#( select : sephiroth )

[xrenyaa]

Athena & Simon Sketchdump

[fatetainted]

the way I get possessed to draw this man at every opportunity is absurd

[gonzodangerfeels]

Smoking toddlers. The world is fucking insane.

[wingsdreamt]

The gray storm clouds gathering over the bluffs outside Midgar’s limits feels so fresh in his memory. Years ago. He was, unequivocally, absolutely, definitely dead up until recently. For all intents and purposes, he shouldn’t be here. Zack’s gaze briefly follows the movement of Sephiroth’s hand. Up, then back down again. 

If their positions were reversed, he’d have been just as twitchy. Zack returns his attention to the matter of sleeping arrangements should Sephiroth feel the need to save face. Granted, having the opportunity to save face and feeling safe from future incidents worthy of embarrassment while in the presence of Zack Fair are not mutually exclusive. 

“Repeating the word ‘vacation’ is not a real answer,” Zack politely reminds his companion as he feels about the joining panels of the sleeping bag and pulls them apart to search for the right seam.

He mentioned cutting, but he lacks actual cutting tools. Attempting to brute force separation and failing would be plain embarrassing, especially if he royally messed up by missing the grain and tearing the fabric at a horrible angle. Not only would they be out of a sleeping bag, but there’d be fluffy stuffing floating around everywhere. More tinder for the campfire, perhaps, though he already had a plan in mind as far as ensuring they were nice and toasty.

The sleeping bag is about halfway up to his mouth when Sephiroth gestures vaguely at his wings, and Zack’s entire face lights up. 

“That is such a great idea. Why didn’t I think of that?” 

The stupid grin might suggest he did certainly think about it and that he was more titillated than anything that Sephiroth was the one to actually bring it up first.   

“Alright, let’s try this,” Zack says, his voice distorted as he clenches his incisors over a thread and snaps it with a sharp yank. The fabric splits away without exposing any stuffing. Success! Teasing the sleeping bag apart doesn’t take long after that, and soon enough they have enough surface area on the ground for both of them to sleep on with a bit of mako residue to spare. 

“Hmm…”  Zack sizes himself up, then Sephiroth, then his own wingspan. Dropping onto his stomach on one side of the spread, Zack lifts the wing opposite and tries to envision Sephiroth fitting beneath it. “Like this, maybe? Orrr…maybe on my side? I think my wing still reaches…”

More thinking, more picturing, a bit of rolling around, and Zack comes to a sudden realization. Oh, okay. They’re going to have to be real close for this to work. Maybe he hadn’t thought this through as much as he initially believed. With a little extra color on his cheeks, Zack clears his throat. 

“I mean, only if you want to.” 

The weight of an unappended ‘sir’ lingers in the silence after his last word. Perhaps it’s obvious, the way his mouth hangs open a second longer than necessary. Funny, how old habits have a life of their own.

@wingsdreamt

Given the expression he's only so successful in pretending not to be watching on Zack's face, the comment about other people rather accidentally gets a soft snort out of Sephiroth. "'Other people' have never been particularly easy for some of us to begin with." There's no real bitterness in his own contribution; it's a simple matter of fact. Zack was the people person more than anyone else he'd ever come across.

He'd thought it much nicer, better, to be alone. It had been for a long while, and he distinctly remembers his absolute resistance to that being changed, to "letting anyone in", as it were. Then the discovery was made that some individuals will simply knock holes in walls via sheer determination. It's-- A good memory. But it's bittersweet. Like seemingly everything else. Considering the circumstances, however...

He's just dragged about the last person he ever expected to see again out of a mako pool and is still slowly wrapping his mind around it when he's overcome by the realization that sharing space is really quite-- Nice. Depending on the individual, it goes without saying, but camaraderie and comfortable silences felt rare enough way back when. Sephiroth never gave much thought to the possibilities of them happening again, of the way something about the idea seems like it ought to be held on to overly tightly and not be let go of.

He's lost in thought enough that he nearly startles when Zack seemingly collapses out of nowhere. For one startlingly real moment wondering if it's all already gone wrong, half crouched and reaching out as if that would do any good at all before--

No, that's just... Zack. Being himself, in spite of everything. He doubts he lets his hand drop or settles back down in time to not be seen, witnessed, but he can't quite feel embarrassed about it.

Which makes the question blindside him several times more potently than it normally would. "Vacation." Every individual syllable sounds like it's being read off a page for the first time. An unthinkable idea before, ludicrous now.

Downright normal in its own undefinable way. Right down to the swirling feeling of exasperated amusement that he's not certain he can hide as he stares back, though it's the moment when the sleeping bag is mentioned that he feels the slightest heat in his face again. "Permission granted to whatever extent the sleeping situation becomes comfortable." Sephiroth supposes he can't really be too hard on himself for not planning ahead for this eventuality, but it will continue to be a minor annoyance.

