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.
Hi, nice people! You're all enjoying the story, and all you Americans had a good Thanksgiving, and none of you people are going to sue me for this, am I right? Good.
Oh, yeah, and Linna's blitzball-sword weapon thing is pretty much like the one Wakka uses in FFX. It's used primarily as a long-range weapon, and it's good for fast or airborne fiends. I imagine it'd pack a serious punch in the blitz sphere, too.
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 11: Dancer
**********
There's almost no meat on a One-Eye, but Reppi had some food still preserved and we skinned the wings. They tasted like chicken, if you screwed your face up hard enough. Zalitz, who had announced repeatedly that after years of hardtack he'd eat anything, scarfed down all the internal organs we didn't need to keep the thing alive until we could get it down with such gusto I quickly lost the ability to watch him without wanting to hurl. We left just the single eyeball and the center of the body to prevent the fiend from going Moonflow before we ate.
Naida showed me how they used sticks to skewer small chunks of fiend meat and roast them over the fire. She called this a "shish kabob," and said that the Yevonites cooked that way over their fires because they didn't have automatic stoves or microwaves. Reppi still had the leather canteen from her pilgrimage, which she filled from the little rivulets of water trickling down the rock walls. And so we were able to eat, if not a meal fit for a king, at least enough to survive.
Zoom in on me, now that this is all done. I was just sitting there, minding my own business. I jammed a stick in one of the raw hunks of fiend meat Reppi had cut up and held the end in the center of the fire. The flames were a brilliant bloody red, and I was thinking about the way Home had burned like this too. That was the first time I'd had to fight fiends. I was thinking about pulling Naaga out of the ashes of the apartment where we'd spent our entire lives.
I wondered what it was like for the Yevonites--what it had been like, I corrected myself as I remembered the look on Miyu's face. What did it mean to have something to believe in? What was it like to pray and feel like someone out there might listen and help you? If I'd thought it would do any good, I woulda prayed that Naaga and the others were all right.
But I didn't, so I didn't.
"So, Linna," Reppi's voice startled me and I jumped. The meat was burned black by that time. I yanked it out and waved it around furiously, trying to clear the smoke. She continued like nothing was going on. "Naida told us a little 'bout you, but I wanna hear your story."
I shrugged and blew on the meat. Fiend stir-fry. "I'm a blitzer. Besaid Aurochs. LF. Back Home, I was a street rat."
"Just out of curiousity, you understand...what was it like to live at Home?" Naida asked.
I blinked at her. "Whaddaya mean, what was it like? You never lived there?"
She shook her head. "No. Not everyone's parents are blitz stars and engineers. I lived most of my life in the Calm Lands."
"What was that about her parents?" Zalitz asked.
"Nosy little punks, aren't ya?" I snapped. They were still looking at me like they wanted something, so I sighed and started explaining. "My mom, Amirel, was a blitzer for the Psyches before I was born. My dad was an engineer. He was working on some renovations for the blitz sphere at Home when he met my mom. They've been dead for ten years, though." I popped the chunk of meat in my mouth. "This is lousy."
"You get used to it," Reppi told me. "What about Home?"
"Okay." I rocked back on my heels and put some more meat on a stick. "The desert. Picture a big metal dome with ten metal cylinders arond it. A compound, y'know? And outside it's not great, but inside...the whole thing is shiny metal and colored lights. It's like stepping into another world--kinda almost like Guadosalam. Our apartment had a whole sill of hydroponic plants, and my sister and I rigged up blue and green lights so we felt like we were undersea."
"Colored lights? Man, you chicks had machina everywhere, huh?" Zalitz asked.
I swallowed. "Hm--yeah. It was kinda hard getting used to the outside world when I left. Even little things like opening doors, I never had to do. I never cooked like this. I just dumped something out of a package and my oven did all the work. he lights were all automatic. You have no idea how weird it was to leave and use switchlamps in big hotels, and open fire everywhere else."
