Cubs
Evening came slowly and ponderously that day, and virtually everyone currently in the 'New Midgar' area found themselves surprised by the changing light of sunset. As a result, the evening meal was a rather cobbled-together random collection of mostly fruits and some cured meat from the supplies the Ishbalans had brought with them, or which the Gaians had cured with the salt the Ishbalans had also brought. Supper also brought virtually everyone of importance to the bonfire—their new Cosmo Candle—from Lucrecia to Reeve and Scarlet and their new little blond apprentice, Winry, to all the remaining Turks and the SOLDIERs by rank. Hojo was there, too, and Sephiroth was still boggled by his presence.
As far as SOLDIERs of note went, Lazard as their Director was present, along with Rosso, Genesis, and himself with their units, and Zack (who hadn't been sent with Angeal because of Aeris and Jenny), and many others he was passingly familiar with. Kunzel was also currently there, but would be heading back to Argento's post in the morning. While Shelke wasn't a Turk, she seemed to be attached at the hip to Yukisa, who was one, and at some point that evening, they'd left off their work with the soul arrays to appropriate Stroud, who was a registered Turk and an honorary SOLDIER after a few of Deepground's 'doctors' had seized him to experiment on him.
Gast, Ifalna, Elmyra, Aeris, and Nina had all joined them, Nina riding on Alexander's back and carrying a bundle of cloth with several furry heads and pointed ears sticking out of it. The bundle, the girl took to Lucrecia first, who seemed more exasperated than anything, but Sephiroth was too far away to hear what they were saying. To his surprise, Tseng sat down tiredly beside him, rather than where he'd usually sit with the Cetra women. Or with the other Turks—he still had plenty of choices, as Vincent, Verdot, Sonna, Percia, Eonna, Doriss, Verde, Viney, Ansha, Rude, Balto, Ranic, Ruluf, and Alvis were still there, and Emma was until morning, besides the already-noted ones.
"Are you all right?" Sephiroth asked him in bemusement as the Wutain rested his head on his knees with exhaustion.
"No," Tseng replied flatly. "Nina found kittens, all right—way up in a nook in a tree. And they're very scared and very aggressive. Trying to get them down was harder than breaking through Deepground's traps to get to Stroud. I'm still not completely convinced they're just kittens—and I think they're younger than Nina realizes."
"How do you mean?" the General asked in surprise. That was certainly new—people usually knew what Nina had really found.
"I think they're tiger cubs, not house cat kittens. They're also tiger-striped, though one's almost pure black and one's mostly white—but the other four are orange with black stripes. The only oddity is that their ears are more sharply pointed than tiger ears usually would be. Why the fuck would Minerva have put them up a bloody tree?"
"...So next to nothing else would be able to find and kill them before one of her kind-hearted Cetra Healers did?" Sephiroth had to ask/point out in a dryly amused tone.
That made Tseng lift his head to stare at him with the most unusual expression he'd ever seen on the Turk's face before, like a cross between realization and disbelief. "Then why couldn't she just have put them safely in the edge of the orchard or something? And why without parents?" Tseng asked, sounding irritated.
"I have no idea why she wouldn't have created parents for them, but it would have been all too possible for the pickers to just step on them without realizing it until they'd been hurt," the silver haired man offered, though he also felt puzzled by the location.
"You do realize the implication of them not having parents and being found and raised by Cetra is that Minerva's telling us to keep tigers as house pets, right?" the Turk pointed out in a tone so flat the SOLDIER thought it could have split wood. Or crushed it, depending on one's perspective.
At that point, Sephiroth didn't really blame him, because if those were tiger cubs, modifications aside, they had a very demanding task to acclimatize them to humans so they wouldn't hurt anyone. Well, no more than something like a Chocobo would. But then, Chocobos were normally quite placid and ate only fruits and gyshal family greens while tigers—ate meat. Then again, so did Guard Hounds and Blood Tastes, and they'd adopted them into society, too, so maybe it could be done with large felines the way it had with large canines? Different method, though, due to cats in general not being 'pack animals' aiming to please their 'alpha'.
