2021-07-01: To Be Someone's Big Sister
- Log: To Be Someone's Big Sister
- Cast: Gon Guado (via his NPC children), Pearl
- Where: Mount Gagazet
- Date: July 01, 2021
- Summary: The very caves within Mount Gagazet, outside of the cold, provide a handful of their own trials. Trials that two young Guado can - and need - to assist with, but the emotional toll is ratcheting up with every passing minute. Pearl, an assassin now exploring the reaches of her heart, finds herself in a position once thought beyond her - as one who can give comfort. (This scene ICly takes place shortly after members of the Guard first climb through Mount Gagazet.)
==============================<* Mount Gagazet *>=============================== This snow-covered series of peaks is the northernmost location on Spira... save one, whose name is not to be mentioned. It represents the last settled land on a Summoner's Pilgrimage... and, for many Summoners, its end as well. Mount Gagazet has been christened as a holy place by Yevon, and as a holy land it has guardians in the form of the Ronso - fierce fur-clas Beastmen with powerful bodies and a single, spikelike horn atop their head. Ronso are known for three things - their raw power; a deep, abiding faith in Yevon's teachings; and strange techniques which allow them to copy the fiends' way of fighting. They also like Blitzball. Because who doesn't. BGM: Final Fantasy X - Servants of the Mountain <Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
SOME TMIE IN THE NEBULOUSLY DEFINED NEAR FUTURE
Mount Gagazet was a punishing and dangerous climb for all parties involved, and among those in pursuit of stopping Seymour and/or sympathetic parties... two of the very youngest to ever successfully make the journey through the mountainous slopes of Mount Gagazet. Two young Guado women whom decided they were not on board with their people abandoning Spira in a time of need for the life of its people... who find themselves pushed further than any their age should.
There are still a series of flooded caverns to traverse before one reaches Zanarkand, and all involved have had to make camp and rest up as best as they all can before continuing. The cold took much out of everyone, and the shelter the cave provides only goes as far as 'you will not freeze to death in here.'
There are still yet some challenges ahead of them, and the two young Guado still have their talents to help ease a number of them.
Timu, the older one and a young teenager, surfaces back up from the water after having had to not only get to a remote area, but also strike it down with a well-placed Blitzball shot. She comes just in time to see her younger sister, Pani, down to a kneel in fatigue and stress from having re-shaped pyrefly clusters into weak Fiends as to prevent them from forming into much stronger, more dangerous ones (that she'd nonetheless have to rely on others to fight).
More than ever, the two of them turn to one another for emotional support when emotions run too high, the trademark stoicism of the Guado people peeling away under duress - for all the cold-blooded murder of the Al Bhed and Ronso people their Guado Guardian soldiers performed, it may seem odd to look upon any sort of vulnerability or affection being shown or given between them.
Spira and its people are on the cusp of a great change - they're living a part of it now.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
In this mess of camps and exhausted climbers, one finds herself needing space. Quiet. This meant separating from her Guardian further, which is bad form for Summoner 101, but she could deal with that. And so Spira's first Meribian Summoner ducks into the caves, away from most of the crowds. Probably due to the stronger fiends.
She does not expect to find two young Guado as deep in as she does. Even Pearl can see the foolhardiness of pushing forward alone. The silver haired young woman walks slowly toward the camp, waiting until it's safe to talk.
"Are you alright?" She asks, announcing her presence. Showing concern, that was also a new one for her. Jean would say it's a good thing, and she's probably right. But a part of her is screaming not to risk herself, not to show herself. Too late for that.
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
Pearl fights against her instincts in reaching out and showing concern. The two young women are Guado, unambiguously. The large clawed hands, the veiny faces... and the dark blue-haired one who is standing over the kneeling, softly crying one cranes her neck up with a gaze that looks all but identical to the one often worn by another one the Meribian Summer had the displeasure to know.
Pani - dressed in robes, possessing a sorceress' staff a bit too large for her, and with striking green hair - just buries her face into her sister's shoulder from the stress. She's not in the place to speak to others for the moment.
"We're," Timu seems at a loss as to how to say 'we're okay but we're also not,' as she is once again thrust in the position of having to be a lot more grown up emotionally than she should ever need to be at her age, settling at the following words, "tired and..."
