2019-10-09: Postmortem
- Log: Postmortem
- Cast: Yuna, Lulu, Leon Albus, Rikku, Tidus
- Where: Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial
- Date: October 14, 2019
- Summary: Like thirty seconds after killing Seyve, summoner and Guardians are plunged into Macalania Lake by an explosion. There they find 1) an astonishingly old ruin with many mysteries and 2) that one guy who tried to kidnap Yuna that one time. They join forces, while grappling with the choices they've just made, but this path of destiny takes them somewhere truly unexpected...
DG: A party led by Yuna is now entering Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Bubbled From Harm *>=======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
You fall.
Fall, fall, fall... into the shadowy, sapphire depths of Macalania Lake.
Perhaps it was the unending numbers of Odessa's rank and file, filtrating
through portals in endless waves. Perhaps it was the tidal wave you scarce
outran at the apex of the battle between Lombardia, Queen of the Metal
Dragons, and Sin itself. Perhaps the fierce fighting in Macalania Temple has
sent you plummeting down to the depths below.
Whatever the case may be--
You do not meet a frigid, wet end in this abyss.
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKOJbeymd4M )
There is a blue light from below.
Slowly, but comfortably, a round sphere of water cloaks itself around you.
You find yourself dry and with air to breathe, as you descend to the
structure of an ancient shrine hidden underneath the frozen surface of
Macalania Lake.
The bubbles are pliant and sturdy, but impede your movements a little. Try
to coax yourself to float down towards the shrine... and keep tabs of who
you're with--
So that you do not risk losing each other again.
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Because they were together as a group when Macalania Temple exploded, they hit the lake very near one another. In larger bubbles with multiple people, rather than smaller single-occupancy ones.
On the plus side, this means nobody has to face the abyss completely alone at first, unless their name is LEON ALBUS, whose surname and not-having-started-with-the-group has doomed him to a brief, solo adventure.
On the downside, these bubbles are QUITE A BIT HARDER TO STEER when under the control of two people. It requires both coordination and cooperation, and various members of Yuna's family are better or worse at either of those things right now.
Tidus winds up in a bubble with Auron, who looks at him inscrutably. He's obnoxiously calm, even as this unexpected mystical miracle saves them. "What now, I wonder," he remarks to his ward, even as he steps back to let the blitzball player do all the driving. (Inexplicably, he won't be contributing any weight to this bubble.)
Yuna's in Wakka's bubble, and that's really just as well, because he's extremely coordinated and she's only dubiously conscious from the initial impact into the lake, so maybe that will help make up for the lack of her cooperation. Her eyes are still red-rimmed from crying over Belize and Seymour, but her face is no longer tearstained... the lake took care of that.
Rikku, Lulu and Kimahri are in bubble number three. As a small, medium and large person respectively, they're going to have EXTRA fun trying to balance their trajectory on the way down.
DG: Yuna has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
"...Well, this isn't... ideal," Lulu comments about the bubble as she glances around at it. She looks to the three of them, notices the others around, and sees--ah. Of course. It's...
"It seems to move based on our respective positioning..." She might be able to alter the movement with her magic, if she had a moment to catch her breath, but... She's going to need that first. So instead--
"If we arranged ourselves in line behind Kimahri?" she wonders. But she is not the most... arrangeable, of people. On the other hand--in a different bubble...
"...I can't believe it..." Wakka is distracted, to put it lightly, but with Yuna in tears, with them finding themselves in the bubble, he keeps his words to muttering and a dull roar for the moment. "What have..." He can't entirely stop himself talking. The water hasn't bothered him, at least; if anything it's a lot more pleasant than the place they'd been looking before. "...Yuna, ya," Wakka says tonelessly, with an uncertain glance back. "I got the bubble. We can send it down this way." He... pushes. Push!! Luckily Wakka takes up a lot of space.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon Albus is in a bubble of his own.
This, he supposes, is deserved. He shot a(n undead and hostile) sixteen year-old girl, attempted to kidnap a summoner, and then had to be told to not murder a Solarian in cold blood. He may feel a little better about himself, but a solo bubble ride... well, that feels appropriate.
He is also a little below Yuna and her Guardians. He looks up -- he wrinkles his nose for a moment -- and then he reaches to his back. He has a belt, with all of his tools and gear. His clothing is still a sight; torn shirt, torn pants, all spattered in blood and ash. His hair is matted with soot, too. He has seen better days.
And then his right boot, which had a nasty slash in the side, just falls off his foot and goes *pwop* when it falls out of the bubble.
Leon sighs.
He pulls out his climbing rope, and then throws it -- and loops onto something below. Then, bit by bit, he begins to reel himself down to the bottom.
When they find him there, they find him near a body. An Odessa soldier is there -- judging by the coat that Leon has laid over the corpse, which is thoroughly blood-soaked. Leon is...
Leon is putting on the fallen soldier's brown leather boots. He looks up at the first of the Guardians (or Yuna herself) to land, and says: "Good God, this is awkward."
DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Climbing Rope toward his party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Inside the bubble, Rikku drowses, barely conscious after the explosion of the temple.
"'kay... Lulu..."
Rikku answers, without really any sense of true comprehension of their situation.
Rikku begins to groggily make the trek across the bubble to line up behind Kimahri. Except by lining up behind Kimahri, she sort of just leans against him, burying her cheek in his back fur.
"Soft." She remarks, as if he were an oversized pillow, before there's a sort of dawning sense of awareness in her eyes.
And her cheek turns on Kimahri's back. And she looks down.
And those eyes just flare open.
"Whoa we're in a what now!?" She leans sideways to look at Lulu as if confirming that she's not doing this, but if Lulu was doing this, it made sense that she'd have more control. "It's like a little Blitzsphere..."
Looking up, then sideways at the other bubbles, then down. "Maybe if I just... shift my weight this way..."
She turns herself on the fulcrum of Kimahri, holding onto him all the same, hoping the sudden drift of her weight will cause it to float down.
"Sorry big guy. Wasn't myself for a moment!"
And then as they float down. She finds herself looking at Leon Albus, still clinging to Kimahri a little. "Please don't tell me you're here to invite me to a family reunion..." Rikku says at Leon as they make it closer and closer to his position, "... because now is realllyyyy not the time."
DG: Rikku has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Tonight is not a great night for Tidus.
Any--perhaps not joy but satisfaction he might have felt about having been right about Seymour the whole time is counterbalanced and outweighed by a minor case of the freak-outs after having carved his freakin' arm in two. That hadn't been Tidus's intent, but looking back, what did he *think* was going to happen when he swung his sword down at Seymour's face? If not his hand, then something else nearly as bad, right? And then Tidus and his friends had beaten Seymour, but at the cost of Seymour's life, and Tidus doesn't like Seymour and never has, but he's having a hard time coming to terms with being indirectly responsible for a man's death. And if *he's* wigging out about it, if in a low-key way, geez, think of how Yuna must feel. Normally she'd never hurt and fly, and now...
Ugh. Ugh. This is all stupid Seymour's fault! If he hadn't murdered his OWN dad and then taken that out on the rest of *them*, Yuna wouldn't be feeling awful about self-defensing him to death!! Tidus kicks the edge of his bubble, which miraculously doesn't pop, in an attempt to drive it closer to the others. It kind of succeeds and it kind of doesn't, wobbling off to one side but at least curving downwards with the others. Ugh!!!
"Hey, stop wondering and help me out with this, wouldja?" he snaps at Auron, taking his temper out on the older man because a) he's there b) he's convenient c) Auron never, ever takes it personally, even if he does get obnoxious about it sometimes (often). The navigating gets easier when he starts using a blitzball for it by way of rolling it with his foot against the surface; the bubble wobbles around the two, but in a much more controlled, directed way, until finally they make it to the bottom.
Meanwhile, Kimahri rumbles deep in his throat as he attempts to balance/counter-balance with Rikku and Lulu, the latter of whom suggests a solution. Line up behind him, hm... That'll at least put the most weight forward. There's a problem with that idea, though, and that's the Rikku koalaing onto his back.
Rikku apologizes for clinging onto him. Kimahri grunts, but nods in acceptance of her apology. He hadn't been keen on falling into a massive lake, either.
Eventually the three of them make it to the bottom. If nothing else, having three of them in here means they were going to sink all the way down sooner or later. And when they land...
"Oh great, and now it's THIS guy," Tidus grumbles, gesturing at Leon. "You wanna..."
He trails off when he notices the corpse that Leon's looting. Then he gets uncomfortably quiet.
Good thing Kimahri's there to growl at Leon. He's wordlessly articulate for all of them!
DG: Tidus has used his Tool Signed Blitzball toward his party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm. DG: Lulu has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Bubbled From Harm *>=======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
You fall.
Fall, fall, fall... into the shadowy, sapphire depths of Macalania Lake.
Perhaps it was the unending numbers of Odessa's rank and file, filtrating
through portals in endless waves. Perhaps it was the tidal wave you scarce
outran at the apex of the battle between Lombardia, Queen of the Metal
Dragons, and Sin itself. Perhaps the fierce fighting in Macalania Temple has
sent you plummeting down to the depths below.
Whatever the case may be--
You do not meet a frigid, wet end in this abyss.
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKOJbeymd4M )
There is a blue light from below.
Slowly, but comfortably, a round sphere of water cloaks itself around you.
You find yourself dry and with air to breathe, as you descend to the
structure of an ancient shrine hidden underneath the frozen surface of
Macalania Lake.
The bubbles are pliant and sturdy, but impede your movements a little. Try
to coax yourself to float down towards the shrine... and keep tabs of who
you're with--
So that you do not risk losing each other again.
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
===============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 1 *>================ ========================< Results - Bubbled From Harm >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Climbing Rope 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Signed Blitzball 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Yuna has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Lulu has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Eye for an Eye *>========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Darken Eyes blot the airspace above your party, harrying you with strikes
and minor spells. Just as combat breaks out, the most astute amongst you
notice the trap-laden hallway, with yet more eye contraptions (eyes! It's
always eyes!) embedded in the walls.
