Welcome to Adventu, your final fantasy rp haven. adventu focuses on both canon and original characters from different worlds and timelines that have all been pulled to the world of zephon: a familiar final fantasy-styled land where all adventurers will fight, explore, and make new personal connections.
at adventu, we believe that colorful story and plots far outweigh the need for a battle system. rp should be about the writing, the fun, and the creativity. you will see that the only system on our site is the encouragement to create amazing adventures with other members. welcome to adventu... how will you arrive?
year 5, quarter 3
Welcome one and all to our beautiful new skin! This marks the visual era of Adventu 4.0, our 4th and by far best design we've had. 3.0 suited our needs for a very long time, but as things are evolving around the site (and all for the better thanks to all of you), it was time for a new, sleek change. The Resource Site celebrity Pharaoh Leep was the amazing mastermind behind this with minor collaborations from your resident moogle. It's one-of-a-kind and suited specifically for Adventu. Click the image for a super easy new skin guide for a visual tour!
Final Fantasy Adventu is a roleplaying forum inspired by the Final Fantasy series. Images on the site are edited by KUPO of FF:A with all source material belonging to their respective artists (i.e. Square Enix, Pixiv Fantasia, etc). The board lyrics are from the Final Fantasy song "Otherworld" composed by Nobuo Uematsu and arranged by The Black Mages II.
The current skin was made by Pharaoh Leap of Pixel Perfect. Outside of that, individual posts and characters belong to their creators, and we claim no ownership to what which is not ours. Thank you for stopping by.
[attr=class,bottomlyric] This is a gift, it comes with a price.
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Kuja Couldn't resist. ^^;[break][break] And in the spring I shed my skin[break][break] And it blows away with the changing wind[break][break] The waters turn from blue to red[break][break] As towards the sky I offer it[break][break]
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[attr=class,bulk] Much earlier, after being disqualified from Robo Rumble, Mikoto decided to explore deeper into the valley. Yuffie was quite upset at being disqualified, even though they both got caught stealing. Mikoto, on the other hand, found that she did not care about winning the competition. Nor did she understand why she was disqualified. It was about building the strongest robot, was it not? Mikoto had built the strongest. No one could beat her mechanical chocobo, Bobby Corwen 2. (Yuffie wanted to call it Mecha Chocobo because she thought it sounded more ‘badass’.) It was fast and agile. It could slam and peck. [break][break] Unfortunately, it went berserk. Perhaps Mikoto had made its threat sensor too sensitive? It started to attack people and took several robots to stop it. [break][break] Mikoto could not understand what the big deal was. She thought she followed the premise of the human game. [break][break] Oh well, she could make a Bobby Corwen 3. [break][break] The inner depths of one of the cave systems in Kahiko valley went deep. Broken parts of security bots filled the entrance. What intrigued the mysterious girl the most was that as she ventured deeper, she found what appeared to be archaic, immobile med bots. They seemed liked empty shells of what they used to be. Then, as she ventured deeper in, there was what looked like a medbay not terribly unlike the one on Terra. However, it was not the same either, only the feel of it. [break][break] There were wisps of blue light as residue aether never seemed to have left the machines. Large, glowing sapphires shed their light on the tarnished silver. Above was a hole in the ceiling of the cave that shed some light into the room. [break][break] It was here Mikoto tinkered. It was made apparent the machines needed a better power source. With attempts to turn it on, the machines rumbled then shut down. Nothing in the nearby ruins seemed stable enough or hold a charge long enough to maintain the energy necessary. Nor did she have an idea on how she would bring enough perfluorocarbon chemical in here to recreate their medical tanks. [break][break] After days of work, she finally decided it was time for an earned nap. [break][break] The soft sound of breathing gently thrummed in the air. Even though there were perfectly ancient beds against the far wall, covered in a thin layer of dust with moth-eaten sheets, the young genome decided to curl up to nap on her newly renovated, yet still beaten, magitek armor. She was small enough to curl up in the seat on one side. Her arm curved to give her head a place to rest. Her tail lazily fell over the edge of the cockpit, and flicked idly as she slept and possibly dreamt. As a blanket, she snuggled the moogle cloak close to her. [break][break] On one of the beds, lay a peculiar set of notes. She did something she was told not to do by Dr. Hojo - take his paperwork and share them. It held medical information on Mikoto, the samples she provided him, and the scientific comparison of her cells to other mortal beings. In the margins, some of her own Terran glyphs were seen, though it was clear she had difficulty with some of the human terms. Language was such a fickle hindrance. As much so as the rules to a competition. But it was clear she was interested in the therapeutic uses of somatic cell nuclear fusion.
