Lunar: Eternal Blue (Complete); Gamma; Lemina Ausa x Jean
Fandom: Lunar 2: Eternal Blue (original EB is the only one I've played through fully, but most of this goes for Complete as well; they're the same game, just Complete is a remake with some minor plot tweaks)
Pairing: Lemina Ausa x Jean (or if one wants to be correct in one's seme-to-uke ordering, the other way around)
Theme set: Gamma
Rating: PG-13, I guess; vague hints at greater intimacy, but blink and you'll miss 'em. f/f an' all that jazz.
Notes: Sorry for the delay; I insisted on doing these in order, got stuck on a couple, and so essentially wrote them in three chunks. Apologies if it shows. ;) I'm not going to beat Tseng/Coffee or Sephiroth/Cactuar (or that wonderful Gestahl/Kefka) any time soon, but I had a go. If I do go for Leo/Hiro, the other pairing I wanted to do, it'll probably be a bit less serious.
Found this comm via lucciole, who informed my EB-geeking self that someone here was doing a Ronfar/Mauri challenge. Couldn't resist in the end, and decided to do one of my favourite pairings from the game. Some parts Jean's POV, others Lemina's, though I'd been looking for an excuse to get inside Lemina's head for a bit and this was a nice one.
Has continuity, yes it does; a lot of the later ones follow on from each other, as I attempt to roughly run through an EB playthrough through the eyes of the characters (and that's a lot of throughs).
#01 - Ring
She wasn't exactly sure how the little hoop of engraved metal was going to protect her, but Lemina seemed convinced, and she guessed she trusted her; and as small hands slid the charm onto her finger she fell to wondering why that was, and tried her best to ignore the symbolism.
#02 - Hero
"I wasn't a hero," she'd said tersely when Lemina had asked, one night at the camp, of their escape from the Illusion Woods; "I was just doing what had to be done" -- and they spoke no more of it, but Lemina wondered if that wasn't the definition of heroism, doing what had to be done.
#03 - Memory
Jean remembered falling, the world rushing upwards and the heat in her face and the blood on her lips and the pounding, pounding in her chest; someday Lemina would teach her to remember all those things differently, and the memory would stop seeming so bad.
#04 - Box
People had a habit of pigeonholing Lemina, and the more they did it the more she found herself starting to live up to it, if only because that was easier.
#05 - Run
The day they'd left the carnival she'd sworn she wasn't going to run anymore, and yet here she was anyway, running from something as simple and vague as a gaze; fate ran an interesting line in fears, she thought.
#06 - Hurricane
Pride, pride had always been her downfall; too proud to admit that she'd been too proud to back down from that Althena-forsaken bet, and she didn't want to think it because she liked the guy okay, but she couldn't keep from wishing that a hurricane would wipe out his shop.
#07 - Wings
"If human's'd been meant to reach this sort of altitude, Althena would've given us wings!" Lemina shrieked as the Magic Arrow's course swerved violently from Nota; before she'd even reached for a handhold she felt Jean's arm around her waist, which was nice, but didn't exactly help the butterflies.
#08 - Cold
By Ronfar's standards, "Don't you ever get cold in that outfit?" was not an unusual quip; and aimed at anyone else Lemina would have blanked it, but she felt something rise within her, and when Ronfar glanced back she saw him recoil at the glare she was giving him.
#09 - Red
She sensed the magical bars of the prison rasping at her mind, daring her to challenge them; she saw the ground below her stained red, near-blackened in the weak light, felt the ragged hole in her side searing cold where Borgan's magic had struck -- but all she could think of was the corruption that had spread amongst the Heroes, and what it might entail for Jean.
#10 - Drink
Lemina wasn't technically old enough to drink, but she sniffed at the liquid anyway, with a carefully-constructed air of dubiousness -- just enough to make her look conscientious, but not so much that she seemed a prude; Jean's eyes were on her the whole time, amusement dancing in their depths.
#11 - Midnight
"...and no, 'I couldn't sleep either' is not a valid excuse," Jean finished chiding as the darkest hour saw Lemina's head poke into her tent; "Hope springs eternal?" tried Lemina as she crawled in anyway, and Jean didn't move to stop her.
#12 - Temptation
Lemina had always wondered how that charm routine worked, whether it was genuine magic or the equally-delicate art of seduction; Jean explained that the blowing of a kiss was merely a focus, like a wand or a shout, and said that anything similar would work, really.