Done wrong, an annoying encounter could become deadly if you split amongst
yourselves.
So be quick and decisive. Bring these flying monsters to stare at the walls,
and send them packing. Keep abreast of one another.
Because you cannot afford to lose each other again.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
The whole world may be turning upside down, but Auron's gravely chuckle is exactly the same as ever. Bone freaking dry. His eyes glint, and his weight seems to kind of shift back and forth above his feet, in something like tandem with Tidus. Even so, it's the kid who winds up doing the driving. Their cooperation must be completely perfect, 'cause it's like Auron isn't even there!
Yuna and Wakka's bubble is slower than the rest by a wide margin. It's about halfway down when another voice seeps into their consciousness -- into everyone's -- in a beautiful soprano.
BGM: Hymn of the Fayth ~ Shiva https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MgGN8aISdo
As though the hymn is an alarm clock, Yuna's eyes flutter open. She's still too pale and somewhat disoriented, but the shock is starting to drain out of her, at least a little bit, replaced with Wakka's shock, instead. Stirred by his distress, she crawls to her feet, anchoring herself behind him with her arms on his shoulders in an effort not to disturb the bubble's balance. He can barely feel her. She's so small and light normally, and in this soupy water-fall...
"What have I done," she finishes for him, in a small voice. "It's all my fault, Wakka. Please don't blame yourself."
They land squarely next to Leon, by happenstance. Yuna gives him a long look, after giving everyone else a shorter -- but very tender -- one. There isn't a hint of unfriendliness in it, but she does seem even quieter than usual, and tired. "Mister Leon," she says, shaping bubble-within-bubble with Yevon's prayer, traitor or not. "Would you... like to join us?" The tentativeness in her voice is self-depricating, like maybe Leon is too much of a professional to want to hang out with them right now.
But her concern is real.
"This is no place for anyone to be alone."
The shrine looms above and around them, and most of all, ahead.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
A what now?? No, it isn't Lulu's doing. ...She may, admittedly, have felt a little better to watch Rikku actually resting for a moment. But with the explosion, she can't let herself do the same. And now, of course--
"Rikku--" But she seems to get it, for the moment, and Lulu sighs, pulling an Ether from her things. While Kimahri enacts the Plan, Lulu watches him a moment. "I think I can see the others..."
When they land, tidus grumbles--Kimahri growls. And Rikku--talks.
Lulu does none of these things. She straightens her shoulders, and watches Leon. That's all, for now.
While Wakka barely feels Yuna's presence physically--he's distracted, he's away from his own world in a way, but... All the same--She speaks, and then he realizes.
"What? No," Wakka shakes his head, "How could it be your fault? No, it's..."
The bubble lands--and there, after a few moments, it clicks for Wakka. "Uh--it's another Summoner-napping Al Bhed!" Wakka declares, scowling directly at Leon. "And--And you, you're--" He looks at Rikku, next, exhausted, bewildered, and then... Then it starts to click for him. "...That's it, ya? We bring along an Al Bhed, and--and nobody tells me, and now we're fighting Maesters and turning back on the teachings and floating in weird water down into some strange building, ya!?"
"That's--that's it! That's why this is happening!"
"Wakka," Lulu says. "Yuna has a point. We shouldn't stay here, and neither should he."
"Uh? Uh--I--I guess," he starts, but he frowns at Leon. "But this isn't over, mister!" ...If nothing else, the Hymn seems to at least calm him enough that he's willing to walk and talk. But he clearly isn't feeling any more certain.
But Lulu looks to Leon, next. "...It's not as if you have anywhere to take her right now, anyway," she points out, before they move on. As it turns out, this place is dangerous. The small monsters that harry them as soon as they walk through the next hall use strikes and minor spells, and while they aren't terribly dangerous--
"Uh--"
Wakka is the first to look into an eye on the wall, and blip out of existence. "That's not fair, ya!?" his voice comes from where they started.
Lulu frowns. "Wakka? He's all right, but... We'll have to be careful..."
Lulu considers--and tries using her spells to just shove the things out of the way, and clear some space.
DG: Lulu has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Eye for an Eye.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"He was already dead!" Leon complains at Kimahri, a little like he understood exactly what he said. He motions to the body. "He must fallen at the start. And I can't very well wander about this place without a decent pair of shoes--oh, hm, these are quite comfortable, actually..."
He stands up, then sighs. He glances at Rikku, but he shakes his head. "I'm afraid not. For one, the lot of you outnumber me--and also, I think recent events may have changed the nature of my contract. Also..." Leon looks around. "...I have no bloody idea where we are."
Then, he looks back at Yuna. He still hesitates for a second, at the offer. However, Leon is practical before he is self-recriminating, and proud before he is any of that. He nods. "I would, if you'll have me."
Then, he looks at Wakka. "For the record, I'm no Al Bhed. I work for them, but I'm from a place called Kislev. Also, the Al Bhed had nothing--mostly nothing--with all of what occurred."
He sighs, then turns. He frowns, and then he pulls his rope back. Leon throws it -- looping it onto a nearby Darkened Eye -- and then pulls it, in its fixing, to the side to clear some more room for them.
DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Climbing Rope toward his party's challenge, Eye for an Eye.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
At least Auron doesn't sass Tidus. Say thanks for small favors.
The others arrive. Yuna in particular wonders what she's done. Tidus grimaces, his heart breaking a little for her. "Yuna," he murmurs.
But then, ringing around them, he can hear the sound of the Hymn of the Fayth, in Shiva's clear, bell-tone tones. He looks up and around, but it seems sourceless. Even so, it's a little... reassuring. He hums along for a moment, the tension easing out of his muscular frame. Right. They've still got a long ways to go, and wherever the heck they just landed, they've gotta get through here to get to safety.
So naturally Wakka chooses that moment to freak out and blame Rikku for everything. "Oh, come on, Wakka, this isn't Rikku's fault," he groans, looking at his friend. "This isn't anybody's fault!" Except Seymour's, but even Tidus knows that's not a wise thing to say right now. "It just--happened." He nods at Rikku, though he still talks to Wakka: "Sometimes bad stuff *just happens*, you know? And it's not gonna get any better unless we stick together."
Leon talks about how comfortable the dead soldier's shoes are. Tidus makes a face, but Yuna invites him along anyway. Ugh. Well, he *did* just say they have to stick together. "Count me the same," he says, looking around the temple. "How's this place even dry at the bottom of a lake? How's that work?"
Either way, there are weird eye things on the walls, and Wakka falling victim to their teleportation-back-to-the-start magic makes it clear how they work. This is the height of obnoxiousness, and Tidus gets zapped himself a few times, but eventually he manages to get the hang of coralling monsters in the way of those eyes by way of kicking a blitzball their way. Heck, maybe Wakka even helps him out with that!
DG: Tidus has used his Tool Signed Blitzball toward his party's challenge, Eye for an Eye.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku is about to say something, but... Yuna preempts her. And she takes a breath. "Well he is a decent guy...." Who is she to complain if Yuna wants someone who attempted to kidnap her to come with them? And it's not like he's surrounded by Brother, and Lily, or anyone else. "... so long as he promises not to try anything."
However, then Wakka speaks up, and Rikku debates on whether to let Leon fend for himself or not on that point - until Wakka looks at her. And there it is a flinch.
"Not now." She whispers to herself. Not while Yuna is already so upset from dealing with... her grief, her pain. Indeed she steals a glance to look at her at first. Even as Tidus defends her, which manages to give her this small smile.
At first she doesn't say anything else. Just allowing Wakka to say all that, though it's clear by her expression she's growing more and more irritated. At first she just walks on past, but then she seems to stop short and-
"Tidus is right you know. You make it sound like me being Al Bhed is responsible for all of this." A beat, "And that really hurts. What kind of explanation is that for... everything that happened? That I'm just to blame? That's it? That's all there is to say? I don't know Wakka. I don't think there's anything to be found - in some teachings - that'll account for all the terrible things that happened up there today."
Either way, Rikku finds herself isolating herself further away from Wakka by the time they move further into the shrine. Not even going anywhere near Yuna. Not because she doesn't think Yuna is on her side... but because she doesn't want Yuna to be blamed for... being associated with... being an Al Bhed.
Obviously then, she finds herself standing near Leon.
"Here - let me help you with that Leon."
Rikku's strategy for dealing with the darkened eyes in the wall is attempting to blind their field of vision. Using smoke grenades.
Perhaps she's using forbidden Machina on purpose now just because Wakka now knows she's an Al Bhed using forbidden Machina.
"I think the running theme of my life ever since Luca has been... nothing ever works out as planned."
Sometimes for the worse like right now. Sometimes for the better... like getting the chance to meet - to know - to protect her cousin.
"If things had gone a little different... I think the two of us would be working together right now."
She's at least circumspect enough to lower her voice for that one.
DG: Rikku has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Eye for an Eye.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Auron seems to appreciate Leon's attitude, welcoming him to the group with a grunt. "I'll watch your back," he... promises? That was a promise, not a threat, right? It is slightly hard to tell. If anyone gives him an interrogative glance about it, they'll only see, hovering just above his collar, a tiny, ominous smirk.
Meanwhile, Tidus worries about Yuna.
Yuna smiles at him in response, and there's nothing ominous about it at all, other than the fact that someone who's all torn up about being a murderer and a traitor is capable of dredging up such a wholesome expression of serenity and well-being on command. But surely everything is completely and totally fine with her.
Then the arguments start breaking out.
Yuna looks pained but not perplexed at Wakka's attitude, gives Rikku an extremely sympathetic look, then finally swallows, as though working herself up to do something.
"Um, Wakka," she starts, resting a hand just above his elbow--
*poof*
She's left holding only air.
At a bit of a loss as to what to do next, she watches Leon carefully, since he seems to know what he's doing. Then, from one of her hidden pouches, she pulls out a tiny little bit of woven rope. It's practically like a doily.
