The Side Effects of Unoriginality
I do not own FFX-2. I simply own the plot and grammatical errors.
Author's Note: I am so sorry guys. I've been a busy bee, though. Work, work, work. But that shouldn't suggest that I forgot you all. So here—my peace offering, in the form of a chapter.
Chapter 11: Test Run I
After Gippal made his way downstairs, he signed some papers, gave some orders, had a friendly conversation with both Cid and Turrang about the arrangement of parts—all while avoiding direct eye contact with me, somehow—he finally stalked out of the temple with Cid on his heels. I let out a collective sigh, noticed immediately.
"Something bothering you, Rikku?" Turrang asked, helping me lug the bag of parts Gippal dropped at my feet.
"No, no…everything's fine," I lied, smiling nervously. We walked silently towards the door, each with a half-full bag of parts tucked under our arms. Well, his was tucked under his arm, mine was being choked to death for my fear of dropping it. What—he's like ten times stronger than me! Cut a girl some slack.
"Then why didn't you speak with Gippal this morning? Or at least berate him for his tardiness as you do every morning he wakes up so late into the day?" he asked pointedly. I avoided his gaze, not sure if I could pull off another straight face and lie at the same time. "While I am aware that you have been holed up in your room for a week, surely you've not lost that desire to be hard with us, have you?"
"Don't say that word…" I muttered under my breath, hugging the half-empty sack of parts to my chest. Dezba followed behind me while chirping, ruffling his feathers every so often. "Stupid boys…"
"Did you say something, Rikku?" Turrang asked, carrying his bag effortlessly. When I refused to say anything else, he narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously, but didn't press the matter anymore. I was glad. There has to be some sort of rule against lying so frequently. And if there's not, there should be. "Cid said another woman accompanied him?"
"Eavesdropping much?" I laughed, nudging against him playfully. He blushed and it spurred me on to laugh even more. "Oh, relax, Turrang. Cid's pretty loud, after all! You would have heard him anyway, I reckon."
"You're staring to sound like your vydran."
Standing in the doorway was Rosemary, clad in layers of cotton padding, her thick skirt stopping short at her knees. She looked very similar to the Rosemary that lived in Luca and the one that came to live with us in Bikanel for a while. The only difference was this one was sporting a rather nifty little gadget around her neck. Upon spotting it, my eyes lit up and I rushed towards her, completely forgetting that I was holding a bag of machina parts.
"Oh my god! Rosemary! Look at that thing around your neck!" I squealed, letting the bag pool at my feet. Dezba soon joined me, Turrang smiling at the woman politely. When he cleared his throat softly, I turned to stare at him. "What?"
"He's waiting for you to introduce us, you goof," Rosemary scolded softly. Turning to him she bowed. "My name's Rosemary. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"My name is Turrang," he replied, also bowing.
"Yeah, yeah, that's nice. Now, Rosemary—where did you get that thing?" I asked curiously, bouncing on the balls of my feet as I faced her.
"Your father gave it to me, of course," she said coyly, a pretty blush rushing to her cheeks. "Of course, that's not nearly as impressive as what I've seen here. I can see why you like the place. That Gippal fellow is rather attractive. Though, I didn't think he'd be your type—"
"He's not!" I cried, obviously too quickly, if the looks they were giving me was any indication.
"Ah, don't deny our love," a familiar voice rang in the near distance. His arm snaked around my waist before I had time to register the situation. He hugged me close to his body, the situation mirroring the one back in Bikanel with Paine and Yuna. "People have a right to know, kiddo."
"Fryd yna oui cyoehk? Crid ib, eteud!" I hissed, jabbing him in the side roughly. (What are you saying? Shut up, idiot!)
"Don't worry, Rikku," Rosemary said softly. Turning to Gippal, who had since let me go, she patted his cheek softly and said, Ed ech'd hela du cyo cilr drehkc, Gippal, acbaleymmo frah uin meddma Rikku ech'd nayto du damm dra funmt ruf cra vaamc ypuid oui zicd oad…" (It isn't nice to say such things, Gippal, especially when our little Rikku isn't ready to tell the world how she feels about you just yet.)
"Rosemary! Whose side are you on, anyway?!" I cried, gawking at her as though she had magically sprouted a secondary head.
"Relax, small one," she said kindly. "If we're only joking and teasing, what's the harm in it?"
