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.
Yuna nodded when Caius said that he would call on her for help with the bandits if she was in the area. That was all she could expect really, and she laughed a little when he moved on to say that the difference between Noctis and Somnus should be obvious if she came across one of them. She assumed that it would be, but it was still a little problematic that they looked identical at first glance. It made her feel a little sorry for Noctis that he had to live with that legacy.
“...Thank you.” She said in response to his confidence that she really had survived killing Sin. It still felt like one of those things that was too good to be true, but maybe that was why it was helpful to have an outside perspective in this case. To her, the final summoning was an undeniable fact of life. To him it was just a story from another world.
Her smile came back when he pointed out that the job of a summoner was to get rid of the ‘big bad’ as he called it. “You’re right,” she said with a laugh. “Well, that would be a thousand worries off my mind at least if Spira really is free from Sin. That was one of the main reasons that I wanted to go back. But...well. Maybe I’m free to focus on here now.” It was a startling realization. It had always felt like she’d had one foot back in Spira, but maybe it was time to move on. She wasn’t entirely sure if that felt freeing or sad.
Caius broached the difficult topic of what had happened with Celes, and Yuna felt her smile widen as he danced around his feelings and seemed to be trying to find the right words for what was going on in his head. Finally, he admitted that he would be completely lost if she died, and Yuna’s eyes softened as she rested her chin on one hand that was propped up on the table. “I thought it was something like that. And I agree. She’d be terrifying to face in battle.” Not as horrifying as Ardyn or Ultimecia, but as far as her allies went, Celes was definitely up there.
“This is a challenge I need to rise to.”
“This isn’t a battle,” Yuna said with a slight smile, but at the same time, she didn’t blame Caius for thinking of it that way. He was probably most comfortable with a sword, so if it helped him to think of conquering a foe while he was confronting his feelings, then whatever worked for him was a good thing. “Alright, I’ll respect your decision. That’s probably for the best anyway.” At least she hoped so. Caius tended to put his foot in his mouth, but as long as he said something close to what he’d told Yuna, then she thought that Celes would appreciate it. His feelings would probably come through at any rate.
Still, she thought that it couldn’t hurt to give him one last push.
“From what you said…” Yuna hesitated as she laced her fingers together in her lap. “Do you think you’re in love with her?” It was a forward question. The type that she never would have asked while she was back on Spira, but this wasn’t her world. This place moved fast, and she wanted Caius to think over what he wanted before it was too late for anyone.
Yuna was disappointed but not at all surprised that Kuja hadn’t seen any other summoners while he’d been on Zephon. From how he spoke of his world, she very much doubted that he was from Spira anyway, but she would have welcomed meeting someone who was his version of summoner as well. It would have been interesting to compare the differences.
At her request, Kuja expanded on how the mist affected his world, and she was taken aback by the description of how the mass of souls would incite people to war and madness. Was it possible for the unsent to affect the actions of the living that much? Yuna had never heard of anything like that before, but if his world was saturated with souls, then she supposed that anything was possible. It just solidified in her mind how necessary the sending was. She never wanted Spira to reach that point. Not when it had enough to deal with.
“A world entirely in the sky by necessity, with a blanket of mist below,” she murmured, glancing up at the sunlight filtering down through the leaves. “It sounds like something out of a story...I’m glad your world finally found its peace though. Hopefully it can become permanent.”
Kuja affirmed that he would at least like to learn the theory behind the sending, and she gave him a curious look as he compared aeons to eidolons. “Eidolon...I don’t know the term, but they do sound incredibly similar. It’s probably safe to compare them if that's what your summoners called forth.” It might give him a helpful visual to reference at least, though a part of his phrasing struck her as odd. "They aren't called by your summoners anymore? You said eidolons were legends..."
Kuja started forward through the marsh, and Yuna hesitated only briefly before following. He had said that he knew a way back to civilization, and she had little choice but to trust him at this point. She didn’t think she could find her way back to the path herself, and he seemed nice enough for a stranger. It was probably better to stick together right now with how malicious the forest seemed.
