2023-03-28: One Last Dig
- Log: One Last Dig
- Cast: Yuna, Tidus, Lulu, Rikku, Paine
- Where: Sin
- Date: March 28, 2023
- Summary: The pilgrimage party goes on its final Dig, into the heart of Sin.
DG: A party led by Yuna is now entering Sin - Dream's End. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>============================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Barricade of Lost Souls *>==================== | Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Having recuperated after finally Sending Seymour to his final rest, Yuna and her Guardians venture deeper into Sin.
Intellectually, they knew about the city already. You can see it on his back, if you look carefully. And while there have been few opportunities for some kind of leisurely viewing of Sin, few is still more than none, and each one so vital to their ultimate success in this venture. For each time, Sin was pacified by the Hymn of the Fayth...
Yuna walks softly here. She leaves no bootprints on the stone and concrete. The rebar does not catch at her skirts; she passes clear.
"It's like Zanarkand," she comments to the others. "But also... not the same."
The barricade is horrible; but she is no stranger to horror, not anymore. What it brings out in Yuna is a set chin and squared shoulders. And a raised hand: one that grasps that much-used Destruction Sphere from Macalania Temple. Something that, perhaps, she can soon leave behind her, as they have left Seymour behind...
She glances at Paine, who possesses a similar implement, and Rikku, who possesses many.
"All together?" she suggests, hefting hers back, set to throw upon their countdown.
DG: Yuna has used her Tool Macalania Destruction Sphere toward her party's challenge, Barricade of Lost Souls. Rally! Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
The further they go into Sin, the more messed up it becomes. In particular, the mix of skyscrapers and temples hits Tidus in a weird way. He stares at them for a time as he and his friends trek deeper into Sin, until finally they reach a portion from the Zeboim era (or maybe before that) and a steel barrier rises out of the road to block their way.
The decorations are in poor taste, to say the least.
"Yeah," he murmurs to Yuna. "I was thinking the same thing, actually. It's like a mix of Zanarkand and Spira."
He doesn't have any specific equipment for breaking down barriers of this kind, but between Yuna's Destruction Sphere, Rikku's grenades, Lulu's magic and Paine's heavy sword, all Tidus really has to do is wait his turn and then give the twisted, agonized metal a good kicking.
Until then, he pumps a fist as the others get ready. "Break it down! You got this, girls!" he enthuses to offer his encouragement and support.
DG: Tidus has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Barricade of Lost Souls.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
"It's... disjointed. This isn't 'one city'," she says. "There's some sort of amalgamation..."
Lulu looks around, and keeps walking until they reach that awful barricade. She frowns, looking at it, but not because it is horrid; she, too, is no stranger to horror. She examines it for weaknesses, opens her mystical senses to determine what its nature must be. And as Yuna brings out the Destruction Sphere...
Paine and Rikku and Yuna, all together. Lulu nods in something like approval, and steps back, thgh she keeps her doll under her arm.
"...I'll handle cleanup," she offers, a spell prepared. A good Demi should be sufficient to set aside the debris when they're done...
DG: Lulu has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Barricade of Lost Souls.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
It was a long breather after taking down Seymour. A long, long breather. For a while Rikku just wondered if he might just, you know, pop back up - twice as mean!
We'll leave what Ultra-Seymour might have looked like to Rikku's imagination. Because he aint coming back!
Getting up, and stretching, Rikku holds one arm over her head, before looking off to the side. "It reminds me a little of the Ruins we found under Zanarkand." Rikku remarks, "New Kasim City."
Where the Al Bhed came from, or at least, most evidence points that way. Either way, she advances, quickly picking up the pace, not avoiding obstacles so much as making hops to give Yuna the right of way, while still making her own way forward.
"Lets!" As Rikku looks towards Yuna and Paine's destruction spheres, she says, "Okay, on three! And after we throw- strike a pose! One, two, three-!"
She gives them no time to argue, as she tosses a string of grenades, before she hops up, coming down balancing on a single foot, raising the Godhand high, and winks.
"-Oh yeah!"
And if she comes a little too close towards Paine during that, it's probably intentional, like a nudge nudge.
DG: Rikku has used her Tool Far Too Many Grenades toward her party's challenge, Barricade of Lost Souls. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
Though Paine's garb is more practical than Lulu's, and has shown less of her personal sense of style for that reason, the stability of a steady job upending society and killing legendary monsters has gradually started to reveal a similarly gothic fashion sense, which her grim sword Gravestone only ambiguously implied that first day. One does not always get to choose their enchanted sword, is it not so? Perhaps Paine at heart preferred rainbows and airy laces. But as it turned out, the sword was always well-matched to her dark, leather-and-metal sense of style.
But what is in front of them is not an aesthetic. It is an atrocity. And Paine's pale face shows it nothing but hostility. It is all the worse that this cannot be considered bragging; if anything, the number of dead and suffering summoners represented in this barricade is accidentally humble, given what the sum and total must be by now.
But the other side of the gothic Paine disliking this barricade is how little effect it seems to have on the brighter-spirited members of the party. With Tidus and Rikku so game for its destruction, Paine cannot help but follow their lead, even as she follows her Summoner's suggestion. Drawing forth her own Destruction Sphere, which would be smooth with use if it had not begun that way, Paine cocks her arm back and nods. If she was going to grin, however, it gets twisted up in forced tolerance of Rikku's suggestion.
"Sure," she says. "All out. Big pose."
