goddessofroyalty

So to start with I’ve transposed most of Shinra’s internals onto Niflheim’s military structure. And by “most of” I mean Hojo. Also Seph… but we’ll get to him. Oh and they were able to sell themselves as a positive for the people the way Shinra was at least until later at some point (partially because it makes sense, partially because it works for this idea).

A lot of how Cloud ended up there follows the basic premise of him in FFVII/Crisis Core (comes from a isolated town, was bullied, joined the military to make a name for himself, etc etc). So he joins the Niflheim military young like he did with Shinra and Zack might exist and have taken him under his wing (I’m still not sure on that point).

Hojo is around working for Niflheim basically doing what he did for Shinra - that is human experiments with study/obsession of history. He’s in a separate branch to Verstael and a rival to him for funds/praise/whatever else those psychos want. Cloud is experimented on by Hojo being injected with… whatever Mako is going to effectively be in this verse (Demonblood? Probably TBH).

And then we hit what I call the ‘mpreg’ split. Which is where the narrative splits depending on if I’m allowed mpreg or not.

If I’m allowed mpreg (which, it’s me, you knew this shit was coming) Prom is Seph’s kid carried by Cloud. Who Seph gained interest in through SOME EVENT that I’m still not sure about. And that’s the reason Hojo becomes so focused on him (the child of his “perfect solider”). Seph still becomes well… the more well known version of him it’s just more of a slow rot into the crazy he operates at in the Main Game compared to Crisis Core.

If I’m not allowed mpreg Prom is Cloud’s kid carried by Aerith (who has some connection with the gods/planets ala her being an Ancient in FFVII). Hojo is interested in the child because of the Aerith connection (and child getting that bloodline). Seph doesn’t become interested in Cloud until Cloud kills him during his escape where we have a lot more of FFVII’s revival=crazy going on.

In both these verses Aerith is probably currently running around doing some Luna-esque shit (communicating with gods/generally preparing things for the ‘heroes’ arrival) in the background.

EITHER WAY Hojo is the main threat at that current time and the reason Cloud flees with Prom.

Once out of my Niflheim/Shinra highbred Cloud makes his way to Insomnia with baby Prom (with the help of Tifa and Weskham). When Prom is old enough to take care of himself Cloud realises that Seph is hunting him down (because Seph is now WELL into FFVII’s Main Game Cloud-obsessed crazy through either of our two options) and gets a job doing risky deliveries outside the city to try and keep Seph from finding out about Prom. He also takes on hunts as he passes through the towns but very much tries to limit his contact with people out of fear of Seph’s attention being drawn onto them. Thus bringing us to the position of the ficlets.

So, in my defense EVERYTHING but the Prom thing is basically me superimposing Cloud’s actual storyline from FFVII onto this verse (except of instead of Prom it being him protecting it’s the rest of his group + Marlene & Denzel in Advent Children).

However against my defense doing horrible things to Cloud Strife is KIND OF my modus operandus (I mean one of my earliest fics posted is of him carrying the Seph remnants) 

But oh yes please go on with any ideas I post. I’m totally a person who loves sharing ideas and exploring different paths down.

With my current baseline idea for it the way I deal with a lot of the stuff you brought up is that Seph went AWOL sometime relatively soon after Cloud left (thanks to him storming out or him dying… by Cloud’s hand and being revived and not returning). He is very much NOT under Niflheim’s control and just generally doing whatever the fuck he wants and causing problems for literally everything (much like he does in FFVII). So nobody knows about his focus on Cloud because they’re both acting so singularly there’s nobody around to notice. At least not until Seph shows up at Altissia in his full one-wing 12ft-sword-wielding glory to goad Prompto.

Also Seph is the one to tell Prom which goes down just swell because Seph is not above manipulating the story (in either verse) to try and drag Prom along with him to get to Cloud (including leaving implications open about certain things). 

But okay enough about my ideas now more on yours.

