#ff7c interview

Mod Miri here! Today on the blog we have Upside (she/they), who can be found here on Tumblr and Archive of Our Own. 

General FF7 Questions

Who is your favourite character from the FFVII setting? What do you love about them?

I write most often with Sephiroth and Cloud, but my favorite character is Barret. I love Barret and I always have. He starts out rough and gruff, but you find out fast he is not at all. He fights because he feels he has to. Most of all I love that he is a great father. It's a huge point of contention that he leaves Marlene behind, but I think it gets glossed over that it kills him to not be with her. If he's with her, however, it means he isn't fighting to make sure she has a future worth living, but every moment away he is thinking about her and missing her terribly. I love him. I love that inner conflict and the guilt he faces and fights past. He's just so *chef's kiss*

Favourite party (three person team) idea when playing FFVII? They don’t have to actually work mechanically (or even be possible in the game), just that you like the idea of them together as a fighting party.

Cloud-Barret-Nanaki. I don't know why I played as these guys so much. I forced myself to try and even out the team XP, but I always came back to these guys.

Is there a headcannon or AU you want to see more of?

That's a question I'm more likely to ask everyone else. I'm always coming up with headcanons and AUs. They just pour out of me. I can't really think of one that's stuck with me for super long.

Do you have a favourite memory associated with FF7 (any part of compilation) or something particular you did while playing (such as what you named the characters, or how you arranged your materia) that you think is unique that you'd like to share?

Creator Questions

Who has been the most difficult character to write/draw? Who has been the easiest?

Aerith. I love her and her characterization, but she is a tough nut to crack for me. She is a far, far cry from a damsel needing rescue, but there's a lot of issues to unpack for her. A lot of secrets she never told and probably planned to. I struggle to reach the parts of her that probably did need help without taking away the chaos and the strength she 100% had.

What’s your ideal creating environment? Background noise/silence, indoors/outdoors, desk/couch, etc.?

I am a freak of nature. I write best in a silent room, laying down or sprawled over a couch. It doesn't have to be dark, but it does have to be inside.

What’s your creative process look like? Pantser/Emotive Writer/Gardener or Planner/Structured Writer/Architect? (Do you outline or just go with the flow?) If you’re an artist, do you do a lot of sketches, or just dive right in? Backgrounds first, or the main focal point? Multiple layers or all in one?

I'm a definite pantser. I go with the flow, but it only works so long as there is a flow. I'm trying desperately to at least make a general outline of fics now and I write those in pencil so I can't say I lost the drafts.

What do you do when you get stuck on a project?

Walk away. Sometimes literally. I'll go for a walk and just think it over, try and walk a mile in the character's shoes. Sometimes (often) I walk away for far too long.

Do you do commissions, requests, or prompts? (If you have a page for it, drop a link.)

I take headcanon prompts almost all the time on tumblr. On occasion I will do full-fic requests in exchange for a charity donation (your choice).

Which of your works is the most memorable to you? I don’t necessarily mean favourite or best work, it could be the work that taught you the most through making it or that holds a special reason in its creation. Drop a link.

Test Notes from the ShinRa Handheld Portal Device is a fic I wrote, in several large chunks during Do Good Weirdly sessions in the Summer and Winter. This event is a huge challenge but a ton of fun. Authors and Artists from fandoms all over spend a set amount of time just creating non-stop. At the end, the creators donate to a charity of their choice. It is an amazing time to spend with some rad and creative people and I highly recommend joining us this winter for the next session

Without them I never would have written this crossover fic I'm insanely proud of: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32666962/chapters/81036598

It’s hard for me to go through everything you’ve done to pick stuff to mention. Is there a particular piece you’d like plugged, other than the one in the last question?

Nerd Chic is my most popular fic. It's an ASGZC slow burn where Cloud gets glasses: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3170231/chapters/6884306

I also particularly love You are What you Eat. It's cheesy, sappy soul mate fun and good for a rainy day: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22742071/chapters/54342010

Community/Fandom Questions

What aspects of fandom spark the most joy for you?

The people. There is negativity everywhere, but once you curate your followers and your friends there's nothing that can beat just seeing what the people you let around you create. Y'all are amazing.

Is there something you'd like to see more of in the community?

Commenting and Reblogging. I'm guilty of liking and moving on and forgetting, but art and fic die if it doesn't spread around. Reblog and Comment if you like it and want to see more. It means more to the creators. It really does.

Anything you’d like to say to the community?

Thanks for making this a space that has sparked so much joy. I've loved this game since I was a kid and I'm so happy to just sit and talk with others who do too.

