#ssnakey-b

Written by Ssnakey-B

Synopsis: Something is disturbing Squall's sleep. Something he used to find mundane is now terrifying to him, and he needs to find out why.

Genre(s): Supernatural/Hurt/Comfort

Featured Character(s): Squall Leonhart, Rinoa Heartilly

Current Word Count: 3085

Rating: K+

Theme: Spark

Status: Complete

Links:

Wonder if this will actually get flagged considering it seems the algorithms fail to flag genuine nudity and porn.

Wow, two inquiries for the entourage in a row. Like the last one, I might not do everyone in this response, but I’ll tell you what comes to me. 

My Rinoa doesn’t actually read a lot of fiction, but when she does, it’s usually because there’s some character or other in it that really grabbed her attention, someone she could relate to on a personal level. She likes fiction that can help her sort herself out, haha. So what catches her eye really varies, sometimes it’s a standalone YA novel with teenager who’s particularly fed up with being held down, sometimes it’s a space opera with a misunderstood alien who feels isolated in a crowd, sometimes it’s historical fiction about a bisexual sorceress escaping with her knight from the tyranny of her own brethren. But really she prefers nonfiction! She’s curious and likes to know new things, and likes to read stories about real people, preferably autobiographical ones. 

Squall...doesn’t read for pleasure that much. Usually he views it as a waste of his time. Unless he’s studying, or has otherwise been assigned to read something, it takes some specific circumstances for him to pick up a leisure book, and even moreso if it’s fiction. He read all of Battle series from Tim Mani because they [headcanon] described and illustrated actual martial arts and techniques, so they were an entertaining way to learn, especially when he was a bit younger. But as adulthood sets in? Not so much. If the environment of a piece of fiction really appealed to him...say, a complex, philosophical post-apocalyptic journey (he’s probably “enjoy” The Road, for instance), he might try it to see how the characters went about surviving. Or if Rinoa pestered him enough to convince him to read something less bleak but still thoughtful and not too purple, he might try it to satisfy her and then find himself getting sucked into it anyway. 

Zell likes comic books. Super heroes. I don’t think he tends to like stuff that doesn’t have pictures in it, and I don’t mean that like he’s not smart--just the opposite. I think he’s a particularly visual person, and his brain is just sort of easily bored by information he can’t take in all at once. So actually having to read a book line by line is too slow for him, most of the time. 

I think we already know what Seifer likes to read. 

I like the idea that Quistis has a secret stash of raunchy romance novels and only Xu knows about it, and Quistis has no idea she knows about it. 

I think Xu also has a bunch of raunchy lesbian romance novels and she displays them prominently on a shelf at eye level in her bedroom. Quistis keeps asking her how she can stand that stuff and Xu only says “you tell me,” and Quistis gets uncomfortable and changes the subject, every time. 

Selphie reads novels that eventually get turned into action or horror movies. That is, she sees the movie, is dazzled by all the explosions and blood, then dives into the books because she knows there are even more gory details and swearing to be had. 

Irvine...I think, probably, Weird West kinda stuff? Especially if there are ladies with big guns in it. 

Written by Ssnakey-B

Synopsis: Squall's mind forces him to consider what could have been. But one has to wonder. As good as what could have been may be, would it be better than what is?

Genre(s): Family/Hurt/Comfort

Featured Character(s):  Ellone, Laguna Loire, Raine Loire & Squall Leonhart

Current Word Count: 1,764

Rating: K

Status: Complete

Links:

This is another thing that is just really not explained in the game or any material relating to it, as far as I know. As for theories, I have several, but nothing that’s really anchored. You can go in a lot of different directions with it, IMO. 

My HC is that you can’t “talk” to most GFs unless they’re manifested in some way. When they’re junctioned to you, they’re residing in a sort of idle stasis, and they might be able to give you some impression of how they feel, but most of them* don’t communicate in words unless they’ve taken physical form. I base this on the fact that we never really see anyone in-game talking to their junctioned GFs. You’d think, chatty as Squall is in his own head, the GFs would have something to say in return, if they could. But they don’t, which suggests they’re either not conscious enough to do so, or don’t have the ability if they are. 

