Part 29 Casino Capers
The memory particles from the Sephiroth did something a little different. The memory particles that was supposed to be released we're doing the exact opposite. Everything was crashing down, literally.
"You really did it, General Grants." Jade said. The rest of the group was panicking at his thoughtful face, one expression that they rarely saw. Lina was more concerned at why this actually happened.
"Luke." She said. Luke's head jerked over to her direction of sight.
"Yes?" He asked, as casually as one could be at the time.
"Have you had any connections with Asch in the past few hours?" She asked. Luke looked at her seriously, before jumping into a deep thought. A few extremely long seconds passed when he finally answered, his face pale with aghast.
"How did you know that I had a connection with Asch during the avalanche?" He asked. Everyone looked at the two, curious. The tension of the Sephiroths passage ring just got higher and higher.
"I saw you grasp your head in pain as I fell down the cliff." She said simply as she ran back. The rest of the group looked at her confused.
"And I would presume Van told you he was at the Absorption Gate?" She shouted. Luke stared at her stupidly as he unconsciously nodded. The rest of the group stared as stupidly at the two before running in Lina's direction, outside the Sephiroth. Guy was carrying Ion, since he knew that he could no longer run.
"I'm sorry, but we won't be able to go to the Absorption Gate for about two days." Noelle replied as she frowned. Apparently there were going to be snow storms for the next two days straight up really high, so it didn't affect the towns. Something to do with the Planet Storm going a little nut-so.
"So, Lina, how did you know that Asch told me that Master Van was at the Absorption Gate?" Luke asked. "Actually, what IS the Absorption Gate?" He asked again. Everyone did an anime fall simultaneously as he scratched his head.
And THEN finally someone bothered to answer him, after a few moments silence later, later figured out as a mental debate on who was to tell him.
"You know what the Planet Storm is, right?" Tear asked, trying to make her explanation as simple as possible. Luke nodded.
"It's that thing in the sky that keeps producing Seventh Fonons, right?" He asked. Tear nodded.
"The Planet Storm starts and ends at two points of the world. One, at the top is called the Absorption Gate. This creates and is the beginning of the Planet Storm. The place where the Planet Storm ends is at the bottom of the world, a place called the Radiation Gate." Tear explained. Luke nodded, but something came to mind as he was nodding.
"So, where is the Absorption Gate?" He asked.
"The Absorption Gate is on an island northeast of Keterburg. And if you're curious, the Radiation Gate is towards the southwest of Baticul." Tear explained again. Anise wasn't really paying attention to the group however. She had JUST heard of the casino in town, which the group tried their very hardest to hide from her.
"Can we go to the casino NOW?" Anise moaned and groaned out. Lina sighed as she nodded.
"Whatever floats your boat." She replied, sighing. It wasn't her to give up, but if she was to suffer a few more days in the town, why not let her go. The rest of the group stood up from Ion's room (the one they booked and paid for, for two days) and walked out the door, Ion and Sync staying behind for obvious reasons.
"Whoa! THIS is the casino? Cool!" Luke as he walked in and as the others walked in.
Lina slapped her forehead at his admiration of the famous casino.
Jade smirked (you could literally see the amusement written on his face) at his reaction, while the others had mixed emotions.
Tear looked at the place nervously, occasionally twitching.
Natalia looked just as uncomfortable as Tear. She was twitching, mainly at the gaudiness of the place.
Guy was the only person to actually LOOK normal. Well, Jade did too, but then he normally had a passive face, blank slate on his face, with the occasional smirk. But other than that, Guy was the only one that looked normal.
And Anise? Well, she had money bags for eyes, her mouth was frothing with want and she was itching to start to play.
"This place is certainly… lovely in its own way…" Tear said, as she walked down the stairs.
"I've heard of this place, but it makes me feel weird, and entirely out of… place." Natalia said, as the follow up. The place was gaudy compared to any other normal casino. With the loud music, the slot machines and the bunny girls. To Tear and Natalia, the bunny girls especially.
"This place has a myth around it. Apparently if you get a jackpot on the second slot machine to the left, you win a castle." Guy said as he sighed. Halfway through his sentence Anise had (you could literally see the exclamation bubble above her head) ran off presumably to get some chips.
"That's obviously a lie to attract more customers." Guy said as an afterthought.
After a while, the rest of the group walked down the stairs, to find Anise shouting and pouting, mainly.
"Anise! What's wrong? There are people staring at you!" Tear whispered out, though it came out rather coarsely.
"They said that they don't let minors play. Booooo." Anise whined. The rest of the group sighed. They had forgotten that they didn't let minors play. They just… forgot.
"Oh don't worry about that. I'm sure they'll let you play if you had a parent. What about Jade? Or Lina?" He suggested, purposely omitting his name out of the equation. Anise giggled, and partially smirked at the thought. It was her chance to shine.
"Papa? Could I please get my allowance? Pretty please?" Anise begged, giving Jade the puppy-eye-I'm-trying-to-look-innocent-look. Lina swore that she could've burst out laughing right there. And the rest of the group looked at Anise's determination a little worried for Anise's mental health. But Jade kept his cool and smirked.