It's almost a distracted thought, showing the degree of tiredness and relief he's feeling as he lightly waves a hand toward the wings. Proper-looking ones, with feathers that look as healthy and well-insulated as any bird's. "You do seem to have blankets or tent walls already attached to you, regardless." Not the most serious comment he's ever made, but an honest observation regardless.

[rottenpumpkin13]

Do you think Sephiroth ever does things that his friends find cute? Little moments where he’s being unintentionally endearing and it just throws people off

Cute Things Sephiroth Does

• Sometimes when he's eating something he enjoys, his cheeks puff up and get squishy (like a hamster), and if he's having pasta he might end up with sauce on his face.

• Before bed he either braids his hair or throws it into a messy ponytail if he's too tired to bother with it.

• When he lies down he instinctively cuddles whatever’s nearby—pillows, blankets, random objects, Genesis and/or Angeal, you name it. + Because he's usually too tall for most spaces, he subconsciously shrinks his legs even when he actually has room.

• Loud noises easily bother him even though he's used to suppressing it. His friends find it cute when he pulls away, shuts his eyes or covers his ears in response.

• He gets a petulant expression whenever someone interrupts him while he's eating. Kind of like this -> (￣◇￣;) but his mouth is full of food.

• He acts awkward in front of cameras, especially when he's being filmed. Angeal finds this especially adorable since he's the resident photographer. Sephiroth either rubs the back of his neck, looks away, or covers his face.

• When he gets cold, he pulls his blanket all the way up, covering his nose.

• If he enjoys a new food, he'll look it up online to order more of it before he even finishes eating. One time he did this with an apple granola bar Genesis offered him, not knowing that his parents' company were the suppliers. Genesis also found Sephiroth's excited expression when he presented him with a box full of them very cute.

• He tries to pet stray cats in the slums and gets quietly upset when they don’t return his affection, though he never admits it. He just gets very quiet, sighs, and then keeps walking. When they were on a mission one time, Zack was tempted to chase the cat down and force it to love him.

• He looks unexpectedly cute doing yoga because he's fully relaxed and focused.

• While Angeal never uses sticker sheets (saves them for special occasions) and Genesis uses his selectively, Sephiroth uses all of his at once, sticking them on random places since he never had the notion of saving them for something special. Genesis and Angeal found matching moogle stickers on their coffee cups one time. Sephiroth's giddy expression as he waited for them to say something was, unnervingly, very adorable.

[cerastes]

But did they also remove Osaka?

Silent Hill 2 Remake dev notes:

Added Anor Londo.

Added Leon S. Kennedy as a selectable character by finding the “Cat Ears” Key Item.

Pyramid Head can now be fought alongside Square Calves and Triangle Pectorals in the Underground Arena after defeating Majima.

Osaka removed; replaced with Dotonbori from Silent Hill Kiwami.

Herobrine removed.

James will no longer automatically aggro children with a negative karma score.

Unlike in the original game, James can now dual wield Saw Cleavers and the Blade of Mercy.

The location for Super Missiles and Shine Spark were made easier to reach.

Axes now only cost 2 Hearts to use, and 5 to Item Crush.

Better hitboxes; Bowser’s Flame Breath is less janky, while Gilgamesh’s Gate of Babylon no longer has bugged inactive hitboxes. No changes to Sephiroth, though, surprisingly.

Castrum Meridianum completely reworked; Mary Weapon is now fought in a separate encounter.

Removed fog.

[getvalentined]

I've talked about the Nibelheim Doom Triangle many times, but I'm not sure I've ever actually put into words why I believe Lucrecia made the choice she did, at least not in a public forum. Given that Vincent has reentered the public consciousness with Rebirth, it's probably a good time.

We are not going to subscribe to the statement in the Ultimania that Lucrecia married Hojo out of pity because nobody in the company respected his work the same way nobody respected her thesis, because that's not only entirely out of character, but goes directly against what actually happened. Hojo was the lead assistant on Project S, like Gillian was on Project G; Gast selected him, his ideas, his theories, as being the best option after Project G failed. No one else was given this opportunity. After Sephiroth was born, Hojo was then moved (with Lucrecia and Hollander, but not Gillian, who had left the company) to work on Project 0—Shinra's single most important attempt at forcing humanity to progress as a species. Hojo was respected, and Lucrecia may be callow but she's never been the kind of woman who would marry someone out of pity. With that out of the way, we can get into my take on her decision.

I want to be explicitly clear: I don't believe it has anything to do with how attractive Vincent is versus Hojo, and I don't believe that it should. Asserting that Vincent's level of attractiveness should have been the key deciding factor in Lucrecia's decision does a disservice to her depth of character. Period. That isn't even addressing the fact that we're comparing a man who is eternally twenty-seven years old and was in peak physical condition at the time of his death to a man who is in his early sixties and has clearly not taken particularly good care of himself. We've never actually seen what Hojo looked like when he was young, since SE only ever uses one model for him in all modern iterations, so this is a moot point.