“Everything? That’s a tall order,” Yuna said with a faint smile when Kuja requested information. “You’re a fast learner though. I’ve said all those terms only once…” Maybe that was to be expected of a scholar. Maechen had been much the same. Yuna contemplated where to begin for a moment before deciding that the beginning was best.
“Summoners are people who trained to learn to control pyreflies. Which I would best describe as the life energy that’s present in everything. Even the dead, or the trees in this forest. It’s what makes a soul.” Yuna glanced in the direction of where the mist had fled, wondering vaguely where a sending led people to in Zephon. Was there a farplane here? Perhaps she just hadn’t found the answer yet.
“The pyreflies of a person’s soul can remain after death if the person has a strong enough conviction to stay. Usually in violent or unusual deaths...They can even take on the shape and memories of the dead person sometimes, but they’ll likely be a twisted version of themselves who are just following a single purpose now. But that’s rare. Mostly the unsent just turn into fiends--monsters who prey on the living.” Yuna adjusted how she was holding her staff before continuing. “Summoners can prevent that by performing the sending. It’s a ritual dance that focuses on collecting pyreflies and forcing them to leave this world for the Farplane.”
Yuna knew that she hadn’t really scratched the surface on summoners yet--she hadn’t covered aeons after all--but she felt a little self-conscious about speaking for so long, so glanced a little sheepishly at Kuja out of the corner of her eye. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t the most exciting…”
“A warrior of light,” Yuna repeated in a murmured voice. “Well, it sounds noble, at any rate.” Faris seemed ready to show her a demonstration, but he decided at the last moment that maybe the bar wasn’t an appropriate place for it. Yuna had to laugh a little at the thought that he had even considered it. It seemed like the boy was as brash as she had initially pegged him. Still, that didn’t really bother her. Men who acted before thinking seemed to be her style--Perhaps because Yuna herself always overthought everything.
“You can always come find me if you need a healer then,” she offered with a faint smile. “That’s my specialty. That’s amazing though if that’s the only thing you’re lacking in." A jack of all trades in addition to being a sailor. Faris certainly had led an impressive life for how young he looked.
Yuna felt her cheeks grow a little warm as Faris acted shocked that she had ordered whiskey alongside him. “I’ve had it once before,” she defended herself. Bartz had ordered them both countless shots at the masquerade when she had bumped into him. Truthfully, Yuna didn’t remember much about the rest of that night. Unfortunately she remembered the morning after with miserable, nauseous clarity. “It’s much better than wine or the like.” Wine had certainly been smoother and easier to drink, but shots were over and done with so quickly. Not to mention that her company while drinking wine had likely forever poisoned her memory of the drink. She had some difficulty separating her feelings towards the liquid from her feelings of Ardyn.
As their talk turned towards what she had been doing while on Zephon, Yuna was a little shocked by his reaction at her mention of the Dragonblades. It seemed that Faris knew Caius, and he’d had a completely different experience with him than what Yuna had. Her initial reaction was to giggle at all the colorful, accented insults that rolled off his tongue, but by the end of his tirade, she had sat up straighter in her chair to give him a stern look.
“Caius is my friend,” she admonished him. “I’m sorry you got off on the wrong foot, but there are two ways to look at everything. Yes, he talks quite a bit, and he can be incredibly stubborn and set in his path. But I could just as easily say that he tells beautiful stories, that his heart is always in the right place, and that he’ll stop at nothing to correct injustice. He’s a good man. And not a-...a lout.”
Truthfully, she wasn’t entirely certain what a lout was supposed to be, but she was positive that it was nothing good. By the time that their whiskey arrived, she was feeling heated after chewing him out, so at Faris’ advice, she drank the amber liquid as quickly as possible. The whiskey felt like flames in her mouth, and the fumes made her eyes water, but she slammed the glass back on the table and gave him a fiery look anyway.
