sephiroth wasn't concentrating on the documents in front of him. he was alternating which ones he signed yes on, and which ones got denied. he looked at the document he'd just signed yes on, and swore to himself. it was an invitation to some dinner party at some wealthy politian's house. dammit. now he would have to go.
***
he was less than happy when he arrived. they went to dinner first. there was something like twenty other guests. the politian was thriophe, a right ****. he had a wife and a son who were both somehow involved with politics, and their young daughter was too young yet. at dinner, he was given a seat in between the young girl and the wife, who was at the end of the table, so that limited the number of people that would try and talk to him.
he was looking in a dark mood, and anyone so far that had tried to talk to him had been given a polite 'piss off and leave me alone'.
halfway through dinner, though:
"please excuse my asking, but why are you so dark to be here?"
it was the young daughter. she hadn't been acting like a child all evening. she hadn't spoken a word, until then.
"forgive me if i seem rude, but why do you care?"
"that's not rude, that's a fair question. i care because i can't help but feel that you think you could be either in better company this evening, or you loath politians as much as i do, or both."
he looked at the little girl. she can't have been more than ten, but she was speaking in a very adult way, much the same way as he did when he was young.
"it was both, but now i don't think i've been in the company of such certain interesting people before."
what would she make of the quite cryptic reply?
she quickly scanned the table before turning to face him again.
"how am i so interesting?"
"what makes you so sure that it's you i was referring to?"
"everyone else at this table is somehow invloved in politics, and we both know what the other thinks of politics."
"how old are you?"
"i turn, uh, ten next week."
"i must say that you seem wise beyond your years."
"my family and their friends think it irritating, but my friends think it's good, because i can buy booze, and say 'are you discriminating against dwarves? i'll have you arrested for that!'"
"you buy booze with your friends?"
"my friends are the eight to eleven year old slum ratbags that i've met on explorations. the other kids my age that my parents believe to be my friends are merely aquaintances."
"are you adopted?"
she laughed. "no, but it's quite fair of you to think so."
she was sure that she almost saw the ghost of smile, but it was too quick to be sure.
"what is your name?"
"i am jatrian. parents and aquaintances call me jatri, my friends call me jat or jatti."
"does anyone call you jatrian?"
"only when they can be bothered, or they're sighing my name, because i've come home covered in blood, or something."
"come home covered in blood? you're not even ten. what happened?"
"oh, you really want to know? in the slums, all the little kids join gangs, otherwise they won't survive. now below us there are three gangs that are separate, but occasionally join together to fight off some rival from another sector. every gang in a sector has to join with the other gangs of that same sector at least once. now, about a month back, the sector five gangs decide that sector four would be a good place to run the drugs they do. have the drugs coming out of sector four, sector four gets the blame, bye bye sector four. now sector five has been pushy with all the other sectors, so sector four decides to teach sector five a lesson. there are heaps more kids in sector four than anywhere else in the slums, so we've got the numbers easy, but sector five has got better territory, so we have to play tactics. yours truly is the sector four military tactician, thus we win, and sector five has to keep it's drug operations in sector five. one time just a fortnight ago, some dork in sector five, believing that once they get rid of me, sector four will be weakened sufficiently to take over, sends over five thugs to get rid of a tactician that has spent quite a lot of their young life learning self-defence and fencing. these activites in real life are quite messy, thus i come home covered in blood."
she took a deep breath and had a drink.
"how big were these five?"
"oh, teens, maybe the biggest was fifteen."
"and you defeated them all by yourself?"
"i fight with my brains, except when the person i'm fighting is angry. my philosophy is rage beats brains beats brawn."
"does that work?"
"yes, when the opponent is angry, get more angry than they are and they're dead."
"did you actually kill?"
"i really tried not to, but they didn't give me much of a choice. three of them will live, though."
"i see"
she looked at him, trying to work out whether he was thinking something like 'the girl's a killer, disown her before she causes trouble', or 'three will live, you've got to be more ruthless; none of them should have survived', or even 'give me a pupil when they're young yet intelligent and they're mine for life'. he looked back at her, his head cocked to one side, to see if she would judge what he was thinking well.