[attr=class,bulk] ”Interesting. Now where did you find this…?”
Kuja turned the page of the paperwork he found on that old and dusty bed. It appeared to be medical records of some kind, noting Mikoto’s vital signs, her blood levels, and all manner of other tests that were rudimentary but thorough. It had a doctor’s name on it who had written all manner of notes and comparisons to control groups as well as Mikoto’s feelings on the matter written in glyphs along the margins. He glanced through the records and then at Mikoto herself who was currently curled up on one of the long forgotten beds across the room.
Interesting indeed.
Outside, a storm was raging. It was typical of the region, he supposed. Sheets of warm rain coming down in curtains, obscuring his vision, soaking him through as lightning struck in forked spears in the distance. It was typical, but that didn’t mean he had to like it, particularly now that he was dripping wet inside an underground bunker that lacked the heat of the upper levels. It had taken him some time to find this place. He wasn’t sure whether to curse Mikoto or praise her ingenuity and drive.
Maybe he would do both.
His journey north had taken only two days. His journey to the valley had only taken three days on top of that. It was less than a week then since he’d first left the city, and he hadn’t thought it unreasonable to expect that Mikoto would still be in the same location that she’d shown an interest in beforehand. She was on her way to Keleawe Village, she’d told him, for something involving machines. He didn’t need to land to know that she was gone when he arrived five days later, but it was nearly sunset and his dragon was tired and it gave him the opportunity to ask if she’d been seen in the area.
She had, as a matter of fact. And she’d made quite the reputation for herself in his absence.
Kuja still wasn’t clear on the details, but he knew it involved a robot building competition, Mikoto, and a mechanical chocobo that had run rampant through the village, destroying property and sending nearly a dozen people to a healer. Outwardly, he’d feigned shock. Inwardly, he’d wanted to laugh.
They’d both been built for the business of destruction. It seemed Mikoto had as natural a talent for it as he did.
But that still had left him with no clear answer as to her current location which meant he’d had to search on his senses alone. He knew only that she was east and then north and then his senses doubled back over themselves. He’d spent some time circling the same uninhabited foliage, questioning his own perception, knowing that she should be there, but seeing with his own eyes that she wasn’t. Then the rain had started. It was a pleasant drizzle at first that quickly escalated in a deluge, and he still didn’t have any answers. By the time that he found the entrance to the underground bunker, his mood had fouled and he was already practicing the speech he would give her about staying in a single location.
Then he’d come across the abandoned medical bay and he’d read her notes and now he wasn’t quite so sure of his own rage.
What he did know was that this place was far too dark and dank and cold for his liking. He spotted an old hearth along the far wall, and with a wave of his hand, it roared to life in a burst of flames. It lit the room in a warm orange and settled in on itself, crackling pleasantly. He’d have to make sure that it had the proper ventilation so it didn’t smoke them both out, but it would do for now. He could always extinguish it as quickly as he’d given it life.
He walked over to Mikoto, heels clicking, hair dripping, his white sleeves heavy and nearly translucent with rainwater. Then he stopped and waited for her to stir. ”Care to explain?” he asked.
It was far more to the point than a simple ‘hello.’
