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planetsxend · 4 years

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“Moist”

@sweettifalockhart issued the writing challenge: moist. I posted a snippet so I’d stay on track, and hell did I stay on track. Probably OOC in places, but that hasn’t stopped me writing before :P Reno/Tifa below the cut, set very loosely in the tie between OG/Remake & AC

1 year, 4 months, 2 weeks, 3 days after The Plate

“- and then she threw me out the bar! Literally threw me. How is that even possible?”

“... It’s Tifa,” Rude says, as if that explains everything from gravity’s pull to the magic show of pigs suddenly sprouting wings and taking to the sky (although that wouldn’t be magic so much as fucking freaky who has the alien head this time?). “Would’ve paid for a video,” his partner’s quiet addition, the bare bones of a smirk flirting with his mouth and Reno well - he can’t let that one go unchallenged. The bastard doesn’t even startle when the elastic band pings off his shades. Hmmph.

He grumbles some more, under his breath, and he’s well-versed in the feeling of eyes on him, knows Rude’s picked up on the fact he’s legitimately out of sorts with this recent development. Knows that behind those shades, Rude’s staring at him, measuring the weight of each word on his tongue before lending voice to it.

“Either start talking or start writing. This paperwork isn’t going to finish itself.”

“There’re memories in that bar,” Reno replies, the last he’ll say on the matter simply because it covers the entirety of his discomfiture.

~ ~ ~

7 months, 3 days after The Plate

It’s the first he’s properly laid eyes on her since... since The Plate and he slinks in like a cat on the scavenge, well aware there’s a dispute in his very near future the further in he goes, vividly aware he’s out of his depth. He’s still got a sharp smart in his ribs to prove just how hard she punches on a bad day. But here, now, on her turf? Where every territorial instinct she has will be on red alert the second she clocks him? Where every protective instinct will kick into high gear the second she recognises a threat? He’s gonna wind up with his face smashed in and a couple teeth knocked loose and he’ll probably roll over and thank her for it after.

Better than the guilt gnawing him open from the inside out, right?

Sure enough, he’s not even singled out the quietest corner when she spots him, and because he keeps bouncing between where to sit and where’s the danger, he sees it. The smile for her patrons vanishes so fast he might as well have smacked it off her, face settling into an expression carved from stone. Empty. Blank. Carefully so, but she can’t do shit about her eyes. They burn, even as her spine snaps straight and her chin lifts just so.

A challenge he doesn’t meet. A challenge he can’t back down from, either. His own issued when he approaches her directly, well and truly in the lion’s den.

“What do you want?” She spits, and if words were acid he’d be stripped to the bone in seconds. A lesser man would flinch, and a smarter man would leave, but neither man is him and so he slaps on a smirk and replies cool as Shiva’s kiss - he’d like a drink, if you please. He sure as shit doesn’t imagine the creak of leather around her fists, but she’s a gracious host, and everyone’s welcome in Seventh Heaven, she can’t go around denying customers willy nilly without consequences.

He’s actually surprised when he survives that first drink, never mind the entire goddamn night.

7 months, 2 weeks, 5 days after The Plate

It’s almost a game between them a few weeks later, this animosity. Every night he intrudes on her space and every night she’ll hiss at him like she’s ready to claw his face off. Sometimes he’ll get blackout drunk and someone has the decency to phone Rude to cart his ass back home, sometimes he doesn’t and he’ll nurse one drink the entire night, every second under the same roof as her an agony. When will she do it, he wonders. When will she snap? When will that practised calm give out in favour of confronting him? Just what the fuck is it gonna take?

He’s not drunk tonight, just on the wrong side of tipsy, weaving one way on his stool then jerking centre and weaving the other. Loose-lipped, too, if anyone thought to talk to him, but the suit keeps most folk at a respectable distance. She comes at him when most of the regulars clear out and over the blast of the jukebox he thinks fuckin’ finally.

‘Cept she slams a glass of water down in front of him, sloshes some of it over his hand for good measure. And while he swears and trips over his own tongue and waves his hand around and wipes it down with the stupid fuckin’ square Tseng always insists on cramming into his breast pocket, she parks her ass down opposite him, and jams both elbows down on the table. There’s no warning creak this time, because her hands are bare of their usual gloves, and the fire in her eyes isn’t quite so bright tonight.

The hell?

