"Every moment of every day is a fight. The last time I thought it wasn't, you shot me down. I will not be unprepared again." Lesson learned, and he's grateful for the reminder. It was stupid of him, just like it was stupid of him to face the Rhadoran evacuees and hesitate in killing them. They certainly didn't hesitate to attack him. The scissors are easy enough to retrieve, at least, and unsurprisingly there's no twitch at having the threads cut. Pulling them out isn't much of a reaction either, the tiny spots of blood this causes will dry quickly.
The ointment is taken automatically, but not immediately used, instead he rolls it over in his hands seeking the label and what it's actually for.
Then puts it back down.
He knows very well what he's being asked. "It wasn't me. I don't have access to fire magic to a sufficient degree, and wildfires of this scale are beyond me even if I did have a mastered materia."
"...Touche," Vincent admits after a pause. A sigh suggests it's not a pleasant reminder but... that's the weight of sin. And he can't change the past. Another sigh follows when Sephiroth sets the ointment down. The second bottle is picked up; this is a general antibiotic. No painkillers. It's offered, label up for inspection.
Then he addresses Sephiroth's almost suspiciously purposeful response to his question. It's accompanied with a long look that suggests to the teen that Vincent doubts any impression of misunderstanding.
"Wildfires only need a small spark in a dry area to start," Vincent responds dryly. "But these don't burn the Star Children. And last I heard there's no materia that can bring out a fire that can be tricked into consuming confessions."
Vincent's been out doing the rounds while looking for Sephiroth so he has had a good grasp of what is actually happening.
"So you were low on my list of suspects." In fact, not even on it after the first seconds of encountering the first of these strange fires.
Confessions. He had some things for that now, didn't he? Things he'd prefer not to mention at all to anyone, and this place had a way of wanting to ferret those out. "Wouldn't it be something, though. A friend-or-foe marker for magic. You could bathe a battlefield in flames even if your allies were out there, and know they'd be untouched."
Shinra would make liberal use of such a thing if it existed, of course, which inevitably meant it did not. At least, not yet. The sheer intimidation factor of it would make it useful.
The second ointment is read much as the first, and for a long moment, weighed. He was very resistant to infections to start with, it wasn't much necessary. At great length it's uncapped, and dabbed here and there. Not as extensively as some might, but the chances of a problem were slim to begin with. "I told Verdot where to find you."
In one distant, almost toneless sentence, there's an answer to the question he'd been asked. It didn't even begin to touch on events. It was the least of them. "Since it caused him to have an expression, it must have been a shock."
"Not something I'd want to see in Shinra's hands," Vincent answers. Yeah, it's probably a good thing it doesn't seem to exist. Though he also knows they probably wouldn't really pursue that other than as a PR stunt. The former Turk knows well that it would often be deemed more efficient to wipe out everything and then effect a coverup. Damn the allies that didn't get out before the zero hour.
Want to see another moment of surprising change in expression? Vincent's apathetic default shifts to interest and certainly recognition of the name. Though they had once spoken briefly after Vincent had went into his slumber, he's a little surprised to hear the name come out of Sephiroth.
Of course in the back of his mind, he notes the confirmation that the teen did go back as suspected.
Surprise and recognition do not return to dispassion. Instead, Vincent's expression softens more and there's a genuine smile at hearing about his old partner. Despite the worry for the teen, he can't help it.
"I think I can picture that." He can, because he largely saw the same thing happen when Verdot found him in the coffin in the Shinra Mansion. Things had been... awkward then. It's on those thoughts that another sigh is pulled from Vincent.
"I wish him luck, whatever he decides to do with that information. I can be pretty stubborn."
But this time, Verdot has another decade or so head start to work on him. And who would know Vincent better? But that leads to the question, how did Sephiroth know to speak with Verdot. And more importantly, why?
His expression does become serious again. "But... I don't remember telling you about Verdot." And Sephiroth isn't someone that's allowed a lot of free rambling when he's at HQ. So either the Turk happened to show up in the science department, the teen ran into him in the field, or Verdot was there specifically to see Sephiroth.
If nothing else, it works. It's obvious when Vincent's attention shifts, and it's a victory. Anything uncomfortable could now be easily avoided, and he was going to capitalize on it as best he can.
Which admittedly isn't much. His mind keeps turning back to a boy standing in front of a fire.
"You didn't. He's the head of the department, nobody needs to be told about him." Dealing with the Turks means often dealing with Verdot, and while the labs' pet experiment wasn't usually worth their notice, Verdot could and would interfere if he saw fit to. "He interfered when I decided to give the science department the live-fire combat assessment they requested."
And for better or worse, the man knew how to handle distraught weapons of mass destruction. A lot of people are still alive because of his interference. "I admit all this time I thought you were the orphaned half of a team." He was wrong. But if rumors and information were right, no Turk would be able to just up and abandon their partner like that and .. what, sleep in a box for a few decades? "...Irrelevant I guess. He's sent one of their newest rookies to 'cut his teeth on a nice easy intel gathering mission' and see if I'm lying."
