More Way back When
Who: Sephiroth (10 y/o) and Veld
When: Way back when...(backdated)
Location: Midgar
Rating: PG
Summary: Veld helps to alleviate Sephiroth's boredom with some special materia training, (OOC: enjoy a little something myself and Veld-mun came up with, thought we'd continue it on here)
BOOM!
Only a few seconds later the sirens across the Midgar training campus started to wail loudly, it didn't take long for the heavy smoke to waft it's way around the buildings. A large black column of the same stretched high enough to haze out the midday sun. A tiny boy at the root of it, in baggy T-shirt and training slacks. Golden flames licked their way in reflection on loose silver hair which just graced the bottom of Sephiroth's chin as he followed the flames up and watched them turn into smoke several feet up.
That was probably going to sting the tutor's record more than Sephiroth's. The lesson had begun easily enough, a piece of Fire materia had been dropped into his hands and he'd been told quite simply to set alight a bale of dry hay not more than twenty feet away. He'd almost laughed out loud at the absurdity of the task. Having been wielding materia for nearly a year already, being put through the same routines week after week in his regular classes he'd almost jumped for joy at the prospect of extra tuition. It hadn't been up to much. He had to gain "fine control" and well, he was convinced he already had that down to a fine art. The tutor had told him to try again and again, insulted his intelligence and tried his patience. Although Sephiroth was only 10 years old, so many people forgot that he already had the mind of at least three years his senior and that was on a bad test day.
So he had flicked his wrist at the last moment, and sent a stream of flame whisking past the tutor and quite precisely hit a nearby trash bin which went up in moments. It surprised him that there was an explosive in the trash but the look of the tutor squirming on the floor from shock was highly amusing.
The ice spell hit fast and rather unexpectedly, flakes of the white stuff drifted around and settled to the now shining floor. The man that walked through the mess had barely controlled brown hair, dark eyes and a scowl on his scarred face. "What in the name of Leviathan is going on here?" It didn't take a keen observer to notice the Turk suit and the rather precise manner that defined the unit's leader, Veld Dragoon. His glare was fixed rather expectantly upon the tutor. "I'm to believe you're in charge here?" Before the man could respond, Veld pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just... get out of my sight and pray to whatever god you want that I'm in a better mood the next time we run into each other."
Frankly the tutor looked pleased to be released of his duties and raced off as though he was still on fire.
Veld then turned his attention to the skinny pyromaniac. He looked like his father sometimes. "Do you typically go on little tantrums when bored?"
As soon as it all died away in an icy steam Sephiroth's attention had turned to the suited man. He'd managed to look from hem of trouser up the whole suit to the shoulder before the tutor ran for cover and the icy dragon's wrath was left alone with him.
A muted 'humph' was pulled back harshly from vocalization, this man had authority and it seeped from every pore. Downcast green eyes remained picking out the details on the Turks' shoes, after all they were a hell of a lot closer than looking up into the mans eyes. So far from his own, and the very concept of looking up to anyone Sephiroth knew put them in clear dominance over himself.
To the ten-year old that tutor had deserved it, just like all the others who had pulled the wrong string with him today. So silence prevailed for now.
"I asked you a question, Sephiroth." Veld was suddenly wishing he hadn't taken a half day. His kids' typical violent outbursts were easily quelled with a glare or threats of suicides about the building. None of them were treated like living gods either. They were more relatable. Of course, this made him feel more than a little sorry for the child in front of him. Sephiorth, despite his skill, his intellect, and his abilities, was still a ten year old boy.
Knowing this, however, did not make Veld not address the young man as he would an adult. "If you were bored you should have dismissed him. You can't just burn someone because they patronize you." He held out a hand for the materia. "I'm going to have to take that from you." Veld charged the materia stored in his arm in case Sephiroth protested. Though he had complained a few years back about the loss of the limb, the materia slots more than made up for the fact that he could not feel the fingers of his left hand.
"I didn't burn him" Sephiroth started. His initial protest was shown clearly in the materia which he still clung to, charging it's green glow until it was like green fire in his hand held firmly at his side. So easy it was to control materia this way, Sephiroth wondered for a moment if he kept channeling his energy through the small ball - would it break? Burst into a spray of minute glassy fragments, be gone to oblivion, back to the Planet like it should do? His eyes remained downcast.
