テイルズオブロイドニア
Tales of Lloydnia
by: Fehize
This was a big rock. This was a dusty rock. This was a WEAPON rock.
Or, at least, mused Lloyd while yawning a bit, it's a rock that Tabatha can use as a weapon... Naturally, it was these thoughts that came out when the she-robot picked up something that weighed at least one hundred pounds and flunged it at a random Wolf. Happily, or as happy as he could be in the current situation, he cheered on his robot.
So did, too, the other Lloyd.
The sun was beginning to set down, turning the colors of a normal fall into the golden-purple hues of evening. Shadows began to elongate upon the forest's floor, and the sounds of insects, birds, and other such things crashed into each other. Lloyd, coming from the city, did everything in his power not to scream or look at every little twig breaking. For crying out loud, the town's tallest building was a TWO-story! And just FORGET about electricity! At least his 17 player/hologram movie drive [.hmd format] and Tabatha were solar powered...
He also didn't want to look like a wuss. Not now, not ever!
"ENEMY DEFEATED," rang the clear voice of the green-haired woman.
Iselian-Lloyd whistled, placing his wooden swords back in the holsters. "Dang, you don't even need a pair of swords with her around!" If it was a vieled insult, Lloyd didn't care too much. He had to agree. Now, more than ever, was he happy that his 'mother' handed him her. Luckily, it was still cool, but the air was not intending on slowing down that process. By the time they had passed the cross-roads where the Desian Ranch was, the air was just shy of freezing [to his opinion], and by now he would have been inside, with the heater on.
Alas! With a body climated like his to warmer interior weather all day long, actual outside was already showing... kinda! He could feel all forms of goosebumbs inside his jeans, felt his nose get cold; stuff like that. Did the other dude show anything like that? Of course not! Hell, it seemed like he ENJOYED this weather!
Weather this cold should only be accompanied with fucking snow. Not sleet, SNOW.
"I guess beggars can't be choosers," Lloyd grumbled a bit, kicking the dirt. Iselian-Lloyd had stated that Tokyo-Lloyd could stay at his home for a bit, 'cause it was obvious he was lost, confused... [and possibly not all there in the head]. At first, the last thing he wanted to do was waltz into a freaking DWARF'S house, right before a super agrument was going down. It took a few moments before the thought came in that there would be no argument because Lloyd did not head off towards the Ranch to begin with...
Sweet.
No massive polygons from Hell coming out to rake the ground with salt!
The red-button dressed Lloyd from wherever this was pointed straight ahead at some dull lights straight ahead. "Dad's place is JUST beyond here. He'll be wondering why I am so late - again - but it'll be alright once I explain that you guys were lost!" He stared at them both, before giving a nervous laugh. "Ah... It might be wise if we... kinda do something about you. Can't be two Lloyds, you know."
Lloyd could feel his eyebrows carve in. "Psa! I have all the right to call myself Lloyd, just as you do! So did that Lloyd who believed we all wanted our moms in our-!"
"LLOYD...!" was the stern warning.
A little mirfed, the Tokyo teenager just sighed. "If it'll make you feel better, I'll tell Mr. Dirk that I came from the land of Hillbillies."
"...What the hell is a hillbilly?"
Dirk took it better than Raine did, the teenager mused. Yeah, he kinda stared from his kid to the other not-his-kid for a bit, before muttering a curse - "Dad! You know better than that to newcomers!" - and giving a warm, glove hand to shake. Tabatha also shook his hand, and all together made the small house [they called THIS a house?] very crowded. Dinner was... something he wanted to forget REALLY fast. It was far too salty! He had said so.
"Duh. It's the only way to preserve things!"
Oh, c'mon!
"Tabatha, by chance you have a fridge in you-?"
She scoffed.
A few moments later, the door was knocked upon, again. Dirk, being the nice person that he was [the punch that happened in game seemed like a far away thing...], opened it, and meandering was the Chosen's Group. Kinda. Genis seemed to be lacking, but Raine, Colette, and Kratos was there.
Like always.
The chat was not meant for him, but rather for the Iselian-Lloyd, and that was alright with Lloyd, anyways. He knew what was going on, and actually trying to get close enough was too freaky. Tabatha kept her distance as well, only glancing here and there while sneaking in him some salad. The greens that Dirk had inside his cupboard was alright, though not cold. Ah, well, he would manage. Crunch, crucnch, crunch. The fork was nicely made, so props for blacksmithing? Kratos stayed back, giving a brief glance towards the two Lloyds... for a while. Eventually he left towards the left side of the house, which Lloyd could only guess [with a 99% accuracy] that he was visiting the creepy grave.
"OK! I have to go to the village at noon, tomorrow!" exclaimed Iselian-Lloyd when he entered once again. "I can't wait to start the Journey with Colette and see her become an angel with my own eyes!"
"Hmmm," began Lloyd. "So... if there are angels here... Where is Jesus? Or God?"
Dirk and other Lloyd gave him a funny look. "Who's Jesus?"
Tabatha saved his graces by pointing out that it was time for bed, since it was getting darker and colder.
After perhaps an hour, he ran his gloved hand through his hair. Since the Iselian-Lloyd [There has to be some better naming system for him, thought Lloyd] pretty much owned the entire second floor, he was offered the bed downstairs. The teenager had initially thought to decline, but then realized that down here was the forge. Forge meant fire. Fire meant sweet, SWEET warmth. It being night, his robot volunteered to stay next to Lloyd. Considering there was no way for her to charge at night - forests denied even moonlight for her batteries, and the lack of freaking lights denied inside charging - she needed to spend the dark hours under Sleep Mode. It seemed that today's episodes were too much for even his prized robot!
