Chronicles of Gaia (RP)

Kudret's notes continued: Rikazu is highly resistant to illusion magic. Went to Madain Sari, a summoner village for a jewel. Summoners: able to conjure into existence creatures both human and animal from other planes, takes concentration to do so. Greeted by Mizuki's mother and allowed to stay. Seth was attracted to Mel (presumably), held off on collecting jewel. Rikazu interacted with Mel during months that followed while Mel and Seth started dating. Kudret paused at the butterflies comment, having to think for a moment before understanding came and he continued to write. Rikazu also felt attracted to Mel during that time, wanted to stay with her. Eventually Mel asked Rikazu if she could trust Seth; he said trust your instincts. Seth came back furious afterwards; Mel had broken up with him. Seth decides to go through the plan, Rikazu no longer wanted to. Presumably fallen in love with Mel?

---

Kahlua slowly nodded at her words, and then resisted the urge to facepalm when Rowan drew out his bow. Exactly what part of delicacy did this angel not understand? Granted, Kahlua likely would have done the same if he had a weapon, but his claws weren't going to be much use at all. Thus the only course left to him was... The cat began walking aorund this outer room where a few men still worked, giving out various lies in hushed whispers that were designed to get them to leave the mines briefly to check things on the outside. Kahlua noted that his nerves only increased the closer he moved to the last of the current sections here, thus steered clear until he absolutely had to go into the pit. ...He was extremely lucky Tomas had seen fit to teach him how to lie effectively, even more lucky that telling them some supplies were sitting just out of sight from the entrance to the mine was enough to get most of them to leave.

---

They had thankfully reached the base of the mountain when Laura answered her question. Aislin stopped walking then, trying to both force emotion away and yet using it to trigger the appropriate memory. It was rather complicated to explain, but it meant she could trigger a recall of the memory needed to explain, though she often worked better with written reminders. Nevertheless... Aislin took a deep breath and began: "When I fell asleep, the feathers were the first thing I saw. I looked around to find myself in a long, stretched out corridor, and the feathers were smeared along the walls with blood, or following a blood trail that continued in front of me. I began walking, moving past Ricardo who was playing a mournful tune, Kudret who gave me a disappointed stare, Kuja who did the same, and then Rikazu who said he thought he could trust me. By this point I could hear someone apologizing, 'There's nothing I could do, I'm sorry!'" She quoted the last bit, and then continued, "After trekking through a small pool of blood, I came upon Mizuki who was crying. She... she asked for forgiveness for failing me. I found out why moments after I moved past her; I had reached the end of the corridor and the source of the feathers: Rowan." A tear dripped down, and Aislin did her absolute best not to do anything more than that. It would be hard to talk through sobbing, and she wasn't keen on experiencing that. "Feathers, blood, flesh, and bone littered the floor and walls. He had ripped his wings off and shredded them; but Mizuki couldn't heal him. I'm pretty sure that meant he didn't want to be saved. I went over to him and he seemed rather happy to see me, and I told him I cared about him, of course I would come. He told me I should be more worried about myself, since he was dying. I asked him why, and he-" Aislin cut herself off as she felt the sobs rising up. Hurriedly she stashed her glasses into the coat's pocket to freely wipe at her eyes. It took a minute or so for the sobs to be suppressed enough to speak again. "He said that he hates this world, and hates himself, and hates how much it can take just to get through the day. So he destroyed one source to make sure he couldn't hurt me or anyone else with his hate, and the second source, himself, would be gone soon. I asked why he didn't say anything and he asked me who would listen? Me? I... got a little desperate, foolish maybe after that even if he apologized for that statement. I ended up holding his hand and pressing my back against his, I can still feel how the blood began soaking in...!" Aislin stopped once more to wipe at her eyes. She hadn't moved since the beginning, but she was trembling, wrapping her arms around herself to try and keep steady. She stared at the floor, refusing to look at Laura. A few more deep breaths and she finished, though haltingly. "I didn't want him to leave, and I declared that out loud. He refuted that, and when I turned to look at him all of it: him, the feathers, even the blood was disintegrating into yellow light. He told me goodbye and that he hoped I had a good life, and then vanished entirely, the lights disappearing the next instant. So I was left there in a dark corridor, with only a wetness on my back and my feelings to show he had ever existed. That was when you woke me up, Laura." Aislin did her best to will away the sorrow, her breaths quick and shaky when exhaled from the force of holding back the sobs. Rowan wasn't dead, not yet. She still had a chance to turn things around. After a few minutes, she gave a wet laugh. "Do you know what I did yesterday, Laura? I pulled on his wings. He was being stupid, trying to hurt Seth when we needed to leave. The look on his face... It took all his power not to hurt me right then, but I didn't care. He got on the chocobo and we all got away, that's what mattered. Then... I started writing an apology, trying to explain myself, but then I stopped to help the mages with Mizuki and he must have spotted it and read it while I was distracted." Aislin didn't think trying to explain about the mindscape was relevant. "I don't know his recation to reading it, but he came back with the letter later and put it back where he had found it. I called out to him after he had set it down and then... The cold way he treated me... It felt like I was being torn apart." Aislin shook her head at the return of that feeling. "I know well the feeling of hating yourself, but that... I don't know what that was. I just, I don't know, and that's... scary." Aislin was trembling again; she couldn't seem to stop herself anymore. If Laura tried pushing at all, she'd likely spill even more and halt their journey entirely. Or at least, halt it for a several minutes until she got back under control.

