WoS, chapter 2
Title: Wages of Sin, Chapter I
Fandom: FFX, FFX-2 AU
Rating: PG-13
Writers: hinikuish, muggy_mountain
Characters/Pairings: Tidus, Rikku, Gippal...
What if Auron had never gone to Zanarkand after the start of Braska's Calm? What if he had gone to Besaid instead, to care for young Yuna? What if Tidus had grown up alone and an orphan in Zanarkand...
...And what if Sin came and took him into Spira anyway?
Last time: The Al Bhed salvage ship known as The Sea Slug picked up some extra cargo - a half dead emo kid. The younger sister of the ship's captain, Rikku, dubs the Yevonite "Pochi" and decides to take care of him, much to her friend Gippal's dismay/badly hidden jealousy. Pochi doesn't wake up for two weeks, though, and right when the Al Bhed are about to give him up for dead, Sin appears... and Tidus wakes up.
When he woke up, Tidus could speak Al Bhed. Words and phrases of the alien language had found their way into his subconscious - not enough to speak, or understand fluently, but enough that he could listen in on most conversation. He didn't tell Rikku any of this, understanding somehow the value of this sort of secret-the girl seemed nice, but the Al Bhed didn't trust him-that was clear even without being able to understand their language.
For his part, Tidus didn't trust the Al Bhed either. He'd never heard of a group, let alone race with that name, and there was something edgy about them all. Around him, they whispered and spoke in tense voices. While it was at first somewhat defiantly refreshing, to be disliked as much as he disliked them, to not have Jecht's name acting as a wall of false politeness, it was quickly growing old. It had been made clear to Tidus in the beginning by the Captain that he would have to work to be fed, and other then that and orders, Tidus was generally ignored. This would have suited him, except that the rest of the Al Bhed acted like a jovial family, yelling and calling to one another, never spending any time alone. All Tidus' life he had wanted to be alone, avoid all of the unwanted attention. He didn't know why being left alone was bothering him now.
The only people that would talk to him in a greater fashion then to shout an order were Rikku and Gippal. Tidus wasn't sure what he thought of either of them-Gippal was easy enough to understand; he was blunt and suspicious and frank about it, he only put up with Tidus' occasional company because of Rikku. At least he was honest about it. The thing Tidus hated most was superficiality.
Rikku was another story. She seemed to be under the impression that Tidus was a pet, her pet, mildly intelligent and endearing and desiring only coddling. She, he had decided, was the worst kind of annoying; the fake, condescending kind that didn't even realise that she was in fact acting that way. He didn't understand why anyone liked her, not until Gippal explained-condescending himself, but out of annoyance-that her father was the Al Bhed's leader.
At least they didn't keep him in the dark. Rikku had decided early on that Tidus was suffering from head injuries and possible Toxin from Sin, and so had taken on the task of re-educating him herself. Al Bhed and Yevon had been explained to Tidus, enough so that he understood why his dark hair and blue eyes were causing suspicion among the crew-even if he thought it was stupid. There was nothing like Yevon in Zanarkand, and even if they didn't know he was from there, they all thought he had memory loss-so why should his Yevon appearance make a difference?
Sin had also been explained to Tidus, but more briefly. Sin was a punishment, some sort of destructive creature living in the sea. No one seemed willing to say much more then that, and when Tidus asked Rikku, even she looked edgy and changed the subject. He had the feeling they were hiding something from him.
"You, wake up!" To punctuate his remark, Gippal aimed a kick at the leg of Tidus' chair, causing him to jolt to the side. "No staring out the window, you're on duty." Gippal was straightforward and Tidus could both understand and appreciate it, but that didn't mean that he liked him any.
"Cleaning duty." Tidus didn't mind working. The first few days he had been left completely alone, and he had about died of boredom. He didn't consider himself exactly active, but he went crazy if he didn't have anything to do. Back home he had wandered Zanarkand, but there wasn't much to explore on a salvage ship. "I already finished."
"So?" But Gippal left him alone. The mess hall was empty this time of day aside from them and three adults talking on the other end of the room, a mess of metal chairs and tables bolted to the floor. Gippal sat backwards in a nearby chair, his arms folded over the back. "What are you doing here?"
"Nothing." Gippal had only one working eye and kept the other covered, but that didn't keep his glares from being any less sharp. Tidus shrugged. "I told you, I'm finished. What else am I supposed to do?"
