingers caught the rough, stony surface of the cave wall.

“Shelke?” He strained to call, but his voice remained trapped. Silence. Darkness, too, at a guess. Even the vague shadows he’d caught before had been replaced by steady, unfaltering blackness.

Nausea gripped his stomach, and his limbs felt leaden and heavy. His hands stung, slick with blood, gloves in tatters. He tossed them away and grasped at his arm. Still bare. His Ribbon-

He’d never found it. It had been Yuffie’s work, almost certainly – that became clear in the Gold Saucer – and thief or not he’d expected she would return it eventually, most likely it appearing on his bedroll or tied to Fenrir’s handlebars or around his PHS or something obvious like that, so he hadn’t worried about it. His deliveries rarely took him anywhere it was a concern, so it could wait.

Apparently he’d been wrong about that.

He fumbled for his phone – though what he could hope to do with it when unable to see or speak-

It didn’t matter anyway. He couldn’t find it. Dropped on the cave floor? It was a lost cause.

Could he risk waiting it out, until at least Darkness wore off?

He stumbled forward blindly, ears straining for the skitter of claws or the slither of scales. He kept one hand on the wall at all times. It wasn’t the most efficient way, but following the wall would lead him outside eventually.

After all, if there were one malboro, there were almost certainly others.

…………......

Fenrir sat outside the cave entrance. Cloud’s phone rested on its seat.

The tracks in the dirt led a telling story – one set of small footsteps away, scuff marks leading into the caves. Not that old – a matter of hours at the most, given the current weather conditions. Most likely less.

The setup was glaringly obvious. Vincent very nearly turned on his heel then and there. To give in would only encourage Shelke further.

Yet… as obvious as it was, it was perfectly done in its sheer simplicity. Vincent couldn’t walk away.

So he ventured inside.

The caves themselves were nothing remarkable – there were the usual signs of wildlife, and a handful of razorweed lurking near the entrance which he ignored. The caves themselves were nothing more than grey mudrock, though their ragged texture suggested they had at some point been burrowed rather than eroding naturally. Ark dragons, perhaps? They were common enough in this part of the East Continent.

Moving with more urgency now, Vincent made his way deeper into the caverns. The shadows grew swiftly darker and longer, the air cooling and growing damp the further he went. It wasn’t long before a foul odour caught his attention. He diverted, searching for the cause.

Whatever it was, it had already dissolved into the Lifestream, leaving only an unpleasant residue on the ground and spattered green blood. A chlorophyll-based monster, like a capparwire, or something mutated by mako? The stench was oddly familiar, but difficult to place.

A glint of light nearby caught his eye. It came from a small yellow orb, glowing faintly on the rocky floor. Vincent picked it up carefully with his gauntlet. Enemy Away materia.

Shelke had taken precautions at least. Enemy Away was far from absolute though, even when mastered. And that it was here, and not with Cloud…

That wasn’t promising.

Tucking the materia into his pocket, he surveyed his surroundings more carefully. He flicked on his phone, raising it to provide more light. Some scraps of leather on the ground. On the rocky wall, a smear of blood. Then another, further ahead. Still wet. Leading deeper into the caves.

This time, Vincent set out at a run.

He passed another patch of foul slime on the way, motes of Lifestream still lingering in the air. A distant roar echoed through the cavern. Close.

Vincent followed the sound, cloak flaring as he dashed around the corner.

There they were. Cloud, standing awkwardly to the side of an Ark Dragon, fists raised. The dragon’s fangs bared, all four wings flared as it moved to attack.

Vincent snapped out Death Penalty. In three short sharp shots, the ark dragon crumpled to the ground.

Cloud recoiled, head swinging in his direction. He mouthed something, but no words came out.

His complexion was ghostly, faintly green, and his hands streaked with blood. His eyes were covered in a black film, smothering their glow, and though his chest heaved, his breath made no noise.

Darkness, Silence, and almost certainly Poison. Possibly Slow as well, given the usual speed of his reflexes. The others may have been Shelke, but she would never have cast Poison.

“It’s me,” Vincent said. “Don’t move.” He approached carefully, being sure to make his steps pronounced so Cloud could hear him coming. The last thing he needed was a panicked SOLDIER’s elbow in his face, and a likely Galian rampage as a result. Once in reach, he caught Cloud’s arm with his gloved hand, casting a critical eye over the damage. Some nasty scratches, but largely superficial.

Cloud mouthed something that looked like a question. “I left my remedies back at Seventh Heaven,” Vincent replied. He himself had a Ribbon, so there had been no need for them on the road. He did, at least, have a stash of echo herbs – found and harvested in the wild the day before, to sell in the next town he came across. He fished them out. “I have something that will help, though.”

He moved to hand Cloud the herbs, but rethought it given the blood. “Open your mouth.”

There was no time to dwell on the awkwardness – but Vincent hesitated a fraction of a second just the same, thoughts flitting to inappropriate places when Cloud closed his eyes and did as asked. He pushed them aside, carefully placing the herbs on Cloud’s bottom lip.

Like remedy, the effects were fast. Cloud swallowed, and then in a voice far more hoarse than usual said, “Thanks. Anything else?”

“Just the echo herbs.”

“Guess I’ll have to wait for it to wear off the hard way then. Good thing you came along.”

“I’m sorry,” Vincent said. “This is Shelke’s doing. She’s been trying to drive you and I together for a while now.”

“I kind of guessed,” Cloud muttered. “You know, back when I woke up in the Haunted House Hotel dressed in drag and tied up with a bow. Although I didn’t suspect it was Shelke’s doing until just today.”

“…That was a little obvious,” Vincent agreed. “It was a misguided attempt to help. She means well. But she’s only just rediscovering how to handle her own emotions, and doesn’t exactly understand how they work in other people yet. She hasn’t quite grasped that you can’t just order or logic emotions into being by following a set scenario.”

“Not sure about that. I’m starting to think she knows what she’s doing.” Despite the darkness, the humour was audible in Cloud’s voice. “I’m just glad she didn’t take my clothes this time.”

“I’m surprised she caught you at all.”

“I was slack. Didn’t recognise it as a threat until it was too late. Too used to charging through materia instead of dodging it.” Cloud leaned against him. Now that he was no longer silenced, the labour in his breathing was obvious.

Vincent took him gently by the arm and started leading him back the way they came. “What happened in here?”

“Not sure. Came to, was being attacked by a malboro. Pretty sure I killed it. Ran into another one as I was trying to find my way out.”

The residue he’d found earlier. That explained it. “There are malboros in here?” They preferred caves, but were usually only found in colder climes.

“Local variety, I think,” Cloud rasped. “Breath seems to be worse but they’re smaller. I was aiming for the body but think I hit it in the mouth.”

It could have been so much worse. The poisoning alone would have been dangerous for civilian – for Cloud it was merely an unpleasant inconvenience. That and the fact that a blind, slow, bare-knuckled hit from the swordsman was still enough to seriously damage concrete.

The Enemy Away materia bought them some peace – they made it through two caverns unbothered. When they entered the third, a shadow loomed in front of them, all foul breath and flailing tentacles.

Two gunshots echoed like thunder through the cave. The malboro slumped to the ground before it even came close.

Cloud tensed at the sound, shifting into a defensive stance. “Just another malboro,” Vincent explained. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Right.” They continued on. “I think,” Cloud rasped, “For the good of my health, that we should make out. Somewhere Shelke can see.”

Vincent didn’t exactly stumble, but there was a distinct pause in his stride. How could he respond to that?

He didn’t know, so he said nothing.

After a beat, Cloud offered, “Sorry. I thought maybe-”

“It’s not that,” Vincent corrected.

Cloud waited, but when Vincent didn’t elaborate, he murmured, “Still Lucrecia, then?”

Vincent nearly didn’t answer that, either. But with Cloud, there could be no lies – he trusted Vincent with his truths wholesale, no matter how shameful. He would speak plainly of his sins and loss – and was maybe the only one who could begin to understand. Thus it was only fair that Vincent trusted him in turn, regardless of the complications it presented.

“Not exactly,” Vincent said. “After Deepground… many of my questions were answered. But perhaps… the answer wasn’t the one I was seeking.”

They walked into the next cavern. It was lighter than the last. They were nearly outside. Cloud didn’t say anything, waiting for him to finish. His footsteps seemed loud against the rock. Vincent’s barely made a whisper.

“The answer I wanted isn’t one that exists. But more to the point… it never existed. That was my failing. But maintaining the status quo seemed… safer, than acknowledging that. Than risking making those mistakes again.”

They emerged outside at last, into warm, clean, dry air. The faint breeze lifted his cloak so that it swirled around his ankles. Cloud’s breathing evened with it, clearing the malboro’s toxins from his lungs.

When he finally spoke, his voice was smoother, almost back to its normal texture. “You know, failure doesn’t matter as much as what you do afterwards.”

The weight of Black materia lingered behind his words. The millstone of Aerith, and Zack Fair, so heavy Vincent could almost see them, as vivid as the Geostigma had once been against pale skin. “…Are you the proof of that?”

“It had to be beaten into my head a bit first,” Cloud admitted. “But I think you’re smarter than I was.” He ran his hand down Vincent’s arm, tangling their fingers together. “I think we’ve danced around each other long enough, right?”

His words were sure, but his nerves came through in the strength of his grip. Sometimes it could be difficult with Cloud to tell the difference between true confidence and the mere act of it. But perhaps… the act was enough. What started as a façade eventually became true with experience.

“…Maybe it is about time to try,” Vincent conceded.

Cloud slanted him a smile. His eyes were still blackened with Darkness, and his skin still pale and sickly from the lingering poison, but Vincent’s throat tightened at the sight all the same.

Maybe it was time to try, indeed.

…………………

They returned to Edge on Fenrir. Without any remedies or eye drops, Vincent had to drive. Cloud could be precious about his bike, but didn’t seem to mind this once. Somewhere along the ride, with the wind whisking Vincent’s cape around them and Cloud’s arms like bands of mythril around his chest, Darkness wore off and the last of the poison worked his way out of his system.

Seventh Heaven was baked orange in the late afternoon sun – Edge itself was stuck between the midday and evening rushes, so the street was quiet. At the sound of Fenrir’s engine, both Shelke and Tifa came outside to greet them.

They’d barely extricated themselves from the bike when Cloud said, “I wasn’t kidding earlier,” and that was all the warning Vincent received before the swordsman pulled him down and pressed their lips together.

It had been… a very long time for any such contact for Vincent. His thoughts stuttered to an uncharacteristic halt – even the endless, background rumble of his inner beasts quietened.

“Oh, um.” Some distant part of him not preoccupied with Cloud’s arms winding around his neck or his tongue in his mouth registered Tifa’s voice, caught in a tone somewhere between pleased and shocked. “Ah, I thought that might happen with Cloud but Vincent was a surprise. Sorry Shelke, I hope you’re not too disappointed.”

“On the contrary, Tifa Lockhart,” Shelke responded serenely, “I could not be happier.”

…………………

Cloud sought her out later, when Shelke had retired to her room and the rest of the Seventh Heaven were busy downstairs. The background noise of the bar had been dulled, forming a low, constant murmur of conversation interspersed with clinking glasses and the rattle of gil in the register.

“Cloud Strife,” she greeted as he shut the door behind himself. “I believe I may owe you an apology. Vincent informed me of what transpired. It was not my intention to place you in genuine peril.”

Cloud waved it off. “If you’re not experienced with Enemy Away materia, it’s an easy mistake to make. And it worked out.”

It worked out fabulously, in fact. Shelke was immensely satisfied.

She was, however, aware that conveying that satisfaction under the circumstances might be frowned upon. Illogical, perhaps, given that both parties were now acutely conscious of her intentions, but it was one of the many nuances of social interaction that Shelke was re-learning to navigate.

Even with that thought, though, she found herself not quite able to suppress the small smile stretching across her lips.

“Regardless, I hope that I did not impose too much on you,” she offered. Vincent’s comment about Cloud’s role in her scenario had remained in the back of her mind. It was reassuring that she had not been incorrect in her assessment, but the concern had been marginally present for a time.

Cloud shrugged. “I was never against the idea. I’d actually thought about it once or twice, after Tifa and I sorted out where we stood, but Vincent had never seemed interested. Until, you know-” He gestured vaguely at Shelke. “Then I realised he might be, and that changed things.”

“We both care for Vincent, and want what is best for him,” Shelke agreed. “I would not have embarked on his venture if I were not confident that his feelings could turn in that direction.”

Cloud just seemed amused at that. “You’re not quite on the mark, but you’re not quite wrong, either. Where did you even get some of those ideas?”

“Mostly the World Wide Network,” Shelke stated.

“Of course. And how did you get Reno to go along with it?”

“A synaptic net dive as payment. I do however believe that he thought it was be ‘hilarious’,” Shelke quoted.

Cloud nodded again, seeming unsurprised. “You have something of mine too, I hope.”

Shelke handed over the Ribbon and Pre-Emptive materia – the guilt this time was very nearly physical, no matter what logical justifications she applied to it. Curious. “You are being quite generous, Cloud Strife,” she ventured. “I both expected and prepared myself to weather retribution for my role in this, given your reaction to Yuffie Kisaragi’s assistance.”

“Oh don’t worry. I’m still going to kill Yuffie,” he said matter-of-factly as he swiftly tied the ribbon around his bicep. “You get a pass because of good intentions this time.”

Shelke found herself obligated to defend her primary partner in crime. “Yuffie’s intentions were also good.”

“Yuffie’s intentions are never good. But anyway, I just wanted to let you know that we’ll be fine,” Cloud said, standing and stretching. “You did your part. Let me worry about Vincent from now on. Please.” He stressed the word.

Shelke inclined her head in mute agreement. It was all the assurance she needed. Cloud Strife may not have been much better at dealing with people than she was, but that very fact made him uniquely qualified to deal with any of Vincent’s lingering insecurities.

His piece said, and materia and Ribbon reclaimed, Cloud excused himself. Once he was gone, Shelke turned to her phone, dialling with careful deliberation.

“Yuffie Kisaragi,” she greeted. “I believe it is time to ‘tell you everything’.”

Thank you for reading!

Optimal Scenario, File 6.0

sinnatious — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 09:05:18 GMT

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

File 6.0

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“So Vincent was glaring daggers at me the other night,” Reno said conversationally. “You were really onto something there, Princess.”

Shelke stared pensively into her glass – a light, fruity beverage with barely any alcohol, the only drink Tifa would allow her, an odd sort of compromise between her apparent age and her actual one.

“Course, doesn’t seem to have worked,” Reno added. “Cloud’s been here the past few nights, but no sign of Vincent hanging around, guarding his virtue.”

“There were complications,” Shelke admitted distantly. “But our deal remains valid.”

Reno and Rude exchanged a glance, but Reno simply shrugged. He clapped her on the shoulder as he stood up. “Good luck with it, and let us know how it goes, huh?” He shook his head in wonder. “That’d be a hell of thing. Vincent and Cloud. Ifrit, can you imagine if they had a lover’s spat? It’d be the end of the world. Literally.”

Absorbed in her thoughts as she was, Shelke was still quick to rise to Vincent’s defence. “Chaos has not been an issue since the Deepground uprising. There is no further question of his control.”

“Just a joke, princess, lighten up. Anyway, we gotta go, boss is callin’, catch you around.” Reno flipped a hand in a farewell and the two Turks left Seventh Heaven behind.

Shelke sank back in her seat. The evening crowd began to trickle in, one at a time, but it was far from busy yet so she went unnoticed and unbothered in the corner. Marlene and Denzel were still drawing on one of the other tables, cheerfully oblivious to her internal crisis.

The confrontation had ruined everything. Vincent had even started actively avoiding Cloud, presumably to avoid giving Shelke any more opportunities to push them together.

Her plans lay in tatters, and she was running out of ideas.

Cloud came thumping down the stairs – in a rare stroke of luck, mere moments before Vincent strode through the front door. Shelke saw him pause for half a step, but he was, in many ways, still Turk enough to cover it. Avoiding entering the room was too obvious – he played it neutral, nodding to Cloud and Tifa in greeting.

“Vincent,” Cloud replied. “Everything okay at the WRO? You’ve been gone a lot.”

“Nothing serious,” was the bland reply. “I’m just helping Reeve out while I’m in the area.”

“Okay kids, time to take this upstairs,” Tifa said, heading over to Marlene and Denzel’s unofficial table.

Marlene pouted. “But Vincent just got back! Do we have to?”

“You’ve spent plenty of time with Vincent the past few days,” Tifa said with a smile. “C’mon, you have school tomorrow and need to get up early.”

Both children groaned at that. “Do we have to go to school?” Denzel asked. “I’m too old for it already. You and Cloud weren’t going at my age!”

"That’s because Nibelheim didn't have a school," Tifa said. "We had lessons twice a week at the inn. That's why I'm running a bar and Cloud's running a delivery business."

"Speak for yourself," Cloud muttered.

Tifa pouted at him. "You cheated. You've got half the Lifestream poking around in your brain."

It said a lot about how far they'd come that they could joke about it.

“What about you, Vincent?” Marlene asked, tugging on his red cloak curiously.

"I had private tutors," he replied. "Then ShinRa provided the rest of my education."

“What about Shelke?” Denzel tried next.

Shelke abandoned any pretence at not being involved in the conversation, leaving her corner to join the others. At her stare, Denzel flushed.

Tifa answered before she could. “Shelke is nineteen, and spent her school years net-diving, which before you ask is not an option for you. Cloud, could you-?” She gestured.

Cloud nodded, holding out his hand for Marlene. Marlene made a face, but it lasted only an instant – Cloud’s undivided attention was worth it for both of them to cooperate.

“Sorry Shelke,” Tifa said as they disappeared upstairs. “Denzel wasn’t picking on you, they just prefer spending time here.”

“Why do they dislike it so much?” Shelke asked, mystified. It had been a growing trend, but when she first started staying at Seventh Heaven they had been excited to go to school.

“They don’t, really,” Tifa admitted to her. “Denzel’s just in a rush to grow up, and Marlene’s started taking her cues from Denzel. It’s only recently that some of the schools have reopened, and back before we met you, he was applying to work at the WRO. His idea of helping out, I think. Luckily Reeve caught wind of it and applied a minimum age.” She shook her head, as though to chase the memory away. She started wiping down the table Marlene and Denzel had been using. “What about you Vincent? Are you going to be sticking around tonight?”

“I actually came to let you know I’ll be leaving for a while.”

Shelke’s stomach plummeted.

“So soon?” Tifa asked.

Vincent didn’t even bother explaining. His silence seemed to be explanation enough, for AVALANCHE.

“When are you planning on coming back?” she asked. Her gaze flitted to Shelke, and then to Vincent, in what seemed to be silent reproach.

“I’m not sure. But I’ll still be in the area for a while,” he conceded. “You can contact me by phone.”

“Will you actually answer it, though?” she asked, amused, then sighed, dropping the dishrag on the tabletop. “Cloud will be disappointed. He might not be obvious about it, but he enjoys having you around. Say goodbye before you leave, won’t you? To the kids, too.” She sent another pointed glance at Shelke, which Vincent diplomatically ignored.

“I will,” he promised, and disappeared upstairs, presumably to do just that.

Tifa looked like she wanted to talk to her, but customers were demanding her attention, so while she was otherwise occupied, Shelke slipped outside.

She caught Vincent on his way out the door. He no doubt knew she was waiting there, as he lingered on the landing, halfway between the warm light of the bar and the cool embrace of dusk.

“You do not need to leave on my account,” Shelke said.

“I don’t normally stay this long. You know that.” Vincent’s words were as deep and dark as the shadows stretching across the street, threatening to swallow them whole.

“And why is that?” Shelke prodded. “Where will you go? Back to her cave again?”

Vincent didn’t reply, and Shelke wondered if she had pushed too far. She had known of Vincent’s issues, but the evidence had suggested that they no longer ran so deep – that time had made her plans viable. That they were more habit than anything, and thus able to be broken.

The spell had been cast, though. She couldn’t call it back to the materia, no matter how hard she wished it.

“Take care,” Vincent said. “I’ll still be in contact if you need me.”

Then he was gone, nothing more than a flutter of red fabric in the shadows.

Shelke stood outside for several minutes, watching the dusk fade to twilight. People were so difficult sometimes.

She refused to give up, however. This was a setback – a serious one – but it highlighted how important it was that she succeeded.

She still had Cloud’s Ribbon, after all, and a selection of materia generously on loan from Yuffie.

It had seemed too extreme a scenario before, far too risky in execution. But Shelke had no other options left.

If Vincent refused to spend time with Cloud, she would simply be forced to create a situation where he had no choice.

…………………..

The wind raked through Cloud’s hair, leaving his face faintly stinging from the force of it as he pushed the acceleration even higher. The wastes blurred past, Fenrir leaving a rising cloud of dust in his wake.

It had been a routine early-morning delivery – he might even have time for another short run that afternoon. The sun blazed high in the sky, hot against his skin, baking the bare earth dry. Waves of heat rose from the dirt road.

Shapes began to form in the mirage - a van that looked an awful lot like the one Tifa used whenever he and Barret were out of town. And standing next to it…

Was that Shelke?

He hit the brakes, pulling to a gradual stop. What was she doing all the way out here? It wasn’t that dangerous along any of the roads through the Wastes – there simply wasn’t the flora or fauna in the local food chain to support any particularly vicious predators – but it wasn’t the sort of area you travelled without a weapon, either. Although it did look like she had some materia and her batons, so that was mildly reassuring.

He drew to a stop near the van and killed the engine. “Shelke. Something the matter?” He fished in his pockets for his phone. Had he missed a call?

“My apologies, Cloud Strife,” Shelke said, “But I can no longer think of anything else that will work.”

“What are you-?”

The whining rise of materia was all the warning he received.

……………………...

Vincent’s phone trilled with a new message.

He contemplated ignoring it – it was most likely Yuffie, harassing him once again now that he was out of Seventh Heaven’s sphere of influence. But he had, against his better judgement, promised Tifa he would be in contact. It was only fair given that they had taken responsibility for Shelke in his place.

The number, unexpectedly, was Cloud’s.

The message was short and simple. Coordinates to a cave system nearby, part of the same mountain range ringing Kalm. It wasn’t a place AVALANCHE had ever bothered with before – it was far from any human settlements, and the monsters there were more trouble than they were worth. Not even ShinRa had ever given them more than a cursory exploration – there were no veins of mythril or mako springs or materia to plunder.

Beyond that, the message offered nothing. No reason. No requests.

Cloud could be taciturn sometimes, but he wasn’t in the habit of being deliberately mysterious. Which only left…

“Shelke,” he murmured. “What have you done?”

…………………..

Shelke carefully set the phone on Fenrir’s seat.

Everything was in place now. There was a small chance that the materias’ effects wouldn’t last until Vincent’s arrival and that Cloud Strife would, in effect, rescue himself before Vincent could, but Shelke had confidence in the gunman. He would not risk a comrade to stubbornness. He would especially not risk Cloud.

Going by Yuffie’s example, it would be best to make herself scarce at this point. She activated the Chocobo Lure she’d brought along for this very occasion – that would bring her back to the truck, and with that she could return to Edge. She started walking, regardless – less chance of encountering Vincent that way.

The shrubs and trees lining the dirt path still fascinated her after so many years in Deepground. She watched them carefully, only long-learned discipline keeping her alert for the slightest hint of crimson in the foliage. Her ears caught a distant ‘wark’ – the crow of a chocobo’s curiosity, brought by her Lure.

She waited patiently as the bird came crashing through the undergrowth, hesitating when it saw her, but just as quickly nosing its beak under her arms, head-butting her thighs, searching for whatever had caught its attention. Its feathers were still soft and downy under her hands – it was just an adolescent yellow. More than enough to get her back to the truck, though.

There were few pleasures in her life as satisfying as a plan running smoothly.

“Best of luck, Vincent Valentine,” she said to the sky, and with the awkward air of inexperience, mounted the young chocobo’s back.

Neither of them could ignore the issue in the wake of a rescue mission. Shelke’s work here was done. Now it was up to Vincent to arrive, find Cloud, and in his worry, be forced to admit his feelings.

Of course, Cloud Strife would, naturally, be fine.

...Right?

Next chapter

Optimal Scenario, File 5.0

sinnatious — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 09:20:58 GMT

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

File 5.0

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Their time at the Gold Saucer drew to a close much too fast for Shelke’s liking. Their last evening – or more specifically, Yuffie’s last evening – had been spent avoiding Cloud’s wrath. Shelke had been momentarily hopeful when she observed Vincent shadowing Cloud’s search for Yuffie, but once more it appeared her goal remained unfulfilled.

Thus returning to Edge in many ways felt an awful lot like defeat. A week at the Gold Saucer, reputedly one of the greatest romantic retreats on the Planet, and Shelke had yet to achieve her goal. She couldn't decide which was more inconvenient - Cloud's apparent obliviousness, or Vincent's denial.

Luckily, Shelke’s industriousness was matched only by her patience. She refused to give up. Vincent’s long term well-being depended on it.

Yuffie had parted ways with them at the Gold Saucer, returning to Wutai from there. Vincent, on the other hand, had accompanied them back to Edge.

“Are you staying for a while?” Shelke asked him as soon as they returned to Seventh Heaven.

“If you would like me to,” he answered.

She nodded in assent. That Vincent would stay at her request remained troublesome, but she would exploit it if it kept him in regular contact with Cloud.

“Vincent’s staying?” Marlene broke into a wide smile, and tugged on his red coat. “You can stay in our room! Denzel won’t mind!”

“Vincent can stay in the other guest room,” Tifa corrected. “That’s why we have so many rooms. You might have to share with Cid if he comes through, though,” she said to him.

“It’s not necessary,” Vincent said, “but thank you.”

“You’re always welcome here, you know that. We wish you’d stay more often.” She side-eyed Shelke at that. Much like Tifa’s misunderstanding of her supposed crush on Cloud, she apparently similarly misconstrued the nature of her relationship with Vincent. Shelke remained deeply fond of him, of course – she wouldn’t be going to all this trouble otherwise - but it was hardly emotional dependence.

Still, her task had only grown in complexity. Her resources were reduced with Yuffie’s departure, for one, though the Wutai Princess had graciously left her with Cloud’s Ribbon and a selection of materia on the condition Shelke ‘called her and told her everything’.

That the cross-dressing ploy had failed to work was disheartening, also. But it had not been a total loss – something unusual had occurred on the Event Square stage. There had been an undercurrent there, a conversation Shelke did not have all the tools to understand.

She thought she could guess, though. There had been a glimpse there, on stage, when the dragon had wrapped its arm around Cloud. Most people wouldn’t have seen it, but Shelke spent much of her time analysing emotions. And analysing Vincent, for that matter.

It had been subtle, but it had been present. A flash of possessiveness.

Shelke intended to exploit it.

………………….

For the next phase of her plan, Shelke required a new ally.

Her requirements were simple enough – they needed to be male, and to be a credible threat in terms of romantic stake, without risking any actual romantic stake, because the last thing she wanted was for Cloud to suddenly become unavailable. Vincent had spent far too much emotional energy on unavailable interests as it was – the whole point of this endeavour was not to repeat that mistake.

She sat in one of Edge’s many fledgling parks. It was as of yet barren, a square of sun-baked dirt amidst the growing industrial park. Its only feature was a playground set wrought with scrap metal salvaged from Midgar. In the heat of the middle of the day it sat deserted, giving Shelke the much-needed privacy for this call.

“Barret?” Shelke asked.

“Are you kidding?” Yuffie’s voice echoed tinnily from the phone. “No way he’d be able to pull it off. The guy’s about as subtle as a brick.”

“Cid, then.”

“Have you met Shera?”

“The airship?” Shelke asked.

“Yeah, okay, Cid’s married to his work, but that’s not the Shera I was talking about. Look, just saying, Shera’s a nice lady but she can be totally scary sometimes when it comes to Cid so we maybe shouldn’t do that to her. And there’s no way in hell Cid would agree. He’d blow the whole thing.”

Shelke moved to the next name in her mental list. “Tseng?”

“Turks? Oh heck, that’s actually – you know what, Tseng’s no good, he idolises Vincent, and there’s some rumour that he and Elena are going out, so no way he’d do anything there. But you know who would be totally perfect for this? Reno.”

Shelke considered that. Reno did possess a certain degree of ‘people skills’, and a reputation for constantly attempting to get under Cloud’s skin. “He will suffice. He stops by Seventh Heaven regularly.”

“You can just say ‘he’ll do’, you know,” Yuffie’s tone was teasing. “I’m supposed to be a Princess, and you talk more properly than I do.”

“I will work on it,” Shelke promised. She was aware, after all, that she still had a tendency to ‘talk like a robot’, or worse considering the sort of casual vernacular Reeve had managed to program into Cait Sith. It was yet another of the many side effects of Deepground – too much data diving in place of normal human interaction.

“It could be worse. Cloud talks like a total country bumpkin sometimes,” Yuffie confided. “Gawd, it’s downright embarrassing. Total mood killer. I bet that’s why Vincent hasn’t made a move yet.”

