2021-07-10: Before Zanarkand
- Log: Before Zanarkand
- Cast: Citan Uzuki, Fei Fong Wong, Lily Keil, Ethius Hesiod
- Where: Mount Gagazet
- Date: July 10, 2021
- Summary: The Black Wolves have made camp before pressing on to Zanarkand proper. Ethius arrives, with word from the Caravan Kinship.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Gagazet had not been an easy climb. Between the weather conditions and the various obstacles they had all faced on the journey up (and down) the mountainside...
That, and prudence, had suggested it would be best for the Black Wolves, once reunited, to make camp before setting forth for the ruins of Zanarkand. Perhaps they might even be so lucky as to make contact with Yuna and the rest before they also press on towards the end of her pilgrimage, though it was far more likely that the Summoner and her group were ahead of them.
Haste makes waste, though, as it is said, and the mountain had been far from kind.
There's a campfire here, outside the caves that provide access to Zanarkand. It likely won take very long to enter the ruins proper when the time comes. A few tents have been set up; some of the Wolves are taking advantage of them and getting rest while they still can. Others, such as Elly, are off gathering supplies in the area surrounding them (fishing, in Elly's case).
Citan, himself, sits by the fire, sorting through and organizing his belongings. The situation on the mountainside had led to a rather hasty repacking job, and it would be embarrassing, to say the least, if he was searching for a hammer and couldn't find it.
He's not alone at the campfire. "How are you feeling, Fei?" he asks, breaking what has been until now a long stretch of silence.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Hm--" Fei says as he sits by the campfire. "I'm doing alright, I think." He sounds almost suspicious of the fact that his mood IS alright. "Nervous about what we might find, of course. ... Or not find." He rubs at his neck. "We don't know what Solaris might be up to here but it's the closest thing we've got to a plan right now."
Elly is busy catching no doubt the legendary fish of mount Gagazet. This quest chain will probably eventually result in her ultimate weapon so it's important that Elly hit all the spots while she still can.
"We did find that one ruin that sent us back home but I wonder if we'll learn more about how they got here in the first place." Fei thinks about it before adding, "...There was something about that tower..."
He trails off but then shakes his head. "Well even if there's nothing that'll help us, at least we can help Tidus out." He pauses. "How about you, Doc? Was Shevat okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Yetis aside, the mountain has not been terribly friendly to them, either. But that's fair enough; a sacred site, frequented primarily by those on pilrimage through great danger...
Lily steps back into the camp from where she'd been off gathering some more wood, and brings it over to set it down near but not at the fire. It'll have to be dried before it can be properly used, after all, and Lily can accomplish that much herself. But...
"We might," Lily says of learning. "But I think we'll find something. Looking at the state of the ruins from here..."
Lily stands back up and steps over to the others. "Nothing wrong with being a little nervous."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Multiple Drifter parties have scaled the mountain, and while they all more or less function as a relatively cohesive unit between them, some level of communication between them remains of import going into whatever awaits everyone at Zanarkand. The caves of Mount Gagazet are - on average - a touch less hazardous than the outer environs. Shelter, as it turns out, counts for a lot when a sacred mountain will not relent in terms of spewing snow, ice, wind, and any combination thereof.
The Caravan Kinship folks have been making the rounds in terms of passing out what supplies can be spared, and Ethius has been chosen to go visit where the Black Wolves have been making camp. As he is not being asked to negotiate prices or anything of the sort, this is a decision that stands to be devoid of humorous consequence.
(maybe)
"Am I interrupting?" Comes Ethius' voice as he steps into view from out of one of the cavern paths towards where the Black Wolves have set up just outside of them. "I have come on behalf of the Caravan Kinship," etc, etc, the usual sort of flat speech from Ethius as he hoists the vaguely defined bag of supplies (local status curatives, mostly).
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Citan stops what he's been doing until now, all of his attention now on Fei. Reaching up, he rubs at his chin thoughtfully. "I see... Yes, I suppose it might be possible," he remarks, on Fei's statement. "But, I am glad you are feeling all right. That was quite the climb!" And descent, for that matter.
