#with the dream lucrecia

[prismaticpichu]

Fuck you, Genesis. I hate that you’re right ;-;

[valentimmy]

very old wip

[lucreciaart]

Pandora’s Box

It’s March 14th already where I live. This means exactly one month ago (February 14th) I submitted this piece of art to the chinese GS 24 hours event in celebration of the release of Black Iron Submarine in japanese cinemas in exactly one month from today (April 14th).

I’m so. damn. excited.

[onewingeddragonqueen]

Jenova acts with Sephiroth’s will. What if this Jenova that is influencing Sephiroth is being compelled to do so by Rebirth!Sephiroth? Rebirth!Sephiroth is influencing all of his alternate selves to further the reunion. This is why he says “I need that blade back,” because he did in fact have it already. Maybe he influences Masamune directly to create the blade in the first place just to make sure Babyroth gets it.

[poorly-disguised-apple]

Happy end for Vincent after outliving everyone is probably falling into a deep slumber again but this time next to Lucrecia’s crystal

[silvergreenseraphim]

Hello! Do you all remember the post I shared about Lucrecia’s scene here in the OG?

If not then let me share a very sad connection I made. In this Lucrecia moment she says about her baby (Sephiroth):

“watashi no kawaī kodomo”

This means along the lines of “My cute baby…” or “my sweet little child.” The use of “kawaī” by Lucrecia is the key point because it shows her affection. “Kawaī” is used for cute little things like a kitten or darling baby.

Now here is what the dream version of Lucrecia in The First Soldier calls Sephiroth:

可愛いセフィロス。こっちへいらっしゃい。

“Kawaī Sephiroth. Come here.”

She fawns over her son with a phrase like “Cute, little Sephiroth” and then hugs him. You can interpret it as “sweet” or “darling” as well and that’s how they came up with “my sweet little boy.” It works just fine because “kawaī” is for precious little things.

The point here is that they have referenced this OG piece of dialogue from Lucrecia about her son. It looks like they make a distinction for Lucrecia to always see her son as this innocent and cute child even in a dream. Let nobody doubt that Lucrecia loved her baby even after everything 😢

[altocat]

My current theories on the trajectory of the story:

Sephiroth is gradually going to become increasingly possessed/behave more and more strangely. Alissa is feeding him weird manipulative Lucrecia dreams that are messing with his mind and personality.

Alissa will be revealed as the culprit, the REAL "beast" from the lore legend. She's either a piece of Jenova or an other type of evil entity/spirit. And she was responsible for influencing Masamune to make the sword in the first place.

Old man Masamune is possibly a red herring. To distract us from Alissa.

There will be an inevitable fallout followed by a mini Sephiroth meltdown. Complete with Hojo hallucinations.

Angeal will then prove himself as a true friend by way of supporting Sephiroth in his darkest moments, cementing their bond and keeping Sephiroth stable. Sephiroth will finally open up to others again.

It's this shared bond that they have that ultimately allows Sephiroth to confront and overcome Masamune/Alissa/whoever. And unlike the villagers in the lore, them working TOGETHER is what ultimately lifts the curse and makes Sephiroth worthy of the Masamune.

Also since Alissa isn't really a soldier, we might get a reveal that the REAL last missing soldier was possibly Genesis.

I could be completely wrong on all of this. This is just where I see things currently standing.

[2hoothoots]

(photographer voice) "okay, now let's do one where canon events play out slightly differently and everyone ends up in a significantly worse place because of it"

here's an au of an au because i have issues watched the genghis khan music video one too many times. lore dump + crops/bonus art below

Due to an unfortunate combination of chance factors, Razputin Aquato arrives at Whispering Rock one day late.

He finds the camp a ghost town. The campers are stumbling around, brainless; the counsellors, nowhere to be found. Ford doesn’t know what to make of this kid showing up out of nowhere – but he’s got promise, and with Sasha and Milla out of action, he’s their best hope. He gives Raz a crash course in what he needs to know, and sends him out across the lake.

