melodiesofeternity | Anniversary Event: Defying Fate

"So you think that she's Kalki reborn as well?" Selphie questioned before pondering upon the melodies a bit more. "Because Kalki had purple eyes as well and tried to fool everyone back then as well by pretending to be an ally. It gave me the impression that she's really bitter about what happened and wants to put things back to the way that they were before.

"Honestly though, the story that she told was pretty much what happened. Her plan was to merge with the Calamity and restart Crystallis in her vision. She tried to use us all in the beginning but heroes being heroes, we weren't having it."

She fell silent as she considered the concept of the Melodies. The brunette didn't recall anything about Melodies existing back on Crystallis. Truth be told, the Melodies felt like a double-edged sword as she eventually shrugged her shoulders.

"There was an ability called Melodies of Life that a few people could use but there definitely weren't Melodies on Crystallis. I mean... we had something similar to them, but they weren't called Melodies. They were also pretty powerful but they could only be used when a person was near death."

Minimus hummed in response to her question. "I will assume that she is for now, but as I have not encountered Kalki's prior reincarnation as you have, I am simply believing you at your word." He had about 20 other ideas formulating as a backup. Minimus preferred to think in absolutes, but he was not the type to rush into a situation. Every situation was uncertain and nothing should be taken for absolute fact save for written laws.

"Can we not also use Melodies when we are weakened? How were these different?" Now this was something worth pursuing. "An ability called Melodies of Life must have been incredibly powerful."

Selphie couldn't argue with Minimus' logic as she nodded thoughtfully. Truthfully, any possibility was more than plausible as her fingers drummed on her thighs. Until the heroes had more definite information, everything that they'd heard from the Empress had to be taken with a grain of salt.

"Well," she continued. "The abilities that we could use on Crystallis were very similar to Melodies but they weren't called that. They had a different name but I can't remember what it was."

She gives Minimus an apologetic look as the conversation switches over to the ability she brought up. "It was really powerful but there were conditions that had to be met in order to use it."

"...Elaborate."

More details. He needed more details. There were too many unknowns.

Hopefully Selphie was someone who was good at long explanations.

"About Melodies of Life?" She asked to clarify.

She would provide what information she could, but she wanted to know exactly what Minimus was looking for before beginning.

Selphie eventually nodded slowly. "I'll tell you what I can."

"That and anything relevant. You do not need to submit a full report a this moment." This was a major compromise for someone like him.

Selphie nodded. "I'll start with Melodies of Life then."

She doesn't mention how grateful she is for the distraction. "Melodies of Life is an ability that could only be mastered using the Onion Knight job. The attack itself was very strong but the only way that you could use it was to have mastered ten jobs beforehand. It's really something that has to be seen in person."

Oh! He recognized that term from the terribly typefaced pamphlets of Ganeshan's. "That is what Ganeshan is, correct? Would he be able to use it?"

Selphie looked up at Minimus with a baffled expression on her face. Clearly, she'd missed something during her time away in the Dreamwidth's thrall.

"Hold on, Ganeshan's an Onion Knight?"

If surprised were a colour, it described Selphie to the letter.

He nodded. "It's an oft-repeated fact on his replies to my messages. The idea of mastering ten Asterisks is appealing - I have inquired to its use multiple times." And Ganeshan boomingly responded before realizing that Minimus trapped him so that he could rant about the poor graphic design of his pamphlets in person.

"I...suppose that is why he was so powerful."

Selphie looked thoughtful throughout the explanation. The concept sounded oddly familiar to the one that she was more familiar with. She placed her left hand over her right wrist at the recollection of the place where she had kept her crystal safe. The pieces of information being provided are ones that she wasn't familiar with.

"Maybe I'm still a tad out of the loop with everything that's been happening," she admitted with a soft sigh. "But is this information that Ganeshan has shared with everyone?"

"He's quite lout about it at times." Especially when he tries to express his frustrations with the pamphlets. "I have also heard the employees mention it in passing."

"Maybe after all of this is over, I'll go bother him about that," Selphie mused.

