#v: Wutai War

[hiislegacy]

"... You wanted to see me, sir?..."

Sephiroth strolled right into the room, after having an hour to clean off and prepare himself for this talk. He was lucky they gave him that much time. Those emerald eyes locked with the other's, before they flicked away, and he casually folded his arms across his chest. Just waiting. Though, you could just tell he was slightly worried, impatiently so. He knew exactly why he was here, but would be in such heavy denial over it.

@mezzomorendo

[familiarflower]

@fcrir

"What the-"

It was the strangest gust of wind. Out of no where.

Wutai at dusk was absolutely stunning. It made her chest ache to think of the terrors it endured under Shinra and there was relief at seeing how it has bounced back over the years. Emperor Godo now having abdicated to the new Empress of Wutai- though there was a new title on her shoulders Yuffie was still just the same girl as before if not more responsible. Her involvement with the W.R.O over the years had allowed for an immediate and easy collaboration with Wutai to help with the rebuilding and reinstallation of the kingdom as its own state once more. She was here more for family's sake than work, but multitasking was something she was fond of an if scouting the area for any help that wutai needed then she'd do it.

It surprised her, the sudden gust of wind picking up loose strands of hair and stinging her eyes forcing them shut, only to open them to find that it had gotten darker in the space of a moment. Just one moment. It was the hail of bullets echoing around followed by the shouting that startled her more than the lighting change. Another brush of wind, almost sending her a step forward till she caught herself and turned into the wind to see a soldier. No...

Brow furrowed as she took a step back seeing a SOLDIER operative with a sword pointed at her staring back in surprise. Photos tricked in her memory from past research about SOLDIER and Shinra, when she searched for answers to her curiosity that Cloud couldn't tell. The uniform was easily replicated. A relic of a Shinra sword was a dime a dozen, but that face.

She had seen that face in a different uniform, a much older face with a different hair style and a scar from an old Shinra public announcement when a SOLDIER reached First class. "You're..." Impossible.

[miss-midnightt]

Buncha shit about my oc, Sera!

her full name is Seraphina Caraverre

Note: I tend to put her in my "nothing bad really happened au where zack, cloud, and elena are younger to accomodate my other oc because why tf not"

Well, basically, short thing bout her, she's a first class soldier! (honestly I was a bit self indulgent with her. shhhhh). A couple years younger than the other firsts, she is the result of Project V--project Variant (affectionately dubbed project valkerie), an attempt to create female soldiers. However, it was put aside after no immediate results were shown--she still lived in midgar all her life, so she went in for "normal" checkups.

Anyway, on to the actual character!

She's a very skittish, very introverted, very sweet ball of anxiety (i call her my anxiety baby for a reason). It takes a lot of persistence to befriend her, but it's worth it. However, she's super duper good at hiding anxiety (coping mechanisms!) because she has to put on an intimidating face as a commander. She also feels responsible for the deaths of the men she fought alongside during the Wutai war because she was their superior and supposed to protect them.

Sera also has a girlfriend named lock (made by @cryptidxmemories); she'd die for her in a heartbeat.

Sera also has no clue about project v and her (not scientists but some sort of project planning) parents involvement.

She uses these coole shortswords that lock together to form a double sided spear!

Ask me if u have any questions about her!

heres some sera (with a bonus lock&sera!)(pencil drawing is mine):

[seraphicwiing]

The Siege of Fancheng Part 1 - WUTAI WAR (Sephiroth’s First Battle)

Hope you guys enjoy the read again, I had a spout of inspiration to write this while writing my reply to one of my current threads and I’m super excited to show you guys. I love writing fight scenes, so this is quite special for me. As always constructive criticism is always accepted. <3 

Small Note: I’m going to assume that there are many types of key landmarks in Wutai including castles which serve as outposts or supply areas for the nation and their army. In this particular piece Sephiroth will be laying siege upon one of them. I’m taking inspiration from ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ for the names of the landmarks as a little fun trivia <3

As always click this for the song track to accompany this drabble for extra effect!

Kept under cut due to length! 

‘To redraw the map, the blood of SOLDIERS must be the ink.’ 

The once tranquil green fields and cherry blossoms on Wutai’s hallowed soil had become nought but kindling for the flames and bullets that had rained down upon the poor country. The fighting had left Wutai and ShinRa at a constant standstill and even with signs of the war turning to ShinRa’s favour, the ever valiant nation resisted with all their might. It was commendable, but would prove to be all for nothing. Soon they would meet the catalysts of their downfall, soon they would meet the ‘Perfect Warrior’. 

The permeating stench of gunpowder and explosives filled the lungs of the First Class commander as he stood with his battalion of Infantry and Foot Soldiers armed to the teeth with the firepower to level an entire village. Coupled with Sephiroth, his escort of ten Third Class Soldiers, his own personal guard. Not that he required one. He had faith in his skills and while this would be his first battle, a part of him knew that this would be a walk in the park even with an army at his beck and call.

“The infantry and foot clan are ready sir, by your orders the siege of Fancheng can begin.” 

The silver locks of the male flowed freely against the refreshing breeze, providing him with relief from the humid air that had become synonymous during his time here. He shot his underling a nod, tightening his grasp upon the long hilt of his ceremonial blade and raised it aloft, to the loud cries of his army behind him. Somehow, he had this effect on people. Instilling them not with fear or dread, but courage. A chance at glory, to seize at with two hands and to covet forever. 

“I offer you this chance, my friends. Let us make this battle one that will be remembered as the turning point of this violent conflict!” Did he just make an inpirational speech? It felt strange, but it was only greeted by even louder cheers and before he knew it, his battalion spirinted towards Fancheng. A proud smirk wrote itself on the SOLDIER’s mouth before he followed suit. Why should his men get all the fun when he was their leader?

Demonstrating his speed, he dashed past his smaller allies, his long legs providing him with a sprint unmatched by any other. The fireballs from within the castle began firing out at his men, and with a smirk Sephiroth responded to the threats in kind. Masamune glowed bright silver as if the moon’s sheen had graced it with its ghostly energy and sliding to a stop, Sephiroth would perform two slashes at the fireballs, shooting the wind energy from within his blade to slice the projectiles out of existence. 

“All soldiers, DISPERSE!” Ordered Sephiroth as he continued to cut a path for his men to reach the gates. This was all a part of his master plan. 

“The firebombs they use to destroy us will not be an issue. Just follow my lead and we will be fine. I will provide ample support so that our men can make it through the fields without much harm... Knowing how Wutai likes to fight, they will open the gates for us to send their own soldiers to respond to mine. If the firebombs don’t work, they will use their blood instead. Surrender for them is never an option.” 

“And if that doesn’t work, Sephiroth?” 

“Well then, I’ll break down the gates myself.” 

The battle had only just begun, his first contest of strength against the nation he had sent to squash by ShinRa. Soon enough however, his analysis of Wutai’s tactics had proven correct as the piercing screech of iron against stone rang out across the battlefield. Daimyos, Ninjas, Samurais, Archers. How primitive, but underestimating their tenacity would be their downfall. 

The call to fight burned within Sephiroth, his adrenaline now coursing through his veins. Strange how his calmness still remained, as if being in the presence of combat was like coming home after a hard day’s work... 

“All soldiers, ATTACK!” The eighteen year old was the first to lead the charge, taking long strides forward to eventually meet the Daimyo warlords and their naginatas with his own Wutain inspired weapon. Eventually, his Third Class troop followed, meeting the samurai that intended to engage Sephiroth all the while his battalion of infantry rained fire upon areas that were not being distracted by the troop of skilled melee specialists. 

Sephiroth came face to face with three warlords with a reputation for brutal evisceration of their enemies. The smirk on Sephiroth’s face faded as he took his stance, the noises of the conflict becoming faint around him as he eyed the three targets with his glowing catlike eyes. His right hand raised to support the long hilt of masamune while the blunt end of the blade rested elegantly on his right bicep, the sound of his leather glove creaked as his left hand gripped harder on his soon to be blood satiated weapon. 

