On Board the Lunatic Pandora, Thursday Morning, Fandom Time (NFB)
The group had arrived at the Lunatic Pandora. They disembarked from the Ragnarok through the hole they'd made in its side, and prepared for the long trek through its maze-like insides. The monstrosity was a crystalline... something full of tunnels that turned every which way, surrounded by a more normal-ish futuristic structure that had been built to house and study it, and connected throughout by all sorts of corridors.
Monsters met them at every turn, as well as some of the Galbadian soldiers that had followed Seifer and the Sorceress here. The going was tough, but not too tough, and they made steady progress as they fought their way through. Eventually, they rounded a corner and saw a disturbance up ahead.
Squall
Someone else was fighting the monsters. No armor, no backup, just one man shooting stuff up with his assault rifle. He wasn't half bad, either.
It took Squall a moment because the man was facing away from them, but he recognized the distinctive jacket and long, dark hair, and he facepalmed. "Moron."
Laguna
"You think you're tough?" the man called, firing wildly at a crowd of Gespers. "I've been killin' the likes of you since before your grandma worked that street corner!"
This was accentuated by even more gunshots. Laguna had brought plenty of bullets.
"Now get outta my way!"
Karla
"Charming," Karla remarked cheerfully, pushing her hair back from her eyes. "I say we wait for more color commentary before helping."
That comment was immediately belied by a Sapphire flare of energy smacking into one of the weird creatures, but then, no one ever said battlefield banter had to make sense.
Laguna
The man straightened up, noticing the magical assault that hadn't come from him. He whirled around and squinted at the newcomers before breaking into a grin and waving.
"Great timing!" he called, before turning his attention back to the Gespers. "Wow, and I thought you creeps were toast before."
Squall
"You came alone?" Squall asked, making it very clear how stupid he thought that was. Never mind that he'd intended to do the same thing. That was different.
Rinoa
"Says you," Rinoa teased. Low enough that Laguna couldn't overhear. See? That was being a supportive girlfriend.
She was going to take a cue from Karla and send a blizzard spell at one of the Gespers.
And, well, she was going to beam. It was about time they had some good luck.
Jono
This was luck? Jono just raised an eyebrow at the man with the gun, and then at his companions, before shrugging and pulling down enough wrapping from his face to be able to fire off a few shots whenever the long-haired man was looking the other way.
The joys of being a flaming freak of nature, when there was an audience around that would likely have no idea what to make of that fact.
He opted to keep quiet, at least for the time being. Where there was a man with a gun, it was generally a good idea to not freak him out by placing words in his brain.
Laguna
Laguna had back-up, now, and that was awesome. Enough toying with the Gespers. This seemed like a good time to finish them off.
Which he accomplished with a grenade, a grappling hook, and a spray of bullets. Because he was Laguna, that was why. Bitches better recognize.
... okay, and maybe he was showing off a little. So?
He put his hands on his hips and beamed at all of them. Particularly --
"Squall," he said, walkng over and ... awkwardly realizing at the last minute that he probably shouldn't hug the boy. He was going to reach to clap him on the shoulder, instead, and pretend he hadn't been going for a hug. Squall didn't seem to like hugs, and he wasn't going to embarrass him in front of his friends. "Good to see you. You brought SeeD?"
They weren't dressed like SeeD, but most of them didn't wear the uniform on missions, anyway.
Squall
Squall rolled his eyes at his father. "SeeD's on its way. These are other friends. We're here to rescue Sis."
Laguna
"Good job, kiddo," Laguna said, before beaming at everyone else. "I'm Laguna. I'm --"
Laguna was going to be generous and not put Squall in a difficult position. "-- I know Squall from way back. Good of you to help out. All right with you if we all team up?"
Karla
Karla glanced at the other's. "I don't have a problem with that," she said slowly. "So long as no one else does."
The larger the group, the harder it would be for them to hide, but Laguna looked like he could take care of himself.
"Squall? Rinoa?"
Squall
Fate and chance had put them in a difficult position. Telling everyone wasn't going to hurt anything, and more information was always a good thing.
"He's my father," Squall told everyone. "Sis's stepfather. And the person who defeated Adel last time. He's with us."