That said, Vincent's appearance was a mitigating factor in Lucrecia's decision—and it worked in Hojo's favor, not Vincent's.

We're almost twenty years out since the release of Dirge of Cerberus, so I feel like I can confidently state that Lucrecia was almost certainly in love with Grimoire Valentine. It was unspoken, unrequited, and doomed from the start, but the affection she had for that man was every bit as intense as the affection Vincent had for her—in fact, on the official relationship chart, Lucrecia's feelings for Grimoire are described using the same word as Vincent's feelings for Lucrecia. This is a repeating pattern, and that's part of the tragedy. Lucrecia adored Grimoire for his intellect, his drive, his passion; Vincent adored Lucrecia for the same reasons. Vincent refers to her as "the beautiful Lucrecia," yes, but he also describes her as the woman he respected most.

Knowing that Lucrecia loved Grimoire makes sense of how she was so torn between Vincent and Hojo.

Vincent looked like his father, he had his eyes, his nose, his brow. He probably had a fair number of his mannerisms, body language inherited and learned via his upbringing. They probably spoke almost the same way, their voices were similar, they had the same stories and the same sense of humor and the same idiosyncracies. But Vincent wasn't his father—he wasn't even a scientist, he didn't have that academic drive that drew Lucrecia to Grimoire in the first place. He was younger than Lucrecia by a few months, he couldn't be her guide or her teacher, and while he'd been assigned to be her protector, it wasn't the same. It could never be the same.

Hojo, meanwhile, looked nothing like Grimoire. His dark eyes and wide mouth and narrow shoulders were nothing like the man Lucrecia loved and lost through her own mistakes. But his drive, his passion, his determination—my god, it was just like him. Hojo's single-minded certainty, his confidence in his own comprehension, his intellectual unquenchable thirst to understand those things beyond his reach, it was all the same. His body language was different, his speech patterns were different, his research itself was different—but not, it turns out, too different, as Grimoire is indicated to be the first Shinra scientist to propose using foreign material on a child in utero in an attempt to produce something in-between man and god that could be communicated with on a human level. This theory, found amongst Grimoire's body of research after his death, may have actually inspired the direction of the Jenova Project (after working on adults in the Howling Fang failed to produce a functional result), and is directly responsible for the creation of Nero.

Vincent would never do that. Grimoire wrote it down, so we can assume that he would have, if he'd had the chance. Hojo did.

Lucrecia may have seen Grimoire in Vincent with her eyes, but she saw him in Hojo with her mind, and that's the part of him that she loved. That's the kind of man that she loved. That's the part of Hojo that she loved.

Before long, I can't imagine she was seeing him as an echo of Grimoire. Hojo was so different, but he was exactly what she wanted, exactly the kind of man—she thought—with whom she could spend the rest of her life. Working side by side as equals, two scientific minds ready to change the world together in ways that they never could alone.

Vincent, though? Vincent looks so much like his father, Lucrecia never stopped seeing his ghost. Every time she looked Vincent in the eye, she saw his father. Every time he spoke, every time he moved, every time he laughed or grimaced or sighed, she saw his father. Even at the very end, when she believed she'd failed to save him and left him in that tank for Hojo to find, she didn't see Vincent, she didn't see Chaos. She saw Grimoire.

"Did you know your eyes are just like your father's?"

Lucrecia chose Hojo because she had so much love left in her, and the echoes of Grimoire she saw physically in Vincent weren't enough for that love to find a home in him.

Lucrecia chose Hojo because he was alive, and she was tired of loving a ghost.

[silverflqmes]

agszc and the flowers they'd give as well as why they would give them?

໒⦂ 𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐆𝐄.

notes. hey queen, my knowledge in flowers is baby level but!!! we’re gonna see which flowers the boys would give based on themselves and their love<3

genre. fluff

for @melukonova <3

ft. sephiroth, cloud strife, zack fair, genesis rhapsodos, angeal hewley

gender neutral! reader.

ะ ྂ ❤︎ . ˚˖ you selected.. orchid.

+ reasoning. orchids come in a variety of symbols next to the obvious luxury and beauty, such as strength, mystery — even charm and refinement. more importantly, they bring across how lucky you are to be able to love your special someone.

+ sephiroth had always thought himself to be deplorable for as long as he could remember. growing up, he had countless reminders of how unloveable he was even in spite of shinra’s hero treatment of him. when he met you, however, somehow you had brought this ray of light into his suffocating darkness and had loved him in spite of everything. he was just so lucky to have you in his life — it was imperative he showed you his gratitude. and so, from the many books he read in his days, he’d decided that gifting your orchids was the best way.

+ “it took awhile to find you these, given the state of midgar.. but the search was worth the while. as i recall.. lovers gift one another flowers as an expression of affection, do they not?”

