❛ [ ... ] illusionary.

[strfe]

pictures of my demon puppy aeris as apology for being a cryptid

[strfe]

Aeris in her recovery onesie btw

[strfe]

oh I remembered my email

[strfe]

pictures of my demon puppy aeris as apology for being a cryptid

[fromdarzaitoleeza]

{Quotes marguaxpoetry on Instagram / Sarah Kay}

[strfe]

spell out your url using characters you love from any media. then, tag as many people as there are letters in your url (or however many you'd like!) inspired by the song titles dashboard game.

S : squall leonhart ( final fantasy viii ) go figure T : taishakuten ( onmyoji ) R : red xiii ( final fantasy vii ) F : fushimi saruhiko ( k ) E : emil ( nier )

tagged by : @opyre tagging: @speedchasing @nazorneku @imarahuyo @hopeflower @rosahope ( no obligation of course, just thought i'd actually follow the rules ™ for once )

[poohsources]

🐝  *  ―  𝑨𝑽𝑨𝑻𝑨𝑹: 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑳𝑨𝑺𝑻 𝑨𝑰𝑹𝑩𝑬𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑹 𝑺𝑬𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑺.

❛  i'm angry at myself!  ❜ ❛  it's easy to do nothing, it's hard to forgive.  ❜ ❛  you miscalculated. i love them more than i fear you.  ❜ ❛  there is nothing wrong with letting the people who love you help you.  ❜ ❛  but now you're not letting yourself feel anything. i know sometimes it hurts more to hope and it hurts more to care. but you have to promise me that you won't stop caring.  ❜ ❛  my own mother thought i was a monster ... she was right of course, but it still hurt.  ❜ ❛  in the darkness, hope is something you give yourself.  ❜ ❛  never forget who you are, for surely the world won't.  ❜ ❛  why am i so bad at being good?  ❜ ❛  it is important to draw wisdom from different places. if you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale.  ❜ ❛  sometimes the best way to solve your own problems is to help someone else.  ❜ ❛  and now you have come to the crossroads of destiny. it's time for you to choose.  ❜ ❛  you may not always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you keep moving, you will come to a better place.  ❜ ❛  protection and power are overrated. i think you are very wise to choose happiness and love.  ❜ ❛  get over here, [ name ]. being part of the group also means being part of group hugs.  ❜ ❛  stop! stop it right now! what's wrong with you? we don't have time for fun and games with the war going on.  ❜ ❛  i'm too young to die!  ❜ ❛  in my country, we exchange a pleasant 'hello' before asking questions.  ❜ ❛  i didn't know what or when, but i knew i'd know it when i knew it!  ❜ ❛  the past can be a great teacher.  ❜ ❛  when we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest change.  ❜ ❛  there really is no fathoming the depths of my hatred for this place.  ❜ ❛  failure is only the opportunity to try again, only more wisely this time.  ❜ ❛  i wanted to take out all of my anger on them. but i couldn't. i don't know if it's because i'm too weak ... or if it's because i'm strong enough not to.  ❜ ❛  look [ name ], you're going to fail a lot before things work out. even though you will fail over and over again, you have to try every time. you can't quit because you're afraid you might fail.  ❜ ❛  while it is always best to believe in oneself, a little help from others can be a great blessing.  ❜ ❛  you must never give in to despair. allow yourself to slip down that road, and you surrender to your lowest instincts.  ❜ ❛  if we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends too?  ❜ ❛  you know, [ name ], i don't care what anyone else says about you. you're pretty smart.  ❜ ❛  if i try, i fail. if i don't try, i'm never going to get it.  ❜ ❛  let your anger out, and then let it go. forgive him.  ❜ ❛  pride is not the opposite of shame, but rather its source. true humility is the only antidote to shame.  ❜ ❛  life happens wherever you are, whether you make it or not.  ❜ ❛  the greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation. things you think are separate and different are actually one and the same.  ❜ ❛  you stand alone. that has always been your greatest weakness.  ❜ ❛  bad skin? normal teenagers worry about bad skin, i don't have that luxury.  ❜ ❛  in my dream, we were right in the middle of the invasion, and you stopped to use the bathroom. we die because of your tiny bladder.  ❜ ❛  you need to find someone who waits and listens before striking.  ❜ ❛  everyone has to be treated like they're worth giving a chance.  ❜ ❛  i don't need luck, though. i don't want it. i've always had to struggle and fight, and that's made me strong. it's made me who i am.  ❜

[warrmonger-archive]

@strfe liked for a starter

"oh - what do we have here?"

disgust drips off of every word, the sneer of his lips and roll of his eyes ( impossible to hide ). though, heidegger wouldn't, in truth, know who the blonde actually is. not beneath the shinra issue mask and uniform that the other man dons.

no, heidegger simply speaks to him as he would any of his own. hands on his hips and body leaning forth into the other's personal space - words loud, despite their whisper.

