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year 5, quarter 3
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Post by Garnet Til Alexandros XVII on Aug 18, 2020 10:47:01 GMT -6
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(Okay, Garnet, repeat after me. It is not becoming of a Queen to groan in frustration. It is not becoming of a Queen to groan in frustation. It is not becoming of a Queen to groan in frustration...)
The thoughts skittered across Garnet's mind as Amarant changed tact, but without much helpful input at all. Would it kill him to offer her a little conversation? She supposed she should be glad that she wasn't just getting one word answers anymore, but now he seemed to want to follow her into the shopping district. What made him think she knew her way around the shops? She supposed she obviously had experience leading people, she was royalty after all, but that wasn't usually in the 'follow me down this busy street' sense.
She paused for a moment, considering. "What... do we need? Zidane usually handled the travelling supplies," she commented, trying to think for a moment. "We should purchase at least two tents..." Garnet would rather two, even though one would do, she had gotten used to having to share, but sharing with Amarant felt quite different from sharing with the entire team, when she had Zidane and Steiner nearby. She would much rather her privacy. "And some potions. And of course, food rations and drink. I... do not think that I shall be able to carry much, but..." she looked over to Amarant's huge frame and muscles. She doubted he'd have a problem. "Hopefully you are better suited," she ventured. She knew that he was, there was no question of that, but whether or not he would remained up in the air. On their last adventure, Garnet hadn't had to do any of the heavy lifting while travelling, but... well, she suspected Amarant would not cut her the same slack Zidane did.
"How far is this beach? Should we not find an inn and depart first thing tomorrow?" she suggested, still trying to determine the best course of action. "We could split up and both find relevant supplies," by which Garnet meant Amarant could find the heavy things and she could find the other things, since she didn't fancy trying to carry a tent through the city streets.
Post by Garnet Til Alexandros XVII on Aug 18, 2020 1:03:03 GMT -6
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Mitiko's blank, uncomprehending eyes felt like they were looking right through Garnet. It was a strange feeling. Garnet didn't like to admit it, she didn't like to think about it, but in many ways, she had grown up with the unspoken understanding that she was important. In any room at any time, the Princess of Alexandria, well, she was important. People would pay attention to her. Even undercover on their adventures, the party had paid her a special kind of attention. They tended to fuss over her. She knew that. But Mitiko didn't understand concepts of royalty. She didn't understand why Garnet was deemed in any way special.
In some ways, Mitiko was the only person Garnet had ever met who truly saw her as an ordinary person. Worse, she probably judged Garnet for the way people gave her what must have looked to Mitiko like a special kind of treatment. She felt exposed, when Mitiko looked at her, as if all those flaws she had tried to bury in her character were exposed and visible to see. She wished Zidane was there. She wished Zidane was there so desperately...
Garnet tried to understand. She tried to be sympathetic as she saw genuine fear for Kuja's wellbeing wash over the genome. Some of Mitiko's concerns reminded her of what Zidane had said, back at the Iifa Tree, before he had rushed off to what she had thought was his death. That in Kuja's position, he may have done the same thing. She refused to believe it then, and she refused to believe it from Mitiko now. People weren't just what they were born to be. They weren't just shaped by their surroundings. Garnet was raised as a Princess of Alexandria, but her mother had become corrupt. If she had just followed what her mother wanted, she would have been complicit in every crime the armies of Alexandria committed. But she hadn't. She had seen the flaw. She had stepped outside her comfort zone to do the right thing. She believed others could do that too.
"Mitiko, I...." she hesitated, the fire taken out of her. This was much harder than she thought. So much harder. "You would not have followed in his footsteps. Neither would Zidane. I believe that with all my heart. Being raised by... a bad person... who does... bad things... It doesn't make you bad too. You can... resist. I believe you would have resisted. You would not have let people die for personal gain. I believe in you, Mitiko..." Garnet wasn't certain that she really did, but she knew that Zidane would have said that, and Garnet had to do as Zidane did.
"The Black Mages resisted too. It can take time. It can be... difficult. But no, they were not evil, and neither were you. You were freed of Terra's influence, and look who you became. Kuja was freed from it, and see who he became. He tried to destroy, you did not... Mitiko, you are not like him..." she tried to persuade. She was bad at this. This was outside her comfort zone. She had no idea what to say or how to comfort the poor genome.