When she hurls it, Paine stands with her arms crossed and makes no pose at all.
DG: Paine has used her Tool Destruction Sphere toward her party's challenge, Barricade of Lost Souls.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>============================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Barricade of Lost Souls *>==================== | Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
=======================<* Sin - Dream's End - Round 1 *>======================== =====================< Results - Barricade of Lost Souls >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Macalania Destruction Sphere 2 Brute Effects: Fanfare and Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Far Too Many Grenades 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paine 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Destruction Sphere 4 Brute Effects: None -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 0 --(20)--> 20 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Exhaust(1) Effects: ===============================< 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> Yuna has posed.
Yuna nods thoughtfully at Tidus and Lulu. But when the former fist-pumps, and Rikku counts down to posing -- and Paine claims she's buying in -- she turns white with performance anxiety.
"Um!" she gulps as she desperately flings her sphere with less accuracy than usual. Its blast is mostly wasted, where Paine and Rikku's give the barricade the walloping it deserves. After that, it's simplicity itself for Tidus to smack it down and Lulu to Demi it out of the way.
Of course, while they're doing that, Yuna had to pose. But she kind of tensed up halfway through her attempt -- then tried again differently -- and a third time -- and finally just lowers her arms, and her eyes, downcast.
Even Paine's was better.
"Maybe... next time," she says, an apology in her tone. "I've never... posed, before." Obviously. "Not like that."
The many extremely crisp stances of a summoner's gestures aren't the same to her at all...
DG: Tidus has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>============================= ====================<* CHALLENGE - Leaping Between Towers *>==================== | Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Lulu has the right of it, as usual. It's not one city, it's sort of a smeared mess of different styles of buildings. Rikku brings up a good point, too, about Kasim City. At least Rikku's antics get a laugh out of him, but what else is new? Rikku's always been the merriest.
Explosions happen. Lulu casts aside the debris with a Demi. Tidus really doesn't have much to do, but hey, what's important is that the job got done and that awful barrier's gone now. Tidus pats Yuna on the shoulder as she absolutely fumbles her cool pose. (Paine meanwhile does a cool pose completely unintentionally. Sorry, Paine, crossed arms is definitely a pose.)
"Hey, you'll have plenty of chances to get it down," he reassures her. "Probably before we're done here, even." He gestures the group forward and, the path now clear, moves onwards. "Okay, let's move on out!"
The road before them leads them to the base of a stone tower. As clear in view as it was, something about its twisted reliefs only become more terrible the closer they get. It's a lot like the barrier from before in that respect, save of course for the spiral staircase that leads up to the roof. Past it is a building of brick and steel, though what it's doing and what its purposes is is presently unclear.
Tidus grimaces. "This is gonna be a thing, isn't it. Figures," he mutters, eyeing the tasteless flourishes.
The trek up isn't so bad, surprisingly. No, what's bad is the fact that it's a dead end--save for that neighboring building, and a sloping roof, and absolutely no connecting artifices. Tidus leans over the edge to get a better look and to gauge the distance. "We should be able to make it if we get a good running start," he says. He pulls out a chocobo feather from his item bag and holds it up. "And I got just the thing for running!"
He tosses the feather up, and it breaks up into motes of pyreflies, sprinkling its magic over the group to increase their speed. It's a temporary measure, but it'll be enough to help everyone make it across. ...Assuming they do make it across. Tidus will hang back to help the less athletic among them if they need it before he makes his own leap.
DG: Tidus has used his Tool Chocobo Feather toward his party's challenge, Leaping Between Towers. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Poses. Yes, those are happening. Lulu raises an eye at Rikku's. Then, she looks to Paine. Big pose...
"Hmm. That was pretty big," she allows, seeming to agree with Tidus about the matter of crossed arms being a pose.
But Yuna...
"...Keep at it," Lulu says to Yuna, and it might even be encouraging; it's gentle enough for it. She seems to approve of Rikku helping her to lighten up a little, anyway. Maybe. Not that she'll say it.
They move on, and up, and up. "It's going to be a 'thing' all right," Lulu agrees with Tidus. And that building... Hm. Tidus has something for running, but Lulu will need a little more help than that. So, she pulls a Cactuar. "...The magic in this one should help."
One might expect the Cactuar's magic to make Lulu faster, but she's not any faster than the chocobo feather makes her.
No, instead there's an explosion halfway across and Lulu double-jumps.
DG: Lulu has used her Tool Vengeful Cactuar toward her party's challenge, Leaping Between Towers. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku isn't certain if Paine is posing or not, her gut tells her... maybe! In the end though, she rounds about and gives Yuna a pat on the shoulder just after Tidus', "It's okay! We'll practice! Soon you'll be posing like a pro- just like Paine!"
So wait she has assumed Paine is just, that good at posing then, after all???
Moving on though, they're brought to the base of the tower, "Yep. As much a thing as ever did thing." Rikku pronounces to Tidus' prediction.
They do make it up the tower though, but then - there's the jump! And with the haste from Tidus' Chocobo Feather, Rikku takes a running leap, then a big ol' leap across.
Assuming she makes it, she hangs on near the edge with Tidus, ready to catch the people, "Come on Lulu you can do i-"
Explosions happen.
Rikku gawks, she turns to Tidus, and pronounces, "Okay I think she can do it better than us, even."
DG: Rikku has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Leaping Between Towers.
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
Rikku bumps Paine a little during that too-close posing. That's Paine's story.
