#he's probably shit talking people he worked with at shinra

[moldyycheese]

More Cid?? What a surprise!

(More under the cut)

I wanted to draw the old geezers smooching but I've never drawn people kissing, so this is the best I could do (Without ripping my hair out)

[demialwrites]

FF7 x Reader

Annoying things about being in a relationship with them

Rufus Shinra

He knows how to clean surprisingly decently because of his time confined to Turk HQ in Before Crisis but stubbornly refuses to do certain things. It's 'beneath him'

Even if you're on birth control or otherwise can't get pregnant, it doesn't matter. He's wearing a condom and how dare you suggest otherwise

He takes up all the space in the closet because of all the layers he insists on wearing

He insists on taking his dog everywhere, even if you explain it terrifies some people. For example: your poor parents

Rude

There's a third wheel in this relationship and his name starts with a Re and ends with a No

Rude is very romantic. However, he only barely has time so his gestures happen spontaneously and it's hard to plan around his schedule

Often comes home with injuries and you're the one who has to patch him up and worry about him. He doesn't worry about himself

He prefers to show not tell. You have to learn how to read him with a glance

Reno

There's a third wheel in this relationship and his name is Rude

His insecurity randomly spikes and he gets mega jealous, sometimes with threats at the offending party

Very loud. All the time

Gets broody about things he has to do at work and sometimes nothing you do will help

Gets whiney when you don't have the stamina to have sex all damned night

Cloud

Cannot communicate his needs. Does not know what his needs are. WHAT ARE NEEDS?

Everyone flirts with him but if you try to talk to him about it, he never noticed the flirting in the first place

Sometimes cute animals follow him home and oops, one day you have seven cats, fifteen chickens, four dogs, several chocobos, and one of those giant elephant fiends because it was injured and alone. You didn't sign up to live at a zoo but here you are, shoveling elephant shit every day

Occasionally, one of his hair spikes stab you straight in the eye when he's being the little spoon

Barret

Thinks he can fix everything himself when sometimes you just need him to listen

Like Reno, Barret can be quite loud. If you like peace, sometimes you have to take some space. It makes the big guy sad

Not very detail-oriented. Leaves little things like ammo all over the garage/shed floor and small bits of trash all over the house. He meant to pick it up, honest!

Occasionally breaks the bed

Tseng

You can't be spontaneous for shit because he anticipates everything

He has certain cleaning standards but he doesn't always tell you. He just redoes it himself

Must be the one to clean and iron his suit himself or he will get annoyed

His handwriting is annoyingly perfect and it makes you feel bad about your chicken scratch

Elena

Puts herself in danger way too often. She doesn't understand your horrified reaction to her story of how she jumped out of a helicopter onto a moving dune buggy in the middle of the Corel desert

It can be hard to tell if she's actually angry or just venting

You know more about her work than is probably safe for you

Too spontaneous. She sometimes makes important decisions without consulting you first

Reeve

Main bad habit: he is a workaholic

Sometimes puts others needs before yours. He's just trying to help

Doesn't take good care of his health

Uses the sad puppy eyes to get out of arguments more often than he should

Sometimes leaves spare cait siths and his parts all over the living room

[michanvalentine]

Things about Vincent Valentine that I read around and piss me off.

"Vincent should have done more!"

It is one of the most common observations. And I hate it! What he was supposed to do exactly? Ok, let's take a step back and pretend we're in the real world and not in a fantasy action video game. Vincent was a highly trained Turk and an excellent marksman. That's not enough to say that he was definitely also a cold piece of shit ready to do any job. In fact, I believe that Vincent was the exact opposite of this and that he was not cut out to be a Turk at all. Which is why he got into trouble. "Stern and upright" is how Square Enix describes him, so we're talking about a person who has great morals and a high sense of duty. And these two things don't always go together. To this we must add the naivety he had as a young man (evident in DoC) and his great empathy towards others (which FF VII Rebirth is highlighting a lot). So when Lucrecia decided to use the fetus as an experiment, Vincent found himself in an impossible situation, where morality and duty were at odds. Human experimentation disgusted him, but his role was as a bodyguard, nothing more. His duty was to watch and let the scientists do their work. Furthermore, at that moment no one could imagine what the result of such experiments would be and what Sephiroth would do in the future. So we're talking about a man torn by his own principles, full of doubts and, lest you forget, heartbroken. It is not easy to act in a situation like this. But he couldn't ignore his own morals, so despite his role he tried to reason with Lucrecia first and then he confronted Hojo, with the consequences we know. Did he have to kidnap Lucrecia? Did he have to kill Hojo? Did he have to burn the Shinra Mansion to the ground? Let's be honest, normal people don't act this way. And Vincent Valentine was the sanest one in the middle, so he paid for it. But even if Vincent had freaked out and gone down the path of violence, there would have been consequences and it would probably have ended the same way.

But let's go back to Lucrecia for a moment. Vincent's naivety and empathy did not allow him to notice the red flags. He only saw the best and deepest part of her, the fragile, kind and brilliant one. When she pushed him away, he still behaved as correctly as possible. He stepped aside, hoping that she would be happy. There is no selfishness, there is no possessiveness. This is called unconditional love, and it is very rare. Should he have claimed Lucrecia for himself even if she didn't want it? Fight the other man to get the woman back? Continue to chase her proclaiming his love like a crazy? These are some traits of toxic masculinity. Vincent left her absolute freedom, he respected her choices as a woman, as an adult and as a scientist, even if his sensitivity allowed him to understand some things before she could notice them herself. And that's why Vincent's question "are you sure this is what you really want" hurts so much. He knew it. He knew she would love that child.

The fact that Vincent feels like a failure who was unable to protect the woman he loved and her child is understandable. But this is only his feeling, his perception of himself in a situation way bigger than him. So no one will ever be able to get it out of my head: Vincent Valentine did everything a good man with his hands tied behind his back could have done. He went out of line for Lucrecia and Sephiroth, and was killed for it.

[phoenix-flamed]

Wait have I ever actually talked about Elwin's family situation in my VII AU verse. Or, really much of anything about this verse at all. I ... genuinely do not remember. SO LET'S DO IT, FUCK IT. This is tentative, because I still don't know shit about fuck when it comes to most everything the new releases are throwing at our heads. Details can and probably will change as I learn more stuff because ????????????????????? yes.

Elwin's family isn't dead or anything, Anabella just took their boys and left him -- and Junon entirely. Originally, the family lived in Junon; to no one's surprise, Elwin had been part of the resistance forces trying to push Shinra out in favor of regaining its lost freedom from the war back in the day. Anabella didn't see the point of this; if Junon would just let go of the past and get with the times, they could work on getting in Shinra's good graces. But what she really wanted was for their family to leave Junon for Midgar, so that they could live comfortably on the Upper Plate.

But to do so meant abandoning everyone stuck living in the undercity of Junon; friends, partners-in-arms, etc. Elwin couldn't do that. He couldn't up and leave them behind, not while knowing that Shinra would never make good on any of its promises to them from when it dismantled the republic and instated its own authority over the area. He wouldn't do that.

So Anabella grew fed up and left him.

Assumedly she went to Midgar with Clive and Joshua, but Elwin has no actual idea where they are or what became of them after their silent and abrupt departure.

Elwin, after that, laid down his arms so to speak, and gave up. He opted to instead start trying to convince everyone else in Lower Junon to quietly accept Shinra's rule, a complete turnaround from how he had been before. The hope had been that maybe, just maybe he had been wrong -- and that Shinra just needed them to prove their loyalty to them in order to provide them with more than the lot they had been forced to take in life. Of course, no one else agreed with this sentiment --

And for good reason, because of course Elwin was very much wrong. He finally did leave for Midgar, joining Shinra not as a SOLDIER where one would expect him to go, but instead seeking to take a desk job within the company's headquarters. Meanwhile, he sought to foster better relations between Shinra and Junon, to no avail; his optimism of improving the quality of life and living conditions of his fellows back home was effectively crushed by Shinra itself. They wouldn't accept compromise, nor would they accept mimicry of fealty from a dead slum of a city that only existed now because of their "kindness". One that they could easily crush at any given moment, if they so pleased.

And so Elwin was stuck. He couldn't return home, because the people of Junon would never accept him back after his betrayal and abandonment, no matter how well intentioned it had been. Shinra, on the other hand, saw potential to exploit his skills in dealing and working with others. The end result was him becoming the head of a Department of Public Relations -- a role that, if Elwin was being entirely honest, felt more like mockery of him than anything else.

Deep down, there's always been a part of him that does hope that maybe, by some miracle, he will find Anabella and their children again in Midgar. So far, though, it hasn't happened.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #150

Today is my 150th letter to you. It is the same as the number of my favorite Pokémon. So I am going to talk about him today. His name is Mewtwo, and he's a lot like you, actually:

So… I should probably tell you that I've seen only the version of his story that was localized to my country. So that is the version of the story I will tell.

Mewtwo was created in a laboratory. He was created from what was thought to be the most powerful Pokémon at the time - a Pokémon called Mew, which was thought to be extinct (there is precisely one Mew left in the world as far as I know, kinda like the Cetra). I'll explain…

Some guy named Giovanni was the leader of Team Rocket, which is a crime gang that is hellbent on generating profit in whatever ways they can, no matter who or what gets exploited or destroyed in the process; they're kinda like Shinra in some ways in that Team Rocket has huge armies and crazy resources and is interested in gathering up wealth and power. The easiest way to gain power in this world is by controlling powerful Pokémon, so Giovanni sought to create an enhanced living replica of Mew in order to have all the power and all the profit. Y'know… kiiiind of the same exact reason Shinra sought to create you.

So Mewtwo was created using a fossil that was found of Mew. It was spliced with human DNA (some other guy named Blaine, if I'm not mistaken). And just like that, Mewtwo was created and left to grow in a vat; he didn't even get to be born of a womb in the same way as you. Unlike you, too, he doesn't even have parents; there is literally nothing else like him in the world he inhabits; there never has been, and there never will be. Here is a video that details his childhood; I'll warn you, though - it's very sad:

…When Mewtwo woke up for the first time, he was already an adult. He realized almost immediately that he was created to be a test subject and a slave, and once he had that realization, instead of simply saying "no fuck you" and leaving (this is ALWAYS an option; you don't have to hurt people to get away from them), he became so angry that he used his powers to raze the laboratory he was created in to the ground, slaughtering everyone inside without so much as a second thought; all that was left was ashes and flames. In a lot of ways, this very closely mirrors what happened to you in Nibelheim.

