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mariacallous · 2 months ago

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Eric Adams wanted to see the world, to see it in style. But he wasn’t a rich man, just a former cop and rising politician in a largely ceremonial job, Brooklyn Borough President. Luckily for him, there were a number of benefactors who federal prosecutors say were ready to help him travel in a manner benefitting the position he was angling for: mayor of New York City.

According to a sprawling, 57-page indictment unsealed on Thursday, there was the chairman of a Turkish university; a promoter “whose business includes organizing events to introduce Turkish corporations and businesspeople to politicians, celebrities, and others whose influence may benefit the corporations”; and a senior official in the Turkish government, who, prosecutors say, “later steered illegal contributions and improper gifts to Adams to gain influence with and, eventually, to obtain corrupt official action from Adams.”

Adams in the summer of 2017 went with his son and a staffer to Nice, Istanbul, Sri Lanka, and Beijing, flying business class the whole way. In October, he went again to Istanbul and Beijing, and then on to Nepal. Those tickets were, all told, worth $51,000. But he got it all for free.

The relationship deepened from there, as Adams began to run for mayor in earnest. The Turks allegedly funneled money to his campaign through false entities, or “straw donors.” Accepting such donations is against the law — and Adams allegedly received public matching funds based on these contributions. Adams allegedly returned the favor, in part by pressuring the fire department to allow the opening of a $300 million, 36-story glass tower to house the Turkish consulate, just off of First Avenue and 45th Street, without an inspection and “in time for a high-profile visit by Turkey‘s president” — a diplomatic coup for a man who’s functionally a dictator.

Adams has vigorously denied all of the charges. And at least one Adams ally I spoke with in the immediate aftermath breathed a quarter-sigh of relief — this person was expecting even more, and more serious, charges. “It’s obviously not great but this is weaker than I thought it would be,” the source tells me.

But that exhale assumes that the federal charges against Adams begin and end in this document. They almost certainly do not, with at least four more federal probes reportedly targeting his inner circle and FBI agents searching the mayor’s residence shortly before the indictment was announced. It also assumes that the Turks were the only government to allegedly turn Adams into an unregistered foreign agent. That, too, could prove to be a dangerous supposition — especially given the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn’s pursuit of Chinese influence in New York.

In the last four years, that federal prosecutor’s office alone has charged a dozen separate criminal cases of covert Chinese government interference in U.S. politics, business, and civil society. An aide to New York’s governor was indicted as a foreign agent on Sept. 3. An ex-corrections officer got 20 months for harassing an artist who lampooned Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Two more men were arrested for operating a secret Chinese police station out of the Manhattan headquarters of a group for expats from Fujian province.

The examples spiral out from there.In July, a federal jury in Manhattan convicted Robert Menendez, a Democratic U.S. senator from New Jersey, of taking bribes and acting as Egypt’s agent. In August, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged a hitman with trying to assassinate Donald Trump, allegedly on Iran’s orders. In September, prosecutors in Manhattan revealed an alleged Russian plot to funnel $10 million to MAGA influencers. This is a partial list. A snippet of a list, really. And all of these developments happened in just the last few months, just in and around this one metro area, where a wide array of foreign actors are looking to turn New York into something like Spy City.

The 20 experts, officials, and activists I spoke to couldn’t agree on whether these cases represent a major escalation in this covert activity, an increase in Washington’s willingness to combat it, or both. But they all agreed that such efforts are widespread and being directed by countries across the globe. And while it might be tempting to speculate about what this says about the various foreign policy strategies in foreign capitals, the clear takeaway is that malicious actors around the world see America as pliable, and influence as something that can be bought on the cheap. In other words, the most disturbing part about these covert foreign pressure campaigns is what it says about our politics, our society. About us.

ONE OF THE MORE disturbing foreign influence cases to recently come to light begins 35 years ago, in Beijing. Yan Xiong was a student activist there, jailed for being part of the big Tiananmen Square protests. When he got out, he made his way to America, enlisted in the U.S. Army, and eventually served two tours as a chaplain in Iraq. By 2021, Yan was running for Congress in lower Manhattan. He could tell that something was off. He’d show up to candidate forums, and then wouldn’t be allowed to speak. He’d try to raise money, no dice. There was an old man who wouldn’t stop taking pictures of Yan’s campaign. Yan would go out to his driveway late at night and find a car there, headlights blazing. It was unnerving, but Yan was used to looking over his shoulder.

Nevertheless, Yan was shocked when, in March of 2022, federal prosecutors revealed that he was being targeted by the Chinese government. The goal: to surveil and sabotage the chaplain’s long-shot campaign. “Go deep and dig up something. Right? For example, past incidents of tax evasion… if he used prostitutes in the past… if he had a mistress,” a member of China’s Ministry of State Security allegedly told a private investigator here in the U.S. If the private investigator couldn’t come up with — or make up — any dirt, the P.I. was encouraged to use other means to take Yan out of the race: “In the end, violence would be fine too.”

In the end, Yan’s campaign netted him only 750 votes — not great, but 50 percent more than former Mayor Bill De Blasio received. The P.I. hired by the Chinese government never found any dirt on Yan, or physically attacked him. But the attempt to ratfuck Yan’s campaign continues to leave a wound. Yan’s getting ready to move for the fifth time in two years — in part “for safety, for psychology.” In August, prosecutors unveiled another layer to the alleged plot against him. The old man who’d been taking all those pictures? He was a former Tiananmen Square veteran, too — one who was now accused of working as an unregistered agent for Beijing. To Yan, he’s another “victim” of a regime that’s all-too-willing to extend its reach here. “It’s a tragedy, that’s my opinion,” Yan tells me.

And Yan’s case isn’t the only one in which there seem to be shadowy figures just out of frame. Shujun Wang, another longtime Chinese dissident, was convicted in late August of working as Beijing’s spy. The other day, I called his lawyer to ask about a member of the defense team, a man listed in court documents as a paralegal, who was, in fact, a Florida realtor, recently acquitted of rape. What was he doing there? Who was he? “He is nobody,” the lawyer answered.

These influence campaigns by foreign governments, prosecutors allege, reach all the way down to the lowest levels of state and local government. Take Linda Sun, who started in 2012 as one of the more junior aides out of 200 or so in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office. The former beauty pageant contestant and Barnard grad, who had come to New York from Nanjing when she was a kid, put in the work as a liaison to the borough of Queens and the state’s Asian American community. She’d help connect constituents to government services, make appearances at Lunar New Year events, write up proclamations, and liaise with foreign consulates. Over the years, she gained leverage. Cuomo’s communications shop — described by one former colleague as “95 percent Caucasian” — relied on Sun to tell them how a state proclamation or press release might resonate in Asian communities.

“She did her job. She went home. Didn’t cause any trouble, never caused any drama. But in hindsight, [there was] a lot of trust in that particular position. Because when you ask her opinion about how something plays, we were asking how it plays in, you know, [the Chinese American neighborhoods of] Sunset Park and Flushing. Not how it played in Beijing,” that source tells me.

By 2015, Sun had a willing ear in Kathy Hochul, the new Lieutenant Governor, who was iced out of Cuomo’s inner circle — and eager to build up her own political constituency. Hochul made sure to attend Chinese American community celebrations and events to promote trade with Beijing. (A Hochul aide notes that she interfaced with all kinds of foreign officials, including a half-dozen such meetings just with the Canadians in 2016.) Sun made sure there were all sorts of meetings Hochul wouldn’t take, wouldn’t even know were offered. For example, prosecutors allege, when officials from the rival government of Taiwan tried to get together with Hochul in D.C. in mid-2016, Sun scheduled talks with Beijing’s representatives instead — and then bragged to the Chinese consulate about what she had done. Hochul began to be quoted favorably and often by Beijing’s official state news agency. Sun started to receive gifts from Chinese officials, prosecutors say: tickets to Carnegie Hall, then a wire transfer for $47,895 for travel expenses.

As Sun’s responsibilities increased, her profile grew. She worked with legislators when Korean American nail salons were revealed to be serially underpaying their workers. She helped steer money to Asian American groups as threats to them rose during the pandemic.

By 2021, Hochul was governor. Sun had a bigger title, deputy chief of staff, and was displaying sharper elbows. “She felt very emboldened with making sure that there was a focus [on] protecting mainland China’s agendas,” State Assemblyman Ron Kim, who previously held Sun’s community liaison job, recalls. “That was universally understood, because when myself and other[s] carried certain resolutions to celebrate U.S.-Taiwan relations, I got calls from the governor’s office letting me know that the Chinese consulate is very upset with you, and they would prefer if I don’t do such resolutions again.” (Sun has pleaded not guilty to charges she acted as an agent of the Chinese government, and her attorneys declined to comment for this story.)

This might seem arcane and sort of small-ball. Who cares if some local pol doesn’t issue a Taiwan proclamation? But it’s part of a strategy, says Bethany Allen, author of Beijing Rules, echoing the sentiments of several U.S. officials. “If this is done extensively, consistently, quietly across many states, many state capitals, many state governments, local governments,” Allen tells me, “it can shape the debate. Have a strong downward pressure on the things that China wants to quiet.”

And it’s a strategy that Beijing is willing to pursue over the long haul — to influence people at the lowest levels of local government, and let those folks rise over time. Back when she was a reporter, Allen broke the news of a suspected Chinese spy in California who cultivated relationships from the political to the romantic with city councilmen, small-town mayors, and at least one Congressman. The spy’s true motivations weren’t uncovered until that Congressman, Rep. Eric Swalwell, was on the verge of joining the House Intelligence Committee and gaining access to some of the nation’s better-protected national secrets. (Swalwell denied any romantic relationship, and a House ethics panel decided to take no action against him after a two-year investigation.)