Paine feels the start of a cold sweat of guilt as she watches Yuna torture herself through three nervous poses without managing to actualize even one. But before she can feel too bad, her sin is expiated against her will: everyone thinks she DID back Yuna up with a cool pose. A fact which is reported aloud by none other than Lulu.
"Mine was big?" Paine protests, because she's currently standing next to Godhand Rikku here, but she's getting way more attention for some reason. Seriously unfair.
"You're a natural," she adds though, to support Tidus comforting the Summoner. What seed is being planted?
Paine, like many soldiers, is a good whistler. Lulu, upon landing, recognizes the timbre of that whistle, sounding out in a bright, sinking tone of praise. With Lulu sorted out and the blondes clearly better at this than Paine, Paine instinctively turns to Yuna, but upon seeing Tidus hanging back as well, she smirks a little, and abandons the idea. Giving him an unexplained, big-sister-like clap on the shoulder, she goes for the lap on her own, taking a running start before launching herself towards the other tower.
DG: Paine has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Leaping Between Towers.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
'The less athletic of them' 'Yuna'
Yuna gives everyone encouraging her posing prowess a shaky smile and a thumbs-up which is, ironically, the best pose she's done all day. But she definitely doesn't feel like a natural.
Then it's time for leaping vast distances, and she KNOWS she's not a natural at that. But this is no time to feel too sorry for herself... they're in a deeply spiritual place -- she is reluctant to say sacred, if anything it feels somehow holy and unholy in equal measure to her. And their mission is vital.
And, in any case, Tidus is waiting for her.
She unfurls her net with a smile. It's amazing how cleverly it's folded, that it can be so small in her pouch, and a flap later, so very large. Sometimes she's used it as a riding saddle; sometimes she's laid it out below, for safety.
This time, she looks at it -- then at her boyfriend -- and shrugs.
She gives him her hand.
The net stays behind...
...because with him, she feels like she doesn't need it anymore. That chocobo feather may have been magic, but for Yuna, the real magic is confidence.
DG: Yuna has used her Tool Kilika Fishing Net toward her party's challenge, Leaping Between Towers. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>============================= ====================<* CHALLENGE - Leaping Between Towers *>==================== | Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
=======================<* Sin - Dream's End - Round 2 *>======================== ======================< Results - Leaping Between Towers >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 0 --(13)--> 13 Pass Kilika Fishing Net 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 0 --(25)--> 25 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paine 20 --(25)--> 45 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 20 --(13)--> 33 Pass Chocobo Feather 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 20 --(13)--> 33 Pass Vengeful Cactuar 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Slow(2)|Suffer(1) 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.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
It's not JUST Yuna! There's also Lulu! It's just that Lulu has explosives and thus cheats.
Case in point: Tidus gawks with Rikku at Lulu's explosive double-jump. "Lulu, how are you so good at everything?? It's unfair!" he complains. When Rikku weighs in from the other side, he turns to her. "Right??"
Paine meanwhile gives him a clap on the shoulder, and although she doesn't explain it, does anyone really have any illusions about what it's about? Tidus thus smiles at her, wry but nonetheless grateful. Letting her go on ahead to join Lulu and Rikku, he turns to Yuna as she unfolds her net... and sets it down.
"You sure?" he asks, and the answer he gets is her hand in his. They share a different sort of smile of their own, and jump together.
It truly is magical.
DG: Lulu has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>============================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Free-Floating Platforms *>==================== | Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
"...Hm hm," Lulu answers Tidus's question. "I think Yuna at least knows that it's not just talent..." Yuna knows Lulu well, after all; she'd know how much practice Lulu has put into her absurd feats of magic. But Lulu isn't quite willing to forego the compliment in this case.
Not quite.
She does appreciate Paine's whistle, certainly.
But the magical jump aside, they come across a new obstacle. The bridge has... drifted apart, in its way. "...I don't think I'll be able to repeat that trick enough times for this one," she laments without much emphasis. Instead, she looks to the collapsed and floating bridge...
"Well, here goes."
Lulu will just try to jump it quickly.
DG: Lulu has contributed a risky Agility Action toward her party's challenge, Free-Floating Platforms.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku gives Yuna and Tidus the biggest smile as they jump together, clapping a hand on Paine's shoulder and canting her head as if to say 'look look!' because Rikku is nothing but the most mature person in the room!
On Lulu though, "Man now I want to figure out how to do that."
Rikku picks up a grenade, and considers. She considers long and hard.
Then... "Nope!"
And then she promptly takes a running leap right behind Lulu. You see Rikku has decided that even though Lulu has proven that it can be done...
... she really likes her legs intact.
DG: Rikku has contributed a risky Agility Action toward her party's challenge, Free-Floating Platforms.
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
Rikku does not notice the menacing aura behind her as she mulls the grenade plan. She never would have been able to go through with it, even if she wanted to... someone was waiting to grab her if she tried. But that dark cloud is allowed to subside as Rikku chooses to manage this with her own natural agility.
Not that Rikku didn't end up barely making it, like Paine, chest-first into the side of the tower. Only the power of true love (and black mages) came out looking good that time. And they did look good, Yuna and Tidus.
Paine exhales seeing their next challenge, which in Rikku language would be some sort of wail, probably. They really underestimated how much acrobatics she would need out in the world back in training. "What about one more time?" Paine asks Lulu. "If my boot slips?"
