Disclaimer: Everything said in the chapter 1 disclaimer still applies here.
The meeting room, hidden on the basement level of Trabia Garden, was unusually crowded. Normally, only the most important and secret meetings were held there. Today, though, a group of Trabia's top instructors and leaders had met there, along with the head doctor. One of them, instructor Tiran, began to speak "So it is settled. We test FOCUS on one of our cadets. Now we just need to find one that it will make little change to, before we find its limits. FOCUS makes people serious, dedicated, follow orders absolutely, and removes remorse and empathy for kills, yet does not damage the capacity for strong bonds with friends. We're probably going to want someone with their remorse and empathy intact before we test it." Instructor Tiran paced along the side of the table as he spoke, taking his seat as he finished. Trabia Garden's head doctor, Doctor Filtras, stood "Agreed. To minimize the amount of change, we should take one of our top cadets. Someone serious, dedicated, close to his friends, and who knows how to follow orders when given. Does anyone have any suggestions for a FOCUS test subject?"
Almost all of the various instructors rose, and listed, of their cadets, who would be the best FOCUS test subject. One name came up several times. "Tilmitt. She's very serious in my class" "Selphie's a good student, dedicated to her work." "Once she throws herself into it, she sticks to what she's doing until the end. Selphie's a good choice." Finally, the headmaster spoke "One name has been mentioned many more times than others here. I motion to make Selphie Tilmitt the test subject for the FOCUS project. All in favor?" A large chorus of "Aye"s came from across the table. "All against?" Many fewer "Nay"s came. "Settled, then. Selphie Tilmitt will be the FOCUS test subject." One of the instructors, Instructor Feln, stood up "Sir, I don't think this project is a good idea. Logically, it makes perfect sense, but morally-" the headmaster interrupted "We've settled years ago to go through with this. If you are having second thoughts, I could remove this burden from you." "Sir, I'm not sure if I will be able to remain on the committee for this project" "You're off of it. Keep in mind that if you tell *anybody* about what has been discussed here, you've given up your job." The rest of the group had left the meeting room to the rest of the Garden. Feln and the Headmaster filed out, Feln knowing it was likely to be his last time in the meeting room.
Meanwhile...
Selphie sat on the roof of Garden, staring at the full moon. She had climbed up from her balcony over a few others (nobody noticed; they were asleep), to get a better view of the moon, and of the cold night. She liked it on the roof, and yet, strangely, it caused her to think depressing, philosophical thoughts. "The cruel, dark, harsh world... We're stuck here to live out our brief lives of pain here, then we die. I'm not going to let the world torture me any longer. But, if I jump, it'll have won. I won't let the world win! But, it always wins. I should go into the snow field and fight something, deal with this stress. It's after curfew, though, so I can't be caught. If I try to wake my friends, I'll end up caught, and if I go alone, I'll end up dead. So, that plan's out. I should get back to my dorm and sleep." She began to climb down from the roof. She took her nunchaku out, wrapped one end of the chain around a gutter on the roof, and grabbed the other bar. The bar wrapped around held reasonably fast, and so Selphie climbed down slowly, holding on to her weapon in both hands. She touched the balcony railing on the top floor gently, and made her chain ripple, setting the bar locked on the roof free. He repeated this process several times on balcony railings, until she landed on her own. She packed up her weapons, went inside, and hopped into bed, still fully dressed.
Some hours later...
Selphie couldn't sleep. Her mind was focused into too dark a mood, and, when she dropped into sleep, she awoke half an hour later. Fear and loathing of the world swarmed through her mind, as did thoughts. Her thoughts ran rapidly through her mind, chasing and dancing endlessly, keeping her from sleep. Finally, she climbed out of her bed, and stepped to her desk. "If I can't sleep, I should use my time." She began reading over her notes, then setting them down and reciting from memory. Once she was confident she had her memorization down, she pulled out her essay and began to work on it. Finally, a thought hit her. "Oh! I completely forgot. I'm going with Ternif to the Garden Festival friday! I need to figure out what to wear." She looked over her closet. "Hmmm... These boots are dark enough to be me" she said, barely audibly to herself, pulling out a pair of black combat boots. "I'll want a dress too..." She thought about a dress, and immediatly remembered a woman, much older than her, wearing a long black dress. "Of course! Black dress, down to my ankles. Big enough not to keep me from moving, of course, and with long slits in the sides. I don't think I have one." She examined her clothes "No, I don't. I've got a week, so I can probably make one." Selphie then began to think about what else to wear "Hmm... I'll see if I can get my dress short sleeved." She sat down, pulled her sketch pad from her desk drawer, and began to draw a picture of her planned outfit. "Hmmm, looks about right. No, it needs a bit of color." She looked over her clothes, and found something in bright red that could be called a corset, although it was much looser than the first clothing to bear that name, this one being possible wear while breathing, almost blood red. "Hmm, I'll add this on over the dress." She erased part of her drawing, and drew that in where she had just erased. Pleased with the effect, she put away her pad, and crawled back into bed.
Despite her restlessness, she slept well, and was fully awake in the morning. She walked down for breakfast, and ate with Ternif, Xanea, and Calire. They talked, mostly about the Garden Festival. Selphie stayed quiet through breakfast, wondering how Ternif get her to go with him, although she decided to stick to her word. Breakfast over, the four then went to their classes. For Selphie, her magic class came first. Instructor Feln began the class by casting a Gravija spell on the entire class. Something about him looked troubled to Selphie. After the students recovered from the few second effects of the sudden distortion of gravity, the students readied their spells. Feln began to assign them to teams for magic practice, pausing on Selphie's name, as if in fear. He then announced pairings of teams. Selphie faced the people who would oppose her this period. She began to trace intricate patterns in the air with her weapons, releasing magical energy with little control. Several blocks of ice crystallized in midair above and around her opponents, then, as soon as they crystallized, the magic holding them failed. They dropped on and among her opponents. One of them, Kith, dropped to the ground, losing conciousness either from the frostbite or the block of ice hitting him in the head.
