Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XII and its characters belong to Square-Enix. I'm just having a little fun with them and am not making any money.
AN: Takes place after the Thextera hunt but before Vaan sneaks into the palace.
Monograph
"Hey, Penelo, check out what I got in the Bazaar." Vaan said as he walked into Migelo's Sundries. He really needed to get moving if he was going to sneak into the palace during the fete, but he couldn't resist showing his friend what Gatsly put in the Bazaar for him as part of his reward for bringing down the Thextera mark.
"Oooh, it looks like a magic grimoire." Penelo said as she took the musty old tome from his hands. The symbol on the cover glowed an eerie blue, perhaps reacting to the girl's greater magic skills. "What is it, exactly?"
"It's a Hunter's Monograph." Vaan explained. "It'll help me get better loot from beasts and avions." He'd already read a few entries in it. It listed beasts and avions from all over Ivalice alphabetically and listed tips for salvaging marketable parts of each creature.
"And you found it in the Bazaar?" Penelo clarified.
"Yeah. Gastly put it in there for me."
"How much did you pay for it?" she asked.
Vaan sighed. He should've known she would ask about that. He braced himself for the meltdown that was sure to follow. "18,000 gil." He admitted.
She slapped him on the arm. "18,000 GIL?! Gods, Vaan, how stupid are you? How did you even get that much gil? We could feed every orphan in Rabanastre for that!" Penelo screeched. Several of Migelo's patrons looked alarmed at the outburst.
"I sold off the loot and extra equipment I found out in the desert today." He should have started mark hunting years ago. He'd never dreamed it could be so lucrative. "And I talked to Tomaj about it before buying it. He said it was a great deal. These things are crazy rare. They don't come on the market much." Vaan defended.
"Don't you bring Tomaj into this! That boy has gil to burn! He owns the Sandsea for crying out loud! You don't have that kind of money to throw around!" Penelo continued, her face growing red from her rage.
"It'll pay for itself. You'll see." Vaan replied as calmly as possible. Talking to Penelo in a soft, soothing voice usually calmed her down.
"You said this Gatsly put it in the Bazaar for you? That's the guy who petitioned the Thextera hunt, right?" Penelo queried.
"Ya huh."
"He said that it was part of your reward?" She pressed, eyes narrowing.
"Yeah."
"Well, if it was supposed to be a reward, why didn't he just give it to you, doofus? As it stands, you probably just paid Gatsly's rent for the next six months."
Migelo chose that moment to come to Vaan's rescue. "Penelo, my girl, we have quite the line at the register now, and here ye stand just a flapping your jaw. Run along now. And Vaan, ye need to leave if ye aren't going to buy anything and don't want to work for me anymore today." The bangaa seemed vaguely disappointed that Vaan wasn't as inclined to help out in the shop like Penelo did.
Penelo shoved the book back at Vaan with a derisive huff before rushing off to obey. Vaan sighed as he walked out of the shop. She had a point, and he knew it. Gatsly seemed like a nice enough guy. Vaan hadn't suspected him of doing anything sneaky until Penelo pointed it out. Of course, after living on the streets for so long, Vaan knew he should suspect everyone of being up to something. 20,000 gil was a ton of money for someone like him. He couldn't afford to go blowing through it in under a day.
Vaan trotted down the stairway to Lowtown feeling a grim determination. He was going to go get some amazing treasure from the palace. That would more than make up for his spending today. Then he could keep his promise and take Penelo and their orphan friends out for a good dinner. He didn't quite regret buying the monograph. In fact, he planned on keeping an eye out for more like it in the bazaar in the future. Tomaj made it sound like these things were awesome and would eventually pay for themselves, despite the high cost up front.
Maybe Gatsly hadn't put one over on him. Maybe it would just be too insane to let one of these things go for free. He'd be sure to compare its price to any others he saw for sale in the future. Maybe Vaan just wanted to believe the best about humanity today, or maybe he just didn't want to admit to himself that he might have been ripped off. Heavens help Gatsly if he felt a need to purchase anything from Migelo's today. Penelo would undoubtedly give him a tongue-lashing. Whatever Gatsly was up to earlier, Vaan had a palace to pillage. He hoped getting into the treasury was as straight-forward as Old Dalan made it sound.
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