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[attr=class,tagline]@blacksuit4
Kuja finds Mikoto much less adorable asleep than I do lol
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This is what you get out of sleeping genome child. Kuja
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[attr=class,bulk] “Care to explain?” [break][break] Mikoto’s eyes cracked open to see Kuja glaring at her. Her foggy mind had yet to shake off the sleep. With her sixth sense, she reached out to mind-touch like she did with Ava: a gentle hugging nudge to show her appreciation he was here. Then, she closed her eyes and stretched her limbs til they trembled slightly. Then, she rolled over to not face him but the seat of the magitek’s cockpit that had become her bed. She hugged her cloak tighter to her. At the movement, the magitek armor seemed to whir to life with a flicker of light. Then, as if it were tired too, it just powered back down. [break][break] Then, word was mulled over in her mind. What had he just said? Explain? Explain… About what? Maybe why she was here and not where they agreed to meet? She took a deep breath through her nose as if finally waking up. [break][break] Her groggy voice was muffled into her cloak. It would have to do since she was not allowed to mind-talk. “Build the strongest robot using salvaged droid parts from the valley. I did what their competition asked.” She closed her eyes and pulled her cloak tighter. “I tried accounting for the faulty parts or maybe it was too sensitive…” It was clear she was still thinking about it. “They were not happy. I could not fix the damage.” They were too angry to let her try. “I ran to the valley to hide and see what other technology it had…” [break][break] Then she ended up here. “I thought I could make the medbay work.” Maybe if she could make it work, maybe she could fix her mess. Maybe they would let her go back to build again or watch. She didn’t care about winning, but she didn’t like to be denied things she enjoyed doing. And if it worked on the people here, maybe it would work on more advanced things, like Kuja’s dilemma. “I can’t find a power source.” And the wiring could be faulty. With how humid and rainy it was, it was possible corrosion and rust occurred on the more sensitive parts. [break][break] It seemed no matter where she went she seemed to upset humans. Perhaps, she just needed to go back and hide in her makeshift home in Headstone forest. She felt something heavy in her chest and saline sting her eyes. “Can I really exist outside Bran Bal?” Or Black Mage Village? That is why they left her there, wasn’t it? She wasn’t ready for the living world yet. And yet, when she was with Great Ninja Yuffie…it made her feel she could be. [break][break] And now that Kuja was here, she felt safer in this hidden bunker.
[attr=class,bulk] Mikoto was difficult to wake. Kuja made note of that as he waited, arms crossed, for some kind of response. She said nothing at first, merely stretching herself like a cat before rolling over. When she did speak (with verbal words – he didn’t count that little psychic flourish she’d thrown at him), it was mere muttering. She gave him her explanation which wasn’t terrible as far as they went though he would have preferred she sit up straight and actually talk to him. How tired was she? Had she accidentally drugged herself on the way here?
Or perhaps, he thought, she was merely comfortable with his presence. Her reaction showed a distinct lack of fear. Fear of reprisal would have cleared her senses immediately and had her on alert, and yet…
Well, he wasn’t exactly in the act of reprising her, was he?
Instead, he merely waited impatiently as she burrowed deeper into her nest of moldering blankets. When she next spoke, it was with a kind of despair. ”Can I really exist outside of Bran Bal?”
Why on all of Gaia was she asking him?
”That’s your choice. Either you adapt or you cease existence.” He felt his tail flick with annoyance. This was hardly productive. ”I thought it impossible at first, but I put in the work to learn their culture and build a reputation. It took time. I won’t say that guarantees that you could do the same, but…” Kuja made a vague gesture. ”That really depends on how badly you wish to survive, doesn’t it?”
Looking at her now, he would guess that drive was relatively low. He had a certain sense for weakness.
”If you’re really so tired then sleep. Or you could show me what you found and we could get started on our work.” It wasn’t a choice he would have offered if he wasn’t almost certain as to her answer. ”I read through your medical records. Perhaps we could start there?”
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[attr=class,tagline]@blacksuit4
"I don't know. Either live or die. Why should I care?"