Then he remembered Genesis say once that Turks were like tigers, and vice versa, so commented, "If that's what's happened, I think they'd be more like working companions, especially for people in combat roles or needing protection, rather than as 'just pets'. If you say you couldn't tell for sure if they were tiger cubs or normal kittens, maybe Minerva merged the genetics of the two types of cats so it would be easier for them to adapt to living and working alongside humans, since part of their genetics would be used to that. And kittens—cubs—would be easier to adapt than adults."
"So rather than using easily trainable dogs, she wants us to fight every step of the way with tigers?" Tseng asked in annoyance.
"On the other hand, a tiger whose loyalty you have earned will lay down its life for you," a new voice commented from behind them, and they both looked up and back to see the man—the head of the Xingese party.
"Lord Long," Tseng greeted the man, and Sephiroth blinked, but filed away the name so he'd be able to address him properly from then on. "Do you know how hard it is to tame and train tigers?"
"Yes," the man replied in amusement. "My household keeps three, largely to guard our children's rooms at night or when one—or more than one—is ill. And I stand by their loyalty to those who have earned it. Begin when they are young, and you will have very powerful and loyal companions for combat indeed. As it appears your god wants exactly that, it would do you well to put in that effort. Particularly as the Turks who are already apparently so similar to tigers to begin with. What would it say to you that Turks are being handed tigers to train, knowing their power and their loyalty?"
Sephiroth blinked in surprise as Tseng's eyes widened in shock and recognition. "If we're being given them, then the pack mentality of dogs won't help us going forward—probably not as humans or as the animals working with us," the Wutain Turk said in a terse tone, and the Lord nodded. The Turk then sighed faintly and said, "Well, we'll have to see what happens, then, but it won't happen overnight—cubs have to grow up to become truly capable in combat." Again, the Lord nodded—
Before he could say more, though, Tseng changed gears to motion at Sephiroth and say, "This is General Sephiroth Valentine of SOLDIER. By default, that also makes him a First Class, because that rank is a prerequisite for titled command."
"At such a young age?" the man asked in surprise.
"I've been trained from a young age," Sephiroth commented dryly. "But also, my genetics are different from nearly everyone else's here—only Genesis and the SOLDIER Commander up at the northwestern pass have similar genetic tweaks to me. As it so happens, those tweaks are geared towards excelling in combat and command."
"Tseng commented earlier that you were one of the few likely to be able to defeat Lady Shinra. If you are so powerful, why not take it?" Lord Long asked, and while Sephiroth's first response was anger, he realized by the man's mystified tone that he wasn't trying to incite him to do so, he was legitimately asking why he didn't.
"Because I'm a military commander, not a civilian leader," Sephiroth replied flatly, and the man blinked. "Those are two completely different fields of expertise, and handling the military is completely different from handling the needs of civilians—the two generally don't mix well without oppressing people who aren't military and don't need to be oppressed. Only a few very select people can actually do both without dropping the ball, and Lady Shinra is one of those few. Besides all that, even though I'm meticulous about getting my paperwork done well and on time, I don't want to do more of it, which I'd have to if I also had to take up things like making laws. Does that suffice?"
"Those are...practical points, but simply choosing an aide to do most of that for you would see to them," the Lord returned. "I am asking why you do not take power, not what you would dislike about having it—those are all able to be deferred to others, and if you are so skilled a commander, you also know that very well."
That made Sephiroth blink and sit back, then actually think about the question. After a minute, he said slowly, "Maybe this sounds strange to you, but I don't have any desire for any further power—what I have is enough, or even more than enough. Being responsible for others is stressful, so I've learned in my current role—people live or die by my decisions. In most cases, those are also military people who know they have a chance of dying on the battlefield or they shouldn't be on it, but I don't want the burden of being responsible for the lives of every civilian as well, at all times."
"It helps that Shinra's general propaganda—at Lady Shinra's request, even—was that 'power is responsibility, but it also isn't necessary for everyone to have it to live fulfilling lives.' At least some people took the message to heart," Tseng commented.
"Was that her idea, not his?" Sephiroth asked in surprise. "I thought the President just wanted to get people to stop trying to vie for his position."