"maybe it's because i'm a girl, i don't know, maybe i just couldn't be bothered, but killing all of them just to prove a point?"
she's good. very good. how, though?
"it's something that develops over time. maybe one day you'll wake up, and in your next battle after that, you'll go 'i can't be bothered letting you live'. you are a very good judge of what people are thinking, though. how did that happen? you certainly didn't inherit that gift."
"oh, i think it was something i picked up out of a natural makou fountain in nibelheim, like, at least five years ago now."
"you picked something up out of a makou fountain? what possessed you to do that?"
"the thing i picked up, i think. hey, i was, like, barely five at the time."
"did you get sick afterwards?"
"no, and my hand was in there for about five minutes, because i couldn't quite reach it the first time."
sephiroth just shook his head.
"oh, now everyone's going to the drawing room. some people look like they want to talk to you!"
"maybe..."
"jatri! where are you? oh there you are? has she been bothering you, general?"
"i wouldn't say bothering."
"oh good. come along now..."
mrs. thriophe bundled jat out of the room. a politian came up to sephiroth, and immediately started talking to him, and boring him to death.
***
a little bit later, sephiroth found himself surrounded, without a polite way to tell everyone to piss off, being forced to listen to these boring people prattle on and on and on.
"please excuse me gentlemen, there is a message for the general."
jat had suddenly appeared at his elbow. "if you'll follow me, please?"
"excuse me gentlemen." sephiroth turned on his heel and followed jat into the library.
"there is no message. you just looked like you needed rescuing or else that man was looking a lot like a table."
"why did you do that? and what do you mean, looking like a table?"
"what are friends for? is it true that in some meeting somewhere everyone was procrastinating, and you stood up and brought masamune down through a table, and said that you were vexed?"
"yes that's true. why do you want to be friends with me?"
"i think that the coldness is a facade, and you're sensitive and lonely underneath, and real friends are what you need."
"you read people too well. that's not normal."
"i never said i was normal. so are we friends?"
"you're not going to let me not say yes, are you?"
"correct"
"ok then, we'll be friends."
she smiled broadly. "you're already starting to relax around me. i bet none of those people in there have heard sephiroth say 'ok'."
"you know what the really ironic thing is?"
"what?"
"i've never liked children."
"that's not ironic," she laughed, "that's hilarious!"
he just HAD to smile at that. her joy seemed to be contagious.
she looked at his smile, which when joyful is very beautiful, and sighed in happiness.
"how many people have actually seen sephiroth happy and smiling?"
"just two, so far."
"let's sit down. what's your friend's name?"
"he's called zax."
"i don't suppose i could meet him one time?"
"that would probably depend on what you spend your evenings doing."
"oh, hang on, if anyone sees you and zax coming here, that'd have all sorts of repercussions."
"you're right, that could be a problem. damn politics."
a grin slowly appeared on her face. "where do you live?"
"why?"
"well, most evenings i've got nothing better to do, so i sort of sneak out of the house and hang with my friends in the slums. and i didn't just tell you that."
"ah. well, on the top few levels of the shin-ra building there are quarters for certain high-ranking personnel that have no fixed address, or haven't bothered buying somewhere to stay in midgar somewhere. the higher the level, the higher the rank."
"that's cruel. i s'pose shin-ra wants to keep his ranking officers in good shape."
"yes, well..."
"you'd be the very top level, with roof access through your quarters?"
"yes. how are you going to manage?"
"ah, even friends don't share ALL their trade secrets. what are you doing tomorrow night?"
"i have no plans. i may look forward to seeing you then."
"yes. do you want to make your escape now?"
"escape?"
"from the politians. that message was for you to call someone, and after the call, you had to leave straight away, and left your appologies with me?"
"ah yes, that sounds good. thank you."
"no problem."
they went to the door, avoiding being seen by any of the guests or the other thriophes.