#13 - View
"...well, viewing my private collection normally does incur a hundred-silver insurance fee," she'd mentioned as they walked the corridors of Vane's prestigious library, "but for you, I guess, I'll waive" -- though she was wishing she'd said differently when they stumbled across her personally-authored book of poetry.
#14 - Music
The few survivors of the Blue Star cataclysm had brought with them to Lunar a number of stories and songs, held in memory, whose echoes still persisted in Lunarian culture; some gypsies and travellers still passed down the originals, more or less intact, and Jean had to admit she'd always thought "Eyes On Me" was very cute.
#15 - Silk
"You really think it's me?" -- Lemina's voice was all nerves and giggles, unusual for her, as Jean draped the bright silks around her slender form, too-ticklish fingers brushing her stomach as they moved to tie the shirt in front; she'd never shown this much skin before, not to anyone, and her breath hitched in her chest as Jean's hand lingered there, just for a moment.
#16 - Cover
"This doesn't even come close to covering what you owe me for destroying my Magic Tester, you know." -- and it didn't, even if Jean only owed one-fourth, but it was the only thing she could think of to say to stay on top as dark fingers wound the jewelled necklace around her throat.
#17 - Promise
"...but you did promise him you'd marry him if he pulls that place back into the black"; Lemina didn't need reminding, didn't want to think about her fate if she didn't succeed in restoring the Magic Guild -- and that reminded her in turn the whole reason she'd made the bet, because she had to get Vane back on its feet, and the high price of failure was exactly what she needed to keep her sharp.
#18 - Dream
Jean normally dreamt in colour, lurid reds and suffocating blacks the palette of images all too real; Lemina dreamt vaguely, faint notions and half-recollected thoughts, and sometimes when they'd exhausted each other they met in the middle, and neither of them dreamt at all.
#19 - Candle
She hadn't needed the candle anymore, after the first night; the girl's simple presence by her side was enough to chase away any shadows of the past, and she'd even begun to find the darkness welcoming, a prelude to unpredicted touches, expressions veiled in night.
#20 - Talent
When Lemina had told her she might have a talent for magic, she dismissed it as another of her recruitment schemes; but each time she watched fire blossom from between the mage's fingers, something nagged and pulled inside of her, and she found herself wanting to believe it.
#21 - Silence
She couldn't imagine it, couldn't even begin to comprehend the enormity of it, but even her surface grasp of it sickened her to the heart; and so when Jean had finally told her story, Lemina's comforts had been wordless, and even now she felt remorse that for the first time in her memory she hadn't been able to find a single thing to say.
#22 - Journey
Leo had told them that they'd be arriving in Pentagulia very shortly, and that if they cared to watch the Holy City's approach, they should hasten to the deck; Lemina dithered in their cabin, desperate to join her friends above yet worried to reveal all she felt about their parting, hoping that if she failed to acknowledge the journey's end it would never come to pass.
#23 - Fire
Fire was Lemina's element, so to speak; she was at one with it more than any other, whether she was conjuring bright gouts of scorching air or gazing into the flames of their campfire in a divination Ausas for centuries had dismissed as pure poppycock, needy for a glimpse of a future that didn't terrify her.
#24 - Strength
To look at the pair of them, it would have seemed trivial to guess that Jean was the stronger one, honed sinew and sleek bronze beside the slight and puppyish girl; but Lemina's spirit was irrepressible, and in these times Jean believed that strength of mind might lead the victory where strength of body faltered and failed.
#25 - Mask
Lemina had lifted it out of Jean's pack, the grotesque caricature of a face they'd seized from the Dragon Cult's leader, reflected on how such a coward could be the ruination of so many lives; her hands shook at that indignity alone, and had she known that Jean's own had been among them, the construct would have caught aflame.
#26 - Ice
It had been floating atop the lake, some minutes' distance from their camp, the last remnant of a savage frost; it had had to be large to survive the trip back as even now it thawed around Jean's fingers, the chill stinging but unmatched by the mischief that filled her as she thought of its final destination.
#27 - Fall
She was sinking deep into the ancient magic, ancient like the earth from which she came and to which she now returned, darkness' embrace a heartbeat away before she felt the cool touch of fingers to her temples, Lemina's magic washing into her mind and clearing away the spell's malignant haze.
