arm yourself with the memories of my teeth

12. What they do for their anniversary:

It takes them a while to figure out what the date of their anniversary even is, given that the process of them getting together was a bit complicated and it’s hard to say exactly when it segued from platonic to romantic to polyamorous between the three of them. Once they all agree on a date, their anniversary is usually a small affair wherein they all take a day off and go do something together, often away from the public. They go sightseeing, hiking, spelunking, swimming—activities centric on experiencing things together, making memories rather than focusing on gifts or anything material. In the end, memories are all at least one of them is going to have, so this is really important.

13. Who makes a bigger deal of birthdays:

Genesis. Cloud is terrible at remembering dates and doesn’t have strong feelings about birthdays either way, so he doesn’t really care. Vincent would avoid acknowledging them altogether if he could; other people’s birthdays are like a running tally until those people outgrow him or die, and celebrating his own is a bad joke considering he’s always going to be twenty-seven.

For Genesis, birthdays are a chance to express to the people he loves how glad he is that they exist. He doesn’t celebrate landmark ages—although in the far future he’s the one that actually remembers Vincent’s exact age, and knows what Cloud’s would be if he were still alive—but rather the very fact that they were born in the first place. That’s a mindset that even Vincent can eventually accept, although it doesn’t help Cloud remember dates any better.

14. What nicknames they call each other:

Vincent doesn’t really use nicknames. He’ll use diminutive forms of a person’s actual name, but that’s different. Genesis is “Gen” a portion of the time, and “Rhapsodos” when he’s being insufferable. In the far future as they both cycle through a rather excessive number of fake names to keep from drawing attention, Vincent will sometimes use any of the names he remembers to refer to Genesis, who responds in kind. (They tend to lean into the more ridiculous ones, leading Vincent to occasionally refer to Genesis affectionately as “Dr. Rothosis,” to which Genesis will respond by calling him “Professor Ventfort” in a bad Old Junonese accent.)

Cloud is much the same as Vincent, although he takes even longer to do it. Vincent has been “Vince” since about halfway through the Crisis, sure, but Genesis isn’t “Gen” until they’ve been living together for two years. He does eventually refer to Genesis on rare occasions as just “bird” or “feathers,” much to Genesis’ absolute delight. (He also sometimes calls him “wingding” but that’s less appreciated.)

Genesis, though. Hoo-boy. “Love” is a big one, and he uses it indiscriminately for both Cloud and Vincent, alongside “darling.” Cloud is also “pretty savior,” “little wolf,” and occasionally “my sunlit hurricane.” Vincent is “blackbird,” “heartsong” and (much more rarely) “my eternal midnight companion.” He’ll also use long one-off poetic titles here and there, less nicknames or petnames so much as dramatic descriptions that suit the situation in one way or another. He occasionally refers to Cloud and Vincent together as “the champion and the apocalypse,” but in a very tongue-in-cheek way as if teasing someone by using their middle name. (Example: “If the champion and the apocalypse would condescend to bless me with their presence, dinner will be ready in less than ten minutes and no one has set the table.” Vincent is the only one of them with a middle name, so this is a fair alternative.)

15. What they would change about each other:

If they could change anything, they would all unanimously make each other match with regard to lifespan, aging and mutation.

Cloud is mortal, ages at an extremely slow rate but does still age, may experience further mutation later in life but thankfully only in a way that will absolutely be concealable (if Cloud ever gets a wing he will be able to put it away the same as Genesis) and destructible. He’ll live a long time, may change a little bit but will still have the capacity to look human, but he can be killed and someday he’s going to die.

Genesis is immortal, doesn’t age, will not experience any further mutations over time, but is probably still as destructible as his predecessors in the Planet’s service—the first generation of Weapons that Avalanche fought during the Crisis. He’ll live forever, he’ll be more or less the same (physically) that entire time, but he can probably be killed in the right circumstances.

Vincent is immortal*, doesn’t age, will experience further mutations over time as his human characteristics are overtaken and overwritten by the Weapon Lucrecia turned him into, and he’s indestructible. He’ll live forever, look less and less human as ages pass until no one would ever mistake him as such, and he can’t be killed no matter how anyone or anything might try.

(*Vincent is still in possession of the immortality and powers afforded to him by Chaos even post-Dirge; it’s Chaos’ consciousness that returned to the Lifestream, relinquishing control of Vincent’s body for good. We know this because Vincent was indicated to have been all but atomized stopping Omega from leaving, possibly even burning up on reentry like space debris, but eventually whatever was left of him recombined and remanifested in the cave where Chaos once slept, whole and complete and himself. Further, the OG ends with Nanaki making his way to Midgar 500 years post-Meteorfall, which we know is something he does yearly for the express purpose of meeting up with Vincent.)

If the three of them could change anything, it would be to make it so they were all the same in this capacity—whatever that might look like—so they wouldn’t be inevitably separated. Unfortunately, that’s never been in the cards.

(For the ship asks game.)