#world: midgar

[yangzhouman]

CLOUD STRIFE and the YAOI IDENTITY

[note: this is my slightly-edited submission to yaoi zine vol. 1: what was the yaoi that changed your life? organised by our beloved @tshirt3000. it’s 81 pages of nostalgia, poignancy, and really fucking amazing creativity, all about yaoi. i wrote about FF7, and the zine ranges from arthurian legend to currently-publishing webtoons and all the way back. it’s a real labour of love! and it kicks ass! please check it out here!]

what’s gayer than absorbing the identity of another man? doing it twice. i’m talking about cloud strife from FFVII, a yaoi icon who has carried fujoshi gamers on his shoulders for nearly three decades. i owe everything to him, and i’m sure my highschool friends wish his pointy polygon form hadn’t plagued my mind for all these years. sorry girls.

pretty much everything about cloud is yaoi, from his design to his character to his story. did you know the designers deliberately made him “less masculine” so that he could better rival sephiroth? direct quote. until this week, i didn’t — he was meant to have smooth black hair, but was given his defining blond spikes instead. sephiroth, with his long hair and his long sword, exists in deliberate, calculated comparison. it’s easy pickings for people looking for yaoi in a classic contrasting uke/seme dynamic.

but the previous design of smooth black hair and less ambiguous masculinity, now a contrast to cloud, still exists. it went to zack fair, who is notable as the first man that cloud absorbs. he’s the origin of it all in the truest sense: let’s begin with him. 

ZACK FAIR

the most important thing about zack is that he’s dead. it gets weird from here, because every time we see cloud, we see zack — in this sense, he is entirely defined by his connection to cloud, and by how cloud keeps makes space for him even when he really, really shouldn’t.

see, cloud believes he is zack. this is psychological and somatic: for a long time, cloud thinks that he is a soldier working for the megacorporation that runs the planet. but he isn’t. this identity actually belongs to zack fair, who truly was a soldier, and who died protecting cloud from that megacorporation. 

zack died for cloud. cloud becomes zack. this confusion of identity is borne both as a trauma defence and a grief response: cloud believes he is zack so thoroughly that he forgets zack exists, thereby removing that horrific memory from his mind while paradoxically ensuring that his friend is not lost forever. zack is safe within cloud. here he cannot be hurt. 

and cloud’s absorption of zack is total, taking on his mannerisms, his sword, even his skills and relationships. his style of fighting, his attitude to the world — everything. in doing so, zack fair lives on; it’s not zack who died, not if he is standing right here in a different skin.

i struggle to think of something more yaoi than subsuming another man into your being, other than gay sex. nothing says that zack and cloud don’t have gay sex, but it’s unlikely, as cloud is catatonic for a long time — it’s the reason why zack dies, protecting his vulnerable friend. the lack of physicality between zack and cloud works nicely though. there’s a desperation around cloud’s actions here, an unreasonable response to grief/loss/love that speaks of unfulfillment. zack and cloud’s relationship is all about uncrossable distances, and reaching across anyway. there is little response between the two: they can never reply to each other, only assume permission and act in the way they think the other would want. the other’s existence becomes cerebral, established in thought-space rather than physical-space. and the result is a loneliness so desperate it destroys. zack was as lonely as cloud; zack mythologised cloud too, dreaming of delivering him to safety so intensely that he gave his life to this fantasy.

cloud feels immense shame about his inability to save zack, and later on when he realises what he has done, shame about how he has treated zack’s memory. but i think there’s something here about cloud’s respect and love for someone who took care of him. zack is physically and emotionally stronger, openly affectionate and protective. by taking zack on as a mantle, cloud stays safe. by becoming his own protector, cloud embodies zack more truly than zack himself could manage. he understands what it is that zack truly dreamed of, and gives him another chance to be a hero. 

what i’m saying is: cloud did what zack wanted, though maybe in a more extreme form than he had imagined. i don’t even need the authorial stamp of approval, but i have it anyway — in the movie sequel ADVENT CHILDREN, zack appears in ghost form to support a struggling cloud. and his support is simply to ask cloud to repeat the final words that zack ever said to him, knowing that cloud will understand: “you’ll be my living legacy”. 

these words are imprinted on cloud’s yaoi identity. zack totally meant it as a wish for cloud to survive, but i love the weight of burden here: it sounds like something an overbearing parent would say. cloud subconsciously shapes himself around it. and i can’t ignore how it calls to trauma theory of living legacies, too, though i’m sure square enix didn’t mean to express the theory so textually. here trauma is not solely marked by scars, but by the emotions and behaviours that a person experiences afterwards, which grow and take life of their own. it’s about carrying your trauma around with you, and having it change you physically. as janina fisher tells us, trauma manifests in a person’s life beyond the event as “fear, shame, anger … startling, impulses to run or hide or fight, even against one’s own body”. zack had carried cloud’s body around with him, and the weight of it encouraged him onward to his death; cloud truly was his living legacy in that sense. but zack positions himself as cloud’s living legacy, which cloud’s body must carry not as a physical weight, but as emotion and behaviour that cloud cannot help but follow through. this kind of intense doubling-back and doubling-down is the kind of stuff that makes fujoshis crazy, by the way.

this fucked me up for years. i have always loved stories where important characters are already dead: it’s a style of writing that really impresses me, and i enjoy what it does to the remaining characters who have to live with that hole, or in cloud’s case, in that hole. the fact that cloud fills his hole with zack, and also himself, is so twisty and fun. forgetting and becoming a dead guy is fucked up — absorbing the man who died for you is fucked up. but i think zack would have been ok with it. and what’s better than two guys aligning in their fucked up views?

this brings us to sephiroth.