#28 - Forgotten
She'd allowed herself to forget how serious Borgan really was until she bore witness to its splendour, the unforgiving majesty of a city that sorted all comers into the worthy and the not -- the wondrous floating garbage dump upon which she now stood, and Jean and Ronfar in the bowels far below it, segregated for a "crime" on whose strength she knew she would never judge again.
#29 - Dance
It was everything that Jean lived for, and with it the necessity of a life on the road, just as Lemina's life was tied to Vane, and the hopefully-soon-to-be-blossoming Magic Guild; she tried not to think about how their ties might come between them, and allow the hypnotic motions and the pulselike rhythm of the drums to carry away her consciousness.
#30 - Body
She'd stared down at Borgan's prone body, a giant dethroned, and had almost felt pity at how pathetic he'd looked; Lemina pitied him more than she, it had seemed, and she almost wished she'd had the spirit to forgive Lunn the same way -- almost.
#31 - Sacred
It was the holy place of holy places, the centre of Althena's power, yet at its core swirled a duality; the timeless battle of good and evil, corruption's stench spilling over into the raw beauty of the Goddess's light, and they clung to one another in the midst of the storm -- this was bigger than them, bigger than all they'd dreamed of, and it was about to define their lives.
#32 - Farewells
Lucia knew enough to know when she had to say goodbye, and they'd criticized her for it - but, Lemina knew as she looked down at the adventurer, serene and unknowing in his crystal tomb, it took guts to make that sacrifice for the world; and even if she didn't think she could have done it, she looked around her at the land she loved and the ones she cared for, and wasn't sure she'd been entirely wrong.
#33 - World
And then all too soon the stage was set, and the sky afire with blinding lights, and they heard the dark god boast that Althena's power would be their world's destruction; and everything they were and everything they'd dreamed of flashed through their minds in an instant, and they met each other's glassy stares, and knew the other saw the same.
#34 - Formal
"You're every bit the magician as I am," Lemina had soothed, after their segregation at Neo-Vane; "ki, sorcery, whatever you want to call it, it's all the power invested in us by Althena -- the distinction is just a formality."
#35 - Fever
Madness surged up around them in those caverns like a spreading fever, a thin roiling skin over the surface of the world that could break at any moment, sending them tumbling, tumbling down; this was pure evil's domain, and the lights in their hearts still burned brightly on, yet seemed tiny within its cloak.
#36 - Laugh
You had to laugh or you'd cry, and Lemina knew how to keep them laughing, even as the walls around them slithered and swelled; Jean knew that no one could truly be amused in this tortured place, but it was the spirit to resist that was needed, and later she reflected that Lemina had perhaps saved them all.
#37 - Lies
He had spoken words inside their heads, told them things they knew not to be true; they looked to each other and saw truthfulness there, within the depths of each other's eyes: it said, "We will make it out alive, and stronger than before."
#38 - Forever
"He hasn't gone forever, has he?" Lemina asked, when it was all over; "as long as there is darkness in the human heart, he will never be destroyed", and Jean responded, "Gone, at least, for as long as we're alive," and Lemina had liked the "we" in that, and forgot her uncertainties for a time.
#39 - Overwhelmed
The return of nature overwhelmed the senses, bright light piercing, cool air staggering, until their bodies readjusted to the world around; they had never been happier to see it, never realised how much it meant to them, nor how much more it meant when another was at your side.
#40 - Whisper
Somewhere outside their caravan, a song rose up from the general clamour of the carnival; the two of them recognised the melody, and couldn't help but smile at the unintentional serenade: "...wind, whispering sweet melodies, I could not behold."
#41 - Wait
The carnival always came back to her, if she waited long enough, and she had much with which to pass her days; the low sun hanging in the sky beyond her window always seemed bittersweet, but Lemina Ausa never failed to face a situation with a smile.
#42 - Talk
Some people said Lemina talked too much, but sometimes, Jean liked not having to be the one who spoke -- not having to have all the answers, or rally a party low on morale, or defend herself and her beliefs, or think of things to say when people asked too much and knew too much; it was a different kind of peace.
#43 - Search
She'd seen it a hundred times before, but still its sights and sounds impressed her -- the whirligigs of magic fire, the heady scents of fresh-cooked food and flowing whine, the changing colours of the evening sky as they cast the gaily-painted caravans into sombre shades; she couldn't help but run ahead, invisible in the crowds, just another face in the eclectic blur until Jean caught her up and made her remember, once more, who she was.
