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Vincent stared at himself in the bathroom mirror. The man he saw was not one he was familiar with. He reached up and brushed the long strands of black hair from his face and sighed. He was a long way from what he was not too long ago.
His eyes drifted down to the small box rested between his hand and the counter. 'They will change you eye color and even cut down the reflection.' He looked back up briefly catching the eerie flash of red from the bathroom light. Something else caught his attention. His hand drifted from the contact box to his face. Just above his left eye and under his brow was a small scar; much similar to the needle scars on his forearm. Pulling at his eyes lid he attempted to examine the scar closer. 'They weren't joking about that were they. What did you do Hojo?'
Releasing an exasperated sigh, Vincent realized there was a great deal that he did not know about himself. He had only begun an attempt to gain some control over beast with some success. Knowing he had to do something, Vincent left the bathroom and walked into the main room where Reeve kept his laptop on a small desk. Taking a seat down in front of it, he recalled how Reeve slid a switch to open the top and reveal a flat screen. Vincent opened and looked over the keyboard and various other buttons. 'How do I turn this silly contraption on?' His hand wavering, he sought out a button that resembled anything that would resort power to the computer. Finding a suitable button, he pressed it and the laptop hummed to life with Shinra's company logo flashing across the screen briefly. 'Good, it is on.' Reeve had used his computer to pull up information from a network database. Perhaps he could find out more about this scar he had just above his eye.
The computer that sat before him looked alien to the one he was familiar with. Instead of monochrome, there were bright colors and strange small pictures appearing long the left side of the screen. Vincent rubbed at his jaw in thought. 'Now what? Do I just start typing?'
"You look lost." A small voice state from below. Vincent's eyes slid over to find Cait Sith stand next to the chair. "Ever used a computer before?"
Vincent frowned. "Of course I have." 'But apparently not in a long time. It seems technology has change since the last time I have used it.'
"Let me help!" Caith Sith stated eagerly. Vincent groaned knowing he did not stand a chance arguing against the doll. He was dealing with something he did not have a clue where to start. The doll started playing with a small black egg shaped piece of plastic that was attached to a cord.
"What are you doing?" Vincent asked.
Caith Sith stopped. "Just moving the mouse."
Vincent suddenly looked perplexed. "Why on earth do you want to move a rodent? The only thing I see is an obnoxious cat."
Cait Sith slouched. "I thought you wanted help." Vincent looked away.
"What will moving that have to do with anything? I thought you needed to type in the program command. But this is presupposing I don't need to type in echo first so I can see what I am typing..."
Caith sith rubbed at its head. "Wait...I don't get it. Typing in commands? Echo? No, this is much easier. Never had to type in commands. Watch!" Cait Sith moved the mouse around so the cursor followed a simple pattern. "See the white arrow, that's the cursor. You need to move that over the phone icon."
Vincent watched as Caith Sith nudged the mouse toward Vincent's hand. Taking it with great reservation, he began to move the mouse but found he had little control over where the cursor went. Cait Sith hit its face in the paws. Vincent was far from having good hand-eye coordination. Vincent had been trained to kill without the chance of being seen and had taken down Sephiroth, but it seemed the simple task of using Reeve's computer was quickly getting the best of the gunman.
After slowly dragging the mouse across the desk, Vincent finally got the mouse cursor of the icon. At least he understood the concept of the icon. 'Fine, wonderful.'
"Now what?" He looked over at the doll. Cait Sith shook its head.
"Well silly, you double-click on it."
Vincent's eyes drifted from the doll to the screen and stared at it for a while. "Why do I have to click on it?" Vincent recalled the brief time he spent down at the supermarket and the express lane Reeve took. There was no salesclerk scanning items, instead there was a scanner and a computer monitor with large colored button images. Vincent was baffled to see all that had to be done was to scan the item and then touch the screen. 'What is so different from that screen and this screen?' Vincent reached up and poked at the screen with no response except from color ripples from the pressure of his finger. Back in his office, Reeve nearly hit his head on the desk in frustration.
"No no! Click with the mouse." Cait Sith corrected not realizing what Vincent was thinking. Vincent growled and placed his hand back on the mouse. He hit the left button first and got a small tan colored menu. Vincent's eyes narrowed and he clicked the button again and got the menu once again.
"How do I get rid of that? I don't need it."
Cait Sith sat down. "Double click with the right button."
Vincent hit the button once and then twice with the same mount of speed. But all he managed to do was to highlight the icon. Vincent growled. Beast was getting bored and frustrated. He was getting frustrated.
