Hi there! Name's Alto. She/Her and most likely having an anxiety attack rn. I laughably fancy myself a storyteller. Currently obsessed with Final Fantasy 7 and all things Sephiroth/Crisis Core.
Author of A Monster's Threads on AO3.
Ever Crisis is officially over in October. The game is shutting down and ending service after the completed adaptation of Before Crisis.
Thank you to the devs for all your hard work. Despite my issues with the game, First Soldier was worth it. I'll always be grateful to the game for expanding on Sephiroth's story. And adding so many fun memories, both here and within the fandom.
Most of all, I'm so glad I was able to recap for you guys. I hope you enjoyed my coverage. It was a pleasure from beginning to end. Here's hoping we get an offline version or an official port of First Soldier in the far future.
I hate summer 😔😔😔😔 how would agscz deal with this heat? It’s humid and hot asf I’m dying and musty asf I hate this I feel greasy
Angeal: AGGRESSIVE! SUNSCREEN! ACTION! Smearing that shit on top of EVERYONE! Do you WANT skin cancer when you're older, soldier? EMBRACE YOUR DREAMS AND HONOR AND COVER UP ASAP! YOU CAN WORK ON THAT TAN LATER, GENESIS! SEPHIROTH GET OUT OF THE WATER, YOU'RE STILL EXPOSED! ZACK COME OVER HERE AND DO YOUR SQUATS IN THE SHADE! I WON'T ASK YOU AGAIN, YOUNG MAN!
Genesis: Complains loudly about the heat but particularly enjoys complaining at Sephiroth's apartment. Sephiroth sits there on the couch and reads a book while Genesis lays flat on the tile howling up at the ceiling about HOW HOT IT IS and how THIS IS COMPLETELY UNFAIR and how he's JUST SO MISERABLE AND HOT AND POOR AND SOMEONE PAY ATTENTION TO HIM NOW! Sephiroth...just flips another page and tries to conceal the faint smile playing on his lips.
Sephiroth: Sephiroth is indifferent to extreme heat. Just as he's indifferent to extreme cold. He might work up the occasional sweat, but various temperatures mean nothing to him. His body just physically withstands it like it doesn't affect him at all. Hojo had done many studies on this when he was a child. Sephiroth's body simply balances itself out to endure all sorts of extreme weather. So the blazing heat and humidity barely makes a difference. If anything, he has no idea why everyone's complaining and being so dramatic. It's pretty irritating.
Cloud: Mostly just sticks to the usual Cloud schtick of sitting there looking quiet and miserable. He's pretty listless in the heat. And may or may not suffer from the occasional dizzy spell. He's trying very hard to hide it since his shitty bunkmates keep calling him a girl for fainting. His only consolation is when Zack spots him and buys him some ice cream.
Zack: Offers a free "summer car wash" service so that the locals don't have to hand wash their cars in the hot sun. Mostly just involves him running around in his swim trunks with a garden hose grinding provocatively on people's vehicles to "impress the beach babes". Genesis passes by and verbally trashes the shit out of him...before joining him scarcely twenty minutes later.
If you lived on Gaia and had an opportunity to kill post-Nibelheim Sephiroth yourself, would you do it?
I can barely open a pickle jar lmao what makes you think I'm qualified to kill Sephiroth, much less LIFT a sword to stab him 🤣
If I had an opportunity to kill Sephiroth, even with the knowledge that it would partly be putting him out of his misery, I'm still not sure if I could. I'm not a particularly aggressive person and I don't think I could ever hurt or kill someone, even if they deserve it.
I'd just leave it to Cloud or Zack tbh. And I probably couldn't even watch it happen. It would just be really, really sad.
SephZack floofbal!! (Because my soul desperately needed it, yes.)
Zack’s eyes fluttered shut.
“…you good, bud?” The words were slow, syrupy, earnest. “…ya hangin’ in there?”
Beneath his cheek, a ridge of warm leather bobbed in amusement.
“You’re asking *me* this?”
A quiet smile. “…yeah,“ Zack murmured, his voice a hairline fracture amid an otherwise silent apartment. “‘S’that weird or somethin’?”