…And, like you, after that, he was taken in by someone who cared nothing for who he was or for his desire to be loved and to have a sense of belonging. In Mewtwo's case, it was Giovanni. Giovanni lured Mewtwo into his control under the premise that they would work together as partners. Mewtwo would learn how to better wield his abilities in Giovanni's presence, but the way he learned was by doing Giovanni's bidding and destroying or exploiting anything Giovanni saw fit. Eventually, when Mewtwo realized that Giovanni saw him as nothing more than a commodity to be harnessed instead of a living, breathing thing to be loved and understood, Mewtwo lost his shit again and escaped, razing the building to the ground, and presumably killing everyone inside in the process. So... Mewtwo did a Nibelheim not once, but TWICE:

..."I was not born of Pokémon, I was created, and my creators have used and betrayed me, so... I stand alone." I can imagine that you might find such sentiments deeply relatable.

From there, Mewtwo quite understandably held a deep grudge against all humans. So he created a storm that would wipe out not only all humans, but also any Pokémon who ever befriended and worked with a human; Mewtwo had never met a human who was kind, and so he had assumed that all humans were dangerous, selfish creatures that manipulated Pokémon into being their slaves, and that all Pokémon who willingly worked with humans were pathetic, vile things that debased themselves for the sake of human approval.

…Coming from abuse, myself, I can understand why Mewtwo would assume that all humans are cruel and capricious things. I can understand why you might have thought similarly in the past, and might still think similarly now. I used to believe the same things, and for all the pain I went through, I bore a deep grudge against other people for a very long time. I thought that if I preemptively stereotyped all humans as things that would hurt me and pushed them away by hurting them before they had an opportunity to do the same to me, I would be able to protect myself and keep myself safe.

But that's not how it works; that's NEVER how it works, because when we apply broad, sweeping generalizations to large swaths of people, we end up dehumanizing them in the process, and in so doing, we become no better than those who have hurt us. I've made a lot of mistakes in the past; I only know better now because I got help, and I still have a lot more work to do in order to make up for who I was before. I'll never be "done". I'll never be "healed". But the work required to strive towards these things is still worth doing.

To create his idea of a "perfect" world, Mewtwo rebuilt the laboratory he destroyed, lured some very powerful trainers there, and then stole their Pokémon for the purpose of cloning them. He then pitted the cloned Pokémon against the originals, as though their manner of birth meant something about their worth (spoiler alert: their manner of creation doesn't mean a goddamn thing, because they're ALL living creatures, worthy of love, acceptance, and a place in the world). Mew showed up to try to talk some sense into Mewtwo, trying to tell him that it doesn't matter how anyone is born and that what counts is the contents of their heart.

But Mewtwo wasn't able to hear the wisdom of what Mew was saying; his eyes were too clouded over by the pain from the losses he experienced as a child, the abuse he went through as an adult, and likely the shame he felt about how he came into being. So he fought Mew with the intention of killing Mew. But their battle was creating terrible shockwaves of energy that were hurting all of the Pokémon on the battlefield that Mewtwo pitted against one another. Realizing that the Pokémon on the battlefield would die if Mewtwo and Mew didn't stop fighting RIGHT THE FUCK NOW, a brave and kind boy named Ash sacrificed his own life by putting himself between Mew and Mewtwo as they fought in an effort to get them to stop, even though there was no way of knowing whether or not it would work.

Mewtwo was stunned. He didn't know that humans were capable of such selflessness, and in that instant, it shifted his entire worldview. Mewtwo realized the terrible mistake he had made, and he turned himself around:

His most profound quote is, "I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant; it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are." I hope that this is one that you'll take to heart.

Here, this is his summary of his story in his own words:

Mewtwo, Mew, and all of the rest of the cloned Pokémon went to a place called Mt. Quena; it's a beautiful mountain with a lake in the middle of it with waters that have miraculous healing powers, and a system of caves in which to take shelter. Mewtwo lived peacefully there for a while, still working through his shame about being a cloned Pokémon instead of one that was more typically born, but Giovanni had been looking for him, and ended up finding him.

When Giovanni found Mewtwo, he immediately mobilized troops to go capture him and to set up a new Team Rocket base, polluting the water in the process. Giovanni demanded that Mewtwo walk into a machine that was designed to break his will via the application of torture, and he threatened to hurt the cloned Pokémon if Mewtwo did not comply, so Mewtwo did as Giovanni said. But Mewtwo's will did not break, and so he was nearly tortured to death before Ash showed up to break the machine. Ash then carried Mewtwo (yes, all 269lb/122kg of him) to the healing lake and threw him in the water, saving his life.

Mewtwo asks why Ash is helping him, since he is a cloned Pokémon that supposedly doesn't belong in this world. And in this one, Ash says something profound: you don't need a reason to help somebody; when you see someone in trouble, you just help them and that's all there is to it. Mewtwo then wonders if Ash is unique amongst humans, to which Ash replies that every human is unique. And when the waters of the lake heal Mewtwo just as they do to any Pokémon or person, Mewtwo is finally able to accept that he belongs to this world, regardless of the circumstances of his birth.

Mewtwo emerges from the waters reinvigorated, and from there, he uses his powers to wipe the memories of his existence from the mind of every Team Rocket member, including Giovanni. He also moves the lake inside the cave system of the mountain, so that no one will ever be able to exploit or pollute it again. Team Rocket leaves, and Mewtwo now gets to have a peaceful life in a beautiful place, surrounded by other living things who love him very, very much. Witness this, and engrave these words into your heart:

Sephiroth, you do not belong to anyone. You do not belong to Shinra. You do not belong to Jenova. You do not belong to the Gi or to the Cetra. You belong to you, and you alone. And you belong in this world. Sephiroth... can you imagine what it would be like if you used your amazing power to defend those people who are good to you and who are willing to try to give you new life?

Good people are everywhere, and they're not going to use you like a commodity or abuse you until you do what they say. Good people will hold you accountable when you do some stupid shit that hurts yourself or other people, though, because that's what the people who love you are supposed to do. They're supposed to challenge you to do better without exploiting you or breaking you down in the process. The world is full of people like this - people who can love and accept you as-is while encouraging you to become your best and most favorite self; all you have to do is open your eyes. All you have to do is try.

You are not much different from Mewtwo. You are not much different from me. If Mewtwo gets to be restored and have a happy, wholesome, joyful, love-filled life even after years of trauma, abuse, and mistakes, then so do you. If I get to be restored and have a happy, wholesome, joyful, love-filled life even after years of trauma, abuse, and mistakes, then so do you. All it takes is a willingness to learn and grow, and you'll never, EVER get me to believe that I am more mentally flexible and emotionally adaptable than you; it's never gonna happen, because I know in my bones that you are better and more capable than me in all the ways that matter, so don't even try to convince me otherwise; my faith in you is unshakable, so it's not gonna work.

Sephiroth. Please don't think you don't have anywhere to go or anywhere to belong. Mewtwo is literally the only one of his kind, and he still belongs with the Pokémon he calls family. They are cloned Pokémon, but all the same, they are not at all different from the other wild Pokémon that also inhabit Mt. Quena. A cloned Lapras can live with regular Lapras just the same. There isn't another Mewtwo. There isn't another Pokémon in the world that possesses the same level of power that Mewtwo has. But he still belongs. And he can still have a good life. He's not alone. You're not that different from him. So please try. Please?

That's all I've got for today. Please think about the story I told you. Heck, if your position at the Edge of Creation allows you to talk to Mewtwo somehow, please do; he's smart and wise and he knows a lot because he's learned much during the course of his life and has grown much as a result of reflecting earnestly upon all the mistakes he's made. He can help you.

I love you. Please stay safe, okay? I'll write again soon.

Your friend, Lumine

[browniefox]

Another Week, Another Crisis Core Chapter!

Before playing this, I did a TON of sidequests (I got like 30% of them complete) which meant I didn't struggle against any enemies. on one hand, it meant I could get to focus on all the good scenes, but on the other hand, I didn't get to show off any of the new summons I'd gotten ;-;

God I love this church. Because this game works at break-neck pace, I doubt that Aerith and Zack are going to get, like, as many scenes together as I'd like, but I do think this chapter does a decent enough job starting to develop their relationship at the very least.

Zack is so tall I love it, and aw cute little date <3

While I got really frustrated with the little Bruno segment pretty fast, I do like that all the Slums citizens immediately clock Zack as not from around there, and immediately go to protecting Bruno. You can really feel the distrust and disconnect between those above and below plate.

I just Love Aerith <3

Where the general symbolism of monsters and angels is so heavy handed I roll my eyes every single time, I actually really loved this interaction between Zack and Aerith, when Aerith is talking about being afraid of SOLDIERS. To those who know Aerith's story, it's easy to see that she's both projecting her own desire to be normal (why in the world would people sign up to be made less normal?) as well as her own understandable trauma with the Shinra company, onto her thoughts and feelings on SOLDIERS.

Additionally, I love that she's actually scared of the sky. I think in teh Slums, that's not too rare of a feeling.

It's a shame that I feel like the Zack-Angeal relationship is done so poorly at the beginning, because this interaction really makes me start to like their dynamic! Angeal confiding in Zack and trusting Zack really says a lot. Also, I love the detail that Angeal has found that he likes flying, and just kind of carries Zack :D

I do think it's super funny though that it's way brighter and cheerier under the plate than on top of it, and that Zack just totally forgot and put off the mission he was on to go on a not-date with a cute girl.

THE FACT THAT THE FIRST THING ANGEAL SAYS TO SEPHIROTH IS THAT HE LOOKS THINNER SHIT BOYYYYY! I think it just does a lot to characterize their relationship, and especially how this whole thing has been affecting Sephiroth.

Genesis should have just killed Hojo. True good ending <3 It is funny to me that this segment ends with Hojo totally uninjured and honestly, probably happier than before bc he got to do random experiments on Zack.