Ama finally felt the creature's breath leave her neck, apparently satisfied it remained undetected *Too close... Way too close...* a discussion then occurred about the operations down here, a bit of back and forth, the foreman getting a bit heated at times, Ama put this down to the Paranoia he was no doubt feeling, and then... the jackpot, both Ancient Texts uncovered that she could use to her advantage, and something called 'Sun Stones' apparently being a common yield down here, after offering to see if she could perhaps try to translate the texts, making an excuse about having never been in Palm Brinks during the world destruction, she was permitted to do so, *Sure enough, goes into detail about the Hydra... although they make reference to it being much larger than this one, the spatterings of 'oh god it's eating us!' and 'Need to get help' make it clear there, something else though...* her free hand had pen scribbling on paper, going into minor detail about some kind of 'Ancient Evil' that was sealed away down here, something the 'Atlamillia' had precisely zero effect on. Presenting her Translations to the Foreman, 'Cedric' or something she couldn't quite remember, too focused on the beast lurking around down here, his eyes widened, and quietly got to work rounding up the rest of the workers, getting them to leave the pit until this could be further understood, after he'd left, mentioning something about a 'Ridepod'? Ama understood nothing about what that could pertain to, but this gave her enough time to get a breather, she took a look around, having seen Kahlua already getting to work on removing some of the workers down here, *Smart move, certainly proving his worth in coming along, Rowan on the other hand... well given his state I can blame him really, hopefully he'll get some of the stress out in one of these worlds, now how to deal with you...* "Right then, while we're alone down here, mind coming over so I can discuss some important info about what the hell's going on? Couldn't do it with the Natives around."