“It wasn’t that bad. I could do another.” Yuna was very aware that throwing down the gauntlet with a sailor wasn’t the brightest idea. They were notorious for their love of liquor even on Spira, where such things were frowned upon. Still, Faris had insulted her friend, and she somehow felt as if Caius’ honor were on the line during this whole encounter. Yuna didn’t know how exactly, but she was determined to come out on top.
Caius seemed to be trying to consider his words carefully after Yuna suggested that he should talk to Celes about his feelings, and eventually he explained that he was worried about giving her the wrong idea. “Oh.” A slight smile tugged at her lips as she mulled his point over. “You do put your foot in your mouth a lot…” Yuna had never really minded much. It was honestly a little charming in its own right, and it reminded her a bit of her guardians. Caius somehow had all the tact of Tidus with all the stoic brashness of Auron. Still, she could see how that might clash with someone as hot-headed as Celes.
“I can talk to her if you want. Woman to woman.” Her smile this time was a little teasing even if she was serious. She didn’t want Caius and Celes to be on awkward terms over a misunderstanding, after all. Especially when it was clearly weighing on her friend so much.
Yuna nodded when Caius said that he thought he had the situation with the Original Sin pretty under control. “I know. Just...be careful. I’m sure the other two leaders have it out for you. And I want to be there for you when they make a move.” She still felt a little guilty about leaving him and Celes to deal with Charon, but nothing could change that now.
Caius gave her a little more background on Somnus, who she hadn’t heard of until now, and she was frowning by the end of it. “You’re right. He sounds as bad as Ardyn. Worse maybe if he started everything…” She did her best to memorize his titles and physical appearance, though she couldn’t help the faintest smile when he said that Somnus was nearly the twin of Noctis. “I hope I don’t attack your king by accident then,” she said, though it was mostly a joke. She wasn’t the type to attack without asking questions first, and she was sure that Caius knew it. “I’ll keep an eye out up here then. I have a feeling that a meeting between the two of them might be fairly destructive…”
Ardyn had nearly demolished an entire hospital trying to kill her on their first meeting after all, and that was only because he thought she was an Oracle. She hated to think what he would be willing to destroy in order to hurt the man actually responsible for his suffering.
Shaking her head, she smiled more genuinely at Caius when he said that he didn’t blame her for having some pity for Ardyn. It appeared that he did as well, which must have taken a huge amount of strength given what the man had done to his world. Yuna imagined that it would have been a bit like her feeling empathy for Sin.
“I understand.” She sat forward a little as he spoke about how it wouldn’t stop him because he’d do whatever it took to protect his new life. “Honestly...I was pretty lost on what I wanted to do in this world until I joined up with the Dragonblades. But you’re right, I have people to protect here now, even if I can’t return to Spira. So if I can help, then say the word, and I’ll be there.”
Yuna put a hand up to her mouth and laughed a little as Faris insisted that his story involving magical gems giving him a quest to defeat an evil warlock was true. “No, I believe you,” she said with a smile. She liked to take people at their word until proven otherwise. It seemed like so many people in the world did the opposite. “How did you defeat him? I’m guessing you’re something else in addition to being a sailor.” Probably a sword wielder, but Faris might surprise her and end up being a mage. It was a little hard to read the handsome, confident boy across from her.
Faris signaled a waiter over at Yuna’s suggestion that they get a drink, and she tried hard to not look surprised when he ordered a double-shot of whiskey. Based on the glasses on nearby tables, she had somewhat expected that wine was the drink of choice on dates, but it appeared that Faris wasn’t trying to censor himself or impress her. Yuna found that she appreciated that. She didn’t know much about alcohol anyway, but when she compared her two prior experiences with it, she’d certainly had a much better time when she had been taking shots with Bartz versus sipping red wine with Ardyn. The thought was enough to make up her mind for her.
“I’ll have the same.” Resting her chin on her interlaced fingers, she gave Faris a slightly teasing smile before clearing her expression and listening closely as he spoke about his sister and how appearances could be deceiving. “Your sister sounds pretty wise. It can be difficult to stay soft while also knowing when to stand firm.”
