"Please... don't tell me... you think this girl's just another fetish of a
government's sick idea of controlling us?" Salix Almasy moaned as her head
hit the table in front of the big gruff trucker that sat across from her in
the Gas Station / Bar, which Salix had discovered was full of anti
government fools, sick drunks, horny drunks, and just plain drunks.
"No... I know exactly who she is. I've seen her with my own two eyes... They say the person in charge of the whole ordeal, or Research Study titled 'G.R.A.C.E', is miss Rinoa Heartilly..." the trucker muttered.
'Yippie. Also, this bar is full of people who either love Rinoa Heartilly or despise the woman. This is getting annoying...' "What did you say your name was?" Salix couldn't ever leave an adult without a little conclusion. It was part of her training, being able to leave an impression.
"The name's Lee. Tilba Lee. People call me T.L.C sometimes... Tilba Lee Crack..." the man sighed, looking down as he slammed his mug of beer onto the table.
"? Oh..." 'Okay, so maybe this time it's gonna be him who leaves the impression...'
"Yeah."
"..." Salix noticed his bare arm. One arm was sleeved with a blue uniform, though this one's sleeve was pulled back, revealing a dragon, which Salix found strangely cool, and a little bit of a red tattoo from under the bottom of the sleeves end. "Hey, what's that? It's above the dragon on your arm...? Is that... a burn!?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, this... I got it about fourteen years ago... I was transporting a 'research' specimen to the Quagmire building; my job was then and still is to be one of their main transporters; and the box suddenly burst open in flame. It left this weird burn that's shaped like a bird on every one of my guys... nobody's ever been able to remove it..." Tilba lifted his sleeve a bit more, showing off a strangely familiar looking red bird, in a burn form.
"... Tilba, wasn't the Quagmire building fourteen years ago Novato Almasy's building still? He was still the president..."
"Hey, you're just a baby and you know that! Pretty good, sweetie. But, Quagmire was still a running campaign back then... They used to be called Jaromaru or sumtin... I didn't come until after the whole sorceress thing, so I wouldn't know. Anyways, it was a different building, but still a place where Perry Quagmire's name thrived."
"So... Where is this building?"
"It WAS in Omigutsinu's town, Shiro, but sadly, or maybe happily, the same specimen I transported there burnt the whole buildin' down! Flames everywhere..."
"... That's, weird..." Salix looked down 'Two fires? By the same thing? I have to find out what this thing is, and who this girl is...' "Mr. Lee... Do you like your job? How much do they pay you to risk your life with dangerous monsters?"
"I hate the people, and they pay me a meager 800 Gil a week... Puts food on the table, I guess..."
"... What if I pay you 80,000 Gil to be my personal bodyguard? In fact, nobody has to know. You could say... You're my boyfriend or something!"
"Boyfriend?! Sweetie, I'm 35 years old! Let's make it your father, and a deals a deal!" Tilba laughed.
"You can transport, right?"
"Transport? Are you kidden' me?! Of course!" he laughed, standing up and gesturing for her to follow, leading her outside. "You know, did your dad ever tell you not to talk to strangers?"
"Yes, which is why I have three other friends to strike you down if you make any sour movements..." Salix noticed Hega, Kega, and Livid following closely.
"Ahh, I see... Hmm, here we are! I spent my entire savings renovating her... She's a couple years old, I found her here in rubble around two years ago. Miss Ana said that it was abandoned by a strange bunch of foreigners a long time a ago, so I got it for free!" Salix stared absent-mindedly at the space ship in front of her.
It had faded red that looked pink and yellow that looked white, and was shaped like a wolf. There was a sticker near the tail that said 'Naughty' on it, and it was old. There were also a few new black spray paints of a woman, dragon, and course the bird that obviously represented Tilba's tattoos. It looked like an old piece of junk that had been made best of. An old space ship.
"Is it... safe?" Salix said, backing up into an equally amazed Hega.
"I've been driven it around for a while. Should work... I named it 'Naughty Dog' for the old sticker I found with it and it's shape" Tilba said proudly.
