6/15/07

This is the fifth in a series of Variations exploring what might have transpired immediately after the Commsphere on the FarPlane stopped working. The setting and the characters belong the Square-Enix; the imagining belongs to me.

The Whole Truth

Nooj: If you're done playing, let's go.

Gippal: Chill out.

Nooj: Lost your nerve?

Gippal: Hey, we're talking about Vegnagun. How the heck do you fight that thing? We can't even walk up to it without freakin' it out.

Nooj: Or making it mad. But I've got a plan.

Gippal: If it doesn't work?

Nooj: Death will be my apology.

Gippal: Whatever, man. When a Deathseeker dies, that's no apology. What about Leblanc?

Nooj: Well, she—

" ... wait a minute! You keep bringing LeBlanc into the conversation. Why? What does she mean to you?"

"Nothing. Everybody on Spira's seen how she hangs after you, so I was just wondering -"

"Well, stop wondering. There's nothing there to wonder about." Nooj stomped on a few more paces, digging his cane into the soft loam underfoot.

"OK. So maybe there's something between me and her," Gippal said sheepishly.

"I don't want to hear it." The taller man continued to move toward the misty horizon. "Do you have any idea which way we're supposed to be going?"

"Not a clue," the other replied cheerfully. "I thought we'd just keep going 'til something turns up."

"Easy for you."

"But about LeBlanc as I was saying -"

"I don't want to hear."

The man with the yellow hair spoke in an unbroken sentence. "I had a coupla sessions with her before she latched on to you."

"Not interested." Nooj was at his most fastidious.

"She's not bad, you know. Or maybe you don't know. Has lots of kinky ideas. Pretty fun ..."

Nooj turned to glare at the younger man. "A gentleman does not discuss such things."

Gippal trained an innocent eye up to his comrade's face. "But I'm not a gentleman. I'm Al Bhed." He spread his hands as if to explain the obvious.

"Nonetheless, act as if you have some pretensions to honour and shut up."

"Why? This is boring, walking though this nothing place. Why not entertain ourselves or, at least, let me entertain us?"

"You do not entertain me. You're making me uncomfortable."

"OK. What do you want to talk about?" Gippal was crest-fallen.

"You can tell me the true tale of how you lost your eye, if you must discuss personal matters." Nooj challenged him.

"OK. As I was saying, LeBlanc has some kinky ideas in bed and ..."

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