Is there a work belonging to someone else that you’d like to plug?

I love Pedulum by Evil Robot Cat: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3170231/chapters/6884306

And also all of the Cat's artwork. It's good stuff

I would also recommend all of Illusioneery's work art and fic. There's a lot to pick from.

Thanks so much for joining me, Upside! You are a pleasure to have in our community. 

Mod Miri here! Today on the blog we have Sephy (she/her), who can be found here on Tumblr and Archive of Our Own. 

General FF7 Questions

Who is your favourite character from the FFVII setting? What do you love about them?

I love every single playable character from the main game, but my favorite is without a doubt, Cloud Strife. He's so unlike a typical RPG protagonist. He's very standoffish and rude at the beginning, but you start to grow to really like him the more you play the game. The amount of vulnerability he shows throughout the game makes him very relatable, I think. He's the party leader and he is strong when it's needed, but he can crack under pressure. I could talk all day about Cloud and what I love about him, but I actually did a dash game on my Cloud blog where I gushed about him. It's here: https://defiant-ex-soldiers.tumblr.com/post/626278527072878592/lets-start-a-chain-of-sweetness

Favourite party (three person team) idea when playing FFVII? They don’t have to actually work mechanically (or even be possible in the game), just that you like the idea of them together as a fighting party.

When I was young, my main post Disk 2 party was an odd one. It was Cloud, Yuffie, and Red XIII. Cloud had to be in my party, Red was in my party because I loved cats and he was a giant cat, how could I not? I didn't particularly care about Yuffie, but I needed a girl to replace Aerith as the main healer.

I didn't really like Tifa at the time because I shipped Cloud and Aerith (and the LTD taught me back then that if you loved that ship you must hate Tifa. I have long since gotten over that way of thinking, but I was a young impressionable kid back then.) I don't think I have an ideal team, I just love all the characters so much. Honestly I experiment with party composition a lot when I play.

Is there a headcannon or AU you want to see more of?

AUs that change the fundamentals of a story fascinate me. My first fanfiction was a Zack lives fic where the direction the story goes in is drastically changed by the way Zack ends up living. I still find myself cringing at it sometimes, but I also still adore the fic just because it was my first. A more recent one involved Zack getting his hands on some Shinra R&D special Materia and being teleported forward in time where he meets Advent Children Cloud. Any of the fics involving changing the Nibelhiem incident somehow immediately interest me. I'm a big fan of the lore the game establishes already, so reading how fic artists take that world apart and put it back together, but differently, is exciting for me.

Do you have a favourite memory associated with FF7 (any part of compilation) or something particular you did while playing (such as what you named the characters, or how you arranged your materia) that you think is unique that you'd like to share?

I have so many. I have been playing Final Fantasy VII since I was around 9 years old (even if I probably shouldn't have been playing it at that age). I don't remember much at all of my first playthrough, but there have been very many playthroughs after that. I do remember that I always named my Chocobos after the main party. My favorite was a black one named Yuffie and I made her dance on the minimap if a song I liked came on the radio. I also remember that I started playing for the first time after we had moved houses, so I didn't have the memory card for the family's PS1, so I replayed the first mission over and over again until we found it. 

Once, when I was young I got locked out of my room while playing through the wall-market section of the game. So I got embarrassed because my family could hear the Don Corneo music while they were trying to unlock the door. Another time, I tried to fall asleep with my old CRT TV on because I thought the Chocobo farm music would help me sleep better.

Cloud always had the lightning Materia and he also always had the Chocobo Lure Materia because I thought it was funny and it made sense to young me because his hair resembled chocobo tail feathers. 

One quirk I keep to this day has to be the two name changes I make whenever I start FFVII. Aeris is changed to Aerith, of course. There's also Red XIII whose name I change to Nanaki, because I didn't understand why he would want to keep the name that Hojo gave him and not his real name. FFVII has always been a constant part of my life. I remember long car rides where I would do nothing but play FFVII on my PSP. I remember back when I only had it on PS2, setting it up in a hotel room and trying to beat Carry Armor there (I didn't and I remained stuck there for a while longer). I remember playing it on my PSP during class after I'd finished my work.

I remember back when I was starting middle school, I got a teacher into FFVII and she put a special question on one of our tests, just for me. I remember making a poetry book that had really childish drawing and poems about FFVII. I remember finally beating Crisis Core, huddled in the corner of my bunk bed, unable to keep my eyes off of what was going on, and tearing up because the ending was so sad. That isn't even the half of it, but I've gone on for so long. As you can see, I have so many fond memories of Final Fantasy VII.