"Going to get coffee." Vincent stood up and left the computer and walked into the kitchen. At least he knew he could make drink when he wanted it.
"Well so much for patience." Cait Sith stated in reflection. The doll looked at the screen and slumped. "Wonder why he wants to use it?" Curious, Cait Sith hopped down from the desk and skipped into the kitchen and hopped up on the counter. "Why do you need to use the computer, Vincent? Are you looking something up?"
Vincent shot a quick glare at the doll before returning his attention back to the drink maker. "Actually I was wanting to look up how to dispose of annoying, furry pests. Especially ones that wear fake crowns and red capes."
The doll rubbed at its chin, much as Reeve did out of habit. "Now that's not nice. I'm just trying to help."
Vincent did not say a word as he pulled his cup from the spout now filled with steaming coffee. "I think you help far too well. Perhaps next time you can help beast with something."
Caith Sith crossed its arms. "I'm not playing squeak toy."
Vincent returned to the computer and sat down. "I did not suggest that at all. But now that you mention it..."
Cait Sith dropped down from the counter and ran over to the computer. "If you want to know how to use that, I suggest you find another toy for beast."
Vincent sighed. "Very well."
After a while, Vincent finally clicked fast enough to open the program. A window opened with an inset bar and in large bright print above it read "Moogle". Cait Sith directed Vincent to click in the inset and type whatever he wanted to look up. Pecking in the letters with two fingers, he slowly typed out "scar, left eye" into the inset and stopped. Seeing a button he assumed he needed to click on it. Once the cursor was over the button, he clicked twice not realizing clicking once would have been sufficient. Thinking it would take a while; Vincent began to make himself comfortable when the window suddenly changed displayed what was titled "results of your search" at the top of the window. Vincent only sat three choices in the window and did not understand he had to "scroll" down further to see the remaining options.
"What? Only three? What is the numbers referring to?" Vincent inquired sounded more then a tad confused.
Cait Sith sighed. "Do you see the two arrows on the right side of the window, one that points up and the other that points down?"
Vincent scanned the screen finally finding what the doll had mentioned. Vincent nodded.
"Yes, what of them?"
"See the bar like thing between them, you move your cursor over the bar and move the bar to see more stuff."
Following the dolls directions, he moved the bar revealing more selections.
"Wait, click on that one!" Cait Sith touched the screen directing Vincent to click. Moving the cursor over, he attempted to click on the summary text and got nothing. "Try clicking on the blue unlined sentence above it." Vincent moved the cursor and clicked.
The window changed replacing the previous window with text and a title reading "history and practice of lobotomy". Cait Sith tried leaned closer to the screen trying to see what Vincent was looking at. The red-eyed gun peered at the doll short of snarling at it.
"This is where you say, "Glad I could help you Vincent. Let me know if you need anything" and leave."
Cait Sith slouched. "But I want to read too!" The doll pouted.
"How about I help you read yesterday's paper from the trash can?"
"But the newspapers are recycled..."
Vincent growled.
Cait Sith yelped and ran away from the desk clearing the room. Vincent sat back and feeling satisfied and began to read over the information.
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Vincent looked over the remote control with a small amount of confusion and contempt. Finding the bright read button, he turned the television on. At least he knew how to work a remote. Finding the channel buttons, he switched from one channel to another. Though it quickly became apparent there were more then the 13 channels he was use to seeing on a small black and white television set that he kept in his apartment when he was in the Turks. Though, it only had a turn dial and rabbit ears to pick up the more elusive channels.
What he saw now were bright colors and clear images. Expansive landscapes and mountain ranges soared across the screen as a narrative directed the panning camera. Losing interest, Vincent changed to another channel where some man in a dress shirt and suspenders drabbled on in a thick accent while mixing ingredients into a large white bowl. Still disinterested, Vincent changed the channel again.
'I know I should be more distracted and upset now knowing that Hojo rewired my brain and made sure everyone knew it. He could have been clean and not left a scar, but that is not how Hojo works. He wanted to make sure everyone knew it was his work and no one else's.'
He changed the channels without giving any attention to what he was changing from. Nothing peaked his interest. Nothing. 'Damn you Hojo.' The scientist had made sure that Vincent did not feel an ounce of pleasure after the incident with Gast's assistant.
