Galbadia Garden Here we come!

[notathiefcole.livejournal.com]

Characters: Forgotten Continent Team
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: They found Garden
Location: Galbadia
Date: November, 1803
Warnings: None

Locke and Rinoa had been walking most of the day, but Moguo had assured them that the Galbadia Garden was over in the southeast corner of the continent.  Locke spied a metal glint over the crest of the next hill. Pointing in the direction of the Garden, Locke assured Rinoa that they had almost arrived at their location.

As they rounded the top of the last hill, Locke stopped cold as the familar form of Tidus walked in front of the Garden, relaxing only when he spied the familiar head of green hair.

Comments

[eidolon-soul.livejournal.com]

Rydia was pacing outside, checking her communicator. Just because messages from outside the Forgotten Continent were broken and incomplete at best didn't mean she was going to ignore their only possible source of information. Eiko was also on her mind and it was a fair bet that as soon as Garden was mobile, she'd want to pick up the young Summoner (and Theodor) first.

There was also the issue of Cecil. After picking up on that accidental recording, she was quite shaken. If only she could get to him...but she wasn't even certain where he was, or if he was still alive. No. He had to be alive. She wasn't accepting anything else.

That intense expression lightened a bit as she spotted the pair, and waved.

[livelyangel.livejournal.com]

It had been an exhausting trip, but Rinoa found a new spring in her step when she spotted Garden. She hurried towards it, grinning, but just like Locke stopped dead the moment she saw Tidus.

If he hadn't told her what to expect already, she would have thought she'd seen a ghost. But her shock cleared as she dashed up to meet people.

"Hey! We're finally here!"

[loveandstrife.livejournal.com]

Having trekked from Oeilvert to Troia with Reks, Cloud was pretty tired but he'd managed to get there soon enough. He was aching a little but mostly because he hadn't walked that sort of distance in a long time.

Fenrir had made him a little lazy.

Spotting Rinoa's back, he took a few steps closer, resting a hand on her shoulder for a moment. "Yeah, us too." It had been a tiring trip, but at least they'd made it.

[waterblade.livejournal.com]

He wasn't a ghost, guys, come on. At least not in the sense they were thinking of.

Tidus turned to look at Rydia when he saw her waving out of the corner of his eye, then turned again to see what she was waving at. A grin split his face as he saw the group of people appear, and he cupped both hands around his mouth like a megaphone to shout across the distance.

"Hey! Come down here, we've gotta get going!"

The moogles had set up a fairly good sort of camp outside of what they'd decided was the main door in, with a firepit and all the "proper" accoutrements like blankets and whatnot. There were only a handful of the fuzzy white things there, but they were industrious. Tidus had gotten pretty used to being turned into "big person" slave labor over the last couple days.

[mademyresolve.livejournal.com]

The sudden burst of voices and activity had Ashe looking up from where she was kneeling by the moogles' camp, blanket wrapped around her body. Despite the many months spent living in Gaia, she was Dalmascan by blood and unsuited to cooler temperatures. Of course, she'd endured them in the past when the need was there, but now, Ashe was immensely glad of the fire before her, providing that extra, wonderful, warmth for herself and her unborn baby.

Upon noticing the new arrivals, however, the princess rose slowly to her feet, securing the blanket at her shoulders as wind whipped through her hair. There was a woman there; if she happened to be Rinoa, then they'd be able to open the Garden and go inside.

One step closer.

[notathiefcole.livejournal.com]

As they quickly closed the distance between the two groups, he turned to Rinoa, "When you said huge, wow". While he really did enjoy Rinoa's company through Zanarkand, he knew they had work to do.

He really hoped that Rinoa still had her keys, either was it shouldn't be too difficult for even him to pick that lock. He was torn by his duty to help the group and his need to protect his friends.

Discretely examining Rydia's health, he hoped to accomplish both concurrently, "Where do we start?"

[livelyangel.livejournal.com]

"Cloud!" Rinoa was startled, but pleased. "You're here too! What a reunion, huh?"

The people already there looked like refugees, stranded outside Garden but unable to go inside. Rinoa could change that. She felt like a saviour.