[attr=class,bulk] His eyes burrowed into her back. It was odd that such an action felt physically tangible. He silently listened to her explain herself. The more she had explained herself, the more her tail flicked then anxiously smacked along the side of her makeshift bed in quick, stressed movements. [break][break] Her tail stopped its movement as he spoke to her and she focused only on listening. Had she not been trying to learn their culture? What did she care about reputations? She silently moped in her spot at the difficulty adapting to a human society was taking. Kuja made it sound so effortless. Then again, he had been around much longer than she. [break][break] And how badly did she want to survive? She had so readily been ready to sink when her purpose left her. The thought trailed off to the tonberry she met in Headstone forest…. [break][break] "Mikoto, I see that you found your own purpose…I am at ease now, for this means that, sooner or later, I will find mine too.” [break][break] Was her purpose in Headstone forest? Perhaps, she was not meant to be among humans, but something between them and the spirits. Her mind drifted to Yuffie and how scared she had been of the dark and how she exaggerated what she believed ghosts could do. It was nice to make sure she was okay by the end of the night. Though, she wondered how many others had the same misconceptions of spirits and the dark. [break][break] She did not have time to speak her thoughts for Kuja was already making suggestions for her. He wanted to start their work now. Her tail curled in delight as she finally sat up and looked up at him. She still fought off the edges of fatigue that weighed heavy on her. After all, she hadn’t had much time to nap. She rubbed an eye with the back of her hand, her neutral frown still on her face. [break][break] She glanced at her medical records and gave a small shiver. The entire process made her uncomfortable, but she endured a human researcher in hopes of learning their methodologies and glean useful information. “He was a xenobiologist. He had so many useless words and rules not related to research.” Her brow furrowed as the thought annoyed her. “I wanted to learn and to find a solution to mortality…” She looked down at her hands. Those were really hard days for her. “You locked yourself away. I thought…” She shook her head. She thought he was stopping. She got desperate for a quick answer. [break][break] “Their technology is slow and crude. Painful.” She looked back at the medical records. “He ran a health center for mortals. Control collection was easy for him.” She slipped from the bed and lightly padded to the medical records, looking down at them. “The terms they use are too hard for me to translate…” She stated flatly. “If I understand context then…” She stared at the paper. “The cause of aging is caused by cells becoming damaged by molecules that lack proper valence electron pairings - such as superoxide. My cells seem unaffected by superoxide, while it caused the control to wither. However a test with antioxidant superoxide dismutase seemed to expand the life of the control cells. Also, my mitochondria did not deteriorate like the control's.”
She lowered the papers, but shook her head. “I don’t know how useful this is. Neither of us are affected by the same aging process as humans.” She looked up at him curiously. “If I could figure the difference in our cellular structure, then I could replicate the structure and saturate it with a base in perfluorocarbon chemical…” Her eyes drifted to the tanks. The tanks that didn’t work.
[attr=class,bulk] Kuja thought that it might take more convincing on his part, but it didn’t. At the mention of starting their work, Mikoto threw herself upright, tail curling in her eagerness. He wondered if her previous fatigue had all been an act, but quickly decided that it wasn’t. Mikoto was a terrible liar.
Her eyes flitted to the papers in the corner, and she shuddered. Interesting. However she felt about the records, she summarized them well enough. She’d seen some kind of human researcher specializing in nonhuman subjects hoping to ascertain enough data to use herself as a control against his abnormalities. He didn’t know what she thought when he’d locked himself away, but apparently it had worried her. The tests had been painful. Kuja raised an eyebrow, but didn’t probe any further. He wondered what tests this xenobiologist had run. He wondered what technology this world’s humans had access to.
Mikoto hopped out of bed and started towards the records, talking all the while. Once she’d reached them, she held them up, reading them carefully as she continued. Kuja knew the aging process in Gaians. Unsurprisingly, Mikoto’s cells did not behave the same as a human’s when exposed to aging stimulants. Kuja listened with his arms crossed, considering the wall with increasing impatience. Neither of them had ever aged. They both knew this, and so the data was irrelevant. Mikoto seemed aware of this, at least, as she said as much once she’d finished her conclusions. He waved a dismissive hand.
”My cells would likely behave the same as yours,” he said. ”I imagine it to be a more drastic system’s failure rather than the rapid onset of aging or cellular degradation. Though I suppose we can’t definitively rule it out without running further tests.”
He sighed. This conversation already made him want to set the world aflame. It would have been easier than dealing with the suffocating feeling that had settled unpleasantly in his throat.
