Final Fantasy: Darkness Descends

[Crystal Tears]

Selene Solidor

Thief

Shooting a harsh glare towards the pirate, Selene stomped off, thankful for the ninja’s interference. Their bicker had been steadily escalating, because Sirius was jealous and, according to him, Selene had no concept of the idea. She gritted her teeth as she reached the younger woman, who was looking at her inquisitively.

Perhaps I have no knowledge of it because there’s no reason to be jealous…

That thought gave her some comfort, but not nearly enough to wipe that irritated scowl off her features. She looked at Shay, clicking her tongue.

“Yes.” Selene spoke, only really to the girl who she had at that moment, decided to fully forgive and be friends with again. “Let’s go, if they fall behind let them die.”

“So Sirius is being an idiot?”

Selene snorted, taking the lead as Shay followed. “I fail to see when he’s not an idiot.”

“Oh, good point. What he do now?”

“Nothing.” The woman’s eyes shot away, taking in the cave walls and what not. She could hear the other’s following, noting how they all got a strange feeling from this place. “Nothing worth discussing, anyways.”

It’s not like she would be able to help the matter anyways.

The cave kept going until they reached a single, massive chamber. It wasn’t like the temple, there was no teleporting pad or magical runes, it was just a cave. The only odd thing about it was the hole in the ground, off to the far left corner. Shay immediately bounded up to it, plopping down onto her hands and knees to peer down the hole.

“Whoa…” she blinked, looking up at Selene, who had her arms crossed and was standing in the center of the room. “It’s dark down there.”

“Of course, how would any light get down there?” Lyra sneered from behind, fiddling with her gunblade.

“Meaning don’t fall,” Selene added it, with a slight look of concern on her face. “I don’t want to go down there after you.”

Shay glared at her sister briefly. “At least you would. I can think of somebody who’d leave me to die.”

“You little-“

“Oi!” Adair floundered in, pausing to look at the dark, boring cavern. “Don’t go barking in the cave, it tends to echo. Not good for my hearing.”
“I’m disappointed to see my dragon failed.”

Weapons were out and at the ready, much to the confusion of Cid and his traveling companion. The group stared the darkness warily; all ready to attack anything that seemed out of place. The voice seemed to spawn from all directions, echoing off the walls and making a confusing pattern.

“Then you kill more of my men…”

There was the briefest flash of light, and Selene swore she saw the witch in that second. But it didn’t last, the ground rumbled and pieces of it began to give away. There were cries of shock and terror all around as the lot of them plummeted down into the darkness they had been commenting on before.

The darkness engulfed them all quickly, like a hungry beast.


When Selene awoke, she found her body protesting to the movement. There was a fire nearby, with the group huddled around it. A few were like herself, a bit farther away in makeshift beds. She supposed they were the ones who were wounded, but her eyes fell on one of the spots. It had a shape of a person; white a blanket was laid over them.

No…

“My lady,” Cid’s cool voice broke Selene’s stare off the corpse. “Are you alright?”

“Honestly, it takes more them a bottomless pit to maim me, you should know that.”

Cid small smile showed in the dim light from the fire. His eyes flicked over to the corpse, and he seemed apprehensive.

“Who is it?” Selene’s eyes were once again locked on it.

“Lisette, I believe her name was.”

Not a thought floated into the woman’s mind. Instead she just cast her eyes to the ground, hiding her sorrow. “Oh…”

“She landed on one of the crystals…”

Crystals? Selene looked up, and found that they were in the center of a ring of crystals. They were dark blue, with strange black roots curling around them locking them in place.

“Did they all cause the issue?”

Cid thought about it. “With the airships, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“No, not these. I suspect a much larger crystal would be the source.”

“And who are you people?”

The strange voice immediately spawned the entire group to go scrambling for their weapons. Selene was lucky enough hers wasn’t far. She took it out of its holster as fast as lightning and pointed it straight at the stranger’s face. She wasn’t one to go for chest shots; people always seemed to be wearing body armour.

The man blinked, watching as suddenly everyone’s eyes were on him, and numerous types of weaponry were pointed in his direction.

“Oh…” He gulped a tad, raising up his hands. “Tough crowd.”

Selene’s eyes focused on his right hand. Or, in this case hook. It was like he was a pirate from the old stories, with a lost limb replaced by a tool of some sort.

“Who are you?” Selene growled.

“I asked you first.” Came his reply, eyeing the group.

“Point good sir, but we have our weapons on you. Forgive us for taking the courtesy of getting yours first.” Sirius replied, a friendly smile on his face.

“Aye, good point. Name’s Arena Tiburon-“

“The desert pirate?” Selene question, surprised.

“Aye, that’s me-“

There was a loud BANG and everyone jumped. Arena himself yelped, cursing as his hook was now bent out of shape.

“What was that for?”

Her eyes narrowed. “For being nothing but a thief.”

Shay shuffled a little.

“Your band of misfits ain’t exactly saintly company. Ain’t that Captain Sirius?”

“Yes,” Selene narrowed her eyes to fuming slits. “But they’ve earned their place, you’re some stranger who’s in a dark cave, with a hook for a hand.”

“Not my fault, I fell.”

“Through the hole up there?” Shay gestured.

“Yeah, that whole. ‘Cept, it wasn’t so big when I fell..”

“Evil witch did us in, or Temzi’s armour. Take your pick.” Adair had meandered up to be between the two side. “Come now, surely we are better then attacking every common folk that we pass by?”

Selene shot her eyes away and lowered her gun, the rest followed suit.
“So…” Shay moved forward and them plopped down next to Selene. “Whatcha doin’ in here anyway?”

“Not important.” Arena shrugged it off as he bent the hook back in shape. “What is important; is I know how to get out.”

Selene looked bored. “Do you?”

“Yessir, this place is a crystal maze. Once light hits everything, it’s like a hall of mirrors. Very confusing, hard to navigate by yourself.”

“Only, now we’re here…” Lyra scoffed, crossing her arms. “Forgive me for not trusting you.”

Cid didn’t have the same suspicion. “Trust him or not, we’re all trapped in this cave. Perhaps it’s better for the time being, that we join forces to escape this place?”

Oh, but I liked my plan of ‘shoot him’ better…

Eyes fell on Selene, who just huffed. “Why do I have to decide? It’s not like any of you listen, anyway.”

Cid smiled, one that the princess found herself returning briefly. “Then it’s decided,” he looked rather confident in everyone. “Join forces, even if it’s temporary, and escape this cave.”

“Good plan!” Adair grinned. “I like him, very logical thinker he is.”

~ + - 1264 / 44 + ~

Alright, Adair sounds mildly normal because my sister didn’t translate into very strange speech.

Our 200th post! Everyone gains a free level up, including our newest player! Welcome Mystic_clown! Arena is his character.

Name: Arena Tiburon
Age: 30
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Origin: Ivalice but has no real loyalty to either.
Appearance: A tall, well built man, around six foot in height. He has ashen, slightly tanned skin, black hair which is slicked back, though with a bit of his fringe hanging in front of his face, and deep, brown eyes. In terms of clothing, he wears a white undershirt (complete with cravat) and a brown leather vest. He wears black pants, completely with matching, slightly worn, boots. He wears a worn, brown coat over his shouders like a cape. His most notable feature is the hook where his right hand should be. It’s uncertain whether or not this is a prosthetic or simply something he wears. Though judging by the fact that he’s constantly wearing it, it may be the former.
Personality: Arena is a man who seems to be without fear, often jumping into dangerous situations with a smile on his face. He feels truly alive during exciting situations, and loves the satisfaction you get from coming out alive. Outside of these situations, he’s a laid back sort of individual, often going with the flow. He lets insults roll off his back and doesn’t hold grudges, though it doesn’t stop him from kicking the asses of those who wrong him. Despite being from Ivalice, he feels they are entirely to blame for starting the war with Spira.
Weapon Style: Ivalice
Weapon Type: Hook
Weapon: Sand Scourge – a large hook, made from a brass type of metal. It has a large, round base where his right hand should be. The hook itself is curved sharply. The hook can be removed from the base and replaced, but the base always remains on his arm.
History: Arena was the leader of a group of bandits that roamed the Dalmasca Westersand, using the sandstorms as cover in order to attack caravans. Not much is known about Arena’s past, or what happened to his right hand. He doesn’t talk about his past much, but judging from what he has said, he seems to have come from a poor family.

His life changed however shortly after the war with Spira began. He and his band managed to get caught by Ivalice soldiers. Impressed with their ability to survive in the Westersand and to avoid capture for so long, they offered them a choice. Imprisonment, or enlisting in the Ivalice army and fighting in the war. Arena refused, believing the war had nothing to do with him. His men had other ideas. Led by Arena’s right hand man, they turned on their leader, feeling that killing him would prove their new loyalty. Arena managed to escape both capture and death, and now wanders the land, committing his acts of piracy alone.
Other: Oddly enough, he has a really good singing voice.

[Mystic_clown]

Arena Tiburon
------------------------------------------------------

Well, it seemed that this motley crew wasn’t going to off him. That was a plus. And with more people around, he wasn’t going to be stumbling through this maze blind.

“So, we head out?” Sirius spoke up, all eyes again falling onto the rather cantankerous woman who shot at him. Before she could reply, Arena piped up again.

“If you’re going to head in there, you’re going to need a light, and fire wont last long down there, believe me.” He spoke. The woman gave him a glare of sorts, as if wishing he would stay quiet.

“And what do you suggest then?” she replied. A smirk spread across as he reached into the coat draped over his shoulders. In his left hand, he pulled out three crystals, all of them shining brightly.

“Ta-da!”

“Lit-crystals?” the one known as Cid murmured, taking a step forward to make sure, “Where did you find those?”

“Probably stole them I bet,” the woman replied sharply. Arena glanced at her.

“Actually I found them in the maze,” he replied. This earned him a incredulous look from her.

“You found three fully charged lit crystals in there?” she asked, in a tone suggesting she didn’t believe him.

“Well, yeah. Not too hard to believe considering the place is full of mist.” That got everyone’s attention.

“Mist?”

“Yep. The maze is full of it, so we don’t have to worry about these things running out. Which is good for us because is seems the monsters down here can’t stand light.”

“Monsters?”

“Yes.”

“And mist?”

“Yes.”

The woman sighed. “Just great. Lost in a maze of mirrors with supercharged monsters. Just what we need.”

Arena merely shrugged. “Meh, I think you guys can handle it, what with all the battle gear you’re carrying.” The woman didn’t respond. Cid nodded in agreement.

“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” he said before turning to Arena, “Could you show us where the entrance is?”

Arena nodded, “Sure. Just to make it easier, I’ll hand these out to the others,” he gestured to the Lit-Crystals before tossing one to the woman, “One for you, since you’re apparently the leader of this bunch,” he passed another to Cid, “One for you because I like you, and the last one for me, so you people don’t simply ditch me.”

The rest of the group nodded, though he was sure he heard the woman mutter “Dammit” under her breath.

With everything ready, the group left the safety of the crystal circle. With Arena leading in front, the rest of the group crowded around either him, Cid or Selene, not wanting to be caught out of the light. It wasn’t long before they reached a think blanket of mist. It sent a shiver down everyone’s spines.

“Ok everyone,” Arena instructed, “Stick together. It’s easy to get lost in this place.”

Selene said nothing but walked on ahead, shooting Arena a glare as if to say she was the one giving orders.

The instant they stepped into the maze, the walls, the floor, even the ceiling lit up, as the crystals caught the light. The group were instantly greeted by many, many reflections of themselves.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Arena chuckled, “Welcome to the crystal maze. Please watch your step.”

-546 *-* 1-

Let the dungeon crawling begin!

[Weasel Overlord]

Sirius fir Sterrl de Famfræn
[Captain and General Ruler of the Wolfstar]
I stare at the stars and the sky up above
and think what am I made of?

Caves, thought Sirius. Bloody stinking caves. All the time with the caves. It honestly never ended, and he was tired of caves, to be frank. Why did they always have to be in caves? Oh sure, temples weren't caves, but let's not get bogged down in the detail, they still had caves outside them and all the stompy things, brr. No, give him the wide open sky any day. Not this stinking, reflecting, mirrored hall of crystal.

The lights Arena had shared out flared deep inside themselves, filled with Mist, and they gave Sirius the shivers. “Those lights,” he said, “give me the shivers.”

Selene shot a withering glance at him.

“Sorry,” he said. “But they do. They're creepy.”

“It's all the Mist,” Sori piped up. “It makes people edgy.”

“You should see what it does to Viera,” Shay grimaced.

“I'd rather not, to be honest. I've read stories...” Sirius shuddered as images of long, painful Viera legs flashed into his mind. It wasn't nice, being kicked by a Viera, on the best of days, but when they were Mist-feral you could actually lose your head if you weren't careful. “But really though. Why is it always caves?”

“We do it specifically to annoy you,” Selene smirked. “Everyone knows you hate caves.”

“Perhaps hiding your hatred could be a good plan,” Temzi said, quietly. “And then people could no longer use it against you.”

“You know something, Temzi my man, that is sterling advice. I should get it cross-stitched onto a sampler and hang it up in my cabin.”

“Are you planning on talking the entire time?” Cid's face was shadowed eerily from the lit-crystal.

“I was indeed, good fellow. It's harder to get separated when you can hear each others' voices loud and clear, eh?” Sirius grinned and then faltered. Cid's look could have sliced them a path straight through the crystal. To say it was frosty just did not do it justice, not by a long shot. Although the frost could have been entirely Sirius' imagination, considering the creepiness of the lit-crystal. He suspected that it took delight in twisting things around, if, you know, a crystal could have emotions. Now that was a scary thought...

Sirius elbowed Adair roughly in the ribs and leaned close to his ear. “I'm beginning to think this Cid chap doesn't like me,” he said in a stage whisper. “He must be jealous of the Princess and I, mayhaps the romance of our trysts is too much for him to bear.” He fluttered his eyelashes furiously and clasped one hand to his heart and the other to his forehead, as if he were about to faint.

Cid's head turned ever so slightly, and he called over his shoulder with a smile; “You forget that I have one of the lit-crystals, dear Captain. If you find their light so unbearable, perhaps you would be better suited if I left you in the dark.”

Sirius wrinkled his nose and made a rude gesture with his hand at Cid's back. Adair sniggered, and Sirius hushed him quickly. He didn't want to be left in the dark, ugh no, he'd end up bashing his poor face even more times on the crystal. Speaking of, he'd not had a chance to examine the damage properly yet. Sirius peered at himself in the mirrored crystal and poked forlornly at his nose. “It'll never be the same,” he sighed. “My poor, handsome nosie.”

“If you're not careful, there'll be more than your nose at stake,” Cid said, matter-of-fact. “On account of you'll have flattened yourself face-first into the ground for not paying attention while you walk.”

“Why did we have to be stuck back here with him?” Sirius grumbled to Adair. “He's not moaning about Ma'nenek talking, is he? Oh no.” The sound of Ma'nenek chattering to Nii and Sori had been floating back down their line the entire time, mixed with the still-unfamiliar sound of Arena's voice now and again.

“That's because Ma'nenek isn't as annoying as you,” Lyra said from behind Sirius.

“You're like a Tonberry with a Grudge you are,” Sirius moaned. “Meanie.”

#19 // 705
~ Temzi post to come
Also, we are single-filing in this order; Arena, Sori, Nii and Nanek are at the front, followed by Cid, Sirius and Adair, Selene, Temzi, Shay and Lyra.

[Weasel Overlord]

durrhurr sorry to double-post y'all

Temzi :: Dragoon of Justice
:: crystal energy ::

Temzi couldn't stop himself looking around again and again, afraid that something horrible was going to happen. He misliked this maze of crystal – it did not feel safe and it certainly did not feel natural. Though crystals were perfectly natural, perfectly alive, or at least, the non-manufacted ones were. His younger self could attest to that.

His soft-shoed feet made no sound on the cold stone of the stairs, and Temzi glanced around furtively at the bottom of the staircase. All clear. He hefted the practice-lance over his shoulder and lifted his caged Snowfly – it shed a tiny glimmer of light, enough to cast a pool of blueish white at his feet and no further – and the creature beat its wings against the delicate bars. He was glad once more for the artifice of his people; though he had felt nothing but out of place with them, he knew that none other than a Guado would have been able to wrought such a fine piece of work, and he counted himself lucky to have found a workshop within Leá Monde owned by such a person.

He felt the comforting weight of pilfered keys in his pocket, their cold-iron ring pressing against the fabric and leaking a chill against his skin that made him shiver near as much as the air down here did.

It felt old and sad, somehow, and oh so cold. It was almost a surprise that his breath didn't mist the air in front of him, but perhaps it was as afraid as Temzi, wishing he'd stayed in his warm room, no matter what the pain it caused him.

No. Those were not good thoughts. Temzi took a deep breath and forcibly steadied himself. It was not Honourable to give up on a quest you'd already begun. He pointedly ignored the small voice that said that it also wasn't Honourable to run away from the Academy at all, but he quashed it firmly and took the step forward that finally separated him from the Academy proper. He was in the crypts now, and he had only the memorised map to guide him.

It seemed like hours, down there in the dark with nought but the Snowfly to keep him company, and nought but the wooden practice-lance to give him comfort. He trod the dusty maze and then it was there. He had arrived. The end of misery.

The Cryst-gate. It fair shone, though there was no light but the Snowfly's; near enough to make Temzi shield his eyes from the glare of it. In colour, it was golden-yellow, and it seemed to hover off the ground somehow. Something about it felt wrong, but Temzi took a tighter hold of his wooden lance and stepped forward.

Bravery, he told himself. Kain would not shy from fear, and neither would he, not if he could help it.

He stepped forward and held out a shaky hand, proud to see that the shaking was almost imperceptible, and then his skin felt oddly aflame as it came into contact with the surface of the Cryst. The light flared once, almost hungrily, and the last thing Temzi remembered was a sensation of great power attaching itself to him like a leech and an voice, echoing around his head.

Perhaps he screamed loud enough to penetrate stone. Or perhaps they just found him unconscious there after hours of searching.

He'd never felt the same way around Crystals again. He was only glad that this maze held no colour – if it had been golden-yellow like eyes he did not think he would have been able to hold to his Bravery this time.

He shivered, the motion mirroring his memory, and was glad not for the last time that he was with his crew. Lady Shayna and Princess Selene would not let anything happen to him, not while they still had breath within their bodies.

Perhaps he should ask one of them for a blindfold...

#12 // 671
Tag either Shay or Selene!

[darktyranitar]

Ma’nenek

Ghost of a dancer

All right… so Ma’nenek’s idea of caves – which she thought would involve wet and slippery surface, terrible blood sucking (or at least annoying) bats, some other equally nasty critters, darkness (obviously), and a certain amount of screaming – proved to be wrong for this particular occasion. Except for the last two parts, that is.

Instead, the cave offer a particularly unpleasant woman (who seem to be leading the group of natives they met back then), one who caused them to fall down a hole – not a pleasant thing – a stranger (who is a desert pirate by the name of Arena), and a labyrinth chockfull of crystals.

And, according to this Arena, they should be expecting some monsters as well. Oh yes.

Jump away from the tiger’s mouth, and you land in the crocodile instead…


Well, that is not to say that it’s all gloom and doom. For one thing, despite the eerie glow the crystals were giving, there was a certain aspect of them that would have attracted any crystal enthusiast (or one who could afford to get themselves distracted by them, such as Ma’nenek): besides the beautiful geometrical pattern of the crystals, they were also showing reflections of the group when light were shone upon them…

“Look, that one’s all short and bulky – and that one’s all tall and stick-like – oh, that one looked normal.”

…and Ma’nenek was quick to point out how some of their reflections were distorted and warped, producing some bizarre and funny appearance.

To Ma’nenek, this was quite amusing… up to a point, and for only a brief period. The more she looked at the reflections on the crystals, the more the sense of uneasiness replaced the sense of awe and amusement that she initially felt.

