#final fantasy 7 before crisis

[demialwrites]

Butterfly in a Jar Ch 1

Safe, sane, & consensual goes out the window because of President Shinra. Rufus is grounded (or in the doghouse) at Turk HQ and you're made to bully him into behaving. Prequel to Sand Through Fingers

I made the decision to switch up the layout of the Turks HQ compared to what's shown (and implied) in Before Crisis. I picture it more like the one in Remake but with more rooms. Also, having Rufus confined to just one room almost 24 hours a day (as is implied in the game) seemed excessive. I believe the rest of the Turks would not let the information regarding his presence leak from their ranks, anyway. I also made the decision to exclude detailed mentions of any specific Turks other than Reno, Rude, and Tseng for my own sanity. I'm not good at long, detailed fics, so baby steps!

AO3 Link

Your body hair is pin-straight as soon as you walk into the executive suite. It's worse when you walk through the door into the president's office. It's not said but you can feel it. You're only here for this man's use. What's useful to him is only what he wants. Not your words, not your opinions, and possibly, not your life, if he so wishes. No evidence backs up that last part but your gut tells you to be careful. To watch, to wait, and possibly agree to whatever it is until you can leave.

When you're alone with the man named Tseng, you're much more relaxed. It speaks to how extremely you felt in the president’s office. Tseng is a Turk and you are a Slum-dweller. Usually, you are enemies.

You had gone into survival mode because you don't know what you agreed to after you came out. You remember something about a “stupid son,” “not fit to run anything,” and a large sum of money to be paid. To who? You? You just nodded along. You were back in your body when Tseng was mid-sentence and the doors of the elevator just closed, mercifully cutting you off from the oppressiveness of that top floor. Your world trembled and threatened to crash down around you because you didn't know what a “stupid son” had to do with you. You remembered the blindingly polished dark floors and red carpet leading to President Shinra's desk. If someone told you he was sitting on a throne with a sceptre and a crown, your fuzzy memory would have warped to match. The sight of anything behind him was missing, like an elementary schooler messed up a project and cut it out with safety scissors. You turned your shaky focus to what Tseng was saying.

“You don't need to worry about how to get in. I'll meet you each time. Only our keycards access that floor.” Tseng waves the card at the elevator panel. It beeps in recognition. The sound helps root you in reality. “I'll get you a uniform so you can blend in. However…no one at HQ will believe you're one of us. Not that they'll mind.”

He doesn't sound worried about that last part. The initial dip as the elevator accelerates downward threatens to make you dizzy.

“So what am I supposed to do?” you ask after several seconds of silence.

Tseng glances at you in confusion before his lips curl into a tiny smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. People must disassociate in front of President Shinra often enough for him to recognize when it happens. Astonishing, that this man is in charge of an entire city. You're starting to feel sorry for this “stupid son.” You've heard of Vice President Rufus Shinra before but you can't recall anyone calling him stupid. Well, his father would, and did. Why make someone stupid the vice president, anyway? Maybe it's because the president is an asshole. This drama is all very confusing.

You keep your eyes to yourself or on Tseng's face as he explains. You let the elevator take you to your destination without glancing out the glass to see where it’s heading. You don't want to get in trouble for knowing too much. You're in enough trouble as it is and have to keep all of this secret.

Tseng starts by saying your contract concerns Vice President Rufus. He is under house arrest in Turk HQ. You brush away the urge to ask why by innocently scratching your neck because you already feel like what you're going to be told could get you killed. Especially if it involves the Turks. You've never had to deal with one yourself but you've heard enough dark rumours floating around the Slums. Tseng continues to explain that while Rufus is in trouble, he is still the president's son and he has stopped taking care of himself. Tseng can't get through to Rufus by himself and he doesn't have the time to babysit a grown man, who also has seniority over him, twenty-four hours a day. Your new full-time job is to manage said grown man and the Turks will back you up.

Tseng looks at you to check if you have any questions. Millions, but most of them seem unsafe enough to ask.

“Why not let him out?” you hesitantly ask.

“The president hasn't given that order.”

That's absurd but fair enough. You wouldn't question that scary man, either. An intrusive thought of the president holding Tseng's balls in a tight fist almost forces a laugh, which you cover with a single, spluttering cough. You feel awful about it but you need any levity you can get right now.

“Pardon me,” you say from behind your hand.

Tseng nods.

“Why me, Mr. Tseng?” you ask, hurrying past the mental image.

“Just ‘Tseng’ will suffice. And I looked into your background. It's clean. There's no criminal activity or anti-Shinra leanings.”

“Anti-Shinra?!”

Tseng stops and turns his face to you. “Why? Was I wrong?”

You shake your head immediately. “No, not at all. It's just…wouldn't you prefer a psychologist or something?”

“The Vice President will not accept someone who will…” He presses his lips together thoughtfully. “Someone who is invasive.”

You find that strange and contradictory. Either way, you signed that contract. No one in Midgar could break it for you except the president. You had no choice. At least you could afford to move to the plate with the reward money, you just had to maintain when you got there. But that felt far away so you let that train of thought die.

You briefly consider whether Tseng hired you because of what you do in your free time. In your private life. You did just buy a new dog collar, and not for a dog. But that can’t be it. He can’t be asking you to collar the vice president of Shinra. Maybe you’re just here to show the president that Tseng is doing something and he can't say no to his boss, either. You had the silly urge to reach out and squeeze the other man’s hand. We’re in this together.

But you don't. It's just another intrusive thought.