Creator Questions

Who has been the most difficult character to write/draw? Who has been the easiest?

Recently I started my first Turk fic and it starred Rude. I found that his muse didn't come as easy as the others. Usually I'm good at writing most of the cast of FFVII. Cloud is the easiest for me to write because I just know him so well.

What’s your ideal creating environment? Background noise/silence, indoors/outdoors, desk/couch, etc.?

At my desk with music playing! Fun fact, I haven't had an actual office chair to sit in for years. My computer was next to my bed at my old living space and now I sit on a couch when I'm at the computer in my new one.

What’s your creative process look like? Pantser/Emotive Writer/Gardener or Planner/Structured Writer/Architect? (Do you outline or just go with the flow?) If you’re an artist, do you do a lot of sketches, or just dive right in? Backgrounds first, or the main focal point? Multiple layers or all in one?

I usually just go where the fic wants to take me. A lot of the time I do jot down an outline, especially if I know I need to do it in a set amount of time, like for the Fic exchange or Whumptober.

What do you do when you get stuck on a project?

I usually set it aside and work on something else or try and brainstorm if it's something that I need to do in a certain period of time. Oftentimes I'll do something else and let my mind wander. Most of the plot of my Turkfic I came up with at work while my mind was on autopilot.

Which of your works is the most memorable to you? I don’t necessarily mean favourite or best work, it could be the work that taught you the most through making it or that holds a special reason in its creation. Drop a link.

"To Break like Time". This fic was my first ever fic for an exchange. The spring tester for Gaia Santa, "FFVII Secret Spring" to be exact. I'm not entirely sure what came over me when I was writing this fic, but I got it done in a weekend and edited a few days after, at the very beginning of the challenge. Despite how easy of a time I had writing it, I was nervous about posting it. It's that fic where Zack wakes up in post AC times with a Shinra R&D secret materia in his hands. Not exactly everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed the challenge it gave. There are several parts I would change, but overall, I enjoy the story, even if it does get kind of weird at the end.

It’s hard for me to go through everything you’ve done to pick stuff to mention. Is there a particular piece you’d like plugged, other than the one in the last question?

The Night that Nibelheim Burned is my Gaia Santa fic from last year. I really enjoyed the way everything came together. It was a harder fic to write, but it was worth it. Kunsel was the character on the docket that I was new to playing this time. This fic is another one of those fics about what Kunsel's doing while Zack is on the run. He never gave up hope, no matter how much time went by, and I think this fic really shows that.

Community/Fandom Questions

What aspects of fandom spark the most joy for you?

Just, how creative this fandom is. I've always been a fan of a lot of the art the fandom has made, and several of the fics too. It always blows my mind just how many new ideas that someone can come up with for such an old game (as well as the entries in the compilation). It inspires me to write my own fics and create my own piece of that to share with everyone.

I love seeing long rambling theory posts about the OG and the other compilation games on my dash. I also love how silly the fandom can be sometimes :3 I also love how every character is loved by someone no matter how minor.

Is there something you'd like to see more of in the community?

Can't have enough of people being nice to each other! Spread around the art you love (with the proper credits of course), Recommend that fic you love to other people! Leave Comments on people's fics, even if you don't have much to say! Those actions have the potential to make someone's day, and I think that's amazing.

Anything you’d like to say to the community?

The LTD (Love Triangle Debate) is bogus, and for a long time, I was scared that it would be revived with the release of the Remake. I was worried there would be people fighting tooth and nail over who Cloud should be with. As far as I know, that hasn't happened yet, but maybe I'm just in a different circle.

As for me, I quit the LTD when I was a kid and started playing Crisis Core because I started shipping Cloud and Zack. You can even see it in my first fanfic where I adamantly refused to admit that I liked them together as a couple, but you can see with the way I had Cloud and Zack interact with each other (Especially in the last chapter) how much they really loved each other. 

Anyway, back to the LTD. I'm a firm believer in shipping what you want. I have a million different ships with Cloud and all of them are valid in my mind. I don't ship because I want something to be canon, I ship because I like the story that could come about from having the two be together.  

Here is one of my favorite posts on the subject of shipping: https://sephyathredon.tumblr.com/post/617204499133661185/sunandrainfic-brief-note-to-new-ff7-folks

Is there a work belonging to someone else that you’d like to plug?

 "Rejoice although you will not surivive" by PUNK MENACE 

I enjoy seeing Cloud get whumped and this fic has some good whump and an interesting aftermath of that whump. Heed the warnings though, this is not a light fic.

Thanks so much for joining me, Sephy! It is great working with you during the annual events!