2020-10-23: The Strains of Water Guide Us Through Spiritual Fog

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  • Log: The Strains of Water Guide Us Through Spiritual Fog
  • Cast: Yuna, Lulu, Tidus, Rikku, Ghaleon, Kimahri, Wakka, Auron
  • Where: Bevelle - Via Purifico
  • Date: October 23, 2020
  • Summary: After escaping from the Via Purifico, Tidus and Rikku return to find their other friends and bring them out too. They find who they're looking for--but also, someone they're not.

==========================<* Bevelle - Via Purifico *>==========================

Via Purifico is the immense, ancient labyrinth built underneath Bevelle. It is attached the prisons in the temple complex. It is a place of death and despair, as those tried and found guilty are sentenced to it -- to escape and prove their innocence or (as happens far more likely) die within. The labyrinth has countless glyphs, which are warded and make navigating hard (and teleporting away impossible). There are many portions that are flooded, as well, and that adds an extra level of complexity.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtN36ITVrCo


DG: A party led by Lulu is now entering Via Purifico.
DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.

===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Finding Your Friends *>=====================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 |

< Challenge Information: >---------------------------

 The tunnels of Via Purifico are damp. Ancient stone, colored green by moss
 and other plant life, makes up the walls and floors. Here and there,
 patterns of red stone from the original construction may be seen. Lamps on
 the floor light it, here and there; machina lamps, ancient and still
 functioning, give some hope of navigating.

 People cast down here have landed in different places, after being dropped
 down from Bevelle above. You have found yourself in one room. The only thing
 to do is search -- and hope to find other members before long.

Dungeon Conditions: Madness, Overwhelm, Tire================================

<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

The rubble around Lulu shifts as she does, looking away from what was previously something of an exit. ...It is not, anymore, and she is alone. There's no getting through what's there, either. There's a moment where she listens to try to hear through it but...

No, she'll have to find another route. So she does.

She moves with intended purpose, but it's fair to say that she wanders the halls for some time. Losing track of direction here and there, she periodically scorches a wall here, shifts some debris there. The black mage was tired before, but her period of involuntary rest saw to some of that. She is wounded, she is injured, and...

Her steps clack on old stones, the lamps lighting her path and preventing her needing magic to do it for her. There are, periodically, Fiends.

She avoids most of them, but none can avoid all of them more than likely--Sahagin, for instance, the shelled Helm types, and others.

Lulu walks, and walks. Alone, but not alone. Because...

DG: Lulu has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Finding Your Friends.


<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

When Ghaleon comes back from his little walkabout he finds Yuna, somehow, incredibly, even more wrecked than when he left her to rest. THAT'S NOT HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO WORK, but the chamber she's in tells the story of a grand battle, an epic clash of the titans; there's the matter of the hundreds of feet of raised ceiling, the water everywhere, the fading smells of peach and brimstone and ozone and ice and -- dragon and sea serpent??? Evidently he missed quite a show.

But whatever she's been through has again reforged her determination, as baptisms by fire always do. She is standing on her own two feet, not leaning against a wall. And she hastens across the great chamber to his side, once he reappears.

After looking him over to make sure HE'S good to go, she suggests, "We should hurry and find the others."

Glancing at an empty threshold, which smells more than anything like death, she adds, "I think we're running out of time."


<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

"Rikkuuu! Hey, Rikkuuuu!" Tidus calls as he jogs after his friend. "Stuff with Cecilia took no time at all! Wait up!"

Once the blond athlete catches up with the blond thief, it's forward ho back into the watery tunnels of the Via Purifico. At least they know the way back out, since they're heading back in from an exit! ...Hopefully they don't get lost en route to finding their friends.

"Yunaaaa! Wakkaaaaa! Luluuuuuu! Guuuuuys!" Tidus calls, hands cupped around his mouth, as they walk. This inevitably attracts fiends, but it's easier to deal with those with him and Rikku working side-by-side. If they need healing, Rikku's got Al Bhed Potions in a pinch, probably.

"At least it's been mostly dry so far," he remarks to Rikku as they travel. "I bet that's why we didn't find anyone else. The only other one of us who can swim is Wakka."

He doesn't say what else he's thinking, which is: What if they drowned? There's *so much* water down here.

DG: Tidus has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Finding Your Friends.


<Pose Tracker> Ghaleon has posed.

"I am," Ghaleon says to Yuna. He walks up next to Yuna, and then the Dragonmaster looks her over. His own sojourn had been to help a group in trouble; a little magical light crackles off his fingers, as he does. It flickers, then fades. "I see you encountered... some trouble."

He glances at the threshold, then. He nods his head once. "...Perhaps. But we should look for them," he says. "I suspect your friends must be nearby. Hm, hm, hm..."

The Dragonmaster looks worse for the wear. His white robes are tattered and dirtied; the armored shoulder pieces are dented and blackened. A few cracks show. Even his hair and skin are dirtied, with a few scratches. He has the usual purple scarring -- almost like stone -- about his life eye.

Both look on, clearly, though.

He looks up, as he hears names called out. Ghaleon looks sideways, at Yuna. "I hear someone calling your name. And every fiend in here, perhaps."


<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

"Oh hey!" Rikku slows down from her fast jog, panting, "Oh good! Don't suppose she could like - ask those Guardians of hers where the others are huh?" Rikku's smile seems slightly forced, "Guess that's probably too much to ask for."

She'd spent most of the time Tidus was away searching another section.

Standing on her tip toes, and cupping her hands over her mouth, Rikku joins in, shouting as well. Trying to get a volume that's even higher than Tidus - JUST IN CASE.

"YUUUUNNNNIIIEEE! LULUUUUUU! WAKKAAAAA! ANYONE!?"

The experience makes her a little hoarse, it's obvious that even she's getting tired from all of this searching Tilting her head to the side, she listens in the distance. Then moves down on her tip toes, her legs seemingly a bit wobbly from fatigue.

"Good thing huh? I doubt I'd have lasted as long as I have if we'd been swimming the whole time... but I think, it's time for a pick me up." Bending over, Rikku does her version of quick alchemy, combining several potions together. And then hands one to Tidus, "Here you go. Normally I'd be hesitant to give this to you - seeing as you play Blitzball and all, but this is an emergency."

She then downs one herself.

Rikku is /not/ touching on the implication of the possibility that they drowned. She's still optimistic from the fact that so many other Drifters survived, that it couldn't be POSSIBLE that the other Guardians would be done in by something like water, right?

"Anyhow!! I bet they're just around the next bend! Come on!"

And then Rikku takes off at a sprint. Because while she wasn't explicit about this...

... side effects may include a small case of hyperactivity.

DG: Rikku has used her Tool Quickpockets toward her party's challenge, Finding Your Friends.


<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Yuna shakes her head wearily. "No... it was no trouble." And that seems to be true; something deep within her is satisfied, heartened, by whatever ordeal she's just been through. But that does run her up close to the whole 'spirit is willing but flesh cannot' issue. How many more times is she going to be driven past her limits down here?

At least one more. Because she isn't leaving until she finds the other Guardians, no matter what. Fishing around in her sash, she comes up with a pair of candies, and offers the Dragonmaster one before taking the other. They aren't magical or otherwise extraordinary in any respect. But they are sweet, and a little bit spicy. A Kilika delicacy, given to her as she departed the Temple by an admiring young child.