Laguna
Things nobody probably expected to see today: a middle-aged man in a ponytail, pulling Squall into a hug.
Secondary to that: Squall not attempting to kill anyone, during aforementioned hug.
"Damn straight," he said. "Let's go kick some ass."
Fujin and Raijin
A large number of monsters, herded by a few Galbadian soldiers, had come to investigate what had happened to the other monsters that the group had just killed. They didn't last long.
The next wave of enemies to arrive was just two people, but they were more dangerous by far, since they used to be SeeD cadets. And, since they used to be SeeD cadets, they were familiar faces.
"Well, well, well," Raijin said, giving them a cocky grin. "What do we have here, ya know?"
Fujin nodded at them. "SEED," she blurted.
Rinoa
"Not SeeD, but they're close behind," Rinoa said. "All of Garden is on its way. We're just here for Ellone."
The only thing marring the dramatic impact of that was that she added, in a lower voice, "... Hey, guys."
She hadn't seen them in a while. It felt weird not to say hi.
Rinoa wasn't very good at military confrontations.
Squall
"Get out of our way," Squall added. The "or else I'll make you" was implicit.
Fujin and Raijin
"Hey, Rinoa, how've you been?" Raijin asked.
The silver-haired girl next to him narrowed her eyes. "FOCUS."
"Right, sorry," he said. "We can't let you through here, ya know? Seifer's orders. We came to shut you down."
Despite the posturing, neither of the two were actually drawing their weapons, yet.
Laguna
"I don't care whose orders you have," Laguna said. His easy-going demeanor had been dropped, for the time being. "I don't care if Adel herself is guarding Ellone. You are going to give her back to me, or you are going to be very sorry that you didn't. Are we clear?"
This was not the first time Laguna had faced down certain death to save Ellone. She was the closest thing Laguna had to a daughter. He had promised Raine he would keep her safe.
He had failed his late wife in many ways, but that promise, he was keeping. No mouthy SeeD cadets were going to scare him out of it, either.
Karla
"You can always feel free to try," Karla pointed out, her hands glowing blue. "We do outnumber you by more than a few. And we have a much better idea of what you can do than you have for us. Best of luck with that."
Fujin and Raijin
"Then we're gonna have to throw down," Raijin said. "Because we're on Seifer's side. And we'd never go against him."
"EVER," Fujin agreed.
"We're his posse. We protect him. We're helping him reach that dream of his, ya know?"
Fujin nodded. "LOYAL."
They gave each other a long look. One that suggested there was more that neither of them were quite willing to say.
Squall
Seifer and these two had a history of making trouble for everyone else. They weren't normally enemies, though. "Seifer's on the wrong side," Squall pointed out flatly.
Rinoa
Rinoa was starting to catch on.
"And ... you know that, don't you?" she asked, gently. "He's not himself. He hasn't been for months."
They were loyal enough that they'd stayed his lieutenants, even until now, but they seemed to be near a breaking point.
Maybe, maybe, there was a way out of this.
Fujin and Raijin
"You'd better not be talking smack about him, ya know?" Raijin countered. "Seifer's our bud, ya know? We'd follow him to the ends of the earth, ya know! ...even if he is a little bit..."
"CRAZY," Fujin filled in.
"Not himself," Rai corrected. "It's... this whole ending the world thing. It's not like him!"
Rinoa
"No, it isn't," Rinoa agreed. "We're not here to hurt Seifer. This girl," and here, she gestured to Tara, "is a powerful Sorceress from off-world. She knows how to heal his mind."
Okay, Tara had said she hadn't done the spell before, but the rest was true, and it sounded more convincing that way.
"We want to help," she said.
That was closer to a lie -- they were really here for Ellone -- but she did want to help, even if that wasn't their purpose for being here.
Squall
"We want Ellone," Squall growled. Seifer was entirely tangential.
Jono
Jono raised an eyebrow, looked between Squall, Rinoa, and the two... individuals nearby. Right.
//I'd give th'man what he wants,// he intoned, directly into the heads of the strange pair. //Things'll be so very much cleaner, that way.//
And on the outside? Jonothon looked so completely innocent. Random voice being placed directly into people's heads? That was absurd. Truly.
