#MAN i love all the different kunsels that other people come up with too. and their weapons

[rocketbirdie]

I am FASCINATED by Kunsel’s Twin Stinger. Can we hear some lore about it? Which materia does he prefer to fill the slots with? Is there a reason behind the (incredibly cool) design of it? Is it custom? The guard looks so fancy. Spare sketches, milord? Pretty please?

Yessss Twin Stinger my beloved!! It's one of Cloud's swords from Remake. Here's its official ultimania artwork and render.

I picked it as Kunsel's weapon for a number of reasons, mainly because of its badass design with the gold accents (I LOVE gold for Kunsel) but also because of its actual in-game attributes. It's a versatile magic focused weapon that encourages a more defensive playstyle, having strong synergy with Steadfast Block materia, and a powerful counterattack ability. It's great for a supportive magic build that doesn't sacrifice too much melee capability.

If Kunsel were playable I'd envision him as a paladin class, using spells like Barrier, Provoke, etc. to reduce incoming damage and create openings for allies. I also like the idea of him having a unique mode in combat (kind of like Cloud's operator/punisher modes) where he can convert HP into MP and vice versa at will, turning him into a cheeky damage sponge when combined with some annoying spells like Slow and Silence. Add Bio for poison pressure, and a whole lot of patience, and you've got yourself an unkillable bastard that can stall out almost any threat given enough time, which I think is quite fitting for Kunsel's character.

I love how Twin Stinger's hilt and pommel resemble a butterfly. It's got a fanciful, delicate design that clashes hard against the Don't Fuck With Me vibe of the dark metal blades. Kind of like how we like to think of Kunsel as the chill friendly tutorial guy, so it's easy to forget that he's still a SOLDIER 2nd Class, and that he could wreck shop if he really wanted to.

[ff7-has-taken-me-over]

“I love you.”

Cloud pulled his phs away, squinting a single eye open to look at the screen. It was definitely Zack’s name on the screen and it said it was only 0200 up in the corner, far too early to be dealing with Zack and whatever drunken mistakes he was committing.

“Zack, it’s Cloud. What’re you doing?”

The pounding music in the that could be heard faintly in the back faded out a little more, as if the other man was leaving whatever club he was previously getting hammered in.

“I know it’s you silly. Jus’ wanted to let ya know…”

Cloud hummed quietly, deciding this would be one of those situations where he just nodded along and agreed, even if he didn’t really know what was going on.

“Ok. Love you too I guess.”

Zack didn’t need to know Cloud meant it in any significant way, best friends said this sort of thing to each other all the time right? He was just, returning sentiments.

“Really?! That’s great! We should do lunch! Tomorrow. After sleep.”

Cloud hummed again, already slipping back into said sleep as he answered.

“Sure. Sounds great.”

Zack said some unintelligible things after that, something about dinners and dates or something. Cloud wasn’t sure. He’d fallen asleep before he heard it all.

…..

“Cloudy!”

Said blond turned on his heel, hand slipping off the cafeteria door as he smiled at his friend. Zack was grinning like a loon, near sprinting down the hall in his efforts to catch up. Cloud waited for him to catch up, laughing softly when the older man nearly crashed into four different people on his way down.

He was going to turn to make his way through the doors once Zack had caught up, hand on the door again before he was being swept up. Zack had his arms around his waist, lifting him off the ground and spinning him once before he was being put down again.

Every protest died when Zack leant forward, sealing their lips together with a smiling kiss that was more teeth than actual lips, “Morning baby.”

Cloud could’ve sworn he’d died and gone to heaven with what was most definitely his wildest dream coming true. But when Zack grabbed his hand, his grip just the slightest bit too tight due to his excitement, he knew it was definitely reality. The only question was how it was his reality.

“Ah! I’m so glad you said you loved me back last night! I was so scared but Kunsel kept saying I should just do it and he was so right cause look! We’re dating!”

Zack held their joined hands up in example, beaming so bright that he received a few glares from half awake people around them. Cloud didn’t mind much, way too stuck on his friends (boyfriends?!) words from before.

He’d actually meant that? It wasn’t some weird drunken dare or mistake?? He’d actually meant to call Cloud and confess to him?! What the fuck?!

[jemtokall]

zack for the hcs ask post?

Oh gosh I didn't expect someone to ask me anything from that post LMAO but I can never say no to spewing my thoughts about mister Zack Fair <3

Headcanon A: what I think realistically —

Has ADHD!

Zack's favorite stim is doing squats!

He catches social cues but will ignore them (exhibit A, the girl at front desk who didn't care for his flirty advances until he became 1st class. Zack probably asked her on a date before and got rejected, and he didn't try again) (exhibit B, very often people tell him that Shinra/SOLDIER is in the wrong and

Gets the zoomies (which is a great quality for a SOLDIER operative)

Gets distracted easily! Look at how many side and fetch quests he has piled up...

2. He gives the gentlest of hugs to his friends, but when it comes to Angeal he gives him the bear crushing hugs

3. BISEXUAL KING <333

4. Naturally had brown eyes before he joined SOLDIER and got mako blue eyes

B: what I think is fucking hilarious —

Zack thought of Angeal as his dad. Sephiroth and Genesis were secondary fathers, so the entire events of Crisis Core felt like a huge divorce (I mean, the events of the game are still painful, but it hurts less by thinking of it as a divorce)

He shows to be grossed out by bugs in game, but I believe he ate them as a child. Gongaga was full of them! He outgrew it when he moved to Midgar and there weren't as many bugs everywhere

Zack adopted several pet fish in his lifetime, all of them eventually died due to Zack being gone for long periods at a time for missions. But Angeal didn't have the heart to break the news to Zack, so he replaced them fish with a googly eyed rock. Zack never knew the difference.

Takes a lot of selfies because he knows he'd gorgeous

C: what is heart-crushing and awful but fun to inflict on friends —

After the events of Nibleheim, the only thing Zack had were Cloud and Aerith. One comatose, and another a memory.

Cloud only due to circumstance since they were in the same boat of being science experiments. Normally we see Zack suspicious towards those in Shinra, even if they were friends before (Cissnei and Kunsel are the two prime examples. Cissnei eventually earned his trust, but Kunsel never got the chance to because there's limited things he can do through text.)