She unfolds it. Then again, and again, and again.
Wow, that's a really big net!
Yuna goes fishing for Darkened Eyes. She's not hugely skilled, but she is very persistent.
She winds up shoulder to shoulder with Rikku in a blatant and unrepentant show of solidarity.
"I know what you mean about everything going wrong. But, actually, Rikku," she points out, gently, "The two of you are working together, right now."
Her smile softens, becoming something true. More true.
"The three of us. All of us."
DG: Yuna has used her Tool Kilika Fishing Net toward her party's challenge, Eye for an Eye.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Eye for an Eye *>========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Darken Eyes blot the airspace above your party, harrying you with strikes
and minor spells. Just as combat breaks out, the most astute amongst you
notice the trap-laden hallway, with yet more eye contraptions (eyes! It's
always eyes!) embedded in the walls.
Done wrong, an annoying encounter could become deadly if you split amongst
yourselves.
So be quick and decisive. Bring these flying monsters to stare at the walls,
and send them packing. Keep abreast of one another.
Because you cannot afford to lose each other again.
=Dungeon Conditions: Injure===================================================
===============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 2 *>================ ==========================< Results - Eye for an Eye >========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Kilika Fishing Net 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Climbing Rope 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Signed Blitzball 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Injure(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Yuna has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Leon Albus has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Aquaphant *>===========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The very ground shakes each each step of this elephant-type Fiend's arival.
Colour-coded blue with shimmering crystalline tops, you can distinctly
recognise this as a Water-elemental Fiend... but, ah, which rules apply
here? Does Earth trump Water as in some cycles, or is it Lightning?
Make your decision fast!
=Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
"Oh. An Otherworlder. ...Right." Pause. "There's no place in Spira called Kislev, right Lu?" "No, Wakka," she answers. "There isn't." And then Wakka looks to Leon. "...I mean, not directly maybe," he allows, since even he can't blame the Al Bhed for all of Odessa.
Tidus speaks up. He groans, and Wakka doesn't seem to get the reaction at first--but of course. Tidus is from that old Zanarkand, he said. "But--but it..." It can't just be no one's fault, Wakka can't quite finish saying to Tidus, "You don't understand," he says instead, and looks at Rikku, shaking his head. He doesn't really look angry at her entirely--it's a mix of feelings, of which that's only one. "But the Al Bhed use machina! Just like all those soldiers up there--that's what brought Sin down on us in the first place! The teachings exactly account for the kind of things that happened up there today!"
But, true to his word--he doesn't stop to prosecute the whole thing all at once. "Wait--Sir Auron isn't an Al Bhed too, is--" He sees the smirk. He just stares a moment, and his shoulders sink. ...He moves on. As it happens, Wakka does help Tidus out--he's pretty good at hitting precisely, already has experience working with Tidus at athletic pursuits and combat. But he does so without enthusiasm; he certainly doesn't cheer at a victory like he might under normal circumstances.
Lulu sighs, nodding to Yuna, as she mentions them working together. It should be a heartening perspective. This is... the third time, she's had to come back. It's the fifth Wakka is having to come back. And just at the moment... Well, Wakka is gone behind. So Lulu approaches the others, and speaks up before he comes back.
"I'm sorry about Wakka," she says, particularly to Rikku. "...It's more complicated than it seems. It's not... the usual Yevon dislike of Al Bhed. Wakka dislikes them because of his brother, Chappu. When Chappu went to fight Sin, at Djose--he used an Al Bhed machina weapon, instead of the sword Wakka gave him." She sighs, and steps closer to Rikku.
"I know it isn't fair to you." ...Or Yuna, for that matter, her eyes say as she looks to the Summoner.
"Ugh," Wakka says as she gets back, "All these things!" Nope. He didn't hear a word of it.
The rest of the group, though, has successfully smoked, netted, blasted, and shoved monsters into the eyes, and made it past with a minimum of backtracking. ....For now.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"I won't try anything," Leon promises Rikku. "I'm not going to be half as foolish as that."
He keeps walking, making his way along the hallway.
"I haven't the foggiest," Leon says to Tidus. "What happened to the lot of you, though? You got into a fight with a Maester? Was it--" His nose wrinkles, after a moment's consideration. "Was it that Seymour fellow? I tried to go into the Temple, after all of you, and he had convinced someone to hold us off."
The Black Wolves' captain frowns for a moment. Then he looks sideways at Rikku, and nods his head. "Quite possible!" he says. There is, too, a glance at Auron. As if to see which way he meant watching his back.
Leon glances at Wakka, and gives him a look. "For what it's worth," he says. "The Al Bhed I worked for were quite pleasant people. They paid well--and despite appearances, I do try to not work for people who are entirely awful. There are some things we should discuss, if we survive this."
Leon glances sideways -- frowning for a second. He hears a rumble.
It is, at this point, that a terrific trumpeting echoes down the hallway. Leon turns, and the dirtied and bedraggled man goes slack-jawed as an elephant of pure water begins to clomp its way down the temple hallway. No, Leon realizes: not clop, but charge. His eyes widen, and then he draws his ARM from the holster on his side.
"Look alive!" he shouts. "I don't think this thing is friendly!"
It slams, bodily, into a wall of energy. The tree, triangular Raid Funnels spin, holding a shimmering barrier of aquamarine light between them. The Aquaphant bounces back, before it starts to rush forward.
Leon fires, pumping a pair of shotgun slugs at it. "I don't suppose any of you know much about this place?" he asks over the din of gunfire.
DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Raid Funnel toward his party's challenge, Aquaphant.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Tidus catches Yuna's smile like a blitz pass, and his heart hurts. As much as he likes seeing her smile, this of all times feels like she ought to have the right to be honest with her feelings. Then again... is it really the time? They're in a weird place and, again, they've got to get through it to safety. Dammit. There's never any time for Yuna to just--grieve. It isn't fair.
But it'd be even more unfair to make *her* worry about *him*, so he gives her his best smile back.
Rikku and Wakka continue to argue. Yuna pipes in to Rikku, while Wakka tells Tidus he doesn't understand. "Yeah, I *don't* understand! I don't understand why you're so quick to give Rikku grief when she's our friend!" he shoots back. "She's been protecting Yuna just like you and me! Unless, what, you think she was faking it?" His tone makes it clear how absurd Tidus thinks the very concept is. He rolls his eyes when Wakka keeps harping on about machina stuff, and even adds an, "Oh, come on!" when Wakka starts getting suspicious about *Auron* of all people.
...Not that there isn't plenty of reason to find Auron shady. Just, if he were an Al Bhed, it wouldn't be one of those reasons.
In any case, the team manages to get past the eyes. Lulu starts explaining about Wakka's hate-on for the Al Bhed. "Ohhh," he says quietly. "So it's all personal-like. I guess I can get that. ...but it's still not fair to Rikku," he adds, echoing Lulu.
Leon promises not to try anything. That's reassuring, at least. A little. "Yeah," he replies, making a face. "He, uh. He kinda gave us no choice but to fight." Not that he was entirely reluctant for the chance to punch Seymour in the face, Tidus has to admit to himself. "Anyway, that's not important right now," he adds, which is a blatant lie, but this is something he really doesn't want to talk about with Leon.
Fortunately or unfortunately, an Aquaphant comes trumpeting in, providing a tremendous (in every sense of the word) distraction from the topics at hand. Tidus draws his sword in an instant--somewhere between the battle with Seymour and now, the blood seems to have washed away; thank Lake Macalania for that--and charges at the water elephant with a ferocious roar. He gets a few good slashes in, but it catches him in turk with a smash of its trunk.
Tidus crashes backwards, nearly falling ass over teakettle, and picks himself up with a groan. He grabs a Hi-Potion from one pocket, but rather than downing the whole thing, he takes a swig, then caps it and puts it back. A decent if small bit of healing, enough to let him get right back into the fight.
Look, he bought that Hi-Potion from O'aka, all right?? You don't swill down potions that expensive in one go!!
DG: Tidus has used his Tool O'aka Hi-Potion toward his party's challenge, Aquaphant.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
"Alright. I believe you." Is her simple answer to Leon about not trying anything.
It's hard to say what Rikku's reaction is at first to being shoulder to shoulder with Yuna. At first it's like she might move away. She doesn't want any of that blame, any of that fault to shift to her.
If she had - then worst of all, the look in her eyes would have been apologetic. However then Yuna says that.
And something inside of Rikku just... melts. "I guess... you're right."
All the tension in her shoulders like a knot has been untied.
Yuna is still Yuna. No matter what anyone thinks of Rikku being an Al Bhed.
"But Yunie. Even with everything that's happened." Rikku turns her head a touch, and notes with a smile, "Me being here with you is proof that so much more has gone right."
Lulu apologizes to her.
"Don't worry about it. The first lesson every Al Bhed kid learns is that life isn't fair." Is her simple response to Lulu, before she adds, "People aren't simple. Noone is. If things were so simple then..." She inhales through her nostrils, "Well... I don't think I'd be here... if things were."
Rikku doesn't answer Wakka at first due to the circumstances, instead walking up to Tidus once he's a discrete distance from him, tapping him on the shoulder and whispering, "Hey thanks. I appreciate you sticking up for me." Sometimes... sometimes it's nice that he can just say things without being all twisted up in the Spiran mindset.
When a fight erupts with a Water Elemental Fiend, and Leon tells her to look alive- "Aw - it's like a deadly watery Shoopuf." Scrambling to take cover, Rikku simply pours something into a bag she idly asks Wakka.
"You got proof of any of what you're saying about Sin and Machina? I haven't heard of Sin appearing on Leon's world -" even though they use Machina all the time up there. And besides..."
She then tosses the bag in an idle overhand toss towards the fiend in an arc to strike the top of it and sink within.
"... you don't see Sin showing up every time I blow something up - right?"