It was fairly obvious that he hadn't even thought about whether or not the fire would burn the tutor, only that he needed to prove his point. He guy had probably gotten off lighter than he would have done if he hadn't had control; that was the point of the lesson, right? "...or at least. That wasn't the point..."
The glow in the materia died down and Sephiroth held it up for Veld to take, he still didn't look up however, face pretty much obscured by his hair. The floor sure seemed interesting right now.
Veld sighed. It wasn't that Sephiroth wasn't the sort to listen, but Veld had the distinct feeling that he made the boy uncomfortable. He bit the inside of his cheek. He did have the rest of the day off and Veld dounted that anyone would call him for anything. It was a paperwork day, afterall.
Veld pocketed the materia and crouched so that he and Sephiroth were eye level. "Are you bored?" The urge to tell everyone in the labs off went up fairly high around the poor kid. Veld thought it was stupid, uneeded and wrong. His own childhood had been short, Veld was working as an adult when he was Sephiroth's age, doing farily questionable things at tea houses at thirteen, and in the army killing people by the time he was fifteen.
People deserved better than that, Sephiroth included. "I've got time off, if you are and want to learn."
Only once Veld had crouched down did the small green eyes peer up from the floor, through the short fine silver hair framing his face and at Veld himself. Sephiroth held Veld's gaze for a moment before raising his head and shaking the hair which had clung to his mouth away. It was then, as an afterthought decided to run his fingers through the short locks, tucking a piece behind an ear.
"It's not important. Boredom means you have to achieve greater things, boredom passes." The sarcastic kid-chuckle followed with a shoulder shrug. There was something more to the story there, he couldn't have been kept so secluded that he didn't know he was missing on all the fun kids his age usually got, right?
"But sure..." Sephiroth eyed the materia slots that he could see from this distance in Veld's arm, wondered perhaps there were more than what it looked like. "Looks like you know how to really handle all this..."
Veld snorted himself. Sephiroth wasn't stupid, that much was plain. "If it wasn't because you were bored, why be destructive?"
Of course, Veld somehow managed to raise enough overly intelligent teenagers to know that there was a creativity in destruction. To deconstruct was easier than the construction and yet so much more beautiful.
Not to say Veld didn't have that streak in himself. A strict moral code, however loose, however wrong, was what Veld worked with. He looked down at the fire materia and turned the orb in his hand.
Veld Dragoon was not so vain as to think he would make a difference, however maybe he could try, for whatever it was worth to at least give Sephiroth someone to talk to.
"I guess I must be in a destructive mood. Plus I don't like that teacher...I don't like the ones that question me but don't answer my questions...it's rude" Stated matter-of-factly would almost be confused with cute without the deep tones of an adult speaking it, not that Sephiroth was old enough to know the difference that would make.
"You can't just destroy things when the mood takes you, there's a time and a place." Veld remained crouched so that he was at a more level view with Sephiroth. "Though I cannot argue with your logic about the tutor." Veld looked over his shoulder in the direction the man ran. "Would you like to continue your lesson?" He couldn't just leave the kid. Sephiroth needed something to occupy his time. Overly intelligent and talented children were bound to get into trouble.
Of course a well-behaved Sephiroth already knew that. Destruction was always frowned on by adults. But then isn't that what they were training him to do? Destroy things, kill things? Ironic.
He already knew, deep down and from some eavesdropping that they planned to enroll him in the military soon but there was a debate going on about the right age to subject him to that. Anything to get out of a life where a test of some sort wasn't expected at least twice a week? Away from an existance of cold examination tables, clipboards and endless books of studying? Sounded like a step up in the world to Sephiroth at least, and from what he'd heard it might indeed hold the challenges that he craved.
"Right" Sephiroth nodded and agreed with Veld in a quiet voice "It would be good to learn something new...Materia is so simple to use though complex in its capabilities..."
"Do you want to learn materia or would you rather do something else, kiddo?" Veld stood then, as crouching was a difficult way to walk. "I don't think it will be so big a deal to leave the grounds a while." Veld tossed the little ball of materia once in his hand. It seemed delicate, but he knew from experience that it wasn't. "All work and no play make you go crazy. That's why they make me take half days." That much was true. Tally used to chase him from the offices on bad days.
Do something else? Now that sounded interesting. Of course it would depend entirely on what the "something" was and after all, Sephiroth had agreed to the extra Materia training. He'd have traded it in for some high-level sparring session in an instant but he was already so good at sword fighting. It was more natural reflex now than an art that took a huge amount of concentration. Hence the need to train in things he was good at, but not yet excellent.