One of the "white mages" in the class, assigned to Selphie's team, cast a life spell on their opponent. It was, after all, their job to ensure that their practice kept going. The now-concious cadet focused, and an array of fire spells came to him. The other cadets continued trading their spell limit breaks, working in a variety of ways. Selphie took a Firaga from the student she had blizzarded, and dropped into unconciousness. Her team's white mage revived her, and was hit with a Silence from another of the opposition. Selphie cast at random, catching a spell moving through her mind, not knowing what it was, and cast Poisona on her entire team. "Hoped for an Esuna. Oh well, at least it wasn't something useless, like Cure."
It was then that one of the other students in the class entered. She was assigned to a team, and began to watch their fight, and tried to defend herself. Selphie glanced at her a moment, then continued her spell sparring. Soon, the spell spar ended. Selphie had been knocked unconcious twice, and been too strong for her spells once. Instructor Feln spoke to the tardy "Why weren't you casting spells? I want to see some effort here." She replied "S-sir, I w-was not hurt enough to c-cast anything, because I, I missed the Gravija." "No excuse. I'm marking down your effort for today." Selphie knew Feln as a strict, but good, teacher. The class continued through three more spars, and Feln finished by casting a series of Life spells, then a FullCure. Of the entire class, Selphie was the only student to master that spell.
Selphie's day continued. Her mathematics class came next, where she turned in her review assignment. It was a hectic review day, as the matchematics exam, one of the prerequisites for the SeeD field exam (SeeD wanted only the best in all areas), was only two weeks away. Selphie copied down the homework, and copied down several related problems to do, above and beyond her homework, before leaving the class. Gymnastics came next. She had practiced well beyond expectations, as she had mastered what they were working on for the next three days. She didn't have enough time for more than a few good friends, as a result of her constant overachieving. Astronomy came next, with a focus on Lunology (the study of the moon), like it always had, as SeeDs were more likely to encounter lunar artifacts and creatures than those from elsewhere. Next came her Martial Arts class. Xanea fought with a hybrid of a three-section staff and a pair of swords, two razor-edged blades, each two feet long, attached to opposite ends of a foot-long handle by a joint that allowed them to go anywhere. She was one of the bravest girls in the class, most of them picking longer-reaching weapons, and hers was as dangerous to those unskilled in its use as to its targets, but SeeD weapons were invariably impossible to use untrained.
"Everyone's here, so we'll have no problems. Now, will everyone demonstrate the technique I have assigned you to learn last monday." He began calling names, and the student came up, and demonstrated his or her technique on a practice dummy. By the time he called "Selphie!", the third combat dummy they had gone through that day was half-destroyed. Selphie twirled around, and lightly tapped it three times with her nunchaku, one on each shoulder, and another time on the side of the head. "Excellent, Selphie. Your control over your weapon is amazing." Selphie smiled at her weekly weapons praise, took the description handout for her next technique, and went back to her seat to read the handout. Xanea, who had been called before Selphie had, tried to talk to her, but she focused intently on the handout. Finally, the instructor ordered the students to scatter across the classroom to practice their new technique. It was a simple class for Selphie. They were only forced to keep up general combat skills by monthly tests, which she always aced, unlike the students who focused entirely on the technique-of-the-week. While the students took their time to practice their techniques, the instructor wandered throughout the class, telling students exactly what they were doing wrong. When he got to Selphie, he told her "You're standing up too high. Also, you're striking out too far. This one's defensive." Selphie ducked lower, and crossed the two bars of her Nunchaku, attacking occasionally, whenever she saw a good opening in her imaginary enemy.
Xanea ran up to Selphie "Selph, can you help me with my technique?" Handing Selphie her description sheet, she continued "I think it goes like this... And I have to do this... Or maybe this..." Seeing her friend's obvious confusion, she helped her "You stand like this, and attack like this. I don't know how to use your razor staff, so I'm not going to try." Xanea tried to do what Selphie told her to "No, I don't think it goes that way... Try this." Selphie kept up instructing Xanea, who kept on making mistakes, although nothing involving cutting herself. Selphie realized, halfway through practice time, that she had spent more time helping Xanea than on her own practice. "I'll help you during our lunch break. In the meantime, I have to work on my technique." Selphie then ducked into her defensive crouch, stepped back rapidly, spun around, and let go of one of the bars of her nunchaku. It flew away from her, and toward Xanea. Xanea spun her staff rapidly, forming a disc of whirling blades in front of her, while dropping into a crouch. Selphie pulled her nunchaku back, and it just barely grazed the whirling blades. There was a thud of a steel blade impacting wood, which slowed Xanea's blade enough for Selphie to jerk her weapon away.
"That was almost perfect. Keep trying that way. Oh, here's your instructions back." Xanea took the instruction sheet back, "Hey, nice work, Selphie. Almost got me." "Hey, isn't that what I'm supposed to do" Selphie said with a laugh. Changing the subject, Xanea replied "You open at two?" "My next class after History is at three, so I've got an hour then." "See ya then, Selphie! Meet at the sparring area" The class period had just five minutes left, but Selphie figured she could get something done. She dropped into her defensive stance, nunchaku crossed in front of her face, ducking down, then curled down further, rolled backward, and sent one of the bars of her nunchaku flying against the air. She jerked the part she held back, and the other flew back to her hand.