"Only you, Mr. Lee..."
"Hey, that doesn't sound right. Call me Tilba."
BREAK
"Okay, so tell me this... We're on a space ship, with a gray haired witch face and old drunken man, none of which we know is safe?" Livid Locksmith, moaned as he sat across from his friends Hega and Kega, Kega who relatively never spoke, but Hega who was sure to answer.
"Yep! Hey, be nice, Livid! Salix don't seem so bad... Hey, I thought you played with all the girl's?" Hega asked, confused. They sat in the back, away from the pilot's seat and Salix and Tilba.
"... Hega, you have a lot to learned... You stay away from the insane ones" Livid nodded.
Kega sat up "she's fourteen, perv!"
"Oh, yeah, that reason too..." Livid stood up, walking towards Salix, who was watching Tilba move the controls and barely listening to Tilba's old war stories.
"Hey, what are we getting paid, anyways?" Livid asked "if Tilba's getting' paid, why not us?"
"Because, your payment will be the safe recovery of Squall Leonhart. I'm to suppose Cid isn't very good of a leader in these old years, so you all must want a new leader, like Squall, right?" she shot him the 'showed you' glance he hated.
"Look, we should at least get some money!"
"Okay... Split 900 Gil between the three of you."
"WHAT!? That's too cheap!"
"Look, I'm fourteen, I'm spending my life's savings on Tilba as is... and daddy's not made of money, ok? Garden needs more money than you can shake a stick at as is... You're in, or you're out, Livid..."
"Miss, I don't want your money... Okay, I do... but, let's lower the price... how about 10,000 Gil?"
"Okay, lower it by 10,000 Gil. 70,000 Gil, then."
"No, I mean lower it to 10,000 Gil. Hun, I won't take away your money... Besides, you might pass another money grubber you need and you'll need to give them more money, so let's leave the money at that..."
"Tilba, thank you..." she was nearly speechless, at a slight.
Livid sighed, shaking his head "okay, we'll do it for free, then... Make me look bad...!"
Before he could realize it, he had two arms around him, and Salix's face buried on his chest "oh, thank you, Livid!"
"Get off of me, runt!"
BREAK
'You're the reason I live,
You're the reason I die,
You're the reason I live,
When I break down and cry...'
The young girl lay dormant in the water prison, surrounded by wires and such to keep an eye on all bodily functions. Her long blonde hair flowed around her cool blue face as her eyes opened slightly, a blank and tired green, soulless as if something pulled all feeling through the beautiful green jewels. They fell upon a black haired, pale girl through the cylinder glass, outside... How the captured freedom would have done anything to be outside of the experiment capsule.
"Her eyes! Her eyes! Tell me, has He awakened as well?!" the black haired girl in the white lab coat on the outside ran to the back to the room to a companion tank. A scientist stood in the back there, examining the male.
"... His mouth twitched, but other than that, He hasn't shown any signs of awakening... What made them do this!? Their brain waves are racing! Are they dreaming!?" the scientist exclaimed excitedly.
"No..." the black haired woman moved back to the tank with Her in it. The woman's eyes narrowed "No growth in all of these years... thirteen, right?... No signs of evolution, need for food, space, or oxygen... Though, they are still alive... how strange... Maybe their life support, the one that seems to come from within them, twitched... or, maybe they can sense an outside world..."
"... Miss Heartilly, Mr. Quagmire needs you upstairs..." one of the scientists called.
Rinoa's eyes narrowed more at the girl in the tank "it's your fault! You're the one whose keeping His mind hostage! Let Him go!"
The eyes gently shut again, as a few bubbles escaped the mouth.
'I want your love,
Let's break the walls between us,
Don't make it tough
I'll put away my pride...'
BREAK
"Here we are!" 'Naughty Dog' came to land on a huge hill, overlooking the small village of Shiro. As Salix leapt out of the escape hatch of the old space ship, she was a bit confused at the site of un-befuddled villagers. Usually, in small towns like this, the site of space ships really confused a soul. She followed Livid Locksmith out into the streets of the town, before looking behind her and realizing only Tilba was following. She stopped suddenly, looking around "where Hega and Kega!?"
