As always, your writing takes my breath away (no, literally, I sometimes find myself holding my breath as I read, stunned by the beauty of your words). Just have to say, the perceptions...weren't what I expected. It was extremely outside-the-norm trails of thought, but not at all unlikely. That's what makes this credible.

The last line broke it. It was all a story, another narrative to savor until Zack called us out. You didn't write, "This is not a game," but rather, "We are not a game." You really know how to make a memory, you know that? It reminds me of how I felt the first time I played FFVII; in me, for me, and because of me, these characters were real. Your writing here reanimated them once again.

Your writing takes time to read; it leaves me with all the introspection of perceptions previously unexpressed or unheard. It will be a while before I reach the end of this one; I need time to process what I've just read.

-Dante

How utterly ensnaring! As far as I'm concerned, if this is that happens when you keep listening to Enya, you should keep listening to it. This is a hidden gem.

You're quite the master of psychological drama, especially in the realms of obsession, rivalry, mortality, memories and relationships that redefine the meaning of dysfunctional. I'm in love with your interpretation of L and Light, and at the same time I'm very grateful you took a brief break from those psychos and their "transcendent" fucked up bond to look at these little psychos. Ah, Puppet and Idol, may you two continue to burn down the world as your dance in your insanity.

Thanks for the story!

(well goddamnit my review for the last chapter got cut off, so continuing where it left off:)

... Getting to feel what it is to be Vincent and Chaos in a soon to be forgotten moment of peace while simultaneously being Zack, so utterly contemptuous and done with the emo that is Vincent... Priceless.

Ah, I love that Zack is the main 'voice.' I love how vicious and relentless and cruel and human he is. He's always the martyr above reproach, as is Aerith, and that has its own appeal at times but to see them fallen thus, it's quite seductive. Fallen Idols, Hollow Memories-it's interesting to see that theme carried over from your Death Note fics like 'Cyanide.'

And the Cloud-Sephiroth orbit/mess/catastrophe; oh, how utterly _delightful_. As Zack seems half made up of schadenfreude and spite, so am I, and thus to see these two powerful figured so tangled up in each other and gouging and burrowing into each other, why, what dark pleasure, such _bliss_.

(Let me give you three words that will sum Vincent Valentine up: Poster Boy. Issues.)

Hahaha

Man, you've got every character's voice down perfectly. Pitch. Perfect.

I love how the unconventional format of the story gives the reader the opportunity to engage in multiple points of view at once. It takes a very skilled hand to be able to pull this off, it could have just as easily descended until chaos but instead there's a crystal clear clarity to the way you offer us what could perhaps best be compared to the way insects capture images with their faceted eyes: seeing the "same" image from a hundred different views. That's pretty fucking great. Getting to feel that it is to be Vincent and Chaos

Oho!

Pitch-perfect! Magnificent!

Here I was sniggering at Cloud's doomed suicide attempt a few chapters earlier and now I'm really feeling it in the gut.

Ouch, Denzel!

'It's nice. He feels accepted here. He's the happiest he's ever been, knowing he's going to die.'

Ooooh Geostigma it's picking up alright everybody gone be drinking from corpse pool later

Let's get this show on the road!

Oh, that's just beautiful!

Magnificent.

Man, these dead people have very active lives.

They get more meaningful social contact during a dream than I do during an entire week.

I'm sorry, this is all very morbidly beautiful and the imagery is poetic and Cloud being all suicidal is kinda depressing, yeah, but I can't help laughing because of the thought of Aerith 'being lowered to her underwater grave' and then never being fished out, and come later all these people drinking corpse-grave water... I'm, just, if Cloud drowns himself successfully, I hope people fish his corpse out at least and stop drinking from that miraculous healing water... Not that I think he's really gonna die, but... Sorry, sorry, man that's inappropriately hilarious. Oh God I'm laughing so hard.

Thanks for the candy.

Well, this is confusing and poetic and interesting and etc etc as hell.

Hmm. Is that Zack Fair giving me a dressing down directly? Me, as gamer?

Hmm...

Well I can't let that stand now, can I, made out of spite and pettiness as I am.

You're right, Zack-you're not a game. It's worse; you're a fanfiction character.

Love your rambling!

There are already too many fics like this. I've dubbed them "contemplation fics", fics in which events that have already happened and the readers should already be aware of are recited/contemplated upon. The lack of much dialog or any new events bores me here

Creepy story. I enjoyed it.

"seeing himself commiting such atricities" and then why Zack and other bitches can stand themselves watching how they did thingsa like keep Sephiroth in sex-slavery; burning people for they read banned books; rape sephiroth only because Aerith refused spread her legs; stoned people to death for they "not normal" they never felt regret for what they did to Sephiroth and other "freaks" they never felt regret for they keep Sephiroth in sex-slavery and now they await from him that he would cant stand seeing how he kill the ones who beated and raped him?

Daaamn. It's god-tier of writing, divine writing and so what can a reviewer say? Well, we may pray or praise and it's all falls into the void, because it's not even comparable to greatness of your work. Really, really, really.