Raz pulls through, against all odds. But he never gets the starstruck meeting with his heroes Sasha and Milla that he’d been hoping for; never gets to bond with Lili, or any of the other campers. It’s a harrowing and lonely experience for him, but one that ties a burning knot of resolve in his chest. If he works hard, he can be a Psychonaut just like he dreamed. He can save people.

When the alert comes through from Headquarters that Grand Head Zanotto has been captured, Sasha and Milla scramble the jet with Lili on board. They don’t bring Raz along – Ford’s account of his accomplishments is impressive, but without seeing him in action themselves, neither agent is convinced to bring him along on the mission. Sasha invites him to next year’s session of the camp – after all, he clearly has promise, and the Psychonauts are always interested in nurturing young minds.

Raz returns to camp next year with something to prove. He throws himself into his studies with a single-minded dedication, sparing little time to interact with any of the other campers. This time, he’ll show them. He’ll show them all.

Sasha, Milla and Lili are unable to locate Truman in the Rhombus of Ruin. It ultimately takes a week to locate the Grand Head, following an anonymous tip-off (later found to have been planted by Nick). It takes six months for the ruse to be uncovered. Ultimately, Nick is unsuccessful in finding any clues to Maligula’s whereabouts. Lucrecia will pass a few years later, surrounded by a family that has no idea who she really is. Ford never remembers the truth, and when Razputin is fourteen, he takes the secret to his grave.

Truman’s brain spends almost seven months in a box, under poor conditions with insufficient oxygen. When it’s finally returned to his body, he’s not the same man he used to be. He quietly steps down as Grand Head of the organisation, and spends years of his retirement in intensive therapy.

Lili is heartbroken. Her faith in the Psychonauts is shattered. She never returns to Whispering Rock again. Over the years, she becomes more and more withdrawn; isolated from her peers, estranged from her mother, and struggling with her relationship with a father who on bad days can’t even remember her name. The bitterness grows day by day, blooming within her chest.

She’s sixteen the first time she's forced to turn her powers against another person. Even in his current state, her father has enemies – old foes the Psychonauts can’t (or won’t) protect him from. There’s a raid on her house, late at night. It’s only by chance that she’s still awake. She breaks two of the assailants’ bodies, and when she twists her hand, the plants in her father's greenhouse writhe under her command and rip the third one to pieces. It’s the last time that house ever feels like a home to her. She cuts ties with the Psychonauts entirely, and never looks back; the next time they hear of her, it's under a completely different name.

Dogen Boole never returns to Whispering Rock either. He’s thoroughly traumatized by the events at camp, and his parents refuse to send him back the following year. With nobody to help him learn to control or harness his powers, his episodes steadily become worse as he gets older. Although reluctant, his family is eventually forced to reach out to the Psychonauts to help. Compton is still a nervous recluse, and nobody else in the organisation is quite sure how to handle Dogen’s powers. He spends his teenage years in and out of psychoisolation, and is subjected to more and more intense experimentation in the name of “treatment”. Nothing works. In the end, all he has to show for it are the scars.

His helmet is the only thing he can rely on to stop him mulching the cranium of anyone in a fifty-foot radius. There’s no place for him in “normal” society. Just like Lili, he’s driven to become a villain by a combination of circumstances, trauma, and a bitter feeling of hurt and betrayal towards the Psychonauts.

Raz enters the intern program at thirteen, and quickly graduates to the rank of Junior Agent. The Psychonauts he finds waiting for him is undergoing a marked transition from the organization it used to be. Upon Ford’s passing, the only member of the old guard still around is Otto. Hollis is a Grand Head forced to prioritize efficiency in order to keep the Psychonauts afloat after numerous losses and funding cuts.

Raz enters a passionate, determined boy, remarkably talented but who struggles to connect with his peers. When he gets his promotion at eighteen, he’s the most decorated junior agent the organization has ever seen. At twenty-six, he’s in the prime of his career, honed by years of training into an efficient, meticulous, ruthless Psychonaut.