Mizuki continued to listen intently to Rikazu's story, though her head was admittedly spinning with thoughts. "After Seth decided to go through with his plan, I went for a walk to clear my head. I didn't know what to do. In the end my legs carried me all the way to Mel's house, and before I knew it I was standing face to face with her once more. It was at that point that I realized I couldn't stand the thought of her getting hurt", Rikazu continued his story. "You'd fallen in love with her..." Mizuki mused quietly. "Yes...I'd fallen in love with her...if I hadn't made that mistake, if I hadn't betrayed Seth...none of this would've ever happened..." Rikazu clenched his fist at this, though Mizuki shook her head, carefully yet gently taking his hand. "Loving someone...isn't a mistake, you should never think of it as a mistake..." Rikazu fell silent for a moment. Why had he even said that, to his own child at that? Of course loving Mel hadn't been a mistake, it had been the happiest time of his life...but it had also been what had caused both Mel and Mizuki pain in the end. Snapping himself out of his thoughts, Rikazu patted Mizuki's head before speaking again. "When I told Mel I loved her that same day, Seth had been listening. He felt like I had betrayed him, and attacked both Mel and myself. Mel summoned Bahamut at the time and kicked him out of the village, forbidding him from ever returning." "The years after that were peaceful, at least for a while. Like you, Mel was an Avanquilist, an extremely powerful one at that. She'd been trying to break the curse placed on her family for years, and I decided to help her. I made a pact with her, the same kind that you have with Kuja. Eventually, the two of us got married in Conde Petie...and then you came along. Life couldn't have been more perfect by then", Rikazu smiled at the kid, not immediately wanting to talk about the dark parts of his story again. Lynn looked up when Celere spoke to her, the redhead having been quite lost in thought for a while now. The idea of fighting by Otohime's side again had been great, and yet..."Oh, you know...the usual", she let out a sigh. "I miss home, and I'm worried about my friends...I thought I'd feel better after regaining my Persona, but...I can't really say that I do."

Celere proceeded to put the hood of the bath robe over her head, letting it soak out some of the water still in there, though that was more of a self-distraction to figure out to respond, "Being homesick sounds average to me, so does the rest of it, foreign world, not something normal for most people, but to be shunted there with no idea of how or why is even more out of place for most." given her own prior escapades planet hopping, she really had no idea if that was right to say, more-so just floating the ideas as they came to mind, "It sounds like theres something deeper going on here, but should I pry into the affairs of someone else when they've given me no reason to?" her head was slightly cocked to the side, looking quizzically at Lyn before her, trying to figure out how just how far she should push if at all... "If you got anything you need to get off your chest, just to get out in the open to anyone, now would be a good time to do so, hell, I'm probably the best bet if theres anything you don't want to be shared around, no guarantee I'll make it to the next settlement once we leave here after all."

Kudret continued writing, shoving his own feelings down in order to do so. Rikazu left room after Seth declared plan, ended up in Mel's home. Realizes he'd fallen in love. Firmly believes everything that has happened since is his fault entirely. Blaming himself for memory loss? Kudret's ears drooped in thought of this. How does anyone carry that kind of loss throughout so many years? He remembered learning about Professor Isolde's situation through his leader; he remembered thinking that a lesser-willed person would have gone mad long before Isolde ever showed signs of it. His ears perked at Rikazu's voice speaking and began paying attention again. Rikazu told Mel he's in love with her, Seth was listening. Seth attacked both, claiming they had betrayed him. Mel summoned Bahamut (dragon that flew off yesterday) and kicked him out of the village. Mel and Rikazu made a pact, got married, had Mizuki. Years passed in peace. Kudret paused there, wondering if he should jot down the Avanquilist stuff. He decided that interrupting now, before the darker part of the story, would be a bit more appropriate than asking after everything else. "Rikazu? Should I write things down about the Avanquilist or should I leave it off the notes?" He had little doubt Aislin had some inkling of what they could do, and Kuja definitely knew, but he wasn't so sure everyone else needed to know everything Mel, or rather Mizuki, could truly do.

---

Kahlua just looked at her for a minute in pure dread. He absolutely did not want to go deeper into the pit, thank you very much! ...Still, they had accepted him so easily, let him come along into other worlds to help in whatever way he could. Not to mention, he had told that girl, however silent it had been, that he'd keep watch over the angel for her. He couldn't let them down, Rowan was definitely close to the edge, so close to where he had been before Zerik found him... Kahlua shook his head out of his thoughts, and then swiftly wrapped his tail around his waist, keeping a grip on it to maintain a half-stoic expression as his nerves screamed at him to run run run and walked closer until he was directly next to the woman. "What did the text say?" he forced out after spotting the slabs laying nearby. That was a safer way to ask what's wrong than actually saying 'what is wrong'.