Aerith was his only connection outside of Shinra, if anything, he sympathized with her since she was under the Turks watch. The two never talked about it, but they didn't talk about a lot of things. There was always an unspoken escapism that they found within each other. But 4 years is a long time, and the reality of that hit him when he found her 89th letter.

He couldn't even reconnect with his parents, who he hasn't seen since he was 14yrs old. Shinra took that away from him too.

2. After the Wutai War and Angeal disappeared, Zack ate apples more often to feel connected to him. (He couldn't find Dumbapples so he made do with red apples.)

3. After Angeal's death, Zack changed his hairstyle to represent his growth, but it's slicked back to resemble his late mentors hair.

4. He really wanted to see Sephiroth as a friend, but Sephiroth closed himself off too much for them to make a real connection. But that doesn't mean that Sephiroth didn't care, just that he kept Zack at arms length.

D: what would never work with canon but the canon is shit so I believe it anyway —

I would've loved to see him in a team setting! Because I headcanon that he's so used to working as a lone wolf (or in a unit) that he has a hard time working as a part of the team. He's always given or taken orders! He would likely butt heads with whoever else tried to give orders, if he didn't ignore it entirely and run in head first.

I said it before but BISEXUAL KING I would love to see him flirt with a guy in canon :') he came close with Kunsel but it was written off as a joke ("I love you man!" @Kunsel )

I hc him as native american because I'm indigenous and he's just like me fr look at his black hair its practically canon

[buffaloborgine]

Of Zack Fair, Genesis Rhapsodos and the strange narrative POV of FFVII-Crisis Core (Part IVa)

Part I: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/650462647672766464/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange 

Part IV preface: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/656609254197936128/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange  ___________________________________ 

Warning: As always, I copy paste this warning over and over just in case you ignore it and keep reading down.  “This series is very controversial, it may not fit with what you know or remember about Crisis Core. So please, read the former parts (I did put the link to Part I in case you are new reader) before putting your foot further down below.” P/s: I welcome all kind of discussion. I love discussion. But this subject is an OBJECTIVE subject, please make sure to keep your bias and prejudice out of discussion. Thank you.  ___________________________________

A 1st class SOLDIER deserted, taking a handful of 2nd and 3rd class SOLDIERs with him, the mass desertion was so devastating that it crippled the SOLDIER department. But... 

A young man strives forwards with all he can, hoping one day he would be recognized as the “Hero” only to realize that... 

An ambiguous email from the leader of the department, talking with encrypted words... 

The “Hero” who has the privilege to veto orders... 

When everything falls apart, just comfortably throws the blame on someone you has prejudices about, no matter if that is right or wrong. 

What you see may just be the tip of the iceberg.  The question is...  Who is the one that should take the blame? 

1. Zack sees life through rose colored glasses 

Zack’s POV in the beginning of the game gives you an important perspective to examine. It’s his naivete.  Shinra is good.  Sephiroth is his hero.  Angeal is his honorable mentor, who can do no wrong.  Genesis is... an asshole deserter who took a bunch of 2nds and 3rds with him, crippling the department, in other word, Genesis is a traitor in Zack’s eyes.  At the start, to Zack, the world is just white and black, the good and the bad. He has no concept of the in between, the grey zone. 

When Zack first started to join SOLDIER, his goal is to become the “Hero” as he was inspired by the heroic figure, Sephiroth. At the end of Crisis Core, before you fought Genesis in Banora Underground, you also realized that Genesis used to be like Zack, inspired by the “heroic Sephiroth”.

Then what about the other SOLDIERs in the department? How many of them are like that? Inspired by this one “heroic” Sephiroth to join in SOLDIER?

Do you start to feel like this is is similar to fishing with a bait? 

And I know you guys reading up to this point may think that “Yeah, we all know Shinra is evil, what’s the problem with them using Sephiroth as a bait to lure in young men to join SOLDIER?”  Well, congratulation, you hit the right spot. That’s exactly what I want to speak about.  Why do you feel comfortable with that information? 

While you think you are not under the effect of Zack’s POV, the sad news is, you are. Because, you didn’t realize that you too, are being comfortable with just knowing about it but doing nothing.  You see Zack at the protagonist of the story, he is on the right side, which in this case, is on Shinra’s side. So then anything that opposes Zack, or opposes Shinra, must be wrong, no?  No matter how you deny it, saying that you know Shinra is evil, when you start playing Crisis Core, you subconsciously adapt to Zack’s POV, thus, you start brushing off minor, complex and ambiguous details that could rival your belief.

This leads to the next problem that we have to discuss. 

2. Unfairness and Inequality in SOLDIER

So according to Genesis’s diary in Crisis Core and Tifa’s memory in Trace of Two Past, we get the information about Sephiroth has been famous as the “Hero” since he was very young. 

We don’t know the exact date in the diary that Genesis wrote that line “the hero Sephiroth” but we know for sure that he and Angeal joined SOLDIER from when they are still in their teenage years, because Crisis Core began in [ μ ] - εγλ 0000, at that point, Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth are just 20 years old. So they have to be working in SOLDIER for years before that, for Angeal and Genesis to reach 1st class rank. Therefore we can assume that Genesis and Angeal must have joined SOLDIER in their teenage years.  

The Trace of Two Pasts novel gives us the info that when Tifa was 6 or 7 years old, her mother compared Cloud to Sephiroth, saying that Cloud could be even more beautiful than Sephiroth. Tifa is born in  [ μ ] - εγλ 1987 and Sephiroth is born in  [ μ ] - εγλ 1980, according to the FFVII Timeline on the wikia (if you found any source stating differently from this, please let me know), so we can tell that Sephiroth was just 13-14 years old when he was already hailed as the “hero”, for he was well-known amongst people not in Midgar. 

Even if Sephiroth is truly strong that he can solo defeat many Wutai soldiers at once, but since war is never a solo effort, if Sephiroth fought in one battlefield, there has to be other SOLDIER group fighting on different battlefields during Wutai War, right? 

Then, where are they?  You can say that Sephiroth is a “hero” of one battlefield, but you can’t say that he is the “hero” of a whole war. Even in a possibly mythical war like the Trojan war, there can’t just be one hero. 

We know for sure that it’s not “Sephiroth soloing the whole Wutaian army” because in Dirge of Cerberus online section, we know that Shinra has like 13 SOLDIER Units working during the Wutai war, with the exception of 14th SOLDIER Unit, the Lost Force.   So... if Sephiroth can really solo the whole battle out on his own, according to Shinra hailing him as he only “Hero”, then why do Shinra have to enlist more SOLDIER participants? 13 Units is not a small number of people.  And if they all work together in Wutai War, where are they? Why don’t they get recoginition for their work? 