“Vincent is unlikely to let such things bother him,” Shelke said. “However if Reno agrees to help, it may encourage him to be more proactive.”

“Reno will totally agree. You’ve got cameras there somewhere, right? You have definitely got to have cameras. I need to see this.” She sighed theatrically. “Why did I go back to Wutai so soon?”

“You were concerned that Cloud was going to seek revenge on you,” Shelke supplied.

“Oh, right, that. Keep fighting the good fight!”

…………………

Despite Yuffie’s assurances, Reno was not so easily swayed. “Wait, wait, lemme get this straight, you want to hook up Vincent Valentine with Cloud Strife? You know, the Vincent Valentine in the moody red cloak with thirty years of unrequited love for a dead scientist, and the Cloud Strife with identity issues who’s still being stalked by his dead girlfriend from the Lifestream? That Vincent Valentine and Cloud Strife?”

“Yes,” Shelke replied.

Reno cocked his head and glanced at Rude. Rude adjusted his glasses, and didn’t comment. “Huh.”

Shelke had cornered them that evening in Seventh Heaven – it was far less secure than she would have liked, but Vincent had left for the WRO earlier and was not expected back for some time, and Cloud had yet to return from a long-distance delivery. Shelke had to take her chances that they wouldn’t be overheard by anyone else wanting to meddle.

“Ooookay.” Reno drawled the word out. “And you need to me to go hit on Cloud to make him jealous. Is that right?”

“That is correct.”

“It would be hilarious.” He appeared to be seriously considering it, until he abruptly shook his head. “Look, I mean, it’s a good idea, princess. Shiva only knows those two really ought to get laid, and you’re totally on to something there. But I’m not your guy. I mean, have you ever seriously pissed those guys off? They hit hard, yo.”

“Synaptic net dive,” Shelke said. “Anything you want.”

That stopped Reno cold. “Anything?”

Shelke matched his stare and waited him out.

Reno visibly squirmed under it. He glanced at Rude. “Hell, man, I can’t just say no to that. You know how many people are capable of synaptic net dives these days?”

Rude adjusted his sunglasses, and then gave the barest of shrugs. Reno grinned and turned back to her.

“I can hold that in reserve, right? Any time I want?”

“Of course,” Shelke replied.

“Yeah, okay then. We’ve got a deal.”

Shelke eyed Rude from the corner of her eyes. “Are you certain? You cannot do this half-hearted. We are trying to overcome considerable relationship inertia here.”

Reno looked offended. “What do you take me for? I’m a Turk, yo.”

…………………

Cloud sat at the bar, nursing his drink. The alcohol might not do anything for him, but it gave him something to do with his hands and he’d acquired the taste for it at some point.

Vincent didn’t arrive so much as Cloud caught a glance of crimson from the corner of his eyes and then the former Turk was simply there, as though he’d been there all along. “Hey Vincent,” he greeted. “Back from the WRO already?”

“It was a trifling matter,” Vincent replied. “What are you doing?”

“Unofficial bouncer. When Barret and I are around, Tifa prefers us hanging out down here to keep fights from breaking out.” He gestured to the seat next to him. “Feel free to join me. It can be boring sometimes.”

“I wouldn’t have thought Tifa would need a bouncer,” Vincent remarked.

Cloud reached over the bar to grab a bottle of whiskey and pour an extra glass. “She doesn’t have any trouble tossing them out, but I think she prefers the visual deterrent of a big sword or gun arm before it reaches that point.”

Cloud noted the arrival of Rude and Reno in the background, out of habit, mostly – they were Turks, and even years later those black suits would trigger a fight or flight response until he stifled it. Tifa saw them too apparently, as she immediately set to pouring two pints of beer. They were frequent enough visitors that they knew their orders by now. Spying on them for Rufus, perhaps. That they did it in broad view made it oddly courteous.

“Hm.” Vincent didn’t comment further. He’d yet to take a sip of his drink, but Cloud let it be. Vincent got even less out of drinking than he did, but having a glass in hand prevented others from asking potentially uncomfortable questions.

They sat there in silence for nearly an hour, watching fresh patrons trickle into the bar as others left, the crowd that stopped in on their way home from work being replaced by those who had been home and were now out for the night instead. Seventh Heaven was one of the more popular bars in Edge, possibly because its shelves were stocked with liquor from Wutai and other far-flung places, thanks to Cid’s airship and Yuffie’s Wutai contacts and Cloud’s delivery service. It gave them an advantage over the diners and clubs stuck with the East Continent staples.

Too noisy for Cloud’s tastes, really – he preferred the quiet of the open road, with only the roar of Fenrir’s engine to keep him company. But Tifa seemed to enjoy it, and these days it was making more gil than his deliveries anyway, so it was only fair he did his part to pitch in. Even if it was only to sit around as a visual deterrent for any trouble.

“Are you moody bastards just going to sit there in silence all night?” Reno popped up behind them – a quick eyeball of the bar had Rude loitering at the other end near Tifa, waiting on a refill.

“What do you want?” Cloud asked without turning around.

Reno leaned in, so close he stood almost flush. The stink of alcohol rolled of his breath, thick and heady. “Aww, c’mon Cloud, don’t be like that! I just wanna talk, yo.”

Reno was the sort of drunk who over-enunciated his words to hide how drunk he really was. As a Turk he did it better than most, but to anyone who had spent much time around him the burr to his voice was obvious. “Go home, Reno. You’re drunk.”

“I ain’t drunk, yo!” Reno slung an arm around his shoulders. Cloud sent him a dirty look, then nearly recoiled at how close his face was – enough to count his eyelashes, if he’d cared to. “We’ve only been here like an hour. Loosen up, crankypants, the night’s young!”

“Then go bother someone else,” Cloud said.

“But you’re the most interesting guy here!” Reno protested. “Except Rude, of course, but I see him all day.”

Vincent stirred next to him. “The Turks have certainly become unprofessional.”

Cloud raised an eyebrow at that – it was unusual for Vincent to offer that kind of unsolicited criticism. Reno shrugged it off without a care, though. “I’m off the clock, yo. Besides, I’ve got this killer fix for it. You wanna know?”

“No,” Cloud said.

“Y’see,” Reno rambled on regardless, “You mix an antidote – or a remedy, if you’ve got one, but that shit’s expensive – with a potion, and then like three cups of coffee. It’s magic, promise. Neo-ShinRa ought to patent that stuff. But I like you, so I’m giving you the recipe for free.”

“I don’t get hangovers,” Cloud pointed out. “Mako enhancements make it hard to get drunk.”

“Seriously? Well, guess that means there’s no point buying you drinks. Damn.”

“My drinks are free anyway.” Reno knew all this. Cloud couldn’t figure out his angle. He was drunk, though, so maybe didn’t have one for once. He glanced around for Rude to take his partner off their hands, but the bald Turk had vanished. Bathroom, maybe. They were stuck babysitting until he came back, then.

Reno’s arm was a warm, heavy weight on his shoulders, and his fingers were idling patterns on the bare skin of his bicep. Annoyed, Cloud shoved it off, but his hand simply fell with the movement, sliding down his back and coming to rest on his waist. “Woah!” Reno overbalanced, slumping against him. “Ah, shit, maybe you’re right, I might be drunk. Shouldn’t have pre-gamed before coming out.” His arm tightened, snaking around Cloud’s stomach.

“You think?” Cloud asked, becoming distracted by Reno’s other hand which had landed a bit too far up his thigh to be comfortable. He was attempting to process whether it would be more awkward to draw attention to it by demanding Reno move it or to just ignore it.

There was an odd wave of hostility from Vincent, made almost tangible in the air with the faint tingle similar to a Limit Break or materia. It was an alarmingly familiar sensation, one that normally preceded Galian Beast going on a rampage. When he looked over, though, Vincent was staring intensely at his drink, unbothered.

His imagination?

“Aww, but Cloud.” Reno honeyed his name, “Ain’t you ever heard of liquid courage? Guess you’ve got enough of the regular kind that you don’t need it.”

Reno’s hand dropped further, and Cloud all but jumped in his seat. There was no way that was an accident.

Cloud raised an eyebrow as the gil finally dropped. “…Are you hitting on me?”

Reno just gave him a toothy grin. “What, a guy can’t try his luck? You might be a moody britches but I got eyes, yo.”

Cloud shook his head in bemusement and very deliberately picked up the offending hand and removed it from his body. “Not interested.”

Reno pouted. “Can’t blame me for giving it a shot. Is it cause I’m drunk? I can come back later, y’know, when I’m not drunk.”

“Get lost, Reno.” Cloud gave him a gentle push away and turned back to his drink. Rude had reappeared down the other end of the bar, and he waved him over with a pointed look in Reno’s direction. Rude, for his part, just nodded and made to escort the other Turk away.

Vincent’s silence felt oddly stonier than normal next to him. Cloud slanted him a glance, but his comrade’s gaze was still on the Turk stumbling out of the bar.

He was watching Vincent, thus almost didn’t catch the way the Turk’s un-coordinated lurch faded away as he stepped out into the night. But then Tifa was calling for his attention down another part of the bar, and so he let the matter drop.

…………………

“This has to stop.”

Shelke turned her attention to the doorway of her bedroom. True to form, she had not noticed Vincent’s arrival until he spoke.

She swivelled her chair from the desk to face the door. The room was dark, the blinds half-shuttered, casting thin lines of warm morning light across the bed, to contrast with the pale blue of her computer screen. “Vincent Valentine. To what are you referring?”

“You’re aware of what I’m talking about.”

Shelke conceded with a tip of her head. She hadn’t expected to get away with it as long as she had, after all. And without Yuffie present to act as a cover… it was only a matter of time. “And?”

“And it’s gone far enough,” Vincent said. “I’m not sure what you’re hoping to accomplish-”

“I am hoping to see you happy, Vincent Valentine,” she interrupted. “And I have concluded that this is the optimal way.”

Vincent went abruptly silent.

Shelke waited it out – she had infinite patience, after all. In Deepground, the silence would sometimes stretch for weeks at a time.

His words, when they came, were measured and slow. “What is it,” he said, “That makes you think that would make me happy?”

“You care for Cloud Strife, far more than you do anyone else.”

“He might be a trusted friend, but that isn’t true. You-”

“I cannot return your feelings,” she said. “And I will not see you repeat the mistakes of the past. Not when you have a chance at true happiness.”

The words hurt to say, directly to his face – had Shelke the skill or tact, she might have a found a way to soften the blow, but she didn’t so was left only with bluntness. Yet it still left her hollow to see his expression still and the muscles on his face tighten.

She’d wanted to avoid this. Had hoped that she could encourage him into another direction before this conversation became necessary. But all she could do now was to help Vincent move on.

His stare was heavy – the full weight of the resolve that once kept even Chaos in check coming to bear upon her. “Have you even considered how Cloud feels about this?”

She paused, giving the question due consideration. Honestly, she hadn’t, aside from initial establishment that no others had a legitimate claim on the swordsman’s affections and that there were no reasons for him to be against the idea. “He would also benefit,” she determined.

“Tifa,” he said.

"They are not in a relationship, nor are they hoping to be," she responded firmly. “Tifa herself confirmed this. Why is it that you are so against it?” Had she miscalculated? No… that Vincent was here, now, having this conversation proved that her conclusions were correct. He would not have let it continue as long as he had, or reacted in this manner if she’d been wrong. “You cannot seek absolution through me. How long are you going to continue to deny yourself for the sake of memory?”

The silence this time stretched for nearly twenty breaths. Vincent stood as still as a statue, the faint blue of the computer screen casting eerie shadows across his face.

“Leave Cloud out of it,” he eventually said. “That’s all I came here to say.”

He was stubborn to the last. “What is it that you’re waiting for?” she asked.

“I don’t expect you to understand,” he said. “The matter is closed.” He turned to leave, red cloak flowing around him like liquid.

“No, Vincent Valentine,” she said. “It is you who does not understand.” Her gaze followed his back, noting the tenseness of his shoulders, and the way his cloak swept around his ankles as though in living agitation. “I am not Lucrecia Crescent, and I never will be.”

Vincent paused in the doorway, but left without another word.

Next chapter

Optimal Scenario, File 4.0

sinnatious — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 02:48:18 GMT

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

File 4.0

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Shelke and Yuffie stood by one of the many mini-game vendors inside the Gold Saucer – some sort of throwing-ball competition that didn’t stand a chance against someone who could throw a shuriken and hit a moving target a hundred paces away.

“The Darkness trick yesterday went pretty well, I thought,” Yuffie offered.

It did, but Shelke was far from satisfied. There had been no progress since – the two had quickly fallen back into their familiar patterns. “It’s not enough.”

Yuffie tossed another ball at the machine. It dinged cheerily with her fifth bulls-eye in a row. “Yeah! Take that! Hey, hey you! I won a prize over here!” While the attendant made his way over, the ninja asked, “What are you thinking next then?”

Shelke considered it. Their time at the Gold Saucer was rapidly running out, and with it the rare opportunity of Vincent and Cloud sharing a – seemingly – private room. “I think it is time to acquire some more specialised supplies.”

Yuffie grinned as she accepted the oversized stuffed cactuar, glancing over with a manic glint in her eye that had the attendant rapidly backpedalling. “We’re actually going to do it? Cloud might really kill us this time, you know.”

“We have no choice. If they continue to be stubborn, we need to be more overt.”

Yuffie threw her spare arm around Shelke’s shoulder and squeezed her tight. “You are my long-lost soulmate in pranking. Come on! I saw something perfect backstage at the Event Square.”

Shelke tilted her head in contemplation. “Backstage? Will we be able to purchase it?”

“Details! Trust me, when you’re an amazing ninja Princess from Wutai, you can get your hands on anything.”

………………..

Upon returning to the Haunted House Hotel that night, Vincent immediately sensed something amiss.

His gauntleted hand hovered over the door to the room. It was unlocked. If he looked closely, miniscule scratches decorated the edges of the inlay.

Yuffie’s handiwork, almost certainly.

It had been an unusual week at the Gold Saucer, the cause of which he’d been growing increasingly suspicious about. So it was with no small amount of trepidation that he opened the door and entered the hotel room.

Even forewarned, Vincent remained unprepared for the sight that greeted him.

Cloud sat on his bed, dressed in a frilly pale lavender dress with a boat neck and short poufy sleeves. It was edged and embroidered with dark purple lace and ribbon, ending at his knees and showing a white petticoat underneath. His legs were half-folded under him and clad in white stockings – his shoes, short heels adored with a bow on the toe. Around his neck rested a lacy choker, and blond ringlets framed his face – hair extensions attached with matching bows. And to top it all off, his hands and fingers were tied together in front of him with an intricate lace of violet ribbon, culminating in a bow across his bound wrists.

Vincent stalled in the doorway, unsure how to proceed, until ancient Turk training kicked in and bypassed the short-circuiting in his brain. That was when he finally noticed Cloud’s eyes. Framed in mascara and thick eyeliner, with a purple sheen that matched his clothes – but more importantly, glazed and vacant. His gaze tracked Vincent’s movement, but showed no sign of recognition.

It had been a long time since Vincent had seen this affliction, but he recognised it immediately. Confuse.

Cloud began to shift on the bed, stockinged legs sliding against the sheets as he rose to his knees. To do what was anyone’s guess – and not something Vincent could risk finding out.

In his pocket rested a small bag of Remedies – quietly purchased after the Darkness debacle. He slipped one of the pills into the palm of his gloved hand. Then, in a sudden whirl of crimson, leapt forward.

Cloud jerked back in response, but Vincent anticipated the move, adding to that momentum by pushing him flat against the mattress. He couldn’t risk a straight-out contest of strength – that was a battle he would lose. But with his hands bound and wits dulled, leverage was enough to keep the swordsman pinned.

He pressed down tight, trapping Cloud’s bound hands between them, and slipped a finger of his gauntlet’s between the blond’s teeth – the metal saving him from losing a finger to the reflexive snap as he nudged the Remedy past them. Then it was a matter of holding his mouth closed, gloved hand firmly pressed over Cloud’s lips as he struggled beneath him, until he finally swallowed.

He watched those mako-glowing eyes carefully, as the blank, unseeing stare cleared and fixed properly on his face. Tentatively, he removed his hand. “Cloud?”

“Vincent?” he replied, confused in the more traditional sense.

It was only then, with the danger past, that Vincent registered how close their faces were and the compromising nature of his position. He extracted himself swiftly, left standing awkwardly beside the bed as Cloud rose to his elbows.

“Why… oh Gaia, what the hell am I wearing?”

The struggle had ruffled Cloud’s hair extensions - the bows in his hair sat lopsided, not helped when their owner tugged on them in befuddlement. “Seems like you had Confuse cast on you.”

“Yuffie again?” Cloud swung his legs over the side of the bed, staring at his bow-adorned heels in disbelief.

“She should know better,” Vincent agreed. “You’re lucky I had a Remedy with me.” There had been a reason why AVALANCHE had voted on outfitting Cloud with Ribbon first, long before they’d tracked down enough for the rest of the team. While they each had fallen prey to Mystify materia one time for another, a rogue Scissor had caught Cloud on their first sojourn to the Northern Continent, and he’d very nearly wiped the rest of them out in the following skirmish. That time, Vincent had been forced to wing him with a bullet to bring him out of it.

“I think she must have cast Sleep first,” Cloud admitted. “I can’t remember clearly, but I’m pretty sure she ambushed me outside.” He held up his bound hands in consternation. “…A little help here?”

Vincent hesitated for half a breath, then took them and set to untying the bow, carefully unwrapping the intricate lattice trap of purple ribbon winding around Cloud’s fingers. “You can’t break it?”

“Not easily. If I can avoid having sore hands for the next hour, I’d rather you do it.”

It was some small measure of comfort that Yuffie had not simply left a Confused Cloud unattended in a hotel room without taking some safety precautions. “I wonder where she learned to do this.”

“I’m not sure I want to know.” Cloud tossed his head a little, attempting to get the hair extensions out of his face. “Where did she even get this stuff? The Gold Saucer isn’t exactly Midgar.”

Vincent unwound the last of the ribbon, leaving Cloud flexing his fingers and then heading towards the mirror. Vincent caught his gaze lingering on the lace choker, before he carefully directed it away again.

Cloud sighed heavily at his reflection. “At least she didn’t go overboard on the makeup.”

“You look nice,” Vincent offered in consolation.

Cloud gave him a dry stare in the mirror. “If you say so. It’s a little tight to be comfortable, though.” He glanced around. “Do you know where my clothes are?”

Vincent gave him an apologetic shrug. “She appears to have taken them all.” She’d been thorough – Cloud’s travel bag was missing, too.

“Of course she did.” Cloud tugged on his hair extensions irritably. “Fine, let’s go then.”

He turned on his heel, teetering briefly in the unfamiliar shoes. Vincent held out his arm for balance. Cloud took it, but within a few steps had mastered his footing and dropped it again. Vincent found himself strangely disappointed, but avoided examining that thought too closely.

It was a short walk through the empty halls of the Haunted House Hotel to Shelke and Yuffie’s room. Vincent ghosted after him. “I doubt she would wait in such an obvious place,” he advised.

“I know,” Cloud said, snatching a piece of paper from the front of the door. He held it up. It bore only two words.

‘EVENT SQUARE’.

Vincent barely had the chance to make sense of the message before Cloud had crumpled the paper in his hands and begun striding through the red carpeted halls once again.

“You’re going?”

“If she wants to embarrass me into hiding in my room, she’s going to be disappointed. I seduced Don Corneo once, as Tifa constantly reminds everyone.”

True to form, Cloud didn’t bat an eye at the curious – and occasionally lecherous – glances he earned as they made their way out of the Ghost Square. Vincent stayed close, regardless.

It took only a matter of minutes to make their way to the Event Square. No sooner than he and Cloud stepped past the entrance though, was he nearly blinded by light. Cymbals crashed and trumpets flared, backed by the cheers and clapping of the Event Square’s small but enthusiastic audience. “Aaaaaaand here we have a lucky couple! Come on down! Give them a hand everyone! Come on, don’t be shy!”

“Odin,” Cloud cursed. “My luck cannot possibly be this bad.”

A pair of actors – one dressed as a witch, the other a knight – appeared by their side as though summoned by materia. “Oh wow, you both look fabulous, perfect, are you sure you’re not one of ours?” The witch gushed. “I’m just kidding, darling, but I love your taste.” It took Vincent a minute to realise she was addressing him as she patted his golden gauntlet.

“This way, this way.” The knight ushered them with uncanny speed backstage, into comforting darkness and comparative quiet. “We’ve got our hero and princess! Places, people!”

Hero and… princess?

Vincent glanced at Cloud. He supposed that to anybody who didn’t know the swordsman well, it would be difficult to spot. The frills and lace distracted the eye from the lack of bust, and the sleeves disguised his upper arm muscles admirably. He was slim, after all, and his facial features always had been somewhat… delicate.

Cloud, for his part, simply said, “Killing Yuffie would be too kind. I’m going to steal all of her materia and sell it to Rufus.”

Vincent wondered if he should say anything about his growing suspicions, but given the current situation, offered nothing. “What is this?”

“You’re going to go on stage, darling,” the witch said, and handed him what appeared to be a remarkably well-painted foam sword. He grasped it gingerly with his gauntlet.

“On… stage?” he asked. “To act?”

“Is this your first time to the Event Square, sweetie?” the witch asked. “Well, don’t worry, you’re going to be natural, I can tell. We’ll help you out if you get stuck!”

Lost, Vincent simply looked to Cloud again, who was currently being fussed over by one of the stage hands.

“Relax, I’ve done this before.” There was an air of suffering to Cloud’s voice. “It’s all improv, but it’s cliché. Just respond to whatever they prompt you with and you’ll be fine. It can be kind of fun, even. Trust me, it’s easier to just go along with it.”

Vincent didn’t have any further chance to protest before the knight herded him onstage, under the harsh, near-blinding glare of spotlights and a raucous explosion of trumpets. His gaze swept the audience, struggling to pick faces out of the darkness. Somewhere near the back, he thought he could spy Shelke and Yuffie.

A deep voice boomed over the speakers. “Princess Rosa was just kidnapped by the Evil Dragon King, Valvados! What will become of her? But when all hope was lost…” He paused dramatically as canned trumpets flared. “The legendary hero, Alfred, appears!”

Vincent stood in the middle of the vast stage. For one terrifying moment Hellmasker rose in his breast, before he tamped him back down with long years of experience. He’d not had an outbreak since the Omega incident – he wasn’t going to lose that record in front of a crowd.

The knight pirouetted on stage. “Oh, you must be the legendary hero… Alfred!”

Vincent turned to stare. The knight gestured at him. His line? “Yes.”

Simple, but it seemed to please the knight, as he dropped to his knees. “I beg of you, please save Princess Rosa!”

“Princess Rosa is capable of saving herself,” Vincent replied.

The knight shook his head fervently. “You know not the dark power of the Evil Dragon King Valvados! Please… talk to the King!”

Another actor came pirouetting on stage – this one wearing a crown and royal furred cloak. The crown looked plastic painted gold, up close. “Oh, legendary hero Alfred! You have come to save my beloved Rosa?”

“Apparently,” Vincent remarked. Titters ran through the audience.

The actors didn’t blink an eye. The king merely continued, “You must know, then, on the peak of a dangerous mountain dwells the Evil Dragon King, Valvados, who has kidnapped my cherished daughter! But…! You can’t beat the Dragon King as you are now! Talk to the one who can help you.”

The knight pirouetted to the rear, where he was soon joined by the witch who had ushered them backstage earlier.

A branching path, was it? Vincent could dimly recall seeing such a matinee in his youth.

He turned towards the witch, who immediately curtsied and sang, “I am the wise witch Vala! What do you wish to know?”

This was a retrieval mission, wasn’t it? “What is Valvados’s goal?”

The actress floundered. “He… er… that is… the Evil Dragon King Valvados kidnapped the princess to… Oh, look! Here he is!”

A dragon, if one could call it that, given the obviously fake nature of the suit, lumbered awkwardly onto the stage, Cloud held in his arms. “What ho! I am the Evil Dragon King! I have not harmed the Princess…. I have been expecting you.”

They’d added a tiara to Cloud’s ensemble, along with glossy lipstick that was briefly distracting. “The legendary hero Alfred?” Cloud declared, mimicking the overdramatic tones of the rest of the cast. “It can’t be!”

“Who is your enemy, legendary hero? Say it!” the Dragon King commanded.

They were really hamming it up. Though it was supposed to be cliché, wasn’t it? Vincent glanced at the foam sword still clutched carefully in his gauntlet. “I suppose,” he said, “We must do battle.”

The Evil Dragon King laughed. “Do you think a mere sword can defeat me?”

Cloud abruptly tossed the ropes aside and flung his arms around the Dragon King’s neck. “Wait! You can’t! Val and I are getting married!”

“Married?!” the King exclaimed.

“Er… right! We are!” The Evil Dragon King guffawed, wrapping an oversized claw around Cloud’s waist. “What say you to that, legendary hero Alfred?”

Silence stretched, several beats too many to be merely dramatic. Vincent was frozen in place, his thoughts and his memories many years away. The audience began to shift in their seats, murmuring amongst themselves.

The witch cleared her throat, and whispered. “…Hey, it’s your line.”

Vincent blinked, tearing his gaze back to her.

“Go on.” She gestured minutely to him.

Right. “Is…” His voice came out strangely thick. “Is that what you really want, Princess Rosa?”

Cloud glanced away. “Of course! We fell in love up on the mountain. So you don’t need to fight, and you don’t need to get hurt.”

The witch gasped in realisation. “She’s sacrificing herself, to protect the legendary hero!”

So that was how it was. Vincent dropped his foam sword and drew his gun out of his cloak. “No matter what she says, I’m afraid I can’t let you take Rosa away. I will fight you.”

“Wait, did we give him that?” the knight squeaked under his breath. “Is that a real gun?”

“No, no… this must be… the power of true loooove!” The Evil Dragon King recoiled, dropping Cloud and fleeing the stage. “It is too pure! I have been defeated!”

Vincent bent and offered Cloud his hand. The swordsman had an oddly satisfied smile on his face as he took it and rose to his feet.

“Thank you, legendary hero Alfred!” he chirped.

“You’re enjoying this too much,” Vincent muttered under his breath.

“I’m making the best of a bad situation. The knight was way more fun to play.”

“And so the Evil Dragon King was defeated!” The narrator’s booming voice buried their words. “And the Legendary Hero Alfred and Princess Rosa lived happily ever after!”

“That’s our cue to exit.” Cloud tugged on his hand, all but running offstage. Vincent followed, relieved to leave the lights and stares of the crowd behind.

“You guys were great!” the witch gushed. “That was such a good twist! Best performance all week.”

Cloud handed over his tiara and Vincent his foam sword, and finally the rest of the cast left them be.

Cloud held up his travel bag. “At least our mission was successful. I found it backstage.”

Yuffie had likely dumped it and run to delay retribution. “Are you going to get changed?”

Cloud batted his eyelashes at him. “What, Alfred, did you want to go ride the gondola to celebrate our happily ever after?” He hefted the bag over his shoulder. “Seriously, though, this petticoat itches. And I don’t want to risk Dio seeing me in this or he might propose.”

That was a disturbing possibility he hadn’t considered before. Dio was inordinately fond of Cloud – especially whenever he took an interest in the Chocobo or Battle Squares.

It wasn’t until later, when Cloud was dressed as himself again, hair extensions gone and the lip gloss, if not the eye makeup, finally removed, that Vincent felt comfortable enough to venture, “In the play, you were making a point about…”

Cloud shrugged. “Don’t overthink it. You were great onstage.”

“But I…”

“Didn’t you get the verdict?” Cloud slung his bag over his shoulder. “Turns out sins can be forgiven. Maybe you’re ready to try.”

Vincent glanced away. He had much better control of his beasts now, and some measure of closure with Lucrecia, but…

Cloud didn’t give the thought the chance to linger, already moving ahead. “Let’s mosey. I have a thief to go get revenge on. And considering we both wound up onstage, I’m willing to share my vengeance with you.”

Next chapter

Optimal Scenario, File 3.0

sinnatious — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 05:25:00 GMT

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

File 3.0

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Shelke kept watch while Yuffie picked the door’s lock with a pair of pins she apparently normally kept in her hair.

“If this is going to work, we have to do it while he’s in the shower,” Yuffie explained. “Otherwise his Pre-Emptive materia will warn him before we do anything. I haven’t been able to steal anything from him in months, and my Steal materia is mastered,” she lamented. “So we have to get that for sure. Oh! And we’ll need to make sure we get his Ribbon too, or it won’t work. Even then, you’re lucky most of my materia is mastered – anything less and he’ll shrug it off in a matter of minutes. Damn cheating SOLDIERs,” she added under her breath. The lock sprung. “Score! C’mon, c’mon, we’ve gotta hurry.”