Ama waited until both were in close proximity, then grabbed Kahlua by the shoulder to drag him into whispering range, motioning to Rowan to do the same, "Nothing of importance were on those things, I neglected to mention to the guy that what was sealed further in died long ago to Starvation, I won't bother mentioning the real threats name until ready to attack it, you won't remember until it shows up for you anyway, all I'm going to say is this, Be Ready." letting Kahlua go and standing back up to full height once more, she pretended to look around, being very careful to give off carefully disguised looks of fake confusion, scratching the back of her head, she waited for the breath down her neck again, and the second it did... her secondary was whipped around, nearly taking off a head entirely with the sheer force, said secondary weapon shattered upon impact with a bone close to the other side of the neck, and the 'singing' of the creature stopped immediately, death glare aimed directly at the rest of the heads now focused completely on her, "This. This is what I've been careful to avoid triggering while the natives were here, I see no need to play a charade anymore."

Rikazu thought for a while about Kudret's question. He'd always kept this information secret, sharing it only with Kuja out of sheer necessity before. After all, the Avanquilists were powerful, and said power would easily be abused in the wrong hands. But at this point, said 'wrong hands' were already well aware of everything an Avanquilist could do; Seth had learned about that years ago. "It's alright for you to write it down. Whatever I tell the two of you are things that Seth already knows, and hiding things now will just give him more of an advantage against us", Rikazu finally answered. Even so...there were things that were better left unsaid, at least for now; if he told Mizuki everything right now, she surely wouldn't be able to handle it. Rikazu turned his attention back to Mizuki before continuing his story. "Six peaceful years passed after you were born...until one day a man showed up in Madain Sari. He attacked the village, wiping out most members of the summoner tribe. ...That was Kuja", the male paused, the expression on Mizuki's face making him wonder if it was alright to continue. No...he had to, it was part of the memories that he'd sealed; part of the memories that were coming back now. "Mel was away from the village that day, but you and I were at the Eidolon Wall. The sky had grown dark so quickly, and there was a large eye in the sky. That eye shot out energy beams with incredible speed and power, and while I was able to protect the village against its first wave of attacks...it took too much of my energy. The second wave set the village ablaze, killing many of the summoners; somehow their Eidolons were ineffective against this threat. You saw it all happen, and due to the shock of it all your Avanquilist powers awakened early. With a massive surge of power you summoned an Eidolon, one that had been considered lost, 'forgotten' until that very moment; Titan." Rikazu took a break from speaking. He didn't want to talk about the mistakes he made, knowing how much pain it caused her in the past four years. Once again shoving aside those feelings, he continued. "It was then that Kuja noticed you and appeared before us. He seemed intrigued in you summoning Titan, and I saw a chance to offer him a deal...before he'd kill you, too. I told him about the Avanquilist, about how a pact with you would grant him more power, and how said pact would make you do his bidding. In return he let you live and left the village. It was the only thing I could think of at the time, I wouldn't have had the power to go up against both him and the Invincible."

Laura fell silent as Aislin told her story. It caught the Siren off guard, perhaps not the details of the dream or the recent events, but the shear mass of emotion the girl seemed to be struggling under. She really cared for the angel, far more so than Laura had been expecting. Perhaps some confusion at the way Rowan had been acting, some worry about the well-being of a friend, maybe even a little fear at the way he'd been on edge and lashing out at others, but not this. Not crying at the idea of losing him, nor being on the edge of an emotional breakdown over the mess their relationship was currently in. It reminded Laura of unpleasant memories of her own, back to the reason she'd been chasing and attacking the angel for so many years. She placed a hand on Aislin's shoulder, gripping it in a comforting soft-yet-firm way. Her face was full of concern and a touch of empathetic sadness as she said, "It's alright, you can let it all out. I'm here to listen after all."