"fuck this up and i will see it personally that you are appropriately punished." any mishaps during the president's parade and heidegger knows who'll get it. ( not them, but him ). and, lords, had rufus been ruthless so far. the workload impeded upon him something heinous ( something, permanently headache inducing ).

"hm-" he cocks a brow, distracted by the burden upon the soldier's back. a blade big enough for heidegger to wonder what the other's compensating for. his height, perhaps? "gyaha-! that's what i call a blade!"

[strfe]

it takes every last ounce of his resolve for cloud not to break character in that moment, jaw jutting and teeth gritting with agitation. physical discomfort aside, he can only be bitterly thankful that the ( oddly familiar ) helmet on his head proves as not only a barrier between him and this overgrown bastard, but as a mask to hide his much-less-than-pleased expression, dwelling in the realm of 'visibly pissed off' and not showing signs of changing any time soon.

❝ yup. ❞ he manages. it's a step up from the choice words in his head, at least. whether the 'president' finds this garish performance entertaining or not is of no consequence to him. hell — if it weren't for the attention he'd draw to himself, he'd already have gone out of his way to fuck it up, somehow. with a tired exhale from his nose, cloud turns his head some and acknowledges the incredulous looks shot his way. unfazed by their silent glances, he shrugs.

❝ don't you have more important things to be doin'? ❞

[strfe]

"So this is your life, then? Just bouncing around saving people?"

dr. who dialogue starters / @akunyan

❝ so what if it is? ❞ he retorts, almost defensive in his haste to brush the topic aside. all the same, he retains that familiar air of indifference; turns his head from aniyan and gives a half-hearted shrug. cloud supposes, though 'bouncing around saving people' is one way to look at it, it also trivializes what he — no, avalanche — does, for better and for worse. though he suspects aniyan knows more than he lets on, he'd rather avoid the headache of that conversation.

❝ gotta make a living somehow. we can't all do... well, ❞ he gestures, vaguely. isn't quite sure how to articulate himself, and doesn't want to give him the excuse to bring up the nightmare that was the honeybee inn. ( he's already fumbled in that regard, maybe. ) idly tapping his finger against his hip, cloud scrunches his nose some & continues. he hopes: before this guy can get a word in that'll leave him feeling as vulnerable and embarrassed as he had been, then.

❝ it's what i'm good at. that's all. ❞

[adventhero-blog1]

Me, imagining a scene in my head: beautiful poetic prose that gracefully and artfully describes the scene in vivid detail, giving the reader concise imagery and beautiful wordplay to ruminate on.

Me, actually writing: The angry man throwed his chair through the window angrily and bigly. "I'm angry and pissed off." He said because he was mad.

[fourthclone-moved]

❛ WELL , AREN'T WE HAVING A WONDERFUL TIME KICKING THE HORNET'S NEST ? ❜

hello everyone ! moogle here . i don't have a proper promo yet , but i'm looking for some peeps to write with ! after many attempts to bring him back , i think my ROCHE muse has been awakened by the upcoming arrival of final fantasy vii rebirth , and i could not be more excited for what's to come for one SOLDIER 3C ! if you're interested in writing with the adrenaline - chasing speed junkie himself , please give this post a reblog or like and i'll take a peek at your rules !

please note that this character is a work in progress and we don't know much about him yet , so this blog operates exclusively on 'what-if' scenarios for the time being . as such , i don't have a concrete bio for him just yet . more information to come as the game progresses and more information is revealed !

[strfe]

hc + 😃 for a happiness-themed headcanon

THEMATIC HEADCANONS / @sixba

HC + 😃 FOR A HAPPINESS-THEMED HEADCANON.

bringing back my old headcanon that cloud (generally) gets on well with animals, and spending time with or around them is comforting to him. although catching chocobos begun as something arduous and frustrating, the birds he came to know & train are ones that he holds onto even up until and after the events of advent children. i write the whole knights of the round materia process as canon, albeit he doesn't catch them knowing it'll bag him the summon materia. all those overgrown birds left with choco bill are ones he continues to visit (and secretly dote upon) when the opportunity arises, both during and after the events of the original game. the first bird he caught holds a special place in his heart. he called it sylkis (yes, like the greens) and it has an injured leg. it was perhaps the biggest asshole out of all the birds he tried catching, but is the one he's known longest and is in part the fondest to him for that reason. oftentimes if his social battery is depleted, or he needs company but doesn't want to seek it out in other people, he'll head for the stables (on the ranch or the highwind, dependent on when in the timeline he does so) and just chill out with and / or feed the birds for a while. on more than one occasion he's dozed off in the hay and woken with swollen eyes and a runny nose, but being somewhere that he feels at ease enough to conk out like that in the first place is something of a god-given gift to cloud, so he doesn't regret it.