They hustled into the room. It was a mirror copy of theirs, two beds, crimson carpet and curtains, and gaudy chandeliers strewn with fake cobwebs. Behind the closed door of the bathroom Shelke could hear the falling cascade of water. Yuffie pressed a green materia into her hands and grabbed her yellow. “We gotta be fast, you ready?”

Shelke nodded, already warming her cast.

Yuffie threw open the door and yanked open the shower curtain in one smooth motion. Shelke’s spell struck Cloud in the back. He crumpled under the shower spray.

“Yessss!” Yuffie fist pumped. “I wasn’t actually sure if it was going to work! Those crazy SOLDIER reflexes of his are unreal. Careful not to wake him up. If he sees it was us, we’re ruined.”

“Sleep spells are not so easily broken,” Shelke informed her flatly. “If it were an entirely natural sleep, Seal materia wouldn’t be of any use. But you should still hurry. We can’t be sure how long it will last on the mako enhanced.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Yuffie rifled through the pile of black clothes on the floor. “Aha!” She withdrew a mastered purple materia. “I guess I’d better the leave the others or he’ll get suspicious…” She cast a long, appreciative glance over his sleeping form. Water dripped from his blond spikes onto his bare chest. “Gawd, it’s been ages since I’ve seen this. It’s so unfair,” she complained. “How the heck did Tifa let a body like that get away from her?”

Shelke spared a glance at Cloud’s sprawled form. “He has a swordsman’s physique,” she dismissed. “And he’s mako enhanced. It’s hardly surprising.”

“You’re not embarrassed at all, are you? I have to keep reminding myself you’re almost my age.”

“It’s illogical to be embarrassed.” Shelke reached over and turned off the water. While the Sleep spell wasn’t that delicate, external stimulus could still rouse him early. “Are you done?”

“Wait, it’s here somewhere… got it!” She withdrew a thin red ribbon from his clothes. “Now what, should we move him? He’s kinda heavy, but you’ve got mako enhancements too, right?”

Shelke tilted her head, considering. Cloud remained slumped in the bathtub, skin flush and glistening from the shower, one arm draped almost artistically over the side, water dripping from the tips of his fingers. Yuffie’s earlier comments had given her an idea. “It is a rather… nice view, isn’t it? Maybe we should leave him.”

“But – ohhhh, I see where you’re going with this.” Yuffie’s grin was truly wicked. “Will it hold long enough do you think?”

Shelke powered up the materia once more. “I think we can afford to take that chance.”

………………..

Vincent paused when he entered the hotel room. Cloud had headed back early to clean up after the Battle Arena, so he’d expected him to be here. Had he left again already?

The lights were on, though, and the bathroom door stood partially ajar. The sound of dripping water and the faint, steady draw of breath could be heard within. “Cloud?” he asked.

No response. Vincent pushed open the door.

A dishevelled heap of black clothes and belts were scattered on the tiled floor. The shower curtain was thrown back, revealing Cloud sprawled naked in the bathtub, head resting against the wall, eyes closed. Water weighed down his spikes, framing his face, the lingering steam in the bathroom flushing his cheeks faintly rose.

It made… a very fine picture.

It wasn’t as though AVALANCHE hadn’t seen each other in various states of undress before. Sharing tents and budget rooms at backwater inns left little room for modesty. But this was… somewhat sensual, and for the first time in a very long time, Vincent found himself struggling to avert his gaze.

Had Cloud fallen asleep in the bath? The water was drained, though. There had been a period of time, recovering from both mako poisoning and later Geostigma, where Cloud would sometimes space out on them from anywhere from minutes to half a day. He’d always gone to great lengths to hide it, though. If it were still happening…

Now faintly alarmed, Vincent reached out with his normal hand and lightly shook his bare shoulder.

His eyelashes fluttered at the movement, and then glazed, sleepy glowing eyes opened a sliver. “Vincent?” he slurred.

He was fine. “Cloud. Fall asleep?”

Cloud blinked, looking around the bathroom in confusion. “…I guess so.” He pushed himself up, bracing against the wall for leverage. “Sorry. Thanks for waking me.”

Vincent handed him a towel and left him to get dressed. The room creaked and groaned, lights periodically flickering for effect. Dio was apparently forever upgrading the Gold Saucer.

Cloud emerged only a moment later, wearing pants but no shirt, towelling his hair dry. “Have you seen my Ribbon anywhere?”

Grateful for the distraction – though careful not to show it – Vincent scanned the room. “No. Did you misplace it?”

Cloud shrugged. “It’ll turn up. It probably blends in with the red carpet.” He draped the towel around his shoulders and sat on the bed. “I guess I should turn in early tonight then. Are you going out again?”

“I had no plans to. I believe Tifa and Barret are taking Denzel and Marlene to the Event Square, and Shelke and Yuffie went shopping. I… opted out.”

“We would go days without sleep in AVALANCHE, but a regular day at the Gold Saucer with Denzel and Marlene is enough to tire you out,” Cloud agreed. “I feel a little bad, though. Tifa and Barret should have time to enjoy themselves too.”

“They seem to prefer it this way,” Vincent commented.

“And Shelke and Yuffie?”

“They also appear to be having fun.”

“Hm. Shelke’s doing okay then? Tifa was worried it might a little overwhelming.”

“And you weren’t?” Vincent asked. His gaze skipped to Cloud’s bare chest and away again. If he weren’t embarrassed about being discovered in the shower, there was no reason for Vincent to be.

Cloud tossed his towel over the back of a wrought-iron chair painted with fake blood splatters. “Shelke’s far tougher than I would be in her position. She has her identity sorted out, for one.”

“That particular issue was taken care of during the Deepground uprising,” Vincent agreed. It had been harrowing, even so. “Our main concern is the emotional component. She’s gone without for so long.”

“We all learned to bury our emotions,” Cloud said. “That was the only way to survive. But that doesn’t mean they ever go away.”

There was truth to that. “…I suppose it’s more a matter of allowing herself to acknowledge them again.”

“Yeah,” Cloud said. “And not just Shelke, either.”

Vincent chose not to comment on that.

AVALANCHE usually granted him the position of the most observant of their crew, and they were usually right. But Vincent often thought they all vastly underestimated Cloud.

………………..

“I can’t believe you actually had the nerve to bug their room,” Yuffie said, and even to Shelke’s untrained ears she sounded approving. “Aren’t you worried about Vincent spotting it?”

“Normally, yes. But these rooms already possess sensors, to activate the atmospheric effects. It made my additions simple to camouflage,” Shelke explained.

“You really are super smart with computer stuff, huh?” Yuffie asked. “It doesn’t bother you when they talk about you?”

“They didn’t say anything they haven’t said to my face before. And in our position, it would be hypocritical to complain.”

“I guess.” Yuffie peered at the tiny video screen. It had been an interesting challenge to configure her PHS to receive the signal – Shelke’s speciality had been in software rather than hardware. “But wow, Vincent plays it cool. I mean, after that sort of eyeful? Cloud can be a moody bastard sometimes but he’s hot, if it were me I totally would have jumped him then and there.”

“You managed to restrain yourself in the bathroom,” Shelke observed.

“Because we were on a mission. Also, it would be weird, you know? After everything.” She tilted her head. “Maybe that’s Vincent’s problem. We’ve got to get them less comrade-y and more lovey-dovey, you know? Get them holding hands. Now sure how, though. Those guys are like allergic to casual contact.”

Shelke tapped her chin in thought. “I may have an idea for that.”

………………..

‘NEW HIGH SCORE! ENTER YOUR NAME INTO THE HALL OF FAME!’

Music blared from the snowboarding mini-game, a wall of sound assaulting his ears from all sides. Cloud’s lips quirked into the slightest of smiles. He’d missed snowboarding – maybe next time Barret organised one of these outings they could go to the Northern Continent. Simulations were fun, but nothing matched the real thing. Marlene and Denzel wouldn’t have seen snow before either - they would enjoy it.

As he turned to go to another game, darkness descended across his vision without warning. Cloud staggered back, turning his head, instinctively searching out a source of light… but nothing. He held his hand up to his face to stare at his palm.

Still nothing. Not even the faint shine of reflected mako from his eyes.

It wasn’t a blackout. He was blind.

“Cloud?” Vincent’s familiar baritone caught his ears. Close.

“Vincent. I can’t see.” He clawed at his face, reflexively trying to pull away whatever had stolen his sight. Something metal caught his right hand in a vice-like grip – only when another gloved hand grabbed his left did he recognise it as Vincent’s gauntlet.

“Don’t. Your eyes are black. It looks like someone cast Darkness on you.”

“Darkness?” It took him a long moment to process that. Then… “Dammit. I never should have told Yuffie I was looking for my Ribbon.” That, in retrospect, had been a stupid move. Of course she would prank him the instant she found out.

“You still haven’t found it?”

“No. Maybe I left it back in Edge.” It had been part of his ensemble for so long he couldn’t even remember taking it on or off anymore – it was automatic, practically muscle memory. But the morning of their departure for the Gold Saucer had been a little chaotic, and the disruption to his routine might have made him skip a few steps by accident. “It’s probably sitting on my desk back home,” he sighed.

“Hm.” Vincent steered him to the right – presumably away from the crowds at the Speed Square. Gradually, the disorienting cacophony fell behind them. “Do you have a Heal materia with you?”

“No.” He hadn’t needed to cast Esuna for years. Ribbon always took care of it.

“The store in the Ghost Square might stock some eye drops. I’ll lead you.” Vincent grabbed his hand and tugged gently on it.

Cloud shuffled along after him, their pace gradually increasing as he grew more confident. He consciously relaxed his grip on Vincent’s hand, worried about crushing it, but Vincent merely tightened his hold in turn. “Thanks. The others…?”

“Tifa and Barret are with the children. I assume Yuffie made herself scarce in case of retribution,” Vincent reassured him. “There are stairs here, watch your step.”

“Right.” Once he found the first one with Vincent’s guidance it was easy enough to follow the uneven path, a childhood spent scampering up the slopes of Mt Nibel lending his feet a surety his head couldn’t provide.

The air grew gradually cooler, and the distant chitter of recorded bats and howls of wolves began to reach their ears. They’d arrived at the Ghost Square, then. Vincent slowed to a stop – Cloud very nearly ran into him, arms brushing against a velvety fabric that felt weirdly liquid. Vincent’s cape, he guessed. Vincent guided his hand to a cold, grainy surface – most likely one of the fake tombstones in the graveyard.

“Will you be fine waiting here? The store is just ahead.”

“Yeah. Do you need any gil?”

“No. I’ll be right back.”

There was the barest shuffle of fabric, like a breath of wind in the trees, and Cloud instinctively sensed Vincent had gone. He clutched the fake tombstone a little harder.

It was no big deal, really. He’d been hit by just about all the various materia before, back when AVALANCHE was just starting out and they were an undisciplined, poorly-equipped mess of amateur eco-terrorists on the run. But it had always been out in the field, in the middle of nowhere, and his other senses had been more than enough to compensate until it either wore off or someone got the chance to cast an Esuna. The Gold Saucer, however, was an all-out assault on the senses, from atmospheric music piped through all the attractions, to passing families and crowds, to the clanging of mini-game stations.

Cloud rubbed at his eyes with his free hand in frustration.

“Are they bothering you?”

He jerked, head swivelling towards the voice. Vincent was back already? “I just forgot how annoying Status materia can be,” he muttered. “Did they have any eye drops?”

“You’re in luck – apparently they only started stocking them recently. Hold still.”

Cloud waited uncertainly. The cool metal of Vincent’s gauntlet caught his chin, tilting his head upwards – his other hand brushing his hair gently out the way.

“Don’t blink,” he murmured, and Cloud could feel the breath of air from the words against his face, he was that close. Then a burst of what felt like icy water bloomed across his eyes. Cloud struggled to keep them open as his vision began to clear, the dark shadow cast across everything smearing into blurry colour.

Eventually he lost the battle, eyelids fluttering, blinking the tears and drops away. Vincent’s face swam into focus in front of him, crimson eyes so close he could see the tiny flecks of amber within them.

Vincent ran his thumb across his right cheek – wiping away the wet tracks the drops left on his face. Cloud froze in place, transfixed and uncertain of what to do.

A group of children ran past, screaming gleefully at the holographic ghosts in the fake graveyard. The moment broke, and they stepped apart.

“Thanks,” Cloud muttered, wiping the rest of his face clean. An awkward silence lingered between them. “…Do you want to go to the Chocobo Arena? I think I’ll steer clear of the Speed Square for a while.”

Vincent just gestured for Cloud to lead the way.

Next chapter

Optimal Scenario, File 2.0

sinnatious — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 07:56:45 GMT

Title: Optimal Scenario

Warnings: Contains not-particularly graphic shonen ai, mild language, and violence.

Summary: FFVII, Vincent/Cloud. Shelke decides to play matchmaker. This mostly seems to involve tormenting Cloud.

Author's Note: Next chapter! Nothing to say about it, really. Hope everyone is having a good week so far.

File 1.0

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

File 2.0

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Shelke’s computer at Seventh Heaven did not have the hardware – nor the privacy – she required for this endeavour. However, the Shera Mark II, Cid’s third airship in nearly as many years, was in town, and had a computer berth that suited her needs perfectly.

“Play again,” she ordered.

Static crackled. “Sorry about that, Vincent. Here’s Cloud.”

A long pause. More static. “Vincent?”

“Cloud. It’s been a while.”

It took some work to unearth the recording. The only reason she had it at all was because they had been monitoring Vincent’s PHS in order to keep track of his location for backup and intelligence. Even then, the Shera had been under attack at the time – Shelke only heard this call after the fact, when she’d backtracked through the records, looking for clues about where Vincent might have disappeared to post-Omega.

“Cid’s airship?” Vincent asked.

“We lost contact about fifteen minutes ago. I don’t think we need to worry though.” There was a grunt, and the clash of swords and rattle of gunfire in the background. Despite the raging battle, Cloud hadn’t even been out of breath. “Those two should be fine.”

“Yeah. And what about you?”

“Pause.” She said. Then, “Rewind. Play.”

“Yeah. And what about you?”

Amusement. “What do you think?”

The harmonics there were interesting. Not so much in Cloud’s response, but Vincent’s question.

The recording rolled on. Tifa’s voice cut in. “Right, you can count on us.”

Barrett yelled something in the background too. Cloud cut back in over him. “And as for you-”

“Don’t worry. Leave Deepground to me.”

It sounded almost as though Cloud was smiling, though Shelke had rarely seen the gesture even in these times of peace. “Huh. Can you hold on a second? Tifa-”

“Got it!” There was a pause – Tifa had been forwarding an old map of the ShinRa building. Shelke skipped past the details, on to the end of the call.

“Good luck!”

“Give ‘em hell, Vincent!”

“Barrett, I thought I told you-”

Then Cloud, cutting in right at the last moment. “Don’t die.”

The line went dead.

Shelke sat back in her chair. “Computer, shut down.” The holograms obediently vanished, and the hum of cooling fans died a moment later.

Cloud had been the first one to look for Vincent after the Omega incident. Had been the one to find him at Lucrecia’s cave. Had been the one to insist she fetch him, instead of going himself.

More to the point, however, was Vincent’s response to Cloud. She recalled the aftermath of Omega, and how AVALANCHE in general had simply assumed that Cloud had the best odds of finding Vincent. And there was Vincent’s concern for Cloud during it – subtle, but unmistakeable. Especially considering that out of the many people in the operation, Cloud Strife was one of the last who needed to be worried about.

She had heard stories, too, of events previous to Deepground, when Cloud himself had been in a self-destructive spiral similar to Vincent. How Vincent had gone searching for him in the Crystal Forest, and later acquired a phone as a result of that meeting.

The solution to her dilemma had been staring her in the face all along.

Now it was just a matter of getting Vincent to see it.

………………….

The perfect opportunity to begin putting her new plan into action came far sooner than Shelke had hoped. Barret had returned from his prospecting trip loaded with money and eager to spoil everybody. And so the entirety of Seventh Heaven had, whether they liked it or not, been packed up and taken to the Gold Saucer for a week away.

Normally this would not have included Vincent – his presence was largely transient, and not even Shelke was precisely aware of where he did live. But Shelke made it a point to ask after him, and as a result Barrett and Tifa together had strong-armed him along.

Normally this would not have included Yuffie, either – the ninja had simply been around, and invited herself.

Cloud, at least, agreed to come along without any fuss.

That part made sense when they rolled up to the Gold Saucer and received a personal greeting from a half-naked moustachioed muscle man dressed in ostentatiously gold and red shorts. “Welcome, welcome! My star of the Battle Arena has returned! Heh heh heh. And of the Chocobo Arena too – the place is not the same without you,” he gushed.

“Dio,” Vincent explained to Shelke in a low tone. “We’ve dealt with him in the past, before Meteor.”

“Cloud’s got a hell of a reputation here,” Yuffie added. “He’s the top of the leaderboards on most of the games in the Speed Square, and top of the odds in the Chocobo Races, and the Battle Square.” She frowned and directed to him, “When the heck do you get up to all that anyway? I thought you were always too busy running deliveries or moping around Midgar.”

“The same way you seem to have time to bother us even though you’re supposed to be the Princess of Wutai,” Tifa answered before Cloud could. “Come on, let’s check into the hotel. It’s been a long day.”

When the time came for their room assignments in the Haunted House Hotel, though, Shelke experienced an emotion she tentatively labelled as elation.

Marlene and Denzel were used to sharing a room, so took one – Barrett and Tifa wound up taking the adjoining one, to act as chaperones. “And you and Yuffie can share, okay, Shelke?” Tifa asked with a smile. “Are you and Vincent okay with bunking together, Cloud?”

Cloud took the key with a shrug. “It’s fine with me.” Vincent inclined his head in agreement.

That earned them a satisfied smile, before Tifa crouched and whispered to her, “I know you might have wanted to share with Cloud, but you’re a little old for it to be appropriate.” Her tone turned conspiratorial. “Maybe you can trick him into a Gondola ride later. You never know!” She paused. “Although I wasn’t kidding about the Honeybee Inn thing, so don’t get your hopes too high, okay?”

She had forgotten - Tifa Lockhart was still labouring under the illusion that she held some sort of doomed crush on Cloud Strife.

Shelke did not disillusion her. Not when it played so perfectly into her plans.

“This is gonna be awesome!” Yuffie cheered.

Shelke agreed.

………………….

Cloud’s first day back in the Gold Saucer was turning out rather… odd.

Of course, any day in the Gold Saucer was bound to be a little unusual. The place encouraged chaos in its design, and if you gathered enough tourists into one place a certain degree of spontaneity tended to happen.

Even so, he’d expected to spend most of the time chaperoning the kids through the various sights – it was both Denzel and Marlene’s first time in the Gold Saucer, after all. But whenever he turned around after a game at the Speed Square, everyone but Vincent would have disappeared, and every time they reunited with the rest of the group the same thing happened again, until the two of them gave up and went and tore a path through the Battle Arena’s new team challenge until dinner.

Then after dinner he found himself at a bar with Yuffie, Vincent, Barret, and Shelke, who somehow had managed to convince the bartender that she really was nineteen instead of the nine she looked, and drinks were flowing, and every time Cloud looked back his glass was full. He was well known among the staff at the Saucer, though, so he didn’t think much of it. Until he noticed that Yuffie and Barret were getting uncomfortably loud and definitely drunk.

“The hell I’ve had enough!” Barret grumbled. “I can’t be drunk! Been matchin’ you and you ain’t even tipsy yet.”

“I’m also mako enhanced,” Cloud said patiently. Vincent deftly shifted a glass away from Barret’s wildly waving gun arm. “You know I can’t get drunk, right?”

Next to him, Shelke made something that almost looked like a facial expression. He eyed her, concerned she might be drunk too, but no – she was also enhanced. Maybe not to the same degree, but Barret would go under the table before she would.

“That’s sooooooo unfair,” Yuffie slurred. “Or maybe sad, I can’t decide. I mean, yeah, the hangovers suck but sometimes you just wanna get smashed, you know? Especially after, after...” She waved a hand vaguely. “You know. Everything.”

Yuffie was a surprisingly maudlin drunk. Gaia, how long had they been at it? He should have been keeping better track. “We should head back anyway. It’s getting late,” he said. “It’s unfair to leave Tifa dealing with the kids alone this long.”

“Tifa!” Barret boomed, standing up and wobbling dangerously in place. His cheeks were ruddy from alcohol and his eyes, glazed. “We gotta go!”

Except somehow, and Cloud still wasn’t sure how, this wound up with everyone on the gondolas. And against all common sense, he and Vincent were in a separate carriage.

“Shouldn’t someone go with them?” Cloud asked in concern, eyeing the gondola ahead. As the tracks curved, he could just barely catch a glimpse of the interior. By the way Yuffie and Barret were rocking back and forth they were either motion sick or engaging in song. In Yuffie’s case, it was possibly both.

“The gondolas have a maximum capacity,” Vincent replied mildly. “And Shelke volunteered.”

“But they hold four,” Cloud said. And while Shelke was nineteen in truth, in practice she’d missed out on a lot, and it resulted in some strange misunderstandings sometimes. She might not have made the best chaperone for a drunk Yuffie and Barret. “You could have gone with them.”

Vincent’s crimson gaze dwelled on him at length. “…Would you really want to ride alone?”

Cloud flinched.

“…I could have gone with them,” he amended, and frowned. “Although I wouldn’t have wanted to force you to ride alone either.”

Vincent folded his arms, turning to watch the view. Giving him room to compose himself. “Would you have wanted to ride this again in that sort of company though?”

He looked down at his knees. “…Am I that easy to see through?”

Vincent said nothing.

Cloud stared out the window, watching the festival of lights roll by. The rollercoaster sped past, patrons throwing their arms in the air. For all the world had changed over the past few years, at the Gold Saucer everyone was still allowed to forget their troubles.

“I’m over it,” Cloud said. “I really am. But reminders are…”

“Unpleasant,” Vincent finished softly. “…I understand.”

They finished the ride in comfortable silence, paying internal homage to fallen comrades. When they disembarked, Shelke fixed them with an analytical stare, then almost seemed to slump.

Odd girl. Cloud didn’t think anything of it. Mostly because that was when Barret accidentally misfired his gun arm into the air and the square broke into a disorganised panic.

………………….

At the end of their second day at the Gold Saucer, Shelke found herself increasingly dissatisfied with her progress.

She sat on her bed in their hotel room, legs hanging over the edge, bare toes brushing the blood red carpet. Outside, simulated lighting and thunder flashed at regular intervals. She didn’t see the logic in this hotel, but like much of the world outside of Deepground, had learned to accept it without comment.

What she didn’t accept was that none of her plans so far had been even slightly successful. Giving them time alone didn’t work. Neither had the alcohol, nor the romantic gondola ride. She had other ideas, all borrowed liberally from popular romance fictions stolen off the Worldwide Network, but the easiest and subtlest ones had yet to yield any effect. And many others were… impractical, when taking Cloud Strife into account. It was difficult to lock someone in a closet when they were fully capable of breaking the lock with their bare hands, after all.

So Shelke had to modify a lot of those typical matchmaking scenarios. And to do that, she required materia. None of which she had ready access to herself – nor the means to acquire them.

Luckily, she happened to be rooming with the ideal person for that.

The door swung open and the young Wutai Princess paraded in, arms laden with bags of souvenirs. “Shelke! So you were still here. Didn’t feel like going shopping with us? Here, you can have one of mine!” Yuffie dug through her spoils and tossed over a small ornament on a chain.

Shelke examined it thoughtfully. It was almost entirely gold, with the odd streak of colour – a miniature, simplified version of the Gold Saucer itself, she realised. “What is the purpose of this?”

“Are you serious? Wait, forget I said that. It’s a keyring,” Yuffie said, voice muffling as she went inside the closet to store her haul. “You put keys on it, or you can hook it onto your PHS if you want. It looks nice and works as a reminder of your trip.”

“…Strange,” she muttered, but carefully stowed it away none-the-less. Then, remembering Tifa’s lessons once again, added, “Thank you.”

Yuffie waved it off. “It’s cool, it’s cool. So what are you doing around here anyway? I was going to head back out to the Speed Square if you wanna come?”

“Actually,” Shelke said. “I have a favour to ask of you.”

That checked the ninja in her path. “Yeah?”

Shelke explained, in brief, what she had planned.

“Vincent andCloud?” Yuffie scratched the back of her neck. “Um, wow. That would actually be pretty hot, I guess. But, y’know, your ideas are kind of a little... extreme."

Shelke tilted her head. “How so?”

“It’s kinda… y’know… well…” Yuffie shrugged. “Ah, heck, why not. It’ll be hilarious. Count me in.”

…………………….

Elsewhere, Cloud jerked as a materia burned against his side. He glanced over his shoulder, searching for an unknown threat.

Nothing but the usual crowd of punters at the chocobo races. “What is it?” Tifa asked. “Did you see something?”

Maybe his Pre-Emptive materia was acting up again. Sometimes the mastered ones got a little trigger-happy. “Just my imagination,” he replied, and turned his attention back to the races.

Next chapter

Optimal Scenario, File 1.0

sinnatious — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 06:42:05 GMT

Title: Optimal Scenario

Warnings: Contains not-particularly graphic shonen ai, mild language, and violence.

Summary: FFVII, Vincent/Cloud. Shelke decides to play matchmaker. This mostly seems to involve tormenting Cloud.

Author's Note: Thanks to pennies_4_eyes ages and ages and ages ago, I was inspired to do some Vincent/Cloud fic, since this was probably my original ship in FFVII fandom way way back in the day. And you know, being Vincent/Cloud, the two angstiest, moodiest guys ever, I naturally decided to write a crack comedy fluff romance.

It sat idle as nothing more than an outline for a long time until writer's block elsewhere drove me back to it at last. So here we are! Updates probably once a week, let's say Tuesdays. It's not going to be a very long fic, looking like maybe 7 chapters all up. All a bit of a stupid fun really.

Hope you enjoy it!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

File 1.0

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Shelke cared very deeply for Vincent.

Part of it was, of course, affection inherited from the memories of Lucrecia Crescent. A great deal more was gratitude for her rescue from Deepground – however unwilling that rescue had been at the time. These feelings were reinforced by Vincent’s stabilising presence in her life after Omega’s fall. The effort he had expended on ensuring she had a safe, friendly environment in which to reintegrate with the outside world had not gone unnoticed.

However, these feelings were not love.

She knew this instinctively, though had considered the matter at length regardless. Emotions were a long-forgotten concept to her, after all, and only recently had she begun to relearn their nuances. The shallowest of synaptic net dives provided a wealth of data on the topic, and subtle lines of inquiry with the many people passing through Seventh Heaven provided even more.

No, she cared for Vincent, but she was not in love with him.

“Bring up the files on AVALANCHE,” she intoned to the computer. Not a proper net dive –she didn’t have the equipment available for that here - just a review of information already downloaded. The holoscreens flickered, text scrolling steadily down one side as pictures flashed on the other.

Though Vincent had said nothing on the matter, comments made by Cid Highwind and Yuffie Kisaragi had led her to believe he was waiting for her. Such a situation could not be endured. She would not be able to return those feelings, no matter how many years passed.

If she allowed this to continue, in the end, she truly would become his Lucrecia Crescent.

Thus, she decided to act.

……………………..

Yuffie had been the first to spring to mind.

“Miss Kisaragi left a message for you,” Shelke informed the gunman without greeting, glowing eyes tracking him as he entered the private dining room above Seventh Heaven.

Vincent made a small sound of acknowledgement, but made no move towards the phone, instead placing a small package carefully on the counter. It looked like it had come from a bakery. At her inquisitive look, he explained, “Marlene.”

Understanding, Shelke nodded. Barret Wallace’s adopted daughter was not shy about demanding compensation for time spent away. Shelke had yet to decide whether this was a ploy to acquire treats or a disincentive for people to leave in the first place.

She blinked when a similar, though slightly smaller package, was placed in front her a moment later. With an inquisitive glance, she opened it to find a small assortment of chocolate cookies.

It was a terribly kind gesture, and she had certainly developed a taste for these particular delicacies. Yet the sight of them now made her heart drop. “You shouldn’t have.” Then, because Tifa had been reminding her of long-forgotten manners, added a reluctant, “Thank you.”

Vincent inclined his head slightly and said nothing of it. Shelke bit into one cookie, chewing pensively. Regardless of their potential meaning, the chocolate was still sweet on her tongue. After a long moment, she asked, “Aren’t you going to return the call?”

“It’s of no great importance,” Vincent remarked dryly. Crimson eyes surveyed her across the table, though his expression was largely hidden by the collar of his cloak. “You have another appointment at the WRO this afternoon.”

Shelke nodded, and sighed. “I will be pleased when the treatments are no longer necessary.” Though they had managed to reduce the frequency over time, the regular trips to the WRO’s research facilities remained a nuisance.

“I’ll accompany you,” he said.

“It is not necessary.” Yet she knew he would come anyway. Whenever he was in Edge, he did so without fail.

Any response he might have made was cut off by the trill of the phone. “That will be Miss Kisaragi, no doubt.” She gave Vincent a pointed look.