World History/Geography came next. Unfortunately for Selphie, the Martial Arts class has no room for her binder, and she isn't supposed to have her weapon with her for Geography. As she did every day, she began to run to her dorm. As she rushed down the stairs, she ran into Crilis. Crilis was part of the Trabia disciplinary committee, but was usually on friendly terms with Selphie. Unfortunately for her, Crilis had just lost his girlfriend. Naturally, this was bad news for Selphie, especially considering that Selphie knew Crilis's ex-girlfriend, and the two were on better-than-terrible terms. "Selphie! Stop!" There was a menace in his voice that Selphie hadn't heard before. "Crilis, what?" "I'm going to have to report you for speeding. Walk back to the top of the stairs, and then finish where you were going at a walk." Crilis was evidently unhappy, and, had Selphie been better at reading people instead of books, she would have noticed his unhappiness "Why are you picking on me?" "Hmm, talking back too. Tsk tsk tsk... Perfect Selphie getting busted for two things in under five minutes... That's a first" "Seriously! Crilis, what's wrong?" Selphie was very annoyed now. "Ahh, of course. Something's wrong with *ME*. Something is always wrong with *ME*. That's what *she* said, that's what *everyone* said. I'm on the Dee-Cee! I don't have to take this from troublemakers like you!" Selphie listened to his rant, afraid that if she moved he'd bust her for something. He went on for the entirety of ten minutes, then left, even more angry than when he'd started. Selphie continued down to her dorm at a walk, and he'd forogotten to bust her for not going back to the top of the stairs. When she finally reached her dorm, put away her nunchaku, and retrieved her binder, it had taken her twenty minutes. "Oh... This is bad. Fifteen minutes late already," she said to herself.
It only took her five minutes to walk to class, but that made her twenty minutes late. Instructor Ciltar spoke to Selphie, surprise in her voice "You're twenty minutes late, Tilmitt. Because this is your first tardy this quarter, I'll let you off easy. Stay here after class to arrange when you can make up for what you've missed." Selphie caught herself, and didn't comment on narrowly avoiding a third detention in one day. She took her seat, and Instructor Ciltar continued her lecture on the Sorceress Wars, detailing every troop advance. She picked up at the Battle of Centra. Esthar had set up a number of mining operations there, and the Galbadians moved in to destroy them. At that time, Esthar had overrun Trabia, and had some forces in the Dollet area, moving down toward Galbadia. Selphie made a mental note to reasearch the Centran front of the Sorceress War. After class, as the class, except Selphie, left, Ternif stayed to mention to Selphie "Surprising to see you late to class." Selphie considered a reply, and said "Crilis turned evil." "Ahh, well that explains it. See ya at lunch." replied Ternif. "Just a few more minutes" came Selphie's response. As Ternif walked out, Selphie approached Instructor Ciltar's desk. She was afraid, but she tried to hide it "I-instructor... I could make up the time I missed just before curfew." "Ok, be here forty minutes before, and not a second late."
Selphie left for the cafeteria. A long line had already formed for pizza by the time she got there, so Selphie knew she had no chance of getting a slice. She decided to grab something sugary, as the sugary things didn't run out as fast as the day's pizza supply. As the line advanced, she grabbed a stack of granola bars, along with a small stack of chocolate cookies. In front of her were three girls gibbering about the Graden Festival, who they should take, two of them talking about their boyfriends, and all debating who the third should try to get to ask her. Selphie thought "idiots. Just find someone and ask them yourself. Or just don't go. That way you don't have to worry about any of this." Finally, she paid for her stuff from her Garden Student Rations, and left for the table where her friends sat. She sat down, and the four began to talk. Calire began to wonder who would be her date for the Garden Festival "Xander's cute, I could ask him... But then again, he probably wouldn't like someone like me." Everyone knew what she meant: She was a self-admitted shrimp, and Xander was large, tough, and tended not to like weak girls. "There's also Elart. Then again, I'm not sure if he even understands human interaction." Elart managed to be both strong and smart, but every spare second he had, he spent studying or training his strength. Xanea's face lit up, and she sprung to life with an idea "Calire, I know just the guy for you. I'll talk to him later today, and get him to go with you." "Oh, thanks, Xanea. Who?" "It would ruin the surprise if I told you now, wouldn't it?" "Oh, so you're setting me up on a blind date." Calire hated blind dates with a deep passion, and was showing it, becoming visibly tense. "No, no, no. I just want the surprise to be when he asks you." "Oh. Well, that's much better," Calire replied, visibly calming down. "Do you have anything planned for yourself?" "No, not yet. I figure I'll let someone ask me."
The four, except Selphie, finished their pizza, while Selphie muched on her granola and chocolate bars. Selphie became more hyper by the bite "We've got some time, why don't we have a snowball fight!?" Calire responded "Sure, wonderful idea, Selph." Those of her friends who didn't already know of her reactions to sugar (none of them) certainly knew now. The four left the cafeteria for their dorms, dressed for the snow, and hurried out into the fields of Trabia (close enough to the Garden to be mostly safe), and began to circle around eachother wildly. Xanea bent down to grab some snow, pressed it into a roughly spherical shape, and threw it at Selphie. Selphie jumped, landed, somersaulted, and, during all this, somehow made a snowball. She tossed it back at Xanea, who had missed her. She felt something striking just below her neck, then breaking into powder. This caused a sensation of cold to rapidly overtake that area. She turned, and saw the Calire had thrown the snowball.
Never one to hold a grudge, especailly in a snowball fight, Selphie lobbed her next at Ternif. Ternif took the hit square in his side, and threw one at Xanea. The four continued to run in chaotic circles, until a loud "Wheeeyaaaaaaaaaaaah!" was heard, ringing across from a hill they stood near. Down it came Kabi, someone who Selphie knew, but saw as a complete idiot. She was standing on an improvised sled, made of four wooden planks, more or less attached by two boards running across them. Selphie imagined her noticing a rock almost conealed under the snow half a second before hitting it. A smile crept across her face. She shouted to the four, who had dropped their snowball fight to watch her. Selphie looked to her right hand. It held a snowball, which she was about to throw at Calire. She decided it had a new mission. Kabi fell off her sled from the slight force of the impact of Selphie's snowball.
"Hey, Selphie?! Like, what was that for?" Selphie's happy mood had vanished. "It was for being an idiot." Calire tried to look big, and turned to Selphie "That's mean. Be nice to her." "Nice? To her?" Kabi's short attention span took over, and she forgot completely why she just had to stand up and brush snow off herself, which was hard, with snow stuck to her gloves. "Anyway, I just dumped Crilis earlier today. He was like, 'you're the garden idiot,' and I was like 'well, I don't have to put up with you' and he was like..." She went on and on, and every time she said "like," it drew Selphie a tiny bit closer to seeking blood. Finally, she finished "so, I like dumped him." The only way Kabi did not conform to the dumb blonde steriotype was by making Selphie ashamed of her hair color; she was a brunette too.
