Untold Stories, Unsung Words
Series Summary: (A series of one-shots, some of them being connected, based on headcanons.) The story of the Bionis and Mechonis, the Heir to the Monado, and the creation of the new world has been revealed. But among that story are smaller stories that haven't been shown. To have it accepted to be as truth is an option, but the existence of them being a possibility is undeniable. These are stories untold, words unsung.
2. Dunban, Shulk - Necklaces
Summary: As everyone is wearing their swimsuits in Eryth Sea during a reprieve, Sharla notices the necklaces Shulk and Dunban are wearing. Not only are they of a unique material and designs, but only those two are wearing it. Shulk and Dunban explain why. (Takes place after events of Prison Island - First Visit, before events of Valak Mountain)
Pairings: Dunban x Sharla x Shulk (Friendship)
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
The last few days the party experienced were quite eventful. The trial in the High Entia Tomb, the invasion of the Mechon, meeting Zanza, fighting Metal Face, meeting Fiora, and the succession of Melia were so much to take in. It was Dunban who suggested the party to relax, to everyone's surprise. And what better place to relax in than Eryth Sea. The scenery and weather was amazing enough, and the party didn't get a chance to fully enjoy the place since their first visit.
Melia told the party of a cave that was just utterly beautiful. Called Faras Cave, sparking crystals and glimmering water cover the cave, as well as a patch of land with fragrant flowers. The issue was that it was far out southwest of Eryth Sea, with the closest area being Hovering Reef 9. Despite the distance, the party set out for the place.
Before heading out to Faras Cave, the party needed to change. It was quite an awkward moment with the party as they emerged from the Syrath Lighthouse in their swimsuits. Throughout their journey, everyone was wearing swimsuits beneath their regular clothes. All they simply had to do was remove them. The boys went first, with the girls waiting behind the lighthouse facing Hovering Reef 5. Riki didn't really need to change at all considering he's a Nopon, so he decided to join Sharla and Melia. Sharla couldn't help but smirk throughout the entire time waiting, noticing Melia turning red. It was painfully obvious she was nervous to see Shulk wearing only his swimsuit. When the party regrouped, Sharla and Melia commented positively for the boys' appearances, though Reyn seemed to take it more happily than the others. When it was the girls' turn, Sharla and Melia were greeted by hollering and whistling from Reyn, leaps of joy from Riki, simple nods of approval from Dunban, and modest compliments from Shulk, who was blushing madly.
After all that was said and done about each others' appearances, it was time to set off for the cave. And the quickest way to get there was to jump off the reef, and it was quite funny to have Sharla kicking Reyn and Riki from it. Dunban and Shulk had to hold onto Melia when jumping off the reef, as she had a great fear of heights. She was so terrified that afterwards, Shulk had to ferry Melia across the water the rest of the way towards the cave. Fortunately, Riki kept her company and was a secondary floatation device for Melia as Shulk needed to rest from swimming time to time. Riki is surprisingly buoyant, even with the added weight Melia added onto him. Shulk needed time to simply float and rest as the Monado he held was a pain to carry. Throughout the entire swim, he held onto it for dear life. If he accidentally dropped it, it would sink to the bottom of Eryth Sea. How on Bionis would they ever retrieve it? (Or it would luckily end up in Riki's village. Wouldn't count on that though.) Reyn eagerly volunteered to have Sharla cling onto him to rest. Dunban knew the fishy motive though…
After hours of swimming, the party reached Faras Cave. And it was just as Melia described it. The cavern was shining with crystals and the water glowed like stars. And the shore had beautiful, fragrant flowers with patches of fresh green grass scattered around. The party did not hesitate to reach shore, as they were exhausted and excited to settle in. After about fifteen minutes of simply lying down on the shore to regain their strength it was time to enjoy the rest of the day.
As Reyn started a little game of volleyball with Melia with Riki being the volleyball, Sharla found herself resting on the shore of the cave. After some time simply lying on her back and closing her eyes to relax, she found herself glancing at Dunban and Shulk, who were busy sitting at the edge of the cave with half of their body submerged in the water. They were sitting at the warmest part of the cave where warm water was emitting from the area.
Of all the things to stare at, it was those necklaces that the two wore. She has never seen those stones like that before. From the distance, it looked like any ordinary rock. But as she peered in closer, they had a strange shine to it. Let alone the design being so intricate.
She stood up and approached the two at the edge. Dunban heard the sound of footsteps on the sand, turning to see Sharla. Shulk noticed her too. "Sharla, it's nice of you to join us. Come sit down." Dunban invited, offering his hand.
"Uh, thanks." Sharla didn't want to sit deep in the water, so she sat on the shore, with only her legs being submerged. She was about 2 feet away from the two young men.
