#Hollander ffvii

[esamastation]

Part forty-five of Shizuroth, aka, the SOLDIER General's Self Saving Shizun.

Ao3 link.

Previous parts: thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty, forty-one, forty-two, forty-three, forty-four

-

"All these treatments, all these new experiments - and you leave me out? All that awaits me is a sombre morrow… is it?" 

Genesis' words are light and flippant, but his eyes are hard as he stares at the scientist before him. It's not the first time he's made the observation.

Doctor Hollander looks away, uncaring, leafing through his files. "Professor Hojo's recent project has to do with S type SOLDIERs. You are type G. The treatments he's planning aren't compatible."

"Whyever not?" Genesis asks as though offended, leaning back slightly and crossing one leg over the other. They're alone in the examination room, and Hollander has always been weirdly lenient to him, which he is fully taking advantage of, trying to press for answers. "We get the same Mako treatments, do we not? The same power that lights your lamps and moves your machinery flows through our veins."

"The infusion method is different," Hollander says dismissively.

"Injection is an injection."

"You know it's not that simple," Hollander says, giving him a look. "Human body in its natural state can't easily integrate Mako - it needs a carrier. Type S and Type G differ in the nature of that carrier. It's impossible to mix the methods."

Genesis shrugs at that. "And yet we all come out just about the same." The SOLDIER types are one of the many mysteries of the program. There's twice as many S types as there are G types, and as far as anyone can tell, there's not that much of a difference, when it comes to abilities.

Sephiroth is type S, of course, and it had taken no time at all to figure out that the SOLDIERs that had been hijacked by Hojo's new project were also S types.

"Even if you can't see the differences, rest assured, they exist," Hollander says. "Professor Hojo's methods work for S types only."

"And what of us poor lowly G types, then? S types get this attention, all these new treatments, and we're left in the dust? How tragic," Genesis says exaggeratedly, making a face. "Aren't you the manager of us G types? Don't you care about us?"

Hollander glances at him with an unamused look and lowers the writing pad. "You're better off. What Hojo is doing has already led to five cases of Mako poisoning," he scoffs. "And two casualties. It's never going to work."

Two casualties? Those hadn't been reported. "Such trust in your own Department Head, Doctor?" Genesis asks, swallowing his demands for answers. "Maybe there's something you don't know. After all, professor Hojo is putting in all this effort! What he is trying to achieve must be very important."

"Che," Hollander answers. "You don't have to worry about that."

"Oh, I'm not worried," Genesis says. He's furious and mentally going through the list of all the names of the SOLDIERs that had vanished into the Science floors and trying to figure out who they haven't heard anything from. It could have been cadets, a lot of those had ended up in the labs, but Hollander said casualties… 

"Really?" Hollander asks dubiously. "Then why are you asking?"

"Why, I'm intrigued, Doctor" Genesis says exaggeratedly. "We all want to get stronger, don't we? Professor Hojo is a genius, so surely whatever he has in mind is going to be a great improvement to the program. We're all holding our breaths to see the results."

It hits Hollander right where he feels it - in the ego. "Well, you shouldn't be!" the doctor snaps. "Hojo hasn't any idea what he's doing! He's just trying to copy the work of his betters!"

Genesis leans back as though shocked. "But who could be better than the famous Professor Hojo?" Because it sure as hell isn't Hollander.

Hollander seems to sense the sentiment because he gives Genesis a scoff. "Gast Faremis," he says and looks away, shaking his head. "Not that it matters anymore. Never mind these new treatments, Genesis, they have nothing to do with you. Hojo will do what he always does, and there will be a cleanup after, and that's that."

"So, there were other tests like these?" Genesis asks. "Oh no, I must've missed them."

Hollander laughs at that, bitterly. "Every couple of years Hojo gets an idea, the company pours money into it, and eventually Turks wipe the slate clean. That man hasn't had an original idea since - che," he mutters and waves a dismissive hand at Genesis. "Your scans are clean, you're fine! Get out of here, I have work to do!"

Genesis doesn't move. "And what if Professor Hojo succeeds? Will type S SOLDIERs become stronger than us type Gs? Should we be worried?"

"Only of more incidents like at the training room!" Hollander says. "Do not get into your head any ideas about getting extra Mako either! Your doses are calibrated to your physiology, anything more might lead to setbacks!"

"Professor Hojo doesn't seem to care about those," Genesis comments.