Fujin and Raijin
Fujin and Raijin gave each other another long, calculating look. They'd been friends long enough that they could have entire conversations like that.
Finally, they nodded.
"Look, we're on Seifer's side, but this stuff about compressing time, that sounds really bad, ya know?" Raijin said.
"ELLONE," Fujin said.
"If we let you take that girl, then things would be a lot cleaner." Raijin wasn't sure where that phrasing came from, and he frowned before continuing. "But we're not just gonna give her to you, for nothing, ya know?"
Fujin nodded. "TRADE."
Tara
Tara had to wonder if the girl with the silver hair ever put two words together, and she squinted at the pair in some disbelief before she realized that, if she was supposed to be a serious sorceress, she should actually say something.
"What would your conditions be?" she asked, far more confident than she felt. "We ... m-might be able to come up with something."
Fujin and Raijin
"SEIFER," Fujin insisted. She was VERY EMPHATIC about this, crossing her arms to make the point.
"Yeah, ya know?" Raijin agreed. "You gotta fix him so he's not so crazy, make him back the way he was, ya know? Just talk him down, even. We'll show you where Ellone is, but you gotta help us get Seifer back. It's that or nothin', ya know?!?!"
In other words, Squall's group had to really, really promise that they'd do something they had already said they would do. Fujin and Raijin weren't ever really the SMARTEST cadets at SeeD.
Rinoa
"Okay," Rinoa said, trying to look official. "We'll need a moment to confer amongst ourselves."
And she needed to tug everyone to the side before Squall pointed out that Fujin and Raijin were being stupid. That would be counterproductive.
"Wait here," she said, taking a few steps to the side and hoping everyone else would follow.
Jono
//... Not exactly th'brightest pair, are they?// Speaking of not entirely productive! Jono was at least using his 'indoor voice' at that moment, speaking only to the group that he was with, Laguna excepted. //I'm not entirely certain that Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum there even know what it is they're talking about, mates.//
Ya know?
//Unless they're only playing stupid, I suppose.//
It was possible. Jono wasn't entirely convinced that it was true. But it was, indeed, possible.
Rinoa
"I think it's pride," Rinoa said, glancing at them and then back again. "They can't just back down. They have to make it look like they've won something, even if it's something small. Or it may be a trap."
She glanced around to catch everyone else's eyes before noticing Laguna looking very, very confused, darting a glance between herself and Jono as if he'd missed half the conversation and didn't know where to start.
... oh.
"He's a telepath," she said. "Is it okay if he talks in your head?"
Laguna
Laguna looked even more confused, but shrugged it off.
"It's fine," he said. "So long as you don't do any weird stuff while you're in there."
He said it cheerfully enough, even if there was a trace of underlying concern. Sorceresses had bewitched soldiers into turning against their teammates; it was scary, letting someone into his head. But his son trusted this boy, and therefore, so would he.
"They did agree pretty easily," he said. "Why take her just to offer her back?"
Jono
//Trust me,// Jono said, letting Laguna into the loop, //th'last thing I want to do with anybody's head is 'weird stuff.'//
Because, really, that was just messy, and complicated, and he really didn't think that there was much but air between this man's ears, besides. Which was generally Jonothon's default opinion of everybody until they'd proven otherwise, so really, nothing personal, Laguna.
//You didn't miss much from me. I was only calling them idiots.//
See above Re: Jono's default opinion of most people.
Karla
"Idiots or not--and I'm pretty sure they are--they're being honest," Karla said. "They're really not happy with whatever this Seifer guy is up to. So long as we can get them to an agreement that makes it look like we're not questioning their loyalty to that guy, they'll take it."
She glanced back at the two of them, brow furrowing in concentration as she picked apart their psychic scents. "The other sorceress is the key, I think. If we play up that she's messing with his mind, then it turns out they're not betraying him, they're saving him. But we have to be careful; they're both terrified right now and if we make the wrong move or say the wrong thing, they're going to bite."
Squall
"They're definitely idiots," Squall verified. He'd known the pair for years, after all. "And not very nice. But they're..." He struggled to find the words to express what he thought of them. "...Not bad people. They're loyal to Seifer, that's all."