This time, his golden gauntlet reached for the phone, delicately holding it up to his ear. “Yes?”

The tinny tones of Yuffie Kisaragi echoed through the receiver. Shelke picked up her box of cookies and quietly made her way to her room.

Like any good mission, reconnaissance was everything.

Her personal computer was nothing nearly so advanced as the unit she’d used on board the Shera, but she had long ago hacked into the Communications Network with it. It was a small matter to listen in on the phone conversation in the next room without detection, and she wasted not a moment doing so.

“Viiiincent,” the Wutai Princess dragged the word out into a whine. “You haven’t been answering your phone!”

“Oh?” The word was neutral. Only someone who knew Vincent Valentine well would have picked up on the slight hint of amusement.

“Don’t ‘oh’ me. I must have called you like a gazillion times!”

“Was it important?”

“Super-important! I got a tip on some cool treasure! I’m heading out this afternoon. You’ve gotta come! It’s going to be totally awesome.”

“I already have plans. You’ll have to manage on your own.”

Shelke frowned. That was not how she wanted to hear things go at all. This boded poorly for her plan.

Her plan, of course, being: Find Vincent a new target for his devotion.

Of course, she could have simply told Vincent straight out that she could never return his feelings. But she knew Vincent Valentine well, and suspected that even if she made her position clear, he was unlikely to move on. Lucrecia Crescent had married Hojo, after all, and his devotion had not faltered a bit.

It was an integral part of Vincent’s personality. She could no more convince him to change it than she could ask him to grow an extra arm.

Though perhaps in his case, that metaphor was less than perfect.

Somehow, Yuffie’s pout was as obvious over the phone as it was in person. “You’re no fun.”

“If that’s all…?”

Finding someone to take her place was the best way. Shelke did, after all, care for him. She wanted him to be happy. To do something for him, after everything he’d done for her.

The problem was, she couldn't simply set Vincent up with just anyone - he was a deeply private individual, and his trust was a slow thing earned. Unfortunately, that limited her choices almost entirely to AVALANCHE.

Hence the reconnaissance.

The connection cut. Shelke cut the tap just as quickly. She waited precisely two and a half minutes before returning to the kitchen – it wouldn’t do to draw undue suspicion to herself, after all.

“You’re finished?” she asked.

Vincent nodded.

“And what did Miss Kisaragi want?”

“The usual,” was the low response.

“You’re not going?” she pressed.

Vincent shook his head, and seemed unbothered by it.

She was saved from attempting to formulate a counterargument when his phone beeped. With a flick of his red cloak, he withdrew the device – small, sleek, and black. A relatively new model, though the movement of his gloved hand was practiced as he opened his messages.

After a beat, he said, “It’s Cloud.”

Shelke made a point of fixing herself a cup of tea. “And what does he want?”

“It sounds as though he’s found a new mutation of one of the local monsters inside Midgar. Wants to know if I’d like a look at it.” The phone snapped shut, disappearing back into the fathomless depths of Vincent’s ragged cloak. “I’m sorry. I won’t be able to come along to your appointment after all.”

“I said before, it is not necessary,” she stated blandly.

Vincent inclined his head. “I’ll see you later.” Then with the barest breath of air, the kitchenette was empty again.

Shelke wrapped her hands around her mug of tea and returned to her room. As she took another cookie, she glanced at the clock. She would have to leave for her appointment soon. Her thoughts, however, were occupied quite differently.

That Vincent would ditch Yuffie, yet still accept a much more casual invitation from Cloud, did not bode well for her plan. It appeared Yuffie would not work for her purposes at all.

That was unfortunate.

But Shelke was, if nothing else, industrious. Time for Plan B.

…………………

Plan B was Tifa Lockhart.

During the day Seventh Heaven functioned more like a diner than a proper bar. In the afternoons, between the lunch rush and evening crowd, Tifa could normally be found wiping down the counters and organising stock and keeping an eye out for the occasional customer. Sometimes Marlene and Denzel would sit at one of the tables doing homework or drawing or playing card games. Other members of AVALANCHE – or at least, whoever happened to be present in Edge at the time – would wander in and out, sometimes to visit, sometimes just on their way through.

Shelke chose her favourite spot – a booth in the corner by the front windows, where the warm afternoon sunlight would stream in and she could keep an eye on the whole bar. She settled down with a mug of a hot tea and a book of poetry she had no real intention of reading.

This was where she went to people-watch. Or eavesdrop, as the case often was.

The door jingled. “Tifa!” a familiar voice yelled out. Yuffie bounded into the bar with a remarkable lack of stealth for a supposed ninja. “I brought the stuff you ordered!” She popped back outside and started hauling in a crate of bottles nearly as big as she was. “Oof!”

“Yuffie! Here, let me get that.” Tifa hurried over and took half the load, manoeuvring it towards the bar. “I didn’t think you were bringing it yourself.”

“And let someone else pick up the fee?” She sounded scandalised at the mere thought.

Tifa gave her an amused look. “I can’t pay you in materia anymore. Cloud’s not willing to part with what he has left.”

“Psh, I’ll just use the money to buy it.”

Tifa cracked open the crate, plucking out several bottles of Wutai spirits and turning them in her hands with an approving smile. “Oh, not stealing it anymore?”

Yuffie pouted. “Vincent won’t let me.”

“Because it’s wrong,” Tifa prodded with a knowing look.

“You guys stole stuff too!”

The conversation devolved into familiar argument from there. Shelke watched over the top of her book.

The bell on the door jingled once more. It was one of the more familiar faces to pass under it. Clad entirely in black, with blond spiky hair, and a sword nearly as large as Shelke slung on his back.

“Cloud!” Yuffie called with a wide grin, echoed by Marlene and Denzel from their table.

He nodded at them, glowing blue eyes skating across the bar to rest on her before nodding again. She managed a small smile and returned the gesture, pleased to have been noticed. She had an understanding with Cloud, after all. She, and Vincent, and Red XIII. Those who had lost years of their lives to mako and experiments.

She turned her eyes back to her book as Cloud took a seat by the bar. Tifa threw a ready-made sandwich in front of him, leftovers from the lunch the rest of them had eaten hours ago. He took it with a quiet thanks.

Cloud’s attention had drawn Yuffie’s to her. The ninja waved at her with a wide grin. Shelke gave another small smile back, and raised her book. Yuffie took the hint that she was busy, and bounced over to where Marlene and Denzel were scratching away at their homework. Excited chatter and laughter filled the previously quiet bar.

“Want some more?” Tifa asked, appearing at her elbow with a freshly steaming tea pot and a warm expression.

Shelke nodded mutely and held out her cup.

"Don't you want to join them?" she asked, sliding into the seat opposite.

"I felt like quiet, today," she replied. If her tonal variation sounded a little more flat than usual, well, Shelke never trained for this kind of espionage. Lying didn’t come naturally.

At Tifa’s doubtful expression, she defended, “I may still look nine years old, but I am much closer to nineteen, Tifa Lockhart.”

“Nothing wrong with wanting to reclaim a little bit of childhood,” was the steady rejoinder.

Shelke took a sip of her tea, thoughts already working on how to broach the intended subject.

Tifa was nice, and understanding, and mature. She was attractive, and strong, and reasonably smart.

But the question Shelke needed to answer - was she available? She and Cloud seemed close. They had separate rooms, but Shelke wasn’t so naïve as to recognise that there might be more to their relationship than met the eye. Besides, the others talked.

Perhaps here, at least, direct was best.

“Are you dating Cloud Strife?” she asked.

Tifa blinked. “What brought that on all of a sudden?”

She shrugged. Social subtlety was a skill she had yet to reclaim.

Her gaze turned knowing again. “Have a bit of a crush?”

“No,” she answered, completely truthful.

Tifa apparently didn’t believe her, though, because her smile simply widened. “Well, we’re not, though I don’t blame people for thinking so. We’re close, but that’s different to dating. Do you understand?” It didn’t sound patronising – Tifa had a way with words, and she was always very conscious of the fact that Shelke had missed out on a normal adolescence, and that some things she considered common knowledge weren’t necessarily. A side effect from dealing with Cloud, perhaps.

Belatedly, Shelke gave an obligatory smile. “I understand. It is… surprising to hear, though. Miss Kisaragi led me to think you were interested.”

That earned a blush, though it was fleeting. “I was younger then. We’re both very different people now.” She leaned forward. “And between you and me,” Tifa said in a conspiratorial whisper, “I think Aerith letting him infiltrate the Honeybee Inn on his own was a mistake.” She gave her a cheeky wink.

Shelke’s smile this time was entire reflexive. The Don Corneo story was regularly broken out at AVALANCHE gatherings, much to Cloud’s eternal displeasure.

“So you’re single?” she asked, just to confirm.

Tifa’s grin grew mysterious. “As far as anyone here knows.” And then she stood and headed back to unpacking the crate of bottles from Wutai.

Shelke’s heart sank as surely as it had when Vincent gave her the cookies. One of the Turks, perhaps? It didn’t escape her notice that they came by regularly, and that the bald one lingered at the bar, always closest to Tifa.

The door jingled again, and Barret Wallace’s thundering tones followed. Her gaze wandered back towards the bar. Seventh Heaven was growing noisy now, but one small pocket of calm remained, quietly eating a sandwich.

Cloud Strife.

Cloud Strife, who Vincent had brushed off her appointment to assist. Cloud Strife, who Vincent trusted more than any other. Cloud Strife, who understood what it meant to be an experiment, who was strong and quiet and mature.

Cloud Strife, who, she had just learned, was not dating Tifa Lockhart after all.

Shelke snapped her book shut, and hurried to her room.

Next chapter

I LIED, HERE'S ANOTHER TRAVEL POST

sinnatious — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 09:13:25 GMT

So since I'm apparently still a woman of leisure, when a bunch of relatives from overseas came to visit, they realised that rather than spend a stupid amount of money on hiring a car, they could just rope me along to drive mine!

Though this was more time with family than I typically like, it turned out to be a not-too-terrible deal. I netted a free trip to the Whitsunday Islands!

Despite being a Queenslander I haven't been up to the far north that much, both previous times were when I was much younger, through Charters Tower and up to Cairns and Magnetic Island, and one other time to Townsville, neither of which I remember very clearly and was much too young to properly appreciate. So it was pretty cool to have the chance to go again!

It was a somewhat laborious 10 hour drive to Airlie Beach (due largely to roadworks), but there were some good views of the Great Dividing Range to keep you entertained. And I kid you not, this was the view from the accommodation. Fancy. The accommodation itself was pretty swanky too, the benefits to avoiding the high season I guess? I probably don't want to know what it cost. There's a reason I did my crazy world trip overseas. It's not cheap to travel in Australia!

We caught a cruise out on the first day, it swung past Hamilton Island. Apparently some of the most expensive property in Australia? Makes sense, it's ridiculously beautiful.

This was Hamilton's marina, designed to look like a manta ray!

Our end goal was Whitehaven Beach! It's a national park, so no man-made structures, no leaving anything behind but your footprints in the sand, or taking anything with you but photos and memories.

They dropped you on the beach by beaching the boat, dropping a gangplank to let you walk off, then they'd head out onto the water and chill for a couple of hours while the tourists did their thing. The water was a little cold, being June (i.e. southern hemisphere winter), but amazingly clear. Most people just went for a quick dip but I lingered until my hands started to wrinkle.

The sand is crazy - something like 98% silica. If you ran your hands through it, it felt like talcum powder.

It was all pretty special.

The boat rides themselves were fun too! The weather was a bit hit and miss throughout (some cloudy periods and showers) but this was some Pirates of the Carribean shit right here.

The next day we headed out to Harty Reef - my cousin was laser-focused on some scuba diving. She had a Go-pro which could actually take underwater pictures, but since my old camera is dead I was stuck taking photos through the glass-bottom boat with my phone, which really doesn't do it justice.

I did do some snorkelling though! A fish pooped right in front of my face. It was magical.

A whole bunch of Dorys!

There was a huge-ass clam too, ridiculously large, to the point where it looked like a set piece off the Little Mermaid. And fish of every colour - like swimming in an aquarium. Most of the coral was the hard variety but there was a few patches of that stinging stuff the clown fish like to hang out in.

I could wax lyrical about it, but snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef kind of speaks for itself. It's sad that it might not be around in its full glory that much longer, it's a heck of an experience.

Even when it's cloudy and ominous the islands looked amazing.

Airlie Beach itself was fairly chill too, it's a tourist town and has all the usual tourist town trappings, lots of fun activities to do.

Then it was another ten hour drive down south. Yaaaay. (I complain, but it was a super fair deal.)

Most of the rest of the places we took the relatives were fairly stock-standard spots which form local scenery to me, but we did have one other cool stop on their tour! Australia Zoo!

It's kind of ridiculous that I'd never been to Australia Zoo before because it's only like an hour from Brisbane, but once again, the entry fee is pretty steep so I'd never bothered.

Generally speaking I'm fairly over zoos, as I had more than my fill of them in Singapore, and then there was Audobon Zoo on top of that in New Orleans. That said, Australia Zoo definitely ranked up there among the best! It's definitely world-class. It's really beautifully laid out, and the animals all seemed quite happy, with spacious and really well designed enclosures.

Here's a wombat on walkabout doing his business. The koalas get all the love but wombats are pretty cool too honestly.

They had the usual Australian staples, plenty of snakes, also red pandas which are always a hit with me. The Africa section was quite well done, rhinos and giraffes and zebras. They supposedly had cheetahs too but we didn't actually manage to find them, upon later revision I should not have trusted my relatives with the map as their navigation skills were awful and we missed the turnoff for them. I may have to return sometime just for that.

They also had a really good show at the 'Crocoseum'. The bird portion they opened with was super cool, right up there with Jurong Bird Park's, my cousin even got chosen for one of the demonstrations which was extremely lucky. Then for the climax, they brought out a saltwater croc.

The most hilarious thing was, once the show was over, the croc didn't want to move. He was happy where he was! The crocoseum was his new home. His territory now.

The handlers spent at least half an hour trying to lure him out again. They certainly weren't Steve Irwin! It eventually took one of them leaping full body into the water to bait the croc moving again. Golden.

A pretty excellent trip all up, really. Best part was, I didn't have to pay for a thing!

What has everyone else been up to?

Dear Kunsel, Bravely Default, and MekakuCity Actors.

sinnatious — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:01:04 GMT

I have an important link to share that will be of interest to any FF7 fans who read Dear Kunsel - lithic_rune has written a really good sequel here that should satisfy a lot of people left unhappy with the original ending.

In other news, I've been playing a lot of Bravely Default recently (although it has been struggling to fight for time with FFXIV - luckily for Bravely Default, I cannot take FFXIV everywhere with me.) and it is pretty special. It reminds me a lot of FFIII with the job system, but wow, it is great to see some real innovation in the turn-based RPG space. Every possible thing you might want to complain about is controllable! Sick of random encounters? Turn them off! Want to grind an area? Turn the encounters way up! Made a misstep and your party is in danger of being wiped out? There's a cool cheating time-stopping move for that. Battles getting a little repetitive? Set your battle commands to auto! Speed up the anims! It's all so gloriously customisable. And it uses Streetpass too, which is great, because that is still one of my favourite features of the 3DS.

The Brave and Default system adds a whole new layer of strategy too. For easy enemies it's sometimes worth just throwing all in and taking a risk by spending your turns into deficit, but against bosses it's default all the way, and only spending turns when you have a surplus (or in emergencies). Heaps of fun.

The story is (so far) pretty awesome too. The world and art are beautiful. I was also pleasantly surprised by the voice acting? Agnes's grates a little sometimes but does suit her, everyone else I have to battle the constant agony of indecision between racing through the story at reading speed or hanging out to listen. Edea especially. Some of the villains have great affectations, too. Some top notch writing in there, well above standard.

On the anime front, has anyone else been watching MekakuCity Actors? I have been a slavish fan of Jin's since way back with Kagerou Days and Headphone Actor's release, so was super excited about the anime. I'm a little indecisive how I feel about it so far, though. In some ways it feels like the songs get a little shoehorned in and overshadow the story - I would have been okay with just instrumental versions of some of them, or having them play over the end credits of their relevant episodes.

I do really love the uber-stylised look, but sometimes it's so stylised as to get a little confusing. Actually, the anime requires a lot of patience. Things didn't even start making any sort of sense to me until about episode 9, and that was even with familiarity with the start of the manga and all the various songs! I have been re-watching episodes since and they get better once you start to realise what is actually going on. Then you have some serious 'holy shit' moments, but how much harder would it be for someone who didn't have any context?

This screen still sent shivers down my spine though.

Is anyone else watching this one? How are you finding it?

FFXIV

sinnatious — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 11:15:23 GMT

So! I started playing FFXIV recently.

Since you know, I make great decisions like deciding to try out MMOs for the first time when I'm unemployed. YEAH, THAT CAN'T POSSIBLY GO WRONG. But I'd been listening to a lot of friends talking about it, and had read a few game dev articles about the relaunch, and that made me curious enough to take the plunge.

IT'S PRETTY AWESOME.

I can't even really nail what it is I love so much about it. It's very pretty, naturally, as Square games often are. The story's quite decent, and it has such a natural difficulty progression. And there's always something to do. I've joined both a Free Company and a linkshell (a group chat). The FC's fun if fairly quiet lately, filled with universally cool people. The linkshell seems a little more active but mostly Lvl 50 endgame stuff and full of people I don't know and have no idea what they're talking about most of the time so wind up mostly ignoring my chat windows unless something happens to catch my eye. The community in general is pretty great though, you get the occasional inconsiderate random/gold farmer but everyone is overwhelmingly really nice and polite, at least on my server. Also it's hilarious whenever Odin pops up and the entire server loses their shit and drops everything for it. I'm looking forward to being a high enough level to get in on that.

I also keep joining guilds, even though my main class is still a ways from Level 50. It's like, I wander into a building, and they're like 'Want to be a botanist?' And I'm like 'Yeah sure!' Then the next one. 'Want to be a lancer?' 'Why not?' 'How about a conjurer?' 'Hell yes.' 'Alchemist?' 'Hand over that alembic.'

I've gone the Black Mage job route though, mostly because mages are always my favourite in the standard Final Fantasies (followed closely by dragoons and summoners). And my play style favours 'kill it before it can kill you' sort of standoffs. Was totally worth it as the thaumaturge (the offensive magic class) quests are totally the best. 'Adventurer! Try to keep your blood inside of your body!'

Also Cocobuki is badass.

Sometimes I deeply regret not choosing Lalafell as my character's race.

That said I am developing a deep appreciation for archer as I once solo'd a Boss FATE (active-time event) by running in circles just out of boss's attack range for fifteen minutes. I'm sure it looked amazingly stupid but it kept me alive and made the boss dead. (Less effective on bosses with ranged attacks, of course...)

The main story is pretty neat, too, Thancred is pretty hot, fingers crossed next Dissidia (if there ever is one) uses him. I would write fanfic about Thancred. Dungeons are fun! They usually go one of two ways - I wind up running with experienced Level 50-type players who are slumming it in a lower dungeon or something and are totally pro and the whole thing runs so smoothly I'm often left going 'did I even help?' Since I'm a mage and really DPS (damage dealers aka glass cannons) seem superfluous to the tanks and healers sometimes. Still, this is pretty fun, especially when it's with Free Company peeps.

The other way is downright hilarious, when you get a particularly bad member of the team and utter chaos happens. I've had one of each - a (presumably) noob tank that couldn't keep the enemies on them, leaving myself and an archer pulling all of the enemies and running around like ninnies while the healer desperately tried to keep us alive until I remembered I had a sleep spell and just used that instead. Or the one time we had a healer who never paid attention and the arcanist with us wound up (somewhat ineffectually) informally taking over healing duty half the time. Or that one time the other DPS just kept running ahead and basically playing the part of tank (once again, with the healer frantically trying to keep them alive while the tank flailed).

Total loony tunes. Leeory Jenkins is funnier to me now that it used to be.

Luckily most of the occasions when I've been the totally hopeless newbie have mostly been with very understanding and awesome guildmates. I've yet to try any of the tanking classes though - seems like a lot of responsibility! It's a little more fun when you land a party of similarly-experienced players though - my first run through Brayflox was particularly enjoyable as they were a party of three PS4 players who were on their second run trying to beat the dungeon. A lot less pressure, and though we all screwed up a bit (tank struggled to keep more than one enemy on them, the healer of all people was pulling aggro, I managed to pull aggro a couple of times too, and I have no idea what the bard was doing half the time) we never wiped. It helps that I'm starting to learn how to deal with certain types of tanks. Lower level or tunnel-vision tanks I put myself on DoT and sleep duty to compensate, others seem to like to take on everything at once at which point I just switch to

DPS really is so unnecessary most of the time though. My first time against Titan, I was partied with another newbie (healer) and an experienced tank and DPS. We made it almost all the way to the end in the first fight when I went down, and the healer soon after so we wiped. I knew what was up this time though so managed to avoid dying, except the healer then managed to get knocked out of the fight three times in a row - they must have had lag or something. All good... except then the next time I was the victim of lag and about halfway through got knocked out... And the trio then finished the fight without me. XD It took them about three times as long as our first attempt but I just lay down there being embarrassed and cheering them on via the chat window. Not a great feeling being carried though.

I went and got battleping after that. I was leery of paying even that small amount for it, but jeez, after the trial? Even mining goes faster! And I could actually dodge! When people say 'dodging is actually easy' they weren't taking lag into account. It's not perfect but it's not the 'by the time the casting bar hits halfway it's already too late' scenario any more. The curse of playing MMOs in Australia.

The most fun however is just running around doing FATEs with randoms or rolling around the world with friends. The sort of spontaneous stuff that happens when you're just stuffing around or stopping to smell the virtual flowers. Like one time when I was playing Conjurer class, the game gave me an achievement for resurrecting a player I'd just seen die on my way elsewhere.

The minute I get into a party I feel invincible though. Like, in my ongoing journey of joining every guild I stumble into, I started up an Arcanist as well, about level 10 now, and since I've finally got my chocobo fighting with me, I had a cool three 'person' party happening and and just kept going 'what, that sprite is 10 levels higher than us? WE CAN TAKE HIM!' Then I wind up running away as my carbuncle and chocobo valiantly sacrifice themselves to let me escape.

My chocobo and I are total bros though. I have him summoned CONSTANTLY. Even when I'm just mining or crafting, he'll stick around and guard my back. I don't care how many gysal greens it takes! I don't spend my gil on anything other than teleports and gysal greens anyway.

I'm totally considering customising my Thaumaturge into a Red Mage though. Screw it, I'm going to go back and dump a lot of stats into Mind, or maybe I'll just accessorise with that solely in mind. I already have my Arcanist and Conjurer classes levelled up respectably enough to get some cool cross-class skills. It'll be useless in super-high-level content probably but I want to play a Red Maaaaaaage. :|

Disciple of War classes definitely have the coolest clothes though.

Hilariously, for a period of time a leather codpiece had the best stats.

The game is also stunningly beautiful, which may not be as obvious in my screenshots since I turned a lot of the graphics settings way down in favour of a better frame rate (since I'm stuck playing on my laptop instead of my desktop for network reasons, and my poor laptop overheats enough as it is).

ALSO, THIS FMV.

That's all I wanted to say about FFXIV. How's everyone else doing?

Japan, once more

sinnatious — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 04:25:54 GMT

Last travel post!

My path back to Australia took me via Japan, and given the time of year, why not stay a couple of extra days and see some cherry blossoms?

CONSIDER THIS TICKED OFF THE BUCKET LIST.

I was a little late for the Somei Yoshino variety (the main one) - most of those trees were on their last legs, but luckily the pink kanzans were just hitting full bloom!

I was staying in Ueno this time, so pretty much the first thing I did was head to Ueno Park for the cherry blossoms.

Ueno Station. Pretty sure this one might be fake though!

The swan boats were out in force! I wanted to ride one of the swan boats so bad, you have no idea, I was pretty close to just collaring a random single person to go on them (I believe that two people were necessary for it, presumably for safety reasons.) So that's something I still have left for next time in Japan.

The cherry blossoms really are beautiful though. Incredibly glad I got the chance to see them in person finally, and to join the throng of photographers also grabbing photos.

I found pretty much the best spot to sit under the cherry blossoms. Maximum Japan in one view - cherry blossoms, swan boats, Benten shrine and Tokyo Skytree! Grabbed myself a boatload of snacks and drinks from the convenience store and just chilled her for a good two hours, it was amazing.

This was how a small group of people reserved this seat for themselves. I must have passed some odd 'trustworthy gaijin' test, usually when I sit somewhere people leave asap instead of trusting I won't make off with their bags. They were seriously gone for at least half an hour.

The 'bags without people don't make sense' ad campaign would never gain any traction in Japan. 'Oh they're probably just getting a drink.'

Eventually I decided I couldn't admire that view all day, so walked around Ueno Park a bit more. There was a sort of garage sale/flea market going on which was pretty cool to poke through, and then found this amazing busking duo 'Dot & Line'. I tried to take a photo to get their web address but as you can see that plan didn't really work... they were awesome though, I sat here listening for at least another hour. The only online presence I've found for them was this one youtube video another tourist took: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crsRCWwhwIE

That's kind of it for the first day! Basically spent the whole day in Ueno Park.

The next day I also dedicated wholly to searching out more cherry blossoms. I did briefly consider heading up to Nikko again, but I was still a bit jet-lagged and feeling a bit too stingy after New York to sink that kind of money into train fares. So instead I went to Showa Kinen park in Tachikawa.

Sat here, got caught in a cherry blossom blizzard. It is as magical an experience as anime makes it out to be. The trees in full bloom are nice, but when they're dropping petals...

This guy was doing some interesting doll photography, virtual girlfriend in the wild? His equipment wasn't quite good enough for pro photography... you'd have to have some guts to set up like that with that amount of people around though, it was a Sunday so the park was pretty crowded.

My timing was lucky enough to catch the Flower Festival It was amazing.

Everywhere you turned there were more flowers.

My wanderings eventually brought me to the bonsai school there! It was also incredibly amazing.

Cherry blossom bonsai!

Many of them were ridiculously old.

They kind of made all other bonsais look so lame and half-hearted.

Made me want to take up bonsai, even knowing that I likely wouldn't have the long term patience for it.

This one was 300 years old I think? That's older than AUSTRALIA.

Everything really is more awesome in spring, do recommend over the other seasons.

Also tulips! Soooooo many tulips. And people photographing tulips.

And rivers covered in cherry blossoms.

Just picture spam here really. I'll shut up, just admire.

It was a very excellent day, Showa Kinen Park was way cooler than expected! I hadn't even known about the bonsai school until I stumbled across it.

The third day I was satiated in terms of cherry blossoms so returned to old faithfuls Ikebukuro and Akihbara for food, arcade fun times, and window shopping. I got chased down by fancy hairclip ladies in the shopping districts twice. One pair actually squealed and ran after me, it was like 'female, obvious tourist with long hair OMG PERFECT MATCH TO TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC RED ALERT RED ALERT', they were very sweet but so persistent with their sales spiel, especially once they realised I could speak some japanese and they could safely leave behind their english (I was a lot more confident with it by this point, after having a good two months refresher back in the New Year period). No photos though because it wasn't anywhere particularly new that I didn't cover in my trip earlier in the year.

I had a good chunk of the last day before I needed to go to the airport, and decided to spend it mostly around Ueno browsing the shopping distract and loitering under the cherry blossoms in the park a bit more. I had one last funny encounter though.

I was waiting at a crosswalk along Chuo-dori in the morning, having just missed the light. A seemingly average salaryman pulls up next to me, glances over, and strikes up a conversation. You know, the usual, 'where are you from? What are you doing in Japan?' sort of thing. All in Japanese, mind, which was pretty bold considering he couldn't have known I spoke any Japanese until he tried. Then the typical, 'how long are you in Japan for?'

And I replied, 'Today is my last day. I return to Australia tonight.'

He nodded at this, then he proceeded to ask me out on a date.

And I'm like, what the hell dude, I just said I was leaving Japan tonight.

But he just said, "Lunch!"

And I'm like, "It's 10am!"

He was undeterred. "It's okay, let's go!"

The whole thing seemed kind of weird at that point really so when the light finally changed I just blurted out a mangled pile of japanese that boiled down to 'Sorry I have to go, bye!' and skedaddled in a totally different direction.

I got hit on more in two months in Japan than I normally get in two years (the exotic effect I guess) but that one was particularly weird, probably because all the others at least tried speaking in English first. Oh well, it was an amusing encounter.

And so my big epic world journey came to an end! Thanks for sharing it with me! :)

New York, New York!

sinnatious — Sun, 25 May 2014 18:18:14 GMT

There's only two of these travel posts left now!

Picking up where I left off last time, we caught the train from Montreal to New York, because we were cheapskates and it was like a quarter of the price of flying. It was actually a pretty comfy trip, about seven hours long, plus about forty minutes at the border for customs and immigration. There was only something like ten other passengers so it wasn't too bad, aside from about half an hour where the elderly chinese guy sang along to his headphones.