He’s the perfect agent. As far as he’s concerned, that’s all he needs to be.

under-the-cut bonus, here's some tighter crops on the art, and also a couple extra bits and pieces:

dogen's helmet seals up like a pillbug most of the time, to stop his powers from leaking out when he gets stressed. i couldn't find a way to work it into the art while still making clear that Hey It's Ya Boy, but i think it's a neat visual. the extra pic of lili was gonna be a mugshot - at first i was planning to composit her art into, like, a dossier/file, but i couldn't make it work in the end

[pen-and-umbra]

So far, Episode 2 has been quite intriguing. The following is a stream of consciousness with some preliminary theories.

The wisp-things are extremely suspicious. At first glance, they appear to be linked to Masamune the Swordsmith (who kind of resembles a wraith or another type of undead?), but in fact they are Jenova-coded, with those distinctive purple/magenta hue visuals. 

Consequently, Sephiroth's "dream" sequence seems to be induced, similar to Angeal's. The telling purple/magenta vignette around the edges implies Jenova's influence.

Then there's Alissa, who resembles Lucrecia and makes the strangely accurate assumption that she reminds Sephiroth of his mother.

So, what do we have so far? We have an anomalous, off-limits zone that the locals avoid. No one knows how the village was destroyed. We have a legendary swordsmith, whose life-force (?) appears to be maintained by unknown means. We got some classic Jenova effects, purple visuals, and possibly induced lucid dreams or hallucinations. And we have a mysterious carnage survivor who resembles Sephiroth's mother.

My supposition is that there's a remnant of Jenova residing in Igara Forbidden Zone. I previously explored some unusual possibilities derived from the Temple of Ancients narration in FFVIIRebirth, where the Cetra mentioned their celestial adversary's "scattered malignancy". [Link] Unless the message is to be interpreted as prophetic, referencing ShinRA age experiments, it implies that Jenova's biologics were already “scattered” during Cetra's time.

What if the Igara Forbidden Zone ended up sitting atop a sealed deposit of Jenova's biological matter from the Cetran War?

The ground is depicted as having cracks, with some kind of purple substance visible beneath. Furthermore, Angeal observes that the soil is as fine as ash but glitters — and remarkably fresh Jenova's blood or goo has been shown to glitter in the ShinRA headquarters.

So perhaps at some point in time, the residents discover the sealed organic traces. Someone like a swordsmith would be closely dealing with matters of mining ore, so there's a chance of mining taking place in the vicinity. The mining process may have unearthed biological remains that had been buried for eons. Alternatively, there could have been ancient Cetran ruins nearby—perhaps an entombment site—that were intended to seal off alien matter. The opening sequence does feature what appears to be an abandoned Petra-inspired temple carved into the rock.

Although it has strong Wutaian ornamental motifs, it could be a repurposed Cetran site, so the idea stands. 

Masamune's lifespan, if he is a living being, appears to be much longer than that of a normal human, or so his speech about finding a wielder for his masterwork implies. Lucrecia's situation immediately comes to mind, as the compilation states that Jenova cells prevent her from dying, thereby extending her life. While this is an unlikely scenario, Masamune appears to be bound and unable to rest until his sword is passed on.

In this case, it is almost implied that the sword possesses its own power. Could this be a cursed masterpiece? Could Jenova's remnant essence from the ancient war have been mixed in during Masamune's forging process? After all, during the battle, the swordsmith does display those Jenova-esque visual effects.

Another peculiar and somewhat ominous link between Jenova and Sephiroth's weapon can be seen in his dream/hallucination sequence. Jenova-Lucrecia gives Sephiroth a "charm" to wrap around his sword, promising to "always be with him".

Granted, it could be a manifestation of his deepest desires (such as wanting to eat pumpkin soup again), but the purplish Jenova-esque vignette at the edges of his vision lends the scene a sinister feel. What if her power is actually imbued in the weapon Sephiroth carries? In that way, her shadow is always present beside him. 

The act of wielding Masamune is presented as some type of a tipping point in the opening sequence as well. During the intro Alissa mentions that she feels like the world will change once Sephiroth takes up the sword. The notion is further implicitly corroborated by Bachman, who stated the "course of history was altered forever".

