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FF7 -- revive -- second bit?
Okay, I should have worked on Teamwork, but then Vathara wrote a fix-it for Zack and Cloud that's uber-super-duper awesome, like anything she writes, (I should stop being surprised) and I was all BWEE FF7. And my other, fivesome FF7 fic -- well, it's Tifa's turn and she isn't talking anyway. So I pulled this one out of its hole. It's the one that starts with Zack and Sephiroth waking up naked at the Northern Crater and so far I'm having fun being mean to them. XD Hit the Revive tags and scroll down for the previous part. :p
14107 / 50000 words. 28% done!
"Babe? Are you still here?"
It wasn't all that warm in his little crevice in the side of the cliff, but it was cooler outside; it was too bad Zack wasn't going to get them out of there by curling up in a corner and letting his General's unconscious -- but nicely toasty -- body slump against his back. Zack straightened up a little, peering over a rock at the faintly glowing pool of the Lifestream.
"I'd love a hint just about now, if you could."
Far away overhead, the wind kept howling. The pool didn't even ripple. He sighed.
"Should have read the fine print, eh, boss? Requested appropriate supplies."
Against his back, Sephiroth kept sleeping. No help from there. Though if he woke up he might very well prove to be the exact opposite of helpful, as in, still determined to drown himself in the Lifestream looking for Jenova. Zack wasn't going to be able to brain him with a rock twice. The man was kind of cracked at the best of times, and last he'd been awake he'd also been borderline delirious, but no one would ever call him stupid.
"Probably should remove you from temptation first, eh?"
Zack leaned back, to shift Sephiroth's weight onto the cliff's wall, and climbed to his feet slowly. His body was still sore and lethargic. He stretched his arms overhead, straight up and then to the sides, bent over to touch his toes -- and then did a weird shuffling sidestep, and tried not to laugh at the thought of Sephiroth waking up only to be faced with Zack's behind. It just wasn't respectful to moon your superior officer, and it was Zack's personal policy never to be disrespectful when said superior officer was too unconscious to be properly shocked.
He tested several methods of carrying. Bride-style was a no-no, because Sephiroth's legs and head stuck out too much to navigate the tunnels, and his hair dragged on the ground, which would get Zack murdered; fireman's carry, same problem of the guy sticking out the side; the best method Zack found was to carry him on his back, both hands locked under his General's knees, Sephiroth's long arms draped over his shoulders. At least his back was warm. Zack valiantly started up the slope, and hoped his luck would hold long enough to get the both of them through the maze and out of the Northern Crater.
+
Zack's luck had him spend five years in a lab and then shot down maybe file miles away from his destination; in that way, he wasn't as lucky as he could have been, though it got points for effort.
So he did, in fact, get them lost in the tunnels. A lot. And he did fall on his hands, knees, elbows, ass, and on one memorable occasion on his face, and he did drop Sephiroth on rocks, in mud puddles, and tangle unmentionable and sticky things in his long silvery hair.
But in the other hand, their scenic trip did give him the occasion to try dragon meat.
Granted, that was after almost being cut in two and burned, but the dragon was old and slow, and Zack wasn't. (As long as he was given enough incentive.) The dragon also had big round eyes, very easy to drive stalactites through.
Sephiroth didn't wake up to taste the dragon sushi, but then he hadn't woken up for the Great Hair Disaster or the OhFuckLandslide Olympics either. And at least he couldn't say anything about the musty stink of the old furs Zack stole from the dragon's nest to turn them into very fetching capes and kilts.
"Oh yeah, that's the life," he announced to the damp cave, unconscious man, and filleted dragon. I've always dreamed of being a fashionista."
There was, of course, no answer. Zack grinned ruefully, secured the fur skirt -- kilt! Kilt! -- around his waist, pulled Sephiroth on his back, and started looking for the exit again.
+
A crisp, biting draft slipped up his leg, raising goosebumps in its wake. He didn't shiver, didn't fold his legs to try to bring his feet back under the blanket. He didn't know where he was, but cold generally meant unsafe, which meant he needed to assess the situation first. Labs? No, there were no chemicals in the air, and neither beds nor examination tables were so harshly bumpy. And the air moved too much to be inside a building. He was in the field -- with no tent, no mattress. Mission gone bad? More likely.
