Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Had fun with the prologue, did we? If you liked that, you'll love this. If you didn't like it, you'll love this anyway. I hope.
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.
Green Eyes in Overdrive
by flame mage
round 1: Tactician
**********
Two weeks later:
I am *not* a morning person.
Most people use that expression when they don't wake up easily. Maybe they're still a little groggy when they leave the house for work. Maybe they need a cup of coffee and the morning paper before they feel like getting dressed. Maybe they like to hit the snooze button on their alarm clock a couple times.
This is not what I mean when I tell you I'm not a morning person. What I mean is that I am, no exaggerations, almost completely homicidal at any time before, say, 10 AM. Before I even open my eyes, I'm cursing at my sister for making me get up. I'm still cursing as I snork down three cups of black coffee. Normally even this doesn't improve my mood.
Today was no exception. I wouldn't've been in a great mood anyway, but I'd had another nightmare that night, which meant I'd shot up at 3:30 with the scents of smoke and blood still in my nostrils and screamed like a ninny until my two roommates had finally managed to convince me that no, the Guado were NOT attacking Home again.
Said roommates were sitting calmly around the kitchen table when I got up. As always, my darling 16-year-old sister, Naaga, was looking infuriatingly cheerful. She was shoveling sugar- drenched cornflakes into her mouth. On the other side of the table, Bickson, my boyfriend-slash- professional-rival, was polishing off what looked like his third power bar, given the pile of metallic wrappers sitting on the table.
"Mrrnnngg, Lnneee," Naaga greeted me through a mouthful of cornflakes, by some miracle managing to avoid spewing damp little off-white flecks everywhere.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I grumped, snagging a mug from the cupboard and dumping everything that was left in the coffee pot into it.
"Hey, Linna." Bickson was a little more cordial, which was good, considering it was his apartment Naaga and I happened to be crashing in every weekend. We were doing this because our apartment, which had at one time been located in the Al Bhed Home on Bikanel Island, was now lying in approximately 80 million little tiny pieces somewhere in the Sanubia Desert.
I can joke about it now, but at the time it was really not a good situation. My sister and I, obviously, are Al Bhed, which means that we were seriously discriminated against wherever we went. This meant that we were stuck staying at Bickson's place two days a week and spending the rest of the time in our cute little hut in Besaid. This arrangement, which had been going on for about a month, was in place because I--that would be Linna, everybody's favorite blitzing blonde bombshell, in case you haven't picked up on it yet--was a player (and captain-in-training) for the Besaid Aurochs.
"Back at ya," I replied. I raked my fingers through my hair, sat down at the kitchen table, and began snarfing my defrosted blueberry muffin like there was no tomorrow. Which, little did I know at the time, there was serious danger of not being.
Naaga finally swallowed and managed to get out, "What are you doing today, Linnie?"
"Aside from going back to bed?" I asked seriously. They both rolled their eyes at me. "Hmm...it's a Saturday. We're playing somebody tonight. What is this, week five? That means it's the Fangs."
"Hah," snorted Bickson, "Good luck."
"Thank you for your overwhelming support. You guys taught each other any more of your pathetic little linguistic tongue twisters?"
"Yeah," Naaga answered. "I taught him how to say 'Good morning. I'm well, thank you, and I hope you are too. This is such lovely weather' in Al Bhed. Go on, show her, Bickson."
"Kuut sunhehk. So hysa ec Pelgcuh, yht E ys Hyyky'c syh-cmyja. E ys hud fundro," Bickson recited.
I choked on my coffee, which was cold. "Naaga, you lead a truly sad life. As for you, stop translating the damn proper nouns, and you got a word wrong in there. I think you meant to say 'Mehhy' instead of 'Hyyky.'"
"You're a meanie, Linnie," my little sister pouted.
"Always glad to be of service. I'm going down to the locker room to see if the guys are there yet." I stood up, halfheartedly rinsed my mug out and dumped it in the sink, and headed for the door.