"Find some more work to do?"
"No." Tidus didn't even bother pretend to consider it. "I already cleaned up in here. Toilets, too. Don't you have kids to do this work?" He'd seen them around. Little blonde brats. Two boys and a girl.
"Sure, until you came along." Gippal was grinning lazily. "Thanks to you, they now have more free time to learn mechanics. Everyone's real grateful."
"So what? What's the big deal," Tidus muttered, whining a little. This was the first real conversation-if you could call it that-he'd ever had with Gippal by himself. Usually Rikku was around, too, flitting between them. They were nearing a dive, though-Tidus had overheard some of the crew talking about it-and Rikku was busy preparing.
"They're Al Bhed. We're mechanics. They have to learn." Gippal quirked an eyebrow and didn't add duh.
"It's not that hard, is it?" Tidus had seen some of the devices the Al Bhed used. A lot of them looked like the stuff they had in Zanarkand, although more broken down and less sophisticated. "They're just normal things."
"That's what you think," Gippal said superiorly. Tidus rolled his eyes and slouched in his chair, convinced he was right. It wasn't exactly difficult to make a lot of machines work; they were built with the user's ease in mind. The Al Bhed didn't seem to know what a lot of their junk was meant to do, which just proved to Tidus that they were the idiots, not him. Gippal caught the look on Tidus' face and smirked. "What, you going to say you're an expert at machina? Tuh'd pa cdibet. Especially for a Yevonite, that's thick."
"I'm not stupid," Tidus said, a little more forcefully than he had meant to. Gippal looked mildly shocked that Tidus had understood him, and Tidus savoured the expression. "Of course I can work that shit. I had half of it in my house. My da-my adopted dad loves tech-crap. It's no big deal. You only look stupid when you try to act like it is."
Gippal seemed to be at a slight loss for words. After a moment he held up his hands. "You're telling me," he said, "that you know machina. That you use machina."
"Course, who doesn't?" Rikku had told him about Yevon, so Tidus knew the answer already, but he was ticked and didn't care if he made perfect sense. "Where I come from, it's only the idiots that can't. Eteud," he added, oddly pleased his first word in the Al Bhed language was that.
To his surprise, Gippal grinned. "How long you been speaking Al Bhed?"
"Dunno. Since I woke up. Picked it up." Tidus wanted to get back to the argument, realising that he wanted to get into a screaming match, some sort of dirty release.
"Uh huh." Gippal gave Tidus' hair a long, hard look. The kid's eyes were the wrong colour, too-no way he was Al Bhed or even a half. "Where did you say you were from? I thought you had complete amnesia." His voice was doubtful: Gippal had never really believed that to start with. Maybe he should've. He wasn't sure if he liked the idea that Yevonites were into Al Bhed things, too.
"Zanarkand." Tidus said, shrugging. He gave up on the fight; it clearly wasn't going to happen anymore.
Gippal laughed darkly. "Right. Seriously."
"I am serious." Tidus snapped. "Want my street address? ID number?"
"There Sin in Zanarkand?" Gippal asked suddenly, as if something else had just occurred to him.
"No." No point in lying. "First time I saw it was..." Was when? When had he ever seen Sin? For the first time, Tidus wondered if the accident at the pier was related-but-"Never heard of Sin before I ran into you guys."
"Liar," Gippal snapped, standing up abruptly. "You're lying, and you don't lie about this sort of shit. You've seen Sin before, everyone here-" he cut himself off. "Never mind. I gotta get back to work." He began to march off, but Tidus darted up and around, blocking the taller boy off.
"No. No you don't. You're going to finish that sentence," Tidus said darkly, having an inkling that this was connected to the suspicion the Al Bhed had been throwing his way, even more than this incorrect appearance.
"You know perfectly well what Sin is. Everyone in Spira does."
"I don't. Why do you say I do?" Tidus grew impatient. "I've only been here a couple of weeks! How could I have seen Sin? According to you guys, I slept through the first week!"
"Exactly!" Gippal hissed rather than shouted, his accent growing thick in his irritation. "You did sleep. And Sin came."
"So?"
"So, Sin came and didn't attack." Tidus was less than impressed by the apparent meaning of this, but Gippal continued: "You woke up right when Sin arrived. And Sin left after you were awake. See what I mean?"