She wondered if her look of uneasiness were amplified in those reflections. Maybe it’s best to look away from them for a while.

“Don’t you think that this is like the interior of those who befriend the evil spirits, Nii?” It was the first thing that Ma’nenek said after a while in her group of four (her early remark on the nature of their reflections doesn’t really count).

“Nii don’t know what you mean, Ma’nenek.”

“Well, there was this one late performer… I forgot his name, but he was said to be keeping all these mirrors at his residence. He’s a good dancer, by the way.” Ma’nenek did a brief dance – or at least, that was what it appeared. “Like so and so. Do you happen to know who he is?”

Nii seems to be baffled at the prospect of someone dancing, here of all places. “No, Nii don’t know who that is.”

“Hmm.” Ma’nenek lightly tapped Sori with her stick. “Say, Sori-” The Moogle appeared to nearly jump out from his skin. There was an inaudible muttering, and the briefest trace of magic being conjured.

“Oh, sorry for giving you the scare, dear.”

“What is it?” Sori asked, in a tone that any then-terrified-but-now-annoyed person would use.

“So we were talking about this one gentleman, see, and I was wondering if-”

“I have no idea.”

“No?”

“Nope.”

“Ahh, I see. Good dancer, you?”

“No, and I DON’T want to, especially at this kind of place,” the Moogle remarked, sounding slightly indignant. Perhaps he was recalling his dance in front of the natives just not too long ago.

“It’s all right dear, I’m not asking you to dance.” Ma’nenek then began to hum some rather familiar tune under her breath, although the rest (and even she herself) still have no idea who this said performer is. And those so called dance… just what kind of dance is that, if she was really mimicking the said performer?

A period of silence ensued, but of course, it wasn’t long before Ma’nenek found a straying thought, and decided to share it with the rest of the small group, except that it now involves Arena as well.

“So why did you become a pirate, Arena?”

“Well, everyone needs to do something for their living, right?” The answer came rather quick; no hesitation.

“Yes, all right, I suppose you have a point. But I wonder, though. You don’t happen to have a poor, but big family, with many younger siblings, and a brother that put you all in this situation, do you?”

“…what?”

And it went on like that for the rest of the walk, with the group (minus Ma’nenek) occasionally glancing to Cid, as if they wanted to ask how he could have possibly tolerate the Nu Mou antic.

And then, finally, it happened. Out of the blue, Ma’nenek asked the universal, ever dreaded question among any travelling party:

“Are we there yet?”

*****

779 words / 4 posts

Hee-hee-hee

[classy_cat18]

Sori – Moogle Time Mage
Feeling eyes on him

Someone’s following us. No, I don’t mean the pirates and the Dragoon and whoever Cid is. Someone is way back in the back, waiting for their chance to pounce. Maybe it’s more of those natives. Or that girl we saw in the last creepy place we were in. Makes me wish we were above ground again. Ohhhhh, my Moogle senses are tingling…

ACHOO!

“AAAH! THUNDARA!”

“YIPE!”

“SORI!”

My rod was torn from my grasp by an angry Selene. “As much as I find it amusing to watch you attempt to zap Adair, that last bolt was a little too close to the rest of us!”

My ears picked up the sound of whimpering. Seems like I almost zapped more than just Adair.

I growled and reached for my precious magic rod, only to have her yank it from me. “Sorry! My magic’s on a hair trigger right now! I won’t do it again, promise!”

“That’s all the more reason for me to keep this from you. This amplifies your magic, right?” She pocketed the rod. “Besides, I don’t want you wasting mana on things that aren’t worth zapping.”

“I resent that!” Adair cried out. “Well…maybe…should I resent that?” Sirius and Shay shrugged.

I groaned and let myself land on Nii’s shoulder. My senses had shut out almost everything around me as they picked up other things beyond the crystals and Mist. As a result, I had no idea who the new guy was with me. “Hey Nii, who’s the guy with the hook?” I whispered in her ear.

“Some guy named Arena,” she answered.

“What kind of name is Arena? No really, keep the conversation going. I’d rather be thinking of stupid questions than let this Mist get to me.” I took a look around the group and immediately noticed one vital member missing. “Where’s Kumas?”

“He wandered off again.” She didn’t even sound concerned this time. “He most likely knows the way out of here.”

“When did he wander off?”

“He was the first to enter.”

“I say, are you talking about that machina-like fellow that I saw before we went in here?” Ma’nenek asked us curiously.

Nii nodded and rubbed her forehead, where a bruise had formed. Then she rubbed another place on the back of her head, where a knot was. One or even both of them probably was from when she was knocked out. “You never did say what knocked you out back at the Wolfstar,” I told Nii.

She groaned and slowed down for a moment. “Kumas did.”

“Kumas? Why would he do that?”

“Nii doesn’t know! He gets a little… off… every time we enter an area with these crystals. Nii thinks he knew that Nii planned to keep him in the ship this time to keep him safe.”

I didn’t see the point of that. Right now, Kumas was probably the safest one in the group. But what if he got more violent and attacked us? What if we had to fight him? What if—

“AAH!”

Glowing eyes of doom!

I shrieked again and latched onto the nearest thing possible, Nii’s face. The Al Bhed screamed and ran into Ma’nenek, who whacked her with the stick and gave Nii a fresh bump to worry about later. “OW! Tysh oui, Moogle! Nii ryc y pekkan raytylra huf! Kad uvv un Nii femm pmycd oui!”

I still hung on and screamed until she pried me off herself. Then I noticed that no one else was panicking like I was. The yellow glowing eyes that I saw earlier… was just Kumas again. He stood over us silently, waiting for his partner to stand up again. “Heh. False alarm?” I whimpered sheepishly.

623 words. 23 Sori posts.

[Mystic_clown]

Arena Tiburon
----------------------------------------------

And here Arena thought he’d just be walking in silence. But when the old Nu Mou spoke up, it was only polite he’d answer. It then seemed to turn into a conversation about his past.

“Well, my family was poor. Couldn’t really afford much luxuries,” he explained. He wasn’t really used to talking about his past.

“Ah, so you became a pirate to support yourself, since nobody else would take you?” The old Nu Mou asked.

“You can say that, plus a general desire for adventure. You know, the usual reason people become pirates.”

At that point, their conversation was cut off by a loud scream, followed by a crash of thunder, followed by a yelp of pain. Arena and the Nu Mou looked back to see that cranky woman yanking a rod away from the moogle. No prizes for guessing what had happened.

“Are they always like this?” he asked. The No Mou only nodded in response.

Things seemed to calm down for a moment until there was another case of screaming. This time the moogle had latched on to the face of another girl (Whom Arena learnt was named Nii) who then ran into the No Mou, who proceeded to whack her silly. Arena couldn’t help but sigh in frustration before pulling the sheepish moogle off the poor girl’s face.

“It’s times like this I’m glad the monsters don’t come near the light,” he muttered to himself, “Because no doubt that caught the attention of everything here.”

The treking continued, with some minor banter coming from the people behind him, but thankfully no more outbursts. After about five more minutes of walking, Arena came to a stop at a fork in the maze.

“Well, this is as far as I got,” Arena spoke up to the party, “So from here on out, we’ll be having no idea where we’re going.”

“In that case, I’ll go on ahead,” the woman spoke up, moving to the front. Arena, without saying another word, moved to the back.

“Go ahead. At least we can blame you if we ever get lost,” he chuckled softly, earning himself a sharp glare from the woman. Arena payed it no mind as he moved to the back of the group.

“So, how are things going back here?” he asked casually, trying to make some small banter with the people. Some distance behind them, he could hear some light growling. Clearly that commotion had attracted some monsters, but they dare not venture close thanks to the light.

Now let’s hope there’s nothing down here light tolerant.

-425 *-* 2-

[Crystal Tears]

Selene Solidor

Blink

Brilliant, if we get lost, everyone can blame me.

Selene pondered the choice for a moment, before turning to Shay and Temzi. They had moved up with her when she had taken the lead. The thief looked to be enjoying herself, smirking at her contorted reflection from time to time, while the Guado acted less then pleased with their predicament.

“Is something wrong?” Cid questioned, more towards Selene then her uncomfortable friend.

“Small break.” She replied, before the researcher went back to chatting with the others. “Temzi, are you alright?”

“Yes milady, you need not worry about me.”

She didn’t believe him. “What’s wrong?”

“To be frank, I don’t like the crystals madam.”

“Aww, why not?” Shay piped up, taking her eyes off her reflection.

The Guado faltered, he seemed somewhat relieved when Selene rescued him.

“I’m sure that’s a story for a time when we’re not surrounded by crystals.” She smirked, and Shay shrugged. “Which way do you suggest?”

“That way.” Lyra broke into the conversation, bowing her head briefly to Selene as she gestured to the left.

Selene blinked. Neither trail looked any different from the other; it was just a matter of which one was most likely to be the dead end. No one had a guess, as the others in the line did eventually chime up, left won out. Selene shrugged, if they died, at least they were all responsible and not just her.

“Left it is then.”

So as the small conversations went out, they kept moving.

The comfort Selene had was the light given off by these strange stones and the random magic by Sori would keep any creature at bay. The problem? Every creature probably knew they were in there, and they were just waiting for a chance to grab one of them. The princess briefly wondered if there was a particular reason the monsters didn’t like the light, obvious reasons like evolving in a cave came to mind, with eyes not well adjusted to light, but could there be another reason?

Admittedly, the reflections that danced around them were creepy. Selene had never had a particular like for more then one mirror at a time. These ones weren’t even proper mirrors, they were crystals. Reflective crystals that bounced the light off and illuminated their path, but at the cost of becoming a creepy hall of mirrors. The woman gritted her teeth, occasionally glancing at her side before focusing back on the path.

Something was wrong.

There was another screech from Sori and everyone froze. Weapons were out in a hurry (though no one knew why, because he had been panicking the entire time). Of course the discovery was, that he had been startled by none of then the twisted reflection of Kumas.

Fantastic.

“Sori…” Selene growled, and the moogle looked at her, worried.

“I’m sorry! I swear something is out there!”

A couple of people agreed, but Selene would have none of it.

“It’s good to know a group of people who can take on a Claret Dragon and a Behemoth are afraid of their own reflections…”

“Perhaps if everyone feels it, then it’s legitimate.” Cid spoke up, ignoring the hating gaze he received from the royal. “Arena, do you know anything about this?”

“Aye, felt a bit weird myself from time to time. But I always attributed it to mist.”

“See?” Selene crossed her arms, and her voice while sounding stern, seemed to comfort a few of them. “It’s just the mist combined with your reflections, nothing more.”

Cid didn’t argue the point, he just nodded. “Shall we continue?”

Selene nodded and the line continued.

But that didn’t make the feeling go away, the longer they wandered the worse the feeling got. Not even Selene could ignore that distant apprehension as they rounded another corner, in fact she found herself walking a tad closer to Temzi in hopes he would protect her from something.

What something? There’s nothing out here but-

Selene’s eyes fell on one of her reflections. It was a perfect one, and just simply stared back at her, like all mirrored-images would do. She frowned, glanced to see the group had paused anyways, all of them talking amongst themselves. Holding her irritated expression she reached out and touched the cool surface of the crystal.

The mirror mimicked her perfectly.

Until it smirked.

Selene blinked, face going blank in surprise. She wasn’t smirking, but the woman staring back at her did.

So she moved back, and bumped roughly into Sirius.

“Something wrong?” He questioned, glancing at her reflection.

Selene did so too, cautiously. Her image was back to being normal, a wary face as she leaned against the captain.

“I’m fine.” She pushed Sirius away and went back to leading. “Just tired.”

Shay moved up to her, concerned. “Hey… You okay?”

“I’m fine.” She repeated, her tone a bit darker.

“You looked scared for a second,” the girl glanced at the reflections. “What’s wrong?”

“I just…” Selene looked at her reflection again, and that uneasy feeling seemed to erupt in her. “Why do you think the creatures down here hate the light?” The woman spoke in a hushed tone to both the thief and the dragoon who traveled at the front with her.

“Environmental?” Temzi offered, lowering his voice. “Perhaps they evolved in this cave, without an adequate light-source.”

“Yeah,” Shay nodded in agreement.

“What if there was another reason?” Selene offered, glancing worriedly at her reflective-self. “What if the light wasn’t the thing that they feared, but what could see them if they drew near it?”

Temzi hesitated; he didn’t seem to like the idea at all. “This is not the time for ghost-stories, milady.”

Selene shot him a glare. “I’m serious.”

“Hey!” It was Sori calling out to them. “What are you guys talking about? Honestly its creepy enough down here already without you guys plotting!”

“We’re not plotting!” Shay countered. “We’re scheming! There’s a difference!”

“Oh,” He frowned, crossing his little arms. “That’s comforting.”

~ + - 1006 / 45 - + ~

:3 Don’t Blink.

[Pichu Luver]

Adair Stroud

'It's a good thing I'm not vain or all these mirrors would promptly flabbergast me senseless. High cheekbones, chiseled jaw, bright lights searing my ocular nerve. All's well with the world.'

“A day is not complete without something trying to render one of my five senses useless.” stated Adair, feeling the need to converse his inner monologue with others. He was nervous, apprehensive about something unnameable and he disliked this feeling. Terrified was fine, he was used to that and could act upon it. He could not act on this feeling, and this unknown worry reminded him of his years on the run. He'd rather forget that period of his life, and yet this instinctual fear had saved his life many a time. So, torn between listening to a worry he could not place and pretending nothing was wrong, he chatted amiably.

“The lights?” asked Sirius.

“Indeed, if it wasn't for the terrifying beasties lurking in this impossibly large closet I would ask for my eyesight back.”

Cid spared him a glance, mulling over whether to declare Adair an idiot or impossibly odd. Many people have to make this decision at one point or another once making Adair's acquaintance. Usually within the first few seconds, as they will either be dead in the next few, or he will have left their immediate area. For those in his vicinity (I won't say blessed) for an extended period of time learn to tolerate his idiotic behavior, because it can't be wholly stupid or he wouldn't be alive. And he can't actually mean everything he says or he would be more dead then a crunched cockroach.

He's more of the bejeweled radioactive kind. On the edge of doom, not quite right anymore, but still pretty to look at really.

Cid felt the need to ask, because he needed to see (as many do) if Adair really was that stupid. “You do realize if I put out this light it will be pitch black? With fiends trying to kill us?”

“You have my acquiescence dear fellow, however I wouldn't feel on the edge of being stunned.”

Cid snorted, “You'd be dead.”

“Possibly, but Spiran's have a remarkable ability to not be dead, but still at the same time be quite dead.”

Sirius gave Adair a sideways look while Cid seemed puzzled. Sirius and perhaps Cid had apparently also decided to talk and ignore a irrational fear. “When I signed you on to my crew with was at the understanding you weren't an Unsent.”

Adair smirked, “Alas I don't have the ability to avoid attacks with the poof of pyreflies. My scarred posterior attests to such. No worries Captain, though there was never an explicit rule I should say.”

“Then I hereby enact that should you die Adair, you are thus off my payroll and needn't concern yourself about the Wolfstar any longer.”

There was a snort and a snigger from somewhere, the echoes made it hard to tell. The group had started walking again. Selene, Shay and Temzi continued their quiet scheming with some tittering help from Sori. Adair could hear some muttering from others, but Adair was not bothering to be quiet. The fiends had likely already found them thanks to Sori (and he would say to a lesser extant himself due to his screech) thus he'd rather go out perfectly understood then in hushed confusion.

“I am affronted! Should I show up to pilot your ship after I am deceased I should be paid for it!”

“If you're dead I cannot take taxes off your check, thus there would a discrepancy in my books.”

“You're a pirate who pays TAXES?”

“Safety tax. For the overall wellbeing of my crew. Should they find themselves grievously incapacitated and I have to rescue them, I should be paid for it. If you are dead then obviously you are not safe.”

Adair blinked, “Only a noble would contemplate and enact taxes when he's a pirate.”

Sirius laughed. “My good pilot don't you know there are two constants in the world? Death and taxes. Not death and/or taxes. Or's are not good. Unsent's make or's. They are like plan B's, not as good as A's and infinitely more likely to get you killed.” He paused, “I do not need someone who may go, forgive the common wording, 'bat-shit crazy' at any moment because they greatly dislike the fact I am alive and they are not.”

Adair did not bother to argue the 'bat-shit crazy' statement, he could not win an argument along those lines. Nor in this place. “Spiran's, “ Adair said with much dignity, “Have never gone for consistency. Except for a mild bout of mighty monstrosity madness half a millennium ago. And besides that, don't you know all plans don't last past the first engagement with the enemy?”

“If that were true Spira would be vastly more competent in battle because nothing they ever do seems planned.”

“If you plan for something it will not happen because you know it is a possibility. As per the first saying. Thus if you do not plan, what you think will happen, probably will. You can prepare but never, ever, plan.”

It was Sirius' turn to blink. “Did I just discover your life motto?”

Adair was amount to make some sort of highly intellectual reply when he noticed something odd. He had a hand raised in a florid manner and had his mouth hanging open to make said statement. He knew this, he could feel his muscles doing as he bid. His reflection however was making a obscene hand gesture in Sirius' direction.

“Odd. Sirius am I insulting you right now?”

Sirius was used to Adair's rapid subject changes but he frowned at this, “No more then usual. Why?”

“Look.” He nodded his head in the direction of his reflection, not moving much in fear of disturbing the effect.

Sirius looked. “Adair my man have you lost your rum? You are posing, nothing more.”

“Adair, please move. We need to keep up with the others.” Cid jabbed him in the back.

Adair grumbled and they walked quickly back to the others. Adair intentionally ran into the back of Shay (the only one not likely to beat him senseless for doing so) to make sure they were real. Shay stumbled, Adair caught her and apologized.

“My inordinate apologies Shay, I find myself confused. My appreciation would be immense if you merely punched me somewhere not critical instead of hurting me grievously for my error.”

Shay, perhaps seeing Adair was out of his usual for-him-normal sorts merely looked irritated and punched him in the arm. Hard, he'd probably bruise slightly, but it was better treatment then he'd get from any of the others not part of Adair's crystal threesome.

He promptly scrubbed that image from his mind.

“Selene.” This time he did hush his voice. “You have had schooling, so is there any reality based reason for an incorrect reflection?”

Adair did not like the fact Selene went white. Temzi replied for her. “A flawed crystal could reflect an image incorrectly.”

“These crystals do not appear to have flaws. While my Captain and I have discussed the merits of our differences in opinion, it was not worthy of the gesture I just bestowed upon him. Or, in according to my reflection, the one I graced him with.”

1236/28

[ChobiChibi]

Shayna

At the beginning, Shay had found this place to be quite interesting. She loved the way the light bounced, distorting her petite figure and turning her expressions into works of some crazy impressionist artist. But now, since the others were beginning to show their concern, her confidence was wearing thin, allowing a little bit of fear and caution to seep through. Especially since Temzi seemed to be almost shuddering with fear. What had these crystals done to him? She'd personally never had an encounter with them, nor did they seem to have an effect on her... No, it was the monsters she feared, right?

Then Adair had run into her. She was normally quite the forgiving person, but she found herself quite enjoying punching him. Shay never had anything against Adair, but he'd scared her silly. It was down to her thinking far too much, and the fact that she'd never seen Selene look so visibly shaken by something really unsettled her.

A flawed crystal could reflect an image incorrectly... Temzi's words lingered in her mind, although Adair had dismissed the idea. Perhaps it wasn't the crystals that were flawed, maybe it was something else...

She didn't have long to ponder it, though. There was a deep rumbling sound that sounded like it was coming from the ground far beneath them, followed by the ground actually shaking. The group came to a halt as the sounds got louder, turning into a more prominent growl.