Except. That's not what happens. There's a little flash like a flare, and the bag disintegrates. And suddenly they can all see gil floating around inside of the fiend.
"Hey Drowny Shoopuf! Now you're all shiny! What do you say - maybe just take a day off on account of being so glamorous?"
DG: Rikku has used her Tool Bribe Budget toward her party's challenge, Aquaphant.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
There are more arguments, and the summoner doesn't exactly stay out of them, but she also doesn't insert herself directly into the middle of them, not after everything Rikku's said. She deserves the right to defend herself without Yuna making things both more complicated and a little too simple. She just nods a lot, and shares sad smiles with Tidus, and gives Wakka both disappointed looks and occasionally encouraging ones, when his heart seems like it might inch towards the right place.
And then they're attacked.
Yuna's voice rings out very calmly. "NulTide."
Well -- there's calm and there's calm, and she's falling on the side of a little too calm. There's an underlying edge.
Still, her rendering the party immune to the incoming element allows this to be a relatively calm battle, indeed. She just keeps spamming it, every time it falls off. NulTide, NulTide, NulTide.
Which means there's time to address the OTHER elephant in the room.
"It is important, NulTide," she says, sadly, picking up the story Leon asked for where Tidus left off. "It's... back in Guadosalam, the, well, I think your people might better understand it as like, a 'hungry ghost'?" She's hung out enough with Marivel to have a slightly wider vocabulary for undead than she used to. "The unsettled spirit of Maester Seymour's ghost approached me with claims that his son had murdered him... and had even worse crimes planned, against Spira, against summoners. He begged me to stop his son. So -- NulTide -- I... tried. But I was afraid that there was no way I could intervene without a lot of danger, so I didn't tell my Guardians what I was going to do. Maester Seymour had just proposed, and I thought... I could confront him in private about his father. I wanted to convince him to turn himself into Yevon's judgement... in exchange for marriage, if that's what it took, NulTide."
She steps out of the way of the charging aquaphant.
"Once he realized we knew his secret, he tried to get rid of us... and he summoned his aeon, and I summoned mine, and..."
She's starting to get upset.
Auron clears his throat.
"You do realize," he points out, "That this wasn't your problem, your responsibility? That you could have just done nothing, and avoided all this trouble?"
Yuna gives him a wide-eyed look, filled with a mix of integrity and disappointment that, even a day ago, she might not have had the guts to inflict on him, and he feels a pang where his heart used to be. It's exactly the expression Braska used to have, at times like this.
"Well," he grunts, sinking his katana into the aquaphant, "Maybe YOU couldn't've, after all..."
DG: Yuna has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Aquaphant.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
"Yes, it was Maester Seymour. Did he? It's a long story, regardless."
Some things to discuss. Sure, Leon sounds reasonable, neutral, but Wakka's exhausted mind tries to find something to impugn his immediate testimony. He says he doesn't work for people who are entirely awful, but Lulu points out, "It's true that they tried to avoid hurting her. Or us, for that matter, though we obviously couldn't let them succeed."
to Rikku during the fight, "Of course not, Sin is already here! 'Proof'? It's in the teachings!"
In all Lulu's experience, water reacts most poorly to lightning--and so that's what she tries first. She zaps it quickly, seeing the very, very large Fiend before then--and then sets her jaw, considering. "...That's a good idea," she tells Rikku, and of course Wakka frowns at her immediately. When she lifts an eyebrow at him, he immediately gets back to work--throwing a blinding Darkness Attack with his Blitzball to help keep the great enemy from squashing them while they take it down.
In the next moment, Lulu pulls a little blue doll, one that resembles... an alien, by some legends. Its antenna wobbles briefly, its round form cheerful--and she sets it down, to let it aid her focus.
"Coming after us now was a mistake."
She starts bringing in more lightning--though if that doesn't work, she can try many, many other elements. Demi might be particularly helpful.
...But as they speak during the fight--and they do--Lulu imagines Yuna wouln't have done otherwise, could or not. She lets her and Tidus handle most of the explanation; the fact that they wouldn't let Yuna do it all alone seems obvious, to her, considering. Wakka finds himself listening some, too, and he sighs. "Look, I... I mean, ya, she agreed to help, and she's been helping, but... It's different! ...Lu?""
Lulu shakes her head, and throws another spell. "Just... think of this as an opportunity to learn more about the Al Bhed," she suggests.
"Nnnnn," he makes a vague noise, and--Well, on the bright side, his next attack is a flurry of blitzball throws.
DG: Lulu has used her Tool Space Bandit toward her party's challenge, Aquaphant.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
==========================<* CHALLENGE - Aquaphant *>===========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
The very ground shakes each each step of this elephant-type Fiend's arival.
Colour-coded blue with shimmering crystalline tops, you can distinctly
recognise this as a Water-elemental Fiend... but, ah, which rules apply
here? Does Earth trump Water as in some cycles, or is it Lightning?
Make your decision fast!
=Dungeon Conditions: Overwhelm================================================
===============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 3 *>================ ============================< Results - Aquaphant >============================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Space Bandit 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Raid Funnel 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass O'aka Hi-Potion 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Bribe Budget 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Injure(1)|Overwhelm Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Yuna has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"I suppose you're right," Leon says to Tidus. "Deal with him when we get out of here."
He doesn't say 'we can.' Leon isn't sure that he wants to go for a hat trick in attempted assassinations of foreign leaders. He fires again at the Aquaphant. The thing has a slash on its side from Tidus -- and it rears back from the gil that rise up around it, trumpeting again.
And then it begins trying to collect the gil with its trunk, distracted for just a moment.
This stops, for a moment, the bombardment of watery spells. Before that, though, those giant blasts of water kept vanishing harmlessly with each 'NulTide.' Leon glances, sideways, at Yuna -- and he stares for a second. He did not expect her to reveal the truth. He swallows, after a second.
"While Sir Auron might be right, Lady Yuna... personally, I think it's hard to not get involved in things," he says. "It sounds like it was rough on you. I'm sorry for that. But--if you felt it was what you needed to do, then... that means it was worth something to you."
The Aquaphant trumpets loudly, and tries to slam into Auron when he stabs it. The bribe's distraction did buy the time for that. It also bought time to look into the doll's eyes -- and then get smashed by spell, after spell, after spell.
It falls, vanishing into pyreflies.
Leon sighs, lowering his shotgun. "No," he adds, looking at Rikku and Wakka. Filgaia doesn't have Sin, and we have machina. Though, we call them ARMs, there."
DG: Rikku has drawn a new Challenge.
===================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>====================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Make Haste Slowly *>======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
Right down this hallway, up the next, twist around towards this next room
and...
Ah. Back where you started.
The Shrine of the Water Trial, for all its advanced and mystical origin, is
quite the excruciating building to navigate. Perhaps it is the watery
reflections that confound the senses. Perhaps the way the passages twist and
turn and lead to one another, bereft of landmarks.
You'd best act fast with your backtracking, while the temple's corridors are
fresh in your mind. This is not just a physical trial, but one of mental
acuity too.
Make haste slowly.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku tries hard not to 'snerk' as Lulu tells Wakka to take up the opportunity to learn more about the Al Bhed. She has to actually cover her mouth.
"... At this point it's like you're just picking on her Auron." Rikku accuses, "Maybe try being a little less mean to her from time to time?"
The Aquaphant vanishes into pyreflies, and she breathes more easily, but it also gives her an opening to finally answer Wakka, moving to the head of the group after Leon speaks about their world.
She takes to the lead, but perhaps she's not really paying as much attention as she ought to be.
"Anyhow you're not going to get off just saying things like that Wakka! You know that's not good enough!" Rikku doesn't say Correlation equals Causation, but she's certainly thinking something similar perhaps. "Yevon says this - Yevon says that - why don't you think for yourself? If you just took a minute to listen to Leon - you'd understand that the teachings don't explain why there's Sin here but not there!"
Rikku then suddenly squints as they hit sunlight.
"Uh... did we make it through-?"
Suddenly the camera zooms out to show a wide angle shot of them still being at the bottom of a frozen lake, surrounded by high glacier walls.
"Oh you've gotta be...!"
Rikku then suddenly takes off in a dash down one hall.
And blips back before their vision
Having been struck with a darkened eyes.
Rikku stands frozen for a few moments before, "Now I know what you're thinking Wakka..." She says as she holds up both her fingers, before then she drops her arms and her shoulders slump.
"... and... yeah I've got no defense for this one. We're definitely back at the start again."
However she then seems to cheer up.
"It's fine it's fine- after all- it'll be so much easier a second time!"
~DOWN THE DARKENED EYE CORRIDOR~
"-see? It's fine!"
Rikku's voice suddenly sounds way more distant and she's vanished. As she comes charging back.
"Stupid eyes - let me give you something to stare at-!"
~AQUAPHANT PART DEUX~
"How is there another one already here!? Do they just feel the fiendish void!?"
DG: Rikku has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Make Haste Slowly *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Right down this hallway, up the next, twist around towards this next room
and...
Ah. Back where you started.
The Shrine of the Water Trial, for all its advanced and mystical origin, is
quite the excruciating building to navigate. Perhaps it is the watery
reflections that confound the senses. Perhaps the way the passages twist and
turn and lead to one another, bereft of landmarks.
You'd best act fast with your backtracking, while the temple's corridors are
fresh in your mind. This is not just a physical trial, but one of mental
acuity too.
Make haste slowly.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Rikku swings on by Tidus with a discreet gratitude for his support. He smiles warmly back at her. "Hey, no problem! What're friends for? Wakka'll come around too, once he gets it through his thick skull." What's 'it'? Anything, really. But in particular that Rikku's Rikku.
Leon tells Tidus to 'deal with' Seymour once they're out of here. "Uhhhhhh," he utters, eyes sliding over towards the rest of the group. The Aquaphant happens then, so he can't really explain his reaction. Yuna does that for him, and it's in part thanks to her efforts that the fight goes so swimmingly. (He blames Lulu for that one. You wouldn't think the quiet, grumpy one would have such a *deep* love of puns. Though speaking of--) "ARMs, huh?" he adds to Leon. "Funny. Where I'm from, we call them guns." Then he flexes and grins broadly, because apparently today is a punny kind of day.