SEPHIROTH

if sephiroth had his way, cloud would also be his living legacy. he’s the most famous villain in FFVII, driven crazy by his mommy trauma and god complex, and cloud becomes his enemy because he keeps thwarting his plan to destroy the planet. he’s also the other half of sefikura, one of the most enduring and epic ships in the yaoi world. cloud has earned his place as a yaoi icon, and sephiroth is on the podium with him.

during FFVII, cloud pursues sephiroth. this is more than just plot — square enix built this dynamic into the game itself, and it was a resounding success within the industry and the genre. this pursuit mechanic involves looping back around the world map to find this villain in previously-explored locations. by updating the map with sephiroth’s presence, we get to feel his omni-presence in cloud’s mind. the pressure that sephiroth exerts upon cloud to think of him becomes more discernible, and more complex, in sephiroth’s response to being hunted by the protagonist: which is to remove any thoughts that are not of him. he turns cloud into his puppet — he forces his way into cloud’s mind on a psychic level, and imposes his own will onto him. chasing sephiroth makes cloud vulnerable; but he must keep chasing the bad guy. he must knowingly open himself to sephiroth because that is his role in the game; and we as the gamer behind him are pushing him onwards, making him dance on those strings again and again so that we reach the ending. becoming implicit in the roles of martyr and murderer is a heady rush that speaks to the success of sefikura in FFVII. we yaoify cloud. how fun is that?

here’s a quote from cloud: “i wasn't pursuing sephiroth... i was being summoned by sephiroth”. he’s being literal here. sephiroth is deliberately drawing cloud closer, forcing him to follow and find him, because he wants to, um, ‘form reunion’ with him. this is also literal. sephiroth wants cloud to be with him, but more importantly, he wants cloud to be him — to obey his commands, to align with his views, to be in total sync with what sephiroth thinks and feels. this part of their relationship is all about sephiroth: narcissistic to the bone, sephiroth’s obsession with cloud is rooted in how cloud continually pulls away from his call and rejects him.

cloud is meant to be sephiroth’s vessel, by the way. not immediately obvious, especially with the care that the designers took to make their visual appearances contrast. but it’s a really fun plot twist, and one that puts cloud’s identity crises into sharp focus. sephiroth’s identity has been forced onto cloud through medical trauma, with his dna inserted physically into cloud’s body, which turns his mental and verbal objections into something of a painful joke. he doesn’t want to be sephiroth. sephiroth sucks, and keeps killing his friends. but cloud’s body betrays itself, betrays him and keeps him from feeling secure in his own identity. there’s no part of him that he can cut out to get rid of sephiroth; and even after sephiroth is dead, cloud feels him. sephiroth is still in him. whose body is it, anyway?

i’ve made sefikura sound fucked up, and it is, kinda. but it’s easy to understand the hold that it’s had on fujoshi gamers. cloud doesn’t go quietly. sephiroth’s oppressive manipulation is what ignites cloud’s will to fight back. 

sephiroth’s insistence that he is the original, and cloud a copy who must submit, is the kind of crazy that appeals to me more now that i’ve come to terms with my leo sun star sign. i suppose it’s visually similar to how zack and cloud had existed, but in practice it is a more dynamic and charged relationship. like his mother before him, sephiroth is a virus: iterative, defined through the suppression of others and the subsequent displacement with himself. he exists only in this state of violence — is made real through it — and he doesn’t want to live in any other way. as derrida puts it, “as soon as there is the One, there is murder, wounding, traumatism. L’Un se garde de l’autre. The One guards against/keeps some of the Other. It protects itself from the Other… The One makes itself violence.”

sorry for putting french in front of you. this aptly describes and complicates sefikura, because actually, it’s cloud finding himself in that abjection of sephiroth. who is he? not sephiroth’s copy; not sephiroth. he is as much a One as he is an Other, and makes himself more of both as he rejects sephiroth. in that rejection he provokes sephiroth again, who must respond. it’s an equal relationship only through its dynamism, in the constant flux and flow of violence that they put each other through. there’s no real hope of reconciliation between them — they are on guard, always conscious of the power they hold over each other. it’s sustainable only if the two of them live forever, and cloud is the protagonist. eventually sephiroth loses.

sephiroth is measurably more yaoi than zack, by the way. zack has a girlfriend, for all that his character is defined by his homoerotic death scene. sephiroth has an obsession with cloud that follows him into the grave and beyond. in ADVENT CHILDREN, sephiroth somehow manifests into physical fragments in an attempt to resurrect himself — and when he does, he runs to fight cloud. (cloud fights alongside his friends, but always ends his fights with sephiroth alone: their relationship is unique.) it’s here that we get sephiroth’s yaoi line: “i will never be a memory”. once again, it’s the final words that cloud hears before sephiroth dies (again, and hopefully more permanently this time). 

