I was greatly inspired by this story called "Vanilla" [by Sorceress Fantasia] on ff.net. On the surface, the plot will sound really similar, but it will be very different, I promise!
Aditional inspiration came from another fan-fiction called "Suburbia" [by Falaphesian], Supernatural (created by Eric Kripke), a handful of songs so far ("Use Somebody" - Kings of Leon; "Big Girls Don't Cry" - Fergie; "Demons" - Imagine Dragons; "Titanium" - David Guetta feat. Sia; "Everybody Talks" - Neon Tress), and a 1999 novel called "A Ghost For Maggie" by Emily Charmichael.
Anyway! I wanted to try a new pairing --one I'd never written before-- and none of my in-progress works would let me do that (well, one of them might, but only if I make it part of a set >.<).
What pairing, you ask?
Cloud Strife and Vincent Valentine.
I know I've never attempted anything like this before... and it is intimidating, but I really want to take a shot at it.
The plot summary:
This was not how things were supposed to go. Tifa wasn't supposed to die and leave her best friend Cloud all alone, she wasn't supposed to come back as a ghost, and she sure as hell wasn't supposed to slip into Cloud's body and convience the dark and mysterious Valentine to take a chance on a relationship with Cloud! To think he'd been missing her, faults and all!
I know, I know. It sounds so similar, if you checked out the other story... so I'll give a little more detail...
Plot Synopsis:
Six months after the death of his best friend, Cloud Strife is still attempting to cope by avoiding having the time or clarity of mind to dwell on Tifa. For a long time, Tifa had been his only friend, so she left him her bar to run in an effort to get him out more. Instead, Cloud has withdrawn more into himself.
Tifa's spirit, unable to find peace because of her sould-deep worry for her friend, has been wandering the earth for those same six months. Actually, she's just stayed pretty close to Cloud while she tried to figure out the tricks of the trade for a ghost. Finally, she's made enough progress to move things, appear before people, and --more importantly-- possess the living, at least for a while.
Convinced that if left to his own devices, Cloud will probably kill himself or wind up alone, Tifa hatches a plan to get her best friend together with the only other person she can think of who knows how lost Cloud feels: Vincent Valentine. Even before the plan forms fully, she knows that Cloud will not have the persistance to talk to the other man -let alone the understanding that they both need this chance- but Tifa's got that covered...
First things first, she had to snap him out of that stupid funk and get him to open the doors of her precious business.
It promises to be a rather dark story, at least at first. Cloud's not exactly got a great history (Vincent's won't be much better) and there is an honest to goodness poltergeist --and some personal demons (a few of which are more literal than others...)-- involved intricately in the plot.
As you probably guessed, it's an AU story. Nope, it's not going to fit with any other story I've written, but I have high hopes for it, because I am so pumped to write it right now~ I've already written most of one scene for the story --the first meeting, in point of fact! I am so stoked to work on this one!