Protecting My Devotion - Group 15
Mar. 12th, 2011 09:56 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
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Characters: Balthier Bunansa, Setzer Gabbiani, and Rygdea.
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: Old!Memoria
Location: Memoria
Date: March 11th, 1805.
Warning: ... too many well-dressed men?
He didn't know what to expect when the sky had suddenly burst with the color of sunset. Since his arrival in Gaia, it was safe to assume that anything could happen at any time. People were taken home whenever the fates saw fit, with no warning, no impetus. When the haze cleared and he found himself standing in front of the elevator at the Draklor Laboratory, he surmised that it was simply his turn to return from whence he came.
Though given the option, he wouldn't have chosen Draklor. Too many memories there. Ones he would rather leave behind if he was going to have any semblance of a life that didn't leave him shackled to the past.
In the distance, an alarm was droning, though it was muffled, as if it were several floors below him.
Just what had he returned in the middle of?
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: Old!Memoria
Location: Memoria
Date: March 11th, 1805.
Warning: ... too many well-dressed men?
He didn't know what to expect when the sky had suddenly burst with the color of sunset. Since his arrival in Gaia, it was safe to assume that anything could happen at any time. People were taken home whenever the fates saw fit, with no warning, no impetus. When the haze cleared and he found himself standing in front of the elevator at the Draklor Laboratory, he surmised that it was simply his turn to return from whence he came.
Though given the option, he wouldn't have chosen Draklor. Too many memories there. Ones he would rather leave behind if he was going to have any semblance of a life that didn't leave him shackled to the past.
In the distance, an alarm was droning, though it was muffled, as if it were several floors below him.
Just what had he returned in the middle of?
no subject
Date: 2011-03-12 10:24 pm (UTC)The flash of light, on the hand, was new. New and perhaps a little bit reminiscent of the Light of Judgment Kefka had once used, being seeing as how it didn't leave him rather unfortunately dead, he was simply going to take it as it came. What better way to find adventure, after all?
He could have done without the insistent siren from somewhere below them, though.
"Something not going as planned, I take it?"
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Date: 2011-03-12 11:50 pm (UTC)"...Could say that," he finally replied, faintly, even though it wasn't his question to answer. "Uh, were are we?"
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Date: 2011-03-12 11:58 pm (UTC)"We're in Draklor Laboratory, pride of Archades," he said dryly, with more than a faint touch of bitterness. "The alarm indicates a security breach. As we've only just arrived, we can't be responsible, but that won't stop the soldiers from trying to cut us down should they happen upon us. You're both in tact, I assume? No glaring injuries?"
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Date: 2011-03-13 12:26 am (UTC)(Not, of course, that he could blame the man. He'd heard of less than savory things to come out a lab himself, but that wasn't particularly important to the task at hand.)
"Not a scratch, unless something drastic happening between here and there."
And he would have hoped that he'd have noticed something that out of place in the cards they'd been dealt for this little excursion.
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Date: 2011-03-13 02:19 pm (UTC)New as he was to Gaia, and already having digested his way through the idea of a patchwork world, he found that neither answer would surprise him. The architecture was a far cry from Lindblum's rustic brickwork, but not quite the gleaming technological masterpiece that Eden boasted, and he'd never seen a sky quite that colour, before.
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Date: 2011-03-14 04:51 am (UTC)"I'm afraid we've left Gaia behind for the time being. Ivalice is my home, though I wish we could have been dropped off somewhere a touch more picturesque. This way, if you will." He beckoned sharply for them to follow as he quickly took to the stairway, lightly running his beringed hand along the banister as he took the steps two at a time.
Familiar voices sounded from beyond the landing, and even without seeing the scene laid out before him, Balthier recalled the setup with perfect clarity, his stomach clenching as Reddas' deep voice cut through the faraway sound of the alarm.
"Cid! You know deifacted nethicite brought down the Leviathan! How can you persist in this folly?"
"And you've come here to stop me? I'd fain to see you try."
Without thinking, Balthier uttered the same words he had the first time he'd lived this scene. If fate had seen fit to return him to this place, this same day, he would do nothing differently -- only relieve his father of his madness sooner, if at all possible.