"i'll see you tomorrow night."
"yeah, goodnight, sephiroth"
"good night."
***
he was less than happy when he arrived. they went to dinner first. there was something like twenty other guests. the politian was thriophe, a right ****. he had a wife and a son who were both somehow involved with politics, and their young daughter was too young yet. at dinner, he was given a seat in between the young girl and the wife, who was at the end of the table, so that limited the number of people that would try and talk to him.
he was looking in a dark mood, and anyone so far that had tried to talk to him had been given a polite 'piss off and leave me alone'.
halfway through dinner, though:
"please excuse my asking, but why are you so dark to be here?"
it was the young daughter. she hadn't been acting like a child all evening. she hadn't spoken a word, until then.
"forgive me if i seem rude, but why do you care?"
"that's not rude, that's a fair question. i care because i can't help but feel that you think you could be either in better company this evening, or you loath politians as much as i do, or both."
he looked at the little girl. she can't have been more than ten, but she was speaking in a very adult way, much the same way as he did when he was young.
"it was both, but now i don't think i've been in the company of such certain interesting people before."
what would she make of the quite cryptic reply?
she quickly scanned the table before turning to face him again.
"how am i so interesting?"
"what makes you so sure that it's you i was referring to?"
"everyone else at this table is somehow invloved in politics, and we both know what the other thinks of politics."
"how old are you?"
"i turn, uh, ten next week."
"i must say that you seem wise beyond your years."
"my family and their friends think it irritating, but my friends think it's good, because i can buy booze, and say 'are you discriminating against dwarves? i'll have you arrested for that!'"
"you buy booze with your friends?"
"my friends are the eight to eleven year old slum ratbags that i've met on explorations. the other kids my age that my parents believe to be my friends are merely aquaintances."
"are you adopted?"
she laughed. "no, but it's quite fair of you to think so."
she was sure that she almost saw the ghost of smile, but it was too quick to be sure.
"what is your name?"
"i am jatrian. parents and aquaintances call me jatri, my friends call me jat or jatti."
"does anyone call you jatrian?"
"only when they can be bothered, or they're sighing my name, because i've come home covered in blood, or something."
"come home covered in blood? you're not even ten. what happened?"
"oh, you really want to know? in the slums, all the little kids join gangs, otherwise they won't survive. now below us there are three gangs that are separate, but occasionally join together to fight off some rival from another sector. every gang in a sector has to join with the other gangs of that same sector at least once. now, about a month back, the sector five gangs decide that sector four would be a good place to run the drugs they do. have the drugs coming out of sector four, sector four gets the blame, bye bye sector four. now sector five has been pushy with all the other sectors, so sector four decides to teach sector five a lesson. there are heaps more kids in sector four than anywhere else in the slums, so we've got the numbers easy, but sector five has got better territory, so we have to play tactics. yours truly is the sector four military tactician, thus we win, and sector five has to keep it's drug operations in sector five. one time just a fortnight ago, some dork in sector five, believing that once they get rid of me, sector four will be weakened sufficiently to take over, sends over five thugs to get rid of a tactician that has spent quite a lot of their young life learning self-defence and fencing. these activites in real life are quite messy, thus i come home covered in blood."
she took a deep breath and had a drink.
"how big were these five?"
"oh, teens, maybe the biggest was fifteen."
"and you defeated them all by yourself?"
"i fight with my brains, except when the person i'm fighting is angry. my philosophy is rage beats brains beats brawn."
"does that work?"
"yes, when the opponent is angry, get more angry than they are and they're dead."
"did you actually kill?"
"i really tried not to, but they didn't give me much of a choice. three of them will live, though."
"i see"
she looked at him, trying to work out whether he was thinking something like 'the girl's a killer, disown her before she causes trouble', or 'three will live, you've got to be more ruthless; none of them should have survived', or even 'give me a pupil when they're young yet intelligent and they're mine for life'. he looked back at her, his head cocked to one side, to see if she would judge what he was thinking well.