Shulk asked, "Why don't you come closer?"
"Er… it's fine. I hate the feeling of leaving the water and getting cold afterwards."
Sharla scratched her left ear as she gathered her thoughts on how to ask such a question. Hopefully it wasn't too personal to ask. "Um… there's something I noticed about you two…"
"What is it?" Dunban asked, with the two putting full attention on Sharla.
"It's… those necklaces your wearing. It looks pretty ordinary from afar, but now I look at it closely..."
"O-Oh. These…" Shulk looked down on his chest to see the the silver necklace he wore. It had a sort of cross symbol on the design.
Dunban asked, "Ah. What would you like to know about them?"
Sharla knew that she would have to get closer to see the necklaces themselves in greater detail, which means that she'd have to put up with some shivers later from leaving the water. "Hmm... Fine, it looks like I'll join you two." Sharla moved a little to approach the two. She knelt down next to Dunban, asking, "May I touch it?"
"Go right ahead."
Sharla reached out to Dunban's chest and lifted the necklace a little. It had a triangle shape in the center of it, with one of the sides facing directly down and the other two on the left and right side. She rubbed her finger gently across the necklace. The stone was very smooth and nice to touch. It shined as she moved it around with the light reflecting off of the stone. Sharla peered in closer to see that Dunban's necklace was not only a silver color, but there was a very, very faint tint of light blue, green, and yellow on each side of the stone of the stone respectively at different parts of the triangle. "Goodness... this is quite beautiful."
"Thank you." Dunban replied, looking down on the necklace. "You should have seen it when it had its full color a year ago. Too bad the color faded."
Sharla let go of the necklace and raised an eyebrow at Dunban. "The color faded? Like... rubbed off?"
Shulk shook his head. "No." Sharla sat down next to Dunban, the water now covering her abdominal region. The water is quite warm and relaxing. Sharla felt some of the pain from the lactic acid buildup in her aching arms and legs melting away.
"Hmm..." She crossed her arms. If the color wasn't rubbed off, it couldn't be painted. If the color was coming from the stone itself, then the stone could only be one thing. "Those necklaces you two wear... they're ether crystals."
Dunban grinned. "Indeed, these necklaces are ether crystals."
Sharla replied, "No wonder they look familiar. But… different. The faded colors of your crystals are silver, as opposed to a dull color of the respective element. Why is that?"
Dunban answered Sharla, saying, "Well, I'm sure you know that all ether crystals have one element associated with them. Either fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, or ice."
Sharla sighed. "Of course. Elementary school knowledge."
Shulk was grinning with his smile a bit wider than usual. "Well, what if I told you if there were ether crystals out there that have more than one element embedded in them?"
Sharla's eyes widened and her eyebrows raised. "I've never heard of that... Let alone seen one." It was pretty baffling to her. She lived in Colony 6 where right under the colony was the largest ether deposit in Bionis. All crystals there were only of one element. But… more than one? Was that even possible?
Dunban lifted his necklace for Sharla to look at again. "This crystal had an ice, wind, and earth elemental ether embedded in it." Dunban lowered his necklace as Sharla faced Shulk.
"And yours, Shulk?"
Shulk answered as he lifted his own necklace with his right palm, saying, "Hm… it had the basic four."
"Yes." Dunban replied. "Yours was much more unique, Shulk."
It all came together for her. Sharla crossed her arms and came to the conclusion, saying, "For you two to be wearing such crystals… It must be the fact that you both had a case of ether deficiency?" Sharla made such a guess after considering on what she did to heal Melia back in Makna Forest.
Dunban smiled, as nothing medical related can get past the party's medic. "You are absolutely correct. Well, mine was just to ease and speed up the healing process of these burns I suffered from the Monado. It needed ice ether to stabilize the temperature, wind ether for more oxygen flow in the blood, and earth ether for skin repair. If it weren't for this lovely accessory, I wouldn't been able to save your hides in Colony 6. It sped up the healing process."
Sharla turned to Shulk, who seemed to be recalling on his reason for wearing such a crystal. His habit of touching his chin with his right hand and his left hand touching his right elbow took over. "What about you, Shulk?"
Shulk cleared his throat. "Well… your guess definitely applies to me." He positioned both of his arms in front of him and folded his hands beneath the water. He faced Sharla and began his story.
"When I was found by Dickson in the shrine where the Monado was found, I suffered severely from the journey, let alone whatever on Bionis happened there. When I came to back to Colony 9, I was literally a sick kid 24/7 with all sorts of medical problems. Dehydration, high fever, hypothermia, weak pulse, dyspnea… you name it. And these symptoms would appear out of nowhere. And it was not due to the environment."
