Sasari

The OOC ramblings of one FFXIV player and the stories she sometimes writes about her Lalafell and their extended family.Character List:  Sasari Sari • Sasai Sai • Kiratai Dazkar

[steelcarbuncle]

╔Deiform╗

Deiform -

Having the form of a god.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

At the first notes of music, Teteni's vibrantly aqua eyes snapped open, a sharp contrast to the furiously red and orange face paint over her matching eye tattoos. She tapped her foot in response to the lively drum beat Cocoepo was providing and her whole body moved with the sound of Susuli's fiddle. The beautiful red silks of her dancing outfit flared as she spun and the bells found there chimed as she dipped in time with the rhythm. She was the flame moved by the music. She was the flicker that warmed the life of her people. She was their generation's fire dancer and she gave herself over to the whispers carried on the desert winds.

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Before the gathering at the fire that night, Sasanecco wiped the sweat from his brow and surveyed the caravan folk. He's escorted merchants before, but this was the first assignment where they welcomed him some warmly and also put his adventurer butt to work helping with the load. He heeled the small pack chocobo that was carrying some of the cargo as tonight's guests were arriving and waved to the few he recognized. Some of the young men arriving he knew working for affluent families in Ul'dah while a couple others were from his penchant hanging around the Thaumaturge's guild. Never could wrap his head around waving a wand around when an axe made such a better impact, still they made fun conversation and he could drink all of them under the table already.

Sasanecco fastened the bird he was leading and unpacked the poor beast before finding Cocoepo, the current caravan leader's son in law, to try and figure out what they were up to. "'ey Coepo, what's this all 'bout?" he gestured to the guests arriving that he was sure he was about to have to keep an eye on.

Cocoepo straightened his turban, today he sported more jewelry accenting his clothing that Necco had seen the whole time they've been friends, "'s time that my wife's sis marry, she's ta pick whom the flames choose t'night." He kept fretting over his clothes, clearly unaccustom to all this.

Sasanecco dusted his palms on his pants and heads over to smooth out Cocoepo's vest for him, "Ya look great, stop fussin'. But what tha hell's the fire got on choosin' a husband. Poor lass, really, it's that Teni girl right?"

"Aye, she stays mostly wit' elder Fira so ya 'aven't seen 'er bout much," Coepo seems reassured and straightens his vest one more time. "I'll share a drink wit' ya at tha fire circle so leave yer damn axe wit' yer watch relief, 'll never 'ave a mustache 'gain thanks to ya."

"It was hideous anyway, Coepo," Necco chuckled and waved his friend off. It seemed tonight's meal was going to be an event and he ought to see if he packed a decent shirt. He heads off to go find his pack in the back of one of the wagons.

----------

Tonight's fire at the center of the wagon circle was huge and scented the air with with the aromatic woods being burnt within it. The whole of area was perfumed with a spicy smokey scent that Sasanecco would later reminisce as intoxicating. He clapped his hands in time with the beat of Coepo's drumming and good naturedly elbowed the man next to him, a heavily robed individual he can vaguely remember being deep in their cups with on a couple of occasions, don't think he ever got his name. "These folks sure are a lively sort."

"Yeah, facinating practice they have too, shame to not have the chance to study it more," the man commented, politely keeping the beat as well. He already knew this wouldn't be for him as it would draw him away from the luxuries of Ul'dah. The caravan had a reputation of everyone being equal and he no mind to be getting his robes so ruffled.

Sasanecco made a face in the dim light at the edges of the bonfire, the man's tone was insufferable and he hoped the "flames" picked something better for Teni. Honestly, the whole family had been pretty affable to him.

The whole of the crowd quieted as the lone Lalafellin woman at the center near the fire, clad in scarlet, began her dance. Teteni moved as if the music controlled her body and was a part of the fire she danced near. Very soon glimmers of red sparkled here and there around her form, the violet sash she had wrapped around her waist drawn forth and pulled taut in a cascade of red sparks. The sash was spun around her form and tiny flames flickered in the air in its wake before winking out of existence. Here and there, she would snap the sash, sending a gout of flame from the end of the conductive fabric, sometimes threatening to singe the crowd. The way she danced, in this moment, Teni was wild and free, unfettered by the duties that lay ahead. She was a wildfire that could not be constrained.

Finally the song came to an end and others took up playing softer music as the evening's meal was brought out and Teteni retired to take a rest. Sasanecco eventually picked his jaw up off the ground and paid some mind to the feast being set up, taking it upon himself to get up and lend a hand even if Coepo insisted he was a guest. Some sort of bird that had been roasted all day in the desert sands, a spicy soup, so many fruit that poor Necco didn't actually know where they all came from. He was starting to get the picture this was a much bigger deal for his friend's family than he had originally thought.

----------

Cocoepo wrapped his arm around Sasanecco's shoulder and waved his wooden tankard at his wife, "An' then this right arsehole went an shaved it off in me sleep! Tha nerve!" He hiccuped and looked at his tankard suspiciously while Susuli watched him with a bemused smile.

Sasanecco mirrored the hiccup, they hadn't been this deep in the cups since Cocoepo left the thaumaturgy guild. "Ah ya had it comin' ya daft git. If ya hadn't been flirtin' with my brother's gir--"

"ShhhSHhhHH!" Coepo messily tried to cover Sasanecco's mouth. "It's in tha past that."

"Mmhm. How is yer brother's girl, Necco?" Susuli's grin had taken on a cheshire cat quality and she flicked her bright violet eyes between her husband and his friend.

"She's aight, they broke up," Necco bluntly said, shoving Coepo's hands away.

"Ah well, probably 'er loss if 'e's anythin' like you," Suli teased and then picked up her fiddle again. "Sober up, yeah? Sis is 'bout ta dance again," she chuckled with a grin and rose to go join the new drummers, "Drink just fuels the fire, right?"

"Wha? What's she on about?" Necco elbowed Coepo with his brows raised.

"'ells if I know," Cocoepo answered helplessly.

----------

This time the guests were invited to join the dance, Teni politely left her sash wrapped around her waist in case anyone had fear of her catching them ablaze. Teteni walked the circle, pulling their invited guests and workers of the caravan into the circle to dance alike and happily lead them along with the music. Sometimes linking arms and spinning with an unsuspecting dancer and sometimes just showing steps for people to copy from her. She laughed joyously and wove between everyone dancing, leaving the sound of bells and smell of cinnamon in her wake as she went.

"Brother! You an' yer friend aren't dancing!" Teni smiled widely and went to fish Cocoepo and his companion from their wine soaked stupor. "You are next to share in leading, you should be dancing!" Her words mirthful as she pulled both men to their feet to join the others in the dance around the fire. Really she just wanted everyone to feel as alive as she did when dancing.

Sasanecco complied with the request, turning a slight shade of pink as he did so, and made sure Cocoepo didn't fall over while he tried to keep his feet straight. Eventually the brilliantly vermillion lass made her way back and linked arms with him to lock him into a spin away from babysitting Cocoepo. "Ah… someone's got ta…"

"Suli's gunna take care of him, I already asked," Teni flashed that dazzling smile of hers again.

"Why'd ya do that tho', I had 'em," Sasanecco look puzzled as he was spun away from his dance partner.

"Well how was I supposed to dance with you then?" She gave an impish smile and pulled him back to her, steadying him when he looked to maybe topple over.

Necco flustered as he needed to be held steady and it was a whole lot more intimate than he was prepared for. "Ah but why wouldja be doin' that? I thought that all this was so you could have the fire pick out someone fer you ta… you know." He looked helplessly about, wondering why this beautiful woman seemed to be singling him out to dance.

Teni stopped him dead in her tracks and laughed, having to hold her belly after a moment. "Oh Necco… no one told you," She wiped a tear from her eye and smiled at him. "I am the flame."

----------

"'ow's this?" Sasanecco tried to hold both of his daughters at the same time, the little sleeping bundles squirmed at the awkward posistioning and made tiny squeals of protest.

"Silly, give me one of them. It's alright to split the load, s'what my parents did," Teni said a bit tiredly, though it was a few days since the birth. She held up her arms towards Necco and smiled.

"There are always two?" Necco hadn't really thought much on the matter though he'd been learning a lot of the family's ways since joining it.

"Yes, love. Our family has always had a kinship for the merchants… and through their blessing we are always gifted twins. There are always two." She confirmed gently, taking one of the squirming bundles from her husband and cooing over the little one.

[steelcarbuncle]

Meet the Mammets - Dewy and the Library

Dewy is a custom mammet for the library built precisely three fulms tall at his iridescent white puff. He is built with an Ishgardian steel frame and aurum regis and phygrian alloy inner workings and his voice box has a warm tone like low organ pipes and almost no modulation to it with the occasional hiccup. His chassis is painted with a chromatic red paint that shines bright pink in the right light. He has little Nymian runes that stand out against the enamel in their natural phygrian gold edging every outer plate on his frame. He is apparently docile and will tend to the books of the library diligently until called upon for translation or other services, though he will step in if someone is struggling.

As the library mammet, he has two cores and a crystal to house his database set between them. Only the bottom core is wired directly to the small rainbow hued crystal and is a part of the enchantments that control the library's more unique functions. Dewy has a translation function for the written languages that can currently be found in the library but further translation function will have to be learned for the languages currently absent. He is also linked to the control book for the library that allows him to speak through the book to provide live translations as needed. He keeps a searchable index of contents within each volume in his database so that he can make recommendations when a certain material is needed. Though his primary tasks are all related to the upkeep of the library, he is equipped with the function of producing a levin shock by overcharging his primary core and conducting it through his hands. This is used only in dire self defense to prevent the destruction of his unit.

The library is coded and several Nymian runes are set at static intervals on the ground around the library to break the books up into sections, these sections are further divided at each shelf with another set of runes placed on the shelving. Each book is given a small vellum page at the back of the book with inscriptions that complete the translocation magics that allow its contents to be transferred to the pages of the control book. The process of adding the vellum to the book is not as simple as adding a page and the page must undergo a ritual infusing a bit of the book's essence into the vellum, a task Dewy can automatically perform once asked as the enchantment is bound in his second core though it takes nearly two bells where he will be unable to function otherwise.