”My black mages expired when they burned through their limited reserves of fuel – in their case, mist. But that was a limitation born from the crude technology available to me. We both know that genomes have no such limitations.” His eyes swept across the room to the broken machinery and empty beds left long abandoned. Mikoto had come here with a purpose. She hadn’t said as much, but he knew well enough to connect the implications. She’d found a ruined medbay and was despondent at its lack of operations.
He supposed it wasn’t the worst place to start.
”Perhaps if we could rebuild these machines and perhaps replicate the tests that the humans here use…” He glanced at the papers in her hand. ”They were surprisingly in depth. Far more so than Gaia could have accomplished. They reported all manner of proteins and enzyme levels that I didn’t realize they even knew about. So perhaps we could spend some manner of time here, working on the ruined machinery, and some manner of time in the other civilizations learning more about their advancements and taking some of it for our own purposes. This can serve as something of a base of operations for now.”
It wasn’t much, but then his desert palace hadn’t been either when he’d first come across it in ruins beneath the sands. It had been the relic of a dead civilization, and he’d made it his own. This underground bunker was on far less grand a scale, but it was most likely a temporary matter. With a little work, it could at least be made inhabitable.
”The machines…” He waved a hand towards them. ”You said they lacked fuel?”
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[attr=class,tagline]@blacksuit4
He's very good at taking charge and deciding things lol
[attr=class,bulk] She stared at Kuja as he spoke about how their cells behave. Well yes. It was true their cells would act similarly with the exception there was some intentful flaw to cause him to stop. It was something they both knew. “Humans appear to have a slow, prolonged degradation. What if cellular degradation happens more rapidly for us in a very specific area of the body once the trigger is introduced? Perhaps to the brain or heart?” What if his genetics were tweaked so that he had some fatal allergy? It seemed unlikely. [break][break]
She looked down in thought when he said he wanted to run further tests. She thought back to Hojo and his tests. He kept her in one piece, but there was something odd about his behavior. It made her unusually uneasy. “If you are interested I can show you to him.” Her tail swished agitatedly. “But he will not be happy with me. He does not like me gone long…” Or the fact she stole his notes and ran with them. But she was quite sure the doctor had an impeccable memory, regardless of notes taken. He was one of the more knowledgeable humans. “I would prefer tests here.. With you.” She looked at the machines. They both seem to understand that normal mortal cells aren't going to yield fruitful results. And she would feel better if they did the testing and not some human scientist that treated them like nothing more than test subjects to fulfill his own curiosity. [break][break] But, if she did tag along with Kuja to the other parts of advanced civilization, he could translate far more for her. And perhaps, there would be more productive conversations than the one she had with Hojo. [break][break] She turned to look at machines he gestured towards. “It’s more than lacking fuel. The wiring is shored and chewed through.” Probably by rats or other animals.It would need a new set of wiring. She moved to be partially hidden behind the machines. Sounds of metal plates clattering could be heard. A creak as she pulled on some wires. “This humid weather has caused terrible corrosion and build up on the electronic parts.” She reported to him shaking her head. It could be cleaned with isopropyl alcohol or sodium bicarbonate, but it would be a slow process. “There are some cores with charges from the larger robots. But none so far hold a voltage compatible with this machine. Or perhaps, they have too many flaws to be stable.” [break][break] She pondered for a moment. Then, she stood up, and looked to him. “These caverns do go deeper.” It was raining out, but they could explore the other tunnels.
[attr=class,bulk] Mikoto’s eyes were fixed on him, cool and unblinking. She had a surprisingly insightful counterpoint. Their cells might behave the same under general circumstances, but could there not be some mechanism to trigger sudden degradation?
Kuja didn’t like to think of it. He didn’t like to speak of it, particularly not to another being so close to himself. But Mikoto was trying to be helpful, and he had asked for this, and he could only remind himself of these two facts again and again in the face of his more violent impulses under pressure.
He was being difficult, and he hated it. For once, he could place the blame only on himself.
”That theory is certainly…possible.” His tail thumped invisibly against the stone as he spoke. He hoped she would not guess the origin of the sound. ”And it doesn’t sound out of character for him. That is another facet we must consider. This is not some disease plaguing me by the hands of fate. This was intentional. And we know the soul of the one responsible.”