"Using materia is a vital skill, being able to attack from range with magic..." Although the question of what else Veld had in mind shone behind his eyes as they followed Veld while he stood back up. It was polite to maintain eye contact, and this Turk didn't seem half bad after all. Sephiroth shuffled his feet a little uncomfortably when he trailed off, then seemed to catch his train of thought again. There was so little opportunity for anything but training or studying, he couldn't remember the last time he'd thought he needed time for himself.
"But...what did you want you do?" A young, curious face tilted upwards to the older man.
Veld shrugged. Honestly he hadn't planned anything at all. He didn't want to really go home and read when he could have instead done something.
"I asked you. If you wanted a chance to leave the compound a while, I could escort you. Or if you want materia training. Between you and me, the stats materia, a good defense is much better than a strong offense."
He smiled at the kid. "Completely up to you, Sephiroth"
That seemed to quirk an interest. Multi-purpose materia sure sounded more fun than the simple attack magic he'd been learning thus far.
"Like what materia?" Sephiroth asked simply to Veld, sure he'd heard of the protective types and the status-changing times also but he'd always figured attack was a better form of defense with materia. Or simply he wouldn't let himself in for such a situation. Sleeping on the battlefield, yea right. Tiny eyebrows knitted together curiously, eyes full of an eternal thirst for knowledge as he thought this through.
Veld waited for a moment to kneel down next to Sephiroth. He shrugged one sleeve out of his jacket and rolled up the teeshirt under it to show a panel in his arm. Up until that point, it wasn't at all noticeable as a prosthetic. "I have quite a few I'm working on in here. The trick is to find materia that does a lot in one slot." He flicked the door open to show Sephiroth his setup. "I have X-Magic, MP Plus, Magic Plus, Master Magic, and also Magic Counter. I don't really use summon materia as it's flashy, but doesn't do much more than a good ultima spell would anyway. Unless materia doesn't come easily to you, you shouldn't limit yourself on usage. Never know what the enemy may drop."
Veld then flicked the compartment closed and stood, slipping the jacket back on. "We'll go outside a ways, I don't think there's anything wrong with the monsters in the junkyards underplate as training, do you?" Despite the fact that Sephiroth was a small child, Veld's tone was professional and adult as though he expected Sephiroth to have input into the conversation. He looked down at the boy in question before he continued on his way.
Woah, now that was something he didn't see everyday. Someplace, somehow this Turk had lost his arm and the prosthetic it had been replaced with had been worked into quite an impressive piece of equipment. That is for one who would use that much materia all to oneself. Sephiroth found it a little over the top, in all honesty but he wasn't going to be rude and say that. Veld probably had a reason or excuse or consequence for every piece that he had in that arm. There were so many different colours also, blues, yellows and pinks that he'd only seen in books in the library, it would be amazing to see what each of them did. Sephiroth nodded a little more enthusiastically at Veld as he stood back up.
Those small green hues practically shone when Veld suggested a place for them to train in. Those underplate junkyards were smelly alright and if there was a list of places he shouldn't ever go that was probably near the top. But Veld was right, they probably held all kinds of monsters. They'd be doing everyone a favor by going and killing a few right?
"Under the plate? You're sure that's safe?" Underneath Sephiroth didn't care if it was safe or not, he could handle himself. He did however want to hear the man's reaction.
Veld was more than aware that his stash was over the top. He didn't particularly care, if you used a truck to smash a fly the fly was still smashed. He noted how the boy's eyes shone with the idea of a challenge and the hope for something exciting. When he mentioned monsters the boy nearly vibrated with excitement. Boys were boys, after all, and Veld knew the junkyard was challenging, but not below his skillset.
"Scared?" He asked, a smile on his mouth.
The two were walking at a leisurely pace directly out of the ShinRa building. The guards jumped a bit at the sight of the leader of the Turks walking the chosen one of ShinRa directly out of the building. Veld made eye contact with one and she stood down. The SOLDIER guards were certainly not stupid, they knew that mouthing off to Veld was a wonderful way to have the Turks come around their ears. The war between the two departments was mostly over budgets and a few training scuffles. It wasn't worth the hassle of trying to bother Veld. He intended to walk instead of take a train or ride the bus. Veld knew the slums far more than he needed to.