Tara
"So -- we're loyal to him too," Tara said. "I mean, it's mostly true, right? We want him to get his mind back to himself as much as they do, just ... for a different reason."
Rinoa
"And some of the same," Rinoa admitted, a flush coloring her cheeks.
She hadn't stopped caring about him just because they broke up.
Karla
"And it's like Tara said," Karla said, nodding at the other witch. "She might be able to Heal him. That's all they really want; a chance to get their friend back. They'll give us Ellone in good faith if we promise to try. The trick is to convince the female that we mean to help, and we'll have them both."
She shrugged. "Considering that's sort of what we came here to do anyway, it doesn't hurt anything to make it sound like we're doing it in payment for their help, if that's going to be what convinces them to give us the girl."
Raven
"I am not sensing deception from them, either," Raven said carefully. "And all they must do is bring us close enough to see Ellone. If my Soul-Self can reach her, I can teleport her -- and the rest of us -- to safety, whether these two wish it or not. I just must know where you wish to go."
Her default would be to teleport back to Fandom, but it would be easier and faster to remain within this world.
Laguna
"The Presidential Palace," Laguna said firmly. "It's roughly hundred kilometers northwest of here, in the capital city of Esthar. If we go straight to my chambers, then we can bypass all the security and sit pretty on the other side of it."
Yes, Jono. This particular idiot was the president.
Raven
"Security means little to my gifts," Raven said, not without a trace of Pride. "It will be no difficulty for me to pass through it this way."
She concentrated, drawing the location of the palace from Laguna's mind. All she needed to teleport somewhere was for someone to think of it; her powers were vaguely defined useful like that.
Squall
"Then it's agreed," Squall announced.
He had no problem with the pride in Raven's voice. Pride was one of the cornerstones of his personal morality, after all.
He turned to Fujin and Raijin and nodded at them. "We accept your terms. Show us where Ellone is, and we'll help Seifer."
(Post 3 of plot. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Post 8.)
(Preplayed with the fantabulous whateverknight, glacial_witch, furnaceface, life_inshadow, and trigons_child, all of whom have been rocking my socks off with getting this crazy beast off the ground and keeping the plates spinning. Special thanks to trigons_child who coded this post and thus gets sex and/or cookies. NFB, and NFI, but OOC is love.)
Monsters met them at every turn, as well as some of the Galbadian soldiers that had followed Seifer and the Sorceress here. The going was tough, but not too tough, and they made steady progress as they fought their way through. Eventually, they rounded a corner and saw a disturbance up ahead.
Squall
Someone else was fighting the monsters. No armor, no backup, just one man shooting stuff up with his assault rifle. He wasn't half bad, either.
It took Squall a moment because the man was facing away from them, but he recognized the distinctive jacket and long, dark hair, and he facepalmed. "Moron."
Laguna
"You think you're tough?" the man called, firing wildly at a crowd of Gespers. "I've been killin' the likes of you since before your grandma worked that street corner!"
This was accentuated by even more gunshots. Laguna had brought plenty of bullets.
"Now get outta my way!"
Karla
"Charming," Karla remarked cheerfully, pushing her hair back from her eyes. "I say we wait for more color commentary before helping."
That comment was immediately belied by a Sapphire flare of energy smacking into one of the weird creatures, but then, no one ever said battlefield banter had to make sense.
Laguna
The man straightened up, noticing the magical assault that hadn't come from him. He whirled around and squinted at the newcomers before breaking into a grin and waving.
"Great timing!" he called, before turning his attention back to the Gespers. "Wow, and I thought you creeps were toast before."
Squall
"You came alone?" Squall asked, making it very clear how stupid he thought that was. Never mind that he'd intended to do the same thing. That was different.
Rinoa
"Says you," Rinoa teased. Low enough that Laguna couldn't overhear. See? That was being a supportive girlfriend.
She was going to take a cue from Karla and send a blizzard spell at one of the Gespers.
And, well, she was going to beam. It was about time they had some good luck.
Jono
This was luck? Jono just raised an eyebrow at the man with the gun, and then at his companions, before shrugging and pulling down enough wrapping from his face to be able to fire off a few shots whenever the long-haired man was looking the other way.
