While There's Still Time | Fire Emblem 7

[farina]

Title: While There's Still Time
Fandom: Fire Emblem 7
Words: 1,221 words
Summary: She remembered the Isle, the blood-soaked flanks and wings of pegasi, and her attempt to find survivors. (Fiora's Survivor's Guilt + fear of caring for other people lest she lose them, too.)
Pairing/Characters: Fiora, Sain
Extra Info: This was the 7,000th 'fic posted on FFnet for Fire Emblem back in the day. Wild.
Rating: T
Genre: Introspection/Friendship.

Notes:

My original intention for this story was to write a piece around 500 words, but obviously that dream died on the vine. (For the rewrite too lmao.)

This was an attempt to give readers a more varied perspective on Fiora, a character who is not very well-loved by the fans, but who really comes together as a believable person through her supports with others. Throughout the game she comes off as rather standoffish, and on occasion outright argumentative (like with Farina), but I think it’s important to remember that she was the commanding officer of a failed mission where she was the sole survivor, and also she’s spent much of her childhood trying to help support her sisters even though it was difficult. She’s had a lot on her shoulders that has forced her to try and think objectively about things, and that attitude makes it easy to forget that she has a lot of love to give—she’s just afraid to give it.

Anyway, we stan Fiora in this house.

The original was written in this super verbose style (one reviewer said it was "like watching two actors on stage" which wasn't exactly a compliment so much as an observation). I kept most of it in the rewrite because I honestly liked how fresh it felt compared to most of the FE stuff I've written in the past, but whether that was the right choice or not I leave up to my readers. Criticize the shit out of it if you please.

Labeled strictly as friendship because I feel it's important to the story. It was also the most-praised thing about the original!

Lastly, I cannot express my disappointment in rereading old reviews that nobody seemed to like the part of the story I liked the best while writing it. I'll see if anyone notices it this time lmao.