"If you ask me, all the automation is the truly bizarre part," Naida cut in. "I only saw a few machina, and most of them were wrecks from the war a millennium ago. We always did everything by hand and traveled by Chocobo."
"Sounds like you guys had really different childhoods," observed Reppi.
"Yeah, dude. It's kinda weird. Since, y'know, you're both Al Bhed and all."
Zalitz was not earning respect points from me here for that last one, and not just because he was still calling me "dude." I snapped, "Hey, we're not all cardboard cutouts any more than Yevonites are."
"Yeah, well," Reppi snorted, "when I get outta here there aren't gonna *be* any more Yevonites. I'm gonna tell everyone what the temples are doin'."
There was a quick pause as we all tried to figure out what we were supposed to say to that, and then Zalitz laughed. "They won't believe you."
"Oh, yeah, they will!" Reppi's eyes were burning, and it was more than just a reflection of the fire. "They'll hafta! Don't'cha get it?! Yuna and the others aren't traitors--they figured out the same thing we did. If a summoner backs up our story--"
"We have to escape first," Naida yawned.
I was still scratching my head here. "I'm still not sure how you guys got here in the first place."
"I was on my way to Macalania when they got me," explained Reppi. "The priest told me he'd take me to Bevelle. Said it was best to pray there first to prepare myself, then go around an' end up there again."
"I bet that's the same priest that brought us here," I muttered to myself.
"You said 'us' is you, Naaga, that Miyu person, and Bickson, isn't it?" Naida had a feral smile on her face, the kind that meant a potshot was coming. "I remember now. Aren't you and Bickson an item?" She turned to Reppi and Zalitz and stage-whispered behind her hand, "The whole blitz community is talking about how she moved in with him."
"Nisun-suhkanehk meddma pnyd," I snapped. Zalitz and Reppi were looking at me anyway. This was starting to get more than a little exasperating. I remembered that Reppi's village was pretty traditional, so I had to say something. "My *kid sister* and I crash at his place in Luca on the weekends. The only action we have time to get during the season is in the sphere."
"Having trouble?" Reppi asked wryly. So much for traditionalism.
"Nothing big." I shrugged and took another chunk of nasty meat. They were *still* looking at me expectantly, and then it locked into place in my head. If I'd been down in this dump for days with only two other people to talk to, I'd want to pick the brain of a newbie too. "It's stupid as hell, actually," I continued. "He doesn't want to let me meet his parents. Big slap in the face in Al Bhed culture. When you live in a little compound in the middle of nowhere like Home, family's a pretty big deal. Even if you've just met someone, you let 'em meet the 'rents right away."
"And if you don't, the other person usually realizes you're cheating on them," Naida said smugly. "So, is he?"
"Why the hell does everyone ask me that?" I grumbled moodily.
Reppi held up a hand. "Whoa. Calm down, girl. He can't introduce ya to his folks."
"Why not?" I demanded.
"They're dead."
The others were blinking almost as hard as I was. "For real?" asked Zalitz.
"Yah. They died not too long before I took off."
"Why wouldn't he just tell me that?" I wanted to know. "Doesn't make sense."
"Sure it does. They pretty much lived in the slums in Luca anyway, y'know. Worse than my village even. His parents? They were street sweepers." I must have been staring, because she said, "No joke. And it kept gettin' worse and worse. They put all their cash inta his trainin' and equipment. They were livin' in an unheated one-room apartment, real cheap digs, and his mom was sick, and when he was off trainin' with us in Kilika for a couple weeks, she up and died. When he got back, they were both gone. His dad just lay around all day; couldn't bring himself ta work when there was no one ta work for. Bick always blamed himself, figurin' that if he hadn't been so set on the game, spent all that money an' gone off all the time an' all, they woulda made it."
"Whoa. Am I the only one who had normal parents?" Naida asked. "One who haven't kicked the bucket?"