Ghaleon's side-eye draws her to face him fully, at least for a moment. His ears are sharper, but once he calls her attention to it, she gasps, "I hear him too! Both of them!"

Yuna sucks in a breath like she's about to dive into the ocean, tightens her whole body like she's a runner at the starting line. Gathering what dregs of strength she has left, she lets hope fan it into a flame. Then her skirts rustle like the disturbed surface of a nighttime pond as she breaks into a trot. A stumbling gait, perhaps an unwise pace, but... she obeys another wisdom, that of the heart.

When she said she thought they were running out of time, she hadn't expected it to be such an instantly fulfilled prophecy.

She's seen too many skeletons down here to not want to beat the fiends to Tidus and Rikku first.

And to Lulu... who she hasn't seen since fiends separated them, violently.

DG: Yuna has used her Tool Pilgrim's Sash toward her party's challenge, Finding Your Friends.


<Pose Tracker> Ghaleon has posed.

Ghaleon glances about. Then, he reaches inside of his cloak. He pulls out a small, silvered clasp; a brooch, with a small dark blue gem in it. His fingers brush over it; he thinks of what a friend would do. His eyes glnace at Yunna, and then he looks about, as Rikku's voice echoes.

He hurries after Yuna, long legs moving him quickly. The Dragonmaster towers over her; he towers over most people. The elf glances about, eyes narrowed.

What would that old friend do? Get to business and find these people.

DG: Ghaleon has used his Tool Velvet's Brooch toward his party's challenge, Finding Your Friends.

===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
=====================<* CHALLENGE - Finding Your Friends *>=====================

DG: The party led by Lulu has failed this challenge! The party gained 15 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.

Tidus's yelling does attract Fiends, as does Rikku's. They attract more than fiends, too, though. ...But on the othr hand they /definitely/ both attract fiends, and in short order are obligated to act like this is a combat challenge instead of a Wits challenge, thanks to a group of them that approaches the pair. But, they fight well together, s this is not the end. It just means there's time, with their hyperactive selves, for something else to happen.

Candy is a luxury few in these tnnels have had the chance to enjoy. It's a nice little moment, and helps to make the whole place a little less overwhelming. But they run--Yuna runs, and Ghaleon does what a Ghaleon does--

And run into the other side of the battle, pincering the Fiends between them. The battle goes shorter with the group of them.

...It's only well after it ends that the slow clicks of shoes against stone resolve into a woman in black rounding the corner. She looks tired, and there are new wounds than those Yuna would recognize. She also smells like something burnt terribly near her, because this is true.

But they're all alive!

DG: Yuna has drawn a new Challenge.

===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Break Through the Ceiling *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 |

< Challenge Information: >---------------------------

 This is an underwater challenge.

 You find a path that leads underwater, with a long submerged hallway. It
 ends in an octagonal room, with a large ceiling that has a sealed vault on
 the top of it. The hinges and the handle are rusted, but this must lead to
 the next chamber of Via Purifico. It will be necessary to blast through the
 ceiling to get out of here -- with all of the complications and danger that
 such a thing implies.

Dungeon Conditions: Weaken, Tire, Exhaust===================================

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Seen for the first time by Rikku and Tidus, and for the first time in a while by Lulu, Yuna is not in good shape; she has numerous small, fresh wounds on her shoulders, back, hands, and face, the sorts of abrasions one collects from a bad time in the Via Purifico. One of her sleeves has torn almost all the way off, and she is both damp and dirty at once. All of this, layered upon a deeper issue -- one some of them might have noticed at the trial -- how her whole body is a little hesitant in its motions from being extraordinarily ill-used. Even small gestures cost her something, right now, when her body has been recently, and harshly, been taught not to move at all.

But she got up every time, back then. And she's still going now...

YEARS of relief slough off her ragged frame as she sees the three of them. Still whole, still alive, despite everything. Her smile is the slightest bit hesitant, though, just like every other motion; not in Lulu's direction, but in Rikku's and Tidus', since they have not yet reunited. It's easy to sense her sorrow. Her grief, for what they've gone though, because of her.

Nevertheless, she takes one step forward, towards them. Then another. "Everyone..."

Then a third, faster--

--and the ruined floor collapses beneath her, sending her plunging into dark waters below.

  • PLIP!*

The current swiftly carries her away from being able to resurface. From where there IS a surface.

DG: Yuna has used her Tool Macalania Destruction Sphere toward her party's challenge, Break Through the Ceiling.


<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

Tidus takes the mixed-up potion from Rikku, only to pause when she says what she says. "Wait, what? What's that supposed to mean? What's me playing blitzball got to do with anything??" he utters, increasingly alarmed. He could use a pick-me-up too, granted, after that encounter with Evrae and all, and then there's a bunch of fiends approaching, so he curses, downs the bottle, and starts hacking and slashing.

Fortunately, fiends aren't the only ones that gather. As pyreflies rise from the fallen fiends, Tidus looks over at the sudden help that came from the other side and sees... "Yuna!" A split-second pause. "The Dragonmaster guy?! I thought you died!" Another split-second. "Wait, are you Unsent TOO?!" He thrusts a scandalized finger at the ancient elven man. "How many Unsent we got in this place?!"

See, Ghaleon? You're not the *only* one who can do references. Lulu, don't worry, Tidus will be glad to see you safe and sound, he's just busy yelling about seeing dead people.

But at the end of the day, it's all about Yuna. As she leans forward, smile hesitant, covered in wounds, Tidus looks again at her and notices--well, all the rough stuff she's clearly been through. Torn and dirty clothes, hair in a disarray, the way her movements aren't quite in alignment... His gaze lingers on her. She takes a second step forward, and he decides, to hell with the Unsent when *she's* here. He breaks forward, almost into a run.

Then the floor collapses under Yuna, sending her falling into dark waters below, and it *is* a run.

"YUNA!" Tidus shouts, diving in after her without a second thought. He'll fight that current tooth and nail if he has to in order to get her back.

DG: Tidus has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Break Through the Ceiling.


<Pose Tracker> Ghaleon has posed.

"Hardly," Ghaleon says to Tidus, with a chuckle. "No, I'm the same as I was before I came to this place." He isn't quite calling himself 'alive,' because really, that would be too much. "I'm afraid I came here and got on the Grand Maester's bad side. He didn't care for some of the things I told him."

He shrugs. "So he threw me in prison. It wasn't very... gracious."

He chuckles. And then the door gives way -- and Yuna goes collapsing down into the water. His dark eyes widen, and he calls out: "Lady Yuna!" he says. "Damn--" He grits his teeth, then adjusts a ring on his finger. There is a flash of light around him -- and then he leaps, diving into the water.

When he hits the water, Ghaleon opens his mouth. It doesn't even phase him; the old sorcerer knows a few tricks. Because, underwater, he starts to speak.

"We need to find her, quickly," he says to whoever else has dived down.

DG: Ghaleon has used his Tool Royce's Ring toward his party's challenge, Break Through the Ceiling.


<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

"I wouldn't want you to be accused of cheating!" Rikku says back quickly, "It'd probably be a big scandal!"

Rikku's response to the sudden combat challenge is to blow fiends up using grenades! And also to offer Tidus some of the aforementioned Al Bhed potions. "I think I jinxed us." She tells him sheepishly.

