melodiesoflife | Hidden Truth [Log]

Hidden Truth [Log]

What: A log for everyone to gain the information in the Hidden Truth video tape.
Where: The Observatory.

There had been a flurry of letters sent out from Jack and Chiaki, first to Zelda to ask to borrow the Observatory, and then to every Hero of Light, alerting them that they had uncovered some intelligence received in the Heran Empire before the Capital had fallen to Crystal, and that everyone needed to see it immediately.

Jack, Chiaki, and a few others brought in a screen connected to a machine that some would recognize as a VCR. "With our peace mission to the Imperial Capital over Christmas, we returned with a recording made on 20th-century Earth technology, the kind that doesn't have an analogue on Crystallis. It took us time to build a machine to be able to play it. This information comes from Kalki, recorded what appears to be years ago. We obtained it from the Imperial Spy, Jenni. As of right now, we still have no reason to believe that Kalki is alive. But this comes from her, and I apologize to everyone who might be upset by seeing her again."

With that, Jack plays the recording. He stands by the screen and repeats the words for everyone to hear, for those who cannot understand English. Since Kalki's first words are to explain why she is recording it this way, it makes sense why he has to do this. He keeps his own emotions in check throughout, until the explanation of the Bard song that everyone gets to hear. That seems to upset Jack.

Once the recording is over, Jack pauses. "We will need some help from any other English speakers to create a written transcript of the recording so that anyone can access this information at any time. The tape and player will remain here for any Heroes to review. We ask that you please be careful with the machine."

Finally, Jack sits down to let the room descend into the inevitable chaos.

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Ramza crossed his arms and furrowed his brows as he mulled over Kalki's message.

"I did not believe Kalki had all the answers in life, and I do not think her death has changed that. We cannot stop searching for another solution, no matter what she claims."

"Everyone here keeps saying, 'We cannot...'. We 'could not' reach out to the Empire and rescue the Herans. But we did, nonetheless. If the Calamity has eyes and ears and voices, then it is not beyond hope to communicate with it."

It was a naive hope, but Ramza had seen so much bloodshed caused by failure to communicate and unwillingness to try. The Calamity was trying to understand them. Was that not the point of the avatars? Should the Heroes not afford their foe the same courtesy?

"But they already tried that."

Kaji is already greatly upset, incredibly out of the man's usual moods. He's pouring some desperation into his words, as if trying to talk anyone else out of trying the plan. "Ib, and- and Kalki, before! 2000 years ago. They tried to talk to the Calamity. That's the decision that they made that put them all in that garden with the crystal in the place between worlds. Once they got there, they couldn't leave."

It's only after he's spoken that Kaji seems to realize what a raving lunatic he sounds like. "The dreams! The dreams we had of everyone else's memories! I can't be the only one who saw that place?"

Ramza shook his head, frustrated that this man was ignoring the point. "Yes, they tried before, because it is the right thing to do. I think it worth the risk. Before, they failed because of...like this video...a language barrier. They could not understand one another. Maybe, with the avatars, we can now."

He balled up his fist. "The Calamity has given itself ears with which to listen. I think we must be brave enough to speak. It is a better plan than dooming us all with the death song."

"You say that because you didn't see them." Kaji shakes his head. "Doomed to repeat their own actions for 2000 years. There is a version of Ib, one of Kalki, and they are stuck there, in this place that I don't know if we can even get back to. A garden, presided over by a little girl, and between it all, the largest Crystal I've ever seen, broken. That's the place you're trying to get to."

"You think it wants to listen. So how could you do that without just- dooming yourself to be stuck there until the next group of Heroes comes along?"

Edited (.) 2016-03-16 01:02 (UTC)

When Ramza spoke, it was quiet. "I saw it. The shades in the garden..." Ramza didn't think they were trapped spirits so much as echoes of Heroes past. But it was clear Kaji thought they were more than that.

"I think they would dislike you belittling what they did. They risked their lives to try to save the world. They deserve our respect for their bravery."

"We can try to talk to the Avatars. It may be different this time. Shakyamuni wanted to talk to us before. She spoke, and sent us home safely from the rift. It could happen a second time."

"You saw!?" Color Kaji surprised. He slowly holds his hands out in a placating manner. "Look, I don't want to belittle what they did, the exact opposite, really."

Better start this train of thought from the beginning. "Ib was there. I can talk up a storm, but I don't know if I can frame the argument 'please don't destroy our worlds' any better than she can. Go there. Yes. But. We need something more than just an argument. And I don't even mean a fight, either."

Kaji pulls a cigarette from his pocket, but just fidgets with it, makes no move to light it, or he knows Zelda would ninja out from thin air and extinguish it. "That whole scene, it's played out over and over again in my nightmares. And the little girl, that guardian there? She wanted to help us. She was helping Ib. I don't think she needed to be convinced to not destroy the world."