Something about the way her lips turned upwards slightly made me think she knew exactly what she wasn't saying aloud. She was implying something rather pertinently, something I wasn't quite ready to talk about. Pouting to hide my unwillingness, I stamped my foot on the ground and reached for my bag of parts before slinging out of the temple.
"That's Rikku for you," I heard Rosemary teasing, following behind Dezba beside Gippal.
Outside, several of the workers were loading the different pieces onto a much larger ship. Seeing as Gippal's would-be airship was a little smaller than the Celsius, it was unreasonable to assume we could put it together in Djose. There simply wasn't enough space to maneuver about in. Gippal got permission to do the test-run in the Calm Lands, which is where the larger ship was taking our parts. Once we got there, we'd put the thing together and I'd finishing installing the pieces that needed to be replaced. Still, even it its compartmentalized stages, it was pretty good looking, prototype of what the finished model would look like.
No doubt, Gippal would wanna decorate the exterior later and probably put in some additional things. He was just oh so classy, after all. Give me a break. I had only provided the basics and adjusted some of the wiring. This was where the test run would come in. It would give me a chance to see what needed extra work and what needed readjusting, if not needing to be completely replaced. Since I only removed half of the old parts—the ones I knew for sure would need to be—it was a fair assumption that the ones that looked functional weren't so functional.
"Rikku, are you going somewhere?" Rosemary asked softly, watching the men load up the pieces of the ship.
"Yeah. We're heading over to the Calm Lands," I explained, bouncing back towards her. "You and Pops are gonna come, aren't you? I'd be so lonely otherwise!"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Turrang asked playfully as he walked past me. I gave him a wicked smile. "I'm hurt, Rikku. And here I thought we were your source of joy and entertainment. I'm really hurt!"
"Oh, get over it, Turrang," I said, pretending to be indignant. Turning back to a smirking Rosemary, I tugged her along beside me, looping my arms in hers. "It won't take long. It'll take about a day to fly over to the Calm Lands, another two days to put the ship together and get the pieces all switched out. And then you get to see me fly Gippal's ship!"
"With the right supervision, of course," he teased from behind me. When I narrowed my eyes at him, it served to only tickle him further. "What? You didn't think I'd let Cid's girl fly my baby without someone watching her, did you? I wanna see my ship in a few months—and not smashed to pieces."
"I'll show you smashed to pieces," I muttered, eyeing him as he walked aboard the ship, disappearing on the deck.
"I don't see why your vydran and I wouldn't go," Rosemary said thoughtfully. "I came here to see you, after all. Djose is nice, but I'd much rather spend time with you. Besides, seeing you so into this, I think it would be a shame if I passed up an opportunity like this."
"Yeah, good luck with that. Try gettin' Cid to agree to that," I said.
"You just watch me, small one," she said, a knowing glint in her swirling green eyes. She folded her arms over her chest, staring just beyond the airship, like she knew something I didn't. "There's more than one way to skin a coeurl and the last time I checked, you collect more bees with honey."
"What?" I asked, completely clueless.
"What's all this ruckus goin' on?" Cid called over the roaring engine of the ship. He was glaring at the ship as he appeared on the other side of, grease stains smudged in various places. In one hand, he held a dirty rag and in the other, there was something that looked like a chipped machina.
"Pops!" I called, leaving my bag of parts on Dezba's back. Waving my hands over my head as I walked towards him, I eventually flagged him down. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"When I left, this wasn't here," he grumbled. Rosemary soon soothed the wrinkle marks etched into his forehead, murmuring something I'd rather not repeat. He was soon putty in her hands, just another workable old man. "So, uh, anyway, where ya' headed to, Rikku?"
"The Calm Lands, dear," Rosemary said, wrapping her arms around his. "Oh, but then I won't get a chance to see her while she's away. From what I understand, she's mostly in charge of this. It's such a shame, too, dear, since she'll be gone for a week. We won't get another chance to see her for some time…"
"Bah! Nonsense," he said, waving his hand as if to wave away her concerns. "We'll just tag along with them. Gippal won't mind—and if he does, I'll be shovin' my foot where the sun don't shine. Besides, we came here to see Rikku. It's only right we go where she goes."
"Of course, dear," Rosemary said, kissing his forehead. "Would you mind going to get my bags? I think I'll escort Rikku and find out where we can sleep tonight."