ะ ྂ ❤︎ . ˚˖ you selected.. gardenia.

+ reasoning. gardenia is the type of flower you would use to confess when the words don’t quite reach your lips. basically, an unspoken confession to convey your love. furthermore, it represents purity and expresses beauty towards the receiver.

+ cloud strife.. was never really the best with words, feelings and emotional expression. he preferred to think of himself as an actions kind of guy, and his confession to you boiled down to exactly that. with all the worst behind him, and the whisper of advice from his parted friends, he would have set out one morning to sector five to purchase a few gardenias. flowers and their meanings didn’t come easy to him, but the words he’d received told him these were the ones. the blond’s only hope was that his message would be received and returned.

+ “here, got these for you on the way back from my delivery, they’re um.. gardenias. make sure to change their water every other day or so, if you want them to last, of course..”

ะ ྂ ❤︎ . ˚˖ you selected.. daisy.

+ reasoning. daisies represent an innocent, cheerful and pure form of love. the kind of flowers you would pick fresh from the garden or a patch of grass to bring to the person you cherish most. they can also express true love, beauty and simplicity.

+ zack fair was true to his nickname — a puppy. despite his want for leaving the countryside to join SOLDIER, the days he would spend back home were all filled with memories that he would forever carry with him. a few that stood out most were the times he’d race up to you with a handful of daisies. despite their messy condition, and the apology he would laugh out for tripping on his way to you, his actions are filled with sincerity and love.. even if zack might not know what he’s given to you. with time, however, he will have realized the depth of his gifts.

+ “ahaha, sorry y/n! i didn’t see this rock on my way over, and i might have ruined the flowers a bit.. but they still smell nice! and i tried to salvage the good ones, y’see! peak condition!”

ะ ྂ ❤︎ . ˚˖ you selected.. aster.

+ reasoning. asters, according to myth were associated with a goddess that wept because there weren’t enough stars. the tears that fell became the star shaped flowers we call asters. on the contrary, they symbolize love, charm and sensitivity.

+ genesis rhapsodos — born poet, forced to soldier. flowers and their meanings didn’t fall far from the tree for a man with vast knowledge of the arts, literature and beauty. as someone with a keen interest in loveless, having analyzed and noted it to memory, asters came to be his first choice in conveying his love for you. the gift of the goddess, he would have concluded, and a perfect fit for the one who has captured his heart — you. and so, on his way back from a mission, a singular aster would have occupied his red, gloved hand as he presented it to you.

+ “a gift from the goddess for my beloved.. as flowers have long since disappeared off the face of midgar, amidst the filth and industrialization. are you pleased with my findings?”

ะ ྂ ❤︎ . ˚˖ you selected.. alstroemeria.

+ reasoning. alstroemerias convey loyalty, devotion, support and.. honor. the type of flower you give to remind someone of their strength when they fall on hard times. but, it is also said that receiving an extra sweet one, meant you were beloved.

+ angeal hewley wasn’t exactly one for frivolous love, a stark contrast otherwise, to his friend. the romance department just never really called his attention.. well, at least until he met you. somehow you sparked feelings in him that he wasn’t sure he was even capable of feeling strongly towards another person. it was strange, different.. but a good kind of different. however there was a downside — that being his lack of experience. his familiarity with romance was minimal, but he was determined to provide! and with outside help, he was acquired flowers.

+ “these are alstroemerias.. a mouthful, i know. but they used to grow back where i grew up, in banora. they said the sweeter ones are best to gift to your beloved — so here you are.”

notes. several hours of research and inconsistent writing later, i was able to finish your request.. love how NOBODY had roses but like anyway, this is the end results for agszc with flowers woop

↳ return to main masterlist . request rules . send an ask

[the6thpaladinofvoltron]

Sephiroth and Female Reader: A Short Excerpt-Crisis Core Era.

The moment Sephiroth himself brought you on board as a new recruit, a connection instantly tethered you two together. It was quite a mystery; because aside from Genesis, Angeal, and Zack, the silver soldier wasn't known to bond with others so quickly.

You rose through the ranks under Sephiroth's wing (no pun intended), spending hours training together, going on missions together, and chatting in your rare off time. So much so that fellow Soldiers started calling you Sephiroth's Girl.

"Hey there, fellow Cadet!" Zack, the Puppy Soldier, scampered up to you. "Hojo wants to see you in the lab."

You inwardly shiver hearing that name, but begrudgingly agree to see what that horrid scientist wants.

You despised Hojo. Mostly because you were able to see just how uncomfortable Sephiroth was in the doctor's presence, and you came to the conclusion that Hojo must've done some violating things to your friend. That and Sephiroth made sure that for any medical checkups, Hojo was allowed nowhere near you.

And the irony, on your way down, you passed by the silver soldier as he was headed in the same direction. And he immediately took notice of this.