"maybe it's because i'm a girl, i don't know, maybe i just couldn't be bothered, but killing all of them just to prove a point?"
she's good. very good. how, though?
"it's something that develops over time. maybe one day you'll wake up, and in your next battle after that, you'll go 'i can't be bothered letting you live'. you are a very good judge of what people are thinking, though. how did that happen? you certainly didn't inherit that gift."
"oh, i think it was something i picked up out of a natural makou fountain in nibelheim, like, at least five years ago now."
"you picked something up out of a makou fountain? what possessed you to do that?"
"the thing i picked up, i think. hey, i was, like, barely five at the time."
"did you get sick afterwards?"
"no, and my hand was in there for about five minutes, because i couldn't quite reach it the first time."
sephiroth just shook his head.
"oh, now everyone's going to the drawing room. some people look like they want to talk to you!"
"maybe..."
"jatri! where are you? oh there you are? has she been bothering you, general?"
"i wouldn't say bothering."
"oh good. come along now..."
mrs. thriophe bundled jat out of the room. a politian came up to sephiroth, and immediately started talking to him, and boring him to death.
***
a little bit later, sephiroth found himself surrounded, without a polite way to tell everyone to piss off, being forced to listen to these boring people prattle on and on and on.
"please excuse me gentlemen, there is a message for the general."
jat had suddenly appeared at his elbow. "if you'll follow me, please?"
"excuse me gentlemen." sephiroth turned on his heel and followed jat into the library.
"there is no message. you just looked like you needed rescuing or else that man was looking a lot like a table."
"why did you do that? and what do you mean, looking like a table?"
"what are friends for? is it true that in some meeting somewhere everyone was procrastinating, and you stood up and brought masamune down through a table, and said that you were vexed?"
"yes that's true. why do you want to be friends with me?"
"i think that the coldness is a facade, and you're sensitive and lonely underneath, and real friends are what you need."
"you read people too well. that's not normal."
"i never said i was normal. so are we friends?"
"you're not going to let me not say yes, are you?"
"correct"
"ok then, we'll be friends."
she smiled broadly. "you're already starting to relax around me. i bet none of those people in there have heard sephiroth say 'ok'."
"you know what the really ironic thing is?"
"what?"
"i've never liked children."
"that's not ironic," she laughed, "that's hilarious!"
he just HAD to smile at that. her joy seemed to be contagious.
she looked at his smile, which when joyful is very beautiful, and sighed in happiness.
"how many people have actually seen sephiroth happy and smiling?"
"just two, so far."
"let's sit down. what's your friend's name?"
"he's called zax."
"i don't suppose i could meet him one time?"
"that would probably depend on what you spend your evenings doing."
"oh, hang on, if anyone sees you and zax coming here, that'd have all sorts of repercussions."
"you're right, that could be a problem. damn politics."
a grin slowly appeared on her face. "where do you live?"
"why?"
"well, most evenings i've got nothing better to do, so i sort of sneak out of the house and hang with my friends in the slums. and i didn't just tell you that."
"ah. well, on the top few levels of the shin-ra building there are quarters for certain high-ranking personnel that have no fixed address, or haven't bothered buying somewhere to stay in midgar somewhere. the higher the level, the higher the rank."
"that's cruel. i s'pose shin-ra wants to keep his ranking officers in good shape."
"yes, well..."
"you'd be the very top level, with roof access through your quarters?"
"yes. how are you going to manage?"
"ah, even friends don't share ALL their trade secrets. what are you doing tomorrow night?"
"i have no plans. i may look forward to seeing you then."
"yes. do you want to make your escape now?"
"escape?"
"from the politians. that message was for you to call someone, and after the call, you had to leave straight away, and left your appologies with me?"
"ah yes, that sounds good. thank you."
"no problem."
they went to the door, avoiding being seen by any of the guests or the other thriophes.
"i'll see you tomorrow night."
"yeah, goodnight, sephiroth"
"good night."