The control book is a heavy tome as the bindings and cover feature metal components over hardened green glider leather. There is clockwork mechanisms in the front of the book in an aurum regis and phygrian gold alloy that have the same Nymian marks that can be found in the library and will need to be aligned to each section, shelf, and three dials for individual markings for which the book is marked. Inside the tome, the pages are thin vellum that have been treated with aetherconductive rosegold inks which has stained the pages a soft orange hue and left them reflective to a degree. There are precisely 300 pages to the tome and the book cannot translocate a tome that is bigger in its entirety. Tomes in excess to this limitation need to have a "bookmark" processed which allows the user to pick the section of the oversized tome they are reviewing. There are other limitations as a book much larger in scale will find the pages of the tome shrunk to fit the control book and while the light orange hue does not affect text, it is sometimes detrimental to conveyed pictures. The control book also has a small band of metal at the bottom of the front cover that houses the connective portion that allows Dewy to translate for the user or respond verbally with book recommendations. Dewy has the capacity to turn the clockwork dials at the front of the book remotely, but rarely employs this.

Books can be misplaced in the library and still located with the magics of the control book but removing a tome from the enchanted area of the library will render the call for the book useless and return nothing to the control book.

[steelcarbuncle]

╔Confluence╗

Confluence- An act or process of merging.

"I… have… work… to do," Sasari said almost impatiently down to the dark skinned Miqo'te setting beside her and keeping her company in their group's shared rooms in the Pendants. Blue crystalline shards littered the table she had converted into a work space and a crystal round cage wired together with manasilver wire set at the far end of the table, quietly thruming. The limiters were sat on the table as well next to the crystal cage, out of the way for the moment because she needed the full strength of her connection to cross the distance between her and her sister at the moment.

"You are doing too much," focusing on his partner made it easier to ignore the bone deep tiredness he felt and so he flashed a cheshire cat like grin and flopped his head in the little Lalafell's lap. "When was the last time you slept and didn't just tuck in the others?"

"Someone has to get us home!" Sari raised both hands, she had been working with her small portable magitek torch and he could have hurt himself. "You are worse than that cat that hangs around the workshop," She had carefully put the torch down and moved to shove the overgrown cat off her lap. "Our leader is missing and everyone else feels hopeless. I have to keep working else everyone will give in to their despair, Karaki," She made a mistake, she let an ilm of the fondness she felt for him seep into the end of her statement.

Encouraged by her words rather than her actions, Karaki flipped over and wrapped his arms around her middle. He buried a yawn against her midsection.

"Ack… get off or I will singe your ears." She tried to wrest herself free from the grasp of the much larger person. Non-Lalafellin friends were a hassle. "Go nap, you are tired."

"Come with me," said while he unburied his face. The normal luminescence of his pale irises had begun to dim but he still tried to give a cute pout up at her.

"No…" Sari had begun to pick back up her torch but Karaki's expression had given her pause. He usually wasn't this much of a busy body over her working. Concern traced in her features and she pinched the bridge of her nose under her glasses. "Fine… we can go to bed."

-----------

Sasari lay awake in the nest of pillows and blankets stolen from the inn beds and the extra they had asked for, listening to the breathing of her sleeping partner. It was unsteady, shallow. It was wrong. Her little scarred fingertips traced over the man's brow before she rested both her hands on his bare chest. She gasped sharply at what she felt. His aether was draining away and she couldn't sense where it was disappearing to. Like her, he was connected to another existence and because of their distance from the Source now, his aether was trying to seep home with no mind of how it left him, his anchoring to himself didn't seem as secure as hers did.

"It's fine," Karaki stated quietly, his dimmed eyes opening to observe his nosy companion. "It'll hold out 'til we get home."

"You do not know that," Sasari's tone edged with doubt. "Why didn't you tell me, I could have helped maybe."

"I didn't want you to worry. You're holding everyone else together, you're already taking on too much. I won't be a burden for you to carry." He pushed himself up on his elbows against the pillows in the makeshift nest, "I'll be… fine." Karaki fell back against the pillows, suddenly dizzy. His bravado struggled to force his drained body any further.

"No… I cannot… this is not…" Sari shook her head, fighting her rising panic. Without her limiters allowing her to surpress her emotions, she struggled with controlling them and right now she very much needed to be in control of herself. She sat fully up and looked Karaki over. She knew she could add to someone's aether for spell casting, but channeling directly into another being without her limiters to control the flow was worrisome. She took a breath and tried to steady her fraying nerves, she had to try something or else he was going to lose all of himself and have nothing left. She was pretty sure her additive nature could bolster him and at least buy him some more time. Sasari placed her hands back on his chest and focused her energy to pass from her to him.

Karaki's eyes snapped open and he grasped at one of her scarred wrists, "What are you doing?" He knew better than most of their companions the dangers of her practicing any aetheric arts without her limiters, how she could pour so much of herself into a spell that she'd cease being.

"I… have no idea," Flatly, not allowing him to pull her hands away or distract her from her task. She could feel the changes in him just below the surface, the dying warmth of his inner fire being given fuel and working it up into what would be a roaring fire once more. She could sense his aetheric ties and the force of aetheric fire running along them and was unable to block the force leaking down those connections.

Far off on the table, the linkpearl that connected them to their companions still on the Source smoldered and eventually the small device popped in a shower of burnt grit.

"Sari… Sari!" Karaki yelled and finally managed to break Sari's contact with him by pushing her back on the pillows opposite of him. She wasn't conscious any longer and he checked her to make sure she hadn't hurt herself with her foolish notion of helping. Breathing steadily, she was just asleep. His mind was racing now that he was infused with aether that was not his own but was quickly adapting. He ran a hand through his black hair while sorting his thoughts.

She's okay. She's just sleeping. She was stopped before she killed herself.

Sasari squirmed and rolled more into the pillows. "You… are too loud."

Too loud? He hadn't spoken. He could sense annoyance but the emotion didn't belong to him and he knew it. Something was off and he was piecing it together, "Love, you always do too much."

----------

"I… still… have work to do," Sari grimaced at the playful grin she could sense playing on the Miqo'te's lips from across the room. She was no stranger to having to sort her own feelings from ones that didn't belong to her and was trying to keep her focus on the crystal shards she was wiring together on the table.

Stubborn. It's raining… Somehow Karaki's mental voice came out as a purr. His luminescent eyes watched her back and his tail twitched back and forth in anticipation. It was so much easier to rile her now that he could really tell what her stoic reactions were hiding.

Sari had to shake her head to keep him from filling it with distracting thoughts. The tools were set down and she gazed out the window for a time, finding comfort in the rain. The worst part is he knew that it put her at ease. "Fine… we can head out for a walk but I need to work after."

Karaki was up in a moment, collecting a travel pack for them and offering a hand to his companion. "Best part of rain is having to strip out of the wet clothes after," he made sure to hold her hand in a vice grip to keep her from hiding away her response.

"That… you said that just to…" Sasari flounders, exasperated, and is tugged along by her hand to head off on their walk all the the while turning such a deep shade of scarlet that she would hard pressed believe she had blood left anywhere else in her body, even her ears tingled with heat.

Ah… so cute. Karaki chuckled to himself, amused.

It's just a walk. Her inner voice carried a note of uncertainty that was reflected in her emotions.

It was her fault for tying to two of them together in a way she hardly understood. This was going to take some time to get used to and she only hoped she could detangle the mess she has made of their intermingled aether once they have returned to the source.

(On a note, I don't actually talk to the player of the other character in these scenes anymore sadly and this was rewritten from my memory. They're still a thing that happened in Sari's passed and what I thought of for this prompt though.)

[steelcarbuncle]

╔Miss the Boat╗

Miss the boat - Be too slow to take advantage of an opportunity.

"Didja miss tha send off?" Fifiton asked nonchalantly as he plucked one of the hot rolls from the baking sheet Sasai was carrying. He flopped onto one of the Bismark's kitchen stools and tossed the roll between his hands.

"'Course not. Unlike yer lazy arse, I git up at a reasonable hour," scandalized by the theft, the blue haired Lalafellin woman held the baking sheet over her head and away from her scoundrel of a twin brother. Sasai turned to put the sheet in the cooling rack in line with the others being prepped for the evening dinner rush. "Saw tha cousins off at dawn."

"Ya missed tha deadline ta leave wit' Pa tho'," Fif countered, tearing the roll in half and popping half of his contraband in his mouth with a lopsided grin.

"Can't be 'elped. I promised I'd give a 'and today an' it's not like Pa needed me fer loadin' wagons," Sasai's tone became evasive as she answered. She turned to face her twin only to find half a roll stuffed in her face.

Fifiton swallowed hard and gave an understanding smile to his sister, "Ya need ta face bein' tha next in line sooner 'r later, sis."

"Later," Sai said fiercely and nearly took off Fif's fingers with the remnants of roll.

Fif checked to make sure all his digits were there and chuckled, "Aye, fine. We kin catch up ta them in tha northern parts of tha desert 'fore they cross ta Mor Dhona, yeah? Shouldn't need us too much till they get ta the plant. Pa should wait fer his carbuncle escort."

"Aye," Sai said with a measure of uncertainty, "Yer right. 'll finish up tonight 'ere and swing by the Arcanist guild. We'll 'ead out on a ship bound ta tha mainland t'morrow."

"Good gel," Fif wore a smirk as he answered even as he ducked the oven mitts thrown his way.

It wasn't until they arrived in the northern deserts of Thanalan that they had learned what they missed.

[steelcarbuncle]

╔Channel╗

Channel: Direct toward a particular end or object.

It was cool in the shade of the hall protecting the thaumaturges from the midday Thanalan sun.

Twin Lalafellin girls with blue and violet hair sat facing each other, palms placed together in front of them. When their tutor came over to inquire about their meditation progress, they pulled their hands from each other with a small sparkle of aether.

"You are making excellent progress. Though I should caution that you should be doing your meditations seperately." The Lalafellin man in black robes tuts softly and then bid them both to face forward on their floor cushions.

"We always do…" one twin began.

"Everything together," the other twin finished.

"Yes, I have noticed. All right today we are going to work on manifesting the element of fire." He set out some materials, wood and charcoal, some spices that were warm and inviting. He began taking them through the process of envisioning fire between their hands. "Remember you pull on your flow carefully and will it into the shape it should to take. Think on what fire is, empathize with it."

Fire is warm.

Fire flickers.

One of the twins managed to make a small flame between her hands but the other didn't. Blue eyes like the ocean settled on her sister for a moment before returning to their closed state.

Fire gives light.

Fire is like the sun.

----------

Sasanecco had to pick up his girls in the turmoil afterwards. Thankfully, no one had been harmed, but the explosive fire blast had taken out one of the hall's inner walls and the tutor nearly swore off ever teaching another magic again in the aftermath as he had just barely dodged the flames. Sasanecco promised the caravan would square up for the damages to the property and removed his daughters from their apprenticeship with the guild.

The girls held hands as their father took care of their mess, looking downcast that they wouldn't be learning here anymore.