Then off to jumping. No hand-holding requests here.
DG: Paine has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Free-Floating Platforms.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
On the far side of the magical jump, Yuna doesn't let go of Tidus' hand right away. She leans in and whispers something in his ear. Or at least that's what it might look like from spectation distance. In reality, she planted the tiniest, softest kiss on his cheek.
She walks with him and the others down the road. She gazes at the chasm for a long, long time. It is possible to read in her eyes a certain amount of regret at leaving that net back at the tower. But there's nothing to be done now.
She'll just have to believe. And that's something she used to be good at, before the whole world collapsed around her, one fundamental at a time. She can't believe in Yevon. She can't believe in the Final Aeon. She can't even believe in herself.
But she can believe in him.
Yuna takes the first jump at a running start, and -- transformed into a blur of blue and white and pink -- never stops running again.
DG: Yuna has contributed a risky Agility Action toward her party's challenge, Free-Floating Platforms.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Tidus just shakes his head at Lulu's response. Maybe it's not just talent but hard work, but it's still wild. Rikku's 'nope!' gets her a wry smile. "Yeah, I don't think it's normal to jump off of an explosion."
(Clearly Tidus isn't anime enough. It's normal enough for Dean Stark and *his* friends.)
On the other roof, it might look like a whisper, but Tidus knows better when he feels the brush of Yuna's lips on his cheeks. He can't help but grin and looks at her with affectionate eyes. If she *had* asked him something, that'd be all the answer she needs.
Once they all make their way forward from there, they reach a ruined bridge. 'Ruined' because most of it is not there anymore, emphasis on most. He leans over the edge of the abyss, then looks over at the others. "I got another couple of chocobo feathers. I don't think we wanna risk botching this one," he says, already reaching for it.
The magic it contains doesn't just speed them up, but also speeds up their reflexes. Hopefully that'll be enough to let all of them jump all these stone steps well enough to make it to the other side safely. Too bad there's no hand-holding with Lulu and Paine, but neither of them are the demonstrative sort, so it's just as well.
But for now he looks at Yuna. "I'll be right behind you," he promises. And when she into motion, just as promised, he's right behind her.
DG: Tidus has used his Tool Chocobo Feather toward his party's challenge, Free-Floating Platforms. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>============================= ===================<* CHALLENGE - Free-Floating Platforms *>==================== | Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
=======================<* Sin - Dream's End - Round 3 *>======================== =====================< Results - Free-Floating Platforms >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 13 --(5)--> 18 Pass Rush 1 Agility Effects: Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 25 --(25)--> 50 Fail Rush 1 Agility Effects: Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paine 45 --(17)--> 62 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 33 --(5)--> 38 Pass Chocobo Feather 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 33 --(25)--> 58 Fail Rush 1 Agility Effects: Risky -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Hesitate(2)|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.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
One of the few times Lulu will be referred to in the same breath as Dean Stark...
"Maybe not," Lulu agrees with Rikku immediately, thinking of much the same problem. Lulu can direct the force of her spells much more easily than Rikku can direct the blast of a grenade...
In that she can do it at all.
"Hmmm," Lulu says to Paine, and considers. "...Guess you'll have to slip and find out."
Yuna and Tidus rush across, full of belief and certainty, Tidus right behind Yuna. The chocobo feather helps--but maybe it'sthat togetherness that does it most of all.
Lulu and Rikku lose their balance, and both have to rush forward to avoid falling, but they manage it, though neither is exactly thrilled in all likelihood by the near miss. But Paine, while she is steadier and calmer about the whole thing--
A platform breaks, and as it happens, Lulu does have one more use of that trick in her. Paine, too, has the chance to double jump.
"...Hmmm," Lulu reflects. "Seems that handholding is the power move here after all..."
DG: Rikku has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Forest of Crystals *>====================== | Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku slips! Rikku nearly falls! Rikku somehow recovers, and then, "You're telling me!"
Rikku did not notice a menacing aura coming from Paine before she jumped, nevertheless she still calls back after recovering, "Hey everyone! I think I felt an INCREDIBLE malice right before I jumped! Be careful! I bet there's some SUPER FIEND about!"
Paine is at least equivalent to one super fiend right?
As they move forward, the buildings become strange, in their crystalline reflections, and eventually Rikku yelps as she gets distracted and runs into a crystalline spike.
Shaking out her arm from the pain of being punctured, she glares balefully at the path ahead.
Yet when life gives you crystalline spikes-! You make...
"Okay! This feels like a great time to practice posing!"
... rad poses?
Rikku holds up her hand, "Tidus! Show Yunie your best pose!"
Rikku has a feeling that right now Yuna will pay extra attention to Tidus posing. Then she promptly throws a grenade over her shoulder and side steps the explosion.
DG: Rikku has used her Tool Far Too Many Grenades toward her party's challenge, Forest of Crystals. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
Paine ends up with the wind knocked out of her, kneeling on the next stone, after getting to jump the way Lulu jumped. "You do it that way on purpose?" she pants.
Rikku wants to pose again. "Pass," she says, but when she realizes it wasn't directed at her: "...ing this way is going to be difficult for our Summoner," Paine intones gravely. "She will need your inspiration, Tidus."
Another smack on the shoulder.
Paine steps up before the crystalline forest, grimacing. No... grinning? It's not a large enough motion of the lips to discern. "Finally. Something more straightforward." Leaving Rikku to her bombs and Yuna to her boyfriend, Paine for the first time speaks to Lulu from right next to her, casting a look over her shoulder at the black mage. "I've got this one," she assures, after the save last time. "I'm not someone who minds getting scratched up a little."