Linda Sun’s case never reached that kind of crisis point. But her value to Chinese officials was clear. The wire transfers were in the millions by 2021. The Chinese Consul General in New York — a sharp, genial diplomat named Huang Ping — sent Nanjing-style salted ducks to Sun’s parents, a half-dozen at a time. According to one source, she started showing up with a fresh tan and a new, high-end handbag to every community event. “People were definitely talking about how she went from rags to riches overnight,” Kim tells me. “Her parents lived in a one-bedroom apartment… She was trying to get a mortgage to buy a condo in Flushing, and she could barely get that. But all of a sudden, now she’s living in a mansion.” And in a sweet vacation home, too. Around the same time Sun and her husband bought a $3.6 million home in Manhasset, New York, they also, according to prosecutors, purchased “an ocean-view condominium on the 47th floor of a high rise building in Honolulu, Hawaii, currently valued at approximately $2.1 million.”

SUN AND ADAMS ARE the first local officials to be charged with acting as agents of a foreign power. They probably won’t be the last, or even the last in New York. (“What you saw with the governor in New York, that’s going to be scratching an itch that tickles in a lot of different places,” Bill Evanina, who spent seven years as the federal government’s top counterintelligence official, tells me.) The place has long attracted spies and clandestine power brokers, and not just because of the UN, or Wall Street, or all the corporate headquarters. America’s best city is, not coincidentally, also its most diverse; more than three million of the eight million-plus people living here are foreign-born. Those diasporas are often of intense interest to the countries from which they spring, especially if the countries in question are ruled by authoritarians. The revolutionary movements that took down the Czar, the Chinese Emperor, and the Shah were all incubated overseas.

These diasporas also can wield outsized power in local politics, too. New York’s election laws are so labyrinthine and complex, with elections held on off-years and on strange dates, that they’re practically designed to keep people from voting. (Ron Kim has 115,000 people living in his district in Queens, for example; fewer than 3,200 of them voted in his contested primary race, which is the only race that matters in a one-party town.) So if any one group gets behind a single candidate, or gins up turnout, or dumps in a lot of money, it can swing an election. Kim faced off against a primary opponent backed by a well-known local community leader who is openly supportive of the Chinese Communist Party. They each poured more than $600,000 into that tiny-turnout primary race. “I felt this was a clear effort to get a political seat for a person who is loyal to their agenda,” Kim says. “This isn’t about lawmaking in [the state capital of] Albany, but it’s about being the power broker of Flushing that will give them credibility and access.”

This is all happening in a place where the politics are — there’s no other way to put this — corrupt as fuck. The five federal investigations reportedly swirling around Adams and his closest associates involve everyone from the police commissioner to the schools chancellor to his top fundraisers to a pair of deputy mayors. Adams’ immediate predecessor, de Blasio, dodged indictment for violating campaign finance laws, but not by much. After leaving office, former mayor Rudy Giuliani took money from a North Korean gangster and then worked with a man he admitted was likely a Russian spy. Long Island’s George Santos was expelled from Congress after less than a year; he recently pleaded guilty to identity theft and wire fraud. One of Santos’ bigger Republican critics on the Island, Rep. Anthony D��Esposito, was just exposed for giving Congressional jobs to his lover and his fiancée’s daughter.

You get the idea: plenty of politicians with their hands out; elections practically designed to be swayed by small groups; those small groups susceptible to foreign infiltration and pressure, because they’ve all got family back home. “New York would be at the top of the list in terms of foreign governments, foreign regimes wanting to target,” says Casey Michel, author of the newly published Foreign Agents. “Especially New York City. I don’t think it’s any surprise that the major investigation into a municipal authority as a target of potential foreign influence is Adams.”

So let’s talk about the mayor. Adams has been ducking corruption allegations — and playing diaspora politics — for more than 15 years. According to the New York Times, a grand jury in July issued subpoenas related to Adams’ ties to six different countries: China, Qatar, South Korea, Israel, Uzbekistan, and, of course, Turkey. In his role as Brooklyn Borough President, Adams attended almost 80 events connected with Turkey, and at least 50 more celebrating China. Some of those events actually upset his Turkish government contacts, according to the indictment. In 2016, a Turkish official told Adams that a community center he used to visit “was affiliated with a Turkish political movement that was hostile to Turkey’s government… If Adams wished to continue receiving support from the Turkish government, Adams could no longer associate with the community center. Adams acquiesced.”

Adams also met multiple times with Huang Ping, the Chinese Consul General who prosecutors later identified as Linda Sun’s handler. And the politicking seemingly continued overseas. Adams took 13 separate trips to Turkey and China, which is a lot of travel to those two specific nations, considering borough presidents don’t really have foreign policy roles. “It’s totally appropriate,” he said after the first of the trips to China, in 2014. “I’m not going to be a MetroCard borough president — I’m going to be a passport borough president.”

City Hall won’t say what all of the trips were for. (They didn’t respond to requests to comment for this story.) The alleged purpose of the Turkey trips, at least, is now less murky after the indictment’s release.When it comes to the others, here’s what we can say for sure: We know that one of Adams’ China travel partners, his longtime Asian community liaison Winnie Greco, had her former campaign office and several of her homes raided by the FBI. We know that Greco and another Adams crony met separately in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, with the man later indicted for operating that secret Chinese police station out of a Fujianese expat society in Manhattan. We know that Adams and Greco appeared onstage at a gala for that charity — the American Changle Association, named for a famed neighborhood in Fuzhou — shortly before it was exposed as a secret police front bythe New York Post. We know Adams was with Association bigwig Lu Jianwang days before Lu was arrested in the secret police affair. We know, thanks to local news outlet The City, that 121 workers at the New World Mall in Queens, the site of Greco’s 2021 campaign office, made donations to Adams of precisely $249 each, one buck below the limit for eight-times public matching funds. Several donors said they were reimbursed in cash, or had no idea they had been listed as contributors at all. This has all the hallmarks of illegal straw donations, as Adams’ team surely knows.One Chinese billionaire who gave money to Adams (and hosted his 60th birthday party) recently pleaded guilty to such charges.

MAYBE ALL OF THESE connections were on the up-and-up. Maybe Adams’ trips to China and extremely odd donations from his campaign office in Flushing were no more nefarious than the 70-plus flag-raising ceremonies for various countries he’s attended in his two-and-a-half years as mayor. Maybe it’s an accident of scheduling that Huang Ping, the Chinese Consul General, asked him to blow off a banquet with the Taiwanese president and Adams wound up doing just that. Adams may have rubbed elbows with people who were later indicted as foreign agents in groups like the American Changle Association, where voters gather for an old-country meal or speak in their parents’ dialect. There’s hardly an elected official in New York who didn’t make such a visit, or get his picture taken at some point with Huang. Of course they did. Huang was a gregarious, effective, charming diplomat. He may be accused of secretly handling alleged agents like Linda Sun, but chatting up local politicians was most definitely Huang’s job.

You don’t have to be some kind of simp for Beijing to find this kind of criminalization of foreign influence a little hypocritical, given all the governments the U.S. helped overthrow in the past century. You’re not necessarily an abolish-the-police type if you think the feds have gone overboard in their hunt for Chinese agents. “We’re not China. We’re supposedly a free country, and the government should take more care in prosecuting and, in turn, persecuting people,” John Liu, a state senator from Queens, tells me. This is personal for him. While he was gearing up to run for mayor more than a decade ago, the FBI ran a sting on him and his donors, part of a straw-donor probe he says was oh-so-subtly named “Operation Red Money.” They did find some straw donors, and a top aide did go to jail. But Liu himself was only fined $26,000 — proof, he says, that the whole investigation was overheated. Nor is it a one-off. Liu points to cases like Baimadajie Angwang, the cop accused of spying for China, only to have the charges dropped without explanation. By that time, the NYPD had fired him. “You know what? It wouldn’t be so bad if the government pursued these cases, made them as visible as they intentionally make them, and actually had a pretty good record of success,” Liu says. “It bothers me that there’s no accountability of any kind. You know, the government does this, and it doesn’t matter how many lives are ruined [or] the impact on the wider community.”

There’s no question there’s been overreach, including horror stories of Chinese Americans interrogated by the FBI, seemingly for no reason at all. “We should absolutely oppose any effort by any foreign government to undermine our American society, our way of life, our democracy,” says Rep. Grace Meng, who hired Linda Sun when she was in the State Assembly and now represents a large part of Queens in the U.S. Congress. But “there’s a lot of fear right now in the Asian American community,” she adds. “Every day, young, professional Asian Americans are really scared that these harmful stereotypes are being fueled… [by] questions that are asked only of us.”

As overzealous as some prosecutors may have been, though, and as ugly our recent turn toward anti-China and anti-immigrant politics, there are too many of these foreign influence cases, tied to so many different outside actors, to brush off. A former Republican Congressman is under indictment for covertly working for Venezuela’s dictator. A major Trump fundraiser pleaded guilty to doing the same on behalf of the Chinese and Malaysian government officials, in a case so weird and sprawling, a member of the Fugees wound up with a foreign agent conviction as part of it. Things are so bad, the guy that’s supposed to be leading the investigations into these cases in New York — the head of the state’s FBI counterintelligence division — was himself sentenced earlier this year to federal prison for doing the bidding of a sanctioned Russian oligarch. The MAGA crowd can whine all they want about the #resistance obsession with “Russia, Russia, Russia.” Folks on the political left can roll their eyes at what feels like a Trumpy obsession with Chinese influence, or another red scare. It takes a kind of willful blindness not to see a pattern here. Liu, for one, called on Adams to resign after prosecutors unveiled their indictment which showed just how deep the mayor’s ties to Turkey went.

“This isn’t a Republican problem or a Democratic problem — it’s completely bipartisan,“ Michel tells me. “And as we’re now seeing, it’s not just one level of government these regimes are targeting. It’s everyone.”

For half a century, the American government hardly bothered to enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires influence-peddlers to disclose their overseas clients, at least. That changed after the 2016 election, when Trump recruited the O.G. of scummy foreign lobbying, Paul Manafort, to run his campaign and publicly begged for a dictator’s help to win. The Department of Justice went on to prosecute Manafort and so many others — from the Russian troll farm to the white-shoe law firm Skadden, Arps — for breaking that law. Brandon van Grack, who oversaw many of those prosecutions as head of the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act unit, says the apparent surge in cases we’re seeing, eight years later, is a result of that 2016 wake-up call. He credits “greater resources and tools to identify and disrupt those influence operations than an increase in the operations themselves,” adding, “Foreign influence is not novel.”