They put so much effort into making Genesis' model look hot and honestly I love it. When I first saw Genesis in an amv, I thought he was a girl, and I guess that's my hot take for the day is that I think it'd be fun if he was. There is not one single female SOLDIER. There should be more women who got experimented on to be part of the army #feminism

This is here because I was hoping this quest line would mention Reeve, but it didn't and now I'm super disappointed.

I don't think I've seen anyone mention this before, but from this interaction it's implied that Zack is not Angeal's first mentee. Maybe perhaps his most promising, clearly the only one to make it to first, but Angeal had tried to instill his values onto other SOLDIERS.

And then my final thoughts for now is the interesting dynamic between infantry and SOLDIER. Before this game, I thought they were sort of the same group, but no they're actually two very distinct groups within Shinra. I also feel like infantry is often portrayed as always trying to become SOLDIER or something, but mostly there seems to be some resentment towards SOLDIER, and this hate that infantry will never be able to do as much as SOLDIER can. Very interesting, especially when considering Cloud.

[goldenworldsabound]

well at the moment my hand is doing good! So some ff7 si rambling. @virus-selfship tagging you as both my inspiration and you said you were eager so :D mostly under the cut as this is gonna get long fkjdsahkj

THE PRIMARY SI...AURA GOLDEN

Scientist at Shinra who finds the wrong kind of attention focused on them when they produce a breakthrough in the production of All-Materia. Scarlet takes claim of the research and the result (shocking) and Aura gets nothing. Aura gets bad advice from their parents to confront Scarlet about a raise and WOW that goes badly. Scarlet has them transferred to one of the labs with a high injury and mortality rate. Luckily, Rufus is there. Well, sort of. This is during the time in Before Crisis where he's under house arrest in the Turks HQ, but still has all his administrative VP access. He's been watching Aura for quite some time (with his crush that he's decidedly not calling a crush), and when he sees the transfer he promptly reroutes it to somewhere safer and not associated with Scarlet.

As an aside, he was fucking with lots of people who were rude to Aura ALL THE TIME from his house arrest. He also got them moved off the sector 7 plate and into sector 5 housing way ahead of schedule, and demanded Tseng bring him whatever they had for lunch. He was stalking them through the Shinra security cameras fkjdsahfkjds

ANYWAY once he becomes President he's like :) Aura will be a really good pawn wife and so I am going to promote them and ask them on a date. Truly convinced himself this is about getting people on his side and not just falling for them. Okay Rufus. ANYWAY! They start dating, Hojo runs off, he promotes them to Director in Hojo's place, they enjoy being in love, and then shit hits the fan. Aura sticks by Rufus the whole time, all the way through AC, of course. So that's loosely the course of that!

Other fun facts about Aura, in their spare time they make hella weird materia, for fun, including one that makes you smell bananas when you use it. I wrote a fic about this fkjdsahfkjdsa also they have a modified Slugray that they can control with a controller (it's a ps4 controller lol) or their voice depending on the mode. They also wear a lot of materia in their daily clothing. They love materia.

THE SECOND PRIMARY SI...CRYSTALLINE ANGEL

This SI is childhood friends with Reno. They grew up in the slums together. Reno was the scrawny orphan the bullies liked to pick on, and Crystalline was the cry baby tattle tale who liked him. They both had little childhood crushes even back then. Crystalline's parents got enough money to move up to the plate, and that was the end of that. :') Crystalline carries around a materia on a chain (Barrier!) that Reno found in a trash pile when they were kids, back when neither of them actually knew what it was.

Now, Crystalline works directly with Reeve as the Principal Software Engineer for his department. They oversee projects more than they do actual software these days, but it's good work. It feels meaningful, even though they know Shinra is corrupt as hell. At least they are doing good with city planning and resources for citizens...right?

One day they cross paths with Reno out of the blue. This would be early in the Before Crisis timeline probably. Verdot is still around. Reno and Crystalline are both ??? no way. But they don't have time to say anything. They each use their admin power to look the other up. Reno is the one to do something though - he sits with them at lunch one day and they get to talking and start up a friendship.

Oddly enough, the ever flirty and suave Reno is struggling to confess to Crystalline, who recognizes that he flirts with everyone and thus doesn't believe he means it with them. So he's struggling. but it DOES happen!!! and they get together ❤️

SECONDARY RUFUS SI ONE...MEOW MEOW

Lightvoid the Wrathcat. I have written fic for this but never posted it (the above two SIs have LOTS of fic hehe). Basically, this SI was...someone who worked at Shinra. They don't remember who they were anymore. Hojo decided at some point to experiment on them, and they simply disappeared. Just a nameless victim. His experiments turned them into a Wrathcat - like the Wrath Hounds, but a bit smaller and a cat. They are a silver tabby also! They can turn back into a human, but they long stopped doing that in Hojo's lab. Due to the questionable nature of all of this, Hojo didn't properly document, and very few people know they are actually a person. Does Hojo even know? It's unclear.

One day when Rufus is down with Darkstar for her check up with Hojo, Darkstar gets upset and obsessed with the Wrathcat, sensing their intelligence. Rufus sees how insistent Darkstar is and ends up adopting the unnamed cat, forcing Hojo to hand them over. He names them Lightvoid as a contrast to Darkstar. Lightvoid takes a long time to warm up to him, but he's so happy when they do. And they're really happy with him and Darkstar.

Of course, eventually it's time to take them in for a check up with Hojo, and that's when they freak out and eventually turn back into a (naked) human and with vocal cords that haven't been used in years beg him not to take them. Rufus is understandably shocked and confused but calms them down. They struggle to speak. He asks their name. They say Lightvoid. He asks for the one before that. They don't know. They don't want to know. They like this.

And there's lots of shenanigans in this one. Honestly I'm not sure if it will end up being a romantic ship or not but it's really fun.

SECONDARY RUFUS SI...TWO! Wendy

This is an arranged marriage au with Rufus! Wendy, from a well to do wealthy family, is set to marry Rufus from basically birth. The two spend lots of time together, and Wendy supports Rufus unquestioningly, even when he's unkind to them as a young kid struggling to deal with his father's abuse. They even help him with Avalanche (Before Crisis).

The problem comes when Rufus becomes President and is like "cool anyway Avalanche can die now" and Wendy is like WOAH bro, I thought we were supporting them??? They're RIGHT and Rufus is like um??? no???

he's so used to Wendy always being there he's completely taken them for granted, so when they threaten to leave he's like "lol sure okay" because they ALWAYS come back to him, ALWAYS.

But then they find the main crew as they're leaving Midgar and join up with them. Which is such a pain for the Turks tbh. The Turks are like we have to bring them back but YOU WON'T LET US USE FORCE ON THEM??? Rufus is like if I see a single bruise or scratch I will have you executed :) can't tell if he's joking.

The main trio is quite wary of me and honestly that's fair a huge part of my motivation is a fuck you to Rufus for taking me for granted fhdsakjfhkjdsa but also I'm super prissy princess and struggling with this outdoor shit. But Aerith and Tifa are really friendly to me and I can provide helpful info! I just am super recognizable so that's a problem fkjdsahfks but very high charisma so there is that!

Once the crew gets captured and brought to Junon Rufus is really mad at me. He's really upset. And he locks me up in a bedroom and tells me no one will come for me OR miss me and also fuck you- fkhkjdsa and yeah everyone DOES leave cause...well they figure I'm safe and there isn't time. They don't want to leave without me but that's how it is. I do totally take it personally - "I'm not one of them". I don't hate them for it but it hurts because it means Rufus is right.

And once Rufus cools off actually he's. Well. Comes to me for comfort. And we make up especially with the impending end of the world. Even get an apology out of him. And I apologize. And it's good for us.

okay my summary document for this au is really funny fkjdahfkjdsa

Um OH YEAH my role besides VP's wife was charity events and balls and stuff. So I worked with Reeve and the Turks for that! This is a very fun AU and rereading it made me want to actually write for it KJHFKWJHFKEW dammit Rufus-

[bitterarcs]

There was no better conclusion to a work week than stealing the evening away with a friend, and Reno actually felt comfortable enough to include someone else in his extremely selective and miniscule group of confidants. The two of them were not sneaking around Midgar, but it held that same energy . . that same excitement. Almost like the time he snuck away to the industrial jungle gym of abandoned constriction materials, only Reno had been thirteen then and looking to get head from his friend. Reno was certainly not looking to get blown by Melissa, even the intrusive thought of it made him feel sordid five times over.

Electro mag-rod was made compact and hung by a leather band on his belt loop, then was set to rest on the surface of the roof. The smooth metal caught and reflected the distant beams of light, and the sight of his most trusted weapon brought a satisfied grin to lips. Suit and face were enough to clear the scum away, but Melissa was at his side . . there was no knowing the kinds of monsters which would arise from the sewers. More and more seemed to crawl out to be among the living each year. No concrete idea had been set to harden in mind regarding their plans, but the simple tranquility of being in another person's presence was a rarity he did not mind indulging in.

Even when it came to hanging out with his closest partner, the two men typically kept things superficial — drinks at a bar or drinks and a stupid show at either of their places. A drink on the roof would have been nice actually, but smelling the fresh smog corrupted air was fine enough. The red head made himself more comfortable by sitting down and then falling onto his back, arms lifting and hands cradling his cranium. No fascination was found with the sky, but Melissa's sudden question captured his attention. He snorted at the question, but waited to respond, knowing well when people asked such things they had ideas of their own in mind. Her response did not inspire laughter. He jerked his head upwards a little to look at her face, and the way the dim light of the burning cigarette as it reflected in her eyes and off her skin dully.

(  ❛  Yeah? I can see that. Pretty and all. Probably can act, huh. You have to deal with shitty people all the time.  ❜  )

The time it took Reno to respond, it seemed like he had forgotten about the question. A great deal of time passed, so he made little thinking noises to let her know he had not forgotten. It was a weird thing, tapping into childhood memories. It wasn't that long ago, but he felt a completely different person than the boy he had been. He didn't like talking about it, but he didn't exactly mind it either.

