Hey there Meteorites! We’re just over a week out from the turn in date for this year’s exchange. How is everyone doing? Don’t forget, the discord is open if you need somewhere to chat about things (just message for an invite, as bots are an issue) as is my inbox/discord.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
My @ff7central Fanworks Exchange piece, written for @grindel-works! I took the prompt
‘...a day in the life of those involved directly with the Jenova Project...’
and knew exactly who I was going to focus on for that tumultuous time. I hope you enjoy this glimpse into an evening of Jenova-sitting and introspection with Dr. Lucrecia Crescent. ♥
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
My piece for the FF7 Fanworks Exchange '16, dedicated to the lovely AshleyReyland! Her prompt was “Turk Family things!”
Tumblr Mirror below the cut~
Vacations
TheRedHero11037
Summary: Elena goes on her first vacation as a Turk. It's up to Tseng, Reno, and Rude to make her enjoy it, even if it's just travelling!
Elena was absolutely a worthy member of the Department of Administrative Research. She was incredibly successful in missions, highly competent with explosives, and strongly driven to be the absolute best of the Turks. Her perfect had brought her to the side of Rufus Shinra, and she fit perfectly in with the other members of his team. Elena worked alongside Tseng, Rude, and Reno and quickly bonded with them. However, it was obvious that Elena still hadn’t grasped some of the workings of the Turks.
Namely, vacations.
Elena sat straight and stiff in her seat on the plane. Next to her was Reno, who was sprawled over his seat in bliss. He rested his feet on the back of the seat in front of him and sighed with happiness before stuffing his face with one of the fancy imported chocolates he’d bought at the airport. It made for a wonderful contrast, but Elena wasn’t exactly in the mood for enjoying the organic art.
“Relax,” spoke Tseng from the other side of her. Even his tie was undone.
“Easier said than done,” Elena grumbled.
The plane ride was excruciatingly long. Elena hated every minute of it. Reno offered her some of the champagne he ordered, but she didn’t drink on planes.
Touching down in Costa del Sol was the best feeling in the world after 8 hours straight of drunk Reno, snoring Rude, and a Tseng that didn’t seem to care at all. He was even smiling. Since when did Tseng smile? Not that she wasn’t happy to see him happy. Much the opposite, actually; he always seemed far too stressed for his own good. If Tseng could enjoy a vacation, maybe she could too.
Getting through the rest of the airport was boring, uneventful, and in Elena’s opinion, a complete waste of time. They could have just taken the chopper. Why didn’t they? Then they wouldn’t have to go through the annoying TSA. Rude looked just as annoyed as she did. What was the point of this?
Rude placed a hand on her shoulder. “The chopper is for work only, unfortunately. We would have taken it if we could,” he told her.
“How did you--”
“You’ve been steaming mad since we got to baggage claim. It’s pretty obvious what you’re thinking.” Rude patted her shoulder. “Everyone hates the airport, honestly. It’s a big hassle.”
Rude stepped away to grab some of their suitcases, and Reno took his place.
“Elena, I can’t believe I’ve never asked you this. It’s like I haven’t properly welcomed you to the family.”
This bodes well. Elena wasn’t in the mood to make the effort to push Reno away. In fact, it was actually kind of nice to hear that the Turks were a family.
Reno slapped her back. “Alright. So the dot on Tseng’s forehead, right? What do you think it is? Bindi or mole?”
“Wait, bindi? Bindis aren’t Wutaian.”
Reno shrugged. “It was Rude’s guess.”
“Are those my only options?”
Reno shook his head. “You can say anything you want. Rufus guessed it was a zit, but zits don’t last that long.”
“Then my guess is a tilak. I assume that’s what Rude was trying to go for.”
Reno gave an over-exaggerated sagely nod. “Nice guess! Very interesting.”
“What’s the most interesting one you’ve ever gotten?” Elena asked.
“There was one guy who told me that that’s what the mark of exile from Wutai looked like,” Reno told her.
“Hey,” Tseng spoke from behind them. Reno and Elena both jumped in surprise. Tseng motioned to the suitcases at his side. “We’re leaving now. Are you ready?”
Elena checked the baggage claim conveyor. She’d been so wrapped up in what Reno said that she’d forgotten to even look for her bag. “Wait, I didn’t get my bag.”
