Chapter 2 - The Enduring Fellowship of Indigo

It was three days later, morning, and the members of Clan Indigo, minus one Molly, resided in a treehouse on the edge of an oceanside cliff 3 minutes from Baguba's borders. It was no ordinary treehouse, however-- it had been reinforced with the touch of a war-veteran Gadgeteer and inventor-on-the-side, Yinns, leader of Clan Indigo, widely known as the "Blue Rocket" for his ace piloting skills during three deciding aerial battles over Baguba in the past. He was rather mild-mannered for an air-force person, but the clan knew what he was like around his buddies, respecting him either way as both a pilot and their clan leader. The treehouse, their clan headquarters, had a voice-activated opening door, so only Yinns and his clan members could enter by themselves, and the tree itself was hollowed out and had cannons built into it in case Clan Indigo needed to fight a battle close-quarters. To this day they have never had to actually use the cannons-- the sight of them ready to fire beams of destruction was enough to bring the morale of the opponent down to a level unsatisfactory for combat of any kind.

Inside the Indigo HQ resided five old friends and clanners. Yinns the Moogle occupied the corner of the room, clad in his blue overcoat with all those pockets, doing arobics-- something he often did in the mornings ever since the wartime, even with the heavy coat. (When he took OFF the coat to exercise, he meant business.) Elliot was reclining in one of those armchairs that leaned back when you pulled the lever, eyes closed, apparently doing nothing, however he kept his Snake Staff held in both scaly hands, laid across his body diagonally. He never let that staff out of his sight, as it helped him communicate with his lord and master, the Dragon Totema Adrammelech.

The round, wooden table was occupied by a maroon-clad Viera, a Bangaa with thick, silver armor, and a Nu Mou in typical Black Mage attire (the pointed, straw hat was "typical" while the robes were a thick, very dark grey, rather than the Black Mage's typical blue robe). The Nu Mou had no expression on his face whatsoever, while the aggressive-natured Bangaa and spritely, teenage Viera were chatting it up like there was no tomorrow. All three held two playing cards in their hands and were careful not to show each-other, as well as a stack of Gil on the table by each of them.

"I can read you like a book, Theodore!" the Bangaa exclaimed. "You have a 5 and an 8, off-ssuit. Admit I'm right!"

No response. Theodore knew he was going to have to show him up pretty soon.

"Fine, I'll play your game. Raisse 400 Gil!"

In a very serious tone, the Nu Mou spoke, sliding Gil into the center of the table. "Raise 2000 Gil."

The Viera burst out laughing. "Haha! Alastor, when will you learn? This is the third time he's played you like this! ...I fold."

"URGH! April, I don't need your commentss, they're disstracting! ...Fine, Theodore, raise 4000 Gil," he declared, trying to keep his temper in check.

"You're tilting." Theodore. Again, serious as ever.

"Quiet you! No I'm not!"

"All in."

"All in it iss, hippo!" Each slid a large amount of Gil into the center of the table, winner take all. Alastor the Bangaa's adrenaline level was too high for him to think strategically at this point.

Both laid their cards down, and Theodore revealed his Pocket Queens. April burst out laughing again.

The Bangaa on the armchair opened one eye. "Pleasse. Keep it quieter," he hissed. "It'ss hard to have morning prayerss while you three bicker."

April tried to regain control of herself, still laughing between words. "Sorry, it's so hard to keep calm with Alastor's amazing read-you-like-a-book abilities in play..."

Yinns spoke up, still exercising. By now he was in the Jumping Jacks stage and hadn't even broken a sweat. "Not again, kupopo... Theodore pulled out pockets on you, Alastor?"

"Yess... Againsst my Jack 10 ssuited diamondss... Well, April, you're the dealer, let'ss ssee ssome dealing!" He was determined to get it over with, knowing he probably lost. But in a pre-flop all-in, anything could happen. He clung to that chance.

"Oh, right." April revealed the first three cards, also known as the Flop. Queen, 10, Queen stared up at them. Theodore had flopped a 4-of-a-kind.

Amazingly, Theodore was still as expressionless as ever. He spoke two words. "I win."

April, eyes wide. "Wow... Just wow..."

Alastor, eyes narrow. "You musst be joking... Nobody'ss that good..."

Back to Theodore. "It's just luck, Alastor. I don't often bet pre-flop like that, but I could not bear to leave alone a comment like you made."

The Bishop on the couch spoke up again, having pretty much finished his morning prayers. "Bessidess, gambling iss a ssin, as we all know... Perhapss you should pray about your actionss, brother Alasstor..." The primary Bangaa religon, centered around Adrammelech and the ancient order of the dragon, was highly similar to catholicism, meaning a holy man such as Elliot was very opposed to that sort of thing.

"Pleasse... NOT now, Elliot... The lasst thing I need iss another one of your ssermonss." Deflecting the healer's religous philosophies yet again, Alastor slumped back down into the chair, as he had earlier stood up in disbelief when he saw the inhuman flop... "Well, I guesss I'm out of Gil for now... Yinnsss, have any ideass what kind of work we'll be doing today? Your melee sspecialisst needss cash..."

Yinns was about to respond to Alastor's mildly selfish request when the door slid open, and in walked Molly. Everyone except Alastor turned in her direction to greet her.

"Kupo! Welcome, Molly!"

"Greetingss, Molly."

"Good morning, Molly."

