I was commissioned by Rynling to make this illustration for their fic What if you romanced one of the failed Jenova experiments in Nibelheim?
Which I highly recommend for its treatment of both the Makonoids and the Shinra employees who populate the reconstructed Nibelheim! I was absolutely delighted by this entire concept, it's right up my alley.
[Image Description: Digital artwork of one of the Makonoids from the Nibel reactor. He is standing out in front of the general store, wearing an unbuttoned blue chocobo-print shirt and a pink floral sarong. He is smiling toothily at some flowers he's picked. In the background are visible two black-cloaked figures and the distant peaks of Mt Nibel. /end ID]
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You head out to explore a mostly abandoned reactor and find that they're making monsters there! Eeek! You leave but something follows you and wants to be your friend.
Gender Neutral Reader & Shiku the Makonoid | 1.2k words
Includes:
Shinra's usual bullshit
Platonic Stalking? He follows you home
Shinra was an evil, monotone building standing tall above the slow river of blue-blooded humans. Simply surviving was a task civilians struggled to achieve. Shinra created so many abominations unto nature that it was hard to keep track of them all. They often times just hid their creations away in the mountains, for the poor people of Nibelheim to stumble upon. You were one of those poor people.
While hiking in the mountains near the reactor, resting at the manor since you knew exactly where to break into, you decided to visit the tall, stone grey, metallic death chamber and see what treasures you could find. You brought bolt clippers with you, whistling a jaunty tune without a care and breaking the chain on the door. You slipped inside, looking around the eerily brightened place, quieting your song.
Bright blues danced on the walls like the shine of a swimming pool, mako streamed below your feet making use of the name "lifestream". You looked around for any shiny things you could salvage for money. Strange tubes filled with mako lined the stairs up to the door leading to the inner reactor. You peered into the tube.
Is there anything actually in there...? You asked yourself. You wiped the dust off the glass and hummed, stepping back when you couldn't find anything.
"This place is surprisingly clean..." You hummed.
The sharp sound of steam releasing startled you into a jump. You hid behind the tubes, glancing over the glass to the tube that was falling open, holding a weird, humanoid form as it slept. You waited many moments, slowly standing.
The creature was asleep, its jaw was exposed with teeth sharp enough to tear meat right off the bone. His claws and body were a beautiful shade of blue, his calfs changing to an odd goldfish orange. He blinked awake, slowly rising and rubbing his eyes.
Aww~
He got to his feet and started jittering energetically. He acted like he had just ingested 400lbs of pure caffeine. He looked around the room, racing to the other tubes and tapping on the glass, hissing growls exiting his teeth questioningly. You forgot that you were standing, tilting your head as he focused on you.
He tilted his head back.
"Uh... hi." You muttered. He ran up to you, startling you onto your ass. He snickered in his weird voice, pulling you back to your feet. Still holding your arm, he twisted you around, studying you and prodding your soft fleshy sides.
"Ow! Hey, quit it!" You whined.
"Hhh..." He hissed. He let go of you and returned to the tubes, tapping the glass, annoyed.
"What? Do you want to wake them up?" You asked. He glanced at you, then to the tube, tapping. You went to the tube and knelt by the side, checking for any switches or buttons to open it. Seems there was none.
"Sorry, dude." You shrugged and stood back. He growled, hitting the glass now. "Hitting it isn't going to help, maybe it releases when you're ready and not forcefully?" That seemed to get through to him, he sat beside the tube and folded his legs to his chest, almost vibrating with all the energy he had.
"You should probably expend that energy." You suggested. He looked up at you, letting a hiss and shaking his head.
"Alright, bye then." You turned to leave. A sudden and large weight snagged your leg, tripping you. You yelped as you fell, landing on your face.
"Fuck, why!?" You glared at your leg. He was hanging onto you, whining.
"What do you want from me?"
"Grrurr...."
"Speak English!" You barked, frustrated. He flinched and let you go, retreating aside like a wounded animal. You rolled your eyes and left the reactor as quickly as your feet would take you. The creature watched you from the door, twitching.
"Grrurr....?"
You haven't returned to the reactor since, nor have you seen of the odd humanoid. The citizens of Nibelheim continued to travel up the same mountain but they haven't seen the creature either. At least no one you asked did.
You were strangely curious what happened to it, gathering your things to head back to the reactor. There was a knock at your door.
"Right now? Uh... Okay." You went to answer it. You stared at the blue scales of someone familiar.
"Reactor dude?" You wondered, craning your neck in order to look at him.
"Shiku." He answered, somewhat stilted.
"You can talk now?" You hummed.
"Learned... Why leave?" He asked you, upset. You sighed and leaned on the doorframe.
"Because I have a home?" You huffed. He frowned, stepping inside your home. You growled, trying to appear dominant despite your obvious lack of height. "Hey! I didn't say you could come in. Out, out, out!" You barked, pushing his shoulders. Shiku whined, totally confused why you were being so aggressive.
"But I...!" He started as the door slammed.
"Fucking animal..." You growled. He bellowed at the door, clawing the wood helplessly. You covered your ears, trying to block him out.
But it kinda hurt. Not your ears, but it stung inside. He had no one, his family is still undeveloped, so you're all he has. You groaned and opened the ragged door. Shiku lowered his claws, splintered wood still trapped in them.
"Friend...?" He mewed. You allowed him into your home. He sprinted inside, looking into everything and scattering pillows.
"Calm down, Shiku." You muttered.
"Friend has nice nest." He hummed, putting everything back in its place and crouching by the potted plants. You sat on your couch and watched him study your home. Shiku made himself as small as possible.
"Friend is angry..."
"You noticed?" You sarcastically shot back. He nodded, laying his head on the couch beside you. He studied you closely, pushing himself up onto the seat and sitting beside you.
"Friend Lonely?"
"What makes you think that?" You wondered. He sniffed the air, picking up a picture from the side table. It was one of your family in Wutai, the ceremonial garments were brightly colored. He could tell that those humans don't live there if they did there would be more scents.
"Only you in nest."
"Brilliant deduction. What do you want?" You returned to the initial question at hand.
"Alone too."
"Well you aren't staying here, you're leaving as soon as I can get you out." You folded your arms, glaring at him. Shiku snorted at you, nudging your shoulder with his cheek.
"Friend mean..." He sighed, laying his head on your lap. You stiffened, watching him suspiciously. He stared back at you. He had no intention other than resting his horned head. The horns prodded your legs uncomfortably, his breath hissing over his teeth. His eyes flickered over your face, hands folded together calmly. His energy has subdued this meeting. He wasn't jittery this time, you wondered if that was just a "first-day" thing. Your hesitant hand graced his horns softly.
"What are you doing, Shiku?" You sighed. He tilted his head slightly.
"Doing?"
"You keep acting like a sad puppy." You giggled softly. He closed his eyes and tapped his claw to your temple.
"Friend lonely. Angry. Shiku help." He folded his hands back together. "Friend help too." He rolled onto his side, letting an arm hang off the side of the couch. He started snoring, breathing calmly and keeping you warm. You sighed and shook your head.
You really shouldn’t have said that, ‘Cloud’...... However, sooner or later Sephiroth would have come to question what he is, even without ‘Cloud’ pointing out that Sephiroth is different.