“Who are you to dare face the three of us? You are a fool, boy. You know not who you trifle with! We will tear you apart!” 

A scoff would leave the male, a slight disdain at their underestimation of himself. Did they not just see what happened moments ago? Taking a deep breath, he dignified the warriors with a simple, assertive response.  

“Hmph... Come and try.” 

(To be continued...)

[worldly-diversity]

V: A New Moon Rises

Vampire Cloud AU - Verse description under read more!

When the entity Jenova had first been discovered by Shinra's scientists it had been believed it was some form of Cetra, sharing a connection to the earth and the Lifestream. Once experiments began, that theory was quickly discarded. Jenova was ancient yes, but not that kind of Ancient.

It resided in a mentally awake kind of stasis, unable to truly move or communicate physically. However it could communicate mentally with those who had ingested its cells, and several early subjects had been lost due to Jenova's influence, driving them mad and causing them to turn on the scientists.

it took time for the cells to be refined and experimented with to a sufficient degree to cause only minor risk within a subject. The SOLDIER class was perfect for these types of experiments, having already displayed a strong resistance to Mako poisoning and its effects, in turn being more resistant to the corruption of the Jenova cells.

What the scientists found fascinating was that the degree and purity of Jenova cells could go so far as to alter the biology if not outright the DNA of the subject in question. Most died from the procedure, the change too violent to be endured, but not so for SOLDIERs. They survived. The trouble came after.

Sephiroth, Angeal and Genesis were fine test subjects, and each displayed varying symptoms associated with the altered structure of those with Jenova cells. Heightened senses beyond that of what Mako treatments could achieve, increased speed and strength, a strong sense of danger and premonition that in essence could allow them to dodge a sniper's shot, and a very durable body. So durable, in fact, that injuring them became a challenge in and of itself.

Beside these symptoms came the change in required sustenance. Regular food was not digested and in fact seemed to cause illness and nausea more often than not. The subjects showed an inclination towards a more carnivorous diet to the point of eating nothing else, and an aversion to even the scent of cooked food in those strongly affected by the cells. Eventually it was discovered what sustenance their body required henceforth: blood.

The consumption of blood caused the Jenova cells to adapt more rapidly to the body, whether human or animal seemed to pose little difference in terms of nutritional value, but the difference became apparent when feeding animal blood to an injured SOLDIER as compared to human blood. One healed in mere hours, the other took far longer.

Blood supply was a concern, naturally, but considering the war with Wutai, their enemies had litres of the substance that they would no longer require in short order after all. And after the war donations could be made among the Infantry, and animal blood would suffice as well.

In those most in tune with the Jenova cells something else seemed to occur as well, new pathways forming in the brain, creating a connection with the 'maker', Jenova itself. By their own admission, the SOLDIERs injected with the cells were considered the entity's children, and all showed various levels of activity in terms of being drawn to the cells' host. Shinra files indicate it is unclear whether the subjects displayed signs of advanced telepathy, as shortly thereafter the project was forcefully shut down due to unforeseen circumstances and the subsequent loss of the primary study subjects.

Sephiroth. Genesis. Angeal. — TERMINATED

When Cloud came to, surrounded with a green glow and a difficulty concentrating from the fuzziness in his head to the pain in his body and oddly enough his teeth… He didn't know what to think. All his strength, what little he had, had left him, and he floated within that tank teetering on the edge of life and death constantly, a voice speaking softly in the back of his mind, words unintelligible yet somehow soothing despite how alarming it should have been.

Zack managed to free them both, escaping from the rebuilt Niebelheim and surviving as best they could. As a SOLDIER, the older boy had more experience dealing with the bloodlust inherent to the injected Jenova cells, whereas Cloud had never fed from anyone and as such was both hopelessly lethargic and pretty much completely useless during their escape.

It wasn't until they were cornered by Shinra soldiers, that that changed for him.

He'd slowly been regaining a steadier stream of awareness, his body and teeth aching with a hunger difficult to identify and no idea of what exactly had happened to them beyond vague flashes of a sketchy looking man peering at him through the glass.

Whatever Zack was doing after leaving him near those boulders, Cloud wasn't quite aware until a few infantrymen tried to recapture him. Seemingly out of nowhere he drew the strength to snap the neck of one and drain the other dry. Nothing had ever felt so exhilarating as that, though the shock of having killed someone for the first time had yet to set in.

Now a bit more aware and strengthened, Cloud set out to find Zack, but the desert seemed endless, and he didn't know which way to go. Separated from probably the only person who could explain everything without pointing a blade or a gun at him, Cloud was forced to figure everything out himself.

Midgar loomed before him, familiar and yet not, and he swallowed thickly. The burning was always there, in the back of his mind, begging him to feed. But when he tried regular foods he usually enjoyed, he found he could eat none of them. It took time, several blackouts and the rumours of a killer on the loose before he figured it out. He was the one causing those rumours. It didn't help that he tended to wake up with blood on his face after such a blackout either…

So he hid in the slums, slowly coming to terms with whatever Shinra had turned him into back in Niebelheim. It was no easy journey, the urge to hate himself was ever present, but aware he could do more to curb his urges than not, and he learned how to manage it, the hunger, the energy and desire to expel it somehow. It felt like being supercharged with adrenaline…

The jump to becoming a mercenary was an easy one. He was already equipped with gear, good sturdy material, Shinra-issued but he wasn't really picky where that was concerned. The next step was making some coin, and keeping his affliction hidden.

The general populace doesn't know about the experiments on the SOLDIER class, and Cloud only has vague memories of being required to donate blood every so often, so he has very little to go off, learning as he goes.

The difference between himself and other SOLDIERs barring Sephiroth, is that he was given a rather pure form of Jenova cells, making the 'vampire' within all the stronger for it. He could feel himself being called towards something, oft in different directions, as failed experiments sometimes roamed the slums, barely aware of themselves anymore and lacking the strength to feed, their bodies unable to convert the blood into sustenance.

Cloud hates the sight of them, the inexplicable draw to another of his kind, yet paired with the revulsion of seeing what had become of them. Killing them would be a mercy, but Cloud has yet to find the strength for it.

All in all, he wanders the slums, occasionally wishing he could go above the Plate but knowing that doing so would put him on Shinra's radar; he'd better not. He takes jobs for coin, and tends to drain the blood of his kills into secure pouches, so he can avoid feeding on the populace as much as possible.

Leaving isn't an option, but there's a lot he would give to know what happened to him, and what else he both could do and should watch out for.

[im-totally-not-an-alien]

Final Fantasy 7 prompts # 34

1. Sephiroth makes Cloud have a full on mental breakdown and now he feels bad. On the other hand the blond is crying into his chest, and he's really not sure what to make of that.

2. Cloud Strife: King of the Chocobos

Yuffie wouldn't stop calling him that, particularly on the account that they were being followed be no less that nine chocobos. It doesn't help that it's mating season. Yuffie keeps telling him to flirt with them to get a free ride.

3. AVALANCHE giving Nanaki a bath, which somehow induces a water war

4. Protective Cloud looking out for Tifa. He somehow gets pulled into the "Bouncer" role

5. Vincent scaring off one of Clouds many stalkers (of which, Cloud is oblivious)

6. Tifa's wolf ring can call to/ summon Cloud in cases of emergencies via the wolf emblem on his pauldron. Kinda like a summon materia

7. I'm in love with the Commander Strife thing where he joins Shinra post time travel shenanigans and fixed everything.

So:

A. Commander Strife being babied by Genesis

B. Commander Strife becoming Zack and Clouds pseudo big brother

C. Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal, Zack and Cloud try, and fail, to find out Commander Strifes first name.

