It was one of those ordinary days that are, of course, superlatively ordinary due to the fact that the surreal occurs on them. Well, it made sense at the time. Grouching along unhappily to the bus stop one fine winter's morning, the fic's heroine, Aku (.. er.. TADA!) stomped and ducked her way down the steps. As per usual, she had several heart attacks over the size of spiders and slugs that magically appear with torrential rain that, believe it or not, was a drought. Or so the farmers said. She believed them for the sole reason that Sydney was far away from those other odd country places she'd never been to, so for all she knew it might rain pigs there. Or something. Yeah. Anyway.
Around this point, or from the start, most people are joined by equally obsessed friends. However, at this time, no such person exists. The, uh, equally obsessed friends, that is. Most of them still have trouble pronouncing cactuar. Shifting her rather cumbersome school bag's weight to the other shoulder, scowling and fiddling with her bus pass in her pocket, she gazed about at the things she happened to gaze about at every time she was waiting at her bus stop. Just like that, a magical portal appeared in the ivy that infested the garage of an adjacent house. Hmm! It was pretty and swirly and kind of like the ones Wally from Where's Wally? used to make using his magic cane that Odlaw was forever sneaking into. Glancing around suspiciously, Aku prodded it with the tip of her turquoise frog umbrella from Japan, fondly referred to as "Milo". Then again, most objects tended to be called Milo at the moment, due to the fact that molestation of Milo Ventimiglia would be nice, oh.. anytime.. now.
The umbrella predictably went halfway through the portal. Blinking and looking around to see if anyone was about or watching, Aku set down her school bag and pulled out her mobile from a pocket. She SMSed one of her friends- (yes, the friends that aren't coming with) Rachael- a note.
"Rachael,
I've gone into a mysterious portal thingy at my bus stop. If I don't ever come back, please call mom. Thanks. And YOU ARE TEH SUCK!!1111ONE.
-Aku."
With that all sorted out, she pulled her pencil case from her bag and shoved a couple of pens in her pocket, which happened to be her jeans pocket, because luckily, it was free clothes day, as the school was raising charity for some homeless men or other. She always felt less self conscious when not in uniform, and was quite looking forward to gloating on the bus about everyone else's sucky uniformness. At least, she would, if anyone ever caught the bus with her. The fact that they didn't was irrelevant. She could still sit there guarding her seat with an annoying smirk.
But today, she was hopping into the swirly portal from beyond. And damn, it was going to be good. She only hoped she wasn't taking a one way ticket to hell. She'd always wanted to go to hell in a handbasket, not a swirly portal from beyond, and would be highly disappointed at missing out. The girl shrugged her shoulders and pranced straight through, experiencing some slight confusion in the middle of blankness and the other world.
When she stumbled out, disorentiated and dizzy, the first thing that registered was the noise. Music. Coming from..? She pivoted on her heels as surprise dawned on her face like a tentative sunset. "WHAT?" she screeched, staring about at a rather familiar scene. She was standing atop a jagged short plateau, looking down at endless, stretching plains. And then there were the birds that every so often swooped down on her.
She had an uncontrollable urge to press X.
The music swelled and went on in what was probably thought to be a calming manner. Calm. The calm lands, she thought wonderingly. Hahahah. Problem. I just stepped through a magical swirly portal by my bus stop into.. Final Fantasy 10? If she could've made an emoticon, it probably would've gone along the lines of Ô.o ... ? Ever so slowly she reviewed her body, now most likely composed of pixels. But the whole place seemed startingly real, more so than if she had been on the other side of the screen. Aku giggled. It had to be a dream. It wasn't unusual for her to dream video games. Why, there was that one time she'd dreamt her sister was plotting to take over the world and had gotten away with Yuna's help on Ixion.
So that was the answer. It was a dream. The thing was.. she had been sure the whole bus thing HADN'T been a dream. Perhaps one of the spiders HAD bitten her and she was now hallucinating. If indeed she was, she may as well have some fun and do strange things because no one dies in dream world. She'd pinch herself, but seeing as she was a pixel, it didn't seem to matter much and she refrained from doing such a thing. Humming along to the pretty and yet droning music, she skipped down the ramp like formation towards what she knew would be the Al Bhed center. Easy. Er..
WHAM! Out of nowhere, another bird hit her. Stunned, she fell to the ground reeling. A minute later as she attempted to get to her feet.. something slightly more dangerous appeared. Qu'est-ce que c'est? she pondered disbelievingly in her one French phrase. It was actually possible for them to do that? For them to.. appear suddenly in front of a person, having come from no where? Obviously, it was.
In front of her, lazily staring her down, was a Coeurl. "KITTY!" she roared, beaming. "Who's a gorgeous kitty, hmm? Who's so gorgeous? You are! Yesssss, you are!" It blinked at her, tossing its soft white head to a side, rainbow streaming ears billowing out behind it. "Er.. I've always wanted a Coeurl as a pet," she said, to no one in particular. "Please don't.. drain me. I've forgotten your other attack, but I have a feeling it's Thundara and I don't have any hit points." She glanced at it. "That I know of." It purred, the noise resounding loudly.
"Awww," she murmured, grinning a bit. "Can I pet you? Pleasedon'thurtme can I pet you?" Inching closer, Aku chuckled nervously. The feline displayed some sort of contempt for her, but wasn't actually advancing in her direction in what she would consider a predatory fashion. "Maybe not." She blinked in the sunlight. "I don't know if I have this ability, but.. FLEE!" Hightailing back to the top of the ledge, she watched fearfully below as the beast almost shrugged its large shoulders and slunk off to the shade.
"Great. What if I come across a MARLBORO, eh? I'll be knocked DEAD. KO. Game over. Only, this is still.. a dream." Weaponless and powerless, she wondered if her encounter with the Coeurl had counted and whether she'd gotten any AP. "Oh, come on! How'm I supposed to access the sphere grid?" she whined. "And you call that turn based battling?" Well.. she couldn't go forward. It was too far to the shop and too many fiends lurked ahead with her defenseless. Could always head back to Macalania.. I don't think you pass fiends on the way there, and maybe... I'll meet someone. Ohohohoh! Save sphere! If they had the ship, she could get herself on it and surprise the lucky people. The girl grinned. How far was Yuna in this time? Was Teedus still about? Maybe she had already brought the Ultimate Calm. Turning on her heels and pushing her hair behind her shoulders, Aku made her way off the plateau and to the beginnings of the Macalania Wood.
TO BE CONTINUED! :D Maybe. If you review.