i kinda like it more than “you’ll be my living legacy”. i think it’s more comically connected to living trauma theory: yes, sephiroth is in his nightmares, but he does keep physically appearing to haunt him. it ties in well with sephiroth’s narcissism, but also his place in the wider story as a lapsed war hero that cloud had, at one point, idolised. as a young boy, cloud had looked up to sephiroth and tried to emulate him; cloud had joined the army to be like sephiroth. in a way, sephiroth is more of the origin to cloud’s story than zack is. sephiroth’s fall from grace is something a lot of sefikura fans tap into, recognising the toxicity of that connection. all yaoi should have a healthy dose of painful, hilarious irony. 

i also like how in plain text it seems… relatively mundane? not normal, and definitely terrifying to a man recovering from his protagonist status. but also a little bit like sephiroth is cloud’s crazy ex who just can’t accept the breakup. that does trump zack’s parenting line for me. 

anyway, with sephiroth in place, cloud moves from a fujoshi’s delight to a fujoshi’s icon. it’s in sefikura that we see cloud at his most fierce and dynamic, which is hugely appealing. i think the stakes add rather than detract here, and the pain of finding yourself in/with a man who keeps killing your friends is very thrilling. as true rivals, sephiroth gets to transgress some of the barriers that kept zack from cloud through sheer force of villainy, and the intense mirroring between them is revitalising for cloud. sephiroth gives cloud purpose, defining him as an individual again — a One. that’s yaoi.

CLOUD STRIFE AGAIN

the thing is, i’m not sure cloud wants to be a One. not in the sense that sephiroth means it, anyway. cloud’s identity is a fractured thing, broken up by amnesia and survivor’s guilt and the burden of being a protagonist, but it’s deliberate. it’s a defence mechanism, as fredric jameson puts it, against the eroding currents of life that cloud must continue to run through. a poignant image for a broken midgar, and a textual experience, rather than theoretical, for cloud. yet his healing is not to discard parts that do not resemble cloud-before-the-game, but to try and make amends with what’s left — or rather, what’s there. the final third of the game is cathartic for cloud’s identity, when he reconciles the two truths of being neither zack fair or sephiroth. so, what happened to cloud? is he still there; if so, how does he find that part of himself again? or does he throw it all away and start again? no; cloud refuses to live in rejection any longer. he cannot exist parcelled away in the spaces between people, butting up against their edges. instead he starts to acknowledge and appreciate how they touch him. he is made through the interactions of their identities against, and with, his. cloud has always been there. 

in this way, i think he is yaoi. writing from the perspective of his ship halves makes him appear reflective rather than transformative, but in truth he absorbs. he is a space for other characters to go through (i am calling him a hole) and in doing so, those characters are different. it’s in that type of connection that cloud finds his identity, and i find that really beautiful. deleuze and guattari talk about how a fragmented identity shows an unfettered desire that is rooted in the current of life, and who craves life more than someone who keeps being denied it? refusing to cohere to a single, impenetrable ego is a choice, and it’s one that shows a determination to experience the present whilst not letting go of the past. it’s too hard to be done accidentally, and especially to do it twice. cloud’s showing us something here. 

he’s my favourite kind of protagonist, really. cloud resists the archetype of a lone(ly) soldier trudging on, because he keeps seeking out connection, be it for love or security or purpose. it is only in experiencing relationships that cloud can begin to make sense of his life. he can’t exist on his own. he needs to know someone, and they need to know him. 

and that, to me, is yaoi.

[now read yaoi zine!!!!]

[anakinh]

me labelling stuff in my dnd world map using the font consolas: you have to think about the consequences of your actions. your aesthetic choices have meaning. why does your fantasy theocratic dnd world get more sci fi every time you work on it

[pochapal]

my most unshakeable belief continues to be that if you put vriska serket into final fantasy 7 she would have prevented literally all of that shit from happening

[captainadwen]

Honestly by and large I am unimpressed by the Disney cameos in Kingdom Hearts (most are just boring, caricaturesque, rehashes of their movies) but vERY curious by the final fantasy characters who have mostly all been smushed into one world which, by virtue of the majority being ff7 characters, means I'm gonna headcanon it as most like ff7, which means ansem is a shinra

[sansfeargaldin]

4x23 Final Fantasy VII, Remake y Rebirth

Buenas a todos, está a punto de salir a la luz el tan esperado FFVII Rebirth, aquí os damos un poco de antesala. Esperamos que os guste y os esperamos en Twitch; saga_galdin, donde grabamos el podcast en directo. Síguenos en instagram @sagagaldin para enterarte de cuándo y qué estamos preparando. Saludos. Podéis acceder a este contenido en nuestra sección de Podcast o directamente en este enlace…

[holyguardian]

❝ i gave you the truth. you owe me the same. ❞

ASOIAF: Sword of Storms starters.

Aerith's lips twisted at his words. He wasn't wrong — he wasn't even in the wrong, it was a fair ask after all was said and done. She just didn't like feeling pinned. There was absolutely no wriggle room here. Not even a small step for her to dance.

There was a very long, very heavy sigh that left her.

"Right. You're right." Kunsel had been beyond patient, not that he had any other choice in the matter. But he handled himself with the kind of grace she wasn't so sure she deserved.