D. Commander Strife babying the Infantrymen and looking out for them since few people in the company actually care about them.

E. Sephiroth and Commander Strife exploring the bond through the J-cells

F. Commander Strife is given a soft light blue sweater, "so he doesn't have to wear his uniform at the mall again"

G. Kunsel is obsessed with discovering Commander Strifes backstory. He has the corkboard with pictures and string and everything!

H. "Bold of you to assume I know what I'm doing." - Commander Strife

I. Someone vandalized six large walls within Shinras training facilities. Six whole beautiful and highly detailed paintings, each portraying one of the Commanders and one of the General. The last one was all of them together, standing side by side with thier swords at the ready.

The five people in question were so flattered that the investigation was halted and the paintings remained. The perpetrator(s?) was never caught.

J. Cadet Cloud sending home a picture of him and Commander Strife together, to his mom.

She couldn't help but laugh at the goofy faces they were making.

K. Commander Fair cackling madly as he sprinted down the corridors carrying a blushing Commander Strife while being chased by an enraged cake covered Reno.

....the troops decided that they saw nothing.

L. A picture at a holiday party with the four Commanders and the General, all with hot chocolate in hand and wearing a whipped cream mustache

M. Commander Strife just hands Zack a whistle and walks away.

Curious, Commander Fair blows the whistle, and is immediately swarmed by dogs.

N. Genesis drags Strife out on a spa day

O. The Commanders were all in a room when Zack started asking hypothetical questions about thigh high socks and stuff.

He questions how they keep them from sliding down.

Strife answers the question without thinking, and grumbled about how uncomfortable sagging thigh highs were.

===============================

He froze, jaw closing with an audible click and slowly looked behind him to see Genesis and Zack looking at him with an odd gleam in thier eyes.

"And pray tell, little bird," Genesis cooed with a overly sweet voice, "how would you know that?"

The blond panicked a little, "It's a long story."

Zack snuck up to his side and linked thier arms together, "A story that you will definitely be telling us...if you don't want any rumors!"

Cloud stared that them in disbelief, "You're blackmailing me?"

"Of course!" The redhead sang.

===============================

P. Cloud making Genesis a custom LOVELESS themed motorcycle as thanks for letting him cry on his shoulder. Literally.

Q. Everyone is in honeybee outfits. Reno snaps a picture, and runs for his life.

R. Commander Strife is confronted by a man who claims to be his father, which he knows is impossible for time traveler reasons.

He quickly realizes what the man wants when the guy demands a DNA test...after all, the science department has been practically foaming at the mouth, wanting a sample of his DNA.

S. Sephiroth never gave up on figuring out what the mysterious blonde was hiding. He becomes even more invested in his investigation when he hears him mention the Wutai princess by her first name. Suspicious.

T. While he was on the run with AVALANCHE, Strife had always slept with his group. Being the way he was he unconsciously sought out things that were both soft and firm to use as a pillow, which often lead him to sleeping on his team mates.

He wake with his head resting on Vincents chest, Barrets arm or Tifas abs and always, always, always, they would wake him gently by running thier fingers through his hair.

He missed them so much.

U. Vincent has rejoined the world, but refuses to fully rejoin the Turks. This doesn't stop them from throwing him a birthday party.

V. Vincent is commonly referred to as "Vincent the Vampire" and "My Valentine" by Zack and Genesis respectively.

W. Cloud met the chairman/ chairwoman for his fanclub and he realy wishes he didn't.

X. Commander Fair is forbidden from picking movies at movie night. Thats what he gets for bringing X-rated movies, Though the part that Strife didn't like was that everyone was trying to cover his eyes and ears. He wasn't a child!

Y. Commander Strife runs into younger Tifa and has to explain that no, he is not Cloud.

She doesn't believe him.

Z. Zack, Kunsel, and Sephiroth somehow wind up inside Commander Strifes head and decide to snoop. They find out everything and aren't sure how to proceed.

8. Time travel fix it, but from Kunsels perspective

9. Time travel fix it, but from Zacks point of view and he gets caught up in the madness

10. Time travel fix it, but from random SOLDIERS/ Turks point of view

11. Clouds mom goes back in time and takes her 13 year old son by the hand and, armed with only a few materia, marched into the ShinRa mansion and went strait to Vincent.

She gives the wide eyed Turk the tounge lashing of a lifetime. She becomes enraged however, after the former ShinRa spy gives her some flimsy excuse and slams his coffin closed. Long story short, she drags the man out by his cloak with her son close behind, fiddling with his small sword and glaring at the man as if daring him to do anything to his Ma.

Valentine is baffled.

12. Reno makes the wrong move and Cloud finally snaps, telling him exactly where he can shove his rod

13. Cloud is just so tired of being grossly hit on and sexually harassed. He starts coming up with one liners/ insults /refrances to combat the crude remarks.

Example:

Woman: How big is your ****?

Cloud: *said in the tone of those tootsiepop commercials* The world may never know.

14. Tifa gets turned into a frog, but doesn't turn back. Even when using maidens kisses and ensuna she remained an amphibian.

Aerith convinces Cloud to kiss Tifa, which he does, shyly on the cheek. She poofs back to her normal self and they both blush while the flower girl giggles.

No one even suspected that it was her doing.

15. Sephiroth revives and meets Cloud and Tifa's kids, who took one look at him and decided to latch onto his legs and demand his attention.

They also boldly declared him to be thier uncle/ the moon God, and tell him all about thier wierd family.

They told Sephiroth that he'd fit right in with AVALANCHE, to which he genuinely laughed at the irony of the situation.

[wow-thisismylifeiguess]

concept: a sefikura role reversal fic, but like...kinda? sdjhcdhvbdfh, this is gonna be awful, im sorry in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this, but yeah. i….have no self restraint, lol. (also, to anyone who cares, pls do correct me for any minor details i may get wrong in regards to actual canon events)

SO, essentially, cloud is going to be the “big bad” and sephiroth is going to be the one trying to stop him, but instead of it being like a complete role reversal, it’s just alternate events.

let’s start from the beginning. sephiroth is born the same way he canonically is, but the experiments don't go as well for him. instead of him being the best of the three (him, genesis, and angeal), he’s the /worst/. something about the mako tests and experiments simply make sephiroth weaker rather than stronger, but a frustrated hojo refuses to completely give up on him. jenova would talk to him, but in a degrading way, speaking of weakness and powerlessness.

now, i don’t know the details regarding jenova’s history and why she’s in...or near(?) nibelheim, but imma force my way through this anyway. so, cloud’s mother is pregnant and hojo continues with his obsession in making the perfect SOLDIER due to instead of hollander being disgraced, /he/ is. cloud and his mother are prime candidates for hojo’s attention due to the fact that claudia (is that….really her name?) is a single parents and the rest of the town seems to dislike/avoid her for unknown reasons (maybe its ‘cause like in that one fic, claudia is heavily religious in regards to norse myth). cloud is already believed to be a special child, by his mother, and a cursed one, by the rest of the town. hojo gets weirdly close to claudia and does the same thing he did to sephiroth w cloud believing that the second times the charm (it is). cloud is born, claudia dies, and hojo basically kidnaps cloud. nibelheim is happy about this (fuck them). so, unlike in regards to sephiroth, cloud is exceptionally strong as he grows up. he receives all of the training and teachings canon sephiroth went through all while au sephiroth is like ‘wtf, why not me?’. cloud hates it tho and actually becomes kinda close to sephiroth despite the fact that hojo HATES sephiroth for being his failed experiment (though cloud’s success raised his favour in shinra again). sephiroth starts off pretty cold to cloud ‘cause he feels like he’s been cheated, but cloud is like...super sweet and highkey shy and looks up to sephiroth in a brotherly way (due to sephiroth’s failures, he depends on intelligence rather than strength. cloud doesn’t have the patience for books and learning the way sephiroth does and depends on sephiroth usually to teach him information he thinks is interesting). oh, and genesis straight up hates cloud for taking the spotligh (I have yet to finish cc so my understanding of his and angeal’s personalities are v non existent)

it goes this way for a while w sephiroth growing up to become some sort of strategist within shinra and cloud being--