And then we witness ourselves that Zack works on his own, with Angeal’s guidance, to subdue Fort Tamblin, Sephiroth did nothing there. Still, Sephiroth got the glory of winning Fort Tamblin, Zack’s name was never once mentioned. 

And when Zack got frustrated...

... all Kunsel told him is 

The way Kunsel speaks this sentence shows that this situation has been repeated over and over, it has become a normal custom.  The company’s media decide who will be “hero”, that’s just how it is. 

If we can see this with our own eyes, then what else flowing below the surface can’t we see?  If just like we see Zack being lured in joining SOLDIER by the “heroic figure” of Sephiroth and then Zack himself realizing that he would never become the “hero” because the company “chooses” heroes, then, isn’t it the same case for all the other SOLDIERs in the department, those that stayed/accepted (like Angeal) and those that deserted/refused (like Genesis) alike, and the only exception is Sephiroth, because he is the chosen “hero”?

Isn’t “Heroic figure Sephiroth” just a imaginary title crafted by the propaganda of an evil company?  _________________________________ 

That’s the end for part IVa, thanks for coming to my Ted-Talk.  We will continue this problem in the next part. 

Part IVb: https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/657521891798614016/of-zack-fair-genesis-rhapsodos-and-the-strange

[rune-writes]

One Date

Fandom: Final Fantasy VII

@zerith-week » Day 1: Church

Word Count: 3178

Rating: G

Summary: Zack visits the Sector 5 slums church with a mind to ask Aerith out on that date he promised, but when rambunctious kids are involved, nothing goes as he planned.

Chapter 1 of Of Wishes and Promises: Zerith Week 2021

Read on AO3.

~*~*~*~*~

When Zack visited the church that day, he’d already had a mind where to take Aerith out. A date filled with excitement, he called it. He’d bring her to the Upper Plate as he’d promised. It’d be a surprise—one he planned not to tell until they boarded the train heading for Upper Midgar. He’d show her the cute cafes Kunsel told him about, then the flower shops that might interest her to invest more in her own business. They could visit boutiques, and he’d buy her all the dresses she wanted; threw in a couple of shoes and maybe a hat too. His SOLDIER salary could afford it. He’d checked. Then, they could go to the food plaza with those sweet, fluffy crepes with an overabundant of cream. They could even visit the theater at Sector 8, if that was more of her thing. But one thing he knew was that at the end of their date, he’d bring her to Midgar Tower—the highest commercial tower in all the metropolitan city, bar the Shinra building. With no other skyscrapers to block their view, he’d show her the sky, stretching as far as the eye could see.

She’d love it—he knew. So bright, so blue, so deep. It was the most beautiful place to witness it in the entire Midgar. So when Zack reached the Sector 5 slums church and pushed open the heavy double doors, his entire being brimming with enthusiasm—

A sharp jab to the center of his stomach; Zack doubled over, clutching his abdomen as tears sprang to his eyes. Gleeful squeals filled his ears. Kids, around six to eight years old, ran back down the aisle to the flower bed at the church’s other end, where Aerith sat next to a girl making crowns from her lilies.

“Oates!” she called, stern, but even from the distance, Zack could see her suppressed smile. “You don’t jab people on the stomach.”

The smaller of the two kids running from him skidded to a halt, mumbling “aww, shucks” or something of the like, though he didn’t look apologetic at all.

“Now go back and apologize to Zack.”

Zack remembered the kid now. He was the one who'd stolen Zack’s wallet the first time Zack was here. Oates, was it? He'd never gotten the kid’s name.

Oates reached his side a moment later and, eyes downcast, mumbled a half-hearted apology. Before Zack could say anything, however, the kid had rushed back to where his friends waited, leaving Zack staring after him. His mouth quirked up into a little amused smirk.

“Sorry, Zack,” Aerith said later when he reached her flowerbed. Brows drawn back; her face split into an apologetic smile. “You know how he gets.”

He knew. At least from their brief encounter before. Proud. Cocky. But with a good heart. Zack couldn’t help softening as he watched the boys wrestle.

“So.” He turned to Aerith, who offered him one of those bright, inquisitive looks. A soft little “hm?” that tugged at his heartstrings. Zack fought to contain his bursting emotions as he addressed the issue at hand. He nodded at the children playing at the church. “What’s all this?”

“Oh, Leaf House is having some renovations today, so the teachers asked me to watch over them for the time being.”

The explanation was short and simple, yet it was as though the sky—or, well, the steel sky here in the slums—had crashed down on him.

“Babysitting?”

She met his question with a giggle. “They’re not exactly babies, but, yes, something like that.”

There went his date-with-excitement plan out the window, ripped and blown into smithereens until not a speck of it remained. The tower… The sky…

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Zack shrugged. Well, what could he do if Aerith was already preoccupied? They could save that date for another time. Meanwhile… He sat down next to her, stretching his legs in front of him. A date at the church with a handful of kids in tow wasn’t bad either. Right?

Beside him, Aerith tilted her head to the side. Zack grinned, then noticed the loose hair coming out of her braid. He reached out and slipped it behind her ears. It had been a reflex—the way his hand moved. He only realized it when he spotted the blush coloring Aerith’s cheeks. Even the girl at the flowerbed gasped, quiet. He glanced at her; she ducked her head.

“Hey, Mister.” A bump on his head; Oates stood behind him in that self-important way. The kid should really learn some manners. “Are you going out with Aerith?”

With that question alone, all eyes turned toward him: the wrestling boys, the girl making flower crowns, and a couple others playing with the abandoned piano. The off-key tunes that had filled the church ground to an abrupt halt.

“It’s Zack, Oates,” Zack said into the sudden silence. “I thought we’d introduced ourselves to each other.”

Oates frowned, the way six-year-olds frowned when they were being told off, and folded his arms. “I don’t remember telling you my name, Mister.” Zack struggled to maintain his composure. “Well, are you or are you not?”

“I am.” More gasps, mostly from the girls. The boys only stared, some wide-eyed, some skeptical, including Oates.

Oates looked over his shoulder at his friends. Determined nods from all around. Zack had a bad feeling about it.