[flowerytale]

Louise Glück, from “Stars”, Poems: 1962–2020

[curagas]

FINAL FANTASY VII

[strfe]

clothes themed headcanon!

THEMATIC HEADCANONS / @lunabrae

HC + 👗 FOR A CLOTHES THEMED HEADCANON.

despite only owning one (1) set of clothes ( pre-advent children ), cloud can't stand smelling like shit (and it's a little suspicious to always wander about covered in blood stains) so will wash his own clothes when given the chance. how much / which parts he's able to clean depend on factors such as how long the party are staying somewhere, where it is they're staying, and what facilities (if any) are available. for instance, it's not exactly realistic to wash and dry a full set of clothes out in the middle of nowhere when it's pouring with rain. it's a little more realistic to make use of an inn that has, say, a washroom and some form of central heating to clean and (at least partly) dry some or all of his clothes.

[resourcesofaqueen]

Thematic Headcanons. A series of subject-specific headcanons you can ask your favorite blog and muse.

hc + 🤝 for a headcanon about a connection with one of the receiver's mutual

hc + 👪 for a family-themed headcanon

hc + 🧡 for a friendship-themed headcanon

hc + 💌 for a romance-themed headcanon

hc + 💕 for a loved-themed headcanon

hc + 💔 for a headcanon about a sad experience

hc + 🤥 for a lie-themed headcanon

hc + 😶 for a headcanon about a secret they know of / keep

hc + 😴 for a sleep-themed headcanon

hc + 🌇 for a headcanon about morning- or evening rituals

hc + 🧼 for a hygiene-themed headcanon

hc + 🏠 for a home-themed headcanon

hc + 😃 for a happiness-themed headcanon

hc + 😨 for a fear-themed headcanon

hc + 🤕 for a pain-themed headcanon

hc + 🚶‍♂️ for a habit-themed headcanon

hc + 👍 for a headcanon about things they like

hc + 👎 for a headcanon about things they dislike

hc + 💪 for a sport-themed headcanon

hc + 😡 for a headcanon about something that makes them angry

hc + 👻 for a headcanon about supernatural occurrences

hc + 🥣 for a food-themed headcanon

hc + ☕ for a drink-themed headcanon

hc + 🐈 for a pet/animal-themed headcanon

hc + 🌸 for a plant-themed headcanon

hc + 🌄 for an outdoor-themed headcanon

hc + 🌍 for a travel-themed headcanon

hc + 🗡 for a weapon-themed headcanon

hc + 🎡 for a hobby-themed headcanon

hc + 🚗 for a transportation-themed headcanon

hc + ⏳ for a time-themed headcanon

hc + 🌘 for a night-themed headcanon

hc + 🌞 for a day-themed headcanon

hc + 🪐 for a universe-themed headcanon

hc + 🌂 for a weather-themed headcanon

hc + ⛄ for a season-themed headcanon

hc + 🎉 for a celebration-themed headcanon

hc + 🏆 for a goal-themed headcanon

hc + 💯 for an achievement-themed headcanon

hc + 🚬 for a headcanon about a bad habit

hc + 🎭 for an arts-/crafts-themed headcanon

hc + ✂️ for a hair-themed headcanon

hc + 👗 for a clothes-themed headcanon

hc + 💍 for a jewelry-themed headcanon

hc + 💄 for a makeup-themed headcanon

hc + 🎓 for an education-themed headcanon

hc + 📿 for a faith-themed headcanon

hc + 🎵 for a music-themed headcanon

hc + 📱 for a media-themed headcanon

hc + 🎥 for a film/tv-themed headcanon

hc + 📔 for a reading-themed headcanon

hc + 💰 for a money-themed

hc + 💼 for a job-themed headcanon

hc + 💉 for a medical-themed headcanon

hc + 🛒 for a shopping-themed headcanon

hc + 🔞 for a nsfw-headcanon

hc + ❓ for a headcanon of the receiver's choice

[strfe]

RE: IDENTITY.

after spending hours watching a video (source) @speedchasing sent me i'm going to make it everyone's problem cover a little regarding how i've always written cloud's personality and overall 'identity' from the happenings of crisis core (post-nibelheim) and note how i've always perceived it, as well as some new developments, some of which are unique to vii remake (meaning his personality will differ to an extent between his og / viir verse(s), etc).