Livid looked behind him, sighing at the stupidity of the girl "you have to choose three people as a group! You want Hega and Kega, or me and Tilba?"
"... Oh, yeah, that's right!" she laughed "sorry, I've never had any team members that was more than three. I usually traveled with my friends, Sabbath and Ysamla... Okay, I guess this group is okay."
'Ysamla... Sabbath... I hope their okay, that their parent's didn't trash them...' Salix thought solemnly as she noticed she had no clue where they were going. She turned to Tilba "why are we in Shiro? I told you that if there wasn't a Quagmire building here anymore, I don't want to be here."
"I know. Livid wanted me to come here really quickly. He has to do a few things... That's what he said. He said the reason he was here wasn't just because Hega had to come and help out his grandma, but because..."
"Because we, me and Kega and Hega, are working for Omigutsinu Garden, which is located here. I have to check in and tell them I'm taking my 'vacation'" Livid interrupted, to Salix's horror.
"!!! GARDEN!? I- I can't go there!"
"Why not?"
"Selphie and Irvine own it! They're friends with my dad! Dad will catch me, and he won't let me do this! I have to prove it to him that I'm not just a little girl..." Salix looked down, frowning.
"HOLD IT! I'm helpin' a run away!?" both Livid and Tilba stared at Salix with wide eyes.
"Look, I'm your boss, so we aren't going to Garden and that's final!"
Livid and Tilba shook their heads "we beg to differ" they moved in on Salix from both sides, cramming her between them "we can't help a runaway. You're going back to daddy..."
"HEY! Get off of me! Leave me alone!... Hold it, what's up with Garden!?" Salix stopped, staring in horror at a sheet of smoke and flames that burned on a huge building a way's off... Shiro Garden.
CONTINUED
Noteys: I'm sorry, I've been spelling Fujin's name wrong... I figured that out when I restarted FF8 last night. Sowwy. Neways, lyrics from Aerosmith, Angel. Characters of Square Enix's Final Fantasy 8, some of my own. In fact, most of my own.
"No... I know exactly who she is. I've seen her with my own two eyes... They say the person in charge of the whole ordeal, or Research Study titled 'G.R.A.C.E', is miss Rinoa Heartilly..." the trucker muttered.
'Yippie. Also, this bar is full of people who either love Rinoa Heartilly or despise the woman. This is getting annoying...' "What did you say your name was?" Salix couldn't ever leave an adult without a little conclusion. It was part of her training, being able to leave an impression.
"The name's Lee. Tilba Lee. People call me T.L.C sometimes... Tilba Lee Crack..." the man sighed, looking down as he slammed his mug of beer onto the table.
"? Oh..." 'Okay, so maybe this time it's gonna be him who leaves the impression...'
"Yeah."
"..." Salix noticed his bare arm. One arm was sleeved with a blue uniform, though this one's sleeve was pulled back, revealing a dragon, which Salix found strangely cool, and a little bit of a red tattoo from under the bottom of the sleeves end. "Hey, what's that? It's above the dragon on your arm...? Is that... a burn!?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, this... I got it about fourteen years ago... I was transporting a 'research' specimen to the Quagmire building; my job was then and still is to be one of their main transporters; and the box suddenly burst open in flame. It left this weird burn that's shaped like a bird on every one of my guys... nobody's ever been able to remove it..." Tilba lifted his sleeve a bit more, showing off a strangely familiar looking red bird, in a burn form.
"... Tilba, wasn't the Quagmire building fourteen years ago Novato Almasy's building still? He was still the president..."
"Hey, you're just a baby and you know that! Pretty good, sweetie. But, Quagmire was still a running campaign back then... They used to be called Jaromaru or sumtin... I didn't come until after the whole sorceress thing, so I wouldn't know. Anyways, it was a different building, but still a place where Perry Quagmire's name thrived."
"So... Where is this building?"