When the boy's gaze returned to him, he pointed an accusatory finger at him. “Then we challenge you! Come on, guys! We need to see if this Mister guy is right for Aerith or not!”

The air split as cries erupted everywhere—boys and girls and even the kids at the piano. Before he could prepare himself, the little rascals had leaped from all sides, tackling him to the ground.

***

Aerith jumped when the children pushed Zack to the ground. Muffled sounds came from that squirming pile of bodies. They pinned him around his waist and straddled him on his chest. A couple climbed up and held his arms to the ground, maneuvering their way around that big sword hilt behind his back.

“Got it!” one of them yelled. A small square object held high in his grasp.

“Hey, you little, that’s my wallet!”

They squealed and shouted and laughed, jumped away when Zack tried to get up. “Spread out!” came a voice louder than the others, and they did, spreading out to the benches and the fallen beams and the room behind the altar. Zack pushed himself off his back, leaped to his feet, then put his hands on his hips. He scanned the church, a little frown playing across his lips.

“Lost something?” Aerith couldn’t help but ask. She pressed her lips together to stop herself from giggling.

“My wallet,” Zack said under his breath. “I know they’re good kids and it’s got nothing much but…” He stopped, glanced sideways at Aerith on the flowerbed. “Nothing,” he muttered.

It was unusual to see him blush, but there it was, the pink shades on his cheeks. She took a picture of it in her mind then saved it in her heart, shifting her attention back to the flowers by her knees, only to feel a stare at the side of her head. Leila, who'd been making crowns, was looking at her. Aerith arched her brows in a silent question, but before neither of them could say anything…

“Look!” Another call came. One of the older boys—Basil—waved a piece of paper in the air. “I found something!”

In the blink of an eye, Zack had disappeared from her side and crossed the church’s length. "Give that back!" she heard him say, and when Basil refused, running to the other side of the church, leaping over benches and hiding behind pillars, Zack quickened his pace. He caught the boy from behind and wrestled for his wallet. Soon, the other children had crowded around them, helping Basil keep his hold on the paper. Aerith snorted. Never had she thought she would see the day when Zack Fair wrestled with a child. That paper had to be very important.

“Are you really going out with that man, Aerith?”

The voice was soft; Leila looked at her with big, brown eyes. Curious, wary.

“I am.”

The frown deepened. The girl looked back down at the crown in her hand. Almost finished, Aerith noticed. Just a little more touch. Behind her, Zack shouted, “A-ha! Got it!” She glanced back just enough to see the fluttering paper caught between his index and middle fingers, before another boy—Finn—leaped from the nearest bench onto Zack’s back and grabbed the paper from his clutch. “Brat—!” Zack swung around trying to catch him, but Finn only clung to his back, laughing with glee.

“Isn’t he from the upper plate?” Leila asked again, pulling Aerith’s attention back to her.

“He is.”

“Aren’t they scary?”

Aerith blinked and stared, before the realization hit her. Like many people of the slums, the only things Leila knew of the upper plate were prejudice and discrepancy, hate and violence. Having to scrap for a living, only to be kicked and shoved by the so-called securities the people they called their government had stationed there; then watching the news and ads on the big monitor at Central District, only to realize how big a difference their lives were. Leila's father was taken to the war, and when they'd refused, those securities had almost crippled her grandfather.

“Zack’s not scary, though.”

“But the sword…” The girl lifted her eyes and looked at the massive sword on Zack’s back.

“He uses that to protect people.” Aerith's smile was warm. “He protected me before. I’m sure he’d protect you with it too.”

The nine-year-old still didn’t look convinced. Maybe there was something, anything, Aerith could use to show the girl that Zack was harmless. A thought just occurred to her mind when, suddenly, a weight pressed itself on her back.

Oof!

“Aerith, look!”

Oates had climbed onto her back, arms dangling down from around her neck. He waved a small piece of paper in front of her, where she glimpsed her face, smiling, on it.

“Got you!” The weight disappeared; Zack stood behind her, holding Oates on both arms as though the boy weighed nothing more than a sack of rice. “Stop squirming and hand over the photo.”

“Does the photo worth more than the wallet to you!?”

“Yes! Now give it—“

The photo lay on Aerith’s lap, now crooked after having so many hands wrestling for it. She picked it up and turned it around. Her own smiling face looked back at her. Hair braided back; a little smudge of dirt on her cheek; she'd crouched before her flowers as she'd tended to them, eyes crinkling at an ear-to-ear grin. When did Zack take this?

“Why would you put a picture of me there instead of your parents?” she asked the first question that popped into her mind. Zack had left home when he was thirteen without ever telling them. She’d thought they’d be foremost in his mind. But she knew the answer, even before she looked up and saw his beet-red face.

“And why are you blushing?” Oates asked.

“Oh, shut up!” He finally let Oates go. The children had gathered around them then, their expressions ranging from bemused to mischievous grins.

“You’re blushing too, Aerith,” Leila noted beside her.

She believed she was. Her cheeks felt hot. She met Zack’s sky-blue eyes, and as she beamed, he started beaming too.

***

Aerith asked Zack to tell the kids about his adventures—adventures, because the kids shouldn’t hear about missions or wars; adventures where he went to all corners of the world to protect people and their homes.

“Who wants to hear about my adventures?” Zack asked then. Silence…

“I wanna know more about your sword,” Oates said. “Why is it so big?"

Another voice asked, "Is it real?”

“Of course it’s real!”

“Can I touch it?” Zack didn’t realize a kid was standing behind him, and when he reached out to touch the steel blade, Aerith and Zack shouted at him to stop. The kid jumped, retracting his hand as quickly as it’d come.

“That’s dangerous, Finn!” Aerith said from her seat.

“But it looks so cool!”

“And also very heavy and sharp,” Zack said. “It could easily cut your arm off if you so much as touch it wrong.” Gasps and grunts and nervous gulps. Despite the glare Aerith was shooting him—maybe he should have toned down the gore, though he’d only spoken truth with it—he thought that was enough to scare them away. But then a voice spoke up:

“But you can use it.” It was the girl who’d played the piano before. Jet-black hair tied in twin tails.

“That’s because I’m trained in combat.”

“Show us!” she said, prompting the others to chant yeah, show us, show us.

At the urging, Zack broke into a grin, wide and proud. He told them to give him a bit of space, and they stepped back. Then he reached over and behind his back and curled his fingers around the hilt. He’d show them. Yes, they would see that he was the coolest guy they ever saw.

