[Fic] Attributes of Instinct

[crisis_control]

Title: Attributes of Instinct
Characters: Rufus, Tseng. Rufus/Tseng if you squint.
Author: Elvaron (Crisis Control)

Rating: PG-13 (for language)
Warnings: Spoilers all over the place for Before Crisis.
Word Count: ~14,000
Status: Complete

Summary: “Some things,” Tseng counters, “Are too dangerous to give a chance to.” Rufus betrays the Turks to Avalanche, and Tseng takes it upon himself to mete out vengeance. Fortunately for him, nothing that involves Rufus Shinra ever goes according to plan. Before Crisis timeline, set after Rufus' arrest in Corel.

AO3 link.

LJ links: Part 1 | Part 2

Comments

[synecdochic]

Oh my earthly gods, you're the first person who has ever, ever managed to make me not despise BC canon. Wow.

This is stunning.

[crisis_control]

You have no idea how happy this comment makes me-- ok you probably do. But thank you! I woke up to the email notification and my morning was totally made.

Sometimes I wonder just what the developers were thinking when they wrote the BC script (or what they were on), because the characterisation is almost schizophrenic at times. 99% of Rufus' lines just make me cringe all the way through, and then there are stunning moments where he just turns around and says that Avalanche went too far in occupying the Corel reactor and that he went there to stop them (alone? Really?), and then he goes and does something idiotic like tell Fuhito to kill the Turks. And then acts completely surprised when Fuhito betrays him. I'm just like. What. What.

And he shows himself to be brilliant in setting up Shinra 26 to fail spectacularly and get all the executives on his side and then – Corel Reactor happens. Does not compute.

...I still feel like I had to butcher his BC characterisation to get this fic to work. Still feel like it was a worthy sacrifice, though, especially if it makes BC more palatable.

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it!

[synecdochic]

Yeah, I'm generally okay with an author butchering BC if it makes things make more sense. ;) (I mean, like this fic, I can kinda make BC!Rufus work a little if I make it be that his bad plays are just him trying to run a massive Xanatos Gambit and failing miserably because he's young and tries to overcomplicate things, but, nrrrgh.) I just ... I could maybe buy "young, impulsive, and utterly lacking in patience", but some of his plays were just stupid. And I can buy many characterizations of Rufus Shinra, but 'stupid' is not one of them *G*

Which is why I enjoyed this so much! Because you took all the stupid and made it smart, and that is very much awesome.