"Well, all right," he said, his chest poking out with pride. I rolled my eyes.
As Cid went to get her bags, Rosemary laced her arms with mine and walked me onto the airship's loading platform. Dezba and Turrang followed behind us. My head was still reeling with what had just transpired between my father and the woman he loved. Whatever happened to headstrong Cid, you know, the one I used to know? Had he just vanished?
"It's amazing what you can do with a little bit of honey," Rosemary mused, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "Works like a charm."
I only wish I had whatever charm she had.
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three days had passed and we'd been in the Calm Lands for most of the time. Of those three days, one day was spent traveling, during which time I got to see Gippal and twenty-one different shades of frustration. There was a lot to be said about a person who could put up with Cid. He was one screw short of insane, though Rosemary seemed to like him. Whenever Cid and Gippal got together, there was only one topic that could destroy whatever semblance of peace had existed between them. Their most basic issue with one another was their views on machina. Cid having been born and raised on machina was a little old school; he believed machina had limitations to their usefulness, but would never deny them. He was an Al Bhed, after all—not a Yevonite idiot. Gippal, the more innovated of the two, believed that machina could go above and beyond whatever precedents had been set before. Naturally, they quarreled.
Luckily, the trip to the Calm Lands was short. Any longer and I'm sure the ship would have actually fallen from the sky just to get them to shut up.
After we arrived early the next morning, we settled down and started extracting the ship parts from the hangar and the carrying devices later attached to carry the bulk of our would-be ship. After that, we set up camp and the necessities for living, even if only for the span of three or four days. The next two days were spent working, where Turrang and I—plus a handful of crewmen—set to work replacing wiring and switching out old parts. I installed the energy core—now powered by harnessed energy from pyreflies. Gippal smiled at the thought of a never-ending power supply. Afterwards, I changed into my Black Mage dressphere and, along with several others, began melding together the ship parts with fire spells. Burn baby, burn!
I went to sleep that night under the stars, greatly anticipating the next morning, where I would finally get to pilot Gippal's ship. It was something like a reward for all of my hard efforts—even if it was only three months. Sure, there would be more work to follow, fine tweaking an all that, but that wouldn't take more than ten or twelve months at best. There would be more test runs and more part replacements, but for what we had achieved in such a short amount of time, I waited patiently. It would all be worth it.
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"Hey, Cid's girl—I need to talk to you."
I peered up at Gippal from my bed. I had been lacing up my blue boots, my scarf spilling down my shoulders. he was standing in the doorway like he wasn't sure why he was there. Not only that, he was jumpy—a very un-Gippalish thing. Disheveled and completely out of sorts, Gippal stood in my doorway, looking as though he was a lost child. He could have very well been one, the way he was refusing to make eye contact with me, another un-Gippalish thing. He was arrogant—looking people in the eyes to make them squirm was kinda like his "thing."
When I nodded, he came in and sat down beside me. The perplexed look on his face made me worry. Gippal was never serious, never nervous. And yet, his hands were sweating and he was fidgeting, his face a mixture of concern and forlorn exasperation.
"What's wrong, machina man?" I said, pulling my legs to my chest. I had thought of lightening the mood, but I didn't want him to think me childish. So I remained quiet, feeling like I was walking on chocobo eggshells.
"I don't think this is a good idea," he admitted. I stared at him quizzically, not entirely sure I knew what he was talking about. It would be just like Gippal to have a secret conversation with himself and then decide to clue me in half way through, as if I was somehow able to read his mind and pick up where he had left off. I can save the world—not read minds. "I mean, I don't feel right with you flying my ship, Rikku. It's dangerous."
"Oh, get over it!" I joked, nudging him playfully. He whipped his head to face me, gawking at how lightly I was approaching this. "Relax, Gippal. I promise, I won't damage your ship." Shaking my head, I got to my feet and headed for the door. Or at least, I would have, if he hadn't gripped my wrist to damn tightly. "Gippal? I said I wouldn't crash your—"
"That ship be damned," he muttered, tugging me roughly until I slammed into his chest. He trapped me in his arms, burying his face into the crook of my neck. I shuddered at the intensity of our closeness, my hands dangling uselessly at my side. "I don't care what happens to that ship if the same could happen to you, Rikku. I need you—I don't need some stupid ship if that means you're hurt because of it. Rikku, I need you."