"It WAS in Omigutsinu's town, Shiro, but sadly, or maybe happily, the same specimen I transported there burnt the whole buildin' down! Flames everywhere..."
"... That's, weird..." Salix looked down 'Two fires? By the same thing? I have to find out what this thing is, and who this girl is...' "Mr. Lee... Do you like your job? How much do they pay you to risk your life with dangerous monsters?"
"I hate the people, and they pay me a meager 800 Gil a week... Puts food on the table, I guess..."
"... What if I pay you 80,000 Gil to be my personal bodyguard? In fact, nobody has to know. You could say... You're my boyfriend or something!"
"Boyfriend?! Sweetie, I'm 35 years old! Let's make it your father, and a deals a deal!" Tilba laughed.
"You can transport, right?"
"Transport? Are you kidden' me?! Of course!" he laughed, standing up and gesturing for her to follow, leading her outside. "You know, did your dad ever tell you not to talk to strangers?"
"Yes, which is why I have three other friends to strike you down if you make any sour movements..." Salix noticed Hega, Kega, and Livid following closely.
"Ahh, I see... Hmm, here we are! I spent my entire savings renovating her... She's a couple years old, I found her here in rubble around two years ago. Miss Ana said that it was abandoned by a strange bunch of foreigners a long time a ago, so I got it for free!" Salix stared absent-mindedly at the space ship in front of her.
It had faded red that looked pink and yellow that looked white, and was shaped like a wolf. There was a sticker near the tail that said 'Naughty' on it, and it was old. There were also a few new black spray paints of a woman, dragon, and course the bird that obviously represented Tilba's tattoos. It looked like an old piece of junk that had been made best of. An old space ship.
"Is it... safe?" Salix said, backing up into an equally amazed Hega.
"I've been driven it around for a while. Should work... I named it 'Naughty Dog' for the old sticker I found with it and it's shape" Tilba said proudly.
"Only you, Mr. Lee..."
"Hey, that doesn't sound right. Call me Tilba."
BREAK
"Okay, so tell me this... We're on a space ship, with a gray haired witch face and old drunken man, none of which we know is safe?" Livid Locksmith, moaned as he sat across from his friends Hega and Kega, Kega who relatively never spoke, but Hega who was sure to answer.
"Yep! Hey, be nice, Livid! Salix don't seem so bad... Hey, I thought you played with all the girl's?" Hega asked, confused. They sat in the back, away from the pilot's seat and Salix and Tilba.
"... Hega, you have a lot to learned... You stay away from the insane ones" Livid nodded.
Kega sat up "she's fourteen, perv!"
"Oh, yeah, that reason too..." Livid stood up, walking towards Salix, who was watching Tilba move the controls and barely listening to Tilba's old war stories.
"Hey, what are we getting paid, anyways?" Livid asked "if Tilba's getting' paid, why not us?"
"Because, your payment will be the safe recovery of Squall Leonhart. I'm to suppose Cid isn't very good of a leader in these old years, so you all must want a new leader, like Squall, right?" she shot him the 'showed you' glance he hated.
"Look, we should at least get some money!"
"Okay... Split 900 Gil between the three of you."
"WHAT!? That's too cheap!"
"Look, I'm fourteen, I'm spending my life's savings on Tilba as is... and daddy's not made of money, ok? Garden needs more money than you can shake a stick at as is... You're in, or you're out, Livid..."
"Miss, I don't want your money... Okay, I do... but, let's lower the price... how about 10,000 Gil?"
"Okay, lower it by 10,000 Gil. 70,000 Gil, then."
"No, I mean lower it to 10,000 Gil. Hun, I won't take away your money... Besides, you might pass another money grubber you need and you'll need to give them more money, so let's leave the money at that..."
"Tilba, thank you..." she was nearly speechless, at a slight.
Livid sighed, shaking his head "okay, we'll do it for free, then... Make me look bad...!"
Before he could realize it, he had two arms around him, and Salix's face buried on his chest "oh, thank you, Livid!"
"Get off of me, runt!"