The scenery was quite nice for a lot of it though.

Especially when we started rolling through the Catskill area later in the day. Saw quite a few wild deer, though good luck getting a photo in a train!

This was the Hudson at a cloudy sunset.

Other side!

As it started to get darker we pulled out the laptop and watched 20th Century Boys, which made my friend so mad because I forgot what a horribly taunting ending that first movie had. XD I need to go re-watch the rest of the trilogy now.

We arrived at Penn Station that night, wandered out, and through the miracle of Google Maps managed to find our hotel.

Though how we missed it considering it was just around the corner from this place...

Actually, there are so many skyscrapers in New York it becomes difficult to navigate by them, your view is constantly blocked.

Our hotel was actually pretty cool though! A bit expensive, even with the room at half price, but good location and neat old building.

The next morning we trundled out with a vague idea of about twenty different things we wanted to do, so wound up just picking a street north and walking along it.

And were rewarded with giant horse heads, because that's the kind of place New York is. You can choose any old street in Manhattan and there will be something interesting down it.

Plus, the buildings are so cool. Old school skyscrapers! I've started to quietly resent modern building techniques that rob us of this awesome aesthetic. (The trade off is probably structural integrity and cost... would be interesting to learn more about.)

There were heaps of tourist type gift shops, but the neatest random find we made was a Kinokuniya! I mean, of course New York would have a Kinokuniya, Kino is everywhere, but I have apparently made a habit of collecting them so I wandered inside and once more tortured myself by resisting buying books. One day I have to stuff my wallet full of money and, I don't know, drive a car to a Kino so I can just buy books to my heart's content. (New item for the bucket list?)

We found a Book Off too. Book Off has officially made it outside of Japan. I am so excited.

Being New York they had stores for everything, of course. Every giant city has this feature, and it's pretty much the coolest thing about giant cities.

We eventually landed in Times Square.

I thought I was prepared for Times Square - you know, Shibuya, Xiemingding, all those crazy places full of people and giant screens everywhere... they had nothing on Times Square.

First stepping foot in it, you gain a new appreciation for how Steve Rogers must have felt when he ran out there at the end of Captain America.

The whole are is just nuts. Information overload. Lots of people too, naturally, probably at least half of which were fellow tourists. Pretty cool.

There were also a lot of dodgy unofficial mascots loitering in the area, presumably 'buskers' of a sort extracting tips for photos. A weirdly short Elmo, a strangely proportioned Minnie and Mickey Mouse, a Spongebob, a few scraggly Statue of Liberty costumes. They were a bit creepy actually because they were so obviously not legit, and also looked kind of grungy. But I guess it's all part of the experience. Have to wonder what the mighty IP holders think of it though.

The whole yellow cabs of New York thing IS TOTALLY UNDERSOLD. At the diner we stopped in for lunch I stared at the window and a solid thirty seconds of traffic went by of nothing but cabs. 'Look, a white van! C-c-c-c-ombo breaker!'

It's a heck of sight.

M&M's World Store! A whole store dedicated to M&M's? YES PLEASE.

And there was indeed a prodigious amount of M&M's! Surprisingly not the full range of flavours though. I don't know if it's the case elsewhere in the world, but M&M's have been rotating flavours in Australia recently, we've had mint, orange, raspberry, and most recently the extremely delicious vanilla shake. It was mostly just colours in here though, with a selection of dark chocolate and peanut and dark-chocolate-peanut. You know, the usual.

The store itself was still awesome but I consoled myself by buying a bag of birthday-cake flavoured M&M's from the convenience store next to the hotel.

Get on it, M&M's world store. The colours thing is cool and all, but if you really want to make money sell your flavours!

After lunch we tried heading towards the Rockerfeller centre with the intention of going up to the observatory. This started a long and arduous quest filled with amazing side-lining discoveries.

Like just randomly stumbling upon the New York Public Library.

This has featured in so many movies. Ghostbusters was the first one to spring to mind. Actually, all of New York is basically a giant movie set, for any movie geek it's terribly awesome. I kind of just dragged my travelling buddy in here without much explanation, luckily she was the pliant sort.

My camera had started aggressively dying in Canada - it didn't seem to like the cold, and it's pretty much dead now. It started to think it was instagram and did weird colours and filters on me without my asking. But in its dying gasps, it took a photo that I never would have managed otherwise.

Eventually after many epic staircases found the famous and iconic reading room! I don't think you were actually supposed to take photos in here, whoops. The lighting made it nigh-impossible anyway. Must be rather annoying for the people actually there to use the library, though, with the constant stream of looky-loos like myself.

After that entertaining diversion we once again resumed our quest to head to the Rockerfeller.

We saw the Chrysler building on our way. It is definitely one of the prettier skyscrapers.

And then stumbled upon this magnificent place. Grand Central Station! It really is quite majestic.

Although honestly it was also really sort of weird! I've seen this place destroyed in so many movies, some part of my brain expected a construction site, not the whole intact in perfectly reasonable condition building. It would probably be the same thing if I ever saw the Whitehouse. 'Wait, wasn't that destroyed in Independence Day?'

Didn't Cyclops blow out these windows once? Also I recognised it from Improv's Everywhere time freeze. Majestic building. You head inside and you feel like you're really going somewhere important.

Possibly the best thing about Grand Central though was stumbling out and finding this shop called 'Baked By Melissa' which made the most amazing tiny cupcakes.The flavours pictured are cinnamon, mint choc, triple swirl, red velvet, lemon cheesecake and cookies and cream, but we went back there every day and tried them all. They also had peanut butter and choc, triple choc fudge, cookie dough... and so much flavour crammed into every one. I think there was drugs involved, they were soooo good.

Seriously, tiny cupcakes. If you are in New York, you owe it to yourself to try them. My travel buddy declined initially, but when I went back I offered her one of mine and she was an instant convert.

This was basically the entire story of our time in New York, actually. I haven't always gotten the best out of every city I've been to, but I know how to spot tourist opportunities by now. If you see tiny cupcakes that look delicious, you buy them immediately.

It was her first time travelling in ages, though, so could be forgiven. I spent a lot of time steering her away from scammers. She got suckered by the 'peace bracelet' thing from a monk though. I was like 'whyyyyyy? We have those guys in Australia!' There was no real way avoiding people descending upon 'the obvious tourist' in Asia but I'd become used to avoiding/brushing the cold approaches off, so having to deal with it all over again was quite tiring! It's probably the one big drawback of being a tourist.

After all those detours and diversions it was nearly five in the afternoon and we finally made it to the Rockerfeller Center!

Not the prettiest of buildings but still impressive! They had a pretty cool NBC store down the bottom where I bought my old housemate 30Rock magnets.

We didn't not actually make it up to the observation deck, though, because that was when I spotted THE NINTENDO WORLD STORE.

It was awesome. Streetpasses were had and demos were played. I spent a solid hour, much to my poor travel buddy's bemusement, looking at everything.
.

Pikmin! The coolest part was definitely some of the merch. I'd been pretty strict on my spending budget, but I caved and bought myself a classic Nintendo light hoodie. No regrets!!!

They needed more Animal Crossing stuff though. I guess Animal Crossing isn't big enough yet. I'm psyched for Tomodachi Life though. Has anyone else seen the video for that? All hail Virtual Boy! Can see myself most embarrassingly losing months of my life to that game.

By the time I was done with the Nintendo World Store, we didn't actually have time to go up the Rockerfeller Centre any longer, so we put that off for another time so we could go grab dinner... and head on over to Broadway!

We'd secured tickets for Bullets over Broadway, Woody Allen's new musical adapted from his film. The production values were all rather stunning, and the music was fairly decent (all 1920s/1930's classics) but the ending was sort of dreadful and ruined my overall opinion of the thing, even though the other three quarters of it were quite enjoyable and fairly well done. Still, Broadway was one of those things totally on my bucket list and it was so worth it.

That was just one day of stuff though!

The next day we crash-coursed our way through the subway system and somehow found our way to Liberty Island.

This was the big must-do for my travelling buddy, so we already had tickets to get onto the ferry. Definitely a heck of a sight, I was probably going more from the whole 'hey part of X-men was filmed here' angle but totally worth it even though we had to go through security like three times.

Skyline from the island! My camera valiantly revived for Liberty Island, even if it remained a little temperamental.

We headed up onto the pedestal, since we apparently had tickets for that. The view up top was indeed decent, but the real draw card was the exceptionally good museum in the base. Really well done, lots of great trivia about the making of and reconstruction of the statue. Never realised that Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame was involved with it! Or how many changes the torch had gone through, either.

Just to be a bit different, have an alternate angle.

We didn't get off at Ellis Island on the way back though, since we'd heard/read plenty of its story in the museum already and the day was quickly disappearing on us. We scouted out an excellent little diner near Wall Street where I had an awesome turkey club sandwich. I'd always disliked turkey as a meat until spending some time in the USA, they're actually pretty good at cooking it I suppose? Whenever I've had it in Australia (rarely) it has always been sort of dry or gamey. Possibly since it's not popular nobody knows how to cook it properly, or we just don't have the masses of dedicated turkey farms to make it nearly so tasty. Or maybe they use bush turkeys or something, those things don't look like they'd taste any good.

Anyway, Wall Street was kind of interesting from an architectural standpoint, we saw the famous gold bull (surrounded by tourists so we didn't bother waiting to get a photo) and Tiffany's and the New York Stock Exchange.

An interesting area to walk in for sure, for a place you hear about a lot it's sort of the geographical equivalent of putting a face to a name.

Typical New York street! It didn't take long at all to get used to that north-south east-west street orientation, which Broadway then gloriously screwed up by being all 'I do what I want!' Still, within a day or two you stopped getting lost because you really couldn't walk the wrong way for more than a block.

We found the Two Towers memorial, but the line was both incredibly long and involved another run through security, and we'd had enough of metal detectors for the day so gave it a pass. We did however get to see the new World Trade Centre built next to it (though still somewhat under construction), aka 'Freedom Tower', it's looking pretty impressive!

We wandered around exploring a bit more and found the waterfront, and followed that for a while, and subsequently found the Brooklyn Bridge!

We unfortunately didn't make it to Brooklyn (or off Manhattan Island at all, actually) but here's a pic from across the river! It looks like it would a pretty interesting place to visit, definitely on my list for next time.

We sat around here for a while, resting our legs after all the walking, and watched what appeared to be a fashion photography shoot. There was always some kind of shoot going on somewhere it felt like, news cameras and pro photographers and artists and film students and probably actual film crews who can be difficult to differentiate when they're trying to be incognito. We didn't see any actual famous people or anything, but honestly there's so much going on in New York it would be pretty easy to get lost in the crowd.

Eventually we found our way back to the subway and hit up TKTS for some more discount Broadway tickets. We had a fairly tight budget but my travelling buddy really wanted to go see Chicago so we nabbed some half price tickets for that.

We still had a while to kill before the performance though so we hit up 'Shake Shack' because it had a crazy line and typically places with crazy lines are awesome! It did indeed have pretty excellent milkshakes, but it was really just an ice-cream and burger place. A good one, especially for the price, but the crazy line was a little misleading!

After that we found a sort of flea market nearby where I bought an awesome new scarf, because I'd been wearing the same tired scarf for nearly two months wanted a change. Good deal! Also bought a new hat to make up for yet another lost hat. Hat and scarf together were like $15, not bad.

Then it was time for Chicago (the musical) itself! Honestly, while it had its moments, it wasn't great. A couple of good numbers but super low-production values, not what you'd expect for the ticket price. (Hardly any costume changes, for that matter. Even when they were fairly necessary!) Still good! Just not... Broadway levels of good? The movie was for once better. 'Cellophane Man' was done particularly poorly.

It's probably a good thing I don't live in New York THOUGH because I would just be going to Broadway alllll the time and would have no money.

Moving right along, the next day we slept in a bit, then braved the subway again and somehow found our way to the National History museum!

Roosevelt had some pretty good quotes on the walls, go Roosevelt.

The museum was incredible, as expected. Also incredibly large. We should have dedicated a whole day to it. We saw heaps of it, sure, but we wound up having to hustle ourselves out of there a mere half an hour before closing time, rushing through some exhibits we would have much preferred to linger in.

One of the first things we saw was this scene. It feels famous for some reason? Maybe that Nicolas Cage movie.

Of course, one of the big highlights was the dinosaur bones!

Sooooo many dinosaur bones. It was tricky to get photos really, since my camera was well and truly dead by then and unwilling to even turn on properly, so I was stuck with my phone's camera which honestly isn't that bad but struggles with even slightly low-level light. Also everyone else there also trying to get photos. And the general size of the things.

Some of the coolest bones were maybe the smaller dinosaurs though! You don't see those ones as much.

Also these guys.

Weird to think that you're looking at something literally millions of years old.Were those even the real bones? Sometimes I wondered if they had just put replicas on display, they seem far too valuable to put anywhere near the clumsy general public.

I could go on and on about each and every exhibit, but you can't exactly fit a whole museum into a Livejournal Post. Just, if you like museums, the Natural History museum in New York is pretty much the apex of museums. The Smithsonian might be better, I don't know, but it's very worth going to. Also, if you go, plan a whole day. Get there at opening. If you really want to read everything and go through it at a leisurely pace, you need every minute. There were far too many exhibits where I really only felt like I had the time to wander in, gawk at it, then hustle along without reading much text.

Luckily, even though it was nearly 5 in the afternoon when we finally found the exit, there was still a good two hours of sunlight left! So we hit up Central Park.

Spring had started to hit in some parts but Central Park was still mostly in winter mode since I had apparently wandered into the longest damn winter ever. It was beautiful even so, it was such a giant and lovely park. Ridiculously large, though after the endless skyscrapers of Manhattan it's desperately needed. Another place we should have dedicated many more hours to.

As it was, we were tired from walking around the museum so took a break by this lake and drank milkshakes from a street vendor while partaking of the view.

Probably one of the most photographed parks in the world.

We didn't actually realise this bridge was at all famous until we were walking past a lot of the streetside art and postcard type vendors.

We sat here for a while and enjoyed the soap opera drama of these three ducks, two of which don't even appear to be the same species? But there was a total love triangle going on. Spring is in the air?

Eventually the sun started to set so we meandered on back towards Times Square area. We entered the lottery for cheap Wicked tickets but a ridiculous number of people turned up so we were flat out of luck, still pretty cool to see people cheering about being able buy $30 tickets (though when they usually cost upward of $150...) So instead we went to go see Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which turned out to be a great idea because there is something oddly special about seeing an Avengers movie in New York.

We went to the 2D session but they evidently stuffed up the reels so they came in and gave everyone 3D glasses, so 3D movie without paying the premium, yay I guess? Awesome movie, but one really cool thing, this being New York, was that they handed out surveys from the movie studio for us to fill out and hand in! My opinion counts guys! Honestly though most of my feedback was like 'Needs more Iron Man'.

Reminds me of the days years ago when I was working on one of the crappier Spyro games, and we focus-tested a bunch of kids, and this one kid's every other comment basically boiled down to 'it should have spider-man and be more like spider-man, spider-man is awesome'. We laughed but maybe the kid was on to something.

The next day (the last full one!) we went to the Guggeheim Museum!

It's a pretty cool building - the museum itself is much of the attraction. There was also an Italian Futurism exhibit on that started out somewhat meh but got more interesting as walked up the spiral. The layout of the gallery is pretty neat that way.

Some of the permanent exhibits were pretty decent too, though it was hard to be as impressed after Chicago's Institute of Art. Learned a lot that day though. Super cool. Since we starting to run short on time we wound up missing out on the MET and MoMA but glad we at least made the Guggenheim.

Plus, just the name of the place is fun to say. Guggeheim, Guggenheim, Guggenheim. ~~(Is secretly five.)~~

Stopped by another street vendor for a proper New York style pretzel afterwards! Love giant pretzels, they are hard to find in Australia.

I became a fan of street vendor food in general, really. Cheap and surprisingly good (even if often very processed). New York hot dogs, they're tasty! And ubiquitous. And convenient.

We stumbled across this sight in our wanderings! We wanted to try to get into one of the shows but this was not long after Letterman had just announced his retirement so it was pretty much impossible to get in. That was the case with a lot of the shows filmed there, really, you needed to dedicate an awful lot of your day to lining up to even hope to get tickets.

Still cool to see in person!

We found ourselves something at a loss after that, with most of the galleries and museums closing soon and no Broadway tickets for that night, so rather than trying to go to the Rockerfeller Center observatory again we wandered over to the Empire State Building with the idea of visiting their observatory... but the amount of hawkers outside trying to sell you tickets, not to mention the crazy line inside... I was still game but my travelling buddy was running low on funds so we decided to walk further south and check out the Flatiron district instead, based entirely off the fact that our hotel room had a photo of it.

The Flatiron building is indeed pretty cool, one of the more interesting 'famous' buildings we saw! The whole district was pretty interesting, a comparatively quiet pocket in the madness. Older district, perhaps.

All along the streets in the Flatiron area they had concrete planters out filled with tulips for spring! Seems like a lot of effort for a bunch of flowers that last only a matter of weeks but after the endless winter they were quite the welcome sight!

We grabbed burgers at a Five Guys for dinner and then on whim decided to go into Macy's, since it was apparently The Macy's and we were there so why the hell not?

As soon as we entered the store - holy shit.

The whole place was filled with flowers, and the first thing you saw was this epic dress made of roses which photos really cannot do justice. We'd apparently stumbled into their big Spring sale!

We hadn't really intended to do anything more than window shop, but I found a cool jacket that was down from $145 going for $30. Luggage space be damned, I grabbed that so fast! It was more of an autumn jacket which made it perfect for Australian winter, too. Bargain.

That was definitely one of the coolest surprises of the trip, we'd not really done any shopping until that evening but wow. Not only did I get a cool deal, it was worth going in just for the decorations.

After our grand success in Macy's, we went on a last-minute quest for New York style cheesecake, which was surprisingly difficult to find but we eventually stumbled across a bakery quite close by and scurried away with our bounty to consume inside the hotel.

My travel buddy was catching a flight back to Toronto ridiculously early the next morning, so we tried to get an early night. I myself had a flight to Chicago later in the day, but I was left with most of one last day in New York.

My first stop was by B&H Photo Video, which is my favourite place for pro audio equipment - I'd left it for the last day, to spare my travel buddy that particular planned bit of boredom. I mostly spent time drooling at stuff though, but it was a super cool old-style store, with rolling belts snaking around the roof carrying stock every which way.

Saw this wandering the streets nearby. The cosplay district? Wait, sewing is used for other things too.

I got some more tiny cupcakes and browsed a few souvenir stores, and got myself a neat little A4 souvenir art print for the grand price of $2. Then I finally found myself back at the Rockerfeller Centre! So I bit the bullet and headed up to the observatory.

It was a super cool observatory! Much better view - you get to SEE the Empire State, after all. And Central Park on the other side too. The weather was predictably pants, in keeping with my pattern of visiting observatories when the weather is dreary and overcast, why brain, whyyyyyy? But it was a fairly epic conclusion to an absolutely amazing five days in New York. I wish I could have stayed longer! Alas, New York is hellishly expensive, so in the end I had to catch that cab to La Guardia.

I really do <3 NY. (But I didn't buy the T-shirt. Even though they're everywhere and cost like $5.)

I landed back in Chicago to settle in with my brother again. But despite how awesome New York was, but this point travel ennui had settled in fairly hardcore. The weather was in fact almost nice by this point, but given the chance I didn't even bother to head into downtown Chicago again. I got about as far as the centre of Barrington one of the days, but mostly at this point I was just chilling at my brother's helping out around the house (they were in the middle of renovations) and job hunting. I still had some money left in my budget, but New York and San Francisco had both blown an awful lot of it. Did I have enough to keep going? If I went budget enough, I could probably have made it at least to the UK...

But my curiosity was finally spent, and my tolerance for air mattresses and living out of a suitcase had finally reached its apex.

It was time to call the journey to an end, and find my way back to Australia.

Of course, you can't actually fly direct from Chicago to Australia, LA and Dallas are about the only North American cities with directs, and they were hellishly expensive at the time. So.... why not head back via Japan?

:D

One more travel post left!

Toronto! (And Montreal again)

sinnatious — Thu, 15 May 2014 07:59:09 GMT

After my exceedingly pleasant stopover in Vancouver, my next stop was in Toronto!

I had a old University buddy living in Toronto who wanted in on my world trip and had planned holidays while I was in the vicinity accordingly. This was pretty cool because I netted a travel buddy, but it did somewhat play havoc with my itinerary (or lack of one). But whatever, free place to crash for a couple of days in Toronto!

Toronto was... underwhelming though, after so many of the other places I'd been on my trip. Some people have asked me what my favourite and least favourite places were, and while I would be hard pressed to pick a favourite, Toronto was easily my least-favourite stopover of the journey. I'm sorry Torontonians! It was still an interesting place in its own right, but it was kind of dreary. Maybe not helped by the weather or season. (Though this was true most places...)

Of course, in Toronto's defence it was around this time I started getting some serious travel fatigue. At this point I had been travelling for nearly five months, and living out of a suitcase transitioning between hotels and air beds was getting a little old.

Still, despite my increasing lack of curiosity, I did wander downtown a bit. Found this place:

I didn't actually go in here because I know nothing about ice hockey, since as you can imagine it is not a popular Australian sport. But still very Canadian.

On of the first things I noticed hitting the downtown - CN Tower! Quite an attractive tower, as far as towers go. Didn't go up this either though since I'd also had my fill of observation decks for the time being and was feeling a bit stingy that day. I know, I didn't think it could happen either. Tokyo Skytree and the Umeda Sky Building are both pretty hard to top.

Aside from that it wasn't mostly just a bit of window shopping and tea drinking at David's Tea, since my friend has recently discovered loose leaf tea as well and has become a convert. The highlight of the day was mostly just visiting.

Toronto's best tourist feature, however, is arguably its proximity to Niagara Falls.

My friend had work for the next two days until she was officially on holidays so I was left to my own devices once again. I managed to catch a bus/train combo for less than half the price of a tour to Niagara Falls from Toronto Central. It took about two hours to get there (no big deal as I had Professor Layton to play), and then the train station it dumped me at was about 45 minutes walk downstream from Niagara Falls, but it wound up being totally worth it because the walk was beautiful.

Niagara Gorge is just awesome, even when it's all ice and snow. I can't even imagine how pretty it must be in Spring. (Mind you, this was early April. Canadian 'Spring'.)

Bridge to the USA! It's weird to think that a good chunk of Ontario is actually further south than the northernmost United States.

You could hear Niagara Falls well before you saw it. But downstream there were other falls too!

American Falls I think, as viewed from under the bridge. Really interesting how the snowbanks are built up around it. The mist turning into ice and snow mid-air perhaps? It wasn't that cold that day (only about -4 I think - ahahaha how quickly I got used to Canada's stupid temperatures) but easy to imagine that happening in the colder temps. Apparently the Falls actually froze earlier in the year! Would have been something to see... but maybe not worth going outside in those temperatures to.

The river was at least partially unfrozen, heck of a sight, photo on an overcast day didn't do it justice.

At last, the Falls themselves! They were really green? And super misty, not sure if that was a temperature thing or what, but still pretty amazing, even though it meant I had to constantly clean my glasses so I could see.

This mysteriously derelict building rested hauntingly just beyond the falls.

It was awesome to just sit and watch for ages. Waterfalls are mesmerising like that, perhaps there's something in the human consciousness that finds water soothing. Although I got a good twenty minutes of entertainment just watching the ducks up top drifting back on the currents closer and closer to the edge... and not even a metre away go all 'shit shit shit' and fly off to repeat the process.

The weather luckily meant there weren't too many other tourists at the Falls though - it might not have been nearly so enjoyable if I were being constantly pressured to move on by the next tourist wanting their perfect shot.

I poked around in the neat little tourist centre next to falls for a while, ate some delicious overpriced soft sugary maple candy that I am deeply sad I didn't buy more of, but my dentist is probably grateful I didn't. They had a few other things like a journey behind the falls which was probably cool but at that point just sounded cold and also expensive, and I really didn't have time for since the last train back left at 5pm.

It didn't sound like much summarised but I'm so glad I went to see it, it was sort of a bucket list thing since waterfalls are awesome and the surrounding area is just gorgeous. (Minus the tourist campiness of Niagara itself). Canadian side of the falls are definitely the better view!

Then I wound up running late since I decided to take a cab back to the train station so I could linger an extra half an hour... only when the time came to catch a cab there suddenly weren't any so I was half power-walking half desperately running through the snow back towards the train station to see if I could make the 45 minute saunter in under 20 minutes, and wound up flagging down a cab that already had a passenger (I didn't notice the light until after waving him down) but he was super nice and stopped for me anyway since his other passenger was headed the same way. So lucky!

Of course it wound up being all for naught, as even though I arrived with about seven minutes to spare, the train was an hour late.

God I missed Asia right then.

I had one more day in Toronto while my friend was working so asked one of her housemates for tips on places to see. About all he could offer was 'Casa Loma'.

So I went to Casa Loma. It's the mansion (self-styled like a castle) built by a rich guy in the early 1900s who made his fortune from hydro-electricity.

Seems like a good place to film movies. Would not be surprised if they did in fact film movies here. Many of the rooms were preserved with their antique furniture and were quite pretty in a decadent sort of way, but honestly I also got to visit the oldest house in Lake Charles, Louisiana totally for free (friend of the family or something) and that was way more interesting and also got me a bag of free kumquats picked off a tree (first time eating kumquats, kumquats are weird).

It had some neat history, though, my favourite being that they used it to hide the research on sonar in World War II, and the security was literally a padlock on the door and a sign saying 'Closed for renovations, sorry for the inconvenience'. The best way to hide something is to make it look like you're not hiding anything at all.

You could also climb up one of the towers, which had a bit of Tower of London/Siberian gulag feel to it at times.

It did have a spanking great view of the skyline though!

Also this cool house. No idea what it is was, Spadina House maybe? Or a church and seminary.

Overall Casa Loma was kind of interesting I guess but definitely not worth the price of entry, had I any better ideas I might not have bothered. More of a school excursion type place.

After that I wandered around a bit, did the usual thing where I got asked for directions and to take photos - seriously, just about every single city I visited someone asked for for directions or to take a photo. The photo thing made sense - single person loitering near a tourist spot who doesn't look like they'll steal the camera and in no particular rush to go somewhere is a logical choice to ask - but the directions thing was always kind of baffling. Especially in Asia, where I obviously didn't belong (although in that case that was at least usually another tourist asking someone who would almost certainly speak English). Maybe I just naturally look like I know where I'm going? Even though 90% of the time I was picking a street and saying 'that way looks interesting'.

Eventually I wound up at the Bata Shoe Museum, and holy crap was this a good museum.

Seriously, the shoe museum is one of the must-sees of Toronto. I say this not even as a cosplayer, it was just so cool. It had the history of shoes in one section with examples all throughout history, as well as shoes from different cultures - from Japanese geta and zori, to the tiny shoes women with bound feet used to wear in China (seriously way tinier than you even thought), to crazy Mongolian boots to moccasins to Dutch clogs to those amazing traditional Arabic shoes with the curly toes.

Then it had a whole section of famous people's shoes! Behold, the shoes Roger Federer wore when he won the French Open!

And Napolean Bonaparte's silk socks!

...That part was a bit silly admittedly but it was kind of fun in itself.

They had an exhibit on shoe-making, as well as an interactive display where you could design your own shoe and for a slightly premium price they would ship it to you (using a whole stack of presets, obviously). Another one of those things I would be all over if I were not a traveller with no fixed address and no spare suitcase space.

Plus the big sneakers exhibit. I know a few sneakers collectors who would have gone totally gaga over it, it's this weird niche hobby with a ridiculous amount of money going into it.

Easy to spend an couple of hours in there, an unusually well laid out and presented museum, really went into a decent amount of depth.

Then I had to go back outside and be confronted with Toronto again.

Even the statues are depressed to be in Toronto.

In all seriousness it wasn't that bad. The shoe museum was totally spectacular, and I'm told the lakeshore is quite nice but I didn't manage to make it out there. Seemed like a nice place to live more so than visit?

In any case, that wrapped up our time in Toronto since my friend's holidays started and she wanted to hit the road. The next day we caught Via Rail to Montreal.

The countryside surrounding Toronto was not very beautiful either. That awkward transition between Winter and Spring I guess. Felt like you could film movies set in Soviet Russia there. (...Maybe that IS where they film them?)

I was considering making it a separate post, but it was basically just a stopover. We spent a couple of days in Montreal again!

As soon as we arrived, it started snowing. Montreal, laying out the white carpet for us. In April.

I hated everything a little bit at that moment. Was so sick of snow. I have no idea how the Canadians must feel.

Mind you, falling snow is still a little bit novel and pretty to me behind warm glass so we took refuge in Parisian Crepes and had amazing French crepes oh my god.

This was apple and cinnamon with maple. ;A;

The rest of the day, because of the snow, we didn't get out much. I had lost yet another hat yet to be replaced in Vancouver so we went on an epic journey of the underground malls to find a replacement, and then we found a cinema showing the new Muppets movie so we went to see that since apparently a good part of our friendship was founded on mutual appreciation of the Muppets.

