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backwatertrooper - Other AU ideas - wing AUs :v- backwatertrooper - More CC AU/alternate plot thing
- backwatertrooper - The Raven AU of CC's plot
- backwatertrooper - Less AU ideas more AU genres
- backwatertrooper - Pet!people AU ideas
- backwatertrooper - Alternate SOLDIER defection idea
- backwatertrooper - KH! AU ideas
- backwatertrooper - More CC AU/pre-Nibelheim variation
- backwatertrooper - Equippable Ally trope AU!
- backwatertrooper - Deity AU
- backwatertrooper - Starfighter AU
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Other AU ideas - wing AUs :v
2016-08-27 19:53 (UTC)Having Jenova in a reactor can't be that good, really, so what if that affected the population of Nibelheim? In particular, children born after Jenova was stored in the reactor sprouted more or less vestigial wings.
Cloud's are small, but otherwise 'perfect'; one at each shoulder, perfectly white. Obviously he can't fly with them, but he can hide them pretty easily (though tanktops are out).
Second possibility:
For whatever reason or justification; Hojo. In this case the wings are full-size, and as yellow as his hair. Please no chocobo jokes. :|
Third possibility:
Talking of actual pet!person AUs, Cloud's wings would be yellow (or maybe that's gold?), midsized - able to hide them under clothes, if a little difficult and easily spotted. He'd basically be a chocobo pet person in this case. (see below for more elaborate ideas)
More CC AU/alternate plot thing
2017-01-16 20:28 (UTC)-The game starts the game - the Fort Tamblin Mission can be the same, since the point of that is Genesis' disappearance and Angeal going AWOL as well. But, instead of finding Genesis copies, Sephiroth and Zack find/fight Ravens instead (which they have no idea what they are, just note that they're enhanced similar to SOLDIERs). Genesis, Hollander and Lazard have decided to join up with AVALANCHE instead of creating a second/third front of war for ShinRa (in itself not a bad strategy if you want to strain ShinRa's resources as much as possible, given).
Lazard might have pointed Genesis towards AVALANCHE/Fuhito subtly, and Genesis thinks a second opinion/whatever is a good idea, and puts some pressure on Hollander. And Genesis does still take some SOLDIERs with him - but since less would probably be willing to defect to AVALANCHE instead of deserting and, supposedly, fight against ShinRa, the mass-desertion event in SOLDIER is a little less wide-reaching. This is still where AVALANCHE gets a huge bunch of their Ravens from, though.
-The Banora mission could probably be similar, with some tweaks - instead of finding Angeal's mother in her house, there's Ravens there (or keep the Genesis encounter with the summon, doesn't matter much). Then lead back to the factory. Gillian Hewely is back here - dead already. Put in a first appearance of Fuhito (the tank can hold a SOLDIER being brainwashed/whatever into a Raven instead of a SOLDIER turning into a Genesis copy), and Angeal crashes the party and makes sure Zack isn't killed while Fuhito escapes. Fight against some more Ravens!
-The assault on ShinRa Tower and Midgar!
The difference is, of course, that it's an AVALANCHE attack. Zack briefly fights against Elfé on Midgar's streets instead of the Genesis copy, Cissnei, lead to the reactor - Zack and Sephiroth's talk in the reactor, skip the SOLDIER/copy in the tank, keep the lab reports that are there as well as the confrontation that leads to Angeal whacking Zack down into the church.
Zack and Aerith meet, this part can stay the same, honestly. Leads into the second half of the assault on Midgar/the tower. Just exchange the enemies on the road for AVALANCHE soldiers and Ravens. Have Zack wonder WTF they are? Angeal gives him a lift to the tower, Zack goes up to protect Hojo.
Genesis gets distracted by his kidnapping attempt by Angeal and Zack, and that fight against the summon happens as Angeal and Genesis fly off, like in the normal game.
-Add Cloud's mission from BC here! At least partly. You could start with Zack and Aerith hanging out/having a date, and then Zack gets a call from Kunsel saying they have a mission together and led towards the trains. (A brief appearance by Angeal and a comment about Modeoheim?) Maybe echo the opening and have some fights on a train while Zack tries to catch up (minigame, jump that shit to avoid getting smacked).
Kunsel joins Zack for this part (mostly appearances/talks between battles on the train, and they part ways with Kunsel holding the rest of the AVALANCHE soldiers off to let Zack progress to ending up coming to the stopped train car in time to help the Turk and the single surviving infantry cadet there against Ravens. As some have already been killed, Zack expresses his being impressed, and the Turk says the infantry cadet killed one too - they go into the train car after that and find Professor Rayleigh, who's fine but the disc of data she carried has been taken by a Raven the Turk and the cadet says the Turk killed. Clearly it revived or wasn't completely dead, however.