Zalitz shook his head and tied into a wingbone. "Nah. Mine are still around. I can't talk to them though, not after deserting like that."
"You deserted?" I asked him.
"Six months ago. I was too afraid after Sin attacked our boat."
"Then you weren't working on the docks?"
"Nope. Who told you that?"
"Why'd they tell me you were in charge of the shipment?"
"Probably wanted you to make the connection, dude."
Reppi stood and stretched. "Either way, we'd better get ta bed. I've got a feeling tomorrow's gonna be a big day."
I didn't get it. "It's nine in the morning," I told her, glancing at my watch.
She smiled indulgently. "Not in here, girl. In here, time doesn't exist." She settled herself on the ground and rolled over. "G'night."
*****
That "night" in the Via Purifico was the longest I've ever spent. The stone was hard underneath my back, and there were no blankets. It was damp and cold, and all I could think about was the burning questions that kept stabbing into my brain. Were they alive? Would we ever see them again if they were? What if we didn't make it out? What if we failed?
"Screw it," I whispered to myself, and got up.
I found the hilt end of the broken sword and got as far away as I could from the camp without losing sight of the fire. Then I stabbed the weapon into the ground again and again. The clangs echoed throughout the cave. I waited to see if any of the others were awake, but it seemed like they'd slept through the noise--they were probably as zonked as I was. When I was done, I had six shards, and I jammed them deep into the blitzball until it was like a throwing mace. With my Golden Arm on, I found I could grab it by a spike and hurl it almost as far as a normal ball and with about as much accuracy. I left one side spikeless so I could kick it without putting a slice of metal through my thin boot and my good and practiced shooting until I could do it perfectly every time.
Nap Shot 3 with a kick.
When I was sure of myself, I lay back down by the fire, set the ball beside me, and curled up into a fitful, dreamless sleep. The last thing I saw was the golden locket Bickson had given me, glittering in the firelight.
**********
Translations:
Nisun-suhkanehk meddma pnyd - Rumor-mongering little brat
Hi, nice people! You're all enjoying the story, and all you Americans had a good Thanksgiving, and none of you people are going to sue me for this, am I right? Good.
Oh, yeah, and Linna's blitzball-sword weapon thing is pretty much like the one Wakka uses in FFX. It's used primarily as a long-range weapon, and it's good for fast or airborne fiends. I imagine it'd pack a serious punch in the blitz sphere, too.
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 11: Dancer
**********
There's almost no meat on a One-Eye, but Reppi had some food still preserved and we skinned the wings. They tasted like chicken, if you screwed your face up hard enough. Zalitz, who had announced repeatedly that after years of hardtack he'd eat anything, scarfed down all the internal organs we didn't need to keep the thing alive until we could get it down with such gusto I quickly lost the ability to watch him without wanting to hurl. We left just the single eyeball and the center of the body to prevent the fiend from going Moonflow before we ate.
Naida showed me how they used sticks to skewer small chunks of fiend meat and roast them over the fire. She called this a "shish kabob," and said that the Yevonites cooked that way over their fires because they didn't have automatic stoves or microwaves. Reppi still had the leather canteen from her pilgrimage, which she filled from the little rivulets of water trickling down the rock walls. And so we were able to eat, if not a meal fit for a king, at least enough to survive.
Zoom in on me, now that this is all done. I was just sitting there, minding my own business. I jammed a stick in one of the raw hunks of fiend meat Reppi had cut up and held the end in the center of the fire. The flames were a brilliant bloody red, and I was thinking about the way Home had burned like this too. That was the first time I'd had to fight fiends. I was thinking about pulling Naaga out of the ashes of the apartment where we'd spent our entire lives.
I wondered what it was like for the Yevonites--what it had been like, I corrected myself as I remembered the look on Miyu's face. What did it mean to have something to believe in? What was it like to pray and feel like someone out there might listen and help you? If I'd thought it would do any good, I woulda prayed that Naaga and the others were all right.