I JUST REALIZED CLOUD WOULD BE SIX/SEVEN AT THE START OF THE WUTAI WAR, HOLY FUCKING SHIT. okay, either i change his age or i keep it and this shit is even more fucked up because of my god, they sent a six/seven year old to fight in a war

--the youngest SOLDIER, but also the strongest. shinra gets a lot of shit for this because...he’s TINY, but his strength is enough for them to shut up about it, proving himself to be instrumental in winning against wutai. sephiroth has gotten stronger over the years, but is silent about it, hiding his development due to knowledge of how he’ll be treated and used by hojo and shinra if they were to find out. cloud absolutely hates his forced involvement in the war but is forced into it anyway and relies on sephiroth as comfort.

anyway, imma stop here for now because I just found the ff7 timeline and i know im gonna spend a lot of time reading and reading this shit to be able to understand any of it (like….why tf is 1999 followed by 0000???? WHY??). alright, im done

[meteorstricken]

Sephiroth Week, Day 3 Prompt: Uniforms

“Tactile”

"Demon," President Shinra announced incredulously, slapping the Wutaian-language news publication down onto his desk. He settled into his chair holding an unlit cigar between his teeth. "This is a smearing portrayal of a valuable company asset."

Tseng stood at attention on the opposite side. Heideggar had reclined into a chair, resisting the urge to guffaw at the headlines, which read in full, "Shinra Boy-Demon Slaughters Advance Crescent Platoon." Hojo leaned against the wall off to the group's right.

"The Turks will investigate the slums for the publishers and ensure a meaningful understanding is reached, Sir," Tseng offered.

"Acceptable first steps for mitigation," Shinra replied, "but this rag made it topside. It's probably spreading outside Midgar. We need rapid counter-programming, and I want to know if Avalanche is involved. Wutai was always going to have an adverse reaction to losing, but no one else should be questioning that Shinra is acting in their best interests."

"Gyahahah! That kid's a hero if you ask me," Heideggar said. "You know how many infantry I'd have had to send into the meat grinder without him? Those boys got to go home and kiss their mommas one more time. Hardly had to fire a shot thanks to Sephiroth."

Shinra lit his cigar and puffed out a few smoky rings. "Sephiroth, celebrated war hero. We can sell that. We'll publish our own account and promote fanfare. Adjust his age to sixteen for the official story, and make sure no one says any different. Set up scripted media interviews with the cadets who came home early. They were proud to serve, would have done whatever it took, but they're happy to be back. If there are any eyewitnesses, it's all glory, minimal carnage. Sephiroth's an unmatched prodigy and they want to be like him. Let's turn this debacle around into a recruiting boost."

"Yessir," Heideggar barked. "By the time my guys are done, we’ll have their girlfriends calling the wrong name at night."

"…Right. Professor, prep Sephiroth for a dress uniform photo-shoot tomorrow morning. One of my assistants will meet with him and the camera crew to determine designer uniform options. "

Hojo lightly cackled and pushed up his glasses. "Very well, but I may need to sedate him…Sephiroth's enhanced mako regimen has given rise to certain uncompromising tactile sensibilities."

Shinra shook his head. "Work around that. The public needs to meet a sharp, lucid face, not a specimen."

"Hm..suit yourself," Hojo replied.

--------------

Sephiroth had originally been scheduled for a battery of mental exercises this morning, but this photo-shoot had usurped it at the last minute. Attempting to sleep had become unpleasant after returning from Wutai, though he'd been reassured it was a common occurrence treatment would resolve. Shouldn't that take priority? Pictures were usually for the lab, but he'd only been offered a hurried explanation that this was supposed to mark his first war victory.

He frowned at the crisp, starched blue button up and matching jacket that hung in the dressing room with him. Unfamiliar medals and pins adorned the jacket's left breast, and its shoulders were inlaid with a circle of silver stars. This was not the military's standard issue uniform for anyone, even higher ranking officers. If a change was coming to their design, there were simulations and hired models. Why were these untested clothes necessary to convey his performance in the war?

The short, quick-spoken woman outside the door who'd introduced herself as President Shinra's assistant had instructed him to put the button up on over the low, v-cut white undershirt he normally wore from day to day, and to wear the jacket over that. It was too much. Layers were claustrophobic for him, and anything that sat too close to the front of his neck gave an impression of being strangled. He sat down on the bench and pressed himself into the corner, hesitating. The idea of being so covered, and in all the wrong spots, made the room feel smaller and hotter the more he considered it.

"Need help adjusting anything in there, kid?" the assistant asked after several long moments.

"No. I…these aren't suited for me," he responded, struggling to keep calm, hoping that excuse would suffice.

"Ah. Well, the President did say we might need to try a few things to make it work. Let's see…You know, let's cut the crap and just go for the prototype special ops one. It's functional, so you'll be literally dressed to kill!" she laughed.

Sephiroth didn't know what to say to that--he required only selective armor to battle effectively--so he waited in awkward silence as Shinra's assistant rummaged through boxes and plastic wrappings around assorted articles. First, a pair of black leather pants swooped over top of the door. Inspecting them, he felt that the inside was softer than the outside, and cool to the touch. A matching coat, a black turtleneck sweatshirt, and a set of pauldrons followed.

He clenched one hand at the sight of the turtleneck. It was obviously an outfit meant for missions under cover of darkness--an improvement from the dress blues in terms of what he was accustomed to--but the shirt made it impossible. He opened his mouth to protest again, and then shut it. Complaining over physical discomforts didn't have a history of aiding his situation, but he could attempt a compromise. He was able to negotiate his field uniform without too many questions in Wutai because of how he fought.

The pants, he found, were perfectly fitted and allowed for flexible motion--acceptable. That was once piece down he would wear. Shoving one arm into the coat, he quickly recoiled and pulled it back out again. It created an unwanted layer with his t-shirt along his back, giving him the sense that someone was pushing on him. Sephiroth let out an exasperated sigh, and pulled his shirt over his head, hanging it up on the door's hook with the turtleneck.

Trying the coat again, his nerves instantly settled. He'd have to work on moving with the long, draping material around his legs when he trained, but other than that, it felt right on his torso by itself. The collar was unusually high, but it left the front of his neck completely bare--inoffensive enough, and he could use the pauldrons to raise or flatten it as needed. He finished dressing and opened the door.

"We got a winner?" the assistant asked, turning around to face him. "Oh whoops, looks like you missed the shirt."

Sephiroth pouted. He'd missed absolutely nothing, and he'd continue not missing it.

"I…see. It doesn't look bad…Just...just let me check if this will work for the shoot." She left the room to make a call, but Sephiroth could still hear her-- "Sir? Yeah, mostly. Oh, is he? Oh. That would have been useful to know beforehand. We did find something he's comfortable with pretty quick--the ops set--but he's bare-chested aside from the harness. Go ahead? Alright." Hanging up, she added, "Your funeral, boss. Your funeral." She poked her head back in, "Grab your things, kid. No makeup for that baby face, but we'll have to do something about your hair before we get this over with."

"Will I be keeping these?" Sephiroth inquired.

"That's up to Shinra. If it plays well, count on it."

[hiislegacy]

OPEN RP | Muse: Sephiroth | v: Wutai War

How many more needed to be slaughtered? He often did question this to the likes of Heidegger and above, but all the answers came back the same; 'Do as you are told. Never bite the hand that feeds' was the general outcome of it. Sometimes, for if he left any survivors, after what must be some form of guilty conscious,(a weakness in their eyes, and something he was still conflicted over) he would be reprimanded to a severe degree. Stuck in training sessions with grueling hours, and hardly any meals to come before and after. That was the lighter punishment, of course.

