Chapter 16: Starting off
Last time Kanonno and Marianya introduced their friend Peter, who warned them about not finding any jobs. Please correct me on anything I've might've screwed up on.
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Peter left early that morning, fortunately he did leave some bread behind, they just had to cut off the mold. He also left out a map of the city along with a sloppy copy. Kanonno looked at the map.
"How sweet." She said munching on some bread, "So who wants what copy?"
"Does the copy at least have a hospital on it?" Marianya asked.
"Let's see…" Muttered Kanonno looking over the map. "Yep, Franklin's local hospital." She handed the map to Marianya. Simon peered over her shoulder.
"You need directions on the library?" Marianya asked, moving the map a little bit to the right.
"Sorry …" He muttered.
"It's fine, are you finished yet?" Sighed Marianya.
"...Yep." Marianya moved the map away from him.
"See you later, wish me luck." Kanonno said hastily leaving the door. The door slammed before the other three could say something. Marianya left soon after, then Simon left, leaving Laurel in the apartment. Simon took a trolley to a cable car station, he took the cable car to the area where the library should be, the public section, a level dedicated to public facilities, making up the middle ring of the city.
'I question the architects' decisions when they developed this city.' Simon thought but shrugged off as he headed towards the library. 'Who knows, I might run into Marianya while I'm here.' His mouth dropped when he got inside the library. It was very large, possibly the largest in the world, books nearly towards the ceiling, Simon wondered if there were ladders that went that high. 'Where am I going to find things on amnesia?' He sighed looking around, 'Okay, sciences should be…' He thought looking at the spines of the books.
"These don't tell us anything!" He heard a female voice whisper.
"But we can't give up yet, we just have to keep looking." A male voice encouraged, as Simon found a book on amnesia, he flipped through it, relived that it wasn't fiction.
"But this is just generic knowledge." Said the female voice when Simon approached a table with the blonde boy he saw yesterday and a girl with short dark brown hair, dressed like she was part of the upper class, but she had a bandages on her cheek and around her hands.
"But these books might have something that we don't know!" The blonde whispered to the girl.
"What? These say the exact, same things our books say?" The girl whispered back, nearly raising her voice.
"Am I interrupting anything?" Simon asked quietly, sitting down. The boy's eyes widened.
"No … not at all." The girl whispered back.
"What are you doing here? And did you find your friend?" The boy asked.
"I'm looking for ways to jog my memory, and yes I did find that man." Simon asked, "Are you successful in your research for the Apocalypse Period?"
"How do you know that?" Shouted the boy, getting shushed by people in the surrounding area.
"You slipped up and told me yesterday." Simon reminded.
"Oh …" Sighed the boy, blushing a bit, the girl with him shook her head.
"We're not very successful." The girl whispered, "Though why are you looking for ways to help with amnesia?"
"I have amnesia, so I would like to know something about my past." Said Simon, 'Since it's now imperative that I find my memories to get a non guild job. Also I started to remember things on the white rabbit.'
"Oh, I'm sorry." Said the girl.
"It's okay," Said Simon skimming over sections of the book. "I've started regain something of a memory." He found a section of the book that discusses how to reverse amnesia and read it. 'Hm … I don't think it would be as easy as the book says it is, though, I did get something with Captain Reynolds and Siela might know me. Dammit, Captain Reynolds is probably gone by now and Siela is in Sakriny and she hasn't contacted me through my dreams in a while.'
"Hey, can you help us with our research?" The boy asked.
"No thanks, I have my own project to worry about, but if you can't find anything in the books you can ask the front desk for documents about the time or other sources." Simon shrugged.
"We have some friends looking at documents." Said the blonde.
"We should probably check on them, don't you think?" The girl asked. The boy nodded and they left.
At the same time Kanonno was looking for a job for any type of handiwork, she didn't care if she worked as a mechanic or on an assembly line, she would be happy to earn some money. So far, she's been rejected from each job she asked about, because of either her gender or her nationality.
'Never thought that people would become so suspicious because you're from Sakriny.' She thought, 'It's not like I'm a spy or anything, might as well try the guild district.' She looked at the map covered in x's she drew on there. She headed to the guild district, on the way there she saw Luke coming her way.
"Oh hello," he greeted, "What brings you here?"
"I'm looking for some work," She replied. "You?"
"I'm on a mission." He said, "I have to go, I can't keep my group waiting."