So, yeah, it's that good for me.

Depressing like hell, because it's true, soo true ("brutally honest, beautiful look into the human psyche" somebody said below and he/she is right) - but it made me laugh during reading. Milan Kundera said once something like "the most difficult thing is, when you understand than there is no pathos in any, even the greatest tragedy, the greatest suffering - from a distance, from objective point of view, there always funny, at most tragicomedies or plain comedies. The pathos of suffering is a consolation as long as you believe in it". Something like that, I don't remember exact quote, nor I know it in English. But I think it sums up your fic quite nicely (well, it sums up the Eastern Europe too) - it's full of laughter, of bitter irony - bitter, but amusing (when one read something like ""God," he whispers, faintly astonished, to a blank sky. ( —Yes, Sephiroth says at his shoulder. —I am.)" he truly isn't sure if he should/wants laugh or curl under the chair, trembling - great line, of course) and said irony made it even more unbearable. We would to think that our/human suffering has some meaning/importance/pathos and that angels and God/Higher Being wouldn't mock as for it.

Zack is fantastic narrator and you're using the device of unreliable narrator brilliantly, by the way.

There is much symbolism in it, shown to readers in both direct and indirect (composition, for example) way - and it is doing very, very good job at deconstructing the... founding beliefs? opinions? credos? ideas (looking for English word) of European modernity, from Enlightenment to today. Especially the one about "progress" - OK, to be precise, it's Christian/Judaic concept, took by Enlightening and secularised - which can justify suffering or at least give it any meaning. Make it useful (usefulness, another one of the beautiful myths/beliefs or modernity). And it's chilling, because one may see, through Sephiroth's words/acts, ShinRa's/Hojo's own justifications and blind devotion to some concepts - there is no progress, it's just the circle of abuse. Or life (the question is, what differs Lifestream from ShinRa and them from Sephiroth, except one may have arbitrary given right - the scale maybe? but moral system based on scale is somewhat terrible [for people raised as a Christian, I guess]; more pragmatic than ethic, though pragmatic, one may argue, is kind of morality too - but that's the problem with any religion based on Higher Beings, including my own).

Considering that some abuse and suffering is unavoidable in our lives, existence is really flawed (oh, so now we're at gnosticism - by the way, are the titles of chapters chosen because of their general meaning in ancient Greek mythology or there's another interpretation at play? - via Orphism, Neoplatonism, another sect of that age?).

Quite disillusioning fic, better and bitterer because of that. And lacking of any clear consolation or hope (any hope it gives is based on modern understanding of world, which the very same fic is proving - once again, directly or indirectly - wrong; or rather, it points that there're faiths, not science, beliefs, not facts; you may believe them, but you can't be sure), which a plus in my book.

I meant to come back and review a while ago, but sadly never did. *sigh* I guess it's because I can't put into words how beautiful this story is. I've come back to it again and again, because I love it so much. It's so rare to find someone that writes poetic prose well, especially within fanfiction. Usually they only exist in the realm of published fiction. Many people try, but it comes out awkward and/or overbearing :S When I read something this pretty it's like looking at a gorgeous sunset, and you can't tear your eyes away because the beauty is so captivating, almost surreal.

I would read this story for that fact alone, but the characterization is so amazing. Zack seems so REAL here, and that makes this story even more poignant. What's most impressive are the dynamics between Seph and Cloud. So few people capture the essence that is Cloud, myself not included XD Seph and Cloud are tied to each other, but many people misinterpret it as lust, which doesn't quite fit, at least in my opinion. You've given a reason why they can't exist without each other. Seph needs Cloud as much as Cloud needs Seph despite the fact that they hate each other XD

This story is just so amazing and so inspiring. I don't even remember how I found it. Probably looking through someone's favorite list. It's good to see that you're still writing (although I'm sad it's not in the FF VII fandom) because you're brilliant :D

I don't even know how to begin this review.

I'm a member of The Genesis Awards Forum, and for the last several weeks I have been poking through old shortlists because I am too lazy to go looking for excellent fanfiction all on my own, and I happened to stumble across this fic. The premise sounded interesting, and it came highly recommended, so I thought 'Eh, let's give it a go,' even though I am more of a Turk fan.

How very, very fortunate for me that I did not pass this up. I was caught up in this from the very first opening line. It is HAUNTING; what a brutally honest, beautiful look into the human psyche. I absolutely loved your portrayal of Zack, and how he too was only human, and equipped with all his own little flaws and selfish thoughts. He is not evil, but he is not all good either, as none of us are, and you captured this SO well. Sephiroth's madness, the way he sucked Cloud down into that madness and held him tight, the bickering, the welcome flashes of humor through all this darkness- brilliant. I haven't read anything that has affected me quite so much in quite some time.

You may not even be around this site much anymore; you may not even read this review, but I had to write it, because I absolutely loved this like I haven't loved a fic in a long time. I can't even put into words how much I enjoyed this, so thank you so much for posting it.