BREAK
'You're the reason I live,
You're the reason I die,
You're the reason I live,
When I break down and cry...'
The young girl lay dormant in the water prison, surrounded by wires and such to keep an eye on all bodily functions. Her long blonde hair flowed around her cool blue face as her eyes opened slightly, a blank and tired green, soulless as if something pulled all feeling through the beautiful green jewels. They fell upon a black haired, pale girl through the cylinder glass, outside... How the captured freedom would have done anything to be outside of the experiment capsule.
"Her eyes! Her eyes! Tell me, has He awakened as well?!" the black haired girl in the white lab coat on the outside ran to the back to the room to a companion tank. A scientist stood in the back there, examining the male.
"... His mouth twitched, but other than that, He hasn't shown any signs of awakening... What made them do this!? Their brain waves are racing! Are they dreaming!?" the scientist exclaimed excitedly.
"No..." the black haired woman moved back to the tank with Her in it. The woman's eyes narrowed "No growth in all of these years... thirteen, right?... No signs of evolution, need for food, space, or oxygen... Though, they are still alive... how strange... Maybe their life support, the one that seems to come from within them, twitched... or, maybe they can sense an outside world..."
"... Miss Heartilly, Mr. Quagmire needs you upstairs..." one of the scientists called.
Rinoa's eyes narrowed more at the girl in the tank "it's your fault! You're the one whose keeping His mind hostage! Let Him go!"
The eyes gently shut again, as a few bubbles escaped the mouth.
'I want your love,
Let's break the walls between us,
Don't make it tough
I'll put away my pride...'
BREAK
"Here we are!" 'Naughty Dog' came to land on a huge hill, overlooking the small village of Shiro. As Salix leapt out of the escape hatch of the old space ship, she was a bit confused at the site of un-befuddled villagers. Usually, in small towns like this, the site of space ships really confused a soul. She followed Livid Locksmith out into the streets of the town, before looking behind her and realizing only Tilba was following. She stopped suddenly, looking around "where Hega and Kega!?"
Livid looked behind him, sighing at the stupidity of the girl "you have to choose three people as a group! You want Hega and Kega, or me and Tilba?"
"... Oh, yeah, that's right!" she laughed "sorry, I've never had any team members that was more than three. I usually traveled with my friends, Sabbath and Ysamla... Okay, I guess this group is okay."
'Ysamla... Sabbath... I hope their okay, that their parent's didn't trash them...' Salix thought solemnly as she noticed she had no clue where they were going. She turned to Tilba "why are we in Shiro? I told you that if there wasn't a Quagmire building here anymore, I don't want to be here."
"I know. Livid wanted me to come here really quickly. He has to do a few things... That's what he said. He said the reason he was here wasn't just because Hega had to come and help out his grandma, but because..."
"Because we, me and Kega and Hega, are working for Omigutsinu Garden, which is located here. I have to check in and tell them I'm taking my 'vacation'" Livid interrupted, to Salix's horror.
"!!! GARDEN!? I- I can't go there!"
"Why not?"
"Selphie and Irvine own it! They're friends with my dad! Dad will catch me, and he won't let me do this! I have to prove it to him that I'm not just a little girl..." Salix looked down, frowning.
"HOLD IT! I'm helpin' a run away!?" both Livid and Tilba stared at Salix with wide eyes.
"Look, I'm your boss, so we aren't going to Garden and that's final!"
Livid and Tilba shook their heads "we beg to differ" they moved in on Salix from both sides, cramming her between them "we can't help a runaway. You're going back to daddy..."
"HEY! Get off of me! Leave me alone!... Hold it, what's up with Garden!?" Salix stopped, staring in horror at a sheet of smoke and flames that burned on a huge building a way's off... Shiro Garden.
CONTINUED
Noteys: I'm sorry, I've been spelling Fujin's name wrong... I figured that out when I restarted FF8 last night. Sowwy. Neways, lyrics from Aerosmith, Angel. Characters of Square Enix's Final Fantasy 8, some of my own. In fact, most of my own.