Hollander harrumphs at that. "The only thing Hojo cares about is his own achievements. And I do care about you."

Genesis' leans back from that frankly unappealing statement. "Much obliged, Doctor," he mutters.

"I know you don't think much of it, but I do care," Hollander says, eyeballing him unhappily. "You and Angeal both. Have you heard from him?"

Ugh. Him and Angeal, sure, they're the famous ones - but what about the rest of their men? "He and Sephiroth are just fine in Wutai," Genesis says, standing up from the examination table where he'd been sitting. For all that Hollander is good for answers, the man is still unpleasant, and he's not exactly interested in chitchat with him. "And it doesn't seem they'll be back anytime soon."

Hollander looks unhappy with that. "Angeal is more than Sephiroth's babysitter," he mutters.

Angeal is lucky he isn't in Midgar right now - what's going on in the SOLDIER program would be driving him out of his honourable mind. "Take it up with Lazard," Genesis says and strides out of the examination room.

Though mostly a waste of time, it did confirm that some of the people taken in wouldn't ever be coming out. He knew about the Mako poisonings, the increased doses, the mysterious injections, the guys stuck in the Mako infusion chambers, but not the deaths. He'd suspected, but… now he knows for sure. All that's left is figuring out who. 

Not that it would make a difference.

No one in the Science Department would be doing anything for their sake, not even Hollander. They would just let Hojo run rampant through the program doing whatever he wanted, until… until what, until he got results? No one even knows what the man is trying to accomplish, aside from creation of a second Sephiroth! And how many SOLDIERs would he poison along the way?

Genesis takes a long, slow breath. 

Asking questions isn't getting him anywhere. He needs to get someone into the labs and see what the hell is actually going on in there. Though he's questioned everyone who's gone in and most everyone is on his side, it's not enough. The Scientists of Shinra Science Department are too careful around SOLDIER members.

What he needs is someone they might not be as careful with. Someone who is less dangerous and more expendable.

What he needs is a cadet.

-

I wonder who... 🤔

[little-black-dress-zack-fair]

Hollander: Name your weakness.

Hojo: All of my questions sound like insults.

Hollander:

Hojo:

Hollander: …can you give an example?

Hojo: Can you not think of one yourself?

[getvalentined]

I understand people giving Lucrecia the benefit of the doubt with regard to what she did to Vincent, just like I understand people not realizing how undeniably fucked up Gast was, but the important thing to keep in mind about these characters is that the majority of them are written as being in the throes of some pretty extreme cognitive dissonance.

It's not bad writing, it's that they're hypocrites. They reached a moral event horizon at some point, and they did what they felt they had to do when crossing it.

Gast abandoned a child because he wasn't what he wanted—even having raised Sephiroth up until that point and knowing that he was a pretty normal kid overall, as we can see from his behavior as a young teen in Ever Crisis, Gast still couldn't bear to continue to be responsible for a monster. He knew what Hojo was capable of, because he knew about what happened to Vincent, because it happened in his lab, and he left a literal child in his care anyway. Sephiroth's only crime was not being what Gast thought he was, and Gast damned him to a lifetime of torture under a "father" whose only goal was to use him to prove his own genius. Why? Because Gast had a goal, and the goal was what mattered, the ends justified any means he could devise. He was a man obsessed, driven to the verge of madness in his lust for the Promised Land. A religious zealot with the most powerful scientific team in the world at his disposal, ready to prove him right—and then he wasn't right, and the whole world fell apart underneath him. Ifalna gave him back that stability, because she was a real Ancient, and she gave him a new, better child to care for. A child that wasn't a monster, a child that was his, a child that might one day lead him to the Promised Land, if her mother didn't do so first. When Aerith was born, Gast got to be right again, and therefore all was right with the world. Sephiroth (like Genesis before him) may as well have never existed at all.

Lucrecia openly experimented on a man who loved her enough to die for her, going so far as to apparently use data from those experiments to improve her own academic standing, because she couldn't bear the guilt of being responsible for his death. It wasn't about whether it was the right thing to do, it wasn't about whether she loved him back, it wasn't even about her thesis at that point—she just couldn't continue to live having lost everything as a result of her own impatience, her own lack of regard for everyone around her. She killed her mentor through her own impatience, she gave up her son for experimentation, she didn't stop her husband from experimenting on her ex-lover, and she had nothing to show for it but crippling Jenova toxicosis and an equally crippling cowl of regret.