"Consider your bones, old man," he announced as he strode through the door, and there before him was the same tableau as before -- Cid standing above the rest of them, smug and self-satisfied. Reddas looking up at him in challenge, Ashe close behind him, Fran, Basch, Vaan and Penelo all fanned out behind their princess and prepared to defend themselves. "You're outmatched."
"Pirate scum of the skies! What brings you here?"
Balthier smirked, clucking his tongue softly. "Treasure, what else would a pirate want? I'd be happy to relieve you of the Dusk Shard, Doctor. I fear its power has gone right to your head."
"You've come all this way for that trinket? I thought you above this."
"I confess," Balthier told him, straying from the original dialogue. After all, what good was a leading man who couldn't think on his feet? "There is a more personal score I would settle with you, but I fear dressing it up with words and needless overtures would only cheapen the sentiment at the heart of the matter."
Dr. Cid paid him no heed; he now looked to the invisible being beside him, though Balthier now knew the face of Venat, and could vividly picture the creature's piercing eyes glowing as it whispered Cid all its secrets. "Hm. What's that?" the doctor asked his unseen companion, voice hushed and low. "Ah." His attention turned swiftly to Ashe, his son forgotten for the time being.
"The princess of Dalmasca come to visit." Dr. Cid smirked, a wicked glint in his eyes as he appraised her. "She is not without merit. A test of sorts for our princess?"
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Date: 2011-03-15 12:04 am (UTC)"A trial for Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca!" Cid bellowed, ignoring her protests. "You lust for the stone's power, do you not?"
Reddas intervened. "Lend him not your ears, m'lady. He means to use you."
Balthier recalled the ensuing battle with painful clarity. That, he decided, he would not suffer again. Not if he had the power to avoid it. All it would achieve was borrowed time for the doctor himself, before he baited them with the hidden treasures of Giruvegan. "No need to show us just how far you've fallen, old man," the sky pirate cut in, his jaw set as he fixed his gaze upon Cid, commanding his father's attention. "What you've become, what you've made of yourself, is abomination. You are mad, and I will not see you further used by your friend Venat. Your intentions were noble, once. They have become twisted."
Cid looked only mildly affronted, as amused as he was surprised. "The reins of history back in the hands of man, my boy. Is that not a noble goal?"
"If that were all it was," Balthier conceded, tilting his head. "But it can be achieved without you. There is no need for you to play god, and I will not see your own lust for power consume you." I cannot bear to witness how far you've fallen, he thought to himself. I will not stand for you to suffer through to the end. A quick death would bring him peace; the princess would go to Giruvegan and obtain the treaty blade from the Occuria, and a swift end would be brought to this conflict, without Cid's use of the Sun Cryst. Surely such a turn of events could only change their future for the better.
"You speak of power as if you know it, Ffamran. Even your wildest dreams could never fathom the power within my grasp." The familiar mechanical whir of the Dr. Cid's rooks pierced the air, and Balthier was immediately on the alert, raising his gun to fire a series of bullets into the nearest offender -- except it was then that the scenery began to waver. The walls and wide, curved windows of Draklor Laboratory began to fade, and with them, all of the people who had been assembled there. The princess first, then Vaan, Basch, Penelo, even Fran dimmed from his view. Reddas followed, and with an uncharacteristically cruel smile turning up the corners of his lips, Cid was the last to fade.
Wide-eyed, Balthier repressed a snarl as he turned on his heel to see if the same effect had spread to the room behind him. "I tire of these games!"
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Date: 2011-03-15 09:44 pm (UTC)But as he knew little of this place he was quite content to follow Balthier for the time being. Whatever grudges he may have had against the place, he certainly a better idea of what to expect than Setzer himself did.
Still, Setzer could hardly say that he'd expected to find them walking into a room that was as devoid of people as the one they'd just left. It was stranger yet to find Balthier addressing thin air, and moreover addressing it familiarly. A trickery of the place perhaps? Or had he unknowingly stepped into the hands of yet another madman? Of course, that path had a madman calling his unseen ... foe? ... mad and there was certainly no small amount of irony in that. Yet for all that he wanted to believe that this man was no Kefka he couldn't help one of his hands from creeping into his pockets just in case he had to fight.
Before he could get much farther than that, however, the world around them begin to fade.