"If that had been all, it never would have included obvious failings in the power structure and what the 'responsibility' really meant," a new voice commented dryly, and the others looked up to see Doriss standing just behind Lord Long, her arm wrapped around a bundle of cloth which turned out to be her Turk suit jacket.
"What's that?" Tseng asked in a suddenly wary tone—and sighed as a sound like a rather questioning-sounding, growling chirp emerged from under the jacket. "How many?" he asked tiredly.
Her brow rose into her hairline, but she said, "Five, one each white and black, and three tiger-striped. I'm just not sure if they're supposed to be kittens or cubs."
Lord Long actually looked amused as he commented, "And now a Turk has directly found some of those cubs for you. Perhaps the first set was intended as civilian protection and this one is intended as combat companions for you Turks?"
"And if they are cubs, we don't have regular cats to hunt mice and rats for us," Tseng commented flatly.
"Do you need them? I have seen no trace of rodents other than squirrels and chipmunks in your orchard, not in this area where you have settled," the Lord commented, and Sephiroth turned to look in the direction of the orchard thoughtfully.
"Actually, I haven't, either," Sephiroth agreed. "Maybe we should get someone to actively look—maybe Minerva didn't put any of them in the space she knew we'd first be occupying. That would make our lives a lot easier and spares them being displaced or killed for no good reason except that they're where we are."
"Doriss, how did you even manage to get them down from the tree yourself? Or were they on the ground?" Tseng suddenly asked her, frowning at her cub-filled jacket.
Her brow rose into her hairline again as she commented, "Do you really not realize cats—like most animals—calm significantly when they're in darkness and can't see? I thought you're generally a tamer?"
"Not formally or by any sort of title," Tseng glared at her. "I normally get their cooperation without needing to do anything, but the ones I get that cooperation from are also normally juvenile age or older, not the very young ones. Though, by the lack of actual scratching and biting we got to collect them, I suppose I still got some degree of cooperation from them, anyway. In that regard, Lady Shinra's a better 'tamer' than I am by far, and she doesn't use those methods, either." As he said the last, he motioned at the bundle Doriss held.
"Fine, so where do I take them?" she asked with a raised brow.
"Nina chose Doctor Crescent, so you might want to start there. Raising eleven cubs at once is going to be demanding on our meat resources, though, so I hope Minerva also planned for that," he sighed.
"She did," Ed as much as chirped as he joined them. "We're supposed to breed the two blacks and the two whites together to create strains which primarily produce those colors—the blacks for Turks, the whites for anyone else who is a non-combatant needing a protector. The others—the oranges—can go to various combat personnel, even regular mercs, not just Infantry or SOLDIER, or to people we know need general protection, like farmers. All of those strains will sometimes produce the other colors, though, so cross-breeding for fresh genetic input will be a thing, and she'll introduce new litters as she feels the strains all need new input.
"About the meat resources, some of the rancher types will head out to the fields on the side our caravan came in from to take charge of the herds there, and they'll be taking along some carters, farm hands, and builders. And, of course, some military personnel to handle any monsters. I told Lady Shinra already, so she's trying to work out who will go with them. It looks like she wants to send some Infantry with a couple Turks to start, and when the Turks report back with the general area they need to cover, she can also send out some SOLDIERs and Motos for area defense."
Everyone blinked at him, then Lord Long asked, "Is it common for the Motos to act as little more than common military for your people?" As he asked it, he motioned at the gathering of Motos heading for the fire, several dragging the corpses of some rather large beasts. After a moment of looking through all the legs and moving bodies, Sephiroth realized they had taken down two Grand Horns and something he thought might have been a type of ox.
"Oh, the Motos will do just about any kind of job if they can see a need for it—that's not really dictated by anyone, and even Lady Shinra can only ask for their help," Ed answered with a grin. "Right now, they're split between helping the military and hunting, which is also how our little tigers are going to learn to hunt and fight—by going with the Motos on hunting trips. Also, one of the changes to these tigers is their intelligence and their sensitivity to the people they're going to be around and protecting—they're empaths and telepaths and have around the same intelligence as a young child. Hence, learning."
"What is a telepath?" Lord Long asked in confusion.
