melodiesofeternity | [Closed] Retrieval of Expensive Works of Engineering

"Punctual, in a word," Ashelia interjects as she swooshes into the hangar, her moogle Kupozencrantz having trouble flying backwards in front of her as he holds up a letter that she's in the middle of signing. She finishes her signature with an extremely conservative flourish, turning to the gathered Heroes. "Snow, Kuja. Well met." She nods at the men before turning to Frisk. "I am the Lady Ashelia. Good to make your acquaintance." She holds out her pen for Kupozencrantz to take, which he does after a panicked moment before flying away. "Shall we?"

Kuja stands, when Ashe arrives, taking the opportunity to gesture between Ashe and Frisk. "I don't believe the pair of you have met. Ashelia, Frisk. Frisk, Ashelia. Thank you, by the way, for coming."

He checks the time, and turns to the airship, moving at a brisk pace towards it. "With any luck, this won't be anything at all like the last time, but even so..."

He sets foot on the deck of the airship, passing the pilot a bank note. "Fortune favors the prepared, I find."

Snow White can't even be mad at being addressed simply as "Snow" -- Ashelia's entrance was so stylish. He wondered what she was working on right up until the last minute.

For now, though, his focus was on Kuja. He nodded in greeting to Ashe as he followed the group onto the airship.

"With any luck..." he repeated, fully expecting the worst. So far, he hadn't experienced anything easy on Vaikuntha.

Frisk had to admit, they were starting to feel genuinely intimidated by the sheer level of class that they were surrounded by. It was terrifying, in a way. They open their mouth to drop some kind of snarky remark, then hesitate at the last moment, instead inclining their head. "Pleasure to meet you, Ashelia." Kuja has accomplished the impossible: tame the Frisk through sheer force of poise.

They follow the rest onto the airship. Unable to resist making at least one quip, "I would say that this'll be no problem, but I don't want to tempt Murphy like that." They snap their fingers. "Wait, before we go, I need to do something. Better safe than sorry, after all."

Waving their hand, Frisk summons three golden, four-pointed stars. They snap their fingers again, and the rest of the party can feel... something tugging at their heart for a brief moment. Three more stars appear, one marked with Snow's name, one with Kuja's, and one with Ashelia's. They bite their lip, waffling for a moment, before making their decision.

FILE SAVED: Kuja (LOVE)
FILE SAVED: Kuja (Love)
FILE SAVED: Ashelia (Bravery)
FILE OVERWRITTEN: Snow White (Bravery)
FILE OVERWRITTEN: Frisk (Bravery)
FILE OVERWRITTEN: Frisk (LOVE)

Edited 2018-11-04 01:24 (UTC)

"Ah!" Snow White clutched at his chest and stared. Something felt wrong... Hearts didn't normally do that.

"What did you just do?" he gasped, looking between the stars and Frisk.

Kuja stops, at the unfamiliar sensation, looking back at Frisk. "I take it that is... part of your abilities from your world?" How peculiar. He leads the way into the cabin, taking a seat. It's not terribly spacious, but there's certainly room for four.

"I have to agree, I'm curious as to what, exactly, that just did."

Ashelia doesn't say anything, just follows the others onto the ship. She doesn't sit, but leans on the opposite wall, arms crossed under her chest. She doesn't particularly suspect Frisk of foul play, but she is certainly curious. Most status-enhancing spells she's been under haven't cost her anything.

"It's... well, it's complicated." Frisk chews on their lip, searching for a simple way to explain their Job. In truth, they hardly understood it themself. "I took the essence of a few traits--bravery, empathy, and, um, violence--distilled them down to their magical essence, and added the latent abilities to your SOULs. Don't worry, there won't be any personality changes. I can activate them whenever I want, but dismissing them is a more complicated process, so I can't do it outside of combat. Snow, Ashelia, when I LOAD your files, you'll be a lot faster, but that state is also really exhausting. Kuja, I made two files for you: one that increases your healing abilities but decreases your attack power, and one that's the other way around. I won't LOAD anything without your permission, of course."

"LOAD... our files?" Snow stared at Frisk, not understanding his language one bit. At least he wasn't angry anymore, just perplexed. Whatever Frisk had done didn't seem to have hurt him. Frisk seemed to have genuinely done something to help.

Snow White didn't understand the details, but the effects seemed clear enough: trade energy for speed if needed. He nodded. "Alright."

Kuja shrugs. Frisk certainly hasn't done anything to demonstrate they mean anything but well, and though he doesn't quite understand what this saving and loading business means, he's not about to complain about it. "Well, ladies and gentlemen-" Er. Really need to bite the bullet and ask that question at some point.

There's a gentle shudder as the airship begins to lift off. "I'd like to thank you all for coming. If this does happen once more... then we stay together. I've no idea what may be in store, but I doubt it will be pleasant."

Ashelia nods along with Frisk's explanation of her abilities. Seems like a net gain, logically, but the young queen doesn't give voice to any concerns she might still have. Best to wait and see how it works in the field. With Kuja's colourful history, she doesn't doubt they'll get a chance to test Frisk's SOUL magic out.

And now by Kuja's own admission. Ashelia shakes her head. "Surely you've some idea. They are your memories, after all." The jibe is light hearted, but there's still an edge there. Last time, they were very nearly burnt to a crisp, after all.

And yet, Ashelia is still here. She can't help it - despite whatever shady past Kuja understandably tries to conceal, she just likes him.