The cruelest of ones came from when they ordered him to report to Professor Hojo. This was a monster of a man that he loathed the most, and to be subjected to more and more testing, or experiments. Those were the nights he wished he could be anywhere else, and it was a false kind of freedom to be about in the field of battle, or a mission.

As of now, he was in his private quarters, thinking over the day's work, and of how much trouble he was going to be in from disobeying another rule of theirs. It truly was never like him to be this way, but more and more rules had been implemented as he had grown stronger, through the years since the beginning of this war. Sephiroth glared at the empty white walls, bored out of his mind, awaiting his inevitable doom.

[buffaloborgine]

An over-review and (many) theories of FFVII compilation - Part V

Part I: The Timeline - https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/624717906149818368/an-over-review-and-many-theories-of-ffvii

Part II: The Fated Trio(s) - https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/624817710806827008/an-over-review-and-many-theories-of-ffvii

Part III: To be or not to be - https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/625180368648159232/an-over-review-and-many-theories-of-ffvii

Part IV: LOVELESS -https://buffaloborgine.tumblr.com/post/625631759219015681/an-over-review-and-many-theories-of-ffvii 

Part V: The Culprit 

Before I get on with this part, let’s all agree (again) on one thing: The timeline of FFVII Remake was a mess even before Cloud comes back to Midgard in the beginning of it, as I have explained in part I. 

[If you don’t agree with that, or haven’t read part I, then this part will have a lot of problems to argue, so just go read part I again, please] 

“The most useful form of time travel is to go back a year or two and rectify the mistake we made.” - Matt Lucas. 

Whoever decided to go back and wreck the timeline of FFVII must have their purpose and it is shown clearly in Remake: To change the flow of events and defy destiny. 

To Aerith, if she could stop Sephiroth from becoming the one who calls down the Meteor to destroy the Planet then she can change her own destiny. At the  end of the highway, it is Aerith, who actually shows sympathy to Sephiroth, saying “They.. Their words... They don’t reach him. All these moments and memories, precious and fleeting... they’re like rain rolling off his back. And when they are gone, he won’t cry... or shout... or anything.” Instead of trying to fix other things, Aerith knows that Sephiroth is the main cause and that if she can fix him, then everything will not happen the way they were supposed to. 

To Sephiroth, if he can manipulate Cloud sooner than he did in the original timeline then Cloud and the team won’t be able to stop him from destroying Gaia, therefore he can reach his true aim, becoming God. We can see Sephiroth trying to reach out to Cloud very early in the game, just right after Cloud is back to Midgard, then the moment Cloud meets Aerith, etc; what Sephiroth does is emphasizing his influence on Cloud, telling Cloud that his purpose is to save the Planet, asking for Cloud’s help. By changing his method to approach Cloud, Sephiroth is trying to fix his “fault” so as to defy his destiny. 

But then, let’s be honest, do you believe that the mess in FFVII Remake is caused by either Sephiroth or Aerith, or even both? 

We already know that Banora still exists on the map since Shinra didn’t bomb them because the poster of Banora White juice in Midgar. We also know that Tseng had his hair down before the time Before Crisis actually happened, thanks to the flashback cutscene of Elmyra. Also, the Wutai War is still going on. Therefore, if there is someone who actually messed up the timeline, that must be someone who knows about the events of Crisis Core and Before Crisis, and that can’t be neither Sephiroth nor Aerith.

So why I am so certain about that?

- First of all, Banora. There is no point for Sephiroth to actually try to prevent the bombing of Banora, he doesn’t even know about it, or if he does, he wouldn’t mind. It has been shown in Crisis Core that after that event, Sephiroth doesn’t even mention about it, he doesn’t care. It also is no problem to Aerith, she may know about Banora, but does she know about it being bombed? Aerith can sense when someone entered the Lifestream, but she doesn’t know exactly where they were; or she may get the knowledge about it after she entered the Lifestream, but even if she knows about it, does she needs to actually prevent it? No. 

- Secondly, Tseng. The best I could come up with the scenario for Tseng to let his hair down before the events of Before Crisis is that Veld was never a Turk which leads to Kalm never got bombed wrongly and Veld lives a normal life with his family (or maybe Kalm was still bombed and Veld died along his family in it, causing the whole Before Crisis event never happened). Sephiroth may know about those events in Before Crisis, but he never actually had any significant part in it, and he doesn’t care about the Turks so there is no point for him to fix this. Aerith knows about Tseng, and yes, she could want to fix Tseng’s destiny, so let give Aerith some possibilities here. 

- Finally, Wutai War. The fact that this war is still going makes it impossible for both Sephiroth and Aerith to get involved in this. Sephiroth was the hero of Wutai War and Aerith obviously wants peace, not war, both of them have no reason to let the war continue. 

Then, the question is, if neither of them is the culprit behind the mess in Remake, then who is? 

Well, the culprit must have all the connection to the three events above, also, must be someone who has already died in the original timeline so they are in the Lifestream and can manage to manipulate the Lifestream, or must be someone that is still alive after Dirge of Cerberus (the last point in the chronological line of the original timeline) and has a connection to the Lifestream so they can manipulate it for the time travel. By doing a quick short, we narrow down the list. 

- Vincent is alive after DoC but he seems fine with the result of DoC so he doesn’t need to travel backward for anything.

- Zack is tied to all of those events above but as the end of Remake, he is surprised that he is alive, so it means that he is no culprit. 

- Angeal could be the culprit, because he is the type of person that wants to fix things and save people, but exactly because of that, if he is the culprit, he would want to end the Wutai War. 

- And finally, Genesis. We see him still alive after DoC, he is closely tied with Banora, there is no proof that he needs to fix Tseng but we know that he does know a lot of things about the Turks (due to the way he talks to Tseng in the factory in CC), and as for the Wutai War, Genesis was jealous with Sephiroth about being the hero, so by keeping the war continue, Genesis could prevent their relationship from faltering apart. Also, he did say that he will come back, and I believe he will. 

In conclusion, I believe it is Genesis would be the most possible to be behind the timetravel;ing trainwreck in Remake, because he has the most reasons to do it. (Also the Stamp mascot, as it is shown in Remake that there are two different Stamp puppies in two timeline, it is obvious that the mascot is changed between different timelines. And besides, why a puppy? As we know Zack is referred as "Zack the puppy" by Angeal but from whom did we know about that? Angeal's mom, and then Genesis)

Thank you for reading, this is basically the last part of my theory, maybe there will be more, but for now, it ends here.  

[talesfantastic]

//Like or comment if you want to roleplay with Lazard Deusericus, from the Compilation of FF7!  Muse Page Here.

Wishlist

FF7 Compilation

Friendship development

Interactions with other ShinRa employees, especially his SOLDIERs

People who know him from ShinRa seeing him off the clock, especially dressed down/blending in in the Slums

People who know him from the Slums, either before he worked for

ShinRa or as a part of the sort of “double life” he’s got going on.

Someone forcing him to be less of a workaholic/go home at a reasonable hour/take care of this idiot pls

Pokémon Crossover / Fusion

Interactions with any of the Pokémon Rangers

Interactions with Pokémon in general

Friendships in and outside ShinRa

Verses Under the Cut

FF7 Compilation

Pokémon Crossover / Fusion

FF7 Compilation

V: Wild Child (Before ‘87)

Lazard’s years growing up in the Slums, from birth to age fifteen when he first joins ShinRa.

V: In the Company (Pre-CC/BC, ‘87-’00)

Default ‘verse. Covers the five years when Lazard works in Finances, and the eight years as Director of SOLDIER leading up to the events of Crisis Core.

