Chronicles of Gaia (RP)

Rikazu too had been quite pleased with how things had been going. He was still holding the red materia, quietly inspecting it for a short while. Now all he had to do was get Ama to help him later with the binding process. The male mage then put the materia into his bag; focusing on the mission came first for the time being. "Well, riding the train sounds fine to me", he finally said. Lynn listened to Shoya and Maiya explaining the affinity types of their persona's. "Otohime has a rather mixed grid, she has bufu and zio spells of different grades, diarama, and a skill called mirage breath which put enemies into an illusion, giving us some time to prepare our attacks", she explained. "She had also recently gained the ability to revive allies, although I'm not sure if that still works in this world."

Aislin shrugged at Rikazu's response, smiling even if it didn't reach her eyes. "Alright then, the train it is. I believe it's this way." Thankfully (she had gotten a bit confused by the underwater effect the unstable dimensions gave off) she had picked a way that only involved a little bit of backtracking. Soon enough the four arrived at the train station, which was eerily empty of fights. The folk here were either quietly heading in and out, or equally quietly comisserating about things. Aislin wisely ignored them all, acting as though she had every right to be there while snagging tickets. Idly, she noted that her mind had switched tracks to Blooming Flowers in the Void, which was a little confusing. It was a fairly simple matter to get what was needed, and even more simple to explain away Kudret's presence ("He's an experiment we tried that worked out great. He's my partner now." "You're the type of person who treats animals as human, huh?" "Yup!") and thus get him on board. Aislin sat down in a mostly empty car, making sure they were as far away from the woman as possible. Kahlua sat down with a small sigh of relief, while Kudret after a few moment's debate jumped up and laid down across two seats. That put his head near Aislin, who was currently refraining from stroking his fur, as that would be rude. "Now what?" Kahlua asked, fidgeting slightly over the new transportation. His journeys weren't exactly conductive towards experiencing train rides. "Now we wait," Aislin answered, "If anyone has questions for one another now's a good time to ask." Kahlua raised his eyebrows in slightly mocking surprise. "Even if it's really personal?" The girl's eyes narrowed while replying, "Depends on the question." Kudret proceeded to whip his tail out, flicking it between the two to distract their attention before curling it up again as he snapped, "Enough. We do not need dissension corrupting our pride. Whatever problems the two of you have will be settled now." When both fell quiet, he looked over at where Rikazu chose to sit. "Rikazu, do you wish to go first in questioning us? Please, ask anything you like." The other two seated there gave their (muttered) agreement to Kudret's last statement.

Celere's fist grazed the Red-Heads face, apparently 'Speed' was this morons thing and she couldn't really care less, granted, she couldn't hit her opponent, but her opponent couldn't really do anything to her either, he'd tried once to aim for an apparent 'weakspot' but all it did was break the wrappings on her chest, causing her to be slightly more annoyed about things being in the way and mildly interrupting her center of gravity, it didn't take much longer before she finally got a single hit in on the Redheaded Speedster, sending them flying over a railing to their apparent death, knowing full well certain mechanics would probably reverse it as a way of 'fixing' the world to their liking, but, it bought time, time enough for her to turn away from the Flying Vehicle, tear off a pant leg and re-fix her wrappings, "Prick, these are a pain to get right." Toré was wise to avert his eyes back towards the shielded console, besides the brazenness of the female he kept the company of making him awkward, he really did not appreciate how his body was healing, the feeling of bits stitching themselves back together, of things cracking back into place and foreign objects being popped out of their penetration zones... for the first time in his memory, he felt sick from all the sensations, the pale-ish skin going a very slight tint of green, he could feel a soul plummet, break, and then start being forcibly reformed, "Just a small breather, hurry it up before he comes back, you're wide open and they aint the type to wait patiently for you to finish your pointless self-loathing."

Rikazu followed the others onto the train, mentally noting that this train was different than what he was used to in his own world. They seemed more advanced, if anything. At Kudret's question, the male mage kept quiet for a moment, thinking to himself what to ask. Well...now would be as good a time as any to ask, he figured. "Well, there is something that comes to mind. Aislin..." he paused for a second. "There's something I've been wondering about. How did you learn so much about this place? Or rather, perhaps not just this world, but others as well? How much do you really know?"