Selphie felt her patience beginning to crack. It took all her effort to not punch Kabi in the face. Kabi noticed her concealed rage "Selphie, like, what's wrong?" Selphie turned and walked away, then dropped to the ground, packed some snow into a roughly spherical shape, and threw it at Kabi's face. It struck true; Selphie practiced *everything* she did, and hit her dead center in the nose. Kabi turned to Selphie, evil in her eyes. Selphie saw only one way out. "SNOWBALL FIGHT!" With those two words, Kabi's menace was mostly removed. What wasn't was confused by the snowballs coming in from all directions. Selphie kept an eye on everyone, her sugar rush mostly gone, replaced by adrenaline. Two long minutes later, Xanea shouted "See ya, everyone. I need to go to my magic class." "Bye, Xanea!" came everyone's shouted reply. Selphie didn't join the shout, instead saying "Well, see ya." Selphie decided she'd go inside to get her weapons, to practice the new technique, along with integrating it into her general fighting moves.
Two rolled around, and Selphie was at the sparring area, as promised. Xanea, however, was ten minutes late, and forgot her instruction sheet. Selphie practiced her own technique in the meantime. When Xanea arrived, Selphie said to her "You said you'd be here ten minutes ago. Where were you?" "Hey, I was comforting Kabi after what you said to her. " Selphie just sighed. "Well, let's get to work. Let me see your instruction sheet." Xanea slapped her forehead. "Oh! My instruction sheet. I completely forgot it. Its in my dorm." Selphie gave a "why am I constantly surrounded by incompetent fools?" look, and said "Well, you'd best hurry and get it." Selphie continued her practice, beating on a wall with her nunchaku to relieve her stress. Finally, Xanea returned. "Got it. I also remembered my staff this time. "YOU FORGOT YOUR STAFF LAST TIME?!" Selphie exploded at her. Xanea meekly replied "yes." "Well, I suppose you'd have been stuck anyway" Selphie wanted to add "moron," but didn't. "Lets get this done," she said as she took the instruction sheet. Xanea unsheated the razor blades from their sheathes on the central portion of the staff, and dropped into her defensive posture. Selphie looked, saw a mistake, found where she was doing something wrong, and sent her nunchaku there. It passed her easily, and hit her shoulder. "Selphie, why'd you do that?" "You've got a mistake here. You're supposed to hold your weapon higher." "Ok!"
Their practice session continued, Xanea constantly getting something wrong, even after puzzling over the worksheet for ten minutes. Finally, she told Selphie "I just remembered, I have to go talk to the guy I'm setting Calire up with. I'll see you later." Selphie thought about the Garden Festival. She already had what to wear planned, and who she was going with, or rather, Xanea planned that, but otherwise Selphie wouldn't be going. She tried to figure out what else she needed to plan. She thought about that for some time, not quite figuring it out, but still feeling she's missing something, and never quite figuring out what else it was. This was her first Garden Festival, so forgetting something was forgivable. Nonetheless, it definitely bothered her. She only noticed she had Biology coming up when the clock was at 2:57. She rushed back to her dorm, carefully avoiding the DC on her way there, dropped off her weapons, grabbed her Biology notebook, and headed off to class.
Biology in SeeD Gardens focused mainly on monster biology, and mainly there on aspects that would help SeeDs fight them, and adapt to similar monsters. Many of these creatures are magical, and so the SeeDs are also carefully instructed about their powers and how to deal with them magically. Selphie had a class test that day, although not one of the important exams for SeeD, so little happened. She new she'd get a grade well above passing when her test came back. None of the questions were particularly hard for Selphie, and most of the answers were straight from her memory. She finished with half the class time to spare, handed in her test, and began to take a nap. She woke up as the class ended, already packed to go. She left for her dorm, having the rest of the day to spare.
She practiced with her nunchaku against a moving target in the sparring area before her friends got out. When it became clear to her that they were probably either playing in the snow, or gathering somewhere else, either to cafeteria, or the Garden Store, or, well, anywhere. It was about then that her body realized it had missed some sleep the previous night, and she decided she'd get to sleep early. "Two more days till the festival..."
As she undressed for bed, something she had neglected the previous night (it showed on the uniform she wore the previous day), she remembered she had been given more stuff to review in mathematics. She re-dressed herself, and did her math worksheet. She turned back to her history essay, and began to revise that again. It was still nowhere near perfect. Of course, Selphie's perspective on perfection in an essay was well beyond any instructor's sense of what is worth a perfect grade. Selphie knew this, but simply didn't care. An essay was not considered finished by her unless it was up to *her* impossible standards. She wouldn't stop work on anything unfinished, and, if given no deadlines, would never turn her essays in, because they'd never be through revision. Selphie didn't care.
Being alone made her this way. When she was with others, there was always something to distract her. When she was alone, if she wasn't depressed, or high on sugar, she was perfectly serious. As she finished her essay revisions for the moment, she looked back down at her plans for the Festival. She knew something was missing, but was still not quite sure what. She looked at her plans again, thought about whether or not to stick to it, and decided "Well, I already took the effort to plan and draw it. Besides, in the picture at least, I look good in it. I shouldn't change my mind."
It was then that she remembered she was tired, and had come back to her dorm to sleep. She pulled off her clothes, dropped back into her bed, and began to try to sleep. It took her some time before she could manage to sleep, as, despite her need, both physical and mental, her thoughts decided it would be "fun" to play a game of tag through her mind. Naturally, with her thoughts moving at such a rapid pace, sleep was difficult. She made a mental note to visit the Infirmary for help with her insomnia, then decided that wasn't enough, and wrote it down. It didn't help her sleep at all. Her thoughts continued to chase eachother through her mind. She tried to clear her mind and calm down, but her thoughts decided they wouldn't let her.
Pronounciation of more names:
Feln: fell with an "n" sound on the end.