"...About that tower? What do you mean?" he asks, tilting his head slightly to one side. He's interested to hear Fei's take on this one.
It's here that Lily speaks up.
"Yes, I think so. Even from a distance..."
"Shevat? It was, hmm... good to return," is his statement on that subject.
And it's into this moment that another approaches their campsite.
"Mister... Hesiod, is it?" Citan says, turning to regard their visitor. Even though Ethius had been fairly quiet on approach, he doesn't so much as seem startled. ...Perhaps he'd just heard him coming, somehow? "Do you? Oh, how wonderful -- am I to then take it that they wish to share their supplies?"
Probably... not for free, though.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Haha, we barely made it out of there. Kind of makes me worried about what Zanarkand'll be like!"
Fei spots Ethius. He takes a long look at the man. 'Am I interrupting?'. That's strange he usually just sort of quietly shows up--oh, he has come on behalf ot hte Caravan Kinship. That ready and forthcoming explanation is even more unusual.
"Oh! Wow, what lifesavers," Fei says. "We had a rough time gong through the mountain so that's realy going to help out!"
He cracks a smile at Lily. "Heh, well, guess not. But I'm trying to keep my cool al ittle more--"
About that tower? What do you mean?
"Ah, I don't know. Nothing happened but I was...really on edge the whole time? I felt like I was going to have an attack but it never happened."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"You're not," Lily answers Ethius, though she displays a bit of surprise to see him. Not exactly the usual emissary for the Caravan Kinship. Then she looks to Citan again. "Shevat..."
She trails off, shaking her head there. "Yeah, I was concerned for you guys," Lily admits of the mountain. "And it's fine--you can lean on us a bit."
"Hmm... The tower was pretty strange," Lily admits.
Then she turns to Ethius, "What do you have? I can compare our supply lists; I think we used up a lot going up the mountain, as FEi says..."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"Yes." Ethius replies in that flat manner he generally does, though the 'yes' comes in just before 'Hesiod' is fully said, as if there was that lingering discomfort in it being said aloud. "The supplies I have been asked to deliver are free of charge, given the circumstances and urgency of the situation." He might be paraphrasing here.
He walks up to the gathered and sets the bag down. The Antidotes are most numerous and that's not a surprise, Spira's poisons are the most dangerous known of the two worlds and some overcompensation there (and thus overstocking) is to be expected. A handful of Echo Grasses - maybe less than might be useful, but sorcery is a common discipline used among much of the Drifter contingent and those are not always in great supply between them. Two Softs, and a Remedy.
It's not too bad of a haul for sharing excess supplies.
He looks up at mention of what was seen in Shevat, and going up the Tower of Babel - but so far adds nothing to that conversation.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"It was a little bit 'touch and go', I must admit!" Citan laughs, shaking his head. "Still, what was that saying...? Something about a situation that you can walk away from not being such a bad situation after all...?" He shrugs, though, as if unwilling to chase down the exact turn of phrase all that much.
"Well, at least we should not need to climb any more mountains just yet." At least not until they need to go and climb back over the mountain.
Unless Riesenlied is in the mood for giving lifts, which is an awful lot to expect of her.
"I hope to not be a burden on the excursion ahead," he remarks to Lily, though there's a slight wry smile on his face as he makes that remark.
It's a veritable haul on display here. "Really, this is quite kind of them," Citan remarks, raising an eyebrow. "There is no telling what we might face, after all. Who can say whether we might find outselves in need? I will tell the captain and the others when they return."
Or wake up, as the gentle snoring from nearby tents might suggest. But the doctor is being polite.
"Is there any way we might return the favor?" he asks of Ethius.
Fei answers on the question of what he'd felt in Babel, and Citan rubs at his chin, thoughtfully. "Yes, I remember you making a comment at the time. What brings it to mind now?