"G-Gippal," I murmured, wrapping my arms around his waist. Closing my eyes, I rested against the stiffness of his body until he finally relaxed, the tension drifting from him. "I promise I won't do anything reckless. I'll come back to you, just like I always do. I promise."
I don't know how much time passed with me wrapped up in Gippal's arm, but I certainly didn't care. I was only concerned when I heard an all too familiar cough behind me. Gippal heard it too and we slowly, reluctantly pulled away from one another, Gippal looking at anything but the person standing in the doorway. I refused to turn around; my cheeks were on fire and my heart felt like it would tear through my chest at any moment. I couldn't very well have that happened to whatever unlucky bystander had disturbed my moment with Gippal.
"Uhm, I'm sorry to interrupt," Turrang said, staring down at the floor, his cheeks aflame too. "But, uh, the crew is all ready for the initial test run."
"Oh…all right," I said, not really paying attention to what he was saying. I was too focused on how intently Gippal was staring at me, his one good eye trained on my face. "Uhm, thanks, Turrang. I'll, uh, be down in a minute."
Turrang left silently, leaving me alone with Gippal once again. He pulled me into his embrace again, cradling me like the lost child I felt like, rocking me soothingly. I melded into him, drawing from whatever source of stability he seemed to possess, wanting it for myself. He trailed his lips against my cheek, before burying his face in my neck once more. I wasn't sure when it happened, but something drastic had changed in Gippal. He was acting differently.
He was acting like he cared about me.
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"Ymm nekrd puoc y kenmc, mecdah lynavimmo," Turrang said I situated myself into the navigator's seat. "Drec cruimt pa vyenmo cesbma. Ed'c zicd y dacd nih. Rikku femm dyga ic uid frema E kyika nayldeuhc yht dra cocdas hispanc. Drah cra'mm dyga ic pylg yht fa'mm pakeh fungehk ykyeh. Tuac ajanouha ihtancdyht?" (All right boys a girls, listen carefully. This should be fairly simple. It's just a test run. Rikku will take us out while I gauge reactions and the system numbers. Then she'll take us back and we'll begin working again. Does everyone understand?)
"I think we've got it, Cap'n obvious," I teased, pressing a few buttons. "Cayd pamdc ajanouha! Drec sekrd kad pisbo!"
the engine roared to life, stalling a few times before bursting to life. Rising into the air, it shuddered uncontrollably until settling down. Behind me, Turrang jotted down several quick notes while I took them down mentally. With it being the first time, there was a margin of error that we could allow for, most of the incidents being attributed to previous lack of use and old age. Anything exceeding that margin needed to be looked into. I racked my brain trying to remember what parts I knew for sure would need replacing after this test run. Then again, that's what Turrang had tagged along for, wasn't it? I might as well let him do his job and do my own.
Someone started saying something behind me, but he was talking to Turrang very quickly. Even if he had been talking to me, I'd have had to ask him to be silent. I was listening to the congested sound my engine was making and began running down a list of things that could make it sound so sickly. As I steered the ship forward, a shudder ran through the ship and we dipped in altitude, but nothing else noticeable followed. Gippal had warned us to keep it low to the ground, in case the engine stalled. Fixing dents was a lot easier the replacing whole sheets of metal on the ship, according to him. I found that I had to agree with him. Thirty or so feet below us, everyone who had accompanied us was waving and cheering at our initial success. I had to admit, I was surprised she was stable enough to hover for so long. Seven minutes had already passed and with the exception of the minor shudders every so often, she maintained herself quite nicely.
"She's going to need some work in the wiring part. The engine is a little rusty, too, but nothing too hard," Turrang said. "Now, Miss Navigator, let's see how the gears shift, shall we?"
"Aye-aye, Cap'n!" I cheered, shifting from neutral to first gear. The engine growled unhappily then complied to my order, stuttering forward until the kinks worked themselves out and we moved smoothly. "Whoohoo! Listen to that baby purr!"
"Stay focused, Rikku," Turrang said. "There's a whole line of people down there waiting to kill me if something bad happens to you. I would prefer to get this over with as quickly as possible without any accidents. I happen to enjoy life, thank you very much."
"Cid and Rosemary wouldn't burst a blood vessel, I promise," I said.