Speaking of Alissa, according to FFVII Rebirth, Jenova can "peer into one's soul" and transform into those they hate, fear, or love. With this in mind, Alissa's resemblance to Lucrecia is extremely suspicious and raises numerous questions. Is she real, or a hallucination? It's telling that her face isn't revealed until the party comes into contact with suspicious purple wisps (which allegedly manifest as Masamune battle).

For all we know, if Jenova’s presence is there — if her power is unchained and lingers — then Alissa's might look completely different for Angeal, as her appearance is being specifically tailored to the beholder. It's also worth noting that the opening sequence features frequent flashes of Alissa surrounded by purple wisps and glitching.

To continue this line of thought, is it really coincidental that Bachman is carrying a camera, a device that captures unbiased visuals? Is it really an accident that Bachman is later portrayed as a mumbling, disorganized mess, despite the fact that he ostensibly never participated in the SOLDIER program? It's almost as if someone didn't want him to reveal his findings.

Written by @pen-and-umbra

[crisiscutie]

Some dynamics? 👀...

Pairing: 🕵️Turk Vincent Valentine/Fem! Intern Darling👩‍🔬

Content Warning: Long bullet points? Drama?

༻❁༺ Working for Lucrecia Crescent had been an interesting experience for you... She was a nice lady, MOST of the time. But she had such high expectations for you. Better than being directly under Hojo, at least.

༻❁༺ Rent in Sector 0 was obscenely high. Going into this paid internship helped paid off SOME debts and put food on your table, but it wasn't enough.

༻❁༺ You were just damn an intern. Formerly a paper pusher for Shinra's shitty science department.

༻❁༺ You suspected that something had happened with Lucrecia's past research and experiments, but she never said it outright. Instead, she made you just do busy work on minor tasks, such as fetching samples or sorting through documents.

༻❁༺ You know they were working on something called the "JENOVA project" but yet again, Lucrecia wouldn't tell you much.

༻❁༺ Lucrecia had a particular dislike for you interacting with the Turk bodyguard assigned to protect you both.

༻❁༺ Which you never understood, since Vincent seemed so different from everyone else. He wasn't like the other Turks.

༻❁༺ His concern for you went beyond his professional obligation - he truly cared about your well-being.

༻❁༺ You didn't have any known family OR friends in this shitty department, so he was the only one willing to lend you an ear to vent. Whether it's about Lucrecia's mood swings, your exhausted ness or Hojo being an asshole, he was there for you.

༻❁༺ It took you a while to open up to Vincent about a game you loved to play as a child and even now in your late teens: Queen's Blood.

༻❁༺ You didn't think he'd like it but he became hooked on it as you taught him how to play it. Playing friendly games against the other became one of your favorite pastimes with him.

༻❁༺ You always felt bad about relying on him, but for Vincent, he never minded. He loved spending time with you. Hearing your voice. He also felt isolated from everyone and everything after Lucrecia distanced herself from him. You found a kindred spirit in him.

༻❁༺ He kept you as close as he could. And whenever he saw you were falling behind on your sleep schedule or overworking yourself, he never hesitated to confront you about it. You needed your rest.

༻❁༺ Because of him, you started to push back at Lucrecia at times. You wanted to stop being left in the dark. You wanted to know what you're doing.

༻❁༺ No way is he going to let someone else he cared about fall victim to this damned project.

༻❁༺ And Lucrecia could never tell you why she wanted you to keep your distance from Vincent.

༻❁༺ Strangely enough, there were times she encouraged you two to get closer. In fact, she even suggested that you take Vincent out on a picnic. And you both actually did, but it was at night.

 ༻❁༺ During the picnic, you leaned on Vincent's shoulder as the two of you watched the lively lights from Nibelheim on Mt. Nibel. In that moment, you opened up to Vincent about your dreams of running off into the countryside and living out your days in peace, away from the clutches of Shinra.