(  ❛  The badest mother fucker in ShinRa. Don't laugh. Okay, you can laugh, but I'm serious. Saw myself as this big kingpin, running drugs and weapons. Really thought that was where my life was headed. If it wasn't that, it was death. Slum kid either makes it big, becomes some stupid thug for someone big, or dies. You know?  ❜  )

He laughed at the absurdity just imagining him being a piece of shit, tattoo covered and illiterate asshole. Reno did make it big in some regards. He wasn't the president of the electric company nor the leader of the Turks, but one day he would take one of those positions. One day.

That derelict building between the slums from Sector 6 to Sector 5 was nothing but a den for lowlifes and criminals waiting to ambush the average underplater; but with a Turk at one's side, they were nothing but a minor nuisance. Reno was quick to take care of it and send the guys running (who knew better than try and source back-up when one donned the trademark Shinra suit), and they both climbed to the top of the abandoned place.

Once cleaned of the filth, it had a very good view of the skies above - at least of the patches that the plate structure didn't cover up. That far from the Wall Market and its endless neon signs and with whatever greenery and calm environment, they could pretend to be removed from the slums. In fact - they both had outlived that. Reno worked topside; Melissa had built herself a luxurious kingdom.

But it didn't change the fact they were slum born and bred, of course.

"What did you want to be growing up?" the woman asked while watching the smoke of her cigarette; not a vice she indulged into very often, but which felt right with the redhead's company, "I wanted to be an actress. Not of the kind that performs in bed, but..." the brunette shrugged, clearly amused despite the topic, "I guess that was close enough." @stingslikeabee

  (   is this a love confession, melissa ?  )

[jemtokall]

zack for the hcs ask post?

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

Headcanon A: what I think realistically —

Has ADHD!

Zack's favorite stim is doing squats!

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

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

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

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

3. BISEXUAL KING <333

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

B: what I think is fucking hilarious —

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[fallintosanity]

not to make an already complicated/heartbreaking situation even MOAR complicated/heartbreaking, but like... imagine if Cloud and his new friends somehow got teleported forward (sideways?) in time back to Cloud's Future. who handles it the best? who handles it the worst? who gets adopted into avalanche? who (aside from sephiroth haha) is completely at odds with Cloud's Other Friends from day one? etc

(Sorry for the slow reply, I'm at a work conference this week! Although tbh this is much more fun to talk about than the conference stuff. XD )

Weirdly enough, I don't think this meeting would end up being that heartbreaking, or even dramatic? Aside from Cloud getting to reunite with his family, of course.

Putting Remake and all versions of Sephiroth aside for a sec (are we including Noctis in this? he's so far out of context in this scenario that I don't think he'd be all that exciting to explore, aside from the usual holy-shit reaction to the Armiger, so also putting Noctis aside), AVALANCHE and the Firsts simply don't have enough knowledge about each other, or enough in common, to make for a really interesting scene. Which feels kinda bad to say but, well...

(cut for length because whoops)

When you think about it, the primary antagonist for most of the OG is the ShinRa Company, personified by President ShinRa, the Turks, Rufus, Scarlett, Heidegger, and Hojo. So the members of AVALANCHE don't have any real beef with, or even knowledge of, the TFA gang. Barret, Tifa, and OG-Yuffie hate ShinRa, but are indifferent to its SOLDIER Firsts (based on how they treat Cloud while they still think he used to be one). Nanaki and Cid got pulled into AVALANCHE by circumstance, not personal ideologies / goals. Vincent was asleep for the events of Crisis Core. Reeve might have known the Firsts in passing, but it's highly unlikely that he was told the truth about what happened to any of them in the OG timeline.

To them, meeting Angeal, Genesis, Kunsel, and Zack would be... vaguely awkward, I think? These are Cloud's new friends who aren't exactly replacements for his old friends, but aren't exactly not, either. Sure, they work for ShinRa, but so did Reeve. For the most part, they're just forgotten names from old war headlines.

As for the Firsts, meeting AVALANCHE is also not really a big thing, other than Genesis interrogating everyone about Cloud (these people Know Things! about his Cloud!), and the universal Oh No of realizing Yuffie is still, well, Yuffie. Zack is friendly and personable enough to try to handle introductions and Make New Friends, but if Yuffie remembers him from her version of the Wutai War, that could make things trickier. (Plus the added weirdness of Tifa knowing Zack from this timeline's Nibelheim Incident, although he wouldn't realize it and she wouldn't mention it.) Beyond that, though, the meeting would be an uncomfortable sort of sizing up of each other, then an inevitable mutual retreat once Genesis's Shenanigans(tm) annoy someone too much.

(I think Cloud would kind of... avoid introducing the two groups for this exact reason? XD He wouldn't try to actively stop them - he knows too well that that's the best way to activate Genesis Persistence Mode - but he wouldn't make an effort to bring them together, either. And would probably mysteriously vanish the second he realized it was going to happen.)

It definitely gets more complicated if Sephiroth is there. I say if because if he knew the meeting was coming, he'd try to avoid it as well. Between seeing Cloud's nightmares, the conversation they had in Chapter 7 of Providence, and experiencing the Calamity firsthand, Sephiroth is keenly aware of his, hm... significance to Cloud's friends, in magnitude if not in detail. (Although it's worth pointing out that Sephiroth doesn't know the Calamity killed Aeris, or even that Cloud & co knew her. Kunsel, Zack, and Genesis know, but haven't had the chance or the reason to tell him.) Also, depending on how much time passes between the TFA group landing in Cloud's timeline and when they meet AVALANCHE, Sephiroth would have seen the ruins of Midgar, and the hard lives of Edge's residents, up close - which would be yet another reminder of the hurt his alternate-timeline self caused. He isn't remotely capable of dealing with any of that, so he'd find somewhere isolated to hole up. (Yes, this is the same bad instinct that caused him to go insane in the OG.)

If he can't avoid the meeting, he'd still stay back and avoid interacting as much as possible, which is less about trying not to upset the AVALANCHE crew and more because he's so overwhelmed. On top of failing to deal with his own emotions about the situation, Sephiroth would be spending a lot of mental effort policing his own body/posture/expression/etc in the hope of looking as normal/human as possible. Even before seeing the Calamity, he realized Cloud gets less murderous the more human Sephiroth seems, and the Calamity's unnatural appearance and movement patterns only reinforced that. It's the only defense mechanism he has, the only way he can think of to demonstrate to both AVALANCHE and himself that he is not the Calamity.

On the AVALANCHE side, the reactions are a very mixed bag. Like I said earlier, most of them have no personal reason to hate Sephiroth/the Calamity during the OG, until he kills Aeris and summons Meteor. Even with Advent Children, the remnants aren't exactly him, and there's still nothing personal in AVALANCHE's conflicts with them. So for Barret, Nanaki, Cid, Reeve, and Yuffie, seeing TFA!Sephiroth would be weird and ominous, but also very obvious that this living, breathing, sane man isn't the undead alien Calamity they fought. After an initial "oh shit" moment, once they'd had time to see that, they'd be wary of him, but not hostile.

For Vincent, seeing this Sephiroth would be a painful shock. With his hair in a ponytail, Sephiroth generally looks more like Lucrecia than Hojo, and, well, that's a complicated issue for Vincent. After seeing Lucrecia's son in the form of the Calamity in his timeline, seeing a version who is sane and human and looks very much like his mother would be difficult for Vincent to deal with. He would most likely retreat to have an emotion in private.

Tifa, who met more-or-less-this-version of Sephiroth in Nibelheim, before the Incident, would struggle with how to respond. On the one hand, this is the Sephiroth she and everyone else knew before he went insane, who smiled and was polite and took a photo with a starstruck teenage girl. On the other hand, he almost killed her before he died and became the Calamity. Still, Tifa is an incredibly kind and sensitive person at heart, and she would notice before anyone else just how shaken and overwhelmed Sephiroth is. For all her own, justified fear, she would try to reach out to him - not only because she of all people knows that if someone had done that in Nibelheim, her village might not have burned; but also simply because it's the kind thing to do.

...whew! I think that's everyone? Or at least I hope so because this is long and I have to go catch a plane now. XD So yeah, not the most dramatic, but hopefully an interesting peek at their reactions anyway!

[foxingpeculiar]

FF7 R&R:

Okay. I beat Remake. So tomorrow (probably), I'll play the Intermission DLC with Yuffie, and then it's Rebirth time.

So, just kind of going through my notes, beginning with leaving Wall Market to head up to Shinra HQ.

First, that must be a helluva motor on those grappling guns of theirs. I know it's a "just go with it" kind of thing, like how Cloud is apparently able to jump like 50 feet in the air and... physics just generally works by anime logic. But I dunno. It feels so... tactile and realistic, especially in comparison to the original, in so many ways, that the anime physics stuff kind of stands out for me. It's not a dealbreaker, it's just silly.

I took the stairs up Shinra HQ, because that's what I always do, and it's worth it for the fun banter. Whoo, you really feel all 59 floors in this one though, don't you?

For the most part, I like what they're doing with the characters, including the non-party ones--Scarlett using a dude as furniture, Palmer being a tea-sipping little nebbish, even turning Mayor Domino into a sort of pathetic freedom fighter is a fun touch that feels like it builds on the world in a cool way.

I still don't know how I feel about Sephiroth in this game, though. They did do the creepy blood trail, but it's Jenova blood (I guess?) that's all purple and sparkly but doesn't have the same visceral impact. And that's kind of the whole thing--you're showing the monster too much. He's right there, in your face, from the beginning moments. And like... it's not clear what his nature is. When he's only in Cloud's head and when other people can see him too, and whether any of those appearances are really "him" in a meaningful sense or just projections according to some mechanism that's not yet explained.

It could be so cool! Cos he is a creepy, eldritch, kind of otherworldly thing. He's supposed to be kind of scary! Like, when you come upon the impaled Midgar Zolom in the original, that's such an "oh. shit." moment, cos that thing just kicked your ass eight ways from sunday. "What kind of power does this guy have?!" you think to yourself. (I'm really curious to see if and how Rebirth handles that.) But now, he just kind of shows up and acts sort of creepy, and it's like I've already fought him and won once, even if it wasn't the real him, so he's just not as threatening or mysterious as he should be at this point in the story, y'know?