Ramza shook his head. "I did not see their attempts. Only their shadows, in the garden. I am sorry." He knew Kaji cared for Ib. Seeing her like that, even separated by thousands of years, would have been painful.

He tried to think of how best to voice his thoughts. "We have an an ally, or at least an envoy, in the girl. Maybe she could help us understand what the Calamity needs to survive. What precisely it feeds on. Because...it is fighting to survive just as we are, and so it will fight just as fiercely as we do. But if there is a way it can sustain itself without destroying everything, perhaps it can change its course."

Cloud glanced over to Ramza and nodded. He didn't know what sort of paths were otherwise open to them, but trying to control the Calamity lead to nothing good in that Vision. Even if the Sage was part of the Calamity the last thing they needed to do was make his warning come true. And that had more to do with everyone's trust between each other than anything else.

"Through the avatars you mean? It might be worth trying. Do you think the Sage would actually talk to us now that we know about this?" He wasn't completely on board with this either but he couldn't help but worry that Ramza would one day go too far in his pursuit of peace. He wouldn't let his friend go alone.

Ramza shrugged at Cloud. He did not think the other would judge him for not having a fully formulated plan yet.

"The sage has been...overly selective...when it comes to explanations, but if we can ask the right questions, he may help. Some of the others might know more as well. The Calamity has given us a means of communicating, and that means we can negotiate. The Avatars would not be here if the Calamity did not wish to hear what we have to say."

Or the Avatars were spies so the Calamity would not be caught off guard when the Heroes attacked. But they could not hope to save this world if they saw the worst in everyone.

"I'm still not sure it's the sort of thing that would negotiate. I mean it'll probably swallow the world no matter what we do." Cloud paused for a moment before starting up again quickly, "Not that I'm saying we give up or that we can't stop it. But I mean it's like trying to negotiate with an avalanche. It's just going to keep going and roll over everything in its path. What's its incentive to negotiate?"

Ramza is not sure he can translate his feelings into words that will make sense to Cloud. But the Calamity would not create Avatars for no reason. He's sure of it.

"If it devours the world, it will have to move on to find sustainable. If it continues like that, it will destroy everything, and then starve itself. Does it not make sense for it to find a way to survive without constantly destroying its food source?"

"That's true I guess." He never really thought about the Calamity as a living thing in that context. Clearly it grew and it had a mind according to all they'd been told. But he'd never thought to think of it as something that needed 'food'. It wasn't a thought he was thrilled with either.

"Isn't that what resetting this world does then? Push everything back and let it start over? But we can't just let it continue like that. And I mean, what can we even offer it that would make it stop?" It was all just too big. Too cosmic. And how does an apple ask the farmer not to pick it? To ask a city not to eat it?

Ramza shook his head. "The cycle does not solve the problem. It only places the burden on the Heroes of the future. We can no longer shirk our responsibility to protect this world."

He sighed. "I do not know precisely what it wants. That is why we must speak with it, to learn more. But we must have something that interests it, else it would not have reached out to learn more."

Cloud sighed and looked at the ceiling. He admired Ramza's idealism but sometimes he wondered how he could hold it up in the face of everything they had to deal with.

"You're right about the cycles. We need to do something about it or it's just going to keep going or get worse." His eyes followed a small crack for a moment longer before he looked back to Ramza. "When you want to try, count me in. I want to hear what it has to say myself."

"Once I figure out how to get back to the rift, I will call a meeting," he promised Cloud. It was stupidly optimistic, he knew, but he knew no other way to be. If he abandoned hope, he feared he would lose what drove him to do what he thought was right.

"I am glad we are in agreement. I think it will take many voices to be heard by the avatars, not just one Hero."

"That makes sense....I just don't want us to lose anyone if we try to go to the rift again. That's what happened....that time, right?" His had a worried look on his face but quickly forced it aside.

"You're right though. If this works it would take more than just a few of us."

"I...think so?" Ramza was still uncertain about the whole affair with the Rift and the girl they had spoken with there. But he had a feeling she knew more than she had been willing to part with before. The plan was flimsy at best, and likely more dangerous than it was worth, but it was the only way Ramza figured they even had a chance.

"Well, we certainly cannot give up searching for some sort of solution. But we can do it, all of us together." Without doing something like 'becoming a God' or destroying all of existence.

Cloud was more referring to the incident in the lab with the crystal creatures that had killed Sephiroth and Vincent. He didn't know everything about what was going on there and what caused it felt like a simple jump of logic to put the two points together based on what he remembered seeing.

That was of course assuming any of the vision can be trusted.

But he had faith in Ramza, and he gave the other Hero a tight smile and a short nod. There wasn't much more to be said on the matter without them going around in circles.

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