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei seems to have difficulty articulating the experience. Like trying to describe a memory of a dream that you had a long time ago. He tries to put it into words but he just can't. He wrinkles at his nose and he says, "Well," He says. "I mean, if this is from the Zeboim era and Solaris is interested in it..." He quirks his head. "I'm just not sure how it got here. All the other places were medieval or--well, the rest of Spira. So if it's high tech'n'everything... How'd they bring everything up here?" He thinks for am oment. "Or was it originally here to begin with? I mean, Tidus mentioned Sin showed up and there was this time wibblywobbly stuff."
He shakes his head. "Anyway, I'm just wondering if it'll answer some of the lingering mysteries we got. Like the tower."
He eases back for a bit, red in the face--clearly vaguely embarrassed.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Something like that," Lily agrees, likewise disinclined to bother worrying about the exact turn of phrase. Instead she shows some interest in the haul on display, and agrees, "Yeah, this should be helpful. Tell everybody--especially Jay--we said thanks." She sets about immediately writing down what they got, cataloguing it as part of their supplies, like she used to do this for a job or something.
Citan has returning the favor covered, so Lily leaves that to him--instead considering Fei and the tower. "All of Spira used to have higher tech, right? That's why the Al Bhed can find so much stuff to repair. Sin is what destroyed it. So it wouldn't be strange for it to be up here--just strange that it's survived relatively intact compared to the rest. ...Though that may be because nobody lives here..."
Sh considers. "I think the only way to know is to keep moving. ...It's all right, Fei."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"I shall pass the message onward," he says to Lily. "At present, the continued shared vigil has been said to be more than enough." Ethius relays to Citan with differences in who he's addressing as simple as mere turns of his head. These 'freebies' are much like the altruistic nature of the Caravan Kinship when the chips are about to be buried way underground (that is not what 'when the chips are down' means, but). That seems like it should conclude business then and there. Quick, simple, to the point...
But he has the circumstances to be present in an interesting conversation about the Zeboim era, and Solaris' interests in certain parts of Spira. He has been present for at least one scouting mission about Macalania, after all, the site of one such strange mismatched locale.
There is a pause, one always that's a bit awkward when he's involved because he's always a man that seems to either be trying to stand away from a given place, or just not quite fitting into the social fabric around him - and yet, a hand goes to his head as he speaks.
"By my observations, the make of machina in the region differs in its construction compared to Filgaia. How it didn't disperse throughout the rest of Lunar, assuming inclination to travel by ocean from this location..."
Speculating aloud.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
To Ethius, then, he arches an eyebrow. "So that is 'enough' at present, is it? Very well. I cannot make any promises in the place of the captain, but I am certain he would be willing to lend a hand as needed as we advance."
"Yes..." the doctor murmurs, gazing into the flames of the fire for the moment. There's a connection here. Some common thread. That's clear -- the language that Tidus spoke in Zanarkand, the Ancient Tongue, and the Zeboim language are all the same thing. They know that there was a time when Althena brought people from Filgaia to Lunar, though the precise mechanics of that event remain mysterious. And...
"There were some odd machines in the older ruins," Citan says at last. "The 'Machina', as the Spirans call them. They are not... quite the same as those we have seen in Zeboim ruins. But, I feel that they are similar. Perhaps they share a certain ancestry, one might say. --Yes, much like cousins," he says, agreeing with Ethius. "Or, perhaps 'third cousins' might be a more appropriate description. The differences are... quite marked in certain aspects. Not only in the parts, I should add -- even the forms and even the functions diverge quite sharply. Some seem to favor almost organic forms..." He sounds almost rapt, himself, for the moment. "I wonder if some of the more skeletal ones might be stripped down from their original appearance? I understand that the Al Bhed have rebuilt them several times over. --Oh, do forgive me. I have merely been curious about their construction for some time now..."
He glances between Lily and Fei. "I had begun to think along similar lines when we had first been transported to Spira. But, I could not be certain then. Indeed, it was not until we uncovered certain other ruins on Filgaia that..." He shakes his head.