Their father sighed and patted both of their heads while they waited for their room and board to be cleared from the records, "Can… you tell Papa what happened?"

"We do…" one twin began.

"Everything together," the other twin finished.

[steelcarbuncle]

Mammet Uprising

(This is another bit of writing salvaged from my mid-RP meanderings so I feel a tiny bit of context need be given. Sasari at this point has lost her limiters and desperately needed a replacement. She used essentially a knockoff of the limiters that were employed for another purpose, much to the chagrin of everyone around her.)

Midday in the area between the workshop and the hanger, the mammets are riled but their creator doesn't seem to notice or care.

"That is the second one you have ruined… it is taking time from your duties. Remove the apron." Sasari carried on evaluating the charts with the airship flight paths annotated. "We should also disable your glamour, it is overtaxing your auracite core."

"YoU AllOWed thEsE -Crackle- MoDiFiCAtiOns!" Gizmo's modulated tone carried a hint of disbelief. He wore his Lalafell glamour at the moment and so the apparent man's expression didn't change at all or move when he spoke. He had been doing chores outside of the Tower just a bell before, over the black outfit was a frilly and pale pink apron with sakura petal embroidery only slightly marred by machine oil. "ThEy IMprOve My -WHISTLE- wOrK!"

"I fail to see how that is possible." Sasari responded without looking up. She set down the modified charts on the airship display console, a sprawling desk of salvaged Allagan tech and some Garlean bits cobbled together into a working piece. It currently displayed the Wizard's Whimsy out on a test flight over the aethero projected imagery.

"MiSs SaSarI," the alabaster mammet began. Astro had been standing by as unofficial head of the mammets with far more personality for their own good. He continued in a surprisingly gentle, melodic tone for someone who had a voice modulator, "It is A MattEr of MoraLe."

The charts in front of the Lalafellin woman were shuffled to a neat pile and set aside before she turned to look at Gizmo and Astro in turn. "You… are mammets."

Astro remained still, but the glamoured Lalafell appeared to flinch.

"NoT juSt OuRs, I hAve A RePoRT abOuT yoUr AppRentIcE anD SisTer as WeLl," Astro continued, if he was bothered by Sari's uncharacteristic assertion that they were nothing more than metal, it didn't show.

"Mercer…. Is better able to cope than he realizes." She turned to enter the new route points into the console. "Sasani will learn things are better this way."

"DEr Ya Go ThInKIn' YoU KnOw WhAt Is -Cracklesqueak!- BEsT foR EvEryOnE ElSe." Gizmo sidled closer to Sasari, his blank slate Lalafell glamour flickering in the process and revealing the jet black jalopy mammetry underneath. "HaVe Ya EveN NOtICed YoUr PeT ClOck Is MissING?" He nods to Astro.

"My judgement is… unclouded with the unnecessary… my pet clock?" Her tone raised only slightly in query. Sasari looked between the two mammets at her flanks before it settled in what he was talking about. "If someone says they will return, I have no reason to doubt them. You are both out of line from your original design parameters and it is affecting your efficiency. I will need to have a look and see if we can scale back some of the additive effects the magical cores have had on you to adjust the variable natures of your personality." Matter of fact monotone while describing stripping her friends of their independence.

"I aM SoRrY Miss, ThIS Is FoR THe GrEater GoOD." Astro stated as he wrapped Sasari in a metal bear hug. He was careful not to hurt her, but almost all the mammets were adjusted to be quite stronger than their little frames would lead you to believe.

"What are you doing? Let me go, Astro. Command override Sigm--- mmph!" Sari began to talk but promptly had a frilly pink wad of slightly dirty apron stuffed in her face.

Gizmo's glamour had all but failed at this point as it did little to cover the shift as he switched out arm attachments, converting to a magitek torch and saw combo for his right arm and a vice grip for his left hand. A pneumatic hiss later and the vice gripped one of the enchanted chain link bracelets his maker wore, pulling it as far out as he could. The other arm cut through both the bracelet and enchantments since it actually was a pretty shoddy piece of work to begin with.

At just past the midday bells, there was an explosion in the workshop and hanger areas. Astro and Gizmo are damaged and the airship console is non-functioning. There is a Gizmo sized crater in the side of the Topaz Carbuncle's hull.

[steelcarbuncle]

╔Yawn╗

Yawn: Involuntarily open one's mouth wide and inhale deeply due to tiredness or boredom.

"'ow many is it now?" Sasai snapped to the dapper Lalafell beside her dressed in dark clothing. She reclined in the beach lounge chair they had dragged into the thrice-damned workshop for her and tapped her pipe out in an ashtray.

"FoUr. ThAt's thA foUrth -Cracklesnap!- tImE ShE's YaWneD," he answered her question in a metallic and heavily modulated voice that people would struggle to rationalize belonging to a Lalafell. The man sported an ocean blue apron with little goldenrod and scarlet carbuncles embroidered on it over his jet black attire and his expression did not change one little ilm despite the apparent emotion in his voice. He turned and refilled Sasai's tea for her without asking from the teapot that sported a crocheted acorn cozy on the table next to them.

"It's been two suns! An' that idjit only slept cuz she passed out!" Sasai was livid as she stuffed her herbal mix down into her pipe, "She ain't got tha sense ta stop an' won't listen ta a lick o'reason." She frowned at her cousin, hammering metal into place and blatantly ignoring her spectators. "I tol'er ta go ta bed four bells ago… she's lucky 've not taken mah staff ta the back of 'er 'ead."

"'M reQuIreD Ta ReMinD YoU -Clickclick- ThaT ShOp MaMmeT PrOtOcal woUld PrOhiBit SucH AcTiOns," there was mirth to his metallic voice that no mammet should be able to reproduce.

Sai slid her azure gaze over to Gizmo, who had the indecency of having no expression at all. "Balls," she swore and picked up her replenished tea, pausing mid-action to stare at the steaming liquid. "Aight, I'mma go brew 'er some tea, yeah? Throw this swill out." She set down the cup gently, lit her pipe with a match and clenched the pipe in her teeth, then got up with the aid of her staff and walked stiffly out the door.

"-Whistleclick!- GlOrIouS."

Sasari slept nearly 12 bells after that dose of sleeping draught mixed with tea.

[steelcarbuncle]

╔Tepid╗

Tepid:

Showing little enthusiasm.

Sasari adjusted the jeweler's eye she wore before inspecting the careful engraving on the bangle she was working on, delicate scrolling wind was being etched on hardsilver. It wouldn't be her finest or most creative, but it helped occupy her thoughts and keep her from thinking on the empty couch near her work bench.

Just earlier that day, she had said such terrible things.

Tink tink tink.

"I am not sure there is value in your continuing to idle in the workshop."

Tink tink tink.

"You are only here because it is easy."

Tink tink tink.

"I am sure the status marriage would bring you means nothing."

Tink tink tink.

The door had slammed in the wake of her former fiance with a note of finality Sari expected. The conversation had been a calculated move to enact change, though she wasn't certain at the outset what that change would be.

Sari was limited in her capacity to feel things. She had come to understand that love was a deep wellspring of emotion. A font she could not, herself, tap. The torrent she thought there should be was a bubbling brook at even its strongest, tepid waters when there should be the shivers of a glacial spring. Something she was certain was not there.

Tink, tink, tink.

So, Sari would continue her work. Behind her barriers, she would feel… nothing.

[gallusrostromegalus]

Today’s Adventure is that I, after an unintentional 13-hour power nap,

Got woken up at 6AM by a phone call from a friend stranded in Montana because of the heat wave and almost no cell service because of their crap provider.

OhSoThat'sHowIt'sGonnaBe.jpg

Ok.

I somehow summon a week’s worth of spoons and in less than 30 minutes and 5 phone calls, get them

A hotel

An appointment with a mechanic from 2 states away

A perscription refilled from 2 states away

and A Pizza

Go me.

But then it’s 8AM and there are unscheduled live humans at the door and while EVERGENCY MODE is still on, I have already blown through a ton of spoons, and also probably shouldn’t meet whoever it is wearing just a pair of bootyshorts that say “CRYPTID” in Gothic Font on my ass.

So I greet them in those shorts and a T-shirt that I manage to put on both inside out and backwards

#nailedit

It is, Fortunately, not the mormons.

it is, Unfortunately, two UPS guys trying to deliver my other in-house friend’s new phone except the new guy doesn’t know how to operate the “sign for package” device, and the old guy that’s supposed to be mentoring him is like, 92, deaf as a post, and doesn’t actually know how to operate the device either.

by the way

it is already

over 100 out

it takes almost 30 minutes to sign for the phone

when i get back inside, i discover that apparently the Corgi has learned how to open his kennel from the inside because he is now out of the kennel and waiting for me to come in.

he also has cat litter all over his face because while he was waiting for me he also learned how to open the baby gate to the cat’s room and help himself to a cat shit breakfast.

He’ll be fine

He’s a cattle dog, they’re legally required to have at least 1 really disgusting snack they love.

but

more to the point

i have no idea at what point he learned to open his kennel from the inside

has he been staying there out of politeness this whole time??

And

I got other shit to do today.

namely.

I’m seeing a realator

The Devils most pathetic yet effective demons

I get a reminder text that I have an appointment with her

at least

I think that’s what it is because what she sends me is: “🏡⏰12:00 ❔”

With the time typed in the middle like that.

She is, according to her profile, at least 80.

so I reply “😎👍”

and then she sends me a string of GODDAMN POST-MODERN EMOJI HEIROGLYPHICS THAT TAKE UP MY ENTIRE SCREEN.

She’s on an iPhone so half of them don’t even translate across platforms

It takes me half an hour and three different software programs and goddamn wingdings to translate, but she has sent me the address and rules about masking and not wearing shoes inside.

in emoji

instead of like

literally any other format

I am

FASCINATED

and simply must meet the woman so if I don’t come back to update I got stolen by the fairies but I’m taking the Corgi with me as protection so I’ll see y'all later.

[gallusrostromegalus]

Update:

It’s not fairies

It’s Doris.

might be about to get a sewing machine and/or start an ACAB riot.

[gallusrostromegalus]

Ok, so:

I’m going to see a prospective house because due to various circumstances, I’m probably going to be moving to the other side of a major metropolitan area in the next few months, but that’s not important.

I get to the house

I get a text from the realtor

The realtor is not the person who has been texting me in emoji

The person texting me in emoji is the homeowner, who the realtor says will let me in if I want, she’s running late.

