2022-04-15: Post Perilous Puzzles

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  • Log: Post Perilous Puzzles
  • Cast: Rixia, Ashiya Khaimova, Avril Vent Fleur
  • Where: Meribia - Merchant's Row
  • Date: April 15, 2022
  • Summary: Avril finds herself in Meribia after escaping the block puzzle, not far from Rixia, who has had a very long day. Fortunately, Ashiya is close at hand.

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    Rixia told Ashiya that she got tied up in basic training a couple hours ago; that was then, and this is... ... nooow...

    The fox beastgirl is stumbling out of a magic door back into the streets of Meribia, groggy and with her face somewhat blue from the rather astounding magical space the Block Puzzle takes place in. She's still wearing her hi-vis vest reading 'HI I'M Rixia I'M NEW TO DIGS' and her hard hat, because it's just not localised Lunar without a few somewhat anachronistic jokes.

    "I survived..." Rixia flops to her knees. "I didn't think block puzzles would be so overwhelming..."

<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.

THEN
Rixia departs for her basic training! The door closes, leaving the Fellpool alone with her thoughts. She hurriedly pulls her phone out and starts transcribing a messy log of what's gone on to date, and then switches over to a pathfinding app which looks suspiciously like the Drag*n Rad*r from a popular animated series of ancient days yore. She watches a pip representing a very unique Symbological Signature draw further and further away as Rixia heads off.

Ashiya sighs and hangs her head, but in the comically tired sense, not the Actually Distressed sense. "How'm I gonna manage this one...?" she whines. Then slaps her cheeks, resolved to get over it. First things first!

NOW
The very blue-themed catgirl waiting on the backstreets, occasionally trying to peek a clandestine look at her phone to see what time it is. Maybe she can buy a wristwatch or something after a few more quests. . .

Blonk. The door opens, and her new fox-featured friend splats out onto the street. Ashiya stoops down and pokes Rixia in the hard hat. "Block puzzles? I thought they were gonna teach you how to fight or something."

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Avril -- by choice or by chance -- has not ended up from where she had ventured forth.

    "It has been a little while since I have been in Meribia," she remarks aloud, not more than a few feet from where Rixia slumps to the ground. What remains as an open question is whether Rixia had noticed that she had been followed?

    After a fashion, in any case.

    They're not alone, though.

    "...Oh, are you in the Guard as well?" She has shifted her stance ever-so-slightly -- the Guard was no personal enemy of hers (indeed, might well be among the groups that has no true interest in Avril), but she has not forgotten what had happened in Luca.
    Even if Ashiya has little-to-nothing to do with any of that.

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    "I know, right...? I wasn't sure what they'd have me do, but it certainly wasn't... THAT," Rixia whines. "Ashe, it's like I got thrown into another dimension full of blocks! It was all so square!"

    Rixia pauses from where she's just about clung to the blue catgirl, and looks to Avril. "Oh, Miss Avril! You came too! Ashe, this is Miss Avril, she helped me in the block puzzle dimension." A pause. "She also explained a lot of really weird things to me..."

    She looks around suspiciously. "That metal giant didn't follow us, right?" Oh no, does someone have a bit of a Gear phobia after that shock?

<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.

Ashiya looks between her new fallen pal Rixia, and Rixia's new pal Avril. She doesn't seem the least bit guarded about this chance encounter... quite the opposite, really. Her brow briefly climbs in interest, and her tail bats on the ground once as her thoughts click.

"Miss Avril, huh? Thanks for keeping an eye out for my friend Rixia." she sounds grateful enough, pausing only to adjust Rixia's hard hat so it isn't sliding off her head any longer. "She's n...ew to this kinda thing, and trying her best."

With that, Ashiya nods one last time down at the crumpled ex-farmer. "Hey, you should tell me all about it after you calm down. Sounds like it was pretty crazy."

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Then, you are Ashe? I am Avril Vent Fleur. I am pleased to meet you," Avril says, bowing ever-so-slightly before Ashiya. "I encountered your friend while we were in that place that she described. It was rather strange," she concludes, "I have never chanced into such a place prior."

