In this period, the famous video game saga FINAL FANTASY has returned to the spotlight with the release of FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTHthe second part of the remake project of the original 1997 RPG. Observing the various discussions and theories within groups of enthusiasts, an old story involving some fans of the video game came to mind, and which today is referred to as name of “FFVII House”.
This is a story of the very first years of the internet, documented with photos and testimonies from several people: the events took place inside a small shared apartmentwhere the housemates were subjected to abuse and manipulation of all kinds, forced to participate in real rituals for the “rebirth” of their souls.
Some find it to be a precious testimony that reminds us to be careful with who we may meet on the web, while others consider it, even today, a simple urban myth.
In any case, it is a story that has always been quite discussed in the community FINAL FANTASY and which, despite its complexity, we want to tell you about in this article.
“On That Day, Nineteen Years Ago…”
The story was published in 2005 on LiveJournalfamous service of weblog widely used at the time, where users could write in their personal blogs and make friends through communities, divided by topics of interest. One day, a user named “Genkicrack”, he decided to tell his experience with some fans of FINAL FANTASY VIIwho he met on the site a few years earlier.
His story takes us back to 2002: at the time, he used the username of “Zack”, a secondary character from the '97 video game who would become more famous with the prequel Crisis Core (not yet released at the time). The boy began chatting with two other members of the community FFVII who had approached him, a couple of girlfriends who used the nicknames of “Hojo” and “Jenova”.
Those who know the video game know well what characters we are talking aboutbut for those who are unaware, we can briefly summarize them: Hojo is a mad scientist who carries out experiments on animals and people, while Jenova he is an alien creature, as well as one of the main villains of the game.
In one of their chats, the girl behind the nickname “Jenova” (who will later be nicknamed Jen) told him to believe the theory of past lives, reincarnation and the presence of parallel universes; furthermore, she attempted to convince Genkicrack that he, in a previous life, was indeed Zack.
The boy didn't take what he said too seriously, but he said he was intrigued by his ideas. Trivially, he thought that Jen was part of one of those cultures or religions that believed in the theory of reincarnation and similar, quite well known at the time.
Later, he decided to accept the invitation to Jen and “Hojo”'s housewho wanted him to make friends with other community members who lived with them.
Once he got there, Genkicrack realized that the two girls they had gone beyond what seemed like simple roleplay: both insisted on using the names “Hojo” and “Jenova” and were seriously convinced of the idea that they were the reincarnations of the video game characters. Other alarm bells were then added, such as Jen's sudden changes in mood, the violent arguments between the two and the desire to make the roommates believe that they were, in turn, reincarnations of their respective characters from FFVII.
Despite the couple's attitude, Genkicrack decided to accept another proposal: that of living with them. Clearly, we cannot know exactly why he accepted such an offer, given the type of people he found himself in front of, but Genkicrack himself said that, in that period, he had serious economic problems and alcohol addiction, to the point that he had been homeless for some time and without relations with his family.
The choice, therefore, was to live alone in almost absolute poverty or to have, at the very least, a safe roof over his head and the possible help of his peers.
“Reunion”
After just the first day of living together, Genkicrack realized that Jen monitored the activities of all the housemates: Whether it was online chats, texts, or calls, Jen made sure to observe everything, threatening to harm herself if anyone disagreed with her. Furthermore, the conditions of the apartment were in total abandonment, with dirt and waste accumulating everywhere.
All the kids in the house had financial problems: excluding some sporadic jobs, Genkicrack and the roommates they ended up having to steal food and other basic necessities in small shops in the area. The little money they earned was often used to buy materials for Jen's “rituals”, which she insisted on having to perform magic to “restore the bond of souls” which, according to him, connected them with the characters of FFVII. The woman forced the roommates to participate in seances with crystals and Ouija boardsdemanding everyone's attention at all hours, preventing them from going to school or work.
To these rituals were then added the “experiments”, that our protagonist also had to endure. In his case, they served to make him remember his past life as “Zack”: on one occasion they locked him in an isolated room preventing him from going out, and on yet another they tried to make him have sexual relations with a girl who used the name of “Aerith” (as the two characters were engaged in the video game), but fortunately this did not happen.
