That'll come up soon enough.
*settles down to wait for it*

Cloud does know about surviving in the mountains, but it's autumn and he's not going to like doing it for more than a week. It's hella dangerous out there. D:
Oooh yes, it must be. Wolves and dragons and lots of different powerful monsters, I didn't take them into account but they must be around. Taking them into account in the game aways made me wonder how did people move around at all. Either everybody knows a bit about fighting or people who stray from the paths die very often. I'm betting on both. Aerith and Cid both know how to fight, anyway, even though considering their occupations they shouldn't. And every establishment sells weapons and healing items. City people with no training must be in trouble, thought. They must need to hire people to fight for them or ask the government, and when you think about it this explains why even an experienced, powerful warrior would want a "guide" - someone who knows the local predators and can tell you about how to kill or avoid them... Sorry, I'm rambling. :P

I just hope i can make them long enough to cram the plot in under 22 chapters, because I have a bad habit of lengthening THAT too.
Well, good luck with that ♥ Maybe if you write the whole thing first, posting it here on LJ, and only then organize it into chapters? Or maybe just reorganize it into chapters after it's done?

under the assumption that Cloud had fished him out of the river after the bad guys were long gone, which meant he was meeting cloud for the first time as he woke groggily when they were already safeish, instead of seeing him jump on top of a green rider
Well, I think we all have to admit that watching somebody throw themselves at a mounted warrior is one hell of a first impression, and rather more impressive than being fished out of a river, even if the being saved thing is more likely to predispose you to think well of that person. I think that this current scene of Cloud's works better as an intro to him - fishing Zack out of a river, for whatever reason (the Right Thing To Do, calm the chocobo, loot the body), would give us the impression that Cloud is kind and tries to help people, whereas you've made clear in this intro that Cloud is a bit cynical and definitely a survivor.

lots of infodump + some cool bits = I WANT. HAND IT OVER.

The one in Restore isn't really as much of an asshole as he currently looks like, he's just lashing out because, um, spoilery things.
Have I mentioned lately that you're a horrible tease? Now I don't know whether to desperately hope for more ES or desperately hope for more Restore. As for Seph, well, he's one very versatile character, since you can write his personality lots of different ways. I don't mind at all if he turns out not to be an asshole, but I won't mind it if he is one either - I can easily see him like that, with him having been raised by scientists (and maybe military), having won a war, being pretty much worshiped by a lot of people, and so on. He might simply never have quite learned to be considerate of others. Only if that wasn't the case in Restore, Cloud should have enough memories to notice the discrepancies - go, Cloud! Start being perceptive! It's for the sake of hot polyamorous shenanigans the Planet!