However, it is /not/ long before they encounter sight of...

Rikku just cries out of with relief upon seeing her in the distance, and then upon sight of Yuna, "Y-Yunie! You're- You're okay!"

Tidus calls out Ghaleon as a possible Unsent and Rikku looks his way in alarm, "Wait really!? Why does this keep happening?!" Though as he explains himself, she notes, "I think... we can relate to that."

...but mostly she finds herself.. relieved.

No potion can truly wipe away the emotional fatigue she's felt. Stress building up more and more for reasons that have nothing to do with. The last time she saw her she was defending herself in trial. The time before that, she was praying. Then she saw her before that was falling - newly wed. Before that, she was being taken away by the Al Bhed.

Every time, it felt like the circumstances were just keeping them apart. Keeping her from actually catching her breath, feeling relief. For a moment it's like she actually believes this is going to be an end to the separation between all of them.

And then, crumbled floor gives way.

"AAAAA!"

Rikku cries out in alarm, before waving at Lulu as she spies her, "C'mon, c'mon! We have to go after her. Stay close to me!" She says as she rapidly fumbles with her rebreather, inserting it into her mouth and diving in not too long after Tidus.

In the water, she's mostly swimming though she gives Ghaleon a startled look at being able to actually hear him. Bubbles flying up from her rebreather. One can't actually read her lips with something between them but one can imagine her saying...

'Magic can do that!?'

Most of her Magical experiences come from Yuna and Lulu after all. Mostly though, she's swimming to try to catch up to Yuna, just in case she needs to take a breath.

DG: Rikku has used her Tool Far Too Many Grenades toward her party's challenge, Break Through the Ceiling.


<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

Lulu spots the differences, even fatigued as she is. She has gone beyond reasonable use of her power already; she has gone beyond reasonable walking already. And unfortunately, she has no power to heal Yuna's injuries... Received down here or otherwise. But she also spots a man. A notable man, who she recalls actually.

Lulu is not worried about Tidus's lack of greeting. But she does point out, "I doubt Yuna would be walking with him freely if so," she points out in a voice that sounds significantly better than she feels. "But I also thought so."

Ghaleon's explanation raises questions, but none of those questions are as important to Lulu as Yuna is. Rikku directs her, and Lulu dosen't even hesitate; she jumps into the water, heavy dress and all, and as she immediately begins to sink, the current nevertheless carries her along. Rikku says to stay close, and Lulu will... /try/, but--

In the meantime she grips tightly onto Mog, holding her breath for the moment, and relies on the doll's power. Sh lifts a hand in the water, and suddenly starts moving faster forward with the current, towards Yuna.

Water spells underwater aren't exactly the most visible.

DG: Lulu has used her Tool Power Mog toward her party's challenge, Break Through the Ceiling.

===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Break Through the Ceiling *>===================

DG: The party led by Lulu 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.

Tidus catches up to Yuna first and he finds her terrifyingly limp. The water does nothing but enhance her excessive paleness, and her hair drifts as beautifully around her head as would that of a corpse. But her eyes fly open at his touch, and that's when he realizes -- she's learning, from her numerous involuntary drops into the sea, at the hands of Al Bhed, fiends, and this time, poor architectural soundness. She's learning from watching HIM, by having been rescued by him, so many times. By not tensing up, and not moving until help reached her, she was saving up her air.

Still, she isn't very good underwater, and by the time everyone's caught up she's not much use; she fumbles at her belt for something they might use to knock away the ceiling above them, but is clumsy from diminishing oxygen. In the end, it's up to Rikku's grenades, Lulu's magic, and Ghaleon's unfairly unfettered functionality to blast them a fresh surface.

That, and--

--well, for some reason, some of the chunks of stone are falling down instead of up.

One man's ceiling is another man's floor...

Kimahri's thick arms are tighter than ever with muscle when they're drenched, it turns out. Panting with the exertion of whatever Ronso technique he just used to help the party escape, he doesn't hesitate to dip them back in and use them to heave people out, one at a time, until everyone is safely out once more.

Then he grabs up a still-coughing Yuna and causes her to vanish within his fuzzy, purring embrace.

Everyone else is just going to have to wait a minute.

DG: Tidus has drawn a new Challenge.

===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Flood Gate Locks *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 |

< Challenge Information: >---------------------------

 This is an underwater challenge.

 You path leads you into one of the tunnels that is flooded. After diving
 into the water, you find that the flooded tunnel is blocked by an immense
 floodgate. There is a mechanical control to operate the floodgate, with
 Spiran glyphs written to explain its somewhat complicated operation.
 However, two problems present themselves.

 First, you need to figure out how the controls work.

 Second, once the floodgate lifts, there will be a torrential flood that will
 pull you with it unless you are very careful.

Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Injure=========================================

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

"Oh--OH. I get you now. Nah, in that case, I'm fine. Thanks for the offer, though," Tidus says. He'll take the Al Bhed Potions, though! Delicious healing.

The team runs into Ghaleon! Ghaleon explains he's the same as he was before, which is not the same as saying he's alive, but Tidus takes this at face value. "Oh, huh... Okay." Lulu offers an additional explanation; Tidus brightens to see her. "Lulu! You're okay!" (Relatively speaking.) "Huh... All right, that makes sense. So you saw him already, then?" In this same way, he does remain an inherently inquisitive person, so when he looks back at Ghaleon, he wonders, "How'd you survive that attack from Sin, anyway?"

Fortunately for the G-Man, Yuna takes a sudden plunge. Tidus double-takes at Ghaleon when he talks underwater, but there's more pressing issues, so Tidus shoots Rikku and Lulu nods when they both dive in, then starts swimming with all his might after his Summoner. And he reaches her first--thank all that training as a blitzballer--he realizes what she's doing, and what she's not doing.

He can't help but smile at her, affectionate and admiring.

At least he can keep her from getting swept away by the current, allowing the others time to catch up and work on knocking the ceiling out from above them. But then, when they knock through upwards, something knocks through *downwards*--and furry arms, corded with muscles, help those below up onto a dry surface one by one.

"Kimahri! You're a lifesaver!" Tidus declares once they're all up. Kimahri is probably too busy hugging Yuna to answer, but... heck, can anyone blame him? He grins, then looks around. There's two paths--one that Kimahri must have come from, since it's leading up into drier parts, and one that he probably *hasn't* been to yet, because it slopes past the now-broken part of the floor and down into a different, separated area, a tunnel that leads towards a floodgate...

"Really?" he utters. He looks over at Rikku. "Looks familiar, doesn't it?" Ah well... "At least this means we know the way to the exit now." He pulls out his megaphone and calls to everyone, including the ones in the back, "C'mon, guys! It's gonna take a lot of swimming, but me and Rikku know how to make it out of here from here! Let's gather up our breath, cast whatever spells we got to, and keep on keeping on!"

Assuming that this is in fact the same floodgate and not a different one that happens to look astonishingly familiar. The Via Purifico probably did make extensive use of the same architect, after all.

DG: Tidus has used his Tool Megaphone toward his party's challenge, Flood Gate Locks.


<Pose Tracker> Ghaleon has posed.

"It does seem to be a running theme," Ghaleon remarks dryly to Rikku.

