[fic] "Joint Writing" Final Fantasy VII

[chofi]

Title: "Joint Writing"
Fandom/original: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Characters: Genesis, Angeal, Sephiroth
Rating: PG
Word count: 780
Summary: "To suffer temporary setbacks because of a machine was one thing. To suffer temporary setbacks because of a human playing at machine was quite another."
Notes: jukeboxhound asked me about My Thoughts on Penmanship.

Comments

[animekittysama]

Poor Sephiroth. No one ever thinks he's fun unless he's crazy...

[chofi]

Crisis Core Seph is awesome, but he's got to undergo some development before he becomes that awesome, and it's interaction with Angeal and Genesis that gets him there. Raised in a lab with little to no interaction Sephiroth is... well... I've always written him as kind of not-fun.

[animekittysama]

While I do agree on the main point, I know that the level of interaction Seph recieved growing up is one of those... highly debatable issues and varies from fan to fan. While I certainly believe that Angeal and Genesis were his first true friends, I don't rule out the possibility of there being other wards he might have grown up around, nor do I rule out the idea that he might have attended the Shinra Military Academy*. He mentions "others" during Nibelhiem, but it's hard to tell exactly who those might be. (Unfortunately, the only other confirmed ward of Shinra is Cissnei. She's about seven years younger than him so that is a bit of a gap...)

*Oh Before Crisis and your crazy canon.

[chofi]

I think I'm running screaming from my high school days as a Mary Sue writer, where I interpreted "others" as meaning "There had to be other kids around him! This is where I can put in my OC's!" So, yeah, personal issues, hi. In my head canon Sephiroth's always been sort of awkward, except when he absolutely knows what he's doing. (Although please see the Nibelheim flashback as proof that he can actually carry on a conversation...)

"Others" can now mean "Angeal and Genesis," sure, but these are his friends. He's not going to think about them as "the others".

Still, thanks for making me think about my characterization.

[ardwynna_m]

Gen makes a persistent and effective irritant. Nothing like a little sand in Sephiroth's military issue uniform to get him to loosen it up.

[chofi]

I still don't know how I got this going, exactly. In the chat that started it all, it was more about Sephiroth's frustration. Still, I know that it was Genesis and Angeal that really helped his development, and I think I'm going to have to explore why.

Thanks for reading!

[anyssia]

Lovely! Reminds me of jukeboxhound's questions when she did that card/letter from Sephiroth to Zack via Cloud xD

And this: To suffer temporary setbacks because of a human playing at machine was quite another.

In this spirit, Project Expose Automaton to Personality was launched. Sephiroth would, of course, take to Genesis as a mentor; then admit that he, Sephiroth, was wanting; and at last the rightful order of things would be restored. Angeal had asked that they all get along.

was perfect! I can so imagine Genesis trying to get Sephiroth react his way and getting annoyed because his reactions aren't up to the norm ^^;;

[chofi]

Yeah, that chat was the whole reason I wrote this. <3 I'd wanted more comedy--the Second Approach is probably the best remnant of that--but then I got that scene of Genesis questioning Sephiroth's humanity, and... well...

I got Gen's voice down? Really? <3~ In my long-hand draft of this, I remember putting in some margin notes that said something like "Why does he sound like Balthier?"

Thank you for reading.

[anyssia]

I think Genesis is a character pretty hard to write about. Most of the others, we know from the various FFVII works, but Angeal and Genesis' story was condensed from start to finish in one game, so we didn't get that much history compared to the others

[chofi]

I tend to play up Genesis's "I want to be the very best, like no one ever was", mainly because I was stuck in a similar situation at around the same time. (Basically, going from The Smart One in primary to One of the Smart Ones in secondary.)

As for Loveless, I want to read the whole thing. You know, for research. I will now hold my breath for Square-Enix to get to writing it.

[jukeboxhound]

Project Expose Automaton to Personality

Oh, the lulz that were had.

I (think) know that this was meant to be humorous, but I heard an undertone of creepy with automaton!Sephiroth.

Genesis huffed. "You are like us, aren't you?"
Sephiroth didn't answer.

;__;

Love this. <3

[chofi]

This was originally going to be a lot more lulzy, with Genesis pitching ~*~dramatic fits~*~ over his failures, but I liked the less comedic tone that came out in the drafts.

I wanted to give a little nod to Sephiroth's "I wasn't like the others" from Nibelheim, too, and that's where Genesis's outburst came from.

Thank you for reading. <3