    She seems rather at-ease, considering she'd told Rixia she was from the Blue Star and all, and that said star is currently visible in the heavens.

    Avril... pauses, then looks around her, as if to look for Layna's Gear.

    "It would seem not. This is fortunate," Avril says, shaking her head. "I feel it would be dangerous if a Gear were to appear in the middle of town."

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    Rixia looks very charmed as she says, "Ashiya -- Ashe as I like calling her -- is really cool, she's from Spira! I want to go there to find my father. She's... I think she's an experienced adventurer? You look like one, Ashe," she decides all on her own.

    She scratches her cheek as Ashe adjusts her hard hat, and whines, "You're once new too. It's tough, okay? Also, there were huge blocks the size of metal giants, and Miss Avril told me there's a second world out there--" she points up at the Blue Star, which looks... desolate?

    "It's, it's something of a lot to take in!" Rixia exclaims. Yeah, she's not calming down anytime soon...

<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.

How polite! The blue-toned girl with the big floofy ears chuckles with a friendly timbre and runs a hand through her hair for a moment as Avril bows. "Aw, nice to meet you too. I'm Ashiya Khaimova, kinda new in these parts... just tryin' to make it out here in the big city, you know?"

With that short jacket and jeans, Ashiya looks a lot more like a Filgaian import than a native of these parts. But maybe it's Al-Bhed fashion, given what Rixia just said about Spira.

"I'm not -that- experienced." She waves down Rixia's praise. "You're the one making friends at a clip, anyway. First me, now Avril here. You'll get there. You didn't, uh, have to use the... sword, did you?"

Also, Ashiya looks up at the silver-haired woman of mystery and asks: "Sorry, what's a Gear? I've heard that a few times, but, I'm not from around here so..." she half-explains. Leaves it hanging. Not a stellar actor, but she's also not lying about that bit.

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    She glances once, in Rixia's direction. "Oh, I see. Then you must be Al Bhed," Avril remarks to Ashiya, on that very subject -- she is prone to being a touch blunt.

    ...As well as a little unaware of the one big signifier of the Al Bhed.

    "...But, I find it odd. I had not thought the Al Bhed friendly towards the Guard." Guilelessly, she gazes at Ashiya for a moment more. "...Yet, one must do as their heart speaks."

    Her gaze follows the direction of Rixia's hand, up towards the heavens (down, towards Filgaia).

    "...It does look rather lonely, doesn't it? Nevertheless, I assure you that is my home."

    Perhaps it's best to take these things apace, as it were, though.

    "A Gear?" Avril blinks the once. "It is rather like your Machina," she says, as if that explains matters. "Though, many Machina are not humanoid as many Gears are," she concludes, folding her arms across her chest.

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    "What's Al Bhed?" Rixia doesn't know that term at all. She beams brightly to say, bobbing by Ashiya's side, "Oh, uh... look, I did, but I kept it a little bit more subtle than when I showed you."

    She grins cheekily, since she miiiight have ended up showing Avril a very mysterious gunblade of Ronso design that manifests out of data cubes and is very much not a weapon a dirt farmer from Meribia should have. Just Rixia Things.

    "Oh, uh... do the Al Bhed dislike the Guard? I mean, I joined up two days ago. I don't really know who's going to scowl at me funny for having this uniform," Rixia explains to Avril, completely guileless.

    Ashiya asks what a Gear is, and she suddenly animates and says, "You won't believe it! One of the Drifters had this giant, giant machine, maybe about ten times as tall as me! It was completely made out of steel and flew around on fire!"

    Something Avril says catches her attention though, so... "Um... so how do you get to the Blue Star? Take a boat... across the stars?"

<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.

Wuh oh. These accusations are hefty and Ashiya is too unlearned about the culture and life on Spira to really know one way or the other about the Al Bhed as a people. Or honestly even how the rumours tend to go. "Well, uh, I don't remember too much after falling into the ocean..." she thinly non-answers, scratching her cheek and glancing at a faraway tree beyond the city walls. Songbirds on the branches, please, save me from my own web of lies!