And then, later, Ghaleon isn't dry at all. When Rikku looks at him and asks if magic can do that, he nods his head once. He swims along, despite his armor. Magic seems to have given him an ability to swim despite heavy clothing, heavy armor, and no real swimming ability. He looks about, towards Yuna.

He blinks once at Kimahri; then, he looks at Tidus, and considers as he points out the locks. He has been here, before, then. "So... hm. You doubled back? Well, well, well... that's very noble of you."

He cracks a smile, then he starts forward. "I can make all of you able to hold your breath underwater longer--it's a water spell that they knew in Vane, though it's changed. A moment." He closes his eyes; Ghaleon focuses, for a moment, and they feel their breaths, somehow, grow deeper. Then he looks ahead.

His fingers curl around that old, silver brooch again. "Hm, hm, hm--you're sure?" he says, with a glance at Tidus and Rikku. "This place is built to be a maze. I'm /told/ that those can be confusing."

DG: Ghaleon has used his Tool Velvet's Brooch toward his party's challenge, Flood Gate Locks.


<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

Despite their best efforts, they're still underwater. Rikku is about to hastily offer Yuna her rebreather... when suddenly stones start floating down, and familiar furry arms burst down to grab Yuna. As Rikku brings herself up to the surface and assists the others as best as she can. Once they're back up though, and she's witnessing Kimahri hugging Yuna, "Aw... Kimahri." And she finds herself smiling at the sight of it.

She can only imagine how the Ronso has felt during this time down here, separated himself. This isn't all about how she feels after all.

All of them love Yuna.

Though as they take the path, and come down the tunnel towards the floodgate. She gives Tidus a big grin, as if newly energized by the reunion moreso than any potion, "That just means we're ready for anything this place can throw at us now right?"

Though as Ghaleon asks if they doubled back, Rikku gives him a look of unabashed pride, "Well. Of course! We're Yunie's Guardians after all. We wouldn't be very good Guardians if we just waited for her - and the others at the exit right?"

Though then as Ghaleon says that, Rikku nods quickly, "Sure! I admit you kinda have me curious now..." He then looks back and forth between Ghaleon and Lulu. Like she's /wondering/ whether it's something Lulu could learn. Though she's not presumptuous enough to ask for her.

Though as Ghaleon casts doubt upon it, Rikku just gives him a big grin, "Maze or not, we've got this! Just leave it to team Guardian and we'll have you out of this maze too in no time at all."

While the implication that he might have been Unsent made her nervous at first, she no longer seems to be. After all, Ghaleon was right there at Operation Mi'ihen helping her people. And he was entirely absent during the War, on account of everyone thinking he was dead.

DG: Rikku has used her Tool Quickpockets toward her party's challenge, Flood Gate Locks.


<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

"No, I'm just guessing," Lulu admits of Ghaleon. "But I'm about as fine as I can be."

Everything else can wait. But there are problems, and she dosn't spak up at first as they move on.

Indeed, she just looks at Kimahri, noting him there as he helps her out of the water, which she accepts gratefully. She's soaked through, as one might expect, her usual choice of garments exceptionally heavy when doused with water. It's a sign of her stubbornness that she doesn't rise to sit down while they wait on the next few moments.

But she does speak up eventually. "Thank you, Kimahri." And then she looks to Ghaleon curiously--a wter spell that they knew... She watches Ghaleon cast it in som interest.

"Useful," she remarks as she feels its effects. She would very much like to stop and nerd about it. But instead...

"Oh, he's used to pushing through confusion," Lulu quips fondly of Tidus, remembering well those old times. She nods, though. "I appreciate your enthusiasm."

She says it in a tone drier by far than she is, but the fatigue actually shows through now that she's walking doused in water. She is content that Yuna is safe for now with Kimahri, at least. As safe as anyone can be down here.

She obviously has wondered the same thing as Rikku. Buuut...

"Do we know how to open the gates?" Lulu confirms, finding something to brace with.

DG: Lulu has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Flood Gate Locks.


<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Kimahri sets Yuna back on her feet... eventually. If nothing else, she's marginally drier than she was before, afterwards. He squeezed a soft "Oh, Kimahri!" out of her, too, and on the far side of all that fondness it's easier for her to let affection rule her, too, instead of grief or shame or regret. She smiles back at Tidus, squeezing a stream of water out of her hair, water that coalesces around and down her beaded earring, over her shoulder, and down her back. Then she tucks the hair behind her ear, where it belongs.

"Thank you, everyone... you saved me again," she says, glowing a little bit with mingled gratitude and gladness.

"Rikku, Lulu, Tidus. And stranger," the Ronso rumbles, low and soft. "Kimahri glad to see."

Yuna lays an empty palm over her chest as she feels her breathing come more easily, more deeply. "That is wonderful magic, Ghaleon," she adds. "Um, have you met everyone? Everyone, this is Dragonmaster Ghaleon. He's... a man of honor." Perhaps the only descriptor of him the two can agree on without argument. She obviously trusts as well as respects him, though, turning her back on him with the casual ease of a comfortable traveling companion to give Rikku -- proud, bright, Rikku, still so happy to be her Guardian, despite everything -- a quick, damp hug.

Then she stares up at the floodgates like someone who HASN'T seen it before. She plucks a crystal out of her obi and squeezes it; it begins to shine, casting a ghostlight on the controls. It glints off the brooch in Ghaleon's hand, also, and she gives it a curious look. "You had that before, too," she asides at him, exhaustion making her perhaps less focused than she should be. Her tone is softly curious. "Is it... also from Vane?"

Kimahri falls in beside Lulu, a silent offer of support.

DG: Yuna has used her Tool Pilgrim's Sash toward her party's challenge, Flood Gate Locks.

===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
=======================<* CHALLENGE - Flood Gate Locks *>=======================

DG: The party led by Lulu 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.

Noble? Tidus blinks at Ghaleon, non-plussed. "Not really? I mean, our friends were still inside here. What'd you think we would do, abandon them?" He gives a grin back to Rikku. "You know it! Now let's get moving!"

Kimahri expresses his gladness to see everyone, even Ghaleon. Yuna formally introduces Ghaleon to everyone, and Tidus wonders if it's really okay to have a major head honcho from Althena's Guard around--but then he helps everyone out with that water spell, and he figures, well, it's not his fault his guys decided to wage war after he went missing.

But then Lulu makes a joke at his expense, and Tidus utters, "Hey!! I resemble that remark!" Another grin. The mood in here definitely feels lighter now that most of them are back together again. Together, everyone heads into the water to work the controls of the floodgate. At first, it seems like everything's going fine--but then the waters suck them forward as the gate opens. This gets canceled out when a blitzball sails in from the other side and *bops* the controls over there, slowing them down enough that everyone can withstand the tide until everyone's all the way through.

And who would happen to be there to greet them but--Wakka! Who gives everyone a big cheesy grin and thumb's-up, with a bonus underwater high-five to Tidus, as he catches his blitzball on the rebound. No time for words of joy right this second, with everyone underwater, but there'll be plenty of time to hug it out once they make it up to the surface. ...wherever that may be from here. It is, after all, a maze down here.

DG: Rikku has drawn a new Challenge.