"Goodness…" Sharla grimaced. To think that this boy survived all of these symptoms and illnesses and live through the pain. The thought reminded of the time when some residents of Colony 6, including Juju, was sick from water ether deficiency. They were constantly dehydrated and had fevers. It was quite difficult to treat them, as their temperatures reached dangerous levels.
Dunban recalled those awful days. Shulk was literally bedridden for months, suffering all of those illnesses. He would visit Shulk every day, seeing him either be sweating a river and his whole face red, shivering uncontrollably, his face pale, or his breaths labored. There were times he was able to relax a bit when his symptoms died down from some treatments. But then the next few hours or the next day, a different symptom appeared. Doctors from multiple colonies, even ones that were traveling, all examined Shulk and could not figure out a permanent cure for his symptoms. Strangely, Shulk was able to hang onto his dear life with each symptom, even if multiple symptoms struck him at the same time. It was even more baffling that he was able to survive the fatal boundaries. For example, his temperature reached the fatal 108 degrees Fahrenheit, yet he didn't die.
"I'm glad those days are long gone..." Dunban muttered. "It was hard seeing you suffer from your symptoms. Additionally, you made Reyn worry and Fiora cry so much."
Shulk grasped his necklace and gripped onto it with some pressure. "Yeah... it was awful. To be honest, I had faith that I would be cured sometime soon but..."
He squeezed his necklace even tighter. "When it got to the point where simply breathing felt like a large blade repeatedly stabbing me with every breath I took, let alone being unable to do so in the first place, I wanted to give up and die. But I couldn't... I don't know why."
"Shulk..." Dunban was beginning to remember that one time. It was about a few weeks after Dickson found him. Shulk had his high fever in addition to dyspnea. He was crying with his own sobs being cut short because of his symptoms. Dunban felt like the floor fell apart from him when he heard the little boy whisper, "It hurts so much... I don't want to be like this anymore...! I want to give up...! I don't want... to be awake anymore...!"
"That's... so awful..." Sharla muttered. She had seen some patients suffer such symptoms Shulk experienced, but not multiple symptoms at once. Suffering such illnesses has a debilitating effect on mental, emotional, and psychological well-being. How on Bionis was Shulk able to hold on, especially suffering at a young age? If anything, Sharla was admiring this inner strength and willpower the boy had within him. She'd seen it enough in battle so far but, at such a young age...
Shulk resumed his story, loosening his grip on the necklace. "Dickson theorized that something happened in the tower where the Monado and I were found that caused my body to change. He guessed the ether was drained from me, and my body was no longer able to efficiently drain ether from the environment afterwards due to maintaining my body with only the small amount left during that comatose state I was in in the tower."
"So in order to counter that, a very potent ether crystal should be near me always. What better way to have an ether crystal close to someone by wearing it? At first, Dickson used any other pure ether crystal to have me wear. He made me wear a wind ether bracelet and a water ether necklace. It worked for a good few hours, as dehydration and dyspnea symptoms were gone for a while, but the ether quickly drained. And those symptoms appeared again soon afterwards."
"Then Dickson decided to try using the rare ether hybrid crystal that he found. It had a strange glow despite its small size. It was a crystal that each corner had the colors red, blue, yellow, and green on each side. Dickson carved it into a necklace with a design he made up and made me wear it. And it was a miracle. The ether usage was very small, and it was able to ease my symptoms. They were still there, but they gradually healed. After about a year of wearing it, I was completely free of symptoms, and even regained my strength back. Dickson guessed that the hybrid crystal was many times more potent than a pure ether crystal, that only a small amount of absorption was needed to ease the ether deficiency in my body."
Sharla was intrigued by the work Dickson has done to help Shulk, let alone learning a few more things about ether crystals. "I would like to ask him about more details about these discoveries of his..." She muttered to herself in her head.
Shulk sighed after his long explanation to regain his breath. Dunban laughed. "Goodness, you're tired from telling your little story?"
"Oh, can it, Dunban. I'll finish my story, thank you." Shulk growled. He was still exhausted from the long swim earlier.
"To play it safe, Dickson made me wear that necklace and was told to never, ever remove it. That crystal has been a part of me ever since. Throughout the years though, the light of the crystal was fading, and it became worrisome that I would have ether deficiency again, so I was closely monitored when wearing it. No symptoms. Even when the ether crystal lost its light after 8 years of usage, I never experienced any illness or symptom due to ether deficiency. So, Dickson and the doctors concluded that the crystal was able to heal my body in not only providing ether, but to repair my body's function of absorbing ether from the environment. This breakthrough was amazing in the medical field, as a hunt for such crystals took place afterwards cause of this discovery. Even after the crystal lost its light, I still always wear this necklace as a good luck charm. It's a reminder that Dickson saved me that day in the tower, and healing me from the ether deficiency I suffered."