It’s not exactly dying down, either. A few years ago, you might have thought that prosecuting folks like Manafort would at least serve as a warning shot. The sheer range of regimes trying to influence the 2024 election paints a different picture, and I don’t just mean the fact that Manafort is a free man and doing Fox News hits from the Republican convention. “I would say that a couple things are true in this specific situation. Yes, there are more investigations, because there are allowed to be. And I think our adversaries are more brazen than they have ever been,” Evanina, the former counterintelligence chief, tells me.

There’s a good argument that the number of prosecutions isn’t even the right metric to gauge foreign influence. Registering as an overseas lobbyist — dodging a FARA charge — that’s the easy part. More than 1,000 foreign principals have done so since 2016, spending more than $5.5 billion to whisper in lawmakers’ ears. At least 90 former members of Congress have registered since 2000 to push another government’s agenda. Scores of U.S. generals and admirals have taken jobs with foreign governments in the last decade, with Saudi Arabia alone hiring 15 retired flag officers. Biden talked in 2020 about banning former officials from lobbying for foreign powers. It was just talk.

The Supreme Court in recent years has radically raised the bar on bribery cases, and functionally removed any restrictions on campaign spending. That’s allowed Americans closely aligned with foreign governments to make enormous investments in shaping U.S. policy. The best known of these are the lobbyists pushing the agenda of Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who gave over a million dollars to the now-convicted Sen. Menendez, even after he was indicted, and spent millions more on successful primary campaigns to knock out two of Israel’s few critics in Congress. None of this violates any laws. But maybe that’s beside the point. The real foreign influence scandal, Michel tells me, is how much of it is “perfectly legal.”

If you’re mad at outside actors for exploiting America’s system, don’t be. The United States is still the world’s biggest power; of course every other nation is going to try to pull us in their direction. Try directing your anger a little closer to home. All of these politicians on the take, we voted for them. The bullshit China or Iran pumps out on TikTok? It’s downright factual compared to the nonsense we Americans push one another. And if you think a guy like Eric Adams is an outlier with his, shall we say, open-minded approach to campaign finance and outside influences, allow me to introduce you to the Republican nominee for president and his inner circle. The Congress we elected has bottled up nearly every attempt to close these foreign-funding loopholes. The campaigns we supported went along with the Supreme Court’s decision to make elections a feeding frenzy. This is a choice. Collectively, we made it.

IN THE HOURS AFTER Linda Sun and her husband were charged as Chinese agents on Sept. 3, Gov. Hochul urged the U.S. government to expel Sun’s alleged handler, Consul General Huang Ping, and a State Department spokesperson claimed that Huang had “rotated out of the position.” Yet on the night of Sept. 5, at Manhattan’s storied Plaza Hotel, Huang Ping appeared onstage at the China Institute’s $2,500-per-ticket Blue Cloud gala, looking rather dapper in a well-tailored tuxedo. Pictures were posted to the consulate’s website two days later. “Consul General Huang Ping is performing his duties as normal,” read a statement sent out to reporters.

A few hours after he was indicted, Huang’s longtime interlocutor Eric Adams promised to do much the same. “My attorneys will take care of the case, so I can take care of this city,” he said. “My day to day will not change.”

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bardic-tales · 10 days ago

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au: redemption | dark fantasy | au: canon divergent

Themes: Redemption and Forgiveness | Identity and Purpose | the Power of Bonds

The Redemption AU diverges from the original Final Fantasy VII storyline with significant changes centered around Sephiroth. It introduces the original character: Bianca Moore. In this universe, Bianca and Sephiroth meet as children, ages 8 and 10, respectively, and endure years of experimentation under Hojo at Shinra Manor. Bianca uses her demonic powers to block out Jenova's influence on Sephiroth, preventing the Nibelheim Incident and altering the course of events. Together, they find redemption by aiding AVALANCHE and working against Shinra while trying to balance their dark pasts and Sephiroth’s fragile grip on sanity.

Universe Plot:

The Redemption AU follows an altered timeline where Bianca uses her demonic powers to keep Sephiroth from succumbing to Jenova's influence. This change prevents the Nibelheim Incident and Sephiroth’s subsequent fall into madness. With Sephiroth's sanity intact, he and Bianca escape Shinra and join forces with AVALANCHE. They set up an anti-Shinra resistance force in Kalm that has several former SOLDIERs in it. They strive to dismantle Shinra’s control over the world, uncover the truth about Bianca and Sephiroth’s origins, and protect the Planet Shinra and from Hojo's continuing experiments. As they battle Shinra and other enemies, they seek redemption for their past sins and fight to reclaim their autonomy.

Plot Point:

Bianca and Sephiroth grow up together as subjects of Hojo’s twisted experiments, enduring physical and psychological abuse that forges a deep bond between them.

Bianca’s powers allow them to escape, with Sephiroth rejecting Jenova’s influence. They join AVALANCHE in a bid to take down Shinra.

Bianca’s intervention changes the course of events, saving the town from destruction and averting Sephiroth’s original fall from grace.

Together with AVALANCHE, Sephiroth and Bianca work to expose Shinra’s secrets and Hojo’s true nature, drawing the ire of both Shinra and Jenova.

Sephiroth continues to grapple with his identity and purpose while learning to control the darkness within, supported by Bianca’s unyielding faith in him.

Bianca embarks on a journey to uncover the truth about her mother’s sacrifice, learning about the connection to her father, Asmodeus, and how it has shaped her life. This revelation drives her to confront her own identity and the legacy of her past, deepening her bond with Sephiroth as they both navigate the complexities of their origins.

The climax involves a direct confrontation with Hojo, who attempts to reclaim Sephiroth and Bianca as his “creations.” He views Bianca as creation, as he caused her to 'fall from Grace'. The two must finally face the man who shaped their lives.

Differences from the Original Plot:

The Nibelheim Incident is prevented, and Sephiroth does not descend into madness.

AVALANCHE is more unified and accepts the aid of former SOLDIER members.

Hojo remains a central antagonist, pursuing Sephiroth and Bianca to reclaim his “creations.”

Zack survives and aids the resistance, while the Turks maintain a more antagonistic role.

Involved Characters:

Aerith Gainsborough. Last of the Cetra and healer. Becomes an ally to Bianca and Sephiroth. She is aware of the deep bond they share, which sets her apart from the original timeline. She bonds with Bianca, as they are both the last of their kind.

Angeal Hewley and Genesis Rhapsodos. Former SOLDIER 1st Classes, now exiles who question Shinra's methods. Their fate is altered due to Sephiroth’s refusal to follow Jenova’s will, causing them to rethink their own roles in the fight against Shinra.

Barret Wallace. Leader of AVALANCHE, driven by a desire to take down Shinra for destroying his home. Initially distrustful of Bianca and Sephiroth but grows to accept their support.

Bianca Moore. Sephiroth’s childhood friend and eventual partner; half-demon, half-angel warrior. Her demonic powers are honed much earlier due to the constant stress of Hojo’s experiments, allowing her to shield Sephiroth from Jenova's influence.

Cloud Strife. A Shinra trooper who joins AVALANCHE to take down Shinra after Zack leaves SOLDIER, still aiming to prove himself. Never believes he is a SOLDIER, remaining a foot soldier who idolizes Sephiroth but comes to see the truth behind Shinra’s actions.

Professor Hojo. Head scientist of Shinra’s Science Department. Remains the primary antagonist, fixated on reclaiming Sephiroth and Bianca for further experimentation. His role as their caretaker left a lasting impact on their psychological states.

Sephiroth. Former SOLDIER 1st Class, de facto leader of an anti-Shinra resistance with AVALANCHE. Retains his sanity with Bianca’s help. Though he avoids falling under Jenova's control, he struggles with his identity and trauma from Hojo's upbringing.

Tifa Lockhart. Core AVALANCHE member, martial artist, and friend to Cloud. Comes to Midgar at Cloud's request. Befriends Bianca and learns from her to enhance her combat skills.

Vincent Valentine. Former Turk, now an ally to the resistance. Bonds with Bianca over their shared tragic pasts. His wisdom helps guide the group’s actions.

Zack Fair. Former SOLDIER 1st Class, close friend to Sephiroth, and AVALANCHE ally. Survives Shinra's pursuit with the help of Aerith and Bianca, who saves him from certain death. His optimistic personality contrasts with the darkness surrounding the group.

Character Dynamics:

Aerith forms a unique friendship with Bianca due to their shared spiritual connections (Cetra and celestial/demonic heritage) and deep understanding of the Souls / Planet’s plight.

Barret initially distrusts Sephiroth and Bianca, fearing they may still be loyal to Shinra, but he grows to recognize their commitment to the cause.

Bianca and Sephiroth share a profound and unbreakable bond formed through their traumatic childhood experiences and Hojo’s experiments. The Red Thread of Fate visually connects them, allowing them to share emotions, pain, and thoughts. Bianca's ability to block Jenova's influence helps Sephiroth resist madness, and together they fight for redemption by supporting AVALANCHE.

Cloud idolizes Sephiroth but has a complicated relationship with him, feeling both admiration and resentment for the legendary warrior. He also shares a tense rivalry with Zack.

Hojo serves as a looming threat, always pursuing Sephiroth and Bianca to return them to Shinra’s control.

The Turks are adversaries to the group, with Tseng having a particular interest in reclaiming Sephiroth and Bianca for Shinra.

Vincent becomes a mentor figure to Sephiroth and Bianca, offering insight and wisdom, especially regarding Sephiroth’s struggle with his identity.

Factions:

AVALANCHE / Planetary Defenders

Members: Barret Wallace, Tifa Lockhart, Cloud Strife, Aerith Gainsborough and various other rebel members.

Role/Purpose: To oppose Shinra’s exploitation of the Planet, exposing their corruption and dismantling the corporation’s hold on the world.

Dynamics: AVALANCHE members initially distrust Sephiroth and Bianca due to their past connections with Shinra. However, as they witness the couple’s commitment to the cause, trust grows. Barret often clashes with Sephiroth over leadership, while Tifa finds a strong friendship with Bianca, and Cloud grapples with his feelings of inadequacy compared to Sephiroth. Aerith forms a unique bond with Bianca, recognizing their shared spiritual connections.