“I said I was after a strong heart with wits to match. Sounds like that air-headed barkeep’s onto something.”
Whatever Yuna had been expecting him to say next, it wasn’t that. She felt her cheeks grow warm, and she suddenly wished that their drinks had already arrived just so she had something to do with her hands. “Ah…” Laughing a little nervously, she adjusted her pearl bracelet. “Perhaps he is. I said that I’d prefer a boy who was cheerful, full of laughter, and unafraid to say what he thought.” Meeting his eyes, she gave him another small smile, feeling grateful when the subject turned to what they’d been doing while on Zephon.
“I was pretty lost for a while too,” she admitted. “It was...hard. To be dragged away so suddenly. But I’m sure you understand that.” Yuna paused to rearrange her hands in her lap. “I joined with a mercenary guild, actually. I don’t think it would normally be something I’d like, but they take all kinds of missions, so I can pick and choose the ones I agree with. They’re called the Dragonblades, in case you’ve heard of them. They’re based out of Torensten.”
The waiter came over with their drinks, so Yuna gave him a small smile and a murmur of thanks as the small glasses of amber liquid were placed in front of them. The liquor was darker than the shots that Bartz had ordered for them at the masquerade, and Yuna gave it a cursory sniff as she lifted it in her hand. It smelled strong, and she resisted the urge to grimace slightly. Still, it was better than the scent of red wine. She thought that even the sight of the blood-red liquid might make her a little nauseous for a while.
Yuna spun in a quick circle as she swung her staff above her head, feeling a cold wind swirl around her as Shiva’s power started to seep down from the sky. Spinning her staff in her hands, she flinched slightly as the loud crack of the front door bursting open alerted her that Ultimecia had stormed outside. She very nearly faltered in the summoning, but she forced herself to stand tall even as the woman berated her.
Submit? Yuna knew better than to believe that the woman would show her any mercy if she knelt. Perhaps she’d get bored of her and kill her faster, but it wouldn’t spare her life. Yuna refused to surrender to someone like her even as her hands shook with the cold, and she struck the base of her staff against the snow-covered ground as ice exploded out from the point of impact.
It was only her third time summoning Shiva since she had come to Zephon, and as the figure of the aeon shimmered into view in front of her, she was reminded of how different this one looked from the Shiva of Spira. Back home, Shiva had been a beautiful woman with long dreadlocks, revealing clothes, and blue-tinted skin. This Shiva had crystal armor covering its entire body so that its gender was unidentifiable, and light reflected off the surface in a shimmering collection of blues and purples. Still, the different physical appearance didn’t really matter. Shiva had still come to help her for the third time, and Yuna would be eternally grateful for that.
“Please. Lend me your power,” she murmured, before tensing in place as Ultimecia took up a scornful laugh. “Guardian force?” She questioned the word, but she didn’t really expect an answer as the white-haired woman took to the sky above them, throwing mocking words down upon her.
Yuna gripped her staff tighter in answer. “I’m not ashamed to lean on other people when I have to. And whatever you do to me, I know that my life had meaning. That everyone who lived here had meaning.” Ultimecia’s eyes brightened to an even sharper yellow if possible, and Yuna sucked in a breath as the sight reminded her of her encounter with Ardyn in a hospital in Provo. She was in a similar spot of danger now. She didn’t have the power to defeat either of them on her own.
Which meant that there was really only one thing that she could do now.
“Shell,” she murmured, casting a spell around Shiva in an attempt to protect her from the woman’s punishing magic. Leaning in, she lightly laid a hand on the aeon’s arm, wincing at the cold but not pulling away yet. “You’ve already sacrificed yourself once for me. I swear to you that it won’t be in vain.” Stepping back, she let Shiva leap into the air to meet the woman where she hovered before Yuna turned and fled for the manor’s gate.