The joys of being a flaming freak of nature, when there was an audience around that would likely have no idea what to make of that fact.
He opted to keep quiet, at least for the time being. Where there was a man with a gun, it was generally a good idea to not freak him out by placing words in his brain.
Laguna
Laguna had back-up, now, and that was awesome. Enough toying with the Gespers. This seemed like a good time to finish them off.
Which he accomplished with a grenade, a grappling hook, and a spray of bullets. Because he was Laguna, that was why. Bitches better recognize.
... okay, and maybe he was showing off a little. So?
He put his hands on his hips and beamed at all of them. Particularly --
"Squall," he said, walkng over and ... awkwardly realizing at the last minute that he probably shouldn't hug the boy. He was going to reach to clap him on the shoulder, instead, and pretend he hadn't been going for a hug. Squall didn't seem to like hugs, and he wasn't going to embarrass him in front of his friends. "Good to see you. You brought SeeD?"
They weren't dressed like SeeD, but most of them didn't wear the uniform on missions, anyway.
Squall
Squall rolled his eyes at his father. "SeeD's on its way. These are other friends. We're here to rescue Sis."
Laguna
"Good job, kiddo," Laguna said, before beaming at everyone else. "I'm Laguna. I'm --"
Laguna was going to be generous and not put Squall in a difficult position. "-- I know Squall from way back. Good of you to help out. All right with you if we all team up?"
Karla
Karla glanced at the other's. "I don't have a problem with that," she said slowly. "So long as no one else does."
The larger the group, the harder it would be for them to hide, but Laguna looked like he could take care of himself.
"Squall? Rinoa?"
Squall
Fate and chance had put them in a difficult position. Telling everyone wasn't going to hurt anything, and more information was always a good thing.
"He's my father," Squall told everyone. "Sis's stepfather. And the person who defeated Adel last time. He's with us."
Laguna
Things nobody probably expected to see today: a middle-aged man in a ponytail, pulling Squall into a hug.
Secondary to that: Squall not attempting to kill anyone, during aforementioned hug.
"Damn straight," he said. "Let's go kick some ass."
Fujin and Raijin
A large number of monsters, herded by a few Galbadian soldiers, had come to investigate what had happened to the other monsters that the group had just killed. They didn't last long.
The next wave of enemies to arrive was just two people, but they were more dangerous by far, since they used to be SeeD cadets. And, since they used to be SeeD cadets, they were familiar faces.
"Well, well, well," Raijin said, giving them a cocky grin. "What do we have here, ya know?"
Fujin nodded at them. "SEED," she blurted.
Rinoa
"Not SeeD, but they're close behind," Rinoa said. "All of Garden is on its way. We're just here for Ellone."
The only thing marring the dramatic impact of that was that she added, in a lower voice, "... Hey, guys."
She hadn't seen them in a while. It felt weird not to say hi.
Rinoa wasn't very good at military confrontations.
Squall
"Get out of our way," Squall added. The "or else I'll make you" was implicit.
Fujin and Raijin
"Hey, Rinoa, how've you been?" Raijin asked.
The silver-haired girl next to him narrowed her eyes. "FOCUS."
"Right, sorry," he said. "We can't let you through here, ya know? Seifer's orders. We came to shut you down."
Despite the posturing, neither of the two were actually drawing their weapons, yet.
Laguna
"I don't care whose orders you have," Laguna said. His easy-going demeanor had been dropped, for the time being. "I don't care if Adel herself is guarding Ellone. You are going to give her back to me, or you are going to be very sorry that you didn't. Are we clear?"
This was not the first time Laguna had faced down certain death to save Ellone. She was the closest thing Laguna had to a daughter. He had promised Raine he would keep her safe.
He had failed his late wife in many ways, but that promise, he was keeping. No mouthy SeeD cadets were going to scare him out of it, either.
Karla
"You can always feel free to try," Karla pointed out, her hands glowing blue. "We do outnumber you by more than a few. And we have a much better idea of what you can do than you have for us. Best of luck with that."
Fujin and Raijin
"Then we're gonna have to throw down," Raijin said. "Because we're on Seifer's side. And we'd never go against him."