Advancing, Paine demonstrates this particular character trait of hers, not recklessly, but certainly boldly. She wraps one arm in her cloak and uses it to smash away the worst of the crystals, but she does so unhesitantly, and without wincing when she is cut, making a small path with the force of her own body.
DG: Paine has contributed a risky Brute Action toward her party's challenge, Forest of Crystals.
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Yuna ran like a woman possessed, but it's... worse, when they pass through this latest enormous density of pyreflies, a sort of local maximum amid the global maximum of Sin himself. The possession, that is, is worse. She always was the most susceptible to them, the double-edge of them being ever so resonant with her own feelings.
So when she looks at a crystal, she doesn't see Tidus, or his pose, in its reflection; she doesn't see Paine getting hurt. Not even herself. The way her gaze abstracts, it's obvious that the shimmering pane is a window into someone else's past entirely. Probably a very bad past.
Then another, and another, and another, as the crystals grow and change. Her mouth makes a little rosebud 'oh' -- a silent gasp -- as the images, and worse, the feelings behind them, pierce her to the core.
Once she might have done nothing at all; just stood there, locked up in the torment of others, lost to her friends and family.
Now... she does still put one foot in front of the next, with quiet determination. Not even a thousand years of ghostly agony will keep her from reaching Jecht -- that his suffering, at least, might end.
But she can't see where she's going, that much is obvious. The others won't just have to clear a path through the spikes, they'll have to do so before their ghostwalker is impaled by their current sharpness and not just that of the memories they represent.
DG: Yuna has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Forest of Crystals.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Hand-holding really is the power move.
The pyreflies get thicker the further they all move onwards. As they start to call up--buildings? the memories of buildings?--he frowns. Before long, they reach a forest of crystals of all different colors, all of them sharp as scalpels. Tidus is considering his best move--he's pretty sure kicking *these* is a bad idea--when Rikku calls upon him to pose. He raises his eyebrows, especially when Paine chimes in on it... but then he moves into a pose, stanced with legs wide and arms crossed in front of him, one pointed diagonally across his body with his other clenches a fist. "Traaaansform!! ...Like that?"
...If this really is inspiration for everyone else destroying these crystals, well, he's pretty okay with that.
But Yuna doesn't seem to be paying attention. She's looking past him, all of them, into the pyreflies. Tidus's pose begins to crumble. "Yuna? You okay?" He shoots the others an alarmed look as Yuna starts moving forward. "Hey!"
DG: Tidus has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Forest of Crystals.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
A super fiend...
Hmmm.
Rikku mentions practicing posing, and Lulu has the advantage over Paine in this case that she doesn't speak up immediately--so she doesn't have to try to comment on the time for posing... If she wouldn't after all, of course.
But she does notice Rikku's grenade. She also notices Paine's move to tough it out. Is it meant to impress Lulu? Lulu doesn't seem to show whether it does or not. Instead she simply turns to her. "Hmmm," she says.
"...Afraid I can't leave you to it this time, though," she comments as she sees Yuna drifting, and kneels down. She sets down Mog, who starts forward into the crystals ahead of Yuna, to help leap up and shatter them in time for Yuna not to get scratched up. Ideally, at least.
Sadly, she does not seem to appreciate Tidus's pose in the face of Yuna's actions, looking at her with great concern as she directs Mog to clear her path. But she can do both at once; she moves up towards Yuna to guide her to where the others and Mog have made a clearer path.
DG: Lulu has used her Tool Soul of Mog toward her party's challenge, Forest of Crystals. Rally!
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - Forest of Crystals *>====================== | Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 2 |
=======================<* Sin - Dream's End - Round 4 *>======================== ========================< Results - Forest of Crystals >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 18 --(3)--> 21 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 50 --(0)--> 50 Pass Far Too Many Grenades 2 Brute Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paine 62 --(36)--> 98 Fail Force 1 Brute Effects: Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 38 --(28)--> 66 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 58 --(3)--> 61 Pass Soul of Mog 3 Brute Effects: Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Exhaust(1)|Hesitate(1)|Injure(2)|Slow(1)|Tire(2) Effects: ===============================< 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> Rikku has posed.
Rikku looks Paine's way as she says 'Pass', "But-" '...ing.' Rikku eyes Paine with a sense of wonder, and then her eyes light up at the realization of what happened, as she gives her a big ol' grin.
"Wow Paine, you must really enjoy this kind of thing."
She doesn't call her on it right away, she just thinks about it for future mischief, before clapping her hands together at Tidus pose, "Yeah! Just like that!" Yet Yuna just keeps walking and plows right on, "Ah, Yunie? You forgot to-" She then looks over at Tidus and Lulu in alarm, "Yunniiiieee?!"
She tears on after Yuna alongside Tidus, who quickly gets tied up in the spikes, requiring Mog to shatter them.
Whereas Paine finds them growing more and more immense in quantity, as she recklessly moves forward.
Somehow Yuna passes Paine!? This is getting really weird! Mog however manages to keep Yuna out of the worst of the dangers.
In the end they get through and probably a bit messed up but, "Okay Guardian huddle-!" Rikku calls for it like its Blitzball and then says to her fellow Guardians as she whispers...