When: Way back when...(backdated)
Location: Midgar
Rating: PG
Summary: Veld helps to alleviate Sephiroth's boredom with some special materia training, (OOC: enjoy a little something myself and Veld-mun came up with, thought we'd continue it on here)
BOOM!
Only a few seconds later the sirens across the Midgar training campus started to wail loudly, it didn't take long for the heavy smoke to waft it's way around the buildings. A large black column of the same stretched high enough to haze out the midday sun. A tiny boy at the root of it, in baggy T-shirt and training slacks. Golden flames licked their way in reflection on loose silver hair which just graced the bottom of Sephiroth's chin as he followed the flames up and watched them turn into smoke several feet up.
That was probably going to sting the tutor's record more than Sephiroth's. The lesson had begun easily enough, a piece of Fire materia had been dropped into his hands and he'd been told quite simply to set alight a bale of dry hay not more than twenty feet away. He'd almost laughed out loud at the absurdity of the task. Having been wielding materia for nearly a year already, being put through the same routines week after week in his regular classes he'd almost jumped for joy at the prospect of extra tuition. It hadn't been up to much. He had to gain "fine control" and well, he was convinced he already had that down to a fine art. The tutor had told him to try again and again, insulted his intelligence and tried his patience. Although Sephiroth was only 10 years old, so many people forgot that he already had the mind of at least three years his senior and that was on a bad test day.
So he had flicked his wrist at the last moment, and sent a stream of flame whisking past the tutor and quite precisely hit a nearby trash bin which went up in moments. It surprised him that there was an explosive in the trash but the look of the tutor squirming on the floor from shock was highly amusing.
The ice spell hit fast and rather unexpectedly, flakes of the white stuff drifted around and settled to the now shining floor. The man that walked through the mess had barely controlled brown hair, dark eyes and a scowl on his scarred face. "What in the name of Leviathan is going on here?" It didn't take a keen observer to notice the Turk suit and the rather precise manner that defined the unit's leader, Veld Dragoon. His glare was fixed rather expectantly upon the tutor. "I'm to believe you're in charge here?" Before the man could respond, Veld pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just... get out of my sight and pray to whatever god you want that I'm in a better mood the next time we run into each other."
Frankly the tutor looked pleased to be released of his duties and raced off as though he was still on fire.
Veld then turned his attention to the skinny pyromaniac. He looked like his father sometimes. "Do you typically go on little tantrums when bored?"
As soon as it all died away in an icy steam Sephiroth's attention had turned to the suited man. He'd managed to look from hem of trouser up the whole suit to the shoulder before the tutor ran for cover and the icy dragon's wrath was left alone with him.
A muted 'humph' was pulled back harshly from vocalization, this man had authority and it seeped from every pore. Downcast green eyes remained picking out the details on the Turks' shoes, after all they were a hell of a lot closer than looking up into the mans eyes. So far from his own, and the very concept of looking up to anyone Sephiroth knew put them in clear dominance over himself.
To the ten-year old that tutor had deserved it, just like all the others who had pulled the wrong string with him today. So silence prevailed for now.
"I asked you a question, Sephiroth." Veld was suddenly wishing he hadn't taken a half day. His kids' typical violent outbursts were easily quelled with a glare or threats of suicides about the building. None of them were treated like living gods either. They were more relatable. Of course, this made him feel more than a little sorry for the child in front of him. Sephiorth, despite his skill, his intellect, and his abilities, was still a ten year old boy.
Knowing this, however, did not make Veld not address the young man as he would an adult. "If you were bored you should have dismissed him. You can't just burn someone because they patronize you." He held out a hand for the materia. "I'm going to have to take that from you." Veld charged the materia stored in his arm in case Sephiroth protested. Though he had complained a few years back about the loss of the limb, the materia slots more than made up for the fact that he could not feel the fingers of his left hand.
"I didn't burn him" Sephiroth started. His initial protest was shown clearly in the materia which he still clung to, charging it's green glow until it was like green fire in his hand held firmly at his side. So easy it was to control materia this way, Sephiroth wondered for a moment if he kept channeling his energy through the small ball - would it break? Burst into a spray of minute glassy fragments, be gone to oblivion, back to the Planet like it should do? His eyes remained downcast.