Sure

Why not

I put Herschel on leash and go to the front door

As much crime as he commits at home Herschel The Hanukkah Goblin has terrific public manners, and is Very Cute so I’m about 90% sure the emoji fairy is going to let me take him through the house

Door opens.

90-something blue haired old lady with a spine like a question mark and glasses that could be used as telescope lenses opens the door.

“OH [Gallus]! How lovely to see you!”

This woman clearly knows me because she remembers my anniversary was last week and that my sister is back from Australia.

Problem is

I know about 500 geriatric ladies with blue hair, scoliosis and extreme prescription glasses, because I am a member of 2 quilt guilds, the scientific illustration guild, the rocky mountain SCA and stagehand for three different theater companies, so I know everyone’s grandma and fuck me if I can tell them apart.

Wait

There’s a quilt in thekitchen, visible front hall

I don’t know faces but apparently I can recognize applique techniques at 40paces.

“…Doris? From SAQA?”

“YES! Who is this handsome little man?”

Herschel speaks enough English to know that “handsome little man” means “this person will feed me milk bones and bacon if I’m cute enough”

Immediately does a Sit Pretty and Shake.

Doris is bewitched

This is fine, but I also know I’m about to severely disappoint the realtor because there is no way in hell I’m moving into this House.

Because

The reason Doris is moving out is that her neighbor is a Cunt Magnifique and has been harassing Doris and everyone else to form an HOA and “improve the quality of our residents” because this woman has nothing better to do than be a racist-ass busy body, and recently, she’s set her husband, a county sheriff on Doris, trying to bully her into signing paperwork and threatening her with legal action and writing her up for bullshit property violations

Ain’t putting up with that shit

And neither is Doris, so she’s selling all her shit and moving out to live with her grandchildren in Santa Monica.

But she’s technologically impaired, so the only indication that there is an estate sale happening is a small paper sign in her front yard.

“Doris.” I say, as Herschel makes himself comfortable on the couch for belly rubs and pieces of ham. “Did you tell SAQA or FRCC or anyone on Facebook that you’re having the sale?”

“oh, I don’t know how to do all that!” She sighs. “I tried to call the Denver post but they just put me on hold for ages…”

“Watch Herschel for 20 minutes and he’s only allowed to have that one piece of ham.”

Pics of everything

Address, time and pics to Facebook, both quilt guilds she’s in, two more I have contacts for, nextdoor, and the local SCA discord for good measure.

It’s 12 minutes and Herschel persuaded her to give him at least three pieces of ham.

He is petitioning for a fourth by doing a little puppy dance on the living room rug.

“OK, that’s enough ham, people will be here in 10. Where is your cash box?”

Because apparently I’m running an estate sale today too.

It’s fine :)

There’s about 7 minutes of quiet.

Then

They DESCEND

The first on the scene is DeeDee, who doesn’t believe in speed limits. She’s arrived with a horse trailer. I remember that she is also moving.

“HI DORIS SWEETHEART WHY DIDN’T YOU CALL I HAD NO IDEA THIS WAS TODAY I WAS GOING TO TAKE ALL THIS TO THE GOODWILL HERE LET ME SET UP ON YOUR LAWN ”

DeeDee is 73, and has a special spiritual bond with Hello Kitty. She weighs like 98lbs, dresses exclusively in neon pink sanrio clothes and the kind of eye makeup drag queens aspire to.

She also speaks non-stop at a volume normally associated with jet engines.

Half the horse trailer is already spread out on the lawn.

Doris is putting price stickers on stuff

Herschel is trying to tear open a bag of cotton batting.

This, and the arrival of approximately 56 minivans, five more trucks with horse trailers and Corgi Excitement Screaming alert Cunt Magnifique that something is happening outside.

Madame saunters off her porch up to Doris and Demands to know what’s happening, you’re supposed to notify the neighborhood and get a permit to-“

Doris, surrounded by her pack of silver wolves, shouts. “OH HELLO! EVERYONE, THIS IS MARCIA. I’VE TOLD YOU ALL ABOUT MARCIA.” >:)c

… further details in a bit I think the Vikings are here.

[gallusrostromegalus]

~`* SOMEONE’S GETTING FIRED!!*`~

[gallusrostromegalus]

OK so.

You know those high school house parties you see in movies, where the person invites only a few friends, but those friends call their friends, and those friends call THEIR friends and soon like 500 people show up to one house and someone calls the cops and that one John Mulaney sketch with “SCATTER!” happens?

Old people will 100% do this too, except instead of a house party it’s an estate sale on a wednesday afternoon and when the cop shows up there are lawyers present and he is in DEEP SHIT because his wife just spent the afternoon admitting to doing a bunch of wildly illegal shit on tape.

So when we left off, the party had really started getting underway, because Marcia the Cunt Magnifique had decided to crash the estate sale and whine about “we’re supposed to coordinate garage sales as a neighborhood” and “your friends are blocking traffic on this cul-de-sac while nobody is home” weh weh-

DeeDee is about ready to throw hands but she is nowhere near the most dangerous of the Silver Silver Wolves.

That’s Dr. Ruth.

Dr. Ruth turned 99 this year and went paragliding for her birthday

So you understand just how hard she goes

Dr. Ruth sort of hobbles over and point-blank asks “So I understand you’ve been trying to start a homeowner’s association?” :3c

Marcia

Entirely misunderstanding how much danger she’s in

Starts enumerating the TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS of trying to start one, because SOME PEOPLE DON’T RESPECT AUTHORITY and all the paperwork and talking to people and she even had to ask HER HUSBAND. A SHERRIF. To go around and hand people stuff to sign.

Some people, right?

Dr. Ruth nods. Some people. She agrees.

You know.

Her son is a lawyer.

Why doesn’t she give him a call?

Marcia, a Moron: Oh that’d be great!

Dr. Ruth, hobbling back to Doris: “Don’t worry. David will handle this.”

Meanwhile

The Friends-Of-Friends and the Friends-Of-Friends-Of-Friends are arriving, lured in because they heard the words “Longarm Sewing Machine” and “Hand-made quilts”

Various factions present include but are far from limited to: -Probably Six Quilt Guilds -The Denver Art League -The Denver Leather League -The Vikings -The Klingons -The Colorado Wild Game Share -A Pack of Scientific Illustrators -A Pack of Assorted Scientists they brought with them -The Sheep Lesbians -The Horse Lesbians -Three Extremely Competent Finnish People (My Scientific Illustration Professor and her sisters) who immediately take over the estate sale and turn it into an auction to maximize profit and keep the taxes in order.

Someone brings two additional Corgi called “Cap” and “Bucky”

They are Pembroke Corgi, and weigh about 21lbs apiece

Herschel is a Cardigan Welsh Corgi and weighs 42lbs because he’s hug even for a Cardigan, and is Delighted with his New Minions.

They worship him as a God and follow him around so every time he sticks his face in something two smaller corgi faces immediately follow, like some kind of adorable cerberus.

Pelts and meat shares are being traded out of the backs of trucks and vans

Someone is making bratwurst.

Intrigued by the Brouhaha, Doris’ neighbors emerge.

They are also Geriatric and very nervous, because Marcia has been harassing them too.

They are telling this to the members of these factions that are also lawyers.

There are at least 5 of them so far and David isn’t even here yet.

I realize my realtor isn’t even here.

I decide to text her.

She is somewhere in the crowd and having a nervous breakdown because She’s SO LATE!!!

Ma'am.

It’s 103 out.

I was just handed a freshly grilled Brat

Some bitch is incriminating herself on the lawn.

Nothing scheduled is happening.

Come sit in the yard and watch the Corgis play on the Palyskool plastic slide set. They’re disassembling it like tiny furry engineers.

Have a bratwurst.

One of the Klingons appears, having physically carried my realtor through the crowd, and gently deposits her on the lawn before handing her a Bratwurst.

Diane, the Realtor, is not much older than I am, and from the preppie swaths of society that has “Never had a dog growing up” and “Didn’t Know People Could Just. Make. Blankets?” and “What is this? It’s like a hot dog but spicy?”

She is having a LEARNING EXPERIENCE.

One of the Horse Lesbians comes over and compliments Diane on her Dior handbag.

Diane thanks her ans compliments the apparently expensive brand scarf she has on. Do you. Know all these people?

Horse Lesbian explains that she’s part of the SCA, and what that is, and that why yes. Her girlfriend Tasha is an armorer. Yes like for knights.

More Livestock Lesbians assemble.

They are pulling off shirts to show off livestock and battle scars, and biceps.

Diane is LEARNING A LOT TODAY.

I am just getting everyone’s contact info and making sure Herschel does not consume his weight in bratwurst.

BWOOP!

Uh-Oh.

Marcia’s Husband is here.

I step out front.

He has used the siren to largely part the crowd and pull into his driveway but it has closed around him and there is No Escape.

He starts huffing and puffing about blocked traffic and permits and the like, but this is not his usual Can-Bully-Without-Consequences crowd.

These are Grandmas.

Veterans of the 60’s protest front who never let up.

He’s starting to turn bright red and looks like he’s about to cry and I’ve got my phone out to record whatever Incident is about to occur.

-And a Mercedes pulls up.

It’s David.

Dr. Ruth’s son.

The Lawyer.

And I emphasize that The because David is not some mere ambulance chaser.

David is the guy that the state sends to prosecute Corporate Fraud and Organized Crime and Other State Departments.

David was part of the team that took down the CO Branch of the KKK.

David is all of 5'4”, very round and a balding little man that looks like the Dictonary Definition of “Nebbish” that moves with such intense confidence and authority that he pretty much has the Pillar Men Theme Blasting behind him at all times.

So when he and three other lawyers from the state’s office step out of the car

Mr. Sherrif goes from red to while like color-changing octopus and I am like 50% sure he shit himself.

Because what he and Marcia have been doing is Very, Very, Very, VERY, Fucking Illegal.

“mArCiA!” he garbles. “sHuT tHe fUcK uP!”

Marcia is standing in the middle of the cul-de-sac, having spent the last 3 hours recounting to anyone who will listen about the ‘measures she’s had to take’ and now the 5 lawyers that were here are delightedly handing over the paperwork that she had forced on Doris and her Neighbors, and pointing at all the doorbell cameras and witnesses out to the state’s top prosecutor.

Friends

I ugly laughed.

FOUR HOURS LATER: -Auction wrapped up with a solid $40K to Doris’ name plus pending sales on some of her larger furniture and antiques

Plus whatever David gets in damages from the county sherrif’s office.

Marcia and husband are fucking busted

Herschel spent all afternoon running around and eating snacks and is passed out on the floor

Diane is “meeting up with” one of the Horse Lesbians next week.