---

'Be Ready.' Probably the best thing Rowan had been told all day. He'd been in a fowl mood since being marched into that tower, and nothing since entering it had alleviated it so far. Now he was in some unknown world working on a shopping list for he knew not why, finding himself once again facing an enemy that hid itself using illusions. Another enemy he would be useless against. The whole thing just made the angel think about the fight with Seth, and all the things that had happened because of it. Not that he hadn't been thinking about those things anyway, but somehow the parallels seemed even more mocking than usual. Then the moment came. Ama suddenly whipped around and seemed to slash at nothing. For a split moment Rowan wondered what in the world she was doing, but a second later the heavy 'silence' fell on him and he beheld for the first time just what Ama had been so worried about. "What the- What across all the void is that?" Rowan could not help but exclaim in surprise at the sudden mass of... neck? Several heads on ridiculously elongated necks were bearing down on Ama. Rowan had taken several paces back from the others to ready himself, now notching an arrow and letting it fly. The first shot hit the head Ama had already slashed. The 'head,' could you call it a head? It was like someone had stuck a face at the end of a fleshy snake. In any case, the thing had not been completely severed by Ama's blow and Rowan didn't feel finding out if it had a major healing factor or not. The second arrow fired missed and flew off into the cave as the head he'd been aiming for, newly aware of Rowan's presence from the first arrow, coiled itself rapidly to avoid the projectile. As the angel reached f or a third arrow the head uncoiled itself, shooting forward too quickly for Rowan to prepare his attack. He was forced sideways, diving out of the way of the monster's horribly sharp teeth. Heads on extremely long, floating necks are much more agile than someone who had to rely on their arms and legs to carry them. Rowan found himself scrambling around, trying to fend off the thing with hand-held arrows as he worked to keep ahead of its bites. No matter where he moved he just could not seem to get out of the range of the monster's seemingly endless neck. Reload on Fire! Time compressed and Rowan was finally able to put a little distance between himself and the head, firing off three arrows into its head and neck before his movements returned to normal time again. While the attack had clearly injured the creature, it had also clearly not been enough to stop it. In a split second the head had closed the distance once again and Rowan was forced back to dodging. They were simply too far into the creature's lair for his ranged attacks to be useful.

Kudret nodded, accepting the mage's answer, and wrote down that the Avanquilist was an extremely powerful magic-user. Said to be cursed with said power, both Mizuki and Mel were incredibly powerful as a result. Kudret thought for a moment, and then jotted down something Aislin had mentioned the other day: that the powers were inherited mother to daughter. Satisfied, he flipped pages to continue writing, purposely leaving space on the previous page to write down more about that power later. After Mizuki was born, six years passed without strife. Then Kuja attacked the village with the Invincible (ship or summon?) and wiped out most of the villagers. Mizuki and Rikazu were spared the initial attack. The powers of the Avanquilist were awakened from shock and Mizuki summoned Titan (earth or neutral?). Kuja approached and Rikazu revealed their powers in a deal with Kuja: let her live and she will be pacted to him, granting power. Kuja agreed to the deal and left them alone.

---

Kahlua's immediate reaction to being confronted by the mass of flesh was to scamper backwards. He managed to regain control of himself a ways away from the beast and almost frantically looked around for something he could use to attack. Kahlua did not want to find out what his poison would do to this thing... His eyes fell upon a newly opened chest with something sticking out and dashed over, seeing that it was some kind of one-handed cube-like hammer. He tried picking it up, finding it to be lighter than expected. Well, better than his claws at least. Maybe he could pin one down long enough for it to be cut, or just block an attack... Trying to ignore his nerves, he started back towards the fight. ((This weapon is only temporary; he shall discard it once the fight is over.))

