The Eyepatch Stories 3
Gippal and Paine were trading stories about themselves: where they came from, where they’d been, what caused them to try out for the Crimson Squad. Paine -- who had seemed so withdrawn before -- seemed more open now, as if Gippal’s presence lightened the mood. Finally, she asked him the question that no one else seemed to want to ask.
“Gippal,” Paine asked, “I hope it’s not rude, but - how’d you lose your eye?”
Gippal sighed, looking down. Embarrassment? Shame? Aggravation? “You want the whole story?” he asked.
“There’s a whole story?”
“Yeah,” Gippal replied. “A long one, with gory bits.”
“I like gory,” Paine informed him.
Gippal grinned. “Gory it is, then.” He had been sitting on the ground, but now he stood up and walked over to sit next to Paine on her log closer to the fire. Gippal pulled his feet in close to his body rather than spreading out as he usually did. “There was this girl-“
“I figured,” Paine said, shaking her head.
“-no, she was a real beauty.” Gippal made a gesture with his hands to imitate the curve of a woman’s body. “Short, spiked hair, big lips, ears all studded with earrings, hands like - well. Like the best you’ve ever known.” Gippal’s eye closed and he leaned his head back, mimicking a coital expression of pleasure.
Paine seemed to be amused by him.
“She couldn’t resist me - that shouldn’t surprise you. I mean, I am amazing. Anyway, so she came to me the night before the first kidnapping gig - did I mention I kidnapped summoners?”
“So that explains why Baralai looks so petrified of you.”
Gippal grinned. “I didn’t kidnap him. Though I probably should have.”
“Go on,” Paine insisted.
“Anyway, so before we went off to kidnap our first summoner, she came to me - her name was Rinna - and she said, ‘Oh Gippal’,” his voice rose, becoming breathy, “’I just can’t stand the thought of you endangering yourself. Let me see you off the proper way.’ If you know what I mean.” Gippal elbowed Paine with a loud laugh.
Paine snorted a quick laugh. “So, let me guess, things got rough and she clawed out your eye mid-orgasm?”
Gippal stared at her, looking surprised -- then he laughed. “No! Well, it could have gone that way.” He grinned and looked lost in thought for a moment. “No, actually, the next thing I knew, I woke up in horrible pain, blood in my mouth and my nose, practically suffocating. Turns out she was one of the sub-faction that opposed the idea of Summoners being taken. They were kinda radical, like Yevonites but the opposite - thought Yevon was the evil of the whole world, and didn’t want any of its people near Home.”
“She drugged you!” Paine’s expression was somewhere between horror and amusement.
“Maybe. Probably. She sliced out my eye with my own knife, and left me a note and an eyepatch. Not this one.” Gippal gestured to the one he was wearing. “I made this one. But the note said, ‘How you feel now from what I did to you is how the Al Bhed race feels at what you do to them.’”
Paine fell silent.
After a long, agonizing minute of listening to the sound of the fire crackling, Gippal spoke. “I went on the mission anyway. Fuck ‘em.”
“Let me get this straight,” Paine said, leaning her elbows on her knees. “The day after you lost your eye as some sort of threat, you went on the same mission you were threatened against?”
“As weird as that sounds,” Gippal said, putting his arm around Paine’s shoulders. “Yeah. Because I believed in what I was doing, like a blind fool. Or a half-blind fool, anyway.”
“And now you’re here. And the summoner kidnapping is still going on, as far as I’ve heard.” Paine lifted her eyebrow at him, but didn’t shrug his arm away - yet.
“And then I saw that the summoners really believed in what they were doing too. And I realized that no one was right, and I’d lost my eye for something stupid.” Gippal turned his body to face Paine. “So when I saw the recruitment posting for the Crimson Squad, I thought that being the first Al Bhed to get in the ranks of the Crusaders would be a pretty big deal, and might actually mean something.”
There was another minute of silence as Paine looked at the fire instead of at Gippal. Finally, she turned to him and said, “I can’t decide if you’re telling me the truth and you really have some sort of deep, inspiring story behind you, or if you’re telling me a story in order to get in my pants.”
Gippal just grinned and, begrudgingly, took his arm off of Paine’s shoulders. “You’ll just have to choose for yourself, lidea,” he said, patting her on the head.
-x-
“That’s the story he told me,” Paine concluded but Nooj had stopped listening.
“So he thinks he can have you, does he? That self-centered, pernicious little shrimp who doesn’t even reach up to my arm-pits! He needs to be taught some manners and I...”
Paine rolled over and swatted Nooj on his bare buttocks. “You idiot! You’re missing the point. He told me a completely different story and we both heard him tell still another to that officer during inspection. He’s a liar!”
“And a lecher. One sex isn’t enough for him; he has to try to make a clean sweep of every human in sight and I wouldn’t be surprised to find him assaulting a chocobo. If I see him put a hand on you, I’ll rip out his other eye, his tongue and his liver - not to mention more private parts. All right, all right, I see what you mean. He’s telling more stories than a professional tale-spinner. I wonder what his truth is.”
“Why would he tell me such a bloody yarn?”
“You did challenge him, you know. Face the truth, he warned you it was gory and you said - and I quote - “I like gory”. No, love, you have no grounds for complaint about that part.” He poked her chin with his machina forefinger. “However, you do have the right to question why he tailored his story for you to show off his so-called erotic exploits. Bah! I’m coming to the conclusion that he didn’t lose an eye at all and just wears that patch to try to look like a romantic hero out of popular entertainment. He’s the type who would do that.”
Paine smothered a laugh and ran an arpeggio on his ribs. “You’re letting your jealousy interfere with your reasoning, sweet Warrior. We’re supposed to be figuring out why he's telling all these different versions of his biography. So far, the only thing I’m sure of is that he’s an Al Bhed. The left over eye and the hair make that pretty obvious. Plus the smell of oil and grease he always leaves in his wake.” She dropped a kiss on his shoulder.
“You’re right again. Woman, you have a knack for keeping us on track. When I heard him deal with the officer at inspection, I was developing a respect for him in spite of his lack of discipline. But I cannot respect a liar. In my experience, liars are lacking in honour and decency. Now, I don’t think I can rely on him in battle or know what he is likely to do when I give him an order. Wonder if I can transfer him out of this group?”
“If you do, Baralai will have to go too and you’ll be left with just me. Think about it - you might get somebody worse, somebody who can’t fight at all. Better stick with the devil you know.”
“Again, you make sense. I must be besotted with you if you’re having to pull on my reins so hard to keep me thinking straight.” He turned to press her down into the softness of the bedding.
“Wait! Don’t you think we should analyze Gippal some more?”
“To hell with Gippal!” And Nooj did not wait.