It was fairly obvious that he hadn't even thought about whether or not the fire would burn the tutor, only that he needed to prove his point. He guy had probably gotten off lighter than he would have done if he hadn't had control; that was the point of the lesson, right? "...or at least. That wasn't the point..."
The glow in the materia died down and Sephiroth held it up for Veld to take, he still didn't look up however, face pretty much obscured by his hair. The floor sure seemed interesting right now.
Veld sighed. It wasn't that Sephiroth wasn't the sort to listen, but Veld had the distinct feeling that he made the boy uncomfortable. He bit the inside of his cheek. He did have the rest of the day off and Veld dounted that anyone would call him for anything. It was a paperwork day, afterall.
Veld pocketed the materia and crouched so that he and Sephiroth were eye level. "Are you bored?" The urge to tell everyone in the labs off went up fairly high around the poor kid. Veld thought it was stupid, uneeded and wrong. His own childhood had been short, Veld was working as an adult when he was Sephiroth's age, doing farily questionable things at tea houses at thirteen, and in the army killing people by the time he was fifteen.
People deserved better than that, Sephiroth included. "I've got time off, if you are and want to learn."
Only once Veld had crouched down did the small green eyes peer up from the floor, through the short fine silver hair framing his face and at Veld himself. Sephiroth held Veld's gaze for a moment before raising his head and shaking the hair which had clung to his mouth away. It was then, as an afterthought decided to run his fingers through the short locks, tucking a piece behind an ear.
"It's not important. Boredom means you have to achieve greater things, boredom passes." The sarcastic kid-chuckle followed with a shoulder shrug. There was something more to the story there, he couldn't have been kept so secluded that he didn't know he was missing on all the fun kids his age usually got, right?
"But sure..." Sephiroth eyed the materia slots that he could see from this distance in Veld's arm, wondered perhaps there were more than what it looked like. "Looks like you know how to really handle all this..."
Veld snorted himself. Sephiroth wasn't stupid, that much was plain. "If it wasn't because you were bored, why be destructive?"
Of course, Veld somehow managed to raise enough overly intelligent teenagers to know that there was a creativity in destruction. To deconstruct was easier than the construction and yet so much more beautiful.
Not to say Veld didn't have that streak in himself. A strict moral code, however loose, however wrong, was what Veld worked with. He looked down at the fire materia and turned the orb in his hand.
Veld Dragoon was not so vain as to think he would make a difference, however maybe he could try, for whatever it was worth to at least give Sephiroth someone to talk to.
"I guess I must be in a destructive mood. Plus I don't like that teacher...I don't like the ones that question me but don't answer my questions...it's rude" Stated matter-of-factly would almost be confused with cute without the deep tones of an adult speaking it, not that Sephiroth was old enough to know the difference that would make.
"You can't just destroy things when the mood takes you, there's a time and a place." Veld remained crouched so that he was at a more level view with Sephiroth. "Though I cannot argue with your logic about the tutor." Veld looked over his shoulder in the direction the man ran. "Would you like to continue your lesson?" He couldn't just leave the kid. Sephiroth needed something to occupy his time. Overly intelligent and talented children were bound to get into trouble.
Of course a well-behaved Sephiroth already knew that. Destruction was always frowned on by adults. But then isn't that what they were training him to do? Destroy things, kill things? Ironic.
He already knew, deep down and from some eavesdropping that they planned to enroll him in the military soon but there was a debate going on about the right age to subject him to that. Anything to get out of a life where a test of some sort wasn't expected at least twice a week? Away from an existance of cold examination tables, clipboards and endless books of studying? Sounded like a step up in the world to Sephiroth at least, and from what he'd heard it might indeed hold the challenges that he craved.
"Right" Sephiroth nodded and agreed with Veld in a quiet voice "It would be good to learn something new...Materia is so simple to use though complex in its capabilities..."
"Do you want to learn materia or would you rather do something else, kiddo?" Veld stood then, as crouching was a difficult way to walk. "I don't think it will be so big a deal to leave the grounds a while." Veld tossed the little ball of materia once in his hand. It seemed delicate, but he knew from experience that it wasn't. "All work and no play make you go crazy. That's why they make me take half days." That much was true. Tally used to chase him from the offices on bad days.
Do something else? Now that sounded interesting. Of course it would depend entirely on what the "something" was and after all, Sephiroth had agreed to the extra Materia training. He'd have traded it in for some high-level sparring session in an instant but he was already so good at sword fighting. It was more natural reflex now than an art that took a huge amount of concentration. Hence the need to train in things he was good at, but not yet excellent.