Aislin blew out a breath, having to try and decide on what version she could say. She could just kinda repeat herself from what she had told Kuja, but on the other hand... This group here had seen enough advanced technology that she could probably get away with telling the flat truth. With that decided... Aislin took another deep breath, trying to psyche herself up for this. "Alright, sure, I'll tell you. But be warned, it's a lot less pretty than you might think. Also long. "A bit of background first: my world had a war between magic and science somewhere around three to five centuries before I was born. Unfortunately, magic lost, which meant things like wizards, dragon, and numerous magical things became only legends and folktales." A wry smile twisted her lips while she added, "While the Scientific Revolution- or the invention of the plow and other farm tools if you prefer, happened about...three centuries ago, we had surpassed steam two centuries ago." She shifted slightly and continued her lecture, "With the harnessing of electricity-bottled lightning we could convert into energy- things really took off. We began using it to power all sorts of things..." She gestures to the train around them. "Lights, trains, lots of things. The end result, around the time I was born, is what you see around you in this world. "What I said before about magic losing... that is true. There is no magic left. And well, the advent of more and more tools meant that we no longer had to spend all day working. In a word... we got bored and started making up games. With learning how to make technology smaller and more portable..." she produced the phone from her pocket, "We get things like small, long-distance communication devices like this one." Aislin stopped for a bit to let it sink in. Now that the background was done... it was time for the hard part. "The thing is, when I said we got bored? We started using that technology to create games to play. We simply called them video games, since they were played by using a screen to view them. They got... more elaborate over time, more detailed. A lot of us liked to play them, and there were enough different types to let everyone have something they like. I... I'm one of those who play them. A lot." She took a deep breath and put the phone away, beginning to twist coils of her hair out of nervousness. "I'm... I... the games I play... they're not real, in my world. No matter how well-known they are, we all know that they aren't real and never will be. But I liked to believe they were, so I began to call them worlds. Playing or reading about them became research in my head. And with my great memory, I could store a lot." She gestured to the train again. "But then I came here and discovered, they are real. All the legends, folktales, video games, everything. My belief was in fact the truth. I still don't know how I feel about that, especially since I recognized Kuja right off the bat- I've played the game that had his world as the setting. Same with Kudret, the Waddle Dee, and several others we've met." Aislin dropped her head to stare at her lap, feeling slightly shameful and a lot embarrassed/fearful. "So... there you have it, the bare truth. Obviously Rikazu's from a different version of Gaia 9 than what I played, as there was definitely no Mizuki there. Thankfully our Kuja also acts differently than the one I saw, or he'd be a lot more intolerable!" She tried for a bit of levity at the end, though the joke fell flat to her ears. ...At least she knew why her mind went to Blooming Flowers of the Void now, this was not the kind of thing anyone wanted to try explaining.

Right as the final bit of Shrapnel painfully popped out of Toré's kneecap, landing on the platform with the rest alongside a decidedly too-loud 'Clunk', a vortex of what appeared to be smoke started to form, both Celere and he knew exactly what this was, and sure enough, not even a few seconds after Celere had finished 're-prepping' herself, the redhead reformed, gasping form breath with a wild expression, a hand going to his own chest in panic, apparently he'd landed on something point when thrown off the Pillar... "No matter, see what you can do about getting conflicted up there down here, I'll keep mister should-be-dead' occupied for the time being, 'sides, I want some payback for the riddling I got on the way up. Ama had moved on from the eighth recital, blitzed through the ninth and was now on the tenth, her mouth getting drier by the second and he vocal cords no longer wanting to co-operate, she forced the words out while her throat burned in protest, *Damnable creatures, why did you have to make a simple request so convoluted?* the ninth orb hesitated before flickering on and remaining lit, continuing with her recitals, she began to feel light-headed, no doubt due to a lack of necessary air flow of something, she didn't really care at this point.

"Well, I'll be..." Rikazu started, taking the time to process everything that Aislin had just explained. "So my world was merely a video game in your world...well, that certainly would explain why you would know things about it." The mage had no trouble believing her story, though he couldn't help but wonder how real things that happened in his world could become part of a story, a game, in Aislin's world. Or well, an alternate version of his world it seemed at least. "Kuja, even more intolerable than he is now? ...I can't even imagine", the blue-haired mage had a grin on his face as he said that. "So, this version of your "Gaia 9" as you call it, even though Mizuki wasn't there...was Mel there? Was I there? Another Avanquilist entirely in Mel's or Mizuki's place?" He took a breath and then spoke again. "And well, if there's anything you want to know about my world, anything your video game world didn't tell you about...feel free to ask me."