#44 - Hope
Hope, belief and love, Lemina would teach her students, when the Magic Guild had finally blossomed into an institution Vane would once again be proud of; these were the tenets of magic, for if one did not believe, one's hopes were meaningless, and if one did not love, then there was no basis for belief.
#45 - Eclipse
Lucia had told them her nightmares, of Lunar eclipsed by the night; now as the Blue Star dwelt in shadow, they looked upon the empty skies, taking comfort in the fact that the routine cycle of the heavens was all that had brought about this darkest hour.
#46 - Gravity
She wasn't sure why she found herself reluctant to start teaching the advanced properties of gravity magic while Jean was in her class; after all, it wasn't as if she'd be thinking of it in those terms, its uses in immobilising the human body....
#47 - Highway
A million lines of light stretched out before her, all of them leading to the stars; she followed the trails in flight until warmth and dark suffused her, the room around them reimposing itself upon her reality, Jean's gentle touch and whispered words returning her to Lunar with only the softest of bumps.
#48 - Unknown
"It's not any kind of magic recorded in the books," Lemina had said authoritatively, "and these collections date back a thousand years or more"; "Are you sure it's magic," Jean responded with a smirk-- "well, that kind, anyway?"
#49 - Lock
Being locked up most of the day in Guild-related meetings was never something she'd expected would seem a chore, but then she'd never thought she'd have anywhere else she'd rather be.
#50 - Breathe
Lemina wasn't sure exactly when she was going to resume breathing; she rather hoped it would be soon, as though the Lunarian view on love was pretty liberal, she was fairly sure they wouldn't let you marry if your partner was dead.
I liiiike #11. It's so injokey. XP There's the ingame reference, of course, but the whole concept was pulled from the classic RPG cliche of two Destined Lovers not being able to get to sleep.
#13 -- finding Lemina's book of poems in the game was so fun, bless her teenage heart. ;)
#14 was inspired by the original plan for a scene in my AU retelling of EB's last third, Integrity, before I changed it to something (mildly) less fourth-wally.
#15 and #16 are basically a fanart I drew. XP
#32 is EB-specific (rather than EBC), and more than that it's quasi-Integrity-canon, since it implies that Lucia doesn't save Hiro (though since she dithers, could kind of fit canon too).
Named for the way that #50 loops back to draw on the foreshadowing of #1, of course. I was kind of proud of that. ;)
Pairing: Lemina Ausa x Jean (or if one wants to be correct in one's seme-to-uke ordering, the other way around)
Theme set: Gamma
Rating: PG-13, I guess; vague hints at greater intimacy, but blink and you'll miss 'em. f/f an' all that jazz.
Notes: Sorry for the delay; I insisted on doing these in order, got stuck on a couple, and so essentially wrote them in three chunks. Apologies if it shows. ;) I'm not going to beat Tseng/Coffee or Sephiroth/Cactuar (or that wonderful Gestahl/Kefka) any time soon, but I had a go. If I do go for Leo/Hiro, the other pairing I wanted to do, it'll probably be a bit less serious.
Found this comm via lucciole, who informed my EB-geeking self that someone here was doing a Ronfar/Mauri challenge. Couldn't resist in the end, and decided to do one of my favourite pairings from the game. Some parts Jean's POV, others Lemina's, though I'd been looking for an excuse to get inside Lemina's head for a bit and this was a nice one.
Has continuity, yes it does; a lot of the later ones follow on from each other, as I attempt to roughly run through an EB playthrough through the eyes of the characters (and that's a lot of throughs).
#01 - Ring
She wasn't exactly sure how the little hoop of engraved metal was going to protect her, but Lemina seemed convinced, and she guessed she trusted her; and as small hands slid the charm onto her finger she fell to wondering why that was, and tried her best to ignore the symbolism.
#02 - Hero
"I wasn't a hero," she'd said tersely when Lemina had asked, one night at the camp, of their escape from the Illusion Woods; "I was just doing what had to be done" -- and they spoke no more of it, but Lemina wondered if that wasn't the definition of heroism, doing what had to be done.
#03 - Memory
Jean remembered falling, the world rushing upwards and the heat in her face and the blood on her lips and the pounding, pounding in her chest; someday Lemina would teach her to remember all those things differently, and the memory would stop seeming so bad.
#04 - Box
People had a habit of pigeonholing Lemina, and the more they did it the more she found herself starting to live up to it, if only because that was easier.