"Just a thought--get dressed first," Bickson suggested. "Unless, that is, you really want the entire league to know you sleep in a black satin nightie and pink Moogle slippers."
"One of these mornings, babe, you will not wake up," I muttered through clenched teeth as I grabbed a uniform off a hanger at random and locked myself in the bathroom. I told you I'm not a morning person.
*****
Five minutes later, I was in the hallway off the stadium lobby, dropping my key sphere into the slot in the door of the Besaid Aurochs' locker room. The door swung open and I reached out automatically, expecting to have to flick the lights on. I didn't. Botta and Keepa were already inside.
"Hey! Cap'n LinLin!" Keepa exclaimed. Internally I groaned. After the initial problems I'd had with my teammates, I was glad we were all one big happy family now, but their nickname for me was incredibly annoying. And they really insisted on the Cap'n part--something about getting used to it, they claimed. Personally, I thought they were taking bets on how long it would take them to drive me nuts and get Wakka back.
"My name is Linna, and hello to you too." I came in and closed the door behind me. "You guys made good time, I guess."
"Actually, we got in last night," Botta answered. "Checked into the hotel kinda late, but they were pretty cool about it."
"Where are the rest of the guys?" I asked.
He made a vague gesture. "Ahh, Datto's off in the square gettin' breakfast, said the hotel food was lousy. I haven't seen Letty, but I guess Jassu musta gone for a run or somethin'. When I got up, he was gone."
"Well, since you guys are the ones here, I'll ask you: what time do you want to hold practice? I checked at the front desk; we've got the sphere any time between 11 and 4 today."
"What time's it now?" asked Keepa.
"9:45ish."
Botta thought about it. "11 should be plenty a' time for the others to get back then, ya?"
"Yeah. I'm hoping our equipment'll be here by then too."
"What equipment?" the goalie wanted to know.
"I ordered some extra blitzballs and six brand-new pairs of gloves from Rin. They were supposed to be shipped from the Calm Lands agency to Mi'ihen and then arrive by Chocobo sometime this morning. I left a note with the desk telling them to check." I hoisted my gear bag onto my shoulder and headed for the door. "Well, I'll be back here in an hour or so then, okay?"
"Yes, cap'n!" They both pumped their fists at me as I left. As I stepped back out into the hallway, I wondered how Wakka put up with all that adoration.
*****
I hiked back upstairs to Bickson's room to use the sphere. Rin picked up before the first ring had even finished sounding. "Greetings, Secc Linna," he said in that mellow voice of his.
"Yo, Rin. I am a disgruntled customer," I announced.
The image in the sphere showed him putting on his most concerned frown. "I am sorry to hear that. What seems to be the problem?"
"The blitz stuff I ordered was supposed to be here this morning. The front desk is completely clueless. I just wanted to make sure it's on its way."
"To be honest, I have no idea. I am still residing on the airship, which is currently approximately 30,000 feet over Bevelle. However, I can connect you with the Mi'ihen Agency in hopes that they can assist you."
"Thanks." I waited as the connection clicked over.
Clissi and Ropp, the two regular employees of Rin's Travel Agency, Mi'ihen Branch, were a lot slower on the uptake than their employer. The sphere rang at them four or five times before Clissi finally picked it up with a bored sigh. "Yeaahh?"
Of all the attendants behind all the desks in all the travel agencies in Spira, I had to get this one. "Clissi, it's Linna," I sighed back. "I need to know if that shipment of blitzball equipment I ordered two weeks ago is going to be here anytime soon."
"Uhm, like, I really don't know, Linna. See, the girl that was supposed to bring the stuff from the Calm Lands, y'know, Naida? She, like, never showed up."
I groaned. Should've known it would be Naida. The bikini-clad blitzer and I had never had much love for each other, and we had even less now that she and Aniki, my ex, were an item. It would be just like her to make sure my shipment got in thirty seconds too late to use in tonight's game.