I remember struggling with the last few fights the first time I played Remake, but this time they all went down pretty easy. I died once to Rollerball because of some depth perception issues with the camera, but other than that, took 'em all first try. Rufus and Sephiroth both pressed me a bit, but it's not bad, difficulty-wise.

The tour through Shinra HQ was pretty fascinating. The corporatized creepyness of all of it kinda got under my skin. And it was an interesting loredump. There are still things I'm curious about--like what Wutai's interest in the war is. But maybe we'll get there as we go.

Man, fuck Hojo. He might be the most evil dude in this thing, and that's saying something. The whole sequence with him and Aerith was just... ugh. Which is exactly what it should be, so good, I guess. It's just... seeing the whole situation depicted in a modern game--which is a lot less abstracted than one from the '90s--whoof. Like, Aerith casually being like "this is where I grew up" and all these kid's drawings in this sterile, hostile room. It's just... it hits harder than it did for me playing the original.

It's interesting to me that we still don't really know much about religious practice in this world. Specifically because Shinra invokes that kind of language, talking about scriptures and the promised land, when discussing the Cetra. And the point the game seems to be making is that they believe in the scripture, but misunderstand it--fatally. By using Mako energy, they're destroying the very thing they're trying to find, but they're--collectively--blinded by capitalism and fascistic power and unable to recognize that.

Which I think is interesting in the context of what Remake is doing specifically with the whole Whispers thing. They're a neutral force--connected to all the same mystical vibes that Aerith and Sephiroth and Jenova are all sensitive to--but they're not aligned with anyone, they existed only to keep the story on the path it was supposed to go down, the plot of the original game.

Except then I destroyed them (I guess? I assume that's what that explosion of sparkly shit meant). And, hey, just as I did, suddenly there's a potentially very significant deviation from the original story when Zack appears, alive. So it's like the story is saying "aha, now we can fuck with your expectations." This feels like a tease about saving Aerith. I feel like it's setting me up to believe I might be able to. Which is why I think I won't. Like, if you changed that, it would fundamentally change the whole story--it wouldn't Final Fantasy 7 anymore. But it shows you "visions of the future" as cutscenes from the original game, and pointedly includes that moment. "This can't be our future" (I think it's Tifa that says that). So what's the point of setting me up to believe that? How is Rebirth going to follow through on that idea? I'm very curious about that, cos I was skeptical about all the Whisper stuff the first time through, but this time it feels more like it's just building to something.

Nanaki is great in this. The part where he "smiles" at Barrett in the truck was a lot of fun. There was a moment that made me wonder... I'm not really clear on how much Aerith knows at this point, about everything that's going on, and how. Like when she stops Cloud and Barrett from attacking him, she says "This child is a friend." And they were both in the lab for a long time, it's conceivable they did know each other. But then there's that whole moment where she reaches out and touches him and something magic kind of passes between them, and the fact that he doesn't speak before that point... the way it's presented made me wonder what, exactly, happened there. How much is she able to intuit and how much does she know from her own direct experience? Especially when she's talking to/about Sephiroth at the end there ("Everything about you is wrong.").

There's a point--and I didn't make a note of what exactly she says, but it's at some point after they're escaping Hojo's trap with the sword-fish-robot thing. Aerith has a line that's like... oh, she knows she's going to die. She's aware she's doomed by the narrative. I wonder.

I dunno, I have lots of smaller stray notes, stuff like:

The PHS terminal in the lab was a nice throwback

Aerith identifying herself as "local florist!" when facing off against Rufus slayed me.

Tifa not wanting to go into the men's room

What does Hojo's lab smell like? They make a big deal of that.

Barrett, of course he was running off to get a gun. C'mon man.

Heidegger almost getting a motorcycle to the face was pretty sweet.

Biggs is alive! Wedge... might not be.

The whole "we gotta go after Sephiroth" moment at the end is so very "...and my axe!" y'know? A tropish fantasy moment.

But yeah. From here, we're in unknown territory.

[bylightofdawn]

WIP Sunday

Gonna post this early because clearly I am liable to forget after I get off at 11pm. LOL Context? Context is for cowards. :P Honestly, this stands pretty much on it's own. I STG half this fic is them talking on the phone which wasn't the narrative device I originally planned on but as always, these fics rarely turn out like how I imagined them. Probably because I don't actually make plans or do anything more than fly by the seat of my pants and throw stuff at the wall, hoping something will stick.

As always, it's unedited first draft. And yet again, these two are gonna give you emotional whiplash.

“Shit, the eggs.” Reeve cursed and hurried back into the kitchen, he dropped the phone onto the counter so he could pick up the handle with both hands and in a panic, dropped it into the sink and opened the kitchen window to let some of the smoke out.

“The what? Reeve? Is everything alright?” Rufus called in the distance and Reeve quickly snatched up the phone.

“It’s fine, I just burned my dinner.”

“Better than burning the building down, I guess?” Genuine relief could be heard in the younger man’s voice.

“Piss off, I’m not taking cooking critiques from the man who has all of his meals provided by a personal chef and has never cooked for himself in his life.” Reeve scoffed softly.

“I’m actually quite passable in the kitchen, I’ll have you know.” Rufus countered archly. “I haven’t always had the opportunity to have a staff I can trust implicitly. And there is a reason all of my Turks carry master-level Cleanse materia.”

The unspoken implication in Rufus’s blithe comment had Reeve’s stomach drop.

“I don’t envy you the life you’ve had to live, Rufus.” He admitted honestly, and for some reason, that made the other man laugh his head off.

“What’s so funny?”

“That’s pretty much exactly what Evan told me. He doesn’t envy me at all.” Rufus sounded more amused than offended by that statement. “Do you know how many people would have killed to have the life I had?”

“I suspect if they knew the truth, they wouldn’t have been so eager to take up the Shinra name and mantle.”

There was a quiet pause before Rufus spoke again. “You’re a very curious man, Reeve Tuesti. I hope you learn to wear the mantle well, Reeve. Especially with your grand ideas for the WRO, I’d like to help you support that goal.”

For some reason, those words had the hairs on his arms standing on end.

“What are you saying, Rufus?”

“I’m saying that the Shinra name has been damaged beyond all recovery. But I still have a lot of resources at hand and I want to put those resources to good use.” Rufus dragged in a ragged breath. “You’ll probably think it’s selfish of me but I don’t want my legacy to be that of Doofus Shinra, the failed president whose family nearly ended the world.”

“I hate that nickname.” Reeve grumbled more to himself than to Rufus and that earned him a quiet huff of amusement.

“Really? I think it’s quite clever.” The other man said mildly.

“Well, I hate it. And I hate hearing you talk so fatalistically. You’re not allowed to give up hope now, Rufus. Do you hear me?” There was that brief, there and gone again softening of his vowels and lilt that Rufus so rarely heard from the man.

It only tended to happen when Reeve was either emotional, teetering on the edge of exhaustion, or intoxicated.

As always, it intrigued him, and he longed to hear more of it. He wanted to see Reeve without all of the personal defenses and affectations he felt like he had to put on to survive in the world.

“I’m not giving up hope just yet, Reeve.” Rufus somberly promised him and the brunet released a breath he hadn’t even been aware he’d been holding.

“Good, because while I appreciate the offer, I don’t think the Shinra name is completely irredeemable. Nor do I think you are either. And you dying right now rather than putting in the hard work required to help fix your mistakes isn’t acceptable.”

On the other side of the phone, a strange lump of emotion settled into Rufus’s throat.

“I had no idea you were such a hard taskmaster, Tuesti.” He finally said with false lightness.

“You’re not the only one who helped break the world. Making up for it is a terrible burden, but neither of us has to shoulder it alone. My mam always said, ‘Many hands make light work.’ I’ve found that idiom to be pretty accurate. So let’s do it together.”

He wasn’t sure what all he was offering there, but it just felt…right. And he wanted Rufus to know he wasn’t alone in wanting to fix what they’d broken.

He didn’t want him to think he was alone at all.

Reeve could say for sure why he felt that strongly about it but he did.

“I genuinely don’t know how you survived my father. He hated idealists with a passion.”

“I’m not an idealist, I’m a realist….with high aspirations.” Reeve wanted to point out he didn’t know Rufus had survived his father either but the man was going through enough as it was without digging into his no-doubt copious amount of daddy issues.

“Whatever you say, Reeve. Just don’t let your aspirations for me grow out of hand, I might disappoint you.”

“I’ll believe in you enough for the both of us. But I think you might end up surprising yourself.”

[oriharaizaiza]

would izaya be the type to leave his friends, or the people he works with, unconscious? like, if they suddenly passed out, would he ignore it and walk away? somebody made a joke abt that and it got me thinking. he does kind of sound like that type LOL

How mean! ..... That said, he might just do so tbh. So here goes answering this way more seriously than is probably neccesairy!

It really depends on who, and under what circumstances. Izaya hates relying on people; even shinra, so I'm very sure he has basic medical knowledge. He'd know how to check a pulse, and what position to lay somebody in and such. So.... When it comes to his friends.... Well there's not many so I'll just go over them.

Shinra- If he's in a save place, like his house or something, he'd check him over and attempt to wake him up. Probably by kicking him or tipping a glass of water. If that doesn't work he'd probably just message celty and leave. - If it's unsafe, like outdoors, he'd do the same, but he'd actually call Celty and explain the situation, and then wait for her to arrive. If he can't reach or for some reason can't count on her, he'd probably call an actual ambulance? He wouldn't stick around for it to arrive in that case though.

Namie - There's no way he'd leave her. He'd carry her home or take a taxi/ car directly to shinra. At least in the later books, in the early ones their bond is still fragile so he really might just walk away to avoid the trouble.

Shizuo - Not exactly a friend but some reason Izaya keeps mentioning him whenever friendships are talked about so I'll just include him. Shizuo doesn't even get a check up. He just gets jumped on and laughed at. If Izaya is in a particularly vicious mood he might even stab him a couple of times and allert the various gangs of an easy target before leaving.

The twins - Family counts right? If that happens Izaya is probably spending half of his brain trying to supress the panic and the other half is busy figuring out wether it's faster to go to shinra or the hospital and if either is worth the risk.

