The Fifth Act, Chapter 27
Title: The Fifth Act
Rating: T for violence.
Summary: FFVII Time-travel. Gen. Cloud has an accident with a Time Materia.
Author's Note: Big chapter, this one. I angsted over it a lot, so let me know what you think (and as always, please point out any typos or mistakes you see.) Oh, and Happy Year of the Tiger/Valentine's Day!
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Rating: T for violence.
Summary: FFVII Time-travel. Gen. Cloud has an accident with a Time Materia.
Author's Note: Big chapter, this one. I angsted over it a lot, so let me know what you think (and as always, please point out any typos or mistakes you see.) Oh, and Happy Year of the Tiger/Valentine's Day!
Previous Chapter
( Read more... )
Zack's reaction pretty much equals mine atm.
ASDFGHJKL; ASDFGHJKL!!!!!!
:dead, on ground:
I think that my brain just imploded. Or exploded. Or something.
And Hojo's being a little creepy fuck as always. Reading his bit literally sent shivers down my spine. He's creepy in a thriller/horror villain way. IT CREEPS ME OUT AND NOW I HAVE TO GO AND WATCH SOMETHING HAPPY TO CHEER ME UP. Like, the first series of Pokemon or something. Because, seriously, Hojo's so twisted and sick and blergh, there are no words. I can picture everything happening to absolutely clearly, and with Hojo that's not always something that you want to happen.
:spazzes again:
What I love most about your writing is that ... I don't know how to explain it properly .... but it's as though you use just the right mixture od adjectival language and imagery that I can see everything perfectly in my mind's eye, but at the same time it's not enough so as to actually be noticeable. I remember a book that I was reading years ago, and I looked up from reading it at one moment and was surprised that I wasn't in the middle of a stormy autumn's afternoon. Your story as the same effect on me, I half expect to be looking at cold, metal walls when I look up instead of the fake pine of my computer desk.
Your style is simple in a way, but I don't mean that it is childish or unsophisticated. It conveys exactly what you want it to without using any extra words or sounding pretentious. You know exactly which words you want to use and you use them. And that is so incredibly rare to see in writing (I'm looking at you, J.K Rowling, and the entire 5th book of Harry Potter). What would take some people a paragraph or a page to say, you say in one sentence, or sometimes even in a word, or a particular turn of phrase.
And now professor Dae hands back over to spazzy fangirl Dae, who's pretty much running around in circles screaming.
Fic will come! And you'll get the next bit when I get the next chapter, haha.
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:foams at the mouth, passes out:
SEE? This is what happens to your audience when there's too much awesome in one story.
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A miniskirt with extremely thin material that was not the best choice to be wearing in the middle of Nibleheim winter (and it was the middle of fucking winter, not matter what Cloud said or how many times Sephiroth 'patiently' explained that if the season was summer in Midgar, it was summer in Nibleheim too). It was kind of cute in a way, pleated and dark navy blue, the kind that upper-class Midgar schoolgirls wore to their extremely expensive and elite private schools. The problem was that it was very short. Now, if it were on Aeris or (his brain short circuited at the mental image that produced - his Aeris, done up with pigtails, a short little skirt and a short little shirt, blushing and apologizing about handing in her homework late …. Ohhh yeeeeaaaah) he would have absolutely no complaints at all, but on him, the skirt was so short that it revealed his boxer shorts as he sat up (a perfectly respectable and SOLIDER-like pair in plain white cotton and decorated with dancing Tonberries). Following that thought made him glance further down and - dear merciful gods.
In seconds he was on his feet, screaming completely incomprehensible curses at the sky, shaking his fists and committing each and every blaspheme that had ever even been considered. This was also not the best thing to do when just outside a creepy, old, mostly likely haunted mansion. But he'd been almost inside the house's invisible monster-repellent shield thingy anyway - the only reason that the armoured lizard dog things had attacked him was because they'd followed him for the last ten meters or so.