"You think-what?" Tidus strained to follow Gippal's logic. "I'm Sin? I'm some sort of Sin magnet?" He frowned. "And hey, you know, if that's what it is, you should be thanking me. Sin left without attacking when I woke up, right? So if I really-have something to do with it, then that's good for you." The logic was somewhat convoluted, but Gippal got the message, a crease appearing on his brow as he considered. A connection with Sin? Tidus didn't know all that much about this place and that thing yet, but he knew enough to know that was-that was-
"Even if you did send Sin away, that's not better," Gippal said, voice low. "Either way, means you're connected to It-" and Tidus could hear the capital letter "-and that means you're bad luck. Sinspawn."
"I'm..." The galley door flew open before Tidus could finish or decide what he was, Rikku dashing in in a burst of blonde pigtails and brightly coloured wet-suit. Her enthusiasm faded slightly at the appearance of the boys: standing tensely facing one another, Gippal angry and Tidus wary.
"Uh?" It wasn't coherent, but it worked. Gippal backed away from Tidus suddenly, unclenching his fists. Without a word to Rikku, he turned and stomped out of the galley, his footfalls loud on the metal floor. "Did you fight?" Rikku asked Tidus slowly, sounding hopeful that she was wrong.
Tidus shrugged, suddenly tired. And confused. Connected to Sin... connected to something he had never seen or heard of... that was impossible... but... "Yeah," he said abruptly. "In case you haven't noticed, I don't get along with him." With all the Al Bhed.
"Don't take it personally," Rikku advised, sounding worried that Tidus was actually upset about what Gippal had said. "He's just..." a flicker of a smile. "He's kinda bitter lately. He was going to join the Crusaders, and got all the way to Luca... they didn't let him in. They said it was cuz of his eye, you know, he's half blind?" As if Tidus hadn't noticed the perpetual patch or cloth tied over Gippal's right eye. "They said it would be dangerous to fight like that, but it's really cuz he's Al Bhed. So he's touchy. It's nothing personal." Tidus hated her for trying to comfort him.
"Pretty sure you're wrong," he muttered, sitting down again. Rikku sat opposite him, hands clasped in her lap. Tidus tapped his fingers against the table, suddenly impatient. He didn't want to be lectured, and Rikku's lectures were all-mush. Be good, everyone will like you. Be nice, you'll make friends. What if he didn't want friends?
"Well," she said slowly, "I mean, of course people are a little suspicious of you... because you're Yevon, you know?" Tidus glared at her. She meant, 'because we think you're Sin,' didn't she? "But," Rikku said, eagerly,"that just means you have to work harder to prove them wrong! Show them that you're a nice person, and people will like you-you know?"
Tidus stopped his tapping, suddenly irritated all over again. "What do you mean?"
Rikku either didn't hear or ignored the edge in his voice. "I mean, you're a nice person, you know? I know you're kinda shy, but you're a good guy, and you just have to let everyone else know it, too-" she cut herself off as Tidus stormed to his feet.
"How would you know?" he snapped.
She shrunk. "I dunno, I mean-"
"You don't know anything about me! I'm not a nice guy! You don't know me at all! Don't talk like you do!" The three Al Bhed in the opposite end of the room all looked over, a bearded man standing up slowly to see the fight better.
"Sorry!" she squeaked, and then repeated it, slower: "Sorry. Sorry. I-" she wrung her hands and Tidus cut over her.
"Don't talk like you know me!"
"I know, but I think you're nice, I think you are," Rikku said, very quickly.
"Shut up!" It was a scream this time, a long building surge of anger. "Shut up!"
She flinched and ducked, fingers outspread. "But-"
"SHUT UP!" The Al Bhed on the other end of the room had decided enough was enough, the other two rising from their chairs, the burly, bearded man leading the way. "Shut up!" Tidus shouted again. "Don't talk like you know me! Don't talk like you know who I am, or what I've gone through-" Tidus noticed the approaching trio of Al Bhed men for the first time, and cut himself off, shaking. The sight of Rikku, ducked over and wide-eyed, filled him with a feeling like disgust. Without another word, Tidus turned and left, stomping past the Al Bhed before they could decide how best to react.
He spent the rest of the day in his bed in the medical wing. He wasn't hard to find, but no one came looking.