He assessed his body. Soreness, bruises and scratches; no broken bones, no deep, searing wounds. There were rocks digging into his skin and the side of his knee, and a slow, throbbing ache originating from the back of his head. Knocked out? But obviously not killed, and he could feel no restrains... If his troops had had to rescue him, he would never hear the end of it.
It was too quiet. To his left, the wind blew against rocks, and there was something dripping on the other side, but the sounds were faint -- the wind slow, the water far away -- only underlining how silent everything else was.
He opened his eyes. A cave; no more than fifty paces away from the exit. Daylight outside. No one in sight. He sat up.
There were furs draped on him. His sword had disappeared, as had his clothes. Was that an attempt to make him less dangerous? He wasn't even tied up. Hm. Either his captors were inept, in which case he really would not hear the end of it, or -- some other explanation entirely.
He couldn't think of one. He should have, but he couldn't. It was too quiet. It distracted him.
Slowly, he climbed to his feet, the old furs falling off him. His skin felt strange, slightly too tight for him; his muscles were stiff with disuse. How long had he been unconscious? Slowly, he made his way to the mouth of the cave. Outside, it was almost noon, or a little after; it was hard to tell. He could see nothing but rocks and snow, a whitened sky with slashes of bleached blue, and a light dusting of snowflakes that fuzzed out the edges of his field of vision and messed with his sense of distances.
The cold stung his skin, but his body temperature didn't seem to be faltering yet. Still, there was no need to risk losing his toes. He turned around to return to his crevice, where his warmth would stay trapped longer, and paused when he caught sight of something moving, all the way at the bottom of the cave. The light behind him interfered with his vision; he took a couple of unhurried steps forward, eyes narrowed, waiting for his pupils to dilate.
It was a man, bundled up in bulky clothes, watching him. It was --
"Fair?" Faint relief rose inside him. Good. Not enemy territory, then, and Zack Fair would know what was going on. He squared his shoulders, ignoring his total nudity. After the barracks, Zack wasn't going to care, and Sephiroth didn't even remember a time when he'd been allowed a shred of modesty. "Report, soldier."
"Ah--"
Zack's voice was rough; a cold maybe?
"Northern Crater, sir. We're -- well, we're kind of stranded. No supplies, no weapons--"
No clothes. Now he could see that Zack was wearing an awkward assortment of furs; there were a few gaps in the coverage, and the one wrapped around his leg was threatening to fall off. What were they doing on the Northern Continent in the first place -- and more importantly...
"Where's the rest of the company?"
Zack shook his head. He seemed -- unstable. Surprised? In shock? ... Were they dead? That would explain the painful silence, the wet glimmer in Zack's gray-purple eyes.
"They're not here, sir. Sephiroth..." He paused, choked a little, laughed. "I was wondering if you'd ever wake up."
"... Ah." Sephiroth nodded, thoughtful. Not here. They're gotten separated, then? if Zack meant killed in action, he would have said so... "And Mother, where is she?"
Zack froze in his tracks, and at first Sephiroth thought that was because there was a monster creeping up on him, but when he glanced over his shoulder they were still alone.
"Zack?"
"... Oh, hell, Seph..."
He didn't like that. He didn't like it at all. There was something massively wrong there and it wasn't like Zack to waste his time pussyfooting around the subject. "Lieutenant," he snapped, aggravated. "What is going on?"
Zack sighed, gazing at him with a kind of tired watchfulness Sephiroth wasn't expecting. It was almost wary. Zack wasn't supposed to be wary of him.
"It's pretty messed up. You don't remember, I take it?"
Sephiroth's teeth clenched. Would he be asking, showing off his ignorance and confusion, if he did?
"It's -- it was pretty bad. I'm still not sure you're all better."
"What was it?"
"... Never seen a creature like that before. It was hella tricky to kill. To be frank, I'm not sure how you're still alive and whole, except you're probably the most stubborn son of a bitch on this planet." Zack grinned suddenly, and part of the tenseness lifted from Sephiroth's mind. It couldn't be too horrible if Zack could still grin at him.
He still couldn't think fast enough, calculate probabilities as well as he should have. His skull was full of cotton fluff. "... How many Confusion spells did that thing hit me with?" he asked dryly. Maybe if Zack saw that he wasn't taking it too badly, he'd stop looking so worried. Sephiroth wasn't even injured.