The sewing machine went to someone else but I did open my purse and found out Doris or someone shoved a bunch of cash in there.

I’m getting ice dream and going to bed.

[dogmatix]

The Pillar Men Theme, in case anyone is curious :D (I know I was. I was not disappointed)

[dduane]

…(looking on in amazement) 

…It’s extraordinary to just stumble into the fringes of an epic…

[steelcarbuncle]

╔Pawn╗

Pawn: Deposit (an object) with a pawnbroker as security for money lent.

Mood Music

(Trigger Warning: Abuse is alluded to)

Diminutive even as far as Lalafell go, Jijinji sat across from the fountain at the heart of Ul'dah holding a wet compress to his cheek, hiding the blooming colors beneath from those who passed by. He hated the people stopping to make sure he was alright like he was child and not a grown man of seventeen turns.

He had done it, left with nary but the clothes on his back and a satchel full of all he thought would fetch a price. He was "cut off" according to his mother's last words to him, like he had any want for her money. And Father! He just stood there and watched it happen like the spineless worm he's always been. All because he refused their arranged marriage. He shakes his head, causing the unruly fluff of pale blue hair to bounce about his face. Oh well, he removed the cloth from his cheek and stood straightening his outfit, fine dark blue Thavnairian silks he can thank his uncle for getting him. He had places to be and he might as well start now. ----------

Jiji waited patiently on a step stool letting him see over the counter while the broker counted out his gil. It wasn't near as much as he hoped but it would rent him a room at the Quicksand and meals until he found a job.

"Look son," the Miqo'te behind the counter started, pushing the small burlap purse across the counter, "S'not a lot. Why don'tcha give up that ring? Not a lot of star sapphires on the market, it'd fetch me a good bit so I'll cut ya a deal." The man was not unkindly though still a business man, he could tell by the bruising on the young man's face that he's been through something.

Soft blue eyes widened at the suggestion and Jiji had to look down at his hands. The ring on his right hand's middle finger was platinum and set with a large star sapphire and surrounded with impossibly small constellations engraved around the band, set with tiny shards of diamonds at their center of each little star. Finally, he shook his head at the suggestion, "My cousin gave th-th-th-th-this t-t-t-t-t-to me. I can't."

"How bout yer vest then? It's silk… Thavnarian by tha look of it and really well tailored, from the guild right?" The Miqo'te, still trying to give the kid a leg up.

"W-w-w-w-w-w-w," Jiji gave a grunt of frustration and stamped his foot on the stool, "Well made? Th-th-th-th-this?" The astonishment that crossed his face was genuine as he held the vest out from his chest and then he gave an unexpectedly giddy grin. "Y-you can sell th-th-th-this?" He was already taking off the vest and handing it over. He can always make another.

[steelcarbuncle]

"It's important."

Mood music

Trigger Warning: Violence and Blood.

"Pay attention, Sari, you need to learn to cook too. Cooking is an important skill to take care of your people. Your family." Teteni gently redirected her daughter from watching the meandering device she had brought with her as she placed the skillet over the open flame between them.

"Sasani is not here to learn." Sari looked up from the the squat, bipedal bit of scrap metal with a mind of its own to her mother as she spoke.

Tetani has gotten used to way her daughter speaks without any intonation now and knew that was as much a question as a statement. "She is practicing axe wielding with Papa. She knows it is your duty to lead the family one day." Teteni reached out and stroked her daughter's blue and violet hair.

"I do not understand." Sari said, though she was paying attention. "Papa does not cook. How does this affect the capacity for leading the family?"

"It makes them feel cared for and included. Making sure someone has a proper meal lets them know you care for their well being." Teteni stated as she dropped a dollop of lard into the skillet and then moved to making a batter in a wooden mixing bowl.

"Does that matter." Sari's unchanging expression unnerved some of the others in the caravan, but Teteni took her daughter's straightforward question in stride.

Teteni stirred and added spices to the batter thoughtfully, showing Sari the spices in turn as she did so. She was trying to figure out how to convey what she meant when she knew Sari lacked the tools to fully comprehend her feelings on the matter. She smiled warmly to the girl, "When you care for people, they do the same in return. You get the best out of people when they care about the work they do and who they are doing that work for. You care for Sani, right?"

Sari watched her mother as she tapped the spoon on the side and then held the batter so she could inspect it. "Sani is important," there was the barest trace of Sari raising her tone with that statement, probably missed by all but the most observant. Gizmo gave an audiable whistle off to the side as he reorganized the root vegetables in by size.

"Your people are important too, Sasari," Teteni told her patiently and poured the batter into the heated and greased skillet. The whole cooking tent smelled of cinnamon.

----------

Teteni stamped her foot with a cacophony of tiny bells and pulled the violet, rose gold threaded silk sash taut in front of her, willing the spirit of fire to harken to her call. Glimmers of flame sparked to life in a circle around the small, crimson clad woman. "Leave our family in peace!" She spun, further ringing the bells of her outfit and causing the flames to grow in size before flying forward, catching the bow wielding Elezen assailant full in the chest. The poor man burst into flames immediately and started to run in a panic, spreading the fire to the brush that had partially hidden him.

"Good girl!" Sasanecco called over the chaos to Sasani as her flaming axe sent another man sprawling, the gash across his chest already cauterized against him bleeding out if he somehow survives the depth of that injury. His own axe was swung nimbly for such a small man and one swift swing later and one more of their aggressors would remember that to challenge a Lalafellin warrior was always at the peril of one's knees.

In her spin, Teteni wrapped the sash around her left arm. "Earth beneath my feet, come to my aid!" She thrust her arm upwards and the ground heaved in response to her will, a spike of boulder erupting and just narrowly missing the man who was approaching their goods wagons. "Blessed wind of the sands and shadows," she loosened the sash upon her arm and she drew the cloth twisted and close as she started her incant. She started another twirl and snapped the conductive fabric of the sash tight once more over her head, causing a flash of aetheric fire to ripple around it. "I beseech thee twist and blow!" The winds picked up almost immediately, shaking the branches of the Shroud's canopy overhead and subtly moving the covered wagons in the semicircle of the camp. Members of their caravan quickly moved from their defensives to take cover beneath their wagons, having seen the force of their fire dancer before. The attacking Elezen were not so fortunate and several lost their footing to the initial buffering of wind and then as things from around the camp took to the air and became deadly flying objects.

The man whom had been engulfed in flames finally succumbed to his fate, but not without one last reach. He clasped onto the the most colorful of the wagons and the oils used for waterproofing fueled the catching flames as they traversed the side of the wagon. The sight of the colorful roof ablaze stopped Teteni in the middle of the spin that was fueling the whirlwind around them. "Necco! Sari's in there!" Her cry sounded over the dying winds.

Sasanecco stood tall after flipping his cocombatant over his shoulders. "What?" He turned towards his wife and then followed her terrified gaze to the now wildly burning wagon. They had made Sasari hide inside the wagon when they first sounded the alarm for raiders and it doesn't look like she has made it out. No, he would not lose her like this. He barreled across the clearing now cluttered with debris as the windstorm had scattered their loose belongings about. Driven like a wild boar of the forests where they were, he tore straight through the burning wreckage of the front of the wagon to find his daughter huddled over away from the flames and hugging that strange little metal doll she had brought home with her. "Don't be afraid," he spoke gently while reaching out to her, patting an errant flame from breaking through the door that had clung to fabric between his leather armor pieces, "We're leaving, let's go."

"I am not afraid, Papa," Sasari said as she took his hand. Some small part of her was uncertain that was true. She braced her mechanical companion against her chest and slid out from beneath the bench that had been protecting her from the fire overhead.

Sasanecco yanked hard on his daughter's hand and pulled her into his arms. "I know baby, hide yer face." He pulled his cloak up around her, glad that he had been on watch at the start of the raid and was wearing it. He turned and jumped back through the fire.

----------

"Teni…" Sasanecco's voice broke. The sight that greeted the pair upon prevailing over the flames was not a pleasant one.

A spearman had taken advantage of the flame dancer's surmounting panic for the safety of her child and that her primary protector had left to alleviate her panic. She lay facing the far away tree tops, gasping as the spear he had carried had lodged just below the bustier of her crimson dancer's outfit and deep scarlet ran in rivulets across her exposed abdomen. The man did not survive his attack. Not for the burn that clearly took his sight from him that Teteni must have gotten in as she fell. But for the wild beast screaming as she stood over what was left of him with brilliantly glowing red eyes, swinging her flaming axe down like she were possessed. As though the the action could turn back time and undo the damage he wrought.

Bounding across the clearing faster than one would expect of their short legged race, Sasanecco set Sasari down next to Teni and cradled her. He looked down the length of her body, the wound and sucked in his breath. The only two that could do healing magics were her and Sani and he doesn't think Sani is practiced enough for this, nor could she quell her rage so swiftly. They still were not out of danger yet, the raiders had mostly gotten over their fear of the raging vortex Teni had created and were redoubling their efforts. He pulled Sari to him and gently transferred Teni's head and upper body to her lap. "Take care of yer mother, leave the spear alone… it's buying her time," He choked his words out and then clenched his bloodied fists and rose. If he doesn't steel himself now, he would lose all of them. "Sani!" He roared as he slammed the flat of his hands against both of her shoulders. "We've got the rest of the caravan to protect! Yer sister too. He can't hurt anyone anymore. We've a job to do." He did what he could, redirecting his daughter's rage as his own wouldn't allow him to try and calm it. He pointed her towards the fight and let her have at, turning his attention to his people as he called for action. The chaos of fighting resumed.

"My… little love," Teteni managed between gasps, her injuries had painted her lips a bright vermilion and the color slowly dripped down her chin as she talked, "You're okay."

"Yes, Mama." Sari moved her mother's hair from her face, she knew Mama didn't like that. "Mama should not talk. The spear could fall."

Teteni gave a sort of half laugh that caused her a sharp wince and renewed the coloring of her lips, "Either… way… my time is short." She reached up to trace the tattooing along Sari's face, leaving a line of scarlet over the blue violet markings that were her family's symbol of great magic potential. "You… have to… look after your sister… and Papa. They are important." She wheezed. No, she would not give up yet!

The machine next to them gave a crackle, "ImPortAnt."

Sasari glanced to Gizmo at her side and then looked back to her mother. She was certain there was something, something off about this. She could almost feel it. "Mama… you should use your magic to heal. The winds will listen."