When she dropped her strange food (Garnet had no idea what a kebab was), she felt a pang of guilt, and she sat beside the girl, putting an arm around her. It was awkward; hugs were not part of royal etiquette and so a comforting hug, when Garnet was the one trying to do the comforting and not retreating into somebody's arms, was something she still had to learn. But she held the girl for a moment.
"He wanted to... break free of your home, Mitiko. He wanted to use my power to do it. Everything he did... It wasn't in service of your home, it was so that he could take over it..." she tried. She wasn't certain that was entirely true. She wasn't certain she understood still herself. But that was her impression.
"I can... understand loving a family member that you shouldn't. I... did too..." Garnet confessed. She paused again when she asked about what happened when they confronted Garland and Kuja. "Garland... wanted Zidane to serve him. Zidane said no and we fought. But, Kuja then arrived and killed Garland, absorbing the souls from the Invincible to trance. And then he used that power to destroy Terra. I think... I think because Garland revealed that he was mortal.... Kuja... hated the idea of dying. He was... afraid of it..." Garnet explained uneasily.
She paused, and a new idea occurred to her.
"If you wish to... be close to family, help me find Zidane! He is missing, but you can sense each other, can't you? Can you help me find him?" she asked, sudden eagerness in her voice at the idea.
Post by Garnet Til Alexandros XVII on Aug 17, 2020 13:24:56 GMT -6
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Jessie was quite correct, of course, it was a very sad play. The ending was a true tragedy, and Garnet had to often wonder why it was her favourite piece of entertainment. Oh, she knew it was a critical masterpiece, with such an amazing, compelling story and dramatic characters, and such a moving tale to tell, but sometimes she did wonder why she so actively sought to make herself sad by re-experiencing it. "I wish that I could say why I found the sad ending so important," Garnet admitted after a pause. "I... think that sometimes it was... because when I was younger... I had... rather a lot. People... would not expect me to be sad. But I was very lonely, and... could not do much. I was often so sad, but I felt that I was not allowed to express it. The play... it gave me a chance to feel the emotions that I was hiding. It... let me be sad when I needed to," she said, before giving a slightly weak smile. "I-I am sorry, that is not something you need to hear about..." she said quickly. She didn't think it was fair to burden Jessie with such things, especially when Garnet did not entirely understand said feelings herself.
"You... don't?" she repeated when Jessie said how many of them had no idea how they arrived. That was... interesting. Thus far she had assumed that only people from her world had been pulled into this new strange one, but if Jessie was a Thespian and had never even heard of I Want To Be Your Canary there was no way she could have been from Garnet's world. "From where do you hail, if you do not mind me asking? I... am still trying to understand what happened to bring me here. It is... very confusing. Knowing that others have come from... potentially other worlds... is... interesting, to me," she admitted awkwardly.
When Jessie suggested transcribing I Want to be Your Canary though, Garnet looked horrified. "O-oh no, I couldn't! I mean, it's .. it's... I Want to be Your Canary. By Lord Avon! It is the greatest play ever written. I-I mean, obviously, I know the play, and uh, I... I do know all the lines, but... what if I made a mistake? J-just one line wrong and I might ruin the context of the greatest play ever written! I-I could not live with myself! And I do not recall all the stage directions, what if I convey an action wrongly? It is far too much pressure!" she panicked, wide-eyed, as if somebody had just asked her to recreate a masterpiece painting from memory.
Post by Garnet Til Alexandros XVII on Aug 17, 2020 11:02:53 GMT -6
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Garnet paused part way along the street just to try and clear her thoughts. Despite being in Torensten for a few days now, and having (she thought) acquitted herself quite well for a Queen who had arrived with nothing but the considerably valuable clothes on her back, she realised that she had been so caught up in the smaller things that she still had no answers as to what had actually happened.
She wasn't alone. That was good. The bad news was that Kuja was there. Kuja claimed no responsibility for what had happened, and Garnet was inclined to believe him, simply because she couldn't imagine a world where Kuja wouldn't choose to gloat over once again ruining Garnet's life if he had been responsible. Amarant was there too, and swore that he knew where Zidane was, so Garnet was very hopeful that she might find him soon, but she didn't entirely trust Amarant, and she suspected that he didn't like her very much. He seemed somebody who only cared about strength and violence, and those were two things Garnet was not particularly good at.