-Modeoheim! A full AVALANCHE base, and Genesis is supposedly there as well. Zack meeting Cloud! Who reveals they've met before and Zack instantly jumps to the mission to protect Rayleigh and the infantry cadet with the Turk.
The mako excavation facility is part of the AVALANCHE base, Zack infiltrates, seeing someone leave from a distance as he enters (Fuhito and Elfé, overhear some about Ravens and what they are/find some reports on the same?) find Genesis going off on Hollander, mention Fuhito as well or something. Hollander has been kept at this place. Hollander escapes first Cloud and then AVALANCHE in Modeoheim while Zack engages Genesis - who falls into the depths of the facility.
Zack goes into Modeoheim proper. Finds the infantry cadet we sort of lose on the way in the CC mission, dead by the end of the cave/entry of Modeoheim. Gets assaulted by Ravens. The bathhouse (Hollander thought to hide in there, Angeal came to confront him as well while also deciding to end everything via Zack as usual). Find Cloud and Tseng, Angeal confrontation and battle. Hollander is captured.
-The timeskip, but this time, include Zack's mission from BC. Turn it into the big assault on AVALANCHE it seems to be, if that whole sortie scene from CC in the timeskip is before that mission. Revisit the mako excavation facility. (Have Cloud be among those infantry that survive, but can't exactly go on?) Zack and a Turk (maybe Cissnei here instead of another Turk, or reuse the one who would've been in Cloud's mission, to get a recurring appearance) assault the base. Don't have it go into evacuation mode immediately.
A fight against Fuhito and Ravens in there. Some information of what AVALANCHE wants to do and Zack being like "well you're going about this THE WRONG WAY WTFBBQ". Fuhito escapes, Zack finds Essai and Sebastian, attempts to get them back to themselves - some sort of fight here, and they die at the end. Show Zack standing at their graves with the crossed swords as the mission end.
-Zack's Costa del Sol vacation/more timeskip, leading into the Junon assault. It's not actually AVALANCHE, but rather a surviving Genesis who's nabbed a bunch of Ravens and uses them as fodder while he gets Hollander. Zack meets Cloud again, and offers to
take him on a datebuy him food after the mission is done (I'm partial to the DMW version of this).Lazard disappears, etc.
-Nibelheim! Happens mostly the same but since we (I) gave in and let Genesis survive until this to have him goad Sephiroth in the reactor, what happens isn't that Genesis then gets away - rather, Zack catches up to him outside the reactor, slamming Cloud aside (who has delayed him just enough). Fight against Genesis instead of the copies. Genesing dies here. The rest of Nibelheim happens as it does.
-Post Nibelheim. Zack escapes with Cloud, but his visit to Gongaga goes awry when Cloud gets kidnapped by AVALANCHE after he's had his little meeting with Cissnei. This leads to the new endgame plot for this, to tie up the AVALANCHE plot of CC. Zack follows them to whatever base AVALANCHE is using, by help of who he thinks is Angeal - it's actually Lazard, as an Angeal copy, who says he'll help him get Cloud. The canine Angeal copy also joins them.
(Have the base be somewhere south of Gongaga? Mideel? Maybe Banora, to put it in the same place as regular CC post-Nibelheim was. Fort Condor?)
Zack fights through the base, with a series of boss battles. The last three being Hollander, Fuhito and Elfé, in that order. (You could even involve the Zirconiade thing by having a transformation into that being her second/last boss form.) Elfé asking him why he is fighting them when he now knows what shit ShinRa is, and Zack agrees but tells her she and AVALANCHE isn't right either, indicating the Ravens and them kidnapping Cloud (kidnapped because Fuhito wanted to see what Hojo had been doing and maybe get a new breed of Ravens out of that). Elfé dies with a "maybe I/we did it the wrong way..." sort of expression, in contrast to the hardline opinions she expresses in her and Zack's fight in Midgar. (Either simply not dealing with Elfé being Veld's daughter, or that simply not being A Thing here.)
Lazard dies, as does the canine Angeal copy, both of them having been protecting Cloud. Zack finds the letter from Aerith, decides to go to Midgar, which, of course, leads to the clifftop battle and CC's ending.
The Raven AU of CC's plot
2017-01-17 22:09 (UTC)-President Shinra dies in his hotel in Junon to AVALANCHE's assassins (though the attempt to take over and fire the Sister Ray is unsuccessful as in canon).