"And Gippal?" he retorted.
"Ah…good point," I admitted nervously.
I focused on the task at hand, randomly adjusting my gears from one to two then three, then back down to one. While the gears were mostly cooperative, there were still some kinks in the wiring and control panel that we would have to work out. the rudders were a little uncouth, too, and I'd have to be the one working of them, if Turrang was handling the electrical side of things.
"Ruf tuac cra vaam?" (How does she feel?)
"Kuut," I said, tilting my head from left to right. He came to stand beside me as I turned to face him. "Y meddma zisbo, pid udranfeca cra'c kuut." (Good. A little jumpy, but otherwise she's good.)
"Famm dryd'c kuut du ghuf," he said, smiling in relief. I couldn't blame him, I'd been as equally worried beforehand. "E't pa funneat udranfeca dryd ymm uv uin avvundc fana vun hyikrd."(Well that's good to know. I'd be worried otherwise that all of our efforts were for naught.)
suddenly, a red light above my head began glowing, a loud, ear-splitting screech following it. A warning accompanied the equally annoying occurrences, though I couldn't understand it at first. As the people around me began panicking, I stared down at the navigation panel. The warning originated from there. Doing the only thing I could think of, I slammed both my hands on the source of the original sound until it came out clearly.
Fynhehk...Fynhehk...Ehlusehk fiend...
"Fiend?!" I declared, nearly jumping from my seat. I only tightened my grip on the navigational sticks. "What fiend? I don't see any—
The ship lurched forward suddenly, tossing many of the passengers to the ground. I slammed my head against the navigational panel, the sudden stop catching me off guard. The lights kept blaring overhead, accompanied by the annoying periodical screeching; the warning sound persisting just as loudly as it had when it first started. I'll have to get a better pre-emptive warning, I found myself thinking as I sat up, rubbing my cut forehead. Turrang picked himself up, his right hand clutching onto the armrest of my seat.
"Mandragora," he said, his eyes wide with fear.
Sure enough, the leafy, clawed tentacles, which had likely stopped us in the first place, slowly wrapped themselves around the open window of the cockpit. Growling, I leapt from my seat, changing my dressphere without giving it a second thought. I changed into my black mage dressphere, spinning my staff wildly as I aimed for the tentacles.
"What are you doing?" Turrang cried, trying to stead himself as the fiend shook the ship violently.
"What do you think? I'm gonna blast it to bits, of course!" I said.
Closing my eyes, I began to Focus, magic flowing through my body like a live current. Breathing deeply, I held my staff out before me, fire racing to the palm of my hands as I gathered energy to perform Firaga. When enough energy had built up inside my hands, I channeled the energy through the staff, marveling as the bright flames licked at the glass before bursting through the window, causing the Mandragora enough pain to release us. Unfortunately, it more or less threw us into the ground, where we skidded for several yards before coming to a smoldering stop.
"Nice going, Rikku," I scolded while trying to get up. Glancing upwards, I calculated the damage. We would definitely need another three months just to fix whatever we managed to break. "Owie..." I was definitely going to need some white magic goodness later.
As I crawled out of the broken front window, I tumbled down several rocks that we created from the impact. As I touched down on ground, I heard a familiar chirping sound, though this time, it was tinged in concern. Glancing up, I saw Dezba racing towards me. Since no one else was following him, I figured he had taken off before anyone else knew something was wrong.
"Dezba," I greeted, trying to hide the pain in my left side. The crash really did a number on me. "I'm glad you're here. I might need to fight on your back again. A fiend attacked us—a terrible, nasty Mandragora and I don't know if I got it or not."
"That may be the least of our problems, Rikku."
Turrang, whose arm was wrapped around his midsection, pointed towards the side of the ship, where a mech defender was digging its pincers into the side of my ship. It tore something out of the side, something that looked strangely like the energy core I had just installed. Growling I raced towards it, only to be stopped by the impeding size of a Great Marlboro, something that had no business in the Calm Lands, last time I checked. Poisonous muck dripping from its mouth, it wobbled dangerously.
"Yeouch," I said, taking several steps backwards. "Well...at least I got rid of the Mandragora, right...?"
"How do you suppose we handle this?" Turrang asked, inching closer to me. "Any ideas?"