"Okay." I spoke slowly and distinctly, the way you'd talk to your not-particularly-bright four-year-old cousin. "I want you to give the sphere to Ropp, and I want you to ask him to connect me to the Calm Lands Agency, okay?"
"Uhm, okay." She popped her gum down and handed the phone off to Ropp. I repeated my instructions and he switched me over once again.
Ring. Riiing.
"C'mon, Naida, pick up already," I hissed. Naida did not pick up. No one picked up. After a couple minutes of trying, I gave up and severed the connection.
"You look ticked," Naaga commented as she came into the room.
"Naida again." I flopped back on the bed and contemplated the ceiling. "Do me a favor, call Rin back and tell him I can't get an answer. I'd do it myself, but I don't think I have the energy."
Obediently, she went to the sphere and turned it on. Rin's replies were so faint I only heard her end of the conversation, which went something like this: "Hiya, Rin...yeah...she says she can't get an answer...nah, Naida, I think...yeah...oh, okay...okay. Thankies!" She hung up and turned back to me. "He says he'll try to get another one to you by ferry. Hopefully it'll get here by fiveish."
"Five tonight?!" She nodded. "Dammit, our game's at seven! We're not even going to be able to test the gloves. This is bad bad bad."
And it only got worse from there.
**********
Translations:
"Kuut sunhehk. So hysa ec Pelgcuh, yht E ys Hyyky'c syh-cmyja. E ys hud fundro." - "Good morning. My name is Bickson, and I am Naaga's man-slave. I am not worthy." The joke is that Naaga, in teaching this phrase to an unwitting Bickson, has left the proper nouns untranslated so he has no idea what he's really saying.
"Mehhy" - Al Bhed translation of the letters "L-i-n-n-a," which form a name and would therefore not usually be translated
"Hyyky" - "Naaga," with the same translation error as above.
"Secc Linna" - "Miss Linna"
Aniki - the original name for Rikku's brother, simply called "Brother" in the NA translation.
Had fun with the prologue, did we? If you liked that, you'll love this. If you didn't like it, you'll love this anyway. I hope.
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.
Green Eyes in Overdrive
by flame mage
round 1: Tactician
**********
Two weeks later:
I am *not* a morning person.
Most people use that expression when they don't wake up easily. Maybe they're still a little groggy when they leave the house for work. Maybe they need a cup of coffee and the morning paper before they feel like getting dressed. Maybe they like to hit the snooze button on their alarm clock a couple times.
This is not what I mean when I tell you I'm not a morning person. What I mean is that I am, no exaggerations, almost completely homicidal at any time before, say, 10 AM. Before I even open my eyes, I'm cursing at my sister for making me get up. I'm still cursing as I snork down three cups of black coffee. Normally even this doesn't improve my mood.
Today was no exception. I wouldn't've been in a great mood anyway, but I'd had another nightmare that night, which meant I'd shot up at 3:30 with the scents of smoke and blood still in my nostrils and screamed like a ninny until my two roommates had finally managed to convince me that no, the Guado were NOT attacking Home again.
Said roommates were sitting calmly around the kitchen table when I got up. As always, my darling 16-year-old sister, Naaga, was looking infuriatingly cheerful. She was shoveling sugar- drenched cornflakes into her mouth. On the other side of the table, Bickson, my boyfriend-slash- professional-rival, was polishing off what looked like his third power bar, given the pile of metallic wrappers sitting on the table.
"Mrrnnngg, Lnneee," Naaga greeted me through a mouthful of cornflakes, by some miracle managing to avoid spewing damp little off-white flecks everywhere.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I grumped, snagging a mug from the cupboard and dumping everything that was left in the coffee pot into it.
"Hey, Linna." Bickson was a little more cordial, which was good, considering it was his apartment Naaga and I happened to be crashing in every weekend. We were doing this because our apartment, which had at one time been located in the Al Bhed Home on Bikanel Island, was now lying in approximately 80 million little tiny pieces somewhere in the Sanubia Desert.