If there had been anyone there other than an aeon who would regenerate, then Yuna would have stayed, but it was just the two of them. Just like that day with Ardyn, Yuna knew that she would die if she tried to fight her any longer. It was far better to flee now and return later with reinforcements, even if the idea of someone like her running loose in the world was a disheartening one.
Reaching the gate, Yuna retrieved her bag and cloak from where she had dropped them in the snow before trying to help Ultimecia against the fiend. How foolish she had been. Throwing her bag over her shoulder, she pulled the cloak tightly around herself, trying to block out the cold as she ran down the mountain path. Caius and Celes needed to hear about this.
To Yuna’s surprise, Kuja’s eyes lit with something like understanding at her explanation. She couldn’t often say that she could see the gears in someone’s mind literally turning, but the silver-haired man looked as if he were just itching to take notes. His passion reminded her a bit of Maechen, though Kuja’s knowledge seemed to be in magic rather than history.
“Really? You know what a summoner is?” Yuna was taken aback, since the other people on Zephon that she’d met had always required an explanation. Between the man’s clothes and his breadth of knowledge, she almost would have thought that he came from Spira itself, but that couldn’t be the case. Otherwise he would have known at a glance what a sending was. “Do you know of any others here?”
Yuna frowned slightly at Kuja’s explanation of how he’d come to end up alone in the middle of the forest. He was vague about the details, but she didn’t find that to be too suspicious when she was a near stranger. Maybe he was just being careful. “I’m glad you got away from them at any rate…Are you hurt at all?” She didn’t think he had any wounds--he was showing quite a bit of skin after all--but it still seemed polite to ask.
Truthfully, she hadn’t expected that he would offer to travel together. Yuna had been secretly hoping to journey at least back to the path with him, so her head perked up a bit at the offer. Kuja was either very perceptive, or he didn’t relish the thought of wandering alone in the woods either. “I don’t want to impose, but if you wouldn’t mind the company, then I’d be happy to. Thank you.” Curling her hands together in the traditional Yevon prayer, she dipped into a small bow of thanks.
Afterward, Yuna tilted her head slightly to the side as she considered his explanation of how souls worked on his world. “I’ve never heard it described as mist before,” she murmured, bringing one hand up to her chin thoughtfully. “But if there’s no one on your world to send them on, then I suppose it makes complete sense that they would be so concentrated together. That must be incredibly dangerous to encounter…”
She wasn’t surprised to hear that Kuja was a scholar or a mage--she’d already seen his prowess in both--but it was his request to be taught that caused her cheeks to flush scarlet. “You want to learn the sending?” She’d had teachers herself of course--countless priests had mentored her in the ways of Yevon and white magic--but she had never expected to pass on any of that knowledge herself. She’d never expected to live long enough.
“Back home, I suppose they’d call it blasphemous to teach someone who isn’t an apprentice summoner,” she said with a slight smile as she considered the possibility. “But if this could help people on your world one day, then I would gladly show you the theory, Kuja.” She hesitated slightly before deciding to warn him about one caveat. “But it might not work to its full potency unless an aeon grants you its power.” Truthfully, she didn’t know how well someone who wasn’t a summoner could perform the ritual, but Kuja was a good enough mage that it was worth a try if he was interested.
Yuna wanting to play matchmaker with him and Celes now
I will live with my sorrow
Yuna didn’t know if her words helped Caius feel better or not, but she wasn’t able to resist a small laugh when he said that Celes would be mad if she knew how worried he was about this. “You’re right. She’d only tell you that she could handle herself…”
Still, her smile faded again as Caius seemed to be trying to find the right words to explain why this was bothering him so much. He spoke about the blonde woman’s past--Yuna had known that Celes was a general who came from a ruined world, but she hadn’t thought about what revisiting that time might be doing to the woman. Yuna’s eyes softened as Caius fumbled his words while explaining that he just wanted Celes to be happy. His guilt made far more sense to her now. He clearly cared for the co-founder of the Dragonblades more than he had words for. With how clueless Caius tended to be about these things, Yuna suspected that he might have even been in love with her, but she didn’t want to stick her nose in that too early. That was something Caius needed to come to his own conclusion on.
