The l'Cie brand isn't actually on his face; I've just superimposed it there for symbolic purposes.
With These Signs Upon Our Souls, my Final Fantasy VIII/Final Fantasy XIII crossover, is one of the most ambitious fics I've ever attempted to write. At over 26,000 words, it's more than twice as long as any other continuous story I've ever completed. I know 26,000 words isn't actually that long, but it's long for me!
Final Fantasy XIII, like Final Fantasy VIII, is an underrated Final Fantasy game. I found the concept of l'Cie really interesting. You've been assigned an unclear task by a god. If you fail, you become a monster. If you succeed, you turn to crystal. One way or another, your life is going to end, and it's going to end soon. What do you do in that situation?
L'Cie are an interesting vehicle for telling stories about mortality, and I also thought it'd be interesting to see how being a l'Cie would intersect with Squall's particular set of issues. Squall is constantly trying to shield himself against loss. Suddenly he's forced to bond with a group of people he's guaranteed to lose before long, because they're all l'Cie working to complete the same task. How would he deal with that?
One challenge when writing this was making sure everything felt fresh and new. In a way, it's a retelling of Final Fantasy VIII in a slightly different universe (and with a slightly different party; sorry for replacing you with Seifer, Irvine), but I never wanted it to feel like I was just reiterating scenes from the game. I wanted this to stand as a story on its own, and I hope I've succeeded.
The title, With These Signs Upon Our Souls, is actually a complete mishearing of a line from a song. The game Iji ends with this LifeForce cover of a song called 'Further' by VNV Nation. I was absolutely convinced that one of the lines began 'with these signs upon our souls'; it always made me think of l'Cie when I heard it. By the time I learnt that the line was actually 'with designs upon ourselves' (which is very clear in the original), it was too late; I was already set on my misheard fic title. Whoops!
I did a lot of the early writing for this fic by hand, in a notebook, during a family holiday in northern Italy. I remember wandering around little towns with sloping streets, trying to plot things out.
Of all the fics I've ever written, this is the one I most wish more people had read. If you do read it, you're the best; thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it.