Former SOLDIER

Members: Kunsel, Zack Fair, Sephiroth, Genesis Rhapsodos, Angeal Hewley, and Bianca Moore.

Role/Purpose: Former elite fighters for Shinra who have left the organization, now acting as mercenaries and allies to AVALANCHE.

Dynamics: The Former SOLDIER faction shares a deep bond rooted in their shared experiences and traumas under Shinra’s experiments. They support each other, but tensions can arise due to past loyalties and differing views on how to combat Shinra. Zack’s optimistic nature contrasts with Genesis and Angeal’s more complex personalities, leading to both camaraderie and conflict. Sephiroth retains his Crisis Core personality, embodying a blend of confidence, charm, and complexity that influences group dynamics. Bianca, as a former 2nd SOLDIER, fits into this group well, having developed a close relationship with Zack while maintaining a strong connection with Sephiroth.

Shinra Corporation

Members: President Shinra, Hojo, Heidegger, Scarlet, various SOLDIER members, and other personnel. Rufus Shinra

Role/Purpose: To exploit the Planet's resources for profit and maintain control over the world through military and scientific might.

Dynamics: The organization is hierarchical and ruthless, with each member driven by ambition, greed, or a desire for power. Hojo serves as a mad scientist, obsessively pursuing Sephiroth and Bianca for his experiments. The internal power struggles among the executives create a toxic environment, and loyalty to Shinra often leads to betrayal. The Turks operate as the enforcement arm of Shinra, frequently clashing with AVALANCHE, while the public face of Shinra tries to maintain a positive image despite its sinister activities.

The Turks

Members: Reno, Rude, Tseng, Elena, and others.

Role/Purpose: Elite operatives for Shinra, tasked with maintaining the company’s interests and suppressing dissent.

Dynamics: The Turks are loyal to Shinra, often finding themselves at odds with Sephiroth and Bianca. Tseng sees Sephiroth as a potential asset to be reclaimed, while Reno enjoys taunting the pair. Rude remains more neutral, assessing the situation pragmatically, and Elena struggles with her loyalty as she witnesses the group's actions against Shinra. Their interactions are marked by tension, with moments of grudging respect for each other’s abilities, especially when facing common threats.

Worldbuilding:

Shinra Corporation: A megacorporation controlling much of the world’s resources and military forces. Shinra still employs unethical practices, including human experimentation, mako reactors, and SOLDIER programs.

AVALANCHE: A rebel group opposing Shinra’s exploitation of the Planet. They take on a more significant role with Sephiroth and Bianca as allies, providing tactical advantage and enhanced combat capabilities.

The Red Thread of Fate: The thread is a magical manifestation of Bianca and Sephiroth’s bond. It glows with their emotions and enables them to feel each other’s pain, providing a unique connection that cannot be severed.

tagging: @megandaisy9 @prehistoric-creatures @creativechaosqueen @watermeezer @littleshopofchaos

#au: redemption #ffvii au #au: canon divergence #oc: bianca moore - ff #character: sephiroth #sephiroth #ff 7 fan fiction #otp: bianca / sephiroth #sephiroth x oc #oc x canon #oc insert #alternate universe #needles #experimentation

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jeannereames · 4 months ago

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Hello Professor Reames! How has the Macedonian Question influenced the historiography around Alexander?

The Macedonian Question & Ancient Macedonian Studies

(or, Come study ancient Macedonia! We cause riots!)

I’ll begin by explaining, for those unfamiliar, the “Macedonian Question” centers on who gets to lay claim to the name “Macedonia” and (originally) the geographical region, which is ethnically diverse but majority Slavic. It arose during the First and Second Balkan Wars of 1912-13, then returned after the breakup of Yugoslavia, from 1989 on.

I’ve been a bit chary about replying to this simply because it is (still) a hot topic, if not what it used to be even 10 years ago. Also…expect maps. Let me lead with three points:

1) The ancient Macedonians certainly weren’t Slavic. Slavs didn’t arrive in the area until the 6th century CE (AD), a millennia after Alexander lived. No ancient historian claimed they were Slavs, although some Slavic Nationalists used carefully edited quotes from ancient historians to support their own claims to the ancient Macedonians.

2) A lot of different peoples have passed through the Balkans and northern Greece (and even southern Greece) between now and 2300+ years ago. The Balkans have continued to be an ethnically contested area from antiquity to modernity, and who was “in charge” depended on what century it was.

3) Ancient concepts of Greek ethnicity didn’t ossify until around the Greco-Persian Wars. Prior to that, Greeks were more aware of/concerned with their citizenship/ethnicity in specific city-states (poleis) and/or language family groupings (Ionic-Attic, Doric, Aeolic).

Furthermore, these views were based on MYTH. To be Greek (Hellenic) meant to be descended from the mythical forerunner, Hellen, son of the equally mythical Dukalion (who survived the Flood…e.g., Greek Noah). There were other children of Dukalion, including a daughter Thyia. Thyia became the mother of Makedon, the mythical progenitor of the Macedonians.

So, by ancient criteria, Macedonians weren’t Hellenes (Greek). But they were kissing cousins. The ancients took these things seriously. That’s why I wanted to explain, so when the ancient Greeks said Macedonians weren’t Greeks, it didn’t mean what we’d consider it to mean today.

Back to the Macedonian Question … the issue of the Greekness of the ancient Macedonians got tied up in modern politics when Yugoslavia fell apart. During the First Balkan War and the division of Macedonia in 1913, “Macedonian Studies” didn’t exist yet. By the Third Balkan War (collapse of Yugoslavia), they did. And history was suddenly being pressed into the service of modern political agendas.

Now, let me back up and explain—as briefly as I can (so expect some judicious epitomizing)—the emergence of modern Greece and the First and Second Balkan Wars.

The Ottoman Empire began to collapse (not just decline) in the 1800s, and was essentially kicked out of Europe entirely by the First Balkan War and World War I. The last of it fell apart with the rise of Attaturk and the Young Turk Revolution, so Modern Turkey emerged in 1923.

Greece was part of that. The Greek War of Independence started in 1821, and Greece secured statehood in 1829/30, then became the Kingdom of Greece in 1832/3, which lasted until the military junta abolished it in 1973, after which it became the [Third] Hellenic Republic. From independence until the end of WWII, Greek borders expanded (see map below). Fun detail, the late Prince Philip, Elizabeth II’s husband, was a Greek (and Danish) prince.

The First Balkan War began in 1912, which was the Ottoman’s last gasp in Europe. The Austro-Hungarians wanted to make the Balkans a subject state, Russia wanted more control over the Black Sea, and Greece wanted to push north towards Thessaloniki and “Constantinople” (Istanbul). Ignoring Austro-Hungary, Serbia wanted to reconstitute “Greater Serbia” (14th Century Serbian empire)—which included a good chunk of Greece. And Bulgaria, with the strongest regional army, was eying the whole area south to the sea.

Oh, and let’s add in a dose of religious difference (Muslim vs. Orthodox Christian) just for snorts and giggles.

But this was basically about SEA TRADE access. So, for the three allies against the Ottomans, e.g., Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia, Thessaloniki, Jewel of the Aegean, was the prize.

The war began October 8th, and by November 8th (1912), the three Balkan allies all hurried their armies to converge on Thessaloniki as the Ottomans withdrew. The Greeks got there mere hours ahead of the Bulgarians.

"Θεσσαλονίκη με κάθε κόστος!" (Thessaloniki, at all costs!) E. Venizelos

The war itself ended the next year (in part thanks to the Greek fleet in Thessaloniki), and Greece kept the city, and with it, still controls a lot of shipping in the Eastern Mediterranean. Shipping remains Greece’s second most profitable industry (after tourism).

Following the war’s conclusion, several issues arose, including how to partition the land—particularly the geographical region of Macedonia. The 1913 Treaty of London split it up between Bulgaria (smallest part), Greece, and Serbia (biggest part). Again, Greece and Serbia wanted to keep Bulgaria, with the most powerful army, from gaining substantially more land.

World War I intervened, and then the rise of Attaturk in Turkey and the “Megali Idea” in Greece. The Megali Idea, proposed at the Paris Peace Conference after WWI (map below), got Greece in trouble. It would have involved retaking not just the islands off Turkey’s coast, but chunks of the Turkish mainland, to match ancient Greek land claims. All THAT led to showdowns, with ongoing human rights abuses on both sides (including the Armenian Genocide earlier, which wasn’t related to Greece).

In 1923, Greece/Hellas and the new Republic of Türkiye agreed to an exchange of populations. So, Ottoman Turks/Muslims in Greece retreated to Turkey (were kicked out), and Greeks in Turkey retreated into Greece (were kicked out). About half those Greek refugees landed in Athens, whose population exploded overnight, creating an economic crisis. Many of the rest ended up in areas of northern Greece, where land from fleeing Muslims was to be had. Ergo, many new immigrants had very strong pro-Hellenic, anti-Muslim/anyone else feeling, and hadn’t been living for ages next to their (Macedonian) Slavic neighbors, who began to feel unwelcome. It also had negative effects on their Jewish neighbors, too. (The loss of Jewish life in WWII in northern Greece, especially Thessaloniki, is both shocking and heartbreaking.)

Keep in mind that the refugees on both sides had been living in their original countries not for a few decades, but for a couple centuries, or even longer in the case of the Greeks in Anatolia/Turkey. The first Greek colonies there date to the 700s/600s… BCE. There’s a good reason the Greeks and Turks hate each other, and it’s not just Cyprus. The atrocities at the beginning of the 20th Century were awful. Neither side has clean hands.

Anyway, there was a second Balkan War in 1913, which I’m ignoring, except for the map below. It amounts to Bulgaria getting pissy about their short shrift in the earlier Macedonian land division.

Then came fallout from World War II, when Greece got the Dodecanese from Italy, et al. But I want to fast forward to the collapse of The Berlin Wall in Eastern Europe, November 9, 1989, and Yugoslavia’s dissolution shortly after. That ushered in the Third Balkan War, or Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s.