"I… I'm sorry love. It's… it's too late for that." Teteni smiled and found her daughter's hand at her side, squeezing it though it would leave crimson in its wake. "Listen… you're… stronger than… than Necco… stronger than Sani… only you can… look after everyone. Don't… forget to find yourself… too. It's… it's important." She took a shuddering breath, her grip was losing strength and she didn't think she could hold on much longer, "Remember… how to smile… don't… forget."

[steelcarbuncle]

╔Onerous╗

Onerous: (of a task, duty, or responsibility) involving an amount of effort and difficulty that is oppressively burdensome.

Mood Music

Darkness. All of the world was darkness.

The sensors told her it was light out, many life forms registered in the target area ahead. Threat minimal.

"Commence field test of the central cannon." A voice commanded from behind, he wore the full armor that affected his voice unlike the others.

"Locating targets," Her mechanized system voice responded to the commander. The sensors flared to life again, taking in the people gathering to observe the mechanized unit.

No. No stop! Please!

"Targets locked on," the voice coming from her system continued. Changing designation of life forms to threat.

They can't fight back! Please!

"Charging central aetheric beam," uncaring of her wishes, the system voice droned on. Channeling of aether battery commence. Temperature raising within acceptable parameters. Charge at 76%. 88%. 97%.

Get away...Run!

The whole world was darkness and pain. Searing, burning pain.

"Firing." Internal overload. Further use will damage battery beyond repair. Downtime required. Commence cooling systems. Scanners indicate there are no remaining targets. Proceed with downtime.

-----------

The screams that echoed within the hanger as Sasari awoke had to have been her own. She frantically pulled at her arms to remove the melting metal she remembered. Finding the metal gone and only the scars remained, she clasped her fingers in her sweat drenched nightshirt and tried to get a handle on herself. She tentatively reached across her connections to the souls of her sister and her other attachment but found the former was too far for her to provide comfort and the latter snuggled safely within the arms of a lover.

She quashed any more effort to reach out for comfort and instead pulled the multicolored blanket from her pile of pillows and pressed it against her face. Thankfully the mammets, used to this, gave her the professional courtesy of ignoring their maker's plight as she choked quiet sobs into the hodpodge fabric.

Once spent, she rose to get ready for the day. She straightened her work clothing and pulled on her tool belt before spending a few moments running her fingers over the scars at her wrists. It hasn't been that long since the bindings had been lost.

Freedom was proving to be onerous.

[steelcarbuncle]

╔Growth╗

Growth: Something that has grown or is growing.

Mood Music Music Box Song

◄2 turns, or 29 moons, or 933 suns, or 22,405 bells.►

"Sasari, it is your turn to present your project," Master Susumehi called patiently while the other three apprentices stirred and tittered among themselves.

Sasari waited patiently for the previous work, a lovely set of ruby and pearl necklace and earrings worked in rosegold and designed in the style of Sil'dah, to be removed from the presentation pedastal by the prior apprentice. By comparison, the copper box with mother of pearl clouds inlaid in it, was quite simple as Sari set it down for her presentation. She waited until the apprentices had settled their whispering before speaking. "Turn out the lights… please."

The others did as asked, though there was sure a complaint rising from the other apprentices about the odd girl's request. When the only remaining light was the soft blue glow from the crystals in Sasari's bracers, there came the winding sound of a clockwork mechanism that served to hush the whispered gripes of everyone shrouded in darkness.

The sharp smell of sulfer and that singular mote of bright light at the tip of a match.

The flame carefully lowered behind a small moving wall of colored glass that flowed at the center of the now open box. Tiny brass arms moved small figures around the glass casting shadows shaped as celestial bodies in the sea of rainbow hues that danced around the darkened room.

The room that had only been sounding with the soft clicking of mechanisms seemed to come to life as the first music box began. It was soon joined by a secondary music box, tinging a soft harmony to the first. The room was filled with the gentle, bell like music of the internal music boxes as well as the dancing light for several more moments before the song drew to a close.

"Impressive, Sasari, at first I had wondered why you had been excusing yourself from working with the others but I see you needed to seek outside help for the music cylinder, yes?" Master Susumehi clapped twice while he spoke.

"Yes… I… only had a melody. A bard that had been performing outside the Quicksand helped with the second cylinder." She responds matter of factly to their teacher as she moves to relight the lanterns in the room. "He… also said that aurum regis makes the best music so I reforged the first cylinder upon his recommendation." Sasari paid no mind to the murmurs from the other apprentices at her talking about what, was in fairness, quite an expensive metal to work with.

"Excellent! All right my young apprentices, collect your works and off to bed with all of you. We'll talk of your continuation training tomorrow individually." Master Susumehi shuffled the paperwork in front of him and stood and turned to leave them to their own devices.

"The rich dumb girl trying ta show tha rest of us up!" The Hyrian apprentice spoke up to his Lalafellin cohort.

Sasari moved to snuff out the the lamp at the center to her music device before she could close it back up. Paying no mind to anything said in her vicinity that wasn't from the Master.

"Anyone kin show yer rings up, Bertram," the Lalafell snorted at his own joke as he settles the ruby necklace and earrings into a display box for safe keeping.

Sari continued folding the components carefully into the box so that the mechanisms were not damaged upon closing, finally closing the box with a soft snap.

"Shaddup Cici. I cut all tha stones meself, that takes talent!" Bertram glowered at his friend.

Was this when she should say something? She looked at the box in her hands and then at the two somewhat squabbling. "All… of your pieces…. showed your work." The flat monotone of her delivery did not land particularly well with the Hyurian lad and he seemed to turn a bit red at the words.

"Yea? We all can't sit with a hammer all day like you!" The young man smacked the box from Sari's hands. Hitting a desk before ultimately the floor spelled the demise of the copper music box.

All of the apprentices stared at the fallen box with its small halo of brass bits and colored glass shards scattered around it before the others made their escape from what would likely be the wrath of the Master. Sasari stared longer than the others, trying to place the weird notion she had that something was off. She then got a broom and cleaned up the hazard.

Why was telling him that his work showed in his finished piece wrong?

◄2 turns, or 29 moons, or 933 suns, or 22,409 bells.►

Sasari sat in her room with the larger of the aurum regis cylinders in her hands, carefully running her fingers over the bumps that made up the pattern for the song. Master Susumehi told her he would help her fix it from accidentally dropping the fragile music box. Next time she would build it stronger.

◄2 turns, or 30 moons, or 960 suns, or 23,051 bells.►

"This is the important part, 'prentice, pay attention." The old Roegadyn spoke more harshly than Master Susumehi had, but it really made little difference to Sasari as she sat attentively at the work table. He turned the carefully crafted mammet core in his hands so the girl could easily see the work. He picked up a pair of bent nose tweezers and used them to point out the lines along which the aetheric energy would flow along the core. "Here is where your connections need be. Misalignin' this can ruin the whole thing so ya gotta be careful with this."

"Yes Master," Sasari nodded to his words, taking small notes on a pad of paper.

"Good, t'morrow we'll work on the vocal compartment after you practice buildin' yer own core today. Get a'going gel, y'ain't got all night." Master Autumn shooed his only apprentice away from his work table.

◄2 turns, or 31 moons, or 1,002 suns, or 24,048 bells.►

The three legged mechanical construct wobbled across the table in front of Sasari and then turned unsteadily upon registering the sharp drop off of the edge. "ObStiCal… DanGeRouS -HissCrackle!-"

Sari's hands were clasped in front of her as she watched the construct. She couldn't place why she felt like she couldn't sit still. The feeling was only vaguely remembered, like a dream, but still she kept her hands together to keep them behaving. "Yes… though you should survive a tumble. Your vocal compartment is made of hardsilver," She told the construct as it turned again to avoid bumping into a box of parts she had borrowed from the Master.

Master stepped into the workroom and blinked at his apprentice, it was only just past dawn, had the young girl been here all night? He was even more surprised at the small contraption she had cobbled together after leaving her to work on practice pieces. "Oi, what's that lil' gizmo ya got there?"

[steelcarbuncle]

╔Temper╗

Temper: Improve the hardness and elasticity of (steel or other metal) by reheating and then cooling it.

Mood music

Trigger Warning: Torture, abuse. References to core points in Stormblood. (I apologize in advanced for the length. This is summing up a nearly 6 month long plot.)

Sasari felt the dingy but cool metal floor beneath her, a small relief from where she had been previously.

"You can't try again so soon, the process would kill her!" A male voice just beyond the bars of her cell exclaimed. His voice was nasal and she couldn't place the accent.

How long has she been back from the transference pod? Sasari's eyes slid open in the dimness of her cell. There were figures stood outside her confinement but she was having trouble focusing on them. Was she supposed to live through that process? Did anyone live?

"What good is that piglet's "gift" while it's in possession of it?" The man in armor retorted. She didn't know his title or name, but the Garlean armor had an unmistakable effect on how he sounded.

Right, they wanted them because of her echo. Sasari rolled onto her back and brought her hand up to her chest and gripped the fabric of the dirty shift they had given her to wear. She carefully rubbed the scarring that has been exposed on her wrist by them taking her limiters. She reached across the thinned connection to Sasani. She could only barely feel that her sister lived. They had put the limiters on her!

"We'll have to coerce her cooperation then." Nasal voice again. She was pretty sure he was one of the ones in the white coats that operated the pods.

Coerce? What more could they do to them besides kill them? Why did they need her echo in particular?

"Speak to the warden. Report to me once you've gotten its cooperation," The armored man turned and walked away. Leaving the man in the white coat behind.

Sasari could feel him looking at her, she refused to acknowledge his presence. Whatever they are planning, she will never help them.

----------

"Sani!" Sasari screamed through the bars as she pulled and yanked at the unyielding metal in front of her. The young Lalafellin woman was hardly recognizable from just a sennight prior. Bruising had swollen her left eye closed and blood matted her dark blue hair in places. Blue black coloring showed through the tear in the shoulder of her shift and extended well down her right arm. Her bare legs bore their own share of colors, dark purple in some spots while yellow and green in others. Beyond her own injuries, Sari could feel the white hot pain in her side as he sister cries out again. She slumped to her knees and heaved lightly from the transferred feelings.

"Fascinating," That nasally voice again. "It works via proximity. The closer they are together, the more of a response." He made a couple of notations on the pad he held in front of him, calm as though he was observing some animal in a pen.

"Ah..ahhhhh!" Sari's startled scream echoed the one from just a few cells away, she clutched her left arm as it felt though it were being melted. "St… stop this!" She managed her voice the best she could, but her vocal cords felt ragged and the words came hoarsely from her. "She'll die. If… she dies, so do I."

"Hmm," the man sounded bemused, "The fortitude of a person is sometimes quite impressive. You'd be amazed what you can live through."