Crilis: krill (like the animals)-is (s pronounced as in snake)
Ciltar: sill-tar
Kabi: Cab-ee
The meeting room, hidden on the basement level of Trabia Garden, was unusually crowded. Normally, only the most important and secret meetings were held there. Today, though, a group of Trabia's top instructors and leaders had met there, along with the head doctor. One of them, instructor Tiran, began to speak "So it is settled. We test FOCUS on one of our cadets. Now we just need to find one that it will make little change to, before we find its limits. FOCUS makes people serious, dedicated, follow orders absolutely, and removes remorse and empathy for kills, yet does not damage the capacity for strong bonds with friends. We're probably going to want someone with their remorse and empathy intact before we test it." Instructor Tiran paced along the side of the table as he spoke, taking his seat as he finished. Trabia Garden's head doctor, Doctor Filtras, stood "Agreed. To minimize the amount of change, we should take one of our top cadets. Someone serious, dedicated, close to his friends, and who knows how to follow orders when given. Does anyone have any suggestions for a FOCUS test subject?"
Almost all of the various instructors rose, and listed, of their cadets, who would be the best FOCUS test subject. One name came up several times. "Tilmitt. She's very serious in my class" "Selphie's a good student, dedicated to her work." "Once she throws herself into it, she sticks to what she's doing until the end. Selphie's a good choice." Finally, the headmaster spoke "One name has been mentioned many more times than others here. I motion to make Selphie Tilmitt the test subject for the FOCUS project. All in favor?" A large chorus of "Aye"s came from across the table. "All against?" Many fewer "Nay"s came. "Settled, then. Selphie Tilmitt will be the FOCUS test subject." One of the instructors, Instructor Feln, stood up "Sir, I don't think this project is a good idea. Logically, it makes perfect sense, but morally-" the headmaster interrupted "We've settled years ago to go through with this. If you are having second thoughts, I could remove this burden from you." "Sir, I'm not sure if I will be able to remain on the committee for this project" "You're off of it. Keep in mind that if you tell *anybody* about what has been discussed here, you've given up your job." The rest of the group had left the meeting room to the rest of the Garden. Feln and the Headmaster filed out, Feln knowing it was likely to be his last time in the meeting room.
Meanwhile...
Selphie sat on the roof of Garden, staring at the full moon. She had climbed up from her balcony over a few others (nobody noticed; they were asleep), to get a better view of the moon, and of the cold night. She liked it on the roof, and yet, strangely, it caused her to think depressing, philosophical thoughts. "The cruel, dark, harsh world... We're stuck here to live out our brief lives of pain here, then we die. I'm not going to let the world torture me any longer. But, if I jump, it'll have won. I won't let the world win! But, it always wins. I should go into the snow field and fight something, deal with this stress. It's after curfew, though, so I can't be caught. If I try to wake my friends, I'll end up caught, and if I go alone, I'll end up dead. So, that plan's out. I should get back to my dorm and sleep." She began to climb down from the roof. She took her nunchaku out, wrapped one end of the chain around a gutter on the roof, and grabbed the other bar. The bar wrapped around held reasonably fast, and so Selphie climbed down slowly, holding on to her weapon in both hands. She touched the balcony railing on the top floor gently, and made her chain ripple, setting the bar locked on the roof free. He repeated this process several times on balcony railings, until she landed on her own. She packed up her weapons, went inside, and hopped into bed, still fully dressed.
Some hours later...
Selphie couldn't sleep. Her mind was focused into too dark a mood, and, when she dropped into sleep, she awoke half an hour later. Fear and loathing of the world swarmed through her mind, as did thoughts. Her thoughts ran rapidly through her mind, chasing and dancing endlessly, keeping her from sleep. Finally, she climbed out of her bed, and stepped to her desk. "If I can't sleep, I should use my time." She began reading over her notes, then setting them down and reciting from memory. Once she was confident she had her memorization down, she pulled out her essay and began to work on it. Finally, a thought hit her. "Oh! I completely forgot. I'm going with Ternif to the Garden Festival friday! I need to figure out what to wear." She looked over her closet. "Hmmm... These boots are dark enough to be me" she said, barely audibly to herself, pulling out a pair of black combat boots. "I'll want a dress too..." She thought about a dress, and immediatly remembered a woman, much older than her, wearing a long black dress. "Of course! Black dress, down to my ankles. Big enough not to keep me from moving, of course, and with long slits in the sides. I don't think I have one." She examined her clothes "No, I don't. I've got a week, so I can probably make one." Selphie then began to think about what else to wear "Hmm... I'll see if I can get my dress short sleeved." She sat down, pulled her sketch pad from her desk drawer, and began to draw a picture of her planned outfit. "Hmmm, looks about right. No, it needs a bit of color." She looked over her clothes, and found something in bright red that could be called a corset, although it was much looser than the first clothing to bear that name, this one being possible wear while breathing, almost blood red. "Hmm, I'll add this on over the dress." She erased part of her drawing, and drew that in where she had just erased. Pleased with the effect, she put away her pad, and crawled back into bed.
Despite her restlessness, she slept well, and was fully awake in the morning. She walked down for breakfast, and ate with Ternif, Xanea, and Calire. They talked, mostly about the Garden Festival. Selphie stayed quiet through breakfast, wondering how Ternif get her to go with him, although she decided to stick to her word. Breakfast over, the four then went to their classes. For Selphie, her magic class came first. Instructor Feln began the class by casting a Gravija spell on the entire class. Something about him looked troubled to Selphie. After the students recovered from the few second effects of the sudden distortion of gravity, the students readied their spells. Feln began to assign them to teams for magic practice, pausing on Selphie's name, as if in fear. He then announced pairings of teams. Selphie faced the people who would oppose her this period. She began to trace intricate patterns in the air with her weapons, releasing magical energy with little control. Several blocks of ice crystallized in midair above and around her opponents, then, as soon as they crystallized, the magic holding them failed. They dropped on and among her opponents. One of them, Kith, dropped to the ground, losing conciousness either from the frostbite or the block of ice hitting him in the head.
