001 ▲ video.

[sylvan]

[The video comes at an odd angle, all wild waves of vivid green hair, occasionally rocking nauseously to reveal pale, creamy skin and the flash of dark blue eyes or part of a nervous but friendly smile -- much like the voice that comes over the airwaves.]

I've... never used something like this before, so I hope it's working! [Her laugh comes soft, chiming a few times before dissipating. The screen shakes and a slender hand comes into view, gesturing as she speaks. Slowly her appearance becomes a little more visible; a sideways angle of about two-thirds of her face comes into focus. Though the angle is odd, it's clear that she is an attractive woman and while uncomfortable, she radiates warmth.]

I'm not really sure where I'm going with all of this, I hadn't had much of a plan in mind when I started. [Another soft laugh that implies she's lost in more than one sense of the word. It doesn't reach her eyes, nor does the smile any longer.]

I do have a question, though, if no one minds it. What now?

Comments

[sylvan]

[ For the first time since this conversation started, she smiles. Small, and gentle, only made more obvious by how she closes her eyes and nods. ]

No, I think it suits you. [ Somehow, it did. She liked to imagine that every now and then, even he tired of his own behavior and acted like an adult. ] I've always enjoyed being with everyone when we aren't fighting, you know. I wish we'd had more time together.

[ The second time, she doesn't mean everyone. Just him. As for her interests, most of them are very heavily focused to what he already knows: magic and Eidolons. She likes nature, she likes animals. She likes to read and she likes to fight. She isn't much of a cook, but she enjoys some of the things she's learned along the way -- how to bake bread, can fruit, or dry meats. Mostly, she doesn't think she enjoys staying in one place too long, despite the fact that she loves the Feymarch (and Mist).

She bounces a little, rocking on her feet. The kind of gesture she often saves for when she speaks to Cecil while looking a little starry-eyed. ]

I'd like to get a treat for this animal that's been following me first, though. [ She turns the screen to the Meow Wow that looks positively thrilled that she's showing it any attention. In that sense, he's like most people. ] From what I gather, he's mine. Cute, right?

[onehandsomeslickninja]

[She's pretty when she smiles. She's pretty when she's happy. As pretty as any girl Edge ever knew, and then some. It's not just looks that keep him completely hooked on her, but they sure contribute.]

[Of course, he'd never guess she meant 'we' as 'her and him', since she... hasn't had any overt interest in that particular party configuration, not that he could tell. Then again, by now Edge's inability to read between the lines is perfectly clear.]

[Dream Eaters! Dream Eaters are a nice, neutral conversation topic! He practically jumps on it with relief.] Oh yeah, your Spirit. Here's mine! [He turns the communicator down to point at his Hebby Repp.] Great backup. Good companions, at that. Ha, come to think of it, I've been carrying the Figments around to make a couple others since I played that rigged game back at the party we had here...

[sylvan]

[ She frankly has never really noticed that's how he feels. It's hard to pick through the flattery and find something that feels real to her. It's easier when it's just them, though.

Sometimes, she think he might not be too unattractive if she could see the rest of his face when he smiles. ]

Feels a little strange, everyone else having their own summons of sorts. [ Rydia holds her tongue and doesn't make a comment on the similarity between his spirit and a snake. She could tease well and fine, but after such a heated argument? They both could rest. ] Rigged? And somehow you managed to not be a victim?

[ A pause as she crouches to pet hers. ] I was thinking I might name him Von Muir. [ Of course she would name it after someone she knows. Whether she could get away with it or not was debatable... ]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Of course I was a victim! I didn't win the grand prize! [He might be a little petulant, but if she wants genuine from him, she couldn't get more genuine than his indignation at not winning a throwing contest. Of course, his only proof that it was rigged was his failure to win... but honestly, credit where it's due, that's probably proof enough.]

Guess I ought to go get the pieces made into something. Make introductions all around.

