Fictional Fans

FF7:

This can go so many ways. So here's two of them.

* The annual SOLDIER vs Turks snowball battle (Crisis Core era; special guest participant, Private Cloud Strife, pulled in by his friend Zack on the SOLIDER team)

Last one standing is, of course, Sephiroth, who really doesn't understand the whole business with having to do these things as a game, and conducts it as a serious battle exercise. Second-last one standing is Tseng, who does understand the "game" side of things, but still treats it seriously.

Reno goes absolutely feral, but then again, nobody notices, because hey, it's Reno. Rude just stands back and lets him go.

Zack has, of course, been recruiting other people from other groups. He started with Cloud (who has decided to stay out of things and set himself up as quartermaster by specialising in snowball production), he's moved on to trying to get Reeve Tuesti to build them a snowball trebuchet (Cloud is shaking his head and face-palming, because seriously, Zack...)

Subverting people from the other team / horrible betrayal is a combination of Cissnei and Genesis, who wind up forming their own side, and basically ganging up on both teams from the sidelines. They subvert Reno, who nicks about half the snowballs Cloud made ("Hey!") to supply them.

The secretly terrifying hidden sniper in the shadows should be Vincent Valentine, but unfortunately he's busy taking a multi-decade nap. Don't interrupt him unless you're bearing coffee.

Angeal is playing it straight, and his squad lasts a decent time before they run out of snowballs (Reno has been half-inching 'em from everyone), at which point they're decimated by a deadly accurate attack from Tseng.

Playing for maximum drama is probably Genesis (come on, this is Genesis! He does EVERYTHING for maximum drama).

* The AVALANCHE vs Turks vs WRO snowball battle (Post-AC era, because they have to rebuild the bridges somehow).

Last one standing is Vincent, who is, as always, the terrifying sniper from the shadows. Or at least, he should be the last one standing, but he got hit by a sneak cute attack from Marlene, who distracted him while Denzel got him with a snowball. He accepted his defeat because he secretly adores the kids, and doesn't want to disappoint them, even if he doesn't know the first thing about how to deal with them).

Reno goes absolutely feral, but then again, nobody notices, because hey, it's Reno. Rude just stands back and lets him go. (Some things never change). Yuffie is also on the "absolutely feral" side of things, as well as the "horrible betrayal" side as well, but nobody really sees this as being out of character.

Yuffie is also the one who subverted Marlene and Denzel over to her team (she started WRO, but wound up creating her own side, involving Marlene, Denzel and any other kid who comes in range and wants to join in).

Cid and Barrett get into the swing of things, and turn it into a full on competition to see who can be the most dramatic of the lot.

Elena gives up early, and goes to help Tifa with preparing the mulled wine (adults) and hot chocolate (kids and Cloud, who doesn't notice the alcohol content in the wine, and doesn't like the taste) for afterwards. She's not that keen on snowball fights, because snowballs don't go boom properly. (Tifa misses Jessie sometimes... she thinks Jessie and Elena would have got on like a house on fire).

Reeve starts off trying to run things seriously for the WRO team, but ends up pulling out the snowball trebuchet he designed earlier (Cloud has to deal with a flashback; he shakes off Reeve's apologies - not ALL his lost memories are hideously traumatic, after all; this was one of the good ones).


Persona 5

For these guys, it has to be paintball. Boys vs Girls, with Goro Akechi subbing in for Morgana (who can't play; he's a cat and lacks opposable thumbs) on the boys side. For convenience, I'm going to be referring to them all by their Metaverse codenames, since that solves the problem of how to refer to the protagonist (who is currently up to about half a dozen "canonical" names, and appears to be accumulating them).

Last one standing is, of course, Joker. Who also carries off the palm for "playing for maximum drama". There should, as Oracle points out, be a rule against being as extra as he is.

Everyone was expecting the sudden but inevitable betrayal to come from Crow (who has form for this, after all). Instead, it turned out to be Fox, who got bribed by Noir (lifetime membership to Big Bang Burger, and one free burger a day - his food worries have been solved for the immediate future) into dropping out of things.

Thoroughly feral is Noir, who keeps grinning in a way which reminds everyone of the way she kept fondling that grenade launcher of hers back in the Metaverse. Very worrying, and they ask Queen to check her for axes and hatchets before they start playing.

The sniper from the shadows, surprisingly enough, is Oracle, who has been practising to try and beat Shinya at "Gun About" for a while now. She may not be able to run very far or very fast, and she might not be as good at the combat side of things, but she's found a good corner to hole up in (one that lets her have a good view of everyone else, which is essential). The only reason she isn't the last one standing is the glow of her phone pinpointed her position to Joker.

Fox doesn't so much try to subvert the rules as just doesn't understand what they're there for, or really comprehend the point of the game. He drops out of the game fairly early, due to the whole thing not being as interesting as the idea for a new painting he had as a result. He's intrigued by the artistic possibilities inherent in shooting paintballs at a canvas, and wants to think this through in order to see what he can get. Oh, and Noir's bribe. Can't forget the bribe.

Crow and Queen both take things fairly seriously, and the battle between the two of them quickly becomes a grudge match (Queen still hasn't forgiven Crow for that "good girl pushover" crack back in June). The rest of the crew leave the two of them to shoot it out. Joker and Skull team up to take out Panther and Noir, Oracle takes out Skull, and Joker waits for Queen to triumph over Crow before taking her out with a trick shot, and settling down to search for Oracle.

They all head back to Leblanc afterwards for coffee, curry and post-mortems. It takes about twenty minutes to coax Crow out of the sulks because Queen beat him.