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clonechildGod, finally finished this. About damn time. Hope's section gave me the most trouble, even though I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it while I had only a vague idea for the others. Well, and Sazh's second part, that one also took me ages. The first three have terribly lame puns on elemental affiliations.
And I'm sort of regretting I couldn't fit this particular TV Tropes insight in Snow's part: Snow's Eidolon is the Farron sisters, and his best bet to impress them is to shut up and take it.
...how typical is it that I can write for this game but not for XII, which is my favourite?
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIII
Characters: Main party and their Eidolons. Contains vague spoilers, but probably nothing explicit enough to actually spoil the story. Canon pairings, i.e. Snow/Serah and Fang/Vanille.
Warnings: mention of attempted suicide. And, as usual, ESL.
Word count: ~1200 words
-- -- --
Odin is like lightning under her skin, a soft crackle of ever-present awareness, dozing but ready to lash out at a moment’s notice. He is a lightning rod when summoned, attracting attention and leaving her to do whatever she wants. She likes the freedom that comes when he heeds her call, feeling the warm metal moving under her and taking her wherever she pleases. Thunder scorches the earth when they fight as one, lights up the sky in blinding flashes.
But for all his power, his solid presence at her back, she does not like to summon him. For when she does, she remembers failure. Sees Serah crystallize before her eyes, sees Hope’s frightened face, Odin’s blade curving down to his trembling body. Odin was called there, at that moment, to remind her of what she was doing – first abandoning her sister, oh serah serah I can never make it up to you enough, and then a little boy that depended on her for survival and she wanted to leave him there, alone all alone in those mountains – and he reminds her of her failings still.
-- -- --
To Snow, Shiva is strength, and support. They are Lightning and Serah, and he never doubts them. He feels them like a cool breeze slipping through his sleeves and in the collar of his coat, but he never needs a scarf. Nix fights alongside him, hurling herself at enemies like she wants to melt into the violence of battle, while Stiria stands back, making sure he is safe and steady on his feet before she casts her chilling spells.
The others don’t… approve, he knows. Lightning gave him a narrow glare the first time he showed them Shiva’s Gestalt appearance, hands clenched at her sides when Shiva blew him a kiss as farewell, and he has not dared to tell her yet that his summon symbolizes the Farron sisters to him. Fang might get a laugh out of it, and as it is, he has caught her sneaking glances, but he values his jaw. But for all Hope’s eye-rolling, Sazh’s tired sighs and Vanille’s raised eyebrows, Snow feels stronger whenever Shiva’s on the field with him. Because they remind him of his promise to Serah, and he is determined to keep it.
-- -- --
Brynhildr is a low, aching burn deep in Sazh’s chest, a strong reminder of all he has lost. Some days, he feels like screaming when Vanille is down and Fang is cheering her up and all he wants to do is rage at them – they have no right to be happy, no right, for all they had done… But it is easy to blame someone, easier to take the simple way out and hate them for what they’d caused even if they hadn’t known. And some days he’s just so tired, Dajh’s frozen crystal smile playing on repeat in his head. At those moments Brynhildr fans the flames of his anger and he hates himself most of all.
But then the chocobo chick playfully bites his ear and hides behind Vanille’s pigtails as he goes chasing after it, the girl giggling and chattering at the little chick as she cups it in the hollow of her hands, Fang looking on with an indulging smile while Lightning impatiently gestures for them to hurry up, and as Sazh joins the others around the campfire the feeling of the smooth, heavy metal of his guns pressed against his temple is for a moment forgotten.
-- -- --
Bahamut is claws around her shoulders, curling to fit. He is the wind in her hair, body shaking with the movement of his powerful wings. He is death and destruction when called to the battlefield, and at those moments Fang thinks see, I can do this on my own. At those moments she wants to jump up on his back and fly away, so she can do what the others don’t. She can’t help but be resentful whenever one of their leads ends up being a dead end. The others are clutching on to their last threads of hope, but Cocoon has never been Fang’s home and she couldn’t care less what happened to it as long as she doesn't have to watch Vanille go Cie’th.
But then the girl in question runs up to her, dragging her along on whatever harebrained scheme she’s thought up next, and Fang just can’t leave her. She can’t. Lightning will invariably be scowling at something Snow has done, Hope clinging to her arm and trying to talk her down while Sazh is throwing his hands into the air and sighing one of his speeches about ‘kids these days’ that they’ve all learned to ignore and they are her friends – her family – and she thinks that maybe, just maybe, they can overcome their destiny.
-- -- --
Alexander’s presence curves around Hope like a warm, protective shell, his gentle strength a mere name call away. Alexander isn’t fast and mobile like the others, isn’t made to move around the battlefield and he will not be able to help Hope escape if they need to make a quick getaway. Instead he’s like a shield, and Hope always feels safe when Alexander is out and he’s free to sling his magic around while Alexander distracts the feral beasts of Pulse and punches them into the air.