"EVER," Fujin agreed.
"We're his posse. We protect him. We're helping him reach that dream of his, ya know?"
Fujin nodded. "LOYAL."
They gave each other a long look. One that suggested there was more that neither of them were quite willing to say.
Squall
Seifer and these two had a history of making trouble for everyone else. They weren't normally enemies, though. "Seifer's on the wrong side," Squall pointed out flatly.
Rinoa
Rinoa was starting to catch on.
"And ... you know that, don't you?" she asked, gently. "He's not himself. He hasn't been for months."
They were loyal enough that they'd stayed his lieutenants, even until now, but they seemed to be near a breaking point.
Maybe, maybe, there was a way out of this.
Fujin and Raijin
"You'd better not be talking smack about him, ya know?" Raijin countered. "Seifer's our bud, ya know? We'd follow him to the ends of the earth, ya know! ...even if he is a little bit..."
"CRAZY," Fujin filled in.
"Not himself," Rai corrected. "It's... this whole ending the world thing. It's not like him!"
Rinoa
"No, it isn't," Rinoa agreed. "We're not here to hurt Seifer. This girl," and here, she gestured to Tara, "is a powerful Sorceress from off-world. She knows how to heal his mind."
Okay, Tara had said she hadn't done the spell before, but the rest was true, and it sounded more convincing that way.
"We want to help," she said.
That was closer to a lie -- they were really here for Ellone -- but she did want to help, even if that wasn't their purpose for being here.
Squall
"We want Ellone," Squall growled. Seifer was entirely tangential.
Jono
Jono raised an eyebrow, looked between Squall, Rinoa, and the two... individuals nearby. Right.
//I'd give th'man what he wants,// he intoned, directly into the heads of the strange pair. //Things'll be so very much cleaner, that way.//
And on the outside? Jonothon looked so completely innocent. Random voice being placed directly into people's heads? That was absurd. Truly.
Fujin and Raijin
Fujin and Raijin gave each other another long, calculating look. They'd been friends long enough that they could have entire conversations like that.
Finally, they nodded.
"Look, we're on Seifer's side, but this stuff about compressing time, that sounds really bad, ya know?" Raijin said.
"ELLONE," Fujin said.
"If we let you take that girl, then things would be a lot cleaner." Raijin wasn't sure where that phrasing came from, and he frowned before continuing. "But we're not just gonna give her to you, for nothing, ya know?"
Fujin nodded. "TRADE."
Tara
Tara had to wonder if the girl with the silver hair ever put two words together, and she squinted at the pair in some disbelief before she realized that, if she was supposed to be a serious sorceress, she should actually say something.
"What would your conditions be?" she asked, far more confident than she felt. "We ... m-might be able to come up with something."
Fujin and Raijin
"SEIFER," Fujin insisted. She was VERY EMPHATIC about this, crossing her arms to make the point.
"Yeah, ya know?" Raijin agreed. "You gotta fix him so he's not so crazy, make him back the way he was, ya know? Just talk him down, even. We'll show you where Ellone is, but you gotta help us get Seifer back. It's that or nothin', ya know?!?!"
In other words, Squall's group had to really, really promise that they'd do something they had already said they would do. Fujin and Raijin weren't ever really the SMARTEST cadets at SeeD.
Rinoa
"Okay," Rinoa said, trying to look official. "We'll need a moment to confer amongst ourselves."
And she needed to tug everyone to the side before Squall pointed out that Fujin and Raijin were being stupid. That would be counterproductive.
"Wait here," she said, taking a few steps to the side and hoping everyone else would follow.
Jono
//... Not exactly th'brightest pair, are they?// Speaking of not entirely productive! Jono was at least using his 'indoor voice' at that moment, speaking only to the group that he was with, Laguna excepted. //I'm not entirely certain that Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum there even know what it is they're talking about, mates.//
Ya know?
//Unless they're only playing stupid, I suppose.//
It was possible. Jono wasn't entirely convinced that it was true. But it was, indeed, possible.
Rinoa
"I think it's pride," Rinoa said, glancing at them and then back again. "They can't just back down. They have to make it look like they've won something, even if it's something small. Or it may be a trap."