Aislin chuckled to Rikazu's initial response. "I already explained this to Kuja and Carbuncle, though not with so much truth. I uh, essentially said that my world manipulated space and time to watch historical events on other planets." She looked a little more pained upon hearing his question and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Rikazu; I don't think the Avanquilist existed in that Gaia 9. I'm pretty sure I would have heard about something like that before arriving here." She gave a light shrug and explained further, "The video games tend to only span the length of the adventure for that specific person, in this case Zidane. Anything beyond that is left up to the player's imagination." "So if there was an Avanquilist at some point in time there?" Kahlua questioned, and Aislin readily completed, "Then it certainly wasn't mentioned in the game, thus I wouldn't know about it."

---

A small silence fell, broken by Kudret. "Whose world do you know of our group?" Aislin sighed and began, "I know about yours Kudret, though it followed the one named Vayne; I'm sure you've heard of him before. I know some of Celere's, Toré's, Lynn's, and that Waddle Dee. I also know of the three worlds we visited so far, the Gundorada place, the Blackreach place and that specific Future thing; their game titles are Dark Chronicles, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, and Chrono Trigger, respectively." Kudret merely nodded and then offered, "Would you like to meet Diemia?" She shot a look at him, and then considered. "Not here, we can meet later. It'd be safer for all of us."

---

Kahlua could no longer contain himself and chipped in, "Have you ever seen someone like me before?" Aislin turned her head and tilted it, studying him. "...Similar, yes, but not exact. The closest I can think of is Klonoa, although he's not a cat." She frowned heavily and shook her head. "No Kahlua, I don't know anything about your world." ...Strangely, that made Kahlua feel a lot better. He settled back into the seat and nonchalantly stated, "So the whole video game thing was your big secret? I thought it was something much worse." The girl rolled her eyes in response. "The only people who even understand that level of technology are Lynn and now the group here. Certainly not Mizuki, Kuja, or anyone else we've met. How was I supposed to tell them I knew about their world without ever stepping foot there?" There was nothing Kahlua could say to that. So he changed the subject slightly and asked, "Is this why you're the guide this time?" She gave a nod, rubbing her throat lightly; evidently she was a little tired of talking now.

A few hours had passed with Toré and Celere 'dealing' with the two interlopers in their own way, the one known as Reno having died in a myriad of ways, each unique and more traumatising than the last, if nothing else Toré had to respect his mental fortitude, most people would've broke by now, the bald one, Rude, which Toré had noticed wasn't quite one soul, had been split into the two different realities selves and promptly duked it out to see who would live through this, the old one won but kept traits of the new, with that done, he picked his alternate, unconscious partner up and left, after they had done so, the Whispers appeared in force. It was around this time Ama finally reappeared, a single feather poking from a chest pocket, the large, pulsating red materia held aloft, shining a light upon her bloodied mouth, no words were said, without a tongue, she couldn't really speak, but the thirteen entities that were summoned heeded the call regardless, instantly flying off to points on the plate underside, latching on and self-petrifying, duplicating this process until said plate was protected, explosions were dimly heard as the whispers tried to collapse the plate, but the summon statues had their own power, and this attempt failed miserably before they dispersed, nodding at the two others, Ama walked down the pillar support, a green glow on her arm and behind her lips indicating cure magic being used on her thoroughly destroyed vocal implements.

"How odd..." Rikazu murmured, the mage clearly losing himself in thought again. "A version of our world where the Avanquilist in its entirety doesn't exist...so, the curse was already broken there? No...perhaps it never existed in the first place. I wonder why that is..." If he could figure that out, perhaps he could learn how to save Mizuki. Finally, the mage turned his attention back to Aislin. "I can understand why you'd keep that information to yourself, but I appreciate you sharing it. There's some other questions I'd like to ask about now, but I believe it may be best if I save those for later. You look like you could use a break from answering questions right now."