I could even go into Hojo here, how what he did to Sephiroth was a result of struggling to escape Gast's shadow, how what he did to Vincent was a result of him struggling to prove that he deserved his wife, how everything he did was born from the all-consuming need to do just one thing for which no one else could take credit. Hojo got the director position not because he earned it, but because Gast ran away. Hojo got Lucrecia not because he wooed her, but because he didn't have eyes like the unrequited first love that she killed. Hell, Project S only happened because Project G failed! Nothing Hojo has ever had that was worth anything was because of his work, only because the work of others failed. Why do you think he talks about "failures" the way he does? The failure of others is the only reason he's gotten so far, and he knows that any failure of his own will knock him right off that pedestal—and he's terrified.

None of these people are good people. I don't know that any of them ever were. But in their eyes, everything they did was justified, they took the right course of action, because they took the only course of action that their personal understanding of reality would allow them to take.

Were any of them actually right? Probably not. Certainly not, in some cases. But there's no going back on it now. The arrow has left the bow of the goddess, and there's no calling it back.

[mysterysilverdawn]

You know everything in FF7 could have changed (for the better) if Genesis just used these two scientists as sheaths for his sword.

[altocat]

No one gonna talk about how Sephiroth derailed his entire mission to Modeoheim just so he could check on Zack in Junon?

Those locations are on two different continents of the world map btw. Sephiroth basically stalled a massive world trip across the equator to talk to Zack for exactly five minutes and to give him permission to return to Aerith.

[strelitzia-mystery1097]

How in the heck do Jenova Cells even work?!

I will say here and now that I haven't watched/played/read every FF7 thing in this franchise so if something I talk about is actually clarified in some obscure thing or I get something wrong, then comment about it.

So let's start with the beginning. Who or what is Jenova.

...🤷‍♀️

We honestly have no idea about Jenova'a origins beyond her crash landing on Gaia via meteorite. We don't know if she's the only one of her kind, or if she has successfully destroyed planets before (considering in FF7 AC Sephiroth talks about using Gaia to travel to another planet, that meteorite was probably a planet Jenova destroyed). She's very much your typical cosmic horror creature. But wherever she's from, it's not the planet.

So Jenova crash landed and that damaged the planet, (an injury that the planet is still healing from, hence how wacky the Northern Crater looks) and then Jenova started using her hallucinations/shape shifting abilities on the Cetra to trick them. And then Jenova turned them into monsters. Yes, all the monsters in FF7 are Cetra or descendents of what was Cetra (kind of awkward when Aerith kills them lol).

Side tangent. I wonder if Jenova just works differently on different species. Like if Aerith was exposed to Jenova like what happened to her ancestors would she just turn into a monster instead of what happens to humans? Also does that make all the monsters part of Reunion or not? What would that Cell even be called. M (Monster) Cell? C (Cetra) Cell?

But yeah Jenova was trying to destroy the planet.

Eventually the remaining Cetra sealed Jenova away until 2000 years later she was excavated and mistakenly identified as a Cetra by Gast.

Later on Hojo created Project S and Hollander made Project G in an attempt to create a Cetra that could lead Shinra to the Promised Land.

In Project S, which stands for Sephiroth, Hojo injected Sephiroth directly with Jenova Cells when he was a fetus. In Project G, which stands for Gillian, is where Gillian was injected with Jenova Cells and her DNA was mapped onto Genesis as a fetus (Angeal, while he is part of Project G, was not purposely made for it. Angeal was naturally born after Gillian was injected with Jenova Cells).

The strands of Jenova Cells even function differently after being introduced into a human system, S Cells and G Cells.

Project S was the superior Project and most SOLDIER are created in a similar way to the later created Sephiroth Clones.

Remake implies that there are Project G SOLDIERS too, but it could of been referring to the Tsivets.

So...

How does the Cells function?

Starting with G will probably be shorter so I'll do that.

Genesis and Angeal, while not as powerful as Sephiroth, were still more powerful than most. However the prime time of powerful is short lived. Both of them start to degrade into their 20's and start developing some inhuman abilities.

*ALSO NOTE HERE THAT G CELL DEGRADATION IS DIFFERENT FROM S CELL DEGRADATION*

After an injury that doesn't heal, Genesis starts to degrade. His hair and body starts to go white, he grows a black wing, and most importantly, he can created Genesis Copies.