But I didn't, so I didn't.
"So, Linna," Reppi's voice startled me and I jumped. The meat was burned black by that time. I yanked it out and waved it around furiously, trying to clear the smoke. She continued like nothing was going on. "Naida told us a little 'bout you, but I wanna hear your story."
I shrugged and blew on the meat. Fiend stir-fry. "I'm a blitzer. Besaid Aurochs. LF. Back Home, I was a street rat."
"Just out of curiousity, you understand...what was it like to live at Home?" Naida asked.
I blinked at her. "Whaddaya mean, what was it like? You never lived there?"
She shook her head. "No. Not everyone's parents are blitz stars and engineers. I lived most of my life in the Calm Lands."
"What was that about her parents?" Zalitz asked.
"Nosy little punks, aren't ya?" I snapped. They were still looking at me like they wanted something, so I sighed and started explaining. "My mom, Amirel, was a blitzer for the Psyches before I was born. My dad was an engineer. He was working on some renovations for the blitz sphere at Home when he met my mom. They've been dead for ten years, though." I popped the chunk of meat in my mouth. "This is lousy."
"You get used to it," Reppi told me. "What about Home?"
"Okay." I rocked back on my heels and put some more meat on a stick. "The desert. Picture a big metal dome with ten metal cylinders arond it. A compound, y'know? And outside it's not great, but inside...the whole thing is shiny metal and colored lights. It's like stepping into another world--kinda almost like Guadosalam. Our apartment had a whole sill of hydroponic plants, and my sister and I rigged up blue and green lights so we felt like we were undersea."
"Colored lights? Man, you chicks had machina everywhere, huh?" Zalitz asked.
I swallowed. "Hm--yeah. It was kinda hard getting used to the outside world when I left. Even little things like opening doors, I never had to do. I never cooked like this. I just dumped something out of a package and my oven did all the work. he lights were all automatic. You have no idea how weird it was to leave and use switchlamps in big hotels, and open fire everywhere else."
"If you ask me, all the automation is the truly bizarre part," Naida cut in. "I only saw a few machina, and most of them were wrecks from the war a millennium ago. We always did everything by hand and traveled by Chocobo."
"Sounds like you guys had really different childhoods," observed Reppi.
"Yeah, dude. It's kinda weird. Since, y'know, you're both Al Bhed and all."
Zalitz was not earning respect points from me here for that last one, and not just because he was still calling me "dude." I snapped, "Hey, we're not all cardboard cutouts any more than Yevonites are."
"Yeah, well," Reppi snorted, "when I get outta here there aren't gonna *be* any more Yevonites. I'm gonna tell everyone what the temples are doin'."
There was a quick pause as we all tried to figure out what we were supposed to say to that, and then Zalitz laughed. "They won't believe you."
"Oh, yeah, they will!" Reppi's eyes were burning, and it was more than just a reflection of the fire. "They'll hafta! Don't'cha get it?! Yuna and the others aren't traitors--they figured out the same thing we did. If a summoner backs up our story--"
"We have to escape first," Naida yawned.
I was still scratching my head here. "I'm still not sure how you guys got here in the first place."
"I was on my way to Macalania when they got me," explained Reppi. "The priest told me he'd take me to Bevelle. Said it was best to pray there first to prepare myself, then go around an' end up there again."
"I bet that's the same priest that brought us here," I muttered to myself.
"You said 'us' is you, Naaga, that Miyu person, and Bickson, isn't it?" Naida had a feral smile on her face, the kind that meant a potshot was coming. "I remember now. Aren't you and Bickson an item?" She turned to Reppi and Zalitz and stage-whispered behind her hand, "The whole blitz community is talking about how she moved in with him."
"Nisun-suhkanehk meddma pnyd," I snapped. Zalitz and Reppi were looking at me anyway. This was starting to get more than a little exasperating. I remembered that Reppi's village was pretty traditional, so I had to say something. "My *kid sister* and I crash at his place in Luca on the weekends. The only action we have time to get during the season is in the sphere."
