[Remaining here only made the wound bigger, he knew. Yet even if he had a choice in the matter, he knew that he would stay. Arm's length from Lucre- no, Doctor Crescent had been easy, at least. Ever since her child had been taken away, she had been utterly inconsolable.
Hysterical, the good Doctor Hojo had called it. Nonsensical. Even mad. Even now, on a day like none other before it- when the results of Projects G and S had been brought to the manor, and both Hollander and Hojo prepared themselves to rub the results of their experimentations in the other's faces- Doctor Crescent herself had been absent.
...Not by choice. She had been moved to the bowels of the manor. To wail and to scream and to cry- to lament being so close to this child- the only one on the Planet that she loved, yet so far. Vincent himself had no say in the matter. He was security. Nothing more...
...There was nothing he could do.
Except for one thing. A thing most would call terrible. That some would call evil- something that would end this torment. Even end himself, were this child faster than him, able to kill him before he could even pull the trigger.
Didn't matter even if he wasn't. Even if he was faster than this boy, the rest of the security within the manor would be alerted, and he would meet his end that way.
An end was an end.
He holds the door for the child as he walks after him through the hallways of the ground level of the manor- and he cannot help but get the measure of him. He's a strange thing, so alien, with his head of greyed hair and his catlike, glowing eyes- but so human in his resemblance to her.
He was his mother's son, all right. And the similarities he held to Vincent himself... A long, thin nose. A pointed chin. The shape of his eyes. None of these things were hers. Yet they were not Hojo's, either.
Forgive me, Lucrecia.
He can't help but ask, even mentally, as he holds the last door for the boy. The main door, one that led outside, to the yard, where the nightmare would end.]
[It wasn't often Sephiroth came into contact with people. Well, people who weren't Professor Hojo or any of his lab assistants. This means he's especially awkward around new people in that he's not quite sure how to act. Despite that and his age, he's still rather polite all things considered.
He follows the man without so much as a question. He's learned pretty quickly they don't like it when he asks questions, or at least not the ones he leans towards. Namely his origin, his mother. These things go without much word, just frowns and subject changes.
He did manage to get something out of Hojo once. A name.
Jenova.
But not much else. Just that she died. Hojo didn't shy away explaining to him what death is, not even at an early age. But they also put him into training rooms already to fight monsters. Fake deaths.
And then they brought him here, which in a way was a welcome change. Some place new, and he is curious. Unfortunately he's not allowed to wander. Otherwise he would. But he is being under the watchful eye of another ... though this one isn't like the scientists. And so Sephiroth watches him closely, cat-like eyes following every movement -- not out of suspicion, but curiosity.
After stepping outside --]
My name is Sephiroth -
[A pause.]
But you probably already knew that, sorry. I just thought I should introduce myself.
[Everyone knows who he is. Unfortunately. Professor Hojo would parade him around everywhere if he could. Sephiroth doesn't like it, but he puts up with it. He's just a kid and he really has no other place.
But right, other than introductions, what's the other polite thing to do?]
[It spoke volumes about Sephiroth- the fact that he viewed a long plane ride and this stifling, grey, depressing place as welcome. Because the Nibel region was anything but welcoming. Today was a day like no other. The skies are grey. Heavy with tension- the indication of brewing thunder apparent in both the gloom that dominated the sky, as well as faint rumbles, spread far apart.
The mountains themselves reach toward this greyness, twisted and contorted as if in agony.
Not that the turk's mind is on any of that. Instead, it is spinning in a far different direction. The handgun in his holster was a Winchester long barrel. Not his usual Shinra issue piece. Better for close range. Preloaded with a clip of 9mm bullets. Guaranteed to put a human target in the ground, velocity and power near perfect for lethality- capable of producing a wide wound channel even if death was not immediate. Enough power to tear apart vital organs beyond any hope of recovery.
Loud, though. Incredibly loud. Loud enough for those still within the manor to hear. Loud enough to make his original plan of doing this, then going into the mansion and taking a few shots at Hojo before he was brought down damn near impossible. Completely impossible, given the fact that whether it was needed or not, it would be prudent to fire multiple shots into this child.
This child.
His head's spinning, all right- and the thought of Sephiroth's age moves it off-kilter, spinning in a direction he does not especially like. And he is lost in his thoughts as he gazes toward the mountains.]
Hm?
[The boy's voice is a bit of a surprise to him. His question even more so. Like Sephiroth had not expected to be watched by anyone but scientists, Vincent was not expecting to be spoken to. Security. Nothing more. Here, on this job- his role hardly warranted being addressed for anything other than orders.
He turns, both of his hands empty.]
...Vincent Valentine. Turk.
[As his eyes move downward to meet the youth's gaze, again, it strikes him just how much like his mother the boy's countenance was.]
I've been told you're to remain out of the laboratory while the presentations are ongoing. And...