----------

"Here little one. For your eye." The Elezen woman that sometimes walked the cell hall kneeled outside the cell. She held out a poultice of minced herbs on a clean white cloth.

Sasari eyed the gift with some trepidation before moving closer by pulling herself across the ground with her arm. She didn't trust trying to rise on her own volition, she could no longer remember which injuries were hers and which were not. She had only found reprieve in Sasani losing consciousness and that thought sickened her.

The woman smiled grimly and used her free hand to remove the helmet that obscured her features. She had a mass of unruly red hair tucked under that thing that would have impressed Sari in different circumstances. "I brought you an apple too."

"Why?" Surprising even her, Sari's voice cracked when she spoke. She cleared her throat as she reached for the offered poultice. She very carefully placed it against her swollen eye.

"Because this…" The woman gestured to the far cells beyond Sari's vision. "This isn't right. It is too much," she looked down to the woman in the cell and offer a small smile, "You remind me of my little sisters. You can call me Illy." She then placed a mirror apple in the cell and moved to get up, taking a moment to smooth her hair beneath the helmet.

"Thank you… Illy."

----------

Sasari woke to the feeling of having the wind knocked out of her. She coughed and choked for a time, flipping onto her side and curling into a ball around the pain she was certain was there. Had she been hit? She wasn't so sure as she was by herself in her cell.

"This stops when you choose," the man in the white coat's voice was taut. Was that annoyance?

Sasari pulled herself to her knees with the help of the bars that kept her in. She managed to look to the man with both eyes now as the injury on her face was more or less just yellow-green memories of what had been. She narrowed her icy aqua eyes into a glare. "You are the gaoler. You… jest of my choice in the matter."

"You have something I want," the man lowered the tablet from blocking his gaze, leveling it on the caged subject before him.

"You have tried to take it. I cannot give it. What more is there?"

The man tsks, "You reconstructed those bracelets." He gave an oily smile and continued, "There is another item I would like remembered."

She blanched under the cold gaze and suggestion. "… No."

"Remember your choice."

The screams coming from the cell block echoed for the rest of that day, well into the night.

----------

"Shame about Illianna," one of the guards began as they were making their sweep.

A new voice in the block? How odd. Sari was used to the guards speaking as though she didn't exist by now though. She gingerly touched the newly colored side of her face, if she had to guess, it was a vivid violet. She knew her pale skin bruised fairly easily though, it wasn't the worst of them.

"Oh yeah, the conscript you replaced right? What was that about?" Another guard, one that has been here for a couple of weeks Sari was pretty sure.

"Treason. Something about setting back work efforts," the first guard answered.

Treason? Surely he doesn't mean… she was the only kind one!

"Damn. Conscripts though. She was pretty. Good sense of humor." The other guard kept on as though this was some sort of every day thing.

Are they even human? Why does a comrade mean so little? What is wrong with them? Sasari curled up and turned away from the bars. It isn't like her tears now made any difference. It's never stopped them before.

----------

"… I… will do it," Sasari's voice trembled as she spoke, trying to push herself up against the wall with her working arm as she did so.

The guard in the cell with her straightened up from having just kicked the small woman into the wall, he turned towards the cell door to talk. "Get the boss. We've broken her."

Sari sat stiffly in the chair at the work table, her left arm in a sling currently while it was still healing. They had given her a robe to wear now that she was working for them and she liked that at least there wasn't any blood on cloth. She wasn't exactly clean, but was given a chance to wash up and take most of the filth from her hair.

The broken shards of a device lay on the table in front of her along with some very basic tools. She could see the workings of Allag in the pieces before she even touched them, gleaming in the scuffed golden alloys. She feels like she has seen the parts before, but the malice of ages past were just echoes of voices long gone and she was quite uncertain if she were right in her guesses.

"There… is nothing for it." She says more to herself than either of the guards beside her work station and picked up one of the shards. She rubbed the metal with her thumb for a time and went still. The guards exchanged glances for a time, they had heard stories about Eorzeans' weird abilities but it was another to get to witness it first hand. The men both started when the small woman gasped and teetered out of her chair, unceremoniously crashing to the floor. "This?! He wants this remembered?!"

----------

The desk in front of the only Lalafellin worker was littered with drawings, tools, and metal bits. The drawings depicted a circular device on several of the pages and how it interfaced with the captive was described in tiny Eorzean script. A few pages showed a great war machine with a centralized cannon, notations along side mentioned their current inability to power the central cannon. They were working on bridging the energy interface. They had allowed her a lot more leeway in her treatment with how cooperative she's been. They were complacent in how completely they broke her. They took little notice of her work as long as she was making progress in completing the device that sat on the table before her. To have her plan work, she had to continue making progress. The circular device lay on the table, quietly humming as she tested the power conduits that ran through it. It was nearly good enough to test out she was pretty sure. They wouldn't need to coerce cooperation with this complete, they could compel it instead. She hated this. She hated the fact that she could see the past of things. She hated herself. If she were to die here, would Sani survive? No. They were keeping her sister alive as the only means to control her. They needed Sani to keep her working. She needed to keep working. One thing she was glad for, they rarely asked what she needed supplies for these days. Only a few more small devices and her plan would be ready.

----------

The first blasts were near the armory, then within it, causing a cacophonous roar to tear through the castrum. The soldiers scrambled to make sense of the fires as the next wave explosions rocked the magitek hanger.

Sari rolled from her cot in the room she had been in the last couple of weeks. They had upgraded her room recently because she had been behaving so well. She pushed herself up and peeked through door as she cracked it open, the guards were gone! Good. The safe path should be to the left and down the stairs. She'd have to go past the work area which is fine, there was unfinished business in there anyroad. Where were the cells from there though? She racked he brain for several moments, trying to quell the rising panic that was not her own she could feel.

"Sani… I am coming." She headed out, picking up a magitek rifle from a fallen soldier who had been stood too close to a blast. She was lucky this area hadn't caught fire as it was right on her path down. The stairs were challenging with her leg injuries still hindering her, but she didn't dare try the lift. She was little and managed to hide in doorways and the panicked guards paid her little mind as they rushed by to deal with the fires elsewhere. The workroom, good she made it to the first stop. She needs her tools to get Sani out and she needed to destroy the work, silently cursing that she didn't simply plant a device to wreck this place as well.

"You!" She knew that nasally voice anywhere. The man in the white coat saw her enter and moved to stop her progress. "What have you been doing?! How could you do this?"

Sari held the rifle unsteadily, electricity crackled over the surface of the machine as she transferred energy to it. She lifted it with a snarl, "You do not break steel… you forge it." She tried firing, but the front of the rifle couldn't handle the load of it charge and Sari amplifying it and the front of the device gave way. The shock of the small explosion knocked Sari back into a table and after that the darkness grew. She would never know if she hit her mark.

[steelcarbuncle]

╔Bolt╗

Bolt: To break away from control or a set course.

Mood Music

--------------------

◄Six moons, or 197 suns, or 4,744 bells since awaking.►

Sasanecco sat on the bedroll in his daughters' tent, his face more gaunt that it had been half a turn ago. Sasani, dressed in a beautiful royal purple silk dress, lay beside her father with her head in his lap, the tracks of tears dried upon her peacefully sleeping face. He pet his daughter's hair gently and then looked at the bedroll across from them where his other daughter sat with her legs bent beneath her, quietly watching them without any expression and dressed in a sky blue robe that was easy to get around the strange manacles that still bound her wrists. He heaved a sigh as he met the doll-like aquamarine gaze of his first born. "You understand what this means? You are to stay in Ul'dah until some progress can be made on the bindings."

"I understand that I will stay," the girl's voice came out in a flat monotone, as though she were reading it off some internal card. She paused for a moment as she processed her thoughts and continued, "I will stay until the bindings can be separated. It is not good to limit the usage of my hands."

"They need to remove them completely, Sasari," Sasanecco intoned gently to his daughter. He did not like the way there was nothing in her voice any longer, this once cheerful and energetic child. He gazed at the girl he hardly recognized sitting unflinchingly across from him. At least she spoke now, it had taken moons to get even that much from her while she adjusted to the limitations on her aether.

"No," She responded without any sort of explanation.

"This was not the right way, Sari. We can find another way to circumvent Thal's Price. Sani does not want her life at the cost of yours!" There was a touch of pleading to the man's voice.

Sasari took a long moment to think on the words that would be the effective, "Sasani, had no voice. It… was important. I chose."

◄Seven moons, or 232 suns, or 5,574 bells since awakening.►

Carefully open the rings.

"You see that? She really is wearing shackles!"

Slide into the rings on your base.

"Cor, yer right! Hey girl! Girl! Can she not hear me?"

Make sure the rings are laying in the right direction.

"She hears just fine, but she won't talk to ya."

Close the rings with both pliers.

"I bet I kin get 'er ta talk."

Make sure the links are laying in the right direction.

"I wouldn't. Master Susumehi had the last 'prentice that bothered her mucking out the kilns and helpin' in the stables for a sennight."

Carefully open the rings.

"Wot? Jus' for botherin' 'er?"

Add the four new rings to the pattern.

"Yeah, I know she's odd but it's best ta just let her be."

Close the rings.

"Sure sure, she can finish tha chainwork just like the mammet. It's boring anyroad."

Smooth out the chain work.

"C'mon, let's go get a late lunch."

Sasari slowly lowered her pliers and the delicate electrum chain that dangled from her grip, letting the chain rest in her lap. She was working on simple tasks and perfecting what skills she could while her wrists remained locked together by a small metal tether between the cuffs of the shackles. She looked after the two apprentices who had been watching her work and talking as though she could not hear them.

Why is doing something considered odd? Am I not doing good enough work?

She then turned her gaze to the mammet she worked along side. She imagined it often worked near her because she rarely spoke and was therefore not what it called a "nuIsaNCe."

We are clearly different. I do not understand.

◄Nine moons, or 303 days, or 7,287 bells.►

Clank!

"There we are! Separated!" The older Lalafellin man said in his usual jovial tone. He carefully spread the young girl's wrists away from one another inside of the magic circle the thaumaturges had drawn for them on the floor of the plain room. There was a cheer from the others in the room, two guests from the thaumaturges' guild and one from the alchemists'.

Sasari gingerly tested the brokenness of the restraints, moving her arms further than they had been the better part of a turn. She felt something else beside her physical freedom, but couldn't really place it. Remembering what she was told was important, "Thank you… Master Susumehi."

"Mind lass, that the barrier they create is still in place. It will take time to work out how to counteract that, the connecting chain was just a weak point," Susumehi cautioned. He had a grandfatherly demeanor towards the daughter of his friend and he was troubled by the withdrawn way she interacted with others. Children should be allowed to be children for as much time as we can afford them.