"No man enjoys a game forced upon him."
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Date: 2011-03-16 11:42 am (UTC)"You an' Cid should talk," he muttered, in response to the other man's comment, then shook his head and brought his focus back to the matter at hand. "So...what the hell just happened?"
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Date: 2011-03-16 11:41 pm (UTC)He crossed his arms, not bothering to be mindful of the wrinkles it might cause his good shirt, and looking up to survey their new environment. "Wherever we are, it's changing. We ought to move."
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Date: 2011-03-17 02:19 am (UTC)If there even were answers to be had, but that part of the hand could just as easily be discussed when they weren't interrupted be further spates of almost-madness. The sooner they were out, the better. Preferably without whatever that had been catching him in its nets as well.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-17 09:14 pm (UTC)Next memory go?
Date: 2011-03-18 02:51 am (UTC)On it! And sorry for taking so long to get to this, I was away most of the weekend
Date: 2011-03-22 05:25 am (UTC)Oh, the floor underneath their feet was stable enough. But all around was bits and pieces of something else. Here a piece of what could have once been a roof. There, something that looked very much like it wouldn't have been out of place in a scientist's lab. A thousand, thousand pieces of rubble and ruin, held together by nothing more than sheer magic.
And with the height of the tower itself, getting back down was not really going to be the best of options. It was the last place Setzer had ever wanted to be yet again and he couldn't help but sigh at it all.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-23 12:24 pm (UTC)Sorry, missed the notif. :/
Date: 2011-03-28 10:57 pm (UTC)Rubble as far as the eye could see, fashioned into something larger than any town it might have as its components. "What is this place?"
No problem~
Date: 2011-03-29 12:11 am (UTC)"A tower erected by the local madman," he answered. "A monument to his own twisted genius."
Whoo~!
Date: 2011-03-29 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-31 12:17 am (UTC)He glanced to Setzer. "This is a place from your past, then. Do you see anyone you know?"
actual memory will come next round
Date: 2011-03-31 04:39 am (UTC)He had brought his ship to the tower, that much he knew. But the way forward had been fraught with peril and he hadn't the slightest idea of which perils would have been dealt with already. Or even if anyone but them had been there, and almost unconsciously his feet began to take him forward, towards where he knew Kefka would be watching over the ruins of his world.
Kefkaaa~! Shame Ryg's not gonna be seeing much more than glimpses. XD
Date: 2011-03-31 11:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-01 05:59 am (UTC)"I take it this particular madman was not a licensed architect," he mused aloud as he continued to appraise their surroundings.
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Date: 2011-04-02 04:28 am (UTC)Kefka, of course, was waiting for them, with a painted smile on his lips. "Welcome, friends!" he began, in a tone that bore absolutely nothing of sanity or welcome. "I knew you'd come, so I've been practicing my greeting!"
Celes was the one to answer him, immediate and angry, speaking the question they all wished to hear the answer. "How much do you have to destroy before you'll have had your fill, Kefka!?" Unfortunately for them, the only answer was the high-pitched cackle that they all knew and hated, as Kefka quite simply... ignored the question at hand.
"I've acquired the ultimate power. Observe!" He made an offhand sort of gesture and Cyan rose into the air, helpless against the power that held him aloft. "Such magnificent power!" he continued, thoroughly drunk on his own power. "You're all nothing more than fleas compared to me now!" Again he gestured and this time it was Shadow who rose into the air, no more able to fight against the power than Cyan. "Embrace your destruction! It's the fate of all things!"
On the last word he gestured yet again and Shadow and Cyan can tumbling to the ground even as Terra stepped forth to speak.
"Because," she began slowly, "it's not the end that matters! It's knowing that you have something to live for right now, at this moment! Something you've worked for... something that's worth protecting! As long as you have that...that's enough!" Yet for all her words, Kefka remained unmoved, in the way that only a madmen could.
"And did you all find your 'somethings' in this broken world that just won't die?"
The answer was unanimous, as the entire group raised their voices in a single 'yes' before continuing on to explain what they manage to find in the ruins of this world.
"Love!" Terra answered.
"A person worth protecting," chimed in Locke.
"A life and child who live on within me," added Cyan, thinking of the family he'd lost to one of Kefka's earlier attacked.