“Earthquake?” Shay questioned, watching the floor carefully. The ground shook more violently in reply, a small crack appearing beneath Temzi's feet. “Rumbling noises always end up with the ground, or ice in a previous example, disappearing from under my-”

The ground gave way, and whilst Lyra got out of the way, Selene and Shay grabbed Temzi and quickly pulled him to safety. She could hear the others shouting and scrambling to avoid yet another fall and thankfully, once the shaking had stopped and they'd brushed themselves off, they were able to see that everyone had survived. Now they were split into three groups, according to where they were in the line, each group miraculously managing to have a crystal each.

“Now what?!” Sori yelled across the cavern, flapping around and looking rather flustered. Their group were directly opposite. “There's no way any of these paths go the same way.”

“What does it matter to you, Mr Moogle?” Came Sirius' voice. Shay got closer to the edge and peered around to the left to find the other group a fair distance away on another fork that the earthquake had made. “You can fly to whichever path you wish!”

“Nii would not advise this.” She shook her head. “Stick with Kumas, he will guide us.”

“Oh, that's great...” Selene folded her arms, tapping her foot impatiently. It echoed around the cave, the sound amused the thief. “The thing that could get us out of here is on the other side of the cavern...”

“I'm glad you've finally come around to my way of thinking about the Machina...” Lyra suddenly spoke. She'd been so quiet recently that it shocked Shay to hear her voice. She turned to her sister, frowning.

“Machina aren't so bad if you get to know them.” Shay turned back to face Kumas across the cavern, waving. “Right, Kumas? Heeeey!” Kumas' lights blinked a little faster in response.

“You've changed...” Lyra muttered bitterly.

“Sometimes change is for the better, don't you think?” Shay shot back. “You, on the other hand, haven't changed a bit.”

“Ladies, I fear that now is not the time for bickering...” Adair reasoned.

“She start-”

Before Shayna could finish, she found Temzi's trembling hand across her mouth. She sighed and refrained from attempting to finish her sentence.

“So what is the plan of action?” Arena asked, looking agitated. “By shouting across this cavern, we're only going to draw the monsters to us.”

“Well since we can no longer play follow the leader, I guess all we can do is press on. Of course it isn't sensible to split up, but what choice to we have?” Ma'nenek had pretty much made her point there, but she decided to continue. “Each group has a light source, by some kind of miraculous coincidence, so it would be foolish not to-”

“Ma'nenek...” Cid didn't need to say any more, it seemed that it was all he had to say to quieten her.

“Oh, right, yes, of course.” She stammered. “Awfully sorry, everyone... I do tend to waffle...”

“How will we find each other again?” Lyra asked, ever the practical one.

“Well, I can just about see their light giving crystal thing through this wall...” Shay pointed towards Adair, Sirius and Cid, or at least in the direction of their light. “And that's a lot of crystal to see through... And we can hear each other... Since it's so echo-y.”

“Fine. Then we'll go our separate paths.” Selene confirmed. “The first one out of here make some kind of flare so the others can head towards it.”

The four of them stuck together, shrouded in the light from the crystal. Well, three of them did, Lyra seemed to linger a little behind the others. This didn't matter, however, since her main concern was avoiding monsters, protecting Selene and comforting Temzi. She wasn't doing so well at the comforting of Temzi, so she tried a new tactic.

“Temzi, what's wrong?” Shay asked, reaching to tug a sleeve, only to find armour. So she flicked it instead.

He hesitated, glancing around. “I do not wish to see my reflection...”

“Well then...” She placed her hand in his and squeezed it gently. “You watch my reflection, and I'll keep an eye on yours.”

“And who's watching mine?” Selene asked, although she didn't turn from looking at hers.

“Me! I'll watch them all!” Shay skipped a little as she walked, swinging Temzi's arm back and forth as she still held it.

“I wish I could share your optimism...”

“I'm just hiding the little bit of fear that I have, Temzi.” She stuck her tongue out at her reflection. “You two are the ones making me uneasy, I haven't seen anything yet.”

“Lyra, you still there?” Selene asked, glancing over her shoulder only for the briefest of seconds.

“Yes, ma'am.”

Odd... Shay thought, letting go of Temzi's hand and slowing down a little, intending to match the pace of her sister instead. She has yet to make some snide comment, a suggestion of a direction to go, anything...

“What are you up to?”

Lyra seemed to flinch a little at the question, but kept her gaze ahead, watching their companions. “Thinking.”

“About what, exactly?”

“Does it really concern you?”

“Probably, yes.”

Lyra's eyes narrowed. “You just had to stick your oar in, didn't you? With everything...” She looked down at her. “Why, Shay? Why did you?”

“I don't understand...”

“This.” She gestured in front of her, particularly at Selene. “You had to be here, join their adventures, become her friend...” She clenched her fist. “Why did you get involved, Shay? Why couldn't you have just took your freedom and run, like you always used to?”

“Like I said, I've changed. I'm not a coward like you think I am. Not anymore.”

“If you get in my way of what I have to do...” Lyra was again facing the direction they were going, reaching for her gunblade. “Don't expect me to go easy on you...”

“What you have to do?”

Her sister said nothing, just raised her gunblade, still in its gun form. Shay's eyes widened as Lyra aimed for Selene.

“All I did, all I've ever done, is what I thought was right.”

Everything was beginning to click into place. She wasn't a traitor, not to Spira, no, she was working for Spira, to murder the enemy's princess.

“Traitor!” Shay yelled, lunging for the gun, knocking it upwards as Lyra fired, sending the bullet way off course into the darkness above them, the gunblade itself falling out of her hand and sliding across the floor.

Shay tumbled to the ground in the same direction, blocking Lyra's path to her weapon. Lyra didn't take any chances, she simply ran, pushing through Temzi and Selene, rounding the corner ahead and disappearing out of sight. Shay scrambled to her feet, grabbing the gunblade as she followed.

“Shay?!” Selene looked utterly confused as she sprinted towards her. The thief dropped the gun, snatching the light crystal out of Selene's hand as she went.

“Sorry!” She called over her shoulder, rounding the corner, only just able to see Lyra at the next junction. She remembered a spell that she had learnt, the one that Sori had cast on Rusty... A clock appeared under her feet as she ran, the haste spell coming into effect quickly.

Catching up wasn't so hard with this little advantage. She overtook Lyra, infact, skidding to a halt, grabbing her by the shoulders and slamming her up against the nearest wall. They simply stared at each other whilst they caught their breath and Shayna tried to work out what to say.

“You're the one betraying your country... And now your friends, since you have left them in the dark, literally...” Lyra taunted. Still, the girl could not find any words, so she continued. “But here I am, weaponless after attempted murder, but you still don't have the guts to kill me, do you?”

No... Cos you're still my little sister...

She didn't have time to say anything, because it was then she realised why everyone was so scared of this place. The crystal wall had grabbed Lyra and was pulling her in. To be honest, Shay didn't understand what was happening, but her sister seemed dazed, not even saying a word, not even asking for help... That was until she screamed.

It was a blood curdling scream. She was sure the entire place would have heard it. She'd never seen so much pain on her sister's face, not since their mother had died... Shay grabbed hold of her arm, pulling it with all her might.

“Lyra! Hold on! Please Lyra, don't give up!”

All that could be heard was Lyra's screaming and Shay's shouts of desperation, she was sure of it. All that bitterness that she once held washed away as it was replaced with forgiveness, but only for a short while. The crystal wall gave one last tug and she was gone, causing Shay to stumble as she was forced to let go. She hoped it was just the echo of this place, but she could have sworn she could still hear her screaming...

Pure rage blinded her actions as she began to smack the wall, dropping the little light crystal that rolled to a standstill not far away. It wasn't budging, it wasn't moving, it wasn't trying to eat her up too. It was solid, gleaming with perfection, taunting her.

Then... Then she understood why the others were so terrified of their reflections... Staring back at her, cool as a cucumber, her mirrored self looked happy. Infact, it could almost be described as rejoicing. No... Her reflection was lying... She'd never feel this way...

But you didn't care when Seta died... Or Laevra... Or Batilis, that silly masked fellow... Or Lisette... What's different about Lyra?

She stepped backwards, a little too far, unintentionally hitting the wall behind her. I should find Selene and Temzi... She began to head back, but soon found that she couldn't as her arm tugged back at her. She turned slowly to find her right hand stuck and disappearing into the wall.

“Fuck!” Shay finally finds her voice as she panics, desperately trying to reach for the crystal of light just a few inches out of her grasp.

“Shay! Come and play! We want to play Blitzball, we need you to make up the teams!”

A childish voice swam around in her head. Who was it, Hayden? No, it couldn't be...

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?” It teased as she stared at her reflection, who was applauding the situation.

“SELENE! TEMZI!” Shayna yelled in desperation, feeling her arm being slowly dragged away from where she wanted to be. “HELP!”

2107/27... :3

[Crystal Tears]

Selene Solidor

Being left in the darkness definitely wasn’t the highlight of her evening. Nor was that horrible scream that had chilled her very core. Fear reemerged, but neither her nor her friend Temzi dared to move in the dark. They could feel the creatures looking at them, moving closer as the light had been taken from them.

“Can you see?” Selene whispered, finding this place much to dark to see anything.

“No madam, I am blind.”

“You sound relieved…”

“I am, I did not appreciate the crystals.”

Selene frowned, trying to ignore her fear. “You know what I don’t appreciate? About ten thousands fiends baring down on us.”

“SELENE!”

She was up and running for Shay before the woman had even blurted out the dragoon’s name. She could hear Temzi cry out something from behind her, but she ignored him. If he needed help he would shriek or something a little less cowardly and more knightly. The princess rounded the corner, finding herself stopping and staring at the sight.

Shay was being absorbed into the crystal.

What the fuc-

“SELENE!” Shay cried, waving her arm helplessly.

Narrowing he eyes angrily, the princess unholstered the Calypso, which gleamed in the artificial light the lit-crystal resonated. Selene took Shay’s flailing arm, allowing the girl to coil it around her shoulder and grab a firm hold before Selene’s free arm wrapped around Shay’s petite waist.

The crystal almost seemed to groan, pulling harder. Selene growled, bringing the tip of barrel to the crystal’s wavering surface.

No words, Selene only fired. The bands echoed louder and louder as the crystal unintentionally absorbed each shot. Temzi rounded the corner shortly afterwards, grabbing a hold of them both and pulling backwards.

Slowly, Shay’s arm began to reappear.

“For the love of Venat,” Selene snarled, aiming where she believed it would hurt. “Die!”

The shot rang out louder then the others, and then there was a twisted, female howl of pain before the crystal shattered. Pieces of it rained all over them as they fell back, lying in the middle of the clearing, Shay clinging desperately to Selene before sniffling.

“I tried to save her!” She cried desperately. “It grabbed Lyra, and I tried! I didn’t want her to die! Really! I swear I didn't….”

Selene looked down, panting at Shay before gently covering the girl’s mouth with her freehand. “I believe you, Shayna.”

Temzi groaned, sitting up before he froze. “They’re looking at us.”

The two women sat up, looking around as all their reflections were standing and staring. Each one with a different emotion, though most of them looked amused in some way or another. Then there was one, one with the image of Lyra, waving coyly to Shay before it crossed its arms.

“Oh…” Selene gulped, stumbling to her feet and helping Shay afterwards. “Shit…”

“D-don’t go near them…” Shay whimpered. “They’ll grab you, and… Talk.”

The princess picked up the lit-crystal, holding it in her free hand as the other clung to her gun. The barrel was still smoking from the cheap shot she had unleashed only a second or two ago.

“Is your arm alright Miss Shayna?”

Temzi held Shay’s arm kindly, touching the skin tentatively. It was releasing a cool mist, while her veins pulsed a bright aqua. The ninja gulped, slowly clenching and unclenching her hand.

“It… feels weird…”

“Stick close.” Selene ordered, watching as the girl hopped nearer to the two unwounded soldiers. “We need to get out of here…”

~ + - 585 / 46 - + ~

Cuz becki demanded I ‘shave her’ lawl

Blates tag to Kirst and Becki.

[Weasel Overlord]

Temzi :: Dragoon of Justice
:: like a stone ::

The lack of light was a blessing in a not-very-subtle disguise. Temzi could breathe easier in the dark, without the pressure of crystal looking back at him, staring into his soul and picking out the darkest parts hidden even from himself. No. He shook his head. Those thoughts were not a good path. It was dark, he could handle dark. Keep on the darkness. And his friends. They cared... yes. Temzi screwed up his eyes further and smiled at the bursts of lightlessness that resulted.

He did not know what was wrong with Lady Shay's arm, but it didn't feel natural. It felt... well, like nothing he'd ever felt before. The glimpse he'd got of it before his eyes closed, as she came tumbling away from the wall, wasn't enough to tell him what was wrong with it. But... something wasn't right.

But Lady Shayna was freed from the crystal wall, and that could only be a good thing. Temzi could feel her skin clammy beneath his fingers, and that odd mist it was releasing, and he could sense the light on the edge of his vision from the lit-crystal, which was but a breath away from being one of those crystals. His breathing went shallow again, and all he could do was clutch onto Shayna's arm like a lifebelt as memories assaulted him.

“Er,” he whispered. “I don't want to worry you unduly, Lady Shayna, but I fear I may not be able to compose myself enough to be of any use any more.” He sat down sharply, and dropped his head into his hands. His fingers found the eye-holes in his helm, and he pressed them in, hard. Blackout.

His breathing settled and he felt a comforting weight of bodies as someone hugged him from behind. “Don't worry,” a voice – Selene's – said next to his ear. “Shay's got a scarf, haven't you?” This last was clearly directed at Lady Shayna.

“Yeah, it's right here.”

Temzi felt material brush past, and gentle fingers moving his hands away and into his lap. “We'll need to take off your helmet, okay Temzi? Just keep your eyes closed, that's it, there we go.” The heavy weight of his helm was placed into his lap, and he clutched onto it for dear life, the dependable metal so familiar beneath his fingers.

The heavy swathe of material came up around his neck, and he inhaled sharply for a second and then felt heat as a blush rose to his cheeks. Nothing to worry about, he told himself in a tone firmer than he felt. The material – Lady Shay's scarf – settled over his face, bunching over his eyes. It tightened as Selene knotted it behind his head, and then her hands fell away and she gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder. “There we go, Temzi,” she said. Her tone reminded him of someone trying to settle a nervous horse, and he felt shame for his weakness. “Is that better?”

“Y-yes,” he said, quietly. His fingers played with the helmet restlessly. “I apologise, Princess Selene.” Temzi ducked his head.

“Don't worry about it,” Selene said. She took hold of his arm and pulled him upright with a whoosh. “None of us like it down here.”

“Yeah, the sooner we leave, the sooner... my arm...” Shay trailed off, biting her lip. “What's happening to it, Selene?”

#13 // 589~

[Mystic_clown]

Arena Tiburon
---------------------------------

Crystals, crystals and more crystals. Arena really wanted to get out of this cave, and he wanted to get out of it soon. At least he didn’t have to put up with the twitchy Moogle. The last thing they needed was a freaked out moogle that could throw magic around.

He glanced back at his ‘group’. The al Bhed girl, that swordsman who, despite the tense atmosphere, still had a smile on his face, and the march machina lumbering in the back. The one handed thief made a mental note to run at any sign that the huge thing was going to go rampant.

“So…” Arena spoke up, trying to at least break the silence with some harmless banter, “What’s your little group of misfits doing here?”

“We could ask you the same thing?” Nii, the Al Bhed girl, spoke up in response.

Arena was about to respond when suddenly gunshots rung out through the maze, followed by screaming and even more gunshots. The group of four instantly stopped, trying to pinpoint where the screaming was coming from. The cave echoed so much it was hard to tell.

“Looks like our companions ran into some trouble,” Adair spoke up, his smile not faltering for a second. Arena rose an eyebrow.

“Pretty calm aren’t you?” he asked. Adair merely nodded. Arena’s eyes glanced at Nii’s reflection as well. “You too huh?”

“What are you talking about?” Nii spoke up, “It’s scary as heck down here!”

Arena paused and looked back at Nii. It was true. Although she was trying to be calm, there was an obvious fear on her face.

“You’re scared…” Arena murmured. Nii nodded. Arena slowly turned his head towards the crystal.

“So why isn’t your reflection?”

Everyone present slowly turned to the crystal, seeing Nii’s reflection simply staring back at them with no expression on its face.

That is…until it grinned.

Everyone backed up against the far wall, noting that all their reflections were now baring malicious looks and staring right at them.

The reflections are alive!?

Arena’s eyes widened in realisation.

“Shit! Get away from the wall!” He grabbed Nii, who was the closest and pulled her back just in time for an arm to reach out and miss grabbing her. The party spun around as now reflections on both sides were grinning and reached out to them.

“What are these things?” Nii asked frantically, glancing back and forth between the walls.

“My guess is the reason why the monsters wont venture into the light,” Adair spoke up before glancing at Kumas, “Care to help us out?”

The large Machina nodded before swinging a massive arm at one of the crystals. The crystal shuddered and cracked, but ultimately stayed in one piece. Adair’s reflection, which was on the crystal at the time, recoiled in surprise. Seeing though that the crystal was alright, it merely smirked and wagged a patronising finger at the sky pirate.

“Ok…” Arena muttered, “They look like us, fighting them’s out the window and they’ve go us surrounded. Guess there’s only one thing to do…”

“What’s that?” Nii asked, noting that a reflection of herself was slowly starting to pull itself out of the crystal.

“Run!”

The group didn’t need to be told twice. Not wanting to hang around for their doppelgangers to get them, they took off down the passage. They had no idea where they were going, but anywhere was better than there.

-571 *~* 3-

[darktyranitar]

Random fact: when my laptop was being funny this morning, my first thought was, "uh oh, I haven't finish writing the post for that (i.e. this) RPG!"

Priorities indeed~

Ma’nenek

Iron Maiden don’t fear the dark!

It certainly took them some time to eventually move on. It was not that they were confounded by the confusing pattern of the path (at least, with all the darkness, it was rather hard to know the feature of the cavern for sure): rather, they were busy arguing – mostly between Sirius and Cid, and occasionally, Sori.

The arguments are rather petty (ranging from mere complaints, to the argument of who should be holding the lit-crystal)... Ma’nenek was not particularly feeling like taking sides, so she just kept mum, and observed them, making some mental notes.

And then, when everything was at its peak, something happened (something just had to happen).

As if the first scream wasn’t hair-raising enough, there were subsequent screams as well – the cavern was doing an excellent job at the echoes – which made the whole thing even more unsettling. If Ma’nenek was asked what she imagined hell would look like, she would surely have this particular incident at the back of her mind.

What in Faram’s name was that…?

She didn’t need to say anything, since everyone else seems to be having the same thought in mind (although it would possibly involve different deit(ies) name(s) – each to their own, after all)


“I’m not sure if I’ve said it before, but this isn’t fun at all,” Ma’nenek grumbled.

“That’d be the eighth time, old friend,” replied Sirius.

“Is it? I’ll be sure to not repeat it again then.”

“What’s your idea of fun, then? Knitting?” Sori spoke from the back, sounding positively sarcastic.

“Ay! I’ll let you know that I am capable of, um, exciting activities!”

“But you do like knitting, don’t you, Ma’nenek?”

“Well, yes, Cid dear. But there’s also cleaning.” She nodded. “Now that, is fun.”

“Fun??” Sirius and Sori questioned, with the extra question marks.

“Well, yes, at least it keeps you from being too idle, isn’t it? Works wonder in keeping you fit.”

“If you want to put it that way…”

“By the way. Do you dislike this cave, Sirius?”

“Oh, not really, no-”

“So you just dislike this one then?”

“NO. On the contrary, I loathe ALL caves. Just to be clear.”

“Hmm. Can’t disagree with you there. if all caves were to be like this…”

“All caves. Bloody. Stinks. Take my word for it.”

