Alright! So, basically I was thinking, there could be one or two last remaining Fal'cie producing l'cie soldiers to try to resist the Galra. I thought it might be interesting if towards the end, if we're working with the idea of l'cie!Serah and she needed a little more incentive to leave then her Fal'cie could give her a new focus: Accompany Matt off planet and find a way to save her world. It adds the stakes of a time limit before Serah turns into either cie'th or crystal- with cie'th being the more likely of the two.
If the time limit is unappealing I could say that she already has a brand that was frozen in the same way that Fang's was by only partially completing her focus and losing her memory of the event, or with the death of her Fal'cie master. Otherwise, the last idea I had was to keep her role from XIII-2, as a servant of the goddess Etro. They have the same powers as l'cie for the most part, but their powers draw from the Chaos rather than a Fal'cie master and the magic stored in their brand. Servants also don't come with a nifty eidolon summon, though Serah DOES gain the ability to tame monsters as a trade.
In terms of strength the all the options are more or less identical, so it just comes down to how much drama and what kind you may or may not want to come up later, since I think she'd at least try to hide the exact situation.
I did also want to ask on a side note, I'm not saying we HAVE to be shooting for anything specific, in terms of relationship type? But is shipping something you're interested in if the chemistry is right? I'm only asking because it means the difference on how I incorporate Snow into her story- if at all. O: I mean I think it'd be pretty cute, but I'm a conceptual shipping fiend on a good day.
I am absolutely down for l'Cie!Serah. The amnesia route would probably be more fun if you felt that returning her memory of the partially-completed Focus could affect how Serah dealt with matters after the fact, but the time limit definitely puts an interesting spin on things. I'm enjoying how that turns losing her into a double-threat, too: Matt'd feel an obligation to stick close, on the off-chance that she crystallized instead of going cie'th, because she'd be walking ship fuel for any passing Galra/greedy trader.
And I'm happy to ship if the circumstances are right! But IIRC, Snow is pivotal to certain parts of Serah's development and I don't wanna throw you off too far for an AU. Integrate Snow however you like, and then if they've got chemistry anyway, we can make something work.
TL;DR - Serah's backstory/bg is all up to you! And you don't have to decide immediately, I think, since it'll be a little while before those elements start becoming relevant.
Do you wanna sling something up on a meme and give the first-meetings thing a shot? Since it's Saturday, there'll probably be something gen up by the afternoon, and then you or I can write a starter, depending on what you're feeling.
You know, really thinking about it I could combine the ideas. She could have faulty memory because of a partially completed focus, maybe she went into crystal stasis and was moved to the shrine of her Fal'cie for protection, and when the Galra attack happens the Fal'cie wakes her from her sleep (with messed up brand) to fight. Then Matt comes along and just as things get really dire the Fal'cie reactivates her brand and so begins Serah's slow recovery of her memories.
Could be something like that? It could even be that a small Galra force invaded before (but was destroyed without being able to report back or... something) and that had something to do with her previous focus. I may be overthinking it, but that way we'd have both!
Not to sound dismissive of the fact, because you are absolutely right, but by now I've written Serah into so many AU's and had to play her in games without Snow so many times, I'm actually quite used to it. I can honestly say I'd feel comfortable writing her and adapting to whatever we decided. The only thing I absolutely cannot do with regards to Snow is to have Serah cheat on him. That would be the only non-possibility.
There are a lot of ways to handle it, especially if we're using the idea I mentioned above. Serah could be displaced in her timeline and it may be that everyone she knew is already long dead. It could be that Snow and Serah didn't meet in this reality, too, or that something happened to separate them before their relationship could take off. Honestly, not having Snow is the simplest bet even with the changes it would mean for her character. I could, for now, say that details about her personal life were also lost with her amnesia if they were tied together in some way, just to put off having to decide, but I don't mind figuring it out now either. I'll think on it some more and kind of sort it out as we go! So bring it on! Well, if it happens that is. Even if all that comes of this is them becoming action partners I'm so down for that, too. Serah and Noel had one of my absolute FAVORITE video game relationships of all, and putting fandom opinions aside it was definitely a platonic bond. Regardless if feelings are a thing or not I can see these two really coming to care for the other as partners.
Sure, a meme works! I also have a memebox, or we could eventually start up a musebox for this AU specifically if that might interest you. Pros to that, I've found, are that we could have one place for all their threads, memes or more serious.
Well, in the immortal words of a completely unrelated Dreamworks production: I'm down. I like the idea that the initial Galra wave related to her original Focus before she was frozen - it gives you some leeway to fan out Serah's friends and probably make things a little less "we've been fighting this invasion for years, I've watched all our gods die, everything is hopeless."
Not that it wouldn't be in the background, I realize! But that way you can sort out what kind of worldbuilding you want as we go along.