 ༻❁༺ He gave your hand a gentle squeeze and tells you that your dreams are possible. ...And he'll help you achieve them, no matter how long it'd take for you to get into the right financial position to do so.

 ༻❁༺ You two talked more and more about it in the following days. And you even told him you wanted him to come along. He had some doubts, but being with you was more important. Despite having some doubts, he realized that being with you was of greater importance.

༻❁༺ Though, you were talked into becoming a surrogate mother for Lucrecia's and Hojo's child. They assured you that you would be taken care of and handsomely rewarded for it. Despite being young and just starting out in your adult life, you saw this as an opportunity to save enough money to run away with Vincent…

༻❁༺ You were so hesitant about it because you were young and just starting out in your adult life, but it meant you could save enough money to run away with Vincent when the time came...

༻❁༺ Lucrecia and Hojo pressed you more about it.. and you ended up caving in.

༻❁༺ You eventually told Vincent about the surrogate pregnancy, even though you didn't want to worry him even more about you. You stayed tough about it.

༻❁༺ But he knew you were suffering. You couldn't hide the immense pains. The sudden bouts of illness from him. It infuriated him, but your wellbeing was more important than anything.

༻❁༺ He told finally told you about the JENOVA project and why you were used as a surrogate mother. It sickened you to no end. You couldn't believe that your mentor was experimenting on her own child (and you, to a lesser extent) in the name of science.

༻❁༺ But hope wasn't lost. He convinced you that you two had the chance to make things right. Give the unborn child a normal life in spite of the terrible experiments done on them.

༻❁༺ You two talked and talked about your plans together and for the child. Maybe even living as a family in Mideel...

༻❁༺ Unlike your intern salary, Vincent had great earnings since he was a Turk. He carefully saved as much gill he could to make your dreams come true.

This was sitting in my drafts and was based on the last Vincent prompt I did.

[rottenpumpkin13]

There's a thought I haven't been able to shake for a while, and Sephiroth's dream of Jenova/Lucrecia in First Soldier is making me question it more. He saw his mother in the dream wearing a lab coat just like she was in the picture he had of her.

Sephiroth must've analyzed that picture over and over, going over every detail, the lab background, the white lab coat draped over her shoulders. He had to have connected the dots: that his mother had been a scientist working for Shinra. But after learning she died shortly after he was born, or that she disappeared, left, abandoned him, w/e, he would've assumed he was taken in by Hojo and Gast and groomed to become a SOLDIER because his mother had died/ left.

Even if he did know Hojo was his father, this poor kid must've imagined a different life, one where his mother hadn’t died, where she had left Shinra behind, taking him far away from Midgar, far from Shinra and SOLDIER, and certainly far from Hojo. He would have clung to the belief that his mother loved him, that she wouldn’t have chosen Shinra’s ambitions over her own son.

Anyway, another layer of hurt to add :/

[rosy-crow]

There are just a few things I’m dreading/worried about seeing because I feel like this story has to address them now and I want them to be addressed!! But some of them are going to be pretty fucked up.

Questions:

• Sephiroth believes his mother is dead in Nibelheim, but apparently he doesn’t right now? Even if he knew she was dead before when he was asking about her, after these dreams and the Alissa stuff, he is likely going to have to face “reality” and accept that his mother is gone. However, Lucrecia is not dead…and Sephiroth believing so just makes me feel like someone lied to him again. So, how and where will this happen?

• Hojo is involved in this somehow. Even if he’s not some grand mastermind or orchestrator behind Robio, he appears as a key illusion that Sephiroth has to face in the trailer for a reason. They built him up a little last chapter for a reason. They’re gonna need to really delve in or at least address SOME of the reasons why Sephiroth grows to hate him more than he does right now. He’s currently still respectful enough towards the old man. But that changes somewhere down the line. So, how will that be addressed? Will it come up in a discussion about fathers? When Angeal explains the Buster Sword maybe?

• There is a shot of Sephiroth inside Bachman’s camera that shows him surrounded by fire in classic Nibelheim style, directly in that village Masamune destroyed.