Sharla smiled. "Wow. This crystal is very, very powerful… If more people had this, then ether deficiency-related health problems would be all gone..."
Shulk nodded. "Mm hm. But it's so rare…"
Dunban added, "I don't know where or how Dickson got such crystals... he even won't even spill the beans on where he got them. I asked both 13 years ago and last year, only saying he'd just be digging around. I swear I'll get the information from him on-"
"LOOK OUT!" A sudden yell from Reyn cut off Dunban.
From that warning, Dunban simply shifted his weight and leaned towards his left with his back still against the cavern wall towards Sharla.
Alarmed, Sharla yelled, "H-Hey!" She was turning a slight red as he saw Dunban's arm near her right breast.
Shulk didn't have time to process that warning, and he felt something fly past him at high speed."What the-"
THUD. And a splash afterwards. It was the Heropon who flew by, and he created a small dent on the cavern wall.
Shulk was staring at his left down at Riki, who was groaning and his eyes moving rapidly around in circles."Goodness, Riki! Are you all right?" He picked up the Heropon floating face up on the water and placed him on his knees.
"Oooh... Riki is very dizzy...!"
Dunban leaned back to his original position and sat upright. He placed his left hand on his chest and bowed a little, saying, "I apologize that I almost touched you... er... there."
Sharla shook her head. She laughed, replying, "It couldn't be helped. If it was either Shulk or Reyn, it would have been far worse."
Dunban also laughed, scratching his head. "Indeed... Good thing that wasn't the case."
"Oi! You three! Join us for some volleyball!" Reyn called out to Sharla, Dunban, and Shulk, waving his arms back and forth.
"Reyn! Let Riki rest! The poor Nopon is getting motion sickness!" Melia was jogging towards Shulk and Riki.
"That furball can handle a bit more rounds! Besides, think of it as a good endurance practice!" Reyn replied, his habit of rotating his right arm taking over.
Dunban chuckled, standing up from the water. It was time to stretch after a good time simply sitting and talking. "Hm, volleyball with one hand. Sounds like an interesting challenge..."
Shulk stood up as well, carrying the dizzy Nopon with his two hands. "Dunban, are you serious? What about Riki?"
"You heard Reyn. But yes, let's give him a chance to rest a bit. Come, let's join Reyn and Melia."
Sharla watched Dunban, Shulk, and Riki head towards Melia and Reyn. She couldn't help but crack a smile on her face. This day of relaxing was far more interesting than she thought it would be, as it was a pleasant time to learn about Dunban and Shulk. Those two have gone through such painful hardships. It was only right for her to work extra hard in battle to keep those two healthy and safe.
"Know I've always got both of your backs..."
Sharla stood up from the water and walked towards the rest of the party. A game of volleyball... Why not?
Headcanon: Dunban and Shulk are the only two characters in the party who wear necklaces beneath their clothes and wear it 24/7. Those necklaces are actually a rare type of ether crystals, which have hybrid elements. They are more powerful than pure ether crystals and have the ability to heal injuries and provide ether from ether deficiency. Dunban's necklace is a hybrid ice, wind, and earth elemental used for speeding up the healing process from the Monado's burns. Shulk's necklace is a hybrid of the 4 main elements used to cure of his ether deficiency from Ose Tower. The hybrid 4 elemental crystal necklace Dickson gave him over time cured all of his illnesses and sickness. Even though the light has faded, Shulk wears the necklace every day and never removes it as it is a reminder that Dickson saved his life and believing it is a good luck charm.
A/N: This was a long headcanon, oops. This came about during me playing around with the party's costumes cause heh... they all look amazing in their swimsuits. It got to the point where I did my second playthrough of Xenoblade and my first playthrough of the 3DS version in swimsuits only.
I noticed this was not as detailed as my previous oneshot. This was done in a rush and half asleep so...
The next chapter will be a follow-up headcanon relating to this one-shot:
Dunban, Shulk, Sharla - Renewed Strength / Summary: A follow-up headcanon following the chapter Necklaces. After the events of Mechonis Core, Shulk realizes the true significance of the necklace he's wearing. Dunban and Sharla need to cheer him up, as his revelation is quite grim...
Indeed Xenoblade 3D and Final Fantasy Type 0 are taking my time, as well as evil school. I'll be working on the two follow up headcanons though. The one mentioned above is half-way done, but currently in writer's block.
I'll be doing sketches of cover images and sometimes scene images for each one shot. Since the first headcanon already has an official image, I'll be sketching a scene image or two for that one. The second oneshot will have a cover image and a scene image as well. Check on my profile for the images for any future uploads.