"I'm scared," comes Pani's muffled voice, interrupting her older sister.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl looks over the two. That gaze does seem familiar. She had it levelled at her a lot of times. Even when he was approving. But she doesn't speak up yet. That can wait. She walks closer, cautious in her own steps. She doesn't want to startle them. She doesn't want to get attacked.
She's seen children in worse states then this. *I've put children in worse states than this.* But that doesn't diminish the threat. Or their need. "...My name is Pearl. I'm a Summoner." That will either calm them down or startle them, but it might help.
"...Have you eaten? Are you warm enough?" She asks. There's definitely not enough wood in here to start a fire, and her magic... definitely won't help in here. Her heavy cloak is doing much of the warming for her, and the two are hardy enough to have made it up Gagazet but...
But mimicking the kindnesses Ivan and Boudicca showed her is a start.
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
Pearl introducs herself as a Summoner. Pani looks from her sister over to her with interest.
"I'm Timu. This is Pani."
Pearl may have heard these names in passing if she were in Guadosalam at any point - a certain someone had family there. But that person is not important right now. There are two young women pushing their limits.
"We... we didn't come alone," Timu explains, "some kind Otherworlders helped us come here. We ate recently."
"...Are your Guardians all right?" Pani asks, as if this worried her even more. Mount Gagazet has a reputation for being the end point of a Pilgrimage in all senses of the word.
"I'm capable of praying for warmth," Timu says. Pearl knows by now that this means she has the Blessing of Althena in the form of the healing, curative aspects of Fire. This is an excellent affinity to have. "Thank you."
Almost no Guado have ever really shown gratitude or humility before Pearl's presence.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
"Greetings to you both, Timu, Pani." She gives the prayer of Yevon perfectly, and bows. "I see, I am glad then." She nods to the two. "If you are tired, this might be a good opportunity to rest. I can keep watch out for any fiends, and Gagazet is dangerous enough when you are well rested." It's all well and good to push your limits, but not to the point of death. *How lucky of them to have a choice.*
"I see. That is good. But they are unable to push on with you?" She pauses, at Pani's question. "Yes, one of them is scouting ahead. And the other..."
There is a 'poik, poik, poik' noise as something bounces down the cave. "...Seemingly does not want to respect my wishes for a little quiet."
What emerges into view is a small onion like creature, wearing a red cape, bouncing towards Pearl with intent. "Pukyu!" He shouts, perhaps upset with her, before turning to Timu and Pani. "Puuuuuu?"
"Pearl shakes her head. "They're fine." Satisified with this, the onion rocks his head forward with a nod. "...This is my other Guardian, Leo Jr. He is small, but not to be underestimated."
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
The prayer of Yevon is given. Though its name and ways have become increasingly tarnished in the eyes of the Guado before them, it is still deeply ingrained within. Pani frees herself from holding Timu to return the greeting as though this were a behavior drilled into her that she's just not yet old enough to throw off in a fit of rebellion. Timu follows suit just to not look bad, and also... this is a polite woman before them, showing them concern.
Just as the question is asked, a strange creature comes by! Timu's gripping a blitzball (the venn diagram of 'teenage Spirans of high levels of athletic acumen' and 'uses blitzballs as a self-defense weapon' may not be 1:1 but it's way closer to that ratio than any would be comfortable with), but she relaxes as Pani does the expected childlike 'awww.'
"That's your Guardian?" Timu takes a moment. This is how you know she's a Guado, not all of the conceited behavior has been bled out of them yet. It may be a surprise that none of them have commented on Pearl's non-Spiran accent, even.
Something resembling a smile returns to Pani's eyes, but she is younger than anyone should ever be in a situation like this.
Still, a question needs to be answered.
"We've been slowly making our way through the caves," Timu explains. "I play Blitzball, so I can hold my breath in water. There's a lot of passages under water here, so... I've done some swimming."
Pani finds the strength to stand up again after having her fill of cooing over Leo Jr., but she still grips onto that staff for balance. "I can shape pyreflies," she says - a unique talent among some if not all Guado. "I've been stopping them from becoming bigger Fiends by making small ones."
Timu looks down, as if a bit more dejected as she holds her Blitzball close, as it's the one source of normalcy and familiarity in life currently left for her beyond her sister. "...It feels like we should have done more before our people abandoned the rest of Spira."