V: Pivot Point (CC/BC)

Here the timeline diverges into one of two outcomes.

If Lazard works with Hollander: it’s as a double agent, and he seeks to work both sides of the line, not abandoning his other SOLDIERs while trying to use Hollander to save Genesis and Angeal.

If Lazard turns Hollander down: Crisis Core continues as normal, Hollander finding support elsewhere, but Lazard does not defect and continues to serve as Director of SOLDIER until the Nibelheim Incident.

V: Vanished (Post-CC/BC)

If Lazard worked with Hollander, he is discovered to be a double agent and held in a mako tank, not found until around the time of Advent Children. Hollander conducted experiments to attempt to turn him into an Angeal clone, but was interrupted. As a result, Lazard has enhancements roughly equal to a Third Class and has developed a few of Angeal’s behaviors. His recovery takes place in Mideel, where he is currently living once he’s able to live on his own again.

V: The Defector (Post-CC/BC)

After losing Angeal, Genesis, Sephiroth and Zack - after being ordered to be a part of the various coverups - Lazard hits his limit. He quickly gathers his men and his resources and defects to Wutai where he sets up operations. There’s a good chance, when he hears about the WRO, that he may bring them back to Edge to help Reeve out.

V: Everything’s Fine and Nothing Hurts (AU, CC/BC+)

Crisis Core era, open ended timeline, but Genesis never degrades and the status quo goes undisturbed. Flexible development of events, everyone-lives, happily-ever-after AU.

Pokémon Crossover / Fusion

V: Not As Expected (Crossover Default)

They’d thought they were getting a pawn, but Lazard refused to be manipulated by anyone, even (especially) upon discovering his previously unknown heritage. Instead, he becomes a strong voice on the board, the strongest advocate and defender of his Rangers, ready to fight the battles they can’t and protect them in ways even their strengths won’t allow.

V: Spare Heir (Fusion AU)

Lazard was thoroughly manipulated by his father, blindly believing that he hadn’t realized he’d had another son and accepting his rank as Director as an attempt to “make things right” - but when war breaks out between ShinRa and Wutai in response to the President’s misdeeds, he ultimately chooses the Rangers. When the President is arrested, he steps up as his younger brother’s guardian, but will be all too happy when he can return to being nothing more than a director.

[anthropos-metronff]

Anyone else feeling the speculation v reality of First Soldier is probably going to mirror current speculation on future Remake v reality?

Speculation on First Soldier: It’s going to be about Sephiroth’s childhood, or maybe Genesis, and feature intricate multi-chapter storytelling about the war in Wutai, Hojo, Hollander and the Jenova project. I AM SUPER HYPED!!

First Soldier: haha mobile beat ‘em up goes brrrrr

Speculation on future Remake: Zack lives, Aerith lives, the entire plot and story diverges in a complex, multi-faceted narrative arc no-one will ever be able to explain involving fate, time travel, and destiny. Multiple choices and multiple endings and a final fight between Aerith and Sephiroth at the epicentre of the multiverse, with the possibility of siding with Sephiroth who actually is a good guy. All fan fiction collapses under its own superfluousness and Genesis turns up and the entirety of reality ripples outward in a wave of SUPER HYPED.

My theory on how it’s closer to be: Gast’s first name is now canonically ‘Walter’. Also, the Chocobo Sage now has a granddaughter who helps you on sidequests.

[bloodfcst-a]

given the revival of the vii fandom with all of the hullabaloo surrounding remake, i can think of no better time to do this meme. i also suggest you check out my updated nav page if you haven’t already! i worked really hard on it okay sobs.

things a new rp partner should know about me !

write 3-5 things a new rp partner (or those who want to be) should know about you and tag 3-5 people! it should be related to rp and not to other interests. 

tagged by: no one, but it’s a shame bc... i got thoughts. you were warned.

tagging: @angereve​ @enshijou​ @breselin​ @serophs​ @strfe​ @fractempyreal​ @extremepath​ @localmagicalboi​ @shimmerseas​ @duplikiss​ @verumking​ @asterites​ + if it strikes your fancy.

i. i am not your mother’s/father’s yu.ffie blog. while i do have a verse reserved for compilation content, that’s not the main premise of this blog. if you came here for oversexualized underage ninjas.... i’m going to have to direct you elsewhere. out here we’re primarily an adult modern interpretation... who does not daylight as a ninja constantly. she can, however, be a y.akuza or a sheltered member of high society who enjoys kicking ass for justice so if you’re interested in that, y’know. c’mon down.

ii. the typical ‘ yu.ffie is a kleptomaniac ’ / ‘ stop stealing my stuff ’ trope is like. one that grates my very existence. i have talked about this many times, but for those of you who are new: yufi has only stolen out of necessity to her cause. the only time i’ll refer to petty theft on this blog is if she like steals a fry or something. if we’re joking around, okay, but... please don’t consider that to be the sole core of her characterization. i’m begging. i’m on my knees. i’m warning you, i’ll cry and then i’ll probably ignore whatever post you’ve mentioned it in if you’re serious. just. don’t be that person if you’re following me.

if we’re going into it, the only times she’s stolen anything were: > in crisis core, as the ‘ treasure princess. ’  but this is arguable, as the treasure is truly up for grabs to start with & zack repeatedly goes after these locations she’s sent to him ( which, by the way, were sent to her from rufus to attempt to retaliate against + destroy shinra hq ). zack already knew what was up when: 1) she showed up in his spam folder; 2) she literally said she’s on the hunt for treasure; and 3) he knew at least after the second time that he was gon’ get goinked ( please see definition #2 ) so... can’t help him there. > in vanilla vii, when the party is foolish enough to meet her and not recruit her off the bat ( it be ya own self ). to be fair, 99% of her interactions with easterners / non-wutai prior to that moment had been people who either wanted to kill her or exploit her, so... it’s only self-preservation to use them before they use her or worse, leave her for dead. a sad reality for a 16 year old. > in vanilla vii, only after the party arrives to wutai & she thinks she can successfully finish her mission of “ getting all the strongest materia. ” after she’s captured, she does apologize, and then afterward makes cloud sign it in writing. so. y’know, she did learn from her mistake & said “ ugh, guess i gotta put that diplomacy training to use. ”

y’all could argue that she’s a thief class and that’s what they do, but note that it’s NOT one of her core skills-- it’s a MATERIA. which means everyone out there with a steal materia could be out here being a kleptomaniac. cloud? barret? tifa? red xiii? none of your favs are safe. her skills in the game, however, are shit called “ blood festival ” ( oh? see the username’s relevance all of a sudden? aha! ) and “ doom of the living. ”  she’s out here summoning ghosts and reigning otherworldly power on ur ass but... fandom wasn’t ready for that conversation !!  some folks were too BASIC and couldn’t handle her true strength... so i will gladly champion that for you.

iii. i like to emphasize that yufi is an emotionally strong yet traumatized figure, which stems from her origins and that i just put that in the forefront. we have a character who is haunted by her mother who died after childbirth, seemingly rejected from her father yet held to the highest of his standards, has attachment issues because she’s the “ black sheep ” and doesn’t just accept defeat or dejection even if it comes from her core community, survived multiple wars, has led in post-war rescue efforts on multiple occasions, was wrongfully imprisoned, was on the forefront of pandemic outbreaks as a first-responder, joins and rises to the top of an organization created to restore world order, is one of the two top operatives in said organization ( and the one out on the field longer--sorry vin.cent, but u only got involved at lu.cretia and when the actual gunshots disturbed your brooding and wine session filled isolation sessions. but like, mood tho ), pretends to be cheery despite clearly remembering all the hauntings and death and other bullshit she’s been facing since she was a toddler.... oh, and she disarmed bombs when her country was wrongfully targeted + used as political bait for terrorists...when she was a child. that’s canon, if we’re talking about  “ accuracy. ” even in vanilla vii, she had no outlets, no one to turn to, ‘cause everyone was cloud vc: “ not interested. ”  

so if you’re on this blog, it’s not like you won’t see happy  yufi... but realize that i recognize that she is multifaceted and has a lot of baggage. emotional issues which unfortunately i bring to every verse gfdohfofh but u know, it’s core to her character + y’all gon have to deal, or... idk, go find another yufi. i’m not forcing you to be here.