It was a terrible soul. A twisted one, so obsessed with a singular purpose that it had lost sight of any will of its own. He supposed he could have pitied him when viewed from that angle. He abstinently refused.
Mikoto was sharing her own experiences now, and while she offered to take Kuja to this mysterious biologist, she seemed subdued by the idea. What exactly had the man done to her? It wasn’t as though either of them were unused to being treated as research specimens.
Interesting.
”This man…We could kill him if you’d like.” He waved his hand, twirling it almost playfully. ”His test may have been of some use, but even if we were to replicate them, we’d need only his machinery. And it is far easier to steal from the dead than the living.” Perhaps it could be another lesson for her – how to bring vengeance upon those who have wronged you and bask in the satisfaction afterwards.
It could be a kind of bonding exercise. He’d heard those were common among Gaian siblings.
But that could wait for another time.
Mikoto gestured towards the machines, her tone as flat as ever as she explained that they were more or less useless to them – ravaged by time and the local wildlife. He considered her words, head tilted slightly.
”Anything that has been built can be repaired given the proper time and equipment,” he said. ”Given enough time scavenging the lesser explored ruins, I’m certain that I could come across something of use, but often a broken machine is simply a waste of time.”
A waste, at least, if there was any possibility of a more suitable substitute. Mikoto had a point. ’These caverns do go deeper.’
Kuja turned towards the tunnel and hummed thoughtfully. It was true. He certainly could have gone back into the storm to be buffeted by gale winds and a deluge of rain as he searched for some highly dangerous ruins guarded by deadly robots. Or they could simply…go deeper.
He would undoubtedly confront the mechanical hordes another time in search of lost lore and power. For that, however, it was best to wait for more tolerable weather.
”Why not explore a little then?” Kuja glanced at Mikoto. ”You’re free to stay here if you’d rather not risk your life. If something awaits us in the dark, I won’t be taking any steps to protect you.” It was a fair warning, he thought. He thought still that she wouldn’t heed it. She would creep along like his own shadow if he tried to leave her, and she seemed utterly incapable of kindly taking a hint.
[attr=class,bottomlyric] This is a gift. It comes with a price.
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If you want me to add the next room let me know. Otherwise, go wild. I think she dropped enough bombs to at least chat and talk on some points.Kuja
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[attr=class,bulk] Mikoto unabashedly turned her eyes to where the source of his tail thumping was near his feet. She gazed at the invisible spot for some time as he spoke, as if her eyes were simply drawn by the sound while she soaked in his words. [break][break] He was right. They did know the soul of Garland. It was logical and bent on one purpose, no matter the cost. He built her and her male predecessors for the wrong reasons - to be weapons for the people of Terra. Garland had expected them to have the same dedicated purpose as he did. He treated them as probabilities of success, not as a person. Mikoto had been prepared for such devotion, at least until Zidane and Kuja steered her life off that course. Now, she already felt the pangs of change in her, even if she had difficulty understanding them. After living on Gaia with the black mages, she found herself questioning some of Garland’s motives. [break][break] Even though there was no longer a threat to her life for questioning her master now, it was hard to shake the feeling that it was wrong for her to do so. In a way, she found herself with a new understanding of what happened between herself and Master Garland. [break][break] She glanced away to the broken machinery. One complicated thought at a time. She could not handle more emotions than that. [break][break] But it seemed Kuja’s mortality and Master Garland’s treatment was not the only topic that made her feel anxious. Hojo… [break][break] She scrunched her brow at his suggestion on killing him. There was a long pause as she wondered if that was the best plan of action. Garland had poke and prodded her until he created her exactly in the image he saw fit. She never raised a complaint, not even when the other genomes performed their normal test. [break][break] But, Garland and the genomes also had not ogled her strangely. Or twisted their faces into odd bliss as they delighted in experimentation. Nor did she quite trust humans in touching her just yet. [break][break] Her tail flicked nervously and she sank down behind the machine as if to hide from the thought. Her knees pressed to her chest. “Killing doesn’t solve everything.” She repeated back to