"You saw them. The... whispers. You also saw... a memory, a moment in time with Zack." The quiet of the inn room seemed to close in around them. Aerith didn't like how heavy the air felt, but she had never been good at these serious conversations. Ever the one to brush things off and dance away from her problems. "I have seen a lot... but in the opposite direction."

She shifted uncomfortably on the bed where she sat. "Something has gone wrong. We are supposed to be heading towards these events that have yet to pass, but things are already changing, and the Planet is in danger. I know that claiming the end of days is the biggest sign of crazy — I do. And yet I have to claim it anyway. There is so much to untangle here, and I will try to answer any of your questions as best I can, but that is one of the bigger truths I have to get out there. Our Planet is in danger, and our group has to save it."

@kunselxsoldier

[yuuminni]

og better idk

[scorching-passion]

Give Roche a broken down HGV or a car which needs a complete rebuild and he’s in his element. He can tell you each individual component of any vehicle and its function as he pieces it back together.  Most definitely a mechanic at heart. Want to keep him out of your hair for a few days? Give him an automobile to fix.

Hand the guy a mobile device or a computer and you can guarantee you will need to teach him how to use it, and once the lesson is finished he will ask again. In one ear and right out of the other. 

Roche is possibly one of the few SOLDIER on ShinRa’s payroll who doesn’t own a single social media account for the fact that he simply wouldn’t know how to run and maintain one. Though he can access digital files he’ll need for upcoming projects and missions, this is about Roche’s limit when it comes to digital information. 

Roche is the type to punch in long winded questions for basic internet searches and gain little feedback. For such enquiries he will usually outsource to those he knows can garner fast results. 

[sakurarisen]

♡ + belonging

Send a ♡  and a word for a headcanon!

Belonging

If there’s anything Sera truly wants and doesn’t realize until well after it happens, it’s a place to belong. She’s had aquantinces, she’s got friends... She’s never had a place or home to call her own, let alone somewhere where she fits in. This is something she finds in Zack and the friends she makes along the way, but it’s not until just before the Nibelheim Incident she realizes this, when she discovers she’s gotten bold enough to tease and play around without fearing the worst for something as small as speaking. She’s found a home. Her place to belong.

And then it’s ripped away, completely so a year later when she’s forced to leave Midgar with an infant Shayan.

Even four years later, she’s still trying to reclaim that feeling and is slowly getting there, especially with her Remake verse and the ability to bring her family back together and settle down with them, but it’s been slow to realize it’s back - Or getting back to that point, at least, given the new hurdles and stresses in the way. But that feeling of belonging... It’s something she craves and is only starting to feel comfortable with admitting she needs.

Having been alone for the majority of her life, shown the darker side of the world and the people in it, admitting a want has never been something she could allow herself to do until she’s 17, nearing 18, and admitting she wants somewhere to be even less so. Wants were bad, she’d convinced herself, and so she didn’t have any until she was shown it’s okay to want... And even then, it still wasn’t one she realized until she noticed she’s bolder. Braver. More comfortable in her skin, and with herself.

Until she’d found her place to belong, and losing that, in full with no way to ever reclaim it or any tie to it like Shayan had been to ground her, would destroy her.

[iwrite-sinsandtragedies]

Day 1 — Soulmates ₊˚✧ ﾟ

Submission for @goldengroovy's @olnfweek2024

MC: Micha

Long ass ramble under the cut 😂

Okayokayokay SO-

I love soulmate au's. I cannot tell you how many fics I've read or how many prompts I've played with or media I've consumed or how many bullshit ideas I've come up with in my own head for them, I CANNOT.

It's just - hhhhhhhhhhhh- Soulmate au's and Time Travel au's are just the shit that gets me out of bed some days 😩💖my world weary soul drinks that shit like medicine, okay?

That all being said, it's probably a little ambiguous which au I picked to some, so let me explain: There are two au's I'm mashing up here really, both are from fics I've read back in the day. One being a Clack fic and the other a Thilbo one 🤷‍♂️kind of calling myself out here but w/e, they were good fics.

The Thilbo one is easier to explain - the concept is "Heartsong" which is, literally what it says on the tin. You find out who your soulmate is the first time you hear them sing (and no, that does not mean everyone is just a naturally good singer - they can be ass at music but, the point is, when you hear them their song is the perfect song for you and your heart knows that). There's a lot of little nuances to this one - things like you hearing your heartsong when you dream so you always know the moment you find them. Also people who have quiet dreams because their heartsong died, sometimes before ever even meeting them. etc etc. The heartsong also seems to expand, in some respect, to instruments (as Thorin plays his harp one night and Bilbo starts to hum without thinking about it because it sounds wonderful to him and that's how Thorin finds out).

Overall, it's a very soft and sweet concept to me and as someone who has a deep love of music, it's also one of my very favourites.

The Clack one is a little less easy to explain? I think. Maybe because it's nuances are so round about but I'll do my best. The concept for this one is "I Only See Colour When I'm With You" - anyone who knows how Clack fics usually go knows where this is probably headed 😂 and I am sorry to have hurt you but, overall, the idea is: You live in a noir-esqu world where everything is black and white. This only changes when you find your soulmate, of course, who brings the world into full saturation and lets you see colour for - possibly - the first time in your life (I say possibly because I genuinely can't remember if you start out colourblind or if it's an age cap thing).