iv. in my opinion, the best plotting comes with ooc conversations/interactions. i’m not saying if we plot that we’re required to be friends, ‘cause i don’t wanna force anyone into friendship, but i truly believe that if you want super deep plots with frequent interactions, we should... probably talk more than once. pretty simple, imo !  sometimes people claim i play favorites, but i really don’t... if you never talk to me and you don’t respond to my attempts to interact, then how am i supposed to know you’re interested? 

as a general rule, i’ll put in as much effort as i receive. if i see you’re interested in me, if we’re really vibing when it comes to plotting, if you’re sending asks & liking posts, we’ve got some threads going, rad !  if i like starter calls and send you asks and message you and you never respond to me... ?  i’ll take that as a sign you don’t wanna talk + i should move on to someone else. if i’m wrong, well... do something to change my mind.

v. i know i went hard as fuck on this meme, but that’s bc I’M REALLY PASSIONATE ABOUT ABOUT THIS MUSE.  in reality i’m actually quite soft + a weenie babie. if you ask.......... most people, i think they’d say i try really hard to be approachable and adaptable. i think everyone who talks to me on discord laughs at me because i’m scared of the stupidest things + i love to make jokes and just be funny and relatable. so please be nice and love me and my sassy fighty extremely tough deprived child. we both need hugs. 

kthx i’m finally done.

[aegisregalis]

v; Dirge of Wutai

OPEN FOR ALL GENERAL INTERACTIONS CROSS-OVER: Final Fantasy VII SHIPPING: Open for plotting AGE RANGE: 25+ AFFILIATION: Amicitia Clan SPECIAL NOTE: Based upon: Final Fantasy VII (1997), Before Crisis, Advent Children

Gladiolus was born in Wutai to Ianthe and Clarus Amicitia in εγλ 1980.  The Amicitia Clan were high ranking nobles in the Wutai nation; known for their skill in weapon crafting, enhancing the weapons with the use of materia, as well as their combat ability.

He spent much of his upbringing shadowing his father Clarus Amicitia in the citadel, learning the skills to both craft and wield various weaponry, to prepare himself for his role of future clan leader. 

Gladiolus was 12 years old at the advent of the Wutai War in εγλ 1992, and the clan prohibited him from fighting in the war. Instead he was forced to continue his training and studies, while he watched his clan march into fray of battle. Months before the Wutai War came to an end, Clarus succumbs to injuries received in battle and dies at the Amictia manor surrounded by his family.  Gladiolus then assumes the position of clan leader after Clarus’ death. 

When the Wutai War finally comes to an end in εγλ 0001, Gladiolus becomes dissatisfied and angry with Godo Kisaragi’s concession of the once mighty Wutai Nation to the Shinra Electric Power Company, allowing the village to be used a whimsical tourist attraction. Unable to come to terms with Godo’s decision, he decides to withdraw the Amicitia clan from Wutai, abandoning his ancestral citadel and manor to settle elsewhere.  

The Amicitia clan finally settle in the village of Kalm, rebuilding a modestly sized manor and weapons workshop from the rubble of the devastating explosion that occurred years earlier.  

PLOT POINT

While traveling through Kalm the main party members can encounter Gladiolus in his weapons shop or at the tavern. Upon speaking to him and telling him that they soldiers/workers for hire, they have the option of assisting him on his mission to recover his father Clarus’ missing War Sword for a significant amount of gil or an upgraded weapon of their choice. Upon completion of this mission the option of persuading Gladiolus to join their party will be available.

[chosenrule]

Verse: It has Been a Beautiful Fight. Still is.

Eventually I shall put this in the verses page, but for now, a hopefully more in-depth description than what I will write later. In any case, this verse is plotted and single shipped with @thronelessprince.

The year is 1986; rising tensions between Wutai and ShinRa spark growing desperation in the former. If it comes to it, this will be a war they know well they cannot win no matter what they throw into it, for the might of ShinRa is far stronger than the depth of their pride. Whispers of a young boy in Nibelheim with strength like no other are carried back to the inner workings of the country, and a plan is hatched: if they can steal away this prize of ShinRa, they may yet rear the dawn of their salvation. And it is with a great deal of espionage, careful planning, and no small measure of luck that they manage to not only abscond with the young Sephiroth, but keep him hidden away from searching eyes.

For years, Sephiroth is raised in the shadows, trained from the time he could hold a blade to use it. Still, he is allowed very little childhood; those who care for him know it is a luxury they cannot afford. However, he is brought up with the beliefs that he is the last of the Cetra, and he who will someday deliver Wutai from ShinRa’s wrath.

And eventually, that day comes. War breaks out while he is still a child, and to preserve themselves, Sephiroth is brought to the front-lines, where he quickly wreaks havoc on the ShinRa troops; though he is but small, none but two SOLDIERs can withstand the force of his blows. And though Genesis and or Angeal are consistently deployed to counteract Sephiroth, he never kills them. He knows he could burn brighter, fight stronger. Perhaps overwhelm them, and remove them, too, as a threat. But he never does; fascination with two enemies stays whatever anger boils inside him.

Thus, the war drags on for another five years. The people are weary, and any and all attempts to take back Project S are met with bald faced failure. But ShinRa knows the dangers of letting their pet run rampant, and so... A deal is struck between the two sides: Wutai’s guardian will marry ShinRa’s prince, so that there may be peace brokered between them -- and the crown jewel of the Science Department returned to his proper place.

Sephiroth is still SOLDIER’s general and a First Class by the start of Crisis Core a year after his wedding. He has already manifested his wing, and displays it proudly at all times, as he considers it to be a gift from Leviathan -- he is thus still referred to as the One Winged Angel. He is, however, legally Sephiroth ShinRa ( which to me, personally, is v v cursed )

To the surprise of many, Sephiroth and Rufus actually get along exceedingly well, and there’s not really any hurdles barring their individual awkwardness and that that comes from them both being late teenagers. Rufus still, however, remains under house arrest and only leaves when smuggled out by Sephiroth.

Angeal and Genesis both eventually become Sephiroth’s best friends; CC follows largely the same timeline. But because of their kindred distaste for ShinRa as it presently was, Sephiroth chooses to help Rufus take over the company, and, after Banora is burned, murders the president. However, as a SOLDIER First Class and SOLDIER’s general, he’s still sent on the mission to Nibelheim, and has the same encounter with Genesis, leading to his week of neurotic consumption of any and all information on the Jenova Project that he can get his hands on, and the following razing of the village of Nibelheim. Instead of instigating a fight with Cloud or Zack, Sephiroth stands near catatonic, staring at the body of his ‘mother’ until Rufus arrives and convinces him to leave with him. Seph doesn’t remember much of burning down the village, nor does he remember texting his husband for help -- but doesn’t deny the former, and eventually finds the text to prove the latter.

Spending an extended period of time trying to piece his mind back together on leave, Sephiroth doesn’t resurface til he’s relatively stable again. ( During this time, Rufus allows limited medical staff to see him, and barely anyone else. Discussions of his husband are quickly shut down with the understanding they not resurface again. ) Despite claims of thinking of retiring early, he returns after Lazard’s death to pick up the pieces left of the office. Instead of Heidegger claiming the position, Sephiroth himself takes it and begins gutting the program. In his wake, it becomes far more humane, though all the more rigorous for the lack of enhancements on its members; he has high standards, and it’s suggested you meet them.