Strangely enough, she found herself missing Steiner a lot. Maybe it was because his own sense of panic and distress at such situations made her feel calmer by comparison, or maybe it was because despite his over-protectiveness, there was nobody else in the world who knew her as well as her knight. Steiner had served in the Alexandrian military since the day Garnet was born adopted after being found (sometimes, it still seemed strange in her head to remind herself that she wasn't the real Garnet Til Alexandros, because... she was... that was who she was, at her very core, but she had to remember, she had six years of life before that, even if they were only hazy, vague memories now).
She was broken from her concentration when she almost bumped into a child. She was about to apologise for being lost in her thoughts when she looked down, directly into the eyes of Eiko Carol.
"E-eiko!?" she asked, in sudden shock, before letting out a delighted laugh. "Eiko! It is you!" she beamed. She immediately reached down, and gave the girl a quick, dainty hug. Hugs weren't particularly queenly gestures, and it was one of the things that Garnet had found herself having to allow herself to express since her journeys. Lord knew she'd thrown herself into Zidane's arms enough times, but usually without thinking about it. She had to try to do it a little more consciously, and it was perhaps still a slightly odd and stiff gesture, but Eiko was adopted by Cid and Hilda now, and, well, she did call Cid her uncle, so that made Eiko family, didn't it? If it didn't, being the last two summoners alive surely did! It seemed appropriate.
"Are you okay? How long have you been here?" she fretted. The questions were probably silly. Eiko, despite more than half Garnet's age, was considerably more capable at surviving alone than Garnet ever was. If Garnet had been abandoned, even at this age, in Eiko's situation, having to cook and fish and look after moogles and clean, she'd probably be dead within a week. The young summoner was far more capable than her mere age let on. "I am so glad that I have found you! I have found Amarant, but, well, he is... Amarant," she confessed, smiling slightly. "Come, let us find an establishment wherein we can-" she paused, and then gave Eiko a small smile. "I mean, uh, cmon, let's find somewhere to grab a bite to eat," she corrected, slipping back into her 'Dagger' personae, and feeling rather proud of herself for the use of slang...
Post by Garnet Til Alexandros XVII on Aug 16, 2020 10:56:51 GMT -6
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Garnet's mind was still reeling from her encounter with Kuja. A part of her, a large part of her, wanted to run and hide. She wanted to find somewhere and break down sobbing, and let out all of those repressed emotions she had squashed down while facing him. Kuja, the man who had murdered her mother and destroyed her life, was still alive. The only man she had ever been glad to think of as having perished, still lived. And worse, he was the same as he had always been, up to some kind of evil scheme and mocking Garnet freely.
She was aware that she was trembling slightly, and for a few steps her legs threatened to give out. She knew it was the adrenaline wearing off. She had been in enough battles and enough dangerous situations to know the feeling of complete exhaustion afterwards. More often than not, Zidane would be there to place a comforting hand on her, even before she was entirely comfortable with that. She missed that now. She wished Zidane was there more than anything, to hold her, to tell her it would be alright, but she was all alone...
It seemed so unfair, that Kuja be here but not Zidane. Not Steiner nor Beatrix nor Freya. She'd even settle for Quina! But instead, it was Kuja. Kuja, who should be dead. Kuja who killed her mother and destroyed an entire world. Kuja who had made a mockery of everything Garnet was supposed to be, who had stolen her power and then used it to destroy the very kingdom she was supposed to protect. What a pathetic queen people must have thought she was after that. The coronation had not even been yet and already she failed to protect her kingdom. And she had sworn to do better, she knew that she had a duty to it, and yet, now, here she was, letting her kingdom down again, with its arch enemy, the man who brought it to ruin, still on the loose, and she was so weak, so pathetic, she could do nothing about it.
But now there was the consideration of Kuja's new victim. For that what she undoubtedly was. Kuja did not have friends, he did not 'escort' those that needed it, unless he could in a manner derive power from them. Whoever he was now with, she was a victim too. Garnet knew the truth, and hoped that perhaps she could help her. And perhaps also learn what Kuja's intentions for this strange realm were...
However, what she hadn't expected, despite perhaps the fact she should have picked up on the term 'sister' Kuja had used, was to see a monkey's tail as somebody moved through the crowd. Her heart skipped a beat. She had only caught a glimpse, but could it be? Zidane? She hurried, pushing through the crowd with desperation to catch the sight, looking desperately for what she had seen, before her eyes fell on the figure on the bench.
And understanding dawned.
Mikoto.