Lloyd, however, couldn't sleep. It was only 8:00 PM! In the history books, they had mentioned how wayyy back when, people woke up at sunrise and went to bed as soon as the sun went away. No such thing as Night-Life here, it seemed! He could NOT sleep in for ten~twelve hours. There was too much stuff to do!
For nearly two hours he just took a blank look at the front door. Eventually that knocked him out, due to sheer boredom. Too bad his body felt itchy in just a few moments. At first, he felt fear. Fleas! It could be those THINGS that caused the Black Death! Hell!
"AGMURF!" he cried out as he fell from the bed; pieces of the stuffing from the matress coming down with him. It took a few moments for him to get his bearing, but he gasped. For crying out loud, there were no fleas at all! Just the pieces of golden, dried out straw bitting into his shoulders and legs! How people could sleep without down feathers, he could never guess. But seeing all of this, sleeping on this bed... It kept driving further and further into his head as to how far away he was from the real world. Or rather, HIS world. Here, this was all normal. This was...
He realized how spoiled and insensible he was. But, Lloyd couldn't help it! It was too much of a change! Same thing would have happened if... If!
The hours went by, ever so slowly. At times, he would sleep. Any small sounds sent his eyes peeled open. It could be as tiny as the snore coming from the Dwarf [and yes, his brain was still trying to deny the existance of magic and that dwarfs actually exist], or as large as a gust of wind hitting the window panes. It seemed to stretch endlessly. Monster noised also came out from the distance, but they seemed to be aware that some dude with a freakishly huge hammer was inside. Come inside and try if you dared.
Noishe was easy prey though. That 'dog' - Lloyd knew better. Maybe it was some SECRET, epic helper! Or the key for an uber weapon! - was easier to scare than his best friend's six-year-old sister.
Finally his watch hit around 3AM. Lloyd slept pretty nicely after that, itchy body and all.
The first thing that hit his nose was not the smell of a village burning down from afar, which was good! Though, Tabatha noted soon afterwords that since Iselian-Lloyd was next to him all day yesterday, there would have been no super-secret-entering-the-Desian-Base.
Whew! At least that was off his concious!
"Oi! Lad." He knew that voice, but only in game mode. Sounded the same, but like the same with Kratos, you could see all the muscles Dirk had from forging for SO long. Not to mention the scent of... pine? At least, he thought it was pine. Living in Tokyo meant one didn't run up and smell trees very often. In fact, a child would have confusing thoughts over WHAT a tree was before they hit the First Grade. Oh yeah... Dirk was talking to him...
"Sorry, sorry!" Lloyd said, bringing his hands up in submission. "I was musing!"
"I was just mentioning 'bout how Lloyd was gonna run off towards Iselia. Since ye dun know your way 'round here too much, I told 'im to give ye a tour, How 'bout, that?"
Tabatha nodded a bit, stretching her arms out. "WE WOULD BE PLEASE TO DO SO, MR. IRVING. ALSO, THE KNOWLEDGE OF A TOWN OR CITY WITH SCHOLARS WOULD BE HELPFUL AS WELL..."
Life REALLY hated Lloyd Aurion, it seemed! For crying out loud, he thought nothing could get worse than an army of Desians SWOOPING in and decimating all in their wake. But apparently it COULD. It began like nothing much : Genis had come in, on cue, screaming how insensitive Lloyd was for being so late, KNOWING that Colette was leaving that morning. [Which, of course, Lloyd did not know.] It got slightly worse : A mileu of monsters came out to attack them, but Tabatha easily smited them down. So did Iselian-Lloyd, too. [The Tokyo teenager, naturally, did nothing much. What COULD he do! Use the powers of mass-fabricated Levio Jeans!] At the village itself, they couldn't find any SIGN of Colette, Kratos, or Raine [not to mention all of the stares that the teenager from Tokyo got being next to Iselian-Lloyd]. Then came the worst part : the damning letter.
Oh, Lloyd had always found Colette to be a tad bit annoying. Her voice-! Her clothing style-! Her Mary Sue-ness-!
But this letter reminded him that, for what it SEEMED, these people here were real; this world was screwed; the Chosen One had to save the world from diabotical beings. She was going to die.
Iselian-Lloyd seemed confused at first when he had read it. It wasn't until Frank had, very softly, commented that Colette was going to die at the end that that teen turned red in the fact and tried to deny it. "That's...! NO! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! Colette is going to turn into an ANGEL! To save us, not-!"
Colette's Grandmother slowly shook her head. "I'm sorry, Lloyd." She stiffled back a sob; tears for her granddaughter that she knew for so long, so little. "When the Chosen One becomes and Angel, she is... The Chosen One transforms into a Pure State, and asscends into Heaven to become..." She seemed to try to search for a word that could best communicate her thoughts. "To become a blessed servent of Martel."
"PURE STATE?" questioned Tabatha. Lloyd wondered as well! Never had this been mentioned in the game...
Frank nooded. "Her memories, soul, and body are turned over to the Great Goddess in order to awaken her after she releases the Seals."
"That's not a Goddess! That's a BITCH!" screamed out the Tokyoian. "SERIOUSLY!" After all, this was news to him, too! So the great la-la-la, Save The World Quest, everything was going to be alright... Was partly false?
Well, it wasn't as if a super religious town was going to let him blasphomy their goddess. He did just call her a female dog. But it seemed they were not worrying about that too much; a sense of change was coming in.
"I-I can't... let Colette just DIE!" the red-clothed teen muttered through clenched teeth, slamming his fist into whatever was closest. But, he reamined silent. "I... But the world..."
I know I have not Updated this in forever and a half...
Lets just say real life... stinks. -sweats-
To those still here, reading this... I apologize!
And I LOATH these new page breaks...