Instead of relief, there was a flash of guilt followed by rueful amusement. "That's -- heh, something like that. I think. I wasn't there. It does sound like a status effect..."
Sephiroth frowned. "No Heal Materia to be found in the area, I take it."
"Nope. I found a blue one, I think it transfers damage, or steals health, something like that. I tested it on some monsters."
Sephiroth arched an eyebrow.
Zack chuckled. "Okay, I brained them with it. I felt less tired afterwards, they seemed to feel a little worse -- independently of the concussion, I mean. But it was all physical. Think that might help?"
Zack held out the orb; Sephiroth almost thought he had imagined the slight hesitation. "You don't think it will," he commented, as he reached out for the Materia. The stone was slightly irregular, with a few flaws in the middle; naturally created, then. They tended to be less reliable, and to have some really uncommon, sometimes unheard of, effects. There did exist a class of Materia that stole your opponent's good health or their magic, though. Zack had been lucky it hadn't been an unknown type of the dangerous kind.
Zack shrugged. "Doesn't hurt to try. It's not going to be hard to find a monster to try it on; the caves are crawling with them. I just don't think it's gonna lift a Confusion. It doesn't give the right kind of feeling."
Sephiroth nodded. After a while using them, you got a feel for what Materia would do -- nothing anyone could rely on, not always a sure thing, but... A hunch. He rolled the blue orb in his hand, thoughtful.
"Hm. Yes," he agreed after a few minutes. "Physical effect. Supplies?" he added, abruptly changing the subject. They weren't going to rot in those caves for the next century.
"Old furs I found, lots of sharp rocks, and monster meat," Zack replied cheerfully. "By now the dragon guts should be dry enough, maybe we can make string out of it."
"... That's all?"
Zack lifted one of his knees, showing off the scaly leather wrapped awkwardly around his foot. "Could make you some, too. I've got the trick down by now. Wasn't what I really meant by leather boots, you know, and it's not quite Yule yet, but I bet it's snowing outside and that's close enough for me."
Sephiroth allowed a faint smile to tilt up the corner of his lips. Zack grinned widely back at him. He had gone through many items during his great 'what presents would you like for Yule' questioning; leather items popped up rather often, if only because they were easier to accessorize.
"We'll make it do." Sephiroth went to the crevice, found some furs to tie around his hips and throw over his shoulders like a cape. When they ventured out in the snow, he would need more airtight gear, but the temperature in the cave was still tolerable. "Lead the way, Lieutenant."
Zack almost bounced his way down toward the tunnel at the end. "There's some wood in a few caves, I think they were trunks. Smashed to pieces and then rotten, though, so I'm not sure it would burn well. Wonder why the hell people would bring trunks here..?"
"I'm sure it's a fascinating mystery, Fair," Sephiroth retorted.
Zack chuckled. "I was thinking we could make fire with it. No Materia, but some of the rocks are silica. I hope you're better than me at the whole getting sparks from stones trick."
Sephiroth frowned, dissatisfied with himself. He should have thought of that. Without proper gear, fire was going to be a necessity, enhanced metabolism or not. "Mmh. I learned how to make a recipient to carry embers with in my survival lessons..."
Now if only he would remember the content of those lessons. They had been so long ago.
"Alright. I'll concentrate on shoes and clothes, then. Next on the list?"
Sephiroth frowned a little harder. Basic necessities... Shoes, clothes, warmth... A plan... "We look for weapons." Though with a SOLDIER's strength, it would be hard to find a weapon in here that could resist very long. Stones would have no range, unless thrown, sharpened bones would eventually break... Perhaps barehanded fights would work -- or not -- about the same. "Then food; and then we go South." If he remembered the geography right, there would be no need to decide on a more precise route before that. It was nothing but ice fields for miles. Eventually they would reach mountains, which they'd have to cross, and then the sea. Following the coast would get them to the port eventually.
Sephiroth tried to think of what they'd do if the village was empty -- if the archeologists weren't there, maybe -- and then decided not to; his head buzzed too much to figure it out. They'd find out what to do when they got there.
"Sounds good!" Zack commented cheerily.
"We'll check the area for Mother before we go," he added absently. In front of him, Zack's breathing briefly stopped.
