[A fair point, he supposes. And he does know that if Toph was dismissive, she wouldn't ask to hear about it, so... it does put him at ease to know that she does care in her own way. He gets it.

Vincent hesitantly goes to sit down on the dirt bench, then wryly responds to her:] Actually, I'm more used to a windowless basement, so this is pretty familiar.

[But yes. The important things to cover. Idly, he begins to trace a shape into the dirt with the point of his gauntlet. Less as a necessary visual and more just... yearning.]

A long time ago, I was a bodyguard to a young scientist. A brilliant and beautiful woman named Lucrecia Crescent. [And he is indeed drawing her in the dirt, a strangely decent portrait even though it's dirt and they're in the dark, but whatever.] She was playful, inquisitive, and intelligent. I admired her like no other.

Then, when I thought... we were close, she chose another man. Professor Hojo. I didn't fight for her. I wanted to respect her wishes. If it made her happiest to be with someone else, then so be it.

[Vincent's hand stills, then slowly clenches it into a fist.] She announced she was pregnant. It was then that both she and Hojo decided to work on the next stage of their research, by using Lucrecia's unborn child as the test subject. I tried to persuade her to change her mind, but she was steadfast. Too dedicated.

As she suffered through the experiments, I tried to confront Hojo, and paid dearly for that. Somewhere... along the way, she gave birth to Sephiroth.

Sephiroth's father is one of two people. Hojo, or myself. I can't tell which would harm him more in knowing.