(Untitled)

[heavenslament]

Who: Terra, Open
When: Shortly after her crystal message
Where: The Planet's Core
What: Moping and moogle cuddles
Type: Log, but it can open up to either. (I just like starting in log format, but it doesn't have to stay that way.)
Notes/Warnings: No limit on threads, but let's keep it one on one. Anything else...TBA?

Comments

[onlymysword]

Paine hadn't fought anything or anyone, to her annoyance. This was war, she knew war, but she hadn't run into an enemy. Aren't I lucky? If the enemy was smart, they were probably watching her, measuring her, or so Paine thought.

Her heels clicked monotonously against the main area. This place... too weird. Floating rocks, streams of light, not to mention the girl she spotted off sitting on one of those rocks. How the hell did she get up there? It was probably better not to ask. She crossed her arms and looked up, squinting her eyes to get a sharper view of the girl who didn't know if she was a friend or an enemy.

[heavenslament]

"You have company, kupo."

"Hm?" Terra snapped to, when the moogle's voice interrupted her thoughts. She followed her friend's gaze to a figure below, straightened up. The woman, from what she could notice from her vantage point wasn't anyone familiar. That she could be one of Chaos' warriors didn't escape Terra's attention, but she didn't want to leap to conclusions all the same.

Making a decision, she got to her feet.

"Do you want me to stay, kupo?"

Terra hesitated and shook her head. "If I need you, I'll let you know." She dismissed her moogle friend, then leaped down to a closer rock, then another. Still, that's as far as she went until essential information was learned. Peering at the other woman with a mix of curiosity and wariness, she finally spoke up.

"...do you fight for Cosmos or against her?"

[onlymysword]

"For her as far as I know. You?"

She looked innocent enough, but Paine knew much better than that. Still, she adopted a nonchalant stance, arms crossed, head cocked in a mix of boredom and curiosity. She shifted her weight onto one leg, wondering who this green-haired girl was. Things just get more interesting around here, don't they?

[heavenslament]

The tension in Terra's form eased a bit. Perhaps it was naive of her, but she didn't really see a reason as to why anyone would lie about that. It would be easy enough to verify anyway, if she ever saw her in the sanctuary.

A small smile emerges on her lips as she nods. "Then we're on the same side." She leaps down a bit more, so that she doesn't have to raise her voice.

[onlymysword]

"Good to know. What is this place?"

She looked around and stretched her arms out, feeling lighter than usual. Paine couldn't decide if she liked it or not, but it was going to take a little time getting used to it. She does decide, thought, that she's been lucky in not having run into any major threats or enemies. That would've been a terrible sucker punch to be caught off-guard.

[heavenslament]

"It's called The Planet's Core...what planet, exactly, I don't know." Terra turned her head to peer at the tendrils of energy swirling upward and past her. They were mesmerizing in their own way, almost as much as the lunar sky of Cecil's world. "You can use those to glide up meet me, if you want. That's how I got up here."

[onlymysword]

Paine furrowed her eyebrows. She's seen weirder, truth be told... maybe. With a running start, she ran towards one of the streaks of energy and she found that she was gliding much, much faster than she thought she would. She jumped onto a rock in a small fit of panic when she realized she was speeding up, closer to Terra but still a little ways away.

"Talk about a ride," she muttered with a grin. "Could get used to this." Paine jumped on again and was now much closer to Terra. "What's your name?"

[heavenslament]

Terra smiled, watching her. "It's fun...and handy, when you need to make a quick escape or pursuit." She reached the edge of her rock and used a nearby tendril to leap onto Paine's, landing neatly. This has obviously been practiced a lot. "I'm Terra...Terra Branford. There's another Terra around here, but he's...well, a he, and on the Chaos side. I don't think he has a last name, though."

[onlymysword]

"Bet it is. Name's Paine. Uh... no last name, I guess," she replied with a shrug. "Gotta love these places." Paine let her arms swing by her sides, looking up at the twisting tendrils and the floating rocks. She doubted that Brother and the rest would be able to get through this mess while piloting The Celsius. Not at all. Speaking of...

"You know how we all got here?"

[heavenslament]

"Well...it's as you heard. Cosmos needed us. I don't know how exactly she brought us over, but it's her doing that we're all here. When the war is over, she'll send us back to wherever and whenever we were before this happened. At least...that's what I heard." Terra looked a bit wistful, remembering the time she almost went home...only to be returned almost right away.

"This wasn't the first war. I was here in the previous one...but it was pretty different in some ways."

[onlymysword]

"She's expecting us to continue our lives like this never happened." That was a real joy. When Terra mentions that she was in another war, this immediately caught Paine's attention. "What do you mean? Just wars on and off like that?"

What a pain in the ass. But if Spira was in danger, she'd fight to save it, even with all of its terrible faults. But... she couldn't let her friends be destroyed. She's fighting for her friends, not for everyone. They better get that straight.

[heavenslament]

How to explain....

"Well, the way it was last time, we decided to defeat Chaos directly, not just his warriors. We thought that doing so with the aid of the crystals earned that we would be able to defeat him permanently. It seemed to work for a short time, but...instead of returning to our worlds, we arrived here again instead."

Terra's brow furrowed. "We must have done something wrong, but I'm not sure what...."

[onlymysword]

She crossed her arms in thought. "The others must've had enough power to reform." Like a plague. Vermin. Kill them all to crush the infestation. "These crystals... how much power do they have?" If the crystals weren't enough to stop the war, it must take something else in combination. But what?

Immediately Paine thought of Vegnagun, the terrible weapon that backfired. There better not be any of that bullshit here.

[heavenslament]

Terra tugged at the end of her ponytail, looking thoughtful and hoping that some of what she said made any sense. She couldn't blame Paine if it didn't.

"I don't know the exact amount, but...they weren't like the communication crystals. The ones I speak of were formed from Cosmos' own essence. We earned them after defeating Chaos warriors. Giving them to us weakened her, but she knew we would need them. But when I returned for this second war, I didn't have that crystal anymore. None of the other warriors do, either. I'm...not sure what that means, good or bad."

[onlymysword]

"I'm guessing those with Chaos don't have crystals." Paine couldn't figure out either if that was a good or a bad thing. To her, it sounded like they were on the losing side, but wars are unpredictable. Maybe we're on the winning side, she mused. "We're still here for a reason. It means we don't need Cosmos to defeat Chaos. Maybe we are Cosmos."

Or, you know, something like that. It's not like it had to make sense, as long as it worked.

[heavenslament]

At that, Terra's brow furrowed. She wasn't quite sure she understood that concept. "But...Cosmos still speaks to us. I haven't seen her manifest since I've returned, but it sounds like she is around, in some state or other. Whatever is happening to her, though, she's...not as around as much as she was before. It's harder for communication to be mutual, to seek her guidance. I wish I knew why...."