Wakka's protests, meanwhile, just get him a flat look. "Uh huh." Fortunately, Lulu makes a very sensible suggestion, and everyone gets to finishing off the Aquaphant, including Kimahri, who has totally been helping out all along, I swear. More amusing to Tidus is Yuna staring down *Auron* of all people. He makes an effort to catch the older man's eye, and once he has, he just *smirks* at him. No need for words, there.
Onwards the group goes. Onwards, into... getting severely lost. Why is this place so awful about that?? "No kidding!" he complains along with Rikku as they meet yet another winding fork in the road. "What sick, twisted mind *built* this place?!" He bounces that good ol' blitzball up on one knee--the motion helps him think. Keeping active always makes his thoughts sharper--gotta be sharp if you're gonna win a game. "Right, so we went left last time, so... This way!" Decisively, he heads right.
DG: Tidus has used his Tool Signed Blitzball toward his party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Auron isn't the only older man staring at Yuna, now. Tidus may enjoy the way Yuna handles it, but it does come at the direct expense of her being able to watch him show off his guns. Not that she'd have gotten the pun.
And so it is that she doesn't so much endure Leon's surprised scrutinizing side-eye as she accepts it -- looking straight back at him, with that terrible, chord-striking sort of openness of heart and mind which handily explains why Maester Seymour tried to kill her.
Really, she doesn't have to say another word.
But she does anyway. Taking things a step further than what's expected -- this, too, is the Tao of the Lady Summoner.
"I should've told you all what I was going to do," she tells the group, as the Aquaphant dissolves. "I'm truly sorry."
"Enough," Auron barks. "Dwelling in the past is futile."
Also, now they're dwelling in the present, which is becoming a maze. Yuna flinches at the Legendary Guardian's dismissal, but also looks over at Rikku, thoughtfully digesting her latest argument to Wakka. "The teachings also don't explain why this place is in Spira... this building isn't of Yevon at all, and yet it's so old. Perhaps... Sir Leo was correct after all, in believing that his Goddess Althena was once worshipped here."
Not that that makes his invasion okay.
She unfolds her net once again, but this time to lay it out on the floor of one of the wider chambers, and study it like a map, twisting strands here and there to delineate where they've been. Beckoning, she offers her attempt at cartography to the others to survey.
"What do you think?" she asks Lulu.
DG: Yuna has used her Tool Kilika Fishing Net toward her party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Well," Leon remarks, with a sigh. "This place doesn't play fair at all, does it?" He says that to Rikku, before he cocks his shotgun's pump action mechanism.
He stops as they reach the long hallway, with all the eyes. He pulls his trusty climbing rope out -- spins it around in his hand -- and then throws it. The rope catches onto a ledge up ahead, and he tugs it. "I think we were closer to there. Let's climb up," Leon says. "It should be a shortcut."
He frowns, and then starts climbing, hefting himself up.
He glances at Tidus as they move. He shrugs. "They call them guns sometimes, but ARMs have a ring. ARMs really can be any technology dug up from the past. Stands for Ancient Relic Machine. People think of the guns, but there's more than that. We'd call a Blitzball Stadium an ARM, for instance."
He glances back at Yuna, and then he tilts his head. "Could be. This does look like different architecture."
He keeps hurrying on.
DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Climbing Rope toward his party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
"ARMs," Lulu answers thoughtfully. "...That is strange. I suppose the question becomes, did you ever use these ARMs in ways that nearly destroyed your world? The teachings are more specific than the use of machina alone--they tell of terrible machina weapons, in particular, those that could have destroyed Spira many times over." She pauses. "...Well, the teachings don't explicitly draw the distinction, but it seems clear to me, at least. Those are most of the machina Yevon tells us we may not use."
"Nnnn," Wakka answers Lulu being all calm about machina. She does not answer him.
...She looks at Tidus, and lifts her eyebrow, though. "Really?" she asks, but truthfully if he pays attention there was a moment when she looked amused. She does love puns. Now, though--
With teh monster finished, they... get lost. Of course they do. Lulu sighs, as she looks around, frowning. "And my marks along the walls aren't proving very helpful..."
Speed in travel is not her strongest suit; she hurries as much as she's able, but there's only so well she can contribute to this at the moment. Besides... Yuna speaks up.
Auron barks his answer. Lulu... cannot disagree with the sentiment, even if she can tell it's jarring to Yuna--indeed, she looks at her, calmly, and inclines her head. "We accept your apology. ...But as he says; what's done is done. You did what you thought was best at the time; that's all any of us can do." But Rikku's answer, Yuna's addition. "I..." Wakka blinks, looking at Yuna, as she brings up something important. "Huh. Yeah," he says. "I don't recognize any of this, but I just thought... That I didn't know it... That Goddess? Here?"
He doesn't like it much. Lulu considers, too. "That makes me wonder," she says. "If they knew of it... how long ago it was here. I know that those on the other side..." She thinks.
"We need to see more information; if we could see more of it, we might see some clues as to what changed. If this Goddess really has manifest repeatedly, though--why had we never heard of her, if she was followed here? I don't have an answer."
"Because she's--because she's made up! LIke--...Like..."
Wakka's tired, and his shoulders hang. "ARMS, machina, LEGS, they're all..."
"It's just--" Wakka, as he looks around--as he tries to draw up his sense of direction--continues, "...All my life," he says. "I've followed the path of Yevon. And now--now, I'm a traitor?" he asks seemingly the world, or perhaps Yevon directly. "I don't know how this could happen!"
Lulu presses her lips--and glances away.
DG: Lulu has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Make Haste Slowly *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Right down this hallway, up the next, twist around towards this next room
and...
Ah. Back where you started.
The Shrine of the Water Trial, for all its advanced and mystical origin, is
quite the excruciating building to navigate. Perhaps it is the watery
reflections that confound the senses. Perhaps the way the passages twist and
turn and lead to one another, bereft of landmarks.
You'd best act fast with your backtracking, while the temple's corridors are
fresh in your mind. This is not just a physical trial, but one of mental
acuity too.
Make haste slowly.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
===============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 4 *>================ ========================< Results - Make Haste Slowly >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Kilika Fishing Net 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 5 --(0)--> 5 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Climbing Rope 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Signed Blitzball 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Yuna has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Tidus has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Your Very Own Tales of Skit *>==================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Your party arrives at an antechamber anchored by a mystical point of power.
It provides protection from nearby wandering Fiends. It is also mysteriously
designed for camping equipment like Tents to be pitched and set up with
ease, just as the light-warriors of old once did.
...
So much has happened.
Odessa. The last-minute miracle of the Guts-Dozer. Lombardia. Sin. Maester
Seymour. Jyscal's sphere. And his once-assistant, Krelian.
...
There is time.
Time for you all to mentally digest everything that has happened.
Time for you to start to pick yourselves up and rebuild what has been
broken.
Time to you to affirm what you must take back. What you can't lose again.
There is time now. Take it.
Because you are all /worth/ this time.
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku has decided to mostly stay hands off on the intersection of Filgaia, ARMs, and Yevon's teachings. She's never been to Filgaia, so she's certain she'd flub things up if she tried to speak like an expert on the place. All she knows is from many accounts - that there's no Sin. She has heard the problems Machina has caused but... so mostly she allows Leon to talk about his world.
All she does is pipe in at Lulu's comment about 'Machina weapons' "Right. Like Odessa. With their Gears."
Fortunately they're setting a good pace back. Between Leon grabbing them a ledge for a shortcut that skips past most of the eyebeam hell. Yuna marking the way they've gone through her impromptu fishing net map that prevents them from going in circles. And Tidus offering some expert intuition which keeps them from taking a wrong turn at a critical juncture(Seriously. If they'd turned there they would have been right back at the start. Way to go Tidus.)
"Sure doesn't. I've been on a lot of salvage runs but never in like a place like this." Rikku says to Leon, before turning to Tidus' comment on who built the place, "I'm not sure but they really liked their eyes." She even shivers a little, "Creepy Creepy eyes."
However, just as they get on the right course. Wakka says something that... well... Rikku sympathizes with.
And so she peps up in her step to get along next to him before she eventually stands on her tip toes and puts a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, "Hey Wakka. This may not mean much coming from an Al Bhed, but... I think you did try your best to follow Yevon's teachings. Noone can say you didn't. And I sure don't think you're a traitor to Yevon. You defended Yunie - your Summoner right? Maybe it was against a Maester - but you still did what a Guardian is supposed to do."
Her smile is perhaps a little subdued as she removes her hand, perhaps still tentatively worried the gesture of solidarity won't be accepted. "I'll fight anyone who says you're a traitor for doing that. And well... you know me. I get really scary when I'm mad."
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
The armsARMsguns joke doesn't get a hint of a laugh from Leon. Yuna doesn't even notice it. Even Lulu looks at him like she thought it was lame (even if in truth she doesn't). Tidus slumps. "Right..."
Looking back, I figure at least Lulu must've thought it was funny. But at the time, I wasn't exactly about to linger on an embarrassing moment.
Then he shakes his head, focusing in on Yuna as she apologizes. Auron might not have a trace of a soft touch in him, but Tidus waves it off. "Hey, it's okay. You were just trying to protect us, right?" he tells her. "But, Yuna, that's what *we're* here to do for *you*. You don't have to be so nervous!" He offers one of his brightest smiles to her. "If you feel bad about it, just make sure you keep us in the loop in the future. No big deal!"
Onwards to getting totally lost. Fortunately, they manage to work their way through eventually... but during all that walking, it comes up that this temple looks a lot like what Althenan temples apparently look like. "Huh, really?" Tidus wonders, looking up and around at the architecture. Not like I'd know either way...