Pulling the Buster Sword from his back one-handed was an easy feat. He gave it a wide swing in the air before landing it, tip-down, on the church’s wooden floor. Oohs and ahhs greeted his ears. Even Aerith’s emerald-green eyes were wide, joining the children’s cheer. Then he lifted the sword with both hands and bent his knees in his battle stance.

“Want me to show you some battle moves?” he asked them, and they did, so he obliged.

The “show” ended with a series of claps, thrilled cries, and jumps. What skepticism and mischief he’d seen in their eyes were now gone, replaced by nothing short of awe. Zack couldn’t help the smirk that he’d somehow won their hearts.

“What do you do, Zack?” the oldest of the boys, he’d heard Aerith called him Basil before, asked.

“I’m—“ Then he stopped, and he remembered how Aerith had talked about SOLDIER and Turks and Shinra when they first met, and figured he should omit that part. “I’m a mercenary,” he said instead. “I help people whenever they need me.”

“Like how?”

“Finding lost items?”

“Rescuing a cat?”

“Yeah… And, like, bigger schemes.” The kids looked at one another. “Like protecting people from monsters.” More oohs and ahhs. Zack felt proud of himself.

But then, someone said, “I wanna have something like it.” It was Oates. He turned to his friends. “Just imagine: we can be our own Protection Squad! Defeating evil and helping people around the slums.” The idea immediately appealed to everyone’s minds. Before Zack could do anything about it, they’d already crowded around him and begged him for a sword of their own.

Zack broke into a small, weak smile as he tried to figure how to handle this new onslaught. He looked at Aerith for help, but her features reflected the resignation he felt. She offered a shrug, a silent permission to do what he thought best. In that case…

“Want me to make you wooden swords then?” The children’s eyes sparkled at that. They nodded, crowding closer that Zack had to step back and raise his hands, shoulders shaking in a chuckle. “Well, if you can find a good chunk of wood and some sawing equipment, I think I can make some.”

They'd bolted out the church’s double doors before he realized maybe he shouldn’t have told them to grab a saw. But Aerith was laughing, and she patted the spot next to her. Zack sat down with a loud sigh.

“You think they’re okay handling a saw?” he asked.

“Don’t worry, the carpenters won't let them hold it that easily,” Aerith said.

Zack wondered about that. Seeing how the kids had been, it wouldn't be a stretch to think they'd find some way to bring a saw there. But he was too tired to go look for them, so he hoped the carpenter would be so kind as to bring it himself. He sighed again, feeling the tension rolling off his shoulders. Who would’ve thought babysitting was even more exhausting than going on a mission?

Warmth enveloped his head. When he looked, Aerith was patting him, a bright smile on her face. “Great job today.”

And Zack would have broken into a grin, would have leaned in and rested his head on her shoulder and claimed it as energy recovering, if he had not noticed the girl on the flowerbed still weaving flowers into a crown. Aerith seemed to notice his line of sight too, because then she introduced the girl as Leila. In a whisper, she added that the girl had lost her family in the war, so she was a little taciturn around armed strangers.

The reason Aerith had suggested for him to talk about his adventures finally dawned on him. Zack scooted to the girl and peeked beneath the brown bangs. Big, brown eyes were focused on the flower crown in her hands. He noticed she’d braided her hair to match Aerith’s.

“You’re not going with the others?” he asked.

Leila shook her head. When she spoke, her voice was small. “I’m not really into those sword stuffs.”

“What are you into then?”

She lifted her flower crown, then continued weaving in more flowers. Zack fumbled for more topics, but before he could, Leila had risen from her seat. She walked over to him, then plopped the flower crown over his head. Zack blinked.

“That glow in your eyes—I’ve seen it. They took my dad away to the war, and he never came back.” Leila pursed her lips. “But you’re a good guy, Zack. At least, I think so. Everyone likes you. Aerith, too. And, you know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her laugh so hard like that before.” Zack blinked again, and this time, the girl softened her features. “She really likes you.”

With that, she turned toward Aerith and plopped another flower crown on top of her head.

“Well, I’m off. Think I’m going to catch up with the others and make sure they don’t hurt themselves.”

Her footsteps disappeared behind the double doors. The silence that followed stretched awkwardly. When Zack turned his head, Aerith was still staring at the church's entrance, half in daze.

“You really like me, she said.”

She jerked, glancing at him from the corner of her eyes. A frown formed across her lips, even as a deep shade of red tinged her cheeks. “She didn’t emphasize it, you know.”

Even so, that was not a denial. A slow grin split his features. Zack crawled to her side, then gazed at her scarlet face.

“What?” she asked.

His reply was a soft kiss to her cheeks that rendered her speechless. “I really like you to.” He beamed at her stunned face. It wasn't much of a date, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.

~ END ~

[leonawriter]

To Change A Sombre Morrow [chapter two]

Read it on AO3 - Part One

Fandom: Final Fantasy VII

Characters: Genesis, Angeal, Zack, Cloud, others.

Chapter Summary: Genesis forgets that his shoulder wound is fresh again, and Angeal worries. Kunsel is replaced as Master of Tutorials, although whether this is a good thing is anyone’s guess.

...

Back in his room, his hands move without his even needing to think, the actions of undressing his shoulder, cleaning the wound, and then bandaging it as well as he was able, being ones that he could do in his sleep, or even, once the degradation had gone far enough that his system had stopped being able to metabolise alcohol as quickly as it should have.

Most SOLDIERS were able to become light-headed at best and woozy at worst before the toxins were flushed from their systems by mako; not so those afflicted with degradation - although all it had taken was one sore hangover to cure him of the idea that getting drunk was a good idea at all in the first place.

That the movements were so well practiced was something that he had to remind himself that he should feel grateful for. That, and the fact that unlike the first time he had received the wound, this time he was bothering to dress it at all, rather than wait for mako to do what it was supposed to, what it would not, this time, do. 

That he didn't have to think about them meant that it didn't matter that his thoughts were either moving far too fast for him to have focused otherwise, or not at all, the numbness of horror sinking in at the realisation that he would potentially have to live through his degradation a second time, with no knowledge of when to expect it to end-

Genesis stared at his hands, still stained red with his own blood from the wound that had not yet closed, and wished that they would stop the minute shaking that they had started doing ever since crashing from his earlier adrenaline rush.