“No, that makes complete sense. You really care about her, so you don’t want her to do anything that might bring up bad memories.” She hesitated before briefly reaching out to lay a hand on his arm. “Maybe you should talk to her about that? I don’t think she’d be mad if she knew that the reason you were upset wasn’t because you thought that she couldn’t handle it…”
Celes was a proud and capable woman, but it was always nice to hear when someone cared. Yuna thought that the general might appreciate it even if she wouldn’t admit it or didn’t know how to respond. Really, they were perfect for each other in that way. They were both a little clueless, and Yuna had to fight back a giggle as she thought about it. She didn’t want Caius to think that she was laughing at the serious situation, after all.
Yuna sat back in her chair as the topic returned to her past, and she adjusted her silk sleeves, feeling troubled as Caius pointed out that some people who arrived in Zephon claimed to have been dead in their world. “That’s true…” Could she have died facing Sin? It would make the most sense, and it could even explain why her memories were muddled, but Declan had seemed adamant that Yuna was alive. She wasn’t sure that she could bring herself to believe that she’d found a way to defeat Sin for good though. It seemed too beautiful a thought to be true when no other summoner had ever managed the task. Still, she couldn’t help the grateful smile that she gave Caius when he expressed that he had no doubt that she’d managed it.
“Thank you. I hope you’re right at any rate.” Still, if she had found another way...that suggested that she’d ignored the teachings and bypassed the final summoning, didn’t it? Her thoughts flashed again to Caius’ question of whether or not she had enemies, and Yuna twisted her ring around one finger as she wondered what the church of Yevon had thought of her method. Once again, she recalled that flash of Maester Seymour, seemingly dead on the ground in front of her, and she was grateful for the subject change when Caius said that he had two things left to discuss with her.
First, he gave her an update on where he stood with researching the Original Sin, and Yuna nodded seriously when he talked about the slavers and the buyers that he’d managed to report to the authorities. “If I can be of any help, then let me know.” The thought of people being put up for auction still made something in her blood boil when she thought about it, so she was a little caught off guard when the subject switched to Ardyn.
“The...man who killed Aera? He’s here?” The thought wasn’t a good one. Ardyn was a problem enough on his own, but it seemed that his sadism must have run in the family if his brother was also a murderer. Yuna gave Caius a slightly disapproving look when he said that he had wished death on the man to his face, but she supposed that she couldn’t really blame him given the circumstances. Yuna had rather liked what she had seen of Aera. She couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to harm the well-spoken Oracle.
“I’ll be on the look-out for him then if he might be causing problems too. Does he look anything like Ardyn?” Ardyn was such a threat on his own that it was odd to think that the red-haired man had been the victim in his brother’s schemes, losing both the throne and his fiancee to the man’s blade. She wondered if that was why he had seemed so sad and so bent on vengeance against the gods the night that she had last encountered him. The thought reminded her that she unfortunately had something else to report to Caius.
“Ardyn is...still here. In Provo. I saw him going into a local tavern. I followed thinking he might try to hurt the other patrons.” She smiled a little sadly as she folded her hands together in her lap. “No one was hurt, but he...somewhat implied that he would turn the entire building to daemons unless I sat and had a drink with him. Truthfully, he seemed sad and not really in the mood to fight.” It had been the scariest and strangest encounter of her life, but she wanted to voice her honest opinion to Caius. “I think I pity him,” she admitted quietly. “But I know what he did to your world. And what he’s done to people here. It won’t stop me from what needs to be done if we ever get the chance. I promise.”
The brunette man with the pointed ears seemed to have a noble upbringing. His words rolled off his tongue in a charismatic manner that reminded her of how a maester of Yevon would have spoken, and a slight smile lit up her face as he introduced himself with a bow. That wasn’t really customary anywhere in Zephon that she’d been to yet, so she appreciated the gesture. It felt a little like being back home.