An easy enough bargain at the time, it wouldn't have taken long to verify if the Fox hadn't interfered and brought him here again.
It's a temporary victory, really. But it's definitely something Vincent is sincerely interested in hearing about; for reasons beyond what Sephiroth experienced. He may feel a bit guilty about that later. Fourteen years... yeah, that would be reasonable that Verdot's department head by then and it's not at all surprising even if Vincent didn't have the advantage of a future encounter to realize it.
"Ah, I see." And that realization isn't anything to do with Verdot's standing in the Turks at the time of Sephiroth's teenage years. He knows what the teen truly meant and what his conversation with the head of the Turks might have started with.
It comes with mixed feelings. On one hand, a part of him is relieved Sephiroth was stopped. It was unlikely the company would have left the boy alive and if they did... well, Deepground and knowledge he learned of its torments are fresh on the gunman's mind still.
But a small part of him did wonder if he'd taught the teen a bit of discretion before he'd come back, maybe Sephiroth could have... no. Vincent shakes his head at his thoughts. Focuses on what Sephiroth says about Verdot's words. Sending a new rookie, huh?
"He must see a lot of promise in the kid," the former Turk mutters. 'Nice, easy intel gathering'? Maybe at its face. But Verdot would also have to have trusted the rookie to do a thorough and careful job of it.
At first it seemed like he was going to avoid talking about the 'irrelevant' part. Vincent regards Sephiroth for a moment. "...Not really. Verdot was my partner. I never reached out. Not to him, or anyone."
If there's anything among the supplies that looks like it will be useful to pass to Sephiroth. But if the limited first aid seems done, then it'll be set aside. Sephiroth has water and cloth to wipe away any traces of ointment. Why is that relevant? Well, Vincent is starting to unpack and unwrap the food and drink.
"What I'd gone through and all my sins. I chose to lock them away and sleep."
Sure, he's talked about that and what those sins were. But it's worth mentioning. There's probably a mild comparison to be had to keeping himself from reaching out to others and the weight of things Sephiroth does not want to talk about.
"He seemed capable, maybe a little older than me. Sung, I think his name was." An odd choice for a Shinra spy, hiring on a Wutaian. But if he was there, then he was able to do the job and trustworthy enough that Verdot would send him looking into finding his missing old partner.
Sephiroth hadn't cared if he was stopped. Still didn't. If he died, then that was a win for Gaia. If he didn't, and succeeded in slaughtering everyone in his path, it would again be a win for Gaia. There was no downside.
He wasn't suicidal. He just weighed the cost of his own life and found it negligible in comparison to the price the future would exact. Like any conflict, the goal was more important than individual losses.
But Vincent is studied, something calculating in those utterly inhuman eyes.
Sins. And abandoning his friends had been just one of them, right? "We came to an .. understanding. If it turns out," he says slowly, "That the Professor did in fact treat one of his Turks like he treats us, every Turk will be simultaneously sent out of Midgar for missions when it's time for my assessment. Surely a coincidence."
Verdot could weigh the cost of lives too. What was the price of a dozen Turks, versus several dozen scientists, techs and aides?
"...Tseng?." ...Well, the pronunciation is nearly the same. It's clear Vincent recognizes that name too and this time it can't be from the past. "He'll manage, then." If that is a suggestion that Tseng is still with the company by the time Vincent wakes up, then it's clear the young rookie's ethnic origins never factored into why he'd been hired.
"Be a shame if something bad happened while they were away like that. But I'm sure Verdot knows what he's doing," comes the mild answer. He's quite good at the poker face. If anything there's a brief suggestion.
"My advice is to go from top down. Don't give the bastard satisfaction of a good show."
Or time to prepare in any way. It'll be hard enough to get Hojo without him having time to prepare a way to weasel out of a catastrophic 'accident'. Much less have him get the chance to delight in the observations of the 'exercise'.
But the topic returns to his punishment in slumber. You chose poorly. He won't argue there, but it's a choice he made.
"Almost thirty." For him. "I know too well what new sins my choices brought." He didn't reach out to his friends, denied their offers. And abandoned Sephiroth to his fate. "I kept everything to myself."
"Who knows. Maybe the me Verdot sends Tseng out to find will choose differently. Feel free to keep me posted if you happen to go back from time to time."
Or you can choose not to, his words seem to say. That is Sephiroth's decision to make, not his to demand.
"..Maybe?" He didn't see the spelling, and that sounded awfully like what he just said, so it's quite possible. That Vincent actually recognizes the name leaves Sephiroth for a moment rather nonplussed, but decades apart clearly didn't really keep a Turk from keepnig tabs on things. Probably Vincent knew all of them.
He sets to cleaning the rest of what he hadn't already tended to, then getting ointment off his fingers. There wasn't anything to do for all the bruising, and the other injuries would heal in time. His chances of ever seeing another baloir were, at least, minimal. They were probably extinct now. "I'd have to start with him. Anything other than being the first, and without warning, and he would likely escape. He deals with hostile, dangerous specimens on a daily basis."