"Don't tell me that Hojo requested your presence at the lab too?"

"...Yes." You slowly answer, suspicion creeping into your brain. "He has. What does he want you for?"

Alarm bells rang in Sephiroth's head. Hojo must've noticed how close he was getting with you. He grabbed your wrist rather hard and started leading you away from the elevator.

"Ouch! Sephiroth, hold your horses! What are you doing?"

He tugs you into a training room and taps in a code to lock the door before answering.

"Don't freak out, but there's only one reason why Hojo would call both of us into his office. That monster..."

You can see Sephiroth's body convulse as he struggles to get the words out. And it clicks. You start to feel rage simmer at the base of your gut.

"That lunatic wants to... breed us?! UGH! No, no, a million times no, I am not letting that quack use me to violate you!"

Sephiroth isn't surprised that you managed to piece it together, you were very clever when it came to figuring out problems.

"There you go again putting me first, Cadet. Your body matters too, you know, and I am not letting Hojo get his hands on you."

You notice something, something different, an intensity in those blue/green eyes that you've never seen before. Sephiroth was always protective of you, but now, of all times, you start to question why.

"Sephiroth? ...I have to ask, why me? I mean, I really appreciate everything you've done for me, but why? I'm just your average Soldier."

"...Cadet, you're more than that."

Sephiroth hesitated. He was scared. Scared that if he told you why he cared about you, that you would disappear just like Angeal and Genesis. But he had to, you wanted an answer.

"The day I selected you out of dozens of candidates for Shinra, I didn't know yet just how much you would mean to me. You treat me as a human, Cadet; not a hero to live up to, not a celebrity to admire, and not a test subject to poke and prod whenever you feel like it. I'm your equal, your friend... You help me feel normal."

You stare at your friend, unable to form words. But, your body moves on its own, your arms encircling Sephiroth and pulling him into a hug. And from the way you feel his arms grab onto you and his body relax, it seems he really needed this.

"Sephiroth... I promise... I'm gonna try my best to always be there for you. And if Hojo ever tries anything, can I borrow your sword to skewer him?"

The silver soldier chuckles softly.

"Sure you can. And... I promise to try to always be there for you in return. I won't let anything hurt you."

[altocat]

Last time I'll address this I promise

There are people who are currently lecturing fans of Angeal because he's a "hypocrite" and a "coward" who acted irrationally in an instance/instances of emotional instability and like???

Genesis killed his parents and triggered his best friend into a mental breakdown????

Sephiroth burned down a village of completely innocent civilians and aimed to commit a mass genocide of the human race????

Where the hell does the line blur where it's okay for Gen and Seph to do horrible things but not Angeal? Angeal is a flawed character and dished out some (unintentional) damage to outside parties, yeah. But CC never once positions him as being in the same morally questionable league as Genesis and Sephiroth.

It just sounds like blatant selective favoritism because (for some reason) Angeal pisses you off. Angeal's a clunkily written character who is given some of the dumbest lines in CC but it's not like Genesis and sometimes Sephiroth don't also fall into that bracket. They do. Frequently. Genesis probably most of all. I love the character to pieces but I'm not going to sit here and pretend that he couldn't use a bit of a rewrite to make him more palatable.

I really wish people would just act like adults and think about the things you're saying. Because you can't preach against fandom/character policing one minute and then rant about Angeal fans the next pretending we're ignorant and media illiterate. You just don't like Angeal. Which is fine. It would be better if you just said that instead. Doesn't change the fact that most people are hyped AF at FS for including him. I'd rather fans be happy at the end of the day. We desperately need that right now.

[esamastation]

Shizuroth, part twenty-one

Previous parts: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty

-

For the first time in what feels like a lifetime, Sephiroth sends out a text message.

After an evening and night spent meditating, reading and cultivating, figuring out the ins and outs of his hardened meridian system and going through the files Genesis had had delivered to him, Sephiroth's come to the conclusion that meditation isn't enough. He needs to condition his body properly, and that means forms, that means movements - that means he really misses easy access to all the collected cultivation manuals of Qing Jing Peak's impressive libraries.

Ultimately what it really means is that he needs more space than his single room apartment has.

"If we're banned from the training room, where can I go train?"

"Goddess beyond, Sephiroth, it's supposed to be your day off," Genesis replies and then, soon after, "Just go to the training room. Who could stop you?"

He's really not sure about training in front of people. "Is that really the only option?"

"Well, you could do what you always do and just take a mission."

Mission, like the dozen or so on his phone involving Wutai? Which had a lot of kill everyone and exterminate the opposition and leave no one alive!?

Yeah, okay. Training room it is, then!

After carefully selecting an outfit that would look reasonably in character for the future Big Bad while also being a bit more comfortable than three different things of leather. And he still pulls on the, now slightly better fitting, leather coat with its huge shoulder guards, too! He should look… more or less in character.