I can joke about it now, but at the time it was really not a good situation. My sister and I, obviously, are Al Bhed, which means that we were seriously discriminated against wherever we went. This meant that we were stuck staying at Bickson's place two days a week and spending the rest of the time in our cute little hut in Besaid. This arrangement, which had been going on for about a month, was in place because I--that would be Linna, everybody's favorite blitzing blonde bombshell, in case you haven't picked up on it yet--was a player (and captain-in-training) for the Besaid Aurochs.
"Back at ya," I replied. I raked my fingers through my hair, sat down at the kitchen table, and began snarfing my defrosted blueberry muffin like there was no tomorrow. Which, little did I know at the time, there was serious danger of not being.
Naaga finally swallowed and managed to get out, "What are you doing today, Linnie?"
"Aside from going back to bed?" I asked seriously. They both rolled their eyes at me. "Hmm...it's a Saturday. We're playing somebody tonight. What is this, week five? That means it's the Fangs."
"Hah," snorted Bickson, "Good luck."
"Thank you for your overwhelming support. You guys taught each other any more of your pathetic little linguistic tongue twisters?"
"Yeah," Naaga answered. "I taught him how to say 'Good morning. I'm well, thank you, and I hope you are too. This is such lovely weather' in Al Bhed. Go on, show her, Bickson."
"Kuut sunhehk. So hysa ec Pelgcuh, yht E ys Hyyky'c syh-cmyja. E ys hud fundro," Bickson recited.
I choked on my coffee, which was cold. "Naaga, you lead a truly sad life. As for you, stop translating the damn proper nouns, and you got a word wrong in there. I think you meant to say 'Mehhy' instead of 'Hyyky.'"
"You're a meanie, Linnie," my little sister pouted.
"Always glad to be of service. I'm going down to the locker room to see if the guys are there yet." I stood up, halfheartedly rinsed my mug out and dumped it in the sink, and headed for the door.
"Just a thought--get dressed first," Bickson suggested. "Unless, that is, you really want the entire league to know you sleep in a black satin nightie and pink Moogle slippers."
"One of these mornings, babe, you will not wake up," I muttered through clenched teeth as I grabbed a uniform off a hanger at random and locked myself in the bathroom. I told you I'm not a morning person.
*****
Five minutes later, I was in the hallway off the stadium lobby, dropping my key sphere into the slot in the door of the Besaid Aurochs' locker room. The door swung open and I reached out automatically, expecting to have to flick the lights on. I didn't. Botta and Keepa were already inside.
"Hey! Cap'n LinLin!" Keepa exclaimed. Internally I groaned. After the initial problems I'd had with my teammates, I was glad we were all one big happy family now, but their nickname for me was incredibly annoying. And they really insisted on the Cap'n part--something about getting used to it, they claimed. Personally, I thought they were taking bets on how long it would take them to drive me nuts and get Wakka back.
"My name is Linna, and hello to you too." I came in and closed the door behind me. "You guys made good time, I guess."
"Actually, we got in last night," Botta answered. "Checked into the hotel kinda late, but they were pretty cool about it."
"Where are the rest of the guys?" I asked.
He made a vague gesture. "Ahh, Datto's off in the square gettin' breakfast, said the hotel food was lousy. I haven't seen Letty, but I guess Jassu musta gone for a run or somethin'. When I got up, he was gone."
"Well, since you guys are the ones here, I'll ask you: what time do you want to hold practice? I checked at the front desk; we've got the sphere any time between 11 and 4 today."
"What time's it now?" asked Keepa.
"9:45ish."
Botta thought about it. "11 should be plenty a' time for the others to get back then, ya?"
"Yeah. I'm hoping our equipment'll be here by then too."
"What equipment?" the goalie wanted to know.