Fandom: FFX, FFX-2 AU
Rating: PG-13
Writers: hinikuish, muggy_mountain
Characters/Pairings: Tidus, Rikku, Gippal...
What if Auron had never gone to Zanarkand after the start of Braska's Calm? What if he had gone to Besaid instead, to care for young Yuna? What if Tidus had grown up alone and an orphan in Zanarkand...
...And what if Sin came and took him into Spira anyway?
Last time: The Al Bhed salvage ship known as The Sea Slug picked up some extra cargo - a half dead emo kid. The younger sister of the ship's captain, Rikku, dubs the Yevonite "Pochi" and decides to take care of him, much to her friend Gippal's dismay/badly hidden jealousy. Pochi doesn't wake up for two weeks, though, and right when the Al Bhed are about to give him up for dead, Sin appears... and Tidus wakes up.
When he woke up, Tidus could speak Al Bhed. Words and phrases of the alien language had found their way into his subconscious - not enough to speak, or understand fluently, but enough that he could listen in on most conversation. He didn't tell Rikku any of this, understanding somehow the value of this sort of secret-the girl seemed nice, but the Al Bhed didn't trust him-that was clear even without being able to understand their language.
For his part, Tidus didn't trust the Al Bhed either. He'd never heard of a group, let alone race with that name, and there was something edgy about them all. Around him, they whispered and spoke in tense voices. While it was at first somewhat defiantly refreshing, to be disliked as much as he disliked them, to not have Jecht's name acting as a wall of false politeness, it was quickly growing old. It had been made clear to Tidus in the beginning by the Captain that he would have to work to be fed, and other then that and orders, Tidus was generally ignored. This would have suited him, except that the rest of the Al Bhed acted like a jovial family, yelling and calling to one another, never spending any time alone. All Tidus' life he had wanted to be alone, avoid all of the unwanted attention. He didn't know why being left alone was bothering him now.
The only people that would talk to him in a greater fashion then to shout an order were Rikku and Gippal. Tidus wasn't sure what he thought of either of them-Gippal was easy enough to understand; he was blunt and suspicious and frank about it, he only put up with Tidus' occasional company because of Rikku. At least he was honest about it. The thing Tidus hated most was superficiality.
Rikku was another story. She seemed to be under the impression that Tidus was a pet, her pet, mildly intelligent and endearing and desiring only coddling. She, he had decided, was the worst kind of annoying; the fake, condescending kind that didn't even realise that she was in fact acting that way. He didn't understand why anyone liked her, not until Gippal explained-condescending himself, but out of annoyance-that her father was the Al Bhed's leader.
At least they didn't keep him in the dark. Rikku had decided early on that Tidus was suffering from head injuries and possible Toxin from Sin, and so had taken on the task of re-educating him herself. Al Bhed and Yevon had been explained to Tidus, enough so that he understood why his dark hair and blue eyes were causing suspicion among the crew-even if he thought it was stupid. There was nothing like Yevon in Zanarkand, and even if they didn't know he was from there, they all thought he had memory loss-so why should his Yevon appearance make a difference?
Sin had also been explained to Tidus, but more briefly. Sin was a punishment, some sort of destructive creature living in the sea. No one seemed willing to say much more then that, and when Tidus asked Rikku, even she looked edgy and changed the subject. He had the feeling they were hiding something from him.
"You, wake up!" To punctuate his remark, Gippal aimed a kick at the leg of Tidus' chair, causing him to jolt to the side. "No staring out the window, you're on duty." Gippal was straightforward and Tidus could both understand and appreciate it, but that didn't mean that he liked him any.
"Cleaning duty." Tidus didn't mind working. The first few days he had been left completely alone, and he had about died of boredom. He didn't consider himself exactly active, but he went crazy if he didn't have anything to do. Back home he had wandered Zanarkand, but there wasn't much to explore on a salvage ship. "I already finished."
"So?" But Gippal left him alone. The mess hall was empty this time of day aside from them and three adults talking on the other end of the room, a mess of metal chairs and tables bolted to the floor. Gippal sat backwards in a nearby chair, his arms folded over the back. "What are you doing here?"
"Nothing." Gippal had only one working eye and kept the other covered, but that didn't keep his glares from being any less sharp. Tidus shrugged. "I told you, I'm finished. What else am I supposed to do?"
