A/N:
This is a random act of fanfiction. All the characters, despite having obvious name changes for no reason, are FFVII characters copyright Squaresoft. The fic is copyright Catherine Rain.
Why did I write this? Well, mainly because it just popped into my mind. The secondary reason is because I'm tired of hearing people talk about how they hated Aeris because she was nothing but an archetype. Granted, if she WERE an archetype, she'd be pretty boring… but she's not. Remember in Wall Market when she picks out the slinky red dress? Haven't you noticed how much she teases Cloud about cross-dressing, and laughs at off-color jokes? She's obviously got a darker side to her than simply being "the cute healer in pink." Yet obviously she feels that she *ought* to be sweet and innocent, and presents herself to the world that way. I created this fic in an attempt to figure out why she might be the way she is.
The benefit of using changed names is that it helps break out of the preconceived ideas everyone has of the characters. After reading a billion FFVII fics, it all starts to sound the same: Cloud and Aeris, mako and SOLDIER-- we've seen it before, so it's hard to come to a fic with an open mind. Reading about Alice and Claude, however, is a little different: it doesn't feel quite like the-old-FFVII-song-and-dance-as-always. I didn't change the names for this reason-- I did it on a whim-- so I uncovered the hidden benefits quite by accident.
This is a random act of fanfiction. All the characters, despite having obvious name changes for no reason, are FFVII characters copyright Squaresoft. The fic is copyright Catherine Rain.
Why did I write this? Well, mainly because it just popped into my mind. The secondary reason is because I'm tired of hearing people talk about how they hated Aeris because she was nothing but an archetype. Granted, if she WERE an archetype, she'd be pretty boring… but she's not. Remember in Wall Market when she picks out the slinky red dress? Haven't you noticed how much she teases Cloud about cross-dressing, and laughs at off-color jokes? She's obviously got a darker side to her than simply being "the cute healer in pink." Yet obviously she feels that she *ought* to be sweet and innocent, and presents herself to the world that way. I created this fic in an attempt to figure out why she might be the way she is.
The benefit of using changed names is that it helps break out of the preconceived ideas everyone has of the characters. After reading a billion FFVII fics, it all starts to sound the same: Cloud and Aeris, mako and SOLDIER-- we've seen it before, so it's hard to come to a fic with an open mind. Reading about Alice and Claude, however, is a little different: it doesn't feel quite like the-old-FFVII-song-and-dance-as-always. I didn't change the names for this reason-- I did it on a whim-- so I uncovered the hidden benefits quite by accident.