him. “He shows me how their archaic tools work. He also has knowledge on magic rocks called materia. He uses them to cast spells. They are not like the ones at the park.” She would have stolen them, but these stones were precious to him. He kept them locked up or under close watch. Yuffie spoke of them too, but she did not have any. “I heard whispers from them, as if they comprised of condensed souls.” [break][break] But what made her so upset? “It’s just…” Her tail stopped its flicker as she tried to figure out what was wrong. “I don’t trust humans touching me.” Her own tail started thudding at the thought. “I tried to learn ‘make-up’ too, as you suggested. But I didn’t trust the woman near my face. Do they really know how to wield such instruments?” Garnet had left Mikoto alone with the strange lady in the store. Mikoto struggled to sit still until she finally just agreed to buy some cheap cosmetics to finally leave the stressful situation. They had been left untouched since. [break][break] She huffed quietly at the thought and leaned her head against the cool metal of the machine. “If they render me defective, there are no spares here.” Then, she could not perform her duties like protecting Kuja or tending to the spirits in the woods. What if the man gave in to his odd bliss and took more from her than what was agreed? [break][break] Kuja spoke more on how repairing broken machines was simply a waste of time. She gave a huff at that. Stretching herself to look over the console, she stared at him, “It is not a waste. Sometimes better machines can be built with spare parts of broken ones.” She learned that here during the competition. “It's not like such machines exist elsewhere.” [break][break] At least, not to her knowledge. Not that she had seen all of Zephon. [break][break] Her eyes lit up as he suggested he was going down the cave. “Why would you protect me? You charged me to be your guard.” He had said so in the arena, even if he had been angry at her. She stood back up to return to the magitek armor. The partially repaired machine momentarily flickered to life as she climbed up its leg to reach deeper into the cockpit. There she pulled out a medium sized parcel wrapped carefully in cloth. Jumping back down, she laid out the parcel and untied it to reveal the rapier he had given her. It was clear she had carefully tended to make sure it was in good order. [break][break] But the other was her Terran staff. It must have somehow been separated from her when she teleported here. Her tail swayed contentedly as she picked up her little staff. It was woven of the same petrified material as their dying planet with a crystal that radiated a blue glow. Just having a small piece of familiarity made her feel more confident. She placed both items carefully through her sash. The rapier took time to learn, but the staff she was much more adept with. The staff allowed her the manipulation of souls necessary for her to cause her buff and debuff effects. It was her way of defense she found herself much more comfortable with. Especially when she was with her brothers. [break][break] Then, she looked down the corridor where it was much darker. Small crystals in the walls dimly lit the way. But nothing was bright enough to see what loomed in the darkness. Still, her staff shed enough light to show at least a good twenty feel ahead. She strained her senses and heard nothing. Without waiting for him to continue on, she took her first stride ahead. [break][break] There on the wall, she noticed a cable leading from their room into the darkness. Maybe something used to be connected. She decided to follow that down into the cave system.
[attr=class,bulk] Kuja thought that his proposal had been quite reasonable, even considerate given Mikoto’s strange trepidation at the mere thought of the xenobiologist and all that he’d done to her. Still, after only a moment of thought, she pulled her knees tightly to her chest and said simply, ”Killing doesn’t solve everything.”
Kuja felt irritation cross his heart like a trail of thorns. He’d said the same to her once, and he knew that she’d repeated his words purposefully. But back then, he’d been referring to Lady Hilda, a woman he did not hate and who had done nothing to hurt him. It sounded as though this “doctor” had very much hurt Mikoto, and that she quivered in fear at the mere mention of him.
Killing didn’t solve everything, it was true. But it would solve this.
”Then we can steal his magic rocks once he’s dead,” Kuja said. ”I doubt he’d part so willingly with them while living.”
The idea of stones made entirely of condensed souls was quite of interest to him, but that interest would have to wait. Mikoto was having an introspective moment, and as much as Kuja wished to hurry their conversation along, he had the sense to listen. Twelve years among the Gaians had taught him not to interrupt unless there was nothing left that he wished to gain from the speaker in question.