Kine and Mikage he'd probably call an emergency contact for, but wouldn't be overly concerned otherwise. After all, they're tough. The caring role or more theirs than his.

Manami... I honestly don't know. I don't think he'd risk her dying for no reason because he wants to see what more she's going to do next with the life she originally wanted to give up. I don't think he particularly cares for her, but I think he'd still call somebody else to take her to a safe place.

The rest of the poeple he works with I really don't think he gives a shit about. Any dragon zombie members, the russians, Izumii, Haruna- They'd be left behind and the only thought spend would be on how to change his plans. If it happened to an Awakusu member I think Izaya would be preoccupied with proving that it wasn't somehow his fault, so there's no space for caring there.

As you may notice in almost all conceivable cases... He's not likely to stick around even if he does care.

[cwarscars]

The AC system had been out for hours - and on a very peak summer day, of course. Melissa had been on the phone with the people from internal maintenance and facilities for a good part of the morning, but they were equally puzzled as to what had fried the machines; apparently some experiment gone wrong down at the labs with Hojo, but they were working on it.

But 'working on it' was exactly the same update she had received almost one hour before; the absence of any clear estimates as to when it would be restored was going to clearly upset Heidegger. Well, the general and most of his colleagues, she imagined; all the executives had their offices in the top floors of the Shinra Building, giving them a lovely view of all of Midgar... And also feeling like they were trapped in a greenhouse without the AC properly working.

The secretary sighed, placing the phone down and rearranging her hair up again; keeping it away from her neck was the minimum she could do to feel even worse. Melissa had opened a couple of buttons of her shirt (one more and people would start talking about how she was 'asking for it') and luckily had opted to wear a skirt on that day. At last she was not a guy in a full suit.

Sighing, she got up from her desk to be the bearer of bad news for her boss - knocking on Heidegger's door and allowing herself inside after his authorization, Melissa found herself pausing on the door when she looked at him.

Head of the army or not, he was not immune to the heat - his heavy coat had been likely discarded ages ago, and his dark shirt had been rolled up all the way to the elbows, the tie also long removed a couple of buttons also slipped out of their original positions. It was not a novel look per se - during their first business meeting Heidegger had dressed similarly after a long day of work, but on that morning... It hit her differently.

Back then (and for most of the days that followed), the secretary really had been focusing on work, delivering results, getting his affairs in order after the terrible job Brenda had done before her; but on that sizzling morning, Melissa had trouble remembering the news she was supposed to give to the man - the size of his arms, the fact that his scars were once more visible and that his build was nothing short of impressive under a rather form-fitting shirt had clearly distracted her.

It was nothing short of a miracle that speech returned to the woman without Heidegger prompting her to speak - offering her boss an apologetic smile and moving a hand through her hair (evidently forgetting she had pinned it up earlier), Melissa bowed awkwardly. "I'm sorry, sir - I just wanted to say I've called the maintenance team and there is no further update regarding when the AC will be brought back online. I'm looking into some meeting rooms with no windows in the floors below to be requested as a temporary office space, if you'd prefer to work elsewhere?"

he's been standing beside the window since ten o'clock in the morn; the pane before him as ajar as he can get it without risking falling out. his coat rested on the back of his chair, his sleeves rolled up past his elbows and his first few buttons unpopped. one could almost see the pink of a scar across a hair-laden chest; the thick of his pecs almost bursting free from a shirt wet with sweat.

gods, it's unbearable. has him panting like a dog and routinely wiping sweat from his brow. the wax of his hair has long since lost its grip, a few strands finding their way before his eyes - only a couple, but enough to make him look the 'bad boy' he once was in his twenties. heidegger's hot. never mind hot but he's boiling - ready to undress entirely and sit back in the nude. were he not surrounded by workers and were it not highly inappropriate, shit, he'd probably do so.

discomfort is soon distracted by the knock on the door; his ever faithful secretary, the woman he hopes to hear only good news from coming in soon after he's called out in response. she herself as much a victim of the heat as he or anybody else. he notes the looseness of her shirt, the buttons undone - her hair losing its grip in the warmth of the day - the lengthy stares and the breaths that follow bad news.

were he not so distracted, he'd be responding straight away. a sigh would leave his lips, a grimace cross his features. but instead, he barely reacts. the general instead simply stares back; the brief flicker of a thought that asks

'ever seen her sweat before?'

another that jabs -

'ever wanna be the one to make her sweat?'

he breathes a heavy breath - something that sounds like a sigh but she'd not perhaps know it's anything but. he shuts his eyes, lids pressed hard in an attempt to rid another kind of heat from his form. soon enough, he's standing from his seat and walking toward her - body terribly lax for a man usually so uptight.

"i'd imagine the lower floors are cooler-" he pants, a few renegade strands brushed free of his face "perhaps we ought to scope them out." the two of them - together. they could glance an eye over each room; he could confirm it's right while she ensures it's appropriate. immediately, one comes to mind. a conference room a few floors down; enough tables to suffice a few men and a desk large enough for the many piles of paperwork himself and melissa share.

"come with me." he demands; feet taking him first, a stride (though weakened by the heat) as strong as it ever is. though heidegger fails to ever look back, he can feel her near him - hear the clack of her heals and shuffle of paperwork in her hands.

"there's a conference room, few floors down. come on-" he urges her into the elevator, tone entirely serious - expression unrelenting. whatever melissa would have on her mind would almost certainly find her distracted by the general's surliness. for now, he's serious. his mind, focused. his mind on anything to keep them cool (and keep them from melting!)

however, all would change upon the close of the elevator doors.

the sudden closeness of their surroundings, the two-second distraction of clicking buttons to a bottom floor not enough to keep him from looking toward his secretary.

they're barely a foot apart; the heat all-consuming, the warmth having him tug on his shirt and snatch a breath. his secretary, melissa, wiping a damp from her brow, playing with her hair to ensure it isn't wild. the subtle nudge of her knees as she stands, the way fingers pull her skirt ever-so-slightly down.

heidegger stands beside her, sweat creeping from his brow - a quick shift of his gaze toward her - a quick shift of hers to him. the heat has them trapped, the general's mind not far from where it could take them. the damp of her blouse has her lingerie peak out ever-so-slightly. enough for him to notice, enough for him to quickly look away.

a clear of his throat, a tap of the wall behind him.

he instinctively runs a hand from his collar to his chest - fingers trailed over a scar and across toward his back. an innocent gesture to wipe away the warmth though one that has his shirt hold him tighter.

the two of them exchange another glance; this time, a crook in the corner of his lip. not a happy smirk but rather something forced. a reassurance, perhaps? an easing that 'no, worry not - i can help myself'.

"...never known a lift to take so long-" he shrugs, words a hopeful interrupt to any tension that swells between them. "how are you handling the heat?"

"as professionally as i can-" her retort comes partnered with a smile; the sort that has him raising a brow - was she teasing?

"hm-" he's close to responding with his own. close to moving in a little more; close to embracing the heat with both hands. but then, as if by a sudden stroke of everything dangerous in the world - the power flickers and the lift suddenly stops.

"so much for professionalism..." he whispers neath this breath; a concerned look at the doors before him. a quick bang of a balled fist unto the lift. 

[ error ] reads the screen, the lights above them flickering on and off.

heidegger looks back to melissa, his body turned to face her - the closeness between them now suddenly so evident without the lift to take them anywhere. he breathes, lips wet - face a glisten with sweat.

"we're stuck" he mulls "but it's alright- i think i can-" the general turns back toward the lift doors, fingers grasping each one - a pull of his arms so strong it has his muscles bulging and teeth grinding. though tough, he manages only to open a crack in the door - just enough to show them the pipes and wires of shinra's interior.

there's no getting out of this one.

"fuck-" he sighs, a look back at her again - shirt weak and wet atop the toughness of muscles "i want to tell you that repair wont be long but..."

well, if that were the case - the fucking AC would be working.

[iaintyourbro]

The New Red Herrings: Biggs and Zack and How Avalanche Tells Us the LTD is Dead

Biggs and Zack are seemingly alive at the end of FFVII Remake Part 1 - so what does that mean? Will they live throughout the story? Maybe they’ll be like Wedge and escape death initially, only to be forced to face it shortly after?

There’s also interesting similarities on the death scenes of Biggs and Zack, A while ago I took screenshots of the “death” scene of Biggs and thought it was interesting how they had Biggs touch Cloud’s head and also made him promise something. 

And how are all these things connected to the LTD? 

Now, clearly, neither Biggs or Jessie had as dramatic of a death as Zack or Aerith. We actually see the initial injury or incident that causes each of them to die. Cloud comes upon Biggs while he’s already sitting down injured. Cloud and Tifa come to Jessie after she’s under the rubble and try to save her. 

We know Cloud pretty much loses it when Zack dies. He collapses mentally. He’s already been through enough shit to fill a lifetime, and now his only friend, his best friend, and the guy who saved his life, dies trying to get them back to Midgar. 

Why Zack is Important to Cloud

Relationship wise, Cloud obviously had a much deeper connection to Zack. At the point that Biggs dies, he doesn’t know any of that, but I think his death definitely triggers something in him. Biggs saw through Cloud’s front. We know Biggs dealt with the kids at the Leaf House, and most likely acted like a volunteer in the Big Brother program. He tells Cloud he’s got a lot in common with the kids at the Leaf House.

Zack had Cloud take on the responsibility to be his living legacy. Of course we all know he shuts down about five minutes later. Biggs had Cloud promise that this wouldn’t all be for nothing. In both cases, it doesn’t work out. He forgets what Zack told him and the Sector 7 plate still falls. 

Zack’s death has a major impact on Cloud - it’s ultimately what breaks him. It also gives us these really sad moments of somebody who’s already been through so much and is breaking now. 

Cloud is upset about Biggs. He was becoming his friend. The three Avalanche members really did accept Cloud and tried to be his friend. He was included with them - in most cases. Of course there’s the Avalanche party that he’s kicked out of (mind you - he does this to himself by acting like an ass to Barret and them) and then during Chapter 4, he’s separated to go steal Jessie’s dad’s ID. 

Ultimately, though, we know that Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie all like Cloud. They seem to see through the hard exterior pretty easily. So Cloud loses another person in his life.

