Gippal's Ghost
A/N: I wrote this after a conversation a friend of mine and I had. It's a cute little humorous one-shot, or at least I like to think so. I hope you enjoy it and I hope that you review after you finish reading it. This one-shot may be a bit OOC, or maybe a lot.
On a dark and stormy night, come to think of it, it's always stormy at Djose and it's always dark at night...go figure. At around midnight Gippal was walking through one of Djose's many corridors. He continuously and cautiously glanced over his right shoulder, as if he was expecting some maniac to jump out from behind him, steal his clothes and leave him for dead. Why, might you ask, was Gippal glancing over his shoulder like a scared six-year-old who had just seen the Exorcist for the first time? Well, it's because Yuna told one of her famous ghost stories earlier that night.
An infamous Al Bhed man, that Gippal had never heard of, went insane searching for the temple treasure. While he would sneak up on his unsuspecting victims they would hear the sound of scraping leather on leather, then he would jump them and leave them for dead inside a secret compartment in Djose. Gippal had never found this "secret compartment" himself, but it sure sounded like something that would be in Djose. Maybe the whole story doesn't sound very scary to you but when Yuna tells a ghost story, she tells a ghost story. Gippal bet to himself she was the best ghost story teller this side of Spira.
Big, macho, I-Have-An-Eye-Patch Gippal, now Scared-Child-Ready-To-Piss-His-Pants, was called from his bedroom to go to the highest chamber in Djose by a Machine Faction member to fix some problem with their newest experiment. At the time Gippal had mumbled something about Leaders never getting any sleep, but it's not as if Gippal actually was getting any sleep. The Machine Faction member that had called him found Gippal curled up in his bed with the covers pulled over his head and holding a stuffed Ixion from his childhood.
Gippal continued down the long corridor when he heard the noise, that awful, eerie, mind-jarring noise, leather on leather, scraping, squeaking leather. The same noise all the victims heard before the Al Bhed crazy-man came face to face with them so he could scare them to death! Gippal stopped and clenched his eyes shut, the noise stopped. The ghost was following him, playing with him.
The one clad in a lilac sweater, who we call Gippal, entered the next room walking quickly. He hurried down the short staircase to the lower floor. He flew off the last step when both he and another something ran into each other, both muffled their screams and jumped out of their skins while running in opposite directions. The lilac sweater clad one was halfway up the stairs on his hands and knees when a voice called out.
"Gippal?" a female voice asked from somewhere on the lower floor.
"Cid's girl?" Gippal asked in almost a whimper while clenching his jaw.
"I have a name." She stated very tired of having to tell him that. "D-did you hear a noise?" The petite blonde asked while trying to calm herself of the recent scare.
"Cid's girl, don't tell me Lady Yuna's story has you up, frighten' like a cornered cactuar." He drawled, playing it cool while standing up from his crawling position. Rikku eyed him with a hand on her slender hip. "Why're you down here?"
"Well... I really wanted to see what you all were working on," she whined a little. "But then I hear... that noise."
Gippal's swirled green eye got wide, "You h-" he cleared his throat in an attempt to keep playing it cool. "Rikku, it's just a story. Get a hold of yourself, you've battled the unsent before."
She narrowed her pretty Al Bhed green eyes at him, "So have you, Mister 'Did you hear it too?'" she said imitating him in a high-pitched voice, pointing at him.
"I did not say that, Rikku." Gippal stated glaring daggers at her and walking past her. Then...the noise.
Gippal stopped and looked back at the stairs on the other side of the lower floor and down the corridor. Rikku's swirled eyes got big and she jumped at Gippal and hid behind him. "Gippal, please, take me back to my room!" She whined with urgency in her voice.
"I can't, I've gotta check on the new experiment."
The two Al Bheds began their journey towards the upper chamber as the sound of thunder echoed lightly through the temple, they slowly made their way up the second set of stairs to get onto the main floor. Rikku's tiny hands clenched handfuls of Gippal's manly purple sweater. The scraping-squeak sound of worn soft leather rubbing against leather followed them. Gippal began sweating nervously and suddenly the sound became louder. He felt Rikku let go of his sweater and saw the spunky blonde power-walk past him. "Rikku, stop acting like a scared dingo." Gippal said, now glancing behind him as the sound became louder. "Rikku." He said in a warning tone.
Gippal watched the energetic blonde in front of him continue to power-walk past him, so now the not so macho Gippal started power-walking next to her. "I'm not going to be in back!" He hissed at her and started running past her as the leather sound became louder and faster. Rikku squeaked and started running too. They entered the room leading to the room of the semi circle of pedestals, and the stairs to get to the highest chamber in Djose.
The two blondes looked at each other and were about to run for the stairs when a dark figure came out of the pedestal room. Gippal and Rikku grabbed each other and screamed in pure fright before stumbling up the stairs as fast as they could. They made it to the room where the experiment was held, a few of the remaining faction members stared oddly at their leader and Rikku as the two panted and stared at the opening to the stairs.
"Cusadrehk fnuhk?" a faction member asked concerned.
Gippal and Rikku just caught their breath when the figure came into the room and again, Gippal and Rikku latched onto one another and screamed.
The dark figure came into the light of the lamps to reveal it's identity, and low and behold it was Paine. And she didn't look the least bit amused by the antics of Gippal and Rikku. "What is going on?" She demanded crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently.
"I wanted to see the experiment." Rikku started.
"I got called to see about a problem on the experiment." Gippal said at the same time Rikku started.
"And I started hearing this rub-squeak-rub-squeak!" Rikku frantically explained while demonstrating the noise.
"Then I started hearin' this awful noise as I walked down the corridor." Gippal explained.
"And then I saw Gippal!"
"Then I ran into Cid's girl."
"And he was hearing the noise too and-" Rikku was cut off by Paine.
"Enough!" She commanded. Gippal and Rikku recognized the tone her voice so the pulled their feet together, stood straight with their shoulders back. "Now, one of you, summarize." Rikku spoke first, how surprising, Gippal thought to himself.
"Yunie's story, it's true! The Ghost is real." She said hissing the last part quietly.
A faction member in the back snickered and Paine raised a brow and showed signs of a smirk. "Rikku, don't be an idiot." She looked at Gippal, "Tell me you don't believe this." Gippal shifted his gaze to the floor and scuffed his leather boot on the stone floor. "Gippal... respect points."
Gippal began to pace around out of embarrassment. Rikku's eyes got wide and filled with fright as she pulled on Paine's leather shawl. "See! We're not making it up!"
Paine looked at her as if she had just been hit over the head by an iron giant. "Gippal?" He turned to look at his ruby eyed friend and stopped. Paine shook Rikku off her and stared at Gippal extremely irritated, she had given him far more credit than he deserved. "You dumb ass, it's your boots."
He stood looking at his faction members dumb-founded and took a few steps and to his surprise he heard the noise. Rikku slapped him up side the head in a huff and stormed of after Paine. "Gippal, you big meanie!"
"Oww." Gippal said rubbing the back of his head. He was handed a wrench by one of the faction members and they all started laughing at him. "Cridib! Oui'ja hajan raynt uha uv Lady Yuna's cduneac!"
The End.
Please review and tell me what you thought.
"Cusadrehk fnuhk?"
("Something wrong?")
"Cridib! Oui'ja hajan raynt uha uv Lady Yuna's cduneac!"
("Shutup! You've never heard one of Lady Yuna's Stories!")