Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.
*`*`*`*`*`*`
Author's Note: Boy howdy, I have been having so much fun writing this and pondering the sequel and vampires and my comics and....wait, those have nothing to do with this, do they? Oh well. This chapter will hopefully not be as spastic as the last. Next chapter, I promise will be so friggin' fun, your head will explode. Remember, review, review, review!
~NeoNaoNeo
*`*`*`*`*`*`
"You know the funny thing about driving a car off a cliff is I bet you still try to hit the brakes. Hey, better try the emergency brakes."~Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts
*`*`*`*`*`*`
Chapter 7: Six Years Later
*`*`*`*``*`*`
Ipsen hadn't seen Robin for several months now, not since their last birthday get together, when they celebrated the two's fifteenth year of exsistence. Robin was growing at an exponential rate, becoming more and more of a beautiful young woman everytime he visited. He, however, seemed to have his father's curse, and bearly grew at all, although he did out stand Vivi by a full six inches. His wings still seemed too big for his body, giving him the awkward and clumsy look of a child, and gave Robin a source for teasing. His thoughts seemed to be on her alot lately, hoping and waiting for the next time they'd see one another.
It was a mid-October afternoon, and a beatuiful one at that, especially on the fields outside Lindblum. The sky was still a bright, cheery blue, seeing as the day was still quite young. Ipsen sighed and gave his wings a few sturdy flaps while waiting for Kuja to show up. The two had grown quite close over the years, Ipsen saw Kuja as the only friend he had in Lindblum. As Ipsen spread his wings to full length and began treading on the verge of a promising thermal, a fire ball whizzed past his face. "Jesus!" He exclaimed and took a couple strong beats backwards. Kuja waved to him from the ground. "Oh yeah!?" he shouted as a challenge and commanded a strip of lightning toward Kuja, although it missed.
He landed, folded his wings along his back and chuckled. "I'm glad to see you too," Ipsen laughed and was joined by Kuja after a few moments.
"You should on your toes at all times," Kuja taunted slightly with a shrug and began walking off.
"So, what are we doing today?" Ipsen asked, following him enthusiastically, like a child.
"I don't know," Kuja admitted. "I've taught you as much as I can."
"Oh," Ipsen said dejectedly. "Well, we could hang out. You know, just chill and talk."
"Alright, you've seemed distracted lately." Was Kuja's amazing conversation starter.
"I've just had my mind on alot of stuff," Ipsen murmured and looked away, his thoughts once again returning to Robin.
"Like what?" Kuja said, taking a sudden tune of interest.
"My friend back in Alexandria."
"What was his name?"
"She was a girl," Ipsen defended. "Her name's Robin."
"Were you two very close?"
Ipsen nodded. "We moved though and I hardly see her anymore."
"Well, that seems unfair." Kuja retorted, in hopes of hitting a nerve. "Why did you move?"
"Dad needed a new job," Ipsen shrugged.
There were a few moments of silence when Kuja's face suddenly lit up with joy and he clapped his hands together. "I know! How about you introduce me to him? I would really like to get to know him."
"Hey, sure! You can come over later," Ipsen suggested. Kuja had always been so hesitant to meet Vivi, so this change of heart was very welcome. "Hell, why don't we just go now? I mean, you don't seem to have anything planned."
Kuja smiled his infamous cheshire cat smile. "Sounds fantastic." he uttered, grinning all the while. Ipsen clumsily hopped from his perch on the rock, nearly falling over. Kuja winced at the boy's awkwardness, but went unnoticed. Ipsen looked up to the man, wrying his sleeves.
"You know, we've been friends for....six years," Ipsen confided. "You're the only person I feel safe telling anything, I mean besides Robin..."
"Do you love her?" Kuja asked, tilting his head.
Ipsen laughed. "That's the funny thing," he admitted. "I promised her when I was six if I ever fell in love with a girl, she'd be the first to know. But now, here I am telling you."
"Things usually have a way of working out in ways you couldn't have predicted," Kuja said absentmindly. He blew a strand of hair out of his face and looked up to the cloudless sky. "I'll probably be heading back to Treno after you introduce me to Vi---your father."
The two entered the gates of the gigantic city. "Why, what do you have to do in Treno?" Ipsen asked.
"Oh, haven't I told you?" Kuja said with a transparent tone of surprise.
"No," Ipsen replied, shaking his head.
"I live there," Kuja admitted. "In the auction house. A lovely place. Always company."