"Friends... and family," offered Shadow, neglecting to comment on just who he'd meant.
"A peaceful kingdom," was the addition of Figaro's young king, Edgar.
His brother was the next to answer. "A loving brother who always looks out for me!"
"Someone willing to accept me for who I am," Celes offered, glancing over in Locke's direction.
Strago followed close on Celes' heels, chiming in with his own offering. "An adorable little granddaughter."
"An obnoxious grandpa," added in said granddaughter "...who I couldn't live without!"
And then it was Setzer's turn to speak. "Wings from a dear old friend!" he added, and oh, would that he knew where said wings actually were, but he knew better than to say such things in front of Kefka. The man would only use it against them, or worse against his ship, and he wasn't about to give him a reason to ruin his wings twice.
He needn't have worried, as Kefka simply made at face at the positively blistering array of optimism rising against him. "Bleh!" he commented, pulling a face to match. "You people make me sick! You sound like lines from a self-help book! If that's how it's going to be... I'll snuff them all out! Every last one of your sickening, happy little reasons for living!"
At those words, Setzer's hand went to the pocket where he kept his cards, drawing them out in one smooth motion... only to find that like before, the world was beginning to fade around them, beginning with Kefka himself.
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Date: 2011-04-02 11:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-05 04:26 am (UTC)No. Trick of the light.
"Is it over?" Balthier questioned, folding his arms over his chest. "You looked distressed."
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Date: 2011-04-06 04:46 am (UTC)"I'd rather we left the madmen behind," he answered. "But I doubt the fates are done with us just yet."
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Date: 2011-04-06 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-08 04:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-08 07:41 pm (UTC)"Unless you have more luck than either of us can manage, of course."
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Date: 2011-04-09 11:30 pm (UTC)He was sat down - hadn't he been stood a moment ago? - Fang opposite him, both of them nursing glasses of bourbon as the small hours ticked by.
"So, I've told you my life story," she drawled in that lilting Oerban accent of hers. "Turnabout's fair play. What are you doin' here?"
He turned the glass in his hands, smiling slightly. "This place...it's all messed up. The Fal'Cie, Dysley, all of 'em, they run Coccoon with an iron fist, and anyone who doesn't agree...well, let's just say that a lot of people were on that Purge train who shouldn't have been."
"No-one should have been." A frown furrowed her brow, and he nodded, conceding the point. Then he took a swig. "My point is..there's this whole scent of rot, underneath the shine and sophistication. Cid..wants to change that."
She said nothing, just gave him a look that said 'go on', and he shrugged. "He wants to give Coccoon back to the people. No more Purges, no more Fal'Cie breathin' down our necks." He knew there was pride in his voice as he talked, and he didn't bother to hide it. He was proud, proud to be working for such a great goal.
"So, you're fightin' for 'the people'?" The corner of her lip quirked up subtly. "Doesn't that sound a little trite to you?"
He snorted. "You make me sound like I'm tryin' to make myself out as some storybook hero."
"Aren't you?"
"No," he waved a hand at the thought. "I just...wanna be part of somethin' bigger than me. Somethin' that'll last after I've gone. I don't wanna be thought of a s a hero, just..thought of."
"An' the fact that Cid Raines is at the helm of this little world-changin' ship means nothing at all to you?" Her eyes glittered knowingly.
"Aw, shut up," he laughed, and she did. Then she faded, like a watercolour painting in reverse, the blue of her sari and the green of her eyes lingering for a moment. He stood up, forgetting the bourbon that he was holding, the glass fading out before it hit the ground, and raked a hand through his hair. "Shoulda figured as much," he muttered. "Well...guess that's over an' done with.."
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Date: 2011-04-10 11:31 pm (UTC)He began walk, though he disliked having to do so without a strong heading. Well, they would have to make due with what they had. They could always turn around and go the other way if need be, he supposed.
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Date: 2011-04-11 02:00 am (UTC)"Nothing for it but to fly as the winds leads then," he answered with a shrug. Anywhere was better than here, after all.
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Date: 2011-04-18 04:25 pm (UTC)Not that he was exactly complaining, not all of his memories were as painless as that one, and it hadn't looked like a walk in the park for his companions, it was just...strange.