The next day it finally stopped snowing so we ventured more properly outside, and hit up Chinatown for amazing dumplings, because that is just what happens when that particular friend and I get together, we go on food crawls that will always result in great dumplings and usually also chocolate.

After we'd finally stuffed our faces to satisfaction we wandered towards Old Montreal, and saw some fairly epic graffiti along the way.

I mean, can you even call that graffiti anymore? That was surely sanctioned.

I have no idea what this building is! It's not like Montreal is the capital of anything, not even Quebec, otherwise I might have guessed Parliament House. Gloriously impressive, though, as old buildings often are. Why don't we make gloriously impressive buildings anymore? The modernist movement was totally the worst thing to ever happen to architecture.

I don't know what this building is either but it's so grand.

Old Montreal was definitely the place to go, so many fascinating buildings and the narrow streets and food places and all the fun stuff that makes for an interesting area to explore.

We wound up by the St Lawreence again. This particular scene got a little bit surreal. There appeared to be a kind of amusement park on the other side of the river?

Also this cool clock tower, which might have also been a lighthouse, not sure.

It was a lot of fun watching all the ice floating by on the river. I think that big dome might have been the botanical gardens! We did actually look at going this time despite the weather but it was closed on Mondays, in keeping with my luck.

Full of sleeping trees anyway. /consoles self.

We also found the 'headquarters' of Cirque Du Soleil! No shows going on, because never-ending winter, but as a Cirque fan still kind of neat.

Check out this cool markets building. First time I've seen a dome like that which wasn't oxidised green copper! So pretty.

Montreal's Notre Dame. I'm not really a big fan of churches at all, but given how pretty the inside of the one in Quebec was we decided to check this one out.

Was not disappointed. Holy crap. The amount of detail was staggering. As a bored kid forced to go to church you would at least have a lot of different things to look at.

This statue perplexed us for several minutes. It felt like some sort of art piece about the rivalry between the French and the British? I think this was an English bulldog, on the opposite corner there was a women with a French poodle.

We finished off the day with another bowl of poutine to say farewell to Quebec. I miss poutine so much, it's so ridiculously unhealthy but wow.

This made my second sojourn to Montreal much more enjoyable! Not that the first stopover wasn't awesome, but Old Montreal was totally where the interest was at. Still, it was basically just a stopover on our way to our real destination. Next up: New York, New York.

.

Xmas Giftfics 2013 Part 4

sinnatious — Sun, 11 May 2014 05:50:51 GMT

One last round of gift-fics! Two short-ish ones and one long-ish one.

For swifty_chan

A. Animal Crossing: New Leaf
B. Sterling, Knox (other optional, free reign for mayor)
C. How will a town survive without Isabelle for a day?

AN: An actually short one. Also probably the first (and maybe only time) I’ve written second person view. No other POV really worked.

Tortimer’s boat drifts back towards the jetty. The town grows closer, what started as a troubling haze of red on the horizon gaining definition before your eyes.

Flames and embers rising from the village, and a sky filling with smoke.

In a daze, you stumble from the jetty onto the damp sand of the beach. Gulliver is lying unconscious on the sand, unattended. For once, you don’t have time to check if he’s alright.

The first thing you notice is the trash littering the cliffs. The camping ground sits abandoned, tent collapsed.

As you walk deeper into town, smoke growing thicker, the picture only gets worse. There seems to be a fight breaking out over the in the rose gardens, petals of all colours flying to the clashing metal of shovels. Half the trees in the orchard have been cut down, and haphazard structures erected in their place, from stop signs to an unstable caricature of a windmill to a weird shack with the scrawled words ‘POLISE STASHUN’ on the front.

What’s happened to the paths? To the projects? The flowers? Fights are raging out of control.

You’ve left them alone before to go to the island. What’s so different about today?

Knox is roaming nearby, wielding a chair as a shield. He stops when he sees you.

“Mayor, you’re back! What’s happening, clucking?”

You stare at the mayhem in a daze, unsure what to ask first.

In the end, though, only one question makes any sense. Only one question can organise this into a problem with a solution. You have no idea what to do, but you know one villager who will. “Where is Isabella?”

“Didn’t you know? She took the day off, clucking. Today is Isabelle’s birthday!”

For teekoness

A. FFVII - Beloved
B. Cloud, Genesis, Tifa
C. It was frustrating enough when Genesis and Tifa didn't get along, but them actually agreeing on things is so much worse.

Cloud had been happy when he first saw Genesis and Tifa talking. Had deliberately avoided interrupting them, in fact, choosing the long way around so they wouldn’t notice his arrival. Most of their meetings were filled with strained civility, or when the topic started getting controversial, underhanded potshots. To see them actually smiling at each other… that more than Cloud had ever hoped for.

He was pleased enough about it that when they both suddenly appeared before him and declared they were all going out, Cloud didn’t even think to ask where.

Until they arrived at Edge’s newest department store.

Cloud pulled to a stop outside the entrance, an uncomfortable sense of foreboding settling over him. “What-”

Tifa didn’t even give him the chance to get the full question out. “We’re going clothes shopping, what does it look like?”

Obviously. “Why do you need me for that?”

That earned him a withering stare from his childhood friend. “Why do you think?” She grabbed him by one arm, Genesis grabbed him by the other, and they all but dragged him into the store.

He thought that the last time anyone else had taken him clothes shopping, he’d wound up in a dress and half-molested by Don Corneo. “I don’t need any new clothes. These ones are fine.”

“Nonsense. You need a new wardrobe. It’s criminal that a man as good looking as you continues walking around in a civilian version of a SOLDIER uniform,” Genesis loftily declared, even as he sorted through the nearest rack of shirts, nose wrinkling at the selection on offer.

“So Genesis and I agreed that we’d take care of it ourselves,” Tifa said. “Since we obviously can’t trust your taste in fashion.”

“My taste in fashion is fine!” Cloud defended.

“You have a wolf motif, Cloud, and wearing paraphernalia related to your bike is not fashion,” Tifa countered. “The fact that it even works as well as it does is just downright unfair.”

Genesis held up black jacket with a white collar and edging to Tifa. “What do you think of this one?”

She nodded thoughtfully. “We’ll need a cart, start a pile.”

Cloud had changed his mind. He much preferred it when they didn’t get along.

For tsuanyue

A: FFVII - I'd prefer Fifth Act or Beloved but whatever muse hits you is fine with me. It's all awesome.
C. Cloud gets stuck in a time loop with ___. It wouldn't be so bad if ___ didn't have so much fun with it.

AN: I went with setting it in Fifth Act universe because that’s apparently the headspace I’m in at the moment thanks to the last trio of giftfics. Try not to think too hard about it. This is also way too long and probably needed to be longer.

The most embarrassing thing was, neither of them realised anything was wrong for the first three days.

“What do you have today?” Cloud asked as he entered Lazard’s office.

“Ah, Strife.” Lazard greeted him with a short nod. “This one just came in. Ahrimans nesting on the walls of the Reactor in Sector 8.”

Cloud paused. The silence stretched unnaturally.

“Strife?” Lazard prompted.

“Send it through,” he eventually replied. His PHS beeped. He glanced at it, brow furrowing, and left without another word.

…………

Cloud stared long and hard at the ahrimans nesting on the walls of Sector 8’s reactor.

The second time he’d received this mission, he hadn’t thought anything of it – he’d obviously missed some, perhaps part of the flock had been away and had returned after he’d killed their brethren. It happened occasionally that missions would require follow up. The third time, though, he’d been annoyed. And he’d been thorough.

Yet there the ahrimans were. No signs of the carbon scoring from the battle yesterday, or the damage he’d left on the side of the Reactor’s smoke stack with his sword. No way had maintenance been up there in weeks, either.

He glanced at his PHS again. Scrolled up.

The previous mission mails weren’t there.

His gut began to churn.

………….

Later, after Cloud had cleared the Reactor of ahrimans for the fourth time and reported in, he asked Kunsel, “Have you noticed anything strange lately?”

The Second Class tilted his head thoughtfully, helmet glinting under the fluorescent lights. “Luxiere’s stopped stalking Zack recently. Does that count?”

“You told me about that yesterday.”

Kunsel hummed under his breath as he scrolled through his PHS messages. “Did I? Guess I forgot, sorry. Do you want me to look into something for you?”

“…Not just yet. Maybe later.”

……………….

The thing was, Cloud was the first to admit he had a bit of a complex about being called crazy. He’d fought hard for his sanity, and doubted it often enough that he didn’t need others doubting it for him.

So he wasn’t going to just walk up to anyone and say that he thought he might be stuck in a time loop. Even with his history of time travelling, it was just far too easy to dismiss it as his imagination. Cloud didn’t make outlandish claims like that without being certain he could back them up first.

But he couldn’t rely on a simple script to prove his hypothesis. He hadn’t had that discussion with Kunsel all three previous days, presumably because some response Cloud made steered the topic elsewhere. His timing was off by just enough that he didn’t always meet the same people in the halls or elevators, and his routine varied enough that he never picked up on any particular patterns outside of those repeating missions.

Maybe he could find the daily newspaper and memorise the headlines? Or maybe Kunsel would let him borrow his PHS for the day’s fanclub updates and what time they would be sent out. But even those could be explained away as insider knowledge. What he really needed was an event outside of his possible influence where the timing and nature of it wouldn’t change – but what, he didn’t know. Nothing remarkable had occurred in any of those days.

Luckily, that particular dilemma was soon solved for him.

Sephiroth entered the Equipment Room, making a direct line for him. “Cloud.”

“Sephiroth,” he replied, wary. Some habits never quite went away. “What do you want?”

“Lazard said you refused a monster clearing mission this morning.”

“So?” Lazard had certainly been surprised – Cloud never turned down monster hunts, after all – but he didn’t see the point in completing the same mission over and over again, not when it was within the reach of any halfway competent SOLDIER who hadn’t already completed the mission four times.

“So it’s something that changed,” Sephiroth said. “And I couldn’t have done a single thing to influence it.”

Cloud stared. Processed that.

It was even worse than he thought. He was stuck in a time loop, with Sephiroth.

He was pretty sure he’d had nightmares about this once.

……………..

“Why just us?” Cloud asked later, once they had compared what they knew and established that no one else appeared to be aware of the anomaly.

“We are ShinRa’s two strongest SOLDIERs. Perhaps it’s an attempt by ShinRa’s enemies to remove us from the equation?”

“But they left Genesis and Angeal and Zack out of it too?” He and Sephiroth were stronger, certainly, but to nearly anyone else on the planet? The distinction between the top SOLDIERs mattered only to the top SOLDIERs.

“Then, we’re left with only one other factor. S-cells. It could even be that only one of us was targeted and the other dragged along because of them.”

Of course. It had to be that. S-cells hadn’t screwed with his life enough already.

The ‘how’ was an even bigger mystery. There was only one question he really cared enough to answer, though.

“How do we stop it?”

……………….

On the fifth day, Cloud suggested they stay awake for the switch over, in hopes of at least getting some clues. It was no particular trial, except for the fact that Sephiroth decided they should wait it out together.

Until Cloud found himself in his quarters at 6am on the sixth day, his last memory being sitting in the SOLDIER lounge at 4am in a tense silence with his once-rival.

He didn’t waste any time. He got up, and with half a thought, tracked Sephiroth down.

They met at the door of the General’s apartment.

Sephiroth suggested, “Maybe we can try to get beyond the range of it.”

Two First Class SOLDIERs with access to ShinRa’s vehicle fleet could get an impressive distance from Midgar in twenty-two hours, it turned out.

Cloud blinked in Rocket Town, and woke up in his quarters at ShinRa.

Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.

……………..

By the eighteenth day, Cloud was running out of ideas.

They’d turned to materia initially, since all of Cloud’s time travel woes in the past had come from materia. Esuna was first, naturally. Then Exit, just in case they’d been trapped in cave filled with hallucinogens.

That gave Sephiroth the bright idea that it might have been a simulation, the next step up from the Training Room. They talked with Reeve about the possibility, and how one might break out of such a thing. They went down to ShinRa’s basement and with a pair of Bolt materia unleashed a lightning storm that blew out half the light fittings in ShinRa Headquarters.

They’d even attempted to involve the new Head of the Science Department, and Cloud had spent a very uncomfortable day sitting in the labs submitting to tests while gripping his sword and staring down every lab tech that wandered near. It had been pointless, of course – fascinated as she might have been, and willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, the new Head simply couldn’t get anywhere fast enough to do them any good.

Sephiroth suggested that it was time they had a break. They spent the nineteenth day at the Gold Saucer. It took half the day to get there, but they didn’t need to worry about getting back.

…………………

By the thirty-eighth day, their efforts to escape the time loop started growing a little outlandish.

“You resigned from ShinRa? Really?” Cloud asked the next day.

“It was a good opportunity to see what would happen.”

Pure chaos was what had happened. Lazard and the rest of ShinRa had a collective heart-attack. People had spent the entire day alternating between bothering him to get Sephiroth to change his mind – as though he had that capability – and blaming him for it in the first place. Genesis had been unable to decide if he were furious or devastated or elated. And Kunsel hadn’t had so much fun trading rumours and gossip in months.

“At least warn me next time.”

Sephiroth shrugged a shoulder, letting the criticism roll off without effort. “You did suggest that we could try altering our routines to find ‘a perfect play-through’ of the day.”

“Are you even serious about stopping this?” He could swear Sephiroth was enjoying himself.

Infuriatingly, Sephiroth didn’t deny it. “In my position, one doesn’t often have the luxury of declining responsibilities to this degree. Do you know that I attended the same board meeting three times in the beginning before I started to notice that the topics were repeating?”

Cloud understood that. Sephiroth had been flexing his independence of ShinRa more and more lately, in a much healthier manner than he had in a previous timeline, but it was obvious that old habits died hard. Obvious in Lazard’s lost expression after Sephiroth had not only started sending Genesis to the board meeting in his stead, but then proceeded to turn down every mission he was offered that afternoon.

At least, on the days when they bothered dealing with ShinRa at all.

“Perhaps disrupting the cycle enough will break it,” Sephiroth mused. “Maybe we should burn down ShinRa HQ next?”

It was far too tempting. But no matter how hard they tried to evacuate, there would almost certainly be collateral damage. “We’re not that desperate yet.”

He filed away the idea for later, though. Just in case.

……………..

Cloud handled the repeating days fairly easily in the beginning, in all truth. But it didn’t take long to realise how it robbed all the satisfaction from the rest of life.

There was no point to working on his new bike when the work would vanish every day. There was no point to tending the cutting of a flower Aeris had given him when it would never have the chance to grow. There was no point in clearing away monsters when those same monsters reappeared like clockwork. No point shining his sword when the same buffs and scratches would return the next morning. No point breeding chocobos when their eggs would never hatch.

They’d been brainstorming recently, as idea after idea failed to work. And it occurred to Cloud that one of the few forces that might be capable of such of a phenomenon was the Planet itself. But if that were the case, what did the Planet want?

Aeris hadn’t been able to tell him. He couldn’t talk to the Planet himself.

But there had to be a reason it was just him and Sephiroth stuck in this, right?

On the fifty-third day, Cloud sat in his room for twenty-two hours, held his sword in his lap, and contemplated killing Sephiroth.

……………..

On the fifty-fourth day, Sephiroth said, “You didn’t leave your quarters yesterday. Were you taking a day off?”

“Yeah,” said Cloud. “I was.”

Sephiroth must have heard something off in his voice, because he said, “I was thinking of taking the next few cycles off myself. You’re welcome to do what you like.” He paused, then added, “But make sure you include me if you do decide to burn down Headquarters.”

Was pyromania catching? Genesis had become a bad influence.

……………..

On the fifty-seventh day, Cloud asked Kunsel, “What would you do, if you had one day which you could reset once it was over, and act completely consequence-free?”

“I would put every single secret and rumour I know about ShinRa on the Worldwide Network and send it to every PHS on the communications grid,” was the immediate response.

Cloud stared. “You’ve thought about this.”

Kunsel shrugged. “Well, yeah, who hasn’t?”

“Come on then,” he said, grasping the SOLDIER by the arm and pulling him to his feet. “Today is your day.”

……………..

No one was exactly sure when Genesis wound up in the loop – their best guess was somewhere between the seventy-fourth and eighty-sixth day.

“Of course I didn’t realise,” he snapped. “You two have been gallivanting off doing something different every day, it changes everything. Even my PHS messages are different. It wasn’t until I realised that Angeal didn’t remember any of your previous tomfoolery that I started getting suspicious.”

“At least now we know that it’s the rest of the world stuck in a loop, rather than us being stuck in a loop,” Sephiroth pointed out. There had been a brief period of concern that weeks were passing outside.

Cloud didn’t do well with losing time. He’d lost far too much of it already. He just hoped this wasn’t the universe’s way of giving it back.

He was somewhat reassured by the addition of another SOLDIER to the loop, though. It meant he’d been right not to kill Sephiroth.

Genesis huffed. “Don’t you have a plan to get out of it yet?”

“We haven’t found anything that works yet,” Cloud admitted.

“Our latest theory was that the Planet became aware of Cloud’s interference with the timeline and was itself interfering until we completed some undetermined task,” Sephiroth explained. “So several cycles ago we tried shutting down all of the mako reactors.”

“Most of them, anyway,” Cloud said. “We couldn’t get to the Underwater Reactor or Nibelheim Reactor in time.” Gongaga and Corel had already been decommissioned, luckily, but Midgar’s nine reactors alone had taken had taken most of the day.

“Now that we have Genesis, we may be able to split up and get them all at once.”

Cloud nodded thoughtfully. “It’s worth a shot.”

Genesis stared at them in disbelief. “You really have been doing this for months.”

“Should we tell him about the time we burned down Headquarters?” Sephiroth asked.

Cloud scowled. “Don’t listen to him. He’s enjoying this.”

Sephiroth diplomatically made no comment.

……………..

Occasionally they tried telling others about the time loop – Genesis in particular was insistent that they inform Angeal, and kept this up for a solid eight days before he too gave it up as a bad job. They tried the Turks a number of times with more success – they were among the few in the company aware of Hojo’s experiments with time travel, after all. In the end though they never learned anything new, and the cycle continued uninterrupted.

Cloud even went below-Plate to visit Aeris several times, just to double-check that the Planet really didn’t have anything to do with it. The Ancient was as unaware as everyone else.

That was possibly one of the most unsettling things of all.

At least Genesis’s addition to the timeloop added some fresh variation and new ideas. Once the other First Class realised that there was no way to include Angeal in the loop, he tired of the repetition quickly. It was his notion to commandeer a helicopter to the Northern Crater to see if that had anything to do with it. Cloud agreed, given so many of his troubles started and ended in the Northern Crater.

They blinked, and went from fighting giant tonberries in freezing cold caverns to ShinRa headquarters once again.

“I bet it’s the puppy’s fault,” Genesis huffed later.

“You can’t blame Zack for everything that goes wrong,” Sephiroth countered.

“He’s on a mission in Wutai, anyway,” Cloud said. “He can’t exactly interfere from there.”

Genesis sighed. The room filled with desolate silence.

Then, “Perhaps we could try burning Headquarters down again?” Sephiroth suggested.

Genesis threw his PHS at him. “Cloud’s right. You are enjoying this.”

……………..

On the hundred and fifteenth day, Cloud went and killed all the ahrimans again, just in case doing a normal run of the day might give him a new clue.

It didn’t.

…………….

Kunsel, unlike the rest of them, realised he was in a time loop by his second day.

“Fanclub updates in the morning were all the same,” he explained. “Plus my PHS lost messages overnight.”

“Curious how the effect seems to be spreading,” Sephiroth commented. “It destroys our original theory that it was caused by S-cells.”

“Maybe just those with Jenova cells,” Cloud offered. “Or mako.”

“Given the selection of people here, it’s probably Zack’s fault somehow,” Kunsel said.

“Ha!” Genesis declared in vindication.

“Or,” Sephiroth theorised, “it could be an issue of immunity. It would be just as easily explained as exposure to Time materia.”

“Go on,” Genesis prompted.

“Given this progression, it makes the most sense if this were caused by a sort of Time materia, and rather than suffering from its effects, we are actually not suffering from its effects, hence why Esuna or any of our other counters failed to work.” He crossed his arms, deep in thought. “Cloud has his Ribbon and is experienced in time travelling. I myself have a similar artefact-” He gestured to the silver buckle on his belt. “-and the S-cell connection with Cloud, which itself may have worked as a sort of amulet. After that, Genesis is the obvious next candidate in term of materia usage – he possesses a mastered Time materia and a high natural resistance from his training, which has likely further built up with each cycle everyone goes through. And Kunsel…”

Kunsel gave them a tight smile. “Yeah. I’ve had my fair share of involuntary time travelling before this too.”

It made a certain kind of sense, even if it assumed an awful lot.

“So if we left it running, eventually others will join the loop as well?” Genesis mused.

“Most likely the other SOLDIERs at least, starting with the ones in possession of a Time materia or who have unusually high materia resistance. Civilians, I can’t be sure.” Sephiroth shrugged slightly. “It is only a theory. We would have to wait for someone else to join the cycle to be sure.”

Which could be weeks, maybe even months at the current rate. It was the most plausible thing they’d brainstormed in a while, and worth treating as the truth until proven otherwise.

“It still doesn’t explain how this is happening or how we can stop it, though,” Genesis complained.

“It can’t be anything originating in ShinRa. We’ve tried too many things here,” Cloud said. “Or anything on the East Continent, either. Some of those changes went far.”

“Um, do you guys even know what Zack’s mission in Wutai is?” Kunsel asked.

…………………

“They sent Zack Fair to investigate a mysterious materia discovered in Wutai’s jungle?” Genesis was aghast.

“What is so terrible about that?” Sephiroth asked.

“Zack once tried to cast my mastered Comet in one of the Training Rooms inside ShinRa, without even knowing what it was first,” explained Cloud.

“He has one of the worst records of materia safety in all of ShinRa,” Genesis huffed. “Made all the more dangerous by his natural aptitude for it.”

“It’s why the Materia Department like him so much, though,” Kunsel said. “He’s the go-to SOLDIER for all of their missions. This one, too.”

“We have a problem, then,” Sephiroth commented.

Genesis glared at him. “Oh, really? You finally noticed that did you?”

“No, I meant that Zack’s mission is in Wutai,” Sephiroth corrected. “And we have only twenty-two hours to make it there in time to stop him.”

There was a silence as they processed that.

“Why not simply send him a PHS message?” Genesis asked eventually.

“He’s in the wilderness,” Kunsel said. “No reception to speak of. I’ve been trying to message him all day and they just keep bouncing.” Cloud nodded his agreement. He’d tried to message Zack plenty of times in the past cycles himself.

“That is the only thing that makes sense. Only by being so far out of contact could he have remained unaffected by some of our previous cycles,” Sephiroth mused.

“I do know where the site he was supposed to investigate is,” Kunsel volunteered. “It’s near the tip of the northern peninsula, close to where ShinRa was originally planning on building the Reactor.”

Cloud thought it over. He’d explored Wutai fairly thoroughly at one point, thanks to Yuffie. Highly mountainous, sheer cliffs edging all but the southernmost part of the island. Their only access had been on foot.

SOLDIERs, on the other hand, could jump from planes.

“We made it to Rocket Town once in twenty-one hours, didn’t we?” Cloud said. “How many hours do you think we can take off of that?”

…………………

They made it to Wutai with two hours to spare. It was the middle of the night back in Midgar, but in Wutai the sun shone high in the sky.

It took a precious hour and fifty-five minutes more than that to find Zack trekking through the thick forest, towards a small ruin nearly overgrown with foliage.

Four SOLDIERs crashed through the treeline, out of breath and covered with scratches, and came to an abrupt stop in front of one very surprised Zack Fair.

“Cloud?” Zack asked. “Wait… Genesis? Kunsel? Sephiroth?” He peered around them. “Where’s Angeal?”

“You were apparently kind enough to spare your mentor this fate. Don’t worry, I’ll be assigning the punishment in his place,” Genesis hissed.

“Huh?” Zack just blinked at them. “What are you guys doing here?”

Nobody answered. Their attention was caught by the ruin Zack had just been arriving at.

It was definitely Cetran – Cloud would recognise that architecture anywhere. It was the first time in either timeline that he’d stumbled across this ruin, though – and small wonder, it was probably only thanks to ShinRa’s advanced scanning technology that anyone had picked up on it at all. Given the lack of pathways in the jungle around them, even the Wutai probably didn’t know about it.

There wasn’t much to it. It was small, only a little taller than him and about half as wide as that. A simple pedestal in a sheltered enclave, covered in vines. And sitting on the pedestal, the largest Green materia he’d ever seen.

A dull watery glow wavered hypnotically in its depths. Where the smooth, crystalline surface should have caught the light, it seemed to absorb it, creating eerie patches of darkness.

“It certainly doesn’t look like it contains that much power,” Genesis remarked. “Are we certain this is it?”

“It has to be. It’s the only thing that makes sense at this point,” Cloud said.

“What’s going on?” Zack asked. “And why is everyone horning in on my mission?”

“This damn materia has stuck the entire world, bar us few unfortunate souls, in a time loop of the same twenty-two hours for the past two and a half-” Genesis cut himself off with a look at Cloud and Sephiroth and amended, “the past five months. At least.”

“Okay, we found it. So now how do we turn this materia off?” asked Kunsel, ever practical.

“Perhaps we could smash it,” Genesis suggested with a glint in his eyes.

Cloud killed that suggestion fast. “Not a great idea. That’s how I wound up in a new timeline in the first place.”

“This thing is causing a time loop?” Zack asked. “How does it-” He reached towards it.

Cloud blinked, and found himself back at ShinRa.

…………………

“That idiot!” Genesis seethed.

“We know, Genesis,” Sephiroth said with an air of suffering patience. “I’ve begun to see your point.”

Cloud just concentrated on getting as much speed out of the prop plane as possible.

They’d broken the world record for getting to Wutai last time, in large part because they’d been able to convince Cid to take time away from the Space Program to fly them partway in the Tiny Bronco. They didn’t manage to repeat that miracle, but made up for it in already knowing exactly where they needed to go.

They arrived once more with minutes to spare. This time when they entered the clearing, Cloud and Kunsel tackled Zack to the ground.

“Ooof! What the hell, Cloud? Kunsel? Wait, Genesis and Sephiroth too?”

“Don’t let go of him,” Genesis snapped, pacing a wide circle around the materia with suspicious eyes.

“What the heck is going on?” Zack groaned from where Kunsel had him in a loose stranglehold. “What’s the big idea guys?”

“The big idea is that you keep walking up to this materia and sending everyone back in time by a day!”

Zack just blinked at them. “Huh?”

“Consider it a new type of Time materia. Let’s call it Rewind,” Sephiroth said.

“I find it horrendous that this kind of materia was always just laying around, unprotected.” Genesis shuddered. “Why by the Goddess would the Ancients have created such a thing? Hojo’s research I could understand, but what point to time travel if no one can remember it occurring?”

“As a security measure, perhaps,” Sephiroth suggested. “One that could not be overcome without recognising that it was being triggered. How devious. The loop would continue until someone developed enough resistance that they became aware of it – and this would almost certainly be the Cetra who created it first, and would allow them to mount a secondary defence at their leisure.”

“Yeah, fascinating,” Cloud deadpanned. Seeing as Kunsel seemed to have Zack under a close watch, he let the other SOLDIER go to inspect the materia with them. “So long as nobody triggers it, the loop should stop then?”

Sephiroth tapped his PHS. “We’re already past the time where we would normally turn back.”

For thirty long seconds, nobody moved, not even Zack. The clearing remained still and silent, but for the shuffle of wind through the leaves and the distant twitter of exotic birds.

“That’s it, then?” Genesis asked. “My Soul corrupted by vengeance,
Hath endures torment,
To find the end of the journey in my own salvation.
And Your eternal slumber.”

“We have to destroy it,” Cloud said. “Can you imagine if ShinRa got their hands on something like this?”

“And how do you propose we do that?” Sephiroth asked. “Considering you’ve ruled out just smashing it.”

That was a good point. Cloud’s thoughts skipped to a certain Black materia he’d been nervous about for a while, and a Time room in the Temple. “I think I know a way. I’ll take care of it.”

“What am I supposed to do about my mission?” Zack complained from the ground.

Genesis kicked him in the side as he passed. “Nobody cares what you think about this, Puppy. Just lie and tell them the materia was defunct.”

“What a shame. Now that we can end it any time, the temptation to use it is high.” Sephiroth actually sighed then, and Cloud still couldn’t process that.

“How do you think I feel? I never even got a chance to try this time loop thing out. I wanted to put every single secret and rumour I know about ShinRa on the Worldwide Network and send it to every PHS on the communications grid,” Kunsel groused.

“You’ve already done that in a previous loop,” Cloud informed him.

“What? No fair, it doesn’t count if I can’t remember it!”