“With a spoonful of salt, my dear Captain?” It was Cid turn at being sarcastic.

Sirius looked offended, but Ma’nenek interrupted, “no no Cid, too much of anything can do you no good. Don’t you know?”

Sirius smirked. “You may have gotten me then, Cid… but I have the crystal now. Hah!”

It has been going like this for some time now, with them arguing as they went along in search for an exit. Ma’nenek thought it was a good thing for them to argue, since it works well in shaking off that creepy feeling that the crystals were giving – even if only for a bit. Speaking of which, was her eye playing tricks on her? She could have sworn that she saw-

“Ma’nenek…”

“Yes, Cid?”

“I appreciate what you did just know, acting as a mediator… but, why did you suggest that he keep the lit-crystal again?”

Ma’nenek scratched her chin, coughed, and then scratched her ears. “Um. I’d say that he is most fit to lead, being a captain and all…”

“Most fit to lead?” Sori sniggered. “He hates caves.”

“All the more reasons that he’ll lead us out of here as soon as possible… with speed that is proportional to his fear level. Am I wrong on that?”

“Why must everyone mock of my distaste of caves?” Sirius was by now mildly miffed.

“Ah. Good question there, but no-” Ma’nenek stopped in mid-sentences, as she caught the sight of their reflections on the crystals.

There was nothing wrong with her reflection, really. Although a moment ago, she thought she saw her reflection making some weird gestures.

Now, each and every one their reflections were looking at her, with a particularly... strange look. All except for her own, which was a terrified face (it was a normal face, mimicking that of her own)

“…good answer?” Sori said after being cut off for seemingly no apparent reason.

“…one knows?” Cid added. They did not notice that anything was amiss, do they?

“It was a rhetorical question...” moaned Sirius.

Then her reflection grinned, as did the rest of the other reflections.

Ma’nenek immediately leapt forward, embracing unto Cid as if her life depends on it. That had startled the group, so much so that Sori seems to be on the verge of unleashing some elemental attacks.

“Ma’nenek, not here!” Cid tried to break her grip, but to no avail. (Sirius and Sori were left to interpret if what had just been said have any implication)

“Bu-but, look at the crystals! The-reflection!”

“Reflection?” At this, they all turned to look at the wall of crystals.

Needless to say, they were extremely scared of what was before them. In addition to their respective reflections staring at them malevolently, two of them – namely Cid and Ma’nenek – were being… somewhat lewd.

There was a silence – the awkward kind of silence.

“What on earth… are they?” Ma’nenek muttered, still clinging unto Cid.

“If I have to guess, they’re the reason why the monsters here are terrified of the light.” Cid spoke, after a good deal of time passed between both sides with no actions beyond grinning and staring.

“Well, they certainly don’t look so friendly, do they?” Sirius commented, one hand on his sword.

“Do you want to stay and find out for sure?” Sori had slowly crept away from the crystals, although he had his rod aimed forward all the while.

“Yes, I know that I will sound impatient when I say this: Which one would it be then, fight or flight?” Ma’nenek was torn: her feet weren’t ready to make a run for it, but her hands weren’t ready to fight for her life either.

*****

994 words / 5 posts

Tag Kirst & Shonta

[ChobiChibi]

Shayna Xanthrope

The look on her friend's face told her that she had no idea what was going on with her very strange arm. Inside, she felt deflated, with a certain nagging in the pit of her stomach telling her it was time to go home. She longed to be curled up in bed, her father bringing her soup as if she were unwell, with her youngest brother sat at the foot of her bed asking what was wrong.

“It doesn't matter.” She pulled down her sleeve, folding the end in on itself so she held onto it with her fist. What she couldn't see wouldn't hurt her. “We've just gotta find the others and get out, right?”

Selene only nodded in response, still clutching her gun. Did she even realise Lyra had tried to shoot her? It didn't matter, so long as she was safe now... At least this way, Leenie might remember something positive about her sister...

She felt her arm throbbing in pain for a moment, turning towards Temzi to wince, hiding from Selene's gaze. Perhaps the reflections would paint a different picture. Just keep going and distract yourself... She told herself, taking hold of Temzi's hand with her good one this time. Selene was on guard, leading Shay, and Shay would lead the blind Guado.

She could feel the crystal monsters following them, stuck in the walls, their claw-like hands waiting for one of them to make a mistake and touch a wall. This wasn't gonna happen. Not on Shay's watch.

“Oooh, I wonder if there's any treasures at the end of this...” Shay thought out loud, a sudden cheerfulness washing over her.

Selene actually laughed. Genuinely. “All you think of is shiny things, even in times of peril and danger.”

“I find it to be a comfort.”

“An odd thing to find comfort in, Lady Shayna...”

“So is blindness, Temzi... I'd feel weird not knowing where I was going.” Shay shuddered, nearly crashing into Selene as she stopped.

There was a fork in the maze, much to their dismay. Of course, this was a maze, there were bound to be annoying things such as having to choose a direction, but Shay felt that this particular group had had enough to deal with already so deserved an obvious and easy path ahead.

The left fork turned off almost straight away, the right had more of a corridor before another corner. Such a look of concentration formed on Shay's face as she considered the options, tapping her foot impatiently.

“This way.” The two girls said in unison, pointing in opposite directions. Selene had chosen the right fork, whilst Shay had chosen the left.

“Right is always the best way to go in a maze.” Selene argued, folding her arms.

“But three lefts make a right.” Shay countered. She wasn't really sure what relevance this had in this context, it just seemed like the best and only thing to argue at the time.

“Don't they say that the best way to get through a maze is to run your hand along one wall? It's supposed to guarantee you don't go the same way twice.” Temzi suggested.

“I wouldn't recommend that idea...” Shay muttered, prodding his chest with a Mist-coated finger.

“And you're supposed to do that from the very beginning of a maze anyway...” Selene added, already walking down the right fork.

“Hey! We didn't decide yet!” She folded her arms and pouted. All her many reflections did the same, it sort of amused her. She glanced at Temzi's, who was also pouting for some reason. She felt uneasy.

“I'm the leader. We're going this way.” Selene called, not bothering to turn around. “Plus, I just saved your life.”

Only because I just saved yours! Her mind yelled back, but she suppressed the urge. “Fine.” She tugged Temzi in the right direction, making sure he wasn't going to bump into any of the walls.

There was little conversation until they were forced to stop again, poor Temzi nearly tripping over her because she stopped so suddenly. Selene was silently fuming, whilst Shay smirked out of sight.

“Lady Selene? Lady Shayna?” Temzi questioned, rather confused. “Why have we stopped this time?”

“Dead end.” Selene mumbled.

“These things happen...” Choosing her words carefully, Shay crept around the back of Temzi to hide, since she could clearly see all of Selene's reflections looking rather irritated. “Lets turn around and head back...”

“Just say it, Shay...”

“I told you so!”

772/28

[Weasel Overlord]

Sirius fir Sterrl de Famfræn
[Captain and General Ruler of the Wolfstar]
stare into the night

“I vote we leg it,” said Sirius, doler-out of brilliant advice. “I mean, normally I'd be all in favour of standing and facing these demonic buggers til they were killed right dead, but- hey! Stop laughing, Sori, this is not a bloody laughing matter, you little sod!”

Sori was trying unsuccessfully to stifle his laughter in a paw, but the guffaws were still fairly obvious in the quiet of the maze. “Oh I'm sorry Sirius, I thought you said you'd be in favour of standing and killing something instead of buggering off,” Sori said, sarcastically.

Sirius looked indignant. “I'll have you know there's been plenty of times I've stood and fought!” He put one hand on his hip and kept the other on the pommel of Durrandal. “Er, I can't quite think of any right now – oh wait, yes I can! The Behemoth.” Sirius looked smug. “And all those other times. You remember, you were there. Although maybe you found it hard to see because of how short you are.” Sirius was feeling oddly snappy. He put it down to their close-quarters – he hadn't seen the sky for hours now and it was making him edgy. Plus it smelled funny down here, all crystal and fear. Ergh. “But really,” he continued. “I still vote legging it. I don't like the, er, cut of their jibs.”

“The cut of their what?” said Cid, looking disgusted.

“Jib. You know, it's a part of a boat.” Sirius waved his hand around vaguely, watching his reflection out of the corner of his eye. It made a rude gesture at him and then lunged towards Sori, who was closest to the crystal-mirrors.

“Argh!” he yelped, fluttering out of the way just in time.

“I agree with Sirius,” Cid said, quickly. “Let's go!”

“Less time next to weird reflections is always good for me!” Ma'nanek was already setting off at a bustling run, and the rest of the party were not far behind.

Sirius thought it very lucky that their section of the maze had less of the junctions and generally just more of the twisty turns, although they were making him feel slightly dizzy.

Their reflections had little trouble keeping up with them. Sirius thought it all entirely unnatural, and even moreso that they seemed to be perfectly able to run with that weird, loping outstretched arm thing going on, as if they were just waiting for one of them to slow down slightly, perfect for grabbing. Brr.

“You're not grabbing me,” Sirius yelled, speeding up. He careened round a corner, overtaking both Ma'nanek and Cid and very nearly slammed right into yet another sharp corner. He yelped – but in a manly fashion – and altered his angle, suddenly extremely thankful for all the experience he and Adair had had of legging it like mad. He wasn't quite as aware of how far behind him everyone else was, but in the art of legging it, there was a tendency for the rule of Every Bugger For Themselves to take over.

He was so caught up in his own survival, and trying desperately not to look at whatever heinous thing his reflection was doing now, that he completely failed to notice the fact that he was legging it straight towards some people, who just so turned out to be one of the missing thirds of their party.

“Oof!” said the person Sirius collided with, in a very familiar voice. “Oi!” the voice said, albeit slightly muffled from the fact that Sirius was wrapped around its head.

“Argh,” said Sirius. He raised an eyebrow and poked the soft thing he appeared to have landed on. “You don't look like a crystal thing.”

“That's cos it's Adair, you bloody imbecile. Get off me!”

“Adair, my man!” Sirius shuffled off and fell to one side, to allow Adair to sit upright and subject him to the force of his Glare of Evil. “You didn't get eaten by crystals, I'm so glad. I'd have hated to have to hire a new Pilot, you know.”

“No, we were sort of busy in the general vicinity of legging it. Hard to be et when you're legging it.”

“Too true, too true. Thankfully, eh?”

“Well exactly. I am generally thankful for my continued existence outside of a crystal bugger's belly.”

“You're not the only one,” Sori piped up.

“Yes, I also worry that life inside a crystal maze would not be the best of lives,” Ma'nanek said, looking grave.

“I wonder if we could find Selene and the rest,” Sirius pondered, tapping his chin. “If our paths connected, I suspect that theirs will too.”

“Stands to reason,” Cid agreed. “We should continue on the path that Arena and his company did not take, to avoid doubling back on ourselves.”

“That man speaks sense,” Adair said. He clapped Cid on the back and hauled Sirius to his feet. “Come along, faithful Captain. We can't leave you sat on the floor like a doll now, can we?”

“Certainly not,” Sirius said, dusting himself off. “You'd all be lost without your Captain.” He strode to the head of the group and set off with a will. “Don't fall behind, fair crew. We may have far to go yet! It would not do to become more separated than we already are.” It had already been far too long apart from dearest Selene – Sirius was beginning to pine. But the memory of her fair face kept him stepping lively until, seventeen turns, one backtrack and five dead ends later, the sound of nervous chattering floated to his ears.

“SELENE!” Sirius shouted, flinging his arms outwards, heedless of the danger of the walls for a split second. He envisaged an epic slow-motion scene, Selene running towards him as he ran towards her, the grass beneath his bare feet moving softly in the gentle breeze and Selene's face beaming for the joy of their reunion.

His ideals were sorely broken, however, when instead of running into his Lady Love's waiting arms, he instead ran into Temzi's rather less squishy armoured torso with a resounding clang. “Owshi-” Sirius shouted as he went down in an undignified heap.

“What was that?” Temzi said, confused. “Was that Captain Sirius?” He tugged on Shay's sleeve urgently. “What's happening, Lady Shay?”

Shay was somewhat distracted with laughing at Sirius, who was holding his bruised face on the floor.

“Why is it always my face?” he wailed.

“Because the world doesn't like it,” Selene suggested with a smirk. “Obviously.”

“You wound me, dearest.”

“No, that was Temzi's breastplate,” Adair sniggered.

“Bugger off,” Sirius said. He held his chin and pulled a pained face in the vain hope that Selene would take pity on him and kiss it better.

She stepped over his outstretched legs and peered around the corner of the last remaining path. “I reckon the way out's this way,” she said. “And stop pulling that face, Sirius. I'm not going to kiss it better. You're not five.”

“Oh cruelty,” Sirius lamented, hauling himself to his feet. “Such cruelty from my mistress. Is your heart made of stone? Do you not care about my plight?” He flapped a hand, and pressed the back of the other to his forehead in his favourite 'oh my wounded heart' pose.

“I care more about getting the hell out of here without being eaten by them,” Selene said, pointing at the rapidly amassing reflections.

“Well then we'd better get a move on and scarper,” Adair said, cheerfully.

“How can you be cheerful in a situation like this?” Sori demanded. “They're gonna eat us!”

“Not if we leg it fast enough,” Sirius said.

“And again, I am somewhat inclined to agree.” Cid smiled, grimly.

“I would rather forsake my honour than face those creatures,” Temzi said, shuddering. He put a hand to the scarf covering his eyes as if checking that it was still secure.

“Don't worry Temzi,” Shay said, patting his hand, which was folded into the crook of her arm. “It's no dishonour on you to run away from an enemy you can't defeat.”

“Exactly.” Sirius' voice was muffled slightly by his hand, which was clutched tightly to his chin. “So let's bugger off already. That's the only way left, I vote we take it and run like hell.”

The problem with running like hell, Sirius thought, was that you often ended up running into things you didn't really want to run into. Like a massive open space where the floor should be. Like a massive new cave right underneath the cave they were previously in, with a massive domed ceiling and massive walls of crystal, distorting everything they saw until they barely knew which was was up. Like a massive, weird-coloured crystal thing, sticking out from the middle of the floor like some sort of ominous, looming crystal bug.

“Oh shit,” Sirius said. Apparently this was an understatement.

#20 // 1563~

[Pichu Luver]

Adair Stroud

It's not every day Adair tries to kill himself. Reflection or not.

No, no. The one instance of emo-like tendencies was merely a by-blow of a one off pot induced giggle fit, combined with some overly peppery sugarcane juice. That and some idiotic youth had handed him a knife and said 'play'. Adair being Adair had thought he had said 'hey!' and proceeded to throw said butter knife at the person in sheerest shock (he was drugged with a ridiculously hot mouth, forgive him this one instance of idiocy). He missed (again, eyes watering.... not quite lucid...) and hit his wrist. The knife stuck out of his wrist like a broken machina part and Adair decided that wasn't quite right and tried to give it to a gun turret. The rest of the blitz team realized Adair A) shouldn't be having an involved conversation with a gun turret with so many fans about and B) he shouldn't have a knife in his wrist. A stint in the hospital fixed Adair's bewildering dilemma and he promptly tried to murder the idiot who both drugged him, and gave him the knife (they nicely came to be the same person). That failed when Adair hit the brick wall instead of the person he was leaping down upon in his 'worst impersonation of an assassin ever.' Guards were summoned, Adair ran, and thus ended Adair's career of revenge induced idiocy of the skilled kind.

Unskilled luck induced revenge idiocy is still open to exploration.

Thus far succ—ah fuck it he's alive and that's what counts on the scoreboard of 'stupid shit to never be repeated.'

He doesn't repeat mistakes he adjusts them. Like a clock you can never get timed to the exact, right, thrice, Aeon, damned, bloody, second. It just keeps slipping away... and Adair inevitably has to parkour like a chicken that's realized the oven is in an inconveniently placed position to cook his ass, and feathers are more flammable then a topic about politics on TPM.

Anyway...

He continued to play Blitzball for a while longer as a ceasefire on all accounts was called, signed and agreed too; because getting Adair that stoned is a plan for disaster of truly mythic proportions. Having a Spiran kill himself and not realize he's done it because he was to much involved in the debate with an inanimate object seems somehow a useless way to get a Unsent. No angst you see. Spiran's do love their angst, sighs and affairs with MONSTAERS OF OMGZ DOOM (dreamboy save!).

Adair's having a moment. Fangirls did something to him he will not speak about. That his reflection is trying to kill him makes this moment blessedly short.

“So anyone else had a emo moment recently? I can't say I have. In fa—”

Alas a giant hole opening beneath his feet in the middle of a mildly important sentence seems to be the bane of Adair's life. That and everyone else's.

“—AHHHHHT!” Adair blessed his skills at running, Arena's light(s) and his midnight explorations of city rooftops while somewhat inebriated. I say somewhat because he knew when he was too high to survive his leaps of faith, but drunk enough not to feel fear at two story drops. Thus he managed to be paralyzed with fright at the dark, see the ground and roll as he hit it to come back up on two feet and continue running. Until Sirius cursed, Adair wondered at what and Sirius grabbed the nape of his coat to stop his movements.

“Cap...tain. Nevermind, I perceive the dilemma.”

“Indeed.”

“Sirius I am heartily tired of fighting monstrous beings that we cannot in any normal coherent world defeat.”

“If I remember properly my good man, and I truly think I do, I believe you were unconscious for the last fight that we could not possibly win.”

“Yes well, it was convenient at the time.”

“Now is not a convenient moment.”

“No. No, apparently not. Having myself kill me because I am unconscious seems to rank on the unjust scale between an enraged chocobo and magic carpet adventures.”

“Well it's not moving, so maybe we can sneak past it?” Shay came up on Adair's right, ever hopeful. Adair liked that about her, he wished more of Sirius' crew had her faith in sheer enthusiasm to see them through any difficulty.

“With our luck? Unlikely.” Selene came up on Sirius' left. Adair smirked and Sirius stood a little straighter.

“The lady is correct. Our luck has been of the unfortunate kind lately.” Temzi stood beside Selene, ever her guardian. She seemed to run through them quickly.

“Unfortunate would be an understatement.” Sori grumbled, floating by Selene's head.

“Nii thinks abysmally horrid would be a better term.” Nii, with Kumas a step behind her, walked up next to Shay. She looked at the monolith crystal, irritated.

“Yes. Doomed might also be an appropriately accurate.” Cid frowned at the crystal thing as he came up next to Temzi.

“Yes, my experience here would show that it is alive... somehow.”Arena paced up beside Nii.

“Children life has nothing to do with luck. Your skill surly is what has seen you through your trials to date?” Ma’nenek meandered up to stand next to Cid.

Selene, Sirius, Adair, Shay, Nii, Temzi, and Sori exchanged a look. “No.”

“Ah.”

Adair would reflect later that they might have looked mildly heroic as they all took out their weapons together. So long as no one looked at their faces. Their expressions show variances of exhaustion and irritation. No heroic courage here, that was for fables. Just a great want to leave a very horrid cave of mirrors.

“I know Luck.” Adair leaned on his sword, looking but definitely not feeling nonchalant. “Guess I should pray.”

“Please do.”

970/29

[ChobiChibi]

Shayna Xanthrope
Attack ~ Haste (Temzi) ~ Haste (Shay)

The hesitation that the group was showing was not going down well with Shay. Between them and their way out (and a shiny yellow crystal) was some kind of giant crystal monster that she had now decided was the source of all her problems. The monster itself had nothing to do with the death of her little sister directly, but she had a feeling that because it was the biggest crystal fiend-like thing here, it should be to blame. Since they decided that sneaking was not the way forward, surely slaughtering it would be?

Yes, she very much liked that idea. But it hadn't seemed to notice them yet. It just lay there in the middle of the giant dome, possibly asleep, unmoving. She couldn't imagine such a thing would be able to breathe, so it was hard to tell if it was even alive or not. Quite frankly, she didn't care. She couldn't wait for the time when she'd get to see Pyreflies streaming out of it.

