#cloud agere

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You've come to the right place. (I am flattered.)

Age Regressor Cloud Strife Headcanons!

I don't think he regresses on purpose or with any awareness of it being regression until post-Advent Children.

However, I wanna go over both OG and AC in terms of how he expresses it...

VII: Unintentional, subtle regression. It tends to come out as more cranky standoffishness than normal. "Not interested" replaced with "don't wanna." Curling up in a ball in the inn bed and hugging the pillow real tight. Missing his mom. Remembering his mom a bit more. Sometimes even slips when in possession of the Black Materia and this is Not A Good Thing. Get ready for "Yeah, So, Sephiroth Knows You're Regressing Even Though You Don't." Hence this.

I think you can also interp at least the sequence with Cloud and Tifa going about getting Cloud's memories back as not just reconciling Falsified Memory Cloud and Real Cloud, but also a sort of... a coming to terms with Cloud's regression tendencies. Still not a full awareness.

I think Aerith gets a little more gentle with him when he's regressed, but neither of them quite have the words to explain what's going on.

Sometimes he's quieter when regressed, more shy than normal, too.

AC: Aware regression. I'm not sure how he came to the awareness of the concept, or maybe he just doesn't have the right language for it, but he's aware of his own regression, now. He's kind of in denial about it, and furthermore, hesitant to be vulnerable. It's only after the events of Advent Children that he perhaps, opens up to Tifa about it. They talk. Tifa sorta ends up as Cloud's CG-ish, but that's not an exact description of their dynamic. Because neither of them are quite familiar with agere as a whole, they've got clunky ways about it. Cloud will regress and sometimes Tifa checks in on him, or just keeps him company. Sometimes Cloud regresses on purpose now to try and figure this all out. Tifa's there for him. It's weird for him, but he's getting there.

Now, onto less narrative-focused headcanons and more generalized ones...

Cloud, as I stated earlier, is a very subtle regressor. He's only really noticeable when he's pushed further into strong emotion or by subtle verbal shifts. He's staunchly independent and rarely wants to ask for help, which is not exactly a good thing when he's so far slipped that things get more difficult and he's more easily upset. He's not exactly communicative.

Enjoys being taken care of, despite this. He just won't ask for it... most of the time.

Once he gets better about everything in general, I think he's more open to asking those he trusts closely for help. And I do mean trusts closely. I don't even think he'd tell most of the party. Would've told Aerith had he known, tells Tifa, maybe asks Barret for some really indirect advice because he's a dad (masked as advice about, say, taking care of an actual kid, maybe Denzel)... but he's still pretty damn private about it.

He's doing his best, okay?

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