"Ugh, I wouldn't be able to stand complete strangers walking in and out of my house all the time." Ipsen groaned.
They were now at Ipsen's house, a small one-story brick home, the roof was raggedly tatched and looked in desperate need of repairs. Ipsen turned the knob and slowly opened the door, which made a load groan as Ipsen pushed it aside. Vivi was sitting in his chair, reading a book in front of a lit fireplace. Vivi looked up when Ipsen entered, Kuja was staying behind.
"Hey dad," Ipsen waved. "I want you to meet my friend, Kuja."
Ipsen turned around and waved the man in. Vivi slowly got out of his chair as Kuja stepped in, an evil smirk on his face, expectant of the mage's reaction. Vivi narrowed his eyes at Kuja and then turned to Ipsen, but went back to Kuja. "Get the hell out of my house!" Vivi shouted at him and sent a fira attack flying.
Ipsen quickly teleported away from the door, where the spell was about to accumulate. Kuja cast a reflect spell, but instead of bouncing it off to its reciever, the shield merely dissipated the conjuration. Vivi once again readied a spell, waiting for Kuja to make a move. Kuja merely gave Vivi an offended look. "I can tell when I'm not wanted. Good bye Ipsen." he muttered pathetically and walked away. He closed the door and smiled to himself. "Now, you'll come to me my little puppet. And you'll have no one to blame but yourself."
Kuja vanished, leaving no trace.
*`*`*`*`*`*`*`
"Dad, what the hell---"
"I don't want you to be around him, he's a horrible, horrible person." Vivi said sternly, as though he was talking to a child of three. "And second, don't you dare start swearing under my roof."
Ipsen ignored his last command. "He was my only f*cking friend in this whole goddamned town!" Ipsen swore, just to fluster his father.
Vivi glared at Ipsen for using the queen mother of all swear words. "Ipsen, look. He's a sneaky, conniving, evil man! He doesn't deserve..."
"Oh yeah?" Ipsen retorted, interupting Vivi. "Well that *mockingly*sneaky, conniving, evil man....is my only friend! Besides Robin, but no. We had to move la-dee-f*ckin' Lindblum."
"I told you," Vivi interupted before Ipsen made a point. "I needed to get a job!"
"Dad, do you know how easy it is to get a job in Alexandria?" Ipsen retorted. "There ar...."
"Not six years ago." Vivi said solemnly, although with a slight tone of sarcasism. Vivi was twenty-three by now, and had lost much of his innocence over the years, but was still cheerful when in a good mood. In this situation, however, he was not in a good mood and his only son was trying to pin him against a wall defending someone who he knew was crooked and dispicable in any view possible.
Ipsen wasn't usually this offensive either, quite the opposite. Him and Vivi usually got along better than many parents and offspring do, especially when the child is a teenager. But in this predicament, Ipsen felt cornered. Any friends he had had in Alexandria were lost and any chances of making friends in Lindblum were destroyed on that first day of school. Ipsen clenchd his fist and glared at Vivi. "Dad why can't you just let me pick my own friends? It's none of YOUR goddamned bus---"
"Go to your room, I told you to stop using that kind of language in my house! You see how Kuja's such a bad influence?" Vivi said, sounding more and more like an opressive parental dictator every minute.
Ipsen, uncharacteristally, laughed at Vivi's ignorant statement. "I learned that from Zidane!" he shouted at Vivi, between scorning laughs.
"Still, I don't want you seeing him anymore!" Vivi said, asserting his authority. "In fact, I don't think you need to see Robin next week either. Visit's off."
Ipsen stopped his laughs. He stopped thinking. Everything just stopped in his mind. Now he couldn't visit Robin, the one he had grown up knowing, caring about, loving. That was the last straw. "That tears it!" Ipsen roared, spreading his wings at full length in an intimidating stance. Every feather pricked up and stood on end as he raised himself in the air, literally levitating on his scorn toward his father at the moment.
Vivi made a choked gasp and fell to the ground, staring at his son wide-eyed with fear. Everything about Ipsen at that moment pulled a string leading to Vivi's memories of Black Waltz 3. Vivi quivered in his own son's shadow. Ipsen narrowed his eyes, not feeling any sympathy toward his father when he uttered his feelings, summed up in a short and bitter phrase.
"I hate you." Every part of this three worded phrase was spat out with such loathing and contempt, Vivi was transfixed. Ipsen hovered, glaring, for a few moments and then teleported with a small imploding sound. Vivi made a small noise and reached out to where Ipsen was a moment before, but all that was left of the boy was a small, stiff white feather. Vivi picked it up and drew back, tears beginning to well up in his eyes.