One of the "white mages" in the class, assigned to Selphie's team, cast a life spell on their opponent. It was, after all, their job to ensure that their practice kept going. The now-concious cadet focused, and an array of fire spells came to him. The other cadets continued trading their spell limit breaks, working in a variety of ways. Selphie took a Firaga from the student she had blizzarded, and dropped into unconciousness. Her team's white mage revived her, and was hit with a Silence from another of the opposition. Selphie cast at random, catching a spell moving through her mind, not knowing what it was, and cast Poisona on her entire team. "Hoped for an Esuna. Oh well, at least it wasn't something useless, like Cure."
It was then that one of the other students in the class entered. She was assigned to a team, and began to watch their fight, and tried to defend herself. Selphie glanced at her a moment, then continued her spell sparring. Soon, the spell spar ended. Selphie had been knocked unconcious twice, and been too strong for her spells once. Instructor Feln spoke to the tardy "Why weren't you casting spells? I want to see some effort here." She replied "S-sir, I w-was not hurt enough to c-cast anything, because I, I missed the Gravija." "No excuse. I'm marking down your effort for today." Selphie knew Feln as a strict, but good, teacher. The class continued through three more spars, and Feln finished by casting a series of Life spells, then a FullCure. Of the entire class, Selphie was the only student to master that spell.
Selphie's day continued. Her mathematics class came next, where she turned in her review assignment. It was a hectic review day, as the matchematics exam, one of the prerequisites for the SeeD field exam (SeeD wanted only the best in all areas), was only two weeks away. Selphie copied down the homework, and copied down several related problems to do, above and beyond her homework, before leaving the class. Gymnastics came next. She had practiced well beyond expectations, as she had mastered what they were working on for the next three days. She didn't have enough time for more than a few good friends, as a result of her constant overachieving. Astronomy came next, with a focus on Lunology (the study of the moon), like it always had, as SeeDs were more likely to encounter lunar artifacts and creatures than those from elsewhere. Next came her Martial Arts class. Xanea fought with a hybrid of a three-section staff and a pair of swords, two razor-edged blades, each two feet long, attached to opposite ends of a foot-long handle by a joint that allowed them to go anywhere. She was one of the bravest girls in the class, most of them picking longer-reaching weapons, and hers was as dangerous to those unskilled in its use as to its targets, but SeeD weapons were invariably impossible to use untrained.
"Everyone's here, so we'll have no problems. Now, will everyone demonstrate the technique I have assigned you to learn last monday." He began calling names, and the student came up, and demonstrated his or her technique on a practice dummy. By the time he called "Selphie!", the third combat dummy they had gone through that day was half-destroyed. Selphie twirled around, and lightly tapped it three times with her nunchaku, one on each shoulder, and another time on the side of the head. "Excellent, Selphie. Your control over your weapon is amazing." Selphie smiled at her weekly weapons praise, took the description handout for her next technique, and went back to her seat to read the handout. Xanea, who had been called before Selphie had, tried to talk to her, but she focused intently on the handout. Finally, the instructor ordered the students to scatter across the classroom to practice their new technique. It was a simple class for Selphie. They were only forced to keep up general combat skills by monthly tests, which she always aced, unlike the students who focused entirely on the technique-of-the-week. While the students took their time to practice their techniques, the instructor wandered throughout the class, telling students exactly what they were doing wrong. When he got to Selphie, he told her "You're standing up too high. Also, you're striking out too far. This one's defensive." Selphie ducked lower, and crossed the two bars of her Nunchaku, attacking occasionally, whenever she saw a good opening in her imaginary enemy.
Xanea ran up to Selphie "Selph, can you help me with my technique?" Handing Selphie her description sheet, she continued "I think it goes like this... And I have to do this... Or maybe this..." Seeing her friend's obvious confusion, she helped her "You stand like this, and attack like this. I don't know how to use your razor staff, so I'm not going to try." Xanea tried to do what Selphie told her to "No, I don't think it goes that way... Try this." Selphie kept up instructing Xanea, who kept on making mistakes, although nothing involving cutting herself. Selphie realized, halfway through practice time, that she had spent more time helping Xanea than on her own practice. "I'll help you during our lunch break. In the meantime, I have to work on my technique." Selphie then ducked into her defensive crouch, stepped back rapidly, spun around, and let go of one of the bars of her nunchaku. It flew away from her, and toward Xanea. Xanea spun her staff rapidly, forming a disc of whirling blades in front of her, while dropping into a crouch. Selphie pulled her nunchaku back, and it just barely grazed the whirling blades. There was a thud of a steel blade impacting wood, which slowed Xanea's blade enough for Selphie to jerk her weapon away.
"That was almost perfect. Keep trying that way. Oh, here's your instructions back." Xanea took the instruction sheet back, "Hey, nice work, Selphie. Almost got me." "Hey, isn't that what I'm supposed to do" Selphie said with a laugh. Changing the subject, Xanea replied "You open at two?" "My next class after History is at three, so I've got an hour then." "See ya then, Selphie! Meet at the sparring area" The class period had just five minutes left, but Selphie figured she could get something done. She dropped into her defensive stance, nunchaku crossed in front of her face, ducking down, then curled down further, rolled backward, and sent one of the bars of her nunchaku flying against the air. She jerked the part she held back, and the other flew back to her hand.