#05 - Run
The day they'd left the carnival she'd sworn she wasn't going to run anymore, and yet here she was anyway, running from something as simple and vague as a gaze; fate ran an interesting line in fears, she thought.
#06 - Hurricane
Pride, pride had always been her downfall; too proud to admit that she'd been too proud to back down from that Althena-forsaken bet, and she didn't want to think it because she liked the guy okay, but she couldn't keep from wishing that a hurricane would wipe out his shop.
#07 - Wings
"If human's'd been meant to reach this sort of altitude, Althena would've given us wings!" Lemina shrieked as the Magic Arrow's course swerved violently from Nota; before she'd even reached for a handhold she felt Jean's arm around her waist, which was nice, but didn't exactly help the butterflies.
#08 - Cold
By Ronfar's standards, "Don't you ever get cold in that outfit?" was not an unusual quip; and aimed at anyone else Lemina would have blanked it, but she felt something rise within her, and when Ronfar glanced back she saw him recoil at the glare she was giving him.
#09 - Red
She sensed the magical bars of the prison rasping at her mind, daring her to challenge them; she saw the ground below her stained red, near-blackened in the weak light, felt the ragged hole in her side searing cold where Borgan's magic had struck -- but all she could think of was the corruption that had spread amongst the Heroes, and what it might entail for Jean.
#10 - Drink
Lemina wasn't technically old enough to drink, but she sniffed at the liquid anyway, with a carefully-constructed air of dubiousness -- just enough to make her look conscientious, but not so much that she seemed a prude; Jean's eyes were on her the whole time, amusement dancing in their depths.
#11 - Midnight
"...and no, 'I couldn't sleep either' is not a valid excuse," Jean finished chiding as the darkest hour saw Lemina's head poke into her tent; "Hope springs eternal?" tried Lemina as she crawled in anyway, and Jean didn't move to stop her.
#12 - Temptation
Lemina had always wondered how that charm routine worked, whether it was genuine magic or the equally-delicate art of seduction; Jean explained that the blowing of a kiss was merely a focus, like a wand or a shout, and said that anything similar would work, really.
#13 - View
"...well, viewing my private collection normally does incur a hundred-silver insurance fee," she'd mentioned as they walked the corridors of Vane's prestigious library, "but for you, I guess, I'll waive" -- though she was wishing she'd said differently when they stumbled across her personally-authored book of poetry.
#14 - Music
The few survivors of the Blue Star cataclysm had brought with them to Lunar a number of stories and songs, held in memory, whose echoes still persisted in Lunarian culture; some gypsies and travellers still passed down the originals, more or less intact, and Jean had to admit she'd always thought "Eyes On Me" was very cute.
#15 - Silk
"You really think it's me?" -- Lemina's voice was all nerves and giggles, unusual for her, as Jean draped the bright silks around her slender form, too-ticklish fingers brushing her stomach as they moved to tie the shirt in front; she'd never shown this much skin before, not to anyone, and her breath hitched in her chest as Jean's hand lingered there, just for a moment.
#16 - Cover
"This doesn't even come close to covering what you owe me for destroying my Magic Tester, you know." -- and it didn't, even if Jean only owed one-fourth, but it was the only thing she could think of to say to stay on top as dark fingers wound the jewelled necklace around her throat.
#17 - Promise
"...but you did promise him you'd marry him if he pulls that place back into the black"; Lemina didn't need reminding, didn't want to think about her fate if she didn't succeed in restoring the Magic Guild -- and that reminded her in turn the whole reason she'd made the bet, because she had to get Vane back on its feet, and the high price of failure was exactly what she needed to keep her sharp.
#18 - Dream
Jean normally dreamt in colour, lurid reds and suffocating blacks the palette of images all too real; Lemina dreamt vaguely, faint notions and half-recollected thoughts, and sometimes when they'd exhausted each other they met in the middle, and neither of them dreamt at all.
#19 - Candle
She hadn't needed the candle anymore, after the first night; the girl's simple presence by her side was enough to chase away any shadows of the past, and she'd even begun to find the darkness welcoming, a prelude to unpredicted touches, expressions veiled in night.
#20 - Talent
When Lemina had told her she might have a talent for magic, she dismissed it as another of her recruitment schemes; but each time she watched fire blossom from between the mage's fingers, something nagged and pulled inside of her, and she found herself wanting to believe it.
