Part Six

197S9.9.05

I. Hate. Mornings.

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Why has today been so difficult? I don't get it. I just want to go back to normality, I want to go back to sleeping during the day. It's not nearly as hot here as back home, but still, the nights are so nice.

Yeah, it probably didn't help that I had to pry Baralai off me sometime in the extreme late night and get up and walk around. It was so cold. I mean, I knew Spira got cold in some places, but it was freezing. I wonder if it'll snow sometime.

I wonder if they'll send us to Gagazet—

Wait, no, I forgot. They can't, because I'm here. Al Bhed footsteps on the holy mountain of Spira? Unthinkable. We defile the place just by existing, and so if any Al Bhed were to set foot up there, it'd explode or something. Well, no, maybe it wouldn't explode, but surely Sin would come right then and eat what's left of Spira. Like it's our fault. "The Al Bhed are the cause of all Spira's problems!" No… Sin is the cause of all Spira's problems. We have a common enemy! People should understand that!

Whatever, it's all politics, just like this stupid military group that I'm trying out for. Why would they gather us all here and then make us sit around while they send cryptic messages? Maybe they'll weed out all the Al Bhed and send us to the gas chambers.

Oh, no, wait, gas chambers require machina, and machina is the purest evil known to mankind. (So, then, why exactly are we using the most destructive of machina as our weapons? It's all hypocrisy!) So, likely, they'll just drug us and lay us down in a row and then systematically shoot us in the backs. "Death by their own means!" That's what they said all those years ago in the cmyikrdan, when they killed so many as some sort of means of religious purging, or whatever. I guess they thought that by killing us, they'd be doing something to combat Sin. Idiots. I hate Yevon.

…

But not Baralai. I guess he's proof that even the most idiotic of groups can have their cfaadrayndc.

I need to stop being morose and bitter and get up and do something. Gippal doesn't do morose and bitter… it's not flattering. Maybe we can all go shoot something again. That'll make me feel better.

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Well, of all things, Baralai asked me to teach him Al Bhed.

Further proof that not all Yevonites are complete closed-minded idiots, I guess. I don't know – he, Paine, and I were just messing around, wrestling in the shade by the water to work off energy (because we all have so much energy, and not all of it can get out through sex, or that would be dangerous), and I guess he picked up on my curses that I spat out every time Paine dug her nails into my back.

Ow, it hurts just thinking about it.

But, anyway, he asked me what they meant, and so I told him, the best I knew how. Watching his cheeks go bright red was great! I never thought someone so dark skinned could turn such a color.

Of course, Paine was listening in, too, and she wanted to know what Al Bhed sounded like. I hadn't spoken it for so long because I knew I needed to speak Spiran here only, or else the Maesters will flog me or something, so I've been restricting myself to a few interspersed words every now and then when I can't remember the Spiran word. Or when I'm cursing, because Al Bhed curses are so much worse than Spiran ones.

Baralai seemed shocked when he learned that oajuh is one of our worst swear words. It's a really old word and kind of outdated, so when someone uses it, it's really strong. I guess the only way it's used now is when you call someone a oajuh-cfaadraynd, which is… wow. I guess that means Yevon-sweetheart. Funny how things start making even more sense when you think about translations.

Anyway, Baralai and Paine now want to learn to speak it. I don't know why since they'll automatically be stigmatized and thought of as Spira's Ultimate Evil if they do, but I'm not going to say no. I love my language as I love my people, and though it's kind of weird to share it with outsiders, it's good in the long run.

Nooj even sat around and listened for a while… after we all got over the awkwardness of Paine asking if he wanted to join our wrestling. Baralai and I agreed quickly, of course, because it seemed polite, but then it was just weird. He probably can't wrestle with a body like that… well, not without killing us. I guess Paine's done some other sorts of wrestling with Nooj, and she forgot. Well, whatever. He did listen to me talk about Al Bhed for a while. He probably won't say he wants to learn, but he'll do something like listen to all I tell them without letting us know he's listening or even acting like he's paying attention, and then one day he'll just suddenly start speaking in it and everyone'll be impressed. Or, well, those who don't hate the Al Bhed will. Hell, maybe with him, the Maesters will be impressed. I can just hear them now, "Oh, you learned the heathens' language so you can infiltrate them and further exterminate them! Excellent!"

Pycdyntc.

197S9.9.06

So, I guess we're going to be leaving the day after tomorrow. About time, I think.

One of the other groups shipped out today, leaving all sorts of leftover stuff around their camp. Being bored and trying to make myself active in the morning, I went and scavenged around in what they left there. I found some good stuff… a little set of screwdrivers, better than mine because they have interchangeable heads (is there an Al Bhed in that squad?), some high quality copper wire, and a couple of tubes of lubricant. Now, lubricant can be used in several different ways – one tube was meant as sexual lubricant, which is handy to have around (I guess?), but the other is this fairly new water resistant lubricant that I've used only a couple of times. It's supposed to be for parts that run under water, and it stays around on the metal longer without being washed away.

Considering that I won't be building anything that's meant for underwater use anytime soon, I decided to give it to Nooj. I thought of it as a peace offering – since we'll be on a boat, water will be everywhere, and just in case we get sprayed by anything, he won't have to run off to grease every few minutes. He looked impressed and decided to let me do the final adjusting of his parts later today.

Awesome.

When I told Baralai about what I had been doing this morning, he looked intrigued and said he would go looking around in the abandoned camps himself. I can't imagine him stealing anything! He'd probably find whoever it belonged to before and return it with an apologetic pout. Funny guy. I can't imagine what he would find there that would be of use, but who knows?

197S9.9.07

Fixed up Nooj's leg really nicely. That new lubricant is incredible – it sticks like nothing I've ever seen before. I even brought back some water from the well and sprayed it on the joints to make sure it worked as it should – and none even wiped off when I took a towel to it.

Of course, I'm having a hard time getting it off my hands, and so I keep dropping everything I grab onto. Nooj seems to find this amusing.

Well, I guess Lai did find something of use in the main camp. Apparently, underground, he found a box with a matched set of pistols in them. Nooj wants to know more about them, so I said I'd take a look. I'm not doing anything else that's productive, so why not? Paine also brought back a bag of ammunitions that I'm supposed to sort out. That won't take long, but I'm more interested in these pistols. They're in a box, with velvet. You don't see many like those around anymore – I think they're probably dueling pistols, made for show, but I could be wrong. They did belong to the Maesters, so they could be anything.

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Treachery. That's what these pistols are for. They belonged to the Maesters, so it's no wonder.

The one with the red markings on the handle has the barrel blocked. It's definitely sealed off at the close end, and the whole system is backwards. I put in a bullet and held it out horizontal to my body, and it definitely shoots backwards. Yeah, it shot back toward my hand and hit the rock to my right. If I had been shooting straight out like you're supposed to do in a duel, the bullet would've been flung backwards into my head.

Nooj says it's called a Judas pistol, but I've never heard that term. Oddly, where I come from, treacherous weapons like these are called syacdanbecdumc. It's fitting, considering that they came from the Maesters themselves.

I don't know what we're going to do with these. Nooj suggested I unblock the barrel, but that wouldn't really change much. It would still shoot backwards, if not with quite as much force. I think I should just disassemble them and scatter the parts. No one should defile machina like this.