exiled-turk

[exiled-turk]

vincent would be his best option. the former-turk had a strong foothold in this new world, he kept his distance but watched. if the rumours of him working with reeve were true, then veld knew his old friend would gather an unbiased answer for him.

and he would speak freely on any other factors that were coming into play. call him paranoid, but the emergence of the remnants had given veld pause for thought; what other shadows still lurked in the shadows of the northern crater? or what veracity lay in the whispers of monsters emerging from the ruins of midgar?

how many other experiments had hojo buried beneath the rubble of ruined laboratories?

' let him send them. ' veld countered quietly. reno might be a dog with a bone, but tseng and rufus had very few turks to count on these days. and given that only the red-head had followed their trail, veld was willing to wager a bet that reno was the only one assigned to this particular fact-finding mission.

eyes raking over the woman's face, veld felt a pang of empathy in his chest; she wanted a quiet life. a simple one, hidden away in a backwater settlement, where her daughter and partner could live without anyone noticing a telltale glimmer in their eyes. but after the shitshow that had encompassed their world for the last few years - veld doubted that such a place existed anymore.

' freya - my existence is a well known fact at this stage. we returned for meteorfall and we shored up the levies during the stigma. rufus and tseng are acutely aware that i'm not six feet under. '

reaching over, the ex-turk tapped freya's elbow with his hand, nodding his head back towards the door felicia had led connie through, ' in the meantime, you smile and you pretend that this is a vacation - we will figure this out, okay? '

It had always been a matter of time, but this quiet village had been too insular to notice the glow of mako in his eyes, or Kunsel had just gotten good at avoiding eye contact. Long enough for it to feel like home, or something like it she guessed.

The last proper home had had had before Midgar was Mideel, and Freya balked at the thought of going back there. Her folks hadn't wanted her to join Shinra in the first place, let alone if they knew she was a Turk, and now one on the run.

The only home she had truly had was with the Turks. With Veld, which was why she came to him when everything else seemed impossible. He had been the one unwavering force in her life for longer than she wished to count. "Other factors?"

Like what was the unasked question. What would spook Tuesti enough to even give Rufus an ear for recruiting former Soldiers? Especially if he was still friends with Strife; the blond would shoot down any offer like that.

"What do we do in the meantime?" Eyes darting to the doorway Felicia had led her daughter through, Freya let out a sigh and hugged herself with her arms. She was spooked and it was overriding her instincts. She needed to take a breath and think rationally about this. "-we're burned here, Reno will send more Turks."

"I don't want them finding you or Felicia either."

[exiled-turk]

[exiled-turk]

she’s caught the reno disease

[exiled-turk]

and then reno never mentioned this again

[exiled-turk]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR OWEN 🙏💖💖💖 (it was yesterday but I forgot to post about it 😭)

[exiled-turk]

The Ghost Squad

[exiled-turk]

[exiled-turk]

You, Me, and the Apocalypse

[exiled-turk]

You, Me, and the Apocalypse

[exiled-turk]

You'll be as depraved as the rest of us in no time. (from Reno)

depraved. he said it like it was a joke. or a twisted rite of passage to be proud of - to wear on his chest like a decorated medal.

they always did, at his age. that was the folly of youth, was it not? a conflated sense of self, unyielding confidence in ones own abilities and a mocking derision to the concept of conscience ... before the blood started to stick and stain.

before the names echoed louder and louder in the cavernous chamber of sleep.

his mind flitted back to when he had been a younger man - older though than what reno was now - his own eyes wide, but not with fear; a cold resolution to complete the objective. to ignore the woman who stood to his immediate right, a newborn baby clutched tightly in the crook of her arm, her piercing green eyes never once flinching from the man who stood to his right.

gast faremis.

he had already been a dead man walking the moment he had walked away from shinra. gast knew it and the turks knew it. so he had taken the shot as soon as his sights had lined up - a clean shot.

for shinra.

for peace.

for nothing.

because the vacuum had been shattered, not by the crack of a gunshot, or the cry of a lover, but by the piercing scream of an infant's cry that had shook a turk to his core because it had echoed one of his own daughter so vividly...

reno would learn. but not the easy way. he was a skilled turk, but still blighted by youth and an over-leaping need to prove that he had attained his renown though his own actions and no one else's. but time had a cruel way of grinding the edges off of arrogance.

one mission at a time.

one name at at time.

one haunting nightmare at a time.

so he would grant the teenager the laugh he chortled now. laughter was easier than thought. easier than memories. but veld would not give the boy a free pass at trying to dress him down in such a way - they had a structure, and he would learn to respect it, one way to another.

stretching an arm across the doorway, veld barred the younger man from passing, his slate grey eyes flitting to the side to meet the lad's piercing blues, his voice just low enough for reno alone to hear.

' you don't even know what that word means yet. '

@holyguardian

[exiled-turk]

The Republic of Love

[exiled-turk]

he had sought out the SOLDIER, but reno had hardly done so to pander to his own curiosity. if the turk was tracking whispers and rumours, it was on tseng's orders. but why?

shinra was still struggling to find its feet in this new post-meteorfall world. its name now longer held the same fear it once had. rufus had already been the subject of a few hare-brained schemes of upstarts who had wished to try and make a name for themselves - an outward move to track down former SOLDIERs or reestablish the force would be construed as a step backwards, towards the old president's regime.

' that was a matter of time, freya. ' veld conceded flatly at the assumption someone had taken note of kunsel's eyes. other traits of the force were easily disguised, but mako's effects on ones eyes wasn't. and the boldness of the genetic lotto now had a little girl sporting that same glaringly obvious trait. scrubbing a hand over the five o'clock shadow on his jaw, veld spared freya another blatantly critical glare at her next admission ... okay. they could assume the worst in that case and go from there.

' i'll speak with tseng and find out where this assignment came from and what its goal is. i'll call in a favour from vincent - last i heard, he was helping reeve with the WRO, i can't see reeve supporting this, not unless there are other factors at play that we don't know about yet. '

"I know, I know ..." She ran a hand over her own face, hearing the words he didn't say out loud. It was stupid and sloppy and cost her a head-start. She hadn't thought like a Turk.

Hindsight was kicking her up the ass right now and she could have already been miles away from this village, without Reno even catching a whiff of them. But Kunsel wouldn't be. The Turks had come seeking him out. Not her, nor her little one. But him. He would hand himself over in a heartbeat and she knew that was what he was trying to do right now.

"- he came looking for Kunsel. He had rumours of him in this area, so someone must have spoken or taken notice of his eyes." It was the only way the Turks could have known of them this far from Midgar. What they wanted with him though was a mere guess. "- I'm guessing to back-up the WRO that Rufus is backing ... but that's the least option. Could be for more."

Freya shrugged and looked to Veld with an unguarded pleading look. "Kunsel went to find Reno; he's offering to go back if it throws the scent off." Off of their little girl. But she wasn't telling Veld everything, that struck her in a thought and she let out a sigh, hand raking through her hair. "- he might know about Konnie. I said family at one point instead of making it singular. I tried to play it off as Turks being a family, but I honestly don't believe he bought it."

[exiled-turk]

[exiled-turk]

Death in Paradise

[exiled-turk]

Death in Paradise

[exiled-turk]

The Originals

[exiled-turk]

The Originals