"-- Sure thing, General."
Sephiroth would have asked about the pause, but then a monster attacked, and after that he forgot.
"Babe? Are you still here?"
It wasn't all that warm in his little crevice in the side of the cliff, but it was cooler outside; it was too bad Zack wasn't going to get them out of there by curling up in a corner and letting his General's unconscious -- but nicely toasty -- body slump against his back. Zack straightened up a little, peering over a rock at the faintly glowing pool of the Lifestream.
"I'd love a hint just about now, if you could."
Far away overhead, the wind kept howling. The pool didn't even ripple. He sighed.
"Should have read the fine print, eh, boss? Requested appropriate supplies."
Against his back, Sephiroth kept sleeping. No help from there. Though if he woke up he might very well prove to be the exact opposite of helpful, as in, still determined to drown himself in the Lifestream looking for Jenova. Zack wasn't going to be able to brain him with a rock twice. The man was kind of cracked at the best of times, and last he'd been awake he'd also been borderline delirious, but no one would ever call him stupid.
"Probably should remove you from temptation first, eh?"
Zack leaned back, to shift Sephiroth's weight onto the cliff's wall, and climbed to his feet slowly. His body was still sore and lethargic. He stretched his arms overhead, straight up and then to the sides, bent over to touch his toes -- and then did a weird shuffling sidestep, and tried not to laugh at the thought of Sephiroth waking up only to be faced with Zack's behind. It just wasn't respectful to moon your superior officer, and it was Zack's personal policy never to be disrespectful when said superior officer was too unconscious to be properly shocked.
He tested several methods of carrying. Bride-style was a no-no, because Sephiroth's legs and head stuck out too much to navigate the tunnels, and his hair dragged on the ground, which would get Zack murdered; fireman's carry, same problem of the guy sticking out the side; the best method Zack found was to carry him on his back, both hands locked under his General's knees, Sephiroth's long arms draped over his shoulders. At least his back was warm. Zack valiantly started up the slope, and hoped his luck would hold long enough to get the both of them through the maze and out of the Northern Crater.
+
Zack's luck had him spend five years in a lab and then shot down maybe file miles away from his destination; in that way, he wasn't as lucky as he could have been, though it got points for effort.
So he did, in fact, get them lost in the tunnels. A lot. And he did fall on his hands, knees, elbows, ass, and on one memorable occasion on his face, and he did drop Sephiroth on rocks, in mud puddles, and tangle unmentionable and sticky things in his long silvery hair.
But in the other hand, their scenic trip did give him the occasion to try dragon meat.
Granted, that was after almost being cut in two and burned, but the dragon was old and slow, and Zack wasn't. (As long as he was given enough incentive.) The dragon also had big round eyes, very easy to drive stalactites through.
Sephiroth didn't wake up to taste the dragon sushi, but then he hadn't woken up for the Great Hair Disaster or the OhFuckLandslide Olympics either. And at least he couldn't say anything about the musty stink of the old furs Zack stole from the dragon's nest to turn them into very fetching capes and kilts.
"Oh yeah, that's the life," he announced to the damp cave, unconscious man, and filleted dragon. I've always dreamed of being a fashionista."
There was, of course, no answer. Zack grinned ruefully, secured the fur skirt -- kilt! Kilt! -- around his waist, pulled Sephiroth on his back, and started looking for the exit again.
+
A crisp, biting draft slipped up his leg, raising goosebumps in its wake. He didn't shiver, didn't fold his legs to try to bring his feet back under the blanket. He didn't know where he was, but cold generally meant unsafe, which meant he needed to assess the situation first. Labs? No, there were no chemicals in the air, and neither beds nor examination tables were so harshly bumpy. And the air moved too much to be inside a building. He was in the field -- with no tent, no mattress. Mission gone bad? More likely.
He assessed his body. Soreness, bruises and scratches; no broken bones, no deep, searing wounds. There were rocks digging into his skin and the side of his knee, and a slow, throbbing ache originating from the back of his head. Knocked out? But obviously not killed, and he could feel no restrains... If his troops had had to rescue him, he would never hear the end of it.
It was too quiet. To his left, the wind blew against rocks, and there was something dripping on the other side, but the sounds were faint -- the wind slow, the water far away -- only underlining how silent everything else was.