"Before you go, do you know who's hiring in guild district?" Kanonno asked.
"I don't know any specific guilds that are looking for members at the moment." Luke shrugged, "Though, I did hear something about a man named Rusty looking to hire."
"Thank you," she said.
"No problem." He replied before the two went on their separate ways. Once in the guild district she started asking around for the man named Rusty. She learned that he is a mechanic that runs a garage, called Wrench Monkeys, mainly fixing vehicles, people also told her that it was at the edge of the district. She walked there and noticed that it was small, it looked run down, there were only two vehicles in it, two people were each working on a vehicle. The garage looked like it hadn't been doing so well lately. She knocked on the side of the garage.
"Excuse me!" She then said, catching some attention. "I'm looking for Rusty, I heard he was hiring."
"You heard right," Said a young man with shoulder length green hair in a mechanic's suit. "The boss is a bit desperate for workers, if you fill …" the young man walked over to a work bench scrambling through boxes until he pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, "out this paperwork the boss might consider. Just give it to him when you're done." He said pointing to a separate room.
"All right," said Kanonno taking the pen and paper, she started filling any blanks on the paper work, she checked off specific days of the week and hours when she's available. She walked over to the small room, and saw a middle aged man scribbling on paper work, getting grease smudges on it. She tapped at the side of the wall.
"Waddya want missy?" He snapped.
"I'm here for a job you're offering." She said, handing him the paper work. He took it, looked it over and looked at her.
"You're awfully scrawny for someone with past experience." He commented.
"I'm about as scrawny as any of your other workers, so I don't see any reason why I shouldn't work for you." She argued back. Rusty laughed.
"I like your attitude Missy." He mused, "I'll consider letting you in, if you can fix this." He handed her a destroyed bug looking device and what she assumed to be it's remote control. "Use any tools at your disposal." She looked at the device, then took some welding equipment, with protection, screws, screw driver, and a small wrench. She tinkered with the device before soldering some wires together then screwing on the legs and the neck of the device. She then took apart the remote, revealing frayed wires, she wondered how that happened before soldering together the wires and putting the remote back together. She finished the piece by wielding on some pieces of metal that seemed to have melted off somehow and screwed a metal plate on its back after the metal had cooled. She pressed a button on the remote and the device sprang to life she moved the stick on the remote and it started to move.
"Impressive, can it meld things together?" Rusty asked, Kanonno pressed a different button and the device's glass head shot a beam of red light, it didn't meld anything but it left a large black streak on the concrete. Rusty nodded, "Come back tomorrow." Kanonno looked at him confused, "You're in."
"Really?" Kanonno said surprised, after a long day of rejections.
"Yes, come back tomorrow morning at seven." Said Rusty.
"Th-thank you." She said before leaving the garage she cheered once she got out.
Meanwhile, Simon read the book on amnesia, he stopped for a while and took the book the boy and girl were reading. It discussed weapons of the era and it showed a picture of a giant cannon looking object on a metal rod, the caption read "Spear of Kresnik." His eyes widened as he spaced out into a flashback.
"Yes sir this baby has the destructive power to destroy everything, even the spirits. This has the power equivalent of the gods." A man in a lab coat said patting the control panel of the Spear of Kresnik.
"Will it prove to be prosperous?" He found himself asking but his voice sounded different, it sounded higher.
"This will help us take over Isanna's capital and win the war with ease!" Said the man. Then the flashback suddenly became fuzzy.
"Make it stop … no more … no more …" He heard a man sob.
"You need to sleep now." He heard another man say.
"Are you okay?" He heard the girl ask, "You were spacing out."
"Yeah, I think I might have gotten a memory." Said Simon, "Though there's one thing wrong with it, is there a country called Isanna?"
"Not anymore, the Isannan empire fell over five thousand years ago." The girl explained.
"I see, though I remember something about the Spear of Kresnik being able to kill spirits or something and it was meant to destroy the capital of Isanna." Simon explained.
"I knew it was a weapon of war, but I didn't know it could kill spirits." Said the girl. "Are you sure you don't want to help us with our research?"
"Well … I guess it won't hurt." Simon said standing up.
"Great!" Said the girl going up to him and dragging him, he noticed that she was paler than before and her walking seemed a bit wobbly. He slipped his arm away from her.
"I can get to the documents section on my own." He said, "Do you need to sit down or anything?"
"I'm fine." She said stopping, "I'm … just a bit tired."