“Nice to meet you, Aymeric.” She wasn’t surprised to hear the confirmation that he was new to Torensten—It wasn’t hard to spot someone who was from another world originally like she was. Between their clothes and mannerisms, they stood out until they’d integrated more into society. Yuna wasn’t sure that she herself had reached that point yet.
Aymeric accepted her offer of help, and Yuna nodded as she began moving along the path close to the market stalls again—She didn’t want to block the walkways any longer than she had to now that their introductions were out of the way. “Do you have somewhere to stay here yet?” She asked as a baseline. She was happy to show him the ropes, but she needed to know how she could best help him first. “If not, I know a few good places you can rent for relatively cheap. Some of them even lower the bill in exchange for work…” Judging from his elaborate outfit, Aymeric had likely been wealthy in his world, but any coin that he had on him may or may not work in Zephon. Yuna had learned that herself the hard way.
“Or if you’re looking for work, there are always quests that need done.” She hesitated, glancing at the ornate sword at his side before continuing. “Especially with a sword, since there can be a lot of fiends in the area…I’m actually in a mercenary guild called the Dragonblades if you need a place to start.” She didn’t think that Caius or Celes would mind her bringing someone new around, even though recruitment wasn’t technically in her area. Still, that was completely up to Aymeric and what he wanted to do.
At this point, Yuna felt like she had been doing the talking for a while, so she flushed slightly before glancing up at the brunette man next to her a little sheepishly. “And you? What’s it like where you’re from?” He had mentioned that he had lived a fairly sheltered life, so she was curious about how his world was set-up. Not to mention that his pointed ears marked him as a race that Yuna had never seen before, but she didn’t think it would be polite to ask about that.
Yuna was a little relieved when the boy acted as awkward as she felt. He even waved aside the mention of a date and said that he was just there to meet someone new, so Yuna relaxed a bit in her chair as he finally introduced himself in an accent that she found pleasant. Captain Faris.
“Really? You’re a sailor?” Yuna brightened as she leaned forward in interest. “That’s an incredibly dangerous job. They risk their lives to transport goods and people. I’ve always admired the sailors I’ve met.” Really, they faced Sin as much as the summoners did, but they received much less recognition for it. It was kind of sad when she thought about it.
“Evil warlocks? You fought one?” Yuna frowned slightly as Faris explained his other job. She wasn’t entirely sure what a warrior of light was, but it sounded like a noble pursuit. “A gemstone gave you the task of saving the world? That sounds like a little more than an errand.” It sounded a little crazy actually, but people said that Sir Jecht and Tidus were wrong too for all their talk of Zanarkand. Yuna found it was usually better to trust that people knew what they were saying.
Faris looked a little sheepish for some reason as he rubbed at the side of his head, so Yuna did her best to smile at him. “I’m glad you weren’t hurt after all that.” Still, a second later, her smile dissolved into a laugh that she hid behind her hand as he criticized all the decorations. “It’s a little cute,” she tried her best to defend it. “I mean...you can at least tell that he’s trying really hard.” Truly, it was a little ridiculous between the paper hearts and the lit candles, but the flowers in vases were lovely at least, and she lightly touched a red petal as Faris asked to know about her.
“I’m not sure that I’m very good at tales,” she said with a laugh. “But I’m from a place called Spira. You might like it there. It’s almost entirely covered by water.” She adjusted her hands in her lap before continuing. “I’m a summoner. A summoner’s main duties are to...send the souls of the dead and to face Sin.” She hesitated, wondering for perhaps the hundredth time since coming to Zephon how she was supposed to explain Sin to someone who had never lived under the terror of its constant presence. “Sin is...a monster that comes from the water. It targets humans, and it’s attacked cities for a thousand years.”
Was that too heavy a topic for a date? Yuna felt her cheeks flush slightly as she looked down at the tabletop. “I’m sorry. Did you...want a drink? Captain Faris?” Yuna tried to lighten the mood again with a smile.