"Alright then. If nobody has any objections, let's get this show on the road," Frisk says, rolling their shoulders and boarding the airship. Their first thought is that nothing could be worse than reliving the day after they nearly killed Lilac, but they immediately scold themself internally for tempting Murphy like that and gird themselves for whatever Kuja's past has in store for them. Judging by the look Ashelia gave him, it might be more than they initially bargained for.

Kuja actually chuckles quietly. "Oh, I dare say I know the menu by heart at this point, but there's such a variety of choices. I will, however, remain vigilant and do my best to keep you abreast of any complications, your Majesty."

Kuja reclines in his chair, taking a drink from a bottle of water. "Who knows? Perhaps we'll be fortunate and we'll just revisit some ball in Treno, and I can regale you all with snide commentary about how the Count and Contessa are both having an affair and both know about the other and have inadvertently hired the same assassin to go after the other, what a marvelous evening that was- but I doubt it."

The Light Fantastic soars gently into the sky, minutes passing by as Vaikuntha falls away, blue sky fading to black. I don't think I shall ever get tired of this view.

Snow White crossed his legs where he sat and shot Kuja a look. "Stay together. Right. That means you don't run away from us down a burning street."

His smirk made it clear he was joking -- mostly. Not that he minded the view from behind Kuja, but panic in the city was considerably less fun.

"Something easy would be nice, though."

Kuja snorts. "In my defense, I was more than slightly distraught at the time. Regardless, I shall endeavor to remain as close as possible to the group." Outside, the faint light of the cloud is drawing ever nearer.

"I suppose we'd best get ready."

In response to that, Ashelia adjusts her fingerless gloves and sword belt, adjusting the potion pouch at her left hip. "Think of it this way; the likelihood of it being worse than Bahamut destroying the world is quite slim."

It could be on the same exact level, more or less, but definitely not worse.

Frisk's eyes flit between the other three on board the ship, and they arch an eyebrow. Okay, there was clearly something more to this than they knew. "I feel like I'm missing something here. Anybody want to fill me in?"

Kuja stands. "When I went to retrieve Opalescence, it was... not a pleasant time. The destruction of Alexandria is not among my happier memories, largely for my... hand in it."

The airship's pilot offers a harness each to Frisk, Ashe, Snow, and lastly Kuja. "Same arrangement as before, ladies and gents. If you're not back in fifteen, I'm pulling you back. Got a tow hook if it's too big for the cargo hold. Be careful out there."

Kuja nods, steps up to the railing... and, waiting for the others to strap in and join him, steps off the edge and into the Cloud.

It wasn't his story to tell. Snow White looked between Kuja and Frisk, but he didn't have to wait long before Kuja spoke up himself. It was a strange relief that Frisk should know. If things went badly again, they needed to be able to work together. Snow White let out the breath he'd been holding and nodded. Things would, and did, get ugly around here. But at least Ashe was likely right -- it couldn't get much worse.

Snow fastened his safety harness snugly. As Kuja departs, Snow follows, not wanting to be last.

That... didn't exactly sound good. Frisk does their best not to grimace, but they can't help but wince a little at "my hand in it." They just nod, strap on their harness, say, "Got it," and plunge into the Dream Width.

Not having anything else to add to the conversation, Ashelia instead opts to give Frisk a nod of encouragement. They're so young. Too young to be on an obviously dangerous expedition like this one, but it's not Ashelia's expedition, so she keeps her mouth shut. She fastens her harness tightly and steps out into the Dream Width, all too happy to bring up the rear.

Kuja, perhaps, has a skewed view on what age someone becomes capable of entering dangerous situations. He was, after all, more or less killed by a group that contained people aged fifteen, six, and one.

As he falls through the mist, there's something out there, a shape too murky to make out, only the merest sense of size, of something as large as a house- and Kuja feels, once again, faint, as the cloud becomes almost too thick to see through.

"Stay close," he calls, as the sense of vertigo takes over. "Something's happ-"
His feet touch down on stone, and the vertigo fades. Kuja is left staring off into the distance, pale and- frightened.

It is a beautiful world, at first glance. Clear blue skies that stretch as far as the eye can see, massive azure fungi dotting the landscape, cerulean stone pathways and cobalt-tinted soil... of course, when one actually takes the time to look at the beauty around them... one realizes that this world is almost entirely barren, devoid of life. The world is silent, with only the wind to break the peace.

Welcome to Terra.

Snow White grit his teeth at the uncomfortable sensation. He didn't think he'd get used to it. But hearing Kuja's tense voice was enough to focus him.

"What is it?" Snow stared at the mage once he landed, uneasy. At least there wasn't fire this time, but Kuja still looked distinctly disturbed. He reached gently for Kuja's elbow to remind the man that he wasn't alone here.

Frisk can't help but to gawk at the beautiful, alien vista laid out all around them. They'd seen some sights on Vaikuntha, but nothing outside the Dream Width could possibly compare to what they were seeing right now. "Woah... what is this place?" they ask in an awed, hushed tone. Realizing Kuja isn't looking too good himself, Frisk also places a hand on Kuja's other arm. "You good?"

A smile pulls at the corners of Ashelia's lips at the display of support from Frisk and Snow White. It disappears a second later though, as she slowly starts to realize how much he'll need it. Terra is certainly beautiful in a quietly alien way, but it really is too quiet. What happened here?

"We need to know what's about to happen," Ashelia interjects gently. "We can't be taken by surprise again."

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