Wait, Mikoto was there? Mikoto was the one with Kuja? After Kuja had destroyed her world? Why? How? What was-
No, those were not the important questions. Mikoto had proven at the Iifa Tree she could sense other genomes. She could sense Kuja. If that was true, she could sense Zidane! Mikoto could lead her to Zidane! Finally, she was making progress!
"Mikoto!" she called out, hurrying over in surprise and shock. Garnet took a moment to take in the girl's new appearance. She had never seen Mikoto wear a different outfit, but now she wore a plain, if pretty, white dress, held together by a pink ribbon. It was a delicate and sweet look, and Garnet was a little impressed. Perhaps less practical than even Garnet's own silky white and orange outfit, but Garnet had been an adventurer for a while, she thought with a hint of pride. Mikoto had not been. "You are... here!" It seemed silly to say, but it was an observation that she could not resist.
"Wait. You are the one with Kuja? How... could you? After all he has done? I... I don't understand...." she shook her head in confusion. It didn't make sense to her. God, it was all too much. She was so desperate for somebody to be there by her side. She just didn't know if she could do this alone. She wasn't... She wasn't good at it. She had tried to do so much alone and it had always gone wrong. She needed people. She needed help. What was she meant to do now? "Mikoto, he is evil! He destroyed your world, he destroyed my kingdom, why... why would you stand with him?" she asked desperately.
Post by Garnet Til Alexandros XVII on Aug 16, 2020 9:52:31 GMT -6
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When Garnet had first arrived in Torensten, she had obviously been concerned, how could she not have been, but she had also felt a thrill of excitement. After a year of Queenly duties, she felt like she was back on an adventure, and more than that, she felt a small spark of what perhaps could be called smug confidence; she had spent the last year being the perfect Queen, but she knew that she had all the skills now to survive as a commoner. She knew how to speak like one, how to act like one, she could blend in perfectly with them, so sometimes it felt like she was harbouring a secret alter-ego while having to be present as the Queen. Part of her even used to toy with the idea of getting disguised and sneaking out onto the Alexandrian streets just to be Dagger again.
However, as time went on in Torensten, Garnet was beginning to realise that perhaps she had over-estimated her abilities. Yes, she knew how to speak like a commoner (or, well, she thought she did, of course most people could immediately tell she had some form of upper class upbringing), and she knew how stores worked and had even managed to barter for clothing and some gil by selling her tiara and gown, but it was becoming more and more clear that when travelling she had left the usual arrangements to Zidane or Steiner. Finding inns to stay at, buying supplies, and most importantly to her right now, purchasing weapons. Garnet had only ever used staffs or rods as a last resort, and usually left it up to Zidane, Steiner and Freya to arrange the purchase of weapons. They knew far more about them than she did after all. Studying weapons had never been part of a princess's education, after all, and the only things she knew about them were from stage plays.
She had thought it would be simple. Find a weapon's shop, and inquire about the purchase of a staff, but even that had proven more challenging than expected. For starters, it was very hard to find a weapon's shop. She had found not one, but two establishments so far called The King's Arms, which naturally she suspected would sell weapons, but instead, it turned out that they were local drinking establishments, with some very worrying looking drunk clientele that Garnet did not wish to interact with. She had also found an establishment named The Rifleman, which had a picture on it of a man wielding some kind of small cannon, but once again it developed that it was some kind of place to purchase drinks, talk loudly, and generally be uncouth, and she quickly vacated the place.
Why were so many places named after weaponry if they did not sell it? This city really did seem quite illogical when you thought about it...
Finally, however, she found what appeared to be a shop selling weapons, and made her way inside.
She immediately felt out of place. A relatively petite, young girl in a silky outfit with long hair and, what she hoped wasn't vain to observe, pretty features did not fit in among the towering, muscular patrons of the shop who were all purchasing sharp, deadly looking weapons Garnet doubted that she could even lift. She spotted one of the shopkeepers who had just finished outfitting a large looking woman with a particularly nasty curved sword. "Uh, greetings, I would like-" she began, but her soft voice was lost in the din among the other shoppers, and the shopkeeper quickly walked past her. Garnet paused, frowning. She turned to another nearby. "Yes, uh, hello, I was-" but again, she was ignored. Most people who saw her there seemed to assume that she was lost, or waiting for a boyfriend or father to finish their purchases.