People still stare as he makes his way through floor 49, other SOLDIERs in their much more comfortable looking uniforms and not so comfortable looking helmets. There's a handful of them hanging around, sitting by the window or chatting, SOLDIER Seconds and Thirds waiting for assignments. There are some people in lab coats hanging around there too, just as a reminder of the true nature of the program.

Sephiroth had read about that too - everything Genesis had sent him about SOLDIER and the things he is supposed to already know. 

SOLDIER, as much as they are the elite warriors of Shinra, their OP human weapons in the war to conquer the planet… are also lab rats. They'd all signed up on it in order to get those enhancements, and now Shinra's Science Department can do… just about whatever they want with them!

They're constantly being tested for performance and given experimental training, treatments and gear to test out. Almost all Materia and medicine Shinra produces goes through SOLDIER field testing before going into mass production. Because it's better that it's a SOLDIER dealing with the fallout if the Materia blows up in his face or the medicine makes him projectile vomit. They can handle it!

Ah, corporate dystopia with minimal human rights. Fun stuff.

Sephiroth walks past them all, barely acknowledging them, and aims for the training room. Which… really seems more like a testing ground, now that there's actual personnel there.

There's no one in the training room itself - but there are two technicians in the observatory adjacent.

"S-Sephiroth!" a lab technician stutters as he enters  - the only way into the training room goes through the observatory, past all the monitoring equipment and computers. "What can we do for you?"

"I want to train," Sephiroth says in his best villain drawl, motioning to the training room with Masamune.

"Ah, that's - director Deusericus told us -"

Sephiroth narrows his eyes. "Oh, so I can't?"

The second lab tech elbows the first out of the way. "Of course you can, of course! Professor Hojo would be thrilled to have your training data," he assures, though the words are clearly aimed, very pointedly, at the other tech. "What kind of program settings would you like? We have a selection of new enemy AI and different environments - including numerous Wutai-inspired sequences!"

Sephiroth hesitates. That… could be interesting, actually. "Something from Wutai, with buildings - no enemies." That might give him a sense of what Wutai was like, culture-wise.

"... How are you going to train without enemies?"

Do SOLDIER not do forms? "Hmph," Sephiroth answers and turns to the training room, waving the electronic sliding door open. "Just start the simulation."

Seems like he got his villainous demanding attitude right, because they do. Seems like short and to the point is really the best way to hide a supposed amnesia!

Soon Sephiroth finds himself standing in a courtyard of what looks vaguely like some noble family's estate, feeling strangely like he's in a dream where everything is just a little bit off.

The simulation is… well, it kind of feels like a weird amusement park version of Asia, a mix of Japanese and Chinese aesthetics. The buildings have Japanese architecture for the most part, with bare unpainted wood and stone - but the roofs are all elaborate hip roofs. The written language, what little he can see of it, is in Mandarin, but the calligraphy style is very Japanese, very lyrical and artistic but without much form.

There's no bamboo in sight. Shame.

But at least the false environment makes it feel a little less like he's being watched - though he can still tell he is. Even with Sephiroth's burnt spiritual veins, he has pretty good senses.

Well, it's not like he hasn't trained with an audience before.

Unsheathing Masamune, Sephiroth holds the sheath in his off hand and takes a pose, breathing deeply in and concentrating. He still can't quite circulate his Qi, but he can sort it… flash it through himself in pulses, which lights up his meridian system and brings out the faults and snags therein.

Sephiroth is strong, hardy, seemingly endlessly durable. He's also fast, his overactive muscles easily going past the limitations of your usual normal human conditions. The issue is not quite his overall flexibility - but his… suppleness, maybe?

You need your veins to flex and contract for healthy circulation, and that's the same with energy. Thanks to the Mako treatments and the emphasis on stamina and strength, Sephiroth's whole system is just… hard. Every part of him is hardened to endure who knows what, and it gives his meridian system very little give. 

So that's what his form needs to focus on, increasing his meridian system's pliancy.  

All the while wondering if all SOLDIERs were working with these kinds of toughened meridians, Sephiroth pulses his energy and begins to move. Qing Jing Peak sword forms work well enough for him, it turns out - as spiritual cultivators, they also have to maintain certain spiritual flexibility, after all. He needs to adjust the forms to the sword he has, but that's not too difficult. A lot of spiritual swordsmen use sword glares to extend the shape and size of their cutting edge, so the forms already have some wiggle room.

Soon Sephiroth has a set of moves that work the best, making his pulses of energy work better and better, until his whole meridian system buzzes, active and alive. He can even feel the beginnings of activity in his frankly neglected dantians, as energy wooshes through him in waves. It feels… pretty great.

What he doesn't know is that on the outside it looks rather like Sephiroth just activated a Limit Break - by will alone.