He opened his eyes. A cave; no more than fifty paces away from the exit. Daylight outside. No one in sight. He sat up.
There were furs draped on him. His sword had disappeared, as had his clothes. Was that an attempt to make him less dangerous? He wasn't even tied up. Hm. Either his captors were inept, in which case he really would not hear the end of it, or -- some other explanation entirely.
He couldn't think of one. He should have, but he couldn't. It was too quiet. It distracted him.
Slowly, he climbed to his feet, the old furs falling off him. His skin felt strange, slightly too tight for him; his muscles were stiff with disuse. How long had he been unconscious? Slowly, he made his way to the mouth of the cave. Outside, it was almost noon, or a little after; it was hard to tell. He could see nothing but rocks and snow, a whitened sky with slashes of bleached blue, and a light dusting of snowflakes that fuzzed out the edges of his field of vision and messed with his sense of distances.
The cold stung his skin, but his body temperature didn't seem to be faltering yet. Still, there was no need to risk losing his toes. He turned around to return to his crevice, where his warmth would stay trapped longer, and paused when he caught sight of something moving, all the way at the bottom of the cave. The light behind him interfered with his vision; he took a couple of unhurried steps forward, eyes narrowed, waiting for his pupils to dilate.
It was a man, bundled up in bulky clothes, watching him. It was --
"Fair?" Faint relief rose inside him. Good. Not enemy territory, then, and Zack Fair would know what was going on. He squared his shoulders, ignoring his total nudity. After the barracks, Zack wasn't going to care, and Sephiroth didn't even remember a time when he'd been allowed a shred of modesty. "Report, soldier."
"Ah--"
Zack's voice was rough; a cold maybe?
"Northern Crater, sir. We're -- well, we're kind of stranded. No supplies, no weapons--"
No clothes. Now he could see that Zack was wearing an awkward assortment of furs; there were a few gaps in the coverage, and the one wrapped around his leg was threatening to fall off. What were they doing on the Northern Continent in the first place -- and more importantly...
"Where's the rest of the company?"
Zack shook his head. He seemed -- unstable. Surprised? In shock? ... Were they dead? That would explain the painful silence, the wet glimmer in Zack's gray-purple eyes.
"They're not here, sir. Sephiroth..." He paused, choked a little, laughed. "I was wondering if you'd ever wake up."
"... Ah." Sephiroth nodded, thoughtful. Not here. They're gotten separated, then? if Zack meant killed in action, he would have said so... "And Mother, where is she?"
Zack froze in his tracks, and at first Sephiroth thought that was because there was a monster creeping up on him, but when he glanced over his shoulder they were still alone.
"Zack?"
"... Oh, hell, Seph..."
He didn't like that. He didn't like it at all. There was something massively wrong there and it wasn't like Zack to waste his time pussyfooting around the subject. "Lieutenant," he snapped, aggravated. "What is going on?"
Zack sighed, gazing at him with a kind of tired watchfulness Sephiroth wasn't expecting. It was almost wary. Zack wasn't supposed to be wary of him.
"It's pretty messed up. You don't remember, I take it?"
Sephiroth's teeth clenched. Would he be asking, showing off his ignorance and confusion, if he did?
"It's -- it was pretty bad. I'm still not sure you're all better."
"What was it?"
"... Never seen a creature like that before. It was hella tricky to kill. To be frank, I'm not sure how you're still alive and whole, except you're probably the most stubborn son of a bitch on this planet." Zack grinned suddenly, and part of the tenseness lifted from Sephiroth's mind. It couldn't be too horrible if Zack could still grin at him.
He still couldn't think fast enough, calculate probabilities as well as he should have. His skull was full of cotton fluff. "... How many Confusion spells did that thing hit me with?" he asked dryly. Maybe if Zack saw that he wasn't taking it too badly, he'd stop looking so worried. Sephiroth wasn't even injured.
Instead of relief, there was a flash of guilt followed by rueful amusement. "That's -- heh, something like that. I think. I wasn't there. It does sound like a status effect..."
Sephiroth frowned. "No Heal Materia to be found in the area, I take it."
"Nope. I found a blue one, I think it transfers damage, or steals health, something like that. I tested it on some monsters."
Sephiroth arched an eyebrow.
