#I'd tag my Sefikura friends...IF I HAD ANY

[stormears]

Long post: Sefikura Fic, Thx

A fic idea I’m making notes on and feel like sharing. For fun. For feedback. Please.

It’s half-baked and plagued with inconsistencies due to me only knowing Remake and an assortment of OG spoilers, and also not fully knowing what I even want out of the fic. (Time-travel and slight-AU mix. Spoilers for Cloud and Zack’s respective backstories; 50% canon and 50% made-up.) 

Bulleting the details for ease of reading lol 

Premise: legitimate SOLDIER Cloud Strife comes to Midgar and slowly, with trepidation and confusion, gets close to respected General Sephiroth, who, at the point of gaining Cloud’s trust and love, begins to drop larger and larger hints that he had evil machinations all along and will now possess and keep Cloud like a puppet.

legitimate SOLDIER Cloud Strife comes to Midgar alongside bff Zack Fair and immediately has the full attention of General Sephiroth, who is not a horrific, planet-destroying villain yet, but certainly feared and barely restrained by the authority of Shinra. Shinra collectively shrugs their shoulders at his behavior and does not fucking interfere. 

Cloud’s resistance and inconvenient headaches in the man’s presence rapidly go away. He becomes more at ease with the attention than he was at first. Local Shinra grunts secretly gawk at the General having a “crush”.

On the cusp of developing an actual relationship, Sephiroth begins to drop hints that his already alarming closeness with Cloud is a result of knowing him from a previous timeline. He reveals he created this one with the intent of making Cloud trust him so he could more easily capture him in his version of a possessive love, planning to go on to his World Domination schemes later with Cloud in tow. 

It is for this reason that Cloud and Zack each have their own Buster Sword, which cannot be, and that Cloud made it into SOLDIER as he always dreamed. Sephiroth stops caring if Shinra or general public think he is officially a menace, danger to society, ticking time bomb, etc. 

Cloud, trapped, feeling used, unable to escape, nevertheless tries to think of ways to gtfo of Sephiroth’s clutches, as well as away from Shinra who would happily tie a leash round his neck and put it in the General’s hand to pacify him. 

Tensions rise. TENSIONS RISE. (I love TENSIONS) 

While Sephiroth’s maniacal hand seems unbeatable, fights and arguments still break out between them where Cloud occasionally gains the upper hand, including an actual fistfight/beatdown where Cloud slams Sephiroth in his jaw (every onlooker nearby is PIKACHUFACE.JPEG) then Cloud slammed against a wall himself. He spits blood into Sephiroth’s face before finally being subdued/knocked out. The symbolism of the General’s appearance and composure being stained is noticed. 

Brief mention of gossiping employees being surprised that this twink-ish guy whom they kind of thought was a sugar baby being mercilessly railed by Sephiroth every night actually poses a challenge to him instead, and can stand up to him in a man-to-man fight. 

Part of this is because Cloud’s strength is growing in proportion to his denial/horror that Zack is not truly alive, he is not a SOLDIER, and recalling how Sephiroth ruined his life in the OG. When the two fight, he sometimes ends up being more destructive and fights like a mad dog. Cloud’s emotions have a bigger effect on “reality” than he or Sephiroth realize. Sephiroth’s surety in his own plan wavers. For 1 second. 

The public narrative is divided on whether this is due to an insane lover’s quarrel, a sign that the young SOLDIER actually is powerless/a toy in this strange relationship, or...a rumor Shinra likes pretty well, that Cloud is actually some otherworldly being or force, disguised as a man, which is thankfully being tamed by the great and powerful Sephiroth who surely cannot be beaten. 

Eventual end of Cloud, with help of many friends (minus Zack, who has disappeared) making a run for it. He tears a hole in reality and escapes to the Remake continuity, where it makes even more sense that Sephiroth is smug and taunting in his every appearance. Because according to Me, Fanfic Author #44532, they are actually exes!

I didn’t plan to write that much, yeesh. Or to spoil my own story. Whateva. 

What I did want to add at the end of this, though, is that I didn’t realize till very recently that this idea bears a really strong resemblance to “Inept Courtship of the One-winged Angel’s Cloud”. A Sefikura fic everyone probably knows, because it’s the most popular AO3 fic for this ship, and the first one for the ship I ever read (like 2 weeks ago). I honest to god didn’t mean it. I can’t plausibly deny that it didn’t influence me. It probably did. Even if I could poof this fic into existence by snapping my fingers, I’d be worried I’d be accused of plagiarism. 

What really happened here is that I tried to shove together a bunch of ideas that frankly don’t gel: cute ones, dark ones, relationship-progression ones and “onlookers admiring the weirdness of the protags” ones, and it just...turned out like this: them working at Shinra while people observe them, a relationship growing and then violently degrading. I swear to god, it just happened. 

The idea of Shinra gaping wide-eyed at the mighty Sephiroth having a “crush” on a local SOLDIER amused me. The idea of the two of them having a sudden fistfight where Cloud briefly gets the better of Sephiroth, to the surprise of bystanders, appealed to me. The idea of consensual, cute-looking, absurd shippy scenes like Cloud cautiously toying with Sephiroth’s hair when no one’s looking, or Sephiroth nuzzling Cloud’s neck or head like a kitten, made me grin. The idea that their relationship would start out consensual and nice and go sour because Sephiroth revealed he was evil all along, but Cloud knows in his heart that he loves him, appealed to me. The idea/phrase of possessiveness has been my fanfic poison since like 2006 and this ship using that trope made me manically grin. 

Smushing all those together...it just comes out looking a lot like Inept Courtship, just less funny and more sinister. I’m surprised and a little mad about it. But I also don’t want to change my idea. I mean...I like the idea of “Inept Courtship but more sinister and serious.” That’s my jam. I’d make note of the similarities in an AN for certain, and link IC, too. But I don’t think I’d change anything in my own.

I swear to Christ I thought this post about the story summary and comparison to IC would be about 1/3 this length. I won’t clog up the tag like this again. 

1am existential Sefikura thoughts, thanks for reading.