“Rude has it.” Tseng pointed to Rude, who had taken a place near the car rental area with a luggage cart piled high with their luggage. Indeed, Elena’s bright purple bags shone from their place at the top of the pile.
“Oh.” She smiled. “Thank you.”
Tseng returned the smile. “No problem.”
From there, it was off to the hotel. Elena was looking forward to actually sleeping in a bed. As they checked in, Reno informed her that they had a suite.
“And it’s huge,” Reno swooned. “Big enough for the whole family to share without getting in each other’s way!”
“Sounds nice,” Elena murmured. “Beach front view?”
“Oh hell yeah,” Reno told her. “Gets the best sunsets ever.”
Reno continued to blab about the suite even as they climbed the stairs to get there. Elena didn’t even mind. In fact, she was actually starting to enjoy this. A vacation with the Turks definitely wasn’t a bad thing.
As Tseng wrestled with the lock on the suite’s door, Elena checked her watch. Was it really only 11:28? She was absolutely exhausted! Usually, Elena didn’t go to bed until at least one in the morning. She yawned, and the yawn quickly seemed to spread to everyone. Despite their upbeat attitude, the day had obviously taken its toll on all of them, too.
The door opened and immediately Reno dive-bombed onto the massive bed in front of the massive windows with a view of the beach. Tseng and Rude joined him as Elena closed and locked the door.
She chuckled at the sight of all three of them cozied up together on the bed. There was still a good amount of space left. “I’m gonna go sleep in the other bed.”
“What other bed?” Reno asked. “This is the only bed.”
“If you want the pull-out couch, Rude can help,” Tseng put in.
“No I won’t,” Rude replied, wrapped in blankets. “I’m down for the night. Just sleep here like everyone else.”
“What?!” Elena exclaimed. “You’re all sleeping there?!”
“We always cuddle on vacation,” Tseng informed her. “It’s sort of become a Turk tradition.”
“Seriously?”
“Mhm,” came Rude’s voice from a huge mass of pillow and blanket.
“Come on, Elena, it’s tradition,” Reno assured her. “If there’s a Turk who hasn’t shared a bed with their comrades, then they are no true Turk.”
Elena sighed. She was exhausted, and the bed was big enough for all four of them (somehow). She clambered on to the enormous mattress and took a spot near the edge of the bed. Reno cheered softly from his spot on the far side of Rude. Rude nodded with approval. “Congratulations,” murmured Tseng. “You’re a real Turk.”
Elena fell asleep quickly with all the others nearby. It was good to be a Turk.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
My entry for FF7Central’s yearly exchange. LicoriceAllSorts wanted where Rude draws the line. What we ended up with was where he tries to draw the line between work and family, and how that line breaks down over time.
There are two things you need to know before I get to details:
FF7Central is still here, and isn’t going anywhere unless something happens to Tumblr
I don’t think Tumblr is going anywhere in the immediate future
Alright! So, if nothing else I think everyone here knows that FF7C exists in the hope of helping draw the fandom together. To encourage the sharing of content, to help people to connect with other fans, to encourage us to continue to grow and thrive as a fandom.
Right now, Tumblr is a great place to do this. As far as I know, Tumblr is considered THE place to do this, at the moment. I have no desire to leave Tumblr, I’m hoping this measure ends up being entirely unnecessary, not the least of which because I really don’t know about Dreamwidth and am only doing this because I’m really adamant about keeping our community in touch with each other.
But there’s been a little bit of a scare over Tumblr’s future, and looking back at the way things like Geocites and Livejournal went, I think that perhaps it would be wise to have a backup location that is firmly fandom-positive, where people can reach out to each other again if there’s a shakeup. My answer to that is to host a community on Dreamwidth.
I would like to point out immediately that I’m not particularly DW savvy, this is a learning curve. And that community is not at this time intended to overtake things here. The goal of it is simple: have a backup space to find each other, a place to share where you and your works can be found once again.
I would love to converse with anyone Dreamwidth savvy, I’m currently paging through @dreamwidth-help and trying to learn as I back my own stuff up. In the meantime it does, at least, exist. It’s bare bones, it’s rather rough, but it’s a safety net in place for our fandom. Whatever happens, let’s not lose the friends we’ve made along the way, and let’s continue to make new ones.
Please do signal boost this through the fandom, and let me know if anyone else has taken any similar measures.