I feel like Ravus is probably in the best position to put two-and-two together. Also maybe Aranea. Because they have the best chance of being able to go through old Empire records (especially if Hojo has been maybe pushed out/killed because his records are less closely guarded) to find out who exactly this person is that fucking Sephiroth is so obsessed with. For anyone in Lucius to find out they’d need to have a spy get hold of those records and the knowledge that Seph is obsessed (which I feel like the Empire would try to cover up).

Which then gets us to the question of: what would they assume from that? Would they assume Prom is a spy on the prince? That Cloud had pushed his son to get closer to the prince in order to get royal protection from his very strong (both politically and physically) stalker? Maybe the Lucians did know who Prom is and are effectively holding him hostage from Seph/the Empire? All they know is that Prom is probably a LOT more important than they first assumed.

I mean the reason Cloud is keeping a lot of it secret from Prom is fairly simple: shame. He’s ashamed he ended up in the situation at all (not necessary having Prom but the fact he signed up to join the army, allowed himself to be experimented on, had a child while there). Of course convincing Prom of that fact is a different thing.

I feel like the Seph thing is probably actually the harder one just because of the really glaring, immediate assumption when you have a person fleeing another who is clearly violent, controlling, and psychotic. Sure it makes better sense as to why Cloud kept it hidden but… the situation sits heavier on Prom’s conscious.

For the Aerith one… it at least explains why Pryna was attracted to Prom as a child - he’s carrying the bloodline that has a connection with the gods (because that would be the closest analogy for the Ancients). Cloud might get an out with “I didn’t want you to have to deal with that responsibility until you had to” because Prom knowing those things puts him at risk (especially when he’s close friends with the Prince and things might slip out in conversation). Also, hell, Cloud might get an out by “Aerith told me not to tell you anything until the time was right” because if the person in contact with the gods tells you to keep your mouth shut, keeping your mouth shut might be a good idea (especially if it lines up with what you want to do anyway).

And oh yeah someone needs to get the upper-hand on Ardyn. Although I feel like that probably happens somewhere in the “vague zone” of this idea… which is everything post the train ride.

I think the other bros are with him yeah (would be one of those things where it would depend on how I wrote it and what I realised I needed). And, I mean, that situation would be so almost contrary to what they’re used to. I mean firstly this is a man who anyone who isn’t high up in the Empire (so Ardyn, and probably Ravus) is running scared from, has a presence that nobody in FFXV quiet reaches (Ardyn is threatening but it’s more in a itch in the back of your head way while Seph is a CLEAR OPEN Danger sight), also he targets Prom, not Noct. Not completely out of their experience but certainly enough to throw the lot of them. So at least Prom isn’t alone in his being completely thrown from it.

Prom still tries to play it cool and not at all like he’s terrified out of his mind because firstly his deep dark secret has been revealed to Noct (the fact he’s originally from Niflheim), and secondly because his view of the world has been turned upside down. He’s trying to push it aside because he needs to be there for Noct who’s facing Leviathan’s trial the next day. He is failing.

Of course the other’s wouldn’t let him get away with that and would be comforting him as best as they could. Although I do think they’d let him ring Cloud alone because they get that he probably wants this kept somewhat private (although probably watching closely to make sure he doesn’t sneak off).

I mean aus of aus are often a thing I play around with (a lot of my fandom playing around is like a rabbit hole filled with aus of aus that connect up with other aus).

That assumption that Cloud is possibly a Nif spy is part of the reason I had it that they had only known about him in a very loose sense in the ficlet, because it’s a pretty fair assumption - especially if they have ANY loosely connected info about Cloud. Because unless you get the exact details (parent of an IMPORTANT child) all you get it “very important person who is also very unknown partially through Hojo’s intervention”. And Cloud being Cloud would probably be very defensive and very evasive when questioned about such things because he has DAMNED good reason to not trust authority.