"I ordered some extra blitzballs and six brand-new pairs of gloves from Rin. They were supposed to be shipped from the Calm Lands agency to Mi'ihen and then arrive by Chocobo sometime this morning. I left a note with the desk telling them to check." I hoisted my gear bag onto my shoulder and headed for the door. "Well, I'll be back here in an hour or so then, okay?"
"Yes, cap'n!" They both pumped their fists at me as I left. As I stepped back out into the hallway, I wondered how Wakka put up with all that adoration.
*****
I hiked back upstairs to Bickson's room to use the sphere. Rin picked up before the first ring had even finished sounding. "Greetings, Secc Linna," he said in that mellow voice of his.
"Yo, Rin. I am a disgruntled customer," I announced.
The image in the sphere showed him putting on his most concerned frown. "I am sorry to hear that. What seems to be the problem?"
"The blitz stuff I ordered was supposed to be here this morning. The front desk is completely clueless. I just wanted to make sure it's on its way."
"To be honest, I have no idea. I am still residing on the airship, which is currently approximately 30,000 feet over Bevelle. However, I can connect you with the Mi'ihen Agency in hopes that they can assist you."
"Thanks." I waited as the connection clicked over.
Clissi and Ropp, the two regular employees of Rin's Travel Agency, Mi'ihen Branch, were a lot slower on the uptake than their employer. The sphere rang at them four or five times before Clissi finally picked it up with a bored sigh. "Yeaahh?"
Of all the attendants behind all the desks in all the travel agencies in Spira, I had to get this one. "Clissi, it's Linna," I sighed back. "I need to know if that shipment of blitzball equipment I ordered two weeks ago is going to be here anytime soon."
"Uhm, like, I really don't know, Linna. See, the girl that was supposed to bring the stuff from the Calm Lands, y'know, Naida? She, like, never showed up."
I groaned. Should've known it would be Naida. The bikini-clad blitzer and I had never had much love for each other, and we had even less now that she and Aniki, my ex, were an item. It would be just like her to make sure my shipment got in thirty seconds too late to use in tonight's game.
"Okay." I spoke slowly and distinctly, the way you'd talk to your not-particularly-bright four-year-old cousin. "I want you to give the sphere to Ropp, and I want you to ask him to connect me to the Calm Lands Agency, okay?"
"Uhm, okay." She popped her gum down and handed the phone off to Ropp. I repeated my instructions and he switched me over once again.
Ring. Riiing.
"C'mon, Naida, pick up already," I hissed. Naida did not pick up. No one picked up. After a couple minutes of trying, I gave up and severed the connection.
"You look ticked," Naaga commented as she came into the room.
"Naida again." I flopped back on the bed and contemplated the ceiling. "Do me a favor, call Rin back and tell him I can't get an answer. I'd do it myself, but I don't think I have the energy."
Obediently, she went to the sphere and turned it on. Rin's replies were so faint I only heard her end of the conversation, which went something like this: "Hiya, Rin...yeah...she says she can't get an answer...nah, Naida, I think...yeah...oh, okay...okay. Thankies!" She hung up and turned back to me. "He says he'll try to get another one to you by ferry. Hopefully it'll get here by fiveish."
"Five tonight?!" She nodded. "Dammit, our game's at seven! We're not even going to be able to test the gloves. This is bad bad bad."
And it only got worse from there.
**********
Translations:
"Kuut sunhehk. So hysa ec Pelgcuh, yht E ys Hyyky'c syh-cmyja. E ys hud fundro." - "Good morning. My name is Bickson, and I am Naaga's man-slave. I am not worthy." The joke is that Naaga, in teaching this phrase to an unwitting Bickson, has left the proper nouns untranslated so he has no idea what he's really saying.
"Mehhy" - Al Bhed translation of the letters "L-i-n-n-a," which form a name and would therefore not usually be translated
"Hyyky" - "Naaga," with the same translation error as above.
"Secc Linna" - "Miss Linna"
Aniki - the original name for Rikku's brother, simply called "Brother" in the NA translation.