"Someone who can talk with others with their minds alone—I do that most of the time when I talk with Carbuncle or Minerva or Ishbala, or any other similar beings," Ed told the man, smile turning into a smirk, even as the named Carbuncle waved from where it had just landed on a nearby log. "But I'm doing directed communication, and the tigers are all not able to do it so specifically—they'll get some of the thoughts off everyone around them." He then diverted to add to Doriss, "You'd better go take them to Doctor Crescent, by the way."
She sighed, but headed over to the Cosmo Candle to show them to the woman and Nina. While the girl was obviously delighted to have more cubs, the woman just sighed tiredly and began checking them over.
The Xingese Lord seemed a cross between puzzled and disturbed by the new data about telepathy, Ed, and the tigers, so Sephiroth told him, "Logically, the tigers wouldn't be likely to share what they hear, and the only meaning it would have to them is the likely danger to their charges. For ones like Ed, theirs isn't a use-all, it has to be specifically directed and doesn't just let them break into someone's mind at will unless they've asked for Minerva's help. She has to feel there's honest need in order to do so, which is very rare from what I know."
"Also, tigers already had some of those skills, as did house cats, which is why they could feel complex emotions like a desire for revenge," Ed added. "Minerva really just enhanced what they already had, rather than giving them something they didn't. Though, we may want to think of another name for ours, because normal tigers still exist, and these aren't quite like them anymore."
"Speaking of names, what is this area—your developing city—called?" the Lord asked, obviously wanting to change the subject. "We have not heard one yet."
"In general, the area's being called New Midgar, but we haven't decided on a city name yet—Lady Shinra's adamant about breaking from the past, so she doesn't just want to re-name it based on the old cities we used to know," Tseng answered.
"It makes sense, though—make it too similar and people will have a direct tie to the past she wants them to let go of," Ed shrugged. "Seph, if you want to go with some of yours to protect the farmers, you should just say so to Lady Shinra," the boy added, and Sephiroth blinked.
"I hadn't decided on that..." he told the blond. "Or even thought on it much."
"Hadn't you?" the boy asked in amusement, and the General noted how the Lord seemed puzzled by the discussion.
"I really haven't," Sephiroth answered in amusement. "But now that you mention it, you're right—I wouldn't mind taking some of mine to guard the farmers, along with an Infantry unit and some of the Materia Corps. Since we still have our Materia, they'll be very useful out there. And I'd much rather protect civilians from monsters than fight humans, so..."
"Good. Let her know so she knows she doesn't have to wait on the Turks' report to put some SOLDIERs out there," Ed agreed with an impish grin.
Suddenly, Sephiroth realized what had changed so much about the boy, and even though the blond probably still had panic attacks, he was in a much better place mentally now than he had been. "Ed, have you even realized how much being here has healed you?" he asked suddenly, and Ed just blinked at him blankly.
"In what way?" the boy asked with a puzzled frown.
"Your mental state," Sephiroth clarified, and Tseng suddenly chuckled.
"It's done that, too. You're much more open with your feelings and even express ones we'd seen only rarely—being impish or smirking at someone, for example," Tseng added. "And even your blunt boldness with some of these people—you'd never have done that before, so yes, Sephiroth's right to say being here has healed you a lot more than you had managed before."
"Um...?" the boy blinked, still looking very confused. "I could hazard a bit of a guess in how some people here have been protecting me...? I mean, like Rashad or Shiro, or even my father coming home and at least trying to be a father again..."
In a way, Ed himself not realizing how much he had healed was amusing, but he'd noticed something about the Ishbalans in particular—they didn't tend to draw attention to someone behaving normally. He also seemed to recall Gast having said the same thing—treating their normal behavior exactly like it's normal tended to reinforce for them that they should be behaving in that way, so they kept doing it. Drawing attention to it would often scare them back into not behaving that way. That wasn't to say there weren't ways and times to let them know you had seen the change, but those were best done as a small, 'it's nice to see this,' kind of comment while busy with other things.