Compared to the Bosnian Genocide and other shit going down with Milosevic, the return of the Macedonian Question seems minor. It involved the Yugoslavian province of Macedonia asking to be called “Macedonia” and Greece having a very public, international melt-down.

The entire dust-up confused much of the rest of the world. The number of times I’ve had to explain it to (non-Greek, non-Slavic) people, who just boggled…. I’ve also seen tourists stand in polite perplexity while Greeks went on a hand-waving tear about how Macedonia has been Greek for 4000 years!!! [I’ve got a t-shirt with that on it.] Btw, 4000 years dates before the first Helladic peoples even migrated into the peninsula. Anyway….

Greeks consider the name Macedonia theirs, on historical grounds. They didn’t object to the new country, but wanted it called Skopje, after the capital, or something, anything not “Macedonia.” Meanwhile, the (Slavic) Macedonians were enormously insulted and pointed to the fact they lived in a region called Macedonia, and their ancestors had been living there for centuries, so why couldn’t they call their new country by the name of the region it occupied? Stated fears of actual territorial expansion by either side were largely scare tactics and fringe rhetoric. It really was all about the name. But increasingly, that began to include claims on the ancient Macedonians, or cultural appropriation. The new Macedonian state (FYROM, then) didn’t do itself any favors with their choice of the (ancient) Macedonian sunburst for their flag and naming their airport after Alexander, et al.

That’s how ancient history got sucked into all of this in a way it didn’t the first time.

Now, let me repeat. The ancient Macedonians were not Slavs. The Thracians were not Slavs either, nor the Paionians, nor the Illyrians, nor the Celts north of them. You won’t find the Thracians called “Slavic” in Bulgarian Museums, even while they take very good care of their regional history.

By the 1990s, Macedonian history had emerged as something more than just “Alexander the Great and Philip,” and questions arose about who these people may have been. Were they Greeks like the Thessalians and Epirotes to their south and west? Or were they non-Greeks like the Thracians, Paionians, and Illyrians to their north? This was an academic (not modern political) question, and involved: 1) what did Makedoniste (“to speak in the Macedonian manner”) mean? Was that a dialect or a different language?; and 2) to what degree did ancient Greeks really consider them non-Greeks (e.g., barbarians)? The fact we had so little epigraphy from the area complicated the language question. And ancient Greek politics complicated the second question. Were the angry repudiations by Demosthenes & Friends a real, widely held sentiment…or just ancient Athenian nationalism and anti-Philip propaganda?

This was mostly nerdy stuff that should have remained safely ensconced at dull specialist panels at academic conferences.

Except …. Manolis Andronikos had found the Royal Tombs at Vergina in 1978, and Greece was bursting with pride (as they should have been). Macedonia was back on the map! Tourists still largely stuck to the Greek south, but The Greek Ministry of Culture and Sport saw an opportunity, even back then, to capitalize on tourism, so you can begin to see why it was important for “Macedonia” to remain Greek. Can’t have a country calling itself Macedonia and maybe confusing people about who Alexander and Philip had been, and where they’d lived (and syphoning off possible tourism dollars).

That may sound unduly cynical, but I’m actually with the Greeks on this, even if I’ve always rolled my eyes over the name thing. And, as noted above “Macedonia” was laying active claim to Philip and Alexander as if there was direct continuity between the ancient Macedonians and the modern ones. See below, the giant Alexander statue erected in Skopje (2011), the biggest in the whole city. It’s formal name these days is “Great Warrior,” by agreement with Greece in order to get to call themselves “Northern Macedonia” in NATO. But it’s Alexander.

Like I said, they weren’t doing themselves any favors, although those arguing in their defense liked to point out that Greece had started it, over the name.

Of course the increasingly heated rhetoric around the name, and ownership of Alexander and Philip, enveloped ancient history like the ash cloud from Vesuvius smothered Pompeii and Herculaneum. By the mid-1990s, “middle ground” wasn’t allowed. If one expressed any doubt about the Greekness of the ancient Macedonians, that was heard as, “You’re siding with the Skopjans!” This dispute was still going strong to the point there were riots and protests at the Balkan Studies’ 7th International Symposium on Ancient Macedon in Thessaloniki on October 16, 2002. These protests erupted over the presence of Kate Mortensen, Ernst Badian, and Daniel Ogden, albeit the protests involved different objections for each scholar. Badian, along with Peter Green and Gene Borza (not present), had long been in the crosshairs of the vehement “Macedonia was Greek!” crowd. But poor Kate got targeted because of her paper, “Homosexuality at the Macedonian Court,” and Daniel had the temerity to present about witchcraft at Philip’s court (UnChristian things!). There were some 40 police called in to protect the presenters. You cannot make up this shit.

Btw, by no means were all Greeks, especially not all Greek scholars, hostile to the (largely Anglophone) Macedoniasts who questioned the ethnicity of the ancient Macedonians. Olga Palagia and Gene Borza remained friends and even wrote articles together, but Olga was retired and had a certain freedom from pressure. Manolis Andronikos and Gene also remained friends until Manolis’s death in 1992. But there was an Official Party Line that had to be maintained, or risk losing an academic job or other position in the Ministry. This also got tied into the identity of the occupants of Royal Tombs I and II at Vergina. Greece’s official position is that these are Amyntas III and Philip II, respectively. This is far from a settled matter, however, especially outside Greece.

For more detail from somebody right in the middle of especially the early parts of the quarrel over who’s buried in “Philip’s Tomb” and the ethnicity of the Macedonians, check out Peter Green’s chapter 10, “The Macedonian Connection,” in Classical Bearings.

To return to the question about how it’s affected historiography, other than resulting in hostility towards non-compliant ancient historians (having their work essentially banned in Greece) and the occasional riot at an academic conference (!!), it also resulted in the production of TWO quasi-competing “Companions” to ancient Macedonia at the end of the first decade of the 2000s.

The original proposal (A Companion to Ancient Macedonia, Roisman and Worthington, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) had meant to include a number of high-profile scholars of both Greek and non-Greek background. But one of those was Loring Danforth (The Macedonian Conflict). When it came out that he was writing the chapter on modern Macedonia, the Greek contributors revolted en masse. (Some were genuinely furious, others had to, to keep their jobs.) Another Companion was put together with Robin Lane Fox at the editorial helm (Brill’s Companion to Ancient Macedon, Brill, 2011), and the Greeks (and a few others) jumped ship. That was a nice break for some younger Macedonian scholars, incidentally, who were then tapped to write chapters for the Roisman/Worthington volume—and very good chapters, I might add. But the end result is one heavily archaeological Companion (Lane Fox) and one heavily historical one (Roisman/Worthington), and which still has Danforth.

Between the arguments of the 1990s and now, however, one important shift has occurred: enough epigraphical data has emerged, and not just later [Hellenistic], to argue the ancient Macedonians did speak a form of Doric Greek. Many/most of us are now a lot more comfortable agreeing that the ancient Macedonians can be called “Greek” without feeling as if we’re selling our academic souls--even if we may still argue that’s not Philip in Royal Tomb II...an identification that some of the younger Greeks also aren’t sold on. And Philip in Tomb II was never the highly charged political issue that the Greekness of the ancient Macedonians was. It just got tied up in it for coming up around the same time. One Greek friend put it succinctly (paraphrased), “It felt like the non-Greeks, especially the Americans and Aussies, were trying to take away Philip and Alexander from us. Tomb II wasn’t Philip, and the Macedonians weren’t even Greeks.”

That may be a bit hyperbolic, but feelings don’t necessarily respond to logic, and Greece would like to have their bona fides.

So, a chunk of the tension from the 1990s has subsided. The Greekness of the ancient Macedonians is largely a non-topic in Macedonian studies today. We’re more interested in new and exciting things like revelations from recent archaeology regarding the sophistication of the Macedonian kingdom well back into the Archaic Age, the real impact of Persia and how early, and what exactly was going on up there before (and after) the Greco-Persian Wars. Or at least, those are certainly my burning questions about the Argead Kingdom up to Philip and Alexander.

#asks #ancient Macedonia #modern Northern Macedonia #Alexander the Great #Philip II of Macedon #Macedonian Question #Bulgaria #Greece #Serbia #ancient Greece #Classics #Ottoman Empire #1923 Exchange of Populations #turkiye #Turkey #Hellenic Republic #Kingdom of Greece

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flummoxx · 7 days ago

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FF7 NOVEL RESOURCES

A collection of links to fulfill all of your ff7 novel needs

Info

The ff7 novels are a series of books mostly written by Kazushige Nojima, depicting unique stories using the characters and world from ff7. These novels are separate from the games but stick closely to canon. Leslie Kyle and Kyrie Canaan actually originated from my favorite book so far, The Kids Are Alright: A Turks Side Story.

Most of these novels were published in Japanese first and later translated into English. Luckily, they can easily be found online for purchase or read through fan translations for free.

Youtube Audiobooks

The Lifestream on Youtube has uploaded a decent amount of audiobooks of the fan translations to their channel. I’d recommend checking them out if you’d enjoy that!

Disclaimer

None of these fan translations belong to me; all of the credit goes to those who spent the time to translate them. Most of them come from The Lifestream.net, as they’ve posted a ton of fan translations to their website. This list would not have been possible without their hard work!

—☆—

“Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile”

On the Way to a Smile is a short novel showcasing multiple stories about different characters. It takes place after ff7 but before Advent Children starts; acting as a bridge between the two.

OTWTAS - Fan Translations

| Lifesteam Black and White(complete) | Episode Denzel(complete) |

| Episode Tifa(complete) | Episode Barret(complete) |

| Episode Nanaki(complete) | Episode Yuffie(complete) |

| Episode Shin-Ra(complete) |

OTWTAS - Audiobooks

| Lifesteam black and white(complete) | Episode Denzel(complete) |

| Episode Tifa(complete) | Episode Barret(complete) |

| Episode Nanaki(complete) | Episode Yuffie(complete) |

| Episode Shin-Ra(complete) |

OTWTAS - Official English Copy’s For Sale

OTWTAS - Extras

| Lore Summary | Differences Between the Japanese and English Versions |

| Fan Translation PDF of On the Way to a Smile and The Maiden Who Travels The Planet |

“The Maiden Who Travels the Planet”

The Maiden Who Travels the Planet is the only ff7 novel to be written by Benny Matsuyama. It follows the story of Aerith and depicts her experience in the lifestream. Unfortunately, it lacks an official English translation.