You don't sound dismissive at all. I just know Serah has a lot of backstory to pack into an AU and I'm probably hurrying things along because I'm delighted by the amount of stuff we can do with this canonmash. I didn't want you to feel pressured to leave out any elements you might want to play with later. But yeah, you can see how you feel depending on how our threads go!
(And I forgot how pretty Noel was too, aaaah. Tumblr is a timesink full of FF gifs.)
I mostly use memes out of habit + the knowledge that if I ever make a musebox, I'm gonna want to spend like five hours prettying the layout, lol. I'll squint around BS for a decent meme later today. If nothing's up by then, we can talk posts off-BS. Fair? ♥
So sorry about that, I completely passed out last night! YES. LOL Alright, then! That's the idea I'll run with. I like being given the time to figure it out as well. There may be subtle things to start, like her not recognizing certain changes, but as a l'cie it's more likely she's already familiar with the way that these things work and won't have time to be all that surprised, besides, with everything going on.
I appreciate the consideration, though! I do. I only mean you don't need to worry, either. Actually this isn't the first time I've considered her for a Voltron AU, it's just the first time I've had someone to do anything with, so I'm similarly delighted and looking forward to all of this. No sense of being pressure at all!
(Noel is the prettiest and tumblr is the worst timesink ever. I could fill Serah's journal with XIII gifs and still not be satisfied or have enough room, between the three games.)
Oh my GOOOOD YES. I'm laughing out loud because you sound so much like me right now. Half of my time getting ready for a new game has always been making the journal look good, finding the right coding for the CR chart, the inventory list, permissions, thread tracking, etc.
I even went so far as to make a call-me-out comm specifically for that meme. But I do still spend- or used to -a large amount of time on BS, so I'm happy to play there and link the threads with a tracker.
Sounds fair! Just hit me up if you see something you like! I'll keep an eye out as well.
There is so much pretty coding these days, I have no idea how we're supposed to resist the layouting impulse. But yes, I think we're all set with the basics - I've slapped Matt up on the minor injuries meme, since that looks the most promising for today. LMK if you hit up any of the others and I can tag you on those instead.
Sorry that took a while! First tags in a new AU are always a bit bigger and harder to optimize.
I tagged you on the injuries meme, though. If any of that doesn't work let me know. Given her unfamiliarity with that type of ship I figure it could always look worse than it is if you want to salvage said ship later. It's also up to you just how injured Matt is, Serah comes equipped to handle whatever. :) I'll let you know if I find anything else that looks good if just to bookmark for later. I'm good with either focusing on one thread at a time or juggling two or three, so long as we don't run the risk of contradicting our own timeline.
Yeah, feel free to link me whenever you want to do a specific thing! I'm just dashing by to apologize - as it turns out, I'll be slow for a bit myself this weekend. But the starter looks great and I'll try to have an answer out within the day.
Thank you for the heads up! I hope everything goes well for you! I'm off tomorrow so I'll be around whenever, and right now I'm keeping a watch on BS every so many hours to see if anything pops up but so far it's all shippy, smutty, or doesn't suit the PSL setup. lol Oh well.
How do you feel about one-off memes, though, on that note? Like obviously- again -we probably want to avoid contradicting our timeline but if something did come up that was later down the line would you be up for it? Or if we're both down for the shipping angle, something like that if just as an offshoot? It just helps me to know what I should be keeping an eye out for and linking back to you.
I know what you mean WRT watching BS. It is so hard to find a good meme some days.
But I am happy to play AUs of our AU, one-offs and all! Matt's pretty easy to bend to any occasion, so I can do whatever seems like fun. But I'd prefer to save shippy memes 'til after we're a few threads in and have established something of a dynamic. Plus, I've just realized that I haven't warned you that my tagging speeds may vary. I don't want to spread myself so thin that I turtle up on you - I know I find it much easier to tag back a thread with a steady tagging rhythm as opposed to something that only gets a tag every other week or something.
YES. Like last night, I kept watching the first page, but aside from minor injury everything was either shippy or texting. Ha ha. I mean, I guess we could go with texting but I feel like that would also be better saved for once we have a feel for their chemistry rather than pushed. Otherwise I wouldn't really know what to write/how she'd respond to him, you know?
That's alright, mine are going to vary for a bit as well. It's somewhat rare for me to have a weekend fully off (I usually work all day Sunday), and throughout the week my time is split between two jobs, field trips (I'm a school bus driver), and sleep. Summer is going to be another story entirely, we'll see. I'll have some solid time off at the start and end. I may try to find a different second job because my current one kinda... doesn't respect my time as much as I'd like.
I'll always try to manage at least a couple tags a day, though, even at the slowest. Once in the morning and another in the evening. When we happen to match up it's also entirely possible I'll be able to boomerang, but I obviously don't want you to feel pressured.