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Leo Jr. is happy to be cooed over, and nuzzles into Pani's hands. If he can bring a little joy to someone in pain, or tired, or trouble. Sure, he has a mean headbutt, but his main trade is comfort. Pearl has a dry expression on her face when she turns to to Timu. "I am as surprised as you are. But he insisted, and I am in no position to be picky, sadly. I fear there are few who would aid a summoner such as I."
She doesn't begrudge Timu her conceitedness. Not right now. "Understandable. I'll keep that in mind as we push forward." Pearl could easily fake a Spiran accent, but she doesn't. Not anymore. She's trying to keep moving away from who she was, and pretended to be. "...Noble, but I can see why it's wearing you out." Pearl moves to a wall not far from the girls. "Please, sit. It's better than standing when you're exhausted." She looks particularly at Pani.
"...I don't feel I have place to speak on what the Guado have done. But I disagree with it. And many of the choices made in this war." *My choices, to make things worse.* Pearl sighs, and Leo Jr bounces over to her, and she ruffles his fronds. "You seem to disagree with it yourself. But you are not summoners, anbd you're putting yourselves in great danger by pressing forward. Why are you making for Zanarkand?"
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
Pani cannot resist the cute, for it has lifted her spirits even though it is an unnatural abomination of science filled with love and courage, and high amounts of marketability - and for the time being, she takes her time out meeting Leo Jr. and just taking in the pleasant event for what it is. It's the closest thing to warmth she's had (outside of the times the two sisters share moments together.)
Timu takes that invitation to sit when Pani does, who is now taking point as the face of speaking for the both of them as Pearl speaks her feelings about what the Guado have done. (Around this point, Leo Jr. is allowed to escape back to Pearl.)
"...We have to stop someone," Timu answers as she lowers the Blitzball down to the ground to free her hands, not quite looking Pearl in the eyes as she says it.
"I want to be a Summoner one day," Pani speaks up, and this is darkly funny and horrifying considering she has already technically crested one of the very final parts of the Pilgrimage just coming here. Given what being a Summoner asks of them. "Timu is already my Guardian!"
Timu works up a little tired smirk. She is way too young for a face like that. "Someone who left the rest of Spira to burn, and for what..." She doesn't yet say who it is.
Pani doesn't want to say who it is, as she starts looking downcast, as if the horror of the situation were dawning upon her now that it's so real, tangible, and almost there.
"Someone we know is still alive, and made it up the mountain," Timu says, pausing until she has no choice but to just let it out there.
"One of the greatest warriors of our people, master of prayers with chilling calm and radiating warmth." The words sound like praise, but the words grow ever more resigned, until there's no other way to say it.
"Our father... his name's Gon."
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl listens to their mission and goals. "I can sympathise with a goal like that." It was hers, after all. For a long time. But it might be a different kind of stop. When Pani speaks up, Pearl pauses. "...I see." She's not sure if she wants her to have the potential or not. Someone so young, throwing her life away. *Like I'm doing.*
A part of her roars in rebellion to that. There's a reason. There's a purpose. She closes her eyes and nods. "It's a hard road, but you are walking some of the hardest of it. It's good you have someone with you already." What they've done is worthy of respect. And utterly foolhardy.
When Pani starts looking downcast, Leo Jr looks up at Pearl, and she nods, and he bounces over to her again., looking up at her with a soft 'fuuu'. She has her suspicions, now. And the more she speaks, the way she recites those resigned words. And then she speaks the name, and Pearl smiles a weak smile.
"Fate is whimsical, I see. Running into the daughters of a man who once pledged to be my Guardian."
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
Pani's mood improves steadily over the sound of Dramatic Name Dropping, being in the presence of Leo Jr., and if Pearl's not careful they're going to become Pani's Guardian.
Pearl's weak smile is even louder than the sound of Dramatic NAme Dropping, and Timu turns to meet Pearl's gaze at mention about it. "He did used to talk about how he never met a more driven apprentice Summoner, when he came to Guadosalam." Timu says, as if wondering if maybe this woman before them could be her. (If Gon said the name, it'd be a much different one. As Timu is not calling that detail out, Gon might have never named her.)
"...Are you here for him, too?" Pani looks up from Leo Jr., as if worried by this even though it's inevitable anyone and everyone passing through here must eventually catch up to him and find him, if he hasn't already gone into Zanarkand himself.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
"Mmm. He said as much to my face, would you believe?" Based on her impression, praise from Gon was rare. "He oversaw much of my early training. Practicing sendings, the prayers, the theory. Though he may have liked the reasoning I gave him too much." Pearl's smile falters a bit. "I doubt he would have been so keen on me had he known I was an otherworlder. He has made his opionion known."