[sylvan]

You sound a little bitter! [ She has to find out what kind of contest it was, now. She imagine it's something that would attack his pride: stealth, speed, ninjutsu or maybe throwing. Either way, she's enjoying it a little too much. It feels like they're on one of the airships again, discussing some event they stumbled upon in a town not long ago. ]

...Edge? How long have you been here? [ She'd been itching to ask the moment she found out that some people had been here for several months. It was just a little hard to do that when they were being unrelenting toward one another. But she's starting to move as she speaks, toward that tea shop. She doesn't know if he's there yet, but she can wait. ]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

I should have been able to win no matter HOW rigged it was. [Yes, he's a little bitter, but her question takes him away from those thoughts as he tries to come at an answer.]

It feels like a couple of months. It's really hard to tell, honestly. Twilight Town is always dark, Traverse Town is always sunlight, and the Mother of Invention is a Lunar Whale that's far away from anything. There's no days... But a couple of months feels right.

[So not several, but quite some time from his perspective. A very lonely time, at that, though he didn't ever really allow himself to think of it.]

[sylvan]

How difficult it must be for you, dealing with your pride being wounded so. [ She seems to think this is amusing. Well, of course she does. She can't really be blamed when his reactions are so comical. ]

A couple of months? [ She's already heard that time moves differently here. She isn't too surprised, but it still bothers her that she didn't know he was gone -- perhaps no one did. ] Time can be a strange thing, can't it? It can feel as if it's moving quicker and slower during the same day. Sometimes more literally than not.

I'm the most intimately aware of it when I'm alone. Funny how that works.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

[The word 'intimate' and all of its forms is very distracting when she uses it.]

That's my guess. It hasn't been so bad... actually, to be honest, I'm enjoying it more than I did being King.

[That's not news for anyone who knows the ninja. He's never shirked from his responsibility -- meaningfully, anyway -- but he's never really welcomed it either.]

It has felt long at times, though.

[sylvan]

[ Of course he does. She isn't paying enough attention to that sort of thing now. Her guard's down. ]

I'm not very surprised about that. [ She thought of him as immature, but not irresponsible. Reckless, but not uncaring. She knew he loved his country more than anything. ] I.. didn't know that you'd become king. [ She admits, honestly. It isn't about the title itself and what comes with it but being out of the loop. ]

I was starting to think I should visit everyone, but... you all have your duties and responsibilities. [ She knew they'd always have a place for her, but sometimes it felt like they didn't. ] I suppose I grew use to seeing everyone every day.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Yeah, the... position was open. [He laughs without any humor to cover the awkwardness. That wound will always hurt, as long as he lives. You don't just lose your parents like -- like that, and not have it scar.]

Now, Rydia, can you imagine what Cecil and Rosa would say if they heard you thinking they were too busy to welcome you as a guest? They'd be scandalized! Any one of us would have loved to see you show up on the doorstep!

[It's a complicated chain of assumptions underlying with the statement, beginning with his conviction that she would have gone to Baron and Cecil would have sent word out to the others, urging them to come. Rydia showing up at Eblan seems completely impossible.]

[sylvan]

...yes. I know. [ She'd been there. They'd been so regal, so incredible despite what had happened to them. If the circumstances were different, she had thought she would have liked to know them. They would have gotten along well with Leviathan and Asura, she thought. It wasn't one she liked to dwell on. ]

I... constantly miss them. Everyone. [ She pauses and she allows herself a moment to be vulnerable. Her mind rushing faster than her mouth can move. ] My most vivid memory is of Cecil. When he still wore that Dark armor. I remember the first time he took off his helmet so clearly. Edward's voice before his face. The way Yang would carry me. And Tellah. You never met Tellah, did you?

[ His death was so unnecessary. She missed him often. If he had been there when she returned, she could have relearned White Magic. There's no doubt in her mind. ]

I don't know what I expected. I knew things couldn't remain as they were, but I guess the change just came so abruptly.

[ She doesn't know if she'd feel welcome there, in Eblan. Not after how he had treated her. ]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Never saw the man in that armor. The way he is, I can believe it easily and yet I can't imagine it. You can just tell, you know, not by how he is but how he seems to expect himself to be. Never met the old man either.