Genesis can map his cells onto other SOLDIERS and make them copies of him with them still retaining a little of thier former skill in their respective weaponry, otherwise they are just copies of Genesis.

However Angeal is the result of Project G. He has a wing like Genesis (right white wing) but his degradation is slower and he's able to make Angeal copies out of people and monsters. He only properly degrades (white hair and all that) when he tries to self destruct kinda when absorbs all those monsters and forces Zack to kill him.

I do personally find it interesting that G Cells seem to psudo-inherit Jenova's abilities to turn things into a different form. Even Sephiroth wasn't able to do that unless he was using part of Jenova's literal body- Well until Rebirth but we'll get to that.

But there are two things that stick out to me.

One, could Genesis or Angeal experience Reunion or would it be different for them? Is that why Genesis showed up in the Mt Nibel Reactor?

And two, why is Gillian normal? Like Lucrecia was injected with Jenova Cells as a by product of Sephiroth being injected when she was pregnant with him and she's stuck unable to die no mater what. But Gillian was directly injected with J Cells and she kills herself just fine. I honestly don't think there is an explanation for this one though.

Also when talking about G Cells I should talk about the Tsivets but-

I never played DoC and I tried watching Maximilian dood's playthrough of it and I just couldn't.

From what I know is that the Tsivets wear like mako suits otherwise they die? Also they all have real weird powers like Nero (Rip Sonon in that Remake Dlc) and Weiss. Also Shulke can like dive into the internet? I dunno that game was not for me. Please tell me if any of the Tsivets have abilities that are actually comparable to other characters with Jenova's Cells because I wouldn't know.

Okay now onto S Cells woo!

So Sephiroth, probably most of SOLDIER, Sephiroth Clones, and Cloud all have S Cells. And they function pretty differently than G Cells.

For example, Sephiroth can't actually make Sephiroth copies like Genesis or Angeal. Sephiroth cannot physically change any of the people with his Cells like Angeal or Genesis either.

But S Cells are considered superior for many reasons.

Sephiroth can create hallucinations and illusions to change the copies or pieces of Jenova to look like him when needed. Also he never degraded himself.

SOLDIERS and Sephiroth Clones can but that degradation is different for S Cells. Instead of turning white and slowly dying, they become puppets that only try to go and enact Reunion.

The Reunion Theory (Hojo created it) was that if separated, Jenova would come back together, a Reunion.

Sephiroth pre-Nibeheim incident was the most powerful guy but he was pretty human (cat eyes and silver hair not included).

Then things go wrong.

Sephiroth freaking snaps due to Jenova, false information, and other existentialist crisis stuff.

Also here I should address a question. How sentient is Jenova? Is she a mind beyond human comprehension? Or is she much more animalistic and just works off of instinct? Did she intentionally help Sephiroth go crazy or was it just Reunion?

Like her backstory, we don't know. But regardless, it was confirmed that in FF7 it is Sephiroth in control because of how strong his will is. He's insane and mind broken, but he's the brains of the operation for all that happens in FF7.

Sephiroth in FF7 is able to puppet and command the Sephiroth clones, do crazy stuff like flying or going through floors, use illusions, and use Jenova's body to create crazy boss fights. Also at the end he's able to transform himself into a crazy monster form for the final boss fight for the party.

Cloud also is able to like astralproject himself to have a solo final fight with Sephiroth. I don't know what Cloud's potential is with using the S Cells to his advantage but I doubt he would able to use as well as Sephiroth. Cloud did accidentally use the S Cells to get the memories of Zack and Tifa's memories of Cloud though so... that's interesting.

Anyways jump to AC. Kadaj, Loz and Kazoo- I mean Yazoo are remnants of Sephiroth. They aren't actually made of S Cells, but Sephiroth will and power. Once Kadaj gets Jenova's head Sephiroth is able to possess him because he finally has Jenova's Cells. Meanwhile Geostigma is also caused by Sephiroth and Jenova in the lifestream. This is also the first time Sephiroth gets a wing like Genesis and Angeal. His black right wing s iconic afterall.

Okay now it's Remake time.

Sephiroth time travelled woo! Don't ask me how that works with worlds and such. I don't care if we get an hour of exposition in Part 3 as long as it helps me understand what that's all about properly.

However I can talk about how Sephiroth's powers are a bit different thus time around.