#21 - Silence
She couldn't imagine it, couldn't even begin to comprehend the enormity of it, but even her surface grasp of it sickened her to the heart; and so when Jean had finally told her story, Lemina's comforts had been wordless, and even now she felt remorse that for the first time in her memory she hadn't been able to find a single thing to say.
#22 - Journey
Leo had told them that they'd be arriving in Pentagulia very shortly, and that if they cared to watch the Holy City's approach, they should hasten to the deck; Lemina dithered in their cabin, desperate to join her friends above yet worried to reveal all she felt about their parting, hoping that if she failed to acknowledge the journey's end it would never come to pass.
#23 - Fire
Fire was Lemina's element, so to speak; she was at one with it more than any other, whether she was conjuring bright gouts of scorching air or gazing into the flames of their campfire in a divination Ausas for centuries had dismissed as pure poppycock, needy for a glimpse of a future that didn't terrify her.
#24 - Strength
To look at the pair of them, it would have seemed trivial to guess that Jean was the stronger one, honed sinew and sleek bronze beside the slight and puppyish girl; but Lemina's spirit was irrepressible, and in these times Jean believed that strength of mind might lead the victory where strength of body faltered and failed.
#25 - Mask
Lemina had lifted it out of Jean's pack, the grotesque caricature of a face they'd seized from the Dragon Cult's leader, reflected on how such a coward could be the ruination of so many lives; her hands shook at that indignity alone, and had she known that Jean's own had been among them, the construct would have caught aflame.
#26 - Ice
It had been floating atop the lake, some minutes' distance from their camp, the last remnant of a savage frost; it had had to be large to survive the trip back as even now it thawed around Jean's fingers, the chill stinging but unmatched by the mischief that filled her as she thought of its final destination.
#27 - Fall
She was sinking deep into the ancient magic, ancient like the earth from which she came and to which she now returned, darkness' embrace a heartbeat away before she felt the cool touch of fingers to her temples, Lemina's magic washing into her mind and clearing away the spell's malignant haze.
#28 - Forgotten
She'd allowed herself to forget how serious Borgan really was until she bore witness to its splendour, the unforgiving majesty of a city that sorted all comers into the worthy and the not -- the wondrous floating garbage dump upon which she now stood, and Jean and Ronfar in the bowels far below it, segregated for a "crime" on whose strength she knew she would never judge again.
#29 - Dance
It was everything that Jean lived for, and with it the necessity of a life on the road, just as Lemina's life was tied to Vane, and the hopefully-soon-to-be-blossoming Magic Guild; she tried not to think about how their ties might come between them, and allow the hypnotic motions and the pulselike rhythm of the drums to carry away her consciousness.
#30 - Body
She'd stared down at Borgan's prone body, a giant dethroned, and had almost felt pity at how pathetic he'd looked; Lemina pitied him more than she, it had seemed, and she almost wished she'd had the spirit to forgive Lunn the same way -- almost.
#31 - Sacred
It was the holy place of holy places, the centre of Althena's power, yet at its core swirled a duality; the timeless battle of good and evil, corruption's stench spilling over into the raw beauty of the Goddess's light, and they clung to one another in the midst of the storm -- this was bigger than them, bigger than all they'd dreamed of, and it was about to define their lives.
#32 - Farewells
Lucia knew enough to know when she had to say goodbye, and they'd criticized her for it - but, Lemina knew as she looked down at the adventurer, serene and unknowing in his crystal tomb, it took guts to make that sacrifice for the world; and even if she didn't think she could have done it, she looked around her at the land she loved and the ones she cared for, and wasn't sure she'd been entirely wrong.
#33 - World
And then all too soon the stage was set, and the sky afire with blinding lights, and they heard the dark god boast that Althena's power would be their world's destruction; and everything they were and everything they'd dreamed of flashed through their minds in an instant, and they met each other's glassy stares, and knew the other saw the same.
#34 - Formal
"You're every bit the magician as I am," Lemina had soothed, after their segregation at Neo-Vane; "ki, sorcery, whatever you want to call it, it's all the power invested in us by Althena -- the distinction is just a formality."
#35 - Fever
Madness surged up around them in those caverns like a spreading fever, a thin roiling skin over the surface of the world that could break at any moment, sending them tumbling, tumbling down; this was pure evil's domain, and the lights in their hearts still burned brightly on, yet seemed tiny within its cloak.