-As such, Rufus is appointed president early
-Genesis' defection gets hijacked by AVALANCHE, as they intercept and capture him (though ShinRa is unaware of this, and Rufus isn't informed)
-the mass desertion of SOLDIER involves less SOLDIERs, and the majority of them gets turned into Ravens, with a smaller amount as Genesis copies
-Angeal still leaves after the conclusion of the attack on Wutai, but in an effort to find Genesis at all, not because Genesis has asked him to join him
-the Banora mission doesn't happen
-the attack on Midgar is by AVALANCHE, not Genesis (though Genesis copies are used), and Hojo is successfully "kidnapped" (Zack still falls down and meets Aerith, but due to fighting a stronger Genesis copy and a former SOLDIER Raven, while Angeal is chasing after Hojo's kidnappers and Sephiroth cleaning up at HQ)
-as such, Hollander is appointed head of the Science Department, with Rayleigh more specifically in charge of the SOLDIER program on the science side of things
-the attempt to get the disc Rayleigh carries (as Hojo did not get the chance to bring any of the files he would've wanted, especially not on SOLDIER) turns into a second attack on Midgar, larger than the canon one. Cloud still works together with a Turk, but the disc is not stolen in the end as Zack has been sent to the scene and stops the reviving Raven from taking the disc.
Cloud gets a case of hero worship a little earlier
-Genesis degradation is cured by Hojo during this (whatever, whatever somehow)
-the Modeoheim mission happens because AVALANCHE has been rumoured to be around there. Cloud and Zack gets properly introduced. Angeal turns up and he and Zack work together (Cloud temporarily gets Fuhito, but he gets away); as AVALANCHE withdraws, they set a partly-brainwashed/controlled (not quite Raven levels) Genesis on Zack and Angeal, who work together to subdue him
Less AU ideas more AU genres
2017-06-04 22:42 (UTC)Sci-fi! Either 'just' moving forward into actual space faring age and doing a take of CC's plot there, or more free sci-fi AUs, whatever, everything works here.
-Alien invasion; you could move Jenova's arrival up closer to the present (Sephiroth might be a secret but deliberate attempt at getting some extra edge).
Or, if it's out in space/the future, you could go with her as a hive mind, a singular being infecting others to control/spread, or just one of a shape-shifting species...
-Wutai, ShinRa and maybe the Cetra as three large factions in space?
Less cyberpunk/modern and more 'fantasy' instead? Also just straight up historical AUs (which, given the elements of any given FF world but also VII's, would mean more fantasy elements). Different historical eras transplanted into VII and/or more thought into how the world might have looked a few hundred years into the past.
BDSM AU can also be a thing, or different dominance hierarchy AUs.
Pet!people AU ideas
2017-06-04 23:15 (UTC)As a stray, for a few reasons, but probably trying to get from Nibelheim to an area where strays can live and work in the belief he can earn enough to get his mom a better life. (Probably feels Mayor Lockhart isn't a good master for her.) Either picked up off the street, injured or not, or maybe picked up from a pound/kennel if they got to him first.
Or he could be on the streets after losing his first owner (like Zack or his canon mother) and taken in that way.
Alternately, if ShinRa, say, provides "companion pets" to their SOLDIERs and bought a few from Nibelheim (they'd probably all supposed to be dogs ("dogs" more like Nibel wolves) but there's one bird in the mix there.
If Cloud's not the pet, there's also at least two possibilities:
Whether he's still in Nibelheim or has gotten to Midgar but not joined ShinRa, since he wouldn't have the funds to actually buy a pet, probably pick up a "stray" (runaway military-trained pet gasp), and try to keep them safe through shenanigans... while being protected by said pet.
Or, if he's joined ShinRa, might be chosen to act as a handler for one of the military-trained pets (part of a new taskforce or it's an established one), and neither he nor anyone else expects him to bond with anything but one of the more standard ones (third or second classes), but ~somehow~ he ends up with one of the more elite ones.
Alternate SOLDIER defection idea
2017-07-11 23:16 (UTC)Cloud ends up joining those out of accident or something at first, maybe? Some sort of raid going "wrong" (or right) and ending up being dragged along/technically kidnapped and later convinced Shinra's fucked and should go down.
Etc etc whatever.
KH! AU ideas
2017-07-19 19:38 (UTC)Option one: setting would be Midgar, Cloud as usual in ShinRa - Hojo's probably involved with the Heartless, because Of Course He Is. SHENANIGANS??
Option two: whatever FFVII version existing within KH has already been lost, and Cloud appears in some other world - probably Radiant Garden or Olympus, if you want to connect back to where he first appeared in KH. v: Trying to train in the Coliseum to be ~stronger~
Option three: sort of Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden take, setting Nibelheim and getting it back to normal. The reactor would obviously be a focus feature here, Jenova fused with some sort of monstrous Heartless? Cloud is probably very focused on/worried about his mom and Tifa for this.