I agree that Cloud would probably win if it came to a fight between him and Cor. Partially because Cloud is the protag of his origin game and normally they will be stronger than support characters (unless they’re like Gilgamesh where they’re mythical powerhouses or Seph/Lingering Remnant in KH where they’re post-game bosses). But I also agree it’d be a pretty close fight.

Ultimately though if Cloud reveals half of what is happening keeping him AND Prom safe would become pretty high priority. Because if the Empire wants Prom because of the power in his bloodline then having him on the Lucian side is a good thing because they get “control” of the power he could potentially wield. And Cloud is just a good bargaining/manipulating chip when it comes to Seph (because if FFVII games, Dissidias, AND KH have taught me anything it’s that Seph can be completely derailed from previous alliances/goals if “get to fight Cloud” is offered as an alternative).

I feel like if Regis met Cloud earlier he’d probably end up becoming, or at least trying to become, somewhat of a parental mentor for him. Because, okay, say they figure this all out when Prom is 5, Cloud is still only 22. While Regis was (from what my quick googling + math says) 30 when Noct was BORN. He’s now 35. Cloud would look like a baby to him. A baby who has a child who may or may not have some of the world’s destiny on his shoulders as well (depending on how that bloodline pans out).

I mean that’s… basically what would happen. I mean Cloud would probably have to lead him on a merry chase away from wherever they are meeting or else Seph would want to throw down right there right now but he would follow. Completely single-mindedly the while time monologuing about how he was going to “possess” and “conquer” and how Cloud should just “accept his submission” (I don’t even mean these in a shippy sense I mean these in a pure “prove myself superior” sense).

Just quickly if anyone is wondering what I mean when I say Seph will fuck with what’s happening and derail it and even get in other villain’s ways in order to continue with his general obsession/dicking around with Cloud please watch this cutscene from the new Dissidia game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vmVcyziGvI

(when the actual battle gameplay starts just skip to ~4min)

So his general background is basically the same: Hojo’s son/”perfect experiment”, experimented on while still a fetus, DNA infused with… something (I’m still not sure if I’m going to stick with Jenova and just convert her over to something in FFXV lore or change it to something in FFXV lore like something in connection with Ardyn) + demon blood (which is now what Mako is across board being convereted to). After that he was placed in the Niflheim army, was super good, conquered a bunch of land, became General.

He then either meets Cloud (and something happens that probably involves Cloud beating him in a fight) and becomes mildly fixated and thus Prompto’s conceived. OR he doesn’t notice Cloud exists until Cloud kills him during the escape with Prompto.

For how he goes mad it’s a combination of the demonblood and I wanna say the starscourge (which I know are connected/basically the same thing but they’re like different levels/operate differently in my head). Again it’s either done in a slow-rot way after Cloud leaves (although I feel like there would be foreshadowing warning signs before Cloud leaves because I’m a plotter and that works best) or when he ‘dies’ thanks to Cloud and gets revived (by starscourge and maybe Ifrit I’m still not sure about that last point) he comes back corrupted and now with an obsession with Cloud.

In both versions he knows Prompto was born because Hojo at least had interest in the child and it was probably somewhat common knowledge to those close to Hojo, knows Cloud took Prompto with him when he escaped (because he probably saw Cloud with Prompto escaping and/or killing him and/or isn’t an idiot and can put together “parent of child has left and child mysteriously gone missing = parent took child with them”). And he’s actually smart enough to probably realise Cloud’s trying to keep his attention away from the Crown City and thus that’s where Prompto is most likely. He just doesn’t care at that point in time because his priority fixation is Cloud and he isn’t going to try and get through the Lucian defenses to get to Prom when Cloud is running around being a much easier, much more satisfying target for him.

Then the events of the game happen and now Prompto is out of Crown City protection. Seph probably isn’t aware of this for a little until the Empire channels he’s still following/hacking reveal enough information about that member of the prince’s retinue to make Seph at least suspect who Prom is and even then still probably doesn’t care because Cloud is still the funner current target.