"My friend, your desire is the bringer of life, the gift of the goddess," he recited quietly.

Yet he had received that gift once already. Who knew if he would be able to receive restoration once again

Perhaps, his fate was tragedy, then - the unsung hero, destined to die before his time. The thought sat uncomfortably with him, though, not one that he wished to think upon too deeply.

He needed a plan. He needed something he could use to put his mind away from the harsh reality of degradation, and onto something more useful.

The root of it all began with the scientists, of course. Hojo, and Hollander himself. Yet it did not stop there, as his experiences with Cloud Strife had proven; Sephiroth's 'mother', Jenova, the being that both Project S and Project G had been born from, was just as dangerous. If not infinitely more so.

But those were things that he would have to deal with in due time, and he would likely be forced to wait for some sort of opportunity to take advantage of. 

Angeal, he realised, as he washed his hands free of blood and redressed himself. He would need to be honest with the man at some point, since they shared the same affliction. Which also meant, although he grimaced at the thought, admitting that his own wound was worse than he'd played it off as.

The first time he'd informed Angeal of their shared condition, he had been conflicted enough himself that he all he had been able to do was share that state of confusion, leading Angeal to defect himself. He had to wonder, now that it wasn't merely academic reasoning on events long past that he could no longer change, if his greater understanding would change anything this time around, if at all.

Look what I can do, he remembered having said in Wutai. A meeting not so much of chance as it had been that he had known that either Angeal or Sephiroth would come after him, to return him to Shinra or to leave him behind, a body, and desperate not to end the encounter with either. This is what I am. My life - our lives - were a lie. What honour do you owe Shinra, if this is what they did to you?

Words had always been his strong point. Both in battle with his spells and superior materia casting, and in his free time, studying language and poetry and LOVELESS. As much as he loved them, he wondered if perhaps he had turned his words into weapons too well, flinging them sharp-edged and with little thought to consequence. 

He he attempted to push the memory of the Nibelheim reactor, and the conflict, the distaste at his very presence on Sephiroth's face, the last truly human expression that the man had worn, away. That was the last thing he needed, when the Sephiroth he had interacted with earlier had been so very different.

Back in his normal time, after all of the incidents that everyone had lived through, it wasn't thought of as odd to forget that Sephiroth had once been a hero that people had looked up to - that he, Genesis, had once looked up to - but it was instead the fact that they had once been friends that he had almost forgotten.

He could no longer remember what he had done at this point, when he had first received this wound. It had faded in time into a vague mess of increasing internal panic and heated discussions and arguments with Hollander, often only at times when they were sure that they would not be overheard.

He would not, however, be walking that path once again, and he found his feet took him in a different direction.

...

That he would head for the materia room, and from there the closest training room that wasn't in use, would have known as the obvious course of action Genesis would take, if anyone present had known the entire story around what he had been through, and how he was now unexpectedly in the past.

Fortunately for him however, the Angeal and Sephiroth who were here with him now had no idea that he wasn't exactly the same Genesis that they had started the spar with, that he had gone through far more than either of them could as yet even begin to imagine, and nor did they have any clue as to why he might want to re-familiarise himself with a large number of materia.

Because they had no reason to believe he would be doing anything other than resting, recuperating, and wondering why his wound wasn't healing, he had no reason to believe that they would interrupt his impromptu self-imposed training session. 

A training session that was just as much to help him sort things out in his mind as anything else.

Targets were shattered with Thundaga when further thoughts of killing certain scientists came up, and - the memory from not even half an hour ago of Sephiroth looking concerned for him after he had, for all intents and purposes, tried to kill his 'friend' - he hadn't anticipated the amount of strength that went into the Firaga he cast, that absolutely incinerated another, at the thought of what, exactly, he would do to Jenova when he found 'her'.

It was difficult to pinpoint at first, the reason why he felt such anger at the alien lifeform. But it didn't take long - although he'd moved on to moving targets in the form of mid-level monsters - by the time he had.

Sephiroth, like Angeal, had been his friend. The General had been his rival to best, his obstacle to overcome in the face of everything, in order to gain that sense of respect, the kind that had the papers calling Sephiroth a war hero back before his fall.

He had meant to goad Sephiroth into a defection from grace, into helping him find a cure for his degradation, or even defecting entirely like Angeal had done, as they both realised how Shinra had used them.

The response he had received had not been entirely expected in its vehement disgust, but he had stuck around, just in case - something far easier to do in a mountainous region when one had the ability of flight than it really ought to be. 

The fire had been more of a shock than he had liked to let on. Sephiroth had never, after all, been one to go outside of the mission objectives. If a civilian wasn't a part of his instructions, then he simply preferred not to deal with them at all. He always had been like that. While they'd been friends, he'd thought of it as an extension of Sephiroth's cold detachment and condescending nature; now, with the knowledge he had gained from hearing people talk of the past in a more objective manner, he knew that it was that the man simply hadn't had any idea how to interact with anyone other than a Shinra employee at all.

And that bit of uncharacteristic behaviour had been well before any of his more... recent adventure.

The simulation faded for the second time that day back into the shape of the training room, and he turned to see Angeal coming toward him with a frown. Just marvellous.

"Are you sure you should be putting so much strain on your shoulder so soon after you hurt it? You can't have forgotten that even mako needs more time than this to fully heal. At the rate you're going, you'll tear it open again in no time flat."

Genesis couldn't be bothered to hide his grimace. He had forgotten how fresh the wound was while he'd been training, yes, but he wasn't about to admit that. 

"I hurt my shoulder in an accident, Angeal. It's something I can work through. Training with it isn't exactly going to kill me," he added, although in retrospect he hoped that the bleak humour and the way that he couldn't meet his friend's eyes as he said that weren't picked up on.

"Hmph."

For a moment, it looked like the man was just going to stay there, rooted to the spot and examining him until he divulged all of the world's mysteries. But then he shook his head, and left the training room. Genesis grumbled internally at having to cut his training short, but the truth of what Angeal had said coupled with a sentimental wish to simply see more of his friend now that he was, in essence, alive again.

Angeal dying hadn't been his plan, either. 

It was starting to occur to him now, with all the opportunities Genesis was having to see things as they had been before he had defected, before Sephiroth had gone to Nibelheim, before he had woken up from his time in Deepground and seen the ruin of Midgar that Meteor had left, that on his first time living through all of this, he had not, as such, had much in the way of a 'plan'. Nor had he thought what little he'd had of one through. 