On the other hand, I see no reason GFs couldn’t talk amongst themselves while in physical form...Ifrit yells about Shiva if you use her on him, so he’s familiar with her. Whether they’ve ever spoken or not, who knows, but they’re certainly aware of each other’s existence. 

Sorry this took so long to get to!

I’m always taking asks! Sorry it takes me a while to get to them nowadays. 

Honestly I can go either way on this, depending on how you interpret some smaller details about Squall’s character, but if he did have, or attempt to have, any relationships between the point he lost Ellone and the point Rinoa dragged him onto the dance floor, I don’t imagine they went far. I’m not even sure if Squall would realize (or, let’s be honest--allow himself to realize) that someone wanted to date him, unless they just came out and said so. Then it would be a question of whether he’d let himself get attached, if in fact he could, and my suspicion would be...not. Any relationship he had would have ended badly, or at least disappointingly, and would have simply validated his belief that people give up easily on each other, and that romance was more of a performance art than anything actually meaningful. 

So, a couple scenarios: 

1. Someone is interested in him and tries to flirt with him. He’s oblivious. They try over and over again and, if they are acknowledged, are not acknowledged as flirting or making passes. At most, he tries to indulge their conversations seriously, any innuendo ignored. At worst, he shrugs them off entirely and they finally walk away hurt/disappointed. Squall goes on being Squall, oblivious (perhaps purposefully so) that he’s done any damage at all. 

2. Someone is interested in him and says so. He rebuffs them, probably rudely. They leave empty-handed and maybe just think he’s a jerk, now. 

3. Someone is interested in him and says so, and is wily/persistent/interesting enough to get him to begrudgingly attempt a relationship. But Squall doesn’t know how to behave in a romantic relationship, and even if he cares for the person, he doesn’t really have the reflexes available to him to respond with affection, let alone be proactive about it. He wouldn’t propose dates, and when he was taken on one, wouldn’t be particularly engaged. He’d just kind of be there. He wouldn’t be moved by romantic gestures, and wouldn’t respond with them, because he wouldn’t really know how to “feel” it, and saying/acting on something you don’t feel as though you do feel it, would just seem like a deception to him. The person would eventually get their feelings hurt enough times by his lack of reciprocation to have enough of it, and would leave. He’d feel somewhat sorry for them, and very confused about what the point was in the first place, but would go back to his life, once again, feeling justified in his cynicism.

4. Finally, some circumstance brings on a sudden, unexpected attachment to someone--and I think this is the only way it could reasonably happen to a mid-teenage Squall, because otherwise he’d catch it and shut the emotion down before it had the chance to get a grip on him--and, whether they have feelings for him or not, Squall finds himself fretting constantly about them, trying to find ways to squirm out of the grip of that attachment, not terribly unlike his attempts to reason his way out of his feelings for Rinoa. But he’s younger and not as good at rationalizing, so although he wouldn’t know how to express affection very well, if at all, he’d be internally suffering with fear of this person leaving him or being taken from him with every waking moment. This would either result in him trying to judgmentally micromanage the person (to retain control over the situation) until they got annoyed enough with him to tell him to shove off, or he’d bottle it until he popped off at them about something minor, depending on the situation. In either case, it wouldn’t matter if they had feelings for him, also; his behavior would shut them down, and they’d leave him either way. Once again, this would validate things he already believes to be true, and would only serve to harden him further against human connection in the first place. 

For what it’s worth, I think the best relationships Squall has with anyone post-Ellone/pre-Rinoa are ones that are predictable, reliable, and close enough to measure, yet maintain an arm’s-length distance at the very least. I don’t see Squall as a complete hermit--in fact I think he does prefer to be around people for at least a bit of the time each day. He’d much rather interact with someone across a table--or at the other end of a weapon--than he would get all up in their feels, and them in his. That’s where things become hard to predict or stabilize, and that’s exactly the sort of damage he wants to avoid.