Like how in the OG he did illusions, but he couldn't make Cloud hallucination himself as everyone can't see it. I remember in AC Cloud would kinda have a mini hallucination of past memories in that one scene of him clutching his infected arm in pain with the cool Sephiroth cat eyes for a moment (and that is referenced in Remake) but that's all that comes to mind. Just with Sephiroth at least. Cloud had like multiple hallucinations with Aerith and Zack.

New ability two is that Sephiroth Clones can now fuse with monsters. Monsters would have Jenova Cells now that I think about it so... cool.

I do find it funny that Sephiroth took the wing and now the monster thing from Genesis and Angeal lol.

Again, how Sephiroth is able to jump worlds and such is not something I can quite understand yet. I honestly think that's more a Lifestream and Whispers thing than a Jenova thing. Like it's Sephiroth will power (think of the Remnants for example) that gives him that power and not Sephiroth going around injecting whispers of fate with S Cells or something.

Um...

That's all I can think of for now.

Damn, trying to comprehend the biology of a cosmic horror is tough.

[ilminnestrone]

Third chapter is out

OT3: AGS

Word count: 4700

Summary: My queer take on the AGS dynamic in the form of tender and steamy slices of life (1992 - 2002). This is my first attempt writing in English, be kind!

Rating: Mature

CW: implied transphobia, implied homophobia, underage love, eventual smut, aggression

A/N: this is a bit of a filler chapter, but I swear we're gettint to the nasty stuff soon :3

[prismaticpichu]

Good morning!! Today, instead of typing the very dangerous and threatening “jenova cells”, my clumsy little digits typed “jelly cells.” Now two images have slapped me in the face with all their might.

1) Sephiroth as one of those spotted jellyfish from SpongeBob

2) Sephiroth most meticulously cutting the crust off his PB&J sandwich. It takes approximately 23 minutes. It’s an art. There will be NO CRUST—

[crescent-lockhart97]

what is up with ff7 and shitty scientist fathers with no ethics (hojo and hollander) experimenting on their sons 😬😬

[ctkira]

after work hollander doodle yayy

[trilies]

thanks.... hollander....

[little-black-dress-zack-fair]

Hollander: *talking about Zack* Is this a friend of yours, Rhapsodos?

Genesis: Kind of? Not really. He's in my life and there's nothing I can do about it.

[legitimatesatanspawn]

Just remembered this from a Final Fantasy fangroup I was in a while back.

FF7 Fans: "Who's your favorite? I love Cloud/Tifa/Yuffie/Vincent/Tseng/Kunzel/ect ect...."

Me: "Hojo."

FF7 Fans, dreading creepy horny: "... what."

Me, slowly leaking repressed mad science vibes: "Hojo. Also Nanaki but that's because I find the existence of nonhuman character fascinating, especially one so long-lived. He's in his late 40s and is considered a teenager? What does that mean for his species. How can they survive if they las-"

FF7 Fans: "Okay okay! Man that's a relief. I thought you were like the other Hojo fans."

Me: "... there's other Hojo fans? All I keep running into are people who focus on Cloud, Aeris, Sephiroth. Vincent, Yuffie, and the inevitable Cloud/Sephiroth and Sephiroth/Genesis/Angeal. Also exactly one Barret/Reeve shipper."

FF7 Fans, slowly point at all the Hojo/Lucrecia and Hojo/Lucrecia/Vincent fanart.

Me, genuinely surprised: "I only run into Hojo observing Sephiroth or Cloud in the mako tubes. Or Hojo turning into Helletic."

FF7 Fans: "Send a pic?" sent "... that's a creeper image."

Me: "No, that's mad science?"

(It was, in fact, monster fetish art.)

[buffaloborgine]

Agent C, Cactie the Cactuar

[altocat]

Sephiroth's baby and little kid pictures somehow get leaked to the public, from about 6 months to 6 years. I'm talking naps, bath times, first time eating solids, reading little books, all the cute shit. Since he was obviously an exceptionally adorable child, how does that go down?

Sephiroth is at first moodily passive. But when it keeps happening, the entire building vibrates at the movement of him stomping directly into Hojo's lab to give him a good old fashioned strangling.

Hollander casually watching on one of the camera feeds and cackling.

[venomomega196]

Future Big Roles for Tom Holland Era

Spider-Man (Currently)

Uncharted (Currently)

Sonic the Hedgehog

Miraculous Ladybug

Final Fantasy Series

Resident Evil