The thought was mollifying, to say the least of what it implied about him.

Zack's presence in the hallway was one that made him almost stumble and did make him stare. He was lucky that he could pass off the stare for the fact that the Second Class was doing squats, instead of simply waiting in a normal manner.

...

The Sector Five church wasn't somewhere that he'd had any reason to come anywhere near for several weeks, simply because he'd had no reason to. Unlike how many others seemed to have this major attachment to the place, he had none.

It was the fact that he had proved himself their ally several times over and had then proceeded to say that he had no desire to simply stay in one place, that had caused Cloud to share a look of some sort of understanding with Tifa and Yuffie, and they had headed into the ruins of Midgar.

It had been eerie the first time he had flown up and up and far enough that he had been in a place that had once been populated and busy, when he had been carrying Weiss - or rather, Weiss' body, no matter what else had been involved there - to freedom. In the next several trips he'd taken, and some of them being prolonged, the feeling of walking, flying, and fighting through a city full of ghosts had never ceased.

Walking into the church felt peaceful, in a sad sort of way. But it also set his hairs on end, the sensation he felt around the rest of the city increasing exponentially in this one building.

"Don't step on the flowers," he heard Cloud say, and in the acoustics of the old building it echoed, so that for a split moment Genesis could have sworn he had heard three people speaking, instead of just one.

His attention, however, had not been on the flowers, for better or ill, and he had barely took note as Tifa explained that the water was what cured Geostigma, the disease that he had essentially slept through.

"Did you know him?" Cloud had asked, once the two girls had gone again. He had been keeping an obvious eye on him up until then, and now it was clear why.

Genesis had snorted, once.

"You could say that. I tried to kill him several times." Cloud had given him an unimpressed, flat look, but by that point they were both aware of how... unimpressive his previous actions were to the blond hero of Midgar. "I never succeeded, of course. And I only ever tried because he was in my way. The last I saw, he seemed perfectly well."

Which had been in Banora, of course. Which was also how he had recognised Cloud at all, because of how Cloud had been the one with Sephiroth's cells, and he had been so, so sure for so long that only Sephiroth's cells could have cured him.

The irony of it hadn't escaped him, then.

For a while, neither of them had said anything.

"It was Angeal's first," he'd finally felt the need to add. "Although he rarely used it. Kept saying something about wear, tear, and rust - but then, he did come from a poorer family then mine, I suppose."

Cloud had flinched, just enough to be noticed. Genesis raised an eyebrow, sure that it was going to be something interesting, and the blond sighed.

"I left it... out there, for a long time, after Meteor was dealt  with. On the outcropping. That's... where you first found me, actually."

Where we first fought, Genesis remembered filled in. Cloud was nothing if not a master of the understatement, sometimes even more so than Angeal had been, or- no, some things were best not brought up, or even thought of.

It didn't need to be said, however, that the sword could not at all have done well there. Wear, tear, and rust... it must have suffered them all. He vaguely wondered what Angeal would think.

"He never made it back to Midgar," he'd said, mostly because he had figured out their destination from the location given, and various comments that Cloud and his acquaintances had both made and let slip in the past - weeks? Had it only been that long?

"No."

The word had been final. Nothing more would be forthcoming. Cloud had left not long after that, letting him have some private time in the church with the water, the flowers, and the Buster Sword that had become some sort of legacy of heroes.

It had been odd. In all his travels in search of a cure to his degradation, Zack had simply been an obstacle, in his way, and later on simply someone who had something that he had wanted. He had even attempted to kill the boy the last time they met. But learning of his death, when he had wondered more than once why there had been pockmarks in the nearby rock formations, and he supposed he now knew, but all it left him feeling was numb, and somewhat helplessly empty.

...

He watched Zack - Zack Fair, alive, and without doubt just as much the excitable puppy without the ability to focus that he remembered Angeal telling him about so frequently, once upon a time - attempt to do the exact same training that he himself had done not even minutes previous, and as he did so nostalgia and, dare he say it, awe and relief at seeing him alive, gave way to something far more familiar.

Frustration.

Eventually, agitatedly tapping his fingers against his arm did no good, and he lost his temper, storming in and informing Zack that his casting was abysmal. That he even only with first level spells, he needed to improve his accuracy, his efficiency, and his casting time. 

When Angeal, still in the training room they'd gone back to, asked if Genesis was making some attempt at stealing his apprentice, he had merely asked which of the two of them was better at using materia, and that he was unwilling to let such inadequacies continue. Angeal made no further arguments.

It was one thing to have to push aside a Second Class SOLDIER who shouldn't have poked his nose in where it didn't belong, mission or no mission. It was quite another to see the SOLDIER that had defeated him several times as someone who could barely cast a decent Fire spell. It was simply demeaning.

...

AN: So it looks like the flashbacks are going to be a regular appearance now! Or, at least, whenever they're relevant.

The second part is actually re-written from a first draft, and when I deleted it and started from scratch the entire rest of the chapter followed like I'd opened up a dam. Which, given I'd needed to sleep, was indeed rather damning.

...It so happens that I’m still happy with this now I’m actually awake.

[placebonut]

So I finished FFVII: Remake and I have thoughts! Need to record my first impression before I read what everyone else thinks and potentially have my opinion warped beyond recognition! 

Overall, I enjoyed it. But maybe a “re-imagining” is a better description, as it looks like it’s shaping up to be a new story. I’ll need to play it again to fully understand all that wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff, though. FF games tend to get a bit abstract and confusing for me toward the end, so that’s not a criticism, just my reality lol.

Highlights:

+ Wedge lives! Apparently Biggs, too, but I have different thoughts about that… Even though they’re essentially the same, Wedge happened before knowing what the Whispers are, and that capital ‘D’ Destiny is fighting to stay on track by smothering all potential divergents, so it was a nice little surprise for me that Wedge survives. I’m even satisfied with how it happened. Like, he’s in the middle of sector 7 when the plate falls, but just through sheer luck gets knocked into a secret underground lab, which I now get to explore? Cool!

+ Johnny lol. No longer “childhood friend”, but still very entertaining. Though that scene where Cloud straight-up intends to execute him while he’s bound and blindfolded is a bit… Uh? I feel like it was supposed to be telling me something about Cloud’s character, but doesn’t really seem consistent. He’s got an attitude, and is very often moody and rude to people’s faces, but that moment is next level cold. That scene also implies that Avalanche aren’t killing all of the Shinra troopers they fight. I’ll just accept “fantasy” as the explanation for how they manage that!