The girl in question decided to leave shortly after, causing a strong argument and a hysterical attack on Jen's part (one of many), who ended up cutting herself with the threat of killing herself. The boy's mental health continued to deteriorate. so much so that he became compliant towards Jen and “Hojo” to avoid further problems.
Luckily, Genkicrack managed to leave thanks to the help of another acquaintance of the group, whose alias was “Cid”: it was a boy not much older than them and who had never given in to Jen's whims. “Cid” offered Genkicrack a place to stay and also gave him a hand in mending family relationships, thus making him return to live with his parents. After two months of hell, there was therefore a happy ending for our narrator.
In 2005 Genkicrack has now regained control of his life, but the experience it inevitably marked him. He therefore decides to tell this whole story about LiveJournalwith the intention of alerting the community of FFVII to prevent others from interacting with the couple: at that point, however, other testimonies from ex-roommates like him came out. One boy said he had been tied up and forced to watch “Jenova” and “Hojo” have particularly violent sexual intercourse (also disguised as “experiment”), while a girl (on Jen's orders) had to do transfusions to sell one's blood and get some money. If Jen's manipulation didn't work, we moved straight to physical abuse.
One of the worst testimonies involves a girl who, on one occasion, was repeatedly beaten by Jen, so hard that she lost consciousness: although she also managed to leave some time later, for several months she was forced to stay in the house, since she had nowhere else to stay nowhere to go and no one to contact.
Given the presence of other testimonies that expanded the post, the story soon became famous even outside the FFVII community. After a few months, there were no more updates on the blog, as the couple separated and Jen moved somewhere else, leaving no trace.
“Return to the Planet”
Years after this story became particularly well known thanks to some YouTubers who covered the whole story directly from the original post, as well as delving into the other more or less reliable testimonies and additions.
Many came to the conclusion that Jen was creating a kind of “miniature cult”bringing together young people in difficulty and making friends with the excuse of a common interest, that is FINAL FANTASY VII.
Many testimonies that arrived not only confirmed Jen's dangerousness, but they also outlined the types of people she recruited: those who were invited into that house were young people with economic and family problems, and who would have agreed to any of the woman's requests because, simply, they had no one else to ask for help.
Almost all the people who knew her stated that “Jen knew how to make you feel special”, with days that he devoted himself entirely to his roommates and bought them various gifts: Obviously, this made them less inclined to leave, since she convinced them that she cared about each of them, despite repeated abuse. Genkicrack himself remembers how they spent certain days playing together, making him completely forget the problems he had had to face.
Another trait in common that almost all the roommates had was that of belonging to the community LGBT+: many of them had been discriminated against or kicked out of home by their parents and found in Jen a person who accepted them unconditionally. For the latter, leave that house It wasn't even an option.
Since this whole story was told on the internet, there are also those who doubt its veracityalthough they are quite few: among some of the things that do not convince them, there is the disappearance of the “Hojo” and “Jenova” accountswhich (according to the words of an acquaintance of theirse) they would have decided to delete all traces of them online, since the original post was gaining a lot of attention. Then there is another factor that doesn't add up to many: Jen's real name has been discovered a few years later, however no one has ever managed to figure out where you live in order to report it to the authorities.
However, almost all users consider this story to be true because, paradoxicallyit doesn't seem like such an absurd and out-of-this-world story: fanatical people like Jen have always existedand indeed, the stories reported in the post are not that different from the testimonies left by those who escape from cults or similar groups.
In short, whether one wants to believe it or not, the history of the “FFVII House” served as a warning to users of those yearsreminding them to always pay attention to who might be hiding behind anything fan-account. A perhaps banal message, when seen with today's eyesbut what was not to be taken for granted in the very early years of the internetwhich was seen by younger people as an alternative world that would never lead to real repercussions.
Ah, a little one fun facts: some user who thinks he has tracked down Jenadvised that she appears to have moved into the fandom of Hannibal in the last few years…
#FFVII #House #hidden #cult #fandom