i still believe that cloud has never really thought of himself as 'being zack'. the closest example of this being true is in the flashbacks cloud has, where he inserts himself where zack would be in reality, because zack had been the only SOLDIER present at that point in time (other than sephiroth, in most instances, and he at least knows he is not sephiroth) and it's reasonable for him to therefore have been that (other) SOLDIER, since if he knew anything of his past — it was that he was a 1st class SOLDIER. the identity that cloud takes on at the beginning of ffvii is one comprised of his memories and desires, as well as tifa, and also zack's memories. from the moment cloud regains consciousness at the end of crisis core, the jenova 'mimic' ability present within him begins to shape the personality that he will eventually take upon himself in ffvii. the idea of zack: the hero that cloud had always admired & wished to be ever since he was a child, as well as the legacy of memories that zack leaves with him upon passing the buster sword along, imprints itself onto his consciousness and begins to formulate when he meets tifa at the train station just prior to the beginning of ffvii.

the jenova cells rewrite his memories and come together to formulate the idea of all of cloud's memories (namely prior to the nibelheim incident), zack's ideals and behaviourisms, tifa's memories of him, and the dream of becoming a hero he clung to so desperately as a child (and even into adulthood).

the mimicry is intertwined with his very consciousness to project a reality to him that he wished to be true, and that protected him from the reality of zack's loss & his perception that he was a failure in every aspect of the word: he hadn't made SOLDIER / hadn't proven the kids that bullied him wrong / couldn't fulfil his promise to tifa to get her to notice him, and he was unable to do anything but watch as his closest friend (the one person who still embodied 'the hero' that he aspired to be but never was, and didn't believe he would ever become) laid down his life for him. he was 'too weak to save anyone': a sentiment sephiroth reminds him of in remake, but one he desperately tries to avoid.

something this video made me consider more-so (especially with regards to the events later in the game, then from 'on the way to a smile' onwards) is the idea that zack, aerith & sephiroth are all a fundamental part of cloud's consciousness. while zack and aerith guide him towards recovery and salvation (something it has been noted he couldn't otherwise do alone), sephiroth guides him towards destruction and embodies his pain and regret. in remake, sephiroth seems to purposefully be trying to disconnect cloud from that which makes up his consciousness, and / or become the domineering presence in his consciousness, and is shown on multiple occasions to have a stronger hold on him (cloud) than even in the original game. moments such as cloud stepping towards johnny to kill him, and not hesitating to strike down reno (even resulting in the whispers intervening) aren't entirely out of character for someone who has killed in the past, but they are moments that are definitively not present in the original game, and there is emphasis on cloud's behaviour scaring others and / or being especially violent, even for an 'ex-SOLDIER'. this is likely also due to his connection with sephiroth during remake being more prevalent. his consciousness is gravitating slightly more towards 'destruction' than it does in the og. while i can't say for certain, i do expect the disparity to grow as time passes and the story continues in remake, especially if the theory that zack has become detached from his consciousness in some way(s) is true, and increasingly more-so if sephiroth accomplishes this same feat for the other memories that shape cloud and his bond with others.

the main thing to note is: cloud in remake is not only an amalgamation of his past memories (among other things), but also of future memories that sephiroth has been feeding into his subconscious.

while this isn't a staggering change at the moment, it is a slight one, and i expect it may be key to certain elements of ffvii changing so i'm tentative to write too far into the vii:r verse outside of what story has already been revealed to us. for example, i would be reluctant to write as far as the north crater knowing that by that point in remake our expectations may have been completely subverted / characters may be acting differently or have taken different paths, etc. i think it has been long enough now to say quite confidently that vii: remake is not a remake, it is more of a convoluted sequel, and as such (while i'm happy to merge elements of remake/rebirth + with the og for fleshing out the world / its characters / character dynamics), i'd prefer not to write specifically in the remake verse too much further than is 'current'.

[strfe]

WHAT TYPE OF SOUL WOULD YOU HAVE?

TAINTED SOUL.

you have acquired the tainted soul. you're strong. you get real clever at protecting yourself. your skin and resolve tough like leather. blood is not beautiful. not to the common folk. it is simply just red. no matter who spills it. who it is spilled from, it remains red. even if you are dealt bad cards in life you do not need to yearn for the Red. regardless if its yours or not. you still love despite everything. despite the black film you've convinced yourself you have over your heart. you've been gambled on. sport turned to fight to the death. the losing dog and winning dog and good dogs know how to sit and not bite the hand that feeds. but the hand tugs at the collar too tight around your neck that you wear so that others don't have to. perhaps it's time to let go of the collar and free yourself from these dog fights. live out the peace you always wanted.

tagged by: @nazorneku tagging: you