duck bastard
starts to gather all the Sephiroths i know into a nest to talk
duck bastard
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
MR SEPHIROTH
Calliente
duck bastard
there's probably someone who knows way more sephiroths than i do but once it starts getting into this much for me, i wonder
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
look. there's a certain type of person who sees him and goes "that's an autistic person with a fucked up upbringing, just like me"
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
and considering that my types also include "went mad with the madness" and "artificually created/experiment kid" it was only a matter of time
MR SEPHIROTH
for me the type categories are "shitty dad" and "fire"
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
shitty parents are also on there! (me literally counting the whole three times I've been given a canonical shitty biomom...)
Calliente
I looked at Sephiroth and went "oh it's a Greek tragedy except the hubris wasn't even his"
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
... also not wrong
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
especially in crisis core there's very much the feeling of walking towards one end unable to stop it
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
(and also there's a guy spouting poetry for the audience like a greek chorus, sorry genesis)
Calliente
Pffft
Calliente
But yeah just. The tragedy of a man never once given a chance to be normal
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
exactly! exactly!
Calliente
Who still somehow, for a little while, managed to be as good as circumstances allowed him to be, and have friends
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
the tragedy of a man who never even got to know what normal was to imagine wanting it
Calliente
If you pay attention to his circumstances, you can't look at Sephiroth and not go "what if he could have just had a normal life"
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
[taking you by the hands]
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
or even just. a less shitty one! a less actively shitty one!
Calliente
LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE
Calliente
James has been absolutely feral for various AUs, including "what if Gillian stole ALL the child experiments instead of just the one"
Calliente
...that said, though. Seph not knowing shit about normality is. So fun to play.
Calliente
It's either heartbreaking or hilarious, no in between
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
it's definitely one of the reasons i'm considering actually picking him up
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
(I also have an AU but it's catered specifically to me and my love of "forgiveness is fake, restitution is real, redemption via death is a dumb trope and lviing is infinitely harder and more interesting")
Calliente
I have done smutty RP with a Genesis and my favorite thing is Genesis and his hero crush wilting like a rose in a furnace when he discovers sex symbol Sephiroth does not know clinical terms for genitalia are jarring to use in a sexual setting
Calliente
This boy was raised by scientists, he's a virgin, he doesn't know sex slang
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
GOD, yeah
Calliente
Genesis curling up like a salted slug as he has to give Seph alternate terms to use
Calliente
My RP partner and I were WHEEZING
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
I personally hc Seph as ace for exactly the sex symbol reasons - at a certain point the eyes of the press and the eyes of the scientists are hungry in ways that might as well be the same
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
but there's no way he'd know what. normal sex is like for normal people.
Calliente
My sexual headcanons for Seph are interesting in that he's 100% a virgin, and like...doesn't desire sex that much on a purely physical level
Calliente
But give him someone he cares about, and he wants to please them so much
Calliente
It easily translates into sex if that's what they want from him
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
yeah I can see that for sure. the space of "ace but not repulsed, just wouldn't seek it out on his own"
Calliente
Which is also part of his having been used to being a PR figurehead for so long - he's learned to make himself into what people want him to be
Calliente
So yeah I sort of classify him as demisexual
Calliente
(It's really fucking cute because like. He can act like the cool, suave sex god people want him to be, but like. If something jars him or makes him get concerned he breaks character and you realize it's a character)
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
YEAH YEAH
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
it's definitely a character, though I tend to kind of play it in the opposite way in the sense of - he doesn't know how to act any other way in a lot of situations
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
the metaphorical mask is tied to his face real solidly and he doesn't know how to get it off
Calliente
Oh yeah, like - my Seph is similar, but Crisis Core makes it obvious Seph has at least two modes
Calliente
He's got Business Mode, which he's stuck in most of the time, but with people he's genuinely close to, he has a warm mode
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
yeah
Calliente
I've mostly been playing him with people he's close to in my current game
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
for me I'm definitely also projecting - the kind of autism I don't experience all that often anymore but definitely do in some circumstances, which is the Doesn't Know What Feeling Usually Goes Here, Therefore My Act Is "Wrong"
Calliente
Ohhhhhhh yeah as another autistic person I feel that
Calliente
I don't think Sephiroth is autistic so much as. So socially stunted he might as well be because the symptoms are nearly identical
Calliente
He has only vague awareness of how he's supposed to respond to any given social situation
Calliente
And such a drastically limited frame of reference
Calliente
Almost none of which is applicable to like. Any other person on earth
Calliente
So he can't relate to anyone because he's almost never experienced anything like the kind of life they've lived, on even the most basic level
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
see i think he probably has a lot of the symptoms we associate with it because he's also going to have. if enhanced senses are a thing for everyone with mako enhancement then Seph's had that since birth as well
Calliente
Oh yeah definitely
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
nd if you've got social fail and sensory bullshit, might as well commit to the rest of the bit
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
(also tbh not sure I can write a non-autistic character if i try)
Calliente
Very, very valid tbh
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
but yeah that sharply limited frame of reference is - why I would want to play him off a panfandom cast
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
because one of the things I love most about panfandom is that particular moment where two characters with similar life experiences from totally different canons click
Calliente
God yeah
Calliente
I had really good moments with Sephiroth meeting both male and female Byleths from FE3H
Calliente
Cryptid solidarity was formed
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
oh god yeah cryptid solidatiry there big time
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
I live up to my name (ha) and play Eula/Nael Van Darnus from FFXIV who is... a literal Sephiroth homage so you know it's on my dream CR list lmfao
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
(also I am porobably going to pass out soon fyi)
Calliente
I am actually dozing off in my chair here so that's very fair |D
Calliente
omg that's incredible
Calliente
Is he the big tall boy with the long blond hair
Calliente
I am very canonblind to XIV, I'm not an MMO player
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
there are SEVERAL of those but I'm presuming that you're talking about Zenos
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
on account of the "people do not default to gendering Nael/Eula with masculine pronouns after seeing their face, usually"
Calliente
OH yeah that's him
Calliente
Couldn't remember his name
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
I wouldn't say Zenos has nothing in common with Sephiroth but he's not the Meteor Guy of FFXIV
Calliente
nods
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
(also the reason I am saying Nael/Eula here is - it's partially due to translation fails but the final canon is that Eula Darnus took up her dead brother's identity and no one knew until the Reveal, which was way more dramatic for the English speaking part of the fandom than the Japanese)
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
(which I personally play them as bigender because I am very much of the opinion that we need more "girl lives as a boy" narratives that are queer about it and I'll queer them myself if left alone)
Calliente
Oooooh
Calliente
Oh yeah that is exceptionally valid, I am nonbinary myself and I love that shit
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
the main reason i haven't taken them to a game is that i have to commit SO MANY mod crimes for icons - but yeah to tldr you ever get corrupted by the dragon god slash incarnation of rage trapped in the artificial moon so you drop said moon on a continent to let the dragon out?
Calliente
Nah man I just got this sentient space virus hivemind
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
just a little!
FʀᴏᴍTʜᴇFɪʀᴇ
(there's another character with strong seph backstory parallels imo, but that's very recent ie last week patch content so I won't go into it here)