*`*`*`*`*`*`*`
The afternoon air was still fresh and warm, the thermals were promising and abundant as Ipsen tore through the air, flapping his wings violently. He was going to Treno. He didn't care what Vivi said, he wasn't going to lose another friend.
Ipsen began calming himself down, his chest begining to burn from the prolonged anaerobic activity. He stopped flapping and adjusted his flight feathers for gliding. Ipsen pricked his sense of feeling, flapping his wings every so often, and finally began treading on the verge of a thermal, instinctively navigating it for an edge. The warm air bubble seeped beneath his wings and allowed him to seemingly float, like a pheonix going on hunting rounds. He wouldn't be able to make it to Treno unless he coasted on the thermals, being built aerodynamically like a hawk. Ipsen knew his wings were made and designed for riding the air currents, not flapping and fighting against them.
His wings were spread at full length, the sheer sense of flying giving him a feeling of escasty and euphoria. The air was becoming cooler as he approached Treno, night settling down and flattening the thermals. His muscles were becoming more and more relaxed as he flapped in order to stay aloft, now satisified with his decision.
"I'll show you dad," Ipsen sighed bitterly as he entered the gates of Treno.
*`*`*`*`*`*`*`
Author's Note: Ho-ly crap. That turned out waaaaay different than I thought it would. But that's a good thing. And yes, I'm one of those spooky birdwatcher people whose greatest dream is to somehow genetically alter myself to have wings. Spooky, no? Okay, here is my rant explaining thermals and hawks and what they have to do with one another.
Anyways, if you don't know or didn't get, a thermal is like a big air bubble that occurs when a surface (usually open fields or prairies, parking lots, roof tops, cars, roads and asphalt) is heated by the sun and the heat rises....making a thermal. Hawks, eagles, vultures, buzzards, ospreys, and other raptors/scavengers are strictly built (namely their broad wings) for coasting and floating on these air bubbles, that's how they fly for hours on end when keeping an eye out for food. Their wings get tired quickly when they're flapping, so yeah....that's more than you ever wanted to know about hawks, right?
~NeoNaoNeo
*`*`*`*`*`*`
Author's Note: Boy howdy, I have been having so much fun writing this and pondering the sequel and vampires and my comics and....wait, those have nothing to do with this, do they? Oh well. This chapter will hopefully not be as spastic as the last. Next chapter, I promise will be so friggin' fun, your head will explode. Remember, review, review, review!
~NeoNaoNeo
*`*`*`*`*`*`
"You know the funny thing about driving a car off a cliff is I bet you still try to hit the brakes. Hey, better try the emergency brakes."~Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts
*`*`*`*`*`*`
Chapter 7: Six Years Later
*`*`*`*``*`*`
Ipsen hadn't seen Robin for several months now, not since their last birthday get together, when they celebrated the two's fifteenth year of exsistence. Robin was growing at an exponential rate, becoming more and more of a beautiful young woman everytime he visited. He, however, seemed to have his father's curse, and bearly grew at all, although he did out stand Vivi by a full six inches. His wings still seemed too big for his body, giving him the awkward and clumsy look of a child, and gave Robin a source for teasing. His thoughts seemed to be on her alot lately, hoping and waiting for the next time they'd see one another.
It was a mid-October afternoon, and a beatuiful one at that, especially on the fields outside Lindblum. The sky was still a bright, cheery blue, seeing as the day was still quite young. Ipsen sighed and gave his wings a few sturdy flaps while waiting for Kuja to show up. The two had grown quite close over the years, Ipsen saw Kuja as the only friend he had in Lindblum. As Ipsen spread his wings to full length and began treading on the verge of a promising thermal, a fire ball whizzed past his face. "Jesus!" He exclaimed and took a couple strong beats backwards. Kuja waved to him from the ground. "Oh yeah!?" he shouted as a challenge and commanded a strip of lightning toward Kuja, although it missed.
He landed, folded his wings along his back and chuckled. "I'm glad to see you too," Ipsen laughed and was joined by Kuja after a few moments.
"You should on your toes at all times," Kuja taunted slightly with a shrug and began walking off.
"So, what are we doing today?" Ipsen asked, following him enthusiastically, like a child.
"I don't know," Kuja admitted. "I've taught you as much as I can."
"Oh," Ipsen said dejectedly. "Well, we could hang out. You know, just chill and talk."