Sometimes he can’t help but feel like a burden to the others, all of them so much faster, stronger and more experienced than he is. He knows he’s fragile, needs constant looking after, and Snow and Fang keep taking hits for him. Right now Snow is bleeding heavily, having provoked a Behemoth just before the beast could swipe his claws through Hope, and the boy feels both useless and guilty. He heals Snow’s arm, cringes at the cheery thanks he gets because Snow shouldn’t have to thank him, not when it is Hope’s fault for not being strong enough. But then Alexander gives a gentle thrum just below his skin and he swallows the apology resting on the tip of his tongue and instead says, “Thank you for looking after me.”
-- -- --
Hecatoncheir reminds Vanille of stability, as inane as she knows that it sounds. He is agile and lightning-quick on his feet, shooting at their enemies as fast as he can, all arms spread out. A bit like a hedgehog, if hedgehogs were green and red, had arms for needles. But he is steady like the ground underneath her feet, will always come whenever she needs him. He reminds her of family, and home.
Of the guilt and fear she felt, when Fang told her she knew Vanille’d been lying to her. Together with her focus, Fang is the last thing she has of home, of Oerba, but the first she had wanted to lose and the second she can’t do without. So she’d lied, and now Fang knew. Had known for some time now. Hecatoncheir reminds her of how she felt back then, but mostly of how relieved she had been after Fang forgave her, how warm the other’s arms had been around her back, stroking her hair, the quiet resolve she’d felt then. She may not have been able to keep her promise back on the Palamecia, but she can always try again. And this time it is her turn to protect.
-- -- --
Okay, now follow the BIG SPOILERS about the Eidolon battles in the game.
The datascreen on the Eidolons shows they yield to very interesting things. Most of them have to do with all their main roles, but it plays out in interesting ways. All of their meters increase when you raise the stagger meter, but it also raises to other things:
Shiva appears to test Snow's resolve. He's the type to go barge in, all guns blazing, but in the Shiva battle he needs to do nothing but defend, show patience and take the hits.
Odin appears when Lightning wants to leave Hope behind because she believes he slows her down; his Gestalt meter rises whenever she heals Hope.
Brynhildr appears when Sazh tries to shoot Vanille. Her meter rises whenever he buffs Vanille.
Bahamut appears when Fang decides she will go on alone to destroy Cocoon: she can turtle and debuff him for a little boost to the meter, but because she lacks Ravager, she essentially has to depend on the rest of the party to raise the meter the rest of the way.
Alexander appears when Hope decides he's a burden to the party and tries to get them to leave him behind; his Eidolon battle reaffirms his importance to the rest as a support character: the meter rises whenever he heals and buffs the others. This scene is also the most gentle out of all the Eidolon scenes.
And Hecatoncheir appears when Fang confronts Vanille with her lies, and they fight her summon with only the two of them; his meter rises whenever she debuffs and whenever she heals Fang, supports her.
And I'm sort of regretting I couldn't fit this particular TV Tropes insight in Snow's part: Snow's Eidolon is the Farron sisters, and his best bet to impress them is to shut up and take it.
...how typical is it that I can write for this game but not for XII, which is my favourite?
Fandom: Final Fantasy XIII
Characters: Main party and their Eidolons. Contains vague spoilers, but probably nothing explicit enough to actually spoil the story. Canon pairings, i.e. Snow/Serah and Fang/Vanille.
Warnings: mention of attempted suicide. And, as usual, ESL.
Word count: ~1200 words
-- -- --
Odin is like lightning under her skin, a soft crackle of ever-present awareness, dozing but ready to lash out at a moment’s notice. He is a lightning rod when summoned, attracting attention and leaving her to do whatever she wants. She likes the freedom that comes when he heeds her call, feeling the warm metal moving under her and taking her wherever she pleases. Thunder scorches the earth when they fight as one, lights up the sky in blinding flashes.
But for all his power, his solid presence at her back, she does not like to summon him. For when she does, she remembers failure. Sees Serah crystallize before her eyes, sees Hope’s frightened face, Odin’s blade curving down to his trembling body. Odin was called there, at that moment, to remind her of what she was doing – first abandoning her sister, oh serah serah I can never make it up to you enough, and then a little boy that depended on her for survival and she wanted to leave him there, alone all alone in those mountains – and he reminds her of her failings still.
-- -- --
To Snow, Shiva is strength, and support. They are Lightning and Serah, and he never doubts them. He feels them like a cool breeze slipping through his sleeves and in the collar of his coat, but he never needs a scarf. Nix fights alongside him, hurling herself at enemies like she wants to melt into the violence of battle, while Stiria stands back, making sure he is safe and steady on his feet before she casts her chilling spells.
The others don’t… approve, he knows. Lightning gave him a narrow glare the first time he showed them Shiva’s Gestalt appearance, hands clenched at her sides when Shiva blew him a kiss as farewell, and he has not dared to tell her yet that his summon symbolizes the Farron sisters to him. Fang might get a laugh out of it, and as it is, he has caught her sneaking glances, but he values his jaw. But for all Hope’s eye-rolling, Sazh’s tired sighs and Vanille’s raised eyebrows, Snow feels stronger whenever Shiva’s on the field with him. Because they remind him of his promise to Serah, and he is determined to keep it.