Finally, she made her way up to the counter, where the store owner was reclined. "Greetings. I would like to purchase a weapon, please," she said, finally glad to have somebody who couldn't ignore her. "Oh, would you now?" The shop owner grinned with amusement. "And what weapon would that be? I'm not sure we have one that'll match your fine clothes, m'lady." Garnet paused, looking down at her outfit. She had bought it in exchange for her gown and tiara from a rather upper class establishment, yes, but it was a standard commoner outfit, wasn't it? "O-oh, I am not a Lady. My name is Dagger," she said rather sheepishly. "I'm sure it is. You didn't just read that off that sign over there, did you?" he asked with an amused grin, pointing to a nearby sign selling daggers. "N-no, it is my name. A-and I would like... to buy a staff please," she said finally, still caught off guard. "Oh? And what type of staff would that be, my la-...Dagger?" The shop owner grinned. It was obvious that he was having fun with this little girl out of her depth, and was mocking her. He had no time for aristocrats playing commoner, which was what Garnet obviously was to him, and was more than happy to humiliate the poor little rich girl in front of the others in the shop, several of whom were now watching with amusement. "A... a mage's staff," she said after a pause. "Aye. A mage's staff. Do you want a Bo staff? Perhaps a Jo staff, for your... dainty size? Or something more traditional? Maple? Oak? Hazel? Chestnut? Blackthorn?" he asked. "What size? Would a stave do? Or a racket? Perhaps a rod?" Garnet held up her hand, looking frantic and confused. "P-please stop. I just wish... to purchase a basic mage's staff. Can you please assist me?" she asked desperately. "I can't help you if you don't know what you want, my lady. Perhaps it best to return to books and leave the fighting to the men, hm?" he suggested, still grinning sickeningly.
Garnet, without much of a response to hand, simply huffed, her hands on her hips, and turned and marched out, annoyed. Fine! She was sure she could find another shop...
Post by Garnet Til Alexandros XVII on Aug 15, 2020 10:51:27 GMT -6
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He seemed to enjoy putting her down, or twisting her attempts at insults back at her. She supposed she couldn't be surprised. He was a villain, and she was... not particularly good at harsh words. It was not, surprisingly enough, something that had ever been covered in her private classes, and it seemed that just because she had studied some of the great academic plays it didn't mean that she was much good at improvising her own aggressive dialogue. But still she tried, only because it gave her some strength, and left her from feeling utterly helpless. "Were you not engineered to be the ultimate magical threat to Gaia? It seems an oversight, that you were not engineered with my abilities," Garnet countered. Again, she was poking the dragon which was probably a very bad idea, but it helped her find her strength when standing before him. "You are correct though, I do think you weak, but not for that reason. I think you weak because you were blessed with a brother who would have loved you, would have been your family, and you cast him aside out of your own jealousy. I think you weak because you gave him to your selfish emotions, and your own fear. I think you weak because you only ever think of yourself, and use and destroy those around you..." It was a different kind of weakness, of course. Garnet knew that Kuja was incredibly dangerous when it came to his combat abilities. But that didn't make him any weaker in her mind. "If you wished to see how somebody strong in your situation would behave, you should have looked to Vivi when you had the chance." Vivi had every reason to be as angry, as lost, as Kuja, but he had been noble, brave and strong, and faced his end with dignity.
"I would have preferred to mind my own business also, but unfortunately, that did not seem an option," she confessed in retort. It wasn't much of a response, of course, but she was regretting this entire endeavour.
So he admitted he had evil schemes, but sadly this girl knew nothing about them. Well, that might not be the case. She still might have some information, and Garnet had already found out something. Kuja had not brought her there, and had no interest in her. He didn't know where the others were. He was up to something, but it seemed to be slow. She had time to find out. To formulate a plan to stop him.
She turned to follow his instructions. "I shall deliver your message about the gil," she replied, because... well, Garnet was nothing if not polite. She didn't want to stoop to his petty level and steal gil off of him. Zidane would roll his eyes at that, of course. She turned to head off in the direction she had been told to follow. She paused only for a moment, to turn back, however. "Kuja... I am not a naive little princess anymore. I am aware that today could have gone very differently. I know that you have spared me, even if it is out of your own disinterest. But I shall not allow it to change anything. You have committed crimes against Alexandria and the people I am responsible for. One day, I shall find a way to bring you to justice," she told him. She didn't quite realise the truth of her words until she said them, but she did now realise that she had rushed into this foolhardily, and while perhaps there was some truth to her words that she could have held out long enough until other adventurers had come along, he could have just as easily abducted her first. He had, in his own way, spared her.