"Okay," Said Simon walking to the section where he saw the blonde boy, the gas mask boy, and a young man with dark skin and white hair. The gas mask boy and dark skinned man were discussing something over a pice of paper, the boy looked just as pale as the girl and looked like he was going to fall over.
"Guys." The girl said catching the boys' attentions, "I brought someone that could help." Simon waved nervously.
"Hey what about your amnesia research?" The blond asked.
"Well your apocalypse period research kinda crosses over with my amnesia research." Simon shrugged picking up a document.
"Good enough, tell us if you find anything or what you have found." Said the gas mask boy.
"Speaking of which I learned that the Spear of Kresnik was able to kill spirits and it was intended to destroy the Isannan empire." Said Simon looking at a document with strange writing.
"You know we can ask a descendant of Kresnik to find out what it does." The blonde said to the gas mask boy.
"We did, remember, he might not have been Dr. Kresnik's descendant since there's five thousand years between then and now. There's plenty of time for the blood line to have been lost. Plus he didn't know anything on the weapon." The gas mask boy said. Simon froze.
"Yggdrasil is dying and it's my fault, I didn't do anything to fix the mistakes of my predecessors." Said the voice running through his head.
"Hey is something wrong?" The blonde asked. Simon snapped back to reality.
"Nothing." He lied.
"Did you find anything that could be useful?" The dark skinned man asked.
"Well, this … copy of a scroll seems to be in a different language, though there are some diagrams of some device." Said Simon giving the paper to the gas mask boy.
"It's written in Relarian, a long dead language." Sighed the gas mask boy.
"Excuse me," They heard a voice. They looked up to see a woman wearing thick rimmed glasses, "The library is about to close."
"Of course." Said the gas mask boy putting away the paper. The group left the library without borrowing a book.
"Hey thanks for the help um …" The blonde began.
"Simon, Simon Winters." Simon blurted, realizing that he forgot the basic thing to do when meeting new people, introducing himself.
"Oh right!" The blonde exclaimed, probably realizing the same thing, the gas mask boy rolled his eyes. "I'm Kyle Dunamis. The girl's Reala, the tall guy's Loni Dunamis, and that's-"
"Judas," the gas mask boy interrupted, "my name is Judas."
"Well … It's a pleasure to meet you." Said Simon.
"Will you be helping us tomorrow?" Reala asked.
"I might, but I've been considering the possibility of joining a guild, so we'll just see." Simon shrugged.
"Fair enough, see ya." Said Loni as the group separated. When he got back to the apartment he spotted Peter, carrying some groceries, in front of the door talking to a young man with blonde hair and blue eyes wearing an ordinary long coat and pants.
"I'm sorry Peter but I can't give you any information on what the guild's doing." The young man said.
"Oh come on Flynn, I'm just asking for a phone number or a radio signal." Peter begged.
"We went over this, B.V. is a small guild and they've told me that with other costs they can't afford a radio at the moment. Also, I am not in charge of B.V.'s activities. In fact, I'm hardly given any information on their status." Flynn explained.
"Can you at least ask your brother about Ad Libitum?" Peter asked.
"I'm afraid you'll have to ask him yourself, with work as it is now, I don't have much time to ask him." Flynn turned down.
"Er … Peter what's going on?" Simon interrupted.
"Ah! Simon!" Peter exclaimed.
"Is this one of your siblings?" Flynn asked.
"Sib-" Before Simon could finish the word Peter elbowed him.
"Yep, my amnesiac little brother, I just figured that any guild will help him in his quest to regain his memory. If only you can get some information on a guild." Said Peter.
"Nice try." Stated Flynn, "Despite your brother's condition it still doesn't change the fact that I can't give you information on the guilds. He's also probably irritated that you're making the decision of joining a guild for him." Simon shot Peter a glare. "End of discussion."
"But Flynn-" Peter started as Flynn started to walk off.
"End of discussion." Flynn reiterated as he walked down the hall towards the stairs.
"Were trying to get me into a guild?" Simon asked quirking an eyebrow.
"Well … not exactly, I was planning on getting information on the hiring status. I was planning on asking Flynn if the guilds are hiring, since I know he's associated with people in guilds. One thing lead to another and yeah, sorry about that." Peter explained.
"You know I can figure out if a guild's hiring on my own, and isn't it a bit early to be freaking out about the employment of your guest?" Said Simon.