But Wakka takes it a lot worse, all this religious talk. Tidus grimaces. Now that he's not blaming the Al Bhed and specifically Rikku for everything, he's a lot more sympathetic. "I'm sorry, Wakka. This really sucks, huh? But you know, we didn't do anything wrong! Seymour's goons attacked *us*, remember? He outright said he was gonna kill us all!" He nods to Rikku as the group walks out into a large, airy, domed room, with plenty of echo and a good number of benches for folks to relax on, and, thank whoever, NO EYEBALLS. *Here's* a place where they can actually sit down and *have* this conversation. Unwind, destress, actually think things through properly. They've been through a lot. Heck, *he's* been through a lot. It might not be enough time to tell the entire story, but... maybe they can have a brief look back.
So, Tidus heaves himself onto one of the benches and sprawls out on it. Heck, with the acoustics in this room, he doesn't even *need* a megaphone to be heard. "It's just like Rikku said; we were just doing our job as Guardians. We just gotta explain that to the people in charge, and everything'll turn out all right!" He looks out to the entire group, spreading an earnest look to everyone. "It shouldn't be hard. *Everyone* saw that sphere! There's no way they could cover that up--right?"
To be honest, even I didn't entirely believe what I was saying. Witnesses or no witnesses, without that sphere, it was our word against the Guado's. I knew just how much weight big popular secret-jerks carried. But Wakka was just so... shaken. I had to say *something*.
DG: Tidus has used his Tool Megaphone toward his party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
"...Yes. Like those," Lulu answers Rikku. It troubles her--she knows that the weapons must have been even more powerful, to destroy all of Spira, potentially... But a weapon more powerful than the Golems that assaulted Luca? Than the Gears like them that Odessa deployed?
"...Not bad," Lulu murmurs about Tidus, as he says something supportive, helpful, there. She has to appreciate that in the moment--especially in this moment. But now, as they're talking...
She considers Rikku's perspective. Creepy eyes is right. What could it signify? "Something to do with vision, watching? I can only speculate."
However--Rikku says something else, too. Wakka ends up next to her, and he blinks at her hand on his shoulder--but doesn't immediately shrink away, or flinch. Instead he looks at her--and his eyes widen in surprise. "H-huh?" He asks, "You..."
Lulu lets it sit a moment, lets Tidus answer first. But she cannot hold her counsel here to herself. It's too important... too personal.
"Well..." Wakka looks between the two. "I swore an oath as a Guardian, too, but..."
Lulu, too, walks up to Wakka, at the other side from Rikku. "They have a point," she suggests. "Even if... he may not entirely understand the context, yet." She pauses, and nods to Tidus and Rikku both.
"Yes, we have sinned," Lulu says, blunt. "We have done something wrong. ...However," she says, "They were also the only thing we could do, in the moment. Protecting our Summoner comes above all else. ...We must find a way to atone. But there was nothing else we could do. If there was any other option--don't you think Yuna would have taken it?"
Lulu knows full well what Yuna did, at the end there--with Shiva's power.
"Well..." Wakka thinks, and looks, and finally his eyes settle from Tidus to Lulu to Yuna... to Rikku. "...Why you being so nice about Yevon?" Wakka asks, but without venom this time. "Just about everything you do is against the teachings, but here you are telling me I haven't left the path." A smarter man might assume Rikku is trying to manipulate him, but Wakka isn't that man, for better or worse.
"...Eh. ...Yeah. We can't change what we done, ya...? But... we protected Yuna. I'm not happy about it! About the Maester. ...Even if I never liked him, he was still a Maester of Yevon, ya?"
"But I guess... I can't run from that, either, ya?" Wakka sets her jaw--and looks to Rikku. "I don't understand all of this, but... Ya, you protected her too."
Wakka shakes his head, and sighs, taking a seat. "Yuna?" he asks. "...Did you know?" he has to wonder. "About... Rikku."
It's not all solved. His feelings are not sorted. But he at least uses Rikku's name.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Several times," Leon answers Lulu. "The history of Filgaia has been lost after about five hundred years -- and vast stretches of it are a blasted desert. It's a dying world."
He hesitates, though, then clarifies: "But it's not ARMs. It's people. People make the world the way it is -- and if you take away their guns, they'll use another power to do it, I think."
Then, he looks back at Wakka. He considers, for a second, and then offers some sage advice:
"Well, if you're a traitor, you might as well enjoy it," he says with a smile. He seems to think that could be actually reassuring. Somehow.
He nods, once, at Rikku. Creepy eyes indeed. He keeps walking -- follows Tidus in -- and then he takes a seat. He leans back on the bench, sprawling out one arm and looking something like he never, really, has in front of Yuna and her Guardians: relaxed.
He looks at Tidus, though, and his expression becomes drawn. He glances down.
He listens to the exchange between Wakka and Rikku. He begins to suspect that there was more to the fight with the Maester than they said. His brow furrows, for a moment.
"...You did what you had to. People like that--people in power--will use you. You're not in an enviable position, but you're not beholden to them, if they think you're a traitor," Leon says. He looks back at them, in turn.
"Speaking as one traitor to another, I'd rather have the freedom to do what I feel I need to, than worry about what people who don't truly care about me think," he concludes.
DG: Leon Albus has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Wakka's uncertainty -- and Lulu's, though quieter -- is shared by Yuna, the third believer. Her belief in Yevon is so very much ingrained in her that it's almost easy to forget about, in terms of BELIEF. Yevon is prayers and gestures and dutiful bows -- but Yevon is the pilgrimage -- Yevon is who she is, profoundly. She's so pale, has been so pale ever since the confrontation at the Temple.
But Rikku, then Tidus, then Lulu, then Leon, each of them provide answers, provide support, in their own ways. Even Wakka finds a little bit of certainty. And Yuna finds it too... through them.
She takes a hard sit next to Tidus' feet, plumping down. Her hand rests lightly on the bench's surface, a bare inch from the Star Player of the Zanarkand Abes, though she doesn't quite touch him. There's no hesitation there -- it simply isn't something she dares to THINK to do.
But being near to him is... nice.
"We must go to Bevelle," she says, mostly to Lulu and Wakka. "We must speak with Maester Mika and explain what has happened. There is no other way, I think. But... it's okay that that's the only way. Because you're right -- you're all right." She glances around the room. "We -- I -- did what was necessary. You upheld your oaths, and... I couldn't complete the pilgrimage if I was dead, or locked up. What happened was a tragedy." She really believes it. "We must atone for our part in it. But that doesn't mean we're traitors to Yevon, even if we've become traitors to the Guado. We have defended ourselves once, in battle. We can do so again, before the High Court."
Presumably she does not mean in battle.
"But... I only have the strength to go on, because of all of you. Everything that happened in that room... I would do it again, if I had to. I could never stand by and let you all be hurt. My Guardians are my family..."
She stands up, crossing the chamber to take both of Rikku's hands in hers. She's looking at Wakka, however, as she does so.
"And Rikku is my family. Wakka... Rikku's father is my mother's brother."
Her smile is so warm and gentle.
"Rikku is my cousin. I, too, am Al Bhed. When I was little, it was very hard to be Al Bhed in Bevelle... and so easy to just, pass, in Besaid. But... you deserve to know, Wakka. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."
She turns, then, to look straight at Rikku.
"I'm proud that we're family. I'm so, so happy that you decided to join us. It's true what you said before... something did go right, for us to be together like this."
Squeezing her hands, once, she leads them over to Wakka.
"Wakka... you don't have to forgive me right now, for keeping it from you. But please don't blame Rikku or the Al Bhed for anything that's happened. You're my family too, Wakka, Lulu... everyone. Families... have to stick together."
Even though hers didn't. ESPECIALLY because hers didn't. She's shaking a little from the nerves of this moment, but also not, precisely, afraid. She believes in Yevon, and she believes in Wakka, too.
(Auron endures all this sentimentality off in a corner, studying the lines of the floor.)
DG: Yuna has used her Tool Besaid Worry Beads toward her party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit. DG: Lulu has used her Tool Moomba Duo toward her party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku beams an appreciative smile at Tidus as he backs her up yet again. However then Wakka asks her why she's being so nice about Yevon, and suddenly she grows quiet, introspective, "Because... because it's not easy when life turns out different from what you thought. No matter who you are. And no matter what you believe. If things were like they should be - then Maester Seymour would have really been the good guy he was supposed to be."
She inhales through her nostrils. "He just wasn't. And well... it'd be really nice if things didn't happen like they happened back there. But at the same time... I guess I'm glad the world isn't always exactly as Yevon teaches... because..."
She allows herself this light shrug, and smiles, "Because if it were - then I couldn't be here."
Instead of sitting on a bench, Rikku squats down and unfolds a metal sheet with hinges, that begins to take the form of a small box. Rikku then begins to insert a few fluid filled baggies inside.
It's all very innocuous until some sharp observers might notice she puts in a bomb fragment and closes the edge of the box and closes a latch.
"And well... I don't want to leave any of you."
Yuna however, begins to talk, and Rikku ceases what she's doing. Entirely. Taking the moment to stand up. And... perhaps she is the optimist. Perhaps she thinks that Yuna would never be ashamed of her. Who she is.
That doesn't mean Yuna can't surprise her anyway by just coming out to say it.
Her smile is a little shy. "It's true. It's... why I got involved in this... in the first place. I'd wanted to meet Yuna for as long as I can remember. And the moment we did meet... really meet... I...
Rikku seems overwhelmed as Yuna squeezes her hands, and leads her over to Wakka.
"... Yuna was everything I had hoped for in the cousin I'd never met and more. Because she accepted me right away. And then after that... she asked me... to be her Guardian." She adds quietly, "Without even hesitating to. I... never imagined being where I am now Wakka." Perhaps Wakka may see that her eyes are misting up, "But... there's nowhere else I'd rather be than with Yuna - and all of you."