“Why do you keep coming here, Reno?” She asks, and if anything should catch him off guard maybe it should be that she remembers his name. Instead, it’s her tone, the tired quality to it curling ‘round the words and robbing them of the caustic bite she usually keeps in reserve all for him. Like she’s as weary to the bone as he is. Like she’s beaten down and wrung out and barely hanging on by the tips of her fingers.

Like maybe - just maybe - she’s in the same boat as him.

You got snarlin’ little beasties crawling around in your head, too?

But he doesn’t ask that, it’s early days yet, right? She’s more liable to smash the glass on his head and jab him in the eye with one of the resulting pointy bits, right? So he looks at her instead, fighter-turned-bartender, damaged soul under all that easy charm, and lets his own trademark smirk fall just a little. Just enough to clue her in on his little secret - I know the taste of regret, and it sure is bitter.

“To drink. To forget.”

~ ~ ~

It doesn’t make things right between them, not by a long shot. But the water’s her white flag, and his truth an apology. It’s a step in some direction, maybe not the right one.

9 months, 1 week after The Plate

She asks him about it eventually, just like he knew she would. She’s a blunt woman, Tifa, when it comes down to the nitty gritty details. Her patience has its limits and beating around the bush as they are, tolerating one another as they are... something has to give somewhere. So she asks him. About it. About The Plate.

Such a simple question, really. Do you regret it?

Does he have an answer for it? Oh sure, he has an answer alright. Yes. Yes he regrets it, every damn time he thinks about it his stomach curdles and his skin goes clammy. So many questions circling his head ‘til he’s dizzy: was it necessary? Was it worth it? How many died? How many people suffered - trapped under crushing weight, their last moments ones of terror and darkness and indescribable pain? How many begged for help on their last breath? How many stretched out broken hands in the hope someone beyond the rubble would grab on and help them free? How many people ripped apart? How many families struck from the census records in one fell swoop? What were their names? Their ages? How many kids died that night?

“Yeah,” he says instead, voice wavering under all that strain locked up inside his skull, queasy and not from the food he’d ordered (still not poisoned, she’s out of her goddamn mind). He doesn’t know what he looks like in that moment - can’t stand to look in mirrors much these days except to scrape the scruff off his chops in the morning - but she does. Tifa looks at him then and sees whatever he can’t smother, standard Turk mask of indifference be damned, and a switch flips between them. Animosity to understanding.

There should be surprise when she closes the bar early, promising discounts for the inconvenience, when she sets a bottle of hard liquor by his plate... and two glasses. Instead he musters up the ghost of a smile and leans back - almost makes an ass of himself toppling right over, but hey, the reflexes have saved him from worse (like Strife’s sword) - daring to drag his eyes from her face to her waist and back up again. “Come to confess to the big bad wolf, doll?”

“Eat a dick, Turk,” she snaps back and twists the cap open, sealing their fate.

~ ~ ~

“We, I, killed people, too... when we... blew up the Reactors. Maybe not... maybe not every life lost was immediate but... the riots, the robberies, the people dying at home because their heating went out and never came back on again. I don’t know how many deaths can be traced back to my hands.”

“That’s not the same as-”

“Does the how really matter, Reno? People died. By our actions. By our choices. That is the burden we bear.”

~ ~ ~

He comes awake the following morning to the unforgiving thump of a combat boot in the ribs, and bright sunlight stabbing a thousand daggers into his eyeballs, and a behemoth using his head as a chew toy. It’s Strife above him, hands on the table he’s shoved aside to get to him, baby blues gone dark and thunderous and hell if that ain’t a safe wake-up call. From his left somewhere a pitiful moan as Tifa rouses, and Murder Face turns his attention elsewhere, moves in her direction, giving Reno just enough space to try and get his legs under him. Where are his legs again? His - where the fuck’s his shoe?

“What did you do this time?” Rude asks the second the call connects as he trips his way out the bar, and all Reno can manage without upsetting his entire lack of balance is a raspy laugh and cradling his head in his free hand.

“Made a mess, prob’ly.”

11 months, 1 week, 4 days after The Plate

“Are you asking me out?” Really, she doesn’t need to look so suspicious. What’s he gonna do, chuck her in a chopper and fly her across the continent? Avalanche’d kill him deader than dead in two seconds flat. Still, she’s not exactly wrong, which. Yeah, okay, this isn’t one of his better ideas by far but. Hm.

“No? Figured it’d be a better bonding experience if we had a chat while stone cold sober, is all. You like coffee?”

“Who doesn’t?”