==============================<* Via Purifico *>==============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Turbine Crossing *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 3 |

< Challenge Information: >--------------------------

 Via Purifico's depths include some of the immense machina that keep the city
 working. You find one such machina, in this cavernous chamber: a massive
 turbine that powers some of the machina used by Bevelle. It fills the huge
 gap before you, and falling into it would consign you to be -- for lack if a
 better word -- blendered.

 However, a huge bar across the top makes a bridge across the tunnel. The bar
 could be crossed single-file, but it moves too quickly to be safe. If you
 use some force, though, you might be able to stop it in the right place and
 cross to the other side safely.

Dungeon Conditions: Collapse, Injure, Exhaust===============================

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

If Rikku seemed cheerful before, there's something about her happiness that just feels so /relieved/, as Yuna offers her that damp hug. Like suddenly whatever separated them before might actually be /gone/ for good. It makes this reunion more real. "It's so good to have you back Yunie," she whispers, with a happy smile, and misting eyes.

"Missed you," she adds, despite that being the most obvious thing.

She tries her hardest to keep herself from laughing though at the joke Lulu makes, and Tidus' reaction to it.

Rubbing her eyes though, she gets to the floodgate, and once its open...

... they find themselves surfacing with one party member extra, the whirr of machinery filling their ears in the short tunnel. And yet despite the ominous noise, she takes a moment to greet Wakka now that they're above water, "/Wakka/! Hey! Knew we'd find you sooner or later! You okay?"

An extraordinarily short tunnel because it's perhaps only ten meters until there is a giant chasm in front of them. And in the chasm is the blur of a whirring turbine blade, the air in the tunnel whipping throughout it entire.

In front of them the machinery is rotating on a gear, causing a horizontal path to rotate round and round at speeds too fast for them to catch up to.

"This is... this must be what they're using to power the city." Rikku makes a slow blink of her eyes. She doesn't say what she's thinking, because she feels like it might open up fresh wounds for the others... trying to confine it to just being a self-wound but...

... she thinks it's maybe even more advanced than what the Al Bhed had to draw power from - in Home. It's certainly larger in scale at least.

Trying to put back on a cheerful face though, she notes to Ghaleon, "Guess you had a point after all. We didn't come through here last time... but, it's not a problem."

As she suddenly twirls a finger in air like she's trying to track it's movements, she then asks Lulu, "What do you think Lulu? Yunie? Ghaleon? Freeze it? It might be easier to wreck it at the right moment if the machinery is frozen..."

Pause.

"I-I guess lightning would be a solid... plan D too? Maybe plan F even."

Rikku takes out a grenade, but she doesn't quite pull the pin yet, after all she's conferring with the group.

DG: Rikku has used her Tool Far Too Many Grenades toward her party's challenge, Ancient Turbine Crossing.


<Pose Tracker> Ghaleon has posed.

"Hm, hm. You raise an excellent point," Ghaleon answers Rikku. "Better that you keep a close eye on her." His eyes turn at Lulu -- his head tilts -- and then back at Kimahri. He meets the Ronso's eyes (and wonders, for a moment, at the semblance to Leo). Then, he glances at Yuna.

"No," he says. "A memento, of a friend I traveled with once. She probably would have enjoyed Spira. She was a sailor, of sorts."

He glances once at Tidus, then, and he considers for a second. "No, I suppose not." Maybe he's known people who would, though, abandon someone. "Hm, hm..."

They move along, until they find the large machina underneath the city. He slows to a stop, as he reaches the inside. He looks it over for a moment -- crosses his arms -- and then he considers. "This place is old," he concludes. "Very old. Technology like this... it's rare back in Meribus and Glenwood."

He holds a hand out. The ring on his hand glimmers, and then he looks at Rikku. "If one of you has lightning, that would be best. But, in this case--"

The ring glimmers. Then a huge block of ice drops down and tries to jam it. "--I'm not so practiced with that element. Lulu, perhaps you can? If that's one of yours?"

DG: Ghaleon has used his Tool Royce's Ring toward his party's challenge, Ancient Turbine Crossing.


<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

"It's good to see you, too," Lulu says t Kimahri. She accepts the introduction from Yuna--and inclines her head to him. "Thank you," she says to him, and it may be obvious what she is thanking him for. It is not his previous attempt to fight Sin.

Lulu doesn't go in for a hug for the moment, except insofar as Kimahri holding her in place as the floodwaters surge is /like/ one. But she actually quirks an amused lip back to Tidus when it fades and thy're abov the water.

It does feel btter, that more of them are togethe. Including...

"Wakka," Lulu greets, and if one looks very, very carefully, they might just hear the relief in her voice to see him alive. There is a moment where she just looks at him and thn thy continue on.

"...I don't know," Lulu admits, "But it's in our way."

She considers. "...So elsewhere on this world is similar in that respect," she wonders. However, she has some work to do, and she steps forward, Mog under her arm. She sets down the moogle, which begins to mirror her motions again. "...Sorry, Rikku," she says, "But I agree with him."

An old friend... Perhaps one day she'll be able to consider history like that agin.

"But I can use lightning.'

Rikku gets all of four seconds to brace herself when they start before a gigantic blast of lightning pours down into the turbine, supplemented by Mog-power.

DG: Lulu has used her Tool Power Mog toward her party's challenge, Ancient Turbine Crossing.


<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

It *is* really great to have Yuna back, and Tidus is genuinely glad to see her. But when she hugs Rikku, his good cheer falters momentarily. "So... um..." But he doesn't get a chance to say what he needs to. Bad place, bad timing, and they've got to get through in one piece. Even after meeting Wakka on the other side of that floodgate, they've still got another cranky old man to go.

"Hey, you think a dump like this'd take me down? Hahahaha, as if!" Wakka boasts to Rikku once everyone's up on dry land in the machina-filled chamber. "But I gotta admit, I'm really not likin'--" He shoots the turbine a dirty glare. "*This* confounded contraption!"

It's just one more kick in the pants after everything they've been through in this city... Wakka's gaze softens when he sees Yuna and Lulu, though, for all that they've clearly seen better days. To them, he offers no words: just open arms and a surefooted approach.

"Real glad to see you two in one piece," he murmurs. "Real, real glad." Kimahri, he offers a firm nod. The Ronso never was one for a lot of words, anyway.

Tidus, meanwhile, looks over the turbine with Rikku. "Yeah, looks like they're using water power. Guess that makes sense; there's a ton of it here, why not use it?"

Wreck the turbine, though? Or--oh, he sees now. There's some kind of bar that they could use as a bridge, if they could just do something to hold it in place. "I dunno, wouldn't ice be better for this?" he remarks. "Either way, all I've got is water magic, so... Gooooo, team?"

Tidus punctuates this with a weak fistpump.

DG: Tidus has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Ancient Turbine Crossing.


<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Yuna finds herself unable to reply to Rikku's sweetness; her throat is blocked by tears. It wouldn't do to cry, though, so she swallows audibly and simply nods in return. And then she says something she needs to say even though it isn't what she meant to say, or perhaps it's EVERYTHING she meant to say, just with the rest of the context stripped away: "I love you," she blurts out, all at once. And turns pink.

Ghaleon provides a helpful distraction.

Remembering their former conversation, she reflects softly, "It's... good, to travel with friends."

Apparently being consecutively picked up by newly added party members is going to be a thing now, because upon discovering Yuna is among them, Wakka favors her with a bear hug of his own. He follows up with a quick noogie, a mussing of her already beyond-repair hairstyle that speaks volumes: we know everything's beyond awful, but I'm still your brother.