She glanced around to catch everyone else's eyes before noticing Laguna looking very, very confused, darting a glance between herself and Jono as if he'd missed half the conversation and didn't know where to start.
... oh.
"He's a telepath," she said. "Is it okay if he talks in your head?"
Laguna
Laguna looked even more confused, but shrugged it off.
"It's fine," he said. "So long as you don't do any weird stuff while you're in there."
He said it cheerfully enough, even if there was a trace of underlying concern. Sorceresses had bewitched soldiers into turning against their teammates; it was scary, letting someone into his head. But his son trusted this boy, and therefore, so would he.
"They did agree pretty easily," he said. "Why take her just to offer her back?"
Jono
//Trust me,// Jono said, letting Laguna into the loop, //th'last thing I want to do with anybody's head is 'weird stuff.'//
Because, really, that was just messy, and complicated, and he really didn't think that there was much but air between this man's ears, besides. Which was generally Jonothon's default opinion of everybody until they'd proven otherwise, so really, nothing personal, Laguna.
//You didn't miss much from me. I was only calling them idiots.//
See above Re: Jono's default opinion of most people.
Karla
"Idiots or not--and I'm pretty sure they are--they're being honest," Karla said. "They're really not happy with whatever this Seifer guy is up to. So long as we can get them to an agreement that makes it look like we're not questioning their loyalty to that guy, they'll take it."
She glanced back at the two of them, brow furrowing in concentration as she picked apart their psychic scents. "The other sorceress is the key, I think. If we play up that she's messing with his mind, then it turns out they're not betraying him, they're saving him. But we have to be careful; they're both terrified right now and if we make the wrong move or say the wrong thing, they're going to bite."
Squall
"They're definitely idiots," Squall verified. He'd known the pair for years, after all. "And not very nice. But they're..." He struggled to find the words to express what he thought of them. "...Not bad people. They're loyal to Seifer, that's all."
Tara
"So -- we're loyal to him too," Tara said. "I mean, it's mostly true, right? We want him to get his mind back to himself as much as they do, just ... for a different reason."
Rinoa
"And some of the same," Rinoa admitted, a flush coloring her cheeks.
She hadn't stopped caring about him just because they broke up.
Karla
"And it's like Tara said," Karla said, nodding at the other witch. "She might be able to Heal him. That's all they really want; a chance to get their friend back. They'll give us Ellone in good faith if we promise to try. The trick is to convince the female that we mean to help, and we'll have them both."
She shrugged. "Considering that's sort of what we came here to do anyway, it doesn't hurt anything to make it sound like we're doing it in payment for their help, if that's going to be what convinces them to give us the girl."
Raven
"I am not sensing deception from them, either," Raven said carefully. "And all they must do is bring us close enough to see Ellone. If my Soul-Self can reach her, I can teleport her -- and the rest of us -- to safety, whether these two wish it or not. I just must know where you wish to go."
Her default would be to teleport back to Fandom, but it would be easier and faster to remain within this world.
Laguna
"The Presidential Palace," Laguna said firmly. "It's roughly hundred kilometers northwest of here, in the capital city of Esthar. If we go straight to my chambers, then we can bypass all the security and sit pretty on the other side of it."
Yes, Jono. This particular idiot was the president.
Raven
"Security means little to my gifts," Raven said, not without a trace of Pride. "It will be no difficulty for me to pass through it this way."
She concentrated, drawing the location of the palace from Laguna's mind. All she needed to teleport somewhere was for someone to think of it; her powers were vaguely defined useful like that.
Squall
"Then it's agreed," Squall announced.
He had no problem with the pride in Raven's voice. Pride was one of the cornerstones of his personal morality, after all.
He turned to Fujin and Raijin and nodded at them. "We accept your terms. Show us where Ellone is, and we'll help Seifer."
(Post 3 of plot. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Post 8.)
(Preplayed with the fantabulous whateverknight, glacial_witch, furnaceface, life_inshadow, and trigons_child, all of whom have been rocking my socks off with getting this crazy beast off the ground and keeping the plates spinning. Special thanks to trigons_child who coded this post and thus gets sex and/or cookies. NFB, and NFI, but OOC is love.)