But she would not allow that to soften her feelings towards him. She would find a way to stop him. She had to...
Post by Garnet Til Alexandros XVII on Aug 15, 2020 9:17:39 GMT -6
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Once again, Garnet felt the fool. No, worse, she felt like a child. Here she was, all alone, trying to confront Kuja, and he was running rings around her. Verbally. It reminded her of back before she had fled Alexandria, when she had only been fifteen, trying desperately to convince Beatrix and Steiner, or any of her handmaidens or servants that something was wrong, only to be patronised and treated like a child, and left second guessing her intentions.
This was different, of course. She didn't merely suspect, she knew the truth of what Kuja was. But that didn't mean he hadn't felt her leaving naive, weak and helpless. He had completely won this verbal confrontation, she knew. He was right. She couldn't do anything here. His little jab about bringing the royal guard really hit it home. Of course, he knew there were no Alexandrian Knights here, no guard, nothing Garnet could do. Even if she could arrest him and he went quietly, she wouldn't know where to take him. Would she just find somebody who looked like a guard and hand him over, trying to convince them that he was a threat?
She would look insane if she told her story of him destroying another world and threatening her kingdom, a kingdom that apparently did not exist here.
"I have no eidolons left to extract. You took them from me already, remember? Now they only exist in the gems you extracted them too. I had to relearn their power from there. Something it seems that you could not do," It was another show of bravado that was pointless. A desperate grasp to not feel so helpless and pathetic, she knew that. It was accurate though, Garnet had relearned her eidolons from the gems that Kuja had put them in. Apparently Kuja could not do that himself. She assumed it was due to her blood as a summoner. Or perhaps he merely hadn't possessed them long enough. Either way, it was another small victory for her. A jab to save what was probably in truth a tattered ego. She felt more and more foolish for trying to confront him. She should have been smart. Kept looking for Zidane. Told him what she had found out. And hidden until then.
Confronting him had been foolish.
"You murdered my mother and destroyed my kingdom. What did you expect me to do? Simply walk past you with a smile and a curtsy?" she said with a slightly childish pout when he commented that she had been the one to stop him. It wasn't quite the defiant words she had intended, but it was accurate. Besides, people were still listening, it seemed, and she wanted them at least sufficiently warned of this man.
But what he finished with concerned her. Escorting someone? The idea of Kuja escorting anyone, unless it was for his own personal gain, was utterly ludicrous. Oh, she was sure that he had escorted her mother at first too. Played nice. Whispered sweet kind words in her ears. In a way, Garnet was lucky she had been so coddled and kept away from it all. Sometimes she worried what would have become of her if Kuja had played the sweet uncle to her. Luckily, he had only ever viewed her as a tool, and not her own person. He had never understood that she had her own will, her own desires, and her own abilities. To him, she had just been...
...a puppet. Just like everybody else... "You are escorting somebody?" she asked, probing for information. "Perhaps I shall... 'rush' them... Where might I find them?" she questioned. It was obvious what she was implying; she wanted to know who Kuja was with and work out what his plan with her was. She immediately imagined it was another case of him corrupting a powerful ruler, like he had done so with her mother, but time would tell. She needed more information. He knew as well as she did that she couldn't actually confront him here, she had no way to arrest him and no way to stop him, but she could, at least, work out his current plan...
Post by Garnet Til Alexandros XVII on Aug 15, 2020 5:30:52 GMT -6
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And just like that, Kuja did what he always did. What Garnet should have known he'd do. It didn't matter how confident you were confronting him, how certain you were that you were right, that you were safe, that you would win... Kuja could always twist a situation and turn it upon you. At the Iifa Tree, her mother had an army and a fleet of ships and Kuja had stood alone; her victory had been assured, but he had won easily. At Alexandria, Garnet had her own army, her loyal knights, a defensible city, and even called forth the most powerful Eidolon in Alexander's history, but again, Kuja had crushed it all. Even on Terra, where Garland had been Kuja's creator, seemingly his master, ruler of an entire planet, Kuja had twisted the situation again and defeated Garland, obtaining unstoppable power.
What had she thought she would do alone? How had she thought she'd maintain the upper hand against a man like that? She had been an idiot. And now she would pay the price.
