Rynling R&D

I want to share the three stories I wrote for this year’s candyheartsex exchange event:

Whenever You’re Ready (on AO3 here) is a pre-canon Breath of the Wild story about Zelda trying to learn archery from Revali.

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A Modest Test of Skill (on AO3 here) is about a Lynel wordlessly challenging Link to a friendly archery contest that ends in the discovery of a Korok.

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The Nameless City (on AO3 here) is set ten years after the end of Final Fantasy VI, and it’s about the warmth of the friendship between Terra and Celes as they explore the ruins of a forgotten city under Terra’s new home in Mobliz.

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My understanding of the Nibelheim incident is that Sephiroth was already close to the verge of a mental breakdown, and his chance encounter with certain aspects of Cloud’s character pushed him over the edge.

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In any case, the point of the original story is that the military-industrial complex is bad, because even people who are good at war are victims who can’t escape the cycle of trauma and violence.

In contrast, the idea that the Nibelheim incident happened because a space alien was using ghosts to talk to Sephiroth through his magical sword is fantasyslop that has no point at all. I could happily have lived the rest of my life without knowing this is canon.

Company
(Final Fantasy XII, Gen, 450 words)
https://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletidemadness2025/works/76192301

Miracle of miracles! The same author who gifted me the story about Penelo on the Phon Coast also wrote a subtle but lovely vignette about Ashe and Vaan, specifically about how Ashe gradually begins to view Vaan as a younger brother.

To me, there could not be a more perfect interpretation of these two. I usually cringe when I see tropes related to "found family," but I think that's exactly the right way to describe the relationship between most of the principal characters in Final Fantasy XII.

Except for Cid and Vayne. Those two are fucking. Obviously.

Anyway, I hope this author is okay with me binge-reading their work once creators are revealed. 🍹

In more material terms!

For Black Friday I got myself a sun lamp (this one here), and it changed my life in less than an hour. Holy shit. Amazing.

I saw someone on Bluesky describe Ghost Trick as "what if a person who was really good at making games really loved his Pomeranian," so I downloaded it from Steam. I'm not good at puzzle games, but I will use a walkthrough like a boss. Like a boss who really loves his Pomeranian.

The yen is relatively weak right now, so I bought a "like new" copy of the official Japanese strategy guide for the Final Fantasy IV DS remake. I had a lot of fun with FFVI in 2025, and one of my resolutions for 2026 is to rediscover my love for FFIV by being an insane completionist. I read on the internet that if you get all the secret summons you can watch Golbez ride Kain Highwind like a bicycle. Sounds legit. Let's go!

I also donated money to a local animal shelter and a local human shelter, as well as to AO3 (so people can post porn) and Wikipedia (so people can do research for the porn they post). I continue to be a broke-ass bitch, but every once in a while it's nice to cosplay as someone with money to throw around.

Somehow I’ve managed to accomplish all of my nonfiction writing goals for spring. I still have a month left in the season before I move on to my big summer projects, which means that I have time to write two bonus essays. Here’s what I’d like to do:

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He has a PhD in Fashion ✨

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I’ve been doing some Final Fantasy VII lore research for my Aerith story while trying to figure out the timeline of events prior to the beginning of the game. Like, how old was Aerith when she and her mother escaped from Shinra in the Remake timeline, and when was she first introduced to the church in the Sector 5 slums, that sort of thing.

What I ended up finding, on an absurd level of detail, was Cloud’s timeline. He was recruited by Shinra when he was 13, and he left for Midgar a few months later, shortly after he turned 14. Apparently, recruitment at this age is common, as joining the military is like going to high school. If 14yo kids don't join Shinra in some capacity, this is when they find a job and start working full-time.

Not much to say about this, besides damn. That’s fucked up.

Also, apparently the game uses the Western calendar dating system, with Cloud having been born in 1986. It’s weird to think of him being my age, but I guess FFVII is technically historical fiction set in 2007.

To my Phoenix Down Exchange partner,

Thank you so much for offering to create a story for me!

I love explorations of how characters are shaped by their environments, and I want to dive deep into fantasy worlds to get a sense of what it’s like to live there, from wholesome to horror.

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Please allow me to expand on my requests...

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After leaving the opening town of Kalm, I got sidetracked with sidequests. Unfortunately, I haven’t actually managed to complete any of them. The world map is enormous. Even with a chocobo, it takes forever to get anywhere. Since you can fast travel, I think I’m going to go ahead and progress the main story and see how that goes.

Anyway, something that’s stuck with me is how Tifa confronts Cloud after he tells his version of the story about what happened in Nibelheim. She’s basically like, “After I was injured and almost died, I had to go through months of hospital stays and physical therapy, and where the fuck were you?”

Good for her. And also, I appreciate that she admits to dealing with chronic pain despite being very physically fit. Just because you’ve got your shit together doesn’t mean your disability isn’t real.

I also appreciate the scene between Barret and Tifa after Shinra brings the Sector 7 plate down on the slums. Tifa is in shock and on the verge of a breakdown, and she says something like “this is all our fault.” Barret hugs her while at the same time talking good sense, saying, “You can’t let yourself think like that. Whatever may have come before, it’s Shinra who pulled the trigger.”

Barret and Tifa have their differences, and they butt heads regarding Avalanche's goals and methods in multiple scenes. Still, they support one another when it matters, and they never forget that they’re fighting the same enemy. I didn’t expect to encounter such a healthy model of a progressive resistance movement in a commercial video game, but here we are.

Tifa and Barret have great chemistry in the Final Fantasy VII Remake, by the way. I would happily play a prequel game (maybe along the lines of Teardown) where the two of them are ecoterrorist buddies who do crimes in Midgar.

Also, I think the English-language voice actress nailed Aerith’s personality in the Remake. She seems sweet on the surface, but she’s 100% set on getting her way, and she can be super passive-aggressive when she runs out of patience. She has goddess-tier powers, and she has an appropriate level of self-confidence to match. I feel like the original English translation struggled with her voice (which is surprisingly masculine-coded in Japanese), but she shines as a character in the Remake. I am so in love.