Though Hojo had long since become very casual about the threat level Sephiroth posed, it was much to do with the fact that the teen didn't really put up a struggle. "And.. there's a chance that if he's killed, the others will fall in line." He didn't think so in all honesty, someone ambitious would likely just try to claim Hojo's spot. But if they could reasonably be spared..
It seemed to him that just calling things a 'sin' was somehow putting it aside instead of really accepting it or doing anything about it. "I suspect it's a when, not an if. I think it was deliberate, sending me back. I asked her what the point of all of this was if we couldn't change anything. And then.." A couple weeks later, off he went, to find out for himself. "..Maybe I can save some people instead of just killing them. Maybe you can too."
This Vincent, or the one sleeping in Nibelheim, unaware of the Turks closing in on his position?
The manner of being taken aback earns a brief glance.
"After I started traveling with Cloud, had run-ins with him a few times." It's a neat way of summarizing running into the modern stable of Turks or explaining that he'd once rescued Tseng and Elena from the remnants. "Of course, he's much older by then."
The brown paper wrapping the sandwich is folded into a neat plate. Soup in a small container is put beside it and of course the bottled beverage. These are set nearest to Sephiroth and in easy reach.
"Mm." Vincent nods. Does he think it's going to be as easy as that? Not... exactly. Whatever Sephiroth had suffered at Hojo's hands might also stand as an impediment. But the matter of who would climb to the top of the pyramid in the fallout is... well, Gast was respectable by comparison to most of the candidates that might still be around.
To be honest while Vincent could have said something about the likely candidates to watch out for fourteen years before Sephiroth's present, there isn't much he can say now. Though as far as it went, if Hojo was taken down, he was reasonably sure Verdot would do what he could to make sure the Turks weren't touched by the science department again. That only left what would happen to Sephiroth himself in the fallout if he were to survive.
Because it might be a little early, but there was a deeper, uglier hole the teen can end up being tossed into if he was considered too valuable to permanently remove. But he's torn from such thoughts or voicing them right then as Sephiroth offers insight on the circumstances surrounding how he was sent back. That really is too much of a coincidence to take at face value, isn't it?
Vincent is caught looking at Sephiroth in a more direct fashion. Yes, it does add some credence to suspicions (worries) even the former Turk had about Thirteen's decision to send the teen back so suddenly. Would this be only the first of many? And if so what tales would the youth bring back of the efforts to change his fate? The world's fate?
For a moment his expression turns unreadable. Vincent looks down at his own sandwich, now prepared to be eaten as well though he hadn't touched it yet. He wouldn't let himself think Sephiroth only meant the other Vincent. The silver-haired teen tended to be too precise for the 'you' to only mean his other self. So quietly he offers a response.
"...Even if I might not have the right to hope, I'd be satisfied if I could just save one."
And who would blame this Vincent at all for there being a slight stress on at least one of the 'I' in that statement? Or for looking right at Sephiroth?
"Then he's nothing if not dedicated to his job, in spite of the war." Maybe he simply hadn't had many ties to his home, and thus who cared if he joined the enemy? It's not Sephiroth's place to wonder, his interactions with the young Turk were ... negligible.
The food is noted but not touched. Eating is still the last thing on his mind, though he knew he probably should. Something. Anything. Matt would frown if he skipped a meal and begin quoting statistics on what malnutrition can do. Lucia would just hunt for more tempting things than rations.
He could hear Glenn threatening to hold him down and shove a granola bar down his throat.
Even if the future could be changed, the past couldn't now. Those.. those relationships were gone. He'd never work alongside them again, feel warm and accepted. Hear their jokes and stories. That was destroyed. "The right?"
That's a baffling thought. The right to hope. Or anything else for that matter. "...Nobody has any rights, Mr. Valentine. We invented it. Just like we invented everything else." Is there an implication that he's supposed to be the one saved? From the man who tried to kill him?
Nah. Maybe it was someone else. Cloud, or .. his mother, maybe. She is still alive, in his time. That made sense. "Nature's laws don't allow for justice, or mercy, or hope. So if you want it, go take it."
Someone slept through the escalation of and full war with Wutai. Who could that be? Certainly not Vincent who takes a minute or two to mentally math out the history.
"Who knows. Not everyone put country before what Shinra offered." Maybe Tseng had no real ties to Wutai. And in the Turks, while maybe it would have been considered, background took second place to loyalty and skill.
Leave no doubt, Vincent falls silent to listen. Because it tells him things about what Sephiroth is thinking. Terrible as it is, tragic as his own part in making it that way is. Taking action though... Well, he's right there. Despite what he did, if Vincent is going to affect anything, he can only take action.
"What I want right now is for you to take a couple bites of that sandwich." While it may seem like dry humor, there's a gentle trace that suggests kindness, if not concern. But the humor is there because... well, how is he supposed to 'take' that?
"Nothing." Had he explained it before? He didn't remember, too much had happened. "If I try to force myself to eat I'll just get sick. It doesn't taste as good the second time around." A drink might be something to try, a little at a time, until his appetite returned, but actual food was a nonstarter.