The others were talking, but she wasn't paying attention. Perhaps it was something tactical, but she didn't care. Her hands gripped her shuriken so hard her knuckles went white, she could feel the cold sharp metal wanting to break her skin, but it didn't because she still had control.

It crossed her mind for a moment before she stepped forward, breaking the ranks they'd created, that at this time she was no better than Lyra when she'd killed their mother's murderer. No, this was different, she decided, since this was not blind rage. This was the desire to escape from here so that she'd be able to have a moment to herself, away from the gaze of her friends, to mourn her sister's passing.

Nobody had ever seen her cry, and that was the way it was going to stay.

“Shay? What are you doing?” Selene asked.

Shay didn't dare turn around. Looking at Selene would make her think about what she was going to do and probably convince her not to. If they fought this beastie, she wouldn't have time to think, and that's what she wanted most.

“Getting revenge.” She answered simply, throwing both her shuriken at it.

Her weapons both ran along opposite sides of the monster's body, several loud clangs of metal hitting crystal echoing around the dome before they returned to her. She wasn't expecting to do much damage, but its crystal body provided so much resistance that they weren't going to quite reach her, so she had to run forwards a few feet to catch them.

Then the thing in front of her began to stand up and she realised just how foolish she had been. In fact, it wasn't actually standing up, more like ascending into the air where it floated menacingly. Whereas before it had looked like a giant crystal rock, it was now beginning to take shape. Its legs were huge, almost drooping down from its body, if it weren't for the fact it was so angular and rigidly cut, like someone had chiselled it roughly out of ice. Bright blue veins seemed to run through its structure, glowing much like the ones on Shay's arm were. Its eyes were set far apart due to the almost triangular shape of its head and body, rising to a sloped peak. She couldn't tell if it had a mouth, to be honest she really didn't want to know. This thing was about a million times bigger than her, she'd picked the wrong fight.

But that was okay, since she wasn't alone.

“SHAY MOVE!” Came the chorused voices of her friends. It sent this little wave through her brain that told her just what a prized dickhead she was being as she turned and scurried back towards them. Most went past her, actually, to begin their assault, but notably not Temzi.

Temzi remained with his feet planted firmly in place, gripping his halberd, her scarf still over his eyes. This would not do. He needed to move, to see, because none of them had the time to guide him and if he stood there he'd surely be targeted like a sitting duck.

“Temzi, I-”

“Lady Shayna... What just happened?” He shuffled his feet a little, obviously uneasy.

“I woke up this big crystal monster and-” She paused as the Dragoon shuddered, sighing. “Temzi, you need to be able to see.”

“I am quite content with my current lack of vision.” He replied, tightening the grip on his halberd.

“I'll do you a deal.” Shay wandered around behind him, tugging at the knot. “You give this back, I cast haste on you so you can run away as fast as your legs will carry you.”

Temzi stayed quiet for a moment, considering the options, before replying with a little hesitation. “And this won't impede on my honour?”

“No, not at all.” She tugged the knot free, wrapping the scarf back around her neck. She'd missed it. “So long as you don't scream like Adair.”

He smiled just a tad before he opened his eyes and it disappeared as fast as it appeared. Perhaps he'd made a bad deal after all... But true to her word, Shay cast haste on him. First time for everything, she thought; she'd never actually cast a spell on another person before... But the clock appeared at his feet and he zoomed off into battle.

Then it was her turn. If she couldn't really hurt it (since her initial shuriken throw had shown her that), then she could at least annoy it. She cast haste on herself too, joining the others, ready to zip around and provide distractions.

~~
For my last action, I pick Dodge.
968/29

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/images...odex_Image.jpg Here's the link to the monster I attempted to describe XD Except it is most certainly more crystal-like. And scary. Yep.

[Weasel Overlord]

Sirius fir Sterrl de Famfræn
[Captain and General Ruler of the Wolfstar]
when you're lost in the groove

Provoke ~ Dodge ~ Armour Break

Ffff-, Sirius thought. Giant crystal dude! Not good. Oh no, not good at all. The thing rose from its position in the floor and loomed. It actually loomed. Sirius was vaguely impressed – or at least, he would be more impressed if the looming wasn't aimed at his general vicinity and accompanied with threatening noises.

Temzi was impressively fast, with the Haste spell cast upon him. It really improved his manoeuvrability in all that armour, even though he was the one who was probably the least likely to get pounded into dust by the thing. Horrible, horrible crystally dust...

Sirius gulped, but it didn't take long for his penchant for heroics to slide into place, kicking his even larger penchant for legging it into the dust and stamping on it a few times. “Oi!” he yelled. He wondered, briefly, if Crystalbugs even had ears, but considering the rate at which it was turning towards him, he figured it was a safe bet. “Oi you rotter, check me out, I smashed seventeen mirrors last week, hah!”

The bug made a strange sort of noise – almost as if something inside it was crackling in anger – and Sirius grinned. He knew learning to Provoke properly would pay off in the end. “Yeah come on, this way you gigantic lady's vanity object. How many people used you as a mirror, eh? Ahaha how shagged in front of you?” He sniggered. “I bet they loved you, you bloody nancy, girly hunk of crystal oh shit-” the bug was a lot nippier than he'd first expected, and Sirius dived into a roll just as it swung at him with one of its gigantic, mirrored arm things. He tucked himself into, well, himself, and rolled like a gymnast. The bug's limb crashed into the ground where he'd been crouched mere moments before, and Sirius' hand dropped to the pommel of Durrandal as the opportunity arose for a counter-strike.

He dashed in, pulling Durrandal from its sheath in one clean, smooth movement. The blade glowed with arcane power, and he swung, the hit intending to lower the defence of the bug by catching it entirely off-guard. His blade collided with the back limb and ricocheted off, sending reverberations shooting down his arm like he'd been trying to hold onto a tree during an earthquake.

“Ow!” he shouted, only just managing by a feat of sheer concentration to keep hold of Durrandal. “Shit,” he said, with feeling. He shook his hand, the tingling sensation slowly dying down. “Well, I probably won't be doing that again in a hurry!”

“Thanks for the distraction,” Shay called. Her shuriken glanced a blow off the thing, and Sirius swore he saw some chips go flying off.

“I reckon we'll just be wearing this one down, Sirius my man. Not much in the way of opportunity for scarpering when the bugger takes up almost the entire room, eh?”

“Alas!” Sirius cried. “I bet it's not susceptible to a good bribe, either.”

“If you think you're giving away my money, you've got another thing coming.” Adair looked like he could punch right through Sirius' face if he even suggested such a thing.

~ Bribe

#21 // 565~

[Pichu Luver]

Right. Onward to avoid the wrath of CT's ire! As in Aiur. As in the Protoss homeworld that got overrun by pointy, puss-pushing, pickled, pillagers. Low Aiur means you get kicked in the shins by zergling now and again, instead of popping calcium pills hoping the ultralisk doesn't know what 'bone crush' means.

...

I'll RP now.

No I am not referring that CT's irritation is like the Zerg. She likes the Protoss... she'd rather Mothership your ass.... she's also my sister and will find a suitable way to maim me grievously for this maelstrom of an author's note/warning/I don't know what I'm doingism. Who reads these anyway?

Adair Stroud
Luck~-~Attack~-~Liquid Steel


“SHAY MOVE!” Adair yelled with others. Shay had possessed an admirable level of revenge induced anger. However, as in most cases when thought comes a-calling once more into the brain after the moment of slight-to-major idiocy, well... Then the legs seem to find an inexplicable need not to process the animal instinct to bugger it far and fast. Standing there watching the results of 'revenged induced idiocy' is a bad habit Humes need to break out of.

Adair, due to spoken of prior experience, no longer suffered from this particular predicament. At least not unless demonstratively hammered.

Shay, bless her bubbly pyreflies, moved. Ran back even. Adair concurred to himself that she was a wise individual, and everyone else who ran forward was drunk with the intoxication of 'ARRRRRRRRRRGH!'

So Adair, being ever prudent, did exactly as he said he would. He wished, he hoped, he prayed to Yevon's damned ass, Shiva's blessed bosom, Valefor's impeccable timing, Ifrit's late revenge, Ixion's electric temper, and Bahumet's overcompensating-for-something might; that they might all live through this. He didn't know if it would just help him or all of them. He hoped all. They needed it to escape from this most picturesque example of Pythagoreans Theorem. He was getting mightily tired of the crew dying all the time. It was not something he was overly used too in the thieving trade.

His pray to the Luck deities of divine indifferent dandies done, he too ran into the fray. Or... bobbled in a 'what-the-fuck-am-I-doing-gunna-die-gunna-die-gunna-die' jog. The others looked just dandy in their warrior 'down with thou evil of foes!' battle ways. Shay had cast Haste on herself and was speeding around, dodging this, attack there, grandeur.

He believed that he had never referred to Shay and grandeur in the same thought process before. This was a profoundly frightening thought. Never get the wee ninja angry was something he always knew. If it wasn't for the fact attacking the beast was like biting a frozen Toblerone bar, he'd be less pessimistic on their changes of not becoming flapjacks drizzled in their own unique syrups.

Temzi, as ever was a titanic tin terror. Except thanks to Shay he was a speeding silver sliver. Adair though did not want Haste caste on him, the results might be unfortunate for all involved (clear cut and standing people should never be combined). However, thanks to Shay's gift if anyone would survive this vastly too enthusiastic gambit, it would probably be boisterous bucket boy.

As Adair tumbled his way to an open space between all the would-be-warriors, Sirius made the grievous suggestion of bribing the mirrored monster. The thought of wasting good coin on an obviously oblivious obscenity galled Adair immeasurably. He commented on this bad notion with vigour. Sirius was merely grinning. Adair decided to do something about this... ponder.

Taking up a position regarding the pests posterior (assuming of course, one could not be sure unless a creature shat on you [Adair does not recommend this test]) he waited for an opening. As the thing swiped at someone else it moved one of it's... dangly bits back in an assuredly balancing way. Adair, seizing his strenuous moment, leaped forward and crashed his sword against the crystal creature. The jar that rang up his arm was of impressive force (he refused to believe he had looked like a bell that had just been rung) but the dent was non-existent.

Irrationally irritated, Adair called upon his pointy bat to do something he rarely asked it to. He himself had nothing in the way of magic casting ability. However, his sword could take and be imbued with elements of energy. So now, as the crystallized menace began to realize an idiot had bashed something against it in futility and started to turn, Adair ran with it and called upon water. Admittedly he looked like a fool trying to outrun a kid on a carousel, but he kept pace. Because he was Adair, and Adair could run bewilderingly fast in a straight line. This bugger was big enough that the sprint turned only moderately.

As he pelted he let images of water flow through his mind and be encased in his blade. It took a abominably long time and sweat was creasing his brow (it of course never did otherwise, he was a manly man) when his over-achieving-crowbar finally shone and rippled with a coating of water. It had melded to the steel. Grinning he leaped and swung the really wide rapier into the same spot he smacked before. The crystal dented and a few crazed cracks spread from it. The water gushed into the cracks, and the crystal creaked like snow on a really cold day as they widened slightly.

That the dent was only four feet long and three inches wide on a multi-storied monstrosity made the nick nothing more then a cause for the beast to growl in a 'pestilance' manner as it turned to deal with this nuisance. Honestly the monster could have merely floated into a pillar with ill-advised force for all the damage Adair did to it's décor...

“Ahhhhh, fuckity-fuck-fuck.” If Adair could have sweat-dropped he would have.


Defend Cause I doubt even Adair can bugger it fast enough after that... For a multitude of reasons not at all relating to a memo made above this post. ¬¬

878/30

[darktyranitar]

Ma’nenek

No sympathy for the abomination

Attack ~ Dodge ~ 1000 Needles


Ma’nenek wasn’t sure if she had mentioned this before (or at least thought of it), but she was terribly unfamiliar with battles.

…well, all right, so she wasn’t exactly 100 percent accurate when she said she had witnessed some fights; in fact, she was personally involved in some – all right, most – of those said fights. Not those ‘fight-to-the-death’ kind of fights, but the ‘someone-started-a-ruckus-at-one-corner’ kind of fights (guess who started those fights in the first place? If your guesses include ‘calling someone granny’, then you’re quite right).

Despite that, Ma’nenek is actually a gentle soul that eschew violence (disciplining – not that kind disciplining – doesn’t really count as violence, in her opinion), and deep inside her heart, wished that in the not too distant future, everyone in the world will-

She froze in mid-thought, as almost everyone charged straight ahead towards the large – Ma’nenek think the word ‘colossal’ would be more accurate – crystal monster (various cries included). A few moments passed before she looked behind her: noticing that the number of people on the frontline far exceed those at the back, she reluctantly trudged ahead, pulling her staff along with her, which made an ugly scratching sound as it was dragged along.

As she was close to the crystal monster, it only occurred to her that she had forgotten to do one crucial thing…

Had anyone were looking in her direction, they would have seen that Ma’nenek was – rather out of place, it might be added – busy leafing through a book. And if anyone was there beside her, they’d hear her mutter, “let me see… how to subdue the huge crystal monster in front of you…”

Alas, she found out that there was in fact nothing in the book about how one should deal with said monster. Since that was the case, she decided that she might as well follow her common sense.

She took a deep breath, swung her arms, and with all her might, smashed her staff at the monster’s limb.

Needless to say, the attack barely left any dent. But that was the least of Ma’nenek’s concern: her ears perked up as she registered the sound of the monster’s growl, and she immediately rolled over to the side, sparing herself from being crushed by the monster’s limb.

Normally, she’d comment on how un-oldish she was, being as fit as a butcher’s dog, but she figured that if she have the time for idle talk, she might as well use it for something else more productive (and something that would actually make sense).

In her mind, she was looking at the monster’s head (what strange triangular shape, she thought) through a crosshair. She must not miss, she must aim for its head. Aim for its head…

An imaginary ‘bang’ accompanied the spell, and in the briefest moment, the monster’s face was littered with a thousand needles. Surprisingly, her immediate reaction when the creature growled was not that of satisfaction: she was actually thinking whether this being was actually capable of feeling pain. Ma’nenek is quite empathetic, despite what some of her actions would suggest.

“We are not following the golden rule, are we?” she said out of the blue. It was a totally random question, she knew that, and she did not expect any answer.

So it came to a surprise when someone said, “what are you talking about?”

“Hmm?” Ma’nenek stepped back slowly, after she noticed that the monster was out venting its anger on someone else (it did not made her feel good – not about retreating, but the fact that someone else was unlucky to be facing a monster that just had its face pierced by needles).

“Oh, Sori. I didn’t notice that you were there… how is everything going?”

“It’s not good. At all.”

“Terrible?”

“Yeah.”

“Absolutely horrendous?”

“It sucks, if you want to know the truth.”

“Ah. Terrific personality.”

“…was that an insult just now?” Sori was already getting riled, even before Ma’nenek had made the previous comment.

“Oh no, you misunderstand me, dear. I was trying to say that I like people who are honest about-”

“All right, all right, I get it.”

Ma’nenek nodded, acknowledging that there were far more important things to worry about than a few bit of explanation. “Well, then...” Her grip on the staff tightened. “Lets get back to the business of smashing – ohoho, I love that word – our beloved walking crystal monster, shall we?”

“There’s nothing even remotely likeable about the thing,” grumbled Sori.


~1000 Needles

*****

746 words / 6 posts

[Mystic_clown]

Arena Tiburon
---------------------------------

Luck – Attack – Defend

Run, run and run some more. That was pretty much the idea adopted by “Team Arena” as they charged through the crystal maze. Well, it was either that or try to fight their reflections, and so far that didn’t seem like a good option. A they could do was run around blindly until they find a way out…or a dead end.

Fortunately for them, the long winding corridors of crystal would soon end, sending them into a large, open dome. With such a large area, the group wouldn’t have to worry about getting too close to the crystals.

Unfortunately, inside that dome was a large, insect-like crystal monster, and it looked pissed. And further more it seemed to be taking up a good deal of room. There seemed to be a way out, but the bug had effectively put itself between them and their salvation.

Fortunately the others were there, and were about ready to take on the massive bug as well. So far though it didn’t seem to be going well.

“Well, what do we have here?” Arena murmured, looking up at the large bug. Selene obviously heard him because she glanced at him.

“The one thing keeping us from getting out of here,” she replied sharply. Arena had never really faced anything this big before. Living in the desert, he knew to avoid the bigger things. But, heck, if he had been able to survive up till now, who could say it was impossible for him to survive this?

“Come on folks,” he said with a smile, “With a little luck I’m sure we can get through this.”

At that point, a feint glow surrounded him, followed by a glow around the others as well. The rest of the group would find themselves feeling…lucky.

“Now then,” Arena smiled, brandishing his hook, “Let’s see how strong you are buggy?” He then dashed towards it, swinging his hook at its leg.

Unfortunately, all it did was scratch the crystal surface. It didn’t do too much due to it being bent in an awkward angle, thanks to a certain someone’s bullet.

“Oh damn that woman…” he muttered.

The bug obviously didn’t like being scratched, as it kicked its leg out, sending Arena flying back, and causing him to drop the light crystal he was holding. Thankfully, he didn’t really need to hold onto it anymore. But that didn’t stop the pain of being kicked. The pirate groaned as he slowly climbed to his feet.

“Nice job,” he heard someone mutter sarcastically. He ignored it as he pulled himself to his feet. He glanced up at the large crystal bug, which was now eying the group.

“Well then, fighting’s certainly not an option. At least for me.” He took a step back, bringing his arms up in case the beast attacked, “Well then, let’s just see what you can do buggy.”

Defend

-482 *~* 3-

[classy_cat18]

Sori – Moogle Time Mage
Into the fray at last!

Dodge ~ Dodge ~ Haste

It started with a dream. A normal, peaceful, lovely dream. Blue skies with few clouds. Warm mid-spring sun. Birds (little birds, not big squawking Chocobos) singing. I was lying in the grass, twitching my ears, dreaming about world domination… you know, the usual stuff. Everything was perfectly normal.

And then came the ninja Chocobo.

No, there’s not something wrong with your ears. I said what you thought I said. A Chocobo with a shuriken on its back.

Chocobo Shay bounced in front of my vision, squawking about treasure and all that junk. Then came Chocobo Selene and the two of them frolicked together. Slightly weird, especially since there was two pistols strapped to Chocobo Selene, but I wasn’t worried.

Then a familiar shadow draped over my small form, and the dream immediately became a nightmare.

“What the hell are you doing in my territory?” the monstrous black Chocobo named Chobie roared in a deep voice.

I didn’t care that it was speaking Hume, or that it was speaking in a spine-chilling boom instead of its annoying squawk. All I cared about was that it was Chobie and the bastard was going to do every time it came into one of my dreams: trample the ever-loving shit out of me.

“You didn’t answer my question, rat!” Chobie roared. “What are you doing in my territory?”

“None of your business!” I yelled without thinking of the consequences, something that seemed to happen in every one of these nightmares.

The last thing I see is a gigantic clawed foot raised above me about to crush every bone in my body.

“WAKE UP, YOU ANNOYING PIECE OF ELECTRIFYING FLUFF!”

I groaned an opened an eye. Adair had me upside down, holding me by my foot, and shaking me like the last drop of rum in an otherwise empty bottle. “Leave me alone. I was napping,” I grumbled.

“No, you were unconscious! You took a blow to the head by some crystal thing hanging on the ceiling because you were too busy yelling at Manny over there to pay attention! Now point your fairy wand at the big baddie so it can get zapped!”

“I can’t do it if you’re shaking me!” I clubbed him with my rod and fell to the ground as he released me. With one more lump on the head to worry about, I flew up and raised my wand for Charge. I could get a good couple of spells in before it even noticed me.