"Well...you're an Al Bhed, right? Shouldn't you have like a gazillion grenades handy or something?" I asked nervously. I fingered my staff, shifting my weight from one foot to the other. "Uh, right?"
"You want me to throw grenades at it?" he asked incredulously.
"Yeah. And we don't have time to argue about this," I said impatiently. "That stupid fiend took off with my energy core and I don't plan on making another one. Just follow my lead, all right? I promise you won't get hurt."
Before he could protest, I leapt onto Dezba's back and began running circles around the giant, black-blue fiend, one of its many eyes following me as we picked up speed. Turrang leapt backwards, preparing to launch a handful of grenades once its back was turned. As I raced around with Dezba, I began channeling energy, flames dancing around me as the air began warm with my magic. Naturally, the fiend focused on me, just like I wanted it to. Unfortunately for me, even with Dezba's unmatched speed, the Marlboro depended mostly on its status-inflicting spells as opposed to straight out damage. I had about one minute before the situation spiraled out of control.
"Time to heat things up," I said, before a ball of flame burst from my staff. The Great Marlboro roared loudly, before spewing a gaseous cloud towards me. I avoided most of the effects, but suddenly felt my skin burning. Before I could assess that, Dezba and I were knocked over by the massive size of the fiend as it charged us.
"Rikku!" Turrang called through a terrible coughing spasm.
"Don't move!" I called, trembling with whatever poison it decided to affect me with. Slowly, I clamored to my feet, eyeing the fiend suspiciously. "Umph!" I cried, sinking to my knees. The slow killing effects of the poison were starting to wear into me and I was without any sort of curing item.
"Well that sucks," I said, wiping the sweat from my forehead. "Especially since we don't have time for this. Heh...I guess it's time for a little shakey-shakey!"
Grinding my teeth together, I desperately wished that Paine and Yuna were with me. Three black mages were always better than the one idiot riding on the back of a chocobo. Oh well. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.
As I channeled the energy to change my dressphere, the Great Marlboro switched its attention to Turrang, the only attacking member of our makeshift party. I only hoped I could regain its attention before Turrang suffered as badly as I was suffering. As my clothes changed to my Berserker dressphere, the fiend, who had set its sights on Turrang, stopped suddenly and charged towards me.
"Bite me!" I cried, prancing impatiently on my feet the antsier I grew. "Oh, better yet, let me bite you!"
The Great Marlboro went to attack me, but I avoided easily, counterattacking quickly as I charged my Cripple attack. I was done playing games—I needed to end this quickly. My machina part was being taken to god knows where. As the fiend heaved forward with exhaustion, I went to finish it off, Turrang steadily throwing grenades at its turned back. As I dashed towards the fiend, I kicked it twice—once for a counterattack, the other a planned assault—it dispersed into pyreflies, but not before unleashing another Bad Breath attack. This time, Turrang was downed.
"Turrang!" I cried, rushing towards him, the white robes of my White Mage coming into full effect. "Turrang! Hold on—don't you dare give up on me!"
"Hey...I'm the one that's supposed to be protecting you," he said, sinking to his knees. I fell to his side, cradling his head in my arms. "Don't worry about me, Rikku. As long as you're all right, Gippal won't be too mad I let his ship crash."
As his eyes closed, I slowly began curing him of his status ailments, his words echoing in my head. Once I was sure that he and the six other people that had accompanied us were still breathing, I cast Curaga on the lot of them. With the help of Dezba, I had dragged them from the inside of the ship and set them out on the grassy area, praying that another fiend wouldn't show before someone had found them first. Turning to the ship, I sighed. A large cloud of black smoke was blocking out the sunny sky.
"What a mess," I said to myself, nuzzling Dezba before mounting him. "Sadly...we're only halfway done. Whaddaya say, huh? Shall we go get that energy core back so we can surprise Gippal?"
Dezba chirped loudly, quickening his pace. As we raced forward, trailing behind the fiend, I made a silent prayer. I hoped that I'd be enough. I really didn't want to break my promise to Gippal so quickly after I gave him my word. He'd never let me hear the end of it.
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Author's Note: I really hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. And, just FYI, the next chapter is told from…wait for it…Gippal's POV! Whoohoo!! Anyway, that's something to look forward to for next week. I hope you enjoyed.
It would mean the world to me if you would review and give me your honest opinion. Thank you.