So, is he really gonna have a bad moment if he keeps getting lured in by Alissa/Jenova/Masamune/Whatever? Will he snap? Or is this just an illusion?

• Nojima said, specifically in a First Soldier interview, that Hollander was going to make a comeback.

WHERE AND WHEN? WHY WOULD HOLLANDER BE INVOLVED OR REFERENCED IN THE ROBIO PLOTLINE? I’m trusting that Nojima wasn’t just having a bad memory day in this interview. The dude takes his work seriously.

• WILL WE HAVE A FLASH-FOWARD THAT SHOWCASES THE RAMIFICATIONS OF ANGEAL’S DEATH AND HOW THAT INFLUENCED THE OUTCOME IN NIBELHEIM?

[holly-fixation]

Normal person reaction to sephiroth's Lucrecia Jenova dreams: Oh that poor kid misses his mom! How sad! Poor baby!

Everyone that played FF7: RED FLAG RED FLAG RED FLAG

[prismaticpichu]

God… now I DESPERATELY wanna write a fic wherein CC!Sephiroth has one of these illusionary dreams w/Lucrecia (perhaps after a mako booster/more cells are injected into him), waking up completely distraught, and someone™️ being there to comfort him afterwards ❤️ 😭

*uploads idea to the brain*

[ilminnestrone]

"She can become those you hate, those your fear, those you love."

Jenova is an alien telepathic monster. We saw her being extracted from the rocks in the form of a decomposed corpse, with an exposed skull and organs. We saw in her original form of a deformed tentacled beast. We know she's not even a humanoid creature in her Boss forms.

But Jenova is telepathic, smart, able to take the form of those she infected. And she's physically confined. All she need is a body to carry out her conquering plan.

And Sephiroth has the perfect body indeed: he's the strongest man alive. He inspires love in his allies and fear in his enemies. He has power and fame. He's a high rank supersoldier. He survived any kind of torture since he was a child. And he yearns for his mom. The only intimate and tender thought he has is the dream of the mother he never had. He's beautiful, he has long silver hair and he wants his mom.

Jenova isn't a beautiful woman with long silver hair. She never was. That's how she's manipulating Sephiroth. She couldn't become Lucrecia because she never infected her directly, only the child she was bearing, so she became the nearest thing: a woman who looks like him.

And all he is is an empty puppet.

[silvergreenseraphim]

Vincent and Sephiroth—Dissidia Opera Omnia

Hello guys!

It’s me, @altocat’s translation anon! I finally made a proper account and customized it so I could put my translations in one place.

I have been a lurker and am very shy, but I wanted to thank you guys for all your kind words and appreciation! I have seen the messages you have all left and you are all too sweet. I hope I can continue to provide some fun insight for everyone with regards to the Japanese translations for certain storylines and characters!

For now, I am working on the latest chapter of Dissidia and focusing on the interactions with Sephiroth and Angeal! But this snippet with Vincent is too interesting to pass over.

—

Sephiroth is on his way to destroying the world, but Vincent has something to say. He sadly chose the worst possible time :(

After teaming up with Seymour, Sephiroth says,

“Let us do as mother wishes!”

Vincent replies,

“Jenova is not your mother! Your real mother said she was thinking of you…she dreams of you, she screamed/cried to be your mother….”

(😢😢)

He then says,

“She would never use you (like Jenova), so break away from Jenova, Sephiroth. Sleep in peace at last.”

Sephiroth himself is in the process of absorbing his power, but he hears Vincent and snaps,

“Nonsense!” or “That’s a lie.”

—

Sephiroth achieves his goal and continues to focus on dominating the world around him, dismissing Vincent, but we have to wonder if this is foreshadowing or a hint for something to come in the future?

Either way, it was very emotional in the purer context to hear Vincent describe how Lucrecia cries for her son, longing for him in desperation. I wish Vincent had told Sephiroth her name, but apparently we have yet to see this happen.

I will make more posts for the rest of the chapters as soon as I can! Thanks again for all the support and shout out to @altocat for indulging my shy asks until now 😅