ETA: You know what I just randomly realized would be fascinating? If the Galra are harvesting crystalized l'cie and maybe even petrified cie'th stones, what if they miscalculated? What if they finally got a hold of a particularly strong l'cie and learned the hard way what happens when you take that much pure, raw emotion and plug it into one of their ships? Like-
We learn late in the XIII game that cie'th stones are l'cie who were cie'th for SO long that they eventually turned into petrified stone versions of themselves, and the only thing left of them is their undying regret and their will to have someone complete their focus so they could rest in peace. If a Galra plugged one into their ship, maybe nothing would happen, right? But with a l'cie who has completed their focus and turned to crystal is said to be alive and dreaming until they wake, right? We find out in XIII-2 that THEY CAN INTERACT WITH THINGS while sleeping/dreaming. Fang and Vanille interact with Serah's subconsciousness directly and wake her up out of a not-quite-coma without physically being anywhere near her, or even in the same REALM. That's powerful stuff. Yeah?
What if they DID get a hold of Serah in crystal form at some point and in turn Serah somehow took over their system?
This has got me thinking of all kinds of ideas, including the fact that unless a god or Fal'cie intervenes Serah is doomed to turn to crystal once they finish their quest. If, for instance, it came down to choosing between completing her focus and turning into crystal WITHIN Galra custody to somehow save Matt (whatever he is to her at that point) I know what choice she'd make, no contest, but man wouldn't that just be tragic?
Ahh ignore me I'm getting excited and ahead of myself and geeking out again.
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If the time limit is unappealing I could say that she already has a brand that was frozen in the same way that Fang's was by only partially completing her focus and losing her memory of the event, or with the death of her Fal'cie master. Otherwise, the last idea I had was to keep her role from XIII-2, as a servant of the goddess Etro. They have the same powers as l'cie for the most part, but their powers draw from the Chaos rather than a Fal'cie master and the magic stored in their brand. Servants also don't come with a nifty eidolon summon, though Serah DOES gain the ability to tame monsters as a trade.
In terms of strength the all the options are more or less identical, so it just comes down to how much drama and what kind you may or may not want to come up later, since I think she'd at least try to hide the exact situation.
I did also want to ask on a side note, I'm not saying we HAVE to be shooting for anything specific, in terms of relationship type? But is shipping something you're interested in if the chemistry is right? I'm only asking because it means the difference on how I incorporate Snow into her story- if at all. O: I mean I think it'd be pretty cute, but I'm a conceptual shipping fiend on a good day.
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And I'm happy to ship if the circumstances are right! But IIRC, Snow is pivotal to certain parts of Serah's development and I don't wanna throw you off too far for an AU. Integrate Snow however you like, and then if they've got chemistry anyway, we can make something work.
TL;DR - Serah's backstory/bg is all up to you! And you don't have to decide immediately, I think, since it'll be a little while before those elements start becoming relevant.
Do you wanna sling something up on a meme and give the first-meetings thing a shot? Since it's Saturday, there'll probably be something gen up by the afternoon, and then you or I can write a starter, depending on what you're feeling.
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Could be something like that? It could even be that a small Galra force invaded before (but was destroyed without being able to report back or... something) and that had something to do with her previous focus. I may be overthinking it, but that way we'd have both!
Not to sound dismissive of the fact, because you are absolutely right, but by now I've written Serah into so many AU's and had to play her in games without Snow so many times, I'm actually quite used to it. I can honestly say I'd feel comfortable writing her and adapting to whatever we decided. The only thing I absolutely cannot do with regards to Snow is to have Serah cheat on him. That would be the only non-possibility.
There are a lot of ways to handle it, especially if we're using the idea I mentioned above. Serah could be displaced in her timeline and it may be that everyone she knew is already long dead. It could be that Snow and Serah didn't meet in this reality, too, or that something happened to separate them before their relationship could take off. Honestly, not having Snow is the simplest bet even with the changes it would mean for her character. I could, for now, say that details about her personal life were also lost with her amnesia if they were tied together in some way, just to put off having to decide, but I don't mind figuring it out now either. I'll think on it some more and kind of sort it out as we go! So bring it on! Well, if it happens that is. Even if all that comes of this is them becoming action partners I'm so down for that, too. Serah and Noel had one of my absolute FAVORITE video game relationships of all, and putting fandom opinions aside it was definitely a platonic bond. Regardless if feelings are a thing or not I can see these two really coming to care for the other as partners.
Sure, a meme works! I also have a memebox, or we could eventually start up a musebox for this AU specifically if that might interest you. Pros to that, I've found, are that we could have one place for all their threads, memes or more serious.
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Not that it wouldn't be in the background, I realize! But that way you can sort out what kind of worldbuilding you want as we go along.