"This…" Sasari had begun pausing while she talked to weigh out what she would say carefully at each step, "is an improvement. I can… now do more things. It would be good for learning more… while I am to stay here. This work should be… repaid."

Susumehi leveled his gaze at the lass, he had hoped there would be some change in the enchantment though he knew it would survive separating the cuffs. "If you wish, Sasari. Why don't you rest for tonight, my girl. The preparations were tiring and we can start on some basics for using the hammer and torches tomorrow since you have been studying metals already."

"Yes, Master Susumehi." She clasps her hands to her lap and bows to him and then each of their guests in turn. She would have curtseyed once upon a time, but the moons with her wrists linked together forced her to adapt the custom which she knew people expected of her.

When all had fled her room, she got a cleaner out from the cabinet in the corner and scrubbed the floor until the traces of the circle were but a memory of the previous sun. She had gathered the links of the chain that had scattered around the circle in a small wooden bowl and placed it on her night stand. She stood and observed her work, running her fingers down her arms where they were sore from scrubbing to make sure there was not too much pain tomorrow as that would make it hard to work. She looked at the new night clothes they had gotten her, probably to celebrate she could wear relatively normal clothing again. Papa must have told Master Susumehi blue was her favorite as the night clothes were a pale blue and she could see various shades of the color peeking from the small open wardrobe. Now blue is just a color. Isn't it?

Sasari paused as she held the cool cloth in her hands. She blinked as she looked at the garment and then went ahead and got changed. She slid into bed and laid there quietly, still as a stone until sleep overcame her.

For the first time in the moons since her awakening, she dreamed. In the dream, she could remember what it was like to know how to smile. In her dream, Sani was there.

[steelcarbuncle]

╔Cross╗

Cross: "We'll cross that bridge when we get there." "We've crossed the bridge and burnt it behind us." "This is a crossroads."

Mood Music (Not the whole thing! Just the song at the time mark.)

---------------------

Warm winds blow over the sands of Thanalan, bringing the soft whispers and life to the glittering morning of the desert. Teteni's vibrant red hair waved in the breeze as she sat listening to the voices it brought, eventually rising with a soft jingle of her crimson dancing silks and bells. Opening her brilliant turquoise eyes, she took in the the tents of the caravan folk, starting to be broken down for today's travel.

"Mama! Mama!" Her twin girls exclaimed excitedly as they ran up to her, dressed in identical dark blue vests and silks for the day matching their blue, violet streaked hair. They spoke in unison in a fashion that some of their people found unsettling, but Teteni just found it endearing as they continued talking, "We get to the forest today, right?"

"Yes, my dears," She reassured the children, nearly her height already despite being so young, she patted both on the head. "Before nightfall anyroad, have you packed your tent?"

"Yes, Mama! Can we ride in front?" Sasari, the technically elder twin, grasped her sister's hand as they asked. "We packed and bid the sands good morning," they both spoke excitedly of their maturity, never referring to themselves individually. What one did, the other always did.

"Help your father finish packing and then you can ask your uncle, he probably would like for you to keep Sasai company, she always gets headaches when we enter the Twelveswood."

"Yes, Mama." The twins' faces droop for a bit but the nod and dash off into the work being done, hand in hand.

---------------------

"Confounded woods!" Sasanecco exclaimed as his wagon teetered for a moment from having gone over some particularly large roots, the chocobos warked in indignation over the whole ordeal. The young Lalafellin man had to halt the lead wagon and hop off to make sure the wheel was good and attached after that. He pushed the turban back from his forehead as he worked to make sure the wheel was affixed properly as the smaller riding chocobos pulled up behind him, Cocoepo's distinct throat clearing making him scrunch up his features. "It'll be fine, I just gotta reinforce the fastening pin."

"Best mind your words 'round here, brother. You know tha trees are listenin'," Cocoepo patiently reminded his subordinate of their surroundings, traveling in the Twelveswood was always a mixed bag for the Caravan. He raised his hand to his son's bird behind him to get them both to come to a halt. "We'll only be stopped a moment Fif, go let your mum an' 'er sister know."

"Yea, pa." The young lad with soft sky hued hair responded in a cracking voice and turned his royal blue bird around to head to the second wagon that was approaching. He pulled up beside the brightly colored wagon and smiled to the two drivers, similar looking woman save for the stark red hair and garments of one and the royal blue hair and pale sky blue outfit of the other. "Pa says we'll be goin' soon… is Sai okay?"

"She will be, Fif," Teteni smiled and responded to her nephew as the woman beside her pulled heavily on the reigns to get the chocobos to come to a stop. "Your mother's given her a sleeping draught and the girls are looking after her. Where's your carbuncle?"

"'E's scoutin' ahead like Pa asked." Fifiton managed to not let his cracking voice mangle the words this time. "Missed tha roots tho'."

"Ya mean playin' under them?" The woman clad in light blue next to Teteni grinned at her son. "Go on an' get its report then since we gotta wait, eh?" She then shoos the boy along. She leans to her twin's side and sighs after the boy rides off, "Gotta keep 'em busy else he frets."

"I know, Susuli… fate of those born without the Price I suppose." Teteni muses for a time, then shakes her head and looks back to her twins in the wagon, fussing over their sleeping cousin by making sure she was tucked in and comfortable since the wagon came to a sudden stop.

"I wouldn't reverse our roles, Teteni, m'content wit my potions," Susuli reassures her sister. She glances back at the children and then looks back to Teteni. "Though 'tis a shame how it manifests sometimes."

"They'll figure it out in their own time," Teteni says firmly, refusing to meet her sister's gaze for fear of finding pity in them. She looks instead at the men bickering over the wagon wheel ahead. "We twinborn all do."

---------------------

"'E's nothing more than a grave robber." Cocoepo placated his brother in law as they walked back into camp together. He pinched the bridge of his nose and then looked to the walls of Gridania, still within sight through the trees. "And what he wrought from the depths 'ave no place in our lives in this age."

"Aye, I know, Coco," Sasanecco sighed and set down the bag of samples he had gathered from the guilds and began sorting through the lot. "S'just there was a couple of things I thought the little ones could use. Sari's a got an eye for metals and Sani…" he trailed off into a slightly pained expression before dropping the thought. "Well I am sure she'd like anything her sister would if his prices weren't straight thievery."

Cocoepo's expression softened at the pained look his brother, his friend, wore at the thought of his daughters' struggles. Those who marry in have their children subject to the family's curse and he very much understood his struggles, "Well, they are sisters. They're bound to like similar things." Even Cocoepo didn't much believe what he said, but he was trying to be there for the man. "We can go back on the morrow, the man says he'll be in town for a week. There was that set of, bracers, that Sari was interested in yeah? She played with them for a good quarter bell."

Sasanecco put down the pair of shoes he had taken from his bag and shook his head, "They weren't bracers, they were shackles. There was binding between them. I won't get them even if he does come down in price, the girls don't need something like that." He shakes his head, "Some ancient means to trap somebody just sounds like an accident waiting to happen. I'll not let the girls endanger themselves like that."

"Papa! Papa!" Sasari and Sasani bound from behind one of the still wagons, hand in hand and out of breath, "Fif helped us practice carbuncles! We made one together!" The young girls' cheery smiles gave both the somewhat brooding men smiles themselves. "He wants us to bring him sweets cause Sai's too sick to make snacks."

Sasanecco laughs heartily and digs around his bag to find the candied chestnuts he had picked up for them. He tosses the small bag to the girls, "Go share with your cousins then."

"Thanks, Papa!"

---------------------

Teteni woke with a start, there was piercing cries filling the night air from a voice she wasn't exactly used to hearing. At least, not a voice that often sounded by itself. She slid from the furs covering her bedroll and pulled on a robe to head out of the tent and towards the smaller, colorful tent that comprised her girls' private space. Somewhere between getting robed and the door flap, she had broke into a run. Something was wrong.

"Mama! Sari's gone!" Sasani wailed looked up with panicked pale blue eyes at her mother. She soon turned her tear streaked face back to the crumpled form of her sister laying on the rug of their tent and continued to shake her limp form.

"No," incredulous, Teteni felt the world lurch beneath her and she had to grab one of the tent's supports to keep herself upright. She pushed forward with every ounce of strength she could muster as it tried to abandon her body and dropped to her knees beside her daughters. She turned Sari's unmoving limp form supine to note the odd metal bands she bore upon her wrists almost immediately. They were bound together, these were shackles! She checked for signs of life and was relieved to find the soft thrum of her heart beneath her fingers and the slow breaths of someone in deep slumber. She gently rested Sari down on the rug and pulled Sani's still panicked form to her in a hug, "She sleeps little one, shush now. Calm down so I can help her."

Sasani quieted into sobbing hiccups and leaned into her mother's side as she handled her fallen sister. She clenched her hands in the pale red robe her mother wore and finally hid her gaze from her sister's form by burying her face against her mother. She couldn't stand this feeling of being alone.

Sasanecco had gotten to the entrance of the tent finally, his battle axe slung at his backside as he had been a part of the evening watch on the far side of their camp. Very soon after, Cocoepo and Susuli, the leaders of the caravan dressed in night clothes joined him.

"How is she?" Susuli was the one who broke the silent shock the three newcomer's shared as she pushed the men aside and went to kneel next to her twin sister.

"Asleep, I think? I can find nothing wrong with her…" Teteni lightly touched the metal that was latched around the young girl's wrists. She could sense the enchantment from them keeping them in place, but the magic was foreign to her.

"We'll take 'er ta the conjurers, Teteni. They might know what to do." Susuli put a hand on both Teteni and Sasani's shoulders.

"Mama," Sasani began weakly and sniffed while she unburied her face, "I can't feel her anymore."

[steelcarbuncle]

Carbuncle Candies

One of Sai's rhymes about her potion laden candies. I just wanted to save this for posterity. "Remember as always my dear friends Choice of sweets on you depends Wrappers that glitter to thy sight Are filled with alchemical delight And from these words thee could discern A way to alleviate thy concern Should the topaz catch thy eye On its calming flavor thee can rely But should thee try the ruby treat Thy health restoring is that candy's feat Trappings of emerald thee will find A restorative to one's own mind Take care with the onyx draught For after the waking world will find thee naught Should it be warmth thee seek Within citrine wrap should thee peek Within the amethyst trappings there concealed A new state of being might be revealed But be wary of the lure of moonstone A curative that taste will not atone If no alchemical quirk is sought Within peridot thee will find it naught"