[Stop it. Stop feeling sorry for him. Stop.]
I thought you might want to take some fresh air while you have the opportunity. It's hard to come by in Midgar.
[Sephiroth seems satisfied with Vincent's answer and takes a few steps away to look around. It's very nice here, and so different from Midgar. He feels a little out of place no longer surrounded by the walls of the Shinra building. Even looking outside there didn't give the view this place does.
After a moment he turns back around to Vincent.]
Thank you. I like it here.
[Well, maybe not at this particular building, but the area in general is nice. He wouldn't mind that. In a way that's what he fantasizes about, being away from everything with his mother. It's the life he wants but could never have.]
They'll probably be in there awhile. Professor Hojo likes to argue.
[Argue until his points are known and recognized by everyone. Sephiroth does not particularly like him and probably never will. There's just something about him. So if they can stay out here for awhile, it'll be for the best.]
He probably won't like me telling you that. Or telling you that an easy way to get him angry is to say Materia is magic. He dislikes that word a lot.
[Sorry Vincent, Sephiroth usually doesn't have a people to talk to that aren't scientists. He's new and interesting and took him outside, which is good enough for Sephiroth at the moment.]
[At that, the urge to shake his head in incredulousness is strong- but he does not. Sephiroth was the first person he'd heard that actually voiced a positive opinion on this place- the ramshackle little village, or the foreboding mountains. He was tempted to answer. To say something along the lines of his approval not being necessary. That the region wasn't especially important to him, and there was no need to praise it because he was here.
...But he was a Turk. He was the perceptive sort. And the fact that the boy had stated approval of this was a signal to him- illustrating a life that was likely spent in sterile laboratories, loud drill halls, and artificial combat sims. Pity rises again. And he has to dig deep to push it back.]
Yes. I'm familiar with Professor Hojo's ...approaches to the sciences. And given Professor Gast's resignation...
["Resignation" was a word for it.]
...The Company's views have shifted to the same thing. Even if this does take a while-
[And it will. Because this whole affair is typical of Hojo. To cart half of the science department and three children with two respective families in tow, to the middle of nowhere for a dickmeasuring contest.
...But it's hardly his concern.]
-your transport back to Midgar has been prearranged. A chopper will arrive briefly, to take you to the airstrip, where you will be flown back to Midgar.
[He pauses then, something moving through his head before he starts to move toward the side of the building, past some dead trees.]
There were two boys here yesterday, for the same reason as you. While the... science... was being discussed, [And while Hollander screamed himself hoarse at an unimpressed Hojo,] they spent that time playing here.
[He had no idea what the both of them found so interesting about this little corner of the garden. But the evidence of their presence was still here in the form of footprints in the dirt- indicating running. Chasing. And perhaps even an impromptu playfight, given the fact the footprints trail off into what appears to be clear signs of scraped heels, slides, and general chaos.
Vincent strides around the area, soon spotting something in the bushes.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
† sephiroth
→ a child in nibelheim
[Remaining here only made the wound bigger, he knew. Yet even if he had a choice in the matter, he knew that he would stay. Arm's length from Lucre- no, Doctor Crescent had been easy, at least. Ever since her child had been taken away, she had been utterly inconsolable.
Hysterical, the good Doctor Hojo had called it. Nonsensical. Even mad. Even now, on a day like none other before it- when the results of Projects G and S had been brought to the manor, and both Hollander and Hojo prepared themselves to rub the results of their experimentations in the other's faces- Doctor Crescent herself had been absent.
...Not by choice.
She had been moved to the bowels of the manor. To wail and to scream and to cry- to lament being so close to this child- the only one on the Planet that she loved, yet so far. Vincent himself had no say in the matter. He was security. Nothing more...
...There was nothing he could do.
Except for one thing.
A thing most would call terrible. That some would call evil- something that would end this torment. Even end himself, were this child faster than him, able to kill him before he could even pull the trigger.
Didn't matter even if he wasn't. Even if he was faster than this boy, the rest of the security within the manor would be alerted, and he would meet his end that way.
An end was an end.
He holds the door for the child as he walks after him through the hallways of the ground level of the manor- and he cannot help but get the measure of him. He's a strange thing, so alien, with his head of greyed hair and his catlike, glowing eyes- but so human in his resemblance to her.
He was his mother's son, all right. And the similarities he held to Vincent himself... A long, thin nose. A pointed chin. The shape of his eyes. None of these things were hers. Yet they were not Hojo's, either.
Forgive me, Lucrecia.
He can't help but ask, even mentally, as he holds the last door for the boy. The main door, one that led outside, to the yard, where the nightmare would end.]
no subject
He follows the man without so much as a question. He's learned pretty quickly they don't like it when he asks questions, or at least not the ones he leans towards. Namely his origin, his mother. These things go without much word, just frowns and subject changes.