+ Cloud being recognised in Shinra tower. Though does the Kunsel name-drop mean that some of Crisis Core canon will be included? I mean, they basically did a frame-by-frame reanimation of Zack’s last stand, but he doesn’t have the CC scar so I assume no Angeal. Lots to unpack, but I just enjoyed the moment. It makes sense that someone would remember him!

+ I think Madame M’s main role is to replace the .. violation? that Cloud experiences in the OG Honey Bee Inn. She’s still pretty much forcing him to have that hand massage, but at least he just hates that he likes it, rather than being actually super uncomfortable in a hot tub full of strange men. I feel like they steered away from the old homophobic humour and instead embraced some fun, gender non-conforming characters. I’m very straight and cis though, so maybe there’s nuance I missed. No named Shinra employees in the private HB rooms though?

+ Tifa!! I don’t think they’ve actually made changes to her character, but you just get so much more time with her, and I’m able to love her in a way I never really did in OG. My OG first impression was that she was needy, and annoyingly timid at the worse times. Obviously she gets a lot of character growth, but I could never shake that initial impatience I had with her, and the rivalry with Aeris (who the game clearly pushes you to like) just left me with a criminal under-appreciation for her. Remake Tifa is a goddess! Her voice actor is great, which definitely helps. Her empathy, compassion, and generosity are showcased really well in lots of scenes, but she’s still such a badass! I love how she’s always the one to catch Cloud when he’s falling off of something, but my absolute favourite moment is when she steps out of the mist to offer Aerith her hand, “we found you”/”I guess you did..” Had me clutching my chest.

+ The immediate friendship between the girls is sooooo nice compared to the competition they pose for each other in the OG. Even as early as the sewers, when they’ve only just met. Maybe it’ll come later, but I kinda don’t even feel like Tifa expresses all that much romantic interest in Cloud. She’s not jealous of Aerith, and while it’s clear she worries about him and cares what he thinks, she’s certainly not hopelessly in love with him… At least not yet.

+ Voice actors did a better job than I expected tbh. Some awkward attempts to mimic Japanese vocalisations, but that’s always a problem with anime dubs. Hojo’s last scream of laughter really solidified the ‘crazy scientist’ bit. Barret was way funnier and less cringey than I thought he’d be. Marlene is cute as a button! Aerith is a bit high and breathy, but the pitch actually makes her probably the easiest to understand since the background music always seems a bit too loud when they’re talking. Cloud, Barret, but especially Sephiroth, I really struggled in parts to understand. I think Sephiroth was even murmuring things in that final battle, probably just related to his special attacks since all important dialogue had subtitles, but I’m sure I could hear his voice but could understand literally nothing!

+ Music and graphics, obvs. Man, everyone and everything is just so dang pretty!

Didn’t like, or maybe just didn’t understand?

- Sephiroth. I employed some real mental gymnastics to explain to myself what I was seeing, and I mostly succeeded until the very end. Okay, so like, his first appearances I rationalised as being PTSD hallucinations or something. Also, in a real-world sense, I read somewhere that the OG director used the movie Jaws as inspiration for how they introduce him slowly, showing only the destruction he leaves behind to create tension, but it’s 20 years later and he’s an icon in video game and anime culture, they can’t play the same tricks and expect the same result. This game only features the initial Midgar part of the story which he wasn’t originally featured in, so gotta find a way to give the fans some service. Alright, that makes sense, I can accept that.

But then it became clear he’s using the clones to actually communicate with Cloud…. huh. Well, okay, I guess there’s no reason why he couldn’t have always been able to do that. He’s much more interested in Cloud than I think he should be at this point, but if he’s trying to organise Reunion, and I suppose Cloud is the only one resisting, I can make it work: if he’s aware of the clones, then he’s aware of Cloud. It makes no less sense that he’s always been able to connect with them, than him suddenly being able to out of nowhere or only deciding to start at a plot-convenient moment. I always assumed it was Cloud’s proximity to Jenova that triggered the whole series of events in Shinra Tower. That she, and by extension Sephiroth, “wake up” while he’s there. But if Sephiroth has actually been conscious the entire time, maybe Cloud just showed him exactly where to find her, so he’s coming to get her. It’s complicated, but I think I follow.

I don’t know why he’s on the other side of the Destiny storm, though. Really, why was he even there? Is he working with or against the Whispers? And I can’t make sense of his invitation for Cloud to join him. Join him in what? Reunion, still? Sephiroth’s OG plan can benefit only Sephiroth, so what is he even offering? I’m going to have to play it again and pay closer attention to what he says. I did like Aerith standing up to him. One of my favourite OG lines, “the future isn’t just yours!” is reflected nicely. Also, “screw him!”

- Roche. Whyyy? Track record for inventing new SOLDIERs isn’t good, just leave it alone!

- Biggs lives. So, we only witness him waking up after everything has gone down, which is why I reacted differently to his survival than Wedge’s. Basically, it doesn’t make sense. First of all, physically, for him to have survived all that fire and falling. Secondly, it seems to contradict what we know about the Whispers: they interfere when the characters are at risk of taking a path they don’t want, ie. different from OG storyline. Why wouldn’t they have done something? If they’re powerful enough to revive Barret because “it wasn’t his time”, and injure Jessie so Cloud has to join the Reactor 5 bombing mission, surely they could quietly kill off somebody who is “supposed” to die, especially if he’s already most of the way there. So then it’s really Wedge they should have killed off! He’s where the chain begins: I assume he’s the one who finds Biggs and brings him back to Elmyra, since Biggs never would have known who she was, and Wedge only knows after surviving the plate fall. Does having defeated the Harbinger Whisper mean that not only future changes are possible, but past? Anyway, it’s all a bit convoluted, and tbh feels a bit cheap, too. Why not bring back Jessie, while we’re at it? Their OG deaths had a motivational impact on Barret and co., and also drives home the evil of Shinra for the player, who might not have cared that much about unnamed deaths, however plentiful. It makes the plate fall a more personal tragedy, since we’ve spent time with these characters.

- Low-key disappointed I didn’t get to see Avalanche’s secret hideout underneath Seventh Heaven.. But at least I got to play some darts.