Pearl sees no need to lie to these girls, to hide the truth from them. They are walking a hard road. "I'm afraid there's nothing so kind, Pani. I came here to complete my pilgrimage, risky as it is. I have to." She pauses. "...But I have seen your father. I faced him at the bottom of Mount Gagazet, to try and drive them back before... everything else happened." *The massacre. Tell them the truth.*
She takes a long breath. "...At the time, he believed you were both dead. He may still." It's harsh news, if they don't know. "Perhaps knowing you're alive could drive some much needed sense into him."
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
Pani flinches a bit about the Otherworlder comment, as if she were in earshot for some of his harsher feelings on the matter. Spira hasn't dealt with change or novelty all that well, especially when it led into the disaster that was Operation Mi'ihen and the schism that turned into the beating drums of war - and she looks a bit more downcast as Pearl says she's here to complete her pilgrimage.
Then, the mention that they've seen their father. 'When,' it's on their eyes (but especially Timu's). Did they miss him along the way? Was he already dead? (Pani is looking especially distraught.)
She says where, and when, and some tension leaves Timu (but not Pani), until mention about the thought that he believed they were both dead.
That scowl on Timu's face... she is without question Gon's daughter, she inherited that look a full hundred percent.
She doesn't direct a firm, disapproving glare at Pearl or anything of that sort. No, she's looking more towards the waters a ways away, like she might be thinking to look at herself and her reflection.
"We didn't find father among the dead," that Pani is saying this should be /horrifying/ for her age, meaning they already know the massacre happened and that they had to muster up the courage to look at their own fallen people in the hopes and/or despair that their father might be among them. (That said, Spira is a land of death.)
Timu, being older enough to grasp the ramifications of her actions, has the harrowing thoughts about what might have been wrought because she and Pani left Guadosalam as their people all withdrew from Bevelle.
And then, it is Timu's turn to start being a crying wreck, after Pani has had so many goes at it.
"...Timu?" Pani disengages from Leo Jr., as if the idea that her older sister finally just completely breaking down might be the most disheartening thing to see yet, as one of the very last vestiges of emotional support she has.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl watches that flinch and looks away to give her a second to hide the scowl. There's something about showing so much rage in front of a child that she's scared at the mention... That makes Pearl angry, rather than making her think of Pani as week. How quickly things change. Or was it quick at all? But... Pani diving among the dead doesn't seem to disquiet Pearl. "...I suspect he was clear of that." Wherever the 'false Aeon' had sent him. "And I do not think he would die from that." She is couching her words, but...
And then Timu starts crying and Pearl is suddenly the worst person to have here. The worst to speak. How is a monster like here to comfort a crying girl? As Pani looks up to her sister, already on her own breaking point, she stares. What would Jean do? Probably walk in with a hug. That's... that's utterly beyond Pearl. She can't do that. That sort of touch.
And then Leo Jr looks at her with A Look from his tiny eyes.
Pearl stands up, and walks over to Timu before crouching in front of her. She offers a hand. She can... manage that much, right? But she's decent at reading people, and smart enough to put some dots together. "...This isn't your doing. Your fathers decision, what has transpired, these are not your fault." Is this helping, hurting? She's not sure. She hopes it's the former.
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
It's sort of funny to look at it. Even among the open-minded Drifter circles, where so many different people of shapes, sizes, and creeds come drift along together, there's something about extending a (comparatively) tiny hand - calloused by years of harsh, strict, severe times rather than the softness of compassioned - reaching out to a proportionally large, clawed hand as like that of a beast.
Pani approaches from the side, something that might trigger something unpleasant to Pearl's reflexes about what it means when someone, anyone, is coming at an angle that close and that quickly as the younger sister comes to try and wrap herself around Timu.
That extended hand is taken, allowing Pearl the visage of that same mournful, anger-filled face that Gon himself held at the base of Mount Gagazet - but it is not directed at her.
"What's going to become of us?!" Timu asks. "Everyone at Bevelle looked at us like we might just throw them away at any time... and the Ronso. The Ronso, they..."
"And the Al Bhed, too," Pani speaks up. They shouldn't dismiss that first one by the Guado. No one should.
