I started playing Final Fantasy Dissidia recently (specifically NT), and I really like the idea that warriors are summoned throughout the same cycles, and they encounter each other time after time again. I also realize that in NT, Noctis and a few others are newcomers to the cycle, and it made me think about Elyse(OC), and I wondered: what if she got dragged into the cycle between Cosmos and Chaos?
Here’s a dribble of what that would look like:
(This takes place during one of the cycles before NT. NT’s cycle will have a different thing going on)
Elyse wanders the ruins aimlessly, looking for another sign of life or a person to call upon for guidance. It is then in the distance, she sees a familiar figure: tall, dark, and ethereal. The ominous, chaotic energy of where he stands wards her to stay away, unless she wished to be swallowed whole. However, the figure’s silhouette screams something familiar to Elyse, and her gut, yearning to find some familiarity to build upon, gravitates towards it. She approaches gingerly, and sees an ethereal one standing before her: silver hair, long and elegant like his sword, green eyes with pupils she hadn’t seen anyone else wear before, and a pale, muscular build. He was at least a foot taller than Elyse, if not more. While his size dwarfed her own, something in the air was egging her to talk to him. His face in the moment appeared neutral, but she had no idea of the tumultuous feelings that raged in him beneath.
“Who Are you?”
The words gut him internally like a fish, but he dare not show weakness, not here. It wasn’t his problem if she forgot her memories, so why should he care? He was on a quest to gain more power towards godhood.
Because you know her, and it’s not safe out here.
“Your enemy.” Sephiroth answers in a monotone voice. Every trained moment of represseing emotions was going into his tone, and only Gaia would know what happened if he even gave her a hint of who she is, and what she really means to him.
“Woah, I don’t mean any harm…” Elyse cautions, backing up.
“I’m just looking to get to a place called Cosmos Tower.” She adds.
Another dagger in his chest.
Of course Cosmos would summon her, he thinks.
“And I am a Warrior of Chaos. That would make us natural enemies.” Sephiroth responds.
Elyse didn’t like that answer. She could feel that the more he tried to shoo her away, the more she wanted to know why. Elyse’s brows furrow, put off by his coldness.
“Hey, I don’t want to start a fight,” Elyse reiterates. “I was just wondering if anyone else happened to be heading to the Cosmos Tower, but I see you are not. I will leave you be, then. Goodbye.” Elyse says firmly, turning with a quiet huff. Sephiroth wanted to put that attitude of hers to shame, to remind her who she’s talking to, but he stands there, silently watching the mage walk away. If Elyse was going to survive this war, he couldn’t afford to let her indulge in any weaknesses, even if it was the very thing he once found endearing about her. Conflict swirled within Sephiroth’s mind. A part of him was furious at how people got dragged into these things, and out of all the people who could have been summoned to serve Cosmos, it had to be her.
(Like many Dissidia characters: Elyse loses a good chunk of her memories upon the first time being summoned into a cycle, so she doesn’t remember Sephiroth yet 🥲 there’s gonna be a lot of angst in this series)