The message is received. Yuna shows no shyness to Wakka, only a ducked head and a not-too-watery smile. She glances back at Lulu, then; the two of them haven't had much opportunity to re-reconnect; and the THREE of them, for a second, even in this strange and awful place, might as well be back on Besaid.

Rikku looks to her for expertise and Yuna shakes her head a little, earring swinging an unhappy, tight loop.

"I never knew," the summoner remarks, of the ancient technology beneath Bevelle. She sounds a little guilty. "There are a lot of things... I never knew." She glances at Lulu again, knowingly though not as eloquently paraphrasing her.

She stays close to Rikku until the lightning's over, then produces Macalania's vibrantly purple destruction sphere from her obi -- glancing at Tidus to communicate that this is what she tried, and failed, to paw at underwater when they were trapped.

Her grip on it kind of sucks. He gets a decent glimpse why, when she presses it into the rim of the turbine, where it begins to glow with sucked-up energy every time the blade passes, slowing it down. A little tension around her eyes, and a lot at her wrist. Her palm must be injured.

DG: Yuna has used her Tool Macalania Destruction Sphere toward her party's challenge, Ancient Turbine Crossing.

==============================<* Via Purifico *>==============================
==================<* CHALLENGE - Ancient Turbine Crossing *>==================

DG: The party led by Lulu 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.

The words 'I love you' cause Rikku to pinken too, because perhaps she didn't expect it, and for a moment the cousins are alike in complexion as well. Though that only causes her to hug her more tightly. "Love..." And stops herself.

It was a reflex to say it in Al Bhed, because she's ONLY ever said it in Al Bhed, and she finds herself pausing. But then she continues in a language all could hear, because she is /not/ ashamed to say it, "Love you too Yunie. You're the best cousin I could have ever asked for."

-=-=-

As Wakka says that, she taps him on the shoulder, "I mean I should have known better! As if they're going to execute a Champion Blitzball captain in /this/ place?" Before she then agrees with him, "For once... I agree with you."

As Ghaleon explains the origin of his pendant... "Any friend of yours must have been a really interesting person." Rikku says, clearly interested, though she doesn't press on who he means.

As Ghaleon notes it's rare, Rikku finds herself puzzled. Althena's Guard didn't exactly seem like they were the same as Yevon in regards to Machina. "Is it... really just that rare, or rarely dug up where you come from?" She finds herself asking with a certain curiosity, having never been there.

Ghaleon drops an ice block into the gears, causing the machinery to start GRINDING into it to try and clear the obstruction and Rikku gets hopeful. However... Lulu. "Can't blame a girl for trying?" Rikku gives Lulu a weak smile, as she tries to prepare herself for it. The moment she sees Lulu gathering the power, she pulls the pin on her grenade and hurls it.

Before the four seconds have expired, you'd think she'd assumed her patented thunder plains stance. Squatted down, hands over her ears. But with Yuna nearby instead she finds herself turning away towards her for comfort instead, "aaaaaaaaaaaa-!" Her shriek is muted a great deal by the thunder and the machinery and the grenade's explosion.

The Guardians and Yuna know about her phobia of course, but it feels extra embarrassing for someone she's just met, like Ghaleon, to see her like this.

The Destruction Sphere causes one last eruption in the Machinery. As a series of detonations and great timing cause the long bar to... bridge the gap...

"Okay... okay." As Rikku finally stops shivering and puts on a brave face, "I think I'm good to go..." And... starts to lead the way across the gap. It is thankfully a sturdy enough platform that they don't need to worry about falling off.

DG: Ghaleon has drawn a new Challenge.

==============================<* Via Purifico *>==============================
==============<* CHALLENGE - Evrae Altana - Close the Gates! *>===============
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 |

< Challenge Information: >--------------------------

 This is an underwater challenge.

 You enter another stretch of tunnel that is utterly flooded. The deepest
 recesses of Via Purifico are almost entirely flooded, and these are
 inhabited by a new occupant: the Unsent version of the Great Beast of
 Bevelle, Evrae. After being slain at the hands of Althena's Guard, Evrae
 (now Unsent) has been sent into the depths to insure that no Drifters,
 Guardians, Summoners, or otherwise prove their innocence through trial.

 The creature swims up to you from around a corner. It is a long,
 serpent-like dragon, with fins on its head. It sends a blast of prismatic
 orbs of light at you, shooting forward to strike at you.

 However, it has not caught up yet. If you are quick, you may be able to
 strike two switches on a nearby wall, and slam a gate down in front of it,
 to buy a few precious moments.

Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Suffer, Injure====================================

<Pose Tracker> Ghaleon has posed.

"Hm, hm, hm--so you can," Ghaleon muses. "And a few others, besides..."

This distracts Ghaleon for a moment. He doesn't opine on why -- instead, he looks at Yuna, and nods. "They were an interesting group," he says. "But, it was a long time ago." He slows to a stop, as they cross the gap. They make their way across -- then to where the next room is. There, they enter a chamber that has a narrow ledge around it. A catwalk, really, over a reservoir of water.

The water explodes up into droplets, a spray hitting them, and then a serpent bursts from the water. Pyreflies roil off it, before it slams into the wall.

"Wh--that thing!" Ghaleon shouts, as Evrae Altana -- the Guardian Dragon of Bevelle, slain by the Guard -- emerges. It smashes into the wall, and the catwalk collapses. They all go down, now, and splash down into the seat.

Ghaleon's eyes widen, before he spots a pair of switches -- and a door ahead. He motions through the open gate, not having had a chance to cast his spell yet. Instead, he directs a hand, and sends an ice lance hurtling for one of those switches as he gets closer.

He motions, then, with his hand.

DG: Ghaleon has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Close the Gates!.


<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

Lulu even consents to this brief display of affection. She really must have been concerned. She hasn't gotten to re-reconnect with Yuna, no... But here in this moment the three of them are together again. And that's something.

Lulu does not blame Rikku for trying, no.

She is quiet in the next few moments, particularly as she notices Yuna's difficulty, and she remembers having said something similar to what Yuna said then. There are many things she never knew, too.

But Ghaleon mentions her magic, and Lulu inclines her head. "Lightning was one of the earlier elements I was taught." She is tired enough that she actually speaks of her past if only very slightly, and chooses not to elaborate after she thinks about it. But...

Soon there is Evrae, and Lulu's eyes widen. She moves with Ghaleon.

"The Guardian Beast," Lulu comments, and pulls her Cactuar this time, to help her reflexes with its magic. If they can get to a better position...

DG: Lulu has used her Tool Swift Cactuar toward her party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Close the Gates!.


<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

It's only after Yuna uses the Destruction Sphere to help with moving/fixing that rebar in place to act as a bridge that it dawns on Tidus what Yuna was trying to signal to him, both just now and back under the water. His eyes widen with an 'oh!' of silent surprise, and then a grin. There's still that awkwardness there--he still needs to apologize to her for his long-running ignorance--but right now doesn't feel like the right time. If he apologized for hurting her here, in a group of people, she'd feel like she has to say it was okay so no one else would feel awkward or uncomfortable.