They do nothing of the sort. The catte of blue sighs gently as Avril deftly executes a social riposte! She's learned nothing. "R--right, yeah, like the Machina..." pronounced more like Machin-er. Someone unsure of what word they're really saying.

But Rixia dives to the rescue, saving her! An incredibly skeptical look fades onto the young woman's face, hands jammed in her jacket pockets.

(That sounds like an A.M.W.S., but here? In this rustic lookin' kingdom?)

"Sounds like bad news, uh, I guess Gears aren't ... common, right?" she ventures a guess before Rixia distracts her very suddenly by summoning that blade in a burst of brightly-glowing cubes. Ashiya's ears stand up in alert and her eyes are locked on solidly as it happens.

"... careful with that, remember."

Her attention is so locked onto the weapon, she misses the question about traversing space which she could TOTALLY ANSWER

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    What are the Al Bhed? Avril looks over at Ashiya for a moment, as if in anticipation that she might explain. ...But perhaps no explanation is forthcoming.

    "...They are a people from Spira," Avril says at great length, wrinkling her forehead.

    But when Ashiya says that she can't remember very much after falling into the ocean--

    Avril's blue eyes widen with sudden sympathy. "Oh! ...I am very sorry to hear that you are also without your memories, Ashe. I hope that you will recover them in time."

    Yes, this explains everything.

    "It is... complicated. Spira is their home, and Althena's Guard invaded it. Yet, the Al Bhed were hardly friendly towards the other Spirans either. I cannot say for certain," Avril surmises.

    "They are not common, but they are not rare," Avril says, on the matter of Gears. "There are some places where the governments tightly control who may or may not possess a Gear." Aveh, for instance, comes to mind -- but they are admittedly attempting to control possession over such things for their never-ending war effort.

    So how does one travel between stars both Silver and Blue?

    "There are ancient pathways leading from one world to the other. They are rare," Avril tells them, "but they can still be traveled. There is one in the ruins of Azado."

    Is this a good thing to randomly pass on to people from another planet? It's happening all the same now, though, so.

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    "W-wait, what? You fell into the ocean? Whoa, you never told me! If you lost your memories..." Rixia blinks a few times. "Wait, 'also'? You too, Miss Avril?" She's at least a little sharp when it comes to some social clues. "Huh... wonder if something's going around?"

    I don't think amnesia goes around like it's a local cold, Rixia...

    "O-oh, uh..." Rixia slumps. "Mister Leo didn't tell me anything about that!" She looks a little pale. "Why'd he agree to help me find my father, then, if he's an enemy...?"

    She furrows her brow. "... wait, that means dad joined the Guard to go back to Spira as an enemy too ... oh ..."

    That news stresses her out a bit. She looks a bit sheepish at Ashe warning her, though, and dispels the gunblade again. "Sorry, sorry. ... um, so... someone who's rich and lucky enough could just own an iron giant? Wow." She rubs at her chin. "Do you own one too, Miss Avril?"

    Then, Avril explains how to travel between the Silver and Blue Stars. Her eyes widen again. "Wow, that sounds so... bizarre. Azado... does that mean I can go to Spira from there?"

<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.

As her alarm about Rixia's weapon slowly wanes, Ashiya stays very quiet and pays very close attention to this quick summary of how the Al Bhed and the Guard have a history. She is silently thankful that her excuses for being so clueless find some purchase, and her shoulders are no longer quite so tensed.

As if a student in class, she raises one hand to ask Avril a question. "'scuse me, are you saying on this other world, lots of people have these Gears? That's pretty scary... I guess if the governments have their own, though..." her thoughts wander. Mecha proliferation? Crazy.

Soon after, Ashiya glances askance to Rixia. "A ruin that sends you to another world... doesn't sound like it gets more exciting than that, huh? What do you think?"