Something wet dripped on my ear at that time, and I looked up just in time to see a crystal stalactite get knocked off the ceiling by the monster banging at the walls. I quickly flew forward and tried again, and this time the monster turned around and attacked the members on my side of the room. A flying target was somewhat more noticeable than the Nu Mou below it. Just slightly so.

“RAAAARWURG!” the monster bellowed as it swung its claws at me. Its short attention span turned it to someone else as soon as it was attacked again. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, I used Charge for my upcoming spell. What are crystal monsters weak against anyway?

549 words. 24 Sori posts. I pick Stop as his next action.

[Crystal Tears]

Final Fantasy: Darkness Descends
Selene

Dodge – attack – Cheap Shot

The thing itself was massive, barely managing to fit into the equally gigantic cavern, Selene decided, right then and there, they were royally fucked. The creature itself didn't seem care much about anything any of them did, while it would get annoyed somewhat quickly at certain moves, they didn't, and probably never would, do much damage.

She turned, calling out to Sirius just as he ducked and smoothly dodged an in coming limb that tried to splat him. It tried the damn move on Selene, who, very quickly, ducked and rolled. Moving out of harms way rather quickly. The ground trembled and pieces of rock and crystal went flying from the impact.

Not good. She thought, rising up and looking around in the somewhat dizzying chaos to see Nii trip and fall. The monster took note of the weakness, and was quick to move so it was loom over her. Venat damn me. Selene thought, sprinting as fast as she could towards the odd girl that was slow to recover. She turned, screaming for Kumas.

The monster's leg came colliding down on her leg, and Nii let out a horrified cry and fell back to the darkened ground, pinned. Kumas appeared soon after, grabbing the creature's leg of sorts before it struggled to lift it off it's master. The monster released her soon after, white energy gathering around the wounded woman.

Then she began to float, upwards, pulled towards the darkened area of the crystal which could only be the monster's mouth. When Kumas neared to grab her, the monster dimissed him with such a hard thwack the machine was sent careening across and into the cavern wall, shattering part of it's crystal layer from the impact.

“Help!” She cried, flailing her arms.

Selene grabbed her, her fearful expression quickly turning to a scowl of determination of anger and frustration. She was using all of her weight to keep Nii from floating up any higher, but the strain was becoming a little to much. Selene's feet began to leave the ground, and with a quick shock of energy the creature used to dismay others from helping, Selene was struck and let go out of surprise.

“No!” Selene cried, jumping as high as she could. She couldn't reach Nii's hand.

Nii stared at her, worriedly.

“Don't worry about Nii, Nii will be fine.” The girl whimpered, eyes watering a bit as she kept going higher.

Everyone else was still fighting, Selene couldn't move.

“Don't worry...” She said again, glancing behind her, she could probably see the thing's jaws now. The mechanic looked back at the princess with a pale face, not likely her fate.

Selene felt empty as she aimed the Calypso at Nii.

“I'm sorry Nii.”

“Nii will be okay,” she smiled slightly. “Take care of Kumas for Nii?”

“You bet.”

the girl closed her eyes, and Selene fired.

The crystal bug had no interest in lifeless pry. It dropped the body seconds after Selene shot, before it moved on to trying and squish Adair.

Selene buried whatever she was feeling in the back of her mind, and look supreme interest in the near seamless joints between the legs. Raising a slender brow ever so slightly, she aimed, carefully as it outstretched it's leg to try and smack the drunken pilot again.

There was a loud bang and the creature's leg automatically curled, having been hit in surprise. A small smirk appeared on her lips before she moved, dodging a couple of thunder attacks that came flying at her from the monster's massive body.

Dodge


- + 602 / 47 + -

Shay's DODGE was successful.
Sirius's BRIBE was unsucessful, he was hit by a limb.
Adair's DEFEND was successful, the hit sustained did far less damage.
Ma'nenek's 1000 NEEDLES hit, doing some damage.
Arena's DEFEND was successful, the hit sustained did far less damage.
Sori's STOP hit, but the Crystal Bug is immune.
Selene's DODGE was unsucessful, she takes a hard hit from a thunder spell.
Temzi seems stunned with fear! He takes a brutal hit from a limb and a thundara spell.

Crystal Bug's defenses have fallen! Ma'nenek has an opening for a CRITICAL HIT!
The Crystal Bug is paying to much attention to Sori! Shay has an opening a dizzying FLURRY!

The Crystal Bug will focus the majority of it's attention on Sori and Arena next round.

Crystal Bug
[IIIIIIIIII]
87 / 100


- + Immunities + -
Stop

- + Spells + -
Thunder
Thundara

[ChobiChibi]

Shayna
Dodge – Flurry

Through her frantic scarpering around, dodging this, dodging that and generally being a nuisance, Shay had seen Nii lift off the ground, towards what she assumed was the monster’s mouth (she still hadn’t seen it, she was at the wrong angle to see, so she couldn’t be sure it had one), Selene dangling from the Al Bhed and then falling. The next time she looked, she caught a glimpse of Nii’s body falling to the floor and a very distraught looking Kumas. Well, as distraught as a Machina could look.

Not another one... Shay frowned, coming to a halt next to Temzi. Two and a half Spirans left... This does not bode well... Did she even count Lyra as Spiran anymore? Reluctantly, her mind decided yes, since she was prepared to die for her country, she just went about it in the most retarded manner ever.

“Temzi, you need to move now...” She took one of Temzi’s hands and pulled, trying to encourage him to get up rather than actually help him to his feet. “Come on...”

“Lady Sha-”

“OW!” The ninja had touched the dragoon’s armour, giving her a little shock. Just how it had charge, she didn’t know, it just defied the laws of physics and shocked her. She sucked on the three fingertips gingerly.

“Apologies, Miss...” Temzi began to sit up, leaning his weight back onto his elbows. “I wasn’t paying attention, it knocked me for six.”

“Lets not waste my haste spell, hm?” Shay smiled at him. “It would be a shame, I don’t use-” Another sudden shock, a lot stronger this time, struck her in the back. She fell to the floor next to Temzi, her limbs twitching a little. She stared up at the ceiling (if she squinted, she could see her reflection) for a moment, letting her body relax. Ergh, it’s like being stuck on the Thunder Plains... You couldn’t let a sleeping bug lie, could ya? So it’s totally self inflicted, which is so much worse...

“Now’s not the time for laying around, boys and girls!” She heard Sirius’ voice before his head popped into her line of vision. She reached out, making grabby hand gestures at him. He rolled his eyes before pulling her to her feet. “You started this thing with such energy, I hope you intend to keep that up.”

“This has nothing to do with my energy levels. You’re just being chivalrous, that’s all.” She smirked, brushing herself off. Temzi was on his feet too now. It was time to get back to business.

In fact, it was time to give it a surprise. That was more of Shay’s style, after all, what with her ninja tricks. Appearing from shadows, disappearing in puffs of smoke, tricks of the light... Anyway, she had an idea.

“Distract Mr Crystal Bug for me, boys. I’m going in.” She rolled up her sleeves, hesitating a little on her right arm. She’d forgotten that this place had tattooed her. No time for that now. She plucked her shuriken from her back and ran towards it. She didn’t attack once she got near it, no, she kept going, weaving in between its many, many legs, making sure she was right underneath it. Now I’ll teach you a lesson.

She moved with precision and grace, each throw of her shuriken timed perfectly to allow small gaps for her to punch or kick the thing when it was close enough. She didn’t stop, just continued to pick up pace, her focus only on making sure she was accurate, inflicting as much damage as her strength would allow in such a quick succession of attacks. Little chips flew off it, raining down on her as she continued her relentless assault. It needed to feel her pain too.

This is for Lisette. And Lyra. And Nii. And for all the other people you murdered.

Rage was blinding her again but she was unable to suppress it. She was becoming less and less aware of her surroundings, her vision so narrow that there was no way she would notice anything coming towards her.

It was only as she let her hardest and final throw go that her peripheral vision spotted the crystal arm coming towards her. Or that actually, the bug had been moving above her, she thought she was hitting the same place every time. By then it was too late; her shuriken made contact with its body as its arm made contact with her. She flew out from underneath it, having been knocked off her feet, straight into an unsuspecting member of the crew. He too was knocked off his feet on impact (for it was indeed a he), but thankfully she had let go of her other shuriken before she hit him; she could hear it sliding along the floor until it clashed with the wall.

Shay lay their quietly for a moment, catching her breath until she realised that she’d winded her crash mat. She shimmied so that her weight wasn’t completely on his chest.

“It appears... I have... a personal vendetta... against... your diaphragm.” She said between sharp intakes of breath. “Sorry, Adair.”

Sensibly, he waited until he’d recovered to reply. “Perhaps I should start taking it personally, since you only seem to pick me in these situations.” She couldn’t see his expression because her head conveniently landed on his chest (it also made a good pillow), but she hoped it was a smile, to indicate he wasn’t being serious.

“I’ll try my best not to next time.”

“Ah, yes, because there will always be a next time.”

“You make it sound like I do it on purpose.” She poked him before putting her hands on the floor, ready to get up. “You should learn to catch me.”

“Of all the myths and legends surrounding ninja-folk, clumsiness is not a trait often featured in the stories.”

Shay pushed herself up, so she was supporting herself on her arms, looking down at Adair. “In that case, I’ll tell you some of my clumsy stories when this is o-VER!”

Her arms gave way and she fell flat on her face.

Except it wasn’t the floor that she landed on.

1037/30 (YAAAAY! *throws confetti*)
Defend
If it wasn't clear, the first "dodging" was from the end of my last post. General scarpering. The one for this post was when she was running underneath it :3
BLATANT TAG *runs off*

[Pichu Luver]

Adair Stroud
Defend (last round) | Dodge/Dodge/Attack

Selene had shot Nii. Selene. Shot. Nii.

Something in that action caused him to pause. To stare. Perhaps it was loosing another crew member, or maybe he didn't think Selene could do that sort of thing, or how callously the creature at simply waltzed over and started to suck Nii up. It might have been Nii's calmness about what was evidently coming. How nothing they did, did anything to this creature. Or this cavern full of mirrors. Three people dead in one cavern was equal to what they had lost in the last one. It was definitely not a record he had cared to repeat.

All in all Adair was getting very, very tired of having people die.

Not that he was unfamiliar with death. Had been be declared legally dead more times then he could rightly remember (though Mog mentioned he had a list). However, it had not been until the fateful meeting of the Wolfstar and the Silver Zephyr that so many people had been dying around him. The possible hundreds on that sunken ship, the Wolfstar crew that had not made it to that first cave, Archades and the fiends rampaging through it...

He was really starting to wish he had never drafted that ship. Maybe never even met Sirius. Their adventures had been some of the best times of his life but... he wouldn't have been on the Wolfstar and maybe this whole series of events would never have happened.

Thus in that moment, watching Selene kill Nii, Adair had been stuck. Seeing one thing but reliving something different; shown through live vid-sphere. Another woman crying, someone else shooting, but for far more malevolent reasons. That it was deemed kinder to kill someone because there was no hope for salvation spoke to Adair about things he'd rather never listen to ever again.

Yet fiends don't stop for a frozen pirate and Nii—now lifeless—was dropped unceremoniously and the crystal bug turned to the next easy victim.

He realized standing frozen meant it was him.

There was no time to move. He just raised his sword and tried his damnedest to prevent the others from watching his own demise. The leg had swung at him from the left and he turned to face it, hoping beyond the rainbow his Luck was with him. The appendage slammed into his sword and drove him off his feet. Which was probably for the best as the leg swiped by overhead as he fell backwards and dropped his sword. Adair was no soldier, against that kind of recoil there was no hope to hold on to the damned tin toy.

He wished he could groan but Nii had shown that there was no time to show weakness. He grabbed his sword and used it to propel himself back to his feet. He could not really feel his arms too well, but having a not-so-finite experience with drunkenness allowed him to still be able to function. Even if he wasn't quite sure all of him was moving as he bid.

It was then he noticed Shay and her rapid fire attacks on the creature. Sirius and Temzi appeared to be trying to distract it from her. Apparently the thing could not make up its mind on who to attack. However, it was crab dancing around in it's confusion and he found himself once more the bearer of bad fortune.

A leg was rapidly coming down at him.

Adair lurched to the left and let himself collapse into a rolling tumble. It had not been quite good enough though. The leg had nicked his right shoulder as he had flown sideways and he gritted his teeth against the pain as he hit the ground in his roll. Stumbling to his feet he was just checking the damage when, for the love of Yuna, he was blindsided.

Honestly what did this woman have against his continued use of his breathing apparatus? It's like she was trying to convince him that blessed oxygen was an addiction of the gravest sort, and must be dealt with at the most opportune moment. Which meant, of course, those moments came whenever Adair was most enjoying the aspects of a fine set of lungs.

As he had heaved great gulps of air inward in recovery from his manly enterprise, it was now thusly the time be deprived this asset most unexpectedly. To cure him of his ill.

There was a slight problem that air was necessary to be alive and not an angry UnSent, but those details—as important as they are to the common person—seem to completely miss Shay's way of thinking. Or maybe it was just Adair she wanted to help and she failed to recognized the difference between booze and breeze... At any rate they hit the ground at a rapid clip and skidded for a ways (he would have cursed if he could have as his shoulder burned) before stopping; Shay lying atop Adair as he feebly tried to gulp air.

“It appears... I have... a personal vendetta... against... your diaphragm.” She said between sharp intakes of breath. “Sorry, Adair.”

He coughed sharply as said frozen muscle abruptly agreed to function again. As he stared at the ceiling he realized he was getting used to the truly sudden lack of oxygen. He was not sure if that good for his health or not.

After a few necessary heaves he stated, “Perhaps I should start taking it personally, since you only seem to pick me in these situations.” Despite everything he was exasperatedly amused at this. Shay was rather good at getting him back in the always amused swing of things.

“I’ll try my best not to next time.”

He snorted, “Ah, yes, because there will always be a next time.”

“You make it sound like I do it on purpose.” The wee ninja actually sounded petulant AND she poked him. Poked him! For telling the truth! Of course there would a be a next time, she had a fearful fascination with freezing him. “You should learn to catch me.”

'Not bloody likely, I rarely catch myself.' “Of all the myths and legends surrounding ninja-folk, clumsiness is not a trait often featured in the stories.” He looked at her as she finally started to get up. One almost seemed to forget there was a death dealing dandy dancing around the room.

“In that case, I’ll tell you some of my clumsy stories when this is o-VER!”

Well if he had to run smack into someone of the female persuasion this was generally how he preferred to do it.

Especially when he was not the one at fault.

Adair and Shay cursed at the same time as their heads cracked together. Adair shut his eyes against the stars sparking across his vision and reached a hand up to rub his head. He felt Shay shift as she did the same.

“Oh Yevon! I'm sorry Adair. I....” As Adair opened his eyes to witness her newest request for forgiveness, Shay trailed off. Perhaps realizing the same instant Adair did how few inches separated them.

Maybe it was the addled head, recent lack of oxygen or realization how quickly people seemed to be dying around him. Whatever it was, as Shay paused and they looked at each other he decided to seize the moment. Lifting his head those necessary few inches, he kissed her.

Thankfully she did not seem to mind.

Alas there was a crystal crab creature striking around the room, and they could share only that brief moment before Adair's shuttering eyes noticed movement over Shay's shoulder. A leg was once more trying to impale someone. Namely them.

“Shit!” Having truly no better words Adair grabbed Shay tightly around the shoulders and rapidly rolled away to the right. The leg smashed into the ground mere inches behind his back as they twisted away. Adair scrambled to his feet and pulled Shay upright with him, ignoring his protesting shoulder. They spared one more second to look at each other in mild shock before they turned back to the task at hand.

“Um. I'm gunna get my shuriken...” Shay turned and ran towards the far wall. Adair, humoured by her response, was about to say something when Sirius interrupted him.

“Adair! Perhaps you should save such charms for later?” Sirius called, grinning at him. Selene (along with many others) seemed to be in the middle of a extended blink.

“I'm not saving you!” called Sori as he readied some spell.

He grinned back, saluted them both and bent to grab his sword. “Aye Captain, and Sori, you'd be deprived of further chances to fry my stunning self. How truly saddening no?” With that he leaped at the creature, slamming his sword against the leg that had mostly recently tried to end his days. A small crack, but still he was suddenly feeling much more chipper. He couldn't have told you why though.

Dismissal Gleeful chatter if you please.

1465/31

[Weasel Overlord]

WHAT UP DAWGS.

Temzi :: Dragoon of Justice
:: knockin' on the sky ::

Magicide ~ Attack ~ Cripple

Lightning was not, Temzi thought, the best of things to hit a full-armoured Guado, even in the best of times. It did sort of remind him of home though, and it did much to shake him out of his battle-trance. The smell of singed metal conjured up a most vivid image of the Thunder Plains and, scent of lightning in his nose, he swung into action.

Distracting the Crystalbug for Shay was easier than it looked, since it seemed to be attracted to the shiny man dressed in metal. Temzi's battle training kicked in and his focus narrowed; the bug was a magic-user, obviously, since it fried him with lightning not moments earlier. He jumped to the ideal strategy, followed its paths in his mind and nodded grimly to himself.

Spinning Whisper, he placed it tip down and diagonal against the floor. Shay's Haste spell had kicked in thoroughly by now and he spun in a circle, carving the halberd into the floor. As his momentum increased, the energy and mana gathered and then spun outwards, striking the Crystalbug directly. It reeled, if only for a second, and Temzi took advantage of the pause to dash in and slice with Whisper – he ran underneath the beast and swung upwards with all his might, carving a great line into the crystal underbelly.

Out the other side, he swerved around the protruding leg and almost sped into Sori, who yelled something Temzi couldn't quite catch, but it certainly sounded angry. His mind was moving far too fast to comprehend things like normal speech, let alone to process that the beast had taken Nii, that Selene had shot her in mercy, that Adair had kissed Lady Shay – they were filed away for later, when he slowed down.

For now, however, was the final part of his battleplan. It was his turn to do the heavy hitting. He signalled a shape to Sori, who looked grumpy at him, but he flapped off anyway, apparently getting the idea. Adair looked like comprehension had dawned, and he elbowed Sirius who tipped Temzi a wink. All three of them directed their attacks upon one leg of the Crystalbeast, getting in close enough that it lifted the thing off the ground. Selene and Shay concentrated on the face-like part, flanked by Arena and Ma'nenek.

When the beast was properly distracted, Temzi went in for the kill, as it were. His vision tunnelled again, the feeling familiar and glorious and his plan settling upon him like a soothing veil. He saw his halberd connecting – he saw the attack successful – and so the attack was successful. Coupled with his Haste, how could it not be?

He targeted the joint, dead at the top of the leg where it was attached. The creature lifted its leg to sweep away the annoyances and Temzi took his chance – he leapt and thrust, blade-first and hard, right into the vulnerable part of the joint. There was a splintering noise – almost inaudible at first – but then a crack spread slowly outwards and Temzi landed cat-like on his feet again with a smile. A slice of crystal-shard clattered fell to him and then shattered as it hit the floor, point-first like a broken mirror.

Reis' Wind

~564 // #14

----

Sirius fir Sterrl de Famfræn
[Captain and General Ruler of the Wolfstar]
those who remain

Provoke ~ Dodge ~ Armour Break

Sirius spent scant seconds goggling at the sight of Adair smooching the face off Shay before the situation caught up with him again and he realised that, yup, they were in the middle of fighting a massive lump of walking crystal. That was definitely crystal, all right.

Their diversionary tactics worked a charm – Sirius even went one better than the rest and used Provoke. He wasn't sure whether the Bug actually had any ears, but it definitely seemed to turn some more rage in his direction. It lifted its foot up to stomp on them, and Sirius nipped in and dodged out of its way, just as Temzi's attack hit. A slice of crystal slid down its leg and shattered on the hard floor, and Sirius whooped.