[s-ephiroth]

Sekirura Week [Day 5]

I stared at the prompt for today (Memory Loss/Amnesia) and I thought of both ‘Memento’ and... Robot AU. I blame @rp-cloud for the latter. Bless Robot AUs.

This is a different Robot AU though, so no further context is needed for this one ´v´~

[On AO3] || [Ko-fi]

System Malfunction

If (OS version == JENOVA 7.7) Then {

 Choose Partner Machine  Activate Memory.Deleter Routine

}

It starts as a small thing.

A minor malfunction of his memory card, they tell him when they catch it in a routine maintenance. A problem rather common among the infantry units who were assigned to work with the SOLDIER models. He shoots a look at Sephiroth, who’s watching from outside the room, without any access to that particular conversation. He prays that this doesn’t mean he’s to be taken away from his partner.

(Something about the Jenova OS having a conflicting feature introduced with the most recent update.)

They back up all of his data just in case the issue becomes worse, in case they end up needing to format his hard drive. It’s a process Cloud hates, as he can feel most of his data generating applications being shut down while still retaining consciousness; feeling bits of himself being pulled out even though they remain in his system.

Thankfully, Sephiroth is just out there afterwards, ready to take him into his arms for a much needed hug; ready to let him sink in and accept the comfort that resonates with every wave Sephiroth sends him.

Sephiroth’s the kind of android that's prone to go rogue; a bird bred in captivity who’s more than ready to see the unknown that awaits outside. An unstable SOLDIER prototype who requires a partnership with another machine both to keep him on a leash, never to leave the company, and to allow him to remain operational.

He knows those things very well.

And that’s why he holds onto Cloud; falling into Shinra’s trap out of fear that doing otherwise will mean his own destruction, that obeying no rule will only compromise the system for others who are unrelated to his particular issues.

(Eventually he falls for this little cage holding him stable, making Cloud’s safety even more of a priority.)

He does nothing but one thing that goes against what's expected of him, discreetly hacking into the system during the maintenance process and copying Cloud’s data from the bank for his own, personal backup, intending to minimize the need of an intervention in the case something serious comes to happen; never trusting the company to always repair Cloud instead of simply replacing him.

Sephiroth realizes a problem exists just as he reaches the additional information file, after he finishes copying what he needs.

It shakes him right down to his core.

When he hugs Cloud after the maintenance, it’s both to comfort his partner and himself.

“I hate backups so much,” Cloud whispers, as he always does, even if Sephiroth knows it very well; the information archived in his system as something of high priority, along other small things. The fact Cloud loves sweets, for one, even though the only real use for food they have is the speed up of the charging process by converting such things into electricity.

(The fact Cloud likes to curl up against him while charging; the feeling of their hands touching one another during the process.)

“It’s okay. I’m here,” he says, running a hand through messy spikes of golden hair, “I’m here.”

Sephiroth lets a process run to remind himself that everything will be alright, despite the forty-six percent chance that things might go very wrong.

(It really is a small thing. But all small things tend to escalate quickly.)

Cloud awakens out of his expected time, the movement and echo of multiple applications returning from their standing by state causing Sephiroth to wake up as well, catching concern in glowing, sky blue eyes.

“Where are we?”

Sephiroth watches him, not exactly confused as he half expected it from the moment he detected the issue, but still having a hard time processing it.

“Home,” he says, a small smile forming on his lips when Cloud seems to take the information well and recall whatever is missing of it on his own. Sephiroth gets reminded that they have an assignment tomorrow, as it’s also the function of an infantry unit to organize their SOLDIER partner’s schedule; being more planners and snipers than front fighters themselves.

Hopefully it’s the day the district of Wutai will finally fall and the war will end. If it isn’t, well, Sephiroth’s not sure how much time will pass with them away from home once they’re deployed.

“Home,” Cloud repeats after a while, “I’ll miss it when we leave.”

And just like that, he falls asleep again as though he didn’t just forget a small yet big detail, needing to be reminded of it. Sephiroth sighs, trying to shut down his concern so he can follow suit.

Wutai surely falls, but along with it goes Cloud, eyes flashing red and an expression of panic on his face. At first, it looks as if he’d been shot, even though they got every human, monster and machine in the area down. Turns out it’s really not the case.

Sephiroth dashes to him and holds him close, trying to keep calm but failing, overheating as he runs a simple scan to know what’s wrong. He comes up with no results to show for it, being interrupted halfway through the process by a kiss.

His own vision flashes red and then… there’s nothing.

(But there’s also something, something big.)

Cloud looks up at him the way he did when they first met, but different.

“Unit 0811 ready, awaiting name designation and instructions.”

Sephiroth’s refrigeration system takes just a little bit more of memory to prevent his body from warming up further and causing stability issues. He lets out a breath, taking Cloud’s hand and forcibly connecting to overwrite the contents of the memory card with the backup he has of him.

Cloud hates backups, or just the overall touching of his files by those who aren’t him; the feeling of someone else pulling on the various strings of data.

So when he comes back, not only he’s confused as to what just happened to him, he’s also crying, growing alarmingly hotter as his attempts to understand the situation just failed. He needs Sephiroth to comfort him, to fill in the gaps of everything that wasn’t backed up, to assure him they’re safe even if they’re in enemy grounds.

They both feel the great battery drain from overheating, but all that matters is that they’re both cooling down; that they won this battle and are going home proud, hopefully to a system update that will prevent another situation of major data loss from happening ever again.

There’s something that’s never told to them.

Sephiroth finds it on accident while looking through data he shouldn’t be touching; data that should’ve been protected better but that wasn’t, open to anyone who could hack and do it well.

It’s a virus, spread among the infantry units and made to react to the latest update of Jenova. A data destroying button, meant to dispose of the infantrymen so only the SOLDIER units would remain active, being sent to Nibelheim in an assignment to a supposed new mission… only to be destroyed by the update itself driving them into madness.

The war they fought would be erased from everyone’s memory, along the existence of everyone directly involved in it.

Just as the whole history of Gaia had been, once, at least partially.

The more Sephiroth downloads, the more horrified he is with the things he learns, the pictures he looks at, the data available to him. Of a different Shinra which practically ruled the Planet so long ago, of a Sephiroth who was born a human being but wished for greatness, for godhood and the stars. A Sephiroth he’s a copy attempt of.

He doesn’t quite know how to break such information to Cloud, but he feels he must do so before anyone can realize his intentions and take some manner of “corrective” action.

Cloud looks at him as though he’s the nobody who became a hero in a distant past, but still himself. Still not human, as he’ll never be, but never a simple machine.

Sephiroth thinks it’s a silly decision that Shinra decided to have such a post-war plan of complete data elimination while somewhat recreating the hero who helped bringing them down the first time around, and the unstable general who almost destroyed the world as it used to be. And even worse, that Cloud had planning as one of his main functions.

They sit together on a rooftop in the old robot city of Kalm, watching — just as many other survivors of the incident — as Shinra burns down in the distance. Cloud holds his hand, leaning against his shoulder and whispering words of comfort, sweet nothings filled with hope and dreams.

(Androids, such as themselves, aren’t supposed to dream. But there’s no one left to remind them of that.)

Sephiroth thinks about how much of what happened was a last minute solution. (With a fail rate very close to fifty percent.) The code they managed to come with hadn’t been fully tested, corrupting some way earlier than it should happen, erasing the memory and rendering others without recover.

He wonders what they’ll do now that they have no masters or the rules they used to follow but comes up with nothing. That was the only life he knew and most likely, that was also the truth for the Sephiroth he was based on. He looks at his side and smiles at his partner, squeezing his hand and feeling glad that, no matter the path ahead of them, Cloud’s still by his side.

And with that, he vows not to forget all of which they’ve lost.