Somewhere in the back of memory he briefly recalled the impression of passing a channel where half-naked women were wrestling in mud. Before Nibelheim, he may have lingered to watch, but now felt absolutely nothing, not even a tingle. Vincent snarled and continued to explore the channels. The sudden present of beast in the back of consciousness caught Vincent off guard for a moment. He did feel one thing: rage. He closed his eyes and sat still for a moment. He had not let beast loose in a while hoping that if he exerted enough will over the transformation, that it would simply just go away. Instead, it created a growing sense of urgency and impatience. Brushing beast away from the forefront of his thoughts Vincent forced himself to focus on the screen where he paused on one channel where three people stood talking. Vincent's thumb twitched, but he did not change the channel.
"Oh my god, John! I thought you were dead."
"I am here, am I not?"
"Harold put the gun down, please?"
"I thought the first time I shot you, you were dead. This time I won't make the same mistake."
"Perhaps next time, just don't shove me in a coffin in the backroom."
"Oh John!"
Vincent's eye twitched at the dialogue and poor quality acting. Beyond the fluff and overdramatic behavior, there was a ring to of truth. Not some much that the same show and characters had once played across the television screen in the break room at Shinra when he was of the Turks, but that his life had suddenly at one point turned into a soap opera. At first he thought someone stole his life and put it to bad acting until he realized how silly that seemed. Instead he came to a much simpler conclusion.
'My life is a horrible B-rated soap opera.' He did not even feel anger at the results of his thoughts. Vincent stood up and left the room leaving the television on while he stepped into the kitchen. He was hungry, but he was not sure in particular. After investigating the refrigerator unsuccessfully, Vincent made his way to the pantry. He fought the sudden surge of panic when his eyes settled on the front side of the door.
'This time I will make sure to prop the door open.' Vincent reassured himself as he reached for the doorknob. He hand lingered for a moment as he fought beast's primal reaction to swipe at the door and run away. Clenching his jaw, he closed his eyes and flung the door open and stood still. Nothing happened. Opening one eye, he looked inside and found everything was stacked in order on the shelves. Suddenly, he realized what he wanted. Vincent looked around for the glass jar of corn kernels and a popping machine, but did not see either. Then he sought out the small aluminum handled pan that one would place over the oven burner and cook popcorn that way.
Instead all Vincent found was a small red box with the title "Midgar Movietime Popcorn". Opening the box, he found plastic wrapped packets with bright yellow and red graphics. Both confused and curious, Vincent pulled one of the packets and examined it closely. One side he found written instructions how to cook the packet.
'Place bag in microwave for 3 minutes or press the popcorn button.' He looked over the packet as he moved toward the small white microwave. The thought of cooking popcorn in the microwave baffled the man. He had burned several meals before he forgot to rotate the tray during the cooking process. Pressing the opening button, he found a small glass dish in the middle. Vincent touched the dish and wiggled it. 'Did Reeve forget to take that out? That doesn't seem to make much sense. Reeve is immaculate about where everything goes. He just don't leave stuff laying around for nothing.' Vincent removed the plastic wrapping and placed the packet arrow up and closed the door. He then looked over the buttons. He quickly found one that was named "popcorn". Vincent pressed it and the microwave buzzed to life. Vincent stood infront of the machine and watched the packet slowly spin around on the dish. 'I suppose it was good thing I did not remove the dish.' He mused. Soon the sound of popping and the smell of salt and butter filled the air of the large apartment flat.
"Ya know you don't have to stand there and watch it. It will pop just fine if you didn't"
Vincent looked over at the seated image of the Reeve's cat doll. He frowned briefly before returning his attention back to the microwave.
"How about I throw you in there and see if you pop if I did not watch?"
Cait Sith crossed its arms. "Sounds like someone needs a happy pill."
"Who needs a happy pill when I can use you as a squeak toy." Vincent mumbled waiting eagerly for the popcorn to finish.
"I don't have to take such abuse from a house a guest."
"Then why are you still sitting there?" Vincent asked suddenly feeling mischievous. Beast was also very interested in playing, but Vincent pushed the impulse aside. He had done well enough without beast so far; he was not about to indulge in such behavior. Not when buttery popcorn would taste better.
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Author's note: I really ought to make a gesture to the help I get with writing these chapters. Many of these ideas develop from conversations I have with my roommate. It's kinda like playing racquetball, but with characters instead of balls. You can see her work, she is known as Randomality on Fanfiction. I would encourage you read her work, since it is just as amusing is not more so. Anyways enough with the shameless plugging for now.