More CC AU/pre-Nibelheim variation
2017-08-02 23:37 (UTC)So there'd be chapters/mission involving reactors being targeted all over the world, with Midgar being the main prize/target, plus attempts to find out why ShinRa's SOLDIER are more stable (since AVALANCHE can/are only using mako for their Ravens, obviously they'd be more susceptible to mako-mutation/rages), which leads to an AU version of Cloud's episode in BC, with Zack being sent either instead of or in addition to a Turk, and Zack and Cloud meet here.
Could be a part of a greater assault on Midgar, leading to a version of Zack meeting Aerith, too.
Only solid bit of thing to happen before Nibelheim (half a year or so before?) would be Angeal being taken by AVALANCHE to Modeoheim, subjected to brainwashing (AVALANCHE might or might not have been working upwards with a few other SOLDIERs), which is so-so effective. Ends with an assault on Modeoheim by ShinRa with Sephiroth, Genesis, Zack (and Cloud and others).
The fight against Angeal starts with Zack only, but he doesn't have to kill Angeal all by himself - Genesis and Sephiroth gets to share the burden here. Possible that the brainwashing/mindcontrol loosens control over the JENOVA cells and Angeal has a lesser transformation to something similar to one of Sephiroth's boss staged (instead of the CC one). Zack gets the Buster sword here.
(Post Nibelheim but before Zack and Cloud escape, to wrap things up; Genesis dies (or almost so, if you want him to survive to present day like otherwise) in the Gongaga reactor incident taking with him most of AVALANCHE's Ravens.
The Corel incident is due to the fact that it's a burgeoning AVALANCHE base as the inhabitants have been slowly losing faith in ShinRa and their decision to allow the mako reactor. ShinRa preempts any attack by a wounded AVALANCHE and attacks first, leading to Corel, and leading to Barret being sort of 'handed' the fight by AVALANCHE's dying leader (Elfé or not) - he would, on the other hand, have slightly different views and a little bit more revenge mixed in there, keeping some of the violet eco terrorism but not aiming for the total wipeout of tech/humans that the former AVALANCHE's leadership was going for. All of old AVALANCHE would be taken out here, hence why it's so small come FFVII.)
Equippable Ally trope AU!
2018-05-28 21:52 (UTC)(Possibly one of the Cetra's weapons against Jenova, or each other, or monsters, depending on.)
Also have some special limit breaks, but these can only be accessed if the bond between the wielder and the Guardian WEAPON is strong.
Tricky thing with them is, of course, that they can't be picked up and used by anyone, like regular materia, to anyone but the person (sometimes more than one at a time) they seem to react to, for some reason. For anyone else they could just as well be a pretty bauble.
Damaging a Guardian WEAPON's materia is the only means of injuring the inert form or breaking/chipping the weapon form; do enough damage and the Guardian can't manifest, but unless the materia's cut in half or pulverized, letting it soak in mako will over time heal the damage done.
Active summon of a Guardian WEAPON has two modes:
-Inert, when it looks like a regular human being, but always possessing the mako glow in their eyes, despite not having any appreciable levels of mako in their blood.
-Active, which is when the wielder is using the Guardian WEAPON in combat and it is in its weapon form; the stronger the bond between the wielder and Guardian, the more magic (without needing extra materia, freeing up space for extra/other sorts of materia) is available.
Some are only offensive, usually along elements (Fire, Blizzard, Gravity, etc) others have only defensive (Cure, Barrier, etc), and some are a mix.
(If Cloud is one, he's often been abandoned before and is considered weak and/or faulty, as the weapon(s) he manifests as are all different sizes of what should be swords, but they're hard to use thanks to their shapes, or looking like they're missing half the blade... A strong enough bond though gets you the actual weapon, after the pieces fuse together; a very large broadsword (you know which).)
Deity AU
2018-06-10 23:03 (UTC)Starfighter AU
2019-04-27 11:41 (UTC)Turn the general setup into the pairs being encouraged to bond closely in whatever way they may manage, and they're all informed any of their ships could have the special weapon, and that it requires a close bond (without specifying) between the fighter and the navigator.
This way, there's a bigger pool of potential candidates to use the weapon, and it might either be switched around the ships, or the pairs and routinely shuffled around? So no one can know who actually has it, but there's a greater chance of hitting the right combination. Or, in the case of a pair seeming very promising, their ship is intentionally fitted with it for a trial period.
Cloud would have started out trying to become a fighter (you could possibly keep some small mako enhancement (only mako, though) for fighters), but he gets rerouted against his will into being a navigator, and Cloud being Cloud doesn't play well with others, so his first couple team-ups would fail one way or another. The most recent one would be a "if you don't bond properly you're out completely" sort of situation, and he does want to fly, and fight, so...