World History/Geography came next. Unfortunately for Selphie, the Martial Arts class has no room for her binder, and she isn't supposed to have her weapon with her for Geography. As she did every day, she began to run to her dorm. As she rushed down the stairs, she ran into Crilis. Crilis was part of the Trabia disciplinary committee, but was usually on friendly terms with Selphie. Unfortunately for her, Crilis had just lost his girlfriend. Naturally, this was bad news for Selphie, especially considering that Selphie knew Crilis's ex-girlfriend, and the two were on better-than-terrible terms. "Selphie! Stop!" There was a menace in his voice that Selphie hadn't heard before. "Crilis, what?" "I'm going to have to report you for speeding. Walk back to the top of the stairs, and then finish where you were going at a walk." Crilis was evidently unhappy, and, had Selphie been better at reading people instead of books, she would have noticed his unhappiness "Why are you picking on me?" "Hmm, talking back too. Tsk tsk tsk... Perfect Selphie getting busted for two things in under five minutes... That's a first" "Seriously! Crilis, what's wrong?" Selphie was very annoyed now. "Ahh, of course. Something's wrong with *ME*. Something is always wrong with *ME*. That's what *she* said, that's what *everyone* said. I'm on the Dee-Cee! I don't have to take this from troublemakers like you!" Selphie listened to his rant, afraid that if she moved he'd bust her for something. He went on for the entirety of ten minutes, then left, even more angry than when he'd started. Selphie continued down to her dorm at a walk, and he'd forogotten to bust her for not going back to the top of the stairs. When she finally reached her dorm, put away her nunchaku, and retrieved her binder, it had taken her twenty minutes. "Oh... This is bad. Fifteen minutes late already," she said to herself.
It only took her five minutes to walk to class, but that made her twenty minutes late. Instructor Ciltar spoke to Selphie, surprise in her voice "You're twenty minutes late, Tilmitt. Because this is your first tardy this quarter, I'll let you off easy. Stay here after class to arrange when you can make up for what you've missed." Selphie caught herself, and didn't comment on narrowly avoiding a third detention in one day. She took her seat, and Instructor Ciltar continued her lecture on the Sorceress Wars, detailing every troop advance. She picked up at the Battle of Centra. Esthar had set up a number of mining operations there, and the Galbadians moved in to destroy them. At that time, Esthar had overrun Trabia, and had some forces in the Dollet area, moving down toward Galbadia. Selphie made a mental note to reasearch the Centran front of the Sorceress War. After class, as the class, except Selphie, left, Ternif stayed to mention to Selphie "Surprising to see you late to class." Selphie considered a reply, and said "Crilis turned evil." "Ahh, well that explains it. See ya at lunch." replied Ternif. "Just a few more minutes" came Selphie's response. As Ternif walked out, Selphie approached Instructor Ciltar's desk. She was afraid, but she tried to hide it "I-instructor... I could make up the time I missed just before curfew." "Ok, be here forty minutes before, and not a second late."
Selphie left for the cafeteria. A long line had already formed for pizza by the time she got there, so Selphie knew she had no chance of getting a slice. She decided to grab something sugary, as the sugary things didn't run out as fast as the day's pizza supply. As the line advanced, she grabbed a stack of granola bars, along with a small stack of chocolate cookies. In front of her were three girls gibbering about the Graden Festival, who they should take, two of them talking about their boyfriends, and all debating who the third should try to get to ask her. Selphie thought "idiots. Just find someone and ask them yourself. Or just don't go. That way you don't have to worry about any of this." Finally, she paid for her stuff from her Garden Student Rations, and left for the table where her friends sat. She sat down, and the four began to talk. Calire began to wonder who would be her date for the Garden Festival "Xander's cute, I could ask him... But then again, he probably wouldn't like someone like me." Everyone knew what she meant: She was a self-admitted shrimp, and Xander was large, tough, and tended not to like weak girls. "There's also Elart. Then again, I'm not sure if he even understands human interaction." Elart managed to be both strong and smart, but every spare second he had, he spent studying or training his strength. Xanea's face lit up, and she sprung to life with an idea "Calire, I know just the guy for you. I'll talk to him later today, and get him to go with you." "Oh, thanks, Xanea. Who?" "It would ruin the surprise if I told you now, wouldn't it?" "Oh, so you're setting me up on a blind date." Calire hated blind dates with a deep passion, and was showing it, becoming visibly tense. "No, no, no. I just want the surprise to be when he asks you." "Oh. Well, that's much better," Calire replied, visibly calming down. "Do you have anything planned for yourself?" "No, not yet. I figure I'll let someone ask me."
The four, except Selphie, finished their pizza, while Selphie muched on her granola and chocolate bars. Selphie became more hyper by the bite "We've got some time, why don't we have a snowball fight!?" Calire responded "Sure, wonderful idea, Selph." Those of her friends who didn't already know of her reactions to sugar (none of them) certainly knew now. The four left the cafeteria for their dorms, dressed for the snow, and hurried out into the fields of Trabia (close enough to the Garden to be mostly safe), and began to circle around eachother wildly. Xanea bent down to grab some snow, pressed it into a roughly spherical shape, and threw it at Selphie. Selphie jumped, landed, somersaulted, and, during all this, somehow made a snowball. She tossed it back at Xanea, who had missed her. She felt something striking just below her neck, then breaking into powder. This caused a sensation of cold to rapidly overtake that area. She turned, and saw the Calire had thrown the snowball.
Never one to hold a grudge, especailly in a snowball fight, Selphie lobbed her next at Ternif. Ternif took the hit square in his side, and threw one at Xanea. The four continued to run in chaotic circles, until a loud "Wheeeyaaaaaaaaaaaah!" was heard, ringing across from a hill they stood near. Down it came Kabi, someone who Selphie knew, but saw as a complete idiot. She was standing on an improvised sled, made of four wooden planks, more or less attached by two boards running across them. Selphie imagined her noticing a rock almost conealed under the snow half a second before hitting it. A smile crept across her face. She shouted to the four, who had dropped their snowball fight to watch her. Selphie looked to her right hand. It held a snowball, which she was about to throw at Calire. She decided it had a new mission. Kabi fell off her sled from the slight force of the impact of Selphie's snowball.
"Hey, Selphie?! Like, what was that for?" Selphie's happy mood had vanished. "It was for being an idiot." Calire tried to look big, and turned to Selphie "That's mean. Be nice to her." "Nice? To her?" Kabi's short attention span took over, and she forgot completely why she just had to stand up and brush snow off herself, which was hard, with snow stuck to her gloves. "Anyway, I just dumped Crilis earlier today. He was like, 'you're the garden idiot,' and I was like 'well, I don't have to put up with you' and he was like..." She went on and on, and every time she said "like," it drew Selphie a tiny bit closer to seeking blood. Finally, she finished "so, I like dumped him." The only way Kabi did not conform to the dumb blonde steriotype was by making Selphie ashamed of her hair color; she was a brunette too.