"We start," Rinoa said, turning to Locke, "by opening the door."

She walked through the camp towards the entrance, gesturing for everyone to follow her. "Pack up, guys. We're going in."

[eidolon-soul.livejournal.com]

Rydia's health seemed to be good, though she seemed to like the cool weather about as well as Ashe. The summoner wasn't so foolish as to spurn warmer clothing, though, and made do with a long, thick hooded cloak and gloves. She nodded at Rinoa's plan after darting a small grin at him. "Right. Let's get started." Immediately, she set about to gathering what supplies couldn't be left behind, not that there was too much.

People going to the bridge

[livelyangel.livejournal.com]

Rinoa took them up to the bridge via the elevator, which still worked. Everything seemed to be working, so she was hopeful that the computers would too.

"Here we go."

She touched the screen off to the side of the bridge and it flickered into life. "There, a map. Think you guys can memorise that?"

[loveandstrife.livejournal.com]

Cloud followed Rinoa to the bridge silently, refusing to say anything else in case Tidus took him wrong again and they ended up in a fist fight. It was clear that, thanks to the mako in his system, Cloud would win that fight hands down, and he didn't really want to be blamed for injuring a member of their rag-tag little party.

Curling his gloved hands into fists, he crossed his arms and watched as Rinoa touched a screen. So, the map worked. Scanning his eyes over it, he memorised quickly where anything particular was before continuing past them, looking around the bridge.

He could almost feel the air sickness creeping on.

See note on other thread, my brain committed suicide

[waterblade.livejournal.com]

Jogging onto the bridge after the other two, Tidus peered over Rinoa's shoulder to study the map. It didn't look that complicated - though he'd probably have to look at it later. He had a good visual memory, but it wasn't instant.

"Okay, so... how does this thing fly, anyway? What do we have to turn on or off or whatever?"

With some decent maps, he could probably steer them back - might have to, since he was starting to doubt many of the people with them had experience with boats and the ocean. But they needed to get the thing moving, first.

[livelyangel.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," Rinoa replied. "Nida's our pilot... I'm gonna ask him, if I can get a signal. You guys will help me, right?"

She sort of had a vague idea that the giant lever in front of the controls had something to do with flying the thing, but she'd never really paid much attention.

[ooc: Tag this (http://community.livejournal.com/mooglenet/91663.html) post, guys?]

[loveandstrife.livejournal.com]

Cloud tilted his head, watching Nida and Rinoa's back-and-forth over her sky phone. When she tried the lever, he could tell she wasn't handling it very well due to how heavy it was. "Here, let me try..." He took hold of the lever and began to steer it slowly, gradually getting the hang of it. It wasn't exactly rocket science, but you did have to be careful not to over-steer.

He was, however, feeling kind of nauseas. That wasn't a good sign. "Nhh..." Cloud could practically feel his face turning green from the illness but he wasn't the kind of person to complain.

[waterblade.livejournal.com]

((OOC: Jumping over here (http://community.livejournal.com/mooglenet/91663.html) now because poor Nida needs more worries!))

Cafeteria Time

[notathiefcole.livejournal.com]

Locke was looking forward to seeing Eiko again. He reasoned to himself that she as well as all the remaining displaced people would be in need of food soon. He knew better than to try to cook for them, but he could clean the cafeteria out of any unwanted guests. He also might find a treasure of a meal in there.

Noting the location of the cafeteria, he focused his attention on Rydia, before asking if any of those remaining wanted to join him.

[eidolon-soul.livejournal.com]

Peering at the map, Rydia relaxed a little. "This is helpful." She turned to Locke and nodded instantly. "That's just what I was thinking. We ought to check it out and see what's still edible." She couldn't pretend to know how to pilot the Garden anyway, so she wasn't going to be any help on the bridge. And since Tidus and Reks were watching Ashe, she needn't be quite so concerned about the pregnant woman.

[notathiefcole.livejournal.com]

He turned down one of the hallways towards the cafeteria. While he wasn't going to admit it to the group, he was beginning to get a little hungry as the trip in Zanarkand did not lend itself to any good meals.