[That's not a prejudicial use of 'old man', mind, just a descriptor. Edge sometimes finds it very strange that so much was going on elsewhere. The assault on Eblan, its destruction, the flight of his people... all of that seems so all-encompassing, like it's all the story the world can hold. But even he knows that's a self-centered view.]

Me, I miss it all! Sitting on a throne just isn't the same. You talk and talk and order and direct, and none of it feel like it's doing anything, not like putting a shuriken in the eye of a monster does!

[sylvan]

It's meant to promote fear. It's all horns and spikes, grotesque looking. It was a strange contrast to the man beneath it. As for Tellah, he was as wonderful as all the stories about him claimed him to be. I could have learned so much from him.

[ A more human side of magic from him. Sometimes she wonders if things could have been different, if they'd found a way to Eblan sooner. But you can't dwell on things like that. It doesn't change anything. All it changes is how you feel about yourself and what you couldn't accomplish, even if it was impossible. ]

I know you never liked him, but I miss Kain, too. The sound of his voice was always reassuring to me. I only saw him with his helmet off once, you know. [ She'd never seen Edge remove that face mask of his. She wonders if it's some sort of tradition, but it's an odd thing to approach. ] Sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing, allowing him to walk off without ever telling him directly that I forgave him. Maybe I... should have went to Mist. Should have told him to come with me and find his redemption in creation instead of that lonely mountain.

[ Regrets, she has a few of her own. ]

I think it must be difficult for all of you. Everyone has suddenly been thrust into something unexpected after dealing with just that. I... guess I'm the odd one out. [ Aside from Palom and Porom, but they were still children. ]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Funny how something you've been preparing for and expecting your whole life can still be unexpected, huh?

[He isn't going to talk about Kain. Edge may have come to some grudging respect for the man after all their battles together at the end, but he can't get past the fact that the dragoon's conflicts are completely beyond his understanding. Edge's moral compass points straight and true, never flickering or wavering. Kain's did not.]

[...after all this buildup about his mask, it's going to surprise her to no end to find that he has no problem taking it off to eat and drink when they're not in the field or under combat conditions, isn't it? The simplest things could get so complicated.]

Ha ha, listen to us. Here we are in the world of dreams, and all we can talk about is back home!

[sylvan]

Maybe. I haven't experienced it like you have. I experienced loss and change, but... everything is the way it was when I left the Feymarch. It always is.

[ Rydia would beg to differ. He was taken advantage of, he'd suffered. Golbez was no different. If anything, it made her all the more sad. This man who had spent his life so full of misery and hate, forced into it as a small, scared child. And now he's alone, sleeping.

(She might strike him, frankly.) ]

An ideal home, I suppose. [ She stops in place, their little chat having carried her just as much as her feet had. ] ...are you already inside?

[ She seems nervous. It's not really like her, so surefire and confident. ]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Ha, no, I'm in a different world entirely! Here, hold on. [He turns to point the communicator skyward, showing off the permanent sunset of Twilight Town. Then, a few steps forward takes him through the portal between worlds, and into the eternal night of Traverse Town.]

There are four worlds here, all connected. The Moogle mentioned that to you? There are different Nightmares in each one, as well, and sometimes different rules for how things work. Don't worry, though, I'm coming.

[Though he doesn't know if he should hurry or dawdle. Some intuition tells him that things are changing. The comfortable familiar is being replaced by the alarming new... and after change after change, he's hesitant to embrace a new one. Particularly one involving Rydia, since historically those changes haven't been good ones.]

[sylvan]

[ That only makes her more nervous. It's not like the moon. With the moon, it was one place. They were the only ones there other than those strange, cute folk that would hum, Fusoya, and Bahamut. The sleeping Lunarians didn't really count and Bahamut felt almost like coming home, almost like she belonged there as much as Cecil had. ]

Four, I see. [ She had some idea, it had been mentioned to her. It was just hitting her now. ] Anyway, we're fine. I should probably let Whyt out, but I'm a little worried about his reaction to this place.