"I think we can all agree that we could have all done a better job protecting Yunie there." She then gives Mog a pat on the pom, "Not you though, you did amazing."
Rikku slips Mog a hundred gil as a reward.
DG: Paine has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>============================= =====================<* CHALLENGE - Crystals and Spikes *>====================== | Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
Paine's method has very few advantages, as it turns out. It makes a lot of noise, but it doesn't impress a lot of girls apparently, and the sound keeps her from noticing until nearly the end that Yuna has been influenced in a way that Paine was not. She hastens towards Yuna at that point, but quickness is another advantage this method lacks. It hurt her quite a bit too, leaving her exhausted after the repeated trials that led her this far, her cloak-wrapped arm decorated in multicolored crystals now, and dripping crimson. Its two benefits (her own morale and a communication with Lulu) are moral victories at best, and this is a time for concrete victories.
"Agreed," Paine tells Rikku in the huddle. "Let's all keep closer to her this time. That includes you," she notes to Tidus meaningfully. She lets him do the math given that he was already pretty close.
The mist before them presents a far less direct challenge, and Paine frowns at it. "Seems we're getting somewhere," she notes, looking up the stairway of ages. She mills about with the others, getting stuck sometimes with crystals, until it begins to become clear that they need to unlock a way forward.
Inhaling, Paine withdraws her sphere camera, and thumbs it on silently. She withdraws into the role of observer for now, watching the others interact with the eggs and spikes, and doing quick rewinds to observe, with the advantage of hindsight, what each looks like upon approach.
"I think that one's an egg," she begins to venture after a few times. "Spike," she warns at other times. Occasionally her camera lingers on someone for an extra moment. Rikku's innocence, still intact here at the cusp of the end; is it at risk if they go further? And the same thought about Yuna's very life, the stakes upon which the journey was always predicated for Paine. Lulu, who perhaps she should shy from gazing at too long, but has recently ceased to do so. Tidus, the only one who belongs in this recording, a moving and breathing crystal.
"Egg," she says tonelessly. "...spike, there."
DG: Paine has used her Tool Sphere Recorder toward her party's challenge, Crystals and Spikes. Resilient! Party shielded from some exhaustion next round!
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
Her friends' voices do not reach her, but the shattering does. Yuna emerges from her trance vaguely, blinking dream sand out of her eyes. She looks among the group, studying their wounds -- and her own, here and there, where she is a little bit cut, and a little bit torn -- with bewilderment.
She reaches into her sash, and her fingertips fish out...
'This is for you, Lady Yuna!'
...the very first potion she was ever gifted on her pilgrimage, from a child on the beach at Besaid.
She studies it silently. That this is what she's found suggests the considerable depletion of her inventory; only at the end of her journey would something so long forgotten emerge from its beginning. And, of course, it is not an exceptionally powerful item.
To anyone but her, anyway.
Paine's gaze lingers on the others, but hers lingers on Paine's arm.
She knows the recorder won't want to stop shooting, not even for a moment of respite.
So she uncorks the potion herself, and, threading her arm around the taller woman's shoulder -- over isn't an option, not unless she had a stepstool, or Valefor -- offers her a mid-session drink.
"Please have a little," she says softly. It's clear she'll be of no use looking for eggs, or spikes, when right now her attention is so thoroughly fixated on the crystalline wounds dripping from a cloak-wrapped arm.
DG: Yuna has used her Tool Pilgrim's Sash toward her party's challenge, Crystals and Spikes. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
A good thing that Mog is there to smash the crystals in front of Yuna and keep her from getting hurt. But that's why they're all here, right? Even so, when Rikku pulls everyone together for a huddle and Paine gives him a pointed comment, Tidus is grimacing. "Yeah... The important thing's that Yuna's safe, right?"
Still, he gets the message loud and clear. He sticks a little closer to Yuna as they move forward, which was already pretty close.
The road takes them to a stairwell shrouded in mist. It seems like a dead end, except there's more of those crystals--some spiked, some that look like eggs. It's pretty obvious which is good and which is bad, but Paine takes the lead on identifying and locating them with her sphere camera.
For his part, Tidus takes out a sphere of his own. There isn't much use that the sphere Jecht left behind will do here as Jecht's voice declares within that he's drinking nothing but shoopuf milk from now on, but who knows? Maybe the resonance of Jecht's own recordings will help make the eggs glow a little brighter. ...It's a nice thought, anyway.
"Got it," he tells Paine as he looks around. His gaze of course inevitably takes him back to Yuna as she brings out that potion. He doesn't recognize its significance--it looks like a regular potion--but he does recognize the look in Yuna's eyes. If he sticks a little closer as she hands that potion out, maybe his own sphere will cast a little light on things, either literally or figuratively.
DG: Tidus has used his Tool Jecht Sphere toward his party's challenge, Crystals and Spikes. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu definitely received the communication, at least. But she also notices Paine's fatigue, and that it's not just from that. Rikku of course indicates they didn't do well enough...
"Agreed," she says to Paine.
Mog accepts the hundred gil. Where does it go? No one knows.
"We seem to be," Lulu agrees, looking up at the stairway. But she's apparently willing to rely on Paine's eye through the sphere camera at her warnings. The main thing she can do right now is be willing to test those warnings, doing a lot of the touching of the crystals through. It's dangerous, but one of them has to do it.
She does not recognize the potion either, but...
She will definitely make use of Paine's expertise. And she wonders, herself, what Jecht may think to hear his own voice here...
