Reading

Around Town

The sight of a spiky-haired blond around Edge is hardly unusual. The sight of one wearing a tattered cloak like Vincent Valentine's with a leathery bat wing protruding from the left shoulder is, perhaps, more unusual. He's been around since October, but mostly just trying to fix that problem with the portals after discovering he could dreamwalk like the Sephiroths. Probably no one really expected him to stay on after that.

And he could have gone home, probably. It seems like most people who came through the dream portals were able to go back. He, however, found he didn't want to. Zack is here, his Zack, alive and well. He was never dead, like they'd thought. And Sephiroth....

Of course, now that he's had to accept that his Sephiroth isn't a villain, life is much more complicated for him. He could make the excuse he's staying on to protect this world and Zack from Sephiroth, but it would just sound stupid and make him look like the jerk after Sephiroth worked overtime to fix the mess with the dreams. So if anyone asks him why he's there, he'll probably make up some other excuse. He's too prideful and too shy to just say he's there to be with his friend. And he'll never in a million years say that deep down, he wants to be around Sephiroth, to try to start figuring him out, to finally make sense of that living mystery who really isn't part of him but his own person.

Staying on will have its own problems, though. Like, what if he encounters ... himself? He's avoided it so far and hopes to continue avoiding it, but he knows that's unlikely. And anyone who didn't realize he was here fixing the dream mess will probably be confused by him. He can't retract that wing anymore, so that's always a glaring signal that he's not the Cloud anyone here knows.

Sighing to himself, he keeps walking down the street, bandaged buster sword slung over his shoulder.

Network

He really doesn't want to do this. But if he's staying here, he can't just bum around. So ...

"Anyone got any work that needs doing? I'm hiring out."

Just voice for now, but a lot of people here will probably recognize that gruff voice with the slight country drawl.

Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means

karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )

Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.

On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.

Is this town big enough for two Clouds? | OTA

Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!