Unfortunately, for as much as I adore this concept, it's been a long damn time since I read the fic and I don't even know if it still exists somewhere. So I can't actually recall if it was a 'you have to touch them' or 'you have to hear them' thing but the fic takes place with Zack on the cliff right before Midgar where he holds Cloud and looks at the sky - so I'm willing to bet it's a touch thing.

I also really loved this fic because it was the first one I'd read that brought in the concept of multiple soulmates to me - As Cloud later sits with Aerith and sees the colour he couldn't see with Zack, meanwhile Aerith only sees black and white, because she was only able to see colour with Zack (who was never able to see colour with her, because he needed Cloud for that).

Essentially, they all needed each other to see the world in colour. As a polyam person who didn't quite realise I was poly back then, it was a very comforting (and now dearly cherished) fic.

Anyways! Now that you have the background on the two concepts, you can kind of get what I'm going for with this piece.

Tamarack, Micha and Qiu are all soulmates in a fuzzy, desaturated world (I'm sorry, I'm not cruel enough to but them in complete greyscale LOL) and the way you find your soulmate is by hearing them sing and, when they do, your world is suddenly vivid and bright and beautiful. Suddenly, you can see things as they were meant to be seen and it's a permanent change (unlike the Clack fic) but things are always clearest and brightest when your soulmate speaks or sings 💖

I get a real kick out of the idea that Micha's known for fucking months that Tamarack is his soulmate (if not years) because he's always listening to her play but never says jack shit about it because he's emotionally constipated that way 😂Though genuinely, it's probably because he just doesn't think he's her soulmate and he's a bit against finding out he's right honestly.

Joke is on him, he's Qiu's and Tamaracks soulmate! And he couldn't have picked a better moment to grow a pair an take the risk 🥰

[ariseur]

Hmmm…Cloud with a s/o thats the EXACT opposite of him? How do you think he’d act?🧐

cloud n his polar opposite 𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪

cloud strife x reader

┊ ˚➶ notes ｡˚ 🎼

guys don’t mention the fact that i have to literally add esoteric angsty poetry in some of my works, it’s a habit i’m trying to break, okay?? 😭

┊ ˚➶ warnings ｡˚ 🎼

none that i know of except intended lowercase (?), lmk if i missed anything though!! 💕

. ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ . ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ . ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄ . ˚◞♡ ⃗ *ೃ༄

❥ cloud with someone who’s entirely different than him would def be an amusing sight.

❥ now we all know cloud. awkward, pretty stoic, his social skills all go into his sword basically. now, imagine him with this happy go lucky, sociable, sweetheart. it’s definitely a contrast.

❥ i think at the first meeting, it would take him some time to get used to you. especially if you’re chatty, then he might tell you to shut up a few times 😭 but once he gets used to you, he’ll somewhat stay quiet. if you flirt with him, he’ll literally combust. he has no idea what to do. leave him alone okay???

❥ once he’s around you enough, he might even start mimicking your behavior with certain traits. if you tease him, he’ll quip right back. he’ll even give you a close mouthed chuckle as your humor rubs off on him.

❥ it’s entertaining watching you follow cloud around like an excited puppy as you circle around him and ask all these questions while he’s just answering nonverbally. or imagine cloud just linking pinkies with you as he looks so determined on making sure you don’t get hurt in the streets while you’re just rambling on with no care in the world.

❥ if you’re the exact opposite of cloud, i assume you’re more extroverted or lively in a public setting. definitely more of a people person than cloud. but there are times where cloud will just drive you out to a quiet place and sit with you, watching over midgar or whatever sector you’re in. he’ll let you ramble on and on to him, listening for however long you want him to.

❥ ugh for some reason i can just imagine this scenario where youre just begging him to dance with you and he says no and then you keep going and pull him up to which he “begrudgingly” agrees and then UGH

❥ DO YOU GUYS SEE THIS VISION??????1??22?3?:?

❥ if you don’t know how to fight, cloud will gladly teach you. hes actually a really good teacher!! he’ll correct your form frankly and will give you a ‘good job’ if you perform correctly. he doesn’t know it, and he definitely won’t admit that he does if he knows it, but he’s a great teacher and he knows exactly what to say. cloud’s 50/50, he’ll either crack a smile or roll his eyes at you when he sees you pat yourself on the back for the simplest success, depending on how long you’ve known him.

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈ ｡ﾟ

“c’mon, CLOUD—! just this one time!”

“no, i told you.” he huffs, “i don’t dance.” his eyes stay closed with furrowed brows, arms crossed while he leaned back in the small garden chair.

you decided to invite him to a family party, which ended up with you practically pleading on your knees for him to dance with you. you two were outside in a small clearing behind the small house as the music blared in the distance. only the whoops of family members and giggles of little kids running around were in the air, making you smile as you extended a hand out to cloud.