"Using materia is a vital skill, being able to attack from range with magic..." Although the question of what else Veld had in mind shone behind his eyes as they followed Veld while he stood back up. It was polite to maintain eye contact, and this Turk didn't seem half bad after all. Sephiroth shuffled his feet a little uncomfortably when he trailed off, then seemed to catch his train of thought again. There was so little opportunity for anything but training or studying, he couldn't remember the last time he'd thought he needed time for himself.
"But...what did you want you do?" A young, curious face tilted upwards to the older man.
Veld shrugged. Honestly he hadn't planned anything at all. He didn't want to really go home and read when he could have instead done something.
"I asked you. If you wanted a chance to leave the compound a while, I could escort you. Or if you want materia training. Between you and me, the stats materia, a good defense is much better than a strong offense."
He smiled at the kid. "Completely up to you, Sephiroth"
That seemed to quirk an interest. Multi-purpose materia sure sounded more fun than the simple attack magic he'd been learning thus far.
"Like what materia?" Sephiroth asked simply to Veld, sure he'd heard of the protective types and the status-changing times also but he'd always figured attack was a better form of defense with materia. Or simply he wouldn't let himself in for such a situation. Sleeping on the battlefield, yea right. Tiny eyebrows knitted together curiously, eyes full of an eternal thirst for knowledge as he thought this through.
Veld waited for a moment to kneel down next to Sephiroth. He shrugged one sleeve out of his jacket and rolled up the teeshirt under it to show a panel in his arm. Up until that point, it wasn't at all noticeable as a prosthetic. "I have quite a few I'm working on in here. The trick is to find materia that does a lot in one slot." He flicked the door open to show Sephiroth his setup. "I have X-Magic, MP Plus, Magic Plus, Master Magic, and also Magic Counter. I don't really use summon materia as it's flashy, but doesn't do much more than a good ultima spell would anyway. Unless materia doesn't come easily to you, you shouldn't limit yourself on usage. Never know what the enemy may drop."
Veld then flicked the compartment closed and stood, slipping the jacket back on. "We'll go outside a ways, I don't think there's anything wrong with the monsters in the junkyards underplate as training, do you?" Despite the fact that Sephiroth was a small child, Veld's tone was professional and adult as though he expected Sephiroth to have input into the conversation. He looked down at the boy in question before he continued on his way.
Woah, now that was something he didn't see everyday. Someplace, somehow this Turk had lost his arm and the prosthetic it had been replaced with had been worked into quite an impressive piece of equipment. That is for one who would use that much materia all to oneself. Sephiroth found it a little over the top, in all honesty but he wasn't going to be rude and say that. Veld probably had a reason or excuse or consequence for every piece that he had in that arm. There were so many different colours also, blues, yellows and pinks that he'd only seen in books in the library, it would be amazing to see what each of them did. Sephiroth nodded a little more enthusiastically at Veld as he stood back up.
Those small green hues practically shone when Veld suggested a place for them to train in. Those underplate junkyards were smelly alright and if there was a list of places he shouldn't ever go that was probably near the top. But Veld was right, they probably held all kinds of monsters. They'd be doing everyone a favor by going and killing a few right?
"Under the plate? You're sure that's safe?" Underneath Sephiroth didn't care if it was safe or not, he could handle himself. He did however want to hear the man's reaction.
Veld was more than aware that his stash was over the top. He didn't particularly care, if you used a truck to smash a fly the fly was still smashed. He noted how the boy's eyes shone with the idea of a challenge and the hope for something exciting. When he mentioned monsters the boy nearly vibrated with excitement. Boys were boys, after all, and Veld knew the junkyard was challenging, but not below his skillset.
"Scared?" He asked, a smile on his mouth.
The two were walking at a leisurely pace directly out of the ShinRa building. The guards jumped a bit at the sight of the leader of the Turks walking the chosen one of ShinRa directly out of the building. Veld made eye contact with one and she stood down. The SOLDIER guards were certainly not stupid, they knew that mouthing off to Veld was a wonderful way to have the Turks come around their ears. The war between the two departments was mostly over budgets and a few training scuffles. It wasn't worth the hassle of trying to bother Veld. He intended to walk instead of take a train or ride the bus. Veld knew the slums far more than he needed to.