The Right Hand Path - Awareness

[forgottenlover]

Title: Awareness
Arc: The Right Hand Path
Fandom: FF7
Characters: Sephiroth, Cloud, and Zack
Rating: G
Words: 951 this part
Note: This is the fourth part of one of the stories I started a while back, comments loved! Follow the Arc name tag to get the rest.
Summary: This is a universe in which Sephiroth was jarred back into his clone too early, and

Comments

[salmastryon]

I like the slyness of Seph in this fic. Even when he hasn't entirely decided on his course of action, he already started working on putting himself in the best situation to get what he desires.

So many times he's portrayed as being socially inept or oblivious. here he's very aware of human interactions and how to manipulate them to his advantage.

Plus live Zack is always a good thing :)

[forgottenlover]

I've always seen him caught somewhere between aware and oblivious

He knows how to manipulate people and use their emotions against them or for himself. However, he doesn't grasp the concepts of friendship or personal trust in aside from seeing someone as a superior.

See? So play is sort of not quite the same thing for him as it would be for others as he wasn't socialized the way others were.

[salmastryon]

Yeah that makes perfect sense.

There are parts to how he reacts that match up with everyone else just fine, then there are other actions that just don't make sense to him form his motives and how he was raised. He's not stupid though, so with enough exposure he can account for and react to it, to garner the reaction he would like. Btu friend for him isn't going to have the same meaning as it would for Zack or Cloud.

At least I think that is what your getting at?

[forgottenlover]

Pretty much. Essentially caught up on what he percieves instead of what they do.

People confuse the ever living shit out of him though, for the simple fact that their emotions tend to not match their actions, so he likely acts more aorund the emotion than the actions, when he's trying to do something more finely... and people don't really react so well to that, thus thinking he's scarier than he is.

So, having learned, he keeps things to himself while he figures out how a particular person is really reacting, see?

[salmastryon]

*nods*

Ya know thinking about it, in some ways he acts very much like a child. Before adolescents their brains are wired different then adults. Things tend to be in absolutes for them and they don't get shades of grey. A child won't get why a doctor won't give someone medicine if they can't pay for it. Cause obviously the right thing to do is help the sick person. Which can make children absolutely evil if they think you're wrong and they are right.

Of course Sephiroth isn't a child he's an adult and I've totally rambled off topic.

But, yeah I like that interpretation of Seph. I'm sure it also gives you a lot more depth to play in as an author as well.

[forgottenlover]

It varies from Seph to Seph of course ::yes, has many versions of the man:: but that's always the basis I start at before I change accordingly.

There are no absolutes, but I like to think it's clear that my version of the man is my version, y'know?

You didn't really get off topic that much, he's on a different level than standard adults. But, that's because he grew up with sharper senses and in a different environment than others. The way someone takes in sensory information can have as bit an impact ont heir personality as anything else after all. And nobody else exists that grew up on that level of perception, even if some SOLDIERS are close to his level.

.....

::kills a bunny::

But you see what I mean, yes?

[salmastryon]

*performs CPR on said bunny*

Yeah.

But it is exactly the fact that you think on those matters and take them in a variety of different directions that makes him compelling to read. If that makes sense?

[forgottenlover]

::stomps bunny again:: No Kadaj, don't get your hopes up.

The raising concept was actually something pointed out to me by kemis recently, though I think I might have been using the premise subconsciously before that because I tend to keep hyper aware that he really is better than other people, thus being why it was so easy for Jenova to reach him.

I like to think at things. It sends me squirrelling all over the place, though sometimes I'm kinda shy about getting started on things. Heck, if you haven't peeked at Scarlet Webs, that's one of my major concepts. The difference gender makes on Sephiroth as a whole and all that jazz.

::really holds little sacred in writing:: At least so far as what is viable with the character constructs, which tends to be so so much more than people realize, for the simple fact that they're not liable to go 'what would get the affect I desire with any plausibilty?' Which is sad.

[salmastryon]

*calls plot bunny ambulance

[forgottenlover]

I think that there is a high ratio of inasinty possible for third classes and that's why screening is high.

I, personally, have very vivid color vision, can hear dog whistles, and sometimes find myself reeling away from the bread isle, so I know it's sort of a bit of extremity, and it makes it a bit of a 'no, wait, you don't notice that the TV is still on even though we're in another room' moment sometimes.

I just apply those gaps to Seph and enhance them. I notice I move to scent allot, but I can't help but think that someone who just got treatments would be painfully sensitive to touch ::points to the fic where she referenced that:: though think of how rough things would feel.

I mean, you could get used to it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be at all comfortable.

[salmastryon]

*nods*

Just because something doesn't physically hurt doesn't mean that it isn't unpleasant. My old care had this low pitched sound it made when it got above 55. Drove me nuts and was a wonderful deterrent for going over 55 mph. No express ways for me. same with the perfumes, if I walk down the shampoo isle I'm not going to go into respiratory arrest, but my nose just aches from the sensory overload.

I'd imagine going from normally to suddenly hyped up sense would be stressful, depending entirely on how the brain processed it, it might even be akin to sensory deprivation. After all they use white noise to simulate going deaf.

[forgottenlover]

::nods:: pretty much. I imagine it takes weeks, if not a couple months, to get used to the sesory change, not to mention the fact that suddenly it seems like the world is frailer and slower than it was.

Moving just that fraction quicker than you think you are combined with the fact of you just outright being stronger can be pretty bad. Though interestingly, Seph would never have those issues because he grew up with them, so any checking me might do would be ingrained instead of learned, which is likely part of why he was so much better than the SOLDIERS and why Cloud was the one to bring him down.

Cloud had a bit of that same ingrained training, between the attempt of cloning, his amnesia and such, it sort of locked into him that the only him he really knew was the enhanced one, so thus came the delicacy with that as well, even though it likely isn't referred to as such.

[salmastryon]

Oh, that's a good thought about cloud and the amnesia. I wonder if you gave a Soldier artificial amnesia during the recovery period if they would adapt better. A lot basic combat is muscle memory. Though you'd probably want to give them their memory back at some point...

I wonder though if part of that could be the reason Zack was so young when he was made a SOLDIER. Teenagers are coping with their bodies changing and behaving differently, plus their brains are much more adaptable.

hrmm....

[forgottenlover]

I can see that. And the fact he was a teen is why it was so much easier for him to shoot up the ranks, in contrast to those that were older and just got stuck at third, sometimes second, because they just couldnt' handle the differences, whereas the younger ones were having less issues, because they were already changing?

[salmastryon]

Yea.

Though I would think with the stew of hormones that is a teenager insanity might be a higher risk.

*boggles at the thought of a whiny emo SOLDIER*

[forgottenlover]

That would be.... Cloud? Hmmm, his whiny Emo being a possibility for why he failed the first time he tried to get in!

::random reason that, strangely, makes sense:: self pitying lack of self confidence wouldn't be good for someone made better than others after all, could result in bullying or other unfavorable things.