“Tseng.”

Call him crazy, but her laugh sounds less hollow than he’s ever heard it.

~ ~ ~

Marlene nails him in the back of the hand with a fork and Denzel gets melon juice all down his shirt. Accidental his ass.

At least Strife is upfront with his threats of bodily harm if he breaks Tifa’s heart.

1 year, 2 months, 3 weeks after The Plate

The next time they wind up under what he’s dubbed their table, alcohol has absolutely nothing to do with it... Well. Except for the sticky residue he can taste on her fingers.

He has enough common sense to make sure they drag their asses upstairs and to her bedroom before dawn. Enhanced senses must suck balls, though, because when Strife drops by the following afternoon he doesn’t even bat an eye at Reno’s perch at the bar (munching away at the remnants of a fruit salad the brats didn’t take to school), but he does when he gets closer and breathes. His nose scrunches up as he sniffs in Reno’s direction like a dog - or that snarling wolf emblem he’s so fond of slapping on anything he can get his hands on - and darts those baby blues between his shit-eating grin and Tifa raised brow. Try me, that look says, complete with the casual gathering of her hair into a high ponytail, the flex of her fingers after it. Do they smell of each other, then? How cute.

“... I don’t even wanna know,” Strife eventually says, and Reno laughs.

1 year, 4 months, 2 weeks, 3 days after The Plate

The punch she lands smack on his left pectoral is a love tap compared to what she’s capable of, and instead of the fire he’s half-expecting there’s... mischief in her gaze.

“Tifa -”

“Never say that word in my bar again, Reno, or I’ll ban you permanently.”

“Yes Ma’am, lesson learned.”

“I might even ban Rufus, too. Make sure the lesson really sticks.”

“Aw naw, c’mon! That’s hitting below the belt!”

“Please. We both know you’d be sobbing on the floor if I did that.”

He pouts (she does have a point). Tifa laughs. It’s fast becoming his most favourite sound in the world.

#sweettifalockhart #stories for your ears only writing #can this even be called a drabble? What word count qualifies as that iahufhesuhffhrhg

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artistformerlyknownasbutttrumpet · 6 years

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hey is it just me or is your Fic Recs page not working? i could really use some wolfstar recs if you dont mind, the longer the better :)

(i accidentally deleted this the first time, right before i was done, and right when i thought to myself “wow, i hope i don’t accidentally delete this” so you better appreciate the suffering i went through for this)

i fixed the rec page problem, i think, but i haven’t really recc’d on there in ages, but lucky for you, i popped a vyvanse and am hyper-focusing like a lunatic, so here’s a neatly organized rec list, just for you

my personal favorites:

coming down is my all-time favorite. it’s actually more lily-centric, but it’s still got wolfstar, and it’s got jily, and mental illness, and suffering, and redemption, and just everything i love balled up into one convenient fic, and i just. love it so much

a cure for nightmares is always gonna make this list. an oldie but a goodie

blends is a current favorite. it’s The Mother of all slow-burn fics, and when you finally get to the get-together part, you feel like you’re orgasming right along with them. the author is working on a companion piece, and every day it’s not posted i lose 69 minutes off my life

(text talk and shoebox are on here too, ofc, but if you haven’t read those, then idk where you’ve been all your life. if you somehow have missed them get on that, if only because these are like, The fandom classics)

au; non-magic (fair warning, i read these almost exclusively, so this list is going to be the longest):

time is a fine invention is the one i’m currently rereading. it has been criticized for having a remus who is too…ig, severe, for want of a better word, but i personally feel like i could have ghostwrote him, he’s so perfect. no author has captured my sarcastic, piece of shit son better, and for that alone, i love this fic

long live living (if living can be called this) is one that makes the fic rec rounds a lot, but in case you’ve missed it, it’s a fun one

hard to find is one that i rad a long time ago, and then forgot about, and then tried to find again, but couldn’t. finally, someone on here found it for me, and i lol’d a lot when i realized the title was “hard to find.” the dialogue is written incorrectly, which is my number one writing pet-peeve, and i’ve still read it twice, so you know it’s good

texas never whispers is a weird one. it takes place in the united states (hence, texas), which i’m always wary of, and the fic itself is kind of an acquired taste; one i happen to have. there’s a lot of drugs and angst, which, you know, totally my jam, but not evreyone’s. read at your own discretion, but it’s not that long, so if you end up not liking it, no harm no foul, really

