Title: Technicolor

Title: Technicolor

Author: Gatecrasher12

Publish Date: 08/01/08

Disclaimer: I own nothing; if I did I would be the owner of Square Enix.

Word Count: 1,212

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"You don't have to travel the world to understand that the sky is blue everywhere." – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Chapter One:

Into The Blue

Journal Entry 23, page 54--

I've traveled half of this world, with the one I love most, at my side, and not once have I truly felt as if I was home. Call it homesickness, but I can't help it. While traveling this world know as Gaia, meeting new and interesting people, exploring villages, townships, and cities, looking through the regions, studying its cultures and religions, learning the languages was an enjoyable experience, I still find myself longing for the village that we were born from. If only for its familiarity and the bonds I've created with my team mates and friends.

There are very few places similar to home, such as the country of Wutai. The people there can be liken to us in the ways of tradition and lifestyle, but that is all. The ninjas of Wutai and all their other different branches of warriors, do not share the same level of abilities or power as my aijin, I, and the people back home have. For one thing they aren't trained as intensely as we are. For another, they must rely on outside sources of energy, materia, to power the bulk of their attacks and odd armaments that is a blend of modern technology and/ or traditional weaponry. In retrospect I certainly can't say they truly differ from us and the people of our origins. In many ways the people of Wutai live no differently than the people back home; their strict codes of honor and conduct, their love for each other as a group, their respect for the land. It is because of this my love and I feel more at ease in Wutai than anywhere else, so we visit this ancient land of warriors as often as we can… despite the somber and tense air that hangs over the nation like a dark cloud.

Journal Entry 15, page 26--

Not too long ago, a few days after our "Awakening" here on Gaia my aijin has brought to my notice something about the planet that worries both him and me greatly. The world seems to be dying. From what we could glean from the people's whispering conversations, it would seem that the entity known as the ShinRa Electric Power Company has been siphoning away something called Mako. Or, rather, they are excavating Lifestream energy, the very thing that gives the world the ability to live. If one thinks about it, the Lifestream is like blood to humans and animals. ShinRa, as I've already written, is a type of electric energy distributing company who have somehow managed to obtain not only an army about the same size of several small city's worth of people , roughly several thousand warriors, but also became a sort of del facto government, ruling almost the entire world.

From what I've observed from ShinRa's actions and the stories we've heard, ShinRa portrays themselves as nothing more than a prosperous power company and an ordinary military. But as an experienced konuichi who was taught to look underneath the underneath, I know different.

During our travels, we have arrived to a city called Midgar, the city of ShinRa's main base of operations. Midgar is a city divided into two halves, the Sky City (top half) and the Slums (bottom half) and eight sectors. The Sky City, which is divided into sectors 1-4, is where the rich and powerful like the ShinRa executives and other high ranking employees live. And then there is the Slums, which is divided into the remaining sectors 5-8, a place were the poor, disgraced, and corrupt are forced to live.

It's unfortunate that if I were asked to describe the city, I would honestly say someone couldn't pay me enough to live in such a place. Even my beloved, who lived near the Red-light district of our village as a child, speaks ill of the city. He refused to stay more than a few days saying the air itself was choking him with its stifling and polluted grip. It was worse under the Plate. The smog in the air was so overwhelming he nearly passed out. I wasn't surprised, considering how sensitive his senses are.

Both of us can plainly see that ShinRa's constant extraction and use of Mako/ Lifestream energy is taking its toll on the world. The miles of barren wasteland surrounding Midgar is a prime example. From what the older generations of people say, the entire area was once a forest with a surrounding plain before Mako was discovered some fifty years ago.

Not only that, but it would seem that the stores of Mako on the Western Continent is beginning to run dry and ShinRa is already warring with a land known as Wutai for their Mako for several years now…

Journal Entry 12, page 17

Things have been a little interesting in the last few days. More so than usual actually. We were hiking along the coastal region between Rocket Town, amply named considering the large rocket ship being built there, and Nibelheim, my aijin and I decided to take the more scenic rout and bypass the Nibel Mountains, when I saw something washing up out of the surf. It was a boy. He had dark hair and eyes, slightly tanned skin, he wore torn oriental styled clothes, and he looked no older than maybe ten. I could tell by not only his appearance but also by the drift wood the boy was clinging to that he was shipwrecked. There had been reports of a major storm near northern Wutai so I imagine the boy and the ship he was on got caught in it.

We ended up camping on the beach for two days because of him. The poor thing came down with a fever. However, it broke about an hour and a half ago and he's been awake for fifteen minutes now. He's making a nice recovery I might add. Our new guest is a quiet one, but not of the brooding sort. He's more shy and serious than anything else. So far he's only told us his name, if only because my beloved keeps calling him different nicknames. The boy calls himself Tseng.

Journal Entry 1, page 1

I've finally managed to start a journal. It took a while, but at last I scrounged up enough gill to buy one. If this journal is ever seen by eyes not my own, then I want whoever happens upon this log to please know that what is and will be written within these pages are true, whether you believe my words or not. That is for you to decide. My story may seem wild and farfetched. It may even seem like the babblings of a mad woman, but they are none the less true.

My name is --uga --ta, and I come from different world…

-- Excerpts from Journal 1 of