Besides. Between Rikku, Wakka, and Kimahri, everyone's getting a lot of genuinely heartwarming reunions with Yuna, moments it makes Tidus smile to see. He doesn't want to ruin things for them, either.

So instead, for right now, he looks over at Lulu. After all, it's a rare enough for her to talk about her past. "Oh yeah? Who taught you magic, anyway?"

Fortunately for Lulu, who should arrive just then but Evrae Altena in all its Unsent glory. "Damn--this guy again!" he utters, semi-echoing Ghaleon. His sword's in hand in a flash, but to no avail--the dragon smashes into the wall, collapsing the catwalk and sending everyone into the water.

Fortunately, this time, Tidus knows what to do. He nods at Ghaleon's hand directions, then swims with all his might, lending a hand to anyone who might need it--there's only so many strong swimmers in this group, after all.

Once everyone's past the gate, he twists in midair, hurls his own personal blitzball at the controls, and prepares to potentially do battle with Evrae as it catches up.

DG: Tidus has used his Tool Signed Blitzball toward his party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Close the Gates!.


<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Yuna is a summoner, and can summon a pretty good poker face at need. So when Rikku tells her that she's the best cousin she ever could have asked for -- this, in their first conversation after the Al Bhed died en masse, and blew up their Home, because of their choice to protect her from the Guado -- she just smiles through the pain. The gentleness is real, but the happiness is not, or at least not purely, even if she DOES feel relief at the forgiveness implied. But forgiving herself is going to take longer than they have right now. It might even take forever.

After retrieving her Destruction Sphere and crossing the bridge -- the young woman's arms teeter alarmingly (but beautifully, with white-pink ombre) left and right as she struggles across the balance beam, heights are not her forte -- she enters the next chamber with the rest. "Was one of them... the one who rescued you from Sin?" she asks Ghaleon, as they go along. When Lulu mentions her past, and Tidus asks her more about it, she glances between them, curious if Lulu will allow this line of questioning to continue.

But there's suddenly little time for either conversation.

The legendary Evrae's death is a new, unexpected sorrow. So much smaller and less personal than most, but still: it was a sacred beast. And now it is this monster.

"No longer," she echoes softly, mournfully, in Lulu's wake.

Before she can even -- with faith more habitual than anything -- shape the prayer with her hands, poor Yuna is plunged into the drink for the third or fourth time this hour.

But then something unexpected happens.

She's mostly helpless underwater, and surely SUPER DOOMED, as she does a thrashingly clumsy doggy paddle over to the more recalcitrant of the two switches, which is to say, TOWARDS the giant undead dragon instead of away from it. Wakka and Kimahri share an alarmed look, obviously preparing to go after her.

But once, with some desperate tugging, the switch is down for sure, she swirls in place, there's a flash of light--

--and she reappears among the group, on the other side of the gate. Her right hand is making a fist around something tiny, its underwater glow already vanishing.

She gives them all a tiny, encouraging smile, and THIS one disguises nothing at all.

DG: Yuna has used her Tool Teleport Sphere toward her party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Close the Gates!.


<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

Rikku has no sense of Yuna's guilt over it, though perhaps, if she stopped and thought about it it'd become obvious. The fact of the matter is though, she would never think Yuna was at fault for that. Not even a little, even in those ways unspoken and kept to herself.

Rikku finds herself looking trying not to look /too/ closely at Lulu as Tidus asks on her past. But she /IS/ curious since Lulu rarely talks about herself and Rikku is way nosier than she lets on.

Though that moment is interrupted by an unwelcome guest.

"What - AGAIN!?" Rikku shouts as the Guardian Wyrm bursts through the wall, before then rushing ahead to try and avoid the falling debris. There's not much time to react, so she's simply running at a full sprint.

That is until the platform crashes down.

It will occur to her later that perhaps her and Tidus should have informed the group of this thing roaming around.

Fortunately it looks like Yuna has a greater sense of it being an Unsent, than she originally did by her own words.

Rikku is suddenly swimming frantically, not even taking the time to put her rebreather in as she tries to swim quickly towards the gate that Ghaleon's quick thinking opened.

Rikku finds herself looking back though to find Yuna, only to see a dotted line where she once was.

Suddenly looking around frantically she then looks on ahead and sees her...

Even though she sees the glow, she does not suspect it is responsible for this turn of events.

Instead despite evidence to the contrary from her recent need of rescue, Rikku wonders if Yuna just is /that/ good of a swimmer now from her time down here.

DG: Rikku has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Close the Gates!.

===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
===============<* CHALLENGE - Evrae Altana - Close the Gates! *>================

DG: Tidus is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Yuna is too exhausted to continue!
DG: The party led by Lulu has failed 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.

DG: Ghaleon has drawn a new Challenge.

===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
===============<* CHALLENGE - Evrae Altana - Fight the Beast! *>================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 |

< Challenge Information: >---------------------------

 This is an underwater challenge.

 If you are lucky, you have slammed the gate down in front of Evrae Altana's
 draconic face, and bought yourself a chance to attack it. Otherwise, it will
 be on you, and lay into you with fang -- and its eyes, which can cause flesh
 to turn to stone, until magic or time reverses such a thing. The creature is
 brutal in its assault, and at full strength, maybe too much.

 But it also is seeking specific targets. After a few exchanges of blows,
 Evrae Altana circles away -- and takes off through a narrower service
 tunnel. A gate slams closed behind it, as it hurries on to harry another. If
 you are not too wounded, you may be able to continue on, towards an escape.

Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Fright===========================================

<Pose Tracker> Ghaleon has posed.

"...mm. Yes," Ghaleon says. "A man named Rokurou Rangetsu, if you ever have the chance to meet him, Lady Yuna." He looks at her, then cracks a smile. "Though, I think, he might get on the nerves of some of your guardians."

But, a little after that, they're in the water. Evrae Altana is a terrible thing. The serpent's body is silvery and grey, but its prismatic sheen comes from the pyreflies that roll off it. It looks more skeletal and drawn than it did in life; it is sharp and fast and the water, gliding neatly after them. Then, its body moves like a cracking whip. A powerful wave rolls through the water -- and underwater like this, it strikes hard.

But Yuna's teleport sphere, with a flash, gets the lot of them through the gate. The landing is rough. Yuna and Tidus are hurled, hard, to the floor. But the blitzball strikes into the switch -- and then the Cactuar Doll. The gate slams down.

Evrae Altana slams into it. The bars bend.

And Ghaleon starts to grin. For someone who has lived as long as him, there are times that a sort of blase attitude can take hold; a torpor, of sorts. But he finds some of that old sense of adventure coming back. He remembers standing with Dyne and Mel, as they faced down a wolf-beast, slamming its jaws 'round a corner. He remembers backing up behind Eleanor Hume as she raised her spear.

Maybe these are temporary comrades. Maybe the weight of his sin is greater than any fleeting memories. But he indulges the moment.

He reaches into his robes, and pulls out a lacquered wooden tube. A scroll-case; it has strange inscriptions, of the Vile Tribe, on it. Ghaleon crushes it -- and magic surges through him, burning into his veins. His eyes flash, illuminating that rocky purple scar around his left eye.

And then the Dragonmaster channels energy into the bars. Evrae /slams/ into them, the bars bending, but they ignite. They burn a bright red, steam bubbles rising off them. Evrae Altana finds the bars bend -- and dig in. Pyreflies stream off it, as Ghaleon superheats the bars, then looks to the others with a frenzied expression.