textually active is like, 90% memes, and kind of makes me want to rip my hair out as a result, but im always a slut for texting fics, soooooo (i actually just realized they posted the final chapter, i need to go read that)

another day in the sun was recc’d to me by the eternally lovely @braveremus like, three years ago. it’s very angsty :) :) :)

palo alto is one i haven’t actually read. i started it, got distracted, and then nevr finished it. but i love @nachodiablo (even if they made sirius vape, i distinctly remember that, friend why :/ ), and @iwontscreaminmyhead recc’d it to me the other day, so i’ve been thinking of giving it another shot, probably whenever i finish rereading “time is a fine invention,” so we can read it together, and i’ll give it a nice glowing review when i’m done

aus; magic:

all i got for this are the maddest house and stealing harry, which are both raising harry aus, and are also pretty well-known, so sorry if you’ve already read them

canon; marauder’s era:

so you want to transfigure yourself a rock band is a delightful and fun read that’s a nice palate cleanser between the angst

gah! just under the wire is some classic marauder’s era get-together pr0n (i just channeled 2008 to write that)

our blood, still young is one i know i’ve read, possibly twice, but it’s been so long i forget a lot of the details. it’s in my bookmarks, tho, and i don’t bookmark willy-nilly, so it must be decent. (i have a distinct memory of naked lake swimming, but i may be crossing my fics?)

a lie gets halfway around the school before the truth has a chance to get its pants on by fallout boy (is that how that joke works? i wasn’t an emo kid, i just know memes.) this is another one that i read a long time ago and don’t remember very well. i seem to recall it being funny? read it and remind me

canon; other:

yeah, i got nothin’. i used to have some siriusly heart-wrenching first-wizarding war and post-azkaban fics, but they got lost when i accidentally deleted my bookmarks like, two years ago (rip). i haven’t had the courage to go back and search for them again, bc, between you and me, as much as i love angst, canon wolfstar is actually almost too sad for me to handle, lmao

alright, hope that tides you over for a bit. i actually really need some new recs too, so keep the love going, peeps, and toss me some of your own!

#i have to pee #so badly #but i had to finish this #im so mad i deleted it the first time lol #it was right after i thought to myself #'wow i hope i don't accidentally delete this'#so ig it was inevitable #but still #anyway #anon #ask #wolfstar #wolfstar fic #hp #diz does fic shit

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uniformbravo · 6 years

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reading the hitball arc my brain is picking up so many little bits of info but has no idea how to put them all together to form any kind of coherent analysis (cue me rambling aimlessly as i try 2 find that thesis statement) ((this devolved into garbled passionate yelling real quick))

previously “established” in another “text post” i made “a few months ago”: during the game max is wearing wristbands, one blue and one red, which for the sake of this thought process i take to represent max n johnny respectively

also went over how max switching both wristbands to the same arm post-game ~symbolically~ parallels him & johnny having worked together to defeat hijack & come to understand each other a little better & the bands being on the same arm now represents them being on the same team/side

at one point during the game max gets all shaken up abt having dodged one of hijeff’s earlier attacks instead of like standing his ground i guess?? putting himself before his teammates??? am i interpreting this right i feel like im missing smth

one of the key pieces of the game is the golden switch, a ball that has the power to make anyone hit by it switch teams & join sides with the one who threw it at them. this is the ball used in the final play of the game in which max and johnny work together to take down hijeff for good

in said final play, 1) the golden switch hits max, probably symbolic of smth, & 2) breaks one of his arms, the one w/ the blue wristband- based on the color theory i feel like this should also be symbolic of smth somehow ?? max making a sacrifice in order to become a team w/ johnny?? a self-sacrifice??? is the injury representative of itself???? is it literally just as simple as “max is the one that got hurt so the arm w/ the blue band gets broken” ????? but throughout this entire comic thus far max has been first and foremost his own top priority meaning that he doesn’t do anything for anyone else unless there’s something in it for him, he’s not the type of guy to make sacrifices for other people, or more specifically for “The Greater Good” and, considering how shaken up he got earlier about instinctively jumping out of the way of hijeff’s attack while everyone else jumped right in its path to protect each other, it’s kind of a big deal for him to now be putting himself directly in harm’s way instead of like finagling the situation into making johnny the throwaway instead (esp bc max has every reason to believe johnny deserves to have pain inflicted on him more anyway) so maybe the break represents some kind of shattered mindset that he had to undergo in order to then effectively team up w/ johnny??? which would make the metaphor like