Listening built trust. Trust was a social currency. And so, he listened.
Her insecurity felt…odd. He considered it for a moment before tilting his head to the side questioningly. ”Why fear the humans? They’re far weaker than anything on Terra. With a few exceptions.”Notable exceptions, admittedly. Like General Beatrix. Or, as he was loathe to admit, Zidane’s merry band of misfits espousing love, trust, and the power of friendship.
”Was it not Garland who restrained and dismissed you? Was it not he who riddled you with tests and treated you like an object? Garland was not human.”
It was certainly possible that she feared the humans specifically because she didn’t understand them. Or perhaps…
He sat beside her. Or he tried to sit beside her, at least. She was on the floor, curled behind some heavy machinery, and while he adored his general attire, it wasn’t exactly designed for the best mobility in tight spaces. He chose to crouch beside her instead. It was the best he could do.
”You trust Zidane and myself, do you not? We’re the only Terrans with souls which rather stacks the deck in Terra’s favor. Perhaps then it’s simply that you’d rather not be touched by those you don’t trust.” Kuja paused and then, with a dry smile, reached out and prodded her lightly on the nose. ”Unless I also make you wary?”
He should have by all accounts. He’d destroyed her home and everything she knew. He would have murdered her along with the rest of the genomes if Zidane hadn’t intervened, and he wouldn’t have had a second thought about it. But she seemed to have gotten it in her head that he’d somehow freed her, and that was a powerful delusion if nothing else. Kuja rose to his feet and took a few steps towards the center of the room.
”And of course I know how to wield a makeup brush. I could show you once we have the time.”
He wondered what colors would best compliment her features. He was fond of a shimmering orange eyeshadow himself to best contrast the cool blue of his eyes. He wondered how he might transform her, how she might ascend from her usual plain persona to something more unique and personalized. What set her apart from any other nascent genome? He wondered…
But now was not the time for wondering.
No, now was the time for exploration. They had a goal in mind, after all, and Kuja was nothing if not determined.
Despite his warnings, Mikoto was insistent that she would be the one protecting him. It was endearing if nothing else. Kuja raised his eyebrows as she climbed into the cockpit of a weathered mech and pulled from it both the rapier he had gifted her and a staff made, unmistakably, of Terran biomass. ”Now where did you find that?” he asked. She certainly hadn’t been in possession of it before. Unless pieces of Terra had fused with this new world (something that was certainly not impossible), he couldn’t see any other way she could have recently come across it.
He had to say, he was somewhat…well, jealous wasn’t the right word as he had no need for such a thing, but he felt a sense of injustice that she should have something so unmistakable Terran when he’d had to rely on nothing but his own innate skills. He’d seen such staves before, and he knew that it would act as a powerful channel for her psionic abilities. He would have killed for that kind of aid during the early stages of his banishment. He supposed that was something of the point. Gaia had been his punishment, after all.
Whereas Mikoto was nothing but a victim of Garland’s failed first experiment. She was a victim and a loyal one at that. Did it not make sense that she’d be gifted with Terra’s blessings while Kuja would be left to live or die by his own will? It was typical, really. Why waste resources on a flawed prototype?
He said none of this aloud. It was irrelevant to the task at hand, and Mikoto had already started down the crystal-lit corridors. Could she sense his ire? If she could, she didn’t show it.
Her staff lit a dim path for them, and Kuja followed it idly. Mikoto was insistent on remaining in front of him, and while that seemed unwise, he didn’t object. It was her life at stake, after all, and thus, it was her choice to make.
Silence closed in around them as completely as the darkness. Kuja had not missed delving into ancient cave systems.
”Did you ever see much of Gaia?” he asked as he stepped over an uneven break in the ground. The path here had once been paved, it seemed, but time had a way of wearing down even the most tenacious of architecture.
”There were many tunnels and cave systems throughout the planet. This reminds me a little of the Earth Shrine.”
[attr=class,ooc-notes]
[attr=class,tagline]@blacksuit4
I didn't push them forward, but this post was long enough as it was lol