She smiled broadly at all of them. "Kupo! Hi everyone! Guess what I got!!" Quick as a flash, she drew a shimmering vermillion rod from her belt, twirled it expertly in front of her and planted it firmly in the floor like a quarterstaff. It was tipped with a glowing, yellow, cross-shaped gem and seemed to fill the room with an energetic feeling.

"Oh WOW!" the members of Clan Indigo expressed in their various ways. Even Alastor sat up to stare at the rod and smile.

But of all of them, it was Yinns that was the most pleased.

"Kupoooooooo!! So you're going to aim for becoming a Time Mage after all!" he exclaimed, grinning and excited. Molly nodded.

As the others resumed what they were doing, Theodore put his Gil from the Poker game away in a bag and slowly walked over to Molly to see her new Rod, as his vision was not that good. For once he actually smiled. "You like your new weapon, I see. I remember what it was like for me getting my second weapon... Such an exciting day in a young Mage's life."

"Kupo... Did you miss your first weapon?"

"I was actually glad to be rid of it," he put it bluntly.

Molly gasped. "Goodness, kupo! Not me... I have my old Rod saved in a special spot and I'm gonna save it for ever and ever!"

The wise, mysterious Nu Mou smiled again. Molly was the kind of girl that could make anyone feel happy and warm on the inside. She was so innocent, so pure... Yet in battle she was focused and could rain hell's wrath in the forms of Fire, Ice and Lightning.

"Just curious is all, but why would you save a weapon you don't bother using?" Theodore asked the chipper Moogle.

"Because I have no wish or desire to part with my dearest memories," she said with a smile.

"Ah yes. After all it was Yinns who gave you that Rod as a present for joining the clan... Very insightful. But I don't open the opportunity for myself to live in the past. I guess we'll always be different in that way."

At that moment, Yinns, who had finished his exercises, approached from behind Theodore to get their attention. "Hey, kupo... We were just discussing what we should do today. Care to join us?"

"Okay!" she immediately exclaimed. Theodore gave a chuckle and took a seat nearby to listen to the group conversation.

Yinns began to speak. "Kupo. First off, kudos to Molly for gaining her second ever weapon, after over ten months..."

Molly beamed.

"I had talked with her a few days ago about her becoming a Time Mage, kupo. I think the clan could use one, and though Theodore long qualifies for that position we all know and respect his position on the subject..."

There was no expression on Theodore's face. As usual.

"That said, as Day One of Huntmoon is coming up again, I think we should spend all of Huntmoon training for new abilities we have yet to learn, kupo." Pause. "Some of us know all the generic skills of our jobs... Elliot knows all the Bishop abilities and Theodore knows all the Black Magic spells out there, kupo, and I know all the Pandora Attacks... For those of us in that position, we could either switch jobs for a while and master a second class..."

"NEVER!!" cried Alastor enthusiastically.

"OR, let me finish... OR, engineer some of our own abilities."

There was a slight murmur from the members of Clan Indigo.

"...Iss that even posssible?" wondered Alastor.

"Kupo," Yinns replied. "I'm a Gadgeteer. Anything's possible."

Silence.

"Hey, it's been done before in the past, kupo! A little faith would be nice, yes?"

Elliot spoke up next. "Yess, but the Gadgeteer iss more verssatile in termss of free sstyle tech engineering than other jobss. Bishopss have very rigid ruless to follow."

"Not as versatile as the Black Mage..." Theodore added quietly, chuckling. Molly overheard him and giggled, and the two mages shared a mischievous grin, a rare sight in Theodore.

"Face it, Yinnss, we need more clan memberss. That'ss our only chance of improving our verssatality." Alastors opinion failed to surprise the Moogle leader, as he was not too fond of change.

"Well, I... kupo..."

"But you're the fearlesss leader, not I," the Bangaa added, almost mockingly.

"No, kupo, we're all in this together. But I really think we should make our own Techs too..."

"To do that, we'd need to make our own weapons," April offered, "which in turn would require special materials, like Zodiac or Mythril."

Molly spoke. "Kupo... If you need materials, you'd have to travel to other regions of Ivalice, wouldn't you?"

Yinns slowly nodded, getting lost in thought over the possibilities of new weapons.

"Or," Theodore added, "we could simply post a pub request asking for someone to deliver them, saving time and energy..."

"Kupo. Remember what happened last time we did that?"

Everyone shuddered. That wasn't a pretty memory... The delivery had arrived 10 days late and only half of the materials had made it at all because bandits had attacked the caravan on its way to Baguba. When the troupe still demanded full payment and Clan Indigo had refused to give it to them, a battle ensued and ended with Yinns in the Baguba hospital and the others with severe wounds. It was one of the only times Molly's mother really freaked out about her clan goings-on.

"Yes, but do you really think we should leave out Molly?" Theodore asked next, revealing the centerpoint of his last suggestion.

All eyes turned to Molly.

"Oh, kupo..." she said shyly... "You... You don't have to worry about me, guys."

"Are you sure?" Yinns asked with uncertainty.

"I'm positive, kupo. First off I've been really into the clan stuff as of late, and could use some time off... Second, I can take this time to train my kupo spell Thundara, as you suggested, and thirdly if I get desperate I can always work as a mercenary for another clan until you get back."

"Well, kupo..."

"It really is alright. I can't go with you, kupo. Mother would have a fit." She laughed. In reality she was sad to be left behind, but clans were clans, and they had been more than fair in the past by including them in as many activities as possible by only taking missions based in Baguba.

Everyone else smiled... What a selfless little girl she was. "Well, in that case, kupo," Yinns said, "I guess we can head on out. Get your stuff guys, kupo."