“Nice one, Temzi my man!” He threw Temzi a cheery thumbs-up from underneath the Bug and grinned to see the Dragoon's happy reaction. The fellow never looked happier than when he was fighting big nasties. Maybe that was a sign that he needed to get laid, Sirius thought, legging it again so that he was directly in the middle of the beast's underbelly. Safest place to be in the long run, he reckoned.

Sirius threw an appraising glance at Temzi and found himself wondering what exactly he looked like under all that armour. Selene crossed his visionary path right at that exact second and looked askance at him, and Sirius threw her a leery wink. He wasn't sure exactly how much she knew (or wanted to know, for that matter) about his past, but he was willing to bet that she wouldn't believe the half of it. You couldn't make his and Adair's adventures up, and speaking of Adair, there were definitely some adventures of theirs that they didn't really want coming out into the open. Not if they wanted his crew to stop making pervy jokes on their behalfs. Better that some things remained in their tarnished (but very very sexy) past, lest Selene start believing that she was simply sloppy seconds.

Now there was a phrase that he shouldn't ever use again. Sirius felt mildly disgusted with the images it conjured up in his mind's eye and abruptly wished for the existence of brain bleach.

He shook the image out of his mind as thoroughly as he could – this didn't at all mean he was replacing it with images of certain people naked, oh no, not at all never would he dream of it blah blah etcetera etcetera – and sprang back into action. To a given extent of “springing”, anyway. Sirius wasn't the springiest of people – no, he left that sort of debauchery to Adair. And, thinking of debauchery, he could really go for some mead right now.

But no! There was a battle to be won! And he had just the ticket. Er, not ticket. Thing. Move, whatever. To his thinking, this critter was far too armoured for its own good. He summoned scarlet energy into Durrandal and picked his target – the already-weakened leg. Running a palm across the blade, he knew that it was ready and he swung.

There resounded a massive clash that made Sirius' ears ring something rotten. Adair grinned over at him and wiggled a finger in his ear. “Are you planning on starting a band, Sirius? I think you should get some better percussion, perhaps.”

Guard

#22 // 593~

[classy_cat18]

Sori – Moogle Time Mage
Slow ~ Fire ~ Thundara

She was in a far corner in the place where we were resting, away from the eyes of the others. As usual, she was communicating with a silent Kumas. Dark circles could be seen around her eyes, which explained why she spent much of the time with goggles on. “Nii won’t last long. Can you feel it?”

I edged closer to hear more of her one-sided conversation. What did she mean? Then I noticed that she had her shirt up and was wrapping bandages around herself. Although I didn’t see her injury, the size of the blood stain on the bandages told me it was serious. There didn’t even seem to have been a sign of that injury during the escape of the crystal clones. But we had someone to heal now, so it wasn’t really necessary.

“Nii will die soon,” she continued in a very low voice.

Both Kumas and I were alarmed by her statement. My ears shot up, and Kumas’ eyes blinked furiously. Nii smiled sadly and kept talking. “Mortals can feel their death coming sometimes, even when they’re not sick or dying. A sense of doom. Nii knows she will not make it back to Home.”

“No!” I hissed quietly as I revealed myself to the two of them. “Nii, you are not allowed to die here! We already lost two others!”

“I can’t fight anymore,” she whimpered, dropping the third person altogether. “I can’t push myself any further.”

“Yes, you can! Tell her!” I commanded Kumas. He stayed silent. “And besides, we need you to keep the Wolfstar flying!”

“No, you don’t. I’m not the only competent one on that airship.”

“Yes, you are! And stop referring to yourself in the third person!”

“Don’t tell any of the others about this,” she ordered sternly.

“She didn’t even give me a reason why she was saying that crap,” I muttered to myself.

The monster only had targeted me for a couple of minutes before other members of the crew had attacked it. Seeing it as a chance to get my wings some rest, I flew over to Kumas and rested on his head. He was standing over Nii’s body with dim lights signifying his depressed state.

“Nii…”

I glanced at Kumas who had uttered that one word in his robotic voice. “This is not the time to grieve. We can deal with this after her murderer is dead!”

Then the distraction was over. I only had a few seconds to fly up before the crystal bug could slam me into the hard wall with its claws. It wasn’t interested in the machina, who wasn’t even alive to begin with. Okay, so Stop doesn’t work on it. It would’ve made this too easy anyway. How about…

“SLOW!”

As expected, the monster’s claw slowed down mid-swipe. Then I zoomed around until I found a ruby-red eye… thing. “FIRE!”

“RAWWWWORRRRRG!” the thing bellowed in pain.

That lifted my spirits a little. That’s right, you demon spawn of a bitch. That Fire’s for me, and I’ll put out your other eye with a Thundara just for Nii! Which the monster liked even less than the Fire.

“Back to your diabolical self, I see!” Sirius said in a bright self.

“Of course I am! I’m pissed!”

554 words. 25 Sori posts. Haste on Selene for his next move.

[Mystic_clown]

Arena Tiburon
Dodge – Dodge – Goblin Punch
---------------------------------------------

Arena lowered his eyes, almost in respect for the fallen. It was never good to have to kill a comrade, but sometimes it was the better, more kinder option. The alternative was just to leave them as they endured a very painful end, or something even words than that.

He looked back to watch the moogle going mad with fury on the insect. He wanted to jump in and do something. But, with his hook damaged, there really wasn’t much he could do. That thing’s body was armoured with crystal, and needless to say, simply punching and kicking the thing wouldn’t be enough to harm it. What could he possibly do?

Except jump out of the way when the now pained insect stumbled towards him. The desert bandit barely had time to roll out of the way before the inside slammed into the side of the cavern, smashing some of the crystals with its massive bulk. Arena quickly looked over himself, dusting himself when he saw he was intact.

“Let me know if you’re going to do that again,” he called out. At that point, still injured, the insect began lashing its legs out, hoping to strike the nearest possible target. Which, in this case, happened to be Arena. The bandit yelped as he leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding the massive leg as it speared into the ground. He then moved to put as much space between himself and the insect. Hopefully it would rather go for the little guy who was currently hurting it, and no doubt pissing it off. If not, well, at least he would prove to be a decent enough distraction.

He then screeched to a halt. What the hell was he doing? He was running away while others were fighting and dying out there. He was Arena Tiburon for crying out loud! Bandit king of the sands! Was he going to run away?

Hell no!

He turned around. The creature still hadn’t gotten to its feet yet. Arena pulled the bent hook from its base and dropped it to the floor. He then charged at the inside, pulling the base back.

“GOBLIN PUNCH!”

The blow hit the creature’s leg with a loud “clang!”, even causing some light cracks.

And absolutely nothing else. Arena swore everything went silent and that the insect was staring at him as if to say “really?”

“Well…fuck…” Arena muttered. Sure, the chances of that actually working were slim to none, but it was better than doing nothing right? Now he wasn’t so sure.

The crystal bug kicked its leg out, sending him flying back. He hit the ground with a painful thud, rolling across the ground before managing to recover to his feet. He wiped the dust out of his face as he looked back at the recovering insect. Just great. Goblin punch did jack, he was unarmed, and nothing he could do could harm that thing.

At least, nothing he had at the moment. His eyes focused on the insect.

“Come on buggy. Let’s see what you can do…”

- 511*~* 4-

Lore next turn

[darktyranitar]

A funny thing happened: after writing this post, I somehow sprained my ankle, which is still sore up till now.

Moving on...

Ma’nenek

Is that so~


Defend ~ Dodge ~ Critical Strike (1000 Needles)

Something snapped. And it’s not the ‘wiring’ in any person – or more specifically, a Moogle – that is being referred to.

Someone’s tendon had just snapped.

Ma’nenek winced. And blinked. Wait, what was happening again….?

Oh yes, that’s right, she was having a (relatively) good time dishing out her trademark (not that they are strictly restricted to Nu Mous, it was just that… well, nevermind) 1000 Needles – from a safe distance away from the Crystal Bug, it must be added – and she told herself, “I wouldn’t mind keeping this up, unless if my mana runs out first, or-”

She froze in her mid-thought. What exactly crossed in her mind next was too jumbled to be put in words, but to paraphrase, they would be somewhere between the lines of, “oi, for the love of Faram…”

She managed to raise her staff above her head, just as the creature’s absolutely massive foot crashed down at her (Ma’nenek would later ponder whether the creature intentionally did that for her 1000 Needles, or if it was just being angry).

She could say that she was both lucky and unlucky – lucky because she was quick enough to react and avoid from being squashed like a good ol’ watermelon, but unlucky to have her fingers being severed from the hit. But most importantly was her right foot – she was sure that ligament must have snapped, for she somehow can’t feel her toes.

“…I think something inside just broke,” she said to the nearest person. When she found out that the nearest person was in fact quite a distance away, she whimpered, and plodded away (the Crystal Bug was now too preoccupied to pay any attention to a poor old limping Nu Mou – was that lucky or what?)

And then she caught the sight of Adair and Shay in a brief romantic moment (if you want to call it one).

Like the rest, her initial reaction was that of ‘…what?’ Her next action was, perhaps a little unexpectedly, to make a dash towards the nearest person.

“I saw, what happened here?” Ma’nenek inquired, elbowing Arena, the said nearest person.

“I thought you would know better,” was his reply; he sounded like he was more concerned with the looming beast than being a busybody.

“I’ve only joined them recently, you see, but anyway.” By now, Ma’nenek somewhat had forgotten about her pained leg, and was even stomping her foot in anticipation. “Look, I think they’re going to attack the monster en masse now. Should we go and assist them then?”

“Lady’s first.”

“But you know what?” Ma’nenek was apparently oblivious to the last comment. “I think we’ve been pretty lucky so far, don’t you think? I mean, here, if we keep this up, we’re probably going to defeat the crystal being. Or at least subdue it. I’d say that the gods must have been pretty generous today. Aren’t they?”

“Uhh,” Arena began, in a tone indicating that he was about to be rain on Ma’nenek’s parade. “It’s my doing, actually...”

“Ahh, I see,” was her reply. After a while, she then added, “I didn’t know that Luck could be – oh, no.”

She dodged in time as the creature’s leg (yet again) crashed into where she was, although unlike last time, her evasive manoeuvre wasn’t as elegant.

The important thing is that she was lucky.

“Thank you, Arena!” she shouted at Arena, who was having a problem with the creature’s leg as well. The pirate made a gesture – Ma’nenek supposed it was a thumbs up – although he the distance between him and the rest of the group seems to be somewhat big. Or was that her imagination?

She returned her attention towards the creature, who was by now practically being attacked from all direction (up, down, sideways, you name it). She was now near the creature’s side: what would it be then? She supposed she could attack, now that it’s being distracted and all… but it would probably not do much.

For now, the creature would have to satisfy itself with yet another round of 1000 Needles – this time aimed at its belly – courtesy of Ma’nenek, the theorist mage with a promising future (if, and only if, she lived long enough).

*****

Dodge next turn.

702 words / 7 posts

[ChobiChibi]

Shay
Defend (previous) / Luck ~ Dodge ~ Attack

Shay had scurried away rather quickly, to be honest. Her mind was still trying to comprehend what had just happened, but she wasn’t ready for it to. There was far too much going on in her little brain and her body was beginning to realise that it was becoming quite achy from being knocked around. Right now, she decided, it was best to focus on the pain rather than her thoughts, since it would be better in the short term.

She feared the long term consequences of this, but it didn’t matter.

She could tell the thing was following her towards her shuriken, and that it was gaining on her. She slid across the crystal floor (for once, intentionally), picking it up, turning herself around and blocking the leg coming at her.

It shook her to her core; her bones seemed to strain under the impact. She wasn’t built for defence, so that was a bad idea. Thankfully it moved to someone else before it could shake her up anymore. Taking a deep breath, she felt like it was time for some luck of her own; her other shuriken was going to be harder to find. Dear Yevon, aid me in this time of need...

It took longer than she would have liked, but luck was cast and she felt better about things. If anyone could get through this, it would be the crew of the Wolfstar.

Well, the majority of the crew of the Wolfstar, anyway.

She got up, running underneath it again, carefully dodging its many legs, finding her lost shuriken, and coming out the other side, a small triumphant smile emerging.

“Ha! Stupid thing.”

If she’d been paying more attention, she wouldn’t have had to steer herself away from colliding into Adair yet again, rambling something about having to go aid Selene in a very much flustered manner.

Temzi gave them some kind of signal, which Shay didn’t understand, but Selene started firing at the thing’s face, so she felt it was best to help out. That and she enjoyed hitting people in the face, it was rather satisfying.

Except for when hitting someone in the face means accidently head butting them when you fell on them, which leads to kissing them... Oh dear...

She would have to admit that her cheeks were slightly pink, which is probably why Selene gave her such a devious look before she spoke.

“Adair kissed you.”

Shay ignored this statement. Blatantly. “I think we should attack from both sides this time, yeah? Both of us.”

“Shay...” There was only a little patience in her friend’s voice, but this didn’t stop her from pushing it.

“It won’t expect that. Oh look! My arm’s all glowy...” She holds it out, wiggling her fingers.

“You’re going red.”

No. Selene wasn’t allowed to win. “You figured out what my glowy arm means yet?”

The Princess smirked. “You kissed Adair.”

“No! I didn’t!” Shay finally gave way, her outcry echoing around the chamber. Frowning, she spoke again in a hushed voice. “He kissed me!”

“I didn’t see you object.”

Aha! Finally, a flaw in her argument. “I didn’t see you objecting to Sirius kissing you!”

She remembered that moment with such a tinge of jealousy. It wasn’t so appropriate these days; she’d grown to accept the inevitable. The glare she received for bringing it up, however, was definitely worth it.

“I was caught in the moment...” Selene avoided eye contact for a moment.

“I can say exactly the same.” Shay countered, poking her tongue out at her.

“And no,” Selene frowned, readying her gun again. “I have no idea what your glowy arm means.” A very wise change of subject, as the crystal bug was turning its attention to the pair of them again.

636/31
Dodge

[Crystal Tears]

Right then, after a small (long) break, I have returned. Yes it was a bit unannounced but seeing as basically there is no life in RPG, no one can really complain. Either way, my creativity has returned, and with it, FF: DD.

Now, from this exercise I have determined that if I were a tad bit more loyal in posting, which I will be from now own, that the battle system can and will work. This is good news, and very exciting. :3

I understand if some of those who were Rping don’t want to continue because of the large gap between posts. If you don’t wish to participate anymore, please PM me or contact me through AIM or MSN.

Now, without further ado, the post that will push us forward!

Selene Solidor

The fight with the crystal bug, was, of all things, chaotic and severely once sided. The group of heroes, no matter what they seemed to try, was continuously beat back until all of them lay nearly beaten and broken. There was, at one point when all seemed bleak, a sudden explosion on the back wall that made all who could, run and take cover, while the rest simply tried to absorb the blow and continue on the fight for survival. The massive crystal monster had missed poor Sori and worn-out Selene by a thread, and now there was a rather large, convenient hole in the side of the arena.

Apparently this had all been a network of tunnels at some point. And in the faint light that was cast from the crystal bug’s domain, they could all see their newly formed exit was just a funnel of crystal, probably cast with the same dark illusions that had taken some before.

Selene looked at Adair, who had, at some point in this brief break in chaos, taken a torch, perhaps to light the way of his escape and frowned. The pilot merely nodded grimly, having no such fancy words to properly convey the situation, he tossed the light source away and took the lead.

“Retreat!” Selene called, gathering the attention of others who had yet to look this way. “Follow Adair!”

Sirius was the final one to come to the cave, hurrying in before stopping to make sure Selene was indeed following. Not that the woman could do much, but she fire once defiantly before she sprinted away, surpassing her concerned companion in her haste.

No one could see where they were going, but perhaps luck was on their side that no one tripped or killed themselves on something in the tunnel. All continued to run, for what seemed like an eternity before they barreled out into the twisted, magic-charged forest. There was a brief silence as the group collapsed, ignoring the faint rumbles of anger and shrieks the crystal menace in the deep emitted.

“Never again.” Selene huffed, leaning against a tree. “Next giant fiend that happens to be made out of crystal, we leave well enough alone.”

“Agreed,” Sirius collapsed down beside her, and smiled as Selene leaned against him. “Take that as a note, dear ninja. No more picking fights.”

“I think we could’ve won,” the girl offered, managing to scramble up a tree to rest on. “Honestly, we were doing well.”

“Your optimism is refreshing,” Cid smiled, but then tended to the wound on his arm. “But…”

“We were doomed.” Sori frowned, trying to clean his paws. “I think I lost my spleen back there.”

“Ah, interesting note: did you know the Hume’s can live without their spleens? Stomachs too, not sure if that translates over to Moogle anatomy, but it should in all honestly. I knew a Moogle once, good chap, but strange, of course he had had a lobotomy-“

“Ma’nenek dear, this isn’t the time.” Cid offered.

“Oh yes, yes… Sorry, point is, time mage,” The Nu Mou smiled a sweet smile before bopping the Moogle on the head. “You’ll live.”

“Oi!” Adair called, apparently he had wandered off. “Sirius’s first love has been found! And it…Smells of pudding?”

There was a faint sniff.

All of them blinked and looked at Selene, wanting instruction. She frowned, getting up with a wince and hiss of pain before stomping off, gun ready.

“Venat hear me, if some bloody native has commandeered our ship to make damned pudding…” She didn’t finish her curse as she broke through the bit of trees and was back on the beach, staring at the Wolfstar.

~ + - 613 / 48 - + ~

[Samchu]

Name: Karo Dakota
Age: 20
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Origin: Spira
Appearance: (see history for explanation) Karo stands at 5’8 and has murky brown eyes. There is a scar over the left one. Her build is athletic but is often described as acrobatic due to her flexibility. Her hair, a chocolate brown, reaches just below the centre of her shoulder blades. The cut is uneven because she has had to cut it herself. Her body is tanned due to the amount of outdoor exposure linked with her work. She is barefooted due to a lack of material to surround them with (and probably will remain so because it will feel ‘odd’ to go back to wearing shoes). Little remains of her usual hunting outfit. The black shirt is ripped to the base of her ribs, exposing a toned underbelly and the blue pants are just long enough to be considered shorts. There are various scars across her lower back and on the left side of her abdomen. There are more hidden under her clothes. She wears her bow and quiver diagonally across her chest and over one shoulder. Her hunting knife is tied to the outside of her right shin.
Personality: Karo is really good at reading people and figuring out what’s on their mind by the way they act – particularly their facial expressions. She tends to use this to start conversations, which of course, isn’t always appreciated. She’s very blunt when she speaks and thinks that people should be the same to her so she often pushes them to say things when she knows they’re holding back. She has some kind of strange charm about her that means that more often than not she succeeds. The extent of her awareness often surprises people, especially where smells and sounds are concerned, often she’ll pick up on something that other people don’t. This gives her a very curious nature. New things fascinate her, as do things that she hasn’t seen in a long time, and she’s always eager to learn. She adores high places and is somehow able to climb things that she probably shouldn’t be able to. This means that she has a habit of ‘dropping in’ on people, whether they expect her to or not. She prefers long-range combat but is more than capable of holding her own if she is forced to battle with her knife – either because she has run out of arrows or because she can’t get far enough away. She likes to reclaim the arrows she uses and spends her evening either cleaning those she’s salvaged or making replacements for the ones she’s lost. She’ll probably come across as a bit intrusive (in a social sense) at first, but then she hasn’t spoken to anyone in 3 years so it’s not really her fault. She prefers day to night. Darkness makes her tense. If she’s settled for an evening she’ll either distract herself with her arrows or she’ll find a perch and stare up at the stars, thinking. No one knows what she thinks about and she has no intention of telling them. It’s very unlikely for someone to catch her sleeping as she does this rarely and only for short periods of time and never, ever, on or near the ground. Affection bothers her. Personal space is something she can deal with losing but anything more than a handshake puts her on edge. She can’t stand hugs and has been known to accidentally break noses when people have tried, not intentionally but as a reflex. No one has dared to find out what would happen if they tried something more with her.
Weapon Style: Spiran
Weapon Type: Bow and arrow, and a curved hunting knife
Weapon: Bow and arrows - http://media.photobucket.com/image/b...-and-arrow.gif Hunting Knife - http://slicksteel.com/images/rhk56087.jpg
History: Karo is the oldest in a family of hunters. Her father is a hunter and so are her two younger brothers. The mother is never spoken of. Karo knows that she has always been absent and so has no care for her; she was a child the last time she thought about her. She was expected to be a boy (thus the masculine name) and raised with the same guidance as her brothers. It was difficult to compete with them because of their physical advantage but over the years she developed speed and precision that put her on level with them. Though young, Karo became a respected hunter in her own right, and when the opportunity arose to hunt game outside of Spira, she took it. For reasons unknown, the ship crash-landed and was destroyed by the impact. Of the 17 people on board, Karo is the only survivor. She has been trapped on the island, completely alone, for just over 3 years.
Other: Adair and Sirius will amuse her because they remind her of her brothers. Temzi will fascinate her because she will find him hard to read. She loves the sound of a ship’s engine and finds it soothing. She knows a little about how they work too, not a lot, but enough to maintain them – she doesn’t know HOW she knows this though.