“just one?” you tilted your head, narrowing your eyes as you watched cloud exhale through his nose before he finally lifted his gaze to your hand. he observed it warily, almost as if it was a trick. cloud finally lifted his head and looked up at you, pressing his lips together as he considered his choices. he sighed, mumbled something under his breath, and took your hand in his own leather clad one.

you squealed and rushed to hug him, “thank you, cloudd—!” you drew out the ‘d’ as you squeezed him tight. he patted your back awkwardly before you pulled away and grinned at him, lifting a finger signaling for him to listen.

his gaze shifted elsewhere in thought, ears picking up the song blasting in the distance changing from a swing tune to a slow dancing rhythm.

you squeezed cloud’s hand in yours as you leaned your head on his shoulder, trying to ease him out of his stiffness. he closed his eyes, focusing on the music as you coaxed him into a small shuffle. the melody melded you into one being as you swayed with the music, cloud even being confident enough to eventually twirl you a bit.

you give him a sly grin, “y’sure you haven’t done this before, cloud?” you teased. he made a small noise of surprise before he looked away, still shuffling with you. the music was drowned out by the sound of each other’s heartbeats, cloud shaky sighs every time you’d giggle when you tripped over his feet. he reveled in the moments where you two were alone, only your bodies present accompanied with your minds and your hearts, full of love. where you’d persuade cloud to come out of his hideout and remind him that it’s okay to defrost, to accept that he is human and that he has feelings as well. he didn’t have to listen to everybody who’d recognize that he was cool or feel the pressure of their words where they’d only recognize him from a surface exterior. because truth be told, even the coolest of people try their damndest to be alright.

[anakinh]

there's no way that zack read the SOLDIER field manual, which means cloud read it. probably zack's.

(alternatively zack did read but only a bit and only because angeal forced him to)

[rottenpumpkin13]

AGZSC find a copy of Cards Against Humanity and decide to play. How much chaos ensues?

SOLDIERs Against Humanity

• Genesis pulls out a Cards Against Humanity deck when they're all in the break room one day. Angeal's knee-jerk reaction is to dive across the couch and grab it from him.

• Indignant, Genesis asks him what's wrong. Angeal makes it clear that they won't be playing Cards Against Humanity, on account of it ending like every other game they play together.

Angeal: I'm calling it now—Genesis is going to whine about being given unfair cards, Sephiroth is going to accuse everyone of cheating, and Zack is going to cry when he loses.

Zack: That's bogus! Where did you get that idea??

Angeal: Because that's what happened the last time we played Uno, which resulted in a crime scene tape, a table being cut in half and the discovery that you can, in fact, stab someone with a card. *Looks long and hard at Sephiroth*

Genesis: That won't happen again, I assure you.

Zack: Yeah, well behave! We promise!

Sephiroth: And I'll do it again.

*Zack and Genesis slap him upside the head*

Sephiroth: I mean....yes, we'll behave.

Angeal: Fine, but since I'm playing too we'll need a game master.

Sephiroth: Get Strife in here.

Zack: Cloud said he won't play board games with us anymore because he doesn't wanna go to jail.

Genesis: Ridiculous. Sephiroth, come with me.

• Thirty minutes later, they drag Cloud up kicking and screaming (literally). Angeal sets the game up on the coffee table—he insisted that they play right there so that the entire SOLDIER floor can hear them fighting and it'll shame them into behaving.

• Cloud shuffles the deck and hands them out to everyone. Zack takes one look at his own cards and pales, staring at them frozen in horror.

Zack: Uh...are these cards right!?

Angeal: What did I just say about complaining about the cards!?

Zack: I'm not complaining, I'M CONCERNED.

• Cloud pulls out the first black card.

Cloud: "Because they are forbidden from masturbating, planetarians channel their repressed sexual energy into_____"

Genesis: Ha! Dying of dysentery

Angeal: A family of chocobos. This game makes me feel like a terrible person.

Cloud: Sephiroth, you're next.

Sephiroth: Actually, I don't feel that these cards accurately answer the query. You see, planetarians—

Genesis: Sephiroth, do you understand the game?

Sephiroth: I do.

Genesis: Then answer with a card.

Sephiroth: But the cards don't make sense. In what world do planetarians channel their repressed sexual energy into, quote, Filling every orifice with butterscotch pudding??

*Angeal and Genesis lose their shit*

Cloud: Zack, you're next.

*Zack is trembling in fear*

Cloud: "Because they are forbidden from masturbating, planetarians channel their repressed sexual energy into_____"

Zack: Sephiroth's mother.

Angeal: WHAT?

Zack: IT'S NOT ME, IT'S THE CARD I SWEAR *he shows them the card*

Genesis: HOW DID YOU GET A SEPHIROTH-THEMED ONE? THAT'S NOT FAIR.

Zack: Sephiroth, you're not mad are you?

Sephiroth: Of course not. It's merely a game.

Cloud: Zack, one point. Let's continue.

Cloud: "In Midgar County Jail, word is you can trade 200 cigarettes for_____"

Genesis: Blow Up Bianca the Latex Lovedoll!

Angeal: A defective condom.

Sephiroth: Again, I'm unsure how one can trade, quote, "Feeling aroused by vehicular manslaughter," for cigarettes. Usually, when in jail, one will look to trade comestibles and other—

Genesis: I am going to choke you to death with your own hair.

Sephiroth:

Cloud: Zack, you're—stop crying—you're next. In Midgar County Jail, word is you can trade 200 cigarettes for_____"

Zack: A night of passion with Sephiroth's mother.