TMWTTP - Fan Translation

| Prologue and Chapters 1-7(complete) |

TMWTTP - Audiobook

| Prologue and Chapters 1-7(complete) |

TMWTTP - Extra

| Fan Translation PDF of On the Way to a Smile and The Maiden Who Travels The Planet |

“Final Fantasy VII The Kids Are Alright: A Turks Side Story”

The Kids Are Alright takes place before, during, and after Advent Children. It tells the story of Evan Townshend and his complicated history with Shinra. This novel also contains the original appearances of Leslie and Kyrie, and even includes some background information on Kadaj. The story is separated into two major sections, Part One: See Me, Feel Me, and Part Two: Who Are You?

TKAA - Fan Translation

| Part One and Two with Chapters 1-46(complete) |

TKAA - Audiobook

| Part One: See Me, Feel Me(complete) |

TKAA - Official English Copy’s For Sale

TKAA - Extra

| Lore Summary + Artwork and Character Intros |

“Final Fantasy VII Remake: Traces of Two Pasts”

Traces of Two Pasts showcases Tifa and Aerith’s relationship and illustrates how their childhoods influenced their lives. It takes place sometime during ff7 remake and highlights the importance of the trust they have for each other. Similar to TKAA, this novel is separated into two parts, Episode Tifa, and Episode Aerith.

TOTP - Fan Translations

| Episode Tifa Pages 01-24(complete) | Episode Tifa Pages 25-39(complete) |

| Episode Tifa Pages 40-52(complete) | Episode Tifa 53-72(complete)

| Episode Tifa Pages 73-98(complete) | | Episode Tifa Pages 98-121(complete)

| Episode Tifa Pages 122-149(complete) | Episode Tifa Pages 150-208(complete) |

| Episode Aerith Scenes 1-4(complete) | Episode Aerith Scenes 5-9(complete) |

| Episode Aerith Scenes 10-14(complete) | Episode Aerith Scenes 15-21(complete) |

| Episode Aerith Scenes 22-27(complete) | Episode Aerith Scenes 28-35(complete) |

TOTP - Official English Copy’s For Sale

TOTP - Extra

| Episode Aerith Translators Note |

—☆—

Before you leave, feel free to send me any questions about the ff7 novels. I'm lucky to own every en novel, and I'm always free to talk about them!

#ff7 #ff7 novels #master post #ff7 novel list #ff7 novel #ff7 on the way to a smile #on the way to a smile #ff7 the maiden who travels the planet #the maiden who travels the planet #ff7 the kids are alright #the kids are alright #ffvii: the kids are alright #ff7 traces of two pasts #traces of two pasts

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slotumn · 2 days ago

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Post I wanted to make a while, about East Asian history influences in 3H.

On the surface, Fódlan has a somewhat anachronistic medieval-ish Europe aesthetic going on, and many parts of its in-universe history/development is clearly drawn from actual European history.

But quite a bit of it is drawn from (East) Asian history/culture too, and I wanted to highlight some that people in anglosphere might have missed.

1. Commandments in Book of Seiros

The Book of Seiros has five commandments— as opposed to ten, as in the Bible. And it's like, fairly standard religious sounding stuff, but what particularly stands out to me is the part about respecting your parents.

Of course many cultures consider it a virtue to respect your parents/elders, but having it specified like that, and in Japanese, with the kanji 敬, strikes me as very Confucian. Coincidentally, Confucianism also has the Five Virtues— 仁義禮智信. Again it's not a perfect 1 to 1, but you can definitely see the influences.

The conditions under which the Seiros faith emerged has parallels with the emergence of Confucianism, too. Fucked up world with chaos and constant conflict where might makes right? Trying to make it a better place with an ideology telling people to be decent to one another and the rulers to rule justly? Yeah.

2. Chinese history and Romance of Three Kingdoms

I'm sure there are more qualified Romance of Three Kingdom nerds to talk about the details of this particular subject, but tl;dr Chinese history has pattern of uniting and splitting and uniting and repeat. One of the most famous eras with a lot of media adaptions is the Three Kingdoms era, where the Three Kingdoms of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Sun Wu competed for dominance. Koei Tecmo also has their Three Kingdoms series so all this definitely influenced 3H too.

My very rough approximation is Adrestia ≈ Wei, Faerghus ≈ Han, Leicester ≈ Wu. In media, Wei usually gets the "final boss" position a la Adrestia; Han gets the "tragic heroes" thing plus they have very famous general associated with using a lance/spear (Guan Yu); Wu sorta gets treated as a side character, maintaining relative neutrality while the other two duke it out, but also their leader and country survived the longest.

Also, the final "victor" of the Three Kingdoms era, Sima Yi, was originally an official of Wei before raising the Jin dynasty. And Silver Snow, which the devs said all the other routes/worldbuilding was based off of, splits from the Black Eagles route. Maybe this is related to that?

Aside from that, clashes with nomadic people were frequent in Chinese history, and as you all know that's why the Great Wall of China was built. It's obviously not the only example of defensive walls/fortresses in history, but I think it still has parallels with Fódlan's Necklace. Plus among the nomadic people China fought were Turks, who are also one of the influences for Almyra.

(Speaking of, Almyra is also based on Persia, and Persian empires fought a lot with Turks and other related nomadic people too. That being said the those cultures influenced each other and mixed as they hung around in the same regions so Almyra having motifs from both is also reflective of reality.)

3. Isolationism and refusal to interact with the larger world or change, and how it will ultimately blow up in your face

Okay, this is a big one and, in my opinion, the most important. It also hit the hardest for me personally.

From about 17th century to 19 century, China, Korea, and Japan all had some level of isolationist policies. Trade was limited, as was access to/learning about western knowledge— sciences, etc. In the end all of these were ended by force; Opium War, Perry Expedition, Ganghwa Island incident.

The blowback from being isolated for so long before being exposed like that wasn't pretty. China had the century of humiliation; Japan overdosed on imperialism in an attempt to catch up with the west and went around colonizing and committing atrocities on other Asian countries before getting an atomic bomb; Korea got colonized by Japan and nearly had our language and national identities wiped out, and right after independence we had a brutal war over ideology then got divided up mostly at the whims of stronger nations.

I think most East Asians would agree if you said that the isolationist policies and the refusal by the establishment to change/adapt were bad ideas, and the reason why we ended up falling behind the west. A lot of the issues that still plague East Asian societies are downstream from the above, as are many of our diplomatic issues with one another.

So, point is, it's not hard to see that Fódlan's insistence on isolating and stagnating itself will ultimately fuck them over if continued. For now they can fend themselves off with the Relics and Crests, but what happens when the rest of the world technologically progresses to have weapons that can compete with the Relics? What happens when they're suddenly forced to deal not only with each other or a few other bordering places, but the entire world? What is their global standing going to be like?

Probably not good.

I'm probably somewhat biased on the subject, because VW is my first and (despite all the complaints I have about how GD get treated by canon) favorite. Still, knowing real history, it's probably not an exaggeration to say that in the long term ending Fódlan's isolationism is very much necessary for its own survival and good.

Tentative next topic: Buddhism references in 3H, coming whenever I feel like writing it

#fe3h #slotalks #fire emblem three houses #fe3h meta #meta #fe3h worldbuilding

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foxes-that-run · 1 year ago

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Meet me in the Hallway

His debut's opening track - first taste the world had of solo Harry Styles. MMIH drew a line under 1D, telling the listener to not expect a teen popstar. It's slow and is still one of his more vulnerable songs.

youtube

Inspiration

You can hear the influence of Pink Floyd's Breathe in MMIH. Harry has long listed Pink Floyd as an influence, and he has a tattoo for the Dark side of the Moon Album cover, of which Breathe is the opening track. On 29 September 2016, while finalising his first album, Harry gave a 10 song mix tape to Another Man, Breathe was the first song.

It likens love to addiction, and includes not communicating with his partner, similar to Fine Line and Clean. It also has similarities to Only Angel. It was later referenced by both Harry and Taylor's songs about each other.

When was it written

MMIH, Kiwi and Sweet Creature were the first songs written for the album, in LA between February and May 2016. MMIH and Kiwi are in this photo of the album taking shape from before Harry cut his hair for Dunkirk.

Live performances and emotional range

Harry hasn't played it live since July 2018, it has emotional range:

Taylor was in London, in Hampstead Health start of 2018. Harry writes Fine Line (Jan 2018) & Taylor - Cruel Summer (mid-2018).

9 March - Joe and Taylor look miserable in the US Joe hikes in dark jeans and nikes, and again in London April 8.

11 March - Harry's tour starts again and MMIH was particularly hard to perform. In Copenhagen 19 March 2018, he turned away and left:

youtube

23-30 June - Taylor 1 week break in the US, now both in the US.

1 July - He smirks in the same song and sings "Running with you" rather than thieves:

youtube

The next week, Taylor and Joe were uncharacteristically papped in Turks and Caicos. That night, Harry talked to a fan who fell in love to MMIH. He then broke up with Camille shortly after and wrote Cherry and Falling.

Lyrics

Meet me in the hallway Meet me in the hallway I just left the bedroom Give me some morphine Is there any more to do?

In Only Angel Harry sings about breaking a knuckle on her bedroom door, driven by hunger, here he is overwhelmed with sadness mixed with desire.

Hallways are mentioned in many Haylor songs

Harry and Taylor have stayed in the same hotel many times, when they dated they did in NY and have both attended many international awards, like the 2013 NRG awards in Cannes.

Harry likens his attraction to his muse as a heroin addition. Taylor later sang in Death by a thousand cuts Taylor refers to this "Gave up on me like I was a bad drug".