"I wonder what he thinks of all this now. Can he see us...?"
DG: Lulu has contributed a risky Wits Action toward her party's challenge, Crystals and Spikes.
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku wasn't going to call out Tidus specifically! Paine does though. And eventually they reach that stairway, and Rikku finds herself getting lost in the mist and jabbed a few times until...
Paine starts calling out eggs, versus spikes and...
"Oh so we have to...?" Rikku doesn't catch the Sphere Recorder being pointed her way in that moment, and Paine will catch a candid shot of her just mulling over the problem. Hands behind her head, expression pensive in that Rikku kind of way, but...
Her eyes slip over to Yuna coming out of it enough to offer Paine a potion. Despite her strange state right now, Rikku smiles and...
It's not long after that she tosses a little bomb fragment in the air. It doesn't detonate into so much of an explosion, as fire that temporarily burns away part of the mist.
She promptly dives in the brief opening and grasps an egg. "Got one!" She repeats the feat a few times, trying to grab eggs in the brief opening, before panting, and wiping a hand across her brow...
"It's hard to say. I wonder if he set up this warm up." Rikku comments to Lulu, before declaring, "It is pretty good egg-ercise."
DG: Rikku has used her Tool Quickpockets toward her party's challenge, Crystals and Spikes. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>============================= =====================<* CHALLENGE - Crystals and Spikes *>====================== | Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
======================<* Sin - Dream's End - Round 5 *>======================= ======================< Results - Crystals and Spikes >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yuna 21 --(0)--> 21 Pass Pilgrim's Sash 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rikku 50 --(0)--> 50 Pass Quickpockets 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Paine 98 --(0)--> 98 Pass Sphere Recorder 2 Wits Effects: Resilient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tidus 66 --(0)--> 66 Pass Jecht Sphere 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lulu 61 --(0)--> 61 Pass Investigate 1 Wits Effects: Risky ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Yuna 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Collapse|Exhaust(1)|Injure(1)|Stupify(2)|Tire(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Resilient(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> Paine has posed.
Paine is normally highly alert to her surroundings even when recording. She was not trained to record weddings or nature or historical events, after all. But lost in thought, she lets her guard slip this time, and does not realize she is being approached; she spotted Yuna coming near, but allowed it, of course, and then lost track of her. Thus at first Yuna's arm reads to her as some sliding cloth, as though her cloak were falling off, and then, for a single flash of concern, too brief to even blossom into alarm, it resembles a creeping snake. When all that confusion collapses down into the reality of a slim, kind arm and a detacted sleeve so finely woven that she feels she dirties it by touching it, a brief stiffening of alert subsides into a subdued confusion.
"I'm fine," she says, unsentimental about something so personal as her own right arm. But Yuna does not think it is fine, and she did not end up with an arm wrapped around Paine's shoulder and a vial nearly at her lips already without a certain clarity of purpose that is, as ever, difficult to gainsay.
"...hm," Paine murmurs, with an amused tone that is belied by the gentleness with which she sets her lips to the potion, as if it were a grail. It does feel better, after.
"
One by one, the eggs are gathered by her friends. All together, they disappear in a flash of light, the puzzle resolved. Paine wonders if there are any eggs left, or if there were just enough to get them through. Maybe the way is sealed behind them. Well enough. She already got the only help she wants.
And with it, Paine does not end up carrying out her plan of collapsing after the stairway is achieved, after all.
DG: Yuna has drawn a new Challenge.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - The Broken Vessel *>======================= | Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
"Thank goodness," Yuna murmurs, and whether it's for Paine or for everyone's successfully gathering all the eggs--
--the only thing that's for certain is that her relief was premature.
She stumbles as they vanish and reappear on a slippery, uneven surface; this, honestly, might have been enough to defeat her on its own; far too easily she might have lost her balance and plunged to her death. And indeed that is already in progress -- arms windmilling like beautiful sakura kites -- when
prehensile
cables
rush the group!!
A lot of things need to happen very quickly: the running, the dodging, perhaps the blocking, for there are few better answers to enormous and deadly cables than a sword, but for the risk incurred by stopping to parry at all.
Yuna will be doing none of these things, though, without help.
The light at the end of this upsloping tunnel is a shattered window. Can they get there? Can they get HER there?
It's all happening so fast.
Yuna's palm, branded HERETIC, almost seems to glow in the weird, otherworldly light reflecting off the blue-grey metal, as she reaches out for someone, anyone, to hold onto.
One last hurrah for the ultimate power move inside Sin, it seems.
DG: Yuna has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Broken Vessel.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
"Who knows," Tidus says quietly to Lulu. "You'd think so, but... oh! Yuna, that reminds me, I had Elly ask--uhhhh..." He cuts himself off as he looks around at the others and realizes that this might not be something Yuna wants to discuss with everyone. "...about that thing? That you were wondering, that we were talking about before? Wait, I don't think I mentioned--nuts."
He pauses. Did he tell the others about Elly communicating with Jecht? He doesn't think so. He was so absorbed in actually making that communication that it clean slipped his mind to tell the others about it. Yet he can't even explain this without potentially giving up what they talked about! "I'll tell you more about it later," he decides on.
Fortunately, Rikku makes a terrible pun, and Tidus can switch tracks by groaning at it. Loudly.