---

Aislin didn't answer for a bit, trying to control her breathing enough to talk. Eventually she resorted to holding her breath until the feelings faded a little, forced back under by willpower and survival instincts. Looking back at Laura nearly undid all that; Aislin was not used to anyone fully listening to her, let alone understanding the position she was in. As such, it took a few minutes until she felt she was able to hold back the rest. She wiped at her eyes one last time, rubbing her hand dry on the snow jacket, and then fished out the glasses to inspect them for any tear splatters. Deeming them clean enough, she placed them back on and turned her head to face Laura once more with a weak, hesitant grin that wavered. "So, um, now you know just about everything that's happened recently. Like I said, I know well the feeling of hating yourself and depression, that's my world's term for a mental condition that basically equates to you feeling negatively about yourself on a general, day-to-day basis. Most of it consists of, you know, feeling worthless, guilty for taking pleasure at stuff, a general sadness, hating yourself and others, and naturally some get so depressed they convince themselves to kill, well themself." She was practically rambling at this point, but somehow Aislin couldn't really stop herself. Laura did say that she'd listen, after all. "I know this stuff so well becuase while I did research it some, I have it too, still do. Have depression, I mean, though it's a lot more mild these days, mostly just self-confidence issues. Way back when I did think of killing myself, but I succeeded in talking myself out of it obviously; and yet with Rowan..." Here, she faltered, growing grim and worried again at the reminder of the situation at hand. "While none of the dream is true right now, I feel like it's less of a dream and more of a warning: if something isn't done to make Rowan open up to others and let out his feelings, he'll be pressed to the edge and kill himself in reality. It might just be my knowledge of symbolism talking, but I'd like to think I'm fairly accurate of interpreting my own dreams, you know?" Aislin faltered again, unsure of what else there was to be said. Finally she made an effort and asked, "What do you think about all of this, Laura? It's just... I don't really understand this emotion I'm feeling; I can identify it, I'm fairly sure I know what it is but I've never, literally never felt this way towards someone before, I have no idea what to do..." She closed her eyes in pain, certain the worry and fear were still on her face as she murmured, "All of you are so precious to me, I don't want to lose any of you, and yet Rowan's somehow more than that and I just don't understand...!" It didn't make sense to her, not at all. With her own mental condition and her own depression, she was also certain she never fully could understand.

Ama had proceeded to grab a head by the teeth, and in a twisted pirouette, managed to tangle it up in one of the others, a small and highly minor attempt at buying time, it gave her time to observe the other two at least, "Kahlua! Forget about dealing with the main body! Assist Rowan! The fact he's ranged isn't helping his case right now!" a third head caught her attention, and she broke the teeth of this one by planting a sizeable rock into it's lower jaw, she wished she had some kind of a weapon on hand, her main having a splintered handle meant it would be of no use and her secondary had exploded on impact, her thoughts were interrupted by the first two heads unentangling and coming at her, forcing a swift and instinctual.... squatting, the disgusting sound of the heads slamming into each other not going unnoticed, a very faint sound came to her ears, perhaps the other two could hear it better, it sounded something akin to a muffled jet engine and plasma coils charging up, she had no idea what it could be coming from, and had no time to think on it, what the three heads, bloodied and extremely agitated, now co-ordinating their attacks and leaving zero room for error on her ability to dodge. Seyr had spent quite an amount of time in the mirror just... thinking, thinking, meditating, contemplating, whichever word one could find most applicable for her seated position, she did finally speak however, after coming to a consensus on her own plans of action going forward, the statuette she'd kept in a satchel was gingerly brought out and placed on the floor, she stared at it for more time, mostly to get herself ready for it, performing the cleansing ritual to void the corruption within, her one hand picked it up just as gingerly as she'd placed it, "Hey, would someone be ready to terminate my physical form if this goes wrong? Thanks." the entirety of her Mana pool flooded from her at once, creating a sort of cloud above her sitting form, the Statuette was tossed in, and if anyone tried to interact with her from here-on-out until her business was concluded, they would receive no responses.