Genesis: HOW COME YOU GOT ALL THE GOOD CARDS?

Angeal: SERIOUSLY WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR CARDS?

Zack: I DON'T KNOW.

Zack: Sephiroth, please don't be mad!

Sephiroth: I'm slightly irritated, but otherwise calm.

Cloud: Zack, two points. Moving on. "A romantic, candlelit dinner would be incomplete without____"

Genesis: Calculating every mannerism so as not to suggest homosexuality!

Angeal: Oh my god. Dwarf tossing. Zack, are you sobbing??

Sephiroth: Due to my limited romantic experience, I cannot possibly—

Genesis: FOR THE LOVE OF SHIT USE THE CARDS.

Cloud: Zack is having a panic attack.

Sephiroth: But it doesn't make sense. How is a romantic, candlelit dinner complete with, quote, Fetal alcohol syndrome?

Cloud: Zack, you're next. A romantic, candlelit dinner would be incomplete without____

Zack, sobbing: A mutual orgasm with Sephiroth's mother.

Genesis: THAT'S IT. I CAN'T PLAY IF ZACK'S GOING TO CHEAT.

Zack: I'M NOT CHEATING LOOK AT MY CARD.

Angeal: GENESIS, SIT DOWN YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD BEHAVE.

Cloud: WHY ARE WE FIGHTING?

Angeal: WE'RE NOT FIGHTING. WE'RE HAVING A LOVELY GAME AMONGST FRIENDS—SEPHIROTH WHY DO YOU HAVE A KNIFE?

*Zack is sobbing louder and trying to run away, Genesis is holding him down*

Sephiroth: I like to have it on hand should I feel the need to use it.

*Lazard pokes his head in the room*

Lazard: STOP YELLING OR I'M GOING TO CALL THE POLICE.

Cloud: GUYS, SHUT UP. SIT DOWN. Zack, one point.

Genesis: WHY ARE YOU GIVING HIM ALL THE POINTS??

Cloud: BECAUSE HE'S THE ONLY ONE WITH GOOD ANSWERS.

*Lazard pokes his head back in the room*

Lazard: WHAT DID I JUST—

*Angeal rips off his boot and violently throws it at him*

Cloud: Next round. "What's the gift that keeps on giving?"

Genesis: Being a dick to children!

Angeal: A snapping turtle biting the tip of your penis—HEY! WHERE ARE YOU—Cloud, sit on Zack so he doesn't escape.

Zack: I'M GOING TO DIE.

Cloud: Sephiroth, you're next.

Sephiroth: I feel that I need more context to provide an accurate answer.

Angeal: I FEEL THAT I NEED TO REARRANGE YOUR FACE WITH A TIRE HAMMER TO GET YOU TO PLAY PROPERLY.

Genesis: AH-HA! YOU SAID WE HAD TO BEHAVE!

Angeal: WE'RE NOT FIGHTING. WE'RE BEING CIVIL TO EACH OTHER.

Sephiroth: You're red in the face. That suggests internalized anger.

*Angeal rips off his other boot and throws it at Sephiroth*

Cloud: Zack, now you. What's the gift that keeps on giving?

Zack, sobbing: Sephiroth's mother's breasts.

*Sephiroth puts Masamune on the table*

*Zack screams and sobs louder*

Genesis: UGH! WHY DIDN'T I GET ANY SEPHIROTH THEMED ONES??? HOW IS THIS FAIR???

Cloud: Zack, another point to you.

*Genesis flies at Cloud but Angeal and Sephiroth hold him back*

Genesis: THIS IS BULLSHIT. I'M AT A DISADVANTAGE.

Sephiroth: Angeal, you were wrong. Genesis is the one crying because he's losing.

Angeal: CAN WE JUST FINISH THE GAME ALREADY? ZACK, STOP CRYING. SEPHIROTH ISN'T GOING TO HURT YOU.

*Sephiroth is sharpening his sword and smiling sweetly at Zack*

Zack, sniffling: I only have one card left and it's not about Sephiroth's mother. Maybe I'm safe now!

Cloud: Good. Next round. "What did Sephiroth bring back from his trip to the labs?"

*Zack sobs loudly as he holds up a card that reads "AN OEDIPUS COMPLEX"

Sephiroth: THAT'S IT

*Sephiroth dives across the table and grabs Zack by the neck. Zack is screaming. Angeal is trying to pull them apart*

Cloud: Zack wins.

Genesis: FUCK ALL OF THIS.

*Genesis breaks the table in half*

*Lazard pokes his head back in the room*

Lazard: ALRIGHT! NO MORE CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY. YOU PEOPLE CAN'T HAVE SHIT.

[altocat]

Okay I need more of genesis dropping into Seph' & angel's laps bc of reasons (pretty please 🙏)

😈😈😈😈

Genesis INSISTING that he's had the hardest, roughest, most INTOLERABLE day in the world and so he'll just have to lay here and DIE OF SORROW because no one loves him and everything is SUCH a challenge.

And also because Angeal and Sephiroth's laps are very warm and comfy.

Both make an effort to ignore him--It's Genesis fishing for attention like usual. Angeal reads his paper. Sephiroth does the crossword, occasionally glancing to the TV to see if the Midgar Mammoths are leading the game.