There's suddenly a flare, and the box she'd set down earlier rattles violently, being picked up on it's side. Rikku is standing right there when suddenly she looks pretty chagrined by the noise as she suddenly wipes her arm across her eyes. "Oh! Oh sorry - wow timing-! I just left it..."
Rikku holds up her hands in apology as she heads back over to the box she'd set down and opens the latch and lifts up the side, which releases a goodly amount of smoke and steam as she extracts them.
Pulling them out, she then holds them up by her mitt. Tidus may remember the smell in particular as the meal Rikku fed him the moment he woke up from the forced nap the Al Bhed gave him not long after he came to Spira. "So... anyone want some spicy Cactuar Soup?" She then adds quickly after, "It's not made with real Cactuars. Promise."
DG: Rikku has used her Tool Al Bhed Toolkit toward her party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Your Very Own Tales of Skit *>==================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Your party arrives at an antechamber anchored by a mystical point of power.
It provides protection from nearby wandering Fiends. It is also mysteriously
designed for camping equipment like Tents to be pitched and set up with
ease, just as the light-warriors of old once did.
...
So much has happened.
Odessa. The last-minute miracle of the Guts-Dozer. Lombardia. Sin. Maester
Seymour. Jyscal's sphere. And his once-assistant, Krelian.
...
There is time.
Time for you all to mentally digest everything that has happened.
Time for you to start to pick yourselves up and rebuild what has been
broken.
Time to you to affirm what you must take back. What you can't lose again.
There is time now. Take it.
Because you are all /worth/ this time.
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
===============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 5 *>================ ===================< Results - Your Very Own Tales of Skit >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Besaid Worry Beads 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Moomba Duo 3 Wits Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Megaphone 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Al Bhed Toolkit 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Save Point(1)|Slow(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Yuna has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
The context? Tidus shoots Lulu a look of confusion, but naturally she doesn't explain. Well... actually, it's more natural for her *to* explain, now. He almost asks her what she means by that, but decides against it at the last second. He can always ask later, and right now Wakka needs some support. He does catch that look Leon shoots him, but--once again--lacking context, he has no idea what to make of it.
"Why? 'Cuz... it's important to you, I guess," he tells his friend, meanwhile, after Rikku's had her incredibly insightful and thoughtful and personal say. He gives her a grin back when she smiles at him, too, before continuing, "I don't really get all this Yevon stuff, and it doesn't honestly mean a lot to me, but it does to you, and... you're my friend. And that's all there is to it." He scratches his head. "Too simple?"
Whether the others have more complicated reasons or not, in the end, Wakka works through his feelings for the time being. At the least, he talks to Rikku like a human being, to which Tidus nods and smiles encouragingly. He even comes up with a 'reason' for that weird look Leon gave him. He must be sensitive about all this traitor talk. Sore point and all that. He says some pretty good stuff about it, too. Maybe that's what Wakka needs to hear--someone who's been in his shoes.
Tidus still doesn't get what's up with the kidnapping, though.
But that all flies out of his head when Yuna plops down next to him, if at his feet. She isn't quite close enough to touch, but she's *very* close, and... Yeah. She never loved Seymour at all, huh? She was just trying to get him to do the right thing. Much at it makes him feel like a jerk, Tidus is relieved to know that for sure.
He's tempted to lay his hand over hers. Really, really tempted. But... maybe that'd be taking things too far, make Yuna stress out more instead of less. Yeah. Better not. So, he doesn't interrupt her as she addresses the room and especially Rikku and Wakka, but he does nod along as he watches her. Them! Yeah, them. (Really just her.)
Then Rikku's box starts rattling, and she pops it open to the smell of some familiar soup. "Oh hey!" he declares, perking. "Yeah, come to think of it, I'm starving! Seems like it's been weeks since that buffet!" Not that he had much appetite for it at the time.
Kimahri meanwhile stoically bears up under all this sentimentality next to Auron, though he watches over the room rather than refusing to meet anyone's eye. It's a good time to rest. Good time to eat, too, apparently. And once everyone's eaten (or not) and feels ready to move on... Well, there's a door on the other side of the domed room. That's their way forward.
DG: Lulu has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Asura's Wrath *>=========================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
An enormous Hellion awaits you at the end of Lefay, the Shrine of the Water
Trial.
This is Asura.
Asura, shelled in armour and bearing three pairs of weapons -- paired battle
forks, twinned gear-like warhammers, and matched glimmering greatswords of
water. He wields each of these enormous weapons one-handed, seemingly
unencumbered.
His howl shatters the very chamber you engage him in, and combat soon
follows--
--and after several rounds at it, it's clear his six-armed guard is
impeccable.
You'll need the brilliant in your team to stop his movements.
You'll need the powerful in your team to breach his defence.
You'll need the adroit in your team slip through and deal lasting damage.
You'll need the soothing in your team to tie this plan together long enough
to work.
But that is why you are all here together now.
Past all the horrifying hardships you've survived together.
Overcome this Water Trial together.
Because you all can /do/ this.
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu would be willing to explain to Tidus later--but for now her focus is on Wakka... and Rikku, and of course Yuna. But otherwise--
"I... see," Lulu answers Leon, clearly disturbed by what he has to say. She does not know what that means, theologically. She certainly feels the weight of it practically. And what he says...
"Despite your antipathy," Lulu says, "That's not entirely different from Yevon's teachings. Those with power seek to use it--this is why the use of such machina is forbidden, I think. ...I'm not sure what it means, that you haven't seen Sin..."
But a blasted world is its own punishment, Lulu can imagine. There is too much she doesn't know. This is clear; she is contemplative, rather than much else--until he gives his advice about being a traitor, anyway.
Lulu gives Leon a flat look. She doesn't appear to appreciate the idea all that much. But he's trying to help and she doesn't argue it in the moment. ...Given...
"We can cross that bridge if we come to it," she ends up saying. "I don't believe we have. Seymour was an aberration, among the Maesters; they've guided Spira for a thousand years. Individual men can be flawed, but the Maesters as a whole seek the good of Spira."
Wakka sort of looks at him agog, meanwhile. He's in no way ready for this kind of radical freedom. he just sort of--stares--until Rikku and Tidus start to answer his question to them. "...You really aren't from around here, ya?" he says, and not for the first time. But he looks at Rikku then, and is thoughtful. It's not his usual preference; he doesn't stop and figure things out, as a rule, leaves that to others. But in this case, he has to, some.
"...So, it's 'cause we're friends," Wakka answers, and the word has weight--it feels awkward, in light of these revelations. "Not 'cause of anything about Yevon or agaonst Yevon exactly. Well..."
He's not entirely sure how he likes it yet. Yevon not being centered is alien to his experience. But not listening to Yuna when she talks would be even moreso.
They both look to Yuna again. ...They both also notice her proximity to Tidus, naturally. Lulu is the first to speak. "Yes," Lulu agrees. "That's the only way. It's what we have to do." Wakka, too, seems to weigh it before, "If we go and confess our crime... Then yeah, I can live with that. Explaining what we had to do. I wish it wasn't so complicated..."
Hopefully not in battle.
But--what Yuna says. Lulu watches--and finally, that truth comes out. Wakka at this point is surprised--he expected that Yuna had known, when he asked, but this? "You... You're...?" He blinks, and looks to Lulu--and the knowledge is clear in her eyes. To Rikku, to Tidus. "Am I the only one who..."
In Bevelle. "Lu, you?" he asks, and Lulu nods. She says nothing; she doesn't need to. Wakka, instead, works his jaw, and--
"...I dunno," he says. "It seems like--such a big thing to keep secret, but... But how am I gonna hate you, Yuna?"
Lulu looks immediately relieved--as Wakka continues, "I dunno how I feel." He has to say it again. "I definitely dunno about being family with lots of Al Bhed. ...But two... Two who are tryin' to fight Sin with us..."
"Yeah, I can do two. Can I... Can I have a little time, to think? When we get outta here? I feel like so much has happened that my brain is boom! Big pop! ...Heheh..." He sounds tired.
"But right now, we got a place to be, ya? ...I'll go with you. Yeah, you too, Rikku."
Wakka can't really deny even weird Al Bhed food right now; Lulu is a little more skeptical, frankly. But after they eat--most of them... Lulu stands. "It's time," she says, and looks to the stairway up, out of this place.
...And there--there is the next chamber, as they reach it. There, with a flash of dark power, of Malevolence that they could never have known, appears the great giant Asura, the Hellion guarding this place. And his guard--his guard is impenetrable.
They will have to fight as hard as they can. No matter how tired, no matter how difficult. Guardians, Summoner, and Wolf alike.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
'Rikku's father is my mother's brother.'
Leon's eyes widen a little when Yuna says that. He keeps quiet at first -- though, there is another lift of his eyebrows. He glances at Rikku. "That explains a few things, about why he hired the Wolves. I've not met your father, but we've corresponded and spoken through intermediaries."
He glances down at the ground. Did it really? Or was Cid not that different than the Kaiser, Shakhan, and the others? His silver eyes stay on the ground.
He keeps quiet, with a glance at Lulu. "It's not your beliefs that will decide whether you're a traitor. It's what Yevon decides."
At the end, he stands up too. He walks a little behind the others -- but when he sees Asura, his eyes narrow. Then, the three Raid Funnels fly forward -- making a barrier between the gigantic Hellion and them. That is joined, shortly, by the report of Leon's gunfire.
"A Hellion," he says. "Hadn't seen many of those over here..."
DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Raid Funnel toward his party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Yuna beams -- and blushes, real color coming back into her cheeks for the first time since it all went down -- at Rikku's words. And Tidus'. 'Friend' from him means a lot to her, even if so much between them goes unsaid. Maybe BECAUSE it goes unsaid, so much of the time.
She sips some soup, but only after Wakka's finished, or at least, started, his processing. He does not escape an enthusiastic, little-sisterly embrace, in the end. And a soft kiss on the cheek. It is, in fact, a group hug with Rikku, because she was already holding onto her cousin when she grabbed Wakka.