#36 - Laugh
You had to laugh or you'd cry, and Lemina knew how to keep them laughing, even as the walls around them slithered and swelled; Jean knew that no one could truly be amused in this tortured place, but it was the spirit to resist that was needed, and later she reflected that Lemina had perhaps saved them all.
#37 - Lies
He had spoken words inside their heads, told them things they knew not to be true; they looked to each other and saw truthfulness there, within the depths of each other's eyes: it said, "We will make it out alive, and stronger than before."
#38 - Forever
"He hasn't gone forever, has he?" Lemina asked, when it was all over; "as long as there is darkness in the human heart, he will never be destroyed", and Jean responded, "Gone, at least, for as long as we're alive," and Lemina had liked the "we" in that, and forgot her uncertainties for a time.
#39 - Overwhelmed
The return of nature overwhelmed the senses, bright light piercing, cool air staggering, until their bodies readjusted to the world around; they had never been happier to see it, never realised how much it meant to them, nor how much more it meant when another was at your side.
#40 - Whisper
Somewhere outside their caravan, a song rose up from the general clamour of the carnival; the two of them recognised the melody, and couldn't help but smile at the unintentional serenade: "...wind, whispering sweet melodies, I could not behold."
#41 - Wait
The carnival always came back to her, if she waited long enough, and she had much with which to pass her days; the low sun hanging in the sky beyond her window always seemed bittersweet, but Lemina Ausa never failed to face a situation with a smile.
#42 - Talk
Some people said Lemina talked too much, but sometimes, Jean liked not having to be the one who spoke -- not having to have all the answers, or rally a party low on morale, or defend herself and her beliefs, or think of things to say when people asked too much and knew too much; it was a different kind of peace.
#43 - Search
She'd seen it a hundred times before, but still its sights and sounds impressed her -- the whirligigs of magic fire, the heady scents of fresh-cooked food and flowing whine, the changing colours of the evening sky as they cast the gaily-painted caravans into sombre shades; she couldn't help but run ahead, invisible in the crowds, just another face in the eclectic blur until Jean caught her up and made her remember, once more, who she was.
#44 - Hope
Hope, belief and love, Lemina would teach her students, when the Magic Guild had finally blossomed into an institution Vane would once again be proud of; these were the tenets of magic, for if one did not believe, one's hopes were meaningless, and if one did not love, then there was no basis for belief.
#45 - Eclipse
Lucia had told them her nightmares, of Lunar eclipsed by the night; now as the Blue Star dwelt in shadow, they looked upon the empty skies, taking comfort in the fact that the routine cycle of the heavens was all that had brought about this darkest hour.
#46 - Gravity
She wasn't sure why she found herself reluctant to start teaching the advanced properties of gravity magic while Jean was in her class; after all, it wasn't as if she'd be thinking of it in those terms, its uses in immobilising the human body....
#47 - Highway
A million lines of light stretched out before her, all of them leading to the stars; she followed the trails in flight until warmth and dark suffused her, the room around them reimposing itself upon her reality, Jean's gentle touch and whispered words returning her to Lunar with only the softest of bumps.
#48 - Unknown
"It's not any kind of magic recorded in the books," Lemina had said authoritatively, "and these collections date back a thousand years or more"; "Are you sure it's magic," Jean responded with a smirk-- "well, that kind, anyway?"
#49 - Lock
Being locked up most of the day in Guild-related meetings was never something she'd expected would seem a chore, but then she'd never thought she'd have anywhere else she'd rather be.
#50 - Breathe
Lemina wasn't sure exactly when she was going to resume breathing; she rather hoped it would be soon, as though the Lunarian view on love was pretty liberal, she was fairly sure they wouldn't let you marry if your partner was dead.
I liiiike #11. It's so injokey. XP There's the ingame reference, of course, but the whole concept was pulled from the classic RPG cliche of two Destined Lovers not being able to get to sleep.
#13 -- finding Lemina's book of poems in the game was so fun, bless her teenage heart. ;)
#14 was inspired by the original plan for a scene in my AU retelling of EB's last third, Integrity, before I changed it to something (mildly) less fourth-wally.
#15 and #16 are basically a fanart I drew. XP
#32 is EB-specific (rather than EBC), and more than that it's quasi-Integrity-canon, since it implies that Lucia doesn't save Hiro (though since she dithers, could kind of fit canon too).
Named for the way that #50 loops back to draw on the foreshadowing of #1, of course. I was kind of proud of that. ;)