“Ah, that was your doing was it? That was a particularly entertaining cycle,” Sephiroth commented.

“No more time loops for anyone. Especially not Sephiroth,” Genesis declared. “Cloud’s right. We can barely be trusted with this, much less ShinRa.”

“Well, I guess it doesn’t really work when most of your superior offices can remember the loop anyway,” Kunsel consoled himself. “How the hell did you convince me to do that? Please tell me I didn’t put everything up there.”

Cloud stared. It had been an impressively scandalous post, even by Kunsel’s usual standards. “How would I know?”

“Oh, good. You would know if I had.”

“The Turks tried to kill you.”

“Now I want to know,” Genesis complained. “I wasn’t there for that cycle.”

“Did everyone get hit by a Confuse materia back at Headquarters?” Zack asked. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

………………………………………………….

THAT’S IT FOR THIS TIME GUYS, thanks for reading, sorry to all those awesome prompts I didn't get to. I’m seriously spending like half of my fic-writing year on these things recently, I need to work out a better solution or stricter cutoffs or something.

Vancouver!

sinnatious — Wed, 07 May 2014 10:06:59 GMT

I hadn't actually really planned to go to Vancouver at all. But I needed out of San Francisco, and had secured accommodation with a friend later in the week, and was left with an awkward gap of a few days. So at the last minute I wound up booking a flight to Vancouver.

It was very disconcerting, on first arriving to Vancouver, to collect my bag from the baggage carousel at the airport, walk towards the exit... and wind up on the street.

I looked back. Had I somehow circumvented customs? Immigration? No, it just turned out that flying from San Francisco is basically a domestic flight, and the processing I'd gone through while passing security (without even noticing, because American airport security has so many steps I just assumed they were double-checking my identity) was all that was needed. It was such a stark contrast to my arrival in Quebec that I sort of stood there for a couple of minutes in confusion, worrying about visas, before shrugging and wandering off in search of a train station.

I really knew very little about Vancouver. People had told me it was nice, and not as cold as other parts of Canada, and it gets compared to Melbourne a bit, but that was all! Nothing about what one should see or do in Vancouver.

Turns out Vancouver is really awesome.

I arrived that night, found my similarly last-minute booked hotel after some finagling with the trains, and then crashed for a solid twelve hours, recovering from the insanity that was San Francisco. When I finally dragged myself from bed the next morning, I was confronted with the question of 'now what?'

I wound up hitting up the hotel's guidebook for ideas. The Capilano Suspension Bridge Park sounded pretty interesting and easy enough to get to, so I headed out to find my way there.

This was one of the first sights I was confronted with in Vancouver. I might have missed the plum blossoms in Japan, but I caught them in Canada! Hooray for Spring!

It was a bit of a trial getting to the park - I had to stop for lunch first, and then find the free shuttle bus, and then stand in a very very long line for the free shuttle bus, but eventually at some point in the early afternoon I made it.

It was pretty cool! Not really worth the price of admission, and I apparently chose an unusually busy day for it, but it was still an awesome park. Suspension bridges are fun! They were selling T-shirts 'I survived the Capilano Suspension Bridge!' but it really wasn't that scary, the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka was far more unsettling. It wobbled a fair bit though, that made things interesting.

The gorge itself was just beautiful, though. Actually pretty much all of Vancouver is beautiful. It is an uncommonly attractive city.

Beyond the suspension bridge the park also had plenty of other walkways, some near ground level and others up in the treetops, Ewok-style (though the latter was only partially open due to construction). I liked the other parts of the park a bit better because they were simply less crowded.

Another better shot of the bridge just because.

Just. Giant trees. Massive red wood cedars and pines everywhere, to the point where it stops impressing you.

In addition to the bridge they also had a thing called 'Cliffwalk' which was also pretty cool and definitely not for anyone with a fear of heights!

It was a pretty cool park, maybe not for the price of admission, considering you could really walk the entire thing in under two hours. I wound up then having to wait another hour for the free shuttle bus back, but I had my phone and 3DS with me and it's really impossible to be bored with those two things on hand. Children in the line watched me with jealousy, mwa ha ha. If I were a nicer person I might have let them play with it but that 3DS was the difference between hating long flights and waits at airports and slow transport, and not caring at all.

By the time I got back downtown there were still a few hours of daylight left in the day, so without much of an idea of what else to do I just wandered downtown for a while.

It did actually remind me a little bit of Melbourne! Something about the architecture in parts. In truth it wasn't really that different to any other metropolis centre, although it certainly felt very... clean, somehow. Maybe the incredibly wide footpaths?

Also there was this amazing Japanese hot dog stand which was super tasty. Vancouver actually seemed to have a pretty decent sized Asian population which has endowed it with lots of good food and all the other associated trappings.

I went to sleep early again that night, and had to spent a good chunk of the next morning dealing with GDC follow-up e-mails and the like and the usual missives to various friends and family members letting them know where I was and that I had not yet been kidnapped and trafficked to Siberia or something. When you've been on the road for a long time stuff like that starts to accumulate and the usual hour or two every night you dedicate to the internet disappears really fast. Eventually however all the most urgent stuff was taken care of and I had more time to explore Vancouver!

I hit up Canada Place first, since I'd caught a glimpse of it when catching the shuttle bus to Capilano and it seemed interesting. Canada Place. Why doesn't every country have a Place named after itself? It's like tourist catnip.

There was this crazy weird net sculpture strung up over it. Apparently the TED talks were on while I was in town! I had no idea, but it was already all sold out so it didn't make a difference. Anyway, this net sculpture was apparently part of a thing to do with the TED talks, was worth a photo at least.

Did I mention that Vancouver is a ridiculously beautiful city? Because it is. Walking along the harbour's edge was amazing. A+ views, seriously.

I seriously spent a solid hour just watching the sea planes taking off and landing. It was an hour well spent.

This is the raindrop! Apparently it rains a lot in Vancouver? Enough that they feel like they should erect a monument for it. Seemed accurate, my first day the weather was lovely, it started to cloud over and drizzle in my second, third day it just rained all day.

I walked a very long way around the harbour edge from Canada place - it took up a good chunk of my day. Also stopped and tried out Tim Hortons, since the chain seemed prevalent. Decent sandwiches, tasty tasty donuts.

The weather turned a bit miserable after that so I retreated back to the hotel and spent the night doing laundry and reorganising my suitcase, because it had become something of a disaster.

It rained pretty much the entire of my third day in Vancouver, which put a slight damper on things, but I was already deeply in love with Vancouver at this point and refused to waste a day inside. Here, have some randomly placed weird street sculpture. This is probably the true source of all the Melbourne comparisons.

Since it was miserably cold and wet and rainy, this was obviously the perfect time to go to Stanley Park! I make such good decisions.

Stanley Park is enormous. It's something like 22 hectares of woods and gardens, with paths winding all throughout. And since the weather was so incredibly pants, I had the place almost entirely to myself.

Beaver lake! I didn't spot any beavers, sadly, but it was still pretty awesome. Easy to see how amazing the park would be in good weather, but wet and dreary gave it a certain sort of gloomy charm. Very atmospheric.

I wish I'd gone to Stanley Park earlier, because the place is seriously big enough that it would be a challenge to see everything in the one day, and after you've hiked a few of the paths you're going to want to see everything! Also, I am envious of Vancouver's cosplayers, because what a great setting for photo shoots.

It felt downright Miyazaki in some parts. Deep Dark Wood anyone?

Eventually my wandering led me out onto the sea wall, where this bridge was looking appropriately doomsday.

I spent about four hours wandering in the light rain, before that rain got a bit heavier and staying even remotely dry became a real challenge, and I was forced to concede defeat lest I perish of hypothermia. (The irony if a rainstorm got me when a blizzard didn't!) Regretful, I retreated once more to the downtown area and just window-shopped for the rest of the afternoon. It was during this time that I realised where the whole 'friendly and polite Canadians' stereotype comes from, because everyone was just awesome. After visiting Quebec, I'd considered that particular myth debunked, but it turns out you really can't compare Quebecois with the rest of Canada.

My last day was basically just a case of getting to the airport. Luckily, all through my travels I'd been very paranoid about arriving at the airport way before I needed to, and on this day, I needed that buffer. Because I rocked up to the train station intending to catch the Skytrain - that seems reasonable, right? The Skytrain goes to the airport?

Beset by an inexplicable moment of paranoia, I asked a very kind lady on the platform if this train went to the airport. "Oh no, you want the Canada line for that."

Let me repeat that. The Skytrain does not go to the airport.

Why the hell did they call it the SKYtrain then?!

Luckily, because I was paranoid and had plenty of time, it was easily fixed - she gave me directions for getting to the right train station and the right line, and by the end of it I even had (just) enough time to grab lunch at the airport.

So concluded my time in Vancouver. It was over much too soon! I had no idea I would love it that much, if I'd known what the hell I was getting into I would have definitely stayed longer!

Vancouver, 10/10 would live there.

San Francisco!

sinnatious — Sat, 03 May 2014 13:51:54 GMT

So! San Francisco is amazing.

I did not have nearly enough time in San Francisco to appreciate the city proper - I got to see only a small fraction of the things I wanted to see. I'd made the somewhat inconveniently-timed jaunt to the opposite side of the country in order to attend the Game Developer's Conference, and the subsequently astronomical hotel prices meant I really couldn't stay much beyond that. I managed to only really squeeze in one day of proper sightseeing.

One of my first experiences in San Francisco was sitting down in the burger joint just a couple of doors down from the hotel, ravenous because I hadn't eaten for something like twenty hours because of travel and sleep. The food was truly awful in the special way the lower end of American fast food is, all fat and salt and grease, but I didn't care because it was cheap and convenient fuel. Somehow while eating, probably because I just chose the chair closest to the counter, wound up striking up a conversation with the security guard, some fifty-year old ex-military guy, talking travel and then Australian celebrities and then the war of 1812 which he was pretty proud to know a lot about, a bit of poorly-hidden American history perhaps? And got some tips on what the best tourist things to do in San Fran were, because I had some vague idea of 'Golden Gate Bridge' and Silicon Valley and not much else.

Armed with nothing more than these tips and Scott McKenzie's old song running in my head, I headed to the famous cable car. There was a big line of obvious tourists so it seemed like a champion idea.

The line was kind of ridiculous, but the weather was nice and I was getting away with only wearing a light jacket for the first time in what felt like forever so I didn't mind. Had a hilarious cable car driver, he cajoled me into going and hanging on the outside of the cable car - which seems ridiculously dangerous but it's apparently totally okay and I do have to say is the way to catch the cable car if you ever get the opportunity. So thanks awesome cable car driver!

He also let some of the passengers ring the bell at some stops, and we probably went waaaay too fast down the crazy steep section, it was like a rollercoaster! Only I was holding on with one hand like I was on the outside of a bus. Some of the cars were parked a little too close and you had to watch you didn't lose your bag (or grip) to them.

I don't even know what this is (aside from a cool view) but the cable car driver dude told us all to take a picture of it so I did. Well, he told us to take pictures of a lot of stuff but this was one of the few I managed. My camera had started acting funny at this point and wouldn't always start up without a couple of tries.

San Francisco really is a super beautiful city, though. The rolling hills are a pain as a pedestrian but give the most eye-popping views.

My eventual destination after a most colourful ride on the cable car was the fabled Hyde St Pier!

And there I got my first glimpse... goddamn Mt Fuji syndrome - famous landmark covered in clouds! I mean, seriously. Really? The rest of the sky was a glorious blue!

Stymied by clouds, I decided to walk along the bay shore near the Marina. It was a really beautiful walk - San Francisco's architecture is this weird mix of Victorian and modern housing all painted beach resort ice-cream colours.

And winding curving roads following the hills and shore bound to get you hopelessly lost.

Eventually, more or less entirely by accident, I wound up at the Palace of Fine Arts. Apparently a pavilion created for an expo out of plaster but so awesome that once the expo was over they eventually remade it in concrete.

There's something weirdly off-putting about it in some ways, a sort of simulated history that makes it a tiny bit tacky I guess? But it's also very cool with the grand scale of the dome and arches, it really is a beautiful building.

Seemed to be the go-to place for wedding photos, too - I saw two different wedding parties and one set of prom-esque photos going on there just that afternoon. Lots of ducks and swans also!

Walked along the beach for a while in hopes of the clouds clearing up and offering a more impressive view of the Golden Gate Bridge. No joy! Lots of people out enjoying the beach though. (I remained terribly spoiled by Australian beaches so didn't really stop to properly appreciate it).

The road started curving to less interesting places after that so I turned back and eventually wound up at Lombard street - the crookedest street in the world!

Plenty of tourists checking it out too. Kind of neat I guess, looks fun to drive down, but I didn't really see the attraction. Looks like maybe there are flowerbeds when spring hits proper though? That would probably make a lovely sight.

After that I headed down to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 to see the sea lions!

Bunch of sea lions, just chilling. Smelled kind of bad, but sea lions! Wild ones! So cool.

Pier 39 was an awesome area in general, giant tourist trap but wow the food. The clam chowder and all the seafood, so delicious. San Francisco blew a massive hole in my budget, otherwise I might have made the trip to come to Fisherman's Wharf and eat in a different restaurant every night.

Anyhow, I decided that in for a penny, in for a pound, so forked out for one of those tourist boats to do a passby of the Golden Gate in a boat! I was going to defeat those clouds, dammit!

Totally worth it.

It's actually almost impossible to get a good shot of the Golden Gate Bridge in one photo, so all of my best pics were really only one half. But it's a hell of a thing, seeing an iconic landmark in the flesh. Something you've seen destroyed in a hundred movies standing tall.

Made me want to watch Rise of the Planet of the Apes again, of all movies.

Also, Alcatraz. I wish I'd forked out the extra to do one of the tours of it but it was pretty cool even just going around.

Plus you got an even better view of the sea lions out of it!

By this point I had somehow managed to get sunburned, probably because it was the first time in months that any skin at all had been exposed to the air. To add insult to injury the gloriously pleasant weather decided to disappear as the sun sank into the horizon, bringing a miserably chilly wind with it, so I retreated back into town on the cable car again. I'd broken my budget horribly so for dinner it was fruit salad from Walgreens and then a brief walk through some of the department stores near Union Square. One of them had a curving escalator. That was kind of neat.

That's pretty much it for San Francisco after that! GDC started on Monday, and the next five days were booked solid with talks, video games, parties, and meeting up with old industry peeps. I don't think I managed more than four hours of sleep per night. By the time Saturday rolled around I was a wreck. No regrets though, I wish I'd gone years ago.

It was a little odd the first day wandering in and seeing a girl dressed up in Sailor Jupiter cosplay. Wrong type of convention! Didn't see her after that so I assume she went and changed.

I could honestly write pages and pages on GDC but the stuff I found most exciting is boring to most other people and a lot of the social side of it would be a little weird to put on LJ. The cliff's notes version would be that it was very large and very impressive and I spoke to enough different people that my voice was hoarse by the end of each day and I ran into my old boss and wow was that awkward and yeah by the end of it your brain is swimming in new ideas and things you'd learned and people you'd spoken to and you pretty much just collapsed back at your hotel and slept for twelve hours.

Didn't have that luxury, though, since I had a flight out of San Francisco the next day, because hotel prices in San Fran stung something fierce. Somehow, still not entirely sure how, I successfully completed the black ritual to acquire a ticket to the airport from their arcane vending system. It was a hell of a scenic ride itself and just made me sadder that I hadn't somehow negotiated more time in San Francisco.

This was San Francisco's final farewell to me.

Loved you San Fran, I'm definitely coming back one day!

Montreal Part 1!

sinnatious — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 05:40:38 GMT

Onward once again with the travel posts!

I actually wound up going to Montreal twice because pretty much everything after Chicago itinerary-wise was totally messed up and all over the place for various reasons. A big part of that being that to get to and from Quebec City to anywhere else you really have to go through Montreal - I flew in direct from Chicago only because by a weird fluke that was the cheaper option at the time. So it was a very pleasant four hours on the train through the snowy landscape until I was once more dumped unceremoniously back out into -17 degree temperatures.

My main reason for stopping in Montreal was to catch up with one of my old friends, who I used to go to University with and even shared a house with for a good few years. It's weird how some people change some much over a matter of months, and others go live in an entirely different country for years and not change at all. We'd barely spoken for the past two years, even on internet chat, yet we sort of just picked up where we left off.

It occurs to me that most of my long-terms friends have all become the very low-maintenance sorts.

Anyhow, she had work on the Friday though, so I summoned my courage and ventured out into the cold to go sight-seeing.

I really had no idea what to do in Montreal, I'd done zero research on the place and the only suggestion my friend had was for the botanical gardens, which I assumed were probably not as much fun in the freezing cold. So I found my way to Bonaventure Station, or at least one of the surface interface points which led to it, and just went exploring.

I could swear I've seen this in a movie, but cannot for the life of me remember where.

Walking around that area there were quite a few interesting old churches - though much like Quebec City many appeared to have been converted into museums or concert halls.

One thing about wintery landscapes, everything looks so awesomely ominous. Add some snow and dead trees to a church and BOOM, instant Dracula set.

Statues on pedestals never stop looking cool, but I must admit after so much travelling they've started becoming quite pedestrian too!

Extended international travel: Making all the epic things seem ordinary.

Took this picture mostly for the cool icicles. Statues on pedestals might be old hat, but icicles still fascinate me! They're like gutter knives.

This one was cool mostly because of the modern skyscraper looming behind it.

It really was much too cold to willingly spend much time outside though, so I ventured underground!

Montreal had this sort of tunnel city spanning a good ten by ten city blocks, all connected via underground walkways, filled with shopping centres and subway stations and everything else. You could actually walk an impressive distance in Montreal without once venturing outside. Australia needs one of these too, but air-conditioned.

They really make good use of the space though!

This was a super tall fountain I found in one area, chilled here with a drink for quite a while, watching the water.

In one shopping centre, I had brief flashbacks to Melbourne with this random piece of art.

One of the best things about Quebec is the crepes! I have an ongoing love-affair with crepes, and these ones were quite decent, though I am much less familiar with the French variety. I got the lemon sugar one and was so surprised when they actually got out a big pot of sugar and just shook it all over the crepe. Although honestly, that's probably less sugar than what goes into any of the usual ingredients...

Stopped in a few souvenir stores in my journey and got myself a Canadian flag tea towel. Since both money and suitcase weight/space were ongoing concerns on this trip, I set myself a rule - one souvenir for myself per destination! Usually something small like a magnet or pen, or something lightweight/practical like a touristy t-shirt. Lots of great moose and beaver gags in the souvenir shops there. Nice to see Australia doesn't have a monopoly on lame Dad joke t-shirts with national animals.

Still sooooo European.

Then all of a sudden it was the weekend so that was mostly just hanging out with my friend as we caught up and got some cake and tea and then wound up in one of those endless youtube marathons, which might seem like a bit of a waste of an exotic destination but did I mention it was freezing? I'd learned to dress for the weather by wearing five layers but going out walking on snow and ice takes too much concentration! And every photo opportunity is measured with 'do I want this photo badly enough to remove my gloves for the thirty seconds it would take?' I managed to slip and fall on my butt on the icy footpaths too, but it hardly hurt because as mentioned, I was wearing five layers of clothes. Like landing on a mattress.

Anyway, she got me into watching Madoka too and holy crap how had I not watched that yet? Madoka's character type annoys me to the ends of the earth but I was pretty much sold on the series by the end of the third episode. Still have a couple of episodes to go but it's such a good subversion of the magical girl genre. I can't believe the movie was out in Japan while I was there and I didn't watch it. All the regrets! (Although odds are, the story would have been so lost on me without subtitles anyway.)

Montreal was really just a stopover anyway, as I was on my way to San Francisco the next day.

We still had a good chunk of the morning though to get some food, and more importantly, some more cake. The bakeries were just off-the-hook awesome.

Then it was on the bus to the airport, and a four and a half hour flight to San Francisco. I got asked by three separate officials if I were related to a famous hockey player because we happened to share the same last name. Australians might love their sport, but I don't think we come even close to comparing to Canada's love of hockey.

Xmas Giftfics 2013 Part 3

sinnatious — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 13:50:18 GMT

Okay, I give in, let’s have a trio of Fifth Act related giftfics.

Taking a break from all the travel posts to post some actual fanfic for a change, woo! Will probably only do one more post of these, apologies in advance to any I don’t get around to filling.

For gardensgnome
1. FFVII (I’m going to assume you meant TFA-verse with this prompt?)
2. Cloud and Kunsel
3. "You're showing a bit too much leg there. Maybe I should drive."
"Of course I'm showing leg. This is what happens when I'm stuck in a Gaia damned dress, trying to drive my bike and fight off monsters. I'd like to see you try."

AN: It basically wound up being 90% banter. I hope you like it.

The bike veered sharply to the right, throwing up a spray of grass and sand. The hounds howled for blood, claws scrabbling for purchase as they overshot.

Kunsel tossed another hail of ice into the pursuing pack, earning a handful of yelps. Several fell back, but the following horde surged forward, undeterred. "You know, you're showing a bit too much leg there. Maybe I should drive."

Cloud hit the release for the sword compartments, drawing out the smallest and lightest of his swords. "Of course I'm showing leg. This is what happens when I'm stuck in a Gaia damned dress, trying to drive my bike and fight off monsters. I'd like to see you try."

“No thanks. If Cissnei finds out I can pull off cross-dressing as well as you do I’ll never escape it. I’m not allowed to refuse missions like you.” Kunsel paused to lean over and cut down an oversized hound as it snarled at their heels. “Why did you accept this one?”

“It didn’t involve any cross-dressing when I accepted,” Cloud snapped, and gunned the accelerator. “Hang on.” Kunsel slung an arm around his waist in a crushing grip. The dark purple silk of his dress flared as they launched off an incline. The landing rattled their bones, but gained them precious distance from the pursuing mob.

“Seriously, I think I should take over. I can barely hit anything with the way you drive!” Kunsel said in his ear, then immediately proved himself wrong by throwing a bolt of lightning along their flank and taking out three more hounds in one hit. “Plus your hair keeps getting in my face. Can’t you take off the wig at least?”

“Does it look like I have a hand spare right now?” Cloud cut a sharp left, driving them into a thick grove of trees. Tree trunks whizzed past in a blur, twigs and leaves whipping their arms on a particularly close call. The hounds’ barking fell further back.

As the forest grew quiet around them, Cloud slowed the bike, pulling to a stop in a small clearing carpeted by dead leaves. He killed the engine, its sudden absence pressing on their ears.

“Think we lost them?” Kunsel asked when a solid minute passed in tranquil silence.

Cloud sighed, tucking the long blonde hair of his wig back behind his ears and tugging one of the loose straps back over his shoulder. His shawl had been lost somewhere near the start of the whole fracas, and he’d kicked off his heels somewhere on the bike ride so he could change gears quicker. “Probably not. But we’ve got enough breathing time for me to change into something more practical.”

“Ummm, yeah, about that.” Kunsel coughed into his hand. “When you took us through that creek…” He held up the muddy, sodden pack apologetically.

Cloud closed his eyes and rubbed a tired hand across his forehead.

“My offer to drive still stands. You know. It can’t be easy to steer in that.”

“You just want to drive my bike.”

“It’s a gorgeous bike,” Kunsel agreed.

“The answer is still no.”

“C’mon, Cloud, do you know how hard it is to -”

“Shhh.” Cloud went alert and Kunsel fell silent. Up ahead, the trees shuddered, leaves rustling as something passed through the forest. Something big. Something expressing low, rumbling, throaty displeasure at their presence.

The barking of the hounds at their back began to grow once more. And then, crashing into the clearing and rearing up on its hind legs...

“A grand horn,” Kunsel groaned. “Why the hell did I agree to go on a mission with you again? You’ve got even worse luck that Zack.”

For peangallery
A. Act V
B. Cloud & Act V
C. Would Act V people ever get to meet the Zack that's with(in) Cloud?

AN: This wound up way longer and not at all like what I’d intended but I hope it satisfies.

Genesis, naturally, was the first one to notice it.

“Cloud acts strange whenever he’s talking to the Director,” he opened without preamble.

“Which Cloud are you talking about?” Sephiroth asked.

“Don’t play stupid, you’re not fooling anyone. You know which Cloud.”

Sephiroth conceded with a tilt of his head. “How do you mean?”

“You haven’t noticed?” Genesis spent a long moment visibly struggling between smugness and indignation. Indignation won out. “I expected that from Angeal and Zack, but I thought you at least might have paid that much attention to your rival.”

“I’ve not had many opportunities to see them interact,” Sephiroth dismissed. “Everything considered, Lazard prefers not to assign us to the same mission.”

Genesis glowered at him, and then turned on his heel in a snap. “Very well then. Spend some time in Lazard’s office tomorrow. You’ll see what I mean.”

………………….

At first Sephiroth had been sceptical, especially when his old friend had insisted that he see for himself instead of explaining the source of his concern.

After Cloud had come and gone from both his mission briefing and subsequent report that day though, he began to see why. And he suspected Genesis’s insistence lay in the desire for a second opinion, as it was not a phenomenon easily explained.

“So?” Genesis demanded at the end of the day.

“You brought Zack and Kunsel for this too?” Sephiroth asked, directing a glance at the two. Zack gave him a cheerful wave.

“Naturally. They are often privy to information we are not.” Genesis emphasised this with a hard look at Kunsel, who valiantly kept his attention focused entirely on his PHS. It was no secret at this point that the Second Class knew far more about Cloud’s history than the rest of them, and resolutely refused to share any of it.

Genesis and Zack found it annoying. Sephiroth and Angeal found it worrying.

“You’ve all had the opportunity now to see it for yourselves,” Gensis continued. “What do you think?”

“I think you’re hypersensitive when it comes to Cloud,” Angeal said with a small smile.

“I think that I really don’t need to be here,” Kunsel announced, stood to leave the room, then froze under the combined stare of four First Classes. Shoulders slumping, he reluctantly retook his seat.

Mollified, Genesis turned his gaze on Sephiroth, imploring.

“I have to admit, I hadn’t noticed, but now… Genesis has a point,” he admitted.

Angeal raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

“Even among us, Cloud can be… taciturn.” It took him a moment to search for the most appropriate words. “But in Lazard’s presence he becomes… almost talkative. His stance changes. I wouldn’t say he was cheerful but…”

“He makes jokes,” Genesis interjected.

“Cloud makes jokes all the time!” Zack protested.

“I’m not sure if those lame sayings of his are meant to be jokes,” Kunsel muttered.

“Look, Lazard more or less sold him out to me and Hollander,” Angeal said in a low voice, plainly reluctant to even bring that memory up. “It’s hardly surprising that he acts a bit different.”

“The Turks were far more complicit when it came to Hojo, though, and he acts no different at all around them,” Genesis pointed out. “And in that event, doesn’t it make more sense if he were more silent rather than less? Like when he first came to ShinRa?”

“Why not just ask him about it?” Sephiroth said.

The room fell silent.

As always, Zack was the first to crack. “He’s got a point. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“He could try to kill Sephiroth again,” Angeal pointed out.

“Okay, so maybe Genesis can do the actual asking,” Zack amended. “…Is he still doing that? I thought we cured him of it.”

“I generally avoid testing my luck.” Sephiroth wasn’t sure which memory was the more unsettling – the sword biting into his shoulder, or Masamune piercing Cloud’s chest. “And Lazard has been brave enough lately to start complaining about property damages again.”

Zack remained undeterred. “Point is, worse that will probably happen is that he refuses to answer.” He crossed his arms. “It’s probably nothing, and we’re all just sitting here overthinking it.”

It was a valid point, and far more productive than having clandestine gossip sessions to guess what made their resident time traveller tick. Especially given their history of being fantastically incorrect in such respects.

With a plan made, they quickly dispersed – Zack’s PHS beeped with a message from his girlfriend in the slums so he disappeared out the door, and that seemed to signal the end of the discussion for everyone else.

Kunsel caught his arm before he could leave the room, though. Sephiroth blinked, staring down at the Second Class. He liked the SOLDIER well enough, but rarely did they ever interact directly. “SOLDIER?”

“Sorry sir. But just… when you go talk to Cloud, leave Zack behind okay? Make up an excuse, send him on a mission, anything.”

The request was odd, given the friendship the two SOLDIERs shared. “Why should we?”

Kunsel just shook his head. “I don’t think Genesis will let it go, so I won’t try to stop you bringing it up with Cloud. But please, sir. Just make sure you leave Zack out of it. He doesn’t need to know. And you shouldn’t put Cloud in that position.” His piece said, the Second Class slipped past him into the hallway.

Worrying, indeed.

………………..

Genesis wasn’t the patient sort. It wasn’t hard to convince him there was no need to wait for Zack for their ‘confrontation’. Angeal wanted to wait, but given the other two thirds of their trio were already halfway out the door, had no choice but to come along or be left behind. Kunsel, for his part, had made himself scarce – Sephiroth had not caught even a glimpse of the SOLDIER since that portentous exchange of words.