Of course he saw through her deception. Oh, Garnet liked to flatter herself, to think she was getting good at telling lies, that she had mastered her 'Dagger' personality, speaking like a commoner and blending in, but really she was kidding herself. She was dealing with Kuja, a master of deception, of manipulation, of lies. How had she ever thought she could convince him of anything?
He was right, of course, that she was unarmed. Not that it really mattered. Staff or not, she'd be able to do nothing physically against Kuja. Garnet was not a physical fighter. She was... weak. Not mentally, no, Garnet might have worried that she was once, but now had confidence in her strength of character, in that she could do the right thing, but that didn't change the fact she was a Queen and formally a Princess. The heaviest thing she had to lift in her day to day life was a hairbrush, and that was if a maid didn't do it for her, and her deadliest fight she had been in before she had fled Alexandria Castle all those years ago had been when she got a particularly stubborn tangle in her long hair after bathing. She had never been cut out for physical confrontation. And yes, she had trained to leave the castle and got rather athletic, and yes, travelling with Zidane had given her slight muscle tone for the first time in her life, but she was still, physically, weak in battle. And that was over a year ago now. Since then, any physical skills she had gained were long since lost.
In a physical confrontation, Garnet stood no chance. But then again, Kuja wasn't a physical fighter either...
Garnet took a step back, fear flashing in her eyes, but it was mixed with something else too. Irritation. Anger. They had always chased after Kuja? Did he really believe that? He had come to her! He had chased her all over Gaia. He had needed her power. He had violated her and stolen it from her because he needed what she had. She knew that he was tied to Zidane, that they were brothers, that they had a shared destiny, but it had been his desire for her that had started this. His desire for her power.
He had come to her.
When everything else broke away, she realised that deep down, this had always been between her and him. Kuja had taken everything from her. Zidane and her friends had managed to replace it. That was the truth.
"Y-you have a funny way of remembering things," Garnet replied, her voice stammering even as she tried to find her strength. "I did not chase you. You chased me. You needed me. You think you are so powerful, but you have always relied on others for your power. You needed my mother's resources to build the Black Mage army, you needed me for my Eidolons, you needed Garland and Terra for the souls to enter your Trance state... You have always relied on others just as much as I do, only I do it through friendship. My friends stand by me willingly, you have always had to steal your power," she reminded him. She wasn't sure what she was trying to do achieve. To stall? To give her time to come up with a plan to escape?
Or were they simply words that she had been dying to say? She had so often watched Zidane threaten their opponents, to banter with them, even Steiner to deliver declarations of how he would beat them, and never truly understood. There seemed no point in bickering with your enemies, she didn't want to threaten, she just wanted to avoid confrontation if possible, but now she thought she understood. It made her feel stronger, even when she was frightened. Her words gave her some strength.
"I am as unarmed as you are," Garnet replied. They both knew this was bravado, not usually something Garnet went in for, but she was grasping at straws. Garnet's magic was powerful, yes, but it was also harmless. It aided others, not injured them. She had perhaps the odd spell she could cast that might slow down Kuja, but he was likely immune to the majority of the effects. Silence would never work on him, nor would Mini. What else could she do? Heal him to death? Reflect might slow some of his spells down, and Shell might give her the ability to endure one or two of his attacks until help arrived...
The only slight benefit was that he didn't seem to be aware that she had lost the majority of her Eidolons. She could only call Ramuh, but if she could keep him thinking she had access to the more powerful beings, perhaps he wouldn't engage her. Not that she'd ever call them here in a populated city. She had seen the damage they could do to civilised areas, and she would never be part of that.
"W-we are both alone," she said, her voice stammering, losing its strength through fear, but she was trying desperately to find it. "If you attack me... here... in this city, the guard will come. Other adventurers. You shall be outnumbered. You cannot harm me here..." she insisted, hoping her voice didn't crack, that her words sounded true. It was a logical assumption, wasn't it? If he attacked her, if she could hold out just long enough with her white magic, surely help would arrive. Not everybody would wonder by and ignore a fight. There were enough guards here, enough travelling adventurers armed, to come to her rescue, surely?
There she was again. The damsel in distress. Weak. Pathetic. Helpless. The words echoed through her mind. She was so... helpless all the time. Why had she tried to confront Kuja? Hadn't she learned by now... anything she tried to do on her own ended in disaster? Garnet was only as strong as her friends, and without them... she was nothing... wasn't she?