Glenn wouldn't accept that. He'd have to prove it made him ill.
He needed to not think about his team.
Ex team.
Besides. "..If you wanted to try your hand at parenting," is the low addition, equally dry, "You should have said 'yes' when I asked if you were my father." He's.. going to put his shirt back on, having injuries on display, even half-healed ones, was uncomfortable. More weakness.
There's soup too. Maybe that will be an option to try as well. Though Vincent remains silent at first, his brow creases with evident worry. Does he believe Sephiroth? It does appear so and mentally he might be going through other ideas of items that might not produce a nauseous reaction. Should he speak to that alchemist he met?
And what about the root cause? The former Turk blind to it; he's been hanging around the teen as a cat and has witnessed some unfiltered moments involving Sephiroth's anxiety. But trying to find ways to offer himself as a person to open up to is another matter entirely. To be honest a part of him is uncertain as to how.
Then the teen says something.
"That wasn't an option at the time. I ate the ice cream." Vincent isn't going to protest against Sephiroth dressing again. It was enough the teen had allowed himself to show some vulnerability at all and taken some attention to the wounds. He made a mental note to check into a cure materia. Didn't Zack say something about someone in that house having one?
Vincent falls silent again for another short span of time.
"What if I want to do more than try?" It's really a question. A quiet one without humor. "What if I said I'd be your father? How would that make you feel?"
To 'take' something you want to happen. Sure, the question may have come from the origins of the conversation about how to get what you want. But this isn't something Vincent can simply take.
The cat was safe enough. Cats didn't talk to people, didn't judge; they were simple creatures with simple needs and no moral questions to be involved with. A cat didn't care if the meal or pets came from a human hand or a monster, and they'd be as happy with friendly livestock as a person. There was no need to pretend.
There was around people.
And he's pretty good at it, there's almost no outward sign of pain when he pulls his shirt over his head, stretching damaged ribs and countless smaller injuries. "Feelings are irrelevant. You know what I am, Mr. Valentine."
A destroyer, just like one of his mothers. He can keep his voice pretty steady, keep his expression fairly neutral, but when he closes his eyes he sees a dead boy on the ground. "You don't parent a dragon whelp. If you're stupid enough to keep one around, you leash it and build it a strong cage." The medicines, the food Vincent brought are studied for a long moment before his gaze shifts away, to some indeterminate point between himself and the wall. "You must have loved her very much to keep trying, but I am not a human being and you are not ... a good keeper. You couldn't pull the trigger."
He'll never forget the opportunity had been there, and that Vincent hadn't been able to see it through. "And I don't think you could build an effective cage."
Hiding the pain of injuries is not what causes concern. Anyone might try to put on a brave face to hide physical weakness in the right circumstances. Feelings are irrelevant. Yes, Vincent does know what Sephiroth is. Created from the DNA of a Calamity, an experiment. A lonely youth who has known little but abuse and torture.
Vincent is someone that would have empathy for monsters and the fact that they are more than just mindless beasts which kill. And far from the notion of who he loved. Of course, he knows their dangers as well. That whatever there is to them, that they and humans cannot really live side by side.
There would always be that threat.
"I would kill the whelp as a kindness to it." It's said without hesitation. "But you aren't a dragon. The picture you carried reminded me of that." Monsters may lament the lack of their kind. Feel pain or sorrow or suffer. But few would keep mementos. "So I didn't pull the trigger."
Lucrecia's memory reminded him of that. Vincent reaches over and begins to rewrap the sandwich. His own as well.
"Sure, I know where you came from and what you can become. Maybe will. But that's not all you are right now."
After that... what to do? What to say? There's a soft rustle of fabric as Vincent rises and steps closer to the cot. If left unchecked, Sephiroth will find he intends to sit beside him. A bit separate, as much as the frame allows anyway.
"I can't argue you're not human. Monsters generally don't try to hold onto their humanity though."
Destroyers don't try to not destroy.
Cages and leashes. These comments inspire a few nagging thoughts that he keeps to himself. It's something he'd need to check out. So right now, Vincent offers a light shrug.
"Well, that's why I think your feelings on the idea are relevant. Why I asked."
Sephiroth's voice might be steady, but Vincent knows there's something underneath simply because he was there to see the teen's behavior when it was unschooled behind the facade he used in front of people. A soft sigh escapes him.
"But if the answer isn't yes, that it does bother you, I guess I'll keep trying. Even if I'm not very good at it." Being a keeper? A parent? Probably the latter. Still, the concepts seem to have been blurred there for a moment.
"You're right. A dragon even fully grown would struggle to kill more than a dozen before being hunted down. I'm not a dragon." The cot creaks under the weight of both of them, but it doesn't break. Shinra made sturdy stuff, and his replication was careful.
It didn't matter what he wanted. He wanted a normal life. A normal childhood, a normal family. It'll never happen. "I'm responsible for hundreds already." Either directly or under his orders; a dragon would struggle to match what he's accomplished just at fourteen.