It was easy enough these days to track Cloud down now that Sephiroth had learned how to consciously exploit S-cells. He concentrated on the connection long enough to pinpoint the errant time traveller in one of the gyms of the lower levels – one which thankfully would be otherwise deserted at this time of day. Then cautiously sent a sort of burst of awareness along the link, to let him know they were coming.

Cloud hadn’t taken kindly to it to begin with, but he’d come to appreciate the ‘knock’ as good manners, and had even on occasion done the same in return. The social etiquette for managing their connection was still something of a work in progress, but there was progress.

As evidenced by the fact that when they reached the gym, Cloud was in the middle of reassembling his sword, instead of halfway across Midgar avoiding him.

“Cloud,” Sephiroth greeted.

“What’s going on?” he asked warily.

Genesis wasted no time on pleasantries. “You’ve presented us with yet another mystery, Cloud Strife. We want to know what your issue is with Lazard.”

Cloud blinked. A complex mishmash of emotions fluttered across his face before it shut down hard, back to the reserved, neutral Cloud they’d come to know. “What about it?”

“Genesis thinks you act a bit unnatural when dealing with him,” Angeal offered. “Rather than make assumptions about it, we figured it was better to just ask.”

Sephiroth kept quiet, watching carefully. Genesis huffed, crossing his arms with an annoyed glance at Angeal. “Your demeanour is dramatically different. You make jokes, and talk louder. It is not my imagination.”

Behind that carefully blank stare came the glimmer of realisation. “I... didn’t realise,” Cloud murmured. “It’s been so long since…” He looked strangely shaken by the revelation.

“Since what?” Sephiroth prompted.

“It’s… I guess you could call it a bad habit. Usually when I’ve been having a bad day, or I’m trying to hide something.” He hunched his shoulders, as though bracing against an invisible cold. “Every time I think I’ve finally kicked it, it creeps back in.”

“A habit?” Genesis repeated blankly.

Cloud didn’t respond to that. Just said, “Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“That’s a lie,” Sephiroth interjected. He didn’t even need the bond to tell that much. As difficult as Cloud could be to read, they’d all come to recognise his tells when he was being evasive.

Angeal gave Cloud a sympathetic glance and shrugged. “You know neither of them are going to let it go, you know. Zack either, when he hears about it.”

Suddenly Cloud’s gaze turned sharpened, swivelling to the SOLDIER with such abruptness that both Angeal and Genesis took a step back. “…If I tell you now, will you promise not to tell Zack about it?”

“Why-” Angeal started to ask, but Sephiroth cut him off.

“If it’s that important to you, you have our word.” He arched an eyebrow at Angeal, who looked displeased at leaving his protégé out for reasons unknown, but conceded easily enough. Like Genesis, he owed Cloud far too much to disagree with such an earnest request.

“In that case… maybe it’s best if I just show you.” Cloud straightened his shoulders, raised his head, and said, “Hey guys!”

It was only two words, but there was a world of difference between them. A certain swagger to his stance, a bolder projection to his voice, his vowels slightly snappier.

And Sephiroth suddenly realised why Kunsel had been so insistent that Zack not come.

Genesis didn’t make the connection immediately. “So you put on a more outgoing personality? What makes that such a terrible habit?”

“Ah, well, you see, there’s a little more to it than that…” Cloud rubbed the back of his neck, a trifle sheepishly.

That was when Angeal clued in. “Zack.”

Cloud turned and grinned – acutally grinned - at Angeal. And as unsettlingly different as that was, with the ghost of Zack Fair behind it, it didn’t look out of place on his face at all. “Got it in one.”

Then, as quickly as it had been donned, the cloak was shed, and Cloud Strife as they knew him stood before them once more.

“It’s a performance worthy of the finest of the actors,” Genesis murmured, in an envy threaded with awe.

“It’s not exactly a performance,” Cloud admitted in a voice now so low even Sephiroth strained to hear it. “And it’s a different Zack, to the one you know. Up to a certain point, until the Wutai War, they’re much the same, but after that…”

Cloud had always been reticent regarding their individual alternate histories – at least, beyond Sephiroth. It was easy to extrapolate that Genesis and Angeal would have fallen to degradation, and Cloud had mentioned never knowing Kunsel in his original timeline, but the matter of Zack Fair was never precisely settled. The death of his mentor may have driven him from the company, or he could have been felled in a mission, or even by Sephiroth himself.

This, however… this spoke of something far more unsettling.

“But why?” Angeal asked. “For what purpose?”

“It wasn’t – There was no purpose, exactly.” He shifted his weight, almost as though to turn and leave, but stayed his ground. He seemed resigned now that they wouldn’t leave without a more thorough explanation. “For months I didn’t even realise it. After the events at Nibelheim… I was messed up for a while.” They could all hear the omissions there, and could all guess what lay in those gaps. Hojo. The source of Cloud’s S-cells. “I don’t know exactly how it happened, but it might have been related to the fact that Zack was originally enhanced using the Project G method. I wound up with some of his memories. And since my memories were a mess…”

It was a disturbing notion. None of them had anything to offer in light of that.

“And when you did realise?” Angeal asked.

“I told you part of that story already. It took a while, but with the help of an old friend, I sorted out which parts were me and which… weren’t. But I’d been acting like that for so long, even after my memories were sorted out…” He shrugged.

“An actor struggling to let go of a role,” Genesis mused.

“Anyway,” Cloud concluded, “I didn’t realise I was doing it again. Thanks for letting me know, I guess – I should be able to avoid it in the future. And if you could not mention to Zack...”

All three of them nodded their swift agreement. And with that, the matter was closed. Cloud made his escape, and the three friends dispersed in awkward silence.

The answer to that mystery had been uncomfortable enough that none of them remembered to wonder what exactly Cloud wanted to hide from Lazard so badly.

AN: This one’s kind of a double whammy. Two fills for the price of one!

For Anon
A. The Fifth Act
B. Cloud (The older one)
You mention (imply?) in chapter 19 that Cloud had developed a fanclub at some point.
C. What does said fanclub do?

And also for tsuyuhime!
A. TFA
B. Cloud & whoever else you like
C. You implied that Cloud has fans in 'Highly Dangerous Merchandise', so I wanted to see something related to that (maybe a fan snapped a picture of Miss Cloud and it went viral, or something X3)

Cloud paused as his foot brushed the shiny card on the floor, very nearly kicking it under the lounge. Had one of the other SOLDIERs dropped their access card? He crouched to retrieve it – Gaia only knew Zack had lost his often enough and had to beg one of them to let him into the Equipment Room to look for it.

When he flipped the card over though, he stilled.

Kunsel chose that exact moment to wander into the SOLDIER lounge. “Hey, Cloud, I was just looking for – wait, is that one of the GC Trading Cards?” He leaned over his shoulder. “This one is really rare! It’s in good condition too. You know you could get some serious gil for this.”

Cloud fought for his voice. It came out slightly strangled. “It’s a photo of me dressed in drag.”

“I guess that’s why it’s a foil one,” Kunsel agreed, completely missing the point.

Cloud groped for a way to make some sort of sense of the nightmare he’d just stumbled in to. “Why am I on a trading card?” In drag?

“You don’t know? It was a thing started by your fanclub – you know, the Golden Chocobos?” Kunsel tilted his head at him. “Collectible cards, fifty cards all up. They started off just giving out a random pack at meetings, but lately the only way to get them is to trade or get them in one of their scavenger hunts or as prizes in a club event. It got really popular, actually, you’ve got the weirdest fans. Do you know they have an ongoing competition to see who can get closest to your high score in the Speed Square at the Gold Saucer?”

Cloud was, unfortunately, peripherally aware of the SOLDIER fanclubs, and once he became a First Class had resigned himself to the attention. It hadn’t been a big deal, he reasoned – nothing like Sephiroth’s fans, who formed an exclusive clique apparently, or Genesis’s Red Leather fans who outright stalked him. Overhearing the odd person recognising him on the street wasn’t all that different to the notoriety he’d been lumbered with back in his original timeline.

He’d considered himself lucky, all things considered. Until now.

“Who even took this picture?” He hadn’t seen a camera at all through that whole sordid ordeal.

Kunsel squinted at it. “Looks like it comes from one of the security feeds. Maybe you’ve got a fan in the Turks? I think I remember this getting circulated a couple of days after that mission. They were selling prints for a while.”

Shiva, how many copies of this were around now?

Wait. “You’re in the fanclub too?”

“Of course. I belong to all the fan clubs.” He fiddled with his PHS, showing Cloud his message list. Silver Elite, Study Group, Keepers of Honour, Golden Chocobos, Zack Fan Club… the messages went on and on and on. “Zack’s joined most them too. I think he even joined his own fan club.”

Cloud stared at the card in quiet horror, still struggling to process. “So you’re saving there are more of these.”

“Yeah, hang on, I think I have a couple.” He fished in his pockets, and came up with half a dozen cards. “I don’t have very many yet though. Genesis has the whole set.”

Cloud deliberately ignored that last sentence in favour of inspecting the cards in morbid fascination. They were all glossy and black-bordered, with the edging done in silver, framing a random collection of pictures. Some of them were normal enough – one of him fighting a monster in the slums, one of him eating in one of the diners in Sector 4, one that looked suspiciously like a photo Zack had taken in Aeris’s church.

Then there was one where he was halfway through unzipping his shirt. Then another one from the back where he wasn’t wearing a shirt at all. Another one where he was sleeping. Who the hell had even taken those?

“I don’t want to know anymore,” he muttered, and turned to go. Maybe he could request a mission from Lazard and kill some monsters until he could forget about it for a while.

“Hey, if you don’t want it, mind giving me that card? I don’t have that one yet,” Kunsel piped up.

Cloud threw it at him, and didn’t bother to see if the other SOLDIER caught it. Ignorance really was bliss.

Quebec City!

sinnatious — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 14:00:35 GMT

Rolling right along with the travel posts, we venture into colder territory - CANADA.

More specifically, Quebec City.

I had crossed seven borders at this point and been waved through without a care (even in Japan with my extended stay) until I got to Quebec City, which decided to do the whole interrogation and rifle-through-the-suitcase thing. There was no real concern because I knew I wasn't carrying anything remotely contraband, but jeeeez did it give me a helluva lousy first impression of Quebec. Luckily I had been playing some Papers, Please on my laptop in Chicago which has given me a whole new world of empathy for immigration agents.

In any case, I was staying with a friend in Quebec, and since I got in on a Friday night, bright and early Saturday morning we went to his favourite bakery.

There are bakeries all over Quebec City. Chocaltiers too, they are ridiculously prevalent. French patisseries, guys! The food was so so good. The best one out of this set was definitely the pear-thing, I have no idea of what its actual name was. My friend speaks reasonably fluent French so for the vast majority of transactions I was content to sit back and let him speak and avoid outing us as filthy, filthy tourists.

French Canada really is Europe on training wheels. Most people, especially in the tourist areas, spoke English fluently, but much like the Parisian French preferred not to speak it and were a lot nicer to you if you at least attempted French before they took pity on you and switched to English.

The architecture was also very European, and the fresh snow everywhere gave the whole city a very fairytale look. This is the central train station.

We mostly wandered around the old city, within the walls. Quebec sprawls out into much more typical suburbs further out, but the inner city is ridiculously charming, even in sub-zero temperatures.

Feels like a movie set in some parts, really.

There's plenty of chocolatiers, and art galleries, and souvenir shops - all the usual hallmarks of a touristy area, but the best part is just waltzing along all the old narrow streets and looking at the buildings.

There were also a string of ice sculptures in the pedestrian areas! There had been a couple of days where the temperature climbed above freezing so the sculptures had begun to lose some of their definition but were still pretty cool!

That day actually wasn't too bad in terms of temperature either - only a couple of degrees below zero. Ahahaha how quickly that became tolerable. I got much much better at layering throughout Japan and Chicago, and by this point had a warm scarf and hat and gloves that weren't entirely ornamental, even if they fell short of mittens. Also when it got really cold, I was introduced to the concept of 'hot pockets', these little satchels that when exposed to air start off a chemical reaction that gives off heat for up to about seven hours? On the really cold days I stuck a pair in my shoes and some in my gloves and that made everything so much more bearable. Can't do much about the face, tragically, but bury your nose in your scarf against the wind and hope for the best.

Being a Saturday, it was pretty busy. A surprising number of other tourists and tour groups, which caught me by surprise - I'd never really considered Quebec City a tourism destination until I had a friend move there and spruik the place aggressively. Apparently their Winter Festival is quite excellent though. And I was constantly told about how amazing it is in Spring. Except this was the middle of March it was supposed to be Spring, dammit.

After wandering the old town for a while, we caught the ferry across the river to the south side.

The St Lawrence was frozen, but not so much that the ferry couldn't break through the ice to cross the river. It was definitely one of the coolest sights ever though, seeing these giant slabs of ice floating around the river and crunching up against each other to make way for the ferry.

There were some people canoeing across the river. They would pull their boat up onto the ice and run it across until they found a gap to get back into the water. Seems like a kind of extremely dangerous sport, since one wrong step and BOOM, instant hypothermia!

There wasn't a great deal of interest over on the south side beyond a neat chocolatier and a cool view of the north shore, so we headed back after a while in search of lunch.

Le Grand Château, from the shore, with the Quebec flag in the foreground. I'd thought the fleur de lis was a Louisiana thing, but given its prevalence in Quebec, to the point of being on its flag, I'm thinking that it's maybe just a French thing. The Château is where they planned D-Day apparently. Makes sense, geographical proximity to the United States, English colony, historically French area, as close as you can get to neutral ground for three major allies. Quebec is a pretty interesting place in that respect.

We finally located some lunch. Seafood chowder pie. So amazing.

They had a bunch of little electric-powered buses roaming Quebec, they made the best sounds and were cute as hell to boot. Never actually had an excuse to ride one, tragically. One interesting thing though, bus fares in Canada appear to all be flat-fee - three bucks to ride, no matter how far you're going.

We headed up to the Grand Château via a weird diagonal elevator. Up top they had a toboggan and some stalls and whatnot. They also had a sugar shack!

A sugar shack is where they lay out a string of pure maple syrup on the snow, which freezes it, then you can roll it up on a stick like taffy! Pretty tasty, more or less pure sugar really. The maple syrup we have in Australia does not even come close to comparing to the fresh stuff they have in Canada. Canada is very serious about maple syrup. Understandable, I guess, when you consider their flag is a maple leaf.

I gathered a bit of a crowd who watched and all ooohed and ahhhed when I muddled my way through rolling it up, none of them were brave enough to try it for themselves I guess.

Check it out, Quebec City is actually a walled city, here's one of the 'gates'. Surprising when you consider it's not really more than 300 years old. Walled cities were a thing even that recently?

Parliament House. Note the Quebec flag again. I don't think I saw a single Canadian flag in Quebec City, it was all the state flag.

Separation is actually totally serious in Quebec! Heh, we wound up going to a party that night at a self-professed separatist's house, she was very insistent that everyone spoke French! (I got a free pass as a tourist and for at least attempting to communicate a little bit in my very very basic French). It's a pretty interesting notion - could Quebec survive as its own independent nation? But Quebec itself is very very different from the rest of Canada.

After the party though we went back and played Rayman Legends. Has anyone else played any of the more recent Rayman games? They're amazing if you like a challenging platformer.

On the Sunday we wandered the area a bit more. This is the exterior of Quebec City's Notre Dame.

Pretty crazy and lavish inside. I think it might be one of the few actually functional churches in Quebec - the area is incredibly secular, most other churches we passed had been converted into libraries or public buildings or concert halls. I also learned a few Quebecois swear words - all derived from Christian things, such as 'chalice' and about the very worst is 'tabernac' (aka tabernacle).

We had lunch at a place called 'Le Hobbit', which did fairly amazing steaks and burgers and somehow hasn't been shut down by Tolkien's estate. Then after that, we discovered there was a 'History of video games' exhibition going on at the Art Museum!

Assassin's Creed statue by the entrance. Easy to kill an entire day in that area, it's basically a giant low-cost retro arcade. A similar thing came through Brisbane a while back, we sampled a whole bunch of games, best bits were the Bubble Bobble and Dance Dance Revolution marathons. We wound up having to race through the 'modern games' section because the museum was closing and we'd spent so long in the retro area!

For dessert that night, had this amazingly weird mix between fudge, cake, and mousse. It is probably one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten.

At this place.

The next day wound up being fairly quiet - my friend headed off to work, so I mostly just wandered the immediate area, checking out stores, and then headed back early to do some much-needed chores such as laundry and job hunting and sorting out some bookings for my next destinations since it was about this point in the trip where I started doing absolutely everything by the seat of my pants with usually nothing more than a week's notice.

The next day my friend played hooky and with another acquaintance to drive we headed to Val Cartier! It's a snow slide park in Winter, and a water slide park in Summer. It was about ten below and had been lightly snowing all morning, so everything was covered in fresh powder, which actually made the slides a little slower it turns out.

To get up the hills they had a bunch of tubes hooked up to a pulley system - you plonked your butt on one and it carried you and your own tube to the top of the hill so funtimes could ensue! You go sliding down the hill on your inner tube, usually with a group of people. They also had sort of life raft boats in some of the bigger slides which took more people and were totally awesome.

I do not own snow pants, and there was little purpose in purchasing any - I'd been making it through with jeans, heattech leggings, and tall leather boots. For the most part this was fine, but not so great when you land on your butt in the snow or have to clambering over snow drifts. Also my jacket, while pretty warm, was not remotely water-proof, so had to borrow my friend's spare jacket instead, so got to look like a five-year old wearing a jacket five times too big for me. Still, completely worth it. We got an early start so the park was quite empty, filling up later in the afternoon, which was excellent for gathering more people for the snow boats.

This was genuinely terrifying. Wind and ice stinging your face, you wind up closing your eyes so they don't freeze in their sockets!

We headed back inside to defrost for lunch. Had poutine. I LOVE POUTINE. It's basically fries with cheese curds and gravy on top, which sounds really simple but you really can't skimp on the quality of any of the ingredients. Quebec's speciality, possibly the secret national dish of Canada right after maple syrup. I am amazed it's hasn't taken off elsewhere. Massively unhealthy of course, but so delicious who cares!

We redid a couple of the runs in the afternoon around Val Cartier, also tried making some snowballs and snow angels. The amount of snow in Quebec is kind of crazy.

We eventually got tired (dragging those inner tubes around is exhausting! Not to mention walking through snow is similar to walking through sand in that it tires you out extra fast) so headed back into down and had an Italian hot chocolate from the Chocolate museum which was so thick you almost needed a spoon to drink it.

Also, a squirrel! Still love squirrels.

The next day was when things started to get crazy. The temperature plummeted to something like -24 Celsius, so I slept in, ventured outside for lunch but spent most of the afternoon inside. When my friend got out of work though we went out to dinner and then he had a dodgemball tournament. Dodgemball is totally a thing in Canada still! Crazy violent game, seems dangerous for anyone with glasses, even if the balls are soft and puffy. Some of the teams got some serious velocity on those things. Mildly interesting but not really my thing.

Of course, at this point there are warnings of a blizzard and the snow is coming down hard and fast and the wind picking up when we get outside, so one of the dodgem team members offers to drive a couple of us partway home. So far so good, anything to avoid dying in that insane weather and getting buried in a snow drift. But then we turn down this steep hill... and the car starts sliding.

The guy is slamming on the brakes but he's like, 'I don't have traction!' and the road is all ice and there are people crossing the intersection at the bottom of the hill... so he steers the car into the snowdrift at the side of the road. It worked! Bumped and scraped but ground to a halt. But brush with death, jeez. Some good defensive driving in retrospect, have no idea how people handle driving in the snow.

He let us out a bit after that and we shivered the last few blocks against the wind and snow. I was so grateful for my hot pockets given my less-than-optimum winter gear. The snow got horizontal that night.

Luckily it had all finished up by morning, though it was still a pretty damn chilly -17. It was also my last day in Quebec City.

We celebrated with cakes at Le Croquembouche.

Then it was onwards to the picturesque train station, to head to Montreal! Which was honestly not that much warmer.

A lot of people asked me 'You came to Canada in March?' And I really had no defence to offer.

Chicago!

sinnatious — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 11:41:23 GMT

Another travel post! And so soon, too! I have a lot of catching up to do.

After New Orleans, I hopped a delightfully regional flight up to Chicago. I have a brother up there, so more free accommodation! It was a little nerve-racking though honestly, since he moved to the States when I was just a little kid so don't know him that well, plus I'd only met his wife briefly once before.

They had like four dogs and a cat though. All of them so different and interesting! Here's a pic of their akita and Frenchie.

The akita is an older dog, such an elegant lady but also a real escape artist. Their frenchie is an adorable psycho little thing that love to play and will constantly try jumping on you. The other two are mutts, one which is so endlessly hungry for attention that he'll just come up to you and lay his head in your lap until you dispense with the pets, and the other one a massive scaredy-cat spooked by its own shadow.

The cat was also amazingly affectionate, made up for all the cats in the cat cafes in Japan. I would try to work on my laptop but nope! There she'd be, squeezing her way in and making herself right at home on my lap.

I probably lost a good couple of hours each day to animal wrangling.

It was super freezing for the first couple of days anyway though, so I didn't actually get out much beyond my brother and sister-in-law taking me out to eat, and general helping around the house with various projects and visiting and whatnot (and playing with all the animals).

Sister-in-law did drop me off for the day at Woodfield mall one day though - apparently one of the largest in America? After Orchard Road it didn't seem quite so impressive but it definitely was pretty big. Took the opportunity to stock up on cheap makeup - it is seriously half, sometimes even a third of the price of what it is in Australia. Would have bought more, actually, but suitcase weight and space was an ongoing concern. Plus discovered the awesomeness that is Sephora! Apparently that chain is coming to Australia soon, good times. They stocked me up with a ridiculous amount of free samples, you buy anything and you can expect the whole kit and kaboodle.

I may be developing more expensive taste in makeup in the future as a result. :(

While there I had a cinnabon! Only too late did I realise they had something called a 'minibon' which I definitely should have bought instead. Tasty but wow, it's a whole meal, and a heck of lot of sugar. Worth having once, not sure if I could make a habit of it.

There was a decent bit of a snowstorm while I was there, dropped about ten to fifteen centimetres of fresh snow. It's looks so pretty when it is new and undisturbed!

Brother built a fire that was maybe a bit too big for the fireplace. Love fireplaces, if only Australia had any use for them at all.

We also ordered in a Chicago deep dish style pizza! Pretty tasty, but one slice is a meal in of itself. Apparently the secret to a good deep dish is a 1:1 ratio of base to toppings!

Snowblowers did not actually work at all like I expected. I think I'd pictured something more like a leafblower? Which in retrospect was just dumb.

Brother and co took me to a bunch of neat restaurants! One of which was Red Robin, which had awesome burgers (Americans know how to do burgers) and a mint brownie milkshake which is maybe the best milkshake I've ever had. American milkshakes are more like Australian thickshakes, except even better than that, seriously guys we do not know how to do milkshakes in Australia.

Also bacon. I love American bacon. So thin and crispy.

Anyhow, Red Robin was cool mostly because it was decked up to its eyeballs in Americana. We also went to some amazing crab restaurant that was super huge and had arrows on the ground for people movement and lines and the cheapest thing on the menu was like $20, so thank goodness I wasn't paying! (Special thanks to the generosity of siblings).

As much fun as all that is though, I eventually made a point to spend a couple of days downtown. After my brother and sister-in-law made me terrified and made it sound like some kind of war zone where I could expect to get mugged or pick-pocketed or harassed every twenty metres. I'm pretty sure there are definitely no-go parts of Chicago, but seriously it wasn't as bad as they made it out to be, at least not the areas of any interest to a tourist like myself at least. No worse harassment than you get in any other major city, certainly wasn't equal to the amount of paranoia they'd instilled. It was kind of the same with my relatives and New Orleans, really. Crime rate might be high, but people still live there, after all. Generally the trend I've found worldwide is 'If it looks sketchy, it probably is', and that's typically more than enough to keep you out of trouble.

Anyway, caught to Metra (a double-decked train) to Oligilvie? Olgivie? Whatever, what appears to be Central Station, and from there made my (very cold) way to Art Institute.

The Chicago Art Institute is super freaking awesome, and very massive, and definitely world class.

They had a whole room just of amazingly beautiful paperweights.

And a hall filled with crazy amazing miniatures.

And an ukiyoe exhibit larger than most of the ones I saw in Japan.

Not to mention all of the originals! American Gothic.

Andy Warhol's Mao.

A stack of Monets.

As well as a few Van Gogh's - this is his self-portrait. There's something oddly profound about seeing famous pieces of art with your own two eyes, instead of just prints.

Portrait of a Musician.

There was also a whole armour exhibit! Which I maybe trolled also partially for cosplay purposes, because I want to know how they do their damn joints so they can move.

You could easily spend a whole day in the Art Institute. I limited it to half a day, which did at least get me through all of the exhibits I really wanted to see.

Love the architecture in Chicago though. It's basically Gotham City with all the gothic revival architecture all over the place.

Also, when you see an open-air ice-skating rink, unlike the one in Brisbane people here can actually ice-skate!

I checked out the shiny Kidney Bean, mostly because everyone said I should. I didn't expect much, but it was actually pretty cool, even though the effect was slightly ruined by the snow clinging to it. Definitely worth the visit though.

Plus when you walk under it things start getting a little trippy.

Chicago river, partially frozen over, though starting to break up because you know, this was supposed to be March. Looked pretty cool though! Like a very cold mosaic.

Chicago Tribune building. Did I mention how much I like Chicago's architecture? Because I do. You could put Batman on anything and he would look right at home.

It gets pretty windy in downtown Chicago though, due to the wind tunnel effect caused by all those cool skyscrapers. Which makes it even colder. It's enough that the locals have apparently given the wind a name - 'The Hawk'.

I had to schedule regular stops in stores to thaw out! Though I did stop in at Argo Tea, and that place is awesome. Tea drinking doesn't seem quite as big in America, maybe because they apparently haven't discovered the electric tea kettle yet. Seriously, everywhere I went, unless staying with a fellow Australian, they were all boiling their water in microwaves or on stove tops with some old-fashioned kettle, I thought America was supposed to be the land of the future.

Also, actual sticks of butter instead of convenient tubs. Butter dishes are still a thing!

But I digress.

This is the Waterworks, I think? I went wandering down 'The Magnificient Mile', which is basically a mile of nothing but shopping. Stopped in at the Disney store, a Macy's, and a few other random places.

These signs are legitimately terrifying when they're set next to a thirty-storey building.

Not sure, a church maybe? Probably looks really beautiful in summer with the vines, just looks evil and ominous in winter. I bet the doors creak.

The John Hancock building! Not sure why I didn't go up it, kind of regret it. I went up Sears tower about 12 years ago when I was last here to visit the bro (about the only thing we did back then, thinking on it), but this place probably has the cooler view.

A Lego store! Providing a convenient recreation of the skyline anyway.

Lego stores are just awesome. I went to go see the Lego movie while in Chicago as well. EVERYTHING IS AWESOME~!

Hershey's store/cafe. Hershey's is honestly about the worst chocolate there is, outside of waxy dollarstore rubbish, but if I see a chocolate cafe I'm going inside, dammit. If only to breathe in the wonderful smell. (And I guess Hershey's Kisses aren't that bad. In moderation.)

The afternoon disappeared fast and it was time to make my way back to the train station. Saw some more cool buildings on the way though.

These two remind me of hair curlers.

Wandered back through the theatre district, had to get a pic of this sign!

Also, on one of my stops to thaw out, wandered into this weird... mall? Place, thing. Which kind of reminded me of a space port. Looks like it should be in Star Trek or something, just saying. I have no idea what it is but it's fabulous.

Eventually made it back, then returned downtown again the next day!

This time my goal was Navy Pier. Check it out, Ferris Wheel missing all of its carriages for winter. Looks so naked.

Came with some nice views of the skyline though!

After wandering around in the cold for a bit, stumbled into this crazy amazing greenhouse area, and suddenly there people everywhere, it was like being back in Singapore or a second. Until you looked outside and saw snow on the ground. Surreal.

Ate some lunch and checked out a pretty neat (free!) stained glass windows exhibit. I do like stained glass windows, you don't see them in the wild nearly often enough (aside from churches).

Lake Michigan, all frozen over. Maybe boring to other people but to an Australian a frozen lake is just about the coolest thing ever. Plus the Great Lakes in general kind of blow my mind, since you can't see the other shore - in my head it should be an ocean!

To give you an idea of how far out Navy Pier takes you.

And that was more or less it for Chicago! I was only there for about a week, and of that only really had two days downtown, one at the Woodfield mall, and the rest basically just visiting family. The weather killed a lot of my desire to go outside, although it is amazing how quickly you adapt to the cold! Thank god I had some time to get used to some colder temperatures in Asia first though.

Here's one more shot for the road - had a bunch of cool buildings all in one shot.

Can it get any colder than that? Yes it can! Next post: Canada

Spoiler alert: I didn't die. (but I came close, seriously).