"I wasn't freaking out, I was just merely curious." Peter muttered to himself opening the door to his apartment.
"By the way, who was that man and what's B.V.?" Simon asked.
"B.V. is the abbreviated term for the guild Brave Vesperia. That man, Flynn Scifo is the neighbor who lives a floor above us, he's an officer in the military but, like I said, he does know some members in Brave Vesperia and Ad Libitum. His brother lives here too, you'll probably meet up with him one of these days." Peter explained when the girls came back with some groceries, they seemed awfully happy, especially Kanonno.
"So how'd job hunting go?" Peter asked, helping the girls with the groceries.
"I'm an emergency healer at a clinic, you'd be surprise on the people that need to be healed quickly. It's also the only job I can get without a medical degree." Said Marianya, putting down some pots and pans.
"I'm a mechanic at a shop called Wrench Monkeys." Said Kanonno, slicing some vegetables not wanting Laurel to cause some sort of severe injury.
"Thank you Kanonno." Laurel grinned.
"Congrats you two, if I had any wine we could totally celebrate with a drink or something." Said Peter, Kanonno stuck out her tongue and made some form of dying sound.
"What's this a form of alcohol that you won't drink?" Marianya teased taking over for Kanonno.
"Wine is extremely bitter and it stains clothing, I prefer vodka, hell some beers are better than wine." Kanonno complained. "Speaking of which," she pulled out a bottle of vodka.
"How the- when the- what?" Laurel shouted, "Kanonno!" They heard pounding from a wall.
"Be a little more quiet Laurel, these walls are kinda thin and we could get kicked out if we're too loud." Peter informed, "Kanonno, don't be too loud when celebrating."
"You won't be hearing much from me," Kanonno promised. "Where are your shot glasses?"
"I'll get them." Peter sighed. Peter reached into a cabinet just as Laurel started cooking. Kanonno popped open the vodka bottle and poured some of it inside the pan Laurel was cooking in causing a flame to erupt from the pan Laurel screamed. Peter turned off the stove and covered the pan before removing it from the stove. Laurel and Peter scolded Kanonno on how dumping vodka into a very hot pan is a fire hazard. Marianya laughed and stood back with Simon.
"You know, we forgot to ask this, how is your memory search going along?" She asked.
"Well … I remembered something in the library but it didn't make sense, it involved some long extinct country." Shrugged Simon.
"Keep looking, you're probably gonna find something eventually." Marianya encouraged.
"Thanks." Said Simon, 'Hopefully your right.'
Later, after dinner with the surprisingly not burnt vegetables and Kanonno muttering about something in her drunken state, everyone was asleep in the same arrangements as the previous night.
Simon floated in black space, he smirked.
"It's been a while Siela." He said.
"Indeed, asking you to comeback is a bit of a hassle so I'm going to skip over that, you'll probably figure that out eventually." She sighed appearing out of nowhere. "I hope that it's not too late."
"I wish that you would be forward with me on what I'm supposed to do." Simon sighed, "Can you tell me about my memories?"
"What about them?" She asked.
"I just found a few memories but they seemed scattered," Simon began. "One memory is of Captain Reynolds while another is about the spear of Kresnik and a plot to destroy an ancient nation called Isanna. I can't draw any connections to them."
"What about your dreams where you were another person?" Siela asked.
"How did you-" Simon began.
"Did you considered them as other memories?" She interrupted. Simon paused, "I would look at those they might also tell you about yourself and you're race."
"Race what do you mean? I'm human, what else would I be?" Simon asked.
"You'll find out, when you figure out what's yours." She grinned before disappearing.
"Wait!" Simon called, but it was too late, she was gone, he stood along in the empty space. 'Reanalyze my dreams…' He thought, 'How am I going to- oh right, now I can control my dreams. Let's see, how about that first dream I had." He closed his eyes and appeared in the snow field with the girl crying in front of the grave stone.
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Gonna be introducing several characters from this point, I'll try my best to get the personalities as accurate as possible. So Siela's back though seeing her outside of the dream world might take a while longer. I won't be including Xillia 2 simply because it hasn't come out yet even though it'll be out when this fic might still be running. Though that doesn't mean that it won't be referenced from time to time. Also for the shippers, sorry to say that I won't be putting pairings in any time soon. Also I should tell you why I didn't describe how Marianya got her job, you see, I'm trying to get you not as attached with her as some of the other characters in case something happens to her.