Every Rhadoran was dead. He executed the last one personally. It didn't matter why, just that it happened. "Pretending otherwise is going to backfire one day. You need to understand that. I .. can't rely on you to do what needs to be done. You'll hesitate. You already have, because of nothing more than a picture."
No reassurance will make him believe otherwise, now that he knew that, had seen it for himself, before Vincent even tried to get to know him. If he hesitated then, it would be much harder now. "Everyone ... hesitates." Not everyone.
One man didn't. Didn't even blink at the idea of cutting down the child to prevent the man from rampaging.
"I know it's not because you liked it. Not that it changes the weight of those sins."
Orders were followed. It cost peoples' lives. And Vincent did that sort of thing when he was still human, though he was older, yes and found no joy that Sephiroth had been forced to suffer it so young. Still, indiscriminate killing, liking it and not liking it are all different gauges of who... or what a human or monster is.
"Wasn't my finest moment in some ways," Vincent admits. Maybe not for all the same reasons Sephiroth thinks, but some of them align. "And I regret losing your trust." The one that reliance would have counted on. That put Sephiroth on guard for very good reasons.
In fairness, Sephiroth hadn't been rampaging. Not even a small one. He'd been lured right into an ambush and hounded to the end of the line.
"Whatever it seems, I'm not pretending otherwise. I'm choosing to see what I can do to help you change your future. If that's possible."
Vincent lets out a chuff of air similar to a chuckle. It's not really humor however.
"The fox made it clear that you can get sent back whenever she pleases and there would be nothing I can do to stop that."
There's a bitter note, sure. A small, creeping thing hinting at the stress of the last week.
"Well. That's not going to stop me from trying." Whether that's determination or sheer stubborn spite is hard to tell. "Maybe along the way, I'll earn back your trust."
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2024-06-27 01:05 am (UTC)The ointment is taken automatically, but not immediately used, instead he rolls it over in his hands seeking the label and what it's actually for.
Then puts it back down.
He knows very well what he's being asked. "It wasn't me. I don't have access to fire magic to a sufficient degree, and wildfires of this scale are beyond me even if I did have a mastered materia."
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Date: 2024-06-27 01:18 am (UTC)Then he addresses Sephiroth's almost suspiciously purposeful response to his question. It's accompanied with a long look that suggests to the teen that Vincent doubts any impression of misunderstanding.
"Wildfires only need a small spark in a dry area to start," Vincent responds dryly. "But these don't burn the Star Children. And last I heard there's no materia that can bring out a fire that can be tricked into consuming confessions."
Vincent's been out doing the rounds while looking for Sephiroth so he has had a good grasp of what is actually happening.
"So you were low on my list of suspects." In fact, not even on it after the first seconds of encountering the first of these strange fires.
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Date: 2024-06-27 01:30 am (UTC)Shinra would make liberal use of such a thing if it existed, of course, which inevitably meant it did not. At least, not yet. The sheer intimidation factor of it would make it useful.
The second ointment is read much as the first, and for a long moment, weighed. He was very resistant to infections to start with, it wasn't much necessary. At great length it's uncapped, and dabbed here and there. Not as extensively as some might, but the chances of a problem were slim to begin with. "I told Verdot where to find you."
In one distant, almost toneless sentence, there's an answer to the question he'd been asked. It didn't even begin to touch on events. It was the least of them. "Since it caused him to have an expression, it must have been a shock."
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Date: 2024-06-27 02:05 am (UTC)Want to see another moment of surprising change in expression? Vincent's apathetic default shifts to interest and certainly recognition of the name. Though they had once spoken briefly after Vincent had went into his slumber, he's a little surprised to hear the name come out of Sephiroth.
Of course in the back of his mind, he notes the confirmation that the teen did go back as suspected.
Surprise and recognition do not return to dispassion. Instead, Vincent's expression softens more and there's a genuine smile at hearing about his old partner. Despite the worry for the teen, he can't help it.
"I think I can picture that." He can, because he largely saw the same thing happen when Verdot found him in the coffin in the Shinra Mansion. Things had been... awkward then. It's on those thoughts that another sigh is pulled from Vincent.
"I wish him luck, whatever he decides to do with that information. I can be pretty stubborn."
But this time, Verdot has another decade or so head start to work on him. And who would know Vincent better? But that leads to the question, how did Sephiroth know to speak with Verdot. And more importantly, why?
His expression does become serious again. "But... I don't remember telling you about Verdot." And Sephiroth isn't someone that's allowed a lot of free rambling when he's at HQ. So either the Turk happened to show up in the science department, the teen ran into him in the field, or Verdot was there specifically to see Sephiroth.
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Date: 2024-06-27 01:45 pm (UTC)Which admittedly isn't much. His mind keeps turning back to a boy standing in front of a fire.
"You didn't. He's the head of the department, nobody needs to be told about him." Dealing with the Turks means often dealing with Verdot, and while the labs' pet experiment wasn't usually worth their notice, Verdot could and would interfere if he saw fit to. "He interfered when I decided to give the science department the live-fire combat assessment they requested."