"Alright, you've seemed distracted lately." Was Kuja's amazing conversation starter.
"I've just had my mind on alot of stuff," Ipsen murmured and looked away, his thoughts once again returning to Robin.
"Like what?" Kuja said, taking a sudden tune of interest.
"My friend back in Alexandria."
"What was his name?"
"She was a girl," Ipsen defended. "Her name's Robin."
"Were you two very close?"
Ipsen nodded. "We moved though and I hardly see her anymore."
"Well, that seems unfair." Kuja retorted, in hopes of hitting a nerve. "Why did you move?"
"Dad needed a new job," Ipsen shrugged.
There were a few moments of silence when Kuja's face suddenly lit up with joy and he clapped his hands together. "I know! How about you introduce me to him? I would really like to get to know him."
"Hey, sure! You can come over later," Ipsen suggested. Kuja had always been so hesitant to meet Vivi, so this change of heart was very welcome. "Hell, why don't we just go now? I mean, you don't seem to have anything planned."
Kuja smiled his infamous cheshire cat smile. "Sounds fantastic." he uttered, grinning all the while. Ipsen clumsily hopped from his perch on the rock, nearly falling over. Kuja winced at the boy's awkwardness, but went unnoticed. Ipsen looked up to the man, wrying his sleeves.
"You know, we've been friends for....six years," Ipsen confided. "You're the only person I feel safe telling anything, I mean besides Robin..."
"Do you love her?" Kuja asked, tilting his head.
Ipsen laughed. "That's the funny thing," he admitted. "I promised her when I was six if I ever fell in love with a girl, she'd be the first to know. But now, here I am telling you."
"Things usually have a way of working out in ways you couldn't have predicted," Kuja said absentmindly. He blew a strand of hair out of his face and looked up to the cloudless sky. "I'll probably be heading back to Treno after you introduce me to Vi---your father."
The two entered the gates of the gigantic city. "Why, what do you have to do in Treno?" Ipsen asked.
"Oh, haven't I told you?" Kuja said with a transparent tone of surprise.
"No," Ipsen replied, shaking his head.
"I live there," Kuja admitted. "In the auction house. A lovely place. Always company."
"Ugh, I wouldn't be able to stand complete strangers walking in and out of my house all the time." Ipsen groaned.
They were now at Ipsen's house, a small one-story brick home, the roof was raggedly tatched and looked in desperate need of repairs. Ipsen turned the knob and slowly opened the door, which made a load groan as Ipsen pushed it aside. Vivi was sitting in his chair, reading a book in front of a lit fireplace. Vivi looked up when Ipsen entered, Kuja was staying behind.
"Hey dad," Ipsen waved. "I want you to meet my friend, Kuja."
Ipsen turned around and waved the man in. Vivi slowly got out of his chair as Kuja stepped in, an evil smirk on his face, expectant of the mage's reaction. Vivi narrowed his eyes at Kuja and then turned to Ipsen, but went back to Kuja. "Get the hell out of my house!" Vivi shouted at him and sent a fira attack flying.
Ipsen quickly teleported away from the door, where the spell was about to accumulate. Kuja cast a reflect spell, but instead of bouncing it off to its reciever, the shield merely dissipated the conjuration. Vivi once again readied a spell, waiting for Kuja to make a move. Kuja merely gave Vivi an offended look. "I can tell when I'm not wanted. Good bye Ipsen." he muttered pathetically and walked away. He closed the door and smiled to himself. "Now, you'll come to me my little puppet. And you'll have no one to blame but yourself."
Kuja vanished, leaving no trace.
*`*`*`*`*`*`*`
"Dad, what the hell---"
"I don't want you to be around him, he's a horrible, horrible person." Vivi said sternly, as though he was talking to a child of three. "And second, don't you dare start swearing under my roof."
Ipsen ignored his last command. "He was my only f*cking friend in this whole goddamned town!" Ipsen swore, just to fluster his father.
Vivi glared at Ipsen for using the queen mother of all swear words. "Ipsen, look. He's a sneaky, conniving, evil man! He doesn't deserve..."
"Oh yeah?" Ipsen retorted, interupting Vivi. "Well that *mockingly*sneaky, conniving, evil man....is my only friend! Besides Robin, but no. We had to move la-dee-f*ckin' Lindblum."
"I told you," Vivi interupted before Ipsen made a point. "I needed to get a job!"