-- -- --
Brynhildr is a low, aching burn deep in Sazh’s chest, a strong reminder of all he has lost. Some days, he feels like screaming when Vanille is down and Fang is cheering her up and all he wants to do is rage at them – they have no right to be happy, no right, for all they had done… But it is easy to blame someone, easier to take the simple way out and hate them for what they’d caused even if they hadn’t known. And some days he’s just so tired, Dajh’s frozen crystal smile playing on repeat in his head. At those moments Brynhildr fans the flames of his anger and he hates himself most of all.
But then the chocobo chick playfully bites his ear and hides behind Vanille’s pigtails as he goes chasing after it, the girl giggling and chattering at the little chick as she cups it in the hollow of her hands, Fang looking on with an indulging smile while Lightning impatiently gestures for them to hurry up, and as Sazh joins the others around the campfire the feeling of the smooth, heavy metal of his guns pressed against his temple is for a moment forgotten.
-- -- --
Bahamut is claws around her shoulders, curling to fit. He is the wind in her hair, body shaking with the movement of his powerful wings. He is death and destruction when called to the battlefield, and at those moments Fang thinks see, I can do this on my own. At those moments she wants to jump up on his back and fly away, so she can do what the others don’t. She can’t help but be resentful whenever one of their leads ends up being a dead end. The others are clutching on to their last threads of hope, but Cocoon has never been Fang’s home and she couldn’t care less what happened to it as long as she doesn't have to watch Vanille go Cie’th.
But then the girl in question runs up to her, dragging her along on whatever harebrained scheme she’s thought up next, and Fang just can’t leave her. She can’t. Lightning will invariably be scowling at something Snow has done, Hope clinging to her arm and trying to talk her down while Sazh is throwing his hands into the air and sighing one of his speeches about ‘kids these days’ that they’ve all learned to ignore and they are her friends – her family – and she thinks that maybe, just maybe, they can overcome their destiny.
-- -- --
Alexander’s presence curves around Hope like a warm, protective shell, his gentle strength a mere name call away. Alexander isn’t fast and mobile like the others, isn’t made to move around the battlefield and he will not be able to help Hope escape if they need to make a quick getaway. Instead he’s like a shield, and Hope always feels safe when Alexander is out and he’s free to sling his magic around while Alexander distracts the feral beasts of Pulse and punches them into the air.
Sometimes he can’t help but feel like a burden to the others, all of them so much faster, stronger and more experienced than he is. He knows he’s fragile, needs constant looking after, and Snow and Fang keep taking hits for him. Right now Snow is bleeding heavily, having provoked a Behemoth just before the beast could swipe his claws through Hope, and the boy feels both useless and guilty. He heals Snow’s arm, cringes at the cheery thanks he gets because Snow shouldn’t have to thank him, not when it is Hope’s fault for not being strong enough. But then Alexander gives a gentle thrum just below his skin and he swallows the apology resting on the tip of his tongue and instead says, “Thank you for looking after me.”
-- -- --
Hecatoncheir reminds Vanille of stability, as inane as she knows that it sounds. He is agile and lightning-quick on his feet, shooting at their enemies as fast as he can, all arms spread out. A bit like a hedgehog, if hedgehogs were green and red, had arms for needles. But he is steady like the ground underneath her feet, will always come whenever she needs him. He reminds her of family, and home.
Of the guilt and fear she felt, when Fang told her she knew Vanille’d been lying to her. Together with her focus, Fang is the last thing she has of home, of Oerba, but the first she had wanted to lose and the second she can’t do without. So she’d lied, and now Fang knew. Had known for some time now. Hecatoncheir reminds her of how she felt back then, but mostly of how relieved she had been after Fang forgave her, how warm the other’s arms had been around her back, stroking her hair, the quiet resolve she’d felt then. She may not have been able to keep her promise back on the Palamecia, but she can always try again. And this time it is her turn to protect.
-- -- --
Okay, now follow the BIG SPOILERS about the Eidolon battles in the game.
The datascreen on the Eidolons shows they yield to very interesting things. Most of them have to do with all their main roles, but it plays out in interesting ways. All of their meters increase when you raise the stagger meter, but it also raises to other things:
Shiva appears to test Snow's resolve. He's the type to go barge in, all guns blazing, but in the Shiva battle he needs to do nothing but defend, show patience and take the hits.
Odin appears when Lightning wants to leave Hope behind because she believes he slows her down; his Gestalt meter rises whenever she heals Hope.
Brynhildr appears when Sazh tries to shoot Vanille. Her meter rises whenever he buffs Vanille.
Bahamut appears when Fang decides she will go on alone to destroy Cocoon: she can turtle and debuff him for a little boost to the meter, but because she lacks Ravager, she essentially has to depend on the rest of the party to raise the meter the rest of the way.
Alexander appears when Hope decides he's a burden to the party and tries to get them to leave him behind; his Eidolon battle reaffirms his importance to the rest as a support character: the meter rises whenever he heals and buffs the others. This scene is also the most gentle out of all the Eidolon scenes.
And Hecatoncheir appears when Fang confronts Vanille with her lies, and they fight her summon with only the two of them; his meter rises whenever she debuffs and whenever she heals Fang, supports her.