"Having trouble?" Reppi asked wryly. So much for traditionalism.
"Nothing big." I shrugged and took another chunk of nasty meat. They were *still* looking at me expectantly, and then it locked into place in my head. If I'd been down in this dump for days with only two other people to talk to, I'd want to pick the brain of a newbie too. "It's stupid as hell, actually," I continued. "He doesn't want to let me meet his parents. Big slap in the face in Al Bhed culture. When you live in a little compound in the middle of nowhere like Home, family's a pretty big deal. Even if you've just met someone, you let 'em meet the 'rents right away."
"And if you don't, the other person usually realizes you're cheating on them," Naida said smugly. "So, is he?"
"Why the hell does everyone ask me that?" I grumbled moodily.
Reppi held up a hand. "Whoa. Calm down, girl. He can't introduce ya to his folks."
"Why not?" I demanded.
"They're dead."
The others were blinking almost as hard as I was. "For real?" asked Zalitz.
"Yah. They died not too long before I took off."
"Why wouldn't he just tell me that?" I wanted to know. "Doesn't make sense."
"Sure it does. They pretty much lived in the slums in Luca anyway, y'know. Worse than my village even. His parents? They were street sweepers." I must have been staring, because she said, "No joke. And it kept gettin' worse and worse. They put all their cash inta his trainin' and equipment. They were livin' in an unheated one-room apartment, real cheap digs, and his mom was sick, and when he was off trainin' with us in Kilika for a couple weeks, she up and died. When he got back, they were both gone. His dad just lay around all day; couldn't bring himself ta work when there was no one ta work for. Bick always blamed himself, figurin' that if he hadn't been so set on the game, spent all that money an' gone off all the time an' all, they woulda made it."
"Whoa. Am I the only one who had normal parents?" Naida asked. "One who haven't kicked the bucket?"
Zalitz shook his head and tied into a wingbone. "Nah. Mine are still around. I can't talk to them though, not after deserting like that."
"You deserted?" I asked him.
"Six months ago. I was too afraid after Sin attacked our boat."
"Then you weren't working on the docks?"
"Nope. Who told you that?"
"Why'd they tell me you were in charge of the shipment?"
"Probably wanted you to make the connection, dude."
Reppi stood and stretched. "Either way, we'd better get ta bed. I've got a feeling tomorrow's gonna be a big day."
I didn't get it. "It's nine in the morning," I told her, glancing at my watch.
She smiled indulgently. "Not in here, girl. In here, time doesn't exist." She settled herself on the ground and rolled over. "G'night."
*****
That "night" in the Via Purifico was the longest I've ever spent. The stone was hard underneath my back, and there were no blankets. It was damp and cold, and all I could think about was the burning questions that kept stabbing into my brain. Were they alive? Would we ever see them again if they were? What if we didn't make it out? What if we failed?
"Screw it," I whispered to myself, and got up.
I found the hilt end of the broken sword and got as far away as I could from the camp without losing sight of the fire. Then I stabbed the weapon into the ground again and again. The clangs echoed throughout the cave. I waited to see if any of the others were awake, but it seemed like they'd slept through the noise--they were probably as zonked as I was. When I was done, I had six shards, and I jammed them deep into the blitzball until it was like a throwing mace. With my Golden Arm on, I found I could grab it by a spike and hurl it almost as far as a normal ball and with about as much accuracy. I left one side spikeless so I could kick it without putting a slice of metal through my thin boot and my good and practiced shooting until I could do it perfectly every time.
Nap Shot 3 with a kick.
When I was sure of myself, I lay back down by the fire, set the ball beside me, and curled up into a fitful, dreamless sleep. The last thing I saw was the golden locket Bickson had given me, glittering in the firelight.
**********
Translations:
Nisun-suhkanehk meddma pnyd - Rumor-mongering little brat