Taylor had previously likened getting over Harry to recovering from a drug addiction in the closing track of 1989, Clean. "Ten months sober, I must admit / Just because you're clean, don't mean you don't miss it / Ten months older, I won't give in / Now that I'm clean, I'm never gonna risk it"

Just let me know I'll be at the door, at the door Hoping you'll come around Just let me know I'll be on the floor, on the floor Maybe we'll work it out I gotta get better, gotta get better I gotta get better, gotta get better I gotta get better, gotta get better And maybe we'll work it out

"Maybe we'll work it out" is almost a precursor to the chorus and end of Fine Line's uncertain "We'll be alright"

He's aware the person does not feel the same about him but is hoping that will change. Also similar to Fine Line, here is willing to be on the floor for her, whereas in the later Fine Line with great vulnerability he sings "I don't want to fight you / And I don't want to sleep in the dirt"

I walked the streets all day Running with the thieves Cause you left me in the hallway (Give me some more) Just take the pain away

Harry is lost and searching for a way to take his mind off his muse or find answers.

Taylor refers to this line in "Ready for it..?" "Knew I was a robber first time that he saw me / Stealing hearts and running off and never saying sorry"

In Saint Paul he changed this line to running with you and did the pointing up motion he has in medicine.

We don't talk about it It's something we don't do Cause once you go without it Nothing else will do

He sang this verse at the start of the tour 2017 - but not in 2018.

After pleading his love to take the pain away and be with him.

A theme in many of their songs reflect on the lack of communication:

In Fine Line Harry sings "Spreading you open / Is the only way of knowing you" to reflect that are drawn to each other but don't communicate:

In Message in a bottle, Two Ghosts and Sunflower Vol 6 Harry and Taylor are Tongue Tied

In Wish you would he 'Still doesn't know what [Taylor] never said'

They have spoken in interviews about song being the most amazing unspoken dialogue, that they can say things in song they can't to each other.

#haylor #Youtube #meet me in the hallway #harry styles #harry styles debut #hs1 #song analysis #Lyric analysis

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churchflower · 6 months ago

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they had to get on a boat in Junon but she was so distracted by the beauty of the world that she didn’t care if it took them long. running errands, moseying as Cloud had come to say. Midgar was nothing like this. Her home had been the only place besides the church that bloomed the way it did. that was her influence, or at least she liked to say so. she could grow anything in Midgar, guaranteed. they often brought her things, the people who liked her, from out of town so she could add it to her collection. flowers, vegetables. Having a green thumb was an understatement. she had wandered off from the group running errands in the wilds to collect some wild flowers she saw. ones she had never seen before. somewhere she knew that she wasn’t ever going to get to go home… or that she wanted to, frankly. the future was unclear as it always was… maybe she shouldn’t have wandered too far, she didn’t seem to think anything out there was dangerous, at least nothing that she couldn’t handle by now. the old Aerith, the one sitting in a church waiting for something to happen probably couldn’t have used the materia she was using now. but she had learned, been taught, fought in big battles against big scary things… however, she was not prepared for this. something different, not that she remembered, than before. she knew what it was like to be watched but she hadn’t seen the Turks in a while. something whispering among the greens, a warning. the planet and its spirits were often warding. they said lots of things but their hushed practically indescribable whispers were alert, alarmed. she thought that leash had been loosened after her escape but maybe… maybe Hojo wasn’t finished after all.

“Reno…?” she brushed her thumb against the center of the flower, the pollen getting all over her finger tips. “Rude? If you’re trying to get the drop on me… think again!”

@meteorshcts

#` every second you aren't running he's getting closer [ WSZ ]#[ started with them having just left midgar bc they can send the dog into the scary wild to bring her back BARK ]#[ as always lmk if I need to change anything ]#meteorshcts | thread #meteorshcts

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posttexasstressdisorder · 18 days ago

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Science

Pop Mech Pro: Science

Your Consciousness Can Enter Alternate Dimensions While You’re Dreaming, Scientist Claims

Strong emotions in repetitive dreams could offer cosmic clues about another version of you, according to this controversial idea. By Stav DimitropoulosPublished: Oct 18, 2024 12:52 PM EDT

How many times have you woken up feeling euphoric or deeply disturbed by a dream so vivid it felt indistinguishable from reality? The kind of dream that lingers. Perhaps you notice recurring motifs: specific places, faces, symbols, or even fantastical settings. You are quick to dismiss these as psychological quirks of the brain, and chances are, you will have forgotten about such dreams by midday.

But what if your dreams weren’t just caprices of the sleepy mind? What if they were revealing glimpses into a mirror realm in which your consciousness was wandering? To go even further, perhaps recurring dreams suggest a connection to another reality. For David Leong, Ph.D., an academic specializing in metaphysics and epistemology (the study of distinguishing opinion from justified belief) this might not be just an interesting hypothesis, but the truth.

“Dreams may be windows into distinct realities governed by their laws, in which the mind, unfettered by the constraints of wakefulness, can explore and interact with new forms of existence,” says Leong, an honorary professor at Charisma University in Turks and Caicos.

His hypothesis builds on the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum theory, which suggests that every decision or event creates branching realities—an infinite array of parallel universes. Leong applies this idea to consciousness. He speculates that sleep reduces the influence of our physical senses and rational mind, giving consciousness the freedom to bypass the usual boundaries of time and space. While scientific studies don’t currently support this idea, in Leong’s view, dreams might serve as portals to other versions of ourselves existing in other dimensions.

“AT THE MACROSCOPIC LEVEL, WE ASSUME objects have fixed properties like position or velocity. But quantum experiments challenge this assumption,” Leong explains. The observer effect—where simply observing a quantum system can influence its state—shows that reality is far more fluid than it appears. “Seeing is believing” might hold true in our everyday world, suggests Leong, but at the quantum level, it breaks down, likely shifting according to the observer’s interaction.

In 2022, physicists Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger won the Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking work on quantum entanglement. Their experiments challenged the classical notion of local realism—the belief that physical properties exist independently of observation. They demonstrated that particles, even when separated by vast distances, could instantly affect each other. This fact suggests a reality far more interconnected and flexible than scientists previously thought.

Building on their research, Leong explores the concept of “local” and “nonlocal” consciousness. Local consciousness is accountable to our five senses, shaped and sculpted by the body’s sensory input. Nonlocal consciousness, however, transcends the senses, allowing us to experience “broader, interwoven realities,” he says. This concept aligns with speculative ideas such as panpsychism, where awareness is considered a fundamental feature of the universe itself, he says.

Fascinating as this may sound, not all dreams serve as gateways to parallel timelines. Whether dreams return is key here. “Recurring dreams, especially those with vivid and consistent scenarios, might suggest deeper connections to other realities,” Leong claims. On the other hand, dreams tied to personal experiences often feel disjointed, with distorted time. The most surreal and incomprehensible dreams are likely the subconscious processing your life here on Earth, he says. But, if it feels like you’re visiting the dream rather than imagining it—like a play with a beginning, middle, and end—you probably are visiting this other world, under Leong’s hypothesis.

Leong also hints that strong emotions in persistent dreams could offer cosmic clues—signals of how another version of you is experiencing life in a parallel world. “Say you have a repetitive dream of being stuck in high school,” he suggests. “While it may reflect unresolved psychological themes, such as feelings of stagnation or anxiety about personal growth, it could also indicate that in another reality, you are still in high school, dealing with the same challenges your waking self has moved beyond.” This emotional resonance—like the frustration of being stuck—could ripple across dimensions, creating a feedback loop between your conscious mind here and one of your alter egos elsewhere.

YET, AS CAPTIVATING AS THIS HYPOTHESIS MIGHT BE, it runs into a significant problem: there’s no empirical evidence to back it up. Quantum phenomena, such as entanglement and nonlocality, challenge our traditional views on time and space. Yet, no scientific studies conclusively support the idea that dreams are portals to other worlds. Mainstream neuroscience and cognitive science, on the other hand, find this hypothesis heretical—if not downright unscientific.

The activation-synthesis theory, for instance, sees dreams as the brain’s attempt to make sense of random neural activity during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep. It’s the time when the brain is highly active, colorful dreams occur, and the body experiences temporary muscle paralysis. There’s no evidence of peering into other dimensions whatsoever. Similarly, the memory consolidation theory frames dreams as a tool for organizing daily experiences into long-term memories—not interactions with different selves. The threat simulation theory says dreams serve a survivalist, biological purpose, helping us practice responses to danger—again, there’s no cosmic link.

In addition, almost all of the most prominent schools of modern psychology steer away from metaphysical explanations. Behaviorism, for example, regards dreams as byproducts of learned behaviors, conditioning, or stimuli experienced during waking life, offering no deeper meaning. Some psychologists say dreams are expressions of unresolved conflicts or unintegrated parts of the self. Even the more “liberal” psychoanalysts remain focused on the personal meanings of dreams. Sigmund Freud viewed dreams as the “royal road to the unconscious,” reflecting hidden desires and conflicts. Carl Jung offered a more metaphysical take by proposing that dreams connect us to a collective repository of archetypal experiences shared by all humans. However, he never implied that dreams were gateways to other realities.

Psychologist and physician Dr. Howard Eisenberg explores the intersection of psychology, quantum physics, and consciousness in his book, Dream It to Do It. He suggests that what we perceive as reality might be a collective illusion fueled by Western academia’s blind faith in empirical observation. Generally aligned with Leong’s thinking, Eisenberg argues that perception itself may be responsible for constructing the solidity of our reality.

His argument borrows from the observer effect, which says that observing the world around us is a process that collapses potential realities into one fixed outcome. “In modern quantum mechanics, we no longer view objects as collections of particles but rather as ‘waves of probability,’” Dr. Eisenberg says. There are no physical building blocks, no inherent solidity. Simply put, we—all of us together—created the solids we perceive.

“As strange as this may seem, we are the ones caught in a dreamlike state,” Eisenberg adds.

💡Dig Deeper

Scientists Are Trying to ‘See’ Your Consciousness

Our Consciousness May Come From a Higher Dimension

This Study Backs a Quantum Theory of Consciousness

If dreams truly are doorways to other worlds, they would change the way we live. “Every time you sleep, you wouldn’t just rest—you’d explore. You’d live out alternate versions of yourself, making choices that branch into countless realities,” Leong says. Time would blur across the past, present, and future and across dimensions. Death, too, might lose its finality: “Perhaps you wouldn’t see it as the end, but a transition—another path into a new reality, where consciousness continues to evolve,” he explains.