-

Someone making waves, hehe

[fatetainted]

@whitexdove sent: “ why the fuck are you nervous, you’re the hot one! ”

". . . you spend far too much time around that turk." at least the psychic damage made it impossible to be nervous right now.

[tifa-simp]

Sephiroth has always had a grudge against Tifa.

Some ppl say that Sephiroth sudden changes his target to Tifa in Rebirth is weird and I say they just have selective memory cos that mf has been after Tifa's ass since Remake. It's just more direct in Rebirth.

So, Sephiroth can control 3 things: the black whispers, the black robed men and his Jenova monsters, occasionally Cloud too. And sometimes Sephiroth appears as a clone or an illusion to get things done himself.

Now let's take a look at Remake.

At the beginning of Remake, Tifa takes care of a robed man named Marco with the number 49 on his left arm. Later, in Shinra HQ, we're shown that he's Jenova Dreamweaver, which is said by Aerith to be the source of everything. Tifa was living next door to something that dangerous for god knows how long.

The morning before the mission, a swamp of whispers appear in Sector 7 and attack Avalanche. We know their purpose is to hurt Jessie so Cloud will replace her. But before that, the whispers attack Tifa, separate her from Cloud. This move seems pretty unnecessary because if they want to, the whispers can push Jessie down the stair without having to do this to Tifa. So I assume the devs put it there for some foreshadowing purposes.

Ah yeah, have I mentioned this?

Later, at Destiny crossroad, the gang has to fight Whisper Harbinger. Cloud, Barret, RedXIII fight Whisper Viridi and Croceo , while Tifa and Aerith fight Whisper Rubrum. As the boys finish their fight and on their way to help the girls, Tifa's distracted by a vision of future and can't react to Rubrum's attacks. Fortunately, Cloud saves her on time.

Now, some fun facts about these Whisper monsters, they're supposed to represent the Remnants of Sephiroth. And Rubrum takes after Kadaj.

But it isn't the only one that has something special for Tifa.

So 2 out of 3 Whisper monsters have an attack specifically aim at Tifa.

In short, in Remake, we have a robed man close to Tifa, black whispers harm Tifa for no reason, illusion of Sephiroth kills Tifa, Whispers monsters direct hit at Tifa.

Now onto Rebirth!

Open with a bang, the Nibelheim accident, where Sephiroth gives Tifa her the scar on her chest.

In Kalm, after the flashback, Tifa asks Cloud for a private talk. This is where Sephiroth starts gaslighting Cloud that Tifa is Jenova

After Junon, they sneak on a ship to Costa Del Sol, there's a breakout of monsters and robed men. The robed men have developed the ability to merge with monster and each other to become more powerful. This is all according to Hojo's plan. Tifa and Cloud have to fight a chimera between robed man and Hojo's monster. When the fight almost ends, the Necrotic Entity collapse in front of Tifa. Before it can harm her, Cloud delivers the finishing blow.

Now it's just me but this looks kinda similar to Rubrum fight. The gang then have to fight Emergent and look, another attack aims at Tifa in cutscene just like Rubrum.

This is the second time Sephiroth appears and "warns" Cloud about Tifa, also when he drops the line "That she can become those you hate. Those you fear. Those you love. And they call her Jenova." (btw in JP, there's only fear and love, no hate)

In Corel, Tifa asks the gang to visit doctor Sheiran-the one saved her from Sephiroth's slash. Once again, Sephiroth appears to warn Cloud in the clinic.

In Gongaga, where Sephiroth's scheme unveils, he's planned a meticulous plan to isolate Cloud, who's extremely weak under influence of Mako, and Tifa, who's in danger, from the rest of the gang. Out of desperation, Cloud gives in his anger and lets Sephiroth take over his body and kill all the Shinra troops sadistically, to the point Tifa has to shout at him to stop. Now this where Sephiroth's grudge is most apparent.

Firstly, we have Cloud fully believes Tifa to be Jenova, forces her to show him her scar and repeats Sephiroth's words on the cruise: "Those we hate, those we love, those we fear- Jenova could be anyone to fool her prey." Pay attention to how he switches love-fear compared to Sephiroth's fear-love. Also looks at this Devil-Angel on shoulder implication, chef kiss.

Secondly, we have a 1:1 recreation of Sephiroth's attempted murder on Tifa with Cloud as the executioner this time.

Thirdly, after the WEAPON saved Tifa, black whispers attack the WEAPON that holds Tifa and Sephiroth manifests in his real body to attack her but misses, or maybe he misses on purpose.

And finally, when she gasps for air, he mocks her that her words won't reach Cloud.

Like damn, this mf is an expert at tormenting Tifa. This has to be the most effort he's put in throughout 2 games that I've seen. Black whispers, illusion, real self, he pulls all the stops for Gongaga, ok?

BUT HE'S STILL NOT DONE!