The weight of inevitability is on them - as is what will come after, and that's something neither of them are ready to take hold of.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
It's a struggle for Pearl to extend a hand under any circumstances. But it will only get easier if she tries. The large hand of the Guado, compared to the her scarred, damaged hands. Her eyes twitch to Pani, and a part of her wants to lash out. But she won't. She's done beating up small children on reflex.
"...I can't speak to that." She says, quietly. "I can't see the future. But you are staring the Guado's sins in the face, while the others shy away." *Like I shy away from my own.* Pearl takes a moment, then another. What the hell do you say, to children who are going to be blamed for the sins of their fathers.
Their stupid, arrogant, hateful father. Gon Guado is not the worst man Pearl has ever known, not by a long shot. But he is not a good man.
"I can only think that you will have to fight. Not against outside enemies, but against the Guado's reputation that they have allowed themselves to bear. You shouldn't have to, but the acts of hateful beings have robbed you of that chance." Who was she to give a lecture like this? This was a joke, surely. "But as long as you are prepared to do something, to take back your fate, there's a chance. There's hope. It can seem cruel sometimes..." *Especially when it's taken away.* "If there's hope, there's a reason to keep going."
Pearl stands there, as long as Timu needs to, hiding her discomfort the way only a true liar can. "You intend to confront your father. If you wish support, I would provide it. Sir Gon has chosen a path of destruction, but I would not see you beholden to it."
<Pose Tracker> Timu Guado and Pani Guado have posed.
It's difficult and it's not fair, as so many things are - Spira is a land that takes away so much at whim, whether by roving Fiends of lingering envy and sorrow, or by the likes of Sin bearing down and making everything a right mess and then some. The Guado have long been insulated from much of the sadness, as evidenced by their collective conversion to Yevon being so recent. They've lived in cultural and economic decadence with their positioning around the entrance to the Farplane itself - and now, even that has been challenged.
The two of them challenged it willingly just by being here to start, and for the extent of Pearl's explanations, they have a captive audience of those who have started to take a chance to define their own fates and futures - but even the best outcome, as of now, looks so very, very bleak.
The blood of the Guado will be called for by those wronged.
'You intend to confront your father.' There is no clearer truth to be spoken, as Timu makes the most of Pearl's patience as she sheds long-held, long-repressed tears since leaving Guadosalam behind. Since seeing Bevelle in the throes of it being burned and its aftermath. Since learning and seeing that the Ronso people suffered a massacre that put a serious dent in their numbers.
"Timu," Pani whispers softly, trying to tug at her sleeve. "I don't want to go back."
"...We can't," Timu says, downcast. "We can't go back. There is no 'back.'" The only way from here is forward. Crossing Mount Gagazet - even getting to its base - was a point of no return for their journey to this end.
"...Father is one of the greatest users of prayer to walk the land of Spira," Timu says, as if unaware that his time in front of the Otherworlders has been little more than a string of embarrassments at his expense, "and fewer yet know how to shape pyreflies like himself..."
"Father wouldn't hurt us, would he?" Pani asks, innocently unaware of what the 'father' figure of Pearl's life was like. What sort of man it paints someone like Gon, if for all of his own callousness, selfishness, and cruelty, he never directed that at his own flesh and blood.
Timu can't answer that, but she can look up to Pearl with some new resolve, though her face has been reddened by tears.
"Please," it is so unlike a Guado to outright beg. "Please help us stop him... him, and Maester Seymour."
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl is quiet, letting the sisters speak to each other. They need this time to speak. But there's a short smirk, which she quickly hides. The girls have been through enough. It's not fair to disillusion them when they are already stressed and panicked and through a lot.
"...I don't think he would." Her opinion of Gon is not that low. Even if it's pretty low. "But if it comes to a fight, focus on protecting yourselves." *If he caused you to come to harm, it might be a line he can never uncross.* She doesn't speak it, though. "...This isn't insulting your skills. You've made it this far. Just a warning to be careful."
And then Timu asks for herself and Pearl is visibly surprised. Someone asking her for help, earnestly, it's strange. But not unwelcome.
Pearl gives a nod. "Very well. I will help you as much as I can. And I had intended to face Maester Seymour if he came into my path. And I will do what I can to keep you safe."
*You keep making promises like that, girl, you're going to break them.*
Pearl tried not to let this show on her face.