The ending of FFVII Remake takes an interesting turn. Anybody who played OG or CC knows what is supposed to happen to Biggs and Zack.

But, Remake’s ending seems to imply that they survive the event that was supposed to take them out. 

Did Zack survive the last stand? Is this a case of the Last Stand in CC being combined with OG where as they walk away, Zack ends up getting shot anyway? 

So we also see Biggs.... wait, wrong picture.

That’s the right one. We get a shot of Charlie Sheen Biggs waking up in a bed in what looks like some type of either infirmary or large room. In OG, we know that all three of the Avalanche members die during the Sector 7 plate fall. In Remake, the only one we get confirmation on is Jessie, and that’s only in the Chapter description. 

Wedge we know survives until the Shinra building, where the Whispers ultimately take him out since he defied fate. 

So, what will happen to Biggs?

The biggest thing talked about seems to be the ending. Zack surviving created a lot of buzz. Is there a second timeline? Is he going to just simply walk another 10 feet and get shot in the back? Did her survive in the first place? Why does Stamp look different on that bootleg chip bag?

Will we have a beautiful Zerith reunion? 

In the OG, the Love Triangle illusion was the red herring. This was mostly to trick and distract the player to focus on something, so later they can destroy you with major twists. It also was used to get the player to like Aerith so her death would be more impactful. In addition, it makes the whole Northern Crater confession from Cloud about Tifa’s opinion being the only one that matters a slam in your face of holy shit what is going on?!

At this point, everybody and their mother knows Aerith dies. It’s not something that was kept a secret. It’s referenced in various materials. The one thing not openly referenced is what’s going on with Cloud. They never reference the Lifestream, the fake persona, or anything outside of the OG and Ultimanias. I think this is a shame since it’s such an important part of his character arc, but I get that they want to try and leave the element of surprise in play.

I think everybody would agree that the moment you find out Cloud was just a grunt that was WITH Zack during the Nibelheim incident is super powerful. I still get chills all these years later. Letting this be a well known thing would take away the element of surprise from new fans. Of course, people can go online and read blogs like this one and know all of this, but for somebody - especially future generations - who may just be looking for a new game to play, you’d want this element of surprise to stay in tact. 

We can’t use Aerith as the only red herring anymore, and we can’t use the love triangle. For many reasons. Everybody knows about it and the love triangle was a poor choice for something like this because some people missed the point completely.

Now, FFVII Twitter is always on fire. 

Also, even though the Lifestream and Cloud’s true identity are pretty well kept secrets in terms of printed media, most of the people who played FFVII Remake played the original game, they know what happens. People who were new and played Remake first most likely went and bought OG and played it. So now they know what happens. 

They knew this, or they probably wouldn’t have shown Cloud in this state, but even for those who don’t, the alternate timeline theory is born. Biggs enhances this theory because he’s alive too. How can Cloud walk past them AND be carried by Zack in some catatonic state?

It keeps us distracted. They want us to think that fate can be changed. In the case of Zack, they’re even saying that the past can be changed. 

Ultimately, whatever they do, it’ll be shocking to most players. I do trust that the devs aren’t being deceitful when they say they are going to keep the major plot points the same and FFVII will be FFVII going forward. Part 1 keeps major plot points but adds substance to a lot of things. They took out unnecessary parts and enhanced others. They also removed a lot of the love triangle stuff. 

Another striking thing with all of this is the Jessie factor. The Chapter screen tells us she died - it only says Biggs was seriously injured. That hasn’t stopped speculation.

The ending shows gloves on the table next to Biggs’ bed and a lot people said oh it’s Jessie’s left glove! And it does appear that it is. There’s only one glove. To me, this seems like they recovered her body and were able to pull of some personal affects of hers to leave with Biggs. Both articles look damaged or faded. 

Faded could mean they’ve been sitting in the sun for a while. The incident happened a few days ago, though we don’t have a definitive time on when we’re shown Biggs. This could be a future look.

They also could simply be damaged and full of dust from the plate collapse. 

It is implied in Chapter 4 if you listen to the conversation between Jessie’s mom and the gang that Biggs and Jessie have a different relationship than Wedge and Jessie. 

I have some thoughts on what this may mean:

Biggs is Jessie’s BFF and her mom likes him.

Jessie and Biggs dated at one point and decided to not tell her mom that they no longer are or that its casual.

Jessie’s mom was hounding Jessie about finding a man so she picked Biggs to be her pretend boyfriend and he agreed.

Biggs and Jessie are secretly dating and only her mom knows.

Which one do I think it is? Well, knowing Jessie, I can definitely see her doing #3. I can absolutely see her acting like Biggs is her boyfriend to get her mom off her back. I think #1 and #2 are also huge possibilities. #4 is far fetched, but they could cover it up by having Jessie flirt relentlessly with Cloud and appear to be single. 

Some people think that Jessie will end up at the Gold Saucer singing. Personally, I really hope not. If they keep a bunch of people alive (even if it’s for a short amount of time), it really takes away one of the major themes of FFVII which is death and moving on. In addition, I think it’s too many people they’d need to kill off later. Jessie is a very popular character, so I hope they don’t take that as an incentive to change that aspect of the story. 

Aerith’s funeral and Jessie’s death are similar as well, so I think it is foreshadowing some things. 

We get a princess style carry here. Aerith and Jessie both get these in Remake. Jessie’s second one ends in her death. Will Aerith get a second princess carry by Cloud? Will it be to take her to her final resting place?

Maybe she won’t even go to the lake - maybe to the sky?

We know Tifa was super upset in OG, and they really don’t touch on it much. We only see her run away crying after this moment. You learn in Case of Tifa that she’s really upset about, but a lot of people don’t read Case of Tifa, so they only know this scene. 

We know that she gets very upset over Jessie’s death.

I think Aerith’s death will be much worse. 

It seems Jessie’s death is a reference to how Aerith’s death was handled in the OG.

Will it be handled the same? Maybe. I think they’re going to make it seem like she’s going to be okay, and then boom.

So the ending gives us hope that we have two friends that are alive. It makes us think that we can save Aerith. I do think Wedge’s death towards the end and comments that Red XIII made in Chapter 17 may also be hinting towards the fact that you cannot change the past and you cannot change fate. 

Over on Discord, @anesuna​ brought up a good point about Wedge’s cats. Biggums survives the plate collapse along with Wedge. The other two cats - Reggie and Smalls - sadly perish (::cries a lot::). This could also be a reference that Biggs survived while Jessie and Wedge do not. 

So what about the LTD?

I think this is a heavy reference to the old OG love triangle. Don’t fall for it! They’re warning players now instead of wanting them to fall for it. 

Why do I say this? Aerith seemed to think the love triangle was fun. Thing is, Cloud wasn’t all there at this point, so it was just an illusion. Since players didn’t seem to get that the first time, they’re going to make it clear now. There were a lot of aspects they seemed to take from Aerith and give to Jessie. Overly flirty (with Jessie they added thirsty) and being overly childish at times. Aerith in remake is still somewhat childish, but not completely.

Oblivious Cloud is Oblivious. Yeah, he was oblivious in OG that Aerith and Tifa had feelings for him. He has no idea what Wedge is talking about now. Earlier in this same conversation he thinks that Wedge is telling him not to come around because people will gossip about Jessie being in Avalanche, but the player knows really what he’s referring to...

I think this is probably a reference to the Gold Saucer date because of the stage part. I take things at face value and don’t really dig too deep, but I think this exchange with Wedge is supposed to tell the player not to fall for these false loves early in the game.

It’s brought up again during Aerith’s resolution scene.

Earlier Wedge said not to fall for Jessie’s trick, because it was a game to her. It wasn’t real love. Aerith is now telling her that if Cloud thinks he falls in love with her, it’s not real. 

We have two separate instances in the game where they’re telling you to beware of the false love. It’s two times the word love is used. 

After all of this, the ending presents us with two guys who should be dead that appear to be alive. One of them is directly connected to Aerith.

This was their way of trying to shut down the LTD and replace it with different red herrings. Will it work as well as the LTD? Well, it seems that the majority of FFVII Remake fans have talked about the ending.

Yes, a lot of people talk about the LTD, but I think the majority of players are more interested overall in what happens next and what’s up with Zack. I think the majority of the fandom is also ready for the LTD to officially be dead so we can actually focus on everything else and stop the madness. 

It’ll never fully stop, but at least it’ll be clear for anybody who plays the game and alleviate the bulk of the chaos. 

Say hello to your new red herrings: Biggs and Zack. 

Say bye to the LTD.

[saanphoenix]

“Why do so many old-school FFVII fans think that Cloud took Zack’s memories?”

Alright, so first things first. We gotta start from the beginning. We gotta start with Jenova.

Jenova is the name given to the alien entity known as the Calamity. “Heaven’s dark harbinger.” This being, assumed to be female because of the body she was in at the Crater, was basically godlike in her natural abilities. Historically, she was able to shapeshift. She was telepathic. She had a nigh indomitable will. And she used her abilities to infect the race of human(oid)s that happened upon her crash site--the Cetra.

Now, Ifalna, within the English translation of the OG, states that Jenova turned the Cetra into monsters, nearly wiping them all out, and that the wee few that remained basically had to be sacrificed to seal Jenova away before she could do anymore damage to all life on the planet. The notes Sephiroth finds within the Shinra Mansion seem to corroborate this version of events, as he tells Zack that the Cetra chose to fight the Calamity while the other humans “hid”, thus being spared Jenova’s shenanigans, allowing them to become the dominant race on the planet, but ultimately being cowards unworthy to be the shepherds of any star, to quote Emet-Selch from FFXIV. Stay with me now.

We also know that the notes Sephiroth reads within the Shinra Mansion do not, in any way, call Jenova the Calamity. They still refer to her as a Cetra. Meaning that those notes are outdated, before the discovery of a living Cetra, a Cetra who is 2000 years removed from her own people’s history. Right? So.

(’Ah, but what about Genesis point-blank telling Sephiroth the truth? He knew what was up!’ Yes, because Hollander and Hojo found out from Gast’s recordings, and Ifalna herself, what Jenova actually was, and then Hollander told Genesis, who then said some stupid ass shit to trigger Sephiroth into looking into the wrong information, and now Nibelheim is not Nibelheim anymore and Cloud is missing one more family member than he was when he joined Shinra. Also, fuck Genesis. Anyway.)