"Find some more work to do?"
"No." Tidus didn't even bother pretend to consider it. "I already cleaned up in here. Toilets, too. Don't you have kids to do this work?" He'd seen them around. Little blonde brats. Two boys and a girl.
"Sure, until you came along." Gippal was grinning lazily. "Thanks to you, they now have more free time to learn mechanics. Everyone's real grateful."
"So what? What's the big deal," Tidus muttered, whining a little. This was the first real conversation-if you could call it that-he'd ever had with Gippal by himself. Usually Rikku was around, too, flitting between them. They were nearing a dive, though-Tidus had overheard some of the crew talking about it-and Rikku was busy preparing.
"They're Al Bhed. We're mechanics. They have to learn." Gippal quirked an eyebrow and didn't add duh.
"It's not that hard, is it?" Tidus had seen some of the devices the Al Bhed used. A lot of them looked like the stuff they had in Zanarkand, although more broken down and less sophisticated. "They're just normal things."
"That's what you think," Gippal said superiorly. Tidus rolled his eyes and slouched in his chair, convinced he was right. It wasn't exactly difficult to make a lot of machines work; they were built with the user's ease in mind. The Al Bhed didn't seem to know what a lot of their junk was meant to do, which just proved to Tidus that they were the idiots, not him. Gippal caught the look on Tidus' face and smirked. "What, you going to say you're an expert at machina? Tuh'd pa cdibet. Especially for a Yevonite, that's thick."
"I'm not stupid," Tidus said, a little more forcefully than he had meant to. Gippal looked mildly shocked that Tidus had understood him, and Tidus savoured the expression. "Of course I can work that shit. I had half of it in my house. My da-my adopted dad loves tech-crap. It's no big deal. You only look stupid when you try to act like it is."
Gippal seemed to be at a slight loss for words. After a moment he held up his hands. "You're telling me," he said, "that you know machina. That you use machina."
"Course, who doesn't?" Rikku had told him about Yevon, so Tidus knew the answer already, but he was ticked and didn't care if he made perfect sense. "Where I come from, it's only the idiots that can't. Eteud," he added, oddly pleased his first word in the Al Bhed language was that.
To his surprise, Gippal grinned. "How long you been speaking Al Bhed?"
"Dunno. Since I woke up. Picked it up." Tidus wanted to get back to the argument, realising that he wanted to get into a screaming match, some sort of dirty release.
"Uh huh." Gippal gave Tidus' hair a long, hard look. The kid's eyes were the wrong colour, too-no way he was Al Bhed or even a half. "Where did you say you were from? I thought you had complete amnesia." His voice was doubtful: Gippal had never really believed that to start with. Maybe he should've. He wasn't sure if he liked the idea that Yevonites were into Al Bhed things, too.
"Zanarkand." Tidus said, shrugging. He gave up on the fight; it clearly wasn't going to happen anymore.
Gippal laughed darkly. "Right. Seriously."
"I am serious." Tidus snapped. "Want my street address? ID number?"
"There Sin in Zanarkand?" Gippal asked suddenly, as if something else had just occurred to him.
"No." No point in lying. "First time I saw it was..." Was when? When had he ever seen Sin? For the first time, Tidus wondered if the accident at the pier was related-but-"Never heard of Sin before I ran into you guys."
"Liar," Gippal snapped, standing up abruptly. "You're lying, and you don't lie about this sort of shit. You've seen Sin before, everyone here-" he cut himself off. "Never mind. I gotta get back to work." He began to march off, but Tidus darted up and around, blocking the taller boy off.
"No. No you don't. You're going to finish that sentence," Tidus said darkly, having an inkling that this was connected to the suspicion the Al Bhed had been throwing his way, even more than this incorrect appearance.
"You know perfectly well what Sin is. Everyone in Spira does."
"I don't. Why do you say I do?" Tidus grew impatient. "I've only been here a couple of weeks! How could I have seen Sin? According to you guys, I slept through the first week!"
"Exactly!" Gippal hissed rather than shouted, his accent growing thick in his irritation. "You did sleep. And Sin came."
"So?"
"So, Sin came and didn't attack." Tidus was less than impressed by the apparent meaning of this, but Gippal continued: "You woke up right when Sin arrived. And Sin left after you were awake. See what I mean?"