You don't sound dismissive at all. I just know Serah has a lot of backstory to pack into an AU and I'm probably hurrying things along because I'm delighted by the amount of stuff we can do with this canonmash. I didn't want you to feel pressured to leave out any elements you might want to play with later. But yeah, you can see how you feel depending on how our threads go!
(And I forgot how pretty Noel was too, aaaah. Tumblr is a timesink full of FF gifs.)
I mostly use memes out of habit + the knowledge that if I ever make a musebox, I'm gonna want to spend like five hours prettying the layout, lol. I'll squint around BS for a decent meme later today. If nothing's up by then, we can talk posts off-BS. Fair? ♥
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I appreciate the consideration, though! I do. I only mean you don't need to worry, either. Actually this isn't the first time I've considered her for a Voltron AU, it's just the first time I've had someone to do anything with, so I'm similarly delighted and looking forward to all of this. No sense of being pressure at all!
(Noel is the prettiest and tumblr is the worst timesink ever. I could fill Serah's journal with XIII gifs and still not be satisfied or have enough room, between the three games.)
Oh my GOOOOD YES. I'm laughing out loud because you sound so much like me right now. Half of my time getting ready for a new game has always been making the journal look good, finding the right coding for the CR chart, the inventory list, permissions, thread tracking, etc.
I even went so far as to make a call-me-out comm specifically for that meme. But I do still spend- or used to -a large amount of time on BS, so I'm happy to play there and link the threads with a tracker.
Sounds fair! Just hit me up if you see something you like! I'll keep an eye out as well.
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I tagged you on the injuries meme, though. If any of that doesn't work let me know. Given her unfamiliarity with that type of ship I figure it could always look worse than it is if you want to salvage said ship later. It's also up to you just how injured Matt is, Serah comes equipped to handle whatever. :) I'll let you know if I find anything else that looks good if just to bookmark for later. I'm good with either focusing on one thread at a time or juggling two or three, so long as we don't run the risk of contradicting our own timeline.
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How do you feel about one-off memes, though, on that note? Like obviously- again -we probably want to avoid contradicting our timeline but if something did come up that was later down the line would you be up for it? Or if we're both down for the shipping angle, something like that if just as an offshoot? It just helps me to know what I should be keeping an eye out for and linking back to you.
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But I am happy to play AUs of our AU, one-offs and all! Matt's pretty easy to bend to any occasion, so I can do whatever seems like fun. But I'd prefer to save shippy memes 'til after we're a few threads in and have established something of a dynamic. Plus, I've just realized that I haven't warned you that my tagging speeds may vary. I don't want to spread myself so thin that I turtle up on you - I know I find it much easier to tag back a thread with a steady tagging rhythm as opposed to something that only gets a tag every other week or something.
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That's alright, mine are going to vary for a bit as well. It's somewhat rare for me to have a weekend fully off (I usually work all day Sunday), and throughout the week my time is split between two jobs, field trips (I'm a school bus driver), and sleep. Summer is going to be another story entirely, we'll see. I'll have some solid time off at the start and end. I may try to find a different second job because my current one kinda... doesn't respect my time as much as I'd like.
I'll always try to manage at least a couple tags a day, though, even at the slowest. Once in the morning and another in the evening. When we happen to match up it's also entirely possible I'll be able to boomerang, but I obviously don't want you to feel pressured.
ETA: You know what I just randomly realized would be fascinating? If the Galra are harvesting crystalized l'cie and maybe even petrified cie'th stones, what if they miscalculated? What if they finally got a hold of a particularly strong l'cie and learned the hard way what happens when you take that much pure, raw emotion and plug it into one of their ships? Like-
We learn late in the XIII game that cie'th stones are l'cie who were cie'th for SO long that they eventually turned into petrified stone versions of themselves, and the only thing left of them is their undying regret and their will to have someone complete their focus so they could rest in peace. If a Galra plugged one into their ship, maybe nothing would happen, right? But with a l'cie who has completed their focus and turned to crystal is said to be alive and dreaming until they wake, right? We find out in XIII-2 that THEY CAN INTERACT WITH THINGS while sleeping/dreaming. Fang and Vanille interact with Serah's subconsciousness directly and wake her up out of a not-quite-coma without physically being anywhere near her, or even in the same REALM. That's powerful stuff. Yeah?
What if they DID get a hold of Serah in crystal form at some point and in turn Serah somehow took over their system?
This has got me thinking of all kinds of ideas, including the fact that unless a god or Fal'cie intervenes Serah is doomed to turn to crystal once they finish their quest. If, for instance, it came down to choosing between completing her focus and turning into crystal WITHIN Galra custody to somehow save Matt (whatever he is to her at that point) I know what choice she'd make, no contest, but man wouldn't that just be tragic?
Ahh ignore me I'm getting excited and ahead of myself and geeking out again.