After the temple collapses and Cloud goes full on puppet mode, obeys Sephiroth's order to give him the black material, Tifa shoves Cloud and tries to wake him up. This mf Sephiroth mocks her AGAIN and commands black whispers to hold Tifa back from reaching for Cloud, which look similar to the black whisper attack in sector 7 in Remake .

In conclusion, in Rebirth, we have real Sephiroth attacks Tifa twice, forces her to show her traumatic scar twice, makes Cloud accuse Tifa of being Jenova twice, makes Cloud to recreate the exact way he permanent scared Tifa, mocks her connection with Cloud twice, his monsters attack Tifa twice, black whispers attack Tifa twice.

This is personal for Sephiroth. With Cloud, he toys with him in flirtatious way. With Aerith, he just dismisses her words, kinda quarrels with her over the Planet true wish.

But with Tifa? Straight action. He always maxes out his resource when it comes to fuck with Tifa: black whispers, robed men, whispers monster, robed man monster, Jenova monster, his illusion, his clone, his real body, Cloud, EVERYTHING. If he has it, he'll use it against Tifa one way or another. I feel like whatever he has for Tifa is pretty nasty compared to Cloud. At least with Cloud, we know that Sephiroth wants to convince him to join his side. We have no idea what's his intention with Tifa to mess her up this much beside for the sake of torture her. Whatever it might be, one thing for sure is that Tifa has an incredible mental fortitude that can survive all of this and more. She'll only grow stronger and tougher in part 3, makes it even harder for Sephiroth to knock her down.

[rosy-crow]

Ever Crisis listen to me, I know you love having…uh…only half the OG cast (?) usually be the stars of basically every event story and you really want to just focus on…those few select characters that oddly never even include Barret and Nanaki and sure that’s all fine or whatever, but please remember that you teased that Glenn and Miniroth could possibly come back finally (it’s been a year ;-;) and my poor son could finally get that soup and I know that First Soldier/Crisis Core fans don’t get much from this game for fun holiday stuff because yes, we know, we are all fucked-in-the-head Compilation fans that like a bunch of the “wrong characters” that are not super marketable for side-story stuff (except for Sephiroth himself but you guys seem terrified of letting him be involved in anything fun or light-hearted, which makes sense I suppose since he is gonna go evil one day so no happiness for him ever LMAO. Sure, it’s fine. *dies*), but also it’s October which is a month notoriously associated with Nibelheim and spooky story stuff and Seph’s downfall and Vincent and pumpkins and arson and what-not and most of all, YOU HINTED AT ANOTHER AUTUMN HARVEST ADVENTURE AND I’D LITERALLY BE HAPPY WITH JUST A CAMEO OF GLENN AND MINIROTH HAVING THEIR CUTE MOMENT AGAIN SO YOU KNOW 👉👈

[rottenpumpkin13]

*gives Cloud a Scarecrow costume* Go do some trolling my boy.

*Sephiroth walks up to a scarecrow propped up as decoration*

Sephiroth: Interesting. They put up Halloween decorations early this year.

*Sephiroth walks away*

*The scarecrow follows him*

*Sephiroth stops walking*

Sephiroth: ....

Scarecrow: ....

*Sephiroth walks faster*

*The scarecrow walks faster*

*Sephiroth is running*

*The scarecrow is running*

*Sephiroth is sprinting*

*The scarecrow knows of his past sins*

-

*Zack sees a scarecrow propped up as decoration by the vending machine*

Zack: Huh, that's nice. I guess it's time for Halloween decorations! Cool. I just don't know how this is supposed to be scary. What's a little scarecrow gonna do? Hehe.

*Zack is selecting a drink from the machine*

*The scarecrow moves*

Zack, on his knees: I REPENT! FORGIVE MY TRANSGRESSIONS AND SPARE MY SOUL!

-

*Genesis and Angeal walk by the scarecrow decoration*

Genesis: Aww, remember when they used to have scarecrows on the orchards back home?

Angeal: Brings back memories! Although I never got why the local kids would be scared of them.

Genesis: Yes, they're rather bland, ugly things, aren't they?

Scarecrow: You're a cunt.

Angeal: This one has a voice box! It's so cool, right, Genesis?

Angeal:

Angeal: Genesis?

*Angeal turns around. Genesis is running away at a speed Angeal has never seen him run*

[gamequoteshowdown]

Quote 1: "Valued employees... we appreciate your feedback. However, it will not be implemented at this time." - Mr. Grizz, Splatoon 3

Quote 2: "Tell Me What You Cherish The Most. Give Me The Pleasure Of Taking It Away." - Sephiroth, Final Fantasy 7

Propaganda under cut

Quote 1: He is literally trying to end the world but in the process he had to become the manager of a shady company and he can't stop talking like a manager now.

Quote 2: A cold line

@parchmentengineer @swimming-guy @splatoonpolls @cephalopolls