Zack chuckled. "Okay, I brained them with it. I felt less tired afterwards, they seemed to feel a little worse -- independently of the concussion, I mean. But it was all physical. Think that might help?"
Zack held out the orb; Sephiroth almost thought he had imagined the slight hesitation. "You don't think it will," he commented, as he reached out for the Materia. The stone was slightly irregular, with a few flaws in the middle; naturally created, then. They tended to be less reliable, and to have some really uncommon, sometimes unheard of, effects. There did exist a class of Materia that stole your opponent's good health or their magic, though. Zack had been lucky it hadn't been an unknown type of the dangerous kind.
Zack shrugged. "Doesn't hurt to try. It's not going to be hard to find a monster to try it on; the caves are crawling with them. I just don't think it's gonna lift a Confusion. It doesn't give the right kind of feeling."
Sephiroth nodded. After a while using them, you got a feel for what Materia would do -- nothing anyone could rely on, not always a sure thing, but... A hunch. He rolled the blue orb in his hand, thoughtful.
"Hm. Yes," he agreed after a few minutes. "Physical effect. Supplies?" he added, abruptly changing the subject. They weren't going to rot in those caves for the next century.
"Old furs I found, lots of sharp rocks, and monster meat," Zack replied cheerfully. "By now the dragon guts should be dry enough, maybe we can make string out of it."
"... That's all?"
Zack lifted one of his knees, showing off the scaly leather wrapped awkwardly around his foot. "Could make you some, too. I've got the trick down by now. Wasn't what I really meant by leather boots, you know, and it's not quite Yule yet, but I bet it's snowing outside and that's close enough for me."
Sephiroth allowed a faint smile to tilt up the corner of his lips. Zack grinned widely back at him. He had gone through many items during his great 'what presents would you like for Yule' questioning; leather items popped up rather often, if only because they were easier to accessorize.
"We'll make it do." Sephiroth went to the crevice, found some furs to tie around his hips and throw over his shoulders like a cape. When they ventured out in the snow, he would need more airtight gear, but the temperature in the cave was still tolerable. "Lead the way, Lieutenant."
Zack almost bounced his way down toward the tunnel at the end. "There's some wood in a few caves, I think they were trunks. Smashed to pieces and then rotten, though, so I'm not sure it would burn well. Wonder why the hell people would bring trunks here..?"
"I'm sure it's a fascinating mystery, Fair," Sephiroth retorted.
Zack chuckled. "I was thinking we could make fire with it. No Materia, but some of the rocks are silica. I hope you're better than me at the whole getting sparks from stones trick."
Sephiroth frowned, dissatisfied with himself. He should have thought of that. Without proper gear, fire was going to be a necessity, enhanced metabolism or not. "Mmh. I learned how to make a recipient to carry embers with in my survival lessons..."
Now if only he would remember the content of those lessons. They had been so long ago.
"Alright. I'll concentrate on shoes and clothes, then. Next on the list?"
Sephiroth frowned a little harder. Basic necessities... Shoes, clothes, warmth... A plan... "We look for weapons." Though with a SOLDIER's strength, it would be hard to find a weapon in here that could resist very long. Stones would have no range, unless thrown, sharpened bones would eventually break... Perhaps barehanded fights would work -- or not -- about the same. "Then food; and then we go South." If he remembered the geography right, there would be no need to decide on a more precise route before that. It was nothing but ice fields for miles. Eventually they would reach mountains, which they'd have to cross, and then the sea. Following the coast would get them to the port eventually.
Sephiroth tried to think of what they'd do if the village was empty -- if the archeologists weren't there, maybe -- and then decided not to; his head buzzed too much to figure it out. They'd find out what to do when they got there.
"Sounds good!" Zack commented cheerily.
"We'll check the area for Mother before we go," he added absently. In front of him, Zack's breathing briefly stopped.
"-- Sure thing, General."
Sephiroth would have asked about the pause, but then a monster attacked, and after that he forgot.
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But wait...you have a fivesome fic somewhere around here?
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http://askerian.livejournal.com/tag/ff7:+restore
Delurks
(Anonymous) 2007-11-09 03:50 am (UTC)(link)AI from Lurkerville
Re: Delurks
Zack is ubercoolness. u.u-V As for Seph... Eh, he's more fun to write when he's being a pain to deal with, i guess. >D
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