All this was well and good, and as it made Zack think about things other than the fact that he now had knee high, black, scarily similar to SOLIDER issue, boots on. When he raised his hands to cover his eyes from the horrible, horrible sight (he'd inherited his body hair from his dad, and so the substantial amount of flesh that showed from knee to miniskirt-edge was not only very masculinely muscular, but also covered in hair. Not a good look at all.) he'd found that his solid, reliable gloves had been transformed into dainty little things that finished just past his elbows. If it weren't for the colour (the same dark navy blue as that fucking skirt) the gloves would look exactly like the fragile white ones worn by the mothers of the schoolgirls when on their way to their equally elite balls. And, of course, as his day could not get any fucking better, he had a gigantic, bright red bow on his chest. Great. Officially, the day could not get any worse.
Unfortunately for Zack, the day had other ideas about unofficial amounts of pure horror and the teeny amounts of dignity that SOLDIERS should be allowed to keep.
"Zack? Are you okay."
Fuck. Cloud. Shit! Where the hell was that weird staffey thingy?
He spotted it just as Cloud rounded the corner, looking adorably worried. Zack knew exactly when Cloud spotted him as the blond's mouth opened and closed like a stunned fish.
"Z-zack?"
He took a stuttering step forward.
"Cloud no don't-!"
Too late. Cloud's foot nudged it, and something clicked into place as the sky fell down around them.
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ROFLOL, the mental image is too priceless! XD And Zack's boxer shorts! Dancing tonberries aslkfjs. AND HIS REACTION. Oh this is GOLD.
AND NOW CLOUD! *___* XDDDDDD So awesome.
It's a fuckin' lion. A fuckin' sweet lion. Fuck this shit. XD
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First series of Pokemon? You need something that happy to counteract it? XD
Your critique of my writing style made me really happy, thank you! I used to get really frustrated reading books that were needlessly flowery and descriptive with their language (I remember feeling especially annoyed when once an entire page was dedicated to simply describing a tree, which, despite being a pretty awesome tree, really didn't need that many words) so have been actively pursuing a more minimalist approach more in keeping with the style of Ernest Hemingway. But for ages I've been oscillating between 'too much description' to 'not even close to enough', so it makes me excited to hear I might be getting close to the sweet spot with this fic. :D
\o/ FIC! *runs to read*
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"So you must have done something pretty heroic to get that medal, hey baby?"
"I was blown up eating cheese."
YES.
Just enough description to signpost things for the reader's imagination to fill in is wonderful -- and wonderfully comfortable. When there's too much description it's easy to lose the forest for the trees. Um. Pun not intended.
Anyway, let me start by saying that the reveal of Cloud's parentage is made all the more awesome by the hints you left (I was asking 'is he or isn't he' for weeks), and I hate Hojo.
That said, it doesn't sound like Hojo's in any way related to the ShinRa family, but what about Lucrecia? Or Vincent?
... They could be a cousing or something, y'know? Or Hojo could have dropped some ShinRa into the S-mix. Because it does seem, from this, to be something the president would ask for.
I'm suddenly getting visions of a happy-family-blondie-trio playing on a rope swing over a swimming hole and roughhousing merrily. In overalls.
It is disconcerting.
Though I admit, I thought Mama Strife had better taste than that. Does president ShinRa have a bastard brother? I bat my eyelashes in plaintive...-ness... humour me!
But anyway, hooray for another chapter! I really don't mind the cancellation of Wednesday updates, since the Sunday updates are SO punctual, SO awesome... and they put me in an excellent mood for monday. ^^
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Everybody keeps thinking of old fat Rupert ShinRa! Ten or fifteen years ago, he would have looked a lot like Lazard or Rufus. And though he was a crazy money-hungry, power-driven idiot in his old age, he did found ShinRa Incorporated and turn it from a tiny weapons manufacturer to a massive electric company which pretty much rules the world. You know, greatness runs in the family! (Just in different directions). I'm figuring this is also why Cloud is so damn good at making gil in game-verse. :|
\o/ I am also appreciating the extra time weekly updates have given me, so glad you don't mind it! And thanks for the comments.
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I dunno, I can see how Rupert Shinra might've been something a little while back, but... He seems as ineffectual as he is corrupt, I think. Mama Strife being the strong mountain woman she is...
But then again, the ineffectual can still have their charms (however short-lived), and it's always possible his character has also gone somewhat downhill these last two decades.
Perhaps some sort of loss drove him to be what he is today? Actually, that's an interesting theory...
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