And for better or worse, the man knew how to handle distraught weapons of mass destruction. A lot of people are still alive because of his interference. "I admit all this time I thought you were the orphaned half of a team." He was wrong. But if rumors and information were right, no Turk would be able to just up and abandon their partner like that and .. what, sleep in a box for a few decades? "...Irrelevant I guess. He's sent one of their newest rookies to 'cut his teeth on a nice easy intel gathering mission' and see if I'm lying."
An easy enough bargain at the time, it wouldn't have taken long to verify if the Fox hadn't interfered and brought him here again.
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Date: 2024-06-28 01:15 am (UTC)"Ah, I see." And that realization isn't anything to do with Verdot's standing in the Turks at the time of Sephiroth's teenage years. He knows what the teen truly meant and what his conversation with the head of the Turks might have started with.
It comes with mixed feelings. On one hand, a part of him is relieved Sephiroth was stopped. It was unlikely the company would have left the boy alive and if they did... well, Deepground and knowledge he learned of its torments are fresh on the gunman's mind still.
But a small part of him did wonder if he'd taught the teen a bit of discretion before he'd come back, maybe Sephiroth could have... no. Vincent shakes his head at his thoughts. Focuses on what Sephiroth says about Verdot's words. Sending a new rookie, huh?
"He must see a lot of promise in the kid," the former Turk mutters. 'Nice, easy intel gathering'? Maybe at its face. But Verdot would also have to have trusted the rookie to do a thorough and careful job of it.
At first it seemed like he was going to avoid talking about the 'irrelevant' part. Vincent regards Sephiroth for a moment. "...Not really. Verdot was my partner. I never reached out. Not to him, or anyone."
If there's anything among the supplies that looks like it will be useful to pass to Sephiroth. But if the limited first aid seems done, then it'll be set aside. Sephiroth has water and cloth to wipe away any traces of ointment. Why is that relevant? Well, Vincent is starting to unpack and unwrap the food and drink.
"What I'd gone through and all my sins. I chose to lock them away and sleep."
Sure, he's talked about that and what those sins were. But it's worth mentioning. There's probably a mild comparison to be had to keeping himself from reaching out to others and the weight of things Sephiroth does not want to talk about.
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Date: 2024-06-28 04:42 pm (UTC)Sephiroth hadn't cared if he was stopped. Still didn't. If he died, then that was a win for Gaia. If he didn't, and succeeded in slaughtering everyone in his path, it would again be a win for Gaia. There was no downside.
He wasn't suicidal. He just weighed the cost of his own life and found it negligible in comparison to the price the future would exact. Like any conflict, the goal was more important than individual losses.
But Vincent is studied, something calculating in those utterly inhuman eyes.
Sins. And abandoning his friends had been just one of them, right? "We came to an .. understanding. If it turns out," he says slowly, "That the Professor did in fact treat one of his Turks like he treats us, every Turk will be simultaneously sent out of Midgar for missions when it's time for my assessment. Surely a coincidence."
Verdot could weigh the cost of lives too. What was the price of a dozen Turks, versus several dozen scientists, techs and aides?
"It's been over a decade. You chose poorly."
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Date: 2024-06-29 09:39 pm (UTC)"Be a shame if something bad happened while they were away like that. But I'm sure Verdot knows what he's doing," comes the mild answer. He's quite good at the poker face. If anything there's a brief suggestion.
"My advice is to go from top down. Don't give the bastard satisfaction of a good show."
Or time to prepare in any way. It'll be hard enough to get Hojo without him having time to prepare a way to weasel out of a catastrophic 'accident'. Much less have him get the chance to delight in the observations of the 'exercise'.
But the topic returns to his punishment in slumber. You chose poorly. He won't argue there, but it's a choice he made.
"Almost thirty." For him. "I know too well what new sins my choices brought." He didn't reach out to his friends, denied their offers. And abandoned Sephiroth to his fate. "I kept everything to myself."
"Who knows. Maybe the me Verdot sends Tseng out to find will choose differently. Feel free to keep me posted if you happen to go back from time to time."
Or you can choose not to, his words seem to say. That is Sephiroth's decision to make, not his to demand.
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Date: 2024-07-01 02:05 am (UTC)He sets to cleaning the rest of what he hadn't already tended to, then getting ointment off his fingers. There wasn't anything to do for all the bruising, and the other injuries would heal in time. His chances of ever seeing another baloir were, at least, minimal. They were probably extinct now. "I'd have to start with him. Anything other than being the first, and without warning, and he would likely escape. He deals with hostile, dangerous specimens on a daily basis."
Though Hojo had long since become very casual about the threat level Sephiroth posed, it was much to do with the fact that the teen didn't really put up a struggle. "And.. there's a chance that if he's killed, the others will fall in line." He didn't think so in all honesty, someone ambitious would likely just try to claim Hojo's spot. But if they could reasonably be spared..
It seemed to him that just calling things a 'sin' was somehow putting it aside instead of really accepting it or doing anything about it. "I suspect it's a when, not an if. I think it was deliberate, sending me back. I asked her what the point of all of this was if we couldn't change anything. And then.." A couple weeks later, off he went, to find out for himself. "..Maybe I can save some people instead of just killing them. Maybe you can too."