"I'm afraid not." He said in a playful tone, with the matching smirk. Anise yet again pouted, but recovered quickly as she skipped over to Lina, who just stood there, trying her best to hold her emotions in.
"Then Lina! Could you go get me some chips, please?" She begged. Lina could no longer hold her emotions, and started to burst out, laughing.
"Now this is something I'm gonna remember." She huffed out in between her laughs. Anise stood there, confused. And then she got it.
And she gave up on trying to coax Lina into getting her chips, as Tear directed her out, giggling herself.
"Then Guy? Go get me some chips." She ordered, giving up on the begging. Guy jumped a few feet backwards, at her presence.
"Uwahhh!" He shouted, as a reflex.
"Tch… That's right… My cute looks don't work on Guy."
And they all left the casino, Anise empty-handed.
It was the night of the first day of their 'test of patience'. Luke was in his room with Guy, his appointed roommate. Those two, and Anise and Ion were the only two pairs that shared rooms. Everyone else had individual rooms, excluding Lina. She had a room at the Governor's residence, since there weren't any more rooms at the hotel, and Nephry just so happened to be around.
Concerning matters on Nephry…
She was at Keterburg about three days a week, mainly Remday, Sylphday and Loreleiday. The rest of the time, she was at Grand Chokmah. I mean, she still had her job as the governor of Keterburg. And it just so happened to be Sylphday.
And then there was a knock at the door, at the room she was going to rest in for the two nights.
"Yes?" She asked. The door swung open, Nephry walking in with a few sheets of paper.
"My brother just stopped by and told me to give you these notes. He said to 'complete them and then give them back'." Nephry said, as Lina took the pile of notes from her.
They were the ones that she wrote the last time she was at Keterburg.
So she had planned to leave the next morning, alone.
The group was currently at the hotel, their rendezvous point with Lina. But she never turned up. Just as Luke was about to run to the governor's residence, Nephry came running in, holding a piece of paper. She was huffing and puffing, as Jade took it off her.
"She disappeared sometime this morning, apparently six in the morning, according to one of the maids." She said, after she caught her breath. The rest of the group peeked behind Jade's standing form. They recognized Lina's loopy handwriting almost instantly.
Nephry,
Sorry about this, but I've left. Don't worry about it. I'll be back by around night time. If you do happen to find this, tell the others that I'm sorry about not meeting at the rendezvous point. And Jade, if you just so happen to read this, I'm at A. I. I'm pretty sure you should be able to decode that.
Lina
"First she promises to meet at the hotel, and then leaves for a random place called A. I.?" Luke asked, exasperated. Jade shrugged as she handed the note back to Nephry.
"I don't know any place called A. I. But I'm pretty sure she's safe, where ever she is." Jade said, in a somewhat freaky assuring tone. Everyone else nodded, and sat down on the couches, which just so happened to be conveniently placed there.
"…Hang on. We could've left for the Absorption Gate yesterday…" Tear pointed out. Luke nodded in an agreement.
"Well, she knew where the place was, it's specific placing. So, why didn't she send us there yesterday?" Luke asked the group. It was all silent for a few minutes, but then Jade responded.
"Remember? The Planet Storm starts from the Absorption Gate. The Absorption Gate contains a large mass of memory particles, and could also have a large amount of Seventh Fonons. Lina would probably suffer in there, especially if she teleported, since the weakness of her teleporting is that her fon slots open temporarily. Which means…" Jade trailed off on purpose. He didn't want to explain the whole situation.
"Guy, please continue." He finally said. Guy sat there looking at Jade with wide eyes, and a shocked look on his face.
"Me? ….Oh alright." He said, giving in.
"When one's fon slots are opened, the power of their fonic artes are drastically lowered, making them vulnerable, since it also makes her weak, and tired. Lina already knows this, and already knows the consequences if she is attacked immediately after, or during the teleportation. The more people she had to take, the weaker, and the more time it takes for her to recover. Basically, she takes the risk of teleporting, knowing that she could die any moment. But since she is going into a place with flowing memory particles, and possible Seventh Fonons, she could absorb too many Seventh Fonons." Guy concluded. Luke sat there absorbing the information until he noticed something.
"Doesn't Lina have her mark, which lets her release the fonons a lot faster than normal?"
"If she's absorbing them faster than that, she'll be accumulating Seventh Fonons anyways." Guy said, as both an afterthought, and somehow predicting Luke's question.
"And one more thing… Jade, you're awfully suspicious… do you know where, and why Lina is somewhere else?" Luke asked. The whole group, who were at their difference conversations the moment Guy started to explain had stopped their conversations and looked at Jade, with some sort of hope of any answers.
Jade pushed his glasses up as he sighed.
"I truly have no idea." He said, putting his hands up in a fake mercy.
He was lying anyways.
Me: Hi!
Luke: What is it now?
Me: Nothing. Just speedrunning ToA. But try at your own risk. But then I'm kinda bad at ToA. So, yeah...
Luke: Eh?
Me: Nothing.
Karol (from ToV): She doesn't own ToA, ToV or any unknown references in this chapter. Reviews, please?
Me: What the HECK are you doing here?
Karol: I dunno. Yuri said that he would get Raven to shut up if I did a disclaimer.
Me: I see...