Actually, it was a lot like the way he didn't call Genesis' attention to the development of their friendship so he didn't accidentally scare him away—that had happened twice before he'd stopped commenting about it. It was taking a long time for their still fairly new friendship to get out of the 'fledgling' stage because even after around four years, they were still trying to work through all the things which had set them at odds before. Overall, they were reaching true friendship faster by Sephiroth not drawing Genesis' attention to its development, which was ultimately his goal—and he really wanted to let them cross that border so there wouldn't be any uncertainty anymore.
Recalling all of that made him comment, "Okay, so now that we've established some basics about the tigers and that the Motos will do some of their training, who does the rest of the training?"
"People who will need them," Ed shrugged. "So, the two blacks will be trained by Turks primarily, people like SOLDIERs and farmers will train the oranges, and people like Lady Shinra will train the whites. I think the blacks will also go to the Wutains, so Tseng and Shiro will probably do a good bit of that training. It's been arranged for there to be three strains of oranges—so three males in their bunch—and one each of the white and black ones, so five pairs. The extra orange will be with one of the un-related pairs, not the male—or males—out of her litter."
"Which is still one more task to do out of dozens," the Wutain Turk pointed out dryly. "We already don't have much time while we're trying to get established, so how will we add this to it?"
"Not everyone's working all the time," Ed pointed out dryly. "And establishing them while we're getting established will be a good way to differentiate us from the people who left Gaia."
"We could assist you in training them," Lord Long commented in dry amusement.
"No thanks," Ed replied before either Tseng or Sephiroth could say anything, and they both turned to stare at him as the Lord frowned. "We have people already who know how to do that, so it's just a matter of getting them to teach the people who need the tigers, and to have them train apprentices. We appreciate the offer, though."
That seemed to appease the Lord, but Sephiroth wasn't sure it was true, so unless Minerva planned to instruct Ed or the other Cetra, how were they going to get help to train the tiger cubs? He decided not to address it directly, instead checking for who was where and finding most gathered around the fire to have a look at the cubs. Naming them if they weren't normal tigers would actually be a must, and he wondered how they would think up that sort of name.
Even though there were quite a few breeds of both large and small cats, the small ones generally defaulted to just being called 'cats' and the large ones on Gaia had been singular—one kind of lion, one kind of tiger, one kind of cheetah, and so on. Saying they now had something 'like' a tiger but not quite made trying to choose a name for the new breed troubling, easily as much as trying to think of a new name for their city. And on top of that, every one of the eleven cubs would need to have its own proper name, too. Though, maybe Nina would take care of that for them.
He could only hope she didn't give them flowery names not at all suited to working combat pets...
"How do you name a new breed of tiger?" he asked absently.
"Well, we already have Iberian and Bengal tigers here, so we could name our basic tigers Gaian tigers and call the new breed Aegis tigers or something," Ed offered rather abruptly.
"Why Aegis?" Sephiroth asked in some annoyance. "And what are Iberian and Bengal tigers?"
"Those are the difference between tigers from the general area of Xing versus the ones from in and past the mountains to the far southwest of Xing," Lord Long offered. "I would think Aegis a logical name for protectors, as it refers directly to that same protection."
"Now if only naming a city was so easy..." Tseng sighed, and Sephiroth wanted to laugh and curse at the same time.
"Watch Lady Shinra decide to name it after our new cubs," Ed answered in amusement, and Sephiroth wanted to laugh again.
"That's a very real possibility, yes," he agreed with the blond, who nodded.
"I'm going to go join Nina to meet our new cubs, and you should come along to volunteer to help guard the farmers and all," the boy told him, then turned and headed back to the fire.
"Is he always so—abrupt?" Lord Long asked, gaze blank and brows furrowed.
"Rude, you mean?" Tseng asked in amusement as Sephiroth rose. "Only when he doesn't think it'll matter all that much, like with friends. And if the discussion was as done as it was going to be, it's not rude. Besides that, if you want to be technical, his rank is higher than all of ours, so it's not like he needs to maintain any sort of protocol, and he's already made it clear he won't maintain it with you."
Sephiroth had to smile in amusement again as he heard Lord Long blustering at Tseng's words, even as he headed for the fire and Lady Shinra to volunteer for guard duty on the new farms they were soon going to have.