"Dad, do you know how easy it is to get a job in Alexandria?" Ipsen retorted. "There ar...."
"Not six years ago." Vivi said solemnly, although with a slight tone of sarcasism. Vivi was twenty-three by now, and had lost much of his innocence over the years, but was still cheerful when in a good mood. In this situation, however, he was not in a good mood and his only son was trying to pin him against a wall defending someone who he knew was crooked and dispicable in any view possible.
Ipsen wasn't usually this offensive either, quite the opposite. Him and Vivi usually got along better than many parents and offspring do, especially when the child is a teenager. But in this predicament, Ipsen felt cornered. Any friends he had had in Alexandria were lost and any chances of making friends in Lindblum were destroyed on that first day of school. Ipsen clenchd his fist and glared at Vivi. "Dad why can't you just let me pick my own friends? It's none of YOUR goddamned bus---"
"Go to your room, I told you to stop using that kind of language in my house! You see how Kuja's such a bad influence?" Vivi said, sounding more and more like an opressive parental dictator every minute.
Ipsen, uncharacteristally, laughed at Vivi's ignorant statement. "I learned that from Zidane!" he shouted at Vivi, between scorning laughs.
"Still, I don't want you seeing him anymore!" Vivi said, asserting his authority. "In fact, I don't think you need to see Robin next week either. Visit's off."
Ipsen stopped his laughs. He stopped thinking. Everything just stopped in his mind. Now he couldn't visit Robin, the one he had grown up knowing, caring about, loving. That was the last straw. "That tears it!" Ipsen roared, spreading his wings at full length in an intimidating stance. Every feather pricked up and stood on end as he raised himself in the air, literally levitating on his scorn toward his father at the moment.
Vivi made a choked gasp and fell to the ground, staring at his son wide-eyed with fear. Everything about Ipsen at that moment pulled a string leading to Vivi's memories of Black Waltz 3. Vivi quivered in his own son's shadow. Ipsen narrowed his eyes, not feeling any sympathy toward his father when he uttered his feelings, summed up in a short and bitter phrase.
"I hate you." Every part of this three worded phrase was spat out with such loathing and contempt, Vivi was transfixed. Ipsen hovered, glaring, for a few moments and then teleported with a small imploding sound. Vivi made a small noise and reached out to where Ipsen was a moment before, but all that was left of the boy was a small, stiff white feather. Vivi picked it up and drew back, tears beginning to well up in his eyes.
*`*`*`*`*`*`*`
The afternoon air was still fresh and warm, the thermals were promising and abundant as Ipsen tore through the air, flapping his wings violently. He was going to Treno. He didn't care what Vivi said, he wasn't going to lose another friend.
Ipsen began calming himself down, his chest begining to burn from the prolonged anaerobic activity. He stopped flapping and adjusted his flight feathers for gliding. Ipsen pricked his sense of feeling, flapping his wings every so often, and finally began treading on the verge of a thermal, instinctively navigating it for an edge. The warm air bubble seeped beneath his wings and allowed him to seemingly float, like a pheonix going on hunting rounds. He wouldn't be able to make it to Treno unless he coasted on the thermals, being built aerodynamically like a hawk. Ipsen knew his wings were made and designed for riding the air currents, not flapping and fighting against them.
His wings were spread at full length, the sheer sense of flying giving him a feeling of escasty and euphoria. The air was becoming cooler as he approached Treno, night settling down and flattening the thermals. His muscles were becoming more and more relaxed as he flapped in order to stay aloft, now satisified with his decision.
"I'll show you dad," Ipsen sighed bitterly as he entered the gates of Treno.
*`*`*`*`*`*`*`
Author's Note: Ho-ly crap. That turned out waaaaay different than I thought it would. But that's a good thing. And yes, I'm one of those spooky birdwatcher people whose greatest dream is to somehow genetically alter myself to have wings. Spooky, no? Okay, here is my rant explaining thermals and hawks and what they have to do with one another.
Anyways, if you don't know or didn't get, a thermal is like a big air bubble that occurs when a surface (usually open fields or prairies, parking lots, roof tops, cars, roads and asphalt) is heated by the sun and the heat rises....making a thermal. Hawks, eagles, vultures, buzzards, ospreys, and other raptors/scavengers are strictly built (namely their broad wings) for coasting and floating on these air bubbles, that's how they fly for hours on end when keeping an eye out for food. Their wings get tired quickly when they're flapping, so yeah....that's more than you ever wanted to know about hawks, right?
~NeoNaoNeo