"But it is as Lily says. We shall only know once we make our advance." And he smiles gently. "It is all right. After all, we are here with you."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"I wonder if we were originally like one planet and then like, maybe asteroid strikes upon Filgaia eventually sent up a whole bunch of rocks that eventually became our moon which was Lunar, and ..." He wrinkles his nose. "Then somehow a bunch of ruins and cities still came up there with?" He quirks his head to the side.
"I guess that doesn't really make sense. Rocks wouldn't become a moon like that. I'm sorry. I'm just trying to figure it out and throwing whatever at the wall and seeing what sticks."
He shoves his hands in his pockets and tries not to look too awkward--and fails, because he looks very awkward.
"I guess it might depend on when the giant whale showed up, but those Ronso sorta look like Leo, maybe the tech didn't but the people might have somehow? Or maybe the other side had enough wars that destroyed all the tech? I don't know."
He wobbles back and forth on his feet antsily.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"I guess we are all in it together," Lily answers. That works well enough. Lily nods along about what the captain is likely willing to do, but...
"Yeah, Sin only dates back a thousand years, right? So why did the technology die out in the west while it stuck around here?" Hmm. Skeletal, organic... "That's possible--the Al Bhed do a lot of work."
Originally one planet and... Well.
"I don't know," Lily admits. "I guess that's all you do. The other side having..." Hmm. "Wars could've done it, I suppose. It's hard to know."
"But it does look really different--here, too. This doesn't look much like the Zeboim ruins we were in before. I suppose..."
Lily considers, and then looks over Fei. "...You sure you're all right?"
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"I was, but now I'm really nervous now that I thought about this stuff and realized I don't understand any of it," Fei says, still rocking back and forth. "S-sorry about that. I'll try to have an anxiety attack more quietly."
He continues to rock back and forth on his feet but it's shorter now and he kind of hunches over in an attempt to make it 'smaller'.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius listens along to Citan with nodding or otherwise prompting agreement or disagreement with his thoughts (other than just speaking his own thoughts aloud). "I will admit some curiosity myself." He has always presented as being interested in lost and out of place technologies - though as far as Spira's well-educated guess of a thousand years goes, in this case the machina might not be so 'out of place.'
He does look away as Fei considers the possibilities of how one might terraform Lunar outright. "While I cannot speak to a full understanding of Lunar's military history, I would scarce believe Spira's machina would not have seen value or use on the rest of Lunar. The cultural aversion to its use did not appear to spread to the rest of Lunar, for the apparent reason it became anathema did not enter Lunar's cultural consciousness until Azado."
He distinctly remembers how big a deal it was when Filgaian gunsmoke ARMs disrupted the Glenwood continent, and how the consequences of that continue to echo throughout the region and even all the way here - but that's for another audience and another time.
As Fei talks about how nervous he is, how anxious, the stoic man looks back his way, how he's rocking back and forth and otherwise looking ready to collapse into himself like a frightened young man.
...He is not alone on that front. It feels as though I should... know, or have known, prior to the beginning of my recollection.
"...I will confess, Mister Fei," and by proxy in the company of 'Miss Lily' and 'Mister Citan.' He does remember what happened the last time he was open about some of the few things he has ever shown to strongly feel about, and all that came to challenge that and how much emotional turmoil it put a young, troubled woman through in the process.
"These matters do occupy my thoughts into... inconvenient lengths of time." He struggles to put the words together, like he's going off-script from boilerplate conversational pieces.
And I do not have any such clear recollection of foreknowledge of what I'm looking at, as a greater whole.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Not... precisely, I would think," is how Citan approaches the matter of Fei's suggestion on what happened in the past. "That would be... yes. Not as we currently understand things, at least." He shakes his head.