By logical progression, life itself would feel richer, like a dynamic puzzle of possibilities, pushing us to take risks, explore new paths, and live with the understanding that actions shape not just this life, but infinite versions of ourselves across many realities. Each decision or event could unfold into a fresh act in the ongoing narrative of you. And if one bold or misguided move leads to catastrophe here—well, there would still be countless other dreams to live.

Stav Dimitropoulos

Stav Dimitropoulos’s science writing has appeared online or in print for the BBC, Discover, Scientific American, Nature, Science, Runner’s World, The Daily Beast and others. Stav disrupted an athletic and academic career to become a journalist and get to know the world.

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catalinadearagonsblog · 7 months ago

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The Fall of Rhodes began on June 26, 1522, when the Ottomans launched their attack on the island. This was their second attempt to expel the Knights Hospitaller, a Christian military order that had been ruling Rhodes since the early 14th century. Despite their brave resistance, the Knights were heavily outnumbered. After a grueling six-month siege, they surrendered on terms to the Ottoman forces on December 22. Sultan Suleiman allowed them to depart, marking the end of their reign in Rhodes.

Catherine of Aragon was also seen as being an influential figure who might influence her husband and her people. The new Pope Adrian VI, wrote to her directly, shortly before the fall of Rhodes, to invoke in her the spirit of her parents:

"All the world knows the zeal of the late King and Queen Catholic [Ferdinand and Isabella] in behalf of the Catholic faith, whose footsteps Katharine [sic] has followed. Is writing to the King her husband touching the oppression of Christendom by the loss of Rhodes. Begs she will give effect to his exhortations like a good Catholic, and induce him to peace, or at least some good truce, by means of which the power of the Turk may be repressed. Recommends public prayers and processions in England, on account of the sins of Christendom. Henry should act up to his title of Defender of the Faith against the present dangers, which are of more consequence than the schism, which he has almost extinguished."

Sources:

Amy Licence, Catherine of Aragon: An Intimate Life of Henry VIII's True Wife

#catalina de aragon #catherine of aragon #katherine of aragon #adrian vi #henry viii

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tiifalockhart · 2 years ago

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A Survivors Guilt

Secret Admirer gift for Seventh Heaven Discord

Pairing: Reeve Tuesti x Reader

Words: 1.6k

Warnings: mentions of mass violence

Masterlist || Ao3

Reeve Tuesti was a busy man.

With lives constantly at stake due to the atrocities that Shinra continued to commit, he had no choice but to right the wrongs as often as he could. Living in Midgar was supposed to be safe and fruitful, but the President and his faithful board members continued to let the citizens of Midgar down every day. Acting as the Director of Urban Living no longer revolved around building new structures and revitalizing Shinra’s capital every few years. Urban Living evolved into protecting the citizens of Midgar and preventing war and terror from insiders and outsiders.

As the Wutai war finally ended, terrorist threats and assassination attempts became more and more common. Reeve recognized that tensions with Avalanche were boiling over, and the consistent pushback from Heidegger and Scarlet influenced the President to become more wretched than he already was. It made him angry, but Reeve would never show that. It was weak to show them how angry he was. They would get a laugh out of it regardless. He remained stoic, blending in and focusing his power for good.

When the first reactor was attacked and blown, Reeve dreaded that first Directors meeting. It was no doubt that the others were angry as well, but their means of revenge were… Inhumane. He could already imagine the threats that Heidegger had already come up with, the methods of torture Scarlet had planned. The President would continue to fall for their sadistic tricks again, and Reeve would once again have to fight it. This near-weekly process exhausted him, he knew his attempts for peace would eventually become futile. The citizens would suffer no matter what.

By the time Reactor 5 went down, Shinra was now in a full-fledged war with Avalanche. Part of Reeve was thankful that someone was finally standing up to Shinra, but at the same time, he understood the risks that came with war. He knew what Shinra was willing to do. The moment that they prepared the conspiracy that Avalanche was working for Wutai, he knew the direction they were planning to go. He was afraid for Midgar. They were destroying themselves inside out.

When the reveal of Shinra’s “master plan” to drop the Sector 7 plate was revealed, Reeve remembered his vision blurring for a moment. His head swam with both confusion and concern as he looked the President in the eyes. He was serious. Dead serious. Denial set in as he stood from his spot.

“Sir, you can’t truly be considering– there are thousands of lives at risk if you go through with this!” Reeve insisted upon deaf ears. He felt dizzy and nauseous, somehow he was the guiltiest person at the table, despite being the only one to object. With Scarlet and Heidegger mocking and laughing at his desperation, his vision went red. Thousands, maybe even millions of lives were at stake because of a civil war.

The moment the meeting concluded, Reeve stuck behind and once again asked– begged the President to reconsider. No war was worth the pain that dropping the plate would cause. Even going as far as to rope the Turks into it was too far. Dropping the plate would hurt more than just Avalanche, he knew that the Turks were still human. Even then, the President didn’t listen. The conspiracy to blame Avalanche had gone too far.

There was only one chance left, and Reeve had to act fast if he wanted to accomplish it.

—

In Reeve’s world, there was a tiny light of hope that he still cherished. No matter how bad Shinra turned out to be, they gave him something that he would forever be grateful for. The first time you met, Reeve was fresh and new to the hierarchy of Shinra, and you were just an accountant that happened to work on the Urban Development floor. The two of you seemed to click instantly, his charming humor courting you and your intuition and intelligence inspiring him. It wasn't long afterward you were hired as his secretary.

Reeve told you everything. His mind and his conscience were like an open book to you. Despite how well he hid it from his coworkers and superiors, you could tell in an instant what was wrong. This started when you noticed his consistent disappointment after each meeting he attended.

Somehow, your superiors had become eviler than before, and you only found out through the troubled words of your boss.

The more aware you became, the harder it became to look your coworkers and clients in the face. Midgar was doomed, and there was nothing you could do to stop it. Unlike Reeve, you had no power. You could only witness what was next.

Despite the suffocating feeling of impending doom, you and Reeve found your happiness within each other. Long before your relationship was established, Reeve found himself enraptured in long conversations about life outside of Shinra. It was refreshing to know that some people had lives outside of Shinra, especially since his free time was so little. He tried his hardest to appreciate his time with you, and through his own self-discipline, he managed to truly cherish you.

Your dates began to revolve around each other, more than work or the sense of doom you both felt. When you were with each other, somehow, you two felt optimistic, like you could take on the world together. All worries washed away when he was around you. It was nice.

…Until the news of Sector 7’s fall broke out. You waited for Reeve in your usual spot after work, expecting him to arrive like usual. After checking your watch, you realized he was almost ten minutes late. Concern flooded your features as you returned to the Shinra building, searching for Reeve. Like clockwork, he dragged himself out of the meeting, a grim look on his face. The defeat that settled into his eyes and the slight quiver of his lips said enough. As Scarlet and Heidegger passed by you, their howls of laughter filling the halls of Shinra, you embraced Reeve, his discouraged demeanor telling you enough.

You and Reeve quickly retreated to his office, his mind racing with plans of rescue. Reno and Rude would be sent out at any moment to drop the plate on the unsuspecting citizens, there wasn’t a single second to waste. In front of you, Reeve deployed one of his greatest secrets– a small robotic cat. With his remote, he sent the cat off in a hurry to intercept Reno and Rude.

—

You and Reeve watched in horror as the destruction of Sector 7 was aired on live television. Avalanche was framed once again by Shinra, and the outcries of other employees were heard through the halls. Neither of you could move as the information began to process. The death count was climbing significantly, and reports of missing persons were increasing by the minute. Reeve had failed. And his citizens would pay the price for it.

As Shinra employees, SOLDIERs, and infantrymen began to riot in the halls following the attack, Reeve silently guided you through the crowd. His hand held onto yours tightly, unwilling to let go until the two of you were home safely. Not a single word was spoken. What was there to say? You had never seen Reeve this upset. You had never seen this kind of destruction.

The silence in the house was suffocating as Reeve silently moved to the couch. His coat slipped off his shoulders, his tie loosened, and that was all he could really do before he settled on the couch. His mind raced with thoughts, some of which could never be spoken.

“Why?” “Why did it come to this? How did it come to this?” “Why wasn’t it me?”

Self-loathe and anger came over him as his fingers ran through his hair. He couldn’t focus on one thought anymore. Sweat beaded on his brow as he tried to fight back the anger in his chest. The last thing he wanted to do was scare you off, but what Shinra did, what Heidegger and Scarlet did… What the President did was unforgivable.

His hand moved to hold his head up, Reeve’s strength beginning to escape him. He couldn’t continue to bottle his emotions, but there were truly no words to be spoken that would convey his truth. There was nothing to say except I’m sorry. But even those words would be a waste. He was partly at fault, and there was no changing it. The blood was on his hands too.

So, the only thing he could do was weep. No one would ever see it besides you, but Reeve couldn’t stop the tears that fought their way out. It was selfish to be crying when families were broken apart and dead, but he couldn’t stop the rain now. He tried to control his breathing and suppress the tears that fell onto his cheeks. He hid his face under his hands, refusing to let you see him in this state.

The moment his sobs reached your ears, you dropped everything and moved to his side, your concern evident in your eyes. There wasn’t a single thing you could say that would change the situation you both were in, but you knew he needed you, and you needed him. As your arms wrapped around him, you felt him return the embrace, his arms tight around you. He was afraid of losing you too, and it showed through his weeps and his embrace. There wasn’t much else he could lose at this point, but he was so damn scared of losing you.

The two of you were there for hours, drowning out the terror outside of your home together, hiding away from the beast that took those innocent lives. If that made you both cowards, so be it. There wasn’t anything else that Reeve was willing to risk.

All that mattered was keeping you safe now.

#reeve tuesti #reeve #reeve tuesti x reader #Final Fantasy 7 #final fantasy vii #Final Fantasy #FFVII #ff7 #ff #FF7 Remake #final fantasy 7 remake #final fantasy vii remake #ffvii remake #reader insert #x reader #Shinra

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