This Vincent, or the one sleeping in Nibelheim, unaware of the Turks closing in on his position?
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Date: 2024-07-01 04:59 am (UTC)"After I started traveling with Cloud, had run-ins with him a few times." It's a neat way of summarizing running into the modern stable of Turks or explaining that he'd once rescued Tseng and Elena from the remnants. "Of course, he's much older by then."
The brown paper wrapping the sandwich is folded into a neat plate. Soup in a small container is put beside it and of course the bottled beverage. These are set nearest to Sephiroth and in easy reach.
"Mm." Vincent nods. Does he think it's going to be as easy as that? Not... exactly. Whatever Sephiroth had suffered at Hojo's hands might also stand as an impediment. But the matter of who would climb to the top of the pyramid in the fallout is... well, Gast was respectable by comparison to most of the candidates that might still be around.
To be honest while Vincent could have said something about the likely candidates to watch out for fourteen years before Sephiroth's present, there isn't much he can say now. Though as far as it went, if Hojo was taken down, he was reasonably sure Verdot would do what he could to make sure the Turks weren't touched by the science department again. That only left what would happen to Sephiroth himself in the fallout if he were to survive.
Because it might be a little early, but there was a deeper, uglier hole the teen can end up being tossed into if he was considered too valuable to permanently remove. But he's torn from such thoughts or voicing them right then as Sephiroth offers insight on the circumstances surrounding how he was sent back. That really is too much of a coincidence to take at face value, isn't it?
Vincent is caught looking at Sephiroth in a more direct fashion. Yes, it does add some credence to suspicions (worries) even the former Turk had about Thirteen's decision to send the teen back so suddenly. Would this be only the first of many? And if so what tales would the youth bring back of the efforts to change his fate? The world's fate?
For a moment his expression turns unreadable. Vincent looks down at his own sandwich, now prepared to be eaten as well though he hadn't touched it yet. He wouldn't let himself think Sephiroth only meant the other Vincent. The silver-haired teen tended to be too precise for the 'you' to only mean his other self. So quietly he offers a response.
"...Even if I might not have the right to hope, I'd be satisfied if I could just save one."
And who would blame this Vincent at all for there being a slight stress on at least one of the 'I' in that statement? Or for looking right at Sephiroth?
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Date: 2024-07-04 03:41 pm (UTC)The food is noted but not touched. Eating is still the last thing on his mind, though he knew he probably should. Something. Anything. Matt would frown if he skipped a meal and begin quoting statistics on what malnutrition can do. Lucia would just hunt for more tempting things than rations.
He could hear Glenn threatening to hold him down and shove a granola bar down his throat.
Even if the future could be changed, the past couldn't now. Those.. those relationships were gone. He'd never work alongside them again, feel warm and accepted. Hear their jokes and stories. That was destroyed. "The right?"
That's a baffling thought. The right to hope. Or anything else for that matter. "...Nobody has any rights, Mr. Valentine. We invented it. Just like we invented everything else." Is there an implication that he's supposed to be the one saved? From the man who tried to kill him?
Nah. Maybe it was someone else. Cloud, or .. his mother, maybe. She is still alive, in his time. That made sense. "Nature's laws don't allow for justice, or mercy, or hope. So if you want it, go take it."
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Date: 2024-07-05 08:55 pm (UTC)"Who knows. Not everyone put country before what Shinra offered." Maybe Tseng had no real ties to Wutai. And in the Turks, while maybe it would have been considered, background took second place to loyalty and skill.
Leave no doubt, Vincent falls silent to listen. Because it tells him things about what Sephiroth is thinking. Terrible as it is, tragic as his own part in making it that way is. Taking action though... Well, he's right there. Despite what he did, if Vincent is going to affect anything, he can only take action.
"What I want right now is for you to take a couple bites of that sandwich." While it may seem like dry humor, there's a gentle trace that suggests kindness, if not concern. But the humor is there because... well, how is he supposed to 'take' that?
"What do you suggest I do about that?"
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Date: 2024-07-05 10:04 pm (UTC)Glenn wouldn't accept that. He'd have to prove it made him ill.
He needed to not think about his team.
Ex team.
Besides. "..If you wanted to try your hand at parenting," is the low addition, equally dry, "You should have said 'yes' when I asked if you were my father." He's.. going to put his shirt back on, having injuries on display, even half-healed ones, was uncomfortable. More weakness.
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Date: 2024-07-06 12:45 am (UTC)And what about the root cause? The former Turk blind to it; he's been hanging around the teen as a cat and has witnessed some unfiltered moments involving Sephiroth's anxiety. But trying to find ways to offer himself as a person to open up to is another matter entirely. To be honest a part of him is uncertain as to how.
Then the teen says something.
"That wasn't an option at the time. I ate the ice cream." Vincent isn't going to protest against Sephiroth dressing again. It was enough the teen had allowed himself to show some vulnerability at all and taken some attention to the wounds. He made a mental note to check into a cure materia. Didn't Zack say something about someone in that house having one?