1) max n johnny r Enemies who Fight (wristbands on separate arms) 2) max has the sudden realization that johnny is Upstaging him by Caring About and Defending His Friends & generally being a lot braver than him and that he needs to Step Up His Game in response (arm gets broken) 3) now that max has that new resolve he n johnny join forces & also like understand each other a lil better?? due to working together??? (blue wristband gets moved over to other arm w/ red one bc of the injury)

or something????

srsly tho back to the golden switch & the last play im like?? there HAs to be smth here ok it’s this magical ball that represents switching sides or changing perspective or whatever idk!! & then at the v end of the game it’s like.,., li kE ok hijeff has the ball & he throws it at max: 2 things can happen here, either max gets hit cleanly and has to switch to hijeff’s side, or johnny catches it & the rest of their team gets to come back from the dead, right. as per the rules of the game. OR Lri lieke like ok hear mee out i mfuCKING liSTEN

hijeff is EXPECTIGN max 2 jump out of the way like he did before right. RIght! but max had that uthfukgning Change Of Heart or whatever where ehs like “o shit johnny is like honorable or whatever & im a coward” so this time he s NOT a coward & he takes the hit & it’s like!! mad character development!! right in this arc ohm y god

but then like therehas to be smth symbolic abt this ball like it has its own goddamn Prop Design it could have just been any plain ass Dogd=ge Ball there didnt even Have to be a golden switch in the first place but THERE IS so it HAS to be important to the stroyr RIGHT it’s njot just a gimmick 2 make the game more interesting rgiht theres SymbolisM AfooT

so theyre usin this SPECIAL ASS BALL right in the END of the Game the CLIMAX if u will & like up until now max & johnny have been having a Couple conversations that arenyt like “gimme ur lunch money” type convos like they usually have, theyre actually lik e Supportin Each Other???? it’s rly good but OK right at the last play is when theyre finally just like it’s Only the two of them left & so they have to do a THing together in order to win like it’s JUST tTHem right!!!

so max devises his Smart Boy Plan & gets hijeff right where he wants him adn!!! the SWITCH that hijeff was like, totally meaning for to hit johnny with,. max stays RIGHT THERE and lets it HIT HIM aND YEA YEA RIGHT WE ON TO SMTHINg irhtgt sO it’s already hit max at this point right so it’s fukiggng like, , it’s like, IF the ball just flies off & hits the wall & the ground then max is FUKCED he has to go over to hijeff’s team but INSTEAdD he TRUSTS JOHNNY 2 CATCH THE BALL ad johnny is like standing behind him?????? theyr both facing hijeff & max is in ftont so he isnst even LOOKING he just TRUSTS that his plan will work & johnny will HAVE HIS BACK n catch the ball & seal hijeff’s doom imM FUCKIGNG OOOOO BOIYS WE GOT IT WE GFUKINGG HAVE THEHEH

SSO THE BALL IS MAYBE LIKE??? jfuk i mlosing it its juking me oh god oh no but lIKE? it dEFNITELY has smth to do with the ball bein about switchin g sides & max Almost havin to switch sides but then johnny’s like “Not On mY Watch” but then also they kinda switched to each others side and ALSO SALSO I FORGOT TO MENTION ABT HOW JOHNN Y WAS THE ONE WHO THREW THE BALL IN THE 1ST PLACE AT MAX 2 GET HIM TO JOIN HIS TEAM????? max was just FUCKING AROUND in some corner w/ suzy n collin & johnny was like *EYES ZOOM IN* & NAILED HIM W/ IT u can NOT tell me he wasnt aimign for max ok that ball went SCHLOOP right into his head, balls dont just fly around all willy nilly ok u throw a ball in a STRAIGHT LINE & it goes STRAIGHT & it wasnt bad aim bc johnny was picked to be team leader bc he’s like GOod at shit oK strong boy good at PE he was the other alpha next 2 isabel at the beginning of class he knew EXACTLY where hwas throwin that ball & it was At Max’s Head bc he Knew what he Wanted ok!!!!!! glad that’s cleared up!!!!!!!!!!!

IN CONCLUSIOn max & johnny character development GOOD bye

#i lov e max & johnny leave me in pieces............#i couldnt even figure out what i was tryin to figure out in this post but does it even matter anymore???? no #the real pnat analysis was the incoherent yelling we made along the way #thnx fr comin 2 my ted talk (uncut ver)#retag later #pn blogging

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