HOJO, yeah? Hojo, in two separate novels written by Nojima himself, states to Aerith and Tseng separately that Jenova 1) will inevitably infect all life on the planet with her “cells” because of the very nature of the Lifestream and 2) turned the Cetra against each other via subtle manipulation and illusions of their loved ones, dead or alive, conceived from their own memories. She didn’t show up looking like the Eldritch horror with the eyeball nipple, she showed up looking like a run-of-the-mill Cetra. And she would further disguise herself as people a Cetra knew in order to gain their trust. And then, after she had gained that trust, she would say shit like, “Hey. Your friend over there hates you,” or, “Hey. Your friend over there wants to kill you.” And thus the Cetra, at the very least morally but probably also physically, became monsters and tore themselves apart.

You ever wonder why everything the Cetra had was booby-trapped and hidden behind riddles and self-sacrificial bullshit like their Temple? My guess is because Jenova made it so they couldn’t trust anyone, even themselves.

“Why did I read all that? What does that have to do with Cloud voring Zack’s memories?”

Because we gotta understand the mechanics of this bitch first so that we know what to look out for.

Now, we have an alien in stasis--presumed dead but definitely not--and a buncha scientists who really want a coveted spot sucking President Shinra’s dick as head of the Science Dept. who all think that taking the genetic material of a Cetra and splicing it into a modern-day human’s DNA will give them a Geiger counter to the Promised Land. Which they want to use as fuel because only some of them really understand what mako is and the others are just fucking stupid. Anyway, my guess is that they archeology their way to Jenova’s still-kinda-alive corpse and do some DNA testing and go, “Ah! We’ve found a Cetra. It has to be one! She’s by the crater, after all, and that’s where some of them were nuked by a Meteor! :) We’re geniuses!” And Jenova, in the Lifestream, went, “GOTCHA, BITCH!”

And through the power of dino DNA, out pops a lot of nonviable lifeforms, some monsters, and, eventually, a relatively normal kid with a flare for the dramatic who will become wholly obsessed with apples and very boring literature that he will insist on repeating every five goddamn seconds. As he was no Geiger counter to the Promised Land, out pops another relatively normal kid who will grow up to have dreams, and honor, and steal food from his neighbors because he was so damn honorable that he just could not ask for a handout.

With Hollander and Gillian’s experiments not producing anything of note other than children that need love and support, Hojo and Lucrecia decide to take a slightly different sample of Jenova’s cells and just start sticking them everywhere. They’re in Lucrecia. They’re in Lucrecia’s fetus. And...something strange starts to happen.

Lucrecia starts to feel the effects of Jenova. Lucrecia’s mind and body start to kind of deteriorate. Not the way that Genesis’ and Angeal’s do later on, but she is plagued by shit like severe depression and fatigue. She falls out on the floor multiple times. Her bodyguard is a little late on pulling the trigger of the gun aimed at her husband and, instead of doing anything productive about her husband proving he’s an amoral murderous fuckhead, she just decides to play doll with her kinda undead bodyguard, get even sicker, and then, finally, pops out a very strange looking baby. In fact, he looks a little alien.

“No, seriously, what does this have to do with anything?”

Genetics. How Jenova cells work. Whatever clump of cells they injected into Lucrecia, clearly different from those used in Project G, seemed to focus more on the mental fuckery aspect of Jenova than the physical, shapeshifting aspect of Jenova. I would also argue that one of the reasons Lucrecia was so adversely affected by the cells and Gillian was not is their mental well-being. Gillian, even when we meet her, seems very upbeat and doing pretty okay despite her husband having died from exhaustion a coupla years back. Lucrecia was depressed and very subservient even before she married Hojo. Losing her mentor--Vincent’s father--probably exacerbated that. And, later in Advent Children, that sort of mentality--hopelessness and despair--is what Sephiroth’s Geostigma feeds off of. That and thoughts of death/dying. But that is more speculation than anything.

So, Sephiroth’s cells are different from Genesis’ and Angeal’s, and they were all three bred differently, but they’re all kinda chimeras of Jenova’s. And once Genesis learns about his origins, it’s like the lightbulb goes off. This guy’s creating clones by infecting his 2nd and 3rd Class SOLDIERs with his own cells. And when he does that, their physical appearance becomes his own. As does their will. Whatever Genesis wants, the clones also want. And then he just grows a wing for shits and giggles. Once he tells his BFF Angeal the sitch, behold! He’s got monster clones--maybe because he realizes how fucked up overwriting a human being with yourself is--and wings, too. ...Why?

The power to do all of this shit was always there. It was genetically always there. They just had to be made aware of it, to have the puzzle piece put into place. When Sephiroth dies, that puzzle piece is put into place. And then he starts fuckin’ with shit. And turns into monstrous angels. And then dies again. And then comes back and finally grows himself his own wing. He did it, fellas. He’s a big boy now.

But we’re not here to talk about Sephiroth--ignore how much I talked about Sephiroth and his mommies previously--we’re here to talk about ZACK and CLOUD.

“What’s up with Zack and Cloud?”

First, what we must realize is that even though Hojo says that both Zack and Cloud are failed clones because they 1) didn’t take on any physical characteristics of Sephiroth, 2) didn’t seem controlled by Jenova (or Sephiroth) and, 3) didn’t exhibit the other signs of a Reunion impulse like the other clones in Nibelheim that does not mean that Sephiroth’s cells, Jenova’s cells, are not working on them.

As we’ve observed in other 1sts, abilities do not always manifest immediately or even noticeably. Clearly, Sephiroth’s physical appearance is a bit of a hint, but Genesis and Angeal look pretty damn normal and, if it weren’t for their mako injections, they probably wouldn’t be showing that much of an increase in physical capabilities. Theoretically. Maybe 10-year-old Angeal had biceps the size of a man’s head. I mean. Pff.

Zack’s tolerance to Jenova was strong due to his previous exposure in the SOLDIER program. Cloud’s mind broke pretty early on. Neither of these results matter to the fact that they both now have Sephiroth’s cells within them--just as Genesis’ and Angeal’s clones had theirs--and that their very wills are now going to be affected by Sephiroth’s. But they are also going to be a little bit like him in terms of power.

Zack’s hair, when ingested by a Genesis clone, a clone of a Type-G SOLDIER, transforms that clone into a monster. Zack doesn’t even have to do anything. The Jenova/Sephiroth cells within his body can just Do That, cause that change in another life form, of their own accord. I’m honestly shocked that, whenever they gave Zack these S-cells, HE didn’t turn into a monster. But that’s neither here nor there. I wanna talk about Cloud.

Cloud has mako poisoning, which the Remake describes as his spirit/soul being stuck between his body and the Lifestream. Weird. Anyway, he’s not fully aware of his surroundings at all times, and he clearly can’t control his body that much. He somehow has the ability to kinda get his feet shuffling, and I’m going to go on a limb and say he can chew whatever food Zack gives him, but most of the time, he’s a puppet with cut strings.

But he is also still recovering from a mind break caused by Jenova cells. The same cells that are just chilling in his body, like they are in Zack’s. And all the months Zack is dragging his ass across a continent, an ocean, and another continent, they and Cloud are listening to whatever the fuck Zack is saying. Cloud is also constantly in physical contact with Zack.

In The Kids Are Alright: A Turks Side Story, Kadaj has the power to not only read surface thoughts and memories just by being near someone, but he can also read deeper ones by making physical contact with someone. Because Jenova. And Sephiroth, whose cells Cloud and Zack have, in the OG demonstrates that he, too, can glean thoughts and memories from others. Because Jenova.

If this power is a genetic trait, as it is with Genesis and Angeal, then, sitting pretty underneath their skin, Zack and Cloud have this ability. Dormant. Snoozing. Kinda like the 1st Class Trio’s wings.

But Zack has a high tolerance and a high ignorance to Jenova and just what he might be capable of. Cloud’s mind is floating in and out at best. He’s not in control of himself. And when you have a situation like that, it is very, very easy to come to the conclusion that Cloud’s Jenova cells are passively absorbing the memories of Zack’s time in Nibelheim. That they are knitting these memories together with what little remain in Cloud’s head. That when Tifa comes across Cloud at the train station and calls him by name and remembers who he is that Cloud’s Jenova cells latch onto those memories in Tifa--as Sephiroth tells them they did--and they knit those memories with Zack’s and Cloud’s and the end result is the man we get at the beginning of the OG.

Because Cloud has visual memory of shit he never saw. It’s not just a visual medium telling a visual story. You wanna know how I know that for a fact? Because, in the Remake, Cloud remembers Sephiroth walking up to Jenova’s tank in the reactor from Sephiroth’s perspective. He is looking through Sephiroth’s eyes, through his memory, up at “Mother.” In that moment in the Remake, Cloud is Sephiroth. He’s not Cloud anymore.

Cloud sees Sephiroth delivering the speech of being an Ancient. Cloud wasn’t there. Cloud didn’t see that. Zack did. That is Zack’s memory.

The man writing the Remake is the same man who’s been at the head of MOST FFVII writing. He was on the OG, he wrote Advent Children, he wrote the novels, he wrote Crisis Core, he’s writing the Remake. He knows what these cells can do because he’s crafted this world-building for decades.

Cloud didn’t take all of Zack’s memories. He didn’t need to. Kadaj, in the novel, doesn’t glean everything from someone right off the bat. Because he doesn’t need to. Only when he needs to learn something else does he go digging. The same is probably true for what Cloud’s cells most likely did to be able to know what he knows. Hell! Kadaj gets punched in the novel and he ACCIDENTALLY picks up the emotions and memories of the guy who punched him. He didn’t want ‘em but he got ‘em!”

There is evidence within the OG, and even more within the Compilation, that lend weight to the theory that Cloud unintentionally read Zack’s mind when it came to the events of Nibelheim.

For years, people have wondered, “How the hell does Cloud know that if he wasn’t there?” For years, people have wondered, “How can he use the Buster Sword if he was just a little grunt that used a gun all the time?” The logical answer is, “Because of his Jenova cells. They can just do that shit.”