*cries* I feel your pain on the monster thing--part 2 of A Hope in Hell just hit twenty pages, and that after I split part two in half because it was getting too bloody long. *death*
As for Tifa--the Tifa here makes sense, though--she grew up knowing Cloud could never, ever be her knight-in-shining-armor because he was going to die. So she read the same fairy tales, but she kind of went the Utena route and decided to be Cloud's knight, since he was the one more in need of a rescue than she ever could be.
Canon!Tifa needs to, well...grow the fuck up, to be blunt. -_-;
And *squee* yay, more soon! Something to look forward to when I get off work! :D