Instead of receiving an immediate response, he felt the weight shift him shift and strengthen as strong arms adjusted their hold, the sofa springs squeaking beneath their shared presence.
“Heh, well,” Sephiroth hummed, “I’m not the one recovering from illness.”
Zack mustered up a chuckle. “True…” Then, nestling just a bit deeper: “But, y’know… just wanted to make sure you were comfy, what with how long you’ve been sitting there.” Had it been an hour? Two? An evening? A night? The fog didn't let him remember, but he did know that it was long enough for many waves of sleep to have passed.
Presently, however, Seph’s answer didn’t seem to be impacted by any of those possibilities.
"Heh... don't fret about that.” His voice was just as unwavering as it was amused, as it was fond. "I am perfectly comfortable."
Zack's smile broadened. "...Yeah?"
"Mmhmnn."
But even if he wasn't, or if his muscles were sore or he wanted to retire to his own quarters—
Gingerly, like a heavy boot descending onto ice, Sephiroth rested his chin against the bed of thick, feathery quills, strong arms tightening their hold just so.
"My concern is you right now."
No fever could emulate the sheer warmth that blossomed in Zack's chest, splaying like sunrays through the vaporous layers of shivering and fatigue and parting the doubts that had gathered in hus mind, assuaging all the guilt.
And illuminating a question that'd been voiceless for months upon motnhs now.
"...How do you do it, bud?"
Sephiroth hummed, the vibrations palpable. "Do what?"
"...look after me so well."
And, perhaps, it was the fever that disorted time, making it both stretch and march faster at once. Like Sephiroth needed both a million years and a single heartbeat fo find the right answer.
The right word.
The right name.
"Angeal," Sephiroth responded then, shards of glass on his toungue: wielding both a weapon and precious fragments, careful not to cut either of thwm with their brittleness.
Zack's eyes fissured open. "...Hmn?" Curious, but always careful not to rush too quickly into the serrated topic. "What 'bout 'Geal?"
It was Sephiroth's eyes that fell shut now. "He told me to look after you, you know. Mere days before Wutai."
A slow, hazy blink. "...Yeah?" Intrguied, genuine, unharmed..
Almost awestruck.
Grateful to not have wounded his friend, Sephiroth took the rest as a signal to continue: "I was in my office, yes. Sifting through any information I could find on Genesis. Hardly paying any mind to anyone wlae's presence. Of course, when Angeal answered, I was expecting only to recieve the reports that he routinely delivered..."
"...and instead asked you to look after me?" Zack surmised, having nestled all the closer into his treasured friend's embrace. Instinct.
To which Sephiroth adjusted his hold, accommodating Zack's position. "He told me to look after you, yes"—Then, laced with a sigh"—should anything happen to him."
Not even a fever could murk the implications.
"...You musta been pretty scared," Zack murmured, breathed. "...To hear that so soon after Gen'sis, I mean."
And in some ethereal way, Zack's raw accuracy melted into Sephiroth like balm. "I was, yes," he admitted, seeing no reason to dance around and details. "And very angry."
Zack took a beat to digest this. "You were angry when me met, too. Back in Wutai."
Anorher beat. "...But never because of you," Sephiroth murmured, and shifted his cheek just so. "I hope you know that."
Behind closed eyes, he felt Zack peel his head from his shoulder to press against the other's cheek instead. "...'Course, bud." And then, with a ghost of mischief: "though I know I can be pr'tty annoying."
A vague, quiet smirk. "You know, Angeal warned that I wouldn't be able to resist you."
Zack nuzzled clsoer. "...Yeah? And was he right?"
"Not in the slightest."
"...You're not a good liar, bud."
Sephiroth chuckled.
"Angeal warned me that I wouldn't be able to reject your friendship," the man started, deliberately slow and teasing. "What he failed to warn me of...?"
"...That I will drag you out for meatball pizza every Thursday?"
"Perhaps," Sephiroth acknowledged, and continued to chuckle as he closed the fractional distance that seperated him and his cocooned friend, "but nor did he say that you would become the most important part of my life."
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