Candy Hearts reveal

[cyphomandra]

I completely failed to do a recs post before reveals, partly because I read randomly through the collection on my phone without taking notes but mostly because I could not work out a way to gush about my gift and all my feelings about FFVII without making it look startlingly obvious that I was ignoring two of the three other FFVII fics in the collection, both of which I wrote :D There are many great non FFVII fics in there and I am still ploughing through.

My assignment - my recipient had all sorts of great prompts and pairings for FFVII, both OG and Remake/Rebirth. I dithered for a bit because Barret/Cloud is very appealing, but I really wanted to give Roche/Cloud a go, and I loved the idea of a bittersweet moment between them after Roche turns, so I went for that. I then dithered some more because I had the same block I had when writing for Dungeon Crawler Carl for Yuletide, namely a deep conviction that I could not get Roche’s distinctive voice right (likewise Donut), but eventually got over myself and had written most of the fic by deadline. I then dumped it all on the obliging but fandom-naive china_shop to fix all my unnecessary commas and convoluted sentences.

Running on Empty (3145 words) by Cyphomandra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth (Video Games 2020-2024)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Roche & Cloud Strife, Roche/Cloud Strife
Characters: Roche (Compilation of FFVII), Cloud Strife, Sephiroth (Compilation of FFVII), Yuffie Kisaragi
Additional Tags: Missing Scene, Canon Compliant, Motorcycles, Angst
Summary:

Cloud and Roche, off-screen; from Junon to Nibelheim.

I’d been keeping an eye on the pinch hits, and an FFVII one that I’d liked the look of when signing up came back on the 11th of Feb as a post-deadline pinch hit. I had not quite finished my assignment but it was sooo tempting (Zack & Cloud! Recipient liked Cloud whump and dark fic and intense emotions) so I snaffled it. I had about 600 words written by the pinch hit deadline and then wrote another 9K in the next 2 & 1/2 days, omg. I finished it less than an hour before the collection opened. It got a very light beta from a friend but I will go back through it again once I have more distance.

Some Kind of Pain (9994 words) by Cyphomandra
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth (Video Games 2020-2024)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cloud Strife & Zack Fair, Cloud Strife/Zack Fair
Characters: Cloud Strife, Zack Fair, Hojo (Compilation of FFVII)
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Medical Experimentation, Human Experimentation, Warning: Hojo (Compilation of FFVII), Cloud Strife Whump, Pre-Canon, Canon Compliant, pretty dark, Hurt No Comfort
Summary:

In the lab, after Nibelheim.

Well, my sense of humanity has gone down the drain
Behind every beautiful thing there's been some kind of pain
[..]
Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear
It's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there.

- Not Dark Yet, Bob Dylan

I did very little else over that weekend other than eat, sleep, and wrangle the children, but I did go and see A Complete Unknown, which is probably why I ended up with a Dylan song for the pinch-hit title (not, however, one that was in the film. Did I like the film? Yes - my mother is a massive Dylan fan so I grew up on a lot of the songs, and I thought the acting was great, but ultimately the title is all too appropriate and I don’t think I’d rewatch it). I have so much more to say about FFVII and have several thousand words already of Cloud & Zack escaping the lab but at least now I can do this in a slightly more relaxed manner. I am also tempted to do sequels for both gift fics.

And at reveals I discovered that my pinch hit recipient was also my gift fic author, which was just the cherry on top of a great exchange experience :D

Comments

[garonne]

I could not work out a way to gush about my gift and all my feelings about FFVII without making it look startlingly obvious that I was ignoring two of the three other FFVII fics in the collection, both of which I wrote.

Haha, yes, I had pretty much the same problem, for another fandom :D Thank goodness reveals eventually come! But of course it is fun to do everything possible to maintain anonymity in the meantime.

And at reveals I discovered that my pinch hit recipient was also my gift fic author.

Oh, how neat.

[cyphomandra]

Ha it is tricky! I really enjoyed your fics!