nagia | (no subject)

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dear watergod please send help

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Dear inspiration,

No, no, no, and no. Also: no. Seriously. I just kicked the two-plus year "angsty/tragic/apocalyptic romance" habit. We are not boarding this train again, and absolutely not with an additional female/female couple.

Okay, yes, canon dictates that any Fang/Vanille will always be bittersweet. But "bittersweet" != "rip your heart out and stomp on it with pretentious disjointed segment fic." That particular shade of destructo romance belongs to Yuffie/Shalua, and now that I've completed "Some Torture of the Heart," Yuffie/Shalua destructromance is old news.

Got it? Good. Now wipe that gDoc and try again, perhaps with an opening line that is NOT devoted to the game ending.

That will be all.

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You could write sexy, sexy au!Fang/Vanille instead! (I. I want F/V fic. Y_Y )

I am painstakingly assembling a voice for Fang, and a sense of who they are, underneath it all, and who they used to be, and how they lived. Fang's... soul, I guess? The general whatever-it-is that makes Fang Fang, she pretty much wears on her sleeve, but her verbal habits are a bit harder to pin down.

As a direct contrast, Vanille's dialogue will be easier to write, but I'm having a hard time pinning down her personality on paper. I've got a sense of constant movement (sometimes physical, sometimes metaphorical) but not much else. I get the impression that she can be dizzying in about six different ways.

I guess what makes it so hard is that I expected her to ping me on a Yuffie level, and she really, really doesn't. Yuffie's a sharp character; you could cut yourself on Yuffie. Vanille... Vanille is one tough chick, when she stands her ground, but she's not sharp the way Yuffie is.

Yeah, I'd call Vanille closest to Rikku (maaaybe Penelo) out of FF characters (I actually think she's closest to Yuzuriha out of all the characters of that archetype I'm familiar with). She can take the emotional beating and come back stronger for it but she's still all softness. Vanille doesn't do critical or judgmental like Yuffie does, unless she's being critical or judgmental of herself.

And with Vanille, she survives on her own just fine, can take care of herself just fine, but she's not really 'herself' unless there are people to care about (and to care about her) around.

Did any of that make sense?

That all makes perfect sense, actually. Thanks so much for pointing that out; it really helped me to put some puzzle pieces together.

Wasn't Oerba very communal? I know they all lived at least 4 to a house...

(As an aside, I think Penelo's a lot more individualistic, or that was the impression I got. Same for Yuffie, actually: most of the genki girls are better at the concrete than the abstract, are more about tangible people than about collective groups of people they haven't met.)

Yeah, Oerba was very communal. Vanille said that all the houses were hers and Fang's when asked, because everyone shared everything.

(I completely agree. Some other differences this brought to mind: Vanille looks outwards for approval first (and is the only character of this archetype I have seen that does). And with Vanille it's like, she doesn't even think about her personal needs. All the other genki girls can and do and put at least some value on what they need, whatever that happens to be. Vanille just doesn't.)

God, using that could make for a really interesting split shot fic: show the Cocoon citizens (and survivng militia) adjusting to Gran Pulse, with snapbacks to Fang, Vanille, and what Oerba was like in its prime.

(Hm, that's a very, VERY good point. Vanille is almost entirely externally focused.

Honestly, even though she looks the youngest of the women, has the slender build of all the other genki girls, and is the most vocally upbeat... I don't think she IS a Final Fantasy Genki Girl. Not in the chewy fruit-juice filled center. Penelo, Rikku and Yuffie were true optimists: they STAYED cheerful in spite of their shitty situations. Vanille puts on a cheerful face, and it's a good one, but it's still pasted on.)

Yes, yes it could.

I agree and disagree with that. I agree that during the course of the game her optimism was almost entirely faked. I also think in better times, she would have been more genuinely upbeat. I think she's weaker than the other genki girls but I don't think she's entirely disqualified because of it.

*wants the Fang/Vanille*

Even if Fang isn't really growing on me yet. I'm still not too far in the game.

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