"Thank you," she says, simply.
As for Leon, she has mostly been too preoccupied to engage much with his concerns, but she has one response to his last. Glancing over, she adds: "But it's not Yevon's decision that we can control -- only our own actions."
Surely, if they do their best, everything will come to a happy conclusion.
And then: battle.
"What's a Hellion?"
Yuna regrettably does not know the spell NulBlade but she DOES know Protect, and Regen, and Cure, Cure, Cure, Cure, Cure, Cure, Cure, Cure, Cure.
Also -- at a critical moment -- she knows DISPEL.
DG: Yuna has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
"Yeah. And Seymour was really good at faking being nice," Tidus chimes in after Lulu. This is mostly to be supportive, as he, personally, knew Seymour was a creep the second he laid eyes on him. Maybe he's got creepdar or something. Probably something like that'd be way more useful on a girl, especially a girl who has to deal with lots of creeps. Too bad.
Wakka is absolutely mind-blown by the news that Yuna's half-Al Bhed. Tidus shrugs. "You think it makes a difference to me?" he points out when Wakka asks him if he already knew. He didn't really, but it doesn't change anything, so who cares? But Wakka's other response gets him a blink and a frown, though not a severe one. "What, you're only just *now* figuring that out?"
Well, in fairness, he *did* fake having toxin sickness for a while. Still, one of the first things Tidus ever said to Wakka was that he was from Zanarkand. Not in so many words, but you kinda gotta be from Zanarkand if you wanna play for the Zanarkand Abes.
The whole atoning stuff... He's not really sure how he feels about that. But it *is* true they killed Seymour. As much as he never liked the guy, he didn't want him, well, dead. And like he told Wakka... this is important to everyone. They gotta do *something* to make it all work out.
And so onward they go--only to find a great big hulking monster on the other side. "It figures," he grumbles, drawing his sword and falling into a battle stance. The others call it a Hellion, and that means absolutely nothing to him. Yuna asks that question for him, so he charges into battle with a loud kiai yell, swiping fast and staying nimble on his feet, searching for chinks in the great Hellion's armor.
There aren't any at first--but they've got a lot of staying power, between Yuna's cure spells and Tidus's carefully-rationed stash of Hi-Potions that he bought from O'aka when he desperately needed a heal. "Come on guys, let's take this thing down!!"
DG: Tidus has used his Tool O'aka Hi-Potion toward his party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
"Yeah. Because we're friends." Rikku says it outright. And later. "Well... hey. We're the only two you know." Rikku says good naturedly to Wakka, "If you're good with two out of the two Al Bhed you've met - then I'd say we're doing pretty good for ourselves!"
It is perhaps her light joke. She doesn't intend to pressure him further after this. After all... she can give him time. She expects if he can already say things like that... then one day...
Rikku does mouth a thank you to Tidus and Lulu the moment she's done though. She does it on the sly mostly because she doesn't want to rub it in to Wakka how many of his friends are backing her up here.
Rikku finishes her soup first. Apparently the Al Bhed like their food spicy? Or maybe it's just her favorite meal.
"Just a few." Rikku admits to Leon, "And yeah - though I see you've met my Brother. I haven't spoken to my Dad in a while - not since I became Yunie's Guardian. I expect he's... pret-ty mad at me." Before she then holds up a finger, "But he's the kind of guy who'd be even more angry if I just meekly went along with something I didn't agree with."
She's speaking a little obliquely here on what went down - she doesn't want to blow Wakka's mind further for one day. Sure she'll tell him one day that she originally was trying to kidnap Yuna.
One day. He may even sympathize with why she did it.
"I don't know what a Hellion is Yunie." Rikku admits. As she suddenly closes in on the Asura's position.
At one point, it begins slashing furiously at Rikku with it's three pairs of weapons and Rikku finds herself back skipping furiously, and needing a few of Yuna's cures from the few times it comes uncomfortably close to taking pieces off of her...
But when she manages to disengage from the thing and it raises it's weapons again...
Everyone will notice that there's a bag of gil hanging from the guard of one Greatsword, the Pommel of another. Another is balanced on the end of one Warhammer, while another is snagged on the corkscrew top of another. The pair of battle forks each has a bag of gil stabbed through, as something glittery gleams through the hole that has impaled it, gil coins spilling out on the floor.
"Let's find out if it likes gil."
DG: Rikku has used her Tool Bribe Budget toward her party's challenge, Asura's Wrath. DG: Lulu has used her Tool Space Bandit toward her party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Asura's Wrath *>=========================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
An enormous Hellion awaits you at the end of Lefay, the Shrine of the Water
Trial.
This is Asura.
Asura, shelled in armour and bearing three pairs of weapons -- paired battle
forks, twinned gear-like warhammers, and matched glimmering greatswords of
water. He wields each of these enormous weapons one-handed, seemingly
unencumbered.
His howl shatters the very chamber you engage him in, and combat soon
follows--
--and after several rounds at it, it's clear his six-armed guard is
impeccable.
You'll need the brilliant in your team to stop his movements.
You'll need the powerful in your team to breach his defence.
You'll need the adroit in your team slip through and deal lasting damage.
You'll need the soothing in your team to tie this plan together long enough
to work.
But that is why you are all here together now.
Past all the horrifying hardships you've survived together.
Overcome this Water Trial together.
Because you all can /do/ this.
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
===============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 6 *>================ ==========================< Results - Asura's Wrath >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Space Bandit 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Raid Funnel 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass O'aka Hi-Potion 1 Combat Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Bribe Budget 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Suffer(1) Effects: Cleanse|Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Yuna has successfully explored Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial!
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
=============<* CHALLENGE - The Proof of Spiritual Power - Lefay *>=============
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
It is a long and hard-fought battle, but in the end, your team has managed
to overcome Asura.
Dissipating into motes, the Hellion gives you an approving expression, as if
it has been lifted from a great burden. At long last, you can feel, a great
and ancient anger has finally found peace at your hands.
A great, bright blue light erupts from a nearby altar and suffuses the
entire room with a feeling of power -- a feeling not dissimilar from another
trial of spiritual power you may have visited before in your travels, Uzda
il-Jam. It envelops your person for but a brief moment, but you feel your
spiritual presence strengthening further...
Acquired
Proof of Spiritual Power -- Lefay!
When the light subsides, you discover that great stone tablets have taken
their place. Engraved upon them are the secrets of powerful water and ice
magics only known to some of the most powerful mages in Lunar. If you are so
inclined, reach out and absorb the knowledge the ancients in your travels...
or if you do not possess the Gift, reach out with an object or weapon -- and
suffuse it with the power of water!
(OOC: You have discovered the spells of Waterga and Blizzaga! A character
with the Gift of Althena's Black Magic may apply for these in their next
character advancement! Alternately, if you lack the Gift, you can opt for a
water or ice enchantment on your weapon or tool.)
---
A shimmering portal erupts from the ground once you've finished your
business with the tablet. It expands further and further, until it
overwhelms your senses...
And before you know it, the scent of salt and the noise of gentle waves has
replaced the ancient ambience of the Shrine. You and your companions are
standing on a large, rusted aircraft carrier inhabited by varied folk -- the
Thames.
You have arrived in Filgaia!
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Wakka accepts the group hug, if awkwardly, and despite his awkwardness he hugs hard because Wakka only knows two speeds: 'hard' and 'totally halfass' and it's not a moment for halfass.
What Yevon decides; what their actions are. Lulu is quiet, as she often is when she has moer questions than answers. For now, Yuna's answer seems the wisest retort... But she can't entirely discount Leon's words. The careful Guardian does not help the group by charging on heedlessly; she will need to imagine the possibility that they can't be otherwise.
...It's more pleasant to see Yuna's reactions. And even Wakka's. As...
"Ah, ha... hah..." Wakka looks a little green at Rikku's helpful words, but he doesn't argue. Instead he looks to Tidus--"Ah? Nah, I believed you for a while it's just--sometimes it's really obvious, you know? Like now." Of course it wouldn't make a difference to Tidus. But then, Tidus, well. Seems to be doing what Wakka and Lulu kept telling him not to do.
But there--there is the monster. And they must do as they can. "The Otherworlders mentioned some kind of monster by that name," Lulu explains, but she doesn't know much about Hellions in the least. "Your insight would be useful," she says to Leon, as she raises her hand and a burst of fire explodes near the creature.
The Raid Funnels almost add another person to their party. That barrier is instrumental in allowing some of the others to get off their necessary abilities, and Leon's gunfire is powerful. Similarly, Tidus's assistance to Yuna ensures that the healing they need is covered--such that when the weak points open, he can take full advantage of them. Wakka's focus, meanwhile, is primarily on denial--denying it the chance to fight at full power, denying it the chance to hit all of them.
Rikku's bribery does not make it leave. However, the experience she gets setting things on it makes it all the easier to follow up with different payloads completely.
There, at the critical moment--Yuna dispels the protections that it just laid onto itself as well as its offensive enhancement. This leaves the opening for their attackers--for a powerful set of strikes from Tidus, a flurry of projectiles from Wakka, a slam of well-placed spells from Lulu--and Leon and Rikku's approach works in tandem, alchemy and ARMs crashing forward.
Finally, Asura wavers--and with a look of approval, begins to fade. As the motes of light subside, a spiritual power wells up in blue light...
The anger abates, and it feels like it takes with it some of the lingering darkness of such tragic events, a catharsis that they could not have expected, that would not have been possible had they made this trek in silence.
...And the light shines about Lulu in particular as well. As the dust too clears, the black mage stands before two stone tablets, the very doll she used as focus, the tiny alien, still under her arm. Her eyes widen. "This feeling... I can sense the power here so clearly. I understand--the boundary between water and ice..."
Lulu has gained a new level of magical power! Learned Blizzaga and Waterga!
There is time for all of them to consider this place again. But not to rest--it is not long before a portal erupts from the ground...
And their journey begins anew.