They all gather the eggs, and soon they're all swallowed up by a flash of light and carried to a strange piece of metal. As they reappear, Yuna stumbles, and Tidus immediately goes to her side to catch her as she wheels her arms. "Hey there! Easy does it--"
oh that is a lot of cables
Tidus has enough time to shove Jecht's sphere back into his pocket and exchange it for a chocobo feather, which he hurls up as fast as he can to use its magic one last time--that's the last one he's got, so it's going to have to count.
"RUN!" he shouts, for everyone's sakes, but it's Yuna he grabs to help in their escape up the tunnel and towards that shattered window. He's not going to be quick to forget Paine's pointed look, any more than he's going to stop and try to fight off those giant cables.
DG: Tidus has used his Tool Chocobo Feather toward his party's challenge, The Broken Vessel. Quicken! Party Agility boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu is always ready to call out someone specifically. But she doesn't. She notices that Tidus is accidentally revealing the existence of a secret, and politely pretends that he didn't say anything.
She notices the deft way Rikku uses the item there--that Bomb Fragment that ordinarily would make a large, un-useful explosion. She also notices the pun. The egg-ercise...
"Hmmm. As long as you're always looking sunny-side up."
Paine.. who says she's fine, but accepts the potion, and does not collapse. This does impress Lulu well enough, who notes her endurance with a brief not. Brief, because...
"What is this?" Lulu wonders. She stares around at the broken vessel, but it is far too large for her to identify. "It's made of metal, but--"
The cables start, and there's shaking. "Move!" Lulu agrees, and her Cactuar is ready at the draw. Lulu along the way is able to jump out of the way of cables thanks to its magic, and batter them back with her doll's power--but she can only dodge the ones that come close enough, and can do nothing to deflect the others.
For Yuna, she will have to rely on, "Tidus! Go!"
DG: Lulu has used her Tool Vengeful Cactuar toward her party's challenge, The Broken Vessel. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Tidus groans, Rikku grins shamelessly, then gives a huge belly laugh at Lulu's return pun, as she offers Lulu a high five (Whether or not she takes it.) "Good one!"
Then as they collect the final egg something registers, "Wait Elly did what n-"
They all vanish! They reappear!
And prehensile cables rush them!!!! And the floor is slippery-!
Rikku sums it up once again with one word, "Poopie." Proving she's a hypocrite when it comes to foul(????) language.
Rikku has to rely on Tidus' feather to quicken her pace, as she beats feet, trying to hop over the cables as they reach for her, "No! No! I'll disassemble you later! Right now, GOTTA MOVE!"
DG: Rikku has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Broken Vessel.
<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.
"You too, huh?" Paine sighs at Lulu's pun. It was a good crush while it lasted.
Paine gazes up at their surroundings for the brief time in which they are quiet, but greets the motions of the cables with a snarled "What the hell?" She thought, perhaps, that she was through this. The potion has her on her feet, but only just, and for a moment her hand hovers over the hilt of Gravestone. Caution dictates leaving it on her back; those cables are too big to make parrying a very good idea; running with empty hands is the smart move. But with her sword out, she has some chance of influencing their passage if it comes down to it. If they tried to steal the smile Yuna gets when Tidus holds her hand, for instance, or the bright joy of Rikku's smile, or Lulu's... really good body.
Or Paine's own, fragile suspicion, much-resented and maligned in her own thoughts, this might all have a happy ending after all.
Paine drags Gravestone out with its signature rough grinding sound before setting off after her friends apace. She's never been one for half-measures.
DG: Paine has contributed a risky Agility Action toward her party's challenge, The Broken Vessel.
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>============================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - The Broken Vessel *>======================= | Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 3 |
=======================<* Sin - Dream's End - Round 6 *>======================== ========================< Results - The Broken Vessel >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yuna 21 --(10)--> 31 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rikku 50 --(15)--> 65 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paine 98 --(10)--> 108 Pass Rush 1 Agility Effects: Risky -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tidus 66 --(10)--> 76 Pass Chocobo Feather 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lulu 61 --(10)--> 71 Pass Vengeful Cactuar 3 Agility Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Yuna 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2)|Suffer(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: Paine is too exhausted to continue! DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Yuna has successfully explored Sin - Dream's End!
============================<* Sin - Dream's End *>============================= ====================<* CHALLENGE - Computational Dreaming *>==================== | Type: Discovery | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion | Challenge Rating: 4 |
<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.
This time Tidus clasps Yuna's hand with deadly urgency, but though it is not the most romantic of holdings, well -- saving her life is more than beautiful enough, is it not? And he has done so many times, and in so many ways. If not for him she might well have taken the prescribed road, at Zanarkand. And then she would already be dead. And Jecht wouldn't be the one awaiting brave travelers at the heart of Sin...
Even with Tidus' precious chocobo feather, it is a scramble. The Cactuar batters back a few cables, enough for Lulu to get clear, and Rikku too, who might otherwise have been caught. And Paine, well -- Paine ensures that she is. Is caught, and torn, to buy that extra few seconds needed to ensure everyone makes it through the shattered window.
Even Paine herself, though her passage may be more of a fall than a leap.
Afterwards, Yuna has no eyes for the profoundly strange surroundings and its message.
It suggests the distant past, and perhaps a potential future.
But Yuna cares nothing for gods and their becoming.
She just wants her friends to be whole, one Cure spell at a time.
And in the strange quiet -- the cables have not pursued them here -- she takes that time. And time to say one other thing:
"If Elly was able to help you reach him... I'm glad," she tells Tidus.