Uploaded August 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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``Leave your fallen years with mine
Feel the hollow easing out
Apart we're reaching out
We reached it before our time``
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It's done ;-; I put this off way too long, waiting for inspiration, switching songs a week before deadline, and working on other projects. As a result...I didn't get to do some things I wanted and the pacing is a little wonky, but I love the feelings at the end and I'm actually really proud of this, despite the mistakes and the lack of masks where I wanted them. It's the longest video I've done in I think ten yearsish? so yeah Thank you to Laurin, Myra, and Zombie (and Rae with the coloring!) for beta testing this. You are amazing.
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My prompts were song by Talos, which I did, and use warm colorings. I have no idea how to work with warm colorings, so I struggled a bit. I used two main ones. The more reddish, darker one is the reality, while the yellow and grey one is the kind of...dream world.

STORY:
This story was inspired, and originally meant to just be taken, from a game from 2000 called Orphen Scion of Sorcery. This month was its 20 year anniversary and it used to be one of my favorite games.

For the plot I went with, Aerith takes the place of Quaris, who watches over Gaia, a machine that feeds off the negative emotions of people that it holds in stasis, simulating their lives over and over until they finally die. I went for...a slightly different approach. Rather than a robot, I went for a crystal. Aerith watches over the crystal and Cloud, Lighting, and Serah, as they sleep and feed the crystal. She plays various parts in their dreams- the villain, the friend, etc. Brief synopsis of individual stories: Cloud is having flashbacks to Zack's death;Lightning is afraid of Luna facing the Leviathan by herself, because she is sure she'll die; Serah is marked for sacrifice, but Yuna makes a deal with the gods to take on the marking herself, dying in her beloved's place.

Aerith begins to fall in love, not necessarily with anyone, though perhaps Cloud, but more with the idea of living. She has always been in that dark hall with just the Crystal. She isn't even certain she's human anymore. She confesses the last part, her fear of her humanity to Cloud, and he responds simply "of course you're human." This touches her deeply, and she changes his dream suddenly to the children running and such through the forest, a happy image.

She begins sapping power from the crystal to give her enough power to change the dreams, bringing them happy endings and waking them from their sleep. Zack lives. Aerith takes over the role of priestess, allowing Luna to reunite with Lightning. Serah's desire to save Yuna summons Valefor, who catches Yuna. They all awaken, shooketh at where they are. With even more power, she summons the dark tendrils to take them back to their worlds, reuniting them with their loved ones truly. At the end she is alone surrounded by the darkness. It is sort of left up to interpretation if she has defeated the crystal, and can now leave, or if she is trapped there. Perhaps she was the crystal all along...

So yeah I tried to use the shadowy bits naturally in this game to kind of represent the crystal's power and...yeah! did my best!
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Song: youtube.com/watch?v=jQkHRrI-UjU
Lyrics: genius.com/Talos-the-light-upon-us-lyrics
Aerith as Luna scene at 2:19 from France over at Freeshooter recordings