(Sounds like this other world is a bit more hi-tech than this one. This could be my lucky break...)

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Yes," Avril answers simply. "I awoke several years ago without my memories." Which still elude her, as a matter of fact, even if several of the facts of her existence have made themselves quite clear. Even she might have been more tactful on this subject, save for the presence of a similar sufferer. "I hope it is far more passing for you," she tells Ashiya.

    It appears that Avril has said something awkward.

    "Mister Leo... do you mean the White Knight?"

    Is this a bad time to say that she has fought with Leo before?

    At least the topic at hand bends towards Gears, which are a simpler matter. "Yes," she says simply, to Ashiya.

    Does Avril own a Gear? "Yes, I do, though it isn't here. I found it." It had been an Aveh Gear, which makes Avril's claim to ownership just a tiny bit questionable -- but the same is also true for Dean's Gear, and given the circumstances...

    Well, no one's looking for it now, let's say.

    "Perhaps so. I will need to return myself, if you would like to come with me?" she offers, which might be the wierdest way any newbie adventurer could potentially escalate their experience -- forget the sidequest with the rats in the innkeeper's basement?

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

    "Do you think we could get one too?" Rixia suggests all not-too-seriously to Ashiya. "I mean, it'd be a lot more comfortable to ride in an iron giant across the wilderness than on foot, right?"

    The thought of going to another world does excite her... but first, Rixia frowns quietly as Avril confirms her amnesia.

    "... that's rough... I don't want to ever lose my memories," Rixia foreshadows herself. Wasn't one of the warned side effects of the weapons loss of memory, Ashiya?

    "Oh, yeah, that's him. He gave me these nice, new clothes that're warm and ten silver for food and lodging too," Rixia beams. "I guess... I got something more to ask him next time I meet. But until then, uh..."

    Avril offers to take them along. "Yeah. ... it might be faster than going by boat, right, Ashe?"

<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.

Oh yes, Rixia, memory loss was one of the bad side effects of the Sleeping Lion, and part of why it was going ... unused.

... but that's a bit hard for Ashiya to come out and say, posing as a Humble Country Adventurer as she is, so she doesn't. You also just can't say these things in Disc 1.

"Wait, you'd be willing to take us with you... to another world?" Ashiya asks, only mildly dumbfounded. At Rixia's assent, she grins loosely and gives the other girl a playful bap on the shoulder. "I don't think you'll find a space boat around here, silly, so yes. Good offer."

(Oops.)

"Jeez, Miss Avril, that's a pretty swell offer! I'm lookin' for someone who might've left this world for another one, so, that's sounding good." the jovial girl folds both arms behind her head and beams. "I dunno how we can make that up to you, though... first you kept an eye out for Rixia here, and then you're offering to help us like this? A girl's gotta pay her favors back at some point!"

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "..."

    Avril, in a rare display of tact, opts to say nothing about Leo.

    "It is difficult, yes," she says simply. "But I am on a journey to recover my memories. Someday, I will remember, once again."

    Would she be willing to travel to another world?

    "Yes, I would. It is safer in groups, is it not? As I am here alone, I would wish to travel with another." There is a pause. "Space boat?" Avril echoes. It's a strange remark for Ashiya to make, and a stranger thing yet to imagine. But more than strange, it feels almost...

    There's a familiarity about it. Like she had known the concept, known what it meant. A ship that could travel between the stars.
    And with it comes the dull throb again, the echo of a memory rubbed away entirely from her mind. The ache tells a story in its own right, a tale of a decision that, once made, could never be undone.

    But we had to, speaks the darker part of her mind. I had to remain.

    Avril blinks as if rousing from a reverie, and is surprised to find that her eyes are wet. Turning her head, she attempts to surreptitiously wipe away the tears. Tears don't just come out, Dean had said, but it seems to happen to her by chance.

    "Oh... so you are. ...Shall we prepare, first?" she says to Ashe after that necessary moment to recompose herself. "I am happy to set forth whenever you wish."