His lungs burn. He doesn't dare scream the command to strike, but it's written all over his face.

DG: Ghaleon has used his Tool Xenobia's Scroll toward his party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Fight the Beast!.


<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.

Lulu could not have asked for a better distraction from her statement than the one afforded by Evrae Altana... and frankly wouldn't have asked. Nevertheless, as they suddenly move into avoiding the great dragon, Lulu does not immediately answer. Lulu dunks into the water, beginning to sink immediately with the weight of her dress.

No longer, Yuna says, and she is right. But Yuna does see--Lulu considers the qustion without immediately dismissing it, before everything goes to hell.

The pyreflies roll off of it. As they are through the gate, though, Lulu stands. She spots that strang xpression on Ghaleon... And to a point?

She understands it, she thinks. More to the point she very much understands his instruction.

Lulu holds onto another doll--this time a Cait Sith practically smoking with magical power, and lifts her hand. Hlding her breath, she focuses not on the heavy feeling of sinking but on the water around her. She lets her eyes snap open, to see, and begins to cast.

Heavy water pressure slams towards Evrae Altana, followed by gravitic force, followed in turn by lightning that does not so much as touch the rest of the party.

Maybe she'll answer the question, if she doesn't die to the monster or drown.

DG: Lulu has used her Tool Ominous Cait Sith toward her party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Fight the Beast!.


<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

Oh yeah. Tidus and Rikku definitely should've warned the others about Evrae Altena. Tidus will be kicking himself about that later, after this battle is over. But, well, he was just so happy to see Yuna, and then she fell into the water and nothing else mattered but going after her, and that kind of pushed everything else out of his head...

That's just an excuse, though, really. At this rate, he'll be satisfied as long as they all manage to get out of here in one piece. And they do, more or less, thanks to that trick up Yuna's sleeve! But the next moment, Evrae smashes against the gate, and he and Yuna both are sent flying. Swimming? Launched through the water? Yes, not unlike torpedo shots. Tidus twists in mid-water to try to catch her, to make sure at least her landing is a little softer... but however that pans out, he gets the wind knocked *straight* out of him.

Not a great thing to happen underwater.


<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

Rikku is /wiped/ from getting beyond the bars. She's finally put in her rebreather, and gulps in the air rapidly. She /doesn't/ have the lungs of a Blitzball star after all.

Evrae slamming into the bars alone jars her forward, as she turns around and finds herself marvelling at the way the bars are glowing red hot. Yelping silently underwater as the bubbling from the superheating gets uncomfortably close to her. Worse yet, she's seeing that Tidus looks out of it. /Tidus/ - one of their Underwater Combat aces.

Both the sight of Yuna having a hard time though, and the look on Ghaleon's face jolts her back into action.

Underwater, she hastily manipulates... two simple potions. The garden variety kind, that one could buy at any two shop around Spira. The sort that are a godsend for new warriors and overlooked by seasoned ones as little more than an out of battle stopgap.

And then she simply glides up just beyond the layer of heated bubbles, to toss open a money bag.

Gil flies through the darkness. Shining, gleaming as it reflects the aquamarine light of the via purifico as it spreads out in a glittering cloud... before starting to sink. It's quite the strange distraction, and one might believe she is bribing it to go away.

However...

There's a glass-like clink against one of the bars.

A gold colored alchemical concoction just struck one, right next to where Evrae is.

The glass melts.

The potion bursts right beside Evrae and...

Mix: Ultra Potion!

Gives the Unsent Guardian a rather uncomfortably large(and cost effective!) dose of life.

DG: Rikku has used her Tool Bribe Budget toward her party's challenge, Evrae Altana - Fight the Beast!.


<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Things that have happened to Yuna in the last week:

  • Kidnapped, twice
  • Finally met her mother's family, most of whom were immediately slaughtered in her defense before her very eyes
  • First kiss stolen by horrible zombieghost creeper
  • Who she sort of technically married in a SAY MAN AND WIFE kind of way
  • Threw herself off a tower in a suicidally dangerous escape attempt
  • Merged with her fifth fayth
  • Got arrested and imprisoned, then tortured for a confession
  • Pope Grandfather Figure turned out to also be a horrible zombieghost creeper
  • Surrounded by other Cardinal Figures who apparently worship zombieghostdom, and almost casually reveal that the teachings she's based her entire life around are lies
  • They found her guilty of excessive truthtelling and sentenced her to excommunication and death
  • Found and lost and found some but not all of her Guardians and friends in the Via Purifico, who she's STILL worried and guilty about
  • Fought a duel to the death with an old friend who ALSO turned out to be a non-creeper, only mildly horrible zombieghost, apparently everyone she knows is dead
  • Almost drowned a few^H^H^H^H^Hseveral times

When, despite being underwater, her head jerks back over Tidus' helpful shoulder to make an almost audible crack against the stone floor of the flooded tunnel, perhaps it isn't so surprising that she does not rise again. She's a dead weight in the boy's arms.

Yuna's been pushed beyond all endurance.

She needs a minute.

The problem is, this minute is elapsing underwater.

What pretty silver bubbles are escaping from her slack lips...

===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================
===============<* CHALLENGE - Evrae Altana - Fight the Beast! *>================

DG: Lulu is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Ghaleon is too exhausted to continue!
DG: Rikku is too exhausted to continue!
DG: The party has failed this challenge! All party members are now Exhausted. This attempt is over.
DG: The party led by Lulu has been fully Exhausted by Via Purifico!
DG: The party will now draw a conclusion.

===============================<* Via Purifico *>===============================

================<* CHALLENGE - Rescued by Ghaleon? *>===============

<Pose Tracker> Ghaleon has posed.

Evrae Altana pushes against the bars of the door -- and they suddenly cool, as Ghaleon's magic fades. Water slams into the creature, pyreflies blasting away from it. Then, the potion strikes, and the thing thrashes; the huge Unsent dragon slams against it in a fury, the potion burning away at its form, and then rams forward. Evrae slams into the bars.

Again.

And again.

And then the bars shatter. Ghaleon's eyes widen -- he moves forward, glancing back at the others -- and sends off two large ice spikes. But, they only hold the creature back for a moment.

"Gh--"


<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

"ENOUGH!"

At a much less desperate time, someone might ask themselves how Auron's snappish mood transmitted so freely through the churning underground waters. Or, more likely, they might not. There was a lot going on. It's no big deal.

It's not like he's a ghost as well or anything.

But his impatience isn't the only thing he's wielding; the Legendary Guardian's immense sword suddenly sprouts from Evrae's head and pierces straight out the bottom, like the dragon's doing its very best Kagutsuchi cosplay.

The Guardian Beast thrashes as it discorporates into pyreflies, one final gift of violence to its second group of slayers which slams them down the tunnel and out of sight.

And without a Sending, it may yet return in the long run...

But for now, the long-suffering Grumpiest is free to catch up to Tidus and Yuna, and grab them by the scruffs of their necks (the boy's hood, the girl's halter), and haul them to the surface.

Not just the surface of the water.

Only a few feet from here, natural light is spilling into this damp and crumbling passage.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Auron gives Ghaleon a respectful nod, then tromps over to guard the entrance, while the others collect themselves.

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