Vincent falls silent again for another short span of time.
"What if I want to do more than try?" It's really a question. A quiet one without humor. "What if I said I'd be your father? How would that make you feel?"
To 'take' something you want to happen. Sure, the question may have come from the origins of the conversation about how to get what you want. But this isn't something Vincent can simply take.
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Date: 2024-07-06 03:08 pm (UTC)There was around people.
And he's pretty good at it, there's almost no outward sign of pain when he pulls his shirt over his head, stretching damaged ribs and countless smaller injuries. "Feelings are irrelevant. You know what I am, Mr. Valentine."
A destroyer, just like one of his mothers. He can keep his voice pretty steady, keep his expression fairly neutral, but when he closes his eyes he sees a dead boy on the ground. "You don't parent a dragon whelp. If you're stupid enough to keep one around, you leash it and build it a strong cage." The medicines, the food Vincent brought are studied for a long moment before his gaze shifts away, to some indeterminate point between himself and the wall. "You must have loved her very much to keep trying, but I am not a human being and you are not ... a good keeper. You couldn't pull the trigger."
He'll never forget the opportunity had been there, and that Vincent hadn't been able to see it through. "And I don't think you could build an effective cage."
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Date: 2024-07-08 06:05 am (UTC)Vincent is someone that would have empathy for monsters and the fact that they are more than just mindless beasts which kill. And far from the notion of who he loved. Of course, he knows their dangers as well. That whatever there is to them, that they and humans cannot really live side by side.
There would always be that threat.
"I would kill the whelp as a kindness to it." It's said without hesitation. "But you aren't a dragon. The picture you carried reminded me of that." Monsters may lament the lack of their kind. Feel pain or sorrow or suffer. But few would keep mementos. "So I didn't pull the trigger."
Lucrecia's memory reminded him of that. Vincent reaches over and begins to rewrap the sandwich. His own as well.
"Sure, I know where you came from and what you can become. Maybe will. But that's not all you are right now."
After that... what to do? What to say? There's a soft rustle of fabric as Vincent rises and steps closer to the cot. If left unchecked, Sephiroth will find he intends to sit beside him. A bit separate, as much as the frame allows anyway.
"I can't argue you're not human. Monsters generally don't try to hold onto their humanity though."
Destroyers don't try to not destroy.
Cages and leashes. These comments inspire a few nagging thoughts that he keeps to himself. It's something he'd need to check out. So right now, Vincent offers a light shrug.
"Well, that's why I think your feelings on the idea are relevant. Why I asked."
Sephiroth's voice might be steady, but Vincent knows there's something underneath simply because he was there to see the teen's behavior when it was unschooled behind the facade he used in front of people. A soft sigh escapes him.
"But if the answer isn't yes, that it does bother you, I guess I'll keep trying. Even if I'm not very good at it." Being a keeper? A parent? Probably the latter. Still, the concepts seem to have been blurred there for a moment.
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Date: 2024-07-08 12:24 pm (UTC)It didn't matter what he wanted. He wanted a normal life. A normal childhood, a normal family. It'll never happen. "I'm responsible for hundreds already." Either directly or under his orders; a dragon would struggle to match what he's accomplished just at fourteen.
Every Rhadoran was dead. He executed the last one personally. It didn't matter why, just that it happened. "Pretending otherwise is going to backfire one day. You need to understand that. I .. can't rely on you to do what needs to be done. You'll hesitate. You already have, because of nothing more than a picture."
No reassurance will make him believe otherwise, now that he knew that, had seen it for himself, before Vincent even tried to get to know him. If he hesitated then, it would be much harder now. "Everyone ... hesitates." Not everyone.
One man didn't. Didn't even blink at the idea of cutting down the child to prevent the man from rampaging.
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Date: 2024-07-09 10:55 pm (UTC)"I know it's not because you liked it. Not that it changes the weight of those sins."
Orders were followed. It cost peoples' lives. And Vincent did that sort of thing when he was still human, though he was older, yes and found no joy that Sephiroth had been forced to suffer it so young. Still, indiscriminate killing, liking it and not liking it are all different gauges of who... or what a human or monster is.
"Wasn't my finest moment in some ways," Vincent admits. Maybe not for all the same reasons Sephiroth thinks, but some of them align. "And I regret losing your trust." The one that reliance would have counted on. That put Sephiroth on guard for very good reasons.
In fairness, Sephiroth hadn't been rampaging. Not even a small one. He'd been lured right into an ambush and hounded to the end of the line.
"Whatever it seems, I'm not pretending otherwise. I'm choosing to see what I can do to help you change your future. If that's possible."
Vincent lets out a chuff of air similar to a chuckle. It's not really humor however.
"The fox made it clear that you can get sent back whenever she pleases and there would be nothing I can do to stop that."
There's a bitter note, sure. A small, creeping thing hinting at the stress of the last week.
"Well. That's not going to stop me from trying." Whether that's determination or sheer stubborn spite is hard to tell. "Maybe along the way, I'll earn back your trust."