Genesis won't let them go so easily. He nuzzles against Sephiroth's arm and whines about how the fates are SO cruel, even the Goddess has forsaken him! To be cursed with such a callous lot in life, abandoned by friends and loved ones, cursed and scorned to a life of emptiness and woe!

Angeal: "Did you want the rest of the meatloaf, Seph? I was going to make a sandwich."

Sephiroth: "It's fine. Go ahead"

CLEARLY this must all be a test! A test of his will, his devotion to the Goddess! If only his efforts weren't so exhausted beneath the sheer weight of his tribulations! If only there were kinder hands and hearts before him! To fill that aching void, oh woe!

"Right now the only void I'm filling is my stomach. He's all yours, Seph."

"Mm. Can you make me a ham sandwich while you're up there? I'd contribute, but it seems my mobility is rather compromised at the moment."

"Right. No mustard, yeah? Thought so. That's fine because we're out."

WOE AND SUFFERING! ANGUISH! DESPAIR!

"Gen, can you stop screeching for five minutes? I've got a hell of a migraine."

AND DEATH NOW! DEATH! ARRIVING THIS LATE HOUR AT LAST! CONDEMNED TO BLACK OBLIVION, UN-ADORED, UNAPPRECIATED! DESPAIR, YE WORLD. AND GOODBYE!

The body goes limp. Sephiroth claps. Angeal just rolls his eyes, digging through the fridge and cabinets.

"Ask him if he wants something too."

"He's dead, Angeal. It was very moving."

"Yeah. A tragedy. Gen, I have egg salad. Would that work? Otherwise, you're getting ham."

Muffled gasp against Sephiroth's leg, trembling hand lifting to clutch weakly at the air.

"With...cucumbers...?"

Angeal rolls his eyes again and goes back to the fridge. Sephiroth smiles and pats Genesis' head.

[esamastation]

Nobody asked but here's some random world building headcanons I have about FF7

Gaia is a dwarf planet that's stupidly rich in iron, which gives it earth like gravity and makes constructions like Midgar, Junon and Gold Saucer cheap.

Shinra scientists haven't discovered DNA yet and most of their medical science is successful via dumb luck of Jenova being highly adaptive and also the existence of literal magic. They probably haven't figured out atomic theory either.

Cetra did some measure of terraforming on Gaia and Meteor is how they did it. They made the Black Materia for a reason and doubt it was because they wanted to destroy the Planet. I think it was to nudge the Planet's orbit to more desirable place. There's bunch of craters all over Gaia, including the bottom of the ocean, and I don't think they were all caused by the Calamity.

The Summons (in their original non-playable cutscene form in FF7) aren't actually creatures from other worlds, they're memories. Each summon sequence is a event that happened on Gaia sometime in its past, that was then immortalised into Materia so strongly that it can affect physical world.

Which means that there was once upon a time an actual living breathing orbital laser dragon capable of spaceflight and the fact that Cid is a dragoon suddenly makes so much sense.

[sephifrog]

reverse isekai sephiroth pretty please I love your work ehehehe 🌸🥰

Hey Anon! You are so sweet I’m glad you enjoy them! I’m gonna throw in self-aware au as well i hope you don’t mind if you do lmk and I'll redo them <3 i hope this is to your liking!

Earth's gravity is definitely heavier than Midgar so I feel he took a little to get used to it, but anything to get to you he had studied all types of magic, alchemy, and meteria to get to your world.

 when you were in the middle of his boss fight and he lunged at the camera you didn’t really think anything of it until the power surged and a 6’7 man was flying towards you.

He’s shocked it worked but isn’t complaining.

You don’t know what the fuck is going on but who are you to question it (you think it’s a dream for a few days jfobsoihf).

He’s a quick study so even though his body feels heavy he’s picking up earth (your) mannerisms.

He doesn’t like being alone for the first few weeks and almost got arrested for having Masamune on him in public (he refused to leave it at your apartment).

he‘s happy for the first time in a long time being with you in your world.

you read enough reverse isakai fics to settle quickly.

He likes the black turtle necks you brought him and enjoys learning how to cook with earth ingredients (“Why is the Chocobo so small you eat baby ones?” “...seph-” you buy him a children's animal book lmaooo).

The first time he went to the shops with you a few final fantasy fans came up and he started to tense up so you had to shoo them away saying he was shy and practicing for the con in a few months.

“What’s a con?-” “Don’t even worry about it” he worries about it and looks it up when you guys get home.

You guys settle into a rhythm and he reads up on final fantasy lore .

“Hironobu Sakaguchi/Square Enix I just wanna talk” becomes a meme in the house.

SPEAKING OF MEMES

He doesn’t get a lot of them but he loves cat memes (the cat salad one is his fav and he always sends it to you).

It takes him a while to fully settle but when he does he is truly happy.

If he needs to get a job he would probably get into security.

Or even cooking I feel he would be an amazing chef -let him trot around a cafe too.

just him in an apron.

He keeps his hair long and loves you looking up styles to do on him.

Feel he's a shit driver but he doesn’t trust Uber so either you have to drive or walk everywhere.

Enjoys watching you play games while he relaxes and reads about the world (he plays when you're not home so he doesn’t embarrass himself- chuckles at the stunned look on your face when he beats you in a round of your favorite game)