What has she been doing this entire time that she never heard that from the Zora himself? There's so many questions that need answers and maybe, just maybe she could help find some of them. She wasn't a researcher by any means, but she could help gather information.

"If he..."

Manages to survive dies on her lips. She can't bring herself to say it.

Selphie ended a sentence prematurely. That had to be remediated. "If he is protected during Ramaa's initial attack or if we rethink our strategy, he will survive long enough to discuss his Jobs with you. That is also dependent on the outcome of that battle and if we have confirmed that time will progress normally once Bahamut is defeated."

Too many unknown variables. This was not a time to rely on a hypothetical outcome.

Selphie's eyes widened as Minimus said what she didn't want to say or hear. She didn't even want to think about it, it bothered her that much. She's knew that he was right, but the words still stung.

"You're right," she murmured.

Minimus was not good at comforting. He preferred to provide the truth, as terrible as it may be. Reality was not always safe; one had to beware of all potential issues.

He could tell when someone was discouraged.

"That does not necessarily predict our own actions. What I said was simply a description of the difficulties we face." This was work, like everything else.

Discouraged didn't even begin to describe how Selphie truly felt, but she knew it was something that had to be worked through. The current circumstances that all of the heroes were involved in wasn't exactly the best method to address those anxieties.

"It doesn't make it any easier to accept," Selphie admitted. "I could think of it like any other mission, I suppose but that just means that it's gonna haunt some of us for a very long time."

"That is the nature of a lifetime of war." There were no Cybertronians who had emerged from the Great War mentally unscatched. Danger was a constant background to their lives, and having it disappear was stressful on its own.

"Have you experience with fending off large beasts?"

Selphie was fully aware of the joys of war, but that didn't make her like it in any way. The life of a SeeD was also full of hardships that most didn't discuss and had brought about the notion to enjoy the downtime while you could.

Time loops on the other hand, were not at all.

"You could say that," Selphie responded. "WEAPONs, Iron Giants, Dragons, Sorceresses hellbent on destroying the world and all existence."

The young woman shrugged her shoulders. "Just a typical day at the office of a hero of light."

Minimus found himself curious about her comment. She called herself a hero of light, but no one spoke of the group fighting a sorceress on Vaikuntha. Either her comment was not carefully planned or he was missing addition information.

"A sorceress? Does she differ from Empress Ramaa?"

Selphie blinked at the misstep in her words. Now she'd have to explain SeeD's purpose. Whoops.

"She's from my world and I pray that she never comes here. I'm a mercenary from my home and it was part of our purpose as SeeD, that's our name, to stop the Sorceress at any cost. But we do all kinds of work, really! From battle support to information gathering and undercover work, there's really nothing that we don't do."

"Then, she has not thankfully arrived on this planet." Nor would she ever arrive, if time was repeating itself. They already had a great enemy to stop and require no other. "I did not know you had an ongoing war against the Sorceress, if you had a formal group dedicated to stopping her progress."

Organics lived for such a short time, but like Cybertronians, they restructured society when war was involved.

"I was part of the group that stopped her so we were way ahead of you there," she said with a slight nod. "So it's kinda finished in that respect."

If she were being completely honest about the whole thing though, it was more or less dropped into their laps. Besides, there were far more important matters to attend to on Vaikuntha. "Just like our problems here, dealing with that wasn't easy either."

"I cannot say how we will stop the Empress from destroying the world." They had not yet fought against her successfully, thus he was not certain of their future in this timeline. He hoped that this time loop would not repeat indefinitely.

"However, given your experience, what do you believe to be the correct course of action in this scenario?"

What was the correct course of action? It seemed that they were all destined to face the Empress every three days and lose until something changed. Selphie wasn't a tactician by any means of the word but there was something that she knew they could all do to try and improve things.

"Well, if you recall, a lot of things started to get really super screwy before we all went to Sen Riqueax. The sky slowly turning red being a biggie and all those people disappearing. So, I think it might be a good idea to start helping out wherever we can," Selphie reasoned. It was truthfully the only thing that she could think of.

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legalcy - 2019-05-19 23:49 (UTC) - Expand