[ She looks around on cue, like he'll get it. She isn't afraid of something happening to him, but he knows how it works: slay a summoner's Eidolon, slay a summoner. Maybe it's in the back of her mind and maybe that's why she hesitates. ] I think he'll be pleased to see you again, though. [ She bounces, shifting weight from one leg to the other. ]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

[The thought never occurs to him -- in part, because he isn't familiar with the kill-Eidolon-kill-summoner rule the way she is, and in part because Whyt can generally put up more of a fight than anything he knows of here.]

[Also her bouncing is damn distracting...]

Yes, but the fourth one just opened recently. So likely we'll see more and more... we might even see someplace that looks like home. All these worlds are connected to people here.

[sylvan]

[ She thinks she can handle anything, between her magic, her whip, and the chubby little thing following her. Hopes, at least. ]

That's unnerving. But it's how dreams work, right? They're memories and thoughts, all mixed up. I've never had one this vivid, though. [ Maybe all dreams are this vivid while you're having them and you just can't recall them when you wake? ] I can't remember touching and feeling like this. Or anyone else invading them.

[ That was practically a set-up for him to use a line on her. She regrets it. Just a bit. ]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

[Amazingly, Edge misses the opening -- because he can impress her with his knowledge instead!]

These aren't people's dreams. These are the dreams of worlds. Hey, we can sleep here and have our own dreams in these dreams that we're in, so we're awake in a dream.

[Hopefully the knowledge would distract her from his failure to really communicate it.]

[sylvan]

[ She frowns a little, staring at the chubby little creature she's named after the fair prince she met so long ago. ]

I see. I think maybe that makes it even more unnerving, in a way. [ Although in some ways it is comforting that things aren't going to change, that her body and its functions are the same. But imagine all the training she could do, all the things she could learn without sleep! ]

You're alright, then? [ She tries to sound as nonchalant as possible with her concern. ]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Of course I'm all right! After everything I've been through, this is nothing!

[And that's true, as far as it goes. Compared to the siege and sack of Eblan, getting revenge against Rubicante, traveling to the moon... what's this? Nothing at all.]

[...though he always had someone by his side, or at his back, before, be it Cecil and his friends, or the Eblan ninja clan...]

The people here are good, even the ones who aren't quite people, and there are monsters to fight, even if they're Dream Eaters.

[sylvan]

Don't say things like that. [ It's less harsh or annoyed than usual. It's a serious, concerned tone she might have taken with Cecil, instead. (She always saved the best parts of herself for him, didn't she?) ] You can't know what might happen later.

[ Though so far she doesn't disagree. But she can't summon and it feels like... her magic might be weaker? They don't have anyone that can heal them, whether it be a White Mage or Paladin. The two of them alone were powerful, but... they couldn't have beaten Zeromus alone.

And in the back of her mind, she realizes the truth. This wasn't Zeromus. It wasn't nearly as awful. And, if it were, she has to have faith in herself and in Edge like she does so wholly in Cecil. ]

I've noticed. I'm going to seek out somewhere more secluded and try to see if I might be able to summon anyone other than Whyt and if my more powerful magics are sealed.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Sounds like a good plan. I'll go with you.

[He assumes without thought he'll be welcome; he's already falling back into old habits, where the party stayed together and fought their battles side-by-side.]

But, after the tea, right? I'm almost there...

[Actually he's slowed down just a little bit, out of a truly uncharacteristic sense of nervousness. He's been talking to her on the communicator, he shouldn't feel this way. Edge just plain doesn't understand what she does to him, or why.]

[sylvan]

Alright, that's fine.

[ She's no different. She's never really liked being alone. It's why it was so easy for her to slip back to the Feymarch and carry on there. Especially since unlike people, Eidolons can't die. She'd never be alone with them. ]

After tea, of course. I seem to have missed a lot...

[ She's still showering attention onto the chubby catdog that she's named after Edward (she would hope he wouldn't take offense). She'd never admit to nervousness, but things have changed since they last saw one another. Quite a bit. She isn't really sure how to approach it, him being King. Maybe Edward had also ascended without her knowing? How far has everyone moved forward without her knowledge? More importantly, did they care that she didn't know?

The worry can be seen in the way her eyes narrow minutely and her eyebrows dip and furrow. It's almost huffy. ]