"I wonder what we'll find in this cafeteria?", he said all the while hoping that monsters and oglops would not be present.

[eidolon-soul.livejournal.com]

"Hopefully food that hasn't rotted away, by now. This place is definitely more advanced than Troia or most of Gaia, though, so we probably stand a good chance of that. If anything was attracted to the food, we'll deal with it." Rydia peered around as they walked down the hallway. "I'm not sure I could live in a place like this. It's too...sterile. Which isn't to say that I'm not grateful if it gets us all out of here."

[notathiefcole.livejournal.com]

"Considering the rest of this place, It wouldn't surprise me to find out the food is just fine."

Taking in the rather bland hallway as they continued along its path, "Everything here looks...the same. I've seen more variety in cave formations than in here."

[eidolon-soul.livejournal.com]

Rydia chuckles at that. "So have I. At least it's stable--whatever's happened hasn't affected it much at all." And at this point, some stability was good for all of them.

She made a turn where she thought she was supposed to, hoping that she wasn't getting them lost. "Do you know a place called Jidoor? That's where Eiko and a friend of mine from home are located."

[notathiefcole.livejournal.com]

"That city made it here?", he remarked as they continued along the hallways. He's not too fond of the city because of the strict class structure.

"I've been there a few times in my adventures. It's not one of my favorite places back home, but the auction house is fine when that kid's father isn't buying everything in sight.

[eidolon-soul.livejournal.com]

"Oh, so it's like Treno?" Rydia automatically associated it with that, since her world didn't have auction houses. "Maybe it'll give Treno some competition. That can't hurt."

She paused and made another turn. They weren't too far from the cafeteria, so she thought. "I wouldn't have minded staying in Troia, to be honest. At least, if it was how I remembered it. But with Kefka on the loose and not knowing what's happened to Cecil...there's no point in staying, at least not yet."

Cloud and Tidus need to clear the air... right? Open to anyone on board, too.

[loveandstrife.livejournal.com]

So, maybe he'd been a bit tetchy... maybe they all had, but Cloud was sure that the issue was between him and Tidus. Being two men who were both clearly used to leading their respective parties, they were likely clashing on ideas because of both being so head-strong.

Having found a few minutes escape from tugging that big lever about to steer the structure, Cloud made his way over to the teen who was notably taller than him. "Uh... Tidus, right?" Crossing his arms, Cloud tilted his head back slightly to look at his face.

"Can we talk?" Hopefully somewhere more private where he didn't have to make an ass of himself. He wasn't exactly the best with words.

[Action]

[waterblade.livejournal.com]

Whoever said anything about leading his party? If anything, he'd just been dragged along most of the time. But he was really stubborn and headstrong, and yeah, Cloud seeming to be completely unconcerned with anyone else around made him angry. But if they had to work together to get out of here, then they did.

Tidus performed the old repairman's trick of fixing any broken machine - kicking the computer console hard at the bottom corner. The map of the continent he'd been trying to get from the various sky phones around the area finally began to update itself as he looked at Cloud. "What is it?"

[loveandstrife.livejournal.com]

Cloud tried hard not to roll his eyes at Tidus. This kid was unusually chirpy. Then again, he'd known enough people who were too bubbly for their own good. He had to remember that this was a seventeen year old kid, not an adult. Taking a slow breath to relax himself, just like when Denzel had done something stupid and he had to keep himself from shouting at the boy, he clicked his jaw to just cool himself off a moment.

"I think we need to clear the air. There's no point in us having any tension when we have a long trip together," he began, tightening his arms over his chest. "You took me wrong, earlier. I had no intention of leaving anyone behind."

In fact, if anything, Cloud had a problem with saying no to helping people. Zack's doing, no doubt, but he just couldn't help himself from going to help anyone. "I figure a lot of people take me wrong, and probably always will, but I don't need a kid calling me selfish." And then Cloud realised he'd probably put his foot in it again by calling Tidus a kid. Kids didn't like being called what they are. He'd figured that out fast with Marlene and Denzel.