You’re to return the next day. You have an initial panic about paying your rent on your tiny unit in your tiny apartment building but apparently, the contract includes an allowance. Yet another detail that was forgotten in the panicked signing of the contract. You had a nagging feeling you should worry about your job but you’re either going to fail and possibly disappear or succeed, meaning you won’t need to worry about money for a while.

The uniform Tseng gives you is mainly for the walk across the lobby to the elevator, to avoid anyone working for the company getting too curious. The uniform has the pleasant side effect of putting a soft blanket on your anxiety about being from the Slums. If anyone judges you up here, it would be for what they–incorrectly–guess what your occupation was, not that you were poor and live in a city-sized trash heap under the plate. You resist the urge to give yourself a cursory sniff to check if you smell different from the setting you were in. Not that your nose could tell the difference.

You're not allowed in most of the rooms at Turk HQ. You see the main office in passing only because there's a glass wall with a glass door leading to it. It looks so futuristic and slick, causing a slight pang of inferiority when you automatically compare it to where you live. Having this many rooms barred to you initially makes you feel unwelcome but Tseng hurries you along in such a professional manner that you don’t have time to dwell on it. You end up spending most of your time in the small kitchen and adjoining dining room. It's going to be strange sitting at a dining table made up so nicely in a suit but, yet again, you have no choice. You guess that there's also some kind of gym or training room because you see a couple of sweaty Turks walking around in workout clothes, carrying towels.

You also noticed, with relief, that several of these Turks are from places other than atop the plate, making your guard start to lower. Also, some of them are so different from what you’ve seen, even from the variety of individuals living in the Slums, that you’re convinced they’re not from Midgar. Dealing with the VP might involve some disgust on his part but you hadn't considered being on a floor full of people that might feel the same. Now that that unconscious worry has been put to rest, you could get more comfortable with coming here.

[aelkurai-art]

Little question

Hey hello Final Fantasy 7 community!

thanks ^___^

[mynameiskan]

Hahaha, in "Opera Omnia" (a spin-off title of the "Dissidia" games, which features numerous characters coming together), Rufus appears as a playable character towards the end of the game before it was abruptly canceled (there's an official YT account for it that hosts the story chapters) and interacts with other characters and even gets called a "scoundrel". XD But yeah, Rufus's proactiveness and ruthless determination is what makes him pretty cool. BC!Rufus is super handsome, too. <3

Thank you for your information 🥺 I will definitely take a look to see more Rufus.

Hopefully Square Enix will remake BC one day so that we can enjoy young Rufus with his hair down.

In the meantime, please enjoy this chibi Rufus 😂

[ryanthel0ser]

[cetrais]

BEFORE CRISIS IS 20 YEARS OLD TODAY!!!

take these two drawings of my fav father/son duo with very different vibes (i am totally ok and i definitely didn’t abandon the second one halfway through because it made me wanna cry, not at all)

[altocat]

Speaking of Before Crisis...

They fling Seph at literally the mildest of inconveniences over the course of the story. In this scenario, they sent Sephiroth out to go "rescue" Hojo from Avalanche. Aka prevent Hojo from siding up with the enemy because Hojo IS that much of a traitorous bastard.

Sephiroth takes out another big-ass dragon and then brings down a helicopter to get Hojo back into Shinra custody. And then immediately wants out of the situation.

Only for Hojo to speak to Sephiroth directly onscreen for the first time in the entire Compilation. Sephiroth doesn't even look at him, or respond at all. He just walks away. He did NOT want to engage with Hojo. Even when Hojo is offering a rare compliment, Sephiroth still doesn't view Hojo as being worth his acknowledgement.

He hated his father so, so much.

[jxthics]

reach out / touch faith

[feathercreates]

"Genesis...that's rude!" - Angeal Hewley

In which a salty teen Genesis gets a little bit cheeky over losing a spar with Sephiroth again.

Angeal still thinks it's a hilarious addition to his growing photobook, though. :P

[sharksliveinspace]

Reno’s post workout pic got interrupted (Rude just wants to brush his teeth)

[theghostavocadoe]

AU where everything is the same but Sephiroth is constantly trying to murder Hojo at literally every opportunity so Hojo creates all these safety measures to keep Sephiroth as harmless as possible

but then Post-FS rolls around. Hojo confiscates Sephiroth's weapons. Sephiroth walks into the lab. Doors are locked. And Masamune fucking appears in his hand out of thin air. Hojo just watches in terror because Sephiroth is no longer locked in a room with him. He's locked in a room with Sephiroth.

[professional-sephiroth-scrungler]

Wet cat

Just so squishable

War criminal

[catboyidia]

asgzc doing some christmas baking, theres flour all over the kitchen because genesis initiates a flour fight after zack “accidentally” flings some on him, zack has eaten half of the cookie dough before they could even get it into the oven, genesis is guarding his own baking supplies like a dog guarding its toys/food, cloud is desperately trying to get the dough away from zack before he eats it all and gets salmonella, sephiroth is trying to get genesis’ baking supplies just to get on his nerves, the kitchen has nearly been burned down multiple times, and angeal is trying to clean up the horrible mess zack is leaving everywhere

[directormarz]

I also have to share my fav Turks: Shotgun & Two Guns 🖤 this was practice of different poses and couldn’t help but to draw them 6 times over heh

[flowersinmidgar]

literally him for the entirety of crisis core

[guardianot]

BC Nomura style study

And then with my OC bc I’m insane :3

[cetrais]

for @tsengruweek

day 6: crossover

devilish mix and match between RE4 and Before Crisis, i basically just stole the idea of rescuing the president’s son and twisted it a little to suit my needs 🙂‍↕️