Selphie felt her patience beginning to crack. It took all her effort to not punch Kabi in the face. Kabi noticed her concealed rage "Selphie, like, what's wrong?" Selphie turned and walked away, then dropped to the ground, packed some snow into a roughly spherical shape, and threw it at Kabi's face. It struck true; Selphie practiced *everything* she did, and hit her dead center in the nose. Kabi turned to Selphie, evil in her eyes. Selphie saw only one way out. "SNOWBALL FIGHT!" With those two words, Kabi's menace was mostly removed. What wasn't was confused by the snowballs coming in from all directions. Selphie kept an eye on everyone, her sugar rush mostly gone, replaced by adrenaline. Two long minutes later, Xanea shouted "See ya, everyone. I need to go to my magic class." "Bye, Xanea!" came everyone's shouted reply. Selphie didn't join the shout, instead saying "Well, see ya." Selphie decided she'd go inside to get her weapons, to practice the new technique, along with integrating it into her general fighting moves.
Two rolled around, and Selphie was at the sparring area, as promised. Xanea, however, was ten minutes late, and forgot her instruction sheet. Selphie practiced her own technique in the meantime. When Xanea arrived, Selphie said to her "You said you'd be here ten minutes ago. Where were you?" "Hey, I was comforting Kabi after what you said to her. " Selphie just sighed. "Well, let's get to work. Let me see your instruction sheet." Xanea slapped her forehead. "Oh! My instruction sheet. I completely forgot it. Its in my dorm." Selphie gave a "why am I constantly surrounded by incompetent fools?" look, and said "Well, you'd best hurry and get it." Selphie continued her practice, beating on a wall with her nunchaku to relieve her stress. Finally, Xanea returned. "Got it. I also remembered my staff this time. "YOU FORGOT YOUR STAFF LAST TIME?!" Selphie exploded at her. Xanea meekly replied "yes." "Well, I suppose you'd have been stuck anyway" Selphie wanted to add "moron," but didn't. "Lets get this done," she said as she took the instruction sheet. Xanea unsheated the razor blades from their sheathes on the central portion of the staff, and dropped into her defensive posture. Selphie looked, saw a mistake, found where she was doing something wrong, and sent her nunchaku there. It passed her easily, and hit her shoulder. "Selphie, why'd you do that?" "You've got a mistake here. You're supposed to hold your weapon higher." "Ok!"
Their practice session continued, Xanea constantly getting something wrong, even after puzzling over the worksheet for ten minutes. Finally, she told Selphie "I just remembered, I have to go talk to the guy I'm setting Calire up with. I'll see you later." Selphie thought about the Garden Festival. She already had what to wear planned, and who she was going with, or rather, Xanea planned that, but otherwise Selphie wouldn't be going. She tried to figure out what else she needed to plan. She thought about that for some time, not quite figuring it out, but still feeling she's missing something, and never quite figuring out what else it was. This was her first Garden Festival, so forgetting something was forgivable. Nonetheless, it definitely bothered her. She only noticed she had Biology coming up when the clock was at 2:57. She rushed back to her dorm, carefully avoiding the DC on her way there, dropped off her weapons, grabbed her Biology notebook, and headed off to class.
Biology in SeeD Gardens focused mainly on monster biology, and mainly there on aspects that would help SeeDs fight them, and adapt to similar monsters. Many of these creatures are magical, and so the SeeDs are also carefully instructed about their powers and how to deal with them magically. Selphie had a class test that day, although not one of the important exams for SeeD, so little happened. She new she'd get a grade well above passing when her test came back. None of the questions were particularly hard for Selphie, and most of the answers were straight from her memory. She finished with half the class time to spare, handed in her test, and began to take a nap. She woke up as the class ended, already packed to go. She left for her dorm, having the rest of the day to spare.
She practiced with her nunchaku against a moving target in the sparring area before her friends got out. When it became clear to her that they were probably either playing in the snow, or gathering somewhere else, either to cafeteria, or the Garden Store, or, well, anywhere. It was about then that her body realized it had missed some sleep the previous night, and she decided she'd get to sleep early. "Two more days till the festival..."
As she undressed for bed, something she had neglected the previous night (it showed on the uniform she wore the previous day), she remembered she had been given more stuff to review in mathematics. She re-dressed herself, and did her math worksheet. She turned back to her history essay, and began to revise that again. It was still nowhere near perfect. Of course, Selphie's perspective on perfection in an essay was well beyond any instructor's sense of what is worth a perfect grade. Selphie knew this, but simply didn't care. An essay was not considered finished by her unless it was up to *her* impossible standards. She wouldn't stop work on anything unfinished, and, if given no deadlines, would never turn her essays in, because they'd never be through revision. Selphie didn't care.
Being alone made her this way. When she was with others, there was always something to distract her. When she was alone, if she wasn't depressed, or high on sugar, she was perfectly serious. As she finished her essay revisions for the moment, she looked back down at her plans for the Festival. She knew something was missing, but was still not quite sure what. She looked at her plans again, thought about whether or not to stick to it, and decided "Well, I already took the effort to plan and draw it. Besides, in the picture at least, I look good in it. I shouldn't change my mind."
It was then that she remembered she was tired, and had come back to her dorm to sleep. She pulled off her clothes, dropped back into her bed, and began to try to sleep. It took her some time before she could manage to sleep, as, despite her need, both physical and mental, her thoughts decided it would be "fun" to play a game of tag through her mind. Naturally, with her thoughts moving at such a rapid pace, sleep was difficult. She made a mental note to visit the Infirmary for help with her insomnia, then decided that wasn't enough, and wrote it down. It didn't help her sleep at all. Her thoughts continued to chase eachother through her mind. She tried to clear her mind and calm down, but her thoughts decided they wouldn't let her.
Pronounciation of more names:
Feln: fell with an "n" sound on the end.
Crilis: krill (like the animals)-is (s pronounced as in snake)
Ciltar: sill-tar
Kabi: Cab-ee