Karo
~~~
This is bad. This is really REALLY bad.

Okay, I admit it, I’d been stupid. Going in for this corpse was a risk, a big risk, one I shouldn’t ’ve taken. But hunting had been scarce. It had been three days without a kill and rations were running low. I’d lost most of my stash diverting the fiends that’d been stalking me. So when free food presented itself…but it’s one of those lessons you gotta learn over and over. Food isn’t free. Never has been, never will be. There’s always price – a fee what needs paying – and sometimes that fee is dying.

But I really don’t want to die.

There were six of ‘em; sharp-toothed, drool-dripping fiends eager to get a piece of me. I had my knife out before me. It bought me time; enough to think of a plan, enough to figure out how to get away. Maybe.

Gotta think. Gotta stay open to possibilities.

I backed up, keeping the blade between us. They stood in a horseshoe around me, leaving the rear open. But that was deliberate. There was no going that way. Just a drop into the bushes. There could be anything hidden in that unknown. But at the same time…

You’ve done stupider…

“Ah, chocobo poop!” I slipped the knife back into its sheath, turned and jumped. Trees and plants flashed before me. I rolled, tumbling and bumping over the uneven land. There was a moment, a brief, wonderful moment, of nothingness. Where earth and sky became one. Like...flying.

"Karo.”

It was like being home again.

“Karo! We’re going to crash!”

“Huh…?”

“You’re going to crash!”

And suddenly there was something. I hit the ground and rolled, tumbling endlessly until at last –

“Sand?” I lifted myself up on shaky arms and looked back to make sure the fiends weren’t following me. “Coast’s clear…” I slipped a foot under my body and pushed. Muscles groaned but I forced myself back onto my feet and swept away the sweat-clung sand from my body. “Next move is…” I looked down the beach and my eyes widened at what a saw. “Airship! Great feathers of a golden chocobo, an airship!” I danced my way along the beach up to it and climbed inside.

“Helloooooooooooo!?” The sound of my own voice echoed back at me, both familiar and foreign. “Anyone here?”

“Kweh!?”

“Chocobo!?” I ran down the corridor and found the old bird sat in a room amongst hanging clothes. “Hey there fella.” I put a hand on his beak and felt him nuzzle into my palm. “Y’all alone here?” I patted down his neck feathers to his ticklish spot, where the neck meets the shoulder.

“Kwehhhhhhh!”

I laughed and nuzzled his neck feathers. “Silly chocobo.” My stomach grumbled. “There food around here?”

“Kweh!” The chocobo pulled towards the door and I let him lead me to a small room with stores of food.

“Good boy.” I scratched his neck in reward. “We make you special food, hm?” I gathered together some supplies and started a small fire. “One pudding pot, coming up!”

The food was almost done when I heard voices. “Helloooooo!? Who’s there? We have pudding!”

~~~~~~~~~
580 words
Tag everyone!

[ChobiChibi]

Shayna

She hadn’t moved from her tree when the majority of the crew had followed Selene, despite the fact the smell of pudding had tickled her nose and made her tummy grumble. It was comfortable and high up off the ground where nobody could really see her. All she needed was a few moments alone to compose herself before following the others back to the Wolfstar.

Like that was gonna happen.

She felt the tree judder beneath her so took her hands from behind her head and held onto the branch for dear life.

“Coo-eeee! Shaaaaaay!” Ma’nenek’s voice floated up from below. From a quick glance down, she could see the Nu Mou holding her staff like a baseball bat, preparing to strike the tree again. “Come get some pudding! Doesn’t it smell delicious?”

“I would not advise striking the tree again, Miss.” Ah Temzi, ever the sensible one. “Lady Shayna’s sense of balance is not good at the best of times...”

“Gee, thanks Temzi.” Shay called down, folding her arms in protest.

“Apologies, Miss. I thought you might find it humorous.” Temzi paused for a moment, but continued quietly. “You normally would...”

A little pang of guilt settled in amongst all the other million emotions she was feeling at that current moment. It wasn’t his fault. She didn’t reply, just hooked her scarf up over her nose, hiding in it.

“Come on now, dear.” Ma’nenek sounded concerned. “Have I ever told you of the story of the monkey that refused to come down from his tree?”

“Nene, I’ve only known you a few days...”

“Well, there was this monkey that refused to come down from his tree. His mummy had told him to be careful because there were other animals on the forest floor that could eat him, and he was so scared that he stayed up there forever.” It seemed like she had finished. Temzi opened his mouth to speak but soon had to close it again. “But one day he dropped a banana from the tree. Now, monkeys love bananas, and this one looked particularly tasty, so he carefully climbed down and retrieved the banana.”

“So what you’re telling me...” Shay was quick to respond. “Is that I should just man up and come down? Because everything will be-”

“The monkey got eaten by a panther soon after he retrieved the banana.”

“Oh...”

“But at least he tried!”

Shay smiled beneath her scarf. She was lucky to have friends as caring as these. So she began contemplating climbing down, like the brave monkey that got eaten.

But there was no need. She fell.

Well, really, she was pushed. Ma’nenek stood on her tiptoes and prodded her side with her staff. Shay tumbled to the ground, greeting it with a thud. The ground responded by being dry and hard. Mean ground...

Shay had no time to complain about the pain as Temzi helped her to her feet, Ma’nenek taking her free hand and leading her towards the Wolfstar, the Dragoon towering over the pair of shorties.

They were the last to make it to the mess hall, where they found a rather confusing situation. A new face stood in the kitchen, happily tending to a pudding pot, whilst the crew were gratefully munching away. Shay glanced briefly at Selene for guidance on the situation; her gun sat in plain sight on the table, she looked mildly irritated but seemed to be appreciating the pudding.

“Kweeeeeeh...” Came the coo of Rusty, who was also in the kitchen... Being petted by this new girl...

He looked blissfully happy...

“Hey!” Shay wriggled her hands free from Temzi and Nene to point at the girl. The girl who had dared to come aboard their ship, scantily clad and win the crew over by making delicious smelling treats. “Take your hands off my Chocobo!”

“Our Chocobo...” Selene corrected, narrowing her eyes for a moment.

“Yes, our Chocobo.” She motioned to Selene as Rusty meandered his way through the kitchen appliances to join her. He Kweh’d softly, nudging her with his beak.

“Is this really the way you treat someone who has just prepared the most scrumptious feast for us all?” Sirius piped up between mouthfuls.

“Have you forgotten? Karo broke into your precious ship.” Sori pointed out. “It seems you value pudding more than the Wolfstar.”

Sirius was clearly outraged, but had to swallow quickly before he could reply. “I do not! How dare you suggest such a thing?!” He looked up at the ceiling, placing a hand on the table and rubbing it, speaking in a whisper to address the ship. “I love you more than pudding, baby... You know that...” Selene rolled her eyes.

Ma’nenek took the remaining seat next to Cid on one side of the table, Shay sat next to Adair (receiving a wink from Sirius as she did, causing her to half-heartedly glare back) and Temzi sat the other side of her. Karo swiftly came over, placing bowls of pudding in front of them.

She paused at Shay, placing a hand gently on her shoulder. “I’m sorry for your loss.” She said quietly.

Shay blinked. Not exactly something you’d expect a stranger to say... “Pardon?”

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Karo repeated, moving away. “But I hope you enjoy your pudding!”

She would have, perhaps, if the girl hadn’t unintentionally unsettled her thoughts. Things swam around and around in her mind; things she’d said, things she should have said, things she’d done... She lost what little appetite she had to begin with, just toying with her food, completely blanking all conversation going on around her. That was until she felt Adair’s hand squeeze hers under the table. She knew he meant it just to comfort her, but it seemed like reality was beginning to kick in.

They are not gonna see me cry.

Shay wriggled her hand free, carefully getting up from the table, muttering “sorry” before calmly walking out of the room, her ever loyal Chocobo following behind. She hurried to her room, forcing Fredric to leave and locking herself in.

1,014/32
Wtf, writing sad Shay is hard... I hope there were enough lols to counteract the sadness >_>;

[Mystic_clown]

Arena Tiburon
--------------------------------

Well, that was certainly one hell of a fight. Lost one of their own and then forced to run from the thing. Arena wouldn't be surprised if any of the group would want to take revenge on that blasted thing. But right now, getting out alive was the main thing. For now, Arena was just happy to finally enjoy some sunlight after being stuck in that damn cave for who-knows how long.

Arena was definately a little surprised to see that this motley crew's airship wasn't too far away either. Not a bad vessel. Made him wonder though how they ended all the way to the other side of the labyrinth when their ship was right there. Oh well, it's all in the past.

At first, Arena had thought of parting ways with this group. After all, they were out of the cave now. No real need to stay with them. That was until Arena thought a bit about what he was going to do now. He really had no idea where he was, or where the nearest city might be. Meanwhile, these guys had a rather nice looking ship, obviously with rooms and food.

Yeah...it didn't take too much to figure out what would be the better option.

Arena calmly approached the ship. It seemed like they had another visitor in the ship, and if he started sneaking around, it would only draw attention to himself. Still, it was unusual to simply walk right into a place and have nobody stop you.

The first thing Arena noticed about the place was the smell of pudding in the air, no doubt a result of their new arrival, a suspicion that was confirmed by said arrival calling out to them. With everyone heading in the direction of the intruder, Arena decided to take a different route, exploring the rest of the ship.

The rooms they had there were pretty nice. Plenty of room and some privacy (though he wisely stayed away from the room clearly belonging to Selene. That woman was a crack shot with a short fuse). Pretty good engine as well, though granted Arena hadn’t had much experience with airships, being a land based bandit after all. But still, looked in pretty good condition. Cockpit looked pretty good too. Nice view it would give up in the sky. Overall, pretty good ship for a sky pirate. Maybe he should have taken up this rather in sitting in the sands all that time.

…Nah, that was still fun, while it lasted.

With his small private tour of the ship over, Arena decided to go check on what was happening with the rest of the group. He was a little curious about this intruder sneaking in and making pudding. The bandit made his way to the kitchen, seeing the group looking at a scantily clad hume girl…and for some reason there was a Chocobo in the room. He was pretty sure he saw a chocobo stable on the ship somewhere. Arena wanted to speak up, but then thought better of it. He was actually kind of curious to see how this would turn out. He leaned back against the doorway, a small amused smile on his face.

- 537 *~* 5 –

[classy_cat18]

Sori – Moogle Time Mage

Worst. Battle. Ever. That was the worst battle ever. Whoever thought that waking up the crystal monster was a good idea needed to be slapped.

…Oh, that was Shay? My bad.

I was tired, hungry, smelly, hungry, sticky, thirsty, hungry, bleeding…

Did I mention hungry yet? Let me say it again for good measure. I was HUNGRY! And that Nu Mou was not helping my attitude! The only thing that kept me from clubbing her with my rod was the smell of pudding.

Wait, everyone from the ship was either here or dead. That only meant that someone sneaked on the ship. But who cares? PUDDING! I zoomed ahead of the group and was the first one in the kitchen. The new girl (who wasn’t wearing a lot of clothing) was standing at the pot, the accursed Chocobo with her. Luckily the Chocobo ignored me, although the girl was shocked at my sudden appearance. “Um, hello. I hope you don’t mind me taking shelter in your ship,” she told me.

My empty stomach quickly forgave her. “No problem. Gimme pudding!” I held out my free paw for the bowl.

“Oi!” Adair shouted from behind me. “It’s not your ship!”

“Who cares? Gimme gimme gimme pudding!” I cheered as the bowl was set on the table near me, smacking the pirate’s hand when it got too close.

“Oh, you bloody—“

“Adair?”

His demeanor changed for the sweet voice of Lady Selene. “Yes?”

“Quit bickering with the damn furball and get your food.” I glared at her but she ignored me.

The others filled the room and sat down to enjoy the food, not really caring about the fact that there was a stowaway on the airship who was using our kitchen. In fact she was really nice. We eventually got around to introducing ourselves, my introduction hindered by a mouthful of food. I went through three Moogle-sized bowls before excusing myself and leaving the mess hall.

My long ears picked up the sound of Shay’s sniffling while I walked by her door, but chose not to do anything. What could I say? I wasn’t the right person to comfort her, even though we both lost someone during this trip. And I was more concerned about another grieving person.

Or machina. Whatever. Kumas could only be in two places, and at that time he was absent from Nii’s quarters. Which left the engine room.

He was there, blocking the entrance and completely still. All of his lights were off. Vena, Nii’s gun, was still clutched in his hands. He didn’t react when I cleared my throat or call out his name. The poor robot was devastated.

Then I got a sudden pang of fear when I realized that sooner or later, Nii’s brother would have to find out about this. He didn’t think too highly of us already; we’d probably have a real mess on our hands soon. “We don’t have to worry about that now,” I told myself. “Right now I need to take care of my smell.”

Arena was standing at Nii’s room when I was walking back. Since Nii didn’t carry much on her, he probably thought it was vacant. “I wouldn’t take that room if I were you,” I warned.

Before the man could ask why, the formerly inactive Kumas had stomped down the hall and stormed in the room. Arena yelped as he was literally thrown out. “Let’s just say he claimed it,” I told him while pointing at Kumas.

588 words. 26 Sori posts.

[Weasel Overlord]

Temzi :: Dragoon of Justice
:: dust and echoes ::

While pudding and new people were all very well and good, sometimes Temzi just needed a little something else. In hard times at the Academy he would find solace in the quiet places – the library, the catacombs, one of the hundreds of other silent, dusty alcoves that studded the sprawling building complex.

He padded down the corridor as much as you can pad in full armour until a soft sound made him pull up short. It was coming from Lady Shayna's room. A quick glance around showed the corridor to be empty of other crew members – no doubt they were sleeping off the soporific effects of pudding and battle – they all had much to mourn, after all.

He reached out a hand and paused, hovering nervously in the knocking position before taking his balls firmly in hand and rapping thrice. He could not in good conscience leave Lady Shay in distress and do nothing about it. He resolved to make her smile, if he could, but that resolve was sort of kicked in the teeth by the loud, slightly wavery “go away!” that floated out of the bedroom.

His instinct to do what he was told by women kicked in, but he sternly reprimanded it and knocked again, quite firmly. “It's Temzi, Lady Shayna.”

“I don't wanna talk to anyone.”

“I distinctly remember reading somewhere that talking about our sorrows is the only way to make them dissipate. I intend to give the advice a severe airing out.”

“Not interested!”

Temzi shook his head sadly, and then stopped as a flash of inspiration illuminated his gloom. “Now where did I see that...” he pondered to himself as he walked smartly back down the way he came. It wasn't long before he arrived at his destination – Sirius and Adair's secret rum stash.

He smiled at the vast number of differently-shaped bottles and plucked one at random – it was shaped like an elaborate, flat-bottomed feather. He gave it a shake, and, at the empty-sounding sloshing noise, grabbed another bottle for good measure.

The sounds of loud chatter coming from down the corridor startled Temzi, and he shoved his hands behind his back hastily; just in time, as Sirius and Adair tottered around the corner.

Sirius eyeballed him dubiously. “Didn't expect to find you here, my good Guado. Did you forget the way to your quarters?”

Temzi looked down and hoped his blush wasn't too obvious. “I was just taking a walk, Captain. After the events of the day, I felt the need to get a little, ah, quiet time.”

“That's quite understandable, dear chap. We were just off for a little, ah, quiet time ourselves, right Adair?” Sirius elbowed Adair in a leery fashion, and Adair grinned.

“That's right Captain. Quiet time! With our friends, the- oof!” He was abruptly cut off by another, less friendly elbow from Sirius.

“Shut up, Stroud. The poor Guado doesn't want to know our every move, do you now, Temzi, my man? I imagine you'll want to be getting off, eh?” Sirius tipped a huge, over-the-top wink at Temzi. “Back to your 'quiet time', eh?” He put such emphasis on the words that Temzi could almost see the air quotes.

He shuffled sideways, crab-like, down the corridor, careful to keep his pilfered rum hidden behind his back until he arrived back outside Lady Shayna's door. He rapped with the rum bottle, the noise different enough to his metal-clad knuckles to let Shay know something was afoot. “My Lady Shayna, I believe I have something that may cheer you up.”

Silence.

“Also, I think you may be proud of my exertions to procure ah, the sometime.” Temzi shuffled awkwardly on his feet. “I do believe you have corrupted me, my Lady,” he added quietly.

More silence, but then a shuffling noise, followed by a click and a nose poking out through a crack in the door. “What did you do, Temzi?” Shay's voice was quiet, but there was a definite hint of her old self in there.

Temzi took a deep breath poked one of the bottles of rum through the door-crack – the feather-shaped one.

“You didn't!” Shay exclaimed in delight.

“I fear the good Captain may find himself without a couple of bottles of his finest.” He held up the second bottle, taking a look at its shape for the first time. “Oh,” he said, blushing fiercely. “Er, perhaps I should-”

“OH MY GOD, IS THAT-?” Shay yanked open the door and pulled Temzi inside, then locked it swiftly after them.

Temzi covered his eyes with his mailed hand as Lady Shayna grabbed hold of his second, most unfortunately shaped bottle of rum.

“Why would they even buy this?” Shay held it up to the light and sniggered. “It looks just like a-”

“I know,” Temzi interrupted hastily. “It very much resembles the, er, phallus...” he trailed off, embarrassed.

“We have to get a glass for this.”

Temzi followed Lady Shay as she went to the elaborate sideboard, opened a cupboard and pulled out two ornate crystal glasses. “Ugh, crystal,” she said, tossing them aside. The pair smashed on the hard-wood floor, but Shayna ignored it. She rummaged through the cupboard before settling on a pair of garishly-carved wooden goblets. They had what appeared to be a pair of naked ladies, one on either side of the drinking-bowl, holding them up with their, oh.

“It seems everything today is designed to make me uncomfortable,” Temzi sighed. “Perhaps drinking this will make it fade away.”

Shay poured liberal quantities of the rum into both goblets, and the pair sat down heavily on her bed. Temzi gazed at the dark alcohol, the events of the day running through his mind as if they were permanent fixtures. “I hear there is a tradition of toasting the departed, to further ensure that they do not stay and become fiends,” he said, hesitantly.

“Down in one, it goes. Come on.” Lady Shay gesticulated with her free hand, clashed her goblet into Temzi's and lifted it to her lips. “May you find the Farplane safely.”

Temzi nodded and tipped his head back, trying not to cough the fiery liquid right back up again. He had a feeling that their dearly departed would not appreciate that, somehow.

~1095 // #15

TAG Bexor
;and it would have been longer, save for my sodding wrists are being massive sods again. :/ augh.