"I have managed to get my hands on this or that piece, of course," he reflects, in response to Lily. "But while there is much that we can learn from fragments... I must admit that it would be more, ah, fruitful to work with machines that were in a better condition than those I have encountered. And... I believe our Al Bhed allies are a touch disinclined to allow me to 'dissect' one of their own."
They still need those, after all, however extraordinary the Fahrenheit might be.
Or how much it might make Citan nerd out a little, to be be frank. The Al Bhed know his type (most of them are similarly inclined, after all, and know precisely who is best not let into the engine room).
"...Mister Hesiod is correct in his observations," Citan remarks, after a time. "I have not been to the rest of Lunar myself, of course, but it would seem that Sin's wrath is drawn by the presence of technology, and it did not exist on Lunar until fairly recently if what I have been told is true. So I would surmise that there was a point in Lunar's past, prior to the existence of Sin, when Spira was technologically advanced but that the rest of the world was not. Why that technology did not travel, though... I cannot say with any certainity. Perhaps there were other threats in the ocean at that time. Or... perhaps the Spira of the past had an isolationist stance."
There's certainly evidence of it enough at present, given the attitude of the people. And if things were quite as advanced as had been expressed by Tidus -- if they all had the same attitude as he...
Why even attempt to travel elsewhere? At times an entire city can become a world. This, too, is something he knows well.
Fei, though, continues to fidget, antsy. Or perhaps, given how well he knows the young man...
"Fei... it will be all right. There is much we do not understand right now. But in time, we may." He gestures alongside himself. "Would you care to sit down, in the meantime? There is only so much good that pacing about can do. Soon, I expect, Elly will return with what she has caught and then...! We shall have a proper dinner."
And a full stomach might settle everyone's nerves more than anything that can be said.
"Will you be staying with us for dinner, Mister Hesiod?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Ah..."
Lily has had a few things on her mind, too--but she's kept more of those to herself for the moment. Fei rocks back and forth, and, well, "It's...."
She looks to Ethius, next. Ethius, and his points. "Yes..." She nods to Citan, on the matter of working with more intact machines, but, "Do they, Ethius?" She doesn't use a similar title for herself, but then, she often doesn't. "I guess it must be important to you. Do you have any idea why?" She wonders, because she knows there's a lot he doesn't know. But...
"Right--most of the rest of Lunar has nothing like this that I've seen. I haven't even found many ruins that suggest it. Maybe Spira was isolationist--if they had a reason to leave, maybe it was a reason to stay away? Maybe..."
Citan offers a seat to Fei, and then--a proper dinner. "Right. There's a lot we don't understand, but as long as we approach it together, we can go a long way."
"You're welcome to stay, Ethius."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Citan helps streamline his thoughts and observations about Lunar's and Spira's recent histories, and Ethius can quietly share in that same quiet sorrow involved in not being allowed anywhere near the best, most functional, most sensitive, most exotic reactivated machina salvage.
Lily asks the important question - does he have any idea why? He's not of Solaris or Shevat, and though some of his values might have seemed compatible, he's not of Spira either. He shakes his head in silence.
"...Is there something unique to Spira that the rest of Lunar lacks... or does it involve how the rest of Lunar is compared to Spira?" He has an idea, but he doesn't say it aloud.
(he would, perhaps, but there's a few pyreflies flitting by going all 'oOoooOoooooOOOOOooo' as they streak by, not out of any malice or even any extant intent or agenda, it's #JustPyreflyThings)
More importantly, the offer to stay for dinner. Ethius gives the worried Fei another look for a second or two as he puts a hand up to his forehead.
"The offer is appreciated, Mister Citan... but I should return lest the others among the Kinship believe something happened." Something still can! Fiends like to just happen. "I will get in touch as deemed necessary by Miss Jay and the others."
They'll all invariably be descending upon Zanarkand from somewhat different angles and directions, but it's all towards the same end - Seymour must be stopped, and Sin quelled before they get the idea to explore their surroundings any further than Azado.
All while quietly (or loudly!) dealing with whatever hidden truths lie within the lost machina-filled holy city beyond the caves.