He did manage to get something out of Hojo once. A name.
Jenova.
But not much else. Just that she died. Hojo didn't shy away explaining to him what death is, not even at an early age. But they also put him into training rooms already to fight monsters. Fake deaths.
And then they brought him here, which in a way was a welcome change. Some place new, and he is curious. Unfortunately he's not allowed to wander. Otherwise he would. But he is being under the watchful eye of another ... though this one isn't like the scientists. And so Sephiroth watches him closely, cat-like eyes following every movement -- not out of suspicion, but curiosity.
After stepping outside --]
My name is Sephiroth -
[A pause.]
But you probably already knew that, sorry. I just thought I should introduce myself.
[Everyone knows who he is. Unfortunately. Professor Hojo would parade him around everywhere if he could. Sephiroth doesn't like it, but he puts up with it. He's just a kid and he really has no other place.
But right, other than introductions, what's the other polite thing to do?]
What's your name?
no subject
The mountains themselves reach toward this greyness, twisted and contorted as if in agony.
Not that the turk's mind is on any of that. Instead, it is spinning in a far different direction. The handgun in his holster was a Winchester long barrel. Not his usual Shinra issue piece. Better for close range. Preloaded with a clip of 9mm bullets. Guaranteed to put a human target in the ground, velocity and power near perfect for lethality- capable of producing a wide wound channel even if death was not immediate. Enough power to tear apart vital organs beyond any hope of recovery.
Loud, though. Incredibly loud. Loud enough for those still within the manor to hear. Loud enough to make his original plan of doing this, then going into the mansion and taking a few shots at Hojo before he was brought down damn near impossible. Completely impossible, given the fact that whether it was needed or not, it would be prudent to fire multiple shots into this child.
This child.
His head's spinning, all right- and the thought of Sephiroth's age moves it off-kilter, spinning in a direction he does not especially like. And he is lost in his thoughts as he gazes toward the mountains.]
Hm?
[The boy's voice is a bit of a surprise to him. His question even more so. Like Sephiroth had not expected to be watched by anyone but scientists, Vincent was not expecting to be spoken to. Security. Nothing more. Here, on this job- his role hardly warranted being addressed for anything other than orders.
He turns, both of his hands empty.]
...Vincent Valentine. Turk.
[As his eyes move downward to meet the youth's gaze, again, it strikes him just how much like his mother the boy's countenance was.]
I've been told you're to remain out of the laboratory while the presentations are ongoing. And...
[Stop it. Stop feeling sorry for him. Stop.]
I thought you might want to take some fresh air while you have the opportunity. It's hard to come by in Midgar.
no subject
After a moment he turns back around to Vincent.]
Thank you. I like it here.
[Well, maybe not at this particular building, but the area in general is nice. He wouldn't mind that. In a way that's what he fantasizes about, being away from everything with his mother. It's the life he wants but could never have.]
They'll probably be in there awhile. Professor Hojo likes to argue.
[Argue until his points are known and recognized by everyone. Sephiroth does not particularly like him and probably never will. There's just something about him. So if they can stay out here for awhile, it'll be for the best.]
He probably won't like me telling you that. Or telling you that an easy way to get him angry is to say Materia is magic. He dislikes that word a lot.
[Sorry Vincent, Sephiroth usually doesn't have a people to talk to that aren't scientists. He's new and interesting and took him outside, which is good enough for Sephiroth at the moment.]
no subject
...But he was a Turk. He was the perceptive sort. And the fact that the boy had stated approval of this was a signal to him- illustrating a life that was likely spent in sterile laboratories, loud drill halls, and artificial combat sims. Pity rises again. And he has to dig deep to push it back.]
Yes. I'm familiar with Professor Hojo's ...approaches to the sciences. And given Professor Gast's resignation...
["Resignation" was a word for it.]
...The Company's views have shifted to the same thing. Even if this does take a while-
[And it will. Because this whole affair is typical of Hojo. To cart half of the science department and three children with two respective families in tow, to the middle of nowhere for a dickmeasuring contest.
...But it's hardly his concern.]
-your transport back to Midgar has been prearranged. A chopper will arrive briefly, to take you to the airstrip, where you will be flown back to Midgar.
[He pauses then, something moving through his head before he starts to move toward the side of the building, past some dead trees.]
There were two boys here yesterday, for the same reason as you. While the... science... was being discussed, [And while Hollander screamed himself hoarse at an unimpressed Hojo,] they spent that time playing here.
[He had no idea what the both of them found so interesting about this little corner of the garden. But the evidence of their presence was still here in the form of footprints in the dirt- indicating running. Chasing. And perhaps even an impromptu playfight, given the fact the footprints trail off into what appears to be clear signs of scraped heels, slides, and general chaos.
Vincent strides around the area, soon spotting something in the bushes.]
Wait.