"You think-what?" Tidus strained to follow Gippal's logic. "I'm Sin? I'm some sort of Sin magnet?" He frowned. "And hey, you know, if that's what it is, you should be thanking me. Sin left without attacking when I woke up, right? So if I really-have something to do with it, then that's good for you." The logic was somewhat convoluted, but Gippal got the message, a crease appearing on his brow as he considered. A connection with Sin? Tidus didn't know all that much about this place and that thing yet, but he knew enough to know that was-that was-
"Even if you did send Sin away, that's not better," Gippal said, voice low. "Either way, means you're connected to It-" and Tidus could hear the capital letter "-and that means you're bad luck. Sinspawn."
"I'm..." The galley door flew open before Tidus could finish or decide what he was, Rikku dashing in in a burst of blonde pigtails and brightly coloured wet-suit. Her enthusiasm faded slightly at the appearance of the boys: standing tensely facing one another, Gippal angry and Tidus wary.
"Uh?" It wasn't coherent, but it worked. Gippal backed away from Tidus suddenly, unclenching his fists. Without a word to Rikku, he turned and stomped out of the galley, his footfalls loud on the metal floor. "Did you fight?" Rikku asked Tidus slowly, sounding hopeful that she was wrong.
Tidus shrugged, suddenly tired. And confused. Connected to Sin... connected to something he had never seen or heard of... that was impossible... but... "Yeah," he said abruptly. "In case you haven't noticed, I don't get along with him." With all the Al Bhed.
"Don't take it personally," Rikku advised, sounding worried that Tidus was actually upset about what Gippal had said. "He's just..." a flicker of a smile. "He's kinda bitter lately. He was going to join the Crusaders, and got all the way to Luca... they didn't let him in. They said it was cuz of his eye, you know, he's half blind?" As if Tidus hadn't noticed the perpetual patch or cloth tied over Gippal's right eye. "They said it would be dangerous to fight like that, but it's really cuz he's Al Bhed. So he's touchy. It's nothing personal." Tidus hated her for trying to comfort him.
"Pretty sure you're wrong," he muttered, sitting down again. Rikku sat opposite him, hands clasped in her lap. Tidus tapped his fingers against the table, suddenly impatient. He didn't want to be lectured, and Rikku's lectures were all-mush. Be good, everyone will like you. Be nice, you'll make friends. What if he didn't want friends?
"Well," she said slowly, "I mean, of course people are a little suspicious of you... because you're Yevon, you know?" Tidus glared at her. She meant, 'because we think you're Sin,' didn't she? "But," Rikku said, eagerly,"that just means you have to work harder to prove them wrong! Show them that you're a nice person, and people will like you-you know?"
Tidus stopped his tapping, suddenly irritated all over again. "What do you mean?"
Rikku either didn't hear or ignored the edge in his voice. "I mean, you're a nice person, you know? I know you're kinda shy, but you're a good guy, and you just have to let everyone else know it, too-" she cut herself off as Tidus stormed to his feet.
"How would you know?" he snapped.
She shrunk. "I dunno, I mean-"
"You don't know anything about me! I'm not a nice guy! You don't know me at all! Don't talk like you do!" The three Al Bhed in the opposite end of the room all looked over, a bearded man standing up slowly to see the fight better.
"Sorry!" she squeaked, and then repeated it, slower: "Sorry. Sorry. I-" she wrung her hands and Tidus cut over her.
"Don't talk like you know me!"
"I know, but I think you're nice, I think you are," Rikku said, very quickly.
"Shut up!" It was a scream this time, a long building surge of anger. "Shut up!"
She flinched and ducked, fingers outspread. "But-"
"SHUT UP!" The Al Bhed on the other end of the room had decided enough was enough, the other two rising from their chairs, the burly, bearded man leading the way. "Shut up!" Tidus shouted again. "Don't talk like you know me! Don't talk like you know who I am, or what I've gone through-" Tidus noticed the approaching trio of Al Bhed men for the first time, and cut himself off, shaking. The sight of Rikku, ducked over and wide-eyed, filled him with a feeling like disgust. Without another word, Tidus turned and left, stomping past the Al Bhed before they could decide how best to react.
He spent the rest of the day in his bed in the medical wing. He wasn't hard to find, but no one came looking.